title: Amniotic sac

text: The yolk sac, amnion, chorion, and allantois are the four extraembryonic membranes that lie outside of the embryo and are involved in providing nutrients and protection to the developing embryo. They form from the inner cell mass; the first to form is the yolk sac followed by the amnion which grows over the developing embryo. The amnion remains an important extraembryonic membrane throughout prenatal development. The third membrane is the allantois, and the fourth is the chorion which surrounds the embryo after about a month and eventually fuses with the amnion.


title: Amniotic sac

text: Amniocentesis is a medical procedure where fluid from the sac is sampled during fetal development, between 15 and 20 weeks of pregnancy, to be used in prenatal diagnosis of chromosomal abnormalities and fetal infections.


title: Amniotic sac

text: The amniotic cavity is the closed sac between the embryo and the amnion, containing the amniotic fluid. The amniotic cavity is formed by the fusion of the parts of the amniotic fold, which first makes its appearance at the cephalic extremity and subsequently at the caudal end and sides of the embryo. As the amniotic fold rises and fuses over the dorsal aspect of the embryo, the amniotic cavity is formed.


title: Amniotic sac

text: At the beginning of the second week, a cavity appears within the inner cell mass, and when it enlarges, it becomes the amniotic cavity. The floor of the amniotic cavity is formed by the epiblast. Epiblast migrates between the epiblastic disc and trophoblast. In this way the epiblastic cells migrate between the embryoblast and trophoblast. The floor is formed by the epiblast which later on transforms to ectoderm while the remaining cells which are present between the embryoblast and trophoblast are called amnioblasts (flattened cells). These cells are also derived from epiblast which is transformed into ectoderm.


title: Amniotic sac

text: The amniotic cavity is surrounded by an extraembryonic membrane, called the amnion. As the implantation of the blastocyst progresses, a small space appears in the embryoblast, which is the primordium of the amniotic cavity. Soon, amniogenic (amnion-forming cells) called amnioblasts separate from the epiblast and line the amnion, which encloses the amniotic cavity.


title: Amniotic sac

text: The epiblast forms the floor of the amniotic cavity and is continuous peripherally with the amnion. The hypoblast forms the roof of the exocoelomic cavity and is continuous with the thin exocoelomic membrane. This membrane along with hypoblast forms the primary yolk sac. The embryonic disc now lies between the amniotic cavity and the primary yolk sac. Cells from the yolk sac endoderm form a layer of connective tissue, the extraembryonic mesoderm, which surrounds the amnion and yolk sac.


title: Amniotic sac

text: If, after birth, the complete amniotic sac or big parts of the membrane remain coating the newborn, this is called a caul.


title: Amniotic sac

text: Once the baby is pushed out of the mother's uterus, the umbilical cord, placenta, and amniotic sac are pushed out in the after birth.


title: Amniotic sac

text: The amniotic sac and its filling provide a liquid that surrounds and cushions the fetus. It is a site of exchange of essential substances, such as oxygen, between the umbilical cord and the fetus. It allows the fetus to move freely within the walls of the uterus. Buoyancy is also provided.


title: Amniotic sac

text: Chorioamnionitis is inflammation of the amniotic sac ("chorio-" + "amnion" + "-itis"), usually because of infection. It is a risk factor for neonatal sepsis.


title: Amniotic sac

text: During labor, the amniotic sac must break so that the child can be born. This is known as rupture of membranes (ROM). Normally, it occurs spontaneously at full term either during or at the beginning of labor. A premature rupture of membranes (PROM) is a rupture of the amnion that occurs prior to the onset of labor. An artificial rupture of membranes (AROM), also known as an amniotomy, may be clinically performed using an amnihook or amnicot in order to induce or to accelerate labour.


title: Amniotic sac

text: The amniotic sac has to be punctured to perform amniocentesis. This is fairly routine procedure, but can lead to infection of the amniotic sac in a very small number of cases. Infection more commonly arises vaginally.


title: Flag of Slovenia

text: The national flag of Slovenia () features three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red, with the Coat of arms of Slovenia located in the upper hoist side of the flag centered in the white and blue bands. The coat of arms is a shield with the image of Mount Triglav, Slovenia's highest peak, in white against a blue background at the center; beneath it are two wavy blue lines representing the Adriatic Sea and local rivers, and above it are three six-pointed golden stars arranged in an inverted triangle which are taken from the coat of arms of the Counts of Celje, the great Slovene dynastic house of the late 14th and early 15th centuries.


title: Flag of Slovenia

text: The flag's colors are considered to be Pan-Slavic, but they actually come from the medieval coat of arms of the Duchy of Carniola, consisting of 3 stars, a mountain, and three colors (red, blue, yellow). crescent. The existing Slovene tricolor was raised for the first time in history during the Revolution of 1848 by the Slovene Romantic nationalist activist and poet Lovro Toman on 7 April 1848, in Ljubljana, in response to a German flag which was raised on top of Ljubljana Castle.


title: Flag of Slovenia

text: The civil and state ensign for ships has the same design as the national flag, but a different shape (2:3 instead of 1:2). Boats up to use the national flag as an ensign. The naval jack uses colors of the coat of arms, a white, blue, and yellow horizontal tricolor.


title: Flag of Slovenia

text: The white-blue-red Slovene flag was first raised on 7 April 1848, on a building between Congress Square and Prešeren Square in Ljubljana, by a group of nationally minded students led by the prominent liberal nationalist activist and poet Lovro Toman. Despite opposition from the local ethnic Germans it was subsequently recognized by the Austrian Government as the official flag of Carniola. This formal recognition, albeit on a regional level, was an exception to the policy of the Austrian Government which tended to persecute national symbols of the non-German nationalities in the Empire.


title: Flag of Slovenia

text: In addition, Austrian authorities saw all tricolors as basically nationalist and potentially revolutionary symbols, so Austrian provinces (as the Empire itself) were only allowed to use bicolors (the only exception being the flag of the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia, since it was interpreted to be a combination of the Croatian and Slavonian bicolors). So the official recognition of the Carniolan white-blue-red tricolor instead of the traditional white-blue bicolor was seen as a major achievement by the Slovenes and it quickly became the symbol representing the idea of United Slovenia. In the second half of the 19th century, the Slovene national tricolor became the only truly all-Slovene symbol, representing all Slovenes, regardless of the historical region in which they lived.


title: Flag of Slovenia

text: The tricolor flag continued to be associated with Slovenia during the country's incorporation into Yugoslavia, although officially the whole kingdom including Slovenia had the same flag, in this case, the blue-white-red. In the interwar period, it was also used by the Slovenes of the Julian March that were annexed to Italy, where it was prohibited and persecuted by the fascist regime.


title: Flag of Slovenia

text: During World War II The Slovene national colors were used both by the Partisan Resistance Movement (usually with a red star in the middle) and by the Slovene Home Guard, the voluntary anti-Communist militia sponsored and supported by the Nazi German occupation forces.


title: Flag of Slovenia

text: In 1945 a red star was officially placed on the flag of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia, a constituent of the Socialist Yugoslavia.


title: Flag of Slovenia

text: Following Slovene independence from Yugoslavia, the red star was removed and the new coat of arms, designed by Marko Pogačnik, was added. The flag was officially adopted on 27 June 1991, following a long and controversial dispute about the coat of arms of the new Republic.


title: Proof (2005 film)

text: Proof is a 2005 American drama film directed by John Madden and starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Hope Davis. The screenplay was written by Rebecca Miller and David Auburn, based on Auburn's Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name.


title: Proof (2005 film)

text: The plot alternates between events immediately following the death of Robert, a brilliant mathematician at the University of Chicago whose genius was undone by crippling mental illness, and flashbacks revealing the life he shared with his daughter Catherine. Catherine is also a mathematician and was once a promising student at Northwestern University, but she struggles with living in her father's shadow and balancing her demanding studies with caring for her father, as well as the fear that she may have inherited his mental illness. At home, Robert clings to sanity by constantly bombarding Catherine with complex mathematical problems.


title: Proof (2005 film)

text: In the opening scene Robert startles Catherine while she watches TV in the middle of the night. He gives her a bottle of champagne for her birthday, and they chat for a while about the nature of insanity, ending with the revelation that Robert died last week and his funeral is tomorrow.


title: Proof (2005 film)

text: Awakened from this dream, Catherine realizes that Hal, a former graduate student of Robert's, is still upstairs, reading through Robert's books. Robert filled many notebooks with meaningless notes. Hal believes that Robert's genius may have withstood his illness, and clues to that genius might lie among the gibberish of his notebooks. When Hal comments on the vast amount of work Robert did, a suspicious Catherine searches Hal's backpack. Though Catherine finds nothing in Hal's bag, a notebook falls out of his coat. He explains that he wanted to give the notebook as a birthday present because it "had something written in it about her, not math, her". Hal is forced to leave, giving the notebook as intended, when Catherine calls the police.


title: Proof (2005 film)

text: The next day, for the funeral, Catherine's sister Claire arrives in town. A huge contrast to the unkempt Catherine, Claire is an overly put together, neurotic New Yorker. Relations between the sisters are tense, and Catherine cannot stand her sister's constant harping on matters of appearance. Catherine is also upset that Claire didn't care for her father as much as Catherine did in his final years.


title: Proof (2005 film)

text: At the funeral, Catherine expresses her frustration with the many people there. She interrupts the string quartet with an impromptu speech, berating everyone for not being there for her father while he was alive. She describes his descent into insanity, and that at one time he would borrow piles of books believing that aliens were sending him messages encoded in their Dewey Decimal codes. She ends by saying she's glad her father is dead and walks out of the church mid-funeral.


title: Proof (2005 film)

text: Claire decides to sell Robert's house back to the university and wants Catherine to come with her to New York; Catherine is upset that she will be forced to leave the house. It becomes evident that Claire suspects that Catherine may be struggling with mental illnesses, as their father had. A wake held at the house the night after the funeral is attended by many academic mathematicians. Hal appears and chats up Catherine. Softening up to Hal, Catherine sleeps with him. Afterwards, she gives him a key to her father's desk.


