History.

On February 15, 1917, the Public Service Commission agreed to change the name of the under-construction station from 68th Street to 68th Street–Hunter College at the request of officials of Hunter College.  On July 17, 1918, the IRT Lexington Avenue Line opened north to 125th Street, along with the 68th Street station. Service was originally provided by a shuttle on the line's local tracks. Through service along the Park Avenue section of the Original Subway was provided on August 1, 1918.  In 1981, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) listed the station among the 69 most deteriorated stations in the subway system.  This station was renovated in September 1984 as part of the MTA's Adopt-A-Station Program in conjunction with a renovation of Hunter College.

Station layout.

This underground station has two local tracks and two side platforms. The express tracks of the Lexington Avenue Line, used by the 4 and trains during daytime hours, pass beneath the station and are not visible from the platforms.  Both platforms have their original mosaic trim line with "68" tablets on it at regular intervals and name tablets reading "68th STREET-HUNTER COLLEGE" in two lines. On small sections of the platforms on either ends, where they were extended in the 1950s, there are blue trim lines with "68TH ST" written on it in white lettering. Blue columns run along both platforms at regular intervals with alternating ones having the standard black station name plate in white lettering. Both platforms have emergency exits from the lower level express tracks.  Toward the south end of the platforms are two stairs leading to the only mezzanine in the station. It has been renovated with stainless steel fare control rails and features red accent stripes in the IND style. Old wall lights exist but are not functional. The waiting area inside fare control has windows that allow a full view of the platforms and tracks. The northern half of the station without the mezzanine has very high ceilings.

Exits.

Outside of the large turnstile bank that provides access to and from the station, there is a token booth and a passageway on each side separated from the waiting area by a steel fence. Each passageway leads to a small staircase going up to either northern corner of 68th Street and Lexington Avenue. On the east side of the mezzanine is a short staircase going up to a landing, where a larger staircase goes up to the southeast corner of 68th Street and Lexington Avenue underneath Hunter College's East Building. The west side of the mezzanine has a direct entrance to the West Building of Hunter College and a double-wide marble staircase going up to the plaza on the southwest corner of 68th Street and Lexington Avenue. The entrance at the southeast corner contains a sign with the word "Subway" in a unique typeface seen only on the Hunter campus. This sign, and other signs around the college campus that are set in the same typeface, was created by Barbara Stauffacher Solomon as part of Ulrich Franzen's 1984 expansion of the campus.

Elevators.

The MTA proposes to build elevators here under the 2010–2014 MTA Capital Program, as part of the MTA's 100 Key ADA-accessible stations program. The project would include building elevators at 68th Street and new staircase entrances at 69th Street and Lexington Avenue. In late 2011 and early 2012, the project faced local opposition; opponents claimed the new staircases would ruin the character of 69th Street. The MTA insisted the new entrances were necessary to reduce congestion at the station's current entrances. The 69th Street Tenants Corporation suggested building new entrances at 67th Street or 70th Street instead, although the station does not reach under either of those streets. The proposal would have required construction of new passageways connecting the platforms to 67th Street to 70th Street, which would be more expensive and take longer to construct.  The MTA originally hoped to award a construction contract by November 2013, but the project stalled for several years. In 2016, the MTA released an environmental assessment for the project, proposing to build a new southbound-only entrance at the southwest corner of 69th Street and Lexington Avenue, and a new northbound-only entrance on the east side of Lexington Avenue midblock between 68th and 69th Streets, at the suggestion of the 69th Street Tenants Corporation., project design was still delayed, due to unresolved conflicts regarding real estate and infrastructure relocation work. The MTA hoped to award a contract by August 2018, with construction starting in December 2018, and completed in April 2021., a contract for the elevators' construction was projected to be awarded in July 2020 and be completed by 2023. The project will include a new northbound entrance and mezzanine in a Lexington Avenue storefront between 68th and 69th Streets, as well as a new southbound entrance at Lexington Avenue and 69th Street.

68th Street–Hunter College is a local station on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line of the New York City Subway, located at the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 68th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is served by the train at all times, the <6> train during weekdays in the peak direction, and the train during late nights.

86th Street est une station omnibus souterraine du métro de New York située dans l'Upper East Side, dans le nord de Manhattan. Elle est située sur l'une des lignes (au sens de tronçons du réseau) les plus fréquentées, l'IRT Lexington Avenue Line (métros verts) issue du réseau de l'ancienne Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT). La station se compose de deux voies omnibus accessibles par des quais latéraux. Les voies express de la Lexington Avenue Line, utilisées par les métros 4 en journée et 5 pendant la journée passent en dessous de la station et ne sont pas visibles depuis les quais. Sur la base des chiffres 2012, la station était la fréquentée du réseau.


Station layout.

Exits.

Due to the free transfer passageway, all exits serve all platforms.

BMT Franklin Avenue Line platforms.

Botanic Garden on the BMT Franklin Avenue Line has two tracks and two side platforms. The station is named for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden two blocks away from the station.  There was no station at this location until December 1926, when a new station was constructed to replace "Consumers Park" several blocks to the south, which was considered too close to Prospect Park to be useful. "Consumers Park" had been renamed "Botanic Garden" in 1924. The new station assumed this name upon opening on September 30, 1928 and the old station closed at the same time.  The station deteriorated over the years as the New York City Transit Authority considered whether to abandon or rehabilitate the station and the line. Support in the Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights communities persuaded the city to rebuild the line from July 1998 to September 1999. A transfer to Franklin Avenue on the IRT Eastern Parkway Line was added via a passageway that connects the Franklin Avenue-bound platform to the IRT mezzanine. Prior to the rehabilitation project, only a portion of the station was in the tunnel, as the platforms were longer and continued outdoors.  The station's mezzanine is above the platforms and tracks. Two staircases from each side go up to a waiting area that allows a free transfer between directions (this is needed for passengers transferring between the IRT and Prospect Park-bound trains). Outside of the turnstile bank, there is a token booth and one street stair.  The rebuilt station was built in the open-cut right-of-way to the south of Eastern Parkway, and the half of the station closest to that street was roofed over in the appearance of a subway structure. The station is now located entirely inside the subway structure that was built in 1928. At street level, it features floral wrought iron fencing in recognition of its location near the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (entitled "IL7/Square" by Millie Burns). At track level it includes 1920s-era mosaic tiling. To the immediate north of the station, the 1878 railroad tunnel that carries the line under Eastern Parkway has been dramatically lighted. This is the oldest tunnel currently in subway use.

IRT Eastern Parkway Line platforms.

Franklin Avenue, also announced as Franklin Avenue–Medgar Evers College, is an underground express station on the IRT Eastern Parkway Line that has four tracks with two island platforms and opened on August 23, 1920.  Both platforms have yellow i-beam columns on both sides at regular intervals with every other one having the standard black station name plate in white lettering. The platform walls have their original Dual Contracts trim line with "F" tablets for "Franklin" at regular intervals. At the extreme west (railroad north) end, the platforms were extended in the 1950s to accommodate the current standard IRT train length of 510 feet. The walls here have a blue trim line with "FRANKLIN AVE" in white sans serif lettering on two lines.  The station's main entrance is a mezzanine above the platforms and tracks at their center. Two staircases from each platform go up to a waiting area that allows a free transfer between directions. Outside of the turnstile bank, there is a token booth and four street stairs to either eastern corners of Franklin Avenue and Eastern Parkway.  The transfer to the Franklin Avenue Shuttle is at the west end of the station. A single staircase from each platform goes up to a mezzanine, where a passageway leads to the north end of the Franklin Avenue-bound platform. A crossover is required to reach the Prospect Park-bound platform.  The station has been adopted by Clara Barton High School as part of New York City Transit's "Adopt-A-Station" program.

Rogers Junction.

East (railroad south) of this station is Rogers Junction, where trains can diverge to the IRT Nostrand Avenue Line or continue on Eastern Parkway. From west to east between the station and the junction, the northbound local track descends to a lower level directly below the southbound local track. Then, the northbound express track, which is still on the upper level at this point, descends to the lower level directly below the southbound express track, creating a dual level two-over-two track layout.  At the junction, a switch on the upper level allows southbound 5 express trains to change to the local track, and a corresponding switch on the lower level allows 5 trains on the northbound local track to change to the express track. Directly to the east, all of the mainline tracks shift slightly to the north, and the mainline local tracks on both levels become the Nostrand Avenue Line tracks, which turn to the south. There is a closed tower at the south end of the southbound platform.  This junction is a severe traffic bottleneck during rush hours, and rebuilding it would require massive construction including the tearing up of Eastern Parkway. The reconstruction of the junction in order to alleviate train congestion has been suggested several times. The plan was first unveiled in the 1967 Transportation Studies for Southeast Brooklyn, and subsequently in 1968 as part of the Program for Action. The MTA's Engineering Department Planning Division considered such a project again in 1972. In 1993, as part of the 1992–1996 Capital Program, the MTA studied seven alternatives for rebuilding the junction. The 1993 study suggested the further scrutiny of two proposals: "Alternative 4", which would simply add a switch on each level east of the Nostrand Avenue Line split, and "Alternative 6", which would reconstruct the junction entirely.

External links.

NYC Subway.org: Station Reporter:  Miscellaneous:  Google Maps Street View:

Franklin Avenue/Botanic Garden is a New York City Subway station complex shared by the IRT Eastern Parkway Line and the BMT Franklin Avenue Line. Located at the intersection of Franklin Avenue and Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, it is served by the:

Franklin Avenue – Botanic Garden est une station souterraine (lignes régulières) et aérienne (pour le "shuttle") du métro de New York située dans le quartier de Crown Heights à Brooklyn. Elle est située sur l'IRT Eastern Parkway Line (métros rouges et verts), issue de l'ancienne Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) et la BMT Franklin Avenue Line (navette grise) issue de l'ancienne Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT). Sur la base de la fréquentation, la station figurait au sur 421 en 2012.


Mathematical definitions.

Skeletons have several different mathematical definitions in the technical literature; most of them lead to similar results in continuous spaces, but usually yield different results in discrete spaces.

Quench points of the fire propagation model.

