Software.

Android.

RightHear.

RightHear was first released in December 2015. It uses data from OpenStreetMap alongside their own databases and with this information, RightHear provides their users with multilingual audio-descriptions of the environment, indoors and outdoors.  RightHear main features are as follow:  1) Informing the user about their current location on request and automatically in predefined intervals. Also, providing the user with a link to a relevant online destination (if applicable) like the menu at restaurants and description of exhibits at monuments.  2) Saving user points of interest as recordings. Users can be notified when they approach these points and hear their personal recordings.  3) Automatic announcements of public points of interest, street intersections, and points saved by the user.  4) Supporting third-party public transportation apps like Moovit, Uber, Lyft, Gett, and many more. RightHear users can create their journey from their current location to their destination and can look up schedules and routes to their destination.  5) Simulation of locations, letting users explore distant places before traveling there.  6) Announcing public and user points of interest and intersections located in the direction the user points their device in. RightHear also provides 3D sounds which allow the user to hear the information from the relevant direction when his headphones are on.  7) Announcing the Sky direction that the user is facing by holding the device vertically.  8) Indoor navigation via Bluetooth beacons. RightHear support the open Wayfindr standard.  9) Calling for a local assistant if needed from the relevant person at the RightHear enabled building (like receptions at hotels).

Corsair GPS.

Corsair is a GPS for pedestrians. It allows you to discover places around you and take you there. A new way of guidance has been developed by using the smartphone's vibration feature to indicate the direction to follow. This solution is particularly useful for people with visual impairments.

Cydalion.

Cydalion is a navigation aid for people with visual impairments for Tango-enabled devices. Cydalion detects objects (including their height), offers custom sounds, and has a personalized user interface.

Lazarillo.

Lazarillo is based on Google Maps, OpenStreetMap and Foursquare alongside they own databases and with this information, Lazarillo collects the necessary data about the surroundings of the user to support the following features:

ANGEO.

Was designed in France to compensate for the limitations of traditional GPS and smartphone applications for the blind and visually impaired. The fruit of 8 years of research in collaboration with the CNRS, ANGEO is the only device capable of discretely, reliably guiding you when crossing areas where GPS satellites are masked.

iOS.

When Apple introduced the iPhone 3GS in 2009, it was the first ever touch screen device accessible to the blind. iOS device usage has steadily increased among the blind and visually impaired population and numerous GPS apps targeting this user group have been developed since.

Ariadne GPS.

Ariadne GPS, developed by Luca Giovanni Ciaffoni, was released in June 2011 and was one of the first GPS apps specifically designed for blind and visually impaired users. It is based on Google map data and has the following features:

BlindSquare.

BlindSquare is developed by MIPsoft and was first released in May 2012. It uses data from Foursquare and OpenStreetMap and offers a large feature set covering the needs of blind and visually impaired travelers. It is based on Foursquare, Open Street Map, and Apple Maps data and supports the following features:

iMove.

iMove has been developed by EveryWare Technologies and was first released in January 2013. It is unique, because it lets users record sound clips and associate them with saved locations. iMove offers the following features:

MyWay Classic.

MyWay Classic was first released in January 2012 and is developed by the Swis Federation of the Blind. It has evolved into an app with a large set of features covering the needs of blind and visually impaired travelers. It uses Open Street Map data and includes the following features:

Seeing Assistant Move.

Seeing Assistant move is developed by Transition Technologies S.A. and was first released in March 2013. It is the only GPS app designed for blind and visually impaired people that lets the user operate the app through predefined speech commands. It is based on Open Street Map and supports the following features:

Sendero Seeing Eye GPS.

Sendero Seeing Eye GPS is developed by the Sendero Group in collaboration with several organizations for the blind (Seeing Eye, RNIB, Guide Dogs NSW ACT) and was first released in July 2013. The Seeing Eye GPS is a fully accessible turn-by-turn GPS iPhone app developed by Sendero Group. It has all the normal navigation features plus features unique to blind users, such as simple menu structure, automatic announcements of intersections and points of interest, and routes for both pedestrian and vehicle with heads-up announcements for approaching turns. It uses Foursquare and Google Places for points of interest and Google Maps for street info.  Seeing Eye is not available globally and is offered under various names: The Sendero apps include the following features:

ViaOpta Nav.

ViaOpta Nav is developed by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation and was first released in August 2014. It is available for both IOS and Android devices. It is the only GPS app targeting blind and visually impaired users that offers the possibility to search for accessibility information for example information about intersections, tactile paving, and audible traffic signals. Although Open Street Map supports respective categories, this information is not very widely available yet in the map data itself.  ViaOpta Nav uses Apple Maps (on iOS devices) and Google Maps (on Android devices) for address retrieval, and Open Street Map for route calculation, intersection information, and public points of interest. ViaOpta Nav supports the following main features:

Symbian OS.

Loadstone GPS.

The Loadstone project is developing an open source software for satellite navigation for blind and visually impaired users. The software is free and runs currently on many different Nokia devices with the S60 platform under all versions of the Symbian operating system. A GPS receiver must be connected to the cell phone by Bluetooth. Many blind people around the world are using Nokia cell phones because there are two screen reader products for the S60 Symbian platform; Talks from Nuance Communications and Mobile Speak from the Spanish company Code Factory. This makes these devices accessible by output of synthetic speech and also allow the use of third party software, such as Loadstone GPS.  The Loadstone developers, who are blind, are from Vancouver, Glasgow, and Amsterdam. Many users from around the world have contributed improvement proposals as they know exactly what functionality helps to increase their pedestrian mobility. Monty Lilburn and Shawn Kirkpatrick started the project in 2004. After the first development successes, they made it public in May 2006. Since then, other volunteers have found their way to this project of global self-help. The program is under the GNU General Public License (GPL), and was financed entirely by the private developers and by donations of users. This product provides blind people with more independence from the trading policy and prices of the few global vendors of accessible satellite navigation solutions.  In large rural regions and developing or newly industrializing countries, nearly no exact map data is available in common map databases. As such, the Loadstone software provides users an option to create and store their own waypoints for navigation and share them with others. The Loadstone community is working on importing coordinates from free sources, such as the OpenStreetMap project. In addition they are searching for a sponsor of licenses for commercial map data, such as is offered by the company Tele Atlas. The other major supplier is Navteq, which belongs to Nokia.  Lodestone is the name of a natural magnetic iron that was used throughout history in the manufacturing of compasses. Sighted owners of S60 devices can use Loadstone for leisure-time activities geocaching.

JavaME.

LoroDux.

LoroDux was a project by Fachhochschule Hannover. Like in Loadstone the user is led by direction and distance information. The text on the screen is read out by a screenreader. Vibration-Only navigation is possible. Data can be imported from the OpenStreetMap project. The development is discontinued because the team prefers to use Java on Android for the future. LoroDux LoroDux

Windows Mobile.

Mobile Geo.

Mobile Geo is Code Factory's GPS navigation software for Windows Mobile-based Smartphones, Pocket PC phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). Powered by GPS and mapping technology from the Sendero Group, Mobile Geo is the first solution specifically designed to serve as a navigation aid for people with a visual impairment which works with a wide range of mainstream mobile devices. Though it is a separately licensed product, Mobile Geo is seamlessly integrated with Code Factory's popular screen readers – Mobile Speak for Pocket PCs and Mobile Speak for Windows Mobile Smartphones.

Standalone Devices.

Trekker.

The Victor Trekker, designed and manufactured by HumanWare (previously known as VisuAide), was launched on March 2003. It is a personal digital assistant (PDA) application operating on a Dell Axim 50/51 or later replaced by HP IPAQ 2490B Pocket PC, adapted for the blind and visually impaired with talking menus, talking maps, and GPS information. Fully portable (weight 600g), it offered features enabling a blind person to determine position, create routes and receive information on navigating to a destination. It also provided search functions for an exhaustive database of point of interests, such as restaurants, hotels, etc.  The PDA's touch screen is made accessible by a tactile keypad with buttons that is held in place with an elastic strap.  It is fully upgradeable, so it can expand to accommodate new hardware platforms and more detailed geographic information.  Trekker and Maestro, which is the first off-the-shelf accessible PDA based on Windows Mobile Pocket PC, are integrated and available since May 2005.  The Trekker is no longer sold by Humanware; the successor "Trekker Breeze" is a standalone unit. The software has fewer features than the original Trekker.

Trekker Breeze.

The Trekker Breeze is standalone hardware. Routes need to be recorded before they can be used. POIs are supported.

BrailleNote GPS.

The BrailleNote GPS device is developed by Sendero Group, LLC, and Pulse Data International, now called HumanWare, in 2002. It is like a combination of a personal digital assistant, Map-quest software and a mechanical voice.  With a receiver about the size of a small cell phone, the BrailleNote GPS utilizes the GPS network to pinpoint a traveler's position on earth and nearby points of interest. The BrailleNote receives radio signals from satellites to chart the location of users and direct them to their destination with spoken information from the speech synthesizer. The system uses satellites to triangulate the carrier's position, much like a ship finding its location at sea.  Users can record points of interest such as local restaurants or any other location into the PDA's database. Afterward, they can use keyboard commands on the unit's keyboard to direct themselves to a specific point of interest.

Navigation systems that are not designed for blind people, but are accessible.

Kapsys Kapten.

The French company Kapsys offers a navigation system without a display, that works with speech input and output, called Kapten.  It was originally developed for cyclists but soon became a favourite in blind communities because of its low price compared to other accessible navigation solutions. Later Versions took feedback about accessibility into account.

Historical or research projects.

Trinetra.

