title: Argentine Navy

text: In 2020, Argentina national government created an interministerial committee with the objective of reassuring national oceans' sovereignty. In 2020, the Ministry of Defence informed Congress of a desire to acquire a Landing Platform Dock (LPD) as well as two naval transport vessels to increase logistical capacity, including in relation to the country's claims and presence in the Antarctic. Foreign overfishing is a concern and the Argentine Navy recently captured at least two foreign ships allegedly illegally fishing in the South Atlantic. Partially to address this, a project for the re-focus of two Meko 140-class corvettes on patrol duties was reportedly under development.


title: Argentine Navy

text: It remained to be determined how the several envisaged new-acquisition projects would be funded. For instance, the proposed submarine acquisition from Brazil would require extensive refurbishment of the vessels prior to being ready for renewed operational service with the Argentine Navy. As of the end of 2020, the mooted submarine deal with Brazil had not yet been finalised and the process of refurbishment not yet begun. In 2021, one analyst noted that over the past thirty years the Argentine navy has lost many core capabilities, including its aircraft carrier (along with most of its fixed-wing combat aviation), submarines and area air defence vessels. Most of these seemed unlikely to be reconstituted.


title: Argentine Navy

text: The Argentine navy has four main commands: High Seas Fleet, Submarine Force, Naval Aviation, and Naval Infantry (Marines).


title: Argentine Navy

text: Puerto Belgrano Naval Base (, abbreviated "BNPB") is the largest naval base of the Argentine Navy, situated next to Punta Alta, near Bahía Blanca, about 700 km (435 mi) south of Buenos Aires. Most of the fleet is based there.


title: Argentine Navy

text: The Submarine Force Command (, abbreviated "COFS") was created when the Navy first started using submarines in 1927. The Tactical Divers Group is under the submarine force command structure. However, as of 2020 there were no operational submarines in service.


title: Argentine Navy

text: The Naval Aviation Command (, abbreviated "COAN") is the naval aviation branch. Argentina is one of two South American countries to have operated two aircraft carriers. However, neither remain in service. During the Falkland's War, Argentine naval aviation employed the Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard fighter and its Exocet air-to-surface missiles being responsible for the destruction of both HMS Sheffield as well as the merchant vessel Atlantic Conveyor. The Super Etendard remains in the naval inventory, but in very small numbers with five refurbished aircraft having been delivered from France in 2019. However, these aircraft await the delivery of key spare parts and, as reported in June 2020, were not expected to be in operational service for a further two years. In early 2022, it was reported that the spare parts problem remained unresolved and the aircraft continued to be kept in storage.


title: Argentine Navy

text: The Naval Infantry Command () is the Argentine Navy's marine branch. Naval infantry have the same rank, insignia, and titles as the rest of the Navy, and are deployed abroad on UN peacekeeping missions.


title: Argentine Navy

text: The Argentine Naval Hydrographic Service (, abbreviated "SHN") provides national hydrographics services.


title: Argentine Navy

text: Rank insignia consists of a variable number of gold-braid stripes worn on the sleeve cuffs or on shoulder-boards. Officers may be distinguished by the characteristic loop of the top stripe (in the manner of British Royal Navy officers). Combat uniforms may include metal pin-on or embroidered collar rank insignia. Rank insignia is worn on the chest when in shipboard or flying coveralls.


title: Argentine Navy

text: Officers are commissioned in either the Command (line) Corps (those who attend the Escuela Naval Militar- Military Naval College) or the Staff Corps (Professional Officers who only attend a short course in the Naval Academy after getting a civilian degree, except for the Paymasters who instead attend the Naval College).


title: Argentine Navy

text: The Line Corps is divided into three branches: the Naval branch (including Surface Warfare, Submarine Warfare and Naval Aviation sub-branches), the Marine Corps branch, and Executive -Engineering- branch. Line Corps' reserve officers are considered Restricted Line ( "Escalafon Complementario" ) officers in any of the Warfare Communities (Surface, Submarine, Marines, Aviation and Propulsion), and can only raise to OF-4 rank ( "Capitan de Fragata" ).


title: Argentine Navy

text: All Line Corps officers wear distinctive branch/sub-branch insignia on the right breast. Some Staff Corps officers also wear specialisation badges (Aviation, Surface, Submarine and Marines). Other common insignia is the Naval War College insignia, parachute wings, etc., also worn on the right breast. Medals and Ribbons, if awarded, are worn on the left breast, just above the chest pocket. The rank insignia of Staff Corps' officers is placed over a background colour denoting the wearer's field, such as purple (Chaplains), blue (Engineers), red (Health Corps), white (Paymasters), green (Judge Advocate Officers), brown (Technical Officers, promoted from the ranks) and grey (special branch). The background colour for Command Corps officers is navy blue/black.


title: Argentine Navy

text: Other ranks' insignia (not including Seamen) is worn on either shoulderboards or breast or sleeve patches. Seamen and Seamen Recruits wear their insignia on their sleeves. The shoulderboards denote the wearer's specialty.


title: Argentine Navy

text: Following a global trend, Argentine armed forces have prohibited beards since the 1920s. This was reinforced in the Cold War era when they were deemed synonymous with leftist leanings. The only exception were Antarctic service within the three armed forces as a protection from cold weather, and submarine service within the Navy as a way of saving water. However, shaving was mandatory upon return to headquarters.


title: Argentine Navy

text: In 2000 the Navy broke with this tradition within the Argentine armed forces as Adm. Joaquín Stella, then Navy Chief of Staff allowed beards for officers with ranks above "Teniente de Corbeta" (Second Lieutenant), according to Section 1.10.1.1 of the Navy Uniform regulations (R.A-1-001). Adm. Stella gave the example himself by becoming the first bearded Argentine admiral since Adm. Sáenz Valiente in the 1920s. Non commissioned officers can wear beards from "Suboficial Segundo" rank, and upwards. However, beards were prohibited again in 2016, except for some specific office positions.


Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version is the solo debut album of American rapper and Wu-Tang Clan member Ol' Dirty Bastard, released March 28, 1995 on Elektra Records in the United States. It was the second solo album, after Method Man's "Tical" to be released from the nine-member Wu-Tang Clan following the release of their debut album. "Return to the 36 Chambers" was primarily produced by RZA, with additional production from Ol' Dirty Bastard, and affiliates True Master and 4th Disciple. The album features guest appearances from Wu-Tang Clan members GZA, RZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah and Masta Killa as well as Wu-Tang Killa Beez.


"Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version" peaked at number seven on the "Billboard" 200 and number two on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The album sold 81,000 copies in its first week, and was certified Platinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on March 26, 2019. Upon its release, the album received positive reviews from most music critics, with many complimenting Ol' Dirty Bastard's bizarre lyrical delivery and RZA's eerie production. The album was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 1996 Grammy Awards.


title: Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version

text: "The Dirty Version" was nominated for the 1996 Grammy Award for Best Rap Album, but lost to Naughty by Nature's "Poverty's Paradise".


text: "Rolling Stone" (4/20/95, p. 78) – 4 Stars – "With his raspy, lisp-punctuated voice and half-sung, half-rapped style, [Ol' Dirty Bastard] may well be the most original vocalist in hip-hop history."


text: "Entertainment Weekly" (3/31/95, p. 61) – "This solo effort by a second member of the near-platinum Wu-Tang Clan showcases the raw, innovative talent of their illest member ... The RZA's signature dissonant piano loops [sparkle] behind Dirty's delirious, reverberating delivery." – Rating: A-


text: "Vibe" (5/95, p. 97) – "Ol' Dirty's catchy sing-along ... is paired with subtle keyboards and the Rza's typically murky beats, yielding a mystic's brew, which, like all Wu-related fare, defiantly flies in the face of conventions ... the aural pleasures are ... convincing."


text: "The Source" (5/95, p. 65) – 4 Stars – "The third shot fired in the Wu-Tang revolution spotlights the crazy drunken flow of the Ol' Dirty Bastard ... a must-have for every real hardcore head ... hardcore lyrics kicked live over a non-stop assault of that addictive Shao-lin funk."


text: "Melody Maker" (4/22/95, p. 35) – "... an hour of cruel hard and frighteningly funny hip hop; the perfect companion piece to Wu-Tang's 36 Chambers ... the songs are driven by a vicious, unstable urgency."


text: "Select" gave the album a negative review of two out of five. The review found the album inferior to Method Man's album "Tical", stating that "From the extremely long and unfunny – intro skit, it's obvious ideas are spread wafer thin across the 15 tracks."


title: Animalize

text: Animalize is the twelfth studio album by American rock band Kiss. It was released on September 13, 1984, by Mercury Records. The album marked the only appearance by lead guitarist Mark St. John, who replaced Vinnie Vincent in April 1984.


title: Animalize

text: At the time of the record's release, Gene Simmons was pursuing a career in acting. Paul Stanley was thus primarily in charge of the album's production and direction.


title: Animalize

text: New guitarist Mark St. John stated that when recording the album, he had utilized his Rockman gear and that heavy equalization was used to take the "Boston" sound out of the recording.


title: Animalize

text: St. John was forced to temporarily leave Kiss before the subsequent tour after being diagnosed with reactive arthritis. While he accompanied the group on tour and convalesced, the group hired Bruce Kulick as a temporary replacement. Kulick gelled with the band's personalities and playing styles better than St. John; by November 1984, St. John was fired and replaced by Kulick permanently, making him the third lead guitarist to exit the group in two years.


title: Animalize

text: When asked what "animalize" meant, Stanley said that people were starting to become more like computers and that "making music by pressing buttons" was no fun.


title: Animalize

text: In a continuation of Kiss' commercial resurgence which had begun with 1983's "Lick It Up", "Animalize" was certified platinum by the RIAA. It was the biggest-selling Kiss album since 1979's "Dynasty".


title: Animalize

text: "Heaven's on Fire" became the biggest hit from the album (as well as one of the only songs to survive on the band's live setlist after the '80s), and its music video received heavy MTV rotation. It is also the only music video appearance of Mark St. John.


