Kandara (musical group)

Kandara Band or Kandara is a musical group from Pokhara, Nepal. The band formed in 1992 and takes its name after the Nepalese word for "a gorge or a cave in the middle of remote hills or mountains".

Kandara is best known for helping to establish the folk-pop genre within the Nepalese music industry. With its distinctive melodies, simple, folk-based lyrics, and soulful vocal performance, the band has produced several songs such as: "Leka ki hey Maya," "Hongkong Pokhara," "Tagaroma rumal Rakhi," "Timi pari tyo Gauma," "Bideshiyera gaien Uni," and "Chanchale kanchhiko joban."  The band is known for creating new lyrics for existing popular songs, emphasizing themes of nationalism, human misery, love, and nature. Kandara was among the first in the industry to collaborate with famous Nepalese poets and lyricists such as Sarubhakta Shrestha, Binod Gauchan and Ramesh Shrestha to write lyrics - a practice which has now become popular within the Nepalese music industry.

In 2016, Kandara made a comeback with the release of a new album featuring the popular song, "Bhedi Gothaima".

Impact and Style
In the past 24 years, Kandara has performed both nationally and internationally. Kandara's first album, Chanchale Kanchhi, was released in 1995. Their most recent release, the single "Kata Siapa", was released in October 2016. The title song of the album, Chanchale Kanchhi was a critical success, and can now be seen as a milestone for the band. Songs released in 1996 such as "Lekaki hey maya", "Timi pari", and "Bideshiyera gaeen uni", from the album, Dandapari, further established the band among fans as one known for its compositions with themes of love and tragedy. "Hong Kong-Pokhara", the title song of the Hong Kong-Pokhara album, found its fame beyond Pokhara and Nepal and became popular among migrant Nepalese around the globe. After an 11-year break, Kandara was rejuvenated in 2006 by another hit, "Tagaroma Rumal Raakhi". The album Bhedi Gothaima, has earned numerous awards and still has an influential impact on the band's fan base.

Comeback
The band marked their comeback with Bhedi Gothaiima. The album features a total of eight songs, along with an older hit, "Timi Pari." After the release of the album, the band toured Nepal. Kundara collaborated  with senior writer, singer, actor and musician Surbhakta.

Recent Success
On April 14, 2015, Kandara released a practice-session video of their new single "Bhedi Gothaima" on the video sharing site YouTube. The song, penned by veteran Nepali writer Sarubhakta, is one of the songs from the band's upcoming album, which is scheduled for a summer release.

The band released their debut album Chanchale Kanchi in 1994. Since then, they have gone on to release six more records. After an eight-year hiatus, the forthcoming album will be the band's eighth. Music company Stereo Records will be producing the album. The album will feature a total of eight songs, along with an older hit "Timi Pari". After the release of the album, the band plans to tour the country. According to Stereo Records manager Ashish Parajuli, the band intends to perform with a full-fledged orchestra before Dashain. The name of the new album has not yet been disclosed.

When Kandara started out twenty-one years ago, the band was a five-piece outfit, but after several line-up changes, it now consists of Sunil Thapa, Bodhraj Bajracharya and Bivek Shrestha. The band is known for blending Nepali folk styles with pop music. Through time, Kandara have established themselves as one of the most popular folk-pop acts in Nepal. "Lekaki Hey Maya", "Hong Kong Pokhara", "Danda Pari", "Tagaroma Rumal Rakhi" and "Chanchale Kanchi" are some of the band's most popular songs.

Albums
1994: Chanchale Kanchi
1996: Dada Pari
1998: Hong Kong Pokhara
2006: Barshai Pachi
2016: Bhedi Gothaima

References

Category:Nepalese musical groups
Category:Musical groups established in 1994
Category:1994 establishments in Nepal


Curumitá de Baixo River

The Curumitá de Baixo River () is a river of Amazonas, Brazil. It is a tributary of the Tefé River.

The river forms the southern boundary of the Tefé National Forest, created in 1989.

See also
List of rivers of Amazonas (Brazilian state)

References

Category:Rivers of Amazonas (Brazilian state)


Nós–Unidade Popular

Nós–Unidade Popular (We–People's Unity) was a Galician left-wing Galician independentist political party. It was formed by the merger of Assembleia da Mocidade Independentista, Primeira Linha and other organizations. Nós–UP never gained any institutional representation. The party announced its self-dissolution in June 2015.

Activities
In 2004, the party contested the European Parliamentary elections, obtaining 1,331 votes in Galicia (0.12%) and 2,516 votes in Spain. In the Galician elections of 2005, 1,749 votes (0.1%) were obtained. In 2005, the party organized a campaign to eliminate symbolic vestiges of Francoist rule from Galicia, presenting their concerns to the Xunta de Galicia. During some demonstrations associated with this campaign, Nós-UP party members were arrested. The current leader is .

Election results

European elections

Galician elections

Local elections

References

Notes

External links
Official website

Category:Socialist parties in Galicia (Spain)
Category:Secessionist organizations in Europe
Category:Galician nationalist parties
Category:Defunct socialist parties in Spain


Mukesh Tiwari

Mukesh Tiwari (born 24 August 1969) is an Indian film actor known for playing negative and comic roles in Bollywood and several other Indian language films.  he began his acting career with the Hindi film China Gate, in which he played Jageera.

Early life

Mukesh Tiwari studied at the National School of Drama and was termed as the best actor present in the university at the time by numerous professors. This led to him bagging his first movie China Gate, which has been critically acclaimed as one of the finest works of Bollywood and was also in contention to be nominated for the Oscars.

Filmography

References

External links

Category:Male actors in Hindi cinema
Category:Male actors in Bhojpuri cinema
Category:Male actors in Kannada cinema
Category:Male actors in Punjabi cinema
Category:Male actors in Tamil cinema
Category:Male actors in Telugu cinema
Category:Indian male film actors
Category:Living people
Category:Male actors from Madhya Pradesh
Category:21st-century Indian male actors
Category:People from Sagar, Madhya Pradesh
Category:National School of Drama alumni
Category:1968 births


Debi Ghosal

Debi Ghosal is an Indian politician. He was elected to the Lok Sabha, lower house of the Parliament of India from Barrackpore , West Bengal as a member of the Indian National Congress.

References

External links
  Official biographical sketch in Parliament of India website

Category:Indian National Congress politicians


Acre (state)

Acre () is a state located in the northern region of Brazil. Located in the westernmost part of the country with a two hour time difference from Brasília, Acre is bordered clockwise by the Brazilian states of Amazonas to the north and northeast, Rondônia to the east, the Bolivian department of Pando to the southeast, and the Peruvian regions of Madre de Dios, Ucayali and Loreto to the south and west. It occupies an area of 152,581.4 km2.

Its capital and largest city is Rio Branco. Other important places include Cruzeiro do Sul, Sena Madureira, Tarauacá and Feijó.

Intense extractive activity, which reached its height in the 20th century, attracted Brazilians from many regions to the state. From the mixture of sulista, southeastern Brazil, nordestino, and indigenous traditions arose a diverse cuisine, which unites sun-dried meat (carne-de-sol) with pirarucu, a typical fish of the region. Such dishes are seasoned with tucupi, a sauce made from manioc.

Fluvial transport, concentrated on the Juruá and Moa rivers, in the western part of the state, and the Tarauacá and Envira Rivers in the northwest, is the principal form of transportation, especially between November and June, when rain leaves impassable the BR-364, which connects Rio Branco to Cruzeiro do Sul.

Etymology
The name, which passed from the river to the territory in 1904, and to the state in 1962, perhaps originates from the Tupi word a'kir ü "green river" or from the form a'kir, of the tupi word ker, "to sleep, to rest"; but it is almost certain to be a deformation of Aquiri, the spelling which explorers of the region utilized to express Umákürü, or Uakiry, a term from the Ipurinã dialect. There is also a hypothesis that Acquiri derives from Yasi'ri, or Ysi'ri, meaning "flowing or swift water".

On the voyage which he made on the Purús River in 1878, the colonizer, João Gabriel de Carvalho Melo, wrote from there to the merchant, Viscount of Santo Elias (from Pará), asking him for goods to be sent to the "mouth of the Aquiri River". Since in Belém the proprietor of the commercial establishment and the employees were not able to understand João Gabriel's handwriting, or because he had hastily written Acri or Aqri, instead of Aquiri, the goods and the invoice arrived to the colonizer as having been sent to the Acre River.

Acre possesses some nicknames: the End of Brazil, The Rubber Tree State, the Latex State and the Western End.

The native inhabitants of Acre are called acrianos, in the singular acriano. Until the entry in force of the Orthographic Agreement of 1990, the correct spelling was acreano in the singular and in the plural acreanos. In 2009, with the new orthographic agreement, the change generated controversy between the Academy of Letters of Acre (Academia Acreana de Letras) and the Brazilian Academy of Letters (Academia Brasileira de Letras), alleging that the change would mean the denial of the state's historical and cultural roots, changing the last letter of the toponym from "E" to "I".

Geography

The state of Acre occupies an area of 152,581 km2 (58,911 mi2) in the extreme west of Brazil. It is located at 70º00'00" west longitude from the Prime Meridian and at 09º00'00" latitude south of the equator. In Brazil, the state is part of the North Region, forming borders with the states of Amazonas and Rondônia, and with two countries: Peru and Bolivia.

Practically all of the terrain of the state of Acre is part of the low sandstone plateau, or terra firme, morphological unit which dominates most of the Brazilian Amazon. These terranes rise, in Acre, from the southeast to the northeast, with very tabular topography in general. In the extreme west is found the Serra da Contamana or Serra do Divisor, along the western border, with the highest altitudes in the state (). About 63% of state's surface is lies between  in height; 16% between 300 and 609 (984 and 1,998 ft); and 21% between 200 and 135 (656 and 443 ft).

The climate is hot and very humid, of the Am type in the Köppen climate classification system, and the monthly average temperatures vary between , being the lowest average of the North Region. The rainfall reaches an annual total of , with a clear dry season in the months of June, July, and August. The Amazon Rainforest covers all of the state territory. Very rich in rubber trees of the most valuable species (Hevea brasiliensis) and Brazil nut trees (Bertholletia excelsa), the forest guarantees that Acre is the greatest national producer of rubber and nuts. Acre's principal rivers, mostly navigable during the wet season (the Juruá, Tarauacá, Envira, Purús, Iaco, and Acre), cross the state with almost parallel courses which will only converge outside of its territory.