The Trinetra project aims to develop cost-effective, independence-enhancing technologies to benefit blind people. One such system addresses accessibility concerns of blind people using public transportation systems. Using GPS receivers and staggered Infrared sensors, information is relayed to a centralized fleet management server via a cellular modem. Blind people, using common text-to-speech enabled cell phones can query estimated time of arrival, locality, and current bus capacity using a web browser.  Trinetra, spearheaded by Professor Priya Narasimhan, is an ongoing project at the Electrical and Computer Engineering department of Carnegie Mellon University. Additional research topics include item-level UPC and RFID identification while grocery shopping and indoor navigation in retail settings.

MoBIC.

MoBIC means "Mobility of Blind and Elderly people Interacting with Computers", which was carried out from 1994 to 1996 supported by the Commission of the European Union. It was developing a route planning system which is designed to allow a blind person access to information from many sources such as bus and train timetables as well as electronic maps of the locality. The planning system helps blind people to study and plan their routes in advance, indoors.  With the addition of devices to give the precise current position and orientation of the blind pedestrian, the system could then be used outdoors. The outdoor positioning system is based on signals and satellites which give the longitude and latitude to within a metre; the computer converts this data to a position on an electronic map of locality. The output from the system is in the form of spoken messages.

Drishti.

Drishti is a wireless pedestrian navigation system. It integrates several technologies including wearable computers, voice recognition and synthesis, wireless networks, Geographic information system (GIS) and GPS. It augments contextual information to the visually impaired and computed optimized routes based on user preference, temporal constraints (e.g. traffic congestion), and dynamic obstacles (e.g. ongoing ground work, road blockade for special events).  The system constantly guides the blind user to navigate based on static and dynamic data. Environmental conditions and landmark information queries from a spatial database along their route are provided on the fly through detailed explanatory voice cues. The system also provides capability for the user to add intelligence, as perceived by the blind user, to the central server hosting the spatial database.

UCSB Personal Guidance System.

In 1985, Jack Loomis, a Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, came up with the idea of a GPS-based navigation system for the visually impaired. A short unpublished paper (Loomis, 1985) outlined the concept and detailed some ideas for implementation, including the idea of a virtual sound interface. Loomis directed the project for over 20 years, in collaboration with Reginald Golledge (1937–2009), Professor of Geography at UCSB, and Roberta Klatzky, Professor of Psychology (now at Carnegie Mellon University). Their combination of development and applied research was supported by three multi-year grants from the National Eye Institute (NEI) and another multi-year consortium grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), headed by Michael May of Sendero Group. In 1993, the UCSB group first publicly demonstrated the Personal Guidance System (PGS) using a bulky prototype carried in a backpack. Since then, they created several versions of the PGS, one of which was carried in a small pack worn at the waist. Their project mostly focused on the user interface and the resulting research has defined the legacy of the project. As indicated earlier in this entry, several wearable systems are now commercially available. These systems provide verbal guidance and environmental information via speech and Braille displays. But just as drivers and pilots want pictorial information from their navigation systems, survey research by the UCSB group has shown that visually impaired people often want direct perceptual information about the environment. Most of their R&D has dealt with several types of “spatial display”, with researchers Jim Marston and Nicholas Giudice contributing to the recent efforts. The first is a virtual acoustic display, which provides auditory information to the user via earphones (as proposed in the 1985 concept paper). With this display, the user hears important environmental locations, such as turn points along the route and points of interest. The labels of these locations are converted to synthetic speech and then displayed using auditory direction and distance cues, such that the spoken labels appear in the auditory space of the user. A second type of display, which the group calls a “haptic pointer interface”, was inspired by the hand-held receiver used in the Talking Signs© system of remote signage. The user holds a small wand, to which are attached an electronic compass and a small loudspeaker or vibrator. When the hand is pointing toward some location represented in the computer database, the user hears a tone or feels a vibration. Supplementary verbal information can be provided by synthetic speech. The user moves toward the desired location by aligning the body with the hand while maintaining the "on-course" auditory or vibratory signal. Other variants of the pointer interface involve putting the compass on the body or head and turning the body or head until the on-course signal is perceived. Six published route-guidance studies indicate that spatial displays provide effective route guidance, entail less cognitive load than speech interfaces, and are generally preferred by visually impaired users.

Brunel navigation system for the blind.

Prof. W. Balachandran is the pioneer and the head of GPS research group at Brunel University. He and his research team are pursuing research on navigation system for blind and visually impaired people. The system is based on the integration of state of the art current technologies, including high-accuracy GPS positioning, GIS, electronic compass and wireless digital video transmission (remote vision) facility with an accuracy of 3~4m. It provides an automated guidance using the information from daily updated digital map datasets e.g. roadworks. If required the remote guidance of visually impaired pedestrians by a sighted human guide using the information from the digital map and from the remote video image provides flexibility.  The difficulties encountered include the availability of up to date information and what information to offer including the navigation protocol. Levels of functionality have been created to tailor the information to the user's requirements.

NOPPA.

NOPPA navigation and guidance system was designed to offer public transport passenger and route information using GPS technology for the visually impaired. This was a three-year (2002~2004) project in VTT Industrial Systems in Finland. The system provides an unbroken trip chain for a pedestrian using buses, commuter trains and trams in three neighbor cities’ area. It is based on an information server concept, which has user-centered and task oriented approach for solving information needs of special needs groups.  In the system, the Information Server is an interpreter between the user and Internet information systems. It collects, filters and integrates information from different sources and delivers results to the user. The server handles speech recognition and functions requiring either heavy calculations or data transfer. The data transfer between the server and the client is minimized. The user terminal holds speech synthesis and most of route guidance.  NOPPA can currently offer basic route planning and navigation services in Finland. In practice, map data can have outdated information or inaccuracies, positioning can be unavailable or inaccurate, or wireless data transmission is not always available.

Navig.

NAVIG is a multidisciplinary project, with fundamental and applied aspects. The main objective is to increase the autonomy of blind people in their navigation capabilities. Reaching a destination while avoiding obstacles is one of the most difficult issue that blind individuals have to face. Achieving autonomous navigation will be pursued indoor and outdoor, in known and unknown environments. The project consortium is composed by two research centers in computer sciences specialized in human-machine interaction (IRIT) for handicapped people and in auditory perception, spatial cognition, sound design and augmented reality (LIMSI). Another research center is specialized in human and computer vision (CERCO), and two industrial partners are active in artificial vision (Spikenet Technology) and in pedestrian geolocalisation (Navocap). The last member of the consortium is an educational research center for the visually impaired (CESDV – IJA, Institute of Blind Youth).

TANIA.

TANIA is a project founded at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. The hardware is based on GPS and RFID. It allows navigation for blind and deafblind persons with step accuracy. It only works where special maps have been created for the system.

Wayfinder access.

Wayfinder Access was a GPS solution from the Swedish company Wayfinder Systems AB. This application for Symbian phones was designed especially to work with screen readers, such as Mobile Speak from Code Factory or TALKS from Nuance Communications and offers text-to-speech technology. It is able to take the special needs of the blind and visually impaired into consideration. Symbian screen reader software offers more than just the reading of the application's screens, but also supports Braille devices.  Highlights of Wayfinder Access include, but are not limited to: The Wayfinder Access Service was shut down in 2011 after the company was taken over by Vodafone.

Since the Global Positioning System (GPS) was introduced in the late 1980s there have been many attempts to integrate it into a navigation-assistance system for blind and visually impaired people.

盲用卫星导引系统,一种专为视障者设计、整合导航设备的全球定位系统(GPS)。GPS在80年代末已有多个考量视障者实用性的GPS相关研究。此种提供视障人士使用的卫星导航只是一种辅助装置并不会取代盲用的白手杖及导盲犬。


Company.

Working Title Films was co founded by producers Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. In 1992, PolyGram became the company's corporate backer. Radclyffe left Working Title, and Eric Fellner, a fellow independent film producer, joined the company.  The company produced a variety of films for PolyGram's London based production company, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment. An Anglo-Dutch film studio, PolyGram Films became a major Hollywood competitor. In 1998, Seagram sold the bulk of its library of PolyGram films released up until March 31, 1996 to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.  In 1999, PolyGram was sold to the Seagram company and merged with MCA Music Entertainment, to form Universal Music Group. PolyGram Films was sold and folded into Universal Pictures in 1999. Although contractually allowed to produce any film with a budget of up to $35 million, on a practical basis, Bevan and Fellner consult with studio executives at Working Title's parent company NBCUniversal.  Working Title is headquartered in London, and has an office in Los Angeles, which is headed by producer Liza Chasin.

WT Productions.

In 1999, Bevan and Fellner launched a subsidiary company named Working Title 2 Productions, commonly known as WT. The company is an independent film production arm run by Natascha Wharton, and has produced films that include "Billy Elliot", "Shaun of the Dead" and "The Calcium Kid".

Television division.

Working Title has been active in television production since the beginning of the 1990s. In February 2010, Working Title officially launched its television division as a joint venture with parent company NBCUniversal, itself owned by Comcast. Since then, they have produced content for both British and American television. Notable productions and co productions developed by Working Title Television (WTTV) include NBC's "About a Boy", and Showtime's "The Tudors".  WTTV has offices in London, headed by Andrew Woodhead, and Los Angeles, headed by Andrew Stearn.

1991 ITV franchise bid.

In 1991, Working Title was involved in a bid for the London Weekend ITV licence. Working Title, Mentorn, Palace and PolyGram wanted to take over from London Weekend Television and broadcast to London under the name London Independent Broadcasting. In the event LWT retained its licence; London Independent Broadcasting's proposals were deemed by the Independent Television Commission, which was overseeing the bid process, to fail the quality threshold.

Working Title is a British film and television production company owned by Universal Pictures. The company was founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. It produces feature films and several television productions. Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan are now the co chairmen of the company.