title: Animalize

text: Critics and longtime fans, however, criticized the band's continued move towards a glam metal style on "Animalize". Simmons fell into increasing conflict with his bandmates during this period for a variety of reasons. Most of this revolved around his perceived lack of commitment to the band and preoccupation with numerous outside projects, including producing and managing other rock groups such as Black 'n Blue (of whom Tommy Thayer was a member at the time), a co-starring role in "Runaway" (1984), bit parts in films like "Trick or Treat" (1986), and an assortment of business ventures.


title: Animalize

text: "Guitar World" magazine later placed the album on their list of "New Sensations: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1984".


title: Ebony and Ivory

text: "Ebony and Ivory" is a song that was released in 1982 as a single by Paul McCartney featuring Stevie Wonder. It was issued on 29 March that year as the lead single from McCartney's third solo album, "Tug of War" (1982). Written by McCartney, the song aligns the black and white keys of a piano keyboard with the theme of racial harmony. The single reached number one on both the UK and the US charts and was among the top-selling singles of 1982 in the US. During the apartheid era, the South African Broadcasting Corporation banned the song after Wonder dedicated his 1984 Academy Award for Best Original Song to Nelson Mandela.


title: Ebony and Ivory

text: McCartney and Wonder began recording "Ebony and Ivory" in Montserrat in early 1981. The single marked the first time that McCartney had released a duet with another major artist and anticipated his 1980s collaborations with Michael Jackson. While a major commercial hit, the song has received derision from music critics who view its message as overly simplistic and sentimental. The track also appears on McCartney's "All the Best!" compilation (1987) and on the two-disc version of Wonder's "The Definitive Collection" (2002). In 2013, "Billboard" ranked it as the 69th biggest hit of all-time on the "Billboard" Hot 100 charts.


title: Ebony and Ivory

text: McCartney wrote "Ebony and Ivory" at his farm in Scotland. The song uses the ebony (black) and ivory (white) keys on a piano as a metaphor for integration and racial harmony. The title was inspired by McCartney hearing Spike Milligan say, "Black notes, white notes, and you need to play the two to make harmony, folks!" The figure of speech is much older. It was popularised by James Aggrey in the 1920s, inspiring the title of the pan-African journal "The Keys", but was in use from at least the 1840s.


title: Ebony and Ivory

text: While writing the song, McCartney envisaged singing it with a black male singer. He and Wonder recorded it together at George Martin's AIR Studios in Montserrat during sessions lasting from 27 February to 2 March 1981. McCartney then carried out overdubs on the track at AIR in London. Due to conflicting work schedules, McCartney and Wonder filmed their parts for the song's music video separately (as explained by McCartney in his commentary for "The McCartney Years" 3-DVD boxed set).


title: Ebony and Ivory

text: A video for the solo version was also made, which showed McCartney playing piano with a bright spotlight, and black men in prison, including one of them being uplifted by the song, dancing and listening to it in prison as well as in the studio. This version was directed by Barry Myers on 11 February 1982. That same day, McCartney filmed a promotional interview for the "Tug of War" album.


title: Ebony and Ivory

text: The B-side of the single, "Rainclouds", was written by McCartney and Denny Laine, though on early pressings of the single the song was credited only to McCartney. According to authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter, "Rainclouds" is "perhaps most notorious" as the track that McCartney worked on during 9 December 1980, straight after hearing that John Lennon had been fatally shot in New York. When leaving AIR Studios in central London that evening, he said in response to a TV reporter's question about the murder: "drag, isn't it?" The footage was included in news broadcasts around the world and McCartney's apparent casualness, though masking his profound shock, earned condemnation from the press.


title: Ebony and Ivory

text: The "Ebony and Ivory" single was released on 29 March 1982 in both the UK and the United States. It marked the first time in McCartney's solo career that he had sung a duet with another major star. In this, McCartney and Wonder fitted a trend as duetting artists became commonplace throughout the 1980s, particularly in mainstream British pop.


title: Ebony and Ivory

text: The single spent seven weeks at number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in the US and it was the fourth-biggest hit there of 1982. Its commercial success was aided by the music video, with MTV having been launched the year before. The song was also number one in the UK.


title: Ebony and Ivory

text: In the US, the single's run atop the chart was the longest of any of McCartney's post-Beatles works, and the second longest career-wise (behind the Beatles' "Hey Jude"). For Wonder, it was his longest-running chart-topper and made him the first solo artist to achieve a number-one single in the US over three consecutive decades. It marked the first time that any single released by any member of the Beatles placed on the "Billboard" R&B chart. It was McCartney's record 28th song to hit number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Ebony and Ivory

text: In 2008, "Ebony and Ivory" was ranked at number 59 on "Billboard"s Hot 100 songs of all-time. It was ranked 69th on a similar list published by the magazine in 2013.


title: Ebony and Ivory

text: Some critics have derided the song as "saccharine". According to Madinger and Easter, the most common reaction 20 years later was that it marked "the beginning of the end of [McCartney's] artistic credibility". They add that while the song appealed to listeners who would never usually have bought a McCartney record, it "wore out its welcome quickly" and came to be seen as him attempting to stay musically relevant in middle age, particularly as he soon went on to record duets with Michael Jackson.


title: Ebony and Ivory

text: In 2007, BBC 6 Music listeners voted "Ebony and Ivory" the worst duet in history. Two years later, "Blender" magazine named it as the tenth worst song of all time. Writing in 2010, biographer Howard Sounes said that while many people consider the song to be "annoyingly simplistic", it contains "the ineluctable power of McCartney's best tunes" and was a "massive hit".


title: Ebony and Ivory

text: The song and video were spoofed in a 1982 "Saturday Night Live" sketch, with Eddie Murphy portraying Wonder and Joe Piscopo, as Frank Sinatra, assuming McCartney's role. In the sketch, Sinatra criticises the "ebony and ivory" metaphor for racial equality (which was deemed by many critics to be overly simplistic, to the point of being insulting) as being "too artsy for the public – capiche?" After a brief exchange, the duo perform the song with more direct, and offensive, lyrics ("You are black, and I am white / Life's an Eskimo Pie, let's take a bite!").


title: Ebony and Ivory

text: Part of a phrase from the song's lyrics provided the title for "Keyboard, Oh Lord! Why Don't We?", a 2005 album by the Norwegian stoner rock band Thulsa Doom. The song and video were parodied in a commercial for the 2008 season of the USA Network show "Psych".


title: Ebony and Ivory

text: The "South Park" season 25 episode "The Big Fix" features a parody of the song called "Black Puppy, White Puppy". Dan Caffrey of "The A.V. Club" suggests that McCartney may have denied a request from producers Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the song's inclusion in the episode, thus necessitating the parody.


title: Ebony and Ivory

text: "Ebony and Ivory" was banned in South Africa by the South African Broadcasting Corporation during the apartheid era, making it the only song McCartney released in his solo career to receive such a ban. The official reason for the ban was because Wonder accepted his 1984 Academy Award for Best Original Song "in the name of Nelson Mandela".


title: Alphonse Persico

text: Alphonse T. Persico, known as Little Allie Boy or just Allie Boy (born February 8, 1954), is the acting boss of the Colombo crime family, and son of crime boss Carmine Persico.


title: Alphonse Persico

text: On February 8, 1954, Alphonse T. Persico was born in New York City. As a young child he grew up in South Brooklyn and Bensonhurst.


title: Alphonse Persico

text: Persico's father was Carmine Persico, a former boss of the Colombo family. Alphonse Persico has two brothers, Lawrence and Michael Persico. He was nicknamed "Little Allie Boy" to distinguish him from his father's older brother, who was also named Alphonse and was a caporegime (captain) in the Colombo family; he died in 1989. Alphonse Persico was married to Teresa Persico.


title: Alphonse Persico

text: Unlike some mafiosi, the young Alphonse Persico was a promising student who graduated from high school and was accepted into college at St. John's University. Instead, he quit St. John's after his sophomore year, presumably to work for his father. By his early 20s, Persico was a soldier in his father's family, and by his mid-20s, Persico was reportedly a capo. Like many other mafiosi, Persico enjoyed the power and excitement of the mob life. In 1983, Persico was arrested for heroin possession, but the case was dismissed.


title: Alphonse Persico

text: In 1987, Carmine Persico was sentenced to a combined 139 years in prison after being convicted in two separate trials—the Mafia Commission Trial and a separate racketeering trial involving the Colombo family's operations. Persico had named his brother, Alphonse, as acting boss previous to his arrest. Little Allie Boy was also convicted in the "Colombo Trial", and sentenced to 12 years in federal prison, on November 17, 1986. The sentencing judge, John F. Keenan, urged Little Allie Boy to renounce his life of crime, pointing out that he would still be fairly young once he got out of prison. "You are a chump if you stay in the Colombo family," Keenan said.


title: Alphonse Persico

text: Knowing that he would likely die in prison, Persico still wanted to ensure that his share of the Colombo rackets flowed to his relatives. He intended for Little Allie Boy to become acting boss as soon as his nephew was out of prison. To that end, Carmine Persico selected Victor Orena, the capo of his son's former crew, to be the temporary acting boss. In selecting Orena, Persico made it clear to the family that he was merely a placeholder until Alphonse was released.


title: Alphonse Persico

text: In the spring of 1991, Orena decided to depose the Persicos and become boss in his own right. He told consigliere Carmine Sessa to call a referendum of the family capos to approve his takeover. Instead, Sessa alerted the imprisoned Carmine Persico, who promptly ordered Orena's murder. On June 20, 1991, Persico gunmen made an unsuccessful attempt to kill Orena at his home. In November 1991, after several months of negotiations, the Persico and Orena factions broke into open warfare. Still in prison, Alphonse Persico directed the campaign against Orena. On May 13, 1993, Alphonse and other family leaders were indicted on racketeering charges that included the 1992 murders of Orena loyalists John Minerva and Michael Imbergamo. By October 1993, Orena and many of his followers had been sent to prison. Carmine Persico retained control of the Colombo family. Also in 1993, Teresa Persico divorced Alphonse.


