title: George Bush Center for Intelligence

text: The Original Headquarters Building was designed by the New York firm Harrison & Abramovitz in the 1950s and contains of floor space. The ground was broken for construction on November 3, 1959, with President Dwight D. Eisenhower laying the cornerstone; the building was completed in March 1961. It included a pneumatic tube system manufactured by Lamson Corporation of Syracuse, New York. Though the system was replaced by email and shut down in 1989, the of steel tubes remain in the building.


title: George Bush Center for Intelligence

text: The New Headquarters Building, designed by Smith, Hinchman and Grylls Associates, was completed in March 1991 after the ground was broken for construction on May 24, 1984. It is a complex that adjoins two six-story office towers and is fully connected via a tunnel to the OHB.


title: George Bush Center for Intelligence

text: On January 25, 1993, Mir Qazi, a Pakistani resident of the United States, killed two CIA employees and wounded three others on the road to the CIA headquarters, claiming that it was revenge for the U.S. government's policy in the Middle East, "particularly toward the Palestinian people". Qazi was sentenced to death for the shooting and executed in 2002.


title: George Bush Center for Intelligence

text: In May 2021, an armed man tried to drive into the center and was shot following a standoff that lasted several hours. He died the following day.


title: George Bush Center for Intelligence

text: The Center is located at 1000 Colonial Farm Road in McLean, Virginia, and can be reached via George Washington Memorial Parkway. However, due to a need for secrecy, the complex may only be accessed by those with authorization (appropriate credentials) or by appointment; only authorized vehicles may access the private road leading to the complex from George Washington Memorial Parkway.


title: George Bush Center for Intelligence

text: A notable exception to the strict protocols for accessing The Center was Russell Weston Jr.'s visit in July 1996. Weston, a paranoid schizophrenic man from Montana, drove cross country from his home to The Center, where at the gate he claimed his code-name was "The Moon" and that he had important information for the Director of Central Intelligence (at the time, John M. Deutch). Weston was then allowed access to the facility, where he was interviewed for approximately 1 hour by an anonymous CIA officer and then sent on his way. Two years later Weston would become the perpetrator of the 1998 United States Capitol shooting, in which two Capitol police officers were murdered. Why Weston was allowed access to The Center, or what possible connection he might have had to the CIA or Director Deutch, remains unknown.


title: George Bush Center for Intelligence

text: The location of the building has led to the name "Langley" being used as a colloquial metonym for the CIA headquarters, despite the presence of other non-CIA-related government buildings in the community of Langley, such as the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center. This is similar to how "Foggy Bottom" is colloquially used to identify the headquarters of the United States Department of State, despite the name also being used to refer to the neighborhood of D.C. in which the building is located.


title: George Bush Center for Intelligence

text: The CIA Museum (also known as the National History Collection or National Intelligence Council (NIC) Collection) is located within the Center. The museum holds declassified items such as artifacts associated with the CIA, the Office of Strategic Services and foreign intelligence organizations, including historical spy gadgets and weapons, and photographs. As it is located within the CIA compound, it is not accessible by the general public. An Enigma machine and Osama bin Laden's AKMS are held in the museum.


title: George Bush Center for Intelligence

text: There is a Starbucks coffee shop located on the site of the CIA headquarters. It is notably secretive and the baristas are not allowed to ask for customers' names.


title: George Bush Center for Intelligence

text: In a nod to American covert intelligence-gathering activities from an earlier era, a statue of Nathan Hale, the captured colonial spy hanged by the British during the American Revolution, stands on the grounds of the CIA headquarters complex.


title: Peter Greenaway

text: Peter Greenaway, (born 5 April 1942) is a Welsh film director, screenwriter and artist. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular. Common traits in his films are the scenic composition and illumination and the contrasts of costume and nudity, nature and architecture, furniture and people, sexual pleasure and painful death.


title: Peter Greenaway

text: Greenaway was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales, to a teacher mother and a builder's merchant father. Greenaway's family left South Wales when he was three years old (they had moved there originally to avoid the Blitz) and settled in Chingford, Essex. He attended Forest School in nearby Walthamstow.


title: Peter Greenaway

text: At an early age Greenaway decided on becoming a painter. He became interested in European cinema, focusing first on the films of Ingmar Bergman, and then on the French "nouvelle vague" filmmakers such as Jean-Luc Godard and, most especially, Alain Resnais. Greenaway has said that Resnais's "Last Year in Marienbad" (1961) had been the most important influence upon his own filmmaking (and he himself established a close working relationship with that film's cinematographer Sacha Vierny). He now lives in Amsterdam.


title: Peter Greenaway

text: In 1962, Greenaway began studies at Walthamstow College of Art, where a fellow student was musician Ian Dury (later cast in "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover"). Greenaway trained as a muralist for three years; he made his first film, "Death of Sentiment", a churchyard furniture essay filmed in four large London cemeteries. In 1965, he joined the Central Office of Information (COI), where he went on to work for fifteen years as a film editor and director. In that time he made a series of experimental films, starting with "Train" (1966), footage of the last steam trains at Waterloo station (situated behind the COI), edited to a "musique concrète" composition. "Tree" (1966) is a homage to the embattled tree growing in concrete outside the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank in London. By the late 1970s he was confident and ambitious, and made "Vertical Features Remake" and "A Walk Through H". The former is an examination of various arithmetical editing structures, and the latter is a journey through the maps of a fictitious country.


title: Peter Greenaway

text: In 1980, Greenaway delivered "The Falls" (his first feature-length film) – a mammoth, fantastical, absurdist encyclopaedia of flight-associated material all relating to ninety-two victims of what is referred to as the Violent Unknown Event (VUE). In the 1980s his cinema flowered in his best-known films, "The Draughtsman's Contract" (1982), "A Zed & Two Noughts" (1985), "The Belly of an Architect" (1987), "Drowning by Numbers" (1988), and his most successful film, "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover" (1989). Greenaway's most familiar musical collaborator during this period is composer Michael Nyman, who has scored several films.


title: Peter Greenaway

text: In 1989, Greenaway collaborated with artist Tom Phillips on a television serial "A TV Dante", dramatising the first few cantos of Dante's "Inferno". In the 1990s he presented "Prospero's Books" (1991), the controversial "The Baby of Mâcon" (1993), "The Pillow Book" (1996), and "8½ Women" (1999).


title: Peter Greenaway

text: In the early 1990s Greenaway wrote ten opera libretti known as the "Death of a Composer" series, dealing with the commonalities of the deaths of ten composers from Anton Webern to John Lennon, however, the other composers are fictitious, and one is a character from "The Falls". In 1995, Louis Andriessen completed the sixth libretto, "Rosa – A Horse Drama". He is currently professor of cinema studies at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.


title: Peter Greenaway

text: Greenaway presented the ambitious "The Tulse Luper Suitcases", a multimedia project that resulted in three films, a website, two books, a touring exhibition, and a shorter feature which reworked the material of the first three films.


title: Peter Greenaway

text: He also contributed to "Visions of Europe", a short film collection by different European Union directors; his British entry is "The European Showerbath". "Nightwatching" and "Rembrandt's J'Accuse" are two films on Rembrandt, released respectively in 2007 and 2008. "Nightwatching" is the first feature in the series "Dutch Masters", with the second project titled as "Goltzius and the Pelican Company".


title: Peter Greenaway

text: On 17 June 2005, Greenaway appeared for his first VJ performance during an art club evening in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with music by DJ Serge Dodwell (aka Radar), as a backdrop, 'VJ' Greenaway used for his set a special system consisting of a large plasma screen with laser controlled touchscreen to project the ninety-two "Tulse Luper" stories on the twelve screens of "Club 11", mixing the images live. This was later reprised at the Optronica festival, London.


title: Peter Greenaway

text: On 12 October 2007, he created the multimedia installation "Peopling the Palaces at Venaria Reale" at the Royal Palace of Venaria, which animated the Palace with 100 videoprojectors.


title: Peter Greenaway

text: Greenaway was interviewed for Clive Meyer's "Critical Cinema: Beyond the Theory of Practice" (2011), and voiced strong criticisms of film theory as distinct from discussions of other media: "Are you sufficiently happy with cinema as a thinking medium if you are only talking to one person?"


title: Peter Greenaway

text: In 2006, Greenaway began a series of digital video installations, "Nine Classical Paintings Revisited", with his exploration of Rembrandt's "Night Watch" in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. On 30 June 2008, after much negotiation, Greenaway staged a one-night performance 'remixing' da Vinci's "The Last Supper" in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan to a select audience of dignitaries. The performance consisted of superimposing digital imagery and projections onto the painting with music from the composer Marco Robino.


title: Peter Greenaway

text: Greenaway exhibited his digital exploration of "The Wedding at Cana" by Paolo Veronese as part of the 2009 Venice Biennial. An arts writer for "The New York Times" called it "possibly the best unmanned art history lecture you'll ever experience," while acknowledging that some viewers might respond to it as "mediocre art, Disneyfied kitsch or a flamboyant denigration of site-specific video installation." The 50-minute presentation, set to a soundtrack, incorporates closeup images of faces from the painting along with animated diagrams revealing compositional relations among the figures. These images are projected onto and around the replica of the painting that now stands at the original site, within the Palladian architecture of the Benedictine refectory on San Giorgio Maggiore. The soundtrack features music and imagined dialogue scripted by Greenaway for the 126 "wedding guests, servants, onlookers and wedding crashers" depicted in the painting, consisting of small talk and banal chatter that culminates in reaction to the miraculous transformation of water to wine, according to the Gospels the first miracle performed by Jesus. Picasso's "Guernica", Seurat's "Grande Jatte", works by Jackson Pollock and Claude Monet, Velázquez's "Las Meninas" and Michelangelo's "The Last Judgment" are possible series subjects.


title: Phrenic nerve

text: The phrenic nerve is a mixed motor/sensory nerve which originates from the C3-C5 spinal nerves in the neck. The nerve is important for breathing because it provides exclusive motor control of the diaphragm, the primary muscle of respiration. In humans, the right and left phrenic nerves are primarily supplied by the C4 spinal nerve, but there is also contribution from the C3 and C5 spinal nerves. From its origin in the neck, the nerve travels downward into the chest to pass between the heart and lungs towards the diaphragm.


