Birth and early life.

Kunti was the biological daughter of Shurasena, a Yadava chief. Her birth name was "Pritha". Kunti was the sister of Vasudeva, the father of Krishna and shared a close relationship with Krishna. Her father gave Kunti to his childless cousin Kuntibhoja.  Once Rishi Durvasa visited Kuntibhoja. Being extremely pleased by the all comforts, patience, and devotion offered by Kunti, he offered her a mantra that would invoke any god of her choice and he would bless her with children.  Out of impetuous curiosity, Kunti invoked the god Surya. Bound by the power of the mantra, Surya begot a child on her, and restored her virginity. To her surprise, the child was born with his sacred armor on. Out of fear of the public, Kunti abandoned the child, who later became famous as Karna.

Marriage to Pandu.

Kuntibhoja organized Kunti's swayamvara. Kunti chose King Pandu of Hastinapur, making her the Queen of Hastinapur.  Soon after, during his mission to expand his empire, Pandu married Madri, a princess of Madra in order to secure the vassalage of Madra. Madri was of the view that Kunti was inferior by birth to her because Yadavas were cattle herders while she was a princess. Kunti was disturbed by her husband's act, but eventually reconciled with him.  Pandu, while hunting in a forest, mistakenly shot and killed Rishi Kindama and his wife as they had taken the form of deer to mate. The dying sage placed a curse on Pandu since he had not only killed them in the midst of lovemaking but was not remorseful for his action. King Pandu argued with sage Kindama by misquoting sage Agastya's ruling on the right of Kshatriyas on hunting. Sage Kindama then decided to curse him to die if he ever should become intimate with his wife. Pandu renounced the kingdom and went into exile with Kunti and Madri.  Pandu could not make love with his wives due to the curse by sage Kindama. A remorseful Pandu renounced the kingdom and went into exile with Kunti and Madri. He met some sages and asked them a way for the heaven and salvation. They said, without children, one can never aspire for heaven. When Pandu expressed to Kunti his despair at the prospect of dying childless, she mentioned the boon granted to her. He advised her to beget children by suitable, illustrious men. Thus, Kunti used the boon granted to her by Sage Durvasa (which she had used to bear Karna) to bear three sons—Yudhishthira by Dharma - god of Justice; Bhima by Vayu - god of wind, and Arjuna by Indra - the king of Svarga (Heaven). She also invoked Ashvins for Madri on her behest and Madri gave birth to twin sons, Nakula and Sahadeva.  One day, Pandu, forgetting his curse, attempted to make love with his wife Madri. But, as a result of Kindama's curse, he died. Madri committed sati as she was the cause of his death. Kunti was left helpless in the forest with her children.  After the death of Pandu and Madri, Kunti took care of all five Pandava children taking them back to Hastinapur. As the rivalry culminated between Pandavas and Kauravas, she decided to go back to Kunti Bhoja. But her attempt was stopped by Bhishma.

Return and game of dice.

The Pandavas and Kunti are invited back to the kingdom and the kingdom is shared with Kauravas. When the Pandavas lose the kingdom in a dice game and are forced to go into exile for thirteen years, Kunti is forced by King Dhritarashtra to remain in the capital thereby separating the sons from the mother. She chose to stay in Vidura's house rather than the royal palace.

Portrayal in the "Mahabharata".

In most tellings of the Mahabharata, Kunti is depicted as a mild mannered woman with high moral and social values. She constantly guides her sons on their actions and keeps the family bound as one, never to have them fight among each other. She is said to have a great amount of respect for her brother-in-law Dhritarashtra and Vidura and for Dhritarashtra's wife Gandhari. She is also said to have an affectionate relationship with her daughter-in-law Draupadi.  However, several versions of the Mahabharata depict her to be shrewd and calculative. Early in her life she rejects her son born out of wedlock (Karna) in societal fear, only to confess to him several years later, in solitude, that she birthed him. She tries to have him shift parties out of fear of losing her five sons. In exile with her husband Pandu, she shares her boon with his second wife Madri reluctantly and is always in fear of being out-shadowed. It is said that Kunti did not share the boon for a second time with Madri, in the fear that Madri's children would outnumber her own.

Kurukshetra war.

As war approached, Kunti met Karna and in desperation to keep her children alive, asked Karna to join the Pandavas. Karna denied the offer, as he could not betray his friend. However, he promised Kunti that he would not kill any of his brothers except Arjuna, thus following both Mitra dharma and Putra dharma. Kunti also asked Karna further promises, such as he should not use the same weapon twice against Arjuna, which were granted by Karna. In return, Karna requested his mother to keep their relationship a secret until the end of the war. He also promised that at the end of the war she would still have five sons, the fifth one be either Arjuna or Karna himself. Despite supporting her children, Kunti stayed in the Kaurava camp along with her sister-in-law Gandhari. After the war, Kunti disclosed the secret of Karna's birth to Pandavas and others.All were shocked to learn the fact they committed fratricide. The Pandavas were furious with Kunti, especially Yudhisthira, who cursed Kunti and women of the world that they shall be unable to keep any secret anymore. If Kunti hadn't kept it a secret, the war would've been averted and millions of lives would've been spared.

Death.

After the Kurukshetra war, Kunti moved to a forest near the Himalayas with her brothers-in-law Vidura and Dhritarashtra and sister-in-law Gandhari, where all four of them later perished in a forest fire, attaining heaven.

In television.

Various actresses portrayed the role in various films and TV serials.

In Mahabharata, Kunti (, ) or Pritha (, ) was the daughter of Shurasena, and the foster daughter of his cousin Kuntibhoja. She is the aunt of Krishna. She was married to King Pandu of Hastinapur and was the mother of Karna and the Pandavas Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna. She was the paternal aunt of Krishna, Balarama, and Subhadra. She was the foster mother of Nakula and Sahadeva. She was very beautiful and intelligent. She is often regarded as one of the protagonists of the Mahabharata.

Kunti ( f.) ist eine Figur der indischen Mythologie im Mahabharata und die Mutter der älteren drei sowie die Ziehmutter der beiden jüngeren Pandavas. Folglich ist Kunti eine zentrale Figur des Epos. Im Bhagavatapurana sind 26 Gebete enthalten, die Kunti an den Beschützer ihrer Familie Krishna richtet, weshalb sie besonders im vishnuistischen Hinduismus als Vorbild für die Praktizierung des Bhakti-Yoga gilt.


Gameplay.

"Wasteland 2" features a semi-overhead view with a rotatable camera. It is a turn-based and party-based role-playing game with tactical combat. The player's party has room for seven characters, including the four player-designed characters and up to three non-player characters (NPCs). The player characters are highly customizable and the player's choice of statistics, skills, and appearance gives them an individualized personality. The non-player characters in the party each have their own personality, motivations, opinions, and agendas.

Plot.

The game is set in an alternate history timeline, in which a nuclear war between the United States and Soviet Union took place in 1998 in relation to an impact event involving a cluster of meteors that sparked a global nuclear war. On the day of the cataclysm, a company of U.S. Army Engineers were in the desolate southwestern desert constructing bridges in an area with a number of small survivalist communities and a newly constructed federal death row prison with light industrial facilities. The soldiers sought shelter in the prison, expelled the inmates, and invited nearby survivalists to join them shortly thereafter. Years later, together they formed "the Desert Rangers, in the great tradition of the Texas and Arizona Rangers", to help other survivors in the desert and beyond it.  The game begins in 2102, fifteen years after the events of the original Wasteland, with the Rangers now occupying the former Guardian Citadel, which had formerly housed deranged technology-worshipping monks (the Guardians), but is now fully under Ranger control after the monks had been wiped out by the Rangers. The experienced ranger Ace is found dead by locals with signs of violence on his body. This greatly troubles General Vargas, the leader of the Desert Rangers. General Vargas, just a few days prior, sent Ace out to investigate a strange radio signal that speaks of "man and machine becoming one" while threatening to attack and wipe out the Desert Rangers. Controlling a squad of newly recruited rangers, the player is tasked with finding out who killed Ace and why they did it, and try to complete Ace's original mission.

Arizona.

The story starts at the funeral of Ace, one of the Desert Rangers featured in the original game. General Vargas, leader of the Rangers, sends the four player-created Rangers, a newly comprised Ranger team Echo-One, out to investigate Ace's murder; they also have the option of taking along Angela Deth, Ace's lover and a highly experienced Ranger. Their initial investigation requires them to go to a radio tower in the desert where Ace was attacked and killed. There they find the body of a "synth", or AI-equipped synthetic human, that attacked him, and later disturbances at the antenna will reveal a squad of murderous robots - albeit relatively low-tech ones without proper artificial intelligence.  General Vargas is disturbed to learn of the existence of the synth, recalling the artificial intelligence monsters (Finster, a deranged android, and Cochise, a malevolent AI) that he and his fellow Rangers fought years before in the original "Wasteland". He tells the recruits that they must take on Ace's original mission of installing repeater units in three radio towers in order to triangulate the location of a suspicious radio message. The first repeater is already installed; they must go to towers in Highpool (a community based around a local dam that provides the area with water) and the Ag Center (a science commune that grows genetically modified vegetables).  Things quickly get complicated as the Rangers are forced to choose between saving Highpool from raiders or the Ag Center from a lab experiment gone wrong; their choice wins them allies and acclaim from those they save, but means terrible losses for the other location (they can also fail to save both locations). The Rangers install the repeater unit in one of the two sites, and Vargas says that one last repeater needs to be installed in a town called Damonta, which is tucked away behind a wall of very high radiation and past a valley occupied by suicidal, nuke-worshipping monks.  The Rangers are able to find the mangled body of Hell Razor, another missing Ranger from Vargas' original team, in Rail Nomad's camp - he too was killed by the synths after trying to investigate them.  Ranger team Echo-One manage to find and make their way to Damonta, acquiring new allies, finding new communities and solving (or accidentally creating) crises along the way. There, instead of the bustling hub of activity they were expecting, they find Damonta torn apart by rampaging robots, with handfuls of survivors holed up in buildings. In the process of rescuing the survivors, the Rangers find a synth named Tinker installing a mechanical heart in a young girl. They kill it, and in doing so learn that it was working for another synth that plans to 'upgrade' humanity into robot bodies - whether they agree to the modifications or not.  With the repeater unit installed in Damonta, General Vargas traces the signal to Los Angeles, and sends out a helicopter with a team of crack Rangers, including Angela Deth. The player characters listen from the Ranger base as Angela and the team follow the signal to a military base, where they are attacked and their helicopter shot down. With the signal lost, Vargas sends the player's team to Los Angeles in the hope of finding out what happened.

