Life.

He was the son of Victurnien-Jean-Baptiste de Rochechouart, duc de Mortemart (1752–1812), and his second wife, and Adélaïde de Cossé-Brissac (1765–1820), only daughter of Louis-Hercule-Timoléon de Cossé, duc de Brissac (1734–92), and Adélaïde-Diane-Hortense-Délie Mancini (herself daughter of the duc de Nivernais). He and his family left France in 1791 and Casimir grew up in England, returning to France with his mother in 1801. Despite belonging to one of the old noble families of France, he backed the First French Empire, joining the "gendarmes d'ordonnance" (commanded by the count of Ségur) in September 1803. He moved to the 1st Dragoon Regiment on 10 February 1806 and took part in the campaigns in Prussia (1806), Poland (1807), Austria (1809) and Russia (1812), fighting at Golymin (1806), Pułtusk (1806), Heilsberg and Friedland, where he proved his sang-froid and firmness under fire by beating off Russian attacks. He was made a member of the Légion d'Honneur on 1 October 1807, a lieutenant in the 25th Dragoon Regiment and "aide-de-camp" to general Nansouty on 2 and 10 March 1809. He finally became a captain in the 25th Dragoon Regiment on the following 26 July.  He fought at Ratisbonne, Essling and Wagram and was made an officer of the ordinance on 12 February 1811 and put in charge of inspecting the coasts of Holland and Denmark. After his success there he rejoined Napoleon at Posen and took part in the 1812 campaign into Russia, during which he received the title of baron of the empire and a donation of 2,000 francs of revenue from Belgium. Surviving the disasters of the retreat from Moscow, the baron of Mortemart returned to France with his health ruined – he was thus unable to take part in the last events of the following campaign. He fought at Leipzig and Hanau – his conduct at the latter gained him promotion to officer of the Légion d'honneur on 30 November 1813. He returned to France with the army.  In the 1814 campaign in France he was put in charge of presenting Marie Louise with the allied colours captured at Champ-Aubert, Nangis and Montereau. He was one of the first to fall with Napoleon I. After the first Bourbon Restoration Louis XVIII made de Mortemart a peer of France on 4 June 1814 and captain-colonel of the Cent-Suisses de la Garde, a position also held by his maternal grandfather at the time of the French Revolution. He was also made a kight of the Order of Saint Louis on 25 August 1814. On 20 March 1815, after Napoleon's return from Elba, de Mortemart escorted the princes as far as Béthune, where the king's military household was licensed. Shortly afterwards he rejoined Louis XVIII at Ghent and returned to France with the king in July. He thus reorganised

Casimir-Louis-Victurnien de Rochechouart de Mortemart (20 March 1787, Paris – 1 January 1875, Neauphle-le-Vieux), prince of Tonnay-Charente, then baron of Mortemart and of the Empire, 9th duke of Mortemart and peer of France (1814), was a French soldier, diplomat and politician. In 1830 Charles X of France made him president of the Conseil des ministres.


Early life.

He was born, in 1639, in Saint-Germain-Laval, near Saint-Étienne, France, and first visited New France in 1674.

Exploration.

In September 1678, Dulhut left Montreal for Lake Superior, spending the winter near Sault Sainte Marie and reaching the western end of the lake in the fall of the following year, where he concluded peace talks between the Anishinaabe (Saulteur) and Dakota (Sioux) peoples. On 2 July 1679 DuLhut planted the flag of France "in the great village of the Nadouecioux, called "Izatys"," a Dakota Mdewakanton town on what is now called Mille Lacs Lake. In June 1680 Duluth heard of the capture of a Catholic priest by the name of "Louis Henpin" (Louis Hennepin) who had been captured by other "Nadouecioux" (Sioux), among whom Duluth was living. After receiving word of his capture, Duluth set out at once to find the Franciscan priest and demand his release. Duluth bartered for the priest's freedom, but in doing so he broke laws banning trading with Natives without government approval which ultimately led to troubles back in Montreal. Lured by native stories of the Western or Vermilion Sea (likely the Great Salt Lake in Utah), Duluth reached the Mississippi River via the Saint Croix River in 1680 and then headed back to Fort de Buade, where he heard that jealous Quebec merchants and the intendant Jacques Duchesneau de la Doussinière et d'Ambault were slandering him. He was forced to return to Montreal and then France in 1681 to defend himself against false accusations of treason, returning the following year.  Duluth subsequently established fur trading posts to further French interests at Lake Nipigon and Fort Caministigoyan at the mouth of the Kaministiquia River on Lake Superior, the site of the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario, probably 1684/85, not 1679 as many sources suggest, and at Fort St. Joseph (Port Huron) between Lake Erie and Huron, which was garrisoned with 50 men.

Death.

He died of gout in Montreal 25 February 1710 and was buried in the Recollet church.

Legacy.

Montreal, Quebec has a Duluth Avenue ("Avenue Duluth" in French) named after Greysolon located in "The Plateau" borough of the city (known as "Le Plateau-Mont Royal" in French). The avenue became quite popular with both residents and tourists after it was redesigned in the early 1980s. It was made to be more pedestrian-friendly with pleasantly-designed sidewalks, many trees, and flower boxes. It is said to have been modeled after Woonerf streets in the Netherlands and Belgium where pedestrians and cyclists have priority over motorized vehicles, which have a reduced speed limit.  Duluth, Minnesota also has a road named after duLhut, Greysolon Road, stretching from the Endion to Congdon neighborhoods.

In popular culture.

Colder by the Lake, a theater company in Duluth, Minnesota, produced an original comic opera based on the life of Daniel Greysolon, entitled "Les Uncomfortabled" (a play on the title of the musical "Les Misérables"), the music was composed by Tyler Kaiser and the libretto written by Margi Preus and Jean Sramek, all of Duluth. The work was performed in 2001, 2002, and 2016.

Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut (c. 1639 – 25 February 1710) was a French soldier and explorer who is the first European known to have visited the area where the city of Duluth, Minnesota, is now located and the headwaters of the Mississippi River near Bemidji, Minnesota. His name is sometimes anglicized as "DuLuth", and he is the namesake of Duluth, Minnesota as well as Duluth, Georgia. Daniel Greysolon signed himself "Dulhut" on surviving manuscripts.


History.

World War II.

The 23d Fighter Squadron, the "Fighting Hawks," was constituted on 22 December 1939, at Langley Field, Virginia, as the 23d Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor) flying P-36 Hawk aircraft. The unit moved to Kelly Field, Texas, in January 1940, and was equipped with the YP-37.

Antisubmarine warfare.

The squadron was one of several deployed to the Caribbean and stationed on bases established as part of the 1940 Destroyers for Bases Agreement with Great Britain. The squadron left from Norfolk, Virginia on 1 February 1940 with several others bound for Puerto Rico aboard the USAT Chateau Thierry for what turned into 29 months of overseas service, taking station at Ponce (later Losey Field) on 6 January 1941. A detachment of the squadron was also established at Benedict Field, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. In both locations, the mission of the squadron was air defense.  After the Pearl Harbor Attack, the 23d engaged in antisubmarine warfare against German U-boats. The unit's P-39s and P-40s were loaded with 300-pound general-purpose bombs and searched for submarines. While several subs were confirmed as "sighted", no claims were made. In early January 1942 a second detachment was established at Bourne Field, Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. On 28 January 1942 the squadron moved to an auxiliary aerodrome, Vega Baja Field, Puerto Rico to provide better interception coverage for the island. Like other squadrons attached to the Antilles Air Command, the unit was alerted on at least two occasions for a possible attack on Vichy French Martinique.  The squadron was renamed the 23d Fighter Squadron in 1942. When the Navy took over the antisubmarine mission, the squadron was redeployed back to the United States, moving to Morrison Field, Florida by 27 May, and it converted to the P-47 Thunderbolt in June 1943.

European Theater of Operations.

In March 1944, the 23d deployed to RAF Kingsnorth, England, and Ninth Air Force's 36th Fighter Group. The squadron earned the Distinguished Unit Citation in September 1944 for missions flown from England and forward bases in France supporting the D-Day invasion and the Battle of the Bulge.  Between October 1944 and January 1945, while operating from airfields in Belgium, the squadron earned two citations in the Belgian Army Order of the Day as well as the Belgium Fourragère. The unit was awarded a second Distinguished Unit Citation for action in Germany during April 1945.

United States Air Forces in Europe.

