Background.

Many details concerning the life of Camões remain unknown, but he is thought to have been born around 1524. Luís Vaz de Camões was the only child of Simão Vaz de Camões and wife Ana de Sá de Macedo. His birthplace is disputed. Lisbon the capital where he died, Coimbra where he studied or Alenquer that is frequently presented as his birthplace, based on interpretation of Lusiadas, that mentioned Alenquer several times, and the biographical poem (157) below.  “No mundo poucos anos, e cansados, vivi, cheios de vil miséria dura; foi-me tão cedo a luz do dia escura, que não vi cinco lustros acabados. Corri terras e mares apartados buscando à vida algum remédio ou cura; mas aquilo que, enfim, não quer ventura, não o alcançam trabalhos arriscados. Criou-me Portugal na verde e cara pátria minha Alenquer; mas ar corruto que neste meu terreno vaso tinha, me fez manjar de peixes em ti, bruto mar, que bates na Abássia fera e avara, tão longe da ditosa pátria minha!”,  the translation says  “In this world only some few years I lived, and tired, full of vile and hash misery; a dark Light came to me (soul) so early when I didn't even had yet 25 years old. I ran apart lands and seas seeking some medicine or cure for this in life; but what, finally, didn’t got any luck, And risky jobs did not help reach any luck.  Portugal created me in the green and dear homeland of my Alenquer; but the corruption, air that I had in this vase land, it made me now eat fish in you, rough sea, which strikes wild and mean on the Abassia, so far from my blessed homeland!“  Even with this biographic poem stating that is homeland is Alenquer, there ate still interests disputing is birth place. His mother Ana de Sá was also from Alenquer and also related do the famous humanist Damião de Gois, also from Alenquer.  Constância has a museum about him where he was a period in jail, due to that they buit statue of him can be found in the town, but it’s not said in the Constância that it was his homeland.  The Camões family was originally Galician, that passed to the northern Portuguese region of Chaves near Galicia. At an early age, his father Simão Vaz left his family to pursue personal riches in India, only to die in Goa in the following years. His mother was later remarried. His mother was from Alenquer, daughter of Jorge de Macedo, and sister in law of Rui Dias de Gois from Alenquer. Camões lived a semi-privileged life and was educated by Dominicans and Jesuits. For a period, due to his familial relations he attended the University of Coimbra, although records do not show him registered (he participated in courses in the Humanities). His uncle, Bento de Camões, is credited with this education, owing to his position as Prior at the Monastery of Santa Cruz and Chancellor at the University of Coimbra.  He frequently had access to exclusive literature, including classical Greek, Roman and Latin works; he read Latin and Italian, and wrote poetry in Spanish. Camões, as his love of poetry can attest, was a romantic and idealist. It was rumored that he fell in love with Catherine of Ataíde, lady-in-waiting to the Queen, and also Princess Maria, sister of John III of Portugal. It is also likely that an indiscreet allusion to the king in his play "El-Rei Seleuco", as well as these other incidents, may have played a part in his exile from Lisbon in 1548. He traveled to the Ribatejo where he stayed in the company of friends who sheltered and fed him. He stayed in the province for about six months.  He enlisted in the overseas militia, and traveled to Ceuta in the fall of 1549. During a battle with the Moors, he lost the sight in his right eye. He returned to Lisbon in 1551, a changed man, living a bohemian lifestyle. In 1552, during the religious festival of Corpus Christi, in the Largo do Rossio, he injured Gonçalo Borges, a member of the Royal Stables. Camões was imprisoned. His mother pleaded for his release, visiting royal ministers and the Borges family for a pardon. Released, Camões was ordered to pay 4,000 réis and serve three years in the militia in the Orient.  He departed in 1553 for Goa on board the "São Bento", commanded by Fernão Alves Cabral. The ship arrived six months later. In Goa, Camões was imprisoned for debt. He found Goa "a stepmother to all honest men", and he studied local customs and mastered the local geography and history. On his first expedition, he joined a battle along the Malabar Coast. The battle was followed by skirmishes along the trading routes between Egypt and India. The fleet eventually returned to Goa by November 1554. During his time ashore, he continued his writing publicly, as well as writing correspondence for the uneducated men of the fleet.  At the end of his obligatory service, he was given the position of chief warrant officer in Macau. He was charged with managing the properties of missing and deceased soldiers in the Orient. During this time he worked on his epic poem "Os Lusíadas" ("The Lusiads") in a grotto. He was later accused of misappropriations and traveled to Goa to respond to the accusations of the tribunal. During his return journey, near the Mekong River along the Cambodian coast, he was shipwrecked, saving his manuscript but losing his Chinese lover, Dinamene. His shipwreck survival in the Mekong Delta was enhanced by the legendary detail that he succeeded in swimming ashore while holding aloft the manuscript of his still-unfinished epic.  In 1570 Camões finally made it back to Lisbon, where two years later he published "Os Lusíadas", for which he was considered one of the most prominent Iberian poets at the time. In recompense for this poem or perhaps for services in the Far East, he was granted a small royal pension (15000 réis) by the young and ill-fated King Sebastian (ruled 1557–1578).  In 1578 he heard of the appalling defeat of the Battle of Alcácer Quibir, where King Sebastian was killed and the Portuguese army destroyed. The Castilian troops were approaching Lisbon when Camões wrote to the Captain General of Lamego: "All will see that so dear to me was my country that I was content to die not only in it but with it". Camões died in Lisbon in 1580, at the age of 56. The day of his death, 10 June OS, is Portugal's national day. He is entombed in the Santa Maria church, part of the Jerónimos Monastery complex, near Vasco da Gama, in the parish of Belém in Lisbon.

Bibliography.

Works by Camões

Luís Vaz de Camões (; sometimes rendered in English as Camoens or Camoëns, e.g. by Byron in "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers", ; c. 1524 or 1525 – ) is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespeare, Vondel, Homer, Virgil and Dante. He wrote a considerable amount of lyrical poetry and drama but is best remembered for his epic work "Os Lusíadas" ("The Lusiads"). His collection of poetry "The Parnasum of Luís de Camões" was lost in his lifetime. The influence of his masterpiece "Os Lusíadas" is so profound that Portuguese is sometimes called the "language of Camões".


Explanation.

Consider the stroboscope as used in mechanical analysis. This may be a "strobe light" that is fired at an adjustable rate. For example, an object is rotating at 60 revolutions per second: if it is viewed with a series of short flashes at 60 times per second, each flash illuminates the object at the same position in its rotational cycle, so it appears that the object is stationary. Furthermore, at a frequency of 60 flashes per second, persistence of vision smooths out the sequence of flashes so that the perceived image is continuous.  If the same rotating object is viewed at 61 flashes per second, each flash will illuminate it at a slightly earlier part of its rotational cycle. Sixty-one flashes will occur before the object is seen in the same position again, and the series of images will be perceived as if it is rotating backwards once per second.  The same effect occurs if the object is viewed at 59 flashes per second, except that each flash illuminates it a little later in its rotational cycle and so, the object will seem to be rotating forwards.  The same could be applied at other frequencies like the 50 Hz characteristic of electric distribution grids of most of countries in the world.  In the case of motion pictures, action is captured as a rapid series of still images and the same stroboscopic effect can occur.

Audio conversion from light patterns.

The stroboscopic effect also plays a role in audio playback. Compact discs rely on strobing reflections of the laser from the surface of the disc in order to be processed (it is also used for computer data). DVDs and Blu-ray Discs have similar functions.  The stroboscopic effect also plays a role for laser microphones.

Wagon-wheel effect.

Motion-picture cameras conventionally film at 24 frames per second. Although the wheels of a vehicle are not likely to be turning at 24 revolutions per second (as that would be extremely fast), suppose each wheel has 12 spokes and rotates at only two revolutions per second. Filmed at 24 frames per second, the spokes in each frame will appear in exactly the same position. Hence, the wheel will be perceived to be stationary. In fact, each photographically captured spoke in any one position will be a different actual spoke in each successive frame, but since the spokes are close to identical in shape and color, no difference will be perceived. Thus, as long as the number of times the wheel rotates per second is factor of 24 and 12, the wheel will appear to be stationary.  If the wheel rotates a little more slowly than two revolutions per second, the position of the spokes is seen to fall a little further behind in each successive frame and therefore, the wheel will seem to be turning backwards.

Unwanted effects in common lighting.

Stroboscopic effect is one of the particular temporal light artefacts. In common lighting applications, stroboscopic effect is an unwanted effect which may become visible if a person is looking at a moving or rotating object which is illuminated by a time-modulated light source. The temporal light modulation may come from fluctuations of the light source itself or may be due to the application of certain dimming or light level regulation technologies. Another cause of light modulations is the incompatibility of a lamp with an external dimmer.

Dangers in workplaces.

Stroboscopic effect may lead to unsafe situations in workplaces with fast moving or rotating machinery. If the frequency of fast rotating machinery or moving parts coincides with the frequency, or multiples of the frequency, of the light modulation, the machinery can appear to be stationary, or to move with another speed, potentially leading to hazardous situations.  Because of the illusion that the stroboscopic effect can give to moving machinery, it is advised that single-phase lighting is avoided. For example, a factory that is lit from a single-phase supply with basic lighting will have a flicker of 100 or 120 Hz (depending on country, 50 Hz x 2 in Europe, 60 Hz x 2 in US, double the nominal frequency), thus any machinery rotating at multiples of 50 or 60 Hz (3000–3600rpm) may appear to not be turning, increasing the risk of injury to an operator. Solutions include deploying the lighting over a full 3-phase supply, or by using high-frequency controllers that drive the lights at safer frequencies or direct current lighting.

The stroboscopic effect is a visual phenomenon caused by aliasing that occurs when continuous motion is represented by a series of short or instantaneous samples. It occurs when the view of a moving object is represented by a series of short samples as distinct from a continuous view, and the moving object is in rotational or other cyclic motion at a rate close to the sampling rate. It also accounts for the "wagon-wheel effect", so-called because in video, spoked wheels (such as on horse-drawn wagons) sometimes appear to be turning backwards.


Biography.

