title: Abkhaz language

text: The affixes mark number, definiteness and possession, as well as some case-like elements. Taken as a whole, the entire morphological structure of the Abkhaz noun is as follows:


title: Abkhaz language

text: As with verbs, not all of these elements can occur at the same time. The individual parts of noun morphology are addressed below.


title: Abkhaz language

text: There is a range of definiteness in Abkhaz. Those articles adhering to definite/generic categories appear as prefixes in the broader noun structure, whereas the indefinite is suffixed.


title: Abkhaz language

text: The absence of either article affix implies a zero reference implying universal quantifiers, or to express the total lack of a referent.


title: Abkhaz language

text: Definite and indefinite affixes may appear together in the same noun, implying that the referents are meant as a group or body.


title: Abkhaz language

text: These are possessive prefixes which express grammatical person and noun class. They come in two forms, the full and short ones. The full ones contain the vowels inside the parenthesis, whereas the short ones don't.


title: Abkhaz language

text: These few prefixes add numeric information to the noun complex. Often, this takes the form of a numeral.


title: Abkhaz language

text: These suffixes convey either plural number or case-like adverbial information. Plural markers are addressed further below; the other possible inflectional suffixes are the following:


title: Abkhaz language

text: Abkhaz distinguishes singular and plural; the singular is unmarked, whereas the plural is indicated by noun class-dependent suffixes. There are several pluralizing suffixes, but the two most commonly used refer generally to the human and non-human noun classes. There are instances where explicitly human nouns take non-human plural markers.


title: Abkhaz language

text: Nouns in Abkhaz are classified broadly according to a human/non-human paradigm, with the human class itself further subdivided into masculine and feminine gender. Gender is a fairly weak concept in Abkhaz grammar, and gender distinctions undergo a fair degree of neutralization in several contexts, including personal pronouns, verb agreement and possession marking. This class and gender system distinguishes Abkhaz from the other Northwest Caucasian languages.


title: Abkhaz language

text: Although there is no special vocative declension, the prefix уа- ("wa-"), when attached to a noun stem, can express a vocative form.


title: Abkhaz language

text: Similarly, the suffix -a can be added to a proper noun ending in a consonant to communicate respect and endearment.


title: Abkhaz language

text: Abkhaz is a pro-drop language. Pronouns are not inflected, and verbal agreement is generally sufficient to indicate grammatical person.


title: Abkhaz language

text: It is common in everyday speech to use a short version of the pronoun which omits the suffix -рá ("-rá"), although this is done less frequently with third-person pronouns.


title: Abkhaz language

text: In addition to noun-marking, possession can be indicated by adding the suffix -тәы́ ("-t’˚ә́") to the short version of a personal pronoun. Thus:


title: Abkhaz language

text: Intensive pronouns are derived from short-form personal pronouns combined with the suffix -хаҭá ("-xatá"). These have a roughly reflexive meaning.


title: Abkhaz language

text: Morphologically, adjectives are very similar to nouns, differing only in their syntactic function. Similarly to nouns, adjective stems can be derived by compounding, reduplication and affixation. When used attributively, adjectives follow the noun that they modify. Predicative adjectives, or those derived by suffixation, precede the noun. Adjectives are formed according to the following paradigm:


title: Abkhaz language

text: The comparative form of an adjective is formed using the comparative particle аиҳá ("ajhá" - “more”), which precedes the adjective. The superlative form is indicated by the intensifier suffix -ӡа. Thus:


title: Abkhaz language

text: Abkhaz has used the Cyrillic script since 1862. The first alphabet was a 37-character Cyrillic alphabet invented by Baron Peter von Uslar. In 1909 a 55-letter Cyrillic alphabet was used. A 75-letter Latin script devised by a Russian/Georgian linguist Nikolai Marr lasted for 2 years 1926–1928 (during the Latinization campaign). The Georgian script was adopted and used between 1938 and 1954, after that was restored the initial Cyrillic alphabet designed in 1892 by Dmitry Gulia together with Konstantin Machavariani and modified in 1909 by Aleksey Chochua.


title: Abkhaz language

text: The Latin alphabet in Abkhaz is currently not in Unicode. Its inclusion was proposed in 2011. See also:


title: Abkhaz language

text: The 1992 law of Georgia, reiterated in the 1995 constitution, grants Abkhaz the status of second official language in the territory of Abkhazia — along with Georgian.


title: Abkhaz language

text: In November 2007, the de facto authorities of Abkhazia adopted a new law "on the state language of the Republic of Abkhazia" that mandates Abkhaz as the language of official communication. According to the law, all meetings held by the president, parliament, and government must be conducted in Abkhaz (instead of Russian, which is currently a de facto administrative language) from 2010, and all state officials will be obliged to use Abkhaz as their language of everyday business from 2015. Some, however, have considered the implementation of this law unrealistic and concerns have been made that it will drive people away from Abkhazia and hurt the independent press due to a significant share of non-Abkhaz speakers among ethnic minorities as well as Abkhaz themselves, and a shortage of teachers of Abkhaz. The law is an attempt to amend a situation where up to a third of the ethnic Abkhaz population are no longer capable of speaking their ethnic language, and even more are unable to read or write it; instead, Russian is the language most commonly used in public life at present.


title: Abkhaz language

text: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."


title: Cobra Starship

text: Cobra Starship was an American dance-pop band founded in 2006 by Gabe Saporta (ex-Midtown), and headquartered in New York City. He recorded the first album as a solo project, "While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets". Saporta later enlisted guitarist Ryland Blackinton, bassist Alex Suarez, drummer Nate Novarro, and keytarist Victoria Asher, all of whom provide backing vocals.


title: Cobra Starship

text: Over ten years, Cobra Starship produced four albums and two "Billboard" Hot 100 top 10 singles. The group released its debut album, "While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets", in 2006, which contained the single "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)". The band released its second album, "¡Viva La Cobra!", on October 23, 2007. Their third album, "Hot Mess", was released on August 11, 2009. Their fourth and final album, "Night Shades", was released on August 30, 2011, in the US and October 28, 2011, in the UK.


title: Cobra Starship

text: Cobra Starship was formed in 2005, after Midtown bassist Gabe Saporta took a trip to Arizona. During this time, Saporta went on a "vision quest" in the desert, spending time with Native American tribes and smoking peyote. He began to create his vision for a new band, a melodic style of music heavily influenced by synthpop and hip-hop. Upon returning home, Saporta rented a house in the Catskill Mountains and began writing what would become the band's debut album, "While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets". He posted "Hollaback Boy", a parody response to Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl", on Myspace. The song gained Saporta notoriety on the internet, and he eventually signed to Decaydance Records, the label of his good friend, Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz.


title: Cobra Starship

text: Midtown's management company soon set Saporta up with an opportunity to record a song for the soundtrack to the 2006 "Snakes on a Plane". Along with members of The Academy Is..., Gym Class Heroes, and The Sounds, Saporta recorded "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)", which became a minor hit. During the recording of "While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets", Saporta began recruiting new members to complete the group's lineup. He first enlisted drummer Nate Novarro, whom he met on tour while Novarro sold merchandise for fellow touring act Hidden in Plain View. After seeing Saporta in "Entertainment Weekly", guitarist Ryland Blackinton and bassist Alex Suarez emailed Saporta, asking to join the group. (Blackinton and Suarez lived near each other in Brooklyn; coincidentally, Suarez lived in the same apartment building as Midtown drummer Rob Hitt.) The lineup was completed by Elisa Schwartz, who is credited as playing keytar on "While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets"; Victoria Asher joined the band as its keytarist later. "While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets" was released October 10, 2006. It featured the single "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)"; the song's music video had been featured during the closing credits of the film "Snakes on a Plane" earlier that summer. In October 2006, they supported Thirty Seconds to Mars on their Welcome to the Universe Tour.


title: Cobra Starship

text: With the group's lineup now solidified, Cobra Starship began touring across the United States. While on the 2007 Honda Civic Tour, the group began writing music together for the first time. The members recorded their individual parts on their laptops in the band's bus. By the time Cobra Starship entered the studio to work on a new album, much of the material was already written. Recorded in twenty days at Mission Sound Studios in Brooklyn, New York, "¡Viva la Cobra!" was released on October 23, 2007. It was produced by Patrick Stump, who was also credited as singing some backup vocals. The album has been described as "11 tracks of unabashed party jams, full of big hooky electropop, super-produced guitar crunch and the occasional T-Pain-style vocoder thrown in for good measure."


title: Cobra Starship

text: The album was toured heavily worldwide. Cobra headlined the Really Really Ridiculously Good Looking Tour, with guests Metro Station, The Cab, and We The Kings, from January to March 2008. They also played on Warped Tour 2008 and headlined the SassyBack tour, which toured from October 7 through November 30, 2008, with guests Forever the Sickest Kids, Hit the Lights, and Sing It Loud.


title: Cobra Starship

text: The album art for the "¡Viva la Cobra!" album was used to promote the fourth-generation Apple iPod Nano in purple.


title: Cobra Starship

text: Following the success of Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl", Cobra Starship recorded their own cover version, "I Kissed a Boy", in summer 2008. The song was released on August 25, 2008, on Fall Out Boy's Citizens For Our Betterment mixtape "Welcome To The New Administration". Cobra Starship is one of nine artists who participated in thetruth.com’s Remix Project, where they remixed the Sunny Side song "Magical Amount".


title: Cobra Starship

text: Cobra Starship also began the Believers Never Die Tour Part Deux tour in the beginning of April 2009, opening for Fall Out Boy, alongside All Time Low, Metro Station, and Hey Monday. They spent time performing many shows in the US, mostly all in April and the beginning of May 2009; however, they also played a few shows in the UK at the end of May 2009, supported by Sing It Loud, Cash Cash, and UK band Mimi Soya.


