title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: For the mosaic of the People's Salvation Cathedral, is mainly used glass made in Venice and Carrara stone. In completion to glass made in Venice, glass made in Florence is also used. The Murano glass is processed by the Venetian foundry Orsoni, which produce 24K gold leaf mosaics, blown gold and Venetian smalti in more than 3,500 colors. The smalti Orsoni was used in the decoration of the St.Mark's Basilica, Sagrada Familia, or Washington Basilica. The Carrara stone was used in many sculptures of the Renaissance, such as Michelangelo's "Pietà", and in the mosaic technique. The gold glass was chosen after the glass used at St.Mark's Basilica, being lighter in color. Murano glass from Orsoni Venezia was used to restore the St.Mark's Basilica, the same company that supply the glass to the People's Salvation Cathedral.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: The tesserae are made of colored glass. The gold glass, on the side from the wall they are green-blue, to better reflect the light on the golden side, from the viewer. First, the figures were drawn and then painted "in the mirror" on a paper support and over them was mounted the mosaic, with the gold layer facing inside, towards the painted support. After applying the mosaic painting on the wall and cleaning the paper support on which it had been mirror-mounted, the mosaic remains mounted with the golden part of the tesserae towards the onlooker. Making a square meter are used approximately 16 kg of mosaic involves joining about 10,000 tesserae, applied with a special cement-based adhesive. For the People's Salvation Cathedral will require about 400 tons of tesserae, covering an area of 25,000 square meters.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: The vaulted nave reaches an interior height of 44 meters, being the Orthodox church with the highest interior nave and among the highest in the world. With nave width of 25.2 meters People's Salvation Cathedral is the church building with the second widest nave in the world after St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City (27 m). Hagia Sophia in Istanbul has bigger span (wall to wall – 31 m) but it has not a nave in the strict sense. The main hall of the cathedral has 2,800 square meters (floor nave) with 79.8 m (colonnade – iconostasis) by 65.1 m (apses), and the square of the central space below the dome where rests on four vaults occupies 635 square meters. If the main door of the cathedral and the door of the iconostasis are open, a person who is at the entrance (colonnade) sees the altar table at 105 m, and if he is in the middle of the naos (the area under the main dome), from the floor also at 105 m sees the ceiling of the dome (Pantocrator).


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: The floor of the cathedral will be covered with marble from Rușchița, the best marble in Romania. This marble has been used for many famous buildings: Romanian Parliament Building, Milan Cathedral, Hungarian Parliament Building, Istana Nurul Iman etc. The eagle in the Oval Office at the White House, one of the American symbols, is white Rușchița marble. Rușchița is the most renowned marble deposit in Romania. The quarry is located in Caraș-Severin County, south of the Poiana Ruscă Mountains. The marble from Rușchița is subsequently processed at Simeria, where the final product is made. The marble models used mainly for the cathedral are Rușchița Classico and Rușchița Champagne. The Rușchița Classico has a white-yellow color, and the Rușchița Champagne has a white-pinkish color. Inside the cathedral is used Rușchița marble up to 4 meters high, and the marble for the access steps of the cathedral has 7 cm thickness.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: Vratsa marble from Bulgaria, it is used outside the cathedral up to 7 meters high. Vratsa stone is also used for window and door frames, for the hardness of the stone. For the interior decorations in the nave and altar is used Carrara marble. It is quarried from the Apuan Alps mountains in the province of Massa and Carrara, near the city of Carrara, in the region of Tuscany, Italy. Carrara marble is a type of marble popular for use in building decor. The marble from Carrara was used for some of the most remarkable buildings in Ancient Rome, such as Pantheon, and other notable construction such as Siena Cathedral, Legislative Palace of Uruguay, Glasgow City Chambers, Finlandia Hall, Akshardham (New Delhi) etc.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: The National Cathedral has 28 bronze doors with iconographic representations. Some bronze doors are 2.7 meters width with 5 meters height, and other bronze doors are 2.7 meters width with 6.35 meters height at the arch. A single door has 4 tons. These are coordinated by a computer system that command the automatic opening of the doors in case of alarm. The doors were made at Süßen by Strassacker. The same company also made the bronze crosses on the towers. Initially, six companies from Austria and six companies from Germany were contacted and finally the company from Süßen was chosen. The bas-reliefs of the saints are life-size. Over 50 saints are represented on the doors of the cathedral. At the entrance on the main doors is the Mother of God and the Savior Jesus Christ. On the doors are represented martyrs, hierarchs, including over twenty Romanian saints. In 2017, Patriarch Daniel said that, the cathedral belongs to all Romanian saints, from all parts of the country.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: The People's Salvation Cathedral has a total of 396 windows that were made in Belgium by the company Reynaers, treated electrochemically by anodizing, and assembled in Ploiești. The largest window of the cathedral, stained glass window at the entrance with the scene of the Ascension of Christ has 90 square meters and it cost 200,000 euros.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: With total height of 135 m (ground-top cross), will become the third tallest domed church in the world, after Basilica of Our Lady of Peace and St.Peter's Basilica. Also with 127.1 meters, it has the second tallest top dome without the cross in the world, after the dome of St.Peter's Basilica. The concrete part of the dome at 106.2 meters, was completed on 24 May 2019.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: Cupola Christ Pantocrator dome at a height of 105.4 m from the floor of the People's Salvation Cathedral, surpasses the interior height dome of St.Peter's Basilica which has 101.8 m from the floor of the basilica. At the base, the diameter of cupola is 16.8 m inside with 18.4 m outside (concrete) and the shape is of perfect hemisphere. The belvedere dome (viewpoint for visitors at 97.8 m height from the ground) between colonnades has a diameter of 29.4 m and a circumference approximately 93 m.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: The roof sheet is a CuAl5Zn5 alloy (Tecu-Gold), where copper has 91.55% (99.99% purity) and 8.45% aluminium bronze, and was made by the German company KME. The copper sheet area used for the cathedral is 19,913 square meters.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: The iconostasis of the People's Salvation Cathedral, with the size of 23.8 meters length and 17.1 meters height, is the largest Orthodox iconostasis in the world. It has an area of 407 square meters, is covered with over 4 million tesserae of mosaic and weighs 8 tons and with the adhesive 10 tons. The iconostasis is covered with mosaic on both sides, having 800 square meters of mosaics, and is made of reinforced concrete with a thickness of 1.26 meters. The royal gate has an inner vaulted of 4.28 meters height with 2.50 meters width, the edge of the gate being covered with 12.4 tons of Onyx stone. Age-old since the world began, the onyx is the first gemstone which find in the pages of the Old Testament, in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:12).


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: For the realization of the iconostasis of the cathedral in Bucharest, a team of over 45 mosaic and fresco specialists worked for ten months. The leader of this team was iconographer Daniel Codrescu. Originally, the team had thought of marble frames for each large icon, but because the weight of the material could have affected the structure of the iconostasis resistance, the idea was abandoned. This iconostasis is made entirely of mosaic and fresco in Byzantine style. The team involved in the project was divided into two groups: the first involved in making the mosaics in the workshop, and the second in fitting them on the stonework. A source of inspiration was the famous mosaics in Ravenna, represented by the Basilica of San Vitale. Iconographer Daniel Codrescu said: "Everything is worked in the smallest details. The team tried to take the realization to another level of greatness. With the help of God, this monumental work is a gift to the Centenary of Romania. This iconostasis is the summary of the kingdom of heavens." The front of the iconostasis has 45 icons placed on four registers. The first register has six royal icons, the second register has thirteen icons with royal feasts, the third register has the icon of the Holy Trinity (center) and the twelve Apostles, and the fourth register has the Theotokos (center) and the twelve Prophets of the Old Testament. On the four side doors are the four archangels, and on the royal door are the Annunciation and the four Evangelists. The royal icons have the dimensions of 2.15 meters width with 3.75 meters height and an area of 8 square meters. All icons of the iconostasis have a total of 130 portraits.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: The rear face of the iconostasis contains three registers. The upper register in the center contains the Last Supper, represented by the liturgical variant in the hemicycle altar through the Partaking of the Apostles. On the left is Jesus Christ washing the feet of the disciples. It is a ritual practiced on Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday). On the right are two scenes, the road to Emmaus appearance and the Supper at Emmaus. The middle and lower registers have eighteen Romanian saints, hierarchs, pious and priests. The iconostasis and the altar are joined by two walls, on which are four saints.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: Commonly, on the iconostasis are four royal icons, but here we have six, which has helped us to represent the two patronal feasts, "Ascension of the Lord" and "Saint Apostle Andrew". On the left is placed the icons of Saint Nicholas and Saint John the Baptist, two of the most beloved saints in Romanian space. Like a peculiarity, in the registry of the Saints Apostles is represented the Holy Trinity, which in this case occupies the place of the Judge Right. The latter, has been moved to the royal icon of the Savior Jesus Christ. Together with the icon of the Theotokos and Saint John the Baptist is symbolized the Deesis icon. The Holy Trinity was chosen by Patriarch Daniel, to emphasize the Scripture quote that says, "Going, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (). The Saints Apostles preach the teaching of the Holy Trinity, being the representatives who baptizes the nations.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: At each entrance to the altar above the five doors, from right to left is written: 1st door – Behold, a door standing open in heaven (Revelation 4); 2nd door – God of life!, open the doors of repentance to me, that my spirit sighs at Your holy church (Horologion); central door – Peace be to you! (John 20); 4th door – Blessed Virgin Theotokos open to us the door of mercy, so that those who trust in you may not perish (Triodion); 5th door – He brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple, and I looked, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple of the Lord (Ezekiel 44).


