Biography.

Early years.

Ernesto Sabato was born on June 24, 1911, in Rojas, Buenos Aires Province, son of Francesco Sabato and Giovanna Maria Ferrari, Italian immigrants from Calabria. His father was from Fuscaldo, and his mother was an Arbëreshë (Albanian minority in Italy) from San Martino di Finita. He was the tenth of a total of eleven children. Being born after his ninth brother's death, he carried on his name "Ernesto".  In 1924 he finished primary school in Rojas and settled in the city of La Plata for his secondary education at the Colegio Nacional de La Plata. There he met professor Pedro Henríquez Ureña, an early inspiration for his writing career. In 1929 he started college, attending the School of Physics and Mathematics at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata.  He was an active member in the "Reforma Universitaria" movement, founding "Insurrexit Group" in 1933 – of communist ideals – together with Héctor P. Agosti, Ángel Hurtado de Mendoza and Paulino González Alberdi, among others.  In 1933 he was elected Secretario General of the Federación Juvenil Comunista (Communist Youth Federation). While attending a lecture about Marxism he met Matilde Kusminsky Richter, aged 17, who would leave her parents' house to live with Sabato.  In 1934 he started to doubt communism and Joseph Stalin's regime. The Communist Party of Argentina, which had noted this, sent him to the International Lenin School for two years. According to Sabato, "it was a place where either you recovered or ended up in a gulag or psychiatric hospital". Before arriving at Moscow, he traveled to Brussels as a delegate from the Communist Party of Argentina at the "Congress against Fascism and the War". Once there, fearing not coming back from Moscow, he left the congress to escape to Paris. It was there where he wrote his first novel: "La Fuente Muda", which remains unpublished. Once back in Buenos Aires, in 1936, he married Matilde Kusminsky Richter.

His years as a scientist.

In 1938 he obtained his PhD in physics from the Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Thanks to Bernardo Houssay, he was granted a research fellowship in atomic radiation at the Curie Institute in Paris. On May 25, 1938 Jorge Federico Sabato, his first son, was born. While in France he made contact with the surrealist movement, studying the works of Oscar Domínguez, Benjamin Péret, Roberto Matta Echaurren and Esteban Francés among others. This would have a deep influence on his future writing.  In 1939 he transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Once in 1940 he came back to Argentina intent on leaving physics behind. However, serving an obligation to those responsible for his fellowship Sabato started teaching at the Universidad de La Plata for Engineering admission, and relativity and quantum mechanics for post graduate degrees. In 1943, due to an "existential crisis", he left science for good to become a full-time writer and painter.  In 1945, his second son, Mario Sabato was born.

Writing career.

In 1941, Sabato published his first literary work, an article about "La invención de Morel" by Adolfo Bioy Casares, in the magazine "Teseo" from La Plata. Also, in concert with Pedro Henríquez Ureña, he published a collaboration in the renowned "Sur" magazine.  In 1942, working for "Sur" magazine reviewing books, he was put in charge of the "Calendario" section and participated in "Desagravio a Borges" in "Sur" no 94. He also published articles for "La Nación", and his translation of "The Birth and Death of the Sun" by George Gamow was published. The next year he published the translation for "The ABC of Relativity" by Bertrand Russell.  In 1945, his first book, "Uno y el Universo", a series of essays criticizing the apparent moral neutrality of science and warning about dehumanization processes in technological societies, was published; with time he would turn towards a libertarian and humanist standing. That same year he was awarded a prize by the municipality of Buenos Aires for his book and the honor wand of the Sociedad Argentina de Escritores.  In 1948, after being rejected by several Buenos Aires' editors, Sabato published in "Sur" his first novel, "El túnel", a psychological novel narrated in first-person. Framed in existentialism, it was met with enthusiastic reviews by Albert Camus, who had the book translated by Gallimard into French. It has been further translated to more than 10 languages. Others to enjoy the book included Thomas Mann. France's literary industry named his book "Abaddon, el Exterminador" ("The Angel of Darkness") as 1976's best foreign book.  In 1998 his wife died. In 1999 he acquired the Italian citizenship, in addition to his original Argentine one.  Sabato died in Santos Lugares, on April 30, 2011, two months short of his 100th birthday. His death was as a result of bronchitis according to his companion and collaborator Elvira González Fraga. World reaction to his death said he had "surpassed the world of literature to gain a more iconic status". "El Mundo" of Spain said he was "the last survivor of Argentine writers with a capital letter".

Tribute.

On 24 June 2019, on Sábato’s 108th birthday, he was honored with a Google Doodle.

Ernesto Sabato (June 24, 1911 – April 30, 2011) was an Argentine novelist, essayist, painter and physicist. According to the BBC he "won some of the most prestigious prizes in Hispanic literature" and "became very influential in the literary world throughout Latin America". Upon his death "El País" dubbed him the "last classic writer in Argentine literature".

Ernesto Sábato (24. června 1911, Rojas, Argentina – 30. dubna 2011, Santos Lugares, Argentina) byl argentinský spisovatel a esejista známý v Česku jako autor románů "Tunel" (El túnel, 1948), "O hrdinech a hrobech" (Sobre héroes y tumbas, 1961), "Abaddón zhoubce" (Abaddón el Exterminador, 1974) a několika knih esejů, jako např. u nás vydané knihy "Spisovatel a jeho přízraky" (El escritor y sus fantasmas (1963).


Features.

File sharing.

Yahoo! Messenger offered file sending capabilities to its users. Files could be up to 2 GB each. Since the software's relaunch, only certain media files can be shared: photos, animated GIFs and videos. It also allows album sharing, with multiple media files in one IM. The animated GIF feature integrates with Tumblr, owned by Yahoo!

Likes.

The new Yahoo! Messenger added a like button to messages and media. It was basic in functionality, adding a heart when clicked and listing contacts who added a like.

Unsend.

The new Yahoo! Messenger allowed messages to be unsent, deleting them from both the sender and the receiver's messaging page.

Group conversations (formerly Yahoo! Chat).

The new Yahoo! Messenger allowed private group conversations.  Yahoo! Chat was a free online chat room service provided exclusively for Yahoo! users. Yahoo! Chat was first launched on January 7, 1997. Yahoo! Chat was a separate vertical on Yahoo! In its original form, Yahoo! Chat was a user-to-user text chat service used by millions worldwide. Soon after launch, Yahoo! Chat partnered with NBC and NewsCorp to produce moderated Chat Events. Yahoo! Chat events eventually developed broadcast partnerships with 100+ entities and hosted 350+ events-a-month. Yahoo's Live Chat with the music group Hanson on July 21, 1998 was the Internet's largest live event to date. The blockbusters kept on with events including 3 Beatles (Paul, George, Ringo), a live event from Columbine during the tragedy (in partnership with Time Online), live chats from outer space with John Glenn and many others. Sadly, in one of Yahoo's poorer decisions, Yahoo! Chat Events were discontinued in 2001, right at the start of the social media era. On March 9, 1998, the first public version of Yahoo! Pager was released, with Yahoo! Chat among its features. It allowed users to create public chat rooms, send private messages, and use emoticons.  In June 2005, with no advance warning, Yahoo disabled users' ability to create their own chat rooms. The move came after KPRC-TV in Houston, Texas reported that many of the user-created rooms were geared toward pedophilia. The story prompted several advertisers, including Pepsi and Georgia-Pacific, to pull their ads from Yahoo.  On November 30, 2012, Yahoo announced that among other changes that the public chat rooms would be discontinued as of December 14, 2012. quoting "This will enable us to refocus our efforts on modernizing our core Yahoo products experiences and of course, create new ones."  Until the chat rooms became unavailable on December 14, 2012, all versions of Yahoo! Messenger could access Yahoo chat rooms.  Yahoo has since closed down the chat.yahoo.com site (first having it redirect visitors to a section of the Yahoo! Messenger page, but as of June 2019 not even resolving that host name anymore) because the great majority of chat users accessed it through Messenger. The company worked for a while on a way to allow users to create their own rooms while providing safeguards against abuse. A greyed-out option to "create a room" was available until the release of version 11.

Voice and video.

As of January 2014, the iOS version supported voice calls, with video calling on some devices. The Android version supported "voice & video calls (beta)".  From September 2016, Yahoo! Messenger no longer offered webcam service on their computer application. Yahoo's software previously allowed users with newer versions (8 through 10) to use webcams. This option enabled users from distances all over the world to view others who had installed a webcam on their end. The service was free with provided speeds averaging from a range in between 1 and 2 frames per second. The resolution of the images could be seen starting at 320×240 pixels or 160×120.

URI scheme.

Yahoo! Messenger's installation process automatically installs an extra uniform resource identifier (URI) scheme handler for the Yahoo! Messenger Protocol into some web browsers, so that URIs beginning codice_1 can open a new Yahoo! Messenger window with specified parameters. This is similar in function to the mailto URI scheme, which creates a new e-mail message using the system's default mail program. For instance, a web page might include a link like the following in its HTML source to open a window for sending a message to the YIM user "exampleuser":  Send Message  To specify a message body, the codice_2 parameter is used, so that the link location might look like this: ymsgr:sendim?exampleuser&m=This+is+my+message  Other commands are:

Interoperability.

