Career.

Brøndby IF.

As a youngster he played for AB 740, Tårnby Boldklub, Fremad Amager and Kjøbenhavns Boldklub, before he moved to the youth team of Brøndby IF. He was included in Brøndby's senior squad in January 2003, and made his senior debut for Brøndby in April 2003, in a Danish Superliga game against Aalborg BK. In the next two years he played a total of 25 matches for the club and scored a single goal, and made three appearance in the Champions League.

Esbjerg fB.

He moved on to Superliga rivals Esbjerg fB in summer 2005, and quickly established himself in Esbjerg's starting line-up. In his first season, Zimling was involved in the club's squad in the Danish Cup Final, which Esbjerg lost 1–0 against Randers. His second season was a big breakthrough for him as he scored ten goals in thirty-appearance and was a second top-scorer for the club, just behind Jesper Bech. Throughout his career at Esbjerg, he was linked with Ligue 1 side Stade Rennais and Bayer Leverkusen.

Udinese.

When his contract expired in December 2008, he moved to Serie A team Udinese Calcio on a free transfer. The deal was announced in July 2008. After two months at Udinese, Zimling finally made his debut for the club, in a 2–0 loss against Genoa on 22 March 2009. In the final game of the season, he went on as a substitute in the 82nd minute and provided an assist for Odion Ighalo, who went on just three minutes later just after Zimling went on as a substitute, in a 6–2 win over Cagliari. In July 2009, Zimling went back to Denmark to finalize a possible transfer, but the deal never materialized and he stayed at Udine. However, his time at Udinese was 'forgettable' after his first-team opportunities were limited, due to emergence of midfield talent like Gökhan Inler, Gaetano D'Agostino, Christian Obodo and Fernando Tissone. In his full season at Udinese, Zimling would make one appearance in the league, in a 2–2 draw against Parma on the opening game of the season and never made appearance since.

NEC.

In June 2010, Dutch club NEC announced that they had signed him on loan for the rest of the season. He made his debut, on the opening game of the season, in a 1–0 win over VVV-Venlo and provide assist, on his next appearance on 15 August 2010, by winning a penalty, allowing Björn Vleminckx to convert in a 5–3 win over Willem II. At NEC, Zimling established himself in the first team. Having not scored his first goal outside Denmark, Zimling finally scored his first goal – and scored again – in a 2–0 win over Excelsior on 13 February 2011 and scored again, the following week, in a 1–1 draw against Twente. Two weeks later, Zimling received a straight red card for a serious foul on an opposition player, which NEC lose heavily 5–1 against ADO Den Haag and would miss four games. Two weeks later, he scored again in a 3–1 loss against Groningen. At NEC, Zimling scored four in twenty-six appearance.

Club Brugge.

On 27 May 2011, Zimling signed a four-year contract with Belgian football club Club Brugge, for a fee estimated to be around €500,000. On his move, Zimling says Club Brugge are a big club. Zimling made his competitive debut for the clubOn the opening game of the season, Zimling made his debut, in a 5–0 win over Westerlo. At Club Brugge, Zimling since established himself in the first team, making impressive performance. He scored his first goal, in the second round of Belgian, in a 4–4 draw against Gent, which gone through penalty shootout and Zimling converted the second penalty but lost 4–2 on penalties. Later in the season at the league play-offs, Zimling scored his first league goal for the club, on 1 May 2012, in a 2–0 win over Standard Liège. In his first season, Zimling not only made an impressive performance in the league, but also in the Europa League competition.  The following season, Zimling playing time was soon reduced after he damaged his calf muscle, which he will be out for a month. After a month out, Zimling made his return by scoring his first goal for the club in a 7–1 win over Beerschot on 9 December 2012. In his final month at the club, Zimling would make three more appearances.

Mainz 05.

After two-years at Belgium, Zimling joined Bundesliga side Mainz 05 on a four-year contract, which will keep him until 2017 and the deal believed to be worth around £1.75million. A few days later, on 2 February 2013, he made his debut for the club, in a 3–0 loss against German giant Bayern Munich. Also, a few weeks later, on 23 February 2013, Zimling scored his first goal in a 1–1 draw against Wolfsburg.

AFC Ajax.

On 1 September 2014, it was announced that Zimling was sent on loan to Dutch Eredivisie side Ajax until the end of the season, with an option to buy.

FSV Frankfurt.

On 1 February 2016 it was confirmed, that Zimling was loaned out to FSV Frankfurt for the rest of the season due to lack of playing time.

International.

He has represented Denmark 48 times for various national youth teams. He was selected for the Danish under-21 national team for the UEFA U-21 Championship 2006, and was named 2006 Danish "under-21 Talent of the Year".  On 20 November 2006, he was called up for the Denmark League XI national football team, for the trip to the United States, El Salvador and Honduras in January 2007, by national team manager Morten Olsen. He was also a part of the League XI team for their January 2008 tour. In February 2008, he made his senior Danish national team debut in a friendly game against Slovenia.  On 11 November 2010, after two and a half years waiting, he returned to the Danish national football team in a friendly against Czech Republic, earning his 2nd match. He was called up again when Denmark had to face Iceland, and played from the beginning because Christian Poulsen was in lack of match fitness. He played the rest of the qualification alongside his childhood friend William Kvist on the Danish midfield, as Denmark qualified for the UEFA Euro 2012.

Management career.

On 14 June 2019 it was confirmed, that Danish 1st Division club Kolding IF had hired Zimling as the clubs new sporting director.

Niki Dige Zimling (born 19 April 1985) is a retired Danish professional footballer and currently the sporting director of Kolding IF.


Massacre.

On 12 February 1942 the royal yacht of Sarawak left Singapore just before the city fell to the Imperial Japanese Army. The ship carried many injured service personnel and 65 nurses of the Australian Army Nursing Service from the 2/13th Australian General Hospital, as well as civilian men, women and children. The ship was bombed by Japanese aircraft and sank. Two nurses were killed in the bombing; the rest were scattered among the rescue boats to wash up on different parts of Bangka Island. About 100 survivors reunited near Radji Beach at Bangka Island in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), including 22 of the original 65 nurses. Once it was discovered the Japanese held the island, an officer of the "Vyner Brooke" went to surrender the group to the authorities in Muntok. While he was away army matron Irene Melville Drummond, the most senior of the nurses, suggested the civilian women and children should leave for Muntok, which they did. The nurses stayed to care for the wounded. They set up a shelter with a large Red Cross sign on it.  At mid-morning the ship’s officer returned with about 20 Japanese soldiers. They ordered all the wounded men capable of walking to travel around a headland. The nurses heard a quick succession of shots before the Japanese soldiers came back, sat down in front of the women and cleaned their bayonets and rifles. A Japanese officer ordered the remaining 22 nurses and one civilian woman to walk into the surf. A machine gun was set up on the beach and when the women were waist deep, they were machine-gunned. All but Bullwinkel were killed. Wounded soldiers left on stretchers were then bayoneted and killed.  Shot in the diaphragm, Bullwinkel lay motionless in the water until the sound of troops had disappeared. She crawled into the bush and lay unconscious for several days. When she awoke, she encountered Private Patrick Kingsley, a wounded British soldier from the ship who had survived being bayoneted by the Japanese soldiers. She dressed his wounds and her own, then 12 days later they surrendered to the Japanese. Kingsley died before reaching a POW camp, but Bullwinkel spent three years in one.  Bullwinkel survived the war and gave evidence of the massacre at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal) in 1947.

Evidence of sexual assault.

Recent evidence collected by historian Lynette Silver, broadcaster Tess Lawrence and biographer Barbara Angell, indicates that most of the nurses were raped before they were murdered. However, Bullwinkel was not permitted to speak about the rapes after the war, saying that she had been "gagged" by the Australian government. According to the Australian government, the perpetrators of the massacre remain unknown and "escaped any punishment for their crime".

Commemoration.

In South Australia an annual commemoration known as the Bangka Day Memorial Service has been held at the Women's Memorial Playing Fields, St Mary's on the Sunday closest to 16 February since 1955. A plaque commemorating the South Australian Army Nursing Sisters who died, including Drummond and six others was erected at the site.

The Bangka Island massacre (also spelled Banka Island massacre) was committed during World War II in the Pacific, on Bangka Island, east of Sumatra in the Indonesian archipelago. On 16 February 1942, Imperial Japanese soldiers machine-gunned 22 Australian Army nurses and 60 Australian and British soldiers and crew members who had survived the sinking of by Japanese bombers. South Australian nurse Sister Lt Vivian Bullwinkel and two soldiers were the sole survivors.


History.

At the end of the 19th century the city of Kaunas was fortified and by 1890 was encircled by eight forts and nine gun batteries. Construction of the Ninth Fort (its numerical designation having become its name) began in 1902 and was completed on the eve of World War I. From 1924 on, the Ninth Fort was used as the Kaunas City prison.  During the years of Soviet occupation, 1940–1941, the Ninth Fort was used by the NKVD to house political prisoners pending transfer to Gulag forced labor camps.  During the years of Nazi occupation, the Ninth Fort was put to use as a place of mass murder. 45,000 to 50,000 Jews, most from Kaunas and largely taken from the Kovno Ghetto, were transported to the Ninth Fort and killed by Nazis and Lithuanian collaborators in what became known as the Kaunas massacre.  Notable among the victims was Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman of Baranovitch. In addition, Jews from as far as France, Austria and Germany were brought to Kaunas during the course of Nazi occupation and executed in the Ninth Fort. In 1943, the Germans operated special Jewish squads to dig mass graves and burn the remaining corpses. One squad of 62 people managed to escape the fortress on the eve of 1944. That year, as the Soviets moved in, the Germans liquidated the ghetto and what had by then come to be known as the "Fort of Death". The prisoners were dispersed to other camps. After World War II, the Soviets again used the Ninth Fort as a prison for several years. From 1948 to 1958, farm organizations were managed from the Ninth Fort.  In 1958, a museum was established in the Ninth Fort. In 1959, an exhibition was prepared in four cells, telling of the Nazi war crimes carried out in Lithuania. In 1960, the discovery, cataloging, and forensic investigation of local mass murder sites began in an effort to gain knowledge regarding the scope of these crimes.

Museum.