After being inactivated in March 1946, the squadron was reactivated in October 1946 at Howard Field, Panama Canal Zone, flying the P-47 and the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star. In July 1948, the squadron returned to Germany at Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base. Here, the 23d helped form the Skyblazers, an aerial demonstration team and forerunner to today's Thunderbirds.  In November 1952, the squadron moved to Bitburg Air Base, Germany, as part of the 36th Tactical Fighter Wing. In September 1954, the squadron converted to the F-84 Thunderjet and was redesignated the 23d Fighter-Day Squadron. It was the first squadron in Europe to fly the North American F-86 Sabre (1956), the North American F-100 Super Sabre (1956), the Republic F-105 Thunderchief (1961), and the McDonnell F-4 Phantom II (1966). During this period, the squadron received two Air Force Outstanding Unit Awards. The 23d Tactical Fighter Squadron moved to Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, and in January 1972 became part of the 52d Tactical Fighter Wing. The 23d converted to F-4E and F-4G Wild Weasels in 1982 and began flying defense suppression missions. In July 1987, the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon replaced the F-4E.  In January 1991, at the outbreak of the Gulf War, the 23d deployed to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey. During Operation Proven Force, squadron F-16Cs and F-4Gs flew nearly 1,000 defense suppression, combat air patrol and interdiction missions over Iraq without a single loss. The squadron earned the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with Valor for its part in driving the Iraqi army from Kuwait. On January 17, 1993 "Trigger" Stevenson shot down a MiG-23 with an AMRAAM that was challenging the no fly zone over Iraq flying F-16C 86-0262. This kill was the second kill using the AMRAAM missile and the second shoot down by USAF F-16.  In September 1991, the squadron's remaining F-4Gs were replaced by F-16Cs. In July 1993, the 23d was the first U.S. unit to enforce the no-fly zone over Bosnia and Herzegovina for Operation Deny Flight. In January 1994, the squadron received the first F-16CJ Block 50 aircraft.  The squadron completed conversion to the latest version of the F-16CJ in January 1995 and became United States Air Forces Europe's only defense suppression squadron. In September of that same year, members of the 23d took part in Operation Deliberate Forge — the largest air assault in North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) history. The unit flew 224 sorties during the air campaign against Bosnian Serb forces.  Pilots from the 23d were the first to employ AGM-88 High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles in combat. The squadron's efforts contributed to the peace process and the resulting Dayton Agreement, which ended more than four years of bloody conflict in the Balkans.  For their outstanding contributions to the U.S. Air Forces in Europe's mission, the 23d was selected in May 1996 to receive the Commander's Trophy as the "Best Fighter Squadron in the Command," their third time to win this distinction.  From February to June 1999 the squadron deployed to Aviano Air Base, Italy, where it was assigned to the 31st Air Expeditionary Wing for Operation Allied Force. The squadron supported the NATO mission to degrade and damage the military and security structure that the President of Yugoslavia used to destroy the Albanian majority in Kosovo. During Allied Force the 23d flew over 1000 combat sorties and fired 191 HARM shots to silence over 100 surface-to-air missile sites in Kosovo and Yugoslavia. The squadron was repeatedly noted for bravery in the face of danger while flying these combat operations in Allied Force.  From November 2000 to March 2001 the 23d deployed in support of Operation Southern Watch to patrol the southern no-fly zone over Iraq. During the deployment the squadron provided suppression of enemy air defenses in both air-to-ground and air-to-air roles. In March 2001, the 23d provided SEAD for the largest strike in Iraq since Operation Desert Fox. During the strike to take out command and control facilities in Iraq, the 23d ensured the safety of all allied strikers.  The squadron deployed again from April to July 2002 to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, for Operation Northern Watch to patrol the northern no-fly zone. During the deployment the squadron was called on to provide SEAD for strikes against ground targets located in northern Iraq. Squadron pilots came under fire numerous times while providing SEAD for coalition aircraft, once firing two HARM shots suppressing an Iraqi surface radar site that targeted friendly aircraft.  In January 2003, elements of the squadron forward deployed to Southwest Asia in support of U.S. Central Command and flew combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The squadron played a key role during the 27-day air war by fulfilling its mission of suppressing enemy air defenses and destroying Iraqi radar sites.  In April 2010 20 F-16Cs were flown from Spangdahlem to the 148th Fighter Wing, Minnesota Air National Guard, one F-16 was transferred to Edwards Air Force Base, California. All aircraft were from the 22d Fighter Squadron. As a result of the drawdown of F-16s, the 22nd and 23d Fighter Squadrons were inactivated on 13 August 2010 and their personnel and equipment used to form a single "new" squadron, the 480th Fighter Squadron.

The 23d Fighter Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 52d Operations Group and stationed at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany. It was inactivated on 13 August 2010.


History.

On 7 June 1979, after the Iranian Revolution, all Iranian private banks were nationalized, quite to the dismay of the founding families, and became state-owned. In 1980, branches and sub-branches of BSI in the Iranian provinces were turned into independent banks, named Bank Saderat Ostan (province). Today, BSI has 29 owned provincial bank subsidiaries and over 200 affiliated companies, supervised by Ghadir Investment Company. Iranian banks are administered on the basis of a law passed by the Islamic Revolution Council on 25 September 1979, and the provisions of its Articles of Association.  Bank Saderat is used by the Government of Iran to transfer money to what the U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, including Hezbollah, Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as alleged by U.S. Department of the Treasury.  Under the current Iranian Transactions Regulations (31 CFR Part 560), U.S. banks may process certain funds transfers involving an Iranian bank, such as transfers for authorized or exempt transactions and "U-turn" transactions. U-turn transactions allow U.S. banks to process payments involving Iran that begin and end with a non-Iranian foreign bank. Bank Saderat will not be able to participate in any transfers involving U.S. banks, effective from the date that the amendment to the regulations is filed with the U.S. Federal Register. By prohibiting U-turn and all other transactions with Bank Saderat, the bank is denied all direct and indirect access to the U.S. financial system.  Bank Saderat Iran currently conducts banking in the UAE, handling Iranian trade in and out of Dubai. Bank Saderat's profits are the 3rd highest among foreign Banks within UAE. The bank mainly deals in project financing, letters of credit (LCs) and bank guarantees (demand guarantees), whereas other activities remains less important.  In February 2013, the European General Court in Luxembourg ruled to annul sanctions by the European Union (EU) against the bank, stating that the EU "is in breach of the obligation to state reasons and the obligation to disclose to the applicant... the evidence adduced against it". The EU may appeal the decision. As of 2016, the EU asset freeze was still in effect.  In 2019 an EU court rejected BSI's appeal for £78.7m in damages the bank claims to have suffered after the EU placed it on their sanctions list.

Bank Saderat Iran (BSI) (Persian: بانک صادرات ایران lit. "Export Bank of Iran") is an Iranian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Tehran, Iran. It is Iran's largest bank. It was founded in Tehran in 1952 by the prominent Mofarrah and Bolurfrushan (also spelled Bolourforoushan) families, represented in the first board by Mohammad Ali Mofarrah and Mohammad Bolurfrushan and commenced operation on 13 November 1952 with a board of three directors and 20 employees.


Club career.

Born in Oeiras, Piauí, Zé Maria started his professional career with Portuguesa in 1991, being loaned two times during his contract with the club. In 1995, he was selected in the Bola de Prata Brazilian League team of the year. This led to him being signed by Flamengo in 1996.  In the summer, Zé Maria moved to Italy after signing with Serie A club Parma, playing regularly for two seasons. Subsequently, he remained in Italy, joining Perugia.  With the Umbrians Zé Maria had a shaky start, being loaned three times back to Brazil, during which time he won the Copa Libertadores with Palmeiras, and the Copa do Brasil with Cruzeiro. Eventually, he established himself in the Perugia starting line-up, helping his team finish 10th in his third full season whilst contributing with six goals. Via the UEFA Intertoto Cup he and the side reached the third round of the subsequent UEFA Cup, but also suffered domestic relegation.  After two seasons with giants Inter – playing rather regularly in his first but making only eight appearances (mostly as a substitute) in his second (with Inter winning the "Scudetto" courtesy of the "Calciopoli" affair), 49 official ones overall – Zé Maria was released and joined La Liga club Levante UD on a free transfer: starting the season as first-choice right-back the 33-year-old lost the position and finished with 14 league appearances, with the Valencians barely avoiding relegation.  Released again, Zé Maria entailed unsuccessful negotiations with several teams, reportedly Sheffield United and Queens Park Rangers in England, thus returning to Brazil and Portuguesa in January 2008. In August, after having rescinded his contract, he surprisingly accepted an offer from A.S.D. Città di Castello, in the Italian "Eccellenza" (amateur championships).  Zé Maria settled in Italy after his retirement from football, at the age of 36. He subsequently founded a football school in Perugia.

International career.

Zé Maria gained 25 caps for Brazil over a period of five years. He was not selected for any FIFA World Cup but did participate in two FIFA Confederations Cups, including the original in Saudi Arabia which the national team won, and one Copa América (also ended in win, in Bolivia).  In 1996 Zé Maria helped the Olympic team win bronze at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, appearing in all six matches.

Managerial career.

Beginnings.

On 15 March 2010 Zé Maria took his first head coaching job, accepting Serie D club S.S.D. Group Città di Castello's offer. He was then appointed manager of fourth division team F.C. Catanzaro for the 2010–11 campaign, being however removed from his post after a few months.

Tirana.

On 16 June 2017, Tirana announced the signing of Zé Maria on a one-year contract. He lost his first match in charge later on 29 June, a 2–0 away loss to Maccabi Tel Aviv at Netanya Stadium in the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League first qualifying round. Tirana was koncked-out from the competition after losing the second leg.  Zé Maria won his first silverware with the club later on 6 September, the 2017 Albanian Supercup, with Tirana defeating Kukësi thanks to an Erion Hoxhallari late winner. By doing so, Tirana become the first ever Albanian First Division club to win the supercup. Tirana begun the championship by recording a 1–0 home win versus Iliria Fushë-Krujë. They successfully eliminated Besa Kavajë 4–1 on aggregate in the 2017–18 Albanian Cup first round. Tirana ended September by winning all the matches, and did so also in November, taking the lead of Group B. During his time, Zé Maria also guided Tirana to the biggest win of the season, 6–0 versus Shkumbini Peqin.  Tirana finished the year in the first place, conceding only one defeat, the one versus Bylis Ballsh. Zé Maria called the defeat "a shame". The team also eliminated Vllaznia Shkodër in the second round of Albanian Cup. In January 2018, Tirana brought Kenneth Muguna, Mohammed Musa and Samson Iliasu at the request of Zé Maria. In February 2018, Tirana was eliminated by Kukësi in the quarter-final of Albanian Cup.  Tirana continued their winning streak, eventually finished top of Group B to qualify to promotion play-off. Later on 14 April, the team mathematically achieved promotion to top flight next season by winning 3–2 at home against Pogradeci. On 16 May, Tirana was named Albanian First Division champions after beating 2–0 the Group A winners Kastrioti Krujë. Later on 2 June, Zé Maria agreed a contract extension with the club until June 2020.

José Marcelo Ferreira (born 25 July 1973), commonly known as Zé Maria, is a retired Brazilian footballer and current manager of Portuguesa de Desportos.


History.

Pre-Ryukyu Kingdom.

Okinawan is a Japonic language, derived from Proto-Japonic and is therefore related to Japanese. The split between Old Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages has been estimated to have occurred as early as the first century AD to as late as the twelfth century AD. Chinese and Japanese characters were first introduced by a Japanese missionary in 1265.

Ryukyu Kingdom era.

Pre-Satsuma.

Hiragana was much more popular than kanji; poems were commonly written solely in hiragana or with little kanji. Okinawan became the official language under King Shō Shin.

Post-Satsuma to annexation.

After Ryukyu became a vassal of Satsuma Domain, kanji gained more prominence in poetry; however, official Ryukyuan documents were written in Classical Chinese.  In 1609, the Ryukyu Kingdom was colonized by the Satsuma Domain in the south of Japan. However, Satsuma did not fully invade the Ryukyu in fear of colliding with China, which had a stronger trading relationship with the Ryukyu at the time.

Japanese annexation to end of World War II.

