History.

During the last years of Francoist Spain there were some controversial legal decisions that shocked the painter. Miró painted this triptych in reference to the "hope of grace" as he prayed for the life of the young anarchist Salvador Puig Antich finally executed by garotte.  This series directly recalls another 1968 painting titled "Painting on white background for the cell of a recluse".  The works are the result of a two-year process during which Miró made several preparatory drawings with various ideas to approach the challenge. These drawings are preserved at the Miró Foundation.  In February 1974 he painted these ideas, but he didn't finish the artwork until a month later, coinciding with the execution of another anarchist.

Description.

Successive representations show a patch that changes color according to the transformation of a flowing black line with splashes of paint. The line tries to describe a form that can not be completed as it is unexpectedly interrupted. This parallels the tragic cut our of the life of the young garroted activist.  This work was created in 1974. The line comes fast, secure, multiple, from underground, reality, to take off on the horizon, the future. Miró knows that each line presents an enigma, his work as an artist has always been the same: on paper, on canvas, in cardboard, wood sculpture... filling the space of signs that give meaning to the work and his medium.  Miró in his maturity flight away from the formulas of vocabulary to achieve expression. The paintings are characterized by heavy graphics, drawn with a single breath, without rejecting Miró traditional forms, but simplifying the gesture. Imposed increasingly growing the importance of the empty space. Miró reaches maximum difficulty arises when suggesting a poetic image, creating tension, expressing a certain mood with minimal resources. This is the reason why he use every time larger formats, despite the static, they seem to create dynamism.

Context and influences.

Miró painted these large scale works (as well as "Bleu II") influenced under the impression that he got on his stay in the United States. The action painting by Jackson Pollock and the abstract expressionism by Robert Motherwell and Mark Rothko clearly influenced Miró, although that the forms of Miró are not abstract figures, but remain true to the nature, source of inspiration  In the art world there was a big disappointment as a result of the catastrophe of the World War and the atrocities that occurred, which left a society that had placed science and its progress to the development of the atomic bomb and had ended up being ruled again by the conservative classes. The art was going to be worth enjoyment become consumer value. In response to this position wealthy, many artists are inclined to experiment with forms of expression. One of the great figures of expressionism was Motherwell (1915–1991), who painted one of his most famous works with a long series "Elegy to the Spanish Republic" (1955–1960). The choice of the theme suggests painting a "subjective" reality of the (much more indirect than the "Guernica" on Picasso). Great artists appeared at the United States, like Pollock, Franz Kline or de Kooning with an energetic and gestural painting, and Rothko who didn't used figurative painting. The painting becomes a meditation on the screen to the viewer.  Miró's fascination for Japanese art and master SengaiGibon influenced many European and American abstract artists of the moment. The simplicity of the work of Sengai intriguing, combining geometric shapes with vertical texts caused a strong impact on Miró, who began a vocabulary of signs themselves, which Miró visual color experience the great power that supposed to make the spectator in front of three formats, a combination not only works separately, but to offer a completely new visual field that fills the viewer (TATE) There is a strong relationship between scarce resources and the dramatic impact TAT)  At the time Miró painted "The Hope of a Condemned Man", we find a Europe post-May 68, Protestant and unhappy, and also find that Spain looks like the dying dictatorship of General Franco. At the same time there is a Joan Miró fully recognized and also is filled with skills to find creative new ways. Miró had visited the Japan, where there had been several exhibitions. Orientalism always represented by a spring of Miró received influences.  Miró has been defined as an "international Catalan", which had an internal exile because of Franco, a political artist, surrealist avant-garde and modernist.  Miró himself says that the artist is a "person with a special civic responsibility, your voice must speak for the silent, and his work for the emancipation", understood that his work had the obligation to promote, to claim, talk, to serve man.

The Hope of a Condemned Man is a series of three paintings by Joan Miró in 1974 which are now part of the permanent collection of the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona.


Career.

Marrufo was 2008 MLS Referee of the Year.  Marrufo was suspended by MLS for the remainder of the 2009 MLS season as of September 1, 2009, for poor performances over the course of the season, and subsequently on February 5, 2010, Marrufo was removed from the 2010 World Cup referee list.  It was announced in 2013 that Marrufo would be a member of the newly formed Professional Referee Organization, the body responsible for refereeing appointments among the United States and Canada's top soccer leagues.  On July 8, 2014, Marrufo was assigned to the 2014 MLS All-Star Game, to be played on August 6 at Providence Park between an MLS All-Star team and Bayern Munich.  He also officiated a 2017 International Champions Cup match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid on 29 July 2017, after which he was accused by Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitić of insulting him.  Marrufo was selected to officiate in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and his first appointment was the Group G match between Belgium & Tunisia.  Marrufo refereed the 2018 FIFA Club World Cup Final between Real Madrid and Al Ain FC.  He refereed the second leg of the 2019 Concacaf Champions League Final between C.F. Monterrey and Tigres UANL on May 1, 2019.  On May 17, 2019, Marrufo was appointed to be a referee for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup in the United States.

Personal life.

His father, Antonio Marrufo, was a FIFA referee from Mexico and served on the Mexican Referee Commission. Jair Marrufo speaks fluent English and Spanish. He is the husband of teacher and UTEP graduate Zinnia Mares Marrufo and they have two children together. He is of Mexican descent.

Jair Marrufo (born June 7, 1977) is an American soccer referee. He has been a referee in Major League Soccer since 2002 and a FIFA referee since 2007.


Early history.

The "Ann Alexander" was a ship-rigged wooden-hulled trading vessel. She was built in 1805 by Joel Packard and Deliverance Smith at Russells Mills Village in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and registered at New Bedford on 29 January 1806. Her first documented voyages were with American export goods from New York to Leghorn, Italy and to Liverpool, England after her registration.  It is claimed that the "Ann Alexander", with Capt. Loammi (Loum) Snow of Rochester, Massachusetts, in command, encountered the British fleet a few days after its victory at the battle of Trafalgar in October 1805. This first appears in print 87 years later, in a history of New Bedford, based on an interview with a 96-year-old former crew member of the ship. According to a later account of 1912, the ship was on a voyage from New York to Leghorn with a cargo of general merchandise, and a deck cargo of lumber that was Snow's personal property, when they met the warships off Spain. Informed that Lord Nelson had died aboard and that the new commander, Admiral Collingwood, was attempting to repair the damage done to numerous ships during the naval action, Snow sold lumber, flour and apples on the spot to the British Navy. Ruth Ekstrom of New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library considers that there was no 1805 voyage, which would have taken place before the "Ann Alexander" was registered and without the knowledge of the principal owner, but that the ship may have come across remnants of the British fleet repairing at Gibraltar on the voyage to Leghorn in early 1806 and sold goods and timber on that occasion.  According to the same 1912 account, in February 1807, with Snow still in command, the "Ann Alexander" was captured off Rock of Lisbon on a voyage from St. Ives, England to Leghorn by a Spanish privateer, who replaced all but Snow and a mate with a prize crew, and set a course for Spain. She was immediately captured the next day by a British man-of-war, who replaced the Spanish prize crew with one of their own, and turned their prize toward Gibraltar. Just short of landfall, they were captured again by another Spanish privateer and taken to Algiers. Upon landing, Snow immediately reported the previous British prize captain for piracy, preventing the authorities from knowing the ship's latest seizure was by Spain. The Algerian authorities allowed him to take possession of his ship and proceed to Leghorn. It was later reported in June 1807 that the "Ann Alexander", coming from Leghorn, was detained by the British at Portsmouth.

Sunk by a sperm whale.

Under the command of Captain John Deblois, the "Ann Alexander" left New Bedford on June 1, 1850, for the whaling grounds in the Pacific. After taking on about 500 barrels of oil, she rounded Cape Horn in January, 1851. After taking on provisions in Chile and dropping a sailor at Paita, Peru, she headed west to the "Offshore Ground" in August, about 2,000–3,000 miles off the South American coast where more whales are likely to be located. In the "Ann Alexander"'s case, she resumed the hunt at the latitude of 5° 50′ south, and longitude 102° west.  On August 20, the ship dropped two whaleboats; the one commanded by the first mate harpooned a whale. After hauling the tethered boat on a Nantucket sleighride, the whale turned, opened its jaws, and attacked and destroyed it. The second boat, captained by Deblois, rowed to the site and saved all six crewmen.  At this point, as there were 12 men in a single boat, the waist boat was launched from the ship, which was now some six miles off. The crewmen were divided between the two boats, and it was decided to attack the whale again with the waist boat, under the first mate's command, in the advance. When the whale saw the boats returning, he attacked again, this time destroying the waist boat. Deblois rescued the crew for a second time and attempted to return to the "Ann Alexander" in the last remaining boat. The wounded whale again rushed the boat and passed within a few cables of it, but did not directly attack it.  Once the whalers were aboard the "Ann Alexander", a smaller boat was launched to retrieve the whaleboat oars, and Deblois decided to hunt the whale from the safety of the ship. Another harpoon was sunk into its head, and after a feint towards the ship, the whale seemed to disappear under the surface. At this point it was nearly sundown, so Deblois decided to abandon the pursuit. Moments later, the whale reappeared, moving at a speed of about 15 knots (a little over 17 mph), towards the ship, which was making only five knots. The whale rammed the slower-moving ship, which was unable to outrun or avoid it, and put a hole in the hull of the ship, below the waterline some two feet from the keel. Like most ships of that time, the "Ann Alexander" carried a large amount of pig iron as ballast, so in an attempt to keep her from sinking immediately, Deblois ordered the crew to cut away the anchors and throw all heavy metal cables overboard. The crew only succeeded in cutting away one anchor and cable, and the ship began to sink rapidly. Deblois made his way to the cabin, where he seized a sextant, chronometer and chart. A second attempt to obtain anything beyond the provisions and water that were being loaded into the remaining boats was fruitless, as the ship was almost completely heeled over and flooded. The 22 crewmen had no choice but to abandon ship, with Deblois, the last to leave, being forced to swim to the closest boat.

