title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: Alcohol consumption in Russia remains among the highest in the world. According to a 2011 report by the World Health Organization, annual per capita consumption of alcohol in Russia was about 15.76 litres of pure alcohol, the fourth-highest volume in Europe. It dropped to 11.7 litres in 2016, dropping further to about 10.5 litres in 2019. Another general trait of Russian alcohol consumption pattern was the high volume of spirits compared with other alcoholic drinks (such as beer or red wine).


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: Russia currently implements a variety of anti-alcoholism measures (banning spirits and beer trade at night, raising taxes, banning the advertising of alcohol). According to medical officials, these policies have resulted in a considerable fall of alcohol consumption volumes, to 13.5 litres by 2013, with wine and beer overtaking spirits as the main source of beverage alcohol. These levels are comparable with European Union averages. Alcohol producers claim that falling legal consumption is accompanied by growth in sales of illegally produced drink.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: High volumes of alcohol consumption have serious negative effects on Russia's social fabric and bring political, economic and public health ramifications. Alcoholism has been a problem throughout the country's history because drinking is a pervasive, socially acceptable behaviour in Russian society and alcohol has also been a major source of government revenue for centuries. It has repeatedly been targeted as a major national problem, with mixed results. Alcoholism in Russia has, according to some authors, acquired a character of a national disaster and has the scale of a humanitarian catastrophe.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: Legend holds that the tenth-century Russian prince Vladimir the Great rejected Islam as a state religion for the country because of its prohibition of alcohol. Historically, alcohol has been tolerated or even encouraged as a source of revenue.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: In the 1540s, Ivan the Terrible began setting up kabaks ("кабак") or taverns in his major cities to help fill his coffers; a third of Russian men were in debt to the kabaks by 1648. By 1859 vodka, the national drink, was the source of more than 40% of the government's revenue.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: In 1909 average alcohol consumption was said to be 11 bottles per capita per year. An estimated 4% of the population of St. Petersburg were alcoholics in 1913.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: At the beginning of World War I, prohibition was introduced in the Russian Empire, limiting the sale of hard liquor to restaurants.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: After the Bolshevik Party came to power, they made repeated attempts to reduce consumption in the Soviet Union. However, by 1925, vodka had reappeared in state-run stores. Joseph Stalin reestablished a state monopoly to generate revenue. Alcohol-related taxes constituted one third of government revenues by the 1970s.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: Soviet leaders Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, and Konstantin Chernenko all tried to stem alcoholism. Mikhail Gorbachev increased controls on alcohol in 1985; he attempted to impose a partial prohibition, which involved a massive anti-alcohol campaign, severe penalties against public drunkenness and alcohol consumption, and restrictions on sales of liquor. The campaign was temporarily successful in reducing per capita alcohol consumption and improving quality-of-life measures such as life expectancies and crime rates, but it was deeply unpopular among the population and it ultimately failed.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: In 2006, a new alcohol excise stamp known as the EGAIS system was introduced, allowing to identify every bottle sold in Russia through a centralized data system.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: In 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev nearly doubled the minimum price of a bottle of vodka in an effort to combat the problem.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: In 2012, a national ban on sales of all types of alcoholic beverages from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. was introduced to complement regional bans.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: The Russian government has proposed reducing the state minimum price of vodka in reaction to the 2014–15 Russian financial crisis.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: In December 2016, 78 people in Irkutsk died in a mass methanol poisoning. Medvedev reacted by calling for a ban on non-traditional alcoholic liquids like the bath lotion involved in this case, stating that "it's an outrage, and we need to put an end to this".


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: In recent years, alcohol-related deaths in Russia have dropped dramatically year over year falling to 6,789 in 2017 from 28,386 in 2006 and continuing to decline into 2018. Under Vladimir Putin, new restrictions have been imposed, and officials have discussed raising the legal drinking age from 18 to 21.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: A study by Russian, British and French researchers published in "The Lancet" scrutinized deaths between 1990 and 2001 of residents of three Siberian industrial towns with typical mortality rates and determined that 52% of deaths of people between the ages of 15 and 54 were the result of complications of alcohol use disorder. Lead researcher Professor David Zaridze estimated that the increase in alcohol consumption since 1987 has caused an additional three million deaths nationwide.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: In 2007, Gennadi Onishenko, the country's chief public health official, voiced his concern over the nearly threefold rise in alcohol consumption over the past 16 years; one in eight deaths was attributed to alcohol-related diseases, playing a major role in Russia's population decline. Men are particularly hit hard: according to a U.N. National Human Development Report, Russian males born in 2006 had a life expectancy of just over 60 years, or 17 years fewer than western Europeans, while Russian females could expect to live 13 years longer than their male counterparts.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: In June 2009, the Public Chamber of Russia reported over 500,000 alcohol-related deaths annually, noting that Russians consume about of spirits a year, more than double the that World Health Organization experts consider dangerous.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: In 1985, at the time of Gorbachev's campaign to reduce drinking, it was estimated that alcoholism resulted in $8 billion in lost production.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: In the early 1980s, an estimated "two-thirds of murders and violent crimes were committed by intoxicated persons; and drunk drivers were responsible for 14,000 traffic deaths and 60,000 serious traffic injuries". In 1995, about three quarters of those arrested for homicide were under the influence of alcohol, and 29% of respondents reported that children beaten within families were the victims of drunks and alcoholics.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: A 1997 report published in the "Journal of Family Violence" found that among male perpetrators of spousal homicide, 60–75% of offenders had been drinking prior to the incident.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: In 2008, suicide claimed 38,406 lives in Russia. With a rate of 27.1 suicides per 100,000 people, Russia has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, although it has been steadily decreasing since it peaked at around 40 per 100,000 in the mid-late 1990s, including a 30% drop from 2001 to 2006.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: Heavy alcohol use is a significant factor in the suicide rate, with an estimated half of all suicides a result of alcohol misuse. This is evident by the fact that Russia's suicide rate since the mid-'90s has declined alongside per capita alcohol consumption, despite the economic crises since then; alcohol consumption is more of a factor than economic conditions.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: Prophylactoriums, medical treatment centres, were established in 1925 to treat alcoholics and prostitutes. By 1929 there were five in Moscow. Chronic alcoholics evading treatment were detained for up to two years.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: From the 1930s and 1940s until the mid-1980s, the main treatment for alcoholism in Russia was conditioned response therapy. This treatment has since fallen out of favour, and the modern mainstream treatment has become pharmacotherapy, which involves detailed analyses of each patient, medicinal treatment, psychotherapy, sociotherapy, and other support. Alcoholics Anonymous exists in Russia, but is generally dismissed by the Russian population. Disulfiram has also seen widespread use.


title: Alcohol consumption in Russia

text: One alternative therapy for alcoholism that has been used in Russia is the practice of "coding", in which therapists pretend to insert a "code" into patients' brains with the ostensible effect that drinking even small amounts of alcohol will be extremely harmful or even lethal. Despite not being recommended in Russian clinical guidelines, it has enjoyed considerable popularity. In recent years its use has lessened, due to the spread of information about its ineffectiveness.


title: Cathy Yan

text: Cathy Y. Yan is a Chinese-born American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Her films include the comedy-drama film "Dead Pigs" (2018) and "Birds of Prey" (2020), the eighth installment of the DC Extended Universe.


title: Cathy Yan

text: Yan was born in China and raised in Northern Virginia, near Washington, D.C. While her family was living in China, Yan's father was given a visa to study sociology in the U.S. Two years later her mother left for America, and Yan remained in China with her grandparents. At age four she was reunited with her parents in America.


title: Cathy Yan

text: As a child, Yan grew up with various creative outlets courtesy of her relatives and "deeply creative father". By age 8, Yan was the kid carrying around a video camera, eager to express herself through art and through dancing as a choreographer. She moved to Hong Kong when she was fourteen years old, where she attended high school.


title: Cathy Yan

text: She graduated with an A.B. from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 2008 after completing an 133-page-long senior thesis, titled "Can the Mouse Byte the Paper Tiger? Internet-mediated Social Movements and Political Change in China", under the supervision of Lynn T. White. She later received an M.B.A. in general management from the Stern School of Business at New York University (NYU) and an M.F.A. in producing from the graduate film program at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU in 2016.


title: Cathy Yan

text: Yan worked as a reporter for the "Los Angeles Times" and "The Wall Street Journal" in New York, Hong Kong and Beijing before turning to filmmaking.


title: Cathy Yan

text: After writing and directing several short films, Yan also shot a web-series and content for brands such as Armani, Subway, Spotify and The Innocence Project. By 2018, Yan made her feature debut with "Dead Pigs". The film was inspired by the 2013 Huangpu River dead pigs incident, in which 16,000 dead pigs were found floating down the Huangpu River. Funded by Chinese investors, Yan shot the dark comedy in Shanghai with a bilingual crew then completed the film in New York; director Jia Zhangke executive produced. "Dead Pigs" premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won a Special Jury Award for ensemble acting. Yan removed 12 minutes from the film in its wider February 2021 release on the streaming platform Mubi.


title: Cathy Yan

text: In April 2018, Yan was selected to direct the Harley Quinn DC Extended Universe superhero film "Birds of Prey", based on the comic of the same name. The film was released on February 7, 2020 to positive reviews. Margot Robbie starred and co-produced and Christina Hodson wrote the script. Yan was the second woman and the first Asian woman to direct a DC film (or any US superhero film).


title: Cathy Yan

text: , Yan is working on directing and producing A24's film adaptation of "Sour Heart", a collection of short stories by Jenny Zhang. Yan will co-write the script alongside Zhang for the autobiographical coming-of-age story about the immigrant experience of a young girl who moved from Shanghai to New York in the 90s.


title: Cathy Yan

text: In February 2021, Yan started developing an adaptation of Rachel Khong's short story, "The Freshening". FilmNation Entertainment and Ali Wong were set to produce the feature, with Yan writing and directing.""