The Ninth Fort museum contains collections of historical artifacts related both to Soviet atrocities and the Nazi genocide, as well as materials related to the earlier history of Kaunas and Ninth Fort. Most exhibits are labelled in English.  The memorial to the victims of Nazism at the Ninth Fort in Kaunas, Lithuania, was designed by sculptor A. Ambraziunas. Erected in 1984, the monument is 105 feet (32 m) high. The mass burial place of the victims of the massacres carried out in the fort is a grass field, marked by a simple yet frankly worded memorial written in several languages. It reads, "This is the place where Nazis and their assistants killed about 45,000 Jews from Lithuania and other European countries."  On April 11, 2011, the memorial to the victims of Nazism was vandalized — the memorial tombstones were knocked down, and white swastikas were spray-painted on the memorial. On the adjacent sidewalk, the words “Juden raus” (German: Jews Out) were inscribed.

The Ninth Fort () is a stronghold in the northern part of Šilainiai elderate, Kaunas, Lithuania. It is a part of the Kaunas Fortress, which was constructed in the late 19th century. During the occupation of Kaunas and the rest of Lithuania by the Soviet Union, the fort was used as a prison and way-station for prisoners being transported to labour camps. After the occupation of Lithuania by Nazi Germany, the fort was used as a place of execution for Jews, captured Soviets, and others.


Career.

Doyle was born in Perth, Scotland. As a youngster, she twice won the U13 Scottish Schools butterfly swimming title. One of her sisters is a writer, the other used to compete at triple jump and her brother is a footballer.  In 2009, Doyle significantly improved her personal best for the 400m hurdles from 56.84 to 55.32, to finish second at the European U23 Championships in Kaunus, Lithuania, behind fellow British athlete Perri Shakes-Drayton. She also qualified for that year's World Championships in Berlin, reaching the semi-finals. In 2010, she further improved to 55.16 at the London Diamond League in August. Then in October, she won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 55.62.  In 2012, Doyle ran below 55 seconds for the 400 metres hurdles for the first time, with 54.96 on 2 June in Geneva. Two weeks later, she earned Olympic selection, with 55.53 for second behind Shakes-Drayton at the Olympic trials. At the London Olympics, she reached the semi-finals, running 56.02.  Doyle won two medals at the 2013 European Indoor Championships in Gothenburg, with silver in the 400 metres behind teammate Perri Shakes-Drayton, breaking the Scottish indoor record in the process, with 51.45. She then added a gold in the 4x400 m relay. The British quartet of Christine Ohuruogu, Shana Cox, Doyle and Shakes-Drayton also improved the UK indoor record to 3:27.56. Outdoors, she broke the Scottish 400 metres hurdles record with 54.22 in Birmingham in June. Then in August, at the World Championships in Moscow, she ran 54.32 in her semi-final to reach the final. In the final she was fifth in 54.86. Alongside Cox, Margaret Adeoye and Ohuruogu, she won a bronze medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay.  Doyle captained the first ever Scotland team at the Glasgow International match in January 2014. As captain of the GB & NI team at the 2014 World Indoor Championships in Sopot, she won a bronze medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay. 2014 also saw Doyle secure her first 400 metres hurdles British title, and take victory at the first ever IAAF Diamond League meeting in Scotland, the Glasgow Grand Prix. in a European leading time of 54.39. Child also selected to captain the Scottish athletics team at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, won a silver medal in the 400 m hurdles behind Kaliese Spencer of Jamaica. Two weeks later, at the European Championships in Zürich, she won a gold medal in the 400 m hurdles, running 54.48. She became the first British woman to win the European 400 m hurdles title for 20 years, the previous British winner being Sally Gunnell in 1994.  In May 2016, Doyle won the 400 metres hurdles at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Doha in a time of 54.53 seconds, competing for the first time under her married name. On 15 July 2016, she won the Diamond League meeting in Monaco, setting a new personal best of 54.09 seconds. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, she reached the final of the 400 metres hurdles, finishing eighth in 54.61, before going on to win a bronze medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay.  In July 2017, it was announced that Doyle had been elected by her team-mates as Captain for the GB Team at the 2017 World Athletics Championships in London. At the Championships she finished 8th in the final of the 400 m hurdles but would go on to win a silver in the 4×400 m relay. In winning the silver medal, Doyle surpassed Yvonne Murray as the most decorated Scottish athlete in Olympic World, European and Commonwealth competition.  In 2018, Doyle started the season of well winning a bronze medal at the 2018 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Birmingham. Then at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Gold Coast, Australia she went on to win her 3rd Commonwealth Games silver medal with a time of 54.80 seconds. In July she was named in the GB squad for the 2018 European Athletics Championships to be held in Berlin in August, both as an individual in 400m hurdles and a member of the 400m relay squad.  In August 2019 Doyle announced that she would miss the rest of the season as she was due to have a baby in January 2020, althoughs he planned to return to athletics after the birth.

Personal life.

Doyle has a degree in Physical Education from Edinburgh University and was formerly a full-time PE teacher at Perth Grammar School until she decided to focus further on her training, allowing her to relocate to Bath. Doyle is a supporter of Hearts FC where she has a season ticket. She wears a maroon and white wristband during all her races in support of the club. In October 2015 she married former 400 metre runner Brian Doyle.

Eilidh Doyle (pronounced AY-lee ; née Child; born 20 February 1987) is a British track and field athlete who specialises in the 400 metres hurdles and the 4 x 400 metres relay. She represented Great Britain at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, and won an Olympic bronze medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.


Location.

The premises are situated on the left bank of the Seine river, between the Palais Bourbon, the seat of the French National Assembly, in the west and the Musée d'Orsay in the east. The cour d'honneur is located on "rue de Lille" in the south, to the north, an English garden offers scenic views to the Seine and beyond up to the Tuileries Garden. The vast property is not accessible to the public.

History.

The building was erected at the behest of Foreign Minister Colbert de Torcy (1665–1746), shortly before his dismissal by Regent Philippe of Orléans. Then named "Hôtel de Torcy", it served as Colbert's retirement home where he kept his extensive art collection and completed his memoirs.  After several changes of ownership and being plundered during the French Revolution, it passed to Eugène de Beauharnais, a stepson of Napoleon who became Viceroy of Italy and also aimed at the succession to the French throne. The building then received its present-day portico in an Egyptomanian style which was popular in the wake of the French campaign in Egypt. Opulently furnished with large-scale paintings by Hubert Robert, the spacious rooms fitted with Beauharnais' great demands. However, the Viceroy had little opportunity to reside at his Paris home. When Napoleon married the Habsburg archduchess Marie Louise in 1810, he used the Hôtel as a guest house for Beauharnais' father-in-law, King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria.  After the French defeat in the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna, the premises were first rented and finally purchased by Prussia under King Frederick William III in 1818 and became the seat of the Prussian legation. In 1862 Otto von Bismarck resided here, before his appointment as Minister president by King William I in September.  Following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, it served as the embassy of the German Empire to the French Republic. Prince Chlodwig of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, ambassador from 1873, hosted extravagant ceremonies to improve Franco–German relations. The impressive architecture and premises inspired Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Leo von Klenze, as well as the painter Max Beckmann. In 1894 the theft of a letter addressed to the German military attaché Max von Schwartzkoppen at the embassy triggered the Dreyfus affair. The shooting of the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by 17-year-old Herschel Grynszpan in 1938 provided the Nazi authorities with the pretext for the antisemitic "Kristallnacht" pogrom.  During World War II, the building served as the Paris residence of Otto Abetz, German ambassador to Vichy France, until it was confiscated in 1944. Held by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it was restored to West Germany in 1961 during the negotiations on the Élysée Treaty. As a new embassy then already was under construction on "Avenue Franklin Delano Roosevelt", the building solely served for representative purposes. Extensively renovated and re-opened as the ambassador's residence in 1968, the building's history has been documented by the German Forum for Art History Paris.

The Hôtel Beauharnais () is a historic hôtel particulier, a type of large French townhouse, in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. It was designed by architect Germain Boffrand. Its construction was completed in 1714. By 1803, the structure was purchased by Eugène de Beauharnais, who had it rebuilt in an Empire style. It has been listed as an official historical monument since July 25, 1951. Today it serves as the official residence of the German Ambassador to France.


Biography.

Snæbjörn Ragnarsson and Björgvin Sigurðsson, who have been friends since childhood and have played together in various collectives, including death metal and punk bands, decided to start a new metal band, Skálmöld, formed in August 2009 in Reykjavík. The other band members had also been active in the Icelandic music scene. Initially, the band was intended to be merely a hobby, but the members soon decided to record an album before they were "too old and tired". After contacting most of the Icelandic labels—to no avail—the band was signed by the Faroese label Tutl in November 2010, which released the band's debut album "Baldur" in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. In April 2011, the band signed a record deal with Napalm Records; "Baldur" was re-released worldwide the following August.  The deal with Napalm gave Skálmöld a significant popularity boost. The band was invited to participate in the Wacken Open Air festival and the Heidenfest 2011 tour.  On April 13, 2012, Skálmöld began recording its second album, "Börn Loka", which was released in October the same year.  In November, 2013, Skálmöld played a series of concerts with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra at the Harpa concert hall in Reykjavík. A live album and accompanying video was released on December 17, 2013.  The next studio album was "Með vættum", released in 2014, which tells the story of a woman who encounters enemies in the north, east, south and west of Iceland, and is assisted by mythological beings. In 2016 Skálmöld released "Vögguvísur Yggdrasils", an album themed around the different worlds of Norse cosmology. It was followed by "Sorgir" in 2018, which tells four tragic stories, each from two different perspectives.

Musical style.

From the beginning, Skálmöld's intention has been to combine the sounds of the traditional Icelandic music and metal. Initially, the band planned to use a lot of folk instruments, but soon decided to scale back and have three guitar players instead. The band's influences include such metal bands as Metallica, Iron Maiden, Anthrax, Slayer, Amon Amarth and Ensiferum, as well as Jón Leifs, the classical Icelandic composer. Skálmöld's lyrics, written by Snæbjörn entirely in Icelandic, are inspired by the Norse mythology and Icelandic sagas. Furthermore, the lyrics conform to some of the Old Norse poetic forms, including fornyrðislag and sléttubönd.  All the band members are members of the heathen organisation Ásatrúarfélagið. Jón Geir Jóhannsson explained the way they believe in the Norse gods: "You shouldn't personify them. It's not people, it's stories that represent human nature. So yes, the ethics are there, but we don't believe in them as 'persons'."

