Meteorological history.

Bret originated from a tropical wave that moved off the west coast of Africa on August 5. The wave tracked generally westward, interacting with an upper-level low on August 15 in the western Caribbean Sea, and spawned a low-pressure area. Convective activity developed around the low, and by August 18 the system was over the Yucatán Peninsula. Later that day, the disturbance emerged into the Bay of Campeche and a Hurricane Hunter reconnaissance mission into the system revealed that it had matured into a tropical depression around 1:00 pm CDT (18:00 UTC), the third of the 1999 season. Initially, moderate wind shear prevented the depression from strengthening as it moved slowly and erratically in response to weak steering currents over the system. By August 19, the wind shear relented, allowing deep convection to develop over the center; later that day, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) upgraded the system to a tropical storm, assigning it the name Bret. A small tropical cyclone, Bret gradually strengthened for several days as it tracked towards the north. By the morning of August 20, rainbands began to form.  By the evening of August 20, Bret was designated a hurricane following reports of winds during a Hurricane Hunter mission. At around the same time, Bret established a north-northwest track under the influences of a mid-level ridge. The following day, Bret began to undergo rapid intensification, as a well-defined eye developed. On the morning of August 22, the storm attained its peak intensity as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of and a barometric pressure of 944 mbar (hPa; ). Shortly thereafter, an upper-level trough to the west of the storm began to erode its cloud pattern.  Late on August 22, Bret turned northwestward in response to a mid-tropospheric ridge over the Gulf of Mexico and a mid-tropospheric circulation over the Rio Grande Valley. Several hours before landfall, the hurricane weakened to Category 3 intensity and its forward motion slowed. At around 7:00 pm CDT (00:00 UTC; August 23), Hurricane Bret passed over Padre Island, Texas, with winds of and a barometric pressure of 951 mbar (hPa; ), which marked its landfall. The hurricane rapidly weakened upon moving inland, and roughly 12 hours after landfall, Bret weakened to a tropical storm. It further degenerated into a tropical depression by the evening of August 23. The remnants of Bret persisted until August 26, at which time they dissipated over the mountains of northern Mexico.

Preparations.

Texas.

On August 21, when Bret was first expected to approach the Texas coastline, the NHC issued a hurricane watch for coastal areas between the border of Mexico and Baffin Bay, Texas. Hours later, the watch was upgraded to a warning as the storm intensified and posed a more direct threat to the area. A tropical storm warning and hurricane watch were subsequently posted from Baffin Bay northward to Port Aransas. The following day, the hurricane warning was extended to include locations through Port O'Connor and the advisories were extended to Freeport. As Bret neared landfall, the hurricane watch between Port O'Connor and Freeport was discontinued. The hurricane warning for Port Aransas to Port O'Connor was discontinued hours after Bret made landfall and began to weaken. By late August 23, all watches and warnings in relation to the hurricane were discontinued.  By August 22, city officials in Corpus Christi, Texas, declared a state of emergency as Bret was considered a significant threat to the region. Tens of thousands of residents were urged to evacuate coastal areas and seek refuge in local shelters or with relatives further inland. An estimated 180,000 people in the state left their residences ahead of the storm. The Corpus Christi International Airport closed midday on August 22. Later that day, Texas State Highway 361 and docks in Port Aransas were shut down. Highways throughout the area were congested due to the large-scale evacuations and long lines for gas and emergency items developed. Three schools, two universities and a college were closed on August 23 and remained closed for several days.  Eleven shelters were opened in the San Antonio area, collectively able to accommodate 3,525 people. About 325 prisoners were evacuated from a Nueces County jail as the building they were in was deemed unsafe during hurricane conditions. About 1,000 sailors working in the area were evacuated to the prior to the storm. Originally, the ship was meant to ride out the storm at sea; however, inadequate repair work inhibited the ship from leaving port. The ship reportedly had enough supplies to maintain the sailors for roughly 45 days. By 12:00 pm CDT on August 22, Mustang Island and Padre Island were completely evacuated and officials shut down roads leading in and out of the islands to prevent anyone from re-entering them before the area was deemed safe to enter. A strict order against price gouging was put in place by city officials in Corpus Christi.

Mexico.

In Mexico, officials closed 18 ports on the Gulf of Mexico to small- and medium-sized craft in preparation for the storm. In northern Mexico, more than 500 shelters were opened as thousands of residents were advised to evacuate from low-lying areas. The Mexican Army, Red Cross, and firefighters were put on standby to deal with emergency calls during the storm. On August 22, a state of emergency was declared for Tamaulipas. The following day, at least 120 firefighters were dispatched to Monterrey, Nuevo León, to swiftly respond to emergencies. The Mexican government emphasized the safety of residents in the city, which was anticipated to bear the brunt of the hurricane. Around 7,000 fishermen evacuated coastal regions near the Texas border. In Matamoros an additional 31 shelters were opened. Schools throughout northern Mexico were closed for several days.

Impact.

In Mexico.

Prior to developing into a tropical depression, the disturbance produced scattered rainfall across the Yucatán Peninsula, locally exceeding. As the system stalled in the Bay of Campeche, coastal areas received minor rainfall from the outer bands of the system. Although Bret made landfall near the Texas-Mexico border, the small size of the system resulted in limited impacts in Mexico. In Nuevo León, an estimated of rain fell within a 24-hour span and similar amounts likely fell in nearby Tamaulipas. In Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and Coahuila, ten villages were isolated by floodwaters that washed out roads. Ten people, all members of one family, were injured during a head-on collision. In Nogales, heavy rains caused water to accumulate on streets, leading to traffic jams; high winds also downed power lines. During the evacuation prior to Bret, one person was trampled to death. Following landfall, a man was electrocuted by downed power lines and another drowned in floodwaters. At least 150 families were left homeless following a flash flood in Cadereyta that inundated most of the town.

In Texas.

Upon making landfall, Bret produced a storm surge up to on Matagorda Island, Texas. Around Galveston, minor beach erosion was recorded due to large swells produced by the hurricane. Twelve new inlets were created on Padre Island, one of which was large enough to be mistaken as Mansfield Pass. Heavy precipitation, reaching in central Kenedy County, was confined to a small area. The lowest barometric pressure recorded overland was at the Brooks County Airport at 976 mbar (hPa; ). The Aransas River rapidly reached flood stage due to heavy rains and the Rio Grande produced minor flooding close to the Gulf of Mexico. In beaches near Corpus Christi, upwards of of sand was lost. About of cropland were destroyed by the storm.  A damaged electric tower in Kenedy County resulted in power outages for thousands of people. At the height of the storm, an estimated 64,000 people were without power in south Texas. Portions of Texas State Highway Loop 281 were submerged in floodwaters, leaving $50,000 (1999 USD) in damage. Damage in Corpus Christi were estimated at $100,000 (1999 USD). In Duval County, 200 homes were damaged by flooding and large areas of agricultural land were flooded. Damage in the county amounted to roughly $2 million (1999 USD). Five other F0 tornadoes touched down in the state. Damage to homes and businesses in Corpus Christi was estimated up to $500,000 (1999 USD); agricultural damage reached $1 million and another $500,000 (1999 USD) was reported in losses. Slick roads from Bret's heavy rains caused the collision of a truck and a tractor, killing four people. Damage amounted to $15 million (1999 USD) throughout southern Texas.

Aftermath.

On August 23, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) deployed 717 personnel, mainly from the disaster response team, to the affected regions in the United States. The following day, 564 National Guard troops were deployed in the state. In the days following the storm, many mosquitoes and other insects laid eggs in areas of standing water, causing a large increase in their numbers. Authorities sprayed insecticide to minimize the potential for disease outbreaks. By August 25, all shelters opened prior to Bret were closed as residents were allowed to return home. On August 26, President Bill Clinton added the counties of Brooks, Duval, Jim Wells and Webb to the major disaster declaration area. This allowed residents in those counties to receive federal funding.  Reconstruction of public facilities, roads, and water pipes received increased funding on September 3 to speed up the program. The following day, twelve disaster recovery centers were opened in the affected counties for residents to apply for federal funding. On September 9, two more disaster recovery centers were opened for residents in south Texas. Later that day, $831,593.28 (1999 USD) in disaster housing grants was distributed to affected residents. On September 15, roughly 10,200 people applied for disaster loans, amounting to $3.1 million (1999 USD). A total of 167 also received crisis intervention from FEMA. In Corpus Christi, winds and rain covered the city in debris and brush, costing $200,000 (1999 USD) for cleanup.  The name Bret was not retired, as its landfall occurred in unusually sparsely populated Kenedy County and hence did much less damage to manmade structures than normal for a hurricane of that intensity.

Hurricane Bret was the first of five Category 4 hurricanes that developed during the 1999 Atlantic hurricane season and the first tropical cyclone since Hurricane Jerry in 1989 to make landfall in Texas at hurricane intensity. Forming from a tropical wave on August 18, Bret slowly organized within weak steering currents in the Bay of Campeche. By August 20, the storm began to track northward and underwent rapid intensification on August 21. After this period of strengthening, Bret attained its peak intensity with winds of and a barometric pressure of 944 mbar (hPa; ). Later that day, the storm weakened to a Category 3 hurricane and made landfall on Padre Island, Texas. Shortly thereafter, the storm weakened further, becoming a tropical depression 24 hours after moving inland. The remnants of the storm eventually dissipated early on August 26 over northern Mexico.

飓风布雷特(英语:Hurricane Bret)是1999年大西洋飓风季期间发展形成的第一场四级飓风,也是继1989年的飓风杰里以来第一个以飓风强度登陆德克萨斯州的热带气旋。布雷特源于8月18日的一股东风波,在坎佩切湾缓慢发展,并受到弱转向气流影响。8月20日,风暴开始北上,并于次日进入爆发性增强期。经过这段快速增强期后,该风暴系统达到中心气压944毫巴(百帕,27.88英寸汞柱)、最大持续风速每小时230公里的最高强度。当天晚些时候,飓风减弱到三级强度并登陆德克萨斯州的帕德雷岛。此后不久,布雷特进一步减弱,登陆24小时后就降级成了热带低气压。风暴残留最终于8月26日清晨在墨西哥北部上空消散。


Definition.

A sphenic number is a product "pqr" where "p", "q", and "r" are three distinct prime numbers. This definition is more stringent than simply requiring the integer to have exactly three prime factors. For instance, 60 = 2 × 3 × 5 has exactly 3 prime factors, but is not sphenic.

Examples.

The sphenic numbers are the square-free 3-almost primes.  The smallest sphenic number is 30 = 2 × 3 × 5, the product of the smallest three primes. The first few sphenic numbers are  It is the product of the three largest known primes.