title: Cobra Starship

text: In 2009, the band went to a cabin in Pennsylvania in an attempt to produce new material. They broadcast live throughout their stay on the live camera feed site Stickam, thus creating the Shelf Kids, an unofficial Cobra Starship fan club. After their stay, a new album was announced with a tentative release in the summer. The band worked with Kara DioGuardi, Kevin Rudolf, S*A*M and Sluggo, and songwriters Benny Blanco and Patrick Stump on "Hot Mess". "Gossip Girl" star Leighton Meester is featured on the song "Good Girls Go Bad", which was produced by Kevin Rudolf and co-written by Rudolf and Kara DioGuardi. The song was the album's first single, and was added on iTunes on May 11, 2009, and made available to listen to on the band's official MySpace page. Other songs include "Pete Wentz Is the Only Reason We're Famous", which was released on their YouTube channel and Vevo page. On May 8, the album title was confirmed as "Hot Mess", with a release date of August 11. It debuted on the US "Billboard" 200 at number four, becoming the band's highest-charting album. Guitarist Ryland Blackinton said of "Hot Mess", "We just wanted to make music that was fun and kinda make people just forget about whatever shitty problem they might be having during the week."


title: Cobra Starship

text: The band began their Hot Mess Across the US Tour to promote the new album on August 3, 2009. The tour had 21 stops and featured guests such as Friday Night Boys and DJ Skeet Skeet. After Plastiscines dropped off the tour, Cobra Starship listed a number of candidate bands for the fans to vote for online in a blog; The Audition won. On their official video podcast CobraCam.tv, the band released humorous tentative titles for the album (parodying several other notable albums): "Griller", "Tha Ryland III", and variations of their "¡Viva La Cobra!" album.


title: Cobra Starship

text: Cobra Starship played at a September 11, 2009 MTV Video Music Awards weekend competition and pre-party at The Fillmore at Irving Plaza. The competition was for MTV's "VMA Best Breakout New York City Artist Award", and took place before the MTV Video Music Awards performers and in between performances from MTV Video Music Awards artists.


title: Cobra Starship

text: Cobra Starship appeared at Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica 2009, along with Mexican star Paulina Rubio, performing "Good Girls Go Bad" and "Ni Rosas Ni Juguetes". Cobra Starship and Paulina won an MTV Award for "Best Performance", for "Good Girls Go Bad" and "Ni Rosas Ni Juguetes", voted by the public, beating other artists such as Shakira, Nelly Furtado, and Wisin & Yandel.


title: Cobra Starship

text: At the People’s Choice Awards on January 6, 2010, Cobra Starship performed live with former Pussycat Dolls frontwoman Nicole Scherzinger filling in for Leighton Meester. The performance opened with a taste of their single “Hot Mess.” The band then brought Nicole out for a bridge to a sizzling version of “Good Girls Go Bad.” However, the original track of the latter number lost out on the award for Favorite Music Collaboration to Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Kanye West‘s “Run This Town."


title: Cobra Starship

text: On February 4, 2010, Cobra Starship embarked on their first-ever European tour, Hot Mess Across the EU-Niverse, which included the UK, Ireland, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. When the tour ended on February 21, the band then traveled to Japan for a few shows, and then onto Australia and New Zealand for the Wet Hot Australian Summer Tour. The group also toured in Germany with I Heart Sharks and One Night Stand!. On February 5, 2010, it was announced that Cobra Starship and 3OH!3 would be embarking on a co-headlining tour, the Too Fast for Love Tour, with opening acts Travis McCoy, The Lazarus Project, and I Fight Dragons. The tour ran from April 28 to June 13, 2010.


title: Cobra Starship

text: In late 2010, the band collaborated with British singer Alexandra Burke on the song "What Happens on the Dancefloor", which was included on the deluxe edition of her debut album "Overcome".


title: Cobra Starship

text: Cobra Starship canceled their 2011 Australian tour to finish up their fourth album, which they were working on with Ryan Tedder and Kara DioGuardi. Gabe Saporta released a song off of the album, "Don't Blame the World, It's the DJ's Fault", on his Tumblr. A video was released of an eggplant with sunglasses and headphones getting made into eggplant Parmesan, supposed to represent the album title. Saporta later announced via Twitter that the new album will be called "Night Shades". The first single, "You Make Me Feel...", was released on May 10, 2011. The song was written by written by Steve Mac and Ina Wroldsen, and features American singer/songwriter and rapper Sabi. The music video premiered on MTV on June 28, 2011.


title: Cobra Starship

text: The group released "iTunes Session – EP" on August 23, 2011, containing four acoustic songs and an alternative version of "Fold Your Hands Child".


title: Cobra Starship

text: In promotion of the album, the band performed "You Make Me Feel..." on the MTV Video Music Awards pre-show with Sabi on August 28, 2011.


title: Cobra Starship

text: "Night Shades" was released on August 29, 2011, with the lead single "You Make Me Feel..." and three promotional singles. The first promotional single, "#1Nite (One Night)" was released on July 26, 2011, while the second, "Fool Like Me" (featuring the Plastiscines) was released on August 9, 2011; the third and final promotional single, "Middle Finger" (featuring Mac Miller) was released on August 23, 2011. Cobra Starship also performed "You Make Me Feel..." in the fall of 2011 on "Dancing with the Stars".


title: Cobra Starship

text: Cobra Starship contributed a cover of Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue" to the Buddy Holly tribute album, "" (2011).


title: Cobra Starship

text: On September 9, 2011, Cobra Starship headlined the Fueled by Ramen 15th Anniversary show in New York's Terminal 5, with VersaEmerge, The Academy Is..., and A Rocket to the Moon supporting. In March 2012, Cobra Starship was featured in the Australian touring rock festival Soundwave.


title: Cobra Starship

text: On April 19, 2014, after nearly three years of no announcements of new material, Cobra Starship confirmed that they were working on a new single. Their single "Never Been in Love", featuring Icona Pop, was released on August 25, 2014.


title: Cobra Starship

text: On October 21, 2014, both Suarez and Blackinton left the band to pursue their own separate careers. They have since been replaced by Eric Halvorsen, formerly of A Rocket to the Moon, and Andy Barr. The band played their first show with their current line-up, a Halloween party, on October 30, 2014 at Saints and Sinner. The band also played on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on November 6, 2014.


title: Cobra Starship

text: In November 2015, Saporta announced on his Beats1 Radio show that he would no longer be performing or putting out new music. He and business associate Mike Carden announced the formation of a talent management firm, T∆G // The Artist Group, expected to commence operations in the first quarter of 2016. Saporta explained that he now wanted to work behind the scenes and help younger artists see their dreams come true.


title: Cobra Starship

text: In October 2016, guitarist Andy Barr began touring with rock band America; Barr toured with them until 2018.


title: Cobra Starship

text: In October 2021, Cobra Starship released a new song, "Beautiful Life", through Fueled By Ramen. In December 2021, they released another song, "Party With You". Both songs received accompanying videos and were previously unreleased b-sides from "Hot Mess". The songs, called Tracks To The Future, were released as part of a promotional campaign for Fueled By Ramen's 25th anniversary and the limited edition re-issue of "Hot Mess" on vinyl. "Party With You" also received a Hannukah themed parody version, "Party With Jews", before its official release. 2021 promotions also included Cobrakkah, a multi-day event in the lead-up to the release of "Party With You". The band still has no plans for reuniting.


title: House of Aisin-Gioro

text: The House of Aisin-Gioro was a Manchu clan that ruled the Later Jin dynasty (1616–1636), the Qing dynasty (1636–1912), and Manchukuo (1932–1945) in the history of China. Under the Ming dynasty, members of the Aisin Gioro clan served as chiefs of the Jianzhou Jurchens, one of the three major Jurchen tribes at this time. Qing bannermen passed through the gates of the Great Wall in 1644, conquered the short-lived Shun dynasty and the Southern Ming dynasty. The Qing dynasty later expanded into other adjacent regions, including Xinjiang, Tibet, Outer Mongolia, and Taiwan, gaining total control of China. The dynasty reached its zenith during the High Qing era and under the Qianlong Emperor, who reigned from 1735 to 1796. This reign was followed by a century of gradual decline.


title: House of Aisin-Gioro

text: The house lost power in 1912 following the Xinhai Revolution. Puyi, the last Aisin-Gioro emperor, nominally maintained his imperial title in the Forbidden City until the Articles of Favourable Treatment were revoked by Feng Yuxiang in 1924. The Qing was China's last orthodox imperial dynasty.


title: House of Aisin-Gioro

text: "Aisin" means "gold." It corresponds to "Jin" (金) in Chinese. "Gioro" is the surname, which refers to the clan's ancestral home in today Yilan County, Heilongjiang. Following the fall of the Qing Empire, most members of the clan have changed their surnames to Han Chinese surnames such as "Jin", Zhao, Ai, Luo, Bai, Hai.


title: House of Aisin-Gioro

text: The Aisin-Gioro had no system of automatic succession such as primogeniture or a law of succession. Instead, an emperor would name an heir in a secret edict. The edict would be read before senior members of the clan following the emperor's death. An emperor could have numerous sons by women of various ranks. In 1912, the Qing dynasty was overthrown and China was declared a republic. Puyi, the last emperor, was granted the right to maintain his imperial title in the Forbidden City until 1924, when the Articles of Favorable Treatment were revoked. He went to Changchun in northeastern China to serve as chief executive (1932–1934) and later emperor (1934–1945) of Manchukuo, a puppet state of Japan.


title: House of Aisin-Gioro

text: The more recent heads of the house are given according to a succession law approved by Puyi in 1937. This follows the practice of relevant news reports and reference works. The law provided for father-to-son succession. Brothers may succeed in the absence of male issue. As a full brother, Pujie had precedence over half brother Jin Youzhi.


title: House of Aisin-Gioro

text: The Aisin-Gioro traced its ancestry to Bukūri Yongšon, a legendary warrior of the thirteenth century. Emperor Hongtaiji claimed that Bukūri Yongšon was conceived from a virgin birth. According to the legend, three heavenly maidens, Enggulen, Jenggulen, and Fekulen, were bathing at a lake called Bulhūri Omo near the Changbai Mountains. A magpie dropped a piece of red fruit near Fekulen, who ate it. She then became pregnant with Bukūri Yongšon.


title: House of Aisin-Gioro

text: Nurgaci created the Aisin-Gioro clan as part of a reorganization of Jurchen society he initiated in 1601. His supporters were enrolled into the banner system and the population militarized. The Gioro clan was partitioned. Those descended from Taksi, Nurgaci's father, were designated "Aisin" (gold). Nurgaci assigned other Gioros to other clans, including Silin Gioro (Superior Gioro), Irgen Gioro (Inferior Gioro), and Tongyan Gioro (miscellaneous Gioro).


