History.

The impetus for Cleveland Municipal Stadium came from city manager William R. Hopkins, Cleveland Indians' president Ernest Barnard, real estate magnate and future Indians' president Alva Bradley, and the Van Sweringen brothers, who thought that the attraction of a stadium would benefit area commerce in general and their own commercial interests in downtown Cleveland in particular. However, some have incorrectly stated that it was built in a failed bid to attract the 1932 Summer Olympics, which had been awarded to Los Angeles in 1923, long before ground was broken on the stadium. Another common misconception is that Cleveland Municipal Stadium was a Works Progress Administration project; in fact, the WPA was not created until 1935, four years after the stadium was built.  In November 1928, Cleveland voters passed by 112,448 to 76,975, a 59% passage rate, with 55% needed to pass, "a US$2.5 million levy for a fireproof stadium on the Lakefront." Actual construction costs overran that amount by $500,000.

Construction.

Built during the administrations of city managers William R. Hopkins and Daniel E. Morgan, it was designed by the architectural firms of Walker and Weeks and by Osborn Engineering Company. It featured an early use of structural aluminum. The stadium was dedicated on July 1, 1931. On July 3, 1931, it hosted a boxing match for the National Boxing Association World Heavyweight Championship between Max Schmeling and Young Stribling, with 37,000 fans in attendance. Schmeling retained his title by a technical knockout victory in the 15th round.  The Donald Gray Gardens were installed on the stadium's north side in 1936 as part of the Great Lakes Exposition. They remained until the construction of Cleveland Browns Stadium.

Tenants.

Indians.

The stadium was built for football as well as for the Cleveland Indians, who played their first game there on July 31, 1932, losing to the Philadelphia Athletics' great pitcher Lefty Grove 1-0 while attracting a then-major-league-record crowd of 80,184. The Indians played all of their games at the stadium from the middle of the 1932 season through 1933. However, the players and fans complained about the huge outfield, which reduced the number of home runs. Moreover, as the Great Depression worsened, attendance plummeted. The Indians returned to their smaller previous home, League Park, for all of the 1934 and 1935 seasons.  The Indians used the stadium to host the 1935 Major League Baseball All-Star Game and returned to the stadium in 1936 to host the New York Yankees on August 2 as part of the Great Lakes Exposition, drawing a crowd of 65,342. In 1937, the Indians began playing Sunday and holiday games at Cleveland Stadium during the summer, adding selected important games there in 1938. League Park lacked field lighting, so the emergence of night baseball in the 1930s led to the addition of night games to the schedule after lights were installed at the stadium in 1939. By 1940, the Indians played most of their home slate at the stadium, abandoning League Park entirely after the 1946 season. They remained at Cleveland Stadium until the end of the 1993 season, after which they moved to Jacobs Field.  The stadium foreshadowed problems that would emerge 40 years later when cookie-cutter stadiums were in vogue. Due to the fundamentally different sizes and shapes of baseball and football fields, the baseball sight lines generally left much to be desired. The original baseball playing field was so large that an inner fence was constructed in 1947 to cut down the size of the spacious outfield. Even after the fence was installed, the distance markers on the bleacher walls remained visible for many years: from home plate to the bleachers in straightaway center field, to either corner of the bleachers, and to the far corners of the main stands in left-center and right-center. No player ever hit a home run into the center field bleachers. According to his autobiography, "Veeck – As in Wreck", Indians owner Bill Veeck would move the fence in or out, varying by as much as, depending on how it would favor the Indians, a practice that ended when the American League specifically legislated against moving fences during the course of a given season. But over the years, various ownerships tinkered with the position of the fence from time to time.  Like some other facilities built before warning tracks became standard, the stadium had an earthen berm in front of the center field wall. After the inner fence was installed, the berm was still visible during football season.  The facility, located just south of Lake Erie, was known for the biting cold winds that would blow into the stadium in winter, as well as during much of the spring and fall. Because of its proximity to the lake during hot summer nights, its lights attracted swarms of midges and mayflies. Game 2 of the 2007 American League Division Series at Jacobs Field on October 5, 2007, brought back memories of the old stadium, when swarms of midges (misidentified by the television announcers as mayflies) infested the field, particularly the pitcher's mound.  The Indians set three Major League attendance records during the 1948 season, when they won the American League pennant and World Series behind pitcher Bob Feller and shortstop/player-manager Lou Boudreau. That season, Cleveland had the highest single season attendance, 2,620,627, which was not eclipsed until 1962 by the Los Angeles Dodgers, largest regular season night game attendance of 72,434 for the first major league start of Satchel Paige, and biggest World Series game attendance of 86,288 for game 5 on October 10, 1948. However, during the Indians' lean years from the 1960s through the 1990s, they rarely attracted more than 30,000 people, and even crowds of 40,000 looked sparse in the cavernous environment. After the Indians were eliminated from the pennant race in 1949, as a black humor-themed stunt they held a mock funeral procession on the field and buried their 1948 pennant behind the center field fence. Due to the large size of the facility, the Indians began using a bullpen car in 1950.  In addition to the 1935 MLB All-Star Game, Cleveland Stadium also hosted three additional all-star games: 1954, 1963, and 1981. Cleveland Stadium and Yankee Stadium are the only venues to host four MLB all-star games. On May 15, 1981, Len Barker threw a perfect game at the stadium, the second in franchise history and eighth in modern Major League history. The final Indians home game at Cleveland Stadium was held October 3, 1993, a 4–0 loss to the Chicago White Sox in front of 72,390 fans. During the game, fans, led by comedian Bob Hope, who grew up an Indians fan and was once a part-owner, sang a version of his signature song "Thanks for the Memory" with special lyrics for the occasion.

Browns.

