Life under Communism.

Jan Korec was born to a working-class family. His father Ján Korec and his mother Mária Drábiková were laborers at a local leather factory in Bošany. he had two older siblings: brother Anton, who was imprisoned during the first wave of communist persecution in 1951, and sister Štefánia. Korec's family lived a humble life with limited resources. Korec entered the Society of Jesus in 1939 and studied Catholic theology and philosophy. During the order's suppression by the Communists, he was forced to discontinue his philosophical studies. He entered the priesthood in 1950. One year later, at the age of twenty-seven, he was secretly consecrated a bishop by Bishop Pavol Hnilica on 24 August 1951, becoming the youngest Catholic bishop in the world. The following three years he worked at the Tatrachema company and then at the Institute of Work Hygiene and Work-Related Diseases. On 30 June 1958, he was forced to leave the Institute, and on 10 September he began working as a night watchman for the Prefa company. He next worked as a maintenance worker at the Juraj Dimitrov Chemical Company, one of the largest companies in Bratislava.  He was imprisoned from 1960 to 1968. While he was in prison, Korec cared for the spiritual welfare of his fellow prisoners. Korec spent most of this period in Valdice, a prison in the Czech Republic. There were at least 250 priests and several bishops being held: Vojtašák, Zela, Otčenášek, Hlad, and Hopko. These clergymen were forced to share prison cells with some of the country's worst criminals. He described his experiences in "Night of the Barbarians". After many petitions, he was released during a general amnesty in 1968.  Despite bad health, Korec continued to work as a street cleaner and as a factory worker. During this time, he also continued his active life as a leader of the underground Church. He led spiritual retreats for students; he counseled young people, seminarians, and priests. His private apartment in Petržalka on Vilova Street 7 became a highly sought-out center of his underground ministry. Many people, lay persons, and priests went to him for spiritual advice. Because the publication of Christian literature was proscribed, Korec wrote "samizdat" books that were secretly printed and distributed. He also secretly ordained priests because the law allowed for the ordination by government-approved clerics and limited ordinations to restrict church activity.  The Secret Police (Štátna Tajná Bezpečnost) watched Korec's apartment closely, and two attempts were made to assassinate him.

After the fall of Communism.

In 1990, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Pope John Paul II appointed him Bishop of Nitra. On 29 May 1991, John Paul named Korec a cardinal. He was invested as a cardinal in a consistory on 28 June and named Cardinal-Priest of Santi Fabiano e Venanzio a Villa Fiorelli.  On 13 June 2012, Cardinal Korec was admitted to the hospital due to a ruptured appendix. He suffered a perforated appendicitis, severe peritonitis, and his vital signs were beginning to fail. The doctors operated on him, but even afterwards, his condition remained critical. By 18 June, it was announced that his condition had not improved and that he was breathing only through a respirator. On 20 June, it was announced that the condition of Cardinal Korec had significantly improved. It was a great surprise for all of Slovakia.  Korec remained active in the Church and in his social life. He received three honorary degrees from universities in the United States. He published regularly, especially in the Slovak magazine, "Kultúrny Život."  After the fall of the Iron Curtain and the revival of democracy in Czechoslovakia, Ján Cardinal Korec became an influential leader in all aspects of social-economic and political developments in Slovakia. He supported Slovak independence. He opposed the Christian Democrats, who implemented stringent free-market policies, which caused a rapid rise in unemployment and economic hardship, and allied himself more closely with the left-oriented parties and the Slovak Prime Minister Mečiar, who played a significant role in the "velvet divorce" between the Czechs and Slovaks, while trying maintain a certain political neutrality.  Forty years of communist domination left the Slovak Catholic Church in ruins. There was a shortage of priests, and church buildings needed to be renovated. In addition, Catholic education had suffered severe drawbacks and new schools needed to be built. There was also a shortage of teachers and Catholic media was non-existent. Besides restoring the Church and Catholic education, he restored a good relationship with the Jewish minority.  In 1987, Cardinal Korec was one of the 24 Slovak activists who signed the "Declaration of Apology," an official apology to all Jews in Slovakia who suffered deportation during WWII. The Cardinal condemned the deportations and called it "an inhumane act."  In retirement, Korec lived in Nitra and remained active as a writer and adviser.  In February 2014 Liverpool Hope University in Great Britain awarded him an honorary doctorate for his lifelong achievements on behalf of freedom, democracy and world peace.

Awards.

For proper footing and steadfast faith, it has been granted several awards and honorary doctorates. His life's work was also appreciated at foreign universities, including the University of Notre Dame South Bend (1986), University of Sacred Heart in Bridgeport (1992) and the Catholic University in Washington (1993). Other honorary doctorates were awarded to him by the Polish Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski (2003) and Liverpool Hope University, UK (2014).  In 1993 he won the state prize of the French Republic, in 1995 state award Rad Stur Class and in 1999 state award Order of Andrej Hlinka.

Criticism.

He was high criticised by some segments of the community due to a perceived perception of him having a positive attitude towards Jozef Tiso and the first Slovak Republic. Critics cite for example the 1990 unveiling of a commemorative plaque for Jozef Tiso in Banovce nad Bebravou or the memorial service he held for Tiso and the 50th anniversary of Tiso's execution. In August 1997 he publicly defended the exiled historian Stanislav Durica Milan in connection with his controversial book ""History of Slovakia and Slovaks"" which advocated several policies from the period of the first Slovak Republic.

Writing.

His book production accounts for more than 80 titles each with several editions and is a prominent part of the Slovak Christian literature of the 20th century. His writing is also included in numerous and various Samizdat magazines. These publications include:

Ján Chryzostom Korec, SJ (22 January 1924 – 24 October 2015) was a Slovak Jesuit priest and a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was ordained a priest in 1950 and consecrated bishop in 1951. Because of government suppression of the Catholic Church, he spent 39 years working as a priest without government authorization, either in prison or supporting himself as a laborer.


Names.

The common name "cowslip" may derive from the old English for cow dung, probably because the plant was often found growing amongst the manure in cow pastures. An alternative derivation simply refers to slippery or boggy ground; again, a typical habitat for this plant.  The species name "veris" (of spring) is the genitive case form of Latin "ver" (spring). However, primrose "P. vulgaris", flowers earlier, from December to May in the British isles.  Other common names include cuy lippe, herb peter, paigle, peggle, key flower, key of heaven, fairy cups, petty mulleins, crewel, buckles, palsywort, and plumrocks.

Description.

"Primula veris" is a variable evergreen or semi-evergreen perennial plant growing to tall and broad, with a rosette of leaves 5–15 cm long and 2–6 cm broad. The deep yellow flowers are produced in spring, in clusters of 10–30 blooms together on a single stem. Each flower is 9–15 mm broad. Red- and orange-flowered plants occur rarely but can be locally widespread in areas where coloured primula hybrids bloom at the same time as the native cowslip, enabling cross-pollination.

Habitat and conservation.

The cowslip is frequently found on more open ground than the primrose, including open fields, meadows, coastal dunes and clifftops. The plant suffered a decline due to changing agricultural practices throughout the 1970s and 1980s in Britain. It may therefore be rare locally, though where found it may be abundant. Additionally the seeds are now often included in wildflower seed mixes used to landscape motorway banks and similar civil engineering earthworks where the plants may be seen in dense stands. This practice has led to a revival in its fortunes.  In cultivation this plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Similar species.

The cowslip may be confused with the closely related "Primula elatior" (oxlip) which has a similar general appearance and habitat, although the oxlip has larger, pale yellow flowers more like a primrose, and a corolla tube without folds.

Chemical constituents.

The roots of "Primula veris" contain several glycosides of 5-methoxysalicylic methyl ester, such as primeverin and primulaverin. In the dried crude root, their phenolic aglycones are responsible for the typical odour reminiscent of methyl salicylate or anethole. The dried roots contain significant amounts of triterpene saponins, such as primula acid I/II, while in the flower these constituents are located in the sepals, and the dominating constituents are flavonoids. Rare side effects of the saponins can be nausea or diarrhoea while some of the phenolic constituents are possibly responsible for allergic reactions.  The subspecies "macrocalyx", growing in Siberia, contains the phenolic compound riccardin C.

Cuisine.

Cowslip leaves have been traditionally used in Spanish cooking as a salad green. Uses in English cookery include using the flowers to flavor country wine and vinegars; sugaring to be a sweet or eaten as part of a composed salad while the juice of the cowslip is used to prepare tansy for frying. The close cousin of the cowslip, the primrose "P. vulgaris" has often been confused with the cowslip and its uses in cuisine are similar with the addition of its flowers being used as a colouring agent in desserts.  English children's writer Alison Uttley in her story "The Country Child" (1931) of family life on an English farm from the perspective of a 9-year-old farmer's daughter Susan describes cowslips among the favourite flowers of her heroine and mentions her participation in preparing them for making cowslip wine, a locally important process. After its initial preparation, cowslip wine "would change to sparkling yellow wine" offered in "little fluted glasses" with a biscuit to important "morning visitors" of the farm: such as the curate coming for subscriptions, the local squire (landowner) and an occasional dealer (of their produce). This wine "was more precious than elderberry wine, which was the drink for cold weather, for snow and sleet".

Myth and folklore.

This herb was already mentioned by Pliny the Elder for its early blooming attributes. Species from the genus "Primula" along with other ritual plants played a significant role in the pharmacy and mythology of the Celtic druids, likely as an ingredient of magical potions to increase the absorption of other herbal constituents. In the Middle-Ages it was also known as St. Peter's herb or Petrella and was sought after by Florentine apothecaries. Hildegard von Bingen recommended the medicinal parts only for topical use but the leaves were also consumed as food. Other common names at the time were 'Herba paralysis', 'Verbascum', primrose or mullein leaves. It was frequently misidentified as or confused with similar species from the genus "Primula".

Primula veris, the cowslip, common cowslip, or cowslip primrose (syn. "Primula officinalis" Hill), is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the primrose family Primulaceae. The species is native throughout most of temperate Europe and western Asia, and although absent from more northerly areas including much of northwest Scotland, it reappears in northernmost Sutherland and Orkney and in Scandinavia. This species frequently hybridizes with other "Primulas" such as "Primula vulgaris" to form false oxlip ("Primula" × "polyantha") which is often confused with true oxlip ("Primula elatior"), a much rarer plant.


Fest-noz.