title: Proof (2005 film)

text: In flashbacks, Robert is shown suddenly invigorated, believing he has seen the beginnings of a new mathematical proof that will prove his triumph over mental illness.


title: Proof (2005 film)

text: In the present, Catherine gives Hal a key to Robert's desk and tells him to check the locked drawer for a notebook, which itself contains a lengthy but apparently very important proof. He is very excited and shows the discovery to Catherine and Claire. He asks Catherine how long she knew about this and why she did not tell him about it. She tells him that she wrote it. Catherine claims the work is hers and not her father's despite evidence to the contrary. Neither Hal nor Claire believe Catherine. Hal believes the mathematics of the proof are beyond Catherine, while Claire simply suspects that Catherine is suffering the onset of mental illness. Catherine says she can't describe the proof without the notebook because it "is not a muffin recipe". Hal decides to take it to the math department the next day to verify the proof's accuracy.


title: Proof (2005 film)

text: He returns as Claire and Catherine are leaving, with news that the math department believes the proof to be valid. Hal tells Claire that he doesn't think that her father wrote the proof because it employs newer mathematics and wants Catherine to explain it to him sometime. Catherine remains stung by his earlier lack of trust, and the sisters leave for the airport. Hal sprints after the car and throws the book through the window and onto Catherine's lap.


title: Proof (2005 film)

text: At the airport, Catherine has another flashback. It is revealed that, while living together, her father challenged her to work on math, which she does, ultimately completing a proof, which she describes in one of the many notebooks in the house. Catherine goes to tell her father about the breakthrough, but he insists she read aloud the proof that he is working on. To Catherine's disappointment, Robert's notebook contains not a proof, but a rambling and desperate observation of the passage of the seasons, that the year is divided into months of cold, months of warmth and months of indeterminate temperature, that the future of heat is the future of cold, that the future of cold is infinite, and that he will never be as cold as he will be in the future. Reading her father's work, Catherine realizes that Robert has not overcome his mental illness. A dispirited Catherine leaves her notebook in Robert's desk, where Hal will later find it.


title: Proof (2005 film)

text: Catherine has begun to come to terms with herself, aided by Hal's confidence in her. She decides that she does not need to go with her sister to New York and runs out of the airport. She returns to University of Chicago, and the film ends with her and Hal meeting up on campus and discussing the proof.


title: Proof (2005 film)

text: The film is based on the four-character stage play "Proof". The film adds many bit parts for the sake of realism, and "opens up" the setting considerably. The role of Catherine was first played by Mary-Louise Parker in the play's 2000 Manhattan Theatre Club original production. Gwyneth Paltrow played Catherine in a London stage production before being cast in the film.


title: Proof (2005 film)

text: Hopkins' character is a mathematics professor at the University of Chicago. Although many scenes were filmed on the university's campus, the mathematics building itself (Eckhart Hall) was not used. Instead, many scenes that were set in the math building were actually shot at the Divinity School. The film opens with a pan of Gwyneth Paltrow's character bicycling across the Midway Plaisance and shows many scenes in the quadrangle before Harper Library.


title: Proof (2005 film)

text: "Proof" opened at #35 in its opening weekend with $193,840 and went on to gross a mild $7,535,331 in the USA and $14,189,860 worldwide.


title: Proof (2005 film)

text: "Proof" received generally positive reviews from film critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 62% rating, with an average rating of 6.40/10, based on 145 reviews. The consensus reads, "Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins give exceptional performances in a film that intelligently tackles the territory between madness and genius."


title: Proof (2005 film)

text: Gwyneth Paltrow received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama for "Proof", but lost to Felicity Huffman.


title: Proof (2005 film)

text: Since 1993 (when Andrew Wiles first claimed to have proven Fermat's Last Theorem), there have been several feature films about mathematicians, notably "Good Will Hunting" (1997), "A Beautiful Mind" (2001), "Proof" (2005), "Travelling Salesman" (2012), "The Imitation Game" (2014), and "Gifted" (2017).


title: Proof (2005 film)

text: In 2006, mathematician Daniel Ullman wrote: "Of [the first] three films, "Proof" is the one that most realistically illustrates the world of mathematics and mathematicians." Ullman praised the director too: "Madden should be credited with capturing the feeling of the mathematical world." He also called "Proof": "richer and deeper, simultaneously both funnier and more serious, than either "A Beautiful Mind" or "Good Will Hunting"."


title: Proof (2005 film)

text: Timothy Gowers of the University of Cambridge, a Fields Medalist, and Paul Sally of the University of Chicago, acted as mathematical consultants, although the latter was dismissive of the film's mathematical relevance and accuracy.


title: Tactic (method)

text: A tactic is a conceptual action or short series of actions with the aim of achieving a short-term goal. This action can be implemented as one or more specific tasks. The term is commonly used in business, protest and military contexts, as well as in chess, sports or other competitive activities. The word originated from the Ancient Greek "taktike", meaning "art of arrangement".


title: Tactic (method)

text: A strategy is a set of guidelines used to achieve an overall objective, whereas tactics are the specific actions aimed at adhering to those guidelines.


title: Tactic (method)

text: In military usage, a military tactic is used by a military unit of no larger than a division to implement a specific mission and achieve a specific objective, or to advance toward a specific target.


title: Tactic (method)

text: The terms tactic and strategy are often confused: tactics are the actual means used to gain an objective, while strategy is the overall campaign plan, which may involve complex operational patterns, activity, and decision-making that govern tactical execution. The United States Department of Defense "Dictionary of Military Terms" defines the tactical level as "the level of war at which battles and engagements are planned and executed to accomplish military objectives assigned to tactical units or task forces. Activities at this level focus on the ordered arrangement and maneuver of combat elements in relation to each other and to the enemy to achieve combat objectives."


title: Tactic (method)

text: If, for example, the overall goal is to win a war against another country, one strategy might be to undermine the other nation's ability to wage war by preemptively annihilating their military forces. The tactics involved might describe specific actions taken in specific locations, like surprise attacks on military facilities, missile attacks on offensive weapon stockpiles, and the specific techniques involved in accomplishing such objectives.


title: David Bentley

text: David Michael Bentley (born 27 August 1984) is an English former professional footballer who played primarily as a winger, but also played as a central midfielder or as a second striker.


title: David Bentley

text: Bentley started his career with Arsenal in the Premier League, and despite being earmarked as one for the future, saw his playing opportunities limited by a strong senior squad. He spent two seasons on loan with Norwich City and Blackburn Rovers, and sealed a permanent transfer to Rovers in January 2006. Bentley produced strong performances for his new club, and soon featured regularly for the England under-21 team. He made his senior international debut against Israel in September 2007. In July 2008, Bentley joined Tottenham Hotspur. He spent time on loan with Birmingham City, West Ham United, FC Rostov and a brief return to Blackburn before being released by Tottenham in 2013. After not playing for more than a year, Bentley retired from football in 2014, citing his loss of passion for the sport.


title: David Bentley

text: Born in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, Bentley grew up supporting Manchester United. Bentley started his youth career at Wormley Youth Football Club in Wormley, Hertfordshire, before moving to Arsenal aged 13 as a striker, occasionally playing in the hole. He was used primarily in midfield, usually as a wide midfielder. As a 16-year-old he trained with the Arsenal senior squad, before signing his first professional contract in September 2001. By January 2003, he was handed his first-team debut, coming on as a substitute for Kolo Touré in the 77th minute of a 2–0 FA Cup third round win over Oxford United. Bentley's first and only goal for Arsenal was a chip shot from the edge of the penalty area over goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, in a 4–1 FA Cup win over Middlesbrough on 24 January 2004. He played once in the league for Arsenal, starting a 1–1 draw against Portsmouth on 4 May 2004, in which he was substituted after 61 minutes for Nwankwo Kanu.


title: David Bentley

text: Bentley spent the whole of the next league season on loan to Norwich City, playing 26 league matches and scoring two goals, against Newcastle and Southampton. His season at Carrow Road was interrupted by a knee injury sustained in January. He returned to the team in April 2005, coming off the bench against Manchester United and playing a key role in Norwich's 2–0 win. Despite a late run of form, the Canaries were relegated from the Premier League on the last day of the season after a 6–0 defeat away to Fulham. Bentley returned to Arsenal in the summer of 2005, but submitted a transfer request, citing his desire for first team football. In subsequent interviews, he also revealed that he was having "personal problems" at that point in his career and had lost his enjoyment for football—problems which he overcame later in his Blackburn Rovers career. He admitted to gambling addiction in the early stages of his career, reaching a peak of placing 100 bets a day. He got over his problems in 2005.


title: David Bentley

text: Desiring a permanent move, Bentley was linked with a number of clubs including Wolverhampton Wanderers, before returning on a further season's loan, to Blackburn Rovers on 31 August 2005.


title: David Bentley

text: In January 2006, Blackburn signed Bentley on a permanent basis from Arsenal. In his first match after permanently signing for Blackburn, he scored his first senior hat-trick in a 4–3 victory against Manchester United. Bentley went on to feature regularly for Blackburn in the 2005–06 season, and helped the club finish sixth in league standings and qualify for the 2006–07 UEFA Cup.


title: David Bentley

text: The 2006–07 season saw Bentley become more of a regular goalscorer for Rovers, including some stunning strikes in the Premier League. In Europe, a 25-yard volley against Salzburg in the UEFA Cup helped secure Rovers' passage into the group stage, where he also scored a last minute winner against Wisła Kraków. Bentley's club performances attracted much transfer speculation. However, on 27 February 2007, despite being linked to a move to Manchester United, he agreed to a new contract that would keep him with Blackburn until 2011. Commenting on the new deal, Rovers manager Mark Hughes described Bentley as "a great talent with a big future" while chairman John Williams added that he "is widely regarded as one of the best young footballers in the country." Bentley ended the season with seven goals and 13 assists for Blackburn, the latter statistic also highlighting his creative importance to the team. He was later voted by Rovers fans as the club's Player of the Year.