On October 13, 2005, Yahoo and Microsoft announced plans to introduce interoperability between their two messengers, creating the second-largest real-time communications service userbase worldwide: 40 percent of all users. The announcement came after years of third-party interoperability success (most notably, Trillian and Pidgin) and criticisms that the major real-time communications services were locking their networks. Microsoft has also had talks with AOL in an attempt to introduce further interoperability, but AOL was unwilling to participate.  Interoperability between Yahoo and Windows Live Messenger was launched July 12, 2006. This allowed Yahoo and Windows Live Messenger users to chat to each other without the need to create an account on the other service, provided both contacts used the latest versions of the clients. It was not possible to talk using the voice service between the two different messengers.  As of December 14, 2012, the interoperability between Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger ceased to exist. The Live Messenger contacts appeared as greyed out and it was not possible to send instant messages to them.

Games.

There were various games and applications available that can be accessed via the conversation window by clicking the games icon and challenging your current contact. It requires Java to function.  As of April 18, 2014, games were removed from Yahoo! Messenger.

Plug-ins.

In version 8.0, Yahoo! Messenger featured the ability for users to create plug-ins, which are then hosted and showcased on the Yahoo chat room. Yahoo now no longer provides plugin development SDK.  Yahoo! Messenger users could listen to free and paid Internet radio services, using the defunct Yahoo! Music Radio plug-in from within the messenger window. The plug-in also player functionality, such as play, pause, skip and rate this song.

Adoption.

As of August 2000, according to Media Metrix, Yahoo! Messenger had about 10.6 million users in the U.S., about the same as MSN Messenger but trailing AOL Instant Messenger. However another analyst doubted the figures for Yahoo! and MSN.  As of the month of September 2001, over five billion instant messages were sent on the network, up 115% from the year before, according to Media Metrix. Another study in August 2002 showed that it had a 16.7 percent share of IM work and home subscribers in the U.S., compared to 24.1 percent for MSN and 28.3 percent for AIM.  In April 2002, 19.1 million people in the U.S. used Yahoo! Messenger, according to Media Metrix. Another study from Nielsen Net Ratings showed that as of 2002, Yahoo! Messenger had some 12 million users worldwide. This increased to 22 million by March 2006.  Yahoo! Messenger was the dominant instant messaging platform among commodity traders until the platform was discontinued in August 2016.  At the time of Yahoo! Messenger's closure in 2018, it remained popular in Vietnam.

Software.

As of 2018 (with the last version), Yahoo! Messenger was available for computers as a web service, including both a messenger-only site and Yahoo! Mail integration. Apps were also available on Android and iOS. Pidgin could connect to Yahoo! Messenger by using the FunYahoo++ plugin.  The following are the final releases for Yahoo! Messenger's original client:  As of March 27, 2016, the only supported clients were the Android, iOS and web browser clients. The previous Windows, Mac, Unix and Solaris clients were not supported anymore, and their servers began shutting down on August 5, 2016, with the clients no longer working by August 31, 2016. It turned out that the servers for the legacy clients were finally shut down sometime between the mid-morning and early afternoon hours Eastern Standard Time on September 1, 2016, resulting in the legacy desktop clients no longer being able to access their buddy/contact lists.  Mobile versions of Yahoo! Messenger were launched originally for Palm OS and Windows CE devices. In a deal signed March 2000, Yahoo! Messenger would come bundled on Palm handheld computers. It was also available for Verizon Wireless customers, through a deal with Yahoo! announced in March 2001, and through Sprint's MiniBrowser. A version for the T-Mobile Sidekick II was released in 2004. This was to be followed by versions for Symbian (via Yahoo! Go), BlackBerry, and then for iPhone in April 2009. A version called Yahoo! Messenger for SMS also existed, which allowed IM via SMS.

History.

Yahoo! Pager launched on March 9, 1998, an instant messaging (IM) client integrated with Yahoo! services including Yahoo! Chat. It included basic messaging support, a buddy list with status message support, the ability to block other users, alerts when a buddies came online, and notifications when a new Yahoo! Mail message arrived. In 2000, the name changed to Yahoo! Messenger.  Version 5.0, released November 2001, introduced IMVironments, an initiative that allowed users to play music and Flash Video clips inside the IM window. Yahoo! partnered with rock band Garbage that provided their single "Androgyny" available to share by users. Other partnerships also made IMVironments for the "Monsters, Inc." movie, the "Super Smash Bros Melee" video game, and the Hello Kitty character, among others.  In August 2002 with the release of version 5.5, the resolution for video calling was increased to a possible 320x240 and 20 frames per second (up from 160x120 and 1 frame per second).  From October 2002, Yahoo! offered for corporate subscribers a more secure and better (SSL) encrypted IM client, called Yahoo! Messenger Enterprise Edition. It was released with a $30 yearly subscription package in 2003.  Yahoo! Messenger version 6.0 was released in May 2004. It added games, music, photos, and Yahoo! Search, alongside a "stealth" mode. It also debuted Yahoo! Avatars.  With the release of version 7.0 in August 2005, the client was now renamed to Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. It had several new features such as VoIP, voicemail, drag-and-drop file and photo sharing, Yahoo! 360° and LAUNCHcast integration, and others. It was seen as a challenger against Skype.  On October 12, 2005, Yahoo! and Microsoft formed an alliance in which Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger (later known as Windows Live Messenger) will be interconnected, allowing users of both communities to communicate and share emoticons and buddy lists with each other. The service was enabled on Yahoo! Messenger with Voice 8.0 in July 2006. As of version 8.1, the name switched back to just Yahoo! Messenger. Beginning in 2006, Yahoo made known its intention to provide a web interface for Yahoo! Messenger, culminating in the Gmail-like web archival and indexing of chat conversations through Yahoo! Mail. However, while Yahoo! Mail integrated much of the rudimentary features of Messenger beginning in 2007, Yahoo did not succeed initially in integrating archival of chat conversations into Mail. Instead, a separate Adobe Flex-based web messenger was released in 2007 with archival of conversations which take place inside the web messenger itself. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2007, Yahoo! Messenger for Vista was introduced, which is a version designed and optimized for Windows Vista. It exploited the new design elements of Vista's Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and introduced a new user interface and features. The application was in a preview beta until finally released for download on December 6, 2007. As of October 24, 2008, Yahoo! Messenger for Vista is no longer available.  In May 2007, Yahoo! Messenger for the Web was launched, a browser-based client of the IM service.  Yahoo! Messenger version 9 was released in September 2008. It allows the viewing of YouTube videos within the chat window, and integrates with other Yahoo! services such as Flickr. This version also saw the release of Pingbox, which embeds on a blog or website and allows visitors to send IM texts anonymously without needing Yahoo! Messenger software or to sign in. Version 10, released November 2009, incorporates many bug fixes and features high-quality video calling.  The last major Windows client release, version 11 in 2011, featured integration with Facebook, Twitter and Zynga, allowing chat with Facebook friends and playing Zynga games within. It also archives past messages on an online server which is accessible through the client. Version 11.5 (released November 2011) added tabbed IMs.  In December 2015, an all-new, rewritten Yahoo! Messenger was launched, only on mobile and through a browser. A desktop version of the "new" Messenger was later released, shortly before the "legacy" Messenger shut down on August 5, 2016.

Yahoo! Together.

Yahoo! Together was a freeware and cross-platform messaging service, developed by Yahoo! for the Android and iOS mobile platforms. The software was introduced in beta on May 8, 2018 as Yahoo! Squirrel to replace Yahoo! Messenger and Verizon Media's AOL Instant Messenger. In October 2018, it was renamed to its present name.  Yahoo! Together was targeted to families and the consumer market rather than enterprise. The app was compared to Slack. Less than a year after its public beta release, Yahoo! Together went offline on April 4, 2019.

Third-party clients.

Third-party clients could also be used to access the original service. These included:

SPIM.

Yahoo! Messenger users are subject to unsolicited messages (SPIM). Yahoo's primary solution to the issue involves deleting such messages and placing the senders on an Ignore List. , it was estimated that at least 75% of all users who used Yahoo chat rooms were bots. Yahoo introduced a CAPTCHA system to help filter out bots from joining chat rooms, but such systems generally do little to prevent abuse by spammers.

Security.

On November 4, 2014, the Electronic Frontier Foundation listed Yahoo! Messenger on its "Secure Messaging Scorecard". Yahoo! Messenger received 1 out of 7 points on the scorecard. It received a point for encryption during transit, but missed points because communications were not encrypted with a key the provider didn't have access to (i.e. the communications were not end-to-end encrypted), users couldn't verify contacts' identities, past messages were not secure if the encryption keys were stolen (i.e. the service did not provide forward secrecy), the code was not open to independent review (i.e. the source code was not open-source), the security design was not properly documented, and there had not been a recent independent security audit.  The British intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)'s secret mass surveillance program Optic Nerve and National Security Agency (NSA) were reported to be indiscriminately collecting still images from Yahoo webcam streams from millions of mostly innocent Yahoo webcam users from 2008 to 2010, among other things creating a database for facial recognition for future use. Optic Nerve took a still image from the webcam stream every 5 minutes.  In September 2016, "The New York Times" reported that Yahoo's security team, led by Alex Stamos, had pressed for Yahoo to adopt end-to-end encryption sometime between 2014 and 2015, but this had been resisted by Jeff Bonforte, Yahoo's senior vice president, "because it would have hurt Yahoo's ability to index and search message data".

Yahoo! Messenger (sometimes abbreviated Y!M) was an advertisement-supported instant messaging client and associated protocol provided by Yahoo!. Yahoo! Messenger was provided free of charge and could be downloaded and used with a generic "Yahoo ID" which also allowed access to other Yahoo! services, such as Yahoo! Mail. The service also offered VoIP, file transfers, webcam hosting, a text messaging service, and chat rooms in various categories.