A fest-noz (plurial festoù-noz) is a traditional dance festival in Brittany. Most Breton dances are social dances, in a group. Currently, many festoù-noz are also held outside Brittany within diaspora, bringing the Breton culture to life outside Breton territory. This term is known since the end of the 19th century but is given as a name only since the 1950s.  In the past, the dances were sometimes used to trample the ground to make a firm earth floor in a house or a solid surface for farm work (the "aire neuve" dances), to which people from the neighbourhood were invited, which explains the presence of stamping movements in some of the dances. For a long time the church banned "kof-ha-kof" (stomach-to-stomach) dances, meaning dancing in pairs. These festivals were a chance for young people to meet and size each other up, on a social level, by their clothes, and to see how quickly they got tired, since dances sometimes continued for a long time and involved complex and swift steps that required effort and skill.  These days, "Festoù Noz" are still very popular, mixing the different generations. Most of the villages have a fest-noz at least once a year, organised by the sports clubs, the school, etc... It is a way to express their culture and identity, and to share common values with friends of a night. As in many group folk dances, one talks of sometimes reaching a trance state because of repetitive music, and physical exertion. During the summer and tourist season, in many ways, taking part in a fest-noz is for many people like an alternative way of going to a night club.

The dances.

There are hundreds of traditional dances, of which the most well-known are gavottes, the an dro, the 'hanter dro, the plinn and the Scottish. During the fest-noz, most dances are practised in a chain or in a circle (everyone holds hands), but there are also dances in pairs and "choreographed" dances, meaning dances enriched with precise artistic elements (sequences, figures, etc.).  The major study on Breton dancing is "La tradition populaire de danse en Basse-Bretagne", book written from his thesis dissertation, by Jean-Michel Guilcher - new edition by Coop-Breizh - Chasse-Marée/Armen - 1995.

The music.

There are principally two types of music at these festivals: music sung a cappella (kan ha diskan,...), accompanied with music or purely instrumental. Before the invention of microphones and amplified instruments, the instruments that were most often used were the bombarde (a sort of oboe or shawm) and the Breton bagpipes (binioù kozh), due to their high volume. Also popular was the diatonic accordion, the clarinet, and occasionally the violin and the hurdy-gurdy. After the Second World War, the Scottish bagpipes (binioù bras) also became common in Brittany thanks to bagadoù (pipe bands) and thus often replaced the binioù-kozh. The basic clarinet (treujenn-gaol - "cabbage core" in Breton) had all but disappeared but has regained popularity over the past few years.  Other than the traditional instruments, there are nowadays groups with many different styles of music ranging from rock, jazz, to punk and also mixes with styles from other countries. String instruments (the violin, the double-bass, the acoustic guitar, the electric guitar, the bass guitar) and North-African percussion instruments have long since been adopted. To varying degrees, some Fest-Noz groups also use electronic keyboards and synthesisers (Strobinell, Sonerien Du, Les Baragouineurs, Plantec...). Brass instruments are becoming increasingly commonplace, often bringing with them sounds approaching those of oriental music.

The programme.

Just after the revival of the 1970s, the standard was to alternate a couple of singers (a cappella or "kan a diskan") and a couple of musicians (biniou - bombarde generally). It was common to see the holding of «free stages». Currently, couples of singers (kanerien) and couples of musicians (sonerien) play alternately with a band. Bands play more instrumental music and often the practice of the dance is different from the two other ways to conduct the dancers.  Between every "suite" (three dances), there are short breaks where dancers socialise by chatting to other dancers or visiting the traditional buffet of local dishes like crêpes, galettes-saucisses, far Breton, kouign-amann with local cider, beer, and chouchen, a mead-like drink made from fermented honey.

A Fest Noz (Breton for "night festival") is a Breton traditional festival, with dancing in groups and live musicians playing acoustic instruments.


Summary.

During this period, although the Emperor of Japan was officially the ruler of his nation and every lord swore loyalty to him, he was largely a marginalized, ceremonial, and religious figure who delegated power to the "shōgun", a noble who was roughly equivalent to a general. In the years preceding this era, the shogunate gradually lost influence and control over the "daimyōs" (local lords). Although the Ashikaga shogunate had retained the structure of the Kamakura shogunate and instituted a warrior government based on the same social economic rights and obligations established by the Hōjō with the "Jōei" Code in 1232, it failed to win the loyalty of many "daimyō", especially those whose domains were far from the capital, Kyoto. Many of these lords began to fight uncontrollably with each other for control over land and influence over the shogunate. As trade with Ming China grew, the economy developed, and the use of money became widespread as markets and commercial cities appeared. Combined with developments in agriculture and small-scale trading, this led to the desire for greater local autonomy throughout all levels of the social hierarchy. As early as the beginning of the 15th century, the suffering caused by earthquakes and famines often served to trigger armed uprisings by farmers weary of debt and taxes.  The Ōnin War (1467–1477), a conflict rooted in economic distress and brought on by a dispute over shogunal succession, is generally regarded as the onset of the Sengoku period. The "eastern" army of the Hosokawa family and its allies clashed with the "western" army of the Yamana. Fighting in and around Kyoto lasted for nearly 11 years, leaving the city almost completely destroyed. The conflict in Kyoto then spread to outlying provinces.  The period culminated with a series of three warlords, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who gradually unified Japan. After Tokugawa Ieyasu's final victory at the siege of Osaka in 1615, Japan settled down into over two-hundred years of peace under the Tokugawa shogunate.

Timeline.

The Ōnin War in 1467 is usually considered the starting point of the Sengoku period. There are several events which could be considered the end of it: Nobunaga's entry to Kyoto (1568) or abolition of the Muromachi shogunate (1573), the Siege of Odawara (1590), the Battle of Sekigahara (1600), the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603), or the Siege of Osaka (1615).

"Gekokujō".

The upheaval resulted in the further weakening of central authority, and throughout Japan, regional lords, called "daimyōs", rose to fill the vacuum. In the course of this power shift, well-established clans such as the Takeda and the Imagawa, who had ruled under the authority of both the Kamakura and Muromachi "bakufu", were able to expand their spheres of influence. There were many, however, whose positions eroded and were eventually usurped by more capable underlings. This phenomenon of social meritocracy, in which capable subordinates rejected the status quo and forcefully overthrew an emancipated aristocracy, became known as, which means "low conquers high".  One of the earliest instances of this was Hōjō Sōun, who rose from relatively humble origins and eventually seized power in Izu Province in 1493. Building on the accomplishments of Sōun, the Hōjō clan remained a major power in the Kantō region until its subjugation by Toyotomi Hideyoshi late in the Sengoku period. Other notable examples include the supplanting of the Hosokawa clan by the Miyoshi, the Toki by the Saitō, and the Shiba clan by the Oda clan, which was in turn replaced by its underling, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a son of a peasant with no family name.  Well-organized religious groups also gained political power at this time by uniting farmers in resistance and rebellion against the rule of the "daimyōs". The monks of the Buddhist True Pure Land sect formed numerous "Ikkō-ikki", the most successful of which, in Kaga Province, remained independent for nearly 100 years.

Unification.

After nearly a century of political instability and warfare, Japan was on the verge of unification by Oda Nobunaga, who had emerged from obscurity in the province of Owari (present-day Aichi Prefecture) to dominate central Japan. In 1582, Oda was assassinated by one of his generals, Akechi Mitsuhide, and allowed Toyotomi Hideyoshi the opportunity to establish himself as Oda's successor after rising through the ranks from "ashigaru" (footsoldier) to become one of Oda's most trusted generals. Toyotomi eventually consolidated his control over the remaining "daimyōs" but ruled as "Kampaku" (Imperial Regent) as his common birth excluded him from the title of "Sei-i Taishōgun." During his short reign as Kampaku, Toyotomi attempted two invasions of Korea. The first attempt, spanning from 1592 to 1596, was initially successful but suffered setbacks from the Joseon Navy and ended in a stalemate. The second attempt began in 1597 but was less successful as the Koreans, especially their navy, led by Admiral Yi Sun-Sin, were prepared from their first encounter. In 1598, Toyotomi called for retreat from Korea prior to his death.  Without leaving a capable successor, the country was once again thrust into political turmoil, and Tokugawa Ieyasu took advantage of the opportunity.  On his deathbed, Toyotomi appointed a group of the most powerful lords in Japan—Tokugawa, Maeda Toshiie, Ukita Hideie, Uesugi Kagekatsu, and Mōri Terumoto—to govern as the Council of Five Regents until his infant son, Hideyori, came of age. An uneasy peace lasted until the death of Maeda in 1599. Thereafter a number of high-ranking figures, notably Ishida Mitsunari, accused Tokugawa of disloyalty to the Toyotomi regime.  This precipitated a crisis that led to the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, during which Tokugawa and his allies, who controlled the east of the country, defeated the anti-Tokugawa forces, which had control of the west. Generally regarded as the last major conflict of the Sengoku period, Tokugawa's victory at Sekigahara effectively marked the end of the Toyotomi regime, the last remnants of which were finally destroyed in the Siege of Osaka in 1615.  The contrasting personalities of the three leaders who contributed the most to Japan's final unification—Oda, Toyotomi, and Tokugawa—are encapsulated in a series of three well known "senryū":

Notable people.

Three unifiers of Japan.

Oda, known for his ruthlessness, is the subject of the first; Toyotomi, known for his resourcefulness, is the subject of the second; and Tokugawa, known for his perseverance, is the subject of the third verse.

The is a period in Japanese history of near-constant civil war, social upheaval, and political intrigue from 1467 to 1615.


Biography.

Early life.

Francis Picabia was born in Paris of a French mother and a Cuban father who was an attaché at the Cuban legation in Paris. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was seven. Some sources would have his father as of aristocratic Spanish descent, whereas others consider him of non-aristocratic Spanish descent, from the region of Galicia. Financially independent, Picabia studied under Fernand Cormon and others at the École des Arts Decoratifs in the late 1890s.  In 1894, Picabia financed his stamp collection by copying a collection of Spanish paintings that belonged to his father, switching the originals for the copies, without his father's knowledge, and selling the originals. Fernand Cormon took him into his academy at 104 boulevard de Clichy, where Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec had also studied. From the age of 20, he lived by painting; he subsequently inherited money from his mother. In the beginning of his career, from 1903 to 1908, Picabia was influenced by the Impressionist paintings of Alfred Sisley. Little churches, lanes, roofs of Paris, riverbanks, wash houses, lanes, barges—these were his subject matter. Some however, began to question his sincerity and said he copied Sisley, or that his cathedrals looked like Monet, or that he painted like Signac. From 1909, he came under the influence of those that would soon be called Cubists and later form the Golden Section (Section d'Or). The same year, he married Gabrielle Buffet.  Around 1911 Picabia joined the Puteaux Group, members of which he met at the studio of Jacques Villon in Puteaux; a commune in the western suburbs of Paris. There he became friends with artist Marcel Duchamp and close friends with Guillaume Apollinaire. Other group members included Albert Gleizes, Roger de La Fresnaye, Fernand Léger and Jean Metzinger.

