History.

On 20 March 2004, an agreement between the Thai and Lao governments was signed to extend the State Railway of Thailand's Northeastern Line from Nong Khai to Thanaleng, a town on the Lao side of the Mekong. The Thai government agreed to finance the line through a combination of grants and loans. The estimated cost of the Nong Khai–Thanaleng line was US$6.2 million, of which 70% was financed by Thai loans. Construction formally began on 19 January 2007, and test trains began running on 4 July 2008. Formal inauguration occurred on 5 March 2009. Thanaleng Station is the only station of the Bangkok–Thanaleng rail route on the Lao side of the border.

Proposed extension.

On 22 February 2006, after the conclusion of a trilateral agreement between Thailand, Laos, and France, the French Development Agency announced that it had approved funding for a second phase of the Thanaleng railway—an extension to Vientiane. The cost of this second phase was estimated at US$13.2 million, including the cost of feasibility studies, infrastructure, and equipment. A US$50 million loan was also reportedly received from the Thai government for the extension. Construction was originally slated to begin in December 2010, and Lao railway officials had confirmed as late as September 2010 that plans would go ahead. The extension, which would have taken an estimated three years to complete, would have stretched from Thanaleng to a new main station in Khamsavat village in Vientiane's Xaysetha District, away from That Luang Temple.  In November 2010, however, Lao and Thai officials confirmed that their joint extension project had been scrapped in favor of a new line supported by the governments of Thailand and China, which would pass through Laos. The project, which would link Nong Khai with the Chinese city of Kunming, would involve the construction of a new bridge across the Mekong, closer to Vientiane. After reviewing the project, Lao officials decided that Thanaleng station would be converted into a terminal for freight trains crossing over the Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge; freight could then be transported from Bangkok into Laos at a lower cost than would be possible with road transport. The Laotian section will be opened in 2021.

Facilities.

Thanaleng railway station is in a somewhat isolated area southeast of Vientiane, in Dongphosy village. Travellers arriving at the station must arrange their own travel onward into Vientiane, or use tuk-tuks or buses that may be stationed there to await travellers. A transfer counter now operates at the station, where passengers requiring transfer into Vientiane pay a flat rate for transportation into the city, by tuk-tuk or minivan.  Lao tourist visas are available on arrival at Thanaleng. Entry and exit fees are collected at the station upon embarking or disembarking.  As of September 2010, an estimated 2,500 to 3,000 passengers were using the Nong Khai–Thanaleng train daily. Trains consist of two coaches, each carrying up to 80 passengers. Tickets onward to Bangkok may be purchased at the station; passengers travelling through must alight the train at Nong Khai to pass through Thai customs and immigration.

Thanaleng railway station, also known as Dongphosy Station ("Ban Dong Phosy" in Lao), is a railway station in Dongphosy village, Hadxayfong District, Vientiane Prefecture, Laos. It is east of the Lao capital city of Vientiane and north of the Lao-Thai border on the Mekong River. The station opened on 5 March 2009, becoming part of the first international railway link serving Laos. Originally intended for use as a passenger station, Lao officials have stated their intention to convert it to a rail freight terminal to provide a low-cost alternative to road freight, the main mode of transport for goods entering Thailand. The station provides a connection between Vientiane and the capital cities of three other ASEAN nations: Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, and several major Southeast Asian ports.

塔纳楞车站(),又名东坡西车站,是一座位于老挝哈赛丰县东坡西村()的铁路车站。老挝首都永珍位于该站以西处,而老挝和泰国的界河——湄公河则在车站以南处。该站在2009年3月5日通车,是老挝第一条国际铁路线的终点站,也是老挝唯一一座铁路站。此车站原本只提供客运服务,但老挝当局期望将之改建为货运车站,以提供铁路货运服务,提供另一个把货物运往泰国的方式,而这种方式的成本又低于泰-{zh-hant:老; zh-hans:老; zh-tw:寮;}-两国主要的货运方式──公路货运。这个车站由老挝国家铁路局管理,是泰国国家铁路的终点站,把永珍、另外三个东盟成员国(泰国、马来西亚和新加坡)的首都和东南亚几座重要的港口连接起来。


Background.

Background to bills.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) are bills that were introduced into the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate in the last quarter of 2011. Both are responses to the problem of enforcement of U.S. laws against websites outside U.S. jurisdiction. While the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and other existing laws have generally been considered effective against illegal content or activities on U.S.-based sites, action is more difficult against overseas websites. SOPA and PIPA proposed to rectify this by cutting off infringing sites from their U.S.-based funding (particularly advertising), payment processors, appearances on search engines, and visibility on web browsers, instead. Major providers of all these services are predominantly U.S.-based. Notably, the provisions also involved modifying the DNS system, a crucial service that underpins the entire Internet and allows computers to locate each other reliably around the world.  Supporters included, but were not limited to, media companies and industry associations such as the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America and the Entertainment Software Association. Supporters generally identified a need to have more effective laws to combat the illegal domestic sales of products and services, the counterfeiting and sale of products (such as prescription drugs, athletic shoes, and cosmetics), and worldwide copyright infringing activities which were problematic to prevent inasmuch as they originated outside the United States.  Those opposed included a mixture of technology and Internet firms and associations, content creators such as the Wikipedia community, free software authors, free speech organizations, lawmakers, and other websites and organizations, as well as members of the public using their services. They generally identified two main areas of severe side-effects: (1) effects on Internet websites, communities and user-generated content, and (2) effects on critically fundamental internet architecture and security:  Google's policy director, Bob Boorstin, stated that a site like YouTube supporting user-generated content "would just go dark immediately" to comply with the legislation. Tumblr, one of the first websites active in grassroots activism against the bills, added a feature that "censored" its website on November 16, 2011, and the social media aggregator Reddit also became deeply involved.

Legislative and protest timeline.

On November 16, 2011, a first hearing by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee was marked by online protests involving blackened website banners, popularly described as "American Censorship Day".  On December 15, 2011, the first House Judiciary Committee mark-up hearing took place for SOPA, prior to its eventual move to the House floor. During the markup session, several proposed amendments to address technological and other concerns were defeated. The mark-up process was put on hold to be resumed after the new year.  Around this time, numerous websites began displaying banners and messages promoting their readerships to contact Congress to stop the progress of the bill, and some websites began to discuss or endorse a possible "Internet blackout" before any vote on SOPA in the House, as a means of further protest. Reddit was the first major site to announce an "Internet blackout" for January 18, 2012, and several other sites shortly followed, coordinating actions for that day.  A notable political response to the November 2011 protests was the outlining in early December of a bipartisan third, alternative, bill with the support of technology companies such as Google and Facebook, which unusually had been posted on the Internet to allow public comment and suggestions in light of the widespread protests related to the SOPA and PIPA bills. It was formally introduced as the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN) in the Senate on December 17 by Senator Ron Wyden and in the House on January 18 by Representative Darrell Issa. It proposed placing enforcement in the hands of the United States International Trade Commission, keeping provisions that targeted payments and advertising for infringing websites, and tightly targeted wording to avoid many other key areas of concern with SOPA and PIPA.  Online discussions of a blackout and concerns over the bills continued unabated after the markup hearing and increased in prominence. On January 11, Senator Patrick Leahy, the main sponsor for PIPA, said of the DNS filtering provision, "I will therefore propose that the positive and negative effects of this provision be studied before implemented", reported by some papers as removal of those provisions. Opposers deemed this a tactical withdrawal allowing reintroduction at a later stage and ignoring other concerns as well as provisions in PIPA, and evidence that the bill had not been understood or checked by its own creators and that proposals for a blackout were gaining impact. Momentum for the protests continued unchanged since the bills had merely been postponed, and due to their other contentious provisions.

Protests of November 16, 2011 ("American Censorship Day").

On November 16, 2011, SOPA was discussed by the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary. Tumblr, Mozilla, Techdirt, and the Center for Democracy and Technology were among many Internet companies who protested by participating in 'American Censorship Day', by displaying black banners over their site logos with the words "STOP CENSORSHIP."

December 2011 boycott of GoDaddy.

On December 22, 2011, users at Reddit proposed a boycott and a public day for switching away from then–SOPA supporter GoDaddy, the largest ICANN-accredited registrar in the world, known as Move Your Domain Day. The date was later set as December 29, 2011.  Popular websites that moved domains included imgur, the Wikimedia Foundation, and Cheezburger — which stated it would remove over 1,000 domains from GoDaddy if they continued their support of SOPA.  On December 23, GoDaddy withdrew its support for SOPA, releasing a statement saying "GoDaddy will support it when and if the Internet community supports it." CEO Warren Adelman stated when asked, that he couldn't commit to changing GoDaddy's position on the record in Congress, but said "I'll take that back to our legislative guys, but I agree that's an important step"; when pressed, he said "We're going to step back and let others take leadership roles." Further outrage was due to the fact that many Internet sites would be subject to shutdowns under SOPA, but GoDaddy is in a narrow class of exempted businesses that would have immunity, whereas many other domain operators would not.  On December 26, 2011, a Google bomb was started against GoDaddy to remove them from the #1 place on Google for the term "Domain Registration" in retaliation for supporting SOPA. This was then disseminated through Hacker News. Reddit users noted that by December 22, 2011, SOPA supporters were discovering the backlash that could arise from ignoring social media users.  Reports up to December 29 described GoDaddy as "hemorrhaging" customers. On December 25, 2011 (Christmas Day), GoDaddy lost a net 16,191 domains as a result of the boycott. However, on December 29 itself, GoDaddy gained a net of 20,748 domains, twice as many as it lost that day, attributed by Techdirt to a number of causes, in particular customers having moved early, and an appeased customer response to their change of position over SOPA.

Protests of January 18, 2012.

Protestors.

Wikimedia community.

