History of the term.

The earliest known reference to the inhabitants of Great Britain may have come from 4th century BC records of the voyage of Pytheas, a Greek geographer who made a voyage of exploration around the British Isles. Although none of his own writings remain, writers during the time of the Roman Empire made much reference to them. Pytheas called the islands collectively ("hai Brettaniai"), which has been translated as the "Brittanic Isles", and the peoples of what are today England, Wales, Scotland and the Isle of Man of "Prettanike" were called the ("Prettanoi"), "Priteni", "Pritani" or "Pretani".  The group included Ireland, which was referred to as "Ierne" ("Insula sacra" "sacred island" as the Greeks interpreted it) "inhabited by the different race of "Hiberni"" ("gens hibernorum"), and Britain as "insula Albionum", "island of the Albions". The term "Pritani" may have reached Pytheas from the Gauls, who possibly used it as their term for the inhabitants of the islands.  Greek and Roman writers, in the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, name the inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland as the "Priteni", the origin of the Latin word "Britanni". It has been suggested that this name derives from a Gaulish description translated as "people of the forms", referring to the custom of tattooing or painting their bodies with blue woad made from "Isatis tinctoria". Parthenius, a 1st-century Ancient Greek grammarian, and the "Etymologicum Genuinum", a 9th-century lexical encyclopaedia, mention a mythical character Bretannus (the Latinised form of the, "Brettanós") as the father of Celtine, mother of Celtus, the eponymous ancestor of the Celts.  By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of "Prettanikē" as a collective name for the British Isles. However, with the Roman conquest of Britain the Latin term "Britannia" was used for

History.

Ancestral roots.

The indigenous people of the British Isles have a combination of Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Norman ancestry.  Between the 8th and 11th centuries, "three major cultural divisions" had emerged in Great Britain: the English, the Scots and the Welsh, the earlier Brittonic Celtic polities in what are today England and Scotland having finally been absorbed into Anglo-Saxon England and Gaelic Scotland by the early 11th century. The English had been unified under a single nation state in 937 by King Athelstan of Wessex

Union and the development of Britishness.

Despite centuries of military and religious conflict, the Kingdoms of England and Scotland had been "drawing increasingly together" since the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century and the Union of the Crowns in 1603. A broadly shared language, island, monarch, religion and Bible (the Authorized King James Version) further contributed to a growing cultural alliance between the two sovereign realms and their peoples. The Glorious Revolution of 1688 resulted in a pair of Acts of the English and Scottish legislatures—the Bill of Rights 1689 and Claim of Right Act 1689 respectively—which ensured that the shared constitutional monarchy of England and Scotland was held only by Protestants. Despite this, although popular with the monarchy and much of the aristocracy, attempts to unite the two states by Acts of Parliament in 1606, 1667, and 1689 were unsuccessful; increased political management of Scottish affairs from England had led to "criticism", and strained Anglo-Scottish relations.  While English maritime explorations during the Age of Discovery gave new-found imperial power and wealth to the English and Welsh at the end of the 17th century, Scotland suffered from a long-standing weak economy. In response, the Scottish kingdom, in opposition to

Union of Scotland and England.

Despite opposition from within both Scotland and England, a Treaty of Union was agreed in 1706 and was then ratified by the parliaments of both countries with the passing of the Acts of Union 1707. With effect from 1 May 1707, this created a new sovereign state called the "Kingdom of Great Britain". This kingdom "began as a hostile merger", but led to a "full partnership in the most powerful going concern in the world"; historian Simon Schama stated that "it was one of the most astonishing transformations in European history".  After 1707, a British national identity began to develop, though it was initially resisted, particularly by the English. The peoples of Great Britain had by the 1750s begun to

Union with Ireland.

The political union in 1800 of the predominantly Catholic Kingdom of Ireland with Great Britain, coupled with the outbreak of peace with France in the early 19th century, challenged the previous century's concept of militant Protestant Britishness. The new, expanded United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland meant that the state had to re-evaluate its position on the civil rights of Catholics, and extend its definition of Britishness to the Irish people. Like the terms that had been invented at the time of the Acts of Union 1707, "West Briton" was introduced for the Irish after 1800. In 1832 Daniel O'Connell, an Irish politician who campaigned for Catholic Emancipation, stated in Britain's House of Commons:  Ireland, from 1801 to 1923, was marked by a succession of economic and political mismanagement and neglect, which marginalised the Irish, and advanced Irish nationalism. In the forty years that followed the Union, successive British governments grappled with the problems of governing a country which had as Benjamin Disraeli, a staunch anti-Irish and anti-Catholic member of

Modern period.

The First World War "reinforced the sense of Britishness" and patriotism in the early 20th century. Through war service (including conscription in Great Britain), "the English, Welsh, Scots and Irish fought as British". The aftermath of the war institutionalised British national commemoration through Remembrance Sunday and the Poppy Appeal. The Second World War had a similar unifying effect upon the British people, however, its outcome was to recondition Britishness on a basis of democratic values and its marked contrast to Europeanism. Notions that the British "constituted an Island race, and that it stood for democracy were reinforced during the war and they were circulated in the country through Winston Churchill's speeches, history books and

Geographic distribution.

The earliest migrations of Britons date from the 5th and 6th centuries AD, when Brittonic Celts fleeing the Anglo-Saxon invasions migrated what is today northern France and north western Spain and forged the colonies of Brittany and Britonia. Brittany remained independent of France until the early 16th century and still retains a distinct Brittonic culture and language, whilst Britonia in modern Galicia was absorbed into Spanish states by the end of the 9th century AD.  Britons – people with British citizenship or of British descent – have a significant presence in a number of countries other than the United Kingdom, and in particular in those with historic connections to the British Empire. After the Age of Discovery the British were one of the earliest and largest communities to emigrate out of Europe, and the British Empire's expansion during the first half of the 19th century triggered an "extraordinary dispersion of the British people", resulting in particular concentrations "in Australasia and North America".  The British Empire was "built on waves of migration overseas by British people", who left the United Kingdom and "reached across the globe and permanently affected population structures in three continents". As a result of the British colonisation of the Americas, what became the United States was "easily the greatest single destination of emigrant British", but in Australia the British experienced a birth rate higher than "anything seen before" resulting in the displacement of indigenous Australians.  In colonies such as Southern Rhodesia, British East Africa and Cape Colony, permanently resident British communities were established and whilst never more than a numerical minority these Britons "exercised a dominant influence" upon the culture and politics of those lands. In Australia, Canada and New Zealand "people of British origin came to constitute the majority of the population" contributing to these states becoming integral to the Anglosphere.  The United Kingdom Census 1861 estimated the size of the overseas British to be around 2.5 million, but concluded that most of these were "not conventional settlers" but rather "travellers, merchants, professionals, and military personnel". By 1890, there were over 1.5 million further UK-born people living in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. A 2006 publication from the Institute for Public Policy Research estimated 5.6 million Britons lived outside of the United Kingdom.  Outside of the United Kingdom and its Overseas Territories, the largest proportions of people of self-identified ethnic British descent in the world are found in New Zealand (59%), Australia (46%) and Canada (31%), followed by a considerably smaller minority in the United States (10.7%) and parts of the Caribbean. Hong Kong has the highest proportion of British citizens outside of the United Kingdom and its Overseas Territories, with 47% of Hong Kong residents holding a British National (Overseas) citizenship or a British citizenship.

Culture.

Result from the expansion of the British Empire, British cultural influence can be observed in the language and culture of a geographically wide assortment of countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, the United States, and the British overseas territories. These states are sometimes collectively known as the Anglosphere. As well as the British influence on its empire, the empire also influenced British culture, particularly British cuisine. Innovations and movements within the wider-culture of Europe have also changed the United Kingdom; Humanism, Protestantism, and representative democracy have developed from broader Western culture.  As a result of the history of the formation of the United Kingdom, the cultures of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are diverse and have varying degrees of overlap and distinctiveness.

Cuisine.

Historically, British cuisine has meant "unfussy dishes made with quality local ingredients, matched with simple sauces to accentuate flavour, rather than disguise it". It has been "vilified as unimaginative and heavy", and traditionally been limited in its international recognition to the full breakfast and the Christmas dinner. This is despite British cuisine having absorbed the culinary influences of those who have settled in Britain, resulting in hybrid dishes such as the British Asian Chicken tikka masala, hailed by some as "Britain's true national dish".  Celtic agriculture and animal breeding produced a wide variety of foodstuffs for Celts and Britons. The Anglo-Saxons developed meat and savoury herb stewing techniques before the practice became common

Languages.