Proto-Dada.

Picabia was the only member of the Cubist group to personally attend the Armory Show, and Alfred Stieglitz gave him a solo show, "Exhibition of New York studies by Francis Picabia", at his gallery 291 (formerly "Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession"), 17 March – 5 April 1913.  From 1913 to 1915 Picabia traveled to New York City several times and took active part in the avant-garde movements, introducing Modern art to America. When he landed in NewYork in June 1915, though it was ostensibly meant to be a simple port of call en route to Cuba to buy molasses for a friend of his—the director of a sugar refinery—the city snapped him up and the stay became prolonged. The magazine "291" devoted an entire issue to him, he met Man Ray, Gabrielle and Duchamp joined him, drugs and alcohol became a problem and his health declined. He suffered from dropsy and tachycardia. These years can be characterized as Picabia's proto-Dada period, consisting mainly of his "portraits mécaniques".

Manifesto.

Later, in 1916, while in Barcelona and within a small circle of refugee artists that included Albert Gleizes and his wife Juliette Roche, Marie Laurencin, Olga Sacharoff, Robert Delaunay and Sonia Delaunay, he started his Dada periodical "391" (published by Galeries Dalmau), modeled on Stieglitz's own periodical. He continued the periodical with the help of Marcel Duchamp in the United States. In Zurich, seeking treatment for depression and suicidal impulses, he had met Tristan Tzara, whose radical ideas thrilled Picabia. Back in Paris, and now with his mistress Germaine Everling, he was in the city of "les assises dada" where André Breton, Paul Éluard, Philippe Soupault and Louis Aragon met at Certa, a Basque bar in the Passage de l'Opera. Picabia, the provocateur, was back home. Picabia continued his involvement in the Dada movement through 1919 in Zürich and Paris, before breaking away from it after developing an interest in Surrealist art. (See "Cannibale", 1921.) He denounced Dada in 1921, and issued a personal attack against Breton in the final issue of "391", in 1924.  The same year, he put in an appearance in the René Clair surrealist film "Entr'acte", firing a cannon from a rooftop. The film served as an intermission piece for Picabia's avant-garde ballet, "Relâche", premiered at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, with music by Erik Satie.

Later years.

In 1922, André Breton relaunched "Littérature" magazine with cover images by Picabia, to whom he gave carte blanche for each issue. Picabia drew on religious imagery, erotic iconography, and the iconography of games of chance.  In 1925, Picabia returned to figurative painting, and during the 1930s became a close friend of the modernist novelist Gertrude Stein. In the early 1940s he moved to the South of France, where his work took a surprising turn: he produced a series of paintings based on the nude glamour photos in French "girlie" magazines like "Paris Sex-Appeal", in a garish style which appears to subvert traditional, academic nude painting. Some of these went to an Algerian merchant who sold them, and so it passed that Picabia came to decorate brothels across North Africa under the Occupation.  Before the end of World War II, he returned to Paris where he resumed abstract painting and writing poetry. A large retrospective of his work was held at the Galerie René Drouin in Paris in the spring of 1949. Francis Picabia died in Paris in 1953 and was interred in the Cimetière de Montmartre.

Legacy.

Public collections holding works by Picabia include the Museum of Modern Art and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Tate Gallery, London; the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris; and Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, Netherlands.  From 6 June through to 25 September 2016 at Kunsthaus Zürich and then from 21 November 2016 through 19 March 2017, the first retrospective of Picabia's work in the United States, "Francis Picabia: Our Heads Are Round so Our Thoughts Can Change Direction", took place at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, co-curated by Anne Umland and Cathérine Hug. The retrospective was widely discussed by international art critics such as Philippe Dagen from Le Monde.  Among the artists influenced by Picabia's work are the American artists David Salle and Julian Schnabel, the German artist Sigmar Polke, and the Italian artist Francesco Clemente. in 1996, French artist Jean-Jacques Lebel initiated and co-curated the exhibition "Picabia, Dalmau 1922" (with reference to Picabia's solo exhibition at Galeries Dalmau in 1922) shown at Fundació Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona and the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou. In 2002, the artists Peter Fischli & David Weiss installed Suzanne Pagé's retrospective devoted to Picabia at the musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris (MAMVP). The Museum of Modern Art, New York, organized a major retrospective of his entire career, shown from 21 November 2016 to 19 March 2017.

Art market.

In 2003, a Picabia painting once owned by André Breton sold for US$1.6million.  On 16 November 2013, at Sotheby's Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale in New York, Picabia's "Volucelle II" (c. 1922, Ripolin on canvas, 198,5 x 249 cm) sold for US$8,789,000.  Dada is the groundwork to abstract art and sound poetry, a starting point for performance art, a prelude to postmodernism, an influence on pop art, a celebration of antiart to be later embraced for anarcho-political uses in the 1960s and the movement that lay the foundation for Surrealism.

Francis Picabia (: born Francis-Marie Martinez de Picabia; 22January 1879 – 30November 1953) was a French avant-garde painter, poet and typographist. After experimenting with Impressionism and Pointillism, Picabia became associated with Cubism. His highly abstract planar compositions were colourful and rich in contrasts. He was one of the early major figures of the Dada movement in the United States and in France. He was later briefly associated with Surrealism, but would soon turn his back on the art establishment.


Biography.

Woelfl was born at Salzburg, where he studied music under Leopold Mozart and Michael Haydn.  He first appeared in public as a soloist on the violin at the age of seven. Moving to Vienna in 1790 he visited Wolfgang Mozart and may have taken lessons from him. His first opera, "Der Höllenberg", appeared there in 1795.  Woelfl was very tall (over 6 feet), and with an enormous finger span (his hand could strike a thirteenth, according to his contemporary Václav Tomášek); to his wide grasp of the keyboard he owed a facility of execution which he turned to good account, especially in his "extempore" performances.  Although he dedicated his 1798 sonatas op. 6 to Beethoven, the two were rivals. Beethoven however bested Woelfl in a piano 'duel' at the house of Count Wetzlar in 1799, after which Woelfl's local popularity waned. After spending the years 1801 -1805 in Paris, Woelfl moved to London, where his first concert performance was on 27 May 1805.  In England, he enjoyed commercial if not critical success. In 1808 he published his Sonata, Op. 41, which, on account of its technical difficulty, he entitled "Non Plus Ultra"; and, in reply to the challenge, a sonata by Dussek, originally called "Le Retour à Paris", was reprinted with the title "Plus Ultra", and an ironic dedication to "Non Plus Ultra". He also completed for publication an unfinished sonata of George Pinto.  Woelfl died in Great Marylebone Street, London, on 21 May 1812. He is buried in St. Marylebone Churchyard.  Woelfl's works have long disappeared from the concert repertory. However, in 2003 four selected piano sonatas of his (Op. 25 and Op. 33) were recorded by the pianist Jon Nakamatsu (Harmonia Mundi CD # 907324). (An Adda CD in 1988 contained his three opus 28 sonatas, played by Laure Colladant, who also recorded the sonatas opus 6 for Adès in 1993 and the three opus 33 sonatas for the label Mandala in 1995.) In 2006, German pianist Yorck Kronenberg recorded Woelfl's piano concertos 1, 5 and 6 in addition to a movement from the piano concerto 4. The piano concertos closely resemble the later piano concertos of Mozart, who had pioneered the genre; they can be distinguished from Mozart's works by the larger range of the piano, which had been extended shortly after Mozart's death.

Joseph Johann Baptist Woelfl (surname sometimes written in the German form Wölfl) (24 December 1773 - 21 May 1812) was an Austrian pianist and composer.


Personal life.

Georges de La Tour was born in the town of Vic-sur-Seille in the Diocese of Metz, which was technically part of the Holy Roman Empire, but had been ruled by France since 1552. Baptism documentation revealed that he was the son of Jean de La Tour, a baker, and Sybille de La Tour, née Molian. It has been suggested that Sybille came from a partly noble family. His parents had seven children in all, with Georges being the second-born.  La Tour's educational background remains somewhat unclear, but it is assumed that he traveled either to Italy or the Netherlands early in his career. He may possibly have trained under Jacques Bellange in Nancy, the capital of Lorraine, although their styles are very different. His paintings reflect the Baroque naturalism of Caravaggio, but this probably reached him through the Dutch "Caravaggisti" of the Utrecht School and other Northern (French and Dutch) contemporaries. In particular, La Tour is often compared to the Dutch painter Hendrick Terbrugghen.  In 1617 he married Diane Le Nerf, from a minor noble family, and in 1620 he established his studio in her quiet provincial home-town of Lunéville, part of the independent Duchy of Lorraine which was occupied by France, during his lifetime, in the period 1641–1648. He painted mainly religious and some genre scenes. He was given the title "Painter to the King" (of France) in 1638, and he also worked for the Dukes of Lorraine in 1623–4, but the local bourgeoisie provided his main market, and he achieved a certain affluence. He is not recorded in Lunéville between 1639 and 1642, and may have traveled again; Anthony Blunt detected the influence of Gerrit van Honthorst in his paintings after this point. He was involved in a Franciscan-led religious revival in Lorraine, and over the course of his career he moved to painting almost entirely religious subjects, but in treatments with influence from "genre" painting.  Georges de La Tour and his family died in 1652 in an epidemic in Lunéville. His son Étienne (born 1621) was his pupil.

Works.