In his seminal paper, Harry Blum of the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories at Hanscom Air Force Base, in Bedford, Massachusetts, defined a medial axis for computing a skeleton of a shape, using an intuitive model of fire propagation on a grass field, where the field has the form of the given shape. If one "sets fire" at all points on the boundary of that grass field simultaneously, then the skeleton is the set of quench points, i.e., those points where two or more wavefronts meet. This intuitive description is the starting point for a number of more precise definitions.

Centers of maximal disks (or balls).

A disk (or ball) "B" is said to be "maximal" in a set "A" if  One way of defining the skeleton of a shape "A" is as the set of centers of all maximal disks in "A".

Centers of bi-tangent circles.

The skeleton of a shape "A" can also be defined as the set of centers of the discs that touch the boundary of "A" in two or more locations. This definition assures that the skeleton points are equidistant from the shape boundary and is mathematically equivalent to Blum's medial axis transform.

Ridges of the distance function.

Many definitions of skeleton make use of the concept of distance function, which is a function that returns for each point "x" inside a shape "A" its distance to the closest point on the boundary of "A". Using the distance function is very attractive because its computation is relatively fast.  One of the definitions of skeleton using the distance function is as the ridges of the distance function. There is a common mis-statement in the literature that the skeleton consists of points which are "locally maximum" in the distance transform. This is simply not the case, as even cursory comparison of a distance transform and the resulting skeleton will show. Ridges may have varying height, so a point on the ridge may be lower than its immediate neighbor on the ridge. It is thus not a local maximum, even though it belongs to the ridge. It is, however, less far away vertically than its ground distance would warrant. Otherwise it would be part of the slope.

Skeletonization algorithms.

There are many different algorithms for computing skeletons for shapes in digital images, as well as continuous sets.  Skeletonization algorithms can sometimes create unwanted branches on the output skeletons. Pruning algorithms are often used to remove these branches.

In shape analysis, skeleton (or topological skeleton) of a shape is a thin version of that shape that is equidistant to its boundaries. The skeleton usually emphasizes geometrical and topological properties of the shape, such as its connectivity, topology, length, direction, and width. Together with the distance of its points to the shape boundary, the skeleton can also serve as a representation of the shape (they contain all the information necessary to reconstruct the shape).

La squelettisation est une classe d'algorithmes utilisée en analyse de formes. Elle consiste à réduire une forme en un ensemble de courbes, appelées squelette, centrées dans la forme d'origine. La squelettisation est un outil d'analyse de forme non scalaire, qui conserve les propriétés topologiques de la forme d'origine ainsi que les propriétés géométriques, selon la méthode employée.


History.

Russian-French relations have a long history. In the middle of the 11th century, Yaroslav the Wise's daughter Anna became Queen of France, married Henry I. And after his death, becoming regent for his son, the future King of France, Philip I, actually ruled France.  The feudal fragmentation established in the XII century in Russia and the Tatar-Mongol invasion in the XIII century prevented the establishment of permanent Russian-French relations at that time. In 1413, the Flemish knight, politician and diplomat Gilbert de Lannoy (Guillebert de Lannoy) visited Veliky Novgorod and Pskov, who participated in the war of the Teutonic Order with Poland and included a description of the Russian lands in his travels and embassies (Voyages et ambassades, 1399— 1450).  Due to the fact that the Russian centralized state formed in the XV-XVI centuries almost constantly was in a state of diplomatic and military confrontation with the Commonwealth, a significant part of the ruling elite of which traditionally focused on France, the Catholic rulers of the latter for a long time avoided establishing direct diplomatic contacts with Moscow.  Real interest in Russia appeared in France only after the publication in 1607 of the work of Huguenot mercenary Jacques Margeret "The State of the Russian State and the Grand Duchy of Moscow", which information was used in the "History of his time" (1620) by the famous historian Jacques Augus de Tu (1553— 1617).  In 1615, the embassy of Ivan Kondyrev was adopted at the court of Louis XIII, which ended in failure, but laid the foundation for diplomatic relations between Russia and France.  In the summer of 1668, the Russian embassy headed by the steward P. Potemkin, who had an audience with Louis XIV and Colbert and discussed the establishment of mutually beneficial trade relations between the two countries, traveled from Spain to Paris.  The first diplomatic representation of Russia in France appeared in 1702 by decree of Peter I, interested in an alliance with Louis XIV due to the rapprochement between England and Sweden. A visit to France by Peter I himself in 1717 served as the starting point for the establishment of permanent diplomatic relations between the two countries, interrupted only by the Great French Revolution.  Concerned about the dominance of the Germans at the court of Empress Anna Ioannovna (1730-1740), French diplomacy actively promoted the palace coup of 1741 and the enthronement of Elizabeth Petrovna, who from her youth sympathized with France and her king Louis XV, for whom she was unsuccessfully tried to marry. An active role was played by the Marquis de la Scheetardi, who served as diplomatic envoy to the Russian court in 1739-1744. However, after the efforts of Chancellor Bestuzhev, the close of de la Châteardie, Count Loestock fell into disgrace, in 1748, the influence of the pro-French party weakened noticeably.

18th century.

Franco-Russian diplomatic ties go back at least to 1702, when France had an ambassador () in Moscow. Following Russia's victory over Sweden in the Great Northern War of 1700 to 1721, the foundation of Saint Petersburg as the new Russian capital in 1712, and Peter the Great's declaration of the Russian Empire in 1721, Russia became a major force in Western European affairs for the first time. The geographical separation between France and Russia meant that their spheres of influence rarely overlapped. When involved in the same war, their troops rarely fought together as allies or directly against each other as enemies on the same battlefields. However, each state played a crucial role in the European balance of power. The two countries' armed forces fought on opposite sides in the 1733–1738 War of the Polish Succession and in the 1740-1748 War of the Austrian Succession; they were allies against Prussia during the Seven Years' War of 1756 to 1763.

19th century.

Russia played a complex role in the Napoleonic wars. Russia fought against France in the War of the Second Coalition. Once Napoleon Bonaparte (later Emperor Napoleon I) came to power in 1799, Russia remained hostile and fought in the Wars of the Third and Fourth Coalitions, which were victories for France and saw French power extend into Central Europe. This led to the establishment of a French-backed Polish state, the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807, which threatened Russia and caused tensions that led to the French invasion of Russia in 1812. This was a major defeat for France and a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars, leading to Bonaparte's abdication and the Bourbon Restoration. Russia played a central role in defeating Napoleon in 1814. At the Vienna Congress of 1814-15, Russia played a major diplomatic role as a leader of the conservative, anti-revolutionary forces. This suited the Bourbon kings who again ruled France. Russia was a leader of the conservative Concert of Europe which sought to stifle revolution.  Russia was again hostile when the Revolutions of 1848 broke out across Europe, bringing Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (later Emperor Napoleon III) to power in France. Napoleon III favoured a "policy of nationalities" ("principe des nationalités") or support to national revolutions in multinational countries like Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, something fervently opposed by the Tsarist regime in Russia. France's challenges to Russia's influence led France to participate in the Crimean War, which saw French troops invade the Crimean peninsula. The war ended in Russia's defeat. French Emperor Napoleon III tried hard to reach a friendly entente with Russia, and succeeded in so doing with a secret treaty signed in March 1859. The treaty stated in article 1: "in case of war of Piedmont and France against Austria, the Emperor Alexander will, from the moment of the declaration of war, adopt a political and military position most clearly demonstrating his benevolent neutrality towards France."  Imperial Russia's foreign policy was hostile to republican France in the 19th century and very pro-German. The First and Second Three Emperor's Leagues of the 1870s and 1880s-which brought together Germany, Austria and Russia-had as its stated purpose the preservation of the monarchical order in Europe against the France of the Third Republic. After the defeat in the Franco-German war of 1870-71, French elites concluded that France could never hope to defeat Germany on its own, and the way to defeat the "Reich" would be with the help of another great power. [[Otto von Bismarck]] drew the same conclusion and worked hard to keep France diplomatically isolated.  France was deeply split between the monarchists on one side, and the Republicans on the other. The Republicans at first don't welcome any alliance with Russia. Russia and France have different position on almost international affairs at that time. At a time when French Republicans were rallying in the [[Dreyfus affair]] against anti-Semitism, Russia was the most notorious center in the world of anti-Semitic outrages, including multiple murderous large-scale pogroms against the Jews. On the other hand, France was increasingly frustrated by Bismarck's success in isolating it diplomatically. France had issues with Italy, which was allied with Germany and Austria-Hungary in the [[Triple Alliance (1882)|Triple Alliance]]. Paris made a few overtures to Berlin, but they were rebuffed, and after 1900 there was a threat of war between France and Germany over Germany's attempt to deny French expansion into Morocco. Great Britain was still in its “splendid isolation” mode and after a major agreement in 1890 with Germany, it seemed especially favorable toward Berlin. By 1892, Russia was the only opportunity for France to break out of its diplomatic isolation. Russia had been allied with Germany when [[Kaiser Wilhelm II]] dismissed Bismarck in 1890 and ended the [[Reinsurance Treaty]] with Russia in 1892. Russia was alone diplomatically and like France, it needed a military alliance to contain the threat of Germany's strong army and military aggressiveness. The pope, angered by German anti-Catholicism, worked diplomatically to bring Paris and St. Petersburg together. Russia desperately needed money for the completion of railways and ports. The German government refused to allow its banks to lend money to Russia, but French banks did so eagerly. For example, it funded the essential trans-Siberian railway. Rejected by Germany, Russia cautiously began a policy of rapprochement with France starting in 1891 while the French for their part were very interested in the Russian offers of an alliance.  In August 1891, France and Russia signed a "consultative pact" where both nations agreed to consult each other if another power were to threaten the peace of Europe. Negotiations were increasingly successful, and in early 1894 France and Russia agreed to the [[Franco-Russian Alliance]], a military pledge to join together in war if Germany attacked either of them. The alliance was intended to deter Germany from going to war by presenting it with the threat of a two-front war; neither France or Russia could hope to defeat Germany on its own, but their combined power might do so. France had finally escaped its diplomatic isolation. The alliance was secret until 1897, when the French government realized that secrecy was defeating its deterrent value. After France was humiliated by Britain in the [[Fashoda Incident]] of 1898, the French wanted the alliance to become an anti-British alliance. In 1900, the alliance was amended to name Great Britain as a threat and stipulated that should Britain attack France, Russia would invade India. The French provided a loan so that the Russians could start the construction of a railroad from Orenburg to [[Tashkent]]. Tashkent in its turn would be the base from which the Russians would invade Afghanistan as the prelude to invading India.