There is no single British language, though English is by far the main language spoken by British citizens, being spoken monolingually by more than 70% of the UK population. English is therefore the "de facto" official language of the United Kingdom. However, under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, the Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Cornish, Irish Gaelic, Ulster Scots, Manx, Scots and Lowland Scots languages are officially recognised as Regional or Minority languages by the UK Government. As indigenous languages which continue to be spoken as a first language by native inhabitants, Welsh and

Literature.

British literature is "one of the leading literatures in the world". The overwhelming part is written in the English language, but there are also pieces of literature written in Scots, Scottish Gaelic, Ulster Scots, Cornish and Welsh.  Britain has a long history of famous and influential authors. It boasts some of the oldest pieces of literature in the Western world, such as the epic poem Beowulf, one of the oldest surviving written work in the English language.  Famous authors include some of the world's most studied and praised writers. William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe defined England's Elizabethan period. The British Romantic movement was one

Media and music.

Although cinema, theatre, dance and live music are popular, the favourite pastime of the British is watching television. Public broadcast television in the United Kingdom began in 1936, with the launch of the BBC Television Service (now BBC One). In the United Kingdom and the Crown dependencies, one must have a television licence to legally receive any broadcast television service, from any source. This includes the commercial channels, cable and satellite transmissions, and the Internet. Revenue generated from the television licence is used to provide radio, television and Internet content for the British Broadcasting Corporation, and Welsh language television programmes for S4C. The BBC, the common abbreviation of the British Broadcasting Corporation, is the world's largest broadcaster. Unlike other broadcasters in the UK, it is a public service based, quasi-autonomous, statutory corporation run by the BBC Trust. Free-to-air terrestrial television channels available on a national basis are BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4 (S4C in Wales), and Five.  100 Greatest British Television Programmes was a list compiled by the British Film Institute in 2000, chosen by a

Religion.

Historically, Christianity has been the most influential and important religion in Britain, and it remains the declared faith of the majority of the British people. The influence of Christianity on British culture has been "widespread, extending beyond the spheres of prayer and worship. Churches and cathedrals make a significant contribution to the architectural landscape of the nation's cities and towns" whilst "many schools and hospitals were founded by men and women who were strongly influenced by Christian motives". Throughout the United Kingdom, Easter and Christmas, the "two most important events in the Christian calendar", are recognised as public holidays.  Christianity

Sport.

Sport is an important element of British culture, and is one of the most popular leisure activities of Britons. Within the United Kingdom, nearly half of all adults partake in one or more sporting activity each week. Some of the major sports in the United Kingdom "were invented by the British", including football, rugby union, rugby league and cricket, and "exported various other games" including tennis, badminton, boxing, golf, snooker and squash.  In most sports, separate organisations, teams and clubs represent the individual countries of the United Kingdom at international level, though in some sports, like rugby union, an all-Ireland team represents both Northern Ireland and Ireland (Republic of), and the British and Irish Lions represent Ireland and Britain as a whole. The UK is represented by a single team at the Olympic Games and at the 2012 Summer Olympics, the Great Britain team won 65 medals:

Visual art and architecture.

For centuries, artists and architects in Britain were overwhelmingly influenced by Western art history. Amongst the first visual artists credited for developing a distinctly British aesthetic and artistic style is William Hogarth. The experience of military, political and economic power from the rise of the British Empire, led to a very specific drive in artistic technique, taste and sensibility in the United Kingdom. Britons used their art "to illustrate their knowledge and command of the natural world", whilst the permanent

Political culture.

British political culture is tied closely with its institutions and civics, and a "subtle fusion of new and old values". The principle of constitutional monarchy, with its notions of stable parliamentary government and political liberalism, "have come to dominate British culture". These views have been reinforced by Sir Bernard Crick who said:  British political institutions include the Westminster system, the Commonwealth of Nations and Privy Council of the United Kingdom. Although the Privy Council is primarily a British institution, officials from other Commonwealth realms are also appointed to the body. The most notable continuing instance is the Prime Minister of New Zealand, its senior politicians, Chief Justice and Court of Appeal judges are conventionally made Privy Counsellors, as the prime ministers and chief justices of Canada and Australia used to be. Prime Ministers of Commonwealth countries which retain the British monarch as their sovereign continue to be sworn as Privy Counsellors.  Universal suffrage for all males over 21 was granted in 1918 and for adult women in 1928 after

Classification.

According to the British Social Attitudes Survey, there are broadly two interpretations of British identity, with ethnic and civic dimensions:  Of the two perspectives of British identity, the civic definition has become "the dominant idea... by far", and in this capacity, Britishness is sometimes considered an institutional or overarching state identity. This has been used to explain why first-, second- and third-generation immigrants are more likely to describe themselves as British, rather than English, because it is an "institutional, inclusive" identity, that can be acquired through naturalisation and British nationality law; the vast majority of people in the United Kingdom who are from an ethnic minority feel British.  However, this attitude is more common in England than in Scotland or Wales; "white English people perceived themselves as English first and as British second, and most people from ethnic minority backgrounds perceived themselves as British, but none identified as English, a label they associated exclusively with white people". Contrawise, in Scotland and Wales, White British and ethnic minority people both identified more strongly with Scotland and Wales than with Britain.  Studies and surveys have "reported that the majority of the Scots and Welsh see themselves as both Scottish/Welsh and British though with some differences in emphasis". The Commission for Racial Equality found that with respect to notions of nationality in Britain, "the most basic, objective and uncontroversial conception of the British people is one that includes the English, the Scots and the Welsh". However, "English participants tended to think of themselves as indistinguishably English or British, while both Scottish and Welsh participants identified themselves much more readily as Scottish or Welsh than as British".  Some persons opted "to combine both identities" as "they felt Scottish or Welsh, but held a British passport and were therefore British", whereas others saw themselves as exclusively Scottish or exclusively Welsh and "felt quite divorced from the British, whom they saw as the English". Commentators have described this latter phenomenon as "nationalism", a rejection of British identity because some Scots and Welsh interpret it as "cultural imperialism imposed" upon the United Kingdom by "English ruling elites", or else a response to a historical misappropriation of equating the word "English" with "British", which has "brought about a desire among Scots, Welsh and Irish to learn more about their heritage and distinguish themselves from the broader British identity".

The British people, or Britons, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies. British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, which can be acquired, for instance, by descent from British nationals. When used in a historical context, "British" or "Britons" can refer to the Celtic Britons, the indigenous inhabitants of Great Britain and Brittany, whose surviving members are the modern Welsh people, Cornish people, and Bretons. It also refers to citizens of the former British Empire, who settled in the country prior to 1973, and hold neither UK citizenship or nationality.

Britové jsou občané Spojeného království, jeho zámořských území a korunních závislých území. Království Velké Británie vzniklo v roce 1707 spojením Anglie, Walesu a Skotska, čímž byly položeny základy pro vytvoření společné britské identity. V roce 1801 bylo ke království připojeno i Irsko, čímž vzniklo Spojené království Velké Británie a Irska. V roce 1922 se pak větší část oddělila v Irskou republiku, zatímco Severní Irsko zůstalo Spojenému království, čímž vzniklo dnešní Spojené království Velké Británie a Severního Irska. Britská identita v Severním Irsku je kontroverzní kvůli etnicko-sektářským třenicím - protestanté (unionisté) se za Brity považují, katolíci většinou ne.


Terminology.

Origins.

An early use of the term in English was in 1898 by the French economist Charles Gide to describe the economic beliefs of the Italian economist Maffeo Pantaleoni, with the term "néo-libéralisme" previously existing in French, and the term was later used by others including the classical liberal economist Milton Friedman in his 1951 essay "Neo-Liberalism and its Prospects. In 1938 at the Colloque Walter Lippmann, the term "neoliberalism" was proposed, among other terms, and ultimately chosen to be used to describe a certain set of economic beliefs. The colloquium defined the concept of neoliberalism as involving "the priority of the price mechanism, free enterprise, the system of competition, and a strong and impartial state". To be "neoliberal" meant advocating a modern economic policy with state intervention. Neoliberal state interventionism brought a clash with the opposing "laissez-faire" camp of classical liberals, like Ludwig von Mises. Most scholars in the 1950s and 1960s understood neoliberalism as referring to the social market economy and its principal economic theorists such as Eucken, Röpke, Rüstow and Müller-Armack. Although

Current usage.