When Ryukyu was annexed by Japan in 1879, the majority of people on Okinawa Island spoke Okinawan. Within ten years, the Japanese government began an assimilation policy of Japanization, where Ryukyuan languages were gradually suppressed. The education system was the heart of Japanization, where Okinawan children were taught Japanese and punished for speaking their native language, being told that their language was just a "dialect". By 1945, many Okinawans spoke Japanese, and many were bilingual. During the Battle of Okinawa, some Okinawans were killed by Japanese soldiers for speaking Okinawan.  Language shift to Japanese in Ryukyu/Okinawa began in 1879 when the Japanese government annexed Ryukyu and established Okinawa Prefecture. The prefectural office mainly consisted of people from Kagoshima Prefecture where the Satsuma Domain used to be. This caused the modernization of Okinawa as well as language shift to Japanese. As a result, Japanese became the standard language for administration, education, media, and literature.  In 1902, the National Language Research Council () began the linguistic unification of Japan to Standard Japanese. This caused the linguistic stigmatization of many local varieties in Japan including Okinawan. As the discrimination accelerated, Okinawans themselves started to abandon their languages and shifted to Standard Japanese.

American occupation.

Under American administration, there was an attempt to revive and standardize Okinawan, but this proved difficult and was shelved in favor of Japanese. General Douglas MacArthur attempted to promote Okinawan languages and culture through education. Multiple English words were introduced.

Return to Japan to present day.

After Okinawa's reversion to Japanese sovereignty, Japanese continued to be the dominant language used, and the majority of the youngest generations only speak Okinawan Japanese. There have been attempts to revive Okinawan by notable people such as Byron Fija and Seijin Noborikawa, but few native Okinawans desire to learn the language.

Outside of Japan.

The Okinawan language is still spoken by communities of Okinawan immigrants in Brazil. The first immigrants from the island of Okinawa to Brazil landed in the Port of Santos in 1908 drawn by the hint of work and farmable land. Once in a new country and far from their homeland, they found themselves in a place where there was no prohibition of their language, allowing them to willingly speak, celebrate and preserve their speech and culture, up to the present day. Currently the Okinawan-Japanese centers and communities in the State of São Paulo are a world reference to this language helping it to stay alive.

Classification.

Okinawan is sometimes grouped with Kunigami as the Okinawan languages; however, not all linguists accept this grouping, some claiming that Kunigami is a dialect of Okinawan. Okinawan is also grouped with Amami (or the Amami languages) as the Northern Ryukyuan languages.

Dialect of the Japanese language.

Since the creation of Okinawa Prefecture, Okinawan has been labeled a dialect of Japanese as part of a policy of assimilation. Later, Japanese linguists, such as Tōjō Misao, who studied the Ryukyuan languages argued that they are indeed dialects. This is due to the misconception that Japan is a homogeneous state (one people, one language, one nation), and classifying the Ryukyuan languages as such would discredit this belief. The present-day official stance of the Japanese government remains that Okinawan is a dialect, and it is common within the Japanese population for it to be called or, which means "Okinawa dialect (of Japanese)". The policy of assimilation, coupled with increased interaction between Japan and Okinawa through media and economics, has led to the development of Okinawan Japanese, which is a dialect of Japanese.

Dialects of the Ryukyuan language.

Okinawan linguist Seizen Nakasone states that the Ryukyuan languages are in fact groupings of similar dialects. As each community has its own distinct dialect, there is no "one language". Nakasone attributes this diversity to the isolation caused by immobility, citing the story of his mother who wanted to visit the town of Nago but never made the 25 km trip before she died of old age.

Its own distinct language.

Outside Japan, Okinawan is considered a separate language from Japanese. This was first proposed by Basil Hall Chamberlain, who compared the relationship between Okinawan and Japanese to that of the Romance languages. UNESCO has marked it as an endangered language.

Sociolinguistics.

UNESCO listed six Okinawan language varieties as endangered languages in 2009. The endangerment of Okinawan is largely due to the shift to Standard Japanese. Throughout history, Okinawan languages have been treated as dialects of Standard Japanese. For instance, in the 20th century, many schools used "dialect tags" to punish the students who spoke in Okinawan. Consequently, many of the remaining speakers today are choosing not to transmit their languages to younger generation due to the stigmatization of the languages in the past.  There have been several revitalization efforts made to reverse this language shift. However, Okinawan is still poorly taught in formal institutions due to the lack of support from the Okinawan Education Council: education in Okinawa is conducted exclusively in Japanese, and children do not study Okinawan as their second language at school. As a result, at least two generations of Okinawans have grown up without any proficiency in their local languages both at home and school.

Phonology.

Vowels.

The Okinawan language has five vowels, all of which may be long or short, though the short vowels and are quite rare, as they occur only in a few native Okinawan words with heavy syllables with the pattern or, such as "mensōrē" "welcome" or "tonfā". The close back vowels and are truly rounded, rather than the compressed vowels of standard Japanese. A sixth vowel is sometimes posited in order to explain why sequences containing a historically raised fail to trigger palatalization as with : → "tī" "hand", → "chī" "blood". Acoustically, however, is pronounced no differently from, possibly because palatalization preceded this vowel shift.

Consonants.

The Okinawan language counts some 20 distinctive segments shown in the chart below, with major allophones presented in parentheses.  The only consonant that can occur as a syllable coda is the archiphoneme. Many analyses treat it as an additional phoneme, the moraic nasal, though it never contrasts with or.  The consonant system of the Okinawan language is fairly similar to that of standard Japanese, but it does present a few differences on the phonemic and allophonic level. Namely, Okinawan retains the labialized consonants and which were lost in Late Middle Japanese, possesses a glottal stop, features a voiceless bilabial fricative distinct from the aspirate, and has two distinctive affricates which arose from a number of different sound processes. Additionally, Okinawan lacks the major allophones and found in Japanese, having historically fronted the vowel to after the alveolars, consequently merging "tsu" into "chi", "su" into "shi", and both "dzu" and "zu" into "ji". It also lacks as a distinctive phoneme, having merged it into.

Bilabial and glottal fricatives.

The bilabial fricative has sometimes been transcribed as the cluster, since, like Japanese, allophonically labializes into before the high vowel, and does not occur before the rounded vowel. This suggests that an overlap between and exists, and so the contrast in front of other vowels can be denoted through labialization. However, this analysis fails to take account of the fact that Okinawan has not fully undergone the diachronic change → → as in Japanese, and that the suggested clusterization and labialization into is unmotivated. Consequently, the existence of must be regarded as independent of, even though the two overlap. Barring a few words that resulted from the former change, the aspirate also arose from the odd lenition of and, as well as words loaned from other dialects. Before the glide and the high vowel, it is pronounced closer to, as in Japanese.

Palatalization.

The plosive consonants and historically palatalized and affricated into before and occasionally following the glide and the high vowel : → "chiri" "fog", and → "chura-" "beautiful". This change preceded vowel raising, so that instances where arose from did not trigger palatalization: → "kī" "hair". Their voiced counterparts and underwent the same effect, becoming under such conditions: → "nnaji" "eel", and → "nukujiri" "saw"; but → "kagin" "seasoning".  Both and may or may not also allophonically affricate before the mid vowel, though this pronunciation is increasingly rare. Similarly, the fricative consonant palatalizes into before the glide and the vowel, including when historically derives from : → "shikē" "world". It may also palatalize before the vowel, especially so in the context of topicalization: "dushi" → "dusē" or "dushē" "("topic") friend".  In general, sequences containing the palatal consonant are relatively rare and tend to exhibit depalatalization. For example, tends to merge with ( "myāku" → "nāku" "Miyako"); has merged into and ( → "rū" ~ "dū" "dragon"); and has mostly become ( "shui" → "sui" "Shuri").

Flapping and fortition.

The voiced plosive and the flap tend to merge, with the first becoming a flap in word-medial position, and the second sometimes becoming a plosive in word-initial position. For example, "rū" "dragon" may be strengthened into "dū", and "hashidu" "door" conversely flaps into "hashiru". The two sounds do, however, still remain distinct in a number of words and verbal constructions.

Glottal stop.

Okinawan also features a distinctive glottal stop that historically arose from a process of glottalization of word-initial vowels. Hence, all vowels in Okinawan are predictably glottalized at the beginning of words ( → "ami" "rain"), save for a few exceptions. High vowel loss or assimilation following this process created a contrast with glottalized approximants and nasal consonants. Compare → "wa" "pig" to "wa" "I", or → "nni" "rice plant" to → "nni" "chest".

Moraic nasal.

The moraic nasal has been posited in most descriptions of Okinawan phonology. Like Japanese, (transcribed using the small capital ) occupies a full mora and its precise place of articulation will vary depending on the following consonant. Before other labial consonants, it will be pronounced closer to a syllabic bilabial nasal, as in "nma" "horse". Before velar and labiovelar consonants, it will be pronounced as a syllabic velar nasal, as in "bingata", a method of dying clothes. And before alveolar and alveolo-palatal consonants, it becomes a syllabic alveolar nasal, as in "kanda" "vine". Elsewhere, its exact realization remains unspecified, and it may vary depending on the first sound of the next word or morpheme. In isolation and at the end of utterances, it is realized as a velar nasal.

Correspondences with Japanese.

There is a sort of "formula" for Ryukyuanizing Japanese words: turning "e" into "i", "ki" into "chi", "gi" into "ji", "o" into "u", and "-awa" into "-ā". This formula fits with the transliteration of "Okinawa" into "Uchinā" and has been noted as evidence that Okinawan is a dialect of Japanese, however it does not explain unrelated words such as "arigatō" and "nifēdēbiru" (for "thank you").

Orthography.