title: Phrenic nerve

text: In addition to motor fibers, the phrenic nerve contains sensory fibers, which receive input from the central tendon of the diaphragm and the mediastinal pleura, as well as some sympathetic nerve fibers. Although the nerve receives contributions from nerves roots of the cervical plexus and the brachial plexus, it is usually considered separate from either plexus.


title: Phrenic nerve

text: The phrenic nerve originates in the phrenic motor nucleus in the ventral horn of the cervical spinal cord. It descends obliquely with the internal jugular vein across the anterior scalene, deep to the prevertebral layer of deep cervical fascia and the transverse cervical and suprascapular arteries. On the left, the phrenic nerve crosses anterior to the first part of the subclavian artery. On the right, it lies on the anterior scalene muscle and crosses anterior to the 2nd part of the subclavian artery. On both sides, the phrenic nerve usually runs posterior to the subclavian vein as it enters the thorax where it runs anterior to the root of the lung and between the fibrous pericardium and mediastinal parietal pleura.


title: Phrenic nerve

text: As with most nerves in the neck, multiple anatomic variants have been described. Notably, there may be variability in the course of the phrenic nerve in the retroclavicular region such that the nerve courses anterior to the subclavian vein, rather than its typical position posterior to the vein (between the subclavian vein and artery). This variant may predispose the phrenic nerve to injury during subclavian vascular cannulation.


title: Phrenic nerve

text: In addition, an accessory phrenic nerve is commonly identified, present in up to 75% of a cadaveric study.


title: Phrenic nerve

text: In canines the phrenic nerve arises from C5-C7 with occasional small contributions from C4. In the cat, horse, ox, and small ruminant the phrenic nerve arises variably from C4-C7.


title: Phrenic nerve

text: Both of these nerves supply motor fibers to the diaphragm and sensory fibers to the fibrous pericardium, mediastinal pleura, and diaphragmatic peritoneum.


title: Phrenic nerve

text: Some sources describe the right phrenic nerve as innervating the gallbladder, other sources make no such mention.


title: Phrenic nerve

text: Pain arising from structures supplied by the phrenic nerve is often "referred" to other somatic regions served by spinal nerves C3-C5. For example, a subphrenic abscess beneath the right diaphragm might cause a patient to feel pain in the right shoulder.


title: Phrenic nerve

text: Irritation of the phrenic nerve (or the tissues it supplies) leads to the hiccup reflex. A hiccup is a spasmodic contraction of the diaphragm, which pulls air against the closed folds of the larynx.


title: Phrenic nerve

text: The phrenic nerve must be identified during thoracic surgery and preserved. To confirm the identity of the phrenic nerve, a doctor may gently manipulate it to elicit a dartle (diaphragmatic startle) response. The right phrenic nerve may be crushed by the vena cava clamp during liver transplantation. Severing the phrenic nerve, or a phrenectomy, will paralyse that half of the diaphragm. Bilateral diaphragmatic paralysis or BDP can also be caused by spinal cord injury, motor neuron disease, infection, pneumonia, sarcoidosis, multiple sclerosis, polyneuropathy, myopathy and amyotrophy, cardiac surgery, lung transplantation, or mediastinal tumors. Diaphragm paralysis is best demonstrated by sonography. Breathing will be made more difficult, but will continue provided the other nerve is intact.


title: Phrenic nerve

text: The phrenic nerve arises from the neck (C3-C5) and innervates the diaphragm, which is much lower. Hence, patients suffering spinal cord injuries below the neck are still able to breathe effectively, despite any paralysis of the lower limbs.


title: Phrenic nerve

text: Brachial plexus injuries can cause paralysis to various regions in the arm, forearm, and hand depending on the severed nerves. The resulting palsy has been clinically treated using the phrenic nerve as a donor for neurotization of the musculocutaneous nerve and the median nerve. This treatment has a high success rate (84.6%) in partial to full restoration of the innervation to the damaged nerve. Furthermore, this procedure has resulted in restored function to nerves in the brachial plexus with minimal impact to respiratory function of the phrenic nerve. The instances where pulmonary vital capacity is reduced have typically been a result of use of the right phrenic as the donor for the neurotization whereas use of left phrenic nerve has not been significantly linked to reduced pulmonary vital capacity.


title: William R. Moses

text: Moses was born in Los Angeles, the son of actress Marian McCargo (1932–2004) and advertising executive Richard Cantrell Moses Sr., who married in 1951 and divorced in 1963.


title: William R. Moses

text: Marian remarried in 1970 to the Republican Congressman Alphonzo E. Bell Jr. (1914–2004). Congressman Bell adopted Moses and his brothers Rick and Harry. He briefly attended Wesleyan University.


title: William R. Moses

text: Moses is probably best known for playing Cole Gioberti in the 1980s prime-time soap opera "Falcon Crest", for six seasons from 1981–86 (although he returned for two guest appearances during the show's seventh season in 1987).


title: William R. Moses

text: In 1988, Moses co-starred in the film "Mystic Pizza" with Julia Roberts. He then joined Raymond Burr in 17 "Perry Mason" TV movies from 1989–93, playing Ken Malansky, an attorney who worked with title character Mason as a private investigator (although in Moses' first appearance as Malansky, the character – then a law student – was defended by Mason on a murder charge). Moses continued the role in the four TV films produced after Burr's death in 1993, subtitled "A Perry Mason Mystery" (which aired until 1995 and starring Paul Sorvino and Hal Holbrook).


title: William R. Moses

text: In 1992, Moses returned to soap operas, playing the recurring role of Keith Gray in 11 episodes of "Melrose Place". In 1997, he played David Graysmark in the short-lived series "Fame L.A.". He continued to appear in a number of films and TV movies including "Double Exposure", "Trial by Jury" (both 1994), "Hangman's Curse" (2003), "Christmas Child" (2004), "A Lover's Revenge" (2005) (starring his former "Perry Mason" co-star Alexandra Paul), and as Jack Davis in nine of the "Jane Doe" series of TV films from 2005–2008. In November 2022, he was cast in the role of Jeff Webber on the ABC soap opera "General Hospital".


title: William R. Moses

text: Moses has also made guest appearances in a variety of television series throughout his career including "Fantasy Island", "The Love Boat", "Murder, She Wrote", "" and "Homeland' and Major Crimes, among others.


title: William R. Moses

text: Moses was married to actress Tracy Nelson from 1987 to 1997, with whom he has a daughter, actress Remington Elizabeth Moses (born 1992). In 2000 he married Sarah Moses.


title: Laura Harris

text: Harris is the daughter of schoolteachers. She began acting in radio dramas and animation series when she was five years old. As a child Harris was educated at Crofton House School and attended college through UC correspondence. After working nearly 14 years in television, she broke into feature film acting as a teenager.


title: Laura Harris

text: Harris is known for her roles as Grim Reaper Daisy Adair in the cable series "Dead Like Me" and as Marie Warner in the spy drama "24". Her film career dates back to 1990 when she appeared in an adaptation of Stephen King's "It" as Loni. She appeared as Marybeth Louise Hutchinson in "The Faculty" in 1998.


title: Laura Harris

text: In 2006, Laura Harris starred as Maggie in a British-German horror film called "Severance", directed by Christopher Smith, and written by Smith and James Moran.


title: Laura Harris

text: In the summer of 2009, she co-starred in the internationally co-produced science fiction series "Defying Gravity" as Zoe Barnes.


title: Laura Harris

text: She has also done voice-overs in animated TV shows including "The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil", "Astonishing X-Men", "Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H." and "My Little Pony Tales".


Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is a technique that combines the use of endoscopy and fluoroscopy to diagnose and treat certain problems of the biliary or pancreatic ductal systems. It is primarily performed by highly skilled and specialty trained gastroenterologists. Through the endoscope, the physician can see the inside of the stomach and duodenum, and inject a contrast medium into the ducts in the biliary tree and pancreas so they can be seen on radiographs.


title: Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography

text: ERCP is used primarily to diagnose and treat conditions of the bile ducts and main pancreatic duct, including gallstones, inflammatory strictures (scars), leaks (from trauma and surgery), and cancer.


text: ERCP can be performed for diagnostic and therapeutic reasons, although the development of safer and relatively non-invasive investigations such as magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) and endoscopic ultrasound has meant that ERCP is now rarely performed without therapeutic intent.


text: The following represent indications for ERCP, particularly if or when less invasive options are not adequate or definitive:


text: Hypersensitivity to iodinated contrast medium or a history of iodinated contrast dye anaphylaxis is not a contraindication of ERCP, though it should be discussed with your health provider, and you should tell them you are allergic to iodine, as an alternative contrast iodine-free material ("dye") is then injected gently into the ducts (pancreatic or biliary) and x-rays are taken.


text: The patient is sedated or anaesthetized. Then a flexible camera (endoscope) is inserted through the mouth, down the esophagus, into the stomach, through the pylorus into the duodenum where the ampulla of Vater (the union of the common bile duct and pancreatic duct) exists. The sphincter of Oddi is a muscular valve that controls the opening to the ampulla. The region can be directly visualized with the endoscopic camera while various procedures are performed. A plastic catheter or "" is inserted through the ampulla, and radiocontrast is injected into the bile ducts and/or pancreatic duct. Fluoroscopy is used to look for blockages, or other lesions such as stones.


text: When needed, the sphincters of the ampulla and bile ducts can be enlarged by a cut (sphincterotomy) with an electrified wire called a sphincterotome for access into either so that gallstones may be removed or other therapy performed.


text: Other procedures associated with ERCP include the trawling of the common bile duct with a basket or balloon to remove gallstones and the insertion of a plastic stent to assist the drainage of bile. Also, the pancreatic duct can be cannulated and stents be inserted.


text: The pancreatic duct requires visualisation in cases of pancreatitis. Ultrasound is frequently the first investigation performed on admission; although it has little value in the diagnosis of pancreatitis or its complications. contrast-enhanced computed tomography (MD-CECT) is the most used imaging technique. However, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) offers diagnostic capabilities similar to those of CT, with additional intrinsic advantages including lack of ionizing radiation and exquisite soft tissue characterization.


