Etymology.

The island is known in Russian as Sakhalin (Сахалин). In Chinese, it is known as Kuye (). In Japanese, it is known as or, borrowing the Russian appellation, as. The spelling Saghalien may be found in historical texts. Choka (or Tchoka) is another name found in the early literature and seems to have been the name used by the islanders themselves, but it is not clear whether these were the Gilyak or the Ainu.  The European names derive from misinterpretation of a Manchu name "sahaliyan ula angga hada" ("peak/craggy rock at the mouth of the Amur River"). "Sahaliyan", the word that has been borrowed in the form of "Sakhalin", means "black" in Manchu, "ula" means "river" and "sahaliyan ula" (, "Black River") is the proper Manchu name of the Amur River. Its Japanese name,, supposedly comes from Ainu "kamuy kar put ya mosir" (, shortened to "Karput" ), which means "the island a god has created at the estuary (of the Amur River)". The name was used by the Japanese during their possession of its southern part (1905–1945).

History.

Early history.

Sakhalin was inhabited in the Neolithic Stone Age. Flint implements such as those found in Siberia have been found at Dui and Kusunai in great numbers, as well as polished stone hatchets similar to European examples, primitive pottery with decorations like those of the Olonets, and stone weights used with fishing nets. A later population familiar with bronze left traces in earthen walls and kitchen-middens on Aniva Bay. Among the indigenous people of Sakhalin are the Ainu in the southern half, the Oroks in the central region, and the Nivkhs in the north. Chinese chronicled the Xianbei and Hezhe tribes, which had a way of life based on fishing.  The Mongol Empire made some efforts to subjugate the native people of Sakhalin starting in about 1264 A.D. According to "Yuanshi", the official history of the Yuan dynasty, the Mongols invaded Sakhalin and militarily subdued the "Guwei" (骨嵬, "Gǔwéi"), and by 1308, all inhabitants of Sakhalin had submitted to the Yuan. The Nivkhs were subjugated earlier, whereas the Ainu people submitted to the Mongols later. Following their subjugation, "Gǔwéi" elders made tributary visits to Yuan posts located at Wuleihe, Nanghar, and Boluohe until the end of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in China (1368). In the early Ming dynasty (1368–1644), the tributary relationship was re-established. By the middle of the 15th century, following the introduction of Chinese political and commercial institutions in the Amur region, the Sakhalin Ainu were making frequent tributary visits to Chinese-controlled outposts. Chinese of the Ming dynasty knew the island as Kuyi (苦夷 "Kǔyí") or Kuwu (), and later as Kuye (), as it is known today. There is some evidence that the Ming eunuch Admiral Yishiha reached Sakhalin in 1413 during one of his expeditions to the lower Amur, and granted Ming titles to a local chieftain. Under the Ming dynasty, commerce in Northeast Asia and Sakhalin was placed under the "system for subjugated peoples", or "ximin tizhi". This suggests that the island was at least nominally under the administration of the Nurgan Regional Military Commission, which was established by Yishiha near today's village of Tyr on the Siberian mainland in 1411, and continued operating until the mid-1430s.

Before 19th century.

Tributary of Qing dynasty.

According to Wei Yuan's work "Military history of the Qing dynasty" (), the Later Jin sent 400 troops to Sakhalin in 1616 in response to Japanese activity in the area, but later withdrew, judging there to be no major threat to their control of the island.  The 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk between Russia and China, which defined the Stanovoy Mountains as their mutual border, made no explicit mention of the island; however, the Qing dynasty (1636–1912) did consider the island to be part of its territory, and enacted policies of a pattern similar to the previous Ming dynasty, which drew Sakhalin further into the "system for subjugated peoples". Local people were forced to pay tribute at Qing posts, and Qing officials sometimes granted titles to local elders, entrusting them with the task of "keeping the peace". By the mid-18th century, Qing officials had registered 56 surname groups; of these, Qing sources note that six clans and 148 households were those of Ainu and Nivkh who came under the Qing administrative umbrella. However, since the Chinese government did not have a military presence on the island, Japanese attempts at colonization continued.

European and Japanese exploration.

In an early colonization attempt, a Japanese settlement was established at Ōtomari on Sakhalin's southern end in 1679. Cartographers of the Matsumae clan created a map of the island and called it "Kita-Ezo" (Northern Ezo, Ezo being the old name for the islands north of Honshu).  The first European known to visit Sakhalin was Martin Gerritz de Vries, who mapped Cape Patience and Cape Aniva on the island's east coast in 1643. The Dutch captain, however, was unaware that it was an island, and 17th century maps usually showed these points (and often Hokkaido as well) as being part of the mainland.  As part of a nationwide Sino-French cartographic program, the Jesuits Jean-Baptiste Régis, Pierre Jartoux, and Xavier Ehrenbert Fridelli joined a Chinese team visiting the lower Amur (known to them under its Manchu name, Saghalien Ula, i.e. the "Black River"), in 1709, and learned of the existence of the nearby offshore island from the "Ke tcheng" natives of the lower Amur. The Jesuits were told that the islanders were believed to be good at reindeer husbandry. They reported that the mainlanders used a variety of names to refer to the island, but "Saghalien anga bata" (i.e. "the Island [at] the mouth of the Black River") was the most common, while the name "Huye" (presumably, "Kuye", 庫頁), which they had heard in Beijing, was completely unknown to the locals.  The Jesuits did not have a chance to visit the island personally, and the geographical information provided by the "Ke tcheng" people and Manchus who had been to the island was insufficient to allow them to identify it as the land visited by de Vries in 1643. As a result, many 17th century maps showed a rather strangely shaped Sakhalin, which included only the northern half of the island (with Cape Patience), while Cape Aniva, discovered by de Vries, and the "Black Cape" (Cape Crillon) were thought to be part of the mainland.  It was not until the 1787 expedition of Jean-François de La Pérouse that the island began to resemble something of its true shape on European maps. Though unable to pass through its northern "bottleneck" due to contrary winds, La Perouse charted most of the Strait of Tartary, and islanders he encountered near today's Strait of Nevelskoy told him that the island was called "Tchoka" (or at least that is how he recorded the name in French), and it was used on some maps thereafter.  The Russian explorer Adam Johann von Krusenstern visited Sakhalin in 1805, but regarded it as a peninsula.  Alarmed by the visits of European powers, Japan proclaimed its sovereignty over the whole island in 1807. Most Japanese sources claim Mamiya Rinzō as the true discoverer of the Strait of Tartary, in 1809.

19th century.

Russo-Japanese rivalry.

On the basis of its belief that it was an extension of Hokkaido, both geographically and culturally, Japan again proclaimed sovereignty over the whole island (as well as the Kuril Islands chain) in 1845, in the face of competing claims from Russia. In 1849, however, the Russian navigator Gennady Nevelskoy recorded the existence and navigability of the strait later given his name, and – in defiance of the Qing and Japanese claims – Russian settlers began establishing coal mines, administration facilities, schools, and churches on the island. In 1853–54, Nikolay Rudanovsky surveyed and mapped the island.  In 1855, Russia and Japan signed the Treaty of Shimoda, which declared that nationals of both countries could inhabit the island: Russians in the north, and Japanese in the south, without a clearly defined boundary between. Russia also agreed to dismantle its military base at Ootomari. Following the Opium War, Russia forced China to sign the Treaty of Aigun (1858) and the Convention of Peking (1860), under which China lost to Russia all claims to territories north of Heilongjiang (Amur) and east of Ussuri, including Sakhalin.  In 1857 the Russians established a penal colony. In 1890 the distinguished author Anton Chekhov visited the penal colony on Sakhalin and published a memoir of his journey.  Japan proclaimed its sovereignty over Sakhalin (which they called Karafuto) yet again in 1865, and the government built a stele announcing the claim at the northern extremity of the island. The island remained under shared sovereignty until the signing of the 1875 Treaty of Saint Petersburg, in which Japan surrendered its claims in Sakhalin to Russia.

Division along 50th parallel.

Japanese forces invaded and occupied Sakhalin in the closing stages of the Russo-Japanese War. In accordance with the Treaty of Portsmouth of 1905, the southern part of the island below the 50th parallel north reverted to Japan, while Russia retained the northern three-fifths. In 1920, during the Siberian Intervention, Japan again occupied the northern part of the island, returning it to the Soviet Union in 1925.  South Sakhalin was administered by Japan as Karafuto Prefecture (), with the capital at Toyohara (today's Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk). A large number of migrants were brought in from Korea.  The northern, Russian, half of the island formed Sakhalin Oblast, with the capital at Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky.

Whaling.

Between 1848 and 1902, American whaleships hunted whales off Sakhalin. They cruised for bowhead and gray whales to the north and right whales to the east and south. On 7 June 1855, the ship "Jefferson" (396 tons), of New London, was wrecked on Cape Levenshtern, on the northeastern side of the island, during a fog. All hands were saved as well as 300 barrels of whale oil.

Second World War.

In August 1945, after repudiating the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact, the Soviet Union invaded southern Sakhalin. The Soviet attack started on August 11, 1945, a few days before the surrender of Japan. The Soviet 56th Rifle Corps, part of the 16th Army, consisting of the 79th Rifle Division, the 2nd Rifle Brigade, the 5th Rifle Brigade and the 214 Armored Brigade, attacked the Japanese 88th Infantry Division. Although the Soviet Red Army outnumbered the Japanese by three to one, they advanced only slowly due to strong Japanese resistance. It was not until the 113th Rifle Brigade and the 365th Independent Naval Infantry Rifle Battalion from Sovetskaya Gavan landed on Tōro, a seashore village of western Karafuto, on August 16 that the Soviets broke the Japanese defense line. Japanese resistance grew weaker after this landing. Actual fighting continued until August 21. From August 22 to August 23, most remaining Japanese units agreed to a ceasefire. The Soviets completed the conquest of Karafuto on August 25, 1945 by occupying the capital of Toyohara.  Of the approximately 400,000 people – mostly Japanese and Korean – who lived on South Sakhalin in 1944, about 100,000 were evacuated to Japan during the last days of the war. The remaining 300,000 stayed behind, some for several more years. While the vast majority of Sakhalin Japanese and Koreans were gradually repatriated between 1946 and 1950, tens of thousands of Sakhalin Koreans (and a number of their Japanese spouses) remained in the Soviet Union.  No final peace treaty has been signed and the status of four neighboring islands remains disputed. Japan renounced its claims of sovereignty over southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in the Treaty of San Francisco (1951), but maintains that the four offshore islands of Hokkaido currently administered by Russia were not subject to this renunciation. Japan has granted mutual exchange visas for Japanese and Ainu families divided by the change in status. Recently, economic and political cooperation has gradually improved between the two nations despite disagreements.