The Cleveland Browns, originally members of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), began playing at the facility in 1946, and played there through 1995. The stadium was the site of the AAFC Championship game in 1946, 1948 and 1949, all Browns wins. The Browns joined the NFL in 1950 and hosted the NFL Championship Game in 1950, 1952, 1954, 1964, and 1968, winning titles in 1950, 1954, and 1964.  The first Browns game at the stadium was also the first AAFC game, when the Browns hosted the Miami Seahawks on September 6, 1946. The Browns won the game 44–0 and drew 60,135 fans, what was then a record for a professional football crowd. During the 1980s, the center field bleachers at the east end of the stadium were home to many of the club's most avid fans and became known as the Dawg Pound after the barks that fans made to disrupt opposing teams' offensive plays. The fans were copying Browns players Hanford Dixon and Frank Minnifield, who frequently appeared to bark to each other and to the opposition. Some of the fans even wore dog masks and threw dog biscuits at opposing players. The Dawg Pound was included in the design of FirstEnergy Stadium, where the east end zone also has bleacher seating.  The stadium was also the site of two notable moments in Cleveland sports and Browns history. In a 1981 divisional playoff game on January 4, Browns quarterback Brian Sipe was intercepted in the end zone with less than a minute remaining in the game, resulting in a 14–12 loss to the Oakland Raiders. The game has since been referred to by the name of the pass play, Red Right 88. Six years later, during the 1987 AFC Championship game on January 11, John Elway led the Denver Broncos on what is referred to as The Drive, a 98-yard touchdown drive with 5:32 left that tied the game and sent it into overtime. The Broncos ultimately prevailed 23–20.  The final game in the stadium was held December 17, 1995, an emotional 26–10 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, the Browns' final game before the franchise was officially deactivated until 1999. At the end of that game, many fans cut and removed their seats.

Football Indians and Rams.

Prior to the arrival of the Browns, the stadium was briefly the home field for two other NFL teams, the Cleveland Indians in 1931, and the Cleveland Rams from 1936 to 1937 and again from 1939 to 1941. The football Indians played two home games in their 1931 season, a 6-0 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers and a 14-0 loss to the Chicago Cardinals. The team drew a crowd of around only 2,000 spectators for the September 26th game against Brooklyn and 10,000 for the loss to the Cardinals on November 8. The Rams were founded in 1936 as members of the second American Football League and joined the NFL in 1937. They played home games at the stadium their first two seasons, before moving to the smaller Shaw Stadium in 1938. The Rams returned to the stadium in 1939 and played home games there through the 1941 season before moving to League Park for the remainder of their time in Cleveland. The team returned to the stadium one last time to host the 1945 NFL Championship Game, a 15–14 win in what was the final Rams game in Cleveland before the team relocated to Los Angeles.

Other events.

College football.

The only Great Lakes Bowl was held there in 1947.  The stadium hosted the annual Notre Dame/Navy college football game 11 times: in 1932, 1934, 1939, 1942, 1943, 1945, 1947, 1950, 1952, 1976 and 1978. The games were well attended, with an average attendance of 69,730 and a high of 84,090 fans for the 1947 game, which was won by Notre Dame 27-0.  Local college teams, including Western Reserve Red Cats, Case Tech Rough Riders, John Carroll Blue Streaks, and Baldwin Wallace Yellow Jackets often used the stadium for home games and local matchups, especially during the 1930s and 1940s when the city "Big Four Conference" was strong. Of the 60 all-time "Big Four" matchups, 22 were played at Cleveland Stadium, the most of any venue.  The Illinois Fighting Illini played the Penn State Nittany Lions there in 1959. The Ohio State Buckeyes played in the stadium four times, the first three as the home team during World War II. The first was in a 1942 win over Illinois before 68,656, the second a 1943 loss to Purdue, and the third a 1944 victory over Illinois. The final college football contest played there was on October 19, 1991, when the Northwestern Wildcats played a neutral site "home" game against the Buckeyes. While Northwestern received the home team's share of the gate receipts, Buckeye fans made up the vast majority of the crowd.

Concerts.

In addition to sporting events, the stadium hosted a number of other events including concerts. The first concert held at the stadium, featuring the Beatles, took place in 1966. From 1974 to 1980, the World Series of Rock concerts were held each summer featuring acts such as the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, the Beach Boys and Aerosmith. The Rolling Stones' July 1, 1978 concert of 82,238 attendees was reportedly the first concert to gross over $1 million.  In the 1980s and 1990s, the stadium hosted concerts by the Jacksons, Bruce Springsteen, U2, the Who and Paul McCartney, plus more concerts by Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones.  On September 2, 1995, the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was celebrated with an all-star concert which featured Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Jerry Lee Lewis and others.

Religious events.

The stadium also hosted numerous religious services. Its most heavily attended event was the Roman Catholic Church's Seventh Eucharistic Congress, hosted by the Diocese of Cleveland in 1935, which attracted 75,000 to a midnight mass on September 24, 1935 and an estimated 125,000 to Eucharistic service the following day. One of the stadium's last events was a Billy Graham crusade, held in 1994.

Popular culture.

Several scenes for the motion picture, "The Fortune Cookie", were filmed during the game between the Browns and the visiting Minnesota Vikings on October 31, 1965. Much of the 1949 movie "The Kid from Cleveland", in which Bob Feller, Lou Boudreau, Bill Veeck and Satchel Paige played themselves, was filmed there. Despite being set in the stadium, the 1989 motion picture "Major League" was not filmed in the stadium. While aerial distance shots of the stadium were used, Milwaukee County Stadium, whose grandstand interior looked similar to that of Municipal Stadium, was used for filming. Some scenes in the 1991 made-for-TV biopic "Babe Ruth", starring Stephen Lang as Ruth and with a cameo by Pete Rose as Ty Cobb, were filmed there.

Demise.

The stadium was an economic drain on the City of Cleveland, which owned it and originally operated it. In 1973, then-Browns owner Art Modell signed a 25-year lease to operate Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Modell's newly formed company, Stadium Corporation, assumed the expenses of operations from the city, freeing up tax dollars for other purposes. Also, Modell would pay an annual rent of $150,000 for the first five years and $200,000 afterwards to the city. In exchange, Modell would receive all revenue generated by the stadium. Stadium Corp invested in improvements, including new electronic scoreboards and luxury suites. However, the stadium's inadequacy was becoming apparent in any event; chunks of concrete were falling off and the pilings were starting to petrify.  Modell, mistakenly believing that his revenues were not endangered, refused to participate in the Gateway Project that built a new ballpark for the Indians and a new arena for the Cavaliers. Modell's assumptions proved incorrect, and Stadium Corp.'s suite revenues declined sharply when the Indians moved from the stadium to Jacobs Field in 1994. The following year, Modell announced plans to move the Browns to Baltimore after the 1995 season.  Modell's move of the Browns breached the team's lease, and the City of Cleveland sued. As part of the settlement, the city agreed to demolish Cleveland Stadium and build a new stadium on the same site. Modell agreed to leave the Browns' name, colors, and history in Cleveland, and the NFL agreed to have a resurrected Browns team by 1999, either by relocation or expansion. Demolition on Cleveland Stadium began in November 1996 and was completed in early 1997. of demolition debris was dumped into Lake Erie to create three artificial reefs for fishermen and divers, offshore of Cleveland and neighboring Lakewood. Construction on the new stadium began later in 1997 and it opened in August 1999 as Cleveland Browns Stadium.