Yahoo! Messenger byl instant messaging systém umožňující komunikaci prostřednictvím výměny textových zpráv, video přenos, chat, sdílení fotek, volání a další. Tento protokol byl spjat s americkým portálem Yahoo!. Oficiální klient byl poskytován pro operační systémy Windows, Linux a macOS, protokol podporovali také další komunikační programy jako Gaim, Miranda IM a Trillian. Služba Yahoo! Messenger byla ukončena ke dni 17. července 2018.


Early life.

Tumultuous childhood.

Elisabeth was the daughter of Albert II of Germany, Archduke of Austria, and his wife Elizabeth of Luxembourg, daughter of Emperor Sigismund. The exact date of her birth is unknown and has been variously provided between 1436 and early 1439. Her elder brother was born in February 1435. Polish chronicler Jan Długosz mentioned that Polish envoys traveled to Vienna in autumn 1436 to negotiate with Emperor Sigismund a marriage between his granddaughters, Anne and Elisabeth, who were considered heirs to the thrones of Bohemia and Hungary, and Polish princes Władysław and Casimir. While the negotiations ended without a decisive agreement, they allowed historians to conclude that Elisabeth was born in the first half of 1436.  Elisabeth's early life was marked by political turmoil. After the death of Emperor Sigismund in December 1437, Elisabeth's father was crowned as King of Hungary and Bohemia. His Bohemian title was challenged by the Hussites who promoted Polish prince Casimir IV Jagiellon as their king and a war erupted. Polish diplomats continued to pursue the plan for a marriage between Casimir and Elisabeth, who would bring Bohemia as a dowry. King Albert received the diplomats coolly as he had no intentions of surrendering his claims to Bohemia. In March 1439, Elisabeth's sister, Anne, was betrothed to William III, Landgrave of Thuringia, son of Frederick I, Elector of Saxony, and was sent to live at the Saxonian court.  King Albert died in October 1439 after a brief campaign against the Ottoman Empire. His pregnant widow considered herself to be the only rightful heir of Emperor Sigismund and fought to crown her son Ladislaus the Posthumous as King of Hungary while Hungarian nobles selected Polish King Władysław III. Princess Elisabeth's nanny Helene Kottannerin stole the Holy Crown of Hungary and brought it to Queen Elisabeth in Komárno. Three-month-old Ladislaus was crowned on 15 May 1440, but that did not stop the civil war. For their safety and protection, the two children of Albert and Elisabeth were placed in care of Frederick III, elected but not crowned Holy Roman Emperor. As part of the agreement Elisabeth was betrothed to Frederick, nephew of Frederick III and son of Frederick II, Elector of Saxony, and Margaret of Austria.

At the emperor's court.

Elisabeth and Ladislaus were initially cared by Anna von Pottendorf at the Forchtenstein Castle. When Queen Elisabeth died in December 1442, Emperor Frederick III continued to care for the orphans who spent most of their time in Graz and Wiener Neustadt. The opposition accused the Emperor of neglecting the children, but that could be just political propaganda. Emperor Frederick III was known to be emotionally distant and frugal, but he also provided both children with good education. Enea Silvio Piccolomini, the emperor's secretary and future Pope Pius II, wrote "De liberorum educatione" as instruction for educating the children.  A 1973 study of Elisabeth's remains revealed that she most likely had spinal tuberculosis at a young age. That left her skeleton visibly deformed: s-shaped spine, misaligned jaws, head cocked to the right, deformed thorax. The permanent tilt of her head led to stunted development of the right side of her face. Her face was narrow with a large chin. However, as her later life and frequent pregnancies showed, she was of overall good health.  In 1447, Frederick III proposed to marry Elisabeth to Charles, son of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. Philip had purchased Luxembourg from Elisabeth of Bohemia. Frederick III offered 70,000 ducats, as dowry of Elisabeth, in exchange for Luxembourg, but Philip demanded 120,000 ducats and the negotiations fell through. For unknown reasons, Elisabeth's scheduled wedding to Frederick of Saxony, negotiated by her mother Queen Elisabeth, did not take place despite a wedding treaty signed in July 1450.  After the death of Władysław III of Poland in the Battle of Varna in 1444, Hungarian nobles recognized Elisabeth's brother Ladislaus the Posthumous as their king. However, the Emperor refused to allow Ladislaus to leave his court. Political ambitions of Ulrich II, Count of Celje, cousin of Queen Elisabeth, led him to demand release of the children into his custody. In December 1451, when the Emperor traveled to Rome to be officially crowned as the Holy Roman Emperor, he took Ladislaus with him but left Elisabeth in Vienna. Austrian nobles rebelled against Frederick III and transferred Elisabeth into the care of Ulrich. Elisabeth made a tearful public appeal in a city square calling for help to her and her brother, neglected and held virtual captive by the Emperor. When Frederick III returned in June 1452, Austrian nobles forced him to release Ladislaus to Ulrich in September 1452.

Polish queen.

Wedding and family life.

In August 1452, preparing for the Thirteen Years' War (1454–66) with the Teutonic Knights, the Poles sent an embassy to Vienna to once again negotiate marriage between Elisabeth and now-King Casimir IV of Poland. Ulrich II, Count of Celje, who now had custody of Elisabeth, received the proposal favorably and sent two of his men to Poland. The formal wedding agreement was reached in August 1453 in Wrocław in presence of Polish and Austrian nobles. According to the agreement, Elisabeth's dowry, guaranteed by her brother King Ladislaus the Posthumous, was 100,000 Hungarian golden coins. The dowry was secured by lands in Austria, Hungary and Bohemia. In turn, Casimir guaranteed Koło, Opoczno, Przedecz as well as a monthly sum of 5,000 golden coins from the Bochnia and Wieliczka Salt Mines. Elisabeth had to renounce her claims to lands of Austrian rulers; the renunciation would not apply if her brother Ladislaus died without a male heir.  Elisabeth's dowry was not paid immediately and that gave her a pretext to claim the Hungarian and Bohemian crowns. Eventually, Elisabeth received two thirds of her dowry – it was paid in 1471 and 1472 by Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor. The third of her dowry secured by lands in Bohemia was forgiven when her son Vladislaus II became King of Bohemia. Casimir compensated for the delayed dowry and provided his wife with financial security when in December 1461, after the death of Queen Sophia, he transferred a number of royal lands in Sophia's possessions to Elisabeth, including Korczyn, Wiślica, Żarnowiec, Radom, Jedlnia, Kozienice, Chęciny, Łęczyca, Kłodawa, Pyzdry, Konin, Inowrocław. In 1467, she renounced her claim to the Duchy of Luxembourg to Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, whose father had bought the territory in 1443 from Elisabeth, Duchess of Luxembourg.  Elisabeth arrived to Poland in February 1454 with a retinue of nine hundred riders. Reportedly, Casimir was informed that Elisabeth was not an attractive lady and was reconsidering the marriage, but bowed to the pressure of his court. On February 9, Elisabeth arrived to Kraków and was met by Casimir and his mother Sophia of Halshany. The next day, 18-year-old Elisabeth married 27-year-old Casimir and was crowned Queen of Poland. Their 38-year marriage was happy and Elisabeth, despite frequent pregnancies, accompanied her husband on almost all travels, including about thirty visits to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. They would separate infrequently and for short periods of time when Casimir lived on war camps. Their first child, Vladislaus II, was born on 1 March 1456 – two years after the wedding. She gave birth to seven children in ten years. The children received extensive education, which was credited to Elisabeth by Marcin Kromer. Their tutors included Polish priest Jan Długosz and Italian humanist Filippo Buonaccorsi.  Queen Elisabeth had influence on her husband Casimir, but she did not play a more active role in politics. Instead, Elisabeth was very actively involved in arranging her daughters' marriages. Her influence was particularly evident during the negotiations for the marriage of her daughter Hedwig to George, Duke of Bavaria in December 1474. When Elisabeth's demands exceeded authority of Bavarian envoys, instead of sending the envoys back to discuss the demands with the Duke of Bavaria, Elisabeth took the responsibility for her demands and wrote a letter to the Duke asking him not to punish the envoys. Elisabeth did not arrange her sons' marriages and none of her sons under her influence married young: Casimir (died at age 26) and John Albert (died at age 41) never married, while Sigismund married at 47. Only Alexander, who lived in Lithuania, and Vladislaus, who lived in Bohemia, married while Elisabeth was alive.

Struggle for Hungary and Bohemia.

After the 1457 death of Elisabeth's childless brother, King Ladislaus the Posthumous, she and her family started to advance their claims to the thrones of Bohemia and Hungary. The Poles argued that since Elisabeth's dowry was unpaid, she was entitled to the Hungarian and Bohemian lands. However, the Golden Bull of 1356 did not recognize women's inheritance rights and Hungarian and Bohemian nobles considered their monarchy to be elective, not hereditary. Therefore, they elected Matthias Corvinus and George of Poděbrady. Since Poland was engaged in the Thirteen Years' War (1454–66), King Casimir could not enforce Elisabeth's claims. However, that did not stop political measures. In 1466, Bishop Rudolf of Rüdesheim informed Elisabeth that Pope Paul II considered George of Poděbrady to be a heretic and Elisabeth a rightful heir to the throne of Bohemia. When Matthias Corvinus proposed to Elisabeth's daughter Hedwig in 1468, Elisabeth angrily refused and called Corvinus a 'dog'.  A new chapter in Elisabeth's struggle for her inheritance began with the death of Poděbrady in 1471, Elisabeth's son Vladislaus II became King of Bohemia. At the same time a group of Catholic Bohemian nobles supported Corvinus instead of Vladislaus II. In turn, a group of Hungarian nobles conspired against Corvinus and invited the Polish king to overthrow him. With Bohemia in Vladislaus' hands, King Casimir IV decided to install his son, future Saint Casimir, in Hungary. Polish army invaded Hungary, but the army was ill-supplied and the short Hungarian campaign was not successful. The war in Bohemia continued until the Peace of Olomouc divided Bohemia between Corvinus and Vladislaus II.  After the death of Corvinus in April 1490, Casimir and Elisabeth supported their son John I Albert as King of Hungary. Hungarian nobles preferred ineffectual Vladislaus II. After Elisabeth's pleas on behalf of John Albert, who reportedly was her favorite, failed to persuade Vladislaus II to abandon the Hungarian crown, a war erupted between the two brothers in June 1490 and lasted until January 1492. John Albert lost and returned to Poland, while Vladislaus II was crowned as King of Hungary. At last, Elisabeth's son ruled both Hungary and Bohemia, except that it was not the son she desired. Hungary and Bohemia were ruled by Vladislaus and his son Louis II of Hungary until 1526.

Queen mother.

King Casimir died on 7 June 1492. Art historians believe that she hired artist Veit Stoss to create Casimir's tomb and recumbent effigy. The Lithuanian throne was already secured by Alexander Jagiellon who acted as his father's regent in Lithuania since 1490. Elisabeth took decisive actions to secure the Polish throne to her favorite son John I Albert – she wrote letters to Teutonic Grand Master Johann von Tiefen, her sons Vladislaus II and Alexander campaigning on behalf of John Albert. More importantly, she borrowed 5,675 florins from the Fischel banking family and hired a group of Hungarian soldiers. These soldiers, led by Elisabeth's son Fryderyk, marched to Piotrków Trybunalski where Polish nobles elected John Albert as their King on 27 August. The personal union between Poland and Lithuania was temporarily interrupted.  Widowed, Elisabeth led a sedentary life in Kraków in company of her youngest daughters Barbara and Elisabeth. She was not involved in state politics. Her only known political move during the reign of John Albert was asking the King to support Frederick of Saxony in his quest for the title of Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights. However, she continued to take an active role in family matters. In early 1495, she traveled to Vilnius to attend the wedding of her son Alexander and Helena of Moscow. Elisabeth wanted to convince Helena to convert from Eastern Orthodoxy to Catholicism and to obtain a position for her son Sigismund. She failed in both regards and left Lithuania angered and insulted – perhaps because of this dislike she was passive when John Albert suddenly died in 1501, and did not take any more prominent actions to support Alexander as a candidate to the Polish throne.  In 1496, she arranged the marriage of Barbara to George, Duke of Saxony. Elisabeth was left with only her youngest daughter, also named Elisabeth, as her companion in Kraków. Perhaps with his mother's help Sigismund obtained the Duchy of Głogów from his brother Vladislaus II in 1499. In 1503, she funded a chapel within Wawel Cathedral to house the tomb of her son John Albert by Florentine artist Francesco Fiorentino. She also sent a Polish governess to Vladislaus II when he was expecting his first child Anne. Elisabeth opposed the marriage of her youngest daughter Elisabeth to Bogdan III, Voivode of Moldavia. Instead, in 1504 and 1505 Queen Elisabeth assigned her lands and income to ensure her daughter's financial independence; Princess Elisabeth also inherited the bulk of Queen's wealth.  Elisabeth became ill in 1505, but her symptoms are unknown. She died on 30 August 1505. She was buried on 21 September in Wawel Cathedral next to her husband and two daughters.

Issue.

Casimir and Elisabeth had the following children:

Elizabeth of Austria (, ; ; c. 1436 – 30 August 1505) was the wife of King Casimir IV of Poland and thus Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania. Orphaned at an early age, she spent her childhood in the court of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III. As one of the three surviving grandchildren of Emperor Sigismund, she had a strong claim to the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia. That made her an attractive bride for a Polish prince. The Polish nobility, seeking to increase Polish influence in Hungary and Bohemia, pursued marriage with Elizabeth since she was born and finally succeeded in 1454. Her marriage to Casimir was one of the most successful royal marriages in Poland. She gave birth to thirteen children, eleven of whom survived to adulthood. Four of her sons were crowned as kings.

Alžběta Habsburská (1436, Vídeň – 30. srpna 1505, Krakov, Polsko) byla dcera Albrechta II. Habsburského a Alžběty Lucemburské byla polskou královnou a litevskou velkokněžnou. Je zvána "matkou králů" – čtyři z jejích synů se stali králi a její dcery byly svými manželskými svazky spojeny s většinou tehdy panujících evropských dynastií.


Types of DXing.

AM radio DX.

Early radio listeners, often using home made crystal sets and long wire antennas, found radio stations few and far between. With the broadcast bands uncrowded, signals of the most powerful stations could be heard over hundreds of miles, but weaker signals required more precise tuning or better receiving gear.  By the 1950s, and continuing through the mid-1970s, many of the most powerful North American "clear channel" stations such as KDKA, WLW, CKLW, CHUM, WABC, WJR, WLS, WKBW, KFI, KAAY, KSL and a host of border blasters from Mexico pumped out Top 40 music played by popular disc jockeys. As most smaller, local AM radio stations had to sign off at night, the big 50 kW stations had loyal listeners hundreds of miles away.  The popularity of DXing the medium-wave band has diminished as the popular music formats quickly migrated to the clearer, though less propagating, FM radio beginning in the 1970s. Meanwhile, the MW band in the United States was getting more and more crowded with new stations and existing stations receiving FCC authorization to operate at night. In Canada, just the opposite occurred as AM stations began moving to FM beginning in the 1980s and continuing through today.  Outside of the Americas and Australia, most AM radio broadcasting was in the form of synchronous networks of government-operated stations, operating with hundreds, even thousands of kilowatts of power. Still, the lower powered stations and occasional trans-oceanic signal were popular DX targets.

Shortwave DX.

Especially during wartime and times of conflict, reception of international broadcasters, whose signals propagate around the world on the shortwave bands has been popular with both casual listeners and DXing hobbyists.  With the rise in popularity of streaming audio over the internet, many international broadcasters (including the BBC and Voice of America) have cut back on their shortwave broadcasts. Missionary religious broadcasters still make extensive use of shortwave radio to reach less developed countries around the world.  In addition to international broadcasters, the shortwave bands also are home to military communications, RTTY, amateur radio, pirate radio, and the mysterious broadcasts of numbers stations. Many of these signals are transmitted in single side band mode, which requires the use of specialized receivers more suitable to DXing than to casual listening.

VHF DXing.

Though sporadic in nature, signals on the FM broadcast and VHF television bands – especially those stations at the lower end of these bands – can "skip" for hundreds, even thousands of miles. North American FM stations have been received in Western Europe, and European TV signals have been received on the West Coast of the U.S.  Police, fire, and military communications on the VHF bands are also DX'ed to some extent on multi-band radio scanners, though they are mainly listened to strictly on a local basis. One difficulty is in identifying the exact origins of communications of this nature, as opposed to commercial broadcasters which must identify themselves at the top of each hour, and can often be identified through mentions of sponsors, slogans, etc. throughout their programming.

Amateur radio DX.

Amateur radio operators who specialize in making two way radio contact with other amateurs in distant countries are also referred to as "DXers". On the HF (also known as shortwave) amateur bands, DX stations are those in foreign countries. On the VHF/UHF amateur bands, DX stations can be within the same country or continent, since making a long-distance VHF contact, without the help of a satellite, can be very difficult. DXers collect QSL cards as proof of contact and can earn special certificates and awards from amateur radio organizations.  In addition, many clubs offer awards for communicating with a certain number of DX stations. For example, the ARRL offers the DX Century Club award, or DXCC. The basic certificate is awarded for working and confirming at least 100 entities on the ARRL DXCC List. For award purposes, other areas than just political countries can be classified as "DX countries". For example, the French territory of Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean is counted as a DX country, even though it is a region of France. The rules for determining what is a DX country can be quite complex and to avoid potential confusion, radio amateurs often use the term "entity" instead of country. In addition to entities, some awards are based on island groups in the world's oceans. On the VHF/UHF bands, many radio amateurs pursue awards based on Maidenhead grid locators.  In order to give other amateurs a chance to confirm contacts at new or exotic locations, amateurs have mounted DXpeditions to countries or regions that have no permanent base of amateur radio operators. There are also frequent contests where radio amateurs operate their stations on certain dates for a fixed period of time to try to communicate with as many DX stations as possible.

DX Clubs.

Many radio enthusiasts are members of DX clubs. There are many DX clubs in many countries around the world. They are useful places to find information about up-to-date news relating to international radio. Many people also enjoy social events, which can form a large part of the enjoyment that people can get out of the radio hobby.

QSL cards.

One of the interesting sides of DXing as a hobby is collecting QSL cards (acknowledgement cards from the broadcaster) confirming the listener's reception report (sometimes called SINPO report, see next section).  Usually a QSL card will have a picture on one side and the reception data on the other. Most of the broadcasters will use pictures and messages indicating their country's culture or technological life.

SINPO report.

SINPO stands for the following qualities, graded on a scale of 1 to 5, where '1' means the quality was very bad and '5' very good.  S – Signal strength I – Interference with other stations or broadcasters N – Noise ratio in the received signal P – Propagation (ups and downs of the reception) O – Overall merit  Although this is a subjective measure, with practice the grading becomes more consistent, and a particular broadcast may be assessed by several listeners from the same area, in which case the broadcaster could assess correspondence between reports.  After listening to a broadcast, the listener writes a report with SINPO values, typically including his geographical location (called QTH in amateur radio terminology) in longitude and latitude, the types of receiver and antennae used, the frequency the transmission was heard on, a brief description of the programme listened to, their opinion about it, suggestions if any, and so on.  The listener can send the report to the broadcaster either by post or email, and request verification (QSL) from them.  Variants of this report are: a) the SIO report which omits the Noise and Propagation, b) grading on a scale of 1 to 3 (instead of 1 to 5) and c) the SINFO report where the F stands for fading.

DX Communication.

DX communication is communication over large or relatively uncommon distances. On the UHF or VHF bands which are typically used for short range or line of sight communications, DX may represent communication with stations 50 or 100 miles away. The UHF and microwave bands have also been used to accomplish Earth–Moon–Earth communication between stations worldwide. On the low frequency bands (30 to 300 kHz), contacts between stations separated by more than 100 miles are often considered DX.  Among amateur radio operators and shortwave listeners, most traditional DX communication occurs on the HF bands, where the ionosphere is used to refract the transmitted radio beam. The beam returns to the Earth's surface, and may then be reflected back into the ionosphere for a second bounce. Ionospheric refraction is generally only feasible for frequencies below about 50 MHz, and is highly dependent upon atmospheric conditions, the time of day, and the eleven-year sunspot cycle. It is also affected by solar storms and some other solar events, which can alter the Earth's ionosphere by ejecting a shower of charged particles.  The angle of refraction places a minimum on the distance at which the refracted beam will first return to Earth. This distance increases with frequency. As a result, any station employing DX will be surrounded by an annular "dead zone" where they can't hear other stations or be heard by them.  This is the phenomenon that allows short wave radio reception to occur beyond the limits of line of sight. It is utilized by amateur radio enthusiasts (hams), shortwave broadcast stations (such as BBC and Voice of America) and others, and is what allows one to hear AM (MW) stations from areas far from their location. It is one of the backups to failure of long distance communication by satellites, when their operation is affected by electromagnetic storms from the sun.  For example, in clear ionosphere conditions, one can hear France Inter on 711 kHz, far into the UK and as far as Reading, Berkshire. It is also possible to hear Radio Australia from Melbourne as far away as Lansing, Michigan, a distance of some 9835 miles (15,827 kilometers).

DXing equipment.

Radio equipment used in DXing ranges from inexpensive portable receivers to deluxe equipment costing thousands of dollars. Using just a simple AM radio, one can easily hear signals from the most powerful stations propagating hundreds of miles at night. Even inexpensive shortwave radio receivers can receive signals emanating from several countries during any time of day.  Serious hobbyists use more elaborate receivers designed specifically for pulling in distant signals, and often build their own antennas designed for a specific frequency band. There is much discussion and debate in the hobby about the relative merits of lesser priced shortwave receivers vs. their multi-thousand dollar "big brother" radios. In general, a good desktop or "PC Radio" will be able to "hear" just about what a very expensive high-performance receiver can receive. The difference between the two types comes into play during difficult band or reception conditions. The expensive receiver will have more filtering options and usually better adjacent channel interference blocking, sometimes resulting in the difference of being able to receive or not receive a signal under poor conditions. Reception of international broadcasting seldom shows a noticeable difference between the two radios. Car radios are also used for DXing the broadcast bands.  Another recent trend is for the hobbyist to employ multiple radios and antennas connected to a personal computer. Through advanced radio control software, the radios can be automatically ganged together, so that tuning one radio can tune all the others in the group. This DXing technique is sometimes referred to as diversity reception and facilitates easy "A to B" comparison of different antennas and receivers for a given signal. For more details on "PC Radios" or computer controlled shortwave receivers see the discussion in Shortwave listening.  Having a minimum of two dipole antennas at right angles to each other (for example, one running north–south and one running east–west) can produce dramatically different reception patterns. These simple antennas can be made for a few dollars worth of wire and a couple of insulators.

DXing is the hobby of receiving and identifying distant radio or television signals, or making two-way radio contact with distant stations in amateur radio, citizens' band radio or other two-way radio communications. Many DXers also attempt to obtain written verifications of reception or contact, sometimes referred to as "QSLs" or "veries". The name of the hobby comes from DX, telegraphic shorthand for "distance" or "distant".

Jako DX-ing se nazývá hobby aktivita ladění a identifikace dálkových rádiových signálů. Nadšenci, kteří ho provozují, jsou sdruženi v různých zájmových seskupeních, např. Československý DX klub. Při této činnosti, která probíhá na všech pásmech (VKV, KV, DV aj.), jsou nejvíce oceňovány nejvzdálenější stanice s nízkými výkony. Název "DX-ing" pochází z telegrafické zkratky "DX" znamenající "vzdálenost" nebo "vzdálený", přesněji (DX = z angl. distance x – neznámá vzdálenost).


Terminology.

The toponym "maghrib" is a geographical term that the Muslim Arabs gave to the region extending from Alexandria in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. Etymologically it means both "the western place/land" and "the place where the sun sets". It is composed of the prefix "m−", which makes a noun out of the verb root, and غرب (gharaba, "to set", as in "setting sun").  Muslim historians and geographers divided the region into three areas: "al-Maghrib al-Adna" (the near Maghrib), which included the lands extending from Alexandria to Tarabulus (modern-day Tripoli) in the west; "al-Maghrib al-Awsat" (the middle Maghrib), which extended from Tripoli to Bijaya (Béjaïa); and "al-Maghrib al-Aqsa" (the far Maghrib), which extended from Tahart (Tiaret) to the Atlantic Ocean. They disagreed, however, over the definition of the eastern boundary. Some authors place it at the sea of Kulzum (the Red Sea) and thus include Egypt and the country of Barca in the Maghrib. Ibn Khaldun does not accept this definition because, he says, the inhabitants of the Maghreb do not consider Egypt and Barca as forming part of Maghrib. The latter commences only at the province of Tripoli and includes the districts of which the country of the Berbers was composed in former times. Later Maghribi writers repeated the definition of Ibn Khaldun, with a few variations in details.  Speakers of Berber languages call this region "Tamazɣa" or "Tamazgha", which translates to "land of the Berbers"). Since the second half of the twentieth century, this term has been popularized by activists promoting Berberism.

History.

Prehistory.

Around 3,500 BC, changes in the tilt of the Earth's orbit appear to have caused a rapid desertification of the Sahara region forming a natural barrier that severely limited contact between the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa. The Berber people have inhabited western North Africa since at least 10,000 BC.

Antiquity.

Partially isolated from the rest of the continent by the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara desert, inhabitants of the northern parts of the Berber world have long had commercial and cultural ties across the Mediterranean Sea to the inhabitants of the regions of Southern Europe and Western Asia. These trade relations can be dated at least to the Phoenicians in the 1st millennium BC. (The Phoenician colony of Carthage was founded, according to tradition, in what is now Tunisia circa 800 BC).  The Berbers predominantly constructed their coastal ports and cities. Later, some Phoenicians and Carthaginians arrived for trade. The main Berber and Phoenician settlements centered in the Gulf of Tunis (Carthage, Utica, Tunisia) along the North African littoral, between the Pillars of Hercules and the Libyan coast east of ancient Cyrenaica. They dominated the trade and intercourse of the Western Mediterranean for centuries. The Carthage defeat in the Punic Wars in 206 BC allowed Rome to establish the Province of Africa and control many of these ports. Rome eventually took control of the entire Maghreb north of the Atlas Mountains. Rome was greatly helped by the defection of King Massinissa and Carthage's eastern Numidian Massylii client-allies. Some of the most mountainous regions, such as the Moroccan Rif, remained outside Rome's control. The pressure put on the Western Roman Empire by the Barbarian invasions (the Vandals and Spain) in the 5th century reduced Roman control and led to the establishment of the Vandal Kingdomin 430 A.D. with its capital at Carthage. A century later, the Byzantine emperor Justinian I sent a force under General Belisarius that succeeded in destroying the Vandal Kingdom. Byzantine rule lasted for 150 years. The Berbers contested outside-the-area control. After the advent of Islam in the 640s–700 AD period, Arabs took control of the entire region.

Middle Ages.

The Arabs reached the Maghreb in early Umayyad times. Islamic Berber kingdoms such as the Almohads expansion and the spread of Islam contributed to the development of trans-Saharan trade. While restricted due to the cost and dangers, the trade was highly profitable. Commodities traded included such goods as salt, gold, ivory, and enslaved persons from sub-Saharan regions. Arab control over the Maghreb was quite weak. Various Islamic variations, such as the Ibadis and the Shia, were adopted by some Berbers, often leading to scorning of Caliphal control in favour of their own interpretation of Islam.  As a result of the invasion of the Banu Hilal Arabs, the Arabic language and dialects spread slowly without eliminating Berber. These Arabs had been set upon the Berbers by the Fatimids in punishment for their Zirid former Berber clients who defected and abandoned Shiism in the 12th century. Throughout this period, the Berber world most often was divided into three states, roughly corresponding to modern Morocco, western Algeria, and eastern Algeria and Tunisia. The region was occasionally briefly unified, as under the Almohad Berber empire, and briefly under the Marinids.

Modern history.

After the 19th century, areas of the Maghreb were colonized by France, Spain and later Italy.  Today, more than two and a half million Maghrebi immigrants live in France, many from Algeria and Morocco. In addition, as of 1999 there were 3 million French of Maghrebi origin (defined as having at least one grandparent from Algeria, Morocco or Tunisia). A 2003 estimate suggests six million French residents were ethnic Maghrebi.

Population.

The Maghreb is primarily inhabited by peoples of Berber ancestral origin. Berbers are autochthonous to Algeria (80%), Libya (>60%), Morocco (80%), and Tunisia (>88%). Ethnic French, Arab, West African, and Sephardic Jewish populations also inhabit the region.  Various other influences are also prominent throughout the Maghreb. In northern coastal towns in particular, several waves of European immigrants influenced the population in the Medieval era. Most notable were the moriscos and muladies, that is, the indigenous Spaniards (Moors) who were forcibly converted to Catholicism and later expelled, together with ethnic Arab and Berber Muslims, during the Spanish Catholic Reconquista. Other European contributions included French, Italian, and English crews and passengers taken captive by corsairs. In some cases, they were returned to families after being ransomed; in others, they were used as slaves or assimilated and adopted into tribes.  Historically, the Maghreb was home to significant historic Jewish communities called Maghrebim, who predated the 7th-century introduction and conversion of the region to Islam. These were later augmented by Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal who, fleeing the Spanish Catholic Inquisition of the 15th and 16th centuries, established a presence in North Africa. They settled primarily in the urban trading centers. Many Jews from Spain emigrated to North America from the Maghreb in the 19th and early 20th centuries, or to France and Israel later in the 20th century after the latter was founded.  Another significant group are Turks, who migrated with the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. A large ethnic Turkish population exists, particularly in Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria.  Sub-Saharan Africans joined the population mix during centuries of trans-Saharan trade. Traders and slaves went to the Maghreb from the Sahel region. On the Saharan southern edge of the Maghreb are small communities of black populations, sometimes called Haratine. They appear to have descended from black populations who inhabited the Sahara during its last wet period and then migrated north as it turned to desert.  In Algeria especially, a large European minority, known as the "pied noirs", immigrated to the region, settling under French colonial rule in the late 19th century. They established farms and businesses. The overwhelming majority of these, however, left Algeria during and following the war for independence.  In comparison to the population of France, the Maghrebi population was one-eighth of France's population in 1800, one-quarter in 1900, and equal in 2000. The Maghreb is home to 1% of the global population as of 2010.

Religion.

The original religions of the peoples of the Maghreb seem to have been based in and related to fertility cults of a strong matriarchal pantheon. This theory is based on the social and linguistic structures of the Amazigh cultures that antedated all Egyptian and eastern Asian, northern Mediterranean, and European influences.  Historic records of religion in the Maghreb region show its gradual inclusion in the Classical World, with coastal colonies established first by Phoenicians, some Greeks, and later extensive conquest and colonization by the Romans. By the 2nd century of the common era, the area had become a center of Phoenician-speaking Christianity. Its bishops spoke and wrote in Punic, and Emperor Septimius Severus was noted by his local accent. Roman settlers and Romanized populations converted to Christianity. The region produced figures such as Christian church writer Tertullian (c. 155 – c. 202); and Christian martyrs or leading figures such as Perpetua and Felicity (martyrs, c. 200 CE); St. Cyprian of Carthage (+ 258); St. Monica; her son the philosopher St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo I (+ 430) (1); and St. Julia of Carthage (5th century).

Islam.

Islam arrived in 647 and challenged the domination of Christianity. The first permanent foothold of Islam was the founding in 667 of the city of Kairouan, in present-day Tunisia. Carthage fell to Muslims in 698 and the remainder of the region fell by 709. Islamization proceeded slowly.  From the end of the 7th century, over a period of more than 400 years, the region's peoples converted to Islam. Many left during this time for Italy, although surviving letters showed correspondence from regional Christians to Rome up until the 12th century. Christianity was still a living faith. Although there were numerous conversions after the conquest, Muslims did not become a majority until some time late in the 9th centur. During the 10th century, Islam became by far the dominant religion in the region. Christian bishoprics and dioceses continued to be active, and continued their relations with the Christian Church of Rome. As late as the reign of Pope Benedict VII (974–983), a new Archbishop of Carthage was consecrated. From the 10th century, Christianity declined in the region. By the end of the 11th century, only two bishops were left in Carthage and Hippo Regius. Pope Gregory VII (1073–85) consecrated a new bishop for Hippo. Christianity seems to have suffered several shocks that led to its demise. First, many upper-class, urban-dwelling, Latin-speaking Christians left for Europe after the Muslim conquest. The second major influence were the large-scale conversions to Islam from the end of the 9th century. Many Christians of a much reduced community departed in the mid-11th century, and remnants were evacuated in the 12th by the Norman rulers of Sicily. The Latin-African language lingered a while longer.  There was a small but thriving Jewish community, as well as a small Christian community. Most Muslims follow the Sunni Maliki school. Small Ibadi communities remain in some areas. A strong tradition of venerating marabouts and saints' tombs is found throughout regions inhabited by Berbers. This practice was also common among the Jews of the region. Any map of the region demonstrates the tradition by the proliferation of "Sidi"s, showing places named after the marabouts. This tradition has declined through the 20th century. A network of "zaouias" traditionally helped teach basic literacy and knowledge of Islam in rural regions.  Communities of Christians, mostly Catholics and Protestant, persist in Algeria (100,000–380,000), Mauritania (6,500), Morocco (~380,000), Libya (170,000), and Tunisia (100,750). Most of the Roman Catholics in Greater Maghreb are of French, Spanish, and Italian descent, with ancestors who immigrated during the colonial era. Some are foreign missionaries or immigrant workers. There are also Christian communities of Berber or Arab descent in Greater Maghreb, made up of persons who converted mostly during the modern era, or under and after French colonialism.<ref name="worldreview.info"

The Maghreb (;, "the west"), also known as Northwest Africa, the Arab Maghreb ( ), and Barbary, is a subregion of North Africa that is effectively a western part of the Arab world and is predominantly Muslim. The region includes Algeria, Libya, Mauritania (part of West Africa), Morocco, and Tunisia, which are all member states of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU). The Maghreb additionally includes the disputed territories of Western Sahara (controlled mostly by Morocco and partly by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic) and the cities of Ceuta and Melilla (both are controlled by Spain but claimed by Morocco). As of 2018, the region had a population of over 100 million people.

Maghreb (arabsky المغرب العربي ) znamená v arabských jazycích „západní“. Je to region v Africe na severu Sahary, západně od Nilu. Konkrétně jsou to státy Maroko, Západní Sahara, Alžírsko, Tunisko, Libye a více či méně Mauritánie. Někdy je chápán jako protiklad Mašreku.


History.

TfL was created in 2000 as part of the Greater London Authority (GLA) by the Greater London Authority Act 1999. It gained most of its functions from its predecessor London Regional Transport in 2000. The first Commissioner of TfL was Bob Kiley. The first chair was then-Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, and the first deputy chair was Dave Wetzel. Livingstone and Wetzel remained in office until the election of Boris Johnson as Mayor in 2008. Johnson took over as chairman, and in February 2009 fellow-Conservative Daniel Moylan was appointed as his deputy.  TfL did not take over responsibility for the London Underground until 2003, after the controversial public-private partnership (PPP) contract for maintenance had been agreed. Management of the Public Carriage Office had previously been a function of the Metropolitan Police.  Transport for London Group Archives holds business records for TfL and its predecessor bodies and transport companies. Some early records are also held on behalf of TfL Group Archives at the London Metropolitan Archives.  After the bombings on the underground and bus systems on 7 July 2005, many staff were recognised in the 2006 New Year honours list for the work they did. They helped survivors out, removed bodies, and got the transport system up and running, to get the millions of commuters back out of London at the end of the workday.  On 1 June 2008, the drinking of alcoholic beverages was banned on Tube and London Overground trains, buses, trams, Docklands Light Railway and all stations operated by TfL across London but not those operated by other rail companies. Carrying open containers of alcohol was also banned on public transport operated by TfL. The Mayor of London and TfL announced the ban with the intention of providing a safer and more pleasant experience for passengers. There were "Last Round on the Underground" parties on the night before the ban came into force. Passengers refusing to observe the ban may be refused travel and asked to leave the premises. The GLA reported in 2011 that assaults on London Underground staff had fallen by 15% since the introduction of the ban.  TfL commissioned a survey in 2013 which showed that 15% of women using public transport in London had been the subject of some form of unwanted sexual behaviour but that 90% of incidents were not reported to the police. In an effort to reduce sexual offences and increase reporting, TfL—in conjunction with the British Transport Police, Metropolitan Police Service, and City of London Police—launched Project Guardian.  In 2014, Transport for London launched the 100 years of women in transport campaign in partnership with the Department for Transport, Crossrail, Network Rail, Women's Engineering Society and the Women's Transportation Seminar (WTS). The programme was a celebration of the significant role that women had played in transport over the previous 100 years, following the centennial anniversary of the First World War, when 100,000 women entered the transport industry to take on the responsibilities held by men who enlisted for military service.

COVID-19 pandemic impacts.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, TfL services were reduced. All Night Overground and Night Tube services, as well as all services on the Waterloo & City line, were suspended from 20 March, and 40 tube stations were closed on the same day. The Mayor of London and TfL urged people to only use public transport if absolutely essential, so that it could be used by critical workers. The London Underground brought in new measures on 25 March to combat the spread of the virus, by slowing the flow of passengers onto platforms. Measures included the imposition of queuing at ticket gates and turning off some escalators. In April, TfL trialled changes encouraging passengers to board London buses by the middle doors to lessen the risks to drivers, after the deaths of 14 TfL workers including nine drivers. This measure was extended to all routes on 20 April, and passengers were no longer required to pay, so that they did not need to use the card reader near the driver.  On 22 April, London mayor Sadiq Khan warned that TfL could run out of money to pay staff by the end of April unless the government stepped in. Two days later, TfL announced it was furloughing around 7,000 employees, about a quarter of its staff, to help mitigate a 90% reduction in fare revenues. Since London entered lockdown on 23 March, Tube journeys had fallen by 95% and bus journeys by 85%, though TfL continued to operate limited services to allow "essential travel" for key workers. Without government financial support for TfL, London Assembly members warned that Crossrail, the Northern line extension and other projects such as step-free schemes at tube stations could be delayed.  On 7 May, it was reported that TfL had requested £2 billion in state aid to keep services running until September 2020. On 12 May, TfL documents warned it expected to lose £4bn due to the pandemic and said it needed £3.2bn to balance a proposed emergency budget for 2021, having lost 90% of its overall income. Without an agreement with the government, deputy mayor for transport Heidi Alexander said TfL might have to issue a 'Section 114 notice' - the equivalent of a public body going bust. On 14 May, the UK Government agreed £1.6bn in emergency funding to keep Tube and bus services running until September - a bailout condemned as "a sticking plaster" by Khan who called for agreement on a new longer-term funding model.  On 1 June 2020, TfL released details of its emergency budget for 2020-2021 revealing it planned to reduce capital investment by 39% from £1.3bn to £808m, and to cut maintenance and renewal spending by 38% to £201m.

Organisation.

TfL is controlled by a board whose members are appointed by the Mayor of London, a position held by Sadiq Khan since May 2016. The Commissioner of Transport for London reports to the Board and leads a management team with individual functional responsibilities.  The body is organised in two main directorates and corporate services, each with responsibility for different aspects and modes of transport. The two main directorates are:  TfL owns and operates the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden, a museum that conserves, explores and explains London's transport system heritage over the last 200 years. It both explores the past, with a retrospective look at past days since 1800, and the present-day transport developments and upgrades.  The museum also has an extensive depot, situated at Acton, that contains material impossible to display at the central London museum, including many additional road vehicles, trains, collections of signs and advertising materials. The depot has several open weekends each year. There are also occasional heritage train runs on the Metropolitan line.

Operations centre.

TfL's Surface Transport and Traffic Operations Centre (STTOC) was officially opened by Prince Andrew, Duke of York in November 2009. The centre monitors and coordinates official responses to traffic congestion, incidents and major events in London. London Buses Command and Control Centre (CentreComm), London Streets Traffic Control Centre (LSTCC) and the Metropolitan Police Traffic Operation Control Centre (MetroComm) were brought together under STTOC.  STTOC played an important part in the security and smooth running of the 2012 Summer Olympics. The London Underground Network Operations Centre is now located on the fifth floor of Palestra and not within STTOC. The centre featured in the 2013 BBC Two documentary series "".

Connect project.

Transport for London introduced the "Connect" project for radio communications during the 2000s, to improve radio connections for London Underground staff and the emergency services. The system replaced various separate radio systems for each tube line, and was funded under a private finance initiative. The supply contract was signed in November 1999 with Motorola as the radio provider alongside Thales. Citylink's shareholders are Thales Group (33 per cent), Fluor Corporation (18%), Motorola (10%), Laing Investment (19.5%) and HSBC (19.5%). The cost of the design, build and maintain contract was £2 billion over twenty years.Various subcontractors were used for the installation work, including Brookvex and Fentons.  A key reasoning for the introduction of the system was in light of the King's Cross fire disaster, where efforts by the emergency services were hampered by a lack of radio coverage below ground. Work was due to be completed by the end of 2002, although suffered delays due to the necessity of installing the required equipment on an ageing railway infrastructure with no disruption to the operational railway. On 5 June 2006 the London Assembly published the 7 July Review Committee report, which urged TfL to speed up implementation of the Connect system.  The East London line was chosen as the first line to receive the TETRA radio in February 2006, as it was the second smallest line and is a mix of surface and sub surface. In the same year it was rolled out to the District, Circle, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan and Victoria lines, with the Bakerloo, Piccadilly, Jubilee, Waterloo & City and Central lines following in 2007. The final line, the Northern, was handed over in November 2008.  The 2010 TfL investment programme included the project "LU-PJ231 LU-managed Connect communications", which provided Connect with a new transmission and radio system comprising 290 cell sites with two to three base stations, 1,400 new train mobiles, 7,500 new telephone links and 180 CCTV links.

Fares.

Most of the transport modes that come under the control of TfL have their own charging and ticketing regimes for single fare. Buses and trams share a common fare and ticketing regime, and the DLR, Overground, Underground, and National Rail services another.

Zonal fare system.

Rail service fares in the capital are calculated by a zonal fare system. London is divided into eleven fare zones, with every station on the London Underground, London Overground, Docklands Light Railway and, since 2007, on National Rail services, being in one, or in some cases, two zones. The zones are mostly concentric rings of increasing size emanating from the centre of London. They are (in order):

Travelcard.

Superimposed on these mode-specific regimes is the Travelcard system, which provides zonal tickets with validities from one day to one year, and off-peak variants. These are accepted on the DLR, buses, railways, trams, and the Underground, and provide a discount on many river services fares.

Oyster card.

The Oyster card is a contactless smart card system introduced for the public in 2003, which can be used to pay individual fares (pay as you go) or to carry various Travelcards and other passes. It is used by scanning the card at a yellow card reader. Such readers are found on ticket gates where otherwise a paper ticket could be fed through, allowing the gate to open and the passenger to walk through, and on stand-alone Oyster validators, which do not operate a barrier. Since 2010, Oyster Pay as you go has been available on all National Rail services within London. Oyster Pay as you go has a set of daily maximum charges that are the same as buying the nearest equivalent Day Travelcard.

Contactless payments.

Virtually all contactless Visa, Maestro, MasterCard and American Express debit and credit cards issued in the UK, and also most international cards supporting contactless payment, are accepted for travel on London Underground, London Overground, Docklands Light Railway, most National Rail, London Tramlink and Bus services. This works in the same way for the passenger as an Oyster card, including the use of capping and reduced fares compared to paper tickets. The widespread use of contactless payment - around 25 million journeys each week - has meant that TfL is now one of Europe's largest contactless merchants, with one in 10 contactless transactions in the UK taking place on the TfL network.  Mobile payments - such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay - are accepted in the same way as contactless payment cards. The fares are the same as those charged on a debit or credit card, including the same daily capping. In 2020, one in five journeys are made using mobile devices instead of using contactless bank cards, and TfL had become the most popular Apple Pay merchant in the UK.  TfL's expertise in contactless payments has led other cities such as New York, Sydney and Boston to licence the technology from TfL and Cubic.

Identity and marketing.

Each of the main transport units has its own corporate identity, formed by differently coloured versions of the standard roundel logo and adding appropriate lettering across the horizontal bar. The roundel rendered in blue without any lettering represents TfL as a whole (see Transport for London logo), as well as used in situations where lettering on the roundel is not possible (such as bus receipts, where a logo is a blank roundel with the name "London Buses" to the right). The same range of colours is also used extensively in publicity and on the TfL website.  Transport for London has always mounted advertising campaigns to encourage use of the Underground. For example, in 1999, they commissioned artist Stephen Whatley to paint an interior – 'The Grand Staircase' – which he did on location inside Buckingham Palace. This painting was reproduced on posters and displayed all over the London Underground.  In 2010 they commissioned artist Mark Wallinger to assist them in celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Underground, by creating the Labyrinth Project, with one enamel plaque mounted permanently in each of the Tube's 270 stations.  In 2015, in partnership with the London Transport Museum and sponsored by Exterion Media, TfL launched Transported by Design, an 18-month programme of activities. The intention is to showcase the importance of both physical and service design across London's transport network. In October 2015, after two months of public voting, the black cab topped the list of favourite London transport icons, which also included the original Routemaster bus and the Tube map, among others. In 2016, the programme held exhibitions, walks and a festival at Regent Street on 3 July.

Advertising and human rights.

In May 2019, TfL banned advertising from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates due to their poor human rights records. This brought the number of countries to 11 from which TfL has banned adverts, due to them having the death penalty for homosexuals. Countries previously banned from advertising were Iran, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for the transport system in Greater London, England. TfL has responsibility for London's network of principal road routes, for various rail networks including the London Underground, London Overground, Docklands Light Railway and TfL Rail. It does not control National Rail services in London, however, but does control London's trams, buses and taxis, cycling provision and river services. The underlying services are provided by a mixture of wholly owned subsidiary companies (principally London Underground), by private sector franchisees (the remaining rail services, trams and most buses) and by licensees (some buses, taxis and river services). TfL is also responsible, jointly with the national Department for Transport (DfT), for commissioning the construction of the new Crossrail line, and will be responsible for franchising its operation once completed.

Správním orgánem zodpovědným za dopravu ve Velkém Londýně je Transport for London (TfL). Jeho úkolem je uskutečňovat dopravní strategii a řídit dopravní služby v Londýně. TfL nahradil "London Transport", po kterém převzal v roce 2000 většinu funkcí. Londýnské metro bylo převedeno pod jeho pravomoci v roce 2003.


General information.

Municipal history.

The town of Arendal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). On 1 January 1875, a small area with 22 inhabitants was transferred from the town to the neighboring municipality of Østre Moland and another small area with 52 residents was transferred to the neighboring municipality of Øyestad.  On 1 January 1902, the rural municipality of Barbu (population: 6,787) was merged into the town of Arendal. In 1944, a small area of Moland with a population of 21 inhabitants was transferred to Arendal as well. On 1 January 1992, the town was vastly expanded. The neighboring rural municipalities of Hisøy (pop: 4,026), Moland (pop: 8,148), Tromøy (pop: 4,711), and Øyestad (pop: 8,679) were all merged with the town of Arendal which had a population of 12,478, bringing the total population of the new municipality of Arendal to 38,042.

Origin of the name.

The Old Norse form of the name was probably "Arnardalr". The first element is the genitive case of "ǫrn" which means "eagle" and the last element is "dalr" which means "valley" or "dale", thus meaning the "eagle valley".

Coat-of-arms.

The coat-of-arms of Arendal were granted on 7 November 1924 (based upon an older seal). The blue and silver arms show a sailing ship as a symbol for the importance of fisheries and sailing to the local economy. A ship appeared on the oldest known seal of the town, dating back to the 17th century. In the late 19th and early 20th century the arms showed the ship in the upper part and a landscape with the coat of arms of Norway in the base of the shield.

Churches.

The Church of Norway has six parishes "(sokn)" within the municipality of Arendal. It is part of the Arendal prosti ("deanery") in the Diocese of Agder og Telemark.

History.

The village of Arendal was established in the middle of the 16th century, and was then called "Arendall". Initially, it had no formal town status.  When the town of Christianssand was founded by King Christian IV in 1641, he granted the citizens a monopoly on all trade in Nedenæs and Lister og Mandal counties (including the area of Arendal). This grant, intended to subsidize Christianssand and its fortifications, placed existing towns in a difficult position. Both towns and the peasants in the rural countryside protested the hardships this caused. As a result, Arendal received royal permission in 1622 to continue as a loading-place for timber until a means could be found to transfer its trade to Christianssand.  The town of Arendal was given market city privileges in 1723. However the peasants in the surrounding district, who by law were to sell their goods only at Arendal, were smuggling their goods out on cutters and selling them in Denmark, in the Baltic, and in Britain.  This continued until 1735, when Arendal was granted a full town charter. This charter, combined with Danish imposition of a monopoly on grain imports, caused great poverty and starvation among the peasants in the surrounding districts, leading to several famous rebellions.  As a result of the rebellions, the age of privileges for towns like Christianssand and Arendal came to an apparent end in 1768 by royal proclamation. But the problems did not end then; a farmer, Christian Jensen Lofthuus, in nearby Vestre Moland led a rebellion in 1786 which resulted in the government actually remedying some of the most repressive trade policies, but Lofthus died in prison. The charges against Lofthus were that he dealt in grain and other commodities to the detriment to Arendal's privileges.  Shipping, shipbuilding, and timber trade as well as mining and ironworks were important branches of industry in Nedenæs county for many centuries, especially in the Arendal region. Frequent contacts with the world abroad put their mark on our culture and traditions. In 1880, it was the country's biggest port in terms of tonnage handled. At the end of the 19th century, Arendal was recognized as a major shipping centre with many wealthy shipowners. However, this came to an end following the 1886 Arendal crash, in which Axel Nicolai Herlofson had defrauded many bank customers in the city, leading to bankruptcies and extreme unemployment. At one point in the middle of the 18th century, Arendal was one of Norway's biggest mining cities. The main production consisted of iron ore and magnetite.  Around the turn of the twentieth century, when thousands of Norwegians sought to take advantage of the more stable economic climate of the United States by emigrating, many of those from Arendal took their economic traditions with them. In New York City and the surrounding areas, a great deal of Americans who claim Norwegian ancestry can trace their roots to Arendal, as a great deal of Norwegian sailors, trimmers, shipbuilders, and carpenters from Arendal settled in areas of New York such as Brooklyn, Port Richmond (Staten Island), and several industrial centers in northern New Jersey such as Jersey City, Bayonne, Perth Amboy, and Elizabeth. In 1939, Arendal had the 4th largest Norwegian tanker fleet; only Oslo, Bergen, and Stavanger were larger.  During the German invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940, Arendal was captured by the German torpedo boat "Greif".  Today, the town has small boat manufacturing, mechanical industry, electronics industry, as well as one of the world's largest silicon carbide refining plants.

Government.

All municipalities in Norway, including Arendal, are responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of elected representatives, which in turn elect a mayor.

Municipal council.

The municipal council "(Kommunestyre)" of Arendal is made up of 39 representatives that are elected to four year terms. Currently, the party breakdown is as follows:

Geography.

The municipality is bordered to the southwest by Grimstad, to the northwest by Froland, to the northeast by Tvedestrand, and to the southeast by the Skaggerak. The lake Rore is located on the Grimstad border along with the river Nidelva.  Arendal is the geologic type locality of the mineral Babingtonite, which was first described from specimens discovered here in 1824.  The coastal municipality includes several populated islands such as Hisøya, Tromøya, Merdø, Flostaøya, and Tverrdalsøya as well as many unpopulated or sparsely populated islands such as Ærøya. The island of Merdø was a major export port in the 17th and 18th centuries and now has a museum, a kiosk, and several beaches. There is regular boat service from Arendal to the island every day during the summer season.

Attractions.

Townscape.

In the middle of the town centre of Arendal is an area with wooden houses dating back to the 17th century. This area is called Tyholmen, and is what is left of buildings from before the 19th century. The inner harbour of Arendal is called "Pollen", where the fish market, pubs, and restaurants are located. Trinity Church dominates the skyline of this area.  Arendal has grown from a traditional sleepy summer-town (with culture activities just in the summer) to a more "all year" city. The building of the new library and the combined city hall/concert house has greatly improved culture life.

Lighthouses.

The Store Torungen Lighthouse is located on the island of Store Torungen outside Arendal. It was constructed in 1844 and electrified in 1914. It is high and contains a 2nd order lens. It is reachable by a 55-minute boat trip from the town centre. The lighthouse is still in use.  The Lille Torungen Lighthouse is situated on the small island of Lille Torungen outside Arendal. The lighthouse is high. Lille Torungen and Store Torungen were constructed as twin lighthouses, and both are located in the Arendal shipping lane.  The Sandvigodden Lighthouse is also located in Arendal.

Strømsbo gård.

Strømsbo gård is a manor house on a historic farm located west of the center of Arendal. The manor dates from the 1760s. From 1804 the manor and farm were owned by members of the Herlofson family. Peter Herlofson took over the farm and gave the building its present form. In 1883, Axel Herlofsen (1845–1910) built the Strømsbo steam sawmill at the head of Strømsbubukt. Nicolai Benjamin Herlofson (1876-1945), former mayor of Arendal, was born and raised at Strømsbo.

Transport.

The European route E18 highway is a major transportation route through Arendal heading to Oslo in the northeast and Kristiansand to the southwest. Other main roads in Arendal include the Norwegian County Road 407, Norwegian County Road 408, and Norwegian County Road 410. The local railway line Arendalsbanen runs to Nelaug where it connects with the main Sørlandsbanen railway line, which runs between the cities of Oslo and Stavanger.  The "Setesdal Bilruter" (on behalf of public transit authority AKT) provides bus connections throughout the Arendal area, the Setesdal-region including Froland, as well as to the neighboring towns of Grimstad, Lillesand and Kristiansand, and a handful of their suburbs and outlying villages. A few more destinations can be reached with other bus operators (namely Agder Buss, Nettbuss, Konkurrenten.no, and Lavprisekspressen), including places such as Risør, Tvedestrand, Oslo, and Stavanger. There is also a bus connection to Kristiansand Airport operated by Agder Flyekspress and Nettbuss express (the latter on behalf of Flybussen.no). Ferries run between the city center and the islands of Hisøya and Tromøya. Arendal does also have an airport, Arendal Airport, Gullknapp, although it does not have any commercial airlines regularly stopping here.

Climate.

The climate here is mild, and generally warm and temperate. Arendal has a significant amount of rainfall during the year. This is true even for the driest month. The climate here is classified as Cfb by the Köppen-Geiger system. The average annual temperature in Arendal is. In a year, the average rainfall is.

International relations.

Twin towns — sister cities.

Arendal has sister city agreements with the following places:

In fiction.

The area around Arendal was the location for the 1997 Lille Lørdag series Min drømmeserie starring Harald Eia and Bård Tufte Johansen. The 2013 Disney film "Frozen" is set in a fictional kingdom named Arendelle, which is derived from and loosely based on the city of Arendal.

Arendal () is a municipality in Agder county in southeastern Norway. Arendal belongs to the region of Sørlandet. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Arendal (which is also the seat of Aust-Agder county). Some of the notable villages in Arendal include Rykene, Eydehavn, Færvik, Strengereid, Kongshavn, Kilsund, Brattekleiv, Torsbudalen, Longum, Saltrød, Staubø, Vrengen, and Kolbjørnsvik. The offices of UNEP/GRID-Arendal are also located in the city of Arendal.

Arendal je město a obec v jižním Norsku v kraji Agder, jehož je správním centrem. Arendal leží 200 km jižně od Oslo v regionu Sørlandet. V roce 2016 měl Arendal 44 313 obyvatel, rozloha činí 272 km2. Úředním jazykem je bokmål.