History.

Prehistoric settlements.

Little is recorded of the earliest inhabitants of the island. Burial chambers and traces of habitation from the Neolithic period (6000–4000 BC) have been discovered, particularly the prehistoric settlements called "talaiots", or "talayots". They raised Bronze Age megaliths as part of their Talaiotic culture. A non-exhaustive list is the following:

Phoenicians, Romans, and Late Antiquity.

The Phoenicians, a seafaring people from the Levant, arrived around the eighth century BC and established numerous colonies. The island eventually came under the control of Carthage in North Africa, which had become the principal Phoenician city. After the Second Punic War, Carthage lost all of its overseas possessions and the Romans took over.  The island was occupied by the Romans in 123 BC under Quintus Caecilius Metellus Balearicus. It flourished under Roman rule, during which time the towns of Pollentia (Alcúdia), and Palmaria (Palma) were founded. In addition, the northern town of Bocchoris, dating back to pre-Roman times, was a federated city to Rome. The local economy was largely driven by olive cultivation, viticulture, and salt mining. Mallorcan soldiers were valued within the Roman legions for their skill with the sling.  In 427, Gunderic and the Vandals captured the island. Geiseric, son of Gunderic, governed Mallorca and used it as his base to loot and plunder settlements around the Mediterranean, until Roman rule was restored in 465.

Middle Age and Modern history.

Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages.

In 534, Mallorca was recaptured by the Eastern Roman Empire, led by Apollinarius. Under Roman rule, Christianity thrived and numerous churches were built.  From 707, the island was increasingly attacked by Muslim raiders from North Africa. Recurrent invasions led the islanders to ask Charlemagne for help.

Moorish Mallorca.

In 902, Issam al-Khawlani () conquered the Balearic Islands, ushering in a new period of prosperity under the Emirate of Córdoba. The town of Palma was reshaped and expanded, and became known as Medina Mayurqa. Later on, with the Caliphate of Córdoba at its height, the Moors improved agriculture with irrigation and developed local industries.  The caliphate was dismembered in 1015. Mallorca came under rule by the Taifa of Dénia, and from 1087 to 1114, was an independent Taifa. During that period, the island was visited by Ibn Hazm. However, an expedition of Pisans and Catalans in 1114–15, led by Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona, overran the island, laying siege to Palma for eight months. After the city fell, the invaders retreated due to problems in their own lands. They were replaced by the Almoravides from North Africa, who ruled until 1176. The Almoravides were replaced by the Almohad dynasty until 1229. Abú Yahya was the last Moorish leader of Mallorca.

Medieval Mallorca.

In the ensuing confusion and unrest, King James I of Aragon, also known as James the Conqueror, launched an invasion which landed at Santa Ponça, Mallorca, on 8–9 September 1229 with 15,000 men and 1,500 horses. His forces entered the city of Medina Mayurqa on 31 December 1229. In 1230 he annexed the island to his Crown of Aragon under the name "Regnum Maioricae".

Modern era.

From 1479, the Crown of Aragon was in dynastic union with that of Castile. The Barbary corsairs of North Africa often attacked the Balearic Islands, and in response, the people built coastal watchtowers and fortified churches. In 1570, King Philip II of Spain and his advisors were considering complete evacuation of the Balearic islands.  In the early 18th century, the War of the Spanish Succession resulted in the replacement of that dynastic union with a unified Spanish monarchy under the rule of the new Bourbon Dynasty. The last episode of the War of Spanish Succession was the conquest of the island of Mallorca. It took place on 2 July 1715 when the island capitulated to the arrival of a Bourbon fleet. In 1716, the Nueva Planta decrees made Mallorca part of the Spanish province of Baleares, roughly the same to present-day Illes Balears province and autonomous community.

20th century and today.

A Nationalist stronghold at the start of the Spanish Civil War, Mallorca was subjected to an amphibious landing, on 16 August 1936, aimed at driving the Nationalists from Mallorca and reclaiming the island for the Republic. Although the Republicans heavily outnumbered their opponents and managed to push inland, superior Nationalist air power, provided mainly by Fascist Italy as part of the Italian occupation of Majorca, forced the Republicans to retreat and to leave the island completely by 12 September. Those events became known as the Battle of Majorca.  Since the 1950s, the advent of mass tourism has transformed the island into a destination for foreign visitors and attracted many service workers from mainland Spain. The boom in tourism caused Palma to grow significantly.  In the 21st century, urban redevelopment, under the so‐called "Pla Mirall" (English "Mirror Plan"), attracted groups of immigrant workers from outside the European Union, especially from Africa and South America.

Archaeology.

A 3,200-year-old well-preserved Bronze Age sword was discovered by archaeologists under the leadership of Jaume Deya and Pablo Galera on the Mallorca Island in the Puigpunyent from the stone megaliths site called Talaiot. Specialists assumed that the weapon was made when the Talaiotic culture was in critical comedown. The sword will be on display at the nearby Majorca Museum.

Palma.

The capital of Mallorca, Palma, was founded as a Roman camp called Palmaria upon the remains of a Talaiotic settlement. The turbulent history of the city had it subject to several Vandal sackings during the fall of the Western Roman Empire. It was later reconquered by the Byzantines, established by the Moors (who called it Medina Mayurqa), and finally occupied by James I of Aragon. In 1983, Palma became the capital of the autonomous region of the Balearic Islands. Palma has a famous tourist attraction, the cathedral, Catedral-Basílica de Santa María de Mallorca, standing in the heart of the City looking out over the ocean.

Climate.

The climate of Mallorca is a Mediterranean climate (Köppen: "Csa"), with mild and stormy winters and hot, bright, dry summers. Precipitation in the Serra de Tramuntana is markedly higher. Summers are hot in the plains, and winters mild, getting colder in the Tramuntana range, where brief episodes of snow during the winter are not unusual. The two wettest months in Mallorca are October and December.

Geography.

Geology.

Mallorca and the other Balearic Islands are geologically an extension of the fold mountains of the Betic Cordillera of Andalusia. They consist primarily of sediments deposited in the Tethys Sea during the Mesozoic era. These marine deposits have given rise to calcareous rocks which are often fossiliferous. The folding of the Betic Cordillera and Mallorcan ranges resulted from subduction of the African plate beneath the Eurasian plate with eventual collision. Tectonic movements led to different elevation and lowering zones in the late Tertiary period, which is why the connection to the mainland has been severed at the current sea level.  The limestones, which predominate throughout Mallorca, are readily water-soluble, and have given rise to extensive areas of karst. In addition to limestone, dolomitic rocks are mainly present in the mountainous regions of Mallorca; the Serra de Tramuntana and the Serres de Llevant. The Serres de Llevant also contain marl, the more rapid erosion of which has resulted in the lower elevations of the island's southeastern mountains. Marl is limestone with a high proportion of clay minerals. The eroded material was washed into the sea or deposited in the interior of the island of the Pla de Mallorca, bright marls in the north-east of the island and ferrous clays in the middle of Mallorca, which gives the soil its characteristic reddish colour.

Regions.

Mallorca is the largest island of Spain by area and second most populated (after Tenerife in the Canary Islands). Mallorca has two mountainous regions, the Serra de Tramuntana and Serres de Llevant. Each are about in length and occupy the northwestern and eastern parts of the island respectively.  The highest peak on Mallorca is Puig Major at in the Serra de Tramuntana. As this is a military zone, the neighbouring peak at Puig de Massanella is the highest accessible peak at. The northeast coast comprises two bays: the Badia de Pollença and the larger Badia d'Alcúdia.  The northern coast is rugged and has many cliffs. The central zone, extending from Palma, is a generally flat, fertile plain known as "Es Pla". The island has a variety of caves both above and below sea – two of the caves, the above sea level Coves dels Hams and the Coves del Drach, also contain underground lakes and are open to tours. Both are located near the eastern coastal town of Porto Cristo. Small uninhabited islands lie off the southern and western coasts; the Cabrera Archipelago is administratively grouped with Mallorca (in the municipality of Palma), while Dragonara is administratively included in the municipality of Andratx. Other notable areas include the Alfabia Mountains, Es Cornadors and Cap de Formentor.

World Heritage Site.

The Cultural Landscape of the Serra de Tramuntana was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011.

Municipalities.

The island (including the small offshore islands of Cabrera and Dragonera) is administratively divided into 53 municipalities. The areas and populations of the municipalities (according to the "Instituto Nacional de Estadística", Spain) are:

Culture.

Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria.

Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria () was the architect of tourism in the Balearic Islands. He first arrived on the island in 1867, travelling under his title "Count of Neuendorf". He later settled on Mallorca, buying up wild areas of land in order to preserve and enjoy them. Nowadays, a number of trekking routes are named after him.  Ludwig Salvator loved the island of Mallorca. He became fluent in Catalan, carried out research into the island's flora and fauna, history, and culture to produce his main work, "Die Balearen", an extremely comprehensive collection of books about the Balearic Islands, consisting of 7 volumes. It took him 22 years to complete.

Chopin in Mallorca.

The Polish composer and pianist Frédéric Chopin, together with French writer Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin (pseudonym: George Sand), resided in Valldemossa in the winter of 1838–39. Apparently, Chopin's health had already deteriorated and his doctor recommended that he go to the Balearic Islands to recuperate, where he still spent a rather miserable winter.  Nonetheless, his time in Mallorca was a productive period for Chopin. He managed to finish the Preludes, Op. 28, that he started writing in 1835. He was also able to undertake work on his Ballade No. 2, Op. 38; two Polonaises, Op. 40; and the Scherzo No. 3, Op. 39.

Literature and painting.