Born in Paris, he was a contemporary of Jean-Baptiste Lully and François Couperin. Delalande taught music to the daughters of Louis XIV of France, and was director of the French chapel royal from 1714 until his death at Versailles in 1726.  Delalande was arguably the greatest composer of French "grands motets", a type of sacred work that was more pleasing to Louis XIV because of its pomp and grandeur, written for soloists, choir and comparatively large orchestra. According to tradition, Louis XIV organized a contest between composers, giving them the same sacred text and time to compose the musical setting. He alone was the judge. Delalande was one of four winners assigned to compose sacred music for each quarter of the year (the other composers being Coupillet, Collasse and Minoret). Delalande's was the most important quarter of the year because of the Christmas holiday. Later he had full responsibility for the church music for the complete year. At his death, since he left no mass of his own, the 1656 requiem of the Dukes of Lorraine by Charles d'Helfer was sung.

Works.

Delalande left many versions of his works. His earlier versions show adherence to French Baroque style, but the later revisions incorporate more Italian melismatic lines and greater attention to polyphonic counterpoint.  Also, at least four collections of his works exist, each displaying different looks at composer's work as viewed by the people who assembled each collection.  Scholarship of Delalande's work was for many years hindered because of inconsistencies in the spelling of his last name: de Lalande, Lalande, la Lande, de la Lande, and others. The family wrote the name as 'Delalande'. Finally, in 2006 the definitive "Thematic Catalogue of the Works of Michel-Richard de Lalande (1657-1726)" by noted British musicologist Lionel Sawkins came out which runs to 752 pages containing over 3,000 music examples and details of performing requirements and of all source materials, as well as with comprehensive indexes and thematic locators.  Vocal  Instrumental Lalande was an expert organist and harpsichordist, and yet has left not a single note of keyboard music.

Michel Richard Delalande [de Lalande] (15 December 1657 – 18 June 1726) was a French Baroque composer and organist who was in the service of King Louis XIV. He was one of the most important composers of grands motets. He also wrote orchestral suites known as "Simphonies pour les Soupers du Roy" and ballets.


Description.

Greater celandine is a perennial herb with an erect habit, and reaches high. The blue-green leaves are pinnate with lobed and wavy margins, up to long. When injured, the plant exudes a yellow to orange latex, or sap.  The flowers consist of four yellow petals, each about long, with two sepals. A double-flowered variety occurs naturally. The flowers appear from late spring to summer, May to September (in UK), in umbelliform cymes of about 4 flowers.  The seeds are small and black, borne in a long, cylindrical capsule. Each has an elaiosome, which attracts ants to disperse the seeds (myrmecochory).

Taxonomy and naming.

The greater celandine is one of the many species described by the father of taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus, in volume one of his "Species Plantarum" in 1753. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the name "celandine" comes from Late Latin "celidonia", from earlier Latin "chelidonia" or "chelidonium", and ultimately from Ancient Greek, from ("chelidṓn") "swallow", hence the common name "swallowwort". Ancient writers said that the flower bloomed when the swallows returned and faded when they left. The common name "tetterwort" also refers to "Sanguinaria canadensis"  In Devon it is also known as St John's wort.

Distribution and habitat.

"Chelidonium majus" is native in most regions of Europe. It is also found in North Africa in Macaronesia, Algeria and Morocco. In Western Asia it is found in the Caucasus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia, Iran and Turkey.

Ecology.

It is considered an aggressive invasive plant in parts of North America, and an invasive plant in other areas. In Wisconsin, for example, it is a restricted plant. Control is obtained mainly via pulling or spraying the plant before seed dispersal.

Constituents and pharmacology.

The whole plant is toxic in moderate doses as it contains a range of isoquinoline alkaloids; use in herbal medicine requires the correct dose. The main alkaloid present in the herb and root is coptisine. Other alkaloids present include methyl 2'-(7,8-dihydrosanguinarine-8-yl)acetate, allocryptopine, stylopine, protopine, norchelidonine, berberine, chelidonine, sanguinarine, chelerythrine, and 8-hydroxydihydrosanguinarine. Sanguinarine is particularly toxic with an of 18 mg per kg body weight (IP in rats). Caffeic acid derivatives, such as caffeoylmalic acid, are also present.  The characteristic latex also contains proteolytic enzymes and the phytocystatin chelidostatin, a cysteine protease inhibitor. It is a traditional folk remedy against warts in France.  "Chelidonium" is used to make Ukrain, a drug that has been promoted for, but is not known to be effective for, the treatment of cancer and viral infections.  The fresh herb is no longer used officially. No dose-finding studies exist and the reported clinical studies are characterised by a considerable heterogeneity.  Except for homeopathic medicines, the drug is no longer used in most English-speaking countries. In Germany and Switzerland, extracts of Chelidoni herba are a controversial component of the gastric remedy "Iberogast". The OTC-preparation is a top-selling product for the company Bayer, which is now under investigation for not warning consumers from possible hepatotoxic side-effects when taking the drug. Elevated liver-enzymes and toxic hepatitis with a documented fatality have been reported.  The plant is poisonous to chickens.

Herbalism.

The aerial parts and roots of greater celandine are used in herbalism. The above-ground parts are gathered during the flowering season and dried at high temperatures. The root is harvested in autumn between August and October and dried. The fresh rhizome is also used. Celandine has a hot and bitter taste. Preparations are made from alcoholic and hot aqueous extractions (tea). The related plant bloodroot has similar chemical composition and uses as greater celandine.  As far back as Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides (1st century CE) this herb has been recognized as a useful detoxifying agent. The root has been chewed to relieve toothache. John Gerard's "Herball" (1597) states that "the juice of the herbe is good to sharpen the sight, for it cleanseth and consumeth away slimie things that cleave about the ball of the eye and hinder the sight and especially being boiled with honey in a brasen vessell."  It was formerly used by some Romani people as a foot refresher; modern herbalists use its purgative properties. The modern herbalist Juliette de Baïracli Levy recommended greater celandine diluted with milk for the eyes and the latex for getting rid of warts. "Chelidonium" was a favourite herb of the French herbalist Maurice Mességué. "Chelidonium majus" has traditionally been used for treatment of various inflammatory diseases including atopic dermatitis. It is also traditionally used in the treatment of gallstones and dyspepsia.  The Iroquois give an infusion of whole plant, another plant and milk to pigs that drool and have sudden movements.  It was also once used to treat liver disorders, owing to the juice's resemblance to bile.

Chelidonium majus, commonly known as greater celandine, nipplewort, swallowwort or tetterwort, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the poppy family Papaveraceae. It is one of two species in the genus Chelidonium. It is native to Europe and western Asia and introduced widely in North America. While the greater celandine belongs to the poppy family, the lesser celandine belongs to the buttercup family.


Geography.

The 2nd arrondissement is Paris's smallest arrondissement, with a land area of just 0.992 km (0.383 sq. miles, or 245 acres)

Demographics.

The 2nd arrondissement reached its peak of settlement in the years before 1861, although it has only existed in its current shape since the re-organization of Paris in 1860. As of the last census (in 1999), the population was 19,585, while the number of jobs provided there was 61,672 – this despite a land area of only 0.992 km, making it the arrondissement with the densest concentration of commercial activity in the capital, with an average of 62,695 jobs per km.

Historical population.

Economy.

The French newspaper "L'Obs" has its head office in the arrondissement. Bourbon has its head office in the arrondissement. All Nippon Airways has its Paris Office in the arrondissement. China Airlines also has its France office in the arrondissement.  Aigle Azur's registered office is in the arrondissement.

Education.

In terms of state-operated schools, the second arrondissement has three nursery schools ("écoles maternelles"), five primary schools ("écoles élémentaires"), and one high school ("collège").  The nursery schools are "École Maternelle Dussoubs", "École Maternelle Saint Denis", and "École Maternelle Vivienne". The primary schools are "École Élémentaire Beauregard", "École Élémentaire Dussoubs", "École Élémentaire Etienne Marcel", "École Élémentaire Jussienne", and "École Élémentaire Louvois". "Collège César Franck" is the sole state-operated high school in the arrondissement.  "École Élémentaire Privée Saint-Sauveur" is the sole private primary school institution in the second arrondissement. Private secondary school institutions include "École du 2nd Degré Général Privée Rene Reaumur", "École Générale et Technologique Privée Lafayette", "École du 2nd degré professionnel privée CTRE PRI ENS SOINS ESTHETIQUES", "École du 2nd degré professionnel privée EC INTERNATIONALE DE COIFFURE", "École du 2nd degré professionnel privée ECOLE DE BIJOUTERIE-JOAILLERIE", and "École technologique privée ITECOM INST TECHN COMMUNIC".

The 2nd arrondissement of Paris ("II arrondissement") is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is colloquially referred to as "deuxième" (second/the second).


Architecture.

Metz Cathedral is a Rayonnant Gothic edifice built of the local yellow Jaumont limestone. As in French Gothic architecture, the building is compact, with slight projection of the transepts and subsidiary chapels. However, it displays singular, distinctive characteristics in both its ground plan and architecture compared to most other cathedrals. Because of the topography of the Moselle valley in Metz, the common west-east axis of the ground plan could not be applied and the church is oriented north-northeast. Moreover, unlike the French and German Gothic cathedrals having three portals surmounted by a rose window and two large towers, this one has a single porch at its western front. The entrance is to the side of the building through another portal placed at the south-western side of the narthex, avoiding the usual alignment of the entrance with the choir.  The nave is supported by flying buttresses and culminates at high, making it one of the highest naves in the world. The height of the nave is contrasted by the relatively low height of the aisles at high, reinforcing the sensation of tallness of the nave. This feature permitted the architects to create large, tall expanses of stained glass. Through its history the cathedral has been subjected to architectural and ornamental modifications with successive additions of Neoclassical and Neogothic elements.

Construction history.

The cathedral was built on an ancient site from the 5th century dedicated to Saint Stephen the Protomartyr. According to Gregory of Tours, the shrine of Saint Stephen was the sole structure spared during the sack of 451 by Attila's Huns. The construction of the present Gothic cathedral began in 1220 within the walls of an Ottonian basilica dating from the 10th century. The integration into the cathedral's ground plan of a Gothic chapel from the 12th century at the western end resulted in the absence of a main western portal, the south-western porch of the cathedral being the entrance of the former chapel. The work was completed around 1520 and the new cathedral was consecrated on 11 April 1552.  In 1755, French architect Jacques-François Blondel was commissioned by the Royal Academy of Architecture to build a Neoclassical portal at the west end of the cathedral. He separated the cathedral's façade by razing an adjacent cloister and three attached churches, and completed the westwork in 1764.  In 1877, the cathedral was heavily damaged after a conflagration caused by fireworks. After this incident, it was decided to refurbish the cathedral and its adornments in a Neogothic style. The western front was completely rebuilt between 1898 and 1903; Blondel's portal was demolished and a new Neogothic portal was added.