La Tour's early work shows influences from Caravaggio, probably via his Dutch followers, and the genre scenes of cheats—as in "The Fortune Teller"—and fighting beggars clearly derive from the Dutch Caravaggisti, and probably also his fellow-Lorrainer, Jacques Bellange. These are believed to date from relatively early in his career.  La Tour is best known for the nocturnal light effects which he developed much further than his artistic predecessors had done, and transferred their use in the genre subjects in the paintings of the Dutch "Caravaggisti" to religious painting in his. Unlike Caravaggio his religious paintings lack dramatic effects. He painted these in a second phase of his style, perhaps beginning in the 1640s, using chiaroscuro, careful geometrical compositions, and very simplified painting of forms. His work moves during his career towards greater simplicity and stillness—taking from Caravaggio very different qualities than Jusepe de Ribera and his Tenebrist followers did. He often painted several variations on the same subjects, and his surviving output is relatively small. His son Étienne was his pupil, and distinguishing between their work in versions of La Tour's compositions is difficult. The version of the "Education of the Virgin" in the Frick Collection in New York is an example, as the Museum itself admits. Another group of paintings (example left), of great skill but claimed to be different in style to those of La Tour, have been attributed to an unknown "Hurdy-gurdy Master". All show older male figures (one group in Malibu includes a female), mostly solitary, either beggars or saints.  After his death at Lunéville in 1652, La Tour's work was forgotten until rediscovered by Hermann Voss, a German scholar, in 1915; some of La Tour's work had in fact been confused with Vermeer, when the Dutch artist underwent his own rediscovery in the nineteenth century.

In film.

Director Peter Greenaway has described La Tour's work as a primary influence on his 1982 film "The Draughtsman's Contract".  "Job Mocked by His Wife" by La Tour appears in the 2003 Francis Veber film "Le Dîner de Cons".  A reference to a work purportedly by La Tour is featured prominently in the 2003 Merchant Ivory film "Le Divorce".  "Magdalene with the Smoking Flame" (not "Penitent Magdalene") is the painting in Ariel's grotto she longingly motions toward when she yearns to know about fire while singing "Part of Your World" in Disney's 1989 film "The Little Mermaid".

Georges de La Tour (March 13, 1593 – January 30, 1652) was a French Baroque painter, who spent most of his working life in the Duchy of Lorraine, which was temporarily absorbed into France between 1641 and 1648. He painted mostly religious chiaroscuro scenes lit by candlelight.


History.

The inventor Alfred Kärcher (1901–59) from Baden-Württemberg founded the company in 1935 in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt. Initially Kärcher specialised in the design of industrial submersible heating elements, i.e. in salt smelters which were heated with immersion heaters. After numerous experiments, a hardening furnace for alloys was produced, the so-called “Kärcher Salt-Bath Furnace”. Some 1,200 units were sold up to 1945. Karcher invented the first modern pressure washer, the DS 350 in 1950. The company’s main focus then switched to cleaning equipment for professional and private users. Since then, Kärcher has made lead in the design and development of pressure washers. The company’s product range was expanded and now covers the entire field of cleaning (sweepers, detergents, scrubber-driers, wet and dry vacuums, vacuum cleaners, battery-powered brooms, steam cleaners, dry ice blasting equipment, parts cleaners, water treatment systems, vehicle washes and wastewater recycling systems). Kärcher also offers pumps and watering systems.  In 1974 the corporate color was changed from blue to yellow. From that year, under the leadership of Alfred Kärcher’s widow Irene Kärcher, the company launched the HD 555, the first pressure washer for private users.  Today the family-owned company, which is based in Winnenden near Stuttgart, is represented in 160 countries with 100 subsidiaries all over the world, selling commercial cleaning equipment as well as cleaning equipment for the private consumer.  Kärcher owns the American brands of Landa, Hotsy, and Shark pressure washers, Cuda parts washers, Watermaze water treatment systems, and Windsor Kärcher Group floor cleaning systems, and Italian manufacturing company Hawk Pumps, or Woma Pumps in Germany. They are the primary supplier of cleaning systems to both NATO and the US Military.

Common noun.

In some countries such as Germany, France, Poland, Russia, Georgia, Mexico and the United States the term "Kärcher" is colloquially used synonymously with a pressure washer used to clean cars, outdoor equipment etc.  French politician Nicolas Sarkozy once declared that La Courneuve, a "banlieue" outside of Paris where a boy was killed by a stray gunshot, would be "cleaned out with a Kärcher" ("nettoyer la cité au Kärcher") — meaning all criminals and other undesirables should be removed and washed out. This comment was highly controversial, as many French associate the banlieues with immigrants, especially North Africans.  Sarkozy's use of the word led to it becoming a verb: "to Karcher" or "Karcherize". Presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen told residents of Argenteuil, many of them immigrants, "If some want to Karcherize you, to exclude you, we want to help you get out of these ghettos." As a response, Kärcher France sent a letter to all of the candidates in the 2007 presidential election asking them not to use the company's name this way, and has run ads in newspapers disassociating itself from the remarks.

Cultural sponsorship.

Under its cultural sponsorship program, Kärcher has supported more than 90 projects to clean internationally prominent buildings such as the London Eye in London (2013), the Space Needle in Seattle (2008), the Presidents’ heads at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial (2005), the Colossi of Memnon in Luxor (2003), the Colonnades on St Peter’s Square in Rome (1998), the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin (1990) the Statue of Liberty in New York City (1985) and the Statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro (1980). In 2011 it cleaned the Loreley open-air stage and the N Seoul Tower. Kärcher is also a partner of SOS Children’s Villages and a member of the UN Global Compact network.  Kärcher is the official cleaning equipment supplier to the 2016 Summer Olympics and the Sochi 2014 winter Olympic Games.

Alfred Kärcher SE & Co. KG is a German family-owned company that operates worldwide and is known for its high-pressure cleaners, floor care equipment, parts cleaning systems, wash water treatment, military decontamination equipment and window vacuum cleaners.


Taxonomy and systematics.

The bearded reedling was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 10th edition of "Systema Naturae" in 1758. He placed it in the genus "Parus" with the tits. The species has since been placed with the parrotbills in the family Paradoxornithidae, after they were removed from the true tits in the family. More recent research suggests it is a unique songbird – no other living species seems to be particularly closely related to it. The species is now placed in the monotypic family Panuridae. Molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that the bearded reedling is most closely related to the lark family Alaudidae. The current genus name, "Panurus", is from Ancient Greek "panu", "exceedingly", and "ουρά", "tail". The specific "biarmicus" is from "Biarmia", a Latinised form of Bjarmaland, formerly part of what is now the Arkhangelsk Oblast area of Russia.

Description.

This is a small orange-brown bird, L 16.5 cm, with a long tail and an undulating flight. The bill is yellow-orange. The male has a grey head and black moustaches (not a beard); the lower tail coverts are also black. The female is generally paler, with no black moustache. Flocks often betray their presence in a reedbed by their characteristic "ping" call.

Distribution and habitat.

This species is a wetland specialist, breeding colonially in large reed beds by lakes or swamps. It eats reed aphids in summer, and reed seeds in winter, its digestive system changing to cope with the very different seasonal diets.  The bearded reedling is a species of temperate Europe and across the Palearctic. It is resident, and most birds do not migrate other than eruptive or cold weather movements. It is vulnerable to hard winters, which may kill many birds. The English population of about 500 pairs is largely confined to the south and east with a small population in Leighton Moss in north Lancashire. In Ireland there is a small but growing population mainly in County Wexford. The largest single population in Great Britain is to be found in the reedbeds at the mouth of the River Tay in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, where there may be in excess of 250 pairs.

The bearded reedling ("Panurus biarmicus") is a small, sexually dimorphic reed-bed passerine bird. It is frequently known as the bearded tit, due to some similarities to the long-tailed tit, or the bearded parrotbill. It is the only species in the family Panuridae.


Plot.

United States Under Secretary of Defense Michael Bergstrom commits suicide after being informed that he has tested positive for HIV.  Angela Bennett is a systems analyst in Venice, California who telecommutes to Cathedral Software in San Francisco. Her interpersonal relationships are almost completely online and on the phone, with the exception of forgettable interactions with her neighbors and visits to her mother, who is institutionalized with Alzheimer's disease and often forgets who Bennett is. Bennett's co-worker Dale sends her a floppy disk with a backdoor labeled "π" that permits access to a commonly used computer security system called "Gatekeeper" sold by Gregg Microsystems, a software company led by CEO Jeff Gregg. Dale and Bennett agree to meet, but the navigation system in Dale's private aircraft malfunctions and it crashes into a tower, killing him.  Bennett travels to Cozumel, on vacation, where she meets Jack Devlin. After seducing Bennett, Devlin pays a mugger to steal her purse as they walk along the beach. He chases the mugger into the foliage, catches the mugger, and roots through the purse to find the disk before shooting the mugger. He takes Bennett out on his speedboat to kill her as well, but she finds his gun and confronts him. While fleeing with the disk and Devlin's wallet, Bennett's dinghy collides with rocks, destroying the disk and hospitalizing her. She is unconscious for three days.  When Bennett wakes up, she finds that all records of her life have been deleted: She was checked out of her hotel room in Cozumel, her car is no longer at the airport parking lot, and her credit cards are invalid. Bennett's home is now empty and listed for sale. Moreover, because none of the neighbors remember her, they cannot confirm her identity. Bennett's Social Security number is now assigned to a "Ruth Marx," for whom Devlin has entered an arrest record by hacking the police computer system. When Bennett calls her own desk at Cathedral Software, an impostor answers and offers Bennett her old life back in exchange for the disk. She contacts the only other person who knows her by sight, psychiatrist and former lover Alan Champion. He checks her into a hotel, offers to contact a friend at the FBI, and arranges to have her mother moved for her safety.  Using her knowledge of the backdoor and a password found in Devlin's wallet, Bennett logs into the Bethesda Naval Hospital's computers and learns that Under Secretary of Defense Bergstrom, who had opposed Gatekeeper's use by the federal government, was misdiagnosed. Fellow hacker "Cyberbob" connects π with the "Praetorians," a notorious group of cyberterrorists linked to recent computer failures around the country. Bennett and Cyberbob plan to meet, but the Praetorians intercept their online chat. Bennett escapes from Devlin—a contract killer for the cyberterrorists, but the Praetorians kill Champion by tampering with pharmacy and hospital computer records. After Bennett is arrested by the California Highway Patrol, a man identifying himself as Champion's FBI friend frees her from jail. She realises he is an impostor and escapes again.  Now wanted for murder and thought to be Ruth Marx, Bennett hitchhikes to Cathedral's office where, using her impostor's computer, she connects the cyberterrorists to Gregg Microsystems and uncovers their scheme: once the Praetorians sabotage an organization's computer system, Gregg sells Gatekeeper to it and gains unlimited access through the backdoor. Bennett emails evidence of the backdoor and Gregg's involvement with the Praetorians to the FBI from the Moscone Center and tricks Devlin into releasing a virus into Gregg's mainframe, destroying Gatekeeper and undoing the erasing of her identity. During a battle on the catwalks of the convention center, in which Devlin accidentally kills the Bennett impostor from Cathedral Software (the real Ruth Marx), Bennett ambushes Devlin with a fire extinguisher, causing him to fall to his death. Bennett regains her identity, home, and life. She then reunites with her mother, and the conspiracy is exposed, with Jeff Gregg being arrested by the FBI.