title: David Bentley

text: Bentley recorded similar statistics in the following season, scoring eight goals and providing 13 assists. Blackburn finished seventh in the Premier League, but did not qualify for European competition. Bentley's consistent performances for his club, however, ensured that he played in a series of post-season friendlies for England. But that was to be the Englishman's final season with the Lancashire club. Not long after the departure of manager Mark Hughes to Manchester City, Bentley reiterated his desire to leave. Blackburn placed a valuation of the player at around £18 million.


title: David Bentley

text: On 31 July 2008, Tottenham Hotspur announced their signing of Bentley, on a six-year contract, for a £15 million fee, with an additional £2 million conditional on future performance. Reports suggested that £7 million of this fee was payable to Bentley's former employers, Arsenal. Bentley made his competitive debut on 16 August 2008 away at Middlesbrough where Spurs lost 2–1. He scored his first competitive goal for Spurs in the 2008–09 UEFA Cup first round tie against Wisła Kraków on 18 September 2008. He then scored his first league goal for Tottenham against his old club Arsenal with a 43-yard dipping volley in a 4–4 draw on 29 October 2008. This led the British mathematician Tony Mann to ask Marcus du Sautoy to name a symmetry group in honour of David Bentley; the group is labelled Set [C[1], C[2], C[3], C[4]]=[40, 13, 4, 4], with the final two digits corresponding to the result of the match. Bentley's form would suffer at Tottenham, however, and after falling down the pecking order for both club and country, it was reported on 17 June 2009 that he was in talks to move to Aston Villa. Subsequently, it was revealed by Bentley and Aston Villa that this was untrue.


title: David Bentley

text: The form of Aaron Lennon meant that Bentley was mostly used as a substitute for the start 2009–10 season, although he did score a free kick in Tottenham's 9–1 victory over Wigan Athletic, with the ball then going in off the back of Wigan goalkeeper Chris Kirkland.


title: David Bentley

text: On 12 January 2011, Bentley joined Birmingham City on loan for the remainder of the season. He went straight into the starting eleven for the Second City derby against Aston Villa and was named man of the match. Bentley scored his first goal for Birmingham in a 3–2 win against Coventry City in the fourth round of the 2010–11 FA Cup. Bentley was cup-tied for Birmingham's victory in the 2011 League Cup Final. Described in the "Birmingham Mail"'s season review as having "flattered to deceive", he failed to establish himself in the first team, and returned to Tottenham at the end of the season.


title: David Bentley

text: On 31 August 2011, Bentley signed a season-long loan deal with Championship club West Ham United. He made his debut on 10 September 2011 in a 4–3 home win against Portsmouth coming on in the 63rd minute for Julien Faubert. In October 2011, he was ruled out for six months following a knee operation and returned to Tottenham for treatment, after playing five matches for West Ham. In February 2012, Bentley was named in Tottenham's 25-man squad for the second half of the 2011–12 season despite his injury.


title: David Bentley

text: Despite featuring prominently in Tottenham's pre-season under new manager André Villas-Boas, on 7 September 2012, Bentley went out on loan to Russian club FC Rostov. Bentley became the first Englishman to play in the Russian Premier League when he made his debut for the club on 15 September, playing the full 90 minutes in a 1–0 victory over Dynamo Moscow. He went on to start all four subsequent league matches for Rostov before picking up an ankle injury in the 0–0 draw with Lokomotiv Moscow on 21 October. Bentley made seven appearances for Rostov without scoring.


title: David Bentley

text: In January 2013, Bentley's former manager at Tottenham, Harry Redknapp, attempted to sign him on loan for Queens Park Rangers as a potential supplier of crosses for Peter Crouch. However, the move did not take place because Crouch did not sign for QPR and Bentley's weekly wage of £50,000 was deemed too high. On 15 February, Bentley returned to former club Blackburn Rovers on a 93-day loan. He made his second Blackburn début the next day, coming on as substitute in a fifth round FA Cup away win at Arsenal.


title: David Bentley

text: On 7 June 2013, the Premier League confirmed that he had been released by Tottenham Hotspur. On 3 August 2013, Levski Sofia manager Slaviša Jokanović expressed interest in signing Bentley and his former Tottenham teammate Cristian Ceballos.


title: David Bentley

text: On 13 June 2014, Bentley announced his retirement from professional football at the age of 29, having been without a club for over a year. He stated in an interview that he had fallen out of love with football, calling the modern game "robotic" due to the influence of social media and money, as well as "predictable and a bit too calculated". He said that he wished to spend time with his three children. By October 2014, Bentley was a co-owner of a restaurant in Marbella, Spain, where he and his family had moved to. Bentley has also invested in beach clubs and in a restaurant in Woodford Green, London with Raheem Sterling and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.


title: David Bentley

text: In 2015, as part of a job-swap documentary for Irish television, Bentley trained for and played in a Gaelic football match for Crossmaglen Rangers; in return, Aaron Kernan was to train with Sunderland.


title: David Bentley

text: Bentley played for the England under-15 and under-16 teams, captained the England under-18 team and played for the England under-21 team. He recorded eight caps and four goals with the under-21 team, He was the first Englishman to score at the new Wembley Stadium in a match against the Italy under-21 team on 24 March 2007.


title: David Bentley

text: In May 2007, following an impressive 2006–07 season for Blackburn, Bentley was called up for the England B international at Turf Moor for a match against Albania. After naming him as a starter, England manager Steve McClaren said Bentley had the potential to become England's "new David Beckham". In that match, Bentley provided the cross for Stewart Downing's first goal and was involved in the buildup to Downing's second in the 3–1 victory for England. He received the man of the match award for his performance. The next day, he was named in McClaren's 26-man full England squad for the friendly match against Brazil and the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier against Estonia.


title: David Bentley

text: In June 2007, Bentley was called up to the England under-21 squad for the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Championship in the Netherlands. However, he pulled out of the squad citing fatigue, and England under-21 manager Stuart Pearce questioned the midfielder's commitment to the national squad. This withdrawal led to Bentley being excluded from the senior England squad for the friendly against Germany, but he was selected for the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifiers against Israel and Russia. He made his senior debut when he came on as a substitute for Shaun Wright-Phillips against Israel, but was jeered by some of the fans due to his previous refusal to play for the under-21 team.


title: David Bentley

text: Bentley started for England for the first time in the friendly against Switzerland on 6 February 2008.


title: David Bentley

text: Most often Bentley played as a right winger, but he could also play as a central midfielder or a second striker. When at Arsenal, Bentley was slated to play in the second striker role.


title: Blue Collar (film)

text: Blue Collar is a 1978 American crime drama film directed by Paul Schrader in his directorial debut. Written by Schrader and his brother Leonard, the film stars Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto. The film is both a critique of union practices and an examination of life in a working-class Rust Belt enclave.


title: Blue Collar (film)

text: Schrader, who was a screenwriter renowned for his work on "Taxi Driver" (1976), recalls the shooting as being very difficult because of the artistic and personal tensions he had with the actors (including the stars themselves). Schrader has also stated that while making the film, he suffered an on-set mental breakdown, which made him seriously reconsider his career.


title: Blue Collar (film)

text: A trio of Wayne County, Michigan auto workers, two black— 32-year-old Ezekiel "Zeke" Brown from Detroit, Michigan (Pryor) and two-time ex-convict 35-year-old Sam "Smokey" James (Kotto) from Mississippi who spent time in a Michigan State Prison—and one 33-year-old white— Polish-American from Hamtramck, Michigan, Jerry Bartowski (Keitel)—are fed up with mistreatment at the hands of both management and the union brass. Smokey, a bachelor, is in debt to a loan shark over a numbers game, Jerry, a family man, works a second job as a gas station attendant to get by but still struggles to pay bills, including the orthodontics work that his daughter needs. Zeke, another family man, is in trouble with the IRS for tax evasion by filing false claims in order to improve his family's income.


title: Blue Collar (film)

text: During the night, Jerry and Zeke leave their families to go party at Smokey's house, with Smokey providing cocaine and women. At Smokey's house, the trio lament their financial hardships and hatch a plan to rob a safe at the American Auto Workers union headquarters. Smokey gets advice on how to crack a safe from local racketeer and loan shark Charlie T. Hernandez, who provides his expertise in exchange for a percentage of the robbed proceeds. Despite a few rough bumps, they successfully commit the caper but find only $600 in petty cash. More importantly, they also come away with a ledger which contains evidence of the union's illegal loan operations and ties to organized crime syndicates in Las Vegas, Chicago, and New York. They decide to blackmail the union with the information, especially after the union has issued a false statement claiming that over $10,000 had been robbed so they can fraudulently collect money from the insurance company. Meanwhile, Charlie pays Smokey a visit, demanding to get his cut of the cash, but grants him a grace period of a few more weeks after Smokey pleads for more time. Shortly afterwards, Charlie gets busted by the police for his connection to an unrelated crime and attempts to negotiate a softer conviction in exchange for revealing information about the trio's theft and their blackmail attempt. This information subsequently gets back to the union and they begin to retaliate strongly against the three friends. Jerry experiences a near-miss one evening when a pair of hired thugs show up at his house to attack his wife, but both get intercepted and roughed up by Smokey. The next day at work, Smokey is killed after being trapped in one of the paint repair booths of the factory, unable to turn off the overhead sprayers and succumbing to the poisonous paint fumes. Although Smokey's death is covered up as a work accident caused by negligent enforcement of safety rules, Zeke and Jerry realize it was a murder coordinated by the union bosses due to the incriminating knowledge they possess against the union. Jerry sends his family out of town to stay with relatives in Manistee, Michigan to keep them out of harm's way.


