Transmission.

"E. granulosus" requires two host types, a definitive host and an intermediate host. The definitive host of this parasite are dogs and the intermediate host are most commonly sheep, however, cattle, horses, pigs, goats, and camels are also potential intermediate hosts. Humans can also be an intermediate host for "E. granulosus", however this is uncommon and therefore humans are considered an aberrant intermediate host.  "E. granulosus" is ingested and attaches to the mucosa of the intestines in the definitive host and there the parasite will grow into the adult stages. Adult "E. granulosus" release eggs within the intestine which will be transported out of the body via feces. When contaminated waste is excreted into the environment, intermediate host has the potential to contract the parasite by grazing in contaminated pasture, perpetuating the cycle.  "E. granulosus" is transmitted from the intermediate host (sheep) to the definitive host (dogs) by frequent feeding of offal, also referred to as “variety meat” or “organ meat”. Consuming offal containing "E. granulosus" can lead to infection; however, infection is dependent on many factors.  While adult "E. granulosus" is harmless in dogs, it can be a huge problem in humans. Although rare, the parasite can form a cyst causing cystic echinococcus also known as hydatid disease. Humans can be infected through intimate behavior with dogs causing a person to accidentally ingest eggs. The cyst can cause pressure on surrounding tissue which may lead to abnormal organ function, spontaneous fracture of bones, and other neurological effects.  The frequency of offal feedings, the prevalence of the parasites within the offal, and the age of the intermediate host are factors that affect infection pressure within the definitive host. The immunity of both the definitive and intermediate host plays a large role in the transmission of the parasite, as well as the contact rate between the intermediate and the definitive host (such as herding dogs and pasture animals being kept in close proximity where dogs can contaminate grazing areas with fecal matter). The life expectancy of the parasite, coupled with the frequency of anthelminthic treatments, will also play a role in the rate of infection within a host. The temperature and humidity of the environment can affect the survival of "E. granulosus".  Once sheep are infected, the infection typically remains within the sheep for life. However, in other hosts, such as dogs, treatment for annihilating the parasite is possible. However, the intermediate host is assumed to retain a greater life expectancy than the definitive host.

Diagnosis.

Diagnosis in the definitive host, the dog, may be done by "post mortem" examination of the small intestine, or with some difficulty "ante mortem" by purging with arecoline hydrobromate. Detection of antigens in feces by ELISA is currently the best available technique. The prevalence of "Echinococcus granulosus" was found to be 4.35% in a 2008 study in Bangalore, India employing this coproantigen detection technique. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is also used to identify the parasite from DNA isolated from eggs or feces. However, it is difficult to determine the eggs in feces because it is indistinguishable from other taeniid eggs.  Diagnosis in humans can be done by x-rays, CAT scans, and ultrasounds.

Treatment.

If a human becomes infected there are a variety of methods for treatment. The most common treatment in the past years has been surgical removal of the hydatid cysts. The fluid in the cysts contain antigens that can immunologically sensitize the host, so cyst manipulation should be performed with caution, as spilling of cyst contents can cause anaphylactic shock. However, in recent years, less invasive treatments have been developed such as cyst puncture, aspiration of the liquids, the injection of chemicals, and then re-aspiration. Benzimidazole-based chemotherapy is also a new treatment option for humans.

Prevention.

In order to prevent transmission to dogs from intermediate hosts, dogs can be given anthelminthic vaccinations. In the case of intermediate hosts, especially sheep, these anthelminthic vaccinations do cause an antigenic response—meaning the body produces specific antibody—however it does not prevent infection in the host. Clean slaughter and high surveillance of potential intermediate host during slaughter is key in preventing the spread this cestode to its definitive host. It is vital to keep dogs and potential intermediate host as separated as possible to avoid perpetuating infection. According to mathematical modeling, vaccination of intermediate hosts, coupled with dosing definitive hosts with anthelminths is the most effect method for intervening with infection rates.  Proper disposal of carcasses and offal after home slaughter is difficult in poor and remote communities and therefore dogs readily have access to offal from livestock, thus completing the parasite cycle of "Echinococcus granulosus" and putting communities at risk of cystic echinococcosis. Boiling livers and lungs which contain hydatid cysts for 30 minutes has been proposed as a simple, efficient and energy- and time-saving way to kill the infectious larvae.

Echinococcus granulosus, also called the hydatid worm, hyper tape-worm or dog tapeworm, is a cyclophyllid cestode that dwells in the small intestine of canids as an adult, but which has important intermediate hosts such as livestock and humans, where it causes cystic echinococcosis, also known as hydatid disease. The adult tapeworm ranges in length from 3 mm to 6 mm and has three proglottids ("segments") when intact—an immature proglottid, mature proglottid and a gravid proglottid. The average number of eggs per gravid proglottid is 823. Like all cyclophyllideans, "E. granulosus" has four suckers on its scolex ("head"), and "E. granulosus" also has a rostellum with hooks. Several strains of "E. granulosus" have been identified, and all but two are noted to be infective in humans.


Biography.

Hana Brady was born on May 16 1931 in Prague, the daughter of Markéta (née Dubsky) and Karel Brady. Her family lived in Nové Město na Moravě in the Moravian-Silesian Region of Czechoslovakia. After the occupation of the whole of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany and the creation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia on 15 March 1939, the discriminatory Nuremberg laws began to be applied in this territory. Eight-year-old Hana and her older brother George (born Jiří Brady) watched their parents being arrested and taken away by the Nazis, and never saw them again. Hana and George were sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. In 1944, Hana was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. While her brother survived by working as a labourer, Hana was sent to the gas chambers a few hours after her arrival on 23 October 1944.

"Hana's Suitcase".

The story of Hana Brady first became public when Fumiko Ishioka (石岡史子, "Ishioka Fumiko"), a Japanese educator and director of the Japanese non-profit Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Center, exhibited Hana's suitcase in 2000 as a relic of the concentration camp. Visiting Auschwitz in 1999, Ishioka requested a loan of children's items, things that would convey the story of the Holocaust to other children.  The suitcase turned out to be a very capable means of telling the story of the Holocaust, reaching out to children at their level.  The suitcase has large writing on it, a name and birthdate and the German word, "Waisenkind" (orphan). Ishioka began painstakingly researching Hana's life and eventually found her surviving brother in Canada. The story of Hana Brady and how her suitcase led Ishioka to Toronto became the subject of a CBC documentary. Karen M. Levine (born 1955), the producer of that documentary, was urged to turn the story into a book by a friend who was a publisher and whose parents were Holocaust survivors. Said Levine: In February 2004, Lara Brady, Hana's niece, discovered inconsistencies between the suitcase on display and the suitcase pictured with Hana's friend after the war in the 1960s. Not only did the physical suitcase appear newer than in the photographs, but the location of the handle was also reversed. In March, Fumiko and George Brady inquired about the suitcase with the director of the Auschwitz museum, who explained that a replica had been created based on the pictures after the original suitcase was destroyed in a fire in 1984, while on loan to an English exhibit in Birmingham. This fire was likely caused by arson (according to the director and police at the time.).  As the museum personnel had omitted this fact when they loaned it to the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Center, the fact that the suitcase was a replica had gone unnoticed for several years. The family and the Center assert that even as such, the replica's contribution to the cause of human rights and peace education is not lessened by its lack of authenticity.

Awards and recognition.

The 2002 book became a bestseller and received the Bank Street College of Education Flora Stieglitz Straus Award for non-fiction, the National Jewish Book Award, and several other Canadian awards for children's literature. The book received a nomination for the Governor General's Award and was selected as a final award candidate for the Norma Fleck award. It has been translated into over 20 languages and published around the world. In October 2006, the book won the Yad Vashem award, presented to George Brady at a ceremony in Jerusalem.

Adaptations.

A play based on the book was written by Emil Sher. A film, "Inside Hana's Suitcase", appeared in 2009. The suitcase featured in the CBC documentary was not the original, but a replica. The real suitcase, on loan, was destroyed by neo-Nazi arsonists, who set fire to a warehouse in Birmingham, England, in 1984. The audiobook is available on certain websites. In 2011, a Hebrew version of the play was staged by the Nephesh Theater in Holon, Israel.

Hanička "Hana" Brady (born Hana Bradyová; 16 May 1931 – 23 October 1944) was a Czechoslovakian Jewish girl murdered in the gas chambers at German concentration camp at Auschwitz, located in the occupied territory of Poland, during the Holocaust. She is the subject of the 2002 non-fiction children's book "Hana's Suitcase", written by Karen Levine.


Composition.

The painting depicts a young Dutch blonde girl standing at an open window, in profile, reading a letter. A red drapery hangs over the top of the window glass, which has opened inward and which, in its lower right quadrant, reflects her. A tasseled ochre drapery in the foreground right, partially closed, masks a quarter of the room in which she stands. The color of the drape reflects the green of the woman's gown and the shades of the fruit tilted in a bowl on the red-draped table. On the table beside the bowl, a peach is cut in half, revealing its pit.

Symbolism and technique.

In "Vermeer, 1632–1675" (2000), Norbert Schneider indicates that the open window is on one level intended to represent "the woman's longing to extend her domestic sphere" beyond the constraints of her home and society, while the fruit "is a symbol of extramarital relations." He concludes that the letter is a love letter either planning or continuing her illicit relationship. This conclusion, he says, is supported by the fact that x-rays of the canvas have shown that at one point Vermeer had featured a Cupid in the painting. This putto once hung in the upper right of the piece before, for whatever reason, somebody closed the wall over it. This overpainting, which is now being reversed by restorators, seems to have taken place in the 18th century.  The draperies, hanging in the right foreground, are not an uncommon element for Vermeer, appearing in seven of his paintings. Even more common, the repoussoir appears in 25, with "Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window", one of three which feature a rug-covered table or balustrade between the figure and the viewer. It was the last painting in which Vermeer featured this device.  This painting and "Officer and Laughing Girl" represent the earliest known examples of the pointillé (not to be confused with pointillism) for which Vermeer became known. John Michael Montias in "Vermeer and His Milieu" (1991) points out the "tiny white globules" that can be seen in the brighter parts of both paintings, including the still life elements of both and the blond hair specifically in this work. This use of light may support speculation among art historians that Vermeer used a mechanical optical device, such as a double concave lens mounted in a camera obscura, to help him achieve realistic light patterns in his paintings.

