Ancient and medieval history.

Recent archeological discoveries at Bura in southwest Niger and in adjacent southwest Burkina Faso have documented the existence of the iron-age Bura culture from the 3rd century to the 13th century. The Bura-Asinda system of settlements apparently covered the lower Niger River valley, including the Boura region of Burkina Faso. Further research is needed to understand the role this early civilization played in the ancient and medieval history of West Africa.  Loropéni is a pre-European stone ruin which was linked to the gold trade. It has been declared as Burkina Faso's first World Heritage site.  From medieval times until the end of the 19th century, the region of Burkina Faso was ruled by the empire-building Mossi people, who are believed to have come up to their present location from northern Ghana, where the ethnically-related Dagomba people still live. For several centuries, Mossi peasants were both farmers and soldiers. During this time the Mossi Kingdoms successfully defended their territory, religious beliefs and social structure against forcible attempts at conquest and conversion by their Muslim neighbors to the northwest.

French Upper Volta.

When the French troops of Kimberly arrived and claimed the area in 1896, Mossi resistance ended with the capture of their capital at Ouagadougou. In 1919, certain provinces from Ivory Coast were united into French Upper Volta in the French West Africa federation. In 1932, the new colony was split up for economic reasons; it was reconstituted in 1937 as an administrative division called the Upper Coast. After World War II, the Mossi actively pressured the French for separate territorial status and on September 4, 1947, Upper Volta became a French West African territory again in its own right.  A revision in the organization of French Overseas Territories began with the passage of the Basic Law (Loi Cadre) of July 23, 1956. This act was followed by reorganizational measures approved by the French parliament early in 1957 that ensured a large degree of self-government for individual territories. Upper Volta became an autonomous republic in the French community on December 11, 1958. On July 11, 1960 France agreed to Upper Volta becoming fully independent.

Republic of Upper Volta.

The Republic of Upper Volta declared independence on 5 August 1960. The first president, Maurice Yaméogo, was the leader of the Voltaic Democratic Union (UDV). The 1960 constitution provided for election by universal suffrage of a president and a national assembly for 5-year terms. Soon after coming to power, Yaméogo banned all political parties other than the UDV. Yaméogo's government was viewed as corrupt and said to perpetuate neo-colonialism by favoring French political and economic interests which had allowed politicians to enrich themselves but not the nation's peasants or small class of urban workers.  The government lasted until 1966 when - after much unrest including mass demonstrations and strikes by students, labor unions, and civil servants - the military intervened and deposed Yaméogo in the 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état. The coup leaders suspended the constitution, dissolved the National Assembly, and placed Lieutenant Colonel Sangoulé Lamizana at the head of a government of senior army officers. The army remained in power for 4 years; on June 14, 1970, the Voltans ratified a new constitution that established a 4-year transition period toward complete civilian rule. Lamizana remained in power throughout the 1970s as president of military or mixed civil-military governments. He faced a major crisis in the form of the Sahel drought and was sent in 1973 to the UN and the US in order to secure aid. After conflict over the 1970 constitution, a new constitution was written and approved in 1977, and Lamizana was reelected by open elections in 1978.  Lamizana's government faced problems with the country's traditionally powerful trade unions and on November 25, 1980, Colonel Saye Zerbo overthrew President Lamizana in a bloodless coup. Colonel Zerbo established the Military Committee of Recovery for National Progress as the supreme governmental authority, thus eradicating the 1977 constitution.  Colonel Zerbo also encountered resistance from trade unions and was overthrown two years later on November 7, 1982, by Major Dr. Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo and the Council of Popular Salvation (CSP). The CSP continued to ban political parties and organizations, yet promised a transition to civilian rule and a new constitution.  Infighting developed between the right and left factions of the CSP. The leader of the leftists, Capt. Thomas Sankara, was appointed prime minister in January 1983, but subsequently arrested. Efforts to free him, directed by Capt. Blaise Compaoré, resulted in a military coup d'état on 4 August 1983.  The coup brought Sankara to power and his government began to implement a series of revolutionary programs which included mass-vaccinations, infrastructure improvements, the expansion of women's rights, encouragement of domestic agricultural consumption and anti-desertification projects.

Burkina Faso.

On 4 August 1984, on President Sankara's initiative, the country's name was changed from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso ("land of the upright/honest people").  Sankara's government formed the National Council for the Revolution (CNR), with Sankara as its president, and established popular Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs). The Pioneers of the Revolution youth programme was also established.  Sankara launched an ambitious socioeconomic programme for change, one of the largest ever undertaken on the African continent. His foreign policies were centred on anti-imperialism, his government denying all foreign aid, pushing for odious debt reduction, nationalising all land and mineral wealth and averting the power and influence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. His domestic policies included a nationwide literacy campaign, land redistribution to peasants, railway and road construction and the outlawing of female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy.  Sankara pushed for agrarian self-sufficiency and promoted public health by vaccinating 2,500,000 children against meningitis, yellow fever, and measles. His national agenda also included planting over 10,000,000 trees to halt the growing desertification of the Sahel. Sankara called on every village to build a medical dispensary and had over 350 communities build schools with their own labour.

Five-day War with Mali.

On Christmas Day 1985, tensions with Mali over the mineral-rich Agacher Strip erupted in a war that lasted five days and killed about 100 people. The conflict ended after mediation by President Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Ivory Coast. The conflict is known as the "Christmas war" in Burkina Faso.  Many of the strict austerity measures taken by Sankara met with growing resistance and disagreement. Despite his initial popularity and personal charisma, problems began to surface in the implementation of the revolutionary ideals.

Rule of Blaise Compaoré.

The CDRs, which were formed as popular mass organizations, deteriorated in some areas into gangs of armed thugs and clashed with several trade unions. Tensions over the repressive tactics of the government and its overall direction mounted steadily. On October 15, 1987, Sankara was assassinated in a coup which brought Captain Blaise Compaoré to power. Compaoré, Captain Henri Zongo, and Major Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lengani formed the Popular Front (FP), which pledged to continue and pursue the goals of the revolution and to "rectify" Sankara's "deviations" from the original aims. The new government, realizing the need for bourgeois support, tacitly moderated many of Sankara's policies. As part of a much-discussed political "opening" process, several political organizations, three of them non-Marxist, were accepted under an umbrella political organization created in June 1989 by the FP.  Some members of the leftist Organisation pour la Démocratie Populaire/Mouvement du Travail (ODP/MT) were against the admission of non-Marxist groups in the front. On September 18, 1989, while Compaoré was returning from a two-week trip to Asia, Lengani and Zongo were accused of plotting to overthrow the Popular Front. They were arrested and summarily executed the same night. Compaoré reorganized the government, appointed several new ministers, and assumed the portfolio of Minister of Defense and Security. On December 23, 1989, a presidential security detail arrested about 30 civilians and military personnel accused of plotting a coup in collaboration with the Burkinabe external opposition.  A new constitution, establishing the fourth republic, was adopted on June 2, 1991. Among other provisions, it called for an Assembly of People's Deputies with 107 seats (now 111). The president is chief of state, chairs a council of ministers, appoints a prime minister, who with the legislature's consent, serves as head of government. In April 2000, the constitution was amended reducing the presidential term from seven to five years, enforceable as of 2005, and allowing the president to be reelected only once. The legislative branch is a unicameral National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) consisting of 111 seats. Members are elected by popular vote for five-year terms.  In April 2005, President Compaoré was re–elected for a third straight term. He won 80.3% of the vote, while Benewende Stanislas Sankara came a distant second with a mere 4.9%. In November 2010, President Compaoré was re–elected for a fourth straight term. He won 80.2% of the vote, while Hama Arba Diallo came a distant second with 8.2%.  In February 2011, the death of a schoolboy provoked an uprising in the entire country, lasting through April 2011, which was coupled with a military mutiny and with a strike of the magistrates. See.

Overthrow of Compaoré.

In June 2014 Compaoré's ruling party, the CDP, called on him to organise a referendum that would allow him to alter the constitution in order to seek re-election in 2015; otherwise he would be forced to step down due to term limits.  On 30 October 2014 the National Assembly was scheduled to debate an amendment to the constitution which would have enabled Compaoré to stand for re-election as President in 2015. Opponents protested this by storming the parliament building in Ouagadougou, starting fires inside it and looting offices; billowing smoke was reported to be coming from the building by the BBC. Opposition spokesman Pargui Emile Paré, of the People's Movement for Socialism / Federal Party, described the protests as "Burkina Faso’s black spring, like the Arab spring".  Compaoré reacted to the events by shelving the proposed constitutional changes, dissolving the government, declaring a state of emergency and offering to work with the opposition to resolve the crisis. Later in the day, the military, under General Honore Traore, announced that it would install a transitional government "in consultation with all parties" and that the National Assembly was dissolved; he foresaw "a return to the constitutional order" within a year. He did not make clear what role, if any, he envisioned for Compaoré during the transitional period. Compaoré said that he was prepared to leave office at the end of the transition.  On October 31 Compaoré announced he had left the presidency and that there was a "power vacuum"; he also called for a "free and transparent" election within 90 days. Yacouba Isaac Zida then took over the reins as head of state in an interim capacity.  On 17 November 2014, a civilian, Michel Kafando, was chosen to replace Zida as transitional head of state, and he was sworn in on 18 November. Kafando then appointed Zida as Prime Minister of Burkina Faso on 19 November 2014.  On 19 July 2015, amidst tensions between the military and Prime Minister Zida, Kafando stripped Zida of the defense portfolio and took over the portfolio himself. He also took over the security portfolio, previously held by Zida's ally Auguste Denise Barry. As part of the same reshuffle, he appointed Moussa Nébié to replace himself as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

September 2015 failed coup d'état.