text: In specific cases, other specialized or ancillary endoscopes may be used for ERCP. These include mother-baby and SpyGlass cholangioscopes (to help in diagnosis by directly visualizing the duct as opposed to only obtaining X-ray images) as well as balloon enteroscopes (e.g. in patients that have previously undergone digestive system surgery with post-Whipple or Roux-en-Y surgical anatomy).


text: One of the most frequent and feared complications after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is post-ERCP pancreatitis (PEP). In previous studies, the incidence of PEP has been estimated at 3.5 to 5%. According to Cotton et al., PEP is defined as a "clinical pancreatitis with amylase at least three times the upper limit of normal at more than 24 hours after the procedure requiring hospital admission or prolongation of planned admission". Grading of severity of PEP is mainly based on the length of hospital stay.


text: Risk factors for developing PEP include technical matters related to the ERCP procedure and patient-specific ones. The technical factors include manipulation of and injection of contrast into the pancreatic duct, cannulation attempts lasting more than five minutes, and biliary balloon sphincter dilation; among patient-related factors are female gender, younger age, and Sphincter of Oddi dysfunction. A systematic review of clinical trials concluded that a previous history of PEP or pancreatitis significantly increases the risk for PEP to 17.8% and to 5.5% respectively.


text: Intestinal perforation is a risk of any gastroenterologic endoscopic procedure, and is an additional risk if a sphincterotomy is performed. As the second part of the duodenum is anatomically in a retroperitoneal location (that is, behind the peritoneal structures of the abdomen), perforations due to sphincterotomies are retroperitoneal. Sphincterotomy is also associated with a risk of bleeding. ERCP may provoke hemobilia from trauma to friable hilar tumors or a guide-wire penetrating the bile duct wall, creating a biliary fistula. Delayed bleeding is a rare but potentially serious complication of sphincterotomy, particularly as many patients are discharged home within hours of ERCP.


text: There is also a risk associated with the contrast dye in patients who are allergic to compounds containing iodine, which can be very severe, even if the anaphylactoid reactions occur while you are in a hospital.


text: Oversedation can result in dangerously low blood pressure, respiratory depression, nausea, and vomiting.


text: Other complications (less than 1%) may include heart and lung problems, infection in the bile duct called cholangitis, that can be life-threatening, and is regarded as a medical emergency. Using antibiotics before the procedure shows some benefits to prevent cholangitis and septicaemia. In rare cases, ERCP can cause fatal complications.


text: Cases of hospital-acquired (i.e., nosocomial) infections with carbapenem resistant enterobacteriaceae linked to incompletely disinfected duodenoscopes have occurred in the U.S. since at least 2009 per the Food and Drug Administration. Outbreaks were reported from Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle in 2013, UCLA Health System Los Angeles in 2015, Chicago and Pittsburgh. The FDA issued a safety communication "Design of ERCP Duodenoscopes May Impede Effective Cleaning" in February 2015, which was updated in December 2015, and more recently in 2022 which recommended disposable components.


text: Prevalence of vitamin K and vitamin D deficiency, as bile is to assist in the breakdown and absorption of fat in the intestinal tract; a relative deficiency of bile can lead to fat malabsorption and deficiencies of fat-soluble vitamins.


title: Louis, Duke of Burgundy

text: Louis, Duke of Burgundy (16 August 1682 – 18 February 1712), was the eldest son of Louis, Grand Dauphin, and Dauphine Maria Anna and grandson of the reigning King Louis XIV of France. He was known as the "Petit Dauphin" to distinguish him from his father, who died in April 1711, when the former became the official Dauphin of France. He never reigned, as he died in 1712 while his grandfather was still on the throne. Upon the death of Louis XIV in 1715, the Duke of Burgundy's son became Louis XV.


title: Louis, Duke of Burgundy

text: Louis was born in the Palace of Versailles in 1682, the eldest son of the French Dauphin, Louis, who would later be called "le Grand Dauphin", and his wife, Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria. His father was the eldest son of the reigning king, Louis XIV and his wife Queen Maria Theresa of Spain. At birth, he received the title of Duke of Burgundy ("duc de Bourgogne"). In addition, as the son of the Dauphin and grandson to the king, he was a "fils de France" and also second in the line of succession to his grandfather, Louis XIV, after his father.


title: Louis, Duke of Burgundy

text: Louis grew up with his younger brothers: Philip, Duke of Anjou, who became King Philip V of Spain; and Charles, Duke of Berry, under the supervision of the royal governess Louise de Prie. He lost his mother when he was eight. His father, viewed as lazy and dull, never played a major role in politics.


title: Louis, Duke of Burgundy

text: At the age of 15, he was married to his second cousin, Princess Marie-Adélaïde of Savoy, the daughter of Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy and Anne Marie d'Orléans. This match had been decided as part of the Treaty of Turin, which ended Franco-Savoyard conflicts during the Nine Years' War. The wedding took place on 7 December 1697 at the Palace of Versailles.


title: Louis, Duke of Burgundy

text: In 1702, at the age of 20, Louis was admitted by his grandfather King Louis XIV to the "Conseil d'en haut" (High Council), which was in charge of state secrets regarding religion, diplomacy and war. His father had been admitted only at the age of 30.


title: Louis, Duke of Burgundy

text: In 1708, during the War of the Spanish Succession, Louis was given command of the army in Flanders, with the experienced soldier Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendôme, serving under him. The uncertainty as to which of the two should truly command the army led to delays and the need to refer decisions to Louis XIV. Continued indecision led to French inactivity as messages travelled between the front and Versailles; the Allies were then able to take the initiative. The culmination of this was the Battle of Oudenarde, where Louis's mistaken choices and reluctance to support Vendôme led to a decisive defeat for the French. In the aftermath of the defeat, his hesitation to relieve the Siege of Lille led to the loss of the city and thereby allowed the Allies to make their first incursions onto French soil.


title: Louis, Duke of Burgundy

text: Louis was influenced by the "dévots" and was surrounded by a circle of people known as the "faction de Bourgogne", notably including his old tutor François Fénelon, his old governor Paul de Beauvilliers, Duke of Saint-Aignan and his brother-in-law Charles Honoré d'Albert, Duke of Chevreuse, as well as the renowned memorialist, Louis de Rouvroy, Duke of Saint-Simon.


title: Louis, Duke of Burgundy

text: These high-ranking aristocrats sought a return to a monarchy less absolute and less centralised, with more powers granted to the individual provinces. Their view was that government should work through councils and intermediary organs between the king and the people. These intermediary councils were to be made up not by commoners from the bourgeoisie (like the ministers appointed by Louis XIV) but by aristocrats who perceived themselves as the representatives of the people and would assist the king in governance and the exercise of power. Had Louis succeeded to the throne, he might have applied this concept of monarchy.


title: Louis, Duke of Burgundy

text: Louis became Dauphin of France upon the death of his father in 1711. In February 1712, his wife contracted measles and died on February 12. Louis himself, who dearly loved his wife and who had stayed by her side throughout the fatal illness, caught the disease and died six days after her at the Château de Marly on 18 February, aged 29. Both of his sons also became infected. The elder, Louis, Duke of Brittany, the latest in a series of Dauphins, succumbed on 8 March, leaving his brother, the two-year-old Duke of Anjou, who was later to succeed to the throne as Louis XV.


title: Louis, Duke of Burgundy

text: As it was thought that the chances of survival of this frail child, now heir apparent to his seventy-three-year-old great grandfather, were minimal, a potential succession crisis loomed.


title: Louis, Duke of Burgundy

text: Moreover, overnight the broad hopes of the "faction de Bourgogne" were destroyed and its members would soon die of natural deaths. Nonetheless, some of their ideas were put into practice when the Duke of Orléans, as regent during Louis XV's minority, created a form of government known as polysynody, in which each ministry was replaced by a council composed of aristocrats. However, the absenteeism, ineptitude and squabbling of the aristocrats caused this system to fail, and it was soon abandoned in 1718 in favour of a return to absolute monarchy.


title: Bamboo torture

text: Bamboo torture is a form of torture and execution where a bamboo shoot grows through the body of a victim, and is reported to have been used in East and South Asian countries such as China, India, and especially Japan, but without reliable evidence.


title: Bamboo torture

text: A "Madras civilian", in his travel description from 1820s India, referred to this use of bamboo as a well-known punishment in Ceylon. The use of live trees impaling people as they grow was recorded in the 19th century, when the Siamese used nipah palm sprouts in the same way as bamboo torture on the Malays during the 1821 Siamese invasion of Kedah, among other punishments.


title: Bamboo torture

text: After World War II, stories circulated of Japanese soldiers inflicting "bamboo torture" upon Allied prisoners of war, securely tying the victim in place above a young bamboo shoot. Over several days, the sharp, fast-growing shoot would first puncture, then completely penetrate the victim's body, eventually emerging through the other side. In her "Hakka Soul" memoir, Chinese poet and author Woon-Ping Chin mentions the "bamboo torture" as one of the tortures that locals believed the Japanese performed on prisoners.


title: Bamboo torture

text: The cast of the TV program "MythBusters" investigated bamboo torture in a 2008 episode and found that a bamboo shoot can penetrate through several inches of ballistic gelatin in three days. For research purposes, ballistic gelatin is considered comparable to human flesh, and the experiment thus supported the viability of this form of torture, though not its historical accuracy.


title: Tokopedia

text: PT Tokopedia is an Indonesian e-commerce company. Tokopedia is a subsidiary of a new holding company called GoTo, following a merger with Gojek on 17 May 2021. It is one of the most visited e-commerce platforms in Indonesia.


title: Tokopedia

text: As of December 2020, Tokopedia claims to have more than 350 million product listings and 42 digital products, and serves over 100 million monthly active users as well as over 9.7 million merchants on its platform.


title: Tokopedia

text: William Tanuwijaya and Leontinus Alpha Edison came up with the idea for Tokopedia in 2007. While reflecting on his childhood experience, Tanuwijaya realized that access to products such as books differed between small towns and big cities, and that technology could provide better access to products. The duo launched Tokopedia two years later with starting capital from an acquaintance.


title: Tokopedia

text: Toko is Indonesian for "shop", and is the first half of the portmanteau of the company's name, concatenated with "encyclopedia". The choice of this designation is to reflect their objective of becoming an all-encompassing marketplace for Indonesians. Tokopedia has since expanded its business to cover the fintech, payments, logistics, and retail sectors.