Elizabeth Shermer argued that the term gained popularity largely among left-leaning academics in the 1970s "to describe and decry a late twentieth-century effort by policy makers, think-tank experts, and industrialists to condemn social-democratic reforms and unapologetically implement free-market policies;" economic historian Phillip W. Magness notes its reemergence in academic literature in the mid-1980s, after French philosopher Michel Foucault brought attention to it.  "Neoliberalism" is contemporarily used to refer to market-oriented reform policies such as "eliminating price controls, deregulating capital markets, lowering trade barriers" and reducing state influence in the economy, especially through privatization and austerity. It is also commonly associated

Early history.

Walter Lippmann Colloquium.

The worldwide Great Depression of the 1930s brought about high unemployment and widespread poverty and was widely regarded as a failure of economic liberalism. To renew liberalism, a group of 25 intellectuals organized the Walter Lippmann Colloquium at Paris in August 1938. It brought together Louis Rougier, Walter Lippmann, Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, Wilhelm Röpke and Alexander Rüstow, among others. Most agreed that the liberalism of "laissez-faire" had failed and that a new liberalism needed to take its place with a major role for the state. Mises and Hayek refused to condemn "laissez-faire", but all participants were united in their call for a new project they dubbed "neoliberalism". They agreed to develop the Colloquium into a permanent

Mont Pelerin Society.

Neoliberalism began accelerating in importance with the establishment of the Mont Pelerin Society in 1947, whose founding members included Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Karl Popper, George Stigler and Ludwig von Mises. Meeting annually, it would become a "kind of international 'who's who' of the classical liberal and neo-liberal intellectuals." While the first conference in 1947 was almost half American, the Europeans dominated by 1951. Europe would remain the epicenter of the community with Europeans dominating the leadership.  Established during a time when central planning was in the ascendancy worldwide and there were few avenues for neoliberals to influence policymakers, the society became a "rallying point" for neoliberals, as Milton Friedman phrased it, bringing together isolated advocates of liberalism and capitalism. They were united in their belief that individual freedom in the developed world was under threat from collectivist trends, which they outlined in their statement of aims:  "The central values of civilization are in danger. Over large stretches of the Earth’s

Post–World War II neoliberal currents.

For decades after the formation of the Mont Pelerin Society, the ideas of the society would remain largely on the fringes of political policy, confined to a number of think-tanks and universities and achieving only measured success with the ordoliberals in Germany, who maintained the need for strong state influence in the economy. It would not be until a succession of economic downturns and crises in the 1970s that neoliberal policy proposals would be widely implemented.  By this time, however, neoliberal thought had evolved. The early neoliberal ideas of the Mont Pelerin Society had sought to chart a middle way between the trend of increasing government intervention implemented after the Great Depression and the laissez-faire economics many in the society believed had produced the Great Depression. For instance, Milton Friedman, one of the most influential neoliberal figures, wrote in his early essay "Neo-liberalism and Its Prospects": "Neo-liberalism would accept the nineteenth-century liberal emphasis on the fundamental importance of the individual, but it would substitute for the nineteenth century goal of laissez-faire as a means to this end, the goal of the competitive order", which requires limited state intervention to "police the system, establish conditions favorable to competition and prevent monopoly, provide a stable monetary framework, and relieve acute misery and distress". By the 1970s, however, neoliberal thought—including Friedman's—focused almost exclusively on market liberalization and was adamant in its opposition to nearly all forms of state interference in the economy.  One of the earliest and most influential turns to neoliberal reform occurred in Chile after an economic crisis in the early 1970s, which led to a backlash against the socialist economic policies of president Salvador Allende, who was deposed in a 1973 "coup d'état", and the rapid implementation of the neoliberal economic proposals promoted by a group of Chilean economists educated under Milton Friedman known as the Chicago Boys. The Chilean neoliberal project served as "the first experiment with neoliberal state formation" that would contribute to further neoliberal reforms elsewhere. Beginning in the early 1980s, the Reagan administration and Thatcher government implemented a series of neoliberal economic reforms to counter the chronic stagflation the United States and United Kingdom had each experienced throughout the 1970s. Neoliberal policies would continue to dominate American and British politics until the 2008 financial crisis. Following British and American reform, neoliberal policies were exported abroad, with countries in Latin America, the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and even communist China implementing significant neoliberal reform. Additionally, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank encouraged neoliberal reforms in many developing countries by placing reform requirements on loans, in a process known as structural adjustment.

Traditions.

Austrian School.

The Austrian School is a school of economic thought originating in late-19th and early-20th century Vienna which bases its study of economic phenomena on the interpretation and analysis of the purposeful actions of individuals. In the 21st century, the term has increasingly been used to denote the free-market economics of Austrian economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek, including their criticisms of government intervention in the economy, which has tied the school to neoliberal thought.  Economists associated with the school,

Chicago School.

The Chicago school of economics describes a neoclassical school of thought within the academic community of economists, with a strong focus around the faculty of the University of Chicago. Chicago macroeconomic theory rejected Keynesianism in favor of monetarism until the mid-1970s, when it turned to new classical macroeconomics heavily based on the concept of rational expectations. The school is strongly associated with economists such as Milton Friedman, George Stigler, Ronald

Political policy aspects.

Neoliberal policies center around economic liberalization, principally deregulation of industry, privatization of state-owned enterprises, reductions to trade barriers, reductions in government spending, and monetarism. Neoliberal theory contends that free markets encourage economic efficiency, economic growth, and technological innovation. State intervention, even if aimed at encouraging these phenomena, is generally believed to worsen economic performance.

Economic and political freedom.

Neoliberalism advances the view that economic and political freedom are inextricably linked. Milton Friedman argued in his book "Capitalism and Freedom" that economic freedom, while itself an extremely important component of absolute freedom, is also a necessary condition for political freedom. He claimed that centralized control of economic activities is always accompanied by political repression. In his view, the voluntary character of all transactions in an unregulated market economy and wide diversity that it permits are fundamental threats to repressive political leaders that greatly

Monetarism.

Monetarism is an economic theory commonly associated with neoliberalism. Formulated by Milton Friedman, it focuses on the macroeconomic aspects of the supply of money, paying particular attention to the effects of central banking. It argues that excessive expansion of the money supply is inherently inflationary and that monetary authorities should focus primarily on maintaining price stability, even at the cost of other macroeconomic factors

The Washington Consensus.

The Washington Consensus is a set of standardized policy prescriptions developed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the US Department of Treasury for crisis-wracked developing

Criticism.

Neoliberalism has its share of criticism in both left and right-wing politics, with activists and academics alike criticizing it. Notable critics of neoliberalism in theory or practice include economists Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen, Michael Hudson, Ha-Joon Chang, Robert Pollin, Julie Matthaei and Richard D. Wolff; linguist Noam Chomsky; geographer and anthropologist David Harvey; Slovenian continental philosopher Slavoj Žižek, political activist and public intellectual Cornel West; Marxist feminist Gail Dines; author, activist and filmmaker Naomi Klein; journalist and environmental activist George Monbiot; Belgian psychologist Paul Verhaeghe; journalist and activist Chris Hedges; conservative philosopher Roger Scruton; and the alter-globalization movement, including groups such as ATTAC.  Thomas Marois and Lucia Pradella posit that the impact of the global 2008–2009 crisis has given rise to a surge in new scholarship that criticizes neoliberalism and seeks policy alternatives.

Market fundamentalism.

Neoliberal thought has been criticized for supposedly having an undeserved "faith" in the efficiency of markets, in the superiority of markets over centralized economic planning, in the ability of markets to self-correct, and in the market's ability to deliver economic and political freedom. Economist Paul Krugman has argued that the "laissez-faire absolutism" promoted by neoliberals "contributed to an intellectual climate in which faith in markets and disdain for government often trumps the evidence". Political theorist Wendy Brown has gone even further and asserted that the overriding objective of neoliberalism is "the economization of all features of life". A number of scholars have argued that, in practice, this "market fundamentalism" has led to a neglect of social goods not captured by economic indicators, an erosion of democracy, an unhealthy promotion of unbridled individualism and social Darwinism, and economic inefficiency.  Some critics contend neoliberal thinking prioritizes economic indicators like GDP growth and inflation over social factors that might not be easy to quantify, like labor rights and access to higher education. This focus on economic efficiency can compromise other, perhaps more important, factors, or promote exploitation and social injustice. For example, anthropologist Mark Fleming argues that when the performance of a transit system is assessed purely in terms of economic efficiency, social goods such as strong workers' rights are considered impediments to maximum performance. He supports this assertion with a case study of the San Francisco Municipal Railway, known as Muni, which is one of the slowest major urban transit systems in the US and has one of the worst on-time performance rates. This poor performance, he contends, stems from structural problems including an aging fleet and maintenance issues.