On 16 September 2015, two days after a recommendation from the National Reconciliation and Reforms Commission to disband the Regiment of Presidential Security (RSP), members of the RSP detained President Kafando and Prime Minister Zida, and installed the National Council for Democracy in power with Gilbert Diendéré as its chairman.  The military chief of staff (the "chef d'état-major des armées du Burkina Faso"), Brigadier General Pingrenoma Zagré, called on members of the RSP to lay down their arms, promising in a statement that they would not be harmed if they surrendered peacefully.  Kafando was believed to remain under house arrest until 21 September, when he was reported to have arrived at the residence of the French ambassador. The regular army issued an ultimatum to the RSP to surrender by the morning of 22 September.  Kafando was reinstalled as President at a ceremony on 23 September in the presence of ECOWAS leaders.  On 25 September the RSP was disbanded by government decree. On 26 September the assets of Diendéré and others associated with the coup, as well as the assets of four political parties, including the CDP, were frozen by the state prosecutor. Djibril Bassolé and Eddie Komboïgo, who were barred from standing as presidential candidates, both had their assets frozen. Bassolé was arrested on 29 September for allegedly supporting the coup.

2015 general election.

On 13 October 2015 it was announced that general elections would be held on 29 November 2015. The Congress for Democracy and Progress was banned from running a presidential candidate, but was still able to participate in the parliamentary election.  The presidential election was won by Roch Marc Christian Kaboré of the People's Movement for Progress (MPP), who received 53% of the vote in the first round, negating the need for a second round. The parliamentary election was also won by MPP, which scored 34,71% of votes and won 55 seats in the National Assembly, followed by the Union of Progress and Reform (20,53%, 33 seats) and the Congress for Democracy and Progress (13,20%, 18 seats).  Kaboré was sworn in as President on 29 December 2015. On 7 January 2016 he appointed Paul Kaba Thieba as Prime Minister.

2018 status.

The 2018 CIA "World Factbook" provides this updated summary. "Burkina Faso is a poor, landlocked country that depends on adequate rainfall. Irregular patterns of rainfall, poor soil, and the lack of adequate communications and other infrastructure contribute to the economy’s vulnerability to external shocks. About 80% of the population is engaged in subsistence farming and cotton is the main cash crop. The country has few natural resources and a weak industrial base. Cotton and gold are Burkina Faso’s key exports...The country has seen an upswing in gold exploration, production, and exports."  "While the end of the political crisis has allowed Burkina Faso’s economy to resume positive growth, the country’s fragile security situation could put these gains at risk. Political insecurity in neighboring Mali, unreliable energy supplies, and poor transportation links pose long-term challenges." Civil unrest continued to be problematic, according to the report. "The country experienced terrorist attacks in its capital in 2016, 2017, and 2018 and continues to mobilize resources to counter terrorist threats." (In 2018, several governments were warning their citizens not to travel into the northern part of the country and into several provinces in the East Region.) The CIA report also states that "Burkina Faso's high population growth, recurring drought, pervasive and perennial food insecurity, and limited natural resources result in poor economic prospects for the majority of its citizens". The report is optimistic in some aspects, particularly the work being done with assistance by the International Monetary Fund. "A new three-year IMF program (2018-2020), approved in 2018, will allow the government to reduce the budget deficit and preserve critical spending on social services and priority public investments."

The history of Burkina Faso includes the history of various kingdoms within the country, such as the Mossi kingdoms, as well as the later French colonisation of the territory and its independence as the Republic of Upper Volta in 1960.

Cet article couvre l'histoire du territoire du Burkina Faso depuis le néolithique, pour la zone géographique incluse en 1960 dans ce qui a été appelé à l'époque la République de Haute-Volta avant d'être renommé, en 1984, Burkina Faso.


Early life.

Dolorez Alexandria Turner was born on August 14, 1929, in Chicago, Illinois. Growing up she began singing gospel music in church choirs and traveled throughout the Midwest with a traveling Baptist "a cappella" group. Later, when she entered the Chicago club circuit, she became a regular performer at venues like the Brass Rail and the Cloister Inn. In Chicago, Alexandria became a local favorite and recorded for the first time for several independent local labels, most notably King Records, and later Argo Records. During this early part of her career, she was closely connected with the Chicago pianist, composer and bandleader Walter "King" Fleming who would go on to provide the accompaniment for her debut album "This is Lorez".

Career.

King records.

In 1957, Alexandria was signed to King Records. That year she released her first album "This is Lorez" with the King Fleming Quartet, followed by "Lorez Sings Pres: A Tribute to Lester Young", which was an homage to the legendary tenor saxophonist. Her second album was received quite well and achieved widespread popularity. Featured on the LP were trumpet players Paul Serrano and Cy Touff, with King Fleming providing the accompaniment. The album featured a number of tunes from the songbook of Billie Holiday, a close friend of Lester Young. On the track "No Eyes Blues" Alexandria effortlessly scats with the ease of Ella Fitzgerald, as Serrano and Touff jump in to accent her rich melodic line.  She recorded two more albums for King Records in 1959, releasing the LPs "The Band Swings – Lorez Sings" and "Sing Songs That Everyone Knows" back to back. On "The Band Swings", Alexandria played with a full orchestra for the first time, and vocally engages the listener by swinging, scatting, and paraphrasing, reminiscent to some of the timbre achieved by Sarah Vaughan and Carmen McRae.

Argo records.

Alexandria went on to collaborate with pianist Ramsey Lewis, with whom she had played as far back as 1958, and some of Count Basie's sidemen, releasing the LP "Early in the Morning" on Argo in 1960. On the title track, she proves her comfort with the blues, backed up by a rhythm section that creates just enough space for her to fill alongside explosions of blue notes by Lewis on the piano.  She produced three more LPs on the label – including "Sing No Sad Songs for Me" in 1961 which featured a full string section, and "Deep Roots" in 1962, which featured trumpeter Howard McGhee. Her last album for Argo, and the last album that she made in Chicago, "For Swingers Only", came out in 1963 before she left the midwest for California.

Impulse! Records.

Impulse!, a jazz label and subsidiary of ABC-Paramount Records, was established in 1960 in Santa Monica, California, by producer Creed Taylor. John Coltrane was among the first artists signed to the label, which in retrospect came to be known as "the house that Trane built." In 1964 Alexandria moved to Los Angeles in pursuit of further opportunities to perform in clubs and record, quickly becoming a featured vocalist at popular venues that included the Parisian Room and Marla's Memory Lane. Getting signed to Impulse! Records was anticipated to be her jump onto the national stage after seven years of working with independent labels at King and Argo.  Alexandria's 1964 album "Alexandria the Great", her first on Impulse!, was produced by Bob Thiele, known for his work with John Coltrane. Wynton Kelly joined her on piano, with Paul Horn and Bud Shank alternating on flute, Victor Feldman on vibraphone, Ray Crawford on guitar, Paul Chambers on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums. Chambers and Cobb had stuck together in the same rhythm section since playing with Miles Davis on his classic 1959 album "Kind of Blue". Her rhythmic and melodic interpretation of lyric on "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" redefined the texture of the composition and reflected her ability to make well known songs her own.  Her second album on Impulse!, "More of the Great Lorez Alexandria", was released later in 1964 and produced by Tutti Camarata. Shortly thereafter, though, her relationship with the label ended in the midst of a decision by the headquarters of ABC Records that vocal music should be housed on the pop side of the company.

Musical style.

In the liner notes of "Alexandria the Great" she wrote: "My grandmother on my mother's side was a minister, my grandmother on my father's side was a minister, and my mother's sister is married to a Methodist minister so this influence is very strong. Everyone in my family sings." In the mid 1960s while being interviewed for a piece in the jazz magazine "Down Beat", she said that:"I tried actually to divorce myself from singing with religious overtones or aspects...Maybe it's because I had this kind of background. The Gospelizing or use of so-called "soul" singing – that sort of thing – has become very large in the business. [But] I'm not a shouter and I'm not a Gospel singer. I wasn't a Gospel singer when I was singing in the church. I can't yell; I can't do this other thing. But I was effective... Anybody can sing spiritually without being labeled a Gospel singer."  When asked what made her singing style unique, she once said "my feeling for a lyric, I'm a storyteller and I try to have excellent diction so you don't have to guess what I'm saying. Some people listen to a song for years and don't know what the lyric is." In 1965 while listening to "Violets For Your Furs" by Billie Holiday, Alexandria said:"There's not too much left to say about Billie Holiday, how is it possible for a woman to be this great? This comes from a period when she wasn't supposed to be singing too well but I've never heard anything by her that I didn't realize what she was feeling which is very important regardless of the shape of the pipes or what may be happening. She always got the message across. She never failed."

Later recordings.

Beginning in 1978 and continuing until 1993, Alexandria resumed recording, releasing several albums with a number of record labels, including Discovery, Trend and Muse. Between 1980 and 1984, she released a three volume tribute to the composer Johnny Mercer, "Sings the Songs of Johnny Mercer, Vol. 1", "Vol. 2: Harlem Butterfly", and "Vol. 3: Tangerine". On "Harlem Butterfly", Alexandria was backed up by Los Angeles pianist Gildo Mahones and his quartet that featured Herman Riley on saxophone, Andy Simpkins on bass, and Carl Burnett on drums. On "Tangerine" she was supported by the Mike Wofford Quartet.  Gordon Brisker, the tenor saxophonist, contributed many of the arrangements for Alexandria's 1987 album "Dear to My Heart", released by Trend Records. On this record, Alexandria displayed that she still had the ability to re-imagine well known standards. "I'll Never Stop Loving You", her second album released on Muse Records in spring 1992 featured Herman Riley on tenor saxophone and flute and pianist Gildo Mahones, with whom she had collaborated in 1984. On her last album, "Star Eyes", released in June 1993, Alexandria was joined by tenor saxophonist Houston Person, guitarist Bruce Forman, pianist Stan Hope, bassist Peter Weiss and drummer Michael Carvin.  Shortly after "Star Eyes" was released, she suffered a stroke and never fully recovered. After retiring in Gardena, California, she told a friend: "I'm tired – I've had my day." In 1989, Impulse! reissued "Alexandria the Great" and "More of the Great Lorez Alexandria" on a single CD. Between 2004 and 2005, Verve Records also re-released both records separately.  In 2001, at the age of 74, Alexandria died, remembered by some as one of the most under-appreciated jazz vocalists of the 20th century.  On June 25, 2019, "The New York Times Magazine" listed Lorez Alexandria among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

Lorez Alexandria, born Dolorez Alexandria Turner (August 14, 1929 – May 22, 2001) was an American jazz and gospel singer, described as "one of the most gifted and underrated jazz singers of the twentieth century". She became established in the midwest before moving to Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. Jazz critics have compared her to Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, and Ella Fitzgerald.