20th century.

[[File:Map Europe alliances 1914-en.svg|thumb|right|[[List of military alliances#Twentieth century|European military alliances]] prior to [[World War I]]]] In 1902, Japan formed a military alliance with Britain, which built up an [[Anglo-Japanese alliance]]. In response, Russia worked with France in order to renege on agreements to reduce troop strength in [[Manchuria]]. On March 16, 1902, a mutual pact was signed between France and Russia. Japan later fought Russia in the [[Russo-Japanese war]]. France remained neutral in this conflict.  In 1908-09 during the [[Bosnian crisis]], France declined to support Russia against Austria and Germany. The lack of French interest in supporting Russia during the Bosnia crisis was the low point of Franco-Russian relations with the [[Emperor Nicholas II]] making no effort to hide his disgust at the lack of support from what was supposed to be his number one ally. Nicholas seriously considered abrogating the alliance with France, and was only stopped by the lack of an alternative. Further linking France and Russia together was a common economic interests. Russia wished to industrialize, but lacked the capital to do so while the French were more than prepared to lend the necessary money to finance Russia's industrialisation. By 1913, French investors had invested 12 billion francs into Russian assets, making the French the largest investors in the Russian empire. The industrialisation of the Russian Empire was partially the result of a massive influx of French capital into the country.

USSR: 1917-1941.

The Bolsheviks opted for peace with Germany in 1917 and refused to recognize the czarist loans. In December 1917 France broke relations and Supported the anti-Bolshevik cause. It supported the White Guard in the Civil War, and supported Poland in the war of 1920. The operations failed, and France switched from a diplomacy of opposition to one of containment of communism, with sharply reduced contacts. French communist continue to visit Moscow, and promote communism in France, but there was no official presence. By 1924, Comintern efforts to overthrow capitalism had failed, and the New Economic Policy met the Soviets were eager for international trade. As a result, the Herriot government in Paris officially recognized the Soviet Union, leading to a rapid growth of commercial and cultural exchanges. Soviet artists were welcomed in Paris, especially [[Maxim Gorky]] and [[Ilya Ehrenburg]], In turn, Moscow honored leading French artists.  Soviet diplomats in France sought a military alliance with France in the early 1930s, but the French were distrustful of the Soviets. The rapid growth of power in Nazi Germany encouraged both Paris and Moscow to form a military alliance, and a weak one was signed in May 1935. A firm believer in collective security, Stalin's foreign minister [[Maxim Litvinov]] worked very hard to form a closer relationship with France and Britain. In 1939 French and British diplomats tried to form a military alliance with Moscow, but the Germans offered much better terms. The Soviet-German pact of August 1939 indicated Moscow's decisive break with Paris, as it became an economic ally of Germany.

USSR: 1941 to 1991.

[[File:Yak 3 Le Bourget 01.JPG|thumb|FAFL "[[Normandie-Niemen]]" Yak-3 preserved at the Paris [[Le Bourget]] [[French Air and Space Museum|museum]].]] When Germany invaded the USSR in 1941 [[Charles de Gaulle]] emphasized that [[Free France]] supported the USSR. In December 1944, de Gaulle went to Moscow; The two nations signed a treaty of alliance and mutual assistance. The treaty was finally renounced in 1955, long after the Cold War had begun.  Stalin thought France was no longer a great power so de Gaulle had to make concessions to Stalin to obtain Soviet support against Anglo-Saxon dominance. There was a hope of making France a bridge between the Soviets and the Anglo-Americans. All of the Big Three refused to pretend that France was a power again, so it was not invited to the decisive Yalta conference in February 1945, which was humiliating. The emerging [[Cold War]] produced new tensions. When de Gaulle became the French leader in 1945, he put communists in minor roles in his government, blocking them from key positions such as a home office, the foreign office, and the war office. Furthermore, the successful Communist efforts to seize power in Poland, directed by Stalin, were worrisome to the French. With Roosevelt replaced by Harry Truman, France increasingly turned to the American presence in Western Europe to maintain balance of power.  The Communist Party was a strong political influence in France, and was under the direction of the Kremlin. It drew support from certain labor unions, from veterans of the anti-Nazi resistance, and from artists and intellectuals. Communists emphasized anti-Americanism, to win support in the artistic and cultural communities. [[Pablo Picasso]] was an outspoken anti-American communist. In 1947 the French Communist Party was at its height, and there was speculation it might come to power. However the Soviet strong-arm tactics and Eastern Europe, combined with strong opposition from key few French government officials, broke the power of the Party and sent it into a downward spiral.  [[Decolonization]] of the [[French colonial empire]] gave Moscow the opportunity to provide propaganda support for the anti-colonial fighters, as well as weapons, especially in [[Algerian War|Algeria]] and [[First Indochina War|Vietnam]]. this angered French moderates. Despite the pressure from the left, the Fourth Republic had more urgent concerns regarding relations with Germany, and economy supported by Marshall plan money, fears of communist subversion in the colonial empire, and American support for the anti-communist war in Vietnam. Official government policy supported the United States and NATO. When de Gaulle returned to power 1958, relations with Moscow improved. De Gaulle did not trust the United States to use nuclear weapons in defense of France, so it built its own. To enhance France's global prestige, it tried to be a broker between Moscow and Washington.  In May 1960, de Gaulle hosted a summit in Paris between Soviet leader [[Nikita Khrushchev]] and NATO leaders. The summit worked poorly. De Gaulle then moved away from NATO to concentrate more on Europe as an independent actor. He reduced reliance on the American military because the Cold War was heating up between Washington and Moscow. France never officially left NATO, but de Gaulle sharply reduced its military commitment In the 1960s.  Relations were badly hurt by Soviet invasion of [[Czechoslovakia]] in 1968, And the rejection of communism by numerous artists and intellectuals. However, the emergence of [[Eurocommunism]] made détente possible in the 1970s. Soviet premier [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] made a visit to France in October 1985 in order to fix the strains in the Franco-Soviet relations. Nevertheless, France's bilateral activities continued with NATO, which made close deals with Communist USSR impossible.

Since 1991.

[[File:Dmitry Medvedev 8 October 2008-4.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Russian president [[Dmitry Medvedev]] (right) and French president [[Nicolas Sarkozy]] in 2008.]]  The USSR disintegrated in 1991 and Communism collapsed in France and across Europe. Bilateral relations between France and Russia became warm. On February 7, 1992 France signed a bilateral treaty, recognizing Russia as a successor of the USSR. As described by the Paris the bilateral relations between France and Russia remain longstanding, and remain strong to this day.  During the [[2008 Georgia-Russia War]], Sarkozy did not insist on territorial integrity of [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]. Moreover, there were no French protests when Russia failed to obey Sarkozy's deal to withdraw from Georgia and recognizing governments in Georgia's territories.  One of the major news has been the sale of [[Mistral class amphibious assault ship]]s to Russia. The deal which was signed at 2010, is the first major arms deal between Russia and the [[Western world]] since [[World War II]]. The deal has been criticized for neglecting the security interests of Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Georgia.  Before [[Syrian Civil War]], Franco-Russian relations were generally improving. After years flailing behind Germany and Italy, France decided to copy them by emphasising the bilateral relationship. Ever since the [[Eurozone crisis|financial crisis took hold]], European powers have been forced to court emerging markets more and Moscow meanwhile wanted to diversify its own economy. President Hollande summed up the attitude towards what some said Putin's repressive array of new laws during his first official visit to Moscow in February 2013: "I do not have to judge, I do not have to evaluate".

Since 2015: cooperation against ISIS.

[[File:Kylian Mbappé receives the best young player award at the 2018 Football World Cup Russia.jpg|thumb|right|[[Vladimir Putin]] and [[Emmanuel Macron]] at the [[2018 FIFA World Cup]] in Russia]] France and Russia were both attacked by the [[Middle-East]]ern [[Islamist]] group [[ISIS]]. As a response, [[François Hollande]] and [[Vladimir Putin]] agreed on ordering their respective armed forces to "cooperate" with one another in the fight against the terrorist organization. The French President has called upon the international community to bring "together of all those who can realistically fight against this terrorist army in a large and unique coalition." The French-Russian bombing cooperation is considered to be an "unprecedented" move, given that France is a member of [[NATO]].  The [[List of newspapers in France|French press]] highlighted that ISIS is the first common enemy that France and Russia fight shoulder to shoulder since [[World War II]]. A Russian newspaper recalled that "WWII had forced the Western World and the Soviet Union to overcome their ideological differences", wondering whether ISIS would be the "new [[Hitler]]".

French intelligence services in Russia.

In 1980 France's domestic intelligence service, the [[Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire|DST]] recruited [[KGB]] officer [[Vladimir Vetrov]] as a double agent.

Russian intelligence services in France.

During the Cold War, Russian [[active measures]] targeted French public opinion. Some indication of the success is given by polls that showed more French support to the Soviet Union than the United States.  According to French counterintelligence sources in 2010, Russian espionage operations against France have reached levels not seen since the 1980s.

Examples of operations.

Examples of suspected or verified Soviet and Russian operations:

External links.

[[Category:France–Russia relations| ]] [[Category:Bilateral relations of Russia]] [[Category:Bilateral relations of France|Russia]]

France–Russia relations (,, "Rossiysko-frantsuzskiye otnosheniya") date back to the early modern period. According to a 2017 Pew Global Attitudes Project survey, 36% of French people have a favorable view of Russia, with 62% expressing an unfavorable view. A 2018 opinion poll published by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center shows that 81% of Russians have a favorable view of France, with 19% expressing a negative opinion.

Cet article traite des relations entre la France et la Russie. La France a une ambassade à Moscou tandis que la Russie a une ambassade à Paris.