title: Cathy Yan

text: In 2021, Yan directed an episode of the HBO drama series "Succession" called "The Disruption", in season three, episode three, for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series.


title: Cathy Yan

text: Yan's cinematic influences include Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou. Since Yan's father was a big fan of the nineties era of Chinese cinema, Yan expanded into East Asian art-house cinema, which included Wong Kar-wai. Including American cinema, Yan appreciates the works of Robert Altman and Paul Thomas Anderson. Yan considers "Dead Pigs" as "a marriage of the American indie and classic Chinese indie tones she grew up with."


title: Cathy Yan

text: Yan is married; her husband works in the restaurant industry. Both Yan and her husband are currently based in New York.


title: Red 11

text: Red 11 is a 2019 American science fiction horror film written, produced, and directed by Robert Rodriguez. Rodriguez co-wrote the film with his son Racer Max, after previously collaborating on "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D" in 2005. The film is inspired by Robert Rodriguez's experiences described in his 1995 book "Rebel Without a Crew". The film stars Roby Attal, Lauren Hatfield, Alejandro Rose-Garcia, Eman Esfandi, Steve Brudniak, Brently Heilbron, Pierce Foster Bailey, Katherine Willis, Ulysses Montoya, and Carlos Gallardo.


title: Red 11

text: The film had its world premiere at the 2019 SXSW festival on March 15, 2019. It also premiered at the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival on May 21, 2019, the Overlook Film Festival on May 31, 2019, and the Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival on September 14, 2019. The film was scheduled to be released on the streaming service Tubi in 2020 in the United States, but was delayed for undisclosed reasons. The film was eventually released on December 7, 2021, simultaneously on several VOD services including iTunes and Amazon Prime.


title: Red 11

text: Set in a dark, twisted world of legal drug research where college kids become lab rats to make quick money, the film focuses on Rob (Roby Attal) who is trying to buy his way out of a huge debt of $7,000. Given the designation of Red 11, things get surreal when he is not sure if the hospital is really trying to kill him, or if it's side effects from the experimental drugs. "Red 11" is based on director/writer Robert Rodriguezs experiences in a medical research facility to finance his first feature "El Mariachi".


title: Red 11

text: "Red 11" was based on Robert Rodriguez's experiences in a medical research facility to finance his first feature "El Mariachi" (1993); he had previously detailed this experience in his 1995 book "Rebel Without a Crew".


title: Red 11

text: "Red 11" had its world premiere at the 2019 SXSW festival on March 15, 2019, where it was nominated for the Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award. It also premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival on May 21, 2019, the Overlook Film Festival on May 31, 2019, and the Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival on September 14, 2019. The film was scheduled to be released in 2020 on the streaming service Tubi in the United States, but was delayed for undisclosed reasons. On December 7, 2021, the film was released simultaneously on several VOD services including iTunes and Amazon Prime. The docuseries "Rebel Without a Crew: The Robert Rodriguez Film School" was released as a companion piece alongside "Red 11".


title: Red 11

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews from critics, with an average rating of .


title: Red 11

text: At its SXSW premiere, the film garnered mostly negative reviews. John DeFore of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote that "the biggest lesson "Red 11" teaches is an inadvertent one: Even a scrappy, seat-of-the-pants production needs a good script". Peter Debruge of "Variety" wrote that the "thriller is a clunky, badly acted, and frequently embarrassing by-the-numbers picture at best, held together with shoestring and paper clips". Griffin Shiller of "The Playlist" wrote that the film's "narrative is convoluted and often gets bogged down by its on-the-nose meta-commentary".


title: Class of Lies

text: Class of Lies () is a 2019 South Korean television series starring Yoon Kyun-sang, Keum Sae-rok and Choi Yu-hwa. It aired on OCN's Wednesdays and Thursdays at 23:00 KST time slot from July 17 to September 5, 2019.


title: Class of Lies

text: Gi Moo-hyeok is a high-profile lawyer who goes undercover as substitute teacher Gi Kang-jae at an elite private high school to investigate the murder of a female student.


title: Class of Lies

text: Jeong Soo-ah, a model and popular student at Chunmyung High School, is stabbed on her bed. Classmate Kim Han-soo is seen hovering over her body with a bloody knife. Gi Moo-hyeok, an ace lawyer with the prestigious Songha law firm, is assigned to defend Kim Han-soo. Songha has been retained by Chunmyung High School, which is more interested in settling the case quietly to preserve its public image than in discovering the truth. Gi Moo-hyeok tries to persuade Kim Han-soo to take a plea deal, admitting to the murder in exchange for a lighter sentence. Han-soo refuses, and claims that he is the victim's boyfriend. He is more concerned about Soo-ah's condition than his own legal plight.


title: Class of Lies

text: Lacking Kim Han-soo's cooperation, Gi tries to create reasonable doubt during the trial by revealing a photo that suggests that Jeong Soo-ah is an escort and that any of her male clients could have attacked her. The stunt enrages Kim Han-soo, who causes a ruckus and claims that he did stab Jeong. Gi's case collapses after Kim Han-soo attempts suicide after he receives a mysterious visit, and he falls into a coma. Jeong Soo-ah dies from her injuries and Kim Han-soo is charged with murder. Gi Moo-hyeok's career crashes as he is fired from Songha and his license to practice is suspended.


title: Class of Lies

text: In order to regain his reputation as a lawyer, Gi obtains a temporary teaching job at Chunmyung under an assumed name, Gi Kang-jae. As Gi Kang-jae, he clashes with Ha So-hyeon, the school's phys ed teacher and counselor, who is too earnest and naive to believe that her students are capable of the physical and online bullying that Gi encounters early on. Eventually, the two team up to uncover the Veritas Club, a secret society of privileged students who control teachers and fellow students to burnish their school records.


title: Proposed Russian annexation of Transnistria

text: The government of Transnistria, a separatist breakaway state internationally recognized as part of Moldova, has requested annexation by Russia numerous times. Transnistria is a territory that separated itself from Moldova due to fear of a possible unification of the latter with Romania. This sparked the Transnistria War of 1992, in which Russian-backed Transnistria managed to stay separate from Moldova. Despite this, today Transnistria is legally and internationally considered part of Moldova.


text: Following Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, hopes in Transnistria that Russia would annex its territory as well grew. Transnistria has a substantial ethnic Russian population and the vast majority of its people speak Russian. The territory is financially supported by Russia, and Transnistrian education and laws are also interrelated with Russia. In 2006, a referendum in Transnistria was organized by the first President of Transnistria Igor Smirnov to vote for a possible reintegration into Moldova or independence and a future accession to the Russian Federation. The former proposal was rejected and the latter was approved, although the veracity of these results has been questioned. Still, posterior studies have proven the popularity of the idea on at least part of the population of Transnistria.


text: Due to all this, exactly on the same day that Russia annexed Crimea, the leader of the Transnistrian parliament Mikhail Burla sent a letter to Russia requesting the facilitation of a Russian annexation of Transnistria in the country's laws, which had a negative response from the international community. The topic was mentioned on numerous more occasions by different Transnistrian politicians such as the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Transnistria Nina Shtanski, the former Transnistrian president Yevgeny Shevchuk (who issued an unsuccessful decree in 2016 to eventually make Transnistria join Russia) and the current one, Vadim Krasnoselsky. Some figures from Russia such as Zakhar Prilepin, Vladimir Zhirinovsky and the For Truth party have responded positively to such a possibility.


text: Several analysts, however, believe that Russia will not try to annex Transnistria. Russia officially strives for the granting of a special status of Transnistria within Moldova, possibly to exert influence over the entire country. An annexation of Transnistria by Russia would be counterproductive to this goal, especially considering that it could accelerate an undesired unification between Moldova and Romania. Furthermore, Transnistria is far from Russia and landlocked, and creating a nationalist discourse among the Russian people to achieve annexation, as was done before with Crimea, could be more difficult.


text: Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldavian SSR) declared independence and became modern Moldova. Fear arose in the easternmost region that Moldova would unite with Romania following this event, so independence from Moldova was declared. This led to the 1992 Transnistria War, in which Transnistria received help from Russia, which sent its 14th Guards Army. As a consequence, Transnistria stayed separate from Moldova, but continued to be recognized as Moldovan territory by the international community.


text: Following the end of the war, there were attempts at resolving the Transnistria conflict, most notably the Kozak memorandum, but none were successful. On 17 September 2006, a referendum in Transnistria was held by the authorities of the state. It asked the population whether Transnistria should be reintegrated into Moldova or not and whether it should seek independence and a potential future integration into Russia or not. 96.61% rejected the first question and 98.07% approved the second one, with the voter turnout being of 78.55%. However, the Moldovan branch of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights claimed to have detected irregularities and infringements in the referendum and suggested that the results could have been prepared beforehand. The president at this time was Transnistria's first, Igor Smirnov. Smirnov suggested and referenced a possible Transnistrian accession to Russia a number of times during his 20-year long rule.


text: According to the 2015 Transnistrian census, Transnistria is a Russian-plurality territory, with 34% of the population identifying as Russians, 33% Moldovans/Romanians and 26.7% Ukrainians. The rest of the population that declared its ethnicity, belong to smaller minorities. Bulgarians polled 2.8%, Gagauz people 1.2%, Belarusians 0.6%, Germans 0.3% and Poles 0.2%, among others. There are however claims that Moldovans/Romanians represent in fact 40% of the population.


text: Following Russia's formal annexation of Crimea on 18 March 2014, speculation arose regarding if Transnistria would also be next. In fact, barely on the same day of the annexation of Crimea, Mikhail Burla, Speaker of the Supreme Council of Transnistria (that is, the chairperson of the Transnistrian parliament), sent a letter in the name of the Transnistrian Supreme Council to the then Chairman of the State Duma (one of the two houses of the Parliament of Russia) Sergey Naryshkin calling for changes in Russian laws to facilitate a future annexation of Transnistria by Russia. Moreover, according to March 2014 reports from the freelancer journalist Mitra Nazar, people in Transnistria were then hoping to be annexed by Russia and were seeing the annexation of Crimea as a "sign of hope". A pensioner she interviewed said she hoped annexation by Russia would bring higher pensions and a better future for the younger generations.