Divisors.

All sphenic numbers have exactly eight divisors. If we express the sphenic number as formula_1, where "p", "q", and "r" are distinct primes, then the set of divisors of "n" will be:  The converse does not hold. For example, 24 is not a sphenic number, but it has exactly eight divisors.

Properties.

All sphenic numbers are by definition squarefree, because the prime factors must be distinct.  The Möbius function of any sphenic number is −1.  The cyclotomic polynomials formula_3, taken over all sphenic numbers "n", may contain arbitrarily large coefficients (for "n" a product of two primes the coefficients are formula_4 or 0).

Consecutive sphenic numbers.

The first case of two consecutive sphenic integers is 230 = 2×5×23 and 231 = 3×7×11. The first case of three is 1309 = 7×11×17, 1310 = 2×5×131, and 1311 = 3×19×23. There is no case of more than three, because every fourth consecutive positive integer is divisible by 4 = 2×2 and therefore not squarefree.  The numbers 2013 (3×11×61), 2014 (2×19×53), and 2015 (5×13×31) are all sphenic. The next three consecutive sphenic years will be 2665 (5×13×41), 2666 (2×31×43) and 2667 (3×7×127).

In number theory, a sphenic number (from, 'wedge') is a positive integer that is the product of three distinct prime numbers.

楔形数指可以表示成三个不同质数的积的正整数。将任何楔形数带入默比乌斯函数,结果都得-1.


Club career.

Cassetti started his football career at Montichiari, an amateur-level club inside the province of Brescia. In his two seasons with them he made 30 appearances and scored six goals. He then moved on to a Serie C1 team, Lumezzane, where he also stayed for two years. His debut in the Serie A came with Hellas Verona F.C. in a 1–1 draw with Bari. He was often a sub in his first two years with them but became a starter the next year when they were relegated to the Serie B. After that he was a typical starter for Lecce, playing with them for three seasons.  In the 2006–07 season, Cassetti left Lecce to sign a four-year contract with Roma on a co-ownership deal for €1.5M due to Lecce's relegation. His teammate Mirko Vučinić also joined on loan for €3.25M. In June 2007, the remain registration rights of Cassetti were bought for €851,500.  In December 2009, he scored a winner against Lazio. On that day he became a hero for all Roma fans. On 3 June 2010, he signed a new 1-year deal with Roma and his pre-tax salary was increased to €1.8M from €1.34M. His contract was renewed again in March 2011.  He then became a second choice as a right back, with Aleandro Rosi being favoured over him. He played two games against Slovan Bratislava, but he disappointed with his performance. He played only 5 matches in the first part of the 2011–12 season due to his injury, Towards the end of the season Cassetti stated that he experienced less playing time due to manager Luis Enrique considering him as more of a centre-back rather than a right back.  At the end of the 2011–12 season it became clear that Roma decided against offering Cassetti a contract extension, meaning that he would leave the capital club at the end of the season.  On 23 August 2012, Cassetti signed for Udinese on a one-year deal, agreeing to join Watford on a season-long loan on the same day. Udinese did not publicise their signing of Cassetti, meaning that it was a move purely for the benefit of the English Championship club. In June 2013, Cassetti signed for Watford permanently and scored his first goal for the club in a 3–3 draw at home to Blackburn Rovers on 25 March 2014.  After two years at Vicarage Road, Cassetti announced he would be leaving Watford upon the expiry of his contract in May 2014. Roma manager Rudi Garcia had allowed Cassetti to train with the club in September, and in January 2015, Cassetti agreed a deal to join Lega Pro side Como.

International career.

Cassetti has been capped for the Italian national team five times at senior level. He was the first Lecce player ever to play for the national team when he earned his first cap in 2005. He played his last game for Italy in a 2008 2–1 over Cyprus in 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification, under Marcello Lippi.

Marco Cassetti (; born 29 May 1977) is an Italian former footballer who played as a defender.

马尔科·卡塞蒂(Marco Cassetti,1977年-5月29日),是一位意大利足球运动员。在场上司职右后卫。目前他效力于意甲球队罗马。在此之前他一直都是在乙、丙、丁组联赛球会效力,甚少在意甲亮相。至2006年加盟罗马后上阵次数渐多,才获国家队起用。


Taxonomy.

Taxonomists have long classified swifts and treeswifts as relatives of the hummingbirds, a judgment corroborated by the discovery of the Jungornithidae (apparently swift-like hummingbird-relatives) and of primitive hummingbirds such as "Eurotrochilus". Traditional taxonomies place the hummingbird family (Trochilidae) in the same order as the swifts and treeswifts (and no other birds); the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy treated this group as a superorder in which the swift order was called Trochiliformes.  The taxonomy of the swifts is complicated, with genus and species boundaries widely disputed, especially amongst the swiftlets. Analysis of behavior and vocalizations is complicated by common parallel evolution, while analyses of different morphological traits and of various DNA sequences have yielded equivocal and partly contradictory results.  The Apodiformes diversified during the Eocene, at the end of which the extant families were present; fossil genera are known from all over temperate Europe, between today's Denmark and France, such as the primitive swift-like "Scaniacypselus" (Early – Middle Eocene) and the more modern "Procypseloides" (Late Eocene/Early Oligocene – Early Miocene). A prehistoric genus sometimes assigned to the swifts, "Primapus" (Early Eocene of England), might also be a more distant ancestor.

Species.

There are around 100 species of swifts, normally grouped into two subfamilies and four tribes.  Cypseloidinae Apodinae

Description.

Swifts are among the fastest of birds, and larger species like the white-throated needletail have been reported travelling at up to in level flight. Even the common swift can cruise at a maximum speed of 31 metres per second (). In a single year the common swift can cover at least 200,000 km. and in a lifetime, about two million kilometers; enough to fly to the Moon five times over.  The wingtip bones of swiftlets are of proportionately greater length than those of most other birds. Changing the angle between the bones of the wingtips and forelimbs allows swifts to alter the shape and area of their wings to increase their efficiency and maneuverability at various speeds. They share with their relatives the hummingbirds a unique ability to rotate their wings from the base, allowing the wing to remain rigid and fully extended and derive power on both the upstroke and downstroke. The downstroke produces both lift and thrust, while the upstroke produces a negative thrust (drag) that is 60% of the thrust generated during the downstrokes, but simultaneously it contributes lift that is also 60% of what is produced during the downstroke. This flight arrangement might benefit the bird's control and maneuverability in the air.  The swiftlets or cave swiftlets have developed a form of echolocation for navigating through dark cave systems where they roost. One species, the Three-toed swiftlet, has recently been found to use this navigation at night outside its cave roost too.

Distribution and habitat.

Swifts occur on all the continents except Antarctica, but not in the far north, in large deserts, or on many oceanic islands. The swifts of temperate regions are strongly migratory and winter in the tropics. Some species can survive short periods of cold weather by entering torpor, a state similar to hibernation.  Many have a characteristic shape, with a short forked tail and very long swept-back wings that resemble a crescent or a boomerang. The flight of some species is characterised by a distinctive "flicking" action quite different from swallows. Swifts range in size from the pygmy swiftlet ("Collocalia troglodytes"), which weighs 5.4 g and measures long, to the purple needletail ("Hirundapus celebensis"), which weighs and measures long.

Behaviour.

Breeding.

The nest of many species is glued to a vertical surface with saliva, and the genus "Aerodramus" use only that substance, which is the basis for bird's nest soup. The eggs hatch after 19 to 23 days, and the young leave the nest after a further six to eight weeks. Both parents assist in raising the young.  Swifts as a family have smaller egg clutches and much longer and more variable incubation and fledging times than passerines with similarly sized eggs, resembling tubenoses in these developmental factors. Young birds reach a maximum weight heavier than their parents; they can cope with not being fed for long periods of time, and delay their feather growth when undernourished. Swifts and seabirds have generally secure nest sites, but their food sources are unreliable, whereas passerines are vulnerable in the nest but food is usually plentiful.

Feeding.

All swifts eat insects, such as aerial spiders, dragonflies, flies, ants, aphids, wasps and bees. Some species, like the chimney swift, hunt with other bird species as well.

Status.

No swift species has become extinct since 1600, but BirdLife International assesses the Guam swiftlet as endangered and lists the Atiu, dark-rumped, Schouteden's, Seychelles and Tahiti swiftlets as vulnerable; twelve other species are near threatened or lack sufficient data for classification.

Exploitation by humans.

The hardened saliva nests of the edible-nest swiftlet and the black-nest swiftlet have been used in Chinese cooking for over 400 years, most often as bird's nest soup. Over-harvesting of this expensive delicacy has led to a decline in the numbers of these swiftlets, especially as the nests are also thought to have health benefits and aphrodisiac properties. Most nests are built during the breeding season by the male swiftlet over a period of 35 days. They take the shape of a shallow cup stuck to the cave wall. The nests are composed of interwoven strands of salivary cement and contain high levels of calcium, iron, potassium, and magnesium.

The swifts are a family, Apodidae, of highly aerial birds. They are superficially similar to swallows, but are not closely related to any passerine species. Swifts are placed in the order Apodiformes with hummingbirds. The treeswifts are closely related to the true swifts, but form a separate family, the Hemiprocnidae.

雨燕科(学名"Apodidae")通称雨燕,在动物分类学上是鸟纲雨燕目中的一个科。雨燕是飞翔速度最快的鸟类,常在空中捕食昆虫,翼长而腿、脚弱小。雨燕分布广泛,有些种类在高纬度地区繁殖而到热带地区越冬,是著名的候鸟,有些则是热带地区的留鸟。雨燕科下共有18属84种。


History.