History.

Vermeer completed the painting in approximately 1657–59. In 1742, Augustus III of Poland, Elector of Saxony, purchased the painting under the mistaken belief that it had been painted by Rembrandt. In 1826, it was mis-attributed again, to Pieter de Hooch. It was so labeled when French art critic Théophile Thoré-Bürger came upon it, recognizing it as one of the rare works of the Dutch painter and restoring its proper attribution in 1860.  "Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window" was among the paintings rescued from destruction during the bombing of Dresden in World War II. The painting was stored, with other works of art, in a tunnel in Saxony; when the Red Army encountered them, they took them. The Soviets portrayed this as an act of rescue; some others as an act of plunder. Either way, after the death of Joseph Stalin, the Soviets decided in 1955 to return the art to Germany, "for the purpose of strengthening and furthering the progress of friendship between the Soviet and German peoples." Aggrieved at the thought of losing hundreds of paintings, art historians and museum curators in the Soviet Union suggested that "in acknowledgment for saving and returning the world-famous treasures of the Dresden Gallery" the Germans should perhaps donate to them "Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window" and "Sleeping Venus" by Giorgione. The Germans did not take to the idea, and the painting was returned. Well-preserved, it is on display at the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden.

Painting materials.

The painting was investigated by Hermann Kühn together with several other works of Vermeer in 1968. The pigment analysis has shown that Vermeer's choice of painting materials did not reveal any peculiarities as he used the usual pigments of the baroque period. The green drapery in the foreground is painted mainly in a mixture of blue azurite and lead-tin-yellow, while the lower part contains green earth. For the red drapery in the window and the red parts of the table covering Vermeer used a mixture of vermilion, madder lake and lead white.

Legacy.

This painting has been an inspiration to other artists, such as Tom Hunter, whose artistic photo interpretation of the somber tone of emotion and the bowl of fruit shows a young mother and her child reading "an eviction notice".

Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window (Dutch: "Brieflezend meisje bij het venster") is an oil painting by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer. Completed in approximately 1657–59, the painting is on display at the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden. For many years, the attribution of the painting—which features a young Dutch woman reading a letter before an open window—was lost, with first Rembrandt and then Pieter de Hooch being credited for the work before it was properly identified in 1880. After World War II, the painting was briefly in possession of the Soviet Union. Apparently well-preserved, the painting may have been altered after the painter's death.


Geography.

Krems is located at the confluence of the Krems and Danube Rivers at the eastern end of Wachau valley, in the southern Waldviertel.  Krems borders the following municipalities: Stratzing, Langenlois, Rohrendorf bei Krems, Gedersdorf, Traismauer, Nußdorf ob der Traisen, Paudorf, Furth bei Göttweig, Mautern an der Donau, Dürnstein, and Senftenberg.

History.

Krems was first mentioned in 995 in a certificate of Otto III, but settlement was apparent even before then. For example, a child's grave, over 27,000 years old, was found here. This is the oldest grave found in Austria.  During the 11th and 12th centuries, Chremis, as it was then called, was almost as large as Vienna.  Krems is the primary producer of Marillenschnaps, an apricot brandy.  Krems is the hometown of Martin Johann Schmidt, called "Kremserschmidt", the leading painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Austrian late Baroque.

Population development.

The population (with principal residence status) in the agglomeration was about 50,000 at the end of 2010.

Transport.

The city's main railway station is a junction of the Franz-Josefs Railway to Vienna, the Kremser Railway to St. Pölten, the Donauufer Railway to Spitz and the regional railway to Horn. It is at the intersection of the Stockerauer Speedway S5 and the Kremser Speedway S33, and is traversed by the Danube Road B3, the Retzer Road B35, the Kremser Road B37 and the Langenloiser Road B218. Krems is a junction of the "Wieselbus" bus lines, which provides radial connections between Sankt Pölten and the different regions of Lower Austria.  Main Roads  Railroad  Air traffic

In the city.

A network of four bus lines operates at regular intervals within the city. Every summer, a tourist train connects the ancient parts of the city with museums, the central railway station and the passenger ship terminal of Krems.

Politics.

Municipal council.

The municipal council consists of 40 members and since the municipal elections in 2017 it consists of the following parties:  Municipal elections in Krems were held, as the same time as the Austrian legislative election, 2017 on 15 October 2017.

City's senate.

The city's senate consists of 10 members:

Public facilities.

Leisure and sports sites.

Swimming is available at Kremser Strandbad (indoor swimming pool) and outdoor.

Twin towns.

Krems is twinned with the following cities:

Krems an der Donau (; ) is a town of 23,992 inhabitants in Austria, in the federal state of Lower Austria. It is the fifth-largest city of Lower Austria and is approximately west of Vienna. Krems is a city with its own statute (or "Statutarstadt"), and therefore it is both a municipality and a district.


"Annona muricata".

"Annona muricata" is a species of the genus "Annona" of the custard apple tree family, Annonaceae, which has edible fruit. The fruit is usually called soursop due to its slightly acidic taste when ripe. "Annona muricata" is native to the Caribbean and Central America but is now widely cultivated – and in some areas, becoming invasive – in tropical and subtropical climates throughout the world.

Description.

"Annona muricata" is a small, upright, evergreen tree that can grow to about tall.  Its young branches are hairy. Leaves are oblong to oval, to long and to wide. They are a glossy dark green with no hairs above, and paler and minutely hairy to no hairs below. The leaf stalks are to long and without hairs.  Flower stalks (peduncles) are to long and woody. They appear opposite from the leaves or as an extra from near the leaf stalk, each with one or two flowers, occasionally a third. Stalks for the individual flowers (pedicels) are stout and woody, minutely hairy to hairless and to with small bractlets nearer to the base which are densely hairy.  The petals are thick and yellowish. Outer petals meet at the edges without overlapping and are broadly ovate, to by to, tapering to a point with a heart shaped base. They are evenly thick, and are covered with long, slender, soft hairs externally and matted finely with soft hairs within. Inner petals are oval shaped and overlap. They measure roughly to by, and are sharply angled and tapering at the base. Margins are comparatively thin, with fine matted soft hairs on both sides. The receptacle is conical and hairy. The stamens are long and narrowly wedge-shaped. The connective-tip terminate abruptly and anther hollows are unequal. Sepals are quite thick and do not overlap. Carpels are linear and basally growing from one base. The ovaries are covered with dense reddish brown hairs, 1-ovuled, style short and stigma truncate. Its pollen is shed as permanent tetrads.  The fruits are dark green and prickly. They are ovoid and can be up to long, with a moderately firm texture. Their flesh is juicy, acid, whitish and aromatic.

Distribution.

"Annona muricata" is tolerant of poor soil and prefers lowland areas between the altitudes of 0 to. It cannot stand frost. The exact origin is unknown; it is native to the tropical regions of the Americas and is widely propagated. It is an introduced species on all temperate continents, especially in subtropical regions.

Cultivation.

The plant is grown for its long, prickly, green fruit, which can have a mass of up to, making it probably the second biggest annona after the junglesop. Away from its native area, some limited production occurs as far north as southern Florida within USDA Zone 10; however, these are mostly garden plantings for local consumption. It is also grown in parts of Southeast Asia and is abundant on the Island of Mauritius. The main suppliers of the fruit are Mexico followed by Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Haiti.

Uses.

The flesh of the fruit consists of an edible, white pulp, some fiber, and a core of indigestible black seeds. The pulp is also used to make fruit nectar, smoothies, fruit juice drinks, as well as candies, sorbets, and ice cream flavorings. Due to the fruit's widespread cultivation, its derivative products are consumed in many countries like Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia and Fiji. The seeds are normally left in the preparation, and removed while consuming, unless a blender is used for processing.  In Indonesia, "dodol sirsak", a sweetmeat, is made by boiling soursop pulp in water and adding sugar until the mixture hardens. Soursop is also a common ingredient for making fresh fruit juices that are sold by street food vendors. In the Philippines, it is called "guyabano", derived from the Spanish "guanábana", and is eaten ripe, or used to make juices, smoothies, or ice cream. Sometimes, they use the leaf in tenderizing meat. In Vietnam, this fruit is called "mãng cầu Xiêm" (Siamese Soursop) in the south, or "mãng cầu" (Soursop) in the north, and is used to make smoothies, or eaten as is. In Cambodia, this fruit is called "tearb barung", literally "western custard-apple fruit." In Malaysia, it is known in Malay as "durian belanda" ("Dutch durian") and in East Malaysia, specifically among the Dusun people of Sabah, it is locally known as "lampun". Popularly, it is eaten raw when it ripens, or used as one of the ingredients in "Ais Kacang" or "Ais Batu Campur". Usually the fruits are taken from the tree when they mature and left to ripen in a dark corner, whereafter they will be eaten when they are fully ripe. It has a white flower with a very pleasing scent, especially in the morning. While for people in Brunei Darussalam this fruit is popularly known as "Durian Salat", widely available and easily planted.

Nutrition.

Raw soursop is 81% water, 17% carbohydrates, 1% protein, and has negligible fat (table). In a 100 gram reference amount, the raw fruit supplies 66 calories, and contains only vitamin C as a significant amount (25%) of the Daily Value, with no other micronutrients in appreciable amounts (table).

Phytochemicals.

The compound annonacin is contained in the fruit, seeds, and leaves of soursop. The leaves of "Annona muricata" contain annonamine, which is an aporphine-class alkaloid containing a quaternary ammonium group.

Potential neurotoxicity.

The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center cautions, "alkaloids extracted from graviola may cause neuronal dysfunction". Annonacin has been shown in laboratory research to be neurotoxic. In 2010, the French food safety agency, Agence française de sécurité sanitaire des produits de santé, concluded that "it is not possible to confirm that the observed cases of atypical Parkinson syndrome... are linked to the consumption of "Annona muricata"".

Bogus cancer treatment.