text: The then President of Moldova Nicolae Timofti replied to Burla's letter by warning Russia not to try to annex Transnistria, saying that it would be "a mistake" on Russia's part and that it would end up "further damaging its international status". Jean-Claude Juncker, former Prime Minister of Luxembourg and the then future President of the European Commission, prompted the European Union (EU) to take measures to avoid Moldova from being "the next victim of Russian aggression". The President of Romania Traian Băsescu called for Moldova's accession process into the EU to be accelerated, with the country's security depending on this according to him.


text: Days later, Nina Shtanski, then Minister of Foreign Affairs of Transnistria, approved the annexation of Crimea, declared that "we consider ourselves part of the Russian world" and that "we are no different from Russians and Russian civilization" and requested the President of Russia Vladimir Putin to annex Transnistria. Posteriorly, in April 2014, Transnistrian parliamentaries called on Russia to recognize Transnistrian independence.


text: On 7 September 2016, the then President of Transnistria Yevgeny Shevchuk issued the Decree No. 348 "On the implementation of the results of the republican referendum held on 17 September 2006" to bring the Transnistrian legal system closer to the Russian one and to get nearer to a future annexation of Transnistria by Russia. This was done to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 2006 Transnistrian referendum. However, the decree has been deemed as invalid because the referendum was held ten years earlier and Shevchuk's actions have been criticized. The Transnistrian authorities have also repeatedly expressed their intention to join Russian-sponsored international organizations such as the former Eurasian Economic Community, the latter's successor the Eurasian Economic Union or the Eurasian Customs Union. On 12 April 2017, the Supreme Council of Transnistria adopted a new co-official flag for the republic based on the Russian tricolor flag to further strengthen Transnistrian independence as well as integration with Russia, as the Supreme Council itself explained on a note.


text: Shevchuk's successor as the President of Transnistria, Vadim Krasnoselsky, expressed in 2018 his commitment to make Transnistria join Russia in the future. He also said in 2019 that Russia "is our destiny" and that a possible new referendum on a possible unification with Russia could be held if needed, but on the condition that Russia would recognize the results.


text: Russian influence over Transnistria is big, with around 200,000 Transnistrians having a Russian passport as of 2014. Transnistria is economically financed by Russia through the payment of pensions and natural gas debts, with some Russian politicians also investing in Transnistria's industry and many Transnistrian firms being owned by Russian companies. Furthermore, Transnistrian schools use Russian textbooks teaching Russian history and many Transnistrian students go to Russian cities like Moscow or Saint Petersburg for studying. Since 2013, there have been efforts to link Russian laws with Transnistria's code of law, and Russian is the common (but not mother) language of more than 90% of Transnistrians, being used for business affairs and as the interethnic language of the breakaway country. In a study carried out between October 2018 and February 2019, when asked about what option would lead to a faster development of Transnistria, 37.1% of polled Transnistrians responded to become part of Russia. In contrast, 22.6% declared an independent and internationally recognized Transnistrian state would while only 5.2% did so with reintegration into Moldova, among other options.


text: The proposal has received support in Russia. For example, the Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) and former deputy chairman of the State Duma, has stated that Russia should recognize and defend Transnistria. He has also stated that Transnistria "is Russian territory". The former Russian party For Truth also supported Russian recognition and annexation of Transnistria. The Russian writer Zakhar Prilepin is another figure that has striven for the Russian annexation of Transnistria, as well as Abkhazia, the Republic of Artsakh, South Ossetia, Donetsk and Luhansk.


text: However, some analysts and scholars have claimed that a Russian annexation of Transnistria is unlikely. Russia does not recognize Transnistria as an independent country unlike other breakaway states such as Abkhazia and South Ossetia, recognized by it on 2008, and has shown no interest in doing so. It is possible that if Russia did this, it would lose all its influence over Moldovan politics and make Moldova strongly pro-Western. Instead, Russia has been said by some analysts to want Transnistria to have a "special status" within Moldova to keep influence over the whole of the latter. The recognition of Transnistria by Russia could facilitate a unification of Romania and Moldova, to which Russia is opposed. Additionally, Transnistria is considerably further from Russia than Crimea, and it is landlocked, so Russia could only be connected to the territory through states that would be hostile to a hypothetical annexation. Creating a nationalist movement strong enough as to achieve the annexation of Transnistria in Russia could also be more difficult than with Crimea, which was presented as a "lost" and "stolen" land in the country.


title: Gage Munroe

text: Gage Munroe (born January 4, 1999) is a Canadian actor. He has performed roles on television programs like "Stoked", "Murdoch Mysteries", "Mr Moon", "Falling Skies" and "Alphas", and has appeared in films like the 2008 Canadian drama "One Week" (directed by Michael McGowan) and the 2011 epic "Immortals" (alongside Henry Cavill and Mickey Rourke).


title: Gage Munroe

text: Munroe's best known role was as PK in the festival-lauded Canadian action film "I Declare War". He is also known for providing the voices of Hank N Stein in "", Justin in the first two seasons of Justin Time, Marshall in the first season of "PAW Patrol" and for playing Josh Philips in the Christian drama "The Shack".


title: Talita von Fürstenberg

text: Princess Talita Natasha von Fürstenberg (born May 7, 1999), known professionally as Talita von Furstenberg, is an American socialite, fashion designer and model. She is the granddaughter of fashion designers Diane von Fürstenberg and Prince Egon von Fürstenberg and by birth a member of the House of Fürstenberg, an ancient Swabian noble family. In 2019, she launched her fashion line, TVF for DVF, in partnership with her grandmother's fashion house.


title: Talita von Fürstenberg

text: Princess Talita Natasha von Fürstenberg was born on May 7, 1999, to socialites Princess Alexandra and Prince Alexander of Fürstenberg. On her father's side, she is a member of the German Princely Family of Fürstenberg and heiress of the Italian Agnelli family (her great-great grandparents were Edoardo Agnelli and Virginia Bourbon del Monte). Her paternal grandparents are fashion designers Diane von Fürstenberg and Prince Egon von Fürstenberg. Her maternal grandfather is billionaire businessman Robert Warren Miller. She has a younger brother, Prince Tassilo Egon Maximilian von Fürstenberg, and two younger half brothers, Prince Leon (b. 2012) and Prince Vito zu Fürstenberg (b. 2020). She is the niece of Pia Getty, Marie-Chantal, Crown Princess of Greece, Princess of Denmark, and Princess Tatiana von Fürstenberg. She is a second cousin once-removed of Coco Brandolini d'Adda and Bianca Brandolini d’Adda. Her parents divorced in 2002. Her mother later married Dax Miller and her father married Ali Kay.


title: Talita von Fürstenberg

text: She graduated in 2017 from the Brentwood School in Los Angeles, where she was a member of the fencing team. After graduating from high school, she attended Georgetown University with her cousin, Prince Constantine Alexios of Greece and Denmark, studying international relations. She later transferred to New York University, where she studies fashion business and marketing.


title: Talita von Fürstenberg

text: Von Fürstenberg has interned for Teen Vogue, as well as having been active in her grandmother's fashion house, DvF. In 2015 she was featured on the cover of the October issue and had her own spread for Tatler Magazine. She has also been featured in Teen Vogue. In 2016, von Fürstenberg worked as an intern for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.


title: Talita von Fürstenberg

text: In April 2016, von Fürstenberg was featured in "Vanity Fair" alongside two of her first cousins, Isabel Getty and Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece and Denmark.


title: Talita von Fürstenberg

text: In 2017, she walked the runway for Dolce & Gabbana during Milan Fashion Week. In 2018, she was named the new muse for DvF.


title: Talita von Fürstenberg

text: On April 24, 2019, von Fürstenberg launched her own line for DVF called TVF. The collection consists of 23 items and is targeted toward young people.


title: The Rivals

text: The Rivals is a comedy of manners by Richard Brinsley Sheridan in five acts which was first performed at Covent Garden Theatre on 17 January 1775. The story has been updated frequently, including a 1935 musical and a 1958 episode of the TV series "Maverick" (see below) starring James Garner and Roger Moore, with attribution.


title: The Rivals

text: "The Rivals" was Sheridan's first play. At the time, he was a young newlywed living in Bath. At Sheridan's insistence, upon marriage his wife Eliza (born Elizabeth Linley) had given up her career as a singer. This was proper for a gentleman's wife, but it was difficult because Eliza would have earned a substantial income as a performer. Instead, the Sheridans lived beyond their means as they entertained the gentry and nobility with Eliza's singing (in private parties) and Richard's wit. Finally, in need of funds, Richard turned to the only craft that could gain him the remuneration he desired in a short time: he began writing a play. He had over the years written and published essays and poems, and among his papers were numerous unfinished plays, essays and political tracts, but never had he undertaken such an ambitious project as this. In a short time, however, he completed "The Rivals".


title: The Rivals

text: "The Rivals" was first performed at Covent Garden, London, on 17 January 1775, with comedian Mary Bulkley as Julia Melville. It was roundly vilified by both the public and the critics for its length, for its bawdiness and for the character of Sir Lucius O'Trigger being a meanly written role played very badly. The actor, John Lee, after being hit with an apple during the performance, stopped and addressed the audience, asking "By the pow'rs, is it "personal"? — is it me, or the matter?" Apparently, it was both. Sheridan immediately withdrew the play and in the next 11 days, rewrote the original (the Larpent manuscript) extensively, including a new preface in which he allowed:


title: The Rivals

text: For my own part, I see no reason why the author of a play should not regard a first night's audience as a candid and judicious friend attending, in behalf of the public, at his last rehearsal. If he can dispense with flattery, he is sure at least of sincerity, and even though the annotation be rude, he may rely upon the justness of the comment.


