Historical context.

After four hundred years of colonial domination under the Spanish Empire, Puerto Rico finally received its sovereignty in 1898 through a "Carta de Autonomía" (Charter of Autonomy). This Charter of Autonomy was signed by Spanish Prime Minister Práxedes Mateo Sagasta and ratified by the Spanish Cortes. Despite this, just a few months later, the United States claimed ownership of the island as part of the Treaty of Paris which concluded the Spanish–American War.  Opponents to the colonial government argued that the profits generated by this arrangement were one-sided, enormous for the United States.  When the war ended, U.S. President McKinley appointed Charles Herbert Allen as the first civilian governor of Puerto Rico. Though Allen had a business background, his financial administration of Puerto Rico was strikingly unsound. He ignored the appropriation requests of the Puerto Rican House of Delegates, refused to make any municipal, agricultural or small business loans, built roads at double the costs of preceding administrations, and left 85% of the school-age population without schools. Rather than making these requested infrastructure and education investments, Allen's budget raided the Puerto Rican treasury. His administration re-directed tax revenues to no-bid contracts for U.S. businessmen, railroad subsidies for U.S.-owned sugar plantations, and high salaries for U.S. bureaucrats in the island government.  Allen's financial acumen improved considerably when he returned to the U.S., and resumed his own personal business interests. In 1901, Allen resigned as governor and installed himself as president of the largest sugar-refining company in the world, the American Sugar Refining Company. This company was later renamed as the Domino Sugar company. In effect, Charles Allen leveraged his governorship of Puerto Rico into a controlling interest over the entire Puerto Rican economy.  In 1914, the Puerto Rican House of Delegates voted unanimously for independence from the United States. In 1917, the US Congress passed an act by which it granted citizenship to Puerto Rican residents. This was overwhelmingly opposed by the island's political leaders. Critics said the US was simply interested in increasing the size of its conscription pool to get soldiers for World War I.

United States "Manifest Destiny".

By 1930, over 40 percent of all the arable land in Puerto Rico had been converted into sugar plantations, which were entirely owned by Domino Sugar Company and U.S. banking interests. These bank syndicates also owned the entire coastal railroad, and the San Juan international seaport.  This was not limited to Puerto Rico. By 1930 the United Fruit Company owned over one million acres of land in Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Mexico and Cuba. By 1940, in Honduras alone, the United Fruit Company owned 50 percent of all private land in the entire country. In Guatemala, the United Fruit Company owned 75 percent of all private land by 1942 – plus most of Guatemala's roads, power stations and phone lines, the only Pacific seaport, and every mile of railroad.  The U.S. government supported all these economic exploits, and provided military "persuasion" whenever necessary.

Founding of the Nationalist Party.

The origins of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party date to 1917, when a group of Union Party members in Ponce, dissatisfied with the attitude of the Union Party of Puerto Rico towards the "granting" of U.S. citizenship, formed the ""Asociación Nacionalista de Ponce"" (Ponce Nationalist Association). Among its founders were Dr. Guillermo Salazar, Rafael Matos Bernier, J. A. Gonzalez, and Julio Cesar Fernandez. These men also founded the newspaper "El Nacionalista".  The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party was formed as a direct response to the American colonial government. In 1919, José Coll y Cuchí, a member of the Union Party of Puerto Rico, felt that the Union Party was not doing enough for the cause of Puerto Rican independence. Coll y Cuchí and some followers left to form the Nationalist Association of Puerto Rico in San Juan. Under Coll y Cuchí's presidency, the party convinced the Puerto Rican Legislative Assembly to approve an Act that would permit the transfer of the remains of the Puerto Rican patriot, Ramón Emeterio Betances, from Paris, France, to Puerto Rico.  The Legislative Assembly appointed Alfonso Lastra Charriez as its emissary since he had French heritage and spoke the language fluently. Betances' remains arrived in San Juan on August 5, 1920. A funeral caravan organized by the Nationalist Association transferred the remains from San Juan to the town of Cabo Rojo, where his ashes were interred by his monument.  By the 1920s, two other pro-independence organizations had formed on the Island: the Nationalist Youth and the Independence Association of Puerto Rico. The Independence Association was founded by José S. Alegría, Eugenio Font Suárez and Leopoldo Figueroa in 1920. On September 17, 1922, these three political organizations joined forces and formed the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Coll y Cuchi was elected president and José S. Alegría (father of Ricardo Alegría) vice-president. In 1924, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos joined the party and was named vice-president. Alegría was named Nationalist Party president in 1928 and held that position until 1930. By 1930, disagreements between Coll y Cuchi and Albizu Campos as to how the party should be run, led the former and his followers to leave and return to the Union Party. Albizu Campos did not like what he considered to be Coll y Cuchí's attitude of fraternal solidarity with the enemy. On May 11, 1930, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos was elected president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party.  The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party maintained that, as a matter of international law, the Treaty of Paris following the Spanish–American War could not have empowered the Spanish to "give" to the US what was no longer theirs. Under Albizu Campos's leadership during the years of the Great Depression, the party became the largest independence movement in Puerto Rico.  In the mid-1930s, there were disappointing electoral results and strong repression by the territorial police authorities. The party staged some protests that developed into celebrated incidents because of police overreaction: The October 1935 Rio Piedras and the Ponce massacres. In these, government forces fired on unarmed civilians. After the Río Piedras massacre, in December 1935, Albizu Campos announced that the Nationalist Party would withdraw from electoral participation while the United States kept control. Campos began to advocate direct, violent revolution.

Nationalist Party during 1930–1950.

Nationalist Party partisans were involved in a variety of dramatic and violent confrontations between 1930 and 1950:  Soon afterward, two Nationalist partisans, among them Raimundo Díaz Pacheco, attempted to assassinate Robert Cooper, judge of the Federal Court in Puerto Rico. On May 12, 1939, Winship was summarily removed from his post as Governor by President Roosevelt.

Nationalist Revolts of 1950.

The first battle of the Nationalist uprisings occurred in the early hours of October 29, in "barrio" Macaná of Peñuelas. The police surrounded the house of the mother of Melitón Muñiz, the president of the Peñuelas Nationalist Party, that he was using as a distribution center for weapons for the Nationalist Revolt. Without warning, the police fired on the Nationalists and a firefight ensued, resulting in the death of two Nationalists and wounding of six police officers.  In the Jayuya Uprising, led by Nationalist leader Blanca Canales, a police station and post office were burned. The town was held by the Nationalists for three days.  The Utuado Uprising culminated in the Utuado Massacre by the local police, in which five Nationalists were executed.  The San Juan Nationalist revolt was a Nationalist attempt to enter the Governor's mansion, "La Fortaleza", in order to attack then-governor Luis Muñoz Marín. The hour-long shootout resulted in the death of four Nationalists: Domingo Hiraldo Resto, Carlos Hiraldo Resto, Manuel Torres Medina and Raimundo Díaz Pacheco. Three guards were also seriously wounded.  Various other shootouts took place throughout island – including those at Mayagüez, Naranjito, Arecibo, and Ponce, where Antonio Alicea, Jose Miguel Alicea, Francisco Campos (Albizu Campos's nephew), Osvaldo Perez Martinez and Ramon Pedrosa Rivera were arrested and accused of the murder of police corporal Aurelio Miranda during the revolt. Raul de Jesus was accused of violating the Insular Firearms Law.  On October 31, police officers and National Guardsmen surrounded "Salón Boricua," a barbershop in Santurce. Believing that a group of Nationalists were inside the shop, they opened fire. The only person in the shop was Campos barber Vidal Santiago Díaz. Santiago Díaz, who fought alone against the attackers for three hours, received five wounds, including one in the head. The battle was transmitted "live" via the radio airwaves to the public in general.  On November 1, 1950, Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate U.S. President Harry S. Truman, who was staying at the Blair House in Washington, D.C.  Truman supported development of a constitution for Puerto Rico and the 1952 status referendum on it; 82% of the voters approved the constitution. The US Congress also approved the constitution.  On March 1, 1954, Lolita Lebrón together with fellow Nationalists Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irvin Flores and Andrés Figueroa Cordero attacked the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. The group opened fire with automatic pistols. Some 30 shots were fired (mostly by Cancel, according to his account), wounding five lawmakers. One of the congressmen, Representative Alvin Bentley from Michigan, was seriously wounded. Upon her arrest, Lebrón yelled "I did not come to kill anyone, I came to die for Puerto Rico!"  On November 18, 1955, a non-violent splinter group of nationalists calling themselves "La Quinta Columna" (The 5th Column) broke away from the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party due to not supporting the ideas and thoughts of Albizu Campos, as to a Puerto Rico relationship with Spain as its Mother country and their nationalistic love for Puerto Rico as their Motherland. The other reason for the splinter group was due to the violence that took place in the 1950s. This splinter group would later become known in 1968 as "El Movimiento Indio Taino de Boriken" (The Taino Indian Movement of Puerto Rico) which was primarily made up of the children of the Puerto Rican Nationalists whom would come to establish the indigenous grassroots civil rights movement in Puerto Rico.

Recent events.

Although less active, the Nationalist Party continues to exist as an organization and an ideology. It also has somewhat of a "chapter" in New York City. The New York Junta is an autonomous organ of the party that recognizes, and is recognized by, the National Junta in Puerto Rico.  In 2006 and in representation of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, Jose Castillo spoke before the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization and said that the Nationalist Party "had appeared in the past to denounce colonialism in Puerto Rico and hoped the Special Committee would show its commitment to the island's struggle for self-determination, so that it could join the United Nations in its own right... The Special Committee and its resolutions on Puerto Rico were indispensable instruments." Castillo "called upon the United States Government to assure the Puerto Rican people of their right to self-determination and human rights and immediately cease the persecution, arrests, and murders perpetrated against independence fighters. Vieques peace activists must be freed immediately, and the FBI's electronic surveillance and continued harassment of independence fighters must be stopped. The United States must also end its actions against basic human rights while fully implementing the United Nations resolution calling for a constituent assembly to begin decolonization." Castillo added that "Puerto Rico had its own national identity... Since its 1898 invasion, the United States had tried to destroy the nationality of Puerto Rican people. It kept Puerto Rico in isolation, maintaining it as private corporation from which it earned billions a year... exploitation had made foreigners richer and the Puerto Rican people poorer. The fact that Puerto Rico was the last territory in the world could not be hidden. Violation of rights there would cease only once it was a free and independent nation. The United States must provide compensation for what it had done to Puerto Rico's land and people."  In 2013 the Puerto Rico Nationalist Party made a public demonstration of their pro-Independence commitment by protesting a speech from the Governor of Puerto Rico, Alejandro García Padilla.  Its last president was Antonio "Toñito" Cruz Colón until his death in October 2014.