Retrieval and rescue.

It was soon discovered that they possessed only twelve gallons of water and no food at all, and the boats, containing eleven men each, leaked and had to be bailed out throughout the night. The next day, seeing that the "Ann Alexander" had not yet sunk but was on her beam ends, Deblois went on board to cut away the masts with a hatchet, in the hope this would lessen the drag. The ship partially righted itself, and the crew, using spades, were able to cut the foremast anchor chain, which helped bring her onto a more even keel. Using ropes tied around their waists, the whalers then lowered themselves over the side and cut holes through the decks to get to the food stores, but obtained only five gallons of vinegar and twenty pounds of waterlogged bread. The ship became unstable, so they returned to their boats and rowed away.  They had water rations for only a few days, but Deblois reckoned that if they headed for a northerly latitude with more rainfall they might survive. Two days later, at around 5 p.m. on August 22, they sighted and were rescued by the Nantucket whaler "Nantucket" under the command of Captain Gibbs. A last attempt to retrieve anything from the "Ann Alexander" was abandoned due to rough seas, and the crew was eventually landed in Paita on September 15, 1851. They all returned to New York via the schooner "Providence" on October 12.

Melville and "Moby-Dick".

Just a few months later, October 18, 1851, and November 14, 1851, the first editions of Hermann Melville's great whaling novel "Moby-Dick", inspired by the "Essex" attack, were published in London and New York City, respectively.  Melville commented, "Ye Gods! What a commentator is this "Ann Alexander" whale. What he has to say is short & pithy & very much to the point. I wonder if my evil art has raised this monster."

Aftermath.

Weak with infection from the two harpoons and pieces of timber from the attack embedded in its head, the whale was caught and killed five months later by the crew of the "Rebecca Simms", and yielded 70 or 80 barrels of oil.  While an accidental collision with a sperm whale at night accounted for sinking of the "Union" in 1807, the "Essex" incident some 30 years beforehand was the only other documented case of a whale deliberately attacking, holing, and sinking a ship. However, these two incidents are probably not as much of a freak occurrence as they appear to be. Observations of aggression in males of the cetacean species suggest that head-butting during male–male aggression is a basal behavior, and that the enlarged melon or spermaceti organ is a direct product of sexual dimorphism, having evolved as a battering ram to injure an opponent in such attacks.  The ability of the sperm whale to aggressively attack and destroy ships some 3–5 times its body mass in this manner is therefore hardly surprising. The 5-month period that elapsed between the sinking of the "Ann Alexander" and the killing of the whale involved demonstrates that long-term survival was possible after combat with a much larger ship and so, presumably, with another whale as well.

The Ann Alexander was a whaling ship from New Bedford, Massachusetts. She is notable for having been rammed and sunk by a wounded sperm whale in the South Pacific on August 20, 1851, some 30 years after the famous incident in which the "Essex" was stove in and sunk by a whale in the same area.


Description.

In the wild "Rhipsalis pilocarpa" is an epiphyte, using a host tree for support but not parasitising or otherwise harming its host. Growing to tall and broad, its slim cylindrical stems are at first erect, becoming pendent with short straight branches arranged in whorls. The stems are crassulent, segmented and potentially dividing after each segment. It is one of the Rhipsalis in which the spines are still visible, especially on the young stems.  It grows as a small epiphytic shrub with initially upright and later hanging shoots. The dirty gray-green shoots are slender cylindrical, completely turning, up to 4 inches long and 0.6 inches in diameter. At the top, they branch into whorls. The 8 to 10 almost always pronounced ribs are finely striped in the longitudinal and transverse direction. The green, somewhat woolly areoles are occasionally purplish. From them arise 3 to 10 gray to white, bristle-like thorns.  The fragrant, white, terminal flowers appear alone or in pairs and reach a diameter of 2.5 to 4 centimeters. The pericarp is covered with bristle-like spines. The wine-red, berry-shaped fruits are spherical and studded with bristle-like spines. They have a length and a diameter of about 12 millimeters. The fruits contain quite large, black seeds. It has been shown that viviparity exists in this species, that is, the seed can germinate very early, while it is still in the fruit attached to the mother plant.

Cultivation.

Relatively easy to cultivate, "R. pilocarpa" grows best in partial shade, imitating its natural environment. It is particularly suitable as a hanging plant. With a minimum temperature of it requires the protection of glass in temperate locations, at least during the winter months. The plant thrives acidic soil, good light and well drained (e.g. 2 part peat moss, 2 for 1 part of sand, with small bark chips added to increase the drainage and as a carbon source in a period of growth). These plants have low nutrient requirements in nature, so balanced commercial fertilizers should be diluted to half the recommended concentration on the label.  In winter, a night temperature of 9/10 °C and a low watering (without fertilizer) will favor the spring bloom. When the flower buds appear, normal watering can resume, as well as fertilization.  Propagation is done from cuttings or plants, and from the wild from fruits, whose seeds are carried by the animals that ate them.

Range.

This epiphyte is native to Brazil, where it lives in tropical subtropical or tropical forests, hanging or hanging on branches or growing in the hollow of old trees. The main threat to the species is the rapid decline of the primary tropical forest (destruction and fragmentation of habitats, deforestation, etc.). Therefore, the species is classified as vulnerable.

Rhipsalis pilocarpa, the hairy-fruited wickerware cactus, is a species of flowering plant in the cactus family that is endemic to Brazil. Scarce in the wild, it is known only in a small number of isolated locations. Its status is listed as “vulnerable” by the IUCN Red List. However, it is cultivated as an ornamental houseplant and as such has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.


History.

Founding.

The English College, Douai was founded in 1568 but was forced to leave France in 1795 following the French Revolution. Part of the college settled temporarily at Crook Hall northwest of Durham. In 1804 Bishop William Gibson began to build at Ushaw Moor, four miles west of Durham. These buildings, designed by James Taylor, were opened as "St Cuthbert's College" in 1808. There was a steady expansion during the nineteenth century with new buildings put up to cater for the expanding number of clerical and secular students. In 1847, the newly built chapel, designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin was opened. This was followed by the Big Library and Exhibition Hall designed by Joseph Hansom, 1849–1851. The Junior House, designed by Peter Paul Pugin, was added in 1859. St Cuthbert’s Chapel, designed by Dunn and Hansom, was opened in 1884, replacing the one noted above, which the seminary had outgrown. The Refectory was designed and built by E. W. Pugin. The final development came in the early 1960s with the opening of a new East wing, providing additional classrooms and single bedrooms for 75 students. The main college buildings are Grade II listed, the College Chapel is Grade II* and the Chapel of St Michael is Grade I.

University of Durham.

Although independent, Ushaw College had a close working relationship with Durham University. The college became a Licensed Hall of Residence of the University of Durham in 1968. It was independent of the university but offered courses validated by the university, and both Church and lay students studied at the college. The Junior House closed in 1972, its younger students being transferred to St Joseph's College, Up Holland in Lancashire.

21st Century.

In 2002, the college rejected a report from the Roman Catholic hierarchy that it should merge with St Mary's College, Oscott, near Birmingham. However, in October 2010 it was announced that the college would close in 2011 due to the shortage of vocations in the Roman Catholic Church, and that the site might be sold. Following a detailed feasibility study by the college's Trustees and Durham University, and with support from Durham County Council and English Heritage, it was announced in January 2012 that Durham Business School would temporarily relocate to the college during rebuilding of the School’s buildings in Durham. This was seen as the first step in a long-term education-based vision for the site.  The university also agreed to catalogue and archive the Ushaw library and inventory the other collections to ensure their preservation and specialist conservation, with a view to creating a proposed Ushaw Centre for Catholic Scholarship and Heritage. In March 2019, an uncatalogued early charter of King John was found in the library manuscript collection.  In 2017, Durham University announced plans to develop an international residential research library at Ushaw College, with the aim of attracting scholars from around the world to work on the collections of Ushaw, Durham University and Durham Cathedral. The university has also confirmed that it has extended the agreement to lease the east wing of the college (used by the Business School) to 2027. The college is also used for numerous musical events and for the Ushaw Lecture Series, organised by the university's Centre for Catholic Studies.  In 2018, Durham University's Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring (CEM) moved into the east wing of the college, previously used by the Business School.

Heraldry.

The college armorial bearings are "Per pale dexter Argent a Cross Gules on a Canton Azure a Cross of St Cuthbert proper sinister impaling Allen Argent three Rabbits couchant in pale Sable."  Various emblems on shield represent the college's history and foundation, for example:-

Alumni.

Clergy  Lay

Ushaw College (formally St Cuthbert's College, Ushaw), also now known as Ushaw Historic House, Chapels & Gardens, is a former Catholic seminary near the village of Ushaw Moor, County Durham, England. It was founded in 1808 by scholars from the English College, Douai, who had fled France after the French Revolution. Ushaw College was affiliated with Durham University from 1968 and was the principal Roman Catholic seminary for the training of Catholic priests in the north of England until it closed as a seminary in 2011 due to the shortage of vocations. It reopened as a visitor attraction in late 2014 and, as of 2019, receives around 50,000 visitors a year. The County Durham Music Service and Durham University spin-off the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring are based at the college and buildings at the college are also used by Durham University Business School.


Background.