title: Blue Collar (film)

text: An FBI agent, John Burrows, who has been investigating the union, attempts to coerce Jerry into becoming a material witness or cooperating witness against the union's corruption, which would make him an adversary of his co-workers and give him a reputation as a cowardly snitch. At the same time, corrupt AAW Union leader, Eddie Johnson, convinces Zeke to give back their stolen ledger and work for them with promises of a promotion to shop steward and increased pay. Zeke, encouraged by the possibility of new opportunities & changing the system from within, decides not to seek justice for Smokey's murder, as it would jeopardize his newfound standing within the ranks of the union. Jerry attempts to convince Zeke to avenge Smokey's death, but Zeke rebukes him, telling Jerry that nothing will bring Smokey back and that they should just move forward. One evening, two gunmen, hired by the mob, follow and try to shoot Jerry in a drive-by shooting while they're traveling through a tunnel. This evolves into a chase where Jerry attempts to make a desperate break for Canada via the Detroit–Windsor tunnel. However, he ends up crashing his car before he gets there, and is arrested by the police. Disgusted with Zeke's capitulation and terrified after another attempt on his life, Jerry decides to contact John Burrows and cooperates with the FBI and a United States Congress Select or special committee (United States Congress).


title: Blue Collar (film)

text: In the end, as Jerry enters the plant with federal agents, Zeke confronts him. Once friends, Jerry and Zeke now turn on each other as a heated discussion escalates into the two attempting to physically attack each other. The movie ends with a voice-over of Smokey's earlier speech about how big corporate divides workers against one another:


title: Blue Collar (film)

text: "They pit the lifers against the new boys, the young against the old, the black against the white. Everything they do is to keep us in our place."


title: Blue Collar (film)

text: The film was shot on location at the Checker plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan and at locales around Detroit, including the Ford River Rouge Complex on the city's southwest side and the MacArthur Bridge to Belle Isle.


title: Blue Collar (film)

text: The three main actors did not get along and were continually fighting throughout the shoot. The tension became so great that at one point Richard Pryor (supposedly in a drug-fueled rage) pointed a gun at Schrader and told him that there was "no way" he would ever do more than three takes for a scene; an incident that may have triggered Schrader's nervous breakdown.


title: Blue Collar (film)

text: Schrader states that during the filming of one take, Harvey Keitel became so irritated by Pryor's lengthy improvisations that he flung the contents of an ashtray into the camera lens, ruining the take. Pryor and his bodyguard responded by pinning Keitel to the floor and pummeling him with their fists.


title: Blue Collar (film)

text: Jack Nitzsche's blues-flavored score includes "Hard Workin' Man", a collaboration with Captain Beefheart.


title: Blue Collar (film)

text: "Blue Collar" was universally praised by critics. The film holds a 98% "Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes based on 42 reviews. The site's consensus states: "Paul Schrader's "Blue Collar" offers a searing, darkly funny indictment of labor exploitation and rampant consumerism that's fueled by the outstanding work of an excellent cast." Both Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel lauded the film; Ebert awarded the film four stars and Siskel placed the film fourth on his list of the ten best of 1978.


title: Blue Collar (film)

text: Filmmaker Spike Lee included the film on his essential film list "Films All Aspiring Filmmakers Must See". "The New York Times" placed the film on its "Best 1000 Movies Ever" list.


title: Blue Collar (film)

text: In his autobiography "Born to Run", Bruce Springsteen names "Blue Collar" and "Taxi Driver" as two of his favorite films of the 1970s.


title: Wide-angle lens

text: In photography and cinematography, a wide-angle lens refers to a lens whose focal length is substantially smaller than the focal length of a normal lens for a given film plane. This type of lens allows more of the scene to be included in the photograph, which is useful in architectural, interior and landscape photography where the photographer may not be able to move farther from the scene to photograph it.


title: Wide-angle lens

text: Another use is where the photographer wishes to emphasise the difference in size or distance between objects in the foreground and the background; nearby objects appear very large and objects at a moderate distance appear small and far away.


title: Wide-angle lens

text: This exaggeration of relative size can be used to make foreground objects more prominent and striking, while capturing expansive backgrounds.


title: Wide-angle lens

text: A wide angle lens is also one that projects a substantially larger image circle than would be typical for a standard design lens of the same focal length. This large image circle enables either large tilt & shift movements with a view camera, or a wide field of view.


title: Wide-angle lens

text: By convention, in still photography, the normal lens for a particular format has a focal length approximately equal to the length of the diagonal of the image frame or digital photosensor. In cinematography, a lens of roughly twice the diagonal is considered "normal".


title: Wide-angle lens

text: A lens is considered wide-angle when it covers the angle of view between 64° and 84° which in return translates to 35–24mm lens in 35mm film format.


title: Wide-angle lens

text: Longer lenses magnify the subject more, apparently compressing distance and (when focused on the foreground) blurring the background because of their shallower depth of field. Wider lenses tend to magnify distance between objects while allowing greater depth of field.


title: Wide-angle lens

text: Another result of using a wide-angle lens is a greater apparent perspective distortion when the camera is not aligned perpendicularly to the subject: parallel lines converge at the same rate as with a normal lens, but converge more due to the wider total field. For example, buildings appear to be falling backwards much more severely when the camera is pointed upward from ground level than they would if photographed with a normal lens at the same distance from the subject, because more of the subject building is visible in the wide-angle shot.


title: Wide-angle lens

text: Because different lenses generally require a different camera–subject distance to preserve the size of a subject, changing the angle of view can indirectly distort perspective, changing the apparent relative size of the subject and foreground.


title: Wide-angle lens

text: For a full-frame 35 mm camera with a 36 mm by 24 mm format, the diagonal measures 43.3 mm and by custom, the normal lens adopted by most manufacturers is 50 mm. Also by custom, a lens of focal length 35 mm or less is considered wide-angle.


title: Wide-angle lens

text: Ultra wide angle lenses have a focal length shorter than the short side of the film or sensor. In 35 mm, an ultra wide-angle lens has a focal length shorter than 24 mm.


title: Wide-angle lens

text: Common wide-angle lenses for a full-frame 35 mm camera are 35, 28, 24, 21, 20, 18 and 14 mm, the latter four being ultra-wide.


title: Wide-angle lens

text: Many of the lenses in this range will produce a more or less rectilinear image at the film plane, though some degree of barrel distortion is not uncommon.


title: Wide-angle lens

text: Ultra wide-angle lenses that do not produce a rectilinear image (i.e., exhibit barrel distortion) are called fisheye lenses. Common focal lengths for these in a 35 mm camera are 6 to 8 mm (which produce a circular image). Lenses with focal lengths of 8 to 16 mm may be either rectilinear or fisheye designs.


title: Wide-angle lens

text: Wide-angle lenses come in both fixed-focal-length and zoom varieties. For 35 mm cameras, lenses producing rectilinear images can be found at focal lengths as short as 8 mm, including zoom lenses with ranges of 2:1 that begin at 12 mm.


title: Wide-angle lens

text: , many interchangeable-lens digital cameras have image sensors that are smaller than the film format of full-frame 35 mm cameras. For the most part, the dimensions of these image sensors are similar to the APS-C image frame size, i.e., approximately 24 mm x 16 mm. Therefore, the angle of view for any given focal-length lens will be narrower than it would be in a full-frame camera because the smaller sensor "sees" less of the image projected by the lens. The camera manufacturers provide a crop factor (sometimes called a field-of-view factor or a focal-length multiplier) to show how much smaller the sensor is than a full 35 mm film frame. For example, one common factor is 1.5 (Nikon DX format and some others), although many cameras have crop factors of 1.6 (most Canon DSLRs), 1.7 (the early Sigma DSLRs) and 2 (the Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds cameras). The 1.5 indicates that the angle of view of a lens on the camera is the same as that of a 1.5 times longer focal length on a 35 mm full-frame camera, which explains why the crop factor is also known as a focal-length multiplier. As example, a 28 mm lens on the DSLR (given a crop factor of 1.5) would produce the angle of view of a 42 mm lens on a full-frame camera. So, to determine the focal length of a lens for a digital camera that will give the equivalent angle of view as one on a full-frame camera, the full-frame lens focal length must be divided by the crop factor. For example, to get the equivalent angle of view of a 30 mm lens on a full-frame 35 mm camera, from a digital camera with a 1.5 crop factor, one would use a 20 mm lens.


title: Wide-angle lens

text: Lens manufacturers have responded by making wide-angle lenses of much shorter focal lengths for these cameras. In doing this, they limit the diameter of the image projected to slightly more than the diagonal measurement of the photosensor. This gives the designers more flexibility in providing the optical corrections necessary to economically produce high-quality images at these short focal lengths, especially when the lenses are zoom lenses. Examples are 10 mm minimum focal length zoom lenses from several manufacturers. At 10 mm, these lenses provide the angle of view of a 15 mm lens on a full-frame camera when the crop factor is 1.5.


title: Wide-angle lens

text: Short-focus lenses are generally made up of multiple glass elements whose shapes are more or less symmetrical in front of and behind the diaphragm. As the focal length decreases, the distance of the rear element of the lens from the film plane or digital sensor also decreases.


title: Wide-angle lens

text: This makes short-focus wide-angle lenses undesirable for single-lens reflex cameras unless they are used with the reflex mirrors locked up. On large format view cameras and rangefinder cameras, short-focus lenses are widely used because they give less distortion than the retrofocus design and there is no need for a long back focal distance.


title: Wide-angle lens

text: The retrofocus lens solves this proximity problem through an asymmetrical design that allows the rear element to be farther away from the film plane than its effective focal length would suggest. (See Angénieux retrofocus.)


title: Wide-angle lens

text: For example, it is not uncommon for the rear element of a retrofocus lens of 18 mm to be more than 25 mm from the film plane. This makes it possible to design wide-angle lenses for single-lens reflex cameras.


title: Wide-angle lens

text: The axial adjustment range for focusing Ultra wide angle lenses and some Wide-angle lenses in large format cameras is usually very small.