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: In December 2021, the Crucifix was placed on the iconostasis after the structure was made in August. The Crucifix with a height of 4.3 meters, rising to 22.3 meters from the floor of the cathedral. In the side-attendant of the Crucifix, are the mosaics () of the Theotokos and Saint John the Apostle, and together with the Crucifix have 10 square meters of mosaic. On the face behind the Crucifix, is a pelican with chicks, and at the bottom is a quote from the second ode of the Lord's Lamentations at the Burial (): Like a pelican, You hurt yourself into your rib, O Saviour!; You gave your life, for your sons who died, spreading living springs over them. The image of the mother pelican feeding her chicks with his blood, is rooted in an ancient legends which preceded Christianity. The pelican is a symbol of the Passion of Jesus for Christianity and the Eucharist in the East and in the West.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: The mosaic of the altar including iconostasis is about 3,000 square meters. The iconography of the altar excluding iconostasis, comprises five sections: the apse and the hemicycle of the altar with three central registers and the vestment wall. The vaulted apse altar reaches an interior height of 42 meters from the floor of cathedral, and the floor of the altar where the Holy Liturgy are held is about 330 square meters.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: On 7 May 2019, the Theotokos (gr:"Πλατυτέρα των Ουρανών") icon was completed in the apse altar. It is the largest mosaic of Theotokos in the world, having 16 meters height and 150 square meters. The idea he started, is the Theotokos mosaic from the Hagia Sophia, but larger in size than this. Following the conversion of the Hagia Sophia to a mosque, the coordinator of the team of iconographers Daniel Codrescu expressed his wish that the Theotokos of National Cathedral from Bucharest, will symbolically replace the Theotokos from Constantinople. It is a synthesis "according to the Romanian soul" with elements from several well-known icons, Daniel Codrescu explained. To make the Platytera mosaic, one million pieces of mosaic were used. For the mantle of the Mother of God, nine different colors of red were used. Below the Theotokos Platytera icon are nine windows through which light enters, like the nine biblical ode, emphasizing the description of the Queen of Heavens. The Theotokos Platytera icon is surrounded by the archangels Michael and Gabriel, each having 13 meters height with 5 meters width and the wings 10 meters in length. The mosaic of the Theotokos and archangels is about 600 square meters. In June 2020, the mosaic of apse altar was completed having about 1,000 square meters.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: The altar registers below the apse altar, are three in number. The upper register of the hemicycle, in the center contains the Tabernacle of the Congregation, which was a foreshadowing of the Mother of God in the Old Testament. On the left is the scene of Abraham's Sacrifice, and on the right is the scene of Melchizedek's Tribute offering. The middle register in the center contains the establishing of the New Testament through the Partaking of the Apostles, providing the scriptural basis for the Eucharist, also known as "Holy Communion" or "The Lord's Supper". On the left is the Holy Trinity in the version of Abraham's Hospitality (gr:"Φιλοξενία"), and on the right is the Prophet Elijah fed by the ravens. The lower register is dedicated to eighteen Romanian saints hierarchs. The last section of the altar is the vestment wall, which includes nine stained glass with saints.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: The floor of the altar and the soleas are covered with marble and Rușchița stone, the models used being Muse Campagne, Caffe Latte, Sun Red, White Sivec, White Onyx stone and Yellow Onyx stone. Below the Holy Table of the altar are placed the relics fragments of the Saint Martyr Constantin Brâncoveanu, and the relics fragments of the saints martyrs from Niculițel. Also inside the Holy Table, there is a list of 350,000 names of the Romanian heroes from the First and Second World War.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: The adjacent buildings will provide accommodation for pilgrims, pastoral, cultural, social and medical activities of the church. The cathedral's courtyard has four annexes: Saint Andrew's House for clergy pilgrims with 90 rooms; Saint Peter's House with a capacity of one hundred people; Saint Paul's House, will be the missionary cultural center with classrooms and seminars, a library, exhibition spaces and Aula Magna Hall; Saint Luca's House, which will be a medical social center with consulting rooms, an emergency reception center, an analytical laboratory and intensive care center, and a residential accommodation center for the elderly and the sick. Saint Andrew's House, Saint Peter's House, Saint Paul's House and the Saint Luca's House each will have 1,755 square meters.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: The esplanade of the cathedral is located above the underground gallery called St.Andrew's Cave and implicitly has the same area of 15,581 square meters. One of the portico includes the pangar of the cathedral, and the other portico includes the place where the candles burn, each portico having 1,116 square meters. Behind the cathedral on the left, there will be a five hectare park, where a monument dedicated to the Ascension of Christ will be arranged. Part of the earth excavated at the foundation of the cathedral will be used for this monument.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: The cathedral has two large underground galleries. In the underground chapel a total of 5,000 people can attend the holy liturgy at the same time, and in the large polyvalent gallery under the cathedral esplanade called St.Andrew's Cave can be accommodate over 10,000 people. The underground chapel has two levels, which are connected to the main hall by colonnades, arcades and stairs, and has 7,200 square meters with 126 meters by 63 meters. The chapel hall has eleven meters high and the same dimensions (horizontally) as the main hall of the cathedral, except that it has no apse area. With annexes the underground chapel has 13,668 square meters, with 155 meters by 92 meters. The gallery St.Andrew's Cave has 15,581 square meters (including annexes) with 143 meters by 118 meters. If a person walks through the entire underground gallery of the cathedral from west to east, he has to walk 300 meters in a straight line. The two large underground galleries together have approximately 30,000 square meters. The galleries are divided into: spaces including a main hall, other halls and rooms for events; an icon and religious clothing shop; a workshop (for carpentry, upholstery and metal work for example); a museum, gallery-exhibition, liturgical performance media shop; as well as storage rooms, a refectory, religious/sacramental objects and employees rooms.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: Initially instead of the underground room of St.Andrew's Cave, a car park was planned there. But this was becoming an inconvenience for the underground chapel, due to emissions from cars, the plan was abandoned. Thus, the car park will be arranged on the left side of the courtyard from the west. The St.Andrew's Cave gallery will host the Museum of Romanian Christianity. Under the cathedral chapel at a depth of 16 meters, will be arranged only technical spaces for installations. Also at this level, 42 crypts will be arranged for the patriarchs of Romania and four atomic bunkers.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: The chapel will have a liturgical program for the monastery (daily). Liturgical services in the cathedral will be held on Sundays and on important holidays. The Holy Altar of the chapel is dedicated to and Daniil Sihastru, because they both lived a part of their lives in the cave. Saint John James the Chozebite (Hosevite) became a monk at Neamt Monastery and soon after his conversion he moved to the Holy Land where he lived near the downstream of the Jordan river, near Jericho. Toward the end of his life, he lived in the wilderness of Choziba at the Saint George Monastery. In 1992 he was declared a saint by the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate and in 2016 he was officially recognised as such by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The Church celebrates his feast day on 5 August. Daniil Sihastrul (or Daniel the Hesychast) was a renowned Romanian Orthodox spiritual guide, hermit, hegumen of Voroneț Monastery and advisor () of Stephen the Great. He encouraged Stephen the Great to fight for the defense of Christendom and to build holy places, after each battle won against the invaders. Canonized by the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1992, he is commemorated on 18 December.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: The cathedral has the world's largest free-swinging church bell, surpassing the Saint Peter's bell (Petersglocke) in the Cologne Cathedral. With a weight of 25,190 kg, a clapper of 750 kg, a diameter of 3,355 mm, a height of 3,130 mm, thickness of 273 mm, the bell was cast on 11 November 2016 in Innsbruck by Grassmayr and is elevated to 65 meters. The casting time was 9 minutes and 23 seconds, the bell being made of 78% copper and 22% tin both 99.99% purity, and has a very low beat C3 (en) – C (de) – Do2 (ro) with 130.8 Hz. The cathedral has six bells weighing 32,243 kg, and the sound of the big bell is heard from 15 to 20 km. For the biggest bell 425,000 euros were paid, and the total value of the six bells totalled roughly 550,000 euros.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: A team of 25 experts from Italy, Germany, Austria, Croatia and Romania, worked on the great bell of the People's Salvation Cathedral. The leader of the team was the Italian campanologist Flavio Zambotto. Flavio Zambotto said about the bell: "The collaboration for the bell of the Cathedral in Bucharest is my greatest professional achievement. For this bell the team worked 8 months. The bell is made of the premium alloys, at the highest standards. Work was done in the smallest details, and at a purity of 99.99%, the acoustic tolerance is 0%. I had the honor of working at some famous bells and every bell is like a son to me. But the bell of the Cathedral in Bucharest is magnificent, among the best in the world. All acoustic parameters are superlative. The sound is sober, very strong, long and it marks you."


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: The sound of the big bell in the People's Salvation Cathedral of Bucharest was chosen especially by the sound of the famous bell Pummerin in the Saint Stephen's Cathedral of Vienna. As against to Pummerin, the sound is more low, stronger and longer. The big bell will ring only on declared national days and on major holidays. The sound of the 6 bells spans two complete octaves.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: Often in the national media, critics associate the People's Salvation Cathedral and the Palace of the Parliament, the two colossuses of Romania's capital that share the same courtyard. As the largest Orthodox church in the world, next to the world's heaviest and second largest administrative building in the world, French newspaper "Le Figaro", named it "a pharaonic project", "worthy of the megalomania of Nicolae Ceaușescu". A Romanian newspaper said that the People's Salvation Cathedral will be the most expensive building built in the country after the Romanian Revolution of 1989. Another Romanian newspaper said that the politicians of the Romanian government depend on support from the Romanian Patriarchate in the election campaign, and estimates that when the cathedral will be fully completed, the value of the cathedral in the real estate market will be over €1 billion. A Romanian journalist called the cathedral a "God mall".


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: The Romanian Orthodox Church's answer to such criticism was that the new cathedral would not imitate the gigantic buildings of the communist era, but would "correct them, through a decent and harmonious volumetry". The presence of the cathedral in the area with the Parliament of Romania, the Ministry of National Defense and the Romanian Academy, is seen as a dialogue and necessity for the benefit of the national homeland.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: On 23 November 2018, the Ecumenical Patriarch arrived in Romania to lead the consecration of the People's Salvation Cathedral which was planned on Sunday 25 November; the Ecumenical Patriarch was officially welcomed by Patriarch Daniel of Romania. In his welcoming speech, Patriarch Daniel talked about the "spiritual connection between the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Mother-Church, and the Romanian Orthodox Church, Daughter-Church"


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: On 24 November, at the Patriarchal Residence in Bucharest, during the meeting of the synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Daniel of Romania made a speech to the Ecumenical Patriarch, thanking him for the cooperation between the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. During the same meeting, the Ecumenical Patriarch made a speech to the Romanian Orthodox synod, stating that he was "sure the Romanian Orthodox Church will be involved in preserving the church unity and justice."