title: Alphonse Persico

text: On August 8, 1994, Alphonse Persico was acquitted of the 1993 federal racketeering and murder charges due to the revelations about Colombo capo Gregory Scarpa and his relationship with the FBI. Persico was now a free man, but he did not become acting boss right away. Instead, Persico spent much of the next few years at his family home in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. In 1994, Carmine Persico appointed Andrew Russo as acting boss. When Russo went to prison in 1996, Alphonse Persico took over as acting boss.


title: Alphonse Persico

text: Alphonse Persico's second stint as acting boss would last only a year before he was sent back to prison. In early 1999, the US Coast Guard stopped Persico in his speedboat as he was motoring in the Florida Keys. After searching the vessel, Coast Guardsmen arrested Persico for possessing a shotgun and a semiautomatic handgun as a felon.


title: Alphonse Persico

text: In May 1999, Carmine or Alphonse Persico allegedly ordered the murder of his newly appointed underboss, William Cutolo. Persico's motive might have been revenge for Cutolo's support of Orena in 1991. However, another theory is that since Alphonse Persico was facing prison again for the Florida weapons charge, Persico feared that Cutolo would seize control of the family during his absence. On May 26, 1999, Cutolo's wife, Marguerite Cutolo, reported her husband missing. Earlier that day, Alphonse Persico had summoned Cutolo to meet with him at a park in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn. However, when Cutolo arrived at the park, Colombo hitmen Thomas Gioeli, Dino Calabro, and Dino Saracino allegedly took Cutolo to Saracino's apartment, where they murdered him. Gioeli later buried Cutolo's body in a field in Farmingdale, New York, where it remained undiscovered until October 2008.


title: Alphonse Persico

text: In October 1999, Persico was arrested again in New York on federal racketeering, loan sharking and bank fraud charges. The arresting agents searched Persico's Brooklyn apartment and uncovered $25,000 in cash along with records of extensive loan sharking and credit card fraud activities. He was released on bail. Assistant U.S Attorney Jim Walden, deputy chief of the Brooklyn Organized Crime section, prosecuted Persico. In 2000, Persico was convicted on the Florida gun charges and sent to federal prison in Florida for 18 months.


title: Alphonse Persico

text: On January 24, 2001, Persico finished his weapons sentence and was due for release from prison in Florida. However, that same day, Persico was transported back to New York, where prosecutors indicted him on loansharking charges.


title: Alphonse Persico

text: The government also suspected Persico in the Cutolo murder and was starting to build a case against him. Persico was held without bail. On December 20, 2001, Persico pleaded guilty to federal racketeering, loan-sharking and money-laundering charges from 1999 and 2001. As part of the plea, Persico was forced to publicly acknowledge his role as acting boss of the Colombo family. The judge sentenced Persico to 13 years in federal prison.


title: Alphonse Persico

text: On October 14, 2004, Persico was finally indicted in New York for the Cutolo murder. However, on November 3, 2006, the judge declared a mistrial due to allegations that Cutolo's wife Marguerite had lied under oath. In the second trial, on December 28, 2007, Persico and underling John "Jackie" DeRoss were convicted of murder in aid of racketeering and witness tampering. On February 27, 2009, Persico was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the Cutolo murder.


title: Alphonse Persico

text: In February 2010, Colombo hitman Frank Sparaco reportedly told prosecutors that Persico had allegedly ordered the 1992 murder of Michael Devine, a Staten Island nightclub owner. Devine, who was found shot to death in a car, had allegedly enraged Persico by dating Persico's wife Teresa during their separation. No charges have been filed.


title: Alphonse Persico

text: In September 2015, Persico was serving his life sentence at the United States Penitentiary, Coleman near Coleman, Florida, and in July 2017, he was transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution, McKean.


title: Praia

text: Praia (, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde. Located on the southern coast of Santiago island, within the Sotavento Islands group, the city is the seat of the Praia Municipality. Praia is the economic, political, and cultural center of Cape Verde.


title: Praia

text: The island of Santiago was discovered by António da Noli in 1460. The first settlement on the island was Ribeira Grande (Cidade Velha). The village "Praia de Santa Maria" was first mentioned around 1615 and grew near the natural harbour. The ports of Santiago were important ports of call for ships sailing between Portugal and the Portuguese colonies in Africa and South America. Between the end of the 16th century and the end of the 18th century, both Ribeira Grande and Praia suffered many pirate attacks, including those by Francis Drake (1585) and Jacques Cassard (1712).


title: Praia

text: Due to its strategic position on a plateau it had better protection against pirate attacks, which gave it a large advantage over the older city of Ribeira Grande (Cidade Velha). It gradually superseded Cidade Velha to become the most important settlement of Cape Verde, and became the capital of Cape Verde in 1770. The naval battle of Porto Praya took place at Praia Harbour on 16 April 1781, as Portugal was neutral, it involved Great Britain and France and ended in a tactical draw and French strategic victory. Praia was the first stop of Charles Darwin's voyage with in 1832.


title: Praia

text: In the course of the 19th century, the "Plateau" was completely redeveloped with streets according to a grid plan, lined with grand colonial buildings and mansions. Praia officially became a city ("cidade") in 1858, which secured its status as the capital of Cape Verde, concentrating political, religious and economic roles. In the early 1920s, the population was around 21,000.


title: Praia

text: As in other parts of the archipelago, resistance against Portuguese rule rose in the 1950s. There was no open independence war like in Guinea-Bissau; after the 1974 Carnation Revolution in Portugal and the resulting end of the Portuguese Colonial War, Cape Verde declared independence in July 1975. After independence, Praia underwent a demographic boom, receiving migrating movements from all the islands. As a result, 56% of the entire population of Cape Verde resides in Santiago; and 29% in the Municipality of Praia alone. Its estimated population has reached 151,436 (2015). On 28 June 1985, Praia became member of UCCLA, the Union of Luso – Afro-Americo-Asiatic Capital Cities, an international organization.


title: Praia

text: Geographically, Praia may be described as a set of plateaus and their surrounding valleys. These plateaus generally have the name "achada" (Achada de Santo António, Achada de São Filipe, Achada Eugénio Lima, Achada Grande, Achadinha, etc. — "achada" being a Portuguese word to designate a volcanic plateau), but the central one is called Plateau. The urban settlement is made mostly on top of these plateaus and along the valleys. The islet of Santa Maria is in front of the beach bearing the same name.


title: Praia

text: For a long time, only the "Plateau" was considered to be the city, being the other neighbourhoods relegated to the condition of peripheral suburbs, in spite of always having a close relationship with the "Plateau" (people movements, goods and services exchanges, etc.). This is why only the "Plateau" previously had relatively well-developed urbanization with its own infra-structures. The remaining neighbourhoods developed in a more organic, chaotic way.


title: Praia

text: Only after independence did the "Plateau" merge with the other neighbourhoods to constitute what is now considered the City of Praia. The whole city was, at the time, equipped with adequate infrastructure. Urbanization begun immediately after independence and sought to expand north.


title: Praia

text: Praia has a desert climate (Köppen: BWh) with a short wet season and a lengthy, very pronounced dry season. In fact, outside of the months of August, September and October, little precipitation falls on Praia. The city on average sees about of rain per year. Since the coldest month is far above its temperature patterns resembles a tropical climate, but lacks enough precipitation to be classified as such. Despite the fact that it has an arid climate, Praia seldom gets very hot or very cold, due to its oceanside location on Santiago Island. Temperatures are warm and constant with an average high temperature of and an average low temperature of .


title: Praia

text: According to the national statistics office, the city's population was estimated 159,050 as of July 2017. As of the mid-19th century, the population was estimated at 1,500 to 2,000.


title: Praia

text: When Edmund Roberts visited in 1832, he noted a population of black people in Praia totaling about "nineteen twentieths" of the population.


title: Praia

text: The city of Praia is home to the first primary school in the archipelago, originally known as the "Escola Central" (today known as the "Escola Grande"). For much time it was the only primary school in Praia. At the beginning of the 1960s, other primary schools began to be built in neighbourhoods around the Plateau and in other localities on the island.


title: Praia

text: Praia was also the first site in Cape Verde with a secondary education institution with the creation of the "Liceu Nacional" in 1861. However, the Portuguese authorities were not interested in implementing secondary education in Cape Verde and the school failed as a result; secondary education became, afterwards, the role of the "Seminário de Ribeira Brava" on the island of São Nicolau, and later of the lyceum in Mindelo.


title: Praia

text: In 1960, Praia again had secondary education, first with a facility on 12 September Plaza and later in its own building. With the expansion of education in Cape Verde in the 1990s, buildings dedicated to education were constructed in Cape Verde, and Praia in 2016 had 12 secondary education schools.


title: Praia

text: For higher education, there are the Universidade de Santiago, "Instituto Superior de Ciencias Juridícas e Sociais", "Instituto Superior de Ciencias Económicas e Empresariais", Jean Piaget University of Cape Verde, and University of Cape Verde.


title: Praia

text: The principal economic activities of Praia belong to the tertiary sector. Beyond activities related to administration and governance (local and national), there are extensive commerce, services (health care, education, tourism, restaurants and hotels, public functions, etc.), and other activities of a liberal character.


title: Praia

text: Being the nation's capital as well as the economic hub, Praia is one of the most economically viable cities in the Cape Verde archipelago. About one third (1/3) of the city's population lives below the poverty line today (2014). The gross metropolitan product for the city is about 39% of the country's GDP, translating into US$4764 income per capita.


title: Praia

text: The city is served by Nelson Mandela International Airport and Cabo Verde Airlines, both having headquarters in Praia. It has the nation's second most used port, Praia Harbor, with a ferry terminal linking to other islands, direct ferry routes are Maio, Fogo and São Vicente. The port is managed by the national port authority ENAPOR. The port was reconstructed and expanded in 2014.


title: Praia

text: Praia has a dual carriageway ring road, the "Circular da Praia" (EN1-ST06), which is connected with the main national roads to the north (EN1-ST01) and the west (EN1-ST05) of the island. The main roads inside the city are "Avenida Grão Ducado de Luxemburgo" (from the centre to the west), Avenida Amílcar Cabral (in "Plateau") and Avenida Cidade de Lisboa.