Paracelsus von Hohenheim, a 16th-century Swiss-German alchemist, experimented with various opium concoctions, and recommended opium for reducing pain. One of his preparations, a pill which he extolled as his "archanum" or "laudanum", may have contained opium. Paracelsus' laudanum was strikingly different from the standard laudanum of the 17th century and beyond, containing crushed pearls, musk, amber, and other substances. One researcher has documented that "Laudanum, as listed in the "London Pharmacopoeia" (1618), was a pill made from opium, saffron, castor, ambergris, musk and nutmeg".  Laudanum remained largely unknown until the 1660s when English physician Thomas Sydenham (1624–1689) compounded a proprietary opium tincture that he also named laudanum, although it differed substantially from the laudanum of Paracelsus. In 1676 Sydenham published a seminal work, "Medical Observations Concerning the History and Cure of Acute Diseases", in which he promoted his brand of opium tincture, and advocated its use for a range of medical conditions. By the 18th century, the medicinal properties of opium and laudanum were well known, and the term "laudanum" came to refer to any combination of opium and alcohol. Several physicians, including John Jones, John Brown, and George Young, the latter of whom published a comprehensive medical text entitled "Treatise on Opium", extolled the virtues of laudanum and recommended the drug for practically every ailment. "Opium, and after 1820, morphine, was mixed with everything imaginable: mercury, hashish, cayenne pepper, ether, chloroform, belladonna, whiskey, wine and brandy." As one researcher has noted: "To understand the popularity of a medicine that eased—even if only temporarily—coughing, diarrhoea and pain, one only has to consider the living conditions at the time". In the 1850s, "cholera and dysentery regularly ripped through communities, its victims often dying from debilitating diarrhoea", and dropsy, consumption, ague and rheumatism were all too common.  By the 19th century, laudanum was used in many patent medicines to "relieve pain... to produce sleep... to allay irritation... to check excessive secretions... to support the system... [and] as a soporific". The limited pharmacopoeia of the day meant that opium derivatives were among the most effective of available treatments, so laudanum was widely prescribed for ailments from colds to meningitis to cardiac diseases, in both adults and children. Laudanum was used during the yellow fever epidemic.  Innumerable Victorian women were prescribed the drug for relief of menstrual cramps and vague aches. Nurses also spoon-fed laudanum to infants. The Romantic and Victorian eras were marked by the widespread use of laudanum in Europe and the United States. Mary Todd Lincoln, for example, the wife of the US president Abraham Lincoln, was a laudanum addict, as was the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was famously interrupted in the middle of an opium-induced writing session of "Kubla Khan" by a "person from Porlock". Initially a working class drug, laudanum was cheaper than a bottle of gin or wine, because it was treated as a medication for legal purposes and not taxed as an alcoholic beverage.  Laudanum was used in home remedies and prescriptions, as well as a single medication. For example, a 1901 medical book published for home health use gave the following two "Simple Remedy Formulas" for "dysenterry": (1) Thin boiled starch, 2 ounces; Laudanum, 20 drops; "Use as an injection [meaning as an enema] every six to twelve hours"; (2) Tincture rhubarb, 1 ounce; Laudanum 4 drachms; "Dose: One teaspoonful every three hours." In a section entitled "Professional Prescriptions" is a formula for "diarrhoea (acute)": Tincture opium, deodorized, 15 drops; Subnitrate of bismuth, 2 drachms; Simple syrup, ounce; Chalk mixture, 1 ounces, "A teaspoonful every two or three hours to a child one year old." "Diarrhoea (chronic)": Aqueous extract of ergot, 20 grains; Extract of nux vomica, 5 grains; Extract of Opium, 10 grains, "Make 20 pills. Take one pill every three or four hours."  The early 20th century brought increased regulation of all manner of narcotics, including laudanum, as the addictive properties of opium became more widely understood, and "patent medicines came under fire, largely because of their mysterious compositions". In the US, the Food and Drug Act of 1906 required that certain specified drugs, including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, morphine, and cannabis, be accurately labeled with contents and dosage. Previously many drugs had been sold as patent medicines with secret ingredients or misleading labels. Cocaine, heroin, cannabis, and other such drugs continued to be legally available without prescription as long as they were labeled. It is estimated that sale of patent medicines containing opiates decreased by 33% after labeling was mandated. In 1906 in Britain and in 1908 in Canada "laws requiring disclosure of ingredients and limitation of narcotic content were instituted".  The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914 restricted the manufacture and distribution of opiates, including laudanum, and coca derivatives in the US. This was followed by France's "" in 1916, and Britain's Dangerous Drugs Act in 1920.  Laudanum was supplied to druggists and physicians in regular and concentrated versions. For example, in 1915, Frank S. Betz Co., a medical supply company in Hammond, Indiana, advertised Tincture of Opium, U.S.P., for $2.90 per lb., Tincture of Opium Camphorated, U.S.P, for 85 cents per lb., and Tincture of Opium Deodorized, for $2.85 per lb. Four versions of opium as a fluid extract were also offered: (1) Opium, Concentrated (assayed) "For making Tincture Opii (Laudanum) U.S.P. Four times the strength of the regular U.S.P." tincture, for $9.35 per pint; (2) Opium, Camphorated Conc. "1 oz. making 8 ozs. Tr. Opii Camphorated U.S.P (Paregoric)" for $2.00 per pint; (3) Opium, Concentrated (Deodorized and Denarcotized) "Four times the strength of tincture, Used when Tinct. Opii U.S.P. is contraindicated" for $9.50 per pint, and (4) Opium (Aqueous), U.S.P., 1890, "Tr. (assayed) Papayer Somniferum" for $2.25 per pint.  In 1929–30, Parke, Davis & Co., a major US drug manufacturer based in Detroit, Michigan, sold "Opium, U.S.P. (Laudanum)", as Tincture No. 23, for $10.80 per pint (16 fluid ounces), and "Opium Camphorated, U.S.P. (Paregoric)", as Tincture No. 20, for $2.20 per pint. Concentrated versions were available. "Opium Camphorated, for U.S.P. Tincture: Liquid No. 338" was "exactly 8 "times the strength of Tincture Opium Camphorated (Paregoric)" [italics in original], U.S.P., "designed for preparing the tincture by direct dilution," and cost $7 per pint. Similarly, at a cost of $36 per pint, "Opium Concentrated, for U.S.P. Tincture: Liquid No. 336", was "four times the strength of the official tincture", and "designed for the extemporaneous preparation of the tincture". The catalog also noted: "For quarter-pint bottles add 80c. per pint to the price given for pints."  Toward the middle 20th century, the use of opiates was generally limited to the treatment of pain, and opium was no longer a medically accepted "cure-all". Further, the pharmaceutical industry began synthesizing various opioids, such as propoxyphene, oxymorphone and oxycodone. These synthetic opioids, along with codeine and morphine were preferable to laudanum since a single opioid could be prescribed for different types of pain rather than the "cocktail" of laudanum, which contains nearly all of the opium alkaloids. Consequently, laudanum became mostly obsolete as an analgesic, since its principal ingredient is morphine, which can be prescribed by itself to treat pain. Until now, there has been no medical consensus on which of the two (laudanum or morphine alone) is the better choice for treating pain.  In 1970, the US adopted the Uniform Controlled Substances Act, which regulated opium tincture (Laudanum) as a Schedule II substance (currently DEA #9630), placing even tighter controls on the drug.  By the late 20th century, laudanum's use was almost exclusively confined to treating severe diarrhea. The current prescribing information for laudanum in the US states that opium tincture's sole indication is as an anti-diarrheal, although the drug is occasionally prescribed off-label for treating pain and neonatal withdrawal syndrome.

Historical varieties.

Several historical varieties of laudanum exist, including Paracelsus' laudanum, Sydenham's Laudanum (also known as "tinctura opii crocata"), benzoic laudanum ("tinctura opii benzoica"), and deodorized tincture of opium (the most common contemporary formulation), among others. Depending on the version, additional amounts of the substances and additional active ingredients (e.g. saffron, sugar, eugenol) are added, modifying its effects (e.g., amount of sedation, or antitussive properties).  There is probably no single reference that lists all the pharmaceutical variations of laudanum that were created and used in different countries during centuries since it was initially formulated. The reasons are that in addition to official variations described in pharmacopeias, pharmacists and drug manufacturers were free to alter such formulas. The alcohol content of Laudanum probably varied substantially; on the labels of turn-of-the-century bottles of Laudanum, alcoholic content is stated as 48%. In contrast, the current version of Laudanum contains about 18% alcohol.  The four variations of laudanum listed here were used in the United States during the late 19th century. The first, from an 1870 publication, is "Best Turkey opium 1 oz., slice, and pour upon it boiling water 1 gill, and work it in a bowl or mortar until it is dissolved; then pour it into the bottle, and with alcohol of 70 percent proof pt., rinse the dish, adding the alcohol to the preparation, shaking well, and in 24 hours it will be ready for use. Dose—From 10 to 30 drops for adults, according to the strength of the patient, or severity of the pain. Thirty drops of this laudanum will be equal to one grain of opium. And this is a much better way to prepare it than putting the opium into alcohol, or any other spirits alone, for in that case much of the opium does not dissolve." The remaining three formulas are copied from an 1890 publication of the day:

Modern status.

United States.

Tincture of Opium is available by prescription in the United States. It is regulated as a Schedule II drug (No. 9639) under the Controlled Substances Act.  In the United States, opium tincture is marketed and distributed by several pharmaceutical firms, each producing a single formulation of the drug, which is deodorized. Each mL contains 10 mg of anhydrous morphine (the equivalent of 100 mg of powdered opium), other opium alkaloids (except noscapine), and ethanol, 19%. It is available packaged in bottles of and.  Tincture of Opium is known as one of many "unapproved drugs" regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA); the marketing and distribution of opium tincture prevails today only because opium tincture was sold prior to the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act of 1938. Its "grandfathered" status protects opium tincture from being required to undergo strict FDA drug reviews and subsequent approval processes. However, the FDA closely monitors the labeling of opium tincture. Bottles of opium tincture are required by the FDA to bear a bright red "POISON" label given the potency of the drug and the potential for overdose (see discussion about confusion with Paregoric below). Additionally, in a warning letter to a manufacturer of opium tincture in late 2009, the FDA noted that "we found that your firm is manufacturing and distributing the prescription drug Opium Tincture USP (Deodorized – 10 mg/mL). Based on our information, there are no FDA-approved applications on file for this drug product."

United Kingdom.

Opium tincture remains in the British Pharmacopoeia, where it is referred to as Tincture of Opium, B.P., Laudanum, Thebaic Tincture or Tinctura Thebaica, and "adjusted to contain 1% w/v of anhydrous morphine." It is a Class A substance under the Misuse of Drugs Act of 1971. At least one manufacturer (Macfarlan Smith) still produces opium tincture in the UK. "Gee's Linctus" is also available from most UK pharmacies, especially independent stores. This contains "Opium Tincture", at 0.083 mL, per 5 mL.

Pharmacology.

