Origins.

Opposition to the Roman Catholic Church was integral among the causes of the French Revolution, and this anti-clericalism solidified into official government policy in 1792 after the First French Republic was declared. Most of the dechristianisation of France was motivated by political and economic concerns, and philosophical alternatives to the Church developed more slowly. Among the growing heterodoxy, the so-called "Culte de la Raison" became defined by some of the most radical revolutionaries like Jacques Hébert, Antoine-François Momoro, Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette, and Joseph Fouché.

Composition.

Considerable debate has always persisted about the religiosity of the Cult of Reason. It was a hodgepodge of ideas and activities, a "multifarious phenomenon, marked by disorderliness". The Cult encompassed various elements of anticlericalism, including subordination of priests to secular authority, wealth confiscation from the Church, and doctrinal heresies both petty and profound. It was atheistic, but celebrated different core principles according to locale and leadership: most famous was Reason, but others were Liberty, Nature, and the victory of the Revolution.

Antoine-François Momoro.

One of the more philosophical proponents was Antoine-François Momoro in Paris. In his hands, the capital city's Cult of Reason was explicitly anthropocentric. Its goal was the perfection of mankind through the attainment of Truth and Liberty, and its guiding principle to this goal was the exercise of Reason. In the manner of conventional religion, it encouraged acts of congregational worship and devotional displays to the ideal of Reason. A careful distinction was always drawn between the rational respect of Reason and the veneration of an idol: "There is one thing that one must not tire telling people," Momoro explained, "Liberty, reason, truth are only abstract beings. They are not gods, for properly speaking, they are part of ourselves."  The overarching theme of the Cult was summarized by Anacharsis Clootz, who declared at the Festival of Reason that henceforward there would be "one God only, "Le Peuple"". The Cult was intended as a civic religion—inspired by the works of Rousseau, Quatremère de Quincy, and Jacques-Louis David, it presented "an explicit religion of man".  Adherence to the Cult of Reason became a defining attribute of the Hébertist faction. It was also pervasive among the ranks of the "sans-culottes". Numerous political factions, anti-clerical groups and events only loosely connected to the cult have come to be amalgamated with its name.

Joseph Fouché.

As a military commander dispatched by the Jacobins to enforce their new laws, Fouché led a particularly zealous campaign of dechristianisation. His methods were brutal but efficient, and helped spread the developing creed through many parts of France. In his jurisdictions, Fouché ordered all crosses and statues removed from graveyards, and he gave the cult one of its elemental tenets when he decreed that all cemetery gates must bear only one inscription—"Death is an eternal sleep." Fouché went so far as to declare a new civic religion of his own, virtually interchangeable with what would become known as the Cult of Reason, at a ceremony he dubbed the "Feast of Brutus" on 22 September 1793.

Festival of Reason.

The official nationwide "Fête de la Raison", supervised by Hébert and Momoro on 20 Brumaire, Year II (10 November 1793) came to epitomize the new republican way of religion. In ceremonies devised and organised by Chaumette, churches across France were transformed into modern Temples of Reason. The largest ceremony of all was at the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. The Christian altar was dismantled and an altar to Liberty was installed and the inscription "To Philosophy" was carved in stone over the cathedral's doors. Festive girls in white Roman dress and tricolor sashes milled around a costumed Goddess of Reason who "impersonated Liberty". A flame burned on the altar which was symbolic of truth. To avoid statuary and idolatry, the Goddess figures were portrayed by living women, and in Paris the role was played by Momoro's wife, Sophie, who is said to have dressed "provocatively" and, according to Thomas Carlyle, "made one of the best Goddesses of Reason; though her teeth were a little defective."  Before his retirement, Georges Danton had warned against dechristianizers and their "rhetorical excesses", but support for the Cult only increased in the zealous early years of the First Republic. By late 1793, it was conceivable that the Convention might accept the invitation to attend the Paris festival en masse, but the unshakeable opposition of Maximilien Robespierre and others like him prevented it from becoming an official affair. Undeterred, Chaumette and Hébert proudly led a sizable delegation of deputies to Notre Dame.

Reaction.

Many contemporary accounts reported the Festival of Reason as a "lurid", "licentious" affair of scandalous "depravities", although some scholars have disputed their veracity. These accounts, real or embellished, galvanized anti-revolutionary forces and even caused many dedicated Jacobins like Robespierre to publicly separate themselves from the radical faction. Robespierre particularly scorned the Cult and denounced the festivals as "ridiculous farces".  In the spring of 1794, the Cult of Reason was faced with official repudiation when Robespierre, nearing complete dictatorial power during the Reign of Terror, announced his own establishment of a new, deistic religion for the Republic, the Cult of the Supreme Being. Robespierre denounced the Hébertistes on various philosophical and political grounds, specifically rejecting their perceived atheism. When Hébert, Momoro, Ronsin, Vincent, and others were sent to the guillotine on 4 Germinal, Year II (24 March 1794), the cult lost its most influential leadership; when Chaumette and other "Hébertistes" followed them four days later, the Cult of Reason effectively ceased to exist. Both cults were officially banned in 1801 by Napoleon Bonaparte with his "Law on Cults of 18 Germinal, Year X".

The Cult of Reason () was France's first established state-sponsored atheistic religion, intended as a replacement for Catholicism during the French Revolution. After holding sway for barely a year, in 1794 it was officially replaced by the rival Cult of the Supreme Being, promoted by Robespierre. Both cults were officially banned in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte with his "Law on Cults of 18 Germinal, Year X".


Offices.

There are about 16 manufacturing plants (in 10 countries) which mainly manufacture writing instruments.

Corporation.

Faber-Castell was founded in 1761 at Stein near Nuremberg by cabinet maker Kaspar Faber (1730–84) as the A.W. Faber Company, and has remained in the Faber family for eight generations. It opened branches in New York (1849), London (1851), Paris (1855), and expanded to Vienna (1872) and St. Petersburg (1874). It opened a factory in Geroldsgrün where slide rules were produced. It expanded internationally and launched new products under Kaspar Faber's ambitious great-grandson, Lothar (1817–96).  In 1900, after the marriage of Lothar's granddaughter and heiress with a count of Castell, the A.W. Faber enterprise took the name of "Faber-Castell" and a new logo, combining the Faber motto, "Since 1761", with the "jousting knights" of the Castells' coat-of-arms. A.W. Faber is the oldest brand-name pencil continuously sold in the US, having begun sales in 1870.  Today, the company operates 14 factories and 20 sales units, with six in Europe, four in Asia, three in North America, five in South America, and one each in Australia and New Zealand. The Faber-Castell Group employs a staff of approximately 7,000 and does business in more than 100 countries.

Products.

Beginning in the 1850s Faber started to use graphite from Siberia and cedar wood from Florida to produce its pencils.  Faber-Castell is well known for its brand of PITT Artist pens. The pens, used by comic and manga artists such as Adam Hughes, emit an India ink that is both acid-free and archival, and comes in a variety of colors.  The following chart contains all the Faber-Castell product lines.  From about 1880 to 1975 Faber-Castell was also one of the world's major manufacturers of slide rules, the best known of which was the 2/83N.

Family.

The immensely wealthy Lothar Faber was ennobled in 1861 and made Baron von Faber in the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1881. The sons of his only son Wilhelm (1851–1893) (by his wife Bertha Faber {1856–1940}, daughter of Lothar's younger brother, Eberhard {1822–1879}, who had founded the New York branch of the company) having died young, a marriage for his granddaughter and heiress Ottilie was arranged with a scion of one of Germany's formerly ruling comital dynasties. Yet in the conservative German Empire of "fin-de-siècle" Europe, the marriage of a Faber into a family of the high nobility was regarded as too bold a leap upward socially. A morganatic marriage would have been required, and the Faber pencil works could not have remained in the hands of their descendants because trafficking in commerce was still considered an act of social among members of the "Hochadel".  To resolve this dilemma, the chosen groom, Count Alexander von Castell-Rüdenhausen (1866–1928) renounced his birth rank prior to the marriage. The Castell family had been Imperial counts in Franconia, known since the 11th century. When the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved under pressure from Napoleon I in 1806, the Castell lands were annexed by the Kingdom of Bavaria. Although deprived of sovereignty, in 1815 the Castells were mediatized, their rank with the reigning dynasties of Europe being formally recognized, and family would be granted the hereditary title of Prince.  Count Alexander, a younger son of the first prince, married the pencil heiress, Baroness Ottilie von Faber (1877–1944), in 1898. He was granted the new hereditary title of Count von Faber-Castell in Bavaria for the descendants of their marriage. Although Alexander and Ottilie divorced in 1918, the Faber business trust had transferred headship of the company to Alexander, who even kept the Fabers' renovated palace at Stein (which would be commandeered to billet journalists during the Nuremberg trials, including Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck).  In 1927 Alexander resumed his original name for himself, his second wife (born a countess, Margit Zedtwitz von Moravan und Duppau, 1886–1973), and their son, Count Radulf (1922–2004). His issue by the first marriage had never been considered dynasts of the House of Castell, but they inherited the vast Faber fortune and continue to include "Castell" in their name with the comital title.  Various branches of the family continued to flourish, but the Faber and Faber-Castell corporate holdings usually passed to the eldest male of the patrilineage. Alexander and Ottilie's only son, Count Roland von Faber-Castell (1905–78), inherited headship of the Faber-Castell companies from his parents. His eldest son, left the family business after a dispute with his father and was succeeded by his younger brother, (1941–2016). As the first born, Count Hubertus inherited the majority of the family's assets, yet sold most of his company shares to his successor, after leaving the company. Count Hubertus joined his maternal family business Sal Oppenheim. The company stakes made Count Hubertus von Faber-Castell a billionaire. Count Anton Wolfgang von Faber-Castell, who left a son, Charles Alexander von Faber-Castell (born in Zürich 20 June 1980) of his 1986 marriage to Carla Mathilde Lamesch. His widow, Mary Hogan (born 1951), continues as managing director of Faber-Castell's cosmetics division. His three daughters, Countess Katharina Elizabeth (born 5 May 1988), and twins Countess Sarah Angela and Countess Victoria Maria (born 1 August 1996), succeed him.  Hubertus's daughter, Countess Floria-Franziska von Faber-Castell (b. 1974), was married at Kronberg on 17 May 2003 in a much-publicised wedding attended by members of Europe's reigning families, to Donatus, Hereditary Prince of Hesse, a great-grandson of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and a grand-nephew of Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, sister of Britain's prince consort Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. His second daughter is German-Swiss philanthropist Caroline von Faber-Castell, who is married to Düsseldorf-based entrepreneur Michael Gotzens. Patrick von Faber-Castell publicly married German actress Mariella Ahrens in Faber-Castell Castle, near Nuremberg.