On December 10, 2011, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales drew attention to concerns over SOPA, which he described as a "much worse law" than the "DDL intercettazioni" (Wiretapping Bill) in Italy some months earlier, and which was being fast-tracked through the United States Congress under a "misleading title". He stated he was attending high-level meetings on this, and wanted to gauge the sense of the English Wikipedia community on the issue, and specifically on the question of a blackout similar to that held successfully in October 2011 by Italian Wikipedia editors over the proposed media censorship law in that country:  Following initial informal discussions which resulted in a positive response, a formal consultation titled "SOPA Initiative" was opened by the community to consider specific proposals and preferred options. These included matters such as location (United States only or worldwide), and whether content should be disabled completely or still accessible after a click-through page. Eventually, the discussion led to a decision strongly in favor of a 24-hour global blackout of the site on January 18, disabling normal reading and editing functions, affirmed in a vote of approximately 1,800 editors. The blocking action was purposely not complete; users could access Wikipedia content from the mobile interface or mirror sites, or if they disabled JavaScript or other web browser functions. Within hours of the start of the blackout, many websites posted instructions for disabling the banner, by altering URLs, using browser add-ons such as Adblock Plus or Greasemonkey, or interrupting the page from loading completely.  The vote formally affected the English Wikipedia only; other language editions and Wikimedia projects were left free to decide whether to hold their own protests given the potential worldwide impact of the legislation, with technical support on offer from the Foundation.  On January 17, 2012, Jimmy Wales affirmed the results of the community's decision and that the Wikimedia Foundation, which hosts the English Wikipedia website, would support the community's decision. He called for a "public uprising" against the proposed legislation, which critics fear would threaten free speech. He added that factors such as funding or donations had not been part of the community's considerations, but the matter had arisen as "a principled stand" from the community, and that in his view "our best long-term prospect for Wikipedia in terms of our survival... depends on us being principled". He commented on editors' reasons for the decision:  Wikimedia Executive Director Sue Gardner posted an announcement of the Foundation's support for the blackout proposal on Wikimedia's blog. The post received over 7000 responses from the general public within the first 24 hours of its posting. The blackout was to run for 24 hours starting at 05:00 UTC (midnight Eastern Standard Time) on January 18.  Despite the support of those polled for the action, a small number of Wikipedia editors blacked out their own user profile pages or resigned their administrative positions in protest of the blackout; one editor stated his "main concern is that it puts the organization in the role of advocacy, and that's a slippery slope".  Approximately 90% out of the 2097 editors who took part in the votes supported joining the blackout action. It is estimated that only less than half the voters were from the United States, which suggests that Wikipedia acted as a platform for an international community to express its opinion. The most common rationale expressed by about a fifth of the editors was the sentiment that "SOPA was perceived as a worldwide threat". A majority of editors who opposed the participation were concerned with the perceived dissonance between Wikipedia's encyclopedic ethos, neutrality and active participation in a political issue (sentiment endorsed by about 4% of the vote participants); only 0.3% of participating editors suggested they support a tougher copyright regime.

Other websites.

According to protest organizer "Fight for the Future", more than 115,000 websites participated in the protest, including Google and Wikipedia. Websites that participated in the blackout included Cheezburger, Craigslist, Boing Boing, A Softer World, Cake Wrecks, Cyanide & Happiness, Demand Progress, Destructoid, Entertainment Consumers Association. Free Press, Failblog, Newgrounds, Good.is, GOG.com, Gamesradar, Internet Archive, Marxists Internet Archive, Jay is Games, Mojang, MoveOn.org, Mozilla, MS Paint Adventures, Rate Your Music, Reddit, Roblox, Oh No They Didn't, Tucows, blip.tv, Tumblr, TwitPic, Twitter, The Oatmeal, VGMusic, Wikia, WordPress, the webcomic xkcd as well as the corporate site of the Linux distribution openSUSE and the congressional websites of Silicon Valley representatives Anna Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren. Google announced their intention to join the blackout by altering their logo for US visitors for the day, almost entirely obscuring it with an interactive black redaction swath. Clicking through the specially designed logo took readers to an informational page about the bills, and the opportunity to sign a petition to be sent to Congress stating their concerns.  The Mozilla Foundation altered the default start page of their Firefox web browser, blacking it out and providing links with more information on the SOPA/PIPA bills and the opposition to them, and to allow users to email their Congressional representatives.  TV Tropes posted black bars atop the web page with the message "STOP SOPA".  Mojang's bestselling game "Minecraft" made a splash text that said "SOPA means LOSER in Swedish!"  A site called The Spoony Experiment, known for a cute robot mascot called Burton, changed the homepage into a more nightmarish version, involving a nightmarish version of Burton and the words "The Spoony Experiment" replaced by red text proclaiming "The Experiment is Over", signifying the proposed death of several websites.  "Wired" magazine's online site used Javascript to place black bars on most of the text on their page, as if the text was redacted, outside of their key article regarding SOPA/PIPA; readers could remove the bars with a mouse click.  The photo-sharing website Flickr created the ability for a registered user to "censor" an unlimited number (up from an initial limit of ten) of photos as demonstration of how SOPA/PIPA regulation would affect the site; the user-selected photographs were greyed out, and included informational text.  4chan ran a banner and "censored" posts by users on all image boards, which could be viewed by hovering over them.  StumbleUpon added numerous links to anti-SOPA/PIPA websites.  A video was circulated by the League for Gamers (founded by Mark Kern and supported by ScrewAttack, "Extra Credits", and "LoadingReadyRun") protesting the Entertainment Software Association's support of SOPA by gathering support to boycott the ESA's popular E3 convention.

Physical demonstrations.

In addition to the online blackouts, protests in cities such as New York City, San Francisco, and Seattle were held on January 18 to raise awareness of the two bills.  A series of pickets against the bills were held at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Two picketers were arrested.

Reaction.

Pre-protest.

The announcement of the blackout was reported worldwide. Media that covered the story included ABC Australia, CBC, BBC, "der Spiegel", "Le Figaro", "Le Monde", "Libération"," Fox News", "The Guardian", Menafn, News Limited, Sky News, "The Age", "The Hindu", "The New York Times", "Taipei Times", "The Washington Post", "The Wall Street Journal" and "The Times of India".  Several media organizations including "The Washington Post", "The Guardian", and NPR encouraged a "crowdsourcing solution for those left searching for answers" during the Wikipedia blackout by inviting users to ask questions on Twitter using the hashtag #altwiki.  An executive of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) dubbed the blackout plan an example of the "gimmicks and distortion" that inflamed passions while failing to solve the problem of copyright infringement by "draw[ing] people away from trying to resolve what is a real problem, which is that foreigners continue to steal the hard work of Americans". Former U.S. Senator and MPAA Director Chris Dodd stated that the coordinated shutdown was "also an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today."  Dick Costolo, CEO of social networking site Twitter, rejected calls for Twitter to join the protest, tweeting that "[c]losing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish." Originally, some thought Costolo referred to all of the blackout movements on January 18, but afterwards clarified that he was referring to a hypothetical blackout of Twitter, and that he was supportive of the Wikipedia blackout itself.  The sponsor of the bill, Representative Lamar S. Smith, called the blackout a "publicity stunt," and stated with reference to Wikipedia that "it is ironic a website dedicated to providing information is spreading misinformation about the Stop Online Piracy Act."  On January 17, 2012, in response to growing concerns over PIPA and SOPA, the White House stated that it "will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet."

January 18.

The Wikimedia Foundation reported that there were over 162 million visits to the blacked-out version of Wikipedia during the 24-hour period, with at least 8 million uses of the site's front page to look up contact information for their U.S. Congressional representatives. The usage of Wikipedia's front page increased enormously during the blackout with 17,535,733 page views recorded, compared with 4,873,388 on the previous day. A petition created and linked to by Google recorded over 4.5 million signatures, while the Electronic Frontier Foundation reported that more than 1 million email messages were sent to congressmen through their site during the blackout. MSNBC reported that over 2.4 million Twitter messages about SOPA, PIPA, and the blackouts were made during a 16-hour period on January 18; this included Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who had not used the service since 2009, to encourage his followers to contact their congressmen. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), a key opponent of the bills, said that "lawmakers had collected more than 14 million names - more than 10 million of them voters" to protest the legislation.  "Time" reported that before the day had ended, "the political dominoes began to fall... then trickle turned into flood". It named ten senators who had announced their switch to opposing the bills and stated that "nearly twice that many House members" had done so.  During the blackout, libraries at several universities used the outage to remind students that the traditional paper encyclopedias were available for research. Students who grew up turning to the internet to look up information were encouraged to visit the library as an alternative source of information. On Twitter, a joke hashtag #factswithoutWikipedia trended with users posting humorous fake "facts." "Startled" Internet users frustrated or angry at their loss of Wikipedia for the day used Twitter as an outlet; politicians likewise turned to Twitter when overwhelmed by the public communications flood in support of the blackout. CTV news in Canada published a "survival guide" for "getting around the blackout" on their national website, citing Wikipedia as the answer to "burning questions such as "Are chinchillas rodents?" and "What does 'rickrolling' mean?" The guide provided detailed instructions on how to circumvent the ban and access the English Wikipedia during the protest. CTV referred to the protest as "a date that will live in ignorance." Creative America, a coalition representing movie studios, entertainment unions, and television networks, used the blackout to prompt those affected by it to enjoy other forms of entertainment in place of their normal Internet activities; such ads appeared at Times Square in New York City and on various websites.

Post-protest.

