title: Habitat for Humanity

text: As part of Operation Home Delivery, housing components were assembled in nearby less-affected locations such as Jackson, Mississippi, allowing much of the construction to be accomplished while basic infrastructure was being restored. Pre-constructed components were then shipped to the affected areas and built at a faster rate. Within two months of the time of the disaster, construction had begun on houses in the Louisiana cities of Covington and Slidell, near New Orleans.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: Harry Connick Jr., and Branford Marsalis served as honorary chairs of Habitat's hurricane rebuilding program, and one of the many projects along the Gulf Coast is the Musicians' Village at New Orleans Habitat for Humanity.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: On 12 January 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti just 10 miles west of the capital, Port-au-Prince. The earthquake damaged almost 190,000 houses, of which 105,000 were entirely devastated. Of the more than two million affected survivors, 500,000 are still displaced today. Soon after the earthquake, Habitat set a goal of serving 50,000 families over five years, helping them move toward safe, secure and permanent places to call home.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: Habitat has reached numerous milestones after the earthquake including over 155 houses as well as another 100 houses planned to be built starting 23 November of this year. Aside from direct building of housing, more than 4,000 families received transitional or upgraded shelters, more than 350 houses were repaired and rehabilitated, more than 24,500 emergency shelter kits were distributed, and more than 12,000 damage assessments were conducted (Habitat For Humanity International). During this time, an entire community was transformed and lives were changed. More than 4,450 Haiti citizens were trained in construction techniques, financial literacy, disaster risk reduction and business development, which resulted in job opportunities for over 700 Haitians (Habitat For Humanity International).


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: Habitat played an integral in the restoration of Bangladesh after Cyclone Sidr devastated 31 districts. A partnership with Japan Platform to help build transitional shelters was on-going when the disaster hit in November 2007. All phases of this project completed at the end of February 2009.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: Habitat responded to the cyclone by pledging $250000 to provide technical assistance. Prior to the construction of transitional homes, immediate necessities such as food, water and medicine were distributed to affected families.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: A Habitat Resource Center was built in phase one for technical planning, coordination and management of the entire project. It also served as the manufacturing and storage center for construction materials. A total of 480 houses were built at the end of a 3 phase construction process. Each house was provided with proper sanitation using contributions from UNICEF Bangladesh and HFH Great Britain. These transitional shelters were designed to be built by volunteers and unskilled workers in about eight hours on an area that had been prepared by families. This shelter provides a strong and cyclone-resistant core structure to protect residents from severe weather. Extensions to the home when the family has the financial means can be done by adding walling to the existing structure.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: In bid to raise the local awareness of these transitional homes, HFH Bangladesh organized a series of training and familiarisation workshops for locals. 16 sessions were held between March and December 2008.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: In total, 12 communities were worked on by HFH Bangladesh. Structures had been built in the regions of Ghotoker Andua, Andua, Kalagachiya, Pipra Khali and Mirzaganj villages in Mirzaganj Union. In the Amragachia Union the regions of Uttar Amragachia, Dakkhin Amragachia, Shoilabunia, Kismat Shoilabunia and Amragachi villages also had structures built there.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: There are many projects that go hand in hand with the house building projects that allow these homes to supply their own electricity through the use of solar energy. U.S. companies such as Pacific Gas and Electric Company have partnered with Habitat for Humanity to provide complete solar grids for several homes. Other solar projects, mostly in the U.S., like one in San Francisco, as well as efforts of individual citizens are trying to make a difference by raising funds to get more solar homes built.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: The video for rock band Bon Jovi's song "Who Says You Can't Go Home" features Habitat for Humanity volunteers as well as the band building homes as part of Habitat for Humanity in Philadelphia, close to Bon Jovi's native New Jersey. It reflects Jon Bon Jovi's dedication to the organization and highlights the importance of community unity, faith, and involvement. The popularity of Bon Jovi increased Habitat's exposure and influenced new volunteers to donate their time and money to Habitat.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: The Habitat Bicycle Challenge (HBC), a nine-week, coast-to-coast bicycle trip undertaken to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven and to increase awareness of Habitat for Humanity in general, took place annually from 1995 to 2007. Prior to embarking in June on the trek, participants engaged in a seven-month fundraising campaign for Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven. Once on the road, they served as roaming advertisements for Habitat and gave nightly presentations explaining Habitat's mission to their hosts, usually church congregations. They also took part in builds with local Habitat chapters along the way. At its height, HBC attracted about 90 participants a year, all aged 18 to 24 and about half coming from Yale University. Each rider traveled one of three routes: New Haven to San Francisco, New Haven to Portland, or New Haven to Seattle. By 2004 HBC had become the single largest yearly fundraiser for any Habitat affiliate in the world, raising about $400,000 a year. However, amid growing safety concerns, Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven was forced to announce the cancellation of HBC in September 2007.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: Bike and Build, a similar program, was founded in 2002 by a former HBC rider. Though not directly affiliated with Habitat for Humanity, it carries on the legacy of the Habitat Bicycle Challenge.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: In the fall of 2007, alternative rock bands Switchfoot and Relient K went on the Appetite for Construction Tour, partnering with Habitat while raising awareness for the organization and donating a dollar per ticket sold. The tour was highly successful, raising over for donation to the cause.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: Wesley College, Melbourne, is carrying out a joint fundraising and awareness program through theatrical production and is aiming to raise money to build education facilities in Afghanistan.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: Like much construction activity, which carries inherent risk, Habitat for Humanity construction has led to some serious injuries or deaths to volunteers. Habitat states that safety is a priority and important consideration on their construction sites, and that volunteers are given safety orientations and are required to work with skilled construction supervisors on the build sites. Depending on the type of operation, OSHA rules may be generally applicable to Habitat construction sites, similar to for-profit builders. In some cases, Habitat affiliates have local partnerships with OSHA on safety programs.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: An article in the "Weekly Standard", an American opinion magazine, questioned the cost-effectiveness of Habitat building projects. To estimate cost effectiveness, all costs associated with building a Habitat home must be used, including the cost of volunteer time and training. For houses constructed by foreign volunteers, travel and associated costs paid by the volunteers are also significant. Including these costs raises the question whether building a house this way is an efficient use of resources. Particularly in developing countries where labor is relatively inexpensive, unemployment is high, and local currency is cheap, purchasing local labor and supplies may result in an increase in the number of houses built.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: Cost-effectiveness, however, is not Habitat for Humanity's only concern, and additional benefits arise from the Habitat model that differentiate it from other low-cost housing. For example, involving volunteers in the construction of houses not only makes the homes more affordable, but it also builds community understanding, awareness and support for affordable housing and generates revenue for local Habitat organizations. Focusing solely on cost effectiveness also does not address another important aspect—the education and training of the homebuyers. Habitat's homebuyers are also involved in the construction of their home and the homes of others in the program. Many Habitat organizations also provide training in budget management and other skills. These requirements, known as "sweat equity", teach low-income homebuyers valuable construction and other skills that help them to maintain their home over the long-term. Another major aspect of Habitat's program is Habitat's revolving "Fund for Humanity". Habitat does not give homes away; rather, in addition to contributing sweat equity, Habitat homebuyers pay a no-profit mortgage based on their ability to pay. These mortgage payments are used to support building additional homes in partnership with low-income families, thus contributing to the sustainability of Habitat's homebuilding program.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: Habitat has been criticized for its slow and inefficient rebuilding efforts along the Gulf Coast after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. After 18 months, Habitat had completed under 500 homes. A major factor was Habitat's reliance on working through local affiliates, who are not equipped to undertake large-scale rebuilding efforts.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: Work continued and Habitat completed its 1,000th hurricane-response home by May 2007. By the fifth anniversary of Katrina, more than 2,716 homes had been completed. In total, Habitat's Gulf Coast affiliates built, repaired or rehabbed more than 5,400 houses as part of the hurricanes Katrina and Rita effort.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: Habitat affiliates in the region have remained some of the largest homebuilders in their areas and have received numerous awards and acknowledgements for their work in building quality homes.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: Families are required to show an ability to pay for their home in addition to the need for housing. With these requirements, homeless and low-income families may fail to qualify for a Habitat home. Most American Habitat affiliates perform credit checks and criminal record checks on applicants before partnering with them for the construction of a home. Some critics therefore allege that Habitat misrepresents the nature of its work by partnering with families that might be considered nearly "middle-income". To address this, many Habitat affiliates in the United States partner only with families that fall below the government-set "poverty line" for their area. The current poverty rate is measured according to the United States Department of Health and Human Services Poverty Guidelines.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: The credit and income requirements help ensure that Habitat applicants are able to maintain their houses. Foreclosure rates on Habitat houses are hard to measure. While Habitat claims a foreclosure rate of less than 2%, this number is unsubstantiated due to the fact that Habitat properties are not initially deeded to the buyer, and revert to the local Habitat chapter if a buyer defaults. The homeowners' monthly mortgage payments are used to build more Habitat homes.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: Habitat's founder, Millard Fuller, and his wife were dismissed by the Habitat board of directors on 31 January 2005, citing "a pattern of ongoing public comments and communications by the Fullers that have been divisive and disruptive to the organization's work" after Fuller was accused by a former female employee of "suggestive comments and inappropriate touching" during a ride to the Atlanta airport in 2003. The Habitat board investigated Fuller for sexual harassment but found "insufficient proof of inappropriate conduct". Some Fuller supporters claim that the firing was due to a change in corporate culture.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: Before Fuller's termination, attempts were made by former President Jimmy Carter to broker an agreement that would allow Fuller to retire with his $79,000 salary intact; when Fuller was found to have violated the non-disclosure portion of this agreement, he was subsequently fired.