Production.

In October 1994, Bullock committed to filming "The Net" from mid-January through April 10, 1995. "The Net" was filmed in San Francisco's Moscone Center and Macworld on January 5, 1995, as well as at Washington, D.C. locations in April 1995.

Reception.

Box office.

With an estimated budget of $22 million and a release date of, "The Net" earned $50,727,965 in domestic box office. Including foreign markets, the film grossed $110,627,965 worldwide, with an additional $23,771,600 in United States rentals.

Critical Reception.

Based on 48 reviews, it has an average score of 5.1 out of 10 on Rotten Tomatoes with 40% of critics giving positive reviews. Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars. Owen Gleiberman, writing for "Entertainment Weekly", complimented Sandra Bullock's performance, saying "Bullock pulls you into the movie. Her overripe smile and clear, imploring eyes are sometimes evocative of Julia Roberts". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Sequel and spin-off tv series.

A sequel named "The Net 2.0", starring Nikki DeLoach as Hope Cassidy and directed by Charles Winkler, son of Irwin Winkler, was announced in February 2005. It was released direct-to-video in 2006, and was about a young systems analyst who arrives in Istanbul for her new job to find that her identity has been stolen.  The film spawned an American spinoff TV series starring Brooke Langton as Angela Bennett.

The Net is a 1995 American action thriller film directed by Irwin Winkler and starring Sandra Bullock, Jeremy Northam and Dennis Miller. The film was released on 28 July 1995.


Origins.

The 26th of July Movement's name originated from the failed attack on the Moncada Barracks, an army facility in the city of Santiago de Cuba, on 26 July 1953. This attack was led by a young Fidel Castro, who was a legislative candidate in a free election that had been cancelled by Batista. The attack had been intended as a rallying cry for the revolution. Castro was captured and sentenced to 15 years in prison but, along with his group, was granted an amnesty after two years following a political campaign on their behalf. Castro traveled to Mexico to reorganize the movement in 1955 with several other exiled revolutionaries (including Raúl Castro, Camilo Cienfuegos, and Juan Almeida Bosque). Their task was to form a disciplined guerrilla force to overthrow Batista.  The original core of the group was organized around the attack on the Moncada Barracks merged with the National Revolutionary Movement led and Rafael García Bárcenas and with a majority of the Orthodox Youth. Soon after, National Revolutionary Action led by Frank País would join. Because of the commonality in their ideology and their goal of wanting to topple the Batista regime, the M-26-7 would quickly add more young people from diverse political backgrounds.

Role in the Cuban Revolution.

On 2 December 1956, 82 men landed in Cuba, having sailed in the boat "Granma" from Tuxpan, Veracruz, ready to organize and lead a revolution. The early signs were not good for the movement. They landed in daylight, were attacked by the Cuban Air Force, and suffered numerous casualties. The landing party was split into two and wandered lost for two days, most of their supplies abandoned where they landed. They were also betrayed by their peasant guide in an ambush, which killed more of those who had landed. Batista mistakenly announced Fidel Castro's death at this point. Of the 82 who sailed aboard the "Granma," only 12 eventually regrouped in the Sierra Maestra mountain range. While the revolutionaries were setting up camp in the mountains, "Civic Resistance" groups were formulating in the cities, putting pressure on the Batista regime. Many middle-class and professional persons flocked toward Castro and his movement. While in the Sierra Maestra mountains the guerrilla forces attracted hundreds of Cuban volunteers and won several battles against the Cuban Army. Ernesto 'Che' Guevara was shot in the neck and chest during the fighting, but was not severely injured. (Guevara, who had studied medicine, continued to give first aid to other wounded guerrillas.) This was the opening phase of the war of the Cuban Revolution, which continued for the next two years. It ended in January 1959, after Batista fled Cuba for Dominican Republic, on New Year's Eve when the Movement's forces marched into Havana.

Political and Military Action.

The guerrillas increased their ranks to 400 men in February 1958. In comparison, the forces of Batista reached 50,000 men, but only 10,000 were able to be used at once to confront the guerrillas. Batista launched an offensive of 10,000 with air and land support to encircle and destroy the guerrillas hidden in the Sierra between April and August 1958, this campaign ended in a decisive failure for the development of the conflict. Finally, after two years of war, the rebels defeated the Batista forces, causing them to flee to the Dominican Republic and take power January 1, 1959. At that time they added around 20,000 to 30,000 guerrillas and the war had cost the lives of between 1,000 and 2,500 people.

Post-1959.

After the takeover, anti-Batistas, liberals, urban workers, peasants, and idealists became the dominant followers of the M-26-7 movement, which gained control over Cuba. The Movement was joined with other bodies to form the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution, which in turn became the Communist Party of Cuba in 1965. Cuba modeled itself after the Eastern European nations that made up the Warsaw Pact, becoming the first socialistic government in the Americas. Once it was learned that Cuba would adopt a strict Marxist–Leninist political and economic system, opposition was raised not only by dissident party members, but by the United States as well. Fidel Castro's government seized private land, nationalized hundreds of private companies—including several local subsidiaries of U.S. corporations—and taxed American products so heavily that U.S. exports were cut half in just two years. The Eisenhower Administration then imposed trade restrictions on everything except food and medical supplies. As a result, Cuba turned to the Soviet Union for trade instead. The US responded by cutting all diplomatic ties to Cuba, and have had a rocky relationship ever since. In April 1961, a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles and dissidents launched the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs Invasion against Cuba, shortly after Castro had declared the revolution socialist. After the invasion, Castro formally proclaimed himself a communist.  The flag of the 26th of July Movement is on the shoulder of the Cuban military uniform, and continues to be used as a symbol of the Cuban revolution.

The 26th of July Movement (; M-26-7) was a Cuban vanguard revolutionary organization and later a political party led by Fidel Castro. The movement's name commemorates its 26th July 1953 attack on the army barracks on Santiago de Cuba in an attempt to start the overthrowing of the dictator Fulgencio Batista. Fidel Castro's left-wing nationalist ideology was founded in the liberal ideas of José Martí.


History.

Cuba had a number of communist and anarchist organizations from the early period of the Republic (founded in 1902). The original "internationalised" Communist Party of Cuba formed in the 1920s. In 1944, it renamed itself as the Popular Socialist Party for electoral reasons. In July 1961, two years after the successful overthrow of Fulgencio Batista and the creation of a revolutionary government, the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (ORI) was formed from the merger of:  On 26 March 1962, the ORI became the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution (PURSC), which in turn became the Communist Party of Cuba on 3 October 1965. In Article 5 of the Cuban constitution of 1976, the Communist Party is recognized as "the superior guiding force of society and of the State, that organizes and orients common efforts toward the high goals of the construction of socialism and the advancement toward communist society". All parties, including the Communist Party, are prohibited from publicly advertizing their organizations.  For the first fifteen years of its formal existence, the Communist Party was almost completely inactive outside of the Politburo. The 100 person Central Committee rarely met and it was ten years after its founding that the first regular party Congress was held. In 1969, membership of the party was only 55,000 or 0.7% of the population, making the PCC the smallest ruling communist party in the world. In the 1970s, the party's apparatus began to develop. By the time of the first party Congress in 1975, the party had grown to just over two hundred thousand members, the Central Committee was meeting regularly and provided the organizational apparatus giving the party the leading role in society that ruling Communist parties generally hold. By 1980, the party had grown to over 430,000 members and it grew further to 520,000 by 1985. Apparatuses of the party had grown to ensure that its leading cadres were appointed to key government positions.

Congresses.

The Communist Party of Cuba held its first party Congress in 1975 and has had additional congresses in 1980, 1986, 1991, 1997 and 2011. The Seventh Congress took place from 19 April to 22 April 2016, around the 55th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, concluding with remarks by Fidel Castro.  The Eighth Congress is scheduled to take place 16 to 19 April 2021.

Central Committee.

"See also: "  The leading bodies of the party were the Politburo and the Secretariat until 1991 when the two bodies were merged into an expanded Politburo with over twenty members. However, the Secretariat was re-introduced in 2002. There is also a Central Committee which meets between party congresses. At the Fifth Congress, the size of the Central Committee was reduced to 150 members from the previous membership of 225. Fidel Castro was the party's First Secretary (or leader) since its inception while Raúl Castro was the Second Secretary. Upon Fidel Castro's 2008 resignation from the party and Cuban government, Raúl Castro became First Secretary.

Politburo.

The 7th Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba was elected by the Central Committee on 19 April 2016 following the 7th Congress.

Secretariat.

The 6th Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba was elected by the Central Committee on 19 April 2011 following the 6th Congress.

Youth.

The Communist Party of Cuba has a youth wing, the Young Communist League ("Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas", UJC) which is a member organization of the World Federation of Democratic Youth. It also has a children's group, the José Martí Pioneer Organization.

Ideology.

Compared with other ruling Communist Parties, such as in Vietnam, China, and Laos, the Communist Party of Cuba retains a stricter adherence to the tradition of Marxism–Leninism and the traditional Soviet model. The party has been more reluctant in engaging in market reforms, though it has been forced to accept some market measures in its economy due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the resultant loss of economic subsidies. The Communist Party of Cuba has favored supporting revolutions abroad and was active in assisting the ELN in Colombia, the FMLN in El Salvador, the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, and Maurice Bishop's New Jewel Movement in Grenada. Their most significant international role was in the civil war in Angola, where there was Cuban direction of a joint Angolan/Soviet/Cuban force that was involved in the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale. This led to the withdrawal of intervening forces and in the following peace agreement the independence of Namibia from South African rule.  The party maintains a policy of sending thousands of Cuban doctors, agricultural technicians, and other professionals to other countries throughout the developing world. More recently, the party has sought to support left-wing leaders such as Hugo Chávez and later Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia.  Raúl Castro is campaigning to "renew" Cuba's socialist economy through incorporating new exchange and distribution systems that have been traditionally seen as "market" oriented. This has led to some speculation that Cuba may transition towards a model more similar to that of China and Vietnam.