French writer Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin (pseudonym: George Sand), at that time in a relationship with Chopin, described her stay in Mallorca in "A Winter in Majorca", published in 1855. Other famous writers used Mallorca as the setting for their works: While on the island, the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío started writing the novel "El oro de Mallorca", and wrote several poems, such as "La isla de oro". Many of the works of Baltasar Porcel take place in Mallorca. Ira Levin set part of his dystopian novel "This Perfect Day" in Mallorca, making the island a centre of resistance in a world otherwise dominated by a computer.  Agatha Christie visited the island in the early 20th century and stayed in Palma and Port de Pollença. She would later write the book "Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories", a collection of short stories, of which the first one takes place in Port de Pollença, starring Parker Pyne.  Jorge Luis Borges visited Mallorca twice, accompanied by his family. He published his poems "La estrella" (1920) and "Catedral" (1921) in the regional magazine "Baleares". The latter poem shows his admiration for the monumental Cathedral of Palma.  Nobel prize winner Camilo José Cela came to Mallorca in 1954, visiting Pollença, and then moving to Palma, where he settled permanently. In 1956, Cela founded the magazine "Papeles de Son Armadans". He is also credited as founder of Alfaguara.  The English poet Robert Graves moved to Mallorca with his family in 1946. The house is now a museum. He died in 1985 and his body was buried in the small churchyard on a hill at Deià.

Music and dance.

The Ball dels Cossiers is the island's traditional dance. It is believed to have been imported from Catalonia in the 13th or 14th century, after the Aragonese conquest of the island under King Jaime I. In the dance, three pairs of dancers, who are typically male, defend a "Lady," who is played by a man or a woman, from a demon or devil. Another Mallorcan dance is Correfoc, an elaborate festival of dance and pyrotechnics that is also of Catalan origin. The island's folk music strongly resembles that of Catalonia, and is centered around traditional instruments like the xeremies (bagpipe) and guitarra de canya (a reed or bone xylophone-like instrument suspended from the neck). While folk music is still played and enjoyed by many on the island, a number of other musical traditions have become popular in Mallorca in the 21st century, including electronic dance music, classical music, and jazz, all of which have annual festivals on the island.

Art.

Joan Miró, a Spanish painter, sculptor, and ceramicist, had close ties to the island throughout his life, he married Pilar Juncosa in Palma in 1929 and settled permanently in Mallorca in 1954. The Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró in Mallorca has a collection of his works. Es Baluard in Palma is a museum of modern and contemporary art which exhibits the work of Balearic artists and artists related to the Balearic Islands.

Film.

The Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival is the fastest growing Mediterranean film festival and has occurred annually every November since 2011, attracting filmmakers, producers, and directors globally. It is hosted at the Teatro Principal in Palma de Mallorca

Mallorcan cartographic school.

Mallorca has a long history of seafaring. The Majorcan cartographic school or the "Catalan school" refers to a collection of cartographers, cosmographers, and navigational instrument makers that flourished in Mallorca and partly in mainland Catalonia in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. Mallorcan cosmographers and cartographers developed breakthroughs in cartographic techniques, namely the "normal portolan chart", which was fine-tuned for navigational use and the plotting by compass of navigational routes, prerequisites for the discovery of the New World.

Cuisine.

In 2005, there were over 2,400 restaurants on the island of Mallorca according to the Mallorcan Tourist Board, ranging from small bars to full restaurants. Olives and almonds are typical of the Mallorcan diet. Among the foods that are typical from Mallorca are "sobrassada", "arròs brut" (saffron rice cooked with chicken, pork and vegetables), and the sweet pastry "ensaïmada". Also Pa amb oli is a popular dish.  Herbs de Majorca is a herbal liqueur.

Language.

The main language spoken on the island is Catalan. The two official languages of Mallorca are Catalan and Spanish. The local dialect of Catalan spoken in the island is "Mallorquí", with slightly different variants in most villages. Education is bilingual in Catalan and Spanish, with some teaching of English.  In 2012, the then-governing People's Party announced its intention to end preferential treatment for Catalan in the island's schools to bring parity to the two languages of the island. It was said that this could lead Mallorcan Catalan to become extinct in the fairly near future, as it was being used in a situation of diglossia in favour of the Spanish language., with the most recent election in May 2015 sweeping a pro-Catalan party and president into power, the Popular Party's policy of trilingualism (Catalán, Spanish, English) has been dismantled, making this outcome unlikely.

Population.

Mallorca is the most populous island in the Balearic Islands and the second most populous island in Spain, after Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, being also the fourth most populous island in the Mediterranean. It had an officially estimated population of 896,038 inhabitants at the start of 2019.

Economy.

Since the 1950s, Mallorca has become a major tourist destination, and the tourism business has become the main source of revenue for the island. With thousands of rooms available Mallorca's economy is largely dependent on its tourism industry. Holiday makers are attracted by the large number of beaches, warm weather, and high-quality tourist amenities. Due to the climate and diversity in roads, Majorca attracts a lot of cyclists.  The island's popularity as a tourist destination has steadily grown since the 1950s, with many artists and academics choosing to visit and live on the island. Visitors to Mallorca continued to increase with holiday makers in the 1970s approaching 3 million a year. In 2010 over 6 million visitors came to Mallorca. In 2013, Mallorca was visited by nearly 9.5 million tourists, and the Balearic Islands as a whole reached 13 million tourists. In 2017, ten million tourists visited the island. The rapid growth of the tourism industry has led to some locals protesting the effects of mass tourism on the island.  Mallorca has been jokingly referred to as the 17th Federal State of Germany, due to the high number of German tourists.  Attempts to build illegally caused a scandal in 2006 in Port Andratx that the newspaper "El País" named "caso Andratx". A main reason for illegal building permits, corruption and black market construction is that communities have few ways to finance themselves other than through permits. The former mayor was incarcerated in 2009 after being prosecuted for taking bribes to permit illegal house building.

Top 10 arrivals by nationality.

Data from Institute of Statistics of Balearic Islands

Politics and government.

Regional government.

The Balearic Islands, of which Mallorca forms part, are one of the autonomous communities of Spain. As a whole, they are currently governed by the Balearic Islands Socialist Party (PSIB-PSOE), with Francina Armengol as their President.  The autonomous government for the island, called Consell Insular de Mallorca (Mallorca Insular Council), is responsible for culture, roads, railways (see Serveis Ferroviaris de Mallorca) and municipal administration. The current president (as of June 2015) is Miquel Ensenyat, of More for Mallorca.

Spanish Royal Family.

The members of the Spanish Royal Family spend their summer holidays in Mallorca where the Marivent Palace is located. The Marivent Palace is the royal family's summer residence. While most royal residences are administered by Patrimonio Nacional, the Marivent Palace, in Palma de Mallorca, one of many Spanish royal sites, is under the care of the Government of the Balearic Islands. As a private residence it is rarely used for official business. Typically, the whole family meets there and on the Fortuna yacht, where they take part in sailing competitions. The Marivent Palace is used for some unofficial business, as when President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela visited King Juan Carlos in 2008 to mend their relationship and normalize diplomatic relations after the King famously said to him, "Why don't you shut up?" during the Ibero-American Summit in November 2007.

Mallorcans.

Some of the earliest famous Mallorcans lived on the island before its reconquest from the Moors. Famous Mallorcans include:  A trackless train is in operation in several tourist areas.

Transport.

Water transport.

There are approximately 79 ferries between Mallorca and other destinations every week, most of them to mainland Spain.

Cycling.

One of Europe's most popular cycling destinations, Mallorca cycling routes such as the popular 24 km cycle track (segregated cycle lane) which runs between Porto Cristo and Cala Bona via Sa Coma and Cala Millor are must rides.

Mallorca (, ) or Majorca ( ) is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The local language, as on the rest of the Balearic Islands, is Catalan, which is co-official with Spanish.

Majorque ( ou en français ;'en catalan ;'en castillan), est la plus grande des îles Baléares. Elle se situe en mer Méditerranée, au large de Valence et Barcelone. L'île compte habitants. Sa capitale est Palma – les Majorquins l'appellent "Ciutat". Elle comprend 6 régions principales : "Serra de Tramuntana" (montagnes, au nord), "Ponent" (au sud-ouest), "Raiguer" (terres agricoles et viticoles au pied de la montagne), "Pla" (au centre), "Migjorn" (sud-est), "Llevant" (à l'est) et la ville de Palma. Le catalan est la langue officielle avec le castillan.


French Revolution.

Decaen, born in Caen, served as a gunner in the French Navy before the French Revolution. In 1792 Decaen enlisted in the "Calvados" battalion. He served under Kléber in the siege of Mainz. Promoted to adjudant-general, Decaen served in the uprising of the Vendée. He fought under the generals Canclaux, Dubayet, Moreau and Kléber. Promoted to general of brigade, Decaen was captured in the attack on Frantzenthal. After having given his parole he was exchanged.  In 1796 he served under Moreau in the operations near the Rhine and he distinguished himself in the passage of the river and the siege of Kehl, for which he was awarded a sword of honor by the French Directory. In 1800 he captured Munich and that December he commanded a division in the Battle of Hohenlinden. In that battle, he reacted "confidently and aggressively" in a confusing situation in heavy forest during a snowstorm. His attack defeated the southernmost Austrian column and contributed greatly to the overall French success. For his role at Hohenlinden he was promoted to general of division (Major-General).

Service to the Empire.

In Pondicherry.

Possibly singled out for "exile" by Napoleon Bonaparte for his association with Moreau's Army of the Rhine, Decaen was sent on a difficult mission to the French establishment in India in 1802. From 1803 to 1810, he defended the remote Île Bourbon (Réunion) and Isle de France (Mauritius) against all the efforts of the British. Ultimately overwhelmed by superior numbers, he obtained an honorable capitulation. He released Matthew Flinders from house arrest in April 1810, a few months before the Battle of Grand Port (August) and the capitulation to the British on 3 December of the same year.

Spain and fall of the Empire.

Upon his return he was made a count and made the head of the Army of Catalonia from October 1811 to January 1814, fighting in Spain. From his headquarters in Barcelona, he reported to Marshal Louis Gabriel Suchet. He formed the Catalan guides and gained their high regard. At Suchet's request, he sent the troops who raised the Siege of Tarragona. In 1814, he tried in vain to keep the British out of Bordeaux. After the first abdication of Napoléon I he recognized Louis XVIII and he was appointed as governor of the 11th military division (Bordeaux). Decaen made an unsuccessful effort to maintain the royal authority in that city after the return of Napoleon I from Elba in 1815.  After the royal princes had left France, Decaen rejoined the emperor's side and during the Hundred Days, he commanded troops in the south of France, for which he was imprisoned for five months after the Bourbon restoration which occurred after Waterloo. After his release he retired to civil life until he was recalled to activity by Louis-Philippe I in 1830. He died two years later.

Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen (13 April 1769 – 9 September 1832) was a French general who served during the French Revolutionary Wars, as Governor General of Pondicherry and the Isle de France (now Mauritius) and as commander of the Army of Catalonia during the Napoleonic Wars.

Charles-Mathieu-Isidore Decaen ou de Caen est un général français de la Révolution et de l’Empire, né le à Caen et mort le à Deuil-la-Barre.


Early history.

On the announcement of the "agriculture and industry banking law" in 1896, "agriculture and industry banks" were set up in 46 prefectures throughout Japan. Hokkaidō was thought to be in the forefront as a prime candidate for economic exploitation, and instead of an agriculture and industry bank, a special "national policy bank" was deemed necessary. For this purpose, the Hokkaidō Takushoku Bank was established in 1899, and was incorporated as a "special bank" on February 2, 1900, providing long-term low-interest loans as capital for Hokkaidō's development. The target of these loans was not just the improvement of industry and agriculture; it also had as its object the key industries of fishing and those related to the further exploitation of Hokkaidō.  As a result, since Takugin acted as a replacement for certain similar types of bank, the "agriculture and industry" bank, the Nippon Kangyo Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan, it was not until after World War II that Hokkaidō increased its representation in these sectors.

1939 onwards.

In 1939 there was an amendment to the Hokkaidō Takushoku Bank law, allowing the bank, which thus far had performed only long-term financing based on debt issuance, to handle bank accounts and offer short-term finance. Now performing simultaneously the roles of ordinary bank and savings bank, Takugin dramatically increased its scale of operations. Finally in the wartime unification, all banks relating to Hokkaidō and Karafuto, ordinary banks and savings banks, were merged.  In 1950 the Hokkaidō Takushoku Bank law was repealed, and Takugin was converted into an ordinary bank. In 1952, the provision of "exploitation bonds", which had existed since Takugin originally opened, was ceased (this service was transferred to the Japan long-term credit bank). In 1960, Takugin achieved entry into the group of banks known as City Banks.  In March 1963, Takugin took over running of the Hokkaidō lottery.  In Hokkaidō the great majority of families had an account at "Mr. Takugin", and virtually all the municipalities were clients. While having the smallest scale of operations as a "city bank", Takugin established a status as the "Hokkaidō people's bank".  Beginning from around 1962, Takugin began using the character of Takuchan ("little Taku") the brown bear as a motif. Takuchan savings boxes made of vinyl chloride are still popular among figure collectors to this day. From 1989, Takugin used the character Sanrio.

The bubble and its collapse.

From about 1985, like many other banks, Takugin opened branches in Tokyo and Osaka, and became concerned with real estate. In ordinary banking activity, finance is not provided above the 70% of real estate value, but at the time of the bubble it was foreseen that land values would rise steeply, so real estate financing was offered at 120-130% of value. Many credit facilities at this time were taking a similar form of finance, but Takugin had been somewhat slow off the mark. It therefore had to set collateral at a lower precedence than the collateral which had been already given to other credit providers. This meant that the part of the loan repayable to Takugin would be less if the borrowing real estate company were to go bankrupt. Ultimately, this is exactly what was to happen.  As bubble economics collapsed in the 1990s, Takugin's level of bad debts began to soar. Bad debts exceeded ¥1 trillion, and the means of collecting them were lost. For example, they had financed the Sapporo real-estate company Kabuto Decom to more than ¥120 billion, helping it to grow rapidly, and when the bubble collapsed and the debt became bad, from 1993 onwards they changed their attitude to coercively recovering the money. The result of the dispute with Kabuto Decom's leadership was to get Kabuto Decom's president indicted and arrested by the public prosecutor's office. Meanwhile, in a September 1994 Ministry of Finance study, the conclusions reached with regard to financing of resort companies were that ¥10 billion in loans continued without regard to the disposal of bad debts.

The phantom amalgamation plan.

In March 1997, with bad debts at 13.4% of Takugin's bank's total lending, thought to be the largest rate of all the City Banks, along with economic uncertainty, a problem with money supply emerged. With the policy aim "don't crush the big 20", the finance ministry formed a plan to merge Takugin with Hokkaidō Bank (Dohgin), which was the second bank in Hokkaidō, and whose president was the former head of treasury bills. Since Dohgin was also in financial difficulty due to the collapse of the bubble, at the end of March 1997 an amalgamation plan was revealed under which Takugin would continue in the interim, and in April of the following year there would be an amalgamation to form a bank called the New Bank of Hokkaidō.  However, owing to mistrust over differences in perception of the bad debts, and emotional arguments based on the long-time rivalry with Takugin, the employees of Dohgin were strongly opposed to the merger. In the end, with no thawing in the antagonism of the two banks, it was announced on 9 December that there would be a half-year postponement of the merger, which in practical terms was a freeze, and it was understood that the Dohgin side had revoked the merger entirely.  With deposits peaking in 1994 at ¥8.7 trillion, increasing financial instability was causing contracts to be broken, particularly in the Honshū region, and the outflow increased. By the end of September 1997, deposits had descended to ¥5.9 trillion. After the failure of the merger, Takugin's financial insecurity increased yet again, such that its share price actually fell 100 yen below the level assigned for a bankruptcy warning. The cash flow situation was now more difficult, but Takugin was managing to put together some capital based on fixed-term loans from big lenders at relatively high interest rates, and from the "call market".

Bankruptcy.

On 4 November 1997 the bankruptcy of Sanyō Securities caused the Central Gunma Trust Fund (now Gunma Trust Fund) to default on about ¥1 billion yen of unsecured loans. As a result, the unsecured call market descended into chaos, with every funding facility ordering an emergency decrease in its credit line. The cash flow in the call market became difficult for Takugin. With its share price at 59 yen, Takugin was on the verge of breaking the 50 yen barrier.  Already without the possibility of getting capital from the call market, Takugin, having been deserted by the finance ministry announced that its efforts to find financing would end the following week. On 17 November, an emergency meeting of the board of directors was organized in the Palace Hotel, Tokyo, where the decision was finally taken to abandon hope of continuing business.

Aftermath.

As a result of the collapse, Takugin's operations on Hokkaidō Island were absorbed by the Hokuyo Bank (North Pacific Bank), while all operations outside were absorbed by what is now The Chūō Mitsui Trust and Banking Co., Ltd. After the inauguration of Chūō Mitsui Trust, almost all the old Takugin branches outside of Hokkaidō are disappearing, and only the branches associated with Takugin's old partners Shakujii (in Tokyo) and Sugido (in Saitama prefecture) remain.

, literally "Hokkaidō Exploitation Bank", was a major commercial bank in Japan, founded in 1899 as a "Special Bank" to promote capitalism on the island of Hokkaidō. Its nickname was ; it was also known in the media and business world as. It was the City Bank in its stronghold of Hokkaidō until it went bankrupt in November 1997, and the following year it transferred its business to the, which is another bank in Hokkaidō, and others. Its unified financial institution code was 0012.

Elle était la « banque de ville » dans sa place forte d'Hokkaido jusqu'à sa faillite en novembre 1997, et l'année suivante ses activités furent transférées vers Hokuyo Ginko (une autre banque) ainsi que d'autres banques. Son code financier unifié était 0012.


Description.

The field is being developed by BP plc and 25% partner ExxonMobil It is the largest offshore production platform in the Gulf, with a processing capacity of of oil and of natural gas, and the field is believed to hold in excess of of oil. Actual production approached capacity in March 2009, but started to decline soon after that.  In January 2019, BP announced a new billion barrels of oil have been found within the field.

Discovery and development.

The Thunder Horse discovery well was drilled in 1999 on Mississippi Canyon block 778. It was drilled to a depth of from the drillship "Discoverer 534", hitting three intervals of oil.  A second well was drilled in block 822, southeast of the initial discovery, reaching a depth of in November 2000 and also encountered three primary intervals of oil.  In February 2001 a new field known as Thunder Horse North was drilled in block 776, approximately 5 miles northwest of the original field. This well reached and again met three intervals of oil.  Actually developing the field was a major technological challenge due to the depth of the find. Not only are the distances large, but at such depths the formations holding the hydrocarbons create pressures over and temperatures of. Prior to Thunder Horse, no field had ever been developed at such a depth.  Following lengthy delays caused by the need to repair and replace components in the subsea system (following a failure during pre-commissioning checks), "First oil" came on June 14, 2008. Since then, Thunder Horse has steadily ramped up its production by bringing on new wells. In March 2009, Thunder Horse produced close to oil equivalent in oil and natural gas from seven wells. Plans were in place to add two additional wells in 2009 to further develop the north end of the field. By January 2010 the MMS data indicated that total daily production during 2009 had declined from near. The Washington Post noted in May 2010 that "There could be less off-shore oil than the [Obama] administration assumes" quoting an analysis in TheOilDrum.com by Glenn Morton, a consultant for oil exploration projects who stated that "Thunder Horse hasn't reached anywhere near its expected potential," in oil or natural gas a fact which "underscore[s] the point that deepwater oil drilling is a tricky process, and not always as easy or predictable as thought"

Thunder Horse platform.

"Thunder Horse PDQ" is the largest moored semi-submersible production oil platform in the world, located in of water in the Mississippi Canyon Block 778/822, about southeast of New Orleans.  The hull section was constructed by DSME in South Korea and delivered in to Kiewit Offshore Services in Ingleside, Texas on 23 September 2004 aboard MV "Blue Marlin" for completion. Thunder Horse was completed at Kiewit Offshore Services in nearby Ingleside, Texas.  "Thunder Horse PDQ" was evacuated with the approach of Hurricane Dennis in July 2005. after the hurricane passed, the platform was listing badly. The platform was designed for a 100-year event, and inspection teams found no hull damage, and no water was taken on from a leak through its hull. Rather, an incorrectly plumbed, 6-inch length of pipe allowed water to flow freely among several ballast tanks that set forth a chain of events causing the platform to tip into the water. The platform was fully righted about a week after "Dennis", delaying commercial production initially scheduled for late 2005. During repairs, it was discovered that the underwater manifold was severely cracked due to poorly welded pipes. The rig's design engineer, Gordon Aaker, said that the cracked manifold could have caused a catastrophic oil spill.  The platform took a near-direct hit six weeks later by Hurricane Katrina, but was undamaged.