Cleveland Stadium, commonly known as Municipal Stadium or Lakefront Stadium, was a multi-purpose stadium located in Cleveland, Ohio. It was one of the early multi-purpose stadiums, built to accommodate both baseball and football. The stadium opened in 1931 and is best known as the long-time home of the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball, from 1932 to 1993 (including 1932-1946 when games were split between League Park and Cleveland Stadium), and the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL), from 1946 to 1995, in addition to hosting other teams, sports, and being a regular concert venue. The stadium was a four-time host of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, one of the host venues of the 1948 and 1954 World Series, and the site of the original Dawg Pound, Red Right 88, and The Drive.

Das Cleveland Stadium war ein Stadion in Cleveland, Ohio. Es diente von 1946 bis 1995 als Austragungsort für die NFL-Spiele der Cleveland Browns und die MLB-Spiele der Cleveland Indians.


Distribution.

There are two subspecies of narrow-ridged finless porpoise, the Yangtze and the East Asian finless porpoises, the former inhabiting the Yangtze River, and the latter the coastal areas off mainland China (e.g. Chongming Island), the Penghu Islands, and coastal Vietnam, including Halong Bay. The Matsu Islands are thought to be their northern limit, and the local population in this area is physically smaller than the Indo-pacific finless porpoise. These two species overlap in the Matsu region.

Description.

As the name suggests, the finless porpoise is the only porpoise to lack a true dorsal fin. Instead there is a low, narrow ridge covered in thick skin bearing several lines of tiny tubercles. In addition, the forehead is unusually steep compared with those of other porpoises. They have fifteen to twenty-one teeth in each jaw, and, on average, fewer teeth than other porpoises, although there is some overlap, and this is a not a reliable means of distinguishing them.  Finless porpoises can grow to as much as in length, and can weigh up to, although most are smaller. Adults grow more than 1.55 m (5 ft) in length and up to 30–45 kg (65–100 lb) in weight. The flippers are moderately large, reaching up to 20% of the total body length. Adults are typically a uniform, light grey colour, although some may have lighter patches of skin around the mouth, or darker patches in front of the flippers. Newborn calves of the central and eastern subspecies are mostly black with grey around the dorsal ridge area, becoming fully grey after four to six months. However, newborn calves of the western subspecies are a light creamy grey, and become darker as they age.

Anatomy.

The anatomy of finless porpoises has been relatively well studied, compared with that of some other cetacean species. The tubercles along the dorsal ridge are known to contain numerous nerve endings is used as a sensory function. The auditory system also appears well-developed, with numerous nerve fibres specialised for rapid communication between the ears and the brain. Sight is relatively poor, however, due to the overall cloudiness of the Yangtze River; they have a reduced lens and a limited number of fibres in the optic nerve and to the muscles moving the eyes compared to the Indo-pacific finless porpoise. It is speculated that their vision is somewhat better than that of the Yangtze river dolphin.  The skeleton is light, accounting for only 5% of the total weight of the animal. There are between 58 and 65 vertebrae, about half of them in the tail, and with the first three cervical vertebrae fused into a single structure. This reduces flexibility of the neck while increasing stability in the water. There are ten to fourteen pairs of ribs in the chest, and an additional set of vestigial ribs has sometimes been reported in the neck, in association with the seventh cervical vertebra. There are 44 sets of spinal nerves. Like all porpoises, they have spade-shaped teethed designed for catching small fish and shrimp. Their skeletal design allows them to leap from the water and perform "tail stands".  The nasal passage contains nine or ten air sacs, which are capable of sealing off all air within the passage. Behind these are an additional set of vomeronasal sacs. The trachea, however, is short, with only four cartilaginous rings. The stomach has three chambers, with no caecum, and no distinct difference between the small and large intestines.  Sexual maturity is thought to occur around six years, with only one calf born at a time. Gestation is approximately one year, and lactation lasts for over six months.

Interactions with humans.

Threats.

Fishing.

Bycatch by unwary fishermen may be a factor for the ongoing decline of the Yangtze finless porpoise. Illegal fishing and hazardous gear, like gillnets, is widely used in the Yangtze river. The preferred habitat of the Yangtze Finless Porpoise overlaps extensively with the usage of gillnets, which makes the species particularly vulnerable to entanglement and subsequent drowning. However, a recent large-scale interview survey conducted in fishing communities along the banks of the Yangtze, by the IUCN, suggests that mortality due to bycatch may have decreased over the past two decades as the porpoise population has declined, and have concluded that gillnetting is unlikely to be the primary cause of their decline.

Development.

Increased traffic, pollution, and habitat degradation of the river have contributed to population declines. The increased vessel traffic may cause death from propeller strikes, and the boat noise may mask the porpoise's ability to communicate with other porpoises, as well as hindering their biosonar which compromises foraging and locomotion. Porpoise mortality associated with vessel collisions has increased substantially in recent years, in contrast to mortality from by-catch.  Widespread sand mining of the river and lake beds and banks has destroyed important habitat for porpoises and food items, as well as other environmental issues. This problem is especially serious in the Dongting and Poyang Lakes. There are currently four hundred million living along the river basin as well as thousands of factories, which together discharge tremendous quantities of domestic sewage and agricultural and industrial waste. It has not been proven that this impacts the Yangtze finless porpoise's health, fertility, or population. In April 2004, five porpoises died in Dongting Lake within a single week due to short-term exposure to pesticides, possibly in combination with long-term exposure to mercury and chromium.  Dams have major effects on river and lake ecology, and inhibit access between the river and adjoining lakes or tributaries in the Yangtze, as well as affecting migrating prey items. The Three Gorges Dam in particular has altered, and will continue to alter, downstream conditions in the Yangtze river and its connected/adjoining lakes. Construction of the Poyang Lake Dam likely to damage remaining population severely.

Conservation.