title: House of Aisin-Gioro

text: When the Jurchens were reorganized by Nurhaci into the Eight Banners, many clans were created as a group of unrelated people (mukun) using a geographic origin name such as a toponym for their hala (clan name).


title: House of Aisin-Gioro

text: The Manchu have an equally artificial origin. Although the people ruled by Aisin-Gioro were ethnically mixed, the entire population was designated as "Manchu" in 1635.


title: House of Aisin-Gioro

text: Under Nurhaci and his son Hong Taiji, the Aisin Gioro clan of the Jianzhou tribe won hegemony among the rival Jurchen tribes of the northeast, then through warfare and alliances extended its control into Inner Mongolia. Nurhachi created large, permanent civil-military units called "banners" to replace the small hunting groups used in his early campaigns. A banner was composed of smaller companies; it included some 7,500 warriors and their households, including slaves, under the command of a chieftain. Each banner was identified by a coloured flag that was yellow, white, blue, or red, either plain or with a border design. Originally there were four, then eight, Manchu banners; new banners were created as the Manchu conquered new regions, and eventually there were Manchu, Mongol, and Chinese banners, eight for each ethnic group. By 1648, less than one-sixth of the bannermen were actually of Manchu ancestry. The Qing conquest of the Ming dynasty was thus achieved with a multiethnic army led by Manchu nobles and Han Chinese generals. Han Chinese soldiers were organised into the Army of the Green Standard, which became a sort of imperial constabulary force posted throughout China and on the frontiers.


title: House of Aisin-Gioro

text: The change of the name from Jurchen to Manchu was made to hide the fact that the ancestors of the Manchus, the Jianzhou Jurchens, were ruled by the Chinese. The Qing dynasty carefully hid the 2 original editions of the books of ""Qing Taizu Wu Huangdi Shilu"" and the ""Manzhou Shilu Tu"" (Taizu Shilu Tu) in the Qing palace, forbidden from public view because they showed that the Manchu Aisin Gioro family had been ruled by the Ming dynasty. In the Ming period, the Koreans of Joseon referred to the Jurchen inhabited lands north of the Korean peninsula, above the rivers Yalu and Tumen to be part of Ming China, as the "superior country" (sangguk) which they called Ming China. The Qing deliberately excluded references and information that showed the Jurchens (Manchus) as subservient to the Ming dynasty, from the History of Ming to hide their former subservient relationship to the Ming. The "Veritable Records of the Ming" were not used to source content on Jurchens during Ming rule in the History of Ming because of this. This historical revisionism helped remove the accusation of rebellion from the Qing ruling family refusing to mention in the Mingshi the fact that the Qing founders were Ming China's subjects. The Qing Yongzheng Emperor attempted to rewrite the historical record and claim that the Aisin Gioro were never subjects of past dynasties and empires trying to cast Nurhaci's acceptance of Ming titles like Dragon Tiger General (longhu jiangjun 龍虎將軍) by claiming he accepted to "please Heaven".


title: House of Aisin-Gioro

text: The Qing emperors arranged marriages between Aisin Gioro noblewomen and outsiders to create political marriage alliances. During the Manchu conquest of the Ming Empire, the Manchu rulers offered to marry their princesses to Han Chinese military officers who served the Ming Empire as a means of inducing these officers into surrendering or defecting to their side. Aisin Gioro princesses were also married to Mongol princes, for the purpose of forming alliances between the Manchus and Mongol tribes.


title: House of Aisin-Gioro

text: The Manchus successfully induced one Han Chinese general, Li Yongfang (李永芳), into defecting to their side by offering him a position in the Manchu banners. Li Yongfang also married the daughter of Abatai, a son of the Qing dynasty's founder Nurhaci. Many more Han Chinese abandoned their posts in the Ming Empire and defected to the Manchu side. There were over 1,000 marriages between Han Chinese men and Manchu women in 1632 – due to a proposal by Yoto (岳托), a nephew of the Manchu emperor Hong Taiji. Hong Taiji believed that intermarriage between Han Chinese and Manchus could help to eliminate ethnic conflicts in areas already occupied by the Manchus, as well as help the Han Chinese forget their ancestral roots more easily.


title: House of Aisin-Gioro

text: Manchu noblewomen were also married to Han Chinese men who surrendered or defected to the Manchu side. Aisin Gioro women were married to the sons of the Han Chinese generals Sun Sike (孫思克), Geng Jimao, Shang Kexi and Wu Sangui. The "e'fu" (額駙) rank was given to husbands of Manchu princesses. Geng Zhongming, a Han bannerman, was awarded the title "Prince Jingnan", while his grandsons Geng Jingzhong, Geng Zhaozhong (耿昭忠) and Geng Juzhong (耿聚忠) married Hooge's daughter, Abatai's granddaughter, and Yolo's daughter respectively. Sun Sike's son, Sun Cheng'en (孫承恩), married the Kangxi Emperor's fourth daughter, Heshuo Princess Quejing (和硕悫靖公主).


title: House of Aisin-Gioro

text: Imperial Duke Who Assists the State (宗室輔國公) Aisin Gioro Suyan's (蘇燕) daughter was married to Han Chinese Banner General Nian Gengyao.


title: House of Aisin-Gioro

text: Two different genetic studies were written about Aisin Gioro. A genetic study said that C3b2a-M48 was found in ten different ethnic minorities in northeastern China and Outer Mongolia (1.5 million men) such as Inner Mongolians, Outer Mongolians, Evenks, Oroqen, Hezhe, Manchus and Xibe, but completely absent from Han Chinese men. It was therefore suggested as a possible marker of the Aisin Gioro becsuse the researchers involved dated the emergence of the subclade to the time of Aisin Gioro ancestor Giocangga and nicknamed it the "Manchu cluster". However, this study of 1.5 million men was challenged by other geneticists who conducted a new genetic test on actual verified Aisin Gioro descendants with genealogies since the scientists involved on the first test with the 1.5 million men did not even test Aisin Gioro descendants and the Y chromosome subclade in question nicknamed the "Manchu cluster" was found more in other ethnic minorities like Mongols in Inner and Outer Mongolia, Hezhe,Evenki and Oroqen in Heilongjiang than in Manchu people and Xibe people who are close to Manchus. In addition to that, the Qing dynasty meticulously recorded the number, names and genealogy of male descendants of the Aisin Gioro and forbade them from leaving the cities of Beijing and Mukden (Shenyang). In the last official census of Aisin Gioro clansmen in 1915 by the Qing Imperial household, there were only 27,884 Aisin Gioro clan members. Manchus were also not exempt from family planning and wars and events in China over the past decades prevented the Aisin Gioro population from growing too much so the geneticists still estimate the actual number of Aisin Gioro is less than 30,000 today and they are still heavily concentrated in Beijing and Mukden. This second genetic test was conducted on seven men who claimed Aisin Gioro descent with three of them showing documented genealogical information of all their ancestors up to Nurhaci. Three of them turned out to share the Haplogroup C3b2b1*-M401(xF5483) haplogroup, out of them, two of them were the ones who provided their documented family trees. The other four tested were unrelated. This Y haplogroup subclade is rare among all ethnic groups in China including Manchus, and is the most likely candidate for Aisin Gioro, showing that royalty and powerful men do not necessarily have many descendants and also revealed that people claiming to belong to Aisin Gioro but lacking written genealogies are likely imposters. The Daur Ao clan carries the unique haplogroup subclade C2b1a3a2-F8951, the same haplogroup as Aisin Gioro and both Ao and Aisin Gioro only diverged merely a couple of centuries ago from a shared common ancestor. Other members of the Ao clan carry haplogroups like N1c-M178, C2a1b-F845, C2b1a3a1-F3796 and C2b1a2-M48. People from northeast China, the Daur Ao clan and Aisin Gioro clan are the main carriers of haplogroup C2b1a3a2-F8951. The Mongolic C2*-Star Cluster (C2b1a3a1-F3796) haplogroup is a fraternal branch to Aisin Gioro's C2b1a3a2-F8951 haplogroup. Genetic testing also showed that the haplogroup C3b1a3a2-F8951 of the Aisin Gioro family came to southeastern Manchuria after migrating from their place of origin in the Amur river's middle reaches, originating from ancestors related to Daurs in the Transbaikal area. The Tungusic speaking peoples mostly have C3c-M48 as their subclade of C3 which drastically differs from the C3b1a3a2-F8951 haplogroup of the Aisin Gioro which originates from Mongolic speaking populations like the Daur. Jurchen (Manchus) are a Tungusic people. The Mongol Genghis Khan's haplogroup C3b1a3a1-F3796 (C3*-Star Cluster) is a fraternal "brother" branch of C3b1a3a2-F8951 haplogroup of the Aisin Gioro. Geneticist Luca Cavalli-Sforza also ridiculed the first study claiming 1.5 million men descended from Aisin Gioro's founder, pointing out that their dating methods were too imprecise to claim the Y DNA was Giocangga's.


title: House of Aisin-Gioro

text: There were merely 29,000 members of Aisin Gioro in 1912 when the Qing dynasty fell, in sharp contrast to the more fecund and fertile Ming dynasty before it, whose ruling House of Zhu had 200,000 (0.2 million) members by the fall of the Ming dynasty. The Manchu emperors had smaller reproduction and harems than the Ming on average and taxed Chinese peasant less than the Ming did to maintain the harem. The Ming Wanli emperor's harem's daily expenditure was more than the Qing Yongzheng emperor's harem annual expenditure. There were 6 generations of Aisin Gioro before Emperor Shunzhi's reign since Nurhaci's grandfather founded the Aisin Gioro clan. Going by the lowest estimate of tribal chief's fertility, five sons per man, Aisin Gioro's number ought to have been 3,000 or 3,125 at the start of the Qing. This meant during that China's population growth in general exactly matched the entire Qing dynasty the Aisin Gioro clan's rate of growth for male members carrying the same surname from the start of the Qing to the end of the Qing, which was growth by a factor of 10 from the initial number at the beginning of the Qing dynasty. And it was only two time's China's general population's growth rate when it included non-male line descendants of the Qing imperial family via Aisin Gioro females who did not pass the family name to their descendants. The Ming imperial Zhu family had more than 80,000 people by 1604, 62,000 in 1594, 28,492 in 1569, 28,840 in 1562, 19,611 in 1553, 2,495 in 1506–1521, 127 in 1403–1424 and 58 in 1368–1398. The Empresses of the Qing were very infertile and most often when an emperor died, there was no son of the empress alive. The Xianfeng Emperor had only one son surviving, the Tongzhi emperor. The Guangxu emperor and Tongzhi emperor both had no children. In 1660 the core branch of Aisin Gioro had 378 people while in 1915 it had 29,292 people.