Lorez Alexandria (Dolorez Turner) est une chanteuse américaine, née à Chicago (Illinois) le, morte le à Gardena, en Californie.


Overview.

Greek skepticism, as a distinct school, began with Pyrrho of Elis (c. 360 BC-c. 270 BC), with antecedents in Xenophanes and Democritus. His followers, the Pyrrhonists, pointed out the problem of the criterion: that our theories and our sense impressions were unable to accurately distinguish truth from falsehood; therefore we must suspend judgment ("epoche"). They were consistent enough to extend their doubt even to their own principle of doubt, making their skepticism universal, thus escaping reproach for basing it upon a fresh dogmatism. Mental imperturbability ("ataraxia") was the result to be attained by cultivating such a frame of mind.  Around 266 BC, Arcesilaus became head of the Platonic Academy, and adopted skepticism as a central tenet of Platonism, making Platonism nearly the same as Pyrrhonism. After Arcesilaus, Academic Skepticism diverged from Pyrrhonism. This skeptical period of ancient Platonism, from Arcesilaus to Philo of Larissa, became known as the New Academy, although some ancient authors added further subdivisions, such as a Middle Academy.  The Academic Skeptics did not doubt the existence of truth; they just doubted that humans had the capacities for obtaining it. They based this position on Plato's "Phaedo", sections 64-67, in which Socrates discusses how knowledge is not accessible to mortals.  While the objective of the Pyrrhonists was the attainment of ataraxia, after Arcesilaus the Academic Skeptics did not hold up ataraxia as the central objective. The Academic Skeptics focused on criticizing the dogmas of other schools of philosophy, in particular of the dogmatism of the Stoics. They acknowledged some vestiges of a moral law within, at best but a plausible guide, the possession of which, however, formed the real distinction between the sage and the fool. Slight as the difference may appear between the positions of the Academic Skeptics and the Pyrrhonists, a comparison of their lives leads to the conclusion that a practical philosophical moderation was the characteristic of the Academic Skeptics whereas the objectives of the Pyrrhonists were more psychological.

Arcesilaus.

Up to Arcesilaus, the Platonic Academy accepted the principle of finding a general unity in all things, by the aid of which a principle of certainty might be found. Arcesilaus, however, broke new ground by attacking the very possibility of certainty. Socrates had said, "This alone I know: that I know nothing." But Arcesilaus went further and denied the possibility of even the Socratic minimum of certainty: "I cannot know even whether I know or not."  The doctrines of Arcesilaus, which must be gathered from the writings of others, represent an attack on the Stoic "phantasia kataleptike" (Criterion) and are based on the skepticism which was latent in the later writings of Plato. Arcesilaus held that strength of intellectual conviction cannot be regarded as valid, inasmuch as it is characteristic equally of contradictory convictions. The uncertainty of sense data applies equally to the conclusions of reason, and therefore man must be content with probability which is sufficient as a practical guide. "We know nothing, not even our ignorance"; therefore the wise man will be content with an agnostic attitude.

Carneades.

The next stage in Academic skepticism was the moderate skepticism of Carneades, which he said owed its existence to his opposition to Chrysippus, the Stoic. Carneades is the most important of the Academic skeptics.  To the Stoic theory of perception, the "phantasia kataleptike", by which they expressed a conviction of certainty arising from impressions so strong as to amount to science, he proposed the doctrine of "acatalepsia", which denied any necessary correspondence between perceptions and the objects perceived. All our sensations are relative, and acquaint us, not with things as they are, but only with the impressions that things produce upon us. Experience, he said, clearly shows that there is no true impression. There is no notion that may not deceive us; it is impossible to distinguish between false and true impressions; therefore the Stoic "phantasia kataleptike" must be given up. There is no phantasia kataleptike ("Criterion") of truth. Carneades also assailed Stoic theology and physics. In answer to the doctrine of final cause, of design in nature, he pointed to those things which cause destruction and danger to man, to the evil committed by men endowed with reason, to the miserable condition of humanity, and to the misfortunes that assail the good man. There is, he concluded, no evidence for the doctrine of a divine superintending providence. Even if there were orderly connexion of parts in the universe, this may have resulted quite naturally. No proof can be advanced to show that this world is anything but the product of natural forces.  Knowledge being impossible, a wise man should practice "epoche" (suspension of judgment). He will not even be sure that he can be sure of nothing. He saved himself, however, from absolute skepticism by the doctrine of plausibility, which may serve as a practical guide in life. Ideas or notions are never true, but only plausible; nevertheless, there are degrees of plausibility, and hence degrees of belief, leading to action. According to Carneades, an impression may be plausible in itself; plausible and uncontradicted (not distracted by synchronous sensations, but shown to be in harmony with them) when compared with others; plausible, uncontradicted, and thoroughly investigated and confirmed. In the first degree there is a strong persuasion of the propriety of the impression made; the second and third degrees are produced by comparisons of the impression with others associated with it, and an analysis of itself. Carneades left no written works; his opinions seem to have been systematized by his pupil Clitomachus, whose works, which included one "on suspension of judgment," were made use of by Cicero.

Philo of Larissa.

In Philo of Larissa we find a tendency not only to reconcile the internal divergences of the Academy itself, but also to connect it with parallel systems of thought. In general, his philosophy was a reaction against the skeptic or agnostic position of the Middle and New Academy in favour of the dogmatism of Plato. Philo of Larissa endeavoured to show that Carneades was not opposed to Plato, and further that the apparent antagonism between Platonism and Stoicism was because they were arguing from different points of view. From this syncretism emerged the eclectic Middle Platonism of Antiochus of Ascalon, the last product of Academic development.

Academic skepticism refers to the skeptical period of ancient Platonism dating from around 266 BC, when Arcesilaus became head of the Platonic Academy, until around 90 BC, when Antiochus of Ascalon rejected skepticism, although individual philosophers, such as Favorinus and his teacher Plutarch continued to defend Academic skepticism after this date. Unlike the existing school of skepticism, the Pyrrhonists, they maintained that knowledge of things is impossible. Ideas or notions are never true; nevertheless, there are degrees of probability, and hence degrees of belief, which allow one to act. The school was characterized by its attacks on the Stoics, particularly the Stoic dogma that convincing impressions led to true knowledge. The most important Academic skeptics were Arcesilaus, Carneades, and Philo of Larissa. The most extensive ancient source of information about Academic skepticism is "Academica," written by the Academic skeptic philosopher, Cicero.

La Nouvelle Académie désigne le renouveau de l'Académie de Platon entrepris à partir de 273 av. J.-C. sous la direction d'Arcésilas de Pitane et de ses successeurs.


History.

The basic idea also appears before Mach's time, in the writings of George Berkeley. The book "Absolute or Relative Motion?" (1896) by Benedict Friedländer and his brother Immanuel contained ideas similar to Mach's principle.

Einstein's use of the principle.

There is a fundamental issue in relativity theory. If all motion is relative, how can we measure the inertia of a body? We must measure the inertia with respect to something else. But what if we imagine a particle completely on its own in the universe? We might hope to still have some notion of its state of motion. Mach's principle is sometimes interpreted as the statement that such a particle's state of motion has no meaning in that case.  In Mach's words, the principle is embodied as follows:  Albert Einstein seemed to view Mach's principle as something along the lines of:  In this sense, at least some of Mach's principles are related to philosophical holism. Mach's suggestion can be taken as the injunction that gravitation theories should be relational theories. Einstein brought the principle into mainstream physics while working on general relativity. Indeed, it was Einstein who first coined the phrase "Mach's principle". There is much debate as to whether Mach really intended to suggest a new physical law since he never states it explicitly.  The writing in which Einstein found inspiration from Mach was "The Science of Mechanics", where the philosopher criticized Newton's idea of absolute space, in particular the argument that Newton gave sustaining the existence of an advantaged reference system: what is commonly called "Newton's bucket argument".  In his "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica", Newton tried to demonstrate that one can always decide if one is rotating with respect to the absolute space, measuring the apparent forces that arise only when an absolute rotation is performed. If a bucket is filled with water, and made to rotate, initially the water remains still, but then, gradually, the walls of the vessel communicate their motion to the water, making it curve and climb up the borders of the bucket, because of the centrifugal forces produced by the rotation. This thought experiment demonstrates that the centrifugal forces arise only when the water is in rotation with respect to the absolute space (represented here by the earth's reference frame, or better, the distant stars) instead, when the bucket was rotating with respect to the water no centrifugal forces were produced, this indicating that the latter was still with respect to the absolute space.  Mach, in his book, says that the bucket experiment only demonstrates that when the water is in rotation with respect to the bucket no centrifugal forces are produced, and that we cannot know how the water would behave if in the experiment the bucket's walls were increased in depth and width until they became leagues big. In Mach's idea this concept of absolute motion should be substituted with a total relativism in which every motion, uniform or accelerated, has sense only in reference to other bodies ("i.e.", one cannot simply say that the water is rotating, but must specify if it's rotating with respect to the vessel or to the earth). In this view, the apparent forces that seem to permit discrimination between relative and "absolute" motions should only be considered as an effect of the particular asymmetry that there is in our reference system between the bodies which we consider in motion, that are small (like buckets), and the bodies that we believe are still (the earth and distant stars), that are overwhelmingly bigger and heavier than the former.  This same thought had been expressed by the philosopher George Berkeley in his "De Motu". It is then not clear, in the passages from Mach just mentioned, if the philosopher intended to formulate a new kind of physical action between heavy bodies. This physical mechanism should determine the inertia of bodies, in a way that the heavy and distant bodies of our universe should contribute the most to the inertial forces. More likely, Mach only suggested a mere "redescription of motion in space as experiences that do not invoke the term "space"". What is certain is that Einstein interpreted Mach's passage in the former way, originating a long-lasting debate.  Most physicists believe Mach's principle was never developed into a quantitative physical theory that would explain a mechanism by which the stars can have such an effect. It was never made clear by Mach himself exactly what his principle was. Although Einstein was intrigued and inspired by Mach's principle, Einstein's formulation of the principle is not a fundamental assumption of general relativity.

