title: René Goscinny

text: After Goscinny's death, Uderzo began to write "Asterix" himself and continued the series, although at a much slower pace, until passing the series over in 2011 to writer Jean-Yves Ferri and illustrator Didier Conrad. Tabary similarly began to write "Iznogoud" himself, whereas Morris continued "Lucky Luke" with various other writers.


title: René Goscinny

text: In a tribute to Goscinny, Uderzo gave his late colleague's likeness to the Jewish character Saul ben Ephishul in the 1981 album "L'Odyssée d'Astérix" ("Asterix and the Black Gold"), which is dedicated to Goscinny's memory.


title: René Goscinny

text: Since 1996, the René Goscinny Award is presented at the yearly Angoulême International Comics Festival in France as an encouragement for young comic writers.


title: René Goscinny

text: According to UNESCO's Index Translationum, Goscinny, as of August 2017, was the 20th most-translated author, with 2,200 translations of his work.


title: René Goscinny

text: On 23 January 2020, a life-sized bronze statue of Goscinny was unveiled near his former home in Paris. It was the first public statue in Paris dedicated to a comic book author.


title: Keith Green

text: Keith Gordon Green (October 21, 1953 – July 28, 1982) was an American pianist, singer, and songwriter in the contemporary Christian music genre, who was originally from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York. His most notable songs are "There Is a Redeemer", which was written by his wife Melody, and "(Until) Your Love Broke Through".


title: Keith Green

text: Green took to music at a young age, as he "began with the ukulele at three, the guitar at five, and the piano at seven." His talents were noted by a major newspaper when he was eight, following a performance of Arthur Laurents' "The Time of the Cuckoo". A local review by the "Los Angeles Times" wrote, "roguish-looking, eight-year-old Keith Green gave a winning portrayal" of "the little Italian street urchin, Mauro"; another review commented that he "stole the show". The show was Green's first appearance in live theater, which was held in Chatsworth, California in September 1962. According to the "LA Times", he had already done a number of television commercials and made a TV pilot.


title: Keith Green

text: Green played the role of Kurt von Trapp in "The Sound of Music" starring Janet Blair in the opening production at the Valley Music Theater, a modern 2865-seat theater-in-the-round in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles when he was 10.


title: Keith Green

text: Green and his father Harvey signed a five-year contract with Decca Records in February 1965, with Harvey as business manager, having written 40 original songs already. The first song released on disc was "A Go-Go Getter" in May 1965, produced by Gary Usher, which he had composed and published before signing with Decca. He became the youngest person ever to sign with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) upon publication of this song at age 11.


title: Keith Green

text: Decca Records planned to make Green a teen idol, regularly getting him featured in fan magazines such as "Teen Scene" and on television shows such as "The Jack Benny Program" and "The Steve Allen Show". He was a guest on the television game show "I've Got a Secret" on May 3, 1965. His secret was "I just signed a five-year contract as a rock-'n'-roll singer." The segment included a live performance of "We'll Do a Lot of Things Together".


title: Keith Green

text: Green had written 10 more songs by the time that he was 12. "Time" ran an article about aspiring young rock-'n'-roll singers and referred to him as Decca Records' "prepubescent dreamboat". The national attention that had been envisioned by Decca Records failed to materialize for Green, however, as Donny Osmond captured the attention of preteens and teenagers, eclipsing Green's newfound stardom, and he was quickly forgotten by the public.


title: Keith Green

text: Green had a Jewish heritage and was raised in Christian Science. He grew up reading the New Testament and called the mixture of being Jewish and learning about Jesus "an odd combination" that left him open-minded but confused and deeply unsatisfied. As a teen perceiving his music career had failed, he ran away from home, began smoking marijuana, and used some psychedelics in hopes of finding spiritual truth. He became interested in eastern mysticism and the "free love" culture. After experiencing what Green described as a "bad trip", he abandoned drug use and became interested in philosophy and theology. After Green met Melody Steiner at age 19, they were inseparable, and married a year later.


title: Keith Green

text: In 1975, the Greens, just new believers in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, began taking people who needed help into their small home in the suburbs of Los Angeles, in the San Fernando Valley. Both were staff songwriters for CBS Records in Hollywood and used their income to support all who came. Early on, their close friend and Christian recording artist, Randy Stonehill, who was struggling at the time, stayed for a while. Their home was later dubbed "The Greenhouse" – a place where people grow. The Greens continued to open their home but mostly to strangers in need. They eventually ran out of space and, purchasing the home next door to their own and renting an additional five in the same neighborhood, they provided a safe environment of Bible Studies and practical discipleship to young and old alike. The majority were teenagers and those of college age. Much to the consternation of neighbors, there came to be 75 people living in the Green's homes and traipsing down the suburban streets—including recovering drug addicts and prostitutes, bikers, the homeless, and many single pregnant girls needing shelter and safety. Some were referred to the Greens by other ministries and shelters, but most just crossed their path during their normal life at home and on the road. In 1977, the Greens personal outreach became a nonprofit ministry they called Last Days Ministries. Green also became an ordained minister.


title: Keith Green

text: Green's initial tone of ministry was influenced by the words of Jesus in the Bible. Later, he was also influenced by his friends Winkie Pratney, and Leonard Ravenhill, who pointed him to Charles Finney, a nineteenth-century revivalist preacher who preached the holiness of God to provoke conviction in his hearers. During his concerts he would often exhort his listeners to repent and commit themselves more wholly to following Christ. Through relationships with Loren Cunningham the founder of Youth with a Mission (YWAM), missions leader John Dawson, and a trip with his wife to overseas missions projects Green saw the worldwide need for missionaries. He realized he was often too hard on growing believers and believed that all Christians needed to have at least a brief stint on the mission field. His assurance of God's unconditional love for him grew as well. This transition is evident in his music beginning with "So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt" in 1980. He described the changes he went through in his next-to-last article for the "Last Days Magazine".


title: Keith Green

text: Green was signed to Contemporary Christian music label Sparrow Records in 1976 and worked on the album "Firewind" (1976) with Christian artists 2nd Chapter of Acts, Terry and John Michael Talbot, and Barry McGuire. Prior to Keith's signing with Sparrow Records, and two years before the release of "No Compromise", Tommy James, of Tommy James and the Shondells, recorded "Don't Wanna Fall Away from You," composed by Green, for his 1976 Fantasy album "In Touch".


title: Keith Green

text: His first solo project, "For Him Who Has Ears to Hear", was released in 1977 and topped the charts. His second solo release, "No Compromise", followed in 1978. In 1979, after negotiating a release from his contract with Sparrow, Green initiated a new policy of refusing to charge money for concerts or albums. Keith and Melody mortgaged their home to privately finance Green's next album, "So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt". The album, which featured a guest appearance by Bob Dylan, was offered through mail order and at concerts for a price determined by the purchaser. By May 1982, Green had shipped out more than 200,000 units of his album – 61,000 for free. Subsequent albums included "The Keith Green Collection" (1981) and "Songs for the Shepherd" (1982).


title: Keith Green

text: When his music was carried by Christian bookstores, a second cassette was included free of charge for every cassette purchased to give away to a friend to help spread the Gospel.


title: Keith Green

text: In 1978, Last Days Ministries (LDM) began publishing the "Last Days Newsletter" from the Greens' garage. Originally printed on a few pages of loose paper, the newsletter grew in content to eventually become a "small, colorful magazine" and was renamed in mid-1985 as the "Last Days Magazine." The magazine featured articles by Green and his wife Melody, as well as contemporary Christian authors David Wilkerson, Leonard Ravenhill, and Winkie Pratney, all of whom lived in the area. The publication also later included the reprinted works of classic Christian authors such as Charles Finney, John Wesley, and William Booth and his wife Catherine. Most of the articles were reprinted as tracts. After Keith's 1982 death Melody was appointed to lead the ministry. By the mid-1980s, the Last Days Magazine was sent out to over 500,000 people worldwide.


title: Keith Green

text: In 1979, the ministry relocated from the San Fernando Valley to a plot of land in Garden Valley, Texas, a crossroads community about west of Lindale, Texas. Within a few years, Last Days purchased additional land, bringing the total to .


title: Keith Green

text: Along with 11 others, Green died on July 28, 1982, when the Robertson STOL-modified Cessna 414 leased by Last Days Ministries crashed after takeoff from the private airstrip located on the LDM property. The small twin-engined plane was carrying 11 passengers and the pilot, Don Burmeister, for an aerial tour of the LDM property and the surrounding area. Green and two of his children, three-year-old Josiah and two-year-old Bethany, were on board the plane, along with visiting church planters, John and Dede Smalley and their six children. Green's wife Melody was at home with one-year-old Rebekah and six weeks pregnant with their fourth child, Rachel, born in March 1983.


title: Keith Green

text: The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the crash was caused by the pilot in command (PIC) allowing the aircraft to be loaded beyond its operating limitations. The required preflight weight and balance computations responsibility of civilian pilots would have shown it was dangerously overloaded and also outside its weight and balance operating envelope. This responsibility with military pilots is the responsibility of the military loadmaster, and thus he may have, by force of habit, overlooked this responsibility. Don Alan Burmeister was a former United States Marine Corps aviator, but FAA records show he had very limited experience / training in flying conventional (vs. centerline thrust) twin-engine aircraft. Records show it was only a short time prior to the accident (6/9/82) that he completed a check-ride to remove the "centerline thrust" restriction from his pilot's certificate. This check-ride should have fully evaluated his ability to fly a conventional multi-engine aircraft throughout its designed range of operations, but the flight examiner was decertified the next month (7/10/82) by the FAA due to a "history of incomplete or substandard check-rides". Additionally, the insurance carrier (Ideal Mutual Insurance Co.) required Burmeister to log 1,045 hrs of flying time, attend a Cessna ground and flight training course, as well as log 15 hours in a Cessna 414 (C-414) prior to acting as the PIC of the leased aircraft. The NTSB record shows he failed to accomplish all of these requirements. With pilot and eleven passengers, the aircraft was overloaded by an estimated , and the location of the center of gravity was found to be beyond the maximum aft limit. Combined with an air temperature of , creating a condition known as "hot and high" (high density altitude, producing a lower climb rate on takeoff and greater danger of stalling), the C-414 could do little but struggle into the air within ground effect, and once airborne was left virtually uncontrollable. These factors prevented the aircraft from ever attaining sufficient altitude, and it crashed into trees less than a mile from the airport.