title: Wide-angle lens

text: Some manufacturers (e.g. Linhof) have offered special focusing lens mounts, so-called 'wide-angle focusing devices' for their cameras that allow the lens to be focused precisely without moving the entire front standard.


title: Seattle Freeze

text: The Seattle Freeze is, according to widely held belief, a difficulty with making new friends in the U.S. city of Seattle, Washington, particularly for transplants from other areas. A 2005 article in "The Seattle Times" appears to be the first known use of the term, although the phenomenon was documented during rapid population increases in the early 1920s, World War II, and the 1980s.


title: Seattle Freeze

text: Newcomers to the area have described Seattleites as socioculturally apathetic, standoffish, cold, distant, and distrustful. People from Seattle tend to mainly interact with their particular clique in social settings such as bars and parties. One author described the aversion to strangers as "people [who] are very polite but not particularly friendly", while some residents dispute any existence of the Seattle Freeze altogether.


title: Seattle Freeze

text: Speculation of the origin is the reserved personalities of the city's early Nordic and Asian immigrants, the emotional effects of the climate (such as Seasonal Affective Disorder), or the region's history of independent-minded pioneers.


title: Seattle Freeze

text: "The Seattle Times" reported in April 1920: “Seattle people have been accused of being too cold and distant.” The "Seattle Daily Times" described similar characteristics as early as the 1940s. Seattle experienced an influx of new residents from California beginning in the 1980s, and a 2005 article in "The Seattle Times" appears to be the first known use of the term.


title: Seattle Freeze

text: A 2008 peer-reviewed study published in "Perspectives on Psychological Science" found that among all 50 states, Washington residents ranked 48th in the personality trait extraversion. In 2014, a report by a local nonprofit organization ranked the population 48th out of 50 similarly sized cities in "talking with neighbors frequently", and 37th for "giving or receiving favors". The rapid growth of Amazon and its accompanying influx of technology workers who could be considered more introverted than other working professionals may have exacerbated the issue. A 2019 nonscientific poll conducted by Seattle-based PEMCO Insurance found that about 40% of the 1,200 respondents in Washington and Oregon said making new friends was not important. In similar 2022 poll, about two-thirds of residents agreed, at least somewhat, that giving newcomers the "cold shoulder" was a typical trait from those in the Pacific Northwest.


title: Seattle Freeze

text: The Seattle Freeze was discussed in relation to isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic spurred lockdowns due to the region's already engrained propensity for "cultural distancing", along with the Director of the University of Washington's Center for the Science of Social Connection describing it as "you feel outside the group but the group itself is intact".


title: Guillermo Varela

text: Guillermo Varela Olivera (; born 24 March 1993) is a Uruguayan professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Flamengo, on loan from Dynamo Moscow, and the Uruguay national team.


title: Guillermo Varela

text: Varela began his career with Peñarol, in his home town of Montevideo, before joining Manchester United in 2013. He made 11 first-team appearances for United and spent time on loan at Real Madrid's reserve team, Real Madrid Castilla, and at Eintracht Frankfurt, before rejoining Peñarol in 2017. Varela won two Uruguayan Primera División titles with Peñarol, before returning to Europe in January 2019 when he signed for Danish club Copenhagen. He made 53 appearances for Copenhagen and helped them win the 2018–19 Danish Superliga. In October 2020, he joined Russian club Dynamo Moscow on a loan deal, which was made permanent in July 2021.


title: Guillermo Varela

text: Varela was a member of Uruguay's under-20 team that was runners-up in the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup. He made his senior international debut in November 2017 and has played at two FIFA World Cups, in 2018 and 2022.


title: Guillermo Varela

text: Born in Montevideo, Varela started his career with his hometown club Peñarol and made his senior debut on 5 June 2011, in a 1–0 home defeat against Racing Club de Montevideo, on the last matchday of Uruguayan Primera División.


title: Guillermo Varela

text: In May 2013, Varela went on a two-week trial with Manchester United after an impressive performance at the 2013 South American Youth Championship. On 7 June, Varela announced he was having a medical, and on 11 June, United completed his signing on afive-year contract, becoming the first signing of new manager David Moyes.


title: Guillermo Varela

text: In September 2014, Varela joined Real Madrid reserve side Real Madrid Castilla for a season-long loan. He was, however, included in the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League squad for the first-team and he was given the squad number 28. He made 33 appearances and scored once, when he was set up by Martin Ødegaard in a 4–0 win over Barakaldo on 21 February 2015, at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stéfano in the season's Segunda División B.


title: Guillermo Varela

text: After returning to United, Varela was included in their squad for the group stage of the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League. He made his debut on 5 December 2015, as a half-time substitute for Paddy McNair in a goalless Premier League draw against West Ham United at Old Trafford. Three days later, Varela made his first start and Champions League debut in the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League, playing the full 90 minutes in a 3–2 defeat to Wolfsburg. On 25 February 2016, in a Europa League Round of 32 return leg against FC Midtjylland, he assisted on the second of the two goals Marcus Rashford scored on his senior debut. On 19 April, Varela scored an injury-time winner to win Manchester United Under-21s the 2015–16 U21 Premier League title.


title: Guillermo Varela

text: Upon the arrival of José Mourinho as United manager in 2016, Varela came on as a substitute in Mourinho's first match in charge of the team, a 2–0 friendly win away to Wigan Athletic. However, he was not included in Mourinho's squad for the club's summer tour of China, and on 23 July, Varela joined German club Eintracht Frankfurt on a season-long loan deal.


title: Guillermo Varela

text: Frankfurt coach Niko Kovač revealed at the end of the season that Varela was expected to play in the 2017 DFB-Pokal Final and be given an extension, but these plans were abandoned after Varela defied the instructions of the club's training staff and got a tattoo, which later became inflamed. Because of this, and other disciplinary issues, Varela was suspended by the club, who said that they would not be attempting to extend his loan deal.


title: Guillermo Varela

text: On 12 August 2017, Varela returned to Peñarol on a permanent deal. He made his second debut for the club on 20 August 2017, in 4–0 win against El Tanque Sisley.


title: Guillermo Varela

text: On 20 December 2018, Danish Superliga team FC Copenhagen announced that Varela would join them in January 2019, on a deal until June 2023.


title: Guillermo Varela

text: On 17 October 2020, he joined Russian Premier League club FC Dynamo Moscow on loan for the 2020–21 season.


title: Guillermo Varela

text: On 17 July 2021, he moved to Dynamo Moscow on a permanent basis and signed a two-year contract with the club. He was voted player of the month by Dynamo fans for October 2021.


title: Guillermo Varela

text: Varela made 29 appearances for the Uruguay under-20 team. He played for Uruguay at the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup, where the team finished as runners-up to champions France.


title: Guillermo Varela

text: On 5 March 2016, following his emergence into the Manchester United first-team, Varela received his first call-up to the Uruguay senior squad, for the World Cup qualifiers against Brazil and Peru later that same month.


title: Guillermo Varela

text: In June 2018, Varela was named in Uruguay's final 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.


title: Guillermo Varela

text: Varela was named in Uruguay's squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. He came on as a substitute in the 88th minute in Uruguay's first game of the tournament – against South Korea, replacing Facundo Pellistri.


title: Georgia May Foote

text: Georgia May Foote (born 11 February 1991) is an English actress and model. She is best known for playing Alison Simmons in the BBC school drama series "Grange Hill" from 2005 to 2008 and Katy Armstrong in the ITV soap opera "Coronation Street" from 2010 to 2015. In 2015 she was runner-up on the BBC celebrity talent show "Strictly Come Dancing". She came 98th in FHM's Sexiest Women of 2015.


title: Georgia May Foote

text: Foote has been appearing on British television since 2004. She has played two different murder victims: Angela Fairley in the psychological thriller "Conviction", and as Charley Witham in "Life on Mars". Other roles are Rosie in "Sorted", Katy Barnes in "Doctors", Jennifer Thurber in the BBC drama "Casualty" (20 September 2008), Julie Tinniswood in the ITV drama "Heartbeat" (3 May 2009), Bryony in "Emmerdale" (April 2010), and Gemma in "This Is England 86". She played the role of Lauren in the short film "Cotton Stones". She also appeared in two domestic abuse television adverts. She made a guest appearance in "Coronation Street" as Jess Burrows (18 January 2010), but was re-introduced as a new, regular character in July 2010, playing Katy Armstrong. She left the show in 2015 to pursue other acting roles, interests, projects, and her modelling career.


title: Georgia May Foote

text: In 2013, Foote was nominated for the Sexiest Female Award at the British Soap Awards, but lost out to fellow "Coronation Street" actress Michelle Keegan. In 2014, she was nominated for the same award but again lost out to Michelle Keegan who portrayed Tina McIntyre in the show. In 2015 she came 98th on FHM's 100 Sexiest Women, she featured alongside Keegan who came 1st, the first time two stars from the same British soap had been in the Top 100 public poll.


title: Georgia May Foote

text: Foote has appeared as a guest and contestant on shows such as "Fake Reaction", "All Star Family Fortunes", "BBC Breakfast", "Celebrity Juice" and "Loose Women".


title: Georgia May Foote

text: On 13 August 2015, it was announced that Foote would be participating in the thirteenth series of the BBC celebrity talent show "Strictly Come Dancing" from September 2015. She was partnered with professional dancer Giovanni Pernice. The couple eventually reached the final where they received the maximum 40 points for their Charleston. They ended as joint runners-up along with Kellie Bright and Kevin Clifton, losing out to Jay McGuiness and Aliona Vilani who won the competition.


title: Murder ballad

text: Murder ballads are a subgenre of the traditional ballad form dealing with a crime or a gruesome death. Their lyrics form a narrative describing the events of a murder, often including the lead-up and/or aftermath. The term refers to the content, and may be applied to traditional ballads, part of oral culture.