The initiators and theorists of NRR, sometimes known as the "New Rural Reconstruction school" (), felt that the reforms begun by Deng Xiaoping and other CCP leaders in the late 1970s were no longer benefiting rural communities, especially in central and western China, and in some ways hurting them. While most of the NRR school rarely use the term "New Left" to describe themselves, they are generally considered to be an important part of that critical tradition. Like the Chinese New Left in general, the NRR school is critical of the dominant current of utopian marketization, in which the market is seen as a solution to all problems. Instead, NRR supports the creation of rural cooperatives and other forms of cooperative social organization.  NRR grew out of a loosely parallel set of academics, students, state development workers, and grassroots activists. In the early 1990s, a debate grew up over neo-liberal policies, such as those advocated by the World Bank. These critics charged that the success of free market and globalization policies in the short term threatened the long term viability of China's farm families and villages by eroding the remnants of the Mao-era communes, which had provided health, education, and welfare, leaving individual families to fend for themselves in these areas. In addition, urban expansion drove up land prices and local officials confiscated land in order to build factories and housing for the newly affluent. By the middle of the 1990s, in addition to demonstrations against traditional targets such as taxes, there were widespread protests against the corruption of local officials, pollution from the factories (many of which were owned by outside interests), and the gap between the newly rich and the still poor rural areas.  In the late 1980s, Wen Tiejun (then state development worker, now dean of the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Renmin University) began to theorize and popularize the phrase "sannong wenti" (three rural problems), that is, nongmin (rural people or peasants), nongcun (rural society or villages), and nongye (rural production or agriculture). According to Wen's theory, Mao-era policies such as economic independence from the world capitalist system had been necessary for China to industrialize, but these policies had left the rural population in a weak position. The breakup of the commune system had produced individual plots too small to use technology efficiently and farmers were now at the mercy of market forces and an economic policy which favored exports and the cities over the countryside. To solve these contradictions, further market reforms were not the right strategy. Rural life had to be reconstructed.  Wen Tiejun's influential essay "Deconstructing Modernization" challenged the West's industry-based modernization as an "unreproducible experiment". The West, charged Wen, financed its development with capital from colonies and by controlling global resources, a strategy which was not open to China. Wen's research and travels in developing countries convinced him that China was not alone in facing "three disparities", that is, in rich vs. poor, city vs. countryside, and region vs. region. Wen hoped China's "people-centered scientific approach" and sustainable development would replace the earlier "vulgar growth" and "blind advocacy of consumerism".  Although NRR is mainly conceived as a distinctively Chinese response to the problems of modernization under particular historical conditions, experiences outside of China have also influenced NRR. Negatively, the NRR school aims to avoid the social problems many developing countries have faced due to market-centered development and rapid urbanization – especially rural landlessness, the formation of large sub-proletarian slums, and social unrest. Positively, some members of the NRR school looks to positive lessons from other developing countries that have mitigated these trends through various "alternative development" experiences. Most commonly discussed of these lessons is that of Kerala, India (see the Kerala model). Mainland Chinese NRR advocates learned about Kerala and other foreign experiences mainly through the introduction of Hong Kong scholars and activists, especially Lau Kin Chi and ARENA (Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives). In 2001, Lau arranged for Wen Tiejun and other mainland activists to visit the People's Science Movement in Kerala. This movement, they found, took inspiration not only from Gandhi but also from Mao Zedong. Kerala's high life expectancy, literacy, and social equality came not only from party politics and government policies, but also from such popular movements and the mobilization of many trained organizers working from the bottom up and organizing on a community level.

History.

Around 2002, some Chinese advocates of rural cooperative experimentation began adopting the term "Rural Reconstruction" from China's 1920s–1930s Rural Reconstruction Movement. The term "NRR" was first publicly used in January 2003, when CSER (China Society of Economic Reform, the think-tank/ publishing house where Wen Tiejun was based at the time) sponsored a national workshop on NRR in Beijing, attended by dozens of grassroots activists as well as supporters from Hong Kong. In July 2003, grassroots activist Qiu Jiansheng founded the James Yen Institute for Rural Reconstruction near the site of James Yen's 1930s Rural Reconstruction center in Dingzhou, along with the support of the local government, CSER, and Lau Kin Chi's China Social Services and Development Research Centre. This became one of two national centers for NRR activities – mainly training student volunteers and grassroots activists on how to set up, run and support projects such as cooperatives – until it closed in 2007. In 2004 the other, still active national center – the Liang Shuming Center for Rural Reconstruction – was founded in Beijing by grassroots activist Liu Xiangbo, also with the support of Wen Tiejun. After Wen left CSER and founded the Rural Reconstruction Center at Renmin University in 2005, the latter replaced CSER as an important institutional and economic base for the Liang Shuming Center and other NRR organizations and activities, such as the Guoren Green Alliance (a marketing network for environmentally-friendly farming cooperatives) and the Little Donkey Farm (one of China's first experiments with community supported agriculture).  Other academic institutions, such as the Center for Rural Governance Studies at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and other NGOs and networks, such as the Guizhou Association for Community Building and Rural Governance, identify with NRR, although some emphasize their differences from the current of NRR centered on Wen Tiejun and the Liang Shuming Center. Others, and an uncertain but certainly large number of grassroots experiments, have been influenced by NRR without using this term. To complicate matters, since the Chinese government began promoting the policy of "Constructing a New Socialist Countryside" (NSC, ) in 2006, many NRR advocates made a subtle switch to the state's term "NSC" instead of "NRR", presenting their views and experiments as "peasant-centered" or "village-community-centered" approaches to NSC. (While this new CCP policy is influenced in part by NRR, it should be primarily understood as an attempt to build the conditions for developing the rural consumer market.)

Present situation.

After 2006, therefore, it became more difficult to identify a coherent NRR current or movement because, (1) the original NRR advocates generally stopped using the term, (2) some NRR advocates emphasized their differences from other NRR advocates, and (3) many more activists and experiments were (and continue to be) influenced by one or another strand of NRR without using or even necessarily knowing this term. In order to avoid the political sensitiveness of social movement, the NRR advocates started to call themselves a "network" () instead of a "movement" (). Yet, the NRR has been leading various initiatives in sustainable agriculture and alternative food networks such as community-supported agriculture have become a key instrument for the NRR to promote their ideas and philosophy. In the words of Wen Tiejun, NRR has "gone to the grassroots". The popular movements emerging from NRR are still in the process of formation and have yet to be documented.

New Rural Reconstruction (NRR, ) is an intellectual current and social movement initiated by Wen Tiejun and other activists to address the crisis they saw in the Chinese countryside at the start of the 21st century. As of 2009, at its core there are several NGOs and academic institutions, dozens of rural cooperatives and associations, and hundreds of self-conscious participants (including academics, social workers, student volunteers, and grassroots activists). More broadly, the ideas and spirit of NRR have influenced a growing movement of rural experimentation, including many activists who do not use the term "NRR".New


Biography.

Antonio Fabrés was born in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) in 1854. He started studying at the Escola de la Llotja in his native city at the age of 13. His father was a draughtsman and his uncle a silversmith. When he turned 21, he received a grant to study in Rome. There are records of his sculptures from early in his career but later on he became a painter almost exclusively. He joined Marià Fortuny with a group that became known for their intense realism. Their popularity grew with the taste of the bourgeoisie seeking exotic images with oriental or medieval themes. He went back to Barcelona in 1886 and in 1894 he moved to Paris. The popularity he had earned during his decade in Italy helped him open a large studio where he could create complex scenes for the upper classes.  In 1902 the Academia de San Carlos in Mexico City decided to replace their classical techniques with the ones of realism that were popular in Europe at the time. Antoni Fabrés was called to take the place of Santiago Rebull as head of this important institution. Although some of his students went on to become what was later known as the Post-Revolutionary Movement in Mexican art, the faculty had a hard time adapting to his distinct style and personality. In 1907, he returned to Rome. One of his last commissions in Mexico was the decorations of a hall at the Porfirio Diaz mansion where he mainly focused on the art nouveau style.  Fabrés was recognized most everywhere he traveled. He was acclaimed in Barcelona, London, Paris, Vienna and Lyon. At the end of his life he was dealt a very unfortunate blow when in 1926 he decided to donate a large number of works to the Museu de Belles Arts de Barcelona (nowadays, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya). In exchange for this generous donation he asked the Museum that a hall be built with his name, but the museum never built that hall and although he protested several times, they could never settle the argument. Antoni Fabrés died in Rome in 1938.

Antoni Maria Fabrés i Costa ("Spanish": Antonio Maria Fabrés y Costa; 1854–1938), also known as Antoni Fabrés, was a famous Catalan sculptor and painter during the turn of the 20th century.


History and Usage.

The position of "Zellenleiter" was first created in 1930 as a mid-level political leadership title. Originally known as "Zellenwart", in 1933 after the Nazis came to power, the rank of "Zellenwart" was replaced by a new rank known as "Stellenleiter". It was the "Stellenleiters", on the local level of the Nazi Party encompassing German towns and cities, who held the positional title of "Zellenleiter", and were often referred to as such in contrast to their actual political rank. Such persons answered to an official known as an "Ortsgruppenleiter", considered the chief Nazi in a municipal region.  In 1939, the Nazi Party completed revamped its political ranking system and created a plethora of new Nazi Party political ranks and the title of "Zellenleiter" was adopted into its final form. Holders of the position now held a standard Nazi political rank (normally "Bereitschaftsleiter" or "Einsatzleiter") while also displaying a political armband denoting their position as a "Zellenleiter". There were also three primary "Zellenleiter" positions, these being:  Two special positions, known as "Betriebszellenobmann" and "Hauptbetriebszellenobmann" also existed, but were more focused on war production duties rather than the Nazi Cell command chain.

Duties.