title: Tokopedia

text: Since 2017, Tokopedia's office resides in a 53-floor building called the Tokopedia Tower, located in the central business district of Jakarta.


title: Tokopedia

text: As of 2018, it is claimed that Tokopedia's products and services are accessible in 93% of sub-districts across Indonesia.


title: Tokopedia

text: In 2009, Tokopedia received seed funding from PT Indonusa Dwitama of IDR 2.5 billion. Tokopedia later attracted capital injections from venture capitalists including East Ventures (in 2010), CyberAgent Ventures (in 2011), NetPrice (in 2012), and SoftBank Ventures Korea (in 2013).


title: Tokopedia

text: In October 2014, Tokopedia became the first technology company in Southeast Asia to receive a US$100 million investment, led by Sequoia Capital and SoftBank Internet and Media Inc (SIMI).


title: Tokopedia

text: In April 2016, Tokopedia raised another US$147 million. A year later, it received US$1.1 billion in a new round of investment, led by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group. In 2018, an additional US$1.1 billion was injected into the company, in a round led by existing investors Alibaba and SoftBank, raising the company's valuation to approximately US$7 billion.


title: Tokopedia

text: Tokopedia provides a customer-to-customer (C2C) platform that is free to use for merchants and buyers. Brands operating on a business-to-customer (B2C) basis have the option to set up verified, official stores on the platform too. Products listed on Tokopedia vary widely across at least 25 categories, ranging from food and beverages to beauty and fashion products, and more.


title: Tokopedia

text: Tokopedia also offers digital products such as credit, bill payments, voucher and ticket purchases, and others.


title: Tokopedia

text: In 2018, Tokopedia launched "Mitra Tokopedia" to offer fintech solutions such as digital wallets (e-wallets), virtual credit cards, insurance, and more. Mitra is targeted at small business owners such as grocery stores and family-owned "warungs".


title: Tokopedia

text: In 2019, Tokopedia launched a smart fulfilment service called "TokoCabang", which helps sellers to expand their business across Indonesia. Tokopedia Salam was launched not long after—a service that supports Sharia market needs in Indonesia by providing Umrah services. Users can also purchase a variety of Muslim-friendly products and services through Salam. Sharia-compliant payment methods and investment products are also available on Tokopedia's platform.


title: Tokopedia

text: Tokopedia suffered a data breach on 2 May 2020, when the personal information of 15 million users were hacked, including their gender, locations, usernames, full names, email addresses, phone numbers, and hashed passwords. The hacker, under the pseudonym "ShinyHunters", put up the entire database purported to have 91 million records for sale at a price of US$5,000.


title: Tokopedia

text: Since 2020, Tokopedia has engaged renowned artists and celebrities to be its brand ambassadors, such as K-pop idol groups BTS, Blackpink, and Twice, among others.


title: Macropodidae

text: Macropodidae is a family of marsupials that includes kangaroos, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, wallaroos, pademelons, quokkas, and several other groups. These genera are allied to the suborder Macropodiformes, containing other macropods, and are native to the Australian continent (the mainland and Tasmania), New Guinea and nearby islands.


title: Macropodidae

text: Although omnivorous kangaroos lived in the past, modern macropods are herbivorous. Some are browsers, but most are grazers and are equipped with appropriately specialised teeth for cropping and grinding up fibrous plants, in particular grasses and sedges. In general, macropods have a broad, straight row of cutting teeth at the front of the mouth, no canine teeth, and a gap before the molars. The molars are large and, unusually, do not appear all at once but a pair at a time at the back of the mouth as the animal ages, eventually becoming worn down by the tough, abrasive grasses and falling out. Like many Macropodiformes, early kangaroos had plagiaulacoids, but these converted into normal molars in more derived species. Most species have four molars and, when the last pair is too worn to be of use, the animals starve to death. The dental formula for macropods is .


title: Macropodidae

text: Like the eutherian ruminants of the Northern Hemisphere (sheep, cattle, and so on), macropods have specialised digestive systems that use a high concentration of bacteria, protozoans, and fungi in the first chamber of a complex stomach to digest plant material. The details of organisation are quite different, but the end result is somewhat similar.


title: Macropodidae

text: The particular structure-function relationship of the Macropodidae gut and the gut microbiota allows the degradation of lignocellulosic material with a relatively low emission of methane relative to other ruminants. These low emissions are partly explained by the anatomical differences between the macropodid digestive system and that of ruminants, resulting in shorter retention times of particulate digesta within the foregut. This fact might prevent the establishment of methanogenic archaea, which has been found in low levels in tammar wallabies ("Notamacropus eugenii") and eastern grey kangaroo ("M. giganteus"). Metagenomic analysis revealed that the foregut of tammar wallabies mainly contains bacteria belonging to the phyla Bacillota, Bacteroidota, and Pseudomonadota. Among Pseudomonadota populations of the Succinivibrionaceae family are overrepresented and may contribute to low methane emissions.


title: Macropodidae

text: Macropods vary in size considerably, but most have very large hind legs and long, powerfully muscled tails. The term macropod comes from the Greek for "large foot" and is appropriate: most have very long, narrow hind feet with a distinctive arrangement of toes. The fourth toe is very large and strong, the fifth toe moderately so; the second and third are fused; and the first toe is usually missing. Their short front legs have five separate digits. Some macropods have seven carpal bones instead of the usual eight in mammals. All have relatively small heads and most have large ears, except for tree-kangaroos, which must move quickly between closely spaced branches. The young are born very small and the pouch opens forward.


title: Macropodidae

text: The unusual development of the hind legs is optimised for economical long-distance travel at fairly high speed. The greatly elongated feet provide enormous leverage for the strong legs, but the famous kangaroo hop has more: kangaroos and wallabies have a unique ability to store elastic strain energy in their tendons. In consequence, most of the energy required for each hop is provided "free" by the spring action of the tendons (rather than by muscular effort). The main limitation on a macropod's ability to leap is not the strength of the muscles in the hindquarters, it is the ability of the joints and tendons to withstand the strain of hopping.


title: Macropodidae

text: In addition, the hopping action is linked to breathing. As the feet leave the ground, air is expelled from the lungs by what amounts to an internal piston; bringing the feet forward ready for landing fills the lungs again, providing further energy efficiency. Studies of kangaroos and wallabies have demonstrated that, beyond the minimum energy expenditure required to hop at all, increased speed requires very little extra effort (much less than the same speed increase in, say, a horse, a dog, or a human), and also that little extra energy is required to carry extra weight – something that is of obvious importance to females carrying large pouch young.


title: Macropodidae

text: The ability of larger macropods to survive on poor-quality, low-energy feed, and to travel long distances at high speed without great energy expenditure (to reach fresh food supplies or waterholes, and to escape predators) has been crucial to their evolutionary success on a continent that, because of poor soil fertility and low, unpredictable average rainfall, offers only very limited primary plant productivity.


title: Macropodidae

text: Gestation in macropods lasts about a month, being slightly longer in the largest species. Typically, only a single young is born, weighing less than at birth. They soon attach themselves to one of four teats inside the mother's pouch. The young leave the pouch after five to 11 months, and are weaned after a further two to six months. Macropods reach sexual maturity at one to three years of age, depending on the species.


title: Macropodidae

text: The evolutionary ancestors of marsupials split from placental mammals during the Jurassic period about 160 million years ago (Mya). The earliest known fossil macropod dates back about 11.61 to 28.4 Mya, either in the Miocene or Late Oligocene, and was uncovered in South Australia. Unfortunately, the fossil could not be identified any further than the family. A Queensland fossil of a species similar to "Hadronomas" has been dated at around 5.33 to 11.61 Mya, falling in the Late Miocene or Early Pliocene. The earliest completely identifiable fossils are from around 5.33 Mya.


title: Macropodidae

text: The listing for extant species is based on The Third edition of Wilson & Reeder's Mammal Species of the World (2005), except where the Mammal Diversity Database and IUCN agree on a change. The two living subfamilies in the family Macropodidae are the Lagostrophinae, represented by a single species, the banded hare-wallaby, and the remainder, which make up the subfamily Macropodinae (67 species).


title: Arborist

text: An arborist, tree surgeon, or (less commonly) arboriculturist, is a professional in the practice of arboriculture, which is the cultivation, management, and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines, and other perennial woody plants in dendrology and horticulture.


title: Arborist

text: Arborists generally focus on the health and safety of individual plants and trees, rather than managing forests or harvesting wood (forestry or silviculture). An arborist's scope of work is therefore distinct from that of either a forester or a logger.


title: Arborist

text: In order for arborists to work near power wires, either additional training is required or they need to be certified as a Qualified Line Clearance Arborist or Utility Arborist (there may be different terminology for various countries). There is a variety of minimum distances that must be kept from power wires depending on voltage, however the common distance for low voltage lines in urban settings is 10 feet (about 3 metres).


title: Arborist

text: Arborists who climb (as not all do) can use a variety of techniques to ascend into the tree. The least invasive, and most popular technique used is to ascend on rope. There are two common methods of climbing, Single Rope System (SRS) and Moving Rope System (MRS). When personal safety is an issue, or the tree is being removed, arborists may use 'spikes', (also known as 'gaffs' or 'spurs') attached to their chainsaw boots with straps to ascend and work. Spikes wound the tree, leaving small holes where each step has been.


title: Arborist

text: An arborist's work may involve very large and complex trees, or ecological communities and their abiotic components in the context of the landscape ecosystem. These may require monitoring and treatment to ensure they are healthy, safe, and suitable to property owners or community standards. This work may include some or all of the following: planting; transplanting; pruning; structural support; preventing, or diagnosing and treating phytopathology or parasitism; preventing or interrupting grazing or predation; installing lightning protection; and removing vegetation deemed as hazardous, an invasive species, a disease vector, or a weed.


title: Arborist

text: Arborists may also plan, consult, write reports and give legal testimony. While some aspects of this work are done on the ground or in an office, much of it is done by arborists who perform tree services and who climb the trees with ropes, harnesses and other equipment. Lifts and cranes may be used too. The work of all arborists is not the same. Some may just provide a consulting service; others may perform climbing, pruning and planting: whilst others may provide a combination of all of these services.