title: The Rivals

text: Sheridan also apologised for any impression that O'Trigger was intended as an insult to Ireland. Rewritten and with a new actor, Laurence Clinch, in the role of O'Trigger, the play reopened on 28 January to significant acclaim. Indeed, it became a favourite of the royal family, receiving five command performances in ten years, and also in the Colonies (it was George Washington's favourite play). It became a standard show in the repertoires of 19th-century companies in England and the US.


title: The Rivals

text: The play is now considered to be one of Sheridan's masterpieces, and the term malapropism was coined in reference to one of the characters in the play. She was first played by Jane Green.


title: The Rivals

text: The play is set in 18th-century Bath, a town that was legendary for conspicuous consumption and fashion at the time. Wealthy, fashionable people went there to "take the waters", which were believed to have healing properties. Bath society was much less exclusive than London, and hence it provides an ideal setting for the characters.


title: The Rivals

text: The plot centres on the two young lovers, Lydia and Jack. Lydia, who reads a lot of popular novels of the time, wants a purely romantic love affair. To court her, Jack pretends to be "Ensign Beverley", a poor army officer. Lydia is enthralled with the idea of eloping with a poor soldier in spite of the objections of her guardian, Mrs. Malaprop, a moralistic widow. Mrs. Malaprop is the chief comic figure of the play, thanks to her continual misuse of words that "sound" like the words she intends to use, but "mean" something completely different (the term "malapropism" was coined in reference to the character).


title: The Rivals

text: Lydia has two other suitors: Bob Acres (a somewhat buffoonish country gentleman), and Sir Lucius O'Trigger, an impoverished and combative Irish gentleman. Sir Lucius pays Lucy to carry love notes between him and Lydia (who uses the name "Delia"), but Lucy is swindling him: "Delia" is actually Mrs. Malaprop.


title: The Rivals

text: As the play opens, Sir Anthony arrives suddenly in Bath. He has arranged a marriage for Jack, but Jack demurs, saying he is in love already. They quarrel violently. But Jack soon learns through the gossip of Lucy and Fag that the marriage arranged by Sir Anthony is, in fact, with Lydia. He makes a great show of submission to his father, and is presented to Lydia with Mrs. Malaprop's blessing. Jack confides to Lydia that he is only posing as Sir Anthony's son. She annoys Mrs. Malaprop by loudly professing her eternal devotion to "Beverley" while rejecting "Jack Absolute".


title: The Rivals

text: Jack's friend Faulkland is in love with Julia, but he suffers from jealous suspicion. He is constantly fretting himself about her fidelity. Faulkland and Julia quarrel foolishly, making elaborate and high-flown speeches about true love that satirise the romantic dramas of the period.


title: The Rivals

text: Bob Acres tells Sir Lucius that another man ("Beverley") is courting the lady of Acres' choice (Lydia, though Sir Lucius does not know this). Sir Lucius immediately declares that Acres must challenge "Beverley" to a duel and kill him. Acres goes along, and writes out a challenge note – despite his own rather more pacifist feelings, and the profound misgivings of his servant David. Sir Lucius leaves, Jack arrives, and Acres tells him of his intent. Jack agrees to deliver the note to "Beverley", but declines to be Acres' second.


title: The Rivals

text: Mrs. Malaprop again presents Jack to Lydia, but this time with Sir Anthony present, exposing Jack's pose as "Beverley". Lydia is enraged by the puncturing of her romantic dreams, and spurns Jack contemptuously.


title: The Rivals

text: Sir Lucius has also learned of the proposed marriage of Jack and Lydia, and determines to challenge Jack. He meets Jack, who, smarting from Lydia's rejection, agrees to fight him without even knowing the reason. They will meet at the same time as Acres is scheduled to fight "Beverley".


title: The Rivals

text: At the duelling ground, Acres is very reluctant to fight, but Sir Lucius will have no shirking. Jack and Faulkland arrive. Acres learns that "Beverley" is actually his friend Jack, and begs off from their duel. However, Jack is quite willing to fight Sir Lucius, and they cross swords.


title: The Rivals

text: David informs Mrs. Malaprop, Lydia, Julia, and Sir Anthony of the duel, and they all rush off to stop it. Sir Lucius explains the cause of his challenge, but Lydia denies any connection to him, and admits her love for Jack. Mrs. Malaprop announces that "she" is Delia, but Sir Lucius recoils in horror, realising that he has been hoaxed. Sir Anthony consoles Mrs. Malaprop, Julia is reconciled to Faulkland, and Acres invites everyone to a party.


title: The Rivals

text: A successful musical production - titled "Rivals!", with songs by Herbert Hughes and lyrics by John Robert Monsell - was staged by Vladimir Rosing at London's Kingsway Theatre in October 1935. The musical ran for 86 performances.Queen Mary attended one of the performances.


title: The Rivals

text: The play was rewritten as a 1958 episode of the comedic Western television series "Maverick", starring the remarkably similar-looking James Garner and Roger Moore, and was the only episode of the series in which Garner and Moore appeared together (Moore did not portray "Beau Maverick," Bret Maverick's cousin, until after Garner had left the series two seasons later). The Absolutes were renamed "Vandergelt" with Neil Hamilton as the wealthy father. Patricia "Pat" Crowley plays the leading lady, whose name is changed from the original play's "Lydia Languish" to "Lydia Lynley." The episode, telecast midway through the series' second season, was called "The Rivals" and the playwright Sheridan was given due credit.


title: The Rivals

text: In 1962, a radio production by R. D. Smith for the BBC Third Programme featured Fay Compton as Mrs Malaprop, Baliol Holloway as Sir Anthony Absolute, Fenella Fielding as Lydia Languish, Hugh Burden as Captain Absolute and John Hollis as Thomas. It was repeated on 23 December 1963 on the Home Service as part of the "National Theatre of the Air" series.


title: The Rivals

text: The BBC produced a version which was broadcast in 1970 as part of their "Play of the Month" series, starring Jeremy Brett as Captain Jack Absolute. Another BBC production was broadcast in 1989 as part of their "Theatre Night" series, starring Donald Sinden as Sir Anthony Absolute.


title: The Rivals

text: The leading character of the play was taken to be the identity of the hero of a series of historic fictional adventure books by actor/novelist Chris Humphreys. These take place in Cornwall, London, Quebec, the American colonies during both the Seven Years' War and the American Revolution, and Portugal.


title: The Rivals

text: A new adaptation written by Richard Bean and Oliver Chris titled "Jack Absolute Flies Again" was due to premiere at the National Theatre, London in April 2020, however due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the production eventually opened on 15 July 2022. The play has been updated to July 1940 to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.


title: Family Video

text: Family Video Movie Club Inc. was an American brick and mortar video rental chain serving the United States and Canada. The family-owned company was headquartered in Glenview, Illinois.


title: Family Video

text: In 1946, Clarence Hoogland founded Midstates Appliance and Supply Company. His son Charles Hoogland inherited the business in 1953. The company later became a distributor for Magnetic Video. After getting stuck with a large inventory of excess video movies in the late 1970s, Charles got the idea of creating the Video Movie Club in Springfield, Illinois in 1978. The club originally charged a $25 membership fee and $5 rental fee, and later evolved into Family Video.


title: Family Video

text: Because competitor Blockbuster's main focus was larger cities, Family Video was mostly established in rural areas, suburbs, and small-to-midsize cities.


title: Family Video

text: In 2003, Family Video relocated its headquarters from Springfield to Glenview, Illinois. By 2013, Blockbuster had closed almost all of its remaining stores. By the end of 2016, Hastings Entertainment liquidated, making Family Video the sole-surviving video rental chain in the United States.


title: Family Video

text: In addition to its brick and mortar locations, Family Video branched off into other markets such as real estate, 24-hour fitness centers, cell phones, and cable television. The company also sold new and previously used items online. Family Video expanded into the Canadian market in 2012.


title: Family Video

text: In 2013, following the continued decline of competing video rental stores, Family Video formed a partnership with Marco's Pizza, providing space for the franchise in many of its stores. The company used the partnership as a way to deliver video rentals with pizza orders. Family Video also leases space to other retailers such as hair salons and fitness centers. Unlike most competitors, Family Video owned the real estate housing their stores, helping the company avoid unsuccessful lease negotiations that led to the demise of Blockbuster, Movie Gallery, and Hollywood Video. Rather than depending on the revenue-sharing model used by others, the chain bought and owned its movies to keep all the rental profit. In addition, it owns a fiber-optic network in the Central Illinois region, called "i3 Broadband", as well as a small chain of fitness centers named "StayFit-24".


title: Family Video

text: In late 2019, the number of stores was reported to be almost 600, down from a peak of 800, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the chain was forced to close 200 stores in autumn 2020, with about 300 locations remaining.


title: Family Video

text: On January 5, 2021, the company announced all remaining 250 stores would close. It was announced the chain would become an online web-store only, offering new and used video sales along with Family Video branded merchandise i.e. t-shirts, coffee mugs and tumblers, hats, gym bags, key chains, water bottles etc. However, the website was closed at the end of March 2022, ending Family Video's business after forty-four years.


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: The Mexican free-tailed bat or Brazilian free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis) is a medium-sized bat native to the Americas, so named because its tail can be almost half its total length and is not attached to its uropatagium. It has been claimed to have the fastest horizontal speed of any animal, reaching top ground speeds over . It also flies the highest among bats, at altitudes around .


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: It is regarded as one of the most abundant mammals in North America. Its proclivity towards roosting in huge numbers at relatively few locations makes it vulnerable to habitat destruction in spite of its abundance. For instance, up to 1.5 million bats reside under just one bridge in Austin. The Texas Legislature designated the Mexican free-tailed bat the state mammal (flying) in 1995. The bat is considered a species of special concern in California as a result of declining populations.