In 2008, the Federal Trade Commission in the United States stated that use of soursop to treat cancer was "bogus", and there was "no credible scientific evidence" that the extract of soursop sold by Bioque Technologies "can prevent, cure, or treat cancer of any kind." Also in 2008, a UK court case relating to the sale of Triamazon, a soursop product, resulted in the criminal conviction of a man under the terms of the UK Cancer Act for offering to treat people for cancer. A spokesman for the council that instigated the action stated, "it is as important now as it ever was that people are protected from those peddling unproven products with spurious claims as to their effects."  The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Cancer Research UK state that cancer treatment using soursop is not supported by reliable clinical evidence. According to Cancer Research UK, "Many sites on the internet advertise and promote graviola capsules as a cancer cure, but none of them are supported by any reputable scientific cancer organisations" and "there is no evidence to show that graviola works as a cure for cancer".

Soursop (also graviola, guyabano, and in Latin America, guanábana) is the fruit of Annona muricata, a broadleaf, flowering, evergreen tree. The exact origin is unknown; it is native to the tropical regions of the Americas and the Caribbean and is widely propagated. It is in the same genus, "Annona", as cherimoya and is in the Annonaceae family.


History.

BATE is an acronym of Borisov Automobile and Tractor Electronics. The team was founded in 1973 and managed to win Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic league three times (1974, 1976 and 1979) before being disbanded in 1984. The club was re-established in 1996. Since then, BATE have won the Belarusian Premier League 15 times and competed in UEFA competitions. In 2001, BATE reached the first round of the UEFA Cup, their first appearance in the competition beyond the qualifying rounds. 2008 saw BATE becoming the first Belarusian team to qualify for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League. As of 2015, BATE have played five times in the Champions League group stage, as well as twice in UEFA Europa League group stage, also reaching the knockout phase of the latter competition in 2010–11 and 2012–13.  Notable former players of BATE include Alexander Hleb (VfB Stuttgart, Arsenal, Barcelona and Birmingham City); Vitali Kutuzov (Milan, Sporting CP, Avellino, Sampdoria, Parma, Pisa and Bari) and Yuri Zhevnov (FC Moscow, and Zenit Saint Petersburg). Having started their professional careers with BATE, all are also former or present members of the Belarus national team.  BATE won their tenth consecutive league title in 2015, with four matches to spare. In the 2017 season, BATE drew an average home league attendance of 5,633, the second-highest in the league.

Supporters.

BATE Borisov is one of the most popular football teams in Belarus. BATE fans have developed a rivalry with the fans of Dinamo Minsk and a friendship with fans of Polish club Piast Gliwice since 2011.

European record.

"As of August 15, 2019"

FC BATE Borisov (, ;, "FK BATE Borisov" ) is a professional Belarusian football team from the city of Barysaw. The club competes in the Belarusian Premier League, of which they are the league's most successful club with 15 titles, including 13 won consecutively. The club has also won four Belarusian Cups and four Belarusian Super Cups.


History.

Originally a minor league known as the Western League which existed 1885 to 1899, with teams in mostly Great Lakes states, the newly organized Western League later developed into a rival major league after the previous American Association (1882–1891) disbanded after ten seasons as a competitor to the older National League of Professional Baseball Clubs (usually known as the National League) which was founded in 1876. In its early history of the late 1880s, the minor Western League struggled until 1894, when Ban Johnson (1864–1931) became the president of the league. Johnson led the Western League into elevation as claiming major league status and soon became the president of the newly renamed American League of Professional Baseball Clubs (also simply called the American League) in 1901. The American League was founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the former Republican Hotel by five Irishmen. A historical marker is at the intersection of North Old World 3rd Street and West Kilbourn Avenue where the hotel once stood.  George Herman ("Babe") Ruth (1895–1948), noted as one of the most prolific hitters in Major League Baseball history, spent the majority of his career in the American League with the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees (plus his first year with his hometown team, the Baltimore Orioles of the minor level International League). The American League has one notable difference versus the rival National League, in that in modern times since 1973 it has had the designated hitter rule. Under the rule, a team may use a batter in its lineup who is not in the field defensively, replacing the pitcher in the batting order, compared to the old rule that made it mandatory for the pitcher to bat. In the last two decades, the season schedule has allowed occasional interleague play. In 1969, the AL (and NL) were divided into East and West divisions, with a postseason playoff series for the pennant and the right to play in the World Series.  Until the late 1970s, league umpires working behind home plate wore large, balloon-style chest protectors worn outside the shirt or coat, while their brethren in the National League wore chest protectors inside the shirt or coat. In 1977, new umpires (including Steve Palermo) had to wear the inside chest protector, although those on staff wearing the outside protector could continue to do so. Most umpires made the switch to the inside protector, led by Don Denkinger in 1975 and Jim Evans the next year, although several did not, including Bill Haller, Lou DiMuro, Russ Goetz, George Maloney, Bill Kunkel and Jerry Neudecker, who became the last full-time MLB umpire to use the outside protector in 1985.  In 1994, the league, along with the National League, reorganized again, into three divisions (East, West, and Central) and added a third round to the playoffs in the form of the American League Division Series, with the best second-place team advancing to the playoffs as a wild-card team, in addition to the three divisional champions. In 1998, the newly franchised Tampa Bay Devil Rays joined the league, and the Arizona Diamondbacks joined the National League: i.e., each league each added a fifteenth team. An odd number of teams per league meant that at least one team in each league would have to be idle on any given day, or alternatively that odd team out would have had to play an interleague game against its counterpart in the other league. The initial plan was to have three five-team divisions per league with inter league play year-round—possibly as many as 30 interleague games per team each year.  For various reasons, it soon seemed more practical to have an even number of teams in both leagues. The Milwaukee Brewers agreed to change leagues, moving from the AL Central to the NL Central. At the same time, the Detroit Tigers were moved from the AL East to the AL Central, making room for the Devil Rays in the East. Following the move of the Houston Astros, which had been in the NL for 51 years since beginning as an expansion team in 1962, to the American League in 2013, both leagues now consist of 15 teams, a far cry from their original 8 for the first half-century of the 20th century.

Permanent Interleague play.

For the first 96 years, American League teams faced their National League counterparts only in exhibition games or in the World Series. Beginning in 1997, interleague games have been played during the regular season and count in the standings. As part of the agreement instituting interleague play, the designated-hitter rule is used only in games where the American League team is the home team.

Teams.

Charter franchises.

There were eight charter teams in 1901, the league's first year as a major league, and the next year the original Milwaukee Brewers moved to St. Louis to become the St. Louis Browns. These franchises constituted the league for 52 seasons, until the Browns moved to Baltimore and took up the name Baltimore Orioles. All eight original franchises remain in the American League, although only four remain in the original cities (Detroit, Chicago, Boston, and Cleveland). The eight original teams and their counterparts in the "Classic Eight" were:

American League presidents.

Following the 1999 season, the American and National Leagues were merged with Major League Baseball, and the leagues ceased to exist as business entities. The position of the American League President and National League President became honorary.

The bombing of Dresden was a British-American aerial bombing attack on the city of Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony, during World War II. In four raids between 13 and 15 February 1945, 722 heavy bombers of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and 527 of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) dropped more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices on the city. The bombing and the resulting firestorm destroyed more than of the city centre. An estimated 22,700 to 25,000 people were killed. Three more USAAF air raids followed, two occurring on 2 March aimed at the city's railway marshalling yard and one smaller raid on 17 April aimed at industrial areas.


Career.

Domracheva started her sports career with cross-country skiing in 1992 but switched to biathlon in 1999. She originally represented Russia at the junior level but received an offer to transfer to Belarus in 2004. She joined Belarus’ national biathlon team in 2006 (having made her junior team debut in 2005). Domracheva won sprint and pursuit at the 2005 IBU Youth and Junior World Championships in Kontiolahti (Finland). She finished 40th in the individual race (the diopter fell off, and she missed 5 targets at the third shooting stage.)  Domracheva took 3rd place in the pursuit and 4th place in the individual events at the 2006 Junior World Championships in Presque Isle, Maine. In 2007, she picked up two silver medals in sprint and pursuit at the Junior World Championships in Martell, Italy.  Her breakthrough came during the 2008/2009 season when she earned two third places and one second place.  At the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, she won the bronze medal in the Women's 15-kilometer individual race at the Whistler Olympic Park venue. Later in the same season, on 13 March, she won her first World Cup race in the sprint in Kontiolahti, Finland. The next day she also won the pursuit.  Domracheva was named Belarus' Female Athlete of the Year in 2010, and was also given the title of Honoured Master of Sport that year.  She continued to improve after the Vancouver Olympics, winning 10 world cup races between the 2011-2013 seasons, as well as becoming the world champion in the pursuit in 2012, and the mass start in 2013.  In 2014 Domracheva was given the Hero of Belarus medal, after winning three gold medals at the 2014 Winter Olympics.  In August 2015, Domracheva decided to skip the 2015–16 World Cup season due to mononucleosis which was diagnosed in July.  Domracheva confirmed her pregnancy in April 2016, and said that she plans to return to compete in 2017. Domracheva returned to the World Cup in January 2017 for the 2016–17 season. Her comeback ended up being successful, winning a silver medal at the 2017 world championships in the individual pursuit in preparation for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. At the 2018 Winter Olympics, she was unable to defend her Olympic titles from Sochi; however she was still able to pick up a silver medal in the mass start individually, and helped the Belarusian team win the historic first Olympic gold medal in the relay. She finished the 2018 season ranked 3rd overall in the Biathlon World Cup, and announced her retirement in June, citing difficulties in combining both elite sport and parenting. She finished her career as Belarus’ most decorated winter Olympian, and most decorated Olympian of either the winter or summer games to compete for Belarus as an independent nation; gymnasts Olga Korbut and Vitaly Scherbo both have more medals, but Korbut competed for the Soviet Union and Scherbo only received 4 of his medals competing for Belarus; his remaining medals were won as part of the Unified Team. She was coached by former World Champion and Olympic medalist Klaus Siebert.  In September 2019, she along with her husband Ole Einar Björndalen were appointed as biathlon coaches for the Chinese team, preparing the team for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.

World Cup.

Domracheva won the Pursuit World Cup 2011–2012 and won the Mass Start World Cup 2011–2012. In the Total World Cup 2011–2012 she ended the season second with 1188 points behind Magdalena Neuner's 1216 points.  In the 2010–2011 season Domracheva won the Mass Start World Cup.  Her biggest achievement was in the 2014–2015 when was Domracheva won the Overall World Cup title with 1092 points, 48 points more than second and twice winner Kaisa Mäkäräinen. She also won the Sprint World Cup title in that season.