title: Habitat for Humanity

text: In January 2008 a dispute arose between the parent organization and an unspecified number of local Habitat for Humanity affiliate organizations over the terms of their cooperation agreement. These local affiliates contended that the agreement gave the international organization too much power over the assets and operations of the local chapters. One of the affiliates, Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio, reached an agreement with HFHI in July 2008 to "continue working together in their efforts to make affordable housing possible".


title: Mons

text: Mons (; German and , ; Walloon and ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the province of Hainaut, Belgium.


title: Mons

text: Mons was made into a fortified city by Count Baldwin IV of Hainaut in the 12th century. The population grew quickly, trade flourished, and several commercial buildings were erected near the "Grand’Place". In 1814, King William I of the Netherlands increased the fortifications, following the fall of the First French Empire. The Industrial Revolution and coal mining made Mons a centre of heavy industry. In 1830, Belgium gained its independence and the decision was made to dismantle the fortifications, allowing the creation of large boulevards and other urban projects.


title: Mons

text: On 2324 August 1914, Mons was the location of the Battle of Mons. The British were forced to retreat and the town remained occupied by the Germans until its liberation by the Canadian Corps during the final days of the war. There are several memorial placards related to the WW1 battles. Today, the city is an important university town and commercial centre. The main square is the centre of the old city. It is paved in the manner of old cities and is home to many cafes and restaurants, as well as the town hall and belfry. It is forbidden to park in or drive through the centre. Together with the Czech city of Plzeň, Mons was the European Capital of Culture in 2015.


title: Mons

text: The municipality consists of the following districts: Ciply, Cuesmes, Flénu, Ghlin, Harmignies, Harveng, Havré, Hyon, Jemappes, Maisières, Mesvin, Nimy, Nouvelles, Obourg, Saint-Denis, Saint-Symphorien, Spiennes, and Villers-Saint-Ghislain.


title: Mons

text: The first signs of activity in the region of Mons are found at Spiennes, where some of the best flint tools in Europe were found dating from the Neolithic period. When Julius Caesar arrived in the region in the 1st century BC, the region was settled by the Nervii, a Belgian tribe. A castrum was built in Roman (Belgica) times, giving the settlement its Latin name Castrilocus; the name was later changed into Montes for the mountain on which the castrum was built. In the 7th century, Saint Ghislain and two of his disciples built an oratory or chapel dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul near the Mons hill, at a place called Ursidongus, now known as Saint-Ghislain. Soon after, Saint Waltrude (in French "Sainte Waudru"), daughter of one of Clotaire II’s intendants, came to the oratory and was proclaimed a saint upon her death in 688. She was canonized in 1039.


title: Mons

text: Like Ath, its neighbour to the north-west, Mons was made a fortified city by Count Baldwin IV of Hainaut in the 12th century. The population grew quickly, trade flourished, and several commercial buildings were erected near the "Grand’Place". The 12th century also saw the appearance of the first town halls. The city had 4,700 inhabitants by the end of the 13th century. Mons succeeded Valenciennes as the capital of the county of Hainaut in 1295 and grew to 8,900 inhabitants by the end of the 15th century. In the 1450s, Matheus de Layens took over the construction of the Saint Waltrude church from Jan Spijkens and restored the town hall.


title: Mons

text: In 1515, Charles V took an oath in Mons as Count of Hainaut. In this period of its history, the city became the target of various occupations, starting in May 1572 with the Protestant takeover by Louis of Nassau, who had hoped to clear the way for the French Protestant leader Gaspard de Coligny to oppose Spanish rule. After the murder of de Coligny during the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, the Duke of Alba took control of Mons in September 1572 in the name of the Catholic King of Spain. This spelled the ruin of the city and the arrest of many of its inhabitants; from 1580 to 1584, Mons became the capital of the Southern Netherlands.


title: Mons

text: On 8 April 1691, after a nine-month siege, Louis XIV’s army stormed the city, which again suffered heavy casualties. From 1697 to 1701, Mons was alternately French or Austrian. After being under French control from 1701 to 1709, the Dutch army gained the upper hand in the Battle of Malplaquet. In 1715, Mons returned to Austria under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht (1713). But the French did not give up easily; Louis XV besieged the city again in 1746. After the Battle of Jemappes (1792), the Hainaut area was annexed to France and Mons became the capital of the Jemappes district.


title: Mons

text: Following the fall of the First French Empire in 1814, King William I of the Netherlands fortified the city heavily. In 1830, however, Belgium gained its independence and the decision was made to dismantle fortified cities such as Mons, Charleroi, and Namur. The actual removal of fortifications only happened in the 1860s, allowing the creation of large boulevards and other urban projects. The Industrial Revolution and coal mining made Mons a center of heavy industry, which strongly influenced the culture and image of the Borinage region as a whole. It was to become an integral part of the "sillon industriel", the industrial backbone of Wallonia.


title: Mons

text: On 17 April 1893, between Mons and Jemappes, seven strikers were killed by the civic guard at the end of the Belgian general strike of 1893.


title: Mons

text: On 2324 August 1914, Mons was the location of the Battle of Mons—the first battle fought by the British Army in World War I. The British were forced to retreat with just over 1,600 casualties, and the town remained occupied by the Germans until its liberation by the Canadian Corps during the final days of the war.


title: Mons

text: Within the front entrance to the City hall, there are several memorial placards related to the WW1 battles and in particular, one has the inscription:


title: Mons

text: During the Second World War, as an important industrial centre, the city was heavily bombed. During the Battle of the Mons Pocket US Army forces encircled and took 25,000 Germans prisoner in early September 1944.


title: Mons

text: NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) was relocated in Casteau, a village near Mons, from Roquencourt on the outskirts of Paris after France's withdrawal from the military structure of the alliance in 1967. The relocation of SHAPE to this particular region of Belgium was largely a political decision, based in large part on the depressed economic conditions of the area at the time with the view to bolstering the economy of the region. A riot in the prison of Mons took place in April 2006 after prisoner complaints concerning living conditions and treatment; no deaths were reported as a result of the riot, but the event focused attention on prisons throughout Belgium. Today, the city is an important university town and commercial centre.


title: Mons

text: Tanks in town commemorates the liberation of Belgium during World War II by the American 3rd Armored Division, and is one of the world's largest gatherings of WWII tanks.


title: Mons

text: Mons is located along the N56 road. It is also accessed via European route E42, which is a continuation of French Autoroute A2, linking the British WW1 battlefields of Mons with the Somme Battlefields,


title: Mons

text: Mons has a typical Belgian oceanic climate with relatively narrow temperature differences between seasons for its inland 50° latitude, as a result of Gulf Stream influence.


title: Mons

text: The town hosts a professional basketball team called Belfius Mons-Hainaut and a tennis tournament called the Ethias Trophy. It previously hosted the football club R.A.E.C. Mons, though the team has since disbanded. There is also a horse racing venue at Hippodrome de Wallonie in Mons.


title: Mons

text: The centre consists largely of red brick houses. Although there are few old buildings and rarely new blue stone buildings, its use is generally limited to parts of the decorative walls. Much of the centre is made up of houses which are two or three storeys high.


title: Mons

text: In commercial areas, the ground floor is used as commercial space, while other floors are used for housing. Generally behind the houses there is a small garden.


title: Mons

text: The outskirts of the city are also generally made of brick terraced houses. They nevertheless have the largest green spaces in the front or rear. In more remote areas of the centre, there are four façades of the villas.


title: Mons

text: After the Second World War the city experienced rather limited construction of buildings. Some public housing have been built in Ghlin, Hyon Jemappes and in the suburbs of the city. Since the late 1990s and especially since the arson which took place in one of these buildings, the city undertook a policy of deconstruction of these houses which is still in progress at the moment. A whole series of social buildings are evenly dispersed in the downtown and surrounding suburbs.


title: Mons

text: 16,5% of the city's population lives in apartments (17% in Belgium) and 82.7% in single-family homes (82.3% in Belgium). Of the 82.7% who live in single family homes, only 26% (37.3% in Belgium) are separate houses, while 55.7% (44.4 in Belgium) are detached or terraced houses. That's pretty much a small town in Belgium. Large municipalities have in fact fewer single family homes, but many more apartments whereas the smallest towns have few apartments and a lot of single family homes. The figures show very clearly the strong presence of terraced houses rather than separate houses: it exemplifies the urbanization of downtown, but also urban cores such as Jemappes et Cuesmes.


title: Mons

text: The main square is the centre of the old city. It is situated near the shopping street (pedestrian) and the belfry. It is paved in the manner of old cities and is home to many cafes and restaurants, as well as the town hall.


title: Mons

text: The outskirts of the place is accessible by car, but it is forbidden to park or drive through the centre.


title: Mons

text: Each year it is used as an action theatre called "Lumeçon" to stage a battle between Saint George and Dragon.


title: Mons

text: The main square is also equipped with a fountain, which opened on 21 March 2006. It also hosts a Christmas market and sometimes an ice rink during the holiday period.


title: Mons

text: The façade of the building called "au Blan Levrie" shows the care with which the city attempted to unite the old and the modern. It is the first authorised building in the main square which was made of stone to avoid fire incidents. It was originally built in 1530 in the Gothic style, for the Malaperts, a wealthy local family. In 1975, the architects A. Godart and O. Dupire were assigned to design a bank. They proceeded to gut the interior and conduct a precise survey of the whole before beginning the restoration project. The façade was completely restored, sometimes (as below) by extending the design of mouldings, but the fenestration proved impossible to restore as there were not enough clues from the remains of the original to do so. Therefore, "The choice was directed towards a contemporary discrete [style], appearing in second test [?]: they are steel frame whose profiles are thinner. » Impression yet reinforced by the way of which was treated at the entrance gate.[?]"