Naming dispute.

Originally called "Crazy Horse", BP changed the name out of respect to descendants of the Native American warrior of the same name. The company said that it acted after the family of the Lakota warrior and spiritual leader told them that use of his name outside of a spiritual context is sacrilegious.

Thunder Horse oil field is a large offshore deepwater oil field in the Gulf of Mexico, around southeast of New Orleans, Louisiana. Large new oil discoveries within it were announced in early 2019.

Thunder Horse est un gisement pétrolier situé dans le golfe du Mexique. C'est aussi le nom de la plate-forme pétrolière de type semi-submersible ancrée construite pour lui. Le gisement est localisé dans le "mississipi canyon Block 778/822", à 241 km au sud-est de La Nouvelle-Orléans. La profondeur d'eau à l'endroit de la plate-forme atteint mètres.


Playing career.

Junior career.

Radulov began his North American career in 2004–05, selected at the 2004 Canadian Hockey League Import player draft by the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). That year, he finished third in scoring for his team, with 75 points in 65 games, behind Josh Hennessy and Karl Gagné.  The following year, Radulov became one of the most exciting and dominant players to play in the QMJHL. In the first half of the season, he and rookie Angelo Esposito formed one of the most explosive duos in the league. He became equally renowned for skating in front of the opposing team's bench and twirling his stick around and banging the handle on the ice, as if to put a sword into a sheath, after scoring a goal, something that angered opposing players but captivated and inspired his head coach, Patrick Roy.  On 28 October 2005, Radulov set a new franchise record with six goals against the Drummondville Voltigeurs. He added an assist in the eventual 11–3 win. That night, Radulov tied the Remparts team's record with Eric Chouinard for most points in a single game, with seven. Later, on 19 March 2006, in a game against the 2005 Memorial Cup second-place finishing Rimouski Océanic, for whom his teammates Cédrick Desjardins and Michal Sersen played for in 2004–05, Radulov wrote history in the Québec Colisée by scoring an unprecedented 7 goals and 4 assists for 11 points, breaking both records for most goals and points in a single game for the Remparts, in a lopsided 16–3 victory.  Radulov owns the Remparts record for the most consecutive point streak games with 50, passing the 28-game mark established by Eric Chouinard in the 1999–2000 season. Radulov is ranked second all-time with that sequence in the QMJHL, only behind Mario Lemieux, with 62.  Radulov finished as the scoring leader for the QMJHL and the CHL in 2005–06 with 152 points (61 goals and 91 assists). He currently owns the record for the most points in a single season for the Remparts, surpassing the mark of 120 set by Simon Gagné in 1998–99. Radulov also owns the record for the most goals and assists in a season as a Rempart. He passed the mark of 57 goals set by Eric Chouinard and the mark of 75 assists set by Wes Scanzano, both in 1999–2000. He also tied with Pavel Rosa for the most points by a QMJHL European player in a single season. His 61 goals were second-highest in the QMJHL for the 2005–06 season; Maxime Boisclair of the Chicoutimi Saguenéens was first, with 70.  In the 2006 QMJHL playoffs, Radulov scored 55 points (21 goals and 34 assists) and was ranked again as the scoring leader. He registered at least a point in each game. Radulov finished only two points shy of the playoff points record set by Simon Gamache in 2000–01. In the Remparts' semi-final series against the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, he had 19 points in the seven-game series alone. He lost the MVP award, however, to victorious Moncton Wildcats forward Mārtiņš Karsums.  All team records set by Radulov are for the new edition of the Remparts, which began in the 1997–98 season.  Radulov delivered an incredible performance in the Remparts' 2006 Memorial Cup championship game victory over the Moncton Wildcats. In the 6–2 win, he netted two goals and assisted on three more, totaling five points, one point away from tying the all-time record in a Memorial Cup final. He registered nine points (five goals and four assists) in four games and won the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy as the tournament MVP.  On 28 November 2007, the Remparts retired Radulov's number 22 jersey.

Nashville Predators.

During Radulov's 2005–06 season in the QMJHL, he signed a three-year, entry-level professional contract with the Nashville Predators on 9 January 2006. He would begin his professional career as a member of the Predators' minor league affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals of the American Hockey League (AHL), the following season. He was selected Player of the Week on 16 October 2006, posting two goals and four assists in only two games.  On 21 October 2006, Radulov made his NHL debut with the Predators against the Vancouver Canucks, logging seven minutes and one minor penalty. He scored his first career NHL goal on his first career shot against the San Jose Sharks on 26 October. Following another reassignment to Milwaukee, Radulov remained on the Nashville roster for the rest of the 2006–07 season after he was recalled on 21 November 2006.  In Game 2 of the first round of the 2007 Stanley Cup playoffs, Radulov was suspended for one game for his hit on San Jose forward Steve Bernier. Bernier was sent into the boards head first and lay motionless on the ice for three minutes, before being helped off by teammates Joe Thornton and Marcel Goc. Bernier, however, did not suffer any serious injury.

Salavat Yulaev Ufa.

Transfer dispute.

On 11 July 2008, it was announced that although Radulov was still under contract with the Nashville Predators for one more season, he had signed a three-year contract with Salavat Yulaev Ufa of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), which would be extended to four years. Radulov had previously notified the Predators organization of his desire to play in Russia, stating that he was being offered better conditions.  Immediately after the announcement, the Predators, NHL and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) all released statements emphasizing that Radulov's contract obligated him to play for the Predators through the 2008–09 season and that signing with a team in Russia was a direct violation of an agreement made the previous day between the NHL and all international hockey leagues to respect players' existing contracts. After the IIHF ordered that Ufa void Radulov's contract, Ilya Kochevrin, vice-president of the KHL, argued that Radulov was signed on 5 July, before the agreement was made on 10 July. While the contract remained disputed, the IIHF suspended Radulov from international play on 18 July as investigations continued, a suspension that was lifted soon as it appeared there was no legal ground to suspend Radulov.  Nashville management gave Radulov until 1 September to confirm his intention to remain with the team. They suspended him on 2 September without pay for the 2008–09 season.

Two Continental Cups.

In his first year, the 2008–09 season with Salavat Yulaev Ufa, a 22-year-old Radulov would finish third on the team with 48 points in 52 games. The team would win the Continental Cup as regular season champions. In the playoffs, they would bow out in the first round, with Radulov earning two assists in four games.  In his second year, the 2009–10 season, Radulov would lead his team with 63 points in 54 games. The team would win a second straight Continental Cup, but in the playoffs, they would lose in the Eastern Conference Final to eventual champions Ak Bars Kazan in six games. Radulov led the team with 19 points in 16 games.  Radulov won his first Golden Stick Award as KHL regular season MVP, and made the season All-Star team. His 63 points placed him fourth in the league, three points away from league leader Sergei Mozyakin, who had played two more games. Radulov's plus-minus rating of +44 was second best in the league, behind teammate Patrick Thoresen's +45. Radulov finished the season tied second in assists (39) and tied for ninth in goals (24).

Gagarin Cup champion.

In his third year, the 2010–11 season, Radulov would lead his team and all of the KHL with 80 points in 54 games. Salavat Yulaev Ufa would finish second in the league, with division rival Avangard Omsk winning the Continental Cup. In the playoffs, the pairing of Radulov and Thoresen would lead the team to a Gagarin Cup, with each of them scoring 18 points apiece over 21 games; each scored 3 goals and added 15 assists.  Radulov won his second Golden Stick Award as KHL regular season MVP, and made the All-Star team again. His record-setting 80 points were 14 more than linemate Thoresen's 66 points, and 19 more than Roman Červenka's 61 points for Avangard Omsk. Radulov finished the season first in assists, tied for 15th in goals and tied for first in plus-minus rating (+27).

Final year.

At the conclusion of the previous championship winning season, the contract of head coach Vyacheslav Bykov was expiring. At the time, Bykov also served as the head coach of the Russian national team, having held the post for the previous five years. Unfortunately, a poor showing for Russia at the 2011 IIHF World Championship, where the team finished without a medal for the first time under his tenure, prompted Salavat not to renew his contract with the club.  As a result, a number of important players left the club in the off season—Patrick Thoresen, Kirill Koltsov and Dmitri Kalinin all signed with mega club SKA Saint Petersburg. This led to the rehiring of head coach Sergei Mikhalev, who had coached the team in the 2008–09 season to a Continental Cup, with a record of 43–8–0–5. However, he was unable to replicate past results and was fired as head coach after 21 games, posting a result of 9–8–0–4.  This led to a third coach within the calendar year being named to the post: Vener Safin. As the team was struggling, more players were traded away, including Robert Nilsson and Jakub Klepiš, among others. The team would round out the season with a record of 21–10–0–2 and ultimately finish eighth in the league. In the playoffs, they would lose to Ak Bars Kazan in the first round, in six games.  In his final year, the 2011–12 season, Radulov would once again lead his team and all of the KHL, with 63 points in 50 games despite an overturned roster. In the playoffs, he would add six assists in six games. At season's end, Radulov won his third Golden Stick Award as KHL regular season MVP and made the All-Star team for the third time. He finished the season first in assists and tied for second in goals.

Return to Nashville.