title: Murder ballad

text: The term ballad, applied to traditional or folk music, means a narrative song. Within ballads, the "event song" is dedicated to narrating a particular event, and the murder ballad is a type of event song in which the event is a murder. This definition can be applied also to songs composed self-consciously within, or with reference to, the traditional generic conventions. Atkinson, referring to traditional English ballads, comments that "there is no shortage of murders in the corpus of ballads [...] and few of them are concealed with any success."


title: Murder ballad

text: Perspectives are numerous. Some murder ballads tell the story from the point of view of the murderer, or attempt to portray the murderer in a somewhat sympathetic light, such as "Tom Dooley". A recording of that song sold nearly four million copies for The Kingston Trio in 1958. Other murder ballads tell the tale of the crime from the point of view of the victim, such as "Lord Randall", in which the narrator becomes ill and discovers that he has been poisoned. Others tell the story with greater distance, such as "Lamkin", which records the details of the crime and the punishment without any attempt to arouse sympathy for the criminal. Supernatural revenge wrought by the victim upon the murderer sometimes figures in murder ballads such as "The Twa Sisters" (also known as "Binnorie" or "Minnorie" Child Ballad #10).


title: Murder ballad

text: Daniel A. Cohen comments that the murder ballad should be distinguished from a related genre, of "dying verses", intended for reading rather than singing, a New England tradition from the 18th century. Dying verses related to courtship murders came in with the 19th century.


title: Murder ballad

text: Murder ballads make up a notable portion of traditional ballads, many of which originated in Scandinavia, England, and lowland Scotland in the premodern era (suggesting an ultimate Germanic cultural origin). In those, while the murder is committed, the murderer usually suffers justice at the hands of the victim's family, even if the victim and murderer are related (see "Edward/Son David", "The Cruel Brother", and "The Two Sisters" for examples). In these ballads murderous women usually burn while males hang—see "Lamkin" and some Scottish versions of "The Two Sisters". Within the context of the British isles, murder ballads are only found in English and Scots-speaking regions (broadly, England, lowland Scotland, and northeastern Ireland), and are not a feature of Gaelic or Welsh-language music.


title: Murder ballad

text: The details and locales for a particular murder ballad did change over time. For example, "Knoxville Girl" is essentially the same ballad as "The Wexford Girl" with the setting transposed from Ireland to Tennessee—the two of them are based on "The Oxford Girl", a murder ballad set in England. Many American murder ballads are modified versions of Old World ballads with any elements of supernatural retribution removed and the focus transferred to the slaughter of the innocent. For example, the English ballad "The Gosport Tragedy" of the 1750s had both murder and vengeance on the murderer by the ghosts of the murdered woman and her unborn baby, who call up a great storm to prevent his ship sailing before tearing him apart. In contrast, the Kentucky version, "Pretty Polly", is a stark and blood-soaked murder ballad with the victim being betrayed by the man she loves, stabbed in the heart, and buried in a shallow grave. The epilogue describes her killer being hanged by the community and his soul burning in hell and a "debt to the Devil" in a few versions.


title: Murder ballad

text: African music traditions brought by slaves blended with the conventions. Olive Burt noted that the murder ballad tradition of the American Old West is distinct to some extent from that of ballads rooted in the old broadside tradition, noting that:


title: Murder ballad

text: Western settlers found murder and bloodshed fascinating, and composed local ballads. But with printing facilities scarce, many of these items were not published at all while others saw fame only briefly in the columns of the local newspapers. As a result, true western ballads of murder—except those about such famous outlaws as Jesse James, Cole Younger, Sam Bass, and their ilk—have been entirely lost, or are known only to the children of those who knew and sang them. These children are now, of course, old men and women. Some of the best examples of western murder ballads will be lost forever when these people die.


title: Murder ballad

text: Several historical murder ballads became hit pop songs in the 1950s and 1960s, including the Kingston Trio's "Tom Dooley" (as mentioned above), which was a #1 "Billboard" hit in 1958, Lloyd Price's version of "Stagger Lee" also reached the top of the chart in 1959, while Lefty Frizzell's "Long Black Veil" was a hit for a number of artists over the years.


title: Murder ballad

text: Tom Lehrer's song, "The Irish Ballad", is a parody of the traditional murder ballad. J.H.P. Pafford, in a review of Olive Burt's "American Murder Ballads and their Stories", states that the song contains "a running prose commentary on the incidents described in many [such] ballads".


title: Murder ballad

text: Suzanne Collins's "Hunger Games Trilogy" of books, and the films based upon them, make much of Katniss Everdeen's ability to sing. "The Hanging Tree" was written specifically for the second film; it follows Appalachian murder ballad style.


title: History of the European Union

text: The European Union is a geo-political entity covering a large portion of the European continent. It is founded upon numerous treaties and has undergone expansions and secessions that have taken it from six member states to 27, a majority of the states in Europe.


title: History of the European Union

text: Since the beginning of the institutionalised modern European integration in 1948, the development of the European Union has been based on a supranational foundation that would "make war unthinkable and materially impossible" and reinforce democracy amongst its members as laid out by Robert Schuman and other leaders in the Schuman Declaration (1950) and the Europe Declaration (1951). This principle was at the heart of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) (1951), the Treaty of Paris (1951), and later the Treaty of Rome (1958) which established the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC). The Maastricht Treaty (1992) created the European Union with its pillars system, including foreign and home affairs alongside the European Communities. This in turn led to the creation of the single European currency, the euro (launched 1999). The ECSC expired in 2002. The Maastricht Treaty has been amended by the treaties of Amsterdam (1997), Nice (2001) and Lisbon (2007), the latter merging the three pillars into a single legal entity, though the EAEC has maintained a distinct legal identity despite sharing members and institutions.


title: History of the European Union

text: The known world in Ancient Greece was differentiated into three landmasses Asia, "Libya" (Africa) and Europe, giving rise to identifying the European landmass as a coherent area, a continent.


title: History of the European Union

text: The European landmass was populated and territorialized by many long before its conceptualization as a coherent continent. But the Roman Empire, an empire built on the Hellenistic world and Alexandrian Empire, Ancient Egypt, the Levant and North Africa, became the first state to control the whole Mediterranean Basin and also large parts, particularly the Southern and Western parts of the European landmass. This historic prominence in the Mediterranean Basin and Europe has been invoked by states that came after it, claiming succession to Roman authority and to legitimate their rule over lands throughout the former Roman eucomene, and therefore also in Europe, particularly in Western Europe, the lands of the later Western Roman Empire of latin Rome. The latter established Western Europe as a coherent and independent political area of Europe, which has taken sometimes prominence, as simply the West, over the concept of Europe. Similarly other concepts for Europe as a coherent political space have been used, such as for example Frangistan.


title: History of the European Union

text: The claims for the succession of the control over the West, after the fall of Western Rome in 476 developed into the concept of "translatio imperii" ("transfer of rule") through the King of Italy, enabling claims by the Goths, Lombards, Frankish Empire (481/800–843) and Holy Roman Empire (800/962–1806).


title: History of the European Union

text: Furtherore, during and after the Roman Empire the concept "renovatio imperii" ("restoration of the empire") was employed, particularly in the forms of the religiously inspired "Imperium Christianum" ("christian empire"), and later the "Reichsidee" ("imperial idea"), to establish and sustain a coherent political region. As such the position and extand of influence of the Papacy over a range of European lands has been a force, while not exclusively European, capable of rallying European powers under a common Christian identity.


title: History of the European Union

text: That said, some European powers, such as France (after the installment of the Holy Roman Empire with East Francia) and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth challenged the Western Roman authority through the Western Schism and the Italian Wars, while England, the Dutch Republic, Prussia, the Swedish Empire and Denmark–Norway also challenged the Papal one with Protestant Reformation.


title: History of the European Union

text: The Greek Eastern Rome, also called Byzantine Empire, remained long after the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire, sustaining a coherent political space also over large areas of Europe, particularly of (South-) Eastern Europe, or simply the East, giving rise to the other major particular Europe. With the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire in 1453, the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Tsardom, and ultimately the Empire (1547–1917), with Moscow as the so-called Third Rome, used claims of inheritance of the eastern Roman Empire to legitimate their rule over larger areas of Europe, though not exclusively.


title: History of the European Union

text: But also other polities of Europe have established, independently from Rome and Byzantine, their European realms, such as a range of pre-Roman or pre-Christian Greek, Germanic, Celtic, Slavic and Hungarian powers, Khanates, or Al-Andalus and the Sicilian Emirate.


title: History of the European Union

text: Apart from the ideas of federation, confederation, or customs union such as Winston Churchill's 1946 call for a "United States of Europe", the original development of the European Union was based on a supranational foundation that would "make war unthinkable and materially impossible"


title: History of the European Union

text: A peaceful means of some consolidation of European territories used to be provided by dynastic unions; less common were country-level unions, such as the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Austro-Hungarian Empire.


title: History of the European Union

text: In the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle of 1818, Tsar Alexander, as the most advanced internationalist of the day, suggested a kind of permanent European union and even proposed the maintenance of international military forces to provide recognised states with support against changes by violence.


title: History of the European Union

text: Pan-European political thought truly emerged during the 19th century, inspired by the liberal ideas of the French and American Revolutions. The following Napoleonic Wars and First French Empire (1804–1815), brought down the Holy Roman Empire, enabled nationalism and following the Congress of Vienna, the ideals of internationalism like with Immanuel Kant and European unity flourished across the continent, especially in the writings of Wojciech Jastrzębowski (1799–1882) or Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–1872). The term "United States of Europe" () was used at that time by Victor Hugo (1802–1885) during a speech at the International Peace Congress held in Paris in 1849:


title: History of the European Union

text: During the interwar period, the consciousness that national markets in Europe were interdependent though confrontational, along with the observation of a larger and growing US market on the other side of the ocean, nourished the urge for the economic integration of the continent. In 1920, advocating the creation of a European economic union, the British economist John Maynard Keynes wrote that "a Free Trade Union should be established ... to impose no protectionist tariffs whatever against the produce of other members of the Union." During the same decade, the Austrian Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, in light of the dissolution of the Habsburg Empire, imaginrd as one of the first a modern political union of Europe and founded the Pan-Europa Movement. His ideas influenced his contemporaries, among whom was then-Prime Minister of France Aristide Briand. In 1929, the latter gave a speech in favour of a European Union before the assembly of the League of Nations, the precursor of the United Nations.