Record.

Olympic Games.

"6 medals (4 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)"

World Championships.

"7 medals (2 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze)"

Individual victories.

"34 victories (9 Sp, 11 Pu, 4 In, 10 MS)"

Personal life.

Domracheva was born in Minsk. When she was four, her parents, who are architects, moved to the small town of Nyagan in Siberia. Domracheva started skiing when she was six. In cross-country ski races she was competing with boys, as she had no rivals among girls. A biathlon school was opened in Nyagan in 1999, which Domracheva attended.  Domracheva attended university in Tyumen, and studied sports management from 2002 until 2003.  Domracheva's family moved back to Minsk in 2003. There was no faculty of Sports Management in Minsk, so Domracheva changed to studying Tourism Management at the Belarusian State Economic University. In 2009, she was writing her diploma thesis on the subject: Advertising in the tourism industry.. Until 2014, Domracheva was an employee of the Belarusian branch of security agency KGB, one of the few to have retained its name from the Soviet Union era..  Domracheva presented the voting result of Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 final on 18 May.  On 5 April 2016, Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjørndalen confirmed that he and Domracheva are in a relationship and that Domracheva would give birth to their first child in October 2016. They were married 16 July 2016. Domracheva gave birth to a daughter, Xenia, on 1 October 2016. She retired from competitions in June 2018 to focus on raising her daughter.

Film.

Domracheva used a video camera to document herself, her teammates and athletes from other countries from 2008 until after the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The 500 hours of material was edited into a 50-minute movie. The movie gives a unique insight into the life of world class athletes during the whole year, from the few weeks of relaxation and rest in the spring, through the hard training during the summer and the fall, to the competition season between December and March. The movie shows athletes from many countries, living together, traveling together and competing together.

Dárya Vladímirovna Dómracheva (, ; born 3 August 1986) is a retired Belarusian biathlete and coach who competed in the Biathlon World Cup from 2006 to 2018. She won a gold medal in the 4×6 km relay and a silver medal in the mass start competition at the 2018 Winter Olympics, three gold medals in the pursuit, individual, and mass start competitions at the 2014 Winter Olympics, and a bronze medal in the individual competition at the 2010 Winter Olympics. She was a Biathlon World Cup overall winner for the 2014–15 season.


Description.

It is a small bird, 4 to 5 inches in length with a wingspan of 4 1/2 inches and a weight of 3/5 to 3/4 ounce. It has a slender body with short rounded wings and a long graduated tail. The bright red bill of the adult is the colour of sealing wax giving the bird its name. The plumage is mostly grey-brown, finely barred with dark brown. There is a red stripe through the eye and the cheeks and throat are whitish. There is often a pinkish flush to the underparts and a reddish stripe along the centre of the belly depending on the subspecies. The rump is brown and the tail and vent are dark. Females are similar to the males but are paler with less red on the belly. Juveniles are duller with little or no red on the belly, fainter dark barring and a black bill.  Similar species include the black-rumped, crimson-rumped and black-lored waxbills. The black-rumped waxbill is black rather than brown on the rump and has a pale vent (area underneath the tail). The crimson-rumped waxbill has a dark bill, red rump and some red on the wings and tail. The black-lored waxbill (found only in the Democratic Republic of Congo) has a black rather than red stripe through the eye.  The common waxbill has a variety of twittering and buzzing calls and a distinctive high-pitched flight-call. The simple song is harsh and nasal and descends on the last note.

Distribution and habitat.

Native range.

There are about 17 subspecies distributed widely across much of Africa south of the Sahara. They are present in most parts of East, Central and Southern Africa except for regions of desert or dense forest. In West Africa they are more local with the main population centred on Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Ivory Coast. Common waxbills inhabit open country with long grass and rank vegetation. They are often found near water in marshes and among reeds. They can be tame and will enter gardens, parks and farmland.

Introduced range.

Birds have often escaped from captivity or been deliberately released. Breeding populations have become established in many places where the climate is sufficiently warm and where there is a sufficient supply of grass seeds. They are now found on many islands around Africa: Saint Helena, Ascension Island, the Cape Verde Islands, São Tomé and Príncipe, Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues, the Seychelles and Ile Amsterdam. They may possibly be native on some of these islands. In Europe the common waxbill has become widespread in Portugal and is spreading through Spain. There are small populations on Madeira and Gran Canaria and it has recently appeared on Tenerife and the Azores. In the Americas waxbills are found in Trinidad, several parts of Brazil and there are a few on Bermuda. In the Pacific there are populations on New Caledonia, Efate Island in Vanuatu, Tahiti and the Hawaiian Islands. In Spain it has been introduced in the largest cities in the last ten years and is now quite commonly seen in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, as well as along the Spanish-Portuguese border.

Reproduction.

The nest is a large ball of criss-crossed grass stems with a long downward-pointing entrance tube on one side. It is built in a cavity, usually low down amongst dense vegetation. A rudimentary second nest ("cock's nest") may be built on top where the male sleeps. Four to seven white eggs are laid. They are incubated for 11 to 13 days and the young birds fledge 17 to 21 days after hatching. Both parents take part in incubating the eggs and feeding the chicks. The timing of the breeding season varies in different parts of the world. Nests may be parasitized by the pin-tailed whydah which lays its eggs in the nests of estrildid finches. In captivity they will breed in an aviary and can raise four broods in a year.

Feeding.

The diet consists mainly of grass seeds but insects are also eaten on occasions, especially during the breeding season when more protein is needed. The waxbills typically forage in flocks which may contain hundreds or even thousands of birds. They usually feed by clinging to the stems with their long, spindly claws and picking from the flower heads but they will also search for fallen seeds on the ground. They need to drink regularly as the seeds contain little water.

The common waxbill ("Estrilda astrild"), also known as the St Helena waxbill, is a small passerine bird belonging to the estrildid finch family. It is native to sub-Saharan Africa but has been introduced to many other regions of the world and now has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 10,000,000 km. It is popular and easy to keep in captivity.


Development.

First tests of what would become the ""Freya"" were conducted in early 1937, with initial delivery of an operational radar to the "Kriegsmarine" in 1938 by the GEMA company. Freya supported an early version of Identification friend or foe (IFF). Aircraft equipped with the FuG 25a ""Erstling"" IFF system could be successfully queried across ranges of over 100 km.  The "AN" version gained a switchable phasing line for the antenna. Switching in the phasing line led to a phase displacement of the antenna's radiation pattern and with that, a squinting to the left or right. This enabled the system in effect to switch from the rather broad "scanning for maxima" to narrow lobe switching. In that mode, a skilled operator could achieve an angular resolution of 0.1°.  The "Freya" radar was more advanced than its British counterpart, Chain Home. "Freya" operated on a wavelength (250 MHz) while Chain Home used 12 m. This allowed "Freya" to use a much smaller antenna system, one that was easier to rotate, move and position. It also offered higher resolution, allowing it to detect smaller targets. Because of its complex design, only eight "Freya" stations were operational when the war started, resulting in large gaps between the covered areas. The British Chain Home radar, although less advanced and more prone to errors, was simpler, which meant that the complete Chain Home network was in place in time for the Battle of Britain.

Deployment and operation.

"Freya" was often used in concert with the primary German gun laying radar, "Würzburg Riese" ("Würzburg Giant"); the "Freya" finding targets at long distances and then "handing them off" to the shorter-ranged Würzburgs for tracking.  Later in the war, "Freya" operated in the band from (120 to 130 MHz), with a pulse width of three microseconds, a peak power output of 15 to 20 kW, and a pulse repetition frequency of 500 Hz. It had a maximum range of only, making it inferior to Chain Home. Furthermore, it could not accurately determine altitude, but it was a fully steerable and semi-mobile system. Freya was first successfully used on December 18, 1939 when two stations detected an approaching daytime raid on Wilhelmshaven by 22 RAF Vickers Wellington bombers at a range of 113 km and guided fighter planes toward them via radio. Only half of the Wellingtons returned to Britain undamaged, but the German fighters only reached the bomber after they had made their bombing run on ships in harbor. The performance of Freya left the "Luftwaffe" so impressed that by the Spring of 1940, eleven "Freya" stations were installed to guard Germany's western border. After the invasion of France in 1940, additional "Freya" stations were built along the Atlantic coast. When Britain started its bombing raids, Hermann Göring ordered colonel (later General) Josef Kammhuber to install an efficient air defense. This led to the so-called Kammhuber Line into which more "Freya" stations were incorporated. In the later course of the war, "Freya" devices turned out to be vulnerable to chaff, along with other countermeasures, which meant they could still be used for early warning but no longer for guiding fighter planes. British bombing raids could also be organized such that the Kammhuber Line could be overwhelmed in massed raids.

British intelligence.

One of the first to give British intelligence any details about the "Freya" Radar was a young Danish Flight Lieutenant, Thomas Sneum, who, at great risk to his life, photographed radar installations on the Danish island of Fanø in 1941. He brought the negatives to Britain in a dramatic flight which is fictionalized in Ken Follett's novel "Hornet Flight". Sneum's deed is also mentioned in R. V. Jones's "Most Secret War" as a'most gallant exploit' and is one of the featured stories in Courage & Defiance by Deborah Hopkinson.

Countermeasures.

To counter "Freya", the British used equipment called 'Moonshine'. Carried by Boulton Paul Defiant aircraft of the Special Duties Flight (later No. 515 Squadron RAF), a single set retransmitted a portion of the "Freya" signal amplifying the apparent return. Eight planes with 'Moonshine' could mimic a force of 100 bombers. A second countermeasures system, "Mandrel" was a noise jammer carried by aircraft of No. 100 Group RAF which overwhelmed the signals from "Freya". Individual aircraft were sent to orbit fixed positions off the enemy coast. By using nine aeroplanes, a gap could be knocked into the German's radar coverage, while further jammers were carried in the bomber stream to counter the inland "Freya" network.

Post-war use.