Los Angeles.

On the way, the players are forced to navigate a storm and run out of fuel, crash-landing in a crumbling factory compound in Santa Fe Springs. With the help of Lt Woodson, who survived the previous attack, they secure the compound and turn it into a Ranger outpost. Their goals are fourfold: acquire enough zeolite and cat litter to upgrade their radiation suits, allowing them passage across all of Los Angeles; fit out more radio towers with repeaters to boost the signal back to Arizona and tell Vargas that they have survived; help out the locals with their problems to promote the Ranger name; and track down the source of the suspicious signal.  The Rangers discover that the area is occupied by a number of factions of varying degrees of hostility: there are the Mannerites, who enforce politeness with excessive violence; the Robbinsons, who believe in the triumph of the powerful over the weak; God's Militia, a group of murderously pious priests and nuns; the Children of the Citadel, a group who are encouraging people to upgrade their bodies with technological augmentations, much as Tinker did, and follow a figure named Matthias; and a band of murderous robots controlled by an AI named Dugan.  The Rangers deal with the various arguments and fights in the LA wasteland while trying to stop an unknown adversary that is trying to besmirch their good name by framing them for a series of massacres.  Ultimately the team manage to acquire the upgraded radiation suits and report back in with Vargas, who sends them on to Seal Beach, the base of the Children of the Citadel, where Angela's team crashed. There, they find the downed chopper but no sign of Angela or anyone else. Infiltrating the base - and doing battle with groups of partly upgraded cyborgs in the process - the Rangers encounter Dugan, who had previously seemed to be an enemy of Matthias. In fact, he is in league with Matthias, and was merely providing a further incentive for the citizens of Los Angeles to join the church and voluntarily allow themselves to be upgraded.  It turns out that Matthias and Dugan are two survivor Guardians from the Guardian Citadel, having fled to Los Angeles from Arizona. For the past fifteen years they have been raising an army of cyborgs and modified humans in California and plotting to destroy the Rangers in revenge for wiping out their former faction, the Guardians. In addition, Matthias and Dugan plan to revive the Base Cochise Boss AI at the current Ranger Citadel (hidden in the computers beneath it, having copied itself there after the Base Cochise destruction). The two former Guardians believe that uploading their minds to the AI will make them achieve technological transcendence and be present in every AI host in the world, making them 'gods' ruling the world with the Children of the Citadel and Dugan's army of AI bots. Matthias tells the Rangers that the dormant security defenses in the Ranger base are now active and turned against the Rangers and that their old friends will probably all be dead by now while Dugan prepares to finish the Echo-One team off personally.  After destroying several tons of deranged machines, including Dugan himself, the Rangers acquire a helicopter and immediately fly to the Ranger Citadel in a rescue attempt. The Citadel is on fire and swarming with dangerous robots, with scores of Rangers having been killed, including one of the original Ranger heroes Thrasher. With the aid of General Vargas and those members of the Arizona wasteland that they have helped, the Rangers kill their way down to a previously inaccessible AI core, and prepare to do battle with Matthias.  However, before the fight can begin, the Base Cochise Boss AI is revived and takes over the body of Matthias (actually erasing his mind completely), his synthetic bodyguard army, and any cyborg allies that the Rangers may have acquired during the course of the game. It turns out that the AI plans to directly and remotely control all cyborgs and machines in the wasteland, either converting humans into its drones or exterminating them all.  A massive fight ensues and the Rangers are able to destroy the Boss AI minions. The Rangers learn that the Cochise AI was actually the instigator of the nuclear war by provoking the Soviets into launching nuclear missiles resulting in a war that almost destroyed the entire world. With the spread of the AI to other computers worldwide imminent, the only way to kill it appears to be by completely destroying the Ranger Citadel with a crudely jury-rigged nuclear bomb prepared by a deceased Ranger demolitions expert. One of the Rangers or their surviving allies sacrifices themselves to give the others a chance to flee. As the escape chopper soars into the irradiated skies, the former Ranger Citadel is obliterated in a ball of nuclear fire. An epilogue sequence then explains how the Rangers' actions affected each of the communities they came into contact with, and what happened to some of their more prominent allies.

Development.

In 2003, inXile Entertainment, founded by "Wasteland"s producer and co-designer, Brian Fargo, acquired the rights to "Wasteland" from Konami, which held it in relation to the "Yu-Gi-Oh!" franchise and had let the rights lapse. In June 2007, Fargo stated: "I am indeed looking into bringing back the game that spawned the "Fallout" series. Stay tuned..." In November 2007, "Fallout" fan website Duck and Cover reported on possible concept art images from "Wasteland 2" displayed in the main header of the inXile Entertainment website.  On February 16, 2012, inXile announced their plans to have a crowd funded production of a new "Wasteland" game, inspired by Double Fine's recent success of using Kickstarter to fund "Double Fine Adventure"; it was one of a number of games to be funded in the video game crowdfunding boom that followed the success of "Double Fine Adventure". Project director Brian Fargo has reassembled key team members from the original "Wasteland": Alan Pavlish, Michael A. Stackpole, Ken St. Andre and Liz Danforth, as well as the early "Fallout" games' designer Jason Anderson (Anderson, however, left the company in December 2010). The composer Mark Morgan, who created the soundtracks for "Fallout" and "Fallout 2", was also hired to compose music for the game.  On March 13, 2012, the Kickstarter page for the production of "Wasteland 2" went live. A minimum budget of $1,000,000 was set for the project, but Fargo agreed to cover up to $100,000 if need be, should the project fall short, and the campaign's goal was set at $900,000, the largest target for any Kickstarter project at that point. Within 24 hours, the contributions totaled nearly $600,000, and the original goal was reached in under 43 hours. The "tremendous" success of the campaign made ranked number four on the "Complex" list of the biggest video game wins and fails on Kickstarter in 2012. Much of the money raised for "Wasteland 2" came from first-time backers of "Double Fine Adventure". On March 30, it was announced that, should the funded amount reach $2.1 million or more, the game's development would include Chris Avellone. The "Wasteland 2" Kickstarter ended on the April 17, raising a total of $2,933,252, with an additional $107,152 in PayPal pledges. On April 24, it was confirmed that Obsidian developers would be working on the project.  Brian Fargo originally stated that the team aimed to ship "Wasteland 2" around October 2013, and on July 10, 2012 it was announced that the original "Wasteland" would be bundled with it. There are no plans to support any consoles or handheld devices. In August 2012, "" writer/designer Colin McComb joined the development team as a writer. Nathan Long signed up as a co-writer two months later. The first trailer for "Wasteland 2" was released on February 9, 2013, showcasing some of the story, art and gameplay, with an audio commentary from the producer Chris Keenan.  Fargo announced in July 2013 that the game was being delayed. The producer stated an intent to begin beta testing a "feature complete" version of the game at that time, with a final release date to be determined during the beta.

Release.

On December 13, 2013, "Wasteland 2" became available as an early access beta on the Steam store. In May 2014, inXile announced that the release date would be at the end of August 2014. The game was subsequently delayed to September 2014, so as to be able to fulfill physical reward and game disk requirements. In August 2014, it was announced that the game will be released on September 19, 2014.  The standard edition contains a free copy of "Wasteland 1 - The Original Classic", the game soundtrack and the game manual. A "Digital Deluxe Edition" was released on video game distribution services and contained a free copy of "The Bard's Tale" and three digital novellas set in the universe of the game. In addition, Deep Silver released a limited "Ranger Edition" available in Europe that included a collector's box, soundtrack, game manual, collector cards, a printed map of the game world, a download code for "Wasteland 1 - The Original Classic", and a double sided poster.

"Director's Cut".

In February 2015, the developers announced that the game would be receiving a visual upgrade with the game engine being moved to Unity 5 from Unity 4.5, as well as new gameplay features and modding tools.  On March 3, 2015, at the Game Developers Conference Microsoft announced that "Wasteland 2" was in development for Xbox One. The following day, "Wasteland 2" was announced for PlayStation 4. The console version was to be a port of the enhanced PC version of the game, then described as "Wasteland 2: Game of the Year Edition". In April 2015, the developers said that it would run at 1080p resolution on both consoles. The enhanced version would be available for free to all Kickstarter backers and anyone who bought the original game.  In June 2015, "Wasteland 2: Game of the Year Edition" was renamed to "Wasteland 2: Director's Cut" and a trailer showcasing the enhanced version was released on June 23, 2015.  The Director's Cut was released digitally on October 13th, 2015, with retail editions released on the same day in North America and other territories on October 16.  In February 2017, inXile partnered with IndieBox, a monthly subscription box service, to release a physical version of "Wasteland 2: Director's Cut". This limited collector’s edition included a DRM-free game disc, the official soundtrack, an instruction manual, Steam key, and various custom-designed collectible items.  Besides the visual upgrade, the Director's Cut edition featured many other improvements and additions: expanded voice-overs (with over 8,000 new lines of pre-recorded dialogue), new perks and quirks, a "Precision Strike" system allowing the player to target individual body parts to cripple or stun enemies or shatter their armour, redesigned encounters, a redesigned user interface, and controller support.

Reception.

"Wasteland 2" received generally positive reviews from critics. The game holds an aggregate score of 80.70% on GameRankings based on 32 reviews and a score of 81/100 on Metacritic based on 54 reviews. The game generated a revenue of $1.5 million in its first 4 days of release, and sold roughly 350,000 copies by May 2015. In September 2016, Fargo stated that inXile had earned $12 million from sales of the game.  Leif Johnson of IGN praised its story writing and branching storyline impacted by the player's choices. Daniel Starkey of GameSpot lauded its environmental graphics and tactical gameplay. Alasdair Duncan of Destructoid wrote it "delivers exactly what was expected". Richard Cobbett of Eurogamer stated "it's very clearly made with love to be true to the original game while still learning from the games that followed." Daniel Tack of "Game Informer" called it a "triumphant heir" to the original game and praising its re-playability and audio quality. Earnest Cavalli of Joystiq criticized the game for being buggy. Cory Banks of "PC Gamer" praised its combat and writing. It was later given the Game of the Year award for 2014 by "PC World".