The Communist Party of Cuba is the ruling political party in the Republic of Cuba. It is a communist party of the Marxist–Leninist model. The Cuban constitution ascribes the role of the party to be the "leading force of society and of the state". Since April 2011, the First Secretary of the Central Committee has been Raúl Castro, younger brother of the previous First Secretary Fidel Castro, who died on 25 November 2016. The Second Secretary has been José Ramón Machado Ventura.


History.

Giessen came into being as a moated castle in 1152 built by Count Wilhelm von Gleiberg, although the history of the community in the northeast and in today's suburb called "Wieseck" dates back to 775. The town became part of Hesse-Marburg in 1567, passing to Hesse-Darmstadt in 1604. The University of Giessen was founded in 1607. Giessen was included within the Grand Duchy of Hesse created in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. After the First World War, it was part of the People's State of Hesse.  During the Second World War, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp was in the. Heavy bombing destroyed about 75 percent of Gießen in 1944, including most of the town's historic buildings. It became part of the modern state of Hesse after the war.  In 1977, Giessen was merged with the neighbouring city Wetzlar to form the new city of Lahn. However, this attempt to reorganize the administration was reversed in 1979. It was part of the Darmstadt region (regierungsbezirk) between 1945 and 1981, until the Giessen (region) was founded on 1 January 1981.  A U.S. military base was located in Giessen after the Second World War. The U.S. Army Garrison of Gießen had a population of 800 Americans. The base is a converted German Army Air Field which is reflected in some of the buildings including the housing area. A theatre, known as the Keller Theatre, is a converted German Army Officers' Club. As of 28 September 2007, the Giessen Depot and all other U.S. facilities in the greater Giessen area were turned back to local German authorities. The former U.S. Army buildings were used to house refugees after the large intake of 2016.  After the war, the city was twinned with Winchester, UK.

International relations.

Twin towns — sister cities.

Giessen is twinned with:

Sport.

Giessen is home to the basketball club Giessen 46ers, five-time champion of the Basketball Bundesliga. Its home games take place at the Sporthalle Gießen-Ost. Also, Giessen has an American football team called Giessen Golden Dragons.

Religion.

The Catholic Scouts of Europe were founded in Giessen in 1975.

Manisch.

Manisch is a dialect of rotwelsch spoken in and around Giessen by people in lower income neighbourhoods, some of which are known as "Eulenkopf", "Gummiinsel", "Heyerweg" and "Margaretenhütte". Approximately 700–750 residents spoke the dialect fluently as of 1976. Although the dialect still influences the Giessen vernacular, it is nearly extinct in terms of fluent speakers.

Geography.

Climate.

Climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year-round. The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "". (Marine West Coast Climate).

Jan (Alojzy) Matejko (; also known as Jan Mateyko; 24 June 1838 – 1 November 1893) was a Polish painter known for paintings of notable historical Polish political and military events. His works include large oil on canvas paintings like "Rejtan" (1866), "Union of Lublin" (1869) or "Battle of Grunwald" (1878), numerous portraits, a gallery of Polish kings, and murals in St. Mary's Basilica, Kraków. He is referred to as the most famous Polish painter or even the "national painter" of Poland.


History.

The process was invented by Carl Friedrich Claus, a German chemist working in England. A British patent was issued to him in 1883. The process was later significantly modified by IG Farben.

Process description.

A schematic process flow diagram of a basic 2+1-reactor (converter) SuperClaus unit is shown below:  The Claus technology can be divided into two process steps, thermal and catalytic.

Thermal step.

In the thermal step, hydrogen sulfide-laden gas reacts in a substoichiometric combustion at temperatures above 850 °C such that elemental sulfur precipitates in the downstream process gas cooler.  The HS content and the concentration of other combustible components (hydrocarbons or ammonia) determine the location where the feed gas is burned. Claus gases (acid gas) with no further combustible contents apart from HS are burned in lances surrounding a central muffle by the following chemical reaction:  This is a strongly exothermic free-flame total oxidation of hydrogen sulfide generating sulfur dioxide that reacts away in subsequent reactions. The most important one is the Claus reaction:  The overall equation is:  The temperature inside Claus furnace is often maintained above 1050°C. This ensures BTEX (Benzene, Toluene, Ethyl benzene and Xylene) destruction which otherwise would clog downstream Claus catalyst.  Gases containing ammonia, such as the gas from the refinery's sour water stripper (SWS), or hydrocarbons are converted in the burner muffle. Sufficient air is injected into the muffle for the complete combustion of all hydrocarbons and ammonia. The air to the acid gas ratio is controlled such that in total 1/3 of all hydrogen sulfide (HS) is converted to SO. This ensures a stoichiometric reaction for the Claus reaction in the second catalytic step (see next section below).  The separation of the combustion processes ensures an accurate dosage of the required air volume needed as a function of the feed gas composition. To reduce the process gas volume or obtain higher combustion temperatures, the air requirement can also be covered by injecting pure oxygen. Several technologies utilizing high-level and low-level oxygen enrichment are available in industry, which requires the use of a special burner in the reaction furnace for this process option.  Usually, 60 to 70% of the total amount of elemental sulfur produced in the process is obtained in the thermal process step.  The main portion of the hot gas from the combustion chamber flows through the tube of the process gas cooler and is cooled down such that the sulfur formed in the reaction step condenses. The heat given off by the process gas and the condensation heat evolved are utilized to produce medium or low-pressure steam. The condensed sulfur is removed at the liquid outlet section of the process gas cooler.  The sulfur forms in the thermal phase as highly reactive S diradicals which combine exclusively to the S allotrope:

Side reactions.

Other chemical processes taking place in the thermal step of the Claus reaction are:

Catalytic step.

The Claus reaction continues in the catalytic step with activated aluminum(III) or titanium(IV) oxide, and serves to boost the sulfur yield. More hydrogen sulfide (HS) reacts with the SO formed during combustion in the reaction furnace in the Claus reaction, and results in gaseous, elemental sulfur.  One suggested mechanism is that S and S desorb from the catalyst's active sites with simultaneous formation of stable cyclic elemental sulfur.  The catalytic recovery of sulfur consists of three substeps: heating, catalytic reaction and cooling plus condensation. These three steps are normally repeated a maximum of three times. Where an incineration or tail-gas treatment unit (TGTU) is added downstream of the Claus plant, only two catalytic stages are usually installed.  The first process step in the catalytic stage is the gas heating process. It is necessary to prevent sulfur condensation in the catalyst bed, which can lead to catalyst fouling. The required bed operating temperature in the individual catalytic stages is achieved by heating the process gas in a reheater until the desired operating bed temperature is reached.  Several methods of reheating are used in industry:  The typically recommended operating temperature of the first catalyst stage is 315 °C to 330 °C (bottom bed temperature). The high temperature in the first stage also helps to hydrolyze COS and CS, which is formed in the furnace and would not otherwise be converted in the modified Claus process.  The catalytic conversion is maximized at lower temperatures, but care must be taken to ensure that each bed is operated above the dew point of sulfur. The operating temperatures of the subsequent catalytic stages are typically 240 °C for the second stage and 200 °C for the third stage (bottom bed temperatures).  In the sulfur condenser, the process gas coming from the catalytic reactor is cooled to between 150 and 130 °C. The condensation heat is used to generate steam at the shell side of the condenser.  Before storage, liquid sulfur streams from the process gas cooler, the sulfur condensers and from the final sulfur separator are routed to the degassing unit, where the gases (primarily HS) dissolved in the sulfur are removed.  The tail gas from the Claus process still containing combustible components and sulfur compounds (HS, H and CO) is either burned in an incineration unit or further desulfurized in a downstream tail gas treatment unit.

Sub dew point Claus process.

The conventional Claus process described above is limited in its conversion due to the reaction equilibrium being reached. Like all exothermic reactions, greater conversion can be achieved at lower temperatures, however as mentioned the Claus reactor must be operated above the sulfur dew point (120–150 °C) to avoid liquid sulfur physically deactivating the catalyst. To overcome this problem, the sub dew point Clauss reactors are oriented in parallel, with one operating and one spare. When one reactor has become saturated with adsorbed sulfur, the process flow is diverted to the standby reactor. The reactor is then regenerated by sending process gas that has been heated to 300–350 °C to vaporize the sulfur. This stream is sent to a condenser to recover the sulfur.

Process performance.

Over 2.6 tons of steam will be generated for each ton of sulfur yield.  The physical properties of elemental sulfur obtained in the Claus process can differ from that obtained by other processes. Sulfur is usually transported as a liquid (melting point 115 °C). In elementary sulfur viscosity increases rapidly at temperatures in excess of 160 °C due to the formation of polymeric sulfur chains. Another anomaly is found in the solubility of residual HS in liquid sulfur as a function of temperature. Ordinarily the solubility of a gas decreases with increasing temperature but with HS it is the opposite. This means that toxic and explosive HS gas can build up in the headspace of any cooling liquid sulfur reservoir. The explanation for this anomaly is the endothermic reaction of sulfur with HS to polysulfanes HS.

The Claus process is the most significant gas desulfurizing process, recovering elemental sulfur from gaseous hydrogen sulfide. First patented in 1883 by the chemist Carl Friedrich Claus, the Claus process has become the industry standard. C. F. Claus was born in Kassel in the German State of Hessen in 1827, and studied chemistry in Marburg before he emigrated to England in 1852. Claus died in London in the year 1900.


Taxonomy.

The common redpoll was listed in 1758 by Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his "Systema Naturae" under the binomial name "Fringilla flammea". The current genus name "Acanthis" is from the Ancient Greek "akanthis", a name for a small now-unidentifiable bird, and "flammea" is the Latin for "flame-coloured".  The common redpoll was previously placed in the genus "Carduelis". Molecular phylogenetic studies showed that the Arctic and common redpolls formed a distinct lineage, so the two species were grouped together in the resurrected genus "Acanthis".

Subspecies.

The nominate subspecies "A. f. flammea", the mealy redpoll, breeds across the northern parts of North America and the Palearctic. There is also a subspecies that breeds in Iceland called the Icelandic redpoll ("A. f. islandica"), and one that breeds in Greenland and Baffin Island called the Greenland redpoll ("A. f. rostrata"). Many taxonomic authorities consider the lesser redpoll a subspecies of the common redpoll. Together, the Icelandic and Greenland forms are sometimes known as the 'northwestern redpolls'. All the subspecies migrate south into Canada, the northern U.S., or Eurasia. These birds are remarkably resistant to cold temperatures and winter movements are mainly driven by the availability of food. There are two distinct populations (one lighter, one darker) united in "islandica", the relationships of which are unresolved.