The Okinawan language was historically written using an admixture of kanji and hiragana. The hiragana syllabary is believed to have first been introduced from mainland Japan to the Ryukyu Kingdom some time during the reign of king Shunten in the early thirteenth century. It is likely that Okinawans were already in contact with "hanzi" (Chinese characters) due to extensive trade between the Ryukyu Kingdom and China, Japan and Korea. However, hiragana gained more widespread acceptance throughout the Ryukyu Islands, and most documents and letters were exclusively transcribed using this script, in contrast to in Japan where writing solely in hiragana was considered "women's script". The "Omoro Saushi" (), a sixteenth-century compilation of songs and poetry, and a few preserved writs of appointments dating from the same century were written solely in Hiragana. Kanji were gradually adopted due to the growing influence of mainland Japan and to the linguistic affinity between the Okinawan and Japanese languages. However, it was mainly limited to affairs of high importance and to documents sent towards the mainland. The oldest inscription of Okinawan exemplifying its use along with Hiragana can be found on a stone stele at the Tamaudun mausoleum, dating back to 1501.  After the invasion of Okinawa by the Shimazu clan of Satsuma in 1609, Okinawan ceased to be used in official affairs. It was replaced by standard Japanese writing and a form of Classical Chinese writing known as kanbun. Despite this change, Okinawan still continued to prosper in local literature up until the nineteenth century. Following the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government abolished the domain system and formally annexed the Ryukyu Islands to Japan as the Okinawa Prefecture in 1879. To promote national unity, the government then introduced standard education and opened Japanese-language schools based on the Tokyo dialect. Students were discouraged and chastised for speaking or even writing in the local "dialect", notably through the use of "dialect cards" (). As a result, Okinawan gradually ceased to be written entirely until the American takeover in 1945.  Since then, Japanese and American scholars have variously transcribed the regional language using a number of ad hoc romanization schemes or the katakana syllabary to demarcate its foreign nature with standard Japanese. Proponents of Okinawan tend to be more traditionalist and continue to write the language using hiragana with kanji. In any case, no standard or consensus concerning spelling issues has ever been formalized, so discrepancies between modern literary works are common.

Syllabary.

Technically, they are not syllables, but rather morae. Each mora in Okinawan will consist of one or two kana characters. If two, then a smaller version of kana follows the normal sized kana. In each cell of the table below, the top row is the kana (hiragana to the left, katakana to the right of the dot), the middle row in rōmaji (Hepburn romanization), and the bottom row in IPA.

Grammar.

Okinawan follows a subject–object–verb word order and makes large use of particles as in Japanese. Okinawan dialects retain a number of grammatical features of classical Japanese, such as a distinction between the terminal form () and the attributive form (), the genitive function of "ga" (lost in the Shuri dialect), the nominative function of "nu" (Japanese: "no"), as well as honorific/plain distribution of "ga" and "nu" in nominative use. One etymology given for the "-un" and "-uru" endings is the continuative form suffixed with "uri" (Classical Japanese: "wori", "to be; to exist"): "-un" developed from the terminal form "uri"; "-uru" developed from the attributive form "uru", i.e.:  A similar etymology is given for the terminal "-san" and attributive "-saru" endings for adjectives: the stem suffixed with "sa" (nominalises adjectives, i.e. high → height, hot → heat), suffixed with "ari" (Classical Japanese: "ari", "to exist; to have"), i.e.:

Parts of speech.

Nouns (名詞).

Nouns are classified as independent, non-conjugating part of speech that can become a subject of a sentence

Pronouns (代名詞).

Pronouns are classified the same as nouns, except that pronouns are more broad.

Adverbs (副詞).

Adverbs are classified as an independent, non-conjugating part of speech that cannot become a subject of a sentence and modifies a declinable word (用言; verbs, adverbs, adjectives) that comes after the adverb. There are two main categories to adverbs and several subcategories within each category, as shown in the table below.

Verbs (動詞).

Verbs are classified as an independent, conjugating part of speech that shows movements. The conclusive form ends in.

Adjectives (形容詞).

Adjectives are classified as an independent, conjugating part of speech that shows property or state. The conclusive form ends in.

(存在動詞).

存在動詞 are classified as an independent, conjugating part of speech that shows existence or decision of a certain thing. attaches to a substantive.

Adjectival verbs (形容動詞).

Adjectival verbs are classified as an independent, conjugating part of speech that shows the state of existence of events. attaches to words that shows state.

Particles (助詞).

! colspan=4 | Case markers (格助詞)! Okinawan!! Japanese!! Notes/English!! Example | || || Indicates the means by which something is achieved. | Ø ("Archaic:" ) || || Modern Okinawan does not use a direct object particle, like casual Japanese speech. "yu" exists mainly in old literary composition. | || || Indicates the means by which something is achieved. | || || 起点 | || || 場所・位置 | || || 場所 | || || Possessive marker. It may be difficult to differentiate between the subject marker and possessive marker. | ぬ→「〜している」「〜である」「〜い・しい」pp459.! colspan=4 | Adverbial Particles (副助詞)! Okinawan!! Japanese!! Notes/English!! Example  | || || | || || "around, about, approximately" | || || | || || | || 等 ||! colspan=4 | Binding particles (係助詞)! Okinawan!! Japanese!! Notes/English!! Example For other nouns, the particle fuses with short vowels. a → ā, i → ē, u → ō, e → ē, o → ō, n → nō. Pronoun 我ん (wan?) (I) becomes topicalized as 我んねー (wannē?) instead of 我んのー (wannō?) or 我んや (wan'ya?), although the latter does appear in some musical or literary works. | || || "even, also in" | || || | || || | || || | || || | | |! colspan=4 | Sentence-ending particles (終助詞)! Okinawan!! Japanese!! Notes/English!! Example  | || || Final interrogatory particle | || || 可否疑問 | || || 強調疑問 | || || | || || | || || Final particle expressing 問いかけ・念押し | || || 軽い疑問 | | || || | || || 軽く言う | || || Prohibitive | || || 命令 | || || | || || 断定 | || || 断定! colspan=4 | Interjectory Particles (間投助詞)! Okinawan!! Japanese!! Notes/English!! Example | |

The Okinawan language (/, "Uchināguchi", ) or Central Okinawan, is a Northern Ryukyuan language spoken primarily in the southern half of the island of Okinawa, as well as in the surrounding islands of Kerama, Kumejima, Tonaki, Aguni and a number of smaller peripheral islands. Central Okinawan distinguishes itself from the speech of Northern Okinawa, which is classified independently as the Kunigami language. Both languages are listed by UNESCO as endangered.


Plot.

With the media full of school shootings, terrorist threats, and child abductions, the parents of South Park grow excessively concerned about the safety of their children. Tweek is scared the most by the media reports, and his parents serve only to exacerbate his fears by turning their house into a virtual prison and playing cruel intellectual games with him designed by intention to increase his safety. As a result, Tweek loses his ability to empathize with others - even refusing to assist a crippled person, whose powerchair ran out of battery power, and is now stuck on some train tracks, resulting in him getting killed by an oncoming train. After a real child abductor (pretending to be the "Ghost of Human Kindness") fails to kidnap Tweek, the parents of South Park are put on high alert.  Taking advantage of expensive technology, the City commissions the owner of City Wok, Mr. Lu Kim to build a huge wall around the city similar to the Great Wall of China. Media reports continue to file in — it first convinces them they should not leave their children alone for a moment, prompting the parents to go with them anywhere they go. A later report convinces them they cannot even trust their own neighbors and family friends, forcing the parents to sever ties with each other. The kids, annoyed and embarrassed by their parents' actions, initially blame Tweek for their parents' paranoia, but soon decide that they'd have inevitably resorted to something this stupid eventually.  Despite trying to avoid being a stereotype and having no experience in construction, Mr. Kim reluctantly agrees to build the wall. He builds a very impressive one single-handedly. After he is finished, a band of Mongols appear out of nowhere and attack the wall because: "Every time us Chinese put up a wall stupid Mongorianzh have to come and knock it down," as he puts it, in a reference to Chinese history. Although he tries desperately to rout the enemy by himself, he proves to be no match for the Mongols' increasingly clever tactics, which include redirecting a heat-seeking missile with a flaming baseball and making use of a Trojan Horse filled with sweet and sour pork. Enraged, Kim vows vengeance for the rest of his life.  Meanwhile, back within the town a news report states that the parents are most likely to abduct their own children. Blindly believing what they have been told, they send their children from the city in a tearful ceremony in order to avoid putting their children in danger of being kidnapped by their own parents. As they leave, the children wonder about how stupid their parents are sometimes.  Within the week, the children join forces with the Mongols, having apparently learned their language, and expressing anger at their parents' irresponsible and irrational behavior. The Mongols then move on the wall again, where Mr. Kim is dressed for battle. He then does his "war dance", but while he is doing this, the children wheel a large cart laden with explosives in behind him and blow up the wall. The parents arrive to investigate the explosion, and are reunited with their kids. They realize that they overreacted to the news stories, and that to cut themselves off from the rest of the world with the wall denies new possibilities. Mayor McDaniels orders Mr. Lu Kim to "tear down this wall," angering him once more since building the wall was a waste of time. Despite the reunion, the parents believe their children have forgotten them in the short space of four days and use simple English to convince them to return home (with Stan muttering to Kyle, "Jesus Christ, dude, they've done some stupid crap before, but Jesus Christ.").

Production.

According to the DVD commentary, the episode was done right after the creators saw the Elizabeth Smart abduction in Utah on the news. Parker and Stone came up with the line "Goddamn Mongorianzh, no more breaking down my shitty warr!" while on the Great Wall of China in the 1990s.

Cultural references.

When Mr. Kim gets ready to shoot the heat seeking missile, he introduces it to the Mongolians saying "Say herro to my rittre friend." This is a reference to the movie "Scarface". Mayor McDaniels' line "Mr. Lu Kim, tear down this wall!" is a reference to Ronald Reagan's 1987 speech challenging Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.

Home release.

"Child Abduction Is Not Funny", along with the sixteen other episodes from "South Park"'s sixth season, were released on a three-disc DVD set in the United States on October 11, 2005. The sets included brief audio commentaries by Parker and Stone for each episode. IGN gave the season a rating of 9/10.

"Child Abduction Is Not Funny" is episode 90 of the Comedy Central series "South Park". It originally aired on July 24, 2002. This episode mocks kidnapping, moral panics, and the Mongol conquest of China. The episode was also the last to feature Tweek as the "fourth friend" alongside Stan, Kyle and Cartman.


Radiation pattern.