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: The Mexican free-tailed bat was described as a new species in 1824 by French zoologist Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. Geoffroy placed it in the now-defunct genus "Nyctinomus" with a binomial name of "Nyctinomus brasiliensis".


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: Molecular sequence data indicate "T. brasiliensis"'s closest relatives are the sister species "Sauromys petrophilus" of South Africa and "Tadarida aegyptiaca" of Africa and South Asia. These three species form a clade believed to be about 18 million years old.


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: Mexican free-tailed bats are typically in length and weigh around with females tending to be slightly heavier than males by 1-2 grams for increased fat storage to use during gestation and nursing.


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: Their tails are almost half their total length and stretch beyond the uropatagium, giving them the name "free-tailed" bats. Their ears are wide, rounded, and large compared to their heads, nearly meeting at the front of the face, but distinctly not joined at the midline and projecting anterodorsally from just before the muzzle to the back of the head. They use their large ears to help them find prey using echolocation. "T. brasiliensis" is distinguished among North American" Tadarida" bats in possessing deep wrinkles on the upper lip and in having a Z-shaped upper third molar, which is used for grinding insects. These individuals possess canines which are larger in males than in females. The wings are elongated and narrow with pointed tips, making them well-equipped for quick, straight flight patterns. Their fur color ranges from dark brown to gray. The Mexican free-tailed bat's large feet have distinct long, white bristles.


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: The Mexican free-tailed bat ranges from the southern half of the continental United States through most of Mexico, and through most of Central America into South America. Their range in South America is less understood where they live in the eastern Brazilian highlands and coast, the northeastern Andes, the coast of Peru and northern Chile, and the center of Argentina. They are absent in much of the Amazon rainforest. They are also found in the Caribbean, and are native to all of the Greater Antilles and 11 of the Lesser Antilles. The largest known colony is found at Bracken Cave, north of San Antonio, Texas, with nearly 20 million bats; the bats from this colony congregate in huge numbers at altitudes between , and even as high as .


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: Mexican free-tailed bats roost primarily in caves. However, they also roost in buildings of any type as long as they have access to openings and dark recesses in ceilings or walls. The bats can make roosting sites of buildings regardless of "age, height, architecture, construction materials, occupancy by humans and compass orientation". Caves, though, need to have enough wall and ceiling space to fit millions of bats. Before buildings, free-tailed bats in the Southeastern United States probably roosted in the hollows of trees such as red mangrove, black mangrove, white mangrove, and cypress. However, most bats in Florida seem to prefer buildings and other man-made structures over natural roosts. Caves in Florida tend to be occupied mostly by the southeastern myotis. Caves in Florida tend to have pools of water on the floor and the free-tailed bats do not need as much relative humidity as the southeastern myotis.


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: Mexican free-tailed bats in southeastern Nevada, southwestern Utah, western Arizona, and southeastern California come together to migrate southwest to southern California and Baja California. Bats in southeastern Utah, southwestern Colorado, western New Mexico, and eastern Arizona travel through the western edge of the Sierra Madre Oriental into Jalisco, Sinaloa, and Sonora. Some bats that summer in Kansas, Oklahoma, eastern New Mexico, and Texas migrate southward to South Texas and Mexico. Some bat populations in other areas of North America do not migrate, but are residents and may make seasonal changes in roost sites. While this migration is extremely extensive, a way must exist for these bats to continuously congregate in the same roosts every year. "T. brasiliensis" bats have copious numbers of sebaceous glands covering their entire bodies. These glands leave a trace of a lasting scent to which other bats are sensitive. This odor is crucial to marking habitual roosts.


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: Bats ranging eastward from East Texas do not migrate, but local shifts in roost usage often occur seasonally. Also, a regional population that ranges from Oregon to California, has a year-round residence.


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: Mexican free-tailed bats are primarily insectivores. They hunt their prey using echolocation. The bats eat moths, beetles, dragonflies, flies, true bugs, wasps, and ants. They usually catch flying prey in flight. Large numbers of Mexican free-tailed bats fly hundreds of meters above the ground in Texas to feed on migrating insects. The consumption of insects by these bats can be quite significant.


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: The onset of evening emergence from caves and the end of returns at dawn tend to correlate with sunset and sunrise, respectively, with dawn returns ending increasingly later in correlation to sunrise throughout the summer season. Reproductive females tended to emerge earlier in the evening and return later at dawn to gather the extra nutrients they require for reproduction and offspring care. "T. brasiliensis" bats spend around 60% of their active time foraging while aerial, mostly hunting at heights of . Individuals will fly in one night to reach foraging areas. The loose, wrinkled skin around the mouth is thought to aid in expanding the mouth during flight to catch insects. "T. brasiliensis" requires free water sources to maintain water balance: individuals from the arid environment of New Mexico tend to have thicker renal tissue layers compared to "T. brasiliensis" from the less arid California, revealing that urine concentrating abilities and water use varies geographically with aridity.


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: One individual bat was recorded to have lived 8 years, based on dentition. Predators of the bat include large birds such as red-tailed hawk, American kestrels, great horned owls, barn owls, and Mississippi kites. Mammal predators include Virginia opossums, striped skunks, and raccoons. Snakes such as eastern coachwhips and gopher snakes may also prey on them, but at a lesser extent. Certain types of beetles prey on neonate and juvenile bats that have fallen to the ground. This species seems to have a low incidence of rabies, at least in the United States. They do, however, contain certain pesticides.


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: White-nose syndrome (WNS) caused by infection by the fungus "P. destructans" has increased in prevalence since 2006, mostly affecting species of bats that roost underground such as the little brown bat. The fungus, now suspected to have spread from accidental transportation by human cave workers, is thought to cause frequent arousals during bat hibernation, causing an individual to use fat stores much more quickly and die of starvation before the end of winter. WNS can affect "T. brasiliensis", but has yet to be greatly introduced to their habitat due to their preference for more arid caves. WNS has low prevalence in the subtropical and tropical regions where "T. brasiliensis" resides.


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: Mexican free-tailed bats are nocturnal foragers and begin feeding after dusk. They travel 50 km in a quick, direct flight pattern to feed. This species flies the highest among bats, at altitudes around . Bats appear to be most active in late morning and afternoon between June and September. Free-tailed bats are more active in warm weather.


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: The species has been measured at a ground speed of , measured by an aircraft tracking device. The measurement methodology did not simultaneously record wind speed and ground speed, so the observations could have been affected by strong local gusts, and the bat's maximum air speed remains uncertain.


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: Among bats that roost in great, concentrated numbers, "T." "brasiliensis" roosts produce large quantities of urine and guano; from 22 to 99 metric tons per cave and over 18,700 metric tons are produced annually. The concentrated waste generates high levels of toxic ammonia in the air of a cave. "T. brasiliensis" individuals have genetic adaptation for withstanding or countering these high levels of ammonia. The bats’ content of CO and protein in respiratory mucus and CO dissolved in blood plasma increase with increasing levels of dissolved ammonia, providing the bats with a buffer against pH change. This allows the bats to filter out a large majority of inhaled ammonia before it reaches toxic levels in the blood. "T. brasiliensis" bats are thought to swarm in spiraling motions within caves to ventilate ammonia and renew the air.


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: Mexican free-tailed bats use echolocation for navigation and detecting prey. Traveling calls are of a brief but constant frequency. However, they switch modulated frequency calls between 40 and 75 kHz if they detect something. Typically, the frequency range of their echolocation is between 49 and 70 kHz, but can be between 25 and 40 kHz if something crosses their path while in flight.


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: On 6 November 2014, Aaron Corcoran, a biologist at Wake Forest University, North Carolina, reported online in "Science" that his team and he had detected Mexican free-tailed bats emitting ultrasonic vocalizations that had the effect of jamming the echolocation calls of a rival bat species hunting moths. The ‘jamming’ call led to an increased chance of the rival missing its prey, which the Mexican free-tailed bat was then able to eat itself. Earlier researchers had discovered some 15 types of social calls made by Mexican free-tailed bats and reported that they could adjust their calls to avoid interfering with others in range of their calls.


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: During the breeding season, females aggregate into maternity roosts. The size of these roosts depends on the environment, with caves having the larger roosts. Mating can occur in an aggressive or passive form. In the aggressive form, the male controls the female's movements, keeping her away from the other bats in the roost. He also tends to vocalize when mating. During passive copulation, the males simply flies to a female in her roost and quietly mounts her with no resistance. This species is a promiscuous breeder and both sexes copulate with multiple partners. Females become sexually mature at about 9 months, while males take even longer, at two years. Females enter estrus once a year, which typically lasts five weeks in the spring. The gestation period of the bat lasts 11–12 weeks, with only one young being born. A number of pups are left in "creches", while their mothers roost elsewhere. The female uses vocalizations and scent to identify her pup. The mother imprints her scent on the young early on. However, young try to steal a suckle from any female that passes through the cluster. Through examining the genotypes of female-pup nursing pairs sampled from colonies in Texas, it has been measured that nursing is partially selective along genetic lines, with approximately 17% of mothers nursing pups that were not their offspring, ostensibly due to the difficulty of consistently locating and selectively nursing their own pups in extremely large colonies. A mother will nurse her young daily, and by 4–7 weeks old they are full grown, fully weaned, and independent.


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: Though abundant and widespread, some local populations have prompted protection and conservation efforts. For instance, during the spring and summer, one of the largest Mexican free-tailed bat populations inhabits Cueva de la Boca, a cave near Monterrey, Mexico. In 2006, the Mexican environmental conservation NGO, Pronatura Noreste, purchased the property. Because of a reduction by more than 95% of the original 20 million bat population to 600,000, as a result of vandalism, pollution, and uncontrolled tourism, the organization decided to buy the property to place it under conservation. Other species of high ecological value that inhabit the cavern are also being protected. The bat is considered a species of special concern in California as a result of declining populations.