As of 2014, 505 porpoises remain in the main section of the Yangtze, with an alarming population density in Ezhou and Zhenjiang. While many threatened species decline rate slows after their classification, population decline rates of the porpoise are actually accelerating. While population decline tracked from 1994 to 2008 has been pegged at a rate of 6.06% annually, from 2006 to 2012, the porpoise population decreased by more than half. Finless porpoise population decrease of 69.8% in just a 22-year span from 1976 to 2000. 5.3%. A 2012 survey by the World Wildlife Fund indicated the rate of decline had accelerated to 13.7% per year. By 2017, the number in the Yangtze had increased to 1,012. Due to ongoing protection efforts, the porpoises have reappeared in places like Nantong, where sightings had been rare in recent years.  A majority of factors of this population decline are being driven by the massive growth in Chinese industry since 1990 which caused increased shipping and pollution and ultimately environmental degradation. Some of these can be seen in damming of the river as well as illegal fishing activity. To protect the species, China's Ministry of Agriculture classified the species as being National First Grade Key Protected Wild Animal, the strictest classification by law, meaning it is illegal to bring harm to a porpoise. Protective measures in the Tian-e-Zhou Oxbow Nature Reserve has increased its population of porpoises from five to forty in twenty five years. The Chinese Academy of Science's Wuhan Institute of Hydrobiology has been working with the World Wildlife Fund to ensure the future for this subspecies, and have placed five porpoises in another well-protected area, the He-wang-miao oxbow.  Five protected natural reserves have been established in areas of the highest population density and mortality rates with measures being taken to ban patrolling and harmful fishing gear in those areas. There have also been efforts to study porpoise biology to help specialize conservation through captivation breeding. The Baiji Dolphinarium, was established in 1992 at the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan which allowing the study of behavioral and biological factors affecting the finless porpoise, specifically breeding biology like seasonal changes in reproductive hormones and breeding behavior.

In captivity.

Finless porpoises have commonly been kept in Japan, as well as China and Indonesia. Ninety four in total have been in captivity in Japan, eleven in China, and at least two in Indonesia. Japan has had three establishments designated for breeding them, and there have been five recorded births. Three, however, died moments after birth, but two survived for several years.

The narrow-ridged finless porpoise ("Neophocaena asiaeorientalis") is a newly accepted species, by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), of porpoise endemic to the western Yangtze river in China and the East China Sea, Yellow Sea, and around Japan. There are two subspecies: the Yangtze finless porpoise ("N. a. asiaeorientalis") and the East Asian finless porpoise ("N. a. sunameri"). After the functional extinction of the Yangtze river dolphin and the rapid decreasing of population, the Chinese government has given this species the utmost conservation status of "National First Grade Key Protected Wild Animal" to ensure its survival. Global conservation agencies and charities, such as the World Wildlife Fund and IUCN, have been collaborating with the Chinese government to ensure the survival of the species.

Der Östliche Glattschweinswal ("Neophocaena asiaeorientalis") ist eine ostasiatische Walart aus der Familie der Schweinswale (Phocoenidae). Die Art wurde 1972 beschrieben, die beiden Unterarten der Art aber später dem Glattschweinswal ("Neophocaena phocaenoides") zugeordnet. Nachdem man entdeckt hatte, dass die Tiere reproduktiv voneinander isoliert sind, obwohl sie in einem relativ großen Gebiet zusammen vorkommen, wurde die Art 2011 wieder revalidiert und neu beschrieben.


Site.

The Maya site includes an 85-foot pyramid named "Las Ventanas" (The Windows); the Temple of "Las Pinturas" (The Paintings); an early royal tomb in the "Tigrillo Complex" (Ocelot Complex); and (in the "Jabalí" [Wild Boar] group some 500 mt. to the east from the central Plaza) a triadic complex similar to the H group in Uaxactún and Tikal's North Acropolis. The pyramid was constructed from ca 300 BC (base rooms) and was completed ca 50 AD.

Murals.

Discovery and reconstruction.

In 2001, in the base of a pyramid, a team led by William Saturno (a researcher for the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology) discovered a room with murals that were carbon-dated as from 100 BC, making them the oldest ones to date. Excavation started in March 2003. The murals were stabilized and a special technique was used for photographically recording the paintings. Fallen fragments were pieced together and also photographed. Detailed reconstruction drawings were made by Heather Hurst. The iconography of the mural scenes was subsequently analyzed and interpreted by project iconographer Karl Taube. Besides the murals, the oldest known Maya royal tomb was discovered in San Bartolo, by archaeologist Monica Pellecer Alecio.

Twin myth (Popol Vuh) and maize myth.

As Saturno, Stuart and Taube have argued, the murals on the northern and western walls of the chamber in the base of the temple pyramid ('Pinturas Sub-1') depict elements of Maya creation mythology reminiscent of the Popol Vuh as well as of Yucatec cosmological traditions.  The north wall mural consists of two scenes. One scene is situated in front of a mountain cave (belonging to the Flower Mountain); several persons are walking and kneeling on a large serpent. The Maya maize god is shown in the midst of a group of men and women, while receiving (or perhaps bequeathing) a vine calabash. The other scene shows four babies, with their umbilical cords still attached, surrounding a calabash, which has now split up and from which a fifth, and fully clothed male emerges. A large deity figure watches the scene.  The west wall mural has a far greater number of scenes. One part of the mural has four successive images of trees with birds, kings with the markings of the Maya Hero Twin Hunahpu, and sacrifices (consisting of fish, deer, turkey, and fragrant blossoms), to which a fifth tree has been added. The five trees are comparable to the directional trees of the Codex Borgia and to those mentioned in the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel; the associated birds represent the Principal Bird Deity. The sacrifices are comparable to those in the Year Bearer section of the Dresden Codex. The first four kings are shown piercing their penises (see picture), spilling sacrificial blood, then offering a sacrifice. The fifth figure, associated with a fifth tree belonging to the centre – the tree of life itself – is the Maya maize god. The directional representation as a whole might refer to the initial arrangement of the world.  Another part of the western mural depicts three scenes from the life of the maize god and the coronation of a king, showing divine right to rule coming from the gods, and providing evidence that the Maya had full-fledged monarchies centuries earlier than previously thought. The three maize god scenes show (1) a maize baby held by a man kneeling in the waters; (2) the maize god inside a turtle cave, dancing before two enthroned, aquatic deities; and (3) the maize god flying in the sky, or perhaps falling from the sky down into the water. Scene 3 has been suggested to represent the death of the maize deity. Alternatively, it may refer to the maize god's role as a rain bringer.

Other mythological parallels.