Following the end of Salavat Yulaev Ufa's 2011–12 season, on 12 March 2012, it was reported that paperwork was being finalized for Radulov to return to Nashville for the balance of the regular season and for the 2012 playoffs. Five days later, Radulov's agent Yuri Nikolaev confirmed Radulov was indeed returning to the NHL for Nashville's 22 March 2012, game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The day before his return, Radulov was presented his jersey at a press conference, where the Predators announced they had lifted his suspension from the team, finalizing his return. In his return to Nashville, Radulov scored the Predators' only goal in a 5–1 loss to the Penguins. He concluded the 2011–12 regular season with seven points (three goals and four assists) in nine games.  On 1 May 2012, Radulov and Predators teammate Andrei Kostitsyn were spotted at a Scottsdale, Arizona, bar at 5:00 AM the night before Game 2 of their second round playoff series against the Phoenix Coyotes, thus breaking team curfew. Both were subsequently suspended by Predators management for Game 3. Predators general manager David Poile said of the incident, "What they did was unacceptable and the coaches and myself had to come to the plate and do the right thing for the team. It happened. It's really unfortunate. It's selfish behaviour and we'll just have to leave it at that."  On 6 June 2012, the Predators announced that they would not be extending Radulov's contract, thus making him an unrestricted free agent.

CSKA Moscow.

On 2 July 2012, Radulov signed a four-year contract with CSKA Moscow of the KHL worth an average annual value of $9.2 million. He would lead the KHL in points or finish runner up, in three of the four seasons of his contract: 2012–13 (second), 2014–15 (first) and 2015–16 (second).  The 2013–14 season would be filled with injuries, and Radulov would miss multiple stretches of games. He would go on to appear in only 34 games, while still putting up 34 points. He would also miss the playoffs, during which CSKA was eliminated in the first round.  In his third year, 2014–15, Radulov led his team to a Continental Cup. In the playoffs, CSKA reached the Conference Final of the Gagarin Cup, losing in Game 7 to the eventual champions SKA Saint Petersburg.  In his fourth and final season, 2015–16, Radulov led CSKA to a second-straight Continental Cup. In the playoffs, they once again met SKA Saint Petersburg in the Conference Final, eliminating them in four-straight games. However, CSKA would then fall short of their ultimate goal and lose Game 7 of the Gagarin Cup Final to champions Metallurg Magnitogorsk.

Montreal Canadiens.

On 1 July 2016, Radulov returned to the NHL as a free agent, signing a one-year, $5.75 million contract with the Montreal Canadiens. Radulov assumed a scoring role on the top line of the Canadiens and went on to score 18 goals and 36 assists for 54 points in 76 games played.

Dallas Stars.

On July 3, 2017, having been unable to agree to another contract with the Canadiens, Radulov signed with the Dallas Stars to a five-year, $31.25 million contract.

International play.

Radulov has played for Russia since the junior youth level, earning silver medals in the 2005 and 2006 World Junior Championships. He made his full senior men's debut in the 2007 World Championships, claiming a bronze medal before capturing two golds at the 2008 and 2009 World Championships.  At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Radulov led Russia in goals (three) and points (six) in five games, though the team lost in the quarter-finals to Finland, ultimately finishing in fifth place.

Personal life.

In May 2015, Radulov married rhythmic gymnast Darya Dmitriyeva. Their first child was born in November 2015. The pair divorced on June 7, 2017.

Alexander Valerievich Radulov (; born 5 July 1986) is a Russian professional ice hockey player and alternate captain for the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League (NHL). He had previously had two separate stints with the Nashville Predators, the NHL team which had drafted him, as well one season with the Montreal Canadiens and eight seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), split evenly between Salavat Yulaev Ufa and CSKA Moscow.

Aleksandr Valerievitch Radoulov - en et en anglais : "" - (né le à Nijni Taguil en République socialiste fédérative soviétique de Russie) est un joueur professionnel russe de hockey sur glace. Il est le frère cadet d'Igor Radoulov. Il évolue au poste d'ailier.


Construction.

In Weierstrass's original paper, the function was defined as a Fourier series:  where formula_2 is a positive odd integer, and  The minimum value of formula_4 for which there exists formula_5. This construction, along with the proof that the function is not differentiable over any interval, was first delivered by Weierstrass in a paper presented to the Königliche Akademie der Wissenschaften on 18 July 1872.  Despite never being differentiable, the function is continuous: Since the terms of the infinite series which defines it are bounded by ±"a" and this has finite sum for 0 < "a" < 1, convergence of the sum of the terms is uniform by the Weierstrass M-test with "M" = "a". Since each partial sum is continuous, by the uniform limit theorem, it follows that "f" is continuous. Additionally, since each partial sum is uniformly continuous, it follows that "f" is also uniformly continuous.  It might be expected that a continuous function must have a derivative, or that the set of points where it is not differentiable should be "small" in some sense. According to Weierstrass in his paper, earlier mathematicians including Gauss had often assumed that this was true. This might be because it is difficult to draw or visualise a continuous function whose set of nondifferentiable points is something other than a countable set of points. Analogous results for better behaved classes of continuous functions do exist, for example the Lipschitz functions, whose set of non-differentiability points must be a Lebesgue null set (Rademacher's theorem). When we try to draw a general continuous function, we usually draw the graph of a function which is Lipschitz or otherwise well-behaved.  The Weierstrass function was one of the very first fractals studied, although this term was not used until much later. The function has detail at every level, so zooming in on a piece of the curve does not show it getting progressively closer and closer to a straight line. Rather between any two points no matter how close, the function will not be monotone.  The computation of the Hausdorff dimension "D" of the graph of the classical Weierstrass function was an open problem until 2018: while it was generally believed that "D" is 2 + log"a", only after more than 30 years was this proved rigorously.  The term Weierstrass function is often used in real analysis to refer to any function with similar properties and construction to Weierstrass's original example. For example, the cosine function can be replaced in the infinite series by a piecewise linear "zigzag" function. G. H. Hardy showed that the function of the above construction is nowhere differentiable with the assumptions 0 < "a" < 1, "ab" ≥ 1.

Hölder continuity.

It is convenient to write the Weierstrass function equivalently as  for formula_7. Then "W"("x") is Hölder continuous of exponent α, which is to say that there is a constant "C" such that  for all "x" and "y". Moreover, "W" is Hölder continuous of all orders but not Lipschitz continuous.

Density of nowhere-differentiable functions.

It turns out that the Weierstrass function is far from being an isolated example: although it is "pathological", it is also "typical" of continuous functions:

In mathematics, the Weierstrass function is an example of a real-valued function that is continuous everywhere but differentiable nowhere. It is an example of a fractal curve. It is named after its discoverer Karl Weierstrass.

La fonction de Weierstrass, aussi appelée fonction de Weierstrass-Hardy, fut en 1872 le premier exemple publié d'une fonction réelle d'une variable réelle qui est continue partout, mais dérivable nulle part. On le doit à Karl Weierstrass et Leopold Kronecker ; les hypothèses ont été améliorées par G. H. Hardy.


Background.

Japanese invasion of Manchuria.

In 1931, the Empire of Japan continued to escalate aggression against China through the Mukden Incident and the eventual occupation of Northeast China. The "Young Marshal" Zhang Xueliang, the successor of Fengtian army stationed in the Northeast, was widely criticized for the loss of his territory against the Imperial Japanese Army. In response, Zhang resigned from his position and went on a tour of Europe.

Nationalist-Communist conflicts.

In the aftermath of the Northern Expedition in 1928, China was nominally unified under the authority of the Nationalist government in Nanjing. Simultaneously, the Nationalist government violently purged members of the CPC in the Kuomintang, effectively ending the alliance between the two parties. Beginning in the 1930s, the Nationalist government launched a series of campaigns against the CPC. After Zhang returned from his tour of Europe, he was given the task of overseeing these campaigns with his Northeast Army. In the meanwhile, the impending war against Japan led to nationwide unrest and surge of Chinese nationalism. Consequently, the campaigns against the Communist Party were becoming increasingly unpopular. Chiang, fearing the loss of leadership to China, continued the civil war against the CPC despite lacking popular support. Zhang was hoping to reverse the Nationalist policy of prioritizing the purge of Communists, and instead focusing on military preparation against Japanese aggression. After his proposal was rejected by Chiang, the CPC was able to convince Zhang of their commitment to fight the Japanese as a united front, and Zhang began to plot a coup in "great secrecy". By June 1936, the secret agreement between Zhang and the CPC had been successfully settled.

Events.

On 12 December 1936, bodyguards of Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng stormed the cabin where Chiang was staying and detained the Nationalist leader. A telegram was sent to Nanjing to demand immediate end to civil war against the CPC, and to reorganize the Nationalist government by expelling pro-Japanese factions and adopting an active anti-Japanese stance. As conflicting reports unfolded, the Nationalist government in Nanjing was sent into disarray.

Negotiations and release.

Many young officers in the Northeast Army demanded Chiang be killed, but this was refused by Zhang as his intention was "only to change his policy". The responses to the coup from high-level Nationalist figures in Nanjing were divided. The Military Affairs Commission led by He Yingqin recommended a military campaign against Xi'an, and immediately send a regiment to capture Tongguan. Soong Mei-ling and Kong Xiangxi were strongly in favor of negotiating a settlement to ensure the safety of Chiang.  On 16 December, Zhou Enlai arrived in Xi'an for negotiations, accompanied by fellow CPC diplomat Lin Boqu. At first, Chiang was opposed to negotiating with a CPC delegate, but withdrew his opposition when it became clear that his life and freedom were largely dependent on Communist goodwill towards him. Influencing his decision was also the arrival of Madame Chiang on 22 December, who had travelled to Xi'an hoping to secure his speedy release, fearing military intervention from factions within the Kuomintang. On 24 December, Chiang received Zhou for a meeting, the first time that the two had seen each other since Zhou had left Whampoa Military Academy over ten years earlier. Zhou began the conversation by saying: "In the ten years since we have met, you seem to have aged very little." Chiang nodded and said: "Enlai, you were my subordinate. You should do what I say." Zhou replied that if Chiang would halt the civil war and resist the Japanese instead, the Red Army would willingly accept Chiang's command. By the end of the meeting, Chiang promised to end the civil war, to resist the Japanese together, and to invite Zhou to Nanjing for further talks.

Aftermath.

The Xi'an Incident was a turning point for the CPC. Chiang's leadership over political and military affairs in China was affirmed, the CPC was able to expand its own strength under the new united front, which later played a factor in the Chinese Communist Revolution.  Zhang was kept under house arrest for over 50 years before emigrating to Hawaii in 1993, while Yang was imprisoned and eventually executed on the order of Chiang Kai-shek in 1949, before the Nationalist retreat to Taiwan.