title: Mons

text: Originally its communal organization, Mons was a City Hall called "House of Peace." Earlier the deputy mayors were on the castle of the Counts of Hainaut, and now it is only the conciergerier, Saint-Calixte chapel and some underground rooms and the chamber. This place is now Castle Park, where we can also see the belfry. Already in the 13th century, the counts mentioned the House of Peace, located in Nimy Street. Other documents of the same time let one suppose that there existed two Houses of Peace, the one in Nimy Street and the other in the market area.


title: Mons

text: It was in 1323 that Count William I gave permission to build the House of Peace on the location of the current City Hall. This is called a "Town House" built of stones and bricks at the base, while the superstructure is of wood. This building underwent various changes during the 15th century until 1477, when the nearby shop in the arsenal exploded.


title: Mons

text: The destroyed buildings were rebuilt and benefitted from new changes and additions over the centuries.


title: Mons

text: The architect of the City Hall, Matthew Layens of Leuven, was called to draw up plans. It was to be a building in Gothic style, but it seems that the plan (which was not found) was not completed, including the abandonment of the second floor, which was still intended for construction. The Renaissance campanile was added in the 18th century. It contains a bell dating from 1390, the Bancloque, and carries a clock dial overlooking the Grand Place and a light clock. The 19th century saw various modifications of the façade, the removal of stone mullions to the floor and various stone ornaments.


title: Mons

text: In its current state, the Town Hall consists of a remarkable collection of various buildings housing a large proportion of municipal services. These buildings have undergone many changes over the centuries, restorations and additions of elements from other buildings, such as a Gothic style fireplace from castle Trazegnies, carved doors of the 16th century saved from demolition, a fireplace from the castle of Gouy-lez-Pedestrian, and another fireplace in 1603 from the Château d'Havré.


title: Mons

text: On 23 April 2006 was inaugurated a bronze statuary group by Garouste Gerard, creator of a fresco for the wedding hall. The work, evoking the combat of St. George and the dragon, is in front of City Hall at the bottom of the stair-ramps providing access to one of the entrances to City Hall.


title: Mons

text: These buildings surround a small, irregularly shaped square, the Mayor's Garden, from which the rue d'Enghien descends. The Ropieur Fountain, by sculptor Léon Gobert (1869–1935), can be found in the middle of the square. The symbolizes a young insolent resident of Mons, drenching passersby with water from the fountain.


title: Mons

text: Although located in the heart of the old County of Hainaut, the Saint Waltrude Collegiate Church is one of the most characteristic churches and most homogeneous of Brabantine Gothic architecture.


title: Mons

text: The collegiate was built in the 15th century on the orders of canons. Along with the nearby belfry it is considered as a major symbol of the city of Mons. It contains many works of Jacques du Broeucq.


title: Mons

text: It is made of local materials like sandstone, blue stone and brick. It is designed in a classic form, which is expressed by a Latin cross sign. It measures 115 metres long, 32 metres wide and rises to 24.5 metres at the keystone. The chancel is surrounded by an ambulatory and 15 chapels.


title: Mons

text: Also called El Catiau by Montois, it was built in the 17th century. The belfry is the only baroque style building in Belgium that reaches a height of 87 meters. In its top section it contains a 49 bell carillon. It was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 1 December 1999, as part of the Belfries of Belgium and France site.


title: Mons

text: Victor Hugo described the belfry in a letter to his wife as "a coffeepot flanked by four smaller teapots."


title: Mons

text: The Press House dates back to the 16th century and is a rare example of a house in traditional Spanish style in Mons. It is made in a simple architectural way using brick. This material was economical and used after the fire in 1548, because when it was rebuilt, the cost of stone had increased. In 1548 the deputy mayor had prohibited the use of flammable materials.


title: Mons

text: The buildings were restored in 19191920, on the plans of the communal architect E. Bertiaux and are occupied by the Maison de la Presse.


title: Mons

text: This industrial hall is all that remains of the "machine" that supplied Mons with drinkable water from 1871, the year when the river Trouille was diverted. Designed by the architect Hubert and the engineer Celi Moullan, this impressive machinery of pipes and mains was built in metal and glass and forced the water from the valley level up to the town water tanks in the castle place yard. To source the water, Mons purchased two springs known as the "Mouse Hole" and "La Vallière," and the water was transported via hydraulic motor.


title: Mons

text: The "water machine" still bears witness to the sanitary and hygiene concerns which arose in Mons in 1865-1870 and marks the transition from medieval water supply wells, springs and hand pumps, to operation of pumps suction and force.


title: Mons

text: This progress at domestic level transformed the townspeople's way of life and changed the boundaries of Mons and Spiennes. They used to get water from wells or fountains, sometimes over a hundred yards from their homes. Soon followed another urban project: the introduction in 1828 of city gas to illuminate new avenues and streets. These two changes are made possible by the demolition of the fortifications, which releases the land, and the diversion of Trouille including the strategic role of supply ditches was then passed.


title: Mons

text: The "water machine" was restored in the early 1990s, and the building now hosts various cultural events. The machinery was dismantled.


title: Mons

text: Waux Hall park was built in the 19th century (1862–1864) at the initiative of the Society of Waux Hall created for this purpose by members of the bourgeoisie. It is therefore the source of a private park. It is located at the site of Fort said that the Dutch formed an outwork the last fortification (1815–1864). Remnants of the fort still exist under the current pavillon. The gardens were designed by Louis Fuchs and the central pavilion was built by architect Joseph Hubert in tavern style.


title: Mons

text: A 5 hectare landscaped park was built in the mid 19th century and consists of age-old trees, water features, lakes and lawns. Various memorials and outdoor sculptures, including works of sculptors Grard, Deville, Hupet, and Guilmot Harvent, are placed. The park also contains various species of age-old trees.


title: Mons

text: The Technical and Vocational School of Horticulture was established in 1863, it was installed under the authority of the corporation of Waux Hall. It became communal in 1892 at the time of acquisition of Waux Hall by the city of Mons, and then came under the authority of the province of Hainaut in 2006. In 2009 this event was moved to the Grand Place.


title: Mons

text: The masonic Lodge "The Perfect Union" is the oldest in Belgium and perhaps even on the continent. It was founded in 1721. At that time, Mons became a masonic centre followed by the creation of several new lodges (Vraie et parfaite harmonie (1767), À l'Orient de Mons (1783) et la Ligue équitable (1786)).


title: Mons

text: After the French Revolution, the meetings were held in different locations, and an event was organised by the Perfect Union for the construction of a permanent building. The plans of the architect Hector Puchot were retained in 1890. The Neo-Egyptian style then became a reference for Masonic architecture, and we can consider the lodge of Mons as a model of its kind with its numerous motifs—"Egyptian" papyrus capitals, frieze lotus bud, etc..


title: Mons

text: William Barracks, renamed barracks Major Sabbe after the First World War and named for the 1990 Arts Square, dates from 1824 to 1827, at the time of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is the work of the architect Rémi de Puydt (1789–1844). The façade and roof of the building were listed in 1983 on the advice of the Royal Commission of Monuments, Sites and Excavations.


title: Mons

text: Maintaining its military purpose until the late 1940s, the building was then used by the Royal Grammar School John Avesnes from the 1960s to the early 1990s. Since the completion of the conversion carried out between 1993 and 1995, Carré des Arts hosts the Graduate School of Arts and visual (ESAPV) and regional television TV Borinage Mons (Tele MB).


title: Mons

text: Three wells, fountains that decorated the streets of Mons have survived until today. This is the case of the fountain-pillory, Louis XVI style, built in 1779 by the blue stone Ouvertus architect.


title: Mons

text: Built in 1831 by Albert Jamot, this well was transferred to the central Marché-aux-Herbes in 1877 and has served as a fountain after the development of the water supply in the city during the years 18691870. It has regained its original location at the corner of the Coupe and the Chaussée in 1981. After the Marché aux Herbes, the fountain (not connected to the water) was placed for a few years in the park at the far end of rue des 4 Fils Aymond.


title: Mons

text: The casemates and the bakery are the remains of military fortifications dating from the kingdom of the Netherlands (1814–1830). The law dividing the disassembly of the fortifications dates back to 1861. They are located near the Nervienne site. The roof of the old bakery has been transformed into a public park and playground for children, while the casemates accommodate the musée de la Route.


title: Mons

text: This is the last existing trace of the medieval walls surrounding the city. This defensive structure built of sandstone from Bray was built around 1358. Its walls equipped with loopholes have a thickness of up to 4 meters. The tower has lost about a third of its original size. A project to install a terrace on its top open to the public had just been completed in 2009. The tower has housed a sound installation in the festival of contemporary art audio-visual CitySonics when it reopened.


title: Mons

text: In 1966, the Council of Ministers decided to build new buildings to house the Courts of Justice: Assize Court, Labour Court, Court of Appeal, Court of Commerce, ... The choice is the site of the former "Hall of exposure." The Building Authority designated as architects for the project the Office Aura (John Bartholomew). The triangular shape of the land has created interior spaces, decreasing in height and width, forming a sort of "cathedral space" underlined by a continuous central luminous line. On this major axis, the "backbone" of the project, has created spaces for encounter and relaxation. The latest techniques have been implemented for the economic management of energy, giving maximum comfort to staff and the public while ensuring the development of architectural building.


title: Mons

text: Opened in May 2007, by January 2011 all buildings already had developed many problems of water seepage and stability. Thus one of the gateways weighing a hundred kilos came off its hinges and nearly fell on a lawyer who entered, cracks opened between concrete blocks, the joints of windows let in wind and water when it rains in the concourse, etc. The lack of any maintenance contracts might be a significant cause of these problems, since minor problems might otherwise have been prevented from getting worse.


title: Pokkén Tournament

text: is a portmanteau of and . The Japanese characters appear in the game's logo in both the Japanese version and the localized versions released in North America and Europe. The official German-language title of the game is "Pokémon Tekken". The title change may be due to the similarity between "Pokkén" and the German word for smallpox, "".