One FuMG 80 Freya radar, after modification, was installed in 1957/8 at the Ondřejov Observatory in Czechoslovakia and served as meteorite tracking radar until 2006. Before then it was used at the Pardubice Airport, under name RZ III.

Freya was an early warning radar deployed by Germany during World War II; it was named after the Norse Goddess "Freyja". During the war, over a thousand stations were built. A naval version operating on a slightly different wavelength was also developed as the "Seetakt".


Preparation and chemical properties.

Beryllium oxide can be prepared by calcining (roasting) beryllium carbonate, dehydrating beryllium hydroxide, or igniting metallic beryllium: Igniting beryllium in air gives a mixture of BeO and the nitride BeN. Unlike the oxides formed by the other Group 2 elements (alkaline earth metals), beryllium oxide is amphoteric rather than basic.  Beryllium oxide formed at high temperatures (>800 °C) is inert, but dissolves easily in hot aqueous ammonium bifluoride (NHHF) or a solution of hot concentrated sulfuric acid (HSO) and ammonium sulfate ((NH)SO).

Structure.

BeO crystallizes in the hexagonal wurtzite structure, featuring tetrahedral Be and O centres, like lonsdaleite and w-BN (with both of which it is isoelectronic). In contrast, the oxides of the larger group-2 metals, i.e., MgO, CaO, SrO, BaO, crystallize in the cubic rock salt motif with octahedral geometry about the dications and dianions. At high temperature the structure transforms to a tetragonal form.  In the vapour phase, beryllium oxide is present as discrete diatomic molecules. In the language of valence bond theory, these molecules can be described as adopting "sp" orbital hybridisation on both atoms, featuring one σ (between one "sp" orbital on each atom) and one π bond (between aligned "p" orbitals on each atom oriented perpendicular to the molecular axis). Molecular orbital theory provides a slightly different picture with no "net" sigma bonding (because the 2"s" orbitals of the two atoms combine to form a filled sigma bonding orbital and a filled sigma* anti-bonding orbital) and two pi bonds formed between both pairs of "p" orbitals oriented perpendicular to the molecular axis. The sigma orbital formed by the "p" orbitals aligned along the molecular axis is unfilled. The corresponding ground state is...(2sσ)(2sσ*)(2pπ) (as in the isoelectronic C molecule), where both bonds can be considered as dative bonds from oxygen towards beryllium.

Applications.

High-quality crystals may be grown hydrothermally, or otherwise by the Verneuil method. For the most part, beryllium oxide is produced as a white amorphous powder, sintered into larger shapes. Impurities, like carbon, can give a variety of colours to the otherwise colourless host crystals.  Sintered beryllium oxide is a very stable ceramic. Beryllium oxide is used in rocket engines and as a transparent protective over-coating on aluminised telescope mirrors.  Beryllium oxide is used in many high-performance semiconductor parts for applications such as radio equipment because it has good thermal conductivity while also being a good electrical insulator. It is used as a filler in some thermal interface materials such as thermal grease. Some power semiconductor devices have used beryllium oxide ceramic between the silicon chip and the metal mounting base of the package to achieve a lower value of thermal resistance than a similar construction of aluminium oxide. It is also used as a structural ceramic for high-performance microwave devices, vacuum tubes, magnetrons, and gas lasers. BeO has been proposed as a neutron moderator for naval marine high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (MGCR), as well as NASA's Kilopower nuclear reactor for space applications.

Safety.

BeO is carcinogenic in powdered form and may cause chronic beryllium disease. Once fired into solid form, it is safe to handle if not subjected to machining that generates dust. Beryllium oxide ceramic is not a hazardous waste under federal law in the USA.

Beryllium oxide (BeO), also known as beryllia, is an inorganic compound with the formula BeO. This colourless solid is a notable electrical insulator with a higher thermal conductivity than any other non-metal except diamond, and exceeds that of most metals. As an amorphous solid, beryllium oxide is white. Its high melting point leads to its use as a refractory material. It occurs in nature as the mineral bromellite. Historically and in materials science, beryllium oxide was called glucina or glucinium oxide.


Playing career.

Housley is the second leading scorer amongst American-born players, with 1,232 points (338–894). He held the record for most points by an American-born NHL player until Mike Modano surpassed it on November 7, 2007.  Housley never won the Stanley Cup, coming closest with the Capitals in 1998, where they were swept in the Stanley Cup Finals by the Detroit Red Wings. At the time of retirement, Housley had played more NHL games without winning the Stanley Cup than any other player in NHL history until the retirement of Shane Doan in 2017.  On January 21, 2000, Housley played in his 1,257th NHL game, the most ever at the time by an American, breaking the record held by Craig Ludwig. Housley went on to play in 1,495 NHL games. He held the record for games played by an American-born player for nearly seven years, until it was broken, on November 24, 2006, by Chris Chelios.  Housley was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 2004, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on November 9, 2015. On February 7, 2007, he was inducted into the Buffalo Sabres Hall of Fame, commemorated in a pre-game ceremony with former head coach Scotty Bowman on hand.

Coaching career.

From 2004 to 2013, Housley coached high school hockey at Stillwater Area High School in Stillwater, Minnesota, helping to rebuild the program to respectability. From 2013 to 2017, Housley was an assistant coach for the Nashville Predators, working primarily with defensemen.  On January 5, 2013, Housley coached Team USA to the gold medal at the 2013 IIHF World U20 Championship in Ufa, Russia. He had served as an assistant coach on Team USA's 2007 and 2011 appearances in the World Juniors.  On June 15, 2017, it was announced that Housley was hired by the Buffalo Sabres as their new head coach. He led the Sabres to a 31st-place finish in his first season and saw the Sabres attain a 10-game winning streak early in his second season before the team collapsed down the stretch. Housley was fired by the Sabres after the 2018–19 season on April 7, 2019.  On June 26, 2019, it was announced that Housley signed a multi-year contract as assistant coach for the Arizona Coyotes. For the Coyotes, Housley serves as defensive coordinator and power play coach.

Personal life.

Housley grew up in South St. Paul, Minnesota. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Karin Housley, a Minnesota state senator and Republican nominee for the 2018 special election for United States Senate in Minnesota. The Housleys have four grown children and reside in St. Marys Point, Minnesota.

Phillip Francis Housley (born March 9, 1964) is an American professional ice hockey coach and former player. He is currently an assistant coach for the Arizona Coyotes of the National Hockey League (NHL). Housley was the head coach of the NHL's Buffalo Sabres from 2017 until 2019.


History.

Sex manuals usually present a guide to sex positions. Sex manuals have a long history. In the Graeco-Roman era, a sex manual was written by Philaenis of Samos, possibly a hetaira (courtesan) of the Hellenistic period (3rd–1st century BC). The "Kama Sutra" of Vatsyayana, believed to have been written in the 1st to 6th centuries, has a notorious reputation as a sex manual. Different sex positions result in differences in the depth of sexual penetration and the angle of penetration. Many attempts have been made to categorize sex positions. Alfred Kinsey categorized six primary positions, The earliest known European medieval text dedicated to sexual positions is the "Speculum al foderi", sometimes known as "The Mirror of Coitus" (or literally "a mirror for fuckers"), a 15th-century Catalan text discovered in the 1970s.

Exclusively penetrative.

These positions involve the insertion of a phallic object(s) (such as a penis, strap-on dildo, plug, or other nonporous object(s)) into a vagina, anus or mouth.

Penetrating partner on top with front entry.

The most used sex position is the missionary position. In this position, the participants face each other. The receiving partner lies on their back with legs apart, while the penetrating partner lies on top. This position and the following variations may be used for vaginal or anal intercourse.

Penetrating from behind.

Most of these positions can be used for either vaginal or anal penetration. Variants of the "doggy style" or "doggy position" include:  In the "spoons position" both partners lie on their side, facing the same direction. Variants of this technique include the following:

Receiving partner on top.

Most of these positions can be used for either vaginal or anal penetration. When the receiving partner is a woman, these positions are sometimes called the "woman on top", "cowboy" or "cowgirl" positions.  A feature of these positions is that the penetrating partner lies on their back with the receiving partner on top:

Sitting and kneeling.

Standing.

Most of these positions can be used for either vaginal or anal penetration. In the basic standing position, both partners stand facing each other. The following variations are possible:

Anal sex positions.

These positions involve anal penetration:

Less common positions.

These positions are more innovative, and perhaps not as widely known or practiced as the ones listed above.

Using furniture or special apparatus.

Most sex acts are typically performed on a bed or other simple platform. As the range of supports available increases, so does the range of positions that are possible. Ordinary furniture can be used for this purpose. Also, various forms of erotic furniture and other apparatus such as fisting slings and trapezes have been used to facilitate even more exotic sexual positions.

Positions to promote or prevent conception.

Pregnancy is a potential result of any form of sexual activity where sperm comes in contact with the vagina; this is typically during vaginal sex, but pregnancy can result from anal sex, digital sex (fingering), oral sex, or by another body part, if sperm is transferred from one area to the vagina between a fertile female and a fertile male. Men and women are typically fertile during puberty. Though certain sexual positions are believed to produce more favorable results than others, none of these are effective means of contraception.

Positions during pregnancy.

The goal is to prevent excessive pressure on the belly and to restrict penetration as required by the particular partners. Some of the positions below are popular positions for sex during pregnancy.

Non-exclusively penetrative.

Oral sex positions.

Oral sex is genital stimulation by the mouth. It may be penetrative or non-penetrative, and may take place before, during, as, or following intercourse. It may also be performed simultaneously (for example, when one partner performs cunnilingus, while the other partner performs fellatio), or only one partner may perform upon the other; this creates a multitude of variations.

Fellatio.

"Fellatio" is oral sex performed on a penis. Possible positions include:

Cunnilingus.

"Cunnilingus" is oral sex performed on the vulva and vagina. Possible positions include:

Sixty-nine.

Simultaneous oral sex between two people is called "69". Partners may be female or male. They can lie side-by-side, lie one on top of the other, or stand with one partner holding the other upside down.

Anilingus.

Positions for "anilingus", also known as "butt licking", "rimming", "anal-oral sex", "rimjob", or "tossing the salad", are often variants on those for genital-oral sex. Anilingus can be performed in a number of sex positions including:

Non-penetrative.