沃克泰托电影公司是一间总部位于英国伦敦的电影制作公司,由蒂姆·贝文和莎拉·瑞克斐(Sarah Radclyffe)在1983年成立,现为环球影业所拥有。沃克泰托电影公司制作电影长片与电视节目。目前艾瑞克·费纳和贝文同时担任公司的董事长。


History.

Antiquity.

In the 2nd century AD, Sinjar became a military base called Singara and part of the Roman "limes". It remained part of the Roman Empire until it was sacked by the Sasanians in 360. Starting in the late 5th century, the mountains around Sinjar became an abode of the Banu Taghlib, an Arab tribe. At the beginning of 6th century, a tribe called Qadišaiē (Kαδίσηυοι) dwelt there. According to the early Islamic literary sources, Singara had long been a bone of contention between the Sasanian and Byzantine empires and several times switched hands between the two empires. A 6th-century sources describes the population of Singara being composed of Zoroastrians, Christians and Jews. There are few visible traces of the ancient town of Singara.

Islamic era.

Sinjar was conquered in the 630s–640s by the Arab Muslims led by the commander Iyad ibn Ghanm and thereafter incorporated into the Diyar Rabi'a district of the Jazira province. In 970, the city was conquered by the Hamdanid dynasty, a branch of the Banu Taghlib tribe. Toward the end of the century, another Arab dynasty, the Uqaylids captured the city and erected a citadel there. Beginning with the rule of the Turkmen atabeg Jikirmish in 1106/07, Sinjar entered its most prosperous historical period lasting through the mid-13th century. The Zengid ruler Nur ad-Din conquered the area in 1169 and 1171; in the latter year, a cadet branch of the Zengids was established in Sinjar under Zengi II (), whose court was noted for its high culture. The scholar Ibn Shaddad (d. 1186) noted that Sinjar was protected by a double wall, the first being the original wall built by the Uqaylids and the newer wall built by the local Zengid ruler Qutb ad-Din Muhammad (). Also noted by Ibn Shaddad were two mosques, six madrasas (schools of Islamic law) for the Hanafi and Shafi'i schools of jurisprudence, a mashhad (shrine) dedicated to Ali ibn Abi Talib and three "khanqas" (buildings for Sufi gatherings) and Ibn al-Adim (d. 1262) further notes a "zawiya" (Sufi lodge). A surviving mosque minaret from this era, remarked on by the 19th-century epigraphist Max van Berchem, contains an inscription crediting Qutb ad-Din as the minaret's builder in 1201.  The city came under Ayyubid rule during the reign of Saladin and was controlled by the Ayyubid ruler of the Diyar Bakr district of the Jazira, al-Ashraf Muzaffar al-Din (). It later was controlled by the ruler of Mosul, Badr al-Din Lu'lu'. The Ilkhanid Mongols destroyed the double wall of Sinjar and the mashhad of Ali in 1262; the mashhad was rebuilt afterward by the Ilkhanid's Persian governor of the area Muhammad al-Yazdi. Ibn al-Adim and al-Dhahabi (d. 1348) list several Islamic scholars who hailed from Sinjar, including the polymath Ibn al-Akfani (d. 1348). The geographer Zakariya al-Qazwini (d. 1283) referred to Sinjar as "little Damascus", noting in particular the similarities of Sinjar's ornate bathhouses with their mosaic-laced floors and walls and octagonal stone pools. During his visit of the city, Ibn Batuta (d. 1369) remarked that Sinjar's congregational mosque was encircled by a perennial stream.  The Timurid successors of the Ilkhanids captured Sinjar after a seven-month siege according to oral traditions cited by Evliya Celebi (d. 1682). The city was later conquered successively by the Turkmen tribes of Ak Koyunlu and Kara Koyunlu before being taken by the Safavid dynasty of Iran in 1507/08. During the Ottoman–Safavid War (1532–1555), Sinjar was captured by the Constantinople (Istanbul)-based Ottoman Empire in 1534. The city became the center of its own sanjak (district) within Diyarbekir Eyalet (province of Diyarbakir). It was later reduced to being the administrative center of its own nahiya (subdistrict) of the Mardin Sanjak. Writing in the 17th century, Evliya Celebi noted that the population of the city of Sinjar was composed of Kurds and Arabs from the Banu Tayy tribe, while the Sinjar Mountains were inhabited by 45,000 Yazidis and Kurds.  After 1830, the nahiya of Sinjar became part of the Mosul Sanjak. During the 19th century, the Yazidis of the Sinjar Mountains often posed a threat to travelers in the region. The governor Dawud Pasha of Baghdad (in office in 1816–1831) was unable to suppress the Yazidis and the Yazidi revolts of 1850–1864 were ended after the diplomatic efforts of the Ottoman statesman Midhat Pasha enabled the authorities to tax and impose customs in the area.

Modern era.

In 1974–1975, five neighborhoods in the city of Sinjar were Arabized during a campaign by the Iraqi government of President Saddam Hussein dubbed as a "modernization drive"; the neighborhoods were Bar Barozh, Saraeye, Kalhey, Burj and Barshey, whose inhabitants were relocated to the new towns or elsewhere in Iraq and replaced by Arabs. The majority of the Arabs resettled in the Sinjar Mountains have remained in the region as of 2010.  On 13 August 2009, a suicide bombing killed 21 people and wounded 32 in a cafe in the Kalaa neighborhood of Sinjar. On 14 August 2010, a series of truck bombings by al-Qaeda in Iraq in the towns of Qahtaniya and al-Jazira, both in the Sinjar District, killed 326 Yazidis and injured 530 more.  According to statistical survey of the Sinjar District in 2013, the city of Sinjar had a population of 77,926. The ethnic composition of the city consisted of Kurds, Arabs, Turkmens, and Assyrians and the religious composition consisted of Yazidis, Sunni Muslims, and Christians. There were 23 primary schools, three intermediate schools and seven secondary schools, a hospital, two other health care facilities, three public parks and two sports fields. The town had three churches, a Syriac Orthodox Church, Syriac Catholic Church, and Armenian Apostolic Church, all of which were destroyed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Northern Iraq Offensive (2014).

In the course of their second Northern Iraq offensive in August 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) took over large areas of Nineveh province. Following the withdrawal of the Kurdish Peshmerga they captured the city of Sinjar on 3 August. During the following days, IS militants perpetrated the Sinjar massacre, killing 2,000 Yazidi men and taking Yazidi women into slavery, leading to a mass exodus of Yazidi residents. According to a United Nations report, 5,000 Yazidi civilians were killed during ISIL's August offensive. It is also known as the genocide of Yazidis by ISIL. The genocide was enabled partly as a result of the Peshmerga flight from the ISIL offensive, which left the Yazidis defenseless.  On the night of 20 December 2014, in the course of a first offensive to retake Sinjar from ISIL militants, Kurdish forces pushed into the city. However, the Kurdish advance into Sinjar was stalled, as they faced stiff resistance from ISIL militants inside the southern half of the city.  On 13 November 2015, a day after launching a major second offensive, Kurdish forces and Yazidi militias backed by US airstrikes, entered the city and fully regained its control from ISIL. Following the recapture, in the nearby hamlet of Solagh, east of Sinjar city, Kurdish forces found a mass grave with the remains of at least 78 Yazidi women from Kocho village believed to be executed by ISIL militants. Following the recapture of Sinjar, Yazidi groups engaged in revenge looting and burnings targeting Sunni Muslims, as well as reprisal killings.

Declaration of autonomy.

In August 2017, the Yazidis of Sinjar declared their government autonomous at a press conference. Peshmerga forces withdrew from Sinjar on October 17, 2017, allowing the Iraqi Army and the Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU) to enter the town. The control of the town was handed over to the PMU-backed Yazidi group called "Lalesh Brigades" after Peshmerga's withdrawal.

Sinjar (;, ) is a town in the Sinjar District of the Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq. It is located about five kilometers south of the Sinjar Mountains. Its population in 2013 was estimated at 88,023. The town is one of the main settlement areas of the Yazidis and is also home to Sunni Muslim Arabs and Turkmens and Christians.

辛贾尔(,,"Sinjar";),也称作辛葛(Shingal, Central Kurdish: شەنگال, Shengali: "Şengal";, "Shiggor"),从前则是被称作珊贾尔(Sanjár)。 辛贾尔位于伊拉克尼尼微省,是辛贾尔县的一座城镇,位于辛贾尔山脉旁边。2013年的人口88,023人 。 辛贾尔山山顶有一座重要的奇美拉神寺。


Background.

The city was a home to over 110,000 Jews before the outbreak of World War II in 1939, and by the time the Nazis occupied the city in 1941 that number had increased to over 220,000 Jews, since Jews fled for their lives from Nazi-occupied western Poland into the then relative safety of Soviet-occupied eastern Poland, which included Lwów. The mass influx of refugees in Lwów preceded the formal annexation of the Polish Kresy region by the Soviet Union in accordance with the terms of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany.

German invasion and pogroms.