Architectural elements and ground plan.

The following picture presents the ground plan of Saint-Stephen of Metz and the position of the architectural elements:

Stained glass.

The stained glass windows, which together constitute the largest expanse of ancient stained glass in a single building, were made by the master craftsmen Hermann von Münster in the fourteenth century, and Valentin Bousch in the sixteenth. In the twentieth century the artist Marc Chagall created three stained glass windows for the cathedral between 1958 and 1968. Roger Bissière and Jacques Villon provided designs for further windows, including the complete chapel of the Holy Sacrament.

Metz Cathedral, otherwise the Cathedral of Saint Stephen, Metz (), is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Metz, capital of Lorraine, France. Dedicated to Saint Stephen, it is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Metz as the seat of the bishops of Metz. The cathedral treasury displays the collection, assembled over 1,000 years, of the bishopric of Metz, including paraments and items used for the Eucharist.


Description and biology.

"Anthurium" is a genus of herbs often growing as epiphytes on other plants. Some are terrestrial. The leaves are often clustered and are variable in shape. The inflorescence bears small flowers which are perfect, containing male and female structures. The flowers are contained in dense spirals on the spadix. The spadix is often elongated into a spike shape, but it can be globe-shaped or club-shaped. Beneath the spadix is the spathe, a type of bract. This is variable in shape, as well, but it is lance-shaped in many species. It may extend out flat or in a curve. Sometimes it covers the spadix like a hood. The fruits develop from the flowers on the spadix. They are juicy berries varying in color, usually containing two seeds.  The spadix and spathe are a main focus of "Anthurium" breeders, who develop cultivars in bright colors and unique shapes. "Anthurium scherzerianum" and "A. andraeanum", two of the most common taxa in cultivation, are the only species that grow bright red spathes. They have also been bred to produce spathes in many other colors and patterns.  "Anthurium" plants are poisonous due to calcium oxalate crystals. The sap is irritating to the skin and eyes.

Cultivation.

Like other aroids, many species of "Anthurium" can be grown as houseplants, or outdoors in mild climates in shady spots. They include Anthurium species such as "Anthurium crystallinum" and "Anthurium clarinervium" with its large, velvety, dark green leaves and silvery white venation. Many hybrids are derived from "Anthurium andraeanum" or "Anthurium scherzerianum" because of their colorful spathes. They thrive in moist soils with high organic matter. In milder climates the plants can be grown in pots of soil. Indoors plants thrive at temperatures between and at lower light than other house plants. Wiping the leaves off with water will remove any dust and insects. Plants in pots with good root systems will benefit from a weak fertilizer solution every other week. In the case of vining or climbing Anthuriums, the plants benefit from being provided with a totem to climb.

Propagation.

"Anthurium" can be propagated by seed or vegetatively by cuttings. In the commercial "Anthurium" trade, most propagation is via tissue culture.

Species.

For a full list, see the List of "Anthurium" species. In 1860 there were 183 species known to science, and Heinrich Wilhelm Schott defined them in 28 sections in the book "Prodromus Systematis Aroidearum". In 1905 the genus was revised with a description of 18 sections. In 1983 the genus was divided into the following sections:

Anthurium (; Schott, 1829), is a genus of about 1000 species of flowering plants, the largest genus of the arum family, Araceae. General common names include anthurium, tailflower, flamingo flower, and laceleaf.


Playing career.

Geoffrion was born in Montreal, Quebec, and began playing in the NHL in 1951. He earned the nickname "Boom Boom" for his thundering slapshot (which Geoffrion claimed to have 'invented' as a youngster ) from sportswriter Charlie Boire of the "Montreal Star" in the late 1940s while playing junior hockey for the Laval Nationale. He was the second player in NHL history to score 50 goals in one season, the first being teammate Maurice Richard. Half the time, he played left-wing on Montreal's front line with fellow superstars Richard and Jean Béliveau, helping the Canadiens to six Stanley Cup championships, and at other times was right wing on the No. 2 line. But Geoffrion had a hard time convincing the NHL of his considerable talents; Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau, Bobby Hull (Chicago Blackhawks) and Gordie Howe (Detroit Red Wings) were so good that they overshadowed him. Even after Geoffrion won the Art Ross Trophy as league scoring champion in 1955, NHL First All-Star honours went to Richard, while Geoffrion only was selected to the second.  However, Geoffrion's resulting anger was nothing compared to the Montreal Forum fans when Geoffrion scored one goal while crowd-favourite Richard was suspended, and at the time had led the NHL scoring race. The Wings beat the Canadiens in the final round in seven games that year, exactly the same result of the previous season. "I couldn't deliberately "not" score, that isn't the point of hockey, Montreal," complained Geoffrion, but fans regardless kept catcalling and jeering him. "I was so feeling the urge to vomit; I felt terrible," Geoffrion emotionally admitted. "Even thinking about hockey made me feel bad, man did I want to leave. If it had not been for Jean (Béliveau) and Maurice (Richard) visiting, I would have. Usually, it's not too much to expect to be on the First (All-Star) Team when you have more points than anyone else."  Early in his playing career, he had a reputation for letting his temper get the best of him. One such example occurred late in the second period of a Canadiens' 3–1 loss to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on December 20, 1953. With a two-handed swing, Geoffrion's stick made contact with the left side of Ron Murphy's face, resulting in a broken jaw and concussion. The injuries ended Murphy's season. Geoffrion was suspended for the remaining matches between the two teams in that campaign.  In a testament to the rough-and-tumble style of play of that era, Geoffrion broke his nose six times, and received over 400 stitches. In 1958, a training accident severely injured him and his life was saved by emergency surgery. Despite advice from his doctors to stop playing for a season, Geoffrion was on the ice six weeks later to take part in the 1958 Stanley Cup Final.  Geoffrion first retired in 1964 and became head coach of les AS de Québec of the American Hockey League (AHL), but returned two seasons later to play for the New York Rangers. Likely the reason for his first retirement was Béliveau (who was not one of three alternate captains), getting appointed team captain in 1961. This was following the Rocket's retirement in 1960 and Doug Harvey's trade to the Rangers in 1961 (he only lasted a year with the C). Geoffrion, who "had" had an A, was devastated by the decision to go with Béliveau.  "If I didn't keep suffering all those terrible injuries and yet keep coming back, if I weren't fit to lead, would I have gotten the C and kept playing?" asked Geoffrion, who had, in the 1961 semifinals, had a hurt leg and insisted, even so, that Harvey cut a cast off it so he could play. "Yes, I think I would. There were times when everybody kept telling me to quit. My doctor even told me I should stop playing, but I came back."

Coaching career.

In 1968 he finally retired as a player and became coach of the Rangers, but resigned after only 43 games due to ulcers in his stomach. In 1972 he became the first coach of the Atlanta Flames, and held the position for two and a half seasons, leading them to their first playoff appearance in 1974. However, 52 games into his third season, he had to resign due to health problems yet again. Geoffrion moved to the Flames' broadcast booth, where he became the colour commentator alongside veteran play-by-play man Jiggs McDonald. He realized a longtime dream of coaching his beloved Canadiens in 1979, but his recurring stomach ailment forced him to step down mid-season.  In the 1970s and into the 1980s, Geoffrion appeared in several television commercials for Miller Lite beer, part of their stable of retired athletes-turned-spokesmen which also included Billy Martin and Bob Uecker.

Family.

Geoffrion was the son of Jean-Baptiste Geoffrion, a restaurant owner, and his wife, Florina Poitras. He grew up in Drolet, a suburb east of Montreal. Geoffrion was a direct descendant of Pierre Joffrion and his wife Marie Priault, early French settlers in the colony of Montreal. Marie Priault was a King's Daughter.  Geoffrion's widow Marlene is the daughter of fellow Hockey Hall of Famer Howie Morenz and the granddaughter of the sister of the wife of Billy Coutu, the only player banned from the NHL for life. Geoffrion's son Dan (born January 24, 1958) played five seasons of professional hockey, which included stops with the Quebec Nordiques of the World Hockey Association in 1978–79, Canadiens in 1979–80 (with his father as coach), and Winnipeg Jets in 1980–81. His grandson Blake Geoffrion (born February 3, 1988) played for the Nashville Predators and Montreal Canadiens in the NHL. Dan's younger sons, Sebastian and Brice, played for the University of Alabama in Huntsville Chargers. Geoffrion's son-in-law, Hartland Monahan, played in the NHL for several teams in the 1970s, and his grandson Shane Monahan played Major League Baseball for the Seattle Mariners in the late 1990s.

Retired number.

The Canadiens announced on October 15, 2005, that Geoffrion's uniform number, 5, would be retired on March 11, 2006. On March 8, Geoffrion was diagnosed with stomach cancer after a surgical procedure uncovered it. Doctors attempted to remove the tumour but found that the cancer had spread. Geoffrion died in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 11, the day his jersey number was to be retired. During his remarks at the pre-game retirement ceremony, Geoffrion's son Bob recounted how his parents had once gone to a boxing match at the Montreal Forum and that Geoffrion had told his wife Marlene that his own number would someday hang from the rafters beside that of her father, Howie Morenz. Fulfilling that prophecy, and in further recognition of the special link between the Morenz and Geoffrion families, the two numbers were raised side by side (Morenz's banner was lowered halfway and was raised back up to the rafters with Geoffrion's banner). Traded to the Montreal Canadiens by the Nashville Predators on February 17, 2012, Blake Geoffrion decided to honor both his grandfather Geoffrion, as well as his great-grandfather Morenz, by wearing #57.

Joseph Bernard André Geoffrion (; February 14, 1931 – March 11, 2006), nicknamed Boom Boom, was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach. Generally considered as one of the innovators of the slapshot, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972 following a 16-year career with the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers of the National Hockey League. In 2017 Geoffrion was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.


Route description.

The highway begins east of Dawson City, Yukon on the Klondike Highway. There are no highway or major road intersections along the highway's route. It extends in a north-northeasterly direction to Inuvik, passing through Tombstone Territorial Park and crossing the Ogilvie and Richardson mountain ranges.

History.