title: History of the European Union

text: World War II from 1939 to 1945 demonstrated more than ever the horrors of war, but particularly also of extremism, of discrimination and of genocide. As with devastating wars before, there was a desire to ensure it could never happen again, particularly with the war bringing the world nuclear weapons. Most European countries failed to maintain their Great Power status, with the exception of the Soviet Union, which became a superpower after World War II and maintained that status for 45 years. This left two rival ideologically opposed superpowers.


title: History of the European Union

text: After World War I, but particularly following World War II, internationalism was gaining, with the creation of the Bretton Woods System in 1944, the United Nations in 1945 and the French Union (19461958), the latter directing decolonization by possibly integrating its colonies into a European community.


title: History of the European Union

text: In this light European integration was already viewed by its proponents as an antidote to the extreme nationalism which had devastated parts of the continent.


title: History of the European Union

text: With war still raging, the Ventotene prison Manifesto of 1941 by Altiero Spinelli propagated European integration through the Italian Resistance and after 1943 through the European Federalist Movement. In March 1943, in a radio address, the United Kingdom's leader Sir Winston Churchill spoke warmly of "restoring the true greatness of Europe" once victory had been achieved, and mused on the post-war creation of a "Council of Europe" which would bring the European nations together to build peace.in 1943 for a post-war "Council of Europe"


title: History of the European Union

text: Towards the end of World War II, the There Allied Powers discussed during the Tehran Conference and the ensuing 1943 Moscow Conference the plans to establish joint institutions. This led to a decision at the Yalta Conference in 1944 to include Free France as the Fourth Allied Power and to form a European Advisory Commission, later replaced by the Council of Foreign Ministers and the Allied Control Council, following the German surrender and the Potsdam Agreement in 1945.


title: History of the European Union

text: After the war on 19 September 1946 Chruchill went further as a civilian, after leaving office, at the University of Zürich, calling for a United States of Europe. Coincidentally parallel to his speech the Hertenstein Congress in the Lucerne Canton was being held, resulting in the Union of European Federalists. Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, who successfully established during the interwar period the oldest organization for European integration, the Paneuropean Union, founded in June 1947 the European Parliamentary Union (EPU). To ensure Germany could never threaten the peace again, its heavy industry was partly dismantled (See: Allied plans for German industry after World War II) and its main coal-producing regions were either awarded to neighbouring countries (Silesia), managed as separate directly by an occupying power (Saarland) or put under international control (Ruhr area).


title: History of the European Union

text: The growing rift among the Four Powers became evident as a result of the rigged 1947 Polish legislative election which constituted an open breach of the Yalta Agreement, followed by the announcement of the Truman Doctrine on 12 March 1947. On 4 March 1947 France and the United Kingdom signed the Treaty of Dunkirk for mutual assistance in the event of future military aggression in the aftermath of World War II against any of the pair. The rationale for the treaty was the threat of a potential future military attack, specifically a Soviet one in practice, though publicised under the disguise of a German one, according to the official statements. Immediately following the February 1948 coup d'état by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, the London Six-Power Conference was held, resulting in the Soviet boycott of the Allied Control Council and its incapacitation, an event marking the beginning of the Cold War. The remainder of the year 1948 marked the beginning of the institutionalised modern European integration.


title: History of the European Union

text: With the start of the Cold War, the Treaty of Brussels was signed in 1948 establishing the Western Union (WU) as the first organisation, followed by the International Authority for the Ruhr. In the same year, the Organization for European Economic Co-operation, the predecessor of the OECD, was also founded to manage the Marshall Plan; the Eastern Bloc responded with establishing the Comecon.


title: History of the European Union

text: A pivotal moment in European integration was the Hague Congress of May 1948, as it led to the creation of the European Movement International, the College of Europe and most importantly to the founding of the Council of Europe on the 5th of May 1949 (now known as Europe Day). The Council of Europe was the first institution to bring the sovereign nations of Western Europe together, raising great hopes and fevered debates in the following two years for further European integration. It has since been a broad forum to further cooperation and shared issues, achieving things like the 1950-signed European Convention on Human Rights.


title: History of the European Union

text: Essential for the actual birth of the institutions of the EU was the 9th of May 1950 Schuman Declaration (on the day after the fifth Victory Day, today's Europe day – of the EU). On the basis of that speech, France, Italy, the Benelux countries (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) together with West Germany signed the Treaty of Paris (1951) creating the European Coal and Steel Community the following year; this took over the role of the International Authority for the Ruhr and lifted some restrictions on German industrial productivity. It gave birth to the first institutions, such as the High Authority (now the European Commission) and the Common Assembly (now the European Parliament). The first presidents of those institutions were Jean Monnet and Paul-Henri Spaak respectively. The founding fathers of the European Union understood that coal and steel were the two industries essential for waging war, and believed that by tying their national industries together, a future war between their nations became much less likely. Backed by the Marshall Plan with large funds coming from the United States since 1948, the ECSC became a milestone organization, enabling European economic development and integration and being the origin of the main institutions of the EU such as the European Commission and Parliament.


title: History of the European Union

text: The formation of the European Coal and Steel Community was advanced by American Secretary of State George C. Marshall. His namesake plan to rebuild Europe in the wake of World War II contributed more than $100 billion in today's dollars to the Europeans, helping to feed Europeans, deliver steel to rebuild industries, provide coal to warm homes, and construct dams to help provide power. In doing so, the Marshall Plan encouraged the integration of European powers into the European Coal and Steel Community, the precursor to present-day European Union, by illustrating the effects of economic integration and the need for coordination. The potency of the Marshall Plan caused former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt to remark in 1997 that "America should not forget that the development of the European Union is one of its greatest achievements. Without the Marshall Plan it perhaps would never have come to that."


title: History of the European Union

text: Paralleling Schuman, the Pleven Plan of 1951 tried, but failed to tie the institutions of the developing European community under the European Political Community, which was to include the also proposed European Defence Community, an alternative to West Germany joining NATO which was established 1949 under the Truman Doctrine.


title: History of the European Union

text: In 1954 the Western European Union was founded, after NATO took over competences from the WU, and West Germany joined. This prompted the Soviet Union to form the Warsaw Pact in 1955, allowing it to enforce its standing in Eastern Europe.


title: History of the European Union

text: The attempt to turn the Saar protectorate into a "European territory" was rejected by a referendum in 1955. The Saar was to have been governed by a statute supervised by a European Commissioner reporting to the Council of Ministers of the Western European Union.


title: History of the European Union

text: After the failed attempts at creating defence (European Defence Community) and political communities (European Political Community), leaders met at the Messina Conference and established the Spaak Committee which produced the Spaak report. The report was accepted at the Venice Conference (29 and 30 May 1956), which decided to organise an Intergovernmental Conference. The Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom focused on economic unity, leading to the Treaties of Rome being signed in 1957 - this established the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) among the members.


title: History of the European Union

text: The two new communities were created separately from ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The executives of the new communities were called Commissions, as opposed to the "High Authority". The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein (Hallstein Commission) and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand (Armand Commission) and then Étienne Hirsch. Euratom would integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union between members.


title: History of the European Union

text: Throughout the 1960s tensions began to show with France seeking to limit supranational power and rejecting the membership of the United Kingdom. However, in 1965 an agreement was reached to merge the three communities under a single set of institutions, and hence the Merger Treaty was signed in Brussels and came into force on 1 July 1967 creating the European Communities. Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission (Rey Commission).


title: History of the European Union

text: While the political progress of the Communities was hesitant in the 1960s, this was a fertile period for European legal integration. Many of the foundational legal doctrines of the Court of Justice were first established in landmark decisions during the 1960s and 1970s, above all in the "Van Gend en Loos" decision of 1963 that declared the "direct effect" of European law, that is to say, its enforceability before national courts by private parties. Other landmark decisions during this period included "Costa v ENEL", which established the supremacy of European law over national law and the "Dairy Products" decision, which declared that general international law principles of reciprocity and retaliation were prohibited within the European Community. All three of these judgments were made after the appointment of French judge Robert Lecourt in 1962, and Lecourt appears to have become a dominant influence on the Court of Justice over the 1960s and 1970s.


title: History of the European Union

text: After much negotiation, and following a change in the French Presidency, Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom (with Gibraltar) eventually joined the European Communities on 1 January 1973. This was the first of several enlargements which became a major policy area of the Union (see: Enlargement of the European Union).


title: History of the European Union

text: In 1979, the European Parliament held its first direct elections by universal suffrage. 410 members were elected, who then elected the first female President of the European Parliament, Simone Veil.


title: History of the European Union

text: A further enlargement took place in 1981 with Greece joining on 1 January, six years after applying. In 1982, Greenland voted to leave the Community after gaining home rule from Denmark (See also: Special member state territories and the European Union). Spain and Portugal joined (having applied in 1977) on 1 January 1986 in the third enlargement.


title: History of the European Union

text: Recently appointed Commission President Jacques Delors (Delors Commission) presided over the adoption of the European flag by the Communities in 1986. In the first major revision of the treaties since the Merger Treaty, leaders signed the Single European Act in February 1986. The text dealt with institutional reform, including extension of community powers – in particular in regarding foreign policy. It was a major component in completing the single market and came into force on 1 July 1987.


