History.

"Britain's Got Talent" and Sony BMG.

Talbot initially auditioned for the first series of television reality show "Britain's Got Talent" for fun, but her confidence increased when Simon Cowell, whom she is said to have idolised, described her as "pure magic" and said that he would make her earn "£1 million-plus this year". The judges had expected a "joke" performance as she had never taken singing lessons, but Talbot's initial performance received international press coverage. She reached the final round after winning her semi-final with a live performance of "Ben" by Michael Jackson. On the night of the final, she sang "The Wizard of Oz"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s "Over the Rainbow", but lost to Paul Potts as a result of the call-in vote. Talbot and Potts had been joint favourites to win the series.  According to journalist and "Britain's Got Talent" judge Piers Morgan, Talbot's performances resulted in many children, including Faryl Smith, auditioning for the second series of the show. After his victory, series 2 winner George Sampson spoke of his participation in the first series, where he was knocked out before the live shows, saying "I don't think I had any shot of winning last year... When you look at the standard of Paul Potts and Connie Talbot. Paul Potts is out of this league, and Connie is out of this league – I wasn't good enough." Talbot voted for Sampson, saying "I liked his dancing – he was good on the lamppost".  Cowell had preliminarily agreed to sign Talbot with his own record label, Sony BMG. After recording two songs in London with Talbot ("Over the Rainbow" and "Smile"), the label pulled out of the deal. Talbot's mother, Sharon, said she was told that her daughter "...was too young to be their sort of artist", adding "We have been told to look for a company which looks after children." In a statement, the label said "there was some deliberation over the possibility of recording with Connie... However, the decision not to proceed was made with the best intentions for Connie, taking into consideration her age and that it would not be right to do so at this time." Cowell himself said that "when the time is right, [he would] be delighted to see if [they could] make it work".

"Over the Rainbow".

In October 2007, Talbot signed with the Rainbow Recording Company for a six-figure deal. Rainbow Recording Company, an offshoot of record label Rhythm Riders made specifically for Talbot, was due to release Talbot's first album on 26 November 2007. It was later reported that the album was named "Over the Rainbow", and the first single, "Over the Rainbow"/"White Christmas", would be released on 3 December 2007. Experts predicted that she had a good chance of getting the Christmas number one, but the single was cancelled in favour of an album-first release. Before the album was released, there was much speculation about Talbot and the album, with music experts describing her as potentially being "the next Charlotte Church". The team behind the album consisted of John Arnison, who also managed Gabrielle and Billy Ocean, and Marc Marot, former managing director of Island Records. It was produced and mixed by Simon Hill and Rob May.  The album was released on 26 November 2007 and was certified gold in early December, with Talbot being presented a gold disc by Phillip Schofield on "This Morning". Initially, 50,000 copies of the album were pressed, but an additional 120,000 had to be made after the album sold out in days.  In late 2007, public appearances by Talbot included headlining the Great Bridge Christmas and Winter Festival, which local police threatened to cancel unless crowds clamouring to reach the tent in which Talbot was performing could be brought under control. At the event, on 7 December 2007, Talbot said "I love it here, it's brilliant, really fun", but had to be ushered off-stage by the police. Talbot performed publicly in Walsall's HMV store, and in Birmingham's Centenary Square. TV appearances included GMTV and Channel 5 news, both on 26 November 2007. According to her mother, Talbot has received offers for film roles. Sharon said "[Talbot]'s been sent a script, I haven't had a good look at it yet but it's really exciting... Connie's a singer, not an actress, so we'll see what happens. It's completely up to her whether or not she wants to do it. I can't believe it, though."  Sharon Mawer of Allmusic praised "Over the Rainbow" by saying "She can sing, for a seven-year old, and most of the notes (if not all of them) are in the right order and sung to the right pitch; the timing is fine too". However, she criticised the album, saying "there's no feeling, no emotion, no realisation of what each song is about; they're just pretty little songs", giving the album 2/5. Nick Levine, of Digital Spy, said in a review of the album that Talbot had a "sweet, pure voice", but that there is "no nuance or depth to her performance". However, he said that "There's something inherently wrong about awarding a star rating to a seven-year-old", and that "the decidedly adult concept of musical merit should have nothing to do with [her music]", awarding the album 2/5.  The album was re-released on 16 June 2008, but was available for pre-order in May, with three new tracks to replace its Christmas-themed songs. The first single from the album, "Three Little Birds", was released in June 2008. In April and May 2008, Talbot toured Asia to promote "Over the Rainbow". Asian press attributed her success to her videos on YouTube, with the "Sun.Star" mentioning that her most viewed video had been watched over 14 million times, and "The Straits Times" saying that videos of Talbot's performances have been watched over 30 million times. The tour made stops in South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, and Talbot and her family returned to England in late May. Following the tour, it was reported that the album had reached number one on the charts in Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong, as well as reaching number three in Singapore. After the tour, Talbot travelled to Poland, where she performed on television.  "Over the Rainbow"'s release in the United States in September, resulted in attention from American press sources including Fox Business Network and MarketWatch. The US version was eventually released on 14 October, with Talbot appearing on American television shows including "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" to publicise the release.  In August 2008, it was announced that Talbot had signed a contract with Data Design Interactive for production of a video game on the Wii console. The game was to feature 15 songs from "Over the Rainbow", allowing players to sing along with a computer-generated image of Talbot or against other players in a karaoke mode. Talbot re-recorded the album for the game. The game was scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2009, and was to be called "Connie Talbot: Over the Rainbow".

"Christmas Album" and "Holiday Magic".

In November 2008, it was announced that Talbot had produced a series of new songs for an album. Recorded in her bedroom studio, "Connie Talbot's Christmas Album" was released on 24 November. It is a Christmas themed album, featuring, according to Talbot's official website, "a mix of classics and modern Christmas tunes". News was also released of a one-off Christmas special to be shown on ITV1 in the days leading up to Christmas, featuring footage of Talbot's journey to America and a "secret concert" at her primary school. The documentary, "Christmas with Connie", was shown on ITV Central on 18 December. Talbot appeared at Walsall's HMV branch shortly after the release of her "Christmas Album" to sign copies and meet fans. She then embarked on a promotional tour making stops around the world, which included a performance at Ewha Womans University in Korea, and a performance on the "A Heart for Children" television charity gala in Berlin, Germany. She returned home in mid December, to have "a quiet family Christmas".  "Connie Talbot's Christmas Album" was difficult to obtain in Britain after the distributor, Pinnacle Entertainment, went into administration. Talbot's mother, Sharon, was quoted as saying "We don't really know what's going to happen at the moment... We think they'll probably wait and promote the album later this year. It's a shame, but they can still get the album in Asia and the US." Reviewing the album for "FemaleFirst" magazine, Ruth Harrison gave it 4/5, saying that Talbot has "a great voice when it comes to swing, but lets us down in parts".  In April 2009, Talbot again travelled to the US to publicise her new single, a cover of "I Will Always Love You". The single was released in the US on 7 April, along with a newly recorded "You Raise Me Up". Talbot then traveled to the US on 30 April, and returned on 2 May. Appearances included a performance on "Good Day New York" on Fox Broadcasting Company's WNYW.  Talbot's third album, "Connie Talbot's Holiday Magic", was released on 20 October 2009 in the United States and on 30 November 2009 in the United Kingdom. The United States album is dedicated to the Toys for Tots campaign, of which Talbot has been named the child ambassador. In a statement, Bill Grein, Vice-President of the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, said:  Along with Talbot's third album, a television special, entitled "Holiday Magic", was produced by WVIA. "Holiday Magic" featured performances of all of the songs from "Connie Talbot's Holiday Magic", and was available to all PBS stations shown in November and December 2009. A 17-track DVD of the special, including two additional songs, "What a Wonderful World" and "Over the Rainbow", was released for sale.

2010–2015.

Talbot opened a special concert celebrating South Korea's hosting of the G20 summit of world leaders in 2010. She performed for her largest ever audience when she performed on Chinese state television for the Chinese new-year in 2011. Viewing figures for the event were estimated to be around 400 million.  During this time, Talbot continued to upload videos of her performances onto YouTube.  Maggie Coughlan praised her covers of Katy Perry's "Firework" and Bruno Mars's "Grenade", but was most impressed by her cover of Adele's "Someone Like You", which she said was performed "with such grace that she makes the entire performance look effortless".  The video was also picked up by PerezHilton.com. After the death of Whitney Houston, Talbot posted a cover version of "Run to You" as a tribute. The video received attention from around the world. In November 2011, she released "Beautiful World" as a single on iTunes. The song was written by Talbot when she was seven. A demo of the track was placed on YouTube, and became the 39th most watched video in the world on the day it was uploaded.  She was the youngest artist to make the UK album charts, and the youngest to release a gold-selling record. Others involved in the event included Randolph Matthews and The High Kings. Performances took place elsewhere in the United Kingdom, including Manchester and Birmingham.  Talbot toured with the Young Voices choir for a second year in early 2013, performing at venues across the UK. The African Children's Choir also took part in these events. Her song "Let's Get Along", written by Kipper, was featured on ONE Campaign's agit8 Spotify album that July. Talbot also featured in the song "Building Bridges", which also made the agit8 album, together with Jordan Jansen.  In October 2013, Talbot's vocals featured in the theme song of the newly-released video game "Rain", and she appeared as a special guest at the African Children's Choir concert in Walsall, UK. It was announced that Talbot would be an ambassador for the African Children's Choir and have a school named after her.  In 2014, she performed two concerts in South Korea (Osan and Seoul) in late April, shortly after the Sewol ferry tragedy. She performed with yellow ribbons to show her respect for the families of the victims. The proceeds from at least one of the concerts were donated to the fundraising efforts in support of the families of the victims. In July, a DVD and Blu-ray was released of her concerts in Hong Kong and Taiwan during her "Beautiful World" tour in 2012. It features live performances of the songs from "Beautiful World", and two additional songs, "I Will Always Love You" and "Over the Rainbow".  On 17 November 2014, Talbot released the five-song EP "Gravity", containing the original songs "Gravity" and "Inner Beauty", with the latter also appearing as an instrumental acoustic version.