The original political rank of "Zellenwart" was used to supervise local Nazi political leaders during a time when the Nazi Party was attempting to gain power in the Weimar Republic. After the establishment of Nazi Germany in 1933, the political position of "Zellenleiter" became a type of political strongman and was usually the highest Nazi official that the general population would have direct dealings with on a day-to-day basis.  During World War II, the "Zellenleiters" oversaw the activities of the "Blockleiters" under their command. Primary focus was on the enforcement of Nazi policies, the promulgation of war production, and the administration of civil relief efforts, especially towards the end of the war when Germany was invaded. As defeat loomed for Nazi Germany, many "Zellenleiters" became associated with the Volksturm and served as "ad hoc" military commanders when the need arose.

Zellenleiter (Cell Leader) was a Nazi Party political title which existed between the years of 1930 and 1945. A "Zellenleiter" was higher in rank than a "Blockleiter" and was in charge of a "Nazi Cell", composed of eight to twelve city blocks.


Biography.

Tombeur was born in Liège, Belgium in 1867 and enlisted in the Belgian Army at the age of 16. He was later admitted to the Belgian Royal Military Academy in Brussels, graduating in 1898. In 1902, he enlisted for service in the Congo Free State, a quasi-independent state controlled by Belgium's monarch Leopold II, as a junior officer in the "Force Publique". He remained in position through the Belgian annexation of the Free State as the Belgian Congo until 1909. Returning to Belgium, he served briefly as aide-de-camp to King Albert I from 1909 to 1912. In 1912, Tombeur returned to the Congo as an civilian inspector general ("inspecteur d'état") where he became the senior administrator for Katanga Province and presided over the first years of the city of Élisabethville (modern-day Lubumbashi).  Following the outbreak of World War I and the German invasion of Belgium, Tombeur became the commander of the Belgian colonial forces on the border with German East Africa. He presided over the re-organisation of the "Force Publique" and, in April 1916, led a Belgian force into Rwanda as part of the British-led East African Campaign. By June 1916, the whole of Rwanda had fallen and Burundi was occupied soon afterwards. Tombeur was made military governor of the Belgian Occupied East African Territories consisting of the future Belgian mandate of Ruanda-Urundi. The expeditionary force soon headed for the German military stronghold at Tabora in modern-day Tanzania. After a lengthy battle, Tombeur entered the town on 20 September 1916. Tombeur was recalled to Europe in late 1916 and was replaced as commander in East Africa by Armand Huyghé. In early 1917, he was promoted to the rank of Vice-Governor-General, the second highest administrative position in the Congo. He served as governor of Katanga from 1918 to 1920.  Tombeur retired from the colonial service in July 1920 but remained active within colonial associations in Belgium. In 1926, Albert I awarded him the title Baron of Tabora. He died in 1947.

Lieutenant General Charles Tombeur (4 May 1867 – 2 December 1947) was a Belgian military officer and colonial civil servant. As well as holding several major administrative positions in the Belgian Congo, he is particularly known for his role as commander of the Belgian colonial military, the "Force Publique", during the first years of World War I. His military career culminated in the capture of Tabora in German East Africa in September 1916.


"Je t'appartiens".

"Je t'appartiens" was a French hit in 1955. The score was written and first recorded by Gilbert Bécaud. The lyrics were penned in French by Pierre Delanoë. In 1955 it was a hit for Bécaud and in 1956 was rerecorded by Les Compagnons de la chanson.

First English version by Jill Corey.

The English language version used lyrics by Manny Curtis and was performed in 1957 by Jill Corey in the television series "Climax!". Corey's version, with orchestration by Jimmy Carroll, was released as a single and was moderately successful.

The Everly Brothers version.

The Everly Brothers helped to further popularize the song with their 1960 rendition of "Let It Be Me" which reached 7th position on the "Billboard" Hot 100. The harmony arrangement of this version was often emulated in subsequent remakes. This was the first Everly Brothers single to be recorded in New York, and not in Nashville. The musicians that backed up the brothers on the record included Howard Collins, Barry Galbraith and Mundell Lowe on guitar, Lloyd Trotman on bass, Jerry Allison on drums and Hank Rowland on piano.

Betty Everett and Jerry Butler version.

In 1964, Betty Everett and Jerry Butler released their version of the song. Their version peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and topped the Cashbox Soul/R&B charts for 3 weeks.

Cover versions.

Willie Nelson.

– in 2015 the version of Angelo Seretti & George Aaron stayed 5 weeks on Italian Radio Chart (M.E.I)

"Never Tear Us Apart" is a single released by Australian rock group INXS in August 1988. It was included on the band's sixth studio album, "Kick". The music was written by keyboardist Andrew Farriss, who recorded a blues-style demo; vocalist Michael Hutchence wrote the lyrics.


Climate.

The Northern short grasslands have a semi-arid climate, with annual average precipitation ranging from 270mm to 450mm. Winters here are cold, with a mean winter temperature of, but chinook winds, most common in the western part of the region, closest to the Rocky Mountains, ameliorate the cold temporarily when they pass over. Summers range from warm to hot, with a mean temperature of.

Flora.

Dominant grasses include blue grama, needlegrass and spear grass. Big sagebrush is common in the southwest of the region, but almost non-existent in the north, northeast and east, where silver sagebrush is very common. Prickly pear and yellow cactus can be found in drier areas, especially in the badlands areas that can be found across the ecoregion. In the wettest areas, along water bodies, plains cottonwood, trembling aspen, willows and other trees can be found, along with various aquatic plants.

Fauna.

The Northern Short Grasslands were once home to vast herds of bison, and some can still be found in places such as Grasslands National Park in southwestern Saskatchewan, and on private ranches. Pronghorn can be found in great numbers in much of the region, benefiting greatly from conservation measures. Mule deer are very common, and white-tailed deer somewhat less so. Despite various intense pest control measures, immense colonies of Richardson's ground squirrels still remain, though the black-tailed prairie dog is much less common than before European settlement. The steppe here was once home to elk and grizzly bears, but these species have been extirpated from the plains.

The Northern short grasslands is one of 867 terrestrial ecoregions defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. This ecoregion includes parts of the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and the American Great Plains states of Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, South Dakota and Nebraska. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) further breaks this ecoregion into the Northwestern Glaciated Plains and Northwestern Great Plains.


History.

Global Village Telecom was founded in April 1998 by a group of Israeli investors led by entrepreneur Joshua Levinberg, who previously founded Gilat Satellite Networks. Their idea was to build a satellite-based phone network for remote locations in South America using the VSAT technology that was developed by Gilat Satellite Networks. The initial investors in the company included: Magnum Technologies Fund, which held 55% of the company, US investment bank Merrill Lynch held 20%, Clal Information Technologies 10%, Discount Investment Corporation 10%, and Gilat Satellite Networks 5%.  During 1998 and 1999 GVT won tenders to build rural phone networks in Colombia, Chile and Peru

Brazil Fixed-line Telecommunications Licence.

In 1999 GVT was awarded a 20 years license to provide fixed-line telecommunications services in Brazil's south and central regions. As part of Brazil's government plan to introduce competition in three fixed-line regions of the country. When it privatized the state telecommunications company, Telebras, in 1998, the government divided Brazil into three regions for fixed-line telephony. Each region was to have one newcomer and an incumbent. In each case, the incumbent was a former unit of Telebras, which was privatized.  The region for which GVT won the license had a population of 38 million people at the time and encompasses nine states, including the country's capital, Brasilia. GVT plan was to invest US$550 million over three years and to build a network with 500,000 lines. GVT was to compete in the region against the former Telebras unit Tele Centro Sul, which was owned by a consortium led by Telecom Italia.  In 2001, GVT was split between Gilat Satellite Networks and the other investors in the company. Gilat took over the Colombia and Peru operations and GVT remained solely focused on the Brazilian market.

Initial Public Offering.

In 2007, GVT had an Initial Public Offering on the Brazilian Stock Market, achieving a market cap of $1.2 billion and raising $480 million.

Sale to Vivendi and then to Telefónica.

The French company Vivendi bought a 58% stake of the company by the end of 2009, and raised its participation to 99.17% the following year.  On August 30, 2014, Vivendi announces the sale of GVT to Telefónica for 7.5 billion GBP.

Products and services.

GVT is a company that offers high-speed broadband across its area of operation, pay TV with paid high-definition channels, as well as integrated and convergent advanced landline telephony.  The company offers broadband internet connection through ADSL, ADSL2 +, VDSL2 and FTTH technologies. It offers content and Internet services through the online portal POP, besides VoIP services through VONO to residential and micro-enterprise customers in Brazil (also usable outside the country). In 2012, the company also started to offer Pay TV packages.  GVT offers internet speeds of 15 Mbit/s, 25 Mbit/s, 35 Mbit/s, 50 Mbit/s and 150 Mbit/s, to all the 149 cities it serves, except in Erechim e Montenegro (Rio Grande do Sul); Paranaguá (Paraná); Porto Velho (Rondônia); Palmas, e Rio Branco (Acre), where speeds up to 20Mbit/s are supported.  Strategically, GVT built a network prepared for the convergence of voice, data and image, enabling it to offer higher than market average speeds since the beginning of its operation in 2000. Currently, circa 70% of annual company investment is dedicated to expansion and improvement of the network.  The average Internet speed of GVT customer base reached 13.2Mbit/s in October 2013. The index is greater than the average speed of Brazilian Internet (2.4 Mbit/s) and countries with large technology development as South Korea (13.3Mbit/s) and USA (8.6Mbit/s) – source: Akamai Institute.  It is considered the best Brazilian broadband for five consecutive years (2009-2013) according to the open survey made with INFO Magazine readers and the best telecommunication company by Isto É Magazine in 2013. In addition, the company won the EXAME/IBRC Award for best customer service in the fixed telephony category.  GVT also serves the enterprise segment, providing products and services, offering integrated solutions and managed services including fixed-line telephony, unified communication systems, hosted VoIP, Internet services, private-data networks and Data Center services.