The Puerto Rico Nationalist Party (Spanish: "Partido Nacionalista de Puerto Rico", PNPR) is a Puerto Rican political party which was founded on September 17, 1922, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Its primary goal was to work for Puerto Rico's independence. The Party's selection in 1930 of Pedro Albizu Campos as its president brought a radical change to the organization and its tactics.


Gameplay.

The gameplay of "Reality Fighters" takes the classic fighting game mechanics and brings them to a wider, more mainstream focus.  To begin with, the player takes a photo of the face using the front or rear camera. Using face detection technology, the game can then recreate a character with the player's likeness. The game lets players choose the gender and body shape, and wear over 400 pieces of clothing. The game also allows players to choose among 15 fighting styles, and over 50 weapons. Fighting styles, weapons and clothes choice affect gameplay, by unlocking new combos or modifying the damage or armor of specific body parts. For example, a helmet will better protect the head, and a pair of boots will boost the kicking ability.  "Reality Fighters" offers dual control. On one side, the game can be played via buttons alone, with a classic control method. On the other, the game can be played via the front and rear touch, which allow the player to perform all combos in a more accessible way. There are six different game modes, namely Story Mode, Survivor, Quick Fight, Time Attack, Online versus, and Boss mode. The game also supports social features of the PS Vita like online leaderboards, friend lists, or NEAR. Players can pose and take photos of their characters.  Here is a quick summary of the battle UI. Next to the fighter portrait is your healthbar, and under the healthbar is your "EX Meter". When this meter is completely blue, you can use a certain special move with the triangle button. When it is orange, the same thing happens, but this time, you can use an even stronger move with the circle button.

Reality Fighters is a PlayStation Vita augmented reality video game developed by Novarama, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. "Reality Fighters" is a fighting game where the player can take a photo of himself or herself and, using the game's editing tools, become a video game character. The game boasts over 8 trillion unique fighter combinations, which can be used in solo and online play. "Reality Fighters" is a PlayStation Vita launch title.


X-rays and gamma rays.

Conventionally, the energy of diagnostic and therapeutic gamma- and X-rays is expressed in kilovolts or megavolts (kV or MV), whilst the energy of therapeutic electrons is expressed in terms of megaelectronvolts (MeV). In the first case, this voltage is the maximum electric potential used by a linear accelerator to produce the photon beam. The beam is made up of a spectrum of energies: the "maximum" energy is approximately equal to the beam's maximum electric potential times the electron charge. Thus a 1 MV beam will produce photons of no more than about 1 MeV. The "mean" X-ray energy is only about 1/3 of the maximum energy. Beam quality and hardness may be improved by X-ray filters, which improves the homogeneity of the X-ray spectrum.  Medically useful X-rays are produced when electrons are accelerated to energies at which either the photoelectric effect predominates (for diagnostic use, since the photoelectric effect offers comparatively excellent contrast with effective atomic number "Z") or Compton scatter and pair production predominate (at energies above approximately 200 keV for the former and 1 MeV for the latter), for therapeutic X-ray beams. Some examples of X-ray energies used in medicine are:  Megavoltage X-rays are by far most common in radiotherapy for the treatment of a wide range of cancers. Superficial and orthovoltage X-rays have application for the treatment of cancers at or close to the skin surface. Typically, higher energy megavoltage X-rays are chosen when it is desirable to maximize "skin-sparing" (since the relative dose to the skin is lower for such high-energy beams).  Medically useful photon beams can also be derived from a radioactive source such as iridium-192, caesium-137 or radium-226 (which is no longer used clinically), or cobalt-60. Such photon beams, derived from radioactive decay, are more or less monochromatic and are properly termed gamma rays. The usual energy range is between 300 keV to 1.5 MeV, and is specific to the isotope. Notably, photon beams deriving from radioisotopes are approximately monoenergetic, as contrasted with the continuous bremsstrahlung spectrum from a linac.  Therapeutic radiation is mainly generated in the radiotherapy department using some of the following equipment:

Electrons.

X-rays are generated by bombarding a high atomic number material with electrons. If the target is removed (and the beam current decreased) a high energy electron beam is obtained. Electron beams are useful for treating superficial lesions because the maximum of dose deposition occurs near the surface. The dose then decreases rapidly with depth, sparing underlying tissue. Electron beams usually have nominal energies in the range 4–20 MeV. Depending on the energy this translates to a treatment range of approximately 1–5 cm (in water-equivalent tissue). Energies above 18 MeV are used very rarely. Although the X-ray target is removed in electron mode, the beam must be fanned out by sets of thin scattering foils in order to achieve flat and symmetric dose profiles in the treated tissue.  Many linear accelerators can produce both electrons and x-rays.

Hadron therapy.

Hadron therapy involves the therapeutic use of protons, neutrons, and heavier ions (fully ionized atomic nuclei). Of these, proton therapy is by far the most common, though still quite rare compared to other forms of external beam radiotherapy, since it requires large and expensive equipment. The gantry (the part that rotates around the patient) is a multi-story structure, and a proton therapy system can cost (as of 2009) up to US$150 Million.

Multi-leaf collimator.

Modern linear accelerators are equipped with multileaf collimators (MLCs) which can move within the radiation field as the linac gantry rotates, blocking the field as necessary according to the gantry position. This technology allows radiotherapy treatment planners great flexibility in shielding organs-at-risk (OARSs), while ensuring that the prescribed dose is delivered to the target(s). A typical multi-leaf collimator consists of two sets of 40 to 80 leaves, each around 5 mm to 10 mm thick and several centimetres in the other two dimensions. Newer MLCs now have up to 160 leaves. Each leaf in the MLC is aligned parallel to the radiation field and can be moved independently to block part of the field. This allows the dosimetrist to match the radiation field to the shape of the tumor (by adjusting the position of the leaves), thus minimizing the amount of healthy tissue being exposed to radiation. On older linacs without MLCs, this must be accomplished manually using several hand-crafted blocks.

Intensity modulated radiation therapy.

Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is an advanced radiotherapy technique used to minimize the amount of normal tissue being irradiated in the treatment field. In some systems this intensity modulation is achieved by moving the leaves in the MLC during the course of treatment, thereby delivering a radiation field with a non-uniform (i.e. modulated) intensity. With IMRT, radiation oncologists are able to break up the radiation beam into many "beamlets". This allows radiation oncologists to vary the intensity of each beamlet. With IMRT, doctors are often able to further limit the amount of radiation received by healthy tissue near the tumor. Doctors have found this sometimes allowed them to safely give a higher dose of radiation to the tumor, potentially increasing the chance of a cure.

Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy.

Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) is an extension of IMRT where in addition to MLC motion, the linear accelerator will move around the patient during treatment. This means that rather than radiation entering the patient through only a small number of fixed angles, it can enter through many angles. This can be beneficial for some treatment sites where the target volume is surrounded by a number of organs which must be spared radiation dose.

Flattening Filter Free.

The intensity of the X-rays produced in an megavoltage linac is much higher in the centre of the beam compared to the edge. To counteract this a flattening filter is used. A flattening filter is a cone of metal (typically tungsten); after the X-ray beam has passed through the flattening filter it will have a more uniform profile, since the flattening filter is shaped so as to compensate for the forward bias in the momentum of the electrons incident upon it. This makes treatment planning simpler but also reduces the intensity of the beam significantly. With greater computing power and more efficient treatment planning algorithms, the need for simpler treatment planning techniques ("forward planning", in which the planner directly instructs the linac on how to deliver the prescribed treatment) is reduced. This has led to increased interest in flattening filter free treatments (FFF).  The advantage of FFF treatments is the increased maximum dose rate, by a factor of up for four, allowing reduced treatment times and a reduction in the effect of patient motion on the delivery of the treatment. This makes FFF an area of particular interest in stereotactic treatments., where the reduced treatment time may reduce patient movement, and breast treatments, where there is the potential to reduce breathing motion.

Image-guided radiation therapy.

Image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) augments radiotherapy with imaging to increase the accuracy and precision of target localization, thereby reducing the amount of healthy tissue in the treatment field. The more advanced the treatment techniques become in terms of dose deposition accuracy, the higher become the requirements for IGRT. In order to allow patients to benefit from sophisticated treatment techniques as IMRT or hadron therapy, patient alignment accuracies of 0.5 mm and less become desirable. Therefore, new methods like stereoscopic digital kilovoltage imaging based patient position verification (PPVS) to alignment estimation based on in-situ cone-beam computed tomography (CT) enrich the range of modern IGRT approaches.

External beam radiotherapy (EBRT) is the most common form of radiotherapy (radiation therapy). The patient sits or lies on a couch and an external source of ionizing radiation is pointed at a particular part of the body. In contrast to brachytherapy (sealed source radiotherapy) and unsealed source radiotherapy, in which the radiation source is inside the body, external beam radiotherapy directs the radiation at the tumour from outside the body. Orthovoltage ("superficial") X-rays are used for treating skin cancer and superficial structures. Megavoltage X-rays are used to treat deep-seated tumours (e.g. bladder, bowel, prostate, lung, or brain), whereas megavoltage electron beams are typically used to treat superficial lesions extending to a depth of approximately 5 cm (increasing beam energy corresponds to greater penetration). X-rays and electron beams are by far the most widely used sources for external beam radiotherapy. A small number of centers operate experimental and pilot programs employing beams of heavier particles, particularly protons, owing to the rapid dropoff in absorbed dose beneath the depth of the target.