Wasteland 2 is a post-apocalyptic role-playing video game developed by inXile Entertainment and published by Deep Silver. It is the sequel to 1988's "Wasteland", and was successfully crowdfunded through Kickstarter. After the postponement of the original release date from October 2013, it was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux in September 2014. An enhanced version of the game, named Wasteland 2: Director's Cut, was released in October 2015, including versions for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

Wasteland 2 ist ein postapokalyptisches Rollenspiel von Brian Fargo und InXile Entertainment aus dem Jahr 2014. Es ist der Nachfolger des 1988 erschienenen "Wasteland". Die Grafikdarstellung erfolgt aus einer isometrischen Perspektive und die Kämpfe verlaufen rundenbasiert.


Schedule.

After the race was bailed out by Spanish bank Banco Sabadell on 5 March, race organisers announced the itinerary ten days later.

Participating teams.

As the Tour of the Basque Country was a UCI World Tour event, all 18 UCI ProTeams were invited automatically and obligated to send a squad. Two other squads were given wildcard places into the race, and as such, formed the event's 20-team peloton.  The 20 teams that competed in the race were:

Stages.

Stage 1.

Two riders –'s Davide Mucelli and David de la Fuente of – advanced clear of the main field at the mark of the stage, as they reached the race's first categorised climb, the third-category "Alto Humaran"; they managed to extend their advantage to a maximum of over five minutes at one point during the early running of the stage. and came to the front of the peloton towards the midpoint of the stage; making their move on the "Alto del Suceso", another categorised climb with de la Fuente taking the maximum points on offer. Mucelli and de la Fuente's advantage had dropped to around two-and-a-half minutes, before spanning back out to the four-minute mark with remaining.

Stage 2.

Heavy rain greeted the riders at the start of the stage, with an early climb of the third-category "Alto de San Cosme" coming after just of the parcours. It was on the descent from the climb that the primary breakaway of the stage began to form; Jérôme Pineau of went clear with's Thibaut Pinot and rider Mads Christensen. The trio were later joined by another pair of riders – representing the wildcard teams in the race, and – as Gabriele Bosisio and Julián Sánchez both ventured off the front of the peloton, eventually catching up with the breakaway after. Of the five members of the breakaway, only two – Pinot and Pineau – had finished in the same time as stage one winner,'s José Joaquín Rojas.  As such, were driving the pace on the front of the main pack, in order to keep within a suitable distance of the five leaders; the gap at that point was around the seven-minute mark. Pinot continued to close in on David de la Fuente () and the mountains classification lead, as he claimed maximum points on offer at the "Alto de La Barrerilla" and the "Alto de Zaldiaran"., and all placed riders towards the front of the peloton, to help close the gap between the leaders and themselves. The gap had been cut to just over five minutes by the time the race reached the next categorised climb, the "Alto de Vitoria", with Pinot again leading the breakaway across the summit. More teams sent riders forward to help with the work to bring back the leaders, taking back four minutes from the next ; the lead quintet held an advantage of just 1' 22" at the summit of the "Alto de San Martin".  Alas, the breakaway was not to succeed; with remaining of the stage, and on the second climb of the "Alto de Zaldiaran" – the final climb of the stage – the peloton brought back the lead quintet, allowing more riders to try an attacking move in the closing stages, on the run-in to Vitoria-Gasteiz. With leading the main pack, another five-man move tried to get clear on the climb itself, including one of the team's riders, Wesley Sulzberger. Also part of the move were Pinot's team-mate Anthony Roux,'s Alexsandr Dyachenko, rider Eduard Vorganov and Dominik Nerz of. Nerz then attacked his companions, but all five were caught before the summit of the climb., and all had riders towards the front of the pack, many expecting a bunch sprint for the stage honours. As it transpired, an opportune move by Daryl Impey at the "flamme rouge" proved fruitful, and he managed to stay clear of the ever-closing pack to take his first victory for, and the team's seventh of the year. Team-mate Allan Davis, like Impey, crossed the line arms aloft in second place ahead of's Davide Appollonio and Rojas, who maintained his overall lead.

Stage 3.

The race's queen stage consisted of seven categorised climbs over the parcours, including two first-category climbs; the "Alto de Ixua" and also the climb of the "Alto de Usartza", a climb with gradient in places at over 11%, cresting out with remaining of the stage. The Usartza featured for the third successive year; Samuel Sánchez () was the rider in which most observers deemed to be the favourite for the stage, as he had won each of the previous two finishes to be held in Eibar. Mini-attacks set the course for the stage as the field remained as one, for much of the first half-hour of racing; it was not until after that the stage's primary breakaway had been formed.  Five riders went clear; two of whom had previously been in the breakaway in the race, Davide Mucelli of and's Mads Christensen. The pair were joined by's Jussi Veikkanen, rider José Herrada and Antonio Piedra of, eventually gaining an overall advantage of five-and-a-half minutes over the peloton. By this time, the lead quintet had split into two; Herrada and Christensen had accelerated away from their companions and were later joined by Veikkanen, who had been dropped in the initial move along with Piedra and Mucelli. Christensen led over the next two categorised climbs, before Herrada accelerated his pace and attacked off the front on the first of the first-category climb of "Alto de Ixua".

Stage 4.

Mini-attacks were again key to the first hour of racing on the fourth stage; with cool and damp conditions again for the riders, it was almost a carbon-copy to what had occurred on the previous stage. Evgeni Petrov was the most active rider in that first hour; after an earlier unsuccessful attempt to get clear on the first of the stage's five categorised climbs – the "Alto de Itziar" – at the mark, Petrov did manage to clip clear of the peloton almost later to initiate the breakaway move. Over the next few kilometres, Petrov was joined by four other riders; Maciej Paterski () moved forward first at, with's Ángel Madrazo, Diego Ulissi of, and rider Marcos García joining Petrov and Paterski later. were keeping their riders towards the front of the field in support of their team captain, and the overall race leader Samuel Sánchez; in effect, stopping the breakaway from getting too far clear on the stage, and were less than two minutes behind at the second climb of the day, the "Alto de Aritxulegi".  Wesley Sulzberger made his third attack of the race from the break for, and was joined by team-mate Simon Clarke as they looked to bridge up to the breakaway; the pair caught García on the descent, after he had been dropped by his four companions. With the climb of the "Alto de Agiña" coming several kilometres later on the parcours, fresher legs for Sulzberger and Clarke told as they brought themselves, and Garciá, up to the breakaway and reforming the move as a seven-man group. Four riders attacked on the descent, although only one – Patxi Vila () – was there for a move to catch the breakaway as's Giampaolo Caruso and pair Igor Antón and Gorka Verdugo were there to protect their respective team leaders Joaquim Rodríguez and Sánchez. Vila caught the breakaway on the first ascent of the finishing climb, sans the steep finish reserved for the second and finishing ascent, while two other riders attacked on the "Alto de Ibardin"; Volta a Catalunya winner Michael Albasini () and's Nicki Sørensen had crossed the summit marginally ahead of the peloton, before catching the lead octet with to go.  With several fresher riders in the breakaway, the move started to fracture in the terrain and by the time the move reached the "Alto de Ibardin" for the second and final time with to go, only five riders remained in the move: Albasini, Clarke, Paterski, Petrov and Sørensen. Clarke and Paterski were dropped on the climb itself as looked to establish themselves on the front of the pack along with, looking to position Tony Martin in a prime position to attack late on. Albasini was caught with to go, and a lead group of some 25 riders was established for the closing stages. Maxime Monfort and Fränk Schleck looked to set the pace for their team-mate Chris Horner, while Simon Špilak looked to do so for Rodríguez.'s Wout Poels and's Sergio Henao both looked to go clear in the final kilometre, but Rodríguez prevailed comfortably in the closing stages – an 18% gradient in some places – to win by nine seconds, taking the overall lead from Sánchez, who was second ahead of Henao and's Robert Kišerlovski.

Stage 5.

Again, rain made conditions slightly treacherous on the stage itself, and may have contributed to the fact that there were no successful attacks by the breakaway until near the midpoint of the day's running, after almost two hours of racing. At around, an initial four-rider move went clear, consisting of rider Benoît Vaugrenard,'s Diego Ulissi, Kevin De Weert of and got a rider into the break once again – as they had done on every stage to that point – with Hernâni Brôco representing the team this time around. Not long later, twelve other riders from nine more teams brought reinforcement to the lead quartet and soon accelerated their pace to get a gap over the main field.  The sixteen had been over five minutes clear at one point, but the bunch closed the gap quickly after that; it was 3' 15" at the summit of the stage's third climb, the "Alto de Elosua". The breakaway's advantage continued to diminish and not long after the next categorised climb, the "Alto de Descarga" where Ulissi had led them across the summit, the move was thwarted as the peloton caught them. A counter-attack of nine riders immediately acted, including Robert Kišerlovski () who commenced the stage in fourth place in the general classification, trailing overnight leader Joaquim Rodríguez of by just 24 seconds. This move could not gain sufficient ground off the front of the field; after the move had begun, their gap over the main field was just 25 seconds, with the pace being set by Rodríguez's team-mates.  With Kišerlovski being in a prime position overall, he then attacked off the front of the breakaway in order to preserve his position in the rankings. The pace split the remaining breakaway riders apart; rider Marco Pinotti,'s Adriano Malori and Jesús Hernández of chased after Kišerlovski, while the remaining five leaders surrendered back to the peloton. Kišerlovski held a 35-second lead over the main field with to go but was struggling on the uncategorised "Garagaltza" climb – a climb with an average gradient of 11% – when Rodríguez and Samuel Sánchez () attacked from the bunch. The top two overall caught Kišerlovski, and tried to distance themselves from him in the closing metres. Rodríguez launched his sprint first and just held off Sánchez at the line to keep his lead at nine seconds going into the time trial. Kišerlovski finished two seconds behind in third, but moved into third place overall. Chris Horner () gave up 21 seconds to Kišerlovski, and 23 to Rodríguez and Sánchez, dropping to tenth overall.

Stage 6.

As was expected, the battle for the race victory came down to the final stage of the race; a technical individual time trial around Oñati. On the parcours were three steep climbs, made tougher due to the continued unsettled weather conditions in the Basque country; damp roads greeted the riders, and the stage favourite Tony Martin – the world time trial champion – riding for the team crashed during a reconnaissance overview of the course. As was customary of time trial stages, cyclists set off in reverse order from where they were ranked in the general classification at the end of the previous stage. Thus, Travis Meyer of, who, in 122nd place, trailed overall leader Joaquim Rodríguez () by one hour, three minutes and forty-four seconds, was the first rider to set off on the final stage. Meyer recorded a time of 29' 12" for the course; a time that was ultimately good enough for him to place inside the top ten of the stage classification.  Meyer held the lead for around twenty minutes until Stef Clement assumed the lead for ; the Dutch national champion had trailed his rival by three seconds at the midway intermediate point – at – but put in a stronger second half of the course to overhaul the time of Meyer, recording a time of 29' 10". Clement, who had been 102nd overnight, managed to hold his stage lead well into the top 40 riders; Moreno Moser got closest to his time to that point, coming within six seconds, but eventually settled for a ninth-place finish on the stage for. Clement's time was eventually beaten by's Marco Pinotti, wearing the green jersey as the sprints classification leader. Pinotti, a five-time Italian champion in the discipline, recorded a similar time to Clement at the intermediate point but went quicker in the second half to end up seven seconds ahead at the finish, in a time of 29' 03".  Martin then beat that time later, becoming the first rider to break 29 minutes for the course; in a time of 28' 55", later stating that the time trial was "dangerous" in places. Bauke Mollema, a team-mate of Clement, then put in one of the strongest time trials of his career to beat Martin's time by a solitary second, having received extra guidance in his time-trialling abilities over the off-season. Mollema's performance eventually lifted him onto the podium in the general classification, after gaining sufficient time over eight riders that had been ahead of him prior to the stage. It came down to the top two overall for the race honours: Samuel Sánchez () and Rodríguez. Sánchez's greater proficiency in the discipline compared to Rodríguez proved vital; although he trailed Mollema at the intermediate sprint, Sánchez repeated the feat of many other riders as a strong second half of the course gave him the stage victory, six seconds quicker than Mollema. Rodríguez also put in a strong performance, finishing 21 seconds slower than Sánchez, giving the latter victory by nine seconds overall; despite this, Rodríguez was pleased with his stage effort.

Classification leadership table.

In the 2012 Tour of the Basque Country, four different jerseys were awarded. For the general classification, calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage, the leader received a yellow jersey. This classification was considered the most important of the 2012 Tour of the Basque Country, and the winner of the classification was considered the winner of the race.  Additionally, there was a points classification, which awarded a white jersey. In the points classification, cyclists received points for finishing in the top 15 in a stage. For winning a stage, a rider earned 25 points, second place earned 20 points, third 16, fourth 14, fifth 12, sixth 10, and one point fewer per place down to a single point for 15th. There was also a mountains classification, the leadership of which was marked by a blue jersey. In the mountains classification, points were won by reaching the top of a climb before other cyclists, with more points available for the higher-categorised climbs.  The fourth jersey represented the sprints classification, marked by a green jersey. In the sprints classification, cyclists received points for finishing in the top 3 at intermediate sprint points during each stage, with the exception of the final individual time trial stage. There was also a classification for teams, in which the times of the best three cyclists per team on each stage were added together; the leading team at the end of the race was the team with the lowest total time.

The 2012 Tour of the Basque Country was the 52nd running of the Tour of the Basque Country cycling stage race. It started on 2 April in Güeñes and ended on 7 April in Oñati, and consisted of six stages, including a race-concluding individual time trial. It was the ninth race of the 2012 UCI World Tour season.

Die 52. Baskenland-Rundfahrt (offiziell: "Vuelta al País Vasco") fand vom 2. bis 7. April 2012 statt. Das Radsport-Etappenrennen ist Teil der UCI WorldTour 2012 und wurde in sechs Etappen ausgetragen. Die Gesamtdistanz betrug 855,6 Kilometer. Mit seinem Sieg beim abschließenden Zeitfahren gewann der Spanier Samuel Sánchez, der das Trikot des Gesamtführenden schon für einen Tag auf der vierten Etappe getragen hatte, auch die Rundfahrt. Joaquim Rodríguez und Bauke Mollema vervollständigten das Podium.


Early life and career.

Wallace was born on 15 May 1970 in Farnborough, Kent. He attended the independent school, Millfield in Somerset. After school, Wallace became a ski instructor with the Austrian National Ski School in the village of Alpbach in Austria.  Wallace attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, before he was commissioned in 1991 into the Scots Guards. From 1991 to 1998, he served in Germany, Cyprus, Belize, and Northern Ireland, rising to the rank of Captain. During his time in Northern Ireland, he was mentioned in dispatches in 1992 for an incident in which the patrol he was commanding captured an entire IRA active service unit attempting to carry out a bomb attack against British troops.

Political career.

Scottish Parliament.

After leaving the Army, Wallace decided to enter politics in part because of the experience he had commanding men from some of the UK's most economically deprived areas which he believed could be improved by promoting a more aspirational society. Wallace became a Conservative Member of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, as a list MSP for North East Scotland. He stood down in 2003, as he sought selection for a Westminster constituency in England. Wallace was the Scottish Conservatives' shadow health spokesman during that time.  From 2003 to 2005 he was overseas director of the aerospace company QinetiQ, the UK's former Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA).

Member of UK Parliament.

Wallace was elected as MP for the Lancaster and Wyre constituency in the 2005 general election. He won 22,266 votes with a majority of 4,171 (8.0%). The seat had previously been held by the Labour Party's Hilton Dawson. The constituency was abolished in 2010 and in the 2010 general election he was elected as MP in the new seat of Wyre and Preston North with 26,877 votes and a majority of 15,844 (30.9%). Wallace was re-elected at the 2015, 2017 and 2019 general elections.  From 2005 to 2010 Wallace was a member of the Scottish Affairs Select Committee. From 2006 to 2010 Wallace was the Shadow Minister of State for Scotland. He was Chairman of the British–Iran Parliamentary Group from 2006 to 2014. On 13 November 2008, Wallace was awarded Campaigner of the Year in the "Spectator"/Threadneedle Parliamentarian awards, for his work promoting transparency of MPs expenses.  Wallace faced criticism locally after it was revealed he had the fourth highest expenses claim of any MP in the UK in 2008, claiming £175,523 on top of his £63,000 salary. However, he defended the costs by arguing that the constituency has an electorate that is nearly 20% larger than the average one in England.

Junior ministerial roles.

Following his re-election to Parliament in 2010, Wallace was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the then-Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor, and later Minister without Portfolio in the Cabinet Office, Ken Clarke MP. On 4 September 2012, Wallace turned down a position as a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury during the cabinet reshuffle to remain Clarke's PPS. He voted against the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013, which legalised same-sex marriage in England and Wales.  In July 2014, as Clarke returned to the back benches, Wallace was again offered a job in Government as a whip. This time he accepted. In May 2015 he was promoted to Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Northern Ireland Office.  In January 2016, the Labour Party unsuccessfully proposed an amendment in Parliament that would have required private landlords to make their homes "fit for human habitation". According to Parliament's register of interests, Wallace was one of 72 Conservative MPs who voted against the amendment who personally derived an income from renting out property. The Conservative Government stated that they believed homes should be fit for human habitation but did not want to pass the new law that would explicitly require it.  After the EU referendum, the new Prime Minister, Theresa May, promoted him to Minister of State for Security in the Home Office. In December 2017 the Ministerial portfolio was extended to include Economic Crime. He was the Security Minister during the terror attacks of 2017 and the Salisbury attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal. Wallace was appointed to the Privy Council for his role in coordinating the government response to the 2017 Westminster attack.  Wallace supported the UK remaining within the European Union (EU) prior to the 2016 referendum. He voted for then Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal agreement in early 2019, and voted against any referendum on a Brexit withdrawal agreement.  In February 2018, Wallace was criticised by political opponents for promoting unfounded smears on the leader of the Labour Party. "The Sun" newspaper had alleged that during the 1980s Jeremy Corbyn had colluded with a Communist spy. In response to the allegations, a spokesman for Corbyn stated that any suggestion that the Labour leader had been an agent, asset or informer was "an entirely false and a ridiculous smear". Amidst these allegations, Wallace was criticised for tweeting: "'Jeremy has been interested in foreign policy issues his entire political career' [sic] - Labour MP Louise Haigh, BBC Daily Politics - yup so was Kim Philby". Wallace later defended his tweet, and said he "wasn't comparing, just saying that being interested in foreign policy isn't an answer to the allegations being made". Wallace told Sky News: "It was a light-hearted dig at Louise Haigh's excuse that Corbyn was interested in foreign affairs... I was simply saying Kim Philby was also interested in foreign affairs".

Secretary of State for Defence.

On 24 July 2019 Wallace was appointed Secretary of State for Defence by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, succeeding Penny Mordaunt. In August 2019, he was overheard discussing Prime Minister Johnson's controversial prorogation with Florence Parly, the French Minister of Armies. Wallace suggested that the reason for the prorogation of parliament for five weeks was to prevent MPs from blocking the government's Brexit plans rather than the government's official position that it was to introduce new legislative agenda. The government responded to his comments by stating that he had "misspoken". This prorogation was later deemed unlawful by the Supreme Court on 24 September.  On 13 October 2019, Wallace defended Turkey's offensive against the Syrian Democratic Forces in north-eastern Syria in a NATO meeting. He commented, "Turkey needs to do what it sometimes has to do to defend itself". His comments were condemned by other delegates at the meeting.  On 12 January 2020, in an interview with "The Sunday Times", Wallace said that the UK "must be prepared to fight wars without the US", one of the UK's key allies. He stated that the upcoming Defence Review "should be used to make the UK less dependent on the US in future conflicts". His comments were made in response to US President Donald Trump's America First isolationist policies. Wallace also said that the next Defence Review would be the 'deepest review' of Britain's defence and foreign policies since the end of the Cold War in 1991.

Personal life.

He married Liza Cooke in 2001 and they have three children. His wife worked as a part-time parliamentary assistant in his office until 30 April 2019. They met when she was a researcher in the Scottish Parliament and Wallace was a MSP.  Wallace resides near Lancaster and in London.

Robert Ben Lobban Wallace (born 15 May 1970) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Defence since 24 July 2019. He previously was the UK’s longest-serving Minister of State for Security and Economic Crime from 2016 to 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wyre and Preston North in Lancashire since the 2010 United Kingdom general election. Wallace was first elected as the MP for Lancaster and Wyre in the 2005 United Kingdom general election, having previously served as a captain in the Scots Guards regiment of the British Army, and as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for North East Scotland.

Robert Ben Lobban Wallace (* 15. Mai 1970) ist ein britischer Politiker und Mitglied der Conservative Party. Seit dem 24. Juli 2019 ist er britischer Verteidigungsminister im Kabinett Boris Johnson.


Development and production.

CTV's parent company, Bell Media, ordered six episodes of the series in August 2011. Shooting and production of the series began in the summer of 2011, with both Toronto and Los Angeles as primary locations.  Several hours prior to the series premiere, Bell Media announced that "The L.A. Complex" had been picked up by The CW to air in the United States later in the spring.  On March 22, 2012, Bell Media ordered a further 13 episodes to be produced for the first season.  The CW picked up the second season of the show for the network's summer schedule, to begin airing on Tuesday, July 17, 2012. Later, starting on August 27, 2012, the series moved to Mondays 8/7c as a lead-in for repeats of the new season of "America's Next Top Model".

Episodes.

Season 2.

Production on the second and final season was scheduled to begin in mid-April and will be shown in Canada beginning in July 2012. The 13-episode second and final season was simulcast by The CW. Alan Thicke joined the cast as Donald Gallagher, a hot-headed actor-director-producer. Also guest-starring is Louis Ferreira as Beth and Simon's father Dean Pirelli.

Critical reception.

The series received mostly positive reviews from critics. Metacritic which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 from reviews of mainstream critics, gives the series a score of 70 based on 12 reviews, indicating generally favorable reviews.  Rob Owen of "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" gave the show a positive review stating "For the type of show it sets out to be, this Complex is surprisingly, well, complex." Alan Sepinwall of Hitfix also gave the show a positive review, describing the show as "It's a primetime soap, but one that's genuinely more interested in what the characters want to do for a living than in who they're sleeping with."  The TVLine team said of "The L.A. Complex", "It's like everything you'd want from a CW soap, and it delivers," and that it contains "TV's most interesting, unexpected romance."  "Entertainment Weekly" gave the show an A- and declared that it was "summer's hidden gem", saying that it was "unexpectedly smart", and that the bad decisions of the characters made it "far more interesting, relatable, and likable than the glambots we normally see".  However, Tom Gliatto of "People Weekly" gave the show a negative review, describing the show as a "blah drama about kids living in an LA apartment complex while hustling for big breaks."

Ratings.

However, after its initial airing in the United States, the series received the lowest-ever ratings for a broadcast drama series premiere, despite its generally favorable reviews.

Home media.

On August 13, 2015, Echo Bridge Entertainment released "The L.A. Complex – The Complete Series" on DVD in Region 1.

Reboot.

On October 3, 2018, it was announced that a reboot of the series was in the works at The CW with original creator Martin Gero and writer Brendan Gall set to executive produce. The "sequel" project, hailing from Gero's production company Quinn's House in association with Warner Bros. Television, is based on the original series, but will follow "a new crop of tenants who move into the Luxe hotel in the heart of Hollywood — a ragtag commune of twentysomethings all hustling to make it as actors, dancers, producers or comedians. Relationships rise and fall, beliefs and values are tested, as the drive to succeed pushes all characters to their breaking points." On February 8, 2019, The CW passed on picking up the script to pilot, reportedly due to a "numbers game" between Warner Bros. Television and The CW's other production studio CBS Television Studios, but decided to keep the project in the works for the following development cycle.

The L.A. Complex (originally Highland Gardens) is a Canadian drama television series which premiered on CTV on January 10, 2012, subsequently airing on MuchMusic. It also began airing in the United States on April 24, 2012 on The CW. The series stars Cassie Steele as Abby Vargas, an aspiring actress who moves to Los Angeles with nothing but her Maple Leafs hockey bag and dreams of being a famous actress. As described in CTV publicity materials, "The L.A. Complex follows the lives of twenty year olds living in the same apartment complex in L.A. trying to make it as actors, dancers, producers and comedians. Relationships begin and end, the need to succeed is tested and all characters are pushed to their breaking points."

The L.A. Complex (urspr.: "Highland Gardens") ist eine kanadische Fernsehserie, die seit 2012 für den Sender MuchMusic produziert wurde. Im März 2012 gab der Sender die Produktion von weiteren 13 Episoden bekannt. Im Dezember 2012 gab der Sender die Absetzung der Serie bekannt.


Dartington Hall estate.

The Dartington Hall Trust is based on an historic estate near Dartington in south Devon. It was held by the Martin family between the early 12th and mid 14th centuries but on the death of William Martin in 1326, the feudal barony of Dartington escheated to the crown and in 1384 was granted by King Richard II to his half brother John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter (c.1352-1400), created in 1388 Earl of Huntingdon and in 1397 Duke of Exeter.  The 1st Duke built the mediaeval hall between 1388 and his death in 1400 and the sculpted arms of Richard II survive on ribbed vault of the Porch. The 1st Duke was beheaded by King Henry IV who had deposed Richard II, however Dartington continued as the seat of his son John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter (1395-1447) and grandson Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter (1430-1475) successively. On the death of the 3rd Duke in 1475 without issue, supposedly drowned at sea on the orders of King Edward IV, Dartington again escheated to the crown. In 1559 it was acquired by Sir Arthur Champernowne, Vice-Admiral of the West under Elizabeth I, whose descendants in a direct male line lived in the Hall for 366 years until 1925.  The hall was mostly derelict by the time it was bought in 1925 by the British-American millionaire couple Leonard Elmhirst (orig. from Yorkshire) and his wife Dorothy (née Whitney) from New York. They commissioned architect William Weir to renovate the buildings and restored the Great Hall's hammerbeam roof. Inspired by a long association with Rabindranath Tagore's Shantiniketan, where Tagore was trying to introduce progressive education and rural reconstruction into a tribal community, they set out on a similar goal for the depressed agricultural economy in rural England.  In 1928, Elmirst began collaborating with Alice Blinn, who worked for Delineator Home Institute and magazine of the same name, to create a home economics training center and design a system to modernize domestic activities of the village. Blinn prepared a report giving an overview of initiatives including education, apprenticeship programs, a laboratory, as well as a modern kitchen, cafeteria, laundry, and lavatories, with modern equipment and plumbing, based on what was available in a modern American home. Unable to persuade her to move from the United States to England and operate a training center, Elmhirst abandoned the plan of a demonstration kitchen. Blinn's recommended kitchen equipment was installed, but arranged in a typical English fashion, because the wife of the headmaster, did not like the efficient kitchen design. In 1935, the Dartington Hall Trust, a registered charity, was set up in order to run the estate.  The estate comprises various schools, colleges and charitable and commercial organisations, including Schumacher College, the Arts at Dartington, the Dartington International Summer School of music, Research in Practice, Dartington School for Social Entrepreneurs and the Shops at Dartington (formerly the Cider Press Centre). In North Devon, the Beaford Centre, set up as an arts centre by the Trust in the 1960s to bring employment and culture to a rurally depressed area, continues to thrive. Until June 2010, prior to the college's contentious merger with University College Falmouth, the estate was also home to Dartington College of Arts.  The Hall and mediaeval courtyard functions in part as a conference centre and wedding venue and provides bed and breakfast accommodation for people attending courses and for casual visitors. The Barn Cinema and the White Hart Bar and Restaurant are used by estate dwellers, residents from the surrounding countryside, and visitors alike.  High Cross House was built in 1932 as a home for the headmaster of Dartington Hall school, by art patrons Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst. It was designed by Swiss-American architect William Lescaze and is now regarded as an important modernist building. It is a Grade II* listed building.  In May 2010, Sotheby's sold a group of 12 paintings by Rabindranath Tagore, which had been given by Tagore to his friend Leonard Elmhirst. In Autumn 2011, The Trust proposed the sale of additional artworks by Ben Nicholson, Christopher Wood, Alfred Wallis and others, again at Sotheby's. The sale generated some criticism from local people, who voiced concerns about deaccessioning of the Trust's art assets. The Trust argued that the founders went to considerable lengths to make clear that art works and other assets could and should be used and sold at the discretion of the Trustees to support the activities of the Trust.

Dartington International Summer School.

Dartington International Summer School is a department of The Dartington Hall Trust. The Summer School is both a festival and a music school. Participants, both amateur musicians and advanced students, spend the daytime studying a variety of different musical courses, and the evenings attending (or performing in) concerts. In addition to instrumental and vocal masterclasses, there are courses at various levels on subjects such as composition, opera, chamber music, conducting and improvisation. Courses include choirs, orchestras, individual masterclasses, and non classical music such as Jazz, Salsa and Gamelan. Composition teachers have included Luciano Berio, Luigi Nono, Bruno Maderna, Harrison Birtwistle, Peter Maxwell Davies, Brian Ferneyhough, Witold Lutosławski and Elliott Carter.

Dartington Gardens.

The gardens were created by Dorothy Elmhirst with the involvement of major landscape designers Beatrix Farrand and Percy Cane and feature a tiltyard (thought actually to be the remains of an Elizabethan water garden) and major sculptures, including examples by Henry Moore, Willi Soukop and Peter Randall-Page. There is an ancient yew tree ("Taxus baccata") reputed to be nearly 2000 years old and rumour has it that Knights Templar are buried in the graveyard there, although there is no evidence to substantiate this.

Former activities.

Dartington Hall School.

Dartington Hall School, founded in 1926, offered a progressive coeducational boarding life. When it started there was a minimum of formal classroom activity and the children learned by involvement in estate activities. It was to have “no corporal punishment, indeed no punishment at all; no prefects; no uniforms; no Officers’ Training Corps; no segregation of the sexes; no compulsory games, compulsory religion or compulsory anything else, no more Latin, no more Greek; no competition; no jingoism.”  With time more academic rigour was imposed, but it remained progressive and had mixed success educating the children, sometimes the more wayward ones, of the fee-paying parents. A noted alumnus was Lord Young, a founder of "Which?" and the Open University. Lucian Freud attended the school for two years and his brother Clement Freud was also a pupil there. Other noted alumni include Oliver Postgate, Martin Bernal, Max Fordham, Ivan Moffat, Eva Ibbotson, Matthew Huxley, Richard Leacock, Lionel Grigson, songwriter Kit Hain and the sculptor Sokari Douglas Camp.  W. B. Curry was headmaster of the school from 1931 to 1957, and wrote two books about it, "The School", published by The Bodley Head in 1934, and "Education for Sanity", published by Heinemann in 1947.  The author Dennis Wheatley novelised the activities of some people based at the school in his 1947 book "The Haunting of Toby Jugg". This was a supernatural thriller which sensationalised some real-life events before the war, setting them at a fictional school called "Weylands". Years later, it was revealed that these events had attracted the attention of MI5 in a declassified report called "The Case Against Dartington Hall".  At its peak, the school had some 300 pupils. However, with the advent of state-based progressive education, the death of its founders, and the appointment of a new headmaster in whose time the school attracted considerable negative publicity - not least owing to his calling the police to the school to combat alcohol and drug abuse taking place, the death by drowning of a student, and his wife's modelling for pornographic photographs - the school suffered a dramatic drop in recruitment. The school was forced to close in 1987. After the school's closure, a number of staff and students set up Sands School which still carries some of the principles that Dartington once had.  It has been suggested that the school 'Knotshead' in the novel A Private Place by Amanda Craig was based upon Dartington Hall school, as the events in the book are similar to those that occurred within the final years of Dartington Hall.  Literary editor Miriam Gross wrote an account of her time at the school for the May 2011 edition of "Standpoint" magazine.