The whip antenna is a monopole antenna, and like a vertical dipole has an omnidirectional radiation pattern, radiating equal radio power in all azimuthal directions (perpendicular to the antenna's axis), with the radiated power falling off with elevation angle to zero on the antenna's axis. Whip antennas less than one-half wavelength long, including the common quarter wave whip, have a single main lobe, and with a perfectly conducting ground plane under it maximum field strength is in horizontal directions, falling monotonically to zero on the axis. With a small or imperfectly conducting ground plane or no ground plane under it, the general result is to tilt the main lobe up so maximum power is no longer radiated horizontally but at an angle into the sky.  Antennas longer than a half-wavelength have patterns consisting of several conical "lobes"; with radiation maxima at several elevation angles; the longer the electrical length of the antenna, the more lobes the pattern has.  Vertical whip antennas are widely used for nondirectional radio communication on the surface of the Earth, where the direction to the transmitter (or the receiver) is unknown or constantly changing, for example in portable FM radio receivers, walkie-talkies, and two-way radios in vehicles. This is because they transmit (or receive) equally well in all horizontal directions, while radiating little radio energy up into the sky where it is wasted.

Length.

Whip antennas are normally designed as resonant antennas; the rod acts as a resonator for radio waves, with standing waves of voltage and current reflected back and forth from its ends. Therefore, the length of the antenna rod is determined by the wavelength of the radio waves used. The most common length is approximately one-quarter of the wavelength, called a "quarter-wave whip" (although often shortened by the use of a loading coil; see Electrically short whips below). For example, the common quarter-wave whip antennas used on FM radios in the USA are approximately 75 cm long, which is roughly one-quarter the length of radio waves in the FM radio band, which are 2.78 to 3.41 meters long. Half-wave antennas are also common.

Gain and radiation resistance.

A quarter wave vertical antenna working against a perfect infinite ground will have a gain of 5.19 dBi and a radiation resistance of about 36.8 ohms. Whips mounted on vehicles use the metal skin of the vehicle as a ground plane. In hand-held devices usually no explicit ground plane is provided, and the ground side of the antenna's feed line is just connected to the ground on the device's circuit board. Therefore, the radio itself, and possibly the user's hand, serves as a rudimentary ground plane. Since these are no larger than the size of the antenna itself, the combination of whip and radio often functions more as an asymmetrical dipole antenna than as a monopole antenna. The gain will suffer somewhat compared to a half wave metallic dipole or a whip with a well defined ground plane.

Ground plane antenna.

In a whip antenna not mounted on a conductive surface, such as one mounted on a mast, the lack of reflected radio waves from the ground plane causes the lobe of the radiation pattern to be tilted up toward the sky so less power is radiated in horizontal directions, undesireable for terrestrial communication. Also the unbalanced impedance of the monopole element causes RF currents in the supporting mast and on the outside of the ground shield conductor of the coaxial feedline. To prevent this, with stationary whips mounted on structures, an artificial "ground plane" consisting of three or four rods a quarter-wavelength long connected to the opposite side of the feedline, extending horizontally from the base of the whip, is often used. This is called a "ground plane antenna". These few short wire elements serve to receive the displacement current from the driven element and return it to the ground conductor of the transmission line, making the antenna behave as if it has a continuous conducting plane under it. Often "(see pictures)" the ground plane rods are sloped downward, to lower the main lobe of the radiation pattern closer to horizontal and increase the normal 36.8 ohm radiation resistance closer to 50 ohms to provide a better impedance match with standard 50 ohm coaxial cable feedline.

Electrically short whips.

To reduce the length of a whip antenna to make it less cumbersome, an inductor (loading coil) is often added in series with it. This allows the antenna to be made much shorter than the normal length of a quarter-wavelength, and still be resonant, by cancelling out the capacitive reactance of the short antenna. The coil is added at the base of the whip (called a base-loaded whip) or occasionally in the middle (center-loaded whip). In the most widely used form, the rubber ducky antenna, the loading coil is integrated with the antenna itself by making the whip out of a narrow helix of springy wire. The helix distributes the inductance along the antenna's length, improving the radiation pattern, and also makes it more flexible. Another alternative occasionally used to shorten the antenna is to add a "capacity hat", a metal screen or radiating wires, at the end. However all these electrically short whips have lower gain than a full length quarter-wave whip.  Multi-band operation is possible with coils at about one-half or one-third and two-thirds that do not affect the aerial much at the lowest band, but it creates the effect of stacked dipoles at a higher band (usually ×2 or ×3 frequency).  At higher frequencies (2.4 GHz, but military whips for 50 MHz to 80 MHz band exist, and are standard issue for the SINCGARS radio in the 30–88 MHz range), the feed coax can go up the centre of a tube. The insulated junction of the tube and whip is fed from the coax and the lower tube end where coax cable enters has an insulated mount. This kind of vertical whip is a full dipole and thus needs no ground plane. It generally works better several wavelengths above ground, hence the limitation normally to microwave bands.

Vehicle antenna damages.

Whip antennas on vehicles can be damaged by automatic car wash equipment, especially those that use spinning brushes to abrasively rub dirt off the exterior of the vehicle body. Because the brushes must make contact with the vehicle surface, they can bend or completely break off whip antennas. These antennas are generally recommended to be removed or retracted so that the brushes do not make contact, or the vehicle owner should only use a "touchless" spray jet automatic car wash.

A whip antenna is an antenna consisting of a straight flexible wire or rod. The bottom end of the whip is connected to the radio receiver or transmitter. The antenna is designed to be flexible so that it does not break easily, and the name is derived from the whip-like motion that it exhibits when disturbed. Whip antennas for portable radios are often made of a series of interlocking telescoping metal tubes, so they can be retracted when not in use. Longer ones, made for mounting on vehicles and structures, are made of a flexible fiberglass rod around a wire core and can be up to 35 ft (10 m) long. The length of the whip antenna is determined by the wavelength of the radio waves it is used with. The most common type is the "quarter-wave whip", which is approximately one-quarter of a wavelength long. Whips are the most common type of monopole antenna, and are used in the higher frequency HF, VHF and UHF radio bands. They are widely used as the antennas for hand-held radios, cordless phones, walkie-talkies, FM radios, boom boxes, and Wi-Fi enabled devices, and are attached to vehicles as the antennas for car radios and two-way radios for wheeled vehicles and for aircraft. Larger versions mounted on roofs, balconies and radio masts are used as base station antennas for amateur radio and police, fire, ambulance, taxi, and other vehicle dispatchers.


Career.

Joel was born in Paris, where he studied. In 1973, he was hired by the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg as assistant director and remained until 1978. In 1976, Patrice Chéreau brought him in as an assistant for the production of the "Jahrhundertring" for the centenary of the Bayreuth Festival. In 1979, he began his own directing career with a production of Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen" for the Opéra du Rhin and the Opéra de Lyon. In 1981, he directed "Samson et Dalila" at the San Francisco Opera, with Shirley Verrett and Plácido Domingo in the leading roles, and Verdi's "Aida" at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, with Luciano Pavarotti.  He directed a second "Ring" for the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, "Aida" at the Vienna State Opera in 1984, Verdi's "Ernani" and Wagner's "Parsifal" in San Francisco, Wagner's "Lohengrin" in Copenhagen, Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin", Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" and Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci" in Amsterdam and Gothenburg, Verdi's "Rigoletto", "La traviata" and "La forza del destino" at the Opernhaus Zürich, "Salomé" by Richard Strauss in Essen, and Mussorgski's "Boris Godunov" and Bellini's "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" at the Theater Bremen. He also directed Puccini's "Tosca" in Lausanne for José van Dam's debut as Scarpia. In 1994, he made his debut at La Scala in Milan with Puccini's "La rondine". He staged Gounod's "Roméo et Juliette" at the Royal Opera House in London, and Bizet's "Carmen" at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.  Joel made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1996 with Giordano's "Andrea Chénier", again with Pavarotti. In 1998, he directed "Aida" for the reopening of the Teatro Massimo of Palermo, and he staged "Lucia di Lammermoor" at the Metropolitan Opera. In 1999, he directed a new production of Massenet's "Manon" at La Scala.  In France, he directed Puccini's "Turandot" and Massenet's "Thaïs" in Nancy, Ponchielli's "La Gioconda" and Verdi's "Les Vêpres siciliennes" at the Opéra national de Montpellier, Debussy's "La Damoiselle élue" and Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" with Jessye Norman at the Paris Opera, Gounod's "Faust" and the world premiere of Marcel Landowski's "Montségur" in Toulouse, and "Andrea Chénier" at the Opéra du Rhin and the Opéra de Lyon. At the Paris Opera, he staged a new production of "Un Bal masqué" in 1992. He directed Wagner's "Parsifal" in Nice in 1994.  From 1990 to 2009, Joel was artistic director of the Capitole de Toulouse. For the reopening of the Théâtre du Capitole in 1996, he presented Charpentier's "Louise" and Massenet's "Werther". Among his productions in Toulouse were Wagner's "Ring", "Boris Godunov", "Louise" and "Hamlet". He reopened the Théâtre du Capitole, after the renovation of the stage cage, in October 2004, with a new production of Janáček's "Jenůfa".  He staged "Daphne" by Richard Strauss at the Vienna State Opera in 2004, Puccini's "La rondine" at the Metropolitan Opera in 2008, and "Faust" at the Vienna State Opera the same year.

Paris Opera.

From 2009, Joel was director of the Paris Opera, succeeding Gerard Mortier.  In 2011, the institution recorded an attendance of nearly 800,000, 94.1% and 1.7% higher than in 2010. While standard repertoire was performed, contemporary opera appeared in Bruno Mantovani's opera "",'s ballet "La Source", Alexei Ratmansky's ballet "Psyché", which was also shown in New York City, and Wayne McGregor's ballet "L'Anatomie de la sensation".  In October 2012, Joel announced that he would not stand for another term, after learning of the Opera's budgetary planning for the coming years. In September 2013, he tendered his resignation, one year early, effective August 2014. He was succeeded by Stéphane Lissner.

Family.

Joel was the brother of conductor Emmanuel Joel-Hornak. He died on 18 June 2020.

Awards.

Joel received the Drama and Music Critics Award for his lyrical productions twice, as well as a Victoire de la Musique in 1996, in the category "Best Lyrical Production" for Poulenc's "Dialogues des Carmélites".  Joel had been a chevalier (knight) of the Legion of Honour since 2004 and became an officer in 2014.

Nicolas Joel or Joël (6 February 195319 June 2020) was a French opera director and administrator of opera houses. He was general manager of the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse from 1990 to 2009 and of the Paris Opera from 2009 to 2014. He directed operas internationally.


Biography.