Coverage.

Currently, GVT backbone covers 20 states: Acre, Alagoas, Bahia, Ceará, Espírito Santo, Goiás, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Paraíba, Paraná, Pernambuco, Rondônia, Rio Grande do Norte, Sergipe, Tocantins, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, plus Distrito Federal (Brazil capital).  São Paulo  Minas Gerais  Espírito Santo  Rio de Janeiro  Mato Grosso  Goiás  Mato Grosso do Sul  Distrito Federal  Alagoas  Bahia  Ceará  Paraíba  Pernambuco  Rio Grande do Norte  Sergipe  Acre  Rondônia  Tocantins

Global Village Telecom (GVT) was a Brazilian telecommunications company that offers services on landline telephone, broadband for both consumer and business, Pay TV and voice over IP. GVT has been in the market since the end of 2000. GVT today operates under the Vivo brand.


Plot.

Jack, a gunsmith and contract killer, and his lover, Ingrid, are relaxing in Sweden. As they walk in the wilderness outside their cabin, Jack becomes alarmed by a trail of footprints in the snow and pulls Ingrid towards shelter. Sniper gunshots ring out. Ingrid sees Jack pull a gun from his pocket and shoot the sniper. Knowing his identity is in jeopardy, and with little hesitation, Jack shoots and kills Ingrid. He flees to Rome and contacts his handler, Pavel, who insists that Jack cannot stay in Rome. Pavel sends him to Castelvecchio, a small town in the mountains of Abruzzo. Jack becomes nervous, and disposing of the cell phone Pavel gave him, goes to nearby Castel del Monte instead—where he uses the name Edward.  While in Abruzzo, Jack contacts Pavel, who sets him up with another job. He meets Mathilde, an assassin who wants him to build her a custom sniper rifle. He also begins patronizing a prostitute, Clara, and they begin a relationship separate from her business duties. Jack meets with Mathilde to test the weapon. She is impressed by the craftsmanship, but asks him to make a few more adjustments. Later, Jack realizes that he is being followed by an assassin from Sweden, whom he kills.  Jack is tormented by dreams of the events in Sweden and regrets killing Ingrid. His friendship and conversations with a local priest, Father Benedetto, encourage him to question his life choices. Both Mathilde and Clara notice Jack's association with butterflies, Mathilde by his expertise in endangered butterflies and Clara by his prominent tattoo. When Father Benedetto tells Jack he senses he lives in a special kind of hell, "a place without love", Jack starts to let himself feel love for Clara, and envisions a life with her.  Jack talks to Pavel one last time—asking how the Swedes have found him. In his growing fear, he even suspects Clara when he discovers a small pistol in her purse. He questions Clara about the gun and is satisfied with her explanation (to defend herself, since newspapers have reported murdered prostitutes).  Jack agrees to deliver the weapon to Mathilde as his last job, but at the last moment, he re-opens the briefcase. At the drop-off, Jack becomes suspicious that Mathilde plans to kill him. Before anything can happen, a busload of school children arrives. Mathilde gives Jack his payment—a thick envelope full of cash—and the two separate. As Mathilde drives away, Pavel contacts her and asks if she has killed Jack. She tells him she has not, but says she is following him and will kill him.  Clara meets Jack at a religious procession in town. Jack asks her to go away with him and she agrees. Mathilde tries to shoot Jack from a nearby rooftop but the rifle backfires in her face, confirming Jack's suspicion and his last-minute decision to sabotage the rifle. Seeing Mathilde fall from the roof, Jack gives Clara the envelope full of cash and tells her to go to a river where they had picnicked and wait for him. He runs to Mathilde, who is dying on the pavement, and discovers that she also works for Pavel.  As Jack goes to meet Clara, he hears Pavel behind him. They exchange gunfire and Pavel drops dead. As Jack drives to meet Clara at the river, he feels his abdomen and realizes he has been shot. Jack arrives at the picnic spot and as he sees Clara, he collapses. Clara screams and runs to the car. A white butterfly flits skyward from Jack's car.

Production.

Filming began in September 2009 and took place in Castel del Monte, Sulmona, Castelvecchio Calvisio, Calascio and Campo Imperatore in the Province of L'Aquila (Abruzzo); in Rome, and in Östersund, Jämtland and other locations. As the Clooney character drives from Rome to Castel del Monte, there is an impressively long drive through the 4600-meter long San Domenico Tunnel (Galleria San Domenico) that is between the exits of Pescina and Cocullo on the A25 highway that connects Rome to Torano and Pescara. The car driven by Jack in the movie is a Fiat Tempra with Pescara licence plates.  The film's "most romantic moment", according to director Anton Corbijn—when Jack takes Clara to a restaurant of her choice, their "actual date"—was filmed at a restaurant in Pacentro, near Sulmona. The comic-acting waiter in this restaurant scene was directed to stand in front of a two-bulb lamp fixture so that he appeared to have "devil's horns". Photographs on the restaurant's walls are reportedly all of lovers of Gabriele d'Annunzio. Clara orders Montepulciano d'Abruzzo wine for the dinner, and Corbijn said the film's company enjoyed many of the fine wines of the region during the months of production there.  The film score was written and composed by German singer-songwriter (and longtime friend of Corbijn) Herbert Grönemeyer. A 1967 song called "Window of My Eyes" by the Dutch blues band Cuby & the Blizzards is played over the ending credits. The aria "Un bel dì vedremo" ("One fine day we'll see") from Puccini's opera "Madama Butterfly" can be heard in the background of one scene, and "Tu vuò fà l'americano" in another. In another scene the Italian song "La Bambola" by Patty Pravo plays.

Western films and other influences.

"Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968), with Henry Fonda facing off as villain in a gunfight, is playing on a television on the back wall of a modest restaurant where Jack has been eating. In the DVD commentary, Corbijn notes this homage and says the American Western—and more specifically the Italian-American spaghetti westerns by Leone and others—were explicit models for "The American". Corbijn also notes the Ennio Morricone scores made famous in "Once Upon a Time in the West", "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" (1966), and other films. Speaking of the narrow, labyrinthine streets of the Italian hill towns where much of the action of "The American" occurs, Corbijn says he was thinking, in filming, of the streets of Venice and the way they appeared in Nicolas Roeg's "Don't Look Now" (1973).  Large segments of the dialogue between Jack and Clara are taken verbatim from Graham Greene's novel "The Honorary Consul" (1973).

Release.

Marketing.

The first official poster was released on June 17, 2010. The first trailer was attached to "Robin Hood" and the second official trailer on June 19, 2010, and was attached to "Jonah Hex", "Grown Ups", "Inception" and "The Other Guys".

Box office.

The film grossed US$13.1 million, opening at number 1, ahead of "Machete", which grossed US$11.4 million on the Labor Day weekend. "The American" grossed a total of US$67,876,281 worldwide—US$35,606,376 in North America and US$32,269,905 in other territories.

Critical response.

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating 65% based on 214 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's critical consensus states: "As beautifully shot as it is emotionally restrained, "The American" is an unusually divisive spy thriller—and one that rests on an unusually subdued performance from George Clooney." On Metacritic the film has an average score of 61 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D–" on an A+ to F scale. This was attributed to disappointment after the film was marketed as being action-packed instead of focusing on suspense and drama.  "Rolling Stone"'s Peter Travers gave the film two-and-a-half stars, writing that director Anton Corbijn "holds his film to a steady, often glacial pace", and that the result is of "startling austerity". Roger Ebert gave the film four stars, writing, "Here is a gripping film with the focus of a Japanese drama, an impenetrable character to equal Alain Delon's in "Le Samouraï", by Jean-Pierre Melville." Leonard Maltin called it a "slowly paced, European-style mood piece, short on dialogue and action and long on atmosphere".

Home media.

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 28, 2010.

The American is a 2010 American action thriller film directed by Anton Corbijn and starring George Clooney, Thekla Reuten, Violante Placido, Irina Björklund, and Paolo Bonacelli. The Rowan Joffé screenplay is an adaptation of the 1990 novel "A Very Private Gentleman" by Martin Booth. The film opened on September 1, 2010.


Tennis career.

Juniors.

Ho first came to the tennis world's attention as an exceptionally successful junior player. He won several junior tennis events in the 1980s, and set a number of 'youngest-ever' records.

Pro tour.

In August 1988, Ho became the youngest male player in the open era to play in the main draw of the US Open singles at the age of 15 years and 2 months. He lost the first round match to Johan Kriek 6–4, 7–6, 7–6. That same month, Ho became the second youngest male player to win a main draw match at a top-level tour event when he beat Matt Anger in the first round at Rye Brook 6–4, 3–6, 6–4, just after Argentina's Franco Davín.  Ho's early successes drew many comparisons with Michael Chang, another Asian American tennis player who achieved great success as a junior. However Ho did not manage to make the same kind of impact on the professional circuit as Chang (who went on to win the French Open and reach the World No. 2 singles ranking). Ho enjoyed some success in satellite tournaments, but did not win any top-level singles events on the tour. He did, however, win four tour doubles titles (Beijing in 1994, and Beijing, Hong Kong and Indian Wells in 1995).  Ho's professional career was hampered by injuries. In 1995, Ho and Brett Steven became the fastest-ever losers of a match at Wimbledon. In the very first point of their Men's Doubles match, Steven served and Ho tried to intercept the return at the net, only to injure his back. The pair thus had had to forfeit the match after just one rally, which had lasted all of five seconds. The back injury was to recur again in future years, and eventually led to Ho's retirement from the tour in 1997.  During his professional career, Ho reached career-high rankings of World No. 85 in singles and World No. 13 in doubles. His career prize-money totalled $793,819.

Post-retirement.