History.

The community was founded by Joseph Plamondon in 1908 and settled by primarily French Canadians. Most of the families that eventually settled there came from Provemont, Michigan (now Lake Leelanau in Leelanau County, Michigan) and from French areas of Ontario. This is mentioned in a 1991 interview with Cecelia Bussey: http://leelanauhistory.pastperfectonline.com/archive/027AC0DE-312F-4F0F-85A1-643695582517.  On the outskirts of Plamondon is a community of Old Believers (Old Ritualists), a Traditionalist Russian Orthodox sect whose ancestors broke from the Church after Patriarch Nikon's reforms in 1666. The schism, or "Raskol," resulted over reforms in church ritual and translation intended to better align the Russian church with Greek Orthodox practices. The Old Believers that live outside Plamondon are "bezpopovtsy", or priestless Old Believers, who believe that apostolic succession ended with Nikon's apostasy and therefore have no clergy and refuse the Eucharist. Most of these families moved to the area in the mid 1970s from Woodburn, Oregon, also home to a large Old Believer community. Many also came from Xinjiang, China, by way of New Zealand, where they fled after the Communist revolutions in Russia and China.

Demographics.

As a designated place in the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Plamondon recorded a population of 348 living in 136 of its 172 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2011 population of 345. With a land area of, it had a population density of in 2016.  Lac La Biche County's 2016 municipal census counted a population of 348 in Plamondon, a change from the hamlet's 2013 municipal census population of 344.  As a designated place in the 2011 Census, Plamondon had a population of 345 living in 135 of its 147 total dwellings, a 3% change from its 2006 population of 335. With a land area of, it had a population density of in 2011.

Economy.

The main industries in the region are logging and farming.

Amenities.

The community has two schools, Ecole Beausejour and Ecole Plamondon School, which draw students from the entire region. École Plamondon School, offers English, French immersion, and Russian classes. École Beausejour is a francophone school, with instruction surrounding with the francophone culture.  There are two hotels, two banks, post office, indoor hockey arena with artificial ice, a museum, and a rather large church.  The hamlet also holds an annual French hockey tournament called Hockey en Fête. Frontenacs of University of Alberta have won twice. A Canadian Mud Racing Organization (CMRO) event is also held annually at the Plamondon Mud Bog.

Plamondon is a hamlet in northern Alberta, Canada within Lac La Biche County. It is located on Highway 858, approximately north of Highway 55, and has an elevation of.


Location.

The tunnels of the Underground City run beneath Beijing's city center, covering an area of under the surface. At one time there were about 90 entrances to the complex, all of which were hidden in shops along the main streets of Qianmen. Many of the entrances have since been demolished or blocked off for reconstruction. Known remaining entrances include 62 West Damochang Street in Qianmen, Beijing Qianmen Carpet Factory at 44 Xingfu Dajie in Chongwen District, and 18 Dazhalan Jie in Qianmen.

History.

At the height of Soviet-Chinese tensions in 1969, Chinese chairman Mao Zedong ordered the construction of the Underground City during the border conflict over Zhenbao Island in the Heilongjiang River. The Underground City was designed to withstand nuclear, biochemical and conventional attacks. The complex would protect Beijing's population, and allow government officials to evacuate in the event of an attack on the city. The government claimed that the tunnels could accommodate all of Beijing's six million inhabitants upon its completion.  The complex was equipped with facilities such as restaurants, clinics, schools, theaters, factories, a roller skating rink, grain and oil warehouses, and a mushroom cultivation farm. There were also almost 70 potential sites where water wells could easily be dug if needed. Elaborate ventilation systems were installed, with 2300 shafts that can be sealed off to protect the tunnels' inhabitants from poison gases, Gas- and water-proof hatches, as well as thick concrete main gates, were constructed to protect the tunnels from biochemical attacks and nuclear fallouts.  There is no official disclosure about the actual extent of the complex, but it is speculated that the tunnels may link together Beijing's various landmarks, as well as important governmental buildings such as the Zhongnanhai, the Great Hall of the People, and even military bases in the outskirts of the city. The China Internet Information Center asserts that "they supposedly link all areas of central Beijing, from Xidan and Xuanwumen to Qianmen and [the] Chongwen district", in addition to the Western Hills. It is also rumoured that every residence once had a secret trapdoor nearby leading to the tunnels. In the event of a nuclear attack, the plan was to move half of Beijing's population underground and the other half to the Western Hills.  The tunnels were built by more than 300,000 local citizens, including school students, on volunteer duties. Some portions were even dug without the help of any heavy machinery. Centuries-old city walls, towers and gates, including the old city gates of Xizhimen, Fuchengmen, and Chongwenmen were destroyed to supply construction materials for the complex. Since the complex's completion, it has been utilized by locals for in various ways as the tunnels remain cool in summer and warm in winter. On busy streets, some portions of the complex were refurbished as cheap hotels, while others were transformed into shopping and business centers, or even theaters.  While the complex has never been used for its intended purpose, it has never been fully abandoned either. Local authorities still perform water leakage checks and pest control in the tunnels on a regular basis.

As a tourist attraction.

The complex was officially opened in 2000, but has been closed for renovation since at least February 2008. While it was open, visitors were allowed to tour portions of the complex; the Underground City was popular with foreign tourists but remained virtually forgotten by local citizens. Though there are many other entrances, foreign visitors entered approved sections accessed via a small shop front in Qianmen, south of Tiananmen Square, at 62 West Damochang Street. Tour groups could enter free of charge and without prior permission while individual tourists not part of a group were charged 20 yuan (US$2.40) each.  The official tour took visitors only on a small circular stretch of the Underground City. Inside the complex, visitors could see signposts to major landmarks accessible by the tunnels, such as Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, and could see chambers labeled with their original functions, such as cinemas, hospitals, or arsenals. A portrait of Mao Zedong could be seen amidst murals of locals volunteering to dig the tunnels and fading slogans such as "Accumulate Grain", and "For the People: Prepare for War, Prepare for Famine". Rooms with bunk beds and decayed cardboard boxes of water purifiers could be seen in areas not open to tourists. Visitors on the official tour would also pass by a functioning silk factory in one of the underground staff meeting rooms of the complex, and be given a demonstration of the process of obtaining silk from silkworm cocoons. They had a chance to buy souvenirs at a tourists' shop operated by the state-owned Qianmen Arts and Crafts Center and the China Kai Tian Silk Company.

The Underground City () is a Cold War era bomb shelter consisting of a network of tunnels located beneath Beijing, China. It has also been referred to as the Underground Great Wall since it was built for the purpose of military defense. The complex was constructed from 1969 to 1979 in anticipation of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, as Sino-Soviet relations worsened and was officially reopened in 2000. Visitors were allowed to tour portions of the complex, which has been described as "dark, damp, and genuinely eerie". Underground City has been closed for renovation since at least February 2008.


Discovery.

WASP-15 was first observed by the WASP-South branch of the SuperWASP project, which operates from the South African Astronomical Observatory, between May 4, 2006 and July 17, 2006. It was later observed by WASP-South from January 31, 2007 to July 17, 2007 and from January 31, 2008 to May 29, 2008. Further analysis taken from 24,943 collected data points revealed eleven full or partial transits.  Follow-up observations were conducted by a European and American science team at the 1.2 m Leonhard Euler Telescope at La Silla Observatory in Chile, which further raised the possibility of the existence of a planet in WASP-15's orbit; use of the CORALIE spectrograph on the Euler Telescope between March 6, 2008 and July 17, 2008 revealed that the variations in radial velocity measurements were not because of an eclipsing binary star system.  CORALIE and the High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES) revealed the spectrum of WASP-15, which was used to derive the star's characteristics. The science team studying WASP-15 found that, after running best-fit models, WASP-15's radial velocity and transit shifts were most likely due to the existence of a planet.  WASP-15's planet, WASP-15b, had one of the lowest densities known amongst extrasolar planets when it was discovered. Its discovery paper was published by the American Astronomical Society on April 29, 2009 in the "Astronomical Journal".

Host star.

WASP-15 is an F-type star located in the Hydra constellation. It is located approximately 290 parsecs (900 light years) from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 10.9, making it invisible to the unaided eye. The star is 1.18 times more massive than the Sun, and has a radius that is 1.477 times larger than that of the Sun, making it more diffuse. WASP-15 has an effective temperature of 6300 K, and is thus hotter than the Sun, although at 3.9 billion years, it is also younger. WASP-15 has a metallicity of [Fe/H] of -0.17, which means that it has 68% of the iron found in the Sun.

Characteristics.

WASP-15b has a mass of 0.542 times Jupiter's mass and a radius that is 1.428 times Jupiter's radius. Due in part to its proximity to its host star, a distance of 0.0499 AU (7,500,000 km), WASP-15b is greatly inflated, with a density of 0.247 g/cm. Another factor, such as an internal heat source, is suspected to add to this extremely high radius and extremely low density. WASP-15b orbits its host star every 3.7520656 days. It also has an orbital inclination of 85.5o, making it almost edge-on as seen from the Earth's perspective.

Naming.

In 2019 the IAU announced that WASP-15 and its planet WASP-15b would be given official names chosen by school children from The Ivory Coast.

WASP-15b is an extrasolar planet discovered in 2008 by the SuperWASP collaboration, which seeks to discover exoplanets that transit their host stars. The planet orbits its host star at a distance of 0.05 AU every four days. The mass of this planet is about one half that of Jupiter, but its radius is nearly 50% larger than Jupiter's, making the density of this planet only one quarter that of water; it is thought that some other form of heating must explain its extremely low density. WASP-15b's discovery was published on April 29, 2009.


Life.

