Early life.

Smith was born at 174 South Street, and raised in the Fourth Ward on the Lower East Side of Manhattan; he resided here for his entire life. His mother, Catherine ("née" Mulvihill), was the daughter of Maria Marsh and Thomas Mulvihill, who were immigrants from County Westmeath, Ireland. His father, baptised Joseph Alfred Smith in 1839 was the son of Emanuel Smith an Italian "marinaro". The elder Alfred was the son of Italian and German immigrants. He served with the 11th New York Fire Zouaves in the opening months of the Civil War.  Smith grew up with his family struggling financially in the Gilded Age; New York City matured and completed major infrastructure projects. The Brooklyn Bridge was being constructed nearby. "The Brooklyn Bridge and I grew up together", Smith would later recall. His four grandparents were Irish, German, Italian, and Anglo-Irish, but Smith identified with the Irish-American community and became its leading spokesman in the 1920s.  His father Alfred owned a small trucking firm, but died when the boy was 13. Aged 14, Smith had to drop out of St. James parochial school to help support the family, and worked at a fish market for seven years. Prior to dropping out of school, he served as an altar boy, and was strongly influenced by the Catholic priests he worked with. He never attended high school or college, and claimed he learned about people by studying them at the Fulton Fish Market, where he worked for $12 per week (equivalent to $323 today). His acting skills made him a success on the amateur theater circuit. He became widely known, and developed the smooth oratorical style that characterized his political career. On May 6, 1900, Al Smith married Catherine Ann Dunn, with whom he had five children.

Political career.

In his political career, Smith built on his working-class beginnings, identifying himself with immigrants and campaigning as a man of the people. Although indebted to the Tammany Hall political machine, particularly to its boss, "Silent" Charlie Murphy, he remained untarnished by corruption and worked for the passage of progressive legislation. It was during his early unofficial jobs with Tammany Hall that he gained renown as an excellent speaker. Smith's first political job was in 1895, as an investigator in the office of the Commissioner of Jurors as appointed by Tammany Hall.

State legislature.

Smith was first elected to the New York State Assembly (New York Co., 2nd D.) in 1904, and was repeatedly elected to office, serving through 1915. After being approached by Frances Perkins, an activist to improve labor practices, Smith sought to improve the conditions of factory workers. He served as vice chairman of the state commission appointed to investigate factory conditions after 146 workers died in the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Meeting the families of the deceased Triangle factory workers left a strong impression on him. Together with Perkins, Smith crusaded against dangerous and unhealthy workplace conditions and championed corrective legislation. The Commission was chaired by State Senator Robert F. Wagner and co-chaired by Smith. They held a series of widely publicized investigations around the state, interviewing 222 witnesses and taking 3500 pages of testimony. They hired field agents to do on-site inspections of factories. Starting with the issue of fire safety, they studied broader issues of the risks of injury in the factory environment. Their findings led to thirty-eight new laws regulating labor in New York State, and gave each of them a reputation as leading progressive reformers working on behalf of the working class. In the process, they changed Tammany's reputation from mere corruption to progressive endeavors to help the workers. New York City's Fire Chief John Kenlon told the investigators that his department had identified more than 200 factories where conditions resulted in risk of a fire like that at the Triangle Factory. The State Commission's reports led to the modernization of the state's labor laws, making New York State "one of the most progressive states in terms of labor reform." New laws mandated better building access and egress, fireproofing requirements, the availability of fire extinguishers, the installation of alarm systems and automatic sprinklers, better eating and toilet facilities for workers, and limited the number of hours that women and children could work. In the years from 1911 to 1913, sixty of the sixty-four new laws recommended by the Commission were legislated with the support of Governor William Sulzer.  In 1911, the Democrats obtained a majority of seats in the State Assembly, and Smith became Majority Leader and Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. The following year, following the loss of the majority, he became the Minority Leader. When the Democrats reclaimed the majority after the next election, he was elected Speaker for the 1913 session. He became Minority Leader again in 1914 and 1915. In November 1915, he was elected Sheriff of New York County, New York. By now he was a leader of the Progressive movement in New York City and state. His campaign manager and top aide was Belle Moskowitz, a daughter of Jewish immigrants.

Governor (1919–20, 1923–28).

After serving in the patronage-rich job of Sheriff of New York County, Smith was elected President of the Board of Aldermen of the City of New York in 1917. Smith was elected Governor of New York at the New York State election of 1918 with the help of Murphy and James A. Farley, who brought Smith the upstate vote.  In 1919, Smith gave the famous speech "A man as low and mean as I can picture", making a drastic break with William Randolph Hearst. Publisher Hearst, known for his notoriously sensationalist and largely left-wing position in the state Democratic Party, was the leader of its populist wing in the city. He had combined with Tammany Hall in electing the local administration, and had attacked Smith for starving children by not reducing the cost of milk.  Smith lost his bid for re-election at the New York State election of 1920, but was again elected governor in 1922, 1924 and 1926, with James A. Farley managing his campaign. In his 1922 re-election, he embraced his position as an anti-prohibitionist. Smith offered alcohol to guests at the Executive Mansion in Albany, and repealed the Prohibition enforcement statute: the Mullan-Gage law. Governor Smith became known nationally as a progressive who sought to make government more efficient and more effective in meeting social needs. Smith's young assistant Robert Moses built the nation's first state park system and reformed the civil service, later gaining appointment as Secretary of State of New York. During Smith's term, New York strengthened laws governing workers' compensation, women's pensions and children and women's labor with the help of Frances Perkins, soon to be President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Labor Secretary.  In 1924, Smith unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president, advancing the cause of civil liberty by decrying lynching and racial violence. Roosevelt delivered the nominating speech for Smith at the 1924 Democratic National Convention in which he saluted Smith as "the Happy Warrior of the political battlefield." Smith represented the urban, east coast wing of the party as an anti-prohibition "wet" candidate while his main rival for the nomination, President Woodrow Wilson's son-in-law William Gibbs McAdoo (a former Secretary of the Treasury), stood for the more rural tradition and prohibition "dry" candidacy. The party was hopelessly split between the two. An increasingly chaotic convention balloted 100 times before both men accepted that neither would be able to win the two-thirds majority required to win, and so each withdrew. On the 103rd ballot, the exhausted party nominated the little-known John W. Davis of West Virginia, a former congressman and United States Ambassador to Great Britain who had been a dark horse presidential candidate in 1920. Davis lost the election by a landslide to the Republican Calvin Coolidge, who won in part because of the prosperous times.  Undeterred, Smith returned to fight a determined campaign for the party's nomination in 1928.

1928 election.

Reporter Frederick William Wile made the oft-repeated observation that Smith was defeated by "the three P's: Prohibition, Prejudice and Prosperity". The Republican Party was still benefiting from an economic boom, as well as a failure to reapportion Congress and the electoral college following the 1920 census, which had registered a 15 percent increase in the urban population. The party was biased toward small-town and rural areas. Its presidential candidate Herbert Hoover did little to alter these events.  Historians agree that prosperity, along with widespread anti-Catholic sentiment against Smith, made Hoover's election inevitable. He defeated Smith by a landslide in the 1928 election, carrying five southern states in crossover voting by conservative white Democrats (since the disenfranchisement of blacks in the South at the turn of the century, whites dominated voting). The fact that Smith was Catholic and the descendant of Catholic immigrants was instrumental in his loss of the election of 1928. Historical hostilities between Protestants and Catholics had been carried by national groups to the United States by immigrants, and centuries of Protestant domination allowed myths and superstitions about Catholicism to flourish. Long established Protestants had viewed the waves of Catholic immigrants from Ireland, Italy and Eastern Europe since the mid-19th century with suspicion. In addition, many Protestants carried old fears related to extravagant claims of one religion against the other which dated back to the European wars of religion. They feared that Smith would answer to the Pope rather than the United States Constitution. White rural conservatives in the South also believed that his close association with Tammany Hall, the Democratic machine in Manhattan, showed that he tolerated corruption in government (while they overlooked their own brands of it). Another major controversial issue was the continuation of Prohibition, which was widely considered a problem to enforce. Smith was personally in favor of the relaxation or repeal of Prohibition laws, because they had given rise to more criminality. The Democratic Party split North and South on the issue, with the more rural South continuing to favor Prohibition. During the campaign, Smith tried to duck the issue with non-committal statements.  Smith was an articulate proponent of good government and efficiency, as was Hoover. Smith swept the entire Catholic vote, which had been split in 1920 and 1924 between the parties; he attracted millions of Catholics, generally ethnic whites, to the polls for the first time, especially women, who were first allowed to vote in 1920. He lost important Democratic constituencies in the rural North as well as in southern cities and suburbs. However, he successfully won votes in the Deep South, thanks in part to the appeal of his running mate, Senator Joseph Robinson from Arkansas, but he lost five southern states to Hoover. Smith carried the ten most populous cities in the United States, an indication of the rising power of the urban areas and their new demographics. In addition to these issues, Smith was not a very good campaigner. His campaign theme song, "The Sidewalks of New York", had little appeal among rural folks, and they found that his 'city' accent, when heard on radio, seemed slightly foreign. Smith narrowly lost New York State, whose electors were biased against rural upstate and largely Protestant districts. However, in 1928 his fellow Democrat Roosevelt (a Protestant of Dutch old-line stock) was elected to replace him as governor of New York. James A. Farley left Smith's camp to run Franklin D. Roosevelt's successful campaign for Governor, and later Roosevelt's successful campaigns for the Presidency in 1932 and 1936.

Voter realignment.