title: House of Aisin-Gioro

text: Approximately 300,000 to 400,000 ethnic Manchus in China are surnamed Aisin-Gioro (愛新覺羅), however some of fabricated ancestry to Aisin Gioro many translated their surname to Jin (金), the most common Sinicized form, which has been embraced by core imperial family members like Jin Yuzhang. There are 3.8 million people with the surname Jin in China. There are non-Manchu ethnic groups (notably Koreans, Hui people and even Han Chinese) who also use the surname Jin for unrelated reasons and are totally unrelated to Aisin Gioro. The surname Jin was originally Han in ancient times and was later adopted by Koreans and Hui and is most common among Koreans today. Koreans pronounce the Jin surname as Kim in Korean.


title: House of Aisin-Gioro

text: According to Qing dynasty imperial tradition, the sons of princes do not automatically inherit their fathers' titles in the same rank as their fathers. For example, Yongqi held the title "Prince Rong of the First Rank", but when his title was passed on to his son, Mianyi, it became "Prince Rong of the Second Rank". In other words, the title gets diminished by one rank as it is passed down to each subsequent generation, but generally to no lower than the rank of "kesi-be tuwakiyara gurun-de aisilara gung" (second class imperial duke). However, there were 12 princes who were awarded the "shi xi wang ti" (perpetual heritability, a.k.a. "iron-cap") privilege, which meant that their titles can be passed on to subsequent generations without the downgrading effect.


title: House of Aisin-Gioro

text: The 12 "iron-cap" princely peerages are listed as follows. Some of them were renamed at different points in time, hence they had multiple names.


title: Sandstorm (instrumental)

text: "Sandstorm" is an instrumental by Finnish DJ and record producer Darude. It was released as the lead single from his debut studio album "Before the Storm". It was initially released in Finland on 26 October 1999 by 16 Inch Records and was later re-released in many other countries in 2000. The track was uploaded to MP3.com where it gained global recognition. It has also gained recognition for its usage in sports and popularity in internet meme culture.


title: Sandstorm (instrumental)

text: On 1 March 2010, over ten years after its original release, "Sandstorm" was certified Gold in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of over 500,000 copies. In January 2020, it was certified Platinum for sales over one million.


title: Sandstorm (instrumental)

text: On the centenary of Finland's independence in 2017, celebrations in Helsinki included Darude as one of the main performers with his "Sandstorm".


title: Sandstorm (instrumental)

text: Darude first started making happy hardcore with a music tracker program on his computer, playing gigs as "Rudeboy". He then performed with Wille "Weirdness" Heikkilä as "Position 1", making light Eurodance tunes, and he paired with other DJs on other projects. In September–October 1999 as Darude he began collaborating with Jaakko "JS16" Salovaara, known as the producer of the Bomfunk MC's. "Sandstorm" was the first product of the collaboration, ready after about a week of work. JS16 signed Darude as the first artist on JS16's new label 16 Inch Records.


title: Sandstorm (instrumental)

text: Darude had been uploading various pieces of his trance experimentation on the website MP3.com, where he was building a following, and he also uploaded the full-length demo of "Sandstorm". This exposure was responsible for worldwide interest in "Sandstorm". In 2000, Darude reported on his mp3.com artist's page that he had "removed the full-length tracks" of "Sandstorm" at the request of his record company.


title: Sandstorm (instrumental)

text: The title of the instrumental originates from the Roland JP-8080 synthesizer used in the song, which displays the text "sand storm" on startup.


title: Sandstorm (instrumental)

text: In a 2016 Reddit AMA interview, Darude admitted that he had never experienced an actual sandstorm but had experienced a dust devil.


title: Sandstorm (instrumental)

text: "Sandstorm" is an instrumental trance composition. According to Darude, the hardware and software used to make the track are as follows: P2, Cubase VST 32, FastTracker 2, ReBirth, Korg TR-Rack. Then with JS16 in his studio: Cubase on Atari 1040ST, Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler, Roland JP8080, NordLead2, Roland JV2080, Ensoniq DP4, Mackie 24/8, Behringer rack compressor.


title: Sandstorm (instrumental)

text: The video for "Sandstorm" features Darude with headphones viewing two armed security guards (a man and a woman) chasing a woman with a case. Darude seems to appear at every place where the pursuers and the pursued go. Near the end, the woman with the case stumbles and one of her pursuers (the other woman) betrays her partner, knocking him out. The two women take the case onto a boat with Darude. As of March 2022, the music video uploaded on YouTube via an official channel has garnered over 228 million views.


title: Sandstorm (instrumental)

text: The video was directed by Juuso Syrjä, a.k.a. Uzi, and was shot in various places in Helsinki, including the Helsinki Cathedral and the Senate Square. It became the first Finnish music video shown on MTV in the US and it received several awards in Finland and on MTV.


title: Sandstorm (instrumental)

text: "Sandstorm" appeared on the pilot episode of popular Showtime series "Queer as Folk", which first aired on 3 December 2000. "Sandstorm" was also used in the 2001 Finnish film "Tango Cabaret" ("Tango Kabaree"). In the third part of the "Johnny English" film series, "Johnny English Strikes Again", the title character played by Rowan Atkinson dances to the beat of "Sandstorm" in a dance club scene. "Sandstorm" was used in Season 3, Episode 10 of "The Orville" on Hulu in the Bachelorette Party scene with the dancing robot before Dr. Claire Finn's marriage to Isaac the Kaylon.


title: Sandstorm (instrumental)

text: In the late 2000s, a marketing executive for the University of South Carolina added "Sandstorm" to the playlist of music at Williams-Brice Stadium during a Gamecocks football game. In a 2021 ESPN story, the executive recalled that he had tried using the track when he was employed at Vanderbilt University, but the Vanderbilt fanbase did not react strongly to it. After moving to South Carolina, he played the track at one football game, and received a fan reaction good enough that he decided to save it for a key moment in a later game. That moment would come in the last two minutes of a 2009 game against Ole Miss, when "Sandstorm" was played before back-to-back Gamecocks defensive plays that sealed an upset win over Ole Miss. Since that game, it has become a rallying anthem for South Carolina fans. The track is not only used at football games, but at many other South Carolina sports events, and has become so iconic among Gamecocks fans that some have even used it at their weddings.


title: Sandstorm (instrumental)

text: Professional wrestlers Toru Owashi and Session Moth Martina as well as mixed martial artist Wanderlei Silva, and baseball pitcher Koji Uehara use "Sandstorm" as entrance music. It was also played at the 2006 Winter Olympics, and during the Ice Hockey World Championships. Nike used the composition in an advertisement series featuring the basketball opponents Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. Kansas State University briefly used "Sandstorm" at men's basketball games, but banned it after the school's student section punctuated the track with chants of "F--- KU!" during games against archrival Kansas; the school has more recently tried reintroducing it.


title: Sandstorm (instrumental)

text: On May 5, 2022, "Sandstorm" was included in the popular VR game "Beat Saber", through their "Electronic Mixtape" DLC.


title: Sandstorm (instrumental)

text: Because of this, Darude became the first "Eurovision Song Contest" participant to feature one of their songs in the game.


title: Sandstorm (instrumental)

text: The popularity of "Sandstorm" as background music for those who stream their video gaming on the Twitch platform led to a meme that any question asking for the name of any song was replied to with the comment "Darude – Sandstorm."


title: Sandstorm (instrumental)

text: As an April Fools' Day joke on 1 April 2015, YouTube displayed the message "Did you mean: Darude – Sandstorm by Darude" for all video search queries that involve music, in addition to adding a button which played the song during a video.


title: Sandstorm (instrumental)

text: Soon after release, "Sandstorm" became popular on pop radio stations, reaching number one in Norway. Its sales worldwide eventually reached 2 million, and it was featured on 200 compilations.


title: Italian Parliament

text: The Italian Parliament () is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1943), the transitional National Council (1945–1946) and the Constituent Assembly (1946–1948). It is a bicameral legislature with 600 elected members and a small number of unelected members ("senatori a vita"). The Italian Parliament is composed of the Chamber of Deputies (with 400 members or "deputati" elected on a national basis), as well as the Senate of the Republic (with 200 members or "senatori" elected on a regional basis, plus a small number of senators for life or "senatori a vita", either appointed by the President of the Republic or former Presidents themselves, "ex officio").


title: Italian Parliament

text: The two Houses are independent from one another and never meet jointly except under circumstances specified by the Constitution of Italy. By the Constitution, the two houses of the Italian Parliament possess the same powers; perfect bicameralism has been coded in the current form since the adoption of the Albertine Statute, and resurged after the dismissal of the fascist dictatorship of the 1920s and 1930s. No distinction is made between deputies and senators, notwithstanding that a member of parliament cannot be at the same time both a senator and a deputy; regarding presidents and vice-presidents, the precedence is given to the older one.


title: Italian Parliament

text: The number of deputies and senators was fixed by a constitutional amendment in 1963: in its original text, the Constitution provided for a variable number of Members of Parliament depending on the population. From 1963 to 2022, the Chamber of Deputies had 630 members, while the Senate had 315 elected members. Following the 2020 Italian constitutional referendum, the number of MPs in the Parliament has been reduced from 630 to 400 in the Chamber of Deputies and from 315 to 200 in the Senate. The proposed changes were approved, with 69.96% voting in favour. The reduction of the number of MPs came to fruition with the following Legislature XIX of Italy.


title: Italian Parliament

text: In addition to the 200 elected members, the Senate, as per article 59 of the Constitution of the Italian Republic, also comprises a small number of senators for life. These can be differentiated into:


title: Italian Parliament

text: The voting age mandated for both houses is the age of majority: any Italian citizen who is eighteen or older can vote. But the two houses have a different age of candidacy: deputies are required to be twenty-five or older, while elected senators must be forty or older. No explicit age limit is required to be appointed senator for life (but Presidents of the Republic must be 50 or older).