title: Praia

text: Public transport within the city of Praia is provided by the company SolAtlântico. There are 12 city bus lines. Intercity share taxis for other cities on the island of Santiago depart from the Sucupira terminal in the city centre, which was opened in May 2018. In 2015 a project called EcobusCV started running a fleet of dual fuel waste vegetable oil / diesel minibuses between Praia and Assomada. However, services were suspended in November 2016.


title: Praia

text: There is the "Museu Etnográfico" (Ethnographic Museum), which was founded in 1997. Some of the oldest buildings in Praia are Jaime Mota Barracks (Quartel Jaime Mota) dating from 1826. Since 2016, the historic centre of Praia is on the tentative list of World Heritage Sites.


title: Praia

text: Landmarks in the colonial city center include Albuquerque Square (named after the colonial governor of the mid 19th century, Caetano Alexandre de Almeida e Albuquerque), the old city hall built in the 1920s, the Presidential Palace, which was constructed in the end of the 19th century to house the Portuguese governor and the "Monumento de Diogo Gomes", named after the Portuguese navigator who discovered the island of Santiago in 1460.


title: Praia

text: Among the places of worship, they are predominantly Christian churches and temples: Roman Catholic Diocese of Santiago de Cabo Verde (Catholic Church), Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Church of the Nazarene, Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, Assemblies of God.


title: Praia

text: Praia is home to several sports teams. The most popular football (soccer) clubs include Sporting, Boavista, Travadores, Académica, Vitória and Desportivo; others include ADESBA, based in Craveiro Lopes; Celtic, based in Achadinha de Baixo; Tchadense, based out of Achada Santo Antônio; Delta, and Eugênio Lima, based in that neighbourhood. Basketball clubs include ABC Praia, Bairro and Travadores. Volleyball clubs include Desportivo da Praia. All are part of the Santiago League South Zone. Many clubs play at Estádio da Várzea.


title: Unplanned

text: Unplanned is a 2019 American drama film written and directed by Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman. It is based on the disputed 2011 memoir "Unplanned" by anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson. The film stars Ashley Bratcher as Johnson, following her life as a clinic director for Planned Parenthood and her subsequent transition to anti-abortion activism.


title: Unplanned

text: The film was theatrically released in the United States by evangelical Christian studio Pure Flix on March 29, 2019. The working title was "Redeemed", and details of its subject were kept from the public in order to minimize protests by abortion rights advocates. My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell served as an executive producer, and appears in the film in a cameo role. Some TV channels refused to air ads for the film due to its subject matter.


title: Unplanned

text: The film grossed $21 million worldwide on a $6 million budget. The accuracy of the film's portrayal of abortion and of Planned Parenthood have been severely criticized by doctors and advocates for Planned Parenthood, with several commentators describing it as political propaganda.


title: Unplanned

text: The plot closely follows the account found in Abby Johnson's memoir, "Unplanned". The film opens with a depiction of Johnson's home life with her husband, Doug, and daughter, Grace. In voice-over, Abby Johnson says she was tricked into participating with Planned Parenthood and the scene shifts to a time in 2009 when she claims she was asked to assist in an ultrasound-guided suction aspiration abortion at thirteen weeks gestation. The scene ends with Abby leaving in tears. Johnson then describes, in voice over, that her story started her junior year at Texas A&M. The scene is depicted in flashback of a Planned Parenthood booth at a career fair. Johnson agrees to volunteer after the representative in the booth says to her that their ultimate goal was to reduce the number of abortions. As a clinic escort, she meets director Cheryl and witnesses anti-abortion protesters being verbally confrontational towards the women going in. One protester, Marilisa, is depicted as being kinder to women than the other protestors and says that those from her organization, "Coalition for Life", are "not here to hurt them or condemn them".


title: Unplanned

text: A flashback within a flashback then happens to when Abby had her two abortions, the first as a college student and the second after she marries then divorces. During the second abortion, for $400.00, she is given mifepristone at the clinic and is told there will be "a little bleeding", but the experience is depicted as being excruciatingly painful, over twelve hours and then followed up with "eight weeks of blood clots and excruciating cramps" causing her to fear for her life.


title: Unplanned

text: The film then cuts back to Abby's continuing work at the clinic, and she recounts in voice-over that it became "my career, despite the disapproval of virtually everyone in my life". The film flashes forward to her second marriage to Doug, a man who proclaims love while, like her parents, disapproving of her career on religious and moral grounds. Abby describes starting her life with Doug and attending a church with him that is decidedly opposed to abortion even while she continues to work at Planned Parenthood.


title: Unplanned

text: Abby becomes pregnant by Doug and decides to keep it. In the meantime, a scene is depicted of a botched abortion taking place at the clinic where Abby is told not to call an ambulance because of the way it would "look". Abby gives birth to Grace and is promoted to director when Cheryl is transferred to Houston. Before Hurricane Ike strikes, Abby coordinates all of the abortions to happen beforehand, anticipating that it will not be possible to perform the procedures for a while after the hurricane. Abby wins Employee of the Year while also being told by Cheryl that she should double the number of abortions. Cheryl explains that "Non-profit is a tax status, not a business model!", and says the organization makes its money off of abortions the way that fast food restaurants make money off fries and soda. Abby is scolded for objecting to this, and then eventually reprimanded by Cheryl for insubordination after which the first few moments of the film are repeated just prior to Abby's participation in the procedure.


title: Unplanned

text: Abby is then depicted going to the office of 40 Days for Life, run by Marilisa and her husband, Shawn, and tearfully telling them that she cannot stay in her job after what she has seen. They offer to help her find employment. Abby formally resigns from Planned Parenthood and begins to help with the 40 Days for Life campaign, to the point of being on the other side of the clinic fence encouraging women not to go through with their abortions. Planned Parenthood sues Abby for leaking confidential information about their operations, and Shawn convinces his laid-back lawyer friend Jeff to defend her.


title: Unplanned

text: In 2013, when the clinic Abby worked at has closed, she organizes a celebration at the abandoned building in which she expresses regret for performing abortions as well as having two. The closing captions say that Abby continues to work with the ministry "And Then There Were None", helping other abortion clinic workers leave and find employment elsewhere.


title: Unplanned

text: Several outlets—including "Variety", "The Globe and Mail", "The Guardian", and the "Toronto Sun"—described the film as "propaganda".


title: Unplanned

text: Villavicencio explained to the "HuffPost" that most abortions last three to ten minutes and are "well tolerated".


title: Unplanned

text: The film has been criticized for uncritically portraying events as Johnson claims they occurred in spite of a variety of journalists casting doubt on the veracity of her account.


title: Unplanned

text: Johnson stated that the patient whose abortion led to her decision to leave Planned Parenthood was a black woman. However, based on reporting by "Texas Monthly" (which relied on Planned Parenthood clinic records), only one patient served by Johnson's then-employer on September 26, 2009, was black, and she was in the sixth week—not the 13th week—of her pregnancy.


title: Unplanned

text: The film depicts Planned Parenthood as promoting abortion for the sake of profit. A character, Cheryl (Robia Scott), claims that Planned Parenthood makes its money off of abortions the way that fast food restaurants make money by selling French fries and soda.


title: Unplanned

text: Anna North of "Vox" criticized the film for depicting abortion as very dangerous, noting that within the United States, it is significantly safer than childbirth.


title: Unplanned

text: In September 2018, it was announced that principal photography on a new Pure Flix film with a working title of "Redeemed" had been completed. Out of fear for potential protests due to the subject matter, everyone involved with the project signed a confidentiality agreement, whereby they agreed not to engage in social media posts about the film nor any press interaction. Additionally, the film was secretly shot in Stillwater, Oklahoma.


title: Unplanned

text: Based on Johnson's memoir of the same name, "Unplanned" was produced on a $6 million budget. Mike Lindell, founder and owner of My Pillow, was a major backer of the film, contributing $1 million to production and having a cameo.


title: Unplanned

text: Directors Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon sent a draft of their script to Johnson for review. Upon reading, Johnson reacted, "I read the script. And in the first 15 pages, I hated me. Then I got to the end of the script, and I loved it. It was me!" During casting, producers warned potential cast members that their participation in the film might result in their not getting future roles in the film industry due to the film's subject matter. Unlike the upcoming "Roe v. Wade" – which had some crew who quit once they learned of the film's subject matter – "Unplanned" did not suffer from the same fate since those involved knew about the film's focus when hired.


title: Unplanned

text: Music labels denied the rights to use such songs as The Fray's "How to Save a Life", "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper, One Direction's "Story of My Life", Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party" and "The Guardian Suite" by Trevor Rabin. Christian singer Matthew West wrote a song for the film called "Unplanned", posting its music video a week before the film's release.


title: Unplanned

text: "Unplanned" was given an R rating (the first for any Pure Flix film) by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), who cited the graphic abortion-related scenes as the reason for the rating, and notified the film's producers that it would remain R-rated unless those scenes were removed. The MPAA denied assigning the rating due to political bias. Pure Flix, which had been expecting a PG-13 rating, decided not to contest the MPAA's action due to concerns that such conflict could delay the film's release.


title: Unplanned

text: In response to the film's rating, the MPAA was sent a complaint signed by twenty-nine people uninvolved in the production of the film. The signers include former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, political commentator Glenn Beck, actor Kevin Sorbo, and Academy Award-winning film producers Gerald R. Molen and Gray Frederickson. Despite this, the MPAA did not revoke the rating, saying that "[t]he filmmakers did not make use of the rating appeal process."


title: Unplanned

text: Johnson subsequently wrote an open letter addressed to parents, stating that the film contained no nudity, sex or profanity. A second open letter, signed by the same twenty-nine people from the MPAA complaint, encouraged faith communities to ignore the R rating and turn out for the film as they did for "The Passion of the Christ".


title: Unplanned

text: "Unplanned" was released in the United States on March 29, 2019. The film received a pre-screening on February 21, 2019, in lower Manhattan, and again on March 28, 2019, in Indiana, one day before its release date.