title: Keith Green

text: Keith Gordon Green, Josiah David Green (September 18, 1978 – July 28, 1982), and Bethany Grace Green (February 5, 1980 – July 28, 1982) are interred in the same coffin at Garden Valley Cemetery behind the Garden Valley Baptist Church, less than a half-mile from the LDM property. He was survived by his wife and two daughters, Rebekah Joy Green (b. 1981) and Rachel Hope Green (b. March 1983, eight months after Green's death).


title: Keith Green

text: Melody Green continued to lead Last Days Ministries from Texas until 1996, when she moved to California and launched Last Days Ministries Online where all of Green's writings are free and his music can be found. The free monthly Last Days Ministries Newsletter is also sent out by request.


title: Keith Green

text: Melody maintains the Keith Green Facebook page to honor Keith and also shares her opinions on the Melody Green Facebook Page where she interacts with Green's fans and Last Days Ministries fans.


title: Keith Green

text: Two full albums of original Green songs were released posthumously: "The Prodigal Son" (1983) and "Jesus Commands Us to Go!" (1984). Another release, "I Only Want to See You There" (1983) contained mostly previously released material. A compilation of his recorded work, "The Ministry Years", was released as a two-volume set in 1987 and 1988 and included five previously unreleased songs.


title: Keith Green

text: Another unreleased Christian song "Born Again" by Keith and Melody was finally released in 1999, 17 years after his death, on the "First Love" compilation video and CD. Both feature a two-song tribute to Green by other Christian artists.


title: Keith Green

text: In 2008, Melody with her grown daughters Rebekah Joy and Rachel Hope partnered with Sparrow Records and released "The Live Experience – Special Edition", a CD/DVD combination of 16 live recordings and 4 hours of DVD footage including video of live performances as well as details regarding Green's life and his passing. A greatest hits album was also released at the same time, including 17 of Green's most popular songs and one more previously unreleased Christian song, "Your Love Came Over Me".


title: Keith Green

text: On November 23, 2009, the EP "Happy Birthday to You Jesus" was released, containing a talk by Green about Christmas and another previously unreleased song, "Happy Birthday to You Jesus".


title: Keith Green

text: A prolific personal journalist, Green's writings were published as excerpts in the books "A Cry in the Wilderness" (Sparrow, 1993), "If You Love the Lord" (Harvest House, 2000), and "Make My Life a Prayer" (Harvest House, 2001).


title: Keith Green

text: In 1992, several artists joined together to re-record many of the Green's best-known songs for a tribute album called "No Compromise: Remembering the Music of Keith Green" under the Sparrow Records label. Artists contributing to the recording include Petra, Charlie Peacock, Susan Ashton, Margaret Becker, Michael Card, GLAD, Rich Mullins, Steven Curtis Chapman, Steve Green, and Russ Taff.


title: Keith Green

text: In 2001, BEC Recordings released a second tribute record "Start Right Here: Remembering the Life of Keith Green". Produced by Derri Daugherty, the album included performances by new contemporary Christian artists MxPx, Joy Electric, Starflyer 59, among others.


title: Keith Green

text: At the 20th anniversary of Green's death, Sparrow Records released another tribute album, "Your Love Broke Through: The Worship Songs of Keith Green". The 2002 album contains re-recordings by Rebecca St. James, Michelle Tumes, Chris Tomlin, Twila Paris, Darlene Zschech, Jason Upton, Martin Smith, Charlie Hall, Joanne Hogg, Matt Redman, Paul Oakley, and Sarah Sadler. The album contains contemporary Christian and mainstream artist Michael W. Smith's version of the song "There Is One", an unfinished work by Green. Composition of the song was completed by Smith, along with British songwriter and Christian music artist Martin Smith.


title: Keith Green

text: On November 27, 2001, Green was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Melody Green and their daughters Rebekah and Rachel attended to receive the honor for Keith.


title: Keith Green

text: On April 3, 2006, Green was honored with the ASCAP Crescendo Award at the 28th annual ASCAP Christian Music Awards presentation dinner. His widow, Melody Green, and their daughter Rachel were present to receive the award for Keith.


title: Keith Green

text: "The Keith Green Story - Your Love Broke Through", a 2002 documentary DVD about Green's life, was directed by Daren Thomas with Melody Green as executive producer. Narrated by Toby Mac, it was distributed by Sparrow Records.


title: Keith Green

text: In 2011, Melody Green announced that a feature film about Green's life was in development. After the initial producers failed to exercise their final option to obtain long-term film rights, Melody began to gather a new production team. As of 2013, the film was under development.


title: Keith Green

text: Besides the first disc release in May 1965 (pictured below), two more Decca disc releases occurred before Donny Osmond took the spotlight.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: Poland–Ukraine relations revived on an international basis soon after Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Various controversies from the shared history of the two countries' peoples occasionally resurface in Polish–Ukrainian relations, but they tend not to have a major influence on the bilateral relations of Poland and Ukraine.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: Ukraine and Poland are respectively, the second- and third-largest Slavic countries, after Russia. The two countries share a border of about . Poland's 2003 acceptance of the 1985 Schengen Agreement created problems with Ukrainian border traffic. On July 1, 2009, an agreement on local border traffic between the two countries came into effect, which enables Ukrainian citizens living in border regions to cross the Polish frontier according to a liberalized procedure.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: Ukraine is a member of the Eastern Partnership, a European Union project initiated by Poland in 2009, which aims to provide an avenue for discussions of trade, economic strategy, travel agreements, and other issues between the EU and its Eastern European neighbours.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: Ukraine is the country with the largest number of Polish consulates. The two countries have a long shared history - some parts of western Ukraine (such as Lviv) formed part of the Polish state for several centuries and parts of eastern Poland once had large native Ukrainian populations; the demographics of the regions along the Polish-Ukrainian border were profoundly affected by the 1944 to 1946 population exchange between Poland and Soviet Ukraine and actions such as the 1947 Operation Vistula in the aftermath of World War II.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: Polish–Ukrainian relations can be traced to the 16th-17th centuries in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the often turbulent relations between that state and the mostly polonized nobility (szlachta) and the Cossacks. And even further into the 13th-14th centuries when the Kingdom of Poland and the Ruthenian Kingdom maintained close ties. Present day relations remain somewhat turbulent.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: The next stage would be the relations in the years 1918–1920, in the aftermath of World War I, which saw both the Polish–Ukrainian War and the Polish-Ukrainian alliance. The interwar period would eventually see independent Poland while the Ukrainians had no state of their own, being divided between Poland and the Soviet Union. This situation led to a deterioration in Polish−Ukrainian relations, and it would result in a flare-up of ethnic tensions both during and immediately after World War II (with the massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Operation Vistula being the most infamous events). In the interbellum, Poland maintained two consulates in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, located in Kharkiv and Kyiv. The staff of the latter was arrested by the Soviets in 1939 during the German-Soviet invasion of Poland which started World War II, with the fate of the Polish consul unknown to this day. Parts of the genocidal Soviet "Polish Operation" of 1937–1938 and the Katyn massacre of 1940 were both committed in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic by the NKVD.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: While this left the Polish–Ukrainian relations in the mid-20th century in a relatively poor state, there was little meaningful and independent diplomacy and contact between the Polish People's Republic (Poland) and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukraine). The situation changed significantly with the fall of communism, when both Poland and Ukraine became fully independent and could once again decide on foreign policies of their own.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: In the emigre community however, the very influential Paris-based magazine Kultura, which was smuggled into Poland and read widely, advocated for a rapprochement with Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: In September 1989, shortly after the democratic forces led by Solidarity came to power in Warsaw, a group of Polish parliamentarians arrived in Kyiv for the constituent congress of the People's Movement of Ukraine. They supported the aspirations of the national democratic forces of Ukraine. It was then that the foundations of a new model of Polish–Ukrainian relations were laid.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: Progress in Polish–Ukrainian relations was evidenced by the decision of the Polish Senate of July 27, 1990 on the proclamation of Ukraine on July 16, 1990, the Declaration of State Sovereignty. This document, in particular, states: "Poles, who consider freedom and independence of the Fatherland as their core values, fully understand the turning point in the history of Ukraine—a neighbor with whom they want to live as equal and close peoples, as well as develop cooperation in everything."