Since retiring from the tour, Ho has completed a degree at Rice University in Houston and worked as a tennis journalist.  In 2011, Ho was inducted into the USTA Florida Hall of Fame.  He is currently a partner at global recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles in Houston, TX.

Thomas Ho (born June 17, 1973, in Winter Haven, Florida) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. His parents are immigrants from Taiwan.


Location.

The Martyrs Memorial is located on the heights of Algiers, in the municipality of El Madania, west of the Bois des arcades, east of Diar el Mahçoul and north of the plaza shopping center Riadh El Feth. It overlooks the neighborhood of Hamma (common Belouizdad) and the Botanical Garden Hamma (known as Jardin d'essai) in the north. The monument has been erected on the site of an ancient military fort.

Description.

Consisting of three stylized fins that join mid-height, the concrete monument built by the Canadian company Lavalin, based on a model produced in the Fine Art Institute of Algiers, under the leadership of Bashir Yelles, reaches a height of. Above the three supporting fins, at from the ground, is an Islamic style turret with a diameter of and a height of, topped by a dome of. It rests on an esplanade that burns an "eternal flame" and includes a crypt, an amphitheater and the National Museum of El Mujahid (underground).

Construction.

The project to build a memorial in memory of the dead from the War of Independence is the brainchild of President Houari Boumedienne. Its implementation was, however, completed under the presidency of his successor Chadli Bendjedid.  The company Lavalin is responsible of the studies and construction of the monument. Several Algerian artists involved, like the painter Bashir Yelles, the calligrapher Abdelhamid Skander and the Polish sculptor Marian Konieczny.  The completion of the work was a real technological challenge because of the constraints inherent to the geometry of the assembly, especially the curvature of the fins, the situation of the site at the edge of a steep cliff and high seismicity of the region. Pierre Lamarre, director of engineering and structural design, Claude Naud, expert planning and construction methods, along with Bashir Yelles, imagined a solution that proved itself decisive and innovative.  Seven months (7 months and 20 day) (November 15, 1981 to July 5, 1982) were necessary to build this architectural work. The monument was inaugurated by the then President Chadli Bendjedid in February 1986.

The Maqam Echahid (", ", ) is a concrete monument commemorating the Algerian war for independence. The monument was opened in 1982 on the 20th anniversary of Algeria's independence. It is fashioned in the shape of three standing palm leaves which shelter the "Eternal Flame" beneath. At the edge of each palm leaf stands a statue of a soldier, each representing a stage of Algeria's struggle.


Overview.

The applications provided by Beta Apps are in development, but are considered "mature" enough to be released in order to be tested by users worldwide. Anyone can submit feedback about applications, which goes to the development team. After a period of time, an application either "graduated", meaning it is released as a final version, or is removed from the site and placed in an archive.  The site facilitates beta applications being developed by Microsoft or select 3rd party developers for Lumia products. The applications are, of reasonably good quality, but may have rough edges and occasional service breaks, not commercialized yet, not guaranteed, and not officially supported, under active development, free of charge and not be used for commercial purposes  Applications may "graduate" to become commercial offerings, or they will be "archived" along with the lessons learnt based on user feedback.

History.

Nokia phones beta labs was launched as "Nokia Beta Labs" on 16 April 2007 only as a page linking to other Nokia beta applications, namely Sports Tracker, Wellness Diary and WidSets. On 13 August, Nokia employee Tommi Vilkamo announced the website's renovation and his role as the new Beta Labs manager on his blog.  After the rebranding Microsoft collecting feedback through UserVoice and has since launched several new applications such as Cinemagraph Beta and Gestures. Originally the site was operated by Nokia but Microsoft moved the development to a more feedback-orientated design in August 2014 to allow more users to add their feedback rather than just Nokia-developers. On 14 August 2014 it was announced the relocation of the Nokia Beta Labs website to a new site that host all new beta trials for Lumia apps.  Microsoft has discontinued the Nokia Camera Beta trial and re-released the Beta app as "Lumia Camera Classic" while implementing the new features in the Lumia Camera app, and has added OneDrive integration to Lumia Cinemagraph (formerly "Nokia Cinemagraph") after first trialing it in the Lumia Beta Apps site. On 25 February 2015 Join Conference (previously "Nokia Conference") was made public for all Windows Phones but republished under the "Microsoft Garage" and reduced the number of markets it was available in.  In May 2015 Microsoft released the Lumia Camera Beta app reminiscent to the Nokia Camera Beta app to test improvements, among the new features is the ability to select Office Lens from settings. Though these features are exclusive for newer PureView powered handsets, these devices include the Nokia Lumia 930, Nokia Lumia Icon, Nokia Lumia 1520, Microsoft Lumia 640, and Microsoft Lumia 640 XL.  On July 22, 2015 Microsoft launched a new version of the Lumia Creative Studio called "Lumia Creative Studio Beta" that added support for living images if the photographs were captured with the Lumia Camera.  On September 11, 2015 Microsoft announced that they would no longer accept any feedback via the Lumia Beta Apps site and would archive all older feedback and encouraged users to send feedback via the Windows Insider feedback application or through the Windows Phone Store, despite the discontinuation of the website no Lumia Beta App would be immediately removed from the store.  Nokia Beta Labs was reintroduced for Android-based Nokia smartphones in 2017 by HMD Global as Nokia phones beta labs.

Nokia phones beta labs is a service in which beta software for Nokia smartphones are available for public download. The service was originally launched as Nokia Beta Labs in 2007 by Nokia for S60-based Symbian devices, and later for the company's Windows Phone-based Lumia line. After the sale of the Nokia mobile devices division to Microsoft, the website was renamed Lumia Beta Apps. It was discontinued in 2015. The service was revived by HMD Global in 2017 for Nokia Android smartphones, allowing members to test Android 8.0 Oreo beta.


Biography.

Little is known about Qūnawī's personal life. As a young boy, Ṣadr al-Dīn was adopted by Ibn 'Arabī, whose pupil he was. Of Persian descent, he nevertheless lived and taught in the city of Konya (modern-day Turkey where he is known as Sadreddin Konevî). There he drew very close to Mawlāna Jalāl-e Dīn Rūmī and participated in his spiritual circle.  A master of ḥadīth, people came to Konya from distant lands just to study under him. But while he was reputed for his profound understanding of the Quran and Ḥadīth, he knew the ancient Peripatetic philosophy intimately, no doubt thanks chiefly to Ibn Sīnā, who commented extensively on the works of Aristotle. However, Qūnawī himself may have studied an Arabic translation of Aristotle's "Metaphysics," being one of a handful of truly insightful, post-Avicennan critics of Aristotle, even if he was not a full-fledged commentator in the spirit of Ibn Rushd.  Qūnawī's overall influence appears more strategic than wide. Moreover, some of his students found fame. He instructed Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi, who went on to author a commentary, now well-known, on Suhrawardi's "Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq". Another student of Qūnawī's, the Sufi poet Fakhr-al-Din Iraqi, was instrumental in introducing Ibn 'Arabī into the Persian language.

Mystical vs. philosophical knowledge.

After visiting the grave of Ibn 'Arabī a spell after his teacher and father-in-law had died, Qūnavī described a mystical experience he had about his teacher, Ibn 'Arabī, thus:  His recollection of this dream seems to indicate not just continuing deference to his teacher, but also what he saw as the practical end of reason. Though a different intellectual breed than his deceased mentor, Qūnavī too was a practising mystic, not just a thinker and teacher. In other words, he was a mystic who excelled in formal sciences like ḥadīth studies, Qurānic exegesis (tafsīr), dialectical theology (kalām), jurisprudence (fiqh), and philosophical sciences; and he corresponded with contemporaries like Nāsīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī, whose mathematical and astronomical discoveries have become integral to the science we know today.  Qūnavī's significance arises from his firm place in Islam's "post-Avicennan" (or, more precisely, post-Falsafah) period, of which Latin European Scholastics (themselves struggling with the problematics posed by Avicenna) were likely oblivious. And yet, the intellectual current to which he belonged provided the context for, among other developments, the development of systematic reason and the elaborate philosophical tradition that emerged in Iran, including the prodigal Sadr al-Din Shirazi, also called Mulla Sadra.  Although Qūnavī was single-mindedly devoted to the same general philosophical framework as Ibn 'Arabī's 'Abd al-Raḥmān Jāmī assured us that, despite the pupil's frustrated attempts to follow in his spiritual footsteps,[34] without a proper study of Qūnavī's works the true intention of Ibn 'Arabī regarding the so-called doctrine of Waḥdat al-Wujūd (a doctrine progeny has ascribed to Ibn 'Arabī) could not be discerned in any manner conforming to both reason and religious law (Jāmī 556). His relationship with the aging teacher notwithstanding, Qūnavī had to stake out his own personal connection to higher knowledge. At times, it seems, he distanced himself from Ibn 'Arabī altogether due to the emphasis on personal witness above the interpretation of others’ experience regardless of their social or spiritual station. Al-Munāwī (b. 1265) quoted him as saying that his teacher had striven to lead him to a level where God manifested Himself through flashes of manifestation to all seekers, but that he failed (NJK 222). Mystics describe a manifestation of this kind as a “flash,” because the “direct witnessing of the essence” resembles the light, speed, and evanescence of any ordinary flash or lightning.  Al-Qāshānī likened the “flash” to “the illumination appearing to a person that beckons and summons to the Presence of Proximity to the Lord for a journey within God.” Ibn 'Arabī referred to the deep tranquility felt by the saintly “friends of God,” the awliyā’, who take their repose in it. Because tranquility did not always occur to them, they could only take furtive glances at the manifestation, as if in a flash (Hakim 660-61).  Paradoxically, then, his relationship with Ibn 'Arabī provided Qūnavī with a sound justification for seeking a separate path to spiritual enlightenment, on the one hand, and for developing the proper terms with which to express overarching truths, on the other, which truths paradoxically were accessible only through personal experience, not anyone else's.