title: Italian Parliament

text: The main prerogative of Parliament is the exercise of the legislative power, that is the power to enact laws. For a bill to become law, it must receive the support of both houses independently in the same text. A bill is first introduced in one of the houses, amended, and then approved or rejected: if approved, it is passed to the other house, which can amend it before approving or rejecting it. If approved without amendments, the bill is then promulgated by the President of the Republic and becomes law. If approved with amendments, it goes back to the other house. The process continues until the bill is approved in the same text by both houses (in which case it becomes law after promulgation) or is rejected by one house.


title: Italian Parliament

text: The Council of Ministers, which is led by the President of the Council of Ministers and is the national executive of Italy, needs to have the confidence of both houses in order to exercise its power fully. It must receive a vote of confidence by both houses before being officially in power, and Parliament can cast a motion of no confidence at any moment, which forces the President of the Council of Ministers and his/her Cabinet to resign. The President of the Republic can dissolve one or both houses, and new elections are held if a new Prime Minister is unable to receive the support of both houses.


title: Italian Parliament

text: The process by which the Italian Parliament makes ordinary laws, the "iter legis ordinario", is as follows:


title: Italian Parliament

text: Proposals can be made by the Government, individual Members of Parliament (who must present their proposal to the Chamber that they are a member of), private citizens (who must present a proposal in the form of a draft law, approved by 50,000 voters), individual Regional Councils, and the National Council for Economics and Labour (CNEL).


title: Italian Parliament

text: Once a proposal is introduced in one of the two Houses, it is assigned to a parliamentary committee to carry out preliminary inspection of the proposal (taking advantage of advice of other committees, especially, the so-called "filter committees"). At this point, two different procedures can be taken.


title: Italian Parliament

text: In the "normal procedure", the committee holds a referral meeting, drafts a response and names a spokesperson to report this response, then leaves the responsibility for composing and approving the bill's text to the assembly. This must be completed in no more than four months for the Chamber of Deputies and two months for the Senate.


title: Italian Parliament

text: Once the bill has come before one of the chambers, a general discussion takes place, followed by the review (with a vote) article by article, and finally a vote on the whole bill, which is normally an open ballot (secret ballots are possible for matters of individual conscience). If the bill passes the vote in one chamber then it passes to the other chamber of the parliament, where it must be voted through without any further changes. If the other chamber does make any modifications to the bill then the new version of the bill must be returned to the first chamber to approve these changes. If the bill repeats this process many times it is said to be "shuttling" or "dribbling." This procedure is obligatory for bills which concern constitutional and electoral matters, the delegation of legislative power, the authorisation of the ratification of international treaties, the approval of the budget.


title: Italian Parliament

text: In all other cases, the "special procedure" (also called the "decentralised legislative procedure") can be employed. In this case, the committee holds a drafting meeting (leaving only the final approval of the bill to the parliament), or a deliberative/legislative meeting (in which case the entire legislative process is carried out by the committee and the bill is not voted on by parliament at all). This procedure can be vetoed by the vote of one tenth of the members of the Chamber in which the bill was originally proposed, by a vote of one fifth of the members of the committee, or by the decision of the Government.


title: Italian Parliament

text: There are special procedures for the passage of laws granting emergency powers, the annual law incorporating EU law, annual financial laws (such as the budget), and the passage of laws under urgency.


title: Italian Parliament

text: Once the bill has been approved in the same form by both houses of Parliament, it is sent to the President of the Republic, who must promulgate it within one month or send it back to Parliament for renewed debate with a written justification. If after the renewed debate the bill is approved by Parliament again, the President of the Republic is constitutionally required to promulgate it. Once it has been promulgated, the law is published in the official gazette by the Ministry of Justice and enters into force after the "vacatio legis" (15 days unless otherwise specified).


title: Italian Parliament

text: The rigidity of the Constitution is ensured by the special procedure required to amend it. With the same procedure, Parliament can adopt a constitutional law, which is a law with the same strength as the Constitution. This process is referred to as "iter legis aggravato", that is, a strengthened legislative process "ad hoc" for the passing of a constitutional law.


title: Italian Parliament

text: Article 138 of the Constitution provides for the special procedure through which the Parliament can adopt constitutional laws (including laws to amend the Constitution), which is a variation of the ordinary legislative procedure. The ordinary procedure to adopt a law in Italy requires both Houses of Parliament to approve the bill in the same text, with a simple majority (i.e., the majority of votes cast). Constitutional laws start by following the same procedure; however, after having been approved for the first time, they need to be voted for by both Houses a second time, which can happen no sooner than three months after the first. In this second reading, no new amendments to the bill may be proposed: the bill must be either approved or rejected in its entirety.


title: Italian Parliament

text: The constitutional law needs to be approved by at least a majority of all MP's in each house (absolute majority) in its second reading. Depending on the results of this second vote, the constitutional law may then follow two different paths.


title: Italian Parliament

text: In addition to its legislative functions, Parliament also reviews the actions of Government and provides it with political direction.


title: Italian Parliament

text: Parliament exercises its review function by means of questions and inquests. Questions consist of a written question directed to the Government, asking whether a certain claim is true, whether the Government is aware of it, and whether the Government is taking any action about it. The response can be given by the relevant Government minister, by the chairperson of the relevant ministry, or by an undersecretary. It may be given in writing or delivered to the parliament orally. The member who asked the question can respond to say whether or not the answer is satisfactory. In injunctions, a fact is noted with a request for the reasons for the conduct of the Government and its future intentions. The process is done by writing. If the member who filed the injunction is not satisfied with the response, they can present a motion to hold a debate in the Parliament.


title: Italian Parliament

text: The provision of political direction embodies the relationship of trust which is meant to exist between Parliament and the Government. It takes the form of confidence votes and votes of no confidence. These can be held concerning the entire Government or an individual minister. Other means of providing political direction include motions, resolutions, and day-orders giving instruction to the Government.


title: Italian Parliament

text: Under , "each chamber can undertake inquests into matters of public interest. For this purpose, they should appoint a committee formed so that it conforms to the proportions of the various parliamentary groups." In order to fulfill its function as the ordinary organ through which popular sovereignty is exercised, Parliament can employ the same investigative and coercive instruments as the judiciary in these inquests.


title: Italian Parliament

text: The Parliament meets and votes in joint session () for a set of functions explicitly established by the Constitution. Article 55.2 specifies that these functions are entrenched and cannot be altered.


title: Italian Parliament

text: Joint sessions take place in the building of the Chamber of Deputies at Palazzo Montecitorio and are presided over by the President of the Chamber of Deputies "ex officio". In this way, the drafters of the Constitution intended to establish an equilibrium with the power of the President of the Senate to exercise the functions of the President of the Republic when the latter is indisposed.


title: Italian Parliament

text: There is debate among legal scholars about whether the Parliament in joint session can make its own standing orders. Most scholars think it can, by analogy with the regulation of the Senate in article 65, which explicitly foresees such action.


title: Italian Parliament

text: The Chambers of the Italian Parliament enjoy special prerogatives to guarantee their autonomy with respect to other parts of Government:


title: Italian Parliament

text: In some matters (e.g. employment disputes) the Italian Parliament acts as its own judicial authority (without using external courts), which is referred to as ""autodichia"" (self-judging). In order no. 137 of 2015 of the Italian Constitutional Court, which agreed to rehear the appeal in the Lorenzoni case, which had been dismissed the year before, it was stated that "autodichia" might be found in violation of the independence of the judiciary.


title: Italian Parliament

text: Article 67 ("Prohibition on imperative mandate) states that "every member of parliament represents the nation and performs their functions without limitation by a mandate." The members are considered to receive a general mandate from the whole electorate, which cannot be revoked by the initiative of the individual electoral district which elected them, nor by their political party. This general mandate is not subject to judicial review, only political review through constitutionally defined methods (mainly elections and referendums).


title: Italian Parliament

text: Article 68 lays down the principles of immunity ("insindacabilità") and inviolability ("inviolabilità"), stating that "the members of parliament cannot be called to account for the opinions they express or the votes that they cast in the exercise of their functions" and that "without the permission of the chamber to which they belong, no member of parliament can be subjected to a body search or a search of their home, nor can they be arrested or otherwise stripped of their personal freedom, or imprisoned, except in the execution of a final court judgement or if caught in the act of a crime for which it is compulsory to arrest someone caught in the act. An analogous standard is required in order to put members of parliament under any form of surveillance." Neither immunity nor inviolability are prerogatives of individual parliamentarians; they are intended to protect the free exercise of Parliament's functions against judicial interference, which occurred in earlier regimes when the judiciary was under Government control and was not autonomous.


title: Italian Parliament

text: There is controversy with respect to the principle of immunity about what statements are expressed in the member's parliamentary role and the Constitutional Court distinguishes between political activities and parliamentary activities, and even with respect to the latter, distinguishes between activities which are immune and activities which are not immune because they contradict other constitutional principles and rights. The principle of inviolability results from Constitutional Law #3 of 1993, which revoked the earlier system of "authorisation to proceed" ("autorizzazione a procedere") for convictions in cases with defined sentences.


title: Italian Parliament

text: Finally, article 69 states that "members of parliament receive compensation set down by the law," thereby affirming that parliamentarians must receive compensation and cannot renounce that compensation. This reverses the principle laid down in the Albertine Statute, which was the opposite, and is linked to the principle of equality (article 3) and the prohibition on imperative mandate (article 67).


title: Italian Parliament

text: The national elections for the renewal of members of the Senate of the Republic and Chamber of Deputies are regulated by Law n. 165 of 3 November 2017. It introduces a mixed electoral system in the form of parallel voting (mixed-member majoritarian), with about one-third (37%) of the seats allocated using a majoritarian system (single-member districts; first-past-the-post), and the remaining about two-thirds (63%) of the seats allocated using a proportional system (multi-member districts; D'Hondt method), with one round of voting. This electoral law is colloquially known as the Rosatellum bis, or simply Rosatellum, after Ettore Rosato, member of the Chamber of Deputies for Italia Viva, first signatory of the law upon proposal of the bill to Parliament.


title: Italian Parliament

text: The Senate comprises 200 members elected by universal suffrage and by citizens who are 18 or older. Out of the total number, according to the Rosatellum bis:


title: Italian Parliament

text: In addition to the elected members, the Senate, as per article 59 of the Constitution of the Italian Republic, also comprises senators for life as discussed above.