Some political scientists believe that the 1928 election started a voter realignment that helped develop the New Deal coalition of Franklin D. Roosevelt. As one political scientist explains, "...not until 1928, with the nomination of Al Smith, a northeastern reformer, did Democrats make gains among the urban, blue-collar and Catholic voters who were later to become core components of the New Deal coalition and break the pattern of minimal class polarization that had characterized the Fourth Party System." However, Allan Lichtman's quantitative analysis suggests that the 1928 results were based largely on religion and are not a useful barometer of the voting patterns of the New Deal era.  Finan (2003) says Smith is an underestimated symbol of the changing nature of American politics in the first half of the last century. He represented the rising ambitions of urban, industrial America at a time when the hegemony of rural, agrarian America was in decline, although many states had legislatures and congressional delegations biased toward rural areas because of lack of redistricting after censuses. Smith was connected to the hopes and aspirations of immigrants, especially Catholics and Jews from eastern and southern Europe. Smith was a devout Catholic, but his struggles against religious bigotry were often misinterpreted when he fought the religiously inspired Protestant morality imposed by prohibitionists.

Opposition to Roosevelt and the New Deal.

Smith felt slighted by Roosevelt during the latter's governorship. They became rivals for the Democratic Party presidential primaries, 1932 after Smith decided to run for the nomination. At the convention, Smith's animosity toward Roosevelt was so great that he put aside longstanding rivalries and managed to work with William Gibbs McAdoo and William Randolph Hearst to try to block FDR's nomination for several ballots. This unlikely coalition fell apart when Smith refused to work on finding a compromise candidate; instead, he maneuvered to become the nominee. After losing the nomination, Smith eventually campaigned for Roosevelt in 1932, giving a particularly important speech on behalf of the Democratic nominee at Boston on October 27 in which he "pulled out all the stops." Smith became highly critical of Roosevelt's New Deal policies, which he deemed a betrayal of good-government progressive ideals and ran counter to the goal of close cooperation with business. Smith joined the American Liberty League, an organization founded by conservative Democrats who disapproved of Roosevelt's New Deal measures and tried to rally public opinion against the New Deal. The League published pamphlets and sponsored radio programs, arguing that the New Deal was destroying personal liberty. However, the League failed to gain support in the 1934 or 1936 elections and rapidly declined in influence. It was officially dissolved in 1940. Smith's antipathy to Roosevelt and his policies was so great that he supported Republican presidential candidates Alfred M. Landon (in the 1936 election) and Wendell Willkie (in the 1940 election).  Although personal resentment was one factor in Smith's break with Roosevelt and the New Deal, Christopher Finan (2003) argues that Smith was consistent in his beliefs and politics—suggesting that Smith always believed in social mobility, economic opportunity, religious tolerance, and individualism. Despite the break between the men, Smith and Eleanor Roosevelt remained close. In 1936, while Smith was in Washington making a vehement radio attack on the President, she invited him to stay at the White House. To avoid embarrassing the Roosevelts, he declined. Historian Robert Slayton notes that Smith and Franklin Roosevelt did not reconcile until a brief meeting in June 1941, and he also suggests that during the early 1940s the antipathy which Smith held toward his former ally had waned. Upon the death of Smith's wife Katie in May 1944, FDR sent Smith a note of personal condolences; Smith's grandchildren later recalled that Smith was "greatly touched by it."

Business life and later years.

After the 1928 election, Smith became the president of Empire State, Inc., the corporation that built and operated the Empire State Building. Construction for the building symbolically began on March 17, 1930, St. Patrick's Day, per Smith's instructions. Smith's grandchildren cut the ribbon when the world's tallest skyscraper opened on May 1, 1931, which was May Day, an international labor celebration. Its construction had been completed in only 13 months, a record for such a large project. As with the Brooklyn Bridge, which Smith had seen being built from his Lower East Side boyhood home, the Empire State Building was both a vision and an achievement that had been constructed by combining the interests of all, rather than being divided by the interests of a few. Smith continued to promote the Empire State Building, which was derided as the "Empty State Building" due to a lack of tenants, in the years following its construction. In 1929 Smith was elected President of the Board of Trustees of the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University. Knowing his fondness for animals, in 1934 Robert Moses made Al Smith the Honorary Night Zookeeper of the newly-renovated Central Park Zoo. Though a ceremonial title, Smith was given keys to the zoo and often took guests to see the animals after hours.  Smith was an early and vocal critic of the Nazi regime in Germany. He supported the Anti-Nazi boycott of 1933 and addressed a mass-meeting at Madison Square Garden against Nazism that March. His speech was included in the 1934 anthology "Nazism: An Assault on Civilization". In 1938, Smith took to the airwaves to denounce Nazi brutality in the wake of "Kristallnacht". His words were published in "The New York Times" article "Text of the Catholic Protest Broadcast" of November 17, 1938.  Like most New York City businessmen, Smith enthusiastically supported American military involvement in World War II. Although he was not asked by Roosevelt to play any role in the war effort, Smith was an active and vocal proponent of FDR's attempts to amend the Neutrality Act in order to allow "Cash and Carry" sales of war equipment to be made to the British. Smith spoke on behalf of the policy in October 1939, to which FDR responded directly: "Very many thanks. You were grand."  In 1939 Smith was appointed a Papal Chamberlain of the Sword and Cape, one of the highest honors which the Papacy bestowed on a layman.  Smith died at the Rockefeller Institute Hospital on October 4, 1944, of a heart attack, at the age of 70. He had been broken-hearted over the death of his wife from cancer five months earlier, on May 4, 1944. He is interred at Calvary Cemetery.

Electoral history.

New York gubernatorial elections, 1918–1926.

Notes:  Note: This was the last time the running mate of the elected governor was defeated, Democrat Smith having Republican Lowman as lieutenant for the duration of this term.

Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American politician who served four terms as Governor of New York and was the Democratic Party's candidate for president in 1928.

Alfred Emanuel Smith (30. prosince 1873 Manhattan – 4. října 1944 New York) byl politik z USA, člen demokratické strany, starosta města New York a posléze guvernér státu New York. V roce 1928 neúspěšně kandidoval za demokratickou stranu na prezidenta Spojených států. Jeho působení ve funkci je spojeno s velkými reformami státní a městské správy a s vytvořením státních parků v městském zázemí.


Overview.

Basque cuisine is influenced by the abundance of produce from the sea on one side and the fertile Ebro valley on the other. The great mountainous nature of the Basque Country has led to a difference between coastal cuisine dominated by fish and seafood, and inland cuisine with fresh and cured meats, many vegetables and legumes, and freshwater fish and salt cod. The French and Spanish influence is strong also, with a noted difference between the cuisine of either side of the modern border; even iconic Basque dishes and products, such as txakoli from the South, or Gâteau Basque (Biskotx) and Jambon de Bayonne from the North, are rarely seen on the other side.  Basques have also been quick to absorb new ingredients and techniques from new settlers and from their own trade and exploration links. Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal created a chocolate and confectionery industry in Bayonne still well-known today, and part of a wider confectionery and pastry tradition across the Basque Country. Basques embraced the potato and the capsicum, used in hams, sausages and recipes, with pepper festivals around the area, notably Ezpeleta and Puente la Reina.  Olive oil is more commonly used than vegetable oil in Basque cooking.  Cuisine and the kitchen are at the heart of Basque culture, and there is a Museum of Gastronomy in Llodio.  One of the staple cookbooks for traditional Basque dishes was initially published in 1933. "La cocina de Nicolasa" (the Kitchen of Nicolasa) by Nicolasa Pradera has gone into 20 editions.

Ways of eating.

In addition to the dishes and products of the Basque Country, there are features of the way of preparing and sharing food unique to the area.  Cider houses (sagardotegiak) are a feature of the hills around Donostia, especially near Astigarraga. These are usually large country restaurants with enormous barrels of cider. Cider is poured from a height straight into the glass for visitors, with a rustic menu invariably of salt cod omelette, grilled T-bone steak and ewes' milk cheese with walnuts and quince paste. The cider houses are only open for a few months of the year.  The "txikiteo" is the tapas crawl from bar to bar seen across Spain, but it reaches its pinnacle in Donostia, with hundreds of people on the streets of the old town wandering from bar to bar, each known for its specialty, whether it be croquettes, tortilla, toast, or seafood. The txikiteo is also popular in cities such as Pamplona and Bilbao.  "Gerezi beltza arno gorriakin" is a cherry soup served warm or cold. The cherries are poached in wine, often with enough sugar added to make a light syrup. A cherry without pits is preferred for this dish. To release their flavor, the cherries are carefully pitted or cut in half. Usually the soup is prepared on the day it will be served, because 24 hours is enough time for the cherries to blanch noticeably in the liquid. The soup is often served with a dollop of sour cream, crème fraîche, or ice cream.  Gastronomic societies are organisations, almost always of men, who cook and eat together in a communal txoko. In large cities, the society's premises can be large and formally organised, but the "txoko" is frequently a small space owned by a group of friends in smaller towns and suburbs, where food and costs are shared. The first txoko was noted in Donostia in 1870. This unique feature of the Spanish Basque Country enables men to participate in the cooking process and spend time together away from the traditionally formidable matriarchs ("etxekoandreak"). In recent years, women have been allowed into some clubs.

New Basque Cuisine.

In the 1970s and 1980s Basque chefs were influenced by the "nouvelle cuisine" of France and created the "nouvelle cuisine basque", radically original in its form but solidly Basque in substance, with lighter and less rustic versions of traditional dishes and flavours. The first Spanish restaurant to be awarded 3 stars in the Michelin Guide was, in fact, "Zalacaín", a Basque restaurant, although located in Madrid. Juan Mari Arzak in Donostia became the most famous exponent and one of the first three-star Michelin Guide restaurants in Spain. In a few years the movement swept across Spain, becoming the state's default haute cuisine. Many tapas bars, especially in San Sebastián, serve modern-style "pintxos" employing novel techniques and ingredients. In more recent years, young chefs, such as Martin Berasategui, have given new impetus to Basque cuisine.

International Basque cuisine.

