Taxonomy.

The blue petrel is the only bird of the genus "Halobaena", and a member of the order Procellariiformes. It shares certain identifying features with the rest of the order. First, it has nasal passages that attach to the upper bill called naricorns. The bills of Procellariiformes are unique in that they are split into between 7 and 9 horny plates. It also produces a stomach oil made up of wax esters and triglycerides that is stored in the proventriculus. This is used against predators as well as an energy rich food source for chicks and for the adults during their long flights. Finally, it also has a salt gland that is situated above the nasal passage and helps desalinate its body, due to the high amount of ocean water it drinks. It excretes a high saline solution from their nose.  The word "petrel" is derived from Saint Peter and the story of his walking on water. This is in reference to the petrel's habit of appearing to run on the water to take off.

Description.

The blue petrel's plumage is predominantly blue-grey, with an "M" banding across its top, which is similar to that of other prions. It also has a white-tipped tail. Its bill is smaller than that of other prions. It is in length with a wing span of.

Behaviour.

Feeding.

The blue petrel feeds predominantly on krill, as well as other crustaceans, fish, and squid. It can dive up to.

Breeding.

The blue petrel, like all members of the Procellariiformes, is colonial, and have large colonies. It nests in a burrow, and lays one egg per breeding attempt. Both parents incubate the egg for approximately 50 days and the chick fledges after 55 days. Skuas are the main danger for their eggs and chicks.

Distribution and habitat.

The blue petrel inhabits the southern oceans ranging as far north as South Africa, Australia and portions of South America. They mostly only breed in a narrow latitudinal band from 47° to 56° S on either side of the Antarctic Polar Front. Nesting on subantarctic islands, such as Marion Island, the Crozet Islands, Kerguelen Islands, Macquarie Island, South Georgia, Prince Edward Island.  In 2014 a breeding colony was discovered on Gough Island (40° S, 10° W), central South Atlantic Ocean, more than 700 km north of its known and usual breeding range. Breeding here appears to take place later than at colonies farther south, so although the discovery is recent it does not necessarily represent a recent range extension.

Conservation.

The blue petrel has a very large range and an estimate population of 3,000,000 adult birds and thus it is rated as Least Concern, by the IUCN.

The blue petrel ("Halobaena caerulea") is a small seabird in the shearwater and petrel family, Procellariidae. This small petrel is the only member of the genus "Halobaena", but is closely allied to the prions. It is distributed across the Southern Ocean but breeds at only six known sites, all close to the Antarctic Convergence zone.

蓝鹱(学名:"Halobaena caerulea")是鹱科的一种小型海鸟。也是蓝鹱属的唯一一种。


Plot.

The film is set in the 1950s in a large country residence as a family and its servants are preparing for Christmas. When the master of the house is discovered dead in his bed with a dagger in his back, it is presumed that the murderer must be one of the eight women in the house. Over the course of the investigation, each woman has a tale to tell and secrets to hide.  The scene opens with Suzon returning from school for Christmas break, finding her mother Gaby, her younger sister Catherine, and her wheelchair-bound grandmother Mamy in the living room, where most of the action of the film takes place. Their conversation drifts to the subject of the patriarch of the family, Marcel, and Catherine leads the first song of the film, "Papa t'es plus dans le coup" (roughly, "Dad, you're out of touch"). The singing wakes up Suzon and Catherine's aunt Augustine, who initiates arguments with the rest of the family and the two servants (Madame Chanel and Louise), eventually returning upstairs and threatening to commit suicide. Mamy jumps out of her wheelchair trying to stop her, haphazardly explaining her ability to walk as a "Christmas miracle." Augustine is eventually calmed down, and she sings her song of longing, "Message personnel" (Personal Message).  The maid takes a tray upstairs, finds Marcel's stabbed body, and screams. Catherine goes up to see what has happened and locks the door. The others finally go up to Marcel's room to see him stabbed in the back. Catherine tells the others that they should not disturb the room until the police arrive, so they re-lock the door. Realizing that the dogs did not bark the night before the incident, it becomes clear that the murderer was known to the dogs and therefore must be one of the women in the house. Attempting to call the authorities, they find that the telephone line has been cut, so they will have to go in person to the police station. Before they can do so, the women are distracted by the announcement that someone is roaming the garden, someone whom the guard dogs are not chasing. The person turns out to be Marcel's sister Pierrette, a nightclub singer who is also rumored to be a prostitute, and who has not been allowed into the house before due to Gaby's dislike for her. When questioned, she claims that she received a mysterious telephone call in which she was informed her that her brother was dead. She sings "A quoi sert de vivre libre" (What's the point of living free?), commenting on her sexual freedom.  It is realized that she has been to the house before, as the dogs did not bark and she knew immediately which room belonged to her brother, making her the eighth potential killer. The women try to start the car, and find that it has been sabotaged, cutting them off from help until the storm subsides and they can hitchhike to town. The women spend their time trying to identify the murderer amongst them. It is learned that Suzon returned the night before to tell her father in secret that she was pregnant. She sings a song to Catherine, "Mon amour, mon ami" ("My Lover, My Friend"), about her lover; however, she was sexually abused by her father. We later learn that Suzon is not Marcel's child but is the child of Gaby's first great love who was killed not long after the child was conceived; every time Gaby looks at Suzon she is reminded of her love for him.  Suspicion then swings to Madame Chanel, the housekeeper, whose actions the night before seem suspicious. It is revealed that she had been having an affair with Pierrette, who went to see her brother that night to ask for money to pay off her debts. When some members of the family react in outrage to the fact that she is a lesbian, Madame Chanel retreats to the kitchen, and sings "Pour ne pas vivre seul" (So as to not live alone).  In the meantime we find out that Mamy, Suzon and Catherine's "old and sick" grandmother, not only can walk but also possesses some valuable stock shares that could have saved Marcel from his bankruptcy. Out of greed, she lied that her shares had been stolen by someone who knew where she was hiding them. The spotlight moves to Louise, the new maid, who is found out to be Marcel's mistress. She declares affection for Gaby, but also expresses disappointment in her for her weakness and indecision. She sings "Pile ou face" (literally "Heads or Tails", but referring to the ups and downs of life), and removes the symbols of her servitude, her maid's cap and apron, asserting herself as an equal to the other women. Gaby sings "Toi Jamais" (Never You), about Marcel, saying that he never paid enough attention to her, while other men did. It is revealed that she had an affair with Marcel's business partner, Jacques Farneaux, the same man who has been having an affair with Pierrette. The two women get into a fight that turns into a passionate make-out session on the living room floor, a scene which the others walk in on and are stunned by.  Eventually, Madame Chanel discovers the solution to the mystery, but she is silenced by a gunshot. While not struck by the bullet, she becomes mute out of shock. Catherine takes the lead, revealing that she hid in her father's closet from where she saw all the other women talk to Marcel the night before. She explains the mystery: Marcel faked his own death, with her help, to see what was really going on in his house. She says that he is now free of the other women's clutches and rushes to his bedroom only to witness Marcel shoot himself in the head. Mamy closes the film with the song "Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux" (There is no happy love) as the women clasp hands and face the audience.

Production.

Ozon was inspired by the 1950s Ross Hunter productions of Douglas Sirk and Alfred Hitchcock. To achieve the look of the latter two director's films, Ozon had costume designer Pascaline Chavanne fashion an original costume for each character. Chavanne was inspired by Dior's New Look and the earlier film costumes of Edith Head. Composer Krishna Levy also provided an instrumental score evocative of Bernard Herrmann, with touches of Miklós Rózsa and Elmer Bernstein, as well as a soundtrack featuring eight songs performed unexpectedly by the film's title characters.

Reception.

Critical response.