The Dempster Highway roughly follows the old dog sled route from Dawson City to Fort McPherson and is named for Corporal (later Inspector) William Dempster of the North-West Mounted Police.  During the late 19th century, and in response to the Klondike Gold Rush, the North-West Mounted Police established a presence in the Yukon and Northwest Territories. Their activities included winter dog sled patrols between outposts and communities. One such patrol followed a route from Dawson City to the NWMP outpost at Fort McPherson, established in 1903.  In December 1910, NWMP Inspector Francis Joseph Fitzgerald led three men on the annual winter patrol from Fort McPherson to Dawson City. They became lost on the trail, and subsequently died of exposure and starvation. When they failed to arrive in Dawson City as expected, Corporal Dempster and two constables were sent out on a rescue patrol in March 1911. Dempster and his men found the bodies of Fitzgerald's patrol on March 22, 1911.

Construction.

In 1958, as oil and gas exploration were expanding in the Mackenzie Delta, the Canadian government decided to build a road from Dawson City in Yukon to Aklavik in the Northwest Territories. The road was intended as an overland, year-round supply link to southern Canada. Survey work began in 1958.  With the August, 1959, discovery of oil in the Eagle Plains area, the government granted concessions to the oil industry to stimulate more exploration in the area. This provided more motivation for a road to transport equipment, infrastructure, and revenue to and from the sites. Construction of the road, then known as Yukon Territorial Road No. 11, began at Dawson City in January 1959.  Seasonal maintenance of the existing road continued but no further work was done. In 1964, the road was renamed the Dempster Highway, after petitions by Vancouver Yukoners Association and the Yukon Order of Pioneers. Construction resumed in 1970 as the Canadian government sought to assert sovereignty over their Arctic territories after the American discovery of oil and gas deposits at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska in 1968. Work was further motivated by speculation that an oil pipeline might be built in the Mackenzie Valley.  At the time of its construction, the highway was the most northerly major road project to date. Weather and daylight conditions presented challenges. In 1979, a work crew was trapped in a blizzard in the Richardson Mountains and was almost lost. Construction had to account for the permafrost; heat transfer from the highway to the ground had to be prevented so the permafrost would not melt. To address this, the road was built on top of a gravel berm, ranging from 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in) up to 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in), to insulate the permafrost from the road above. Some construction was completed by the Canadian Forces; 3 Field Squadron, RCE from CFB Chilliwack built bridges over the Ogilvie River in 1971 and the Eagle River in 1977.  The final section of road was completed in 1978, at a cost of $132 million. The highway was officially opened on August 18, 1979, at Flat Creek, Yukon.

The Dempster Highway, also referred to as Yukon Highway 5 and Northwest Territories Highway 8, is a highway in Canada that connects the Klondike Highway in Yukon to Inuvik, Northwest Territories on the Mackenzie River delta. The highway crosses the Peel River and the Mackenzie Rivers using a combination of seasonal ferry service and ice bridges. Year-round road access from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk opened in November 2017 with the completion of the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway, creating the first all-weather road route, connecting to the Canadian road network with the Arctic Ocean, in Canada.


Siege.

The house was a four-story building in the center of Stalingrad, built perpendicular to the embankment of the river Volga and overseeing the "9th January Square", a large square named for Bloody Sunday. In late September 1942, between 30 and 50 soldiers of the 42nd Guards Regiment, 13th Guards Division secured the large apartment blocks from German control, following its reconnoiter by four soldiers four days prior which Yakov Pavlov himself led.  The position was quickly fortified under the command of Lieutenant Ivan F. Afanasiev, who ordered the men to lay land mines in all approaches to the square, barbed wire around the perimeter of the apartment block, and to position multiple machine guns in the windows as well as a PTRS anti tank rifle. The Soviets also had large amounts of artillery support from the opposite side of the Volga. Supply and communication trenches were created leading from the rear of Pavlov’s House to the river bank of the Volga, which would receive supply from supply vessels which were often barraged by German artillery when crossing the river.  The strategic benefit of the house was that it defended a key section of the Volga bank. The tactical benefit of the house was its position on a cross-street, giving the defenders a line of sight to the north, south and west. After several days, reinforcements and resupply arrived for Pavlov's men, bringing the unit up to a 25-man understrength platoon and equipping the defenders with machine guns, anti-tank rifles, and mortars. In keeping with Stalin's Order No. 227—"not one step back"—Sergeant Pavlov was ordered to fortify the building and defend it to the last bullet and the last man. Taking this advice to heart, Pavlov ordered the building to be surrounded with four layers of barbed wire and minefields, and set up machine-gun posts in every available window facing the square. In the early stages of the defense, Pavlov discovered that an anti-tank rifle—a PTRS-41—he had mounted on the roof was particularly effective when used to ambush unsuspecting German tanks; once the tanks had approached to within range of the building, their thin turret-roof armor became exposed to AT rifle fire from above, and they were unable to elevate their weapons enough to retaliate.  For better internal communication, Pavlov's soldiers breached the walls in the basement and upper floors, and dug a communications trench to Soviet positions outside. Supplies were brought in via the trench or by boats crossing the river, defying German air raids and shelling. Nevertheless, food and especially water was in short supply. Lacking beds, the soldiers tried to sleep on insulation wool torn off pipes but were subjected to harassing fire every night in order to try to break their resistance.  The Germans attacked the building several times a day. Each time German infantry or tanks tried to cross the square and to close in on the house, Pavlov's men laid down a withering barrage of machine gun and AT rifle fire from the basement, the windows and the roof. The defenders, as well as the civilians hiding in the basement, were eventually relieved by counter-attacking Soviet forces after holding out from 27 September to 25 November 1942.

Uncertainty on dates.

Sources conflict on the date at which the siege began, and the date at which the Soviet reinforcements reached the building and lifted the siege.  "On September 27, a 30-man Russian platoon was ordered to retake a four-story apartment building the Germans had just captured... until November 25, 1942, [...]"  "[...] the defenders of Pavlov's House who participated in defense from 26 September 1942 till 25 November 1942."  "The defense of the house lasted for 58 days and nights."

Symbolic meaning.

Pavlov's House became a symbol of the stubborn and dogged resistance of the Russian forces during the Battle of Stalingrad, which eventually ended in a decisive victory for the Soviet forces after months of massive casualties on both sides. The inability of the German blitzkrieg to make headway against such grinding and self-sacrificial attrition warfare made the failure to capture Pavlov's House (despite numerous attempts) stand out as a symbol of resistance against a vastly superior force.  Vasily Chuikov, commanding general of the Soviet forces in Stalingrad, later joked that the Germans lost more men trying to take Pavlov's House than they did taking Paris.  Pavlov's "House" was rebuilt after the battle and is still used as an apartment building today. There is an attached memorial constructed from bricks picked up after the battle on the East side facing the Volga.  Pavlov was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for his actions.

Recent reporting.

A Russian TV documentary in 2009, "Legendary Redoubt", (Легендарный редут) on the Russian Channel One reported on Pavlov's House. According to the documentary, the house's defense was in fact led by Lieutenant Ivan F. Afanasiev (Иван Ф. Афанасьев). This report does not discount Pavlov's efforts, which led to his earning the Hero of the Soviet Union and those soldiers who took part in the defense, earning numerous decorations of their own. The last member of Pavlov's group, Kamoljon Turgunov from Turakurgan District, Namangan Province, Uzbekistan died on 16 March 2015, aged 93.

Pavlov's House ( tr. "Dom Pavlova") was a fortified apartment building which Red Army defenders held for 60 days against a heavy "Wehrmacht" offensive during the Battle of Stalingrad. The siege lasted from 27 September to 25 November 1942 and eventually the Red Army managed to relieve it from the siege.


Squads.

At the start of tournament, all 24 participating countries had 12 players on their roster.

Competing nations.

The following national teams competed:  Japan qualified as the host country, and Italy, Puerto Rico, Serbia and Montenegro, and Turkey gained FIBA wild-card invitations. Argentina qualified as the champion of the 2004 Olympics. The remaining 18 countries qualified through their continents' qualifying tournaments (six from Europe, four from the Americas, three from each of Asia and Africa and two from Oceania).  The draw for the 2006 World Championship was held in Tokyo on 15 January 2006. In the preliminary rounds, Group A played at Sendai, Group B at Hiroshima, Group C at Hamamatsu and Group D at Sapporo. The Medal Rounds were played at Saitama.

Preliminary rounds.

Group A (Sendai).

August 19, 2006 August 20, 2006 August 21, 2006 August 23, 2006 August 24, 2006

Group B (Hiroshima).

Group C (Hamamatsu).

August 19, 2006 August 20, 2006 August 22, 2006 August 23, 2006 August 24, 2006

Group D (Sapporo).

Knockout stage.

Venue: Saitama Super Arena

Final.

Since the inaugural competition one of the two teams competing for the title had been either the USA or Yugoslavia. After the latter's breakup, a Former Yugoslav Republic, Serbia, has taken its place in the final. The 2006 final was the first (the second was in 2019 also including Spain) in which none of these two teams competed. The final was an unexpectedly one-sided affair, with Spain dominating from the beginning and limiting Greece to just 47 points, fewer than the Greeks had scored in any single game in the tournament, and less than half what Greece had scored against the US in the semifinals. Spain won despite having lost power forward Pau Gasol, who was ultimately named the tournament's most valuable player, to injury in a semifinal match against Argentina.

Referees.

For the World Championship, FIBA selected 40 professional referees.

Sponsorship.

• McDonald's

The 2006 FIBA World Championship was the 15th FIBA World Championship, the international basketball world championship for men's teams. The tournament was hosted by Japan and held from August 19 to September 3, 2006. It was co-organised by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), Japan Basketball Association (JABBA) and the 2006 Organizing Committee.


Career.

Proceeding to Edinburgh to study medicine at the university, he came under the influence of Robert Jameson, whose teachings in geology and mineralogy inspired his future career. Boué was thus led to make geological expeditions to various parts of Scotland and the Hebrides, and after taking his degree of M.D. in 1817 he settled for some years in Paris.  In 1820 he issued his "Essai géologique sur l'Écosse", in which the eruptive rocks in particular were carefully described. He travelled much in Germany, Austria and southern Europe, studying various geological formations, and becoming one of the pioneers in geological research; he was one of the founders of the Société Géologique de France in 1830, and was its president in 1835. In 1841 he settled in Vienna, and became naturalized as an Austrian.  To the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Vienna he communicated important papers on the geology of the Balkan States (1859–1870), and he also published "Mémoires géologiques et paléontologiques" (Paris, 1832) and "La Turquie d'Europe; observations sur la geographie, la géologie, l'histoire naturelle", etc. (Paris, 1840).