Recent history.

On 1 September 1983, the Korean Air Flight 007, a South Korean civilian airliner, flew over Sakhalin and was shot down by the Soviet Union, just west of Sakhalin Island, near the smaller Moneron Island. The Soviet Union claimed it was a spy plane; however, commanders on the ground realized it was a commercial aircraft. All 269 passengers and crew died, including a U.S. Congressman, Larry McDonald.  On 27 May 1995, the 7.0 Neftegorsk earthquake shook the former Russian settlement of Neftegorsk with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX ("Violent"). Total damage was $64.1–300 million, with 1,989 deaths and 750 injured. The settlement was not rebuilt.

Geography.

Sakhalin is separated from the mainland by the narrow and shallow Strait of Tartary, which often freezes in winter in its narrower part, and from Hokkaido, Japan, by the Soya Strait or La Pérouse Strait. Sakhalin is the largest island in Russia, being long, and wide, with an area of.It lies at similar latitudes to England, Wales and Ireland.  Its orography and geological structure are imperfectly known. One theory is that Sakhalin arose from the Sakhalin Island Arc. Nearly two-thirds of Sakhalin is mountainous. Two parallel ranges of mountains traverse it from north to south, reaching. The Western Sakhalin Mountains peak in Mount Ichara,, while the Eastern Sakhalin Mountains's highest peak, Mount Lopatin, is also the island's highest mountain. Tym-Poronaiskaya Valley separates the two ranges. Susuanaisky and Tonino-Anivsky ranges traverse the island in the south, while the swampy Northern-Sakhalin plain occupies most of its north. Crystalline rocks crop out at several capes; Cretaceous limestones, containing an abundant and specific fauna of gigantic ammonites, occur at Dui on the west coast; and Tertiary conglomerates, sandstones, marls, and clays, folded by subsequent upheavals, are found in many parts of the island. The clays, which contain layers of good coal and abundant fossilized vegetation, show that during the Miocene period, Sakhalin formed part of a continent which comprised north Asia, Alaska, and Japan, and enjoyed a comparatively warm climate. The Pliocene deposits contain a mollusc fauna more Arctic than that which exists at the present time, indicating that the connection between the Pacific and Arctic Oceans was probably broader than it is now.  Main rivers: The Tym, long and navigable by rafts and light boats for, flows north and northeast with numerous rapids and shallows, and enters the Sea of Okhotsk. The Poronai River flows south-southeast to the Gulf of Patience or Shichiro Bay, on the southeastern coast. Three other small streams enter the wide semicircular Gulf of Aniva or Higashifushimi Bay at the southern extremity of the island.  The northernmost point of Sakhalin is Cape of Elisabeth on the Schmidt Peninsula, while Cape Crillon is the southernmost point of the island.  Sakhalin has two smaller islands associated with it, Moneron Island and Ush Island. Moneron, the only land mass in the Tatar strait, long and wide, is about west from the nearest coast of Sakhalin and from the port city of Nevelsk. Ush Island is an island off of the northern coast of Sakhalin.

Demographics.

At the beginning of the 20th century, some 32,000 Russians (of whom over 22,000 were convicts) inhabited Sakhalin along with several thousand native inhabitants. In 2010, the island's population was recorded at 497,973, 83% of whom were ethnic Russians, followed by about 30,000 Koreans (5.5%). Smaller minorities were the Ainu, Ukrainians, Tatars, Yakuts and Evenks. The native inhabitants consist of some 2,000 Nivkhs and 750 Oroks. The Nivkhs in the north support themselves by fishing and hunting. In 2008 there were 6,416 births and 7,572 deaths.  The administrative center of the oblast, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, a city of about 175,000, has a large Korean minority, typically referred to as Sakhalin Koreans, who were forcibly brought by the Japanese during World War II to work in the coal mines. Most of the population lives in the southern half of the island, centered mainly around Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and two ports, Kholmsk and Korsakov (population about 40,000 each).  The 400,000 Japanese inhabitants of Sakhalin (including the Japanized indigenous Ainu) who had not already been evacuated during the war were deported following the invasion of the southern portion of the island by the Soviet Union in 1945 at the end of World War II.

Climate.

The Sea of Okhotsk ensures that Sakhalin has a cold and humid climate, ranging from humid continental (Köppen "Dfb") in the south to subarctic ("Dfc") in the centre and north. The maritime influence makes summers much cooler than in similar-latitude inland cities such as Harbin or Irkutsk, but makes the winters much snowier and a few degrees warmer than in interior East Asian cities at the same latitude. Summers are foggy with little sunshine.  Precipitation is heavy, owing to the strong onshore winds in summer and the high frequency of North Pacific storms affecting the island in the autumn. It ranges from around on the northwest coast to over in southern mountainous regions. In contrast to interior east Asia with its pronounced summer maximum, onshore winds ensure Sakhalin has year-round precipitation with a peak in the autumn.

Flora and fauna.

The whole of the island is covered with dense forests, mostly coniferous. The Yezo (or Yeddo) spruce ("Picea jezoensis"), the Sakhalin fir ("Abies sachalinensis") and the Dahurian larch ("Larix gmelinii") are the chief trees; on the upper parts of the mountains are the Siberian dwarf pine ("Pinus pumila") and the Kurile bamboo ("Sasa kurilensis"). Birches, both Siberian silver birch ("Betula platyphylla") and Erman's birch ("B. ermanii"), poplar, elm, bird cherry ("Prunus padus"), Japanese yew ("Taxus cuspidata"), and several willows are mixed with the conifers; while farther south the maple, rowan and oak, as also the Japanese "Panax ricinifolium", the Amur cork tree ("Phellodendron amurense"), the Spindle ("Euonymus macropterus") and the vine ("Vitis thunbergii") make their appearance. The underwoods abound in berry-bearing plants (e.g. cloudberry, cranberry, crowberry, red whortleberry), red-berried elder ("Sambucus racemosa"), wild raspberry, and Spiraea.  Bears, foxes, otters, and sables are numerous, as are reindeer in the north, and musk deer, hares, squirrels, rats, and mice everywhere. The bird population is mostly the common east Siberian, but there are some endemic or near-endemic breeding species, notably the endangered Nordmann's greenshank ("Tringa guttifer") and the Sakhalin leaf warbler ("Phylloscopus borealoides"). The rivers swarm with fish, especially species of salmon ("Oncorhynchus"). Numerous whales visit the sea coast, including the critically endangered Western Pacific gray whale, for which the coast of Sakhalin is the only known feeding ground. Other endangered whale species known to occur in this area are the North Pacific right whale, the bowhead whale, and the beluga whale.

Transport.

Sea.

Transport, especially by sea, is an important segment of the economy. Nearly all the cargo arriving for Sakhalin (and the Kuril Islands) is delivered by cargo boats, or by ferries, in railway wagons, through the Vanino-Kholmsk train ferry from the mainland port of Vanino to Kholmsk. The ports of Korsakov and Kholmsk are the largest and handle all kinds of goods, while coal and timber shipments often go through other ports. In 1999, a ferry service was opened between the ports of Korsakov and Wakkanai, Japan, and operated through the autumn of 2015, when service was suspended.  For the 2016 summer season, this route will be served by a highspeed catamaran ferry from Singapore named Penguin 33. The ferry is owned by Penguin International Limited and operated by Sakhalin Shipping Company.  Sakhalin's main shipping company is Sakhalin Shipping Company, headquartered in Kholmsk on the island's west coast.

Rail.

About 30 percent of all inland transport volume is carried by the island's railways, most of which are organized as the Sakhalin Railway (), which is one of the 17 territorial divisions of the Russian Railways.  The Sakhalin Railway network extends from Nogliki in the north to Korsakov in the south. Sakhalin's railway has a connection with the rest of Russia via a train ferry operating between Vanino and Kholmsk. , the railways are only now being converted from the Japanese gauge to the Russian gauge. The original Japanese D51 steam locomotives were used by the Soviet Railways until 1979.  Besides the main network run by the Russian Railways, until December 2006 the local oil company (Sakhalinmorneftegaz) operated a corporate narrow-gauge line extending for from Nogliki further north to Okha (). During the last years of its service, it gradually deteriorated; the service was terminated in December 2006, and the line was dismantled in 2007–2008.

Air.

Sakhalin is connected by regular flights to Moscow, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok and other cities of Russia. Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Airport has regularly scheduled international flights to Hakodate, Japan, and Seoul and Busan, South Korea. There are also charter flights to the Japanese cities of Tokyo, Niigata, and Sapporo and to the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Dalian and Harbin. The island was formerly served by Alaska Airlines from Anchorage, Petropavlovsk, and Magadan.

Fixed links.

The idea of building a fixed link between Sakhalin and the Russian mainland was first put forward in the 1930s. In the 1940s, an abortive attempt was made to link the island via a undersea tunnel. The project was abandoned under Premier Nikita Khrushchev. In 2000, the Russian government revived the idea, adding a suggestion that a 40-km-long bridge could be constructed between Sakhalin and the Japanese island of Hokkaidō, providing Japan with a direct connection to the Eurasian railway network. It was claimed that construction work could begin as early as 2001. The idea was received skeptically by the Japanese government and appears to have been shelved, probably permanently, after the cost was estimated at as much as $50 billion.  In November 2008, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev announced government support for the construction of the Sakhalin Tunnel, along with the required regauging of the island's railways to Russian standard gauge, at an estimated cost of 300–330 billion roubles.  In July 2013, Russian Far East development minister Viktor Ishayev proposed a railway bridge to link Sakhalin with the Russian mainland. He also again suggested a bridge between Sakhalin and Hokkaidō, which could potentially create a continuous rail corridor between Europe and Japan. In 2018, president Vladimir Putin ordered a feasibility study for a mainland bridge project.