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: Similarly, Bat Conservation International bought Bracken Cave from private ownership in 1992. BCI planned to revert any land changes that were a result of farming or ranching in order to conserve the biodiversity and wildlife there. Preserving the land around Bracken Cave was important, as it is home to the world's largest bat colony, and any human encroachment would be detrimental to their population. BCI also protects the land from artificial light pollution, which can distress the bats.


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: In Austin, Texas, a colony of Mexican free-tailed bats summers (they winter in Mexico) under the Congress Avenue Bridge 10 blocks south of the Texas State Capitol. It is the largest urban colony in North America, with an estimated 1,500,000 bats. Each night they eat of insects. Each year, they attract 100,000 tourists who come to watch them. In Houston, Texas, a colony is living under the Waugh Street Bridge over Buffalo Bayou. It is the home to 250,000 bats and also attracts viewers. The Mexican free-tailed bat is the official flying mammal of the state of Texas.


title: Mexican free-tailed bat

text: Hundreds of tons of guano were mined in Texas annually between 1900 and 1980. In the early 20th century, bat guano was Texas' largest mineral export, before oil. In 1863, a gun powder factory opened near San Antonio, the saltpeter of which was provided by local guano mines.


title: Ransom (TV series)

text: Ransom is an internationally co-produced drama television series created by David Vainola and produced by Frank Spotnitz, starring Luke Roberts, that began airing on CBS. Ordered straight-to-series with 13 episodes on June 6, 2016, the series is a co-production between Canada's Global, France's TF1, the United States' CBS, and Germany's RTL, while the latter is airing the series on its sister network VOX. The series premiered on Global and CBS on January 1, 2017.


title: Ransom (TV series)

text: On May 17, 2017, CBS announced that "Ransom" was cancelled in the United States. A day later, RTLGroup also reported that they left the project after low ratings in Germany. It was reported on the same day that the other broadcasters behind the series were attempting to fund a second season. In late June, various sources reported that Global and TF1 ordered a second season, to be produced without the former partners. Production was set to start in late July 2017. On October 10, 2017, CBS and Global officially announced that "Ransom" had been renewed for a 13-episode second season, which premiered on April 7, 2018 on CBS in the United States. On July 16, 2018, CBS and Global announced that the series has been renewed for a 13-episode third season, which premiered on February 16, 2019.


title: Ransom (TV series)

text: "Ransom" was the first newly U.S. scripted series that debuted on its Saturday night schedule since "The District" cancelled in 2004.


title: Ransom (TV series)

text: The series follows Eric Beaumont, an experienced crisis and hostage negotiator, and his team, who solve kidnap and ransom cases involving the most dangerous criminals in the world.


title: Ransom (TV series)

text: The first season was filmed in Toronto, Canada and Nice, France. Toronto stood in for locations in North America. Eight episodes were shot in Toronto and five were shot in Nice.


title: Ransom (TV series)

text: The second season began shooting in Toronto and Budapest, Hungary in November 2017, with production expected to finish in May 2018.


title: Ransom (TV series)

text: In Australia (Region 4), Via Vision Entertainment will release "The Complete Series" boxset on October 21, 2020.


title: Ransom (TV series)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes season 1 has an approval rating of 47% based on reviews from 15 critics. The website's consensus states: "Ransom is a typical network procedural that lacks any originality or excitement."


title: Brother Louie (Modern Talking song)

text: "Brother Louie" is a song by German duo Modern Talking, released as the lead single from their third studio album, "Ready for Romance" (1986). It was their fourth consecutive single to top the German Singles Chart, after "You're My Heart, You're My Soul", "You Can Win If You Want" and "Cheri, Cheri Lady".


title: Brother Louie (Modern Talking song)

text: "Brother Louie" was released on 27 January 1986 and it reached 1 on 3 March 1986 in Germany. The single spent four weeks at the top and total of 17 weeks on the German chart. In the United Kingdom, it peaked at No. 4 in the charts and went silver for shipments in excess of 250,000 units. "Brother Louie" was also certified silver in France for selling over 250,000 units.


title: Brother Louie (Modern Talking song)

text: It is believed that the song was written by Dieter Bohlen about producer Luis Rodríguez, as he was a close associate of Bohlen and worked on many of the Modern Talking songs.


title: Brother Louie (Modern Talking song)

text: In 1998, not long after the duo's reunion, a remixed version of the single was released, titled "Brother Louie '98". The single, released in a new sleeve, was also successful. It went gold in France for selling over 250,000 units.


title: Brother Louie (Modern Talking song)

text: The music video of "Brother Louie" was directed by Pit Weyrich and contains footage from the 1984 film "Once Upon a Time in America", interspersed with the band members playing on a stage surrounded by dancing fans.


title: Brother Louie (Modern Talking song)

text: "Brother Louie '98" is the re-packaged version of the original 1986 version of "Brother Louie", released as the second single from Modern Talking's seventh studio album, "Back for Good" (1998), and also the second single following the duo's reunion. "Brother Louie '98". The single, as the first single "You're My Heart, You're My Soul '98" off "Back For Good", features Eric Singleton.


title: Brother Louie (Modern Talking song)

text: "Brother Louie '98" was released in Germany and in other European territories on 20 July 1998. The single charted within the top 20 in Germany and Austria, while reaching number one in Hungary, the top five in France and the top 10 in Sweden. In France, "Brother Louie '98" reached gold status for selling over 250,000 units.


title: Brother Louie (Modern Talking song)

text: "Brother Louie '99" is another re-packaged version of the original "Brother Louie" from Modern Talking's album "Back for Good". This version was released solely for the UK market and contains remixes that were not included on "Brother Louie '98".


title: Brother Louie (Modern Talking song)

text: The song was covered by German rapper and singer Kay One in 2017 as "Louis Louis". The adaptation borrows largely from the original, but with an all-German new lyrics and an added rap section, the latter including additional sampling from the song.


title: Brother Louie (Modern Talking song)

text: The single reached No. 9 on the German Singles Chart. The song also charted in Austria and Switzerland.


title: Brother Louie (Modern Talking song)

text: Kay One also released a music video that opens with some verses of the original Modern Talking song "Brother Louie" with Kay One browsing a number of Modern Talking release covers.


title: Brother Louie (Modern Talking song)

text: In July 2020, German DJ duo Vize, Kazakh DJ Imanbek and Modern Talking member Dieter Bohlen released a cover of "Brother Louie", with Leony singing the chorus parts.


title: Apache Subversion

text: Apache Subversion (often abbreviated SVN, after its command name "svn") is a software versioning and revision control system distributed as open source under the Apache License. Software developers use Subversion to maintain current and historical versions of files such as source code, web pages, and documentation. Its goal is to be a mostly compatible successor to the widely used Concurrent Versions System (CVS).


title: Apache Subversion

text: The open source community has used Subversion widely: for example, in projects such as Apache Software Foundation, Free Pascal, FreeBSD, SourceForge, and from 2006 to 2019, GCC. CodePlex was previously a common host for Subversion repositories.


title: Apache Subversion

text: Subversion was created by CollabNet Inc. in 2000, and is now a top-level Apache project being built and used by a global community of contributors.


title: Apache Subversion

text: CollabNet founded the Subversion project in 2000 as an effort to write an open-source version-control system which operated much like CVS but which fixed the bugs and supplied some features missing in CVS. By 2001, Subversion had advanced sufficiently to host its own source code, and in February 2004, version 1.0 was released. In November 2009, Subversion was accepted into Apache Incubator: this marked the beginning of the process to become a standard top-level Apache project. It became a top-level Apache project on February 17, 2010.


title: Apache Subversion

text: Subversion has some limitations with Berkeley DB usage when a program that accesses the database crashes or terminates forcibly. No data loss or corruption occurs, but the repository remains offline while Berkeley DB replays the journal and cleans up any outstanding locks. The safest way to use Subversion with a Berkeley DB repository involves a single server-process running as one user (instead of through a shared filesystem). The Berkeley DB backend was deprecated in version 1.8.


title: Apache Subversion

text: It works faster than the Berkeley DB backend on directories with a large number of files and takes less disk space,


title: Apache Subversion

text: The etymology of "FSFS" is based on Subversion's use of the term "filesystem" for its repository storage system.


title: Apache Subversion

text: FSFS stores its contents directly within the operating system's filesystem, rather than a structured system like Berkeley DB.


title: Apache Subversion

text: A new filesystem, called FSX, is under development to remove some limitations of FSFS. As of Version 1.9, it was not considered production-ready.


title: Apache Subversion

text: Any 1.x version of a client can work with any 1.x server. Newer clients and servers have additional features and performance capabilities, but have fallback support for older clients/servers.


title: Apache Subversion

text: Internally, a Subversion system comprises several libraries arranged as layers. Each performs a specific task and allows developers to create their own tools at the desired level of complexity and specificity.


title: Apache Subversion

text: One can view the Subversion filesystem as "two-dimensional". Two coordinates are used to unambiguously address filesystem items:


title: Apache Subversion

text: Each revision in a Subversion filesystem has its own "root", which is used to access contents at that revision. Files are stored as links to the most recent change; thus a Subversion repository is quite compact. The system consumes storage space proportional to the number of changes made, not to the number of revisions.


title: Apache Subversion

text: The Subversion filesystem uses transactions to keep changes atomic. A transaction operates on a specified revision of the filesystem, not necessarily the latest. The transaction has its own "root", on which changes are made. It is then either committed and becomes the latest revision, or is aborted. The transaction is actually a long-lived filesystem object; a client does not need to commit or abort a transaction itself, rather it can also begin a transaction, exit, and then can re-open the transaction and continue using it. Potentially, multiple clients can access the same transaction and work together on an atomic change, though no existing clients expose this capability.


title: Apache Subversion

text: One important feature of the Subversion filesystem is properties: simple "name"="value" pairs of text. Most properties occur on filesystem entries (i.e., files and directories). These are versioned just like other changes to the filesystem. The Subversion client reserves the 'svn:' prefix for built-in properties, but other names can be used to define custom properties.