title: Pokkén Tournament

text: "Pokkén Tournament" is a fighting game in which two fighters battle against each other using various Pokémon, with gameplay shifting between "Field Phase" where the Pokémon move freely around the arena similar to "Power Stone" and "", and "Duel Phase" where they move relative to each other similar to the "Tekken" games. Unlike most arcade fighting games, which use a traditional joystick and buttons, the arcade version is played using console-style controllers, which are designed so that players who are not used to arcade sticks can get into the game more easily.


title: Pokkén Tournament

text: The game focuses more on action, as opposed to the more technical gameplay of "Tekken", allowing both hardcore and casual fans to enjoy it. As such, players can perform various techniques taken from the "Pokémon" series, such as special moves and Mega Evolutions (which can be built up from attacks using a "Synergy Gauge"). Players can also use Support Pokémon to give them special benefits such as buffs in attack or defense.


title: Pokkén Tournament

text: First-print Wii U copies of the game were packaged with a Shadow Mewtwo Amiibo card, which immediately unlocked the character for use. The title also features online play, where players can compete in two types of online battle modes called friendly battles and ranked battles, including matches between players with registered friend codes and players who enter the same VS Code as each other.


title: Pokkén Tournament

text: Across all versions of the game, there are 23 different Pokémon that appear as playable fighters, 16 of which appear in all three versions.


title: Pokkén Tournament

text: "Pokkén Tournament" was first teased during a "Pokémon" Game Show event held in Japan in August 2013, with trademarks for the game filed the same month. It was officially announced at an event held by Famitsu on August 26, 2014. The Pokémon Company CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara, "Tekken" series producer Katsuhiro Harada, and "Soulcalibur" producer Masaaki Hoshino attended the event, which was broadcast on Niconico, stating the collaboration came about from brainstorming ideas of new ways to play "Pokémon".


title: Pokkén Tournament

text: As the game was being developed, Ishihara wanted to feature primarily fighting-type Pokémon in the game, but Hoshino pushed back, and the game was released with Pokémon of many different types featured.


title: Pokkén Tournament

text: At the 2015 Pokémon World Championships, it was announced that the game would be coming to the Wii U. A demo of the game was available for attendees to play at the tournament. In December 2015, Hori announced that a dedicated arcade controller would be released alongside the game in Japan. The game is known as "Pokémon Tekken" in Germany and Austria. In April 2016, Nintendo announced that another controller, inspired by Pikachu, would be released in Japan in June. In May 2016, GameStop announced that the Pikachu controller would be released in North America in August of that year in "limited quantities".


title: Pokkén Tournament

text: In June 2017, an enhanced Nintendo Switch port was announced under the title "Pokkén Tournament DX", which was released worldwide on September 22, 2017. The port includes the last four fighters added in the arcade version, along with an additional exclusive fighter and new game modes. In January 2018, two DLC packs were announced for the "DX" version. In Pack One, Aegislash is a fighter along with Mega Rayquaza and Mimikyu as support Pokémon, which was released on January 31, 2018. In Pack Two, Blastoise is a fighter along with Mew and Celebi as support Pokémon, which was released on March 23, 2018.


title: Pokkén Tournament

text: In January 2021, Harada, in a response to a follower on Twitter, stated that while he would like to make a sequel to "Pokkén", it was up to Nintendo and The Pokémon Company to decide.


title: Pokkén Tournament

text: Amusement Fantasista, a video arcade in Kurashiki, Japan, planned to remove "Pokkén Tournament" machines in November 2015 due to lack of profitability. Chris Carter of Destructoid noted that in the arcade version, one game credit could last a player 45 minutes, yielding low profits for each machine. The Wii U version entered the Media Create sales charts as the highest-selling game in the region during its debut week, with 69,675 copies sold, and was credited for a marked increase in Wii U hardware sales in the same period; 13,000 units sold compared to the previous week's 4,000. The Switch version of Pokkén Tournament sold 53,395 copies within its first week on sale in Japan, which placed it at number one on the all format sales chart.


title: Pokkén Tournament

text: Western reviews of the console version were mostly positive, earning a 76 out of 100 average score from aggregate review website Metacritic. In the United States, the NPD Group reported that "Pokkén Tournament" outsold "Street Fighter V" by the end of April 2016. In August 2016, Bandai Namco announced that the game had shipped over one million copies worldwide.


title: Pokkén Tournament

text: The Nintendo Switch version received similar or slightly better reviews than the Wii U version, with praise towards the new characters and new modes, but criticising the new split screen mode, which had framerate issues. It had sold over a million copies by March 2018.


title: Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

text: The 2008–2010 specials of the British science fiction television programme "Doctor Who" are five specials that linked the programme's fourth and fifth series. The specials were produced in lieu of a full series in 2009, to allow the new production team for the programme enough time to prepare for the fifth series in 2010, in light of Russell T Davies's decision to step down as showrunner. The first special was broadcast on 25 December 2008 with "The Next Doctor", with the last special, the two-part episode "The End of Time", broadcasting over two weeks on 25 December 2009 and 1 January 2010.


title: Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

text: The specials started production in April 2008 for "The Next Doctor", and filming for the final special "The End of Time" began in March 2009. Two supplemental episodes were also filmed alongside the specials. "Music of the Spheres" was filmed for the 2008 "Doctor Who" Prom in July 2008, and the animated six-episode serial "Dreamland" was produced for the BBC's Red Button service, which was released over six consecutive days in November 2009. Midway through the sequence of specials (commencing with "Planet of the Dead"), production switched to filming in high-definition.


title: Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

text: The specials included appearances of one-off companions, portrayed by David Morrissey, Velile Tshabalala, Michelle Ryan, Lindsay Duncan and the late Bernard Cribbins, as well as featuring cast from previous seasons, including Catherine Tate, Billie Piper, Freema Agyeman, Noel Clarke, John Barrowman, Elisabeth Sladen and John Simm. After the fourth series was the final full series to star David Tennant as the Doctor, and, at the time, the last with lead writer and showrunner Russell T Davies before he returned to show in 2023 with the 60th anniversary special, the specials marked their official departure from the programme, with Matt Smith and Steven Moffat replacing them as the Doctor and the lead writer and showrunner respectively.


title: Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

text: "The End of Time" was the first two-part episode with an overall title and episode numbers since "Survival" in Season 26, the final serial broadcast during the series' original run. It is one of only two stories in the revival era to do this, the other being "Spyfall" in 2020.


title: Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

text: "Music of the Spheres" was filmed for the 2008 "Doctor Who" Prom, and the animated six-episode serial "Dreamland" was produced for the BBC's Red Button service.


title: Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

text: These specials marked David Tennant's final run of episodes as the Tenth Doctor and Matt Smith's first appearance as the newly regenerated Eleventh Doctor. They also featured a string of one-time companions beginning in "The Next Doctor" with David Morrissey as Jackson Lake, a man who thinks himself to be the Doctor and his "companion" Rosita Farisi, played by Velile Tshabalala. "Planet of the Dead" featured former "EastEnders" actress Michelle Ryan as a young thrill-seeking burglar, Lady Christina de Souza. "The Waters of Mars" starred Lindsay Duncan as Adelaide Brooke, Captain of Bowie Base One on Mars. Finally, the two-part "The End of Time" had Bernard Cribbins as recurring character Wilfred Mott as a full-fledged companion for the first and last time.


title: Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

text: Other companions appear briefly during the Tenth Doctor's "farewell tour": Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, Billie Piper as Rose Tyler, Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler, Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones, Noel Clarke as Mickey Smith, John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, and Jessica Hynes as Verity Newman, whose grandmother, Joan Redfern, fell in love with the human John Smith in "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood". John Simm reprises his role as the Master in "The End of Time".


title: Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

text: In his book "The Writer's Tale", Russell T Davies reveals that the plan to have only specials for 2009 was to allow the new production team, headed by new lead writer Steven Moffat, enough time to prepare for the full fifth series in 2010. David Tennant took this opportunity to appear in a stage production of "Hamlet". For practical reasons, these specials continued to use series 4 production codes.


title: Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

text: Russell T Davies announced his departure from the series as show runner, head writer and executive producer of the show on 20 May 2008, with his final episode airing in 2010. The specials not only marked an end to Davies's role as the show runner, but also Tennant's reign as the Doctor. On 28 October 2008 at the National Television Awards during his speech after winning Outstanding Drama Performance for his work in the fourth series, Tennant announced that he would be standing down as the Doctor for the fifth series and that the specials would be his last.


title: Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

text: Davies' role in late 2008 was split between writing the 2009 specials and preparing for the transition between his and Moffat's production team; one chapter of "The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter" discusses plans between him, Gardner, and Tennant to announce Tennant's departure live during ITV's National Television Awards in October 2008. His final full script for "Doctor Who" was finished in the early morning of 4 March 2009, and filming of the episode closed on 20 May 2009. Russell T Davies co-wrote "Planet of the Dead" with Gareth Roberts, the first writing partnership for the show since its 2005 revival. Davies also co-wrote the next episode, "The Waters of Mars", with Phil Ford.


title: Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

text: Writing in his regular column in "Doctor Who Magazine" 416, Davies revealed that the original title for "Part One" of "The End of Time" was "The Final Days of Planet Earth", while "Part Two" was always referred to as "The End of Time". Due to the sheer scale of the story, however, it was decided that both instalments needed the same title, differentiated by part numbers, the first such instance since "Survival". Davies's script for the second episode finished with the Tenth Doctor's final line, "I don't want to go", followed by action text describing the regeneration and ending with the words, "And there he is. Blinking. Dazed. The New Man." He then sent the script to his successor Steven Moffat, who is responsible for all of the Eleventh Doctor's dialogue that follows. Moffat, as incoming executive producer, also assisted in the production of the final scene.