Opium tincture is useful as an analgesic and antidiarrheal. Opium enhances the tone in the long segments of the longitudinal muscle and inhibits propulsive contraction of circular and longitudinal muscles. The pharmacological effects of opium tincture are due principally to its morphine content. The quantity of the papaverine and codeine alkaloids in opium tincture is too small to have any demonstrable central nervous system effect.  Most modern formulations of opium tincture do not contain the alkaloid narcotine (also known as noscapine), which has antitussive properties. Even modest doses of narcotine can induce profound nausea and vomiting. Since opium tincture is usually prescribed for its antidiarrheal and analgesic properties (rather than as an antitussive), opium tincture without narcotine is generally preferred. This "de-narcotized" or "deodorized" opium tincture is formulated using a petroleum distillate to remove the narcotine.  Oral doses of opium tincture are rapidly absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract and metabolized in the liver. Peak plasma concentrations of the morphine content are reached in about one hour, and nearly 75% of the morphine content of the opium tincture is excreted in the urine within 48 hours after oral administration.

Medical uses.

Diarrhea.

Opium tincture is indicated for the treatment of severe fulminant (intense, prolific) diarrhea that does not respond to standard therapy (e.g., Imodium or Lomotil). The usual starting dose is 0.3 mL to 0.6 mL (about six to 12 drops) in a glass of water or juice four times a day. Refractory cases (such as diarrhea resulting from the complications of HIV/AIDS) may require higher than normal dosing, for example, 1 to 2 mL every 3 hours, for a total daily dose of up to 16mL a day. In terminal diseases, there is no ceiling dose for opium tincture; the dose is increased slowly until diarrhea is controlled.

Neonatal abstinence syndrome.

Opium tincture is used to treat neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) when diluted 1:25 (one part opium tincture to 25 parts water). The recommended dose is 0.2 mL of the diluted solution under the tongue every three hours, which may be increased by 0.05 mL every three hours until no objective signs of withdrawal are observed. In no event, however, should the dose exceed 0.7 mL every three hours. The opium tincture is gradually tapered over a 3- to 5-week period, at which point the newborn should be completely free of withdrawal symptoms.

Pain.

Given its high concentration of morphine, opium tincture is useful for treating moderate to severe pain. The amount of codeine in the tincture is negligible and does not have any appreciable analgesic effect. The dose of tincture is generally the same as that of morphine in opioid-naïve patients, titrated upward as needed. The usual starting dose in adults is 1.5 mL by mouth every 3 to 4 hours, representing the equivalent of 15 mg—approximately grain—of morphine per dose.  Opioid-tolerant patients may require higher than normal dosing. For the opioid tolerant patient, doses in the range of 3–6 mL every 3–4 hours would be usual. This would represent an equivalent daily dose of between 180 mg and 480 mg of morphine.  Today, morphine and codeine are available in various forms as single formulation products, which are easier to dose and are much cheaper than opium tincture. Thus, opium is rarely prescribed to treat pain in contemporary medicine. Further, opium tincture contains 17–19% alcohol, by volume, which may complicate its use as an analgesic in patients for whom alcohol is contraindicated.

Dosage.

Extreme caution is advised when administering doses of Tincture of Opium. Doses should be carefully measured using an oral syringe or calibrated dropper. Apothecary measurements should be avoided in contemporary medical prescriptions, and the prescriber should dose opium tincture in mL or fractions thereof. If in the prescriber's judgment dosing in drops would be appropriate, it should be borne in mind that in contemporary medicine, there are 20 drops per mL.  The differences between Tincture of Opium (Laudanum) and Camphorated Tincture of Opium (Paregoric) are important and should be kept in mind when administering either of these drugs. Care and caution should always be taken in administering doses of Tincture of Opium, such as the use of a dosage syringe or other suitable measurement device, and by pharmacists in preparing Paregoric from Laudanum, and to note that the dosages in this article refer to Apothecaries weight and fluid measure. In particular, "the difference between a minim and a drop should be borne in mind when figuring doses. A minim is always a sixtieth part of a fluidrachm regardless of the character of the substance, while a drop varies from a forty-fifth to a two-hundred-and-fiftieth part, according to the surface tension of the fluid." Tincture of Opium (Laudanum) and Camphorated Tincture of Opium (Paregoric) each have 50.9 drops per gram; 50.0 drops per cc; 185.0 drops per fluid drachm; and 3.10 drops per minim." The importance of these distinctions is evident in view of the dangers of erroneously relying upon more general descriptions of apothecaries' fluid measures, which typically list 60 minims per fluid dram, and 8 fluid drams per fluid ounce (480 minims).

Hazards.

Potency of laudanum.

Opium tincture is one of the most potent oral formulations of morphine available by prescription. Accidental or deliberate overdose is common with opium tincture given the highly concentrated nature of the solution. Overdose and death may occur with a single oral dose of between 100 and 150 mg of morphine in a healthy adult who has no tolerance to opiates. This represents the equivalent of between two to three teaspoons () of opium tincture. Suicide by laudanum was not uncommon in the mid-19th century. Prudent medical judgment necessitates toward dispensing very small quantities of opium tincture in small dropper bottles or in pre-filled syringes to reduce the risk of intentional or accidental overdose.

Danger of confusion with paregoric.

In the United States, opium tincture contains 10 mg per mL of anhydrous morphine. By contrast, opium tincture's weaker cousin, paregoric, also confusingly known as "camphorated tincture of opium", is 1/25th the strength of opium tincture, containing only 0.4 mg of morphine per mL. A 25-fold morphine overdose may occur if opium tincture is used where paregoric is indicated. Opium tincture is almost always dosed in drops, or fractions of a mL, or less commonly, in minims, while paregoric is dosed in teaspoons or tablespoons. Thus, an order for opium tincture containing directions in teaspoons is almost certainly in error. To avoid this potentially fatal outcome, the term "camphorated tincture of opium" is avoided in place of paregoric since the former can easily be mistaken for opium tincture.  In 2004, the FDA issued a "Patient Safety" news bulletin stating that "To help resolve the confusion [between opium tincture and paregoric], FDA will be working with the manufacturers of these two drugs to clarify the labeling on the containers and in the package inserts." Indeed, in 2005, labels for opium tincture began to include the concentration of morphine (10 mg/mL) in large text beneath the words "Opium Tincture". The FDA has also alerted pharmacists and other medical practitioners about the dangers of confusing these drugs, and has recommended that opium tincture not be stocked as a standard item (i.e., that it should not be "on the shelf"), that opium tincture be dispensed in oral syringes, and that pharmacy software alert the dispenser if unusually large doses of opium tincture appear to be indicated.  Despite the FDA's efforts over the past few years, the confusion persists, sometimes with deadly results. The Institute for Safe Medication Practices recommends that opium tincture not be stocked at all in a pharmacy's inventory, and that "It may be time to relegate opium tincture and paregoric to the museum of outmoded opioid therapy." Despite the risk of confusion, opium tincture, like many end-stage medications, is indispensable for intractable diarrhea for terminally ill patients, such as those suffering from AIDS and cancer.

Misinterpretation of "DTO".

The abbreviation "DTO," traditionally used to refer to Deodorized Tincture of Opium, is sometimes also erroneously employed to abbreviate ""diluted" tincture of opium." Diluted tincture of opium, also known as Camphorated Tincture of Opium (Paregoric) is a 1:25 mixture of opium tincture to water prescribed to treat withdrawal symptoms in newborns whose mothers were using opioids while pregnant. The United States Pharmacopeia and FDA recommend that practitioners refrain from using DTO in prescriptions, given this potential for confusion. In cases where pharmacists have misinterpreted DTO, and given "deodorized tincture of opium" when "diluted tincture of opium" was meant, infants have received a massive 25-fold overdose of morphine, sometimes resulting in fatalities.

Side effects.

Side effects of laudanum are generally the same as with morphine, and include euphoria, dysphoria, pruritus, sedation, constipation, reduced tidal volume, respiratory depression, as well as psychological dependence, physical dependence, miosis, and xerostomia. Overdose can result in severe respiratory depression or collapse and death. The ethanol component can also induce adverse effects at higher doses; the side effects are the same as with alcohol. Long-term use of laudanum in nonterminal diseases is discouraged due to the possibility of drug tolerance and addiction. Long-term use can also lead to abnormal liver function tests; specifically, prolonged morphine use can increase ALT and AST blood serum levels.

Treatment for overdose.

Life-threatening overdose of opium tincture owes to the preparation's morphine content. Morphine produces a dose-dependent depressive effect on the respiratory system, which can lead to profound respiratory depression, hypoxia, coma and finally respiratory arrest and death. If overdose of opium tincture is suspected, rapid professional intervention is required. The primary concern is re-establishing a viable airway and institution of assisted or controlled ventilation if the patient is unable to breathe on his own. Other supportive measures such as the use of vasopressors and oxygen may be indicated to treat cardiac and/or pulmonary failure. Cardiac arrhythmias or arrest will require advanced life-saving measures.  Intravenous naloxone or nalmefene, quick-acting opioid antagonists, are the first-line treatment to reverse respiratory depression caused by an overdose of opium tincture. Gastric lavage may be of some use in certain cases.

Laudanum is a tincture of opium containing approximately 10% powdered opium by weight (the equivalent of 1% morphine).

鸦片酊(英语:Laudanum),又称阿片酊或劳丹酊,为一种鸦片类止痛剂,是含10%质量浓度的鸦片粉的酊剂,相当于1%浓度的无水吗啡。


Plot.