Inequality.

Critics have argued that neoliberal policies have increased economic inequality and exacerbated global poverty. The Center for Economic and Policy Research's (CEPR) Dean Baker argued in 2006 that the driving force behind rising inequality in the United States has been a series of deliberate neoliberal policy choices, including anti-inflationary bias, anti-unionism and profiteering in the healthcare industry. The economists David Howell and Mamadou Diallo contend that neoliberal policies have contributed to a United States economy in which 30% of workers earn low wages (less than two-thirds the median wage for full-time workers) and 35% of the labor force is underemployed while only 40% of the working-age population in the country is adequately employed. The globalization of neoliberalism has been blamed for the emergence of a "precariat", a new social class facing acute socio-economic insecurity and alienation. In the United States, the "neoliberal transformation" of industrial relations, which considerably diminished the power of unions and increased the power of employers, has been blamed by many for increasing precarity, which could be responsible for as many as 120,000 excess deaths per year. In Venezuela, prior to the Venezuelan crisis, deregulation of the labor market resulted in greater informal employment and a considerable increase in industrial accidents and occupational diseases. Even in Sweden, in which only 6% of workers are beset with wages the OECD considers low, some scholars argue that the adoption of

Financialization.

The implementation of neoliberal policies and the acceptance of neoliberal economic theories in the 1970s are seen by some academics as the root of financialization, with the Great Recession as one of its results. In particular, various neoliberal ideologies that had long been advocated by elites, such as monetarism and supply-side economics, were translated into government policy

Mass incarceration.

Several scholars have linked mass incarceration of the poor in the United States with the rise of neoliberalism. Sociologist Loïc Wacquant and Marxist economic geographer David Harvey have argued that the criminalization of poverty and mass incarceration is a neoliberal policy for dealing with social instability among economically marginalized populations. According to Wacquant, this situation follows the implementation of other neoliberal policies, which have allowed for the retrenchment of the social welfare state and the rise of punitive workfare, whilst increasing gentrification of urban areas, privatization of public functions, the shrinking of collective protections for the working class via economic deregulation and the rise of underpaid, precarious wage labor. By contrast, it is extremely lenient in dealing with those in the upper echelons of society, in particular when it comes to economic crimes of the upper class and corporations such as fraud, embezzlement, insider trading, credit and insurance fraud, money laundering and violation of commerce and labor codes. According to Wacquant, neoliberalism does not shrink government, but instead sets up a "centaur state" with little governmental

Corporatocracy.

Some organizations and economists believe neoliberalism promotes economic and political policies that increase the power of corporations and shift benefits to the upper classes. For instance, Jamie Peck and Adam Tickell argue that urban citizens are increasingly deprived of the power to shape the basic conditions of daily life, which are instead shaped by companies involved in the competitive economy.  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, two major international organizations which often espouse neoliberal views, have been criticized for advancing neoliberal policies around the world. Sheldon Richman, editor of the libertarian journal "The Freeman", argues that the IMF has imposed a "corporatist-flavored 'neoliberalism' on the troubled countries of the world." He contends that IMF policies of spending cuts and tax increases, as well as subjection to paternalistic supranational bureaucrats, have fostered "long-term dependency, perpetual indebtedness, moral hazard,

Globalization.

Neoliberalism is commonly viewed by scholars as encouraging of globalization, which is the subject of much criticism.  The

Imperialism.

A number of scholars have alleged neoliberalism encourages or covers for imperialism. For instance, Ruth J Blakeley, Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Sheffield, accuses the United States and its allies of fomenting state terrorism and mass killings during the Cold War as a means to buttress and promote the expansion of capitalism and neoliberalism in the developing world. As an example of this, Blakeley says the case of Indonesia demonstrates that the U.S. and Great Britain put the interests of capitalist elites over the human rights of hundreds of thousands of Indonesians by supporting the Indonesian Army as it waged a campaign of mass killings, which resulted in the annihilation of the

Global health.

The neoliberal approach to global health advocates privatization of the healthcare industry and reduced government interference in the market, and focuses on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international organizations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank rather than government. This approach has faced considerable criticism. James Pfeiffer, Professor of Global Health at the University of Washington, has criticised the use of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) by the World Bank and IMF in Mozambique, which resulted in reduced government health spending, leading international NGOs to fill service holes previously

Infrastructure.

Nicolas Firzli has argued that the rise of neoliberalism eroded the post-war consensus and Eisenhower-era Republican centrism that had resulted in the massive allocation of public capital to large-scale infrastructure projects throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s in both Western Europe and North America: "In the pre-Reagan era, infrastructure was an apolitical, positively connoted, technocratic term shared by mainstream economists and policy makers [...] including President Eisenhower, a praetorian Republican leader who had championed investment in the Interstate Highway System, America's national road grid [...] But Reagan, Thatcher, Delors and their many admirers amongst Clintonian, "New Labour" and EU Social-Democrat decision makers in Brussels sought to dismantle the generous state subsidies for social infrastructure and public transportation across the United States, Britain and the European Union".  Following Brexit, the 2016 United States

Environmental impact.

It has been argued that trade-led, unregulated economic activity and lax state regulation of pollution have led to environmental degradation. Furthermore, modes of production encouraged under neoliberalism may reduce the availability of natural resources over the long term, and may therefore not be sustainable within the world's limited geographical space.  Marxist economic geographer David Harvey argues neoliberalism is to blame for increased rates of extinction. Notably, he

Political opposition.

Neoliberalism has given rise

Neoliberalism or neo-liberalism is the 20th-century resurgence of 19th-century ideas associated with "laissez-faire" economic liberalism and free market capitalism. It is generally associated with policies of economic liberalization including privatization, deregulation, globalization, free trade, austerity, and reductions in government spending in order to increase the role of the private sector in the economy and society; however, the defining features of neoliberalism, in both thought and practice, have been the subject of substantial scholarly debate. Neoliberalism constituted a paradigm shift away from the post-war Keynesian consensus which had lasted from 1945 to 1980.

Neoliberalismus (řecky "neo" – nový, nedávný, latinsky "liber" – svobodný) je termín vytvořený počátkem 20. století, který je dnes převážně užíván kritiky idejí ekonomického liberalismu a jeho tržní taktiky Laissez faire (francouzsky „nechat být“). Nejpodstatnější z těchto myšlenek je snižování účasti státu na jeho řízení, které se v minulosti projevilo rozsáhlými privatizacemi, jednoduchosti byrokratickou činnosti, strohostí, volným trhem, snižováním daní a snižováním státních výdajů výměnou za posílení role v soukromém sektoru jak v ekonomice, tak celkově ve společnosti. Součástí tohoto myšlenkového směru je apel na individualismus, odpovědnost, a samostatnost jednotlivců. Tyto myšlenky a zákony soustřeďující se primárně na tržní ekonomiku představují odklonění od paradigmatu poválečné Keynesiánské školy, která trvala v letech 1945 až 1980. Neoliberalismus se tak vrací k původním idejím liberalismu uvedeného Adamem Smithem v jeho knize "Pojednání o podstatě a původu bohatství národů". Tento významný ekonom ilustruje pomocí své slavné metafory „Neviditelná ruka trhu“ hnací sílu tržní ekonomiky, kterou je lidská sobeckost, touha jednotlivce bohatnout. Citát z knihy Adama Smithe: "„[...], aby její produkt měl co největší hodnotu, sleduje jen svůj vlastní zisk; jako v mnoha jiných případech, vede tu [výrobce] jakási neviditelná ruka, aby napomáhal k dosažení cíle [všeobecného bohatství], o který mu vůbec nejde.”" se snaží dokázat, že v ekonomický prospěch všech je dobré, aby jednotlivci, zejména obchodníci, měli možnost se sami prosadit na trhu, k čemuž potřebují neustále zvyšovat kvalitu svých produktů.


Soviet Armenia.