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: On August 3, 1990, the Senate of the Republic of Poland adopted a special statement in which it gave a political and moral assessment of the Vistula action. The statement stated that “the communist authorities, having begun to liquidate units of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, at the same time forcibly relocated persons, mainly of Ukrainian nationality. Within three months, about 150,000 people, deprived of their property, houses and shrines, were evicted from various places. For many years they were not allowed to return, and then it was difficult for them to return. The Senate of the Republic of Poland condemns the action "Vistula", typical of totalitarian regimes, and will try to compensate for the insults arising from it. "


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: On October 13, 1990 Poland and Ukraine agreed to the "Declaration on the foundations and general directions in the development of Polish–Ukrainian relations". Article 3 of this declaration said that neither country has any territorial claims against the other, and will not bring any in the future. Both countries promised to respect the rights of national minorities on their territories and to improve the situation of minorities in their countries.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: Following the failed Soviet coup attempt, Ukraine declared independence on August 24, 1991. A day after the referendum on December 2, 1991, the Republic of Poland was the first foreign country to recognize Ukraine's state independence. Diplomatic relations were established between the two countries on January 8, 1992.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: On May 18–19, 1992, the first official visit of the President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk to the Republic of Poland took place, during which an interstate Treaty on Good-Neighborliness, Friendly Relations and Cooperation was signed, in which it was stated that the countries structures based on the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Paris Charter for a New Europe, "will take and support measures aimed at preserving and developing positive traditions of common heritage, as well as overcoming prejudices and negative stereotypes between the two nations.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: On May 24–25, 1993, the President of Poland Lech Wałęsa paid an official visit to Ukraine, one of the main results of which was the establishment of the Advisory Committee of the Presidents of Ukraine and the Republic of Poland. In February of the same year, an agreement on military cooperation was signed between the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the Ministry of National Defense of Poland, which was supplemented in a number of protocols in the following years.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: In March 1994, the Declaration of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Poland on the Principles of Ukrainian-Polish Partnership was signed, in which the Ministers of Foreign Affairs for the first time at the interstate level declared the strategic importance of Ukrainian-Polish relations and pledged to develop them in the future.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: Poland has agreed to help Ukraine integrate into Western European organizations, primarily NATO and the EU. As Jerzy Kozakiewicz, the first Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Ukraine, noted in early 1996, "one of the most important tasks of Polish foreign policy is to spread and strengthen various bilateral instruments in our bilateral relations with Ukraine that would facilitate its path to European institutions." The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine figuratively defined the main direction of cooperation with Poland: "For Ukraine, the way through Moscow leads to Siberia, and through Warsaw, to Paris."


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: A further important step in creating an organizational infrastructure for bilateral dialogue was the interstate "Agreement between the Government of Ukraine and the Government of the Republic of Poland on Cooperation concerning the Protection and Return of Cultural Property Lost and Illegally Displaced during World War II" dated 25 June 1996, which defined and specified the subject and scope of mutual cooperation between the parties. In particular, article 2 of the Agreement declares: "In order to protect, preserve, search for, and return cultural property associated with the culture and history of the Parties, recognized as lost or illegally moved to the territory of the other Party, the Parties shall establish an Intergovernmental Ukrainian-Polish Commission [for the Protection and Return of Cultural Property Lost and Illegally Displaced during World War II]."


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: After the visits of Leonid Kuchma to Warsaw on June 25–27, 1996 and the newly elected President of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski to Kyiv on May 20–22, 1997, Ukrainian–Polish relations reached the level of a strategic partnership. On May 21, the two heads of state signed a joint informal Declaration of Harmony and Unity.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: The purposeful development of Polish–Ukrainian political cooperation allowed Ukraine to enlist the support of Poland in establishing the first dialogue with the United States and the leading states of Europe. The National Security Strategy of Poland declares Warsaw's support for Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic aspirations, in particular, as part of the continuation of the "open door" policy to NATO. In addition, it is emphasized that Polish–Ukrainian cooperation should help consolidate Ukraine's important role in European security policy.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: During the official visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Bronisław Geremek to Ukraine on September 15–16, 1998, the parties agreed to intensify joint actions in order to avoid possible negative consequences of EU enlargement. Bronisław Geremek also noted that his country will continue to support Ukraine's integration aspirations, in particular in gaining the status of an associate member of the EU. At the end of March 1999, the first meeting of the Ukrainian-Polish Conference on European Integration took place in Warsaw.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: Although some Ukrainian officials, scholars and political scientists have expressed concern that Poland will turn away from Ukraine after it becomes a member of NATO, support for Ukraine's cooperation and rapprochement with NATO remains a characteristic feature of the Polish state's "Ukrainian policy." This is due to Poland's vision of its national interests in the context of the basic contours of European security and to the desire to play an important role in a renewed Alliance that adapts to modern conditions.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: Poland supports Ukraine's European integration for similar reasons. An independent and strong, and most importantly, friendly, Ukraine is an important instrument of Polish Eastern European policy since it significantly counterbalances the Russian Federation's influence and ambition relative to Poland. Speaking in the Sejm of the Republic of Poland on March 5, 1998, B. Geremek had every reason to say that "independent Ukraine is of key strategic importance both for Poland and its security, and for stability in the entire region. Maintaining privileged relations with Ukraine contributes to strengthening European security."


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: Support for Ukrainian sovereignty has become an important component of Polish foreign policy. Poland strongly supported the peaceful and democratic resolution of the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, and has backed NATO-Ukraine cooperation (such as the Lithuanian–Polish–Ukrainian Brigade), as well as Ukraine's efforts to join the European Union.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: Poland's accession to the European Union has created a new reality for Ukraine. For the first time, a member country has lobbied for Ukraine's course towards EU, as well as NATO, membership. At the same time, in the conditions of post-orange development there was a need for significant modernization of the structure and filling of the political dialogue between Ukraine and Poland. For example, cooperation aimed at achieving Ukraine's compliance with the first of the Copenhagen criteria for EU membership ("political" criterion): ensuring the stability of democratic institutions, protection of human rights and the rule of law has become essential. 2005 was declared the Year of Ukraine in the Republic of Poland and inaugurated in Warsaw in April 2005 with the participation of President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko. Ukraine and Poland have signed agreements on academic recognition of documents on education and scientific degrees and on cooperation in the field of informatization. Trade, economic, scientific and technical ties between Ukraine and Poland have expanded. The Republic of Poland has become Ukraine's most important economic partner in Central Europe. Ukraine is the second largest country to which Polish exports went. As of 2008, the joint Ukrainian–Polish cooperation program in the field of science and technology included more than 150 joint research projects.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: Cross-border cooperation has developed within the framework of the Karpaty and Bug Euroregions established in the mid-1990s. At the same time, almost all areas of bilateral relations faced problems related to Poland's entry into the Schengen Area from the end of 2007, which led to new procedures and rules for crossing the Ukrainian-Polish border and, accordingly, created additional difficulties for developing and optimizing cooperation between the two. states.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: An important focus of the development of bilateral relations was Poland's initiation of the activation of the Eastern vector in EU policy. The idea of strengthening the eastern vector of the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) became one of the priorities of Poland's foreign policy in 2008, which positioned itself as a leader in this direction. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, presenting the country's foreign policy for 2008 in the Sejm on May 7, 2008, declared the idea: "Poland should continue to specialize in developing a common foreign policy towards the East." At the same time, Poland has sought and continues to seek to strengthen its position in the EU, primarily by strengthening its role in Eastern Europe. Jan Kalicki, director of the Center for Eastern European Studies at the University of Warsaw, confirmed this idea in an interview with Polish Radio: "I want to emphasize that the strength of Poland's position in the European Union depends on the support and strength we have in the East." The Polish Foreign Minister stressed that his country intends to implement the ENP in the east with its partners—the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania and Bulgaria, as well as with Sweden. At the European Council in March 2008, Poland supported the proposal to create a Union for the Mediterranean and thus counted on the support of the EU to separate the eastern direction of the ENP.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: At the same time, these intentions of Poland were realized and reflected in the joint Polish-Swedish proposal "Eastern Partnership" of May 23, 2008. It was presented and approved at the meeting of the EU General Policy Council and the Council on Foreign Relations on May 26, 2008. in Brussels and has become the flagship initiative of the entire EU. On 26 May 2008, during a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Brussels, Poland and Sweden presented a joint proposal to deepen the EU's Eastern policy, known as the EU's Eastern Partnership (EU). The JV initiative is addressed to six countries: direct addressees – Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well as technical and expert cooperation with Belarus. A JV is a set of specific tools that do not guarantee the prospect of EU membership. At the same time, through this toolkit it provides an opportunity to open EU channels for the implementation of integration projects in certain countries. According to many politicians and researchers, the JV can be a useful mechanism that will accelerate the political and economic modernization of the Eastern partners [8]. Thus, since Poland's accession to the EU, relations have been filled with new content, and its role as a lawyer and lobbyist for Ukraine's European integration and Euro-Atlantic course has been strengthened. This was manifested, on the one hand, in support of Ukraine's ideas, and on the other – in the development and implementation of a specific program of EU cooperation with Eastern Europe. First of all, we are talking about the neighborhood program and especially about the Eastern Partnership project. It is the Polish–Swedish initiative aimed at real acceleration of the process of Ukraine's accession (along with other Eastern European countries) to EU integration.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: Poland has been an avid supporter of Ukraine throughout the tumultuous period of the Euromaidan and the 2014 Crimean Crisis. The Polish government has campaigned for Ukraine in the European Union and is a supporter of sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine. Poland has declared that they will never recognize the annexation of Crimea by Russia. In 2014, Poland's ex-foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski alleged that in 2008, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to then Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in the division of Ukraine between Poland and Russia. Sikorski later stated that some words had been over-interpreted, and that Poland did not take part in annexations. Especially during this period, Poland took a large number of Ukrainian refugees.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: Different interpretations of bitter events regarding Poles and Ukrainians during World War II have led to a sharp deterioration of the relations between the nations since 2015.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: Historical issues regarding the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and their massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia remain a contested topic. Ukrainian memory laws (the Ukrainian decommunization laws) passed in 2015, honoring UPA, related organizations and its members, were criticized in Poland. In turn, in July 2016, the Polish Sejm passed a resolution, authored by the Law and Justice party, making July 11 a National Day of Remembrance of Victims of Genocide, noting that over 100,000 Polish citizens were massacred during a coordinated attack by the UPA. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko voiced regrets on the decision, arguing that it can led to "political speculation". In response, Ukrainian MP Oleksii Musii drafted a resolution declaring March 24 "Memorial Day of the Victims of Polish state genocide against Ukrainians in 1919–1951". The Marshal of the Polish Senate Stanislaw Karczewski condemned the motion.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: In 2016, a special screening of the Polish film "Volhynia" by the Polish Institute in Kyiv for Ukrainian MPs was postponed due to concerns that it may disrupt public order, on recommendations from the Ukrainian foreign ministry.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: In April 2017 the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance forbade the exhumation of Polish victims of the 1943 massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia as part of the broader action of halting the legalization of Polish memorial sites in Ukraine, in a retaliation for the dismantling of a monument to UPA soldiers in Hruszowice, Poland.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: Polish President Andrzej Duda expressed his concerns with appointment to high Ukrainian offices of people expressing nationalistic anti-Polish views. The Ukrainian foreign ministry stated that there is no general anti-Polish sentiment in Ukraine.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: In 2018, novelized Article 2a of the Polish Act on the Institute of National Remembrance, which from then on discusses the "crimes of Ukrainian nationalists and members of Ukrainian organizations collaborating with the Third German Reich", again caused criticism from the Ukrainian side. In Ukraine, the Amendment has been called "the Anti-Banderovite Law".