Basque cuisine has continued to have an influence on international cuisine, particularly in Spain and France where it is highly regarded. Catalan chef Ferran Adrià has taken the techniques pioneered by Arzak and other Basque chefs to new heights. Karlos Arguiñano has popularised Basque cuisine in Spain through TV and books. Teresa Barrenechea was among the first people to bring traditional Basque cuisine to America with her first restaurant Marichu in Bronxville in 1991, where she hired Chef Joseba Encabo to set up, develop the menus and run the restaurant till soon later he was offered a position as faculty at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. Teresa Barrenechea and husband Raynold von Samson continued to promote Basque cuisine in America by opening their second Marichu restaurant in Manhattan in 1994, which was close to the United Nations Headquarters. Teresa Barrenechea has written two books, "The Basque Table" (Harvard Common Press, Boston 1998) and "The Cuisines of Spain" (Ten Speed, Berkley 2005). Teresa Barrenechea is the holder of two awards: Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Prize of Gastronomy, the highest culinary award given by the Spanish Administration) and Best Regional Cuisine Book at the 5th World Cookbook Fair, Périgueux (France). At the other end of the scale, Basque-style pintxos bars are common in Barcelona and Madrid. In cities where large numbers of Basque people emigrated, such as Buenos Aires, Argentina; São Paulo, Brazil, Boise, Idaho; Fresno, California, and Bakersfield, California, there are several Basque restaurants and a noted Basque influence on the local cuisine.

Basque cuisine refers to the cuisine of the Basque Country and includes meats and fish grilled over hot coals, marmitako and lamb stews, cod, Tolosa bean dishes, paprikas from Lekeitio, pintxos (Basque tapas), Idiazabal sheep's cheese, txakoli (sparkling white-wine), and Basque cider.

Baskická kuchyně (baskicky: "Euskal Herriko sukaldaritza") je tradiční kuchyně Basků, národa žijícího na pomezí Španělska a Francie. Typicky používá rajčata, papriku a ryby a mořské plody z Atlantského oceánu. Dále se používají různé sýry, maso, fazole nebo víno. Připravují se i uzeniny, například různé klobásy nebo chorizo.


Summary.

One of the managerial changes before the start of the season was at Borussia Dortmund, who had finished third the previous season. After sacking Thomas Tuchel, they hired the Dutchman Peter Bosz in June 2017, after he had led Ajax to the 2017 UEFA Europa League Final. Dortmund were also the German club involved in the biggest transfer of the summer, selling young French forward Ousmane Dembélé to Barcelona for an initial €105 million. Meanwhile, reigning champions Bayern Munich prepared for the season by breaking the league's transfer record in their purchase of French midfielder Corentin Tolisso from Lyon for €41.5 million.  On 28 September 2017, Bayern sacked manager Carlo Ancelotti amidst reports of player unrest, despite the club sitting in third place. He was replaced by Jupp Heynckes in his fourth spell at the club. On 28 October, a 2–0 win over RB Leipzig put Bayern on top of the table for the first time in the season. In December, Dortmund sacked Bosz with the team in seventh, and replaced him with the Austrian Peter Stöger who himself had recently been dismissed by winless bottom team 1. FC Köln.  In the January 2018 transfer window, Dortmund lost the season's second-top scorer, Gabonese forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who moved to Arsenal for a €63 million fee. They replaced him by bringing in Chelsea's Michy Batshuayi on loan. From December to February, Bayern went on a 10-match winning streak that ended with a goalless draw with Hertha BSC at the Allianz Arena, and managed 13 unbeaten until a 1–2 loss at Leipzig on 18 March.  Dortmund remained unbeaten for 12 games between December and 31 March, when they lost 0–6 away to Bayern. Schalke 04, who finished only 10th the previous season, were in the top 3 for most of the season. They were unbeaten for 11 games between September and January, putting together six consecutive victories in February and March before a 2–3 loss at bottom team Hamburg.  Bayern won their 27th Bundesliga and 28th German title (6th consecutive) on 7 April 2018, with five games left to play after defeating fellow Bavarian club FC Augsburg 4–1. Three weeks later, Köln were the first team relegated after a 2–3 loss to SC Freiburg. On 5 May, Schalke secured second place and a return to the Champions League for the first time in four years, with a 2–1 win at Augsburg. On the last matchday, 1899 Hoffenheim beat Dortmund 3–1 to finish ahead of the latter on goal difference at an all-time high third place and securing a spot in the Champions League group stage for the first time in their history. Following VfL Wolfsburg's 4–1 win over Köln, Hamburg were relegated from the Bundesliga for the first time in their history.  Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski was the league's top scorer for the third time, a record for a foreign player. He scored 29 goals, 14 more than second-placed Nils Petersen of Freiburg.

Teams.

A total of 18 teams participated in this edition of the Bundesliga.

Relegation play-offs.

"All times are UTC+2".

Second leg.

"VfL Wolfsburg won 4–1 on aggregate and therefore both clubs remain in their respective leagues."

The 2017–18 Bundesliga was the 55th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football competition. It began on 18 August 2017 and concluded on 12 May 2018. The fixtures were announced on 29 June 2017.

Soutěžní ročník Německá fotbalová Bundesliga 2018/19 byl 57. ročníkem nejvyšší německé fotbalové ligy zvané Fußball-Bundesliga. Soutěž byla započata 18. srpna 2017 a poslední kolo bylo na programu 21. května 2018. Soutěže se účastnilo celkem 18 týmů. Šestnáct se jich udrželo z minulého ročníku a sestoupilé týmy nahradily 2 nové ze 2. Fußball-Bundesligy.


Works.

Publishing order.

Cover illustration copyright Melvyn Grant

Narrators.

The narrator of each book in the Demonata series shifts between the three protagonists of the series; Grubbs Grady, Kernel Fleck and Bec MacConn.

Plot.

The series centers around three protagonists: Grubitsch "Grubbs" Grady, Cornelius "Kernel" Fleck and Bec MacConn. Although they meet each other at various points, they are from separate times; Grubbs lives in the present day, Kernel in the 1970s and Bec in around 450AD. The books detail their fight against the demon master Lord Loss, his many demon familiars and the mysterious Shadow, who promises to destroy the human universe and to even stop death. Together with The Disciples, the main characters thwart the Demonata's attempts at world destruction multiple times.

Characters.

"Grubbs" Grady.

Grubitsch "Grubbs" Grady is the protagonist of "Lord Loss", "Slawter", "Blood Beast", "Demon Apocalypse", "Wolf Island", and "Hell's Heroes". Grady makes appearances in "Death's Shadow" and "Dark Calling". In most of the books, Grady is afflicted by or is trying to fight lycanthropy.

Kernel Fleck.

Kernel Fleck is the protagonist and narrator in "Demon Thief" and "Dark Calling". He makes an appearance in every book starting from "Demon Apocalypse".

Bec MacConn.

Bec MacConn is the protagonist and narrator in "Bec" and "Death's Shadow". Bec took over Bill-E's body in "Demon Apocalypse" in the cave, making her alive again. She is able to recall all of Bill-E's memories and emotions.

The Demonata is a ten-book series by author Darren Shan. It deals with the world of demons. The series is told by three different protagonists: Grubbs Grady, Kernel Fleck, and Bec MacConn. The series is notable for its extensive graphic violence, despite being aimed towards children.

Demonata je série deseti knih od Darrena Shana a také název první knihy v sérii. Tento fikční příběh pojednává o démonech, magii a portálech mezi světem naším a světem démonů. Vypravěči a tři hlavní postavy příběhu jsou Grubitsch (Grubbs) Grady, Percival (Pecka) Fleck a Bec MacConn.


Plot.

The episode starts from exactly where the previous episode ended where Elena (Nina Dobrev) asks Stefan (Paul Wesley) what he is. Before Stefan gives her an answer, there is a flashback to 1864 and we see Katherine and Stefan meet. Back in 2009, Stefan admits that he is a vampire and Elena freaks out running away even though Stefan tries to explain. He follows her to her home to promise he will not hurt her and he lets her know that he drinks animal blood and it was Damon (Ian Somerhalder) who killed all those people. Elena is still freaked out though and she asks him to leave.  Damon is at the cemetery trying to cover his tracks after killing Vicki's (Kayla Ewell) friends. He calls Stefan asking for his ring while he douses the bodies with alcohol to burn them. Stefan says he will give Damon his ring back but not right away. They hang up and when he goes to Vicki to douse her too, she wakes up.  The next day Elena meets Stefan at a public place to talk things over. Stefan answers her questions referring to vampires but she is mad at how he let Damon play with Caroline (Candice Accola) like that. Stefan agrees that it was not right but it is more dangerous to forbid Damon to do something. He also tells her that years ago, people in Mystic Falls knew about vampires but because it did not end well so he asks her not to tell anyone. Elena is not sure about that but she agrees to give him one day to convince her not to do it.  Sheriff Forbes (Marguerite MacIntyre) and Logan (Chris Johnson) find the bodies and they know that what killed them was a vampire. Logan informs her that he managed to take the Gilbert watch and now they have to take it to the Mayor (Robert Pralgo). The Mayor gets the watch and fits it into one of the other antiques, he says that it is ready and he hands it back to Logan.  Damon is trapped at the house since he cannot get out to the sunlight and he is getting impatient waiting for Stefan to bring him his ring. He brought Vicki at the house who is lying on the couch. He decides to feed her his blood even though he says that he will regret it. Vicki feels much better after drinking the blood and the two of them have fun around the house dancing and drinking. Then, Damon unexpectedly snaps Vicki's neck.  Stefan takes Elena into the woods where his house had been and he continues telling her about his past. While he talks, we get another flashback with him, Katherine and Damon. The two brothers play football and Katherine interrupts them. She flirts with Stefan, takes the ball and runs making the two brothers chase her. At another scene, Katherine says that she needs a date for the Founder's Ball and both brothers offer themselves with pleasure(hinting the brother's future rivalry).  Back in the present, Stefan tells Elena that Katherine chose him to escort her at the Founder's Ball. Damon was not mad with her choice because he does not get mad but instead gets even. Stefan tells Elena that the night he took Katherine to the Ball, Damon was also with her. Back in 1864, where Katherine and Stefan are together in bed and it is revealed that Katherine was a vampire and she bites Stefan. The next morning, Stefan is horrified but she compels him not to say anything and she tells Stefan that the three of them (her, Stefan and Damon) will always be together. Stefan tells Elena that Katherine was controlling his mind and compelled both brothers not to tell each other the secret.  Vicki wakes up asking what happened. Damon tells her that she is dead since he killed her and he informs her that now she only has to feed on a human to complete the transition to become a vampire. Vicki does not believe Damon and she leaves to go to Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen). By the time she gets there, her eyes burn, the sun bothers her, she has a headache, and she is hungry. Jeremy thinks she is high and because of her strange behavior, he calls Matt (Zach Roerig).  Matt gets there but he cannot do much to help Vicki when Stefan and Elena arrive. Stefan realizes what is happening and he compels Vicki to calm down and tells her that everything will be fine. He then explains to Elena and tells her that Vicki has to feed on human blood otherwise she will die. Jeremy and Vicki are alone in his room but she runs away when she feels the need to bite him. Stefan says he can track her and leaves to find her.  When it gets dark, Damon leaves the house and goes to Elena's house. He sees that she is afraid of him and he figures out that Stefan told her about them being vampires. He reassures her that he is not there to hurt her but he is looking for Stefan. Since Stefan is not there, he leaves asking Elena to tell Stefan that he is looking for him in case she sees him. Meanwhile, Logan uses the Gilbert watch as a compass searching for something.  Stefan finds Vicki crying. She starts remembering things and now she knows what is happening to her. Stefan promises that he can help her but Logan arrives and shoots him with wooden bullets. Logan is about to stake Stefan but Vicki pushes him away and Damon gets there and kills Logan. He then takes the bullet out of Stefan and he notices that it is wooden and realizes that people know about them. He takes his ring back and Vicki feeds on Logan, completing the transition.  Stefan returns to Elena, explains what happened and he apologizes for not being able to save Vicky. Elena promises that she will not tell anyone about him being a vampire but not wanting to deal with the drama, she breaks up with him and the episode ends with her crying inside her house.

Featured music.

These songs can be heard on the episode "Lost Girls":

Reception.

Ratings.

In its original American broadcast, "Lost Girls" was watched by 3.88 million, up by 0.36 from the previous episode.

Reviews.

"Lost Girls" received positive reviews.  Lauren Attaway from "Star Pulse" gave the episode a B+ rate saying that it excelled because the series reached to a turning point.  Robin Franson Pruter from "Forced Viewing" rated the episode with 4/4 saying that this episode was the one who convinced her that the series was going to work. "The show flashes back to 1864 in an exciting and thematically rich episode. [...] It is the first unequivocally good episode of the series (“Friday Night Bites” was marginal). It’s not perfect [...] However, there’s so much good stuff in the episode that it far outweighs the flaws." She closes her review with: "Overall, “Lost Girls” is visual, exciting, and multi-layered, an episode that makes the audience want to know more about the characters and to tune in to discover what happens next."  Matt Richenthal of "TV Fanatic" stated: "From Elena discovering the Salvatore secret, to Vicki transitioning into a vampire, "Lost Girls" was the most significant episode of this CW hit to date."  Jen Yamato of "HitFix" said that it was the best episode yet. "In the best episode yet, truths are told, vampires are made, people die AND Ian Somerhalder dances around the living room with his shirt unbuttoned – what more can you ask for?"  Popsugar from "Buzzsugar" gave a good review to the episode saying that it was one of her favorites because of the action and the flashbacks. "One of my favorite scenes this week? The dance-like-no-one's-watching sequence for Damon and Vicki. (Except I was watching. And I loved it.) Their slow dance scene is actually pretty cute, too; until, well, Damon breaks Vicki's neck."  Lucia of "Heroine TV" congratulates the creators (Siega, Williamson and Plec) of this stellar episode. "I wouldn’t necessarily say that I liked it more than last week’s, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and was left wanting more. Is it next week already? This show makes me impatient."

"Lost Girls" is the sixth episode of the first season of The CW television series, "The Vampire Diaries" and the sixth episode of the series overall. It originally aired on October 15, 2009. The episode was written by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec and directed by Marcos Siega.

Zatracené duše (v anglickém originále Lost Girls) je šestý díl první řady amerického televizního seriálu "Upíří deníky". Původně byla vysílána 15. října 2009 na stanici The CW a v ČR byla vysílána 7. června 2012 na stanici Nova. Scénář epizody napsali Kevin Williamson a Julie Plec, režíroval ji Marcos Siega.


Design and development.

Background.

In August 1961, NATO released an updated revision of its VTOL strike fighter requirement, NATO Basic Military Requirement 3 (NBMR-3). Specifications called for a supersonic V/STOL strike fighter with a combat radius of. Cruise speed was to be Mach 0.92, with a dash speed of Mach 1.5. The aircraft, with a payload, had to be able to clear a obstacle following a takeoff roll. Victory in this competition was viewed being of a high importance at the time as it was seem as being potentially "the first real NATO combat aircraft".  During the 1950s and 1960, both French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation and British aerospace company Hawker Siddeley Aviation (HSA) were deeply interested in vertical takeoff/landing (VTOL)-capable combat aircraft. HSA had already been keen to develop a new generation of combat aircraft that would be capable of supersonic speeds. HSA's chief aircraft designer Sir Sydney Camm decided that the company should investigate the prospects of developing and manufacturing a viable combat-capable vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) fighter aircraft. Along with the subsonic Hawker P.1121 fighter (which would become the Hawker Siddeley Harrier later on, a supersonic design, designated as the "P.1150" was produced; however, the release of NBMR-3, and subsequent revisions to it, led to the P.1150 proposal being considered to be undersized and thus unsatisfactory, which led to a desire for a redesign. The new, larger aircraft design soon emerged, which was initially designated as "P.1150/3" prior to being redesignated as the "P.1154".  In January 1962, HSA submitted the P.1154 design to NATO via the Ministry of Aviation. NBMR.3 attracted a total of eleven contenders, including Dassault's Mirage IIIV proposal, which would become viewed as the principal competitor to the P.1154. Substantial support for the Mirage IIIV came from Britain, work on the programme having involved the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC), while the Dassault-led design also held the favour of several members of the British Air Staff. While the P.1154 was judged to be technically superior, the Mirage IIIV had acquired a greater level of political palatability due to the co-operative development and production aspects proposed for the programme, under which work was to be distributed across a number of member nations. Protracting political maneuvering by firms and national governments alike was deployed in attempts to secure their respective project's selection.  In May 1962, the P.1154 emerged as the winner in the competition for the NBMR.3 over the Mirage IIIV. While the Mirage IIIV had not been selected to meet NBMR-3, however this did not lead to orders for the rival P.1154 being placed. The French government subsequently withdrew from participation once the Dassault design had not emerged victorious. According to aviation author Jeffort, the Mirage IIIV had been rejected mainly because of its excessive complexity, using nine engines compared to the P.1154's single-engine approach. However, NATO lacked any central budget, instead relying on individual member nations to actually procure military equipment, while the NBMR-3 selection went unheeded by all of the NATO member nations. Thus, in 1965, the whole NATO project was unceremoniously terminated.

Dassault Balzac V.

Since the Rolls-Royce RB162 lift engines which had been specified for the Mirage IIIV were not expected to be available before 1963, Dassault decided to modify the first Mirage III prototype into an interim VTOL testbed; in this configuration, it became the Balzac V. This was fitted with eight Rolls-Royce RB.108 lift engines along with a single unreheated Bristol Orpheus BOr 3 as the main engine. According to aerospace publication Flight International, a key goal for the Balzac prototype was to prove the autopilot system, which was identical to the unit which was proposed use with the Mirage IIIV, as well as the lift and transition system. The Balzac began tethered hovering on 12 October 1962 and achieved the first free hover only six days later. The first accelerating transition from vertical take-off to horizontal flight took place on its 17th sortie on 18 March 1963. The aircraft had two fatal accidents, one in January 1964 and one in September 1965. After the last accident the aircraft was not repaired.

Mirage IIIV.

In the meantime, the Balzac had led to the actual Mirage IIIV, which was roughly twice the size of the earlier aircraft. A pair of Mirage IIIV prototypes were constructed, the first of which conducted its first hovering trial on 12 February 1965. It was powered by a single Pratt & Whitney JTF10 turbofan engine, designated as the "TF104". The TF104 engine was originally evaluated on a specially-constructed aerial testbed aircraft, the "Mirage IIIT", which shared many similarities to basic design of the Mirage IIIC design, with the exception of modifications in order to accommodate the selected engine. The TF104 engine was quickly replaced by an upgraded TF106 engine, with thrust of 74.5 kN (16,750 lb), before the first prototype made its initial transition to forward flight in March 1966. The prototype subsequently attained Mach 1.32 during test flights.  In June 1966, the second prototype, which featured a TF306 turbofan engine for forward thrust of 82.4 kN (18,500 lb), conducted its first flight. During September of that year, it attained Mach 2.04 in level flight, but was lost in an accident on 28 November 1966. The Mirage IIIV was never able to take off vertically and successfully attain supersonic flight during the same flight.  The loss of the second prototype had effectively killed the program, and in fact killed any prospect of an operational Mach 2 vertical take-off fighter for decades. The competing Hawker P.1154 had been cancelled in 1965 by the government just as the prototypes were under construction; however, its subsonic cousin, the Hawker-Siddeley Kestrel VTOL attack aircraft was flying in tri-partite trials with the UK, US and West Germany. The French preferred the Mirage IIIV, and the international cooperation that would have been necessary to move the P.1154 into reality would never materialise.  Some of the P.1154 work contributed to the final operational vertical take-off fighter based on the Kestrel, the highly successful Harrier. The Mirage IIIV was never a realistic combat aircraft; the eight lift engines would likely have been a maintenance nightmare, and certainly their weight imposed a severe range and payload penalty on the aircraft.

Design.