"Non-penetrative sex" or "frottage" is generally sexual activity that excludes penetration, and often includes rubbing one's genitals on one's sexual partner. This may include the partner's genitals or buttocks, and can involve different sex positions. As part of foreplay or to avoid penetrative sex, people engage in a variety of non-penetrative sexual behavior, which may or may not lead to orgasm.  The slang term "humping" may refer to masturbation—thrusting one's genitals against the surface of non-sexual objects, clothed or unclothed; or it may refer to penetrative sex.

Genital-genital rubbing.

"Genital-genital rubbing" (often termed "GG rubbing" by primatologists to describe the behavior among female bonobos) is the sexual act of mutually rubbing genitals; it is sometimes grouped with "frottage", but other terms, such as "non-penetrative sex" or "outercourse", are also used:

Group sex.

Various people of gender and orientation may participate in group sex. While group sex does not imply that all participants must be in sexual contact with all others simultaneously, some positions are only possible with three or more people.  As with the positions listed above, more group sex positions become practical if erotic furniture is used.

Threesomes.

When three people have sex with each other, it is called a "threesome". Possible ways of having all partners in sexual contact with each include some of the following:

With many participants.

These positions can be expanded to accommodate any number of participants:

Multiple penetration.

A person may be sexually penetrated multiple times simultaneously. Penetration may involve use of fingers, toes, sex toys, or penises. Scenes of multiple penetration are common in pornography.  If one person is penetrated by two objects, it is generically called "double penetration" ("DP"). Double penetration of the vagina, anus, or mouth can involve:

Number of positions, and effects on physical abilities.

In 1974, Alex Comfort categorized more than 600 and Gershon Legman categorized 3,780. However, the suggestion that the number of positions that can be used for sex is essentially limitless also exists.  Some people are limited by physical disabilities in the sex positions which they may use without pain or other discomfort. Other physical limitations of one or both participants also limit the sex positions which they may adopt. For example, the spoons position is recommended when either partner has back problems; the "starfish position" is recommended to achieve orgasms more easily and the missionary position may be uncomfortable for the receiving partner if the weight of the inserting partner, relative to the receiving partner's, is a problem. Also, the standing positions may be unsuitable if there is a significant height difference between the participants, unless the female is being carried.

A sex position is a position of the body that people use for sexual intercourse or other sexual activities. Sexual acts are generally described by the positions the participants adopt in order to perform those acts. Though sexual intercourse generally involves penetration of the body of one person by another, sex positions commonly involve penetrative or non-penetrative sexual activities.


In logic, mathematics and computing.

In classical philosophy, paradoxes were created by self-referential concepts such as the omnipotence paradox of asking if it was possible for a being to exist so powerful that it could create a stone that it could not lift. The Epimenides paradox, 'All Cretans are liars' when uttered by an ancient Greek Cretan was one of the first recorded versions. Contemporary philosophy sometimes employs the same technique to demonstrate that a supposed concept is meaningless or ill-defined.  In mathematics and computability theory, self-reference (also known as Impredicativity) is the key concept in proving limitations of many systems. Gödel's theorem uses it to show that no formal consistent system of mathematics can ever contain all possible mathematical truths, because it cannot prove some truths about its own structure. The halting problem equivalent, in computation theory, shows that there is always some task that a computer cannot perform, namely reasoning about itself. These proofs relate to a long tradition of mathematical paradoxes such as Russell's paradox and Berry's paradox, and ultimately to classical philosophical paradoxes.  In game theory, undefined behaviors can occur where two players must model each other's mental states and behaviors, leading to infinite regress.  In computer programming, self-reference occurs in reflection, where a program can read or modify its own instructions like any other data. Numerous programming languages support reflection to some extent with varying degrees of expressiveness. Additionally, self-reference is seen in recursion (related to the mathematical recurrence relation) in functional programming, where a code structure refers back to itself during computation. 'Taming' self-reference from potentially paradoxical concepts into well-behaved recursions has been one of the great successes of computer science, and is now used routinely in, for example, writing compilers using the'meta-language' ML. Using a compiler to compile itself is known as bootstrapping. Self-modifying code is possible to write (programs which operate on themselves), both with assembler and with functional languages such as Lisp, but is generally discouraged in real-world programming. Computing hardware makes fundamental use of self-reference in flip-flops, the basic units of digital memory, which convert potentially paradoxical logical self-relations into memory by expanding their terms over time. Thinking in terms of self-reference is a pervasive part of programmer culture, with many programs and acronyms named self-referentially as a form of humor, such as GNU ('Gnu's not Unix') and PINE ('Pine is not Elm'). The GNU Hurd is named for a pair of mutually self-referential acronyms.  Tupper's self-referential formula is a mathematical curiosity which plots an image of its own formula.

In biology.

The biology of self-replication is self-referential, as embodied by DNA and RNA replication mechanisms. Models of self-replication are found in Conway's Game of Life and have inspired engineering systems such as the self-replicating 3D printer RepRap.

In art.

Self-reference occurs in literature and film when an author refers to his or her own work in the context of the work itself. Examples include Cervantes's "Don Quixote", Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "The Tempest" and "Twelfth Night", Denis Diderot's "Jacques le fataliste et son maître", Italo Calvino's "If on a winter's night a traveler", many stories by Nikolai Gogol, "Lost in the Funhouse" by John Barth, Luigi Pirandello's "Six Characters in Search of an Author", Federico Fellini's "81⁄2" and Bryan Forbes's "The L-Shaped Room". Speculative fiction writer Samuel R. Delany makes use of this in his novels Nova and Dhalgren. In the former, Katin (a space-faring novelist) is wary of a long-standing curse wherein a novelist dies before completing any given work. Nova ends mid-sentence, thus lending credence to the curse and the realization that the novelist is the author of the story; likewise, throughout Dhalgren, Delany has a protagonist simply named The Kid (or Kidd, in some sections), whose life and work are mirror images of themselves and of the novel itself. In the sci-fi spoof film Spaceballs, Director Mel Brooks includes a scene wherein the evil characters are viewing a VHS copy of their own story, which shows them watching themselves “watching themselves”, ad infinitum. Perhaps the earliest example is in Homer's "Iliad", where Helen of Troy laments: "for generations still unborn/we will live in song" (appearing in the song itself).  Self-reference in art is closely related to the concepts of breaking the fourth wall and meta-reference, which often involve self-reference. The short stories of Jorge Luis Borges play with self-reference and related paradoxes in many ways. Samuel Beckett's "Krapp's Last Tape" consists entirely of the protagonist listening to and making recordings of himself, mostly about other recordings. During the 1990s and 2000s filmic self-reference was a popular part of the rubber reality movement, notably in Charlie Kaufman's films "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation", the latter pushing the concept arguably to its breaking point as it attempts to portray its own creation, in a dramatized version of the Droste effect.  Various creation myths invoke self-reference to solve the problem of what created the creator. For example, the Egyptian creation myth has a god swallowing his own semen to create himself. The Ouroboros is a mythical dragon which eats itself.  The Quran includes numerous instances of self-referentiality.  The surrealist painter René Magritte is famous for his self-referential works. His painting "The Treachery of Images", includes the words "this is not a pipe", the truth of which depends entirely on whether the word "ceci" (in English, "this") refers to the pipe depicted—or to the painting or the word or sentence itself. M.C. Escher's art also contains many self-referential concepts such as hands drawing themselves.

In language.

A word that describes itself is called an "autological word" (or "autonym"). This generally applies to adjectives, for example sesquipedalian (i.e. "sesquipedalian" is a sesquipedalian word), but can also apply to other parts of speech, such as TLA, as a three-letter abbreviation for "three-letter abbreviation".  A sentence which inventories its own letters and punctuation marks is called an autogram.  There is a special case of meta-sentence in which the content of the sentence in the metalanguage and the content of the sentence in the object language are the same. Such a sentence is referring to itself. However some meta-sentences of this type can lead to paradoxes. "This is a sentence." can be considered to be a self-referential meta-sentence which is obviously true. However "This sentence is false" is a meta-sentence which leads to a self-referential paradox. Such sentences can lead to problems, for example, in law, where statements bringing laws into existence can contradict one another or themselves. Kurt Gödel claimed to have found such a paradox in the US constitution at his citizenship ceremony.  Self-reference occasionally occurs in the media when it is required to write about itself, for example the BBC reporting on job cuts at the BBC. Notable encyclopedias may be required to feature articles about themselves, such as Wikipedia's article on Wikipedia.  Fumblerules are a list of rules of good grammar and writing, demonstrated through sentences that violate those very rules, such as "Avoid cliches like the plague" and "Don't use no double negatives". The term was coined in a published list of such rules by William Safire.

Self-reference occurs in natural or formal languages when a sentence, idea or formula refers to itself. The reference may be expressed either directly—through some intermediate sentence or formula—or by means of some encoding. In philosophy, it also refers to the ability of a subject to speak of or refer to itself, that is, to have the kind of thought expressed by the first person nominative singular pronoun "I" in English.


Early years.

Daneyko was born in Windsor, Ontario and grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, where he knew Mark Messier from a young age. He is of Ukrainian origin.

Playing career.