Economy.

Sakhalin is a classic "primary sector of the economy" relying on oil and gas exports, coal mining, forestry, and fishing. Limited quantities of rye, wheat, oats, barley and vegetables are grown, although the growing season averages less than 100 days.  Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and economic liberalization, Sakhalin has experienced an oil boom with extensive petroleum exploration and mining by most large oil multinational corporations. The oil and natural gas reserves contain an estimated 14 billion barrels (2.2 km) of oil and 2,700 km (96 trillion cubic feet) of gas and are being developed under production-sharing agreement contracts involving international oil companies like ExxonMobil and Shell.  In 1996, two large consortia signed contracts to explore for oil and gas off the northeast coast of the island, Sakhalin-I and Sakhalin-II. The two consortia were estimated to spend a combined US$21 billion on the two projects which almost doubled to $37 billion as of September 2006, triggering Russian governmental opposition. The cost will include an estimated US$1 billion to upgrade the island's infrastructure: roads, bridges, waste management sites, airports, railways, communications systems, and ports. In addition, Sakhalin-III-through-VI are in various early stages of development.  The Sakhalin I project, managed by Exxon Neftegas Limited (ENL), completed a production-sharing agreement (PSA) between the Sakhalin I consortium, the Russian Federation, and the Sakhalin government. Russia is in the process of building a pipeline across the Tatar Strait from Sakhalin Island to De-Kastri terminal on the Russian mainland. From De-Kastri, the resource will be loaded onto tankers for transport to East Asian markets, namely Japan, South Korea and China.  The second consortium, Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd (Sakhalin Energy), is managing the Sakhalin II project. It completed the first production-sharing agreement (PSA) with the Russian Federation. Sakhalin Energy will build two 800-km pipelines running from the northeast of the island to Prigorodnoye (Prigorodnoe) in Aniva Bay at the southern end. The consortium will also build, at Prigorodnoye, the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant to be built in Russia. The oil and gas are also bound for East Asian markets.  Sakhalin II has come under fire from environmental groups, namely Sakhalin Environment Watch, for dumping dredging material in Aniva Bay. These groups were also worried about the offshore pipelines interfering with the migration of whales off the island. The consortium has (as of January 2006) rerouted the pipeline to avoid the whale migration. After a doubling in the projected cost, the Russian government threatened to halt the project for environmental reasons. There have been suggestions that the Russian government is using the environmental issues as a pretext for obtaining a greater share of revenues from the project and/or forcing involvement by the state-controlled Gazprom. The cost overruns (at least partly due to Shell's response to environmental concerns), are reducing the share of profits flowing to the Russian treasury.  In 2000, the oil and gas industry accounted for 57.5% of Sakhalin's industrial output. By 2006, it is expected to account for 80% of the island's industrial output. Sakhalin's economy is growing rapidly thanks to its oil and gas industry. By 2005, the island had become the largest recipient of foreign investment in Russia, followed by Moscow. Unemployment in 2002 was only two percent.  As of 18 April 2007, Gazprom has taken a 50 percent plus one share interest in Sakhalin II by purchasing 50 percent of Shell, Mitsui and Mitsubishi's shares.

Sakhalin ( or ; ; "Karafuto") is the largest island of the Russian Federation, situated in the North Pacific Ocean between 45°50' and 54°24' N. It is administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast. Sakhalin, which is about one third the size of Honshu, is just off the Russian Pacific coast (Khabarovsk Krai), and just north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. The population of Sakhalin island was 497,973 as of the 2010 census, made up of mostly ethnic Russians and a smaller Korean community. The indigenous peoples of the island are the Ainu, Oroks and Nivkhs.

Sachalin (rusky: "Сахали́н"; japonsky: 樺太, "Karafuto"; čínsky: tradiční znaky 庫頁島, zjednodušené znaky 库页岛, pinyin Kùyè Dǎo; korejsky: 사할린) je velký podlouhlý ostrov v severním Pacifiku. Leží severně od Japonska, mezi 45°50' a 54°24' severní šířky. Je to největší ostrov patřící Rusku, s plochou jen o málo menší než Česká republika, a administrativně spadá pod Sachalinskou oblast; hlavním městem je Južno-Sachalinsk. Jižní část Sachalinu, Kurilské ostrovy a severní Japonsko jsou původní vlastí lidí národa Ainu. U severního pobřeží ostrova jsou největší ruská ložiska ropy a zemního plynu, která těží konsorcium ruského Rosněftu s firmami jako Exxon, Shell a další firmy japonské i indické. V rámci obrovských projektů Sachalin-I až Sachalin-III se budují až 12 km hluboké těžební vrty, závody na zkapalňování plynu i stovky kilometrů ropovodů a plynovodů jak na pevninu, tak do Japonska. Prudký rozvoj těžby silně ohrožuje životní prostředí a zejména zdejší velryby.


Biography.

Early life and education.

Francis Kenrick was born in Dublin to Thomas and Jane (née Eustace) Kenrick.  His younger brother, Peter, would later become the first Archbishop of St. Louis. His uncle was the pastor of St. Nicholas of Myra Church in Dublin, and took an active role in his education.  At the age of eighteen, he was selected to study at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome, where he became a distinguished student. He was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Candido Maria Frattini on April 7, 1821.

Ordination and ministry.

Shortly after his ordination, Kenrick accepted an invitation from Bishop Benedict Joseph Flaget, S.S., to join the Diocese of Bardstown, Kentucky, in the United States. He then held the chair of theology at St. Thomas Seminary for nine years, in addition to teaching Greek and history at St. Joseph's College.  Apart from his academic duties, he also engaged in missionary work; he facilitated several conversions and publicly debated with Protestant ministers. He earned a reputation as an eloquent preacher and effective apologist, and was a recognized theologian and scripture scholar.  Kenrick was later made private secretary to Flaget, whom he accompanied to the First Provincial Council of Baltimore in 1829 as his personal theologian. He also served as an assistant secretary of the Council.

Bishop of Philadelphia.

On February 25, 1830, Kenrick was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Philadelphia, and Titular Bishop of "Arath" by Pope Pius VIII. He received his episcopal consecration on the following June 6 from Flaget, with Bishops Henry Conwell and John Baptist Mary David, S.S., serving as co-consecrators, in Bardstown.  Kenrick assumed full administrative powers from the aged Bishop Conwell, whose tenure had been plagued by a public feud with a schismatic priest named William Hogan. Immediately upon his arrival, he also became engaged in the long-running dispute between episcopal authority and the lay trustees of St. Mary's Church.  The trustees eventually conceded their struggle for power after Kenrick placed St. Mary's Cathedral under interdict. He also placed all church property in the name of the bishop instead of those of the trustees.  In 1832, Kenrick founded St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, which was originally located at his personal residence. That same year an outbreak of cholera took place in Philadelphia. The Committee of the Almshouse, later known as Philadelphia General Hospital, asked Bishop Kenrick if he could request additional help from the Sisters of Charity to serve as nurses. Father Michael Hurley, pastor of St. Augustine's Church turned it into a makeshift hospital under the supervision of Dr. Oliver H. Taylor.  Kenrick led the local Catholic clergy and sisters in ministering to the sick; his efforts were publicly recognized by Mayor John Swift.  Kenrick successfully petitioned the Holy See to separate Western Pennsylvania into a new diocese, and the Diocese of Pittsburgh was established in 1836; Kenrick was initially considered for the new diocese as well as for coadjutor bishop of New York, but withdrew his candidacy.  Kenrick succeeded Conwell as the third Bishop of Philadelphia upon the latter's death on April 22, 1842. As Bishop, Kenrick expressed public concern over the fact that Catholics in Philadelphia were forced to participate in Protestant religious instruction in the public schools. This dispute led to 1844 riots, a series of riots resulting from increasing anti-Catholic sentiment at the growing population of Irish Catholic immigrants.  Although most of the patients cared for by the Sisters at St. Augustine were listed as non-Catholic, the church was burned to the ground during the riots. Throughout the violence, Kenrick encouraged Catholics "to follow peace and have charity." He closed all Catholic churches and ordered the suspension of all Masses until the riots were brought to a halt by military force.  Following the riots, Kenrick ended his advocacy for changes in the religious instruction of public schools and initiated the creation of a Parochial school system designed for Catholic students and run by the Church.  Influenced by the work of his contemporary, an English priest named John Lingard, Kenrick published his own translation of the four Gospels in 1849; he eventually translated the entire Bible, as a new revision of the Douay-Rheims Bible.  Between 1830 and 1850, the number of churches in the diocese grew from 22 to 92; priests from 35 to 101; charitable institutions from two to six; and the Catholic population from 35,000 to 170,000. He also began construction on the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul and oversaw the rebuilding of St. Michael and St. Augustine following the 1844 riots.

Archbishop of Baltimore.

Following the death of Archbishop Samuel Eccleston, S.S., Kenrick was named the sixth Archbishop of Baltimore, Maryland, by Pope Pius IX on August 19, 1851. His installation took place on the following October 9. He presided over the First Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1852.  As Archbishop of Baltimore, Kenrick expanded the Parochial School System beyond Philadelphia and help to make Catholic instruction the norm for Catholic children in America. Under his tenure, parochial schools were free for all students, and were supported directly by the parishes.  In 1854, he was invited by Pius IX to attend the promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in Rome. In 1858, the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, with the approval of Pius IX, conferred a "prerogative of place" on the Archbishop of Baltimore over all archbishops and bishops in the United States, regardless of seniority in promotion or ordination.

Death and legacy.