title: Apache Subversion

text: Subversion also uses properties on revisions themselves. Like the above properties on filesystem entries, the names are completely arbitrary, with the Subversion client using certain properties prefixed with 'svn:'. However, these properties are not versioned, and they can be changed later if allowed by a pre-revprop-change hook.


title: Apache Subversion

text: Subversion uses the inter-file branching model from Perforce to implement branches and tagging. A branch is a separate line of development. Tagging refers to labeling the repository at a certain point in time so that it can be easily found in the future. In Subversion, the only difference between branches and tags is how they are used.


title: Apache Subversion

text: A new branch or tag is set up by using the "" command, which should be used in place of the native operating system mechanism. The copied directory is linked to the original in the repository to preserve its history, and the copy takes very little extra space in the repository.


title: Apache Subversion

text: All the versions in each branch maintain the history of the file up to the point of the copy, plus any changes made since. One can "merge" changes back into the trunk or between branches.


title: Apache Subversion

text: A known problem in Subversion affects the implementation of the file and directory rename operation. , Subversion implements the renaming of files and directories as a "copy" to the new name followed by a "delete" of the old name. Only the names change, all data relating to the edit history remains the same, and Subversion will still use the old name in older revisions of the "tree". However, Subversion may become confused when a move conflicts with edits made elsewhere, both for regular commits and when merging branches. The Subversion 1.5 release addressed some of these scenarios while others remained problematic. The Subversion 1.8 release addressed some of these problems by making moves a first-class operation on the client, but it is still treated as copy+delete in the repository.


title: Apache Subversion

text: , Subversion lacks some repository-administration and management features. For instance, someone may wish to edit the repository to permanently remove all historical records of certain data. Subversion does not have built-in support to achieve this simply.


title: Apache Subversion

text: Subversion stores additional copies of data on the local machine, which can become an issue with very large projects or files, or if developers work on multiple branches simultaneously. In versions prior to 1.7 these codice_2 directories on the client side could become corrupted by ill-advised user activity like global search/replace operations. Starting with version 1.7 Subversion uses a single centralized folder per working area.


title: Apache Subversion

text: Subversion does not store the modification times of files. As such, a file checked out of a Subversion repository will have the 'current' date (instead of the modification time in the repository), and a file checked into the repository will have the date of the check-in (instead of the modification time of the file being checked in). This might not always be what is wanted.


title: Apache Subversion

text: To mitigate this, third-party tools exist that allow for preserving modification time and other filesystem meta-data.


title: Apache Subversion

text: However, giving checked out files a current date is important as well — this is how tools like make(1) will take notice of a changed file for rebuilding it.


title: Apache Subversion

text: Subversion uses a centralized revision control model. Ben Collins-Sussman, one of the designers of Subversion, believes a centralised model would help prevent "insecure programmers" from hiding their work from other team members. Some users of version control systems see the centralised model as detrimental; famously, Linus Torvalds attacked Subversion's model and its developers.


title: Apache Subversion

text: Subversion often does not deal well with the filename normalization performed by the HFS+ filesystem. This can cause problems when files with accented characters in their names are added to the repository on a non-HFS+ filesystem and the repository is then used with HFS+.


title: Apache Subversion

text: Revision numbers are difficult to remember in any version-control system. For this reason, most systems offer symbolic "tags" as user-friendly references to them. Subversion does not have such a feature and what its documentation recommends to use instead is very different in nature. Instead of implementing tags as "references" to points in history, Subversion recommends making snapshot "copies" into a well-known subdirectory ("") in the space of the repository tree. Only a few predefined "references" are available: , , and .


title: Apache Subversion

text: To address such issues, posters on the Subversion mailing lists have suggested a new feature called "labels" or "aliases". SVN labels would more closely resemble the "tags" of other systems such as CVS or Git. The fact that Subversion has global revision numbers opens the way to a very simple label → revision implementation. Yet as of 2013, no progress has been made and symbolic tags are not in the list of the most wanted features.


title: Apache Subversion

text: CollabNet has continued its involvement with Subversion, but the project runs as an independent open source community. In November 2009, the project was accepted into the Apache Incubator, aiming to become part of the Apache Software Foundation's efforts. Since March 2010, the project is formally known as Apache Subversion, being a part of the Apache Top-Level Projects.


title: Apache Subversion

text: In October 2009, WANdisco announced the hiring of core Subversion committers as the company moved to become a major corporate sponsor of the project. This included Hyrum Wright, president of the Subversion Corporation and release manager for the Subversion project since early 2008, who joined the company to lead its open source team.


title: Apache Subversion

text: The Subversion open-source community does not provide binaries, but potential users can download binaries from volunteers. While the Subversion project does not include an official graphical user interface (GUI) for use with Subversion, third parties have developed a number of different GUIs, along with a wide variety of additional ancillary software.


title: Apache Subversion

text: Work announced in 2009 included SubversionJ (a Java API) and implementation of the Obliterate command, similar to that provided by Perforce. Both of these enhancements were sponsored by WANdisco.


title: Apache Subversion

text: The Subversion committers normally have at least one or two new features under active development at any one time. The 1.7 release of Subversion in October 2011 included a streamlined HTTP transport to improve performance and a rewritten working-copy library.


title: Apache Subversion

text: In 2002, a design contest was held to select the logo for Subversion. The original entries can be found here as well as the votes for each logo. The current logo received the most votes in the contest.


title: Joseph Roth

text: Moses Joseph Roth (2 September 1894 – 27 May 1939) was an Austrian journalist and novelist, best known for his family saga "Radetzky March" (1932), about the decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, his novel of Jewish life "Job" (1930) and his seminal essay "Juden auf Wanderschaft" (1927; translated into English as "The Wandering Jews"), a fragmented account of the Jewish migrations from eastern to western Europe in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution. In the 21st century, publications in English of "Radetzky March" and of collections of his journalism from Berlin and Paris created a revival of interest in Roth.


title: Joseph Roth

text: Born into a Jewish family, Roth was born and grew up in Brody (currently in Ukraine), a small town near Lemberg in East Galicia, in the easternmost reaches of what was then the Austro-Hungarian empire. Jewish culture played an important role in the life of the town, which had a large Jewish population. Roth grew up with his mother and her relatives; he never saw his father, who had disappeared before he was born.


title: Joseph Roth

text: After secondary school, Joseph Roth moved to Lemberg to begin his university studies in 1913, before transferring to the University of Vienna in 1914 to study philosophy and German literature. In 1916, Roth broke off his university studies and volunteered to serve in the Austro-Hungarian Army on the Eastern Front, "though possibly only as an army journalist or censor". This experience had a major and long-lasting influence on his life. So, too, did the collapse in 1918 of the Habsburg Empire, which marked the beginning of a pronounced sense of "homelessness" that was to feature regularly in his work. As he wrote: "My strongest experience was the War and the destruction of my fatherland, the only one I ever had, the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary."


title: Joseph Roth

text: Roth has been referred to as one of the novelists who helped the emergence of what is nowadays called the Habsburg Myth.


title: Joseph Roth

text: In 1918, Roth returned to Vienna and began writing for left-wing newspapers, signing articles published by "Vorwärts" as "Der rote Joseph" ("The red Joseph", a play on his surname, which is homophonous with German "rot", "red", which is also the signalling color of leftwing parties in Europe). In 1920 he moved to Berlin, where he worked as a successful journalist for the "" and, from 1921, for the "Berliner Börsen-Courier". In 1923 he began his association with the liberal "Frankfurter Zeitung", traveling widely throughout Europe, and reporting from the South of France, the USSR, Albania, Poland, Italy, and Germany. According to his main English translator, Michael Hofmann, "He was one of the most distinguished and best-paid journalists of the period, being paid at the dream rate of one Deutschmark per line." In 1925 he spent a period working in France. He never again resided permanently in Berlin.


title: Joseph Roth

text: Roth married Friederike (Friedl) Reichler in 1922. In the late 1920s, his wife became schizophrenic, which threw Roth into a deep crisis, both emotionally and financially. She lived for years in a sanatorium and was later murdered in the Nazis' Aktion T4 programme.


title: Joseph Roth

text: In 1929 he met Andrea Manga Bell who shared his life for the next six years. Andrea Manga Bell was born in Hamburg and unhappily married to Alexandre Douala Manga Bell, Prince of Douala in Cameroon. Her husband had returned to Cameroon while she and their children stayed in Europe. When Roth met her, she was editor of the Ullstein magazine "Gebrauchsgraphik".


title: Joseph Roth

text: In 1923, Roth's first (unfinished) novel, "The Spider's Web", was serialized in an Austrian newspaper. He went on to achieve moderate success as a novelist with a series of books exploring life in post-war Europe, but only upon publication of "Job" and "Radetzky March" did he achieve acclaim for his fiction rather than his journalism.


title: Joseph Roth

text: From 1930, Roth's fiction became less concerned with contemporary society, with which he had become increasingly disillusioned, and began to evoke a melancholic nostalgia for life in imperial Central Europe before 1914. He often portrayed the fate of homeless wanderers looking for a place to live, in particular Jews and former citizens of the old Austria-Hungary, who, with the downfall of the monarchy, had lost their only possible "Heimat" ("true home"). In his later works, Roth appeared to wish that the monarchy could be restored. His longing for a more tolerant past may be partly explained as a reaction against the political extremism of the time, which culminated in Germany with National Socialism. The novel "Radetzky March" (1932) and the story "The Bust of the Emperor" (1935) are typical of this late phase. In another novel, "The Emperor's Tomb" (1938), Roth describes the fate of a cousin of the hero of "Radetzky March" up to Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938.


title: Joseph Roth

text: Being a prominent liberal Jewish journalist, Roth left Germany when Adolf Hitler became Reich Chancellor on 30 January 1933. Andrea Manga Bell accompanied him with her children. He spent most of the next six years in Paris, a city he loved. His essays written in France display a delight in the city and its culture.