Dartington College of Arts.

Dartington College of Arts was a specialist arts institution based at the hall from 1961 to 2010, with an international reputation for excellence, focusing mainly on the performance arts. In 2008, it became part of University College Falmouth and subsequently relocated to Falmouth, Cornwall.

Dartington Hall in Dartington, near Totnes, Devon, England, is a country estate that is the headquarters of the Dartington Hall Trust, a charity specialising in the arts, social justice and sustainability. The estate dates from medieval times.

Dartington Hall ist ein Herrenhaus bei Totnes in der Grafschaft Devon in Großbritannien. Das als Kulturdenkmal der Kategorie Grade I klassifizierte Herrenhaus wurde bekannt als Standort der Dartington Hall School.


Biography.

Patricia Ramírez, was born on February 6, 1980 in the "Barrio Urca" neighbourhood of Córdoba, Argentina, where she spent her childhood and adolescence. Much of her early life was spent at her parents' deli where she played with her sisters and pretended to build houses with Coca-Cola crates. This resulted in her nickname "Coki".  Coki Ramírez's family is of German origin. She is the daughter of Juan Ramírez and Ana Ter Hart. She has two twin sisters called Gabriela and María Fernánda. Her family members attest that from an early age she demonstrated an undeniable passion for music. Throughout her teen years Coki was the star of all her family gatherings, where she received a great deal of support from her loved ones on account of her musical abilities. After high school she chose to pursue a musical career while also studying to become a dental prosthetist.

Musical and Television career.

His first experiences as a singer were in Córdoba ballrooms where he played songs in English. Coki was determined to succeed and decided to try his luck in the neighboring Chile. With a career that lasted surprisingly, Coki Ramírez was called early by Chilean singer Alberto Plaza to accompany him on a tour of Latin America as part of its chorus section. So, ironically, he managed to succeed in a foreign musical before triumphing in his.  However, Plaza was not the only international singer who Coki Ramírez made stage appearances with, she also collaborated with Ricardo Montaner, Julio Iglesias, Noel Schajris, Aleks Syntek, Valeria Lynch, Los Nocheros, Fito Paez and many more.  In 2007, he released his first album, called "Presente", where artists such songs.  The true rise to fame of Patricia "Coki" Ramírez took place on the night of August 3, 2010 when she was invited by the boxer Fabio Moli to the television show Bailando por un Sueño (Argentina), led by Marcelo Tinelli. She would become that weeks leading participant in the show.  In the following months the young singer appeared on almost every television medium in Argentina. As a result of her new-found fame, she was chosen as a replacement for Sabrina Rojas and Lola Ponce in Bailando por un Sueño (Argentina) 2010.  In 2011 she again participated in Bailando por un Sueño (Argentina) where she was one of the revelations and incredibly made it to the semifinals, losing in the telephone vote to Hernan Piquín and Noelia Pompa.  In February, the first guest was famous for singing in the new reality of Ideas del Sur, "Soñando por Cantar", despite the problems that occurred in the satellite channel signal, El Trece could present live television his CD can.  In May, he participated in the third chapter of concubines in the character of "Coka", a neighbor of Peter «Peter» Alfonso, who comes from José Mármol, Buenos Aires.  In 2012 she released her second album titled "Se Puede", in which she collaborated with various Argentine artists. The purchase of each CD benefits the «Acercar» association, which offers aid to children with various disabilities.  In July, Coki Ramírez gave an intimate concert in Buenos Aires, during which he recorded two video clips that will be featured in Argentina and other countries.  In November, Coki participated in the successful novel Dulce amor (telenovela), where he will play a former girlfriend of Stubborn, called "Cati".The character played by Hernán Estevanez (Sebastián Estevanez cousin), who owns the bar in the series.  In December, the new video premiere of Coki «Tu ya no estás» in "Quiero música en mi idioma".

Model.

Before graduating from dental prosthetist worked as a model and paraded in Chile and other countries. In 2008, he designed his own sportswear brand called "351".  In 2011, while in Showmatch, participated as a model in some Claudio Cosano parades, designer clothing, such as «Cuidá tu Corazón» opening "BAAM 2011". After was in "Moda Show de Mar del Plata". He also participated in a fashion show, called "El Desfile del Show".  In 2012 marched again in "Moda Show de Mar del Plata", which was attended by Mirtha Legrand. Also paraded alongside Nicole Neumann in "BAAM 2012". In July posed for a photo campaign for a brand of shoes production "Green and Black" for the summer campaign 2013. In August 2012 participated in the parade "Santiago Fashion Look" which ended with a musical show. In 2013, while in the play "Los Grimaldi", she established herself as «La Chica del Verano» with 49.19% of the votes, a total of 509,171 people who chose to Coki.

Patricia Silvana Ramírez Ter Hart (; born in Córdoba (Argentina) on February 6, 1980), best known as Coki Ramírez, is a singer, model and actress from Argentina.

Patricia Ramirez Silvana Ter Hart, besser bekannt als Coki Ramírez (* 6. Februar 1980 in Córdoba) ist eine argentinische Sängerin, Model, Schauspielerin, Tänzerin und TV-Moderatorin.


Career.

During the 1980s Serafini worked as an architect and designer in Milan. His objects were often defined by a metalanguage aptitude, like the chairs "Santa" and "Suspiral" or the lamps and the glass for Artemide. He has created scenery, lighting and costumes for the ballet "The Jazz Calendar" by Frederick Ashton at Teatro Alla Scala and also worked for the Piccolo Teatro di Milano. He has created set designs acronyms/logos for RAI, and worked with Federico Fellini on "La voce della luna". He has a laboratory of ceramics in Umbria, and exhibits his work regularly, especially in the Netherlands. He has been a visiting artist at the Banff Centre, and has exhibited at the Fondazione Mudima di Milano, the XIII Quadriennale, the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna (National Gallery of Modern Art) in Rome, Futurarium in Chicago, and Didael Gallery in Milan.In 2003 he made a polychrome bronze sculpture, "Carpe Diem", and other bas-reliefs for the Materdei subway station in Naples. In July 2008, he completed a polychrome installation "Balançoires sans Frontières" (Altalene senza Frontiere) in Castasegna, Switzerland.  In May 2007, he held an "ontological exhibition", "Luna Pac", at PAC in Milan. His work has been profiled in many Italian media and art publications,

Codex Seraphinianus.

The Codex Seraphinianus was originally released in a limited edition of 5000 copies in 1981. It has been reprinted on five occasions, first in a 1983 English language edition; then in Spanish and French in the 1990s, again in a limited number of 5000 copies each; and finally in more widely printed editions in 2006 and 2013. In 2013, Serafini also released a deluxe, signed and numbered limited edition of 600 copies. (300 in English and 300 in Italian)  Roland Barthes was interested in the Codex. In 1984 Italo Calvino wrote an essay on it, which can be found in "Collezione di sabbia" ("Sand Collection") by Mondadori. The French choreographer Philippe Decouflé was inspired by it. Douglas Hofstadter wrote about it at length.  In a talk at the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles held on 11 May 2009, Serafini stated that there is no meaning hidden behind the script of the "Codex", which is asemic; that his own experience in writing it was closely similar to automatic writing; and that what he wanted his alphabet to convey to the reader is the sensation that children feel in front of books they cannot yet understand, although they see that their writing does make sense for grown-ups.

Other works.

In 1984 Serafini illustrated "Pulcinellopedia (piccola)", under the pseudonym P. Cetrulo (published by Longanesi), with a suite of pencil drawings about the Neapolitan masque of Pulcinella. It was reprinted in 2016.  The catalogue from Serafini's Italian retrospective, "Luna-Pac: Serafini", remains the only comprehensive publication of his oil paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, and landscape art.  Serafini has also illustrated books, including an edition of Franz Kafka's story "In the Penal Colony" and a 1988 book entitled "Etimologiario" by Maria Sebregondi in the style similar to the "Pulcinellopedia". In 2009 Serafini illustrated "Le Storie Naturali", a reinterpretation of "Les Histoires Naturelles" (Nature Stories) by Jules Renard, published by Rizzoli in a signed, limited edition of 600. This book features numerous pockets containing leaves of fantastic plants printed on heavy paper stock and die-cut to leaf shape.  Other unpublished works and illustrations are reported to exist, but aside from the occasional exhibit of art (from clay figurines to plastic and polychrome sculpture to furniture and small installations), they are not available or publicly catalogued. Serafini started working on his own website, luigiserafini.com, in the mid-2000s but since 2009 it only shows a blank page.

Luigi Serafini (born 4 August 1949 in Rome) is an Italian artist and designer based in Milan. He is best known for creating the "Codex Seraphinianus", an illustrated encyclopedia of imaginary things in what was believed to be a constructed language. This work was published in 1981 by Franco Maria Ricci.

Luigi Serafini (* 4. August 1949 in Rom) ist ein italienischer Künstler, Architekt, Illustrator und Designer. Sein bekanntestes Werk ist der Codex Seraphinianus, eine illustrierte Enzyklopädie imaginärer Dinge, die in einer bisher nicht entzifferten künstlichen Sprache mit ebenso künstlichen Buchstaben, verfasst ist. Der Codex wurde erstmals 1981 von dem Mailänder Verleger Franco Maria Ricci publiziert.


Plot.