Skálmöld () is a Viking / folk metal band from Reykjavík, Iceland, formed in August 2009. The band's name is literally translated as "Age of Swords" and also means "lawlessness", referring to the Age of the Sturlungs of Icelandic history, when a civil war broke out between the country's family clans.


Tropical traditions.

The tropical zodiac is thought to have been used by Western astrologers since about 100 BCE and does not correspond to the visible zodiac. Instead, it is defined based on seasons and their relationship to the cycles of the Sun. Seasons are defined as seen from the Northern Hemisphere and the March equinox has a fixed relationship to 0° of Aries, regardless of the astronomical position of the Sun with respect to constellations as seen from Earth. This means that during the March equinox, the Sun is always seen as being "in" Aries. Some schools of thought have emerged to account for seasons as seen from the Southern Hemisphere, where they are more or less in reverse. For instance, in the Northern Hemisphere, the March equinox occurs in the spring, whereas in the Southern Hemisphere, it occurs in the autumn.

Sidereal traditions.

Hindu astrology.

Traditional Hindu astrology, also known as Vedic astrology, uses a sidereal system of zodiac and accounts for the precession of the equinoxes using a system of correction called ayanamsa, which allows it to be more accurately reflective of current astronomical trends than the tropical zodiac. There are various types of ayanamsa that are in use, such as Lahiri Ayanamsa and Raman Ayanamsa.  In contrast to the tropical zodiac which has stuck with 0 degrees of Aries as the vernal point (the location of the Sun during the March equinox), the sidereal zodiac currently uses approximately 6 degrees of Pisces as the vernal point as per its corrective calculations, putting it almost a full sign (or about 24 degrees) behind the tropical zodiac. This also puts sidereal calculations of the position of the sun with respect to zodiacal constellations and equinoxes more accurately in keeping with current astronomical calculations of the sun's position with respect to the same. Walter Berg's astronomical zodiac, like the sidereal zodiac, lags nearly a full sign behind the tropical zodiac.  The tropical and the sidereal zodiacs were lined up together about 2,000 years ago. Vedic astrology is thought to have been in development from as far back as 5,000 B.C.

Sidereal western astrology.

Western sidereal astrology also uses ayanamsa, with the Fagan/Bradley ayanamsa being the most prevalent.

Shifted zodiac.

Cyril Fagan assumed the origin of the zodiac to be based on a major conjunction that occurred in 786 BC, when the vernal equinox lay somewhere in mid-Aries corresponding to a difference of some 39 degrees or days.

Astronomic zodiac.

A small number of sidereal astrologers do not take the astrological signs as an equal division of the ecliptic, but define their signs based on the actual width of the individual constellations. They also include constellations that are disregarded by the traditional zodiac, but are still in contact with the ecliptic.  Stephen Schmidt, in his 1970 book "Astrology 14", introduced a system with additional signs based on the constellations of Ophiuchus and Cetus.  In 1995, Walter Berg introduced his 13-sign zodiac, which has the additional sign of Ophiuchus. Berg's system was well received in Japan after his book was translated by radio host Mizui Kumi () in 1996.  For the purpose of determining the constellations in contact with the ecliptic, the constellation boundaries as defined by the International Astronomical Union in 1930 are used. For example, the Sun enters the IAU "boundary" of Aries on April 19 at the lower right corner, a position that is still rather closer to the "body" of Pisces than of Aries. The IAU defined the constellation boundaries without consideration of astrological purposes.  The dates the Sun passes through the 13 astronomical constellations of the ecliptic are listed below, accurate to the year 2011. The dates will progress by an increment of one day every 70.5 years. The corresponding tropical and sidereal dates are given as well.

"Sidereal" and "tropical" are astrological terms used to describe two different definitions of a year. They are also used as terms for two systems of ecliptic coordinates used in astrology. Both divide the zodiac into twelve "signs" that are divided into 30° each (making a total of 360°) and named after constellations, but while the sidereal system defines the signs relative to the apparent gradual motion of fixed stars at about 1° westward every 72 years from Earth's perspective, the tropical zodiac fixes the Northern Hemisphere's vernal equinox point (the Sun's position at the March equinox) to 0° of Aries, without taking the precession of the equinoxes into account, and defines the rest of the zodiac from this point.


Biography.

Mazar was born in Ciechanowiec, Poland, then part of the Russian Empire. He was educated at Berlin University and Giessen University in Germany. At the age of 23, he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine and in 1943 joined the faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, whose original campus at Mount Scopus was an enclave in the Jordanian sector of Jerusalem following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. In 1952 he became Rector of the university and later its president for eight years from 1953 to 1961, following Selig Brodetsky and succeeded by Giulio Racah.

Archaeological career.

In 1936 Mazar started the excavations of Beth Shearim, the first archaeological excavation organized by a Jewish institution, and uncovered there the large Jewish catacombs dated to the 2nd-4th centuries CE, known as the burial place of the Jewish leader Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi, the compiler of the Mishnah. In 1948 he was the first archaeologist to receive a permit to dig in the new State of Israel, and explored the Philistine town of Tell Qasile in northern Tel Aviv. He later conducted excavations at Ein Gedi and between 1968 and 1978 directed the excavations south and south-west of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, including an area he described as the Ophel, uncovering extensive remains from the Iron Age through the Second Temple period and to Jerusalem's Islamic period.

Tomb of Himyarites.

In 1937, Benjamin Mazar revealed at Beit She'arim a system of tombs belonging to the Jews of Ḥimyar (now southern Yemen) dating back to the 3rd century CE. The strength of ties between Yemenite Jewry and the Land of Israel can be learnt, of course, by the system of tombs at Beit She'arim dating back to the 3rd century. It is of great significance that Jews from Ḥimyar were being buried in what was then considered a prestigious place, near the tombs of the Sanhedrin. Those who had the financial means brought their dead to be buried in the Land of Israel, as it was considered an outstanding virtue for Jews not to be buried in foreign lands, but rather in the land of their forefathers. It is speculated that the Ḥimyarites, during their lifetime, were known and respected in the eyes of those who dwelt in the Land of Israel, seeing that one of them, whose name was Menaḥem, was coined the epithet "qyl ḥmyr" [prince of Ḥimyar], in the eight-character Ḥimyari ligature, while in the Greek inscription he was called "Menae presbyteros" (Menaḥem, the community's elder). The name of a woman in Greek letters, in its genitive form, Ενλογιαζ, was also engraved there, meaning either ‘virtue’, ‘blessing’, or ‘gratis’.

Mazar family.

Benjamin Mazar's son Ory Mazar, grandchildren Eilat Mazar and Dan Mazar and nephew Amihai Mazar all played an important role in the study and dissemination of Israeli archaeology and historical knowledge. Eilat Mazar has been a frequent spokesperson for concerns regarding the archaeology of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem while Amihai Mazar was the recipient of the 2009 Israel Prize for Archaeology. Benjamin Mazar is the brother-in-law of Israel's second and only three-term President, Yitzhak Ben Zvi.

Benjamin Mazar (; born Binyamin Zeev Maisler, June 28, 1906 – September 9, 1995) was a pioneering Israeli historian, recognized as the "dean" of biblical archaeologists. He shared the national passion for the archaeology of Israel that also attracts considerable international interest due to the region's biblical links. He is known for his excavations at the most significant biblical site in Israel: south and south west of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. In 1932 he conducted the first archaeological excavation under Jewish auspices in Israel at Beit She'arim (the largest catacombs ever found in Israel) and in 1948 was the first archaeologist to receive a permit granted by the new State of Israel (Tell Qasile, 1948). Mazar was trained as an Assyriologist and was an expert on biblical history, authoring more than 100 publications on the subject. He developed the field of historical geography of Israel. For decades he served as the chairman of the Israel Exploration Society and of the Archaeological Council of Israel (which he founded as the authority responsible for all archaeological excavations and surveys in Israel). Between 1951 and 1977, Mazar served as Professor of Biblical History and Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1952 he became Rector of the University and later its president for eight years commencing in 1953.


Championship results.

Relegation round.

Note: The following matches from the preliminary round carry forward to the relegation round:

Final round.

beat for the bronze medal 4–2.<br>

Final standings.

and are relegated to Division I for the 2006 IIHF World U18 Championships.

Division I.

Division I consisted of two separate tournaments. The Group A tournament was held between 3 and 9 April 2005 in Maribor, Slovenia and the Group B tournament was held between 2 and 8 April 2005 in Sosnowiec, Poland. Belarus and Norway won the Group A and Group B tournaments respectively and gained promotion to the Championship Division for the 2006 IIHF World U18 Championships. While Great Britain finished last in Group A and Italy last in Group B and were both relegated to Division II for 2006.  Group A Group B

Division II.

Division II consisted of two separate tournaments. The Group A tournament was held between 14 and 20 March 2005 in Kohtla-Järve, Estonia and the Group B tournament was held between 21 and 27 March 2005 in Bucharest, Romania. South Korea and Hungary won the Group A and Group B tournaments respectively and gained promotion to Division I for the 2006 IIHF World U18 Championships. While South Africa finished last in Group A and Romania last in Group B and were both relegated to Division III for 2006.  Group A Group B

Division III.

The Division III tournament was held between 7 and 13 March 2005 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Australia and Belgium finished first and second respectively and both gained promotion to Division II for the 2006 IIHF World U18 Championships.

Division III Qualification.

The Division III Qualification tournament was held between 18 and 20 February 2005 in Ankara, Turkey. Turkey won the tournament and qualified for the Division III tournament after winning both of their games against Armenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The 2005 IIHF World U18 Championships were held in České Budějovice and Plzeň, Czech Republic. The championships began on April 14, 2005 and finished on April 24, 2005. Games were played at Budvar Arena in České Budějovice and ČEZ Aréna in Plzeň. The United States of America defeated Canada 5–1 in the final to claim the gold medal, while the Sweden defeated Czech Republic 4–2 to capture the bronze medal.


Top Division.

Relegation round.

Results.

Division I.

The following teams took part in the Division I tournament. Group A was played in Minsk, Belarus between April 6 and April 12, 2009. Group B was played in Asiago, Italy between March 29 and April 5, 2009.

Group A.

" is promoted to Top Division for the 2010 IIHF World U18 Championships." " is relegated to Division II for the 2010 IIHF World U18 Championships."