The impact of the coordinated action was generally considered to be significant. Yochai Benkler of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society stated that the January 18 blackout was "a very strong public demonstration to suggest that what historically was seen as a technical system of rules that only influences the content industry has become something more," further adding "You've got millions of citizens who care enough to act. That's not trivial." California House member Darrell Issa called the collective effort an unprecedented means for upsetting a backroom lobbying effort, and the immediate political efficacy of the widespread online protest was characterised in terms of a sleeping giant having awakened and of a new player being in town. One Silicon Valley lobbyist said the content industry had "a lot to learn," noting that they don't have grassroots support: "There are no Facebook pages to call your congressman to support PIPA and SOPA." "The New York Times", which framed the netizens' revolt in terms of the new economy versus the old economy, headlined the activism as a "political coming of age for the tech industry." James Grimmelmann, an Associate Professor at New York Law School, opined two months later that "Legal systems are like Soylent Green: they're made out of people. If you want to protect civil liberties using law, you need to get people on your side who share your vision of what law stands for. That's why the SOPA protests were so effective. They converted an argument about justice into real-world political power."  Newspaper editorials had mixed views. The "Boston Herald" called the protest a "hissy fit" by "Internet powerhouses" saying, "within hours of the online protest, political supporters of the bill... began dropping like flies, thus proving how very powerful these cyber-bullies can be." The "New York Times" described the protest as "Noted, but as a Brief Inconvenience" and, as well, offered an opinion about the protest and possible accomplishments. BBC News technology writer Rory Cellan-Jones was of the opinion that the blackout achieved its objectives but possibly at some cost to Wikipedia's reputation. Bill Keller was of the view that "Jimmy Wales... assumed a higher profile as a combatant for the tech industry [and] supplied an aura of credibility to a libertarian alliance that ranged from the money-farming Megatrons of Google to the hacker anarchists of Anonymous." Media columnist David Carr wrote in the "New York Times" that there were two lessons, one being that "People who don't understand the Web should not try to re-engineer it", and the other that while businesses generally prize their relations with their customers, in the struggle between media and technology companies, the latter have "a much more chronic [i.e. ongoing], intimate relationship with consumers" and would more likely prevail.  Motion Picture Association of America chairman Chris Dodd admitted that the content industry had lost the public relations battle with the Internet industry, adding that "[y]ou've got an opponent who has the capacity to reach millions of people with a click of a mouse and there's no fact-checker. They can say whatever they want." Dodd called for Hollywood and Silicon Valley to work out a compromise on the legislation, but was also criticized for a statement on "Fox News" to the effect that politicians would risk having campaign funding cut off if they did not support media industry proposals. The legal director of public interest group Public Knowledge was quoted on that organization's website as writing:  Threats like that are no way to conduct the serious, sober discussions needed to figure out exactly what ails the movie industry and to come up with solutions. It was Hollywood's arrogance in pushing bills through Congress without proper vetting that caused them to be withdrawn; these threats also are not helpful to figuring out what ails the industry and how to solve their issues.  Among other media industry reactions, Creative America was of the view that "[t]hey've misidentified this issue as an issue about your Internet, your Internet is being jeopardized. In fact their business model is being asked to be subjected to regulation. They're misleading their huge base." Recording Industry Association of America President Cary Sherman noted that the major television networks supported the legislation but, unlike Wikipedia and Google, did not use their platforms to try to shape public opinion: "when Wikipedia and Google purport to be neutral sources of information that is not only not neutral but affirmatively incomplete and misleading, they are duping their users into accepting as truth what are merely self-serving political declarations."  Rep. Lamar Smith, who sponsored SOPA, flatly stated in a commentary on Fox News that "This bill does not threaten the Internet. But it does threaten the profits generated by foreign criminals who target the U.S. market and willfully steal intellectual property by trafficking in counterfeit or pirated goods." While speaking on the Senate floor on January 23 Senator Leahy reiterated his objections to the protests, saying:  Websites like Wikipedia and YouTube... would not be subject to the provisions of the bill. That Wikipedia and some other websites decided to "go dark" on January 18 was their choice, self imposed and was not caused by the legislation and could not be. It was disappointing that sites linked to descriptions of this legislation that were misleading and one-sided. The Internet should be a place for discussion, for all to be heard and for different points of view to be expressed. That is how truth emerges and democracy is served. Last week, however, many were subjected to false and incendiary charges and sloganeering designed to inflame emotions.

International responses.

World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee "scathingly" attacked the SOPA and PIPA legislation. Speaking at an industry event in Florida he praised the protests by major sites for the attention they had drawn, and described the bills as a "grave threat to the openness of the Internet" that "had to be stopped":  Two days later, Vice-President of the European Commission and European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes described the bills as "bad legislation" that would "threaten the basic foundation of the success of the web". She also said there "should be safeguarding benefits of open net." "Speeding is illegal too but you don't put speed bumps on the motorway," she said.

Related protests.

SOPA and PIPA protests were overlapped and followed by protests against ACTA which has a similar sense. The ACTA treaty was signed by 22 Member States in Europe and was expected to be signed before March 2012 by the other left Cyprus, Estonia, Netherlands and Slovakia, and thus would have gained legal force for the whole European Union. On February 11, more than 200 European cities took part in a widespread protest against ACTA. Although protests were held in Europe, the signing of ACTA was led by USA, Australia, Canada, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Morocco, and Singapore, which were first to sign the treaty at a ceremony on October 1, 2011, in Tokyo. However, the concerns of ACTA are much related and raised after the protests against SOPA and PIPA which directed the public attention to bills and acts that may threaten Internet and civic liberties.

Legislative impact and aftermath.

During the day of January 18, six of PIPA's sponsors in the Senate, including Marco Rubio, PIPA's co-sponsor, Orrin Hatch, Kelly Ayotte, Roy Blunt, John Boozman, and Mark Kirk, stated that they would withdraw their support for the bills. Several other congressmen issued statements critical of the current versions of both bills.  By the following day, eighteen of the 100 senators, including eleven of the original sponsors of the PIPA bill, had announced that they no longer supported PIPA. By one account, the shift in stated positions on SOPA/PIPA by members of Congress had gone overnight from 80 for and 31 against to 65 for and 101 against. An initial floor vote was scheduled for January 24, prior to the Internet blackout, but following these responses, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that the vote will be postponed, urging the bill's main sponsor, Senator Patrick Leahy, to work out compromise in the bill "to forge a balance between protecting Americans' intellectual property, and maintaining openness and innovation on the Internet." Similarly, the House Judiciary Subcommittee chairman, Representative Lamar S. Smith, announced that further voting on SOPA would be placed on hold "until there is wider agreement on a solution." Later, an updated "The New York Times" news story reported that the two bills were "indefinitely shelved." House Committee on Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa commented that "This unprecedented effort has turned the tide against a backroom lobbying effort by interests that aren't used to being told 'no'", describing the events as a "responsible and transparent exercise of freedom of speech". Opposers cautioned that although "postponed," the bills were "not dead" and "would return."  Months after the protests, in July 2012, "The New York Times" summarized events as follows: Wikipedia went black to protest SOPA and more than seven million people signed online petitions, many of which said the bills would "break the Internet." Congress, overwhelmed by the popular opposition, quickly backpedaled, leaving the legislation to die.  The development of the electronic grassroots campaign has been the subject of academic analysis.

Other proposed laws.

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), "SOPA and PIPA are really only the tip of the iceberg. The same forces behind these domestic U.S. laws have continued to both push for other states to pass similar domestic laws, as well as to secretly negotiate international trade agreements that would force signatory nations to conform to the same legal standards."  Examples cited by EFF include:  Examples considered "similar to SOPA/PIPA" by other analyses:

On January 18, 2012, a series of coordinated protests occurred against two proposed laws in the United States Congress—the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). These followed smaller protests in late 2011. Protests were based on concerns that the bills, intended to provide more robust responses to copyright infringement (also known as piracy) arising outside the United States, contained measures that could possibly infringe online freedom of speech, websites, and Internet communities. Protesters also argued that there were insufficient safeguards in place to protect sites based upon user-generated content.

反SOPA和PIPA抗议(英语:Protests against SOPA and PIPA)是一系列为抗议美国国会准备表决的《禁止网络盗版法案》(SOPA)和《保护知识产权法案》(PIPA)的行动。此次抗议活动得到了多个知名网站支持或参与,包括英文维基百科和Google。其中以英文维基百科在2012年1月18日至19日进行的自发性的,历时24小时的关闭抗议活动最受媒体关注。


Plot summary.

The Wall and beyond.

Stannis Baratheon, a claimant to the Iron Throne of Westeros, occupies the Wall at the realm's northern border, having helped to repel an invasion of wildlings from the northern wilderness. Stannis executes Mance Rayder, the leader of the wildlings, for refusing to submit to him, and marches his army south to seek support in his bid for the throne.  Jon Snow, the newly elected Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, the order that defends the Wall, prepares the defense against the Others, hostile inhuman creatures from the far north. Jon negotiates with wildling leader Tormund Giantsbane to the wildlings past the Wall in exchange for their assistance in defending it. This results in a fragile peace but creates unrest among the Night's Watch, who have considered the wildlings their enemies for centuries.  Stannis's advisor, the sorceress Melisandre, warns Jon that his half-sister, Arya Stark, is in trouble. Mance is revealed to be alive, thanks to Melisandre's magical trickery. He is sent to the Starks' ancestral castle Winterfell, now occupied by the enemy Boltons, to rescue Arya. However, the girl in Melisandre's visions turns out to be Alys Karstark, a young noblewoman fleeing to the Wall to escape her treacherous uncle. To protect Alys and aid the wildlings' integration into Westerosi society, Jon arranges for Alys to marry Sigorn of Thenn, a wildling leader.  Jon receives a taunting letter from Ramsay Bolton, who claims to have crushed Stannis's army at Winterfell. Threatening attack, Ramsay demands that Jon send him Stannis's wife, daughter, and other hostages, in addition to Arya and Jon's foster-brother Theon Greyjoy, the latter two whom Jon hasn't seen in years. Jon decides to march on Ramsay himself and asks for volunteers to accompany him. His officers view Jon's intent to march on Ramsay as a betrayal of the Watch's neutrality and he is stabbed in a mutiny.  Meanwhile, Jon's crippled half-brother Bran Stark, traveling north of the Wall, is led to the last surviving Children of the Forest, the non-human natives of Westeros. They introduce Bran and his companions to the "last greenseer", an ancient man intertwined with the roots of a weirwood tree. He helps Bran learn clairvoyant "greensight", enabling Bran to witness the past and present through the eyes of the weirwood trees that grow throughout the North.

Across the Narrow Sea.

In the Free Cities.