Problem of knowledge.

Qūnavī considered it his life's task to complete what Ibn Sīnā had begun with his Ishrāqī conception of knowledge. First, he shared with Ibn Sīnā and Ibn 'Arabī the goal of representing the intellectual/spiritual journey in communicable fashion. For any kind of knowledge or noetic discovery to be understood, it must be capable of being passed on to others (pupils, speculatively minded peers, etc.), rather than hoarded in the abstract ether of the mind, as it were. Whatever its technical complexities, it had to be didactically meaningful within a specific time and place, though without losing sight of the root object of knowledge.  He worked out his principles in several treatises. Their most concise and substantial statement consists of a theoretical introduction to his magnum opus, "I'jāz al-bayān," the main body of which consists of a mystical exegesis of the "Sūrat al-Fātiḥah," the opening chapter of the Quran. In that introduction, Qūnavī plotted the transition from the demonstrative logic of Avicenna's “theological science”, 'ilm ilāhī), to a different kind of logic one might call an “exegetical grammar,” as more or less taught by Ibn 'Arabī.  To the followers of Ibn 'Arabī, “exegetical grammar” was vastly more suited to the paradoxical movements of the spirit, “dialogue” with God, and in a purely epistemological sense, the true “knowledge of the realities,” an expression that Qūnavī took to be chiefly of Avicennan inspiration. Anxious to preserve the transcendence of the Divine, but without expunging human activity or initiative, Qūnavī understood God's knowledge of Himself to be the root of all knowledge. On the surface, this formulation and the logical corollaries flowing from it appear to seal man's incapacity to discover the “realities of things” on his own (i.e., by his own inborn faculties).  In a representative sense, human knowledge may be said to rest on the relation between two distinct, irreducible “realities”: subject and object. Given this subject-object distinction and the limitations of our own faculties, how could we ever know the “realities of things”? This theme permeates virtually all of Qūnavī's works. In his Introduction, he discussed several passages from Ibn Sīnā's posthumous "al-Ta'liqāt" (notebook). The only source he cared to mention for Ibn Sīnā's cogitations on the “realities,” the "Ta'liqāt" contained an unusually candid remark to the effect that man was incapable of knowing the realities of things. He took up this selfsame issue with Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī (d. 672/1274) in a fascinating philosophical correspondence, where "tashkīk" ("systematic ambiguity," a concept key to later philosophy) figures. In that debate, our thinker sought to demonstrate under what conditions man may know God, a goal he shared with both philosophers and mystics.  In a larger sense, Qūnavī was able to deepen the transformation of philosophical reason begun by his predecessors by virtue of a simple, incontrovertible fact: the mechanical logic of Peripatetic philosophy could not quite overcome the distinction between subject and object (the two most elementary “realities” in every act of knowing) except by correspondence, concomitance, etc. Central to his project, on the other hand, was divine self-revelation. On this matter, Ibn 'Arabī had applied notoriously convoluted reasoning, often by association and in fragmentary outbursts. But like him, Qūnavī viewed divine self-revelation or -manifestation as the unfolding of a “book” penned in the form of constructed speech.  In short, self-revelation is the reality that underlies all realities. To elaborate the principles of its unfolding, he made thorough use of the demonstrative logic championed by both the falsāsifah (Islam's Hellenized philosophers, like Ibn Sīnā) and many Islamic theologians. But the new synthesis he was so keen to elucidate for "theological science," or 'ilm ilāhī, had to be properly anchored to a logos exhibiting the same characteristic concreteness as that familiar to him from divine speech, “God’s communications” to man (e.g., the "Qur’ān"). He thus derived from traditional logic a mystical type of exegetical grammar, with its own “scale” or standard for theorization, one that bears his special imprint.

Intellectual environment.

In his official biographical account of Konya's intellectual elite, Aflākī portrayed a close-knit community of mystics and scholars of a surprisingly uninhibited spiritual mien in Konya. And yet, incessant migrations to Anatolia had given this frontier capital a distinctly cosmopolitan character, making it the envy of every seeker of knowledge—Muslim, Greek and Armenian—but also innumerable foes.  This was about the time when Qūnavī's father, Majd al-Dīn Isḥāq, began his career as a statesman and, reflecting mysticism's pervasiveness, acquired the status of a revered spiritual figure. On his return journey from a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca, Isḥāq was accompanied by Muḥyiddīn Ibn 'Arabī, with whom he struck a deep friendship. When Isḥāq died, his companion reportedly became Ṣadr al-Dīn's stepfather by marrying the widowed mother. Although we have no direct confirmation of this marriage from the writings of Ibn 'Arabî or Qūnawî we do know that Qūnawî became Ibn 'Arabî's close disciple and was given permission to teach all of his works and Anatolia's medley spiritual and cultural character at last began to take firmer shape.  To all, language was as primordial as it was central to all spiritual and mental activity. We have only to consider the linguistic innovations of mystic-poets like Rūmī, who contributed to the secular development of a highbrow literary form of Persian. Qūnavī's peculiar bent for Arabic linguistics, on the other hand, placed him comfortably in the lap of Arabic high culture, even if his mystical "exegetical grammar" must not be collapsed with conventional Arabic grammar.  In part, Arabic provided Qūnavī with uninterrupted links with the traditional centers of learning (Damascus, Aleppo, Cairo, etc.), where the religious sciences were taught almost exclusively in the Arabic language. Numerous schools and colleges had earlier been built by the Ayyūbids in Syria and Egypt, where Arabic was studied by people who congregated from all over the Islamic world.  In his landmark work, "al-Nafaāt al-ilāhīyah", Qūnavī noted how the matter of "al-kitābah al-ūlā al-ilāhīyah" (the primary divine writing, a key feature of his doctrine) came to him in an earlier version in the City of Damascus. Damascus, at the time, had fostered a broad intellectual fraternity that was felt across the traditional lines of jurisprudence, even if the religious sciences were more deep-rooted and variegated there than in Konya. Specialized fields like ḥadīth studies, where Qūnavī was an authority and a teacher, exhibited fewer rigid doctrinal standards of admission. One of the most prestigious centers, established earlier in the twelfth century, was the Dār al-Ḥadīth al-Ashrafīyah, whose the first shaykh was celebrated Shāfi'ī muḥaddith Ibn al-Ṣāliḥ al-Shahrazūrī (d. 643/1245). Unlike Ibn 'Arabī, who prayed as a Mālikī, Qūnavī was steeped in Shāfi'ī jurisprudence, whose practitioners were abundantly represented in the schools. But while spheres of influence were more or less evenly distributed in the higher echelons of academic scholarship in centers like the Ashrafīyah, some scholars exerted an intellectual influence disproportionate to their numbers—one prominent example being Abū Shāma, the official chronicler of Damascus who kept a close liaison with the Mālikī circles from the Maghreb and Ibn 'Arabī himself.  The Mālikīs present a special case, because their small numbers in the schools belied their pervasive influence especially in the Quranic sciences. Their numerical preponderance in iqrā’ (Quran recital) and naḥw (grammar) managed to sway the general interest even more toward Arabic philology. In view of his special relationship with Ibn 'Arabī, Qūnavī had easy access to their exegetical sources. Apart from themes characteristic of Ibn 'Arabī, however, there is little evidence of anything peculiarly Mālikī or Maghrebi in the works of Qūnavī, including in grammar. His affiliations remained close to the traditional eastern centers of learning, where the Mālikīs were underrepresented. That said, Damascus was not the only place to which Qūnavī paid regular visits. He also traveled to Aleppo and Cairo, where he had a faithful following.  More intriguing is how Qūnavī's spiritual bond with Rūmī, a scholar in his own right but the self-professed opponent of bookish scholars, developed to the point of mutual admiration—according to Aflākī—as Qūnavī continued to produce works rarely equaled in the “Arabic sciences” (Huart 281-82).

The mystical philosophy of language.