For an explanation of many of the mural scenes, the Popol Vuh hardly offers clues, and scholars have started to look in other directions. The three maize god scenes of the western mural, for example, have been suggested to refer to present-day Gulf Coast myths about a maize god subduing the gods of thunder and lightning and creating the conditions for agriculture. The calabash scene of the northern mural, on the other hand, may constitute (as Van Akkeren has suggested) an illustration of a Pipil myth concerning a group of young boys (rain deities) born, together with their 'youngest brother' (Nanahuatzin), from a gourd tree. In this myth, Nanahuatzin is the one who opens the Maize Mountain and introduces agriculture. At the same time, the author interprets the calabash - now taken as a vine gourd (Maya "tsu[y]") - together with its four surrounding babies as a symbol for a place of origins often mentioned in Highland Maya sources, "Suywa" or "Tsuywa", to be situated somewhere in the Gulf Coast region.

Earliest Maya inscriptions.

The earliest inscriptions which are identifiably Maya have been found at San Bartolo; they date to the 3rd century BC. In particular, an important stone block text has been found dating to around 300 BC. It has been argued that this text celebrates an upcoming time period ending celebration. This time period may have been projected to end sometime between 7.3.0.0.0 and 7.5.0.0.0 — 295 and 256 BCE, respectively. Besides this being the earliest Maya hieroglyphic text so far uncovered, it would arguably be the earliest existing glyphic evidence of a Mesoamerican Long Count calendar notation in Mesoamerica.

San Bartolo is a small pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site located in the Department of Petén in northern Guatemala, northeast of Tikal and roughly fifty miles from the nearest settlement. San Bartolo's fame derives from its splendid Late-Preclassic mural paintings still heavily influenced by Olmec tradition and from examples of early and as yet undecipherable Maya script.

San Bartolo ist der Name eines erst nach der Jahrtausendwende freigelegten archäologischen Fundplatzes im Petén-Tiefland Guatemalas. Der aus mehreren Tempelpyramiden und Platzanlagen bestehende Fundkomplex gilt als eine der frühesten Maya-Stätten in Mesoamerika.


The Dutch Radical School.

The Dutch school of radical criticism started in 1878 with a publication by Allard Pierson, who denied Pauline authorship of Galatians. He was fiercely attacked by his colleague A. D. Loman, but two years later also Loman abandoned the historicity of Paul. Similarly, W.C. van Manen, who had written a doctoral thesis defending the authenticity of 1 Thessalonians, wrote in 1889 that he had come to the same conclusions as Loman. Also the philosopher G. J. P. J. Bolland was a part of this movement. With the death of Van Manen's student G. A. van den Bergh van Eysinga in 1957, this line of scholarship at Dutch universities came to an end.  The name "Dutch Radicals" was coined by A. D. Loman, in an 1887 article reviewing Edwin Johnson (""Antiqua Mater: A Study of Christian Origins"", 1887), saying that "the author is a radical like we seldom meet among theologians and hardly ever among English theologians". The RadikalKritik article on "van Manen and the Dutch Radicals" adds that "Van Manen later spoke of the 'radical' or the 'Dutch' school (1902). The 'radical' scholars did not want to be impeded by church canons and wanted to be free in their research of the New Testament and of the history of early Christianity. This research led them to the conclusion that we do not have any authentic Pauline epistles."  The Dutch school also influenced Rudolf Steck in Switzerland, and Arthur Drews in Germany. However, the works of Adolf Harnack proved more influential, and radical criticism was almost forgotten until it was unearthed by the "Journal of Higher Criticism" in the United States.  It is now richly documented in the RadikalKritik site managed by Dr. Hermann Detering, who is reviving the complete scholarship of Radical Criticism of the Dutch Radical School, with reviews of all its members and analyses of their works, including many articles in English.  Hermann Detering's site also follows current controversies from the US, such as the criticisms raised about Bart Ehrman's recent publication of "Did Jesus Exist?" (2012), and about the series of articles published by R. Joseph Hoffmann on his blog "The New Oxonian", called "The Jesus Process: A Consultation on the Historical Jesus".

Reception.

Members of the Radical Dutch School argued against the existence of Jesus, this caused controversy. Robert Van Voorst has written that "their arguments were stoutly attacked in the Netherlands, especially by other scholars, but largely ignored out it."

Radical criticism is a movement around the late 19th century that, typically, denied authentic authorship of the Pauline epistles. This went beyond the higher criticism of the Tübingen school which (with the exception of Bruno Bauer) held that a core of at least four epistles had been written by Paul of Tarsus in the 1st century.

Als Holländische Radikalkritik oder Holländische radikale Kritik (auch Holländische radikale Schule oder Radikale holländische Schule; englisch: "Dutch radical School" et al) bezeichnet man die These einiger niederländischer Akademiker, keiner der Paulusbriefe stamme von Paulus von Tarsus, alle seien erst im 2. Jahrhundert entstanden.


Projects.

In 1965 Athfield started work on his first major project, Athfield House, for his family and a studio. Located in Khandallah, Wellington, this distinctive group of structures stands out amongst neighbouring conventional suburban houses. His early projects were constructed with a broad palette of materials including corrugated iron, plaster, stainless steel and fibre glass. As a reaction to much of the bland "Modern" architecture of the period, Athfield built in a deliberately vernacular style using features harking back to colonial buildings. His designs incorporated finials, steeply pitched roofs, timber weatherboards, verandahs and double hung windows. He was also inspired by the architecture of the Greek Islands with their exterior envelopes of continuous plaster and small windows. Conversely, he also much admired the buildings of Mies van der Rohe with their precise and refined detailing of industrial materials.  Yet another area of influence for Athfield was the geometric massing of the Japanese Metabolists. Athfield combined all these disparate elements into a highly eclectic and personal style. During the 1970s Athfield built and renovated numerous domestic houses and buildings, developing a distinctive and highly personal design approach based on the repetition of small scale elements and complex massing. Critical opposition to these 'cartoon houses' did not bother him (Manson). Another criticism of Athfield's houses were that they were built for charm and not practicality. Athfield believed, however, that "in a house, you should get a surprise every time you turn a corner and look up" (Manson).  Athfield's practice expanded during the 1980s from mainly residential work to a wider variety of community and commercial buildings. As well as continuing to work on small-scale projects, his portfolio includes churches, pubs, council flats, stadiums and commercial high-rise buildings. Athfield's best known works include Telecom Towers, Civic Square and Wellington Central Library, Jade Stadium in Christchurch and work on the design of the Bangkok rapid transport system.  He was a President of the New Zealand Institute of Architects, judged many design competitions and was a keynote speaker at many overseas conferences. His firm's later projects included Chews Lane Precinct, the Wellington Overseas Passenger Terminal redevelopment and the Wellington Marine Education Centre.  A documentary on Athfield, "Architect of Dreams", was produced for the NZ Documentary Festival.  Following the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011, Athfield was appointed as an Architectural Ambassador to Christchurch.