Plot.

The film takes place in an asylum, in the countryside. Amid a torrential rainstorm, a janitor wanders through the halls revealing the various patients suffering from mental illness. The next day, a young woman arrives and is surprised to see her father, the janitor, working there. Her mother is an inmate in the asylum and had gone insane due to the cruelty of her husband, the janitor, when he was a sailor. The husband, feeling guilty, had taken a job at the asylum to care for her. The daughter announces that she is soon to marry a fine young man, but the janitor begins to worry, since society at the time still maintained the prejudiced view that mental illness was inherited. If the young man's family learns about the mother, the marriage might be called off.  At work, the janitor's relationship with his wife, unknown to the asylum, interferes with his job, as he gets into a fight with some male inmates when his wife is hit, and he is sternly scolded by the head doctor. All this sparks in the janitor to experience a number of fantasies, as he slowly loses control of his border between dreams and reality. He first has a daydream about winning a chest of drawers at a lottery that he could give to his daughter as part of her dowry. When his daughter comes to tell him her marriage is in trouble, he thinks about taking his wife away from the asylum to hide her existence. Finally, he fantasizes about killing the head doctor, but that reverie goes out of hand as a bearded inmate is seen marrying his daughter. The janitor finally dreams of distributing masks to the inmates, providing them at last with happy faces. He returns to work mopping the floors, no longer able to visit his wife's ward because he had lost the keys (picked up by the doctor). He sees the bearded inmate pass by, who bows to him for the first time, as if bowing to his father-in-law.

Release.

Initial release.

"A Page of Madness" was first screened in Tokyo on July 10, 1926. Screenings would have included live narration by a storyteller or as well as musical accompaniment. The famous benshi Musei Tokugawa narrated the film at the Musashinokan theater in Shinjuku in Tokyo.

Contemporary screenings.

The film was screened at the 2018 Ebertfest, on April 20. It has also screened at the Lincoln Center in New York City featuring a live accompaniment with the Alloy Orchestra and the Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York.

Reception.

Modern.

Reception of the film since its rediscovery has been mostly positive. Dennis Schwartz from "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" awarded the film a grade A, calling it "a vibrant and unsettling work of great emotional power". "Time Out Magazine", praised the film, writing, ""A Page of Madness" remains one of the most radical and challenging Japanese movies ever seen here." Panos Kotzathanasis from "Asian Movie Pulse.com" called it "a masterpiece", praising the film's acting, music, and imagery. Jonathan Crow from Allmovie praised its "eerie, painted sets", lighting, and editing, calling it "a striking exploration of the nature of madness". Nottingham Culture's "BBC" preview of the film called it, "a balletic musing on our subconscious nightmares, examining dream states in a way that is both beautiful and highly disturbing." Jonathan Rosenbaum of "The Chicago Reader" praised the film's expressionist style, imagery, and depictions of madness as being "both startling and mesmerizing".  It was later included at number 50 in "Slant Magazine"s "100 Best Horror Movies of All Time", citing the film's visuals and atmosphere as 'lingering long after the film ends'.

A Page of Madness (Japanese: 狂った一頁, Hepburn: "Kurutta Ippēji" or "Kurutta Ichipeiji") is a 1926 Japanese silent film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa. Lost for forty-five years until being rediscovered by its director in his storehouse in 1971, the film is the product of an avant-garde group of artists in Japan known as the Shinkankakuha (or School of New Perceptions) who tried to overcome naturalistic representation.

Une page folle, en anglais "A Page of Madness", est un film muet japonais en noir et blanc réalisé par Teinosuke Kinugasa, sorti en 1926.


Playing career.

On 29 May 2012, the Boston Bruins announced that they had signed Svedberg from the Swedish Elite League to an Entry Level Contract. Svedberg made his AHL debut on 19 October 2012 against the Manchester Monarchs. Svedberg was called up to the Boston Bruins on 24 May 2013. Svedberg was also voted as the AHL 2012–13 goalie of the year.  Svedberg made his NHL debut on 2 January 2014 in a home game against the Nashville Predators, playing all 60:50 of game time into a short overtime, resulting in a 3-2 Bruins win.  After the Bruins were eliminated by the Montreal Canadiens in the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs, on 23 June 2014 Svedberg was signed to a one-year, one-way contract by the Bruins, in anticipation of 2013–14 Bruins backup goaltender Chad Johnson becoming an unrestricted free agent. He appeared in 18 games with the Bruins over the course of the season, collecting 7 wins  As a restricted free agent after his first year as the Bruins backup in the 2014–15 season, Svedberg opted to sign a one-year KHL contract with Russian club, Salavat Yulaev Ufa on 10 May 2015. After leading all KHL goaltenders in games won during 2015–16, he re-signed a two-year contract extension with Salavat.  Sveberg was released from the final year of his contract with Salavat in order to return to the NHL ranks, agreeing to a one-year, two-way contract as a free agent with the Minnesota Wild on 1 July 2017. In the 2017–18 season within the Wild organization, Svedberg was assigned for the duration of the year to AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild. In 44 appearances he compiled 18 wins with 18 losses.  On June 8, 2018, Svedberg as an impending free agent signed a two-year contract to return to Sweden with Timrå IK in the SHL. In the 2018–19 season, Svedberg registered just 10 wins in 35 games with Timrå IK, unable to keep the club from suffering relegation to the Allsvenskan.  In order to continue in the SHL, Svedberg left Timrå IK and agreed to join original hometown junior club, Djurgårdens IF for the final year of his contract on 7 June 2019.

Niklas Svedberg (born 4 September 1989) is a Swedish professional ice hockey goaltender currently playing under contract with Djurgårdens IF of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). He won a Swedish championship title in 2012 with Brynäs IF.

Niklas Svedberg (né le à Sollentuna en Suède) est un joueur professionnel suédois de hockey sur glace. Il évolue au poste de gardien de but.


Conception.

The novel was originally conceived as a play. The play was written in 2007 and produced at the National Theatre of Finland. In writing the novel, Oksanen chose for the plot to diverge from its original ending and focus on different themes.

Background.

After existing as an independent country for twenty-one years, Estonia was occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union in June 1940 during World War II. In 1941–1944, Estonia was occupied by Nazi Germany. From February to November 1944, the German forces were expelled by the Red Army. The Soviet rule was re-established by force, and sovietisation followed, mostly carried out in 1944–1950. The forced collectivisation of agriculture began in 1947, and was completed after the mass deportation in March 1949. The Soviet authorities confiscated private farms and forced peasants to join collective farms. An armed resistance movement of forest brothers was active until the mass deportations. A total of 30,000 participated in or supported the movement; 2,000 were killed. The Soviet authorities fighting the forest brothers also suffered hundreds of casualies. Some innocent civilians were killed on both sides. In addition, a number of underground nationalist schoolchildren's groups were active. Most of their members were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. The punitive actions decreased rapidly after Joseph Stalin's death in 1953; from 1956–58, a large part of the deportees and political prisoners were allowed to return. Political arrests and numerous other kinds of crimes against humanity were committed during the occupation period until the late 1980s. In the end, the attempt to integrate the Estonian society into the Soviet system failed. Although the armed resistance was defeated, the population remained anti-Soviet. This helped Estonians to organise a new resistance movement in the late 1980s, regain their independence in 1991, and then rapidly develop a modern society.

Plot.

The plot begins in 1992 with an elderly woman, Aliide Truu, who lives in a remote portion of Estonia. The woman had isolated herself from the surrounding society and watches the youth of her nation, including her daughter, leaving the countryside for the more urban regions and Finland. One day while looking out the kitchen window, she discovers Zara, the granddaughter of her sister Ingel. Zara had been forced into sex trade by the Russian mafia, but has escaped from them. The only guide she had to finding help is a photograph from her grandmother with Aliide's name on it. The story then continues with a series of flashbacks, which develops the relationship between Aliide and her sister, which hinged upon their competition for the love of Hans Pekk during World War II. The story ends as Aliide begins to reconcile herself with her jealousy of her sister, and Zara's redemption from her disenchantment with the world caused by her sexual subjugation.

Characters.

The plot of "Purge" focuses on two main female characters, on both of whom reviewers have commented as being complex and integral to the understanding of the themes of the book. The novel begins with Aliide Truu, an elderly woman who has survived many horrors of the Soviet occupation of Estonia. The Aliide whom the reader first meets has alienated herself from the local people, and is strongly self-reliant. Though cloaked in a rough exterior, she represents a woman who has weathered considerable hardship. She has hardly anything in the way of motherly instinct, especially in regard to the other main character, Zara.  Zara is the grandniece of Aliide, and at the beginning of the book she is subjected to sex trafficking by the Russian mafia. Her interaction with her great-aunt eventually forces Aliide to reconstruct and confront the history of her past. Ultimately, Aliide is responsible for delivering Zara from the torments caused by the sexual violence perpetrated against her.

Themes.

Sexual violence and its manifestation in the sex trade becomes one of the central themes in the book. Both of the main characters lose control of their bodies as they are abused. Though each women perseveres through the disgrace and purges herself of this disgrace by burning their clothes. However, sexual violence and terror recurs when Tallinn gets a sex shop that is staffed by ex-KGB, who had perpetuated the violence earlier in the novel. Ultimately, Oksanen successfully captures the horrors inflicted upon women by European military conflicts as well as exploring contemporary sex trafficking.  Resistance also permeates the book, especially against the Russification of Estonia. In the entries in Hans' diary and other parts of the narrative the anti-Russification poet Paul-Eerik Rummo appear. Also, Zara's grandmother continues to hold on to native Estonian tongue, resisting a change in language.  The complexity of family history and the uncovering of tragedy in that history is fundamental to the book. However, the focus is increasingly upon the story of the protagonist, sometimes missing some of the more horrifying or interesting parts of Estonian History. Jacob Silverman in "The New Republic" points out that this perspective on history, which only carries the narrative up to 1992, offers a contemporary perspective on the issues that face modern Estonia and a "window... of understanding" into it and its past.

Style.