The Dassault Mirage IIIV was a supersonic-capable vertical takeoff/landing (VTOL) fighter aircraft. It shared the general layout of earlier Mirage fighters, but featured a long and relative broad fuselage along with a bigger wing; the Mirage IIIV was considerably larger than contemporary fighter aircraft of its era. Akin to the earlier Balzac V testbed, the Mirage IIIV was outfitted with a total of nine engines: a single SNECMA-modified Pratt & Whitney JTF10 turbofan, designated "TF104", capable of producing up to 61.8 kN (13,900 lb) of thrust, and eight Rolls-Royce RB162-1 engines, each being capable of generating a maximum of 15.7 kN (3,525 lbf) thrust, which were mounted vertically in pairs around the centreline.  A key design feature of the Mirage IIIV to improve vertical flight performance was the installation of movable thrust deflector doors ahead of the nozzles set in the aircraft's underside. These would be inclined 45° rearwards while on the ground, dispersing both debris and hot gasses away from the aircraft. As the engines accelerated to full power, these doors would automatically drop to a 90° position in order to obtain maximum lift thrust. According to Flight International, the Mirage IIIV had an advertised performance envelope in the vicinity of Mach 1.15 when flown at low altitude and Mach 2.3 when flown at height.  Throughout development, the electronics were given substantial attention; it was this element of the design that has been attributed as being a major contributing factor to the cost overruns which impacted the programme. Many elements of the cockpit and ancillary electronics of the Mirage IIIV were later reused on the conventional Mirage IIIF, which later re-designated as the Mirage F1.

The Dassault Mirage IIIV, also spelled Mirage III V, was a French vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) prototype fighter aircraft of the mid-1960s developed and produced by Dassault Aviation.

Dassault Mirage IIIV, také Mirage III V, byl prototyp francouzského stíhacího letounu s kolmým startem a přistáním (VTOL) z poloviny 60. let vyvinutý a vyráběný společností Dassault Aviation.


Geography.

The municipality of Hodod lies in the extreme southeast of the county Satu Mare and borders in the west to the municipality Bogdand, in the north to the Maramures county and in the east and south by the Sălaj county. The municipality is located in the hills of Codru, 10 km west of Cehu Silvaniei and 70 km south of Satu Mare, the capital of the Satu Mare county.

History.

Until 1940.

Hodod is mentioned since 1210, Nadișu Hododului since 1205, Lelei since 1330, Giurtelecu Hododului since 1378. Hodod belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary and was part of the Principality of Transylvania. In 1399, a castle is mentioned when the village belonged to the family Kusalyi Jakcs. Hodod gained city status in 1482.  Hodod was given by King Rudolf II of Habsburg to the Wesselényi family, to whom it belonged until the 20th century. The castle was destroyed in the early 18th century. After the rebellion of Francis II Rákóczi, the town was taken from the Wesselényi family.  The Wesselényi family built a large castle in Baroque style. After the outbreak of the plague, the immigration of German settlers was promoted. From 1744 to 1751 Baron Franz Wesseleny invited 30 families from Baden-Durlach and Switzerland to his property in Kriegsdorf (Hadad). In subsequent years, more immigrants came from German-speaking regions to Kriegsdorf. In 1880 Kriegsdorf counted 479 German inhabitants.  After the Austro-Hungarian compromise of 1867 the Austrian Empire, and the Principality of Transylvania, disappear. In 1876 the Kingdom of Hungary is divided into provinces. Hodod is now part of Szilágy County. At the end of World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire disappears and the city is part of Greater Romania in the Treaty of Trianon. Hodod is now part of the district Sălaj.

1940-1945.

Hodod in 1940 following the Second Vienna Award, annexed by Hungary until 1944. In May 1944, the Jews were collected in the ghetto of Satu Mare. On May 19, 22, 26, 29, 30, 31 and June 1 of that year, they were deported to Auschwitz.  The fate of the Roma is little is known. This is partly due to the fact that the Roma, in comparison with the Jews, were poorly organized. With the retreat of the German army in 1944, many Germans left Hodod. In 1945, 43 Germans were deported to the Soviet Union.

After 1945.

After the Second World War Hodod, with the Treaty of Paris, became Romanian again. In the administrative reform of the country in 1968, the city became part of the Satu Mare county to which it belongs so far.  During the communist regime, especially in the 1980s, many Germans emigrated.

Demographics.

Religion.

In 2002, the religious composition of the municipality is as follows:

Language.

The official language is Romanian. In Hodod, Nadișu and Lelei Hungarian is predominantly spoken. Giurtelecu speaks mainly Romanian, while the Roma speak Romani (language of the Roma, gypsies). A small minority speaks German.  Ethnic minority groups (Hungarians, Swabians) often identify first with their ethnicity and second as Romanians. In villages with a predominantly Hungarian population it is polite to use Hungarian place names (Hadad Hadadgyőrtelek, Hadadnádasd, Lele). When speaking to Romanians the use of Romanian place names is polite (Hodod, Lelei, Giurtelecu Hododului, Nadișu Hododului). This applies also to titles such as "mayor" (Hungarian: polgármester; Romanian: Primar).  In terms of foreign languages, a part of the population speaks English, French, and German. Historically, French was the leading language of study, but nowadays English is replacing it, so that the elderly in Romania can speak French and youngsters English.

Politics.

The Hodod City Council has 13 Councillors. At the time of the Romanian municipal elections of June 2016, Francisc Balog (UDMR) was elected as mayor. Not all parties are nationally operating parties.

Education.

Hodod has an elementary school. Nadișu, Giurtelecu and Lelei are dependencies. Romanian children attend elementary education from their 6th until their 14th year.  The Romanian educational system is as follows:

Economy.

Agriculture.

The economy of the municipality is based on agriculture (arable, livestock and beekeeping).

Market.

A large market is held in Hodod the first Monday of every month.

Historic sites and monuments.

Cemeteries.

East of Hodod, hidden between the fields and groves, there is a Jewish cemetery. Also in Nadișu Hododului and Lelei are Jewish cemeteries. In Hodod there is a German cemetery. In this cemetery is a memorial plaque with the names of 44 victims of the First World War (1914–1918).

Hodod (, : ; ) is a commune of 3,209 inhabitants situated in Satu Mare County, Crișana, Romania. It is composed of four villages:

Hodod () je obec v župě Satu Mare v Rumunsku. Žije zde obyvatel. V roce 2011 se 67 % obyvatel hlásilo k maďarské národnosti. Součástí obce jsou i tři okolní vesnice.


History.

On 17 June 1914 the large navigation between Berlin and Stettin was opened. Near Niederfinow the difference in elevation was overcome using a staircase lock with four chambers. One can still visit the remains of these locks today (seen in the foreground of the accompanying aerial photograph).  The capacity of the staircase locks was quickly exceeded, therefore, between 1927 and 1934, the boat lift was built and inaugurated on 21 March 1934. The lift is 60 m high, the length 94 m, taking five minutes for the trough to move through the 36m elevation difference. The following enterprises were involved: By 26 January 1939 100,000 boats had already passed through the lift. In the inaugural year there was 2,832,000 tonnes of traffic.  The lift was the subject of a general overhaul in 1980 and the lifting cables were renewed in 1984/85.  Today the boat lift is too short for some barge trains which must be separated to pass the lift. The lift is running near to its capacity with about 11,000 boats passing through each year, so in 1997 the decision was made to build a new, bigger lift.  The Niederfinow lift is a popular tourist destination with about 500,000 visitors per year. Due to this a new larger car park was opened in 2003.

Technology.

The boat lift consists of 14,000 Tonnes of riveted structural steelwork standing on steel columns. The Oder-Havel-Kanal approaches the head of the lift on a 4,000 Tonne riveted steelwork aqueduct. The trough when filled weighs 4,290 tonnes and hangs on 256 steel cables, these cross over guide rollers and support 192 counterweights which balance the trough. The security of the lift is maintained by keeping half the cables in tension and the other half relaxed in reserve. The guide rollers have a diameter of 3.5m.  Pin gearing with D.C.motors in Leonards electric motor speed controllers, connected together by a shaft allow a symmetrical drive. This arrangement allows the exact synchronisation of the four pin gears. The four Leonard controllers each have an output of 55 kilowatts totalling 220 kilowatts. Four worm geared shafts are driven which intersect with internal threads built into the troughs. These move freely under normal circumstances but would seize if a cable broke providing extra safety.

Planning for the new boat lift.

Because of the continuing increase in traffic on the Oder-Havel-Kanal, in 1997 it was decided that a new, bigger lift should be built next to the present one In the autumn of 2006 earthworks began between the lift and the old staircase locks. The new lift, which is being built by Bilfinger Berger and the site is being developed in partnership with Johann Bunte, is due to be finished in 2021. The trough will be long and wide and will weigh —and some when filled with water. The cost will be 285 million euros. The old lift will remain in use however until at least 2025.

The Niederfinow Boat Lift is the oldest working boat lift in Germany. It lies on the Oder-Havel Canal near Niederfinow in Brandenburg. The lift overcomes a difference in elevation of 36 metres.

Lodní výtah Niederfinow je nejstarší stále funkční lodní výtah v Německu. Leží na východním konci Odersko-Havelského průplavu u obce Niederfinow ve spolkové zemi Braniborsko. Do provozu byl uveden 21. března 1934.


History.