In his later years, Archbishop Kenrick struggled to reduce tensions between Catholics and the Protestant majority. While several anti-Catholic Riots took place in the US during the 1850s, none took place in Kenrick's archdiocese except the Know-Nothing Riots of 1856.  Kenrick was greatly troubled by the outbreak of the Civil War. He died aged 66 on July 8, 1863, shortly after reading of the massive slaughter that had taken place in nearby Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. (The entire state was part of his ecclesiastical province at the time.)  Kenrick will be remembered primarily for his contribution to the development of the US Parochial School System. His best known literary works include the following:

Francis Patrick Kenrick (December 3, 1796 – July 8, 1863) was an Irish-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as the third Bishop of the Diocese of Philadelphia (1842–1851) and the sixth Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore (1851–1863).

Francis Patrick Kenrick (3. prosince 1796/1797 Dublin, Irsko – 8. července 1863 Baltimore, Maryland) byl katolickým duchovním, biskupem-koadjutorem filadelfské diecéze (1830–1842), 3. biskupem filadelfským (1842–1851) a od 1851 6. arcibiskupem baltimorským. Jeho bratr, Peter Richard Kenrick, byl arcibiskupem ze Saint Louis.


Early life and career.

Perkins was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. As a child actress she was in three made-for-television films: "Small Sacrifices", "Anything to Survive", and Stephen King's "It".  In 1998, Perkins took a supporting role in the Canadian TV crime-drama series "Da Vinci's Inquest" as Carmen in the episode "The Most Dangerous Time". She returned to the series in 2001 to take a recurring, supporting role as the prostitute Sue Lewis for a further 34 episodes, a role which earned her a Leo Award for Best Supporting Performance in 2003.  In 2000, Perkins starred in the film "Ginger Snaps" as Brigitte Fitzgerald. In 2004 she starred in two back-to-back films, a sequel titled "", and a prequel titled "". Her role in "Ginger Snaps" gained her Best Actress award at the Málaga International Week of Fantastic Cinema in 2001. "Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed" is Perkins' largest role in a film. In 2004 the horror magazine "Fangoria" awarded Perkins their Chainsaw Award for her work in "GS2: Unleashed".  Perkins had supporting roles in "She's the Man", "Another Cinderella Story", and a small role as a receptionist in "Juno". She stars in the thriller "Blood: A Butcher's Tale."  In 2009 and 2011, she appeared as "superfan" Becky Rosen in the CW TV series "Supernatural".. She reprised her role in 2019 for the 15th and final season of the show.  Starting March 1, 2010, Perkins played the regular role of Crystal Braywood in the Canadian TV comedy series "Hiccups". After two seasons the show was cancelled.  She is married to Belgian Canadian academic Ernest Mathijs, who has written about cult films, including her roles in the "Ginger Snaps" series.

Emily Jean Perkins (born May 4, 1977) is a Canadian actress, best known for her roles as Crystal Braywood in the TV series "Hiccups", young Beverly Marsh in "Stephen King's It", and Brigitte Fitzgerald in "Ginger Snaps". Since the late 1980s she has appeared in various films and television series.

Emily Jean Perkins (* 4. května 1977, Vancouver, Kanada) je kanadská herečka. Hrála v řadě amerických a kanadských seriálů a filmů, nejvíce se proslavila rolí Brigitte 'B' Fitzgerald v hororové trilogii "Moje sestra vlkodlak".


Operating systems or system control program.

The "operating system" (prominent examples being Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, and z/OS), allows the parts of a computer to work together by performing tasks like transferring data between memory and disks or rendering output onto a display device. It provides a platform (hardware abstraction layer) to run high-level system software and application software.  A "kernel" is the core part of the operating system that defines an API for applications programs (including some system software) and an interface to device drivers.  "Device drivers", including also computer BIOS and device firmware, provide basic functionality to operate and control the hardware connected to or built into the computer.  A "user interface" "allows users to interact with a computer." Either a command-line interface (CLI) or, since the 1980s a graphical user interface (GUI). Since this is the part of the operating system the user directly interacts with, it may be considered an application and therefore not system software.

Utility software or system support programs.

For historical reasons, some organizations use the term "systems programmer" to describe a job function which is more accurately termed systems administrator. Software tools these employees use are then called system software. This so-called "Utility software" helps to analyze, configure, optimize and maintain the computer, such as virus protection. In some publications, the term "system software" also includes software development tools (like a compiler, linker or debugger).

See also.

System software of video game consoles

System software is software designed to provide a platform for other software. Examples of system software include operating systems like macOS, GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows, computational science software, game engines, industrial automation, and software as a service applications.

Systémový software je v informatice speciální programové vybavení, které umožňuje uživateli s počítačem pracovat, ovládat ho, spouštět aplikace a podobně. Systémový software se nachází na pomezí hardware a aplikačního software a běžný uživatel s ním přímo nepracuje (na rozdíl od aplikací). Mezi systémový software patří operační systém, pomocné nástroje a firmware.


History.

The secondary school was founded in September 1953 as the 14th 11-year secondary school by unification of the 3rd national school, the 4th national school, the 3rd high school, and a language-oriented high school in Slezská street. (The term "national school" originally referred to what is now called the first level of primary school, and the term secondary school referred to what is now called the second level of primary school.) The school was formerly located in Wilhelma Piecka street (1990 renamed to Korunní) in Vinohrady, in the building of today's Archbishop Gymnázium.  In 1990, due to the renaming of the street, the school's name Gymnázium Wilhelma Piecka (informally called "Píkárna") was changed to Gymnázium Korunní. When the building had to be abandoned for the Archbishop Gymnázium in 1993, the school moved to the building of a former industrial secondary school in Zborovská street, which in turn moved to a new building in Pankrác in 1993 and was renamed as Gymnázium Zborovská.  For long-lasting excellent results in physics competitions, on January 1, 1999 the school received its current name, honoring the 19th-century physicist Christian Doppler known for his discovery of the Doppler effect. The school currently has the status of a faculty school of the Faculty of Science, Charles University and the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University.  In 1998, doc. RNDr. Zdeněk Kluiber, a science popularizer who had been teaching physics at the school since 1990, was appointed as the principal. Under his supervision, preparatory courses for Grade 9 students were established, including FYGYK, later renamed as FYGYZ. The course has been gradually transformed into a series of lectures for primary school students on a variety of topics from mathematics, physics, and computer science. Apart from FYGYZ, the students organize science competitions Pražská střela and Dopplerova vlna.

The present.

Gymnázium Christiana Dopplera offers 4-year and 8-year study programs ended with the Maturita exam. Every year GChD opens one 4-year class of the educational field 79-41-K/41 Gymnázium - "Per partes ad astra" focused on mathematics (with a further focus on physics and computer science), one 8-year class of the educational field 79-41-K/81 Gymnázium -" Myslím, tedy jsem " focused on mathematics (with a further focus on physics and computer science), and one 8-year class of the educational field 79-41-K/81 Gymnázium - "Cizí jazyky – brána do světa" focused on foreign languages. Every class has a maximum capacity of 30 students.  The mathematics part of the exit exam comprises a 4-hour written exam (which is created by Doc. RNDr. Jaroslav Zhouf, PhD, a member of the Department of Mathematics and Mathematical Education of the Faculty of Education, Charles University), and an oral exam. Students of all three programs are required to study at least two foreign languages at the B2 or C1 SERR levels. Gymnázium Christiana Dopplera is a Deutsches Sprachdiplom-certified school. The diploma (equivalent to the C1 level within the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) is awarded to the students of the language classes.  The school resides in an 1896 building which has been reconstructed several times during the last few years (building of a new dining hall, modernization of computer equipment).

International Competitions.

In past years (since 2006), students of Gymnázium Christiana Dopplera won the following prizes:

International Physics Olympiad.

2013: Lubomír Grund – Silver medal  2012: Lubomír Grund – Silver medal  2010: Jáchym Sýkora – Gold medal  2009: Jáchym Sýkora – Bronze medal  2006: Radek Žlebčík – Bronze medal

Middle European Mathematical Olympiad.

2012: Lubomír Grund – Bronze medal  2011: Lubomír Grund – Honorable mention  2009: Radek Marciňa – Bronze medal

International Mathematical Olympiad.

2010: Jáchym Sýkora – Honorable mention  2010: Radek Marciňa – Honorable mention

International Astronomy Olympiad.

2008: Jana Smutná – Bronze medal  2008: Tereza Kroupová – Honorable mention  2007: Jana Smutná – Honorable mention

Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

2014: Aranka Hrušková – Silver Medal

Universities.

Gymnázium Christiana Dopplera ranks among the most successful Czech high schools in terms of the percentage of graduates admitted to universities and colleges. GChD graduates attend – among others – the following universities:  Teachers' websites:

Gymnázium Christiana Dopplera (commonly abbreviated as GChD) is a public secondary school located in the Malá Strana district of Prague, Czech Republic. The school offers both 4-year and 8-year study programs, and students can specialize in mathematics and physics or in foreign languages.

Gymnázium Christiana Dopplera je pražské gymnázium s výukou osmiletých i čtyřletých oborů. Studenti si mohou zvolit mezi zaměřením na matematiku, fyziku a výpočetní techniku ("Myslím tedy jsem") nebo živé jazyky. Škola se nachází v ulici Zborovská 621/45, 150 00 Praha 5 – Malá Strana.


Family of brewers.