Awards and honours.

Athfield won over 60 national and international architecture and design awards. In 1976 he won first prize in the International Competition for the Urban Environment of Developing Countries. In 1978 he was placed first equal in a Low Cost Housing Design Competition in Fiji. He won 13 NZIA Supreme Awards for his outstanding architectural projects. In 2004 he won the New Zealand Institute of Architects' highest honour, the Gold Medal. Athfield was the first New Zealand architect to register as an APEC architect.  Athfield was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal. In the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to architecture, and in the 2015 New Year Honours he was promoted to Knight Companion of the same order.  He received a Distinguished Alumni Award in 1997 from the University of Auckland, and in 2000 he was awarded an honorary LitD by Victoria University of Wellington. Accepting his honorary doctorate on 18 April, Athfield stated:  I accept this on behalf of architects, designers, plumbers and gas fitters. We have suffered at the hands of accountants and engineers for too long.

Sir Ian Charles Athfield (15 July 1940 – 16 January 2015) was a New Zealand architect. He was born in Christchurch and graduated from the University of Auckland in 1963 with a Diploma of Architecture. That same year he joined Structon Group Architects, and he became a partner in 1965. In 1968 he was a principal partner in setting up Athfield Architects with Ian Dickson and Graeme John Boucher (Manson). Athfield died in 2015 due to complications from a routine procedure which resulted in pneumonia, at the Wellington Hospital, where he was being treated for prostate cancer.

Sir Ian Charles Athfield (* 15. Juli 1940 in Christchurch; † 16. Januar 2015 in Wellington) war ein neuseeländischer Architekt. Athfield graduierte 1963 an der University of Auckland mit dem Architekturdiplom.


Geography.

The province is elongated from southwest to northeast and is located on both sides of the Muchinga Mountains (Muchinga Escarpment), which serve as a divide between the drainage basins of the Zambezi River (Indian Ocean) and the Congo River (Atlantic Ocean). The main rivers of the province are the Luangwa River, a major left tributary of the Zambezi, and the Chambeshi River, a tributary of Lake Bangweulu, in the drainage basin of the Congo. The source of the Luangwa is located in the province.  Three national parks are located in the province. There are Lavushi Manda National Park, North Luangwa National Park, and South Luangwa National Park. The latter is shared with Eastern and Central Provinces.

History.

The creation of a province was announced by President Michael Sata in October 2011. In November 2011, the president appointed Malozo Sichone as Muchinga Province Minister. The parliament approved the creation of the province at some later date.  The province consisted originally of five districts. Chama District was transferred from the Eastern Province, and the Chinsali, Isoka, Mpika, and Nakonde Districts were transferred from the Northern Province. In 2013, Mafinga District was created by splitting Isoka District and Shiwang'andu District was created by splitting Chinsali District bringing the total number of districts to seven. In 2017, President Edgar Lungu announced the creation of two districts, which were created by splitting Mpika District into three (north, middle and south). With Mpika in the centre, the two new districts are named Kanchibiya District (north of Mpika) and Lavushimanda District (south of Mpika; named after the Lavushi Manda National Park), bringing the total number of districts to nine. Also in 2017, Chilinda District was created, bringing the total number of districts to ten.

Demographics.

As per the 2010 Zambian census, Muchinga Province had a population of 711,657 accounting to 5.42% of the total Zambian population of 1,3,092,666. There were 349,872 males and 361,785 females, making the sex ratio to 1,034 for every 1,000 males, compared to the national average of 1,028. The literacy rate stood at 63.50% against a national average of 70.2%. The rural population constituted 82.99%, while the urban population was 17.01%. The total area of the province was 87,806 km and the population density was 8.10 per km. The population density during 2000 Zambian census stood at 8.10. The decadal population growth of the province was 3.10%. The median age in the province at the time of marriage was 20.1. The average household size was 5.1, with the families headed by females being 4.1 and 5.4 for families headed by men. The total eligible voters in the province was 63.80%. The unemployment rate of the province was 6.40%. The total fertility rate was 7.0, complete birth rate was 6.4, crude birth rate was 40.0, child women population at birth was 854, general fertility rate was 175, gross reproduction rate was 2.8 and net reproduction rate was 2.1. The total labour force constituted 61.90% of the total population. Out of the labour force,67.9% were men and 56.3% women. The annual growth rate of labour force was 3.6%. Bemba was the most spoken language with 46.90% speaking it. The total population of persons with Albinism in the province stood at 1,634. The life expectancy at birth stood at 53 compared to the national average of 51.

Administration.

Muchinga is a province formed after 2000 from the existing provinces. Provincial administration is set up purely for administrative purposes. The province is headed by a minister appointed by the President and there are ministries of central government for each province. The administrative head of the province is the Permanent Secretary, appointed by the President. There is a Deputy Permanent Secretary, heads of government departments and civil servants at the provincial level. Muchinga Province is divided into ten districts, namely, Chama District, Chilinda District, Chinsali District, Isoka District, Mafinga District, Mpika District, Nakonde District, Shiwang'andu District, Kanchibiya District and Lavushimanda. All the district headquarters are the same as the district names. There are nine councils in the province, each of which is headed by an elected representative, called councilor. Each councilor holds office for three years. The administrative staff of the council is selected based on Local Government Service Commission from within or outside the district. The office of the provincial government is located in each of the district headquarters and has provincial local government officers and auditors. Each council is responsible for raising and collecting local taxes and the budgets of the council are audited and submitted every year after the annual budget. The elected members of the council do not draw salaries, but are paid allowances from the council. Muchinga is a predominantly rural district and hence there are no city or municipal councils. The government stipulates 63 different functions for the councils with the majority of them being infrastructure management and local administration. Councils are mandated to maintain each of their community centres, zoos, local parks, drainage system, playgrounds, cemeteries, caravan sites, libraries, museums and art galleries. They also work along with specific government departments for helping in agriculture, conservation of natural resources, postal service, establishing and maintaining hospitals, schools and colleges. The councils prepare schemes that encourage community participation.

Transportation.

The TAZARA Railway, which connects Kapiri Mposhi and eventually Lusaka with Tanzania crosses the province from southwest to northeast.  A road connecting Kapiri Mposhi and eventually Lusaka with Tanzania (The T2 Route) runs through the province, passing Mpika and Isoka (and bypassing Chinsali) (Known as the Great North Road). In Mpika, another major road branches north to Kasama and Lake Tanganyika (the M1 Route. Chama is connected with Lusaka by a different road which follows the Luangwa River and passes Petauke and Nyimba, connecting to the Great East Road.