title: History of the European Union

text: In 1987 Turkey formally applied to join the Community and began the longest application process for any country. After the 1988 Polish strikes and the Polish Round Table Agreement, the first small signs of opening in Central Europe appeared. The opening of a border gate between Austria and Hungary at the Pan-European Picnic on August 19, 1989 then set in motion a peaceful chain reaction, at the end of which there was no longer a GDR and the Eastern Bloc had disintegrated. Otto von Habsburg and Imre Pozsgay saw the event as an opportunity to test Mikhail Gorbachev`s reaction to an opening of the Iron Curtain. In particular, it was examined whether Moscow would give the Soviet troops stationed in Hungary the command to intervene. But with the mass exodus at the Pan-European Picnic, the subsequent hesitant behavior of the Socialist Unity Party of East Germany and the non-intervention of the Soviet Union broke the dams. So the bracket of the Eastern Bloc was broken and as a result the Berlin Wall fell together with the whole Iron Curtain. Germany reunified and the door to enlargement to the former Eastern Bloc was opened (See also: Copenhagen Criteria).


title: History of the European Union

text: With a wave of new enlargements on the way, the Maastricht Treaty was signed on 7 February 1992 which established the European Union when it came into force the following year.


title: History of the European Union

text: On 1 November 1993, under the third Delors Commission, the Maastricht Treaty became effective, creating the European Union with its pillar system, including foreign and home affairs alongside the European Community. The 1994 European elections were held resulting in the Party of European Socialists maintaining their position as the largest party in Parliament. The Council proposed Jacques Santer as Commission President but he was seen as a second choice candidate, undermining his position. Parliament narrowly approved Santer but his commission gained greater support, being approved by 416 votes to 103. Santer had to use his new powers under Maastricht to flex greater control over his choice of Commissioners. They took office on 23 January 1995.


title: History of the European Union

text: On 30 March 1994, accession negotiations concluded with Austria, Sweden and Finland. Meanwhile, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein joined the European Economic Area (which entered into force on 1 January 1994), an organisation that allowed European Free Trade Association states to enter the Single European Market. The following year, the Schengen Agreement came into force between seven members, expanding to include nearly all others by the end of 1996. The 1990s also saw the further development of the euro. 1 January 1994 saw the second stage of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union begin with the establishment of the European Monetary Institute and at the start of 1999 the euro as a currency was launched and the European Central Bank was established. On 1 January 2002, notes and coins were put into circulation, replacing the old currencies entirely.


title: History of the European Union

text: During the 1990s, the conflicts in the Balkans gave impetus to developing the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The EU failed to react during the beginning of the conflict, and UN peacekeepers from the Netherlands failed to prevent the Srebrenica massacre (July 1995) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the largest mass murder in Europe since the Second World War. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) finally had to intervene in the war, forcing the combatants to the negotiation table. The early foreign policy experience of the EU led to foreign policy being emphasised in the Treaty of Amsterdam (which created the High Representative).


title: History of the European Union

text: However, any success was overshadowed by the budget crisis in March 1999. The Parliament refused to approve the Commission's 1996 community's budget on grounds of financial mismanagement, fraud and nepotism. With Parliament ready to throw them out, the entire Santer Commission resigned. The post-Delors mood of euroscepticism became entrenched with the Council and Parliament constantly challenging the Commission's position in coming years.


title: History of the European Union

text: In the following elections, the Socialists lost their decades-old majority to the new People's Party and the incoming Prodi Commission was quick to establish the new European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF). Under the new powers of the Amsterdam Treaty, Prodi was described by some as the 'First Prime Minister of Europe'. On 4 June, Javier Solana was appointed Secretary General of the Council and the strengthened High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy admitted the intervention in Kosovo – Solana was also seen by some as Europe's first Foreign Minister. The Nice Treaty was signed on 26 February 2001 and entered into force on 1 February 2003 which made the final preparations before the 2004 enlargement to 10 new members.


title: History of the European Union

text: On 10–13 June 2004, the 25 member states participated in the largest trans-national election in history (with the second largest democratic electorate in the world). The result of the sixth Parliamentary election was a second victory for the European People's Party-European Democrats group. It also saw the lowest voter turnout of 45.5%, the second time it had fallen below 50%. On 22 July 2004, José Manuel Barroso was approved by the new Parliament as the next Commission President. However, his new team of 25 Commissioners faced a tougher road. With Parliament raising objections to a number of his candidates he was forced to withdraw his selection and try once more. The Prodi Commission had to extend their mandate to 22 November after the new line-up of commissioners was finally approved.


title: History of the European Union

text: A proposed constitutional treaty was signed by plenipotentiaries from EU member states on 28 October 2004. The document was ratified in most member states, including two positive referendums. The referendums that were held in France and the Netherlands failed however, killing off the treaty. The European Council agreed that the constitution proposal would be abandoned, but most of its changes would be retained in an amending treaty. On 13 December 2007 the treaty was signed, containing opt-outs for the more eurosceptic members and no state-like elements. The Lisbon treaty finally came into force on 1 December 2009. It created the post of President of the European Council and significantly expanded the post of High Representative. After much debate about what kind of person should be President, the European Council agreed on a low-key personality and chose Herman Van Rompuy while foreign policy-novice Catherine Ashton became High Representative.


title: History of the European Union

text: The 2009 elections again saw a victory for the European People's Party, despite losing the British Conservatives who formed a smaller eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists grouping with other anti-federalist right wing parties. Parliament's presidency was once again divided between the People's Party and the Socialists, with Jerzy Buzek elected as the first President of the European Parliament from an ex-communist country.


title: History of the European Union

text: Barroso was nominated by the Council for a second term and received backing from EPP who had declared him as their candidate before the elections. However, the Socialists and Greens led the opposition against him despite not agreeing on an opposing candidate. Parliament finally approved Barroso II, though once more several months behind schedule.


title: History of the European Union

text: In 2007, the fifth enlargement completed with the accession of Romania and Bulgaria on 1 January 2007. Also, in 2007 Slovenia adopted the euro, Malta and Cyprus in 2008 and Slovakia in 2009.


title: History of the European Union

text: However trouble developed with existing members as the eurozone entered its first recession in 2008. Members cooperated and the ECB intervened to help restore economic growth and the euro was seen as a safe haven, particularly by those outside such as Iceland. With the risk of a default in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and other members in late 2009–10, eurozone leaders agreed to provisions for loans to member states who could not raise funds. Accusations that this was a U-turn on the EU treaties, which rule out any bail out of a euro member in order to encourage them to manage their finances better, were countered by the argument that these were loans, not grants, and that neither the EU nor other Member States assumed any liabilities for the debts of the aided countries. With Greece struggling to restore its finances, other member states also at risk and the repercussions this would have on the rest of the eurozone economy, a loan mechanism was agreed. The crisis also spurred consensus for further economic integration and a range of proposals such as a European Monetary Fund or federal treasury.


title: History of the European Union

text: The European Union received the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize for having "contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe." The Nobel Committee stated that "that dreadful suffering in World War II demonstrated the need for a new Europe [...] today war between Germany and France is unthinkable. This shows how, through well-aimed efforts and by building up mutual confidence, historical enemies can become close partners." The Nobel Committee's decision was subject to considerable criticism.


title: History of the European Union

text: On 1 July 2013, Croatia joined the EU, and on 1 January 2014 the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte was added as an outermost region.


title: History of the European Union

text: On 23 June 2016, the citizens of the United Kingdom voted to withdraw from the European Union in a referendum and subsequently became the first and to date only member to trigger Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). The vote was in favour of leaving the EU by a margin of 51.9% in favour to 48.1% against. The UK's withdrawal was completed on 31 January 2020.


title: History of the European Union

text: After the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic the EU leaders agreed for the first time to emit common debt to finance the European Recovery Program called Next Generation EU (NGEU).


title: History of the European Union

text: On 24 February 2022, after massing near the borders of Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces undertook a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.


title: History of the European Union

text: The European Union imposed heavy sanctions on Russia and agreed on a pooled military aid package to Ukraine for lethal weapons funded via the European Peace Facility off-budget instrument. Likewise, neighbouring EU member countries received a mass influx of Ukrainian refugees fleeing the conflict over the course of the first weeks of the war. The conflict exposed the EU energy dependency on Russia, deemed as a supplier "explicitly" threatening the EU. This development injected a sense of urgency in the switch towards alternative energy suppliers and further development of clean energy sources.


title: The Pregnancy Pact

text: The Pregnancy Pact is a 2010 American teen drama television film directed by Rosemary Rodriguez and starring Thora Birch, Madisen Beaty, and Camryn Manheim, based on the allegedly true story of a 2008 media circus surrounding a large group of teen girls at the Gloucester High School, Gloucester, Massachusetts, who allegedly agreed to concurrently get pregnant, give birth and raise their children communally.


title: The Pregnancy Pact

text: 28-year-old Sidney Bloom, an alumna of Gloucester High, publishes a video blog about teen issues. Learning that her old high school has reported ten to eighteen teen pregnancies in the last eight weeks, Sidney investigates the situation. Gloucester High nurse Kim tells Sidney that students have requested 150 pregnancy test kits in recent weeks. Nurse Kim requests birth control be provided in the school, but her request is declined. When Sidney interviews local students, she encounters Sara Dougan, Karissa, Iris, and Rose, who imagine an ideal life as mothers. Three of the four are already pregnant and urging the fourth, Sara, to imitate them.


title: The Pregnancy Pact

text: Having permission from her mother Lorraine, Sara goes to her boyfriend Jesse Moretti's house, against the wishes of her father Michael, and becomes pregnant with fear of 'losing' Jesse's affection. Her friends are pleased, but her boyfriend leaves her upon learning of the pregnancy. When Sara's father learns the same of Sara, he accuses Jesse, and later quarrels with Lorraine. Sara and Lorraine's relationship deteriorates leading Sidney to console Sara. It is revealed that Sidney and a school faculty member, Brady, had a baby at the age of 16, which Sidney gave up for adoption. Jesse tells Sara that his father is willing to pay for an abortion, but Sara tells him to cancel his plans for college and a baseball career to start their family together.