title: Joseph Roth

text: Shortly after Hitler's rise to power, in February 1933, Roth wrote in a prophetic letter to his friend, the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig:


title: Joseph Roth

text: The relationship with Andrea Manga Bell failed due to financial problems and Roth's jealousy. From 1936 to 1938, Roth had a romantic relationship with Irmgard Keun. They worked together, traveling to various cities such as Paris, Wilna, Lemberg, Warsaw, Vienna, Salzburg, Brussels and Amsterdam.


title: Joseph Roth

text: Without intending to deny his Jewish origins, Roth considered his relationship to Catholicism very important. In the final years of his life, he may even have converted: Michael Hofmann states in the preface to the collection of essays " The White Cities" (also published as "Report from a Parisian Paradise") that Roth "was said to have had two funerals, one Jewish, one Catholic".


title: Joseph Roth

text: Roth's last years were difficult. He moved from hotel to hotel, drinking heavily, and becoming increasingly anxious about money and the future. Despite suffering from chronic alcoholism, he remained prolific until his premature death in Paris in 1939. His novella "The Legend of the Holy Drinker" (1939) chronicles the attempts made by an alcoholic vagrant to regain his dignity and honor a debt.


title: Joseph Roth

text: Roth's final collapse was precipitated by hearing the news that the playwright Ernst Toller had hanged himself in New York. Roth died from pneumonia on 27 May 1939 and was buried on 30 May at the Cimetière de Thiais, south of Paris.


title: Appropriate technology

text: Appropriate technology is a movement (and its manifestations) encompassing technological choice and application that is small-scale, affordable by locals, decentralized, labor-intensive, energy-efficient, environmentally sustainable, and locally autonomous. It was originally articulated as intermediate technology by the economist Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher in his work "Small Is Beautiful." Both Schumacher and many modern-day proponents of appropriate technology also emphasize the technology as people-centered.


title: Appropriate technology

text: Appropriate technology has been used to address issues in a wide range of fields. Well-known examples of appropriate technology applications include: bike- and hand-powered water pumps (and other self-powered equipment), the universal nut sheller, self-contained solar lamps and streetlights, and passive solar building designs. Today appropriate technology is often developed using open source principles, which have led to "open-source appropriate technology" (OSAT) and thus many of the plans of the technology can be freely found on the Internet. OSAT has been proposed as a new model of enabling innovation for sustainable development.


title: Appropriate technology

text: Appropriate technology is most commonly discussed in its relationship to economic development and as an alternative to technology transfer of more capital-intensive technology from industrialized nations to developing countries. However, appropriate technology movements can be found in both developing and developed countries. In developed countries, the appropriate technology movement grew out of the energy crisis of the 1970s and focuses mainly on environmental and sustainability issues. Today the idea is multifaceted; in some contexts, appropriate technology can be described as the simplest level of technology that can achieve the intended purpose, whereas in others, it can refer to engineering that takes adequate consideration of social and environmental ramifications. The facets are connected through robustness and sustainable living.


title: Appropriate technology

text: Indian ideological leader Mahatma Gandhi is often cited as the "father" of the appropriate technology movement. Though the concept had not been given a name, Gandhi advocated for small, local and predominantly village-based technology to help India's villages become self-reliant. He disagreed with the idea of technology that benefited a minority of people at the expense of the majority or that put people out of work to increase profit. In 1925 Gandhi founded the All-India Spinners Association and in 1935 he retired from politics to form the All-India Village Industries Association. Both organizations focused on village-based technology similar to the future appropriate technology movement.


title: Appropriate technology

text: China also implemented policies similar to appropriate technology during the reign of Mao Zedong and the following Cultural Revolution. During the Cultural Revolution, development policies based on the idea of "walking on two legs" advocated the development of both large-scale factories and small-scale village industries.


title: Appropriate technology

text: Despite these early examples, Dr. Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher is credited as the founder of the appropriate technology movement. A well-known economist, Schumacher worked for the British National Coal Board for more than 20 years, where he blamed the size of the industry's operations for its uncaring response to the harm black-lung disease inflicted on the miners. However it was his work with developing countries, such as India and Burma, which helped Schumacher form the underlying principles of appropriate technology.


title: Appropriate technology

text: Schumacher first articulated the idea of "intermediate technology," now known as appropriate technology, in a 1962 report to the Indian Planning Commission in which he described India as long in labor and short in capital, calling for an "intermediate industrial technology" that harnessed India's labor surplus. Schumacher had been developing the idea of intermediate technology for several years prior to the Planning Commission report. In 1955, following a stint as an economic advisor to the government of Burma, he published the short paper "Economics in a Buddhist Country," his first known critique of the effects of Western economics on developing countries. In addition to Buddhism, Schumacher also credited his ideas to Gandhi.


title: Appropriate technology

text: Initially, Schumacher's ideas were rejected by both the Indian government and leading development economists. Spurred to action over concern the idea of intermediate technology would languish, Schumacher, George McRobie, Mansur Hoda and Julia Porter brought together a group of approximately 20 people to form the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) in May 1965. Later that year, a Schumacher article published in "The Observer" garnered significant attention and support for the group. In 1967, the group published the "Tools for Progress: A Guide to Small-scale Equipment for Rural Development" and sold 7,000 copies. ITDG also formed panels of experts and practitioners around specific technological needs (such as building construction, energy and water) to develop intermediate technologies to address those needs. At a conference hosted by the ITDG in 1968 the term "intermediate technology" was discarded in favor of the term "appropriate technology" used today. Intermediate technology had been criticized as suggesting the technology was inferior to advanced (or high) technology and not including the social and political factors included in the concept put forth by the proponents. In 1973, Schumacher described the concept of appropriate technology to a mass audience in his influential work "".


title: Appropriate technology

text: Between 1966 and 1975 the number of new appropriate technology organizations founded each year was three times greater than the previous nine years. There was also an increase in organizations focusing on applying appropriate technology to the problems of industrialized nations, particularly issues related to energy and the environment. In 1977, the OECD identified in its "Appropriate Technology Directory" 680 organizations involved in the development and promotion of appropriate technology. By 1980, this number had grown to more than 1,000. International agencies and government departments were also emerging as major innovators in appropriate technology, indicating its progression from a small movement fighting against the established norms to a legitimate technological choice supported by the establishment. For example, the Inter-American Development Bank created a Committee for the Application of Intermediate Technology in 1976 and the World Health Organization established the Appropriate Technology for Health Program in 1977.


title: Appropriate technology

text: Appropriate technology was also increasingly applied in developed countries. For example, the energy crisis of the mid-1970s led to the creation of the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) in 1977 with an initial appropriation of 3 million dollars from the U.S. Congress. The Center sponsored appropriate technology demonstrations to "help low-income communities find better ways to do things that will improve the quality of life, and that will be doable with the skills and resources at hand." However, by 1981 the NCAT's funding agency, Community Services Administration, had been abolished. For several decades NCAT worked with the US departments of Energy and Agriculture on contract to develop appropriate technology programs. Since 2005, NCAT's informational web site is no longer funded by the US government.


title: Appropriate technology

text: In more recent years, the appropriate technology movement has continued to decline in prominence. Germany's German Appropriate Technology Exchange (GATE) and Holland's Technology Transfer for Development (TOOL) are examples of organizations no longer in operation. Recently, a study looked at the continued barriers to AT deployment despite the relatively low cost of transferring information in the internet age. The barriers have been identified as: AT seen as inferior or "poor person's" technology, technical transferability and robustness of AT, insufficient funding, weak institutional support, and the challenges of distance and time in tackling rural poverty.


title: Appropriate technology

text: A more free market-centric view has also begun to dominate the field. For example, Paul Polak, founder of International Development Enterprises (an organization that designs and manufactures products that follow the ideals of appropriate technology), declared appropriate technology dead in a 2010 blog post.


title: Appropriate technology

text: Polak argues the "design for the other 90 percent" movement has replaced appropriate technology. Growing out of the appropriate technology movement, designing for the other 90 percent advocates the creation of low-cost solutions for the 5.8 billion of the world's 6.8 billion population "who have little or no access to most of the products and services many of us take for granted."


title: Appropriate technology

text: Many of the ideas integral to appropriate technology can now be found in the increasingly popular "sustainable development" movement, which among many tenets advocates technological choice that meets human needs while preserving the environment for future generations. In 1983, the OECD published the results of an extensive survey of appropriate technology organizations titled, "The World of Appropriate Technology," in which it defined appropriate technology as characterized by "low investment cost per work-place, low capital investment per unit of output, organizational simplicity, high adaptability to a particular social or cultural environment, sparing use of natural resources, low cost of final product or high potential for employment." Today, the OECD web site redirects from the "Glossary of Statistical Terms" entry on "appropriate technology" to "environmentally sound technologies." The United Nations' "Index to Economic and Social Development" also redirects from the "appropriate technology" entry to "sustainable development."


title: Appropriate technology

text: Despite the decline, several appropriate technology organizations are still in existence, including the ITDG which became Practical Action after a name change in 2005. Skat (Schweizerische Kontaktstelle für Angepasste Technology) adapted by becoming a private consultancy in 1998, though some Intermediate Technology activities are continued by Skat Foundation through the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN). Another actor still very active is the charity CEAS (Centre Ecologique Albert Schweitzer). A pioneer in food transformation and solar heaters, it offers vocational training in West Africa and Madagascar. There is also currently a notable resurgence as viewed by the number of groups adopting open source appropriate technology (OSAT) because of the enabling technology of the Internet. These OSAT groups include: Akvo Foundation, Appropedia, The Appropriate Technology Collaborative, Catalytic Communities, Centre for Alternative Technology, Center For Development Alternatives, Engineers Without Borders, Open Source Ecology, Practical Action, and Village Earth. Most recently ASME, Engineers Without Borders (USA) and the IEEE have joined together to produce Engineering for Change, which facilitates the development of affordable, locally appropriate and sustainable solutions to the most pressing humanitarian challenges.