Muchinga Province is one of the ten provinces of Zambia. It is located in the northeast of the country and borders with Tanzania in the north, Malawi in the east, Eastern Province in the south, Central Province in the southwest, Luapula Province in the west, and Northern Province in the northwest. The administrative center of the province is Chinsali.

Die Muchinga-Provinz ist eine der zehn Provinzen von Sambia. Sie befindet sich im Nordosten des Staates und grenzt an Tansania im Norden, Malawi im Osten, die Ostprovinz im Süden, Zentralprovinz im Südwesten, die Provinz Luapula im Westen und die Nordprovinz im Nordwesten. Hauptstadt der Provinz ist Chinsali. Die Provinz hat 711.657 Einwohner (Zensus 2010) und umfasst 87.806 km2.


History.

During the 19th century, various fertilizer operations occupied the site. The park traces its beginnings to 1931, when conservationists purchased the land and held it until the state legislature authorized state purchase. During the Great Depression, a 356-foot, timber-and-granite pavilion was constructed by federal relief workers.  The Ellie Mitchell Pavilion is a Rustic-style building completed in 1936 by the Works Progress Administration. The curved masonry building stands more than long and wide. It is the largest Depression-era structure in the state.

Features.

Construction began in the early 1930s as part of an effort to ease crowding at Hammonasset State Park. Much of its timber and granite were drawn from local suppliers and quarries and from an abandoned fish fertilizer plant on the grounds. Supporting pillars were fashioned from trees cut from each of the state parks and forests. The pavilion was handed over to the state in October 1936 and opened as the Ellie Mitchell Pavilion. Visitors could purchase food, eat in the dining areas, and warm themselves by eight fireplaces during cooler months. In 1986, the pavilion and its surrounding were listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  The park is crossed by the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak's main line from New York to Boston, on a right-of-way first chartered in 1848 by the New Haven and New London Railroad. A 1934 footbridge carries pedestrians over the tracks between the pavilion and its parking lot. The arched steel bridge has been documented by the Historic American Engineering Record, which describes it as "an unusual surviving example of a railroad footbridge."  The park has its own exit (exit 72) on the Connecticut portion of Interstate 95. This exit is for the Rocky Neck connector, which is designated as the unsigned Connecticut Special Service Road 449.

Activities and amenities.

The park offers picnicking, saltwater fishing, saltwater swimming, a campground with 160 sites, and interpretive programs. Hiking trails lead to a salt marsh, Baker's Cave, Tony's Nose, Shipyard, and other points of interest.

Rocky Neck State Park is a public recreation area on Long Island Sound in the town of East Lyme, Connecticut, United States. The state park's include a tidal river, a broad salt marsh, white sand beaches, rocky shores, and a large stone pavilion dating from the 1930s. It is managed by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

Rocky Neck State Park ist ein State Park und Strand am Long Island Sound auf dem Gebiet von East Lyme, Connecticut. Der Aussichtspavillon ist mit 108,5 m das größte Gebäude Connecticuts aus der Zeit der Great Depression. Die Gründung des Parks geht zurück auf das Jahr 1931. Einige Naturschützer kauften zu diesem Zeitpunkt das Land, um es vor Spekulationen zu schützen, bevor der Landkauf von der Staatsregierung autorisiert wurde.


Plot.

Francesca Cunningham is a suicidal mental patient under the care of Dr. Larsen. Under hypnosis, Larsen leads her to describe her life events that brought her to attempt suicide. The film largely consists of a series of flashbacks in which Francesca talks about her life, removing successive "veils" to recover memories.  Only her second cousin and guardian, Nicholas, a crippled musician, is interested in her. Nicholas, though, is a bitter man, faintly jealous of her talent and misogynistic, with a difficult relationship with his mother. However, he is a brilliant music teacher who encourages Francesca to excel, but also to avoid all emotional entanglements. At the Royal College of Music, Peter, an American studying in London, becomes romantically interested in Francesca. Although she is initially unresponsive, Francesca and Peter later become engaged, but she has not yet reached her maturity (then 21) and Nicholas, as her guardian, withholds his consent and insists she leave for Paris with him the next morning. She completes her education and begins her music career on the continent.  Years pass. Nicholas and Francesca return to Britain when she is invited to perform at the Royal Albert Hall, but she discovers Peter has married someone else. An artist, Maxwell Leyden, is invited by Nicholas to paint her portrait; they soon fall in love and agree to live together. Still apparently her guardian, Nicholas becomes angry at the news and strikes her hands with his cane while she plays. She flees from him, but, while with Max, is involved in a serious car accident and suffers burns to her hands. Francesca becomes convinced she will never play again.  After therapy—and now cured, according to Dr Larsen—Francesca realizes that Nicholas is her real love rather than Peter (now divorced) or Max.

Production.

According to Mason, the original script concluded with Francesca choosing Peter. Mason and his then wife Pamela Kellino both believed that ending to be "wrong" and "rather dull."  The film score was written by Benjamin Frankel (credited as Ben Frankel) with original piano works by Chopin, Mozart, and Beethoven, as well as parts of the Grieg and Rachmaninoff 2nd piano concertos.  Eileen Joyce, whose name does not appear in the credits, was the pianist who substituted for Todd on the soundtrack. She also made a short film for Todd to practise to, and even coached Todd personally in her arm movements. It is Joyce's hands that are seen in all the close-ups.

Reception.

Filmed on a relatively low budget of under £100,000, the film was the biggest British box-office success of its year. According to "Kinematograph Weekly" the 'biggest winners' at the box office in 1945 Britain were "The Seventh Veil", with "runners up" being (in release order), "Madonna of the Seven Moons", "Old Acquaintance", "Frenchman's Creek", "Mrs Parkington", "Arsenic and Old Lace", "Meet Me in St Louis", "A Song to Remember", "Since You Went Away", "Here Come the Waves", "Tonight and Every Night", "Hollywood Canteen", "They Were Sisters", "The Princess and the Pirate", "The Adventures of Susan", "National Velvet", "Mrs Skefflington", "I Live in Grosvenor Square", "Nob Hill", "Perfect Strangers", "Valley of Decision", "Conflict" and "Duffy's Tavern". British "runners up" were "They Were Sisters", "I Live in Grosvenor Square", "Perfect Strangers", "Madonna of the Seven Moons", "Waterloo Road", "Blithe Spirit", "The Way to the Stars", "I'll Be Your Sweetheart", "Dead of Night", "Waltz Time" and "Henry V".  The film was entered into the 1946 Cannes Film Festival and won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay (for Sydney and Muriel Box) in 1946. The film has the 10th top audience of all films, 17.9 million, placing it above most modern box-office successes.  The movie also earned over $1 million in rentals in North America.  By July 1953, it had earned a reported £253,000 in the UK.  In 1951, Ann Todd, Herbert Lom and Leo Genn appeared in a stage adaptation in London.  In 2004, the British Film Institute compiled a list of the 100 biggest UK cinematic hits of all time based on audience figures, as opposed to gross takings. "The Seventh Veil" placed 10th in this list with an estimated attendance of 17.9 million people.