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: On Sunday 25 November, the Ecumenical Patriarch with Patriarch Daniel of Romania and Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Patras consecrated together the People's Salvation Cathedral with myrrh and holy water. At the big event, the consecration was held in the presence of 60 bishops by Romania and other Orthodox countries, together with 40 hegumens and protopopes, to mark the Centenary of Romania.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: The Ecumenical Patriarch chaired the first liturgy of the Romanian People's Salvation Cathedral. Both the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I and the Patriarch Daniel of Romania led the church service this day; it was the very first church service in the cathedral. During his homily at the cathedral, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew said he was "connected" to Patriarch Daniel of Romania with his "old personal, pure and sincerely tested friendship, but also with the unshaken, brotherly love in Christ and good understanding." On 26 November, Patriarch Bartholomew went back to Istanbul. Thousands of people travelled from all parts of the country to attend the consecration, disregarding the cold weather and waiting times to get a chance to enter the cathedral. Although they travelled hundreds of kilometres to participate in the consecration of the National Cathedral, the cathedral appeared to them as a chimney shrouded in fog, which they had to look at from afar, climbing on fences and surrounded by the gendarmes.


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: The presence of Patriarch Bartholomew and the absence of Patriarch Kiril of Moscow at the cathedral inauguration "appears to suggest that Romania is siding with Constantinople in the dispute." To the questions: "Will Patriarch Kiril in Romania come to the sanctification of the painting?" and "How will the presence of His Holiness Bartholomew I affect the relationship between the ROC [Romanian Orthodox Church] and the Russian Patriarchate [Russian Orthodox Church]?", the Romanian Patriarchate spokesman Vasile Bănescu answered: "I am absolutely convinced that Patriarch Kiril will return to Romania on the occasion of the sanctification of the painting and will not withdraw because the ROC had the wisdom to plead for a dialogue to heal the wound of this separation between the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Patriarchate of Moscow and All Russia. [...] We hope that this relationship, currently interrupted, will be resumed. The Romanian Patriarchate has a natural relationship with the Moscow Patriarchate and there are no tensions at the moment"


title: People's Salvation Cathedral

text: On 31 May 2019, Pope Francis arrived in Romania, visiting the cathedral the same day. Pope Francis expressed the hope that "Romania can always be a home of all, a place of meeting, a garden in which reconciliation and communion flourish." The pope emphasized brotherhood and communion among all who prayed to the same Heavenly Father. He said: "Each time we pray, we ask that our trespasses, our debts, be forgiven. This takes courage, for it means that we must forgive the trespasses of others, the debts that others have incurred in our regard. We need to find the strength to forgive our brother or sister from the heart (Mt 18:35), even as you, Father, forgive our trespasses: to leave the past behind us and, together, to embrace the present. Help us, Father, not to yield to fear, not to see openness as a threat, to find the strength to forgive each other and move on, and the courage not to settle for a quiet life but to keep seeking, with transparency and sincerity, the face of our brothers and sisters... I come as a pilgrim desirous of seeing the Lord's Face in the faces of my Brothers."


title: Allan Kardec

text: Allan Kardec () is the pen name of the French educator, translator, and author Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail (; 3 October 1804 – 31 March 1869). He is the author of the five books known as the Spiritist Codification, and the founder of Spiritism.


title: Allan Kardec

text: Rivail was born in Lyon in 1804 and raised as a Roman Catholic. He pursued interests in philosophy and the sciences, and became an acolyte and colleague of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. Rivail completed a number of educational courses including a Bachelor of Arts degrees in science and a doctorate in medicine. He was also fluent in German, English, Italian, and Spanish, in addition to his native French. Kardec became interested in Protestantism after his education in Switzerland.


title: Allan Kardec

text: He was a member of several scholarly societies, including the Historic Institute of Paris (Institut Historique), Society of Natural Sciences of France (Société des Sciences Naturelles de France), Society for the Encouragement of National Industry (Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale), and The Royal Academy of Arras (Académie d'Arras, Société Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Arts). He organized and taught free courses for the underprivileged.


title: Allan Kardec

text: Rivail's work with Pestalozzi helped lay the foundations for the teaching model in schools in France and Germany. For several decades he helped advance Pestalozzi's pedagogy in France, founding schools and working as a teacher, educational writer and translator.


title: Allan Kardec

text: In 1839, with a new partner, Mr. Maurice Delachatre, a merchant, he created a so-called "exchange" bank, which aimed to facilitate commercial transactions and thus create new opportunities for trade and industry, in order to support in default of pecuniary resources for the natural products. The duration of the trading bank was fixed by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry at ten years.


title: Allan Kardec

text: According to “My predictions concerning spiritualism” as he himself described in his manuscript written between 1855 and 1856, "in May 1855, he met a certain Mr. Fortier, a magnetizer, who took him to Madame de Plainemaison, a medium who lived in the Rue de la Grange Bateliere in Paris, just a step away from the Opera House. In the presence of other guests for the session, he entered into communication with a spirit named Zephyr, who gave him the mission of being the spokesman of the Dead. For him, it was a revelation. He was there, for the first time, witnessing the phenomenon of turntables jumping and running".


title: Allan Kardec

text: Rivail was in his early 50s when he became interested in séances, which were a popular entertainment at the time. Strange phenomena attributed to the action of spirits were considered a novelty, featuring objects that moved or "tapped", purportedly under the control of 'spirits'. In some cases, this was alleged to be a type of communication: the supposed spirits answered questions by controlling the movements of objects so as to pick out letters to form words, or simply indicate "yes" or "no". At the time, Franz Mesmer's theory of animal magnetism had become popular. When confronted with the phenomena described, some researchers, including Rivail, pointed out that animal magnetism might explain them. Rivail, however, after seeing a demonstration, dismissed animal magnetism as insufficient to explain his observations.


title: Allan Kardec

text: As a result of these influences, Rivail began his own investigation of psychic phenomena, mainly mediumship. During his initial investigation, he stated that before accepting a spiritual or paranormal cause for some phenomena, it would be necessary first to test if ordinary material causes could explain them. He proposed that fraud, hallucination and unconscious mental activity might explain many phenomena regarded as mediumistic, and also proposed that telepathy and clairvoyance may be responsible.


title: Allan Kardec

text: He compiled over one thousand questions concerning the nature and mechanisms of spirit communications, the reasons for human life on earth, and aspects of the spiritual realm. He asked those questions to ten mediums, all purportedly unknown to each other, and documented their responses. From these, he concluded that the best explanation was that personalities that had survived death were the source of at least some mediumistic communications. He became convinced that the mediums:


title: Allan Kardec

text: He compiled the mediums' responses that were consistent and adapted them into a philosophy that he called Spiritism, which he initially defined as "a science that deals with the nature, origin, and destiny of spirits, and their relation with the corporeal world."


title: Allan Kardec

text: Rivail wrote under the name "Allan Kardec", allegedly following the suggestion of a spirit identified as "Truth". On 18 April 1857, Rivail (as "Allan Kardec") published his first book on Spiritism, "The Spirits' Book", comprising a series of answered questions (502 in the first edition and 1,019 in later editions) exploring matters concerning the nature of spirits, the spirit world, and the relationship between the spirit world and the material world. This was followed by a series of other books, including "The Medium's Book", "The Gospel According to Spiritism", "Heaven and Hell" and "The Genesis According to Spiritism", and by a periodical, the "Revue Spirite", which Kardec published until his death. Collectively, the books became known as the Spiritist Codification.


title: Allan Kardec

text: Kardec's research influenced the psychical research of Charles Richet, Camille Flammarion and Gabriel Delanne.


title: MTD Products

text: MTD Products is an American manufacturer of outdoor power equipment for the mass market. Headquartered in Valley City, Ohio, the company began in 1932 and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Stanley Black & Decker. Prior to Stanley Black & Decker's acquisition in December 2021, MTD Products was a majority family-owned, private company. It originated as a tool and die maker (Modern Tool and Die Company). MTD's main competitors are Stihl, Ariens, Briggs & Stratton, John Deere and Husqvarna.


title: MTD Products

text: Over the years, MTD acquired the Troy-Bilt, Bolens, Cub Cadet, Craftsman (owned by its minority partner), and Yard-Man brands and/or companies. MTD craftsman mowers utilize the Sears "247" model prefix


title: MTD Products

text: Starting in 1966, MTD released their line of bicycles that were sold throughout the U.S. These bicycles were mostly muscle bikes and in 1969 they released a chopper, the MTD SS5 Chopper which merged Columbia and MTD. Both brands were strong players in the high-rise bicycle market, eventually they would join forces in the coming years; eventually the bicycle brand MTD would fade out while Columbia would continue.


title: MTD Products

text: Theo Moll, Emil Jochum and Erwin Gerhard formed a partnership to purchase the assets of Modern Tool and Die


title: MTD Products

text: Company located on Power Avenue in Cleveland. The initial capital investment was $4500. MTD's first products


title: MTD Products

text: were perforating dies and a rolling machine for making window channels for Standard Products. MTD employed 12


title: MTD Products

text: In 1936 the company produced its first automotive stampings products, grilles for Graham-Paige automobiles.


title: MTD Products

text: In 1952 the controlling interest in Midwest Industries Inc. was purchased. With this MTD began to manufacture pedal bikes, velocipedes, kiddie cars and playground equipment.


title: MTD Products

text: In 1958 MTD entered the lawn and garden power equipment industry with the production of an 18" power rotary mower.


title: MTD Products

text: In 1959 MTD began manufacturing self-propelled lawn mowers, garden tractors and other power equipment.


title: MTD Products

text: In 1962 MTD purchased Sehl Engineering Ltd. of Canada which would later become MTD Products, Ltd. and then MTD Canada.


title: MTD Products

text: In 1980 MTD built its 160,000 sq ft (15,000 m2) manufacturing plant in Brownsville, Tennessee (now defunct).


title: MTD Products

text: In 1981 the Cub Cadet product line was acquired from International Harvester, and the White Outdoor Products Company was acquired from the old White Motor Company.


title: MTD Products

text: In 2000, a Hungarian manufacturing facility was opened with expanded capacity for electrical products. MTD acquired Ryobi Limited's North America outdoor products business, giving them the capacity to produce 1.5 million engines and related hand-held garden products.


title: MTD Products

text: In 2003, MTD's Ryobi Outdoor Power equipment division ceased manufacturing products under the Ryobi brand name and sold the rights to the use of the Ryobi brand name for the manufacture and sale of outdoor products to Ryobi Tools/TTI


title: MTD Products

text: In 2008, MTD began having a third-party company (located in China) manufacture a new line of engines for the Craftsman 2008 line of snowthrowers. They are no longer building them with Tecumseh engines.