Son of Marie-Laure Jousset, Chief Curator at Beaubourg, and Hubert Jousset, President of the GEFIP and the École normale de musique, Frédéric Jousset graduated from HEC in 1992. At the age of 23, he did his military service as a second lieutenant section commander with the 6th Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment (6e RPIMA) in Mont-de-Marsan. Later, he served as auditor of the 60th national session of the Institute of Higher Studies of National Defence (IHEDN) between 2007 and 2008, and is now a colonel of the citizen reserve in the air force.  Frédéric Jousset began his career in 1994 for Kérastase at L'Oréal, and held various marketing and sales responsibilities within the professional division. Four years later, he founded his first company, Clientis SA, based on a point-of-sale management software package for networks of hair salons and beauty salons. He sold it in 1999 to IKOSOFT and joined the American strategy consulting firm Bain & Company where he carried out due diligence missions for private equity funds.  In June 2000, he co-founded with Olivier Duha Webhelp SA, which originally offered Internet search solutions for businesses and the general public, before becoming a leader in call centers and customer relationship solutions. The group employs 55,000 people and had a turnover of 1.45 billion euros in 2019. Webhelp is present in 40 countries including France, Morocco, Algeria, Romania, Belgium, Madagascar, the United Kingdom, South Africa, the Netherlands, India, Portugal, Italy and Germany. In 2015, Webhelp won the Deloitte Technology Fast50 award for the sixth time and the Ernst&Young Paris Region Entrepreneur of the Year award.  In 2012, Frédéric Jousset was awarded the Mercury of Honour for Business Creation at HEC and, along with Olivier Duha, was elected Manager of the Year in 2013 by the Nouvel Economiste/Financial Times.  Lecturer at IEP Paris from 2007 to 2009, Frédéric Jousset is currently a guest professor at the HEC group, working in the Media Arts and Creation major.

Art, culture and patronage.

Frédéric Jousset was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris between 2011 and 2014 and was a member of the Acquisitions Commission of the Musée du Louvre from 2007 to 2014. At the Louvre, he participated in financing the AI Muweis excavation site in Sudan, in the development of the museum's website devoted to children, and in the realization of cycles of art history lectures in the Santé and Poissy prisons. In order to finance these activities, it has created the Jousset endowment fund for people who are unable to attend. Webhelp also contributed to the acquisition of La Fuite en Egypte, by Nicolas Poussin. As a result of these different forms of support, he was a member of the Louvre's patronage council and was awarded the distinction of grand patron of the museum. In May 2016, he bought Beaux Arts magazine for 5 million euros to invest in its development including digital technology, training and events.  In December 2016, Frédéric Jousset was appointed administrator of the Musée du Louvre by decree of the Minister of Culture.  In 2018, the Minister of Culture Françoise Nyssen entrusted him with the steering of the working group linked to the culture pass for young people.  Frédéric Jousset obtained a 50-year concession for the Relais de Chambord hotel located opposite the Château de Chambord. He called upon the architect Jean Michel Wilmotte for the complete renovation. The hotel reopened in March 2018 with 55 rooms, suites and a gourmet restaurant.  He has been administrator of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs since July 2019.  In December 2019, Frédéric Jousset created the ART EXPLORA fund with a capital of 6 million euros to finance actions aimed at reducing the cultural divide in Europe and supporting artistic creation. He launched the annual ART EXPLORA prize endowed with 150,000 euros in collaboration with the Académie des Beaux arts to reward the most innovative European museums in their search for new audiences.

Associations.

Frédéric Jousset is Chairman of the association of the 55,000 alumni from the HEC group, and as such is a director of the HEC group.  He is also a member of Croissance Plus, of which Olivier Duha was Chairman from 2011 to 2013, the Founders Forum and the association le Siècle.

Frédéric Jousset (born 3 May 1970) is a French entrepreneur and sponsor. He is the founder and co-chairman of Webhelp, European player in the field of outsourced customer experience.


Plot.

'Anal' Murugan (Vikram), a gym boy who dreams of becoming a successful villain in films, lives along with Shanmugham (Thambi Ramaiah) and his gym co-boys. He bumps into an old man Dakshinamoorthy (K. Vishwanath), who is under pressure from his son Chidambaram (Avinash) to sell his orphanage to a scheming lady politician Ranganayaki (Sana), who is majorly into land grabbing along with her hatchet man 'Vaappa' Abdul Kadhir (Pradeep Rawat). Murugan eventually falls in love with Dharshini (Deeksha Seth). Murugan becomes Dakshinamoorthy’s savior as Ranganayaki and her men are after them. How Murugan single-handedly fights Ranganayaki and brings her to light forms the rest of the story.

Production.

Development.

In early 2007, it was reported that director Boopathy Pandian would direct a film written by his assistant, Seenu Vasan, with Ajith Kumar expected to play the lead role. The film was briefly postponed as Ajith had to complete his remaining projects and soon Boopathy Pandian confirmed otherwise and revealed that the film would actually be made by Rajakaliamman Films with Vikram and Nayantara in the lead roles. However Vikram's commitment to "Kanthaswamy" and "Raavanan" resulted in the film eventually becoming shelved. In late 2010, Vikram was forced to pull out of his film with director Selvaraghavan after the project was shelved too and gave dates to a new venture produced by the same studio, for a film to be directed by Suseenthiran. Reports emerged that the film would be titled "Vendhan", but this was dismissed by the director. The director initially wanted to experiment with a new script but to make use of the actor's tight schedules he chose to use Seenu's original script. The new title of the film, ""Rajapattai"" was eventually released in May 2011, with the first schedule planned to begin in early June. A first press meet was held on 6 June 2011 with the entire crew being present. Kanakaratna Ramesh was to produce the film, however his teenage sons Pratish and Santosh were eventually revealed to be producers, launching their own banner named SP Creations. Suseenthiran disclosed that the film would be a "full-fledged commercial" masala film, with action, comedy and romance, further adding that the dialogues would be penned by Bhaskar Sakthi. By September 2011, reports confirmed that the film had been taken over by Prasad V. Potluri's PVP Cinemas, after Ramesh faced financial restraints.

Casting.

Reports suggested that the film would depict the relationship between a grandfather, played by K. Vishwanath and his grandson played by Vikram. Furthermore, the film was supposed to feature Vikram in dual roles as father and son, however the news was denied by sources, which confirmed that Vikram was to essay dual roles initially, but since the script had been reworked, he would play only one character. Vikram was revealed to play a stunt man who aspires to become a noted villain in the film industry, with the makers adding that his character had negative shades. In March 2011, Deeksha Seth confirmed her presence in the film, citing that she would portray the leading female role of an IT professional. For a parallel lead female role, Amala Paul was signed on, but was forced to pull out due to schedule problems. Sources reported that Mithra Kurian was then signed on for the film for her second big Tamil venture after "Kaavalan", after discussions with Abhinaya were unsuccessful. However, the reports turned out to be false. Pradeep Rawat, best known for his performance in "Ghajini", was selected to play the main antagonist in the film. Actresses Shriya Saran and Reemma Sen, who had both worked together with Vikram earlier, were roped in to perform an item number together, after attempts to sign Hansika Motwani, who was reportedly offered 12 million for the role, had failed. In late October, National Film Award-winner Thambi Ramaiah as well as cinematographer-turned-actor Aruldass, who had also played a pivotal role in the director's "Naan Mahaan Alla", were roped in for other supporting roles. Suseenthiran also confirmed that he would rejoin with the "Naan Mahaan Alla" crew, with Yuvan Shankar Raja, R. Madhi and Mu. Kasi Viswanathan taking care of the music, cinematography and editing, respectively.

Filming.

Filming began in June 2011, with the first schedule, during which filming was held in and around Chennai, lasting for 60 days. In August 2011, the first song was shot for five days in Mahabalipuram, with Vikram, Deeksha Seth and fifty back-up dancers participating. The team subsequently shot scenes in a set worth 4 million that was erected at Senthil Studios in Saligramam, Chennai, while the next schedule was to be shot in Thiruvannaamalai and Pondicherry. In October 2011, filming was held near the Ramachandra Medical College in Chennai. Few days later, the crew was shooting a song and several stunt sequences near Karaikudi, and later in Kumbakonam. The climax scene that was canned for eight days at the Binny Mills in Chennai, had reportedly cost approximately 30 million. During the last week of October and early November, Saloni Aswani, who had previously starred in "Madurai Veeran", was shooting for the song "Villadhi Villain" along with Vikram at the AVM Studios, Chennai. The item number, featuring Shriya Saran and Reemma Sen, was initially to be filmed in Japan, however, since Suseenthiran was not satisfied with the locations, he decided to can it in Lucca, Italy. Other locations in Italy where filming was held include Volterra, Monteriggioni and Montecatini Terme.

Soundtrack.

"Rajapattai" score and soundtrack are composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, becoming his first work for a Vikram-starrer. Since Yuvan Shankar Raja's previous single tracks from "Vaanam" and "Mankatha" had met with success, the team planned to release a single track from "Rajapattai", too, by late October. However, the plan did not materialize. The final mixing of the songs was planned to be held in London.  The album's Telugu version was launched first on 7 December 2011 at Taj Deccan in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh by director V. V. Vinayak, with other noted Telugu film directors S. S. Rajamouli, Krish and badminton player Jwala Gutta being present along with the cast and crew. The original Tamil version was released two days later at the Anna Centenary Auditorium in Kotturpuram, Chennai.  The soundtrack album features five tracks, with the first song ("Podi Paiyan Polave") being repeated at the end. As reported earlier, Vikram had performed the song "Laddu Laddu" in both languages. The song "Paniye Pani Poove" was co-sung by Renu Kannan, one of the finalists of the second season of the reality-based singing competition "Airtel Super Singer".

Release.

In early November 2011, reports confirmed that Sun Pictures had bought the domestical distribution rights of the film. However two weeks later, Sun Pictures cancelled the deal and opted out. Subsequently, Gemini Film Circuit acquired the theatrical release rights, confirming the film' release for the Christmas weekend on 23 December 2011. The Telugu version would be released one week later, distributed by Suresh Movies. The film released about 500+ screens worldwide.  The film accounted for 64% of the takings in Chennai box office in its second weekend.

Critical response.