The Congress of the Confederation opened in the last stages of the American Revolution. Combat ended in October 1781, with the surrender of the British after the Siege and Battle of Yorktown. The British, however, continued to occupy New York City, while the American delegates in Paris, named by the Congress, negotiated the terms of peace with Great Britain. Based on preliminary articles with the British negotiators made on November 30, 1782, and approved by the "Congress of the Confederation" on April 15, 1783, the Treaty of Paris was further signed on September 3, 1783, and ratified by Confederation Congress then sitting at the Maryland State House in Annapolis on January 14, 1784. This formally ended the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain and the thirteen former colonies, which on July 4, 1776, had declared independence. In December 1783, General George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, journeyed to Annapolis after saying farewell to his officers (at Fraunces Tavern) and men who had just reoccupied New York City after the departing British Army. On December 23, at the Maryland State House, where the Congress met in the Old Senate Chamber, he addressed the civilian leaders and delegates of Congress and returned to them the signed commission they had voted him back in June 1775, at the beginning of the conflict. With that simple gesture of acknowledging the first civilian power over the military, he took his leave and returned by horseback the next day to his home and family at Mount Vernon near the colonial river port city on the Potomac River at Alexandria in Virginia.  On March 1, 1781, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union were signed by delegates of Maryland at a meeting of the Second Continental Congress, which then declared the Articles ratified. As historian Edmund Burnett wrote, "There was no new organization of any kind, not even the election of a new President." The Congress still called itself the Continental Congress. Nevertheless, despite its being generally the same exact governing body, with some changes in membership over the years as delegates came and went individually according to their own personal reasons and upon instructions of their state governments, some modern historians would later refer to the Continental Congress after the ratification of the Articles as the Congress of the Confederation or the Confederation Congress. (The Congress itself continued to refer to itself at the time as the Continental Congress.)  Congress had little power and without the external threat of a war against the British, it became quite difficult to get enough delegates to meet to form a quorum. Nonetheless, the Congress still managed to pass important laws, most notably the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.  The War of Independence saddled the country with an enormous debt. In 1784, the total Confederation debt was nearly $40 million. Of that sum, $8 million was owed to the French and Dutch. Of the domestic debt, government bonds, known as loan-office certificates, composed $11.5 million, certificates on interest indebtedness $3.1 million, and continental certificates $16.7 million.  The certificates were non-interest bearing notes issued for supplies purchased or impressed, and to pay soldiers and officers. To pay the interest and principal of the debt, Congress had twice proposed an amendment to the Articles granting them the power to lay a 5% duty on imports, but amendments to the Articles required the consent of all thirteen states: the 1781 impost plan had been rejected by Rhode Island and Virginia, while the revised plan, discussed in 1783, was rejected by New York.  Without revenue, except for meager voluntary state requisitions, Congress could not even pay the interest on its outstanding debt. Meanwhile, the states regularly failed or refused, to meet the requisitions requested of them by Congress.  To that end, in September 1786, after resolving a series of disputes regarding their common border along the Potomac River, delegates of Maryland and Virginia called for a larger assembly to discuss various situations and governing problems to meet at the Maryland state capital on the Chesapeake Bay. The later Annapolis Convention with some additional state representatives joining in the sessions first attempted to look into improving the earlier original Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. There were enough problems to bear further discussion and deliberation that the Convention called for a wider meeting to recommend changes and meet the next year in the late Spring of 1787 in Philadelphia. The Confederation Congress itself endorsed the Call and issued one on its own further inviting the states to send delegates. After meeting in secret all summer in the Old Pennsylvania State House now having acquired the nickname and new title of Independence Hall, from the famous action here eleven years earlier. The Philadelphia Convention, under the presidency of former General George Washington instead of a series of amendments, or altering the old charter, issued a proposed new Constitution for the United States to replace the 1776–1778 Articles. The Confederation Congress received and submitted the new Constitution document to the states, and the Constitution was later ratified by enough states (nine were required) to become operative in June 1788. On September 12, 1788, the Confederation Congress set the date for choosing the new Electors in the Electoral College that was set up for choosing a President as January 7, 1789, the date for the Electors to vote for the President as on February 4, 1789, and the date for the Constitution to become operative as March 4, 1789, when the new Congress of the United States should convene, and that they at a later date set the time and place for the Inauguration of the new first President of the United States.  The Congress of the Confederation continued to conduct business for another month after setting the various dates. On October 10, 1788, Congress formed a quorum for the last time; afterward, although delegates would occasionally appear, there were never enough to officially conduct business. The last meeting of the Continental Congress was held March 2, 1789, two days before the new Constitutional government took over; only one member was present at said meeting, Philip Pell, an ardent Anti-Federalist and opponent of the Constitution, who was accompanied by the Congressional secretary. Pell oversaw the meeting and adjourned the Congress "sine die".

Presiding officer.

The Continental Congress was presided over by a president (referred to in many official records as "President of the United States in Congress Assembled"), who was a member of Congress elected by the other delegates to serve as a neutral discussion moderator during meetings. Elected to a non-renewable one-year term, this person also chaired the Committee of the States when Congress was in recess and performed other administrative functions. He was not, however, an executive in the way the later President of the United States is a chief executive since all of the functions he executed were under the direct control of Congress. There were 10 presidents of Congress under the Articles. The first, Samuel Huntington, had been serving as president of the Continental Congress since September 28, 1779.

Meeting sites.

The Second Continental Congress was meeting at the Old Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall), in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the time the Articles of Confederation entered into force on March 1, 1781, but left after an anti-government protest by several hundred soldiers of the Continental Army in June 1783. Congress moved its meeting site successively to Princeton, New Jersey, Annapolis, Maryland, Trenton, New Jersey, and then in January 1785 New York City, which remained the seat of government for several years.

The Congress of the Confederation, or the Confederation Congress, formally referred to as the United States in Congress Assembled, was the governing body of the United States of America from March 1, 1781, to March 4, 1789. A unicameral body with legislative and executive function, it was composed of delegates appointed by the legislatures of the several states. Each state delegation had one vote. It was preceded by the Second Continental Congress (1775–1781) and was created by the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union in 1781.

Konfederační kongres či Kongres Konfederace, formálně označovaný jako United States in Congress Assembled byl řídícím orgánem Spojených států amerických od 1. března 1781 do 4. března 1789. Jednokomorový orgán s legislativními a výkonnými pravomocemi byl složen z delegátů jmenovaných zákonodárci jednotlivých států. Každý stát byl zastoupen jedním delegátem. Konfederačnímu kongresu předcházel druhý kontinentální kongres (1775–1781) a byl vytvořen na základě Articles of Confederation (Článků Konfederace) v roce 1781.


Background.

The album was announced alongside the release of the single "Gospel for a New Century" on February 18, 2020. Two more singles followed, "Kerosene!" which was released on March 9, 2020, and "Romanticist / Dream Palette", which was released March 31, 2020.

Critical reception.

"Heaven to a Tortured Mind" received widespread acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 88 based on 17 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". AllMusic critic Heather Phares praised the record, describing it as "an album that suggests the easiest way to define Tumor is as an artist who consistently outdoes themself." Eero Holi of "Clash" labeled the album as a "psychedelic soul record for the 21st century," further stating: "It’s so heart-rending you could keep yourself wrapped inside its comfort for hours and not come out." Kaelen Bell of "Exclaim!" characterized the music as "the sound of a new kind of warped pop star — an artist capable of weaving the unending unknown of space and the throb of blood and skin, willing to take us and destroy us and create something wholly new from what remains."  Alexis Petridis of "The Guardian" thought that the record "sounds coherent" and "is punchy and concise;" Petridis further remarked that "its stylistic leaps and short-circuits always feel intended – the product of someone operating to their own internal logic rather than randomly throwing ideas at the wall." "Paste" critic Austin Jones praised the record, stating: "The record, with all its idiosyncrasies, will be remembered as a definitive piece by one of our era’s most important rock icons—a pop star as transgressive and rule-breaking as the legends of the ’70s and ’80s we take for granted now." "Pitchfork"s Kevin Lozano considered Tumor's commercial ambition, writing: "The product of this ambition is a gratifying and intense record, one whose pleasures are viscerally immediate." Reviewing for "PopMatters", Paul Carr noted: "Whereas on previous albums, he would obscure himself behind the music, here he steps out of his sonic chrysalis, dons some shiny black wings and soars." "Q"s Leonie Cooper likewise noted the album's "relatively straight-up approach", dubbing it "sleazy listening at its best".

Track listing.

Sample credits

Personnel.

Album personnel adapted from Bandcamp liner notes.

Heaven to a Tortured Mind is the fourth studio album by American experimental electronic artist Yves Tumor, released April 3, 2020.

Heaven to a Tortured Mind je čtvrté studiové album amerického hudebníka Yvese Tumora. Vydáno bylo v dubnu roku 2020 společností Warp Records. Na jeho produkci se kromě Tumora podílel Justin Raisen, který produkoval i jeho předchozí desku "Safe in the Hands of Love" (2018), a koproducentem byl Yves Rothman. O mastering nahrávky se postaral Mike Bozzi. Deska obsahuje dvanáct autorských písní, na některých se kromě Tumora autorsky zčásti podíleli také různí hostující umělci.


A Series of Unfortunate Events (TV series)

Premise.

When a mysterious fire destroys their home and kills their parents, the Baudelaire children, Violet, Klaus and Sunny, are placed in the care of their distant'relative' Count Olaf, an actor who is determined to claim the family fortune for himself. Following Olaf's failed attempt and his plot being exposed, the Baudelaires are placed in the custody of a series of inept or unsympathetic guardians, as they try to elude Olaf and his followers and uncover the mystery behind a secret society from their parents' past. The mysterious and melancholic narrator Lemony Snicket explicates the Baudelaires' adventures for the audience.  Daniel Handler cameos as a fish salesperson at Lake Lachrymose.

Episodes.

Season 1 (2017).

The first season adapts the first four books of the novel series: "The Bad Beginning", "The Reptile Room", "The Wide Window" and "The Miserable Mill".

Season 2 (2018).

The second season adapts books five through nine of the novel series: "The Austere Academy", "The Ersatz Elevator", "The Vile Village", "The Hostile Hospital", and "The Carnivorous Carnival".

Season 3 (2019).

The third season adapts the final four books of the novel series in seven episodes: "The Slippery Slope", "The Grim Grotto", "The Penultimate Peril", and "The End", with the final book being adapted as a single episode.

Production.

Development.