title: Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

text: "The Next Doctor" was filmed in April 2008 at Gloucester Cathedral, St Woolos Cemetery in Newport and the streets of Gloucester, where shooting was hampered by up to 1,000 onlookers. The main setting of "Torchwood", their Torchwood Hub was also redesigned and used as the workshop for the children.


title: Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

text: "Planet of the Dead" was the first Doctor Who episode to be filmed in high-definition, prior episodes having been filmed in standard-definition and then upscaled for broadcast on BBC HD. The two major filming locations of "Planet of the Dead" were the desert of Dubai, used for scenes on the "planet of the dead", and the Queen's Gate Tunnel in Butetown, Cardiff, used for the majority of Earth-bound scenes.


title: Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

text: Filming for "The Waters of Mars" began on 23 February 2009. In late February, David Tennant, Duncan and other actors were seen filming in Victoria Place, Newport. The filming took place on a city street, which the production team covered with artificial snow. The glasshouse scenes were filmed in the National Botanic Garden of Wales, Carmarthenshire. The first location filming for "The End of Time" took place on Saturday, 21 March 2009 at a bookstore in Cardiff. Jessica Hynes was filmed signing a book titled "A Journal of Impossible Things", by Verity Newman.


title: Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

text: The 2008–2010 specials are five specials that linked the programme's fourth and fifth series. They began on 25 December 2008 with "The Next Doctor", with three airing in 2009, and concluded on 1 January 2010 with the second part of "The End of Time".


title: Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

text: "Doctor Who Confidential" also aired alongside each episode of the specials, continuing on from the previous series. "The Next Doctor" was the first special to be accompanied by its own "Confidential" episode, and was considered part of the fourth "Confidential" series. Alongside the accompanying episodes for each of the specials, three additional "Confidential" episodes alongside the specials' episodes: one for the past five Christmas specials, one for the 2008 "Doctor Who" prom, and one for the revealing of Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor.


title: Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

text: Preliminary figures show that "The Next Doctor" had a viewing audience of 11.71 million during its original airing, with a peak at 12.58 million viewers. It was the second most watched programme of Christmas Day 2008, behind Wallace and Gromit's "A Matter of Loaf and Death". Final viewing figures show an audience of 13.1 million viewers. The episode had an Appreciation Index figure of 86 (considered Excellent), making it the second most-enjoyed programme on mainstream television on Christmas Day. The only programme to score higher was "A Matter of Loaf and Death", which scored 88.


title: Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

text: Overnight figures estimated that "Planet of the Dead" was watched by 8.41 million people. The initial showing had an Appreciation Index of 88: considered excellent. The final viewing figure for the initial broadcast was 9.54 million viewers on BBC One, making it the fifth most watched programme of the week and the most watched programme aired on BBC HD at that time. Including repeats in the following week and viewings on the BBC iPlayer, 13.89 million viewers watched the episode in total. The episode received average critical reviews. Simon Brew of science fiction blog "Den of Geek" said the episode was "by turns ambitious and predictable" but "still quite entertaining". Brew positively reviewed Michelle Ryan's performance—finding it on par with her role in "Bionic Woman" rather than her role as Zoe Slater in "EastEnders". He closed his review by saying that "'Planet of the Dead' was passable enough": he thought it "never really gelled" for him. Charlie Jane Anders of io9 compared it to two previous episodes, "The Impossible Planet" and "Midnight", both of which she enjoyed. She thought that the episode was "a pretty solid adventure with a cool set of monsters".


title: Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

text: According to overnight viewing figures, "The Waters of Mars" was watched by 9.1 million people. The episode also received an Appreciation Index score of 88. More accurate, consolidated statistics from the BARB state that official ratings ended up at 10.32 million viewers for the UK premiere and that "The Waters of Mars" was the fifth most watched programme of the week. It was first broadcast on a Sunday, the only non-Christmas episode of the revived series to air outside the usual Saturday evening slot. Critical reception was generally positive. Sam Wollaston of "The Guardian" complimented the episode for showing "a side to the Doctor ... that we haven't really seen before – indecisive, confused, at times simply plain wrong" and Tennant's tenure of the part overall as bringing "humanity and humour to the part" Though Robert Colvile of "The Daily Telegraph" criticised "the glaring inconsistencies", he complimented the scenario for "allow[ing] us to watch Tennant wrestle with his conscience and curiosity ... [in what] was a logical progression for the character".


title: Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

text: Overnight ratings placed Part One of "The End of Time" as the third most-watched programme of Christmas Day, and an appreciation index score of 87, considered 'Excellent'. Final consolidated ratings placed Part One as the third most watched program of Christmas Day, behind "The Royle Family" and "EastEnders" with a final figure of 11.57 million viewers. This is the highest timeshift that the show has received since its revival (the previous highest being 11.4 million for "The Next Doctor" in Christmas 2008). Overnight ratings placed Part Two as the second most-watched programme of New Year's Day, behind "EastEnders", with a provisional viewing figure of 10.4 million viewers. Official BARB ratings placed Part Two as the second most watched programme of the week behind "EastEnders" at 11.79 million viewers. In a review of the first part of the story, Peter Robins of "The Guardian" concedes that when the story is done it is the quieter more emotional parts from the beginning of the episode that the viewer will remember. Robins also notes that Cribbins seems to be playing the same role that Tate did by "becoming the tragic hero while remaining the comic relief". Andrew Pettie of "The Daily Telegraph" commented on Cribbins' performance, and states that he cut a King Lear like figure and notes that the Master's plan was evil even by his standards. Mark Lawson of "The Guardian" stated that the plot device of the Master repopulating the human race as himself "gave Simm the chance to wear a lot of different costumes and the special effects department to show some of the digital ingenuity which has helped the show's renaissance." Lawson also went on to praise Tennant for bringing a "proper tragic force" to the role and was again shown in this last story. Lawson states that "the final line Davies gave to Tennant was a suddenly regretful "I don't want to go!", and it is likely that, somewhere inside, both actor and writer feel a little like that."


title: Doctor Who (2008–2010 specials)

text: Selected pieces of score from these specials (from "The Next Doctor" to "The End of Time"), as composed by Murray Gold, were released on 4 October 2010 by Silva Screen Records under the title of "Series 4 – The Specials". 47 tracks were released on two CD, with a total length of 116 minutes, 9 seconds. The iTunes Store release also includes a digital booklet and two bonus tracks, one each from "The Next Doctor" and "The End of Time".


title: Rosids

text: The rosids are members of a large clade (monophyletic group) of flowering plants, containing about 70,000 species, more than a quarter of all angiosperms.


title: Rosids

text: The clade is divided into 16 to 20 orders, depending upon circumscription and classification. These orders, in turn, together comprise about 140 families.


title: Rosids

text: Fossil rosids are known from the Cretaceous period. Molecular clock estimates indicate that the rosids originated in the Aptian or Albian stages of the Cretaceous, between 125 and 99.6 million years ago.


title: Rosids

text: Today's forests are highly dominated by rosid species, which in turn helped with diversification in many other living lineages. Additionally, rosid herbs and shrubs are also a significant part of arctic/alpine, temperate floras, aquatics, desert plants, and parasites.


title: Rosids

text: The name is based upon the name "Rosidae", which had usually been understood to be a subclass. In 1967, Armen Takhtajan showed that the correct basis for the name "Rosidae" is a description of a group of plants published in 1830 by Friedrich Gottlieb Bartling. The clade was later renamed "Rosidae" and has been variously delimited by different authors. The name "rosids" is informal and not assumed to have any particular taxonomic rank like the names authorized by the ICBN. The rosids are monophyletic based upon evidence found by molecular phylogenetic analysis.


title: Rosids

text: Three different definitions of the rosids were used. Some authors included the orders Saxifragales and Vitales in the rosids. Others excluded both of these orders. The circumscription used in this article is that of the APG IV classification, which includes Vitales, but excludes Saxifragales.


title: Rosids

text: The rosids and Saxifragales form the superrosids clade. This is one of three groups that comprisee the Pentapetalae (core eudicots minus Gunnerales), the others being Dilleniales and the superasterids (Berberidopsidales, Caryophyllales, Santalales, and asterids).


title: Rosids

text: The eurosids, in turn, are divided into two groups: fabids (Fabidae, eurosids I) and malvids (Malvidae, eurosids II).


title: Rosids

text: The rosids consist of 17 orders. In addition to Vitales, there are eight orders in fabids and eight orders in malvids. Some of the orders have only recently been recognized. These are Vitales, Zygophyllales, Crossosomatales, Picramniales, and Huerteales.


title: Rosids

text: The "nitrogen-fixing clade" contains a high number of actinorhizal plants (which have root nodules containing nitrogen fixing bacteria, helping the plant grow in poor soils). Not all plants in this clade are actinorhizal, however.


title: Mood (psychology)

text: In psychology, a mood is an affective state. In contrast to emotions or feelings, moods are less specific, less intense and less likely to be provoked or instantiated by a particular stimulus or event. Moods are typically described as having either a positive or negative valence. In other words, people usually talk about being in a good mood or a bad mood. There are many different factors that influence mood, and these can lead to positive or negative effects on mood.


title: Mood (psychology)

text: Mood also differs from temperament or personality traits which are even longer-lasting. Nevertheless, personality traits such as optimism and neuroticism predispose certain types of moods. Long term disturbances of mood such as clinical depression and bipolar disorder are considered mood disorders. Mood is an internal, subjective state but it often can be inferred from posture and other behaviors. "We can be sent into a mood by an unexpected event, from the happiness of seeing an old friend to the anger of discovering betrayal by a partner. We may also just fall into a mood."


title: Mood (psychology)

text: Etymologically, the word "mood" derives from the Old English which denoted military courage, but could also refer to a person's humor, temper, or disposition at a particular time. The cognate Gothic translates both "mood, spiritedness" and "anger".


title: Mood (psychology)

text: The English word "mood" which means emotional condition or state of mind was originally derived from the Proto-Germanic root "moda-".