title: Arborist

text: Arborists gain qualifications to practice arboriculture in a variety of ways and some arborists are more qualified than others. Experience working safely and effectively in and around trees is essential. Arborists tend to specialize in one or more disciplines of arboriculture, such as diagnosis and treatment of pests, diseases and nutritional deficiencies in trees, climbing and pruning, cabling and lightning protection, or perhaps consultation and report writing. All these disciplines are related and some arborists are very well experienced in all areas of tree work, but not all arborists have the training or experience to properly practice every discipline.


title: Arborist

text: Arborists choose to pursue formal certification, which is available in some countries and varies somewhat by location. An arborist who holds certification in one or more disciplines may be expected to participate in rigorous continuing education requirements to ensure continuous improvement of skills and techniques.


title: Arborist

text: In Australia, arboricultural education and training are streamlined countrywide through a multi-disciplinary vocational education, training, and qualification authority called the Australian Qualifications Framework, which offers varying levels of professional qualification. Government institutions including Technical and Further Education TAFE offer Certificate III or a diploma in arboriculture as well as some universities. There are also many private institutions covering similar educational framework in each state Recognition of prior learning is also an option for practicing arborists with 10 or more years of experience with no prior formal training. It allows them to be assessed and fast track their certification.


title: Arborist

text: In France, a qualified arborist must hold a "Management of Ornamental Trees" certificate, and a qualified arborist climber must hold a "Pruning and Care of Trees" certificate; both delivered by the French Ministry of Agriculture.


title: Arborist

text: In the UK, an arborist can gain qualifications up to and including a master's degree. College-based courses include further education qualifications, such as national certificate, national diploma, while higher education courses in arboriculture include foundation degree, bachelor's degree and master's degree.


title: Arborist

text: In the US, a Certified Arborist (CA) is a professional who has over three years of documented and verified experience and has passed a rigorous written test from the International Society of Arboriculture. Other designations include Municipal Specialist, Utility Specialist and Board Certified Master Arborist (BCMA). The USA and Canada also have college-based training which if passed will give the certificate of Qualified Arborist. The Qualified Arborist can then be used to offset partial experience towards the Certified Arborist.


title: Arborist

text: Tree Risk Assessment Qualified credential (TRAQ) designed by the International Society of Arboriculture was launched in 2013. At that time people holding the TRACE credential were transferred over to the TRAQ credential.


title: Arborist

text: In Canada, there are provincially governed apprenticeship programs that allow arborists' to work near power lines upon completion. These apprenticeship program have to meet the provincial regulations (for example in BC WorkSafeBC G19.30), and individuals must ensure they meet the requirements of the owner of the power system.


title: Arborist

text: Trees in urban landscape settings are often subject to disturbances, whether human or natural, both above and below ground. They may require care to improve their chances of survival following damage from either biotic or abiotic causes. Arborists can provide appropriate solutions, such as pruning trees for health and good structure, for aesthetic reasons, and to permit people to walk under them (a technique often referred to as "crown raising"), or to keep them away from wires, fences and buildings (a technique referred to as "crown reduction"). Timing and methods of treatment depend on the species of tree and the purpose of the work. To determine the best practices, a thorough knowledge of local species and environments is essential.


title: Arborist

text: There can be a vast difference between the techniques and practices of professional arborists and those of inadequately trained tree workers who simply "trim trees". Some commonly offered "services" are considered unacceptable by modern arboricultural standards and may seriously damage, disfigure, weaken, or even kill trees. One such example is tree topping, lopping, or "hat-racking", where entire tops of trees or main stems are removed, generally by cross-cutting the main stem(s) or leaders, leaving large unsightly stubs. Trees that manage to survive such treatment are left prone to a spectrum of detrimental effects, including vigorous but weakly attached regrowth, pest susceptibility, pathogen intrusion, and internal decay.


title: Arborist

text: Pruning should only be done with a specific purpose in mind. Every cut is a wound, and every leaf lost is removal of some photosynthetic potential. Proper pruning can be helpful in many ways, but should always be done with the minimum amount of live tissue removed.


title: Arborist

text: In recent years, research has proven that wound dressings such as paint, tar or other coverings are unnecessary and may harm trees. The coverings may encourage growth of decay-causing fungi. Proper pruning, by cutting through branches at the right location, can do more to limit decay than wound dressing.


title: Arborist

text: Chemicals can be applied to trees for insect or disease control through soil application, stem injections or spraying. Compacted or disturbed soils can be improved in various ways.


title: Arborist

text: Arborists can also assess trees to determine the health, structure, safety or feasibility within a landscape and in proximity to humans. Modern arboriculture has progressed in technology and sophistication from practices of the past. Many current practices are based on knowledge gained through recent research, including that of Alex Shigo, considered one "father" of modern arboriculture.


title: Arborist

text: Depending on the jurisdiction, there may be a number of legal issues surrounding the practices of arborists, including boundary issues, public safety issues, "heritage" trees of community value; and "neighbor" issues such as ownership, obstruction of views, impacts of roots crossing boundaries, nuisance problems, disease or insect quarantines, and safety of nearby trees.


title: Arborist

text: Arborists are frequently consulted to establish the factual basis of disputes involving trees, or by private property owners seeking to avoid legal liability through the duty of care. Arborists may be asked to assess the value of a tree in the process of an insurance claim for trees damaged or destroyed, or to recover damages resulting from tree theft or vandalism. In cities with tree preservation orders an arborist's evaluation of tree hazard may be required before a property owner may remove a tree, or to assure the protection of trees in development plans and during construction operations. Carrying out work on protected trees and hedges is illegal without express permission from local authorities, and can result in legal action including fines. Homeowners who have entered into contracts with a homeowner's association (see also Restrictive covenants) may need an arborist's professional opinion of a hazardous condition prior to removing a tree, or may be obligated to assure the protection of the views of neighboring properties prior to planting a tree or in the course of pruning. Arborists may be consulted in forensic investigations where the evidence of a crime can be determined within the growth rings of a tree, for example. Arborists may be engaged by one member of a dispute in order to identify factual information about trees useful to that member of the dispute, or they can be engaged as an expert witness providing unbiased scientific knowledge in a court case. Homeowners associations seeking to write restrictive covenants, or legislative bodies seeking to write laws involving trees, may seek the counsel of arborists in order to avoid future difficulties.


title: Arborist

text: Before undertaking works in the UK, arborists have a legal responsibility to survey trees for wildlife, especially bats, which are afforded particular legal protection. In addition, any tree in the UK can be covered by a tree preservation order and it is illegal to conduct any work on a tree, including deadwooding or pruning, before permission has been sought from the local council.


title: Arborist

text: The protagonist in Italo Calvino's novel "The Baron in the Trees" lives life on the ground as a boy and spends the rest of his life swinging from tree to tree in the Italian countryside. As a young man he helps the local fruit farmers by pruning their trees.


title: METAR

text: METAR is a format for reporting weather information. A METAR weather report is predominantly used by aircraft pilots, and by meteorologists, who use aggregated METAR information to assist in weather forecasting.


title: METAR

text: Raw METAR is the most common format in the world for the transmission of observational weather data. It is highly standardized through the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which allows it to be understood throughout most of the world.


title: METAR

text: The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in its publication the Aeronautical Information Manual describes the report as "aviation routine weather report" while the international authority for the code form, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), describes it as the "aerodrome routine meteorological report." The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (part of the United States Department of Commerce) and the United Kingdom's Met Office both employ the definition used by the FAA. METAR is also known as "Meteorological Terminal Aviation Routine Weather Report" or "Meteorological Aerodrome Report".


title: METAR

text: METARs typically come from airports or permanent weather observation stations. Reports are generated once an hour or half-hour at most stations, but if conditions change significantly at a staffed location, a report known as a special (SPECI) may be issued. Some stations make regular reports more frequently, such as Pierce County Airport (ICAO code: KPLU) which issues reports three times per hour. Some METARs are encoded by automated airport weather stations located at airports, military bases, and other sites. Some locations still use augmented observations, which are recorded by digital sensors, encoded via software, and then reviewed by certified weather observers or forecasters prior to being transmitted. Observations may also be taken by trained observers or forecasters who manually observe and encode their observations prior to transmission.


title: METAR

text: The METAR format was introduced 1 January 1968 internationally and has been modified a number of times since. North American countries continued to use a Surface Aviation Observation (SAO) for current weather conditions until 1 June 1996, when this report was replaced with an approved variant of the METAR agreed upon in a 1989 Geneva agreement. The WMO's publication No. 782 "Aerodrome Reports and Forecasts" contains the base METAR code as adopted by the WMO member countries.


title: METAR

text: A typical METAR contains data for the temperature, dew point, wind direction and speed, precipitation, cloud cover and heights, visibility, and barometric pressure. A METAR may also contain information on precipitation amounts, lightning, and other information that would be of interest to pilots or meteorologists such as a pilot report or PIREP, colour states and runway visual range (RVR).


title: METAR

text: In addition, a short period forecast called a "TREND" may be added at the end of the METAR covering likely changes in weather conditions in the two hours following the observation. These are in the same format as a Terminal Aerodrome Forecast (TAF).


title: METAR

text: The complement to METARs, reporting forecast weather rather than current weather, are TAFs. METARs and TAFs are used in VOLMET broadcasts.


title: METAR

text: METAR code is regulated by the World Meteorological Organization in consort with the International Civil Aviation Organization. In the United States, the code is given authority (with some U.S. national differences from the WMO/ICAO model) under the "Federal Meteorological Handbook No. 1" (FMH-1), which paved the way for the U.S. Air Force Manual 15-111 on Surface Weather Observations, being the authoritative document for the U.S. Armed Forces. A very similar code form to the METAR is the SPECI. Both codes are defined at the technical regulation level in WMO Technical Regulation No. 49, Vol II, which is copied over to the WMO Manual No. 306 and to ICAO Annex III.


title: METAR

text: Although the general format of METARs is a global standard, the specific fields used within that format vary somewhat between general international usage and usage within North America. Note that there may be minor differences between countries using the international codes as there are between those using the North American conventions. The two examples which follow illustrate the primary differences between the two METAR variations.