title: Unplanned

text: Many media outlets declined to air advertising for the film on account of the controversial subject matter and/or the film's R rating, including Google, A&E Networks, Discovery, Inc., Hallmark Channel, NBCUniversal, and Christian radio network K-Love. Google also listed the film as "drama/propaganda" in search results for a period of time. Only Fox News, who also did editorial coverage of the production, and the Christian Broadcasting Network agreed to air ads.


title: Unplanned

text: During the opening weekend, its official Twitter account was suspended (reportedly because it was linked to another account that violated Twitter's code of conduct). It was soon reinstated, gaining thousands of additional followers within several hours, with the follower count briefly appearing to shoot up as high as 200,000. Twitter was then accused of dropping followers of the film's account from over 200,000 to approximately 16,000. Senator Josh Hawley accused Twitter of censoring conservative views, and in a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, requested that an outside independent audit be made into Twitter's speech policies. Twitter responded and "said follower counts can often take up to 24 hours to stabilize following a suspension and that any issues with page follows should also be resolved shortly"; the next day, according to "Newsweek", "the official account for the film appeared to confirm Twitter's statement" in a tweet.


title: Unplanned

text: Mark Cavaliere, an executive director of a local Coalition for Life, dressed in a 40 Days for Life shirt like those seen in the film and recruited volunteers at some showings.


title: Unplanned

text: No distributors in Canada were initially interested in the film, which prevented movie theaters from picking it up. In June 2019, the small distribution company Cinedicom agreed to make it available to the Canadian market, its president stating the decision to distribute the film was based on divine inspiration. The producers accused Canada's dominant movie theater chain Cineplex Entertainment of effectively banning the film in the country by not showing it in its theaters. However, the company's usual practice is to only consider films if their distributor presents a marketing plan and obtains a rating from a provincial ratings board.


title: Unplanned

text: Cineplex later reversed its decision, opting to screen the film in 14 locations. The competing chain Landmark Cinemas also screened the film at 10 locations. On July 12, 2019, the film took in $352,000 on its opening weekend on 56 screens across Canada for a per-screen average of around $7,100. "Unplanned" made $643,000 CAD at the Canadian box office.


title: Unplanned

text: "Unplanned" premiered exclusively in SM Supermalls cinemas in the Philippines on August 21, 2019. Felicidad Tan-Sy, the widow of SM founder Henry Sy, cried during its local premiere and stated that "Every Filipino, every person needs to see this movie."


title: Unplanned

text: "Unplanned" was released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 2019. According to Solomon, the home release presold 235,000 copies.


title: Unplanned

text: "Unplanned" grossed $19 million in the United States and Canada, and $2.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide $21.3 million, against a production budget of $6 million.


title: Unplanned

text: In the United States, "Unplanned" was released alongside "The Beach Bum" and "Dumbo", and based upon tracking was projected to gross $3–5 million from 1,060 theaters its opening weekend. The film made $3 million on its first day, including $700,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $6.4 million, exceeding box office projections and finishing 4th at the box office, marking the second-best opening for a Pure Flix film behind "God's Not Dead 2" ($7.6 million in 2016); the film played best in conservative-leaning states in the Midwest and South. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare average grade of "A+". "Deadline Hollywood" said the opening was "remarkable considering that the film was rated R [and was] boxed out from running TV spots on most major cable networks and Christian radio." It was reported that churches across the country had bought out entire screenings for the picture. In its second weekend the film was added to 456 additional theaters (for a total of 1,516) and made $3.2 million.


title: Unplanned

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads: "A dramatic approach to a hot-button topic whose agenda is immediately clear, "Unplanned" will only reinforce the feelings of viewers on either side of the issue." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 10 out of 100, based on seven critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike".


title: Unplanned

text: Religious publications were mostly positive about the film. Writing for the "National Catholic Reporter", Rose Pacatte said that ""Unplanned" is an important film, a designation that directors hate to hear. It is not entertaining (until the cheesy lawyer shows up) but tells an emotional story with wide-ranging implications." "The Deseret News"'s Josh Terry wrote that the film "...may not bridge the divide between the different sides of the abortion issue, but it will provide some food for thought for the undecideds", ultimately concluding that ""Unplanned" has room for praise and criticism." According to "Catholic Herald"'s Sohrab Ahmari, "Unplanned" "reveals the culture of death that lies at the core of our secular-liberal modernity".


title: Unplanned

text: In contrast, "The Hollywood Reporter"'s Frank Scheck criticized "Unplanned" as "proselytizing agitprop" comparable to a "basic cable television movie in its mediocre production values and subpar performances". Similarly, Owen Gleiberman of "Variety" said the film "isn't good drama but it's effective propaganda" and "The A.V. Club"s Vadim Rizov stated that "[while "Unplanned"] has greater technical finesse than its foundational forebears...[,] there's not a single scene that speaks to characters with lives outside their streamlined narrative function; they're performers in a parable traced over a Chick tract, filmed with a bland competence at odds with the true perversity of the material". Writing for "Arkansas Democrat Gazette", Philip Martin said that ""Unplanned" is a competently made film that has some moments of genuine grace and a winning lead performance by Ashley Bratcher".


title: Unplanned

text: The Canadian media was generally critical of "Unplanned". "The Globe and Mail", the "Ottawa Citizen" and the "Toronto Sun" all described the film as dishonest religious, social, and political propaganda. However, Christian news programs such as "Salt + Light Hour" were supportive of it.


title: Unplanned

text: Luke Thompson of Forbes notes the heavily political nature of the film, which "naturally, drops the name of George Soros and claims the nonprofit is one of the most powerful organizations on the planet... as opposed to, say, a political punching bag constantly in danger of being defunded".


title: Unplanned

text: Shortly before release, the American division of Planned Parenthood stated that the arguments in it were false.


title: Unplanned

text: A soundtrack album was released on March 22, 2019, with the title track being performed by Matthew West. Blake Kanicka, the music supervisor for "Unplanned", failed in attempts to license songs from more established mainstream artists and from a half dozen of the largest music companies.


title: Apollo 6

text: Apollo 6 (April 4, 1968), also known as AS-502, was the third and final uncrewed flight in the United States' Apollo Program and the second test of the Saturn V launch vehicle. It qualified the Saturn V to be used on crewed missions, as happened for the first time on Apollo 8 in December 1968.


title: Apollo 6

text: Apollo 6 was intended to demonstrate the ability of the Saturn V's third stage, the S-IVB, to propel itself and the Apollo spacecraft to lunar distances. Its components began arriving at the Kennedy Space Center in early 1967. Testing proceeded slowly, often delayed by testing of the Saturn V intended for Apollo 4—the inaugural launch of the Saturn V. After that uncrewed mission launched in November 1967, there were fewer delays, but enough so that the flight was postponed from March to April 1968.


title: Apollo 6

text: The flight plan called for following trans-lunar injection with a direct return abort using the service module's main engine, with a flight time totaling about 10 hours. Instead, vibrations damaged some of the Rocketdyne J-2 engines in the second and third stages by rupturing internal fuel lines causing a second-stage engine to shut down early. An additional second-stage engine shut down early due to cross wiring with the other shutdown engine. The vehicle's onboard guidance system compensated by burning the second and third stages longer, although the resulting parking orbit was more elliptical than planned. The damaged third-stage engine failed to restart for trans-lunar injection. Flight controllers elected to repeat the flight profile of the previous Apollo 4 test, achieving a high orbit and high-speed return. Despite the engine failures, the flight provided NASA with enough confidence to use the Saturn V for crewed launches; a potential third uncrewed flight was cancelled.


title: Apollo 6

text: Saturn V launch vehicle, was intended to send a command and service module (CSM) plus a Lunar Test Article (LTA), a simulated lunar module (LM) with mounted structural vibration sensors, into a trans-lunar trajectory, with the boost from orbit to trans-lunar velocity powered by the Saturn V's third stage, the S-IVB. That trajectory, although passing beyond the orbit of the Moon, would not encounter it. The CSM was to separate from the S-IVB soon after the burn, and the SM engine would then fire to slow the craft, dropping its apogee to and causing the CSM to return to Earth, simulating a "direct-return" abort. On the return leg, the engine was to fire once more to accelerate the craft to simulate conditions that the Apollo spacecraft would encounter on its return from the Moon, with a re-entry angle of −6.5 degrees and velocity of . The entire mission was to last about 10 hours.


title: Apollo 6

text: The mission was intended to test the Saturn V launch vehicle's ability to send the entire Apollo spacecraft to the Moon—in particular, to test the stresses on the LM and the vibration modes of the entire Saturn V with near-full loads. With the spacecraft having been qualified for crewed flight through the Apollo 4 mission (the first flight of the Saturn V), the focus was on fully qualifying the launch vehicle. Nominal completion of planned mission events through attainment of the initial parking orbit, and the restarting of the S-IVB to propel the space vehicle towards the planned distance, beyond the Moon's orbit, was deemed sufficient to fulfill Apollo 6's main objectives.


title: Apollo 6

text: Apollo 6's launch vehicle was designated AS-502, the second flight-capable Saturn V. Its payload included CSM-020, a Block I CSM that had some Block II modifications. The Block I CSM did not have the capability of docking with a Lunar Module, as the Block II did. Among the modifications to CSM-020 was a new crew hatch, intended to be tested under lunar return conditions. This new hatch replaced the one which was condemned by the Apollo 1 investigation board as too difficult to open in case of emergency, circumstances that had contributed to the deaths of three astronauts in the Apollo 1 fire of January 27, 1967. The command module used was CM-020; it carried a mission programmer and other equipment to allow it to be operated remotely.


title: Apollo 6

text: The service module used was SM-014—the originally-planned SM for Apollo 6, SM-020, was used for Apollo 4 after its SM, SM-017, was damaged in an explosion and had to be scrapped. CM-014 was unavailable for flight as it was being used to aid the Apollo 1 investigation. Not all SM systems were activated for the short Apollo 6 mission: the radiators to remove excess heat from the electrical power system and the environmental control system were not connected.


