Background.

The blockade at Norfolk.

On April 19, 1861, shortly after the outbreak of hostilities at Charleston Harbor, US President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a blockade of ports in the seceded states. On April 27, after Virginia and North Carolina had also passed ordinances of secession, the blockade was extended to include their ports also. Even before the extension, local troops seized the Norfolk area and threatened the Gosport Navy Yard in Portsmouth. The commandant there, Captain Charles S. McCauley, though loyal to the Union, was immobilized by advice he received from his subordinate officers, most of whom were in favor of secession. Although he had orders from (Union) Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles to move his ships to Northern ports, he refused to act until April 20, when he gave orders to scuttle the ships in the yard and destroy its facilities. Nine ships were burned, among them the screw frigate. One (the old frigate ) was towed away successfully. "Merrimack" burned only to the waterline, however, and her engines were more or less intact. The destruction of the navy yard was mostly ineffective; in particular, the large

Birth of the ironclads.

When steam propulsion began to be applied to warships, naval constructors renewed their interest in armor for their vessels. Experiments had been tried with armor during the Crimean War (1853–1856), just prior to the American Civil War, and the British and French navies had each built armored ships and were planning to build others. In 1860 the French Navy commissioned, the world's first ocean-going ironclad warship. Great Britain followed a year later with. The use of armor remained controversial, however, and the United States Navy was generally reluctant to embrace the new technology.

CSS "Virginia".

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory was an early enthusiast for the advantages of armor. As he looked upon it, the Confederacy could not match the industrial North in numbers of ships at sea, so they would have to compete by building vessels that individually outclassed those of the Union. Armor would provide the edge. Mallory gathered about himself a group of men who could put his vision into practice, among them John M. Brooke, John L. Porter, and William P. Williamson.  When Mallory's men searched the South for factories that could build engines to drive the heavy ships that he wanted, they found no place to do it immediately. At the best facility, the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, building engines from scratch would take at least a year. Upon learning this, Williamson suggested taking the engines from the hulk of "Merrimack", recently raised

USS "Monitor".

Intelligence that the Confederates were working to develop an ironclad caused consternation for the Union, but Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles waited for Congress to meet to request permission to consider building armored vessels; Congress gave this permission on August 3, 1861. Welles appointed a commission, which became known as the Ironclad Board, of three senior naval officers to choose among the designs that were submitted for consideration. The three men were Captains Joseph Smith, Hiram Paulding, and Commander Charles Henry Davis. The board considered seventeen designs, and chose to support three. The first of the three to be completed, even though she was by far the most radical in design, was Swedish engineer and inventor John Ericsson's.  Ericsson's "Monitor", which was built at Ericsson's yard on the East River in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, incorporated new and striking design features, the most significant of which were her

Battle.

Command.

The Confederate chain of command was anomalous. Lieutenant Catesby ap Roger Jones had directed much of the conversion of "Merrimack" to "Virginia", and he was disappointed when he was not named her captain. Jones was retained aboard "Virginia", but only as her executive officer. Ordinarily, the ship would have been led by a captain of the Confederate States Navy, to be determined by the rigid seniority system that was in place. Secretary Mallory wanted the aggressive Franklin Buchanan, but at least two other captains had greater seniority and had applied for the post. Mallory evaded the issue by appointing Buchanan, head of the Office of Orders and Detail, flag officer in charge

March 8: "Virginia" wreaks havoc on wooden Union warships.

The battle began when the large and unwieldy CSS "Virginia" steamed into Hampton Roads on the morning of March 8, 1862. Captain Buchanan intended to attack as soon as possible. "Virginia" was accompanied from her moorings on the Elizabeth River by and, and was joined at Hampton Roads by the James River Squadron,,, and. When they were passing the Union batteries at Newport News, "Patrick Henry" was temporarily disabled by a shot in her boiler that killed four of her crew. After repairs, she returned and rejoined the others.  At this time, the Union Navy had five warships in the roadstead, in addition to several support vessels. The sloop-of-war and frigate were anchored in the channel near Newport News. The sail

March 9: "Monitor" engages "Virginia".

Both sides used the respite to prepare for the next day. "Virginia" put her wounded ashore and underwent temporary repairs. Captain Buchanan was among the wounded, so command on the second day fell to his executive officer, Lieutenant Catesby ap Roger Jones. Jones proved to be no less aggressive than the man he replaced. While "Virginia" was being prepared for renewal of the battle, and while "Congress" was still ablaze, "Monitor", commanded by Lieutenant John L. Worden, arrived in Hampton Roads. The Union ironclad had been rushed to Hampton Roads in hopes of protecting the Union fleet and preventing "Virginia" from threatening Union cities. Captain Worden was informed that his primary task was to protect "Minnesota", so "Monitor" took up a

Spring 1862—a standoff at Hampton Roads.

"Virginia" remained in drydock for almost a month, getting repairs for battle damage as well as minor modifications to improve her performance. On April 4, she was able to leave drydock. Buchanan, still recovering from his wound, had hoped that Catesby Jones would be picked to succeed him, and most observers believed that Jones's performance during the battle was outstanding. The seniority system for promotion in the Navy scuttled his chances, however, and the post went to the 67-year-old Commodore Josiah Tattnall. "Monitor", not severely damaged, remained on duty. Like his antagonist Jones, Greene was deemed too young to remain as captain; the day after the battle,

Destruction of the combatants.

The end came first for "Virginia". Because the blockade was unbroken, Norfolk was of little strategic use to the Confederacy, and preliminary plans were laid to move the ship up the James River to the vicinity of Richmond. Before adequate preparations could be made, the Confederate Army under Major General Benjamin Huger abandoned the city on May 9, without consulting anyone from the Navy. "Virginia"s draft was too great to permit her to pass up the river, which had a depth of only, and then only under favorable circumstances. She was trapped and could only be captured or sunk by the Union Navy. Rather than allow either, Tatnall

The victor.

The victory claims that were made by each side in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Hampton Roads, based as both were on misinterpretations of the opponent's behavior, have been dismissed by present-day historians. They agree that the result of the "Monitor"–"Virginia" encounter was not a victory for either side. As the combat between ironclads was the primary significance of the battle, the general verdict is that the overall result was a draw. All would acknowledge that the Southern fleet inflicted far more damage than it received, which would ordinarily imply that they had gained a tactical victory. Compared to other Civil War battles, the loss of men and ships for the Union Navy would be considered a clear defeat. On the other hand, the blockade was not seriously threatened, so the entire battle can be regarded as an assault that ultimately failed.  However, initially after

Impact upon naval warfare.

Both days of the battle attracted attention from almost all the world's navies. USS "Monitor" became the prototype for the monitor warship type. She thus became the first of two ships whose names were applied to entire classes of their successors, the other being. Many more were built, including river monitors, and they played key roles in Civil War battles on the Mississippi and James rivers. The US immediately started the construction of ten more monitors based on Ericsson's original larger plan, known as the s. However, while the design proved exceptionally well-suited for river combat, the low profile and heavy turret caused poor seaworthiness in

Commemorating the battle: "Virginia".

The name of the warship that served the Confederacy in the Battle of Hampton Roads has been a continuing source of confusion and some contention. She was originally a screw frigate in the United States Navy carrying the name. All parties continued to use the name after her capture by secessionists while she was being rebuilt as an ironclad. When her conversion was almost complete, her name was officially changed to. Despite the official name change, Union accounts persisted in calling "Merrimack" by her original name, while Confederate sources used either "Virginia" or "Merrimac(k)". The alliteration of "Monitor" and "Merrimack"

Commemorating the battle: "Monitor".

After resting undetected on the ocean floor for 111 years, the wreck of "Monitor" was located by a team of scientists in 1973. The remains of the ship were found upside down off Cape Hatteras, on a relatively flat, sandy bottom at a depth of about. In 1987, the site was declared a National Marine Sanctuary, the first shipwreck to receive this distinction.  Because of "Monitor"s advanced state of deterioration,

Commemorating the Battle of Hampton Roads.

The Battle of Hampton Roads was a significant event in both Naval and Civil War history that has been detailed in many books, televised Civil War documentaries, and in film, to include TNT's 1991 "Ironclads". In New York City, where the designer of the Monitor, John Ericsson, died in March 1889, a statue was commissioned by the

Notes.

Abbreviations used in these notes:

The Battle of Hampton Roads, also referred to as the Battle of the "Monitor" and "Merrimack (or Virginia") or the Battle of Ironclads, was a famous and arguably most important naval battle of the American Civil War. It was fought over two days, March 8–9, 1862, in Hampton Roads, a roadstead in Virginia where the Elizabeth and Nansemond rivers meet the James River just before it enters Chesapeake Bay adjacent to the city of Norfolk. The battle was a part of the effort of the Confederacy to break the Union blockade, which had cut off Virginia's largest cities and major industrial centers, Norfolk and Richmond, from international trade.