"Purge" on the surface level is very bleak, while it explores the dark events of the Soviet occupation of Estonia. A review in the "Winnipeg Free Press" pointed out that Oksanen did "not shrink from depicting rape, torture or murder." The novel is also very realistic, focusing on small details of the characters, as well as presenting very close visual detail. The realism even goes so far as to depict tender moments, so that these horrific historical events can have a "human face". By doing so, Oksanen creates what Jacob Silverman called an "empathic treatment of all the miserable choices Estonians faced during their periods of oppression" under the brutal rule of the Soviet Union.  The story has very short chapters, with quickly shifting times and locations, which a Canadian reviewer mused was probably because of its original conception as a play. Finlit reviewer Lauri Sihvonen places emphasis on this precision of detail and style, saying "everything is packed into the language, every verb lives and breathes"  The narrative is interspersed with notebook entries of Hans Pekk and continues to move back and forth through time via flashbacks. This organization does not follow traditional chronology, but as Paul Binding in "The Independent" said, it "corresponds to an inner logic of association and feeling, and so builds up the more strongly to the emotionally shattering climax." However this logic is hyperfocused on the telling of the story of the protagonists, sometimes ignoring some of the more brutal or poignant parts of history.  Suspense is also an important element to the novel, as secrets from the family's past are revealed.

Reception.

The novel ranked number one on the bestseller list for fiction in Finland and Estonia. The novel subsequently won the Finlandia Prize (2008), the Runeberg Prize (2009) the Nordic Council Literature Prize (2010) and Prix Femina (2010). The novel won the Fnac prize in 2010, selected from some 300 works published in France amid positive reviews by French critics, it was the first time the prize had been awarded to a foreigner. The success of the novel has seen a resurgence of the play on stage with premieres of the play happening across Europe, notably at London's Arcola Theatre on the 24 February 2012 (on Estonian independence day) www.arcolatheatre.com. A film of the same name was released in the fall of 2012, produced by Markus Selin, and directed by Antti Jokinen. An opera of the same name, composed by Jüri Reinvere, was shown in the Finnish National Opera in 2012.  In Estonia, the book has been met with mixed views. Some like Piret Tali and Jaan Kaplinski have expressed more critical views, seeing the book as too trivial and sensationalist, whereas others like Mihhail Lotman have defended the author. Professor Rein Raud agrees that the narrative is skilfully composed. He questions, however, the book's historical license, and hints that the book's success in Estonia may derive from its alignment with the currently "correct ideology" in Estonian historiography, whereby Raud sees parallels with Hans Leberecht's communist propaganda writings. In "Library Journal", reviewer Evelyn Beck writes that "Oksanen adeptly handles dual story lines and multiple points of view as she keeps us turning pages to reach the dramatic conclusion" and recommended the book "for fans of classic Russian writers like Tolstoy and Pasternak, as well as those who enjoy a contemporary tale of lust and betrayal".

Film.

The novel has been adapted into a film directed by Antti Jokinen and has been selected as the Finnish entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards.

Purge () is a novel by Finnish-Estonian writer Sofi Oksanen, which has been translated into thirty-eight languages. Oksanen's third Finnish-language novel, "Purge" was published in 2008 and is based upon her original play of the same name, staged at the Finnish National Theatre in 2007. As of 2010, "Purge" is the only one of Oksanen's novels which has been translated into English.

Purge (titre original en finnois : "Puhdistus") est un roman finlandais de Sofi Oksanen publié originellement en 2008. La traduction française paraît le aux éditions Stock. La même année le roman est lauréat du prix Femina étranger et du prix du roman Fnac après avoir été vainqueur de très nombreux prix dans les pays nordiques.


Technical characteristics.

This family of satellites is developed in the mid-2000s by the main Russian satellite manufacturer ISS Reshetnev who had already built the Molniya satellites. According to unofficial sources, the satellite uses 3 axes stabilized pressurized platform. Certain components like the on-board computer and the propulsion would be common with the Uragan-M satellites of the Glonass satellite navigation system. The manufacturer indicated that the satellites of the series with a mass of about 2000 kg, have orientable solar arrays and carry three transponders designed to work with the Raduga satellites. The lifespan announced by the manufacturer is 7 years.

Orbit and use.

Like its predecessors, the Meridian satellites are placed in a very elliptical Molniya orbit of 900 × 39000 km x 63° which allows them to remain during a large part of their orbit visible from Arctic areas poorly served by geostationary telecommunications orbits. The launcher used is a Soyuz 2.1a with a Fregat upper stage which is launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome. The satellite is for mixed civil and military use. Given their orbit, they are mainly intended to provide links with ships and planes operating in the Arctic Ocean, as well as with stations based in the Far East and Siberia.

List of satellites launched.

The first satellite in the series quickly fell victim to space debris according to the Russian authorities. It remains in orbit.  The numbering of the satellites is quite specific. The manufacturer ISS Rechetnyov begins numbering its satellites at 11, the first numbers being reserved for test specimens. The letter L is attached to the number to indicate that it is a flying copy (лётный in Russian). Thus, the first satellite is called Meridian n°11L.  "Last update: 1 March 2020"

Meridian (Russian: Меридиан) is a family of telecommunications satellites for civil and military use developed by Russia in the 2000s placed in a Molniya Orbit and intended to replace the two last series of Molniya satellites still in activity, as well as the old Parus satellites. The first launch took place on 24 December 2006, aboard a Soyuz 2.1a. Seven satellites were launched between 2008 and 2014, six of which reached orbit. A second generation of satellite, Meridian-M was ordered, and the first unit was launched on 30 July 2019.

Meridian () est une famille de satellites de télécommunications à usage civil et militaire développé par la Russie dans les années 2000 placés sur une orbite de Molnia et destinés à remplacer les deux dernières séries de satellites Molnia encore en activité, ainsi que les anciens satellites Parous. Le premier lancement a eu lieu le, à bord d'une Soyouz 2.1a. Sept satellites avaient été lancés entre 2008 et 2014 dont six avec succès. Une deuxième génération de satellite, Meridian-M a été commandée, et la première unité fut lancée le.


Career.

College and amateur.

Rowe appeared as an attacking midfielder for the UCLA Bruins, and was a standout player during his freshman year in 2010, ranking second in the Pac-10 Conference in assists with ten and winning the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year award.  Rowe started 21 games for the Bruins in his freshman year in 2010, scoring seven goals and adding ten assists. As well as winning the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year award, Rowe was also selected to the All-Pac-10 First-team and Third-team All-American, while leading the Bruins to the Louisville, Kentucky Regional Game in the 2010 NCAA Men's Division I Soccer Tournament.  Rowe took the spring quarter off at UCLA to train and play with the U.S. U-20 national team full-time. In 2011, Rowe spent the summer on trial with the German Bundesliga club 1. FC Köln before returning to UCLA for his sophomore season.  During Rowe's sophomore campaign he scored six goals and tallied 10 assists during UCLA's run to the semifinals of the NCAA College Cup.

Professional.

Rowe was drafted 3rd overall in the 2012 MLS SuperDraft, by the New England Revolution. He was listed in January 2012 by ESPN as one of the top 10 American players under 21. He is known for his ball skills and passing ability. He scored his first goal in the 2012 campaign for the New England Revolution in a surprising win over defending MLS Champions the Los Angeles Galaxy 3–1 on the road.  Rowe won MLS Player of the Week honors for his two-goal performance in a 5–1 win over the Philadelphia Union in Week 25 of the 2013 Season.  In June 2018, The Revolution were approached by an unnamed Israeli Premier League club regarding a potential transfer for Rowe, however no deal was made as terms could not be agreed upon by the teams.  On December 18, 2018, Rowe was traded to Colorado Rapids in exchange for Edgar Castillo, then was immediately traded to Sporting Kansas City in exchange for Diego Rubio, $200,000 of General Allocation Money and $100,000 of Targeted Allocation Money.  Rowe was further traded to Real Salt Lake on August 7, 2019.  Rowe was signed as a free agent by the New England Revolution on December 4, 2019.

International.

Rowe played for the U.S. U-18 national team, and the U.S. U-20 national team, starting in all three games, scoring three goals and assisting on one in the 2011 CONCACAF U-20 Championship tournament, while wearing the number 10 jersey.  Rowe was added to the December U-23 Men's National Team training camp roster in 2012.  Rowe was named to the senior national team squad for the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup. He made his debut in a friendly match against Ghana on July 1, 2017, and scored his first goal in a group stage match against Nicaragua on July 15, 2017.

Kelyn Jaynes Rowe (born December 2, 1991) is an American soccer player who currently plays for New England Revolution in Major League Soccer.

Kelyn Rowe, est un joueur international américain de soccer, né le à Federal Way dans l'État de Washington. Il joue au poste d'attaquant au Revolution de la Nouvelle-Angleterre en MLS.


Orbit and classification.

In the SMASS taxonomy, the X-type asteroid is classified as a Xe-type, an intermediary that transitions to the bright E-type asteroids. The spectra of a Xe-type contains an absorption feature near 0.49 μm, which is thought to be related with the presence of the iron sulfide mineral troilite, typically found in lunar and Martian meteorites. "Aënna" orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 2.1–2.9 AU once every 3 years and 10 months (1,413 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.16 and an inclination of 7° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins at Heidelberg with its official discovery observation in 1928.

Physical characteristics.

Rotation period.

French amateur astronomer René Roy obtained a rotational lightcurve of "Aënna" from photometric observations taken in December 2015. Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 8.07 hours with a brightness variation of 0.28 magnitude ().

Diameter and albedo.

According to the surveys carried out by the Japanese Akari satellite and NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, "Aënna" measures between 9.28 and 14.09 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo between 0.225 and 0.356. The "Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link" agrees best with Akari, and derives an albedo of 0.2169 with a diameter of 11.36 kilometers and an absolute magnitude of 12.0.

Naming.

This minor planet was named after "Astronomische Nachrichten", one of the first international journals in the field of astronomy. The constructed name "Aënna" contains the German pronunciation of the initials "A" and "N" followed by the mandatory feminine ending used for asteroids. The naming was proposed by the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut and mentioned in "The Names of the Minor Planets" by Paul Herget in 1955 ().

1155 Aënna, provisional designation, is an asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 11 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 26 January 1928, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. It is named for the astronomy journal "Astronomische Nachrichten".

(1155) Aënna est un astéroïde de la ceinture principale découvert le par l'astronome allemand Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth à Heidelberg. Sa désignation provisoire était.


Biography.

Born on March 26, 1941, in Warsaw, he graduated from the Tomasz Zan High School in Pruszków and then, in 1963, from the Faculty of Polish Language Studies at Warsaw University (summa cum laude). It was during his university years that he started collaborating with the Hybrydy student theatre and cabaret. By the mid-1960s he became an established author of texts for numerous cabarets, the most famous of which were the Dudek, Dreszczowiec and Owca groups. By the late 1960s, several of his songs became hits on Polish Television; Młynarski also gained popularity as a translator of texts of French and Russian poets and songwriters, including Jacques Brel, Georges Brassens, Gilbert Bécaud and Vladimir Vysotsky. For his translations of the French language lyrics and poetry, particularly that of Jacques Brel, Charles Aznavour and Georges Brassens, Młynarski was awarded the French Legion of Honour ("Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur")"." He is the recipient of several Polish State orders, including the Order of the White Eagle.  In the 1970s, Wojciech Młynarski authored numerous operas and musicals, including "Henryk VI na łowach", "Cień" and "Awantura w Recco". He also translated the librettos of the musicals "Cabaret", "Chicago" and "Jesus Christ Superstar" into Polish.  In 2013, the first Festival of Wojciech Młynarski's Songs was organized in the city of Sopot.  He died on March 15, 2017 after a long illness.

Personal life.

He was married to the actress Adrianna Godlewska (later divorced). The couple had 3 children: Agata Młynarska (born 1965), a Polish TV celebrity journalist, director and producer; Paulina Młynarska (born 1970) a journalist and an actress; and Jan Młynarski (born 1979), a musician.  Wojciech Młynarski was related to Emil Młynarski, Polish composer and the founder of the Warsaw Philharmonic; composer and painter Roman Orłow; and related by marriage to pianist Arthur Rubinstein.  http://festiwalmlynarskiego.pl

References.

Wojciech Młynarski (March 26, 1941 – March 15, 2017) was a Polish poet, singer, songwriter, translator and director. A well-known figure on the Polish musical scene, he was most famous for his ballads and what is known as sung poetry, as well as for his collaboration with numerous vocalists and cabarets. He wrote lyrics to more than 2,000 songs, a small fraction of which he sang himself. His songs received a total of 25 "Karolinkas", which are the main awards of the Polish Song Festival in Opole, the most important Polish song festival, occurring annually since 1963. He also composed music to some of his songs. He is considered an icon of Polish culture.

Wojciech Marian Młynarski, né le à Varsovie (Pologne) et mort le dans la même ville, est un écrivain, poète, auteur-compositeur, metteur en scène polonais.


History and construction.

In 1911, the Manitoba government announced an architectural competition to all architects in the British Empire. A grand prize of $10,000 was offered for the best design for the new Manitoba Legislative Building. It is the third building used by Manitoba's legislative assembly, the first being the home of A.G.B. Bannatyne, while the second stood on the same grounds as the current Legislative building. Of the 67 submissions, Frank Worthington Simon, a former student at the École des Beaux-Arts, had his design chosen for the construction of the impressive structure.  Construction began in 1913, with Tyndall stone, quarried at Garson, about 20 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. On June 3, 1914 the north-east cornerstone ceremony, which was commonly done by masons, was laid by Thomas Kelly, the contractor. Kelly stole many of the materials to build his own house three blocks away, so the construction of the massive building was slowed and was not ready for partial occupancy until 1919. On July 15, 1920, the province's 50th anniversary date, opening ceremonies were performed by Sir James Aikins, then Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba.  The base of the building forms the letter "H". The total square footage of the building is, with a total height of above ground level topped with a bronze statue, gilded with 23.75 k gold leaf, of the Greek God Hermes or the Roman God Mercury. The Legislative grounds cover of landscaped grounds. Throughout the exterior and interior of the building are examples of Fibonacci Sequence, Golden Ratio and Sacred Geometry.

Exterior.

On the north side of the Legislative Building, above the 6 main columns, is the main pediment. In the bottom-left corner of the pediment is the Indolent Man, with a half-kneeling woman, the spirit of progress, beckoning the Indolent Man into the new land of promise. Next is the goddess Europa leading a bull, symbolizing Canada's European heritage and immigration. To the right of Europa, a man, woman and child symbolizing the colonization of a new land. Seated in the centre is Lady Manitoba with the rays of the sun behind her. Lady Manitoba closely resembles the fertility goddesses Ishtar and Demeter, both patron deities of agriculture. To the west is Neptune's trident symbolizing the Pacific Ocean, to the east is a ship’s wheel symbolizing the Atlantic Ocean. Adjacent to Lady Manitoba are a man and a woman laden with wheat and fruit, products of the soil. Next is a muscular male figure with a team of powerful horses and a primitive plough tilling the soil. Finally in the bottom right corner are two entwined female figures representing the Red and Assiniboine Rivers.  Above the main pediment, flanking both sides are two Egyptian sphinxes facing both east and west. Carved onto a flat piece of stone, just below the chin, in Egyptian hieroglyphics, is "The everlasting manifestation of the Sun God Ra, the good God who gives life."  On both the east and west porticos sit figures representing war and peace. On the east side, with engraved images of weapons of war, are two male figures, one a native warrior with an eagle head-dress, another a Roman soldier, and on the west side there are two female figures for peace. Each pair guards a chest, rumoured to represent the Ark of the Covenant because of the proper proportions as mentioned in the ancient Hebrew texts.  On the grounds of the Legislative Building, facing the Assiniboine River, there is the Louis-Riel sculpture by Miguel Joyal. It was erected in 1996 and commemorates Métis leader Louis Riel.

The Golden Boy.

Each one of the four corners of the copper dome supporting the Golden Boy has a stonework grouping representing the four elements of alchemy, earth, air, fire and water. They are identified as Agriculture, Science, Industry and Art. The dome is above the main floor. The height of the central tower without the Golden Boy is. The statue was first installed in 1919, originally called "Eternal Youth", and sculpted by Parisian artist Georges Gardet. The Golden Boy was last regilded and refurbished in 2002, and is illuminated by floodlights.

Grand Staircase.

Within the main entrance is the Grand Staircase. This is a perfectly square room measuring on each side, which is meant to represent the numerological number 666, which are all the numbers added from one to 36, which is the square of 6, in mathematics, geometry, and arithmetic. The staircase is composed of three flights of steps each with 13 steps. The steps are brown-veined Carrara marble, the finest marble in the world. Flanking the steps are life size North American bison. Made of solid bronze, they were modelled by Georges Gardet, creator of the Golden Boy, and cast at the Roman Bronze Works in New York City. Each bison weighs 2,268 kilograms (21⁄2 tons). Legend has it that to install the bison safely without damaging the marble floors, the main entrance was flooded and left to freeze. Both bison were then placed on enormous slabs of ice cut from the Assiniboine River, and safely slid into the building. The bison are one example of apotropaic icons in the Grand Staircase.  The bison, a symbol of the Province of Manitoba, are meant to represent the sacred bulls which guard temple entrances. Above the south entrance to the legislature lobby is the Medusa's head, and over the north entrance facing Medusa is the bust of Athena, Greek goddess of war, embodiment of democracy and also the protector of cities. Around the perimeter of the room are 14 lion heads and 8 cattle skulls at the edge of the ceiling. Around the second floor balcony, lamps rise from the balustrades, each containing 13 bulbs, 12 around 1 (Twelve Apostles and Jesus). The third floor facing the Grand Staircase is supported by two pairs of columns, reproductions of the caryatids, sculpted female figures serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar. Each figure holds a scroll and key. The figures located on the third floor were carved by the Piccirilli Brothers of New York, using models prepared by Albert Hodge of London, England. The ceiling is made of a glass atrium to allow natural sunlight to illuminate the room.

Rotunda.

The antechamber at the head of the grand staircase provides a formal approach to the legislative chamber. 8 Corinthian columns rise from the floor to the cornice surrounding the base of the dome. Between each pair of columns are busts of Hermes. The floor of the dome rotunda is Tennessee marble bordered with black Vermont and verde antique marble. The height to the eye of the dome is and the diameter is. Within the dome above are four panels containing 5 gold rosettes.  In the centre of the Rotunda is an Italian marble balustrade across surrounding the Pool of the Black Star on the floor of the level below, a representation of the altars of the ancient Greeks. The diameter of the circle above the balustrade is also, and both align with the Golden Boy above these. Above the doorway to the Manitoba Assembly is a mural by Frank Brangwyn depicting World War I. In the centre of the painting is a man in tattered rags with his left chest and arm exposed, being helped along by a comrade. Above the men are a faint depiction of The Madonna and child.

Pool of the Black Star.

The Pool of the Black Star is the room below the Rotunda with four entrances and marked by 3 steps forming a circumference of the room. The room is circular with a radius of. At the centre of the floor is an 8-pointed black marble star. Directly above in alignment with the Pool of the Black Star is the dome of the building, on which the Golden Boy is mounted. The design of the building allows sounds from all over the building to be caught and heard in the circular room, and echoes can be heard by speaking in the room.

Lieutenant-Governor's Reception Room.

In the east corridor of the Manitoba Legislative Building is the Lieutenant-Governor's Reception Room. This finely decorated room is used by the Lieutenant-Governor on state occasions to receive visiting royalty and foreign dignitaries and general public is barred from entry. During such events, scarlet-coated Royal Canadian Mounted Police are posted on either side of the door and military aides assist the Lieutenant-Governor with official duties. The room is panelled in black American walnut inlaid with ebony, and decorated with hand-carved ornaments around the ceiling and along the four corner pillars. Pictures of sovereigns grace the walls and a French gilt chandelier hangs from the ceiling. The floor features a carpet specially hand-woven in Donegal, Ireland. Facing across from each other on the north and south wall are two elaborate mirrors in gilt frames. The room measures in both directions. Directly above the Lieutenant-Governor's Reception Room are the two male warriors (War), one native in full eagle feathered head dress, and one Roman, guarding the representation of the Ark of the Covenant.