title: Apollo 6

text: Kenneth S. Kleinknecht, Command and Service Module manager at the Manned Spaceflight Center in Houston, was pleased with CSM-020 when it arrived at Kennedy Space Center from North American Aviation, the manufacturer, though he was upset it arrived wrapped in flammable mylar. In contrast with Apollo 1's ill-fated CSM, which arrived with hundreds of unresolved issues, CSM-020 had only 23, mostly routine problems.


title: Apollo 6

text: Also flown on Apollo 6 was a lunar test article: a simulated lunar module, designated as LTA-2R. It included a flight-type descent stage without landing gear, its fuel tanks filled with a water–glycol mixture and freon in its oxidizer tanks. Containing no flight systems, its ascent stage was made of ballasted aluminum and instrumented to show vibration, acoustics and structural integrity. LTA-2R remained inside the Spacecraft-Lunar Module Adapter, numbered SLA-9, throughout the flight.


title: Apollo 6

text: The S-IC first stage arrived by barge on March 13, 1967, and was erected in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) four days later; the S-IVB third stage and Instrument Unit computer both arrived on March 17. The S-II second stage was not yet ready and so the dumbbell-shaped spacer, used in preparation for Apollo 4 (which also had a delayed S-II), was substituted so testing could proceed. The spacer had the same height and mass as the S-II along with all the electrical connections. The S-II arrived May 24 and was stacked and mated into the rocket on July 7.


title: Apollo 6

text: Apollo 6 saw the first use of the High Bay 3 of the VAB, and it was quickly discovered that its air conditioning facilities were inadequate. Portable high-capacity units were brought in to keep equipment and workers cool. There were delays in April as personnel and equipment were busy with Apollo 4, and not available for tests on Apollo 6. The S-II second stage arrived on May 25 and was erected in one of the VAB's low bays, but work on Apollo 6 continued to be plagued by delays, many occasioned by work on Apollo 4. The vehicle was erected on Mobile Service Launcher 2, but work on the launcher's arms, which would swing back at launch, proceeded slowly. Also slow to arrive was the CSM itself; the planned late-September arrival was pushed back two months.


title: Apollo 6

text: After Apollo 4's launch on November 9, 1967, the pace of the Apollo 6 project picked up, but there remained many problems with flight hardware.


title: Apollo 6

text: The CSM was erected atop the launch vehicle on December 11, 1967, and the spacecraft stack was rolled out to Launch Complex 39A on February 6, 1968. The rollout was an all-day affair and much of it was conducted in heavy rain. Because the crawler-transporter had to halt for two hours when communications failed, the vehicle did not arrive at the launch pad until it was dark. The mobile service structure could not be moved to the launch pad for two days due to high winds.


title: Apollo 6

text: The flight readiness test concluded on March 8, 1968, and at a review held three days later, Apollo 6 was cleared for launch contingent on the successful completion of testing and some action items identified at the meeting. Launch was set for March 28, 1968, but was postponed to April 1 and then April 3 after problems with some guidance system equipment and with fueling. The countdown demonstration test began on March 24; although it was completed within a week, the launch had to be postponed one more time. On April 3, the final countdown began with liftoff scheduled for the following day. All subsequent problems were fixed during the built-in holds in the countdown and did not delay the mission.


title: Apollo 6

text: Apollo 6 launched from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center on April 4, 1968, at 7:00 am (1200 UT). For the first two minutes, the Saturn V launch vehicle behaved normally. Then, as the Saturn V's S-IC first stage burned, pogo oscillations shook the vehicle. The thrust variations caused the Saturn V to experience a g-force of ±, though it had only been designed for a maximum of . The vehicle suffered no damage, other than the loss of one of the panels of the Spacecraft-Lunar Module Adapter (SLA).


title: Apollo 6

text: NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight George Mueller explained the cause to a congressional hearing:


title: Apollo 6

text: After the first stage was jettisoned, the S-II second stage began to experience problems with its J-2 engines. Engine number two had performance problems from 225 seconds after liftoff, abruptly worsening at T+319 seconds. At T+412 seconds the Instrument Unit shut it down altogether, and two seconds later, engine number three also shut down. The fault was in engine two, but due to cross-connection of wires, the command from the Instrument Unit also shut down the engine three, which had been running normally. The Instrument Unit was able to compensate, and the remaining three engines burned for 58 seconds longer than planned. The S-IVB third stage also had to burn for 29 seconds longer than usual. The S-IVB also experienced a slight performance loss.


title: Apollo 6

text: Due to the less-than-nominal launch, the CSM and S-IVB were inserted into a by parking orbit, instead of the planned circular parking orbit. This deviation from the flight plan did not preclude continuing the mission. During the first orbit, the S-IVB maneuvered, changing its attitude towards the horizon to qualify techniques that future astronauts could use in landmark tracking. Then, after the standard two orbits to assess the vehicle's readiness for trans-lunar injection (TLI), the S-IVB was ordered to restart, but failed to do so.


title: Apollo 6

text: Deciding on a pre-planned alternate mission, the flight director, Clifford E. Charlesworth and his team in Mission Control chose to use the SM's Service Propulsion System (SPS) engine to raise the spacecraft into an orbit with a high apogee (point of furthest distance from Earth), with a low perigee that would result in re-entry, as had been done in Apollo 4. This plan would complete some of the mission objectives. The SPS engine burned for 442 seconds to get to the planned apogee. There was now, however, not enough propellant to speed up the atmospheric reentry with a second SPS engine burn, and the spacecraft only entered the atmosphere at a speed of instead of the planned that would simulate a lunar return. While at high altitudes, the CM was able to return data on the extent to which future astronauts would be protected from the Van Allen Belts by the skin of the spacecraft.


title: Apollo 6

text: Ten hours after launch, the CM landed from the planned touchdown point in the North Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii, and was lifted on board the USS "Okinawa". The SM was jettisoned just before reaching the atmosphere and burned up. The S-IVB's orbit gradually decayed and it reentered the atmosphere on April 26, 1968.


title: Apollo 6

text: In a post-launch press conference, Apollo Program Director Samuel C. Phillips said, "there's no question that it's less than a perfect mission", but that the launch vehicle's reaching orbit despite the loss of two engines was "a major unplanned accomplishment". Mueller called Apollo 6 "a good job all around, an excellent launch, and, in balance, a successful mission ... and we have learned a great deal", but later stated that Apollo 6 "will have to be defined as a failure".


title: Apollo 6

text: The phenomenon of pogo, experienced during the first stage of the flight, was well known. However, NASA thought that the Saturn V had been "detuned"—that is, prevented from vibrating at its natural frequencies. Soon after the Apollo 6 flight, NASA and its contractors sought to eliminate the problems for future flights, and about 1,000 government and industry engineers worked on the problem. To damp pressure oscillations in the J-2 engines, cavities in these systems were filled with helium gas shortly before takeoff as a shock absorber.


title: Apollo 6

text: The problems with the S-II and the S-IVB were traced to the J-2 engines, present in both stages. Tests showed that the spark igniters on the propellant lines could fail in low atmospheric pressure or in vacuum. This problem would not happen in ground testing, where the cold liquid gases passing through the propellant lines would induce a protective layer of frost; further, during such testing, liquid air was sprayed over the engines' exteriors, damping out any vibrations. In the vacuum of space, there was no such protection: the bellows adjacent to the spark igniters vibrated rapidly and failed at peak flow, causing a burn-through of the propellant lines. The bellows were eliminated and the lines strengthened. In Apollo 6's wake, NASA engineers debated whether to configure the spacecraft's emergency detection system to automatically abort in the event of excessive pogo; this plan was opposed by Director of Flight Crew Operations Deke Slayton. Instead, work began on having a "pogo abort sensor" to allow the flight crew to judge whether to abort, but by August 1968, it had become clear that pogo could be dealt with without such a sensor, and work on it was abandoned.


title: Apollo 6

text: The SLA problem was caused by its honeycomb structure. As the rocket accelerated through the atmosphere, the cells expanded due to trapped air and water, causing the adapter surface to break free. In response, engineers drilled small holes in the surface to allow trapped gases to dissipate, and placed a thin layer of cork on the adapter to help absorb moisture.


title: Apollo 6

text: NASA's efforts were enough to satisfy the Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences. In late April, the committee reported that the agency had quickly analyzed and diagnosed the abnormalities of Apollo 6, and had taken corrective action. After detailed analysis of the Saturn V's performance, and of the fixes for future launch vehicles, engineers at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama concluded that a third uncrewed test flight of the Saturn V was unnecessary. Therefore, the next Saturn V to fly, on Apollo 8, would carry a crew (Apollo 7, the first crewed Apollo mission to fly, would be launched by a Saturn IB).


title: Apollo 6

text: After the mission, CM-020 was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution. The Apollo 6 command module is on display at the Fernbank Science Center in Atlanta, Georgia.


title: Apollo 6

text: The Saturn V had several cameras affixed to it, intended to be ejected and later recovered. Three of the four cameras on board the S-IC failed to eject and thus were destroyed, and only one of the two cameras on the S-II was recovered. Two of these cameras were intended to film the S-IC/S-II separation and the other two were to film the liquid oxygen tank; the one that was recovered had filmed separation. The failure to eject was attributed to a lack of nitrogen pressure in the bottles that were to cause the ejection. The command module carried a motion picture camera, intended to be activated during launch and during re-entry. Because the mission took about ten minutes longer than planned, re-entry events were not filmed.


title: Apollo 6

text: A 70 mm still camera operated in the CM during part of the mission, pointed at the Earth through the hatch window. Coverage included parts of the United States, the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, and the western Pacific Ocean. The camera had haze-penetrating film and filter combination, with better color balance and higher resolution than photographs taken on previous American crewed missions. These proved excellent for cartographic, topographic, and geographic studies.


title: Apollo 6

text: There was little press coverage of the Apollo 6 mission mainly because on the same day as the launch, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, and President Lyndon B. Johnson had announced he would not seek reelection only four days earlier.