Bitva na Hampton Roads (anglicky: "Battle of Hampton Roads"), také známá jako Bitva Monitoru a Merrimacku, byla námořní bitva, která byla svedena v rámci americké občanské války, mezi stranami Unie a Konfederace. Poprvé se zde střetly obrněné lodě, a to USS Monitor (na straně Unie) a CSS Virginia (také známá pod Unijním názvem USS Merrimack, nasazena na straně Konfederace). Bitva byla součástí pokusu prolomit unijní blokádu jižanských přístavů, a znemožnit blokádu v okolí řeky James. Odehrála se na Hampton Roads, což je soutok tří řek, které se stékají těsně před Chesapeakskou zátokou. Bitva proběhla 8.-9. března 1862. Bitvy se účastnilo větší množství plavidel, avšak důležitým byl právě první střet obrněných lodí.


History.

The club was founded 5 September 1909 in the Gastwirtschaft Franz Squar as "Sportverein Viktoria Stolp" and the next year grew with the addition of "Fußball-Club Britannia Stolp". In the 1911–12 season, the team made its first appearance in the playoffs of the Baltenverband where they were convincingly put out (0:7) in a quarterfinal match versus "BuEV Danzig". They slipped into obscurity for the next two decades before becoming champions of the Pommern division in 1932. They beat "VfB Königsberg" to finish second overall in the Baltenverband and move on to a national level eighth-final match up against "Tennis Borussia Berlin" where they lost 0:3.  The next year, German football was re-organized under the Third Reich into sixteen top-flight divisions known as Gauliga and "Viktoria" joined the eastern group of the Gauliga Pommern where they enjoyed considerable success through the 1930s, winning four division championships. However, they were unable to translate those victories into success on the national stage, failing to advance out of opening round group play in the German championship.  The team also took part in play for the Tschammerpokal, predecessor to today's DFB-Pokal (German Cup), in 1936, 1939, and 1941, being put out in the second round in each appearance.  "Stolp" continued to field strong sides in the early 1940s, but were only able to capture the Gauliga Pommern-Ost group title once more in 1942 before losing the overall division final 1:6 to "Luftwaffe Sport-Verein Pütnitz". Play in the Gauliga Pommern ended after the 1943–44 season as World War II overtook the region. "Victoria Stolp" disappeared after the war when the city and surrounding area became part of Poland.

Stadium.

"SV Viktoria Stolp" played its earliest home matches in the Auker-Sportplatz (1909–23) which had a capacity of 2,500. Between 1923–37 they played in the Viktoria-Sportplatz Elysium (capacity 3,000) until the facility was demolished. They inaugurated the Hindenburg-Kampfbahn on the occasion of a visit by Reichspräsident Hindenburg (capacity 15,000, 1,600 seats).

Viktoria Stolp was a German association football club formed in 1909, from the city of Stolp, Pomerania which was at the time part of Germany and is today Słupsk, Poland.

SV Viktoria Stolp (celým názvem: Sportverein Viktoria 09 e.V. Stolp) byl německý sportovní klub, který sídlil v pomořanském městě Stolp (dnešní Słupsk v Pomořském vojvodství). Založen byl v roce 1909, zanikl v roce 1945 po polské anexi východních Pomořan. Klubové barvy byly černá a bílá.


Mine operations.

Background.

Uranium was discovered in the Namib Desert in 1928 but explorations began only at the end of the 1950. Rössing is the largest of three mines exploiting Uranium in the Namib, the others are Langer Heinrich operated by Paladin, and Husab (under construction), under Chinese ownership. The open pit mine's production capacity is 4,500 tons.

Extraction.

Rössing is a low-grade ore body of huge extent. Producing 1,000 tonnes of uranium oxide requires processing of 3 million tonnes of ore, and in 2005 19.5 million tonnes of rock were mined and transported from the open pit to the processing plant. Of those, 12 million tonnes were uranium ore, which in turn required 226,276 tonnes of acid for processing into yellowcake, a powdered uranium concentrate which is the basis for nuclear reactor fuel.  There are some fears that salt and uranium from the mine is endangering the farming industry in the Swakop River area. Rössing is working with the Namibian farmers on this issue.  A catastrophic structural failure of a leach tank resulted in a major spill at Rössing on December 3, 2013. The France-based laboratory, CRIIRAD, reported elevated levels of radioactive materials in the area surrounding the mine. Workers were not informed of the dangers of working with radioactive materials and the health effects thereof.

Ownership.

Shares in the mine are owned 69% by the Rio Tinto Group which announced an agreement to sell its share to China National Uranium Corporation Limited on the 26th November 2018, 15% by the Government of Iran (purchased in 1976), 10% by IDC of South Africa, 3% by the Government of Namibia (with 51% of voting rights), and 3% by local individual shareholders. Although Rössing's part-ownership by Iran was the cause of controversy in the 1970s and 1980s, the Namibian Government – in power since 1990 – has denied supplying Iran with Namibian uranium, which could be used for nuclear weapons.

Employment.

Rio Tinto Rössing Uranium is one of the largest employers in Namibia's Erongo Region. About 800 people were employed at the mine in 2005, of whom 96% are Namibians. Of these, 160 worked in the open pit, 186 in the processing plant, 267 engineering and 200 administrative personnel. Total employment increased to 1,528 in 2012, with an additional 780 jobs provided through subcontractors. For 2013, 276 staff are to be laid off. Most of the workers live in the mining settlement of Arandis or in nearby Swakopmund. Critics have argued that the mine has a history of racial discrimination against its black employees (a common feature of apartheid-era companies), including harsh disciplinary measures, abominable housing conditions at Arandis, and low wages. Even with substantial improvements in the '90s after Namibia's independence, blacks and their unions still claim being disadvantaged.  For 2006 and 2007 the mine management has announced investment of about US$112 million, mostly on mining equipment such as haul trucks and shovels, as well as on updating the processing plant. The main target is to increase uranium oxide production to the mine's full planned capacity of 4,000 tonnes. Expansion plans are expected to extend the mine's life to at least 2016. The possibility of underground mining has been explored in the past, and stated to have the possibility of extending the life of the mine for several further decades.

The Rössing Uranium Mine in Namibia is the longest-running and one of the largest open pit uranium mines in the world. It is located in the Namib Desert near the town of Arandis, 70 kilometres from the coastal town of Swakopmund. Discovered in 1928, the Rössing mine started operations in 1976. In 2005, it produced 3,711 tonnes of uranium oxide, becoming the fifth-largest uranium mine with 8 per cent of global output. Namibia is the world's fourth-largest exporter of uranium.

Důl Rössing (oficiální název Rössing Uranium Mine) v Namibii je nejstarší a zároveň jeden z největších povrchových dolů na těžbu uranu na světě. Nachází se v Namibské poušti v regionu Erongo. Od přístavního města Swakopmundu je vzdálen zhruba 53 km km vzdušnou čarou směrem na severovýchod do vnitrozemí (po silnici a železnici činí vzdálenost přibližně 70 km). Od hranic Národního parku Dorob (Dorob National Park) na západě důl dělí zhruba 14 km, od hranic Národního parku Namib-Naukluft (Namib-Naukluft National Park) na jihu je vzdálen necelé 3 km a od koryta řeky Khan Rivier sotva 2 km vzdušnou čarou.


Life.

Egill was born in Iceland, and was the son of Skalla-Grímr Kveldúlfsson and Bera Yngvarsdóttir, and the grandson of Kveld-Úlfr ("Night Wolf"). His ancestor, Hallbjorn, was Norwegian-Sami.  When Grímr arrived in Iceland, he settled at Borg, the place where his father's coffin landed. Grímr was a respected chieftain and mortal enemy of King Harald Fairhair of Norway.  Egill composed his first poem at the age of three years. He exhibited berserk behaviour, and this, together with the description of his large and unattractive head, has led to the theory that he might have suffered from Paget's disease, which causes a thickening of the bones and may lead eventually to blindness.  At the age of seven, Egill was cheated in a game with local boys. Enraged, he went home and procured an axe, and returning to the boys, split the skull to the teeth of the boy who cheated him. After Berg-Önundr refused to allow Egill to claim his wife Ásgerðr's share of her father's inheritance, he challenged Önundr to a man-to-man fight on an island or holmgang. Berg-Önundr refused the challenge and was later killed along with his brother Hadd by Egill. Egill was later to kill the last of the brothers, Atli the Short, by biting through Atli's neck during a holmgang.  Later, after being grievously insulted, Egill killed Bárðr of Atley, a retainer of King Eirik Bloodaxe and kinsman of Queen Gunnhildr, both of whom spent the remainder of their lives trying to take vengeance. Seething with hatred, Gunnhildr ordered her two brothers to assassinate Egill and his brother Þórólfr, who had been on good terms with her previously. However, Egill slew the Queen's brothers when they attempted to confront him. Gunnhildr's brother's names were Eyvind Braggart and Alf Aksmann.  In spring Þórólfr and Egill got ready a large warship and went the Eastern route ("Austrvegr"), where they won much wealth and had many battles. In Courland they made a peace for half a month and traded with the men of the land. (ch. 46).  That same summer, Harald Fairhair died. In order to secure his place as sole King of Norway, Eirik Bloodaxe murdered his two brothers. He then declared Egill an outlaw in Norway. Berg-Önundr gathered a company of men to capture Egill, but was killed in his attempt to do so. Before escaping from Norway, Egill also slew Rögnvaldr, the son of King Eirik and Queen Gunnhildr. He then cursed the King and Queen, setting a horse's head on a "Nithing pole" and saying,  Gunnhildr also put a spell on Egill, which made him feel restless and depressed until they met again.  Soon afterwards, Eiríkr and Gunnhildr were forced to flee to the Kingdom of Northumbria by Prince Hákon. In Saxon England, they were set up as King and Queen of Northumbria in rivalry with King Athelstan of England. Ultimately, Egill was shipwrecked in Northumbria and came to know who ruled the land. Egill sought out the house of his good friend Arinbjorn where they armed themselves and marched to Eiríkr's court. Arinbjorn told Egill “now you must go and offer the king your head and embrace his foot. I will present your case to him.” Arinbjorn presented Egill’s case and Egill composed a short "drápa", reciting it with Eirikr’s foot in his hand, but Eirikr was not impressed. He explained that Egill’s wrongs to him were far too great to be forgiven so easily. Gunnhild called for the immediate execution of Egill, but Arinbjorn convinced the king not to kill him until the morning.  The Vikings deemed it illegal to kill a man during the night time. Arinbjorn told Egill that he should stay up all night and compose a mighty head-ransom poem or "drápa" fit for such a king, a poem in praise of his enemy. In the morning Egill went before king Eirik Bloodaxe and recited the great "drápa". This twenty-stanza long head-ransom poem appears in Chapter 63 of ""Egil's saga"". Eirik was so surprised by the quality of the poem that he generously decided to give Egill his life, even though he had killed his own son. The complex nature of these poems with unique word order determined by sophisticated word choice and metaphor or kenning, as explained in the Poetic Edda, as well as the fact that they were often about Kings and recited first in their royal presence ensures that seeds of history abide in them, and the fact that professor Byock could diagnose Paget's disease from such poetry adds credence to the truthfulness of their content. Such complex poems were remembered entirely, as a whole cloth, or not at all. "Egil's saga" and other Icelandic sagas appear to hang on a skeletal framework of such complex poetry, a spine of historical truth.  Egill also fought at the Battle of Brunanburh in the service of King Athelstan, for which he received payment in silver.  Ultimately, Egill returned to his family farm in Iceland, where he remained a power to be reckoned with in local politics. He lived into his eighties and died shortly before the Christianisation of Iceland. Before Egill died he buried his silver treasure near Mosfellsbær. In his last act of violence he murdered the servant who helped him bury his treasure.  When a Christian chapel was constructed at the family homestead, Egill's body was re-exumed by his son and re-buried near the altar. According to the saga, the exhumed skull bone was hit with an axe, and it only turned white, showing the strength of the warrior, but also suggesting the traits of Paget's disease.

Issue.

Egill had five children with Ásgerðr Björnsdóttir: Þorgerðr Egilsdóttir, Bera Egilsdóttir, Böðvar Egilsson, Gunnar Egilsson and Þorsteinn Egilsson. In later years, Iceland's Myrar clan claimed descent from him.

Poems.

Apart from being a warrior of immense might in literary sources, Egill is also celebrated for his poetry, considered by many historians to be the finest of the ancient Scandinavian poets and "Sonatorrek", the dirge over his own sons, has been called "the birth of Nordic personal lyric poetry". His poems were also the first Old Norse verses to use end rhyme. The following works are attributed to Egill:  The following is one of Egill's "Lausavísur" (no. 3), found in chapter 40 of "Egils Saga":

Runes.

Egill was also a scholar of runes. His apparent mastery of their magic powers assisted him several times during his journeys. During a feast at Atla-isle, Bard's attempt to poison Egill failed when a rune carved by Egill shattered his poisoned cup.  At a companion's request, he examined a sick woman. A local land owner, after being denied her hand in marriage, had attempted to carve love-runes. Instead, he had mistakenly carved runes causing illness. Egill burned the offending runes and carved runes for health, and the woman recovered. He then sang a poem declaring that "Runes none should grave ever/Who knows not to read them."  Both these incidents are quite believable. Most poisons of the period were strong alkaloids which would cause cow-horn drinking cups to fray. This was one reason for their use. When Egill carved the rune, in all likelihood he had spotted the fraying (which he would have been looking for) and used it to disguise why he pried at the cup.  As for the sick young woman, in addition to burning the runes, Egill ordered her to be lifted out of bed and her old bedding to be thrown away and replaced with new sheets. Recovery was swift.  Runes were also employed by Egill during the raising of the Nithing Pole against King Eirik Bloodaxe and Queen Gunnhildr.

External links.

In English:  In Icelandic:

Egill Skallagrímsson ( ; 904 995) was a Viking-Age poet, warrior and farmer. He is known mainly as the protagonist of "Egil's Saga". "Egil's Saga" historically narrates a period from approximately 850 to 1000 CE and is believed to have been written between 1220 and 1240 CE.

Egill Skallagrímsson (asi 904 – asi 995) byl islandský básník a válečník vikingské éry. O jeho životě pojednává tzv. "Egilova sága", zřejmě ze 13. století.


Overview.

1955–1957.

The league was initially established with two divisions of 14 teams each in 1955 as the level of play below the DDR-Liga, and as such was the third tier of the East German football league system instead of the Bezirksliga which was downgraded to the fourth tier due to a reform in the league system. The divisions were "Staffel Nord" and "Staffel Süd". In its inaugural season it was transitional thus there were no promotions or relegations, and teams played each other once within its own division. For the first six campaigns, the calendar season was adopted from the Soviet Union.  In its second season, the divisions were shifted to a home-and-away format. The champions of each division were promoted to the DDR-Liga and the last three clubs in each division were relegated to their respective Bezirksliga and promoted in their place were the six district champions, while in 1957 there were three relegations in total.

1958–1960.

The league added three groups still at 14 teams each and all five were based on "Bezirk" (district) from north down to south and to save on travel expenses. In the promotion round the five champions competed each other once to decide the three promotions to the second tier. The number of relegations varied, and clubs were often moved between groups to balance out league numbers.

1961–1963.

The league reverted to playing from autumn to spring and as a transition season, it went through three rounds and each of the fourteen clubs played 39 games. From each group, three teams were promoted due to the DDR-Liga adding another group of 14 and the last-placed team was relegated.  For the eighth and final season, the five group champions and one runners-up were promoted to the DDR-Liga, which expanded its divisions to 16 clubs, and the remaining 64 were dropped back to the Bezirksligen which became third tier leagues again. After this reform in the pyramid, the II. DDR-Liga was abolished.

Leagues below the II. DDR-Liga.

For most of the existence of the "II. DDR-Liga", the leagues below it were the 15 "Bezirksligas", which were introduced in 1952 and formed the fourth tier of the East German pyramid for 8 years. In the last DDR-Liga season, the newly recreated states of former East Germany introduced their own regional leagues, with the exception of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Berlin. They still exist today. The Bezirksligas however have mostly either disappeared, changed their name or exist in a different format. The fifteen Bezirksligas were:

The II. DDR-Liga (English:"2nd East German League" or "2nd GDR-League") was, from 1955 to 1963, the third level of football competition in the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik or German Democratic Republic, commonly East Germany).

II. DDR-Liga je dnes již neexistující třetí nejvyšší fotbalová soutěž pořádaná na území Východního Německa. Pořádala se v letech 1955–1963. Během této doby se několikrát změnil název i formát soutěže.


History.

The village was first mentioned in a Latin document of Diocese of Wrocław called "Liber fundationis episcopatus Vratislaviensis" from around 1305 as "item in Gylownita". It meant that the village was in the process of location (the size of land to pay a tithe from was not yet precised). The creation of the village was a part of a larger settlement campaign taking place in the late 13th century on the territory of what will be later known as Upper Silesia.  Politically the village belonged initially to the Duchy of Teschen, formed in 1290 in the process of feudal fragmentation of Poland and was ruled by a local branch of Piast dynasty. In 1327 the duchy became a fee of the Kingdom of Bohemia, which after 1526 became part of the Habsburg Monarchy.  The village with Kisielów was bought from Karl Freyherrn von Celesta by Teschener Kammer in 1792 for 120,000 florins.  After Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire a modern municipal division was introduced in the re-established Austrian Silesia. The village as a municipality was subscribed to the political district of Bielitz (Bielsko) and the legal district of Schwarzwasser (Strumień). According to the censuses conducted in 1880, 1890, 1900 and 1910 the population of the municipality grew from 707 in 1880 to 744 in 1910 with a majority being native Polish-speakers (99.1%-99.9%) accompanied by a few German-speaking people (at most 7 or 0.9% in 1910), in terms of religion in 1910 majority were Roman Catholics (97%), followed by Protestants (22 or 3%). The village was also traditionally inhabited by Cieszyn Vlachs, speaking Cieszyn Silesian dialect.  After World War I, fall of Austria-Hungary, Polish–Czechoslovak War and the division of Cieszyn Silesia in 1920, it became a part of Poland. It was then annexed by Nazi Germany at the beginning of World War II. After the war it was restored to Poland.  In the years 2005-2011 a John Paul II church was built in the village, a filial church of Rudzica.

Iłownica () is a village in Gmina Jasienica, Bielsko County, Silesian Voivodeship, southern Poland. It has a population of 1,018 (2016).

Jilovnice (polsky Iłownica, německy "Illownitz" nebo "Niklasdorf") je vesnice v jižním Polsku ve Slezském vojvodství v okrese Bílsko-Bělá. Leží na historickém území Těšínského Slezska, z geomorfologického hlediska se nachází v Údolí horního toku Visly. Patří k rybníkářské oblasti zvané Žabí kraj. V roce 2014 zde žilo 1027 obyvatel.


Name.

The literal meaning of the Chinese characters is "Great Liquid Pool" or "Pond".  Prior to the Taiye Lake watershed system in Beijing that still exists today known as North, Central and South Seas, the name "Taiye" had honored several lakes in imperial gardens or palaces in various locations that once served as capital cities of imperial China. An early example of Taiye Lake is located in the city of Xi'an. There were two lakes named Taiye existed in Xi'an (known as Chang'an). The earlier Taiye Lake was excavated in Han dynasty by Emperor Wu of Han in the 1st century BC as part of his Jianzhang Palace (, "Jiànzhānggōng"). This lake, along with the Kunming Lake, was a necessary addition to the city's water supply after the expansion of the capital city under Emperor Wu's reign.  The second Taiye Lake in Xi'an was excavated in Tang dynasty by Emperor Taizong next to his father's Daming Palace, after the capital had been relocated several miles northward due to the growing salinity of the water source at the original site.  There are older Taiye Lakes in Beijing, too. In 1151, Beijing (known as Zhongdu) became the capital city of Jurchen Jin dynasty. The emperor Wanyan Liang ordered to rebuild Beijing in style of Kaifeng, the former capital city of Song dynasty in the south. During the reconstruction of Beijing, a Taiye Lake was built near the palace of Jurchens. The relic of this Taiye Lake is in today's Xicheng district outside of the southwestern second ring road and roughly near the Guang'an Gate of Beijing in later dynasties.  The still-existing Taiye Lakes in Beijing were first created in Yuan dynasty when Mongol's were reconstruct Beijing as Khanbaliq after the previous Beijing city had been seriously damaged during the war between Mongols and Jurchens.

History.

The lake was first constructed as part of the Jinshui River canal system under the Jurchen emperor Zhangzong. Although still within the limits of modern Beijing, the Jurchen capital of Zhongdu was located well south of the site, in a separate watershed. Zhangzong constructed the Daning Palace (,, "Dànínggōng", "Palace of Great Peace") beside the new lake in 1179.  During the Yuan dynasty, the Mongolian emperors abandoned the ruined site of Zhongdu and its more meager water sources in favor of the Gaoliang watershed. The imperial engineers Liu Bingzhong and Guo Shoujing directed the construction of the new Imperial City of Khanbaliq (Marco Polo's Cambaluc & the Chinese Dadu) around Zhangzong's former palace and Lake Taiye, which was an important part of the capital's water supply. The lake was expanded until it covered the area of the present northern and central "seas" and three palaces were built around it. The purity of the reservoir was protected by law: from its source at a spring on Yuquan Mountain to Lake Taiye, the Jinshui was given separate passes where it crossed other streams and commoners were forbidden to bathe, wash clothes, water livestock, or dump trash along its course.  Under the Ming dynasty, construction on the present-day Forbidden City began in AD 1406 as part of the Yongle Emperor's relocation of the capital away from Nanjing. The new palace was south of the former Yuan one and the Taiye was expanded south along with it. The soil excavated from the lake and the fortress's moat were piled up to the palace's north to form the Mountain of Long Life (now known as Jingshan), burying the former Yuan site and improving the "fengshui" of the new one. The lake now comprised the three present-day "seas", which were divided by bridges, but continued to be known collectively as Taiye. The grounds were known as the West or (, "Xīyuàn") and the Jiajing Emperor and others retreated to it to escape life at court.  After the establishment of the Manchurian Qing dynasty in the 17th century, the new government reduced the extensive Ming-era parks around the lake, enclosed the smaller present-day area within walls attached to the imperial palace, and began calling the separate sections by their modern names. Successive emperors built pavilions and houses along the lake shore, where they held court during the summer.

Taiye Lake or Pond was an artificial lake in imperial City, Beijing during the Jin, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties of China. The beauty and utility of the lake was responsible for the siting of Kublai Khan's palace and the position of modern Beijing. It continues to exist but it is now known separately as the "North", "Central", and "South Sea"s, the three interconnected lakes just west of the Forbidden City in downtown Beijing. The northern lake makes up the public Beihai Park while the southern two are grouped together as Zhongnanhai, the headquarters for the Communist leadership of the People's Republic of China.

Tchaj-jie-čch’ nebo jezero Tchaj-jie () je umělé jezero, které se nachází v historickém centru Pekingu v bývalém Císařském městě, západně od Zakázaného města.


History.

Iceland is a geologically young land mass, having formed an estimated 20 million years ago due to volcanic eruptions on the Mid-Atlantic ridge. One of the last larger islands to remain uninhabited, the first human settlement date is generally accepted to be 874 AD, although there is some evidence to suggest human activity prior to the Norse arrival.

Initial migration and settlement.

The first Viking to sight Iceland was Gardar Svavarsson, who went off course due to harsh conditions when sailing from Norway to the Faroe Islands. His reports led to the first efforts to settle the island. Flóki Vilgerðarson (b. 9th century) was the first Norseman to sail to Iceland intentionally. His story is documented in the Landnámabók manuscript, and he is said to have named the island Ísland (Iceland). The first permanent settler in Iceland is usually considered to have been a Norwegian chieftain named Ingólfur Arnarson. He settled with his family in around 874, at a place he named "Bay of Smokes", or Reykjavík in Icelandic.  Following Ingólfur, and also in 874, another group of Norwegians set sail across the North Atlantic Ocean with their families, livestock, slaves, and possessions, escaping the domination of the first King of Norway, Harald Fairhair. They traveled 1,000 km (600 mi) in their Viking longships to the island of Iceland. These people were primarily of Norwegian, Irish or Gaelic Scottish origin. The Irish and the Scottish Gaels were either slaves or servants of the Norse chiefs, according to the Icelandic sagas, or descendants of a "group of Norsemen who had settled in Scotland and Ireland and intermarried with Gaelic-speaking people". Genetic evidence suggests that approximately 62% of the Icelandic maternal gene pool is derived from Ireland and Scotland, which is much higher than other Scandinavian countries, although comparable to the Faroese, while 37% is of Nordic origin. About 20-25% of the Icelandic paternal gene pool is of Gaelic origin, with the rest being Nordic.  The Icelandic Age of Settlement (Icelandic: "Landnámsöld") is considered to have lasted from 874 to 930, at which point most of the island had been claimed and the Alþingi (), the assembly of the Icelandic Commonwealth, was founded at Þingvellir.

Hardship and conflict.

In 930, on the Þingvellir () plain near Reykjavík, the chieftains and their families met and established the Alþingi, Iceland's first national assembly. However, the Alþingi lacked the power to enforce the laws it made. In 1262, struggles between rival chieftains left Iceland so divided that King Haakon IV of Norway was asked to step in as a final arbitrator for all disputes, as part of the Old Covenant. This is known as the Age of the Sturlungs.  Iceland was under Norwegian leadership until 1380, when the Royal House of Norway died out. At this point, both Iceland and Norway came under the control of the Danish Crown. With the introduction of absolute monarchy in Denmark, the Icelanders relinquished their autonomy to the crown, including the right to initiate and consent to legislation. This meant a loss of independence for Iceland, which led to nearly 300 years of decline: perhaps largely because Denmark and its Crown did not consider Iceland to be a colony to be supported and assisted. In particular, the lack of help in defense led to constant raids by marauding pirates along the Icelandic coasts.  Unlike Norway, Denmark did not need Iceland's fish and homespun wool. This created a dramatic deficit in Iceland's trade, and no new ships were built as a result. In 1602 Iceland was forbidden to trade with other countries by order of the Danish Government, and in the 18th century climatic conditions had reached an all-time low since Settlement. In 1783–84 Laki, a volcanic fissure in the south of the island, erupted. The eruption produced about 15 km (3.6 mi) of basalt lava, and the total volume of tephra emitted was 0.91 km. The aerosols that built up caused a cooling effect in the Northern Hemisphere. The consequences for Iceland were catastrophic, with approximately 25-33% of the population dying in the famine of 1783 and 1784. Around 80% of sheep, 50% of cattle, and 50% of horses died of fluorosis from the 8 million tons of fluorine that were released. This disaster is known as the Mist Hardship (Icelandic: "Móðuharðindin").  In 1798–99 the Alþingi was discontinued for several decades, eventually being restored in 1844. It was moved to Reykjavík, the capital, after being held at Þingvellir for over nine centuries.

Independence and prosperity.

The 19th century brought significant improvement in the Icelanders' situation. A protest movement was led by Jón Sigurðsson, a statesman, historian, and authority on Icelandic literature. Inspired by the romantic and nationalist currents from mainland Europe, Jón protested strongly, through political journals and self-publications, for 'a return to national consciousness' and for political and social changes to be made to help speed up Iceland's development.  In 1854, the Danish government relaxed the trade ban that had been imposed in 1602, and Iceland gradually began to rejoin Western Europe economically and socially. With this return of contact with other peoples came a reawakening of Iceland's arts, especially its literature. Twenty years later in 1874, Iceland was granted a constitution. Icelanders today recognize Jón's efforts as largely responsible for their economic and social resurgence.  Iceland gained full sovereignty and independence from Denmark in 1918 after World War I. It became the Kingdom of Iceland. The King of Denmark also served as the King of Iceland but Iceland retained only formal ties with the Danish Crown. On 17 June 1944 the monarchy was abolished and a republic was established on Jón Sigurðsson's 133rd birthday. This ended nearly six centuries of ties with Denmark.

Demographics and society.

Genetics.

Due to their small founding population and history of relative isolation, Icelanders have often been considered highly genetically homogeneous as compared to other European populations. For this reason, along with the extensive genealogical records for much of the population that reach back to the settlement of Iceland, Icelanders have been the focus of considerable genomics research by both biotechnology companies and academic and medical researchers. It was, for example, possible for researchers to reconstruct much of the maternal genome of Iceland's first known black inhabitant, Hans Jonatan, from the DNA of his present-day descendants partly because the distinctively African parts of his genome were unique in Iceland until very recent times.  Genetic evidence shows that most DNA lineages found among Icelanders today can be traced to the settlement of Iceland, indicating that there has been relatively little immigration since. This evidence shows that the founder population of Iceland came from Ireland, Scotland, and Scandinavia: studies of mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosomes indicate that 62% of Icelanders' matrilineal ancestry derives from Scotland and Ireland (with most of the rest being from Scandinavia), while 75% of their patrilineal ancestry derives from Scandinavia (with most of the rest being from the Irish and British Isles).  Other studies have identified other ancestries, however. One study of mitochondrial DNA, blood groups, and isozymes revealed a more variable population than expected, comparable to the diversity of some other Europeans. Another study showed that a tiny proportion of samples of contemporary Icelanders carry a more distant lineage, which belongs to the haplogroup C1e, which can possibly be traced to the settlement of the Americas around 14,000 years ago. This hints a small proportion of Icelanders have some Native American ancestry arising from Norse colonization of Greenland and North America.  Despite Iceland's historical isolation, the genetic makeup of Icelanders today is still quite different from the founding population, due to founder effects and genetic drift. One study found that the mean Norse ancestry among Iceland's settlers was 56%, whereas in the current population the figure was 70%. This indicates that Icelanders with increased levels of Norse ancestry had higher reproductive success.

Emigration.

Greenland.

The first Europeans to emigrate to and settle in Greenland were Icelanders who did so under the leadership of Erik the Red in the late 10th century CE and numbered around 500 people. Isolated fjords in this harsh land offered sufficient grazing to support cattle and sheep, though the climate was too cold for cereal crops. Royal trade ships from Norway occasionally went to Greenland to trade for walrus tusks and falcons. The population eventually reached a high point of perhaps 3,000 in two communities and developed independent institutions before fading away during the 15th century. A papal legation was sent there as late as 1492, the year Columbus attempted to find a shorter spice route to Asia but instead encountered the Americas.

North America.

According to the "Saga of Eric the Red", Icelandic immigration to North America dates back to Vinland circa 1006. The colony was believed to be short-lived and abandoned by the 1020s. European settlement of the region was not archeologically and historically confirmed as more than legend until the 1960s. The former Norse site, now known as L'Anse aux Meadows, pre-dated the arrival of Columbus in the Americas by almost 500 years.  A more recent instance of Icelandic emigration to North America occurred in 1855, when a small group settled in Spanish Fork, Utah. Another Icelandic colony formed in Washington Island, Wisconsin. Immigration to the United States and Canada began in earnest in the 1870s, with most migrants initially settling in the Great Lakes area. These settlers were fleeing famine and overcrowding on Iceland. Today, there are sizable communities of Icelandic descent in both the United States and Canada. Gimli, in Manitoba, Canada, is home to the largest population of Icelanders outside of the main island of Iceland.

Immigration.

From the mid-1990s, Iceland experienced rising immigration. By 2017 the population of first-generation immigrants (defined as people born abroad with both parents foreign-born and all grandparents foreign-born) stood at 35,997 (10.6% of residents), and the population of second-generation immigrants at 4,473. Correspondingly, the numbers of foreign-born people acquiring Icelandic citizenship are markedly higher than in the 1990s, standing at 703 in 2016. Correspondingly, Icelandic identity is gradually shifting towards a more multicultural form.

Culture.

Language and literature.

Icelandic, a North Germanic language, is the official language of Iceland ("de facto"; the laws are silent about the issue). Icelandic has inflectional grammar comparable to Latin, Ancient Greek, more closely to Old English and practically identical to Old Norse.  Old Icelandic literature can be divided into several categories. Three are best known to foreigners: Eddic poetry, skaldic poetry, and saga literature, if saga literature is understood broadly. Eddic poetry is made up of heroic and mythological poems. Poetry that praises someone is considered skaldic poetry or court poetry. Finally, saga literature is prose, ranging from pure fiction to fairly factual history.  Written Icelandic has changed little since the 13th century. Because of this modern readers can understand the Icelanders' sagas. The sagas tell of events in Iceland in the 10th and early 11th centuries. They are considered to be the best-known pieces of Icelandic literature.  The elder or "Poetic Edda", the younger or "Prose Edda", and the sagas are the major pieces of Icelandic literature. The "Poetic Edda" is a collection of poems and stories from the late 10th century, whereas the younger or "Prose Edda" is a manual of poetry that contains many stories of Norse mythology.

Religion.

Iceland embraced Christianity in c. AD 1000, in what is called the "kristnitaka", and the country, while mostly secular in observance, is still predominantly Christian culturally. The Lutheran church claims some 84% of the total population. While early Icelandic Christianity was more lax in its observances than traditional Catholicism, Pietism, a religious movement imported from Denmark in the 18th century, had a marked effect on the island. By discouraging all but religious leisure activities, it fostered a certain dourness, which was for a long time considered an Icelandic stereotype. At the same time, it also led to a boom in printing, and Iceland today is one of the most literate societies in the world.  While Catholicism was supplanted by Protestantism during the Reformation, most other world religions are now represented on the island: there are small Protestant Free Churches and Catholic communities, and even a nascent Muslim community, composed of both immigrants and local converts. Perhaps unique to Iceland is the fast-growing "Ásatrúarfélag", a legally recognized revival of the pre-Christian Nordic religion of the original settlers. According to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Reykjavík, there were only approximately 30 Jews in Iceland as of 2001. The former First Lady of Iceland Dorrit Moussaieff was an Israeli-born Bukharian Jew.

Cuisine.

Icelandic cuisine consists mainly of fish, lamb, and dairy. Fish was once the main part of an Icelander's diet but has recently given way to meats such as beef, pork, and poultry.  Iceland has many traditional foods called Þorramatur. These foods include smoked and salted lamb, singed sheep heads, dried fish, smoked and pickled salmon, and cured shark. Andrew Zimmern, a chef who has traveled the world on his show "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern", responded to the question "What's the most disgusting thing you've ever eaten?" with the response "That would have to be the fermented shark fin I had in Iceland." Fermented shark fin is a form of Þorramatur.

Performance art.

The earliest indigenous Icelandic music was the "rímur", epic tales from the Viking era that were often performed a cappella. Christianity played a major role in the development of Icelandic music, with many hymns being written in the local idiom. Hallgrímur Pétursson, a poet and priest, is noted for writing many of these hymns in the 17th century. The island's relative isolation ensured that the music maintained its regional flavor. It was only in the 19th century that the first pipe organs, prevalent in European religious music, first appeared on the island.  Many singers, groups, and forms of music have come from Iceland. Most Icelandic music contains vibrant folk and pop traditions. Some more recent groups and singers are Voces Thules, The Sugarcubes, Björk, Sigur Rós, and Of Monsters and Men.  The national anthem is "Ó Guð vors lands" (), written by Matthías Jochumsson, with music by Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson. The song was written in 1874, when Iceland celebrated its one thousandth anniversary of settlement on the island. It was originally published with the title "A Hymn in Commemoration of Iceland's Thousand Years".

Sports.

Iceland's men's national football team participated in their first FIFA World Cup in 2018, after reaching the quarter finals of its first major international tournament, UEFA Euro 2016. The women's national football team has yet to reach a World Cup; its best result at a major international event was a quarterfinal finish in UEFA Women's Euro 2013. The country's first Olympic participation was in the 1912 Summer Olympics; however, they did not participate again until the 1936 Summer Olympics. Their first appearance at the Winter Games was at the 1948 Winter Olympics. In 1956, Vilhjálmur Einarsson won the Olympic silver medal for the triple jump. The Icelandic national handball team has enjoyed relative success. The team received a silver medal at the 2008 Olympic Games and a 3rd place at the 2010 European Men's Handball Championship.

Icelanders () are a North Germanic ethnic group and nation who are native to the island country of Iceland and speak Icelandic.

Islanďané jsou germánská etnická skupina a národ spjatý s ostrovem Island (osídleným okolo roku 874) a Islandskou republikou, jež vznikla roku 1944. Islanďané hovoří převážně islandštinou (zákony Islandu ji nicméně nedefinují jako státní či úřední jazyk). Výzkumy DNA ukázaly, že 60-80 procent Islanďanů má seveřanský původ, zbytek genofondu je převážně keltský, což je způsobeno migrací lidí s keltským původem z Irska a Skotska. K islandské národnosti se celosvětově hlásí okolo 450 000 lidí. Na samotném Islandu žije asi 300 000 z nich. Minority jsou především ve skandinávských zemích, tedy v Dánsku, Norsku a Švédsku. Pro identitu Islanďanů je důležitá historie Vikingů; Islanďané přijali okolo roku 1000 křesťanství (tzv. "kristnitaka"), s nástupem reformace pak protestantství (podobně jako jiné severské národy, v interakci s nimiž se Islanďané vždy vyvíjeli).


History.

The vulnerability has existed in the Linux kernel since version 2.6.22 released in September 2007, and there is information about it being actively exploited at least since October 2016. The vulnerability has been patched in Linux kernel versions 4.8.3, 4.7.9, 4.4.26 and newer.  The patch produced in 2016 did not fully address the issue and a revised patch was released on November 27, 2017, before public dissemination of the vulnerability.

Applications.

The Dirty COW vulnerability has many perceived use cases including proven examples, such as obtaining root permissions in Android devices, as well as several speculated implementations. There are many binaries used in Linux which are read-only, and can only be modified or written to by a user of higher permissions, such as the root. When privileges are escalated, whether by genuine or malicious means – such as by using the Dirty COW exploit – the user can modify usually unmodifiable binaries and files. If a malicious individual could use the Dirty COW vulnerability to escalate their permissions, they could change a file, such as codice_1, so that it performs an additional, unexpected functions, such as a keylogger. When a user starts a program which has been infected, they will inadvertently allow the malicious code to run. If the exploit targets a program which is run with root privileges, the exploit will enjoy those same privileges.

Remedies and recourse.

At the dawn of its discovery, anyone using a machine running Linux was susceptible to the exploit. The only perfect cure to this exploit is a patch or running a newer version which is not vulnerable anymore. Linus Torvalds committed a patch on October 18, 2016, acknowledging that it was an old vulnerability he had attempted to fix eleven years ago. Some distributors provide patches, such as Canonical, who provided a live patch. In the absence of a patch, there are a few mitigation technologies including SystemTap, and very little security from SELinux or AppArmor. Antivirus software has the potential to detect elevated permissions attacks, but it cannot prevent the attack. When given the opportunity, the safest route is to upgrade the Linux kernel to the following versions:

Dirty COW ("Dirty copy-on-write") is a computer security vulnerability for the Linux kernel that affects all Linux-based operating systems including Android that use older versions of the Linux kernel. It is a local privilege escalation bug that exploits a race condition in the implementation of the copy-on-write mechanism in the kernel's memory-management subsystem. The vulnerability was discovered by Phil Oester. Because of the race condition, with the right timing, a local attacker can exploit the copy-on-write mechanism to turn a read-only mapping of a file into a writable mapping. Although it is a local privilege escalation, remote attackers can use it in conjunction with other exploits that allow remote execution of non-privileged code to achieve remote root access on a computer. The attack itself does not leave traces in the system log.

Dirty COW (v překladu „špinavá kráva“, ) je v informatice název zranitelnosti postihující jádro Linuxu. Umožňuje běžnému uživateli přepsat systémové soubory a získat tak práva superuživatele (správce počítače). Chyba je způsobena možností souběhu v mechanismu copy-on-write a je součástí linuxového jádra od verze 2.6.22 vydané v roce 2007. Zranitelnost byla objevena v říjnu 2016 bezpečnostním expertem Philem Oesterem při analýze komunikace s napadeným serverem. Chyba dostala označení CVE-2016-5195.


Process.

Standard central bank monetary policies are usually enacted by buying or selling government bonds on the open market to reach a desired target for the interbank interest rate. However, if a recession or depression continues even when a central bank has lowered interest rates to nearly zero, the central bank can no longer lower interest rates — a situation known as the liquidity trap. The central bank may then implement quantitative easing by buying financial assets without reference to interest rates. This policy is sometimes described as a last resort to stimulate the economy.  A central bank enacts quantitative easing by purchasing, regardless of interest rates, a predetermined "quantity" of bonds or other financial assets on financial markets from private financial institutions. This action increases the excess reserves that banks hold. The goal of this policy is to ease financial conditions, increase market liquidity, and facilitate an expansion of private bank lending.  Quantitative easing affects the economy through several channels:

History.

Precedents.

The US Federal Reserve belatedly implemented policies similar to the recent quantitative easing during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Specifically, banks' excess reserves exceeded 6 percent in 1940, whereas they vanished during the entire postwar period until 2008. Despite this fact, many commentators called the scope of the Federal Reserve quantitative easing program after the 2008 crisis "unprecedented".

Japan before 2007.

A policy termed "quantitative easing" (量的金融緩和, "ryōteki kin'yū kanwa") was first used by the Bank of Japan (BOJ) to fight domestic deflation in the early 2000s. The BOJ had maintained short-term interest rates at close to zero since 1999. The Bank of Japan had for many years, and as late as February 2001, stated that "quantitative easing... is not effective" and rejected its use for monetary policy.  According to the Bank of Japan, the central bank adopted quantitative easing on 19 March 2001. Under quantitative easing, the BOJ flooded commercial banks with excess liquidity to promote private lending, leaving them with large stocks of excess reserves and therefore little risk of a liquidity shortage. The BOJ accomplished this by buying more government bonds than would be required to set the interest rate to zero. It later also bought asset-backed securities and equities and extended the terms of its commercial paper-purchasing operation. The BOJ increased commercial bank current account balances from ¥5 trillion to ¥35 trillion (approximately US$300 billion) over a four-year period starting in March 2001. The BOJ also tripled the quantity of long-term Japan government bonds it could purchase on a monthly basis. However, the seven-fold increase notwithstanding, current account balances (essentially central bank reserves) being just one (usually relatively small) component of the liability side of a central bank's balance sheet (the main one being banknotes), the resulting peak increase in the BOJ's balance sheet was modest, compared to later actions by other central banks.

After 2007.

Since the global financial crisis of 2007–08, policies similar to those undertaken by Japan have been used by the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Eurozone. Quantitative easing was used by these countries because their risk-free short-term nominal interest rates (termed the federal funds rate in the US, or the official bank rate in the UK) were either at or close to zero.  During the peak of the financial crisis in 2008, the US Federal Reserve expanded its balance sheet dramatically by adding new assets and new liabilities without "sterilizing" these by corresponding subtractions. In the same period, the United Kingdom also used quantitative easing as an additional arm of its monetary policy to alleviate its financial crisis.

US QE1, QE2, and QE3.

The U.S. Federal Reserve System held between $700 billion and $800 billion of Treasury notes on its balance sheet before the recession. In late November 2008, the Federal Reserve started buying $600 billion in mortgage-backed securities. By March 2009, it held $1.75 trillion of bank debt, mortgage-backed securities, and Treasury notes; this amount reached a peak of $2.1 trillion in June 2010. Further purchases were halted as the economy started to improve, but resumed in August 2010 when the Fed decided the economy was not growing robustly. After the halt in June, holdings started falling naturally as debt matured and were projected to fall to $1.7 trillion by 2012. The Fed's revised goal became to keep holdings at $2.054 trillion. To maintain that level, the Fed bought $30 billion in two- to ten-year Treasury notes every month.  In November 2010, the Fed announced a second round of quantitative easing, buying $600 billion of Treasury securities by the end of the second quarter of 2011. The expression "QE2" became a ubiquitous nickname in 2010, used to refer to this second round of quantitative easing by US central banks. Retrospectively, the round of quantitative easing preceding QE2 was called "QE1".  A third round of quantitative easing, "QE3", was announced on 13 September 2012. In an 11–1 vote, the Federal Reserve decided to launch a new $40 billion per month, open-ended bond purchasing program of agency mortgage-backed securities. Additionally, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announced that it would likely maintain the federal funds rate near zero "at least through 2015". According to NASDAQ.com, this is effectively a stimulus program that allows the Federal Reserve to relieve $40 billion per month of commercial housing market debt risk. Because of its open-ended nature, QE3 has earned the popular nickname of "QE-Infinity". On 12 December 2012, the FOMC announced an increase in the amount of open-ended purchases from $40 billion to $85 billion per month.  On 19 June 2013, Ben Bernanke announced a "tapering" of some of the Fed's QE policies contingent upon continued positive economic data. Specifically, he said that the Fed could scale back its bond purchases from $85 billion to $65 billion a month during the upcoming September 2013 policy meeting. He also suggested that the bond-buying program could wrap up by mid-2014. While Bernanke did not announce an interest rate hike, he suggested that if inflation followed a 2% target rate and unemployment decreased to 6.5%, the Fed would likely start raising rates. The stock markets dropped by approximately 4.3% over the three trading days following Bernanke's announcement, with the Dow Jones dropping 659 points between 19 and 24 June, closing at 14,660 at the end of the day on 24 June. On 18 September 2013, the Fed decided to hold off on scaling back its bond-buying program, and announced in December 2013 that it would begin to taper its purchases in January 2014. Purchases were halted on 29 October 2014 after accumulating $4.5 trillion in assets.

United Kingdom.

During its QE programme, the Bank of England bought gilts from financial institutions, along with a smaller amount of relatively high-quality debt issued by private companies. The banks, insurance companies, and pension funds could then use the money they received for lending or even to buy back more bonds from the bank. Further, the central bank could lend the new money to private banks or buy assets from banks in exchange for currency. These measures have the effect of depressing interest yields on government bonds and similar investments, making it cheaper for business to raise capital. Another side effect is that investors will switch to other investments, such as shares, boosting their price and thus encouraging consumption. QE can reduce interbank overnight interest rates and thereby encourage banks to loan money to higher interest-paying and financially weaker bodies.  Beginning in March 2009, the Bank of England had purchased around £165 billion in assets as of September 2009 and around £175 billion in assets by the end of October 2009. At its meeting in November 2009, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to increase total asset purchases to £200 billion. Most of the assets purchased have been UK government securities (gilts); the Bank has also purchased smaller quantities of high-quality private-sector assets. In December 2010, MPC member Adam Posen called for a £50 billion expansion of the Bank's quantitative easing programme, while his colleague Andrew Sentance has called for an increase in interest rates due to inflation being above the target rate of 2%. In October 2011, the Bank of England announced that it would undertake another round of QE, creating an additional £75 billion. In February 2012 it announced an additional £50 billion. In July 2012 it announced another £50 billion, bringing the total amount to £375 billion. The Bank has said that it will not buy more than 70% of any issue of government debt. This means that at least 30% of any issue of government debt will have to be purchased and held by institutions other than the Bank of England. In 2012 the Bank estimated that quantitative easing had benefited households differentially according to the assets they hold; richer households have more assets.  In August 2016, the Bank of England said it would buy an additional £60bn of UK government bonds and £10bn of corporate bonds, to address uncertainty over Brexit and worries about productivity and economic growth. In an emergency meeting due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the Bank announced £200bn purchases of government bonds, bringing the total to £645bn.

Eurozone and Switzerland.

The European Central Bank said that it would focus on buying covered bonds, a form of corporate debt. It signalled that its initial purchases would be worth about €60 billion in May 2009.  At the beginning of 2013, the Swiss National Bank had the largest balance sheet relative to the size of the economy it was responsible for, at close to 100% of Switzerland's national output. A total of 12% of its reserves were in foreign equities. By contrast, the US Federal Reserve's holdings equalled about 20% of US GDP, while the European Central Bank's assets were worth 30% of GDP.  In a dramatic change of policy, following the new Jackson Hole Consensus, on 22 January 2015 Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, announced an "expanded asset purchase programme", where €60 billion per month of euro-area bonds from central governments, agencies and European institutions would be bought. Beginning in March 2015, the stimulus was planned to last until September 2016 at the earliest with a total QE of at least €1.1 trillion. Mario Draghi announced the programme would continue: "until we see a continued adjustment in the path of inflation", referring to the ECB's need to combat the growing threat of deflation across the eurozone in early 2015.  On 10 March 2016, the ECB increased its monthly bond purchases to €80 billion from €60 billion and started to include corporate bonds under the asset purchasing programme and announced new ultra-cheap four-year loans to banks. After a short pause of about a year, the ECB resumed buying up eurozone government bonds at a rate of €20 billion as from November 2019 in an effort to encourage governments to borrow more and spend in domestic investment projects. On 18 March 2020, to help the economy absorb the shock of the COVID-19 crisis, the ECB announced a €750 billion Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP). The aim of the stimulus package (PEPP) was to lower borrowing costs and increase lending in the euro area.

Sweden.

Sveriges Riksbank launched quantitative easing in February 2015, announcing government bond purchases of nearly 1.2 billion USD. The annualised inflation rate in January 2015 was minus 0.3 percent, and the bank implied that Sweden's economy could slide into deflation.

Japan after 2007 and Abenomics.

In early October 2010, the Bank of Japan announced that it would examine the purchase of ¥5 trillion (US$60 billion) in assets. This was an attempt to push down the value of the yen against the US dollar to stimulate the domestic economy by making Japanese exports cheaper; however, it was ineffective.  On 4 August 2011 the BOJ announced a unilateral move to increase the commercial bank current account balance from ¥40 trillion (US$504 billion) to a total of ¥50 trillion (US$630 billion). In October 2011, the Bank expanded its asset purchase program by ¥5 trillion ($66bn) to a total of ¥55 trillion.  On 4 April 2013, the Bank of Japan announced that it would expand its asset purchase program by 60 to 70 trillion Yen a year.  The Bank hoped to bring Japan from deflation to inflation, aiming for 2% inflation. The amount of purchases was so large that it was expected to double the money supply. This policy has been named Abenomics, as a portmanteau of economic policies and Shinzō Abe, the current Prime Minister of Japan.  On 31 October 2014, the BOJ announced the expansion of its bond buying program, to now buy ¥80 trillion of bonds a year.

Efficacy.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the quantitative easing policies undertaken by the central banks of the major developed countries since the beginning of the late-2000s financial crisis have contributed to the reduction in systemic risks following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. The IMF states that the policies also contributed to the improvements in market confidence and the bottoming-out of the recession in the G7 economies in the second half of 2009.  Economist Martin Feldstein argues that QE2 led to a rise in the stock market in the second half of 2010, which in turn contributed to increasing consumption and the strong performance of the US economy in late 2010. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan calculated that as of July 2012, there was "very little impact on the economy". Federal Reserve Governor Jeremy Stein has said that measures of quantitive easing such as large-scale asset purchases "have played a significant role in supporting economic activity".  According to Neil Irwin, senior economic correspondent at The New York Times, quantitative easing by the US Federal Reserve likely contributed to: i) Lower interest rates for corporate bonds and mortgage rates, helping support housing prices; ii) Higher stock market valuation, in terms of a higher price-earnings ratio for the S&P 500 index; iii) Increased inflation rate and investor's expectations for future inflation; iv) Higher rate of job creation; and v) Higher rate of GDP growth.  Several studies published in the aftermath of the crisis found Large Scale Asset Purchases to have lowered long term interest rates on a variety of securities as well as lower credit risk. The impacts were to modestly increase inflation and boost GDP growth.

Risks and side-effects.

Quantitative easing may cause higher inflation than desired if the amount of easing required is overestimated and too much money is created by the purchase of liquid assets. On the other hand, QE can fail to spur demand if banks remain reluctant to lend money to businesses and households. Even then, QE can still ease the process of deleveraging as it lowers yields. However, there is a time lag between monetary growth and inflation; inflationary pressures associated with money growth from QE could build before the central bank acts to counter them. Inflationary risks are mitigated if the system's economy outgrows the pace of the increase of the money supply from the easing. If production in an economy increases because of the increased money supply, the value of a unit of currency may also increase, even though there is more currency available. For example, if a nation's economy were to spur a significant increase in output at a rate at least as high as the amount of debt monetized, the inflationary pressures would be equalized. This can only happen if member banks actually lend the excess money out instead of hoarding the extra cash. During times of high economic output, the central bank always has the option of restoring reserves to higher levels through raising interest rates or other means, effectively reversing the easing steps taken.  Economists such as John Taylor believe that quantitative easing creates unpredictability. Since the increase in bank reserves may not immediately increase the money supply if held as excess reserves, the increased reserves create the danger that inflation may eventually result when the reserves are loaned out.  QE benefits debtors, since the interest rate has fallen, meaning there is less money to be repaid. However, it directly harms creditors as they earn less money from lower interest rates. Devaluation of a currency also directly harms importers and consumers, as the cost of imported goods is inflated by the devaluation of the currency.

Impact on savings and pensions.

In the European Union, World Pensions Council (WPC) financial economists have also argued that artificially low government bond interest rates induced by QE will have an adverse impact on the underfunding condition of pension funds, since "without returns that outstrip inflation, pension investors face the real value of their savings declining rather than ratcheting up over the next few years". In addition to this, low or negative interest rates create disincentives for saving. In a way this is an intended effect, since QE is intended to spur consumer spending.

Capital flight.

According to Bloomberg reporter David Lynch, the new money from quantitative easing could be used by the banks to invest in emerging markets, commodity-based economies, commodities themselves, and non-local opportunities rather than to lend to local businesses that are having difficulty getting loans.

Increased income and wealth inequality.

Critics frequently point to the redistributive effects of quantitative easing. For instance, British Prime Minister Theresa May openly criticized QE in July 2016 for its regressive effects: "Monetary policy – in the form of super-low interest rates and quantitative easing – has helped those on the property ladder at the expense of those who can't afford to own their own home." Dhaval Joshi of BCA Research wrote that "QE cash ends up overwhelmingly in profits, thereby exacerbating already extreme income inequality and the consequent social tensions that arise from it". Anthony Randazzo of the Reason Foundation wrote that QE "is fundamentally a regressive redistribution program that has been boosting wealth for those already engaged in the financial sector or those who already own homes, but passing little along to the rest of the economy. It is a primary driver of income inequality".  Those criticisms are partly based on some evidence provided by central banks themselves. In 2012, a Bank of England report showed that its quantitative easing policies had benefited mainly the wealthy, and that 40% of those gains went to the richest 5% of British households.  In May 2013, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said that cheap money has made rich people richer, but has not done quite as much for working Americans.  Answering similar criticisms expressed by MEP Molly Scott Cato, the President of the ECB Mario Draghi once declared: Some of these policies may, on the one hand, increase inequality but, on the other hand, if we ask ourselves what the major source of inequality is, the answer would be unemployment. So, to the extent that these policies help – and they are helping on that front – then certainly an accommodative monetary policy is better in the present situation than a restrictive monetary policy.In July 2018, the ECB published a study showing that its QE programme increased the net wealth of the poorest fifth of the population by 2.5 percent, compared with just 1.0 percent for the richest fifth. The study's credibility was however contested.

Criticism by BRIC countries.

BRIC countries have criticized the QE carried out by the central banks of developed nations. They share the argument that such actions amount to protectionism and competitive devaluation. As net exporters whose currencies are partially pegged to the dollar, they protest that QE causes inflation to rise in their countries and penalizes their industries.  The world's leading emerging economies have urged Western governments to pursue "responsible" economic policies, in particular referring to quantitative easing. In a joint statement leaders of Russia, Brazil, India, China and South Africa, collectively BRICS, have condemned the policies of western economies saying "It is critical for advanced economies to adopt responsible macro-economic and financial policies, avoid creating excessive liquidity and undertake structural reforms to lift growth" as written in the Telegraph.  Another criticism prevalent in Europe, is that it creates moral hazard for governments. Central banks’ purchases of government securities artificially depress the cost of borrowing. Normally, governments issuing additional debt see their borrowing costs rise, which discourages them from overdoing it. In particular, market discipline in the form of higher interest rates will cause a government like Italy’s, tempted to increase deficit spending, to think twice. Not so, however, when the central bank acts as bond buyer of last resort and is prepared to purchase government securities without limit. In such circumstances, market discipline will be incapacitated.

Political risk.

Richard W. Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, warned in 2010 that QE carries "the risk of being perceived as embarking on the slippery slope of debt monetization. We know that once a central bank is perceived as targeting government debt yields at a time of persistent budget deficits, concern about debt monetization quickly arises." Later in the same speech, he stated that the Fed is monetizing the government debt: "The math of this new exercise is readily transparent: The Federal Reserve will buy $110 billion a month in Treasuries, an amount that, annualized, represents the projected deficit of the federal government for next year. For the next eight months, the nation's central bank will be monetizing the federal debt." Ben Bernanke remarked in 2002 that the US government had a technology called the printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), so that if rates reached zero and deflation threatened, the government could always act to ensure deflation was prevented. He said, however, that the government would not print money and distribute it "willy nilly" but would rather focus its efforts in certain areas (e.g., buying federal agency debt securities and mortgage-backed securities). According to economist Robert McTeer, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, there is nothing wrong with printing money during a recession, and quantitative easing is different from traditional monetary policy "only in its magnitude and pre-announcement of amount and timing".

Terminology.

Qualitative easing.

Professor Willem Buiter of the London School of Economics has proposed a terminology to distinguish "quantitative easing", or an expansion of a central bank's balance sheet, from what he terms "qualitative easing", or the process of a central bank adding riskier assets to its balance sheet:

Credit easing.

In introducing the Federal Reserve's response to the 2008–09 financial crisis, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke distinguished the new program, which he termed "credit easing", from Japanese-style quantitative easing. In his speech, he announced, Credit easing involves increasing the money supply by the purchase not of government bonds but of private-sector assets, such as corporate bonds and residential mortgage–backed securities. In 2010, the Federal Reserve purchased $1.25 trillion of mortgage-backed securities to support the sagging mortgage market. These purchases increased the monetary base in a way similar to a purchase of government securities.

Monetary financing.

Quantitative easing has been nicknamed "printing money" by some members of the media, central bankers, and financial analysts. Stephen Hester, chief executive officer of the RBS Group, said:  What the Bank of England does in quantitative easing is it prints money to buy government debt,... So the Quantitative Easing has enabled governments, this government, to run a big budget deficit without killing the economy because the Bank of England has financed it. Central banks in most developed nations (e.g., the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, and the Eurozone) are prohibited from buying government debt directly from the government and must instead buy it from the secondary market. This two-step process, where the government sells bonds to private entities that in turn sell them to the central bank, has been called "monetizing the debt" by many analysts.  However, QE is a very different form of money creation than it is commonly understood when talking about "money printing". Indeed, the term "printing money" usually implies that newly created money is used to directly finance government deficits or pay off government debt (also known as "monetizing the government debt"). With QE, the newly created money is usually used to buy financial assets other than government bonds. Also, the Federal Reserve has mostly "sterilized" its bond purchases by paying interest to banks for reserve deposits. This removes money from circulation previously added by the Fed's bond purchases. The net effect is to raise bond prices, lowering borrowing rates for mortgages and other loans, without an inflationary increase in the money supply.  The distinguishing characteristic between QE and debt monetization is that with the former, the central bank creates money to stimulate the economy, not to finance government spending (although an indirect effect of QE is to lower rates on sovereign bonds). Also, the central bank has the stated intention of reversing the QE when the economy has recovered (by selling the government bonds and other financial assets back into the market). The only effective way to determine whether a central bank has monetized debt is to compare its performance relative to its stated objectives. Many central banks have adopted an inflation target. It is likely that a central bank is monetizing the debt if it continues to buy government debt when inflation is above target and if the government has problems with debt financing.

Alternative policies.

QE for the people.

In response to concerns that QE is failing to create sufficient demand, particularly in the Eurozone, a number of economists have called for "QE for the people". Instead of buying government bonds or other securities by creating bank reserves, as the Federal Reserve and Bank of England have done, some suggest that central banks could make payments directly to households (in a similar fashion as Milton Friedman's helicopter money). Economists Mark Blyth and Eric Lonergan argue in "Foreign Affairs" that this is the most effective solution for the Eurozone, particularly given the restrictions on fiscal policy. They argue that based on the evidence from tax rebates in the United States, less than 5% of GDP transferred by the ECB to the household sector in the Eurozone would suffice to generate a recovery, a fraction of what it intends to be done under standard QE. Oxford economist, John Muellbauer, has suggested that this could be legally implemented using the electoral register.  On 27 March 2015, 19 economists including Steve Keen, Ann Pettifor, Robert Skidelsky, and Guy Standing have signed a letter to the "Financial Times" calling on the European Central Bank to adopt a more direct approach to its quantitative easing plan announced earlier in February.  In November 2015, a group of NGOs led by Positive Money launched a campaign 'Quantitative Easing for People' more than 65 economists supported the campaign, stating that: "Instead of flooding financial markets, money created through QE should be spent into the real economy, on essential public investment such as green infrastructure, affordable housing and/or distributed as a citizens’ dividend to all residents." Those ideas were also discussed at the European Parliament on 17 February 2016 A few months later, the ECB recognized that helicopter money could be a feasible option under condition that such programme do not substitute to "obligation of the public sector vis-à-vis third parties."  A variant of QE for the people is People's Quantitative Easing, a policy proposed by Jeremy Corbyn during the 2015 Labour leadership election, which would require the Bank of England to create money to finance government investment via a National Investment Bank.

Altering debt maturity structure.

Based on research by economist Eric Swanson reassessing the effectiveness of the US Federal Open Market Committee action in 1961 known as Operation Twist, "The Economist" has posted that a similar restructuring of the supply of different types of debt would have an effect equal to that of QE. Such action would allow finance ministries (e.g., the US Department of the Treasury) a role in the process now reserved for central banks.

Neo-Fisherism.

Neo-Fisherism, based on theories made by Irving Fisher reasons that the solution to low inflation is not quantitative easing, but paradoxically to increase interest rates. This is due to the fact that if interest rates continue to decline, banks will lose customers and less money will be invested back into the economy.  In a situation of low inflation and high debt, customers will feel more secure holding on to cash or converting cash into commodities, which fails to stimulate economic growth. If the money supply increases from quantitative easing, customers will subsequently default in the face of higher prices, thus resetting the low inflation and worsening the low inflation issue.

Fiscal policy.

Keynesian economics became popular after the Great Depression. The idea is that in an economy with low inflation and high unemployment (especially technological unemployment), demand side economics will stimulate consumer spending, which increases business profits, which increases investment. Keynesians promote methods like public works, infrastructure redevelopment, and increases in the social safety net to increase demand and inflation.

Quantitative easing (QE) is a monetary policy whereby a central bank buys government bonds or other financial assets in order to inject money into the economy to expand economic activity. An unconventional form of monetary policy, it is usually used when inflation is very low or negative, and standard expansionary monetary policy has become ineffective. A central bank implements quantitative easing by buying financial assets from commercial banks and other financial institutions, thus raising the prices of those financial assets and lowering their yield, while simultaneously increasing the money supply. This differs from the more usual policy of buying or selling short-term government bonds to keep interbank interest rates at a specified target value.

Kvantitativní uvolňování () je monetární politika používaná centrálními bankami ke stimulaci ekonomiky. Používá se, když se standardní monetární ekonomika stává neefektivní. Centrální banka provádí kvantitativní uvolňování nákupem finančních aktiv od komerčních bank a dalších finančních institucí. Zvyšuje cenu těchto finančních aktiv a snižuje jejich výnos a současně zvyšuje nabídku peněz.