In 1585, Catholic Spain, ruled by King Philip II of Spain, is the most powerful country in the world. Seeing Protestant England as a threat, and in retaliation for English piracy of Spanish ships, Philip plots to take over England and make his daughter, Isabella, the Queen of England in Elizabeth's place. Meanwhile, Elizabeth I of England is pressured by her advisor, Francis Walsingham, to marry - if she dies without an heir, the throne will pass to her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, who is Catholic.  English explorer Walter Raleigh is presented at Elizabeth's court, having returned from the New World. Elizabeth is attracted to Raleigh, enthralled by his tales of exploration, and asks Bess Throckmorton, her most favored lady-in-waiting, to observe him. Bess also finds Raleigh attractive and they begin a secret affair. With tensions strained between England and Spain, Elizabeth seeks guidance from her astrologer, Dr. John Dee.  Jesuits in London conspire with Philip to assassinate Elizabeth and replace her with Mary, in what Philip calls "The English Enterprise", historically known as the Babington Plot. From her imprisonment, Mary sends secret correspondence to the Jesuits, who recruit Anthony Babington to assassinate Elizabeth. Walsingham continues to warn Elizabeth of Spain's rising power and of the Catholics' plots against her, but unlike her predecessor and half-sister Mary I of England, Elizabeth refuses to force her people to share her religious beliefs.  Walsingham's Catholic brother, who knows of the plot against Elizabeth, is jailed, leading Walsingham to reveal Spain's plan to Elizabeth, who angrily confronts the Spanish diplomats. The Spanish ambassador feigns ignorance, accuses Elizabeth of receiving Spanish gold from pirates, and insinuates that she has a sexual relationship with Raleigh. Enraged, Elizabeth throws the Spaniards out of court. Meanwhile, Philip is cutting down the forests of Spain to build the Spanish Armada to invade England. Mary writes letters condoning the plot.  Babington storms into a cathedral where Elizabeth is praying and fires a pistol at her, though Elizabeth is unharmed as there was no bullet in the gun. As Elizabeth learns of Mary's involvement in the plot, Walsingham insists Mary be executed to quell any possible revolt. Elizabeth reluctantly agrees. Mary is tried for high treason and beheaded; Walsingham realizes this was part of the Jesuits' plan all along: Philip never intended for Mary to become queen, but with the Pope and other Catholic leaders regarding Mary as the true Queen of England, Philip uses Mary's death to obtain papal approval for war. The "murder" of the last legitimate Catholic in the line of succession gives Philip the pretext he needs to invade England and removes Mary, leaving the way to the English throne free for his own daughter.  Bess reveals to Raleigh that she is pregnant with his child, and pleads with him to leave. Instead, the couple marries in secret. When Elizabeth confronts Bess, she confesses her pregnancy and that Raleigh is her husband. An infuriated Elizabeth berates Bess, reminding her that she cannot marry without royal consent. She banishes Bess from court and has Raleigh imprisoned for the crime of seducing a ward of the Queen.  As the Spanish Armada begins its approach up the English Channel, Elizabeth forgives Bess and sets Raleigh free to join Sir Francis Drake in the battle. The ships of the Armada vastly outnumber England's, but a storm blows the Armada toward the beaches, endangering its formation and becoming vulnerable to English fire ships. Elizabeth, atop her coastal headquarters, walks out to the cliffs and watches the Spanish Armada sink in flames as the English prevail.  She visits Raleigh and Bess and blesses their child. Elizabeth appears to triumph personally through her ordeal, again resigned to her role as the Virgin Queen and mother to the English people.

Production.

Historical background.

In 1558, King Philip II of Spain's second wife, Queen Mary I of England, died. They had wed in July 1554, a year after Mary's accession to the English throne, but the English Parliament had refused to grant him much real power as co-monarch of England. On Mary's death he had tried unsuccessfully to persuade her sister and successor, Elizabeth I, to marry him, but she would not agree.  For many years Philip maintained peace with England, and even defended Elizabeth from the Pope's threat of excommunication. This was a measure taken to preserve a European balance of power. Ultimately, Elizabeth allied England with the Protestant rebels in the Netherlands. Further, English ships began a policy of piracy against Spanish trade and threatened to plunder the great Spanish treasure ships coming from the new world. English ships went so far as to attack a Spanish port. The last straw for Philip was the Treaty of Nonsuch signed by Elizabeth in 1585 – promising troops and supplies to the rebels. Although it can be argued this English action was the result of Philip's Treaty of Joinville with the Catholic League of France, Philip considered it an act of war by England. With the Pope's blessing, he launched the Spanish Armada to attack England, Protestantism, and Elizabeth herself. Sir Walter Raleigh, whom the Queen favored, married Elizabeth Throckmorton, a ward of Elizabeth's court, after learning she was carrying his child. Elizabeth I had both of them arrested, imprisoned in the Tower of London, and some time later released them.

Dramatic licence.

This representation of a historical period is heavily fictionalised for the purposes of entertainment. The film's lead Cate Blanchett was reported as saying: "It's terrifying that we are growing up with this very illiterate bunch of children, who are somehow being taught that film is fact, when in fact it's invention". Some of the simpler fictions are:

Claims of anti-Catholicism.

The film depicts an important episode in the violent struggle between the Protestant Reformation and the Counter-Reformation that polarised European politics. Several critics (some cited below) claimed the film was "anti-Catholic" and followed a traditional English view of their own history. A British-based priest, Father Peter Malone, declared the film to be jingoistic in his review.  In the US the "National Catholic Register", film critic Steven D. Greydanus compared this film to "The Da Vinci Code", and wrote: "The climax, a weakly staged destruction of the Spanish Armada, is a crescendo of church-bashing imagery: rosaries floating amid burning flotsam, inverted crucifixes sinking to the bottom of the ocean, the rows of ominous berobed clerics slinking away in defeat. Pound for pound, minute for minute, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" could possibly contain more sustained church-bashing than any other film I can think of". Greydanus asked: "How is it possible that this orgy of anti-Catholicism has been all but ignored by most critics?"  Stephen Whitty of the Newark "Star-Ledger" said: "This movie equates Catholicism with some sort of horror-movie cult, with scary close-ups of chanting monks and glinting crucifixes". Colin Covert of the Minneapolis "Star Tribune" complained of what he saw as "ugly anti-Catholic imagery", and Bob Bloom of the Lafayette "Journal & Courier" agreed that anti-Catholicism was one of the film's "sore points".  Monsignor Mark Langham, Administrator of Westminster Cathedral, was criticised by some Roman Catholics for allowing scenes to be shot there; although praising the film as a'must see', he suggested that 'it does appear to perpetuate the myth of “killer priests”'.  Historian Franco Cardini, of the University of Florence, alleged 'the film formed part of a "concerted attack on Catholicism, the Holy See and Papism" by an alliance of atheists and "apocalyptic Christians"'. 'Why put out this perverse anti-Catholic propaganda today, just at the moment when we are trying desperately to revive our Western identity in the face of the Islamic threat, presumed or real?'  Director Shekhar Kapur rejected this criticism of his film, saying: “It is actually very, very deeply non-anti-Catholic. It is anti extreme forms of religion. At that time the church in Spain, or Philip had said that they were going to turn the whole world into a very pure form of Catholicism. So it's not anti-Catholic. It's anti an interpretation of the word of God that is singular, as against what Elizabeth's was, which was to look upon her faith as concomitant'. 'The fact is that the Pope ordered her execution; he said that anybody who executes or assassinates Elizabeth would find a beautiful place in the kingdom of heaven. Where else have you heard these words about Salman Khan or Salman Rushdie? That's why I made this film, so this idea of a rift between Catholicism and Protestants does not arise. My interpretation of Elizabeth is an interpretation of greater tolerance [than] Philip, which is absolutely true. It's completely true that she had this kind of feminine energy. It's a conflict between Philip, who had no ability to encompass diversity or contradiction, and Elizabeth who had the feminine ability to do that'.  Kapur extended this pluralist defence to his own approach: 'I would describe all history as fiction and interpretation... [A]sk any Catholic and they'll give you a totally different aspect of history... History has always been an interpretation... I do believe that civilisations that don't learn from history are civilisations that are doomed to make the same mistakes again and again, which is why this film starts with the idea of fundamentalism against tolerance. It's not Catholic against Protestant; it's a very fundamental form of Catholicism. It was the time of the Spanish Inquisition and against a woman whose half of her population was Protestant, half was Catholic. And there were enough bigots in her Protestant to say, "Just kill them all", and she was constantly saying no. She was constantly on the side of tolerance. So you interpret history to tell the story that is relevant to us now'.

Soundtrack.

The original score was composed by Craig Armstrong and A. R. Rahman. The score was recorded in Glasgow, Scotland, in Armstrong's studio. Kapur was thrilled to have both Armstrong and Rahman working together on the music, saying it was fascinating to watch "two people with totally different backgrounds and cultures" interact.  Blanchett had travelled to India in the early 2000s, coming away with several Indian sounds, and badgered Kapur to get Rahman to score Hollywood movies. Antonio Pinto was mentioned as being a collaborator during production, but later Armstrong joined the project. In January 2009, he expressed regret that other compositions from A. R. Rahman were not used in the film, feeling that "the score of "Golden Age" was not half as good as it could have been." He expressed hope to hear these pieces appear in another project.  "Opening" from the score was used in the BBC's coverage of the Single's Finals at the 2008 Wimbledon Championships. "Storm" is heard in a trailer of the 2013 film "Man of Steel".

Home media.

The film was released on Region 1 on DVD and HD DVD 5 February 2008. It was released on Blu-ray in 2009 and bundled with.

Reception.

Critical reception.

Although Cate Blanchett's performance was highly praised, the film received generally mixed to negative reviews from US critics. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 34% of critics gave the film a positive rating, based on 166 reviews; the average rating is 5.08/10. On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 45 out of 100, based on 32 reviews.  Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian", gave the film 1 star out of 5, remarking on the film's historical revisionism and melodrama. He writes: "Where Kapur's first Elizabeth was cool, cerebral, fascinatingly concerned with complex plotting, the new movie is pitched at the level of a Jean Plaidy romantic novel".  Roger Ebert gave the film 21⁄2 stars out of 4, saying 'there are scenes where the costumes are so sumptuous, the sets so vast, the music so insistent, that we lose sight of the humans behind the dazzle of the production'. Ebert did, however, praise many of the actors' performances, particularly that of Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I. He said 'that Blanchett could appear in the same Toronto International Film Festival playing Elizabeth and Bob Dylan, both splendidly, is a wonder of acting'. Blanchett portrayed Bob Dylan in the film "I'm Not There" and was nominated for an Academy Award for her roles in both movies.  Colin Covert of the "Minneapolis Star Tribune" gave the film 3 stars out of 4, writing '... as a pseudo-historical fable, a romantic triangle and a blood-and-thunder melodrama, the film can't be faulted' and 'This isn't historical fabrication, it's mutilation. But for all its lapses, this is probably the liveliest, most vibrant Elizabethan production since Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet".' while Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe said, "Historians might demand a little more history from "Elizabeth: The Golden Age". But soap opera loyalists could hardly ask for more soap."  Michael Gove, speaking on BBC Two's "Newsnight Review", said: 'It tells the story of England's past in a way which someone who's familiar with the Whig tradition of history would find, as I did, completely sympathetic. It's amazing to see a film made now that is so patriotic... One of the striking things about this film is that it's almost a historical anomaly. I can't think of a historical period film in which England and the English have been depicted heroically for the last forty or fifty years. You almost have to go back to Laurence Olivier's Shakespeare's "Henry V" in which you actually have an English king and English armies portrayed heroically'.

Box office.

"Elizabeth: The Golden Age" grossed $6.1 million in 2,001 theatres during its opening weekend in the United States and Canada, ranking #6 at the box office. In the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland the film entered at No. 4 and earned £1.3 million ($2.7 million) on its opening weekend. the worldwide total was $74.2 million, including $16.4 million in the US and Canada and $57.8 million elsewhere. In contrast, the film's predecessor, "Elizabeth", grossed $30 million in the United States and Canada, and a total of $82.1 million worldwide.

Awards.