Daneyko was drafted in the first round (18th overall) in the 1982 NHL Entry Draft, the second pick of the New Jersey Devils after the franchise relocated from Colorado; when he was drafted the organization had not yet chosen a new team name. He spent several seasons in junior before getting drafted, and played for the Yorkton Terriers of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, as well as the Great Falls Americans, Spokane Flyers and Seattle Breakers of the Western Hockey League. He was called up to the Devils for the start of the 1983–84 season, but cracked his fibula during a game against the Hartford Whalers and missed over 40 games. After his injury healed, he was assigned to the Kamloops Junior Oilers of the WHL for the remainder of the season.  Upon his arrival in the NHL, Daneyko established himself as a stay-at-home defenceman, and soon won fans over with his gritty and self-sacrificing play. Daneyko was also known for his missing front teeth, lost after he was hit in the mouth by a puck. His gap-toothed smile was well known not only by Devils supporters, but by hockey fans around the world. As a player who had spent all of his NHL career with New Jersey, Daneyko was nicknamed "Mr. Devil". He is also referred to by the nickname "Dano".  Daneyko acquired over 2,200 penalty minutes in his career, finishing a season with over 200 penalty minutes five times. Daneyko was never a high-scoring defenceman, and set a record by playing in 255 consecutive regular-season games without scoring a goal. In his highest-scoring season, 1989–90, he scored six goals and 15 assists en route to a 21-point season. In five seasons he scored no goals at all. He also has the lowest point per game average among all NHL players who played at least 1,000 games with 0.138. However, Daneyko's effectiveness was not measured by how many pucks he put in the net, but by how many pucks he kept out. Daneyko was used primarily as a shadow defenceman, and often got physical in front of the net if a forward parked himself in the crease looking for a rebound.  In the late 1990s, Daneyko struggled with alcoholism while general manager Lou Lamoriello and Devils owner John McMullen stood by him and checked him into rehab. Daneyko recovered and played every game of New Jersey's successful 2000 playoffs, winning the Bill Masterton Trophy in 2000.  Along with Scott Stevens, he was part of a tough Devils defensive core that won the Stanley Cup three times, in 1994–95, 1999–2000 and 2002–03. From the team's first playoff game while in New Jersey, in 1988, Daneyko played in every playoff game until game four of the 2003 quarterfinals. He also was scratched in the first six games of the 2003 finals, but, looking for a spark, coach Pat Burns inserted Daneyko into the lineup for game seven, replacing Oleg Tverdovsky. As a reward to his devotion of the team, and a hint of his impending retirement, Daneyko took the ice for the final shift of the Devils' game seven victory over the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, which clinched their third Stanley Cup victory, in 2003.  The Devils retired his uniform number, 3, on March 24, 2006. He was the second Devil to receive the honour after Scott Stevens had his No. 4 retired on February 3, 2006.  Daneyko currently provides his colour commentary on Devils' broadcasts on MSG Plus. Prior to this, he shared commentary and analysis between periods of Devils' broadcasts and was a regular starring analyst on MSG's "Hockey Night Live!" with host Al Trautwig and fellow commentators Ron Duguay, Dave Maloney, Mike Keenan, and Butch Goring, as well as "The Hockey Maven" Stan Fischler.  In October 2009, Daneyko began competing as a pairs figure skater on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reality show "Battle of the Blades".  In 2010, Daneyko portrayed himself in the short film "Ice Hockey", written and directed by Larry Cohen. The film also featured Randy Velischek.

Personal life.

Daneyko was a resident of North Caldwell, New Jersey. He currently lives with his second wife Margaret. Daneyko has a daughter and a son from a previous marriage.

Kenneth Stephen Daneyko (born April 17, 1964) is a Canadian-American former professional ice hockey defenceman who played his entire career (1983–2003) with the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League, winning three Stanley Cup championships with the team. He has been nicknamed "Mr. Devil" by Devils fans, as he currently holds the franchise record for games played as a Devil with 1,283 games. Daneyko now provides colour analysis alongside Steve Cangialosi during broadcasts of Devils games on MSG Plus.


Biography.

Vishnevskaya was born in Leningrad. She made her professional stage debut in 1944 singing operetta. After a year studying with Vera Nikolayevna Garina, she won a competition held by the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (with Rachmaninoff's song "O, Do Not Grieve" and Verdi's aria "O patria mia" from "Aida") in 1952. The next year, she became a member of the Bolshoi Theatre.  On 24 March 1957, she made her debut in Finnish National Opera as Tatyana in Eugene Onegin. On 9 May 1960, she made her first appearance in Sarajevo at the National Theatre, as Aida. In 1961, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Aida; the following year she made her debut at the Royal Opera House with the same role. For her La Scala debut in 1964, she sang Liù in "Turandot", opposite Birgit Nilsson and Franco Corelli.  In addition to the roles in the Russian operatic repertoire, Vishnevskaya also sang roles such as Violetta, Tosca, Cio-cio-san, Leonore, and Cherubino.  Benjamin Britten wrote the soprano role in his War Requiem (completed 1962) specially for her, though the USSR prevented her from traveling to Coventry Cathedral for the premiere performance. The USSR eventually allowed her to leave in order to make the first recording of the Requiem.  Vishnevskaya was married to the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich from 1955 until his death in 2007; they performed together regularly (he on piano or on the podium). Both she and Rostropovich were friends of Dmitri Shostakovich, and they made an electrifying recording of his opera "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" for EMI. According to Robert Conquest, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn stayed at their dacha from 1968 while writing much of "The Gulag Archipelago". In 1974, the couple asked the Soviet government for an extended leave and left the Soviet Union. Eventually they settled in the United States and Paris. In 1982, the soprano bade farewell to the opera stage, in Paris, as Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin". In 1987, she stage directed Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Tsar's Bride" in Washington, D.C. In 1984, Vishnevskaya published a memoir, "Galina: A Russian Story" (), and in 2002, she opened her own opera theatre in Moscow, the "Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Centre".  In 2006, she was featured in Alexander Sokurov's documentary "Elegy of a life: Rostropovich, Vishnevskaya". In 2007, she starred in his film "Alexandra", playing the role of a grandmother coming to see her grandson in the Second Chechen War. The film premiered at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. In the last week of her life, Russian President Vladimir Putin honoured her with the First Class Order of Merit for the Fatherland.  On 11 December 2012, Vishnevskaya died at the age of 86 in Moscow. She was married three times. Her first marriage was to Georgy Vishnevsky, a sailor. She retained his family name after their divorce. Her second marriage was to the violinist and director of the Leningrad Light Opera company, Mark Rubin, who also served as her manager. This second marriage produced a son, who died at age 2 months, and lasted 10 years before ending in divorce. Her daughters survive her.

Recordings.

Vishnevskaya made many recordings, including "Eugene Onegin" (1956 and 1970), Mussorgsky's "Songs and Dances of Death" (1961 and 1976), Britten's "War Requiem" (with Sir Peter Pears and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, conducted by the composer; 1963), "The Poet's Echo" (1968), Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov" (1970 and 1987), Puccini's "Tosca" (1976), Tchaikovsky's "The Queen of Spades" (with Regina Resnik, 1976), "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" (1978), Tchaikovsky's "Iolanta" (with Nicolai Gedda, 1984), and Prokofiev's "War and Peace" (1986).

Galina Pavlovna Vishnevskaya (née Ivanova, ; 25 October 192611 December 2012) was a Russian soprano opera singer and recitalist who was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1966. She was the wife of cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, and mother to their two daughters, Olga and Elena Rostropovich.


Versions.

Several versions of the OpenGL ES specification now exist. OpenGL ES 1.0 is drawn up against the OpenGL 1.3 specification, OpenGL ES 1.1 is defined relative to the OpenGL 1.5 specification and OpenGL ES 2.0 is defined relative to the OpenGL 2.0 specification. This means that, for example, an application written for OpenGL ES 1.0 should be easily portable to the desktop OpenGL 1.3; as the OpenGL ES is a stripped-down version of the API, the reverse may or may not be true, depending on the particular features used.  OpenGL ES comes with its own version of shading language (OpenGL ES SL), which is different from OpenGL SL.  Version 1.0 and 1.1 both have "common" (CM) and "common lite" (CL) profiles, the difference being that the "common lite" profile only supports fixed-point instead of floating point data type support, whereas "common" supports both.

OpenGL ES 1.0.

OpenGL ES 1.0 was released publicly July 28, 2003. OpenGL ES 1.0 is based on the original OpenGL 1.3 API, with much functionality removed and a little bit added. One significant difference between OpenGL and OpenGL ES is that OpenGL ES removed the need to bracket OpenGL library calls with codice_1 and codice_2. Other significant differences are that the calling semantics for primitive rendering functions were changed in favor of vertex arrays, and fixed-point data types were introduced for vertex coordinates. Attributes were also added to better support the computational abilities of embedded processors, which often lack a floating point unit (FPU). Many other functions and rendering primitives were removed in version 1.0 to produce a lightweight interface, including:  Actual version is 1.0.0.2.

OpenGL ES 1.1.

OpenGL ES 1.1 added features such as mandatory support for multitexture, better multitexture support (including combiners and dot product texture operations), automatic mipmap generation, vertex buffer objects, state queries, user clip planes, and greater control over point rendering. Actual Version is 1.1.12.

OpenGL ES 2.0.

OpenGL ES 2.0 was publicly released in March 2007. It is roughly based on OpenGL 2.0, but it eliminates most of the fixed-function rendering pipeline in favor of a programmable one in a move similar to the transition from OpenGL 3.0 to 3.1. Control flow in shaders is generally limited to forward branching and to loops where the maximum number of iterations can easily be determined at compile time. Almost all rendering features of the transform and lighting stage, such as the specification of materials and light parameters formerly specified by the fixed-function API, are replaced by shaders written by the graphics programmer. As a result, OpenGL ES 2.0 is not backward compatible with OpenGL ES 1.1. Some incompatibilities between the desktop version of OpenGL and OpenGL ES 2.0 persisted until OpenGL 4.1, which added the codice_4 extension. Actual version is 2.0.25.  The Khronos Group has written a document describing the differences between OpenGL ES 2.0 and ordinary OpenGL 2.0.

OpenGL ES 3.0.

The OpenGL ES 3.0 specification was publicly released in August 2012. OpenGL ES 3.0 is backwards compatible with OpenGL ES 2.0, enabling applications to incrementally add new visual features to applications. OpenGL 4.3 provides full compatibility with OpenGL ES 3.0. Version 3.0 is also the basis for WebGL 2.0. Actual is version 3.0.6.  New functionality in the OpenGL ES 3.0 specification includes:

OpenGL ES 3.1.

The OpenGL ES 3.1 specification was publicly released in March 2014. New functionality in OpenGL ES 3.1 includes:  OpenGL ES 3.1 is backward compatible with OpenGL ES 2.0 and 3.0, thus enabling applications to incrementally incorporate new features. Actual Version is 3.1-(November 2016).

OpenGL ES 3.2.

The OpenGL ES 3.2 specification was publicly released in August 2015. New capabilities in OpenGL ES 3.2 include:  Actual State is 3.2.6 July 2019.  Some more extensions are developed or in Development in Mesa for next OpenGL ES Version (see Mesamatrix).  Next generation API is Vulkan.