title: METAR

text: The following is an example METAR from Burgas Airport in Burgas, Bulgaria. It was taken on 4 February 2005 at 16:00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).


title: METAR

text: METAR LBBG 041600Z 12012MPS 090V150 1400 R04/P1500N R22/P1500U +SN BKN022 OVC050 M04/M07 Q1020 NOSIG 8849//91=


title: METAR

text: North American METARs deviate from the WMO (who write the code on behalf of ICAO) FM 15-XII code. Details are listed in the FAA's Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM), but the non-compliant elements are mostly based on the use of non-standard units of measurement. This METAR example is from Trenton-Mercer Airport near Trenton, New Jersey, and was taken on 5 December 2003 at 18:53 UTC.


title: METAR

text: METAR KTTN 051853Z 04011KT 1/2SM VCTS SN FZFG BKN003 OVC010 M02/M02 A3006 RMK AO2 TSB40 SLP176 P0002 T10171017=


title: METAR

text: Note that what follows are not part of standard observations outside of the United States and can vary significantly.


title: METAR

text: In Canada, RMK is followed by a description of the cloud layers and opacities, in eighths (oktas). For example, CU5 would indicate a cumulus layer with opacity.


title: METAR

text: METARs can be expressed concisely using so-called "aviation flight categories", which indicates what classes of flight can operate at each airport by referring to the visibility and ceiling in each METAR. Four categories are used in the U.S.:


title: METAR

text: METAR abbreviations used in the weather and events section. Remarks section will also include began and end times of the weather events. Codes before remarks will be listed as "-RA" for "light rain". Codes listed after remarks may be listed as "RAB15E25" for "Rain began at 15 minutes after the top of the last hour and ended at 25 minutes after the top of the last hour."


title: METAR

text: Combinations of two precipitation types are accepted; "e.g.", RASN (Rain and snow mixed), SHGSSN "etc".


title: Lumberjack

text: Lumberjacks are mostly North American workers in the logging industry who perform the initial harvesting and transport of trees for ultimate processing into forest products. The term usually refers to loggers in the era (before 1945 in the United States) when trees were felled using hand tools and dragged by oxen to rivers. The work was difficult, dangerous, intermittent, low-paying, and involved living in primitive conditions. However, the men built a traditional culture that celebrated strength, masculinity, confrontation with danger, and resistance to modernization.


title: Lumberjack

text: The term lumberjack is of Canadian derivation. The first attested use of the word comes from an 1831 letter to the "Cobourg Star and General Advertiser" in the following passage: "my misfortunes have been brought upon me chiefly by an incorrigible, though perhaps useful, race of mortals called lumberjacks, whom, however, I would name the Cossack's of Upper Canada, who, having been reared among the oaks and pines of the wild forest, have never been subjected to the salutary restraint of laws."


title: Lumberjack

text: The term "lumberjack" is primarily historical; logger is used by workers in the 21st century. When "lumberjack" is used, it usually refers to a logger from an earlier time before the advent of chainsaws, feller-bunchers and other modern logging equipment. Other terms for the occupation include woodcutter, shanty boy and the colloquial term woodhick (Pennsylvania, US).


title: Lumberjack

text: A logger employed in driving logs down a river was known locally in northern North America as a river pig, catty-man, river hog, or river rat. The term lumberjill has been known for a woman who does this work; for example, in Britain during World War II. In Australia, the occupation is referred to as timber cutter or cool cutters.


title: Lumberjack

text: Lumberjacks worked in lumber camps and often lived a migratory life, following timber harvesting jobs as they opened. Being a lumberjack was seasonal work. Lumberjacks were exclusively men. They usually lived in bunkhouses or tents. Common equipment included the axe and cross-cut saw. Lumberjacks could be found wherever there were vast forests to be harvested and a demand for wood, most likely in Scandinavia, Canada, and parts of the United States. In the U.S., many lumberjacks were of Scandinavian ancestry, continuing the family tradition. American lumberjacks were first centred in north-eastern states such as Maine. They then followed the general westward migration on the continent to the Upper Midwest, and finally the Pacific Northwest. Stewart Holbrook documented the emergence and westward migration of the classic American lumberjack in his first book, "Holy Old Mackinaw: A Natural History of the American Lumberjack". He often wrote colourfully about lumberjacks in his subsequent books, romanticizing them as hard-drinking, hard-working men. Logging camps were slowly phased out between World War II and the early 1960s as crews could by then be transported to remote logging sites in motor vehicles.


title: Lumberjack

text: The division of labour in lumber camps led to several specialized jobs on logging crews, such as whistle punk, chaser, and high climber. The whistle punk's job was to sound a whistle (usually at the Steam donkey) as a signal to the yarder operator controlling the movement of logs. He also had to act as a safety lookout. A good whistle punk had to be alert and think fast as others' safety depended on him. The high climber (also known as a tree topper) used iron climbing hooks and rope to ascend a tall tree in the landing area of the logging site, where he would chop off limbs as he climbed, chop off the top of the tree, and finally attach pulleys and rigging to the tree. After that, it could be used as a spar so logs could be skidded into the landing. High climbers and whistle punks were both phased out in the 1960s to early 1970s when portable steel towers replaced spar trees and radio equipment replaced steam whistles for communication. The choker setters attached steel cables (or chokers) to downed logs so they could be dragged into the landing by the yarder. The chasers removed the chokers once the logs were at the landing. Choker setters and chasers were often entry-level positions on logging crews, with more experienced loggers seeking to move up to more skill-intensive positions such as yarder operator and high climber or supervisory positions such as hook tender. Despite the common perception that all loggers cut trees, the actual felling, and bucking of trees were also specialized job positions done by fallers and buckers. Faller and bucker were once two separate job titles, but they are now combined.


title: Lumberjack

text: Before the era of modern diesel or gasoline powered equipment, the existing machinery was steam powered. Animal or steam-powered skidders could be used to haul harvested logs to nearby rail roads for shipment to sawmills. Horse driven logging wheels were a means used for moving logs out of the woods. Another way for transporting logs to sawmills was to float them down a body of water or a specially-constructed log flume. Log rolling, the art of staying on top of a floating log while "rolling" the log by walking, was another skill much in demand among lumberjacks. Spiked boots known as "caulks" or "corks" were used for log rolling and often worn by lumberjacks as their regular footwear.


title: Lumberjack

text: The term "skid row", which today means a poor city neighbourhood frequented by homeless people, originated in a way in which harvested logs were once transported. Logs could be "skidded" down hills or along a corduroy road. One such street in Seattle was named Skid Road. This street later became frequented by people down on their luck, and both the name and its meaning morphed into the modern term.


title: Lumberjack

text: Tomczik (2008) has investigated the lifestyle of lumberjacks from 1840 to 1940, using records from mostly Maine and Minnesota logging camps. In a period of industrial development and modernization in urban areas, logging remained a traditional business in which the workers exhibited pride in their craft, masculinity, and closely-guarded individualism. Their camps were a bastion of the traditional workplace, as they intentionally defied modern rationalized management. At the peak in 1906 there were 500,000 lumberjacks. Logging camps were located in isolated areas that provided room and board as well as a workplace. There were usually few women present other than the wives of cooks and foremen. Men earned praise for their skill, competitiveness, and aggression. When not at work, they played rough games, told tall tales, and built up their reputations by consuming large amounts of food. By 1940, the business was undergoing major changes, as access roads and automobiles ended residential logging camps, chain saws replaced crosscut saws, and managers installed industrial methods of logging.


title: Lumberjack

text: A specialty form of logging involving the felling of trees for the production of railroad ties was known as tie hacking. These lumberjacks, called tie hacks, used saws to fell trees and cut to length, and a broad-axe to flatten two or all four sides of the log to create railroad ties. Later, portable saw mills were used to cut and shape ties. Tie hacking was an important form of logging in Wyoming and northern Colorado and the remains of tie hacking camps can be found on National Forest land. The remains of flumes can be seen near Dubois, Wyoming, and Old Roach, Colorado. In addition, a decaying splash dam exists near the Old Roach site as well. There, tie hacks attempted to float logs down to the Laramie River for the annual spring tie drives, and the splash dam was used to collect winter snow-melt to increase the water flow for the tie drive.


title: Lumberjack

text: Modern technology changed the job of the modern logger considerably. Although the basic task of harvesting trees is still the same, the machinery and tasks are no longer the same. Many of the old job specialties on logging crews are now obsolete.


title: Lumberjack

text: Chainsaws, harvesters, and feller bunchers are now used to cut or fell trees. The tree is turned into logs by removing the limbs (delimbing) and cutting it into logs of optimal length (bucking). The felled tree or logs are moved from the stump to the landing. Ground vehicles such as a skidder or forwarder can pull, carry, or shovel the logs. Cable systems "cars" can pull logs to the landing. Logs can also be flown to the landing by helicopter. Logs are commonly transported to the sawmill using trucks. Harvesting methods may include clear cutting or selective cutting. Concerns over the environmental impact have led to controversy about modern logging practices. In certain areas of forest loggers re-plant their crop for future generations.


title: Lumberjack

text: A "Wall Street Journal" survey on the best jobs in the United States ended by listing being a logger as the "worst" "3D's" job, citing "work instability, poor income, and pure danger". According to a Wall St. review studying the 71 most dangerous jobs, the most dangerous job was identified as that of logging workers in 2020.


title: Lumberjack

text: Lumberjacks and loggers have one of the most dangerous jobs in the United States. The constant danger of being around heavy equipment and chainsaws in unsafe areas maximizes the danger. Proper PPE consists of eye protection, head protection, ear protection, long sleeves, chaps (if working with a chainsaw), and steel toe boots. When entering this profession, it is emphasized to be on one's toes because individuals are responsible for their own safety to guard against many uncontrollable hazards in the timber. For example, the weather can cause a dangerous situation quicker than one may realize. Additionally, logs and trees often plummet down a mountainside with no regard for what is in its way. In the United States, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has resources dedicated for logging safety, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has identified logging as a priority area of safety research under the National Occupational Research Agenda.


title: Lumberjack

text: The sport of Loggersports grew out of competitions in lumber camps aimed at determining the best woodcutters. Today, these competitions are used to acknowledge the rich history of forestry and logging and to keep traditions alive.