Faber-Castell is one of the world's largest and oldest manufacturers of pens, pencils, other office supplies (e.g., staplers, slide rules, erasers, rulers) and art supplies, as well as high-end writing instruments and luxury leather goods. Headquartered in Stein, Germany, it operates 14 factories and 20 sales units throughout the globe. The Faber-Castell Group employs a staff of approximately 7,000 and does business in more than 100 countries. The House of Faber-Castell is the family which founded and continues to exercise leadership within the corporation. They manufacture about 2 billion pencils in more than 120 different colors every year.


Gameplay.

Silkroad Online is noted for its "Triangular Conflict System" in which characters may select one of three jobs, trader, hunter, or thief to engage each other in player versus player combat. Thieves attack traders who are protected by hunters. Hunters kill thieves getting experience to level up to a higher level of hunter. Traders complete trade runs which gives experience to increase their trader level, and thieves kill traders and hunters to level up. Thieves can also steal goods dropped by traders to take to the thieves' den in exchange for gold and thief experience.  In the Legend I update for Silkroad, the European classes and areas were introduced to the International servers, in Legend II, Fortress War was introduced. In fortress war, guilds fight to take hold of a fort which gives them the ability to raise taxes and hold some prestige over other guilds. In Legend III, Roc Mountain was added and the level cap was increased to 90. In addition, 9th Degree Armor and Weapons was added for both races. In Legend III+, the Bandit Fortress was added to iSRO, as well as Devil's Spirit silk dress.  In March 2009, Legend IV was introduced to the international version of Silkroad. Included in Legend IV are 10th degree weapons and armor for both European and Chinese characters. Also included was Ch'in Tomb, with monsters ranging from level 70 to 100. To enter the tomb, a character must be level 70 or above. The new unique monster added in Legend IV was Medusa, a level 105 snake from Greek mythology.  Players are given the option to create either a Chinese or European character. Each of the races has its own advantages, disadvantages, cities, weapons, armor and classes.

Reviews.

In April 2005, Silkroad Online received a score of 8.4 ("nice") out of 10.0 from GameSpot Korea. The reviewer praised the game's three-way player versus player system, character customization, and berserker mode, but found the quests and storyline lacking.

Spinoffs.

Two other games Joymax has created as branches of this game are Silkroad-R and Web Silkroad which is under development.

Silkroad Online () is a fantasy MMORPG set in the 7th century AD, along the Silk Road between China and Europe. The game requires no periodic subscription fee, but players can purchase premium items to customize or accelerate gameplay.


Biography.

Vasari, Gaurico, and several other early writers give contradictory accounts of Luca della Robbia's youth, training, and early works. He was born in Florence, the son of a member of the Arte della Lana (wool-workers guild). He may have trained as a goldsmith under Leonardo di Ser Giovanni according to Vasari, before working with Ghiberti on the famous doors of the Florence Baptistry. He was heavily influenced by Donatello, and in the 1420s was used by the architect Filippo Brunelleschi for sculpture on his buildings. His important commission for the "Cantoria" ("Singing Gallery"; 1431–1438) of Florence Cathedral came before he joined the sculptor's guild Arte dei Maestri di Pietra e Legname (for workers in stone and wood) in 1432. According to Vasari, the Medici family were responsible for securing him the commission.

Sculpture.

His first documented commission was the "Cantoria" ("Singing Gallery"; 1431–1438) for the organ loft of Cathedral of Florence. During the seven years it took della Robbia to carve the reliefs under the supervision of Brunelleschi, his style developed. While the earliest carved panels are fairly symmetric and lack movement, in later panels the movement of the singers becomes much more evident and dynamic. The Singing Gallery shows children singing, dancing, and making music to "praise the Lord" in the words of Psalm 150. Their figures are at once lively, finely observed, and gracefully combined in groups designed to fit the ten panels of the gallery. The advanced nature of the work has been seen to establish Luca della Robbia's skill in stone as well as secure his place as a major Florentine artist and student of Renaissance naturalism.  In the next two decades della Robbia executed important commissions in marble and bronze: a series of marble reliefs (1437) for the bell tower of the Cathedral of Florence; a marble and enameled terra-cotta tabernacle (1443), now in S. Maria in Peretola; bronze angels to enrich the Singing Gallery; and, in collaboration with Michelozzo, the large project of bronze doors for the Sacristy of the Cathedral. These doors were not finished until 1469; their reliance on a few figures placed in simple, orderly compositions against a flat ground, contrasts sharply with the elaborate pictorial effects of Lorenzo Ghiberti's more famous Baptistery doors.  Arguably the one of the most important existing works in marble by Luca (executed in 1454–1456) is the tomb of Benozzo Federighi, bishop of Fiesole, originally placed in the church of San Pancrazio, Florence, but removed to San Francesco di Paola on the Bellosguardo road outside the city in 1783. In 1898 it was again removed to the church of Santa Trinita in Florence. An effigy of the bishop in a restful pose lies on a sarcophagus sculptured with graceful reliefs of angels holding a wreath which contains the inscription. Above are three-quarter length figures of Christ between St John and the Virgin, of conventional type. The whole is surrounded by a rectangular frame formed of painted tiles. On each tile is painted, with enamel pigments, a bunch of flowers and fruit in brilliant realistic colors. Though the bunch of flowers on each is painted on one slab, the ground of each tile is formed of separate pieces, likely because the pigment of the ground required a different degree of heat in firing from that needed for the enamel painting of the center.

Terra-cotta.

Della Robbia's earliest surviving freestanding sculpture is the white tin-glazed terracotta "Visitation" in the church of San Giovanni Fuoricivitas of Pistoia, dating to 1445. Although the date of della Robbia's first work in colored glazed terra-cotta is not known, his demonstrated control of this medium secured him two major commissions for the duomo of Florence: the large reliefs of the "Resurrection "(also from 1445) and the "Ascension of Christ "(1446). The pliant medium of baked clay covered with a "slip" of vitrified lead and refined minerals permitted a lustrous, polished surface capable of reflecting light and color that was beautifully appropriate for architectural sculpture. Whether animating the vast, somber space of the Cathedral or in the series "Twelve Apostles "gracing the pristine surfaces of the small Pazzi Chapel (1443–1450) in Florence, della Robbia's reliefs in this medium achieved a high level of mastery.  Working with assistants, including members of his own family, della Robbia produced a number of decorative reliefs and altarpieces until the end of his life. One of the arguably finest examples is the enameled terra-cotta ceiling (1466) of the Chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal in San Miniato, Florence. Another relief, acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1861, shows his free use of color: an enormous medallion containing the arms of René of Anjou and other heraldic devices; it is surrounded by an intricately modeled wreath of brilliantly colored fruit and flowers, including apples, lemons, oranges and fir cones. This medallion was set up on the facade of the Pazzi Palace to commemorate René's visit to Florence in 1442.  His works were highly popular in his time, and many were sent outside Florence; the larger ones could be disassembled to facilitate transport. In 1446 he bought a large house containing a workshop, which would remain the base of the family workshop until the 1520s.  In 1471 Luca della Robbia was elected president of the Florentine Guild of Sculptors, but he refused on account of his age and infirmity. It shows, however, the very high esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries. He died in Florence during February 1482, taking most of his secrets of tin-based glaze with him.

Luca della Robbia (,, ; 1399/1400–1482) was an Italian sculptor from Florence. Della Robbia is noted for his colorful, tin-glazed terracotta statuary, a technique which he invented and passed on to his nephew Andrea della Robbia and great-nephews Giovanni della Robbia and Girolamo della Robbia. Though a leading sculptor in stone, he worked primarily in terracotta after developing his technique in the early 1440s. His large workshop produced both cheaper works cast from molds in multiple versions, and more expensive one-off individually modeled pieces.


Plot summary.

Vern Tessio informs his three friends that he has overheard his older brother, Billy, talking with his friend Charlie Hogan, about inadvertently discovering the corpse of Ray Brower, a boy from Chamberlain, Maine, a town 40 miles or so east of Castle Rock, who has gone missing while going out to pick blueberries. The four friends decide to find it so as to be famous.  Gordie explains how he and each of his friends come from either abusive or dysfunctional homes:  The boys walk along the railroad tracks toward the presumed location of the corpse. Along the way, they trespass at the town dump and are chased by Chopper, the dump custodian Milo Pressman's dog. Milo insults Teddy's father, which causes Teddy to unleash his anger on Milo. Gordie and Vern are nearly run over by a train while crossing a trestle. While at a resting point, Chris predicts that Gordie will grow up to become a famous writer – perhaps he will even write about his friends one day.  When the boys finally find the body, a gang of bullies arrives just after they do. The gang is composed of leader John "Ace" Merrill, Vern's older brother Billy, Chris's older brother Richard (nicknamed "Eyeball"), Charlie Hogan, Norman "Fuzzy" Bracowicz, Vince Desjardins, and Jack "Jackie" Mudgett. The older boys are upset to see the younger group of four friends, and during an argument, Chris pulls a gun belonging to his father from his bag and fires into the air. Chris then threatens Ace, and after a brief standoff, Ace realizes that Chris is serious and the teenagers leave. Having seen the body, the boys realize that there is nothing else to be done with it and return home without further incident.  The older boys ultimately decide to phone in the location of the body as an "anonymous tip", and it is eventually found by the authorities. Some days after the confrontation, Ace and Fuzzy break Gordie's nose and fingers, and kick him in the testicles, and are on the verge of harming him more seriously when they are run off by Gordie's neighbor, Aunt Evvie Chalmers. Eyeball breaks his brother's arm and "leaves his face looking like a Canadian sunrise". Teddy and Vern get less severe beatings, but the boys refuse to identify their assailants to the authorities, and there are no further repercussions.  The narration then goes into fast-forward, and Gordie describes the next year or so briefly, stating that Teddy and Vern drifted off, befriending some younger boys. In high school, just as Chris predicted, Gordie begins taking college preparation courses; unexpectedly, so does Chris. In spite of abuse from his father, taunts from his classmates, and distrust from teachers and even school counselors, he manages to be successful with help from Gordie.  The final two chapters describe the fates of Gordie's three friends, none of whom survive past young adulthood:  Gordie, the only survivor, continues to write stories through college, and publishes a number of them in small literary journals and men's magazines. His first novel becomes a best-seller and a successful film. Since writing about the events in 1960, he has written seven novels about the supernatural. Gordie has a wife and three children, and is revealed to be a veteran of the Vietnam War and the counter-culture of the 1960s, occasionally referred to in the flash-forward narratives during the main story.  The story ends with Gordie visiting Castle Rock and seeing Ace, realizing that he managed to escape the town and is finally able to make peace with the painful memories of his childhood.