Evolution.

Boué was an advocate of transmutation of species. He was influenced by the evolutionary views of Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.  He was supportive of spontaneous generation and argued that spontaneously generated organisms existed at the microscopic level between animals and plants.

Honours.

Ami Boué Peak on Graham Land in Antarctica and Ami Boué Street in Sofia, Bulgaria are named after Ami Boué.

Ami Boué (16 March 179421 November 1881) was a geologist of French origin. He was born at Hamburg, and received his early education there and in Geneva and Paris.


Biography.

Schneider was born in Saint Petersburg in 1870. During his childhood, his family lived in Zürich, but following the death of his father, Schneider moved to Dresden, where in 1889 he became a student at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. In 1903, he met best-selling author Karl May, and subsequently became the cover illustrator of a number of May's books including "Winnetou", "Old Surehand", "Am Rio de la Plata". A year later in 1904, Schneider was appointed professor at the "Großherzoglich-Sächsische Kunstschule Weimar".  During this period, Schneider lived with painter Hellmuth Jahn. Jahn began blackmailing Schneider by threatening to expose his homosexuality, which was punishable under § 175 of the penal code. Schneider fled to Italy, where homosexuality was not criminalized at that time. In Italy, Schneider met painter Robert Spies, with whom he traveled through the Caucasus Mountains. He then traveled back to Germany, where he lived for six months in Leipzig before returning to Italy, where he resided in Florence. When the First World War started, Schneider returned to Germany again, taking up residence in Hellerau (near Dresden). After 1918, he co-founded an institute called "Kraft-Kunst" for bodybuilding. Some of the models for his art trained here.  Schneider, who suffered from diabetes mellitus, suffered a diabetic seizure during a ship voyage in the vicinity of Swinemünde. As a result, he collapsed and died in 1927 in Swinemünde. He was buried in Loschwitz Cemetery, Germany.

In popular culture.

Schneider's painting Hypnosis (in Gallery below) inspired a key shot in the Robert Eggers film "The Lighthouse".

Rudolph Karl Alexander Schneider, commonly known as Sascha Schneider (21 September 1870 – 18 August 1927), was a German painter and sculptor.


Electronic catalogs.

Procurement systems and online shopping platforms such as online marketplaces are based upon electronic catalogs. PIM systems can load descriptive product information as content into a catalog management solution, where products are grouped and managed for specific target markets. Data exchange interface standards such as Open ICEcat allow seamless interchange of electronic catalogs between vendors on the one hand and purchasing firms and marketplace operators on the other. Procurement solutions are closely related, which automate the procurement process for purchasing goods and services. These create transparency for the product data of multiple vendors to support the centralized management of multi-supplier catalogs and facilitate price and quality research.

Leading PIM vendors.

According to the latest report published by independent technology research company Gartner, the Magic Quadrant for Master Data Management Solutions (a merger of MDM Customer and PIM solutions covering now Multidomain MDM) published January 19, 2017, contains two companies in the visionaries leader quadrant, Informatica and Orchestra Networks. Both provide a solid Multidomain MDM solution, where Product is one of the domains. Compared to the Magic Quadrant report for Master Data Management of Product Data Solutions in 2016 we see them, then leading vendors in the market Oracle, IBM, Stibo Systems, Riversand and Tibco Software are reshuffled due to the fact other criteria are used to make up the qualification. Informatica was already present with both their MDM solutions for products in the 2016 report and the combination made them leader in 2017.  A general criticism regarding Gartner and Forrester is that their research is not independent, but that it's pay to play.  Capgemini, the independent system integrator, mentions the leading PIM sources GDSN, Icecat, Syndy, Brandbank (Nielsen Holdings), Salsify, and Shotfarm in their 2017 report.  PS Market Research, another technology research company, identified and ranked leading Product Information Management players CNET, Icecat, IBM, Oracle, Red Hat, Inc., Software AG, Pegasystems Inc., Open Text Corp., and BP Logix..  RnR Market, another technology research company, identified in their 2016 "Product Information Management Market" report the key vendors being Adam Systems, Agility Multichannel, IBM, Informatica, inRiver, Oracle, Pimcore, Riversand, SAP AG, Stibo Systems.  Ventana Research, another technology research company, identified and ranked leading Product Information Management vendors Stibo Systems, Informatica, Akeneo, Agility Multichannel, Catsy, Riversand, Sales Layer,Quable,eTEAM PIM, Enterworks, SAP, Bluestone PIM, Oracle, ADAM software and IBM in their 2015 Value Index. The evaluation was based on usability, capability, validation, and ROI.

Link with enterprise content management.

Enterprise content management is a term encompassing technologies, methods and tools used for gathering, imaging, storing, archiving and providing electronic content. Distinction can be made between four separate sub-areas. Document management systems (DMS) are deployed for archiving, and PDM involves the management of structured, technical data for such applications as parts diagrams and lists. Content management systems (CMS) are more commercially oriented and provide a framework for knowledge management or informational service offerings through the management of unstructured, document-type content. PIM systems are used to manage structured data in a business context for feeding into any kind of distribution channel, from electronic catalogs to online shops to print catalogs.

Product information management (PIM) is the process of managing all the information required to market and sell products through distribution channels. This product data is created by an internal organization to support a multichannel marketing strategy. A central hub of product data can be used to distribute information to sales channels such as e-commerce websites, print catalogs, marketplaces such as Amazon and Google Shopping, social media platforms like Instagram and electronic data feeds to trading partners.


Prelude.

On the 16 August, Napoleon had sent Marshal Saint-Cyr's corps to fortify and hold Dresden in order to hinder allied movements and to serve as a possible base for his own manoeuvres. He planned to strike against the interior lines of his enemies and defeat them in detail, before they could combine their full strength. He had a field army of 442,810 men and 1,284 guns in 559 battalions and 395 squadrons against Allied field forces totaling 512,113 men in 556 battalions, 572 squadrons and 68 Cossack regiments, and 1,380 guns.  The Coalition avoided battle with Napoleon himself, choosing to attack his subordinate commanders as per the Trachenberg Plan. On the 23 August, at the Battle of Grossbeeren, south of Berlin, Crown Prince Charles of Sweden (formerly French Marshal Bernadotte, Napoleon's own Marshal) defeated his old comrade Marshal Oudinot. On the 26 August, Prussian Marshal Blücher crushed Marshal MacDonald's army at the Battle of Katzbach.

Battle.

On the same day as Katzbach, Karl Philipp Fürst zu Schwarzenberg, the commander of the Austrian force of over 200,000 men of the Austrian Army of Bohemia and accompanied by Francis II, Alexander I, and Frederick William III, attacked Saint-Cyr. In Dresden, French infantry manned the various redoubts and defensive positions. They hoped to last long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Napoleon arrived quickly and unexpectedly with reinforcements to repel this assault on the city. French counterattacks on the Great Garden in the southeast and on the allied center were successful, and by nightfall the French had regained almost all of Saint-Cyr's original positions.  Although outnumbered three to two, Napoleon attacked the following morning on the 27 August, turned the allied left flank, and won an impressive tactical victory. The flooded Weisseritz cut the left wing of the Allied army, commanded by Johann von Klenau and Ignaz Gyulai, from the main body. Marshal Joachim Murat took advantage of this isolation and inflicted heavy losses on the Austrians. A French participant observed, "Murat... cut off from the Austrian army Klenau's corps, hurling himself upon it at the head of the carabineers and cuirassiers.... Nearly all his [Klenau's] battalions were compelled to lay down their arms, and two other divisions of infantry shared their fate." Of Klenau's force, Lieutenant Field Marshal Joseph, Baron von Mesko de Felsö-Kubiny's division of five infantry regiments was surrounded and captured by Murat's cavalry, which amounted to approximately 13,000 men, and 15 colours. Gyulai's divisions also suffered serious losses when they were attacked by Murat's cavalry during a rainstorm. With damp flints and powder, their muskets would not fire and many battalions became an easy prey to the French cuirassiers and dragoons.  However, Napoleon's failure to follow up on his success allowed Schwarzenberg to withdraw and narrowly escape encirclement. The Coalition had lost some 38,000 men and 40 guns. French casualties totaled around 10,000. Some of Napoleon's officers noted he was "suffering from a violent colic, which had been brought on by the cold rain, to which he had been exposed during the whole of the battle."

Aftermath.

On the 27 August, General Vandamme received orders to advance on Pirna and bridge the Elbe there. This was accomplished in a pouring rain, without disturbing the Russians drawn up on the heights of Zehista. This advance by Vandamme resulted in the Battle of Kulm three days later. Napoleon's old rival Jean Victor Marie Moreau who had only recently returned from his banishment from the United States was talking to the Tsar (who wished to see Napoleon defeated) and was mortally wounded in the battle, dying later on the 2 September in Louny.

Hoffman.

The author and composer E. T. A. Hoffmann happened to be in Dresden during the battle, being at the time employed by a locally based orchestra. On the 22 August, after the end of the armistice, the Hoffmann Family was forced to relocate from their pleasant house in the suburbs into the town. During the next few days, as the battle raged, they experienced the ongoing bombardments. As Hoffman later recounted, many people were killed by bombs directly in front of him. After the main battle was over, he visited the gory battlefield. His account can be found in "Vision auf dem Schlachtfeld bei Dresden".

The Battle of Dresden (26–27 August 1813) was a major engagement of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle took place around the city of Dresden in modern-day Germany. With the recent addition of Austria, the Sixth Coalition felt emboldened in their quest to expel the French from Central Europe. Despite being heavily outnumbered, French forces under Napoleon scored a victory against the Allied army led by Field Marshal Schwarzenberg. However, Napoleon's victory did not lead to the collapse of the coalition, and the lack of effective French cavalry units, caused by a very heavy loss of French horses during the past 1812 French invasion of Russia, precluded a major pursuit. Three days after the battle, the Allies surrounded and captured a French corps at the Battle of Kulm.


History.

Merovingian and Carolingian golden age.