Raffet was born in Paris.  At an early age he was apprenticed to a wood turner, but took up the study of art at evening classes. At the age of 18 he entered the workshop of Cabanel, where he applied his skill to the decoration of china, and where he met Rudor, from whom he received instruction in lithography, in the practice of which he was to rise to fame. He then entered the École des Beaux-Arts, but returned to lithography in 1830 when he produced on stone his famous designs of Lützen, Waterloo, "Le bal", "La revue", and "Les adieux de la garrison", by which his reputation became immediately established.  Raffet's chief works were his lithographs of the Napoleonic campaigns, from Egypt to Waterloo, vigorous designs inspired by ardent patriotic enthusiasm. In this endeavour he was a contemporary of other French artist-lithographers of Napoleon and the French army including Hippolyte Bellangé, Horace Vernet, and Nicolas Toussaint Charlet. As an illustrator his activity was prodigious, the list of works illustrated by his crayon amounting to about forty-five, among which are Béranger's poems, the "History of the Revolution" by Adolphe Thiers, the "History of Napoleon" by de Norvins, the great "Walter Scott" by Auguste Defauconpret, the French Plutarch and Frédéric Bérat's "Songs".  He went to Rome in 1849, was present at the siege of Rome, which he made the subject of some lithographs, and followed the Italian campaign of 1859, of which he left a record in his "Episodes de la campagne d'Italie de 1859". His portraits in pencil and water-colour are full of character. He died at Genoa in 1860. In 1893 a monument by Emmanuel Frémiet was unveiled in the Jardin de l'Infante at the Louvre, Paris. The statue was removed and melted down during the nazi occupation of Paris.

Denis Auguste Marie Raffet (2 March 180416 February 1860) was a French illustrator and lithographer. He was a student of Nicolas Toussaint Charlet, and was a retrospective painter of the Empire.


The carnival sense of the world.

Bakhtin's four categories of the carnival sense of the world:  The primary act of carnival is the mock crowning and subsequent de-crowning of a carnival king. It is a "dualistic ambivalent ritual" that typifies the inside-out world of carnival and the "joyful relativity of all structure and order". The act sanctifies ambivalence toward that which is normally considered absolute, single, monolithic. Carnivalistic symbols always include their opposite within themselves: "Birth is fraught with death, and death with new birth." The crowning implies the de-crowning, and the de-crowning implies a new crowning. It is thus the process of change itself that is celebrated, not that which is changed.  The carnival sense of the world "is opposed to that one-sided and gloomy official seriousness which is dogmatic and hostile to evolution and change, which seeks to absolutize a given condition of existence or a given social order." This is not to say that liberation from all authority and sacred symbols was desirable as an ideology. Because participation in Carnival extracts all individuals from non-carnival life, nihilistic and individualistic ideologies are just as impotent and just as subject to the radical humour of carnival as any form of official seriousness. The spirit of carnival grows out of a "culture of laughter". Because it is based in the physiological realities of the lower bodily stratum (birth, death, renewal, sexuality, ingestion, evacuation etc.), it is inherently anti-elitist: its objects and functions are necessarily common to all humans—"identical, involuntary and non-negotiable".  Bakhtin argues that we should not compare the "narrow theatrical pageantry" and "vulgar Bohemian understanding of carnival" characteristic of modern times with his Medieval Carnival. Carnival was a powerful creative event, not merely a spectacle. Bakhtin suggests that the separation of participants and spectators has been detrimental to the potency of Carnival. Its power lay in there being no "outside": everyone participated, and everyone was subject to its lived transcendence of social and individual norms: "carnival travesties: it crowns and uncrowns, inverts rank, exchanges roles, makes sense from nonsense and nonsense of sense."

The carnivalization of literature.

Bakhtin's term "the carnivalization of literature" (which Morson and Emerson point out could also be called "the literization of carnival") refers to the transposition of the essential qualities of the carnival sense of the world into a literary language and a literary "genre".

The seriocomic genres.

The ancient seriocomic genres initiated the "carnivalistic line" in Western literature. Of these, the most significant were Socratic dialogue and Menippean satire.  According to Bakhtin, the seriocomic genres always began with "the living "present"". Everything took place "in a zone of immediate and even crudely familiar contact with living contemporaries." Unlike the "serious" genres (tragedy, epic, high rhetoric, lyric poetry), the seriocomic genres did not rely on "legend" or long-held tribal belief and custom for their legitimacy. Instead they consciously relied on "experience" and "free invention", often manifesting a critical and even cynical attitude toward conventional subjects and forms. They eschewed the single-voiced, single-styled nature of the serious genres, and intentionally cultivated heterogeneity of voice and style. Characteristic of these genres are "multi-toned narration, the mixing of high and low, serious and comic; the use of inserted genres – letters, found manuscripts, retold dialogues, parodies on the high genres... a mixing of prosaic and poetic speech, living dialects and jargons..." Thus in the ancient seriocomic genres, language was not merely that which represents, but itself became an object of representation.

Socratic dialogue.

Originally a kind of memoir genre consisting of recollections of actual conversations conducted by Socrates, the Socratic dialogue became, in the hands of Plato, Xenophon and others, a freely creative form bound only by the Socratic method of dialogically revealing the truth. Bakhtin lists five aspects of the genre that link it to carnivalization: (1) The Socratic notion of the dialogic nature of truth and human thought, posited in opposition to "official monologism, which pretends to "possess a ready-made truth"" (Bakhtin notes that this is a "formal" quality only, and that in the hands of a dogmatic school or religious doctrine the dialogue can be transformed into merely another method for expounding a ready-made truth); (2) "Syncrisis", the juxtaposition of differing perspectives on an object, and "anacrisis", the elicitation or provocation of a full verbal expression of the interlocutor's opinion and its underlying assumptions; (3) The protagonist is always an "ideologist" and the interlocutors are "made into" ideologists, thus provoking the event of the "testing" of truth; (4) a tendency to create the "extraordinary situation" (e.g. Socrates on the threshold of an impending death sentence in "The Apology"), which forces a deeper exposition through the loosening of the bonds of convention and habit; (5) It introduces, in embryonic form, the concept of the "image of an idea" (which will later attain full expression in Dostoevsky): "the idea is organically combined with the image of a person... The dialogic testing of the idea is simultaneously also the testing of the person who represents it".

Menippean satire.

The tradition known as Menippean satire began in ancient Greece with Antisthenes, an author of Socratic dialogues, and the Cynic satirist Menippus, although it first became recognized as a genre through the first century B.C. Roman scholar Varro. According to Bakhtin, the roots of the genre "reach "directly" back into carnivalized folklore, whose decisive influence is here even more significant than it is in the Socratic dialogue." Its characteristics include intensified comicality, freedom from established constraints, bold use of fantastic situations for the testing of truth, abrupt changes, inserted genres and multi-tonality, parodies, oxymorons, scandal scenes, inappropriate behaviour, and a sharp satirical focus on contemporary ideas and issues. Despite the apparent heterogeneity of these elements, Bakhtin emphasizes the internal integrity of the genre and its thorough grounding in a carnival sense of the world. He notes its unparalleled capacity for reflecting the social and philosophical ethos of its historical setting – principally the epoch of the decline of national legend, which brought with it the gradual dissolution of long-established ethical norms and a concomitant rise in free interaction and argumentation over all manner of "ultimate questions". The internal dialogical freedom of the genre is coupled with an equally free external capacity for the absorption of other genres, for example the diatribe, the soliloquy and the symposium.

Dostoevsky and polyphony.

The tradition of Menippean satire reached its summit in the nineteenth century, according to Bakhtin, in the work of Dostoevsky. Menippean satire was the fertile ground on which Dostoevsky was able to grow his entirely new carnivalized genre—the polyphonic novel. According to Bakhtin, Dostoevsky was familiar with works by Lucian (such as "Dialogues of the Dead" and "Menippus, or The Descent Into Hades"), Seneca ("Apocolocyntosis"), Petronius ("The Satyricon"), Apuleius ("The Golden Ass"), and possibly also the satires of Varro. He was also probably influenced by modern European manifestations of the genre in authors such as Goethe, Fénelon, Diderot and Voltaire. Bakhtin observes that although Dostoevsky may not have consciously recognized his place as the heir of the tradition, he undoubtedly instinctively adopted many of its carnivalistic forms, as well as its liberated approach to the use of those forms, and adapted them to his own artistic purposes. The dialogic sense of truth, the device of the "extraordinary situation", the unencumbered frankness of speech, the clash of extreme positions and embodied ideas over ultimate questions, the technique of "anacrisis", "threshold" dialogues in extreme or fantastic situations: present in Menippean satire, these qualities are given a new and more profound life in Dostoevsky's polyphonic novel. In this "carnival space and time", a reality beyond the quotidian fog of convention and habit comes to life, allowing a special type of "purely human" dialogue to occur. In polyphony, character voices are liberated from the finalizing and monologizing influence of authorial control, much like the participants in carnival revel in the temporary dissolution of authoritarian social definitions and "ready-made" truths, and a new "dialogical" truth emerges in the play of difference: a ""plurality of consciousnesses, with equal rights and each with its own world", combine but are not merged in the unity of the event."

Carnivalesque is a literary mode that subverts and liberates the assumptions of the dominant style or atmosphere through humor and chaos. It originated as "carnival" in Mikhail Bakhtin's "Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics" and was further developed in "Rabelais and His World". For Bakhtin, "carnival" (the totality of popular festivities, rituals and other carnival forms) is deeply rooted in the human psyche on both the collective and individual level. Though historically complex and varied, it has over time worked out "an entire language of symbolic concretely sensuous forms" which express a unified "carnival sense of the world, permeating all its forms". This language, Bakhtin argues, cannot be adequately verbalized or translated into abstract concepts, but it is amenable to a transposition into an artistic language that resonates with its essential qualities: it can, in other words, be "transposed into the language of literature". Bakhtin calls this transposition the "carnivalization" of literature. Although he considers a number of literary forms and individual writers, it is Francois Rabelais, the French Renaissance author of "Gargantua and Pantagruel", and the 19th century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, that he considers the primary exemplars of carnivalization in literature.


Early life and career.