Franz Anton Dreher (1689–1743) was the "Kronenwirt" (innkeeper at the Crown Inn) in Pfullendorf, a small imperial city north of Überlingen (today Baden Württemberg, Germany). His son, Franz Anton Dreher (a.k.a. "the younger", 1736–1820), studied brewing near Pfullendorf, but had larger dreams and made the Swabian migration of 1760 to Vienna. After several years of hand-to-mouth living, including a long stint as a waiter in a local beer hall, in 1780, Dreher leased a small brewery in Ober-Lanzendorf; in 1782, he leased another brewery, and acquired some fields. In 1796, he purchased, for 19,000 Thalers, a brewery in Klein Schwechat, outside of Vienna, with and the "Herberghaus" (hostel). Dreher married (i) Maria Anna Huber, daughter of a surveyor, who had learned something of the brewing trade. The couple had no children, and when she died in 1803, he married (ii) Katherine Widter, 1786–1864, a miller's daughter from Speichmühle near Petersdorf. They had four children: Clara, 1806–1885, who married Franz Aich (1803–1870), also from a well known family of brewers in Tyrnau; a daughter who died circa 1808; another daughter; and Anton Dreher (the elder), born 1810, married (i), Anna Wigrill (1816–1841), the daughter of a shipmaster and land owner from Krems and, after the death of his first wife, (ii) Ann Hersfeld, 1824–1884, daughter of an administrator for the family of Thurn-Taxis, in Regensburg. From the second marriage, his son and heir, Anton (1849–1921) was born.  Anton Dreher (the younger) married Katherina, daughter of the master brewer Meichl of Simmering, to whom he had been apprenticed. They had 3 sons, Anton Eugen, Jenő, and Theodore. Theodore was a racing and auto enthusiast, and died in 1914.  Anton Eugen, the oldest son, inherited the Austrian concern in 1923, upon his father's death, but he himself died in 1925; his own son, Anton, had died in World War I, and his grandson, Oscar, died at the age of 10 years the following year. Anton Dreher also had an illegitimate son, the writer and editor Anton Breitner (March 18, 1858, in Vienna - May 30, 1928, in Mattsee).  Jenő Dreher, the youngest son of Anton Dreher, inherited the family's Hungarian concerns. Jenő's daughter, Elizabeth died at the age of 17 from tuberculosis; Lilly Haggenmacher mourned for her daughter until her own death.

Education and career.

When Franz Anton Dreher (the younger) died of marasmus in 1820, his ten-year-old son was too young to manage the brewing business. Dreher was apprenticed to the brewer Meichel, in Simmering and later undertook a study tour, a journeyman's tour, through Germany, where he studied at the Sedlmayr brewery in Munich, England, where he studied at Barclay and Perkins in London, and Scotland. In 1836, he partnered with his mother, and with the help of his wife's marriage portion, he experimented with the English malting process, which produced a caramelized, crystal malt; he was able to buy his mother out by 1839. Here he was the first brewer in the European continent to use the English malting process. He owned acres of land throughout Austria and Bohemia, and grew his own hops and barley, which allowed him to save on costs. When he died suddenly in 1863, he was worth 10 million guilden.

Development of pale lager.

Starting in 1836, Anton Dreher took over the brewery and developed the bottom-fermented beer — "Schwechater Lagerbier" — which he presented in 1840/1841. It was a new style of beer, methodically bottom fermented to produce a brew that was coppery reddish-brown in color. It required steady, cool temperature for maturation and storage, and this requirement gives the beer its name: "lager" (in German, "Lager" means storehouse or warehouse). Originally, he called the beer "Märtzen," or March beer, because it was brewed in March, when the water was cold, and ice was still available. Eventually the name "lager" became the accepted name; it was also called "Vienna Typ," or Vienna Style beer. In 1858, Dreher's "lager" won the gold medal for excellence at the Beer Exhibit in Vienna. The greater honor occurred on 26 November 1861 when Emperor Franz Joseph I visited the brewery and awarded Dreher with the Knight's Cross of the Franz Joseph Order. In 1862, he received the Gold medal with Diploma from the World Exhibition in Paris. In 1869, his Lager beer won the High First Prize.  The Danube river provided the water needed for unlimited beer and malt making. The attention turned to Kőbánya because of a beer made by Peter Schmidt, a brewer master from Pest who studied in Munich. Schmidt stored beer in his rock cellar in Kőbánya. The water in the wells, made by deep drilling technology, is perfectly suited for beer making; the cellars of Schmidt's brewery provided the steady cool temperature needed for maturation and storage. It was the ideal warehouse, or, in German "Lager", for storing the beer.  The surge of the Kőbánya beer production attracted Dreher's attention, in part because Schmidt's beer was competition for him. He visited Pest-Buda on several occasions between 1856 and 1860; by 1862 he was able to buy the Kőbánya Brewery Company. He purchased further plots of land and prepared for expansion, but died suddenly in 1863, leaving his 14-year-old son to implement the plans.

The brewery under the son's leadership.

After his father's death in 1863, Anton Dreher continued the work on the brewing process. He started to export this beer first to the Netherlands, then to Triest (now Trieste), where it was known as "Birra Dreher," and then to Germany. In 1871, known as the winter without ice, Dreher constructed a cooling machine to process the beer. He continued to develop the brewery, the mechanization, and the fields, and by 1897 the brewery was producing 739.639 Hectoliters of beer, which was more than double the amount produced under his father in the company's most productive year. The following year, the brewery produced 1.25 million Hectoliters, making it the most productive brewery in the world. By 1913, the brewery in Schwechat was united with brewery in Simmering, and the brewery in another suburb of Vienna, St. Marx, and known as The United Breweries of Schwechat, Simmering, and St. Marx: Dreher, Mautner, Meichle Incorporated. Production declined shrank during World War I, when over half of its employees were needed for military service. The Brewery facility in Schwechat was converted to a hospital, and the other breweries produced "Kriegsbier" (war beer), for distribution to the troops.

Awards.

In 1873, the beer won another Gold medal at the World Exhibit in Vienna, and in 1878, again in Paris, 1879, again in Sydney, 1878, in Melbourne, and 1882, in Trieste. On June 4, 1883, Emperor Franz Joseph visited the brewery for the second time, and honored Anton Dreher, Junior with the Knights Cross of the Order of Franz Joseph. In 1897, Dreher received the Kerhielt Dreher the Commander's Cross, and later the Great Cross of the Order, and, in 1902, the Order of Iron Cross, Second Class.

Brauhaus Dreher.

The Dreher Brewery and Tavern played an important role in the Social Democrat movement of Vienna following World War I, also known as Red Vienna. In the middle of the 19th century, Anton Dreher senior had purchased two small, adjacent restaurants and combined them into one "Gasthaus" with a big garden. "Drehers Etablissement" opened on 25 December 1859 and was an immediate hit as a "hot" Beer Hall. It had not only the garden and the tavern, but also a restaurant and a dance hall. Between 1918 and 1933, it became the unofficial meeting place of Landstrasser Social Democrats of Vienna.

Expansion to Hungary.

Among his three sons, Anton Dreher Jr. entrusted Jenő with the management of the Kőbánya brewery, which became a corporation in 1907 under the name ""Dreher Antal Kőbányai Serfőzdéje,"" and was a market leader until World War I. The Dreher family business became a corporation in 1905 and the Hungarian company became independent of the mother company in 1907. Jenő Dreher continued to buy shares of his competitors, Haggenmacher Kőbánya and Budafoki Rt., Barber and Klusemann Brewery and the First Hungarian Brewery Corporation (founded in 1867).  When Anton Dreher died in 1921, his oldest son, Anton Eugen (b. 1871) took over the brewery business, but he died in 1925. The 12-year-old Oskar died in 1926, and with him the line of brewers. The Dreher Combine, which was merged from these two companies in 1923, also bought up the Royal Brewery Corporation of Kanizsa in 1928. As the result of the grand scale expansion, Dreher-Haggenmacher First Hungarian Brewery Corporation was launched in 1933, and acquired 70 percent of the market. The two other Kőbánya Breweries - Polgár and the Municipal Brewery – were left with only a quarter stake of the market. Dreher beer was exported to North and South America, western Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, where ever Germans, Austrians and Hungarians migrated, and became a worldwide brand name. After the death of his elder brother and his great nephew, Jenő Dreher sold off the Austrian portion of the family business.

The Brewery after the Drehers.

After the deaths of the Drehers, the Austrian side of the business was transformed into a consortium; the family Mautner-Markhof, which had been associated with the Drehers since the development of the crystallized malt, assumed direction of the consortium. In 1945, the main brewery was destroyed in World War II, and for the first time in over a century, no beer was produced by the company; eight months later, the brewery reopened, and production began again. Twenty years later, it joined with the Austrian Brewery, AG, and the Steirer brewery AG, to create the Brewery Union of Austria, AG.  On the Hungarian side, the Dreher family fortune and business was nationalized by the new communist state; the Drehers left Hungary. In 1992, Kőbányai Sörgyár was converted into a shareholding company; in 1993, it became a member of the South African Breweries (SAB). In 1997, the company acquired rights to the name Dreher, and became Dreher Sörgyárak Ltd (Dreher Breweries). The brewery exists today, and still produces Lager.  In 2002, the South African Breweries merged with the Miller Brewing Company to create the SABMiller group, which is the second largest brewing company of the world, with brewing interests or distribution agreements in over 60 countries across six continents. SABMiller PLC is listed in the London stock exchange and the Johannesburg stock exchange, and its international brand portfolio includes such historical brands as Pilsner Urquell, Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Miller Genuine Draft, and Castle Lager.  In 2017, Dreher Breweries were sold by SABMiller PLC to Asahi Breweries.

Anton Dreher (7 May 1810 in Schwechat near Vienna – 27 December 1863 in Schwechat) was an Austrian brewer, business magnate, philanthropist of Danube Swabian ancestry, the founder of the Dreher Breweries who was an important figure in the development of pale lager.

Anton Dreher starší (7. června 1810 ve Schwechatu u Vídně – 27. prosince 1863 tamtéž) byl rakouský podnikatel v pivovarnictví, který uvedl moderní typ ležáku.


History.

Before ODBC.