At the 80th Academy Awards, Alexandra Byrne won the Academy Award for Costume Design. Blanchett was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film, becoming the first female actor to receive another Academy Award nomination for the reprisal of the same role. Blanchett was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for her performance in the film, the Critic's Choice Award for Best Actress in a leading role, and a SAG Award. The film won two Satellite Awards for Best Production Design for Guy Hendrix Dyas and Best Costume Design for Byrne. Dyas received a nomination from the Art Directors Guild for Best Production Design in a Period Film, and Byrne a nomination from the Costume Designers Guild for Best Costume in a Period Film. The film was also nominated for four BAFTA Awards including Actress in a Leading Role, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design and Best Makeup. At the 11th Pyongyang International Film Festival held in September 2008, one of the awards for special screening were conferred upon the film.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age is a 2007 biographical drama film, directed by Shekhar Kapur and produced by Universal Pictures and Working Title Films. It stars Cate Blanchett in the title role and is a fairly fictionalised portrayal of events during the latter part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England, following up on Kapur's 1998 film "Elizabeth", also starring Blanchett. The film co-stars Geoffrey Rush (reprising his role from the previous film), Clive Owen, Jordi Mollà, Abbie Cornish, and Samantha Morton. The screenplay was written by William Nicholson and Michael Hirst, and the music score was composed by A. R. Rahman and Craig Armstrong. Guy Hendrix Dyas was the film's production designer and co-visual effects supervisor, and the costumes were created by Alexandra Byrne. The film was shot at Shepperton Studios and various locations around the United Kingdom.

《伊丽莎白:辉煌年代》(Elizabeth: The Golden Age)是一部2007年的历史电影,亦是《-{zh-hk:传奇女王伊利沙伯; zh-tw:伊丽莎白; zh-hans:伊丽莎白;}-》的续集。电影沿用了上一集的导演锡哈·加培和包括凯特·布兰琪在内的一众演员。故事以16世纪的英国为背景,内容围绕着已达中年的英女皇伊丽莎白一世如何克服在统治国家及私人生活上都必须面对的种种压力,籍此描绘英国在伊丽莎白一世的统治下怎样达到它的辉煌时期。


Optics.

LAMOST is configured as a reflective Schmidt telescope with active optics. There are two mirrors, each made up of a number of 1.1-metre (p-p) hexagonal deformable segments. The first mirror, MA (24 segments, fitting in a 5.72×4.4 m rectangle) is a Schmidt corrector plate in a dome at ground level. The almost-flat mirror MA reflects the light to the south, up a large slanted tunnel (25° above horizontal) to the larger spherical focusing mirror MB (37 segments, fitting in a 6.67×6.09 m rectangle). This directs light to a focal plane 1.75 metres in diameter corresponding to a five-degree field of view. The focal plane is tiled with 4000 fibre-positioning units, each feeding an optical fibre which transfers light to one of sixteen 250-channel spectrographs below.  Looking at the image opposite, MB is at the top of the left-hand supporting column of the tower, MA is in the left of the two domes at the right of the image (the rightmost, grey dome is an unrelated telescope), and the spectrographs are inside the right-hand column of the tower.  Each spectrograph has two 4k×4k CCD cameras, using e2v CCD chips, with 'blue' (370–590 nm) and'red' (570–900 nm) sides; the telescope can also be used in a higher spectral resolution mode where the range is 510–540 and 830–890 nm.  Using active optics technique to control its reflecting corrector makes it a unique astronomical instrument in combining large aperture with wide field of view. The available large focal plane may accommodate up to thousands of fibers, by which the collected light of distant and faint celestial objects down to 20.5 magnitude is fed into the spectrographs, promising a very high spectrum acquiring rate of ten-thousands of spectra per night.

Scientific goals.

The telescope is to conduct a wide-field survey, called the "LAMOST Experiment for Galactic Understanding and Evolution," or LEGUE. Particular scientific goals of the LAMOST include:  It is also hoped that the vast volume of data produced will lead to additional serendipitous discoveries. Early commissioning observations have been able to confirm spectroscopically a new method of identifying quasars based on their infrared color. An overarching goal of the telescope is to bring Chinese astronomy into the 21st century, taking a leading role in wide-field spectroscopy and in the fields of large-scale and large-sample astronomy and astrophysics.

Early results.

A 2011 conference presentation suggests that there was initially a problem with accuracy of the fibre positioners causing poor throughput, but that this was rectified by adding another calibration step.  The same presentation also points out that the telescope's location, only NW of Beijing, is far from ideal, being in an area with high levels of both atmospheric and light pollution. The telescope has generally been disappointing, with the site receiving only 120 clear nights per year.

The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fibre Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), also known as the Guo Shoujing Telescope (Chinese: 郭守敬望远镜) after the 13th-century Chinese astronomer, is a meridian reflecting Schmidt telescope, located in Xinglong Station, Hebei Province, China. Undertaken by the Chinese Academy of Science, the telescope is planned to conduct a 5-year spectroscopic survey of 10 million Milky Way stars, as well as millions of galaxies. The project's budget is RMB 235 million yuan.

大天区面积多目标光纤光谱天文望远镜(英语:Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopy Telescope,英语:LAMOST),是中国大陆在国家天文台兴隆观测站的一种大型天文望远镜,位于河北省承德市境内。LAMOST和传统天文望远镜的不同之处是,它可以对较大的天区范围(20平方度)内的4000个目标的光谱进行长时间的跟踪积分记录(积分时间可至1.5小时),在1.5小时曝光时间内以1纳米的光谱分辨率可以观测到20.5等的暗弱天体的光谱。


Feeding and habits.

The African bullfrog is a voracious carnivore, eating insects, small rodents, reptiles, small birds, and other amphibians. It is also a cannibalistic species—the male African bullfrog is known for occasionally eating the tadpoles he guards. An African bullfrog kept at the Pretoria Zoo in South Africa once ate 17 Juvenile Rinkhals Snakes ("Hemachatus haemachatus"). They emit a loud croaking and a bleating sound when stressed or handled. It is one of the three frog species regularly kept in captivity that have sharp teeth and willingly bite humans when provoked or handled; the other two are Pacman frogs and Budgett's frogs.

Reproduction.

Breeding starts after heavy rain (initiated by about of rain over the course of two days). They breed in shallow, temporary water bodies, such as pools, pans, and ditches. Eggs are laid in the shallow edge of the pond, but fertilization takes place above water.  The African bullfrog males call out during the rainy season. The call lasts about a second and can be described as a low-pitched whoop. Males have two breeding strategies, depending on their age. Young males congregate in a small area, perhaps only of shallow water. The larger males occupy the center of these breeding arenas or leks and attempt to chase off other males. Often, they fight, causing injury or even killing one another. The dominant male attempts to prevent other males from breeding. A female approaches the group of males by swimming along at the surface until she is within a few meters of the group. Then the female dives to avoid the smaller males and surfaces in the defended area of a larger male in the middle of the group. This helps to ensure that she mates with the dominant male.  The female lays about 3,000 to 4,000 eggs at a time. The tadpoles hatch and after two days start feeding on vegetation, small fish, invertebrates, and even each other. Defending males continue to watch over the tadpoles, which metamorphose within three weeks. During the tadpole's development, the father guards his young. Due to the male bullfrog's overprotective behavior, he pounces and bites anything that he views as a threat. If the pool is in danger of drying out, the father uses his legs and head to dig a canal from the drying pond to a bigger pond. He continues to guard the tadpoles until they are old enough to fend for themselves, although he may also eat some of them.

Pet trade.

The African bullfrog is an exotic pet in many countries around the world. Animals sold are generally bred in captivity. It is not unusual for pet African bullfrogs to live for 35 years in captivity.

The African bullfrog ("Pyxicephalus adspersus") is a species of frog in the family Pyxicephalidae. It is also known as the pixie frog due to its scientific name. It is found in Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and possibly the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It has long been confused with the edible bullfrog ("P. adspersus") and species boundaries between them, including exact range limits, are not fully understood. Additionally, "P. angusticeps" of coastal East Africa only was revalidated as a separate species in 2013.

非洲牛箱头蛙(学名:"Pyxicephalus adspersus"),又称非洲牛蛙,是箱头蛙属下的一种淡水蛙,分布于撒哈拉以南的非洲地区。非洲牛箱头蛙个头很大,雄蛙体重可超,体长可达,雌性则只有雄性的一半大。


Name.

The origin of the name () is the word "company", referring to the German railway company who built that section of the Konya-Baghdad Railway from 1911.  Kobanî was built between the village of Arap Pinar (Kaniya Ereban) in the east and the village of Mürşitpinar (Kurdish: Kaniya Murshid) in the west. The Ottoman name of the eastern village was "Arab Punarı" (, ), and Kobanî's Arabic name, "ʿAyn al-ʿArab" (عين العرب), is a translation of this. The word "spring" refers to the creek that used to flow east of the village, and during the summer Arab nomads would bring their herds to the location. This village was located south of a small lake that dried up in the 1960s. The name Mürşitpinar is still used as the name for the western village and the railway station in the Turkish side.  The name "ʿAyn al-ʿArab" was introduced officially by the Syrian government as part of a broader Arabization effort

Climate.

Kobanî has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification "Csa").

History.

Ottoman Empire and before.

Prior to World War I, the area was mainly populated by semi-nomadic Kurdish tribes, many but not all of which were part of the Milli confederation. These tribes had progressively migrated in from the north during the 19th century, pushing back the Arab Tribes which had previously occupied the area. Local Kurds living in the plains to the east of the modern town reportedly provided lodgings at their encampment for a French-led archaeological team on its way to survey the nearby ancient Assyrian site of Arslan Tashî () in the summer of 1883.  As of 1892, there were three homesteads situated in the area. During the construction of the Baghdad Railway, Kurdish raiders from the Busrawi and Shahin Bey clans—rivals who lived south and east of today's Kobanî - reportedly harassed work crews attempting to mine basalt from the nearby hills, partially owing to the fact that the German companies responsible for its construction were lax in providing payment and compensation to local landowners. German engineers staying in the area from 1912 to 1913 described "Arab Punar" as a "small Kurdish village around east of the Euphrates" comprising a small cluster of square mud-brick huts, many with domed roofs; the local chief's hut was notable among these in its incorporation of European-style doors and windows and its concrete flooring. The area was apparently also known for its swarms of biting sand-flies.  The newly-built town began to form south of a simple train station built in 1912 along the railway by workers from the nearby town of Suruç. The train station was part of the Baghdad Railway project launched by the Ottoman government to connect Baghdad with Berlin. Refugees fleeing the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire settled in the newly built town around 1915, and were soon joined by more Kurds from nearby areas.