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: In August 2019, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised to lift the moratorium on exhuming Polish mass graves in Ukraine after the previous Ukrainian government banned the Polish side from carrying out any exhumations of Polish victims of the UPA-perpetrated Volhynian massacres.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: On 28 July 2020, Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania entered into a new international collaboration format known as the "Lublin Triangle". It was signed in the city of Lublin, Poland, by the Foreign Ministers of Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania: Jacek Czaputowicz, Dmytro Kuleba and Linas Linkevičius respectively. The Ukrainian foreign minister said that the new format "will be an important element in the development and strengthening of Central Europe, but also in strengthening Ukraine as a full member of the European and Euro-Atlantic family". The cooperation will not only concern defense issues but will also involve bolstering economic cooperation, trade, and tourism between the three countries. A joint declaration on the creation of the Lublin Triangle stressed the importance of intensifying the cooperation between the EU, NATO, and the Eastern Partnership and paying special attention to the development of the Three Seas Initiative.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: In August 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Poland provided Ukraine with 650,000 COVID-19 vaccines and over 129 tons of medical equipment, including oxygen concentrators, ventilators, and protective equipment. In December 2021, Poland donated further 300,000 COVID-19 vaccines to Ukraine.


title: Poland–Ukraine relations

text: In response to the Russian military buildup near Ukraine, on 31 January 2022, Poland announced the decision to supply Ukraine with weapons, ammunition, as well as humanitarian aid, given the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 17 February 2022 the British–Polish–Ukrainian trilateral pact was announced. On 23 February 2022, in response to Russia's escalation of tensions and recognition of the separatist Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, Polish President Andrzej Duda visited Kyiv along with the President of Lithuania, and they jointly declared solidarity and support for Ukraine, and called for international sanctions against Russia. On 24 February 2022, the day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sejm (Polish parliament) adopted by acclamation a resolution condemning the Russian invasion. Poland immediately set up nine reception points to receive civilian refugees from Ukraine. During the war in 2022, Poland became the second largest weapons supplier to Ukraine, with the weapons' total value exceeding $1.6 billion (as of 24 May 2022). Provided weapons include missiles, grenade launchers, rifles, drones, tanks, RPGs and ammunition. Continued Polish support for Ukraine in the early 2022 has led to significant improvement in Polish-Ukraine relations.


title: Fractal dimension

text: In mathematics, more specifically in fractal geometry, a fractal dimension is a ratio providing a statistical index of complexity comparing how detail in a pattern (strictly speaking, a fractal pattern) changes with the scale at which it is measured. It has also been characterized as a measure of the space-filling capacity of a pattern that tells how a fractal scales differently from the space it is embedded in; a fractal dimension does not have to be an integer.


title: Fractal dimension

text: The essential idea of "fractured" dimensions has a long history in mathematics, but the term itself was brought to the fore by Benoit Mandelbrot based on his 1967 paper on self-similarity in which he discussed "fractional dimensions". In that paper, Mandelbrot cited previous work by Lewis Fry Richardson describing the counter-intuitive notion that a coastline's measured length changes with the length of the measuring stick used (see Fig. 1). In terms of that notion, the fractal dimension of a coastline quantifies how the number of scaled measuring sticks required to measure the coastline changes with the scale applied to the stick. There are several formal mathematical definitions of fractal dimension that build on this basic concept of change in detail with change in scale: see the section Examples.


title: Fractal dimension

text: Ultimately, the term "fractal dimension" became the phrase with which Mandelbrot himself became most comfortable with respect to encapsulating the meaning of the word "fractal", a term he created. After several iterations over years, Mandelbrot settled on this use of the language: "...to use "fractal" without a pedantic definition, to use "fractal dimension" as a generic term applicable to "all" the variants."


title: Fractal dimension

text: One non-trivial example is the fractal dimension of a Koch snowflake. It has a topological dimension of 1, but it is by no means rectifiable: the length of the curve between any two points on the Koch snowflake is infinite. No small piece of it is line-like, but rather it is composed of an infinite number of segments joined at different angles. The fractal dimension of a curve can be explained intuitively thinking of a fractal line as an object too detailed to be one-dimensional, but too simple to be two-dimensional. Therefore its dimension might best be described not by its usual topological dimension of 1 but by its fractal dimension, which is often a number between one and two; in the case of the Koch snowflake, it is approximately 1.2619.


title: Fractal dimension

text: A fractal dimension is an index for characterizing fractal patterns or sets by quantifying their complexity as a ratio of the change in detail to the change in scale. Several types of fractal dimension can be measured theoretically and empirically (see Fig. 2). Fractal dimensions are used to characterize a broad spectrum of objects ranging from the abstract to practical phenomena, including turbulence, river networks, urban growth, human physiology,<ref name="doi10.1364/boe.1.000268"></ref><ref name="doi10.1007/s11682-008-9057-9"></ref> medicine, and market trends. The essential idea of "fractional" or "fractal" dimensions has a long history in mathematics that can be traced back to the 1600s, but the terms "fractal" and "fractal dimension" were coined by mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot in 1975.


title: Fractal dimension

text: "Fractal dimensions" were first applied as an index characterizing complicated geometric forms for which the details seemed more important than the gross picture. For sets describing ordinary geometric shapes, the theoretical fractal dimension equals the set's familiar Euclidean or topological dimension. Thus, it is 0 for sets describing points (0-dimensional sets); 1 for sets describing lines (1-dimensional sets having length only); 2 for sets describing surfaces (2-dimensional sets having length and width); and 3 for sets describing volumes (3-dimensional sets having length, width, and height). But this changes for fractal sets. If the theoretical fractal dimension of a set exceeds its topological dimension, the set is considered to have fractal geometry.


title: Fractal dimension

text: Unlike topological dimensions, the fractal index can take non-integer values, indicating that a set fills its space qualitatively and quantitatively differently from how an ordinary geometrical set does. For instance, a curve with a fractal dimension very near to 1, say 1.10, behaves quite like an ordinary line, but a curve with fractal dimension 1.9 winds convolutedly through space very nearly like a surface. Similarly, a surface with fractal dimension of 2.1 fills space very much like an ordinary surface, but one with a fractal dimension of 2.9 folds and flows to fill space rather nearly like a volume. This general relationship can be seen in the two images of fractal curves in Fig.2 and Fig. 3 – the 32-segment contour in Fig. 2, convoluted and space filling, has a fractal dimension of 1.67, compared to the perceptibly less complex Koch curve in Fig. 3, which has a fractal dimension of approximately 1.2619.


title: Fractal dimension

text: The relationship of an increasing fractal dimension with space-filling might be taken to mean fractal dimensions measure density, but that is not so; the two are not strictly correlated. Instead, a fractal dimension measures complexity, a concept related to certain key features of fractals: self-similarity and detail or irregularity. These features are evident in the two examples of fractal curves. Both are curves with topological dimension of 1, so one might hope to be able to measure their length and derivative in the same way as with ordinary curves. But we cannot do either of these things, because fractal curves have complexity in the form of self-similarity and detail that ordinary curves lack. The "self-similarity" lies in the infinite scaling, and the "detail" in the defining elements of each set. The length between any two points on these curves is infinite, no matter how close together the two points are, which means that it is impossible to approximate the length of such a curve by partitioning the curve into many small segments. Every smaller piece is composed of an infinite number of scaled segments that look exactly like the first iteration. These are not rectifiable curves, meaning they cannot be measured by being broken down into many segments approximating their respective lengths. They cannot be meaningfully characterized by finding their lengths and derivatives. However, their fractal dimensions can be determined, which shows that both fill space more than ordinary lines but less than surfaces, and allows them to be compared in this regard.


title: Fractal dimension

text: The two fractal curves described above show a type of self-similarity that is exact with a repeating unit of detail that is readily visualized. This sort of structure can be extended to other spaces (e.g., a fractal that extends the Koch curve into 3-d space has a theoretical D=2.5849). However, such neatly countable complexity is only one example of the self-similarity and detail that are present in fractals. The example of the coast line of Britain, for instance, exhibits self-similarity of an approximate pattern with approximate scaling. Overall, fractals show several types and degrees of self-similarity and detail that may not be easily visualized. These include, as examples, strange attractors for which the detail has been described as in essence, smooth portions piling up, the Julia set, which can be seen to be complex swirls upon swirls, and heart rates, which are patterns of rough spikes repeated and scaled in time. Fractal complexity may not always be resolvable into easily grasped units of detail and scale without complex analytic methods but it is still quantifiable through fractal dimensions.


title: Fractal dimension

text: The terms "fractal dimension" and "fractal" were coined by Mandelbrot in 1975, about a decade after he published his paper on self-similarity in the coastline of Britain. Various historical authorities credit him with also synthesizing centuries of complicated theoretical mathematics and engineering work and applying them in a new way to study complex geometries that defied description in usual linear terms. The earliest roots of what Mandelbrot synthesized as the fractal dimension have been traced clearly back to writings about nondifferentiable, infinitely self-similar functions, which are important in the mathematical definition of fractals, around the time that calculus was discovered in the mid-1600s. There was a lull in the published work on such functions for a time after that, then a renewal starting in the late 1800s with the publishing of mathematical functions and sets that are today called canonical fractals (such as the eponymous works of von Koch, Sierpiński, and Julia), but at the time of their formulation were often considered antithetical mathematical "monsters". These works were accompanied by perhaps the most pivotal point in the development of the concept of a fractal dimension through the work of Hausdorff in the early 1900s who defined a "fractional" dimension that has come to be named after him and is frequently invoked in defining modern fractals.


title: Fractal dimension

text: The concept of a fractal dimension rests in unconventional views of scaling and dimension. As Fig. 4 illustrates, traditional notions of geometry dictate that shapes scale predictably according to intuitive and familiar ideas about the space they are contained within, such that, for instance, measuring a line using first one measuring stick then another 1/3 its size, will give for the second stick a total length 3 times as many sticks long as with the first. This holds in 2 dimensions, as well. If one measures the area of a square then measures again with a box of side length 1/3 the size of the original, one will find 9 times as many squares as with the first measure. Such familiar scaling relationships can be defined mathematically by the general scaling rule in Equation 1, where the variable formula_1 stands for the number of measurement units (sticks, squares, etc.), formula_2 for the scaling factor, and formula_3 for the fractal dimension:


title: Fractal dimension

text: This scaling rule typifies conventional rules about geometry and dimension – referring to the examples above, it quantifies that formula_4 for lines because formula_5 when formula_6, and that formula_7 for squares because formula_8 when formula_9


title: Fractal dimension

text: The same rule applies to fractal geometry but less intuitively. To elaborate, a fractal line measured at first to be one length, when remeasured using a new stick scaled by 1/3 of the old may be 4 times as many scaled sticks long rather than the expected 3 (see Fig. 5). In this case, formula_10 when formula_11 and the value of formula_3 can be found by rearranging Equation 1:


title: Fractal dimension

text: That is, for a fractal described by formula_10 when formula_6, such as the Koch snowflake, formula_15, a non-integer value that suggests the fractal has a dimension not equal to the space it resides in.


title: Fractal dimension

text: Of note, images shown in this page are not true fractals because the scaling described by formula_3 cannot continue past the point of their smallest component, a pixel. However, the theoretical patterns that the images represent have no discrete pixel-like pieces, but rather are composed of an infinite number of infinitely scaled segments and do indeed have the claimed fractal dimensions.


title: Fractal dimension

text: As is the case with dimensions determined for lines, squares, and cubes, fractal dimensions are general descriptors that do not uniquely define patterns. The value of "D" for the Koch fractal discussed above, for instance, quantifies the pattern's inherent scaling, but does not uniquely describe nor provide enough information to reconstruct it. Many fractal structures or patterns could be constructed that have the same scaling relationship but are dramatically different from the Koch curve, as is illustrated in Figure 6.


title: Fractal dimension

text: "For examples of how fractal patterns can be constructed, see Fractal, Sierpinski triangle, Mandelbrot set, Diffusion limited aggregation, L-System."


title: Fractal dimension

text: The concept of fractality is applied increasingly in the field of surface science, providing a bridge between surface characteristics and functional properties. Numerous surface descriptors are used to interpret the structure of nominally flat surfaces, which often exhibit self-affine features across multiple length-scales. Mean surface roughness, usually denoted R, is the most commonly applied surface descriptor, however numerous other descriptors including mean slope, root mean square roughness (R) and others are regularly applied. It is found however that many physical surface phenomena cannot readily be interpreted with reference to such descriptors, thus fractal dimension is increasingly applied to establish correlations between surface structure in terms of scaling behavior and performance. The fractal dimensions of surfaces have been employed to explain and better understand phenomena in areas of contact mechanics, frictional behavior, electrical contact resistance and transparent conducting oxides.


title: Fractal dimension

text: The concept of fractal dimension described in this article is a basic view of a complicated construct. The examples discussed here were chosen for clarity, and the scaling unit and ratios were known ahead of time. In practice, however, fractal dimensions can be determined using techniques that approximate scaling and detail from limits estimated from regression lines over log vs log plots of size vs scale. Several formal mathematical definitions of different types of fractal dimension are listed below. Although for compact sets with exact affine self-similarity all these dimensions coincide, in general they are not equivalent:


title: Fractal dimension

text: Many real-world phenomena exhibit limited or statistical fractal properties and fractal dimensions that have been estimated from sampled data using computer based fractal analysis techniques.


title: Fractal dimension

text: Practically, measurements of fractal dimension are affected by various methodological issues, and are sensitive to numerical or experimental noise and limitations in the amount of data. Nonetheless, the field is rapidly growing as estimated fractal dimensions for statistically self-similar phenomena may have many practical applications in various fields including


title: Fractal dimension

text: Riemann zeta zeros. Fractal dimension estimates have also been shown to correlate with Lempel-Ziv complexity in real-world data sets from psychoacoustics and neuroscience.


title: Fractal dimension

text: An alternative to a direct measurement, is considering a mathematical model that resembles formation of a real-world fractal object. In this case, a validation can also be done by comparing other than fractal properties implied by the model, with measured data. In colloidal physics, systems composed of particles with various fractal dimensions arise. To describe these systems, it is convenient to speak about a distribution of fractal dimensions, and eventually, a time evolution of the latter: a process that is driven by a complex interplay between aggregation and coalescence.


title: Colorado School of Mines

text: The Colorado School of Mines, informally called Mines, is a public research university in Golden, Colorado, founded in 1874. The school offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, science, and mathematics, with a focus on energy and the environment. While Mines does offer minor degrees in the humanities, arts, and social sciences, it only offers major degrees in STEM fields, with the exception of economics. In the Fall 2019 semester, the school had 6,607 students enrolled, with 5,155 in an undergraduate program and 1,452 in a graduate program. The school has been co-educational since its founding, however, enrollment remains predominantly male (69.2% as of Fall 2020). In every QS World University Ranking from 2016 to 2020, the university was ranked as the top institution in the world for mineral and mining engineering. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".


title: Colorado School of Mines

text: Golden, Colorado, established in 1859 as Golden City, served as a supply center for miners and settlers in the area. In 1866, Bishop George M. Randall of Massachusetts arrived in the territory and, seeing a need for higher education facilities in the area, began planning for a university which would include a school of mines. In 1870, he opened the Jarvis Hall Collegiate School in the central building of the Colorado University Schools campus just south of the town of Golden, accompanied it with Matthews Hall divinity school in 1872, and in 1873 the School of Mines opened under the auspices of the Episcopal Church. In 1874 the School of Mines, supported by the territorial government since efforts began in 1870, was acquired by the territory and has been a state institution since 1876 when Colorado attained statehood. Tuition was originally free to residents of Colorado.


title: Colorado School of Mines

text: In August 2007, a new student recreation center was completed. In 2008, the school finished expanding its main computer center, the Center for Technology and Learning Media (CTLM). In May 2008 the school completed construction and installation of a new supercomputer nicknamed "Ra" in the CTLM managed by the Golden Energy Computing Organization (GECO), a partnership among the Colorado School of Mines, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Science Foundation. In 2014, CoorsTek granted a $27 million investment to the university, leading to the 2017 opening of the CoorsTek Center for Applied Science and Engineering, a multi-disciplinary building on campus dedicated to both academic and research activities.


title: Colorado School of Mines

text: Since 1964, the Colorado School of Mines has hosted the annual oil shale symposium, one of the most important international oil shale conferences. Although the series of symposia stopped after 1992, the tradition was restored in 2006.


title: Colorado School of Mines

text: Colorado School of Mines is located to the southwest of Golden's downtown, bordered to the west by U.S. Route 6 and to the north by Clear Creek. The campus spans , including over a dozen academic and research buildings, indoor and outdoor athletic facilities, two student centers, a library, eight residential halls, and administration buildings. Additionally, the campus hosts a research building for the United States Geological Survey, housing the National Earthquake Information Center.


title: Colorado School of Mines

text: The school operates the free admission Mines Museum of Earth Science, which displays rock and mineral specimens collected from Colorado's numerous mining districts as well as around the world. Notable objects in the collection include one of the "Goodwill" Apollo 17 lunar samples and the Miss Colorado crown.


title: Colorado School of Mines

text: The design of the university's buildings have varied widely over time, spanning a spectrum of styles from Second Empire to Postmodernist, created by noted Colorado architectural masters including Robert S. Roeschlaub (Hall of Engineering), Jacques Benedict (Steinhauer Field House), and Temple Hoyne Buell (Berthoud Hall). To date, three main academic buildings are gone (original Territorial School of Mines, 1871–93; Hall of Chemistry, 1880–1958; Paul Meyer Hall, 1963–2016), while the present campus includes:


title: Colorado School of Mines

text: Major open-air athletic facilities of the Colorado School of Mines include historic Campbell Field and Darden Field.


title: Colorado School of Mines

text: The honorary named Colorado School of Mines buildings commemorate Dr. Victor C. Alderson, Edward L. Berthoud, George R. Brown, Dr. Regis Chauvenet, Dr. Melville F. Coolbaugh, Cecil H. and Ida Green, Simon Guggenheim, Nathaniel P. Hill, Arthur Lakes, Dr. Paul D. Meyer, Winfield S. Stratton, and Russell K. Volk.


title: Colorado School of Mines

text: Mines began the world's first graduate program in space resources in the fall semester of 2018, offering both master's and PhD degrees.


title: Colorado School of Mines

text: For freshmen entering Fall 2020, Colorado School of Mines received 11,756 applications, accepted 6,240 (53.1%) and enrolled 1,268 (11.1% of those who applied). The middle 50% range of SAT scores for the enrolled freshmen was 620–710 for evidence-based reading, and 640–750 for math, while the ACT Composite range was 27–33. The average GPA was 3.78. Of the incoming class, 21.2% were women.


title: Colorado School of Mines

text: Freshmen at the Colorado School of Mines are expected, but not required, to participate in the M Climb during orientation weekend. During this climb, students carry a ten-pound rock brought from their hometown up Mt. Zion. Before ascending up the mountain, students are given colored hard-hats which are spray-painted by members of the Blue Key Honor Society. Along the climb, non-freshmen encourage and heckle the new students with water balloons, silly string, and more, as well as leading the group in learning the Mines' fight song. At the top of the mountain, students place their rock on the "M," a large sign made of rock in the shape of Mines' M logo, and paint the M white using whitewash. On graduation, seniors are invited to take a rock from the M as a keepsake of their time at Mines.


title: Colorado School of Mines

text: Colorado School of Mines was ranked No. 3 Best NCAA D2 school in the U.S. for student-athletes, according to Next College Student Athlete's 2018 NCSA Power Rankings. The NCSA Power Rankings recognize the best colleges and universities in the U.S. for student-athletes.


title: Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan

text: Chandra Shekhar Azad (born 3 December 1986) is an Indian lawyer and Dalit rights activist and an Ambedkarite who is the co-founder and national president of the Bhim Army. In February 2021, "Time" magazine featured him in its annual list of "100 Emerging Leaders who are Shaping the Future".


title: Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan

text: He contested against Yogi Adityanath in the Uttar Pradesh State Assembly Elections 2022 from Gorakhpur constituency and lost.


title: Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan

text: Chandrashekhar Azad was born in December 1986 at Chhutmalpur town in Saharanpur district, Uttar Pradesh to Govardhan Das and Kamlesh Devi. His father Govardhan Das was a retired principal of a government school. Azad came to prominence as a Bahujan leader after a hoarding which said "The Great Chamars of Ghadkhauli Welcome You" was installed by him on the outskirts of his village.


title: Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan

text: Azad has established himself as Dalit icon and he is known for his style. "Azad does something more: his style is ostentatious. It rejects docility, mimimalism and discretion. It is not quietly elegant, but emphatically flamboyant. It flaunts Ray-Bans alongside homespun, replaces hipster beards with the twirled 'tache. It is azadi with swag."


title: Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan

text: Azad and his supporters held a protest at Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital, where a 19-year-old woman from Uttar Pradesh's Hathras died days after being gang raped in 2020, demanding the culprits be sentenced to death. The Dalit woman from the marginalised Valmiki community succumbed to her injuries. He had earlier gone to see the woman, when she was still alive and demanded she be shifted to AIIMS. But she was admitted to Aligarh Muslim University's Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital and shifted to Safdarjung Hospital later where she succumbed.


title: Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan

text: He held a massive protest on Sunday after he was stopped twice by the UP Police when he was on his way to meet the victim's family. Visuals showed him standing on a truck, addressing a huge crowd. When he was stopped for the first time, about 20 km from Hathras, he marched for around 5 km, along with his supporters, to cover the distance to reach the victim's home. A video showed them carrying flags and raising slogans against the government.


title: Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan

text: As he met the family on Sunday evening, he demanded "Y+" category security for them. He also urged the administration to let him take the victim's family along with him; the request, however, was turned down. He joined a protest at Delhi's Jantar Mantar where hundreds of people came with placards and shouted slogans against the incident, which has sparked massive outrage.


title: Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan

text: The body of the gang rape victim was burnt with petrol in Hathras in the middle of the night by the police, with her family members alleging that the local police did not give them a chance to do the last rites. This happened when Azad was detained by Uttar Pradesh police midway and then has been put under house arrest in Saharanpur.


title: Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan

text: Azad joined the protesting farmers at the Delhi-Ghazipur border along with hundreds of his supporters and demanded that the new farm laws be withdrawn immediately. Before that, he was detained at his residence in Uttar Pradesh before he joined the nationwide farmers' protest. He also criticised the centre for using water cannons and tear gas against the demonstrators. He alleged the government wants to grab the farmers' land and give it to industrialists.


title: Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan

text: Azad, Satish Kumar, and Vinay Ratan Singh founded Bhim Army in 2014, an organization that works for the emancipation of Dalits through education in India. It runs free schools for Dalits in the Western Uttar Pradesh. In 2019, he originally planned to contest from Varanasi against Modi, but later withdrew his offer to support the SP/BSP combination and prevent the splitting of the Dalit vote in the constituency.


title: Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan

text: Azad Samaj Party is an Indian political party formally launched on 15 March 2020 by Ravan. It is significant that the announcement was made on the 86th birth anniversary of Kashi Ram, the founder of the Bahujan Samaj Party. The sister of the founder of that party, Sarwan Kaur, planned to join the Azad Samaj party. The party planned to contest every seat in Bihar in the 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly election. Bhim Army founder Chandrashekar Azad Ravan announced to join the Progressive Democratic Alliance (PDA) led by Jan Adhikar Party (Loktantrik) of Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav with other regional political parties to contest the Bihar assembly election 2020. Much of the party's popularity comes from the Dalit and Scheduled tribes.


title: Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan

text: Azad started his career as leader of Bhim Army which is an organisation based in Uttar Pradesh but he later formed Azad Samaj Party to participate in electoral politics. The party allied with Pappu Yadav led Jan Adhikar Party in 2020 Bihar Assembly elections to form a separate front apart from National Democratic Alliance and United Progressive Alliance.


title: Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan

text: In the elections it contested against these two grand alliances besides another front called Grand Democratic Secular Front, which was spearheaded by Rashtriya Lok Samata Party and contained other regional parties like All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and Suhaldev Samaj Party among others. The front led by Pappu Yadav and Azad was named as Progressive Democratic Alliance (PDA).


title: Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan

text: Chandrashekhar Azad contested 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election on Gorakhpur urban seat against Yogi Adityanath. Azad lost the election and finished fourth with 7,543 votes. Azad also lost the security deposit.


title: Lamborghini Trattori

text: Lamborghini Trattori is an Italian agricultural machinery manufacturer. The company designs and builds tractors. It was founded in 1948 in Cento, Italy by Ferruccio Lamborghini, who later went on to establish Automobili Lamborghini. In 1963, it became part of SAME (Società Accomandita Motori Endotermici).


title: Lamborghini Trattori

text: Founded in 1948 by Ferruccio Lamborghini, Lamborghini Trattori did not have a long tradition like the historical names Fiat Trattori and Landini; in fact, it had to use discarded war materials to produce its first tractors.


title: Lamborghini Trattori

text: Truck and military vehicle engines and differentials sourced from ARAR centres (Azienda Rilievo Alienazione Residuati) were used to build the first "Carioca" tractors. These machines featured a significant innovative technical solution – a fuel atomiser which, when used in conjunction with a Morris engine, allowed the tractor to be started with petrol and then switch to diesel.


title: Lamborghini Trattori

text: Within a few years, company production had gone from one tractor a week to about 200 a year, and new Italian-made engines were replacing the old war surplus.


title: Lamborghini Trattori

text: In 1951, the "L 33" came into being – the first production tractor made entirely by Lamborghini, with the exception of the engine: a diesel-fuelled 3,500 cc in-line 6 cylinder Morris, equipped with the fuel atomiser patented by Ferruccio Lamborghini.


title: Lamborghini Trattori

text: The enactment of the Fanfani law of 25 July 1952 (that set aside 125 billion lire – with an interest rate of 3% – over 5 years for farmers who purchased Italian-made agricultural machinery) helped the company make a further quality leap. In fact, it was in the first half of the 1950s that Lamborghini was transformed to all effects into an industrial affair.


title: Lamborghini Trattori

text: In 1952, the new models "DL 15", "DL 20", "DL 25" and "DL 30" were presented, followed the next year by the "DL 40" and "DL 50". The first Lamborghini crawler, the DL 25 C, was introduced in 1955, followed by the DL 30 C in its characteristic yellow colour.


title: Lamborghini Trattori

text: A new plant was opened in 1956; in 1957, in the wake of the SAME Sametto, the company introduced the Lamborghinetta (weighing 1000 kg, with a 22 HP two-cylinder engine, and sold at a price of around one million lire).


title: Lamborghini Trattori

text: In 1962, with its "2R DT" model, Lamborghini produced a series of four-wheel-drive tractors with air-cooled engines.


title: Lamborghini Trattori

text: Flush with cash from his success in tractors and air conditioners, and following an argument with Enzo Ferrari about a faulty clutch in his 250GT, Ferruccio Lamborghini decided to start building his own luxury cars. The first model introduced was the 350TGV in 1963, which evolved into the production version 350GT in 1964 and then further with the 400GT 2+2 in 1966. The highly sought after MIURA came in 1966, pushing Automobili Lamborghini into the world of super sports cars it is known for today.


title: Lamborghini Trattori

text: Thanks to a notable increase in sales, in 1968–69 Lamborghini Trattori adopted a strategy aimed at improving both the technical quality of its tractors and the production volumes. Lamborghini tractors were the first in Italy to be fitted with a synchronised gearbox as standard, and the range was further extended with high-power models (R. 480)..


title: Lamborghini Trattori

text: In 2013, on the occasion of the international SIMA trade fair in Paris, the new Nitro tractor was presented to the market. It stood out for its white casing and totally renewed design.


title: Lamborghini Trattori

text: Thanks to Nitro, Lamborghini Trattori won a series of international awards, including Tractor of the Year – Golden Tractor for the Design 2014 and the RedDot Award 2014.


title: Tommy Fleetwood

text: Thomas Paul Fleetwood (born 19 January 1991) is an English professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and European Tour. He has won six times on the European Tour.


title: Tommy Fleetwood

text: Fleetwood was born on 19 January 1991 in Southport, Merseyside, England. He had a distinguished amateur career which included wins in the 2009 Scottish Amateur Stroke Play Championship and the 2010 English Amateur, and runner-up finishes in the 2008 Amateur Championship, the 2010 New South Wales Amateur and the 2010 Spanish Amateur and the 2010 European Amateur. Fleetwood represented Great Britain and Ireland in the Walker Cup in 2009. He also reached number 3 in The R&A's World Amateur Golf Ranking, and number 1 on the Scratch Players World Amateur Rankings.


title: Tommy Fleetwood

text: In July 2010, Fleetwood finished as runner-up to Daniel Gaunt in the English Challenge on Europe's second tier Challenge Tour. Fleetwood won the English Amateur at the beginning of August and turned professional shortly afterwards.


title: Tommy Fleetwood

text: Fleetwood made his professional début at the 2010 Czech Open on the European Tour, where he made the cut and finished tied for 67th. In September 2011 he claimed his first Challenge Tour win at the Kazakhstan Open, which secured his place on the European Tour for 2012.


title: Tommy Fleetwood

text: In August 2013, Fleetwood won his maiden title on the European Tour at the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles. He won in a three-man sudden death playoff, after a birdie on the first extra hole to see off Stephen Gallacher and Ricardo González.


title: Tommy Fleetwood

text: On 22 May 2015, Fleetwood scored an albatross on the par-5 4th hole at the Wentworth Club during the second round of the BMW PGA Championship.


title: Tommy Fleetwood

text: In January 2017, Fleetwood won his second European Tour event, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, by one stroke over Dustin Johnson and Pablo Larrazábal after a final round 67. In March, Fleetwood was runner-up in the WGC-Mexico Championship, a shot behind Johnson. In April, he lost in a sudden-death playoff at the Shenzhen International to Bernd Wiesberger, at the first extra hole. Fleetwood had come from eight strokes behind on the final day with a stunning round of 63 to set the clubhouse lead. In the playoff, Fleetwood found the green in two, but Wiesberger from trouble fired an approach to within five feet and holed the birdie putt for the victory. In June, Fleetwood finished fourth in the U.S. Open, while in July, he won the Open de France, beating Peter Uihlein by a stroke, after a bogey-free final round 66. He moved from 99th in the World Rankings at the start of the year into the world top-20. In November 2017, Fleetwood won the European Tour season-long Race to Dubai and won $1,250,000 from the bonus pool.


title: Tommy Fleetwood

text: Fleetwood won the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship by two strokes from Ross Fisher to begin the 2018 season. He had a final round of 65, with six birdies in the last nine holes.


title: Tommy Fleetwood

text: Fleetwood is the sixth golfer to shoot a 63 in U.S. Open history, tying the championship's single round scoring record. He did this in the fourth round of the 2018 U.S. Open on 17 June at the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York. He finished one stroke behind the winner Brooks Koepka.


title: Tommy Fleetwood

text: In the 2018 Ryder Cup, Fleetwood paired with Francesco Molinari. They became the first pairing to win all four of their matches, as Europe won 17.5–10.5


title: Tommy Fleetwood

text: In July 2019, Fleetwood finished second in the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland.


title: Tommy Fleetwood

text: In November 2019, Fleetwood made three eagles in the final round to win the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa. Fleetwood won in a playoff over Marcus Kinhult. This event was part of the European Tour's Rolex Series and was co-sanctioned by the Sunshine Tour.


title: Tommy Fleetwood

text: In October 2020, Fleetwood birdied the 72nd hole to join Aaron Rai in a playoff at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open. However he was defeated when he missed a par putt from short-range on the first extra hole.


title: Tommy Fleetwood

text: In September 2021, Fleetwood played on the European team in the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin. The U.S. team won 19–9 and Fleetwood went 0–1–2 including a tie in his Sunday singles match against Jordan Spieth.


title: Tommy Fleetwood

text: In November 2022, Fleetwood won the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Gary Player Country Club in South Africa. He successfully defended this title, having been last played in 2019. It was also his first victory since then as well.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: The Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) is one of the largest salamanders and one of the largest amphibians in the world. It is fully aquatic and is endemic to rocky mountain streams and lakes in the Yangtze river basin of central China. Either it or a close relative has been introduced to Kyoto Prefecture in Japan and to Taiwan. It is considered critically endangered in the wild due to habitat loss, pollution, and overcollection, as it is considered a delicacy and used in traditional Chinese medicine. On farms in central China, it is extensively farmed and sometimes bred, although many of the salamanders on the farms are caught in the wild. It has been listed as one of the top-10 "focal species" in 2008 by the Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered project.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: The Chinese giant salamander is considered to be a "living fossil". Although protected under Chinese law and CITES Appendix I, the wild population has declined by more than an estimated 80% since the 1950s. Although traditionally recognized as one of two living species of "Andrias" salamander in Asia, the other being the Japanese giant salamander, evidence indicates that the Chinese giant salamander may be composed of at least five cryptic species, further compounding each individual species' endangerment.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: The correct scientific name of this species has been argued to be "Andrias scheuchzeri" (in which case "Andrias davidianus" would be a junior synonym) – a name otherwise restricted to an extinct species described from Swiss fossils. It has also been given the moniker of "living fossil" for being part of the family Cryptobranchidae which dates back 170 million years. It is one of only five to six known extant species of the family, the others being the slightly smaller, but otherwise very similar Japanese giant salamander ("Andrias japonicus"), the slightly larger South China giant salamander ("A. sligoi"), the Jiangxi giant salamander ("Andrias jiangxiensis"), an undescribed "Andrias" species from eastern China, and the far smaller North American hellbender ("Cryptobranchus alleganiensis").


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: A 2018 study of mitochondrial DNA revealed that there are five wild clades of the Chinese giant salamander, as well as two only known from captives (their possible wild range was previously unknown). They diverged from each other 4.71–10.25 million years ago and should possibly be recognized as cryptic species. Despite this deep divergence, they can hybridize among each other, and also with the Japanese giant salamander. One of these clades was identified in 2019 as "Andrias sligoi", a species described in 1924 by Edward George Boulenger and later synonymized with "A. davidianus", with the study supporting its revival as a distinct taxon. Another as-of-yet undescribed species was also identified that formerly inhabited rivers originating from the Huangshan mountains in eastern China. In 2022, one of the captive-only clades was described as "Andrias jiangxiensis", and was found to have maintained genetically pure wild populations in Jiangxi Province, in contrast to most of the other clades.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: It has a large head, small eyes, and dark, wrinkly skin. Its flat, broad head has a wide mouth, round, lidless eyes, and a line of paired tubercles that run around its head and throat. Its color is typically dark brown with a mottled or speckled pattern, but it can also be other brownish tones, dark reddish, or black. Albinos, which are white or orange, have been recorded. All species of giant salamanders produce a sticky, white skin secretion that repels predators.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: The average adult salamander weighs and is in length. It can reach up to in weight and in length, making it the second-largest amphibian species, after the South China giant salamander ("Andrias sligoi"). The longest recently documented Chinese giant salamander, kept at a farm in Zhangjiajie, was in 2007. At , both this individual, and a long, individual found in a remote cave in Chongqing in December 2015, surpassed the species' typically reported maximum weight.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: The giant salamander is known to vocalize, making barking, whining, hissing, or crying sounds. Some of these vocalizations bear a striking resemblance to the crying of a young human child, and as such, it is known in the Chinese language as the "infant fish" (娃娃鱼 / 鲵 - Wáwáyú/ ní).


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: The Chinese giant salamander has been recorded feeding on insects, millipedes, horsehair worms, amphibians (both frogs and salamanders), freshwater crabs, shrimp, fish (such as "Saurogobio" and "Cobitis") and Asiatic water shrew. Presumably ingested by mistake, plant material and gravel have also been found in their stomachs. Cannibalism is frequent; in a study of 79 specimens from the Qinling–Dabashan range, the stomach content of five included remains of other Chinese giant salamanders and this made up 28% of the combined weight of all food items in the study. The most frequent items in the same study were freshwater crabs (found in 19 specimens), which made up 23% of the combined weight of all food items.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: It has very poor eyesight, so it depends on special sensory nodes that run in a line on the body from head to tail. It is capable of sensing the slightest vibrations around it with the help of these nodes. Based on a captive study, most activity is from the earlier evening to the early night. Most individuals stop feeding at water temperatures above and feeding ceases almost entirely at . Temperatures of are lethal to Chinese giant salamanders.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: Both sexes maintain a territory, averaging for males and for females. The reproductive cycle is initiated when the water temperature reaches and mating occurs between July and September. The female lays 400–500 eggs in an underwater breeding cavity, which is guarded by the male until the eggs hatch after 50–60 days. They have a variety of different courtship displays including knocking bellies, leaning side-to-side, riding, mouth-to-mouth posturing, chasing, rolling over, inviting, and cohabiting. When laid, the eggs measure in diameter, but they increase to about double that size by absorbing water. When hatching, the larvae are about long and external gills remain until a length of about at an age of 3 years. Maturity is reached at an age of 5 to 6 years and a length of . The maximum age reached by Chinese giant salamanders is unknown, but it is at least 60 years based on captive individuals. Undocumented claims have been made of 200-year-old Chinese giant salamanders, but these are considered unreliable.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: The Chinese giant salamander species complex comprises five clades, with multiple possibly worthy of species recognition. Their native ranges differ, but release of Chinese giant salamanders from captivity has complicated this picture. They were widespread in central, south-western and southern China, although their range is now highly fragmented. Their range spans the area from Qinghai east to Jiangsu and south to Sichuan, Guangxi and Guangdong; notably in the basins of the Yangtze, Yellow and Pearl Rivers. One is from the Pearl River basin (at least in Guangxi), two from the Yellow River basin, one from the Yangtze River basin (at least in Chongqing and Guizhou) and the final from the Qiantang River (at least in Anhui). Two additional clades were only known from captivity (their wild range is unknown) and no samples are available for the population in the Tibetan Plateau. A 2019 study has identified that the Yangtze River clade comprises the "true" "A. davidianus", the Pearl River clade comprises "A. sligoi", and the Qiantang clade comprises the undescribed Huangshan Mountains species. A 2022 study identified one of the two clades known only from captivity as "A. jiangxiensis", found in the wild only in Jiangxi Province.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: Finds in Taiwan may be the result of introduction. Chinese giant salamanders have been introduced to the Kyoto Prefecture in Japan where they present a threat to the native Japanese giant salamander, as the two hybridize.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: The Chinese giant salamander is entirely aquatic and lives in rocky hill streams and lakes with clear water. It typically lives in dark muddy or rocky crevices along the banks. It is usually found in forested regions at altitudes of , with most records between . There is an isolated population at an altitude of in Qinghai (Tibetan Plateau), but its taxonomic position is uncertain and the site likely does not support giant salamanders anymore due to pollution.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: The salamanders prefer to live in streams of small width (on average, across), quick flow, and little depth (on average, deep). Water temperature varies depending on season, with typical range at low elevation sites being from and at high elevation sites from . Although they prefer to have quick flow in the stream, the burrows in which they lay their eggs often have much slower flow. Furthermore, their habitat often possesses very rocky, irregular stream beds with a lot of gravel and small rocks as well as some vegetation. Chinese giant salamanders are also known from subterranean rivers. As populations in aboveground rivers and lakes are more vulnerable to poaching, there are some parts of China where only the subterranean populations remain.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: Very large numbers are being farmed in China, but most of the breeding stock are either wild-caught or first-generation captive-bred. This is partially explained by the fact that the industry is relatively new, but some farms have also struggled to produce second-generation captive-bred offspring. Registrations showed that 2.6 million Chinese giant salamanders were kept in farms in 2011 in Shaanxi alone, far surpassing the entire countrywide wild population estimated at less than 50,000 individuals. Shaanxi farms (mainly in the Qinling Mountain region) accounted for about 70% of the total output in China in 2012, but there are also many farms in Guizhou and several in other provinces. Among 43 south Shaanxi farms surveyed, 38 bred the species in 2010 and each produced an average of c. 10,300 larvae that year. Farming of Chinese giant salamanders, herbs and mushrooms are the three most important economic activities in Shaanxi's Qinling Mountain region, and many thousands of families rely on the giant salamander farms for income. The giant salamander farming mainly supplies the food market, but whether this can be achieved to an extent where the pressure on the wild populations is reduced is doubtful. Release of captive-bred Chinese giant salamanders is supported by the government (8,000 were released in Shaanxi in 2011 alone), but represent a potential risk to the remaining wild population, as diseases such as "Ranavirus" are known from many farms. The vast majority of the farmed Chinese giant salamanders, almost 80% based on a study published in 2018, are of Yellow River origin (the so-called haplotype B), although those from other regions also occur. Farms have generally not considered this issue when releasing giant salamanders and Yellow River animals now dominate in some regions outside their original range, further endangering the native types. Additionally, release of untreated wastewater from farms may spread diseases to wild Chinese giant salamanders.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: As of early 2008, Species360 records show only five individuals held in US zoos (Zoo Atlanta, Cincinnati Zoo, and Saint Louis Zoological Park), and an additional four in European zoos (Dresden Zoo and Rotterdam Zoo); as well as one in the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe, where it is also the museum's mascot.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: As of 2019, London Zoo holds four individuals (one of them on display) that were seized from an illegal importation of amphibians in 2016. A medium-sized individual, approximately long, was kept for several years at the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco, California, and is now on display again in the "Water Planet" section of the new California Academy of Sciences building. There are also two in residence at the Los Angeles Zoo. Additional individuals are likely kept in non-Species360 zoos and animals parks in its native China, such as Shanghai Zoo. Several of them are kept in the aquaria of Shanghai and Xian. The Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan in Japan has both a Chinese and a Japanese giant salamander on display, as does the Saitama aquarium in Hanyū, Saitama.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: Since May 2014, 33 Chinese giant salamanders, including three adults, have been held in Prague Zoo. The main attraction is the largest individual in Europe, which is long.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: In the past, the Chinese giant salamander was fairly common and widespread in China. Since the 1950s, the population has declined rapidly due to habitat destruction and overhunting. It has been listed as Critically Endangered in the "Chinese Red Book of Amphibians and Reptiles". Despite the Chinese Government listing the salamander as a Class II Protected Species, 100 salamanders are hunted illegally every year in the Hupingshan Natural Nature Reserve alone. Since the 1980s, 14 nature reserves have been established as an effort to conserve the species. Despite this, the population continues to decline with the salamanders becoming increasingly difficult to find. In a recent survey of the species in the Qinghai Province, none were found indicating the population size is at a significantly low number or the species is locally extinct in the province. This is believed to be due to the increased mining in the region.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: In recent years populations have also declined with an epizootic "Ranavirus" infection. The disease causes severe hemorrhaging in both juveniles and adult salamanders. The virus was named the Chinese giant salamander iridovirus (GSIV).


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: Its natural range has suffered in the past few decades due to habitat loss and overharvesting. Consequently, many salamanders are now farmed in mesocosms across China. Furthermore, previously built concrete dams that destroyed the salamander's habitat are now fitted with stairs so that the animal can easily navigate the dam and make it back to its niche.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: The Chinese giant salamander is listed as a critically endangered species. It has experienced a drastic population decline, which is estimated to be more than 80% in the last 3 generations and due to human causes. Human consumption is the main threat to the Chinese giant salamander. They are considered to be a luxury food item and source of traditional medicines in China.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: According to a recent study, 90% of the Chinese giant salamanders' habitat was destroyed by the year 2000, and there are many human-related causes of such massive destruction. Because the salamander dwells in free-flowing streams, industrialization is a large problem for many stream-dwelling species. The construction of dams greatly disturbs their habitat by either causing these streams to dry up or to stand still, thus making it uninhabitable by the salamanders. Siltation also contributes to the degradation of their habitats by soiling the water. Deforestation in areas near the streams can worsen soil erosion and create runoff into the streams as well, which reduces the water quality to a great extent. The reduced water quality makes it much more difficult for the salamanders to absorb oxygen through their skin and can often bring death to those within the species.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: Water pollution is also a great factor in the habitat destruction of the Chinese giant salamander; the immense decline in their population can be traced to, among the other major problems of over-hunting and failed conservation efforts, the tainting of the water that they live in. Mining activity in particular in areas near their streams often causes runoff that sullies the water, and farming—and all of the pesticides and chemicals that affect the soil that come with it—has a vastly negative effect on the areas near the streams as well. The presence of macronutrients in the streams can also cause algal blooms, which cloud the water and force the temperature to rise. The salamanders reside primarily in very cold underwater cavities and follow a specific nesting requirement, which means that they will only reproduce and care for their eggs in areas such as these, so changes in temperature are incredibly detrimental to their health and well-being as well as to their perpetuation as a species. These algal blooms also deplete the levels of oxygen in the water, and a lesser supply of oxygen can quite easily hold the potential to kill off many members of the dwindling species.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: Many efforts have been undertaken to create reserves and faux habitats for the Chinese giant salamander so that they can reproduce without worry of soiled water, but many of these reserves have failed in having a great impact overall due to the massive overhunting of the species. No matter how many members of the species they manage to save through the reserves, the poachers still manage to capture and kill that many more. Although habitat destruction is certainly not assisting in the perpetuation of the species, it is certainly not the biggest obstacle that the Chinese giant salamander faces in its quest to avoid extinction.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: Like other amphibians, the Chinese giant salamander is ectothermic. Most Chinese giant salamanders stop feeding at water temperatures above and feeding ceases almost entirely at . Temperatures of are lethal to Chinese giant salamanders. As a consequence, the species is vulnerable to global warming.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: One of the main reasons that the Chinese giant salamander, "Andrias davidianus", has been placed on the critically endangered list by the International Union for Conservation of Nature is overhunting. 75% of native species in China are harvested for food. The salamander is also used for traditional medicinal purposes. In 1989, the Chinese government placed legal protection on the salamander (category II due to its population decline by The Wild Animal Protection Law of China and Appendix I in the Convention of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna.).


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: But the salamander populations have continued to decline. The domestic demand for salamander meat and body parts greatly exceeds what can sustainably be harvested from the wild. Commercial captive breeding operations so far still rely on the regular introduction of new wild-caught breeding adults, because captive-bred animals have proven difficult to mate. In addition, salamander farms would need to increase their yield manifold before the black-market price of poached salamander drop significantly, meaning that a stricter enforcement of anti-poaching law is still very much the future for the Chinese giant salamander.


title: Chinese giant salamander

text: China's penalty for illegally hunting these creatures is very low and only comes to 50 yuan, or about US$6, which is less than one hundred times the black-market price. Establishments such as restaurants can charge up to US$250–US$400 per kilogram.