Having killed his father Tywin, the Hand of the King, the dwarf Tyrion Lannister is smuggled out of Westeros to the city of Pentos by the spymaster Varys, where he is sheltered by the aristocrat Illyrio Mopatis. Tyrion is sent south with a party ostensibly to aid the exiled princess Daenerys Targaryen, who controls the only living dragons, in claiming the Iron Throne. Tyrion learns that Varys and Illyrio have hidden the presumed-dead Aegon Targaryen, son of Daenerys's late brother Prince Rhaegar, and intend to install him as king of Westeros with Daenerys's aid. Tyrion persuades Aegon to invade Westeros immediately, without waiting for Daenerys. Soon afterward, Tyrion is kidnapped by Daenerys's disgraced advisor Jorah Mormont, who intends to deliver him to Daenerys in order to regain her favor.  In the Free City of Braavos, Arya is an acolyte of the guild of assassins known as the Faceless Men. When they temporarily afflict her with blindness, Arya develops her sense of hearing, and realizes that she can "see" through cats the same way she could with her pet direwolf, Nymeria. After her sight is restored, Arya is tasked with assassinating a corrupt merchant while magically disguised with another girl's face. After doing so, Arya is declared an apprentice of the Faceless Men, to be sent to another assassin to continue her training.

Slaver's Bay.

Daenerys has conquered the city of Meereen and banned slavery, but struggles to maintain peace among various factions within the city, including the Sons of the Harpy, a violent Meereenese resistance group, and with the neighboring city of Yunkai.  Daenerys' dragons have become increasingly dangerous, and she reluctantly confines them in a dungeon for the safety of her people. Drogon, the largest, evades capture and flies off. Despite her sexual relationship with the mercenary Daario Naharis, Daenerys marries the Meereenese nobleman Hizdahr zo Loraq to secure an alliance to appease the Sons of the Harpy.  Quentyn Martell, the son of the Prince of Dorne in southern Westeros, arrives in Meereen in hopes of renewing the alliance between Daenerys's family and his, but he is unable to maintain her attention. Jorah and Tyrion are shipwrecked, kidnapped, and sold to a Yunkish slave trader. Tyrion escapes from the Yunkish army besieging Meereen, joins the Second Sons mercenary group, and secures their support for Daenerys. Meanwhile, another Westerosi, Victarion Greyjoy, sails for Meereen, intending to marry Daenerys and use her dragons to overthrow his brother, the king of the Ironborn.  At Hizdahr's insistence, Daenerys reopens the city's "fighting pits" for gladiatorial combat, but the noise and carnage attract Drogon. In the resulting chaos, Daenerys climbs onto Drogon to calm him but he flies away with her. Hizdahr is implicated in an attempt to poison Daenerys. Her advisor, Barristan Selmy, removes Hizdahr from power, and the Sons of the Harpy resume their killing. Barristan prepares for battle with the armies outside Meereen. Quentyn attempts to prove his worth by riding one of the remaining dragons but is killed and both dragons are released.  Drogon flies Daenerys to the Dothraki Sea, the grassland controlled by the nomadic Dothraki people. After several days, Daenerys encounters a Dothraki horde led by Khal Jhaqo.

In the Seven Kingdoms.

The North.

In the North, Roose Bolton has overthrown House Stark and assumed authority as the Warden of the North after allying with House Frey. Much of the region is occupied by Ironborn invaders. Under Jon Snow's advice, Stannis wins the support of northern mountain clans by pledging to recapture Winterfell and fighting off the Ironborn. With their support, Stannis captures Asha Greyjoy, Victarion's niece, and marches his forces toward Winterfell to attack the Boltons, but his advance is halted by heavy snowstorms.  Stannis's advisor Davos Seaworth is sent win the support of the wealthy lord Wyman Manderly, who pretends to execute Davos to curry favor with the Lannister regime that controls the Iron Throne. In a secret meeting, Manderly tells Davos that he and other Northern vassals intend to feign submission to the Boltons and Lannisters while plotting revenge for Robb Stark's death and the restoration of Stark rule. Revealing to Davos that young Rickon Stark is in hiding on the remote island of Skagos, Manderly pledges to support Stannis if Davos can retrieve Rickon and unite the Starks' supporters around him.  Theon Greyjoy is a prisoner of the Boltons, and is mutilated and tortured by Roose's sadistic son Ramsay, who renames Theon "Reek". To cement his rule over the North, Roose has Ramsay supposedly married to Arya Stark, but the girl is actually Jeyne Poole, a friend of Arya's sister Sansa, who is forced to impersonate Arya and physically and sexually tormented by Ramsay. A disguised Mance Rayder arrives at Winterfell and enlists Theon to help him free the false Arya. Theon and Jeyne escape, leaping from the castle wall into the snow to be captured by Stannis's forces.

The South.

Jaime Lannister, the uncle (and, secretly, father) of the young king Tommen Baratheon, negotiates the surrender of the last of the late Robb Stark's allies, nominally putting an end to the Stark–Lannister war in the Riverlands. Brienne of Tarth, whom Jaime had sent to search for Sansa Stark, finds Jaime and tells him Sansa is in danger; he follows after her.  After Tyrion convinces Aegon to attack Westeros, Aegon and his forces capture several castles in the Stormlands with little resistance. Meanwhile, Aegon's foster father Jon Connington is secretly succumbing to greyscale, a deadly and infectious disease.  Doran Martell, the prince of Dorne, sends three of his nieces north to the capital city of King's Landing to infiltrate the Faith and the government and work in Dorne's interests.  Cersei Lannister, Tommen's mother and queen regent, has been arrested by the Faith on charges of fornication and conspiracy. To gain release from her imprisonment, she confesses to several of the lesser charges against her, but does not confess to having murdered her husband King Robert Baratheon, nor that her children are the product of incest. As a condition of her release, Cersei is forced to humiliate herself by walking naked across the city. Meanwhile, Cersei's ally, the ex-maester Qyburn, has created "Ser Robert Strong", an eight-foot-tall figure encased in armor, to be an unbeatable champion in Cersei's upcoming trial by combat.  Having taken control of the government, Cersei's uncle Kevan Lannister and the Grand Maester Pycelle attempt to undo the damage caused by Cersei's misrule. However, Varys reappears and murders both Kevan and Pycelle, revealing that he has been plotting for years for the Lannisters to destroy themselves so that Aegon Targaryen can take the throne, having been raised to be an ideal ruler. The book ends with Varys sending his child spies to finish Kevan off.

Extras.

In addition to the maps published in previous books, the book includes a new map of the previously-unmapped area of the Free Cities on the eastern continent. Like the previous four volumes in the "Ice and Fire" series, the book includes an appendix with a complete list of characters.

Characters.

The story is narrated from the point of view of 18 different characters, including two minor one-off point-of-view (POV) characters featured in the prologue and epilogue. All but two POV characters were identified before the book's release.  In the North:  In the eastern continent of Essos:  In the South:  Chapters for several POVs, which may include Sansa Stark, Samwell Tarly, Aeron Damphair, Arianne Martell, and Brienne of Tarth were written for the book, but they will instead tentatively appear in the next book, "The Winds of Winter".

Writing.

Early development.

"A Dance with Dragons" was originally intended to be the title of the second novel in the sequence, when Martin still envisioned the series as a trilogy. Some early US editions of "A Game of Thrones" (1996) list "A Dance of Dragons" as the forthcoming second volume in the series. The 1998 anthology "Legends", which features the novella "The Hedge Knight" from the same universe, listed "A Dance of Dragons" as the third installment of a four-book series.  In May 2005 Martin announced that the "sheer size" of his still-unfinished manuscript for "A Feast for Crows" had led him and his publishers to split the narrative into two books. Rather than divide the text in half chronologically, Martin opted to instead split the material by character and location, resulting in "two novels taking place simultaneously" with different casts of characters. Published in 2005, "A Feast for Crows" is narrated primarily by characters in the South of the Seven Kingdoms and in the new locations of the Iron Islands and Dorne. "A Dance with Dragons" features characters in the North and across the narrow sea, although Jaime Lannister, Cersei Lannister, Arya Stark, Areo Hotah and Victarion and Asha Greyjoy appear in both volumes.  Approximately one-third of the published "A Dance with Dragons" consists of material that had been written for the pre-split "A Feast for Crows", although much of this has been rewritten by Martin.  In 2009, Martin confirmed that, contrary to earlier statements, Sansa Stark would not appear in "A Dance with Dragons"; Sansa chapters initially slated for the novel have instead been pushed back to "The Winds of Winter", which is planned to be the sixth book in the series. In early 2010, Martin noted that his intent for "A Dance with Dragons" was for the first 800 manuscript pages to cover the alternate characters in the same time span as "A Feast for Crows", and that "Everything that follows is post-"Feast", so that's where some of the cast from the last book start popping up again." Stating that "I wanted to resolve at least a few of the cliffhangers from "Feast"," Martin also mentioned the possibility that some of his finished chapters might get pushed to the next novel, "The Winds of Winter," depending on the length of the finished manuscript for "A Dance with Dragons".

Road to publication.