title: Solubility table

text: The table below provides information on the variation of solubility of different substances (mostly inorganic compounds) in water with temperature, at one atmosphere pressure. Units of solubility are given in grams per 100 millilitres of water (g/100 mL), unless shown otherwise. The substances are listed in alphabetical order.


title: Journey's End (2017 film)

text: Journey's End is a 2017 British war film based on the 1928 play by R. C. Sherriff. Written by Simon Reade and directed by Saul Dibb, it was screened in the "Special Presentations" section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.


title: Journey's End (2017 film)

text: The film is the fifth film adaptation of the play, following "Journey's End" (1930), "The Other Side" (1931), "Aces High" (1976), and "Journey's End" (1988 BBC TV film).


title: Journey's End (2017 film)

text: Young Second Lieutenant Raleigh is sent to the front lines of the war, the trenches in Northern France. He requests of General Raleigh, his uncle, that he be under the command of Captain Stanhope of C Company, a man who was a few years his senior at school who used to holiday with Raleigh and his sister Margaret.


title: Journey's End (2017 film)

text: Although an outstanding leader, who won the Military Cross at the Battle of Vimy Ridge, Stanhope has taken to heavy drinking to numb himself to the horrors of war. Other company officers include the kindly second-in-command, Lieutenant Osborne, an older man who likes to be called 'Uncle' by all fellow officers, Trotter, also an older man of lower social class promoted to make up shortages, and Hibbert whose attempts to escape the front line by complaining of eye pain are angrily rejected by Stanhope. The officers work as a close team, sitting down to a three-course dinner each evening (in practice whatever soup, tinned meat and tinned fruit the Mess Cook has rustled up - in contrast to the fine meals which more senior officers are shown eating behind the front). Raleigh learns his duties, making frequent inspections of the trenches, supervising the morning "Stand To" (guarding the trench in case of a dawn attack) and learning the names of his men.


title: Journey's End (2017 film)

text: At any moment the Germans could launch an attack in what would come to be known as the German spring offensive. The battalion commander informs Stanhope that information from a deserter reveals that the German assault is planned for Thursday 21 March 1918. To obtain intelligence for a brigadier who is visiting for dinner, the battalion commander orders Stanhope to send two of his officers and ten men on a daytime raid across no man's land to capture one or more German prisoners. The officers chosen are the trusted Lieutenant Osborne and Second Lieutenant Raleigh. Only four men and Raleigh return alive, with one prisoner, revealing the Germans opposite to be a unit from Württemberg.


title: Journey's End (2017 film)

text: On 21 March all men are on duty as the shelling begins. The British soldiers can barely see or hold on to their weapons through all the dust and debris. Raleigh is severely wounded in the back. Stanhope lays him on a bed in the officers' dugout. He comforts the dying man and covers him with a blanket just as Raleigh complains of being "too cold" and breathes his last. Stanhope emerges in shock as the artillery explodes around him.


title: Journey's End (2017 film)

text: Much later the Germans, in gas masks, are seen surveying the captured trenches, with the bodies of the British strewn around dead and motionless. Meanwhile, back at home, Margaret finally receives a letter from her brother, sent just after his arrival at the front.


title: Journey's End (2017 film)

text: The proposed film was first announced in 2014, with the intention that it would be part of the British commemoration of the First World War centenary. It was to be produced by Guy De Beaujeu, and was originally planned to be directed by David Grindley, who had previously directed a frequently revived stage production of the play.


title: Journey's End (2017 film)

text: Although the screenplay is based on the play by R. C. Sherriff, a dozen new characters were introduced by writer Simon Reade for this screen adaptation.


title: Journey's End (2017 film)

text: The film's producer confirmed that the ideal cast might include Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston and Eddie Redmayne, but that no actors had yet been approached. Further press information in December 2016 announced that the cast would include Paul Bettany, Tom Sturridge and Toby Jones, and that the film was due for release in 2017.


title: Journey's End (2017 film)

text: The production was made at Pinewood Studios Wales, Cardiff in Wales and on location in Suffolk, England.


title: Journey's End (2017 film)

text: "Journey's End" was released on 8 September 2017. The film received a wider theatrical release in Spring 2018, the centenary of the German spring offensive, the events of the German attacks which it depicts.


title: Journey's End (2017 film)

text: Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 91% based on 102 reviews. The website's "critics consensus" reads, ""Journey's End" brings R.C. Sherriff's 90-year-old play to the screen with thrilling power, thanks to director Saul Dibb's hard-hitting urgency and brilliant work from a talented cast." On Metacritic the film has a score of 73 out of 100 based on reviews from 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Journey's End (2017 film)

text: Todd McCarthy of "The Hollywood Reporter" commented that "the film serves to illuminate how very different the British army – or any army – was then, with its class distinctions and comparatively polite conversational modes, and how differently wars are now fought." Dennis Harvey of "Variety" said, "The convincing physical production is shot in muddy earthtones by Laurie Rose and is well accentuated by an original score of urgent, mournful strings."


title: Journey's End (2017 film)

text: Simran Hans of "The Observer" gave the film 3 stars out of 5 and writing, "Sam Claflin is particularly good as the boozy, brooding Captain Stanhope, whose intensity, belligerence and self-loathing flesh out what might in less capable hands have been a clichéd, shell-shocked soldier." Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" gave the film 4 stars out of 5, calling it "expertly cast and really well acted: forthright, powerful, heartfelt".


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: The École normale supérieure - PSL (; also known as ENS, Normale sup', Ulm or ENS Paris) is a "grande école" university in Paris, France. It is one of the constituent members of Paris Sciences et Lettres University (PSL).


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: Originally conceived during the French Revolution, the school was founded in 1794 to provide homogeneous training of high-school teachers in France but it later closed. The school was subsequently reestablished by Napoleon I as "pensionnat normal" from 1808 to 1822, before being recreated in 1826 and taking the name of "École normale" in 1830. When institutes for primary teachers training called é"coles normales" were created in 1845, the word "supérieure" (meaning upper) was added to form the current name. It has since developed into an institution which has become a platform for French students to pursue careers in government and academia.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: The ENS has a highly competitive selection process consisting of written and oral examinations. During their studies, many ENS students hold the status of paid civil servants.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: The ENS is a "grande école" and, as such, is not part of the mainstream university system. However, the vast majority of the academic staff hosted at ENS belong to external institutions such as one of the Parisian universities, the CNRS and the EHESS. This mechanism for constant scientific turnover allows ENS to benefit from a continuous stream of researchers in all fields. ENS full professorships are rare and competitive. Generalistic in its recruitment and organisation, the ENS is the only "grande école" in France to have departments of research in all the natural, social, and human sciences.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: Due to the selectivity of its entrance exam and its turnover among French researchers, it has a high proportion of prize laureates and therefore a very good reputation. Its alumni include 14 Nobel Prize laureates (ENS has the highest proportion of Nobel laureates among its alumni of any institution worldwide), of which 8 are in Physics, 12 Fields Medalists, more than half the recipients of the CNRS's Gold Medal (France's highest scientific prize) and several hundred members of the Institut de France, and scores of politicians and statesmen. The school has achieved particular recognition in the fields of mathematics and physics as one of France's foremost scientific training grounds, along with international notability in the human sciences as the spiritual birthplace of authors such as Julien Gracq, Jean Giraudoux, Assia Djebar, and Charles Péguy, philosophers such as Henri Bergson, Jean-Paul Sartre, Louis Althusser, Simone Weil, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Alain Badiou, social scientists such as Émile Durkheim, Raymond Aron, and Pierre Bourdieu, and "French theorists" such as Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. The school's students are often referred to as "normaliens".


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: Its model has been replicated elsewhere, in France (at the ENSes of Lyon, Paris-Saclay, and Rennes), in Italy (at the "Scuola Normale Superiore" in Pisa), in Romania, in China and in former French colonies such as Morocco, Algeria, Mali, Mauritania, and Cameroon.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: The current institution finds its roots in the creation of the "École normale de l'an III" by the post-revolutionary National Convention led by Robespierre in 1794. The school was created based on a recommendation by Joseph Lakanal and Dominique-Joseph Garat, who were part of the commission on public education. The "École normale" was intended as the core of a planned centralised national education system. The project was also conceived as a way to reestablish trust between the Republic and the country's elites, which had been alienated to some degree by the Reign of Terror. The decree establishing the school, issued on 30 October 1794 ("9 brumaire an III"), states in its first article that "There will be established in Paris an "École normale" (literally, a normal school), where, from all the parts of the Republic, citizens already educated in the useful sciences shall be called upon to learn, from the best professors in all the disciplines, the art of teaching."