"Behindwoods" gave the film 2.5 out of 5 and wrote that it was "only for Vikram's fans and action lovers" and also stated 'Rajapattai is popcorn in its flavor'. Pavithra Srinivasan from "Rediff" described the film as bland, adding that it was "just an actor's quest for superstardom, and is a disappointing fare", giving it 1 out of 5. "Sify" wrote: "This old-fashioned masala entertainer is enjoyable in parts. It is vintage Vikram coupled with rich production values that makes "Rajapattai" watchable, despite its obvious flaws". Rohit Ramachandran of Nowrunning.com rated Rajapattai 2.75/5 calling it "a trashy commercial". CNN-IBN rated 2 out of 5 and wrote that it was a "road unfit to travel". Chennaionline noted: "Had Suseenthiran managed to keep an element of suspense somewhere in the script, the film could have been more watchable".

Rajapattai () is a 2011 Indian Tamil-language action comedy film co-written and directed by Suseenthiran based on a story by Seenu Vasan. Featuring Vikram and Deeksha Seth in the lead roles while Shriya Saran gave a special appearance. The music was composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, the film is produced by Prasad V. Potluri's newly launched PVP Cinema on a budget of 400 million. The story revolves around the issue of land grabbing and how the protagonist becomes involved in it. The film was also dubbed into Telugu and was released as "Veedinthe" on 30 December 2011 and into Hindi as "Main Hoon Dada No. 1" in 2013.


Ancient history.

In Charles Becker's paper titled "Vestiges historiques, trémoins matériels du passé clans les pays Sereer", two types of Serer relics were noted: "the non-material remains which are cultural in nature" and "material remains, which are many revealed through products or artefacts." The historical vestiges of Serer country in modern-day Senegambia, the diversity of Serer culture manifested across dialects, family and social organisation which reflect different historical territories were observed.  Although many Serer artefacts remain unknown, unlisted and preserved despite the efforts in the 1960s and 1970s to collect, archive and document them all, many material relics were found in different Serer countries, most of which refer to the past origins of Serer families, villages and Serer Kingdoms. Some of these Serer relics included gold, silver and metals. The known objects found in Serer countries, are divided into two types:  1. the remnants of earlier populations.  2. Laterite megaliths carved planted in circular structures with stones directed towards the east are found only in small parts of the ancient Serer kingdom of Saloum.

Archaeological sites.

Megalithic zone: Many megalithic sites include mounts in the ancient Kingdom of Saloum, with a frequent association of mound of sand with megalithic stones – front to East.  Shell mounds are also found in the islands and around the estuary of Saloum. In the provinces of the Gandun, Numi, Saloum and south-western Sine around Joal, 139 sites have been identified and they sometimes have shaped burial mounds. These relics are very numerous and imposing. The graves of the founding ancestors were also very often sanctified as ""Fangool"" (singular of "Pangool": "ancestral spirit" or "saint" in Serer religion). Such relics associated with the ancestors are often venerated relics. For example, the relics evoking memories of migration or foundation of states are sometimes sacralised. The remnants of royalty in the Kingdoms of Sine and Saloum are similar because the "Geulowars" (the last maternal dynasty in Sine and Saloum - 14th to 20th century) have the same Serer tradition, but there are peculiarities in the objects and the scene of the coronation of royalty and power which have existed since the beginnings of dynasty with the annual ritual and mandatory ceremonies. The family relics in other Serer countries which are brought from Takrur (now Futa Toro) or Kaabu by the founders were also noted in places of worship of the village or province history. This may be stone, wood, musical instruments, ceremonial objects used by the Saltigue (Serer High Priests and Priestesses) or "Yaal Pangool". These relics kept by families since ancient times remain largely unknown.  There are two types of Serer relics relating to two lineages that come into play in the social organisation of the Serer people:  The history of the Serer people who resided at Takrur (now Futa Toro) which was part of what is generally referred to as Serer country, the influence of their culture, history, religion and tradition on the land is summarized by Becker in the following terms :

The prehistoric and ancient history of the Serer people of modern-day Senegambia has been extensively studied and documented over the years. Much of it comes from archaeological discoveries and Serer tradition rooted in the Serer religion.


Career.

Stratton-Smith was born in Birmingham. He started his career as a sports journalist, mainly reporting on football for the "Daily Sketch" and the "Daily Express", and while at the Express including being assigned to cover the Manchester United v Red Star Belgrade European Cup match in Yugoslavia. However their chief soccer correspondent Henry Rose pulled rank and decided to go instead. The aircraft bringing back the team, officials and press crashed in what became known as the Munich Air Disaster and Rose was one of the fatalities.  Later on he began being influenced by The Beatles, in particular their manager Brian Epstein and decided to enter the music business. One of the earliest bands he managed were the Liverpool-based The Koobas, taking over from Epstein. He subsequently took over management of The Nice in 1968 from Andrew Loog Oldham and, frustrated with the workings of Oldham's Immediate Records label, decided to form his own.  Later signings included the Bonzo Dog Band and Van der Graaf Generator. In 1969 he signed the progressive rock band Genesis onto his record and management companies, and released "Trespass" (1970), the band's second album. Genesis became the label's most commercially successful group. Stratton-Smith released many records by Monty Python and helped to finance the film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975). He also recorded former Bonzo frontman Vivian Stanshall and financed Stanshall's film "Sir Henry at Rawlinson End" (1980), as well as being credited as its producer. Other important artists Stratton-Smith was closely associated with include Atomic Rooster, Audience, Brand X, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett, Peter Hammill, Lindisfarne, Julian Lennon, Robert John Godfrey, String Driven Thing and Rare Bird. According to Hackett, Stratton-Smith missed an opportunity to sign Queen, whose demos had been brought in to Charisma. Gail Colson worked with him at Charisma, as label manager and joint managing director. She left to form her own company in the late 1970s and would manage the solo careers of Gabriel and Hammill, among others.  In the United States, Charisma Records recordings were often licensed to other labels such as ABC Records (including subsidiary labels Dunhill Records & Probe Records), Elektra Records, Buddah Records, Atlantic Records, Mercury Records and Arista Records. The label was eventually sold to Virgin Records in 1983. Virgin re-activated the Charisma name with a new logo for a short time during the late 1980s. The vast majority of the Charisma catalogue is now owned by EMI.  "Strat" as he was known to his friends was known for his sense of humour and flair for promotion. His sense of humour was often reflected in promotional materials and record label art. With an ear for unusual and creative talent he made Charisma successful, especially in its early years. Though usually known as "Charisma Records", the company also promoted itself as "The Famous Charisma Label".

Death.

Stratton-Smith died of pancreatic cancer on 19 March 1987 aged 53. A memorial service was held for him at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London.  Marillion's album "Clutching at Straws" (released shortly after his death in 1987) was dedicated to him in the sleeve credits. The song "Time to Burn" by Peter Hammill (1988) is "something of a goodbye to Tony Stratton-Smith", and 3, the 1988 band of Keith Emerson, Carl Palmer and Robert Berry, dedicates the closing track, "On My Way Home", of their only album "To the Power of Three" (1988), to Stratton-Smith.

Tony Stratton-Smith (29 October 1933 – 19 March 1987) was an English rock music manager, and entrepreneur. He founded the London-based record label Charisma Records in 1969 and managed rock groups such as the Nice, Van der Graaf Generator and Genesis.


Club career.

Abd El-Zaher had a modest showing during the beginning of the 2009–10 Egyptian Premier League. That completely changed when head coach Stoycho Mladenov took control at ENPPI. Abd El-Zaher saw more regular first team football and repaid his manager faith by scoring 5 league goals by the end of that season. Mladenov then left to Bulgarian CSKA Sofia and Mokhtar Mokhtar then took over the team in the 2011-12 season. Abd El-Zaher finished that season as top scorer of the league tied with Zamalek's Shikabala. They both had 13 goals. Early in 2012, Mladenov made a request to ENPPI to move Abd El-Zaher to his club CSKA Sofia in the 2012 summer transfer window. The move was possible but ENPPI were somewhat reluctant to lose one of their top strikers. In January 2013, he moved to league rivals Al-Ahly on a four-year deal. In November 2013, Abd El-Zaher was deprived of his Champions League win bonus, suspended and put up for sale in the January transfer window for doing a Rabia sign in support of recently deposed President Mohamed Morsi after scoring a goal. On 5 December 2013, the Egyptian Football Association took sanctions a step further, announcing that Abd El-Zaher has been banned from representing Egypt for one year in addition to a 3-month local ban. He moved to Al-Ittihad Club (Tripoli) on loan from Al-Ahly in December 2013 as punishment for the Rabia sign.

International career.

Ahmed Abd El-Zaher was part of the Egypt U-20 National Football team that participated in the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship. He participated in all of Egypt's three group matches, but did not score any goals.

International goals.

"Correct as of 27 November 2012"

Ahmed Abd El-Zaher ( born 15 January 1985) is an Egyptian footballer who currently plays for the Egyptian Premier League side Aswan SC. He was also part of the Egypt U-20 National Football team that participated in the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship.


Early life.

Cleary is originally from Cranbrook, Kent, in the south-east of England. He attended Colliers Green Primary School, Angley Secondary and then Cranbrook School. His father played guitar but it was his uncle, returning from trips to America bringing recordings of Professor Longhair and others, who inspired his love for R&B. Cleary's focus was always more on art and music and everything that goes with it, than academic pursuits and soon left schooling behind to develop a life in music.

Jon Cleary & The Absolute Monster Gentlemen.

Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentlemen consist of Cleary on keyboard and vocals; Derwin "Big D" Perkins (born 1974) on guitar; Cornell C. Williams (born 1962) on bass and backup vocals; and A.J. Hall on drums. All of the band members, except for Cleary, were born in New Orleans.  The band is generally well received, drawing large crowds of locals at classic New Orleans venues like Tipitina's and the Maple Leaf Bar. They are also a mainstay at the annual Jazz and Heritage Festival and have played at Bonnaroo as well as other music festivals. "Rolling Stone"'s David Fricke wrote of the "Pin Your Spin" album: "Cleary can be an absolute monster on his own, but Cleary’s full combo R&B is as broad, deep and roiling as the Mississippi river, the combined swinging product of local keyboard tradition, Cleary’s vocal-songwriting flair for moody Seventies soul and the spunky-meters roll of his Gentlemen".  Cleary played piano on Annika Chambers' 2016 album, "Wild & Free".