title: Italian Parliament

text: The Senate is elected on a single ballot. The ballot includes all candidates for a given single-member district (majoritarian component). For each candidate, the parties and party-lists that supported him/her are also listed, which is used to determine the proportional seats. These latter seats are allocated within each single regional constituency. A 3% minimum threshold for single party-lists is required for the proportional component (or 10% if within a coalition, so long at least one party within the coalition reached the required 3% threshold), and is calculated nationally. Notwithstanding this, a different threshold is needed for lists representing linguistic minorities, which is 20% and is calculated on a regional basis.


title: Italian Parliament

text: The Chamber comprises 400 members elected by universal suffrage and by citizens who are 18 or older. Out of the total number, according to the "Rosatellum bis,"


title: Italian Parliament

text: As the Senate of the Republic, the Chamber of Deputies is elected on a single ballot, as indicated above for the Senate of the Republic. The only difference is that the proportional component is calculated based on the national average of the vote.


title: Italian Parliament

text: The Italian Parliament is one of the few legislatures in the world to reserve seats for those citizens residing abroad. There are 8 such seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 4 in the Senate of the Republic, in accordance with Law n. 459 of 27 December 2001 (as amending articles 48, 56, and 57 of the Constitution of the Italian Republic), also known as Legge Tremaglia.


title: Long hair

text: Long hair is a hairstyle where the head hair is allowed to grow to a considerable length. Exactly what constitutes long hair can change from culture to culture, or even within cultures. For example, a woman with chin-length hair in some cultures may be said to have short hair, while a man with the same length of hair in some of the same cultures would be said to have long hair.


title: Long hair

text: Males having short, cut hair are in many cultures viewed as being under society's control, such as while in the military or prison or as punishment for a crime. Long lustrous female hair is generally rated attractive by both men and women across cultures. The prevalence of trichophilia (hair partialism or fetishism) is 7% in the population, and very long hair is a common subject of devotion in this group.


title: Long hair

text: Humans, horses, orangutans and lions are among the few species that may grow their head hair or manes very long. Humans are believed to have lost their fur 2.5–3 million years ago as hominids when transitioning from a forest habitat to the open savanna, as an effect of natural selection, since this development made it possible to run fast and hunt animals close to the equator without getting overheated. Head hair was an exception, which was a survival trait because it provides thermal insulation of the scalp from the sun, protects against ultraviolet radiation exposure (UV), and also provides cooling (when sweat evaporates from soaked hair). The ability to grow straight hair has been observed among Homo sapiens sub-groups in less sunny regions further away from the equator. Relative to kinked Afro-textured hair, straight hair allows more UV light to pass to the scalp (which is essential for the production of vitamin D, that is important for bone development).


title: Long hair

text: The ability to grow very long hair may be a result of sexual selection, since long and healthy hair is a sign of fertility. An evolutionary biology explanation for this attraction is that hair length and quality can act as a cue to youth and health, signifying a woman's reproductive potential. As hair grows slowly, long hair may reveal 2–3 years of a person's health status, nutrition, age and reproductive fitness. Malnutrition, and deficiencies in minerals and vitamins due to starvation, cause loss of hair or changes in hair color (e.g. dark hair turning reddish).


title: Long hair

text: Anthropologists speculate that the functional significance of long head hair may be adornment, a by-product of secondary natural selection once other androgenic/somatic hair (body hair) had largely been lost. Another possibility is that long head hair is a result of Fisherian runaway sexual selection, where long lustrous hair is a visible marker for a healthy individual. For some groups or individuals, however, short hair is the selected trait.


title: Long hair

text: By seven to nine months, infants can tell the sexes apart based on hair length, vocal pitch, and faces.


title: Long hair

text: Ways of life often viewed as more rigid, such as soldiering and religious discipline, frequently have explicit rules regarding hair length. For example, Buddhist monks shave their heads as part of their order of worship. Similarly, religious men with long hair include Paganism, the Nazarites of the Hebrew Bible (Samson being a well-known example) and the Sikhs. Other cultures may view male long hair negatively; historically, some conquering groups have used the long hair of conquered people as a symbol of their imagined "otherness" or inferiority, as was the case with the Gaelic Irish under English rule and the Moors under Spanish rule in Medieval Spain.


title: Long hair

text: East Asian cultures have traditionally associated unkempt hair in a woman with an irresponsible attitude, as women in East Asia were expected to tie up their hair in styles such as the ponytail, plait, or any bun, as a symbol of responsibility.


title: Long hair

text: The traditional connotation of "long hair" in English meant, roughly, someone artistically knowledgeable or wise, an aesthete. As a descriptive term, it has been applied to Merovingians and classical music enthusiasts, as well as hippies and aesthetes.


title: Long hair

text: Hair length is most often measured (in centimeters or inches) from the line of the scalp on the forehead up over the highest point of the skull to its termination, and sometimes from the crown, the latter resulting in 10 centimeter lower values in average. In cosmetology, hair lengths are usually categorized according to the part of the body where the bulk of the longest hair terminates: "chin level", "shoulder length", "lower shoulderblade"/"mid-back level", "waist length", "hip-length", "classic length" (extends to almost "buttock-length", i.e. upper thigh-length, where the legs meet the buttocks), "thigh-length", "knee-length" and "ankle/floor length" hair.


title: Long hair

text: Hair usually takes about two years to reach shoulder length, and about seven years to reach waist-length/hip-length, including occasional trims (approximately from forehead for most people).


title: Long hair

text: The maximum hair length that is possible to reach is about for infants (below the age of 1), about for children, and generally for adults. Some individuals can reach excessive lengths. Lengths greater than are frequently observed in long hair contests. Xie Qiuping had the longest documented hair in the world, measuring in May 2004.


title: Long hair

text: The maximum terminal hair length depends on the length of the anagen (period of hair growth) for the individual. Waist-length hair or longer is only possible to reach for people with long anagen. The anagen lasts between 2 and 7 years, for some individuals even longer, and is followed by shorter catagen (transition) and telogen (resting) periods. At any given time, about 85% of hair strands are in anagen. The fibroblast growth factor 5 (FGF5) gene affects the hair cycle in mammals including humans; blocking FGF5 in the human scalp (by applying a herbal extract that blocked FGF5) extends the hair cycle, resulting in less hair fall and increased hair growth.


title: Long hair

text: In ancient Greece, long male hair was a symbol of wealth and power, while a shaven head was appropriate for a slave. The ancient Greeks had several gods and heroes who wore their hair long, including Zeus, Achilles, Apollo, and Poseidon. Greek soldiers are said to have worn their hair long in battle. Such warriors considered it a sign of aristocracy and are said to have combed it openly to show off. Also, in order to keep enemies from getting hold of it in battle, they were known to cut the front short, but leave it long in the back, where it was more out of reach (mullet). A widely held alternative interpretation of the conventional belief is that they kept it long, and simply tied it back in a style known as a ponytail in order to keep it out of their enemies' reach. The ponytail method allowed warriors, who often traveled to battle with a minimal amount of equipment so that they could avoid excessively heavy loads over long marches, to keep their hair manageable with a small piece of string to hold it in place and a knife to cut the back to length with one slice. Around the 6th century, however, the Greek men shifted to shorter hairstyles, with the exception of the Spartans. Women in the culture kept the longer style, which for them showed freedom, health, and wealth, as well as good behavior. With men, long hair by this time was considered a sign of false pride.


title: Long hair

text: Pliny the Elder in his "Natural History" and Varro related that the Romans did not begin to cut their hair short until barbers were introduced to Italy from Sicily by P. Ticinius Mena in 299 BC. Women in Roman times valued long hair, usually with a center part. Apart from in the earliest times, men's hair was usually shorter than women's, although other cultures of the time, such as Greeks in the east, considered long hair to be typical of philosophers, who were thought to be too engrossed in learning to bother with hair. Strictly in the province of Rome, however, the shorter hairstyle was especially popular. When Julius Caesar conquered the Gauls, who favored long hair, he ordered theirs to be cut short.


title: Long hair

text: In the European middle ages, shorter hair often signified servitude and the peasantry, while long hair was often attributed to freemen, as was the case with the Germanic Goths and Merovingians.


title: Long hair

text: The Gaelic Irish (both men and women) took great pride in their long hair—for example, a person could be heavily fined for cutting a man's hair short against his will. When the Anglo-Normans and the English colonized Ireland, hair length came to signify one's allegiance. Irishmen who cut their hair short were deemed to be forsaking their Irish heritage. Likewise, English colonists who wore their hair long in the back were deemed to be forsaking their role as English subjects and giving in to the Irish life. Thus, hair length was one of the most common ways of judging a true Englishman in this period. Muslims in Christian areas were ordered to keep their hair short and parted, as their longer style was considered rebellious and barbaric.


title: Long hair

text: The long hair tradition was widespread among English and French men in the 11th and 12th centuries, although it was considered acceptable for men to have shorter hair, mainly because of the endorsement of the Roman Catholic Church. The tradition was largely brought about by monarchs who rejected the shorter hairstyle, causing the people to follow. Wulfstan, a religious leader, worried that those with longer hair would fight like women, and be unable to protect England from foreign invasion. Similar ideas can be found among later military leaders as well, such as those of the American Confederacy. Knights and rulers would also sometimes cut or pull out their hair in order to show penitence and mourning, and a squire's hair was generally worn shorter than a knight's. Married women who let their hair flow out in public were frowned upon, as this was normally reserved for the unwed, although they were allowed to let it out in mourning, to show their distressed state. Through these centuries it was expected of Eastern Christians to wear long hair as well as long beards, which was expected especially of clergy and monks.


title: Long hair

text: In England, during the English Civil Wars of 1642 to 1651, male hair length was emblematic of the disputes between Cavaliers and Roundheads (Puritans). Cavaliers wore longer hair, and were less religious-minded, being thought of by the Roundheads as lecherous. The more devout Roundheads typically had somewhat shorter hair.


title: Long hair

text: Around this time, long hair in England also came to be associated with adventurers who traveled to America and were familiar with the native culture there, short hair was associated with less adventurous types.


title: Long hair

text: Growing and wearing long hair was common among women in the Western world until World War One. Long female hair never ceased in western culture, though it was rare during the 1920s and 1930s.