title: Lumberjack

text: The STIHL Timbersports Series was founded in 1985, and brings competitors from across the world to compete in six woodsman or wood chopping competitions. The events are broadcast worldwide on a variety of networks, including ESPN, ABC, and Eurosport.


title: Lumberjack

text: In Canada, Squamish Days Loggers Sports in Squamish, British Columbia, attracts the finest competitors to its weekend festival in August each year. The event has entertainers such as Johnny Cash, who, in 1991, performed at the 5,000-seat Loggers Sports grounds during his Roadshow tour.


title: Lumberjack

text: The Woodsmen's Days events at Tupper Lake, New York commemorate the lumberjack with logging competitions and demonstrations during mid-July. Many colleges have woodsmen teams or forestry clubs who compete regionally, nationally, and internationally. The Association of Southern Forestry Clubs, for example, sponsors an annual Forestry Conclave with 250 contestants and a variety of events.


title: Lumberjack

text: There are also lumberjack shows which tour the United States, demonstrating traditional logging practices to the general public. The annual Lumberjack World Championships have been held in Hayward, Wisconsin since 1960. Over 12,000 visitors come to the event each year in late July to watch men and women compete in 21 different events, including log rolling, chopping, timed hot (power) and bucksaw cutting, and tree climbing.


title: Lumberjack

text: In 2014, the term "lumbersexual" emerged in online culture due to an observation that outdoor gear was used because of its aesthetics, not function. Whereas similar terms such as "the Urban Woodsman" existed since 2012, the term "lumbersexual" became popular in fashion magazines and online outlets during 2015 and 2016. The term "lumbersexual" is a near antonymous play on the earlier "metrosexual", a metropolitan-heterosexual man who values appearances, apparel and aesthetics. Unlike the metrosexual, the lumbersexual is a man who adopted the stylistic traits of outdoor gear, namely a beard, plaid shirt, and work boots, in urban environments. Media reports show lumbersexuals adorned by neck and sleeve tattoos. Whereas commentators discussed whether the lumbersexual is an attempt to "reclaim masculinity", researchers show that the term is a media representation that very few people actually use for self identification.


title: Lumberjack

text: In popular culture, the stereotypical lumberjack is a strong, burly, usually bearded man who lives to brave the natural environment. He is depicted as wearing suspenders, a long-sleeved plaid flannel shirt, and heavy caulk boots, and is often characterized as having a voracious appetite, especially for flapjacks. He works by cutting down trees with either an axe or with the help of another lumberjack and a crosscut saw, as opposed to the modern chainsaw.


title: Lumberjack

text: The most famous depiction of a lumberjack in folklore is Paul Bunyan. Several towns claim to have been Paul Bunyan's home and have constructed statues of Bunyan and his blue ox "Babe".


title: Lumberjack

text: Known for their many exploits, many real life loggers have become renowned for their extraordinary strength, intuition, and knowledge of the woods. Men such as Jigger Johnson, the Maine woodsman who supposedly kicked knots off frozen logs barefooted, and Joseph Montferrand (better known as Big Joe Mufferaw), the French-Canadian known for his physical prowess and desire to protect the French-speaking logger, have been celebrated as folk heroes throughout North America, and have contributed to the myths of the Lumberjack.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: United Overseas Bank Limited (), often known as UOB, is a Singaporean multinational banking corporation headquartered in Singapore, with branches mostly found in most Southeast Asian countries. Founded in 1935 as United Chinese Bank (UCB) by Sarawak businessman Chew Teck Weng, the bank was set up together with a group of Chinese-born businessmen. The bank is the third largest bank in Southeast Asia by total assets.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: UOB provides commercial and corporate banking services, personal financial services, private banking and asset management services, as well as corporate finance, venture capital, investment, and Insurance services. It has 68 branches in Singapore and a network of more than 500 offices in 19 countries and territories in Asia Pacific, Western Europe and North America.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: On 6 August 1935, businessman Wee Kheng Chiang, together with six other friends, established the bank after raising S$1 million. The bank was named "United Chinese Bank (UCB)" to emphasise its links to the Chinese population in Singapore. In October 1935, UCB opened for business in the three-story Bonham Building. In 1965, the bank was renamed United Overseas Bank (Chinese name unchanged) to avoid duplication with another "United Chinese Bank" in Hong Kong (), and opened its first overseas branch in Hong Kong.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: In 1970, UOB was listed on the Joint Stock Exchange of Singapore and Malaysia. At the time, the stock exchange had an office in both Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. After it was publicly listed, the bank went through a series of targeted acquisitions. The bank first acquired the controlling stake of Chung Khiaw Bank in 1971, which expanded its domestic presence and also gave the bank offices in Malaysia and Hong Kong. A new logo for both United Overseas Bank and Chung Khiaw Bank was launched in January 1972.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: In 1973, UOB then acquired Lee Wah Bank, which provided services in Malaysia and Singapore. In that same year, the bank built a new 30-storey office tower in place of the Bonham Building, which was named the UOB Building (now known as UOB Plaza 2). The company continued with acquisitions, with Far Eastern Bank in 1984, Westmont Bank (now known as UOB Philippines) and Radanasin Bank (now known as United Overseas Bank (Thai) Public Company Limited) in 1999. The bank then merged with the Overseas Union Bank Limited (OUB) in a deal estimated to be worth S$10 billion in 2001.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: In 2002, UOB started expanding into the Chinese market by opening a new full-service branch office in Shanghai and upgrading of its Beijing office to a full-service branch.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: On 18 January 2019, UOB was listed in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) for the first time in recognition of gender equality.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: "* Percentage is calculated based on the total number of issued ordinary shares, excluding treasury shares."


title: United Overseas Bank

text: UOB has branches and offices located across Asia Pacific, North America and Western Europe, with most of their operations located mainly in Southeast Asian countries such as Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: Headquartered in the UOB Building in Sydney, UOB Australia opened its first branch in MLC Centre as a merchant bank in 1986 to emphasize on trade and financing between Australia and Asia. The bank now has offices in Melbourne and Brisbane, in addition to the branch in Sydney and currently offers merchant bank services comprising current accounts, deposits, lending, asset finance, trade finance, structured finance, cash management, and cross-border payments.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: UOB's operations in Brunei started in 1974, under Overseas Union Bank (OUB). When UOB acquired the Overseas Union Bank in January 2002, the operations of the branches in Brunei was handed over to UOB. On 1 October 2005, the bank relocated its branch office in Bandar Seri Begawan.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: In 2015, UOB sold its retail banking business to Baiduri Bank Berhad for S$65.044 million. The bank currently provides a full range of commercial and corporate banking services through the branch located in the country. It also operates UOB Asset Management in Brunei, which offers investment management expertise to individuals, institutions and corporations.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: Operations in mainland China first started in 1984, with a representative office in Beijing. Incorporated on 18 December 2007 as UOB (China) and headquartered in Shanghai, UOB has 17 branches and sub-branches strategically located in major cities such as Shenyang, Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Xiamen, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Suzhou and Chongqing offering retail and wholesale banking services.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: UOB opened its first overseas branch in British Hong Kong in 1965, with the branch mainly focusing on trade financing and corporate banking. The bank currently has 3 branches, with a main branch offering full personal and corporate banking services.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: In December 2009, UOB opened its first branch in Mumbai, offering retail and wholesale banking services, including lending, treasury and trade finance products, to corporates, financial institutions and consumers.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: UOB Indonesia was founded on 31 August 1956 as PT Bank Buana Indonesia. Headquartered in Jakarta, the bank offers commercial banking and treasury services, such as deposits taking, loans to small and medium enterprises, and foreign exchange transactions. The company also offers various fee-based services, such as purchase and sale of travellers cheques and banknotes. It has a network of 41 branches, 172 sub-branches and 173 ATMs located across 30 cities in Indonesia.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: Founded in December 1972, UOB Japan offers wholesale services including corporate banking, debt securities investments, treasury, trade finance, current accounts and banknotes trading. UOB has 1 branch in Tokyo. Operations of OUB in Tokyo was also integrated in 2002 when UOB acquired the bank in 2002.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: Incorporated in 1993, UOB Malaysia was integrated with Lee Wah Bank in 1994 to operate as a single entity. Lee Wah Bank was founded in 1920 in Singapore, with its first Malaysian branch opened in 1956. In 1973, Lee Wah Bank became a wholly owned subsidiary of UOB and was merged with UOB Malaysia in 1994. In 1997, UOB Malaysia merged with Chung Khiaw Bank (Malaysia) before merging with OUB Malaysia in 2002 to centralise its operations in Malaysia.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: The bank offers an extensive range of commercial and personal financial services: deposits, unit trusts, UOB Bancassurance, privilege banking, e-banking, commercial lending, investment banking, treasury services, trade services, home loans, debit and credit cards, wealth management, structured investment, general insurance and life insurance.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: In November 1999, UOB bought a 60% stake in a local bank, Westmont Bank and the bank was renamed UOB Philippines. In July 2002, UOB increased it stake to 100%, resulting in UOB Philippines becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the banking group. In 2006, UOB Philippines's 66 bank branches were sold to Banco De Oro Universal Bank and the bank ceased to be a commercial bank, with its license converted into a thrift bank license.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: In August 2015, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank of the Philippines, approved the bank's application for a commercial bank license, and in the following year UOB Philippines opened its first commercial branch in Manila, being the 6th foreign bank in the Philippines to receive the license.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: In 1983, UOB opened its first representative office in Seoul and in 1998, the bank has a total of S$81 million assets in South Korea. The bank currently operates a branch in Seoul.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: On 19 December 2011, United Overseas Bank launched its free mobile UOB Mobile application. Mobile Cash, a key feature of this application, allows all UOB customers to send cash to any registered recipient who can withdraw the money from more than 600 UOB ATMs in Singapore. Initially only available on the Apple Appstore, the application soon became available to users of Android and Blackberry smartphones.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: On 14 February 2019, UOB announced that it will launch TMRW (the first mobile-only bank) with Thailand the first country to get this service. More ASEAN countries will get this service in the coming months, in a push to cater to millennials who mainly use mobile phones for banking. UOB aims to attract three to five million users for this service in the next five years. The service launched in March that year.