"Matters to Me" (2016–present).

On 19 February 2016, the release of digital single "Shut Up (Move On)" was announced. The single is taken from Talbot's studio album "Matters to Me", a 13-track album with a bonus track available only on iTunes. The album was released on 25 March 2016.  On 11 May 2017, Connie Talbot released a song called "Good to Me", which she stated is "about a person who I admired, respected and who taught me so much. That person sadly passed away and I wrote this song from my heart." On 13 October 2017, Connie released a video for the song "Rumours".  In April 2019 she collaborated with Boyce Avenue covering the Jonas Brothers song "Sucker".  On 31 August 2019 Talbot took part in "" with an original composition, "Never Give Up on Us". The song was released the same day. By the following day, the song had reached number eight on the U.K. iTunes chart.  On 27 January 2020 she competed on "", where she performed her romantic original song "I Would" on the piano.

Personal life.

Talbot lives in Streetly, in the West Midlands with her mother, Sharon, her father Gavin, her older brother Josh, and her older sister Mollie. In 2006, she sang at her late grandmother's funeral.

Connie Victoria Elizabeth Talbot (born 20 November 2000) is an English singer. In 2007, she reached the final of the first series of "Britain's Got Talent". She then signed with Rainbow Recording Company and released her debut album "Over the Rainbow" on 26 November 2007, which has sold over 250,000 copies worldwide and reached number one in three countries.

Connie Talbot, née le à, Midlands de l'Ouest (Angleterre), est une jeune chanteuse britannique qui a participé à la saison 1 de "Britain's Got Talent" à l'âge de six ans en 2007, et est arrivée à la place. Elle chante chez elle puis les partage via youtube.


Family.

Robert Shirley was the third son of Sir Thomas Shirley of Wiston, Sussex, and Anne Kempe, the daughter of Sir Thomas Kempe (d. 7 March 1591) of Olantigh in Wye, Kent. He had two elder brothers, Sir Thomas Shirley and Sir Anthony Shirley, and six sisters who survived infancy.

Career.

Shirley travelled to Persia in 1598, accompanying his brother, Anthony, who had been sent to Safavid Persia from 1 December 1599 to May 1600, with 5000 horses to train the Persian army according to the rules and customs of the English militia and to reform and retrain the Persian artillery. When Anthony Shirley left Persia, Robert remained in Persia with fourteen other Englishmen. There, in February 1607, he married Sampsonia, a Christian Circassian lady of the Circassian nobility of Safavid Persia. After being baptized by the Carmelites, she adopted the Teresia in addition to her own name. She became known in the west by the name "Lady Teresia Sampsonia Shirley".  In 1608 Shah Abbas sent Robert on a diplomatic mission to James I of England and to other European princes for the purpose of uniting them in a confederacy against the Ottoman Empire. From his very first mission in Persia, the modernisation of the army by Robert and his men proved to be highly successful; the Safavids scored their first crushing victory over the Ottomans in the Ottoman–Safavid War, ending the war on highly favourable terms. Shirley travelled first to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, where he was received by Sigismund III Vasa. In June of that year, he arrived in Germany, where he received the title of Count Palatine and was appointed to Knight of the Holy Roman Empire by Emperor Rudolph II. Pope Paul V also conferred upon him the title of Count. From Germany, Sir Robert travelled to Florence and then Rome, where he entered the city on Sunday, 27 September 1609, attended by a suite of eighteen persons. He next visited Milan, and then proceeded to Genoa, from whence he embarked to Spain, arriving in Barcelona in December 1609. He sent for his Persian wife, and they remained in Spain, principally at Madrid, until the summer of 1611. In 1613 Shirley returned to Persia. In 1615 he returned to Europe, and resided at Madrid. In a pleasingly serendipitous meeting Shirley's caravan met Thomas Coryate, the eccentric traveller and travel writer (and attendant of Prince Henry's court in London), in the Persian desert in 1615.  Shirley's third journey to Persia was undertaken in 1627 when he accompanied Sir Dodmore Cotton the first British ambassador to the Kingdom of Persia, but soon after reaching the country he died at Qazvin, in what is today northwest Iran. After being initially buried there, his remains were later moved from Qazvin to Rome in 1658 by his wife Teresia following her retirement to a convent in the same city attached to Santa Maria della Scala. She died there in 1668.

In art.

There are several double portraits of Shirley and his wife in English collections, including the private collection of R. J. Berkeley and of Petworth House (by van Dyck).

In literature.

The exploits of the Shirley brothers were dramatised in the 1607 play "The Travels of the Three English Brothers" by John Day, William Rowley and George Wilkins.  In 1609, Andreas Loeaechius (Andrew Leech), a Scot living in Kraków, Poland, wrote a Latin panegyric to Shirley entitled "Encomia Nominis & Neoocij D. Roberti Sherlaeii". This text was translated in the same year by the English writer Thomas Middleton as "Sir Robert Sherley his Entertainment in Cracovia".

Sir Robert Shirley (or Sherley; c. 1581 – 13 July 1628) was an English traveller and adventurer, younger brother of Sir Anthony Shirley and Sir Thomas Shirley. He is notable for his help modernising and improving the Persian Safavid army according to the British model, by the request of Shah Abbas the Great. This proved to be highly successful, as from then on the Safavids proved to be an equal force to their arch rival, the Ottoman Empire.

Sir Robert Shirley (vers 1581 – ), comte Shirley dans la noblesse pontificale et comte palatin dans la noblesse du Saint-Empire romain germanique, est un mercenaire anglais, frère cadet d'Anthony Shirley et de Thomas Shirley.


History.

1991–1998: Ukrgasprom.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, oil and gas industry of Ukraine governed by Derzhnaftogasprom went through number of changes. The National Commission for State Regulation of Energy (NKRE) was giving out certification for gas trading to anyone without order ignoring the Derzhnaftogasprom. Guided by decisions of the First Vice-Prime Minister (on Fuel and Energy Complex) Pavlo Lazarenko, licenses were given to such companies like United Energy Systems of Ukraine (EESU), Intergas, Olgas, International Trading Energy Resources Association (ITERA), Ukrzakordonnaftogas, Ukrgasprom, Motor Sich, and Donetsk Oblast factories (later those formed the Industrial Union of Donbas).  In the early 1990s, there was privatization of gas distribution regional network known as "oblgaz" belonging to "Ukrgas". The process took place unnoticed and when Naftogas was constituted, not all privately owned distributors wanted to transfer their own stocks to the statutory fund of the National Joint Stock Company. Along with the gas distribution network in the same way there were privatized enterprises of petroleum products provision including filling station and fuel repositories that belonged to "Ukrnaftoprodukt". The whole petroleum products retail network had to be created by Naftogaz from zero.  The predecessor of Naftogas is "Ukrgasprom".  On 28 January 1995 after discussion with government the condition of agreements realization in provision for Ukraine gas imported from Russia and Turkmenistan, the head of "Ukrgasprom" Bohdan Kliuk was dismissed from his post on decision of the Cabinet of Ministers. Bohdan Kliuk who was appointed on 6 December 1994, on 19 December 1994 signed an agreement with "Gazprom" on distribution of gas for Ukraine under disadvantageous conditions. The issue with Kliuk provided Bakai with an argument to create Naftogas.

1998–2014.

The company was founded in 1998 after previously being named Ukrgazprom. The main initiators who created the company were Ihor Didenko and Ihor Bakai (better known as Igor Bakai). The last one was the first deputy chairman of the Ukrainian State Committee on Oil and Gas. Before Naftogaz, both Bakai and Didenko worked for other gas trading companies "Republic Corporation" and "Intergas".  At the end of 1990s, Ukraine was consuming a record of 75 billion m per year which was the fourth indicator in the world and seemed strange to say the least considering that the country was not part of the top 20 in GDP volume. Eighteen billion m were mined inside Ukraine by Naftogas along with some joint enterprises such as "Poltavska Naftogasova Kompania", Plast, Ukrnaftogastekhnologia and others. All the gas that was mined by Naftogas and received through transit in obligatory order was being sold to population and state organizations. The remaining volume of natural gas, Ukraine was receiving from Russia as part of payment for transit or was buying from Turkmenistan. That gas was sold to industrial enterprises or was being re-exported.  Also, instead of investing more funds in geological exploration for the Ukrgasprom, its money was used to patch budget and foreign debts holes, which led to decrease in mining of hydrocarbons and decline of industry. Most of oil refineries were sold out to Russian companies. The only refinery that belongs to Naftogas is Shebelynsky Gas Refinery which Naftogas controls through Ukrgasvydobuvannia. Ukraine never had enough mined oil resources capable to provide for oil refining capacity that Ukraine inherited from the Soviet Union. Most successful in oil mining is Ukrnafta, however recently Chornomornaftogas had more and more plans to develop newly found deposits.  Before 2001 Ukraine had two state enterprises in transportation of oil "Main oil pipeline "Druzhba" and "Cisdnieper main oil pipeline". The pipelines were often used by Russian companies, but after Ukraine built connecting pipeline Odessa – Brody (Black Sea coast – West Ukraine) Russian companies installed an alternative pipe route Sukhodolnaya–Rodionovskaya.  In 2001 several Ukrainian parliamentarians made inquiry to the Prosecutor's General Office, Tax Agency, and Security Service requesting to open a criminal case against the head of Presidential Administration Volodymyr Lytvyn, the former chairman of Naftogaz Ihor Bakai, the administration chairmen of joint-stock company "Ukrgasprom" Bohdan Kliuk, the director of state enterprise "Ukrgasprom" Illia Fik, and others. Those parliamentarians were Hryhoriy Omelchenko, Anatoliy Yermak, and Viktor Shyshkin.  As of 31 December 2008, Naftogaz with its subsidiaries had a total of 172,000 employees. Naftogaz received more than $6 billion of subsidies in domestic bonds from 2009 to 2012 as regulated gas prices and expensive Russian energy imports led to heavy losses.

2014–present.