title: Long hair

text: In most current cultures, it is more typical for women to wear long hair than for men to do so. An American study shows significant correlation between hair length and age, which indicates that younger women tend to have longer hair than older women. A significant correlation was also found between women's hair length and hair quality. Moreover, hair quality was correlated with the women's perceived physical health. Consistent with principles of evolutionary psychology, these results indicate that hair length and quality can act as a cue to a woman's youth and health, signifying reproductive potential. The correlation between the woman's hair length and marital status, or number of children, was however not more than to be expected from the correlation between hair length and age.


title: Long hair

text: During the 19th century male hair lengths in Western cultures had varied widely; according to nationality, occupation, age, social status and passing fashion. However, prior to World War One beards had largely been replaced by moustaches and hair was most commonly cut to a medium/short length. However, short hair on men was introduced in World War One for soldiers. The trench warfare engaged in from 1914 to 1918 exposed men to flea and lice infestations, which prompted orders by the higher command to cut hair short, establishing a new military tradition.


title: Long hair

text: Beat poets during the 1950s wore longer hairstyles. By 1960, a small "beatnik" community in Newquay, Cornwall, England (including a young Wizz Jones) had attracted the attention of their neighbors for growing their hair to a length past the shoulders, resulting in a television interview with Alan Whicker on BBC television's "Tonight" series. The 1960s also introduced The Beatles, who started a more widespread longer hair trend. The social revolution of the 1960s led to a renaissance of unchecked hair growth, and long hair, especially on men, was worn as a political or countercultural symbol or protest and as a symbol of masculinity. This cultural symbol extended to several countries in the Americas, Western Europe, South Africa, and Australia. The trend even spread to some Eastern Bloc countries, such as the "Mánička" subculture of Czechoslovakia, which was met with discrimination by the authorities, who saw it as unwanted Western capitalistic influence. Specific long hairstyles such as dreadlocks have been part of counterculture movements seeking to define other alternative cultures and lifestyles since this time. Longer hair in general remained popular due to the youth rebellion throughout the liberal decade of the 1960s. The long hair trend grew with the spread of the hippie movement in the 1960s and, in the 1970s, longer hair styles would become the norm among men and women.


title: Long hair

text: In the 1970s, the popularity of Jamaica's reggae music and musician Bob Marley prompted interest in dreadlocks internationally. The anti-establishment philosophy of Rastafari, echoed in much of the reggae of the time, resonated with left-leaning youth of all ethnicities – especially and primarily among African Americans and other Blacks, but among counterculture Whites as well. In the 1980s, the view of long hair as a solitary signifier of political or counter-cultural identity was countered and parodied in films such as Rambo and many other militaristic heroes of media which challenged then-contemporary views of tradition. In the 2000s, longer hairstyles among men became popular among neopagans and rock enthusiasts; for example, musicians in metal bands and their fans often wear long hair. Long hair may be grown for the purpose of its being donated to an organization, such as Locks of Love, that provides hairpieces to help those who can not have hair otherwise, such as those who are diagnosed with alopecia areata. Today long hair has gained even more popularity. Even among mainstream men it is socially acceptable to have hair reaching around the upper back. This could in part be due to the "man bun" trend where men pull their shoulder length or longer hair back into a topknot bun.


title: Long hair

text: Many Native American men wore long hair before the arrival of Western influences on their culture. (In Cherokee legends, for example, males said to be handsome were often described as having "long hair almost to the ground" or similar formulas.) Both men and women of these cultures have frequently struggled to maintain their tradition but have faced heavy opposition. Many consider it a sign of giving in to Western influences to have their hair cut. Early US settlers saw long-haired, native men as rebelling against their civilized society. Mountain men and trappers who adopted the customs were also considered amoral, and often identified by their long hair. Since the cultural movements of the Sixties and Seventies, however, Native Americans have felt less pressure to have short hair, as different movements have defended their cultural rights. For example, several states have loosened prison regulations, allowing Native Americans to wear long hair during incarceration, along with other cultural allowances.


title: Long hair

text: When African slaves were freed in America, they struggled to reach the social status of whites. Many former slaves tried to conform their hairstyles as part of this struggle. Women, especially, felt pressure to make their hair straight, rather than keeping the tightly coiled style they had known. However, during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, African-Americans such as Malcolm X advocated hairstyles such as Afros and dreadlocks, in order to embrace their race, and to return to West African roots.


title: Long hair

text: Social pressures at the time were heavily influencing these American women to have straight hair like white people did. This resulted in the Black is beautiful movement, wherein African Americans wore their long natural hair untreated and not modified. More recently, hair extensions have become widespread. Some scholars posit that there is continued pressure on black women to have straight smooth hair. Amelia Jones posits that dolls for children, such as Barbie dolls, add to this pressure, citing as an example a new, black Barbie doll with straight hair. Blacks, she believes, should be able to be themselves without feeling pressured to "tame" their hair.


title: Long hair

text: In 1972, it was estimated that 24% of American women wore shoulder length hair or longer (44% of women in ages 14 to 44), meaning slightly more than 12% of men and women altogether. Similar frequency was found in 2001, when it was estimated that about 13% of the US adult population, male as well as females, has hair shoulder-length or longer, about 2.4% have hair reaching to the bottom of the shoulder blades or longer, about 0.3% have hair waist length or longer, and only about 0.017% have hair buttocks-length or longer.


title: Long hair

text: By extrapolating the above data and the number of hair length records, the number of people with shoulder-length hair or longer in the US is estimated to be 27 million, those with waist-length hair roughly 900,000, those with buttocks-length hair to be 40,000, with knee length hair to 2,000 and with ankle length hair to 70.


title: Long hair

text: Other data estimates that 2–3% of US men have long hair, and an additional 2% have borderline long hair, leaving 95–96% with short hair. It has also been estimated that 24% of women have long hair and 43% have medium length hair, leaving 33% with short hair. Given that men comprise 49.2% of the US population and women 50.8%, the estimated breakup of hair length by gender among Americans is 47% men with short hair, 22% women with medium hair, 17% women with short hair, 12% women with long hair, 1% men with long hair, and 1% men with medium hair. This leaves, as a total, 64% people with short hair, 23% people with medium hair, and 13% people with long hair.


title: Long hair

text: Throughout much of Africa, afro-textured hair is the most frequent hair form, except among the Afro-Asiatic (Hamito-Semitic) speaking populations in North Africa and the Horn of Africa. In the latter regions, naturally long hair is instead more common.


title: Long hair

text: In West African cultures, women with long hair were highly valued. Long, thick hair was seen as a sign of health, strength, and capability to bear many children. In keeping with this general theme, women who were too young for marriage would shave a portion of their heads to signal so. This tradition, however, did not extend to every West African culture, as several valued shorter hair.


title: Long hair

text: Historically, East Asian cultures viewed long hair as a sign of youth and aesthetic beauty. Long hair is associated with private life and sexuality. East Asian cultures see long, unkempt hair in a woman as a sign of sexual intent or a recent sexual encounter, as usually their hair is tied up. Lay Buddhists have long hair, while Buddhist monks have shaved heads.


title: Long hair

text: In ancient China and Korea, hair was regarded as a precious legacy from parents. Most people would never cut their hair after they became adults, and cutting off one's hair was a penalty for minor crimes. Both men and women would coil up their hair and many hair-coiling styles were developed.


title: Long hair

text: Beginning in 1619, the ethnic Manchu Qing dynasty forced all men in China to adopt the queue: a long braid down the back with the hair near the forehead completely shaved. Hair length and style became a life-or-death matter in 1645 as the Manchu told them either their hair or their head would be cut.


title: Long hair

text: Nearly every Han rebel group began by shearing this pigtail (most especially in the case of the Taiping, who were known in Chinese as the "Longhairs"), but the queue on penalty of death lasted until 1911, when the Chinese people cut their queues in unison at a time of rebellion. Americans at first judged Chinese immigrant laborers to be poor workers because their long hair brought an association with women.


title: Long hair

text: Islamic and Christian missionaries among the Chinese were strong advocates of shorter male hair for their converts. Around the Destruction of Four Olds period in 1964, almost anything seen as part of Traditional Chinese culture would lead to problems with the Communist Red Guards. Items that attracted dangerous attention if caught in the public included jewelry and long male hair. These things were regarded as symbols of bourgeois lifestyle, that represented wealth. People had to avoid them or suffer serious consequences such as tortures and beatings by the guards. More recently, long hair was ridiculed in China from October 1983 to December 1983, as part of the short and unsuccessful Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign.


title: Long hair

text: Also, in Chinese ancient and modern poetry, long hair is a common symbol used by poets, for example Li Bai and Li Shangyin, to express their depression and sadness.


title: Long hair

text: In Southeast Asia and Indonesia, male long hair was valued until the 17th century, when the area adopted outside influences including Islam and Christianity. Invading cultures enforced shorter hairstyles on men as a sign of servitude, as well. They were also confused by the short hairstyles among women in certain areas, such as Thailand, and struggled to explain why women in the area had such short hair. They came up with several mythical stories, one of which involved a king who found a long hair in his rice and, in a rage, demanded that all women keep their hair short.


title: Long hair

text: In countries like India, especially rural parts, girls and young women generally grow their hair very long, often reaching hip-length or thigh length hair. Long hair in India is considered an essential part of a woman.


title: Long hair

text: In medieval Japan, heian men were not very interested in a woman's physical beauty and rarely had an opportunity to see it. The only physical attribute of interest was a woman's hair, which had to be thick and longer than she was tall.


title: Long hair

text: In the Old Testament, the Nazirites would go for long periods of time without cutting their hair to show devotion to God. Samson is one example; his strength depended upon his refraining from cutting his hair, described as worn in "seven locks".


title: Long hair

text: Strict Orthodox Judaism forbids men from cutting their sidelocks, but other hair may be kept as desired. Hair is not cut during a time of mourning. The Torah in Deuteronomy 14:1 prohibits removing hair in mourning for the dead.


title: Long hair

text: In the past, Bedouin Muslims often wore their hair in long braids, but influences from the Western world have caused a change in attitudes. Bedouins are now less likely to have long hair. Islamic countries in North Africa such as Egypt view long hair in men as modernist and in one case the Egyptian police viewed it as Satanic and a sign of an infidel. Spanish rulers during the Medieval Period suspected long-haired males to be Moors or Moriscos, therefore long hair was forbidden since it was believed to be a Moorish custom. However, modern North African men have adopted Western short hair.