title: Mood (psychology)

text: Positive mood can be caused by many different aspects of life as well as have certain effects on people as a whole. Good mood is usually considered a state without an identified cause; people cannot pinpoint exactly why they are in a good mood. People seem to experience a positive mood when they have a clean slate, have had a good night sleep, and feel no sense of stress in their life.


title: Mood (psychology)

text: There have been many studies done on the effect of positive emotion on the cognitive mind and there is speculation that positive mood can affect our minds in good or bad ways. Generally, positive mood has been found to enhance creative problem solving and flexible yet careful thinking. Some studies have stated that positive moods let people think creatively, freely, and be more imaginative. Positive mood can also help individuals in situations in which heavy thinking and brainstorming is involved. In one experiment, individuals who were induced with a positive mood enhanced performance on the Remote Associates Task (RAT), a cognitive task that requires creative problem solving. Moreover, the study also suggests that being in a positive mood broadens or expands the breadth of attentional selection such that information that may be useful to the task at hand becomes more accessible for use. Consequently, greater accessibility of relevant information facilitates successful problem solving. Positive mood also facilitates resistance to temptations, especially with regards to unhealthy food choices. Interpersonal relationships have also been shown to have an effect on maintaining a positive mood. Social activities correlate with positive mood as well indicating that social interactions with people may increase an individual's positive mood. Therefore, people that are isolated from society or in the out-group may have a more negative mood than individuals that have a strong social circle.


title: Mood (psychology)

text: Positive mood has also been proven to show negative effects on cognition as well. According to the article "Positive mood is associated with implicit use of distraction", "There is also evidence that individuals in positive moods show disrupted performance, at least when distracting information is present". The article states that other things in their peripheral views can easily distract people who are in good moods; an example of this would be if you were trying to study in the library (considering you are in a positive mood) you see people constantly walking around or making small noises. The study is basically stating that it would be harder for positive moods to focus on the task at hand. In particular, happy people may be more sensitive to the hedonic consequences of message processing than sad people. Thus, positive moods are predicted to lead to decreased processing only when thinking about the message is mood threatening. In comparison, if message processing allows a person to maintain or enhance a pleasant state then positive moods need not lead to lower levels of message scrutiny than negative moods. It is assumed that initial information regarding the source either confirms or disconfirms mood-congruent expectations. Specifically, a positive mood may lead to more positive expectations concerning source trustworthiness or likability than a negative mood. As a consequence, people in a positive mood should be more surprised when they encounter an untrustworthy or dislikable source rather than a trustworthy or likable source.


title: Mood (psychology)

text: Like positive moods, negative moods have important implications for human mental and physical wellbeing. Moods are basic psychological states that can occur as a reaction to an event or can surface for no apparent external cause. Since there is no intentional object that causes the negative mood, it has no specific start and stop date. It can last for hours, days, weeks, or longer. Negative moods can manipulate how individuals interpret and translate the world around them, and can also direct their behavior.


title: Mood (psychology)

text: Negative moods can affect an individual's judgment and perception of objects and events. In a study done by Niedenthal and Setterland (1994), research showed that individuals are tuned to perceive things that are congruent with their current mood. Negative moods, mostly low-intense, can control how humans perceive emotion-congruent objects and events. For example, Niedenthal and Setterland used music to induce positive and negative moods. Sad music was used as a stimulus to induce negative moods, and participants labeled other things as negative. This proves that people's current moods tend to affect their judgments and perceptions. These negative moods may lead to problems in social relationships. For example, one maladaptive negative mood regulation is an overactive strategy in which individuals over dramatize their negative feelings in order to provoke support and feedback from others and to guarantee their availability. A second type of maladaptive negative mood regulation is a disabling strategy in which individuals suppress their negative feelings and distance themselves from others in order to avoid frustrations and anxiety caused by others' unavailability.


title: Mood (psychology)

text: Negative moods have been connected with depression, anxiety, aggression, poor self-esteem, physiological stress and decrease in sexual arousal. In some individuals, there is evidence that depressed or anxious mood may increase sexual interest or arousal. In general, men were more likely than women to report increased sexual drive during negative mood states. Negative moods are labeled as nonconstructive because it can affect a person's ability to process information; making them focus solely on the sender of a message, while people in positive moods will pay more attention to both the sender and the context of a message. This can lead to problems in social relationships with others.


title: Mood (psychology)

text: Negative moods, such as anxiety, often lead individuals to misinterpret physical symptoms. According to Jerry Suls, a professor at the University of Iowa, people who are depressed and anxious tend to be in rumination. However, although an individual's affective states can influence the somatic changes, these individuals are not hypochondriacs.


title: Mood (psychology)

text: Although negative moods are generally characterized as bad, not all negative moods are necessarily damaging. The Negative State Relief Model states that human beings have an innate drive to reduce negative moods. People can reduce their negative moods by engaging in any mood-elevating behavior (called Mood repair strategies), such as helping behavior, as it is paired with positive value such as smiles and thank you. Thus negative mood increases helpfulness because helping others can reduce one's own bad feelings.


title: Mood (psychology)

text: Sleep has a complex, and as yet not fully elucidated, relationship with mood. Most commonly if a person is sleep deprived he/she will become more irritable, angry, more prone to stress, and less energized throughout the day. "Studies have shown that even partial sleep deprivation has a significant effect on mood. University of Pennsylvania researchers found that subjects who were limited to only 4.5 hours of sleep a night for one week reported feeling more stressed, angry, sad, and mentally exhausted. When the subjects resumed normal sleep, they reported a dramatic improvement in mood." Generally, evening oriented people, as compared to morning ones, show decreased energy and pleasantness and heightened tension.


title: Mood (psychology)

text: However, in a subset of cases sleep deprivation can, paradoxically, lead to increased energy and alertness and enhanced mood. This effect is most marked in persons with an eveningness type (so called night-owls) and people suffering from depression. For this reason it has sometimes been used as a treatment for major depressive disorder.


title: Mood (psychology)

text: Nature can also have a positive effect on mood. Studies have shown that exposure to natural environments increases positive affect and decreases negative affect, meaning that your mood is often better when in a nature setting. An example of this is how direct exposure to sunlight has been proven to improve mood and has been used to treat symptoms of depression. Further, walking outdoors as opposed to walking indoors made individuals much happier, which additionally illustrates that nature has a positive effect on our mood. While nature often improves our mood, it can worsen it as well. There is a common mood disorder called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) that often occurs during the winter months when there is less daylight and it is colder outside. SAD is characterized by depressed mood, increased appetite, and increased sleep. This displays how an individual's mood can be negatively effected by nature as well. Studies have also shown that depending on the season, temperature can regulate mood.


title: Mood (psychology)

text: Traditional dietary patterns characterized by vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, and whole grains, as opposed to a western pattern diet characterized by processed foods, refined grains, sugary products, and beer were associated with lower odds for major depression or dysthymia (mood disorder) and for anxiety disorders in women. Red meat is found to be protective against mood and anxiety disorders. Fruits and vegetables are associated with positive mood, independent of demographic or lifestyle factors. Research indicates that alcohol and energy drinks are associated with mood changes.


title: Mood (psychology)

text: Research studies indicate that voluntary facial expressions, such as smiling, can produce effects on the body that are similar to those that result from the actual emotion, such as happiness. Paul Ekman and his colleagues studied facial expressions of emotions and linked specific emotions to the movement of corresponding facial muscles. Each basic emotion is associated with a distinctive facial expression, due to feedback from the expression that contributes to the emotional feeling. Ekman found that these expressions of emotion are universal and recognizable across widely divergent cultures.


title: Mood (psychology)

text: Hormones, which change with age, can also determine what type of mood someone is and how well they are able to regulate their moods.


title: Mood (psychology)

text: Depression, chronic stress, bipolar disorder, etc. are considered mood disorders. It has been suggested that such disorders result from chemical imbalances in the brain's neurotransmitters, however some research challenges this hypothesis.


title: Mood (psychology)

text: The idea of social mood as a "collectively shared state of mind" (Nofsinger 2005; Olson 2006) is attributed to Robert Prechter and his socionomics. The notion is used primarily in the field of economics (investments).


title: Mood (psychology)

text: In sociology, philosophy, and psychology, crowd behavior is the formation of a "common mood" directed toward an object of attention.


title: Component video

text: Component video is an analog video signal that has been split into two or more component channels. In popular use, it refers to a type of component analog video (CAV) information that is transmitted or stored as three separate signals. Component video can be contrasted with "composite video" in which all the video information is combined into a single signal that is used in analog television. Like composite, component-video cables do not carry audio and are often paired with audio cables.


title: Component video

text: When used without any other qualifications, the term "component video" usually refers to analog component video with sync on luma (Y) found on analog high-definition televisions and associated equipment from the 1990s through the 2000s when they were largely replaced with HDMI and other all-digital standards. Component video cables and their RCA jack connectors on equipment are normally color-coded red, green and blue, although the signal is not in RGB. YPbPr component video can be losslessly converted to the RGB signal that internally drives the monitor; the encoding is useful as the Y signal will also work on black and white monitors.


title: Component video

text: Reproducing a video signal on a display device (for example, a cathode ray tube; CRT) is a straightforward process complicated by the multitude of signal sources. DVD, VHS, computers and video game consoles all store, process and transmit video signals using different methods, and often each will provide more than one signal option. One way of maintaining signal clarity is by separating the components of a video signal so that they do not interfere with each other. A signal separated in this way is called "component video". S-Video, RGB and signals comprise two or more separate signals, and thus are all component-video signals. For most consumer-level video applications, the common three-cable system using BNC or RCA connectors analog component video was used. Typical formats are 480i (480 lines visible, 525 full for NTSC) and 576i (576 lines visible, 625 full for PAL). For personal computer displays the 15 pin DIN connector (IBM VGA) provided screen resolutions including 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×1024.