In 1970s Tokyo, Saya is a 400-year-old half human-half vampire who hunts vampires. Raised by a man named Kato, she works loosely with an organisation known as "The Council", a secret society that has been hunting vampires for centuries. Saya's motivation goes beyond duty; she wants revenge; Onigen, the oldest of the vampires, murdered her father. For her next mission, she goes undercover as a student at Kanto High School on an American air base near Fussa.  When she is introduced in her class, Saya's appearance quickly attracts the negative attention of a female classmate, Sharon. The daughter of the base's general, Alice McKee, is also bothered with the attention. At her school, she finds herself being mocked. Alice is asked by her Kendo instructor Powell to stay for the Kendo practice due to her poor performance. As soon as the teacher leaves, she finds herself at the mercy of Sharon and her sidekick friend who wield sharp bladed katanas to taunt and torment her. Saya shows up just in time to stop Sharon from slashing Alice's throat. Despite Saya's effort to disguise her activity, Alice sees Sharon and her friend being butchered. However it is soon revealed that Sharon and her friend are vampires in disguise.  Because "The Council" cleans up the bodies of the demons, Alice's father does not believe her story. Determined to make her own investigation, Alice goes to the bar where her Kendo instructor usually hangs out. To her horror her instructor, as well as the rest of the people in the bar, turn out to be vampires. Once again Saya comes to her rescue and has to fight off hordes of vampires surrounding them.  General McKee investigates "The Council", who disguise themselves as CIA. Alice arrives just in time to witness her father's death. Her dying father gives her Saya's address. With nowhere else to go, Alice decides to seek Saya's help. Fortunately Saya has never sworn loyalty to "The Council" and protects Alice instead. The two of them flee the area and go off to the mountains to find and slay Onigen.  In their pursuit, Alice and Saya are run off the side of the road by an attacking demon and they fall into a ravine. When Alice and Saya awaken they are in Ancient Japan where Saya was raised. Onigen appears, reveals her true identity as Saya's mother, and fights Saya. Saya slays Onigen. Alice, who is injured during the fighting, wakes up to find herself at the wreckage of the truck and being carried into an ambulance. Later she is interviewed about the events surrounding her father's death, but her interviewer does not believe her story about the vampires or the Council. When asked about where Saya is, Alice answers that she is "searching for a way back from the other side of the looking glass".

Production.

In May 2006, Bill Kong announced that he was producing a live-action film adaptation of "Blood: The Last Vampire," directed by Ronny Yu. Like the source anime, it would be primarily filmed in English rather than Japanese. Kong and Yu originally planned to finance the project themselves, but in November 2006, Production I.G officially consented to the film and began offering financial support. Rather than being paid a straight license, Production I.G will receive a percentage of all revenues generated by the film. Through ties to Manga Entertainment, the French company Pathé became the film's co-production company, joining the Hong Kong-based Edko. Yu was retained as its producer, but Chris Nahon took over as the film's director.  South Korean actress Jun Ji-hyun, who adopted the English screen name Gianna Jun for the release, plays the role of Saya.  In early announcements, it was stated that the film would be set in 1948 at a United States Army camp in Tokyo, shortly after the conclusion of World War II during the American occupation of Japan. During production, the film was shifted to be set in the 1970s instead (the original setting for the anime).

Release.

Originally slated to be released worldwide in spring 2008, the film premiered in Japan on 29 May 2009, and was released in the United Kingdom on 26 June 2009. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group licensed the film for release in North America, where it was released to theatres by Samuel Goldwyn Films on 10 July 2009.

Box office.

The film grossed US$473,992 in Japan, and had a worldwide gross of US$5,731,143. On the opening weekend of its limited release to twenty theatres in the United States, the film grossed $103,000.

Reception.

Cathy Rose A. Garcia of "The Korea Times" regarded Jun as being "probably the only bright spot in this film", criticising the "convoluted plot... cheesy special effects and overacting from the supporting cast". She dismissed much of the film's violence as "gratuitous" and noted that although the stunts were "impressive" they also lacked originality, while the climactic showdown showed an absence of "any real excitement".  The film received negative reviews from American critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 25%, based on 53 reviews, with an average rating of 3.73/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Based on a classic anime series, "Blood: The Last Vampire" is a tedious, shoddily acted, amateurish picture that loses all charm in the transition to live-action." Metacritic gave the film a score of 28 out of 100 based on 13 critical reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".  "Variety"s Peter Debruge was critical of editor Marco Cave for "reducing all but one of the fight scenes into a flurry of cuts", and described the CG effects as "herky-jerky". Commenting on the direction, he said, "Nahon privileges surface appeal and kinetic energy over narrative logic, and finesses the footage with an unpleasant yellow tinge that gives everything a vintage chopsocky feel". Felix Vasquez, Jr. of "Cinema Crazed" praised the film as "blockbuster material", finding the film's special effects to be "top notch" and Nahon's direction as "often times beautiful as he convinces us successfully that we're watching a vampire period piece". Conversely, he felt the film lacked a real story, focusing mostly on sword-fights, and that the character of Alice was "dead weight" and a token character added to avoid the film being completely Asian.  "The Hollywood Reporter"s Maggie Lee praised Jun's performance as Saya, feeling that she "displays ample aptitude for being an action heroine, doing most of her own tendon-twisting martial arts stunts and looking utterly fetching in a sailor suit that could turn any guy into a uniform-fetishist". However, she felt the direction and screenplay lacked "freshness" and "nuance", the special effects and choreography "cool" but unimpressive, and the ending predictable. Roger Ebert rated the film three out of four stars, stating that it was "surprisingly entertaining" and a "CGI fantasy". He found the plot to be "inconsequential" to the action sequences. While he felt that Gianna was "never really convincing as a martial artist", he praised her for her "sympathetic performance" which he felt held the film together. As a whole, he found the movie to be "sincere as an entertainment" that "looks good" and is "atmospheric", and notes that he will be watching for Gianna in future films.

Blood: The Last Vampire, released in Japan as, is a 2009 action horror film directed by Chris Nahon, produced by Ronny Yu, and starring Jun Ji-Hyun, Allison Miller, Liam Cunningham, Masiela Lusha, and Koyuki.

Blood – The Last Vampire, in Japan Last Blood (; "Rasuto Buraddo"), ist ein Horrorfilm aus dem Jahr 2009. Es ist eine Neuverfilmung des gleichnamigen Anime-Films aus dem Jahr 2000. Der Film feierte seine Premiere am 29. Mai 2009 in Japan.


Description.

Autoroute du Souvenir.

Montérégie.

The A-20 begins at the Ontario-Quebec border near Rivière-Beaudette as the continuation of Ontario Highway 401. The westernmost section of the A-20 was named the Autoroute du Souvenir ("Remembrance Highway") in 2007 to honour Canadian veterans. Road marker signs on this stretch of the autoroute feature a poppy (a traditional symbol of Remembrance in Canada).  At km 29, the A-20 crosses A-30 (former A-540) before becoming an urban boulevard for approximately eight kilometers (km 30 to 38) in Vaudreuil-Dorion and L'Île-Perrot. This stretch of highway takes the A-20 across the Ottawa River. The speed limit is 50 km/h (30 mph) in Vaudreuil-Dorion and 70 km/h (45 mph) in L'Île-Perrot. The A-20 once again becomes a limited-access highway at km 38, just before crossing the Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue Canal onto the Island of Montreal.

Montreal Region.

The A-20 then traverses the West Island (in French, "l'Ouest de l'Île") along the north shore of Lac Saint-Louis to an interchange with the A-520. Commonly called the Dorval Interchange, this exit is the main access to Montreal's Trudeau International Airport. Further east, the A-20 crosses the A-13 at its southern terminus, and then, at the St. Pierre Interchange, Route 138 west towards the Mercier Bridge.  Just west of downtown Montreal, the A-20, A-15, and A-720 meet at the Turcot Interchange. From this interchange, A-15 continues north to Laval while A-20 east is multiplexed with A-15 south on the approach to the Samuel-de-Champlain Bridge. Traffic bound for the city centre continues as the A-720 (Autoroute Ville-Marie).

South Shore.

Multiplexed with the A-10 and A-15, all three autoroutes cross the Saint Lawrence River via the Samuel-de-Champlain Bridge to the South Shore (in French, "Rive Sud"). The multiplex splits south of the bridge. The A-20 parallels the south shore of the river through suburban Longueuil. The junction with the A-25 affords a direct connection to the Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine Bridge-Tunnel and Montreal's East End. The Trans-Canada Highway joins the A-20 at this junction.

Autoroute Jean-Lesage.

The largest section of the A-20 (from its junction with A-25 to its easternmost terminus) is named after Jean Lesage, who served as Premier of Quebec from 1960 to 1966, during the Quiet Revolution. Autoroute Jean-Lesage currently exists as two discontinuous sections separated by about 55 kilometers:

Main section.

Centre-du-Québec.

From the junction with A-25, the A-20 travels east, away from the St. Lawrence River. At kilometer 98, the A-20 intersects the A-30 near Mont Saint-Bruno, crossing the Richelieu River (km 112) just north of Mont-Saint-Hilaire. Bypassing Saint-Hyacinthe, the A-20 forms a multiplex with Route 116 for six kilometers between exits 141 and 147. This section of the A-20 in Centre-du-Québec is located the furthest from the St. Lawrence River (approximately 45 kilometers). Between Drummondville and Sainte-Eulalie, the A-20 forms a multiplex with A-55 for 37 kilometers.

Quebec City Region.

The A-20 continues across the St. Lawrence Lowlands and Quebec's agricultural heartland. The autoroute once again parallels the river as it approaches metropolitan Quebec City. From this point eastward, the A-20 is never more than five kilometers from the river. At km 312, the A-20 crosses the A-73, a north-south link between Saint-Georges and Quebec City via the Pierre Laporte Bridge. While the control city on the A-20 is listed as "Québec", the autoroute never enters the city proper. Before departing the region the A-20 bypasses suburban Lévis.

Chaudière-Appalaches and Bas-Saint-Laurent.

This section of the A-20 offers the motorist splendid views over the St. Lawrence River and the mountains of the Côte-Nord, especially Mont-Sainte-Anne and Le Massif. As it continues eastward, the A-20 passes the regional centres of Montmagny and La Pocatière before approaching Rivière-du-Loup and the junction with A-85 at km 499. The Trans-Canada Highway departs the A-20 at this interchange and travels southeast on A-85 toward Edmundston, New Brunswick and the Maritime Provinces. The eastern end of the main section of the A-20 is located in Trois-Pistoles, approximately 40 kilometres east of Rivière-du-Loup.

Rimouski section.