"8 Women" received generally positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 79% of critics gave the film a positive rating, based on 124 reviews, with an average score of 7/10. Its consensus states "Featuring some of the best French actresses working today, "8 Women" is frothy, delirious, over-the-top fun." On Metacritic, the film holds a 64/100 rating, based on 30 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".  Jonathan Curiel of the "San Francisco Chronicle" remarked that "8 Women" was "a movie that is so original, so funny, so alive with drama, intrigue, mystery and colors that you want to see it again and again", citing it the "new masterpiece" in Ozon's filmography. Roger Ebert, writing for the "Chicago Sun-Times", gave "8 Women" three out of four stars. He noted that the film "is in no sense serious about murder, its plot, or anything else. It's an elaborate excuse to have fun with its cast," adding: "Watching "8 Women", you have a silly grin half of the time." He concluded that "Movies like "8 Women" are essentially made for movie-lovers. You have to have seen overdecorated studio musicals, and you have to know who Darrieux and Deneuve and Beart and Huppert and Ardant are, to get the full flavor." Lisa Schwarzbaum from "Entertainment Weekly" felt that "what does matter is that a phalanx of France's most famous actresses play a gay peekaboo with their own images in the guise of replicating a '50s technicolored production. The result is weightless entertainment that's both camp and true, a warped adoration of star-quality actresses as amazing creatures who can project the lives of fictional characters as well as the essence of their own fabulous selves. Hollywood, start your remake."  "The Washington Post" writer Ann Hornaday called the film "a gorgeous, if disjointed, spectacle, made endurable—if not entirely comprehensible—by its eye-popping cast." She found that the picture "retains a stagy quality of heightened theatricality" and that "with its bold, luxurious palette and hard-candy surfaces, the film seems less photographed than forged out of silk and nail lacquer." "Rolling Stone"s Peter Travers concurred: "All eight women are something to see and marvel at. Whatever you call this one-of-a-kind bonbon spiked with wit and malice, it's classic oo-la-la." He rated the comedy three out of four stars. A. O. Scott from "The New York Times" said, "The high-minded critical term of art for such a decadent delight is 'guilty pleasure,' but a movie like this reveals that stuffy phrase to be both a redundancy and an oxymoron. "8 Women" is indefensible, cynical, even grotesque; it is also pure—that is to say innocent and uncorrupted—fun." Less enthusiastic with the film, Salon.com wrote that "despite the all-star cast of beautiful, talented actresses, this French whodunit never lives up to the grand musicals it rips off."  Specific performances were cited for acclaim. Huppert's portrayal of Augustine was met with praise. Curiel wrote that "Huppert's song and dance—and her whole performance in the movie—is a study in determination. Huppert has a reputation for her intense portrayals, and in "8 Women", she steals every scene she's in as the uptight, melodramatic, bespectacled aunt." Ardant also received praise for her performance with Hornaday saying that "the showstopper is Ardant, who in a sensational turn combining the earthiness of Ava Gardner and the fire of Rita Hayworth, explodes with an elemental force all her own. Ardant alone is worth the price of admission to "8 Women"."

Box office.

The film was released on 6 February 2002 in France and opened at #3 in 493 theaters, grossing $5,246,358 in the opening weekend. It grossed $18,991,866 in the domestic market. The film's international gross was in total $42,426,583.

8 Women () is a 2002 French dark comedy musical film, written and directed by François Ozon. Based on the 1958 play by Robert Thomas, it features an ensemble cast of high-profile French actresses that includes Danielle Darrieux, Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Béart, Fanny Ardant, Virginie Ledoyen, Ludivine Sagnier, and Firmine Richard. Revolving around an eccentric family of women and their employees in the 1950s, the film follows eight women as they gather to celebrate Christmas in an isolated, snowbound cottage only to find Marcel, the family patriarch, dead with a knife in his back. Trapped in the house, every woman becomes a suspect, each having her own motive and secret.

《八美图》()是一部2002年由法国和意大利合拍的喜剧悬疑歌舞电影。导演是法兰索瓦·欧容,是根据Robert Thomas的戏剧改编而成。电影的名字是"8 femmes",以区别于1972年的戏剧"Huit femmes"。


Design and development.

At the beginning of the 1950s, the Soviet Union's Aeroflot airline needed a modern airliner with better capacity and performance than the piston-engined aircraft then in operation. The design request was filled by the Tupolev OKB, which based their new airliner on its Tu-16 'Badger' strategic bomber. The wings, engines, and tail surfaces of the Tu-16 were retained with the airliner, but the new design adopted a wider, pressurised fuselage designed to accommodate 50 passengers. The prototype build in MMZ 'Opit' first flew on June 17, 1955 with Yu.L. Alasheyev at the controls. It was fitted with a drag parachute to shorten the landing distance by up to, since at the time not many airports had sufficiently long runways. The first serial TU-104 took off on 5 November 1955.  The Tu-104 was powered by two Mikulin AM-3 turbojets placed in the wing roots (resembling the configuration of the de Havilland Comet). The crew consisted of five people: two pilots, a navigator (seated in the glazed "bomber" nose), a flight engineer and a radio operator (later eliminated). The airplane raised great curiosity by its lavish "Victorian" interior – so-called by some Western-hemisphere observers – due to the materials used: mahogany, copper and lace.  Tu-104 pilots were trained on the Il-28 bomber, followed by mail flights on an unarmed Tu-16 bomber painted in Aeroflot colors, between Moscow and Sverdlovsk. Pilots with previous Tu-16 experience transitioned into the Tu-104 with relative ease. The Tu-104 was considered difficult to fly, as it was heavy on controls and quite fast on final approach, and at low speeds it would display a tendency to stall, a feature common with highly-swept wings. Experience with the Tu-104 led the Tupolev Design Bureau to develop the world's first turbofan series-built airliner, the Tupolev Tu-124, designed for local markets, and subsequently the more commercially successful Tu-134.

Operational history.

On 15 September 1956, the Tu-104 began revenue service on Aeroflot's Moscow-Omsk-Irkutsk route, replacing the Ilyushin Il-14. The flight time was reduced from 13 hours and 50 minutes to 7 hours and 40 minutes, and the new jet dramatically increased the level of passenger comfort. By 1957, Aeroflot had placed the Tu-104 in service on routes from Vnukovo Airport in Moscow to London, Budapest, Copenhagen, Beijing, Brussels, Ottawa, Delhi, and Prague.  In 1957, ČSA Czechoslovak Airlines became the only export customer for the Tu-104, placing the aircraft on routes to Moscow, Paris, and Brussels. ČSA bought six Tu-104As (four new and two used examples) configured for 81 passengers. Three of these aircraft were subsequently written off (one due to a refueling incident in India and another to a pilot error without fatalities).  In 1959 a Tu-104 was leased to Sir Henry Lunn Ltd. (Lunn Poly) of London which used the aircraft to transport holiday-makers to Russia with a 4.5 hour flight time.  Whilst the Tu-104 continued to be used by Aeroflot throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the safety record of the aircraft was poor in comparison to subsequent jet airliners (16 of 96 aircraft were lost in accidents). The Tu-104 was unreliable, heavy, very unstable with poor control response, with an inclination to Dutch roll. Poor design aerodynamics of the wings resulted in a propensity to stall with little or no warning and a dangerous tendency to pitch-up violently before stalling and entering an irrecoverable dive. Due to the fear of inadvertent stalls aircrew would fly approaches above the recommended approach speed, landing at, nearly faster. At least two accidents were attributed to the pitch-up phenomenon, prompting changes to the design of the aircraft and operating procedures, but the problem remained. Aeroflot retired the Tu-104 from civil service in March 1979 following a fatal accident at Moscow, but several aircraft were transferred to the Soviet military, which used them as staff transports and to train cosmonauts in zero gravity. After a military Tu-104 crash in February 1981 killed 52 people (17 were senior army and naval staff), the type was permanently removed from service. The last flight of the Tu-104 was a ferry flight to Ulyanovsk Aircraft Museum in 1986.

Variants.

"Data from:"

Accidents and incidents.

According to the American Flight Safety Foundation, between 1958 and 1981, 16 Tu-104s were lost in crashes out of 37 aircraft written off (hull loss rate = 18%) with a total of 1140 fatalities.

In film.

A Tu-104 is the supposed aircraft making a flight from London to New York which forms the subject of the 1959 film Jet Storm. Footage of an actual Tu-104 taxiing and taking off is shown near the beginning of the film.

In philately.

Tu-104 is depicted on Soviet postage stamps of 1958 and 1969.  http://www.airforce.ru/content/english-pages/2344-interview-civil-aviation-pilot-hsu-v-m-yanchenko/

The Tupolev Tu-104 (NATO reporting name: Camel) was a twinjet medium-range narrow-body turbojet-powered Soviet airliner. It was the second to enter regular service, behind the British de Havilland Comet, and was the only jetliner operating in the world from 1956 to 1958, when the British jetliner was grounded due to safety concerns.

图-104(,北约代号:骆驼(Camel))是一型由苏联图波列夫设计局设计的双发中程窄体喷气式客机,于1955年6月17日首飞。


Early life.

Leonid Kuchma was born in the village of Chaikine in rural Chernihiv Oblast. His father Danylo Prokopovych Kuchma (1901–1942) was wounded in World War II and eventually died of his wounds in the field hospital #756 (near the village of Novoselytsia) when Leonid was four. His mother Paraska Trokhymivna Kuchma worked at a kolhoz. Kuchma attended the Kostobobrove general education school in the neighboring Semenivka Raion. Later he enrolled in Dnipropetrovsk National University and graduated in 1960 with a degree in mechanical engineering (majoring in aerospace engineering). The same year he joined the Communist Party of Soviet Union. Kuchma is a candidate of technical sciences.  In 1967, Kuchma married Lyudmyla.

Career.

After graduation, Kuchma worked in the field of aerospace engineering for the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau in Dnipropetrovsk. At 28 he became a testing director for the Bureau deployed at the Baikonur cosmodrome.  Some political observers suggested that Kuchma's early career was significantly boosted by his marriage to, an adopted daughter of Gennadiy Tumanov, the Yuzhmash chief engineering officer and later the Soviet Minister of Medium Machine Building.  At 38 Kuchma became the Communist party chief at Yuzhny Machine-building Plant and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. He was a delegate of the 27th and 28th Congresses of the Communist Party of Soviet Union. By the end of the 1980s, Kuchma openly criticized the Communist Party.  In 1982 Kuchma was appointed the first deputy of general design engineer at Yuzhmash, and from 1986 to 1992, he held the position of the company's general director. From 1990 to 1992, Kuchma was a member of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament). In 1992 he was appointed as Prime Minister of Ukraine. He resigned a year later, complaining of "slow pace of reform". He was re-elected into parliament in 1994.