Description.

The common redpoll is a small brownish-grey finch with dark streaks and a bright red patch on its forehead. It has a black bib and two pale stripes on the wings. Males often have their breasts suffused with red. It is smaller, browner and more streaked than the generally similar Arctic redpoll, adults measuring between in length and weighing between. The rump is streaked and there is a broad dark brown streak across the vent. It has brown legs, dark-tipped yellowish bills and dark brown irises.

Similar species.

The mealy redpoll is larger and paler than the lesser redpoll with which it often mixes, apparently without significant interbreeding, though sympatry was established too recently to draw firm conclusions. The male mealy redpolls are darker than the similarly sized Arctic redpolls, but the females are almost identical.

Behaviour.

The range of the common redpoll extends through northern Europe and Asia to northern North America, Greenland and Iceland. It is a partial migrant, moving southward in late autumn and northward again in March and April. Its typical habitat is boreal forests of pines, spruces and larches. It feeds mainly on seeds, principally birch and alder seeds in the winter.  The common redpoll builds its nest low down in a tree or bush. The nest has an outer layer of thin twigs, a middle layer of root fibres, fragments of juniper bark and lichens and an inner layer of down, willow buds and reindeer hair. Three to seven speckled eggs are laid and incubated by the female. They hatch after about 11 days and the young fledge in about a further 13 days.

The common redpoll ("Acanthis flammea") is a species of bird in the finch family. It breeds somewhat further south than the Arctic redpoll, also in habitats with thickets or shrubs.


Design and development.

In 1945 Pan American World Airways requested a DC-7, a civil version of the Douglas C-74 Globemaster military transport. Pan Am soon canceled their order. That proposed DC-7 was unrelated to the later airliner.  American Airlines revived the designation when they requested an aircraft that could fly the USA coast-to-coast non-stop in about eight hours. (Civil Air Regulations then limited domestic flight crews to 8 hours' flight time in any 24-hour period.) Douglas was reluctant to build the aircraft until American Airlines president C. R. Smith ordered 25 at a price of $40 million, thus covering Douglas' development costs.  The DC-7 wing was based on that of the DC-4 and DC-6, with the same span; the fuselage was 40 inches longer than the DC-6B. Four eighteen-cylinder Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone Turbo-Compound engines provided power. The prototype flew in May 1953 and American received their first DC-7 in November, inaugurating the first non-stop east-coast-to-west-coast service in the country (unrealistically scheduled just under the eight-hour limit for one crew) and forcing rival TWA to offer a similar service with its Super Constellations. Both aircraft frequently experienced inflight engine failures, causing many flights to be diverted. Some blamed this on the need for high-power settings to meet the notional schedules, causing overheating and failure of the engines' power recovery turbines.  The DC-7 was followed by the DC-7B with slightly more power, and on some DC-7Bs (Pan Am and South African Airways), fuel tanks over the wing in the rear of the engine nacelles, each carrying. South African Airways used this variant to fly Johannesburg to London with one stop. Pan Am's DC-7Bs started flying transatlantic in summer 1955, scheduled 1 hr 45 min faster than the Super Stratocruiser from New York to London or Paris.

Operational history.

Early DC-7s were purchased only by U.S. carriers. European carriers could not take advantage of the small range-increase of the early DC-7, so Douglas released an extended-range variant, the DC-7C (Seven Seas) in 1956. Two wingroot inserts added fuel capacity, reduced interference drag and made the cabin quieter by moving the engines farther outboard; all DC-7Cs had the nacelle fuel tanks previously seen on Pan American's and South African's DC-7Bs. The fuselage, which had been extended over the DC-6Bs with a plug behind the wing for the DC-7 and DC-7B, was lengthened again with a 40-inch plug ahead of the wing to give the DC-7C a total length of.  Since the late 1940s Pan Am and other airlines had scheduled a few non-stop flights from New York to Europe, but westward non-stops against the prevailing wind were rarely possible with an economic payload. The L1049G and DC-7B that appeared in 1955 could occasionally make the westward trip, but in summer 1956 Pan Am's DC-7C finally started doing it fairly reliably. BOAC was forced to respond by purchasing DC-7Cs rather than wait on the delivery of the Bristol Britannia. The DC-7C found its way into several other overseas airlines' fleets, including SAS, which used them on cross-polar flights to North America and Asia. The DC-7C sold better than its rival, the Lockheed L-1649A Starliner, which entered service a year later, but sales were cut short by the arrival of Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 jets in 1958–60.  Starting in 1959 Douglas began converting DC-7s and DC-7Cs into DC-7F freighters to extend their useful lives. The airframes were fitted with large forward and rear freight doors and some cabin windows were removed.  The predecessor DC-6, especially the DC-6B, established a reputation for straightforward engineering and reliability. Pratt & Whitney, manufacturer of the DC-6s Double Wasp engines, did not offer an effective larger engine apart from the Wasp Major, which had a reputation for poor reliability. Douglas turned to Wright Aeronautical for a more powerful engine. The Duplex-Cyclone had reliability issues of its own, and this affected the DC-7's service record. Carriers who had both DC-6s and DC-7s in their fleets usually replaced the newer DC-7s first once jets started to arrive. Some airlines retired their DC-7s after little more than five years of service, whereas most DC-6s lasted longer and sold more readily on the secondhand market.  Basic price of a new DC-7 was around £570,000 ($823,308).  Price of a DC-7B was around £680,000 ($982,226) in 1955, rising to £820,000 ($1,184,490) in 1957.  Similarly, the price of a DC-7C was £800,000 ($1,155,560) in 1956, increasing to £930,000 ($1,343,385) by 1958.  Cost of the DC-7F "Speedfreighter" conversion was around £115,000 ($166,112) per aircraft.

Operators.

Airlines.

DC-7s were used by Alitalia, American Airlines, BOAC, Braniff Airways, Caledonian Airways, Delta Air Lines, Eastern Air Lines, Flying Tigers, Japan Airlines, KLM, Mexicana de Aviacion, National Airlines, Northwest Orient, Panair do Brasil, Pan American World Airways, Riddle Airlines, Sabena, SAS, South African Airways, Swissair, Turkish Airlines, Transports Aériens Intercontinentaux, and United Airlines.  Seventeen DC-7s remained on the U.S. registry in 2010, used mainly for cargo and as aerial firefighting airtankers. Due to its engine problems, the DC-7 has not had the same longevity as the DC-6, which is still used by a number of commercial operators.

Accidents and incidents.

The Douglas DC-7 suffered 79 incidents and accidents with a total of 714 fatalities.

Surviving aircraft.

Few DC-7s are in operation today. A small number survive as freighters while others are used for firebombing. One is on display at Epic Flight Academy in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.  A DC-7 tail number C-0921 (nicknamed "Charlie 21") was installed at Iliff Preschool in Denver in 1971 and is still serving as a kindergarten classroom.

The Douglas DC-7 is a transport aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1953 to 1958. It was the last major piston engine-powered transport made by Douglas, being developed shortly after the earliest jet airliner—the de Havilland Comet—entered service and only a few years before the jet-powered Douglas DC-8 first flew. Like other aircraft in Douglas's collection of propeller-driven aircraft, examples remain in service in the present day, albeit in significantly lower numbers than the far more successful DC-3 and DC-6.


Background.

Eirik was the eldest surviving son of King Magnus the Lawmender of Norway, and his wife Ingeborg Eriksdatter, daughter of King Eric IV of Denmark. In 1273, when he was 5 years old, he was given the title of king, alongside his father, who planned to hold a coronation for Eirik as his subordinate co-ruler in the summer of 1280. However, King Magnus died before this could be arranged, and Eirik became sole king and was crowned as such in Bergen in the summer of 1280. During his minority, the kingdom was ruled by a royal council consisting of prominent barons and probably also his mother, the dowager queen Ingeborg. After Eirik came of age in 1282, this royal council is still thought to have had a major influence over his reign. His brother, Haakon, was in 1273 given the title "Duke of Norway", and from 1280 ruled a large area around Oslo in Eastern Norway and Stavanger in the southwest, subordinate to King Eirik. The king's main residence was in Bergen in Western Norway.  Eirik married princess Margaret of Scotland, daughter of King Alexander III of Scotland in Bergen in 1281. Margaret died two years later in childbirth, giving birth to Margaret, Maid of Norway, who became queen of Scotland in 1286 until her death in 1290. Her death sparked the disputed succession which led to the Wars of Scottish Independence. Eirik briefly and unsuccessfully laid claim to the Scottish crown as inheritance from his daughter.  Eirik later married Isabel Bruce, sister of King Robert I of Scotland. Their marriage did not produce a surviving male heir, though it did produce a daughter, Ingeborg Eriksdottir of Norway, who married Valdemar Magnusson of Sweden, Duke of Finland, in 1312. Ingeborg Eriksdotter was styled Duchess of Öland.

Reign.

A prominent feature of Eirik's reign was the war with Denmark, called the War of the Outlaws (De fredløses krig), which was waged on and off from 1287 until 1295. A major motivation for this warfare was Eirik's claim on his mother's Danish inheritance. In 1287, he also entered into an alliance with a group of Danish nobles, most prominently Jacob Nielsen, Count of Halland and Stig Andersen Hvide, who were outlawed in Denmark for allegedly murdering the Danish king Eric V. Eirik gave the outlaws sanctuary in Norway in 1287. King Eirik himself led a large Norwegian fleet which, along with the Danish outlaws, attacked Denmark in 1289, burning Elsinore and threatening Copenhagen. Renewed naval attacks on Denmark were made in 1290 and 1293, before peace was made in 1295.  Eirik received the nickname "Priest Hater" from his unsuccessful relations with the church.  As Eirik died without sons, he was succeeded by his brother, as Haakon V of Norway. He was buried in the old cathedral of Bergen, which was demolished in 1531. Its site is marked by a memorial, in present-day Bergenhus Fortress.

Eric Magnusson (1268 – 15 July 1299) (Old Norse: "Eiríkr Magnússon"; Norwegian: "Eirik Magnusson") was the King of Norway from 1280 until 1299.


History.

The Polyus spacecraft was launched 15 May 1987 from Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 250 as part of the first flight of the Energia system, but failed to reach orbit.  According to Yuri Kornilov, Chief Designer of the Salyut Design Bureau, shortly before Polyus' launch, Mikhail Gorbachev visited the Baikonur Cosmodrome and expressly forbade the in-orbit testing of its capabilities. Kornilov claims that Gorbachev was worried that it would be possible for Western governments to view this activity as an attempt to create a weapon in space and that such an attempt would contradict the country's previous statements on the USSR's peaceful intent.  For technical reasons, the payload was launched upside down. It was designed to separate from the Energia, rotate 180 degrees in yaw, then 90 degrees in roll and then fire its engine to complete its boost to orbit. The Energia functioned perfectly. However, after separation from Energia, the Polyus spun a full 360 degrees instead of the planned 180 degrees. When the engine fired, it slowed and burned up in the atmosphere over the south Pacific Ocean. This failure was attributed to a faulty inertial guidance system that had not been rigorously tested due to the rushed production schedule.  Parts of the Polyus project's hardware were re-used in Kvant-2, Kristall, Spektr and Priroda Mir modules, as well as in the ISS module Zarya.

Development.

NPO "Energia" received orders from the Soviet government to begin research on space-based strike weapons in the mid-1970s. Even before, the USSR had been developing maneuverable satellites for the purpose of satellite interception. By the beginning of the 1980s, "Energia" had proposed two programs: laser-equipped "Skif" and guided missiles platform "Kaskad" (where "Skif" would cover the low-orbit targets, "Kaskad" engaged targets in high and geosynchronous orbits). Together with NPO "Astrofizika" and KB "Salyut", they began developing their orbital weapons platform based on the Salyut DOS-17K frame.  Later, when the objective of ICBM interception proved too difficult, the aims of the project were shifted towards anti-satellite weapons. The 1983 announcement by the US of their SDI program prompted further political and financial support for the satellite interceptor program. In the nuclear exchange scenario, the interceptors would destroy the SDI satellites, followed by a so-called "pre-emptive retaliation" large-scale Soviet ICBM launch.  The laser chosen for the "Skif" spacecraft was the 1-megawatt carbon dioxide laser, developed for the Beriev A-60 aircraft (an Il-76 flying laboratory with a combat laser). The introduction of the "Energia", capable of launching about 95 tonnes into orbit, finally allowed the spacecraft to accommodate the massive laser. The massive exhaust of the carbon-dioxide laser precipitated the objective of making the laser "recoil-less". The "zero-torque exhaust system" (SBM) was developed to that end. Its testing in orbit meant the release of a large cloud of carbon dioxide, which would hint at the satellite's purpose. Instead, the xenon-krypton mix would be used to simultaneously test the SBM and perform an innocent experiment on Earth's ionosphere.  In 1985, the decision was made to test-launch the new "Energia" launch vehicle, which was still in the testbed phase. A 100-ton dummy payload was initially considered for the launch, but in a series of last-minute changes, it was decided that the almost-completed "Skif" spacecraft would be launched instead for a 30-day mission.  The development of the real "Skif" was completed in just one year, from September 1985 to September 1986. Testing and tweaking the "Energia" launch vehicle, the launch pad and the "Skif" itself moved the launch to February, and later to May 1987. According to Boris Gubanov, the head designer of the "Energia" launch vehicle, the work schedule of the preceding years was exhausting, and at the point of Mikhail Gorbachev's visit on 11 May, he asked the Soviet premier to clear the launch now, because "there will be heart attacks".  The catastrophic malfunction that led to "Skif" entering the atmosphere in the same area as "Energia's" second stage was successfully investigated. It was found that 568 seconds after launch, the timing control device gave the logical block a command to discard the side modules' covers and laser exhaust covers. Unknowingly, the same command was earlier used to open the solar panels and disengage the maneuvering thrusters. This wasn't discovered because of the logistics of the testing process and overall haste. Main thrusters engaged while the "Skif" kept turning, overshooting the intended 180-degree turn. The spacecraft lost speed and reverted to the ballistic trajectory.

The Polyus spacecraft (, "pole"), also known as Polus, Skif-DM, GRAU index 17F19DM, was a prototype orbital weapons platform designed to destroy Strategic Defense Initiative satellites with a megawatt carbon-dioxide laser. It had a Functional Cargo Block derived from a TKS spacecraft to control its orbit and it could launch test targets to demonstrate the fire control system.


Biography.

Early life.

Scola was born in Malgrate, Milan, to Carlo Scola, a truck driver, and Regina Colombo. He was the younger of two sons; Pietro, his elder brother, died in 1983. He attended high school at the Manzoni Lyceum in Lecco, where he participated in the youth movement "Gioventù Studentesca" (Student Youth).  He studied philosophy at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart from 1964 to 1967, obtaining his doctorate with a dissertation on Christian philosophy. During this time served as vice-president and thereafter President of the Milanese diocesan chapter of the "Federazione Universitaria Cattolica Italiana", the university student wing of Catholic Action.  At the university Scola met Luigi Giussani, the founder of the Catholic movement Communion and Liberation. After earning his degree in philosophy and teaching in high schools, Scola entered the Archiepiscopal seminary of Milan, studying one year in Saronno and the others in Venegono. In 1969 Scola was denied permission to be ordained subdeacon a year early. Following the advice of Luigi Giussani, in summer 1969 Scola moved to the seminary of the Diocese of Teramo-Atri where he studied one year. On 18 July 1970 Scola was ordained to the priesthood in Teramo by Bishop Abele Conigli.  He earned a second doctorate in theology from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He wrote his dissertation on St. Thomas Aquinas. An active collaborator in the Communion and Liberation movement from the early 1970s, Scola was the Italian editor of the journal "Communio" founded by Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI). He conducted book-length interviews with de Lubac and von Balthasar.  After studying in Munich and Paris and doing pastoral work, Scola returned to Fribourg to work as research assistant to the chair of political philosophy from 1979 and then Assistant Professor of Fundamental Moral Theology until 1982 when he was appointed Professor of Theological Anthropology at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family and Professor of Contemporary Christology at the Pontifical Lateran University.  He founded the Studium Generale Marcianum, an academic institute, and the journal "Oasis", published in Italian, English, French, Arabic and Urdu as an outreach to Christians in the Muslim world.  From 1986 to 1991 Scola served as consultor to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. At the various institutes where he taught he promoted the establishment of bursaries to enable foreign students, particularly those from poorer countries, to study in Italy.

Bishop of Grosseto.

Scola was named Bishop of Grosseto on 18 July 1991, and was consecrated by Cardinal Bernardin Gantin (with Bishops Abele Conigli and Adelmo Tacconi serving as co-consecrators) on the following 21 September. As Bishop of Grosseto he promoted a renewal of catechesis in the diocese. Scola chose as his episcopal motto "Sufficit gratia tua" ("Your grace suffices", 2 Corinthians 12:9).  Among Scola's chief pastoral concerns in Grosseto were the education of children and youths, vocations and clergy formation (he reopened the diocesan seminary), new approaches to parish life, the pastoral care of labourers (particularly during the difficult period of the dismantling of mines in Grosseto), culture and the family, and the opening of a diocesan mission in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. During this period he wrote and published a book aimed at young people on the subject of the educative mission of the Church. In his pastoral capacity as bishop, Scola paid particular attention to the issues of education, youth, clergy formation, renewal of parish life, pastoral care of workers, culture and the family.

Rector of Lateran University and offices in Roman Curia.

Scola in 1995 resigned as bishop of Grosseto to serve as rector of the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome and President of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Rome, with a term spent as visiting professor at the counterpart Institute in Washington, D.C., during which time he wrote a monograph on the theology of von Balthasar.  In 1995 he became a member of the Congregation for the Clergy. He also served as member of the Episcopal Commission for Catholic Education of the Italian Bishops' Conference and, from 1996, as president of the Committee for Institutes of Religious Studies which addresses questions of the theological formation of the laity in Italy.  From 1996 to 2001 Scola was a member of the Pontifical Council for Health Workers and wrote several texts on issues around health care. In 1996 he was named a member to the Pontifical Council for the Family.  On 17 January 2009 he was appointed a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture by Pope Benedict. On 5 January 2011 he was appointed among the first members of the newly created Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation. He is also a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship.

Patriarch of Venice.

Scola was appointed Patriarch of Venice on 5 January 2002, elected President of the Bishops' Conference of the Triveneta region on 9 April 2002 and created Cardinal-Priest of Santi XII Apostoli on 21 October 2003. As Patriarch Scola developed a reputation of openness and pastoral concern. In Venice, for instance, he set aside Wednesday mornings to meet anyone who wanted to see him, whether or not they had an appointment.  After the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005, Scola was considered to be among the "papabili" in the 2005 papal conclave that elected Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI.

Archbishop of Milan.

On 28 June 2011 he was appointed to replace Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi as Archbishop of Milan. On 9 September 2011 he took possession of the Archdiocese of Milan by proxy. Scola received from Pope Benedict XVI the pallium of Metropolitan Archbishop of Milan on 21 September 2011 at Castel Gandolfo. On 25 September 2011 he was enthroned in Milan.  On 7 March 2012 he was appointed a member of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches. On 21 April he was appointed a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  Scola knows Italian (as well as Lecchese dialect), English, German, French and a little Spanish.  In 2013, Scola again was a leading candidate to be elected pope—and the press service of the Italian Bishops' Conference mistakenly announced Scola's election—in the conclave that elected Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, Pope Francis.  Pope Francis accepted Scola's resignation on 7 July 2017 and appointed Bishop Mario Delpini as his successor. In retirement, Scola plans to live in Imberido, a village near Lake Annone. In 2018 Scola expressed his opposition to communion for the divorced and civilly remarried unless they live in complete continence, the possibility of which has been the focus of controversy surrounding Pope Francis's apostolic exhortation "Amoris laetitia". Scola said withholding Communion is "not a punishment that can be taken away or reduced, but is inherent in the very character of Christian marriage".

Works.

Scola is the author of numerous theological and pedagogical works on topics such as bio-medical ethics, theological anthropology, human sexuality and marriage and the family, which have been translated into several languages. In addition, he is the author of more than 120 articles published in scholarly journals of philosophy and theology.

Angelo Scola (; born 7 November 1941) is an Italian Cardinal of the Catholic Church, philosopher and theologian. He was Archbishop of Milan from 2011 to 2017. He had served as Patriarch of Venice from 2002 to 2011. He has been a cardinal since 2003 and a bishop since 1991.