title: MTD Products

text: In 2012 MTD began building Murray brand products which was acquired by Briggs & Stratton Motors in 2005.


title: MTD Products

text: In September 2018, New Britain, Conn.-based power tool maker Stanley Black & Decker announced that it had an agreement to acquire a 20% stake in outdoor power equipment maker MTD Products for $234 million. The transaction is expected to close in early 2019. In addition, Stanley Black & Decker will have the option to acquire the remaining 80% of MTD starting July 1, 2021. Furthermore, with the acquisition of Craftsman by Stanley Black & Decker, the brand's products are now produced by MTD through this partnership. On August 17, 2021, Stanley Black & Decker announced that it has agreed to acquire the remaining 80% ownership stake in MTD Holdings Inc.


title: Universal Decimal Classification

text: The Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) is a bibliographic and library classification representing the systematic arrangement of all branches of human knowledge organized as a coherent system in which knowledge fields are related and inter-linked. The UDC is an analytico-synthetic and faceted classification system featuring detailed vocabulary and syntax that enables powerful content indexing and information retrieval in large collections. Since 1991, the UDC has been owned and managed by the UDC Consortium, a non-profit international association of publishers with headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands.


title: Universal Decimal Classification

text: Unlike other library classification schemes that have started their life as national systems, the UDC was conceived and maintained as an international scheme. Its translation into other languages started at the beginning of the 20th century and has since been published in various printed editions in over 40 languages. UDC Summary, an abridged Web version of the scheme, is available in over 50 languages. The classification has been modified and extended over the years to cope with increasing output in all areas of human knowledge, and is still under continuous review to take account of new developments.


title: Universal Decimal Classification

text: Albeit originally designed as an indexing and retrieval system, due to its logical structure and scalability, UDC has become one of the most widely used knowledge organization systems in libraries, where it is used for either shelf arrangement, content indexing or both. UDC codes can describe any type of document or object to any desired level of detail. These can include textual documents and other media such as films, video and sound recordings, illustrations, maps as well as realia such as museum objects.


title: Universal Decimal Classification

text: The UDC was developed by the Belgian bibliographers Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine at the end of the 19th century. In 1895, they created the Universal Bibliographic Repertory ("Répertoire Bibliographique Universel") (RBU) which was intended to become a comprehensive classified index to all published information. The idea that the RBU should take the form of a card catalogue came from the young American zoologist Herbert Haviland Field, who was at the time himself setting up a bibliographical agency in Zurich, the Concilium Bibliographicum. A means of arranging the entries would be needed, and Otlet, having heard of the Dewey Decimal Classification, wrote to Melvil Dewey and obtained permission to translate it into French. The idea outgrew the plan of mere translation, and a number of radical innovations were made, adapting the purely enumerative classification (in which all the subjects envisaged are already listed and coded) into one which allows for synthesis (that is, the construction of compound numbers to denote interrelated subjects that could never be exhaustively foreseen); various possible relations between subjects were identified, and symbols assigned to represent them. In its first edition in French ""Manuel du Répertoire bibliographique universel"" (1905), the UDC already included many features that were revolutionary in the context of knowledge classifications: tables of generally applicable (aspect-free) concepts—called common auxiliary tables; a series of special auxiliary tables with specific but re-usable attributes in a particular field of knowledge; an expressive notational system with connecting symbols and syntax rules to enable coordination of subjects and the creation of a documentation language proper.


title: Universal Decimal Classification

text: The Universal Bibliographic Repertory itself has developed into a remarkable information resource. In the period before World War I it grew to more than eleven million records. The catalogue and its content organized by UDC can still be seen in Mundaneum in Mons, Belgium (in 2013 recommended for inclusion in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register).


title: Universal Decimal Classification

text: UDC is used in around 150,000 libraries in 130 countries and in many bibliographical services which require detailed content indexing. In a number of countries it is the main classification system for information exchange and is used in all types of libraries: public, school, academic and special libraries.


title: Universal Decimal Classification

text: UDC is also used in national bibliographies of around 30 countries. Examples of large databases indexed by UDC include:


title: Universal Decimal Classification

text: UDC has traditionally been used for the indexing of scientific articles which was an important source of information of scientific output in the period predating electronic publishing. Collections of research articles in many countries covering decades of scientific output contain UDC codes. Examples of journal articles indexed by UDC:


title: Universal Decimal Classification

text: The design of UDC lends itself to machine readability, and the system has been used both with early automatic mechanical sorting devices, and modern library OPACs. Since 1993, a standard version of UDC has been maintained and distributed in a database format: UDC Master Reference File (UDC MRF) which is updated and released regularly. The 2011 version of the MRF (released in 2012) contains over 70,000 classes. In the past full printed editions used to have around 220,000 subdivisions.


title: Universal Decimal Classification

text: A notation is a code commonly used in classification schemes to represent a class, i.e. a subject and its position in the hierarchy, to enable mechanical sorting and filing of subjects. UDC uses Arabic numerals arranged decimally. Every number is thought of as a decimal fraction with the initial decimal point omitted, which determines the filing order. An advantage of decimal notational systems is that they are infinitely extensible, and when new subdivisions are introduced, they need not disturb the existing allocation of numbers. For ease of reading, a UDC notation is usually punctuated after every third digit:


title: Universal Decimal Classification

text: UDC is an analytico-synthetic and faceted classification. It allows an unlimited combination of attributes of a subject and relationships between subjects to be expressed. UDC codes from different tables can be combined to present various aspects of document content and form, e.g. 94(410)"19"(075) History "(main subject)" of United Kingdom "(place)" in 20th century "(time)", a textbook "(document form)". Or: 37:2 Relationship between Education and Religion. Complex UDC expressions can be accurately parsed into constituent elements.


title: Universal Decimal Classification

text: UDC is also a disciplinary classification covering the entire universe of knowledge. This type of classification can also be described as "aspect" or "perspective", which means that concepts are subsumed and placed under the field in which they are studied. Thus, the same concept can appear in different fields of knowledge. This particular feature is usually implemented in UDC by re-using the same concept in various combinations with the main subject, e.g. a code for language in common auxiliaries of language is used to derive numbers for ethnic grouping, individual languages in linguistics and individual literatures. Or, a code from the auxiliaries of place, e.g. "(410) United Kingdom", uniquely representing the concept of United Kingdom can be used to express "911(410) Regional geography of United Kingdom" and "94(410) History of United Kingdom".


title: Universal Decimal Classification

text: The vacant class 4 is the result of a planned schedule expansion. This class was freed by moving linguistics into class 8 in the 1960s to make space for future developments in the rapidly expanding fields of knowledge; primarily natural sciences and technology.


title: Universal Decimal Classification

text: "Common auxiliaries" are aspect-free concepts that can be used in combination with any other UDC code from the main classes or with other common auxiliaries. They have unique notational representations that makes them stand out in complex expressions. Common auxiliary numbers always begin with a certain symbol known as a facet indicator, e.g. <nowiki>=</nowiki> (equal sign) always introduces concepts representing the language of a document; (0...) numbers enclosed in parentheses starting with zero always represent a concept designating document form. Thus (075) Textbook and =111 English can be combined to express, e.g.(075)=111 Textbooks in English, and when combined with numbers from the main UDC tables they can be used as follows: 2(075)=111 Religion textbooks in English, 51(075)=111 Mathematics textbooks in English etc.


title: Universal Decimal Classification

text: In order to preserve the precise meaning and enable accurate parsing of complex UDC expressions, a number of connecting symbols are made available to relate and extend UDC numbers. These are:


title: Universal Decimal Classification

text: 502/504 Environmental science. Conservation of natural resources. Threats to the environment and protection against them


title: Southern Movement

text: The Southern Movement ( "al-Ḥirāk al-Janūbiyy"), sometimes known as the Southern Separatist Movement, or South Yemen Movement, or Aden Movement, and colloquially known as al-Hirak, is a political movement and paramilitary organization active in the south of Yemen since 2007, demanding secession from the Republic of Yemen and a return to the former independent state of South Yemen. At present, its best-known political offshoot, the Southern Transitional Council led by Aidarus al-Zoubaidi, is the de facto leadership across many provinces of the south.


title: Southern Movement

text: After the union between South Yemen and North Yemen on May 22, 1990, a civil war broke out in 1994. This came after leaders of the former independent southern state declared an end to the unity deal amidst an alleged power-grabbing usurp by their northern counterparts. The result was a swift defeat of the weakened southern forces and the expulsion of most of its leaders out of Yemen, including the former Secretary-General of the Yemeni Socialist Party and the Vice-President of unified Yemen, Ali Salim al-Beidh.


title: Southern Movement

text: After the 1994 civil war, calls for southern independence were successfully put down and national unity was maintained. Grievances however remained high amongst many residents of the south. Accusations of corruption, nepotism, and electoral fraud were leveled against the new ruling party based in Sana'a, led by President Ali Abdullah Saleh, as well as a mishandling of the power-sharing arrangement agreed to by both parties in the 1990 unity deal.


title: Southern Movement

text: Many in the south also felt that their land, home to much of the country's oil reserves and wealth resources, was being exploited after the unity deal. Privately owned land was seized and distributed amongst people affiliated with the Sana'a government. Several hundred thousand militaries and civil employees from the south were forced into early retirement and compensated with pensions below the subsistence level. Although equally, low living standards were prevalent throughout the whole of Yemen, many in the south felt that they were being intentionally targeted and dismissed from important posts, and being replaced with northern officials affiliated with the new government. The city of Aden, the former capital city of South Yemen, also witnessed neglect both socially and economically, whilst new investments appeared to be focussed instead on northern Sana'a, the new capital.


title: Southern Movement

text: Beyond the economic grievances were also cultural and social ones too. Many in the south long believed their history was distinct from that of their northern neighbours. This became more evident after the 1990 unity. After 128 years of British rule, South Yemen was an independent state for 23 years. Despite the economic difficulty in its later years with the collapse of its main backer the Soviet Union, the socialist state prided itself on its free healthcare, education and welfare system. Many in Aden today speak foreign languages or have technical skills as a result of their state-sponsored education abroad enjoyed in the days of pre-unity South Yemen. Unlike the north, tribalism was looked upon with disdain and generally stamped out of everyday life in the south, which instead preferred the law and order of civil society passed onto them from British rule. Post-1994 unity saw a gradual return of tribalism into southern society. It is not uncommon for residents of the south to even refer to those from the north as being "mutikhalifeen" or backward.