President (1994–2005).

Kuchma resigned from the position of Prime Minister of Ukraine in September 1993 to run for the presidency in 1994 on a platform to boost the economy by restoring economic relations with Russia and faster pro-market reforms. Kuchma won a clear victory against the incumbent President Leonid Kravchuk, receiving strong support from the industrial areas in the east and south. His worst results were in the west of the country.  Kuchma was re-elected in 1999 to his second term. This time the areas that gave him strongest support last time voted for his opponents, and the areas which voted against him last time came to his support.  During Kuchma's Presidency, he closed opposition papers and several journalists died in mysterious circumstances. According to historian Serhy Yekelchyk President Kuchma's administration "employed electoral fraud freely" during the 2000 constitutional referendum and 1999 presidential elections.

Domestic policy.

In October 1994, Kuchma announced comprehensive economic reforms, including reduced subsidies, lifting of price controls, lower taxes, privatization of industry and agriculture, and reforms in currency regulation and banking. The parliament approved the plan's main points. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) promised a $360 million loan to initiate reforms.  He was re-elected in 1999 to his second term. Opponents accused him of involvement in the killing in 2000 of journalist Georgiy Gongadze (see also SBU, "Cassette Scandal", Mykola Mel'nychenko), which he has always denied. Critics also blamed Kuchma for restrictions on press freedom. Kuchma is believed to have played a key role in sacking the Cabinet of Viktor Yushchenko by Verkhovna Rada on 26 April 2001.  Kuchma's Prime Minister from 2002 until early January 2005 was Viktor Yanukovych, after Kuchma dismissed Anatoliy Kinakh, his previous appointee.

Foreign policy.

In 2002 Kuchma stated that Ukraine wanted to sign an association agreement with the European Union (EU) by 2003–2004 and that Ukraine would meet all EU membership requirements by 2007–2011. He also hoped for a free-trade treaty with the EU.  In his inaugural address Kuchma said:  Kuchma signed a "Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership" with Russia, and endorsed a round of talks with the CIS. Additionally, he referred to Russian as "an official language". He signed a special partnership agreement with NATO and raised the possibility of membership of the alliance.  After Kuchma's popularity at home and abroad sank as he became mired in corruption scandals, he turned to Russia as his new ally. He said that Ukraine needed a "multivector" foreign policy that balanced eastern and western interests.

Kuchma and the Cassette Scandal.

From 1998 to 2000, Kuchma's bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko was allegedly eavesdropping Kuchma's office, later publishing the recordings. The release of the tapes – dubbed "Kuchmagate" by the Ukrainian press – supposedly revealed Kuchma's numerous crimes. In particular, his approving the sale of radar systems to Saddam Hussein (among other illegal arms sales) and ordering the Ukraine's police minister to "take care" of the journalist Georgiy Gongadze.  In September 2000, Gongadze disappeared and his headless corpse was found mutilated on 3 November 2000. On 28 November, the opposition politician Oleksandr Moroz publicised the tape recordings implicating Kuchma in Gongadze's murder. In 2005 the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's office instigated criminal proceedings against Kuchma and members of his former administration in connection with the murder of Gongadze. In 2005 the press reported that Kuchma had been unofficially granted immunity from prosecution in return for his graceful departure from office in 2005.  Critics of the tape point to the difficulty of Melnychenko recording 500 hours of dictaphone tape unaided and undetected, the lack of material evidence of said recording equipment, and other doubts which question the authenticity and motive of the release of the tape. Kuchma acknowledged in 2003 that his voice was one of those on the tapes, but claimed the tapes had been selectively edited to distort his meaning. However, the United States ambassador to Ukraine, Carlos Pascual, revealed that the tapes are genuine, undistorted, unaltered, and not manipulated because of the conclusion from FBI Electronic Research Facility's analysis of the original recording device and the original recording found that there are not unusual sounds which would indicate a tampering of the recording, the recording is continuous with no breaks, and there is no manipulation of the digital files.  The General Prosecutor of Ukraine's Office canceled its resolution to deny opening of criminal cases against Kuchma and other politicians within the Gongadze-case on 9 October 2010. On 22 March 2011, Ukraine opened an official investigation into the murder of Gongadze and, two days later, Ukrainian prosecutors charged Kuchma with involvement in the murder. A Ukrainian district court ordered prosecutors to drop criminal charges against Kuchma on 14 December 2011 on grounds that evidence linking him to the murder of Gongadze was insufficient. The court rejected Melnychenko's recordings as evidence. Gongadze's widow Myroslava Gongadze lodged an appeal against the ruling one week later.  During the trial of Oleksiy Pukach for the murder of Gongadze, he claimed that Kuchma and Kuchma's head of his Presidential Administration, Volodymyr Lytvyn, were the ones who ordered the murder. Pukach was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for his part in the murder of Gongadze.  First Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Renat Kuzmin claimed 20 February 2013 that his office had collected enough evidence confirming Kuchma's responsibility for ordering Gongadze's assassination. Kuchma's reply the next day was, "This is another banal example of a provocation, which I've heard more than enough in the past 12 years".

Role in the election crisis of 2004.

Kuchma's role in the election crisis of 2004 is not entirely clear. After the second round on 22 November 2004, it appeared that Yanukovych had won the election by fraud, which caused the opposition and independent observers to dispute the results, leading to the Orange Revolution.  Kuchma was urged by Yanukovych and Viktor Medvedchuk (the head of the presidential office) to declare a state of emergency and hold the inauguration of Yanukovych. He denied the request. Later, Yanukovych publicly accused Kuchma of a betrayal. Kuchma refused to officially dismiss Prime Minister Yanukovych after the parliament passed a motion of no confidence against the Cabinet on 1 December 2004. Soon after, Kuchma left the country. He returned to Ukraine in March 2005.  Kuchma said in October 2009 he would vote for Victor Yanukovych at the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election. In a document dated 2 February 2010 uncovered during the United States diplomatic cables leak, Kuchma in conversation with United States Ambassador to Ukraine John F. Tefft, called the voters' choice between Yanukovych and Yulia Tymoshenko during the second round of the 2010 presidential election as a choice between "bad and very bad" and praised (the candidate eliminated in the first round of the election) Arseniy Yatsenyuk instead.  In September 2011 Kuchma stated that he believed that Yanukovych was the real winner of the 2004 election.

Post-presidency.

Leonid Kuchma has been active in politics since his presidency ended. He aligned himself with President Viktor Yushchenko in 2005, but later raised concerns about the president in correspondence with then U.S. Ambassador to the Ukraine, John Tefft. Kuchma endorsed Yanukovych for president in 2010.

Involvement in the 2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine.

Kuchma represented Ukraine at negotiations with the armed separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces on 21 June 2014 to discuss President Petro Poroshenko's peace plan. His role as a diplomat was received positively by the west and Russia as well as by the public in Ukraine.  On 11 February 2015, Kuchma was one of the signatories of a draft plan to end the conflict in Donbas. The summit was known as Minsk II. The plan ensured that a ceasefire was implemented; reaction from leaders in Europe was generally positive.  In March 2015, Kuchma delivered an address calling on the west for greater involvement in the region. He criticized the action of Russian-backed forces in the attempt to seize the town of Debaltseve.  Kuchma instigated the decommissioning of the Chernobyl power plant's reactor.  In September 2015 Kuchma was again appointed as the representative for Ukraine at the Trilateral Contact Group. The group met in Belarus to discuss ending the conflict in Donbas. The choice of Kuchma came nearly a decade after his presidency ended.  In early 2017, Kuchma spoke out against the transport blockade of Donbass. In March 2017 at the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) in Minsk, he demanded that the Russian Federation repeal their decree on the recognition of passports issued in separatist-held areas.  On 2 October 2018, Kuchma stepped down as Ukraine's representative in the Trilateral Contact Group due to his age. He returned to the talks in June 2019, at the request of newly elected Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and after mediation by Victor Pinchuk.

Family and personal life.