Accusation of plagiarism.

In Lisa Rogak's unauthorized biography "Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King", a friend of King's, George McLeod, claimed that King had cribbed the idea for "The Body" from a short story McLeod had written, but these claims are disputed by King. McLeod requested a portion of the royalties from "The Body" and "Stand by Me"; King refused. McLeod sued, which ended their friendship. Since then, King has refused his fans' requests to read their manuscripts for advice; King has claimed that he is concerned that there may be further accusations of plagiarism.

Critical reception.

Aaron Burch, a lecturer in English at the University of Michigan, wrote "Stephen King's The Body: Bookmarked", which analyzes the novella and describes how it influenced Burch's life, including inspiring him to become a writer.

The Body is a novella by American writer Stephen King, originally published in his 1982 collection "Different Seasons" and adapted into the 1986 film "Stand by Me". Some changes were made to the plot of the film, including changing the setting year from 1960 to 1959 and the location of Castle Rock from Maine to Oregon.


Prelude.

On 19 October, Napoleon evacuated Moscow and marched south-west to Kaluga, Eugene de Beauharnais leading the advance. Unaware of this, and believing the force sighted at Fominskoye, south-west of Moscow, was a foraging party, Kutuzov sent General Dokhturov with 12,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry and 84 guns to surprise it. While on the road, Dokhturov learned this force was the Grande Armée and decided to hold out until reinforcements came at the road junction and town of Maloyaroslavets, on the Luzha River.

The battle.

Dokhturov entered the town from the south and found the French spearhead had seized a bridgehead. Fierce fighting began. General Raevski arrived with 10,000 more Russians; once more they took the town, though not the bridgehead. De Beauharnais threw in his 15th (Italian) division, under Domenico Pino (Minister of War of the Kingdom of Italy), and by evening they had again expelled the Russians. During the course of the engagament the town changed hands no fewer than eight times and it was quoted that the French and in particular the Italian Royal Guard under Eugène de Beauharnais 'fought like lions'. In fact, this battle is remembered as the "Battle of the Italians". Marshal Kutuzov arrived and decided against a pitched battle with the Grand Army the next day, and to retire instead to the prepared line of defense at Kaluga. The mainly French and Italian forces won a victory on the day, only to realize that "unless with a new Borodino" the way through Kaluga was closed. This allowed Kutuzov to fulfill his strategic plans to force Napoleon on the way of retreat in the north, through Mozhaisk and Smolensk, the route of his advance that he had wished to avoid. French casualties were about 6,000 including Delzons killed, while the Russians lost 4,412 men killed and wounded, 2,753 were missed in action. More than half of Russian infantry units who fought in the city were inexperienced recruits and militiamen, which accounted for the high casualty rate among them.

Aftermath.

After the withdrawal of Kutuzov it became clear to Napoleon that he would be unable to force the Russian army into a decisive battle. Though a victory, Napoleon did not feel it was on a large enough scale to counter the news of Murat's earlier defeat at Vinkovo. Following the battle Napoleon turned the Grande Armée west to Borovsk where the greater part of the artillery and wagons were located. This would be the first step in a retreat away from the Russians, with hoped-for winter quarters for the army potentially at Smolensk.

The Battle of Maloyaroslavets took place on 24 October 1812, between the Russians, under Marshal Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, and part of the corps of Eugène de Beauharnais, Napoleon's stepson, under General Alexis Joseph Delzons which numbered about 20,000 strong.


Total fertility rate from 1870 to 1899.

The total fertility rate is the number of children born per woman. It is based on fairly good data for the entire period in the present-day Hungary. Sources: Our World In Data and Gapminder Foundation.

Vital statistics since 1900.

Data according to Statistik Austria.

Other demographic statistics.

Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review.  The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook. and Statistik Austria.  Austrians 91.1%, former Yugoslavs 4% (includes Croatians, Slovenes, Serbs, and Bosniaks), Turks 1.6%, Germans 0.9%, other or unspecified 2.4% (2001 census)  German (official nationwide) 88.6%, Turkish 2.3%, Serbian 2.2%, Croatian (official in Burgenland) 1.6%, other (includes Slovene, official in South Carinthia, and Hungarian, official in Burgenland) 5.3% (2001 est.)  Catholic 73.8% (includes Roman Catholic 73.6%, other Catholic 0.2%), Protestant 4.9%, Muslim 4.2%, Orthodox 2.2%, other 0.8% (includes other Christian), none 12%, unspecified 2% (2001 est.)

Ethnic groups.

Traditional ethnic minorities in Austria.

Only three numerically significant traditional minority groups exist – 14,000 Carinthian Slovenes (according to the 2001 census – unofficial estimates of Slovene organisations put the number at 50,000) in Austrian Carinthia (south central Austria) and about 25,000 Croats and 20,000 Hungarians in Burgenland (on the Hungarian border). The Slovenes (also called 'Windische') form a closely knit community. Their rights as well as those of the Croats are protected by law and generally respected in practice. The present boundaries of Austria, once the center of the Habsburg Monarchy that constituted the second-largest composite monarchy in Europe, were established in accordance with the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1919. Some Austrians, particularly near Vienna, still have relatives in countries that made up the Monarchy, namely Croatia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary.

New ethnic minorities in Austria.

According to the Austrian Statistical Bureau, 814,800 foreigners legally lived in Austria in mid-2006, representing 9.8% of the total population, one of the highest rates in Europe.  Of these foreign residents, 305,100 came from the former Yugoslavia and 110,800 from Turkey.  Owing to a growing naturalization rate, 330,000 people have been naturalized between 1985 and the end of 2003, representing about 4% of the 7.4 million Austrian citizens living today in the country.  Of these new citizens 110,000 came from the former Yugoslavia and 90,000 from Turkey. Considering pre-1985 naturalizations, in 2005 at least 18% (in Vienna more than 30%) of the population was either foreign or of foreign origin. Native Austrians have had stagnant demographics since World War I, and have been in absolute decline since the 1970s.

Immigration.

As of 2011, Statistik Austria official estimates have shown that 81% of residents, or 6.75 million had no migration background and more than 19% or 1.6 million inhabitants had at least one parent of immigrant background. There are more than 415,000 descendants of foreign-born immigrants residing in Austria, the great majority of whom have been naturalized.  According to Eurostat, there were 1.27 million foreign-born residents in Austria in 2010, corresponding to 15.2% of the total population. Of these, 764,000 (9.1%) were born outside the EU and 512,000 (6.1%) were born in another EU member state.  350,000 ethnic Turks (including a minority of Turkish Kurds) currently live in Austria. At about 3% of the total population, they make up the biggest single ethnic minority in Austria.  In 2018, the percentage of foreign born people was around 19% of the total population which is also the second highest foreign born proportion of all EU countries after Luxemburg.

Religion.

In 2001, about 74% of Austria's population were registered as Roman Catholic, while about 5% considered themselves Protestants. Austrian Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, are obliged to pay a mandatory membership fee (calculated by income—about 1%) to their church; this payment is called "Kirchenbeitrag" ("Ecclesiastical/Church contribution"). Since the second half of the 20th century, the number of adherents and churchgoers has declined. Data for the end of 2016 from the Austrian Roman Catholic church lists 5,162,622 members, or 58.8% of the total Austrian population. Sunday church attendance was 605,828 or 7% of the total Austrian population in 2015. The Lutheran church also recorded a loss of 74,421 adherents between 2001 and 2016.  About 12% of the population declared that they have no religion. in 2001; this share had grown to 20% by 2015. Of the remaining people, around 340,000 were registered as members of various Muslim communities in 2001, mainly due to the influx from Turkey, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. The number of Muslims has doubled in 15 years to 700,000 in 2016. About 680,000 are members of Orthodox Churches (mostly Serbs), about 21,000 people are active Jehovah's Witnesses and about 8,100 are Jewish.  An estimated 15,000 Jews or adherents of Judaism live in Austria, primarily in Vienna – a remnant of the post-World War II community after the Nazi Holocaust.

This article is about the demographic features of the population of Austria, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.


Biography.

Early life.

Klein was born in Büsbach near Stolberg in the district of Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia. Her father, Bernd Klein, is German while her mother, Keriakoulla, is Greek. She is the younger of two children. She has an older brother, Andreas.  At the age of nine, she began sending out demo tapes to television shows leading her to perform on three of them. She participated in "Kiddy Contest", an Austrian children's TV singing competition, in September 2004 at the age of thirteen, performing "Handy", a parody of Barry Manilow's "Mandy". It was this television appearance that led to her being discovered by German music producer Bob Arnz. Then she worked on her first album.

Career.

2005–2008: Successful debut and second album.

LaFee's first single "Virus" was released in 2006 from her debut album "LaFee". Since the start of her career LaFee was supported by the magazine "Bravo" and the music channel "VIVA". "Virus" reached fourteen on both the German and Austrian singles chart and her second single, "Prinzesschen" ("Little princess"), reached rank 11 in the German charts. "Was ist das" ("What is that") and "Mitternacht" ("Midnight") were charted in the German and Austrian charts, too.  She released her second album, "Jetzt erst recht" ("Now more than ever") on July 6, 2007, and the album's lead single, "Heul doch" ("Keep crying"), in 2007. Shortly afterwards "Heul doch" was translated into English as "Shut Up" for her third studio album. The song reached the German top 10. The album "Jetzt erst recht" charted in the Italian albums chart at No. 94 and in the French albums chart at No. 79. It went Platinum in Germany and Gold in Austria. Her acting debut was on "Nina's Welt" which was broadcast from November 2006 until the spring of 2007. Later she made an appearance on the German daily soap "Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten" ("Good times, bad times"). Her biggest gig was on December 31, 2006 New Year's Eve at the Brandenburg Gate, with more than one million viewers. On August 25, 2007 Klein had a gig as a part of the open-air events at the Brandenburg Gate in front of 119,000 people. The second single was "Beweg dein Arsch" (Move your ass) which charted at No. 21 on the German charts. On November 16, 2007, she released the third single "Wer bin ich" (Who am I) which reached No. 25 on the German singles chart and No. 41 on the Austrian singles chart. In addition, she has received the Echo award for "Best Female Singer", Bravo Gold Otto for "Best Pop Female Singer" and the Jetix Kids' award for "Best Solo Act". The album was also re-released as a "Bravo special edition" with bonus songs on November 27, 2008.