title: Southern Movement

text: In May 2007, grieving pensioners who had not been paid for years began to organise small demonstrations demanding better rights and an end to the economic and political marginalization of the south. As the protests spread throughout Aden and grew more popular, so too did the demands of those protesting. Eventually, calls were being made once again for the secession of the south and the re-establishment of South Yemen as an independent state. The government's response to these peaceful protests was heavy-handed, labeling them as 'apostates of the state' and using live ammunition to disperse the crowds.


title: Southern Movement

text: This eventually gave birth to the Southern Movement, which grew to consist of a loose coalition of groups seeking a complete secession from the north. Their presence in the south was restricted, and their actions were limited to the organising of protests and marches across the south which were often met with deadly violence. To raise the former flag of South Yemen was considered a crime in Aden, although a common practice outside of the city where government control was limited.


title: Southern Movement

text: In 2015, the Southern Movement rose to prominence after entering into a loose alliance with the exiled President Hadi and proving to be a vital force in the pushback against Houthi forces from the southern city of Aden, receiving both financial and military assistance from members of the Gulf coalition as a result.


title: Southern Movement

text: Today, the Southern Movement through its political branch the Southern Transitional Council has a significant presence in all areas of the former southern territories. Flags of the former southern republic are flown from Aden to Hadramout, often alongside those of the Arab coalition as a gesture of gratitude for their ongoing support.


title: Southern Movement

text: In January 2018, schisms became evident between the STC and Hadi government after clashes in the city of Aden following the dismissal of STC leader Aidarus al-Zoubaidi by the Hadi leadership.


title: Southern Movement

text: On 1 August 2019, the Houthi movement based in Sana’a launched an attack on a southern military ceremony in the city of Aden. A medium-range ballistic missile was used to kill dozens in the camp, including a well-known and senior commander of the southern movement known as Muneer al-Yafee or Abu al-Yamama.


title: Southern Movement

text: The attack triggered widespread anger in the south, with the Southern Transitional Council leveling blame at the Hadi-affiliated Islamist Islah party, accusing them of complicity in the attack. In response, a four-day battle took place between UAE-backed forces belonging to the southern movement and those loyal to the Saudi-backed Hadi government. This was the first major time a rift had been so visible between both partners of the Saudi coalition that had previously been united, at least ostensibly, in their opposition to the Houthi movement.


title: Southern Movement

text: Dozens were killed in the infighting, which came to an end with the southern forces taking control of all government buildings and military camps within the city including the symbolic presidential palace.


title: Southern Movement

text: On 26 April 2020, after reaching a peace deal in November 2019, the Southern Transitional Council (STC) broke the terms of agreement and said that it would rule Aden and other southern regions. However, the move infuriated Saudi-backed Yemeni government, who warned of "dangerous and catastrophic consequences".


title: Alamosaurus

text: Alamosaurus (; meaning "Ojo Alamo lizard") is a genus of opisthocoelicaudiine titanosaurian sauropod dinosaurs, containing a single known species, Alamosaurus sanjuanensis, from the late Cretaceous Period of what is now southern North America. Isolated vertebrae and limb bones indicate that it reached sizes comparable to "Argentinosaurus" and "Puertasaurus", which would make it the largest dinosaur known from North America. Its fossils have been recovered from a variety of rock formations spanning the Maastrichtian age of the late Cretaceous period. Specimens of a juvenile "Alamosaurus sanjuanensis" have been recovered from only a few meters below the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary in Texas, making it among the last surviving non-avian dinosaur species.


title: Alamosaurus

text: "Alamosaurus" was a gigantic quadrupedal herbivore with a long neck and tail and relatively long limbs. Its body was at least partly covered in bony armor. In 2012 Thomas Holtz gave a total length of or more and an approximate weight of 72.5–80 tonnes (80–88 short tons) or more.Though most of the complete remains come from juvenile or small adult specimens, three fragmentary specimens, SMP VP−1625, SMP VP−1850 and SMP VP−2104, suggest that adult "Alamosaurus" could have grown to enormous sizes comparable to the largest known dinosaurs like "Argentinosaurus", which has been estimated to weigh . Scott Hartman estimates "Alamosaurus," based on a huge incomplete tibia that probably refers to it, being slightly shorter at and equal in weight to other massive titanosaurs such as "Argentinosaurus" and "Puertasaurus". It is currently the only titanosaur from North America. However, he says that at the moment, scientists do not know whether the massive tibia belongs to an "Alamosaurus" or a completely new species of sauropod. In 2019 Gregory S. Paul estimated the (SMP VP−1625) specimen at 27 tonnes (30 short tons), and he also mentioned a large partial anterior caudal vertebra which suggests an Alamosaurus specimen that is 15 percent dimensionally larger with similar mass to his "Dreadnoughtus" estimation of 31 tonnes (34 short tons). In 2020 Molina-Perez and Larramendi estimated the size of the largest individual at 26 meters (85.3 ft) and 38 tonnes (42 short tons).


title: Alamosaurus

text: Though no skull has ever been found, rod-shaped teeth have been found with "Alamosaurus" skeletons and probably belonged to this dinosaur. The vertebrae from the middle part of its tail had elongated centra. "Alamosaurus" had vertebral lateral fossae that resembled shallow depressions. Fossae that similarly resemble shallow depressions are known from "Saltasaurus", "Malawisaurus", "Aeolosaurus", and "Gondwanatitan". "Venenosaurus" also had depression-like fossae, but its "depressions" penetrated deeper into the vertebrae, were divided into two chambers, and extend farther into the vertebral columns. "Alamosaurus" had more robust radii than "Venenosaurus".


title: Alamosaurus

text: "Alamosaurus" remains have been discovered throughout the southwestern United States. The holotype was discovered in June 1921 by Charles Whitney Gilmore, John Bernard Reeside and Charles Hazelius Sternberg at the Barrel Springs Arroyo in the Naashoibito Member of the Ojo Alamo Formation (or Kirtland Formation under a different definition) of New Mexico which was deposited during the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period. Bones have also been recovered from other Maastrichtian formations, like the North Horn Formation of Utah and the Black Peaks, El Picacho and Javelina Formations of Texas. Undescribed titanosaur fossils closely associated with "Alamosaurus" have been found in the Evanston Formation in Wyoming. Three articulated caudal vertebrae were collected above Hams Fork, and are housed at the Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley. These specimens have not been described.


title: Alamosaurus

text: Smithsonian paleontologist Gilmore originally described the holotype, USNM 10486, a left scapula (shoulder bone), and the paratype USNM 10487, a right ischium (pelvic bone) in 1922, naming the type species "Alamosaurus sanjuanensis". Contrary to popular assertions, the dinosaur is not named after the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, or the battle that was fought there. The holotype, the specimen the name was based on, was discovered in New Mexico and, at the time of its naming, "Alamosaurus" had not yet been found in Texas. Instead, the name "Alamosaurus" comes from Ojo Alamo, the geologic formation in which it was found and which was, in turn, named after the nearby Ojo Alamo trading post (since this time there has been some debate as to whether to reclassify the "Alamosaurus"-bearing rocks as belonging to the Kirtland Formation or whether they should remain in the Ojo Alamo Formation). The term "alamo" itself is a Spanish word meaning "poplar" and is used for the local subspecies of cottonwood tree. The term "saurus" is derived from "saura" (σαυρα), Greek for "lizard" and is the most common suffix used in dinosaur names. There is only one species in the genus, "Alamosaurus sanjuanensis", which is named after San Juan County, New Mexico, where the first remains were found.


title: Alamosaurus

text: In 1946, Gilmore posthumously described a more complete specimen, USNM 15660 found on June 15, 1937 on the North Horn Mountain of Utah by George B. Pearce. It consists of a complete tail, a right forelimb complete except for the fingers — which later research showed do not ossify with the Titanosauridae — and both ischia. Since then, hundreds of other bits and pieces from Texas, New Mexico, and Utah have been referred to "Alamosaurus", often without much description. Despite being fragmentary, until the second half of the twentieth century they represented much of the globally known titanosaurid material. The most completely known specimen, TMM 43621-1, is a recently discovered juvenile skeleton from Texas, which allowed educated estimates of length and mass.


title: Alamosaurus

text: Some blocks catalogued under the same accession number as the relatively complete and well-known "Alamosaurus" specimen USNM 15660, and found in very close proximity to it based on bone impressions, were first investigated by Michael Brett-Surman in 2009. In 2015, he reported that the blocks contained osteoderms, the first confirmation of their existence on "Alamosaurus".


title: Alamosaurus

text: The restored "Alamosaurus" skeletal mount at the Perot Museum (pictured right) was discovered when a member of an excavation team at a nearby site had to go around a hill to urinate.


title: Alamosaurus

text: Gilmore in 1922 was uncertain about the precise affinities of "Alamosaurus" and did not determine it any further than a general Sauropoda. In 1927 Friedrich von Huene placed it in the Titanosauridae.


title: Alamosaurus

text: "Alamosaurus" was in any case an advanced, or derived, member of the group Titanosauria, but its relationships within that group are far from certain. The issue is further complicated by some researchers rejecting the name Titanosauridae and replacing it with Saltasauridae. One major analysis unites "Alamosaurus" with "Opisthocoelicaudia" in a subgroup Opisthocoelicaudiinae of the Saltasauridae. A major competing analysis finds "Alamosaurus" as a sister taxon to "Pellegrinisaurus", with both genera located just outside Saltasauridae. Other scientists have also noted particular similarities with the saltasaurid "Neuquensaurus" and the Brazilian" Trigonosaurus" (the "Peiropolis titanosaur") which is used in many cladistic and morphologic analyses of titanosaurians. A recent analysis published in 2016 by Anthony Fiorillo and Ron Tykoski indicates that "Alamosaurus" was a sister taxon to the Lognkosauria and therefore to species such as "Futalognkosaurus" and "Mendozasaurus" and lay outside the Saltasauridae (possibly being descended from close relations to the Saltasauridae), based on synapomorphies of cervical vertebral morphologies and two cladistic analyses. The same study also suggests that the ancestors of "Alamosaurus" hailed from South America, rather than Asia.