The thirteen "A Series of Unfortunate Events" novels, written by Daniel Handler under the pen name Lemony Snicket from 1999 to 2006, achieved success in young adult fiction around the same time as the "Harry Potter" novels. As such, the Snicket books had been optioned to be filmed before they were published. This led to the development of a 2004 feature film, "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events", which covered the narratives of the first three novels in the series. Barry Sonnenfeld, who has expressed his love for the series, was originally slated to direct the feature film, and had hired Handler to write the screenplay. About 10 months into production, shortly after the casting of Jim Carrey as Olaf, there was a "big crisis", according to Handler, which caused producer Scott Rudin to walk away and Sonnenfeld left the production under unclear terms. With the film's completion in flux, its producing studios Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks fired Handler. While the film was eventually completed and released, sequels which would adapt the other novels in the series became unlikely due to "corporate shakeups" within DreamWorks, according to Handler, and the child actors that portrayed the Baudelaire children grew too old to star in a sequel.  Both Sonnenfeld and Handler still wanted to see the series fully fleshed out in a visual format, and with the onset of streaming television, believed this was a better method of presenting the series. Sonnenfeld approached Netflix with the idea, stressing that he wanted to make the series far less overproduced compared to the feature film, instead having the entire show able to be shot on stage in a dry and flat manner, and without having to hide any of the darker scenes such as character deaths. Netflix agreed, and in November 2014, publicly announced plans to adapt the book series into a television series in association with Paramount Television. Handler was named the series' executive producer. By September 2015, Netflix announced that Sonnnenfeld's involvement as both director and executive producer, as well as Mark Hudis as showrunner, and Handler writing some of the scripts along with working with the series' writing team. However, in January 2016, Netflix announced that Hudis had left the project, with a replacement showrunner not named at the time.  The first season consists of eight episodes, with two episodes adapting each of the first four books of the series. Handler considered this more in line with how he had written the books in the manner of a serialized melodrama, citing "The Perils of Pauline" as one of his influences in writing the book series. In January 2017, Handler revealed that he was writing the series' second season, to consist of ten episodes adapting the fifth through ninth books of the series. A third season would adapt the remaining novels of the series, which Handler hoped "to get the go-ahead to do" since "given how quickly young actors age and change, we're trying to film everything as quickly as possible." In March 2017, Netflix revealed the series had been renewed for a second season by releasing a video on their social media pointing to a viral marketing website, where a letter written by Snicket revealed the decision. A month later, the series was "quietly" renewed for a third season, which Harris confirmed would be the final one for the series. While the screenplays written by Handler otherwise stay in concert with the books, Handler did add a new conclusion to the work that he felt gave some proper closure in an organic manner that otherwise did not take away from the series.

Casting.

On December 3, 2015, an open casting call was announced for the roles of Violet and Klaus Baudelaire. Sonnenfeld had worked with Malina Weissman before on the film "Nine Lives" and had appreciated her ability to speak quickly without overacting, and selected her for Violet from her audition. They had more difficulty in landing an actor for Klaus, but Louis Hynes, who had no professional acting prior, had submitted a promising audition video. Casting flew him from London to Los Angeles while in the middle of set production, and after about an hour of testing with Weissman, Hynes was selected as Klaus as a last-minute option. Both were announced by January 2016.  Handler had first considered Neil Patrick Harris for the role of Count Olaf after seeing him perform the opening number "It's Not Just for Gays Anymore", at the 65th Tony Awards in 2011, noting "I just immediately saw someone who could pull off a million things at once" as was necessary for the character of Olaf, who utilizes various disguises and accents in his quest to steal the Baudelaire fortune. Sonnenfeld also felt Harris had done enough work on both stage, screen, and film to handle the breadth of characterization that Olaf displayed over the course of the book series. Sonnenfeld had previously met Harris over Thanksgiving 2015, prior to Sonnenfeld being confirmed for the project. Sonnenfeld hinted to Harris about the potential role, and once Netflix hired Sonnenfeld, proceeded to offer him the role. In January 2016, Netflix announced that Harris had been cast as Count Olaf  One of the key changes that Sonnenfeld and Handler wanted for the series was to make Lemony Snicket a more visible character narrating on adventures of the Baudelaires children from their relative future, allowing him to be in scenes without actually being part of the events. Casting Patrick Warburton for Lemony was Handler's idea, despite Sonnenfeld having worked with Warburton in several previous productions. Handler felt Warburton was an actor that can deliver comedic lines without being too obvious about it, as well as bringing the emotional breadth that the character needed to show. Warburton's casting was confirmed by March 2016.  It was also revealed that Presley Smith would play Sunny Baudelaire, whose quasi-nonsensical lines are voiced by Tara Strong. The casting department had initially sought a set of twin infants for the role, a standard practice to avoid complications from weariness during filming. None of those auditioned had the look that they felt was appropriate for the part. Smith however, had both the personality and look they felt appropriate for Sunny, and took the risk of casting a single actor for the role.  Other casting include: in March 2016, K. Todd Freeman was cast as Mr. Poe, and Aasif Mandvi as Uncle Monty. In September 2016, it was revealed that Dylan Kingwell and Avi Lake were cast as the Quagmire siblings, Duncan and Isadora, respectively. In November 2016, Handler revealed Catherine O'Hara, Don Johnson, and Alfre Woodard had been cast as Dr. Georgina Orwell, Sir, and Aunt Josephine, respectively; O'Hara had previously portrayed Justice Strauss in the 2004 film adaptation of "A Series of Unfortunate Events". and Rhys Darby would play Charles, Sir's partner.

Filming.

Production began in May 2016 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and in August 2016 several cast members expressed through social media that filming had finished. Filming for the second season began in April 2017. The third season began filming on January 5, 2018.  One aspect of the series of books that the production team wanted to be captured in the series was the notion of a lack of specific time period or geography for the settings; Handler stated that he wrote enough for establishing set pieces, but purposely left more specific details vague "in order for young readers to fill in the blanks themselves." Sonnenfeld wanted to capture that same sense of ambiguous time and place, and he and his team worked to try to define a set of subjective rules of what elements could be included. Sonnenfeld brought on Bo Welch, production designer for "Edward Scissorhands", which Handler considered to capture the same sense of a "familiar but completely imaginary" suburban setting he had in mind for his books. While the production team used computer-generated imagery where needed, they attempted to avoid this use where possible, such as by using large painted backdrops, by key scenic artist John E. Wilcox, rather than employing green screen filming.

Music.

In April 2016, Nick Urata was initially reported to be composing music for the series. Once the first season was released, it was revealed that Urata collaborated with Daniel Handler to compose the main title theme, "Look Away", as well as various original songs that appear throughout the series, with Handler contributing the lyrics. The first season's original score was composed by James Newton Howard, with his frequent collaborators Sven Faulconer and Chris Bacon filling in to score certain episodes. In the second season, Jim Dooley joined the production as composer and subsequently wrote the music for eight of the season's ten episodes and the rest of season 3, with Nick Urata to compose the second season's first two episodes.  "Look Away", the theme song for the opening titles of the series, is performed by Neil Patrick Harris. In keeping with the tone of the book series, the song warns the viewer against continuing to watch the unpleasant story any further. The lyrics of the middle part of the song change for each pair of episodes, comprising a brief synopsis of those episodes' premise.

Visual effects.

Zoic Studios created visual effects for the series, including the effects for many of Sunny Baudelaire's actions. Tippett Studio also did work on the series, including the effects for the destruction of Josephine's house, landscape shots of Lake Lachrymose and some of the more movement heavy Sunny Baudelaire shots.

Release.

All eight episodes of the first season of "A Series of Unfortunate Events" were released worldwide on Netflix on January 13, 2017, in Ultra HD 4K. The second season was released on March 30, 2018. The third season was released on January 1, 2019.

Marketing.

On July 5, 2015 a video titled "An Unfortunate Teaser" was uploaded to YouTube by a user named "Eleanora Poe". Netflix quickly released a statement saying "This was not released from Netflix." Media outlets were almost unanimous in agreement that the trailer was fan-made. However, Caitlin Petrakovitz of CNET argued that the trailer may be real and that Netflix's carefully worded denial was a marketing campaign, noting the user name "Eleanora Poe" being the same as a character from the series, and that a shellac record seen in the trailer was of The Gothic Archies, a band who provided the theme music for the audio books of "A Series of Unfortunate Events". The trailer was later revealed to be a spec promo, similar to a spec script, by an independent commercial director, whom Netflix contracted to make a title sequence for the series after the video's popularity, though they did not go ahead with the concept.  In October 2016, Netflix released the first teaser trailer for "A Series of Unfortunate Events", where Warburton narrates the events of the series as Lemony Snicket. A trailer, featuring footage from the series and Neil Patrick Harris's character, Count Olaf, was released by Netflix in November 2016, followed shortly by the first full trailer. The second trailer was released in December 2016, followed by a "holiday-themed" trailer from Count Olaf leading fans to a viral marketing website for the fictional Valorous Farms Dairy, which featured four holiday e-cards for download.  As part of the marketing for the third season, Netflix released a YouTube trailer of Count Olaf and Lemony Snicket on November 13, 2018 giving alternative accounts of the events of the previous seasons, with the former describing them as a series of "learning experiences" and the latter as a "series of unfortunate events." On December 10, Netflix released a second YouTube trailer, featuring Allison Williams as Kit Snicket and introducing Richard E. Grant as the villainous "Man with a Beard but No Hair" and Beth Grant as the villainous "Woman with Hair but No Beard".

Reception.

Audience viewership.

As Netflix does not reveal subscriber viewership numbers for any of their original series, Symphony Technology Group compiled data for the first season based on people using software on their devices that measure television viewing by detecting a program's sound. According to Symphony, 3.755 million viewers age 18–49 within the United States were watching an episode of "A Series of Unfortunate Events" over the average minute in its first weekend of release.

Critical response.

Season 1.