In August 2014, Ukrtransgaz, the operator of the Ukrainian gas transport system, along with its Slovakian counterpart "Eustream", launched natural gas supplies from Slovakia to Ukraine after signing a Memo of mutual understanding in April. This initiative was driven by Russia’s decision in June to cease gas supplies to Ukraine in retaliation for the country seeking closer ties with the European Union. By launching reverse flows, Ukraine claims it is seeking no concessions – only implementation of existing EU law on EU territory. The Third Energy Package was proposed by the European Commission in 2007 and adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union in July 2009. This legislation clearly allows for gas to be traded like other commodities, thus creating a more efficient market which is less vulnerable to political pressure. In October 2014 the EU further committed to better connecting its energy grids, saying countries should be able to export 15% of their generation capacity by 2030. The consultancy firm Strategy& (formerly Booz & Co) believes the EU could save €40bn a year by 2030 if it integrates its energy grids.  Slovakia can provide more gas than Ukraine needs. In 2013, Ukraine imported 25.8bcm. Slovakia could provide Ukraine with 30bcm. Ukraine is asking that the EU fully support west-to-east exports to Ukraine, which would eliminate the scope for Russia to use gas as a weapon to achieve its political aims in Ukraine. Norway’s energy giant Statoil began transiting gas eastwards from Slovakia in 2014, and Shell began in 2015.  In response to the reverse flows initiative, Russia has cut supplies to central and eastern European countries, seeking to prevent exports to Ukraine. In September, Hungary stopped supplying gas to Ukraine, days after a meeting between Hungarian Prime Minister Orban and Gazprom’s CEO. Gazprom charges widely different prices to different European countries, which many believe is based on Russia’s political goals in the region.  Ukraine is seeking arbitration from the "Stockholm Chamber of Commerce" to fairly assess past debts between the two countries and to establish a fair basis of future operations.  Since April 2014, Ukraine is the only non-EU country to voluntarily publish its volume in storage facilities on the EU transparency platform of Gas Storage Europe (GIE). The company also publishes data on the amount of gas entering and leaving the country.  In November 2014, Ukrtransgaz, the operator of Ukraine’s gas transportation system, began posting daily statistics on the information platform of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG). Also, the same year Naftogaz launched a new website in order to showcase its transparency initiatives. In March 2018, "Naftogaz" won a trial against Russian Gazprom for shortened gas supplies before the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, and was set to receive net amount of $2.56 billion.  As of 31 December 2017, Naftogaz has around 72,000 employees and annual revenue of €7.443 billion. Of total revenue, €2.908 billion (39.07%) is generated from oil and gas production, €2.415 billion (32.45%) from oil and gas transit, €1.137 billion (15.28%) from oil transmission and sales and €817 million (10.98%) is generated from gas transmission and sales. Also, a total transit volume in 2017 stood at six-year maximum of 93 billion cubic meters. The transit contract between the Naftogaz and Gazprom is set to expire in December 2019, after which Ukraine will cease to be the main transit country of Russian gas to the European Union countries.  In April 2019, the Chinese Sinosure agreed to loan $1 billion in insurance coverage to Naftogaz.

Structure.

As of 31 December 2017, the Naftogaz has ownership shares in the following companies:

International activities.

Ukraine now plays a vital role in both the storage and transit of gas in Europe and in improving EU energy security. Ukraine has the largest storage capacity in Europe, which enables the country and its European partners to accumulate over 30 bcm of gas during summer periods when prices are lowest. Ukraine is also strategically placed to play the role of a transit hub. Its interconnectors have the ability to transfer gas from central Europe to South-Eastern Europe, which is the most exposed region to Russia's gas monopoly. Naftogaz asserts that ensuring gas flows freely will significantly improve the liquidity and the stability of the EU market, making it more resilient to political pressure.  The company drills for oil in the Western Desert in Egypt. On December 13, 2006, Naftogaz and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation had signed an agreement on the exploration and development of oil and gas deposits on the eastern territory of Alam El Shawish East in the Western Egyptian desert. In 2014 Naftogaz began natural gas extraction in Egypt. The company's oil production in Egypt estimated at 260,000 tonnes for 2014, which is more than 10% of annual production in Ukraine. A new natural gas pipeline allowing for extraction of approximately 300,000 cubic meters per day has also been launched.

Criticism.

Naftogaz has been seen as one of the biggest sources of corruption in Ukraine for years with many of the country's billionaires having acquired much of their wealth through gas arbitrage based on differences between the prices of Russian gas imports, gas exports to the EU and government energy subsidies to homes and businesses.  In October 2014, George Soros named Naftogaz to be "a black hole in the budget and a major source of corruption" and called for a radical reform of the company, which could "totally eliminate Ukraine's dependence on Russia for gas". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty produced a short documentary entitled "The Palaces of Ukraine's Oil and Gas Men" about the homes of Naftogaz management during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych, who was overthrown in 2014.  In October 2019, Naftogaz got caught up in the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump in the US, when news broke that a group of businessmen with allegedly close ties to the President and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, intervened in an attempt to change the management of Naftogaz. An Associated Press report reveals how businessmen Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman and Harry Sargeant III allegedly attempted to replace Naftogaz CEO, Andriy Kobolyev, and sought to broker a deal to sell their own natural gas to the company.

Directors.

Directors of the company since 1998:

Naftogaz of Ukraine (, "Naftogaz Ukrayiny"; literally "Petro-Gas of Ukraine") is the national oil and gas company of Ukraine. It is a state-owned company subordinated to the Government of Ukraine. The company is involved with extraction, transportation, and refinement of natural gas and crude oil.

Naftohaz Ukraine ou Naftogaz Ukraine (en ukrainien "Нафтогаз України", littéralement "Pétrole Gaz Ukraine") est une société anonyme ukrainienne détenue à 100 % par le gouvernement ukrainien connue principalement pour le transport de gaz naturel, ainsi que pour l'extraction, le raffinage et le transport de pétrole.


History.

The "Cathedral" was created by the Italian government, initially to serve mainly the growing community of Italians in Eritrea who needed a huge catholic center in the 1920s.  The building in the Lombard Romanesque style was designed by the Milanese architect Oreste Scanavini and work on it was supervised by Mario Mazzetti from Montese in the Italian province of Modena.  Construction began in June 1921 and was completed in September 1923. The church was consecrated on 14 October 1923.  It is dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary.  The church is in the form of a nave and two aisles with a transept and three apses. It is 40 metres long, 27 metres wide and has a height of 25 metres to the lantern, which is surmounted by a bronze statue of the archangel Gabriel, also interpreted, in spite of the absence of the weaponry with which that archangel is usually represented, as Michael.  The main initiative for building the great church came from Camillo Francesco Carrara, O.F.M.Cap., titular bishop of Agathopolis, who was the first Apostolic Vicar of Eritrea.  A large inscription in the church honours the principal donors who contributed to the cost of the building. They include Benito Mussolini and other leading figures in Italian political life. The painting by Carlo Maratta (1625–1713) behind the high altar, representing the Assumption of Mary, was a gift from King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.  Work on the freestanding 52-metre high bell tower began later and was completed in 1925 after the death (on 15 June 1924) of Bishop Carrara.  It contains eight bells (an octave from A to A) cast from Austro-Hungarian guns captured in the First World War. The largest weighs 3.8 tons.  The church was partially damaged during WW2, but it was quickly repaired in the following years thanks mainly to the contributions of the Italians living in Asmara.  An electronic clock was installed in 1987.

The Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, Asmara () is a Roman Catholic church built in early 1920s in Asmara, when was the capital of Italian Eritrea. Often called "the cathedral", it is a large Lombard Romanesque style church in the centre of the city, built in 1923 to serve as the principal church of the Apostolic Vicariate of Eritrea.

L'église Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire d'Asmara est un sanctuaire catholique situé dans la capitale érythréenne. De 1923 jusqu'à 1995 elle était l'église principale du Vicariat apostolique d'Asmara.


History.

Amateur satellite spotting traces back to the days of early artificial satellites when the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory launched the Operation Moonwatch program in 1956 to enlist amateur astronomers in an early citizen science effort to track Soviet "sputniks". The program was an analog to the World War II Ground Observer Corps citizen observation program to spot enemy bombers. Moonwatch was crucial until professional stations were deployed in 1958. The program was discontinued in 1975. The people who had been involved continued to track satellites however and began to concentrate on satellites that had been omitted from the Satellite Catalog (deliberately), these satellites are from the US and other, allied, countries.  In February 2008 the front page of "The New York Times" hosted an article about an amateur satellite watcher Ted Molczan in relation to the story about falling American spy satellite USA-193. American officials were reluctant to provide information about the satellite, and instead, Ted Molczan, as the article says, "uncovers some of the deepest of the government’s expensive secrets and shares them on the Internet." Molczan participates with a group of other skywatchers who have created a "network of amateur skywatchers and satellite observers" who focus on "spotting secret intelligence-gathering satellites launched by the United States, Russia and China.", the amateurs continue to make their sightings and analysis public on the internet via an electronic mailing list called SeeSat-L, just as they had a decade earlier, since they began the practice in the previous century in days of the early internet.  Prior to 2008, NASA's Orbital Information Group had been providing free information about over 10,000 objects in Earth orbit. Recently this was identified as a security threat, and a pilot program was launched in 2008 to replace the NASA OIG website with a US Air Force site (Space-Track.org) with somewhat more controlled access. The practice by the militaries of countries such as China and the United States to not distribute all of their satellite orbital data is mostly counteracted by the skills of satellite watchers, who can calculate the orbits of many military satellites.  As the digital revolution continued to advance in the 2000s, many planetarium and satellite tracking computer programs to aid satellite spotting emerged. In the 2010s, accompanied by the development of Augmented Reality (AR) technologies, satellite watching programs for mobile devices have been developed. During the 64th International Astronautical Congress 2013 in Beijing a citizen science method to track satellite beacon signals by a Distributed Ground Station Network (DGSN) was presented. The purpose of this network at announcement was to support small satellites and cubesats projects of universities.  In 2019, amateur skywatchers analyzed the high-resolution photograph of an Iranian launch site accident tweeted by US President Trump and identified the specific classified spysat (USA-224, a KH-11 satellite with an objective mirror as large as the Hubble Space Telescope) that had taken the photograph, and when it was taken.

Spotting satellites.

Satellite watching started by being done with the naked eye or with the aid of binoculars since predictions of when they would be visible was difficult; most low Earth orbit satellites also move too quickly to be tracked easily by the telescopes available to astronomers. It is this movement, as the satellite tracks across the night sky, that makes them possible to see. As with any sky-watching pastime, the darker the sky the better, so hobbyists will meet with better success further away from light-polluted urban areas.  Today most observers use digital still cameras or video cameras; imagery is put into Astrometry software to generate the angles needed to generate "observations" that are used to calculate orbits of the satellites imaged.  Because geosynchronous satellites move slowly relative to the viewer they can be difficult to find and were not typically sought when satellite watching. However, with digital cameras it is easy to photograph most high altitude satellites. Although to the observer low Earth orbit satellites can move at a similar speed as high altitude commercial aircraft, individual satellites can be faster or slower; they do not all move at the same speed. Individual satellites never deviate in their velocity (speed and direction). They can be distinguished from aircraft because satellites do not leave contrails and do not have red and green navigation lights. They are lit solely by the reflection of sunlight from solar panels or other surfaces. A satellite's brightness sometimes changes as it moves across the sky. Occasionally a satellite will 'flare' as it changes orientation relative to the viewer, suddenly increasing in reflectivity. Satellites often grow dimmer and are more difficult to see toward the horizons. Because reflected sunlight is necessary to see satellites, the best viewing times are for a few hours immediately after nightfall and a few hours before dawn. Given the number of satellites now in orbit, a fifteen-minute session of sky watching will generally yield at least one satellite passing overhead.

Satellite watcher clubs.

There are many satellite watcher clubs, which collect observations and issue awards for observations according to various rules.

Satellite watching or satellite spotting is a hobby which consists of the observation and tracking of artificial satellites that are orbiting Earth. People with this hobby are variously called satellite watchers, trackers, spotters, observers, etc. Since satellites outside Earth's shadow reflect sunlight, those especially in low Earth orbit may visibly glint (or "flare") as they traverse the observer's sky, usually during twilight.

L'observation des satellites artificiels est une activité qui existe depuis le début de l'ère spatiale. Elle fut encouragée par les autorités des États-Unis devant la menace présentée par les capacités de satellisation de l'URSS. Elle se calque sur l'activité des "spotters" anglais lors de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Elle fut baptisée « "Operation Moonwatch" ». Actuellement, la plupart des observations se basent sur des calculs d'éphémérides faits par des programmes particuliers à partir de données (TLEs) publiées par le NORAD ou disponibles sur certains sites Web. L'observation concerne les satellites artificiels encore en activité ou non et les nombreux débris spatiaux.


Early life.

Jill Tracy Jacobs was born on June 3, 1951, in Hammonton, New Jersey. Moving several times while very young, she and her four younger sisters spent the majority of their childhood in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. Her father, Donald C. Jacobs (1927–1999), was a bank teller who became head of a savings and loan in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia. His family name had originally been Giacoppa before her Italian grandfather anglicized it. Her mother, Bonny Jean (Godfrey) Jacobs (1930–2008), was a homemaker. Growing up in the Philadelphia metropolitan area gave her a partial Philadelphia accent and a lifelong rooting interest in Philadelphia sports teams. The family was not particularly religious, but in ninth grade, Jacobs independently took classes in order to join the Presbyterian church.  Jacobs always intended to have her own career. She began working at age 15, which included waitressing at the Jersey Shore. She attended Upper Moreland High School, where she was somewhat rebellious and enjoyed her social life, but always liked English class. She graduated in 1969.

Education and career, marriages and family.

Jacobs enrolled in Brandywine Junior College in Pennsylvania for one semester. She had the intent of studying fashion merchandising, but found it unsatisfying. She married Bill Stevenson, a former college football player, in February 1970; she became known as Jill Stevenson. Within a couple of years he opened the Stone Balloon in Newark, Delaware, near the University of Delaware. It became one of the most successful college bars in the nation with many name musical artists performing there.  She switched her enrollment to the University of Delaware, where she declared English as her major. She then took a year off from college and did some modelling work for a local agency in Wilmington. She and Stevenson drifted apart; they became separated during 1974.  She met Senator Joe Biden in March 1975. They met on a blind date set up by Joe's brother Frank, though Biden had seen her photograph in a local advertisement. Although he was nine years her senior, she was impressed by his more formal appearance and manners compared to the college men she had known, and after their first date she told her mother, "Mom, I finally met a gentleman." Meanwhile, she was going through turbulent divorce proceedings with Stevenson; the court case ended with her not getting the half-share in the Stone Balloon she had wanted. A civil divorce was granted with immediate effect in May 1975.  She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Delaware in 1975 (some sources give this as 1974). She began her career being employed as a substitute teacher in the Wilmington school system, then taught high school English full-time for a year at St. Mark's High School in Wilmington. Around this time she spent five months working in Biden's Senate office; this included once-a-week trips with the senator's mobile outreach operation to the southern portions of the state.  She and Joe Biden were married by a Catholic priest on June 17, 1977, at the Chapel at the United Nations in New York City. This was four and a half years after his first wife and infant daughter died in a motor vehicle accident; Joe had proposed several times before she accepted, as she was wary of entering the public spotlight, anxious to remain focused on her own career, and hesitant to take on the commitment of raising his two young sons who had survived the accident.  She continued to teach and worked on a master's degree at West Chester State College, taking one course per semester. This was completed when, while pregnant, she received a Master of Education with a specialty in reading from West Chester in 1981. The Bidens' daughter Ashley Blazer was born on June 8, 1981, and Jill stopped working for two years while raising the three children.  She then returned to work, teaching English, acting as a reading specialist, and teaching history to emotionally disturbed students. She taught in the adolescent program at the Rockford Center psychiatric hospital for five years in the 1980s. In 1987, Biden received her second graduate degree, this one a Master of Arts in English from Villanova University. During her husband's 1988 bid for the presidency, she said she would continue her job of teaching emotionally disturbed children even if she became first lady. In all, she spent thirteen years teaching in public high school, including three years at Claymont High School.  From 1993 through 2008, Biden was an instructor at the Stanton/Wilmington campus of Delaware Technical & Community College, where she taught English composition and remedial writing, with an emphasis on instilling confidence in students. She has said of teaching at a community college, "I feel like I can make a greater difference in their lives. I just love that population. It just feels really comfortable to me. I love the women who are coming back to school and getting their degrees, because they're so focused."  Biden is president of the Biden Breast Health Initiative, a nonprofit organization begun in 1993 that provides educational breast health awareness programs free of charge to schools and other groups in the state of Delaware. In the following 15 years, the organization informed more than 7,000 high school girls about proper breast health. In 2007, Biden helped found Book Buddies, which provides books for low-income children, and has been very active in Delaware Boots on the Ground, an organization that supports military families. She runs five miles, five times a week, and she has run in the Marine Corps Marathon.  Biden later returned to school for her doctoral degree, studying under her birth name, Jill Jacobs. In January 2007, at age 55, she received a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in educational leadership from the University of Delaware. Her dissertation, "Student Retention at the Community College: Meeting Students' Needs", was published under the name Jill Jacobs-Biden.

Role in 2008 presidential campaign.

Despite personally opposing the Iraq War, Biden had not wanted her husband to run in the 2004 presidential election, to the point where she interrupted one strategy meeting discussing the possibility by entering in a swimsuit with the word "NO" inscribed on her stomach. But following George W. Bush's reelection in 2004, she urged her husband to run again for president, later saying: "I literally wore black for a week. I just could not believe that he won, because I felt that things were already so bad. I was so against the Iraq War. And I said to Joe, 'You've got to change this, you have to change this.'" During Joe Biden's 2008 campaign to be the Democratic nominee, she continued to teach during the week and would join him for campaigning on weekends. She said that she would have taken an activist role in addressing education as her chief focus of concern as a potential first lady. She also said that she was basically apolitical and would not seek inclusion in Cabinet meetings.  Once her husband was selected as the running mate to Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, she began campaigning again. She wore a Blue Star Mothers Club pin in recognition of Beau Biden's deployment to Iraq. She was not a polished political speaker, but was able to establish a connection with the audience. She also made some joint appearances with Michelle Obama. Throughout the time her husband was running for vice president, Jill Biden continued to teach four days a week at Delaware Technical & Community College during the fall 2008 semester, and then campaigned over the long weekend, while grading class papers on the campaign bus.

Second Lady of the United States.

First term.

Despite moving to Number One Observatory Circle (the official vice presidential residence in Washington) as Second Lady of the United States, Biden intended to keep teaching at a Washington-area community college, and several of them recruited her. In January 2009, she began teaching two English courses as an adjunct professor at the Alexandria campus of Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), the second largest community college in the nation. It has been rare for second ladies to work while their spouses serve as vice president, and Biden is believed to have been the first second lady to hold a paying job while her husband was vice president. In White House announcements and by her preference, she was referred to as "Dr. Jill Biden."  Catherine Russell, a former adviser to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was named Biden's chief of staff for her second lady role. Courtney O’Donnell, a former spokesperson for Howard Dean and Elizabeth Edwards, was named her communications director and Kirsten White, a lawyer at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, her policy director. As second lady, Biden had a staff of eight overall and occupied a corner suite in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.  In May 2009, Obama announced that Biden would be in charge of an initiative to raise awareness about the value of community colleges. In June 2009, Biden gave the commencement address at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, New York, and received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the City University of New York. Biden continued teaching two English reading and writing classes at NOVA in fall 2009. In January 2010, she gave the commencement speech at the University of Delaware's winter commencement, the first such address by her at a major university. In August 2010, Biden appeared as herself in an episode of Lifetime's "Army Wives", making it part of her campaign to raise awareness of military families.  In April 2011, she and Michelle Obama founded a national initiative, Joining Forces, to showcase the needs of U.S. military families. In September 2011, Biden lent her support to USAID's FWD campaign, a push for awareness surrounding the deadly famine, war, and drought affecting over 13 million people in the Horn of Africa.  She continued to teach at NOVA, and by 2011 held a permanent position as an associate professor, teaching three English and writing composition courses two days per week. She made her position there as normal as she could, sharing a cubicle with another teacher, holding regular office hours for students, and trying to get her accompanying Secret Service agents to dress as unobtrusively as possible. Her students were often unaware of exactly who she was, referring to her simply as "Dr. B." She told a colleague, "My standard line when students ask me if I am married to the VP is to say that I am one of his relatives. That usually quiets them."  An examination by the "New York Times" of her e-mails while second lady concluded that, "she shared the perks of the White House with her teaching colleagues, arranging for tickets to White House events like a garden visit and a holiday tour. But she didn't appear to pull rank; when she needed to take time off work – to attend an event with the Obamas or go an overseas trip with her husband – she requested permission from the college." In February 2012 she staged a "Community College to Career" bus tour with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis that aimed to showcase alliances between community colleges and local and regional businesses.  Her life with her husband at Number One Observatory Circle tended towards the informal and was centered around family and their nearby grandchildren. In June 2012, she published a children's book, "Don't Forget, God Bless Our Troops", based around her son Beau's deployment. The same month, the Bidens' daughter Ashley, a social worker and staffer at the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth, and Their Families, was married.

Role in 2012 presidential campaign.

In the 2012 U.S. presidential election, in which her husband was running for re-election as vice president, Biden played a modest role. She did not cut back on her teaching schedule and made few solo campaign appearances. This reflected her continuing distaste for both politics and public speaking, even though the Obama campaign considered her valuable in connecting to military families, teachers, and women.

Second term.

Following the re-election of Obama and her husband on November 6, 2012, Biden began a second term as second lady. She wore a silk blue gown by Vera Wang when she appeared at the inaugural balls in January 2013.  During her second term, Biden continued to be involved with supporting military personnel, including staging multiple visits to the Center for the Intrepid rehabilitation facility for amputees and attending the inaugural Invictus Games in London. During the 2014 U.S. midterm Congressional elections she campaigned for a number of Democrats, including some ones in high-profile contests such as Mark Udall in Colorado and Michelle Nunn in Georgia.  In May 2015 she suffered the death of her stepson Beau Biden from brain cancer. She later said the loss "was totally shattering. My life changed in an instant. All during his illness, I truly believed that he was going to live, up until the moment that he closed his eyes, and I just never gave up hope." She was present at her husband's side in the Rose Garden on October 21, 2015, when he announced he would not run for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in the 2016 election. By her own account, Biden was disappointed by his decision, believing her husband was highly qualified for the position, and "would have been the best president."  Biden continued to teach at NOVA, handling a full load of five classes during the Fall 2015 semester. During 2016, she was present with her husband on a listening tour for Cancer Moonshot 2020, an effort he was leading. In March 2016 she headed the official party that welcomed American astronaut Scott Kelly back to Earth from his almost full year in space.

Subsequent activities.

The former second couple launched the Biden Foundation in February 2017, with the purpose of allowing them to pursue the causes they cared most about, including focuses upon preventing violence against women, his moonshot initiative, and her interests in community colleges and military families. That same month she was named board chair of Save the Children; she said, "I think [their] emphasis on education fits with my life's work." Her husband was seen as a popular ex-vice president and she received a standing ovation when she was a presenter at the 71st Tony Awards.  In June 2017 the couple bought a $2.7 million, off-the-water vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware near Cape Henlopen State Park, where they planned to host members of their extended family. Their ability to purchase this family property was due in part to deals they signed with Flatiron Books upon leaving office, with Biden contracted to write one and her husband two. Indeed, by 2019 the couple reported some $15 million in income since leaving the vice presidency, including $700,000 in speaking engagements for her. The couple also substantially increased their charitable giving during this period.  Jill Biden continued to teach full-time at NOVA after her husband left office, with a salary of close to $100,000. She was selected to give the keynote address at a commencement for Milwaukee Area Technical College in May 2017. She gave the keynote address at a California teachers summit in July 2017, emphasizing the importance of communities supporting their teachers given the emotional and circumstantial stresses they often have to function under. Then in May 2018, she gave a commencement address at Bishop State Community College in Alabama, telling the graduates that "Maybe like me, life got in the way and it's taken you a lot longer than you expected to get here today.... Whoever you are, know this, if you can walk across this stage, you can do anything." In February 2019 she spoke to the graduating class of the Newport News Apprentice School, telling them that she realized many of them were in complicated life situations with multiple responsibilities, and that "Sometimes your day is a jigsaw puzzle that never seems to get completed... But no matter where life takes you, as of today you are a master of a craft, a shipbuilder and a leader, and no one can take that away from you."  In May 2019 her memoir "Where the Light Enters: Building a Family, Discovering Myself" was published. The book has little political content, instead focusing on aspects of family. In it she states that while she is "grateful" to have been second lady, "The role I have always felt most at home in is being 'Dr. B.'" "USA Today" called it an "often-poignant memoir that charts her journey from a rebellious teen to young divorcee to the second lady of the United States." Biden did some book signings to help promote the work.

Role in 2020 presidential campaign.

Regarding the much-discussed possibility of her husband running in the 2020 United States presidential election, Biden was a key participant in his decision-making process. By one report in March 2019, she was "enthusiastically" in favor of his running.  The Joe Biden presidential campaign, 2020 was officially announced on April 25, 2019. A "Town and Country" magazine headline declared that "Jill Biden Might Just Be Joe Biden's Greatest Political Asset".  Days later, Biden addressed the matter of women who had accused her husband of inappropriate physical contact that had made them feel uncomfortable by saying, "I think what you don't realize is how many people approach Joe. Men and women, looking for comfort or empathy. But going forward, I think he's gonna have to judge – be a better judge – of when people approach him, how he's going to react. That he maybe shouldn't approach them." She said she had experienced male intrusion on personal space herself in the past and that "I just sorta stepped aside. I didn't address it.... things have changed. There was a time when women were afraid to speak out. I can remember specifically it was in a job interview... if that same thing happened today, I'd turn around and say, 'What do you think you're doin'?'... it's totally different." She also attracted attention by saying that "It's time to move on" with respect to her husband's role in 1991 regarding Anita Hill and the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination.  Biden continued to teach at NOVA during 2019, at one point telling a reporter, "I'm here grading research papers in between interviews." She staged appearances without her husband in early contest states such as Iowa, in some cases accompanied by a granddaughter. She attracted notice during one campaign stop in New Hampshire when she emphasized the electability argument in favor of her husband, saying, "you know, your candidate might be better on, I don't know, health care, than Joe is, but you've got to look at who's going to win this election, and maybe you have to swallow a little bit and say, 'OK, I personally like so-and-so better,' but your bottom line has to be that we have to beat Trump."  Once Hunter Biden became a figure in the scandal related to the Ukraine that led to a presidential impeachment, she was adamant about defending him: "Hunter did nothing wrong. And that's the bottom line." The strain of the subsequent impeachment trial was enough that it fractured a friendship she had with South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, who repeatedly called for Hunter Biden to be questioned as a witness at the trial.  For the first time, Biden reluctantly took a leave of absence from NOVA for the spring 2020 semester, so that she could be on the campaign trail full-time. In the weeks leading up to the Iowa caucuses, she sometimes staged more campaign appearances in that state than he did. She gave out her campaign e-mail address to voters in case they wanted to ask her follow-up questions. In joint appearances she sometimes spoke after he did, acting in the "closer" role. She gained some media attention during the March 3 Super Tuesday primaries when, during her husband's speech after experiencing a number of victories around the nation, she physically blocked a protester from getting at him.

Awards and honors.

On 16 May 2014, Biden gave the commencement address and was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humanities at Villanova University, one of her alma maters. She also gave commencement addresses and received honorary doctorates at Salve Regina University (DHL) in May 2011 and at Hofstra University (DHL) in May 2017.

Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden (formerly Stevenson, "née" Jacobs; born June 3, 1951) is an American educator. She served as second lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She is married to Joe Biden, the 47th vice president of the United States, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee for the 2020 election.

Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden, née le à Hammonton, est une enseignante américaine et l'épouse de l'ancien vice-président des États-Unis Joe Biden. Elle fut donc la "seconde dame" des États-Unis de 2009 à 2017.


Early life.

Hypólito was born in Santo André, in the ABC Region, Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, but moved to the city of Rio de Janeiro. He is the son of a bus driver named Wagner Hypólito and a seamstress named Geni Matias. He has Greek ancestry from his father (The surname Hypólito comes from the Greek surname Hippolyte, which was translated because the ancestors of his family had immigrated to Brazil), he also has Portuguese ancestry coming from his maternal family.  As a child he had his first contact with the sport at the Flamengo Rowing Club, the same one his sister Daniele Hypólito used to train. At her insistence, he specialized in solo exercises, in which he won his first titles as "infantil" and later as "júnior".

Career.

Hypólito began gymnastics at the age of seven, following in his older sister's footsteps. He won the floor exercise event in the children's division at the Brazilian National Championships in 1997 and was the all-around junior National Champion in 2001.  By the age of 21, Hypólito had competed in five World Gymnastics Championships, in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007. A floor exercise specialist, he qualified for the FX event finals in all five competitions, placing fifth in 2002, fourth in 2003, earning the gold medal in 2005, the silver medal in 2006, and the gold again in 2007. With his 2005 win, Hypólito became the first male South American gymnast to medal at Worlds.  In the spring of 2008, Hypólito contracted dengue fever. However, he was able to recover and resume training in time to compete at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, where he was Brazil's only MAG representative. In the preliminary round of competition, he performed on floor and vault, and qualified to the floor event final in first place with a score of 15.950. In the floor finals, he fell on his last tumbling pass to finish the meet in 6th place.  Hypólito was one of three male Brazilians in artistic gymnastics at the 2012 Summer Olympics, but he was eliminated during the qualification stage. However, in the 2016 Summer Olympics, held in his home country, he finished fourth in qualification for the floor exercise, and won a silver medal in the individual event final.

Eponymous skills.

Hypólito has one skill on floor exercise officially named after him called the Hypólito on floor, which was successfully completed when he won the gold medal on the individual floor event at the 2006 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup Final in São Paulo, Brazil, defeating the then reigning Olympic floor champion, Kyle Shewfelt of Canada, in the process. The skill is a full-twisting Arabian double (front) layout and was assigned a D-score of F (0.6).

Personal life.

Hypólito came out as gay in May 2019. In an article for UOL Esporte, Hypólito described many years of struggling with his sexuality because of his deeply religious upbringing, but wrote, "I want people to know that I'm gay and that I'm not ashamed of it."

Diego Matias Hypólito (; born June 19, 1986) is a Brazilian gymnast and the 2005 and 2007 World Champion on the floor exercise. He is the first male gymnast from Brazil, and South America, to win a medal at the World Championships. He also won 63 medals in World Cup. Hypólito has represented Brazil in three Olympics: 2008, 2012 and 2016. He received the silver medal in Floor at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. He is also the younger brother of Daniele Hypólito, the first Brazilian gymnast ever to medal at Worlds.

Diego Matias Hypólito, né le à Santo André au Brésil, est un gymnaste brésilien. Il est le frère de la gymnaste Daniele Hypólito.


History.

On 26 November 1994, at "Fire with Fire: The Feminist Forum" held at the Sydney Town Hall, Joan Kirner mentioned the plan currently before the ALP National Executive to introduce an Australian version of the US Emily's List.  In 1994, the ALP National Conference passed an "Affirmative Action" Rule requiring that women be pre-selected in 35 per cent of winnable seats, in all elections, by 2002. This was at the same time as passing of the Affirmative Action (Equal Employment Opportunity for Women) Act 1986. In 1995 the ALP decided to form an internal version of EMILY's List, and in 1996 Kirner established EMILY's List Australia outside the party. with the aim of attaining 45% female membership in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.  The name EMILY comes from its United States equivalent and is an acronym for "Early Money Is Like Yeast" from the political saying, "Early money is like yeast, because it helps to raise the dough".  In the 2004 Federal Election campaign EMILY's List donated a total of $100,000 to candidates. Research conducted by EMILY's List and submitted to the Labor Party's national executive stated that Labor women regarded then health spokeswoman Julia Gillard as the best performer during the campaign, with then Prime Minister John Howard in second place. Of Mark Latham their submission stated; "the most common themes were: perceived aggression, concern he had been watered down for the campaign, inexperience, constantly going on about background, glib answers, bully boy tactics of the past."  In the 2010 Federal Election campaign EMILY's List undertook Gender Gap research in six key marginal seats and undertook a targeted campaign incorporating materials along the themes of 'We Can't Trust Tony', 'Let's Make History' and 'Torpedo the Speedo'.  In the 2012 Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory elections, for the first time EMILY's List endorsed every female Labor Party candidate contesting those elections.  Australia's first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, was a founding member of EMILY's List Australia and assisted to prepare their initial constitution. She presented the Inaugural EMILY's List Oration at Parliament House, Canberra in September 2011.

Organisational structure.

EMILY's List Australia is run by a National Committee which includes parliamentarians, volunteers and women unionists. Although it is a partisan organisation, is not controlled by the formal structures of the ALP. At the State and Territory level there are "Action Groups" (ELAG) which have their own organisational structures. South Australian Senator Anne McEwen and Victorian lawyer, poet and writer Tanja Kovac are currently the National Co-convenors.

EMILY's List Australia is a political network in Australia that supports progressive women candidates seeking election to political office. EMILY's List Australia was inspired by EMILY's List, a Political Action Committee with similar goals in the United States.

EMILY's List Australia est un réseau politique en Australie qui soutient les femmes progressistes de l'Australian Labor Party, afin de les aider à être élue à un poste politique important. EMILY's List Australia est inspiré de l'EMILY's List, un comité d'action politique dont les buts sont identiques aux États-Unis d'Amérique.


Childhood and early life.

Jan Kaplický, the only child of a sculptor and a botanical illustrator, was born on 18 April 1937 in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and grew up in a suburb of Prague called Ořechovka.  Between 1956 and 1962 he studied at the College of Applied Arts and Architecture and Design (VSUP) in Prague, receiving a Diploma in Architecture. He worked in private practice in Czechoslovakia between 1964 and 1968. In the wake of the Prague Spring, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, he escaped to London in September 1968 with fellow architect Jaroslav Vokoun carrying only US$100 and a few pairs of socks. In 1969 in London he met again Eva Jiřičná whom he had known in Prague, who then became his girlfriend.

Career.

In England, Kaplický first worked for Denys Lasdun and Partners (1969–1971), then obtained employment with the office of Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers (1971–1973), where he worked on DRU extension at Aybrook Street, London and later helping to develop the design for the Centre Georges Pompidou (constructed 1971–1977) in Paris by joining the team of more than 30 strong. When the practice relocated to Paris, he was unable to follow as at that time he still did not have a British passport. After working with Jiřičná, and a short spell at Spencer and Webster, Associates (1974–1975), he joined Foster Associates, now Foster and Partners (1979–1983).  At the same time, in 1979 Kaplický set up his own architectural think tank called Future Systems with David Nixon, and began to develop an architectural style that combined organic forms with high tech futurism. Among the drawings he made were structures orbiting the earth built by robots, weekend houses resembling survival capsules that could be transported by helicopter, and home interiors that could be manipulated. In the 1980s his design for the Grand Buildings in Trafalgar Square, London, was a free-form monocoque structure pierced by portholes; it lost to a more conventional reconstruction of an Edwardian facade. Kaplický told "BusinessWeek" in 2005: "Where is it written that buildings have to be boxes? People aren't boxes."  Amanda Levete joined Future Systems as a partner in 1989. Kaplický and Levete married in 1991 and were a couple for 15 years; they had a son named Josef. Although they divorced in 2006, they continued their professional association in the architectural practice, saying that the separation strengthened their working relationship.  Although Kaplický was a finalist for the Prince Philip Prize for designer of the year in 1991, for the first 15 years of its existence Future Systems received few commissions, and it was not until 1994 that the company was commissioned to build the new media centre at Lord's Cricket Ground which eventually won the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize – considered the most prestigious architecture award in the UK – in 1999 and the World Architecture Awards in 2001. Kaplický considered the media centre "my favourite creation", saying, "It is something which was revolutionary in many areas – a real technical achievement – but above all, the people operating inside it have said: 'We love it,' and that's great." In 2000, he was made an Honourable Fellow of RIBA. Future Systems' next major project, the iconic Selfridges Building in the Bull Ring in Birmingham, won seven awards, including the RIBA Award for Architecture 2004. That year, Kaplický was the subject of a Czech documentary entitled "Profil" ("Profile").  In 2007, Kaplický won the design competition for the new Czech National Library building. This was to have been his first major building in his home country, and he said the project was the most important event in his life. However, the design for the building, resembling a green and purple blob and nicknamed by locals "the Octopus", was heavily criticised. President of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus was overheard saying he would be willing to prevent the building going ahead with his own body; his spokesman later clarified it was an off-hand remark that had not been meant to be taken seriously. Pavel Bém, the Civic Democrat Mayor of Prague, supported the design when it was selected but later become hostile to it, saying that the City Council of Prague, which is dominated by the Civil Democratic Party, would not allow the Octopus to be built as it would ruin Prague's panorama. Vlastimil Jezek, a former director of the Library, regarded Kaplický as "another protagonist of Czech culture who has been crushed by Czech narrow-mindedness." Although the design was eventually dropped, Kaplický remained hopeful that the building would be built through funds from a private foundation established for this purpose.  Apart from his design work, Kaplický was active in the education of architects. He taught from 1982 to 1988 at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, the oldest independent architectural school in the UK, and in 1992 at the School of Architecture in Bordeaux and at the Design Workshop of the Technische Universität Berlin. He was also an external examiner for the Architectural Association between 1995 and 1998, and in 2000 was an assessor for the Domus Awards of the B.B.J. Competition in Milan.  In October 2008, news broke that Kaplický and Levete intended to go their separate ways after having collaborated professionally for 20 years. Kaplický was due to keep the Future Systems practice name.  Towards the end of his life, Kaplický began to spend more time in the Czech Republic, where he was awaiting the construction of the Czech National Library and where his design for the Congress and Concert Hall Centre in České Budějovice (Budweis) had been approved. He married the film producer Eliška Kaplický, "née" Fuchsová, in 2007. On 14 January 2009, hours after the birth of his daughter Johanna Kaplická, he collapsed on a street in Prague near Vítězné náměstí (Victory Square) with heart failure and could not be revived by emergency services. The city authorities of Budweis have announced their determination to obtain funding to finally build a Kaplický building in his native Czech Republic.  In a 2002 interview with "The Observer", Kaplický said: "The world is full of beautiful things, and you have to be observant as an architect – if not, you are in trouble. Creativity is everywhere.... The initial idea for a job comes to me literally just like that sometimes, and if that first idea is good then you are on the right track. It's not a sign of creativity to have 65 ideas for one problem, that's just a waste of energy. I also don't think you need to go anywhere particular to be creative; people just use that as an excuse. But I do think a lot of creativity depends on your relationships with other people, your personal relationships, your partner or whatever. Your personal happiness or unhappiness comes out in your work, it's a reflection of your emotional state and you can't separate the two."

Jan Kaplický (; ; 18 April 1937 – 14 January 2009) was a Neofuturistic Czech architect who spent a significant part of his life in the United Kingdom. He was the leading architect behind the innovative design office, Future Systems. He was best known for the neofuturistic Selfridges Building in Birmingham, England, and the Media Centre at Lord's Cricket Ground in London.

Jan Kaplický (né le à Prague en Tchécoslovaquie, mort le à Prague en République tchèque) est un architecte tchèque ayant passé l'essentiel de sa carrière au Royaume-Uni après qu'il a quitté son pays à la suite de l'échec du Printemps de Prague en 1968.


Biography.