title: United Overseas Bank

text: On 3 August 2020, UOB launched TMRW in Indonesia after alluding to it earlier on 21 February. Subsequently on 28 September 2021, UOB announced a $500 million boost in digital banking investments over the next five years to double its digital customers to seven million by 2026 and expand digital offerings in Singapore and ASEAN. This will include combining UOB Mighty app with the TMRW app to form the UOB TMRW app, which will be launched in Singapore by the fourth quarter of 2021. The app was first given to UOB employees as a pilot. In addition, digital banking services will be unified in countries like Malaysia and Vietnam.


title: Vittorio De Sica

text: Vittorio De Sica ( , ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement.


title: Vittorio De Sica

text: Four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: "Sciuscià" and "Bicycle Thieves" (honorary), while "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" and "Il giardino dei Finzi Contini" won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Indeed, the great critical success of "Sciuscià" (the first foreign film to be so recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) and "Bicycle Thieves" helped establish the permanent Best Foreign Film Award. These two films are considered part of the canon of classic cinema. "Bicycle Thieves" was deemed the greatest film of all time by "Sight & Sound" magazine's poll of filmmakers and critics in 1958, and was cited by Turner Classic Movies as one of the 15 most influential films in cinema history.


title: Vittorio De Sica

text: De Sica was also nominated for the 1957 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for playing Major Rinaldi in American director Charles Vidor's 1957 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms", a movie that was panned by critics and proved a box office flop. De Sica's acting was considered the highlight of the film.


title: Vittorio De Sica

text: He was born on 7 July 1901 in Sora, Lazio, the son of Neapolitan parents. His father was an officer of the Bank of Italy, and was transferred from Naples to Sora, Italy. De Sica began his career as a theatre actor in the early 1920s and joined Tatiana Pavlova's theatre company in 1923. In 1933 he founded his own company with his wife Giuditta Rissone and Sergio Tofano. The company performed mostly light comedies, but they also staged plays by Beaumarchais and worked with famous directors like Luchino Visconti.


title: Vittorio De Sica

text: His meeting with the screenwriter Cesare Zavattini was a very important event: together they created some of the most celebrated films of the neorealistic age, like "Sciuscià" ("Shoeshine") and "Bicycle Thieves" (released as "The Bicycle Thief" in America), both of which De Sica directed.


title: Vittorio De Sica

text: His passion for gambling was well known. Because of it, he often lost large sums of money and accepted work that might not otherwise have interested him. He never kept his gambling a secret from anyone; in fact, he projected it on characters in his own movies, like "Count Max" (which he acted in but did not direct) and "The Gold of Naples", as well as in "General Della Rovere", a film directed by Rossellini in which De Sica played the title role.


title: Vittorio De Sica

text: In 1937 Vittorio De Sica married the actress Giuditta Rissone, who gave birth to their daughter, Emilia (Emi). In 1942, on the set of "Un garibaldino al convento", he met Spanish actress María Mercader (cousin of Ramon Mercader, Leon Trotsky's assassin), with whom he started a relationship. After divorcing Rissone in France in 1954, he married Mercader in 1959 in Mexico, but this union was not considered valid under Italian law. In 1968 he obtained French citizenship and married Mercader in Paris. Meanwhile, he had already had two sons with her: Manuel, in 1949, a musician, and Christian, in 1951, who would follow his father's path as an actor and director.


title: Vittorio De Sica

text: He was a Roman Catholic and a communist. Although divorced, De Sica never parted from his first family. He led a double family life, with double celebrations on holidays. It is said that, at Christmas and on New Year's Eve, he used to put back the clocks by two hours in Mercader's house so that he could make a toast at midnight with both families. His first wife agreed to keep up the facade of a marriage so as not to leave her daughter without a father.


title: Vittorio De Sica

text: Vittorio De Sica died at 73 after surgery due to lung cancer at the Neuilly-sur-Seine hospital in Paris.


title: Vittorio De Sica

text: Vittorio De Sica was given the Interfilm Grand Prix in 1971 by the Berlin International Film Festival.


title: Vittorio De Sica

text: Note: on many sources, "Fontana di Trevi" by Carlo Campogalliani (1960) and "La bonne soupe" by Robert Thomas (1964) are included but de Sica does not appear in those films.


title: Qarmatians

text: The Qarmatians (; ) were a militant Isma'ili Shia movement centred in al-Hasa in Eastern Arabia, where they established a religious-utopian socialist state in 899 CE. Its members were part of a movement that adhered to a syncretic branch of Sevener Ismaili Shia Islam, and were ruled by a dynasty founded by Abu Sa'id al-Jannabi, a Persian from Jannaba in coastal Fars. They rejected the claim of Fatimid caliph Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah to imamate and clung to their belief in the coming of the Mahdi, and they revolted against the Fatimid and Abbasid Caliphates.


title: Qarmatians

text: Mecca was sacked by a Qarmatian leader, Abu Tahir al-Jannabi, outraging the Muslim world, particularly with their theft of the Black Stone and desecration of the Zamzam Well with corpses during the Hajj season of 930 CE.


title: Qarmatians

text: The origin of the name "Qarmatian" is uncertain. According to some sources, the name derives from the surname of the sect's founder, Hamdan Qarmat. The name "qarmat" probably comes from the Aramaic for "short-legged", "red-eyed" or "secret teacher". Other sources, however, say that the name comes from the Arabic verb ("qarmaṭ"), which means "to make the lines close together in writing" or "to walk with short steps". The word "Qarmatian" can also refer to a type of Arabic script.


title: Qarmatians

text: The Qarāmiṭah in southern Iraq were also known as "the Greengrocers" ("al-Baqliyyah") because they followed the teachings of Abū Hātim al-Zutti, who, in 908, forbid animal slaughter. He also forbid radishes and alliums such as garlic, onions, and leeks. By 928, it is uncertain whether people still held on to these teachings.


title: Qarmatians

text: Under the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258 CE), various Shiite groups organised in secret opposition to their rule. Among them were the supporters of the proto-Ismā‘īlī community, of whom the most prominent group were called the "Mubārakiyyah".


title: Qarmatians

text: According to the Ismaili school of thought, Imām Ja'far al-Sadiq (702–765) designated his second son, Isma'il ibn Ja'far (ca. 721–755), as heir to the Imamate. However, Ismā‘īl predeceased his father. Some claimed he had gone into hiding, but the proto-Ismā‘īlī group accepted his death and therefore accordingly recognized Ismā‘īl's eldest son, Muhammad ibn Isma'il (746–809), as Imām. He remained in contact with the Mubārakiyyah group, most of whom resided in Kufa.


title: Qarmatians

text: The split among the Mubārakiyyah came with the death of Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl (ca. 813 CE). The majority of the group denied his death; they recognized him as the Mahdi. The minority believed in his death and would eventually emerge in later times as the Isma'ili Fatimid Caliphate, the precursors to all modern groups.


title: Qarmatians

text: The majority Ismā‘īlī missionary movement settled in Salamiyah (in present-day Syria) and had great success in Khuzestan (southwestern Iran), where the Ismā‘īlī leader al-Husayn al-Ahwāzī converted the Kūfan man Ḥamdān in 874 CE, who took the name "Qarmaṭ" after his new faith. Qarmaṭ and his theologian brother-in-law ‘Abdān prepared southern Iraq for the coming of the Mahdi by creating a military and religious stronghold. Other such locations grew up in Yemen, in Eastern Arabia (Arabic "Bahrayn") in 899, and in North Africa. These attracted many new Shi'i followers due to their activist and messianic teachings. This new proto-Qarmaṭī movement continued to spread into Greater Iran and then into Transoxiana.


title: Qarmatians

text: A change in leadership in Salamiyah in 899 led to a split in the movement. The minority Ismā‘īlīs, whose leader had taken control of the Salamiyah centre, began to proclaim their teachings – that Imām Muḥammad "had" died, and that the new leader in Salamiyah (Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah) was in fact his descendant come out of hiding and was the Mahdi (a Messianic figure who will appear on Earth before the Day of Judgment and rid the world of wrongdoing, injustice and tyranny). Qarmaṭ and his brother-in-law opposed this and openly broke with the Salamiyids; when ‘Abdān was assassinated, he went into hiding and subsequently repented. Qarmaṭ became a missionary of the new Imām, Abdallah al-Mahdi Billah (873–934), who founded the Fatimid Caliphate in North Africa in 909.


title: Qarmatians

text: Nonetheless, the dissident group retained the name Qarmaṭī. Their greatest stronghold remained in Bahrain, which at this period included much of eastern Arabia as well as the islands that comprise the present state. It was under Abbasid control at the end of the ninth century, but the Zanj Rebellion in Basra disrupted the power of Baghdad. The Qarmaṭians seized their opportunity under their leader, Abu Sa'id al-Jannabi, a Persian who hailed from Jannaba in coastal Fars. Eventually, from Qatar, he captured Bahrain's capital Hajr and al-Hasa in 899, which he made the capital of his state and once in control of the state he sought to set up a utopian society.


title: Qarmatians

text: The Qarmaṭians instigated what one scholar termed a "century of terror" in Kufa. They considered the pilgrimage to Mecca a superstition and once in control of the Bahrayni state, they launched raids along the pilgrim routes crossing the Arabian Peninsula: in 906 they ambushed the pilgrim caravan returning from Mecca and massacred 20,000 pilgrims.


title: Qarmatians

text: Under al-Jannabi (ruled 923–944), the Qarmaṭians came close to capturing Baghdad in 927, and sacked Mecca and Medina in 930. In their attack on Islam's holiest sites, the Qarmatians desecrated the Zamzam Well with corpses of Hajj pilgrims and took the Black Stone from Mecca to Ain Al Kuayba in Qatif. Holding the Black Stone to ransom, they forced the Abbasids to pay a huge sum for its return in 952.


title: Qarmatians

text: The revolution and desecration shocked the Muslim world and humiliated the Abbasids. But little could be done; for much of the tenth century the Qarmatians were the most powerful force in the Persian Gulf and Middle East, controlling the coast of Oman and collecting tribute from the caliph in Baghdad as well as from a rival Isma'ili imam in Cairo, the head of the Fatimid Caliphate, whose power they did not recognize.


title: Qarmatians

text: The land they ruled over was extremely wealthy with a huge slave-based economy according to academic Yitzhak Nakash: