title: Airbus Helicopters H160

text: In May 2019, French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly christened this helicopter as H160M Guépard.


title: Airbus Helicopters H160

text: In October 2017, the initial pair of prototypes reached 500h of flight testing while the third should make its maiden flight, the entire flight envelope had been opened leaving hot weather, antennas, optional equipment testing and certification flights.


title: Airbus Helicopters H160

text: In 2018, 10 pre-serial helicopters were assembled before certification and deliveries in 2019, production was looking to be increased to 50 per year.


title: Airbus Helicopters H160

text: Its Safran Arrano turboshaft received its type certificate during the June 2019 Paris Air Show, before EASA approval for the H160 planned for the fourth quarter before first delivery to a US customer for corporate transport in May 2020.


title: Airbus Helicopters H160

text: After 1500 hours of flight tests and demo flights with three prototypes, the H160 was type certified by the EASA on 1 July 2020, before FAA certification and delivery to a US customer planned for the same year.


title: Airbus Helicopters H160

text: Japanese certification followed in May 2021 and in Brazil in September, and the first H160 was delivered on 10 December to All Nippon Helicopter for electronic news gathering, starting in 2022.


title: Airbus Helicopters H160

text: The Airbus Helicopters H160 takes advantage of several advanced manufacturing technologies and materials in order to produce a lighter, more efficient design. One weight-saving measure was the replacement of conventional hydraulic landing gear and brakes with electrical counterparts, the first helicopter in the world to do so; according to Airbus the elimination of hydraulic components makes the rotorcraft both lighter and safer. In 2015, Airbus claimed that the all-composite H160 would deliver the same basic performance as the rival AgustaWestland AW139 while being 1 tonne lighter, having a lower fuel consumption and offering 15–20% lower direct operating costs. The composite fuselage also provided for greater design freedom of the rotorcraft's external styling. During the aircraft's development features such as full de-icing equipment and a fly-by-wire control system were deemed too heavy or costly for the benefits involved and were eliminated.


title: Airbus Helicopters H160

text: The H160 is the first rotorcraft to feature the Blue Edge five-bladed main rotor. This incorporates a double-swept shape that reduces the noise generation of blade-vortex interactions (BVI), a phenomenon which occurs when the blade impacts a vortex created at its tip, resulting in a 3–4 dB noise reduction and raising the effective payload by compared with a scaled Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin rotor design. Aerodynamic innovations include a biplane tailplane stabiliser for greater low speed stability, and a quieter canted fenestron which combined produce an extra 80 kg of lift. The H160 is the first civilian helicopter to utilise a canted fenestron anti-torque tail rotor. The H160 will be powered by two Turbomeca Arrano turboshaft engines; a second engine, the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW210E, was to be offered as an alternative option, but this was eliminated due to insufficient power output and to reduce design complexity. A redundant backup for the gearbox lubrication system enables in excess of five hours of flight following a primary failure without causing mechanical damage.


title: Airbus Helicopters H160

text: In early 2015, Airbus claimed that the H160 is intended to have a "day one" availability rate expectation exceeding 95 percent. The H160 features the Helionix avionics suite, the cockpit being equipped with a total of four multifunctional displays. Airbus Helicopters collaborated with Esterline CMC to develop portions of the avionics, such as the CMA-9000 Flight Management System and the CMA-5024 GPS landing system sensor, to automate the landing process. A full flight simulator has also been developed for the H160, in partnership with Helisim and Thales Group. The avionics provide a level of commonality with the company's earlier Eurocopter EC145 T2 and Eurocopter EC175 helicopters. Commentators have stated that this commonality to be similar to AgustaWestland's rotorcraft family concept.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: Bridget of Sweden (c. 1303 – 23 July 1373) born as Birgitta Birgersdotter, also Birgitta of Vadstena, or Saint Birgitta (), was a mystic and a saint, and she was also the founder of the Bridgettines nuns and monks after the death of her husband of twenty years. Outside Sweden, she was also known as the "Princess of Nericia" and she was the mother of Catherine of Vadstena. (Even though she is normally named "Bridget of Sweden", she was not a member of Swedish royalty.)


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: She is one of the six patron saints of Europe, together with Benedict of Nursia, Cyril and Methodius, Catherine of Siena and Edith Stein.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: The most celebrated saint of Sweden was the daughter of the knight Birger Persson of the family of Finsta, governor and lawspeaker of Uppland, and one of the richest landowners of the country, and his wife Ingeborg Bengtsdotter, a member of the so-called Lawspeaker branch of the Folkunga family. Through her mother, Ingeborg, Birgitta was related to the Swedish kings of her era.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: She was born in 1303. The exact date of her birth is not recorded. In 1316, at the age of 13 she married Ulf Gudmarsson of the family of Ulvåsa, Lord of Närke, to whom she bore eight children, four daughters and four sons. Six of her children survived infancy, which was rare at that time. Her eldest daughter was Märta Ulfsdotter. Her second daughter is now honored as St. Catherine of Sweden. Her youngest daughter was Cecilia Ulvsdotter. Bridget became known for her works of charity, particularly toward Östergötland's unwed mothers and their children. When she was in her early thirties, she was summoned to be principal lady-in-waiting to the new Queen of Sweden, Blanche of Namur. In 1341, she and her husband went on pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: In 1344, shortly after their return, Ulf died at the Cistercian Alvastra Abbey in Östergötland. After this loss, Birgitta became a member of the Third Order of Saint Francis and devoted herself to a life of prayer and caring for the poor and the sick.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: It was at this time that she developed the idea of establishing the religious community which was to become the Order of the Most Holy Saviour, or the Bridgettines, whose principal house at Vadstena was later richly endowed by King Magnus IV of Sweden and his queen. One distinctive feature of the houses of the Order was that they were double monasteries, with men and women both forming a joint community, but they lived in separate cloisters. They were required to live in poor convents and they were also required to give all of their surplus income to the poor. However, they were allowed to have as many books as they pleased.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: In 1350, a Jubilee Year, Bridget braved a plague-stricken Europe to make a pilgrimage to Rome accompanied by her daughter, Catherine, and a small party of priests and disciples. This was partly done to obtain authorization to found the new Order from the Pope and it was also partly done in pursuance of her self-imposed mission to elevate the moral tone of the age. This was during the period of the Avignon Papacy within the Roman Catholic Church, however, so she had to wait for the return of the papacy from the French city of Avignon to Rome, a move for which she agitated for many years.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: It was not until 1370 that Pope Urban V, during his brief attempt to re-establish the papacy in Rome, confirmed the Rule of the Order, but meanwhile Birgitta had made herself universally beloved in Rome by her kindness and good works. Save for occasional pilgrimages, including one to Jerusalem in 1373, she remained in Rome until her death on 23 July 1373, urging ecclesiastical reform.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: In her pilgrimages to Rome, Jerusalem and Bethlehem, she sent "back precise instructions for the construction of the monastery" now known as the Blue Church, insisting that an "abbess, signifying the Virgin Mary, should preside over both nuns and monks."


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: Bridget went to confession every day, and she had a constant smiling, glowing face. Although she never returned to Sweden, her years in Rome were far from happy, she was hounded by debts and opposition to her work against Church abuses. She was originally buried at San Lorenzo in Panisperna before her remains were returned to Sweden. She was canonized in the year 1391 by Pope Boniface IX, which was confirmed by the Council of Constance in 1415. Because of new discussions about her works, the Council of Basel confirmed the orthodoxy of her revelations in 1436.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: At the age of ten, Bridget had a vision of Jesus hanging upon the cross. When she asked who had treated him like this, he answered:


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: The Passion of Christ became the center of her spiritual life from that moment on. The which she had received since her childhood now became more frequent, and the records of these "Revelationes coelestes" ("Celestial revelations") which were translated into Latin by Matthias, canon of Linköping, and her confessor, Peter Olafsson, prior of Alvastra, acquired a great vogue during the Middle Ages. These revelations made Bridget something of a celebrity to some and a controversial figure to others.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: Her visions of the Nativity of Jesus would influence later depictions of the Nativity of Jesus in art. Shortly before her death, she described a vision which included the infant Jesus lying clean (not in) swaddling clothes on the ground, and emitting light himself, and she described the Virgin as blond-haired and kneeling in prayer exactly as she was moments before the spontaneous birth, with her womb shrunken and her virginity intact. Many depictions followed this improbable scene, they included the popular ox and donkey and they reduced other light sources in the scene in order to emphasize the "child of light" effect, and the Nativity was treated with chiaroscuro through the Baroque. Other details which are frequently seen, such as Joseph carrying a single candle that he "attached to the wall," and the presence of God the Father above, also originated in Bridget's vision.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: The pose of the Virgin kneeling to pray to her child, to be joined by Saint Joseph, technically known as the "Adoration of the Child", became one of the most common depictions in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, largely replacing the reclining Virgin in the West. A few earlier depictions of the Virgin which show her with an ox and a donkey (scenes which are not described in the gospels) were produced as early as 1300, before Bridget was born, have a Franciscan origin, by which she may have been influenced, because she was a member of the Franciscan Order.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: In addition, "she even predicted an eventual Vatican State, foretelling almost the exact boundaries delineated by Mussolini for Vatican City in 1921."


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: Pope Benedict XVI spoke of Bridget in a general audience on 27 October 2010, saying that the value of Saint Bridget's Revelations, sometimes the object of doubt, was specified by Pope John Paul II in the letter "Spes Aedificandi": "Yet there is no doubt that the Church," wrote my beloved predecessor, "which recognized Bridget's holiness without ever pronouncing on her individual revelations, has accepted the overall authenticity of her interior experience."


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: Saint Bridget prayed for a long time to know how many blows Jesus Christ suffered during His terrible Passion. Rewarding her patience, one day He appeared to her and said, "I received 5480 blows upon My Body. If you wish to honor them in some way, recite fifteen Our Fathers and fifteen Hail Marys with the following Prayers, which I Myself shall teach you, for an entire year. When the year is finished, you will have honored each of My Wounds."


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: Whatever their origin, the prayers were widely circulated in the late Middle Ages, and they became regular features in Books of Hours and other devotional literature. They were translated into various languages; an early English language version of them was printed in a primer by William Caxton. The prayers themselves reflect the late medieval tradition of meditation on the passion of Christ, and are structured around the seven last words of Christ. They borrow from patristic and Scriptural sources as well as the tradition of devotion to the wounds of Christ.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: During the Middle Ages, the prayers were circulated with various promises of indulgence and other assurances of 21 supernatural graces supposed to attend the daily recitation of the 15 orations at least for a year. These indulgences were repeated in the manuscript tradition of the Books of Hours, and may constitute one major source of the prayers' popularity in the late Middle Ages. They promise, among other things, the release from Purgatory of fifteen of the devotee's family members, and that they would keep fifteen living family members in a state of grace.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: The extravagance of the promises which were made in these rubrics—one widely circulated version promised that the devotee would receive "his heart's desire, if it be for the salvation of his soul"—attracted critics early and late. In 1538, William Marshall enjoined his readers to "henseforth ... forget suche prayers as seynt Brigittes & other lyke, whyche greate promyses and perdons haue falsly auaunced."


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: Martin Luther strongly rejected the Roman Catholic belief in the 21 promises and nicknamed St Bridget "Die tolle Brigit" (The foolish Bridget).


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: In the following decades, Protestantism sought to eradicate the devotion to similar angelic and spiritual entities claiming they were a ‘popish’ and ‘pagan’ legacy.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: Lutheranism and Calvinism were characterized by a lower degree of Marian devotion than that pertaining to the Roman Catholic Church, particularly with reference to the Marian title of Queen of Angels.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: The Vatican and the Lutheran Church jointly conceived a modern devotion to St Bridget which had remained a relevant factor of disagreement between the two churches till then.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: In 1954, the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office ruled that the alleged promises (though not the prayers themselves) are unreliable, and it directed local ordinaries not to permit the circulation of pamphlets which contain the promises.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: The ecumenical process of reconciliation culminated on 8 October 1991 during the sexcentennial of St Bridget's canonization, when Pope John Paul II and two Lutheran bishops met and prayed in front of the burial place of St Peter Apostle, in Rome. It was the first time in which a joint prayer was said by members of the two communities.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: The Brigitta Chapel was erected in 1651 in Vienna, and in 1900 the new district Brigittenau was founded. In Sweden, adjacent to Skederid Church, built by Bridget's father on the family's land, a memorial stone was erected in 1930.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: On 1 October 1999, Pope John Paul II named Saint Bridget a patron saint of Europe. Her feast day is celebrated on 23 July, the day of her death. Her feast was not in the Tridentine calendar, but was inserted in the General Roman Calendar in 1623 for celebration on 7 October, the day of her 1391 canonization by Pope Boniface IX. Five years later, her feast day was moved to 8 October (but the Church in Sweden celebrates it on the 7th), a date which was not changed until the revision of the General Roman Calendar in 1969, when it was set on 8 October, the date which it is currently celebrated on. Some continue to use the earlier General Roman Calendar of 1954, the General Roman Calendar of Pope Pius XII, or the General Roman Calendar of 1960.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: The Third Order of Saint Francis includes her feast day on its Calendar of saints on the same day as the general Church, honoring her as a member of the Order.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: The Bjärka-Säby Monastery contains a portrait of Bridget of Sweden which is venerated by Christians who are members of several denominations. An hour away from this monastery, the Vadstena Abbey, also known as the Blue Church, contains relics of the saint, and her body is venerated by Lutheran and Catholic believers.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: Bridget is remembered by the Church of England, which holds a commemoration on 23 July and on the Episcopal Church liturgical calendar on 7 October.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: Although he was initially interested in Bridget's "Revelations", Martin Luther would later conclude that her visions were mere ravings. Some 19th-century writers presented her as a forerunner of the Protestant Reformation due to her criticism of popes, bishops and other members of the clergy who did not live in accordance with the teachings of their religion. However, she never criticized that teaching or the church as such.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: Of her as depicted in his play "Folkungasagan" August Strindberg explained Bridget as "a power-hungry, vainglorious woman who intentionally vied for sainthood", adding "of this unpleasant woman and according to the historical documents I made the uncontrollable ninny now in my drama, although in her honor I let her awaken to clarity about her silliness and her arrogance."


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: "Centuries of Selfies" (2020) describes how Bridget damaged King Magnus and Queen Blanche by accusing them of "erotic deviations, extravagance and murderous plots", a description particularly noted by "Dala-Demokraten" as likely to upset Swedish nuns. With the eventual translation of her Latin works into Swedish, more understanding and appreciation of her evolved in some Swedish circles.


title: Bridget of Sweden

text: Saint Birgitta's "Revelaciones", that is, her "Revelations" written in Latin, appeared in critical editions during the years 1956 to 2002 under the aegis of the Royal Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, Stockholm.


title: Suzanna Hamilton

text: Suzanna Hamilton (born 8 February 1960) is an English actress. She played the role of Julia in the 1984 film adaptation of George Orwell's classic novel, "Nineteen Eighty-Four". Her other film roles include "Tess" (1979), "Brimstone and Treacle" (1982), "Wetherby" (1985), and "Out of Africa" (1985). On television, she starred in the ITV drama "Wish Me Luck" (1988), the BBC medical drama "Casualty" (1993–94), and the STV drama "McCallum" (1995–97).


title: Suzanna Hamilton

text: Hamilton was born in London and was a protégée of filmmaker Claude Whatham, who discovered her in a children's experimental theatre in North London in the early 1970s. The first feature in which she appeared was "Swallows and Amazons" (1974), which was directed by Whatham and based on the popular children's book of the same name by Arthur Ransome. "Swallows and Amazons" was filmed in 1973 and released to the public the following year. Billed as Zanna Hamilton, the young actress was cast in the role of Susan Walker, one of four young siblings collectively known as "the Swallows", who go on a camping and sailing holiday in the Lake District during the summer of 1929. Whatham later directed the teenage Suzanna Hamilton as Princess Alexandra in the BBC miniseries, "Disraeli" (1978), which was later broadcast to North American audiences as a featured programme on "Masterpiece Theatre" in 1980.


title: Suzanna Hamilton

text: It was during this time in the mid-1970s that Hamilton received her acting training at the Anna Scher Theatre School in Islington and at the famous Central School of Speech and Drama in Swiss Cottage, Camden. For her first appearance in a big-budget film, Hamilton played Izz Huett, the lovesick dairymaid, in the Roman Polanski film "Tess" (1979), based on Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the d'Urbervilles", which starred Nastassja Kinski in the title role. She also appeared as one of the boarding school girls who organise a strike against the Ministry of Education in "The Wildcats of St. Trinian's" (1980).


title: Suzanna Hamilton

text: Hamilton's next significant role was in the Richard Loncraine film "Brimstone & Treacle" (1982), based on Dennis Potter's play of the same name. In this film, Hamilton starred as Patricia Bates, the traumatised, catatonic daughter of a devoutly religious, middle aged Home Counties couple (Denholm Elliott and Joan Plowright) whose lives are changed by a demonic drifter and con man who calls himself Martin Taylor, played by Sting. The following year, Suzanna Hamilton was featured in BBC-TV's paranormal mystery, "A Pattern of Roses", with a young Helena Bonham Carter.


title: Suzanna Hamilton

text: Hamilton was cast as Julia opposite John Hurt as Winston Smith in the Michael Radford film Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), based on the eponymous George Orwell dystopian novel. She had been chosen for the role after having been referred by the casting agency of the Anna Scher Theatre School. She was one of the school's earliest alumni, and the theatre is acknowledged in the film's closing credits. This performance raised her profile as a film actress for a brief time and garnered critical praise, particularly from Vincent Canby in "The New York Times". However, her work was largely overshadowed by the death of fellow cast member Richard Burton, who delivered his final screen performance in the role of O'Brien, as well as the much-publicised post-release controversy over the film's musical score.


title: Suzanna Hamilton

text: In 1985, Hamilton starred in British playwright David Hare's film "Wetherby", opposite Vanessa Redgrave; in this film, Hamilton's character, Karen Creasy, is the sullen former friend of a young man who committed suicide. Her next role was as the equestrienne Felicity in Sydney Pollack's Academy Award-winning "Out of Africa", based on the memoirs of the famed Danish writer Isak Dinesen, and starring Meryl Streep, Robert Redford and Klaus Maria Brandauer.


title: Suzanna Hamilton

text: By the latter half of the decade, the majority of her screen roles were in obscure European films made in exotic locations as well as numerous British television dramas. In the 1986 German film, "", which was shot in Thailand and loosely based on Joseph Conrad's 1915 novel "Victory", Hamilton was cast as a saxophonist in an all-woman band touring seedy hotels and nightclubs in Southeast Asia. Her character, Julie, escapes a life of sexual slavery by fleeing with an eccentric German adventurer, played by Jürgen Prochnow, and the two of them take refuge on an island near Indonesia, which is already populated by a savage native warrior tribe. Also in 1986, Hamilton starred in the well-received television drama "Johnny Bull", a film developed at the National Playwrights' Conference of the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center and filmed in Tennessee. In this film, a period piece set in the mid-1940s just after VE Day, she was cast as Iris Kovacs, a lighthearted Cockney bride who travels to rural Pennsylvania to live with her new American G.I. husband (Peter MacNicol) and his working class Hungarian-immigrant coal-mining family; Colleen Dewhurst and Kathy Bates starred in supporting roles. That same year, Hamilton appeared as Emily Barkstone in "Hold the Dream", the second of the three BBC miniseries based on Barbara Taylor Bradford's popular "Emma Harte" novels about the fortunes of a retail empire and the machinations of the business élite across three generations.


title: Suzanna Hamilton

text: In 1987, she played the spirited but careless Anglo-French SOE spy, Matty Firman, in "Wish Me Luck" — an LWT miniseries, this one set in occupied France during World War II. In 1988, she appeared opposite Jon Finch in another low-budget German film, a short called "The Voice", about six people who are held captive overnight on a floating discothèque. In 1989, she starred as the inscrutable femme fatale Anna Raven in the BBC miniseries of "Never Come Back", a noirish conspiracy thriller based on the celebrated 1941 novel by John Mair, which takes place on the eve of the London Blitz during the so-called "Phoney War" of 1939–40. Hamilton also acted in the 1990 British television film, "Small Zones", as a strong-willed Russian poet whose subversive writings have led to her indefinite imprisonment in a Soviet holding cell. In 1991, she appeared as Amelia, one of the five daughters placed under house arrest by their domineering mother, in the BBC adaptation of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca's play "The House of Bernarda Alba"; Glenda Jackson starred in the title role. She also had a supporting role in a 1992 TV film of Barbara Cartland's Regency-period bodice-ripper, "Duel of Hearts".


title: Suzanna Hamilton

text: Her next commercial film role was in a low-budget Gothic horror romance, "Tale of a Vampire" (1992), written and directed by a 27-year-old Anglo-Japanese film student, Shimako Sato. Hamilton made a dual appearance: first as Anne, a librarian in present-day London grieving the untimely death of her boyfriend; then as Anne's 19th century "doppelgänger", Virginia Clemm, the real-life wife of Edgar Allan Poe—who, in the film, also happens to be the long-lost mistress of a lonely, centuries-old vampire played by Julian Sands. In 1993, she had a recurring role as Dr. Karen Goodliffe on the British TV hospital drama series, "Casualty". In 1995, she appeared as John Hannah's love interest, Joanna Sparks, on the ITV crime series, "McCallum".


title: Suzanna Hamilton

text: Her last feature film of note was "The Island on Bird Street" (1997), a Danish period drama made in the Dogme 95 style, about an 11-year-old Jewish boy who hides from the Nazis in occupied Poland during World War II before he is reunited with his father. In this film, Hamilton had a brief cameo as the mother of a girl whom the boy befriends. Most recently, she appeared as Vivienne in the 2005 short film, "Benjamin's Struggle", described as "a compelling story set in 1930s Nazi Germany, about a nine-year-old Jewish boy who attempts to steal the original manuscript of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf", believing that it will topple the Third Reich and end the suffering of his family". In 2006, she appeared as Helen Gillespie in the ITV series, "Jane Hall". In 2007, she appeared as Dr. Hillary Slayton in the children's television series, "Dinosapien", which is filmed on location in southern Alberta, Canada.


title: Suzanna Hamilton

text: Hamilton is an accomplished theatre and radio actress. She made her first West End appearance on the London stage in 1982 as part of the original cast production of Tom Stoppard's play, "The Real Thing". In 1993, she played the lead as a Welsh maid who gets in over her head in the Bush Theatre's production of Lucinda Coxon's "Waiting at the Water's Edge"; in 2002, she was cast as Creusa in a Gate Theatre production of Euripides' "Ion"; and in early 2005, she appeared as Dora, a woman incarcerated in a 1920s asylum in the Salisbury Playhouse's production of Charlotte Jones' chamber drama, "Airswimming". She also lent her voice to a 1991 audiobook recording of Julian Barnes' novel about a love triangle called "Talking It Over" and has been in many radio dramas. She has been involved in many festivals of new writing at various London theatres. In May 2018 she played Shakespeare's Juliet (in old age) for The Theatre, Chipping Norton, in Ben Power "A Tender Thing" and in August 2019 she portrayed a Rhodesian estate owner in "My One True Friend" at the Tristan Bates Theatre, London.


title: Suzanna Hamilton

text: Hamilton spent a short time away from acting in major films to bring up her son but continued to feature in television roles and in theatre and voice work. In 2015 she played "Barbara" in the BBC drama "Doctors". and in 2017 she played "Sarah" in the BBC series "The Cuckoo's Calling"


title: UEFA Women's Euro 2017

text: The 2017 UEFA European Women's Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2017, was the 12th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international football championship organised by UEFA for the women's national teams of Europe. The competition was expanded to 16 teams (from 12 teams in the previous edition).


title: UEFA Women's Euro 2017

text: Germany's 22-year reign as champions of Europe was ended after losing 1–2 to Denmark in the quarter-finals. In addition it was only Germany's second loss in the finals since 1993. Another former winner, Norway, lost to both finalists, the Netherlands and Denmark, and ended without goals or points.


title: UEFA Women's Euro 2017

text: The Netherlands won their first ever title by beating fellow first time finalists, Denmark, 4–2 in the final.


title: UEFA Women's Euro 2017

text: On 4 December 2014 The Netherlands were chosen as hosts for the first time having never previously staged the tournament.


title: UEFA Women's Euro 2017

text: A total of 47 UEFA nations entered the competition (including Andorra which entered for the first time at senior women's level), and with the hosts Netherlands qualifying automatically, the other 46 teams competed in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining 15 spots in the final tournament. The qualifying competition, which took place from April 2015 to October 2016, consisted of three rounds:


title: UEFA Women's Euro 2017

text: The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament. Five teams made their Women's Euro debuts. The only team that qualified in 2013 but did not qualify in 2017 was Finland.


title: UEFA Women's Euro 2017

text: The final draw was held on 8 November 2016, 17:30 CET (), at the Luxor Theatre in Rotterdam. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking following the end of the qualifying group stage (excluding the play-offs), with the hosts Netherlands assigned to position A1 in the draw. Each group contained one team from each of the four seeding pots.


title: UEFA Women's Euro 2017

text: A total of 11 referees, 21 assistant referees and 2 fourth officials were appointed for the final tournament.


title: UEFA Women's Euro 2017

text: Each national team have to submit a squad of 23 players, three of whom must be goalkeepers. If a player is injured or ill severely enough to prevent her participation in the tournament before her team's first match, she can be replaced by another player. The squad list must be published no later than 10 days before the tournaments opening match.


title: UEFA Women's Euro 2017

text: The schedule of the competition was announced on 23 September 2015. The group winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals.


title: UEFA Women's Euro 2017

text: Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 19.01 and 19.02):


title: UEFA Women's Euro 2017

text: On 1 June 2017, the UEFA Executive Committee agreed that the competition would be part of the International Football Association Board (IFAB)'s trial to allow a fourth substitute to be made during extra time.


title: UEFA Women's Euro 2017

text: A total prize money of €8,000,000 were available, an increase from €2,200,000 in 2013, with the following breakdown:


title: UEFA Women's Euro 2017

text: Matches were streamed on UEFA.com and UEFA.tv (YouTube) in territories where no partner had been appointed.


title: The New Christy Minstrels

text: The New Christy Minstrels are an American large-ensemble folk music group founded by Randy Sparks in 1961. The group has recorded more than 20 albums and scored several hits, including "Green, Green", "Saturday Night", "Today", "Denver", and "This Land Is Your Land". The group's 1962 debut album, "Presenting The New Christy Minstrels", won a Grammy Award and was on the "Billboard" charts for two years.


title: The New Christy Minstrels

text: The group sold millions of records, was in demand at concerts and on television shows, and helped launch the musical careers of several musicians, including Kenny Rogers, Gene Clark, Kim Carnes, Larry Ramos, and Barry McGuire.


title: The New Christy Minstrels

text: Sparks had been a solo performer, mixing folk music with pop standards and playing club dates on the West Coast and in Manhattan. Twice winner of the All-Navy Talent competition, he landed high-profile television appearances and a recording contract with Verve Records. In 1960, at the suggestion of Verve founder Norman Granz, he formed The Randy Sparks Three with his wife, Jackie Miller, and singer/arranger Nick Woods. But he wanted a larger group. Folk music was popular and choral groups like the Norman Luboff Choir were incorporating folk classics in their repertoires. Sparks felt that these groups sang too perfectly, lacking the rustic character of folk performance. Throughout 1961 and 1962, he created a 14-voice ensemble, The New Christy Minstrels, by combining his trio with the Oregon quartet The Fairmount Singers, The Inn Group (singers John Forsha, Karol Dugan and Jerry Yester), banjo player Billy Cudmore, folk-blues singer Terry Wadsworth, folk singer Dolan Ellis and singer/guitarist Art Podell. Large commercial folk groups did not exist then, and The New Christy Minstrels delivered a robust new sound. Sparks named his group after Christy's Minstrels, a blackface group formed by Philadelphia-born showman Edwin Pearce Christy in 1842 and known for introducing Stephen Foster's compositions. Sparks also saw his group as a means of attracting attention to his own original songs and adaptations of folk classics.


title: The New Christy Minstrels

text: The group was meant to be a recording act only, and several members joined with the assumption that their commitment would be for occasional studio work. In April 1962 the group, reduced to 10 members after the departure of the Fairmount Singers, recorded their debut album, "Presenting The New Christy Minstrels" (aka "Exciting New Folk Chorus"), for Columbia Records. In 1963, the album won a Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Chorus and sat on the "Billboard" 200 charts for two years, peaking at number 19. The album included Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land", which entered the pop singles charts in December 1962.


title: The New Christy Minstrels

text: Prior to the album's release, Irving Townsend, head of Columbia Records West Coast A&R, demanded that Sparks turn the group into a legitimate performing ensemble that could make live appearances to promote their releases; otherwise, he would not release the album. Also at Townsend's request, Sparks hired business managers George Greif and Sid Garris (Greif-Garris Management) to help his large, unproven group get bookings. Some of band's members had no interest in committing full-time to what they saw as a high-risk project; others had obligations elsewhere. Yester, Dugan, Forsha, Wadsworth and Cudmore all quit after the recording sessions. Sparks had lost half his roster when the group was booked as regulars on "The Andy Williams Show", a weekly variety show set to debut in the fall of 1962. Among the new members quickly found were the folk duo Barry & Barry (folksingers Barry McGuire and Barry Kane), vocalist Peggy Connelly, singer/banjoist Larry Ramos, and tenor Clarence Treat (upright bass and mandolin). The new lineup broke in their act at The Troubadour in Los Angeles in July–August 1962, which included a mix of folk Americana, vaudevillian humor and solos, duos and trios. They were a smash success and garnered rave reviews from both "The Hollywood Reporter" and "Variety".


title: The New Christy Minstrels

text: When the Williams Show debuted in October, The New Christy Minstrels became one of its most popular features. Connelly was replaced by vocalist Gayle Caldwell. In early December, they appeared at The Cocoanut Grove with comedian George Gobel, then at Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl with singer/comedian Allan Sherman; Sherman released the latter performance on the album "My Son, the Celebrity" in 1963.


title: The New Christy Minstrels

text: The group's second album, "The New Christy Minstrels in Person", was released in February 1963. In January 1963, the group recorded "The New Christy Minstrels Tell Tall Tales! (Legends and Nonsense)", which was released that May. The group's fame had grown considerably, and they received "a raft of enthusiastic reviews". In April 1963, following a successful appearance at the Latin Quarter in New York, the group recorded another studio album, "Ramblin"'. This album included the song "Green, Green", a McGuire/Sparks composition that became the group's first hit single, peaking at number three on the Adult Contemporary Charts. "Green, Green" sold over one million copies in 1963, and was awarded a gold disc.


title: The New Christy Minstrels

text: In May 1963, Sparks stopped touring to focus on developing material and opening a night club in Los Angeles called Ledbetter's which he intended to use as a training ground for future minstrels. By the end of the year he had formed The Back Porch Majority, which was positioned as the 'Farm team' for the New Christy Minstrels. He passed the role of front man on the concert trail to Barry McGuire; shortly thereafter, Dolan Ellis left and was replaced by Gene Clark. Although a talented singer, Clark was inhibited by the cocky confidence of his bandmates; he quit in 1964 and joined Jim McGuinn and David Crosby in The Jet Set, and later The Byrds. Clark was replaced by Paul Potash, formerly of the folk duo Art and Paul. At the same time, the group's two female singers (Jackie Miller and Gayle Caldwell) left, They were replaced by Karen Gunderson, formerly of The Sherwood Singers, and soprano Ann White. All three began with The Back Porch Majority and were promoted to the Minstrels in February 1964. (Miller and Caldwell later launched a successful career as the pop/folk duo called Jackie and Gayle, landing a recording contract with Capitol Records and a spot as semi-regulars on ABC's "Shindig!" in the fall of 1964.


title: The New Christy Minstrels

text: In 1963, Sparks was contracted to create a film score for "Advance to the Rear", featuring Glenn Ford and Stella Stevens. The soundtrack, performed by The New Christy Minstrels, was released in May 1964 as "Today and Other songs from 'Advance to the Rear"'. It was the first complete soundtrack ever made in the folk music style. The score is notable for the hit standard "Today", which reached #4 on the Adult Contemporary Charts and #17 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, and the album cracked Billboard's Top 10.


title: The New Christy Minstrels

text: In the summer of 1964, The New Christy Minstrels, now nine musicians, were featured in the television series "Ford Presents the New Christy Minstrels", a weekly variety show sponsored by the Ford Motor Company and broadcast as a summer replacement for "Hazel". Each episode had an outdoor setting, with two filmed at the 1964 New York World's Fair and three in the Los Angeles area—-Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm and Pacific Ocean Park. "Ford Presents the New Christy Minstrels" ran from August 6 to September 10, 1964, airing on NBC from 9:30 to 10:00 p.m. ET on Thursday.


title: The New Christy Minstrels

text: Also in the summer of 1964, Randy Sparks sold his interest in the group to his business partners, George Greif and Sid Garris, for $2,500,000. He shifted his focus to Ledbetter's, reviving his solo career, and launching the careers of other groups. Ledbetter's became a showcase for performers who later went on to major fame, including John Denver, The Carpenters, the Hager Twins, Gary Mule Deer and Steve Martin. The Back Porch Majority launched a successful career of their own.


title: The New Christy Minstrels

text: In January 1965, the New Christy Minstrels, now under the leadership of Greif-Garris, embarked on their first European tour, appearing in London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Amsterdam and Italy, where they performed the two winning songs at Sanremo Music Festival 1965. One of these songs, "Le Colline Sono in Fiore," which featured a romantic duet by Nick Woods and Karen Gunderson, became a No. 1 hit in Italy. Upon the group's return to the US, McGuire left to embark on a solo career. Because he had been the group's front man for 18 months, and the familiar voice on "Green, Green", his departure spelled the end of the original New Christy Minstrels--in the minds of the fans. Greif-Garris were rooted in the Big band era and never had any interest in folk music (which was fading) so they moved the group towards being more of a variety act, doing novelty and pop tunes, and a little comedy. Reflecting this shift, they had a "Billboard" Top 100 hit in the spring of 1965 with a cover of "Chim Chim Cher-ee" from the Disney film "Mary Poppins". In April 1965, they performed the song on the 37th Academy Awards telecast, where it won the Oscar for "Best Song".


title: The New Christy Minstrels

text: Turnover in the group's roster started to accelerate through 1965, and at an even faster rate in the years that followed. Paul Potash had left the same time as McGuire; they were replaced by pop/folk singers Bob Buchanan and Michael Whalen. In April 1965, Barry Kane quit and was replaced by Will Teague; in July, Clarence Treat was replaced by Bill Skiles and Pete Henderson, aka Skiles and Henderson, a comedy duo that broadened Minstrels' stage act. In September, Nick Woods was replaced by Rusty Evans. In January 1966, Larry Ramos left and joined The Association; he was replaced by folksinger/songwriter Mike Settle. In late February, Art Podell, Karen Gunderson and Michael Whalen left. Among their replacements were singer/songwriter Michael McGinnis and pop/folk singer Ede Mae Kellogg. In July 1966, Ann White left and was replaced by Kim Carnes. Other new members were folksinger Mark Holly, former Fairmount Singer Dave Ellingson, tenor Terry Williams and Texas pop singer Kenny Rogers. In 1967, Williams and Settle made plans to leave the Minstrels and form a folk/rock group; they recruited Rogers and another minstrel, Thelma Camacho, and debuted as The First Edition on the Ledbetter's stage (in 1969, the band became Kenny Rogers and the First Edition).


title: The New Christy Minstrels

text: The turnover took a toll on the group's sound. During the days on "The Andy Williams Show", the group had the key advantage of working with the show's musical/choral director, George Wyle. The Minstrels worked with Wyle on choral arrangements to back Williams and his guest stars; this allowed them to hone a beautiful sound, as demonstrated on "Ramblin"'. None of the later line-ups had that advantage; concerts were entertaining, but—-with a couple of fleeting exceptions (spring 1965 and late 1972)—-the group sound never matched the quality they had achieved with Wyle.


title: The New Christy Minstrels

text: The New Christy Minstrels continued to perform across the country, under the management of Greif-Garris, and released a few more albums. In 1970, they performed during Super Bowl IV at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, where they were introduced as "young Americans who demonstrate – with guitars."


title: The New Christy Minstrels

text: In 1972, Greif-Garris Management was faced with a revolt, when members demanded more creative control and equitable treatment. Rather than acquiesce, Greif-Garris fired the group en masse and started rebuilding from scratch. This led to incorrect reports that the group had disbanded.


title: The New Christy Minstrels

text: In the late 1980s and into the early 1990s, the group's concert activity declined steadily until it stopped completely.


title: The New Christy Minstrels

text: Sparks was able to register a trademark on the (dormant) New Christy Minstrels name and once again became the leader of the group, which continues to perform to enthusiastic audiences. The lineup, as of 2021, is Randy Sparks, Becky Jo Benson, Greg O'Haver, Dave Deutschendorf (John Denver's uncle), Dave Rainwater (Brenda Lee's cousin), Julie Theroux, Ed Stockton, and Tholow Chan.


title: The New Christy Minstrels

text: The New Christy Minstrels are owned and administered by the New Christy Minstrels Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to preserving the group's music.


title: The New Christy Minstrels

text: In 2009, a Golden Palm Star on the Walk of Stars was dedicated to Randy Sparks and The New Christy Minstrels.


title: The New Christy Minstrels

text: In the movie A Mighty Wind, a comedic mockumentary which tells the story of a folk music reunion, the New Main Street Singers were based on/inspired by The New Christy Minstrels.


title: Addison Russell

text: Addison Wayne Russell (born January 23, 1994) is an American professional baseball shortstop for the Kiwoom Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO). Russell was drafted 11th overall by the Oakland Athletics in the 2012 Major League Baseball draft. He was traded to the Chicago Cubs in 2014. In 2015, "Baseball America" listed Russell as the third-best prospect in professional baseball. He made his MLB debut with the Cubs in April 2015 and was an All-Star in 2016. That same year, Russell won the World Series with the Cubs.


title: Addison Russell

text: Russell was born on January 23, 1994, in Pensacola, Florida, the eldest of four children raised by mother Milany Ocampo-Russell and stepfather Wayne Russell. Russell's mother is Filipina. The full name on Russell's birth certificate is Geoffreye O'Neal Addison Robert Watts Jr III. He was nearly killed by human respiratory syncytial virus at three months old. He was adopted by his stepfather, Wayne, at 13 years old and took the name Addison Wayne Russell.


title: Addison Russell

text: Russell attended Pace High School in Florida and in 2010 led his high school to a class 5A FHSAA baseball state championship and a runner-up finish in 2012. Russell played in the 2010 Under Armour All-America Baseball Game, was named a Perfect Game Aflac All-American Game participant and a Louisville Slugger First Team All-American in 2011. He was also ranked as the No. 18 high school prospect by "Baseball America" and as the No. 24 high school prospect by Perfect Game. In his final high school baseball season, Russell hit for a .368 batting average and recorded a .532 on base percentage. Russell also played high school football at the running back position.


title: Addison Russell

text: In November 2011, Russell signed a National Letter of Intent to play college baseball at Auburn University for the Tigers baseball team.


title: Addison Russell

text: Russell was a member of the USA Baseball 18U National Team at the 2011 COPABE 18U/AAA Pan American games that won a gold medal. At the tournament, Russell batted .393, going 11-for-28 with three doubles, a triple and a home run, driving in nine RBIs and scoring 11 runs. During the championship game against Team Canada, Russell hit a grand slam and was named First-Team All Tournament as Shortstop for his efforts. At the tournament for Team USA, Russell played alongside future professional baseball players Albert Almora, Alex Bregman, David Dahl, Joey Gallo, and Carson Kelly.


title: Addison Russell

text: Russell was drafted by the Oakland Athletics with the 11th overall pick of the first round in the 2012 Major League Baseball draft out of Pace High School in Pace, Florida. Russell received a $2.625 million signing bonus for signing with the A's instead of attending Auburn. He was also the first high school athlete selected by the A's in the first round of the draft since Jeremy Bonderman in 2001.


title: Addison Russell

text: Russell started his career with the Arizona League Athletics, where he hit .415/.488/.717 with six home runs and 29 runs batted in in 26 games. He was then promoted to the Vermont Lake Monsters and hit .340/.386/.509 with one home run in 13 games. He finished the season with the Class-A Burlington Bees, hitting .310/.369/.448 in 16 games. Overall, he finished his first season hitting .369/.432/.594 with seven home runs and 45 runs batted in 55 games. In 2012, he was named an Oakland MILB.com organization All-Star and an AZL post-season All-Star.


title: Addison Russell

text: Prior to the 2013 season, Russell was the Athletics' best prospect according to "Baseball America". He was also named the best prospect in the Arizona League. In 2013, he was named an Oakland MILB.com organization All-Star, a California League (CAL) rookie of the year, a CAL post-season All-Star, and a CAL Futures Game selection. Playing for Mesa, he was also named to the AFL All-Prospect Team, and an AFL Rising Star.


title: Addison Russell

text: On July 4, 2014, Russell, along with pitcher Dan Straily, outfielder Billy McKinney, and a player to be named later, was traded to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for pitcher Jason Hammel and pitcher Jeff Samardzija. The Cubs sent Russell to the Arizona Fall League for the second time at the end of the 2014 minor league season.


title: Addison Russell

text: "Baseball America" named him the #3 prospect before the 2015 season. On April 21, Russell was called up to the 25-man roster to play second base against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park. On May 1, Russell hit his first career home run off of Wily Peralta in a 1–0 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers. He moved to his normal infield position at shortstop in early August, replacing three-time All-Star Starlin Castro. Russell committed only two errors in 52 games as the regular Cubs shortstop.


title: Addison Russell

text: In the 2015 postseason, he had 3 hits in 12 at bats with 1 RBI. Cardinal Pitcher John Lackey had a no-hitter into the sixth. Russell's single was the first hit. He hit a triple in the late innings of the third NLDS game and was slightly injured sliding into third. He did not play in game four. After the Cubs defeated the Cardinals in the NLDS to advance to the NLCS to face the New York Mets, it was announced that Russell had pulled his hamstring. This injury kept him out of the NLCS.


title: Addison Russell

text: After the season, the Cubs acquired Jason Heyward. Russell gave up his jersey number, 22, to Heyward, and switched to number 27 in honor of Eddie George.


title: Addison Russell

text: Batting .242 with 11 home runs and 48 RBIs, Russell was the starting shortstop at the 2016 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. By the beginning of September of the 2016 season, Russell had 108 hits in 445 at bats with 19 home runs and 88 runs batted in. Russell had a bases-loaded game-winning hit in a late-season game against the San Francisco Giants. He was 9-for-23 (.391) with 24 RBIs in bases-loaded situations for the year; the 9 bases-loaded hits led MLB for the season. In the seventh inning of a different game, in a bases loaded situation, Russell made an acrobatic catch at the left field foul line for the final out of the inning. Russell finished the year with 95 RBIs and became the second Cub shortstop with over 90 for a season. Previously, Hall of Famer Ernie Banks accomplished this feat five times. Russell hit decisive two-run home runs in Games 4 and 5 of that year's National League Championship Series, helping the Cubs break the Curse of the Billy Goat en route to their first World Series win in 108 years.


title: Addison Russell

text: On October 25, 2016, Addison Russell along with teammates Dexter Fowler, Jason Heyward, and Carl Edwards Jr., became the first African-Americans to play for the Cubs in a World Series game. Both Russell and Fowler are the first African-Americans to start for the Cubs in a World Series due to it being the first World Series the Cubs have played in since desegregation. Addison hit the 19th grand slam in the history of the World Series in the sixth game and also tied an MLB record of 6 RBI by one player in a game on a team facing elimination from the fall classic. He became the first player to hit a grand slam in a World Series game since Paul Konerko of the Chicago White Sox in the 2005 World Series.


title: Addison Russell

text: On April 19, 2017, Russell hit his first career walk-off home run, a three-run shot against the Milwaukee Brewers. On August 4, Russell was placed on the 10-day disabled list due to a strained right foot. At that point in the season his batting average was .241 with 10 home runs and 36 RBI's.


title: Addison Russell

text: On September 16, 2017, Russell returned from a long stint on the disabled list, and homered in his first at-bat.


title: Addison Russell

text: Russell had a disappointing season (.250 BA, 5 HR, 38 RBI), and he did not play again after September 19 due to the MLB placing him on administrative leave as it investigated abuse allegations made against him by his ex-wife.


title: Addison Russell

text: Russell was suspended for the first 29 games of the season, finishing the 40-game suspension he received in 2018 as a result of allegations, found credible by MLB, that he abused his wife. Once his suspension was served, he reported to the Iowa Cubs. He was recalled to Chicago on May 8. Immediately, he switched from shortstop to second base. That night he went 0-for-3 with a walk against the Miami Marlins. The Wrigley Field crowd greeted Russell with mostly boos. Russell hit his first home run of the 2019 season on May 15 against the Cincinnati Reds. The Cubs optioned Russell to AAA on July 24, 2019, to make room for catcher Willson Contreras. On December 2, 2019, Russell was non-tendered and became a free agent.


title: Addison Russell

text: On June 19, 2020, Russell signed with the Kiwoom Heroes of KBO League. On July 28, 2020, Russell made his debut in KBO in a 6–2 win against the Doosan Bears with two RBIs and a run. At the end of the season, his batting average was .254 with 2 home runs and 31 RBIs. On November 27, the Heroes announced that they would not bring back Russell for the 2021 season, and he became a free agent.


title: Addison Russell

text: Russell has a daughter who born in May 2015; her mother is Mallory Engstrom. Russell and Melisa Reidy married in January 2016 in Milton, FL at Sowell Farms; they have a son who was born in August 2015. Russell's third child, a son, was born in October 2018 to girlfriend Asti Kelley.


title: Addison Russell

text: In June 2017, Russell was accused, by an unknown party, of domestic violence against Reidy, an incident which led to Reidy filing for divorce. Two weeks after this initial allegation, Reidy's lawyer said that she would not be cooperating with MLB's investigation and that she "isn't interested in legitimizing anything that doesn’t come from her." Ultimately, Reidy did meet with MLB once she felt strong enough to do so. MLB suspended Russell for 40 games as a result of its investigation. Russell did not appeal the suspension.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: The President is the Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief, and exercises administrative powers in times of war by giving orders to the chief of staff, while administration and defence policy execution in peacetime is carried out by the Government through the Ministry of Defence. This unified institution consists of land, sea, and air branches referred to as:


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: The Croatian Armed Forces are charged with protecting the Republic as well as supporting international peacekeeping efforts, when mandated by the NATO, United Nations and/or European Union.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: The Army has 650 AFVs, around 150 pieces of artillery, 100 MLRSs, around 70 tanks, and 20 SPGs. The Air Force has 12 MiG-21 jet fighters, 10 combat-transport Mi-171 and 16 OH-58 attack helicopters. The Navy has 29 ships, out of which five 60-80 metre fast attack craft are used in offensive capabilities.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: In 2020, Armed Forces had 15,605 members, of which 14,325 were active military personnel and 1,280 civil servants. Of the 14,506 active military personnel, 3,033 were officers, 5,549 non-commissioned officers, 5,214 soldiers, 529 military specialists, 307 civil servants and 973 other employees.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: Total available male manpower aged 16–49 numbers 1,035,712, of which 771,323 are technically fit for military service. Male citizens are now no longer subject to compulsory military service since January 1, 2008. However, the last generation of 2007 servicemen was also absolved of compulsory service by an act from then Minister of Defence Berislav Rončević.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: The Croatian military budget for the past 6–7 years was kept below 2% of GDP, a vast difference from the 1990s when defence expenditure represented a major stake in Croatian budgetary expenditure due to the Croatian War of Independence. For example, 1995 Croatian defence budget stood at 12.4 billion Croatian Kuna or just over 10% of GDP, which was also the highest defence expenditure rate ever. In late 2019, Croatian Government issued revised defence expenditure which will see country increase defence expenditure to meet 2% NATO target by 2020, with 2019 and 2020 defence budgets seeing immediate revisions and increases to meet new spending plan. Defence expenditure in 2024 therefore based on current projections could reach 9.4 billion kuna or around 2% NATO requirement.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: Although the budget has been decreased in percentage of BDP from year to year, overall budget increased and the Croatian Armed Forces were able to maintain military readiness and to participate in major NATO exercises in Croatia and overseas. Downsizing of the armed forces has allowed for more funds to be allocated to modernization over the past few years with an average of 1.6 billion HRK spent on modernization, infrastructure and construction of new facilities.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: A $3 billion modernization plan was proposed by the then Prime Minister Ivica Račan of the SDP led government in 2003., with planned modernization starting in 2006. and ending in 2015.. However it has been delayed due to the subsequent economic recession that has cost the Croatian MOD several billion HRK since 2006.. A new plan under former Prime Minister Zoran Milanović should define exactly how and what the Croatian armed forces should look like by 2023.. A defense white paper was published in 2015 with emphasis placed on modernization of the Army.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: The Dr. Franjo Tuđman Military Academy, named after Franjo Tuđman, acts as a school of higher learning responsible for training and educating future generations of military personnel.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: The academy consists of several schools including "Ban Josip Jelačić", "Blago Zadro", "Katarina Zrinska", the Officers Academy, and a school for non commissioned officers. The academy has 300 full-time staff and is the only military academy in Croatia. Each year also 100–120 foreign nationals attend the academy.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: The Commander-in-Chief of all Croatian armed forces in peace and war is the President of the Republic. The Commander-in-Chief prescribes the organisation of the Croatian Armed Forces at the proposal of the Chief of General Staff, with consent of the Minister of Defence.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: The Armed Forces consist of peacetime and wartime components. The peacetime component is composed of the active military officers, civil servants and employees in the Croatian Armed Forces, cadets, and conscripts serving a 6-month national service and reservists when on military exercise. The wartime component of the Armed Forces includes all other reservists.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: The General Staff is part of the Ministry of Defence in charge of commanding, training and use of the Armed Forces. It also has a number of units under its direct command, including the Special Operations Battalion, Honour Guard Battalion and several others.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: In peace, the Commander-in-Chief exercises his command through the Minister of Defence. In war and in cases where the Minister of Defence is not fulfilling his orders, the Commander-in-Chief exercises his command directly through the General Staff Commander.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: The Croatian Parliament exercises democratic control over the Armed Forces by adopting defence strategy, defence budget, and defence laws.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: Special Forces Command ("Zapovjedništvo specijalnih snaga", "ZSS") was established in February 2015, succeeding the Special Operations Battalion (Croatia), in accordance with the Long-term Development Plan of the Croatian Armed Forces in the period 2015–2024. The command staff is composed of the members who served in the special units, guards brigades and reconnaissance units of the Croatian Armed Forces. The main mission of the Special Forces Command is to ensure combat readiness of the special forces in the protection of the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of the Republic of Croatia, as well as for the participation in NATO-led operations. Colonel Perica Turalija is the current commanding officer of the command.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: The Croatian General Staff exercises direct command over the battalion which thus elevates the unit to strategic level deployment for quicker reaction and overall better and faster response to tactical and strategic situations. Also, this means that members of all three branches of the Croatian armed forces can apply for selection.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: Other special operations units are the Military Intelligence Battalion ("Vojno-obavještajna bojna", "VOB") and Special Military Police Company ("Satnija specijalne vojne policije", "SS VP").


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: The duties of an Honor Guard are performed by the Honor Guard Battalion ("Počasno zaštitna bojna"), located at Zagreb in the Tuškanac military base.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: A long term modernization plan for 2015–2024 has been published outlining overall goals and is available for download (102 pages) at the Ministry of Defense of Croatia website. According to earlier reports from the government, the Croatian Armed Forces are set to receive vitally needed new equipment.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: Navy plans are still being worked on but present plans call for a moderate expansion of the naval force.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: As a small country, Croatia has a relatively well developed arms industry that is highly competitive internationally with significant annual arms exports. In 2012, Croatia managed to export nearly €120 million. However it has been reported in The New York Times that Croatia has been arming Syrian rebels with Croatian manufactured arms used during the Homeland War, arms Croatia no longer uses due to their obsolescence. Nevertheless, these arms played a crucial role in some significant rebel gains during 2012. As a result of these arms sales into this volatile region the Croatian government ordered the immediate withdrawal of the Croatian UN Golan Heights contingent to avoid their being targeted in retaliation.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: In 2013 Croatia exported €143 million worth of arms, however it is not clear if this also includes $36.5 million worth of arms Croatia exported to Jordan for Syrian rebels. Croatia was the top supplier of arms to Syrian rebels in 2013, but much of it through illicit channels without Croatian government approval or knowledge. Most of these arms were exported via Jordan.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: In 2014 Croatian arms exports reached 1.5 bn HRK (Croatian kuna) or €200 million or $257 million, the majority of exports being to NATO allies and Australia. In late 2014 the Croatian Defence Minister announced a major export deal to Iraq including the State of Kurdistan. This agreement includes the sale of 20,000 VHS Rifles, 150,000 complete sets of uniforms, helmets and associated equipment valued at €100 million.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: Croatian arms exports are growing steadily at 10–15% year-on-year and were expected to reach 1.75 billion HRK in 2015 or around €230 million, although much of the equipment exported is non-lethal. Croatian firms are well positioned on some major arms tenders in the Middle East, supplying complex military hardware such as the Patria AMV incorporating a newly developed 30mm overhead weapon station (valued at €1.25 million each) and said vehicles valued at €1.75 million. Kuwait, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia have been mentioned as potential customers, although no concrete contracts have been signed so far. Croatian firms are participating in Kuwaiti and UAE tenders for next-generation APC programmes, each valued at billions of euros.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: Croatian arms exports have grown steadily for the better part of this decade and have reached €325 million per year, placing Croatia in the top 10 arms exporters within NATO, behind the US, Germany, UK, France, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Poland and Norway. The vast majority of these exports are to NATO partners such as the US, Norway, Australia, Canada, France. Croatia granted €5.75 billion in export licenses in 2016 and 2017; however, only a fraction of this sum has materialised in actual arms exports.


title: Armed Forces of Croatia

text: On April 1, 2009 Croatia joined NATO and on July 1, 2013, it became the 28th member of the European Union. The Croatian Armed Forces participate in many of the (military) aspects of both organisations as well as actively participating in many United Nations peacekeeping operations worldwide.


title: The Perfect Man (2005 film)

text: The Perfect Man is a 2005 American romantic comedy film directed by Mark Rosman and written by Gina Wendkos. It stars Hilary Duff, Heather Locklear, Chris Noth and Ben Feldman. Shooting for the film began in May 2004.


title: The Perfect Man (2005 film)

text: Teenager Holly Hamilton (Duff) is tired of moving every time her single mom Jean (Locklear) ends a bad relationship. To prevent her mother from making another bad decision, Holly has an idea: create a secret admirer who is the perfect man. However, things spin out of control and Holly has to improvise.


title: The Perfect Man (2005 film)

text: Single mother Jean relocates every time she gets her heart broken, much to her teenage daughter Holly's dismay. Holly devises a plan to invent a secret admirer for her, so she will be happy and not need to relocate again.


title: The Perfect Man (2005 film)

text: Overhearing her friend Amy's uncle Ben ordering flowers for a woman, Holly uses his advice on women (which she gets by telling him she needs help for a school project on romance), sending her mother orchids, other gifts and love notes, and is soon communicating with her mother as a fictitious admirer (who Holly names Ben) via the Internet.


title: The Perfect Man (2005 film)

text: As her mother becomes more interested, Holly has to find a photo of this admirer. She sends one of the real Ben, and then devises the reason why they cannot meet in person: he is working in China.


title: The Perfect Man (2005 film)

text: While she is developing the online romance between her mother and fake Ben, and preventing her mother and the real Ben from meeting in person, she finds herself drawn to a cute, artistic boy in her class, Adam, but is unwilling to get close to anyone as she is uprooted so often, to not to have to say goodbye.


title: The Perfect Man (2005 film)

text: As the charade continues, and as Holly spends more time with Ben while picking his brain for romance tips, she slowly begins to see qualities in him which make her believe he really is her mother's "perfect man". Holly asks for Adam's help to disguise himself as Ben on the telephone to break up with Jean. But he fails, as he is revealed to be harboring feelings for Holly as well, in effect telling Holly's mother the opposite of what was planned.


title: The Perfect Man (2005 film)

text: The following day at school, Holly confronts Adam angrily because of his failed attempt to break up with her mother over the phone disguised as Ben. He apologizes, telling her that he just got distracted. Holly demands to know what he could have possibly been distracted by, and Adam admits his feelings for her by kissing her.


title: The Perfect Man (2005 film)

text: That night, Lenny, a man infatuated with Jean, proposes to her and she replies with a "maybe". Holly, in an act of desperation, then disguises herself as Ben's secretary and arranges a meeting between Ben and her mother. The next day, when Holly mistakenly thinks he is marrying someone else. She disrupts the wedding to tell Ben he should be with her mother, not knowing he was there as the bride's dear friend, and was catering the wedding.


title: The Perfect Man (2005 film)

text: A disappointed Ben follows Holly out and she admits the full story. She then goes to the meeting place and confesses the whole ruse to Jean, who seems to take it terribly. Days pass, and Holly and her mother keep distant. Holly is offended by her interpretation of Adam's drawing of "Princess Holly".


title: The Perfect Man (2005 film)

text: Holly begs Jean for them to move again, but her humiliated mother wants to stay. Holly asks her to leave this time for her, as she always has to move for her mother. Jean cannot argue with that so they start to pack. Adam, for what he thinks is the last time, goes to Holly's, giving her mother his drawing. He comments that the drawing has another side that Holly did not see before she left. It is of Adam telling Holly that he will always be there for her.


title: The Perfect Man (2005 film)

text: Touched, Jean logs onto the Internet using Holly's screen name and talks to Adam. He, thinking it is Holly, says that her mom sets a bad example by getting up and leaving when things get bad. This, in return, is creating a bad role model for her own daughters. Jean is deeply moved by this and decides to stay, finding a new job and trying to rebuild her life without running away. She also apologizes to her daughter, telling her to look at the other side of the drawing, making Holly happy.


title: The Perfect Man (2005 film)

text: Meanwhile, Ben is inspired by what Holly told him about her mother, and with her help, Jean and Ben finally meet and Jean finds her "perfect man" at last. Holly is on the road to her perfect man as well. As she has some stability in her life, she finally opens up and admits her feelings for Adam. At the end, Adam and Holly go to their first school dance together.


title: The Perfect Man (2005 film)

text: Shooting for the film began in May 2004 and was based on screenwriter Heather Robinson's life in Tucson, Arizona, and ended the following July. Carson Kressley missed two days of shooting on his reality makeover show, "Queer Eye", due to filming on "The Perfect Man" overrunning. "Queer Eye" explained his absence by claiming the fashion expert was busy shopping. On the weekends, Duff was busy recording songs for her then-upcoming self-titled album.


title: The Perfect Man (2005 film)

text: Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 6% based on 129 reviews, with an average rating of 3.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Preposterous and predictable, "The Perfect Man" manages few laughs with its poorly paced sitcom script, cookie-cutter characters and contrived plotting." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 27 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Perfect Man (2005 film)

text: In its opening weekend, the film grossed $5,300,980 million in 2,087 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking number eight at the box office, the best debut for a teen comedy film that week. By the end of its run, "The Perfect Man" grossed $16,535,005 domestically and $3,235,470 internationally, totaling $19,770,475 worldwide.


title: The Perfect Man (2005 film)

text: The Perfect Man (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album to the film of the same name, released on June 14, 2005, by independent label Curb Records.


title: Thylacoleo

text: Thylacoleo ("pouch lion") is an extinct genus of carnivorous marsupials that lived in Australia from the late Pliocene to the late Pleistocene (2 million to 46 thousand years ago). Some of these marsupial lions were the largest mammalian predators in Australia of their time, with "Thylacoleo carnifex" approaching the weight of a lioness. The estimated average weight for the species ranges from .


title: Thylacoleo

text: The genus was first published in 1859, erected to describe the type species "Thylacoleo carnifex". The new taxon was established in examination of fossil specimens provided to Richard Owen. The familial alliance takes its name from this description, the so-called marsupial lions of Thylacoleonidae.


title: Thylacoleo

text: The colloquial name "marsupial lion" alludes to the superficial resemblance to the placental lion and its ecological niche as a large predator. "Thylacoleo" is not closely related to the modern lion ("Panthera leo").


title: Thylacoleo

text: Genus: "Thylacoleo" ("Thylacopardus") – Australia's marsupial lions, that lived from about 2 million years ago, during the Late Pliocene Epoch and became extinct about 30,000 years ago, during the Late Pleistocene Epoch. Three species are known:


title: Thylacoleo

text: Fossils of other representatives of Thylacoleonidae, such as "Microleo" and "Wakaleo", date back to the Late Oligocene Epoch, some 24 million years ago.


title: Thylacoleo

text: "T. hilli" was described by Neville Pledge in a study published in the records of the South Australia Museum in 1977. The holotype is a third premolar, discovered at a cave in Curramulka in South Australia, exhibiting the carnivorous characteristics of the genus and around half the size of "T. carnifex". This tooth was collected by Alan Hill, a speleologist and founding member of the Cave Exploration Group of South Australia, while examining a site known as the "Town Cave" in 1956; the specific epithet "hilli" honours the collector of the first specimen. Material found amidst the fauna at Bow River in New South Wales, dated to the early Pliocene, was also referred to the species in 1982.


title: Thylacoleo

text: A fragment of an incisor, unworn and only diagnosable to the genus, was located at a site in Curramulka, close to the Town Cave site, and referred to the species for the apparent correlation in size when compared to the better known "T. carnifex".


title: Thylacoleo

text: The marsupial lion is classified in the order Diprotodontia along with many other well-known marsupials such as kangaroos, possums, and the koala. It is further classified in its own family, the Thylacoleonidae, of which three genera and 11 species are recognised, all extinct. The term marsupial lion (lower case) is often applied to other members of this family. Distinct possum-like characteristics led "Thylacoleo" to be regarded as members of Phalangeroidea for a few decades. Though a few authors continued to hint at phalangeroid affinities for thylacoleonids as recently as the 1990s, cranial and other characters have generally led to their inclusion within vombatiformes, and as stem-members of the wombat lineage. Marsupial lions and other ecologically and morphologically diverse vombatiforms were once represented by over 60 species of carnivorous, herbivorous, terrestrial and arboreal forms ranging in size from 3 kg to 2.5 tonnes. Only two families represented by four herbivorous species (koalas and three species of wombat) have survived into modern times and are considered the marsupial lion's closest living relatives.


title: Thylacoleo

text: The ancestors of thylacoleonids are believed to have been herbivores, something unusual for carnivores. They are members of the Vombatiformes, an almost entirely herbivorous order of marsupials, the only extant representatives of which are koalas and wombats, as well as extinct members such as the diprotodontids and palorchestids. The group first appeared in the Late Oligocene. The earliest thylacoleonids like "Microleo" were small possum-like animals, with the group increasing in size during the Miocene, with representatives like the leopoard sized "Wakaleo." The genus "Thylacoleo" first appeared during the Pliocene, and represented the only extant genus of the family from that time until the end of the Pleistocene. The youngest representative of "Thylacoleo" and the thylacoleonids, "T. carnifex", is the largest known member of the family.


title: Thylacoleo

text: "T. carnifex" is the largest carnivorous mammal known to have ever existed in Australia, and one of the larger metatherian carnivores of the world (comparable to "Thylacosmilus" and "Borhyaena" species, but smaller than "Proborhyaena gigantea"). Individuals ranged up to around high at the shoulder and about from head to tail. Measurements taken from a number of specimens show they averaged in weight, although individuals as large as might not have been uncommon, and the largest weight was of . This would make it comparable to female lions and female tigers in general size.


title: Thylacoleo

text: Pound for pound, "T. carnifex" had the strongest bite of any mammal species, living or extinct; a "T. carnifex" weighing had a bite comparable to that of a 250 kg African lion, and research suggests that "Thylacoleo" could hunt and take prey much larger than itself. Larger animals that were likely prey include "Diprotodon" spp. and giant kangaroos. It seems improbable that "Thylacoleo" could achieve as high a bite force as a modern-day lion; however, this might have been possible when taking into consideration the size of its brain and skull. Carnivores usually have rather large brains when compared to herbivorous marsupials, which lessens the amount of bone that can be devoted to enhancing bite force. "Thylacoleo" however, is thought to have had substantially stronger muscle attachments and therefore a smaller brain.


title: Thylacoleo

text: Using 3D modeling based on X-ray computed tomography scans, marsupial lions were found to be unable to use the prolonged, suffocating bite typical of living big cats. They instead had an extremely efficient and unique bite; the incisors would have been used to stab at and pierce the flesh of their prey while the more specialised carnassials crushed the windpipe, severed the spinal cord, and lacerated the major blood vessels such as the carotid artery and jugular vein. Compared to an African lion which may take 15 minutes to kill a large catch, the marsupial lion could kill a large animal in less than a minute. The skull was so specialized for big game that it was very inefficient at catching smaller animals, which possibly contributed to its extinction.


title: Thylacoleo

text: "Thylacoleo" had extremely strong forelimbs, with retractable, cat-like claws, a trait previously unseen in marsupials. "Thylacoleo" also possessed enormous hooked claws set on large semi-opposable thumbs, which were used to capture and disembowel prey. The long muscular tail was similar to that of a kangaroo. Specialised tail bones called chevrons allowed the animal to balance on its back legs, and freed the front legs for slashing and grasping.


title: Thylacoleo

text: Retractable claws would remain sharp by protecting them from being worn down on hard surfaces. The first digits ("thumbs") on each hand were semi-opposable and bore an enlarged claw. Palaeontologists believe this would have been used to grapple its intended prey, as well as providing it with a sure footing on tree trunks and branches. The hind feet had four functional toes, the first digit being much reduced in size, but possessing a roughened pad similar to that of possums, which may have assisted with climbing. The discovery in 2005 of a specimen which included complete hind feet provided evidence that the marsupial lion exhibited syndactyly (fused second and third toes) like other diprotodonts.


title: Thylacoleo

text: Its strong forelimbs and retracting claws mean that "Thylacoleo" possibly climbed trees and perhaps carried carcasses to keep the kill for itself (similar to the leopard today). The climbing ability would have also helped them climb out of caves, which could therefore have been used as dens to rear their young.


title: Thylacoleo

text: Due to its unique predatory morphology, some scientists have claimed "Thylacoleo" to be the most specialised mammalian carnivore of all time. "Thylacoleo" had vertical shearing 'carnassial' cheek teeth that are relatively larger than in any other mammalian carnivore. "Thylacoleo" was clearly derived from the diprotodontian ancestry due to its incisor morphology and is distinguished by the pronounced development of upper and lower third premolars which functioned as extreme carnassials with complementary reduction in the molar teeth row. They also had canines but they served little purpose as they were stubby and not very sharp.


title: Thylacoleo

text: When "Thylacoleo" was first described by Richard Owen, he considered it to be a carnivore, based on the morphology of its skull and teeth. However other anatomists, such as William Henry Flower disagreed. Flower was the first to place "Thylacoleo" with the Diprotodonts, noting its skull and teeth to be laid out more like those of the koala and the wombat, and suggested that it was more likely a herbivore. Owen did not disagree with Flower's placement of "Thylacoleo" with the Diprotodonts, but still maintained that it was a carnivore, despite its herbivorous ancestry. Owen found little support in his lifetime, despite the pointing out of "Thylacoleo"'s retractable claws, something only found in mammalian carnivores, and its lack of any ability to chew plant material. In 1911, a study by Spencer and Walcott claimed that certain marks on the bones of megafauna had been made by "Thylacoleo", but according to Horton (1979) they were not sufficiently rigorous, resulting in their arguments being strongly challenged by later scholars, such as Anderson (1929), and later Gill (1951, 1952, 1954), thereby leaving the issue unresolved. In 1981, another paper was published arguing that certain cuts to bones of large marsupials had been caused by "Thylacoleo". This paper by Horton and Wright was able to counter earlier arguments that such marks were the result of humans, largely by pointing out the presence of similar marks on the opposite side of many bones. They concluded that humans were extremely unlikely to have made the marks in question, but that if so "they had set out to produce only marks consistent with what "Thylacoleo" would produce". Since then, the academic consensus has emerged that "Thylacoleo" was a predator and a hypercarnivore.


title: Thylacoleo

text: Besides the most common hypothesis that it was an active predator, a variety of other theories existed in the late 19th to early 20th centuries as to the diet and feeding of "Thylacoleo", with hypotheses of it being a scavenger filling the ecological niche of hyenas, being a specialist of crocodile eggs, or even a melon-eater. As late as 1954, doubts were still being raised as to whether it was actually a hypercarnivore.


title: Thylacoleo

text: The marsupial lion's limb proportions and muscle mass distribution indicate that, although it was a powerful animal, it was not a particularly fast runner. Paleontologists conjecture that it was an ambush predator, either sneaking up and then leaping upon its prey, or dropping down on it from overhanging tree branches. This is consistent with the depictions of the animal as striped: camouflage of that kind is needed for stalking and hiding in a largely forested habitat (like tigers) rather than chasing across open spaces (like lions). Trace fossils in the form of claw marks and bones from caves in Western Australia analyzed by Gavin Prideaux et al. indicate marsupial lions could also climb rock faces, and likely reared their young in such caves as a way of protecting them from potential predators. It is thought to have hunted large animals such as the enormous "Diprotodon" and giant browsing kangaroos like "Sthenurus" and "Procoptodon", and competed with other predatory animals such as the giant monitor lizard, "Megalania", and terrestrial crocodiles such as "Quinkana". The marsupial lion may have cached kills in trees in a manner similar to the modern leopard. Like many predators, it was probably also an opportunistic scavenger, feeding on carrion and driving off less powerful predators from their kills. It also may have shared behaviours exhibited by recent diprotodont marsupials such as kangaroos, like digging shallow holes under trees to reduce body temperature during the day.


title: Thylacoleo

text: CT scans of a well-preserved skull have allowed scientists to study internal structures and create a brain endocast showing the surface features of the animal's brain. The parietal lobes, visual cortex, and olfactory bulbs of the cerebrum were enlarged, indicating the marsupial lion had good senses of hearing, sight, and smell, as might be expected of an active predator. Also, a pair of blind canals within the nasal cavity were probably associated with detecting pheromones as in the Tasmanian devil. This indicates it most likely had seasonal mating habits and would "sniff out" a mate when in season.


title: Thylacoleo

text: The feeding behaviour of "Thylacoleo" remains a topic of academic debate, largely due the lack of any living analogue.


title: Thylacoleo

text: While considered a powerful hunter, and a fierce predator, it has been theorized that due to its physiology "Thylacoleo" was, in fact, a slow runner, limiting its ability to chase prey. Analysis of its scapula suggests "walking and trotting, rather than climbing ... the pelvis similarly agrees with that of ambulators and cursors [walkers and runners]". These bones indicate that "Thylacoleo" was a slow to medium-paced runner, which is likely to mean it was an ambush predator. That fits with the stripes: camouflage of the kind one would need for stalking and hiding in a largely forested habitat (like tigers or leopards) rather than chasing across open spaces (like lions)." It may have functioned generally much like a larger analog of the Tasmanian devil. New evidence also suggests that it may have been arboreal, and was at the very least capable of climbing trees.


title: Thylacoleo

text: Incisions on bones of "Macropus titan", and the general morphology of "Thylacoleo" suggests that it fed in a similar manner to modern cheetahs, by using their sharp teeth to slice open the ribcage of their prey, thereby accessing the internal organs. They may have killed by using their front claws as either stabbing weapons or as a way to grab their prey with strangulation or suffocation.


title: Thylacoleo

text: Numerous fossil discoveries indicate the marsupial lion was distributed across much of the Australian continent. A large proportion of its environment would have been similar to the southern third of Australia today, semiarid, open scrub and woodland punctuated by waterholes and water courses.


title: Thylacoleo

text: It would have coexisted with many of the so-called Australian megafauna such as "Diprotodon", giant kangaroos, and "Megalania", as well as giant wallabies like "Protemnodon", the giant wombat "Phascolonus", the giant snake "Wonambi", and the thunderbird "Genyornis". "T. hilli" was a similar size to a contemporaneous thylacinid species, "Wakaleo alcootaensis", and may have occupied habitat to the exclusion of that carnivore.


title: Thylacoleo

text: Australia's Pleistocene megafauna would have been the prey for the agile "T. carnifex", who was especially adapted for hunting large animals, but was not particularly suited to catching smaller prey. The relatively quick reduction in the numbers of its primary food source around 40,000 to 50,000 years ago probably led to the decline and eventual extinction of the marsupial lion. The arrival of humans in Australia and the use of fire-stick farming precipitated their decline. The extinction of "T. carnifex" makes Australia unique from the other continents because no substantial, apex mammalian predators have replaced the marsupial lions after their disappearance.


title: Thylacoleo

text: It was believed that the extinction was due to the climate changes, but human activities as an extinction driver of the most recent species is possible yet unproven. There is a growing consensus that the extinction of the megafauna was caused by progressive drying starting about 700,000 years ago (700 ka). It is revealed recently that there was a major change in glacial-interglacial cycles after ~450 ka. As for human involvement's contribution to the extinction, one argument is that the arrival of humans was coincident with the disappearance of all the extinct megafauna. This is supported by the claims that during MIS3, climatic conditions are relatively stable and no major climate change would cause the mass extinction of megafauna including "Thylacoleo".


title: Thylacoleo

text: Although believed to have been a victim of climate change, some scientists now believe "Thylacoleo" to have been exterminated by humans altering the ecosystem with fire in addition to hunting its prey. "They found "Sporormiella" spores, which grow in herbivore dung, virtually disappeared around 41,000 years ago, a time when no known climate transformation was taking place. At the same time, the incidence of fire increased, as shown by a steep rise in charcoal fragments. It appears that humans, who arrived in Australia around this time, hunted the megafauna to extinction". Following the extinction of "T. carnifex", no other apex mammalian predators have taken its place.


title: Thylacoleo

text: The first specimens of "Thylacoleo" were collected in the early 1830s from the Wellington Valley region of New South Wales by Major (later Sir) Thomas Mitchell, however they were not recognised as "Thylacoleo" at the time.


title: Thylacoleo

text: The species was first described by Richard Owen in 1859, from a fragmentary specimen discovered by William Adeney near Lake Colungolac, near Camperdown in Victoria


title: Thylacoleo

text: In 2002, eight remarkably complete skeletons of "T. carnifex" were discovered in a limestone cave under Nullarbor Plain, where the animals fell through a narrow opening in the plain above. Based on the placement of their skeletons, at least some survived the fall, only to die of thirst and starvation.


title: Thylacoleo

text: In 2008, rock art depicting what is thought to be a "Thylacoleo" was discovered on the northwestern coast of the Kimberley. However, there is the possibility that the thylacine, a related marsupial that also had a striped coat, may be the subject of the work, instead. The drawing represented only the second example of megafauna depicted by the indigenous inhabitants of Australia. The image contains details that would otherwise have remained only conjecture; the tail is depicted with a tufted tip, it has pointed ears rather than rounded, and the coat is striped. The prominence of the eye, a feature rarely shown in other animal images of the region, raises the possibility that the creature may have been a nocturnal hunter. In 2009, a second image was found that depicts a "Thylacoleo" interacting with a hunter who is in the act of spearing or fending the animal off with a multiple-barbed spear. Much smaller and less detailed than the 2008 find, it may depict a thylacine, but the comparative size indicates a "Thylacoleo" is more likely, meaning that it is possible that "Thylacoleo" was extant until more recently than previously thought.


title: Thylacoleo

text: In 2016, trace fossils in Tight Entrance Cave were identified as being the scratch marks of a "Thylacoleo".


title: Thylacoleo

text: The first "Thylacoleo" fossil findings, discovered by Thomas Mitchell were found in the 1830s in the Wellington Valley of New South Wales, though not recognised as such at the time. The generic holotype, consisting of broken teeth, jaws, and a skull was discovered by a pastoralist, William Avery, near Lake Colungolac from which the species "Thylacoleo carnifex" was described by Richard Owen. It was not until 1966 that the first nearly-complete skeleton was found. The only pieces missing were a foot and the tail. Currently, the Nullarbor Plain of West Australia remains to be the greatest finding site. These fossils now reside at the Australian Museum.


title: Thylacoleo

text: It was reported that in 2012, an accumulation of vertebrate trace and body fossils were found in the Victorian Volcanic Plains in south-eastern Australia. It was determined that "Thylacoleo" was the only taxon that represented three divergent fossil records: skeletal, footprints, and bite marks. What this suggests is that these large carnivores had behavioral characteristics that could have increased their likelihood of their presence being detected within a fossil fauna.


title: Thylacoleo

text: A characteristic seen in the remains of skull fragments is a set of carnassial teeth, suggesting the carnivorous habits of "Thylacoleo". Tooth fossils of the thylacoleo exhibit specific degrees of erosion that are credited to the utility of the carnassial teeth remains as they were used for hunting and consuming prey in a prehistoric Australia teeming with other megafauna. The specialisation found in the dental history of the marsupial indicates its status in the predatory hierarchy in which it existed.


title: Jormungand (manga)

text: An anime television series produced by White Fox was broadcast between April and June 2012. A second season titled "Jormungand: Perfect Order" aired from October to December 2012.


title: Jormungand (manga)

text: The manga was licensed for English language release in North America by Viz Media. Both seasons have been licensed by Funimation in North America and Manga Entertainment in the United Kingdom.


title: Jormungand (manga)

text: The series follows Koko Hekmatyar, a young arms dealer who sells weapons under HCLI, an international shipping corporation and illegal smuggling operation. As one of the company's unofficial weapon dealers, she sells weapons in a variety of countries while avoiding both local and international authorities. Traveling with her is a team of bodyguards, mostly composed of former soldiers. The newest addition to her crew is Jonah, an inexpressive and deadly child soldier who hates arms dealers.


title: Jormungand (manga)

text: Written and illustrated by Keitaro Takahashi, "Jormungand" was serialized in Shogakukan's "seinen" manga magazine "Monthly Sunday Gene-X" from April 19, 2006, to January 19, 2012. Shogakukan compiled its chapters in eleven "tankōbon" volumes, released from November 17, 2006, to April 19, 2012.


title: Jormungand (manga)

text: In North America, Viz Media announced the English language release of the manga in February 2009. The eleven volumes were released from November 10, 2009 to April 19, 2012.


title: Jormungand (manga)

text: An anime television series by White Fox and produced by Geneon was announced on the 10th volume of the manga. The anime began airing on April 10, 2012 on Tokyo MX, Television Kanagawa, TV Aichi and KBS and on later dates on Sun TV, BS11 and AT-X. The show was streamed on Showtime, NicoNico, Bandai Channel and GyaO. A second season of the series, "Jormungand: Perfect Order", which began broadcasting on Japanese TV on October 9, 2012. The two seasons aired on Japanese TV at 12:30 AM.


title: Jormungand (manga)

text: The first release of Jormungand on DVD and Blu-ray was on June 27, 2012 with the first two episodes, "Gun Metal, Calico Road" and "Pulsar" included. Subsequent releases followed with two episodes each on both Blu-rays and DVDs on July 25, August 29 and September 26 of 2012. The Perfect Order DVD/Blu-rays was first released in Japan on December 21, 2012. The DVD and Blu-ray version of the first two seasons of the series was released on February 18, 2014. The anime dub clip showed the dangerous species.


title: Jormungand (manga)

text: Showgate handles licensing aspect of Jormungand outside Japan. A sneak preview of the anime was held on March 31 to April 1, 2012 at the Anime Contents Expo at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba.


title: Jormungand (manga)

text: The Jormungand Original Soundtrack was released on June 27, 2012 following the conclusion of the first season. It was composed by Taku Iwasaki and released by the record label Geneon Universal Entertainment.


title: Jormungand (manga)

text: For the first season, both the opening and ending themes were produced by I've Sound. The opening song is "Borderland" by Mami Kawada, and the ending theme is "Ambivalentidea" by Nagi Yanagi. "Borderland" was released as a single on May 30, 2012, while "Ambivalentidea" was released as a single on June 6, 2012. Both songs were released as singles by Geneon Universal Entertainment.


title: Jormungand (manga)

text: For the second season, the opening is "Under / Shaft" by Maon Kurosaki, while the ending is by Nagi Yanagi.


title: Jormungand (manga)

text: Additionally, the song "Time To Attack" by American rapper/hip-hop artist SANTA is featured in episodes throughout both seasons of the show, as well as during the next-episode previews at the end of each episode.


title: Jormungand (manga)

text: A 6-part Drama CD had been released prior to the anime, based on the Orchestra story arc. Of all the voice actors involved in the CD, only Unsho Ishizuka reprised his role as Lehm while the voice actors for everyone else involved in the drama were replaced.


title: Jormungand (manga)

text: A radio show dedicated to Jormungand has been made public with Shizuka Ito and Mutsumi Tamura as the hosts.