Mu‘in al-Din Suleyman was the son of Muhadhdhab al-Din Ali al-Daylami, an Iranian from Kashan, who served as the vizier to the Seljuq Sultan Kaykhusraw II in 1243 at the time of the Battle of Köse Dağ. Raised in a time of trouble after the Battle of Köse Dağ and having received a good education, Suleyman Pervane become commander of Tokat, and later Erzincan. He was appointed, by Mongol commander Bayju's recommendation, as chamberlain to the Konya palace of Seljuks sultan of Rûm, then vassals of the Mongols. He married Kaykhusraw's widow Gürcü Hatun and became the undisputed master of the declining state, making a name as a great intriguer. His title Pervâne means "personal aide of the sultan"  After Kaykhusraw’s death and the ensuing dispute among his sons for the throne, the Pervâne supported Kilij Arslan IV and succeeded in having him declared as the successor. In the same period, he also took Sinop and twelve surrounding castles from the Empire of Trebizond and the region was accorded to him and his family as an iqta. His growing power made him worry that the sultan Kilij Arslan IV might want to eliminate him and he took the initiative by having the sultan strangled in Aksaray in 1265. The throne was succeeded by Kilij Arslan IV's minor son Kaykhusraw III (1265–1283).  During the Mamluk-Ilkhanid War and especially after the Mamluk hand had strengthened under Baybars, Pervâne's policy was characterized by multiple allegiances, all at the same time wishing to keep all his options open. According to Ibn Shaddad, when Baybars came to Syria in 1275, Pervâne played a pivotal role in dissuading him from his plans for invading the Anatolian heartland and directed him rather towards raids in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, persuading him to leave the territories of his sultanate to the following year. But neither did he enjoy the Ilkhan Abaqa's full confidence and the successes of Baybars had brought insipient anti-Mongol feelings among Seljuk notables, led by the Seljuk governors of Diyarbekir, Harput and Niğde, to the fore.  In 1277, Baybars entered the Seljuk sultanate and on 18 March, overcame the Mongol army in Elbistan, while Pervâne, who was in command of the Seljuk contingent expected by both Baybars and the Mongols, took flight to Tokat along with the young sultan. Baybars made a triumphal entry into Kayseri on 23 April and then returned to Syria. At the news of his troops' defeat, Abaqa hastened to Anatolia (July 1277) and sternly punished the Seljuk Turks, sources citing massacres of tens of thousands of people. Deeming him responsible for Baybars's foray into Anatolia, Abaqa also had Pervâne killed on 2 August 1277.  The story that the Abaqa forced his subjects to eat the flesh of the Pervâne has its origin in Armenian history of Hetoum.  His son Mehmed Bey took over the family possessions around Sinop and pursued a prudent policy of allegiance to the Mongols, which was also pursued under his son Mesud Bey's period as Bey. Mesud Bey was kidnapped by the Genoese in 1298 and was held for a heavy ransom. The last representative of the Pervane's line was probably the Gazi Chelebi, a notable pirate who ruled Sinop in the first decades of the 14th century.

Monuments.

Several foundations of the Pervâne survive. In Sinop the Alaeddin Camii stands on the site of the former cathedral, which sometime after 1214 was converted into a mosque by Kayqubad I. The present structure was built "de novo" by the Pervâne in A.H. 666 (1267-68 C.E.). The nearby Alâiye Medrese, sometimes called the Pervâne Medrese, was completed the same year. In Tokat he built the so-called Gök Medrese in 1277. Founded as a hospital and medical school, the building now houses a museum. A nearby Seljuq style hamam is attributed to him although no inscription survives. There is another mosque of the Pervâne in Merzifon.  Recently the archaeological remains of a medrese founded by the Pervâne came to light within the compound of the closed bazaar of Kayseri. The medrese was partially excavated in 2002.

Mu'in al-Din Sulaiman Parwana (), better known as Pervane () was a Persian statesman, who was for a time (especially between 1261–1277) a key player in Anatolian politics involving the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm, the Mongol Ilkhanate and the Mamluks under Baybars.

Mu`în al-Dîn Sulayman ou en turc Muineddin Süleyman, dit Pervâne ou Parwâna est l’un des vizirs les plus influents de la dynastie des Seldjoukides de Roum. Entre 1261 et 1277, il joue un rôle essentiel dans la politique en Anatolie entre le sultanat de Roum, les Mongols Ilkhanides et les Mamelouks pendant le règne de Baybars.


Biography.

Fisher was originally named ', and also known as ', which translated into English as "George Fisher". He was born to Serbian parents in Székesfehérvár, Hungary in April 1795. Following his father's death Đorđe was sent to the Serbian Orthodox Church seminary in Sremski Karlovci, to train as a priest. He left in 1813 to join the Serbian revolutionary forces during the First Serbian Uprising. He traveled to Philadelphia in the United States in 1814 before heading to Mexico. In 1825, Fisher helped found the first York Rite Masonic Lodge in Mexico. He became a naturalized Mexican citizen in 1829 and contracted to settle five hundred families on lands in Texas formerly held by Haden Edward.  Fisher later was in charge of a customs house at the far north end of Galveston Bay, succeeding the very unpopular John Davis Bradburn in this post. Fisher demanded that all ships landing at the mouth of the Brazos River pay their customs duties to him at Anahuac. This was a great hardship to area boat captains due to the great distances between that port and other Texas seaports. Fisher was forced to resign his post in early 1832 after a military confrontation with Texian settlers.  Later that year, Fisher began publishing the liberal newspaper "Mercurio del Puerto de Matamoros" in Matamoros. On October 13, 1835, Fisher and José Antonio Mexía organized a movement in New Orleans to attack Tampico and instigate a revolt among the eastern states of Mexico.  In 1837, he became a commission agent in Houston, in the Republic of Texas, and served as justice of the peace in 1839. Fisher was admitted to the bar in 1840 and was elected to the Houston city council. In 1843 he became a major in the Texas militia.  He traveled to Panama in 1850 and on to California in 1851. In 1853 while he was still Secretary for the Land Commission, he may have gone to Washington. For there was printed in two and later three volumes "Portraits and Memoirs of Eminent Americans", in which a biographical sketch of Fisher appears as the sole entry from the state of California. It was written by the editor John Livingston, a New York lawyer.  Fisher's story aroused interest also in Europe as evidenced by many articles published in several European countries. The well-known Munich magazine of the epoch "Das Ausland", of July, 1843, using material out of John Lloyd Stephens book which had appeared in London at the beginning of 1843 published several articles in sequence on this "adventurous Serb."  Fisher continued to serve in various civic and administrative posts in San Francisco from 1860 to 1870 until retirement. Soon after retiring, he was appointed by the King of Greece as Consul for that nation.  Fisher was married four times. He died in San Francisco on June 11, 1873.

References.

1. Parmenter, Mary Fisher, Walter Russel Fisher, Lawrence Edward Mallette "The Life of George Fisher". Jacksonville, Florida: The H. & W.B. Drew Company. 1959<br> 2. Slavkovic, A. B. " The Immigrant. The Judge Fisher Story. " Pittsburgh, PA: White Angel Media. 2006 3. John Livingston: https://books.google.ca/books?id=36F9yDts_xoC&pg=PA145&lpg=PA145&dq=john+Livingston,+a+new+york+lawyer+and+editor+of+Portraits+of+Eminent+Americans&source=bl&ots=Hu7e_UkzlO&sig=OBKYrfHRjeyahTin-Tuu6qiBh0s&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjxzc_pqrrRAhWU0YMKHUp9BMwQ6AEIKzAA#v=onepage&q=john%20Livingston%2C%20a%20new%20york%20lawyer%20and%20editor%20of%20Portraits%20of%20Eminent%20Americans&f=false

George (Jorge) Fisher (April 30, 1795 – June 11, 1873) was a customs officer and early leader of the Texas Revolution.

George (Jorge) Fisher (né Đorđe Šagić, connu également comme Đorđe Ribar) (1795 – à San Francisco) est un "empresario", fonctionnaire des douanes, juge et l'un des premiers leaders de la Révolution texane.


History.

Mauston was founded by Milton M. Maughs. The town was originally named Maughs Town, after him. The town's beginning was based on the lumber industry of early Wisconsin. The history of Mauston is currently preserved in the Boorman House on Union Street.

Geography.

Mauston is located at (43.798, -90.077). It is in the Central Standard time zone. Elevation is 883 feet.  According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of, of which, is land and is water.

Airport.

Mauston is served by the Mauston-New Lisbon Union Airport (82C). The airport is jointly owned with New Lisbon.

Demographics.

2010 census.

As of the census of 2010, there were 4,423 people, 1,779 households, and 985 families living in the city. The population density was. There were 2,006 housing units at an average density of. The racial makeup of the city was 92.8% White, 2.6% African American, 1.2% Native American, 0.7% Asian, 0.7% from other races, and 2.0% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.5% of the population.  There were 1,779 households of which 29.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.9% were married couples living together, 13.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.8% had a male householder with no wife present, and 44.6% were non-families. 37.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 17.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.25 and the average family size was 2.94.  The median age in the city was 39.3 years. 22.3% of residents were under the age of 18; 8.7% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 26.6% were from 25 to 44; 25.4% were from 45 to 64; and 17.1% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 50.1% male and 49.9% female.

2000 census.

As of the census of 2000, there were 3,740 people, 1,585 households, and 963 families living in the city. The population density was 1,022.6 people per square mile (394.5/km2). There were 1,729 housing units at an average density of 472.8 per square mile (182.4/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 96.28% White, 0.67% African American, 0.35% Native American, 1.18% Asian, 0.48% from other races, and 1.04% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.11% of the population.  There were 1,585 households out of which 29.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.0% were married couples living together, 11.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.2% were non-families. 33.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 18.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.28 and the average family size was 2.89.  In the city, the population was spread out with 24.2% under the age of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 27.1% from 25 to 44, 19.2% from 45 to 64, and 20.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 88.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.4 males.  The median income for a household in the city was $32,341, and the median income for a family was $42,866. Males had a median income of $31,250 versus $21,589 for females. The per capita income for the city was $21,640. About 8.7% of families and 11.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.4% of those under age 18 and 15.4% of those age 65 or over.