The Xi'an Incident () was a political crisis that took place in Xi'an, Republic of China in 1936. Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Republic of China, was detained by his subordinates, Generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng, in order to force the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) to change its policies regarding the Empire of Japan and the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Conséquence immédiate de l'incident de Xi'an, l’accord de Xi'an de, est le traité constituant le deuxième front uni entre les nationalistes et les communistes chinois contre l'Empire du Japon.


Key features.

Content.

As a peer to peer (P2P) file sharing program, the accessible content is determined by the users of the Soulseek client, and what files they choose to share. The network has historically had a diverse mix of music, including underground and independent artists, unreleased music, such as demos and mixtapes, bootlegs, live tracks, and live DJ sets, but releases from major and independent labels can also be found.

Central server.

Soulseek depends on a pair of central servers. One server supports the original client and network Version 156, with the other supporting the newer network (functioning with clients 157 and Qt). While these central servers are key to coordinating searches and hosting chat rooms, they do not actually play a part in the transfer of files between users, which takes place directly between the users concerned. (See Single Source Downloads below).

Searching.

Users can search for items; the results returned being a list of files whose names match the search term used. Searches may be explicit or may use wildcards/patterns or terms to be excluded. For example, searching for blue suede -shoes will return a list of files whose names containing the strings blue and suede, but files containing the string shoes in their names will be excluded.  A feature specific to the Soulseek search engine is the inclusion of the folder names and file paths in the search list. This allows users to search by folder name. For example, typing in experimental will return all the files that are contained in folders having that name, providing quick access to bands and albums in a determined musical genre.  The list of search results shows details, such as the full name and path of the file, its size, the user who is hosting the file, together with that users' average transfer rate, and in the case of mp3 files, brief details about the encoded track itself, such as bit rate, length, etc. The resulting search list may then be sorted in a variety of ways and individual files (or folders) chosen for download.  The Soulseek protocol search algorithms are not published, as those algorithms run on the server.

Single source (one-to-one) downloads.

Soulseek does not support multi-source downloading or "swarming" like other post-Napster clients, and must fetch a requested file from a single source. (By contrast, swarming allows a requested file to be sourced from a number of users who have that file, thus pieces of the file may be downloaded concurrently from a number of sources, typically giving improved performance.)

Banning.

All Soulseek clients contain a ban feature whereby selected users may be banned from requesting files. This is in response to users who might be free-riding (i.e. taking files from others without sharing any files themselves) or who might be causing a nuisance for other reasons, such as a personal argument through the chat facilities or just taking up a user's bandwidth by downloading too many files, or simply on the whim of the banning user. Banning can be a contentious subject, and was the subject of much discussion in the user forums particularly in the early days. Users with download privileges can still be banned.

Album downloads.

While Soulseek, like other P2P clients, allows a user to download individual files from another by selecting each one from a list of search results, a Download Containing Folder option simplifies the downloading of entire albums. For example, a user who wishes to facilitate the distribution of an entire album may place all tracks relating to the album together in a folder on the host PC, and the entire contents of that folder (i.e. all the album's track files) can then be downloaded automatically one after the other using this one command.

File transfer monitoring.

The Soulseek client features two file transfer monitoring windows where the progress of files being uploaded and downloaded can be monitored and controlled.

User profiles.

Users may complete a profile which contains basic free-form text information (e.g. basic information about themselves or their 'file transfer rules') together with a list of things they like, a list of things they dislike, and optionally an image file. These items may then be viewed by other users when selecting the username from a list of members in a chat room or a list of files returned by a search.  The list of items a user likes may also be used to obtain global rankings for that item in the Soulseek community or to obtain recommendations from other users who have the same items in their list of things they like.

Wishlists.

The Soulseek 156, 157 and Qt clients provide a "wishlist" feature which functions like a stored search. Search terms are input as entries in a wishlist and each wishlist entry is then periodically executed as a search automatically by the client software, returning results as appropriate.

Privileges.

While the Soulseek software is free, a donation scheme exists to support the programming effort and cost of maintaining the servers. In return for donations, users are granted the privilege of being able to jump ahead of non-donating users in a queue when downloading files (but only if the files are not shared over a local area network).

Support forums and blog.

Like numerous other software titles, Soulseek has a set of forums where users may seek help on a variety of topics, such as technical aspects of using the software. Separate forums now support clients 156 and 157, and Qt. The first blog was created in the latter part of 2003.

Financing.

Soulseek is entirely financed by donations, with no advertising or user fees. Nir Arbel writes, as of July 1, 2008:

Copyright issues.

Soulseek claims to be against copyright violation and that the purpose of their service is to promote unsigned artists. This is a quote from their homepage: Soulseek was taken to court in 2008 by two French music industry groups. The groups alleged that Soulseek is designed to permit unauthorized access to copyrighted works.

History.

The original Soulseek user base around 2000 was composed mostly of members of the IDM mailing list, and most of the music first found on Soulseek was underground electronic music or music created by the users themselves. Aided by Soulseek users, the developer Nir Arbel released new versions of the client very frequently, in response to user requests for new features or bug fixes.  There is no known published usage data. Soulseek got a boost in 2002 when the site Audiogalaxy was closed down. Nir Arbel stated in an interview published December 26, 2003 that there were, at that time, over a million registered usernames and that 80,000–100,000 users log on during peak hours. The increase in Soulseek users after the shutdown of Audiogalaxy was plainly evident from a before-and-after comparison of chat room populations. Before the shutdown of its competitor, Soulseek's most-joined chat rooms averaged 50 or so people. After the shutdown, the population of these chat rooms increased to 100 or more.  Soulseek is more of a community than a simple file sharing client. In Soulseek, users can connect with other users with similar music tastes to share files and to chat. Users even have the ability to create their own chat rooms and invite other users with similar tastes to discuss their favorite music. Many musicians from the electronic scene are themselves too part of this Soulseek community. Around 2004, Soulseek users from all the world met in Augsburg, Germany. Every year since then, that meeting still takes place at a digital arts festival called Lab30 (30 being the street number of the Abraxas Theater) in Augsburg, Germany, organized by longtime Soulseek user Manfred Genther and other Augsburg locals. This festival focuses on showcasing digital musicians, digital artists, and netlabels from all over the world. Many Soulseek artists have performed at the festival, and a large number of them have performed live for the very first time there. Lab30 has steadily grown in size since the first event and continues to be a meeting place for the musicians and users of Soulseek. Attendees usually come from all over Europe and the United States. Lab30 is a well known event in Augsburg and widely supported and cherished by the Augsburg music and art scene.

Soulseek Records.

Many of the original Soulseek users are also music producers, and Soulseek Records (not to be confused with "SLSK Records") was formed in 2002.

Versions.

The first release was 139, which ran for about 12 months from 2002–03. Following a change in servers, a new version was released to coincide with this event. Whilst the main interface has largely remained unchanged since its inception, additional features such as the chat room 'ticker' were introduced into the 156 version.  Version 156 first appeared in 2005. A second 'test' version of the server, version 157, was set up shortly afterwards, which became the primary client in 2008.  Since July 6, 2008, there have been two versions of the Soulseek client, with entirely different users, user groups, and files. The older version, v.156 is progressively being wound down, but still operates as of August 2011, albeit with few users. Users are not obligated to upgrade, and new users may still inadvertently download the 156 client.  The 157 "test" network has been around since 2005, to circumvent poor search capability on the 156 client. The v.157 test 12c was released in November 2007. All recent versions have several bugs which can hang or cause the system to stop searching or downloading.  The client SoulseekQT Public Build 1 was released in 04/19/2011.  For the older clients (156 and 157) no official client was developed for non-Windows operating systems, but a number of unofficial third-party clients existed at the time. Development of third-party clients was discouraged (but not prohibited), as coding errors or explicit circumvention of network rules in third-party clients had, at times, a drastic negative impact on the Soulseek network.

Alternative Clients.

Nicotine+ is an actively maintained fork of the now defunct Nicotine client. Nicotine+ runs under GNU/Linux and Windows. It is currently maintained by a team of volunteers with its source hosted on GitHub. It uses Gtk+ 3, Python 3, and supports UPnP. Stable and unstable packages are available for Ubuntu.  Nicotine+'s defunct predecessor Nicotine also ran on all Unix-based systems, such as Mac OS X, and on Microsoft Windows. It is in turn based on the original PySoulSeek project. It may still be available from some package distributors on GNU/Linux-based systems.  PySoulSeek was a Soulseek client written in Python that runs under Linux/FreeBSD/Solaris and other Unix-based operating systems. PySoulSeek runs under Mac OS X but with some difficulty.  GoSeek is a Soulseek client for Android devices. It will not run on Android Nougat or newer versions.  MewSeek was originally iSlsk, a Soulseek client for iPod Touch and iPhone clients running jailbroken versions of iOS. MewSeek no longer supports Soulseek.  Clients for Mac OS X included Soulseex (ssX) and iSoul. iSoul was based on an earlier client called Solarseek.

Soulseek is a peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing network and application. The term Soulseek might refer to (1) one of the two networks, or (2) one of the three official user client interfaces. Soulseek is used mostly to exchange music, although users are able to share a variety of files. Soulseek was created by Nir Arbel, an Israeli programmer from Safed.

Soulseek est un réseau d'échange de fichiers de type peer-to-peer (P2P) mono-source (contrairement à Kazaa ou eMule). Le terme « Soulseek » peut se référer soit à l'un des deux réseaux, ou à l'une des trois interfaces clients officielles. En tant qu'application, Soulseek prend la forme d'un logiciel pour Windows, mais il existe des implémentations Linux (Nicotine, Museek) ou Mac OS (SolarSeek).


Career.

Education.

Graduated at ŠPUD (The School of Applied Arts and Design in Zagreb), graphic department (1972-1977) and attended two years at Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb, graphic department (1977-1979).

Novi kvadrat.

Igor Kordej started as a professional graphic designer when he was 18, and as a professional comic artist and illustrator when he was 19 years old, joining a very influential group of comic artists "Novi kvadrat" (New square) 1976-1979, and publishing in all relevant Yugoslavian youth magazines of that era. In 1979 "Novi kvadrat" won the prestigious national award "7 sekretara SKOJ-a", thus marking a break-up of the group.

SLS studio.

At the beginning of the eighties Kordej teams-up with Mirko Ilić again in SLS studio (acronym for “Slow, Bad and Expensive”), and focuses on producing album covers and posters for Yugoslavian pop musicians and groups. After the break-up with Ilić he continues with solo career, doing illustration for Yugoslavian mainstream magazines, film and theater posters, logotypes and album covers.

Early international work.

He started a career in European comic market in 1986 (France, Spain, Germany), and since 1989 on the US market (Heavy Metal Magazine). His most significant work from that period is album "Les cinq saisons – Automne", published in 1990 by Dargaud. That album was appointed by the Ministry of Culture in France as a work of significant cultural value and was assigned to all public libraries in France (in 2011 the same album was featured in Paul Gravett’s book "1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die". Kordej moves from Zagreb to a small Istrian village, Groznjan in 1988 where he leads, as an artist and supervisor, a group of over 20 artists and story writers (among others a young Darko Macan, Edvin Biuković and Goran Sudžuka), as well as veterans Radovan Devlić and Dragan Filipović Fipa, producing comics and design for the German market.

Moving abroad.

He moves to Denmark in 1991, invited by Semic International company, where he spends almost a year, producing comics and illustrations for Malibu Comics. In 1997 he moves to Canada, invited by Digital Chameleon company, working as a creative director. Having disputes with management, he leaves the company after eight months and becames a freelancer again.

Marvel.

His career in Marvel Comics can be divided in two phases; the first one (when he simultaneously worked for Dark Horse Comics) is from 1994-1996, under editor-in-chief Marcus McLaurin, when Kordej produced several hand-painted comics for "Tales of Marvels" series. Second phase begins in 2001 when he got invited by editor-in–chief Joe Quesada, to work on Cable series, as well as New X-Men series. Shortly after 9/11 attacks many of Marvel artists produced illustrations inspired by the tragedy. They all went on public auction, with all profit given to families of fallen rescuers. Kordey’s illustration "Pennsylvania Plane" was bought by The Library of Congress. Because of his speed as an artist, at his peak, Kordej was producing artwork for three or four monthly books at the same time. However, as a result, he has attracted heavy criticism for the quality of his art, especially from the readers. Eventually he got fired from Marvel in April 2004.

Delcourt.

However, that event opened up a new chapter in Kordey’s career. Just a few months later he signed his first contracts with Editions Delcourt, and his prolific collaboration with that French publisher continued until nowadays. In a period of fifteen years, producing 4-5 albums per year, concluding with 2019 he published close to seventy albums on francophone market, out of which only series sold out over 1,000.000 copies. In 2006 he moves back to his homeland.

Style and recognition.

Through out all those years Kordej continued to produce graphic design and illustrations for both francophone and ex-Yugoslavian region markets, occasionally doing illustrations for US comics market. He has a very diverse repertoire, moving between traditional pencils and inks to fully painted panels, using watercolors and gouache. His works are collected, among others, in The Library of Congress, LucasFilm (CA) and MoMa – Museum od Modern Art (NY).

Bibliography.

Interior comic work includes:

Igor Kordej (referred to as Igor Kordey in American and French publications; born in Zagreb, SFRJ, 23 June 1957) is a Croatian comic book artist, illustrator, graphic designer and scenographer of international reputation.

Igor Kordey (né à Zagreb en 1957) est un dessinateur de bande dessinée croate. Il encre et colorie généralement lui-même ses dessins. Il peint également, principalement sur ses travaux de couverture.


History.

Establishment of the Queensland Rugby League.

The Queensland Rugby Football League (QRFL) was formed in 1908 by seven former rugby union players who were dissatisfied with the administration of the Queensland Rugby Union (QRU). The new organisation was attacked by both the local press and the QRU for introducing professionalism, which they claimed would destroy the sport. The "founding fathers" of the QARFL included John Fihelly, an Australian Labor Party Member of Parliament who became Minister for Railways and Deputy Premier.  The first official club competition kicked off in Brisbane on 8 May 1909. Norths played against Souths before a handful of spectators at Brisbane Cricket Ground. Matches were played under the auspices of the Queensland Amateur Rugby Football League (later renamed Queensland Rugby League). The foundation clubs were:

Schism: establishment of the Brisbane Rugby League.

In 1922 the Brisbane Rugby Football League (Brisbane Rugby Football League, later Brisbane Rugby League) was formed out of dissatisfaction with the way the Queensland Rugby League ran the game. Those involved took particular exception to the salary being earned by Harry Sunderland as secretary of the Queensland Rugby League. The Brisbane Rugby League took control of the local competition. Competing in the Brisbane Rugby League competition that year were Brothers, Carltons, Coorparoo, University, Valley and Past Grammars. Although the Queensland Rugby League attempted to regain control of the Brisbane Rugby League competition in 1923 and 1924, the Brisbane Rugby League remained steadfast and the dispute simmered into the next decade. so dire did the situation become, that by the late 1920s, the Queensland Rugby League commenced its own competition involving Ipswich clubs and two supporting Brisbane clubs.  Until 1932 Brisbane Exhibition Ground was the home of rugby league in the city. The complicated arrangement between the Brisbane Rugby League, Queensland Rugby League and Royal National Association (who administered the Exhibition Ground) led to Brisbane Cricket Ground being used for rugby league matches.  In 1933 district football was introduced to provide community support and player equalisation. This meant that players had to live within a certain distance of their club. Accordingly, Brisbane was divided into Eastern Suburbs (incorporating Coorparoo and Wynnum), Southern Suburbs (incorporating Carltons), Western Suburbs, Northern Suburbs (incorporating Past Grammars), Fortitude Valley and Past Brothers (whose players had to prove that they had attended a Christian Brothers school). In 1934, the University Amateur Rugby League Club folded and disappeared from the competition.  In 1953 the friction between the Queensland Rugby League and Brisbane Rugby League ended, with the Brisbane Rugby League being replaced by the Brisbane division of the Queensland Rugby League. Former Brisbane Rugby League chairman and Queensland Rugby League secretary Ron McAullife eventually secured the use of Lang Park as a permanent home for rugby league in Queensland. Teams that joined the Brisbane Rugby League competition around this time were South Coast (1952–1953), Wynnum-Manly (1951) and Redcliffe (1960).  A record crowd at Lang Park of 19,824 saw Northern Suburbs defeat Fortitude Valley in the Brisbane Rugby League grand final in September 1961.

Decline.

In 1967 the Queensland Rugby League removed the residential qualifications for players in Brisbane Rugby League clubs, meaning that players did not have to reside in their certain suburbs to play for their teams. This reduced community support for teams, and club decisions began to be made on a more commercial basis.  This coincided with the commencement of television broadcasts of Brisbane Rugby League games in the same year. The money made from jersey sponsorships and advertising hoardings at grounds was not able to compete with poker machine money available to Sydney Rugby League clubs in the Sydney Rugby League, and an increasing number of players left the Brisbane Rugby League. This also affected the popularity of the Bulimba Cup which had been held between the cities of Brisbane, Ipswich and Toowoomba since the 1930s.  In 1978 the premiership trophy, the Kirks Cup was replaced by the Winfield Cup.  The Queensland Rugby League commissioned Eric White Associates to investigate the administrative structure of the game in Queensland in 1977. One of the recommendations was the creation of a statewide competition. The Winfield State League was created in 1982. The State League competition ran in parallel to the Brisbane Rugby League competition from 1982 to 1995. Also, like with Sydney's competition, Brisbane's competition was also called the Winfield Cup during the 1980s, due to sponsorship from Winfield cigarettes. The Queensland Cup would eventually replace both the State league and the Brisbane Rugby League premiership in 1998.  In the 1980s, two further teams were added to the Brisbane Rugby League competition: Ipswich (1986) and Logan (1987).  Despite some New South Wales Rugby League (Sydney Rugby League) premiership games being re-broadcast during late night timeslots from the late 1970s, the Brisbane Rugby League remained the more popular competition in Queensland until 1988 with the weekly live broadcast of the Match of the Round being played at Lang Park.  In 1986 the New South Wales Rugby League decided to allow a team from Brisbane to enter the Sydney Rugby League premiership. While the New South Wales Rugby League was originally negotiating a Brisbane team sponsored by the Queensland Rugby League, a private bid in the form of the Brisbane Broncos was instead accepted by the New South Wales Rugby League. The Brisbane Broncos debuted in the Sydney Rugby League premiership in 1988.  As the Broncos began to represent Brisbane at rugby league in the public eye the Brisbane Rugby League competition entered the terminal phase of its decline. The dominance of the Brisbane Broncos in the media resulted in the Brisbane Rugby League losing live coverage of games and receiving only minor interest from the sports media. The drop in interest saw the Brisbane Rugby League, its clubs and its junior development base incurring significant and crippling financial losses. Several longstanding clubs were not able to survive the impact over the coming years.  From 1988, Brisbane Rugby League players were rarely chosen to represent Queensland in the annual State of Origin series however notable exceptions were evident in 1995 when Brisbane Broncos players were ineligible and several relatively unknown players from the Brisbane Rugby League were selected, defeating a heavily-favoured New South Wales team 3-0 in the series.  The Brisbane Rugby League premiership was fully superseded by the Queensland Cup competition in 1998. Redcliffe won the last Brisbane Rugby League Grand Final in 1997 defeating Easts 35–6.

Return of the Brisbane Rugby League Premiership.

On September 26, 2014, the South East Queensland Division announced that they will be scrapping the existing FOGS Cup structure and reforming the Brisbane Rugby League as the state's secondary competition.

Teams.

The Brisbane Rugby League was also represented by a representative side whose players were selected from Brisbane Rugby League clubs' first grade teams.

Grand Final results.

Queensland Rugby League premiership (1909–1921), Brisbane Rugby League premiership (1922–1997) & (2016–present)  Note: The Brisbane Rugby League was not held between 1998 and 2015

Brisbane Rugby League Premiers (All Grades) (1922–1997).