The German army entered the Soviet occupation zone on June 22, 1941 under the codename Operation Barbarossa and a week later, on June 30, 1941 overran the city of Lwów. When the 1st Mountain Division of the German 49th Army Corps took over the city, the gates of all NKVD prisons were opened and, within hours, the scale of Soviet murders revealed. A special commission was formed under SS Judge Hans Tomforde to make a report. Jews were ordered to start removing decomposing bodies from cells and cellars into prison yards. Over 10,000 dead were accounted for at Brygidki. At some prisons, the mountains of putrefacting corpses reaching the basement ceilings forced the Germans to stop counting and wall-off the doors with brickwork. The German propaganda blamed the killings on the Jewish commissars and encouraged local Ukrainians to take their revenge – according to testimonies collected by the Germans, OUN-UPA members were in the majority of prisoners. In early July 1941 SS paramilitary death squads organized the first pogrom against the Jews with the aid of Ukrainian Auxiliary Police. About 4,000 Jews were massacred by Ukrainian nationalists. In late July, another pogrom (known as Petliura Days), took the lives of more than 2,000 Jews. Some, mostly Ukrainian scholars, argue that the pogroms were in retaliation for the NKVD prisoner massacres of approximately 7,000, and up to 10,000 prisoners according to OUN, including Polish, Jewish and Ukrainian intellectuals, political activists, and alleged common criminals held at Lwów's three prisons comprising Brygidki, Łąckiego Street and Zamarstynowska Street prison. According to Ukrainian scholars 75-80% of these victims were Ukrainian. The Jews who survived the pogroms as eyewitnesses and victims of the violence present a far more direct view in their memoirs. Of the entire population of Jewish Lwow before World War II estimated to be 150,000; fewer than 1,000 survived.

Anti-Jewish rhetoric and mass killings.

According to the Jewish survivors of the Ghetto – eyewitnesses to these events – the sole reason for the so-called Prison Massacre was hundreds of years of pent-up Ukrainian hatred for the Jewish population.  During this invasion, according to evidentiary photographs as well as eye witness accounts, Ukrainian Nationalists marched side-by-side with the German Einsatzgruppen "C" and the Wehrmacht "Army Group South" when they entered Lviv. Ukrainian nationalists, UNO, and civilians welcomed the invaders. Some were bearing garlands, waving the Ukrainian Trizub along with the Nazi standard. The Ukrainians (civilians and "nationalists" alike) greeted the invaders with open arms, banners, and floral arrangements. Men displayed a raised arm "Heil Hitler" salute, while the Nazis received embraces and kisses from young women dressed in traditional Ukrainian folk outfits.  The Soviets themselves as well as other witnesses (mostly the few surviving Jews), notably Rabbi Dawid Kahane, author of "Lvov Ghetto Diary " and former member of the Committee on Religious Affairs of the Lemberg "Judenrat," have asserted that it was actually the Nazis themselves that perpetrated the massacre, and then blamed it on the NKVD. But as the pretext went, after filming the devastation "they" themselves had inflicted, used the "prison massacre" as a pretext to set up the Jews of Lwow; in effect to provide a "cause" for the Ukrainians to vent their hatred. Thus, if we accept the Soviet and Jewish victims' version of the events rather than the version advanced by the Ukrainians (who were the actual rioters and perpetrated the murders), it was the Nazis who "gave license" to the UNO, the Ukrainian nationalists, the Ukrainian People's Militia (soon to become the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police), and Ukrainian citizenry (identified simply by yellow armbands), to conduct a full blown massacre in which at least 2000 Jewish men were killed. Note that at this early stage of the (recently named) "Holocaust by Bullets" in Ukraine (technically General Government Galicia beginning in August, 1941), women were still "only" harassed and beaten. The outright massacres of Jewish men, women, and children would soon follow (see the "Final Solution" in the General Government Galicia).  A second pogrom took place in the last days of July 1941 and was named the "Petlura Days" after the assassinated Ukrainian leader and pogromist Symon Petliura. This pogrom was organized by the Nazis, but carried out by the Ukrainians, as a prologue to the total annihilation of the Jewish population of Lwów. Somewhere in the neighborhood of between 5,000–7,000 Jews were brutally beaten and more than 2,000 murdered in this massacre. In addition, some 3,000 persons, mostly Jews, were executed in the municipal stadium by the German military.

The Ghetto.

Following the Nazi takeover, one of the most prolific mass murderers in the SS, "Gruppenführer" Fritz Katzmann, became the Higher SS and Police Leader (SSPF) of Lwów. On his orders the Ghetto called "Jüdischer Wohnbezirk" was established on November 8, 1941 in the northern part of the city. Some 80,000 Jews were ordered to move there by December 15, 1941 and all Poles and Ukrainians to move out. The neighborhood which was designated to form the Jewish quarter was Zamarstynów (now Zamarstyniv). Before the war it was one of the poorest suburbs of Lwów. German police also began a series of "selections" in an operation called "Action under the bridge" - 5,000 elderly and sick Jews were shot as they crossed under the rail bridge on Pełtewna Street (called "bridge of death" by the Jews) moving slowly toward the gate. Eventually, between 110,000 and 120,000 Jews were forced into the new ghetto. The living conditions there were extremely poor, coupled with severe overcrowding. For example, food rations allocated to the Jews were estimated to equal only 10% of the German and 50% of the Ukrainian or Polish rations.  The Germans established a Jewish police force called the "Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst Lemberg" wearing dark blue Polish police uniforms from before World War II, but with the Polish insignia replaced by a Magen David and the new letters J.O.L. in various positions on their uniform. They were given rubber truncheons. Their ranks numbered from 500 to 750 policemen. The Jewish police force answered to the Jewish National city council known as the Judenrat, which in turn answered to the Gestapo.

Deportations.

The Lemberg Ghetto was one of the first to have Jews transported to the death camps as part of Aktion Reinhard. Between March 16 and April 1, 1942, approximately 15,000 Jews were taken to the Kleparów railway station and deported to the Belzec extermination camp. Following these initial deportations, and death by disease and random shootings, around 86,000 Jews officially remained in the ghetto, though there were many more not recorded. During this period, many Jews were also forced to work for the Wehrmacht and the ghetto's German administration, especially in the nearby Janowska labor camp. On June 24–25, 1942, 2,000 Jews were taken to the labor camp; only 120 were used for forced labor, and all of the others were shot.  Between August 10–31, 1942, the "Great Aktion" was carried out, where between 40,000 and 50,000 Jews were rounded up, gathered at transit point placed in Janowska camp and then deported to Belzec. Many who were not deported, including local orphans and hospital inpatients, were shot. On September 1, 1942, the Gestapo hanged the head of Lwów’s Judenrat and members of the ghetto's Jewish police force on balconies of Judenrat's building at Łokietka street and Hermana street corner. Around 65,000 Jews remained while winter approached with no heating or sanitation, leading to an outbreak of typhus.  Between January 5–7, 1943, another 15,000-20,000 Jews, including the last members of the Judenrat, were shot outside of the town on the orders of Fritz Katzmann. After this "aktion" in January 1943 Judenrat was dissolved, that what remained of the ghetto was renamed "Judenlager Lemberg" (Jewish Camp Lwów), thus formally redesigned as labor camp with about 12,000 "legal" Jews, able to work in German war industry and several thousands "illegal" Jews (mainly women, children and elderly) hiding in it.  In the beginning of June 1943 Germans decided to finally end the existence of the Jewish quarter and its inhabitants. As Nazis entered the Ghetto they met some sporadic acts of armed resistance, but most of the Jews were trying to hide themselves in earlier prepared hideouts (so called "bunkers"). In effect many buildings were suffused with gasoline and burned in order to "flush out" Jews from their hiding places. Some Jews managed to escape or to conceal themselves in the sewer system.  By the time that the Soviet Red Army entered Lwów on July 26, 1944, only a few hundred Jews remained in the city. Number varies from 200 to 900 (823 according to data of Jewish Provisional Committee in Lwów, from 1945).  Among its notable inhabitants was Chaim Widawski, who disseminated news about the war picked up with an illegal radio. Polish Olympic football player Leon Sperling was shot to death by the Nazis in the ghetto in December 1941. Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal was one of the best-known Jewish inhabitants of Lemberg Ghetto to survive the war (as his memoirs (The Executioners Among Us) indicate, he was saved from execution by a Ukrainian policeman), though he was later transported to a concentration camp, rather than remaining in the ghetto.

Rescue.

Some local gentiles attempted to aid and shelter the Jews. Kazimiera Nazarewicz, a Polish nanny hired by a Jewish family, sheltered their daughter throughout the war, and delivered aid to her parents who were imprisoned in the ghetto. After the war, Nazarewicz became one of the recipients of the Righteous Among the Nations title. Leopold Socha and Stefan Wróblewski, laborers maintaining the municipal sewage system, organized in them shelters for 21 one Jews who survived the ghetto's liquidation; 10 of them survived the war. Socha, Wróblewski and their wives received the Righteous titles after the war. Another Righteous, Miroslav Kravchuk, with the help of some acquaintances, shelter his Jewish ex-wife, and some of their other family members and acquaintances. Kravchuk survived a 6-month imprisonment by Gestapo following their arrest of him under the suspicion of him helping Jews.

The Lwów Ghetto (; ) was a Nazi ghetto in the city of Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine) in the territory of Nazi-administered General Government in German-occupied Poland.

利沃夫隔都(),德语称伦贝格隔都(),是纳粹德国在原波兰城市利沃夫设立并运营的犹太人隔都。隔都位于德占波兰的总督府辖区,现位于乌克兰境内。


Early rule.