Zaccardelli was born in Prezza, Italy and immigrated to Canada at age seven. He grew up in the Montreal area, mainly in Saint Leonard.  Zaccardelli joined the RCMP in 1970 and was posted to St. Paul, Alberta following recruit training. He was transferred to Toronto in 1974, and then in 1981 to Calgary. He became an officer in 1986 and served in Ottawa and New Brunswick. In 1993, he became Chief Superintendent in charge of Criminal Operations in Quebec. In 1995, he was promoted to Assistant Commissioner and he was promoted to Deputy Commissioner in 1998, responsible for National Headquarters. In 1999, he became the Deputy Commissioner, Organized Crime and Operational Policy. From 2 September 2000 to 15 December 2006 he served as the 20th Commissioner of the RCMP. He presided over the RCMP during changes made to Canada's policing, security and military apparatus after 11 September 2001. Prior to his departure he collected numerous Canadian honours and two foreign honours.

Controversy over income trust file.

In late 2005 the status of income trusts was uncertain. After the close of the markets on 23 November 2005, Finance Minister Ralph Goodale made a surprise announcement that the government would not tax the trusts, and would instead cut dividend taxes. This made trusts and dividend paying stocks even from a taxation perspective. The markets rallied in the hours leading up to the announcement by the government allegedly due to leaks. During the following days, the S&P/TSX Composite Index reached a new five-year high. The day's biggest gainers were income trusts, income-trust candidates, high dividend-paying companies, and the TSX Group itself. The minority Liberal government of Paul Martin fell to a motion of no confidence on 28 November 2005. An election campaign for a 23 January 2006 election began the next day. Near the end of December, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced a criminal investigation into the leaking of news of a federal tax change for income trusts. The announcement came in the form of a letter from Zaccardelli to New Democratic Party Member of Parliament Judy Wasylycia-Leis. The RCMP came under criticism for announcing the probe during the campaign. The matter was investigated by the CPC the external review body of RCMP members' conduct. The report of the commissioner concluded that there was no evidence to suggest Zaccardelli deliberately meddled with the electoral process. The chair of the CPC judged Zaccardelli and other RCMP members having acted in an "inappropriate" manner by not cooperating with the external investigation.

Controversy over Maher Arar file.

Zaccardelli's role in the affair of computer engineer, Maher Arar had been the subject of intense speculation and controversy. Arar, a Canadian citizen who was born in Syria, was stopped at a New York airport on his way home from a vacation in September 2002. United States officials accused him of links to al-Qaeda and deported him to Syria, where he was imprisoned and tortured for months. The decision to deport Arar was said to be based on inaccurate and misleading information provided by the RCMP that suggested Arar was linked to the militants. Members of the House of Commons Committee on Public Safety and National Security have called Zaccardelli's testimony in this matter "contradictory", with Liberal MP Mark Holland saying "We've now got Mr. Zaccardelli in my opinion perjuring himself before a parliamentary committee." The contradictions were with respect to what he knew at the time and what he told government ministers. Zaccardelli resigned from his post as Commissioner on 6 December, effective 15 December 2006. Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced in the House of Commons that Zaccardelli had resigned. "Today, Commissioner Zaccardelli submitted his resignation to me and I have accepted it," Harper said. "The commissioner has indicated to me that it would be in the best interests of the RCMP to have new leadership as this great organization faces challenges in the future." Zaccardelli became the first commissioner in the history of the RCMP to be forced to resign because of controversy.  Before Zaccardelli's resignation, on September 28, 2006, he issued an apology to Arar and his family during the House of Commons committee on public safety and national security: Mr. Arar, I wish to take this opportunity to express publicly to you and to your wife and to your children how truly sorry I am for whatever part the actions of the RCMP may have contributed to the terrible injustices that you experienced and the pain that you and your family endured.  Arar thanked Commissioner Zaccardelli for his apology but lamented the lack of concrete disciplinary action against those individuals whose actions led to his detention and subsequent torture.

Controversy over RCMP's pension and insurance plans.

In March 2007, RCMP officers testified before the Public Accounts Committee that they had grave questions about the handling of the funds and that they believed senior officers were to blame. They alleged fund misappropriation and nepotism and that senior RCMP management covered up the problems. In testimony before the Committee, Zaccardelli rejected accusations that he was involved in a cover up of alleged irregularities, fraud and abuse involving the RCMP's pension and insurance plans.

Honours.

Zaccardelli was awarded the following medals and commendations during his policing career:

Giuliano Zaccardelli, (born ) is a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer who was the Commissioner of the RCMP from 2 September 2000 to 15 December 2006. Zaccardelli's departure from the RCMP was linked to the force's involvement in the Maher Arar Affair. He was subsequently impugned during inquiries into irregularities in the management of the RCMP's pension and insurance fund.


Biography.

Hankel was born on 14 February 1839 in Halle, Germany. His father, Wilhelm Gottlieb Hankel, was a physicist. Hankel studied at Nicolai Gymnasium in Leipzig before entering Leipzig University in 1857, where he studied with Moritz Drobisch, August Ferdinand Möbius and his father. In 1960, he started studying at University of Göttingen, where he acquired an interest in function theory under the tutelage of Bernhard Riemann. Following the publication of an award winning article, he proceeded to study under Karl Weierstrass and Leopold Kronecker in Berlin. He received his doctorate in 1862 at Leipzig University. Receiving his teaching qualifications a year after, he was promoted to an associate professor at Leipzig University in 1867. At the same year, he received his full professorship in University of Erlangen–Nuremberg and spent his last four years in University of Tübingen. He died on 29 August 1873 in Schramberg, near Tübingen. He was married to Marie Hankel.  In 1867, he published "Theorie der Complexen Zahlensysteme", a treatise on complex analysis. His works on the theory of functions include 1870's "Untersuchungen über die unendlich oft oscillirenden und unstetigen functionen" and his 1871 article “Grenze” for the Ersch-Gruber Encyklopädie. His work for "Mathematische Annalen" has highlighted the importance of, which were later known as Hankel functions.  His 1867 exposition on complex numbers and quaternions is particularly memorable. For example, Fischbein notes that he solved the problem of products of negative numbers by proving the following theorem: "The only multiplication in R which may be considered as an extension of the usual multiplication in R by "respecting the law of distributivity" to the left and the right is that which conforms to the rule of signs." Furthermore, Hankel draws attention to the linear algebra that Hermann Grassmann had developed in his "Extension Theory" in two publications. This was the first of many references later made to Grassmann's early insights on the nature of space.

Hermann Hankel (14 February 1839 – 29 August 1873) was a German mathematician. Having worked on mathematical analysis during his career, he is best known for introducing the Hankel transform and the Hankel matrix.


Plot.

Ms. Choksondik's fourth grade class goes on a field trip to a farm, where they discover that veal is made of baby cows. The boys, apart from Cartman, are horrified and decide to save the calves from becoming veal. Stan, Kyle, and Butters attempt to convince Cartman to help them rescue the calves and bring them to Stan's house. Cartman is forced to join the others to rescue the calves with his "" Breaking and Entering play-set. When they are discovered by their parents the next morning, the boys barricade the door until they are promised the calves will be safe. Sharon refuses to lie and say they will be safe out of fear of regretting it, and Randy can not remove the door without destroying the house.  The situation quickly escalates into a standoff between the boys, who are declared terrorists, and the police. They live off some food smuggled in by Ms. Cartman, which contains meat. While most of the group eagerly eats this food, Stan does not, as his reason for doing the deed extends far beyond just protecting the calves, so he becomes a vegetarian. Cartman makes fun of this, saying "if you don't eat meat, you become a pussy." Later, Stan comes down with a strange illness, and develops sores on his face.  An FBI negotiator proves no match for Cartman's powers of manipulation, and he negotiates for guns and ammunition in return for a calf. When the boys get the guns Cartman further manipulates the negotiator for an ICBM, but unsuccessfully tries to get North and South Dakota. He gets the FDA to change the term for veal to "tortured baby cow", and negotiates for a cattle truck driven by Michael Dorn. Furthermore, Dorn is forced into full Worf makeup and must call Cartman 'Captain'. He is to drive everyone to the airport so they can escape to Mexico, despite being reluctant to do so. All of this, without handing over a single calf. The negotiator, due to easily giving to these ludicrous demands, is eventually fired.  The FBI double-crosses the boys and the calves are saved, but are rendered useless, as there is now no market for "little tortured baby cow". Stan has to go to the hospital; it turns out Cartman was correct about the results of not eating meat when Stan's doctor explains that he has vaginitis, and the sores on his face were actually vaginas, which would have turned him into a giant vagina. The episode ends with the boys, with the possible exception of Cartman, getting grounded, but not before going out with their parents for burgers.

Production.

In the DVD commentary, the creators said they wanted to balance their message of not eating baby animals, by at the same time not advocating people abstain from meat consumption altogether. Randy Marsh compares the boys to "little John Walkers." This is meant as a reference to John Walker Lindh, an American who fought for the Taliban. Michael Dorn is famous for playing Lieutenant Commander Worf on "" and "". He is portrayed in this episode wearing a sweatshirt which bears the logo of Pasadena City College, his real-life alma mater. After this episode was broadcast, Dorn revealed that he is a fan of "South Park", and would have provided his own voice for the episode had he been asked. Dorn himself is a vegan. The negotiations over the phone, the cattle truck, and most of this episode (such as the part when Cartman was standing outside the front door ordering that the men step back) was a parody of the cult classic 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon.

Home release.

"Fun with Veal", along with the sixteen other episodes from "South Park: the Complete Sixth Season", were released on a three-disc DVD set in the United States on October 11, 2005. The sets included brief audio commentaries by Parker and Stone for each episode. IGN gave the season a rating of 9/10.

"Fun with Veal" is the 4th episode of the sixth season of the animated television series "South Park", and the 83rd episode of the series overall. It originally aired in the United States on Comedy Central on March 27, 2002. This episode is rated TV-MA in the United States, except on syndicated broadcasts, where the episode is censored and is rated TV-14, instead. In the episode, Stan and the boys are horrified when they find out how veal is made, they then kidnap all the baby cows from a local ranch.


Biography.