title: Component video

text: The various RGB (red, green, blue) analog component video standards (e.g., RGBS, RGBHV, RGsB) use no compression and impose no real limit on color depth or resolution, but require large bandwidth to carry the signal and contain a lot of redundant data since each channel typically includes much of the same black-and-white image. At one time, computers offered this signal via a VGA port. Many televisions, especially in Europe, utilize RGB via the SCART connector. All arcade video games, other than early vector and black-and-white games, use RGB monitors.


title: Component video

text: In addition to the red, green and blue color signals, RGB requires two additional signals to synchronize the video display. Several methods are used:


title: Component video

text: Composite sync is common in the European SCART connection scheme (using pins 17 [ground] and 19 [composite-out] or 20 [composite-in]). RGBS requires four wires – red, green, blue and sync. If separate cables are used, the sync cable is usually colored yellow (as is the standard for composite video) or white.


title: Component video

text: Separate sync is most common with VGA, used worldwide for analog computer monitors. This is sometimes known as RGBHV, as the horizontal and vertical synchronization pulses are sent in separate channels. This mode requires five conductors. If separate cables are used, the sync lines are usually yellow (H) and white (V), yellow (H) and black (V), or gray (H) and black (V).


title: Component video

text: Sync on Green (SoG) is less common, and while some VGA monitors support it, most do not. Sony is a big proponent of SoG, and most of their monitors (and their PlayStation line of video game consoles) use it. Like devices that use composite video or S-video, SoG devices require additional circuitry to remove the sync signal from the green line. A monitor that is not equipped to handle SoG will display an image with an extreme green tint, if any image at all, when given a SoG input.


title: Component video

text: Sync on red and sync on blue are even rarer than sync on green, and are typically used only in certain specialized equipment.


title: Component video

text: Sync on composite, not to be confused with composite sync, is commonly used on devices that output both composite video and RGB over SCART. The RGB signal is used for color information, while the composite video signal is only used to extract the sync information. This is generally an inferior sync method, as this often causes checkerboards to appear on an image, but the image quality is still much sharper than standalone composite video.


title: Component video

text: Sync on luma is much similar to sync on composite, but uses the Y signal from S-Video instead of a composite video signal. This is sometimes used on SCART, since both composite video and S-Video luma ride along the same pins. This generally does not suffer from the same checkerboard issue as sync on composite, and is generally acceptable on devices that do not feature composite sync, such as the Sony PlayStation and some modded Nintendo 64 models.


title: Component video

text: Further types of component analog video signals do not use separate red, green and blue components but rather a colorless component, termed luma, which provides brightness information (as in black-and-white video). This combines with one or more color-carrying components, termed chroma, that give only color information. Both the S-Video component video output (two separate signals) and the component video output (three separate signals) seen on DVD players are examples of this method.


title: Component video

text: Converting video into luma and chroma allows for chroma subsampling, a method used by JPEG and MPEG compression schemes to reduce the storage requirements for images and video (respectively).


title: Component video

text: Many consumer TVs, DVD players, monitors, video projectors and other video devices at one time used output or input.


title: Component video

text: When used for connecting a video source to a video display where both support 4:3 and 16:9 display formats, the PAL television standard provides for signaling pulses that will automatically switch the display from one format to the other.


title: Component video

text: Digital component video makes use of single cables with signal lines/connector pins dedicated to digital signals, transmitting digital color space values allowing higher resolutions such as 480p, 480i, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p.


title: Component video

text: RGB component video has largely been replaced by modern digital formats, such as DisplayPort or Digital Visual Interface (DVI) digital connections, while home theater systems increasingly favor High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), which support higher resolutions, higher dynamic range, and can be made to support digital rights management. The demise of analog is largely due to screens moving to large flat digital panels as well as the desire for having a single cable for both audio and video, but also due to a slight loss of clarity when converting from a digital media source to analog and back again for a flat digital display, particularly when used at higher resolutions where analog signals are highly susceptible to noise.


title: Component video

text: In a composite signal, such as NTSC, PAL or SECAM, the luminance, Brightness (Y) signal and the chrominance, Color (C) signals are encoded together into one signal. When the color components are kept as separate signals, the video is called component analog video (CAV), which requires three separate signals: the luminance signal (Y) and the color difference signals (R-Y and B-Y).


title: Component video

text: Since component video does not undergo the encoding process, the color quality is noticeably better than composite video.


title: Component video

text: Component video connectors are not unique in that the same connectors are used for several different standards; hence, making a component video connection often does not lead to a satisfactory video signal being transferred. Many DVD players and TVs may need to be set to indicate the type of input/output being used, and if set incorrectly the image may not be properly displayed. Progressive scan, for example, is often not enabled by default, even when component video output is selected.


title: Funky Cold Medina

text: "Funky Cold Medina" is a hip hop song written by Young MC, Matt Dike and Michael Ross, and first performed by American rapper, actor and producer Tone Lōc. It was the second single from Lōc's debut album, "Lōc-ed After Dark" (1989). The single was released on March 18, 1989, and rose to number three on the "Billboard" Hot 100 the following month where it went platinum, selling over one million copies and becoming the second ever platinum-certified rap single (after "Wild Thing" from the same album being the first). It peaked on the UK Singles Chart at number 13 in May of that year.


title: Funky Cold Medina

text: According to Flavor Flav, who is heard using the phrase "cold medina" a year earlier on "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back", "cold medina" was one of his assertive affirmations throughout the 1980s and was adopted by labelmates Beastie Boys as a nickname for the cocktail known as a "fuzzy navel"; Flav allegedly later advised Tone Loc to use the catchphrase in a song.


title: Funky Cold Medina

text: The song contains several samples. The drum break is from "Get Off Your Ass and Jam" by Funkadelic, and the main guitar riff is from "Hot Blooded" by Foreigner. Other samples are taken from "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones (when this song is mentioned in the lyrics), "Christine Sixteen" by Kiss, "All Right Now" by Free and "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" by Bachman–Turner Overdrive.


title: Funky Cold Medina

text: After the song became popular, several different cocktails were introduced bearing the name "Funky Cold Medina".


title: Funky Cold Medina

text: The song tells the story of Tone Lōc's experiences with "Funky Cold Medina", a potent aphrodisiac in a beverage format. At the beginning of the song, Loc consults a fellow club-goer who appears to be having more success with women than Loc is. The unnamed stranger informs Loc that his success is the result of his use of the Funky Cold Medina, which makes anyone who drinks it irresistible to others (although this is later contradicted by lyrics that suggest that it makes those who drink it find "others" irresistible).


title: Funky Cold Medina

text: Loc initially tests the formula on his dog who, upon drinking it, becomes uncharacteristically affectionate towards Loc and appears to attract the neighbourhood dogs to Loc's house. Loc then tries the formula on a potential love interest named Sheena, but upon returning to the apartment, Loc says the love interest turns out to be a man, whom he unceremoniously ejects from his apartment. His next effort involves him appearing on "Love Connection" and meeting a woman who immediately wants to marry him, which scares Loc away. Ultimately Loc concludes the formula is too much trouble, and resolves to stop using it.


title: Yap

text: Yap () traditionally refers to an island group located in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, a part of Yap State. The name "Yap" in recent years has come to also refer to the state within the Federated States of Micronesia, inclusive of the Yap Main Islands and its various outer islands, the Yap Neighboring Islands. For specifying the island group, the name "Yap Main Islands" is most exact.


title: Yap

text: Yap is actually made up of four separate islands: Yap Proper ("Marbaaq"), Gagil-Tamil, Maap (), and Rumung. The four islands are separated by relatively narrow water features, and the islands are surrounded by a common coral reef. Gagil-Tamil was once connected to Yap Proper, but a canal, "Tagireeng Canal", less than 10 meters wide, was constructed that separated the two landmasses in 1901. Yap was formed from an uplift of the Philippine Sea Plate, and is referred to as a "high" island as opposed to atolls. The land is mostly rolling hills, with densely vegetated valleys and savanna interiors. Mangrove swamps line much of the shore, although there are beaches on the northern and western sides of the islands. Excluding the reef area, the Yap Main Islands are approximately 24 km long, 5–10 km wide, and 98 km. The highest elevation is at Mount Taabiywol in Fanif municipality on Yap Proper.


title: Yap

text: Administratively, the Yap Main Islands are divided into ten municipalities that sometimes cross the water features that divide Yap into its constituent islands.


title: Yap

text: The Yapese people's indigenous cultures and traditions are strong compared to other states in Micronesia.


title: Yap

text: Yap is known for its stone money, known as Rai, or Fei: large doughnut-shaped, carved disks of (usually) calcite, up to 4 m (12 ft) in diameter (most are much smaller). The smallest can be as little as in diameter. Many of them were brought from other islands, as far as New Guinea, but most came in ancient times from Palau. Their value is based on both the stone's size and its history. Historically the Yapese valued the disks because the material looks like quartz, and these were the shiniest objects available. Eventually the stones became legal tender and were even mandatory in some payments.


title: Yap

text: The value of the stones was kept high due to the difficulty and hazards involved in obtaining them. To quarry the stones, Yapese adventurers had to sail to distant islands and deal with local inhabitants who were sometimes hostile. Once quarried, the disks had to be transported back to Yap on rafts towed behind sail-driven canoes. The scarcity of the disks, and the effort and peril required to get them, made them valuable to the Yapese.


title: Yap

text: In 1874, Irish American sea captain David O'Keefe hit upon the idea of employing the Yapese to import more "money" in the form of shiploads of large stones, also from Palau. O'Keefe then traded these stones with the Yapese for other commodities such as sea cucumbers and copra. The 1954 film "His Majesty O'Keefe" cast Burt Lancaster in the captain's role. Although some of the O'Keefe stones are larger than the canoe-transported stones, they are less valuable than the earlier stones due to the comparative ease with which they were obtained.