2008–2009: First English album and "Ring Frei".

Her first English album, "Shut Up", was released in 2008. It includes songs from the album "LaFee" and "Jetzt erst recht" in English. The first single "Shut Up" is the English version of "Heul Doch". The single "Shut Up" reached number 93 in the German singles chart, which was the lowest chart entry by LaFee. The album, however, with more than 100,000 copies at the time was also the weakest LaFee album. The album reached No. 21 the German albums chart at No. 31 on the Austrian albums chart. The song "Shut up" was first performed on May 30, 2008, at the music festival "The Dome". LaFee's first single, "Ring frei" (Clear the ring), from her fourth studio album, "Ring frei", was released on November 21, 2008 and reached No. 22 in Germany. The album "Ring frei" was released in Germany on January 2, 2009 and reached No. 6 on the German albums chart, No. 21 on the Swiss albums chart and No. 5 on the Austrian albums chart. The album has also received gold status in Austria and has worldwide more than 100,000 sales. She went on a tour in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in 2009. After the promotion of the tour she took a break for the first time briefly.  Appeared without any weave LaFee's first greatest hits collection, "Best Of – LaFee", was released in November 2009. The album is available as day edition with one CD and as night edition with two CDs. The album was a clear failure. A re-recorded version of "Der Regen fällt", which originally appeared on her second studio album, "Jetzt erst recht", was released as the lead single of the compilation. The song only reached rank 94 in the German singles chart. In Austria and Switzerland, it wasn't listed in the charts. LaFee left her manager Bob Arnz. Her musicians left the group in December 2009 with an announcement on their websites to form a new project, due to different musical orientations. Now she's produced by Jörg Fischer.

2011–present: "Ich Bin" and "Frei".

On June 4, 2011, Christina presented the new single "Ich bin" (I Am) at the German show "The Dome". It was available on June 10, 2011, and EMI has stated on its official site that the new album "Frei" was released on July 1, 2011.  In an interview with the German magazine "Bild", the singer said that this new album was really important to her because she has changed a lot since her previous album. She also explained the reasons behind this break; she said that she was tired of always being away from her home and her friends. She was just a teenager when she began her career and had grown up so fast, without time to think whether she had missed something or not. She was always being told what to do and need to be herself, not mentioning all the gossip that had run between her and her boyfriends. She admitted she could think about nothing but sleeping for days. So she had split with her old team, her old band and her old manager and had asked her label to change her contract and she was lucky because they agreed. Finally, she stated that now she's ready to come back with new songs (she wrote three songs by herself and co-wrote another two), themes closer to her like love and growing up with a new, more mature look.

Filmography.

LaFee acted in the German daily soap "Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten" on RTL. She played a girl who has come back to her ex-boyfriend. The ex-boyfriend is also the boy in her video for "Heul doch" / "Shut Up".

Christina Klein (born December 9, 1990), better known by her stage name LaFee, is a German singer-songwriter who has sold more than one million records worldwide. She is most famous in mainland Europe, particularly in German-speaking countries.


Medical uses.

Major depressive disorder.

Agomelatine is used for the treatment of major depressive episodes in adults in Europe. Ten placebo controlled trials have been performed to investigate the short term efficacy of agomelatine in major depressive disorder. At the end of treatment, significant efficacy was demonstrated in six of the ten short-term double-blind placebo-controlled studies. Two were considered "failed" trials, as comparators of established efficacy failed to differentiate from placebo. Efficacy was also observed in more severely depressed patients in all positive placebo-controlled studies. The maintenance of antidepressant efficacy was demonstrated in a relapse prevention study. One meta-analysis found agomelatine to be as effective as standard antidepressants.  A meta-analysis found that agomelatine is effective in treating severe depression. Its antidepressant effect is greater for more severe depression. In people with a greater baseline score (>30 on HAMD17 scale), the agomelatine-placebo difference was of 4.53 points. Controlled studies in humans have shown that agomelatine is at least as effective as the SSRI antidepressants paroxetine, sertraline, escitalopram, and fluoxetine in the treatment of major depression. A 2018 meta-study comparing 21 antidepressants found agomelatine was one of the more tolerable, yet effective antidepressants.  However, the body of research on agomelatine has been substantially affected by publication bias, prompting analyses which take into account both published and unpublished studies. These have confirmed that agomelatine is approximately as effective as more commonly used antidepressants (e.g. SSRIs), but some qualified this as "marginally clinically relevant", being only slightly above placebo. According to a 2013 review, agomelatine did not seem to provide an advantage in efficacy over other antidepressants for the acute-phase treatment of major depression.

Use in special populations.

It is not recommended for use in children and adolescents below 18 years of age due to a lack of data on safety and efficacy. Only limited data is available on use in elderly people ≥ 75 years old with major depressive episodes.  It is not recommended during pregnancy or breastfeeding.

Contraindications.

Agomelatine is contraindicated in patients with kidney or liver impairment. According to information disclosed by Servier in 2012, guidelines for the follow-up of patients treated with Valdoxan have been modified in concert with the European Medicines Agency. As some patients may experience increased levels of liver enzymes in their blood during treatment with Valdoxan, doctors have to run laboratory tests to check that the liver is working properly at the initiation of the treatment and then periodically during treatment, and subsequently decide whether to pursue the treatment or not. No relevant modification in agomelatine pharmacokinetic parameters in patients with severe renal impairment has been observed. However, only limited clinical data on its use in depressed patients with severe or moderate renal impairment with major depressive episodes is available. Therefore, caution should be exercised when prescribing agomelatine to these patients.

Adverse effects.

Agomelatine does not alter daytime vigilance and memory in healthy volunteers. In depressed patients, treatment with the drug increased slow wave sleep without modification of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep amount or REM latency. Agomelatine also induced an advance of the time of sleep onset and of minimum heart rate. From the first week of treatment, onset of sleep and the quality of sleep were significantly improved without daytime clumsiness as assessed by patients.  Agomelatine appears to cause fewer sexual side effects and discontinuation effects than paroxetine.  "Note: mania and hypomania are often due to an underlying disease, namely bipolar disorder."

Dependence and withdrawal.

No dosage tapering is needed on treatment discontinuation. Agomelatine has no abuse potential as measured in healthy volunteer studies.

Overdose.

Agomelatine is expected to be relatively safe in overdose.

Interactions.

Agomelatine is a substrate of CYP1A2, CYP2C9 and CYP2C19. Inhibitors of these enzymes, e.g. the SSRI antidepressant fluvoxamine, reduce its clearance and can therefore lead to an increase in agomelatine exposure. There is also the potential for agomelatine to interact with alcohol to increase the risk of hepatotoxicity.

Pharmacology.

Pharmacodynamics.

Agomelatine is a melatonin receptor agonist (MT ("K" 0.1 nM) and MT ("K" = 0.12 nM)) and serotonin 5-HT ("K" = 631 nM) and 5-HT receptor ("K" = 660 nM) antagonist. Binding studies indicate that it has no effect on monoamine uptake and no affinity for adrenergic, histamine, cholinergic, dopamine, and benzodiazepine receptors, nor other serotonin receptors.  Agomelatine resynchronizes circadian rhythms in animal models of delayed sleep phase syndrome. By antagonizing 5-HT, it disinhibits/increases noradrenaline and dopamine release specifically in the frontal cortex. Therefore, it is sometimes classified as a norepinephrine–dopamine disinhibitor. It has no influence on the extracellular levels of serotonin. Agomelatine has shown an antidepressant-like effect in animal models of depression (learned helplessness test, despair test, chronic mild stress) as well as in models with circadian rhythm desynchronisation and in models related to stress and anxiety. In humans, agomelatine has positive phase shifting properties; it induces a phase advance of sleep, body temperature decline and melatonin onset.  Antagonism of 5-HT is an antidepressant property agomelatine shares with several atypical antipsychotics, such as aripiprazole, which are themselves used as atypical antidepressants. 5-HT antagonists are currently being investigated for their usefulness in reducing cardiotoxicity of drugs as well as being effective in reducing headache. Hence this particular receptor antagonism of agomelatine is useful for its antidepressant effectiveness as well as reducing the drug's adverse effects.

Chemistry.

Structure.

The chemical structure of agomelatine is very similar to that of melatonin. Where melatonin has an indole ring system, agomelatine has a naphthalene bioisostere instead.

History.

Agomelatine was discovered and developed by the European pharmaceutical company Servier Laboratories Ltd. Servier continued to develop the drug and conduct phase III trials in the European Union.  In March 2005, Servier submitted agomelatine to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) under the trade names Valdoxan and Thymanax. On 27 July 2006, the Committee for Medical Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the EMA recommended a refusal of the marketing authorisation. The major concern was that efficacy had not been sufficiently shown, while there were no special concerns about side effects. In September 2007, Servier submitted a new marketing application to the EMA.  In March 2006, Servier announced it had sold the rights to market agomelatine in the United States to Novartis. It was undergoing several phase III clinical trials in the US, and until October 2011 Novartis listed the drug as scheduled for submission to the FDA no earlier than 2012. However, the development for the US market was discontinued in October 2011, when the results from the last of those trials became available.  It received EMA approval for marketing in the European Union in February 2009 and TGA approval for marketing in Australia in August 2010.

Research.

Agomelatine is under development by Servier for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder and has reached phase III clinical trials for this indication, but in August 2017, Servier communicated that development for this indication is currently suspended.  Agomelatine is also studied for its effects on sleep regulation. Studies report various improvements in general quality of sleep metrics, as well as benefits in circadian rhythm disorders. It has been found more effective than placebo in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder. A 2019 review suggested no recommendations of agomelatine in support of, or against, its use to treat individuals with seasonal affective disorder.