title: Long hair

text: Muslims regard the Muhammad as the best example to live by, and try to emulate him whenever possible. Muhammad reportedly in Sahih Muslim had hair that "hung over his shoulders and earlobes". Sahih Bukhari, regarded the most authentic of hadith, also supports this using a prime example of Isa (Jesus). Muhammad has also described Jesus as "having long hair reaching his ear lobes." Malik's Muwatta 51.2.6 reported, Yahya related to me from Malik from Yahya ibn Said that Abu Qatada al-Ansari said to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, "I have a lot of hair which comes down to my shoulders, shall I comb it?" The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Yes, and honour it." Sometimes Abu Qatada oiled it twice in one day because the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to him. "Honour it."


title: Long hair

text: With regards to women, neither Qur'an nor Sunnah explicitly state that women cannot cut their hair. Hadith does mention that women should not imitate men, and vice versa, and hence many scholars on this assumption, decree that women should let their hair grow longer than the hair of Muhammad, reaching beyond their shoulders, as hadith mentions that Muhammad had his hair between his shoulder and his earlobes. (He described Jesus's hair, which hung to his earlobes, as long.)


title: Long hair

text: However, according to some hadiths regarding the rules of awrah, women are required to grow hair long, long enough that it would cover the breasts or as much awrah parts of the body when they're being buried, because she lacks clothes and long hair would be used as a covering instead.


title: Long hair

text: Some Muslims are also opposed to men having long hair as it is also important in Islam to have clear differences (in appearance) between sexes. Generally these cultures encourage women to have long hair and men to have short hair. The Taliban in Afghanistan viewed long hair for men as a Western influence, and punished it by arrest and forced haircuts, although this would be a direct contradiction of the sunnah of Muhammad. Similar measures have been taken by Islamists in Iraq. In spite of this, several Taliban affiliated members of the Mehsud clan are recognisable by their long hair. The Saudi Islamist fighter Amir Khattab was also notable for his long hair. Dervishes of some Sufi orders, such as the Kasnazani, often have long hair and whirl it around during rituals.


title: Long hair

text: For Sikhs, Kesh is the practice of allowing one's hair to grow naturally as long hair is considered a hukam/command of Satguru/Nature.


title: Ramon Tikaram

text: Ramon Tikaram is a British stage and screen actor of Indo-Fijian and Southeast Asian descent. He is known for playing such roles as Ferdy in the BBC television series "This Life" and Qadim Shah in the BBC One soap opera "EastEnders".


title: Ramon Tikaram

text: Tikaram is the son of Pramod Tikaram, an Indo-Fijian officer of British Army, and Fatimah Rohani, a Sarawakian mother. His younger sister is singer-songwriter Tanita Tikaram. The family moved frequently during Tikaram's youth, because of his father's military service with the British army. He attended military school in Dover before studying English at Kent University, where he discovered acting.


title: Ramon Tikaram

text: In 1992, Tikaram had a recording contract and released two singles followed by the album , the latter with musicians including brothers and on guitar and sax respectively.


title: Ramon Tikaram

text: Tikaram performed the role of the King of Siam in a UK tour of the musical "The King and I", ending in May 2012.


title: Ramon Tikaram

text: In 1996–97, he played the recurring character of Ferdy Garcia in the BBC TV series "This Life". A 10th-anniversary return of the show in 2006 was based on Ferdy's funeral, and Tikaram therefore did not appear.


title: Ramon Tikaram

text: In 1997, Tikaram was offered a role in the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy, but refused because it required that he cut his hair.


title: Ramon Tikaram

text: In October 2009, it was announced that Tikaram would appear in the BBC One soap opera "EastEnders". He played the part of Qadim Shah, father of the established character Amira Shah. He appeared on-screen in the role from 17 December 2009 to 29 April 2010 in two stints, then returned on 6 September 2011 and 6 January 2012 for short appearances.


title: Ramon Tikaram

text: In November 2012, he also provided the voice of World Eaters Captain Macer Varren for the Black Library audio drama "Garro: Sword of Truth", part of the long-running "Horus Heresy" series.


title: Ramon Tikaram

text: He lent his voice for Dorian in "", Gein in the cancelled "", and Ravindra 'Rav' Chaudhry in "Need for Speed Payback".


title: Ramon Tikaram

text: He voiced the roles of Ozzy, Danby, and Second Officer Keen, characters in the 2018 video game "Subnautica".


title: Chaske Spencer

text: Chaske Spencer (pronounced "Chess-Kay"; born March 9, 1975) is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Sam Uley in "The Twilight Saga" film series (2009–2012), Teddo in the acclaimed film "Wild Indian", and for his recurring role as Deputy Billy Raven in the Cinemax original series "Banshee".


title: Chaske Spencer

text: Spencer was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma and grew up in Montana, as well as Kooskia, Lapwai, and Lewiston, Idaho. He has two younger sisters. His heritage includes Lakota, Nez Perce, Cherokee, Muscogee, French, and Dutch. He graduated from Clearwater Valley High School in 1994, where he went by the name James Spencer. As a young teen, he started acting in productions at the Lewiston Civic Theater. Spencer attended college at Lewis–Clark State College for a year, and considered a career in photography. He eventually dropped out of Lewis–Clark State College to pursue his acting career.


title: Chaske Spencer

text: Spencer did odd jobs while taking acting lessons from coaches David Gideon and Ed Kovens. He got a role in the 2002 film "Skins", which then led to "Dreamkeeper", and "Into the West".


title: Chaske Spencer

text: During his teens, Spencer had struggles with substance abuse and alcoholism. He continued to drink heavily during his college years. He later developed an addiction to cocaine and heroin, and checked into rehab. While in rehab, Spencer stopped taking drugs. He nearly gave up on acting before his agent called him to audition for "", the sequel to "Twilight."


title: Chaske Spencer

text: In 2009, Spencer played werewolf Sam Uley in "New Moon", based on Stephenie Meyer's novel of the same name. He reprised his role in "Eclipse, ," and "".


title: Chaske Spencer

text: In 2015, Spencer was cast in the recurring role of Billy Raven in the "Banshee" TV series, after making his debut one year prior in the web series "Banshee Origins".


title: Chaske Spencer

text: Spencer was selected in 2021 to star alongside Emily Blunt in "The English" TV series, produced for Amazon Prime Video and BBC One.


title: World peace

text: World peace, or peace on Earth, is the concept of an ideal state of peace within and among all people and nations on Planet Earth. Different cultures, religions, philosophies, and organizations have varying concepts on how such a state would come about.


title: World peace

text: Various religious and secular organizations have the stated aim of achieving world peace through addressing human rights, technology, education, engineering, medicine, or diplomacy used as an end to all forms of fighting. Since 1945, the United Nations and the five permanent members of its Security Council (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) have operated under the aim to resolve conflicts without war or declarations of war. Nonetheless, nations have entered numerous military conflicts since then.


title: World peace

text: Many theories as to how world peace could be achieved have been proposed. Several of these are listed below.


title: World peace

text: Capitalist, or commercial peace, forms one of the three planks of Kantian peace, together with democratic peace theory and institutionalist arguments for peace. Although the evidence is inconclusive, various scholars have argued for capitalist peace. For instance, in her essay "The Roots of War", Ayn Rand held that the major wars of history were started by the more controlled economies of the time against the freer ones and that capitalism gave mankind the longest period of peace in history—a period during which there were no wars involving the entire civilized world—from the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815 to the outbreak of World War I in 1914, with the exceptions of the Franco-Prussian War (1870), the Spanish–American War (1898), and the American Civil War (1861–1865).


title: World peace

text: Proponents of Cobdenism claim that by removing tariffs and creating international free trade, wars would become impossible because free trade prevents a nation from becoming self-sufficient, which is a requirement for long wars.


title: World peace

text: However, free trade does not prevent a nation from establishing some sort of emergency plan to become temporarily self-sufficient in case of war or that a nation could simply acquire what it needs from a different nation. A good example of this is World War I, during which both Britain and Germany became partially self-sufficient. This is particularly important because Germany had no plan for creating a war economy.


title: World peace

text: Proponents of democratic peace theory, developed mainly in the 1960s but relying in part on eighteenth century Kantian theory, and frequently espoused by Western politicians, claim that strong empirical evidence exists that democracies never or rarely wage war against each other. However, several wars between democracies have taken place, historically, such as the Kargil War. Relevant issues of debate include whether sufficient data is available to statistically prove the theory and whether peace results in democracy (territorial peace theory) or vice versa.


title: World peace

text: Michael Mousseau's economic norms theory links economic conditions with institutions of governance and conflict, distinguishing personal clientelist economies from impersonal market-oriented ones, identifying the latter with permanent peace within and between nations.


title: World peace

text: Throughout most of human history, societies have been based on personal relations: individuals in groups know each other and exchange favours. Today in most lower-income societies hierarchies of groups distribute wealth based on personal relationships among group leaders, a process often linked with clientelism and corruption. Michael Mousseau argues that in this kind of socio-economy conflict is always present, latent or overt, because individuals depend on their groups for physical and economic security and are thus loyal to their groups rather than their states, and because groups are in a constant state of conflict over access to state coffers. Through processes of bounded rationality, people are conditioned towards strong in-group identities and are easily swayed to fear outsiders, psychological predispositions that make possible sectarian violence, genocide, and terrorism.


title: World peace

text: Market-oriented socio-economics are integrated not with personal ties but the impersonal force of the market where most individuals are economically dependent on trusting strangers in contracts enforced by the state. This creates loyalty to a state that enforces the rule of law and contracts impartially and reliably and provides equal protection in the freedom to contract – that is, liberal democracy. Wars cannot happen within or between nations with market-integrated economies because war requires the harming of others, and in these kinds of economies, everyone is always economically better off when others in the market are also better off, not worse off. Rather than fight, citizens in market-oriented socio-economies care deeply about everyone's rights and welfare, so they demand economic growth at home and economic cooperation and human rights abroad. Nations with market-oriented socio-economies tend to agree on global issues and not a single fatality has occurred in any dispute between them.