French Mandate.

Many of the Kurds who settled in Kobanî were originally from Turkish Kurdistan. Some fled persecution following the Kurdish-led Sheikh Said rebellion in 1925. After the demarcation of the border with Turkey along the railway line in 1921, the northern part of Mürşitpinar was left on the other side of the border. This small settlement is incorporated in the Suruç district and still has a little railway station and a border crossing gate. By the middle of the 20th century, there were three Armenian churches and two schools in the town, but many Armenians emigrated to the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic in the 1960s while others moved to bigger cities, including Aleppo and Beirut, as well as cities in the US and other countries. The town was also home to a small Syriac Orthodox community, but their numbers dwindled and the town's only Syriac Orthodox church was demolished in the early 1960s.  The city's infrastructural layout was largely planned and constructed by French authorities during the Mandatory period, and a number of French-built buildings were still standing and in use until recently. During this period, the city of Suruç served as the regional center of Kobanî. The area was marked by several border crossings with Turkey, unsanctioned by either the Turkish or French Mandatory governments. The crossings became a source of numerous Turkish complaints and led to the establishment of a French intelligence office in Kobanî to monitor border activity. Throughout the 20th century, the border remained officially closed even as the neighbouring towns of Tell Abyad and Jarablus—both of which had smaller Kurdish populations—were allowed to have commercial border crossings, a situation which economically marginalised Kobanî for many years. However, there was limited traffic at the Kobanî-Mürşitpinar gate and passengers from Kobanî often crossed through it to travel by train to Aleppo. By 2011, as a result of the Syrian Civil War, traffic through this gate increased. Wounded and sick people could cross to the Turkish side while trucks carrying goods crossed into Kobanî from Mürşitpınar.

Syria pre-autonomy.

When Syria gained independence from France in 1946, the intelligence building served as the political office of the Kobanî area's highest-ranking local administrator. Kobanî started to develop as a city in the 1950s when it was further separated from Suruç as a result of the Turkish government mining of the border area.

Syrian Civil War.

Siege by ISIL.

The People's Protection Units (YPG) took control of Kobanî on 19 July 2012. The Syrian authorities in Kobanî and other Kurdish towns evacuated the government offices and centers without any fighting taking place between the Syrian and Kurdish forces. Since July 2012, Kobanî has been under Kurdish control. The YPG and Kurdish politicians anticipated autonomy for the area, which they consider part of Rojava. After similar less intense events earlier in 2014, on 2 July the town and surrounding villages came under a massive attack from fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. On 16 September, ISIL resumed its siege of Kobanî with a full-scale assault from the west and the south of the city. Kobanî Canton had been under attack by ISIL militants for several months. In September 2014, militants occupied most of the Kobanî region, seizing more than 100 Kurdish villages. As a consequence of the ISIL occupation, up to 200,000 Kurdish refugees fled from Kobanî Canton to Turkey. Turkish authorities did not allow the refugees to enter with any vehicles or livestock that they had.  In captured villages, militants committed massacres and kidnapped women. IS militants, however, were not able to occupy all of Kobanî itself, as the YPG and YPJ forces managed to defend a part of Kobanî and later several nearby settlements. After weeks of isolation, which resulted from Turkey's preventing arms and fighters from entering the town (which in turn was due to the general hostility of the Turkish establishment towards Kurds with any links to the PKK), the US-led coalition began to target ISIL with a larger number of airstrikes. From September 2014 through January 2015, hundreds of airstrikes struck ISIL fighters and leveled most of the administrative buildings and houses in the city center, helping to stop the ISIL advance. On 20 October there were reports that Turkey, under significant US pressure, would allow Kurdish fighters from Iraqi Kurdistan to cross into Kobanî. About 150 Kurdish troops were admitted on 29 October, which then began to turn the tide of the siege in favor of the Kurds. The YPG forced ISIL to retreat from Kobanî on 26 January 2015, thus lifting the siege. The city is currently under YPG control.

Reaction.

The humanitarian response to the people from Kobanî who were displaced to Suruc, Turkey, was highly polarized, with actors associated with the Turkish state on the one hand, and the pro-Kurdish movement on the other. In September 2014, Defend International launched a worldwide campaign aimed at, among other things, raising awareness about Kobanî and the brutal attacks its residents were subjected to, and building connections between potential partners and communities whose work is relevant to the campaign, including individuals, groups, communities, and NGOs  In October 2014, Dr. Widad Akrawi, President of Defend International, dedicated her 2014 International Pfeffer Peace Award to, among others, all residents of Kobane because, she said, facts on the ground demonstrate that these peaceful people are not safe in their enclaves, partly because of their ethnic origin and/or religion, and they are therefore in urgent need for immediate attention from the global community. She asked the international community to make sure that the victims are not forgotten; they should be rescued, protected, fully assisted and compensated fairly.  On 4 November 2014, Dr. Akrawi, said that "a massacre can be avoided, if there is a well-organized and well-defined plan on how to deal with IS – a plan that sets out the strategic and tactical activities to be undertaken at the international, regional and local levels," adding that journalists, humanitarian- and human rights organizations are not allowed to pass through Turkish checkpoints near the border.

June 2015 massacre.

On 25 June 2015, fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant detonated three car bombs in Kobanî, close to the Turkish border crossing and launched a surprise assault on the town. At least 220 Kurdish civilians were massacred in mass killings by ISIL fighters or were killed by the group's rockets. Many more were wounded by the attack, making it one of the worst massacres carried out by ISIL in Syria. In another report Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and spokesman for the Kurdish People's Protection Units said that more than 200 Kurdish civilians were massacred. Women and children were among the bodies found inside houses and on the streets of Kobanî and its surrounding villages. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that ISIL fired at anything that moved. Islamic State also committed a massacre in the village of Barkh Butan, about 20 kilometers south of Kobanî, executing at least 23 Syrian Kurds, among them women and children. Kurdish forces and the Syrian government claimed the vehicles had entered the city from across the border, an action denied by Turkey.

Reconstruction and development.

After the ISIL siege was broken in early 2015, the Kobane Reconstruction Board asked for international assistance. According to a spokesman for the Syrian Kurds who control the town, Kobanî had been 70% destroyed. There have been several attempts to support Kobanî, especially from the Kurdish communities in Turkey and Iraq. Assistance was also offered by several European organizations. As of May 2015, Turkey has kept the border closed but allowed some materials to reach the city. The international community, including the US, has not shown interest in rebuilding the town, nor have they pressured Turkey on the matter. By May 2015 more than 50,000 people had returned to the destroyed town. In May the Kobanî authorities, with the help of the municipality of Diyarbakır, managed to restore the water pump and supply for the urban area after 8 months without running water, repairing the pipelines and cleaning the main water tank. By May 2016, despite the challenges of the blockade by Turkey, reconstruction and return of inhabitants was well on the way.  In September 2016, Kurdish Red Crescent opened a hospital in the city under the name of "Kobani Hospital", their first hospital in Kobanî Canton, after several international organizations like UNICEF and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) had been sending them special medical equipment. It was established in a hospital formerly owned by Dr. Ezzat Afandi, an Austrian citizen.  In an October 2016 report from the city of Kobanî, U.S. academic Si Sheppard observed: "Since the siege of Kobanî ended, reconstruction has barely begun to compensate for the havoc wrought on the city by both ISIS artillery and coalition airstrikes (...). Herculean efforts have cleared the streets, but water and power have yet to be restored. Although commerce is trickling back to life (...), more than half of the residential structures still standing are little more than blown out concrete shells. Yet the spirit of the people endures: Some now use defused ISIS rounds as ashtrays and flower pots."  By 2019, atrocities by ISIL have driven many families of Kobani to convert to Christianity, while others chose to become atheists and agnostics.

Entry of Syrian and Russian forces.

Following the start of the 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria, which put the city's administration under existential threat, the Syrian Democratic Forces reached a deal with the Syrian Government in which the latter would deploy parts of the Syrian Army, backed by Russian Military Police, to the town in a bid to prevent it from coming under Turkish attack. Pro-government forces entered the town by mid October 2019 and Syrian State Media circulated images of Syrian troops raising the Syrian flag in the town. Following the acceptance of the Second Northern Syria Buffer Zone Agreement, Kurdish military forces were mandated to withdraw from the town. Nevertheless, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria was reported to still be in de facto civil control of the town, while Syrian and Russian forces took up positions along the border areas and began military patrols along the city's streets.

Media.

The documentary "Radio Kobani" won the Award for Best Documentary at the "International Documentary Festival – Amsterdam (IDFA)" in November 2016.  In 2015, the Italian author Zerocalcare published a comics-illustrated book called "Kobane Calling" where he reported his experience among the defenders of the Rojava region.

Sister cities.

Rome – In April 2015, the municipality of Rome, capital of Italy, recognised the municipality of Kobanî as a sister city.  Ancona – In June 2015, the municipality of Ancona, Italy, recognised the municipality of Kobanî as a sister city.

Kobanî (, also rendered,, officially Ayn al-Arab ( ), is a city in the Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria, lying immediately south of the border with Turkey. As a consequence of the Syrian Civil War, the city came under the control of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in 2012 and has become the administrative center of the Euphrates Region of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.

艾因阿拉伯(,),库尔德语称科巴尼(),是由叙利亚阿勒颇省管辖的城镇,位于该国北部,距离首府阿勒颇150公里,毗邻与土耳其接壤的边境,海拔高度520米,2007年人口54,681。叙利亚内战之后,该处成为各方势力争夺的对象。


Development.

Honda began to study small sized business jets in the late 1980s, using engines from other manufacturers. The Honda SHM-1/MH01 turboprop tested laminar flow wings, and the Honda MH02 was fabricated and assembled at Mississippi State University's Raspet Flight Research Laboratory in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The MH02 was a prototype using carbon fiber/epoxy composite materials and was the first all-composite light business jet to fly. Flight testing on the MH02 continued through 1996, after which the aircraft was shipped to Japan.  Designer and company founder Michimasa Fujino sketched the HondaJet in 1997, and the concept was locked in 1999. According to Fujino, design of the HondaJet nose was inspired by Salvatore Ferragamo shoes. Testing in the Boeing windtunnel indicated a valid concept in 1999.  A proof-of-concept (but not production-ready) version of the HondaJet first flew on December 3, 2003, at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina. Honda approved commercial development of the HondaJet in 2004. The HondaJet made its world debut on July 28, 2005, at the annual EAA AirVenture Oshkosh airshow. At the following year's Airventure, Honda announced that it would commercialize the HondaJet.  After the commercialization of the HondaJet HA-420 was announced by Honda in 2006, the first delivery was planned for 2010. In Spring 2009, it was delayed by a year. In May 2010, the projected certification date was late 2012. The program was incrementally delayed several more times.  The first FAA-conforming (built to Federal Aviation Administration rules) HondaJet achieved its first flight on 20 December 2010. The first flight of the first production HondaJet occurred on June 27, 2014, and it was displayed at that year's AirVenture on 28 July. Four HondaJets had test-flown 2,500 hours.  The HondaJet was awarded a "Provisional Type Certificate“ from the FAA in March 2015. This enabled continued production and demonstration flights, including a HondaJet tour in Japan and Europe in 2015. The aircraft received its FAA type certificate in December 2015 and received its European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) type certificate in May 2016 The HondaJet was also certified in Japan in December 2018.