Ivan Alexander was the son of the "despotēs" Sracimir of Kran by Petrica, a sister of Michael Asen III of Bulgaria. Therefore, Ivan Alexander was a nephew of Michael Asen III. Paternally, Ivan Alexander descended from the Asen dynasty. By 1330 Ivan Alexander was himself a "despotēs" and governed the city of Lovech. Together with his father and his father-in-law Basarab of Wallachia, Ivan Alexander fought in the Battle of Velbazhd against the Serbs at modern-day Kyustendil in 1330, in which Bulgaria suffered defeat. The defeat, combined with the worsening relations with the Byzantine Empire, precipitated an internal crisis, which was exacerbated by an invasion of the Byzantines. A coup d'état drove Ivan Stefan out of the capital Tarnovo in 1331, and the conspirators placed Ivan Alexander on the throne.  The new ruler set about consolidating his position by regaining territories recently lost to the Byzantine Empire. In 1331 Ivan Alexander campaigned around Adrianople and reconquered northeastern Thrace. Meanwhile, Stefan Uroš IV Dušan deposed his father Stefan Uroš III Dečanski and became Serbian king in 1331. This helped normalize the previously tense relations between the two countries. Ivan Alexander and Stefan Uroš IV Dušan concluded an alliance, which was cemented by the marriage of the Serbian king to Helena of Bulgaria, a sister of Ivan Alexander, on Easter 1332.  At about the same time, Belaur, a brother of Michael Asen III, rebelled in Vidin, probably in support of his deposed nephew Ivan Stefan's claim to the throne. The advance of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos against Bulgaria in the summer of 1332 protracted military operations against the rebels. The Byzantines overran Bulgarian-controlled northeastern Thrace, but Ivan Alexander rushed southward with a small army and swiftly caught up with Andronikos III at Rusokastro.  After giving the impression that he wished to negotiate, Ivan Alexander, reinforced by Mongol cavalry, overwhelmed the smaller but better organized Byzantine army in the Battle of Rusokastro. The contested cities surrendered to Ivan Alexander, while Andronikos III sought refuge within the walls of Rusokastro. The war ended with Ivan Alexander meeting Andronikos and agreeing a peace based on the "status quo". To seal the alliance, he betrothed his eldest son, Michael Asen IV, to Andronikos's daughter Maria (Eirene), the marriage eventually taking place in 1339. The Bulgarian emperor was now free to turn his attentions to Belaur, but it was not until 1336 or 1337 that the rebellion in the northwest was put down.  In about 1332 Ivan Alexander had crowned his eldest son Michael Asen IV co-emperor, perhaps to safeguard possession of the throne by his own family. He followed up this traditional association with the coronation of his younger sons Ivan Sracimir and Ivan Asen IV in 1337. Ivan Alexander may have intended the creation of two younger co-emperors to establish immediate control over important cities and regions, as Ivan Sracimir was eventually based in Vidin, and Ivan Asen IV perhaps in Preslav. Nevertheless, this was a marked departure from Byzantine practice, in which younger sons of the sovereign were made "despotēs", whether they were charged with a territorial administration or not.

Relations with the Byzantine Empire.

In the early 1340s relations with the Byzantine Empire temporarily deteriorated. Ivan Alexander demanded the extradition of his cousin Šišman, one of the sons of Michael Asen III, threatening the Byzantine government with war. Ivan Alexander's show of force backfired, as the Byzantines managed to see through his intentions and sent against him the fleet of their ally, the Turkish emir of Smyrna Umur Beg. Landing in the Danube Delta, they pillaged the countryside and attacked nearby Bulgarian cities. Forced to restrain his demands, Ivan Alexander invaded the Byzantine Empire again at the end of 1341, claiming that he was summoned by the people of Adrianople. However, Ivan Alexander's troops were defeated twice by Turkish allies of the Byzantines near the city.  In 1341–1347 the Byzantine Empire was plunged into a protracted civil war between the regency for Emperor John V Palaiologos under Anna of Savoy and his intended guardian John VI Kantakouzenos. The neighbours of the Byzantines took advantage of the civil war, and while Stefan Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia sided with John VI Kantakouzenos, Ivan Alexander backed John V Palaiologos and his regency. Although the two Balkan rulers picked opposite sides in the Byzantine civil war, they maintained their alliance with each other. As the price for Ivan Alexander's support, the regency for John V Palaiologos ceded him the city of Philippopolis (Plovdiv) and nine important fortresses in the Rhodope Mountains in 1344. This peaceful turnover constituted the last major success of Ivan Alexander's foreign policy.

Rise of Serbia and the Ottoman threat.

During the same period, the Serbian king took advantage of the Byzantine civil war to take possession of what is now Macedonia, and of most of Albania and northern Greece. In 1345 he began to call himself "Emperor of Serbs and Greeks", and in 1346 he was crowned as such by the newly created Serbian Patriarch. These actions, which the Byzantines received with indignation, appear to have been supported by Bulgaria, as the Patriarch of Bulgaria Simeon had participated in both the creation of a Serbian Patriarchate of Peć and the imperial coronation of Stefan Uroš IV Dušan.  By the second half of the 1340s, little remained of Ivan Alexander's initial successes. John VI Kantakouzenos' Turkish allies pillaged parts of Bulgarian Thrace in 1346, 1347, 1349, 1352 and 1354, to which were added the ravages of the Black Death. The Bulgarians' attempts to repel the invaders met with repeated failure, and Ivan Alexander's third son and co-emperor, Ivan Asen IV, was killed in battle against the Turks in 1349, as was his older brother Michael Asen IV in 1355 or a little earlier.  By 1351 the Byzantine civil war was over, and John VI Kantakouzenos had realized the threat posed by the Ottomans to the Balkan Peninsula. He appealed to the rulers of Serbia and Bulgaria for a united effort against the Turks and asked Ivan Alexander for money to construct warships, but his appeals fell on deaf ears as his neighbours distrusted his intentions. A new attempt for cooperation between Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire followed in 1355, after John VI Kantakouzenos had been forced to abdicate and John V Palaiologos had been established as supreme emperor. To cement the treaty, Ivan Alexander's daughter Keraca Marija was married off to the future Byzantine Emperor Andronikos IV Palaiologos, but the alliance failed to produce concrete results.

Further stability problems and external conflicts.

At home Ivan Alexander compromised the internal stability of his realm by divorcing his first wife Theodora of Wallachia (in about 1349) and marrying a converted Jew, also named Theodora. The new marriage produced new sons, whom Ivan Alexander proceeded to crown co-emperors, Ivan Šišman in about 1356 and Ivan Asen V by 1359. Ivan Alexander's last surviving son from his first marriage, the co-emperor Ivan Sracimir, became effectively independent around 1356; and Ivan Alexander's control over other powerful vassals, such as the rulers of Wallachia and Dobruja, who pursued their own foreign policies, was hardly stronger.  From the middle of the 14th century, Bulgaria fell prey to the aspirations of the Angevin king Louis I of Hungary, who annexed Moldavia in 1352 and established a vassal principality there, before conquering Vidin in 1365, and taking Ivan Sratsimir and his family into captivity.  In the meantime Bulgarians and Byzantines had clashed again in 1364. In 1366, when Emperor John V Palaiologos was returning from his trip to the west, the Bulgarians refused to let him pass through Bulgaria. This stance backfired, as another Byzantine ally, Count Amadeus VI of Savoy, leading the Savoyard crusade, captured several Bulgarian maritime cities in retaliation, including Ankhialos (Pomorie) and Mesembria (Nesebǎr), though he failed to take Varna. Outmanoeuvred, Ivan Alexander was forced to make peace.  The captured cities were turned over to the Byzantine Empire, while Emperor John V Palaiologos paid the sum of 180,000 florins to Ivan Alexander. The Bulgarian emperor used this sum and territorial concessions to induce his at least "de jure" vassals Dobrotica of Dobruja and Vladislav I of Wallachia to reconquer Vidin from the Hungarians. The war was successful, and Ivan Sracimir was reinstalled in Vidin in 1369, although the Hungarian king forced him to acknowledge his overlordship.  The relatively successful resolution of the crisis in the northwest did nothing to help recover the losses in the southeast. To make matters worse, in 1369 (the date is disputed), the Ottoman Turks under Murad I conquered Adrianople (in 1363) and made it the effective capital of their expanding state. At the same time, they also captured the Bulgarian cities of Philippopolis and Boruj (Stara Zagora). As Bulgaria and the Serbian princes in Macedonia prepared for united action against the Turks, Ivan Alexander died on February 17, 1371. He was succeeded by his sons Ivan Sracimir in Vidin and Ivan Šišman in Tǎrnovo, while the rulers of Dobruja and Wallachia achieved further independence.

Culture and religion.

During Ivan Alexander's rule, the Second Bulgarian Empire entered a period of cultural renaissance, which is sometimes referred to as the "Second Golden Age of Bulgarian culture", the original one being the rule of Simeon the Great. A large number of Bulgarian monasteries and churches were constructed or renovated on the order of Ivan Alexander. Mural portraits of him as a donor can be seen in the Bachkovo Monastery's ossuary and in the Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo. Donor's deeds of Ivan Alexander prove that the monasteries of the Holy Mother of God Eleoussa and St Nicholas in Nesebǎr were reconstructed during that period, as was the St Nicholas monastery near Pernik, according to a Hilandar monastery deed. In addition, the tsar also initiated the construction of the Dragalevci and Kilifarevo monasteries.  Literary activity also flourished during the reign of Ivan Alexander. Several important literary works were created in the period, such as the Middle Bulgarian translation of the Manasses Chronicle (1344–1345), currently preserved in the Vatican Secret Archives in Rome, the richly illustrated Tetraevangelia of Ivan Alexander (1355–1356), now exhibited in the British Library, the Tomić Psalter (1360), today in Moscow, and the Sofia Psalter (1337).  Ivan Alexander's rule was also marked by efforts to strengthen the position of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church by pursuing heretics and Jews. He organized two anti-heretical church councils, in 1350 and 1359–1360, that condemned various sects such as the Bogomils, the Adamites and the Judaizers.  The spiritual practice of hesychasm, a form of incantatory prayer, deeply influenced certain areas of the Eastern Orthodox world of the 14th century. A notable Bulgarian representative of the movement during Ivan Alexander's reign was Theodosius of Tǎrnovo.  During this time, the Bulgarian Empire had trade relations with the Mediterranean maritime powers Venice, Genoa and Ragusa. In 1353, Ivan Alexander issued a charter allowing Venetian merchants to buy and sell goods throughout Bulgaria after Doge Andrea Dandolo assured him they would observe the prior treaties between the two countries.  In modern times, the rule of Ivan Alexander inspired Bulgarian national writer Ivan Vazov to write the novelette "Ivan-Aleksandǎr" and the drama "Kǎm propast" ("Towards an Abyss"), in both of which the tsar is the main character.  A piece of a garment signed by Ivan Alexander and interwoven with gold was discovered in a noble's grave near Pirot in the 1970s; today it is preserved in the National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade. It is the first find of its kind, demonstrating a medieval tradition attested in writing according to which Orthodox rulers would present their most eminent dignitaries with a piece of a garment they had worn.  Ivan Alexander Point on Nelson Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is named after Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria.