Agomelatine is an atypical antidepressant used to treat major depressive disorder. One review found that it is as effective as other antidepressants with similar discontinuation rates overall but less discontinuations due to side effects. Another review also found it was similarly effective to many other antidepressants. Common side effects include weight gain, feeling tired, liver problems, nausea, headaches, and anxiety. Due to potential liver problems ongoing blood tests are recommended. Its use is not recommended in people with dementia or over the age of 75. There is tentative evidence that it may have fewer side effects than some other antidepressants. It works by stimulating melatonin receptors and blocking serotonin receptors. Agomelatine was approved for medical use in Europe in 2009 and Australia in 2010. Its use is not approved in the United States and efforts to get approval were ended in 2011. It was developed by the pharmaceutical company Servier. In the United Kingdom a month of treatment costs the NHS about 30 pounds as of 2019.


Family traits.

Plants in this family are characterized by simple leaves that are alternate spiral to distichial, serrated, and usually glossy. Most of the genera have evergreen foliage, but "Stewartia" and "Franklinia" are deciduous. The toothed margins are generally associated with a characteristic Theoid leaf tooth, which is crowned by a glandular, deciduous tip. The flowers in this family are usually pink or white and large and showy, often with a strong scent. The calyx consists of five or more sepals, which are often persistent in the fruiting stage, and the corolla is five-merous, rarely numerous. Plants in Theaceae are multistaminate, usually with 20-100+ stamen either free or adnate to the base of the corolla, and are also distinctive because of the presence of pseudopollen. The pseudopollen is produced from connective cells, and has either rib-like or circular thickenings. The ovary is often hairy and narrows gradually into the style, which may be branched or cleft. The carpels are typically opposite from the petals, or the sepals in the case of "Camellia". The fruits are loculicidal capsules, indehiscent baccate fruits or sometimes pome-like. The seeds are few and sometimes winged, or in some generas covered by fleshy tissue or unwinged and nude.

Genera.

, the Angiosperm Phylogeny Website accepts the following genera: The fossil "Pentapetalum trifasciculandricus", about 91 million years old, may belong to the Theaceae or the Pentaphylacaceae.

Distribution.

Members of the family are found in Southeast Asia and Malesia, tropical South America and the Southeast United States. Three genera ("Franklinia", "Gordonia" and "Stewartia") have species native to the Southeast United States, with "Franklinia" being endemic there, and under some interpretations, also "Gordonia" with the Asian species formerly included in that genus being transferred to "Polyspora".

Biochemistry.

There is distinctive chemistry within the family Theaceae. Sometimes, single crystals of calcium oxalate are present in Theaceous plants. Ellagic acid and common polyphenols including flavonols, flavones and proanthocyanins are widely distributed throughout the family. Gallic acid and catechins only occur in "Camellia" sect. "Thea (C. sinensis, C. taliensis" and "C. irrawadiensis".) Caffeine and its precursors theobromine and theophylline are only found in sect. "Thea" and are not found in other species of "Camellia" or other Theaceae. Caffeine content in the tea bush makes up 2.5-4% of the leaf's dry weight, and this high content of catechins and caffeine in the tea bush is the result of artificial selection by humans for these characters. Triterpenes and their glycosides (saponins) are found widely throughout the family in the seeds, leaves, wood and bark. Plants in this family are also known to accumulate aluminum and fluoride.

Economic importance.

The best known genus is "Camellia", which includes the plant whose leaves are used to produce tea ("Camellia sinensis"). In parts of Asia, other species are used as a beverage, including "C. taliensis, C. grandibractiata, C. kwangsiensis, C. gymnogyna, C. crassicolumna, C. tachangensis, C. ptilophylla", and "C. irrawadiensis". Several species are grown widely as ornamentals for their flowers and handsome foliage.

Theaceae (), the tea family, is a family of flowering plants comprising shrubs and trees, including the economically important tea plant, and the ornamental camellias. It can be described as having from seven to 40 genera, depending on the source and the method of circumscription used. The family Ternstroemiaceae has been included within Theaceae; however, the APG III system of 2009 places it instead in Pentaphylacaceae. Most but not all species are native to China and East Asia.


Career.

From 1898, Becker was a military engineer.  From 1901 to 1903, Becker studied at the Munich Artillery and Engineering School. From 1906 to 1911, he studied at the Berlin Military Engineering Academy, specializing in ballistics under Carl Julius Cranz; from 1908 to 1911, he was a teaching assistant at the Ballistics Laboratory there. From 1911 to 1914, he was a member of the Artillery Examining Board. In 1913, Becker co-authored a revision of Cranz' classic text, "Lehrbuch der Ballistik".  During World War I, Becker held two positions. From 1914 to 1916, he commanded a 42-cm mortar battery. From 1917 to 1919, he was an advisor on artillery ballistics at the Weapons and Equipment Inspection ("Inspektion für Waffen und Gerät"), which later became the "Heereswaffenamt" (HWA, Army Ordnance Office).  From 1919 to 1923, Becker studied chemistry and metallurgy. He was awarded a doctorate of engineering in 1922, with a thesis on cathodic change of phenol.  From 1922, Major Becker was an advisor to the HWA inspections office.  Becker was aware of the advantages of a close relationship between the military and science in the development of future weapons technology. As early as 1924, he recommended the establishment of a central laboratory of chemistry and physics. But only when he was director of the Ballistics and Ammunition Department of the Weapons and Equipment Inspection ("Inspektion für Waffen und Gerät") was he able to implement his recommendation. The Central Office of Army Physics and Army Chemistry ("Zentralstelle für Heeresphysik und Heereschemie") was formed in 1926 and recognized as an Armed Forces department in 1929. When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, this department took on greater importance and received generous funding from the Reich. Its Research Department established top-quality facilities, one of them was the "Heeresversuchsanstalt" (Armed Forces testing station) in "Gottow"; it was under the direction Kurt Diebner and played a central role in the German nuclear energy project, also known as the "Uranverein" (Uranium Club).  Lt. Col. Dr. Ing. Karl Becker, head of the ballistics and munitions section of the HWA Weapons Testing Division, was a key early supporter of Germany's development of the rocket as a weapon. In 1929, Becker got permission of the "Reichswehrministerium" (RWM, Reich Ministry of Defense) to do so. He was interested in the development of both solid-fuel and liquid-fuel rockets. Later, one of his subordinates, Walter Dornberger became important as leader of the V-2 rocket program. Wernher von Braun was hired in 1932.  From 1932, Becker was an Honorary Professor of military sciences at the "Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität" (later, the "Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin", i.e. University of Berlin). From autumn 1933, he was an "ordentlicher Professor" (ordinarius professor) of technical physics at the "Technische Hochschule Berlin" in Berlin Charlottenburg (later, the Technical University of Berlin). From 1935, he was "ordentlicher Professor" of defense technology, physics, and ballistics, as well as dean of the military engineering department ("Wehrtechnische Fakultät"), which had been newly created in 1933, at the "Technische Hochschule Berlin". He was on the supervisory board of the "Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft", the umbrella organization for numerous technical institutes. From 1935, he was the first general officer to be a member of the "Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften" (PAW, Prussian Academy of Sciences). In 1937, Becker significantly expanded the "Wehrtechnische Fakultät".  From November 1933, General of the Artillery Becker was head of the research department and the Weapons Testing Office, and from February 4, 1938 head of the HWA, in addition to his positions at the "Technische Hochschule Berlin" and the University of Berlin. From 1937, he was also first president of the "Reichsforschungsrat" (RFR, Reich Research Council), appointed by Bernhard Rust, Minister of the "Reichserziehungsministerium" (REM, Reich Ministry of Education).  On 8 April 1940, just one day before the invasion of Denmark and Norway (Operation "Weserübung"), Becker, in the presence of the "Gestapo", committed suicide. Becker had been depressed for months, as he had been heavily criticized by Hitler and others for shortfalls in munitions production. Becker's suicide was covered up by a State funeral on 12 April 1940.

Karl Heinrich Emil Becker (14 September 1879 in Speyer – 8 April 1940 in Berlin) was a German weapons engineer and artillery general. He advocated and implemented close ties of the military to science for purposes of advanced weapons development. He was the head of the Army Ordnance Office, Senator of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, first president of the Reich Research Council, the first general officer to be a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, as well as being a professor at both the University of Berlin and the Berlin Technical University. He was an early and key supporter of the development of ballistic rockets as weapons. The military-scientific infrastructure he helped implement supported the German nuclear energy program, known as the Uranium Club. Being depressed over heavy criticism from Hitler for shortfalls in munitions production, he committed suicide in 1940. He was given a State funeral.


Development.