Leonid Kuchma is married to Lyudmyla Kuchma since 1967. She is the Honorary President of the National Fund of Social Protection of Mothers and Children, "Ukraine to Children" and is also known as a paralympic movement in Ukraine supporter.  Kuchma's only child, daughter Olena Pinchuk, is married to Viktor Pinchuk, an industrialist and philanthropist whose Victor Pinchuk Foundation regularly hosts Ukraine-dedicated and philanthropic fora at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos. Olena Pinchuk has a son Roman (born in 1991, from her previous marriage with Ukrainian businessman Igor Franchuk) who attends Brown University, and two daughters with Viktor Pinchuk, Katerina (born in 2003) and Veronica (2011). Olena Pinchuk founded the ANTIAIDS Foundation in 2003. According to the Ukrainian magazine "Focus," Olena Pinchuk was amongst the "top 10 most influential women" in Ukraine as of 2010.  Victor Pinchuk recently made headlines when it was revealed that one of his lobbyists was previously picked by Donald Trump for national security aide.  Kuchma was an amateur guitar player in his younger years. He was also known for his skill at the complicated card game "preferans."  In 2003, he published his book "Ukraine is not Russia" ().  After retirement, Kuchma was allowed to keep the state-owned dacha in Koncha-Zaspa for his personal use upon completion of his state duties. The government order #15-r that would allow for Kuchma to keep his estate was signed by the acting prime-minister Mykola Azarov on 19 January 2005. Kuchma was also allowed to keep his full presidential salary and all the service personnel, along with two state-owned vehicles. That order also stated that these costs would be paid out of the state budget.

Awards.

Kuchma was awarded the Azerbaijani Istiglal Order for his contributions to Azerbaijan-Ukraine relations and strategic cooperation between the states by President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev on 6 August 1999.

External links.

<includeonly></includeonly

Leonid Danylovych Kuchma (; born 9 August 1938) is a Ukrainian politician who was the second President of independent Ukraine from 19 July 1994 to 23 January 2005. Kuchma took office after winning the 1994 presidential election against his rival, the incumbent Leonid Kravchuk. Kuchma won re-election for an additional five-year term in 1999.

列昂尼德·丹尼洛维奇·库奇马(,英语:Leonid Danylovych Kuchma,1938年-8月9日),乌克兰政治人物。第二任乌克兰总统。


Phylogeny.

Placement within Marsupialia.

The position of the Peramelemorphia within the marsupial family tree has long been puzzling and controversial. There are two morphological features in the order that appear to show a clear evolutionary link with another marsupial group: the type of foot, and the teeth. Unfortunately, these clear signposts point in opposite directions.  All members of the order are polyprotodont (have several pairs of lower front teeth)—in the case of the Peramelemorphia, three pairs. This suggests that they have evolved within Dasyuromorphia (marsupial carnivores). On the other hand, they also have an unusual feature in their feet: the second and third toes are fused together. This condition is called syndactyly, and is characteristic of the Diprotodontia (the order of marsupial herbivores that includes kangaroos, wombats, possums, and many others).  Attempts to resolve this puzzle include the view that the bandicoot group evolved from the carnivores, retaining the polyprotodont dentition, and independently evolving a syndactyl hind foot; the contrary view that syndactyly is so unusual that it is unlikely to have evolved twice and therefore the bandicoot group must have evolved from a possum-like diprotodont creature, and re-evolved its extra teeth. A third view suggests that the bandicoot group evolved from a primitive carnivore, developed the syndactylous hind foot as a specialisation for climbing, and the diprotodonts then split off and evolved the two-tooth jaw that gives them their name. Recent molecular level investigations do not so far appear to have resolved the puzzle, but do strongly suggest that whatever the relationship of the bandicoot group to the other marsupial orders may be, it is a distant one.

Relationships within Peramelemorphia.

Recent molecular analyses have resulted in a phylogenetic reconstruction of the members of Peramelemorphia with quite strong support. The most basal split separates Thylacomyidae ("Macrotis") from all other bandicoots. Probably the next to diverge was the recently extinct Chaeropodidae ("Chaeropus"). The remaining taxa comprise the Peramelidae, which divides into subfamilies Peramelinae ("Isoodon" and "Perameles") and a clade in which the Echymiperinae ("Echymipera" and "Microperoryctes") form a sister group to Peroryctinae ("Peroryctes"):

Fossil record.

Many specimens of modern peramelemorphian (e.g. "Perameles" spp. and "Isoodon" spp.) have been recovered in the fossil record from Pleistocene and Holocene fossil localities. However, very few fossil species have been recovered to date. The first species of fossil peramelemorphian was described by R. A. Stirton in 1955. The specimen Stirton described was a partial lower jaw from the Tirari Desert in Central Australia, Pliocene in age. The lower jaw morphology suggested a relationship with bilbies (Family Thylacomyidae), and was named "Ischnodon australis".  It was not until 1976 that Archer and Wade described the next fossil bandicoot. A single upper molar was recovered from the Bluff Downs fossil site, Allingham Formation, in northern Queensland, also Pliocene in age. The tooth was similar to that of species of "Perameles", and was therefore named "Perameles allinghamensis".  In 1995, the first Miocene species was described from Riversleigh, and was named "Yarala burchfieldi" by Dr Jeannette Muirhead. The species was represented by several upper and lower jaws, which were smaller than any living bandicoots and had a very primitive dentition. A skull was later recovered in 2000, the first for any fossil peramelemorphian to date. Features of the skull and dentition suggested that "Yarala burchfieldi" was distinct from other peramelemorphians, and for this reason, a new Superfamily Yaraloidea and Family Yaralidae were erected to classify this species.  In 1997, Muirhead, Dawson and Archer described a new species of "Perameles", "Perameles bowensis", from teeth recovered from two Pliocene fossil localities, Bow and Wellington Caves. The same species was later reported in 2000 from Chinchilla, Queensland by Mackness and colleagues. In 2002, Price described a new species "Perameles", "Perameles sobbei", from the Darling Downs (Pleistocene in age), south-eastern Queensland. This species was represented by a lower jaw and a few isolated lower molars. Additional material were later described in 2005 from the same site, including upper molars.  A second species of "Yarala", "Yarala kida", was described in 2006 by Schwartz. This species was recovered from Kangaroo Well, a late Oligocene site from the Northern Territory in Australia. This species is thought to be even more primitive than "Yarala burchfieldi".  The second fossil skull of any fossil peramelemorphian was also recovered from Miocene sites of Riversleigh. In fact, more than one skull of this new species was found (and several lower and upper jaws), and was significantly different from any other bandicoot to erect a new genus, "Galadi". The species was named "Galadi speciosus" by Travouillon and colleagues. It was short-snouted unlike modern bandicoots suggesting that it was more carnivorous than its omnivorous modern relatives. Its relationship to other bandicoots is unclear, but it was likely to be less primitive than "Yarala" but more primitive than living bandicoots. An additional three species of "Galadi" were later described in 2013 and named "Galadi grandis", "Galadi amplus" and "Galadi adversus".  Gurovich et al. (2013) described a new species of mouse-sized bandicoot from Riversleigh and from Kutjamarpu, Southern Australia. The species, named "Bulungu palara", is represented by a skull and several lower and upper jaws. Two other species in this genus were also described from the Etadunna Formation in South Australia, "Bulungu muirheadae" which was the oldest fossil bandicoot recovered as of 2013 (about 24 million years old), and "Bulungu campbelli".  The oldest modern bandicoot (peramelid) and the oldest bilby (Thylacomyid) were later discovered by Travouillon et al.,2014 from Riversleigh World Heritage Area, from middle Miocene fossil deposits (around 15 million years old). The peramelid, "Crash bandicoot", was named after the famous video game character and is only represented by a single upper jaw. The bilby, "Liyamayi dayi"named after geologist and philanthropist Robert Day, is only known from 3 teeth (2 upper molar, 1 lower molar).  The first record of sexual dimorphism (difference in size between males and females) in a fossil bandicoot was reported from two new species from Riversleigh (Travouillon et al. 2014). Named "Madju variae" and "Madju encorensis", they are closely related to modern bandicoots, but do not fall in any modern family, as did "Galadi" and "Bulungu (genus)". Instead they are classified as Perameloid, with all known Peremelemorphian, to the exclusion of Yaralids. "Madju variae" is also unusual in preserving an ontogenetic series (age series from pouch young to adult), the second of any fossil marsupial mammal in Australia. The study of this ontogenetic series lead researchers to think that "Madju variae" developed slow than modern bandicoots, much more like a bilby, and therefore the rapid development of modern bandicoots must have evolved after the middle Miocene, when Australia started to become more arid.

The order Peramelemorphia includes the bandicoots and bilbies; it equates approximately to the mainstream of marsupial omnivores. All members of the order are endemic to the twin land masses of Australia-New Guinea and most have the characteristic bandicoot shape: a plump, arch-backed body with a long, delicately tapering snout, very large upright ears, relatively long, thin legs, and a thin tail. Their size varies from about 140 grams up to 4 kilograms, but most species are about one kilogram, or the weight of a half-grown kitten.

袋狸目(Peramelemorphia)是包括了袋狸及兔袋狸的一目,接近「杂食性有袋类」的主支。其下所有成员都是澳洲及新几内亚的原住民,大部分都有袋狸的体态:肥胖、弓背、尖长的吻、很大的耳朵、幼长的脚及幼的尾巴。牠们的体型介乎140克至2公斤,大部分都有约1公斤重。


乔万尼·巴蒂斯塔·里乔利

Biography.