Not held between 1998 and 2015

The Brisbane Rugby League Premiership is a rugby league football competition in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was first held in 1922 and for every year until 1997. The competition was reinstated in 2016, replacing the FOGS premiership under the Queensland Cup. The competition consists of Brisbane’s top six rugby league clubs. Each participating team is a feeder club for the Queensland Cup.

La Brisbane Rugby League premiership était une compétition de rugby à XIII qui se tenait à Brisbane, dans le Queensland, en Australie, de 1909 à 1997. Jusque dans les années 1980, c'était la plus grande compétition sportive de Brisbane, attirant régulièrement de larges foules et une couverture médiatique imposante. Le déclin commença quand de nombreux joueurs décidèrent de quitter la ligue pour la bien plus lucrative New South Wales Rugby League premiership. La fondation des Brisbane Broncos en 1988 accru encore le désintéret populaire. La Queensland Cup remplaça officiellement la Brisbane Rugby League premiership en 1998.


Career.

Stambolić graduated from the University of Belgrade's Law School. In spring 1986, he became the President of the Presidency of Serbia. He was a mentor and a close personal friend to Slobodan Milošević, and supported him in the elections for the new leader of the League of Communists of Serbia, to the dismay of the other leaders in the party. Stambolić spent three days advocating Milošević's election and finally managed to secure him a tight victory, the tightest ever in the history of Serbian Communist Party internal elections.  Stambolić and Milošević held similar views on the autonomous provinces of Serbia, Kosovo and Vojvodina, both feeling that constitutional changes were necessary to sort out their relationship with the centre. Stambolić managed to win over the League of Communists of Yugoslavia to his position on this matter at the Thirteenth Congress of the LCY, held in 1986, and then set up a commission to work out the details of the constitutional reforms that were eventually passed in 1989. He also wanted to protect the rights of Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo, insisting as early as 1982 that he would speak up for those rights even if his opponents labelled him a Greater Serbian nationalist. Where Milošević and he differed on these matters was Milošević's demand for greater rapidity and his stronger sympathy for Serb demonstrators. It was the issue of speed that was to bring the two into conflict.  Stambolić and the Serbian government joined the federal Yugoslav government in harshly condemning the controversial Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts of 1986 for inciting nationalism. Stambolić said:  "we [communist party leaders] do not accept the Memorandum’s call for Serbia to turn its back on its own future and the future of Yugoslavia, for it to arbitrarily accuse the proven leaders of the revolution and of socialist development, for Serbian Communists to be seen as the illegitimate leaders of the working class and people of Serbia."  Dragiša Pavlović, Milošević's fairly liberal successor at the head of the Belgrade Committee of the party, opposed his policy towards the solving of the issues of the Kosovo Serbs, calling it "hastily promised speed". Milošević denounced Pavlović as being soft on Albanian radicals, contrary to advice from Stambolić. On 23/24 September 1987, at the subsequent eighth session of the Central Committee, one that lasted around 30 hours, and was broadcast live on the state television, Milošević had Pavlović deposed, to the utter embarrassment of Ivan Stambolić, who resigned under pressure from Milošević's supporters a few days later.  In December 1987, Stambolić was officially voted off the position and replaced by Petar Gračanin, who was in turn succeeded the following year by Milošević himself.  Stambolić mysteriously disappeared on 25 August 2000, still during the rule of Slobodan Milošević. On 28 March 2003, the police revealed that he was murdered on Fruška Gora by eight Special Operations Unit officers. On 18 July 2005, these men and their co-conspirators were found guilty of the murder of Stambolić and were sentenced to between 15 and 40 years in prison. The court found that the order for Stambolić's murder came from Slobodan Milošević.

References.

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Ivan Stambolić (; 5 November 1936 – 25 August 2000) was a Serbian politician. He was a prominent official of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and the President of the Presidency of Serbia in the 1980s.

Ivan Stambolić ( - 2000) était un membre de la Ligue des communistes de Yougoslavie et le Président de la République socialiste de Serbie dans les années 1980 ; il a été plus tard victime d'un assassinat.


Entrywise sum.

Two matrices must have an equal number of rows and columns to be added. The sum of two matrices A and B will be a matrix which has the same number of rows and columns as do A and B. The sum of A and B, denoted A + B, is computed by adding corresponding elements of A and B:  For example:  We can also subtract one matrix from another, as long as they have the same dimensions. A − B is computed by subtracting elements of B from corresponding elements of A, and has the same dimensions as A and B. For example:

Direct sum.

Another operation, which is used less often, is the direct sum (denoted by ⊕). Note the Kronecker sum is also denoted ⊕; the context should make the usage clear. The direct sum of any pair of matrices A of size "m" × "n" and B of size "p" × "q" is a matrix of size ("m" + "p") × ("n" + "q") defined as  For instance,  The direct sum of matrices is a special type of block matrix, in particular the direct sum of square matrices is a block diagonal matrix.  The adjacency matrix of the union of disjoint graphs or multigraphs is the direct sum of their adjacency matrices. Any element in the direct sum of two vector spaces of matrices can be represented as a direct sum of two matrices.  In general, the direct sum of "n" matrices is:  where the zeros are actually blocks of zeros; i.e., zero matrices.

Kronecker sum.

The Kronecker sum is different from the direct sum but is also denoted by ⊕. It is defined using the Kronecker product ⊗ and normal matrix addition. If A is "n"-by-"n", B is "m"-by-"m" and formula_7 denotes the "k"-by-"k" identity matrix then the Kronecker sum is defined by:

In mathematics, matrix addition is the operation of adding two matrices by adding the corresponding entries together. However, there are other operations which could also be considered as a kind of addition for matrices, the direct sum and the Kronecker sum.

L'addition matricielle est une opération mathématique qui consiste à produire une matrice qui est le résultat de l'addition de deux matrices de même type.


Early and personal life.

Early life and education.

The son of former radical politician Eugenio Velasco and lawyer Marta Brañes, Velasco was born in Santiago, where he lived until the age of 16. Following the exile of his father in 1977, the whole family moved to the US, first to Los Angeles and then to Boston. He finished his secondary school studies at Groton School, Groton, MA. He holds a PhD in economics from Columbia University. He took postdoctorate studies at Harvard University and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Earlier, he obtained his bachelor's degree in economics and philosophy at Yale University, and a master's degree in international relations at the same university. He is Sumitomo-FASID professor of Development and International Finance at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Academic career.

Velasco has received several distinctions, such as the Award for Excellence in Research granted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in recognition for his contributions to economic research, the design of policies, and the creation of research institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean (2006), "Latin America Finance Minister of the Year" by Emerging Markets magazine, published by Euromoney Institutional Investor plc during the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, based on the preferences of the most influential economists, investors and experts in the region (2008), and an award from "América Economía" magazine, which also considered him as "Finance Minister of the Year". In 2009, "Latin Trade" magazine gave him the price for the "Most Innovative Leader of the Year".  Velasco has been director of the New York University Center for Latin-American and Caribbean Studies and assistant professor at Columbia University Department of Economics and Public Affairs. He was Chile's Ministry of Finance Chief of Staff between 1990 and 1992, International Finance coordinator between 1992 and 1994, and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiator in 1995. From 2000 to 2006, he was Sumitomo-FASID professor of Development and International Finance at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.  Between 2001 and February 2006 Velasco was an associate researcher at the Corporation for Latin-American Research (Cieplán) and president of the board of Corporación Expansiva. He has also been a consultant for the International Monetary Fund, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, Economist Intelligence Unit's Government Round Tables, and for the governments of the Dominican Republic, Mexico and El Salvador.  Velasco is married to journalist Consuelo Saavedra and is the father of three.

Finance Minister of Chile.

When the price of copper reached all-time highs in 2006, boosting government revenues, Velasco resisted intense political pressure from government workers and students to spend the windfall. Instead he opted to hold it in reserves equivalent to 30% of the country's GDP. After the copper price plummeted following the 2007-2010 global financial crisis, threatening the Chilean economy, Velasco then used these reserves on stimulus spending for subsidies and tax cuts policies now being praised for their positive social impact His popularity reversed from one of the most reviled politicians to one of the most admired.

Political leadership and presidential candidate.

After serving as Chilean Finance Minister, Velasco expressed his intention to run for President of Chile, during a July 2011 interview with Que Pasa, a Chilean television program. Velasco ran in the primary of the Nueva Mayoría, a coalition of centre-left parties in Chile.  Velasco officially launched his candidacy on May 15, 2012. In the June 30th primary, Velasco achieved second place with 13% of the popular vote total. Velasco finished second behind former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.  On October 7, 2012, Velasco started a new political movement called Fuerza Pública, which was later renamed Ciudadanos, or “Citizens.” Velasco became president of the Ciudadanos party on December 11, 2016. He competed in the parliamentary elections of 2017 for a senatorial seat representing the Maule region. He obtained 10.5% of the votes and narrowly missed being elected senator.

Inaugural Dean of LSE School of Public Policy.

In August 2018, Velasco became the inaugural dean of the newly created LSE School of Public Policy, which is housed at the London School of Economics and Political Science.  During the official launch ceremony of the LSE School of Public Policy in November 2018, Velasco remarked that the School of Public Policy will strive “to understand the causes of things for the betterment of society,” as outlined by LSE's founders.  As dean, Velasco serves as a frequent speaker at campus events, teaches a course on macroeconomics, and hosts monthly dean dialogues aimed at providing students with a platform for discussion.  Since 2001, Velasco has written a bimonthly column for Project Syndicate. As dean, he has continued to write articles on a wide range of topics for Project Syndicate, including populism and macroeconomic policy.

Andrés Velasco Brañes (; born August 30, 1960) is an economist and professor. He served as the finance minister of Chile from March 2006 to March 2010, the whole of the first presidential period of Michelle Bachelet. He is currently the Dean of the School of Public Policy at the London School of Economics.

Andrés Velasco Brañes (né le à Santiago du Chili), est un économiste et homme politique chilien, ministre des Finances entre 2006 et 2010.