Family.

By his first wife Theodora of Wallachia (nun Teofana), a daughter of Basarab of Wallachia, Ivan Alexander had several children, including Ivan Sracimir, who ruled as emperor of Bulgaria in Vidin 1356–1397, associated emperors Michael Asen IV (co-ruled c. 1332–1354/5) and Ivan Asen IV (co-ruled 1337–1349).  By his second wife Sarah-Theodora, Ivan Alexander had several other children, which included Keraca Marija, who married the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos IV Palaiologos, Ivan Šišman, who succeeded as emperor of Bulgaria in Tǎrnovo 1371–1395, Ivan Asen V, associated as emperor of Bulgaria by 1359–1388?, a daughter called Thamar (Kera Tamara), who was married first to the "despotēs" Constantine (Konstantin), and then to Sultan Murad I of the Ottoman Empire, as well as two daughters named Desislava and Vasilisa.

Ivan Alexander (, transliterated "Ivan Aleksandǎr", ; original spelling: ), also sometimes Anglicized as John Alexander, ruled as Emperor ("Tsar") of Bulgaria from 1331 to 1371, during the Second Bulgarian Empire. The date of his birth is unknown. He died on 17 February 1371. The long reign of Ivan Alexander is considered a transitional period in Bulgarian medieval history. Ivan Alexander began his rule by dealing with internal problems and external threats from Bulgaria's neighbours, the Byzantine Empire and Serbia, as well as leading his empire into a period of economic recovery and cultural and religious renaissance.

伊凡·亚历山大( 转写:"Ivan Aleksandǎr" 发音为 ;原始拼音:)又称为约翰·亚历山大,保加利亚第二帝国君主(沙皇),1331年至1371年在位。他的生年不详,逝于1371年2月17日。他的长期统治被视为保加利亚中世纪历史的过渡期。伊凡·亚历山大登基后,着手处理国内问题以及来自拜占庭帝国、塞尔维亚帝国等邻国的威胁,并领导帝国进入经济复苏以及文化与宗教复兴时代。


Jazz center.

Following the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, 52nd Street replaced 133rd street as "Swing Street" of the city. The blocks of 52nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue became renowned for the abundance of jazz clubs and lively street life. The street was convenient to musicians playing on Broadway and the 'legitimate' nightclubs and was also the site of a CBS studio. Musicians who played for others in the early evening played for themselves on 52nd Street.  In its heyday from 1930 through the early 1950s, 52nd Street clubs hosted such jazz legends as Miles Davis, Harry Gibson, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, Nat Jaffe, Marian McPartland, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Louis Prima, Art Tatum, Fats Waller, Trummy Young, and many more. Although musicians from all schools performed there, after Minton's Playhouse in uptown Harlem, 52nd Street was the second most important place for the dissemination of bebop;. In fact, a tune called "52nd Street Theme" by Thelonious Monk became a bebop anthem and jazz standard.  Virtually every great jazz player and singer of the era performed at clubs:  52nd, between 6th & 7th  52nd, between 5th & 6th  Noted jazz disc jockey Symphony Sid frequently did live broadcasts from the street, making it well-known across the country.  By the late 1940s the jazz scene began moving elsewhere around the city and urban renewal began to take hold of the street. By the 1960s, most of the legendary clubs were razed or fell into disrepair. The last jazz club there closed in 1968, though one remains as a restaurant. Today, the street is full of banks, shops, and department stores and shows little trace of its jazz history. The block from 5th to 6th Avenues is formally co-named "Swing Street" and one block west is called "W. C. Handys Place". The 21 Club is the sole surviving club on 52nd Street that also existed during the 1940s. The venue for the original Birdland at 1674 Broadway (between 52nd & 53rd), which came into existence in 1949, is now a "gentlemen's club." The current Birdland is on 44th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues.

Notable places on 52nd Street.

This is a list of notable places within one block of 52nd Street.

Eleventh Avenue.

The section between Eleventh and Tenth Avenues is signed "Joe Hovarth Way" in tribute to Joseph Hovarth (1945–1995) who located the Police Athletic League William J. Duncan Center on the block after moving from its original location. The Duncan Center is named for a patrolman who was shot while chasing a stolen car in the neighborhood on May 17, 1930.

In popular culture.

Billy Joel has a studio album called "52nd Street".  Toshiki Kadomatsu made a song called "52nd Street" which is on his album "Sea is a Lady".

References.

Notes

52nd Street is a long one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan, New York City. A short section of it was known as the city's center of jazz performance from the 1930s to the 1950s.

第52街,位于美国纽约曼哈顿,是第五大道与第七大道之间的一条由西向东单行道。


Plot.

"I'm Not There" uses a nonlinear narrative, shifting between six characters in separate storylines "inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan". Each character represents a different facet of Dylan's public persona: poet (Arthur Rimbaud), prophet (Jack Rollins/Father John), outlaw (Billy McCarty), fake (Woody Guthrie), "rock and roll martyr" (Jude Quinn), and "star of electricity" (Robbie Clark).  Production notes published by distributor The Weinstein Company explain that the film "dramatizes the life and music of Bob Dylan as a series of shifting personae, each performed by a different actor—poet, prophet, outlaw, fake, star of electricity, rock and roll martyr, born-again Christian—seven identities braided together, seven organs pumping through one life story."

Arthur Rimbaud.

19 year-old Arthur Rimbaud is questioned by interrogators. His cryptic responses are interspersed throughout the film, including remarks on fatalism, the nature of poets, "seven simple rules for life in hiding," and chaos.

Woody Guthrie.

In 1959, an 11-year-old African American boy calling himself Woody Guthrie is freighthopping through the Midwestern United States. Carrying a guitar in a case bearing the slogan "this machine kills fascists", he plays blues music and sings about topics such as trade unionism. One African American woman advises him to sing about the issues of his own time instead. Woody is attacked by hobos and nearly drowns, but is rescued by a white couple who take him in. They are impressed with his musical talents, but Woody runs off when they receive a telephone call from a juvenile corrections center in Minnesota telling them he is an escaped fugitive. Upon learning that the real Woody Guthrie is deathly ill, Woody travels to New Jersey to visit Guthrie in the hospital.

Jack Rollins/Father John.

The career of folk musician Jack Rollins is framed as a documentary film, told by interviewees including folk singer Alice Fabian. Jack becomes a star of the Greenwich Village folk scene in the early 1960s, praised by fans for his protest songs. He signs to Columbia Records, but in 1963, just as the Vietnam War is escalating, he stops singing protest songs and turns away from folk music, believing that neither effects real social or political change. Following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Jack gets drunk at a ceremony where he is receiving an award from a civil rights organization. Remarking in his acceptance speech that he saw something of himself in Kennedy's assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, he is booed and derided by the audience. He goes into hiding, and in 1974 enters a bible study course in Stockton, California and emerges a born again Christian, denouncing his past and becoming an ordained minister performing gospel music under the name "Father John".

Robbie Clark.

Robbie Clark is a 22-year-old actor who plays Jack Rollins in the 1965 biographical film "Grain of Sand". During filming in Greenwich Village in January 1964, he falls in love with French artist Claire, and they soon marry. "Grain of Sand" is a hit and Robbie becomes a star, but their relationship is strained and Claire observes Robbie flirting with other women. She is particularly offended when, during an argument in 1968 over whether the evils of the world can be changed, he opines that women can never be poets. Eventually Robbie moves out of their house, then goes to London for four months to film a thriller and has an affair with his female co-star. Richard Nixon's January 1973 announcement of the Paris Peace Accords inspires Claire to ask for a divorce. She gains custody of their two daughters, but allows Robbie to take them on a boating trip.

Jude Quinn.

Jude Quinn is a popular former folk singer whose performance with a full band and electric guitars at a New England jazz and folk festival outrages his fans, who accuse him of selling out. Travelling to London, Jude is asked by journalist Keenan Jones if he has become disillusioned or thinks folk music has failed to achieve its goals of sociopolitical change. Jude is attacked by a hotel employee, hangs out with the Beatles, encounters his former lover Coco Rivington, and meets poet Allen Ginsberg, who suggests that Jude "sold out to God." Interviewing Jude, Keenan notes that Jude's songs are being used as recruitment tools by the Black Panther Party and opines that Jude refuses to feel deeply about anything while simultaneously being very self-conscious; Jude is offended and walks out of the interview. At a concert performing "Ballad of a Thin Man", Jude is booed and called a "Judas" by the audience. Keenan reveals on television that, despite his claims of a rough-and-tumble vagabond past, Jude is actually Aaron Jacob Edelstein, the suburban, middle-class, educated son of a Brookline, Massachusetts department store owner. Faced with a long string of upcoming European tour dates, Jude spirals into drug use and is killed in a motorcycle accident.

Billy McCarty.