Jon Cleary (born August 11, 1962) is a British-born American funk and R&B musician based in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he has studied the "musical culture and life of New Orleans" according to his website. Cleary is an accomplished pianist as well as being a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter.


Plot.

The film focuses on the Orinoco River in Venezuela, where a strain of genetically modified piranha have escaped into an isolated tributary of the river. Through human interference of the local environment, the megapiranha manage to escape from their isolated spot and swim downstream, killing all that crosses their path. The megapiranha gradually make their way towards Florida at the height of the tourist season.  After the outbreak, a team including Special Agent Fitch and Sarah Monroe, work to contain the megapiranhas within Venezuela. They begin to get into trouble with the authorities when they attempt to cross over the Venezuelan border. Not having proper clearance and documentation, Special Agent Fitch resorts to using the diplomacy of his fist and drives off. He is pursued by Colonel Antonio Diaz in a high-speed chase through the jungle. Throughout the chase, Fitch alternates driving a Toyota Camry and Hyundai Elantra while Diaz is seen at different points in a GMC Jimmy, Chevrolet Suburban, Suzuki XL7, and Ford Explorer. Fitch escapes by stealing a helicopter and heads to the International Super Bunker (ISB). During the journey, the helicopter runs out of fuel and Sarah Monroe rigs the emergency oxygen tank to the fuel line to make it to the ISB safely.  The megapiranhas continue to move north, consuming two battleships and a nuclear submarine. They eventually reach south Florida, where they kill at least five Puerto Ricans on a beach and manage to blow up two hotels. Meanwhile, the only force that can stop them is located at the ISB. After the megapiranhas prove impervious to both torpedoes and depth charges—and even a nuclear torpedo fails to stop them—Special Agent Fitch and Professor Sarah Monroe conclude that the only way to stop the megapiranhas is to face them in their own terrain: underwater. An army of SCUBA divers armed with guns would make the huge fish bleed, causing them to enter a feeding frenzy and kill each other. If this were to fail, then a massive nuclear strike would be used to destroy the megapiranha, as well as most of Florida.  In the middle of the operation, Colonel Diaz arrives in a helicopter, presumably using multiple fuel tanks to do this journey. The Colonel aims to get revenge on Agent Fitch and throws a rope into the water to trick him into climbing up into the enemy helicopter. Fitch, upon his arrival, shoots the pilot in the mouth with a flare gun, which causes the pilot's head to explode. Fitch then uses a homing beacon (which is actually a canister of CO) to attract a megapiranha, jumping out of the helicopter shortly before it is consumed by the fishy behemoth.  Fitch is pursued by the megapiranha that ate the helicopter, eventually hiding in a reef where the megapiranha is unable to follow. When the piranha opens its mouth, Fitch shoots his gun at the helicopter still in the beast's jaws. The helicopter explodes, killing the fish. The other megapiranha converge on the bloodshed and Fitch is able to escape as the piranha enters a feeding frenzy and begin tearing each other to pieces, seemingly resulting in them wiping themselves out. Sarah and Fitch make out and all is well.

Production.

The mockbuster was produced to capitalise on the 2010 film "Piranha 3-D". On March 29, 2010 the "SyFy" Channel released an exclusive sneak peek of a scene from the film in anticipation of its April 10 premiere of the film. On the April 7, 2010 The Asylum released the official trailer online.  Usual Asylum audience may notice the film recycles short clips from other Asylum films, likely due to low production costs and a limited filming schedule. Such clips come from films like "Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus", "Journey to Middle Earth", "War of the Worlds" and "".

Reception.

"Dread Central" wrote about the film: "Now, the question becomes whether "Mega Piranha" means we should expect a super-sized piranha a la Asylum's "Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus" or if they are basing their film around the prehistoric Megapiranha, a toothier, three-foot version of the carnivorous fish that became extinct millions of years ago. Given the big screen 3D remake is about these Megapiranha, I would say odds are high the latter will prove the case."  The film reached a 2.2 million audience for its April 10 premiere, making it the channel's most-watched movie of the year. Of those, 807,000 were adults 18-49.

Soundtrack.

The score was composed by Chris Ridenhour and featured the song "Frozen Skies" by Tiffany.

Mega Piranha (also known as Megapiranha) is a 2010 science fiction disaster horror film produced by The Asylum. It was directed by Eric Forsberg and stars Tiffany, Paul Logan and Barry Williams. In the tradition of The Asylum's catalog, this film is a mockbuster of "Piranha 3D". It was filmed in Belize, Central America.


Background.

Vincenty's goal was to express existing algorithms for geodesics on an ellipsoid in a form that minimized the program length (Vincenty 1975a). His unpublished report (1975b) mentions the use of a Wang 720 desk calculator, which had only a few kilobytes of memory. To obtain good accuracy for long lines, the solution uses the classical solution of Legendre (1806), Bessel (1825), and Helmert (1880) based on the auxiliary sphere. Vincenty relied on formulation of this method given by Rainsford, 1955. Legendre showed that an ellipsoidal geodesic can be exactly mapped to a great circle on the auxiliary sphere by mapping the geographic latitude to reduced latitude and setting the azimuth of the great circle equal to that of the geodesic. The longitude on the ellipsoid and the distance along the geodesic are then given in terms of the longitude on the sphere and the arc length along the great circle by simple integrals. Bessel and Helmert gave rapidly converging series for these integrals, which allow the geodesic to be computed with arbitrary accuracy.  In order to minimize the program size, Vincenty took these series, re-expanded them using the first term of each series as the small parameter, and truncated them to formula_1. This resulted in compact expressions for the longitude and distance integrals. The expressions were put in Horner (or "nested") form, since this allows polynomials to be evaluated using only a single temporary register. Finally, simple iterative techniques were used to solve the implicit equations in the direct and inverse methods; even though these are slow (and in the case of the inverse method it sometimes does not converge), they result in the least increase in code size.

Notation.

Define the following notation:

Inverse problem.

Given the coordinates of the two points ("Φ", "L") and ("Φ", "L"), the inverse problem finds the azimuths "α", "α" and the ellipsoidal distance "s".  Calculate "U", "U" and "L", and set initial value of "λ" = "L". Then iteratively evaluate the following equations until "λ" converges:  When "λ" has converged to the desired degree of accuracy (10 corresponds to approximately 0.06mm), evaluate the following:  Between two nearly antipodal points, the iterative formula may fail to converge; this will occur when the first guess at "λ" as computed by the equation above is greater than "π" in absolute value.

Direct problem.

Given an initial point ("Φ", "L") and initial azimuth, "α", and a distance, "s", along the geodesic the problem is to find the end point ("Φ", "L") and azimuth, "α".  Start by calculating the following:  Then, using an initial value formula_11, iterate the following equations until there is no significant change in "σ":  Once "σ" is obtained to sufficient accuracy evaluate:  If the initial point is at the North or South pole, then the first equation is indeterminate. If the initial azimuth is due East or West, then the second equation is indeterminate. If a double valued "atan2" type function is used, then these values are usually handled correctly.

Vincenty's modification.

In his letter to Survey Review in 1976, Vincenty suggested replacing his series expressions for "A" and "B" with simpler formulas using Helmert's expansion parameter "k":  where

Nearly antipodal points.

As noted above, the iterative solution to the inverse problem fails to converge or converges slowly for nearly antipodal points. An example of slow convergence is ("Φ", "L") = (0°, 0°) and ("Φ", "L") = (0.5°, 179.5°) for the WGS84 ellipsoid. This requires about 130 iterations to give a result accurate to 1 mm. Depending on how the inverse method is implemented, the algorithm might return the correct result (19936288.579 m), an incorrect result, or an error indicator. An example of an incorrect result is provided by the NGS online utility, which returns a distance that is about 5 km too long. Vincenty suggested a method of accelerating the convergence in such cases (Rapp, 1973).  An example of a failure of the inverse method to converge is ("Φ", "L") = (0°, 0°) and ("Φ", "L") = (0.5°, 179.7°) for the WGS84 ellipsoid. In an unpublished report, Vincenty (1975b) gave an alternative iterative scheme to handle such cases. This converges to the correct result 19944127.421 m after about 60 iterations; however, in other cases many thousands of iterations are required.  Newton's method has been used to give rapid convergence for all pairs of input points (Karney, 2013).

Vincenty's formulae are two related iterative methods used in geodesy to calculate the distance between two points on the surface of a spheroid, developed by Thaddeus Vincenty (1975a). They are based on the assumption that the figure of the Earth is an oblate spheroid, and hence are more accurate than methods that assume a spherical Earth, such as great-circle distance.


History of the Joof family.

The Wagadou period.

The Joof family is one of the old families of Senegambia. Serer oral tradition speaks of a noble called Lamane Jegan Joof, owner of a large herd of livestock and estate who was also a farmer. He migrated from Lambaye following an argument with his relative, the king of Lambaye. The dispute concerned the governance of Lambaye and over-taxation of his herd which he considered unjust. As such, he decided to head south and founded Tukar with his younger brother Ndik Joof. The tradition then went on to say that, he had a son called Sosseh Joof (Socé Diouf) who was the heir of Tukar. Some scholars have proposed that, Tukar (and many of its surrounding villages such as Njujuf, Sob, etc., which were founded by Lamane Jegan Joof making them part of his estate and colony) now a rather large village in present-day Senegal, is an ancient village and well before the Guelowar period (1335 following the alleged Battle of Troubang, many variations in spelling, including Turubang) and placed the foundation of these villages in the 11th century, if not earlier. There was in fact no "Battle of Troubang". In reporting this tradition, Henry Gravrand did not notice that this is actually a description of the 1867 (or 1865) Battle of Kansala. The Joof family had ruled Tukar for many centuries, inherited from their ancestor Lamane Jegan Joof through the Serer Lamanic custom, a rather strict custom of Serer land law and inheritance. In 2004, Lamane Njaga Dibor Ndoffene Joof (Lamane Diaga Dibor Ndofene Diouf) was the last lamane of Tukar.  In the early history of the Ghana Empire to its end, the royal princesses of the Empire married into the Serer aristocratic families, some of these included Joof family. These royal princesses belonged to the maternal clan Wagadou ("Bagadou" in Serer language). With the Joof paternal clan, they ruled the Kingdom of Baol and provided many kings from the patrilineage Joof (the Joof paternal dynasty of Baol). Some of these kings include Boureh Joof (Bouré Diouf), Guidiane Joof (Guidiane Diouf), Ma Joof, Jinak Dialane [probably Gnilane] Joof, Maguinak Joof, etc. These kings preceded the Guelowar period by at least two or three centuries and long before the Fall paternal dynasty of Baol and Cayor who inherited the throne around 1549 after the Battle of Danki. The general consensus is that, after the demise of the Joof paternal and Wagadou maternal dynasties of Baol with other Serer paternal dynasties who jointly ruled Baol, the Fall paternal dynasty succeeded them, hence the first Damels and Teignes (titles of the kings of Cayor and Baol, respectively) from the Fall patrilineage were of Wagadou maternal descent. They simply married into the old royal family and succeeded to the throne.