The proximity of the Meuse River and the abundance of local resources attracted settlers in this area since the fifth millennium BC. Around the end of the Roman era and at the beginning of the Merovingian period, the hamlet had become a fortified stronghold. The major road that linked Tongeren to Aachen crossed the Meuse here, where a ferry likely carried travelers to Jupille.  The name Herstal is of Franconian origin, consisting of the elements "hari" ("army") and "stal" ("resting place", compare "stable"). The first mention of Herstal is in Latin documents from ±718 ("Cheristalius" corrected to "Charistalius") and 723 ("Harastallius"). The first possibly non-Latinized occurrences are "Eristail" (in 919) and "Harstail" (1197). Pippin of Herstal (ca 635–714), Mayor of the Palace and de facto ruler of Austrasia and Neustria and founder of the family that established the Carolingian dynasty, probably chose this location as his main residence because of its proximity to the major cities of Tongeren, Maastricht, and Liège. Pippin was the father of Charles Martel, victor of the decisive Battle of Tours that stopped the Arab-Muslim advance into northwestern Europe, and great grandfather of Charlemagne, also supposedly born in Herstal. Charlemagne lived for at least fifteen years in Herstal but later established his capital in Aachen, ending Herstal's period of medieval glory as capital of the empire.

Late Middle Ages until now.

The town was incorporated into the Duchy of Lower Lotharingia, which became part of the Duchy of Brabant at the end of the 12th century. Despite its proximity to Liège, the territory of Herstal did not become part of the Bishopric of Liège until 1740, when the prince-bishop Georges-Louis de Berghes bought it from Frederick II of Prussia. By that time, the town was mainly known for its able craftsmen: ceramists, blacksmiths, and clockmakers.  In the 19th century, Herstal became a city of coal and steel. It would, however, become world-famous thanks to the foundation of the Fabrique Nationale, a major armament factory, in 1889. Several motorcycle manufacturers also established themselves in town. On August 7, 1914, at the very beginning of World War I, the invading German army executed 27 civilians and destroyed 10 homes in Herstal. After World War II, heavy industry saw a prolonged period of decline, drastically reducing the number of jobs in these areas. Today, Herstal's economy is picking up again, with more than 200 companies established on its territory, including Techspace, which manufactures precision parts for the European Space Agency’s Ariane rocket.

Politics.

Herstal is a left-wing/socialist stronghold. It was also the strongest area in support of the far-left Workers' Party of Belgium in the 2019 elections, gaining 27.55% of the votes in Herstal.

Herstal, formerly known as Heristal, or Héristal, is a municipality of Belgium. It lies in the country's Walloon Region and Province of Liège along the Meuse river. Herstal is included in the "Greater Liège" agglomeration, which counts about 600,000 inhabitants.


Early life and education.

Penn was born to a Russian Jewish family on June 16, 1917 in Plainfield, New Jersey, to Harry Penn and Sonia Greenberg. Penn's younger brother, Arthur Penn, was born in 1922 and would go on to become a film director and producer. Penn attended Abraham Lincoln High School where he studied graphic design with Leon Friend.  Penn attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts) from 1934 to 1938, where he studied drawing, painting, graphics, and industrial arts under Alexey Brodovitch. While still a student, Penn worked under Brodovitch at "Harper's Bazaar" which published several of Penn's drawings.

Career.

Penn worked for three years as a freelance designer and making his first amateur photographs before taking Brodovitch's position as the art director at Saks Fifth Avenue in 1940. Penn remained at Saks Fifth Avenue for a year before leaving to spend a year painting and taking photographs in Mexico and across the US. When Penn returned to New York, Alexander Liberman offered him a position as an associate in the "Vogue" magazine Art Department. Penn worked on layout for the magazine before Liberman asked him to try photography.  Penn's first photographic cover for "Vogue" magazine appeared in October 1943. The art department of the Office of War Information in London offered him a job as an "artist-photographer" but he volunteered with the American Field Service instead. After arriving in Naples with a boatload of American troops in November 1944. Penn drove an ambulance in support of the British Eighth Army as it alternately waited out weather and slogged its way north through a miserable winter in the Italian Apennines. In July 1945, he was transferred from Italy to India. He photographed the soldiers, medical operations, and camp life for the AFS, and various subjects while bivouacked in India. He sailed back to New York in November 1945.  Penn continued to work at "Vogue" throughout his career, photographing covers, portraits, still lifes, fashion, and photographic essays. In the 1950s, Penn founded his own studio in New York and began making advertising photographs. Over the years, Penn's list of clients grew to include General Foods, De Beers, Issey Miyake, and Clinique.  Penn met Swedish fashion model Lisa Fonssagrives at a photo shoot in 1947. In 1950, the two married at Chelsea Register Office, and two years later Lisa gave birth to their son, Tom Penn, who would go on to become a metal designer. Lisa Fonssagrives died in 1992. Penn died aged 92 on October 7, 2009 at his home in Manhattan.

Photography.

Best known for his fashion photography, Penn's repertoire also includes portraits of creative greats; ethnographic photographs from around the world; Modernist still lifes of food, bones, bottles, metal, and found objects; and photographic travel essays.  Penn was among the first photographers to pose subjects against a simple grey or white backdrop and he effectively used its simplicity. Expanding his austere studio surroundings, Penn constructed a set of upright angled backdrops, to form a stark, acute corner. Subjects photographed with this technique included John Hersey, Martha Graham, Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, Georgia O'Keeffe, W. H. Auden, and Igor Stravinsky.  Penn's still life compositions are sparse and highly organized, assemblages of food or objects that articulate the abstract interplay of line and volume. Penn's photographs are composed with a great attention to detail, which continues into his craft of developing and making prints of his photographs. Penn experimented with many printing techniques, including prints made on aluminum sheets coated with a platinum emulsion rendering the image with a warmth that untoned silver prints lacked. His black and white prints are notable for their deep contrast, giving them a clean, crisp look.  While steeped in the Modernist tradition, Penn also ventured beyond creative boundaries. The exhibition "Earthly Bodies" consisted of series of posed nudes whose physical shapes range from thin to plump; while the photographs were taken in 1949 and 1950, they were not exhibited until 1980.

Major collections.

The Art Institute of Chicago holds the Irving Penn Paper and Photographic Archives, which were donated to the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries and the Department of Photography in 1995. In addition, the Art Institute of Chicago has more than 200 of Penn's fine art prints in its collection, and has mounted several exhibitions of work by the artist including the retrospective "Irving Penn: A Career in Photography" (1997–1998) which traveled internationally as well as "Irving Penn: Underfoot" (2013).  The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) possesses a large collection of Penn's works, including a silver gelatin print of Penn's "The Tarot Reader", a photograph from 1949 of Jean Patchett and surrealist painter Bridget Tichenor. In 2013, the museum received 100 images as a gift from the Irving Penn Foundation, significantly increasing the number of Penn's works in the collection to 161 images. The Irving Penn Foundation's gift formed the basis of the exhibition, "Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty," which was shown at SAAM before traveling to other museum venues around the United States.

Irving Penn (June 16, 1917October 7, 2009) was an American photographer known for his fashion photography, portraits, and still lifes. Penn's career included work at "Vogue" magazine, and independent advertising work for clients including Issey Miyake and Clinique. His work has been exhibited internationally and continues to inform the art of photography.


Early life.

Born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and reared in Chicago, Herbert Huncke was a street hustler, high school dropout and drug user. He left Chicago as a teenager after his parents divorced and began living as a hobo, jumping trains throughout the United States and bonding with other vagrants through shared destitution and common experience. Although Huncke later came to regret his loss of family ties, in his autobiography, "Guilty of Everything", he states that his lengthy jail sentences were a partial result of his lack of family support.

New York City and Times Square.

Huncke hitchhiked to New York City in 1939. He was dropped off at 103rd and Broadway, and he asked the driver how to find 42nd Street. "You walk straight down Broadway," the man said, "and you will find 42nd Street." Huncke, always a stylish dresser, bought a boutonnière for his jacket and headed for 42nd Street. For the next 10 years, Huncke was a 42nd Street regular and became known as the "Mayor of 42nd Street."  At this point, Huncke's regular haunts were 42nd Street and Times Square, where he associated with a variety of people, including prostitutes (both male and female) and sailors. During World War II, Huncke shipped out to sea as a United States Merchant Marine to ports in South America, Africa and Europe. He landed on the beach of Normandy three days after the invasion.  Aboard ships, Huncke would overcome his drug addiction or maintain it with morphine syrettes supplied by the ship medic. When he returned to New York, he returned to 42nd Street, and it was after one such trip where he met the then-unknown William S. Burroughs, who was selling a sub-machine gun and a box of syrettes. Their first meeting was not cordial: from Burroughs' appearance and manner, Huncke suspected that he was "heat" (undercover police or FBI). Assured that Burroughs was harmless, Huncke bought the morphine and, at Burroughs' request, immediately gave him an injection. Burroughs later wrote a fictionalized account of the meeting in his first novel, "Junkie". Huncke also became a close friend of Joan Adams Vollmer Burroughs, William's common-law wife, sharing with her a taste for amphetamines. In the late 1940s he was invited to Texas to grow marijuana on the Burroughs farm. It was here he renewed his acquaintance with the young Abe Green, a fellow train jumper and much later on in the early beatnik scene, a regular reciter of his own enigmatic brand of spontaneous poetry. Despite his comparative youth, Green was often referred to by Huncke as "Old Faithful". Huncke valued loyalty and it is thought that Abe Green was of "inestimable assistance" to Lucien Carr and Jack Kerouac when it came to the concealment of the weapon used to kill David Kammerer some years later.  During the late 1940s, Huncke was recruited to be a subject in Alfred Kinsey's research on the sexual habits of the American male. He was interviewed by Kinsey, and recruited fellow addicts and friends to participate. Huncke had been a writer, unpublished, since his days in Chicago and gravitated toward literary types and musicians. In the music world, Huncke visited all the jazz clubs and associated with Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker and Dexter Gordon (with whom he was once busted on 42nd Street for breaking into a parked car). When he first met Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs, they were interested in writing and also unpublished. They were inspired by his stories of 42nd Street life, criminal life, street slang and his vast experience with drugs. Huncke was immortalized in Kerouac's "On the Road" as the character Elmo Hassel.  Although it was his passion for thievery, heroin use and the outlaw lifestyle which fueled his daily activities, when he was caught he refused to inform on his friends. In the late 1940s, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Melody and "Detroit Redhead" (Vicki Russell / Priscilla Arminger) flipped a car in Queens, New York, while trying to run down a motorcycle cop. Although Huncke was not at the scene of the crime, he was arrested in Manhattan because he resided with Ginsberg, and he received a lengthy prison sentence.  "Someone had to do the bid," Huncke said years later.