title: Yap

text: As no more disks are being produced or imported, this money supply is fixed. The islanders know who owns which piece but do not necessarily move them when ownership changes. Their size and weight (the largest ones require 20 adult men to carry) make them very difficult to move around. Although today the United States dollar is the currency used for everyday transactions in Yap, the stone disks are still used for more traditional or ceremonial exchange. The stone disks may change ownership during marriages, transfers of land title, or as compensation for damages suffered by an aggrieved party.


title: Yap

text: There are four other types of currency on the Island. First there is ""Mmbul"" which is a length of lava-lava, the cloth used for loincloths, three or four feet long and two feet wide, wrapped up in a Betel nut sheath. Then there is ""Gau"" or ""Gaw"", a necklace of shells, up to 10 feet in length. The shells come from Canet, an island near Ponape, from Ponape itself and from Euripik. Since these come from a distance, Gau is worth more than Mmbul. ""Yar"" is money made of large shells about eight inches wide, pierced and tied on a coconut rope. Finally, ""Reng"" is the name of money made of turmeric, which is ground and mixed with water and the paste shaped into a ball, typically used for tribal ceremonies.


title: Yap

text: There are three types of traditional buildings on Yap. The ""tabinaw"" is a family house and has a roof made of woven thatch (dried palm fronds). Inside, there is one open room with no lavatory. Kitchens are separate structures ("t'ang") outside the family houses.


title: Yap

text: The ""faluw"" is the "men's house"; such buildings were built on the shoreline with easy access to the sea. Prior to World War I, women had been kidnapped and taken to the "faluw". Today this practice no longer occurs. Women considered it an honor to be chosen for the "faluw", because only the most beautiful women would be taken there. Such a woman was called the ""mispil"" (resident female) of the "faluw". As the island's culture was more and more influenced by the rest of the world's views on prostitution, this practice ended.


title: Yap

text: Largest of the three types is the ""p'ebay"", a place for the community to come together for school, dances or meetings. As with all structures on Yap, it is necessary to obtain permission before entering. There are a few men's houses that women are allowed to enter; however, people must always ask for permission.


title: Yap

text: The Yapese language belongs to the Austronesian languages, more specifically to the Oceanic languages. Yap was initially settled by ancient migrants from the Malay Peninsula, the Indonesian Archipelago, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. The people of the Yap State outer islands are descendants of Micronesian settlers, and as such have significant ethnic dissimilarities from the people of the Yap Main Islands. Their culture and languages (Ulithian and Woleaian) are closely related to those of the outer islands of Chuuk. English is used as a common language.


title: Yap

text: The Yapese and Neighboring Island Yapese were some of the most renowned navigators in the Pacific. Yapese sailors traveled phenomenal distances in outrigger canoes, without the aid of a compass, navigating by the stars and the patterns of ocean waves using techniques of Micronesian and Polynesian navigation. During pre-colonial times, the people of Yap established an island empire and dominion over what are now the Neighboring Islands of Yap State. Beginning in the 19th century, Yap was colonized by the Spanish, Germans, and Japanese in succession.


title: Yap

text: The double-hulled voyaging canoe "Alingano Maisu", gifted by the Polynesian Voyaging Society to master navigator Mau Piailug, is home-ported on the island of Yap under the command of Piailug's son, Sesario Sewralur.


title: Yap

text: Yapese society is based on a highly complex "caste system" involving at least seven tiers of rank. Historically, the caste rank of an entire village could rise or fall in comparison to other villages depending on how it fared in inter-village conflicts. Winning villages would rise in rank as a part of a peace settlement, while losing villages would have to accept a decline in comparative rank. In many cases lower ranked villages were required to pay tribute to higher ranked villages. Further, dietary taboos might be imposed on lower ranking villages, i.e., they might be prohibited from harvesting and eating the more desirable fish and animals of the sea. Further, within each village each family had its own rank comparative to the others.


title: Yap

text: Until the arrival of the German colonizers, the caste ranking system was fluid and the ranks of villages and families changed in response to inter-village intrigues and confrontations. In the early twentieth century, however, the German colonial administration pacified Yap and enforced a prohibition against violent conflict. The caste ranking of each village in modern Yap thus remains the same as it was when the system was frozen in place by the Germans.


title: Yap

text: The first recorded sighting of Yap by Europeans came during the Spanish expedition of Álvaro de Saavedra in 1528. Its sighting was also recorded by the Spanish expedition of Ruy López de Villalobos on 26 January 1543, who charted them as "Los Arrecifes" ("the reefs"). At Yap, the Villalobos expedition received the same surprising greeting as previously in Fais Island from the local people approaching the ships in canoes: ""Buenos días Matelotes!"" ("Good day, sailors!") in perfect sixteenth-century Spanish evidencing previous presence of the Spaniards in the area. The original account of this story is included in the report that the Augustinian Fray Jerónimo de Santisteban, travelling with the Villalobos expedition, wrote for the Viceroy of New Spain, while in Kochi during the voyage home. Yap also appeared in Spanish charts as "Los Garbanzos" ("The Chickpeas" in Spanish) and "Gran Carolina" ("Great Caroline" in Spanish).


title: Yap

text: From the 17th century until 1899, Yap was a Spanish colony within the Captaincy General of the Philippines of the Spanish East Indies. The Spanish used Yap Island as a prison for those captured during the Philippine Revolution. After their defeat by the United States in 1898, and subsequent loss of the Philippines, Spain sold these islands and its other minor Pacific possessions to Germany.


title: Yap

text: Yap was a major German naval communications center before the First World War and an important international hub for cable telegraphy, with spokes branching out to Guam, Shanghai, Rabaul, Naura and Manado (Sulawesi's North coast). It was occupied by Japanese troops in September 1914, and passed to the Japanese Empire under the Versailles Treaty in 1919 as a mandated territory under League of Nations supervision. US commercial rights on the island were secured by a special US-Japanese treaty to that effect, concluded on 11 February 1922.


title: Yap

text: In World War II, Japanese-held Yap was one of the islands bypassed in the U.S. "island-hopping" strategy, although it was regularly bombed by U.S. ships and aircraft, and Yap-based Japanese bombers did some damage in return. The Japanese garrison comprised 4,423 IJA men under the command of Colonel Daihachi Itoh and 1,494 IJN men.


title: Yap

text: At the end of World War II, Yap was occupied by the U.S. military victors. The U.S. held it and the rest of the Caroline Islands as a trusteeship under a United Nations mandate (the "Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands") until 1986. In that year, Yap, Truk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae formed the independent nation of the Federated States of Micronesia. Under a Compact of Free Association with the United States, Micronesian citizens and goods are allowed entry into the U.S. with few restrictions.


title: Yap

text: American Peace Corps has been active in Yap from 1966 to 2018. Other US-based non-profit organizations, including Habele, have an ongoing presence on both Yap proper and its outer islands, aimed at reducing educational disparities and inequalities in access to effective classroom instruction.


title: Tencent Pictures

text: Tencent Pictures () is a Chinese film distributor and production company owned by Tencent. It has created films based on books, manhua, donghua and video games. In 2015, Tencent set up Tencent Penguin Pictures (Shanghai), a new movie production unit, focusing on online drama and minority investments in feature films.


title: Gothic Line

text: The Gothic Line (; ) was a German defensive line of the Italian Campaign of World War II. It formed Field Marshal Albert Kesselring's last major line of defence along the summits of the northern part of the Apennine Mountains during the fighting retreat of the German forces in Italy against the Allied Armies in Italy, commanded by General Sir Harold Alexander.


title: Gothic Line

text: Adolf Hitler had concerns about the state of preparation of the Gothic Line: he feared the Allies would use amphibious landings to outflank its defences. To downgrade its importance in the eyes of both friend and foe, he ordered the name, with its historic connotations, changed, reasoning that if the Allies managed to break through they would not be able to use the more impressive name to magnify their victory claims. In response to this order, Kesselring renamed it the "Green Line" ("Grüne Linie") in June 1944.


title: Gothic Line

text: Using more than 15,000 slave labourers, the Germans created more than 2,000 well-fortified machine gun nests, casemates, bunkers, observation posts and artillery fighting positions to repel any attempt to breach the Gothic Line. Initially this line was breached during Operation Olive (also sometimes known as the Battle of Rimini), but Kesselring's forces were consistently able to retire in good order. This continued to be the case up to March 1945, with the Gothic Line being breached but with no decisive breakthrough; this would not take place until April 1945 during the final Allied offensive of the Italian Campaign.


title: Gothic Line

text: Operation Olive has been described as the biggest battle of materials ever fought in Italy. Over 1,200,000 men participated in the battle. The battle took the form of a pincer manoeuvre, carried out by the British Eighth Army and the U.S. Fifth Army against the German 10th Army (10. "Armee") and German 14th Army (14. "Armee"). Rimini, a city which had been hit by previous air raids, had 1,470,000 rounds fired against it by allied land forces. According to Lieutenant-General Oliver Leese, commander of the British Eighth Army:


title: Gothic Line

text: After the nearly concurrent breakthroughs at Cassino and Anzio in spring 1944, the 11 nations representing the Allies in Italy finally had a chance to trap the Germans in a pincer movement and to realize some of the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's strategic goals for the long, costly campaign against the Axis "underbelly". This would have required the U.S. Fifth Army under Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark to commit most of his Anzio forces to the drive east from Cisterna, and to execute the envelopment envisioned in the original planning for the Anzio landing (i.e., flank the German 10th Army, and sever its northbound line of retreat from Cassino). Instead, fearing that the British Eighth Army, under Lieutenant-General Sir Oliver Leese, might beat him to the Italian capital of Rome, Clark diverted a large part of his Anzio force in that direction in an attempt to ensure that he and the Fifth Army would have the honour of liberating the city.