The first season of "A Series of Unfortunate Events" received critical acclaim. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the season an approval rating of 94% based on 69 reviews, with an average rating of 8.06/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Enjoyably dark, "A Series of Unfortunate Events" matches the source material's narrative as well as its tone, leaving viewers with a wonderfully weird, dry, gothic comedy." On Metacritic the season has a score of 81 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".  Erik Adams of "The A.V. Club" awarded the season a B and praised it for treating "mature themes like grief, loss, and disappointment with sardonic honesty." Adams compared the program positively to the Adam West "Batman" series, calling it "kids stuff with adult sophistication, driven by two-part stories, outrageous visuals, and the scenery-chewing of big-name guest stars". Ben Travers of "Indiewire" gave the series an A-, saying that it "proves as inspirational and endearing as it claims to be forlorn and heartbreaking". Brian Lowry of CNN praised the showrunners for "infusing the show with a lemony-fresh feel, conjuring a series similar to the fantastical tone of "Pushing Daisies"". Lowry wrote that "the show proves a good deal of fun" and that "Harris dives into his over-the-top character with considerable gusto." He also argued that the series improved upon the 2004 film.  Several critics praised the television series as a better adaptation of the books than the 2004 feature film, which starred Jim Carrey as Count Olaf. Kelly Lawler of "USA Today" felt the television format gave the stories more room to develop, the addition of Warburton as the fourth wall-breaking Snicket helped to convey some of the wordplay humor used in the books, and Harris's portrayal of Olaf was "much more dynamic, and creepier" than Carrey's version. "The Verge" Chaim Gartenburg said that the show follows the books much more faithfully than the film, and "nails down the tone that made the stories so special". "Los Angeles Times" writer Robert Lloyd felt that the backgrounds of Sonnenfeld and Welch made them "the right people for this job, set in a milieu that is hard to fix in time, except to say it is not now", in capturing the tones of the book compared to the feature film.  Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com, on the other hand, gave the series a negative review, calling it "an unfunny parody of sadness" that is "never as clever as it wants to be" and would only appeal to fans of the books. Caroline Framke of "Vox Media" praised the series for its unique and weird visuals, but found the show's tone, pacing and performances to be haphazard and considered the show to be "literally, a series of unfortunate events".

Season 2.

As with the first season, the second season received critical acclaim. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the second season an approval rating of 94% based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 7.81/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Season two of "A Series of Unfortunate Events" is as gothic, twisted and absurd as the first, to the delight of moody tweens of all ages." Clarisse Loughrey of "The Independent" praised the show as one that "essentially deals with thoughtful, intelligent young people battling to speak up against an illogical world." While observing that the "show may revel in the miserable", she opined "that the purpose of its own morbidity is to offer the assurance that hope lives in even the darkest of places." Loughrey also credited the show's expanded storyline for the Baudelaires' adult allies for "plumping up" the episodes' narrative arcs and deepening the show's emotional impact.  Tristram Fane Saunders of "The Telegraph" awarded the second season four out of five stars. He described the show as a "gothic treat [that] also offers a wicked line in absurdist humour, and the most gorgeously toybox-like set designs you’ll find anywhere outside a Wes Anderson film." "Radio Times" reviewer Huw Fullerton praised the series for its faithfulness to the original novels. While praising the improved CGI used to make Presley Smith's character Sunny Baudelaire react better to situations, he criticized the addition of supporting "good" characters such as Nathan Fillion's Jacques Snicket and Sara Canning's Jacquelyn for "undercutting the bleakness and loneliness that characterized the novels."  Rohan Naahar of the "Hindustan Times" described "A Series of Unfortunate Events" as "one of the most lavish originals in Netflix's bottomless catalogue, created by fans, for fans." He also praised Neil Patrick Harris' performance as Count Olaf. The Den of Geek reviewer Michael Ahr praised tortoise-shell 'amphibiophones' and stone marimbas score for giving the television series its primal sound. IGN reviewer Jonathon Dornbush criticized the second season's formulaic plot structure and lack of the insightful observations compared to the first season. He also praised several of the second season's episodes particularly "The Ersatz Elevator", "The Hostile Hospital", and "The Carnivorous Carnival" for smartly twisting the story formula and deepening the novel series' mythology. Dornbush also praised the performance of Lucy Punch and Patrick Warburton and awarded the second season 7.2 stars.

Season 3.

As with the previous seasons, the third season received critical acclaim, with the season receiving a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based off 15 reviews and an average rating of 8.43/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "The final installment of Lemony Snicket's magnum opus adds new contours to its expansive cast, provides answers to some of the pernicious questions within the series' lore, and delivers a finale that is more graceful than unfortunate." Jonathan Dornbrush of IGN praised the third season for bringing "an emotionally satisfying ending to its macabre tale"; awarding it 8.7 out of 10. He also praised the series for deepening the characterizations of the Baudelaires, Lemony Snicket, and Count Olaf and skillfully incorporating the source material. Samantha Nelson of "The Verge" praised series directors Mark Hudis and Barry Sonnenfeld for basing the series closely on the original novels; writing that the third season "is a masterclass in how to build a faithful adaptation, and how to see it to the end gracefully." Similarly, Petrana Radulovic praised the series for its faithfulness to the source material and for "balancing absurd humor with deeper questions of morality."  Rohan Naahar of the "Hindustan Times" awarded the season 4/5 stars, writing "that Netflix's most lavish and underrated original ends on a satisfying note." He praised Neil Patrick Harris' performance as Count Olaf as the "performance of a lifetime." Naahar also praised Patrick Warburton for his role as the "fourth wall-breaking" narrator Lemony Snicket. Akhil Arora of NDTV gave the season finale a mixed review, criticizing the show's adherence to the original novels and what he regarded as the ludicrous nature of the earlier episodes' adventures. However, he praised the series' latter episodes for exploring deeper themes such as morality, the blurred lines between nobility and wickedness, and moral gray areas.  Gabriel Bergmoser of Den of Geek UK praised the series as a "rare adaptation that complements, respects, and gently reconfigures its source material." However, he opined that the series' happy ending in contrast to the ambiguous ending in the novels would create contention among fans. Ryan Grow of the "San Diego Entertainer Magazine" described the third season as the "best and most exciting in the series", awarding it 4.5 out of five stars. He praised the richly-layered characters for enabling the main cast to deliver "emotionally believable performances."

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, or simply A Series of Unfortunate Events, is an American black comedy-drama web television series from Netflix, developed by Mark Hudis and Barry Sonnenfeld, based on Lemony Snicket’s children's novel series of the same name. It stars Neil Patrick Harris, Patrick Warburton, Malina Weissman, Louis Hynes, K. Todd Freeman, and Presley Smith; Lucy Punch, Avi Lake, and Dylan Kingwell join the cast in the second season.

Řada nešťastných příhod (v anglickém originále Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, zkráceně A Series of Unfortunate Events) je černohumorný komediálně-dramatický seriál americké webové televizní společnosti Netflix. Autoři Mark Hudis a Barry Sonnenfeld jej vytvořili na základě stejnojmenné řady dětských knih amerického spisovatele Daniela Handlera alias Lemonyho Snicketa, která popisuje nešťastný osud sourozenců Violet, Klause a Sunny Baudelairových. Seriál se dočkal 25 dílů rozdělených do tří řad, které byly zveřejněny v letech 2017–2019.


Definition and notation.

Given a set "V" define and define recursively the set  If "V" is a formal language, then "V", the "i"-th power of the set "V", is a shorthand for the concatenation of set "V" with itself "i" times. That is, "V" can be understood to be the set of all strings that can be represented as the concatenation of "i" strings in "V".  The definition of Kleene star on "V" is  Notice that the Kleene star operator is an idempotent unary operator: ("V") = "V" for any set "V" of strings or characters.

Kleene plus.

In some formal language studies, (e.g. AFL theory) a variation on the Kleene star operation called the "Kleene plus" is used. The Kleene plus omits the "V" term in the above union. In other words, the Kleene plus on "V" is  For every set "L", the Kleene plus of "L" (denoted "L") equals the concatenation of "L" with "L"; this holds because every element of "L" must either be composed from one element of "L" and finitely many non-empty terms in "L" or is just an element of "L" (where "L" itself is retrieved by taking "L" concatenated with ε). Conversely, "L" = {ε} ∪ "L".

Examples.

Example of Kleene star applied to set of strings:  Example of Kleene plus applied to set of characters: Kleene star applied to the same character set:  Example of Kleene star applied to the empty set:  Example of Kleene plus applied to the empty set: where concatenation is an associative and noncommutative product, sharing these properties with the Cartesian product of sets.  Example of Kleene plus and Kleene star applied to the singleton set containing the empty string:

Generalization.

Strings form a monoid with concatenation as the binary operation and ε the identity element. The Kleene star is defined for any monoid, not just strings. More precisely, let ("M", ⋅) be a monoid, and "S" ⊆ "M". Then "S" is the smallest submonoid of "M" containing "S"; that is, "S" contains the neutral element of "M", the set "S", and is such that if "x","y" ∈ "S", then "x"⋅"y" ∈ "S".  Furthermore, the Kleene star is generalized by including the *-operation (and the union) in the algebraic structure itself by the notion of complete star semiring.

In mathematical logic and computer science, the Kleene star (or Kleene operator or Kleene closure) is a unary operation, either on sets of strings or on sets of symbols or characters. In mathematics it is more commonly known as the free monoid construction. The application of the Kleene star to a set "V" is written as "V". It is widely used for regular expressions, which is the context in which it was introduced by Stephen Kleene to characterize certain automata, where it means "zero or more".

Kleeneho hvězdička, Kleeneho operátor, Kleeneho uzávěr je unární operátor používaný v různých odvětvích matematické logiky a matematické informatiky, který lze aplikovat na symbol, část regulárního výrazu nebo na množinu symbolů či řetězců. V matematice se používá pro konstrukci volných monoidů. Aplikace Kleeneho operátoru na množinu "V" se zapisuje "V". Nejčastěji se používá v regulárních výrazech, což je kontext, ve kterém tento operátor zavedl Stephen Cole Kleene pro charakterizaci určitých automatů, kde se používá ve významu „nula nebo více výskytů“ nebo (nepřesně) „nula nebo více opakování“.