Mach's principle in general relativity.

Because intuitive notions of distance and time no longer apply, what exactly is meant by "Mach's principle" in general relativity is even less clear than in Newtonian physics and at least 21 formulations of Mach's principle are possible, some being considered more strongly Machian than others. A relatively weak formulation is the assertion that the motion of matter in one place should affect which frames are inertial in another.  Einstein, before completing his development of the general theory of relativity, found an effect which he interpreted as being evidence of Mach's principle. We assume a fixed background for conceptual simplicity, construct a large spherical shell of mass, and set it spinning in that background. The reference frame in the interior of this shell will precess with respect to the fixed background. This effect is known as the Lense–Thirring effect. Einstein was so satisfied with this manifestation of Mach's principle that he wrote a letter to Mach expressing this: The Lense–Thirring effect certainly satisfies the very basic and broad notion that "matter there influences inertia here". The plane of the pendulum would not be dragged around if the shell of matter were not present, or if it were not spinning. As for the statement that "inertia originates in a kind of interaction between bodies", this too could be interpreted as true in the context of the effect.  More fundamental to the problem, however, is the very existence of a fixed background, which Einstein describes as "the fixed stars". Modern relativists see the imprints of Mach's principle in the initial-value problem. Essentially, we humans seem to wish to separate spacetime into slices of constant time. When we do this, Einstein's equations can be decomposed into one set of equations, which must be satisfied on each slice, and another set, which describe how to move between slices. The equations for an individual slice are elliptic partial differential equations. In general, this means that only part of the geometry of the slice can be given by the scientist, while the geometry everywhere else will then be dictated by Einstein's equations on the slice.  In the context of an asymptotically flat spacetime, the boundary conditions are given at infinity. Heuristically, the boundary conditions for an asymptotically flat universe define a frame with respect to which inertia has meaning. By performing a Lorentz transformation on the distant universe, of course, this inertia can also be transformed.  A stronger form of Mach's principle applies in Wheeler–Mach–Einstein spacetimes, which require spacetime to be spatially compact and globally hyperbolic. In such universes Mach's principle can be stated as "the distribution of matter and field energy-momentum (and possibly other information) at a particular moment in the universe determines the inertial frame at each point in the universe" (where "a particular moment in the universe" refers to a chosen Cauchy surface).  There have been other attempts to formulate a theory that is more fully Machian, such as the Brans–Dicke theory and the Hoyle–Narlikar theory of gravity, but most physicists argue that none have been fully successful. At an exit poll of experts, held in Tübingen in 1993, when asked the question "Is general relativity perfectly Machian?", 3 respondents replied "yes", and 22 replied "no". To the question "Is general relativity with appropriate boundary conditions of closure of some kind very Machian?" the result was 14 "yes" and 7 "no".  However, Einstein was convinced that a valid theory of gravity would necessarily have to include the relativity of inertia:

Inertial Induction.

In 1953, in order to express Mach's Principle in quantitative terms, the Cambridge University physicist Dennis W. Sciama proposed the addition of an acceleration dependent term to the Newtonian gravitation equation. Sciama's acceleration dependent term was formula_1 where "r" is the distance between the particles, "G" is the gravitational constant, a is the relative acceleration and "c" represents the speed of light in vacuum. Sciama referred to the effect of the acceleration dependent term as Inertial Induction.  In 1984 Amitabha Ghosh proposed adding a velocity dependent term to the static Newtonian term and Sciama's acceleration dependent term. The name he applied to the effect was Velocity Dependent Inertial Induction.

Variations in the statement of the principle.

The broad notion that "mass there influences inertia here" has been expressed in several forms. Hermann Bondi and Joseph Samuel have listed eleven distinct statements that can be called Mach principles, labelled "Mach0" through "Mach10". Though their list is not necessarily exhaustive, it does give a flavor for the variety possible.

In theoretical physics, particularly in discussions of, Mach's principle (or Mach's conjecture) is the name given by Einstein to an imprecise hypothesis often credited to the physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach. The purpose of the hypothesis was to attempt to explain how rotating objects maintain a frame of reference, such as gyroscopes and spinning celestial bodies. The idea is that the existence of absolute rotation (the distinction of local inertial frames vs. rotating reference frames) is determined by the large-scale distribution of matter, as exemplified by this anecdote:

En physique théorique, le principe de Mach est une conjecture selon laquelle l'inertie des objets matériels serait induite par « l'ensemble des autres masses présentes dans l'univers », par une interaction non spécifiée. Ce principe a été forgé par le physicien Ernst Mach par extension du principe de relativité aux questions d'inertie : pour Mach, parler d'accélération ou de rotation par rapport à un espace absolu n'a aucun sens, et il vaut mieux parler d'accélération par rapport à des masses lointaines. Ce principe est immédiatement tiré des expériences de Mach sur la physique des sensations, et correspond à sa volonté délibérée d'organiser les notions de la physique d'une manière cohérente avec le donné sensoriel dont il a conduit une très rigoureuse étude expérimentale, relatée dans "la physique des sensations" ("Die Analyse der Empfindungen und das Verhältnis des Physischen zum Psychischen", ( 1886, revue et augmentée 1900)).


Features.

The name "Châtelet" refers to the stronghold, the Grand Châtelet, that guarded the northern end of the Pont au Change, containing the offices of the "prévôt de Paris" and a number of prisons, until it was demolished from 1802-10.  At the square's center is the Fontaine du Palmier, designed in 1806 by architect and engineer François-Jean Bralle (1750-1832) to celebrate French victories in battle. It has a circular basin, in diameter, from which a column rises in the form of a palm tree's trunk tall. The palm trunk is surmounted by a gilded figure of the goddess, Victory, holding a laurel wreath in each upraised hand; the goddess figure stands on a base ornamented with bas-relief eagles. The gilded finial is by sculptor Louis-Simon Boizot.  Four allegorical figures also by Boizot ring the base of the fountain: Prudence, Temperance, Justice, and Strength. From top to bottom, bands of bronze gilt pay tribute to the victories achieved in the following battles: The Siege of Danzig (1807), the Battle of Ulm (1805), the Battle of Marengo (1800), the Battle of the Pyramids (1798), and the Battle of Lodi (1796). Its sphinxes were designed in 1858 by Gabriel Davioud and sculpted by Henri Alfred Jacquemart (1824-1896); they commemorate Napoleon's victory in Egypt.  Two identical-looking theatres stand facing the square, the Théâtre du Châtelet and the Théâtre de la Ville, both designed by architect Gabriel Davioud and completed between 1860 and 1862 as part of Baron Haussmann's grand reconfiguration of Paris.

The Place du Châtelet () is a public square in Paris, on the right bank of the river Seine, on the borderline between the 1st and 4th arrondissements. It lies at the north end of the Pont au Change, a bridge that connects the Île de la Cité, near the Palais de Justice and the Conciergerie, to the right bank. The closest métro station is Châtelet

La place du Châtelet est située à cheval sur le 1 et le 4 arrondissement de Paris, au bord de la Seine, à l'entrée du pont au Change.


Taxonomy.

Baleen whales are cetaceans classified under the parvorder Mysticeti, and consist of four extant families: Balaenidae (right whales), Balaenopteridae (rorquals), Cetotheriidae (pygmy right whale), and Eschrichtiidae (gray whale). Balaenids are distinguished by their enlarged head and thick blubber, while rorquals and gray whales generally have a flat head, long throat pleats, and are more streamlined than Balaenids. Rorquals also tend to be longer than the latter. Cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) and artiodactyls are now classified under the order Cetartiodactyla, often still referred to as Artiodactyla (given that the cetaceans are deeply nested with the artiodactyls). The closest living relatives to baleen whales are toothed whales both from the infraorder Cetacea.

Classification.

Balaenidae consists of two genera: "Eubalaena" (right whales) and "Balaena" (the bowhead whale, "B. mysticetus"). Balaenidae was thought to have consisted of only one genus until studies done through the early 2000s reported that bowhead whales and right whales are morphologically (different skull shape) and phylogenically different. According to a study done by H. C. Rosenbaum (of the American Museum of Natural History) and colleagues, the North Pacific ("E. japonica") and Southern right ("E. australis") whales are more closely related to each other than to the North Atlantic right whale ("E. glacialis").  Cetotheriidae consists of only one living member: the pygmy right whale ("Caperea marginata"). The first descriptions date back to the 1840s of bones and baleen plates resembling a smaller version of the right whale, and was named "Balaena marginata". In 1864, it was moved into the genus "Caperea" after a skull of another specimen was discovered. Six years later, the pygmy right whale was classified under the family Neobalaenidae. Despite

Etymology.

The taxonomic name "Mysticeti" () apparently derives from a translation error in early copies of Aristotle's "Historia Animalium" (in Ancient Greek), in which "" ("ho mus to kētos", "the mouse, the whale so called") was mistakenly translated as "" ("ho mustikētos", "the Mysticetus"), which D. W. Rice (of the Society for Marine Mammalogy) in assumed was an ironic reference to the animals' great size. An alternate name for

Differences between families.