The R4M was developed in order to deal with the increasing weight of anti-bomber weapons being deployed by Luftwaffe fighters. The primary anti-bomber weapon of the Luftwaffe for much of the war was the 20 mm MG 151/20 autocannon, which was compact enough to be mounted in an internal wing bay mounting in the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 (up to 4 cannon, or 6 with optional twin-gun underwing pods) and also fitted on the centerline of Bf 109G fighters, firing through the propeller spinner as a "Motorkanone". This could be supplemented by an additional pair of cannon in drag-inducing underwing gun pods, but it was found that it took an average of twenty 20 mm hits to shoot down a typical four-engined Allied bomber. The MG 151/20 was subsequently supplemented with or replaced by the 30 mm MK 108 cannon, which replaced the centerline "Motorkanone"-mount MG 151/20 on many Bf 109's, and could be fitted into slightly larger underwing pods, which could be used on either the Bf 109 or Fw 190. This heavier-caliber cannon could bring down a bomber with an average of one to three hits. However the MK 108 was much heavier and the larger calibre ammunition made it difficult to carry more than one or two "passes" worth. Worse, the low muzzle velocity of this gun meant it had a very short range and suffered a ballistic drop of over 41 metres at 1,000 metres range after firing. In approaching close enough to get hits, the fighters placed themselves within the range of the dozens of AN/M2 "light barrel" Browning defensive machine guns that a combat box formation of a typical USAAF heavy bomber raid possessed, from nearly any approach direction. The more powerful MK 103 cannon had higher muzzle velocity and increased range, at the cost of greatly increased weight, size (barrel length of 1.34 meters, or 52-3/4 inches) and much lower rate of fire: 380-420 RPM vs. 600-650 RPM for the MK 108.  Also, the Nebelwerfer 42-derived "Werfer-Granate 21" (Wfr. Gr. 21, or "Bordrakete" BR 21) rockets fitted to Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Bf 110, and Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighters, used to break up the USAAF combat box bomber formations, had launch tubes that were not only drag-producing, due to their exposed five-strut under-wing mounting, but also from the fact that the launch tubes needed to be aimed upwards at some 15° from level flight, to counter the BR 21 rocket projectile's considerable ballistic drop after firing. This added to the already considerable drag the launch tube mountings created, and contributed to the Wfr. Gr 21's relatively slow projectile velocity of 1,150 km/h (715 mph), approximately 60% of the 505 m/s (1818 km/h) velocity of the MK 108 cannon's shells.  The solution was to replace the underwing gun pods, and the excessively drag-producing large-calibre underwing rocket launch tubes, with a small-diameter solid-fuel rocket-engine-propelled projectile, mounting a warhead similar to that of the cannon shell. Although each "round" was heavier than the corresponding gun-fired shell, the absence of a gun reduced the overall weight considerably. The weight difference was so great that even a much larger and longer-ranged rocket was still lighter than the guns it could replace, although the total number of rounds carried was also reduced from 65 rounds of 30 mm ammunition to only 24 rockets.  The anti-aircraft version of the R4M used a large warhead of 55 mm with 520 g. (17.6 ounces) of the strongly brisant Hexogen explosive charge, nearly guaranteeing a fighter kill with one hit, from the "shattering" force of its explosive warhead — this was the same explosive used in the shells fired by both the MK 103 (30 x 184 mm cartridge) and MK 108 (30 x 90 mm cartridge) autocannons. Each R4M weighed 3.2 kg and was provided with enough fuel to be fired from 1000 m, just outside the range of the bomber's defensive guns. The main body of the rocket consisted of a simple steel tube with eight base-hinged flip-out fins on the tail for stabilisation, deployed immediately after launch. A battery typically consisted of two groups of 12 rockets and when all 24 were salvoed in an attack, they would fill an area about 15 by 30 m at 1000 m, a density that made it almost certain that the target would be hit. The R4Ms were usually fired in four salvos of six missiles at intervals of 70 milliseconds from a range of 600 m, and would supersonically streak towards their target at a sixty percent higher velocity than the Wfr. Gr. 21's rockets would (the BR 21's projectile travelled at some 1150 km/h post-launch), as the R4M typically had a flight speed of roughly 1,890 km/h (1,175 mph). Two warheads were available for the R4M, the common PB-3 with a 0.4 kg charge for anti-aircraft use and the larger shaped charge, similar in construction to the Panzerschreck, the Panzerblitz (PB-2/3), for anti-tank use. The "Panzerblitz III", mounting a gigantic 210 mm hollow charge warhead (the same calibre as the BR 21), can be seen as the ultimate development of the basic "Orkan" rocket. It was intended to be carried (six or eight rockets per plane) by the tank-busting B model of the Henschel Hs 132 jet dive-bomber - however, neither the missile nor the warplane it was exclusively intended for got beyond the prototype stage before the end of the war.

Operations.

Only a small number of aircraft were fitted with the R4M, mostly Messerschmitt Me 262s and the ground attack version of the Fw 190s, which mounted them on small wooden racks under the wings. On one occasion, a Me 163A was fitted with several R4M rockets, and this setup was tested for several weeks in 1944, without incident. This was the first time a rocket propelled aircraft has had rocket propelled armament.  The Luftwaffe found the R4M missiles to have a similar trajectory to the 30 mm MK 108 cannon's rounds in flight, so the standard Revi 16"B" gunsight could be utilized.

The R4M () rocket, nicknamed the "Hurricane" () due to its distinctive smoke trail when fired, was an anti-aircraft rocket. It was developed by the German Luftwaffe during World War II.


Design and development.

The XB-42 was developed initially as a private venture; an unsolicited proposal was presented to the United States Army Air Forces in May 1943. This resulted in an Air Force contract for two prototypes and one static test airframe, the USAAF seeing an intriguing possibility of finding a bomber capable of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress's range without its size or cost.  The aircraft mounted a pair of Allison V-1710-125 liquid-cooled V-12 engines behind the crew's cabin, each driving one of the twin propellers. Air intakes were in the wing leading edge. The landing gear was tricycle and a full, four surface cruciform tail was fitted, whose ventral fin/rudder unit prevented the coaxial propellers from striking the ground. The pilot and co-pilot sat under twin bubble canopies, and the bombardier sat in the extreme front behind a plexiglass nose.  Defensive armament consisted of two 0.50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns each side in the trailing edge of the wing, which retracted into the wing when not in use. These guns were aimed by the copilot through a sighting station at the rear of his cockpit. The guns had a limited field of fire and could only cover the rear, but with the aircraft's high speed it was thought unlikely that intercepting fighters would attack from any other angle.  Two more guns were fitted to fire directly forward. Initially ordered as an attack aircraft (XA-42) in the summer of 1943, this variant would have been armed with 16 machine guns or a 75 mm (2.95 in) cannon and two machine guns.

Operational history.

The first XB-42 was delivered to the USAAF and flew at Palm Springs, California on 6 May 1944. Performance was excellent, being basically as described in the original proposal: as fast or faster than the de Havilland Mosquito but with defensive armament and twice the bombload. The twin bubble canopies proved a bad idea as communications were adversely affected and a single bubble canopy was substituted after the first flight.  Testing revealed that the XB-42 suffered from some instability as excessive yaw was encountered, as well as vibration and poor engine cooling - all problems that could probably have been dealt with. Due to the ventral vertical stabilizer and rudder surface set's tip being located underneath the fuselage, careful handling during taxiing, takeoff, and landing was required because of limited ground clearance.  The end of World War II allowed the Air Force to consider possibilities with a little more leisure and it was decided to wait for the development of better jet bombers rather than continue with the B-42 program.  In December 1945, Captain Glen Edwards and Lt. Col. Henry E. Warden set a new transcontinental speed record when they flew the XB-42 from Long Beach, California to Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C. (c. 2,300 miles). In just 5 hours, 17 minutes, the XB-42 set a speed record of 433.6 mph (697.8 km/h).  The record-breaking XB-42 prototype had been destroyed in a crash at Bolling Field. The second of two prototypes of the Douglas XB-42, 43-50225, on a routine flight out of Bolling Field, Washington, D.C., suffered in short order, a landing gear extension problem, failure of the left engine, and as coolant temperatures rose, failure of the right engine. Maj. Hayduck bailed out at 1,200 feet, Lt. Col. Haney at 800 feet, and pilot Lt. Col. (later Major General) Fred J. Ascani, after crawling aft to jettison the pusher propellers, at 400 feet – all three survived. The aircraft crashed at Oxon Hill, Maryland. Classified jettisonable propeller technology caused a problem for authorities in explaining what witnesses on the ground thought was the aircraft exploding. Possible fuel management problems were speculated, but this hypothesis was never proven by subsequent investigation. The remaining prototype was used in flight test programs, including fulfilling a December 1943 proposal by Douglas to fit uprated engines and underwing Westinghouse 19XB-2A axial-flow turbojets of 1,600 lbf (7.1 kN) thrust each, making it the XB-42A.  In this configuration, it first flew at Muroc (now Edwards Air Force Base) on 27 May 1947. In testing, it reached 488 mph (785 km/h). After 22 flights, the lower vertical stabilizer and rudder were damaged in a hard landing in 1947. The XB-42A was repaired but never flew again, and was taken off the USAF inventory on 30 June 1949.

The Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster was an experimental bomber aircraft, designed for a high top speed. The unconventional approach was to mount the two engines within the fuselage driving a pair of contra-rotating propellers mounted at the tail in a pusher configuration, leaving the wing and fuselage clean and free of drag-inducing protrusions.


Rugby, football and ice hockey years.

Koželuh was born in Prague, Austria-Hungary (today's Prague, Czech Republic), one of seven brothers (and two sisters). His sports career began with rugby and it was only at the age of 16 that he learned to play tennis. In 1914 he joined the strong soccer team of Sparta Prague. In later years Koželuh also played for DFC Prag (Prague) and Teplitzer FK (Teplice).  He played international football for both Austria and Czechoslovakia.  In 1925, he was a member of the Czechoslovakia ice hockey team that won the European Championship, scoring the winning goal in the final game.

Tennis.

Early years.

He became a professional tennis coach at a fairly young age and thereby made himself ineligible to play in any amateur tournaments. 1912 he beats Roman Najuch in the Germany Pro Championships in Wiesbaden. He did, however, compete in the very few professional tournaments that took place in Europe in the 1920s, contested primarily between teaching professionals. He became known in these tournaments for his speed, his endurance, and his fine groundstrokes from the baseline. He was 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 145 pounds. The American tennis player Vinnie Richards said he was "seamy-faced, cadaverous-looking and, in general, resembled a cigar-store Indian." Koželuh used the Continental grip, in which both the forehand and backhand are hit with the same grip, and preferred to play as much as 10 feet behind the baseline, returning balls endlessly to the other court, almost never advancing to the net. Seldom hitting the ball very hard, he was content to outrun and outlast his opponents in exhausting matches of attrition. He won the most prestigious of these European tournaments, the Bristol Cup, played in Beaulieu, France, six times.

Professional years.