The introduction of the mainframe-based relational database during the 1970s led to a proliferation of data access methods. Generally these systems operated together with a simple command processor that allowed users to type in English-like commands, and receive output. The best-known examples are SQL from IBM and QUEL from the Ingres project. These systems may or may not allow other applications to access the data directly, and those that did use a wide variety of methodologies. The introduction of SQL aimed to solve the problem of "language" standardization, although substantial differences in implementation remained.  Since the SQL language had only rudimentary programming features, users often wanted to use SQL within a program written in another language, say Fortran or C. This led to the concept of Embedded SQL, which allowed SQL code to be "embedded" within another language. For instance, a SQL statement like codice_1 could be inserted as text within C source code, and during compiling it would be converted into a custom format that directly called a function within a library that would pass the statement into the SQL system. Results returned from the statements would be interpreted back into C data formats like codice_2 using similar library code.  There were several problems with the Embedded SQL approach. Like the different varieties of SQL, the Embedded SQLs that used them varied widely, not only from platform to platform, but even across languages on one platform – a system that allowed calls into IBM's DB2 would look very different from one that called into their own SQL/DS. Another key problem to the Embedded SQL concept was that the SQL code could only be changed in the program's source code, so that even small changes to the query required considerable programmer effort to modify. The SQL market referred to this as "static SQL", versus "dynamic SQL" which could be changed at any time, like the command-line interfaces that shipped with almost all SQL systems, or a programming interface that left the SQL as plain text until it was called. Dynamic SQL systems became a major focus for SQL vendors during the 1980s.  Older mainframe databases, and the newer microcomputer based systems that were based on them, generally did not have a SQL-like command processor between the user and the database engine. Instead, the data was accessed directly by the program – a programming library in the case of large mainframe systems, or a command line interface or interactive forms system in the case of dBASE and similar applications. Data from dBASE could not generally be accessed directly by other programs running on the machine. Those programs may be given a way to access this data, often through libraries, but it would not work with any other database engine, or even different databases in the same engine. In effect, all such systems were static, which presented considerable problems.

Early efforts.

By the mid-1980s the rapid improvement in microcomputers, and especially the introduction of the graphical user interface and data-rich application programs like Lotus 1-2-3 led to an increasing interest in using personal computers as the client-side platform of choice in client-server computing. Under this model, large mainframes and minicomputers would be used primarily to serve up data over local area networks to microcomputers that would interpret, display and manipulate that data. For this model to work, a data access standard was a requirement – in the mainframe field it was highly likely that all of the computers in a shop were from one vendor and clients were computer terminals talking directly to them, but in the micro field there was no such standardization and any client might access any server using any networking system.  By the late 1980s there were several efforts underway to provide an abstraction layer for this purpose. Some of these were mainframe related, designed to allow programs running on those machines to translate between the variety of SQL's and provide a single common interface which could then be called by other mainframe or microcomputer programs. These solutions included IBM's Distributed Relational Database Architecture (DRDA) and Apple Computer's Data Access Language. Much more common, however, were systems that ran entirely on microcomputers, including a complete protocol stack that included any required networking or file translation support.  One of the early examples of such a system was Lotus Development's DataLens, initially known as Blueprint. Blueprint, developed for 1-2-3, supported a variety of data sources, including SQL/DS, DB2, FOCUS and a variety of similar mainframe systems, as well as microcomputer systems like dBase and the early Microsoft/Ashton-Tate efforts that would eventually develop into Microsoft SQL Server. Unlike the later ODBC, Blueprint was a purely code-based system, lacking anything approximating a command language like SQL. Instead, programmers used data structures to store the query information, constructing a query by linking many of these structures together. Lotus referred to these compound structures as "query trees".  Around the same time, an industry team including members from Sybase (Tom Haggin), Tandem Computers (Jim Gray & Rao Yendluri) and Microsoft (Kyle G) were working on a standardized dynamic SQL concept. Much of the system was based on Sybase's DB-Library system, with the Sybase-specific sections removed and several additions to support other platforms. DB-Library was aided by an industry-wide move from library systems that were tightly linked to a specific language, to library systems that were provided by the operating system and required the languages on that platform to conform to its standards. This meant that a single library could be used with (potentially) any programming language on a given platform.  The first draft of the "Microsoft Data Access API" was published in April 1989, about the same time as Lotus' announcement of Blueprint. In spite of Blueprint's great lead – it was running when MSDA was still a paper project – Lotus eventually joined the MSDA efforts as it became clear that SQL would become the de facto database standard. After considerable industry input, in the summer of 1989 the standard became "SQL Connectivity" ("SQLC").

SAG and CLI.

In 1988 several vendors, mostly from the Unix and database communities, formed the SQL Access Group (SAG) in an effort to produce a single basic standard for the SQL language. At the first meeting there was considerable debate over whether or not the effort should work solely on the SQL language itself, or attempt a wider standardization which included a dynamic SQL language-embedding system as well, what they called a Call Level Interface (CLI). While attending the meeting with an early draft of what was then still known as MS Data Access, Kyle Geiger of Microsoft invited Jeff Balboni and Larry Barnes of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) to join the SQLC meetings as well. SQLC was a potential solution to the call for the CLI, which was being led by DEC.  The new SQLC "gang of four", MS, Tandem, DEC and Sybase, brought an updated version of SQLC to the next SAG meeting in June 1990. The SAG responded by opening the standard effort to any competing design, but of the many proposals, only Oracle Corp had a system that presented serious competition. In the end, SQLC won the votes and became the draft standard, but only after large portions of the API were removed – the standards document was trimmed from 120 pages to 50 during this time. It was also during this period that the name Call Level Interface was formally adopted. In 1995 SQL/CLI became part of the international SQL standard, ISO/IEC 9075-3.<ref name="ISO/IEC 9075-3">ISO/IEC 9075-3 – Information technology – Database languages – SQL – Part 3: Call-Level Interface (SQL/CLI)</ref> The SAG itself was taken over by the X/Open group in 1996, and, over time, became part of The Open Group's Common Application Environment.  MS continued working with the original SQLC standard, retaining many of the advanced features that were removed from the CLI version. These included features like scrollable cursors, and metadata information queries. The commands in the API were split into groups; the Core group was identical to the CLI, the Level 1 extensions were commands that would be easy to implement in drivers, while Level 2 commands contained the more advanced features like cursors. A proposed standard was released in December 1991, and industry input was gathered and worked into the system through 1992, resulting in yet another name change to "ODBC".

JET and ODBC.

During this time, Microsoft was in the midst of developing their Jet database system. Jet combined three primary subsystems; an ISAM-based database engine (also named "Jet", confusingly), a C-based interface allowing applications to access that data, and a selection of driver dynamic-link libraries (DLL) that allowed the same C interface to redirect input and output to other ISAM-based databases, like Paradox and xBase. Jet allowed using one set of calls to access common microcomputer databases in a fashion similar to Blueprint, by then renamed DataLens. However, Jet did not use SQL; like DataLens, the interface was in C and consisted of data structures and function calls.  The SAG standardization efforts presented an opportunity for Microsoft to adapt their Jet system to the new CLI standard. This would not only make Windows a premier platform for CLI development, but also allow users to use SQL to access both Jet and other databases as well. What was missing was the SQL parser that could convert those calls from their text form into the C-interface used in Jet. To solve this, MS partnered with PageAhead Software to use their existing query processor, SIMBA. SIMBA was used as a parser above Jet's C library, turning Jet into an SQL database. And because Jet could forward those C-based calls to other databases, this also allowed SIMBA to query other systems. Microsoft included drivers for Excel to turn its spreadsheet documents into SQL-accessible database tables.

Release and continued development.

ODBC 1.0 was released in September 1992. At the time, there was little direct support for SQL databases (versus ISAM), and early drivers were noted for poor performance. Some of this was unavoidable due to the path that the calls took through the Jet-based stack; ODBC calls to SQL databases were first converted from Simba Technologies's SQL dialect to Jet's internal C-based format, then passed to a driver for conversion back into SQL calls for the database. Digital Equipment and Oracle both contracted Simba Technologies to develop drivers for their databases as well.  Circa 1993, OpenLink Software shipped one of the first independently developed third-party ODBC drivers, for the PROGRESS DBMS, and soon followed with their UDBC (a cross-platform API equivalent of ODBC and the SAG/CLI) SDK and associated drivers for PROGRESS, Sybase, Oracle, and other DBMS, for use on Unix-like OS (AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, Linux, etc.), VMS, Windows NT, OS/2, and other OS.  Meanwhile, the CLI standard effort dragged on, and it was not until March 1995 that the definitive version was finalized. By then, Microsoft had already granted Visigenic Software a source code license to develop ODBC on non-Windows platforms. Visigenic ported ODBC to a wide variety of Unix platforms, where ODBC quickly became the de facto standard. "Real" CLI is rare today. The two systems remain similar, and many applications can be ported from ODBC to CLI with few or no changes.  Over time, database vendors took over the driver interfaces and provided direct links to their products. Skipping the intermediate conversions to and from Jet or similar wrappers often resulted in higher performance. However, by then Microsoft had changed focus to their OLE DB concept (recently reinstated ), which provided direct access to a wider variety of data sources from address books to text files. Several new systems followed which further turned their attention from ODBC, including ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) and ADO.net, which interacted more or less with ODBC over their lifetimes.  As Microsoft turned its attention away from working directly on ODBC, the Unix field was increasingly embracing it. This was propelled by two changes within the market, the introduction of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) like GNOME that provided a need to access these sources in non-text form, and the emergence of open software database systems like PostgreSQL and MySQL, initially under Unix. The later adoption of ODBC by Apple for using the standard Unix-side iODBC package Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) (which OpenLink Software had been independently providing for Mac OS X 10.0 and even Mac OS 9 since 2001) further cemented ODBC as the standard for cross-platform data access.  Sun Microsystems used the ODBC system as the basis for their own open standard, Java Database Connectivity (JDBC). In most ways, JDBC can be considered a version of ODBC for the programming language Java instead of C. JDBC-to-ODBC "bridges" allow Java-based programs to access data sources through ODBC drivers on platforms lacking a native JDBC driver, although these are now relatively rare. Inversely, ODBC-to-JDBC bridges allow C-based programs to access data sources through JDBC drivers on platforms or from databases lacking suitable ODBC drivers.

ODBC today.

ODBC remains in wide use today, with drivers available for most platforms and most databases. It is not uncommon to find ODBC drivers for database engines that are meant to be embedded, like SQLite, as a way to allow existing tools to act as front-ends to these engines for testing and debugging.  However, the rise of thin client computing using HTML as an intermediate format has reduced the need for ODBC. Many web development platforms contain direct links to target databases – MySQL being very common. In these scenarios, there is no direct client-side access nor multiple client software systems to support; everything goes through the programmer-supplied HTML application. The virtualization that ODBC offers is no longer a strong requirement, and development of ODBC is no longer as active as it once was.