Rorquals use throat pleats to expand their mouths, which allow them to feed more effectively. However, rorquals need to build up water pressure in order to expand their mouths, leading to a lunge-feeding behavior. Lunge-feeding is where a whale rams a bait ball (a swarm of small fish) at high speed. Rorquals generally have streamlined physiques to reduce drag in the water while doing this. Balaenids rely on their huge heads, as opposed to the rorquals' throat pleats, to feed effectively. This feeding behavior allows them to grow very big and bulky, without the necessity for a streamlined body. They have callosities,

Evolutionary history.

Molecular phylogeny suggests Mysticeti split from Odontoceti (toothed whales) between 26 to 17 million years ago between the late Oligocene or middle Miocene, but the earliest Mysticeti fossils date to at least 34 million years ago. Their evolutionary link to archaic toothed cetaceans (Archaeoceti) remained unknown until the extinct "Janjucetus hunderi" was discovered in the early 1990s in Victoria, Australia. While, unlike a modern baleen whale, "Janjucetus" lacked baleen in its jaw, the anatomy shows sufficient similarity to baleen whales. It appears to have had very limited apparent biosonar capabilities. Its jaw contained teeth, with incisors and canines built for stabbing and molars and premolars built for tearing. These early mysticetes were exceedingly small compared to modern baleen whales, with species like "Mammalodon" measuring no greater than. It is thought that their

Anatomy.

Motion.

When swimming, baleen whales rely on their flippers for locomotion in a wing-like manner similar to penguins and sea turtles. Flipper movement is continuous. While doing this, baleen whales use their tail fluke to propel themselves forward through vertical motion while using their flippers for steering, much like an otter. Some species leap out of the water, which may allow them to travel faster. Because of their great size, right whales are not flexible or agile like dolphins, and none can move their neck because of the fused cervical vertebrae; this sacrifices speed for stability in the water. The hind legs are enclosed inside the body, and are thought to be vestigial organs. However, a 2014 study suggests that the pelvic bone

External anatomy.

Baleen whales have two flippers on the front, near the head. Like all mammals, baleen whales breathe air and must surface periodically to do so. Their nostrils, or blowholes, are situated at the top of the cranium. Baleen whales have two blowholes, as opposed to toothed whales which have one. These paired blowholes are longitudinal slits that converge anteriorly and widen posteriorly, which causes a V-shaped blow. They are surrounded by a fleshy ridge that keeps water away while the whale breathes. The septum that separates the blowholes has two plugs attached to it, making the blowholes water-tight while the whale dives.  Like other mammals, the skin of baleen whales has an epidermis, a dermis, a hypodermis, and connective tissue. The epidermis, the pigmented layer, is thick, along with connective tissue. The epidermis itself is only thick. The dermis, the layer underneath the epidermis, is also thin. The hypodermis, containing blubber, is the thickest part of the skin and functions as a means to conserve heat. Right whales have the thickest hypodermis of any cetacean, averaging, though, as in all whales, it is thinner around openings (such as the blowhole) and limbs. Blubber

Internal systems.

The unique lungs of baleen whales are built to collapse under the pressure instead of resisting the pressure which would damage the lungs, enabling some, like the fin whale, to dive to a depth of. The whale lungs are very efficient at extracting oxygen from the air, usually 80%, whereas humans only extract 20% of oxygen from inhaled air. Lung volume is relatively low compared to terrestrial mammals because of the inability of the respiratory tract to hold gas while diving. Doing so may cause serious complications such as embolism. Unlike other mammals, the lungs of baleen whales lack lobes and are more sacculated. Like in humans, the left lung is smaller than the right to make room for the heart. To conserve oxygen, blood is rerouted from pressure-tolerant-tissue to internal organs, and

Senses.

The eyes of baleen whales are relatively small for their size and are positioned near the end of the mouth. This is probably because they feed on slow or immobile prey, combined with the fact that most sunlight does not pass, and hence they do not need acute vision. A whale's eye is adapted for seeing both in the euphotic and aphotic zones by increasing or decreasing the pupil's size to prevent damage to the eye. As opposed to land mammals which have a flattened lens, whales have a spherical lens. The retina is surrounded by a reflective layer of cells (tapetum lucidum), which bounces light back at the retina, enhancing eyesight in dark areas. However, light is bent more near the surface of the eye when in air as opposed to water; consequently, they can see much better in the air than in the water. The eyeballs are protected by a thick outer layer to prevent abrasions, and an oily fluid

Behavior.

Migration.

Most species of baleen whale migrate long distances from high latitude waters during spring and summer months to more tropical waters during winter months. This migration cycle is repeated annually. The gray whale has the longest recorded migration of any mammal, with one traveling from the Sea of Okhotsk to the Baja Peninsula.  It is thought that plankton blooms dictate where whales migrate. Many baleen whales feed on the massive plankton blooms that occur in the cold, nutrient rich waters

Foraging.

All modern mysticetes are obligate filter feeders, using their baleen to strain small prey items (including small fish, krill, copepods, and zooplankton) from seawater. Despite their carnivorous diet, a 2015 study revealed they house gut flora similar to that of terrestrial herbivores. Different kinds of prey are found in different abundances depending on location, and each type of whale is adapted to a specialized way of foraging.  There are two types of feeding behaviors: skim-feeding and lunge-feeding, but some species do both depending on the type and amount of food. Lunge-feeders feed primarily on euphausiids (krill), though some smaller lunge feeders (e.g. minke whales) also prey on schools of fish. Skim-feeders, like bowhead whales, feed upon primarily smaller plankton such as copepods. They feed alone or in small groups. Baleen whales get the water they need from their food, and their kidneys excrete excess salt.  The lunge-feeders are the rorquals. To feed, lunge-feeders expand the volume of their jaw to a volume bigger than the original volume of the whale itself. To do this, the mouth inflates,

Predation and parasitism.

Baleen whales, primarily juveniles and calves, are preyed on by killer whales. It is thought that annual whale migration occurs to protect the calves from the killer whales. There have also been reports of a pod of killer whales attacking and killing an adult bowhead whale, by holding down its flippers, covering the blowhole, and ramming and biting until death. Generally, a mother and calf pair, when faced with the threat of a killer whale pod, will either fight or flee. Fleeing only occurs in species that can swim away quickly, the rorquals. Slower whales must fight the pod alone or with a small family group. There has been one report of a shark attacking and killing a whale calf. This occurred in 2014 during the sardine run when a shiver of dusky sharks attacked a humpback whale calf. Usually, the

Reproduction and development.

Before reaching adulthood, baleen whales grow at an extraordinary rate. In the blue whale, the largest species, the fetus grows by some per day just before delivery, and by per day during suckling. Before weaning, the calf increases its body weight by and grows from at birth to long. When it reaches sexual maturity after 5–10 years, it will be long and possibly live as long as 80–90 years. Calves are born precocial, needing to be able to swim to the surface at the moment of their birth.  Most rorquals mate in warm waters in winter to give birth almost a year later. A 7-to-11 month lactation period is normally followed by a year of rest before mating starts again. Adults normally start reproducing when 5–10 years old and reach their full length after 20–30 years. In the smallest rorqual, the minke whale, calves are born after a 10-month pregnancy and weaning lasts until it has reached about after 6–7 months. Unusual

Whale song.

All baleen whales use sound for communication and are known to "sing", especially during the breeding season. Blue whales produce the loudest sustained sounds of any animals: their low-frequency (about 20 Hz) moans can last for half a minute, reach almost 190 decibels, and be heard hundreds of kilometers

Intelligence.

Unlike their toothed whale counterparts, baleen whales are hard to study because of their immense size. Intelligence tests such as the mirror test cannot be done because their bulk and

Relationship with humans.

History of whaling.

Whaling by humans has existed since the Stone Age. Ancient whalers used harpoons to spear the bigger animals from boats out at sea. People from Norway started hunting whales around 4,000 years ago, and people from Japan began hunting whales in the Pacific at least as early as that. Whales are typically hunted for their meat and blubber by aboriginal groups; they used baleen for baskets or roofing, and made tools and masks out of bones. The Inuit hunted whales in the Arctic Ocean. The Basques started whaling as early as the 11th century, sailing as far as Newfoundland in the 16th century in search of right whales. 18th and 19th century whalers hunted down whales mainly for their oil, which was used as lamp fuel and a lubricant, and baleen (or whalebone), which was used for items such as corsets and skirt hoops. The most successful whaling

Conservation and management issues.

As of 2013, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recognizes 15 mysticete species. One species—the North Atlantic right whale—is endangered with only around 400(±50) individuals left, and four more are also classified as endangered (North Pacific right whale, the blue whale, the fin whale, and the Sei whale), and another 5 ranked as Data deficient (Bryde's whale, Eden's whale, Omura's whale, Southern minke whale, and pygmy right whale). Species that live in polar habitats are vulnerable to the effects of ongoing climate change, particularly declines in sea ice, as well as ocean acidification.  The whale-watching industry and anti-whaling advocates argue that whaling catches "friendly" whales that are curious about boats, as these whales are the easiest to catch. This analysis claims that once the economic benefits of hotels, restaurants and other tourist amenities are considered, hunting whales is a net economic loss. This argument is particularly contentious in Iceland, as it has among the most-developed whale-watching operations in the world and the hunting of minke whales resumed in August 2003. Brazil, Argentina and South Africa argue that whale watching is a growing billion-dollar industry that provides more revenue than commercial whaling would provide. Peru, Uruguay, Australia, and New Zealand also support proposals to permanently forbid whaling south of the Equator, as Solor (an island of Indonesia) is the only place of the Southern Hemisphere that takes whales. Anti-whaling groups, such as the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), claim that countries which support a pro-whaling stance are damaging their economies by driving away anti-whaling tourists. Commercial whaling was historically important for the world economy. All species were exploited, and as one type's stock depleted, another type was targeted. The scale of whale harvesting decreased substantially through the 1960s as all whale stocks had been depleted, and practically stopped in 1988 after the International Whaling Commission placed a moratorium which banned whaling for commercial use. Several species that were commercially exploited have rebounded in numbers; for example, gray whales may be as numerous as they were prior to whaling, making it the first marine mammal to be taken off the endangered species list. The Southern right whale was hunted to

In captivity.