Writing career.

Huncke himself was a natural storyteller, a unique character with a paradoxically honest take on life. Later, after the formation of the so-called Beat Generation, members of the Beats encouraged Huncke to publish his notebook writings, which he did with limited success in 1964 with Diane DiPrima's Poet's Press. (Huncke's Journal) Huncke used the word "Beat" to describe someone living with no money and few prospects. "Beat to my socks," he said. Huncke coined the phrase in a conversation with Jack Kerouac, who was interested in how their generation would be remembered. "I'm beat," was Huncke's reply, meaning tired and beat to his socks. Kerouac used the term to describe an entire generation. Jack Kerouac later insisted that "Beat" was derived from beatification, to be supremely happy. However, it is thought that this definition was a defense of the beat way of life, which was frowned upon and offended many American sensibilities.  His autobiography, titled "Guilty of Everything", was lived in the 1940s and 1960s but published in 1987.  In 1991, Herbert Huncke was crowned King of the Beaux Arts Ball. He presided with Queen Fay Wray.  Huncke died in 1996 at age 81. He had been living for several years in a garden apartment on East 7th Street near Avenue D in New York City, supported financially by his friends. In his last few years, he lived in the Chelsea Hotel, where his rent came from financial support from Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead, whom Huncke never met.

Quotes on Huncke.

Jack Kerouac described Huncke in his "Now it's Jazz" reading from "Desolation Angels", chapter 77:  Huck, whom you'll see on Times Square, somnolent and alert, sad, sweet, dark, holy. Just out of jail. Martyred. Tortured by sidewalks, starved for sex and companionship, open to anything, ready to introduce a new world with a shrug.  John Clellon Holmes described Albert Ancke, his representation of Huncke in "Go" in Chapter 14 of part 2:  A sallow, wrinkled little hustler, hatless and occupying a crumpled sport shirt as though crouched in it to hide his withered body.  Admired by David Wojnarowicz in his personal diaries, "In the Shadow of the American Dream", where their meetings/dates are documented.  Frank McCourt mentions knowing Huncke in Chapter 16 of "Teacher Man":  Alcohol is not his habit but he'll kindly allow you to buy him a drink at Montero's. His voice is deep, gentle and musical. He never forgets his manners and you'd rarely think of him as Huncke the Junkie. He respects law and obeys none of it.

Huncke in film.

Huncke was featured in several documentaries about the Beat generation, including Janet Forman's "The Beat Generation: An American Dream," Richard Lerner and Lewis MacAdams' "What Happened to Kerouac?", John Antonelli's "Kerouac, the Movie", and Howard Brookner's documentary about William Burroughs, "". He also starred in his only acting role in "The Burning Ghat" by James Rasin and Jerome Poynton.

Herbert Edwin Huncke (January 9, 1915 – August 8, 1996) was an American writer and poet, and active participant in a number of emerging cultural, social and aesthetic movements of the 20th century in America. He was a member of the Beat Generation and is reputed to have coined the term.


Development and production.

The "Skjold"-class vessels began with the development of the Royal Norwegian Navy's "Project SMP 6081", and the first preproduction version was ordered on 30 August 1996. The first ship of its class, P960, was launched on 22 September 1998 and commissioned 17 April 1999. A Norwegian Parliamentary White Paper of 2001 recommended building five additional boats, and this was agreed to in 2002. Six "Skjold"-class vessels replaced the Royal Norwegian Navy's previous fourteen s.

Design.

The "Skjold" design is a surface effect craft, constructed of glass fibre/carbon composite materials. Buoyancy is augmented underway by a fan-blown skirted compartment between the two rigid catamaran-type hulls. This provides an alternative solution to the planing hull/vee hull compromise: the air cushion reduces wave slam at high speeds while presenting a low-drag flat planing profile at the waterline.  To ensure stealth capabilities, anechoic coatings of radar absorbent materials (RAM) have been used in the load-bearing structures over large areas of the ship. This strategy leads to significant weight saving compared to the conventional construction technique of applying RAM cladding to the external surfaces. The ship's profile has a faceted appearance with no right angle structures and few orientations of reflective panels. Doors and hatches are flush with the surfaces and the windows are flush without visible coaming (edge of window aperture) and are fitted with radar reflective screens. The vessels are additionally protected by the Rheinmetall MASS sensor / decoy system.  The final design was changed compared to the prototype "Skjold", which itself was rebuilt to the new specifications. Most notably, the vessels use 4 gas turbines combined by Renk COGAG gear units built in a lightweight design. The smaller gas turbines rated 2,000 kW turbines are used for cruising speed. For sprint speed a second, larger gas turbine is combined providing a total of 6,000 kW to the waterjet on each shaft line. Two MTU 123 cruise diesel propulsion units used previously at loiter speeds were removed. The foredeck was strengthened to accommodate the addition of a 76 mm Otobreda Super Rapid gun.  The hull material was produced by a different method to improve strength and minimize vulnerability to fire. The bridge saw some changes, including an upgrade to six weapon systems control consoles.

US Navy.

The U.S. Navy and Coast Guard expressed interest in the design and leased the P960 for a period of one year, from 2001 until 2002. During that time it was operated by a 14-man Norwegian crew out of Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek.

"Skjold"-class corvettes (skjold means "shield" in Norwegian) are a class of six large, superfast, stealth missile corvettes in service with the Royal Norwegian Navy. The boats were formerly classed as MTBs (motor torpedo boats) but, from 2009, the Royal Norwegian Navy has described them as corvettes ("korvett") because their seaworthiness is seen as comparable to corvettes, and because they do not carry torpedoes. They were built at the Umoe Mandal yard. With a maximum speed of, the "Skjold"-class corvettes were the fastest combat ships afloat at the time of their introduction.


Life.

Richard Graf von Belcredi was born on 12 February 1823, in Jimramov (Ingrowitz), in the Margraviate of Moravia, the youngest son of Count Eduard von Belcredi (1786–1838) and his wife Countess Maria von Fünfkirchen (1790–1860). The Belcredi noble family originally descended from Lombardy, where they had been vested with the estates of Montalto Pavese by the Sforza dukes of Milan. Count Richard's ancestors settled in Moravia from 1769 onwards.  He studied law at the universities of Prague and Vienna; in 1854, he was appointed district captain ("Bezirkshauptmann") in Znojmo (Znaim). In 1861, he was elected member of the "Landtag" diet of Austrian Silesia and MP of the Imperial Council. He became head of the Austrian Silesian regional government one year later. In 1864, he was promoted to the official rank of "Geheimrat" (Secret Councillor) and appointed Imperial-Royal governor of Bohemia in Prague.

Three Count Ministry.

In February 1865, Count Richard Belcredi, as the Austrian minister of state, convened a meeting of Viennese bankers to find ways to finance projects. In June 1865, Emperor Franz Josef I chose Belcredi, a declared Conservative, to become Prime Minister and Minister of State, replacing the government of Archduke Rainer Ferdinand of Austria and Anton von Schmerling, who had resigned after failure in his Liberal centralizing policies. Belcredi accepted his nomination, by his own accounts only from a sense of duty. His cabinet was called the "Three Count Ministry" although, actually, four counts were in charge: Minister President Belcredi himself, Alexander von Mensdorff-Pouilly as foreign minister, Johann Larisch von Moennich as finance minister, and Moritz Esterházy de Galantha as a minister without portfolio.  The Austrian government had to face the rising "Hungarian question", that eventually led to the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. On 20 September 1865, Belcredi had the 1861 February Patent suspended. Against delaying actions by Belcredi, the Compromise was achieved after the Austrian defeat in the Austro-Prussian War and the 1866 Peace of Prague, ending the monarchy's membership in the German Confederation. On October 30, Foreign Minister Mensdorff-Pouilly was succeeded by Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust who conducted the negotiations with Hungary and prepared a draft for the Cisleithanian December Constitution.  Beust's concept of a Dual Monarchy finally prevailed against Belcredi's plans to implement a federation of the Austrian crown lands, similar to later proposals of United States of Greater Austria. On 7 February 1867, Belcredi handed in his resignation. In 1881 he was appointed president of the Imperial-Royal Administrative Court and life member of the Austrian House of Lords.

Count Richard von Belcredi (; 12 February 1823 – 2 December 1902) was an Austrian civil servant and statesman, who served as Minister-President (and 'Minister of State') of the Austrian Empire from 1865 to 1867. During 1881–1895, Belcredi was President of the Cisleithanian Administrative Court.


Life and career.

Czerniaków was born on 30 November 1880 in Warsaw, Poland (then part of the Russian Partition). He studied engineering in Warsaw and Dresden and taught in the Jewish community's vocational school in Warsaw. From 1927 to 1934 he served as member of the Warsaw Municipal Council, and in May 1930 was elected to the Polish Senate. On 4 October 1939, a few days after Warsaw surrendered to Nazi Germany, Czerniaków was made head of the 24 member Jewish Council ("Judenrat"), responsible for implementing German orders in the new Jewish Ghetto. The Warsaw Ghetto was closed to the outside world on November 15, 1940.

The Warsaw Ghetto deportations.

As the German authorities began preparing for mass deportations of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the newly built Treblinka extermination camp in July 1942, the Jewish Council was ordered to provide lists of Jews and maps of their residences. On 22 July 1942, the Judenrat received instructions from the SS that all Warsaw Jews were to be "resettled" to the East. Exceptions were made for Jews working in Nazi German factories, Jewish hospital staff, members of the Council and the Jewish Ghetto Police with their families. Over the course of the day Czerniaków obtained exemptions for a handful of individuals, including sanitation workers, husbands of women working in factories, and some vocational students. Despite pleading he was unable to obtain an exemption for the children in Janusz Korczak's orphanage or other ghetto orphanages. The orders stated that deportations would begin immediately at the rate of 6,000 people per day, to be supplied by the Jewish Council and the Ghetto Police. Failure would result in the execution of 100 hostages, including Council employees and Czerniaków's wife.  Realizing that deportation meant death, Czerniaków went to plead for the orphans. When he failed, he returned to his office at 26/28 Grzybowska Street and killed himself by taking a cyanide capsule. He left a suicide note to his wife, reading “They demand me to kill children of my nation with my own hands. I have nothing to do but to die,” and one to his fellow members of the Council, explaining: "I can no longer bear all this. My act will prove to everyone what is the right thing to do." He was succeeded by his deputy Marek Lichtenbaum.