The largest recorded Black Caiman, measured at  and weighing , was shot in Acre in 1965.

Vegetation
The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests and comprises the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical rainforest in the world. Wet tropical forests are the most species-rich biome, and tropical forests in the Americas are consistently more species-rich than the wet forests in Africa and Asia. As the largest tract of tropical rainforest in the Americas, the Amazonian rainforests have unparalleled biodiversity. More than 1/3 of all species in the world live in the Amazon Rainforest.

History

The region of present-day Acre is thought to have been inhabited by Pre-Columbian civilizations since at least 2,100 years ago. Evidence includes complex geoglyphs of this age found in the area, which also suggest that the natives who crafted them had a relatively advanced knowledge on this technology. Since at least the early 15th century, the region has been inhabited by peoples who spoke Panoan languages; their territory was geographically close to the Incas.

In the mid-18th century, the region was colonized by the Spanish and became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru. Following the Peruvian and Bolivian wars of independence, which ended in 1826, the region and large portions around it became part of Bolivia. It was a territory of the short-lived Peru–Bolivian Confederation (1836–1839), until the two countries separated again and the region returned to Bolivian control.

The discovery of rubber tree groves in the region in the mid-19th century attracted more immigration, including particularly Brazilian exploiters. Despite the increased numbers of Brazilians, the Treaty of Ayacucho (1867) determined that the region belonged to Bolivia. By 1877, Acre's population was composed almost entirely of Brazilians coming from the Northeast.

In 1899, Brazilian settlers from Acre created an independent state in the region called the Republic of Acre. Bolivians tried to gain control of the area, but Brazilians revolted and there were border confrontations, generating the episode which became known as the Acre War. On November 17, 1903, with the signing over and sale in the Treaty of Petrópolis, Brazil received final possession of the region. Acre was then integrated into Brazil as a territory divided into three departments. The territory passed under Brazilian sovereignty in exchange for the payment of two million pounds sterling, land taken from Mato Grosso and in accordance with the construction of the Madeira-Mamoré railway.

Having been united in 1920, on June 15, 1962, it was elevated to the category of state, being the first to be governed by a woman, the teacher Iolanda Fleming.

During the Second World War, the rubber tree groves of Malaya were taken by the Japanese, and Acre thus left a great mark on western and world history, helping to change the course of the war in favour of the allies. This was thanks to the Rubber Soldiers, natives mostly of the Ceará plantation. It was perhaps due to Acre and its decisive contribution to the allied victory, that Brazil received North American resources to form the National Steel Company (Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional), and thus aid in the industrialization of the Central-south, which was until such time mostly stagnant, and which did not yet possess basic heavy industries.

On April 4, 2008, Acre won a judicial debate with the state of Amazonas in relation to the dispute surrounding the Cunha Gomes Line, which culminated in the annexation of part of the municipalities of Envira, Guajará, Boca do Acre, Pauini, Eirunepé and Ipixuna. The territorial redefinition consolidated the incorporation of 1.2 million hectares of the Liberdade, Gregório, and Mogno forest complex to the territory of Acre, which corresponds to 11,583.87 km2.

Initial settlement

Since the 1970s, numerous geoglyphs have been discovered on deforested land in Acre dating between 0–1250 AD, leading to claims about Pre-Columbian civilizations. The BBC's Unnatural Histories claimed that the Amazon rainforest, rather than being a pristine wilderness, has been shaped by man for at least 11,000 years through practices such as forest gardening. Ondemar Dias is accredited with first discovering the geoglyphs in 1977 and Alceu Ranzi with furthering their discovery after flying over Acre.

During the 17th century, Portuguese penetrations had already reached many of the maximum ends of Brazil. The expansion of the geographic horizon to the west was an inevitable consequence, reaching lands of Spanish possession; a fact which became a topic of the Treaties of Madrid (1750) and San Ildefonso (1777). Both of the treaties, based on the explorations of Portuguese bandeirante Manoel Félix de Lima of the Guaporé and Madeira River drainage basins, established the riverbeds of the Mamoré and Guaporé to their maximum western limits on the left bank of the Javari as a dividing line between the respective areas in question.

The settlement of the zone, stimulated by the creation of the new royal captaincy of Mato Grosso (1751), occurred in the direction of the frontier, causing several important centers to emerge: Vila Bela (1752) on the banks of the Guaporé, Vila Maria (1778) on the Paraguay River, and Casalvasco (1783). Until the mid-19th century, a systematic settling of the area was not thought of. At that time, the great virgin source of rubber found there would attract commercial interest, provoking its colonization.

The economic politics of the empire, directed towards agricultural exportation activities based on coffee, did not permit the utilization and incorporation of the territories of the extreme west. From this negligence it happened that in Cândido Mendes de Almeida's  Atlas of the Empire of Brazil (1868), a model of its time, the Acre River and its principal tributaries did not appear, being completely unknown to geographers.

Notwithstanding such politics, some few armed bands of Brazilian explorers exploited the rural and unpopulated region,  not knowing whether they pertained to Brazil, Peru, or Bolivia. Hence, still in the mid 19th century, fed by the drive which the search for rubber occasioned, solicited as it was on the international market, various expeditions searched out the area seeking to facilitate the installation of colonists. At that time, João Rodrigues Cametá initiated the conquest of the Purús River; Manuel Urbano da Encarnação, an Indian with an extensive knowledge of the region, reached the Acre River, traveling up it as far as the vicinity of the Xapuri; and João da Cunha Correia reached the drainage basin of the upper Tarauacá. All this clearing took place, for the most part, on Bolivian land.

Exploitative activities, the industrial importance of the rubber reserves, and the penetration of Brazilian colonists in the region raised the attention of Bolivia, which solicited a better fixation of boundaries. After much failed negotiation, in 1867 the Treaty of Ayacucho was signed, which recognized the colonial uti possidetis. A border was established parallel to the confluence of the Beni and Mamoré Rivers running eastward to the headwaters of the Javari River, even though the source of this river was not yet known.

Northeast Occupation
As the price of rubber rose in the market, the demand for it grew, and the race to the Amazon increased. Plantations multiplied in this manner in the valleys of the Acre, Purús, and farther west, the Tarauacá: in one year (1873–1874), in the drainage basin of the Purús, the population rose from around one thousand to four thousand inhabitants. On the other hand, the imperial government, already sensitive to the resulting offerings of rubber, considered the entire valley of the Purús to be Brazilian.

Also, in the second half of the 19th century, disturbances were registered in the demographic and geo-economic balance of the empire, with the coffee boom in the south channeling financial resources and workers, in detriment to the northeast. The growing impoverishment of that region stimulated migratory waves to the states of Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and São Paulo. The movement of population became particularly active during the prolonged drought of the northeastern interior, from 1877 to 1880, expelling hundreds of Cearenses, who headed for the rubber plantations in search of work.

The advance of Cearense migration proceeded to the banks of the Juruá and accelerated the occupation of land which Bolivia would later reclaim. The great fluvial river beds and their tributary systems were then intensely trafficked by small ship fleets of varied transport, transporting colonists, goods, and supply material to the most isolated nuclei. The governments of Amazonas and Pará quickly instituted the establishment of supply houses, which financed various types of operations, guaranteed credit, and promoted the commercial incentive of the rubber tree groves.

The rubber race assumed proportions similar to those of the search for gold veins in the 18th century. The results were equal. The situation drew the attention of the government to the economic utilization of an almost completely unknown area, besides permitting -as in a colony- the patrimonial incorporation of new regions, on the basis of penetration movements by private enterprise.

Land dispute
In 1890, a Bolivian official, José Manuel Pando, alerted his government to the fact that in the drainage basin of the Juruá there were more than three hundred rubber plantations, with the occupation by Brazilians taking root more and more rapidly on Bolivian soil. The Brazilian penetration had advanced in depth west from the 64th meridian to beyond the 72nd, in an extension of one thousand kilometers, even though the borders had already been fixed above the confluence of the Beni and Mamoré Rivers according to the Treaty of 1867.

In 1895 a new commission for the settlement of demarcation was created. The Brazilian representative, Gregório Taumaturgo de Azevedo, resigned after verifying that the ratification of the Treaty of 1867 would harm the rubber gatherers which were installed there.  In 1899, the Bolivians established an administrative post in Puerto Alonso, exacting taxes and customs duties upon Brazilian activities. The following year, Brazil accepted the sovereignty of Bolivia in the zone, when it officially recognized the old boundaries at the confluence of the Beni and Mamoré.

The rubber gatherers, distant from the diplomatic process, judged their interests to have been cheated, and initiated insurrection movements. In the same year that Bolivia implanted administration in Puerto Alonso (1899), two serious contestations occurred.

In April, a Cearense lawyer, José Carvalho, led an armed movement, which culminated in the expulsion of the Bolivian authorities. Shortly thereafter, Bolivia began negotiations with an Anglo-American trust, the Bolivian Syndicate, in order to promote, with exceptional force (exacting of taxes, armed force), the political and economic incorporation of Acre into its territory. The governor of Amazonas, Ramalho Júnior, informed of the agreement by a functionary of the Bolivian consulate in Belém, Luis Gálvez Rodríguez de Arias, sent military contingents forward to occupy Puerto Alonso. Gálvez proclaimed the independence of Acre, in the form of a republic, becoming its president with the acquiescence of the rubber gatherers. Under protests from Bolivia, President Campos Sales abolished the ephemeral republic (March 1900).

Bolivians, reinstated in the region, suffered, still in 1900, the assault of the so-called Floriano Peixoto expedition or "expedition of the poets", thus called, for being constituted for the most part of intellectual bohemians from Manaus. The conflict did not have great consequences, since, following brief fighting in the area surrounding Puerto Alonso, the expedition was completely scattered.

Ultimately, the Bolivian government signed a contract with the Bolivian Syndicate (July 1901). The Brazilian congress, shocked by the arbitrariness of the act, took measures, canceling commercial accords and navigation between the two countries, and suspending the right of travel to Bolivia.

At the same time, Brazilians organized an armed assault of great size on the conflicted area. The operations were led by a former student of the Military School of Rio Grande do Sul (Escola Militar do Rio Grande do Sul), José Plácido de Castro. The rubber gatherers occupied the village of Xapuri in Alto Acre (August 1902), apprehending the Bolivian authorities. Finally, Plácido de Castro's forces besieged Puerto Alonso, proclaiming the Independent State of Acre, after the capitulation of Bolivian troops (February 1903).