Outlaw Billy McCarty, believed to have been killed by Pat Garrett, lives in hiding in rural Riddle, Missouri. Learning that Commissioner Garrett plans to demolish the town to build a highway, which has caused several townspeople to commit suicide, Billy confronts Garrett. Garrett recognizes Billy as the outlaw Billy the Kid and has him thrown in jail. He is broken out by his friend Homer and hops into a boxcar on a passing train, where he finds Woody's guitar. As he rides away, he remarks on the nature of freedom and identity.  The film concludes with footage of Dylan playing a harmonica solo during a live performance in 1966.

Cast.

Main cast.

These six characters represent different aspects of Dylan's life and music.

Production.

Development.

Todd Haynes and his producer, Christine Vachon, approached Dylan's manager, Jeff Rosen, to obtain permission to use Dylan's music and to fictionalize elements of Dylan's life. Rosen suggested that Haynes should send a one-page synopsis of his film for submission to Dylan. Rosen advised Haynes not to use the word "genius" or "voice of a generation". The page Haynes submitted began with a quote from Arthur Rimbaud: "I is someone else", and then continued:  Dylan gave Haynes permission to proceed with his project. Haynes developed his screenplay with writer Oren Moverman. In the course of writing, Haynes has acknowledged that he became uncertain whether he could successfully carry off a film which deliberately confused biography with fantasy in such an extreme way. According to the account of the film that Robert Sullivan published in the "New York Times": "Haynes called Jeff Rosen, Dylan's right hand, who was watching the deal-making but staying out of the scriptwriting. Rosen, he said, told him not to worry, that it was just his own crazy version of what Dylan is."  In a comment on why six actors were employed to portray different facets of Dylan's personality, Haynes wrote:  A further Dylan-based character named Charlie, based on Charlie Chaplin, was dropped before filming began. Haynes described him as "a little tramp, coming to Greenwich Village and performing feats of magic and being an arbiter of peace between the beats and the folkies."

"Grain of Sand".

The film within a film, "Grain of Sand", is not only important for the plot of "I'm Not There" but also for the film's connection to Bob Dylan's life. Larry Gross suggests that "Grain of Sand" actor Robbie may be the film's most accurate portrayal of Dylan despite being "a fictional actor playing a fictional alternative version of a real person" because of his tumultuous relationship with Claire. Gross also notes parallels between Robbie and Claire's ultimately failed marriage and Dylan's relationship with Suze Rotolo, claiming that Claire's character seems to be a portrayal of Rotolo, especially considering the shot in "I'm Not There" that mimicks the photo of Rotolo and Dylan on the cover of "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan".

Filming.

Principal photography took place in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Music festival scenes were filmed in Chambly, Quebec in the summer of 2006.

Music.

The film features numerous songs by Dylan, performed by Dylan and also recordings by other artists. The songs feature as both foreground—performed by artists on camera (e.g. "Goin' to Acapulco", "Pressing On")—and background accompaniment to the action. A notable non-Dylan song in the movie is "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" by The Monkees, which plays in the background of a party scene set in London.

Release.

In January 2007, The Weinstein Company acquired U.S distribution rights to the film. "I'm Not There" had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2007. The film went onto screen at the Toronto International Film Festival, London Film Festival, and the New York Film Festival. The film opened in limited release in the United States on November 21, 2007. It was then released in Germany on February 28, 2008, by Tobis Film.

Home media.

"I'm Not There" was released on DVD as a 2-disc special edition on May 6, 2008. The DVD special features include audio commentary from Haynes, deleted scenes, featurettes, a music video, audition tapes for certain cast members, trailers, and a Bob Dylan filmography and discography.

Reception.

Critical response.

"I'm Not There" received generally positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 77% approval rating based on 158 reviews, with an average rating of 7 out 10. The site's critical consensus states: ""I'm Not There"s unique editing, visuals, and multiple talented actors portraying Bob Dylan make for a deliciously unconventional experience. Each segment brings a new and fresh take on Dylan's life." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 35 reviews.  Writing in "The Chronicle of Higher Education", Anthony DeCurtis wrote that casting six different actors, including a woman and an African-American child, to play Dylan was "a preposterous idea, the sort of self-consciously 'audacious'—or reassuringly multi-culti—gambit that, for instance, doomed the Broadway musical based on the life and music of John Lennon. Yet in "I'm Not There," the strategy works brilliantly." He especially praised Blanchett:  Several critics praised Blanchett's performance as the mid-1960s Dylan. "Newsweek" magazine described Blanchett as "so convincing and intense that you shrink back in your seat when she fixes you with her gaze." The "Charlotte Observer" called Blanchett "miraculously close to the 1966 Dylan."  Todd McCarthy of "Variety", concluded that the film was well-made, but was ultimately a speciality event for Dylan fans, with little mainstream appeal. He wrote: "Dylan freaks and scholars will have the most fun with "I'm Not There", and there will inevitably be innumerable dissertations on the ways Haynes has both reflected and distorted reality, mined and manipulated the biographical record and otherwise had a field day with the essentials, as well as the esoterica, of Dylan's life. All of this will serve to inflate the film's significance by ignoring its lack of more general accessibility. In the end, it's a specialists' event." For Roger Ebert, the film was enjoyable cinematically, yet never sought to resolve the enigmas of Dylan's life and work: "Coming away from "I'm Not There", we have, first of all, heard some great music... We've seen six gifted actors challenged by playing facets of a complete man. We've seen a daring attempt at biography as collage. We've remained baffled by the Richard Gere cowboy sequence, which doesn't seem to know its purpose. And we have been left not one step closer to comprehending Bob Dylan, which is as it should be."

Dylan's response.

In September 2012, Dylan commented on "I'm Not There" in an interview published in "Rolling Stone". When journalist Mikal Gilmore asked Dylan whether he liked the film, he responded: "Yeah, I thought it was all right. Do you think that the director was worried that people would understand it or not? I don't think he cared one bit. I just think he wanted to make a good movie. I thought it looked good, and those actors were incredible."

Top ten lists.

The film appeared on several critics' lists of the top ten films of 2007.

I'm Not There is a 2007 musical drama film directed by Todd Haynes and co-written with Oren Moverman. It is an unconventional biopic inspired by the life and music of American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Six actors depict different facets of Dylan's public personas: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger (his final film to be released during his lifetime), and Ben Whishaw. A caption at the start of the film declares it to be "inspired by the music and the many lives of Bob Dylan"; this is the only mention of Dylan in the film apart from song credits, and his only appearance in it is concert footage from 1966 shown during the film's final moments.

是一部2007年美国电影,由陶德·海恩斯执导,克里斯汀·贝尔与凯特·布兰琪主演,描述歌手鲍勃·迪伦的生涯。官方海报是取自凯特·布兰琪的剪影。


Organization.

In 2017, Outotec's operations consisted of two parts of almost equal size, one focusing on mining technology and the other focusing on technologies for refining metals. The company's third pillar was its environment and energy business, which expanded thanks to the 2011 acquisition of Energy Products of Idaho. In 2017, a considerable proportion of the company's design work took place in Finland. The headquarter is in Espoo, Finland, employed 800 personnel, and the company also had a large design unit in Germany.  In 2018, Outotec had sales and service centers in 36 countries on six continents and three business units.  Outotec's competitive position varies depending on the technology, but its competitiveness is strong in areas such as flash smelting, flotation cells for concentrating plants, and grinding mills. A further area of strength is copper mines, for which the company can supply all of the main equipment.

Metals, energy and water.

In 2012, the base metals business generated 80 percent of net sales, and energy, light metal, and environmental solutions brought in almost half a billion euros of revenue. In 2017, approximately 77 percent of net sales consisted of metal technologies (copper: 30%, precious metals: 21%, aluminum: 9%, iron: 6%, nickel: 4%, zinc: 4% and ferroalloys: 3%), and technologies related to energy generation accounted for 7 percent of net sales. Other areas generated 12 percent of net sales.

Minerals processing.

The business area focuses on minerals processing for the mining industry, conducting a range of works such as preliminary suitability studies, as well as implementing entire production plants and supporting them throughout the various phases in their lifecycles.

Services.

The Services unit's business ranges from individual deliveries of spare parts to extensive, long-term operation and maintenance agreements.

History.

Outotec as a part of Outokumpu, 1940–2006.

In the 1940s, the Finnish state's copper company, Outokumpu, had a problem: it needed electricity to refine metal, but there was a shortage of electricity in Finland. A solution was found in a proposal to manufacture copper without using external energy. The flash smelting method uses the sulfur present in the ore. The invention marked the first chapter in Outotec's story. On the back of the success of flash smelting, Outokumpu, a state-owned enterprise, established a technology unit, which later became known as Outokumpu Technology. Japanese and Indian businesses that had taken interest in the invention in the 1950s became customers in the 1970s. Nowadays, more than half of the world's copper is manufactured using flash smelting technology.  The invention brought Outokumpu international success in copper, nickel, cobalt, zinc, steel, and sulfuric acid technologies, and the company began establishing sales offices in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Peru. Outokumpu expanded its technology expertise with the help of mergers, acquiring aluminum expertise in Canada and Germany and process technology for gas processing and precious metals in Sweden. An important acquisition took place in 2001 when Lurgi Metallurgie, a 100-year-old German company, was purchased, bringing expertise in areas such as sulfuric acid production technology. In 2010, President and CEO Pertti Korhonen's assessment was that Outotec's success was as much due to Lurgi as it was to Outokumpu's technology unit.

The birth of Outotec, 2006–2007.

In spring 2006, Outokumpu Oyj spun off its technology division into a new company named Outokumpu Technology Oyj, and it sold 80 percent of the company's stock to external investors in the fall of the same year. The company was listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange in October 2006 and changed its name to Outotec Oyj in April 2007. Outokumpu received EUR 360 million for its technology unit in connection with the listing.

Outotec, 2007–2009.