title: Alamosaurus

text: "Alamosaurus" fossils are most notably found in the Naashoibito member of the Ojo Alamo Formation (dated to between about 69–68 million years old) and in the Javelina Formation, though the exact age range of the latter has been difficult to determine. A juvenile specimen of "Alamosaurus" has been reported to come from the Black Peaks Formation, which overlies the Javelina in Big Bend, Texas, and which straddles the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. The "Alamosaurus" specimen was reported to come from a few meters below the boundary, dated to 66 million years ago, though the position of the boundary in this region is uncertain. Only one geological site in the Javelina Formation has thus far yielded the correct rock types for radiometric dating. The outcrop, situated in the middle strata of the formation about below the K-Pg boundary and within the local range of "Alamosaurus" fossils, was dated to million years old in 2010. Using this date, in correlation with a measured age from the underlying Aguja Formation and the likely location of the K-Pg boundary in the overlying Black Peaks Formation, the "Alamosaurus" fauna seems to have lasted from about 70–66 million years ago, with the earliest records of "Alamosaurus" near the base of the Javelina formation, and the latest just below the K-Pg boundary in the Black Peaks Formation.


title: Alamosaurus

text: Skeletal elements of "Alamosaurus" are among the most common Late Cretaceous dinosaur fossils found in the United States Southwest and are now used to define the fauna of that time and place, known as the ""Alamosaurus" fauna". In the south of Late Cretaceous North America, the transition from the Edmontonian to the Lancian faunal stages is even more dramatic than it was in the north. Thomas M. Lehman describes it as "the abrupt reemergence of a fauna with a superficially 'Jurassic' aspect." These faunas are dominated by "Alamosaurus" and feature abundant "Quetzalcoatlus" in Texas. The "Alamosaurus"-"Quetzalcoatlus" association probably represent semi-arid inland plains.


title: Alamosaurus

text: The appearance of "Alamosaurus" may have represented an immigration event from South America. "Alamosaurus" appears and achieves dominance in its environment very abruptly, which might support the idea that it originated following an immigration event. Other scientists speculated that "Alamosaurus" was an immigrant from Asia. However, critics of the immigration hypothesis note that inhabitants of an upland environment like "Alamosaurus" are more likely to be endemic than coastal species, and tend to have less of an ability to cross bodies of water. Further, Early Cretaceous titanosaurs are already known, so North American potential ancestors for "Alamosaurus" already existed.


title: Alamosaurus

text: Contemporaries of "Alamosaurus" in the American southwest include unidentified tyrannosaurids similar to "Tyrannosaurus", the oviraptorosaur "Ojoraptorsaurus", the hadrosaurid "Kritosaurus", the armored nodosaur "Glyptodontopelta" and the chasmosaurine ceratopsids cf. "Torosaurus utahensis", "Bravoceratops", and "Ojoceratops". Non-dinosaur taxa that had shared the same environment with "Alamosaurus" include the giant pterosaur "Quetzalcoatlus", various species of fishes and rays, amphibians, lizards, turtles like "Adocus", and multiple species of multituberculates like "Cimexomys" and "Mesodma".


title: Danding Cojuangco

text: Eduardo "Danding" Murphy Cojuangco Jr. (June 10, 1935 – June 16, 2020) was a Filipino businessman and politician. He was the chairman and CEO of San Miguel Corporation, the largest food and beverage corporation in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. He served as a Philippine ambassador and governor of Tarlac. In 2016, his personal wealth was estimated at US$1.16 billion, and it was estimated that at one time, his business empire accounted for 25% of the gross national product of the Philippines.


title: Danding Cojuangco

text: Eduardo Murphy Cojuangco Jr. was born on June 10, 1935, the first-born child of Eduardo Chichioco Cojuangco and Josephine B. Murphy. He completed his high school education at De La Salle College. He attended UP Los Baños and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.


title: Danding Cojuangco

text: Cojuangco's close relationship with Philippine president Ferdinand E. Marcos earned him a reputation as one of the late dictator's most powerful "cronies." He was called "one of the country's leading businessmen".


title: Danding Cojuangco

text: Cojuangco was the only civilian among the "Rolex 12", a group of 12 men who planned and enforced the 1972 imposition of Martial Law.


title: Danding Cojuangco

text: He was accused of being the mastermind behind Benigno Aquino Jr.'s assassination by one of the military men convicted in the Aquino-Galman murder case, although Aquino's daughter Kris has stated that whomever she believes killed her father she could "categorically say not Danding Cojuangco."


title: Danding Cojuangco

text: Cojuangco was implicated in the Coco Levy Fund controversy, a decades-long dispute over funds acquired by the Philippine Government when the Marcos administration levied a tax on copra sold by the Philippines' coconut farmers from 1973 to 1982.


title: Danding Cojuangco

text: The stated intent of the plan, spearheaded by Cojuangco, was to develop the Philippine coconut industry. But the amount, consolidated in the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB), was alleged to have instead been channelled to the private financial interests of the Marcos family and their close associates. The government alleged Cojuangco to have used the coconut levy funds to gain control of a 72.2% stake in United Coconut Planters Bank in 1975; and a total stake of about 47% San Miguel Corporation in 1983, in two blocks of about 20% and 27%, respectively. The coco funds were also used to acquire six oil mills. In 1975, funds from the levy were used by the government to acquire a 72.2% stake in United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB, then still known as First United Bank).


title: Danding Cojuangco

text: In 1983, Cojuangco acquired a 20% stake in San Miguel Corporation, which the Presidential Commission on Good Government later said he did using the windfalls from the coconut levy fund and United Coconut Planters Bank. Another 27% was placed under the name of the Coconut Industry Investment Fund Oil Mills Group (CIIF), funded through the coco levy. In 1986, all of these assets were sequestered by the Presidential Commission on Good Government after the Marcos Administration had been ousted. In April 2011, the Philippines' Supreme court affirmed Cojuangco to be the owner of the 20% shares in SMC (reduced to about 17% by then because of SMC's expansion since 1983) which he had purchased through the loan from UCPB.


title: Danding Cojuangco

text: In September 2012, the Supreme court affirmed that the 27% block of San Miguel Corporation shares under the name of the CIIF - reduced to 24% because of SMC's expansion since 1983 - were government-owned. The court also ruled that the funds from these shares could only be used by government for the benefit of the coconut farmers. Later that year, San Miguel Corporation bought back the government's stake for P57.6 billion, ending a 26-year period in which the Philippine government was a major voting block in the corporation.


title: Danding Cojuangco

text: In November of the same year, the court ruled that a 72.2% stake in UCPB was owned by the state, because they were bought using coco levy funds. This included a 7.22% stake registered under Cojuangco, which he claimed had been his compensation for brokering the bank's purchase in 1975, and the sale of the remaining 64.98% stake in UCPB to the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA).


title: Danding Cojuangco

text: When Ferdinand Marcos was ousted by the People Power revolution in February 1986, Cojuangco was flown out of the country and into exile along with the Marcos family and Fabian Ver, departing in the early morning of February 25, 1986. Cojuangco was allowed to return in 1989, having spent most of his exile breeding and racing horses in Australia.


title: Danding Cojuangco

text: In 1992, Cojuangco founded the Nationalist People's Coalition to serve as his vehicle to further his aspirations in the 1992 presidential elections. He was a candidate for the Philippine presidency in 1992, ultimately losing in a tight election to Fidel V. Ramos. Ramos received 23.6% of the vote. Miriam Defensor Santiago came in second with 19.7% and Cojuangco came in third with 18.2%.


title: Danding Cojuangco

text: He further tested the political waters in 2003, intending to run in the 2004 presidential election, but soon withdrew. He eventually became chairman emeritus of the NPC, wielding influence that earned him a reputation as a "kingmaker" in Philippine politics.


title: Danding Cojuangco

text: Cojuangco advocated sports in the country, notably basketball, having supported it since the 1980s as a basketball godfather with his Northern Consolidated team. Through San Miguel Corporation, he was able to own three teams in the Philippine Basketball Association: the flagship San Miguel Beermen, Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, and Star Hotshots. He was also a key benefactor of the De La Salle Green Archers men's basketball team.


title: Danding Cojuangco

text: He also served as the founding chairman of the horse racing body Philippine Racing Commission from 1975 to 1978.


title: Danding Cojuangco

text: Cojuangco was the eldest child of Eduardo C. Cojuangco Sr. and Josephine B. Murphy. His mother, the daughter of an Irish-Canadian U.S. Army volunteer who married a Filipina woman, was born and raised in Baguio. His father, Eduardo Sr., the son of Melecio Cojuangco, was of Chinese descent.


title: Danding Cojuangco

text: He was married to Soledad "Gretchen" Oppen of Negros Occidental. They had four children: Margarita "Tina" Cojuangco Barrera, Luisa "Lisa" Cojuangco-Cruz, Carlos "Charlie" Cojuangco, and Marcos "Mark" Cojuangco. Although later separated, the couple remained legally married even after "The Philippine Star" reported in March 2018 that Cojuangco was living with 1996 Binibining Pilipinas Universe winner Aileen Damiles and their two daughters.


title: Danding Cojuangco

text: Cojuangco died on June 16, 2020, of heart failure and pneumonia at the St. Luke's Medical Center – Global City, six days after his 85th birthday.


title: CouRageJD

text: Jack Dunlop (born April 23, 1994), better known as CouRageJD or CouRage, is an American YouTuber and streamer. He streams his gaming experiences live on YouTube. He is also a content creator for and co-owner of 100 Thieves, a lifestyle brand and esports organization.


title: CouRageJD

text: Dunlop was born in New Jersey, where he grew up with his sister. He graduated from Towson University with a degree in Electronic Media and Film.


title: CouRageJD

text: Dunlop began his career playing "Halo" and eventually won an internship at MLG through various contacts and friends that he had made through the game. During his career at MLG, he was chosen to host the daily MLG live show as a replacement for his colleague Chris Puckett, who was unwell. According to the league, Dunlop "did such a good job" that he was later permitted by the league to co-host for the next six weeks. From 2014 through 2018, Dunlop hosted and cast many major "Call of Duty" esports events including the Call of Duty World League Championship in 2016, 2017, and 2018, MLG tournaments Pro League in 2014, 2015, and 2016, and UMG tournaments in 2015 and 2016.