Production.

The production aircraft are built at Piedmont Triad International Airport. Construction of the factory began in 2007 and was completed in late 2011. In early 2015, there were 12 aircraft in final assembly and five more in earlier stages of production. Twenty aircraft were in production by May 2015. Honda estimated it would produce 40 aircraft in the first full year and up to 60 each year after that. The engine factory achieved certification in March 2015.  Honda delivered the first customer aircraft on December 23, 2015, at its world headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina. The first delivery of a HondaJet to a European aircraft dealer took place in April 2016. About 20% of the approximately 100 aircraft on order are destined for European customers as reported in April 2016.  Honda plans to ramp up production to 80 units per year after March 2019. Sixteen aircraft were delivered in the first three quarters of 2016, reaching a 36 per year production rate. In 2017, 15 were produced in the first quarter, and the annual target is between 55 and 60 aircraft. The HondaJet finished 2017 as the year's most-delivered very light jet, and in 2018 was the second-most delivered VLJ, behind the Cirrus Vision SF50.  In May 2019, Honda Aircraft announced to invest $15.5 million to add an 82,000-square-foot wing assembly centre and the new facility is expected to open in July 2020. The new assembly centre would enhance production efficiency by allowing more wings to be assembled at the same time and additional storage for service parts to support the growing fleet in service around the world.

HondaJet Elite.

In May 2018, the $5.2 million (as of 2018) HondaJet Elite was revealed, with an expanded performance envelope, improved interior and updated flight deck. The type certificate was amended by the FAA on 2 May 2018, and soon followed by EASA. Honda began deliveries on August 7, 2018.  Elite's elevator authority is increased to reduce its takeoff roll by, reducing the Cessna Citation M2's take-off advantage. Range is increased by with an auxiliary fuel tank and aerodynamic improvements. The horizontal stabilizer tips are extended slightly and hinge gaps tightened up, allowing energized flow over the stabilizer without its vortex generators. A new engine inlet reduces vibration and cabin noise, the lavatory receives a belted seat allowing a fifth passenger even with a galley; avionics improvements with Garmin G3000-based flight deck include takeoff and landing (TOLD) calculations, angle of attack protection, and Flight Stream 510 functionality.  Elite's payload is increased by over : from the empty weight reduction and from an increased maximum takeoff weight while more of fuel tank fill unused space in the aft fuselage.  At a weight of and ISA+3°C, the HondaJet Elite cruises at Mach 0.676 or TAS, while burning per hour, better than book predictions.  In 2020, EASA certified HondaJet Elite for steep approaches (descent angles of up to 5.5°), and for up to 8 occupants.

HondaJet APMG.

To retrofit some of the upgrades of HondaJet Elite to pre-Elite HondaJets, an APMG (Advanced Performance Modification Group) upgrade is available for $250,000. This includes 100 to 120 nmi range increase, and a MTOW increase and take-off run reduction by to ; this is achieved by a few inches span extension of the horizontal tailplane, and removal of wing fences and vortex generators. Avionics upgrades include takeoff and landing (TOLD) calculations, Flight Stream 510 wireless gateway compatibility, an enhanced electronic checklist, angle-of-attack indicator on the PFD, and visual approaches. On the other hand, HondaJet Elite features such as an additional fuel tank or engine inlet acoustic improvement, are not available with APMG.

Design.

The HondaJet is a low-wing monoplane, it has a mainly composite fuselage and an aluminium wing. Engines are mounted on pylons above the wing, a configuration designed to maximize cabin space, and achieve lower wave drag at a high Mach number. The nose and wing are designed for laminar flow, and the main fuselage has a constant profile, making an eventual stretch easier. The combination of engine placement, wing and fuselage was achieved using computer simulations and wind tunnels. It has a retractable tricycle landing gear with both main and nose landing gear single-wheeled. The aircraft is powered by two GE Honda HF120 turbofans, developed with GE Aviation under the GE-Honda partnership. Honda began developing its own small turbofan engine, the HF118, in 1999, leading to the HF120. The HF120 was test-flown on a Cessna Citation CJ1. The engine features a single fan, a two-stage compressor and a two-stage turbine. The GE Honda HF120 received FAA type certification on 13 December 2013, and production certification in 2015. Honda claims that the combination of lightweight materials, aerodynamics and efficient engines gives the HondaJet up to 20% better fuel efficiency than similar aircraft. The jet consumes 339 litres (89.5 gallons) of fuel per hour when cruising at 43,000 feet.  The interior dimensions are 5.43 m (17.80 ft) long, 1.52 m (5.00 ft) wide, and 1.47 m (4.83 ft) high, while the cabin is long besides the enclosed lavatory. Total interior volume is, and luggage capacity is. The aircraft is equipped with a touchscreen 3-display Garmin G3000 glass cockpit system. Most of the cockpit readouts are presented on flat-panel displays.

Accolades.

Michimasa Fujino received the Business & Commercial Aviation - Vision Award (2008), the AIAA - Aircraft Design Award (2012), the SAE International - Clarence L. (Kelly) Johnson Aerospace Vehicle Design and Development Award (2013), the 2014 ICAS award for Innovation in Aeronautics for leading the design, as well as a Living Legends of Aviation Industry Leader of the Year award.  The HondaJet was included in the Robb Report - Best of the Best : Business Jets (2007), in the Aviation Week & Space Technology - Techs To Watch (2010), and in the 2014 'Best of What's New' by "Popular Science" magazine. and the Flying Magazine - Flying Innovation Award in 2017. The Honda Aircraft Company received the AIAA Foundation Award for Excellence in 2018.

Operational history.

By October 2019, the 140 aircraft in service had logged 40,000 hours with a 99.7% dispatch reliability.

Brake issues.

On March 29, 2018 FAA has published an Airworthiness Directive that requires a revision to the HondaJet's flight manual, with pilot brake checks and replacing faulty brake valves when detected. It was caused “by reports of unannunciated asymmetric braking during ground operations and landing deceleration.” On April 15 2018, a HondaJet veered off the runway and into the grass while landing at Atlanta DeKalb–Peachtree Airport (PDK). Two days later, on April 17, another HondaJet veered off the runway while landing at Iowa’s Harlan Municipal Airport. In HondaJet Elite which started deliveries in August 2018, changes were made to brakes, which were reported to improve control of the airplane on the ground.

Other accidents.

The HA-420 was involved in one Hull-loss accident causing no fatalities.

Deliveries.

Deliveries dropped in 2018 because of a combination of the transition to the HondaJet Elite, timing of fleet deliveries and customers' schedules.

The Honda HA-420 HondaJet is the first aircraft developed by the Honda Aircraft Company. It is a twin-engine, seven-seat light business jet, and is also considered as a very light jet. It was designed in Japan in the late 1990s then developed and manufactured in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. Its first flight took place in 2003 and deliveries commenced in December 2015.

HondaJet HA-420是本田飞机公司(英语:Honda Aircraft Company)所研发的第一架飞机。该小型商用飞机是在日本设计,并在美国北卡罗来纳州的格林斯伯勒开发及制造。


Cost.

As of April 2020, the registration fee for consideration of a Red Dot awards ranges from €99 (for an individual designer in the Design Concept category) to €510 (for a latecomer in the Product Design category), excl. VAT.  Those who win a Red Dot award are required to purchase an additional “Winner Package”, the price of which ranges up to €5,999.

Categories.

The Red Dot is awarded in three different disciplines:

Red Dot Award: Product Design.

The oldest of the three awards, the "Red Dot Award: Product Design" had been known as "Design Innovationen" until 2000. The competition is open to several fields of manufacturing, including furniture, home appliances, machines, cars and tools. The prize-winners include Berendsohn in 2003, Inga Sempé in 2007, De Vorm in 2012 and Lunar Design in 2015. TROIKE were the 2016 winners with the bottle opener called “Circus”  The "Red Dot: Design Team of the Year" is a non-submission honorary title that has been awarded annually since 1988 to design teams that have affected worldwide markets due to their design achievements. The prize-winners include companies such as Siemens in 1995, Apple in 2001, BMW in 2007, the Bose Design Center in 2008, Porsche in 2012, Lenovo in 2013, Veryday (2014), Bosch Home Appliances in 2015 and Ferrari in 2016.

Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design.

Since 1993, the "Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design" award has existed to honour achievements in the fields of brand and communication design.  Since 2008, the "Red Dot: Agency of the Year" honorary title has been given to the design agency that most influenced their entire sector through their design achievements.

Red Dot Award: Design Concept.

In 2005, Red Dot established the "Red Dot Design Museum Singapore" and also an award for design innovations and design concepts. The "Red Dot Award: Design Concept" centres on design concepts, ideas and visions. The competition focuses on young, up-and-coming creative talents, designers and design companies around the world. Flint is a winner of the Red Dot Award: Design Concept 2015.

The Red Dot Design Award is an international design prize awarded by Red Dot GmbH & Co. KG. There are prize categories for product design, brand and communication design as well as design concepts. Since 1955, designers and producers can apply for the prizes with the winners being presented in an annual ceremony. Winning products are presented amongst others in the "Red Dot Design Museum" on the premises of the historical Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen. The Red Dot Design Museum Essen was built in 1997, it is also the first Red Dot Design Museum. The second Red Dot Design Museum was built in Singapore in 2005. The Red Dot Design Award had more than 15,500 submissions from 70 countries in 2014. In 2016 alone, 1,559 Red Dots were awarded, 102 of them in the "Best of the Best" category.

红点设计大奖(英语:Red dot design award;也简称红点奖)是由德国著名设计协会Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen于1955年创立,借由对产品设计(product design),传达设计(communication design)以及设计概念(design concept)的竞赛,每年吸引了超过60个国家,1万件作品投稿参赛,得奖的作品可以获得在德国Essen的红点博物馆展出作品以及参加颁奖典礼的机会。