In 2007, Outotec's market capitalization rose to almost EUR 2.5 billion, and between 2005 and 2008, the company's net sales more than doubled from EUR 0.5 billion to more than EUR 1.2 billion. In 2008, capital invested in the company returned an incredible 67 percent. In 2013, Outotec surpassed Outokumpu in terms of market capitalization. In 2007, Outotec acquired Chena, and in the following year, it acquired Auburn Group.

Outotec, 2010–2015.

In 2010, Pertti Korhonen became the company's president and CEO when his predecessor, Tapani Järvinen, retired. Several companies were acquired in the same year: Larox, Millteam, Ausmelt, and Edmeston, and Outotec decided to specialize in developing technology for renewable energy and water treatment in addition to technology for refining minerals and metals.  The corporate acquisitions continued in the following year with the purchases of Kiln Services Australia, Energy Products of Idaho, VPF, and ASH DEC Umwelt. Numcore, Demil Manutenção Industrial, TME Group, and Backfill Specialists were acquired in 2012.  Outotec had a strong order book in 2012, with new opportunities for growth. The company achieved growth in metal technology and in its role as a supplier of solutions for the environment, water, and energy. It recorded more than EUR 2 billion in net sales, with orders 4 percent higher than in the preceding year. Outotec acquired Energy Products of Idaho, a US-based company that generates energy from waste and biomass in North America and Japan.  In 2012, the company also made a strategically important agreement with the city of Zürich for the design and construction of Switzerland's largest and most modern incineration plant for sewage sludge. The agreement was worth EUR 50 million, and it was considered to boost the company's ability to win similar tenders elsewhere. The plant burns sewage sludge to generate energy in the form of electricity and heat. The process creates ash, from which phosphorus can be recovered for use as a fertilizer. The Werdhölzl incineration plant handles approximately 100,000 tons of sewage sludge per year, generating 875 kW of electricity and 4,450 kW of heat.  Between 2009 and 2012, the company's net profit increased from EUR 45 million to EUR 115 million. In 2013, Outotec ranked 34 on the Talouselämä magazine's list of 500 Finland's richest companies, and it was considered an outstanding Finnish success story. The main reason for the success was its investment in emerging markets: two thirds of the company's net sales were generated in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe.  In 2013, Outotec acquired Australian software technology company Scanalyse, and launched an Employee Share Savings Plan. Every month, employees were given the option of spending 2–5 percent of their gross salary on buying the company's shares. Employees who participate in the share purchase plan are entitled to subscribe to one extra share at the company's expense for every two shares that they have held for three years. The aim of the plan is to allow every member of personnel to benefit from the company's success. Approximately one third of the company's employees in 22 different countries signed up for the plan, and it received an award from the Global Equity Organization.  In December 2013, Outotec concluded codetermination negotiations, which resulted in the number of personnel decreasing by 101. Approximately half of the reduction took the form of redundancies at the sites in Espoo, Pori, Lappeenranta, and Turku in Finland, while the remainder was due to retirements and the expiry of fixed-term employment contracts. The codetermination negotiations took place against a background of slower investment in the mining industry and cost-cutting.  In spring 2014, Outotec acquired Republic Alternative Technologies Inc, a relatively small US-based company that designed and manufactured stacked titanium anodes for use in metal production. The company employed 18 personnel and it recorded net sales of approximately EUR 9 million in 2013. In the summer, Outotec acquired the business operations and intellectual property of Kalogeo Anlagenbau, an Austrian company that was in liquidation, with the intention of expanding the business and increasing its annual net sales to EUR 15–20 million from 2016 onwards. Kalogeo made products related to treating biomass, sludge, and wastewater. It also designed, constructed, and operated several sludge incineration plants based on fluidized bed technology.  In 2015, Outotec completed four acquisitions: Kempe Engineering, Biomin, Kovit Engineering, and Sinter Plant Services. Outotec acquired Kempe Engineering's aluminum technologies, as well as its service and spare parts businesses in the Middle East and Africa. Outotec acquired a majority of the shares in Biomin South Africa and took a stake in Biomin Technologies, based in Switzerland. In addition, Outotec took ownership of the intellectual property and marketing rights to the BIOX bio-oxidation technology. BIOX is a biological method for dissolving refractory gold ores. Canadian company Kovit Engineering Limited specialized in solutions for treating the tailings from ore enrichment. Outotec acquired Sinter Plant Services to complement its services to the ferrochrome producers in South Africa. Outotec also announced that it was initiating a savings program worth EUR 70 million due to the weaker market environment in the mining and metal industry over the preceding years. Mining markets began to show signs of recovery in 2016.

Outotec 2016-.

In summer 2016, President and CEO Pertti Korhonen was dismissed and Markku Teräsvasara was appointed to replace him on October 1, 2016. Prior to his appointment, Teräsvasara had served as Director at Atlas Copco.  In May 2017, Teräsvasara commented that the company should not “spiral into cost-cutting and cycles of redundancies. There are also deals to be done: mines and refineries are not closing down, and some customers make small, essential investments, even in bad times. And naturally, there is plenty of maintenance.” One of the first changes that Teräsvasara instigated was to put the Services business into a separate unit.  In July 2019, it was announced that Metso and Outotec are planning to combine Metso's Minerals business unit with Outotec. The new company's headquarters will be in Finland and it will maintain its listing on Nasdaq Helsinki. Before the transaction can be completed, the approval is needed by a majority of two-thirds of votes cast and shares represented at the respective EGMs of Metso and Outotec, as well as regulatory approvals.

Customers.

In 2012, 46 percent of sales were made in the EMEA area, which includes the EU, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Middle East, and Africa. Africa is considered to be a clear growth area for the company, as are India and China, where environmental legislation is becoming more stringent. Examples of stricter legislation include Zürich, where the city council has purchased a modern sewage sludge incineration plant from Outotec, and Turkey, where Outotec technology is used to generate energy from chemical wood pulp waste.  Outotec designed the world's largest factory complex for manufacturing sulfuric acid in Saudi Arabia, a contract worth a total of US$240 million, with technology accounting for half of the contract value. The sulfuric acid produced by the factory is used to make fertilizers. The company's largest ever deal was completed in 2012 with a company named Cristal Global: an ilmenite smelter worth EUR 350 million was purchased for construction in Saudi Arabia.  In spring 2013, Outotec made an agreement with the Russian Copper Company on the design and realization of a new copper concentrating plant in Chelyabinsk, Russia. The order was worth more than EUR 50 million, and the deal included flotation cells, thickeners, analyzers, and automation.  In spring 2014, Outotec received an order worth EUR 50 million from Alumina do Norte do Brasil (known as Alunorte). Majority-owned by Norwegian aluminum producer Norsk Hydro ASA, Alunorte's alumina refinery is the largest in the world. A new filtration plant was ordered for the refinery, located in Barcarena in Northern Brazil, to enable dry storage of caustic residue. The plant is due to be started up in March 2016.  Outotec also gains customers through urgent necessity. The air in the small city of Tsumeb in Namibia was difficult to breathe, due to decades of sulfur gas emissions from the copper smelter. When the smelter was taken over by a new owner, Canadian mining company Dundee was forced to rein in emissions in order to retain its operating permit. Dundee ordered a sulfuric acid plant from Outotec at a price of EUR 130 million to process the gases produced during copper smelting. Measurements have shown that the new plant has reduced sulfur gas emissions by more than 80 percent.  In spring 2017, Outotec took its largest order for two years. Bahraini company Aluminium Bahrain ordered the design and delivery of an anode rodding shop facility for its aluminum smelter expansion. In addition to the rodding shop, the transaction included a solution for recovering and processing used anodes, as well as process equipment based on the company's product development.

Patents and inventions.

Outotec invests approximately five percent of its net sales into research and development. In 2016, the total investment was EUR 55 million. At the end of 2016, Outotec had 786 patent families, encompassing 6,772 national patents or patent applications. Outotec has two research centers. The center in Frankfurt researches technologies related to refining iron ore and aluminum as well as fluidized bed technology, while the center in Pori researches base metals. The centers study materials such as ore samples submitted by customers. On the basis of analysis, a process solution can be proposed to enable the ore to be exploited more efficiently. Samples have already been collected from almost every mine in the world. The company also has a laboratory in Lappeenranta focusing on water extraction.  Outotec invented the fluidized bed technology. It strengthened its expertise in the area by acquiring German company Lurgi at the beginning of the 2000s. Outotec uses the technology in metallurgy processes and for renewable and alternative energy.  Outotec set a record for patent applications in 2012, when it applied for 70 new patents and was granted 286 national patents, making it the fourth-largest company in Finland in terms of patent applications. In 2013, Outotec submitted 68 patent applications – more than any other company in Finland.  In January 2013, Outotec sued Outokumpu over the rights to an invention related to the ferrochrome manufacturing method. An arbitral award was made in August 2015, judging that both companies hold joint title over the method.

Outotec Oyj is a Finnish listed technology company as well as project company, selling complex mining technology and plant projects that it first designs and then executes itself or in collaboration with its partners. The company purchases the majority of its products from subcontracted manufacturers, making only the key components itself. Manufacturing is carried out at Outotec's workshop in the city of Outokumpu, which makes equipment, and at Lappeenranta plant, where industrial filters are manufactured.

奥图泰()是一家在芬兰上市的技术公司。它是在2006年由奥托昆普公司分离出的技术业务部门组建成立的。该公司不专注生产,而是把重点放在设计和咨询上。它只自己生产核心部件,其所提供的产品中大部分是从外包生产商那里买来的。奥图泰的生产作坊有两个:一个位于奥托昆普市,主要生产机械部件;另一个位于拉彭兰塔市,主要生产工业过滤器。