Despite original, optimistic predictions of possible completion in late 2006, Martin completed the novel in April 2011, nearly five years later. During this period, Martin's blog featured sporadic updates on his progress, and in January 2008 he posted an update affirming his vigilant commitment to finishing the novel. In early 2008, publisher Spectra Books (a division of Random House) announced that "A Dance with Dragons" would be released on September 30, 2008, but Martin stated this would only be possible if he finished writing by the end of June, before his trip to Spain and Portugal; he did not meet his goal.  On February 19, 2009, Martin posted on his website: "I am trying to finish the book by June. I think I can do that. If I do, "A Dance with Dragons" will likely be published in September or October." On June 22, 2009, the author expressed "guarded optimism" with respect to his progress on the novel, while still not confirming a publication date. When asked in a July 2009 interview with "FREE! Magazine" how the book was going, Martin stated, "It is going pretty well, actually. I am hoping to finish it by September or October; that is my goal." On October 6, 2009, Martin said that his working manuscript for "A Dance With Dragons" had just exceeded 1,100 pages of completed chapters, plus "considerably more in partials, fragments, and roughs." He noted that this made the upcoming novel longer than his earlier books "A Game of Thrones" and "A Feast for Crows", and nearly as long as "A Clash of Kings".  On March 2, 2010, Martin remarked that he had reached 1,311 manuscript pages, making "Dance" the second-longest novel in the series at that point, behind only the 1,521-page manuscript of "A Storm of Swords". On July 8, 2010, Martin spoke at a conference and confirmed the current length of the book to be 1,400 manuscript pages. He expressed his disappointment that he was unable to completely finish the novel by the conference, although he would not speculate how soon the book would be completed after his return home on July 11. At the same conference, Martin also confirmed that he has written one Sansa, one Arya, and two Arianne chapters for the planned sixth novel, "Winds of Winter", and had transferred two Cersei chapters from that book into "A Dance with Dragons". On August 7, 2010, Martin confirmed that he had completed eight POVs, excluding the prologue and epilogue.  At the New York Comic Con on October 10, 2010, Spectra senior editor Anne Groell announced that Martin had only five chapters remaining to finish, with sections of the chapters already completed. She stated her desire to have the manuscript completed by December. In a December 2010 interview with Bear Swarm, Martin stated that he almost had "A Dance With Dragons" completed.  On March 3, 2011, the publisher announced that the novel, though at that point still not completed, would be officially published on July 12, 2011. Martin claimed this July 2011 publication date was different from the previous publication dates mentioned, in that this was "real", as opposed to earlier "wishful thinking, boundless optimism, cockeyed dreams, [and] honest mistakes". On March 12, he revealed that the unfinished manuscript had exceeded "A Storm of Swords" in length, making it the longest volume in the entire series. On March 27, he announced that the manuscript had exceeded 1,600 pages.<ref name="http://grrm.livejournal.com/204875.html"></ref> On April 27, 2011, it was announced that Martin had completed "A Dance with Dragons". After incorporating requested changes made by his book editor and her staff copy-editors, suggested final draft notes from trusted friends, and his own final "sweat" (a line-by-line reread done to tighten and eliminate any unnecessary "fat" remaining in the manuscript), the final draft had been reduced to 1,510 pages; this made "Dragons" the second-longest novel, by a narrow margin, to volume three, "A Storm of Swords". The novel was now ready to meet its July 12, 2011 release date.  On June 29, 2011, Amazon Germany had mistakenly released 180 copies of the novel early. Martin requested that those who held copies not spoil the book for fans who had to wait. Several "A Song of Ice and Fire" websites put an embargo in place on their forums with the same intent.

Editions.

Foreign-language editions

Reception.

Critical response.

"The Atlantic" Rachael Brown found "A Dance with Dragons" "infinitely more satisfying than its predecessor, 2005's bleak and plodding "A Feast for Crows". The aspects of Martin's work that have endeared him to fans are abundant here – rich world building, narrative twists and turns, and gritty depictions of the human struggle for power. Characters who were sorely missed in "Feast" – Daenerys Targaryen, Tyrion Lannister, and Jon Snow – make up more than a third of the novel, and Martin is wise enough to give us at least a chapter from (almost) everyone else. Weaknesses that have plagued Martin's previous books are also present: too much repetition, unexceptional prose, and characters who use the same idioms (and have sex in exactly the same manner) no matter their ethnicity, social class, or continent. But while "A Dance with Dragons" cries out for better editing, it remains entirely engrossing. Martin has hidden so many clues and red herrings throughout his previous volumes that it is a thrill to see certain pieces fall into place."  Remy Verhoeve of "The Huffington Post" said, ""A Dance with Dragons" is just a book, of course. It is not the Second Coming or anything. And I understand that the author must feel a lot of pressure concerning this one (he should). It's late and it has to repair some of the damage done by "A Feast for Crows", which frankly felt as if it was written by a ghost writer at times. Finally it is here, and some of the things we've been wondering about for more than a decade are actually revealed (not everything, but at least some things). It has the same structural problems as the previous book; it is sprawling and incoherent at times, but at least the characters are more interesting than in the previous installment. It does feel like I'm reading a bunch of separate stories within the same setting–the chapters are told through the eyes of various characters–but that doesn't really bother me as I love the setting and like to see it through various points of view. Theories that have been bandied about online for the last ten years mostly come true in this book, so in that respect the novel isn't shocking but neither is it disappointing. Martin also manages to put in a few twists, but ends the book much like he did the previous one with cliffhangers instead of wrapping things up a little better so the next long wait won't hurt so much."  David Orr of "The New York Times" said, ""A Dance With Dragons" comes in at roughly 9,574,622,012 pages, and smart money says the final two books in the series will make this one look like 'The Old Man and the Sea'. Such length isn't necessary, and it hurts Martin's prose and his plot mechanics. Tyrion 'waddles' at least 12 times here, and even if we suppose the unflattering word reflects Tyrion's contempt for his own awkward gait, it seems unlikely he would indulge this contempt when he's, say, fighting for his life. Similarly, when your novel's terrain stretches across hundreds of miles and your world lacks jet propulsion, as an author you face some basic problems of transportation that can result in conveyance via Rube Goldberg."  "Time" James Poniewozik found a possible "weakness to the early Meereen sections [by] marking time (and making Dany uncharacteristically indecisive) to allow time for all the pieces to fall into place" and said, "All this makes for a thousand-page book that feels half as long, that moves dextrously, answers key questions and gobsmacks you with convincing feints and change-ups. As in "AFFC", there are sections that feel like they could have used an editor. In some chapters you suddenly find yourself in a strange land with a character you have little attachment to, wondering where this thread is going, as if you had stayed too long at a party after the friends you came with have left.  "The Washington Post" Bill Sheehan said, "Filled with vividly rendered set pieces, unexpected turnings, assorted cliffhangers and moments of appalling cruelty, "A Dance With Dragons" is epic fantasy as it should be written: passionate, compelling, convincingly detailed and thoroughly imagined. Despite a number of overtly fantastic elements (dragons, seers, shape shifters and sorcerers), the book—and the series as a whole—feels grounded in the brutal reality of medieval times and has more in common with the Wars of the Roses than it does with "The Lord of the Rings". The result is a complex summer blockbuster with brains and heart, a book with rare—and potentially enormous—appeal.  Megan Wasson of "The Christian Science Monitor" said, ""A Dance with Dragons" may well be one of the best books in the five-book series so far. Martin's prose is concise but pithy, begging to be devoured over and over again. All the fans' favorite characters make an appearance, unlike in the last book. But what truly sets this book above some of the others in the series is Martin's ability to keep his readers on their toes and the edges of their seats. No character, no matter how likeable and seemingly important, is ever safe from Martin's pen (remember Ned Stark?), and on the other hand, no one can ever be truly pronounced dead. What you thought was going to happen after reading Books No. 1, 2, and even 3 and 4, now clearly will not happen, and that's where Martin's strength lies."

Awards.

In April 2012, "A Dance with Dragons" was nominated for the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Novel. In May 2012, it was nominated for the 2012 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and won it in June 2012. In August 2012, the novel was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for Best Novel.

A Dance with Dragons is the fifth novel, of seven planned, in the epic fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire" by American author George R. R. Martin. In some areas, the paperback edition was published in two parts, titled "Dreams and Dust" and "After the Feast". It was the only novel in the series to be published during the eight-season run of the HBO adaptation of the series, "Game of Thrones", and runs to 1,040 pages with a word count of almost 415,000.

《魔龙的狂舞》(英语:A Dance with Dragons)是《冰与火之歌》第五部。原著第四套书《群鸦的盛宴》和第五套书《魔龙的狂舞》的出版日期相隔了294个星期--从2005年11月8日到2011年7月12日。


Club career.

Newcastle United.

Born in Stirling, Caldwell began his career in England with Premier League club Newcastle United, along with his younger brother Gary. He was released by Newcastle in 2004, having previously been loaned out to Blackpool, where he scored his first career goal, against Stoke City in the Football League Trophy, and Bradford City. In 2004, he joined fellow Premier League club Leeds United on loan as part of a loan swap for Michael Bridges who went in the opposite direction, Caldwell was unable to prevent Leeds being relegated to the Championship. During his loan spell he scored once in the league, against Blackburn Rovers, which helped earn Leeds a 2–1 victory. For Newcastle he made 28 league appearances and scored twice, against Bradford City in the League Cup and Middlesbrough in the league. Once released by Newcastle, he joined local rivals Sunderland.

Sunderland.

Caldwell joined Sunderland from local rivals Newcastle United in 2004. During his time at the club Caldwell was known for his whole-hearted approach to the game and the solid partnership he formed with Gary Breen. On 23 April 2005, he scored Sunderland's winning goal against Leicester City to send his team back to the Premiership.  An injury-plagued season saw Caldwell fall out of favour, and he rarely featured in Roy Keane's first team when fit. He was linked with a move away from the club: Sunderland accepted bids from Championship rivals Burnley and Coventry City.

Burnley.

Burnley completed the signing of Caldwell from Sunderland, minutes before the transfer deadline in January 2007. He signed a three-and-a-half year deal at Turf Moor for an initial £200,000. A further £200,000 would be payable to Sunderland at a later date. He was shortly thereafter named club captain and endeared himself to the team's fans with his uncompromising tackling and commitment.  The 2008–09 season saw Caldwell play a major role, captaining his side to promotion to the Premier League. Making 57 starts throughout the season, the Scottish international was a virtual ever-present in the Clarets back-line.  His only two goals of the campaign came at home to local rivals Preston North End in September 2008 and away at Plymouth Argyle in March 2009.  The highlight of Caldwell's Burnley career was lifting the Football League Championship play-off trophy as captain in May 2009. He was released by Burnley at the end of his contract following the 2009–10 season.

Wigan Athletic.