Diary of Adam Czerniaków.

Czerniaków kept a diary from 6 September 1939 until the day of his death. It was published in 1979 and has been translated into English. His wife, Niunia (dr Felicja Czerniakówa), survived the war and preserved his diaries; their only son, Jaś (Jan), fled to Soviet territory but did not survive the war. Adam Czerniaków is interred in the Okopowa Street Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw.  In the 2001 Warner Bros motion picture, "Uprising", actor Donald Sutherland portrayed Adam Czerniaków. Excerpts of his diary are featured in the 2010 documentary film "A Film Unfinished".  The theatre company Voices of the Holocaust toured England during 2013-14 with the play "Fragile Fire" based on the Warsaw Ghetto uprising which featured scenes depicting Czerniaków. In 2015 the actor and writer Tim Dalgleish (formerly of Voices of the Holocaust) wrote a full-length play based on Czerniaków's journals called "The Last Days of Adam: The true story of Adam Czerniaków". The play depicted Czerniaków as a conflicted character, torn between the need to ameliorate the worst excesses of the Nazis and the danger of being manipulated into becoming a collaborator.  American composer Arnold Rosner's "From the Diaries of Adam Czerniaków", Op. 82 is a half-hour classical music work composed in 1986 and scored for full orchestra and a narrator, who reads selected diary entries. The work was commissioned and later recorded by the conductor David Amos. According to the work's only commercial recording, made in 2015, the English translation of Czerniaków's words was made by Raul Hilberg and Stanislaw Staron, in collaboration with Josef Kermisz of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

Adam Czerniaków (30 November 1880 – 23 July 1942) was a Polish engineer and senator who was head of the Warsaw Ghetto Jewish Council ("Judenrat") during World War II. He committed suicide on 23 July 1942 by swallowing a cyanide pill, a day after the commencement of mass extermination of Jews known as the Grossaktion Warsaw.


Biography.

Destinn was born Emílie Pavlína Věnceslava Kittlová () in Prague, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  Her voice teacher since age thirteen had been Marie Maria von Dreger Loewe-Destinn, and the young singer began using her teacher's surname as a tribute. She was let go after the short engagement at the Dresden Opera and declined by Prague National Theatre in 1897. She debuted on 19 July 1898 at the Berlin Court Opera as Santuzza in "Cavalleria rusticana". She made such progress that the intendant of the Berlin Court Opera engaged her at once when she was brought to intendant's notice. She was only nineteen at the time, but her voice and her acting soon won the Berlin public. Her engagement in Berlin lasted until 27 October 1909. She sang in 54 operas, including 12 premieres.  Her fame became international in 1901 when she was invited to sing the part of Senta in "Der Fliegende Holländer" at Germany's Bayreuth Festspielhaus. She returned to sing the same role the next year.  Destinn made her London debut at Covent Garden's Royal Opera House on 2 May 1904, as Donna Anna in "Don Giovanni". She appeared there in several operas for the next two seasons, including the London premiere of "Madama Butterfly" with Caruso. Her Metropolitan Opera debut came in 1908 with an acclaimed performance of "Aida", after she was released from her contract with the Berlin Court Opera. Two years later at the Met, she created the role of Minnie in the premiere of Puccini's "La fanciulla del West", again opposite Caruso, and under the direction of Arturo Toscanini.  While she was highly successful in the lighter roles of Wagner's operas, her "spinto" voice—although large in size, with a ringing top register—was better suited to German music of a less declamatory type. She also excelled in the French part of Carmen, in which she was said to rival Calvé, and in the Italian roles of Aida, Madama Butterfly and Leonora (in "Il trovatore").  Destin's career suffered a fatal blow in World War I. She returned to her homeland after the start of the war in 1914, but her links with the patriotic Czech resistance caused her passport to be revoked. She was interned at her chateau for the remainder of the conflict. By the time that she returned to the Met in 1919, her voice had become rusty and she had been replaced in the hearts of New York audiences by a new generation of singers, although she did still continue to sing with the company until 1921.

Last years and death.

Destinn returned to Czechoslovakia, where she married Joseph Halsbach, a Czech air-force officer, in 1923. She retired from the stage in 1926 and died from a stroke in České Budějovice, Czechoslovakia a month before her 52nd birthday. She is interred in the Vyšehrad cemetery in Prague.

Legacy.

Her likeness appeared in 1996 on the 2,000 Czech koruna banknote. The main-belt asteroid 6583 Destinn is named after her.

Emmy Destinn ( (); 26 February 1878 – 28 January 1930) was a Czech operatic soprano with a strong and soaring lyric-dramatic voice. She had a career both in Europe and at the New York Metropolitan Opera.


History.

Origin and creation of the state.

Information from first-hand sources on Volga Bulgaria is rather sparse. As no authentic Bulgar records have survived, most of our information comes from contemporary Arabic, Persian, Indo-Aryan or Russian sources. Some information is provided by excavations. It is believed the territory of Volga Bulgaria was originally settled by Finno-Ugric peoples, including Mari people.  The original Bulgars were Turkic tribes, who settled north of the Black Sea. During their westward migration across the Eurasian steppe, they absorbed other ethnic groups, including Hunnic and certain Iranic peoples. About 630 they founded Old Great Bulgaria which was destroyed by the Khazars in 668. Kubrat's son and appointed heir Batbayan Bezmer moved from the Azov region in about AD 660, commanded by the Kazarig Khagan Kotrag to whom he had surrendered. They reached Idel-Ural in the eighth century, where they became the dominant population at the end of the 9th century, uniting other tribes of different origin which lived in the area. Some Bulgar tribes, however, continued westward and eventually settled along the Danube River, in what is now known as Bulgaria proper, where they created a confederation with the Slavs, adopting a South Slavic language and the Eastern Orthodox faith.  Most scholars agree that the Volga Bulgars were initially subject to the Khazarian Khaganate. This fragmented Volga Bulgaria grew in size and power and gradually freed from the influence of the Khazars. Sometime in the late 9th century unification processes started, and the capital was established at Bolghar (also spelled Bulgar) city, 160 km south from modern Kazan. However complete independence was reached after Khazaria's destruction and conquest by Sviatoslav in the late 10th century, thus Bulgars no longer paid tribute to it.  Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur named the Volga Bulgar people as "Ulak".

Conversion to Islam and further statehood.

Volga Bulgaria adopted Islam in 922 – 66 years before the Christianization of Kievan Rus'. In 921 Almış sent an ambassador to the Caliph requesting religious instruction. Next year an embassy returned with Ibn Fadlan as secretary. A significant number of Muslims already lived in the country.  The Volga Bulgars attempted to convert Vladimir I of Kiev to Islam; however Vladimir rejected the notion of Rus' giving up wine, which he declared was the "very joy of their lives".  Commanding the Volga River in its middle course, the state controlled much of trade between Europe and Asia prior to the Crusades (which made other trade routes practicable). The capital, Bolghar, was a thriving city, rivalling in size and wealth with the greatest centres of the Islamic world. Trade partners of Bolghar included from Vikings, Bjarmland, Yugra and Nenets in the north to Baghdad and Constantinople in the south, from Western Europe to China in the East. Other major cities included Bilär, Suar (Suwar), Qaşan (Kashan) and Cükätaw (Juketau). Modern cities Kazan and Yelabuga were founded as Volga Bulgaria's border fortresses. Some of the Volga Bulgarian cities still have not been found, but they are mentioned in old East Slavic sources. They are: Ashli (Oshel), Tuxçin (Tukhchin), İbrahim (Bryakhimov), Taw İle. Some of them were ruined during and after the Golden Horde invasion.  The Rus' principalities to the west posed the only tangible military threat. In the 11th century, the country was devastated by several raids by other Rus'. Then, at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries, the rulers of Vladimir (notably Andrew the Pious and Vsevolod III), anxious to defend their eastern border, systematically pillaged Bulgarian cities. Under Russian pressure from the west, the Volga Bulgars had to move their capital from Bolghar to Bilär.

Decline.

In September 1223 near Samara an advance guard of Genghis Khan's army under command of Uran, son of Subutai Bahadur, entered Volga Bulgaria but was defeated in the Battle of Samara Bend. In 1236, the Mongols returned and in five years had subjugated the whole country, which at that time was suffering from internal war. Henceforth Volga Bulgaria became a part of the Ulus Jochi, later known as the Golden Horde. It was divided into several principalities; each of them became a vassal of the Golden Horde and received some autonomy. By the 1430s, the Khanate of Kazan was established as the most important of these principalities.

Demographics.

A large part of the region's population included Turkic groups such as Sabirs, Barsil, Bilars, Baranjars, and part of the possibly Iranic Burtas (by ibn Rustah). Modern Chuvashes claim to descend from Sabirs and Kazan Tatars from the Volga Bulgars.  Another part comprised Volga Finnic and Magyar (Asagel and Pascatir) tribes, from which Bisermäns probably descend. Ibn Fadlan refers to Volga Bulgaria as Saqaliba, a general Arabic term for Slavic people. Other researches tie the term to the ethnic name Scythian (or Saka in Persian).  According to some historians, over 80% of the country's population was killed during the invasion. The remaining population mostly relocated to the northern areas (territories of modern Chuvashia and Tatarstan). Some autonomous duchies appeared in those areas. The steppe areas of Volga Bulgaria may have been settled by nomadic Kipchaks and Mongols, and the agricultural development suffered a severe decline.  Over time, the cities of Volga Bulgaria were rebuilt and became trade and craft centers of the Golden Horde. Some Volga Bulgars, primarily masters and craftsmen, were forcibly moved to Sarai and other southern cities of the Golden Horde. Volga Bulgaria remained a center of agriculture and handicraft.

Volga Bulgaria (, ) or Volga–Kama Bulghar, was a historic Bulgar state that existed between the 7th and 13th centuries around the confluence of the Volga and Kama River, in what is now European Russia. Volga Bulgaria was a multi-ethnic state with large numbers of Turkic Bulgars, a variety of Finnic and Ugric peoples, and many East Slavs. The very strategic position of Volga Bulgaria allowed it to create a monopoly between the trade of Arabs, Norse and Avars.