Diplomatic intervention
To Plácido de Castro, proclaimed governor of the new Independent State of Acre, it was left to discuss the question of borders in the diplomatic sphere. The Baron of Rio Branco, who had just assumed the role of Minister of External Relations, immediately opened channels which were meant to have put an end to the question.

The simplest problem, with the Bolivian Syndicate, was resolved by means of the compensation of one hundred ten thousand pounds to renounce the contract (February 1903). Next, commercial relations were reestablished with Bolivia, while a part of the territory on the upper Purús and Juruá, militarily occupied (March 1903) was declared litigious. From the subsequent talks, it followed that Bolivia would cede an area of 142,800 km2, in exchange for two million pounds sterling, paid in two installments. Brazil committed to the construction of a Madeira-Mamoré Railway, connecting Porto Velho to Guajará-Mirim, at the confluence of the Beni and the Madeira. Such were the principal stipulations of the Treaty of Petrópolis (November 17, 1903), through which Brazil acquired the future territory, now state of Acre.

There remained the question of Peru, which also claimed sovereignty over the entire territory of Acre and part of the state of Amazonas, in light of colonial titles. After armed conflicts between Brazilians and Peruvians on the upper Purús and Juruá, a joint administration was established in those regions (1904). The studies for the fixation of borders proceeded until the end of 1909, when a treaty was signed which completed the political integration of Acre into Brazilian territory.

Development from territory to statehood
The evolution of Acre appears to be a typical phenomenon of modern penetration in the history of Brazil, accompanied by important contributions to the economic projection of the country. Exercising a prominent role in national exports until 1913, when rubber was introduced to European and North American markets, Acre enjoyed a period of great prosperity: at the start of the 20th century, in a period of less than ten years, it boasted more than 50,000 inhabitants.

It may be asserted that all the endeavors towards the integration of Acre into Brazilian life correspond to the parallel efforts of the federal government, from 1946 on, to the effect of recuperating the economy of the Amazon, including it in regional development projects.

Attending to the judicial arrangements of the Treaty of Petrópolis, President Rodrigues Alves sanctioned the law which created the Territory of Acre (1904), further dividing it into three departments: Alto Acre, Alto Purús, and Alto Juruá, the latter being separated to form Alto Tarauacá (1912). The departmental administration was exercised until 1921 by mayors appointed by the President of Brazil. At that time the arrangements were altered, passing the administration to a governor. The second Constitution of Brazil (1934) conceded to Acre the right to elect representatives to the National Congress of Brazil.

During the Estado Novo (New State) political ideas involving the valorization of the interior took hold, with the intention of promoting the articulation of more isolated areas. Thereafter, the vote of 1946 commended the channeling of budgetary resources from the Union to the Amazon, determining that the Territory of Acre would be elevated to the condition of state as soon as its revenue reached the equivalent of the lowest state tax exaction.

In the 1960s, the second cycle of efforts to accelerate the progress of the Amazon area was begun with the Superintendency of the Development of the Amazon (Superintendência do Desenvolvimento da Amazônia or SUDAM, 1966). Better networking of regional sub-sectors within the state was sought out, thus connecting the branch lines of the Transamazônica, which connected Rio Branco and Brasiléia, on the upper course of the Acre River, and Cruzeiro do Sul, on the banks of the Juruá, crossing the valleys of the Purús and the Tarauacá. Planning politics developed, therefore, destined to correct the demographic, economic, and political distortions of national integration.

Demographics

According to the IBGE of 2007, there were 664,000 people residing in the state. The population density was 4.5 inh./km2.

Urbanization: 69.6% (2006); Population growth: 3.3% (1991–2000); Houses: 162,000 (2006).

The last PNAD (National Research for Sample of Domiciles) census revealed the following numbers: 441,000 Brown (Multiracial) people (66.5%), 172,000 White (26.0%), 45,000 Black (6.8%), 4,000 Asian or Amerindian people (0.7%).

Indigenous population
Acre is inhabited by various indigenous groups of the Panoan language family, including Kashinawa, Jaminawa and Xanenawa. There are also three groups of other language families, Madiha (Kulina) of the Arawan family as well as Yine (Manchineri) and Ashaninka (Kampa) of the Arawakan family.

Largest cities

Economy

The service sector is the largest component of GDP at 66%, followed by the industrial sector at 28.1%. Agriculture represents 5.9%, of GDP (2004). Acre exports: wood 85.6%, poultry (chicken and wild turkey) 4.7%,  wood products 1.7% (2002).

Share of the Brazilian economy: 0.2% (2005).

Education
Portuguese is the official national language, and thus the primary language taught in schools. English and Spanish are also part of the official high school curriculum.

Educational institutions
 Universidade Federal do Acre (Ufac) (Federal University of Acre);
 Faculdade da Amazônia Ocidental (Faao) (College of Western Amazon);
 Faculdade de Ciências Jurídicas e Sociais Applicadas Rio Branco (Firb);
 Instituto de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Vale do Juruá (Ieval);
 Instituto de Ensino Superior do Acre (Iesacre);
 União Educacional do Norte (Uninorte).

Infrastructure

International airport
 Rio Branco

Rio Branco International Airport is located in a rural zone of the municipality of Rio Branco, in the state of Acre. It was opened on November 2, 1999, with a unique characteristic: it moved 22 kilometers away from the previous airport site. Rio Branco Airport serves domestic and international flights (by scheduled carriers and air taxi firms) along with general and military aviation. The terminal can receive 270 thousand passengers a year and serves an average of 14 daily operations.

Cruzeiro do Sul
Cruzeiro do Sul International Airport is located 18 kilometers away from the city center, which helps access to the Alto Juruá region. It was opened on October 28, 1970, and absorbed by Infraero on March 31, 1980. The airport infrastructure was built in 1976 by the municipal government. In 1994 the runway was totally renovated.

Highways
 BR-364 (Rio Branco to Rondônia);
 BR-317 (Rio Branco to south of Acre);
 AC-040 (Rio Branco to Plácido de Castro);
 AC-401 (Plácido de Castro to Acrelândia);
 AC-010 (Rio Branco to Porto Acre).

Sports

Rio Branco provides visitors and residents with various sport activities.

Stadiums
 Arena da Floresta stadium;
 José de Melo stadium;
 Federação Acreana de Futebol stadium;
 Dom Giocondo Maria Grotti stadium;
 Adauto de Brito stadium;
 and many others.

The Arena da Floresta stadium in Rio Branco was one of the 18 candidates to host games in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which was held in Brazil, but did not make it to the final 12 chosen.

Flag

The flag was adopted on March 15, 1921. It is a variation of the flags used by the secessionist state of Acre, with the yellow and green parts exchanged and mirrored. The yellow color symbolizes peace, green hope, and the star symbolizes the light which guided those who worked to make Acre a state of Brazil.

Statistical and legal subdivisions
Acre is divided into twenty-two municipalities, five microregions and two mesoregions:

Vale do Acre
 Microregion of Brasileia

 Microregion of Rio Branco

 Microregion of Sena Madureira

Vale do Juruá
 Microregion of Cruzeiro do Sul

 Microregion of Tarauacá

References

External links

Category:States of Brazil
*
Category:1962 establishments in Brazil
Category:States and territories established in 1962


Tolomeo desk lamp

The Tolomeo incandescent desk lamp is an icon of Italian modern design.  It was designed by Michele De Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina in 1986 for the Artemide company. In its original configuration, it consists of a heavy base, two straight polished aluminum arm sections (each approximately 45 cm long), and a matte aluminum reflector head which can swivel 360°. Steel tension cables attached to springs hidden inside the arms complete the constant-tension structure. Tolomeo is the Italian version of the name Ptolemy. In the dot-com period, it became popular as a symbol of conspicuous consumption and high design consciousness in high-tech companies as well as in architectural and graphic design offices. It won the Compasso d'Oro design prize in 1989.

See also
 Balanced arm lamps
 Aeron chair

References

External links

Official web site of Artemide
Comparison of constant tension lamp designs

Category:Light fixtures


Marouf al-Bakhit

Marouf Suleiman al-Bakhit (; born 1947) was a Jordanian politician and two-time Prime Minister. He first served as Prime Minister from 27 November 2005 until 25 November 2007 and then again from 9 February 2011 to 17 October 2011. Bakhit also held the position of Jordanian ambassador to Israel and the national security chief. Appointed as Prime Minister by King Abdullah II less than three weeks after the 2005 Amman bombings, Bakhit's main priorities were to maintain security and stability in Jordan. He was reappointed as Prime Minister by the King on 1 February 2011, following weeks of protests.

He resigned from his post on 17 October 2011, and was succeeded by Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh on 24 October.

Education
Bakhit graduated with a bachelor's degree in General Management and Political Science from University of Jordan. He also earned a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Southern California in 1982, and a PhD entitled "The Evolution of Egyptian Air Defence Strategy" from King's College London in 1990.

Military career
Marouf al-Bakhit comes from Jordan's AlAbbadi Tribe. He joined the Jordanian Armed Forces in 1964, and graduated from the Royal Military College in 1966 as Second Lieutenant.  He retired from the Armed Forces in 1999 as Major General.

Prime Minister
Bakhit has been Prime Minister twice, first from 27 November 2005 until 25 November 2007, and then from 1 February 2011.

First term
Bakhit was appointed by King Abdullah II less than three weeks after the 2005 Amman bombings. The 2005 Amman bombings were a series of coordinated bomb attacks on three hotels in Amman, Jordan, on 9 November 2005. The attacks killed 60 people and injured 115 others.

After two years of trying to get reforms through the parliament, followed by a questionable election, he resigned and was replaced by Nader al-Dahabi.

Second term
After two weeks of street protests, on 1 February 2011 King Abdullah fired his prime minister, Samir Rifai, and re-appointed Bakhit to his old position. While continuing to maintain a moderate stance in respect to the United States and the 1994 Jordan-Israel peace treaty, al-Bakhit has promised to effect changes in election laws, decentralize authority and grant further rights to political parties.

King Abdullah II accepted his resignation on 17 October 2011 and appointed Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh as Prime Minister.

Career highlights
Member of the Jordanian Delegation for Israel-Jordan peace treaty
Lecturer of political science at Mutah University (1997–1999)

See also
 List of Prime Ministers of Jordan

References

External links

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Category:1947 births
Category:Alumni of King's College London
Category:Ambassadors of Jordan to Israel
Category:Ambassadors of Jordan to Turkey
Category:Jordanian politicians
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Category:People of the Arab Spring
Category:Prime Ministers of Jordan
Category:University of Jordan alumni
Category:Defence ministers of Jordan
Category:Jordanian generals
Category:USC Sol Price School of Public Policy alumni
Category:Members of the Senate of Jordan
Category:Faculty of Mutah University


Dumfries and Galloway College

Dumfries and Galloway College is a further education college in Dumfries and Galloway, with campuses in Dumfries and Stranraer. It offers a wide range of courses, including business, computing, construction, creative industries, education, engineering, hairdressing, beauty and complementary therapies, health and social studies, hospitality and sports and recreation. In 2008 their campus moved from Heathhall to its new campus, which shares its library with the University of the West of Scotland.

External links

Category:Further education colleges in Scotland
Category:Education in Dumfries and Galloway
Category:1973 establishments in Scotland
Category:Educational institutions established in 1973
Category:Dumfries


Acacia lanei

Acacia lanei is a shrub of the genus Acacia and the subgenus Plurinerves. It is native to an area in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia.

The spreading shrub typically grows to a height of . It blooms from July to September and produces yellow flowers.

See also
 List of Acacia species

References

lanei
Category:Flora of Western Australia


Natural History (Pliny)

The Natural History () is a work by Pliny the Elder.  It is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day and purports to cover all ancient knowledge. The work's subject area is thus not limited to what is today understood by natural history; Pliny himself defines his scope as "the natural world, or life". It is encyclopedic in scope, but its structure is not like that of a modern encyclopedia. It is the only work by Pliny to have survived, and the last that he published. He published the first 10 books in AD 77, but had not made a final revision of the remainder at the time of his death during the AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius. The rest was published posthumously by Pliny's nephew, Pliny the Younger.

The work is divided into 37 books, organised into ten volumes. These cover topics including astronomy, mathematics, geography, ethnography, anthropology, human physiology, zoology, botany, agriculture, horticulture, pharmacology, mining, mineralogy, sculpture, painting, and precious stones.

Pliny's Natural History became a model for later encyclopedias and scholarly works as a result of its breadth of subject matter, its referencing of original authors, and its index.

Overview

Pliny's Natural History was written alongside other substantial works (which have since been lost). Pliny (AD 23–79) combined his scholarly activities with a busy career as an imperial administrator for the emperor Vespasian. Much of his writing was done at night; daytime hours were spent working for the emperor, as he explains in the dedicatory preface addressed to Vespasian's elder son, the future emperor Titus, with whom he had served in the army (and to whom the work is dedicated). As for the nocturnal hours spent writing, these were seen not as a loss of sleep but as an addition to life, for as he states in the preface, Vita vigilia est, "to be alive is to be watchful", in a military metaphor of a sentry keeping watch in the night. Pliny claims to be the only Roman ever to have undertaken such a work, in his prayer for the blessing of the universal mother:

Hail to thee, Nature, thou parent of all things! and do thou deign to show thy favour unto me, who, alone of all the citizens of Rome, have, in thy every department, thus made known thy praise.

The Natural History is encyclopaedic in scope, but its format is unlike a modern encyclopaedia. However, it does have structure: Pliny uses Aristotle's division of nature (animal, vegetable, mineral) to recreate the natural world in literary form. Rather than presenting compartmentalised, stand-alone entries arranged alphabetically, Pliny's ordered natural landscape is a coherent whole, offering the reader a guided tour: "a brief excursion under our direction among the whole of the works of nature ..." The work is unified but varied: "My subject is the world of nature ... or in other words, life," he tells Titus.

Nature for Pliny was divine, a pantheistic concept inspired by the Stoic philosophy which underlies much of his thought. But the deity in question was a goddess whose main purpose was to serve the human race: "nature, that is life" is human life in a natural landscape. After an initial survey of cosmology and geography, Pliny starts his treatment of animals with the human race, "for whose sake great Nature appears to have created all other things". This teleological view of nature was common in antiquity and is crucial to the understanding of the Natural History. The components of nature are not just described in and for themselves, but also with a view to their role in human life. Pliny devotes a number of the books to plants, with a focus on their medicinal value; the books on minerals include descriptions of their uses in architecture, sculpture, painting and jewellery. Pliny's premise is distinct from modern ecological theories, reflecting the prevailing sentiment of his time.

Pliny's work frequently reflects Rome's imperial expansion which brought new and exciting things to the capital: exotic eastern spices, strange animals to be put on display or herded into the arena, even the alleged phoenix sent to the emperor Claudius in AD 47 – although, as Pliny admits, this was generally acknowledged to be a fake. Pliny repeated Aristotle's maxim that Africa was always producing something new. Nature's variety and versatility were claimed to be infinite: "When I have observed nature she has always induced me to deem no statement about her incredible." This led Pliny to recount rumours of strange peoples on the edges of the world. These monstrous races – the Cynocephali or Dog-Heads, the Sciapodae, whose single foot could act as a sunshade, the mouthless Astomi, who lived on scents – were not strictly new. They had been mentioned in the 5th century BC by the Greek historian Herodotus (whose history was a broad mixture of myths, legends and facts) but Pliny made them better known.

"As full of variety as nature itself", stated Pliny's nephew, Pliny the Younger, and this verdict largely explains the appeal of the Natural History since Pliny's death in the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79. Pliny had gone to investigate the strange cloud – "shaped like an umbrella pine", according to his nephew – rising from the mountain.

The Natural History was one of the first ancient European texts to be printed, in Venice in 1469. Philemon Holland's English translation of 1601 has influenced literature ever since.

Structure

The Natural History consists of 37 books. Pliny devised a summarium, or list of contents, at the beginning of the work that was later interpreted by modern printers as a table of contents. The table below is a summary based on modern names for topics.

Production

Purpose

Pliny's purpose in writing the Natural History was to cover all learning and art so far as they are connected with nature or draw their materials from nature. He says:My subject is a barren one – the world of nature, or in other words life; and that subject in its least elevated department, and employing either rustic terms or foreign, nay barbarian words that actually have to be introduced with an apology. Moreover, the path is not a beaten highway of authorship, nor one in which the mind is eager to range: there is not one of us who has made the same venture, nor yet one among the Greeks who has tackled single-handed all departments of the subject.

Sources

Pliny studied the original authorities on each subject and took care to make excerpts from their pages. His indices auctorum sometimes list the authorities he actually consulted, though not exhaustively; in other cases, they cover the principal writers on the subject, whose names are borrowed second-hand from his immediate authorities. He acknowledges his obligations to his predecessors: "To own up to those who were the means of one's own achievements."

In the preface, the author claims to have stated 20,000 facts gathered from some 2,000 books and from 100 select authors. The extant lists of his authorities cover more than 400, including 146 Roman and 327 Greek and other sources of information. The lists generally follow the order of the subject matter of each book. This has been shown in Heinrich Brunn's Disputatio (Bonn, 1856).

One of Pliny's authorities is Marcus Terentius Varro. In the geographical books, Varro is supplemented by the topographical commentaries of Agrippa, which were completed by the emperor Augustus; for his zoology, he relies largely on Aristotle and on Juba, the scholarly Mauretanian king, studiorum claritate memorabilior quam regno (v. 16). Juba is one of his principal guides in botany; Theophrastus is also named in his Indices, and Pliny had translated Theophrastus's Greek into Latin. Another work by Theophrastus, On Stones was cited as a source on ores and minerals. Pliny strove to use all the Greek histories available to him, such as Herodotus and Thucydides, as well as the Bibliotheca Historica of Diodorus Siculus.

Working method

His nephew, Pliny the Younger, described the method that Pliny used to write the Natural History:

Does it surprise you that a busy man found time to finish so many volumes, many of which deal with such minute details?... He used to begin to study at night on the Festival of Vulcan, not for luck but from his love of study, long before dawn; in winter he would commence at the seventh hour... He could sleep at call, and it would come upon him and leave him in the middle of his work. Before daybreak he would go to Vespasian – for he too was a night-worker – and then set about his official duties. On his return home he would again give to study any time that he had free. Often in summer after taking a meal, which with him, as in the old days, was always a simple and light one, he would lie in the sun if he had any time to spare, and a book would be read aloud, from which he would take notes and extracts.

Pliny the Younger told the following anecdote illustrating his uncle's enthusiasm for study:

After dinner a book would be read aloud, and he would take notes in a cursory way.  I remember that one of his friends, when the reader pronounced a word wrongly, checked him and made him read it again, and my uncle said to him, "Did you not catch the meaning?" When his friend said "yes," he remarked, "Why then did you make him turn back?  We have lost more than ten lines through your interruption."  So jealous was he of every moment lost.

Style
Pliny's writing style emulates that of Seneca. It aims less at clarity and vividness than at epigrammatic point. It contains many antitheses, questions, exclamations, tropes, metaphors, and other mannerisms of the Silver Age. His sentence structure is often loose and straggling. There is heavy use of the ablative absolute, and ablative phrases are often appended in a kind of vague "apposition" to express the author's own opinion of an immediately previous statement, e.g.,

dixit (Apelles) ... uno se praestare, quod manum de tabula sciret tollere, memorabili praecepto nocere saepe nimiam diligentiam.

This might be translated

Everything from "a salutary warning" onwards represents the ablative absolute phrase starting with "memorabili praecepto".

Publication history

First publication

Pliny wrote the first ten books in AD 77, and was engaged on revising the rest during the two remaining years of his life. The work was probably published with little revision by the author's nephew Pliny the Younger, who, when telling the story of a tame dolphin and describing the floating islands of the Vadimonian Lake thirty years later,

The absence of the author's final revision may explain many errors, including why the text is as John Healy writes "disjointed, discontinuous and not in a logical order"; and as early as 1350, Petrarch complained about the corrupt state of the text, referring to copying errors made between the ninth and eleventh centuries.

Manuscripts

About the middle of the 3rd century, an abstract of the geographical portions of Pliny's work was produced by Solinus. Early in the 8th century, Bede, who admired Pliny's work, had access to a partial manuscript  which he used in his "De Rerum Natura", especially the sections on meteorology and gems. However, Bede updated and corrected Pliny on the tides.

There are about 200 extant manuscripts, but the best of the more ancient manuscripts, that at Bamberg State Library, contains only books XXXII–XXXVII. In 1141 Robert of Cricklade wrote the Defloratio Historiae Naturalis Plinii Secundi consisting of nine books of selections taken from an ancient manuscript.

Printed copies

The work was one of the first classical manuscripts to be printed, at Venice in 1469 by Johann and Wendelin of Speyer, but J.F. Healy described the translation as "distinctly imperfect". A copy printed in 1472 by Nicolas Jenson of Venice is held in the library at Wells Cathedral.

Translations
Philemon Holland made an influential translation of much of the work into English in 1601. John Bostock and H. T. Riley made a complete translation in 1855.

Topics

The Natural History is generally divided into the organic plants and animals and the inorganic matter, although there are frequent digressions in each section. The encyclopedia also notes the uses made of all of these by the Romans. Its description of metals and minerals is valued for its detail in the history of science, being the most extensive compilation still available from the ancient world.

Book I serves as Pliny's preface, explaining his approach and providing a table of contents.

Astronomy

The first topic covered is Astronomy, in Book II. Pliny starts with the known universe, roundly criticising attempts at cosmology as madness, including the view that there are countless other worlds than the Earth. He doubts the four (Aristotelian) elements, fire, earth, air and water, but records the seven "planets" including the sun and moon. The earth is a sphere, suspended in the middle of space. He considers it a weakness to try to find the shape and form of God, or to suppose that such a being would care about human affairs. He mentions eclipses, but considers Hipparchus's almanac grandiose for seeming to know how Nature works. He cites Posidonius's estimate that the moon is 230,000 miles away. He describes comets, noting that only Aristotle has recorded seeing more than one at once.

Book II continues with natural meteorological events lower in the sky, including the winds, weather, whirlwinds, lightning, and rainbows. He returns to astronomical facts such as the effect of longitude on time of sunrise and sunset, the variation of the sun's elevation with latitude (affecting timetelling by sundials), and the variation of day length with latitude.

Geography

In Books III to VI, Pliny moves to the Earth itself. In Book III he covers the geography of the Iberian peninsula and Italy; Book IV covers Europe including Britain; Book V looks at Africa and Asia, while Book VI looks eastwards to the Black Sea, India and the Far East.

Anthropology

Book VII discusses the human race, covering anthropology and ethnography, aspects of human physiology and assorted matters such as the greatness of Julius Caesar, outstanding people such as Hippocrates and Asclepiades, happiness and fortune.

Zoology

Zoology is discussed in Books VIII to XI. The encyclopedia mentions different sources of purple dye, particularly the murex snail, the highly prized source of Tyrian purple. It describes the elephant and hippopotamus in detail, as well as the value and origin of the pearl and the invention of fish farming and oyster farming. The keeping of aquariums was a popular pastime of the rich, and Pliny provides anecdotes of the problems of owners becoming too closely attached to their fish.

Pliny correctly identifies the origin of amber as the fossilised resin of pine trees. Evidence cited includes the fact that some samples exhibit encapsulated insects, a feature readily explained by the presence of a viscous resin. Pliny refers to the way in which it exerts a charge when rubbed, a property well known to Theophrastus. He devotes considerable space to bees, which he admires for their industry, organisation, and honey, discussing the significance of the queen bee and the use of smoke by beekeepers at the hive to collect honeycomb. He praises the song of the nightingale.

Botany

Botany is handled in Books XII to XVIII, with Theophrastus as one of Pliny's sources. The manufacture of papyrus and the various grades of papyrus available to Romans are described. Different types of trees and the properties of their wood are explained in Books XII to XIII. The vine, viticulture and varieties of grape are discussed in Book XIV, while Book XV covers the olive tree in detail, followed by other trees including the apple and pear, fig, cherry, myrtle and laurel, among others.

Pliny gives special attention to spices, such as pepper, ginger, and cane sugar. He mentions different varieties of pepper, whose values are comparable with that of gold and silver, while sugar is noted only for its medicinal value.

He is critical of perfumes: "Perfumes are the most pointless of luxuries, for pearls and jewels are at least passed on to one's heirs, and clothes last for a time, but perfumes lose their fragrance and perish as soon as they are used." He gives a summary of their ingredients, such as attar of roses, which he says is the most widely used base. Other substances added include myrrh, cinnamon, and balsam gum.

Drugs, medicine and magic

A major section of the Natural History, Books XX to XXIX, discusses matters related to medicine, especially plants that yield useful drugs. Pliny lists over 900 drugs, compared to 600 in Dioscorides's De Materia Medica, 550 in Theophrastus, and 650 in Galen.
The poppy and opium are mentioned; Pliny notes that opium induces sleep and can be fatal. Diseases and their treatment are covered in book XXVI.

Pliny addresses magic in Book XXX. He is critical of the Magi, attacking astrology, and suggesting that magic originated in medicine, creeping in by pretending to offer health. He names Zoroaster of Ancient Persia as the source of magical ideas. He states that Pythagoras, Empedocles, Democritus and Plato all travelled abroad to learn magic, remarking that it was surprising anyone accepted the doctrines they brought back, and that medicine (of Hippocrates) and magic (of Democritus) should have flourished simultaneously at the time of the Peloponnesian War.

Agriculture

The methods used to cultivate crops are described in Book XVIII. He praises Cato the Elder and his work De Agri Cultura, which he uses as a primary source. Pliny's work includes discussion of all known cultivated crops and vegetables, as well as herbs and remedies derived from them. He describes machines used in cultivation and processing the crops. For example, he describes a simple mechanical reaper that cut the ears of wheat and barley without the straw and was pushed by oxen (Book XVIII, chapter 72). It is depicted on a bas-relief found at Trier from the later Roman period. He also describes how grain is ground using a pestle, a hand-mill, or a mill driven by water wheels, as found in Roman water mills across the Empire.

Metallurgy

Pliny extensively discusses metals starting with gold and silver (Book XXXIII), and then the base metals copper, mercury, lead, tin and iron, as well as their many alloys such as electrum, bronze, pewter, and steel (Book XXXIV).

He is critical of greed for gold, such as the absurdity of using the metal for coins in the early Republic. He gives examples of the way rulers proclaimed their prowess by exhibiting gold looted from their campaigns, such as that by Claudius after conquering Britain, and tells the stories of Midas and Croesus. He discusses why gold is unique in its malleability and ductility, far greater than any other metal. The examples given are its ability to be beaten into fine foil with just one ounce, producing 750 leaves four inches square. Fine gold wire can be woven into cloth, although imperial clothes usually combined it with natural fibres like wool. He once saw Agrippina the Younger, wife of Claudius, at a public show on the Fucine Lake involving a naval battle, wearing a military cloak made of gold. He rejects Herodotus's claims of Indian gold obtained by ants or dug up by griffins in Scythia.

Silver, he writes, does not occur in native form and has to be mined, usually occurring with lead ores. Spain produced the most silver in his time, many of the mines having been started by Hannibal. One of the largest had galleries running up to two miles into the mountain, while men worked day and night draining the mine in shifts. Pliny is probably referring to the reverse overshot water-wheels operated by treadmill and found in Roman mines. Britain, he says, is very rich in lead, which is found on the surface at many places, and thus very easy to extract; production was so high that a law was passed attempting to restrict mining.

Fraud and forgery are described in detail; in particular coin counterfeiting by mixing copper with silver, or even admixture with iron. Tests had been developed for counterfeit coins and proved very popular with the victims, mostly ordinary people. He deals with the liquid metal mercury, also found in silver mines. He records that it is toxic, and amalgamates with gold, so is used for refining and extracting that metal. He says mercury is used for gilding copper, while antimony is found in silver mines and is used as an eyebrow cosmetic.

The main ore of mercury is cinnabar, long used as a pigment by painters. He says that the colour is similar to scolecium, probably the kermes insect. The dust is very toxic, so workers handling the material wear face masks of bladder skin. Copper and bronze are, says Pliny, most famous for their use in statues including colossi, gigantic statues as tall as towers, the most famous being the Colossus of Rhodes. He personally saw the massive statue of Nero in Rome, which was removed after the emperor's death. The face of the statue was modified shortly after Nero's death during Vespasian's reign, to make it a statue of Sol. Hadrian moved it, with the help of the architect Decrianus and 24 elephants, to a position next to the Flavian Amphitheatre (now called the Colosseum).

Pliny gives a special place to iron, distinguishing the hardness of steel from what is now called wrought iron, a softer grade. He is scathing about the use of iron in warfare.

Mineralogy

In the last two books of the work (Books XXXVI and XXXVII), Pliny describes many different minerals and gemstones, building on works by Theophrastus and other authors. The topic concentrates on the most valuable gemstones, and he criticises the obsession with luxury products such as engraved gems and hardstone carvings. He provides a thorough discussion of the properties of fluorspar, noting that it is carved into vases and other decorative objects. The account of magnetism includes the myth of Magnes the shepherd.

Pliny moves into crystallography and mineralogy, describing the octahedral shape of the diamond and recording that diamond dust is used by gem engravers to cut and polish other gems, owing to its great hardness. He states that rock crystal is valuable for its transparency and hardness, and can be carved into vessels and implements. He relates the story of a woman who owned a ladle made of the mineral, paying the sum of 150,000 sesterces for the item. Nero deliberately broke two crystal cups when he realised that he was about to be deposed, so denying their use to anyone else.

Pliny returns to the problem of fraud and the detection of false gems using several tests, including the scratch test, where counterfeit gems can be marked by a steel file, and genuine ones not. Perhaps it refers to glass imitations of jewellery gemstones. He refers to using one hard mineral to scratch another, presaging the Mohs hardness scale. Diamond sits at the top of the series because, Pliny says, it will scratch all other minerals.

Art history

Pliny's chapters on Roman and Greek art are especially valuable because his work is virtually the only available classical source of information on the subject.

In the history of art, the original Greek authorities are Duris of Samos, Xenocrates of Sicyon, and Antigonus of Carystus. The anecdotic element has been ascribed to Duris (XXXIV:61); the notices of the successive developments of art and the list of workers in bronze and painters to Xenocrates; and a large amount of miscellaneous information to Antigonus. Both Xenocrates and Antigonus are named in connection with Parrhasius (XXXV:68), while Antigonus is named in the indexes of XXXIII–XXXIV as a writer on the art of embossing metal, or working it in ornamental relief or intaglio.

Greek epigrams contribute their share in Pliny's descriptions of pictures and statues. One of the minor authorities for books XXXIV–XXXV is Heliodorus of Athens, the author of a work on the monuments of Athens. In the indices to XXXIII–XXXVI, an important place is assigned to Pasiteles of Naples, the author of a work in five volumes on famous works of art (XXXVI:40), probably incorporating the substance of the earlier Greek treatises; but Pliny's indebtedness to Pasiteles is denied by Kalkmann, who holds that Pliny used the chronological work of Apollodorus of Athens, as well as a current catalogue of artists. Pliny's knowledge of the Greek authorities was probably mainly due to Varro, whom he often quotes (e.g. XXXIV:56, XXXV:113, 156, XXXVI:17, 39, 41).

For a number of items relating to works of art near the coast of Asia Minor and in the adjacent islands, Pliny was indebted to the general, statesman, orator and historian Gaius Licinius Mucianus, who died before 77. Pliny mentions the works of art collected by Vespasian in the Temple of Peace and in his other galleries (XXXIV:84), but much of his information about the position of such works in Rome is from books, not personal observation. The main merit of his account of ancient art, the only classical work of its kind, is that it is a compilation ultimately founded on the lost textbooks of Xenocrates and on the biographies of Duris and Antigonus.

In several passages, he gives proof of independent observation (XXXIV:38, 46, 63, XXXV:17, 20, 116 seq.). He prefers the marble Laocoön and his Sons in the palace of Titus (widely believed to be the statue that is now in the Vatican) to all the pictures and bronzes in the world (XXXVI:37). The statue is attributed by Pliny to three sculptors from the island of Rhodes: Agesander, Athenodoros (possibly son of Agesander) and Polydorus.

In the temple near the Flaminian Circus, Pliny admires the Ares and the Aphrodite of Scopas, "which would suffice to give renown to any other spot". He adds:

At Rome indeed the works of art are legion; besides, one effaces another from the memory and, however beautiful they may be, we are distracted by the overpowering claims of duty and business; for to admire art we need leisure and profound stillness (XXXVI:27).

Mining

Pliny provides lucid descriptions of Roman mining. He describes gold mining in detail, with large-scale use of water to scour alluvial gold deposits. The description probably refers to mining in Northern Spain, especially at the large Las Médulas site.  Pliny describes methods of underground mining, including the use of fire-setting to attack the gold-bearing rock and so extract the ore. In another part of his work, Pliny describes the use of undermining to gain access to the veins. Pliny was scathing about the search for precious metals and gemstones: "Gangadia or quartzite is considered the hardest of all things – except for the greed for gold, which is even more stubborn."

Book XXXIV covers the base metals, their uses and their extraction. Copper mining is mentioned, using a variety of ores including copper pyrites and marcasite, some of the mining being underground, some on the surface. Iron mining is covered, followed by lead and tin.

Reception

Medieval and early modern

The anonymous fourth-century compilation Medicina Plinii contains more than 1,100 pharmacological recipes, the vast majority of them from the Historia naturalis; perhaps because Pliny's name was attached to it, it enjoyed huge popularity in the Middle Ages.

Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae (The Etymologies, c. 600–625) quotes from Pliny 45 times in Book XII alone; Books XII, XIII and XIV are all based largely on the Natural History. Through Isidore, Vincent of Beauvais's Speculum Maius (The Great Mirror, c. 1235–1264) also used Pliny as a source for his own work.
In this regard, Pliny's influence over the medieval period has been argued to be quite extensive. For example. one twentieth century historian has argued that Pliny's reliance on book-based knowledge, and not direct observation, shaped intellectual life to the degree that it  "stymie[d] the progress of western science". This sentiment can be observed in the early modern period when Niccolò Leoniceno's 1509 De Erroribus Plinii ("On Pliny's Errors") attacked Pliny for lacking a proper scientific method, unlike Theophrastus or Dioscorides, and for lacking knowledge of philosophy or medicine.

Sir Thomas Browne expressed scepticism about Pliny's dependability in his 1646 Pseudodoxia Epidemica:

Modern

Grundy Steiner of Northwestern University, in a 1955 judgement considered by Thomas R. Laehn to represent the collective opinion of Pliny's critics, wrote of Pliny that "He was not an original, creative thinker, nor a pioneer of research to be compared either with Aristotle and Theophrastus or with any of the great moderns. He was, rather, the compiler of a secondary sourcebook."

The Italian author Italo Calvino, in his 1991 book Why Read the Classics?, wrote that while people often consult Pliny's Natural History for facts and curiosities, he is an author who "deserves an extended read, for the measured movement of his prose, which is enlivened by his admiration for everything that exists and his respect for the infinite diversity of all phenomena". Calvino notes that while Pliny is eclectic, he was not uncritical, though his evaluations of sources are inconsistent and unpredictable. Further, Calvino compares Pliny to Immanuel Kant, in that God is prevented by logic from conflicting with reason, even though (in Calvino's view) Pliny makes a pantheistic identification of God as being immanent in nature. As for destiny, Calvino writes:

The art historian Jacob Isager writes in the introduction to his analysis of Pliny's chapters on art in the Natural History that his intention is:to show how Pliny in his encyclopedic work – which is the result of adaptations from many earlier writers and according to Pliny himself was intended as a reference work – nevertheless throughout expresses a basic attitude to Man and his relationship with Nature; how he understands Man's role as an inventor ("scientist and artist"); and finally his attitude to the use and abuse of Nature's and Man's creations, to progress and decay. More specifically, Isager writes that "the guiding principle in Pliny's treatment of Greek and Roman art is the function of art in society", while Pliny "uses his art history to express opinions about the ideology of the state".

Paula Findlen, writing in the Cambridge History of Science, asserts that Natural history was an ancient form of scientific knowledge, most closely associated with the writings of the Roman encyclopedist Pliny the Elder ... His loquacious and witty Historia naturalis offered an expansive definition of this subject. [It] broadly described all entities found in nature, or derived from nature, that could be seen in the Roman world and read about in its books: art, artifacts, and peoples as well as animals, plants, and minerals were included in his project. Findlen contrasts Pliny's approach with that of his intellectual predecessors Aristotle and Theophrastus, who sought general causes of natural phenomena, while Pliny was more interested in cataloguing natural wonders, and his contemporary Dioscorides explored nature for its uses in Roman medicine in his great work De Materia Medica.

In the view of Mary Beagon, writing in The Classical Tradition in 2010:the Historia naturalis has regained its status to a greater extent than at any time since the advent of Humanism. Work by those with scientific as well as philological expertise has resulted in improvements both to Pliny's text and to his reputation as a scientist. The essential coherence of his enterprise has also been rediscovered, and his ambitious portrayal, in all its manifestations, of 'nature, that is, life'.. is recognized as a unique cultural record of its time.

See also
 Famulus – his biography is featured in Natural History
 Naturales quaestiones – a similar, shorter encyclopedia written by Seneca

Notes

References

Sources

External links

Primary

 Latin
 Complete Latin text at LacusCurtius
 Complete Latin text with translation tools at Perseus Digital Library
 Naturalis Historia. Pliny the Elder. Johannes de Spira. Venice. before 18 September 1469. at Corning Museum of Glass. (Once owned by the Earls of Pembroke)
 Naturalis Historia. Pliny the Elder. Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff. Lipsiae. Teubner. 1906.

 English
 First English translation, by Philemon Holland, 1601
 Second English translation, by John Bostock and Henry Thomas Riley, 1855;  complete, with index

 Pliny's Natural History Translated by H. Rackham (vols. 1-5, 9) and W.H.S. Jones (vols. 6-8) and D.E. Eichholz (vol. 10) Harvard University Press, Massachusetts and William Heinemann, London; 1949–1954.

Secondary

 Article on Pliny by Jona Lendering, with detailed table of contents of the Natural History

Category:1st-century Latin books
Category:Ancient Roman medicine
Category:Geoponici
Category:Incunabula
Category:Latin encyclopedias
Category:Latin prose texts
Category:Natural history books
Category:Encyclopedias in Classical Antiquity


DySPAN

The Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks Standards Committee (DySPAN-SC), formerly Standards Coordinating Committee 41 (SCC41), and even earlier the IEEE P1900 Standards Committee, is sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The group develops standards for radio and spectrum management.  Its working groups and resulting standards, numbered in the 1900 range, are sometimes referred to as IEEE 1900.X.

Background

The IEEE P1900 Standards Committee was established in March 2005 jointly by the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc) and the IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility Society (EMC). The effort developed supporting standards for radio and dynamic spectrum management.

On March 22, 2007 the IEEE Standards Board approved its reorganization as Standards Coordinating Committee 41 (SCC41), Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks (DySPAN). The IEEE ComSoc and EMC sponsored this effort, as they did for IEEE 1900.
The IEEE 1900 Committee ceased to exist at the inaugural meeting of SCC41 in April 2007. The work of the IEEE 1900.x Working Groups continued under SCC41.
SCC41 voted to be directly answerable to ComSoc in December 2010, and was renamed as IEEE DySPAN-SC. At its December 2010 Meeting, the IEEE Standards Association Standards Board (SASB) approved the transfer of projects to the Communications Society Standards Board.

Overview
DySPAN-SC focuses on Dynamic Spectrum Access and associated technologies. Due to the strong inter-relationships between such topics, it also touches on other areas such as Cognitive Radio.

Working groups
IEEE DySPAN-SC currently oversees the following standards development working groups:

 1900.1 Working Group on Terminology and Concepts for Next Generation Radio Systems and Spectrum Management
 1900.2 Working Group on Recommended Practice for Interference and Coexistence Analysis
 1900.3 Working Group on Recommended Practice for Conformance Evaluation of Software Defined Radio (SDR) Software Modules
 1900.4 Working Group on Architectural Building Blocks Enabling Network-Device Distributed Decision Making for Optimized Radio Resource Usage in Heterogeneous Wireless Access Networks
 1900.5 Working Group on Policy Language and Policy Architectures for Managing Cognitive Radio for Dynamic Spectrum Access Applications
 1900.6 Working Group on Spectrum Sensing Interfaces and Data Structures for Dynamic Spectrum Access and other Advanced Radio Communication Systems
 P1900.7 Working Group on Radio Interface for White Space Dynamic Spectrum Access Radio Systems Supporting Fixed and Mobile Operation

Proposed standards have "P" prepended to the name until they are ratified. The first to be published was 1900.2 in July 2008.
Next was 1900.1 on September 26, 2008.
Then 1900.4 was published on February 27, 2009.
Work then began on amendment P1900.4.1a for dynamic spectrum access networks in white space frequency bands, and P1900.4.1 for interoperability between components of the IEEE 1900.4 system.
The 1900.6 standard was published on April 22, 2011, and work began on an amendment 1900.6a.

IEEE 1900.4
The IEEE 1900.4 Working Group is on "Architectural Building Blocks Enabling Network-Device Distributed Decision Making for Optimized Radio Resource Usage in Heterogeneous Wireless Access Networks"  It is a working group under the IEEE SCC41.

IEEE 1900.4 was published on February 27, 2009.

There are two projects for the 1900.4 Working Group starting April 2009:

 1900.4a: Standard for Architectural Building Blocks Enabling Network-Device Distributed Decision Making for Optimized Radio Resource Usage in Heterogeneous Wireless Access Networks – Amendment: Architecture and Interfaces for Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks in White Space Frequency Bands
 1900.4.1: Standard for Interfaces and Protocols Enabling Distributed Decision Making for Optimized Radio Resource Usage in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Standard Overview
Use cases (cases in which the protocols described by this standard will be used) include:

 Dynamic spectrum assignment
 Dynamic spectrum sharing
 Distributed radio resource usage optimization

History
The protocol was first popularized by various articles, including one on Monday, March 23, 2009.

See also
 IEEE 802.22 standard for Wireless Regional Area Network
 Software-defined radio
 Cognitive radio
 Open spectrum

References

Further reading

Category:Radio technology
Category:Wireless networking standards
Category:IEEE standards


Anthaxia prasina

Anthaxia prasina is a species of metallic wood-boring beetle in the family Buprestidae. It is found in North America.

References

Further reading

Category:Buprestidae
Category:Articles created by Qbugbot
Category:Beetles described in 1882


Phil Gilmartin

Phil Gilmartin,  is a British molecular biologist and botanist, who specialises in plant genetics. Since 2011, he has been Professor of Plant Molecular Genetics and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of East Anglia (UEA). He had previously been Director of the Centre for Plant Sciences (1998–2004) and Pro-Dean for Research in the Faculty of Biological Sciences (2004–2007) at the University of Leeds, and Principal of St Mary's College, Durham (2008–2011).

References

Category:Living people
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:British molecular biologists
Category:British botanists
Category:Plant geneticists
Category:Academics of the University of Leeds
Category:Academics of Durham University
Category:Academics of the University of East Anglia
Category:Fellows of the Linnean Society of London


Moot Commando

Moot Commando was a light infantry regiment of the South African Army. It formed part of the South African Army Infantry Formation as well as the South African Territorial Reserve.

History

Origins

Operations

With the SADF
This Commando resorted under the command of Group 15.

During this era, the unit was mainly used for area force protection, search and cordones as well as stock theft control assistance to the rural police.

With the SANDF

Disbandment
This unit, along with all other Commando units was disbanded after a decision by South African President Thabo Mbeki to disband all Commando Units. The Commando system was phased out between 2003 and 2008 "because of the role it played in the apartheid era", according to the Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula.

Unit Insignia

Leadership

References

See also
 South African Commando System

Category:Infantry regiments of South Africa
Category:South African Commando Units


Air Combat

Air Combat, known as  in Japan, is a semi-realistic flight-sim action game, released by Namco for the PlayStation home video game console in 1995.

Story
A terrorist force starts an uprising (and inflicts massive damage across an unidentified country, later retconned to Skully Island which is part of the continent of Usea); efforts to defeat these terrorists through conventional means have failed and the situation turns desperate. In response, a mercenary air force is assembled to take the fight against the enemy and free the nation from the terrorist forces.

Gameplay
Air Combat is considered an "arcade-style" flight game due to its semi-realistic physics and the fact that many of the planes can carry up to sixty-five missiles (an impossibility in real-life aircraft). The goal of the game is to destroy enemy targets dispersed throughout the various missions and earn money to purchase additional aircraft or employ wingmen. Extra money can also be earned by destroying "non-target", optional enemies. The player can choose from 16 different planes ranging from F-4 Phantoms to Su-27 Flankers and Stealth aircraft, except they are painted in a special "Phoenix" color scheme. Replaying the game after beating it once unlocks the normal color scheme for these aircraft. The game has multiple missions spread out over the campaign map, making it possible to not clear all missions in a single playthrough. Later in the game, players can select new pilots to be their "wingman" during a mission, by assigning them one of three tasks. Each wingman has his own corresponding aircraft, and deducts a fee from the player's credit haul at the end.

Reception

Air Combat received mixed reviews; IGN described the gameplay's elements as "rock solid", although they noted on its graphical flaws, stating that "the flickery images and bland colors do nothing to showcase the PlayStation's graphics prowess". Air Hendrix of GamePro similarly described the graphics as bland, with backgrounds and explosions lacking the "detail and polish" seen in most PlayStation games. He also found the early missions simplistic and uninteresting, but said the later missions show compelling strategic depth, and concluded, "Despite Air Combats substantial flaws, patient arcade-shooter fans will gradually get caught up in the gripping gameplay." A brief review in Next Generation stated "This decent flight game is one of the earliest PlayStation titles and hasn't aged as well as some". Air Combat was also awarded "Best Flight Sim of 1995" by Electronic Gaming Monthly.

References

Category:1995 video games
Category:Ace Combat
Category:Combat flight simulators
Category:PlayStation (console) games
Category:PlayStation (console)-only games
Category:Multiplayer and single-player video games
Category:Namco games
Category:Video games developed in Japan


Mike the Tiger

Mike the Tiger is the official mascot of Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and serves as the graphic image of LSU sports.  Mike is the name of both the live and costumed mascots.

By tradition the tiger is a live Bengal tiger, although the current mascot and his two immediate predecessors are mixed-breeds. Mike V was a Bengal-Indochinese mix, Mike VI was a Bengal-Siberian hybrid, and Mike VII is also a Bengal–Siberian mix.

LSU teams are called the Fighting Tigers and Lady Tigers, with "Lady Tigers" used only for women's teams in sports that are also sponsored for men, and the university's football team plays its home games in Tiger Stadium. LSU first adopted its "Tigers" nickname in the fall of 1896.  The moniker is a reference to the state's Confederate heritage; the Louisiana troops of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia became known as the Tigers during the Civil War in recognition of the bravery of two New Orleans brigades, the Tiger Rifles and the Washington Artillery (whose logo featured a snarling tiger's head).

History of Mike the Tiger

Mike I (1936–1956)
Born on October 10, 1935, the first Mike was purchased from the Little Rock Zoo with money raised by collecting 25 cents from each LSU student for a total of $750. Originally named Sheik, the new mascot was renamed in honor of Mike Chambers, LSU's athletic trainer at the time, who was the person most responsible for bringing him to the school. (It was later discovered that "Sheik" may have been fond of his original name, because even years later, handlers could get him to roar just by calling "Sheik!") Mike assumed his duties as the living symbol of LSU only three days after arriving on campus on October 21, 1936. In the 1950s, Mike was kidnapped by Tulane fans before a Tiger-Green Wave football game. He was found, and returned safely in New Orleans—he and his cage sprayed Tulane green. Mike I lived for 20 years before dying of kidney disease in 1956. He has been displayed in the LSU Natural Sciences Museum on the campus in Baton Rouge.

Mike II (1956–1958)
A few days after Mike I's death, a resolution endorsing the purchase of another tiger was introduced in the Louisiana legislature and a fund was set up by LSU students to underwrite the cost. Mike II had a short but somewhat mysterious life. He was born on February 28, 1956 at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans and was chosen because his paws were larger than those of the other cubs. He was unveiled on September 29, 1956, during the opening game of the new football season. Legend has it that less than a month after his arrival at LSU, Mike II died of pneumonia, at only eight months of age, during a six-game losing streak and that a second Mike II was secretly brought in as a ringer. To explain Mike's absence, and after much rumor, the LSU student newspaper, The Daily Reveille, printed a statement that the young tiger needed time alone to adjust to his new home and position as mascot, with its attendant excitement. All rumors of Mike II's death and replacement were denied, and the school claimed that he had finally adjusted. On May 15, 1958, however, less than two years after his debut, Mike II (or his impostor) died at the Audubon Zoo due to pneumonia, while recovering from multiple fractures to his left rear leg.

Mike III (1958–1976)
Mike III was born on November 26, 1957 and arrived from the Seattle Zoo just in time for LSU's 1958 National Championship football season. During Mike III's 18-year reign, LSU also won three Southeastern Conference football championships (1958, 1961, 1970) and eight of 13 bowl games. Mike III died of old age in 1976 after the only losing LSU football season of his lifetime. The mascot's death affected the students and faculty so greatly that the vet at the time, W. Sheldon Bivin, said he would never allow another tiger to die on campus.

Mike IV (1976–1990)
Mike IV, originally called Jerry, was born at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida in 1974. He was donated by August A. Busch III and was two years old when he came to LSU in August 1976. One memorable incident involving Mike IV began in the early-morning hours of November 28, 1981 when pranksters cut the locks on Mike's cage. The tiger roamed freely for hours, attacked a small tree, and appeared to be enjoying himself before becoming trapped in the Track Stadium near his cage. Three tranquilizer shots later, the wandering mascot was returned to his home without further incident and awoke without ill effects. Mike IV reigned for 14 years and retired in 1990 to the Baton Rouge Zoo where he lived until his death in 1995 at the age of 21, the oldest of the tigers serving as LSU's mascot.

Mike V (1990–2007)

Mike V was considered to have the best personality of all the tigers that have served as LSU's symbol. Originally named Stevie, he was donated by Dr. Thomas and Caroline Atchison of the Animal House Zoological Park in Moulton, Alabama. Born on October 19, 1989, the 7-pound baby tiger was introduced to LSU fans at a basketball game in February 1990. In his 17-year reign, Mike V saw an LSU football team win another National Championship (in 2003) and received both a new trailer and a massive renovation of his enclosure.

In March 2007, Mike V officially began a three-stage retirement. His personal vet, David Baker, cited his age and health as reasons. Mike V retained his mascot status and lived in his on-campus habitat until his death.

Mike the Tiger died on May 18, 2007 at 2:23 AM, which coincided with the undergraduate commencement ceremonies. The cause of death was renal failure.

Mike VI (2007–2016)

After Mike V's death, PETA contacted the university and urged it not to replace him with a new tiger.

However, LSU chancellor Sean O'Keefe rejected PETA's request by stating that LSU would acquire a new tiger.  O'Keefe further defended LSU's decision by noting that four of the previous five Mikes lived to be at least 17 years, nearly twice the normal 8–10 year lifespan of tigers in the wild.  O'Keefe further explained that tigers were currently a critically endangered species in the wild, and any attempt to preserve them as a species would require some level of raising them in captivity, such as at LSU's veterinary school.

LSU did not wish to buy a tiger but instead sought for one to be donated to the school. On July 27, 2007, WBRZ ABC News 2 announced that LSU had located a tiger at Great Cats of (Idaville) Indiana, an Indiana-based large cat and carnivore rescue facility.

"Roscoe" arrived in Baton Rouge on Saturday, August 25, 2007, after a plane ride from Indiana and was kept quarantined in the "night house" in the LSU habitat, away from the public. On August 31, 2007, LSU officials decided that the tiger was adjusting well and allowed him into the public habitat during morning outings.  He was returned to the night house each evening. On his first outing on September 1, 2007, LSU staff invited members of the media and the public to view and take photographs of the tiger.

On September 8, 2007, LSU staff acknowledged that "He's Mike VI" in a press release. A ceremony dedicating the tiger as officially "Mike VI" took place on September 14, 2007, Mike VI was to make his Death Valley debut at the September 22 game against the University of South Carolina, but LSU Veterinarian David Baker felt that a day game would be rough for the new tiger, delaying his anticipated debut until the October 6, 2007 night game against the University of Florida.

By 2015, Mike VI was a 10-year old Siberian-Bengal mix male weighing over 420 pounds. The product of an "unintended breeding" at Great Cats, University staff believed his youth, size and temperament may give the athletic department a "more ferocious mascot much sooner than watching a cub grow up at LSU." Estimates by LSU Veterinary staff were that Mike VI may top out at  or more, making him LSU's largest tiger mascot ever.

In Mike VI's first year as the LSU tiger, the LSU Tigers football team won the BCS National Championship for the 2007 college football season.

On May 23, 2016, LSU issued a press release stating that Mike VI had been diagnosed with a spindle cell sarcoma, a type of cancer, which later spread. LSU announced on September 6 that despite treatment, the tiger's cancer was terminal, and that he would be expected to live at most two years. Mike VI would remain in his on-campus habitat, and would no longer attend games. On October 5, 2016 it was announced that Mike VI's cancer had returned and spread to his head. Vets at the LSU Veterinarian School announced that he had one to two months to live. Six days later, he was euthanized.

Mike VII (2017–present)
Following the death of Mike VI, LSU issued statements that they intended to seek another tiger to become Mike VII, in a similar manner to previous Mikes: to be donated to the university and not purchased or bred. And like the acquisition of his would-be predecessors, this decision was also met with controversy.

On January 19, 2017, LSU announced a timeline concerning searching for a tiger to become Mike VII, hoping to have him join an incoming freshman class in August 2017. Additionally, they announced the would-be Mike VII would no longer visit the stadium during game days. The school also attempted to have Mike's habitat accredited as a tiger sanctuary. On August 1, LSU announced that it had located a 9-month-old male Siberian–Bengal hybrid tiger that may become Mike VII; the tiger was donated from an Okeechobee, Florida sanctuary that had changed owners and practices after a prosecution of the previous owner. The tiger, named Harvey, arrived on campus on August 15 to begin a one-week quarantine before officially becoming Mike VII. LSU announced that Harvey had become the official Mike VII on August 21, the first day of classes in the fall semester. Mike VII oversaw LSU Football's first College Football Playoff National Title in his third season on campus

Notes: *—a superstition strongly tied to the line of Mikes is the success of the school's football program (LSU has won national championships during the first seasons of the reigns of Mike I, Mike III, and Mike VI, although the title under Mike I was not a consensus, despite being named champion by multiple selectors); **—contemporary accounts maintain the existence of only one tiger holding the title of Mike II, but modern research indicates the existence of two separate tigers; however, it is not immediately clear precisely when the reign of the first Mike II ended and the second Mike II began.

Mike the Tiger Habitat

In 2005, a new $3 million habitat was created for Mike. The Tiger Athletic Foundation (TAF) raised funds, entirely from private sources, to subsidize the construction project. The habitat (situated between Tiger Stadium and the Pete Maravich Assembly Center) features state-of-the-art technologies and includes among its amenities lush plantings, a waterfall, a flowing stream that empties into a wading pond, and rocky plateaus. The habitat ranks among the largest and finest Tiger preserves in the country and expanded Mike's home from 2,000 to . It also features research, conservation, and husbandry programs, as well as educational, interpretive, and recreational activities. Mike's new home can be viewed via the live Tigercam.

Traditions
Until 2016, on home football game days, Mike's cage on wheels was topped by the LSU cheerleaders as it rode through Tiger Stadium before the start of the game, and was parked by the opponent's locker room at the southeast end of Tiger Stadium, forcing opposing players must pass by Mike's cage in order to reach their locker room (However, Mike is never forced into his trailer: if he does not go in on his own, he remains in his habitat. Mike VI was known for rarely entering his trailer). However, following the death of Mike VI in 2016, LSU announced that future Mikes will no longer leave their habitat.
According to folklore, LSU will score a touchdown for every one of Mike's roars on game day.
Many students seek to take a picture with Mike on graduation day wearing cap and gown.

Retirement
After the death of Mike III in 1976 while he was still LSU's active mascot, a three-stage retirement plan was instituted for the tigers:
Stage 1: He no longer participates in pre-game events such as the roar before the game.
Stage 2: He stops attending the games altogether.
Stage 3: He retires to another location.

Mike the Mascot
LSU has a costumed mascot also named Mike. Mike the Mascot appears at LSU sporting events (as the live Mike the Tiger does not leave his habitat as of 2016, and previously did not attend away games for some time) and also appears at several LSU-related functions. In August 2007, Mike the Mascot was featured on a This Is SportsCenter Commercial with LSU alum Shaquille O'Neal. In 2005, Team Mike was formed by a group of students and has carried on its tradition at LSU. This team of students help Mike get to his games and events on time, help him with his costumes, and bring him to Disney World every January to compete in a mascot competition..  Along with other college mascots, Mike was featured in the Brad Paisley video Country Nation in 2015.

See also
LSU Tigers and Lady Tigers

References

Further reading
David G. Baker and W. Sheldon Bivin, Mike the Tiger: The Roar of LSU, LSU Press (2003)
David G. Baker and Margaret Taylor Stewart, Tales of Mike the Tiger: Facts and Fun for Everyone LSU Press (2006)
Game Day: Mike the Tiger’s Way
Tiger Tales: Mike the Tiger

External links

Category:Southeastern Conference mascots
Category:Louisiana State University traditions
Category:LSU Tigers and Lady Tigers
Category:Tiger mascots
Category:Individual tigers
Category:Individual animals in the United States
Category:Feline mascots


Pinet Butte

Pinet Butte () is a small butte comprising the westernmost portion of the Caudal Hills, in Victoria Land. Mapped by United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos, 1960-64. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) for Paul R. Pinet, geologist at McMurdo Station, 1966-67.

Category:Buttes of Antarctica
Category:Landforms of Victoria Land
Category:Pennell Coast


Robert Martin (cinematographer)

Robert Martin (7 December 1891 – 24 March 1980) (sometimes credited as Robert G. Martin or Bob Martin) was an American cinematographer.

Filmography

References

External links

Category:1891 births
Category:1980 deaths
Category:American cinematographers


Lucas L-6A

The Lucas L-6A, also called the L6A, is a French low-wing, two-seats in tandem motor glider that was designed by Emile Lucas of Lagny-le-Sec in the form of plans for amateur construction.

Design and development
The L-6A was developed as a motor glider version of the Lucas L6 light aircraft.

The L-6A is of all-metal construction. The  span wing can be folded for ground transportation or storage and the wing tips are removable. The landing gear is of a retractable conventional landing gear configuration. The recommended engines are the Lycoming O-235 of  or the Limbach L2000 of .

The L-6A was only available as plans and no kits or completed aircraft were factory-made. The plans cost US$400 in 2002 and at that time two examples were reported complete and flying. The construction time is estimated as 4000 hours.

Specifications (L-6A)

See also

References

External links

Image of L-6A

Category:1990s French sailplanes
Category:Homebuilt aircraft
L-6A
Category:Single-engined tractor aircraft
Category:Motor gliders
Category:Low-wing aircraft


Averin

Averin or Averina may refer to:
Averin (surname) (fem. Averina), a Russian last name
Averin, a protein found in oats
Averin, common name in Scotland of Rubus chamaemorus, a rhizomatous herb
Averina (Everina) Wollstonecraft, sister of Mary Wollstonecraft


Randy Poleon

Randy Poleon (born 29 January 1986) is a Saint Lucian international footballer who plays in the Saint Lucia Gold Division for Northern United All Stars, as a Goalkeeper.

Club career
Poleon started his career with Northern United All Stars in 2005 but moved to Orion the following year. Poleon moved back to All Stars in 2013.

International career
Poleon has played 15 times for Saint Lucia since making his debut in 2006.

References

Category:1986 births
Category:Living people
Category:Saint Lucian footballers
Category:Saint Lucia international footballers
Category:Association football defenders


Mir-449 microRNA precursor family

In molecular biology mir-449 microRNA is a short RNA molecule. MicroRNAs function to regulate the expression levels of other genes by several mechanisms.

See also
 MicroRNA

References

Further reading

External links

Category:MicroRNA
Category:MicroRNA precursor families


Berezovka, Birsky District, Republic of Bashkortostan

Berezovka () is a rural locality (a selo) in Birsky District, Bashkortostan, Russia. The population was 534 as of 2010. There are 13 streets.

References

Category:Rural localities in Bashkortostan


A.C. Porto Torres

Associazione Calcio Porto Torres is an Italian association football club located in Porto Torres, Sardinia. The club currently plays regional football in the second division of Sardinia's Promozione, the 6th tier of Italian football.

History
The club was founded in 1960. The club competed in the Serie D from 2010 to 2014.

Colors and badge
Its colors are red and blue.

Notable former players
 Michele Fini

References

Category:Football clubs in Italy
Category:Football clubs in Sardinia
Category:1960 establishments in Italy