Legislative Chamber.

The Legislative Assembly of Manitoba and the Lieutenant Governor form the Legislature of Manitoba, the legislative branch of government in the Canadian Province of Manitoba. Fifty-seven members are elected to this assembly in provincial general elections, all in single-member constituencies with first-past-the-post voting. Originally, in 1870, there were 24 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). As the province grew in population and size, more electoral divisions were added. Winnipeg was once the third largest city in Canada, and often called Chicago of the North.  Manitoba's Legislative chamber is unique among Provincial Legislatures in that the Members' benches are grouped in a horseshoe shape. The Speaker of the House's chair is located on the south wall below the press gallery of 13 seats. All debate is addressed to the Speaker, who rules on points of order and procedure and has the responsibility of maintaining order and decorum.  When the Legislature is in session, each day begins in accordance with procedures that have origins in the early beginnings of Parliamentary rule. The speaker enters the Legislative Chamber followed by the clerks of the Legislative Assembly and preceded by the Sergeant-at-arms bearing Manitoba's Mace.  The original desks and chairs of the Chamber are fashioned of walnut with inlaid ebony. They are arranged in three tiers rising from a sunken floor in the centre of the Chamber. Each desk is equipped with a microphone connected to a public address system and a recording machine used in the publication of Hansard, a verbatim report of debates and proceedings in the Legislature. During question period, translators provide simultaneous translation from French to English. The Chamber is also equipped for video and internet broadcasts of question period and special events such as throne and budget speeches. Yet even as such changes have brought the assembly into the future, the original inkwells employed by an earlier generation of Manitoban politicians are still visible. To the right of the speaker is a statue of Moses holding the Ten Commandments, to the left is Solon, a famous lawmaker of ancient Athens. Each statue is made of bronze and sculpted by Gardet.

Today.

The cost of reconstruction today would be prohibitive, due to such factors as a shortage of skilled masons.  In 2014, the local government stressed about the state of deterioration of the building to the level of life safety concerns. Tree roots, insects and bird feces are identified as the main threats to the building's longevity.  In March 2015, a military hall of honour opened in the Manitoba Legislative Building commemorating the Manitoba's regiments who fought World War I. In May 2017, Rick Hansen (CEO of the Rick Hansen Institute) criticized the accessibility of the building after Independent MA Steven Fletcher gave him an official tour.

The Manitoba Legislative Building () is the meeting place of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, in central Winnipeg. It was originally named the Manitoba Parliament Building, not Legislative. The neoclassical building was completed in 1920 and stands 77 metres tall (253 ft). It was designed and built by Frank Worthington Simon (1862–1933) and Henry Boddington III, along with other masons and many skilled craftsmen. The building is famous for the Golden Boy, a gold covered bronze statue based on the style of the Roman god Mercury, or the Greek god Hermes, at the top of the cupola, or domed ceiling.

Le palais législatif du Manitoba () est le siège de l'assemblée législative du Manitoba, au centre de Winnipeg. L'édifice Beaux-Arts a été complété en 1920 et il a une hauteur de. Il a été construit selon les plans des architectes Frank Worthington Simon et Henry Boddington III.


Plot.

Mexican rebels hire the "Dutchman" to rob a train carrying $500,000 in gold on behalf of Victoriano Huerta to finance the Mexican Revolution. The Dutchman enlists four other men to assist him: Mesito, a strong man, Luis, a circus acrobat turned outlaw, Augustus, a former army officer and explosives specialist, and a samurai warrior (only referred to only as Samurai), promising to pay each one a thousand dollars.  Immediately after they assemble, their first undertaking is to save the rebel leader who hired them from being executed. After thwarting the execution and causing a riot in the village, the five men are forced to flee, along with all the civilians, in order to prevent reprisals. Nevertheless, some soldiers still manage to find the men and bring them to the local Mexican Army commandant. They manage to escape, killing the soldiers and dynamiting the fort's magazine. They are tracked by a large group of soldiers and are likely to be captured when they come upon a small group of rebels, who are there to cover the Five Man Army's escape. The Dutchman and the rebels all know they will be unable to stop the soldiers, but the rebels are willing to sacrifice themselves for the Five, emphasizing the importance of the Five's mission.  The train carrying the gold is heavily defended by a cannon, machine guns, and dozens of soldiers. The Dutchman's plan is to uncouple the car carrying the gold from the rest of the train without stopping it. The difficult robbery succeeds, despite Samurai falling off the train and Augustus dropping a key piece of equipment. When the Five return to their hideout conflict arises amongst them. Luis, Augustus, Mesito, and Samurai had all assumed they were going to take the gold for themselves, but the Dutchman is set on keeping his promise to the rebels. He disarms the other four and explains to them that his wife had been executed by soldiers since other members of her family were rebels.  The Dutchman is about to leave with the gold, but he is stopped by the arrival of many soldiers. He has no choice but to rearm the other four, who are able to ambush and quickly kill all of the soldiers. Now armed again, Augustus, Mesito, and Samurai attempt to take the gold from the Dutchman. They are stopped at gunpoint by Luis, who has decided that he will join the Revolution. At this point, hundreds of rebels arrive to retrieve their gold. They treat the Five Man Army like heroes, and it is implied that Augustus, Mesito, and Samurai have chosen to join the rebels as well.

Cast.

Peter Graves as the Dutchman  The Dutchman's real name is not revealed. He moved from America to Mexico, where he married a local woman. Some time later, soldier found and executed his wife due to the participation of her father and brothers in the Revolution. The Dutchman was spared, as he knew nothing about the rebels.  James Daly as Augustus  Augustus was formerly a captain in the army, where he was a leading expert on dynamite. He served with the Dutchman in Cuba during the Spanish–American War.  Bud Spencer as Mesito  Mesito is an extremely strong criminal. He once stole an entire train load of cattle, but was imprisoned after he made the mistake of attempting to sell the cattle to their original owner. After he was released from prison, he was forced to make a living doing menial labor.  Nino Castelnuovo as Luis  Luis came from a family of acrobats. He was orphaned following a tragic accident during one performance and turned to a life of crime. He has escaped from prison three times and is skilled with a slingshot.  Tetsuro Tamba as Samurai  Samurai is a quiet man, never revealing his name. He left Japan for America where he found work as a sideshow performer. Despite being a skilled gunman, he prefers to fight with a sword and throwing knives.

DVD.

"The Five Man Army" was released to DVD by Warner Home Video on September 11, 2012 via the Warner Archive DVD-on-demand system available through Amazon.

The Five Man Army () is a 1969 Italian Zapata Western film taking place during the Mexican Revolution. The film was directed by Don Taylor and featured a script by a young Dario Argento. Starring as a group of five men enlisted to rob a train containing a shipment of gold were Peter Graves, James Daly, Bud Spencer, Nino Castelnuovo and Tetsuro Tamba. The film's score was composed by Ennio Morricone.

Cinq hommes armés (titre original : ) est un film italien réalisé par Don Taylor et Italo Zingarelli, sorti en 1969.


Early life and career.

Jessica Meir was born in Caribou, Maine, to a Swedish mother who was a nurse and an Israeli father of Iraqi-Jewish descent, who worked as a physician. Her mother is from Västerås, Sweden; her father was born in Iraq and moved to Israel as a child. He later moved to Sweden where he met Meir's mother who grew up in a Christian family. The couple moved to Maine, US where Meir was born.  Although her mother did not convert, Meir grew up attending synagogue in Presque Isle, Maine. She was inspired to venture into space after watching the Space Shuttle missions on television. Meir knew no one who worked for NASA or for the space program. She attributes her abiding dream of personally participating in space exploration to the love of nature she learned from her mother, and from her father's predilection for wandering and adventure. "And it might have had something to do with the fact that the stars shone so brightly in rural Maine", Meir added.  At the age of 13, Meir attended a youth space camp at Purdue University. During her undergraduate biology studies at Brown University, she also spent a semester in a study abroad program in Stockholm and ran a student experiment on a NASA reduced gravity aircraft "vomit comet" in her senior year. Meir graduated from Brown in 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Biology, with Honors, magna cum laude. In 2000, Meir graduated with a Master of Space Studies from the International Space University in Strasbourg, France.

Comparative physiology research.

Meir earned a Ph.D. in marine biology in 2009 from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography for research on the diving physiology of emperor penguins and northern elephant seals. Meir performed field work at "Penguin Ranch" on McMurdo Sound in Antarctica to study the diving abilities of the emperor penguin while scuba diving alongside them under the ice. She also studied elephant seals while they were diving in the Pacific Ocean off Northern California.  Meir did post-doctoral research at the University of British Columbia, raising bar-headed geese so their tolerance of high altitude and low oxygen levels during flight over the Himalayas could be studied in a controlled environment. For the 2012 academic year she continued her research as an assistant professor of anesthesia at the Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital and then took a leave of absence to enter the astronaut corps.

NASA career.

After getting her master's degree, Meir worked from 2000–2003 for Lockheed Martin Space Operations as an experiment support scientist for the Human Research Facility at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas. Meir coordinated and supported human space life science experiments that were performed by astronauts on Space Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) missions. These experiments included physiological studies (bone loss, muscle control/atrophy, lung function, etc.) to determine if any bodily processes were altered in the spaceflight environment. Meir guided these experiments through the necessary review cycles, developed procedures that the astronauts would use on-orbit, trained crew members, and provided ground support in the Mission Control Center while the astronauts were performing the experiments on the shuttle or ISS.  In September 2002, Meir served as an aquanaut on the joint NASA-NOAA expedition (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations), an exploration research mission held in Aquarius, an undersea research laboratory four miles off shore from Key Largo. Meir and her crewmates spent five days saturation diving from the Aquarius habitat as a space analogue for working and training under extreme environmental conditions. The mission was delayed due to Hurricane Isadore, forcing National Undersea Research Center managers to shorten it to an underwater duration of five days. Then, three days into their underwater mission, the crew members were told that Tropical Storm Lili was headed in their direction and to prepare for an early departure from Aquarius. Fortunately, Lili degenerated to the point where it was no longer a threat, so the crew was able to remain the full five days.  At the time of NEEMO 4, Meir was leaning toward pursuing a PhD in a field related to evolutionary biology and/or life in extreme environments (astrobiology). She was also fascinated by marine biology (which suited the NEEMO mission well), and hoped to coordinate a specific topic of study to combine these main interests. She received her PhD in marine biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, studying diving physiology, in 2009.  In 2009, Meir was a semi-finalist for selection to NASA Astronaut Group 20. For the next selection group in June 2013, Meir was chosen as one of eight astronaut candidates for training in NASA Astronaut Group 21. She completed training in July 2015.  During her time in the astronaut office, Meir has served as the capsule communicator for various missions. She was the lead capsule communicator for Expedition 47, the BEAM mission, and a HTV (Japanese Space Agency cargo vehicle) mission.  Meir is a member of the science advisory board of Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation.

Expedition 61/62.

In April 2019 NASA announced that Meir had been assigned to the crew of International Space Station Expedition 61/62 as flight engineer, scheduled to launch aboard Soyuz MS-15 alongside Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka and MBRSC astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri, who would fly a short duration mission and land with the crew of Soyuz MS-12 eight days after launch.  Meir, Skripochka and Al Mansouri launched aboard MS-15 on 25 September 2019, marking the final flight of the Soyuz-FG rocket and final launch from the Gagarin's Start launch pad, both of which were retired following launch of Soyuz MS-15. The crew successfully reached orbit and rendezvoused with the ISS only six hours later. Soyuz MS-15 docked to the ISS at the very end of Expedition 60, meaning it marked an unusual period on the station where there were nine people aboard, the reason for this was to allow for Al Mansouri's flight, in which he became the first person from the United Arab Emirates to fly in space. Expedition 60 ended on 3 October 2019 when Al Mansouri, alongside Soyuz MS-12 crew members Aleksey Ovchinin and Nick Hague undocked from the station and returned to Earth, returning the ISS to normal six-crew operations during Expedition 61.  During Expedition 61 Meir was scheduled to perform three spacewalks during this mission to help install new lithium-ion batteries on the Port-6 truss structure of the ISS, although this schedule was later changed. On October 18, 2019, Meir performed her first spacewalk alongside her colleague Christina Koch, replacing a faulty Battery Charging Discharging Unit. The unit had unexpectedly failed to activate, preventing the station's newly installed lithium-ion batteries from providing additional power. The three other scheduled spacewalks scheduled to install the new batteries had to be postponed in order to perform this spacewalk. The spacewalk lasted seven hours and 17 minutes, and was the first all-female spacewalk in history. During the spacewalk US president Donald Trump called and spoke to the astronauts in recognition of the historical significance of this event, being corrected by Meir after mistakenly announcing the event as the first time a woman was outside the space station.  On 6 February 2020 Koch, alongside Soyuz MS-13 crew members Aleksandr Skvortsov and Luca Parmitano returned to Earth, following which Meir, Skripochka and Andrew Morgan transferred over to Expedition 62, due to delays with NASA's Commercial Crew Program, most of this increment was spent as a crew of three. During the final eight days of the Expedition, the crew were joined by the three person crew of Soyuz MS-16, Russian cosmonauts Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner joined by NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy, who launched and docked to the station on 9 April 2020. Although their time as a six person crew was short, the expanded Expedition 62 crew made the most of their time together, conducting experiments on how muscles react to long duration spaceflight as part of NASA's Muscle tone in space (Myotones) experiment. On 13 April Meir and Cassidy, both Maine natives, participated in a live conference with several students from around Maine; the two, joined by Andrew Morgan, also participated in a segment of "Some Good News", an internet show hosted by American actor John Krasinski to spread good news during the COVID-19 pandemic.  On 17 April 2020, Meir, joined by Skripochka and Morgan, returned to Earth aboard Soyuz MS-15, wrapping up a 205-day spaceflight for Meir and Skripochka and returning Morgan from a 272-day flight. The departure of the three crew members signaled the start of Expedition 63, commanded by Cassidy, which would see the arrival of the SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission, the first crewed spaceflight to launch from American soil since STS-135, the final flight of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.

Personal life.

Meir played flute, piccolo, and saxophone as a youth, and enjoys reading classical literature. She spent a semester studying at Stockholm University in Sweden during her undergraduate years. She speaks Swedish and Russian (required for astronaut training). Meir enjoys recreational cycling, hiking, running, skiing, soccer and scuba diving, and holds a private pilot's license. Although she is American, due to also holding Swedish citizenship by virtue of her mother's country of birth, she is technically the first Swedish female citizenship-holder in space and the second Swedish citizenship-holder in space overall after ESA astronaut Christer Fuglesang. She speaks Swedish and spent several months in a Swedish university.

Awards.

Meir has received numerous awards including:

Jessica Ulrika Meir (IPA: ; ; born July 1, 1977) is a NASA astronaut, marine biologist, and physiologist. She was previously Assistant Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, following postdoctoral research in comparative physiology at the University of British Columbia. She has studied the diving physiology and behavior of emperor penguins in Antarctica, and the physiology of bar-headed geese, which are able to migrate over the Himalayas. In September 2002, Meir served as an aquanaut on the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 4 () crew. In 2013 she was selected by NASA to Astronaut Group 21. Meir launched on September 25, 2019, to the ISS onboard Soyuz MS-15, where she served as a flight Engineer during Expedition 61 and 62. On October 18, 2019, Meir and Christina Koch were the first women to participate in an all-female spacewalk. The Soyuz capsule carrying Jessica Meir and fellow astronauts Andrew Morgan and Oleg Skripochka touched down on Friday April 17, 2020 near the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, at 11.16am local time.

Jessica Meir, née le à Caribou (États-Unis), est une astronaute de double nationalité américaine et suédoise. Elle a été sélectionnée par la NASA en juin 2013 dans le Groupe d'astronautes 21. Elle a effectué un séjour dans la Station spatiale internationale (ISS) du 25 septembre 2019 au 17 avril 2020 dans le cadre des expéditions 61 et 62. C'est la quinzième femme à s'être rendue dans l'ISS et la première qui a participé à une sortie extravéhiculaire entièrement féminine, avec Christina Koch.


Background.

During the "Battle for the Sun" tour, band members Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal both stated on various occasions that they were working on material for the next studio album. In November 2011, the band announced via their Facebook page and official website that they will be returning to the studio in 2012 to record their seventh studio album.

Recording.

Molko was originally working on material for a possible solo release, and he wrote various songs for it that would later appear on "Loud Like Love". The band went in the recording studio to record some singles, but then they began to record more and more material.  The album was recorded in London's RAK Studios, where Placebo had also recorded their fifth studio album, "Meds". Production duties, as well as mixing, were handled by Adam Noble.

Composition.

The album revolves around the theme of love, in all different forms: romance, happiness and also heartbreak. "Too Many Friends" deals with people spending time on the internet and end up being far more close to the hundreds of friends on the internet than off the computer. "Rob the Bank" is about somebody loving you unconditionally, even if you, in this case, rob a bank.

Release.

The album was announced on 21 May 2013 through the band's official website. "Loud Like Love"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s track listing and its first single, "Too Many Friends", were officially announced on 17 June 2013.  The album's lead single, "Too Many Friends", was released on 8 July 2013. The music video, written and directed by Saman Kesh, was filmed in Los Angeles, and features the first collaboration between Placebo and American novelist Bret Easton Ellis. Another song premiered from the album is the track "Loud Like Love", which was released as a digital download on 6 August 2013 and as a single on 18 March 2014.  The album was released worldwide on 16 September 2013. The release formats include a box set, a deluxe CD digipack with the DVD "Live at RAK Studios", a CD and a 12" vinyl. On the day of "Loud Like Love"'s release, an internet show titled "LLLTV" was streamed live from YouTube Studios in London. It was the first YouTube live stream of its kind. The show featured, among other things, Placebo performing songs from the album and older songs (chosen in part by the audience through an online poll), band interviews and guest appearances by people who collaborated with Placebo on the making of the album.  The album entered the UK Albums Chart at number 13, the first time Placebo have missed the UK Top Ten in ten years (since "Sleeping With Ghosts") and their lowest UK album position ever. The album also entered the French Albums Chart at number 3, the first time they missed the French number one spot since "Without You I'm Nothing" fifteen years earlier. The album charted in the Australian Albums Chart at number 9 and at number 18 in the Irish Albums Chart. "Loud Like Love" is also the first Placebo album to miss the Portuguese Top Five, peaking at number 15. The album entered the US Billboard chart at number 98, where the previous one, "Battle For The Sun", reached number 51. The album did peak at number 1 in Switzerland, Placebo's third album in a row to do so. This currently is the album's only number 1 peak.

Reception.

"Loud Like Love" was met with generally mixed reviews from music critics. The album holds an approval rating of 55/100 at Metacritic, which indicates a mixed or average reception.  "Alternative Press"<nowiki>'</nowiki> Mischa Pearlman wrote that "too much of this album comes off like self-parody, meaning it's a far cry from the pulverizing of their best work". AllMusic wrote that "many of these songs play like less-alienated, if no less paranoid, "OK Computer"-era Radiohead cuts", adding that "however, the songs here are still laden with Molko's high-pitched vocals, which he characteristically uses to play the eternally angst-ridden and alienated teenager -- something the band's fans will surely appreciate", giving the album 3.5 stars out of 5. Amanda Arber of "Clash" said that "Loud Like Love" is "easy to absorb musically and easy to ignore lyrically" and "50 minutes of simply okay alt-rock." "The Guardian" gave the album two stars out of five, saying "the veteran band sticks to what it knows for "Loud Like Love"."

Loud Like Love is the seventh studio album by English alternative rock band Placebo, recorded between 2012 and 2013 and released on 16 September 2013.

Loud Like Love est le septième album studio de Placebo après "Battle for the Sun". Annoncé le sur le site officiel du groupe, il est sorti le.