Baleen whales have rarely been kept in captivity. Their large size and appetite make them expensive creatures to maintain. Pools of proper size would also be very expensive to build. For example, a single gray whale calf would need to eat of fish per day, and the pool would have to accommodate the calf, along with ample room to swim. Only gray whales have survived being kept in captivity for over a year. The first gray whale, which was captured in Scammon's Lagoon, Baja California Sur,

Baleen whales (systematic name Mysticeti), also known as whalebone whales, form a parvorder of the infraorder Cetacea (whales, dolphins and porpoises). They are a widely distributed and diverse parvorder of carnivorous marine mammals. Mysticeti comprise the families Balaenidae (right and bowhead whales), Balaenopteridae (rorquals), Cetotheriidae (the pygmy right whale), and Eschrichtiidae (the gray whale). There are currently 15 species of baleen whales. While cetaceans were historically thought to have descended from mesonychids, (which would place them outside the order Artiodactyla), molecular evidence supports them as a clade of even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla). Baleen whales split from toothed whales (Odontoceti) around 34 million years ago.

Les mysticètes (Mysticeti) ou cétacés à fanons, ou encore vraies baleines, forment un micro-ordre de cétacés. Ce groupe est caractérisé par la possession de fanons (contrairement aux dents des odontocètes, ou cétacés à dents). Le terme mysticète vient du grec ancien « mystax » (lèvre supérieure) qui a donné « moustache ».


History.

Renaissance influence.

The "jardin à la française" evolved from the French Renaissance garden, a style which was inspired by the Italian Renaissance garden at the beginning of the 16th century. The Italian Renaissance garden, typified by the Boboli Gardens in Florence and the Villa Medici in Fiesole, was characterized by planting beds, or parterres, created in geometric shapes, and laid out symmetrical patterns; the use of fountains and cascades to animate the garden; stairways and ramps to unite different levels of the garden; grottos, labyrinths, and statuary on mythological themes. The gardens were designed to represent harmony and order, the ideals of the Renaissance, and to recall the virtues of Ancient Rome. Following his campaign in Italy in 1495, where he saw the gardens and castles of Naples, King Charles VIII brought Italian craftsmen and garden designers, such as Pacello da Mercogliano, from Naples and ordered the construction of Italian-style gardens at his residence at the Château d'Amboise and at Château Gaillard, another private résidence in Amboise. His successor Henry II, who had also travelled to Italy and had met Leonardo da Vinci, created an Italian nearby at the Château de Blois. Beginning in 1528, King Francis I created new gardens at the Château de Fontainebleau, which featured fountains, parterres, a forest of pine trees brought from Provence, and the first artificial grotto in France. The Château de Chenonceau had two gardens in the new style, one created for Diane de Poitiers in 1551, and a second for Catherine de' Medici in 1560.  In 1536 the architect Philibert de l'Orme, upon his return from Rome, created the gardens of the Château d'Anet following the Italian rules of proportion. The carefully prepared harmony of Anet, with its parterres and surfaces of water integrated with sections of greenery, became one of the earliest and most influential examples of the classic French garden.  While the gardens of the French Renaissance were much different in their spirit and appearance than those of the Middle Ages, they were still not integrated with the architecture of the châteaux, and were usually enclosed by walls. The different parts of the gardens were not harmoniously joined together, and they were often placed on difficult sites chosen for terrain easy to defend, rather than for beauty. All this was to change in the middle of the 17th century with the development of the first real garden "à la française".

Vaux-le-Vicomte.

The first important garden "à la française" was the Chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte, created for Nicolas Fouquet, the Superintendent of Finances to Louis XIV, beginning in 1656. Fouquet commissioned Louis Le Vau to design the chateau, Charles Le Brun to design statues for the garden, and André Le Nôtre to create the gardens. It was for the first time that the garden and the chateau were perfectly integrated. A grand perspective of 1500 meters extended from the foot of the chateau to the statue of the Farnese Hercules, and the space was filled with parterres of evergreen shrubs in ornamental patterns, bordered by coloured sand, and the alleys were decorated at regular intervals by statues, basins, fountains, and carefully sculpted topiaries. "The symmetry attained at Vaux achieved a degree of perfection and unity rarely equalled in the art of classic gardens. The chateau is at the center of this strict spatial organization, which symbolizes power and success."

Gardens of Versailles.

The Gardens of Versailles, created by André Le Nôtre between 1662 and 1700, were the greatest achievement of the Garden "à la française". They were the largest gardens in Europe, with an area of 15,000 hectares, and were laid out on an east–west axis followed the course of the sun: the sun rose over the Court of Honor, lit the Marble Court, crossed the Chateau and lit the bedroom of the King, and set at the end of the Grand Canal, reflected in the mirrors of the Hall of Mirrors. In contrast with the grand perspectives, reaching to the horizon, the garden was full of surprises – fountains, small gardens filled with statuary, which provided a more human scale and intimate spaces.  The central symbol of the garden was the sun; the emblem of Louis XIV, illustrated by the statue of Apollo in the central fountain of the garden. "The views and perspectives, to and from the palace, continued to infinity. The king ruled over nature, recreating in the garden not only his domination of his territories, but over the court and his subjects."

Decline.

André Le Nôtre died in 1700, but his pupils and his ideas continued to dominate the design of gardens in France through the reign of Louis XV. His nephew, Claude Desgots, created the garden at Château de Bagnolet (Seine-Saint-Denis) for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (1717) and at Champs (Seine-et-Marne), and another relative,, created gardens for Madame de Pompadour at Crécy (Eure-et-Loir) in 1746 and Bellevue (Hauts-de-Seine) in 1748–50. The major inspiration for gardens continued to be architecture, rather than nature – the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel designed elements of the gardens at Versailles, Choisy (Val-de-Marne), and Compiègne.  Nonetheless, a few variations in the strict geometry of the garden "à la française" began to appear. Elaborate parterres of broderies, with their curves and counter-curves, were replaced by parterres of grass bordered with flowerbeds, which were easier to maintain. Circles became ovals, called rotules, with alleys radiating outward in the shape of an 'x', and irregular octagon shapes appeared. Gardens began to follow the natural landscape, rather than moving earth to shape the ground into artificial terraces.  The middle of the 18th century saw spread in popularity of the new English landscape garden, created by British aristocrats and landowners, and the Chinese style, brought to France by Jesuit priests from the Court of the Emperor of China. These styles rejected symmetry in favor of nature and rustic scenes and brought an end to the reign of the symmetrical garden "à la française". In many French parks and estates, the garden closest to the house was kept in the traditional "à la française" style, but the rest of the park was transformed into the new style, called variously "jardin à l'anglaise" (the English garden), "anglo-chinois", "exotiques", or "pittoresques". This marked the end of the age of the garden "à la française" and the arrival in France of the "jardin paysager", or landscape garden, which was inspired not by architecture but by painting, literature and philosophy.

Theorists and gardeners.

Jacques Boyceau, sieur de la Barauderie (c. 1560 – 1633) the superintendent of royal gardens under Louis XIII, became the first theorist of the new French style. His book, "Traité du jardinage selon les raisons de la nature et de l'art. Ensemble divers desseins de parterres, pelouzes, bosquets et autres ornements" was published after his death in 1638. Its sixty-one engravings of designs for parterres and bosquets made it a style book for gardens, which influenced the design the Palais du Luxembourg, the Jardin des Tuileries, and the gardens of Saint Germain-en-Laye.  Claude Mollet (ca 1564-shortly before 1649), was the chief gardener of three French kings: Henry IV, Louis XIII, and the young Louis XIV. His father was head gardener at the Château d'Anet, where Italian formal gardening was introduced to France and where Claude apprenticed. His son was André Mollet, who took the French style to the Netherlands, Sweden and England.  André Le Nôtre (1613–1700) was the most important figure in the history of the French garden. The son of the gardener of Louis XIII, he worked on the plans of Vaux-le-Vicomte, before becoming the chief gardener of Louis XIV between 1645 and 1700, and the designer of the Gardens of Versailles, the greatest garden project of the age. The gardens he created became the symbols of French grandeur and rationality, setting the style for European gardens until the arrival of the English landscape park in the 18th century.  Joseph-Antoine Dezallier d'Argenville (1680–1765) wrote "Theorie et traite de jardinage", laid out the principles of the garden "à la française", and included drawings and designs of gardens and parterres. It was reprinted many times, and was found in the libraries of aristocrats across Europe.

Principles.

Jacques Boyceau de La Barauderie wrote in 1638 in his "Traité du jardinage, selon les raisons de la nature et de l'art" that "the principal reason for the existence of a garden is the esthetic pleasure which it gives to the spectator."  The form of the French garden was largely fixed by the middle of the 17th century. It had the following elements, which became typical of the formal French garden:

Colours, flowers and trees.

Ornamental flowers were relatively rare in French gardens in the 17th century and there was a limited range of colours: blue, pink, white and mauve. Brighter colours (yellow, red, orange) would not arrive until about 1730, because of botanical discoveries from around the world brought to Europe. Bulbs of tulips and other exotic flowers came from Turkey and the Netherlands. An important ornamental feature in Versailles and other gardens was the topiary, a tree or bush carved into geometric or fantastic shapes, which were placed in rows along the main axes of the garden, alternating with statues and vases.  At Versailles flower beds were found only at the Grand Trianon and in parterres on the north side of the palace. Flowers were usually brought from Provence, kept in pots, and changed three or four times a year. Palace records from 1686 show that the Palace used 20,050 jonquil bulbs, 23000 cyclamen, and 1700 lily plants.  Most of the trees at Versailles were taken from the forest; they included hornbeam, elm, linden, and beech trees. There were also chestnut trees from Turkey and acacia trees. Large trees were dug up from the forests of Compiègne and Artois and transplanted to Versailles. Many died in transplanting and had to be regularly replaced.  The trees in the park were trimmed both horizontally and flattened at the top, giving them the desired geometric form. Only in the 18th century were they allowed to grow freely.