Andranik Margaryan was born on June 12, 1949, in Yerevan in what was then the Armenian SSR of the Soviet Union to a family of Armenian Genocide survivors originally from Sasun, Turkey. He studied cybernetics at the Yerevan Polytechnic University and graduated as a computer engineer. He first became engaged in Armenian politics in the late 1970s when he joined an illegal political party, the National Unity Party, that was campaigning for Armenia's secession from the Soviet Union. He has served on the National Unity Party's board since 1973. Margaryan had been a longtime critic of the totalitarian government of the Soviet Union. He envisioned an independent, democratic Armenia. Police arrested him in 1974 and a court sentenced him to two years in Soviet labor camps for proliferating unpatriotic ideas and activities.

Armenian Independence.

In 1992, after Armenia's independence, Margaryan became a registered member of the Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), the first registered party in the 3rd Republic of Armenia. He influenced the party platform with the ideology he expressed as a member of the National United Party. He served as the Republican Party's Chairman of the Board from 1993 until his death. He had also been a member of the "Yerkrapah" Volunteer union since 1996 and served on the YVU's board.  In 2000, he was appointed Prime Minister of Armenia after the 1999 Armenian parliament shooting led to the murder of then prime minister Vazgen Sargsyan. Vazgen's brother, Aram Sargsyan, who the President appointed a week later as prime minister, was fired on May 2, 2000, leading to Andranik Markaryan being appointed as the 14th prime minister of Armenia. He had planned to resign after the May 12, 2007, elections in Armenia. Throughout his career, he was awarded the “Garegin Nzhdeh” medal by the Armenian Defense Ministry alongside the “Aram Manukian”, “Fridtjof Nansen” and “Vazgen Sargsyan” medals.

Heart problems and death.

Andranik Margaryan died of a heart attack on March 25, 2007, after nearly seven years in office, the second prime minister of Armenia to die in office and the first not related to an assassination. The head of Yerevan's municipal ambulance service reported that the prime minister was unconscious and his heart had stopped beating by the time two ambulance crews arrived at his apartment early in the afternoon. Margaryan was immediately given resuscitation treatment but did not respond.  Margaryan had a history of serious cardiac problems and twice underwent heart surgery, first in Armenia in 1999 and later in France. He regularly visited French and Russian clinics for medical examinations.  Andranik Margaryan is survived by a wife, two daughters, one son, and five grandchildren. In November 2011 his son Taron was elected Mayor of Yerevan.

Career outside politics.

Apart from politics, Margaryan has also followed a career in scientific research. From 1972 until his arrest in 1974, he worked at the Yerevan branch of Scientific-Research Institute of Gas Industry as a senior engineer. After his release from the Soviet labor camps in 1977, he worked at the Scientific-Research Institute of Energy as chief engineer before moving on to find work in the Energy-Technical Factory as head of department in 1978. From 1979 to 1990, he worked at the Information Counting Centre of the Trade Ministry as the head of department of electronics. From 1990 to 1994 he was the head of the information department at the State Department of Special Programs. He then settled to work in Armenia's State Architectural University as junior scientist from 1994 to 1995.

Andranik Nahapeti Margaryan (, alternative spelling: Andranik Margarian) (12 June 1949 – 25 March 2007) served as the Prime Minister of Armenia from 12 May 2000, when the President appointed him, until his death on 25 March 2007. He was a member of the Republican Party of Armenia. He succeeded the Sargsyan brothers: Vazgen Sargsyan, who was murdered during the Armenian parliament shooting on 27 October 1999 and Aram Sargsyan, whom the President appointed a week later, but fired on 2 May 2000.

Andranik Markarjan, arménsky (12. června 1951, Jerevan – 25. března 2007, Jerevan), byl arménský politik a ministerský předseda Arménie od 12. května 2000 do své smrti. Byl členem Republikánské strany Arménie. Do premiérského křesla nastoupil po krátkém období vlády Arama Sarkisjana.


Classification.

The Zygoptera are an ancient group, with fossils known from the lower Permian, at least 250 million years ago. All the fossils of that age are of adults, similar in structure to modern damselflies, so it is not known whether their larvae were aquatic at that time. The earliest larval odonate fossils are from the Mesozoic. Fossils of damselfly-like Protozygoptera date back further to 311–30 Mya. Well-preserved Eocene damselfly larvae and exuviae are known from fossils preserved in amber in the Baltic region.  Molecular analysis in 2013 confirms that most of the traditional families are monophyletic, but shows that the Amphipterygidae, Megapodagrionidae and Protoneuridae are paraphyletic and will need to be reorganised. The Protoneuridae in particular is shown to be composed of six clades from five families. The result so far is 27 damselfly families, with 7 more likely to be created. The discovered clades did not agree well with traditional characteristics used to classify living and fossil Zygoptera such as wing venation, so fossil taxa will need to be revisited. The 18 extant traditional families are provisionally rearranged as follows (the 3 paraphyletic families disappearing, and many details not resolved):  Dashed lines indicate unresolved relationships.

General description.

The general body plan of a damselfly is similar to that of a dragonfly. The compound eyes are large but are more widely separated and relatively smaller than those of a dragonfly. Above the eyes is the frons or forehead, below this the clypeus, and on the upper lip the labrum, an extensible organ used in the capture of prey. The top of the head bears three simple eyes (ocelli), which may measure light intensity, and a tiny pair of antennae that serve no olfactory function but may measure air speed. Many species are sexually dimorphic; the males are often brightly coloured and distinctive, while the females are plainer, cryptically coloured, and harder to identify to species. For example, in "Coenagrion", the Eurasian bluets, the males are bright blue with black markings, while the females are usually predominantly green or brown with black. A few dimorphic species show female-limited polymorphism, the females being in two forms, one form distinct and the other with the patterning as in males. The ones that look like males, andromorphs, are usually under a third of the female population but the proportion can rise significantly and a theory that explains this response suggests that it helps overcome harassment by males. Some Coenagrionid damselflies show male-limited polymorphism, an even less understood phenomenon.  In general, damselflies are smaller than dragonflies, the smallest being members of the genus "Agriocnemis" (wisps). However, members of the Pseudostigmatidae (helicopter damselflies or forest giants) are exceptionally large for the group, with wingspans as much as in "Megaloprepus" and body length up to in "Pseudostigma aberrans".  The first thoracic segment is the prothorax, bearing the front pair of legs. The joint between head and prothorax is slender and flexible, which enables the damselfly to swivel its head and to manoeuvre more freely when flying. The remaining thoracic segments are the fused mesothorax and metathorax (together termed the synthorax), each with a pair of wings and a pair of legs. A dark stripe known as the humeral stripe runs from the base of the front wings to the second pair of legs, and just in front of this is the pale-coloured, antehumeral stripe. The forewings and hindwings are similar in appearance and are membranous, being strengthened and supported by longitudinal veins that are linked by many cross-veins and that are filled with haemolymph. Species markers include quadrangular markings on the wings known as the pterostigma or stigma, and in almost all species, there is a nodus near the leading edge. The thorax houses the flight muscles. Many damselflies (e.g. Lestidae, Platycnemidae, Coenagrionidae) have clear wings, but some (Calopterygidae, Euphaeidae) have coloured wings, whether uniformly suffused with colour or boldly marked with a coloured patch. In species such as the banded demoiselle, "Calopteryx splendens" the males have both a darker green body and large dark violet-blue patches on all four wings, which flicker conspicuously in their aerial courtship dances; the females have pale translucent greenish wings.  The abdomen is long and slender and consists of ten segments. The secondary genitalia in males are on the undersides of segments two and three and are conspicuous, making it easy to tell the sex of the damselfly when viewed from the side. The female genital opening is on the underside between segments eight and nine. It may be covered by a subgenital plate, or extended into a complex ovipositor that helps them lay eggs within plant tissue. The tenth segment in both sexes bears cerci and in males, its underside bears a pair of paraprocts.  Damselflies (except spreadwings, Lestidae) rest their wings together, above their bodies, whereas dragonflies rest with their wings spread diametrically apart; the spreadwings rest with their wings slightly apart. Damselflies have slenderer bodies than dragonflies, and their eyes do not overlap. Damselfly nymphs differ from dragonflies nymphs in that they possess caudal gills (on the abdomen) whereas dragonflies breathe through the rectum. Damselfly nymphs swim by fish-like undulations, the gills functioning like a tail. Dragonfly nymphs can forcibly expel water in their rectum for rapid escape.

Distribution and diversity.