Version history.

Version history:

Drivers and Managers.

Drivers.

ODBC is based on the device driver model, where the driver encapsulates the logic needed to convert a standard set of commands and functions into the specific calls required by the underlying system. For instance, a printer driver presents a standard set of printing commands, the API, to applications using the printing system. Calls made to those APIs are converted by the driver into the format used by the actual hardware, say PostScript or PCL.  In the case of ODBC, the drivers encapsulate many functions that can be broken down into several broad categories. One set of functions is primarily concerned with finding, connecting to and disconnecting from the DBMS that driver talks to. A second set is used to send SQL commands from the ODBC system to the DBMS, converting or interpreting any commands that are not supported internally. For instance, a DBMS that does not support cursors can emulate this functionality in the driver. Finally, another set of commands, mostly used internally, is used to convert data from the DBMS's internal formats to a set of standardized ODBC formats, which are based on the C language formats.  An ODBC driver enables an ODBC-compliant application to use a "data source", normally a DBMS. Some non-DBMS drivers exist, for such data sources as CSV files, by implementing a small DBMS inside the driver itself. ODBC drivers exist for most DBMSs, including Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server (but not for the Compact aka CE edition), Sybase ASE, SAP HANA and DB2. Because different technologies have different capabilities, most ODBC drivers do not implement all functionality defined in the ODBC standard. Some drivers offer extra functionality not defined by the standard.

Driver Manager.

Device drivers are normally enumerated, set up and managed by a separate Manager layer, which may provide additional functionality. For instance, printing systems often include functionality to provide spooling functionality on top of the drivers, providing print spooling for any supported printer.  In ODBC the Driver Manager (DM) provides these features. The DM can enumerate the installed drivers and present this as a list, often in a GUI-based form.  But more important to the operation of the ODBC system is the DM's concept of a "Data Source Name" (DSN). DSNs collect additional information needed to connect to a "specific" data source, versus the DBMS itself. For instance, the same MySQL driver can be used to connect to any MySQL server, but the connection information to connect to a local private server is different from the information needed to connect to an internet-hosted public server. The DSN stores this information in a standardized format, and the DM provides this to the driver during connection requests. The DM also includes functionality to present a list of DSNs using human readable names, and to select them at run-time to connect to different resources.  The DM also includes the ability to save partially complete DSN's, with code and logic to ask the user for any missing information at runtime. For instance, a DSN can be created without a required password. When an ODBC application attempts to connect to the DBMS using this DSN, the system will pause and ask the user to provide the password before continuing. This frees the application developer from having to create this sort of code, as well as having to know which questions to ask. All of this is included in the driver and the DSNs.

Bridging configurations.

A "bridge" is a special kind of driver: a driver that uses another driver-based technology.

ODBC-to-JDBC (ODBC-JDBC) bridges.

An ODBC-JDBC bridge consists of an "ODBC" driver which uses the services of a JDBC driver to connect to a database. This driver translates ODBC function-calls into JDBC method-calls. Programmers usually use such a bridge when they lack an ODBC driver for some database but have access to a JDBC driver. Examples: OpenLink ODBC-JDBC Bridge, SequeLink ODBC-JDBC Bridge.

JDBC-to-ODBC (JDBC-ODBC) bridges.

A JDBC-ODBC bridge consists of a JDBC driver which employs an ODBC driver to connect to a target database. This driver translates JDBC method calls into ODBC function calls. Programmers usually use such a bridge when a given database lacks a JDBC driver, but is accessible through an ODBC driver. Sun Microsystems included one such bridge in the JVM, but viewed it as a stop-gap measure while few JDBC drivers existed (The built-in JDBC-ODBC bridge was dropped from the JVM in Java 8). Sun never intended its bridge for production environments, and generally recommended against its use. independent data-access vendors deliver JDBC-ODBC bridges which support current standards for both mechanisms, and which far outperform the JVM built-in. Examples: OpenLink JDBC-ODBC Bridge, SequeLink JDBC-ODBC Bridge.

OLE DB-to-ODBC bridges.

An OLE DB-ODBC bridge consists of an OLE DB Provider which uses the services of an ODBC driver to connect to a target database. This provider translates OLE DB method calls into ODBC function calls. Programmers usually use such a bridge when a given database lacks an OLE DB provider, but is accessible through an ODBC driver. Microsoft ships one, MSDASQL.DLL, as part of the MDAC system component bundle, together with other database drivers, to simplify development in COM-aware languages (e.g. Visual Basic). Third parties have also developed such, notably OpenLink Software whose 64-bit OLE DB Provider for ODBC Data Sources filled the gap when Microsoft initially deprecated this bridge for their 64-bit OS. (Microsoft later relented, and 64-bit Windows starting with Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP1 have shipped with a 64-bit version of MSDASQL.) Examples: OpenLink OLEDB-ODBC Bridge, SequeLink OLEDB-ODBC Bridge.

ADO.NET-to-ODBC bridges.

An ADO.NET-ODBC bridge consists of an ADO.NET Provider which uses the services of an ODBC driver to connect to a target database. This provider translates ADO.NET method calls into ODBC function calls. Programmers usually use such a bridge when a given database lacks an ADO.NET provider, but is accessible through an ODBC driver. Microsoft ships one as part of the MDAC system component bundle, together with other database drivers, to simplify development in C#. Third parties have also developed such. Examples: OpenLink ADO.NET-ODBC Bridge, SequeLink ADO.NET-ODBC Bridge.

In computing, Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is a standard application programming interface (API) for accessing database management systems (DBMS). The designers of ODBC aimed to make it independent of database systems and operating systems. An application written using ODBC can be ported to other platforms, both on the client and server side, with few changes to the data access code.

Open Database Connectivity (známé spíš pod zkratkou ODBC) je standardizované softwarové API pro přístup k databázovým systémům (DBMS). Snahou ODBC je poskytovat přístup nezávislý na programovacím jazyku, operačním systému a databázovém systému.


Synopsis.

Setting.

The books seem to be set in an alternate, "timeless" world with stylistic similarities to both the 19th century and the 1930s, though with contemporary, and seemingly anachronistic scientific knowledge. For instance, in "The Hostile Hospital", the Baudelaire children send a message via Morse code on a telegraph, yet the general store they are in has fiber-optic cable for sale. An "advanced computer" appears in "The Austere Academy"; this computer's exact functions are never stated, as its only use in the book is to show a picture of Count Olaf. In a companion book to

Plot.

The series follows the adventures of three siblings called the Baudelaire orphans. Snicket explains that very few positive things happen to the children. Violet Baudelaire, the eldest, is fourteen when the series begins and is an inventor. Klaus Baudelaire, the middle child, is twelve when the series begins; he loves books and is an extraordinary speed reader with a first-class eidetic memory. Sunny Baudelaire is a baby in the beginning of the series, and enjoys biting things with her abnormally large teeth; she develops a love for cooking later in the series. All of the orphans have an allergy for peppermints stated in The Wide Window, Where Violet gets red and itchy skin, Klaus's tongue swells up, and both happen to Sunny.  The children are orphaned after their parents are killed in a fire at the family mansion. In "The Bad Beginning", they are sent to live with a distant relative named Count Olaf after briefly living with Mr. Poe, a banker in charge of the orphans' affairs. The siblings discover that Count Olaf intends to get his hands on the enormous Baudelaire fortune,

Origins.

The author of the series, Daniel Handler, has said in an interview with "The A.V. Club" that he decided to write a children's story when he was trying to find a publisher for his first novel, "The Basic Eight". One of the publishers, HarperCollins, passed on "The Basic Eight", but they were interested in him writing a story for children. Handler thought it was a terrible idea at first, but met with the publishers to discuss the book. They challenged him to write the

Genre.

This series is most commonly classified as children's fiction, but it has also been classified in more specific genres such as gothic fiction, or

Recurring themes and concepts.

The plots of the first seven books follow the same basic pattern: the Baudelaires go to a new guardian in a new location, where Count Olaf appears and attempts to steal their fortune. The books following pick up where the previous book ended. There are thirteen books in the series and each book has thirteen chapters. The last book in the series, "The End", contains two stories: "The End", which has 13 chapters, and a separate "book" that is titled "Chapter Fourteen".  The location of each book's events is usually identified in the book's title; the first twelve book titles are alliterative. In most books, the children's skills are used to help them defeat Count Olaf's plots; for instance, Violet invents a lockpick in "The Reptile Room". Occasionally, the children's roles switch (Klaus inventing and Violet reading in "The Miserable Mill") or other characters use their skills to assist the Baudelaires (e.g. Quigley's cartography skills help Violet and Klaus in "The Slippery Slope").

Narration style.

Lemony Snicket frequently explains words and phrases in incongruous detail. When describing a word the reader may not be aware of, he typically says "a word which here means...," sometimes with a humorous definition, or one that is relevant only to the events at hand (for example, he describes "adversity" as meaning "Count Olaf").  Despite the general absurdity of the books' storyline, Lemony Snicket continuously maintains that the story is true and that it is his "solemn duty" to record it. Snicket often goes off into humorous or satirical

Thematic approaches.

A theme that becomes more prevalent as the series continues is the simultaneous importance and worthlessness of secrets. In the final book, "The End", the concept is especially important, as demonstrated by a several-page-long discussion of the phrase "in the dark." The children hear of a massive schism within the organization of V.F.D., which was once noble but became filled with corruption and split into two sides, "volunteers" and "villains." While many of the critical plot points are given answers, Snicket explains that no story can be fully devoid of questions as every story is intertwined with numerous others and every character's history is shared in a great web of mysteries and unfortunate events that make up the world's legacy, making it impossible for anyone to know all the answers to every question. The Baudelaire children and Count Olaf's story is said to be merely a fragment of a much bigger story between numerous characters with the central connection being the organization of V.F.D.  Social commentary is a major element in the books, which often comment on the

Transtextuality.