Platform usage.

For complete list of companies and their conformant products, view here

OpenGL ES 1.0.

OpenGL ES 1.0 added an official 3D graphics API to the Android and Symbian operating systems, as well as by QNX It is also supported by the PlayStation 3 as one of its official graphics APIs (the other one being low level "libgcm" library) with Nvidia's Cg in lieu of GLSL. The PlayStation 3 also includes several features of the 2.0 version of OpenGL ES.

OpenGL ES 1.1.

The 1.1 version of OpenGL ES is supported by:

OpenGL ES 2.0.

Supported by:

OpenGL ES 3.0.

Supported by:  Supported by some recent versions of these GPUs:

OpenGL ES 3.1.

Supported by Windows, Linux, Android (since version 5.0) on devices with appropriate hardware and drivers, including:

Android Extension Pack.

Android Extension Pack (AEP) is a set of OpenGL ES 3.1 extensions, all bundled into a single extension introduced by Google in 2014. This allows applications to use all of the features of the set of extensions, while only testing for the presence of a single one. The AEP was officially added to Android Lollipop to provide extra features like tessellation over what was officially in the GLES 3.1 revision. OpenGL ES 3.2 update is largely made up of the AEP additions, which are already present in desktop OpenGL.

OpenGL ES 3.2.

OpenGL ES 3.2, incorporating the Android Extension Pack (AEP), "boasts a small number of improvements over last year’s OpenGL ES 3.1. Both make use of similar features from the AEP. From the AEP, OpenGL ES 3.2 compliant hardware will support Tessellation for additional geometry detail, new geometry shaders, ASTC texture compression for a smaller memory bandwidth footprint, floating point render targets for high accuracy compute processes, and new debugging features for developers. These high-end features are already found in the group’s full OpenGL 4 specification."  Supported by Windows, Linux, Android (since version 6.0 possible, 7.0+ Vulkan 1.0 and OpenGL ES 3.2 needed) on devices with appropriate hardware and drivers, including:

Deprecation in Apple devices.

OpenGL ES (and OpenGL) is deprecated in Apple's operating systems, but still works in up to at least iOS 12.

The Future.

No plan for new core version, because Vulkan's momentum is displacing it

OpenGL compatibility.

A few libraries have been created to emulate OpenGL calls using GL ES:

OpenGL for Embedded Systems (OpenGL ES or GLES) is a subset of the OpenGL computer graphics rendering application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D computer graphics such as those used by video games, typically hardware-accelerated using a graphics processing unit (GPU). It is designed for embedded systems like smartphones, tablet computers, video game consoles and PDAs. OpenGL ES is the "most widely deployed 3D graphics API in history".


Design and development.

Initial tests of the first prototype were disappointing, displaying performance only marginally better than the BH-21, even when fitted with a more powerful version of the Jupiter. Two further prototypes followed, both designated BH-33-1, each with an increasingly powerful Jupiter variant – one a Jupiter VI, the other a Jupiter VII. The performance of the latter example was finally acceptable for the Czechoslovakian defence ministry to order a small production run of only five aircraft.  Three examples were sold to Belgium, where there were plans to build the type under licence, but this did not occur. Licence production was undertaken, however, in Poland, where a single example was sold, along with a licence to build 50 aircraft. These were designated PWS-A and put into service with the Polish Air Force in 1930.  Development continued with an almost total redesign of the fuselage, replacing the wooden, slab-sided structure with one of oval cross-section, built up from welded steel tubes. Designated BH-33E, this was a world-class fighter for its time. Nevertheless, the response from the Czechoslovakian military was lukewarm (although two were bought for the national aerobatics team), and Avia again looked abroad for customers, this time selling 20 aircraft to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, along with a licence to produce another 24. Two or three examples were also bought by Soviet Union for evaluation.  In late 1929, a further development was flown as the BH-33L, featuring longer-span wings, and a Škoda L W-block engine. This version finally brought the company the domestic sales that it had been hoping for, with 80 aircraft ordered by the Czechoslovak Air Force. These became standard equipment with some air regiments up to the outbreak of World War II.  A single, final variant with a BMW-built Pratt & Whitney Hornet engine was built as the BH-33H (later redesignation BH-133) in 1930, but this did not lead to production.

Operational history.

Czechoslovakian BH-33s never saw combat, and Poland's examples had long been replaced in service by the time of the German invasion. Two Yugoslavian machines did, however see combat against "Luftwaffe" Messerschmitt Bf 109s, but were both destroyed and their pilots killed.

The Avia BH-33 was a biplane fighter aircraft built in Czechoslovakia in 1927. It was based on the BH-21J which demonstrated promising results by combining the original BH-21 airframe with a licence-built Bristol Jupiter radial engine. Other than the peculiar Avia hallmark of having an upper wing with a shorter span than the lower, it was utterly conventional, even featuring a tail fin for the first time in a Pavel Beneš and Miroslav Hajn design (previous aircraft had a rudder but no fin).


History.

The original name of the area was the "Butte Chaillot" ("Chaillot mound", named after the locality). At the time it was the point of convergence of several hunting trails. The Marquis de Marigny constructed monumental roadworks, completed in 1777, on the mound when he was establishing the plantations along the Champs-Élysées. This work included paving of the road in the form of a star, as it still exists today. The junction became known as the Place de l'Étoile. Pedestrian access to the Arc de Triomphe itself is via pedestrian underpass, to avoid the confluence of vehicular traffic from the juncture of twelve radiating avenues.  In 1787, during the construction of the Farmers-General Wall ("Mur des Fermiers généraux"), la "Barrière de l'Étoile" (also known as the "Barrière de Neuilly") was built to the design of Claude Nicolas Ledoux for the collection of the octroi tax at the entrance to Paris. The wall and the two buildings built on either side of the Place de l'Étoile were demolished in the nineteenth century. The modern Place Charles de Gaulle and the avenues radiating from it were created during the Second French Empire of Napoleon III as part of Haussmann's renovation of Paris.

Description.

Avenues.

The twelve avenues, clockwise from the north, are the following:  The square is surrounded by two streets forming a circle around it: the Rue de Presbourg and Rue de Tilsitt, which have been so named since 1864, after diplomatic successes of Napoleon which led to the signing of the Treaty of Presbourg in 1805 and the Treaties of Tilsit in 1807.

Axes.

The Place Charles de Gaulle is symmetrical and thus has six axes:

Arrondissements.

The Place Charles de Gaulle (as well as the Arc de Triomphe) is split between the 8th, 16th and 17th arrondissements of Paris. The 8th arrondissement encompasses the area between Avenue de Wagram and Avenue Marceau. The 16th arrondissement encompasses the area between Avenue Marceau and Avenue de la Grande-Armée. The 17th arrondissement encompasses the area between Avenue de la Grande Armée and Avenue de Wagram.

Literature.

"La Place de l'étoile" is the title of a novel by French writer Patrick Modiano.

Transportation.

The square is served by Métro and RER services. Line 1, as well as RER A, run under the Avenue de la Grande-Armée and Champs-Élysées and stop at the station; it also serves as western terminus for Line 2 and Line 6.

The Place Charles de Gaulle (), historically known as the Place de l'Étoile (), is a large road junction in Paris, France, the meeting point of twelve straight avenues (hence its historic name, which translates as "Square of the Star") including the Champs-Élysées. It was renamed in 1970 following the death of President Charles de Gaulle. It is still often referred to by its original name; the nearby Métro and RER station retains the designation Charles de Gaulle–Étoile. Paris's "Axe historique" ("historical axis") cuts through the Arc de Triomphe, which stands at the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle.


Biography.

Stanisław Kosior was born in 1889 in Węgrów in the Siedlce Governorate of the Russian Empire, in the region of Podlachia, to a Polish family of humble factory workers. Because of poverty, he emigrated to Yuzovka (modern Donetsk), where he worked at a steel mill. In 1907 he joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party and quickly became the head of the local branch of the party. He was arrested and sacked from his job in the party later that year, and the following year felt obliged to leave the area due to police activity. He used connections to get re-appointed at the Sulin factory in 1909, but was soon arrested again and deported to the Pavlovsk mine. In 1913 he was transferred to Moscow and then to Kiev and Kharkiv, where he organized local Communist cells. In 1915 he was arrested by the Okhrana (the Russian secret police) and exiled to Siberia.  After the February Revolution Kosior moved to Petrograd, where he headed the local branch of the Bolsheviks and the Narva municipal committee. After the October Revolution Kosior moved to the German-controlled areas of the Ober-Ost and Ukraine, where he worked for the Bolshevik cause. After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, he moved back to Russia, where in 1920 he became Secretary of the CPSU. In 1922 he became head of the Siberian branch of the CPSU. From 1925 to 1928 he was Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU.  From 1919, Kosior was for some time a member of Ukraine's Politburo. In 1928 he became General Secretary of the Ukrainian SSR Communist Party. Among his tasks was the collectivization of agriculture in Ukraine.  In 1930 Kosior was admitted to the Politburo of the CPSU. In 1935 he was awarded the Order of Lenin "for remarkable success in the field of agriculture". In January 1938 he also became head of the Soviet Control Office and deputy prime minister of the USSR. This was the peak of his political success.  On 3 May 1938, during the Great Purge, Kosior was stripped of all Party posts and arrested by the NKVD. "Stanislav Kosior withstood brutal tortures [at the hands of the NKVD] but cracked when his sixteen-year-old daughter was brought into the room and raped in front of him." On 26 February 1939 he was sentenced to death by shooting and executed the same day by General Vasili Blokhin. Other Politburo members purged in this period were Jānis Rudzutaks, Robert Eikhe, Vlas Chubar and Pavel Postyshev.  After Stalin's death, Kosior was rehabilitated by the Soviet government on 14 March 1956. On 13 January 2010, Kosior was condemned by the Court of Appeals of Ukraine as a political criminal for organizing mass famine in Ukraine in 1932–1933; the court quashed criminal proceedings due to his death.

External links.

Stanisław Vikentyevich Kosior (, 18 November 1889 – 26 February 1939), sometimes spelled Kossior, was one of three Kosior brothers, ethnically Polish Soviet politicians. He was First Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party, deputy prime minister of the USSR and member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). He was executed during the Great Purge.