Odonates are found on all the continents except Antarctica. Although some species of dragonfly have wide distributions, damselflies tend to have smaller ranges. Most odonates breed in fresh-water; a few damselflies in the family Caenagrionidae breed in brackish water (and a single dragonfly species breeds in seawater). Dragonflies are more affected by pollution than are damselflies. The presence of odonates indicates that an ecosystem is of good quality. The most species-rich environments have a range of suitable microhabitats, providing suitable water bodies for breeding.  Although most damselflies live out their lives within a short distance of where they were hatched, some species, and some individuals within species, disperse more widely. Forktails in the family Coenagrionidae seem particularly prone to do this, large male boreal bluets ("Enallagma boreale") in British Columbia often migrating, while smaller ones do not. These are known to leave their waterside habitats, flying upwards till lost from view, and presumably being dispersed to far off places by the stronger winds found at high altitudes. In this way they may appear in a locality where no damselflies were to be seen the day before. Rambur's forktail ("Ischnura ramburii") has been found, for example, on oil rigs far out in the Gulf of Mexico.  The distribution and diversity of damselfly species in the biogeographical regions is summarized here. (There are no damselflies in the Antarctic.) Note that some species are widespread and occur in multiple regions. Overall, there are about 2942 extant species of damselflies placed in 309 genera.

Biology.

Adult damselflies catch and eat flies, mosquitoes, and other small insects. Often they hover among grasses and low vegetation, picking prey off stems and leaves with their spiny legs. Although predominantly using vision to locate their prey, adults may also make use of olfactory cues. No species are known to hunt at night, but some are crepuscular, perhaps taking advantage of newly hatched flies and other aquatic insects at a time when larger dragonflies are roosting. In tropical South America, helicopter damselflies (Pseudostigmatidae) feed on spiders, hovering near an orb web and plucking the spider, or its entangled prey, from the web. There are few pools and lakes in these habitats, and these damselflies breed in temporary water bodies in holes in trees, the rosettes of bromeliads and even the hollow stems of bamboos.  The nymphs of damselflies have been less researched than their dragonfly counterparts, and many have not even been identified. They choose their prey according to size and seem less able to overpower larger prey than can dragonfly nymphs. The major part of the diet of most species appears to be crustaceans such as water fleas.

Ecology.

Damselflies exist in a range of habitats in and around the wetlands needed for their larval development; these include open spaces for finding mates, suitable perches, open aspect, roosting sites, suitable plant species for ovipositing and suitable water quality, and odontates have been used for bio-indication purposes regarding the quality of the ecosystem. Different species have different requirements for their larvae with regard to water depth, water movement and pH. The European common blue damselfly ("Enallagma cyathigerum") for example can occur at high densities in acid waters where fish are absent, such as in bog pools. The scarce blue-tailed damselfly ("Ischnura pumilio") in contrast requires base-rich habitats and water with a slow flow-rate. It is found in ditches, quarries, seeps, flushes, marshes and pools. It tolerates high levels of zinc and copper in the sediment but requires suitable emergent plants for egg-laying without the water being choked by plants. Damselflies' dependence on freshwater habitats makes them very vulnerable to damage to wetlands through drainage for agriculture or urban growth.  In the tropics, the helicopter damselfly "Mecistogaster modesta" (Pseudostigmatidae) breeds in phytotelmata, the small bodies of water trapped by bromeliads, epiphytic plants of the rainforest of northwest Costa Rica, at the high density of some 6000 larvae per hectare in patches of secondary forest. Another tropical species, the cascade damselfly "Thaumatoneura inopinata" (Megapodagrionidae), inhabits waterfalls in Costa Rica and Panama.  Damselflies, both nymphs and adults, are eaten by a range of predators including birds, fish, frogs, dragonflies, other damselflies, water spiders, water beetles, backswimmers and giant water bugs. Damselflies have a variety of internal and external parasites. Particularly prevalent are the gregarine protozoans found in the gut. In a study of the European common blue damselfly, every adult insect was infected at the height of the flying season. When present in large numbers, these parasites can cause death by blocking the gut. Bright red water mites Hydracarina are often seen on the outside of both nymphs and adults, and can move from one to the other at metamorphosis. They suck the body fluids and may actually kill young nymphs, but adults are relatively unaffected, it being necessary for the completion of the mite's life cycle that it returns to water, a feat accomplished when the adult damselfly breeds.

Behaviour.

Many damselflies have elaborate courtship behaviours. These are designed to show off the male's distinctive characteristics, bright colouring or flying abilities, thus demonstrating his fitness. "Calopteryx" males will hover in front of a female with alternating fast and slow wingbeats; if she is receptive she will remain perched, otherwise she will fly off. The male river jewelwing ("Calopteryx aequabilis") performs display flights in front of the female, fluttering his forewings while keeping his hindwings still, and raising his abdomen to reveal the white spots on his wings. "Platycypha" males will hover in front of a female, thrusting their bright white legs forward in front of their heads. "Rhinocypha" will bob up and down, often low over fast-flowing streams, displaying their bright-coloured bodies and wings. Male members of the family Protoneuridae with vividly coloured wings display these to visiting females. Swift forktail ("Ischnura erratica") males display to each other with their blue-tipped abdomens raised.  Other behaviours observed in damselflies include wing-warning, wing-clapping, flights of attrition and abdominal bobbing. Wing-warning is a rapid opening and closing of the wings and is aggressive, while wing-clapping involves a slower opening of the wings followed by a rapid closure, up to eight times in quick succession, and often follows flight; it may serve a thermo-regulatory function. Flights of attrition are engaged in by the ebony jewelwing ("Calopteryx maculata") and involve males bouncing around each other while flying laterally and continuing to do so, sometimes over a considerable distance, until one insect is presumably exhausted and gives up.  At night, damselflies usually roost in dense vegetation, perching with the abdomen alongside a stem. If disturbed they will move around to the other side of the stem but will not fly off. Spreadwings fully fold their wings when roosting. The desert shadowdamsel ("Palaemnema domina") aggregates to roost in thick places near streams in the heat of the day. While there it engages in wing-clapping, the exact function of which is unknown. Some species such as the rubyspot damselfly, "Hetairina americana", form night roosting aggregations, with a preponderance of males; this may have an anti-predator function or may be simply the outcome of choosing safe roosting sites.

Reproduction.

Mating in damselflies, as in dragonflies, is a complex, precisely choreographed process involving both indirect insemination and delayed fertilisation. The male first has to attract a female to his territory, continually driving off rival males. When he is ready to mate, he transfers a packet of sperm from his primary genital opening on segment 9, near the end of his abdomen, to his secondary genitalia on segments 2–3, near the base of his abdomen. The male then grasps the female by the head with the claspers at the end of his abdomen; the structure of the claspers varies between species, and may help to prevent interspecific mating. The pair fly in tandem with the male in front, typically perching on a twig or plant stem. The female then curls her abdomen downwards and forwards under her body to pick up the sperm from the male's secondary genitalia, while the male uses his "tail" claspers to grip the female behind the head: this distinctive posture is called the "heart" or "wheel"; the pair may also be described as being "in cop". Males may transfer the sperm to their secondary genitalia either before a female is held, in the early stage when the female is held by the legs or after the female is held between the terminal claspers. This can lead to variations in the tandem postures. The spermatophore may also have nutrition in addition to sperms as a "nuptial gift". Some cases of sexual cannibalism exist where females (of "Ischnura graellsii") eat males while in copula.  Parthenogenesis (reproduction from unfertilised eggs) is exceptional, and has only been recorded in nature in female "Ischnura hastata" on the Azores Islands. Egg-laying (ovipositing) involves not only the female darting over floating or waterside vegetation to deposit eggs on a suitable substrate, but the male hovering above her, mate-guarding, or in some species continuing to clasp her and flying in tandem. The male attempts to prevent rivals from removing his sperm and inserting their own, a form of sperm competition (the sperms of the last mated male have the greatest chance of fertilizing the eggs, also known as sperm precedence) made possible by delayed fertilisation and driven by sexual selection. If successful, a rival male uses his penis to compress or scrape out the sperm inserted previously; this activity takes up much of the time that a copulating pair remain in the heart posture. Flying in tandem has the advantage that less effort is needed by the female for flight and more can be expended on egg-laying, and when the female submerges to deposit eggs, the male may help to pull her out of the water.  All damselflies lay their eggs inside plant tissues; those that lay eggs underwater may submerge themselves for 30 minutes at a time, climbing along the stems of aquatic plants and laying eggs at intervals. For example, the red-eyed damselfly "Erythromma najas" lays eggs, in tandem, into leaves or stems of floating or sometimes emergent plants; in contrast, the scarce bluetail "Ischnura pumilio" oviposits alone, the female choosing mostly emergent grasses and rushes, and laying her eggs in their stems either above or just below the waterline. The willow emerald "Chalcolestes viridis" (a spreadwing) is unusual in laying eggs only in woody plant tissue, choosing thin twigs of trees that hang over water, and scarring the bark in the process. A possible exception is an apparent instance of ovo-viviparity, in which "Heliocypha perforata" was filmed in western China depositing young larvae (presumably hatched from eggs inside the female's body) onto a partly submerged branch of a tree.  Many damselflies are able to produce more than one brood per year (voltinism); this is negatively correlated with latitude, becoming more common towards the equator, except in the Lestidae.

Life cycle.

Damselflies are hemimetabolous insects that have no pupal stage in their development. The female inserts the eggs by means of her ovipositor into slits made in water plants or other underwater substrates and the larvae, known as naiads or nymphs, are almost all completely aquatic. Exceptions include the Hawaiian "Mealagrion oahuense" and an unidentified Megapodagrionid from New Caledonia, which are terrestrial in their early stages. The spreadwings lay eggs above the waterline late in the year and the eggs overwinter, often covered by snow. In spring they hatch out in the meltwater pools and the nymphs complete their development before these temporary pools dry up.  The nymphs are voracious predators and feed by means of a flat labium (a toothed mouthpart on the lower jaw) that forms the so-called mask; it is rapidly extended to seize and pierce the "Daphnia" (water fleas), mosquito larvae, and other small aquatic organisms on which damselfly nymphs feed. They breathe by means of three large external, fin-like gills on the tip of the abdomen, and these may also serve for locomotion in the same manner as a fish's tail. Compared to dragonfly larvae, the nymphs show little variation in form. They tend to be slender and elongate, many having morphological adaptations for holding their position in fast flowing water. They are more sensitive than dragonfly nymphs to oxygen levels and suspended fine particulate matter, and do not bury themselves in the mud.  The nymphs proceed through about a dozen moults as they grow. In the later stages, the wing pads become visible. When fully developed, the nymphs climb out of the water and take up a firm stance, the skin on the thorax splits and the adult form wriggles out. This has a soft body at first and hangs or stands on its empty larval case. It pumps haemolymph into its small limp wings, which expand to their full extent. The haemolymph is then pumped back into the abdomen, which also expands fully. The exoskeleton hardens and the colours become more vivid over the course of the next few days. Most damselflies emerge in daytime and in cool conditions the process takes several hours. On a hot day, the cuticle hardens rapidly and the adult can be flying away within half an hour.

Conservation.

Conservation of Odonata has usually concentrated on the more iconic suborder Anisoptera, the dragonflies. However, the two suborders largely have the same needs, and what is good for dragonflies is also good for damselflies. The main threats experienced by odonates are the clearance of forests, the pollution of waterways, the lowering of groundwater levels, the damming of rivers for hydroelectric schemes and the general degradation of wetlands and marshes. The clearance of tropical rainforests is of importance because the rate of erosion increases, streams and pools dry up and waterways become clogged with silt. The presence of alien species can also have unintended consequences. In Hawaii, the introduction of the mosquitofish ("Gambusia affinis") was effective in controlling mosquitoes but nearly exterminated the island's endemic damselflies. The ancient greenling "Hemiphlebia mirabilis" has been an important flagship species for conservation action in preserving its habitat in Australia.

In culture.

"Damselfly" is a 2005 short film directed by Ben O'Connor. "Damselfly" is also the title of a 2012 novel in the "Faeble" series by S. L. Naeole, and of a 1994 poem by August Kleinzahler, which contains the lines "And that blue there, cobalt / a moment, then iridescent, / fragile as a lady's pin / hovering above the nasturtium?" The poet John Engels published "Damselfly, Trout, Heron" in his 1983 collection "Weather-Fear: New and Selected Poems".  Fishing flies that mimic damselfly nymphs are sometimes used in wet-fly fishing, where the hook and line are allowed to sink below the surface.  Damselflies have formed subjects for personal jewellery such as brooches since at least 1880.

Damselflies are insects of the suborder Zygoptera in the order Odonata. They are similar to dragonflies, which constitute the other odonatan suborder, Anisoptera, but are smaller, have slimmer bodies, and most species fold the wings along the body when at rest, unlike dragonflies which hold the wings flat and away from the body. An ancient group, damselflies have existed since at least the Lower Permian, and are found on every continent except Antarctica.

Motýlice, nověji nazývané stejnokřídlice, (Zygoptera) jsou podřád hmyzího řádu vážek (Odonata). Na celém světě jich existuje asi 2753 druhů. V Česku se vyskytuje 25 druhů motýlic, z nichž je šest kriticky ohrožených a jedna vymizelá (šidélko přilbovité).


Legend.

The Phrygians were without a king, but an oracle at Telmissus (the ancient capital of Lycia) decreed that the next man to enter the city driving an ox-cart should become their king. A peasant farmer named Gordias drove into town on an ox-cart and was immediately declared king. Out of gratitude, his son Midas dedicated the ox-cart to the Phrygian god Sabazios (whom the Greeks identified with Zeus) and tied it to a post with an intricate knot of cornel bark ("Cornus mas"). The knot was later described by Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus as comprising "several knots all so tightly entangled that it was impossible to see how they were fastened".  The ox-cart still stood in the palace of the former kings of Phrygia at Gordium in the fourth century BC when Alexander arrived, at which point Phrygia had been reduced to a satrapy, or province, of the Persian Empire. An oracle had declared that any man who could unravel its elaborate knots was destined to become ruler of all of Asia. Alexander wanted to untie the knot but struggled to do so without success. He then reasoned that it would make no difference "how" the knot was loosed, so he drew his sword and sliced it in half with a single stroke. In an alternative version of the story, Alexander loosed the knot by pulling the linchpin from the yoke.  Sources from antiquity agree that Alexander was confronted with the challenge of the knot, but his solution is disputed. Both Plutarch and Arrian relate that, according to Aristobulus, Alexander pulled the knot out of its pole pin, exposing the two ends of the cord and allowing him to untie the knot without having to cut through it. Some classical scholars regard this as more plausible than the popular account. Literary sources of the story include Alexander's propagandist Arrian ("Anabasis Alexandri "2.3), Quintus Curtius (3.1.14), Justin's epitome of Pompeius Trogus (11.7.3), and Aelian's "De Natura Animalium" 13.1.  Alexander later went on to conquer Asia as far as the Indus and the Oxus, thus fulfilling the prophecy.

Interpretations.

The knot may have been a religious knot-cipher guarded by Gordian/Midas' priests and priestesses. Robert Graves suggested that it may have symbolised the ineffable name of Dionysus that, knotted like a cipher, would have been passed on through generations of priests and revealed only to the kings of Phrygia.  The ox-cart suggests a longer voyage, rather than a local journey, perhaps linking Gordias/Midas with an attested origin-myth in Macedon, of which Alexander is most likely to have been aware. Based on this origin myth, the new dynasty was not immemorially ancient, but had widely remembered origins in a local, but non-priestly "outsider" class, represented by Greek reports equally as an eponymous peasant "Gordias" or the locally attested, authentically Phrygian "Midas" in his ox-cart. Roller (1984) separates out authentic Phrygian elements in the Greek reports and finds a folk-tale element and a religious one, linking the dynastic founder (whether eponymous "Gordias" to Greeks, or "Midas" to Anatolians) with the cults of "Zeus" and Cybele.  Other Greek myths legitimize dynasties by right of conquest (compare Cadmus), but in this myth the stressed legitimising oracle suggests that the previous dynasty was a race of priest-kings allied to the unidentified oracular deity.

The Gordian Knot is a legend of Phrygian Gordium associated with Alexander the Great. It is often used as a metaphor for an intractable problem (untying an impossibly tangled knot) solved easily by finding an approach to the problem that renders the perceived constraints of the problem moot ("cutting the Gordian knot"):

Rozetnout gordický uzel je rčení, které vyjadřuje složitou, spletitou situaci, kterou lze vyřešit rozhodným jednoduchým způsobem. Odvolává se na legendu, spojenou s Alexandrem Velikým (Makedonským).


Plot.

On December 31, 1999, a pizza delivery guy named Philip J. Fry delivers a pizza to "Applied Cryogenics" in New York City only to discover that the order was actually a prank call. Dejected and demoralized, he stops in the deserted lab to eat the pizza while outside the whole world is getting ready to celebrate the beginning of New Year, while sitting on a chair. At midnight, Fry loses his balance on the chair and falls into an open cryonic tube and is frozen as it immediately activates. He is defrosted on Tuesday, December 31, 2999, in what is now New New York City. He is taken to a fate assignment officer named Leela, a purple-haired cyclops. To his misfortune, Fry is assigned the computer-determined permanent career of delivery boy, and flees into the city when Leela tries to implant Fry's career chip designating his job. He dodges an attack from Leela and she falls into the cryonic tube that Fry fell into one thousand years ago. The timer sets itself to one thousand years. Fry reduces the timer to five minutes so that Leela isn't trapped for long, but he still has enough time to desert her.  While trying to track down his only living relative, Professor Farnsworth, Fry befriends a suicidal robot named Bender. As they talk at a bar, Fry learns that Bender too has deserted his job of bending girders for use in constructing suicide booths. Together, they evade Leela and hide in the Head Museum, where they encounter the preserved heads of historical figures. Fry and Bender eventually find themselves underground in the ruins of Old New York.  Leela finally catches Fry, who has become depressed that everyone that he knew and loved is dead and tells her that he will accept his career as a delivery boy. Leela sympathizes with Fry—she too is alone, and hates her job—so she quits and joins Fry and Bender as job deserters. The three track down Professor Farnsworth, founder of an intergalactic delivery company called Planet Express. With the help of Professor Farnsworth, the three evade the police by launching the "Planet Express Ship" at the stroke of midnight amid the New Year's fireworks. As the year 3000 begins, Farnsworth hires the three as the crew of his ship. Fry inquires at what his job is, and learns that he will be traveling into space as a delivery boy. Fry, ironically, cheers at his new job.

Continuity.

While the plot of the episode stands on its own, it also sets up much of the continuing plot of the series by including Easter eggs for events that do not occur until much later: as Fry falls into the freezer, the scene shows a strange shadow cast on the wall behind him. It is revealed in "The Why of Fry" that the shadow belongs to Nibbler, who intentionally pushes Fry into the freezer as part of a complex plan to save Earth from the Brainspawn in the future. Executive producer David X. Cohen claims that from the very beginning the creators had plans to show a larger conspiracy behind Fry's journey to the future. In the movie "", it is revealed that the spacecraft seen destroying the city while Fry is frozen are piloted by Bender and those chasing him after he steals the Nobel Peace Prize.  At the end of the episode, Professor Farnsworth offers Fry, Leela and Bender the Planet Express delivery crew positions. The professor produces the previous crew's career chips from an envelope labeled "Contents of Space Wasp's Stomach". In a later episode, "The Sting", the crew encounters the ship of the previous crew in a space beehive. When discussing this discontinuity in the episode commentary, writer of "The Sting" Patric Verrone states "we made liars out of the pilot".  This episode shows a fictional technology that allows preserved heads to be kept alive in jars, as in the earlier "The Simpsons" episode, "Bart Gets Famous." In "Futurama", this technology makes it possible for the characters to interact with celebrities from the then-distant past, and is used by the writers to comment on the 20th and 21st centuries in a satirical manner.

Production.

In the DVD commentary, Matt Groening notes that beginning any television series is difficult, but he found particular difficulty starting one that took place in the future because of the amount of setup required. As a trade off, they included a lot of Easter eggs in the episode that would pay off in later episodes. He and Cohen point these out throughout the episode. The scene where Fry emerges from a cryonic tube and has his first view of New New York was the first 3D scene worked on by the animation team. It was considered to be a defining point for whether the technique would work or not.  Originally, the first person entering the pneumatic tube transport system declared "J.F.K., Jr. Airport" as his destination. After John F. Kennedy, Jr.'s death in the crash of his private airplane, the line has since been redubbed on all subsequent broadcasts and the DVD release to "Radio City Mutant Hall" (a reference to Radio City Music Hall). The original version was heard only during the pilot broadcast and the first rerun a few months later, although the original line is still used on repeat broadcasts in the UK on Satellite channel Sky One. (The Region 2 DVD has the redubbed line). According to Groening, the inspiration for the suicide booth was the 1937 Donald Duck cartoon, "Modern Inventions", in which Donald is faced with—and nearly killed several times by—various push button gadgets in a Museum of the Future.

Cultural references.

In their original pitch to Fox, Groening and Cohen stated that they wanted the futuristic setting for the show to be neither "dark and drippy" like "Blade Runner", nor "bland and boring" like "The Jetsons". They felt that they could not make the future either a utopia or a dystopia because either option would eventually become boring. The creators gave careful consideration to the setting, and the influence of classic science fiction is evident in this episode as a series of references to—and parodies of—easily recognizable films, books and television programs. In the earliest glimpse of the future while Fry is frozen in the cryonic chamber, time is seen passing outside the window until reaching the year 3000. This scene was inspired by a similar scene in the film "The Time Machine" based on H.G. Wells' novel. When Fry awakens in the year 2999, he is greeted with Terry's catchphrase "Welcome to the world of tomorrow". The scene is a joke at the expense of "Futurama"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s namesake, the Futurama ride at the 1939 World's Fair whose tag line was "The World of Tomorrow". Dick Clark made a cameo as a head in a jar, hosting "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 3000".  In addition to the setting, part of the original concept for the show was that there would be a lot of advanced technology similar to that seen in "Star Trek", but it would be constantly malfunctioning. The automatic doors at Applied Cryogenics resemble those in ""; however, they malfunction when Fry remarks on this similarity. In another twist, the two policemen who try to arrest Fry at the head museum use weapons which are visually similar to lightsabers used in the "Star Wars" film series; however, they are functionally more similar to nightsticks. The interaction between the characters was not overlooked. The relationship formed between Fry and Bender in this episode has been compared to the relationship between Will Robinson and the robot in "Lost in Space".  Although both "Futurama" and "The Simpsons" were created by Matt Groening, overt references to the latter are mostly avoided in "Futurama". One of the few exceptions to this rule is the appearance of Blinky, a three-eyed orange fish seen on "The Simpsons", as Fry is going through the tube. A running gag of the series is Bender's fondness for Olde Fortran malt liquor, named after Olde English 800 malt liquor and the programming language Fortran. The drink was first introduced in this episode and became so closely associated with the character that he was featured with a bottle in both the Rocket USA wind-up toy and the action figure released by Moore Action Collectibles.

Broadcast and reception.

In its initial airing, the episode had "unprecedented strong numbers" with a Nielsen rating of 11.2/17 in homes and 9.6/23 in adults 18–49. The "Futurama" premiere was watched by more people than either its lead-in show ("The Simpsons") or the show following it ("The X-Files"), and it was the number one show among men aged 18–49 and teenagers for the week.  In a review by Patrick Lee in "Science Fiction Weekly" based on a viewing of this episode alone, "Futurama" was deemed not as funny as "The Simpsons", particularly as "the satire is leavened with treacly sentimental bits about free will and loneliness". The episode was rated as an "A- pick" and found to "warrant further viewing" despite these concerns. Rob Owen of the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" noted that although the episode contained the same skewed humor as "The Simpsons", it was not as smart and funny, and he attributed this to the large amount of exposition and character introduction required of a television series pilot, noting that the show was "off to a good start". Andrew Billen of the "New Statesman" found the premise of the episode to be unoriginal, but remained somewhat enthusiastic about the future of the series. While he praised the humorous details of the episode, such as the background scenes while Fry was frozen, he also criticized the show's dependence on in-jokes such as Groening's head being present in the head museum. In 2013, IGN ranked it as the 17th best "Futurama" episode, writing that it "deserves some recognition for successfully introducing us to a massive universe in just a scant 22 minutes, while also making it funny".

"Space Pilot 3000" is the pilot episode of the American animated television series "Futurama". It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 28, 1999. The episode focuses on the cryogenic freezing of the series protagonist, Philip J. Fry, and the events when he awakens 1,000 years in the future. Series regulars are introduced and the futuristic setting, inspired by a variety of classic science fiction series from "The Jetsons" to "Star Trek", is revealed. It also sets the stage for many of the events to follow in the series, foreshadowing plot points from the third and fourth seasons.

Vesmírný pilot 3000 (anglický název: "Space Pilot 3000") je první epizoda první série seriálu "Futurama". Poprvé byla vysílána 28. března 1999 stanicí Fox.