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: The inaugural course was given on 20 January 1795 and the last on 19 May of the same year at the Museum of Natural History. The goal of these courses was to train a body of teachers for all the secondary schools in the country and thereby to ensure a homogenous education for all. These courses covered all the existing sciences and humanities and were given by scholars such as: scientists Monge, Vandermonde, Daubenton, Berthollet and philosophers Bernardin de Saint-Pierre and Volney were some of the teachers. The school was closed as a result of the arrival of the consulate but this "École normale" was to serve as a basis when the school was founded for the second time by Napoleon I in 1808.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: On 17 March 1808, Napoleon created by decree a "pensionnat normal" within the imperial University of France charged with "training in the art of teaching the sciences and the humanities". The establishment was opened in 1810, its strict code including a mandatory uniform. By then a sister establishment had been created by Napoleon in Pisa under the name of "Scuola normale superiore" (SNS), which continues to exist today and still has close ties to the Paris school. Up to 1818, the students are handpicked by the academy inspectors based on their results in the secondary school. However, the ""pensionnat"" created by Napoleon came to be perceived under the Restoration as a nexus of liberal thought and was suppressed by then-minister of public instruction Denis-Luc Frayssinous in 1824.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: An "École préparatoire" was created on 9 March 1826 at the site of "collège Louis-le-Grand". This date can be taken as the definitive date of creation of the current school. After the July Revolution, the school regained its original name of "École normale" and in 1845 was renamed "École normale supérieure". During the 1830s, under the direction of philosopher Victor Cousin, the school enhanced its status as an institution to prepare the "agrégation" by expanding the duration of study to three years, and was divided into its present-day ""Sciences"" and ""Letters"" divisions. In 1847 the school moved into its current quarters at the "rue d'Ulm", next to the Panthéon in the 5th arrondissement of Paris. This helped it gain some stability, which was further established under the direction of Louis Pasteur.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: Having been recognised as a success, a second school was created on its model at Sèvres for girls in 1881, followed by other schools at Fontenay, Saint-Cloud (both of which later moved to Lyon, and Cachan). The school's status evolved further at the beginning of the twentieth century.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: In 1903 it was integrated into the University of Paris as a separate college, perhaps as a result of its exposure to national attention during the Dreyfus Affair, in which its librarian Lucien Herr and his disciples, who included the socialist politician Jean Jaurès and the writers Charles Péguy and Romain Rolland spearheaded the campaign to overturn the wrongful conviction pronounced against Captain Alfred Dreyfus. The first female student - Marguerite Rouvière - was accepted in 1910, which made headline news in France and polarised opinion.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: The ranks of the school were significantly reduced during the First World War, but the 1920s marked a degree of expansion of the school, which had among its students at this time such figures as Raymond Aron, Jean-Paul Sartre, Vladimir Jankélévitch and Maurice Merleau-Ponty.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: After the Second World War, in which some of its students were players in the Resistance, the school became more visible and increasingly perceived as a bastion of the communist left. Many of its students belonged to the French Communist Party. This leftist tradition continued into the 1960s and 1970s during which an important fraction of French Maoists came from ENS. In 1953 it was made autonomous from the University of Paris, but it was perceived ambivalently by the authorities as a nexus of protest, particularly due to the teachings delivered there by such controversial figures as political philosopher Louis Althusser. As of now, by law, ENS comes under the direct authority of the Minister for Higher Education and Research.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: The fallout from the May 1968 protests caused President of the Republic Georges Pompidou, himself a former student at the school, to require the resignation of its director, Robert Flacelière and to appoint his contemporary Jean Bousquet as his successor . Both Flacelière and Bousquet were distinguished classicists.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: The school continued to expand and include new subjects, seeking to cover all the disciplines of natural and social sciences. In this manner, a new "concours" was opened in 1982 to reinforce the teaching of social sciences at the school. The "concours", called B/L (the A/L concours standing for the traditional letters and human sciences), greatly emphasises proficiency in mathematics and economics alongside training in philosophy and literature.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: For a long time, most women were taught at a separate ENS, the "École normale supérieure de jeunes filles" at Sèvres. However, women were not explicitly barred entry until a law of 1940, and some women were students at Ulm before this date, such as philosopher Simone Weil and classicist Jacqueline de Romilly. In 1985, after heated debates, the two were merged into a single entity with its main campus at the historic site at the "rue d'Ulm" in Paris.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: "École normale supérieure" is a "Grande école", a French institution of higher education that is separate from, but parallel and connected to the main framework of the French public university system. Similar to the Ivy League in the United States, Oxbridge in the UK, and C9 League in China, "Grandes Écoles" are elite academic institutions that admit students through an extremely competitive process. "Grandes Écoles" typically they have much smaller class sizes and student bodies than public universities in France, and many of their programs are taught in English, and while most are more expensive than French universities, "École normale supérieure" charges the same tuition fees: for 2021/2022, they were €243 to register for the master's degree. International internships, study abroad opportunities, and close ties with government and the corporate world are a hallmark of the "Grandes Écoles". Degrees from "École normale supérieure" are accredited by the "Conférence des Grandes Écoles" and awarded by the Ministry of National Education (France) (). Alums go on to occupy elite positions within government, administration, and corporate firms in France.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: The "École normale supérieure" is one of a few schools that still occupy a campus in the heart of Paris. The historic Paris ENS campus is located around the "rue d'Ulm", the main building being at 45 "rue d'Ulm" in the 5th "arrondissement" of Paris, which was built by architect Alphonse de Gisors and given to ENS by law in 1841. Above the entrance door are sculptures of two female figures who respectively represent letters and sciences. They are portrayed sitting on either side of a medallion of Minerva, who represents wisdom. A formalised version of this frontal piece is used as the school's emblem.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: The main site at 45 "rue d'Ulm" is organized around a central courtyard, the "Cour aux Ernests". Another courtyard south of this one, the "Cour Pasteur", separates the school from the apartment buildings of the "rue Claude-Bernard". These buildings house the administrative functions of the school, and some of its literary departments (philosophy, literature, classics and archeology), its mathematics and computer science departments, as well as its main human sciences library. The site's "monument aux morts", which was inaugurated in 1923 and stands as a reminder of the "normaliens" who died in the First World War, is a work by Paul Landowski.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: Several auxiliary buildings surround this main campus in adjacent streets. The closest one, opposite the main entrance, at 46 "rue d'Ulm", houses the school's biology department and laboratories as well as a part of its student residences. The seat of the school's physics and chemistry departments, inaugurated in 1936 by Léon Blum and Albert Lebrun, lies north of the school on "rue Lhomond", while further up the "rue d'Ulm" its number 29 houses secondary libraries and the school's department of cognitive sciences.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: ENS has a second campus on Boulevard Jourdan (previously the women's college), in the 14th "arrondissement" of Paris, which is home to the school's research department of social sciences, law, economics and geography, as well as further student residences. The site has been undergoing major reconstruction since 2015. In 2017, President Francois Hollande inaugurated a new building on site, which is home to the ENS economics department, the school's social science library, and the Paris School of Economics, an ENS project.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: The school has a secondary site in the suburb of Montrouge, which houses some of its laboratories alongside those of Paris Descartes University. It features green areas and sporting facilities as well as some 200 student rooms. A fourth site in the town of Foljuif, south of Paris, hosts some of the school's biology laboratories.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: The school is very small in student numbers. Its core of students, who are called" normaliens", are selected via a competitive exam called a "concours" (baccalaureate + 2 years) after a preparatory class. Two hundred "normaliens" are thus recruited every year, half of them in the sciences and the same number in the humanities, and receive a monthly salary (around €1,350/month in 2018), and in exchange they sign a ten-year contract to work for the state. Although it is seldom applied in practice, this exclusivity clause is redeemable (often by the hiring firm). A small part of the students are admitted without having to pass an exam.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: Preparation for the "concours" takes place in preparatory classes which last two years (see "grandes écoles").


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: Other students can be selected but they are called ""étudiants normaliens"" and do not have their study paid and cannot be called ""normaliens"". They are selected with the preparation of a research project (baccalaureate + 2–4 years).


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: PhD students at ENS are either graduate students from the ENS doctoral school or from another doctoral school co-accredited by ENS. Since 2016 PhD students preparing their doctoral research at ENS are awarded a PhD from PSL University.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: ENS also welcomes selected foreign students (the "international selection"), participates in various graduate programs, and has extensive research laboratories. The foreign students selected often receive a scholarship which covers their expenses.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: The students selected via the "concours" remain at the school for a length of time ranging from four to six years. "Normaliens" from France and other European Union countries are considered civil servants in training. Many students devote at least one of those years to the "agrégation", which allows them to teach in high schools or universities. Faculty recruitment is selective, with between zero and one ENS professorship open per year. Faculty recruitments usually happen upon previous incumbent retirements. In informal ENS jargon, ENS full professors are popularly called "PdPs" (""professeurs des professeurs")" because traditionally ENS was created to educate future professors.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: Founded to train high school teachers through the "agrégation", ENS is now an institution training researchers, professors, high-level civil servants, as well as business and political leaders. It focuses on the association of training and research, with an emphasis on freedom of curriculum. The school's resources are equally divided between its "Letters" (social and human sciences and literature) and its "Sciences" (natural sciences and mathematics) sections. The school's fifteen departments and its 35 units of research ("unités mixtes de recherches" or "UMR" in French) work in close coordination with other public French research institutions such as the CNRS.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: The school has seven departments in its "Sciences" section: mathematics, physics, computer science, chemistry, biology, geoscience and cognitive science. It also has eight departments in its "Letters" section: philosophy, literature, history, classics, social science, economics (this section is the base of Paris School of Economics), geography, and art history and theory. In addition to these fifteen departments, a language laboratory for non-specialists offers courses in most major world languages to all the students. Additional centres of research and laboratories gravitate around the departments, which function as nodes of research.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: The emphasis is placed squarely on interdisciplinarity and students who entered from a scientific "concours" (thus having mainly studied in their preparatory school maths, physics and chemistry or biology) are encouraged to attend courses in the literary departments. Conversely, maths and physics introductory courses are on offer for the students from the "literary" departments. The school's diploma, instituted in 2006, requires students to attend a certain number of courses not related to their major.


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: The "École normale supérieure" has a network, known as "Rubens", of ten libraries shared out over its sites, which taken together make up the third largest library in France. The catalogue is available for consultation online. Entrance to the libraries is reserved to domestic and international researchers of doctoral level, as well as to the teachers at the school, "normaliens", other ENS students, and PSL Research University students. The main library, devoted to literature, classics, and human sciences, dates back to the nineteenth century when it was greatly expanded by its director, the famous dreyfusard Lucien Herr. Its main reading room is protected as a "monument historique". This main library, which covers several thousand square metres, is one of the largest free access funds of books in France, with upwards of 800,000 books readily available and more than 1600 periodicals. Its classics section is part of the national network of specialised libraries ("Cadist").


title: École normale supérieure (Paris)

text: A secondary library concerned with social science, economics, and law is located at the Jourdan campus for social science. This library has more than 150,000 books in the subjects it covers. The school also has specialised libraries in archeology, cognitive sciences, mathematics and computer science, theoretical physics. A recently unified natural sciences library was opened in 2013, aiming to bring together in a central place on "rue d'Ulm" the libraries of physics, chemistry, biology and geoscience. The school also features two specialised centres for documentation, the "Bibliothèque des Archives Husserl", and the "Centre d'Archives de Philosophie, d'Histoire et d'Edition des Sciences.