The Guelowar period.

The Guelowar period starts from 1350 during the reign of the first Guelowar king of Sine - Maad a Sinig Maysa Wali and ends in 1969 after the death of the last king of Sine and Saloum (Maad a Sinig Mahecor Joof and Maad Saloum Fode N'Gouye Joof respectively).  Maysa Wali and his family (the maternal clan Guelowar) fled Kaabu in 1335 after the Battle of Troubang. They were defeated by the Ñaanco maternal dynasty of Kaabu (their extended relatives) and were granted asylum in the Kingdom of Sine by a Serer noble Council called The Great Council of Lamanes. Having served as legal advisor to this noble Council for 15 years, Maysa Wali managed to win the confidence and trust of the Council and the common people. He was nominated and elected by the Council and the people as king of Sine. He was the first Guelowar king of Sine. He gave his sisters in marriage to the Serer nobility which sealed the union between Serer and Guelowar. It was the offspring of these marriages between the old Serer paternal noble clans and the Guelowar maternal clan of Kaabu that ruled the kingdom of Sine and later Saloum. In this Guelowar period, the Joof family (one of the oldest Serer paternal noble clans) provided many kings in the Kingdoms of Sine and Saloum (the Joof paternal dynasty of Sine and Saloum). The Joof family also founded three royal houses as follows (in the order of foundation) :  They all trace their descent to Maad Ndaah Njemeh Joof (also known as "Bour Ndaah Ndiémé Diouf" or "Ndaah Njeeme Juuf") - the king of Laah (or Laa) in Baol, around the 13th century. Maad Ndaah Njemeh Joof was the father of Maad Niokhobai Joof (also king of Laa) who was the father of the Great Maad Patar Kolleh Joof (also: "Bour" or "Buur" Patar Kholé Diouf or Bour Patar Kholleh Diouf) - the conqueror of Baol. Maad Patar Kolleh Joof was the first of the Joof family to marry a Guelowar (Maad a Sinig Maysa Wali's niece). From that marriage he had Maad a Sinig Niokhobai Mane Nyan Joof (Niokhobaye Mane Niane Diouf) and Maad a Sinig Gejopal Mane Nyan Joof (Guédiopal Niane Mane Diouf), who were the first kings of Sine during the Guelowar period from the patrilineage Joof. Their brother Jaraff Boureh Gnilane Joof (Diaraf Bouré Gnilane Diouf) was not a king of Sine, but a Jaraff (equivalent of Prime Minister), who gave his name to the first Royal House of the Joof Dynasty (in the Guelowar period) and it is from that ""The Royal House of Boureh Gnilane Joof"" derived from, which provided several kings in Sine and Saloum. The Joof Dynasty that succeeded to the throne of Saloum came from Sine.

Historic battles involving this family.

This table lists some of the historic battles of Senegambia involving the kings or princes belonging to this family :

Genealogy.

A short genealogy showing the descendants of Maad Ndaah Njemeh Joof.

Status in Serer religion.

The Joof family figure prominently in Serer religion. Many of the Serer Pangool (saints and ancestral spirits) came from this family. Though associated with, this family's involvement in Serer religious affairs are found within the hermeneutics of Serer religion and traditions. Some of the regularly venerated were founded or headed by this family which underpins their involvement in the Pangool cult. Some of these venerated sites includes Tagdiam, residence of Maad Semou Njekeh Joof who is associated with the cult of Tagdiam; and Tukar, founded by Lamane Jegan Joof. In the Serer religious calendar, the Raan festival which takes place once a year after the new moon is held in Tukar.

Personalities with the surname Joof, Diouf, Juuf or Juf.

The surname Joof, Diouf, "Juuf" or "Juf" is carried by several personalities, some of which include:

Legal profession.

Some of these legal professionals have ventured into politics but they are more known for their legal than for their political occupation :

Visual arts.

The definition of art is very broad. This section list the names of visual artists (in its narrowest definition) who share this surname :

Multi-discipline.

The following list gives the names of personalities with this surname who are experts in a variety of professions, and are equally known for each of these professions. Their professional life is so wide and varied that they can not be easily described by a single category :

Joof (English spelling in the Gambia) or Diouf (French spelling in Senegal and Mauritania) is a surname that is typically Serer. This surname is also spelt Juuf or Juf (in the Serer language). They are the same people. The differences in spelling is because Senegal was colonized by France, while the Gambia was colonized by the United Kingdom. Although spelt differently, they are pronounced the same way. The totem and symbol of the Joof family is the antelope, the symbol of grace, royalty, wisdom, hard work and protection in Serer mythology. The name of their clan is ""Njoofene"" variations: ""Njuufeen"" or ""Njufeen"" (in Serer). Members of this family had ruled over many of the pre-colonial kingdoms of Senegambia, including the Kingdom of Sine, the Kingdom of Saloum and the Kingdom of Baol. The royal princesses (Lingeers) from the Joof family were also given in marriage to the pre-colonial kings and princes of Senegambia. Some of these included the kings of Jolof, kings of Waalo, kings of Cayor and Baol (after 1549 following the Battle of Danki). From these marriages, they provided many heirs to the thrones of these kingdoms. Although usually associated with Serer royalty, the Joof family also figure prominently in Serer religious affairs.


Early career.

Casey was born in St. John's, Newfoundland and educated at St. Francis Xavier University and Dalhousie Law School. He joined the firm Stewart McKelvey in 1989 (which also included Shawn Murphy, the man he would subsequently replace as MP for Charlottetown), and was made a partner in 1993. From 2003 to 2008 he was president of the Paderno Group of Companies, before returning to Stewart McKelvey as the firm's managing partner, until his resignation to run for office in 2011. From 2009 to 2010, he served as the president of the Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce. He was also active as a volunteer in both soccer and minor hockey.

Politics.

Casey's first prominent role in politics came when he served as President of the PEI Liberal Party from 2003 to 2007. He did not reoffer as president after completing his term in 2007, after the party's victory in the 2007 election, stating that with their forming the government after nearly eleven years in opposition, he had accomplished what he had set out to. That same election saw his wife Kathleen elected as an MLA for Charlottetown-Lewis Point, and she subsequently became Speaker of the Legislature.  When four-term incumbent Shawn Murphy announced his intention not to run in the next election, Casey announced his candidacy. He was unopposed for the nomination, and won the general election with nearly 40% of the vote. Casey was one of only two new Liberal MPs elected in the 2011 election (the other being Ted Hsu in Kingston and the Islands).  Casey served as the Liberal Party's Justice critic during the 41st Parliament. He was reelected to a second term in the 2015 election.

Sean J. Casey (born May 16, 1963) is a Canadian politician from Prince Edward Island, Canada. Casey was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 2011 federal election as the Liberal Member of Parliament for the riding of Charlottetown. Casey previously served as the president of the Prince Edward Island Liberal Party, and is married to Kathleen Casey, a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island.


Overview.

The Chinese penal system includes numerous components such as prisons (formerly referred to as "laogai"), re-education through labor or "laojiao" camps, "ankang" mental health facilities, and juvenile detention centers. The Laogai Museum focuses mainly on the "laogai" component, which Wu's non-profit research organization calls "the most extensive system of forced labor camps in the world.". Prisoners in these camps are said to undergo forced labor and thought reform, and the system has attracted widespread criticism from the international community. In 1994, the government abandoned the term "laogai" and renamed the facilities "prisons" ("jianyu"), but the Laogai Research Foundation and others claim that forced labor continues and prison conditions have not improved.  The purpose of the Laogai Museum, according to Wu, is both to educate the public about the "laogai" and to memorialize the victims of the "laogai". The museum documents the "history and structure of the "laogai"," and displays "laogai"-related materials such as uniforms, photographs, government documents, and products manufactured by prisoners—including such items as Christmas lights, tea bags, and plastic flowers; many of the items were donated by "laogai" survivors, and others come from Wu's own archives. The museum also has a large archive of prison-made products, victims' testimonies, and Chinese government documents.  The museum appeared to have closed in early 2017 following the death of its founder in April 2016, who had been criticised for excessive spending on the museum, rather than on human rights activists themselves. The museum reopened in October 2018.

Funding.

The museum was funded in part by the Yahoo! Human Rights Fund, a fund established by Yahoo! after the company attracted criticism for helping Chinese police locate and detain internet dissidents. The fund, headed by Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang was part of Yahoo!'s apology, and funding the museum was one of its first public projects.

Criticism.

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy has criticized the museum, calling it an attack on China's reputation and suggesting that Wu's motivation behind opening the museum was "to vilify the Chinese legal system and mislead the American public." In response, Wu said that the Chinese authorities "always dismiss me as a morally corrupt and dangerous criminal. Their second argument is that criminals have to work in some American prisons, too. But I can tell you that it's not the same thing at all."

The Laogai Museum is a museum in Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C., United States, which showcases human rights in the People's Republic of China, focusing particularly on the "Láogǎi", the Chinese prison system of "Reform through Labor". The creation of the museum was spearheaded by Harry Wu, a well-known Chinese dissident who himself served 19 years in "laogai" prisons; it was supported by the Yahoo! Human Rights Fund. It opened to the public on 12 November 2008, and Wu's non-profit research organization (the Laogai Research Foundation) calls it the first museum in the United States to directly address the issue of human rights in China.