On 23 August 2010, he signed a one-year deal with Wigan Athletic, again joining up with his brother Gary. He made his Wigan debut on 24 August, a day after signing, against Hartlepool United in the League Cup second round match, playing the full 90 minutes in a 3–0 victory. He made his League debut for Wigan on 16 October 2010 away against Newcastle, his former club, at St James Park in a 2–2 draw as Newcastle came from 2–0 down to gain a point. Caldwell was released when his contract expired at the end of the season.

Birmingham City.

On 7 July 2011, Caldwell signed a two-year contract with Birmingham City, newly relegated to the Championship. He made his debut for the club on the opening day of the 2011–12 Football League Championship season, playing the whole of a 2–1 defeat at Derby County. He came close to opening the scoring in the Europa League play-off round first leg against Portuguese club Nacional, the first time that Birmingham had participated in major European competition for nearly 50 years, when his placed header struck the foot of the post. He scored his first goal for Birmingham on 14 August 2012 in a 5–1 win over Barnet in the League Cup.

Toronto FC.

In May 2013, Birmingham confirmed that they would not be taking up their option to extend Caldwell's contract, and he signed for Canadian club Toronto FC of Major League Soccer on loan for the remaining few weeks of that contract. He made his debut on 18 May, in the starting eleven at home to the Columbus Crew, and was "bitterly disappointed" by the 1–0 defeat. After his contract expired with Birmingham, Caldwell signed a two-and-a-half-season contract with Toronto FC, after helping improve the team's goals-against average from 1.5 to 1.0 goals a game. Caldwell scored his first goal with Toronto on 3 July 2013 in a 3–3 home draw to Canadian rivals Montreal Impact. On 13 July 2013, Caldwell became Toronto FC's sixth team captain in the franchise's history after incumbent captain Darren O'Dea was transferred to another club.  In December 2013, readers of "Waking the Red", a Toronto news site, voted Caldwell the team's best player of the 2013 season. He was given a similar honour by the Red Patch Boys.  He was demoted from team captain following the promotion to captain of designated player and American national team mainstay Michael Bradley. He retired in July 2015.

International career.

Caldwell won twelve caps for Scotland at senior international level. He made his debut in a 1–1 draw away in Poland at the Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak Stadium on 25 April 2001 after breaking into the Newcastle United first team. His home debut came on 12 February 2003 in a 2–0 defeat to the Republic of Ireland at Hampden Park.  He played twice in Scotland's qualification for the 2006 World Cup, in a 1–1 draw with Moldova at the Zimbru Stadium in Chişinău and a 3–0 away win over Slovenia at the Arena Petrol in Celje. He took part in Scotland's 2010 World Cup qualification, playing in a 4–0 defeat to Norway as Scotland finished third, behind Norway, in their qualifying group. He briefly captained Scotland when a substitution took place in a 3–0 win against the Faroe Islands on 16 November 2010. His twelfth and final full cap came against Northern Ireland in the 2011 Nations Cup.

Coaching and executive career.

Oakville Blue Devils.

In February 2019, Caldwell was named president of Oakville Blue Devils FC of League1 Ontario, the third division in the Canadian soccer league system.

Canada.

Caldwell became an assistant coach of the Canada men's national soccer team under John Herdman in September 2019.

Steven Caldwell (born 12 September 1980) is a Scottish former footballer, coach, and executive. Playing as a defender, mostly as a centre back, Caldwell won 12 caps for the Scotland national team and has played over 300 league matches in his career, primarily in the top three tiers of English football. Since retiring from playing, he has been working as a Major League Soccer analyst for TSN in Canada.

史提芬·卡塔尔维(英语:Steven Caldwell,1980年-9月12日),出生在斯特灵,是一名已退役苏格兰足球员,司职后卫,出身纽卡素,曾效力新特兰、般尼、韦根、伯明翰城和多伦多FC,亦是苏格兰国脚。


Taxonomy.

The IUCN currently recognizes only one species of giraffe with nine subspecies, one of which is the reticulated giraffe. All living giraffes were originally classified as one species by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. The subspecies was described and given a binomial name "Giraffa reticulata" by British zoologist William Edward de Winton in 1899.

Distribution and habitat.

Reticulated giraffes historically occurred widely throughout Northeast Africa. Their favored habitats are savannas, woodlands, seasonal floodplains, and rainforests.

Conservation.

To save the remaining 9,000, or so, Reticulated giraffes, several conservation organizations have been formed. One of these organizations is San Diego Zoo Global's "Twiga Walinzi" (meaning Giraffe Guards) initiative. Their work includes hiring and training local Kenyans to monitor 120 trail cameras in Northern Kenya (Loisaba Conservancy and Namunyak Wildlife Conservancy) that capture footage of wild giraffes and other Kenyan wildlife; developing a photo ID database so individual giraffes can be tracked; informing rangers of poaching incidents and removing snares; caring for orphaned giraffes; and educating communities about giraffe conservation.

In zoos.

Along with the Rothschild's giraffe, the reticulated giraffe is the most common giraffe found in zoos. The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, Colorado is said to have the largest reticulated giraffe herd in all of North America. Reticulated and Rothschild's giraffes have been bred together in the past. This was done because it was thought that the giraffe subspecies interbred in the wild. However, new research that was done in 2016 discovered that the separate giraffe populations do not interbreed.  Few zoos have distinct Rothschild's giraffe or reticulated giraffe herds. The San Diego Zoo Safari Park, Bronx Zoo, and Chester Zoo have herds of just Rothschild's giraffe. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Busch Gardens Tampa, The Maryland Zoo, Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, and Binder Park Zoo all have strictly reticulated giraffe herds. However, some zoos still breed Rothschild's giraffe and reticulated giraffes. At Utah's Hogle Zoo, their giraffe herd consists of male Riley, a reticulated giraffe, and females Kipenzi, a reticulated giraffe, and Pogo, a Rothschild's giraffe. In early 2016, Willow was born to Riley and Pogo. According to the new research discovered in 2016, Willow would be a hybrid. The trend of exhibiting only reticulated giraffe or only Rothschild's giraffe is becoming more popular.

The reticulated giraffe ("Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata"), also known as the Somali giraffe, is a subspecies of giraffe native to the Horn of Africa. It lives in Somalia, southern Ethiopia, and northern Kenya. There are approximately 8,500 individuals living in the wild. The reticulated giraffe was described and given its binomial name by British zoologist William Edward de Winton in 1899, however the IUCN currently recognizes only one species of giraffe with nine subspecies.

网纹长颈鹿(学名:英语:Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata),俗称索马里长颈鹿(英语:Somali giraffe),是原生于索马里、埃塞俄比亚南部以及肯尼亚北部的长颈鹿亚种。在人工饲育或是在野外接触亚种族群的情况下,网纹长颈鹿能和其他长颈鹿亚种进行交配。


Background.

The provisions of 1930 London Naval Treaty stipulated that the overall destroyer tonnage for the Imperial Japanese Navy would be capped at 105,500 tons with a maximum permissible tonnage per ship of 1,850 tons. Furthermore, only 16 percent of the overall tonnage could be of this size, with the remainder not exceeding 1,500 tons per vessel. This effectively meant that additional units of the previous and destroyers could no longer be built. The Imperial Japanese Navy responded by ordering naval architects to design ships that were lighter by at least 260 tons, and yet mount the same armament. In the end, the new class ended up with one less gun (three turrets with five 127 mm guns instead of six), with a smaller hull and displacement. This armament design was not unprecedented, however, as the two Romanian Navy destroyers "Mărăști" and "Mărășești" were fitted with two twin and one single 120 mm guns a few years prior, in 1926.  This stretched contemporary destroyer designs beyond the limits, and resulted in a top-heavy design, with severe stability problems. The weight-control measures used by designers were carried to an extreme, which further contributed to structural weakness. This was a problem shared with other Japanese ship designs of the time, which attempted to place too much armament on too small a displacement hull. This was graphically demonstrated when the torpedo boat capsized in 1934 during heavy seas (the "Tomozuru Incident") and when a typhoon ripped the bows off two "Fubuki"-class destroyers (the Fourth Fleet Incident) in 1935. As a result of these two incidents the "Hatsuharu"-class vessels had to be rebuilt (the first two completed had to be rebuilt twice) or modified while building to remedy their stability problems.

Design.

The "Hatsuharu"-class destroyers were designed to accompany the Japanese main striking force and to conduct both day and night torpedo attacks against the United States Navy as it advanced across the Pacific Ocean, according to Japan's naval strategic projections. They were to be armed much as the "Fubuki" class despite displacing only 1400 tons compared to the 1700 tons of the earlier destroyers. Furthermore, their fire control systems were to be more modern than the older systems and suitable for anti-aircraft use. This required the gun turrets to be modified for high-angle fire, which also meant more powerful motors to traverse and elevate the guns more quickly to engage high-speed aircraft. The torpedo launchers were to be given a protective shield to allow for use in heavy weather and to protect against splinter damage. And the "Hatsuharu" vessels were to be fitted with modern, enclosed command spaces protected against strafing aircraft. These requirements could only be met by adding weight high up on the ship and increased the ship's center of gravity. The only way to adhere to the allotted displacement was to try to reduce the weight of the hull and other equipment below the waterline as much as possible. But this put the ship's designers in a no-win situation as any reduction of weight below the waterline further raised the ship's center of gravity and reduced her stability.  The weight of the hull could generally be reduced by using higher grades of steel that were lighter and thinner for the same strength, reducing dimensions, particularly length, or using advanced construction techniques like welding that saved weight over the conventional riveting. The Japanese used the same high-tensile steel for the "Hatsuharu" class as they did for the older destroyers and chose not to increase the power of the turbines and boilers to achieve the desired high speed, but lengthened the hull to offset the reduced power of the light-weight machinery. The beam was increased to counter some of the extra top-weight, but the draft was reduced to reduce hull resistance, which also reduced stability by lessening the area of the hull beneath the waterline in comparison to the area above it, which was subject to pressure from the wind.  Extensive weight-saving measures were used during the design and construction of the hull. More frames of lighter construction were spaced more closely together to reduce the thickness of the hull plating and the extensive use of welding (only the longitudinal stringers and a few other parts were riveted) were some of the techniques utilized to reduce hull weight by in comparison to the "Fubuki" class. Electric welding was extensively used to reduce weight although it was at an early stage of development in Japan and was still problematic. The "Hatsuharu" vessels were some shorter than the "Fubuki"-class vessels, but weighed per of hull length compared to the latter's per.

Description.

The "Hatsuharu"-class ships were shorter than their predecessors, at overall. The ships had a beam of 10 metres and at full load a draft of. Despite the emphasis on weight-saving during construction, the ships were significantly overweight as completed and displaced at standard load, and at full load, nearly more than planned.  The hull of the "Hatsuharu"-class vessels retained the general configuration of the "Fubuki"-class destroyers with a long forecastle and a pronounced flare of the forecastle to improve sea-keeping at high speeds by adding buoyancy and reducing the spray and water coming over the deck. A large bridge structure was located at the aft end of the forecastle deck topped by four fire control stations of various types. Lowest, just above the compass bridge, was the torpedo director ("Hassha shikisho"), with the gunnery fire direction station ("Shageki shikisho") next above. The fire director tower ("Hōiban shagekito") was third from the bottom and behind it was the rangefinder. Each of these was protected by plates of "Dücol steel" against strafing and shell splinters.  For the first time in a Japanese destroyer, a superfiring turret was fitted forward of the bridge. It was only a single gun Model A turret, to save weight high in the ship, and was mounted on a deckhouse to elevate it above the twin gun Model B Mod 2 (B-gata kai-2) turret mounted on the forecastle deck. The second twin gun turret was mounted at the rear of the ship on the main deck. These turrets were slightly heavier than the earlier "Model A" and "Model B" turrets fitted on the "Fubuki"-class. All turrets were fitted with the Type 3 gun.  The uptakes of the two forward boiler rooms were trunked together aft of the break in the forecastle into the fore funnel while the rear boiler room exhausted into the smaller rear funnel. Both funnels were inclined to the rear to reduce the amount of smoke that might reach the bridge. A tripod mast was fitted between the bridge and the fore funnel. Between the two funnels was the forward triple torpedo tube mount fitted on a low platform. Behind it "was a torpedo locker with its mechanical quick reload system ("Kiryoku sōtenshiki jihatsu sōten sochi") for the three reserve torpedoes inside." To preserve lateral stability the aft funnel was offset to starboard while the torpedo mount was offset to port. The reload locker was also offset slightly to port and angled inboard to facilitate reloading. The middle torpedo mount was positioned behind the aft funnel on the centerline, but its reload locker was positioned identically to that of the forward mount. Superimposed to starboard and overlapping the middle mount was the rear triple torpedo mount positioned on the rear deckhouse. Immediately behind the mount was its locker positioned on the centerline, but angled slightly to the right so that its mount only had to traverse slightly to align with the locker and begin reloading. This was the first ship in history to be fitted with superimposed torpedo tubes, made necessary by the designer's insistence on fitting nine torpedo tubes despite the Navy's requirement for only six.  A small platform that carried a rangefinder was mounted above the rear torpedo locker and a searchlight was mounted on a tower behind the rear funnel. The two license-built Vickers ("pom pom") anti-aircraft guns were mounted on an elevated platform at the front of the rear funnel. Curiously they were another case where the designer exceeded the requirements laid down by the Navy.

Propulsion.

The "Hatsuharu"s carried two sets of Kampon geared steam turbines, one for each shaft. Each set consisted one low-pressure and one high-pressure turbine, plus a cruise turbine connected to the high-pressure turbine. The LP and HP turbines were connected to the propeller shaft by a two-pinion reduction gear. Each propellor had a diameter of and a pitch of. The total horsepower of the "Hatsuharu" class was only compared to the of their "Fubuki"-class predecessors, but the machinery was significantly lighter and more powerful on a unit basis. The "Hatsuharu"s' machinery weighed only compared to the of the "Fubuki" class, or 396 shaft horsepower per tonne versus 347 shaft horsepower per tonne for the older ships.  Similarly the three Kampon Type Ro-Gō boilers used in the "Hatsuharu"-class ships weighed in comparison to the boilers used in the "Fubuki" class, but produced each while the older boilers produced. This gave a ratio of 3.6 kg per shaft horsepower for the "Hatsuharu"s compared to the 4.1 kg per shaft horsepower of their predecessors. The newer design of boilers initially used steam pressurized to, just like the older models, but used superheating to improve efficiency while the older boilers simply used saturated steam.  A single 100 kW turbo-generator was fitted behind the reduction gears in a separate compartment and two 40 kW diesel generators were located between the propeller shafts. As initially completed the "Hatsuharu" had a range of at a speed of with of fuel. On trials, had a top speed of from at a displacement of.

Armament.

The "Hatsuharu"-class destroyers used the same 50 caliber 12.7 cm gun as the "Fubuki" class, but all turrets could elevate to 75° to give the main guns a minimal ability to engage aircraft. During the war the single turret was removed on all surviving ships after 1942. The only anti-aircraft guns were two water-cooled, license-built Vickers 40-millimeter guns. These guns were deemed to be too heavy, slow-firing and short-ranged and were replaced by license-built French Hotchkiss Type 96 anti-aircraft guns in single, double and triple mounts from 1943 for the surviving ships. Exact numbers are not always known, but was carrying three triple power-driven mounts, including one mounted in lieu of the single 12.7 cm gun turret, one twin power-driven mount fitted on a platform in front of the bridge and two hand-worked single mounts in June 1944. These powered mounts were unsatisfactory because their traverse and elevation speeds were too slow to engage high-speed aircraft and more single mounts were fitted to ships in the last year of the war. For example, mounted ten single 25 guns when she was lost in July 1945. Four license-built Hotchkiss Type 93 machine guns were also fitted to "Hatsushimo", but these were of limited utility against modern aircraft.  The 61 cm Type 90 torpedo was mounted in triple tube Type 90 Model 2 launchers, derived from the twin tube Type 89 launcher used in the heavy cruisers. Shields were fitted to both the torpedo mounts and lockers to protect them from the weather and from strafing aircraft. Initially, the shields were made from Duralumin to save weight, but these quickly corroded and had to be replaced. "NiCrMo" steel, taken from the air chambers of obsolete torpedoes, in thickness, was chosen for the new shields to save weight. The Type 90 Model 2 weighed, including the shield, a total of excluding the torpedo itself. Despite the addition of an extra torpedo tube, it was still lighter than the of the Type 89. It was traversed by an electro-hydraulic system and could traverse 360° in twenty-five seconds. If the backup manual system was used the time required increased to two minutes. Each tube could be reloaded in twenty-three seconds using the endless wire and winch provided.  Only eighteen depth charges were initially carried in a rack at the stern, but this increased to thirty-six after the autumn of 1942. Apparently, no sonar or hydrophones were fitted until after the outbreak of the war when the Type 93 sonar and Type 93 hydrophones were mounted. Both of these were inferior to contemporary American and British designs.

Radar.

Radar was not installed on the surviving ships of this class until late in the war, possibly as late as 1944. They were given a Type 22 radar on the foremast, a Type 13 on the mainmast and a Type E-27 radar countermeasures device was carried high on the foremast.

Construction.

A dozen "Hatsuharu"-class destroyers were authorized in 1931 as part of the so-called Circle One Program ("Maru Ichi Keikaku"). Three were laid down in Fiscal Year 1931 and the next three in Fiscal Year 1933. The remaining six ships were built as the.

Design modifications.

On trials the "Hatsuharu" was found to roll heavily, with a very short period of roll and she heeled at an angle of 38° at high speed when her helm was set to 10°. This demonstrated to the Navy that her metacentric height was too low. The Navy ordered in September 1933 that bulges be fitted on each side to increase her beam and thus raise the metacentric height. "Hatsuharu" and "Nenohi" were modified after completion; "Wakaba" and "Hatsushimo" were modified during construction. "Ariake" and "Yugure" were at a much earlier stage of construction and had their beam increased by. The bulges were estimated to add to the trial displacement.  The capsizing of the torpedo boat in 1934 forced the Navy to re-evaluate the heavy armament of the "Hatsuharu" and other classes. As a result of the investigations in ship stability after the capsizing of the torpedo boat "Tomozuru", all vessels in the "Hatsuharu" class were modified to improve their stability:  The first two ships of the class — "Hatsuharu" and "Nenohi" — had already entered by the time of the "Tomozuru" Incident. They were removed from service and modified in the Kure Naval Arsenal. The remaining four members of the class were still under construction and were modified before completion.  Based on the stability issues shown by "Hatsuharu" during her trials, "Ariake" and "Yūgure" had been modified for two balanced rudders placed directly behind the propellers and angled outward 18.5° to reduce the angle of heel when turning. These proved to reduce their speed by one knot and were removed after their trials as superfluous since both ships had been rebuilt to reflect the lessons of the "Tomozuru" Incident.

Reinforcement of the hull.

As a result of hull damage sustained by two s during a typhoon on 26 September 1935, the subsequent investigation led to all ships in the "Hatsuharu" class spending 3 months in the shipyards having their hulls strengthened, at the cost of an extra of weight, and their fixed ballast increased from. As a result of these and previous modifications the ships were 23.2% heavier, had lost 33% of their torpedo armament and were slower compared with their original design values.

Wartime service.

All "Hatsuharu"-class ships were lost during the Pacific War. Four were sunk by aircraft attack, and "Nenohi" was sunk by the American submarine. "Hatsushimo", the last Japanese destroyer lost in the war, struck a mine on 30 July 1945.

The were a class of Imperial Japanese Navy destroyers in the service before and during World War II. The final two vessels in the class, completed after modifications to the design, are sometimes considered a separate ""Ariake" class".

初春型驱逐舰(日文:初春型駆逐舰/はつはるがたくちくかん,英文:Hatsuharu class destroyer),是大日本帝国海军的驱逐舰,继吹雪型驱逐舰后的主力驱逐舰,但在排水量受限制的船体上搭载相对过重的武装,重心过高导致复原性不足,海军发生事故之后调查各舰发现这型号存在设计不良的问题,在建造了6只后紧急中止。


Early life and education.

Vale was born in Hollywood, California. His mother, Evelyn, was a former actress; his father, Eugene, was a novelist and screenwriter. He finished high school at Hollywood High School. For his grade 10 science project, he set up a laboratory at the basement of his home to investigate the circadian rhythm of bean plants. His guidance counselor contacted Karl Hammer at the University of California, Los Angeles, who allowed Vale to continue his experiments at his laboratory. His guidance counselor also encouraged Vale to submit his work to the Westinghouse Science Talent Search (now the Regeneron Science Talent Search), where he was selected as one of the top 40 students in the US.  Vale is a first-generation university student. He entered the College of Creative Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, and earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry and biology in 1980. During his study, he first worked at the laboratory of C. Fred Fox at the UCLA, and then at Robert Lefkowitz's group at Duke University, earning him two articles published in 1984 and 1982 respectively.  In 1980, Vale entered an MD/PhD program at Stanford University, being supervised by Eric Shooter, where he studied the nerve growth factor receptor (also known as the neurotrophic factor receptor).  Vale obtained his PhD in neuroscience in 1985. He then spent one year as an NIH staff scientist in Tom Reese's laboratory at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, MA.

Scientific career.

While working on Nerve growth factor (NGF) receptors as a graduate student, Vale became interested in exploring the mechanism of how receptors and other molecules are transported in nerve axons. He then heard of the research of Michael Sheetz and James Spudich, who used a video camera on a microscope to film myosin-coated beads moving along actin filaments. In 1983, Vale and Sheetz decided to test whether the movement of myosin on actin was the source for organelle transport in axons, using the squid giant axon as a model. However, since no squid were caught that year at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station, following Shooter's approval, they went to the Marine Biological Laboratory instead.  At the Marine Biological Laboratory, Vale and Sheetz teamed up with Bruce Schnapp and Thomas J. Reese. They found that membrane organelle transport occurred bidirectionally on a microtubule, and not actin filament as Vale had originally thought. Vale further demonstrated that purified organelles by themselves rarely moved on microtubules, but movement was observed after adding the cytosol of the axon. He then discovered serendipitously that cytosol caused microtubules to translocate along a glass surface. Similarly, he found that cytosol-coated beads moved along microtubules. These two phenomena provided assays to study microtubule-based motility assay in vitro. In 1985, Vale, Sheetz and Reese isolated the dominant motor protein in the cytosol, naming it "kinesin." They showed that kinesin only moved in one direction towards the plus ends of microtubules and a second motor (later shown to be dynein by Richard Vallee) moved in the opposite direction. The results of Vale and colleagues on axonal transport were published in five papers in 1985.  Vale did not finish his MD, and joined the University of California, San Francisco as an assistant professor in 1986. He was promoted to associate professor in 1992 and then to full professor in 1994. In 1989, Vale, with Jonathan Howard and A. James Hudspeth developed a single molecular assay for kinesin. In 1991, he discovered the first protein that severed microtubules and later purified and named it katanin. In 1996, Vale and colleagues solved the crystal structure of the kinesin motor domain. and discovered unexpectedly that it is structurally similar to myosin. In that same year, working with Toshio Yanagida, Vale developed a single-molecule fluorescence assay for kinesin. In 1999, using various techniques, Vale and co-workers developed a mechanical model for how the two motor domains of the kinesin dimer walk in a “hand-over-hand” model along a microtubule.  Since 2003, Vale has focused on dynein, a motor protein discovered by Ian R. Gibbons in 1965. Although its discovery occurred 20 years before kinesin, its large size hampered its investigation. In 2006, Vale's laboratory prepared recombinant dynein from yeast, and elucidated how it walked on microtubules using single-molecule microscopy. He then worked with Gibbons to determine the structure of the dynein microtubule-binding domain. His team also solved the structure of the dynein motor domain. Vale has extended his research to other fields, including T-cell signalling and RNA biology.

Outreach.

Vale founded iBiology in 2006, a non-profit organization that produces and disseminates free online videos by leading biologists, speaking about biological principles and their research, and scientific training and professional development for practicing scientists. Vale recently founded and produced The Explorer's Guide to Biology (XBio), a free online undergraduate "textbook" that provides a storytelling and discover-focused approach to learning biology.  Between 2004–2008, Vale and Tim Mitchison co-directed the Physiology Course at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, transforming it into an interdisciplinary training environment that brings together biologists, physicists and computational scientists.  In 2009, Vale established the Young Investigators' Meeting in India, which provides a mentoring and networking workshop for postdocs and junior faculty in India. He founded ASAPbio (Accelerating Science and Publication in Biology) in 2015, promoting the use of preprints and an open and transparent peer-review process. Also in 2009, Vale founded the Bangalore Microscopy Course, held at the National Centre for Biological Research, which provides international training in light microscopy. He also organized an online microscopy course through iBiology.  Nico Stuurman and Vale also conceived of and developed Micro-Manager, a free and open-source microscopy software that was supported for many years through the Vale laboratory and now operates through the University of Wisconsin.

Ronald David Vale (born 1959) is a biochemist and cell biologist. He is a professor at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, University of California, San Francisco. His research is focused on motor proteins, particularly kinesin and dynein. He was awarded the Canada Gairdner International Award for Biomedical Research in 2019, the Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine in 2017 together with Ian Gibbons, and the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 2012 alongside Michael Sheetz and James Spudich. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He was the president of the American Society for Cell Biology in 2012. He has also been an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1995. In 2019, Vale was named executive director of the Janelia Research Campus and a vice president of HHMI.

罗纳德·戴维·韦尔(英语:Ronald David Vale,1959年),美国细胞生物学家,加州大学旧金山分校细胞与分子药理学系教授及麻醉学系W·K·咸美顿卓越教授。他的研究主要集中在分子马达,特别是驱动蛋白和动力蛋白。他在2012年与迈克尔·希茨和詹姆斯·斯普迪赫同获拉斯克基础医学研究奖,并于2017年与伊恩·吉本斯一同获颁邵逸夫生命科学与医学奖。他也是美国文理科学院的院士和美国国家科学院的成员,并曾于2012年担任美国细胞生物学学会会长。自1995年以来,他一直是霍华德·休斯医学研究所研究员。


Life and career.

Ishioka was born in Tokyo to a commercial graphic designer father and a housewife mother. Although her father encouraged her interest in art as a child, he discouraged her desire to follow him into the business. She graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. As director of costume design for opening ceremony of 2008 Beijing Olympics, Ishioka found inspiration from art pieces, such as Greek Statues and African helmets. As a result, a large number of costumes that are able to visualize fabric texture, actions, and aura were designed under her hands.

Advertising career.

Eiko began her career with the advertising division of the cosmetics company Shiseido in 1961 and won Japan's most prestigious advertising award four years later. Eiko was discovered by Tsuji Masuda who created Parco Ikebukuro from the ailing Marubutsu Department Store. When Parco did well and expanded to a Shibuya location in 1973, Eiko designed Parco Shibuya's first 15-second commercial for the grand opening with "a tall, thin black woman, dressed in a black bikini, dancing with a very small man in a Santa Claus outfit". She became deeply involved in Parco's image. Her last Parco campaign involved Faye Dunaway as "face of Parco" wearing black, on a black chair against a black wall, and peeling and eating an egg in one minute as "a film for Parco." She became its chief art director in 1971 and her work there is noted for several campaigns featuring Faye Dunaway and for its open and surreal eroticism. In 1983 she ended her association with Parco and opened her own design firm.  In 2003, she designed the logo for the Houston Rockets.

Film career.

In 1985 director Paul Schrader chose her to be the production designer for his 1985 film "". Her work went on to win her a special award for artistic contribution at the Cannes Film Festival that year. Eiko's work with Francis Ford Coppola on the poster for the Japanese release of "Apocalypse Now" led to their later collaboration in Coppola's "Dracula", which earned Eiko an Academy Award. She has also worked on four of Tarsem Singh's films beginning with the Jennifer Lopez starrer "The Cell" in 2000 and including "The Fall", "Immortals", and "Mirror Mirror".  She has also done costume design for theater and circus. In 1999 she designed costumes for Richard Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen" at the Dutch Opera. She designed costumes for Cirque du Soleil: "Varekai", which premiered in 2002 as well as for Julie Taymor's Broadway musical "", which premiered in 2011. She also directed the music video for Björk's "Cocoon" in 2002 and designed costumes for the "Hurricane" tour of singer Grace Jones in 2009.  Ishioka's work is included in the permanent collection of museums throughout the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Awards.

Eiko won a Grammy Award for her artwork for Miles Davis's album "Tutu" in 1987 and an Academy Award for Best Costume Design for "Bram Stoker's Dracula" in 1992. She also received two Tony Award nominations in 1988 for the stage and costume design of the Broadway play "M. Butterfly". In 2012, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design for "Mirror Mirror" and won the Costume Designers Guild Award for Excellence In Fantasy Film. In 1992 she was selected to be a member of the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame. On July 12, 2017, she was honored with a Google Doodle.

Books.

The 1990 book "Eiko by Eiko" collects her work in art direction and graphic design. A second book, "Eiko on Stage", followed in 2000.

Death.

Ishioka died of pancreatic cancer in Tokyo, Japan on January 21, 2012. She married her companion Nicholas Soultanakis in a hospital a few months before her death.

Legacy.

Her archive has been given to UCLA Library Special Collections.

Noted for her advertising campaigns for the Japanese boutique chain Parco, her collaboration with sportswear company Descente in designing uniforms and outerwear for members of the Swiss, Canadian, Japanese, and Spanish teams at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and was the director of costume design for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. She won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for her work in Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film "Bram Stoker's Dracula" and was posthumously nominated for an Academy Award in the same category for her work in Tarsem Singh's 2012 film "Mirror Mirror".

石冈瑛子(1938年-7月12日-2012年-1月21日)是日本剧装设计师。