title: CouRageJD

text: On March 2, 2018, he announced his transition from MLG to the "Call of Duty" franchise. On March 12, he signed with OpTic Gaming as a content creator. In November, he left OpTic to pursue a solo career.


title: CouRageJD

text: On April 20, 2019, it was confirmed that Dunlop would be both casting and playing in the Fortnite World Cup. On June 16, Dunlop took part in the "Fortnite" Pro-Am 2019, partnering with celebrity Brendon Urie.


title: CouRageJD

text: On May 28, 2019, Dunlop was announced as a content creator for and official member of esports organization 100 Thieves. Although the secret was leaked a few days before the announcement by Ninja, his signing had been suspected by his fanbase, as he was already living in the team's content house with friends and fellow streamers Matthew "Nadeshot" Haag and Rachell "Valkyrae" Hofstetter.


title: CouRageJD

text: After developing an online friendship with artist Ariana Grande, Dunlop went on to make a parody of Ariana Grande's song "Boyfriend", to which she replied, "You're perfect." Dunlop and his girlfriend were also featured in Grande and Justin Bieber's music video "Stuck with U".


title: CouRageJD

text: On November 4, 2019, Dunlop announced his switch from streaming on Twitch to streaming on YouTube through a comedic skit featuring other 100 Thieves house members. He cited reasons like stability and "the fear of being tied down just for a sub count button", along with other factors like conveying a wider range of content, as the main reasons for his departure from the platform. On April 23, 2020, during a twelve-hour charity birthday stream with the purpose of raising money for coronavirus relief, Dunlop received a total of $250,000 in donations within the first four hours of the stream and ended the stream with approximately $503,254 donated to the CDC.


title: CouRageJD

text: On April 7, 2021, Dunlop was announced as a co-owner of 100 Thieves alongside Hofstetter. They join Scooter Braun, Dan Gilbert, Drake, and Haag. As co-owners, Hofstetter and Dunlop will receive equity in the company, which "Forbes" magazine recently valued at $190 million.


title: CouRageJD

text: On June 9, 2022, Dunlop appeared in the "Fall Guys" segment of Mediatonic's Summer Games Fest 2022 trailers as himself.


title: Rock Island Armory 1911 series

text: The Rock Island Armory 1911 series is a product line of single-action recoil operated semi-automatic pistols. They are designed and manufactured by Armscor in Marikina, Philippines, and distributed in the United States by Armscor USA, located in Pahrump, Nevada. Armscor is an ISO 9001 certified-compliant company.


title: Rock Island Armory 1911 series

text: RIA (Rock Island Armory) 1911s are derivative of the US Military G.I. M1911-A1, the standard issue US Service pistol from 1911 to 1985. Most RIA models are targeted at the low-end price point of the 1911 pistol market and are basic entry level MIL-SPEC versions of the 1911. However, some models offer additional higher-end features.


title: Rock Island Armory 1911 series

text: The Compact model features a skeletonized hammer and beavertail grip safety, while the Tactical model adds a target-grade hammer and trigger, as well as an ambidextrous safety and enhanced contrast iron sights.


title: Death by Rock and Roll

text: Death by Rock and Roll is the fourth studio album by American rock band the Pretty Reckless, released on February 12, 2021. It is the band's first album released with their new label, Fearless Records, and is also the band's first album since the death of their long-time producer, Kato Khandwala in 2018. The album was produced by Jonathan Wyman, vocalist Taylor Momsen, and guitarist Ben Phillips, along with additional production done by Nate Yacchichino. The album was preceded by two singles: "Death by Rock and Roll" and "And So It Went" featuring Tom Morello. There were also two promotional singles released prior to the album: "Broomsticks" and "25".


title: Death by Rock and Roll

text: In April 2018, the band's longtime-producer, Kato Khandwala, was involved in a motorcycle accident and died later due to injuries from the crash. Speaking about Khandwala's death, Taylor Momsen stated:


title: Death by Rock and Roll

text: In November 2019, it was announced that the band had begun working on their fourth studio album. The album's title, a phrase often used by Khandwala, was later revealed in February 2020. "It was like a code that we lived our life by, and that I still live my life by," Momsen said of the title. "It's very much a battle cry for life: live life your own way." The album was recorded at London Bridge Studios in Seattle, Washington.


title: Death by Rock and Roll

text: The album was released on February 12, 2021. The lead single, "Death by Rock and Roll" was released on May 15, 2020. A promotional single, "Broomsticks", was released on October 22, 2020. The second promotional single, "25", was released on November 13, 2020. The second single, "And So It Went" (featuring Tom Morello), was released on January 8, 2021.


title: Death by Rock and Roll

text: Speaking about releasing music during the COVID-19 pandemic in an interview with "Kerrang!", lead vocalist Taylor Momsen stated:


title: Death by Rock and Roll

text: "Death by Rock and Roll" has mainly been described as hard rock, alternative rock, and grunge. In describing the album, "Good Call Live" stated, "from heavy grunge-laden riffs to classic rock hooks, from theatrical rock to an almost country rock element this album has the band wearing their hearts on their sleeves." The title track has been described as an "outlaw-styled rock track with an ascending, evocative chorus and vibrant guitar melody." Kato Khandwala's footsteps can be heard in the song's intro. The song "Only Love Can Save Me Now," an homage to Chris Cornell, contains "bluesey grunge riffs", and has been compared to 90s grunge bands like Soundgarden and Alice In Chains. "And So It Went" has also been described as a grunge song and even features a guitar solo from Tom Morello. "25" has been described a leaning towards progressive rock. The song "My Bones" is a "no-frills rock" song and has been compared to Thin Lizzy and Kiss "Got So High" is a "semi-acoustic" song. "Broomsticks" is a short, Halloween-themed track and has been compared to Tim Burton movies. "Witches Burn" has been compared to Danzig. "Standing at the Wall" is a reflective and "semi-acoustic" song, similarly to "Got So High". "Turning Gold" has a "'80s rock feel". "Rock and Roll Heaven" is a country rock and "Americana-style ballad". The closing track, "Harley Darling" is a country rock, folk rock, and rootsy ballad, and is an homage to Khandwala.


title: Death by Rock and Roll

text: "Death by Rock and Roll" received generally positive reviews from critics. Dom Lawson of "Blabbermouth.net" was positive towards the album stating, "fortunately, there are several genuinely great songs on here, all with huge amounts of disarming charm." Henry Yates of "Classic Rock" complimented the album as "their first attempt to claw back what they had", calling it "brilliant".


title: Death by Rock and Roll

text: Vicky Greer of "Gigwise" called the album a "prime example of the healing power of rock and roll". James Hickie of "Kerrang!" was positive towards the album and considered the album to be "made by people who have suffered for their art and whose art will in turn soothe their suffering." Paris Fawcett of "Metal Hammer" was less positive stating, "TPR trade the rambunctious anthems of previous records for a vulnerable and reflective approach, yet often come across as more schmaltzy than tortured."


title: Death by Rock and Roll

text: Sophie Williams of "NME" complimented Momsen's vocals saying that "her delivery is invariably the best thing about 'Death By Rock And Roll'." Bennie Osborne of "Noizze" called the album a "defining moment in their musical exploration". Mike DeWald of "Riff Magazine" stated, "Death By Rock and Roll thrives on its ability to surprise and delight while staying faithful to its core."


title: Death by Rock and Roll

text: In the United States, "Death by Rock and Roll" was the highest selling album in the country in its release week, selling 16,000 copies and earning 17,366 album equivalent units in total. The album debuted at the top of the Top Album Sales chart, becoming the band's first number one and third top ten, while reaching the 28th position on the Billboard 200. Of the total number of albums sold, 5,300 were sold in vinyl format, enabling a number five debut on the Vinyl Albums Chart.


title: Death by Rock and Roll

text: All tracks written by Taylor Momsen and Ben Phillips. All tracks produced by Momsen, Phillips and Jonathan Wyman.


title: In Search of Tomorrow

text: In Search of Tomorrow is a 2022 documentary film, written and directed by David A. Weiner. It takes the viewer on a year-by-year deep dive into science fiction films of the 1980s, such as "Star Wars" (namely "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi"), "", "Blade Runner", "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial", "Back to the Future", "Dune", "RoboCop", "Aliens", "Tron", "WarGames", "The Terminator", "Ghostbusters", "Predator", "Akira", "The Road Warrior", "The Abyss", "Short Circuit", and several more. The film also examines the science and technology behind the fiction amid insider tales of the creative process.


title: In Search of Tomorrow

text: The documentary features original interviews of key '80s sci-fi filmmakers, actors, special-effects and visual effects masters, as well as tech advisors, authors, influencers, composers and visionaries. Interspersed between the yearly timelines is a wide range of chapters that delve deeper into the intricacies of specific aspects of the movies including, worldbuilding, storytelling, character definition, costume design, and more.


title: In Search of Tomorrow

text: The documentary follows a year-by-year timeline, where each film segment combine talent from the project and/or experts discussing aspects such as plot, the film's emotional and cultural impact, behind-the-scenes anecdotes, toys, tie-ins and marketing, creative visions influencing contemporary tech/architecture/landscape design.


title: In Search of Tomorrow

text: Specialized media Nerdist references director David A. Weiner, detailing ""In Search of Tomorrow" promises to be an even more ambitious film journey worthy of the amazing content and creators that came out of '80s Sci-Fi cinema: A celebration of human potential, exploring the most inspiring and eclectic movies of the decade, year-by year, that firmly captured our collective imaginations and changed our lives".


title: In Search of Tomorrow

text: In May 2020, /Film blog wrote, "The doc is billed as a 'love-letter to the Sci-Fi films we grew up with; the films that dared to ask, "what if?" and offered us a vision of future technology, society, and culture that simultaneously delighted, amazed and scared us.'"


title: In Search of Tomorrow

text: Kervyn Cloete, from CriticalHit wrote, "As somebody who grew up with many of these films, I can’t wait to watch this documentary".


title: Dafne Schippers

text: Dafne Schippers (; born 15 June 1992) is a Dutch track and field athlete. She competes primarily in the sprints, having previously participated in the heptathlon. She is the 2015 and 2017 World Champion and won silver at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 200 metres.


title: Dafne Schippers

text: Schippers holds the European record in the 200 m with a time of 21.63 s and is the 6th-fastest woman of all time at this distance. She holds the national record in the 100 m and is co-record holder in the 4 × 100 m relay.