Services.

Services on the Utsunomiya Line are typically divided into three categories: services to or from Ueno, Shōnan-Shinjuku Line services, and Ueno-Tokyo Line services. Between Ueno and Ōmiya, trains share the track with the Takasaki Line, both of which serve as "de facto" express services compared to the parallel Keihin-Tōhoku Line. Northbound services mostly terminate at or, with some at, and very few at. Southbound trains mostly travel through the Shōnan-Shinjuku Line to on the Yokosuka Line, or the Ueno-Tokyo Line to on the Tokaido Line, with very few terminating at Ueno.  The fastest service on the line, the rapid "Rabbit", makes the run between Ueno and Utsunomiya in 1 hour and 26 minutes.  Service on the line is generally divided at Utsunomiya, though the number of through trains has been increasing steadily over the years. South of Utsunomiya, 10- and 15-car E231/E233 series four-door suburban commuter EMUs with Green cars attached service the line, while to the north service is provided chiefly by 4-car 205-600 series four-door EMUs.

Limited express.

Limited express services use the line, including:

Local/rapid services.

Commuter rapid.

Commuter rapid services for Utsunomiya make fewer stops than the "Rabbit" rapid services described below. They are operated only on weekday evenings, between Ueno and Utsunomiya. Trains depart Ueno between 18:00 and 22:00, and Utsunomiya between 16:00 and 21:00, with approximately one round-trip per hour. All trains are E231/E233 series 10- or 15-car EMUs.

Rapid "Rabbit".

Since March 2015, Rapid "Rabbit" services now run from on the Tokaido Line, through the Ueno-Tokyo Line, to Utsunomiya. This service stops at every station on the Tokaido Line, and skips some stations on the Utsunomiya Line. "Rabbit" trains were first operated by the Japanese National Railways as an hourly/half-hourly rapid service. Since October 2004, however, "Rabbit" services run only twice during the morning; on weekends, they replace the weekday commuter rapid service. Trains are E231/E233 series EMUs.

Rapid "Acty".

Since March 2015, with the Ueno-Tokyo Line opening, Tokaido Line Rapid "Acty" services now run up along the Utsunomiya Line. Services stop at every station on the Utsunomiya Line, and skips some stations on the Tokaido Line.

Local.

Local trains run four times hourly; one of those terminates at Koganei, while the rest terminate at Utsunomiya. During the morning peak, Ueno-bound trains run at intervals of 4–6 minutes. Services are provided by E231/E233 series 10- or 15-car EMUs.

Shōnan-Shinjuku Line services.

Within the Utsunomiya Line, Shōnan-Shinjuku Line rapid and local trains are each operated once per hour. They do not stop at Saitama-Shintoshin Station since it has no platforms available. All trains are 10- or 15-car E231/E233 series EMUs. They operate between Zushi and Utsunomiya.

Rapid.

Rapid trains operate once hourly, making limited stops. The travel time between Shinjuku and Utsunomiya is about 1 hour and 35 minutes.

Local.

Local trains operate once hourly (twice hourly during the morning), stopping at all stations. The travel time between Shinjuku and Ōmiya is about 32 minutes.

Utsunomiya – Kuroiso services.

Between Utsunomiya and Kuroiso, local and rapid trains stop at every station. Trains operate approximately three times per hour, traveling between Utsunomiya and Kuroiso in approximately 50 minutes. Most trains are 205-600 series EMUs.

Past services.

"Home Liner Koga".

Two trains bound for Koga depart Ueno every weekday evening. Passengers can board only at Ueno; all other stations are for disembarking only. Stops include: Ueno, Urawa, Ōmiya, Higashi-Ōmiya, Hasuda, Kuki, and Koga. Service is provided by 7-car 185 series and 9-car 489 series EMUs.

Station list.

Legends:

Rolling stock.

Utsunomiya—Kuroiso.

From March 2013, a fleet of eight refurbished 4-car 205 series EMUs was phased in on Utsunomiya Line services between Koganei and Kuroiso, replacing 211 series sets.

The is the name given to a 159.9 kilometre section of the Tōhoku Main Line between Ueno Station in Tokyo and Kuroiso Station in Nasushiobara, Tochigi, Japan. It is part of the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) network. Service on the line has been extended to Tokyo Station via the Ueno-Tokyo Line.


Life.

Charles de Hovyne, son of Laurent de Hovyne, counsel to the States of Tournai, was baptized in the church of St Jacques, Tournai, on 20 April 1596. After studying civil law at Leuven University, he became a barrister in pleas before the Great Council of Mechelen, and in 1628 a member of the court. In 1642 he became a privy councillor, and in 1647 a councillor of state. In 1653 he replaced Pierre Roose as president of the Privy Council.  He died at Brussels on 13 April 1671, and was buried in the Chapel Church, where a monumental tomb designed by Jan van Delen was erected.  He was married to Marie de Gaule with whom he had two sons: Laurent de Hovynes, who became a member of the Council of Brabant, and Charles de Hovyne, who became chancellor of Leuven University.

Writings.

For the benefit of the King of Spain, ruler of the Habsburg Netherlands, he composed a "Mémoire touchant la forme du gouvernement politique des Pays-Bas, et des conseils et officiers qui en composent le ministère" (Memorandum touching the form of political government of the Low Countries, and the councils and officers that make up the ministry). Several manuscript copies are preserved in the Royal Library of Belgium. At an unknown date (postulated variously to be 1623, 1662 or 1685) a modified version of this was published in Leiden by Abraham Gogar as "Gouvernement politique des provinces des Pays-Bas sous l'obéissance de Sa Majesté Catholique" (Political government of the provinces of the Low Countries under obedience to His Catholic Majesty).  Accusations of corruption and abuse of his office were levelled against Hovyne in 1664. While successful in his defence, he felt the court had not gone far enough in exonerating him. He therefore wrote a remonstrance to put his side of the case in full: "Humble remonstrance et briefve déduction de Messire Charles Hovyne du Conseil d'Estat et chef-président du Conseil privé de Sa Majesté", printed in 1668 without specifying place or printer.

Charles de Hovyne (1596–1671), lord of Gouvernies, Granbray, Winckel, Steenkercke, etc., was president of the Brussels Privy Council from 1653 to 1671, and a key participant in and commentator upon the government of the Habsburg Netherlands.


History of the Saint-Petersburg Exchange.

The Stock exchange “Saint-Petersburg” was founded in accordance with requirements of the Federal Law “On Securities Market” on the basis of stock exchange department of CJSC “Exchange “Saint-Petersburg” in April 1997, having received Stock Exchange License No1 in Russia from Financial Markets Federal Agency.  The first financial instruments, listed in the Stock exchange “Saint-Petersburg”, were shares of joint-stock companies, bonds, commercial banks CD’s, municipal bonds of Saint-Petersburg, Moscow, Omsk and Orenburg, Treasury obligations of Russian Federation Ministry of finances, Government loan bonds.  In accordance with Russian Federation Government order No654 the Stock exchange “Saint-Petersburg” became one of the four stock exchanges, authorized to organize trades of JSC "Gazprom" shares. A significant development of shares trades in the Stock exchange “Saint-Petersburg” was caused by a start-up of joint-project together with the RTS - Russian Trading System Stock Exchange, called “Shares market”, in which the Stock Exchange “Saint-Petersburg” is an organizer of trades, the RTS is a clearing center. At that moment listing contained shares of 250 emitters, beside JSC “Gazprom” shares.  Main joint-projects of RTS and the Stock Exchange “Saint-Petersburg”, which were carried out with success and were highly appreciated by market and investment society, were organization of JSC “Gazprom” shares trades through the RTS terminals and FORTS (futures and options) derivatives market. After combining efforts, both Stock Exchanges became absolute leaders in these segments of financial market.  As a part of its further development, in January 2010 Non-profit Partnership Stock Exchange “Saint-Petersburg” completed the process or its reorganization into Open Joint-Stock Company “Saint-Petersburg Exchange”, which allowed 250 professional participants in the securities market to become shareholders of the sole stock exchange in North-Western region of Russian Federation.

Stock Market in JSC “Saint-Petersburg Exchange”.

Open Joint-Stock Company “Saint-Petersburg Exchange” became the legal successor of Stock exchange “Saint-Petersburg” and continued to trade JSC “Gazprom” shares for all its participants. Today, JSC “Saint-Petersburg” is the only exchange which has JSC “Gazprom” shares in its listing.  Together RTS and JSC “Saint-Petersburg” began to develop a new project called QUIN (Qualified Investors) – trading of instruments, intended for participants with the status of “Qualified investor”.

Derivatives Market in JSC “Saint-Petersburg Exchange”.

In February 2011 JSC “Saint-Petersburg exchange” and JSC “RTS Stock Exchange” carried out a joint project on organization of trading of commodities futures. In this project organizer of trading is JSC “Saint-Petersburg exchange”, clearing organization is CJSC “CC RTS”, settlement organization is “Settlement Chamber RTS”. Trading is carried out on the basis of trade system and risk-management system of FORTS derivatives market. It ensures the principle of single money position in all markets for the participants of trading.  The first instrument in this project was futures contract on wheat, quoted in rubles (trade code: GR). To calculate settlement price a leading market indicator is used, estimated on the basis of Wheat Futures contract of CBOT (included into CME group).  The next instrument in the development of project became calculated futures on diesel fuel (trade code: DS). Futures contract do not include physical delivery of diesel fuel but it is settled by money accounting, in connection with “KORTES-Gasoil” index. The next instruments of the project became futures contracts on corn, soy-beans, cotton, and gasoil.

The Stock Exchange Saint-Petersburg (SPBEX) is located in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The stock exchange was founded on January 31, 1991, and it is now the third most active stock exchange in Russia by volume, and the largest outside of Moscow. SPBEX is located on 26th Line near Bolshoi Prospekt on Vasilievsky Island.