Riccioli was born in Ferrara, Italy. He entered the Society of Jesus on October 6, 1614. After completing his novitiate, he began to study humanities in 1616, pursuing those studies first at Ferrara, and then at Piacenza.  From 1620 to 1628 he studied philosophy and theology at the College of Parma. Parma Jesuits had developed a strong program of experimentation, such as with falling bodies. One of the most famous Italian Jesuits of the time, Giuseppe Biancani (1565–1624), was teaching at Parma when Riccioli arrived there. Biancani accepted new astronomical ideas, such as the existence of lunar mountains and the fluid nature of the heavens, and collaborated with the Jesuit astronomer Christoph Scheiner (1573–1650) on sunspot observations. Riccioli mentions him with gratitude and admiration.  By 1628 Riccioli's studies were complete and he was ordained. He requested missionary work, but that request was turned down. Instead, he was assigned to teach at Parma. There he taught logic, physics, and metaphysics from 1629 to 1632, and engaged in some experiments with falling bodies and pendulums. In 1632 he became a member of a group charged with the formation of younger Jesuits, among whom Daniello Bartoli. He spent the 1633–1634 academic year in Mantua, where he collaborated with Niccolo Cabeo (1576–1650) in further pendulum studies. In 1635 he was back at Parma, where he taught theology and also carried out his first important observation of the Moon. In 1636 he was sent to Bologna to serve as Professor of theology.  Riccioli described himself as a theologian, but one with a strong and ongoing interest in astronomy since his student days, when he studied under Biancani. He said that many Jesuits were theologians, but few were astronomers. He said that once the enthusiasm for astronomy arose within him he could never extinguish it, and so he became more committed to astronomy than theology. Eventually his superiors in the Jesuit order officially assigned him to the task of astronomical research. However, he also continued to write on theology (see below).  Riccioli built an astronomical observatory in Bologna at the College of St. Lucia, equipped with many instruments for astronomical observations, including telescopes, quadrants, sextants, and other traditional instruments. Riccioli dealt not only with astronomy in his research, but also with physics, arithmetic, geometry, optics, gnomonics, geography, and chronology. He collaborated with others in his work, including other Jesuits, most notably Francesco Maria Grimaldi (1618–1663) at Bologna, and he kept up a voluminous correspondence with others who shared his interests, including Hevelius, Huygens, Cassini, and Kircher.  He was awarded a prize by Louis XIV in recognition of his activities and their relevance to contemporary culture.  Riccioli continued to publish on both astronomy and theology up to his death. He died in Bologna at 73 years of age.

Scientific work.

"Almagestum Novum".

One of Riccioli's most significant works was his 1651 "Almagestum Novum" ("New Almagest"), an encyclopedic work consisting of over 1500 folio pages (38 cm x 25 cm) densely packed with text, tables, and illustrations. It became a standard technical reference book for astronomers all over Europe: John Flamsteed (1646–1719), the first English astronomer royal, a Copernican and a Protestant, used it for his Gresham lectures; Jérôme Lalande (1732–1807) of the Paris Observatory cited it extensively even though it was an old book at that point; the 1912 "Catholic Encyclopedia" calls it the most important literary work of the Jesuits during the seventeenth century. Within its two volumes were ten "books" covering every subject within astronomy and related to astronomy at the time:  Riccioli envisioned that the "New Almagest" would have three volumes, but only the first (with its 1500 pages split into two parts) was completed.

Pendulums and falling bodies.

Riccioli is credited with being the first person to precisely measure the acceleration due to gravity of falling bodies. Books 2 and 9 of the "New Almagest" Riccioli included a significant discussion of and extensive experimental reports on the motions of falling bodies and pendulums.  He was interested in the pendulum as a device for precisely measuring time. By counting the number of pendulum swings that elapsed between transits of certain stars, Riccioli was able to experimentally verify that the period of a pendulum swinging with small amplitude is constant to within two swings out of 3212 (0.062%). He also reported that a pendulum's period increases if the amplitude of its swing is increased to 40 degrees. He sought to develop a pendulum whose period was precisely one second – such a pendulum would complete 86,400 swings in a 24-hour period. This he directly tested, twice, by using stars to mark time and recruiting a team of nine fellow Jesuits to count swings and maintain the amplitude of swing for 24 hours. The results were pendulums with periods within 1.85%, and then 0.69%, of the desired value; and Riccioli even sought to improve on the latter value. The seconds pendulum was then used as a standard for calibrating pendulums with different periods. Riccioli said that for measuring time a pendulum was not a perfectly reliable tool, but in comparison with other methods it was an exceedingly reliable tool.  With pendulums to keep time (sometimes augmented by a chorus of Jesuits chanting in time with a pendulum to provide an audible timer) and a tall structure in the form of Bologna's Torre de Asinelli from which to drop objects, Riccioli was able to engage in precise experiments with falling bodies. He verified that falling bodies followed Galileo's "odd-number" rule so that the distance travelled by a falling body increases in proportion to the square of the time of fall, indicative of constant acceleration. According to Riccioli, a falling body released from rest travels 15 Roman feet (29.57 cm) in one second, 60 feet in two seconds, 135 feet in three seconds, etc. Other Jesuits such as the above-mentioned Cabeo had argued that this rule had not been rigorously demonstrated. His results showed that, while falling bodies generally showed constant acceleration, there were differences determined by weight and size and density. Riccioli said that if two heavy objects of differing weight are dropped simultaneously from the same height, the heavier one descends more quickly so long as it is of equal or greater density; if both objects are of equal weight the denser one descends more quickly.  For example, in dropping balls of wood and lead that both weighed 2.5 ounces, Riccioli found that upon the leaden ball having traversed 280 Roman feet the wooden ball had traversed only 240 feet (a table in the "New Almagest" contains data on twenty one such paired drops). He attributed such differences to the air, and noted that air density had to be considered when dealing with falling bodies. He illustrated the reliability of his experiments by providing detailed descriptions of how they were carried out, so that anyone could reproduce them, complete with diagrams of the Torre de Asinelli that showed heights, drop locations, etc.  Riccioli noted that while these differences did contradict Galileo's claim that balls of differing weight would fall at the same rate, it was possible Galileo observed the fall of bodies made of the same material but of differing sizes, for in that case the difference in fall time between the two balls is much smaller than if the balls are of same size but differing materials, or of the same weight but differing sizes, etc., and that difference is not apparent unless the balls are released from a very great height. At the time, various people had expressed concern with Galileo's ideas about falling bodies, arguing that it would be impossible to discern the small differences in time and distance needed to adequately test Galileo's ideas, or reporting that experiments had not agreed with Galileo's predictions, or complaining that suitably tall buildings with clear paths of fall were not available to thoroughly test Galileo's ideas. By contrast, Riccioli was able to show that he had carried out repeated, consistent, precise experiments in an ideal location. Thus as D. B. Meli notes,  Riccioli's accurate experiments were widely known during the second half of the [seventeenth] century and helped forge a consensus on the empirical adequacy of some aspects of Galileo's work, especially the odd-number rule and the notion that heavy bodies fall with similar accelerations and speed is not proportional to weight. His limited agreement with Galileo was significant, coming as it did from an unsympathetic reader who had gone so far as to include the text of Galileo's condemnation in his own publications.

Work concerning the Moon.

Riccioli and Grimaldi extensively studied the Moon, of which Grimaldi drew maps. This material was included in Book 4 of the "New Almagest". Grimaldi's maps were based on earlier work by Johannes Hevelius and Michael Van Langren. On one of these maps, Riccioli provided names for lunar features—names that are the basis for the nomenclature of lunar features still in use today. For example, Mare Tranquillitatis (The Sea of Tranquility, site of the Apollo 11 landing in 1969), received its name from Riccioli. Riccioli named large lunar areas for weather. He named craters for significant astronomers, grouping them by philosophies and time periods. Although Riccioli rejected the Copernican theory, he named a prominent lunar crater "Copernicus", and he named other important craters after other proponents of the Copernican theory such as Kepler, Galileo and Lansbergius. Because craters that he and Grimaldi named after themselves are in the same general vicinity as these, while craters named for some other Jesuit astronomers are in a different part of the Moon, near the very prominent crater named for Tycho Brahe, Riccioli's lunar nomenclature has at times been considered to be a tacit expression of sympathy for a Copernican theory that, as a Jesuit, he could not publicly support. However, Riccioli said he put the Copernicans all in stormy waters (the Oceanus Procellarum). Another noteworthy feature of the map is that Riccioli included on it a direct statement that the Moon is not inhabited. This ran counter to speculations about an inhabited Moon that had been present in the works of Nicholas of Cusa, Giordano Bruno, and even Kepler, and which would continue on in works of later writers such as Bernard de Fontenelle and William Herschel.

Arguments concerning the motion of the Earth.

A substantial portion of the "New Almagest" (Book 9, consisting of 343 pages) is devoted to an analysis of the world system question: Is the universe geocentric or heliocentric? Does the Earth move or is it immobile? The historian of science Edward Grant has described Book 9 as being the "probably the lengthiest, most penetrating, and authoritative" analysis of this question made by "any author of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries", in his opinion apparently superseding even Galileo's "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems — Ptolemaic and Copernican." Indeed, one writer has recently described Book 9 as "the book Galileo was supposed to write". Within Book 9 Riccioli discusses 126 arguments concerning Earth's motion—49 for and 77 against. To Riccioli the question was not between the geocentric world system of Ptolemy and the heliocentric world system of Copernicus, for the telescope had unseated the Ptolemaic system; it was between the geo-heliocentric world system developed by Tycho Brahe in the 1570s (in which the Sun, Moon, and stars circle an immobile Earth, while the planets circle the Sun – sometimes called a "geo-heliocentric" or "hybrid" system) and that of Copernicus. As the frontispiece of the "New Almagest" illustrates (see figure at right), Riccioli favoured a modified version of Tycho Brahe's system; here is how he described the system that "came to [his] mind" when he was in Parma : "it shares everything with the Tychonian system, except the orbits of Saturn and Jupiter; for [me] their center was not the Sun, but Earth itself".  Many writers make references to Riccioli's analysis and the 126 arguments. However, translations of arguments of the "New Almagest", and discussions of the arguments to any extent by more modern writers are rare: only for three arguments of the 126 are such translations and discussions readily available. These are, first, an argument Riccioli called the "physico-mathematical argument", which was related to one of Galileo's conjectures; second, an argument based on what today is known as the "Coriolis effect"; third, an argument based on the appearance of stars as seen through the telescopes of the time.

The "physico-mathematical" argument.

Riccioli discusses the physico-mathematical argument in terms of arguments both for and against Earth's motion. Galileo offered a conjecture in his 1632 "Dialogue" that the apparent linear acceleration of a stone falling from a tower was the result of two uniform circular motions acting in combination – the daily rotation of Earth, and a second uniform circular motion belonging to the stone and acquired from being carried along by the tower. Galileo says that [T]he true and real motion of the stone is never accelerated at all, but is always equable and uniform... So we need not look for any other causes of acceleration or any other motions, for the moving body, whether remaining on the tower or falling, moves always in the same manner; that is, circularly, with the same rapidity, and with the same uniformity... if the line described by a falling body is not exactly this, it is very near to it... [and] according to these considerations, straight motion goes entirely out the window and nature never makes any use of it at all. Riccioli explained that this conjecture could not work: It could not apply to the fall of bodies near the Earth's poles, where there would be little or no circular motion caused by Earth's rotation; and even at the equator where there would be more motion caused by Earth's rotation, the rate of fall predicted by Galileo's idea was too slow. Riccioli argued that the problems with Galileo's conjecture were a mark against the Copernican world system, but modern writers differ in regards to Riccioli's reasoning on this.

The "coriolis effect" argument.

Riccioli also argued that the rotation of the Earth should reveal itself in the flight of artillery projectiles, because on a rotating Earth the ground moves at different speeds at different latitudes. He wrote that If a ball is fired along a Meridian toward the pole (rather than toward the East or West), diurnal motion will cause the ball to be carried off [that is, the trajectory of the ball will be deflected], all things being equal: for on parallels of latitude nearer the poles, the ground moves more slowly, whereas on parallels nearer the equator, the ground moves more rapidly. Therefore, were a cannon, aimed directly at a target to the north, to fire a ball, that ball would strike slightly to the east (right) of the target, thanks to the Earth's rotation. But, if the cannon were fired to the east there would be no deflection, as both cannon and target would move the same distance in the same direction. Riccioli said that the best of cannoneers could fire a ball right into the mouth of an enemy's cannon; if this deflection effect existed in northward shots they would have detected it. Riccioli argued that the absence of this effect indicated that the Earth does not rotate. He was correct in his reasoning in that the effect he describes actually does occur. It is known today as the Coriolis effect after the nineteenth-century physicist Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis (1792–1843). However, the rightward deflection actually occurs regardless of the direction the cannon is pointed (a much more developed understanding of physics than what was available in Riccioli's time is required to explain this). At any rate, the effect would have been too small for cannoneers of the time to detect.

The star size argument.

Riccioli also used telescopic observations of stars to argue against the Copernican theory. Viewed through the small telescopes of his time, stars appeared as small but distinct disks. These disks were spurious – caused by the diffraction of waves of light entering the telescope. Today they are known as Airy disks, after the nineteenth-century astronomer George Biddell Airy (1801–1892). The real disks of stars are generally too tiny to be seen even with the best of modern telescopes. But during most of the seventeenth century it was thought that these disks seen in a telescope were the actual bodies of stars. In the Copernican theory, the stars had to lie at vast distances from Earth in order to explain why no annual parallax was seen among them. Riccioli and Grimaldi made numerous measurements of star disks using a telescope, providing a detailed description of their procedure so that anyone who wanted could replicate it. Riccioli then calculated the physical sizes that the measured stars would need to have in order for them both to be as far away as was required in the Copernican theory to show no parallax, and to have the sizes seen with the telescope. The result in all cases was that the stars were huge – dwarfing the sun. In some scenarios one single star would exceed the size of the entire universe as estimated by a geocentrist like Tycho Brahe. This problem that the appearance of stars in the telescope posed for the Copernican theory had been noted as early as 1614 by Simon Marius, who said telescopic observations of the disks of stars supported the Tychonic theory. The problem was acknowledged by Copernicans such as Martin van den Hove (1605–1639), who also measured the disks of stars and acknowledged that the issue of vast star sizes might lead people to reject the Copernican theory.

Other arguments.

The other arguments Riccioli presents in Book 9 of the "New Almagest" were diverse. There were arguments concerning: whether buildings could stand or birds could fly if Earth rotated; what sorts of motions were natural to heavy objects; what constitutes the more simple and elegant celestial arrangement; whether the heavens or the Earth was the more suited for motion and the more easily and economically moved; whether the center of the universe was a more or less noble position; and many others. Many of the anti-Copernican arguments in the "New Almagest" had roots in the anti-Copernican arguments of Tycho Brahe. Riccioli argued vigorously against the Copernican system, and even characterized certain arguments for terrestrial immobility as unanswerable, but he also rebutted some anti-Copernican arguments, invoking counterarguments from the Copernicans. For example, he presents the common opinion that, if the Earth rotated, we ought to feel it, and since we do not, the Earth must be immobile. But he then says that mathematically there is no necessity for such a sensation. He likewise dismisses the ideas that buildings might be ruined or birds left behind by Earth's motion—all may simply share the eastward rotational motion of Earth, like the east-facing cannon and ball discussed above. Perhaps for this reason Riccioli has at times been portrayed as a secret Copernican—someone whose position as a Jesuit necessitated opposition to the Copernican theory.

The "Astronomia Reformata" ("Reformed Astronomy").

Another prominent astronomical publication of Riccioli's was his 1665 "Astronomia Reformata" ("Reformed Astronomy")—another large volume, although only half the length of the "New Almagest". The contents of the two significantly overlap; the "Reformed Astronomy" might be thought of as a condensed and updated version of the "New Almagest". The "Reformed Astronomy" contains an extensive report on the changing appearance of Saturn. Included in the section on Jupiter is an apparent record of a very early (if not the earliest) observation of Jupiter's Great Red Spot, made by Leander Bandtius, Abbot of Dunisburgh and owner of a particularly fine telescope, in late 1632. Also in that section Riccioli includes reports of Jovian cloud belts appearing and disappearing over time.  The appearance of the physico-mathematical argument in the "Reformed Astronomy" was the occasion for Stefano degli Angeli (1623–1697) to launch an "unexpected, somewhat disrespectful and sometimes flippant attack" on Riccioli and the argument. James Gregory published a report in England in 1668 on the resulting public and personal dispute on the matter of falling objects. This was a prelude to Robert Hooke's (1635–1703) invitation to Isaac Newton (1642–1727) to resume his scientific correspondence with the Royal Society, and to their ensuing discussion about the trajectory of falling bodies "that turned Newton's mind away from 'other business' and back to the study of terrestrial and celestial mechanics." The "Reformed Astronomy" featured an adaptation to the accumulating observational evidence in favor of Johannes Kepler's elliptical celestial mechanics: it incorporated elliptical orbits into the geo-heliocentric Tychonic theory. Riccioli accepted Kepler's ideas, but remained opposed to the heliocentric theory. Indeed, following the dispute with Angeli, Riccioli's attitude toward heliocentrism hardened.

Other work.

Between 1644 and 1656, Riccioli was occupied by topographical measurements, working with Grimaldi, determining values for the circumference of Earth and the ratio of water to land. Defects of method, however, gave a less accurate value for degrees of arc of the meridian than Snellius had achieved a few years earlier. Snellius had been mistaken by approximately 4,000 meters; but Riccioli was more than 10,000 meters in error. Riccioli had come up with 373,000 "pedes" despite the fact that references to a Roman degree in antiquity had always been 75 milliaria or 375,000 pedes.  He is often credited with being one of the first to telescopically observe the star Mizar and note that it was a double star; however, Castelli and Galileo observed it much earlier.  In the words of Alfredo Dinis, Riccioli enjoyed great prestige and great opposition, both in Italy and abroad, not only as a man of encyclopedic knowledge but also as someone who could understand and discuss all the relevant issues in cosmology, observational astronomy, and geography of the time.

Selected works.

Riccioli's works are in Latin.

Selected editions of Riccioli's books about prosody.

Riccioli's books about prosody were revised many times and underwent many editions.

Giovanni Battista Riccioli (17 April 1598 – 25 June 1671) was an Italian astronomer and a Catholic priest in the Jesuit order. He is known, among other things, for his experiments with pendulums and with falling bodies, for his discussion of 126 arguments concerning the motion of the Earth, and for introducing the current scheme of lunar nomenclature. He is also widely known for discovering the first double star. He argued that the rotation of the Earth should reveal itself because on a rotating Earth, the ground moves at different speeds at different times.

乔万尼·巴蒂斯塔·里乔利(Giovanni Battista Riccioli,1598年4月17日至1671年6月25日)是意大利天文学家和耶稣会天主教神父。除其他方面的事情外,最出名是他的钟摆与落体实验、有关126条地球运动论据的论述以及引入了现行月球的命名方案。


Gameplay.

The player controls the "Vaus", a space vessel that acts as the game's "paddle" which prevents a ball from falling from the playing field, and attempts to bounce the ball against a number of bricks. The ball striking a brick causes the brick to disappear. When all the bricks are gone, the player advances to the next level, where another pattern of bricks appears. There are game variations (bricks that have to be hit multiple times, flying enemy ships, etc.) and power-up capsules to enhance the Vaus (expand the Vaus, multiply the number of balls, equip a laser cannon, break directly to the next level, etc.), but the gameplay remains the same.  On the final stage (33 on most versions, but 36 on the NES), the player takes on the game's boss, "DOH", a head resembling moai. Once this point is reached, the player no longer has the option to continue after running out of lives, making this segment more difficult. The game is over regardless of the outcome.

Development and release.

"Arkanoid" was designed by Akira Fujita and Hiroshi "ONIJIST" Tsujino, both of whom were members of Taito's Yokohama Research Institute. The company's sales department requested a new block breaker arcade game due to the genre beginning to see an upturn in popularity, following a steady downfall in the early 1980s. This led to a competition being held within the company to design the new game which was jointly won by Fujita and Tsujino, who were then instructed to combine their ideas into a single project. The game builds on the overall block breaker concept established in Atari's "Breakout", a widely-successful arcade game that spawned a long series of similar clone games by other manufacturers.  The development team consisted of Fujita in charge of planning, with Tsujino providing level design and graphics and two others programming the arcade board, a modified version of the Taito Classic hardware. The neon, futuristic aesthetic was inspired by the film "Tron" (1982), which Tsujino was a big fan of. Blocks originally never had colors and were simply the same color, which was changed to the minor annoyance of Tsujino. The various geometric-like enemies and power-up items were hand-drawn from 3-dimensional models before being converted into sprite art. Hisayoshi Ogura, the founder of Taito's "house band" Zuntata, created the game's music.  The game had a short development time with tight work deadlines, a schedule which Tsujino has since claimed to be "murderous". Location testing for the game began only a month after the start of development. It was incredibly well-received by playtesters, and generated a lot more popularity and income than Taito had expected. "Arkanoid" was officially released in Japan in July 1986, and in North America later that year by distributor company Romstar.

Conversions.

"Arkanoid" was ported to the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, BBC Micro, MSX, Atari 8-bit family, Apple II, NES, Amiga, Atari ST, Apple II and IBM PC. A Macintosh version was released in 1987 and a port was released for the Tandy Color Computer 3 in 1989. Computer conversions were published by Imagine. The NES port was packaged with a custom controller.

Reception.

In Japan, the gave it the Silver Award for being one of the four best games of 1986, along with Taito's own "Bubble Bobble", Sega's "Fantasy Zone" and Tecmo's "Rygar".  It was commercially successful in arcades. The game appeared at number three on Euromax's nationwide UK arcade chart in 1987, below Capcom's "1942" at number-one and Westone's "Wonder Boy" at number-two.  In Europe, it was reviewed by Clare Edgeley in the December 1986 issue of "Computer and Video Games", where she compared it to "Pong" and "Space Invaders" in its simplicity and addictiveness. She described "Arkanoid" as "a lovely game" that is "Fast, colourful, simple and addictive."  The home versions were also well received. "Computer Gaming World" stated in 1988 that "Arkanoid" on the Amiga was "a perfect version of the arcade game... "incredible"!" It named the NES version the Best Arcade Translation for the console that year, praising the graphics and play mechanics. The game was reviewed in 1989 in "Dragon" #144 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars. "Compute!" named the game to its list of "nine great games for 1989", describing it as "hypnotic, addictive, and fascinating". Along with "Breakout", the magazine noted "Arkanoid" also has elements of "Pong" and "Space Invaders" as well as "Pac-Man" in its use of power-ups.  In 1997 "Electronic Gaming Monthly" editors ranked the NES version the 41st best console video game of all time, describing it as "the type of game that you'd pick up because you need a quick video game fix but would end up playing for hours." They particularly noted that despite the ability to shoot lasers, the game demanded a great deal of skill from the player.

Legacy.

"Arkanoid" was followed by a number of direct and indirect sequels. "Tournament Arkanoid" was released in 1987 exclusively in the United States by Romstar. Unlike the original game, it was developed by Taito America rather than Taito Japan. It is more of a mission-pack sequel than a true sequel, since it has the exact same gameplay as the original Arkanoid and only the levels are different. "" ("Arkanoid 2") was released into arcades in 1987. Unlike "Tournament Arkanoid", "Revenge of Doh" is a true sequel to the game with new gameplay mechanics. "" and "Arkanoid Returns" were published in 1997, followed by "Arkanoid DS" in 2007.  An Xbox 360 version of "Arkanoid" was published as "Arkanoid Live!" on May 6, 2009 for Xbox Live Arcade. A WiiWare version of "Arkanoid," titled "Arkanoid Plus!", was released in Japan on May 26, 2009, in PAL regions on August 21, 2009 and in North America on September 28, 2009. A version of "Arkanoid" for iOS was released in 2009.  The mashup "Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders" was released in 2017 for iOS and Android.

Created by Taito designers Akira Fujita and Hiroshi Tsujino, "Arkanoid" was made to expand on the block breaker concept established in Atari's "Breakout", a successful game in its own right that was met with a large wave of similar clone games from other manufacturers. It was part of a contest within Taito, where two teams of designers had to complete a block breaker game and determine which one was superior to the other. The film "Tron" served as inspiration for the game's futuristic, neon aesthetic. Level designs were first sketched out on paper before being programmed and tested to make sure they were fun to play. The enemy and power-up designs were 3D models converted into sprite art.

《快打砖块》(日文:アルカノイド;英文:"Arkanoid")是由TAITO公司于1986年,以「《打砖块》」游戏游戏为基础所推出的电玩游戏。主要是玩家操控一台叫做「沃斯」(Vaus)的太空船,以弹珠的来回敲打,将一个关卡内指定数量之砖块敲完后,即可过关。


Early life and career.

Earling Carothers Garrison was born in Denison, Iowa. He was the first child and only son of Earling R. Garrison and Jane Anne Robinson who divorced when he was two-years old. His family moved to New Orleans in his childhood, where he was raised by his divorced mother. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II, having joined the year before the attacks on Pearl Harbor. After the war he obtained a law degree from Tulane University Law School in 1949. He then worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for two years. During the Korean War era Garrison joined the National Guard, even applying for active duty. He was then relieved of duty, remaining in the Guard when it became apparent that he suffered from shell shock due to his numerous bombing missions flown during WWII, leading one Army doctor to conclude that Garrison had a "severe and disabling psychoneurosis" which "interfered with his social and professional adjustment to a marked degree. He is considered totally incapacitated from the standpoint of military duty and moderately incapacitated in civilian adaptability." Yet when his record was reviewed further by the U.S. Army Surgeon General, he "found him to be physically qualified for federal recognition in the national army."

District attorney.

Garrison worked for New Orleans law firm Deutsch, Kerrigan & Stiles from 1954 to 1958, when he became an assistant district attorney. Garrison became a flamboyant, colorful, well-known figure in New Orleans, but was initially unsuccessful in his run for public office, losing a 1959 election for criminal court judge. In 1961 he ran for district attorney, winning against incumbent Richard Dowling by 6,000 votes in a five-man Democratic primary. Despite lack of major political backing, his performance in a televised debate and last minute television commercials are credited with his victory.  Once in office, Garrison cracked down on prostitution and the abuses of Bourbon Street bars and strip joints. He indicted Dowling and one of his assistants for criminal malfeasance, but the charges were dismissed for lack of evidence. Garrison did not appeal. Garrison received national attention for a series of vice raids in the French Quarter, staged sometimes on a nightly basis. Newspaper headlines in 1962 praised Garrison's efforts, "Quarter Crime Emergency Declared by Police, DA. – Garrison Back, Vows Vice Drive to Continue – 14 Arrested, 12 more nabbed in Vice Raids." Garrison's critics often point out that many of the arrests made by his office did not result in convictions, implying that he was in the habit of making arrests without evidence. However, assistant DA William Alford has said that charges would more often than not be reduced or dropped if a relative of someone charged gained Garrison's ear. Alford said Garrison had "a heart of gold."  After a conflict with local criminal judges over his budget, he accused them of racketeering and conspiring against him. The eight judges charged him with misdemeanor criminal defamation, and Garrison was convicted in January 1963. In 1964 the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction and struck down the state statute as unconstitutional. At the same time, Garrison indicted Judge Bernard Cocke with criminal malfeasance and, in two trials prosecuted by Garrison himself, Cocke was acquitted.  Garrison charged nine policemen with brutality, but dropped the charges two weeks later. At a press conference he accused the state parole board of accepting bribes, but could obtain no indictments. Critical of the state legislature, Garrison was unanimously censured by it for "deliberately maligning all of the members".  In 1965, running for reelection against Judge Malcolm O'Hara, Garrison won with 60 percent of the vote.

Kennedy assassination investigation.

As New Orleans D.A., Garrison began an investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in late 1966, after receiving several tips from Jack Martin that a man named David Ferrie may have been involved in the assassination. The end result of Garrison's investigation was the arrest and trial of New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw in 1969, with Shaw being unanimously acquitted less than one hour after the case went to the jury.  Garrison was able to subpoena the Zapruder film from "Life" magazine. Thus, members of the American public - i.e. the jurors of the case - were shown the movie for the first time. Until the trial, the film had rarely been seen, and bootleg copies were made by assassination investigator Steve Jaffe working with Garrison, which led to the film's wider distribution. In 2015, Garrison's lead investigator's daughter released his copy of the film, along with a number of his personal papers from the investigation.  Garrison's key witness against Clay Shaw was Perry Russo, a 25-year-old insurance salesman from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. At the trial, Russo testified that he had attended a party at anti-Castro activist David Ferrie's apartment. At the party, Russo said that Lee Harvey Oswald (who Russo said was introduced to him as "Leon Oswald"), David Ferrie, and "Clem Bertrand" (who Russo identified in the courtroom as Clay Shaw) had discussed killing President Kennedy. The conversation included plans for the "triangulation of crossfire" and alibis for the participants.  Russo's version of events has been questioned by some historians and researchers, such as Patricia Lambert, once it became known that part of his testimony might have been induced by hypnotism, and by the drug sodium pentothal (sometimes called "truth serum"). An early version of Russo's testimony (as told in Assistant D.A. Andrew Sciambra's memo, before Russo was subjected to sodium pentothal and hypnosis) fails to mention an "assassination party" and says that Russo met Clay Shaw on two occasions, neither of which occurred at the party. However, in his book "On the Trail of the Assassins", Garrison says that Russo had already discussed the party at Ferrie's apartment before any "truth serum" was administered. Throughout his life Russo reiterated the same account of being present for a party at Ferrie's house where the subject of Kennedy's potential assassination had come up.  Jim Garrison defended his conduct regarding witness testimony, stating:  Before we introduced the testimony of our witnesses, we made them undergo independent verifying tests, including polygraph examination, truth serum and hypnosis. We thought this would be hailed as an unprecedented step in jurisprudence; instead, the press turned around and hinted that we had drugged our witnesses or given them posthypnotic suggestions to testify falsely.  In January 1968, Garrison subpoenaed Kerry Wendell Thornley – an acquaintance of Oswald's from their days in the military – to appear before a grand jury, questioning him about his relationship with Oswald and his knowledge of other figures Garrison believed to be connected to the assassination. Thornley sought a cancellation of this subpoena on which he had to appear before the Circuit Court. Garrison charged Thornley with perjury after Thornley denied that he had been in contact with Oswald in any manner since 1959. The perjury charge was eventually dropped by Garrison's successor Harry Connick Sr.  During Garrison's 1973 bribery trial, tape recordings from March 1971 revealed that Garrison considered publicly implicating former United States Air Force General and Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Charles Cabell of conspiracy in the assassination of Kennedy after learning he was the brother of Earle Cabell, the Dallas mayor in 1963. Theorizing that a plot to kill the president was masterminded out of New Orleans in conjunction with the CIA with cooperation from the Dallas police department and city government, Garrison tasked his chief investigator, Pershing Gervais, of looking into the possibility that General Cabell had stayed in the city's Fontainebleau Motel at the time of the assassination. "The Washington Post" reported that there was no evidence that Gervais ever followed through with the request and that there was no further mention of General Cabell in Garrison's investigation.  US talk radio host David Mendelsohn conducted a comprehensive interview with Jim Garrison which was broadcast in 1988 by KPFA in Berkeley, California. Alongside Garrison, the program featured the voices of Lee Harvey Oswald and JFK filmmaker Oliver Stone. Garrison explains that cover stories were circulated in an attempt to blame the killing on the Cubans and the Mafia but he blames the conspiracy to kill the president firmly on the CIA who wanted to continue the Cold War.

Later career and death.

In 1973, Garrison was tried and found not guilty by the jury for accepting bribes to protect illegal pinball machine operations. The prosecutor was Gerald J. Gallinghouse of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, who was seeking to halt public corruption. Pershing Gervais, Garrison's former chief investigator, testified that Garrison had received approximately $3,000 every two months for nine years from the dealers. Acting as his own defense attorney, Garrison called the allegations baseless and claimed that they were concocted as part of a U.S. government effort to destroy him because of Garrison's efforts to implicate the CIA in the Kennedy assassination. The jury found Garrison not guilty. In an interview conducted by New Orleans reporter Rosemary James with Pershing Gervais, James alleged Gervais had admitted to concocting the charges.  In the same year, Garrison was defeated for reelection as district attorney by Harry Connick Sr. On April 15, 1978, Garrison won a special election over a Republican candidate, Thomas F. Jordan, for Louisiana's 4th Circuit Court of Appeal judgeship, a position for which he was later reelected and which he held until his death.  In 1987, Garrison appeared as himself in the film "The Big Easy", and was featured in The Men Who Killed Kennedy series, beginning in 1988.  After the Shaw trial, Garrison wrote three books on the Kennedy assassination, "A Heritage of Stone" (1970), "The Star Spangled Contract" (1976, fiction, but based on the JFK assassination), and his best-seller, "On the Trail of the Assassins" (1988). "A Heritage of Stone", published by Putnam, places responsibility for the assassination on the CIA and says the Warren Commission, the Executive Branch, members of the Dallas Police Department, the pathologists at Bethesda, and various others lied to the American public. The book does not mention Shaw or Garrison's investigation of Shaw.  Garrison's investigation again received widespread attention through Oliver Stone's 1991 film, "JFK", which was largely based on Garrison's book as well as Jim Marrs' "Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy". Kevin Costner played a fictionalized version of Garrison in the movie. Garrison himself had a small on-screen role in the film, playing United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. Garrison also appears live and comments on the Shaw Trial in the documentary "", written and directed by actor John Barbour.  Garrison died of cancer in 1992, survived by his five children. He is interred at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans.

Legacy.

Political analyst Carl Oglesby was quoted as saying, "... I have done a study of Garrison: I come out of it thinking that he is one of the really first-rate class-act heroes of this whole ugly story [the killing of John F. Kennedy and subsequent investigation]" Others have stated that Garrison's persecution of Clay Shaw was "one of the great miscarriages of justice in US history" and criticized Garrison for being reckless. However, several researchers, including Jim DiEugenio, publisher of KennedysandKing.com, Gerry Campeau of JFKFacts.org, William Davy, and Joan Mellen have all defended Garrison.  Garrison came under contemporary criticism from writers including Sylvia Meagher, who in 1967 wrote: ... as the Garrison investigation continued to unfold, it gave cause for increasingly serious misgivings about the validity of his evidence, the credibility of his witnesses, and the scrupulousness of his methods.  According to Clay Shaw's defense team, witnesses, including Perry Russo, claimed to have been bribed and threatened with perjury and contempt of court charges by Garrison in order to make his case against Shaw. However, in a later interview with public radio, Perry Russo stated:  Well the truth of the matter was that Garrison was very sincere. Well, [NBC News reporter and ex FBI Agent] Walter Sheridan tells me and threatens me that he's gonna take Garrison out and take me with him.... And he says [if] you do that [revoke his testimony] we won't go after you.

James Carothers Garrison (born Earling Carothers Garrison; November 20, 1921 – October 21, 1992) was the District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana, from 1962 to 1973. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best known for his investigations into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He was portrayed by Kevin Costner in Oliver Stone's "JFK", while Garrison himself portrayed Earl Warren.

吉姆·加里森(1921年-11月20日-1992年-10月21日)是前美国路易斯安那州新奥尔良检察官(1961～73年),美国民主党党员,因调查肯尼迪遇刺案而知名。