The second section of Autoroute Jean-Lesage (km 597 to km 641) connects Rimouski to Mont-Joli. It begins at a junction with Route 132 in the village of Le Bic, approximately 55 km from the current terminus of the A-20 main section. Like its larger counterpart, the Rimouski section of the A-20 parallels the St. Lawrence, providing a southern bypass of Rimouski before ending (at another junction with Route 132) at the western approach to Mont-Joli.  This section of the A-20 is currently a single carriageway with occasional passing lanes. It was built to accommodate an eventual expansion to four lanes and most overpasses include the clearance needed to accommodate the additional lanes. The high accident rate along this section of the A-20 have prompted many politicians to call for the highway to be expanded to two lanes in each direction.  An electric fence has been installed on both sides of the highway between km 621 and 628 to prevent moose from crossing the road, while at km 624 an underpass has been constructed to allow wildlife to pass under the highway safely.

Future.

Transports Québec (MTQ) is currently engaged in several projects designed to connect the two segments of the A-20 as well as replace outdated sections.

Greater Montréal.

The MTQ plans to rebuild A-20 (currently an urban boulevard) through Vaudreuil-Dorion and Île-Perrot as a limited-access highway. There is no timeline for this project presently.  In Montréal, the MTQ has a major work project underway that has shifted the autoroute north between Route 138 and the Turcot Interchange. This new roadway will be complete by the middle of 2020.

Bas-Saint-Laurent.

Long-range plans by the MTQ call for the two sections of the A-20 to meet. A 9.8 km section of single carriageway was opened to traffic on December 3, 2011 between Cacouna and L'Isle-Verte. As part of this project, a few kilometers of the highway near Cacouna was moved 1.5 km to the south and the old roadbed was destroyed. The MTQ timeline for completing the highway to Trois-Pistoles was met; it opened to traffic in November 2015. Overpasses were constructed for the St-Paul, St-Éloi and Drapeau roads.  Regarding the section from Trois-Pistoles to Le Bic, the Quebec government has completed environmental and economic reviews of the impact of linking the two sections of Autoroute 20, but it has not committed the funds necessary for construction. Frustrated by the long delay in linking the two sections of the A-20, in 2013, the Mayor of Rimouski proposed paying for the construction by tolling the autoroute.  Citing predictions for an increase in ferry traffic to and from the Côte-Nord as a result of the Government of Quebec's Plan Nord, in 2011 the Mayor of Matane called for the further extension of the A-20 to his city.

Popular culture.

Autoroute 20 serves as the backdrop to the popular 2002 Quebec film "Québec-Montréal" by Ricardo Trogi about seven twenty-something travellers driving between the two cities.  The Quebec French expression "à l'autre bout de la 20" (in English, "at the other end of the 20") refers to Montreal when the speaker is in Quebec City, and to Quebec City when one is in Montreal.

Other names.

Older Anglophone Montrealers sometimes still refer to the section of the A-20 west of the city as Highway 2-20 (or "The Two and Twenty"), but the Route 2 designation was dropped in the mid 1970s.

Rest stops.

The rest stops are located at the following points on Highway 20 and contain the following services:

Gallery.

A-20 Eastbound A-20 Westbound

Autoroute 20 is a Quebec Autoroute, following the Saint Lawrence River through one of the more densely populated parts of Canada, with its central section forming the main route of the Trans-Canada Highway from the A-25 interchange to the A-85 interchange. At, it is the longest Autoroute in Quebec. It is one of two main links between Montreal and Quebec City; the other is the A-40.

Die Autoroute 20 in der ostkanadischen Provinz Québec gehört zum Trans-Canada Highway-System. Sie ist die Fortführung des Ontario Highway 401 und verläuft bis Montréal nördlich des Sankt-Lorenz-Stroms und ab Montreal entlang des südlichen Ufers. Die Strecke ist in zwei Segmente unterteilt, nordwestlich der Hauptstrecke befindet sich ein weiteres Segment, das langfristig an die Hauptstrecke angeschlossen werden soll. Beide Segmente haben eine Gesamtlänge von 547 km.


Race report.

The old Nürburgring was considered to be the most challenging and demanding purpose-built circuit in the world. Measuring at 14.2 miles (22.8 km), it was by far the longest circuit on the calendar and because it was built in the Eifel mountains it had over 1,000 feet (300 m) of elevation change. Although it had been slightly remodeled in 1971, it still retained much of the character that led three-time world champion Jackie Stewart to nickname it "The Green Hell". The circuit's extraordinary size meant that it needed at least five times the number of marshals and medical support as almost any other Grand Prix to properly maintain it, something the German organizers were unable to provide. Additionally, by its very nature it was impossible to upgrade it to the increased safety standards of the 1970s. It was narrow, had very few run-off areas, and numerous sections were nearly inaccessible to fire marshals. It was also very bumpy—indeed, at a number of points, including the Flugplatz and Pflanzgarten, the cars could actually become airborne. The sheer size of the circuit also meant that weather and track conditions around it could vary wildly with some sections dry and others wet, making a safe choice of tyres difficult or impossible. Two weeks previously, a fatal crash at Flugplatz had occurred during practice for a Formula Super-Vee race which, according to "Autosport", was the 131st fatality at the Nürburgring over its 49-year history. It was also unsuitable for television; its sheer size made it all but impossible to adequately cover a race there. For these reasons, it had been decided even before the 1976 race that after nearly half a century, it would be the last German Grand Prix held on the old Nürburgring and the last on the Nordschleife section.  Defending world champion Niki Lauda, who was also the current season's points leader, was not impressed with safety conditions on the leviathan German circuit, especially since the forecast called for rain. He attempted to arrange a boycott of the race, but the other drivers voted against it by just one vote, and the race went ahead.  The race weekend began with some changes to the drivers' lineup: Jacky Ickx was fired from the Walter Wolf Racing team and was replaced by Arturo Merzario, and a new team was present, Scuderia Rondini, which bought an old Tyrrell 007 for Alessandro Pesenti-Rossi. RAM was going to run Rolf Stommelen in one of its ex-works Brabham BT44s, but in the middle of the practice session, the local police impounded the cars (because of a legal action by former driver Loris Kessel), and as a result, Stommelen transferred to the works Brabham team to drive a spare Alfa-Romeo-powered BT45.  In 1975, Lauda had been the first and only driver to break the seven-minute mark. Fans were looking forward to whether he or others could repeat this after the technical rules had been changed, with the disappearance of the high air boxes being the most visible difference.  Due to wet conditions on Saturday, the grid was already determined in Friday qualifying, with 7:06-plus lap times similar to those of 1972. James Hunt took the pole with Niki Lauda second, while Patrick Depailler lined up third in the six-wheeled Tyrrell P34. Hans-Joachim Stuck was fourth in his March ahead of Clay Regazzoni, Jacques Laffite, Carlos Pace, Jody Scheckter, Jochen Mass, and Carlos Reutemann.

Race.

The weather turned to wet before the race, so most drivers started the race on wet tyres, except Jochen Mass, who, having lots of experience at the Nürburgring and expecting a change for better weather, decided to use dry weather tyres. At the start, Regazzoni took the lead while both Hunt and Lauda fell back. Hunt took second, third was a fast-starting Mass, fourth was Laffite who took advantage from the fact that Stuck's car had been pushed off the grid with a clutch problem (although the German started at the back of the field). In the course of the first lap, Regazzoni spun and dropped to fourth. At the end of the lap, the weather changed back to dry and most drivers pitted for dry tyres, leaving Mass with the second place behind Peterson, who decided to go on wet tyres for another lap. At the end of lap two, Mass was in front, with Gunnar Nilsson (who had not stopped) in second place and Hunt third.  Lauda had also changed his tyres after lap one and was trying hard to make up for the lost time. Just after the fast left kink before the Bergwerk right hand curve, his Ferrari 312T2 snapped to the right and spun through the fencing into an earth bank. The car bounced back onto the track, enveloped in flames. Guy Edwards managed to avoid the Ferrari, but Harald Ertl and Brett Lunger both hit it. All three drivers stopped and tried to get Lauda out of the flames and they were joined by Merzario, who stopped his Wolf Williams after seeing the wreck. Lauda had suffered serious burns and was rushed by helicopter to the "Bundeswehr" hospital in Koblenz; from there he was flown to the Trauma Clinic in Ludwigshafen, home to Germany's most advanced burn ward at the time, where he fought for his life for the next few days.  Most cars had assembled at the crash site, being unable to pass by on the narrow track. The race had been stopped after the accident, and at the restart only 20 of the 24 starters remained, although Chris Amon decided not to start the race again. The rain had gone and Hunt passed Regazzoni, Scheckter, Depailler, and Pace to take the lead for good. At the Flugplatz, Peterson lost control of his March and crashed heavily, while Regazzoni had another spin and Depailler went off, avoiding the Ferrari. Pace overtook Scheckter and ended the first lap in second place. On the second lap, Scheckter passed Pace and the Brazilian fell behind Regazzoni on the third lap, during which sixth-placed Vittorio Brambilla crashed at Adenau Bridge because of a brake failure on his March. Mass took advantage of it and overtook Gunnar Nilsson on the fifth lap and Pace on lap 10. On the 12th lap, Regazzoni spun again and Mass moved to third with Pace fourth, Nilsson fifth, and Stommelen sixth.  Lauda's accident proved why the old Nürburgring had become too dangerous and too difficult to manage satisfactorily for Formula One. The organizers just did not have the resources to manage such a long circuit, even though the "ONS-Staffel" was equipped with a Porsche 911 rescue car. Had it not been for the efforts of his fellow drivers, Lauda would have likely died before rescue crews arrived. After the new Nürburgring was rebuilt with the Nordschleife being bypassed, Formula One would return to the new 2.8-mile circuit for the European Grand Prix in 1984, and the German Grand Prix in 1985.  Chris Amon decided to end his career immediately after Lauda's accident, but returned for the 1976 Canadian Grand Prix, driving a Williams-Ford for Walter Wolf Racing.

The 1976 German Grand Prix (formally the XXXVIII Großer Preis von Deutschland) was a Formula One motor race held at the Nürburgring on 1 August 1976. It was the scene of reigning world champion Niki Lauda's near fatal accident, and the last Formula One race to be held on the Nordschleife section of the track. The 14-lap race was the tenth round of the 1976 Formula One season and was won by James Hunt.

Der Große Preis von Deutschland 1976 fand am 1. August auf dem Nürburgring statt und war das zehnte Rennen der Automobil-Weltmeisterschaft 1976.