When a true professional tour was at last started, Koželuh was one of the first players to join it, being signed up for it by Vinnie Richards, who made a special trip to Europe for that sole purpose. In the years to come Koželuh would achieve much greater prominence as a pro than as an amateur. In 1928, his first year as a professional, he beat Richards 15 matches to 5, at a time when Richards was generally considered to be one of the 5 or 6 best players in the world, amateur or professional. In the following years Koželuh continued to dominate Richards, in 1929 beating him 5 times to 2 and in 1930 4 times to 2. After watching one of their lengthy matches, a tennis expert of the time, J. Parmly Paret, wrote in American Lawn Tennis, that Koželuh had "the most perfect defense that I have seen... But defense alone does not make a champion." He went on to say that either Henri Cochet or Bill Tilden at their best would be able to defeat Koželuh by attacking him consistently from the net. Koželuh defended his somewhat tedious baseline style by saying: "Why should I change my style when it is so successful?"  "Big" Bill Tilden, the greatest player of the 1920s, and by far the most famous, turned professional at the end of 1930 and organized a tour with several lesser players and with himself to play the headline match against Koželuh. Their first encounter was on 18 February 1931 before 14,000 spectators in Madison Square Garden in New York. Tilden won 3 straight sets in only 65 minutes, attacking from both the baseline and the net and overwhelming Koželuh with his power. Tilden won the next 8 matches as well, all of them played indoors on a canvas surface that seldom had enough room for Koželuh to play his normal game far behind the baseline. Koželuh finally won their 10th match on an outdoor concrete court at the Los Angeles Tennis Club. In the course of the year, both in the United States and in Europe, the Czech eventually beat Tilden 17 times while losing 50 matches to him. Koželuh had firmly established himself as one of the half-dozen best players in the world.  Koželuh had already beaten Vinnie Richards to win the United States Pro Championship in 1929. He went on to win the title again in 1932, defeating the German Hans Nüsslein, and in October 1937, beating the American Bruce Barnes at The Greenbrier in West Virginia at the age of 42. With this win, he became the oldest winner of a major professional singles tournament. In the first round at the Greenbrier tournament in 1938 (not classed as the US Pro this year), Koželuh faced Greenbrier golf professional Sam Snead, beating him in three straight sets. Koželuh was the losing finalist at the US Pro in 1928, 1930, 1934 and 1935. Koželuh was a six-time winner of the Bristol Cup (Menton, France), which was the most prestigious professional title in the world in the 1920s. He also won the World Pro tournament in Deauville, France, in 1925. Another major title for Koželuh was the French Professional Championship of 1930.  He is not to be confused with another fine Czech tennis player of the same era, Jan Koželuh, who was Karel's younger brother. Jan was good enough to be ranked as high as the World No. 10 amateur in 1927.  Koželuh was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, in 2006.

Death.

Koželuh was killed in a car accident outside Prague on 27 April 1950.

Karel Koželuh (; ; 7 March 1895 – 27 April 1950) was a top Czech tennis, association football, and ice hockey player of the 1920s and 1930s. Koželuh never played in the major tournaments of amateur tennis but was an all-around athlete at the highest level.


History.

Unsold works.

Upon Vincent van Gogh's death in 1890, his work not sold fell into the possession of his brother Theo. Theo died six months after Vincent, leaving the work in the possession of his widow, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger. Selling many of Vincent's paintings with the ambition of spreading knowledge of his artwork, Johanna maintained a private collection of his works. The collection was inherited by her son Vincent Willem van Gogh in 1925, eventually loaned to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam where it was displayed for many years, and was transferred to the state-initiated Vincent van Gogh Foundation in 1962.

Dedicated museum.

Design for a Van Gogh Museum was commissioned by the Dutch government in 1963 to Dutch architect and furniture designer Gerrit Rietveld. Rietveld died a year later, and the building was not completed until 1973, when the museum opened its doors. In 1998 and 1999, the building was renovated by the Dutch architect Martien van Goor, and an exhibition wing by the Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa was added. In late 2012, the museum was closed for renovations for six months. During this period, 75 works from the collection were shown in the Hermitage Amsterdam.  On 9 September 2013, the museum unveiled a long-lost Van Gogh painting that spent years in a Norwegian attic believed to be by another painter. It is the first full-size canvas by him discovered since 1928. "Sunset at Montmajour" depicts trees, bushes and sky, painted with Van Gogh's familiar thick brush strokes. It can be dated to the exact day it was painted because he described it in a letter to his brother, Theo, and said he painted it the previous day 4 July 1888.

Art thefts.

In 1991, twenty paintings were stolen from the museum, among them Van Gogh's early painting "The Potato Eaters". Although the thieves escaped from the building, 35 minutes later all stolen paintings were recovered from an abandoned car. Three paintings – "Wheatfield with Crows", "Still Life with Bible", and "Still Life with Fruit" – were severely torn during the theft. Four men, including two museum guards, were convicted for the theft and given six or seven-year sentences. It is considered to be the largest art theft in the Netherlands since the Second World War.  In 2002, two paintings were stolen from the museum, "Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen" and "View of the Sea at Scheveningen". Two Dutchmen were convicted for the theft to four-and-a-half-year sentences, but the paintings were not immediately recovered. The museum offered a reward of €100,000 for information leading to the recovery of the paintings. The FBI Art Crime Team listed the robbery on their "Top Ten Art Crimes" list, and estimates the combined value of the paintings at US$30million. In September 2016, both paintings were discovered by the Guardia di Finanza in Naples, Italy. The two artworks were found in a "relatively good state", according to the Van Gogh Museum.

Buildings.

The museum is situated at the Museumplein in Amsterdam-Zuid, on the Paulus Potterstraat 7, between the Stedelijk Museum and the Rijksmuseum, and consists of two buildings, the Rietveld building, designed by Gerrit Rietveld, and the Kurokawa wing, designed by Kisho Kurokawa. Museum offices are housed on Stadhouderskade 55 in Amsterdam-Zuid.

Rietveld building.

The Rietveld building is the main structure and houses the permanent collection. It has a rectangular floor plan and is four stories high. On the ground floor are a shop, a café, and an introductory exhibition. The first floor shows the works of Van Gogh grouped chronologically. The second floor gives information about the restoration of paintings and has a space for minor temporary exhibitions. The third floor shows paintings of Van Gogh's contemporaries in relationship to the work of Van Gogh himself.

Kurokawa wing.

The Kurokawa wing is used for major temporary exhibitions. It has an oval floor plan and is three stories high. The entrance to the Kurokawa wing is via a tunnel from the Rietveld building.

Collection.

Works by Vincent van Gogh.

The museum houses the largest Van Gogh collection in the world with 200 paintings, 400 drawings, and 700 letters by the artist.  The main exhibition chronicles the various phases of Van Gogh's artistic life.  The permanent collection also includes nine of the artist's self-portraits and some of his earliest paintings dating back to 1882.

Works by contemporaries.

The museum also features notable artworks by Van Gogh's contemporaries in the Impressionist and post-Impressionist movements and holds extensive exhibitions on various subjects from 19th Century art history.  The museum has sculptures by Auguste Rodin and Jules Dalou, and paintings by John Russell, Émile Bernard, Maurice Denis, Kees van Dongen, Paul Gauguin, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Odilon Redon, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

"Meet Vincent Van Gogh Experience".

The Van Gogh Museum manages an official "Meet Vincent Van Gogh Experience", described as a travelling "3D immersive exhibition" using technology and computer audio-visual techniques to cover the story of Van Gogh's life through images of his works. The first "experience" was in 2016 in Beijing, and it has since been toured globally to Europe, Asia and North America.  The "Meet Van Gogh Experience" does not present original artworks, as they are too fragile to travel. The "experience" was designed in collaboration with the London-based museum design consultancy, Event Communications (who designed Titanic Belfast), and it won a 2017 THEA award in the category of "Immersive Museum Exhibit: Touring".

Visitors.

The Van Gogh Museum, which is a national museum (), is a foundation ().  Axel Rüger, who had been the museum director since 2006, left the museum in 2019 to become secretary and chief executive of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. The Van Gogh Museum announced that Managing Director Adriaan Dönszelmann would act as general director until a new director is appointed.  Since 2000, the museum had between 1.2 and 1.9 million visitors per year. From 2010 to 2012, it was the most visited museum in the Netherlands. In 2015, the museum had 1.9 million visitors, it was the 2nd most visited museum in the Netherlands, after the Rijksmuseum, and the 31st most visited art museum in the world.  The Van Gogh Museum is a member of the national Museumvereniging (Museum Association).

The Van Gogh Museum is a Dutch art museum dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries in Amsterdam; it is located at the Museum Square in the borough Amsterdam South, close to the Stedelijk Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Concertgebouw. The museum opened on 2 June 1973, and its buildings were designed by Gerrit Rietveld and Kisho Kurokawa.


Family.

Montezemolo was born in Turin, Italy of a noble family. His father Giuseppe was an Army officer, tortured and executed during the Ardeatine massacre for his role in resisting the Nazi occupation of Rome. During that year Andrea was kept hidden from the Nazis by the Ukrainian clergy in the Ukrainian Pontifical College of Saint Josaphat. Andrea and his sister Adriana have, on several occasions, been noted for their forgiveness of the perpetrators, notably Erich Priebke. He is related to Luca di Montezemolo, former president of Ferrari, former chairman of FIAT and chairman of Alitalia.

Studies and priesthood.

Montezemolo studied in Turin and Rome and fought in World War II. After the war, he pursued higher studies in architecture and was a professional and academic. He later discerned his vocation to the priesthood and pursued studies in theology and philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He also studied at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy and obtained a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Lateran University.

Diplomatic and curial service.

In 1976 he was appointed Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in the Roman Curia. On 5 April 1977 he was appointed Titular Archbishop of Pandosia and Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Papua New Guinea and Apostolic Delegate to the Solomon Islands. On 25 October 1980 he was transferred as Apostolic Nuncio to Nicaragua and Honduras, and on 1 April 1986 to Uruguay.  On 28 April 1990 he became Apostolic Delegate to Jerusalem and Palestine and, one month later, also Pro-Nuncio to Cyprus. While he held this appointment, the 1993 Fundamental Agreement between the Holy See and the State of Israel was reached. This paved the way for establishing full diplomatic relations, so that he became the first Nuncio to Israel. In 1999 Montezemolo was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. His final diplomatic posting was as Nuncio to Italy and San Marino, to which he was named on 17 April 2001.  In 2005 he designed the coat of arms of Pope Benedict XVI and shortly afterwards, on 31 May 2005, was named Archpriest of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. As Archpriest he carried out, with the assistance of the Benedictine Monks of the Abbey of Saint Paul, important architectural work and restoration for the benefit of local Catholics and the pilgrims who come to the Basilica from various parts of the world. Pope Benedict XVI made him a cardinal in the consistory of 24 March 2006, as Cardinal-Deacon of Santa Maria in Portico. Montezemolo was already over eighty years of age and ineligible to vote in a conclave.  On 3 July 2009, Montezemolo was succeeded as Archpriest of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls by Archbishop Francesco Monterisi, former secretary of the Congregation for Bishops.  In a 2013 interview, Montezemolo said that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI needed a new coat of arms now that he was no longer the pontiff. “The problem now is whether the Pope Emeritus can keep that same coat of arms or not”. “And as a person who has always dedicated himself to this, I say ‘no’”. He drew up a new coat of arms, which he believed could be used by the former pontiff. He moved the big keys of Saint Peter from the back of the coat of arms to the top part of the shield and made them much smaller. “But this is only a proposal, it isn’t official,” Montezemolo qualified.  Pope Francis visited him in a Rome nursing home in 2016. Montezemolo died on 19 November 2017. He was 92.

Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo (27 August 1925 – 19 November 2017) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic church. He worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See from 1977 until he retired in 2001. As Archpriest of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls from 2005 to 2009 he helped oversee important restoration work. He was made a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI on 24 March 2006.


The metric.

In spherical coordinates formula_1, the Reissner–Nordström metric (aka the line element) is  where formula_3 is the speed of light, formula_4 is the time coordinate (measured by a stationary clock at infinity), formula_5 is the radial coordinate, formula_6 are the spherical angles, and  formula_7 is the Schwarzschild radius of the body given by  and formula_8 is a characteristic length scale given by  Here formula_9 is Coulomb force constant formula_10.  The total mass of the central body and its irreducible mass are related by  The difference between formula_11 and formula_12 is due to the equivalence of mass and energy, which makes the electric field energy also contribute to the total mass.  In the limit that the charge formula_13 (or equivalently, the length-scale formula_8) goes to zero, one recovers the Schwarzschild metric. The classical Newtonian theory of gravity may then be recovered in the limit as the ratio formula_15 goes to zero. In the limit that both formula_16 and formula_15 go to zero, the metric becomes the Minkowski metric for special relativity.  In practice, the ratio formula_15 is often extremely small. For example, the Schwarzschild radius of the Earth is roughly 9 mm (3/8 inch), whereas a satellite in a geosynchronous orbit has a radius formula_5 that is roughly four billion times larger, at 42,164 km (26,200 miles). Even at the surface of the Earth, the corrections to Newtonian gravity are only one part in a billion. The ratio only becomes large close to black holes and other ultra-dense objects such as neutron stars.

Charged black holes.

Although charged black holes with "r" ≪ "r" are similar to the Schwarzschild black hole, they have two horizons: the event horizon and an internal Cauchy horizon. As with the Schwarzschild metric, the event horizons for the spacetime are located where the metric component "g" diverges (is not formula_20 divergent, or equivalently formula_21?); that is, where  This equation has two solutions:  These concentric event horizons become degenerate for 2"r" = "r", which corresponds to an extremal black hole. Black holes with 2"r" > "r" can not exist in nature because if the charge is greater than the mass there can be no physical event horizon (the term under the square root becomes negative). Objects with a charge greater than their mass can exist in nature, but they can not collapse down to a black hole, and if they could, they would display a naked singularity. Theories with supersymmetry usually guarantee that such "superextremal" black holes cannot exist.  The electromagnetic potential is  If magnetic monopoles are included in the theory, then a generalization to include magnetic charge "P" is obtained by replacing "Q" by "Q" + "P" in the metric and including the term "P"cos θ "dφ" in the electromagnetic potential.

Gravitational time dilation.

The gravitational time dilation in the vicinity of the central body is given by  which relates to the local radial escape-velocity of a neutral particle

Christoffel symbols.

The Christoffel symbols  with the indices  give the nonvanishing expressions  Given the Christoffel symbols, one can compute the geodesics of a test-particle.

Equations of motion.

Because of the spherical symmetry of the metric, the coordinate system can always be aligned in a way that the motion of a test-particle is confined to a plane, so for brevity and without restriction of generality we further use Ω instead of "θ" and "φ". In dimensionless natural units of "G" = "M" = "c" = "K" = 1 the motion of an electrically charged particle with the charge "q" is given by  which gives  The total time dilation between the test-particle and an observer at infinity is  The first derivatives formula_23 and the contravariant components of the local 3-velocity formula_24 are related by  which gives the initial conditions  The specific orbital energy  and the specific relative angular momentum  of the test-particle are conserved quantities of motion. formula_25 and formula_26 are the radial and transverse components of the local velocity-vector. The local velocity is therefore

Alternative formulation of metric.

The metric can alternatively be expressed like this: Notice that k is a unit vector. Here "M" is the constant mass of the object, "Q" is the constant charge of the object, and "η" is the Minkowski tensor.

In physics and astronomy, the Reissner–Nordström metric is a static solution to the Einstein–Maxwell field equations, which corresponds to the gravitational field of a charged, non-rotating, spherically symmetric body of mass "M". The analogous solution for a charged, rotating body is given by the Kerr–Newman metric.


Cultivation and uses.

Some "Cryptocoryne" are popular commercially cultivated aquarium plants. Submerged plants reproduce vegetatively, emerse plants may flower and reproduce sexually. Many species are cultivated only by dedicated experts and are very hard to grow, or are not present in a culture at all. Some species are endangered because their natural habitats are disappearing. On the other hand, some water trumpets (e.g. "Cryptocoryne beckettii") are very hardy aquarium plants, easy to grow to the point that they have become an invasive species after being introduced in Florida in North America.  Cryptocoryne is either found in peat bogs or on limestone; the latter do well in most aquaria, the former must have soft water to survive and need decomposing beech leaf litter to do well. "C. striolata," while found primarily in peat bogs, has also been found growing on limestone. Borneo is home to many endemic crypts previously thought to grow only in tea-colored soft acid water emulating peat bogs but exploration of habitats from 2005 to 2010 showed about half grew on limestone as well. These hardwater "Cryptocorynes" are generally the easier ones to keep (in fact, some species, such as "Cryptocoryne wendtii" are said to be among the most versatile of aquarium plants); they tolerate low or bright light but grow faster in more intense light,This water plants range of around 12 to 33 °C, and slightly alkaline to neutral pH.  Plants of the genus "Cryptocoryne", which range from India to New Guinea are found in very diverse conditions. Some are true acid loving plants such as "C. pallidnerva", found in peat bogs in Borneo, while others such as "C. crispatula var. balansae" and "C. pontiderifolia" are found in streams with limestone beds—hard alkaline water. One species, "C. ciliata" is even found in semi-brackish water in some areas. It is one of the few aquarium plants that tolerates salt concentrations.  "Cryptocoryne" plants have been in cultivation in the aquarium hobby since the late 18th century, although it was not until the 1960s that more than a handful of species was known and became more common in the hobby. New species still regularly crop up as interest in these plants widens and more collecting expeditions by private parties are carried out.

Crypt melt.

A phenomenon often encountered when planting new crypts in an aquarium is commonly called "Crypt melt", whereby the plant loses all its leaves. There seem to be two possible causes for this.  Rapid environmental changes is thought to trigger this, as these plants do not seem to adapt well to transplantion, and may need 30 days or so to become established and for the leaves to regrow. Experienced growers report that it is better to plant crypts in aquariums that have been established for at least three months.  In the wild, crypts can grow fully submerged underwater, but in some plant nurseries they are often grown emersed and crypt melt could then be triggered by the change from emerse to submerse conditions.  There is lately a trend for such nurseries to send crypts as just a rootstock (i.e. without the leaves) to reduce shipping costs and because the leaves will be lost anyway once planted in an aquarium.  Other reports emphasise the need to change the aquarium water regularly to prevent the buildup of nitrates which are thought to trigger this condition (often referred to as a "disease").

Cryptocoryne is a genus of aquatic plants from the family Araceae. The genus is naturally distributed in tropical regions of India, Southeast Asia and New Guinea.


History and concept.

The European Library of today has evolved from a number of earlier projects.  Its starting point was in 1997 when the GABRIEL (Gateway and Bridge to Europe's National Libraries) project set out to establish a joint web portal of European national libraries. At a basic level, the portal provided information about each library's collections and access to their online public access catalogues (OPACs).  GABRIEL was followed by the TEL (The European Library) project, which ran from 2001–2004 and created a framework for access to key national and deposit collections within Europe. The project was part-funded under the Fifth Framework Programme of the European Commission. The national libraries involved in the TEL project were those of Finland, Germany, Italy (Florence), Italy (Rome), Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland and United Kingdom.  This led to the launch of TheEuropeanLibrary.org portal on 17 March 2005.  Between 2005–2007, the TEL-ME-MOR project helped to incorporate 10 more national libraries from new European Union member states as full partners of The European Library. By the beginning of 2008, a further nine national libraries within the European Union and the European Free Trade Association had joined the service.  The European Library took a further step towards its enlargement with the EDLproject, during which national libraries continued to join The European Library. The project also focused on multilingualism, undertook the first steps towards a European Metadata Registry and created a roadmap for potential digitization efforts in the national libraries.

The European Library and Europeana.

The European Library provided much of the organization and support required to launch Europeana – a European Commission initiative that makes millions of digital objects from libraries, museums and archives accessible to the public via the Europeana website.  When the European Parliament called for Europeana to be established, the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL), under the auspices of the National Library of the Netherlands and CENL's service The European Library, were asked to submit for a project under the eContentplus programme. Work began on a prototype in 2007 and Europeana was launched in November 2008.  Europeana now operates independently but The European Library continues to work closely with Europeana. The European Library is the aggregator of digital content from national libraries for Europeana and delivers digital content from national libraries on a monthly basis to Europeana.  As of July 2012, The European Library was the second biggest content provider to Europeana, with 3.45 million items added to the Europeana database.  Some human and technical resources are also shared between Europeana and The European Library.

Virtual exhibitions.

In addition to its search engine, The European Library pulls together themes from the collections of Europe's national libraries and displays them in virtual exhibitions. These exhibitions unite geographically disparate objects in a single online space, offering Pan-European sources on the topic.

Financing and ownership.

The European Library is financed by its owners, the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL). The portal is maintained by The European Library Office located in the premises of the Dutch Royal Library in The Hague. Its programme director is Jill Cousins.

Partner libraries.

The 48 National Libraries who participate in The European Library project are:  Research Libraries who have also contributed content to The European Library as a result of the Europeana Libraries project include:

The European Library is an Internet service that allows access to the resources of 49 European national libraries and an increasing number of research libraries. Searching is free and delivers metadata records as well as digital objects, mostly free of charge. The objects come from institutions located in countries which are members of the Council of Europe and range from catalogue records to full-text books, magazines, journals and audio recordings. Over 200 million records are searchable, including 24 million pages of full-text content and more than 7 million digital objects. Thirty five different languages are represented among the searchable objects.