Parterres de broderie.

The "parterres de broderie" (from the French meaning 'embroidery') is the typical form of French garden design of the Baroque. It is characterised by a symmetrical layout of the flower beds and sheared box hedging to form ornamental patterns known as broderie. Even the arrangement of the flowers is designed to create a harmonious interplay of colours. Frequently found in French Baroque gardens are water gardens,, grottos and statues. Further away from the country house, stately home, chateau or "schloss" the parterre transitions into the bosquets.  Well known examples are the gardens at the Palace of Versailles in France and the Palace of Augustusburg at Brühl, near Cologne in Germany, which have achieved UNESCO World Heritage status.  As fashions changed, many parterres de broderie of stately homes had to give way in the 19th century to English landscape gardens and have not been reinstated.

Architecture.

The designers of the French garden saw their work as a branch of architecture, which simply extended the space of the building to the space outside the walls, and ordered nature according to the rules of geometry, optics and perspective. Gardens were designed like buildings, with a succession of rooms which a visitor could pass through following an established route, hallways, and vestibules with adjoining chambers. They used the language of architecture in their plans; the spaces were referred to as "salles", "chambres" and "théâtres" of greenery. The "walls" were composed of hedges, and "stairways" of water. On the ground were "tapis", or carpets, of grass, "brodés", or embroidered, with plants, and the trees were formed into "rideaux", or curtains, along the alleys.  Just as architects installed systems of water into the chateaux, they laid out elaborate hydraulic systems to supply the fountains and basins of the garden. Long basins full of water replaced mirrors, and the water from fountains replaced chandeliers. In the bosquet du Marais in the gardens of Versailles, André Le Nôtre placed tables of white and red marble for serving meals. The flowing water in the basins and fountains imitated water pouring into carafes and crystal glasses. The dominant role of architecture in the garden did not change until the 18th century, when the English garden arrived in Europe and the inspiration for gardens began to come not from architecture but from romantic painting.

Theatre.

The garden "à la française" was often used as a setting for plays, spectacles, concerts, and displays of fireworks. In 1664, Louis XIV celebrated a six-day festival in the gardens, with cavalcades, comedies, ballets, and fireworks. Gardens of Versailles included a theatre of water, decorated with fountains and statues of the infancy of the gods (destroyed between 1770 and 1780). Full-size ships were constructed for sailing on the Grand Canal, and the garden had an open-air ballroom surrounded by trees; a water organ, a labyrinth, and a grotto.

Perspective.

The architects of the garden "à la française" did not stop at applying the rules of geometry and perspective to their work. In the first published treatises on gardens, in the 17th century, they devoted chapters to the subject of how to correct or improve perspective, usually to create the illusion of greater distance. This was often done by having alleys become narrower, or having rows of trees that converged, or were trimmed so that they became gradually shorter, as they went farther away from the centre of the garden or from the house. This created the illusion that the perspective was longer and that the garden was larger than it actually was.  Another trick used by French garden designers was the ha-ha (fr: "saut de loup"). This was a method used to conceal fences which crossed long alleys or perspectives. A deep and wide trench with vertical wall of stone on one side was dug wherever a fence crossed a view, or a fence was placed in bottom of the trench, so that it was invisible to the viewer.  As gardens became more and more ambitious and elaborate through the 17th century, the garden no longer served as a decoration for the chateau. At Chantilly and at Saint-Germain, the chateau became a decorative element of the much larger garden.

Technologies.

The appearance of the French garden in the 17th and 18th centuries was a result of the development of several new technologies. The first was géoplastie, the science of moving large amounts of earth. This science had several technological developments. This science had come from the military, following the introduction of cannon and modern siege warfare, when they were required to dig trenches and build walls and earth fortifications quickly. This led to the development of baskets for carrying earth on the back, wheelbarrows, carts and wagons. Andre LeNotre adapted these methods to build the level terraces, and to dig canals and basins on a grand scale. A second development was in hydrology, bringing water to the gardens for the irrigation of the plants and for use in the many fountains. This development was not fully successful at Versailles, which was on a plateau; even with 221 pumps and a system of canals bringing water from the Seine, and the construction in 1681 of a huge pumping machine, the Machine de Marly, there was still not enough water pressure for all the fountains of Versailles to be turned on at once. "Fontainiers" were placed along the routes of the King's promenades, and turned on the fountains at each site just before he arrived.  A related development took place in hydroplasie, the art and science of shaping water into different shapes as it came out the fountain. The shape of the water depended upon the force of the water and the shape of the nozzle. New forms created through this art were named "tulipe" (the tulip), "double gerbe" (the double sheaf), "Girandole"(centerpiece) "candélabre" (candelabra), and "corbeille" (bouquet), "La Boule en l'air" (Ball in the air), and "L'Evantail" (the fan). This art was closely associated with the fireworks of the time, which tried to achieve similar effects with fire instead of water. Both the fountains and fireworks were often accompanied by music, and were designed to show how nature (water and fire) could be shaped by the will of man.  Another important development was in horticulture, in the ability to raise plants from warmer climates in the northern European climate by protecting them inside buildings and bringing them outdoors in pots. The first orangeries were built in France in the 16th century following the introduction of the orange tree after the Italian Wars. The Versailles Orangerie had walls five meters thick, with a double wall that maintains temperatures in winter between. Today it can shelter 1055 trees.

The French formal garden, also called the (literally, "garden in the French manner" in French), is a style of garden based on symmetry and the principle of imposing order on nature. Its epitome is generally considered to be the Gardens of Versailles designed during the 17th century by the landscape architect André Le Nôtre for Louis XIV and widely copied by other.

Le jardin régulier ou jardin classique est un jardin avec des garnitures et des agréments, expression du classicisme dans l'art des jardins, autrement dit la recherche de la perfection formelle, d'une majesté théâtrale et d'un goût du spectacle.


Classification.

Bambara is a variety of a group of closely related languages called Manding, whose native speakers trace their cultural history to the medieval Mali Empire. Varieties of Manding are generally considered (among native speakers) to be mutually intelligible – dependent on exposure or familiarity with dialects between speakers – and spoken by 30 to 40 million people in the countries Burkina Faso, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast and the Gambia. Manding is part of the larger Mandé family of languages.

Alphabet and literature.

It uses seven vowels a, e, ɛ, i, o, ɔ and u, each of which can be nasalized, pharyngealized and murmured, giving a total number of 21 vowels (the letters approximate their equivalents). Writing with the Latin alphabet began during the French occupation, and the first orthography was introduced in 1967. Literacy is limited, especially in rural areas. Although written literature is only slowly evolving (due to the predominance of French as the "language of the educated"), there exists a wealth of oral literature, which is often tales of kings and heroes. This oral literature is mainly tradited by the griots ("Jeliw" in Bambara) who are a mixture of storytellers, praise singers, and human history books who have studied the trade of singing and reciting for many years. Many of their songs are very old and are said to date back to the old empire of Mali.

Geographical distribution.

Bambara is spoken throughout Mali as a lingua franca. The language is most widely spoken in the areas east, south, and north of Bamako, where native speakers and/or those that identify as members of the Bambara ethnic group are most densely populated. These regions are also usually considered to be the historical geographical origin of Bambara people, particularly Ségou, after diverging from other Manding groups.

Dialects.

The main dialect is Standard Bamara, which has significant influence from Maninkakan. Bambara has many local dialects: Kaarta, Tambacounda (west); Beledugu, Bananba, Mesekele (north); Jitumu, Jamaladugu, Segu (center); Cakadugu, Keleyadugu, Jalakadougu, Kurulamini, Banimɔncɛ, Cɛmala, Cɛndugu, Baninkɔ, Shɛndugu, Ganadugu (south); Kala, Kuruma, Saro, dialects to the northeast of Mopti (especially Bɔrɛ); Zegedugu, Bɛndugu, Bakɔkan, Jɔnka (southeast).,

Writing.

Since 1967, Bambara has mostly been written in the Latin script, using some additional phonetic characters. The vowels are "a, e, ɛ" (formerly "è"), "i, o, ɔ" (formerly "ò"), "u"; accents can be used to indicate tonality. The former digraph "ny" is now written "ɲ" when it designates a palatal nasal glide; the "ny" spelling is kept for the combination of a nasal vowel with a subsequent oral palatal glide. Following the 1966 Bamako spelling conventions, a nasal velar glide "ŋ" is written as "ŋ", although in early publications it was often transcribed as "ng" or "nk".  The N'Ko () alphabet is a script devised by Solomana Kante in 1949 as a writing system for the Manding languages of West Africa; N’Ko means 'I say' in all Manding languages. Kante created N’Ko in response to what he felt were beliefs that Africans were a "cultureless people" since prior to this time there had been no indigenous African writing system for his language. N'ko first gained a strong user base around the Maninka-speaking area of Kante's hometown of Kankan, Guinea and disseminated from there into other Manding-speaking parts of West Africa. N'ko and the Arabic script are still in use for Bambara, although only the Latin-based orthography is officially recognized in Mali.  Additionally, a script known as Masaba or Ma-sa-ba was developed for the language beginning in 1930 by Woyo Couloubayi (c.1910-1982) of Assatiémala. Named for the first characters in Couloubayi's preferred collation order, Masaba is a syllabary which uses diacritics to indicate vowel qualities such as tone, length, and nasalization. Though not conclusively related to other writing systems, Masaba appears to draw on traditional Bambara iconography and shares some similarities with the Vai syllabary of Liberia and with Arabic-derived secret alphabets used in Hodh (now Hodh El Gharbi and Hodh Ech Chargui Regions of Mauritania). As of 1978, Masaba was in limited use in several communities in Nioro Cercle for accounting, personal correspondence, and the recording of Muslim prayers; the script's current status and prevalence is unknown.

Phonology.

Vowels.

Each consonant represents a single sound. Although, there are some exceptions:

Grammar.

Like Turkish and Japanese, it is an agglutinative language, meaning that morphemes are glued together to form a word.  The basic sentence structure is Subject Object Verb. Take the phrase, "n t'a don" (I don't know [it]). "n" is the subject (I), "a" is the object (it), and "[ta] don" is the verb ([to] know). The "t'" is from the present tense marker "té." "té" is the negative present tense marker and "bé" is the affirmative present tense marker. Therefore, "n b'a don" would mean "I know it".  Bambara is an SOV language and has two (mid/standard and high) tones; e.g. "sa" 'die' vs. "sá"'snake.' The typical argument structure of the language consists of a subject, followed by an aspectival auxiliary, followed by the direct object, and finally a transitive verb. Naturally, if the verb is intransitive, the direct object is absent.  Bambara does not inflect for gender. Gender for a noun can be specified by adding an adjective, "-cɛ" or "-kɛ" for male and "-muso" for female. The plural is formed by attaching a vocalic suffix "-u", most often with a low tone (in the orthography, "-w") to nouns or adjectives.  Bambara uses postpositions in much the same manner as languages like English and French use prepositions. These postpositions are found after the noun and are used to express direction, location, and in some cases, possession.

Loan words.

In urban areas, many Bamanankan conjunctions have been replaced in everyday use by French borrowings that often mark code-switches. The Bamako dialect makes use of sentences like: "N taara Kita mais il n'y avait personne là-bas." : "I went to Kita [Bamanankan ] but there was no one there [French]." The sentence in Bamanankan alone would be "Ń taara Kita nka mɔkɔ si tun tɛ yen." The French proposition "est-ce que" is also used in Bamanankan ; however, it is pronounced more slowly and as three syllables,.  Bamanankan uses many French loan words. For example, some people might say: "I ka kurusi ye jauni ye": "Your skirt is yellow" (using a derivation of the French word for yellow, jaune.)  However, one could also say: "I ka kulosi ye nɛrɛmukuman ye", also meaning "your skirt is yellow." The original Bamanankan word for yellow comes from ""nɛrɛmuku"," being flour ("muku") made from néré (locust bean), a seed from a long seed pod. Nɛrɛmuku is often used in sauces in Southern Mali.  Most French loan words are suffixed with the sound 'i'; this is particularly common when using French words which have a meaning not traditionally found in Mali. For example, the Bamanankan word for snow is "niegei", based on the French word for snow "neige". As there has never been snow in Mali, there was no unique word in Bamanankan to describe it.

Music.

Malian artists such as Oumou Sangaré, Sidiki Diabaté, Rokia Traoré, Ali Farka Touré, Salif Keita, Habib Koité, and the married duo Amadou & Mariam often sing in Bambara. Aïda of the band Métisse often sings in Dioula, as does Mory Kanté, born in Guinea to a Malian mother; his most famous song to date is "Yeke Yeke" (Alpha Blondy). Lyrics in Bambara occur on "Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants"". Tiken Jah Fakoly often sings reggae in Dyula and French.  Additionally, in 2010, Spanish rock group Dover released its 7th studio album I Ka Kené with the majority of lyrics in the language. American rapper Nas also released a track titled "Sabari" in 2010, which featured Damian Marley. "Sabari" is a Bambara word that means patience.

Legal status.

Bambara is one of several languages designated by Mali as a national language.

Bambara, also known as Bamana (N’ko: ߓߡߊߣߊ߲ ) or Bamanankan (N’ko: ߓߡߊߣߊ߲ߞߊ߲) is a lingua franca and national language of Mali spoken by perhaps 15 million people, natively by 5 million Bambara people and about 10 million second-language users. It is estimated that about 80 percent of the population of Mali speak Bambara as a first or second language. It has a subject–object–verb clause structure and two lexical tones. The native name bamanankan means "the language () of heathens (), people who refuse Islam", as opposed to speakers of Dyula, who are Muslim.

Le bambara, appelé par ses locuteurs, est une des langues nationales du Mali. Elle est la principale langue maternelle du pays (46 %) et la plus parlée (82 %).


History.

Hockey is Canada's national winter sport, and Canadians are extremely passionate about the game. Canada was first represented internationally at the 1910 European Championships by the Oxford Canadians, a team of Canadians from the University of Oxford. They represented Canada again at the 1912 World Championships.  From 1920 until 1963, the senior amateur club teams representing Canada, were usually the most recent Allan Cup champions. The last amateur club team from Canada to win a gold medal at the World Championship was the Trail Smoke Eaters in 1961. The responsibility of choosing which team represented Canada belonged to Canadian Amateur Hockey Association secretary-manager; George Dudley from 1947 to 1960, and Gordon Juckes from 1960 to 1963. Following the 1963 World Championships, Father David Bauer founded the national team as a permanent institution. The new permanent national team first competed at the 1964 Winter Olympics.  Before the Soviet Union began international competition in 1954, Canada dominated international hockey, winning six out of seven golds at the Olympics and 10 World Championship gold medals. Canada then went 50 years without winning the Winter Olympic Gold medal and from 1962 to 1993, didn't win any World Championships. This was in part because Canada's best professional players were unable to attend these events as they had commitments with their National Hockey League teams.  Canada withdrew from official IIHF events in 1970 and the National Team program was suspended after they were refused permission to use semi-professional players at the World Championship. Canada returned to the IIHF in 1977 after a series of negotiations between IIHF President Dr. Sabetzki and top officials of professional ice hockey in Canada and the United States. As a result, professionals are allowed to compete at the World Championship and the tournament is scheduled later in the year to ensure more players are available from among the NHL teams eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs. In return, a competition for the "Canada Cup" was to be played every four years on North American territory with the participation of Canada, the United States, and the four strongest European national teams, including professionals.  In 1983, Hockey Canada began the "Program of Excellence", whose purpose was to prepare a team for the Winter Olympics every four years. This new National Team played a full season together all over the world against both national and club teams, and often attracted top NHL prospects. In 1986, the International Olympic Committee voted to allow professional athletes to compete in Olympic Games, starting in 1988. Veteran pros with NHL experience and, in a few cases, current NHLers who were holding out in contract disputes joined the team. This program was discontinued in 1998, when the NHL began shutting down to allow its players to compete.  After not winning a gold medal for 33 years, Canada won the 1994 World Championship in Italy. Since that time, they have won in 1997, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2015 and 2016. Canada captured its first Olympic gold medal in 50 years at Salt Lake City 2002. At Vancouver 2010, Canada won the gold medal with a 3–2 win against the United States in the final. Sidney Crosby's overtime goal secured Canada the final gold medal awarded at the Games. At the 2012 World Championship in Finland and Sweden, Ryan Murray became the first draft eligible prospect to represent Canada at the Ice Hockey World Championship.  Canada successfully defended gold at Sochi 2014, becoming the first men's team to do so since the Soviet Union in 1988, the first to finish the tournament undefeated since 1984 and the first to do both with a full NHL participation. Their relentless offensive pressure and stifling defence has earned the 2014 squad praise as perhaps the best, most complete Team Canada ever assembled. Drew Doughty and Shea Weber led the team in scoring, while Jonathan Toews scored the gold medal-winning goal in the first period of a 3–0 win over Sweden in the final. The architect behind the 2010 and 2014 teams, Steve Yzerman, immediately stepped down as general manager following the win.  Led by general manager Jim Nill, head coach Todd McLellan, and the late addition of captain Sidney Crosby, Canada won the 2015 IIHF World Championship in dominating fashion over Russia, their first win at the Worlds since 2007. By winning all 10 of their games in regulation, Hockey Canada was awarded a 1 million Swiss franc bonus prize in the first year of its existence. Canada scored 66 goals in their 10 games and had the top three scorers of the tournament: Jason Spezza, Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall. Tyler Seguin also led the championship with nine goals. The win secured Canada's return to number one on the IIHF world rankings for the first time since 2010.

Competition achievements.

Olympic Games.

All Olympic ice hockey tournaments between 1920 and 1968 also counted as World Championships. They have won a total of 15 Olympic medals.

World Championships.

All Olympic ice hockey tournaments between 1920 and 1968 also counted as World Championships. World Championships were not held during the Winter Olympic years of 1980, 1984 or 1988.

Spengler Cup.

In the Spengler Cup, Team Canada competes against European club teams such as HC Davos who host the tournament every year in Vaillant Arena. Canada was initially represented by the standing national team at this event, but subsequently is usually made up of Canadians playing in European leagues or the American Hockey League. In 2019, Team Canada won its 16th Spengler Cups, passing the host team HC Davos (last win 2011) for the most titles.

Team.

Current roster.

Roster for the 2019 IIHF World Championship.  Head coach: Alain Vigneault

Coaches.

List of coaches of the Canada men's national ice hockey team.

The Canada men's national ice hockey team (popularly known as Team Canada; ) is the ice hockey team representing Canada internationally. The team is overseen by Hockey Canada, a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. From 1920 until 1963, Canada's international representation was by senior amateur club teams. Canada's national men's team was founded in 1963 by Father David Bauer as a part of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, playing out of the University of British Columbia. The nickname "Team Canada" was first used for the 1972 Summit Series and has been frequently used to refer to the Canadian national team ever since.

L'équipe du Canada de hockey sur glace, officiellement nommée Équipe Canada (en anglais ""), est la sélection regroupant les meilleurs joueurs canadiens de hockey sur glace lors des compétitions internationales. L'équipe est sous la tutelle de "Hockey Canada". Le Canada est l'une des grandes nations du hockey sur glace sur le plan international, ayant remporté quatre des cinq Coupe Canada à partir de 1976, les Jeux olympiques d'hiver de 2002, les Jeux olympiques d'hiver de 2010, les Jeux olympiques d'hiver de 2014, deux des six derniers Championnat du monde de hockey et la Coupe du monde de hockey en 2004 et 2016.