There is a full page picture at the end of each book, showing a hint or clue about the content of the next book. This may be showing a flyer or piece of paper drifting by, though sometimes by a significant object: a snake appears at the end of "The Bad Beginning", referring to Montgomery's snake collection in the following book. The same picture is used at the start of the succeeding book. This practice continued at the end of "The End" which shows a boat sailing off into the sunset and at the start of "Chapter Fourteen". The picture at the end of "Chapter Fourteen" includes a shape of a question mark.  Following the picture is a letter to the editor, which explains to the editor how to get a manuscript of the next book. Snicket is writing from the location of the next book and

Allusions.

While the books are marketed primarily to children, they are written with adult readers in mind as well; the series features numerous references more likely to make sense to adults, such as allusions to Monty Python (the Baudelaire children's uncle Monty has a large snake collection, including a python, and a reference to the "Self Defence Against Fresh Fruit" sketch).  Many of the characters' names allude to other fictional works or real people with macabre connections; locations may also allude to fiction, or contain foreign or

Distribution.

Books.

The series includes thirteen novels as follows below:  There are books that accompany the series, such as "The Beatrice Letters", "", and "The Puzzling Puzzles"; journals "The Blank Book" and "The Notorious Notations"; and short materials such as "The Dismal Dinner" and "13 Shocking Secrets You'll Wish You Never Knew About Lemony Snicket". The books were at one point published at the

"All the Wrong Questions".

Lemony Snicket's "All the Wrong Questions" is a four-part young adult series focused on Snicket's childhood working for V.F.D. It is set in the same universe as "A Series of Unfortunate Events" and features several of the same characters and locations.

In other media.

Television.

Netflix, in association with Paramount Television, announced in November 2014 its plans to adapt the books into an original TV series with 25 total episodes spanning 3 seasons, with 2 episodes dedicated to each book, with the exception of the 13th book, The End. Author Daniel Handler serves as a writer and executive producer.  On September 4, 2015, it was announced that filmmaker Barry Sonnenfeld and "True Blood" showrunner Mark Hudis had agreed to helm the series. Hudis would serve as showrunner, Sonnenfeld as director, and both as executive producers. Daniel Handler is penning the scripts. On December 3, 2015, an open casting call was announced for the roles of Violet and Klaus Baudelaire, with the casting call confirming that

Film.

"Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" is a film adaptation of the first three titles in the series, mixing the various events and characters into one story. It was released on December 17, 2004. Directed by Brad Silberling, it stars Jim Carrey as Count Olaf, Meryl Streep as Aunt Josephine, Billy Connolly as Uncle Monty, Emily Browning as Violet, Liam Aiken as Klaus, Timothy Spall as Mr. Poe, and Jude Law as the voice of Lemony Snicket. The film was financially successful, but received criticism over its comical tone.  Considering the success of the movie, the

Video games.

"Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" is a video game based on the books and film (more so the film, as the name and many plot elements seen in the movie but not the book are seen) that was released in 2004 by Adrenium Games and Activision for PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, and PC. The player plays as all three orphans at points in the game, and encounters characters such as Mr. Poe, Uncle Monty and Aunt Josephine, along with villains such as Count Olaf, the Hook-Handed Man, the White-Faced Women, and the Bald Man. The game, like the movie, follows only the first three books in the series. Although never mentioned in the game there are some

Board games.

A board game based on the books was distributed by Mattel in 2004, prior to the movie. "The Perilous Parlor Game" is for 2–4 players, ages 8 and up. One player assumes

Card games.

"The Catastrophic Card Game" is the second game based on the books. In this card game, players are looking to complete sets of characters. There are 4 different sets: The

Audio.

Audio books.

Most of the series of unabridged audio books are read by British actor Tim Curry, though Handler as Lemony Snicket reads books 3 to 5. Of narrating the audio books, Handler has said: "It was very, very hard. It was unbelievably arduous. It was the worst kind of arduous." As such, future narrating duties were handed back to Curry, of whom Handler states: "he does

Album.

In October 2006, "The Tragic Treasury: Songs from A Series of Unfortunate Events" by The Gothic Archies was released. The album is a collection of thirteen songs written and performed by Stephin Merritt (of The Magnetic Fields), each one originally appearing on one of the corresponding thirteen audiobooks of the series. Two bonus songs are included.

Reception.

Reviews.

Reviews for "A Series of Unfortunate Events" have generally been positive, with reviewers saying that the series is enjoyable for children and adults alike, and that it brings fresh and adult themes to children's stories. The "Times Online" refer to the books as "a literary phenomenon", and discuss how the plight of the Baudelaire orphans helps children cope with

Criticism.

The series has come under criticism from some school districts for its dark themes. Criticisms include the suggested incest in Olaf's attempt to marry his distant cousin Violet in "The Bad Beginning" (though his motivation was not sexual but financial). Use of the words "damn" and "hell" in "The Reptile

Sales.

"A Series of Unfortunate Events" has been printed

Awards.

In addition to its strong reviews, "The Bad Beginning" won multiple literary awards, including the Colorado Children's Book Award, the Nevada Young Readers Award and the Nene Award. It was also a finalist for the Book Sense Book of the Year. Its sequels have continued this trend,

A Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of thirteen novels written by American author Daniel Handler under the pen name Lemony Snicket. Although they are classified "children's novels", the books often have a dark, mysterious feeling to them. The books follow the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire. After their parents' death in a fire, the children are placed in the custody of a murderous relative, Count Olaf, who attempts to steal their inheritance and, later, orchestrates numerous disasters with the help of his accomplices as the children attempt to flee. As the plot progresses, the Baudelaires gradually confront further mysteries surrounding their family and deep conspiracies involving a secret society known as V.F.D., with connections to Olaf, their parents, and many other relatives. The series is narrated by Lemony Snicket, who dedicates each of his works to his deceased love interest, Beatrice, and often attempts to dissuade the reader from reading the Baudelaires' story.

Řada nešťastných příhod je řada dětských knih, kterou napsal americký spisovatel Daniel Handler pod pseudonymem Lemony Snicket a ilustroval ji Brett Helquist.


Biography.

Early years.

Javier Pérez de Cuéllar was born on January 19, 1920 in Lima to a wealthy family of Spanish descent with ancestry from Cuéllar. He studied in Colegio San Agustín of Lima, and then at Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.

Diplomatic career.

Pérez de Cuéllar joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1940 and the diplomatic service in 1944, serving subsequently as Secretary at Peru's embassy in France, where he met and married his first wife in 1947, Yvette Roberts (1922–2013). He also held posts in the United Kingdom, Bolivia, and Brazil, and later served as ambassador to Switzerland, the Soviet Union, Poland, and Venezuela. From his first marriage, he has a son, Francisco, born in Paris, and a daughter, Águeda Cristina, born in London.  He was a junior member of the Peruvian delegation to the first session of the General Assembly, which convened in London in 1946, and a member of the delegations to the 25th through 30th sessions of the Assembly. In 1971, he was appointed permanent representative of Peru to the United Nations, and he led his country's delegation to all sessions of the Assembly from then until 1975.  In 1973 and 1974, he represented his country in the Security Council, serving as its President at the time of the events in Cyprus in July 1974. On September 18, 1975, he was appointed Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Cyprusa post he held until December 1977, when he rejoined the Peruvian Foreign Service. On October 29, 1975, in Cyprus, Mr. Pérez de Cuéllar married his second wife, the former Marcela Temple Seminario (August 14, 1933, – July 3, 2013) with whom he had no children.  On February 27, 1979, he was appointed as United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs. From April 1981, while still holding this post, he acted as the Secretary-General's Personal Representative on the situation relating to Afghanistan. In that capacity, he visited Pakistan and Afghanistan in April and August of that year in order to continue the negotiations initiated by the Secretary-General some months earlier.

United Nations Secretary-General.

On December 31, 1981, Pérez de Cuéllar succeeded Kurt Waldheim as Secretary-General and was re-elected for a second term in October 1986. During his two terms, he led mediations between Great Britain and Argentina in the aftermath of the Falklands War and promoted the efforts of the Contadora Group to bring peace and stability to Central America. He also interceded in the negotiations for the independence of Namibia, the conflict in Western Sahara between Morocco and the Polisario Front, the war between Croatian forces seeking independence and the Yugoslav People's Army as well as local Serb forces, and the Cyprus issue. In 1986 he presided over an international arbitration committee that ruled on the Rainbow Warrior incident between New Zealand and France. In 1983, he initiated the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in order to unite countries to pursue sustainable development.  Shortly before the end of his second term, he rejected an unofficial request by members of the Security Council to reconsider his earlier decision not to run for a third term, shortened to two years, as a search for his successor had not, as of then, yielded a consensus candidate. A suitable candidate, Boutros Boutros Ghali of Egypt, was agreed upon in late December 1991, and his second term as Secretary-General concluded, as scheduled, on December 31, 1991.

Later life and death.

On July 22, 2005, Pérez de Cuéllar suffered a heart attack and was admitted to a hospital in Paris; he was released on July 30. On June 19, 2017, with a lifespan of 35,581 days he surpassed Alfredo Solf y Muro (1872–1969) in terms of longevity and had the longest life of any Prime Minister in Peru's history.  Pérez de Cuéllar died in Lima on March 4, 2020, at age 100.

Javier Felipe Ricardo Pérez de Cuéllar y de la Guerra (; ; January 19, 1920 – March 4, 2020) was a Peruvian diplomat and politician who served as the fifth Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1, 1982 to December 31, 1991. He ran unsuccessfully against Alberto Fujimori for President of Peru in 1995 and following Fujimori's resignation over corruption charges, he was Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs from November 2000 until July 2001. In September 2004, he stepped down from his position as Peru's Ambassador to France, where he formerly resided. He was also a member of the Club de Madrid, a group of more than 100 former Presidents and Prime Ministers of democratic countries, which works to strengthen democracy worldwide. At the age of, at the time of his death in March 2020 Pérez de Cuéllar was both the oldest living former Peruvian prime minister and Secretary General of the United Nations.

Javier Pérez de Cuéllar Guerra (* 19. ledna 1920 Lima, Peru – 4.března 2020 Lima) byl peruánský diplomat, politik, spisovatel a pátý generální tajemník OSN. Je autorem řady prací z oboru mezinárodního práva.