Salem Chaker was born in 1950 in Nevers, France. In a family from Ait Iraten tribe of Kabylia. He studied at the University of Provence, then in Paris Descartes University where he received his "Doctorat de troisième cycle" in 1973 and a "Doctorat d'Etat" in 1978. After an early career in the Faculty of Letters of Algiers and CRAPE ("Centre de Recherches Anthropologiques Préhistoriques et Ethnologiques") from 1973 to 1981, he joins University of Provence serving as an associate professor of Berber Language from 1981 to 1983, and CNRS from 1984 to 1989 where he continued his research activities in the laboratory LAPMO ("Laboratoire d'anthropologie et de préhistoire de la Méditerranée occidentale") founded and directed by Gabriel Camps. From 1989 to 2008, he worked as a Berber Language Professor at "Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales" (""Langues'O"") in Paris, where he created in 1990 "Centre de Recherche Berbère" (Berber Research Center) he directed until the end of 2009. He is currently Professor of Berber language at the Aix-Marseille University where he is also a research associate at Iremam ("Institut de recherches et d'études sur le monde arabe et musulman").

Encyclopédie berbère.

His involvement in the "Encyclopédie berbère" dates back to the launching phase of the project by Gabriel Camps in 1970, when he was still a student at the University of Provence. The founding team comprising only pre-historians and ethnologists, Gabriel asked him to invest in the linguistic field. Thus appeared his first contribution to the Encyclopedie, in Fascicle 1, dated 1970, of the provisional edition with restricted diffusion. It was also his first scientific text, while he was still studying linguistics. He started publishing regularly entries in the provisional edition, then in the final edition from 1984. At the launch of the final edition, he officially became a scientific advisor for linguistics. When Camps retired in 1992, he asked him to ensure the succession of the Encyclopédie berbère in case of default. Salem Chaker has been in charge of the "Encyclopédie" since the death of G. Camps in September 2002.

Salem Chaker (born 1950 in Nevers) is an Algerian Berberologist. He's a specialist in Berber linguistics (syntax, diachrony, sociolinguistics). He is recognized as the "dean" of modern Berber studies.


Breed characteristics.

The Boulonnais today stands from or more. It has a short, elegant head with a broad forehead and a short, muscular neck. Members of the breed have full chests, rounded rib cages and sloping shoulders. The legs are fairly short but robust and strong. Unlike other draft breeds such as the Shire or Clydesdale, it has no heavy feathering on its lower legs. The breed is generally branded with a small anchor mark on the left side of the neck. Due mostly to the many additions of Oriental blood, the Boulonnais has an elegant appearance that is not often seen in heavy draft breeds and it has been called "Europe's noblest draft horse". The fineness of the skin and delicate appearance of the veins has allowed the horse to be described as looking "like polished marble", leading to its "White Marble Horse" nickname.  In 1778, the French National Stud performed an initial survey of the breed and found that most were black or dark bay. During the 1800s, gray horses began to appear, and it was the predominating color by the end of the century. Gray became a popular color during this time due to the use of the horses to haul fish at night – gray horses were more visible in the dark, and therefore more valuable. In the later years of the 20th century, breeders again began to prefer darker colors such as bay and chestnut. Today, chestnut, gray and black are the only colors allowed by the French breed registry, with the vast majority of horses being gray – a popular phrase says that the horses have coats "the color of the clouds from the coast".

Sub-types.

There were originally several types of Boulonnais. The Petit Boulonnais, Mareyeuse or Mareyeur was used in the rapid transport of cartloads of fresh fish ("la marée") from the Pas-de-Calais to Paris; it stood and weighed. The Picard draft came from the Picardy region, and was called the "horse of the bad land", in comparison to the Cauchoix horse from the Pays de Caux area, which was called the "horse of the good land". The "grand Boulonnais", which stood high and weighed, was bred in the 19th century for farm work in the sugar beet fields. All of these types were bred together to create the modern Boulonnais horse.

History.

One theory states that the origins of the Boulonnais breed emerged from the crossbreeding of native French mares and stallions brought by the Numidian army in 55–54 BC. However, many equine scholars are skeptical of this theory, and state that, whatever the early origins, the later selective breeding and local climate and soil types had a greater influence on the breed than any early Oriental blood. During the Crusades, two breeders, Eustache, Comte de Boulogne, and later Robert, Comte d'Artois, wanted to create a fast, agile, and strong warhorse for knights to ride in battle. They crossed the existing heavy French stallions with German Mecklenberg mares, similar to modern-day Hanoverians. During the 17th-century Spanish occupation of Flanders, a mixture of Spanish Barb, Arabian, and Andalusian blood was added to the breed, to create the modern Boulonnais. By the 17th century, horse dealers were coming into the Boulonnais district from Picardy and Upper Normandy to buy local horses, which enjoyed a good reputation among breeders. From the late 18th through the mid-19th century, the Boulonnais spread across France and Europe; during this time, the breed increased in size as the Industrial Revolution called for larger horses that retained the active movement of the original type. Beginning in the 1830s, it was proposed to cross the Arabian with the Boulonnais to create a new type of cavalry horse, and in the 1860s, calls were put forth to add Thoroughbred blood for the same reason. However, breeders rejected these calls, stating that using the breed to create cavalry horses would make them poorer draft horses. Breed societies also discouraged crosses between the Boulonnais and the Brabant. In June 1886, a studbook was created for the breed in France, and placed under the jurisdiction of the Syndicat Hippique Boulonnais (SHB) in 1902.  During the early 20th century, the Boulonnais was imported into the United States in large numbers, where it was registered along with other French heavy horse breeds as the "French draft horse". Breed members in the United States were registered with the Anglo-Norman Horse Association (or National Norman Horse Association) beginning in 1876, an association that was renamed the National French Draft Association in 1885. This association declared in 1876 that the Boulonnais, Norman, Percheron and Picardy breeds were all essentially the same, and should all be known as the "Norman horse". They later declared that all of the "Norman horses" were in fact "Percherons", regardless of actual breeding. This was mostly designed to sell mixed breed draft horses to American consumers at higher prices, and the Illinois Board of Agriculture soon ruled that only those Percherons who came from proven Percheron stock were to be registered as such, and all other breeds, including the Boulonnais, were to be considered separately. Boulonnais were exported from France to Austria, although they saw little success there, and breeding stallions were sent to Argentina.

20th century and today.

The Boulonnais was once a popular workhorse in France, with an estimated population of over 600,000 in the early 1900s. World War I and World War II almost destroyed the breed, as its home area saw heavy combat in both wars and the bands of broodmares were scattered. Between World War II and the 1970s, the breed almost became extinct, and only a few breeders kept it alive. In the 1970s, it became popular for horse meat, and consumers considered it to be some of the best meat available. However, by this point, there were fewer than 1,000 mares remaining. During the mid-20th century, the stallions Fréthun (foaled in 1949), Select (1962), Trésor (1963), Astérix (1966) and Prince (1981) had a strong influence on the breed, although this contributed to the problem of inbreeding. Fréthun genes are found in 14 percent of the pedigrees of Boulonnais living today. In the early 1970s, Henry Blanc, the newly appointed director of the French National Stud, proposed that nine draft horse breeds, including the Boulonnais, be recategorized from pulling horses to meat horses. When enacted, this recategorization helped to preserve the gene pool of the Boulonnais by encouraging breeding, but it also changed its primary purpose, resulting in a dramatic weight increase by the 1980s.  The Boulonnais is still bred in small numbers, with the American Boulonnais Horse Association estimating a population of fewer than 1,000 animals remaining in Europe. Many studs are government-funded, to prevent the breed from dying out. The majority of the breed, 95 percent, are located in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Normandy regions and 75 percent in just the Pas-de-Calais department of Nord-Pas-de-Calais alone. Although most Boulonnais are in France, a few are exported. In 1999, fifteen foals were exported to Brazil and one stallion to Argentina. On average, a little over a dozen horses a year are exported, mainly to Brazil and Belgium for breeding and to Germany for forestry work. A few horses live in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Luxembourg, as well as in North America. Since 2006, twenty horses, including two registry-approved breeding stallions, have been exported from France to Denmark to create a stud farm in that country.  The French national stud, the Haras Nationaux, allows the registration of horses bred using artificial insemination and embryo transfer, but does not allow the registration of cloned horses. It considers the breed to be endangered, along with several other French draft breeds. A 2009 study of French equine genetics proposed that the Boulonnais, along with four other French breeds, should be a conservation priority, with a goal of maintaining maximum genetic variability in France's native horse population. This follows from studies done as early as 1983 that showed inbreeding and a lack of genetic diversity in the breed.

Uses.

During the 17th century, the smaller Mareyeuse type was used for transporting fresh fish from Boulogne to Paris, a distance of almost 200 miles, in under 18 hours. This journey is remembered annually in the Route du Poisson race. Only mares pulled small carts full of ice and fish on the relay-style trip. By 1884, the Boulonnais was called the "largest and most valuable of that kind of horse in France". At that time, they were used to move heavy blocks of building stone in Paris, with six to eight horses drawing blocks of several tons. During the 20th century, the larger Boulonnais type was utilized by the French army, and highly regarded for its ability to pull artillery and supply wagons. Falling demand for the breed means that today it is bred mainly for horsemeat. In 2010, 60 percent of Boulonnais horses bred in France were intended for slaughter, and 80 percent of these were exported, mainly to Italy, to be fattened before being sent to slaughterhouses. However, the sector is in crisis due to falling prices, controversy and the importation of cheap meat; despite a resurgence following the Mad Cow scares of the 1990s, the consumption of horse meat has fallen sharply, although the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region remains the largest consumer of horse meat in France.  The Boulonnais provided part of the base for the Anglo-Norman breed, which was later to play a large role in the creation of the Selle Francais. It was also used in the creation and refinement of the Italian Heavy Draft, the post-World War II improvement of the Schleswig horse, and the creation of the early 19th-century Ardennes. Some equine scholars theorize that if the smaller Mareyeur had survived, it would have been an ideal horse to cross with the Thoroughbred or Anglo-Arabian to produce a warmblood for competition. In France, a breeding program has been developed by the National Stud to cross Boulonnais and Arabian horses to create a fast, alert driving horse, called the Araboulonnais. This breeding program also brings new blood into the Boulonnais line as, if an Araboulonnais mare is bred to a Boulonnais stallion, and a resulting filly is bred to another Boulonnais stallion, the third generation horse may be inducted into the purebred Boulonnais studbook if it passes an inspection.

The Boulonnais, also known as the "White Marble Horse", is a draft horse breed. It is known for its large but elegant appearance and is usually gray, although chestnut and black are also allowed by the French breed registry. Originally there were several sub-types, but they were crossbred until only one is seen today. The breed's origins trace to a period before the Crusades and, during the 17th century, Spanish Barb, Arabian, and Andalusian blood were added to create the modern type.