Education.

The city and surrounding area is served by the Mauston Area School District, which provides a 4-year-old kindergarten through senior high education. District schools include West Side Elementary (grades 4K-2), Grayside Elementary (grades 3-5), Olson Middle School (which is housed in the former high school and serves grades 6, 7, and 8), and Mauston High School, which opened its doors in 2001. Lyndon Station Elementary School, which houses grades K-5, is located in nearby Lyndon Station.  A pre-K through 8th grade Catholic parochial school has been operated by St. Patrick Parish since 1895. The parish also operated St. Patrick High School from 1933 to 1951, and Madonna High School from 1951 to 1966. This school holds about 200 students from all counties of Southern Wisconsin.  Mauston is also home to a campus of Western Technical College.

Mauston is a city in and the county seat of Juneau County, Wisconsin, United States. The population is 4,411 according to the 2010 census. It is approximately seventy miles northwest from the state capital, Madison.

La ville de Mauston est le siège du comté de Juneau, situé dans l’État du Wisconsin, aux États-Unis. Sa population s’élevait à lors du recensement, estimée à.


Plot.

When art dealer Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz) travels from Chicago to North Carolina to pursue a local, self-taught painter (Frank Hoyt Taylor) for her outsider art gallery, she takes the opportunity to meet and stay with the family of her new husband George (Alessandro Nivola), who live close by.  There is his mother Peg (Celia Weston); his reserved, contemplative father Eugene (Scott Wilson); and his sullen, resentful, twenty-ish brother Johnny (Ben McKenzie) who, although married, lives at home. He is studying for his high school equivalency certificate while working at Replacements, Ltd. as an order processor. Johnny married his now pregnant wife Ashley (Amy Adams) before either of them finished high school. Relations between Johnny and Ashley are strained, with Ashley believing that a baby will solve their marital problems.  Madeleine and George stay in the expected baby's nursery, and Madeleine becomes friends with Ashley, who is very sweet and friendly, if somewhat naive and talkative. The family takes Madeleine to a church social, where George is asked to sing a hymn. Madeleine is not used to intense religious displays but makes no comment. She attends Ashley's baby shower and gives her sister-in-law an antique silver spoon, which stands out from the other gifts. Madeleine discovers that she does not know much about George, as they have been married only six months and knew each other only a week before they got married.  The artist Madeleine is pursuing wavers over signing with her gallery. Ashley goes into labor, and the family goes to the hospital with her. Madeleine chooses to go and convince the artist to sign with her gallery, which briefly makes George angry. Madeleine calls George to rave about the artist (she is impressed with his work, but shocked by his anti-semitism) without asking about the baby. George interrupts her and informs her that Ashley's baby boy is stillborn, which causes Madeleine to double over with guilt. The artist and his sister drive Madeleine back to her in-laws' home, and she later sits with Eugene on the back porch and cries. Meanwhile, George supports Ashley at the hospital, who expresses that George is always there when Ashley needs him. George kisses Ashley on the forehead and leaves. George comes home and has a wordless encounter in the garage with his brother, Johnny, who throws a tool at him, injuring his forehead. George does nothing in response.  The next day, George and Madeleine prepare to leave. Johnny calls Ashley and suggests that they "try again," to which Ashley excitedly squeals. As George and Madeleine drive onto the highway and pick up speed, George remarks, "I'm so glad we're out of there" as Madeleine caresses George's neck with her left hand.

Reception.

"Junebug" was well received among critics. Its Rotten Tomatoes score is 87% and Metacritic score is 80%. Roger Ebert gave the film four stars and praised it as "a movie that understands, profoundly and with love and sadness, the world of small towns; it captures ways of talking and living I remember from my childhood, with the complexity and precision of great fiction". Tim Robey of "The Daily Telegraph" labeled the film a "rare treat" and a "small, quiet miracle". Film is known as breakthrough performance by Amy Adams earning her first of six Academy Award nominations. It was premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, where Adams won a special jury prize.

Score and soundtrack.

Though much of the movie is free of background music, its score is made up of original music by Yo La Tengo, as well as classical music by Haydn, Shostakovich, Schubert and Vivaldi. The film begins and ends with the 1977 song "Harmour Love" performed by Syreeta Wright and written by Stevie Wonder. During a scene where most of the characters are at a church social, George and two young men are featured singing the hymn "Softly and Tenderly, Jesus Is Calling" by Will Lamartine Thompson.  No official soundtrack has been released of the film. As a result, Syreeta's album "One to One" (which contains the song "Harmour Love") has since experienced a resurgence of sales. Yo La Tengo have released some of the original music in a compilation of their work on soundtracks "They Shoot, We Score".

Home media.

The DVD was released on January 17, 2006, by Sony Pictures Entertainment which includes:

Junebug is a 2005 American comedy-drama film directed by Phil Morrison. Amy Adams received an Academy Award nomination for her supporting role in the film.

Junebug est un film américain réalisé par Phil Morrison sorti en 2005. Le film, inédit en salles en France, est connu pour avoir véritablement lancé la carrière d'Amy Adams. Sa prestation, encensée par la critique, lui vaut d'obtenir plusieurs distinctions, dont le Prix spécial du Jury au Festival de Sundance et une nomination à l'Oscar de la meilleure actrice dans un second rôle.


Biography.

Born in Lyon, he initially trained there designing patterns for silk. In 1889 he moved to Paris to enroll at the Académie Julian. There he met Paul Ranson, Louis Valtat, and Georges d'Espagnat. He also associated with the group known as Les Nabis which included Bonnard, Vuillard, Denis, Vallotton, Marquet and Signac.  In 1894, he exhibited five paintings at the Salon des Indépendants where he caught the eye of Renoir. Despite their age difference, a solid friendship united them until Renoir's death in 1919, providing André with guidance in his career. Through Renoir's art dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, André was able to sell many of his paintings in the United States through the Durand-Ruel Galleries. Between 1895 and 1901, he exhibited at the Salon des Cent, the Salon des Indépendants, the Exposition d'Art Nouveau, the Salon d'Automne, and, in 1904, at the Salon de la Libre Esthétique in Brussels. In 1912, Durand-Ruel enabled André to exhibit his work in New York City and in 1913, he was selected to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Libre Esthétique in Brussels, showcasing works on a theme of southern France. He would later showcase his works many times in New York City, as in 1930.  Demobilized from World War I in 1917, he moved to Marseille and then to the village of Laudun in the Gard, where he had been on vacation since his childhood as his family owned a house there together with a small vineyard. He became curator of the art museum of Bagnols-sur-Cèze, where he remained until his death. In 1919, he produced a monograph, "Renoir", considered to be "one of the most accurate contemporary accounts of the artist's work", and in 1921, he organized a retrospective of Renoir's work at the Durand-Ruel Gallery. He was also very close to the art critic George Besson, a friend since 1910. In 1971, Besson decided to offer his art collection to the nation, bequeathing to the museums of Besançon and Bagnols-sur-Cèze, where the museum is now called Musée Albert-André.  André died on 11 July 1954 at 85 years old, shortly before his works were due to be showcased at the Avignon Museum. After his death, in 1955, the Salon d’Automne organized a retrospective of his works. Today many of his paintings are to be found in major world museums such as the Modern Art Museum of New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, museums in Philadelphia and Washington DC, Paris's Musée d'Orsay, the Galerie Rienzo, and the Musée Albert-André in France.

Albert André ( 24 May 1869 – 11 July 1954) was a French Post-Impressionist figurative painter. He produced portraits of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, his closest friend, and Claude Monet.

Albert André (Benjamin Marie Albert André), né à Lyon (Rhône) le et mort à Laudun (Gard) le, est un peintre figuratif français.


Participants.

Of the 94 riders that began the Giro d'Italia on 7 May, 50 of them made it to the finish in Milan on 29 May. Riders were allowed to ride as a member of a team or group; 61 riders competed as part of a team, while the remaining 33 competed as a part of a group. The nine teams that partook in the race were: Bianchi, Dei, Fréjus, Ganna, Gloria-Ambrosiana, Lygie-Settebello, Legnano, Olympia, and Wolsit-Binda. The teams ranged from six to eight riders each. There were also seven groups, made up of three to five riders each, that participated in the race. Those groups were: U. C. Modenese, Il Littoriale, La Voce di Mantova, U.S. Azzini, U.S. Canelli, Dopolavoro Mater, and Gruppo A.  The peloton was composed primarily of Italian riders. The field featured one former Giro d'Italia winners with Francesco Camusso who won the race in 1931. Reigning champion Gino Bartali did not enter the race because the Italian government ordered him to race the Tour de France instead. Other notable Italian riders included Olimpio Bizzi, Giovanni Valetti, Ezio Cecchi, and Giuseppe Olmo. Swiss rider Leo Amberg who placed high at the 1936 and 1937 Tours de France competed in the race.

Classification leadership.

The leader of the general classification – calculated by adding the stage finish times of each rider – wore a pink jersey. This classification is the most important of the race, and its winner is considered as the winner of the Giro.  In the mountains classification, the race organizers selected different mountains that the route crossed and awarded points to the riders who crossed them first.  The winner of the team classification was determined by adding the finish times of the best three cyclists per team together and the team with the lowest total time was the winner. If a team had fewer than three riders finish, they were not eligible for the classification. The group classification was decided in the same manner, but the classification was exclusive to the competing groups.  The rows in the following table correspond to the jerseys awarded after that stage was run.

The 1938 Giro d'Italia was the 26th edition of the Giro d'Italia, a cycling race organized and sponsored by the newspaper "La Gazzetta dello Sport". The race began on 7 May in Milan with a stage that stretched to Turin, finishing back in Milan on 29 May after a split stage and a total distance covered of. The race was won by the Italian rider Giovanni Valetti of the Fréjus team, with fellow Italians Ezio Cecchi and Severino Canavesi coming in second and third respectively.

La du Tour d'Italie s'est élancée de Milan le et est arrivée à Milan le 2 juin. Long de, ce "Giro" a été remporté par l'Italien Giovanni Valetti.