As the primary vehicle of human expression, language has the capacity to convey the most profound experiences available to human beings. For Qūnavī, its “devices of conveyance” (adawāt al-tawṣīl) disclosed “incorporeal and immaterial meanings,” which he explored at a certain remove from the original experience that presumably lay at the core. He may not have differed markedly from Rūmī in this respect, but he was not a “literary practitioner” (i.e., a poet) after the manner of Rūmī, nor was he even a grammarian by profession.  The challenge was to take the demonstrative science of traditional philosophy toward an exegetical grammar that could act as a quintessential language of experience, where knowledge implied the obligation to instruct in the intricacies of spiritual peregrination, but without substituting this derived knowledge for direct personal experience. This model remained legitimate so long as the central fact and semantic unity of divine speech was maintained.  What we find in the mystical reflections of Ibn 'Arabī and Qūnavī alike are encoded utterances embodying an asymmetrical division between two components of instructive knowledge. Philosophically, they consist of the mawḑū' (subject) and the maṭlūb (object of inquiry); in theological dialectics and religious sciences they are generally known as aṣl (root) and far' (branch). Thus, in Qūnavī's view the idea was not merely to posit the “root” but to know it and to determine the precise modalities of our knowledge of it. A simple, unreflective cognizance of pregiven religious fundamentals, in the manner advocated by the Salafi-minded Ibn Taymīyyah, was still knowledge; yet nothing could disentangle it from the mundane influences that normally impinge upon the human faculty of comprehension.  The central question posed in the “theological science” envisioned by Ibn Sīnā was that of “existence.” In the form of a syllogism, the theological knowledge it imparted consisted of indemonstrable premises and a conclusion. Indemonstrables were given elements in any syllogism (“givens” were posited through the senses, imagination, intellect, etc.). As a science, this grand concept of theology assembled all the pregivens derived in the lower sciences that came under its own jurisdiction, because theological science was the very ground of all sciences.  Furthermore, Ibn Sīnā saw existence as something that required more than just a natural awareness of things. In his "Nafaḥāt ilāhiyyah," Qūnavī admitted that in that banal sense one could argue the awareness of existence was simply posited by way of intuition as the “first cognizance,” for which there was no demonstrable proof or true definition and which has merely an indistinct unity. However, this was not the biggest issue, he insisted. The difficulty arose with the “second cognizance,” namely, knowledge of the “reality distinguishable in itself from other realities”—in other words, the uniqueness of the reality.  This constituted the locus of the classical philosophical dilemma that preoccupied Qūnavī. The goal of knowledge was “knowledge of the realities of things.” One may either deny this knowledge to man, on the grounds that his natural faculties were imperfect, or affirm it at the risk of according him absolute knowledge. Contrasted to the second cognizance stood the first, which consisted of the “awareness of existence” and the perception of its “thingness.” His demarcation between this indistinct thingness and singular reality corresponded to the theological division of “subject” (mawḍūc) and “object of inquiry” (maṭlūb)—what is given and what is sought by way of knowledge. The realities, in the plural, consisted of the branches, the manifold qualities of the divine essence, by which God manifests Himself.  Behind this structural view or formulation remained the vexing question: Should what is sought in the quest for knowledge be considered nothing but the original knowing subject revealed? Because the shay’ (thing) is given as the subject, like mawjūd (existent), the “cause of its knowledge is the predominance of that precept by which there is unity with the [thing] known, whatever it may be.” This “unity” between knower and known is what any claim to a knowledge of the reality ultimately had to rest upon; but it is a unity which indicated that we knew the reality in the manner in which it has revealed itself to the other reality, that of the knower, and is not a simple identity of two entities.  At any rate, it is the knower's radical otherness that renders any simple unity impossible. How then could we expect man, in his finitude and imperfection, to know not merely the “realities of things,” but God his Creator and the ultimate Reality? However, unity can be rendered viable, in a didactic sense, through the notion of the “consonance” between the two realities by way of their predominant attributes. This is possible only by virtue of “pre-existing knowledge.” Hence, in philosophy, the process of discovery moves procession-like from what is known to what is unknown. Every “theological science” from Aristotle's to Ibn Sīnā's to Qūnavī's—no matter how formal and however mellifluous or spiritually meager its utterances may be—accepted this rudimentary principle.  To Qūnavī's credit, he took pains to describe the passage, or supersession, that occurred with the knowledge of the thing as a unique reality by way of a special “unity” through consonance. In other words, knowledge of it in the form of an object of inquiry or “branch.”  There is more to this than meets the eye. Movement here is not a mechanical passage from one point to the other. The possibility of transmutation, at some given level of commonality between two distinct realities (the knower and the known), is opened up through their consonance, or munāsabah.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Isḥāq b. Muḥammad b. Yūnus Qūnawī [alternatively, Qūnavī, Qūnyawī], (), (Turkish: Sadreddin Konevî), (1207-1274 CE/605-673 AH), was a Persian philosopher, and one of the most influential thinkers in mystical or Sufi philosophy. He played a pivotal role in the study of knowledge—or epistemology, which in his context referred specifically to the theoretical elaboration of mystical/intellectual insight. He combined a highly original mystic-thinker, Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn 'Arabī (1165-1240 CE/560-638 AH), whose arcane teachings Qūnavī codified and helped incorporate into the burgeoning pre-Ottoman intellectual tradition, on the one hand, with the logical/philosophical innovations of Ibn Sīnā (Lat., Avicenna), on the other. Though relatively unfamiliar to Westerners, the spiritual and systematic character of Qūnawī's approach to reasoning, in the broadest sense of the term, have found fertile soil in modern-day Turkey, North Africa and Iran not to mention India, China, the Balkans and elsewhere over the centuries.


History.

The foundation stone for the basic fortification was laid out in 1640. A year later, in January 1641, the fort saw its first battle, during the Catalan Revolt when the Principality of Catalonia challenged Spain's authority. On orders from the King of Spain, Pedro Fajardo, heading an army of 26,000 men, proceeded to crush the revolt. The Spanish recaptured several cities, but they were defeated at the Battle of Montjuïc by Catalan, led by Francesc de Tamarit.  Fifty years later, in 1694, new bastions and battlements were erected and the fortress became a castle. In the Siege of Barcelona (1705) the fortress was captured by the British 6th Regiment of Foot led by Lt.-Col William Southwell, paving the way for the siege of Barcelona itself. Southwell was afterwards made Governor of the castle.  The old fort was however demolished in 1751 by the Spanish engineer and architect Juan Martin Cermeño, creating the current structure, still standing. The final shape of the castle took form during 1779 and 1799, when major construction works took place in order to improve the castle and accommodate the needs. It was also during this time that the castle was equipped with 120 cannons.  During the Napoleonic Wars, the French Army entered Barcelona, and, on orders from Napoleon, they also captured the castle without firing a shot as the troops guarding the castle were ordered not to fight the French.  In the last 350 years Montjuïc Castle has played a decisive role in the history of Barcelona, becoming a symbol after the Catalan defeat to Spain in 1714, date that has become of significant importance. Since then the Montjuïc cannons have bombarded the city and its citizens on various occasions, and Montjuïc has been used as a prison and torture centre repeatedly for three centuries.  The castle is infamous in Catalan history books because of its role in the civil war from 1936 to 1939 when both sides of the conflict imprisoned, tortured and shot political prisoners at Montjuïc, among them Lluís Companys, who was the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War. Companys was executed upon orders from the Spanish State at Montjuïc Castle in 1940.  Later in the 20th century, the castle became a military museum. In June 1963, Francisco Franco inaugurated the Military Armor Museum, the official name given to the institution.

Current status.

In April 2007, the government transferred the castle to Barcelona City Council. Following discussions over the next months, the castle became a municipal facility. Subsequently, in 2010 the museum was closed and the City Council started a project of restoration and waterproofing of the roof and a watchtower.  The current plans for the castle include L’Espai de la Memòria, El Centre d’Interpretació de la Muntanya de Montjuïc, and cultural activities.  The castle can be accessed by the Montjuïc cable car, a gondola lift that has its upper station near the castle entrance and connects, via the Montjuïc funicular, with the Barcelona Metro at Paral·lel station.

Montjuïc Castle (, ) is an old military fortress, with roots dating back from 1640, built on top of Montjuïc hill in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It currently serves as a Barcelona municipal facility.


Biography.

Bolocco was born in Santiago, Chile, to businessman Enzo Bolocco Cintolesi, of Italian-Arbëreshë descent, and Rose Marie Fonck Assler, of German descent. She attended primary and secondary school at Santiago College. Her siblings are: Cecilia, John Paul, Veronica, and Rodrigo (1986).  Her first television appearance was at age 9 years. She also appeared in an advertisement for the cosmetics brand Pamela Grant.  On 26 November 1999, she married Gonzalo Cisternas, with whom she had two sons, Pedro and Gonzalo. After studying journalism at the Catholic University of Chile in 2001, she was part of her sister Cecilia's website, but the website was closed a year and a half later for lack of funds. She also worked on the production of the show "La Noche de Cecilia", issued by Megavisión.  In 2006, she separated from her husband and decided to devote herself to television. She debuted on the program "Locos por el baile" (2006) from Channel 13, where she served as a reporter backstage and co-host of Sergio Lagos.  She was named Queen of the XLVIII Viña del Mar International Song Festival in February 2007. On 15 October the same year opened the second season of "Mad About Dance", where Diana was the host of Sergio Lagos.  She continues to work on Channel 13 and will be international panel of judges at the "Viña del Mar International Song Festival" in 2010. In 2011, she hosted the program "". She also started dating Cristián Sánchez.  From 2012 she and Martin Carcamo host Vértigo, a TV success that has kept them on the top of the Chilean TV business until now. Next year she married Cristian Sanchez, with whom she has two more children.

Diana Catalina Bolocco Fonck (born 30 July 1977) is a Chilean journalist, known as sister of Cecilia Bolocco, Miss Universe 1987.


Significance.

There is no official meaning to justify the colours of the flag, but blue and white colours have been identified on the island of Tenerife for centuries. Traditionally, navy blue has been identified with the sea and the white to the snow-covered peaks of Mount Teide in winter.  Juba II and Ancient Romans referred to Tenerife as Nivaria, derived from the Latin words "nix", "nivis" or "nives", meaning snow, in clear reference to the snow-covered peak of the Teide volcano.  The name of Tenerife is derived from the language of the Benehaorits - the natives of nearby La Palma. "Tene" means "mountain" and "ife" means "white". After colonisation by Spain, the letter "r" was added, uniting both words.

History.

The flag was first adopted as a maritime registry flag of the maritime province of the Canary Islands. It was initially adopted in 1845 by Royal Order and was adopted as the flag of Tenerife by an Order issued on 9 May 1989, with the order appearing in the Boletín Oficial de Canarias on 22 May 1989.  The flag closely resembles the flag of Scotland, the difference being a darker shade of blue. There are two popular traditions on the island of Tenerife trying to explain the resemblance. One is that the flag was adopted as a mark of respect to the bravery of the Scottish sailors in the Battle of Santa Cruz.  An alternative theory is the most influential masters of the island of Tenerife chose a design similar to the Scottish flag belonging to the Masonic Grand Lodge of Scotland and proposed a similar flag for the maritime province of the Canary Islands, which later became the flag of Tenerife.

The flag of Tenerife is a white saltire (or Cross of Burgundy or St Andrew's Cross) over a blue field. The arms of the cross are approximately one fifth the width of the flag and the field is navy blue ("azul marino").