title: Dafne Schippers

text: Dafne Schippers was born on 15 June 1992 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. She started competing in athletics at the age of nine at the track and field club Hellas in Utrecht.


title: Dafne Schippers

text: Schippers originally competed in the heptathlon and won gold medals at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics and 2011 European Athletics Junior Championships. At the 2010 World Junior Championships she also won a bronze in the 4 × 100 meters relay with her team mates Loreanne Kuhurima, Eva Lubbers and Jamile Samuel.


title: Dafne Schippers

text: In 2011 at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, she broke the Dutch national record in the 200 m in the heats in 22.69, before finishing 9th in the semifinals, missing the final by 0.04 seconds. The 4 × 100 meter relay team (Kadene Vassell, Schippers, Anouk Hagen and Samuel) were eliminated in the heats in a national record of 43.44.


title: Dafne Schippers

text: In 2012, she was invited to participate at the prestigious heptathlon Hypo-Meeting in Götzis (Austria), where she finished 5th. She also competed at the 2012 European Athletics Championships in Helsinki (Finland). She finished 5th at the 200 meters. The race was disappointing after She had won her heat in 23.01 and recorded the fastest semi-final time of 22.70. The Dutch 4x100 meters relay team (Kadene Vassell, Schippers, Eva Lubbers and Samuel), were second in 42.80, a national record, behind the German team.


title: Dafne Schippers

text: A year later, she started with a third place at the Hypo-Meeting, with 6287 points. Next, she won gold in the 100 m and bronze in the long jump at the 2013 European Athletics U23 Championships. At the subsequent 2013 World Championships in Moscow, Schippers won the bronze medal in the heptathlon, collapsing over the line after taking a massive seven seconds off her personal best in the 800 metres to see off Briton Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Germany's Claudia Rath for the bronze. She became the first Dutch woman to win a medal in the hepthatlon at the World Athletics Championships.


title: Dafne Schippers

text: She improved the 200 m record during the heptathlon at the 2014 Hypo-Meeting in Götzis, her time of 22.35 being one of the best 200 m performances ever in a heptathlon. She finished third at the hepthatlon with 6545 points, a new national record. At the European championships of 2014 Schippers won gold medals in the 100 m and the 200 m. The 4x100 meters relay team, one of the favourites for the title, did not finish in the final due to a botched first baton change.


title: Dafne Schippers

text: Her success at the 2014 European Athletics Championships prompted discussion over her long-term prospects and whether she should focus on sprinting, or continue her career in the heptathlon. In June 2015 Schippers announced via Twitter that she would focus on sprinting in the run-up to the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing (China) and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).


title: Dafne Schippers

text: The 2015 season had started well with a win in the 60 m at the 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague, (Czech Republic). At the 2015 World Championships in Beijing Schippers won the silver medal in the 100 m and gold in the 200 m, just before Elaine Thompson. Her 200 m winning time of 21.63 seconds was a new European record and made her the third fastest woman in history over that distance. The Dutch 4 × 100 meters relay team (Nadine Visser, Schippers, Naomi Sedney and Samuel) finished fifth in 42.32, but was disqualified for a changeover infringement. In the heats the team had also run 42.32, a new national record. Her stunning victory opened her up to scrutiny about possible doping. There were questions about the acne on Schippers back and face, which can be a sign of steroid abuse. Most insiders, however, dismissed those claims, pointing out that the acne was hereditary in the family and the fast track in Beijing.


title: Dafne Schippers

text: Next year, she won the 100 m at the 2016 European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam in 10.90, by 3 tenths of a second. The Dutch team led by Schippers, with Samuel, Tessa van Schagen and anchor runner Naomi Sedney won the 4x100 meters relay with a national record of 42.04.


title: Dafne Schippers

text: At the 2016 Summer Olympics expectation was high that she would add an Olympic title to the gold medal at the 2015 World Championships, following in the footsteps of Fanny Blankers-Koen who had dominated the sprint events at the 1948 Summer Olympic Games, winning four golds. However, she finished fifth in the 100 m final, and won the silver medal in the 200 m behind Elaine Thompson who became the first woman for 28 years to complete the Olympic sprint double. After defeat in the 200 m, Schippers remained forlorn on the side of the track for a while, took off her spikes and hurled them to one side in frustration. "I came here for gold", she told reporters, disappointment showing in her face. "I'm not happy with the silver." The Dutch relay team was eliminated in the heats due to a botched relay handover between Samuel and Schippers.


title: Dafne Schippers

text: After the disappointment of Rio, Schippers decided to change. She parted with Bart Bennema as her coach, who had overseen her transition from an outstanding heptathlete, winning bronze in the IAAF World Championships Moscow 2013, into a successful 100m and 200m sprinter. Both felt that she had to try a different approach to progress, and so she decided join U.S. coach and sprint guru Rana Reider and focus on the 2017 World Championships in Athletics in London, to defend her world title in the 200m. After winning the bronze in the 100m, she won the 200 m title, joining Jamaican Merlene Ottey and USA’s Allyson Felix as the only athletes to successfully defend a world title in the event. “It’s a great feeling to be world champion for the second time,” she said. “I was a bit nervous beforehand, but I’m a final runner, and bring my best in finals, so I’m very grateful for the experience today. There were so many Dutch fans in the stadium, all wearing orange. To win this two times in a row is brilliant." The Dutch 4 × 100 m relay team (Madiea Ghafoor, Schippers, Sedney, Samuel) finished 8th.


title: Dafne Schippers

text: For the 2018 season, the focus for the "Flying Dutchwoman of the sprints" was on the 2018 European Athletics Championships at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, Germany. However, it was British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith who became the star of the sprint in Berlin, winning gold on both the 100m and 200 m, as well as the 4x100 m relay. Schippers won a bronze on the 100 m and a silver on the 200 m. The 4 x 100 m relay team with Schippers, Marije van Hunenstijn, Samuel and Sedney also finished second.


title: Dafne Schippers

text: Due to the disappointing results, the collaboration between Schippers and Reider came under scrutiny. Although Reider did prepare her for her special second world title at 200 m and bronze at 100 m at the 2017 World Championships, many other races looked rigid and she had lost her most important weapon, the 'acceleration' in the end. Due to increased power training she became more muscular, but on the track this did not lead to improvements. She could not improve her 2015 top chrono's. Reider suddenly left the National Sports Centre Papendal in the Netherlands in November 2018, and Schippers returned to her first coach, Bart Bennema.


title: Dafne Schippers

text: Nevertheless, the 2019 season was not successful. She did win a silver at the 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships in the 60 m race. But at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Schippers had to withdraw before the final of the 100 m with an adductor problem. She subsequently withdrew from the 200 m and the 4 x100 m relay.


title: Dafne Schippers

text: The Dafne Schippersbrug (Dafne Schippers Bridge) in Utrecht, where Schippers grew up, was opened in April 2017, and named in her honour.


title: Floyd Cramer

text: Floyd Cramer (October 27, 1933 – December 31, 1997) was an American pianist who became famous for his use of melodic "half step" attacks. He was inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His signature playing style was a cornerstone of the pop-oriented "Nashville sound" of the 1950s and 1960s. Cramer's "slip-note" or "bent-note" style, in which a passing note slides almost instantly into or away from a chordal note, influenced a generation of pianists. His sound became popular to the degree that he stepped out of his role as a sideman and began touring as a solo act. In 1960, his piano instrumental solo, "Last Date" went to number two on the "Billboard" Hot 100 pop music chart and sold over one million copies. Its follow-up, "On the Rebound", topped the UK Singles Chart in 1961. As a studio musician, he became one of a cadre of elite players dubbed the Nashville A-Team and he performed on scores of hit records.


title: Floyd Cramer

text: Cramer was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and grew up in the small town of Huttig, Arkansas. He taught himself to play the piano. After finishing high school, he returned to Shreveport, where he worked as a pianist for the radio show "Louisiana Hayride".


title: Floyd Cramer

text: After Elvis Presley performed on "Louisiana Hayride" in 1955, he hired his own band which included Cramer, Jimmy Day, Scotty Moore, Bill Black, and D.J. Fontana. This group remained his supporting band for much of that year; however, when Presley asked them to relocate to Hollywood, Cramer and Day declined to follow him there, preferring to remain in Nashville to pursue independent careers as studio musicians. In Nashville, Cramer found that piano accompaniment in country music was growing in popularity. By the next year he was, in his words, "in day and night doing session". Before long, he was one of the busiest studio musicians in the industry, playing piano for stars such as Elvis Presley, Brenda Lee, Patsy Cline, the Browns, Jim Reeves, Eddy Arnold, Roy Orbison, Don Gibson, and the Everly Brothers, among others. It was Cramer's piano playing, for instance, on Presley's first RCA Victor single, "Heartbreak Hotel". While Cramer was well-established as a session player, he had a long career as a solo performer with dozens of his own albums and singles, including some Top 40 instrumental hits.


title: Floyd Cramer

text: Cramer had released records under his own name since the early 1950s and became well known following the release of "Last Date", a 45-rpm single, released by RCA Victor in 1960. The instrumental piece exhibited a relatively new concept in piano playing known as the "slip note" style. The record went to number two on the "Billboard" Hot 100 pop music chart, sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The song was kept out of the number 1 position by Elvis Presley's "Are You Lonesome Tonight". The session pianist for Elvis's recording of that #1 song, in a very early morning session (about 4:00 AM) at RCA Studio B in Nashville, was none other than Floyd Cramer himself.


title: Floyd Cramer

text: In 1961, Cramer had a hit with "On the Rebound", which went to number 4, and number 1 on the UK Singles Chart. ("On the Rebound" was featured during the opening credits of the 2009 Oscar-nominated film "An Education", which was set in England in 1961.) Also in 1961, Cramer had a hit with "San Antonio Rose" (number 8).


title: Floyd Cramer

text: By the mid-1960s, Cramer had become a respected performer, making numerous albums and touring with guitar maestro Chet Atkins and saxophonist Boots Randolph, sometimes headlining and sometimes as the opening act for Eddy Arnold. Cramer also performed with them as a member of the Million Dollar Band.


title: Floyd Cramer

text: Cramer died of lung cancer on New Year's Eve, 1997 at the age of 64. He was interred in the Spring Hill Cemetery in the Nashville suburb of Madison, Tennessee.