Group B.

Division II.

The following teams took part in the Division II tournament. Group A was played in Maribor, Slovenia between March 22 and March 28, 2009. Group B was played in Narva, Estonia between March 16 and March 22, 2009:

Group A.

" is promoted to Division I for the 2010 IIHF World U18 Championships." " is relegated to Division III for the 2010 IIHF World U18 Championships."

Group B.

Division III.

The following teams took part in the Division III tournament. Group A was played in Taipei, Chinese Taipei (Republic of China) between February 27 and March 5, 2009. Group B was played in Erzurum, Turkey between March 9 and March 15, 2009:

Group A.

" is promoted to Division II for the 2010 IIHF World U18 Championships."

Group B.

The 2009 IIHF World U18 Championships were held in Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota, United States. The championships ran from April 9 to April 19, 2009. Games were played at the Urban Plains Center in Fargo and the Moorhead Sports Center in Moorhead. Fargo-Moorhead defeated Providence, Rhode Island and St. Cloud, Minnesota for the rights to host the event.


Top Division.

Preliminary Round.

Group A.

Fixtures.

The Group A games took place in Bobruisk, Belarus, between April 13 and April 18.

Group B.

Fixtures.

The Group B games took place in Minsk, Belarus, between April 13 and April 18.

Scoring leaders.

List shows the top skaters sorted by points, then goals.

Leading goaltenders.

Only the top five goaltenders, based on save percentage, who have played 40% of their team's minutes are included in this list.

Division I.

Group A was played in Herning, Denmark, between April 12 and April 18, 2010. Group B was played in Krynica-Zdrój, Poland, between April 11 and April 17, 2010.

Group A.

" was promoted to the Top Division for the 2011 IIHF World U18 Championships. was relegated to Division II for the 2011 IIHF World U18 Championships."

Group B.

Division II.

Group A was played in Narva, Estonia, between March 13 and March 19, 2010. Group B was played in Kiev, Ukraine, between March 22 and March 28, 2010.

Group A.

" was promoted to Division I for the 2011 IIHF World U18 Championships. was relegated to Division III for the 2011 IIHF World U18 Championships."

Group B.

" was promoted to Division I for the 2011 IIHF World U18 Championships. is relegated to Division III for the 2011 IIHF World U18 Championships."

Division III.

Group A was played in Erzurum, Turkey, between March 8 and March 14, 2010. Group B was played in Monterrey, Mexico, between March 14 and March 20, 2010.

Group A.

" was promoted to Division II for the 2011 IIHF World U18 Championships."

Group B.

The 2010 IIHF World U18 Championships was the 12th edition of the IIHF World U18 Championship. The tournament was held in Minsk and Babruysk, Belarus, between April 13 and April 23, 2010. Tournament games were played at the Minsk Sports Palace in Minsk and the Babruysk Arena in Babruysk. The United States won the gold medal for the second consecutive year with a 3–1 victory over Sweden in the championship game. The gold medal was the fifth for the United States since the tournament began in 1999; Sweden matched their best ever performance with a silver medal.


Top Division.

Preliminary Round.

Group A.

All times local (CEST/UTC+2)

Group B.

All times local (CEST/UTC+2)

Relegation round.

The results from matches between teams from the same group in the preliminary round were carried forward to this round.

Schedule.

All times local (CEST/UTC+2)

Scoring leaders.

List shows the top ten skaters sorted by points, then goals.

Leading goaltenders.

Division I.

Group A was played in Riga, Latvia between April 11 and April 17, 2011. Group B was played in Maribor, Slovenia between April 10 and April 16, 2011. On March 29, 2011 Japan withdrew from the tournament due to the 2011 Japan earthquake.

Division II.

Group A was played in Braşov, Romania between March 19 and March 25, 2011. Group B was played in Donetsk, Ukraine between March 27 and April 2, 2011.

Division III.

Group A was played in Taipei, Chinese Taipei between April 11 and April 17, 2011. Group B was played in Mexico City, Mexico between March 13 and March 20, 2011. Prior to the start of the tournament, the Mongolian national team announced they would withdraw, citing financial reasons. All games against them are to be counted as a forfeit, with a score of 5–0 for the opposing team. Group A played a round-robin schedule followed by a classification round.

Group B.

is promoted to the Division II for the 2012 IIHF World U18 Championships.

The 2011 IIHF World U18 Championships was held in Crimmitschau and Dresden, Germany. The championships ran from April 14–24, 2011.


Life.

At the time of his father's death in 1434 Jan IV was still a minor, so was placed under the care of his older brother Wenceslaus I.  In 1441, Wenceslaus I agreed to become a vassal of the King of Poland in exchange for the rights to govern the Duchy of Zator (it would be given to them in 1440 and in 1441 Wacław would officially become a vassal). This step was also followed by Jan IV and his brother Przemysław.  On 19 January 1445 was made the formal division of the Duchy between Casimir I's sons. Despite the fact that he was the youngest brother, Jan IV received Oświęcim, the capital of the Duchy, and the towns of Kęty, Żywiec and half of Gliwice.  Since the beginning of his reign Jan IV joined in adventurous politics with his Silesian cousin. One of his first decisions was not recognized the purchase of Siewierz by the Bishop of Kraków, Zbigniew Oleśnicki. This has led to increased tensions between him and the Polish nobles, even resulting in some border wars (common for that period in medieval Europe). The struggle for Siewierz lasted until 1447, when Jan IV finally accepted the ownership of the Bishop.  In 1448 it seemed that the Jan IV's anti-Polish politics were definitively ended when he signed a border agreement with Kingdom of Poland: however, soon their relations worsened. In 1452, and for unknown reasons, Duke Przemysław of Toszek attack Siewierz. The Polish troops, under the command of Piotr Szafraniec, used this as an excuse to attack Jan IV, and sieged his castle of Barwałd. The Duke of Oświęcim saved his lands only after the payment of 2,000 fines to Piotr Szafraniec. But Jan IV, after these humiliating conditions, refused to surrender, and with the plague over the Poland, he looted Polish borderlands, advanced over Lesser Poland and even approached Kraków, the Polish capital itself, on a daring raid.  The reaction of the Polish King wasn't long in coming. In 1453, a large Polish army under the command of the Starost Jan Szczekocki and the Chamberlain Jan Kuropatwa, invaded his Duchy in retribution. Unable to face the powerful Polish army, he was defeated and on 25 January he decided to capitulate. The Polish King gave him two choices: the vassalization or selling of the Duchy.  Despite his defeat, Jan IV didn't change his conduct and soon after he began the siege of Oświęcim, then under the hands of Jan z Czyżowa. This expedition was unsuccessful, so Jan IV withdrew to the Wolek Castle, from where he conducted trips to the Lesser Poland area.  Eventually, Jan IV accepted that he had lost all chances for victory, and in 1454 he finally agreed to sell his Duchy to the Kingdom of Poland for 20,000 groszes. The sale was confirmed in the act of homage made by the Duchy on 19 March 1454, during the festivities for the King's marriage with Elisabeth of Austria. The Act came into force on 11 October 1456, when King Casimir IV promised to Jan IV the payment of 21,000 pieces of gold and 4,300 fines.  Jan IV briefly joined the Prussian Confederation army as a mercenary during the Thirteen Years' War (one of the Polish-Teutonic Wars). However, the Polish king, Casimir IV Jagiellon, delayed the payment of the promised amount in 1454 and he returned to his homeland with mercenaries and allies from Prussia and located his base of operations in Myślenice, and began his efforts to recover his lost Duchy. Eventually, on 26 June 1458 in Bytom, the Polish King decided to pay him fully to stop the troubles (at the end, the King only gave him 11,000 pieces of gold and he would finish the payment only in 1462) and Jan IV retired from Myślenice, who was burned by the Polish troops.  In 1460, after the death of Bolko V the Hussite, Duke of Opole, Jan IV tried to claim his domains, but was defeated by Bolko V's brother, Nicholas I.  In 1462, with money from the Polish King, he bought Gliwice with its castle from his brother Przemysław, as well as nearby Ujazd from the Bishopric of Wrocław and he became the Duke of Gliwice in 1465.  In 1471, Jan IV and his brother Przemysław supported the election of Władysław Jagiellon as King of Bohemia, which resulted in the beginning of hostile relations with the other candidate for the throne, the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus. On 27 February 1475 during a meeting in Racibórz, King Matthias arrested Jan IV, and only released him after he give up half of his lands and later. However, the King only secured the fidelity of Jan IV on 12 August 1479, when he paid homage to him in Olomouc.  In 1482, and for unknown reasons, Jan IV sold the rest of his lands in Gliwice; in 1484 he inherited Toszek after the death of his brother Przemysław, but almost immediately the land was confiscated by King Matthias, who claimed more dubious rights to them.  Little is known about Jan IV's last years. He probably retired to the Duchy of Karniów, inherited by his second wife in 1491. Jan IV died around 1496–1497 and was probably buried in Karniów.

Marriages and Issue.

By 30 December 1465, Jan IV married firstly with certain Katharina, whose origins are unknown.  Around 1475, Jan IV married secondly with Barbara (b. 1445 – d. 27 April 1510), daughter of Duke Nicholas V of Karniów. She succeeded in 1491 as Duchess of Karniów. They had one daughter:

Jan IV of Oświęcim (; 1426/1430 – by 21 February 1497), was a Duke of Oświęcim during 1434–1456 (until 1445 with his brothers as co-rulers) and Duke of Gliwice from 1465 to 1482.


Applications.

A Sun-synchronous orbit is useful for imaging, spy, and weather satellites, because every time that the satellite is overhead, the surface illumination angle on the planet underneath it will be nearly the same. This consistent lighting is a useful characteristic for satellites that image the Earth's surface in visible or infrared wavelengths, such as weather and spy satellites; and for other remote-sensing satellites, such as those carrying ocean and atmospheric remote-sensing instruments that require sunlight. For example, a satellite in Sun-synchronous orbit might ascend across the equator twelve times a day each time at approximately 15:00 mean local time.  Special cases of the Sun-synchronous orbit are the noon/midnight orbit, where the local mean solar time of passage for equatorial latitudes is around noon or midnight, and the dawn/dusk orbit, where the local mean solar time of passage for equatorial latitudes is around sunrise or sunset, so that the satellite rides the terminator between day and night. Riding the terminator is useful for active radar satellites, as the satellites' solar panels can always see the Sun, without being shadowed by the Earth. It is also useful for some satellites with passive instruments that need to limit the Sun's influence on the measurements, as it is possible to always point the instruments towards the night side of the Earth. The dawn/dusk orbit has been used for solar-observing scientific satellites such as Yohkoh, TRACE, Hinode and PROBA2, affording them a nearly continuous view of the Sun.

Orbital precession.

A Sun-synchronous orbit is achieved by having the osculating orbital plane precess (rotate) approximately one degree eastward each day with respect to the celestial sphere to keep pace with the Earth's movement around the Sun. This precession is achieved by tuning the inclination to the altitude of the orbit (see Technical details) such that Earth's equatorial bulge, which perturbs inclined orbits, causes the orbital plane of the spacecraft to precess with the desired rate. The plane of the orbit is not fixed in space relative to the distant stars, but rotates slowly about the Earth's axis.  Typical Sun-synchronous orbits around Earth are about 600–800 km in altitude, with periods in the 96–100-minute range, and inclinations of around 98°. This is slightly retrograde compared to the direction of Earth's rotation: 0° represents an equatorial orbit, and 90° represents a polar orbit.  Sun-synchronous orbits can happen around other oblate planets, such as Mars. A satellite around the almost spherical Venus, for example, will need an outside push to maintain a Sun-synchronous orbit.

Technical details.

The angular precession per orbit for an orbit around an oblate planet is given by where  An orbit will be Sun-synchronous when the precession rate equals the mean motion of the Earth about the Sun, which is 360° per sidereal year (), so we must set, where is the orbital period.  As the orbital period of a spacecraft is  where is the semi-major axis of the orbit and is the standard gravitational parameter of the planet ( for Earth); as for a circular or almost circular orbit, it follows that  or when is 360° per year,  As an example, for = (the spacecraft about 800 km over the Earth surface) one gets with this formula a Sun-synchronous inclination of 98.696°.  Note that according to this approximation equals −1 when the semi-major axis equals, which means that only smaller orbits can be Sun-synchronous. The period can be in the range from 88 minutes for a very low orbit ( =, = 96°) to 3.8 hours ( =, but this orbit would be equatorial with = 180°). A period longer than 3.8 hours may be possible by using an eccentric orbit with < but >.  If one wants a satellite to fly over some given spot on Earth every day at the same hour, it can do between 7 and 16 orbits per day, as shown in the following table. (The table has been calculated assuming the periods given. The orbital period that should be used is actually slightly longer. For instance, a retrograde equatorial orbit that passes over the same spot after 24 hours has a true period about ≈ 1.0027 times longer than the time between overpasses. For non-equatorial orbits the factor is closer to 1.) When one says that a Sun-synchronous orbit goes over a spot on the Earth at the same "local time" each time, this refers to mean solar time, not to apparent solar time. The Sun will not be in exactly the same position in the sky during the course of the year (see Equation of time and Analemma).  Sun-synchronous orbits are mostly selected for Earth observation satellites, with an altitude typically between 600 and over the Earth surface. Even if an orbit remains Sun-synchronous, however, other orbital parameters such as argument of periapsis and the orbital eccentricity will evolve, due to higher order perturbations in the Earth's gravitational field, the pressure of sunlight, and other causes. Earth observation satellites, in particular, prefer orbits with constant altitude when passing over the same spot. Careful selection of eccentricity and location of perigee reveals specific combinations where the perturbations largely cancel and hence the orbit is relatively stable – a frozen orbit. The ERS-1, ERS-2 and Envisat of European Space Agency, as well as the MetOp spacecraft of EUMETSATand RADARSAT-2 of the Canadian Space Agency, are all operated in such Sun-synchronous frozen orbits.

A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO, also called a heliosynchronous orbit) is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it is an orbit arranged so that it precesses through one complete revolution each year, so it always maintains the same relationship with the Sun.


History.

2011.

The team was founded in 2011 under the name of Leopard Trek and officially stylized as LEOPARD TREK with Brian Nygaard and Kim Andersen as team managers. The Schleck brothers were under contract with the Danish team Saxo Bank managed by Bjarne Riis through the end of the 2010 season. Several other riders followed the Schleck brothers to the new team, including veterans Jens Voigt, Fabian Cancellara and Stuart O'Grady. Subsequent signings included sprinter Daniele Bennati, Davide Vigano and Joost Posthuma.  The team became active at the start of the 2011 cycling season. On 13 December 2010, Jakob Fuglsang revealed that the team would be called Team Leopard, in reference to the management company run by Nygaard. Trek, the bike supplier, confirmed shortly before the team was officially presented that they would be a co-title sponsor, giving the team a full name of "Leopard Trek."  Team rider Wouter Weylandt died as a result of a high-speed, downhill crash during the 2011 Giro d'Italia. The remaining riders of Leopard Trek left the competition at the completion of the following day's stage.

2012.

For the 2012 season, the team was renamed RadioShack–Nissan–Trek. The reason is that the American ceased racing, and their former sponsors joined the Luxembourg Cycling Project. Johan Bruyneel along with several riders from moved to the new team. The lineup for 2012 was officially confirmed on 5 December 2011. The official UCI name for the team is RadioShack Nissan and it is registered in Luxembourg.  While the UCI ProTeam is now named RadioShack–Nissan–Trek, in December 2011 Leopard also launched a UCI Continental Team, consisting mainly of U23 riders, called Leopard-Trek.  On 17 July 2012, Fränk Schleck was removed from the 2012 Tour de France by the team during the second rest day after his A-sample returned traces of Xipamide. Team RadioShack–Nissan won the team classification of the Tour de France.  Johan Bruyneel stood down as General Manager on 12 October in the aftermath of the publication by the US Anti-Doping Agency of its "reasoned decision" on the Lance Armstrong doping case.  On 21 December 2012, Nissan announced that they would cease to sponsor the team, with immediate effect.

2013.

During the 2013 Tour de France Team RadioShack-Leopard announced that they would not renew Fränk Schleck's contract, leaving him without a team. It also caused a serious and public rift between his brother Andy Schleck and team management, putting his future with the team into doubt.  In September 2013, Chris Horner beat Vincenzo Nibali to win the 2013 Vuelta a España becoming the oldest grand tour winner in history, winning two stages along the way.

2014.

On 3 July, the team announced that Samsung would become a new minor sponsor of the team.

2015.

On 16 December 2015, the team announced that Italian coffee brand Segafredo had committed to a three-year co-title sponsorship effective 1 January 2016, with the team changing name to Trek–Segafredo.

2016.

In April the team announced US software company CA Technologies would sponsor the team with immediate effect until the end of the 2017 season. In March 2017 the deal was extended through 2019.  For the 2017 season, the team announced the signings of Alberto Contador, John Degenkolb (until 2019), Koen de Kort (until 2018), Jarlinson Pantano, and Ivan Basso.

Doping.

On 27 June 2017 the UCI announced André Cardoso tested positive for erythropoietin in an out-of-competition control on 18 June and has been provisionally suspended. He had been due to support Alberto Contador in his bid for the 2017 Tour de France, with Haimar Zubeldia taking the empty roster place.  In April 2019, Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation confirmed that Jarlinson Pantano had returned an adverse analytical finding for EPO, in a doping test carried out on 26 February. Pantano was immediately suspended by the team.

Trek–Segafredo () is a professional road bicycle racing team at UCI WorldTeam level licensed in the United States. Formerly RadioShack–Nissan, in 2014, Trek took over the ownership of the team and its ProTeam License.


Officials.

The IIHF selected 12 referees and 10 linesmen to work the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship  They were the following:

Top division.

Each round will be a round-robin tournament, where the teams play each other once within their group. The Preliminary Round is divided into two groups: Group A and Group B, which includes five teams each. From each group, the top three teams will qualify for the playoffs; the 1st-ranked teams earn a direct trip to the Semifinals, while the 2nd and 3rd-ranked teams qualify for the Quarterfinals. The 4th and 5th-ranked teams have to play in the Relegation Round, where the three best teams qualify for the Top Division tournament the following year, with the last-placed team being relegated to the Division I tournament the following year. In the Semifinals, the directly-qualified Semifinalists face the winners from the Quarterfinals.

Preliminary round.

Group A.

All times local (UTC+6)

Group B.

All times local (UTC+6)

Relegation round.

The results from matches between teams from the same group in the preliminary round are carried forward to this round.  All times local (UTC+6)

Medalists.

Source: 1 2 3

Division I.

Division I A.

The Division I A tournament was played in Amiens, France, from 9 to 15 December 2012.

Division I B.

The Division I B tournament was played in Donetsk, Ukraine, from 10 to 16 December 2012.

Division II.

Division II A.

The Division II A tournament was played in Brașov, Romania, from 9 to 15 December 2012.

Division II B.

The Division II B tournament was played in Belgrade, Serbia, from 12 to 18 January 2013.

Division III.

The Division III tournament was played in Sofia, Bulgaria, from 14 to 20 January 2013.  <nowiki>*</nowiki> were disqualified and all their games were counted as 5-0 wins for their opponents.

The 2013 IIHF World U20 Championship (commonly known as the 2013 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships) was the 37th edition of the Ice Hockey World Junior Championship (WJC). It was hosted in Ufa, Russia. It began on December 26, 2012, and ended with the gold medal game played on January 5, 2013. The United States defeated defending-champion Sweden 3–1 to win their third title, their first one since 2010. American goalie John Gibson was named MVP of the tournament.


Host city selection.

On February 1, 2008, Hockey Canada and the Canadian Hockey League announced that six groups had submitted letters of intent to bid to host the 2012 tournament: Calgary/Edmonton; Halifax, Nova Scotia; London/Windsor, Ontario; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; Toronto; and Winnipeg. The London/Windsor, Halifax and Winnipeg bids withdrew before the application deadline, leaving three groups. Saskatoon was selected to host the 2010 tournament with Regina, Saskatchewan, leaving only the Calgary/Edmonton and Toronto bids for this tournament.  The Alberta bid, supported by the National Hockey League's Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers as well as the Western Hockey League's Calgary Hitmen and Edmonton Oil Kings, was selected to host the tournament on August 28, 2008. It will be the second time the tournament has been hosted in the province; Red Deer served as the primary host of the 1995 World Junior Championship, while some tournament games were played in both Calgary and Edmonton.

Attendance.

As part of their bid, the two cities projected that they would generate a tournament record attendance in excess of 475,000 fans and provide an economic benefit of $42 million to the province of Alberta. Following a reserved offering of 10- and 21-game ticket packs for Edmonton and Calgary games respectively to season ticket holders of the Oilers, Oil Kings, Flames and Hitmen, the tournament committee held a lottery to award the right to purchase the remaining seats. While the entry deadline was supposed to coincide with the conclusion of the 2011 tournament, organizers were flooded with so many entries that their website servers crashed. Organizers were overwhelmed by the response; over 187,000 entries were received for the draw.  Calling the demand unprecedented, Hockey Canada announced that the 17,000 ticket packages made available to lottery winners had sold out in a matter of days, a year in advance of the tournament. While organizers were pleased with the result, the way the lottery was handled has angered fans who won the right to purchase tickets but were unable to do so as no tickets were left when their turn to buy arrived.  Ultimately, a new attendance record was set, but not by the margin initially anticipated. The total of 455,342 fans was 2,060 fans more than the previous record of 453,282 from 2009. Though many more tickets were sold as part of tournament packages, the IIHF only counts actual paid spectators in attendance in its figures.

Top division.

Each round was a round-robin tournament, where the teams played each other once within their group. The Preliminary Round was divided into two groups: Group A and Group B, which included five teams each. From each group, the top three teams qualified for the playoffs; the 1st-ranked teams earned a direct trip to the Semifinals, while the 2nd and 3rd-ranked teams qualified for the Quarterfinals. The 4th and 5th-ranked teams had to play in the Relegation Round, where the three best teams qualified for the Top Division tournament in 2013, with the last-placed team being relegated to the 2013 Division I tournament. In the Semifinals, the directly-qualified Semifinalists faced the winners from the Quarterfinals.

Preliminary round.

Group A.

All round robin games held in Calgary, Alberta, at the Scotiabank Saddledome. All times local (MST/UTC−7)

Group B.

All round robin games held in Edmonton, Alberta, at Rexall Place. All times local (MST/UTC−7)

Relegation round.

The results from matches between teams from the same group in the preliminary round were carried forward to this round.  All times local (MST/UTC−7)

Medalists.

Source:

Gold medal celebration.

Sweden's gold medal win was their first since 1981, as well as their second gold medal in total. The gold medal was celebrated on January 7, 2012, in front of over 6,000 fans at Kungsträdgården in Stockholm.

Division I.

Division I A.

The Division I A tournament was played in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, from 11 to 17 December 2011.

Division I B.

The Division I B tournament was played in Tychy, Poland, from 12 to 18 December 2011.

Division II.

Division II A.

The Division II A tournament was played in Donetsk, Ukraine, from 12 to 18 December 2011.

Division II B.

The Division II B tournament was played in Tallinn, Estonia, from 10 to 16 December 2011.

Division III.

The Division III tournament was played in Dunedin, New Zealand, from 16 to 22 January 2012. Although originally scheduled to participate, North Korea withdrew from the tournament for unspecified reasons.

The 2012 IIHF U20 World Championship (commonly known as the 2012 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships) was the 36th edition of the Ice Hockey World Junior Championship. It was hosted in Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It began on December 26, 2011, and ended with the gold medal game played in Calgary on January 5, 2012. Sweden defeated defending-champion Russia 1–0 in overtime to win their first title in 31 years. Russian forward Evgeny Kuznetsov was named MVP of the tournament. Denmark was relegated to Division I and Germany was promoted to the 2013 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships.


Player eligibility.

A player is eligible to play in the 2015 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships if:  If a player who has never played in IIHF-organized competition wishes to switch national eligibility, he must have played in competitions for two consecutive years in the new country without playing in another country, as well as show his move to the new country's national association with an international transfer card. In case the player has previously played in IIHF-organized competition but wishes to switch national eligibility, he must have played in competitions for four consecutive years in the new country without playing in another country, he must show his move to the new country's national association with an international transfer card, as well as be a citizen of the new country. A player may only switch national eligibility once.

Top Division.

Officials.

The IIHF selected 12 referees and 10 linesmen to officiate during the tournament:  Referees  Linesmen

Format.

The four best ranked teams from each group of the preliminary round advance to the quarterfinals, while the last placed teams from each group played a relegation round in a best of three format to determine the relegated team.

Relegation round.

Note: was relegated for the 2016 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships

Tournament awards.

Most Valuable Player  All-star team  IIHF best player awards

Final standings.

Note that due to the lack of playoff games for determining the spots 5–8, these spots were determined by the preliminary round records for each team.

Division I.

Division I A.

The Division I A tournament was played in Asiago, Italy, from 14 to 20 December 2014.

Division I B.

The Division I B tournament was played in Dunaújváros, Hungary, from 14 to 20 December 2014.

Division II.

Division II A.

The Division II A tournament was played in Tallinn, Estonia, from 7 to 13 December 2014.

Division II B.

The Division II B tournament was played in Jaca, Spain, from 13 to 19 December 2014.

Division III.

The Division III tournament was played in Dunedin, New Zealand, from 20 to 25 January 2015.  On December 27, 2014 organizers announced that the Bulgarian Ice Hockey Federation withdrew their U20 team from the tournament.

The 2015 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships was the 39th edition of Ice Hockey World Junior Championship, played from December 26, 2014 to January 5, 2015. It was co-hosted by Toronto, Ontario, and Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and organized by Hockey Canada, Hockey Quebec, the Ontario Hockey Federation, the Montreal Canadiens, Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment and Evenko. Games were split between Air Canada Centre in Toronto and Bell Centre in Montreal, with Montreal hosting Group A matches and two quarter finals, and Toronto hosting Group B, along with the relegation games, two quarter finals, along with the semi-finals, bronze medal, and gold medal games.


Development.

China has sought to purchase Su-33s from Russia on several occasions—an unsuccessful offer was made as late as March 2009—but negotiations collapsed in 2006 after it was discovered that China had developed a modified version of the Sukhoi Su-27SK designated the Shenyang J-11B, in violation of intellectual property agreements. However, according to Chinese sources, the reason China withdrew from talks is that Russia wanted large amounts to re-open Su-33 production lines, insisting on a Chinese purchase of at least 50 Su-33s, towards which China was reluctant as it believed the aircraft would become outdated in a few years. China hence decided on an indigenous variant instead of continuing to assemble the licensed Su-27, or J-11.  J-15 program was officially started in 2006. The deputy general designer of J-15 is Wang Yongqing (王永庆).  The first J-15 prototype made its maiden flight on 31 August 2009, believed to be powered by Russian-supplied AL-31 turbofan engines. Video and still images of the flight were released in July 2010, showing the same basic airframe design as the Su-33.  On 6 May 2010 the aircraft conducted its first takeoff from a simulated ski-jump.  On 25 November 2012, the aircraft successfully performed its first takeoff and landing on China's first aircraft carrier "Liaoning".  A twin-seat variant made its maiden flight on 4 November 2012.  The initial WS-10 engines proved to be unreliable under oceanic conditions, and the early J-15s were fitted with Russian-made AL-31F. Several years later, WS-10 entered mass-production and late J-15 variants were gradually replacing their engines with modified WS-10.

Design.

An article in the China Signpost believes the J-15 "likely exceeds or matches the aerodynamic capabilities of virtually all fighter aircraft currently operated by regional militaries, with the exception of the U.S. F-22 Raptor", alleging that the J-15 likely possesses a 10% superior thrust-to-weight ratio and a 25% lower wing loading than the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. However, one of the authors of that same article described the J-15 in another as no game changer; the reliance on ski-jump launches and lack of Chinese carrier based refueling capabilities are believed to greatly reduce its effective range. Hu Siyuan of the National Defense University PLA China has said that "the current weak point of the J-15 is its Russia-made Al-31 engines which are less powerful than that of the American F-35 fighter".  In September 2013, the Beijing-based Sina Military Network (SMN) criticized the capabilities of the J-15 as nothing more than a "flopping fish" incapable of flying from the "Liaoning" with heavy weapons, “effectively crippling its attack range and firepower,” an unusual move as it contradicted state-owned media reports praising the fighter. SMN reported the J-15 could operate from the carrier equipped with two YJ-83K anti-ship missiles, two short-range PL-8 air-to-air missiles, and four bombs, but a weapons load exceeding 12 tons would not get it off the ski jump, prohibiting it from carrying heavier munitions such as PL-12 medium-range air-to-air missiles, making it an unlikely match if hostile fighters are encountered when flying strike missions; furthermore, it can only carry two tons of weapons while fully fueled, limiting it to no more than two YJ-83Ks and two PL-8s.  The J-15's chief designer, Sun Cong of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, has said that the J-15 could match the F/A-18 in bomb load, combat radius and mobility. However, in a similar statement, he said more work was required in its electronics and combat systems. He also indicated the lack of mature domestically produced engines as a current weak spot. Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo stated that the aircraft's air combat capabilities were better than that of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. However, he also stated that its ability to attack land and sea targets was slightly inferior to the F/A-18E/F; it is also stated that its electronic equipment meets the standards of those on a fifth generation fighter.

Operational history.

On 25 November 2012, Chinese media announced that two J-15s had made successful arrested landings on the aircraft carrier. The first pilot to land on "Liaoning" was named as Dai Mingmeng (戴明盟). Luo Yang, the aircraft's head of production and designer, died the same day. PLA Daily newspaper indicated the first five naval pilots including Dai conducted J-15 fighter landing and taking off. Test and training program officials confirmed the carrier-borne aircraft and special equipment for the landing flight had gone through strict tests, and fighter jets can be deployed on the carrier.  In December 2013 Chinese media reported that mass production of J-15s in full operational condition with combat markings had begun.  In January 2017, the carrier "Liaoning", having returned to the South China Sea after its first deployment into the western Pacific, conducted a series of take-off and landing drills with its force of embarked J-15 fighters.  In July 2018, Lieutenant General Zhang Honghe of the PLAAF stated that China is developing a new carrier-based aircraft that will replace the J-15 due to four crashes and numerous technical problems. One problem with the aircraft is that it is the heaviest carrier-borne fighter in current operation with an empty weight of 17,500 kg compared to the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet's 14,600 kg (though it is less than the F-14 Tomcat's weight of 19,800 kg). Weight problems are compounded when operating off "Liaoning", as its STOBAR launch and recovery method further limits payload capacity.

The Shenyang J-15 (Chinese: 歼-15), NATO reporting name: Flanker-X2, also known as "Flying Shark" (), is a 4th generation, twin-jet, all-weather, carrier-based fighter aircraft in development by the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation and the 601 Institute for the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy's aircraft carriers. It is developed from J-11B as well as from studying of a prototype of Su-33. An unfinished Su-33 prototype, the T-10K-3, was acquired from Ukraine in 2001 and is said to have been studied extensively, reverse engineered, with development on the J-15 beginning immediately afterward. While the J-15 appears to be structurally based on the prototype of Su-33, the indigenous fighter features Chinese technologies as well as avionics from the J-11B program. In February 2018, discussions about replacing the aircraft appeared in several Chinese media outlets including Xinhua and China's main military newspaper, discussing that it belongs to the 4th or 4.5 generation fighters. Thus, the J-15 is viewed as an interim carrier-based fighter until a 5th generation successor enters service, one that may be based on the J-20 or J-31.


Reasons.

There were several motives for Spinola's siege of Breda. Because the Dutch regularly used the town as a base for raiding Spanish Brabant, the parts of Brabant under royal rule would be better protected if the city were conquered. In addition, neighbouring towns occupied by the States, such as Bergen op Zoom, would be easier to conquer with a foothold in Breda.  In 1590, Breda was captured from the Spanish using the stratagem with the peat boat. The conquest of a well-defended city like Breda would erase this disgrace. More importantly, Spinola personally felt that the failure of the siege of Bergen-op-Zoom (1622) was a blot on his reputation.  Furthermore, Spain wanted to have a strong position in potential peace negotiations. The conquest of Breda would enable Spain to put forward stronger demands concerning religious freedom for Catholics in the Republic and lifting the blockade of the Scheldt.

Location.

Vesting Breda.

Breda was one of the strongest cities in the defence of the Republic between the States of Holland and royal Brabant. The city was strategically located on a navigable river, Mark, and near several roads.  Henry III of Nassau, Lord of Breda from 1509 to 1538, had been commissioned by Charles V to travel through Europe. In Italy, he came into contact with modern defences. Thus, in 1531 he inspired the construction of the late medieval style walls of Breda. These were later replaced by modern fortifications. In 1587 and 1622, the defences were further expanded and updated.  The Breda fortress consisted of a very high earthen thoroughfare with 15 bastions and a moat. The canal was five feet deep and was provided with water from Mark. Access to the city was made possible by four brick gates. Crescent ravelins were applied in the ditches. Hornwork was placed on the gates and at the. Stakewall were built to complicate assault by horsemen and foot soldiers and simultaneously prevent desertion. The fortifications were in excellent condition and served as a state of the art example of fortification. Around Breda, forests formed an obstacle for the cavalry and artillery of any besieging army and the high water level of the Mark posed challenges to attacking infantry. The rivers Mark and and other streams also hampered besiegers. By using an near the Ginnekense gate, the area south of Breda could be put underwater if opened. The north side had a lock near Terheijden that functioned.  Because the States of Holland and West Friesland knew that the Spanish army might attempt to conquer Breda, they left the city with enough food, supplies, and weapons for an eight-month siege. The city council refused to store more food than was necessary for a nine-month siege. Nobody knew what tactics the Spanish army would apply. Therefore, the possibility of a direct assault was also considered. To prevent this, a State army was stationed near Breda with the aim of disrupting any direct assault on the city.

Garrison in Breda.

The garrison in Breda consisted of 17 companies in peacetime, each of which consisted of 65 men and 5 cavalry squadrons of 70 riders each. When it was probable that the city would become besieged, the squadrons were supplemented by another 30 riders each; the infantry was supplemented with 28 companies of 135 men. To save food, three squadrons were sent to Geertruidenberg shortly before a siege. The castle held approximately 100 civilians out of the 5,200 soldiers. The male inhabitants of Breda between 20 and 70 years, about 1,800 men, were armed to support the soldiers.  The governor of the city was Justin of Nassau, an illegitimate son of William I, Prince of Orange. His deputy was Dyrcx Cornelis van Oosterhout, but his role was insignificant during the siege.  In addition to the soldiers, others stayed in the city. Ordinary citizens, farmers, spouses and children of soldiers, came to the town to seek protection against the Spanish army. The soldiers' wives were responsible for cooking and washing for the soldiers and caring for the sick and wounded. The total number of inhabitants in the city is estimated at 13,111. They are believed to have been housed in about 1,200 homes.

Spanish Army.

Conflicting and incomplete data does not allow for an accurate calculation of the size of the Spanish army. On 30 September the number was probably around 40,000 soldiers and on about 2 May 1625, approximately 80,000 soldiers. 25,000 were encamped along the supply corridor, another 25,000 men were used for the containment of the city, and 30,000 served as general reserves.  According to the text on the map by Blaeu, “[This was] so large an army, as had not been seen in the Netherlands in living memory.”  The composition of the Spanish army was diverse, as shown in the table above. The army consisted primarily of infantry, with a small number of riders. Members of the infantry were equipped with either a rapier and a pike, or a rapier with a musket; members of the cavalry were equipped with either a lances and two pistols, or a musket and two pistols.  The infantry was mainly used for the lines to raise and to guard and defend against an army and State terror against sorties from the city. In the supply corridor, the foot soldiers deployed to protect the convoys. The cavalry was more mobile than the infantry and was therefore mainly used to inspect the area and to protect convoys.  The cannons could fire 10 shots per hour and were operated by gunners. The exact number of the Spanish guns is not precisely known, but there were certainly more than 30. Sappers engaged in building bridges, maintaining roads, and other activities.  The commander of the Spanish army was Ambrogio Spinola, 1st Marquis of the Balbases, a known military strategist from Italy. His deputies were the regimental commanders Hendrik, count van den Bergh, who was also commander of the supply corridor, and John VIII, Count of Nassau-Siegen. Spinola was the commander of the reserve forces until 31 October when he was succeeded by Carlos Coloma.  Because of the vastness of Breda, Spinola had his troops divided into four compartments. The four subjects with commanders were:

In modern literature.

The siege of 1624–1625 is the subject of the 1998 novel "El sol de Breda" ("The Sun Over Breda") by the Spanish author Arturo Pérez-Reverte, as part of the "Captain Alatriste" series. The events of the siege – including both the gruelling fighting with the Dutch and the infighting among the Spanish, including a major mutiny by unpaid Spanish troops – are depicted from the point of view of a boy serving with the Spanish forces. The realistic depiction of war and soldiers' daily life seems influenced by the writer's own long experience as a war correspondent.  The siege appears in the film "Alatriste" adapted from the novel series.

The siege of Breda of 1624–25 occurred during the Eighty Years' War. The siege resulted in Breda, a Dutch fortified city, falling into the control of the Army of Flanders.


Plot.

Hanna and Simon are in a long-term relationship which, though loving, has grown sexually unexciting. Soon after Simon's mother dies from overdosing on pills, after being diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer, he discovers that he has testicular cancer and must undergo surgery and chemotherapy. The night of his surgery, Hanna has a sexual encounter with a man called Adam, and Simon learns that he had fathered a child seventeen years earlier, although the woman opted for an abortion. Simon, who had assumed that either he or Hanna was infertile, is assured that he should still be able to have children after his surgery. During his recovery, Simon and Hanna decide to finally wed. Shortly beforehand, Simon encounters Adam at the pool and begins an affair with him as well.  The couple's separate affairs lead to greater happiness and sexual desire felt for one another. Adam, unaware that his two lovers are involved, develops feelings for them both. The affairs are divulged soon after Hanna discovers that she is pregnant; because she was sleeping with both Adam and Simon at the time of conception, she does not know the identity of the father. Now separated, both Hanna and Simon never contact Adam. Hanna moves to England, where she discovers that she is pregnant with twins. After she receives an invitation to an art gallery in Germany, she reconnects with Simon. The two admit that they have missed each other, but they also miss Adam. The film ends with the couple arriving at Adam's flat, where they coalesce into a happy spooning threesome.

Three () is a 2010 German drama film written, co-scored and directed by Tom Tykwer. The film was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 67th Venice International Film Festival.


History of the work.

Dvořák submitted the score for a competition in Germany, but never saw it again, and always believed it was destroyed or irretrievably lost. He later included the work in a list of early compositions he claimed to have destroyed.  However, in 1882, an unrelated person named Dr. Rudolf Dvořák, a 22-year-old Oriental scholar, came across the score in a second-hand bookshop in Leipzig, and bought it. At that time the composer Dvořák was not widely known: although he had written six symphonies, only one of them (No. 6) had been published and only three of them (Nos. 3, 5 and 6) had been performed. Rudolf Dvořák kept the score in his possession, telling nobody about it, not even the composer. He died 38 years later, in 1920, when it passed to his son. The son brought it to the attention of the musical world in 1923. Its authenticity was proven beyond doubt, but it did not receive its first performance until 4 October 1936 in Brno, and even then, in a somewhat edited form. The orchestra was conducted by Milan Sachs, who was a Czech but was most notable for his work in opera in Zagreb, Croatia (then part of Yugoslavia). Following the work's premiere, Hans Holländer wrote a review of the work. He noted that, although the writing was at times awkward, the orchestration was not. He noted that it seemed to be similar in style to Ludwig van Beethoven and Bedřich Smetana. The symphony was not published until 1961, and was the last of Dvořák's symphonies to be either performed or published. Unlike many other early compositions, Dvořák never had a chance to revise the symphony, and so it is "particularly interesting as a very early Dvořák orchestral score in pristine condition".

Programmatic content.

The title "The Bells of Zlonice" does not appear in the score, although Dvořák is reputed to have referred to it this way in later years. While some argue that there is no programmatic content, it has been noted that several passages sound much like bells. It was originally conceived as a three-movement work, and the "Allegretto" was added later. The 658-measure first movement, marked "Maestoso" — "Allegro", is, in the original version, the longest movement of all his symphonic works, owing to a 278-measure repeated exposition section comprising 44 score pages, thereby requiring just under 19 minutes to perform uncut.

Form.

The work is in four movements:  A typical performance of the work has a duration of about fifty minutes: the movements are approximately 19, 13, 9, and 12 minutes long, respectively.

Instrumentation.

The work is scored for two flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes (one doubling English horn), two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings.

Recordings.

The C minor symphony has been recorded various times, but the first recording complete and uncut was made in 1966 by the London Symphony Orchestra under István Kertész as part of his complete Dvořák cycle for Decca/London. Other notable recordings have been by Witold Rowicki, also with the London Symphony (Philips, 1970); the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Václav Neumann (Supraphon, 1987), the Berlin Philharmonic under Rafael Kubelík (DG, 1973); and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Neeme Järvi (Chandos, 1987).

The Symphony No. 1 in C minor, B. 9, subtitled The Bells of Zlonice (), was composed by Antonín Dvořák during February and March 1865. The work is written in the early Romantic style, and was inspired by the works of Ludwig van Beethoven and Felix Mendelssohn. It was the only one of his symphonies that Dvořák never heard performed or had a chance to revise. The work was lost shortly after its composition, and did not come to light until 1923, almost 20 years after the composer's death. It did not receive its first performance until 1936.


Campaign.

The "Four Pests" campaign was introduced in 1958 by Mao Zedong, as a hygiene campaign aimed to eradicate the pests responsible for the transmission of pestilence and disease: the mosquitos responsible for malaria; the rodents that spread the plague; the pervasive airborne flies; and the sparrows – specifically the Eurasian tree sparrow – which ate grain seed and fruit. The government also declared that "birds are public animals of capitalism". According to some eyewitnesses, citizens would bang pots and pans so that sparrows would not have the chance to rest on tree branches and would fall dead from the sky. Sparrow nests were also destroyed, eggs were broken, and chicks were killed. In addition to these tactics, citizens also resorted to simply shooting the birds down from the sky. These mass attacks depleted the sparrow population, pushing it to near extinction. Furthermore, contests were held among enterprises, government agencies, and schools in cleanliness. Non-material rewards were given to those who handed in the largest number of rat tails, dead flies and mosquitoes, or dead sparrows.  At dawn one day last week, the slaughter of the sparrows in Peking began, continuing a campaign that has been going on in the countryside for months. The objection to the sparrows is that, like the rest of China's inhabitants, they are hungry. They are accused of pecking away at supplies in warehouses and in paddyfields at an officially estimated rate of four pounds of grain per sparrow per year. And so divisions of soldiers deployed through Peking streets, their footfalls muffled by rubber-soled sneakers. Students and civil servants in high-collared tunics, and schoolchildren carrying pots and pans, ladles and spoons, quietly took up their stations. The total force, according to Radio Peking, numbered 3,000,000.  Some sparrows found refuge in the extraterritorial premises of various diplomatic missions in China. The personnel of the Polish embassy in Beijing denied the Chinese request of entering the premises of the embassy to scare away the sparrows who were hiding there and as a result the embassy was surrounded by people with drums. After two days of constant drumming, the Poles had to use shovels to clear the embassy of dead sparrows.

Effects.

By April 1960, Chinese leaders changed their opinion due to the influence of ornithologist Tso-hsin Cheng who pointed out that sparrows ate a large number of insects, as well as grains. Rather than being increased, rice yields after the campaign were substantially decreased. Mao ordered the end of the campaign against sparrows, replacing them with bed bugs, as the extermination of sparrows upset the ecological balance, and insects destroyed crops as a result of the absence of natural predators.  By this time, however, it was too late. With no sparrows to eat them, locust populations ballooned, swarming the country and compounding the ecological problems already caused by the Great Leap Forward, including widespread deforestation and misuse of poisons and pesticides. Ecological imbalance is credited with exacerbating the Great Chinese Famine, in which 15–45 million people died of starvation. The Chinese government eventually resorted to importing 250,000 sparrows from the Soviet Union to replenish their population.

Revived campaign.

On June 19, 1998, a poster was spotted at Southwest Agricultural University in Chongqing, "Get rid of the Four Pests". Ninety-five percent of households were ordered to get rid of four pests. This time, sparrows were replaced with cockroaches. A similar campaign was spotted in the spring of 1998 in Beijing. Few people responded to these campaigns, as many already had the habit of killing the aforementioned pests, especially cockroaches.

Cultural influence.

In the TVB drama series "Rosy Business" (aired 2009 but set in mid-19th century China), a peasant came up with the idea of killing the sparrows to improve agricultural output. It was meant to be a prank used to trick the peasant owners into starvation and poverty.  In Episode 20 of the children's animated television series "Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat" (aired 2001–2002 but set in China around 1900), the mistress of the house declares that certain useless animals are banned from the compound. After the animals – the episode's eponymous birds, bees, and silkworms – are driven out, the family discovers the consequences. The mistress' fancy banquet is ruined by the lack of food and clothing, and she learns a valuable lesson.  The album "Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sun" (2006) by the American post-rock band Red Sparowes tells, by way of its song titles, the story of the Great Sparrow Campaign.  The children's book "Sparrow Girl" (2009) by Sara Pennypacker tells the story of the Sparrow War.

The Four Pests Campaign (), was one of the first actions taken in the Great Leap Forward in China from 1958 to 1962. The four pests to be eliminated were rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows. The extermination of sparrows is also known as Smash Sparrows Campaign () or Eliminate Sparrows Campaign (), which resulted in severe ecological imbalance, being one of the causes of the Great Chinese Famine. In 1960, Mao Zedong ended the campaign against sparrows and redirected the fourth focus to bed bugs.


Life.

Bobowski was born as a Pole in Bobowa near Gorlice. He was raised in a Protestant family and started a career as a church musician. At some point, he was taken as a worker by a Turkish Prince as his sister was married by an Ottoman sultan.  Because he had enjoyed musical training and was capable of reading and notating music, he was sold to the court of sultan Murad IV (and later Ibrahim I and Mehmed IV), where he converted to Islam and became known as "Alī Ufqī". At the court he served as an interpreter, treasurer and musician in the sultan's seraglio. He was also known to master sixteen languages, next to Polish and Turkish also Arabic, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, and Latin.  Around 1657, approximately 19–20 years after he was captured, when on a voyage to Egypt, he regained his liberty, after which he lived in Egypt for some time. It is also likely he traveled on a pilgrimage to Mecca. After he gained his freedom he became one of the most important dragomans in the Ottoman Empire.

Works.

Bible translation.

Bobowski, or now Ufki, having been raised as a Christian and now being a convert to Islam, became deeply interested in religious issues. He translated the Anglican catechism into Ottoman Turkish, and wrote an explanation of Islam in Latin, in an attempt to increase the mutual understandings of both cultures.  Bobowski's translation of the Bible into Turkish, known as the "Kitabı Mukaddes" ("Holy Book") has for long been the only complete Turkish Bible, and is considered one of his greatest achievements. In 2002, a new translation was published, but the 17th century translation, which has undergone some relatively minor revisions and is now written in the Latin alphabet, is still used by some.

Psalter.

Having been raised in a Protestant family, Bobowski was familiar with the singing of the Genevan Psalms. This experience has been a great influence on his composition of fourteen Turkish psalms.  In this small collection of psalms, known as "Mezmurlar" and released in 1665, Ali Ufki used original melodies from the Genevan Psalter, an early Calvinist hymnbook. He classified them using the Turkish modal system and translated the texts into the Ottoman Turkish. Because of certain features of French prosody, the Genevan melodies tend to be in asymmetrical meters, which makes them more similar to Middle Eastern music than much of other European music. Rhythmical intensity is likely one of the most important shared features, and their modal character facilitates their transformation into Turkish modes, as this can be done with only light changes in intonation. Ali Ufki’s versions of the psalms are relatively simple; with careful attention paid to ensuring words are easy to understand and music is only the background.  In 2005, the King's Singers together with Sarband released a CD titled "Sacred Bridges" which includes recordings of Psalms 5, 6, and 9 from Ali Ufki's psalter.

Musical anthologies.

Among his achievements was the release of two manuscript anthologies of Ottoman music, known as "Mecmûa-i Sâz ü Söz" ("Collection of Instrumental and Vocal Works"). These anthologies contained both sacred and secular pieces, instrumental and vocal music, art music as well as traditional Turkish songs. Only two manuscript copies survive: in the British Library and the Bibliothèque Nationale. This work preserved for modern times several hundred classical Ottoman songs and instrumental pieces and is the first instance in which western staff notation was applied to Turkish music.

Other works.

In 1666 Bobowski also wrote a grammar of the Ottoman Turkish language. He also translated works of Hugo Grotius and Comenius into that language.

Wojciech Bobowski or Ali Ufki (also Albertus Bobovius, Ali Bey, Santurî Ali Ufki; 1610–1675) was a Polish musician and dragoman in the Ottoman Empire. He translated the "Bible" into Ottoman Turkish, composed an Ottoman "Psalter", based on the Genevan metrical psalter, and wrote a grammar of the Ottoman Turkish language. His musical works are considered among the most important in 17th-century Ottoman music.


History.

Prior to the 19th century, the hamlet of Ménilmontant depended on the parish church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Belleville. Responding to population growth in the neighbourhood, the parish priest ordered the construction of a chapel in the rue de la Mare in 1823. In 1847 the chapel was designated a parish.  Construction of the present structure began in 1863, following the plans of Héret. Consecration occurred in 1869, though the building was yet incomplete.  During the Paris Commune, the church was appropriated as a political club. In a meeting held in the church on 6 May 1871, the Commune voted to execute the Archbishop of Paris and his fellow hostages.  The construction was completed in 1880.

Interior.

Grand Organ.

The organ was built by Aristide Cavaillé-Colle in 1872 to 74. The design of the church presented many difficulties that ultimately meant the organ was not completed as intended. In particular, the rose window required the organ cases to be split either side of the window. The presence of a bell mechanism further hindered construction of the organ. In the end, the intended positiv division was never built because it was impossible to route the key mechanism from the console to the pipes. In addition, the console had to be positioned facing the organ rather than facing the church. The third manual on the console was made to play the recit and grand orgue coupled together. When completed, the organ had 26 stops in total. The current organist is Frédéric Denis

Notre-Dame-de-la-Croix de Ménilmontant (, meaning Our Lady of the Holy Cross of Ménilmontant) is a Roman Catholic parish church located in Ménilmontant, in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, France.