Radio adaptation.

On 5 October 1946, "This Is Hollywood" presented "The Seventh Veil". Ray Milland and Ann Todd starred in the adaptation.
The Seventh Veil was also presented on the Lux Radio Theatre on September 15, 1947, starring Joseph Cotten and Ida Lupino; and, on December 13, 1948, starring Ingrid Bergman and Robert Montgomery.
"The Seventh Veil" was presented on "Philip Morris Playhouse" 3 February 1952. The 30-minute adaptation starred David Niven and University of Oklahoma student Edrita Pokorny.

The Seventh Veil is a 1945 British melodrama film directed by Compton Bennett and starring James Mason and Ann Todd. It was made by Ortus Films (a company established by producer Sydney Box) and released through General Film Distributors in the UK and Universal Pictures in the United States. The screenplay concerns a woman who attempts suicide to escape her cruel guardian.

Der letzte Schleier (Originaltitel: "The Seventh Veil") ist ein britisches Melodram von Compton Bennett aus dem Jahr 1945. Die Hauptrollen spielen Ann Todd und James Mason. Der Film gewann bei der Oscarverleihung 1946 den Preis für das beste Originaldrehbuch. Die Veröffentlichung war in Großbritannien am 18. Oktober 1945, in den USA am 15. Februar 1946. Im selben Jahr lief der Film auch in Deutschland an. 2012 erschien "Der letzte Schleier" in Großbritannien auf DVD.


Military captives.

By June 2014, according to United Nations reports, ISIL had killed hundreds of prisoners of war and over 1,000 civilians. Specific incidents involving the killing of military prisoners including the mass killing of up to 250 Syrian Army soldiers near Tabqa Air base, and killings that took place in Camp Speicher (1,095–1,700 Iraqi soldiers shot and "thousands" more "missing") and the Shaer gas field (200 Syrian soldiers shot). ISIL was reported to have beheaded about 100 foreign fighters as deserters who tried to leave Raqqa.  Muath Al-Kasasbeh, a Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot whose F-16 fighter aircraft crashed near Raqqa, Syria, on 24 December 2014 during the international military intervention against ISIL, was captured by ISIL, and on 3 February 2015 released a video showing al-Kasasbeh being burned to death while trapped inside a cage.

Civilian captives.

Among the known killings of religious and minority group civilians carried out by ISIL are those in the villages and towns of Quiniyeh (70–90 Yazidis killed), Hardan (60 Yazidis killed), Sinjar (200–500 Yazidis killed), Ramadi Jabal (60–70 Yazidis killed), Dhola (50 Yazidis killed), Khana Sor (100 Yazidis killed), Hardan (250–300 Yazidis killed), al-Shimal (dozens of Yazidis killed), Khocho (400 Yazidis killed and 1,000 abducted), Jadala (14 Yadizis killed)<ref name="OHRCHR/UNAMI"></ref> and Beshir (700 Shia Turkmen killed), and others committed near Mosul (670 Shia inmates of the Badush prison killed), and in Tal Afar prison, Iraq (205 Yazidis killed for refusing conversion). The UN estimated that 5,000 Yazidis were killed by ISIL during their Northern Iraq offensive in August 2014.

Journalists.

ISIL has tortured and murdered local journalists, creating what Reporters Without Borders calls "news blackholes" in areas controlled by ISIL. ISIL fighters have reportedly been given written directions to kill or capture journalists.

Aid workers.

ISIL has also murdered aid workers.

Executions by ISIS refers here to killing by beheading, immolation, shooting or other means of military and civilian people (such as captives and "criminals") by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). ISIL has released a number of propaganda/publicity videos of beheadings or shootings of captives. Houtat Sulūk is reported to be a mass grave.

Die Liste von Hinrichtungen durch den IS enthält Fälle von hingerichteten Personen durch die terroristisch agierende salafistische Miliz "Islamischer Staat" (IS), die in den Medien aufgegriffen wurden und darf nicht als umfassende oder gar vollständige Darstellung aller Hinrichtungen durch den IS verstanden werden. Der IS untermauert seinen Anspruch auf Macht durch Hinrichtungen, darunter auch viele Massenhinrichtungen und beruft sich dabei auf seine Interpretation der Scharia. Mitte November 2014 gingen Beobachter von mindestens 1.500 Exekutionen allein in Syrien aus. Häufig werden Bildaufnahmen über die sozialen Medien verbreitet, welche von dem IS als Propaganda für die eigene Sache gesehen werden. Bei der Hinrichtung ausländischer Geiseln trat bis zu seinem Tod durch einen Drohnenangriff am 12. November 2015 meist auch ein Täter in Erscheinung, der von den westlichen Medien als Jihadi John bezeichnet wurde.


Early Life.

Stevens was born on May 19, 1950 in Pretoria, Transvaal. His mother was often ill, lost a lung in a car accident, and died when Stevens was in his 30s; his father owned a small typewriter repair business. Stevens became interested in snakes at the age of 12, and by the time he finished school, his reptile collection included some of the most exotic and venomous species in the world. He traces his adventurous streak back to his grandfather from Bristol, England and part founder of the AJS Motorbike Corporation.

Career.

Following his time in the army, Stevens was a member of various motorcycle gangs, but gave up motorcycles in 1974 after suffering a near-fatal accident during a race. After being offered and accepting a job at the Transvaal Snake Park, near Johannesburg, which rekindled his passion for wildlife, he became the curator of reptiles at the Transvaal Snake Park, where he spent six years undergoing hands-on training to become a fully qualified herpetologist, photographer and filmmaker.  After leaving the Transvaal Snake Park, he took up a position as Curator of Herpetology at the Nordharzer Schlangenfarm in Germany, a park which he helped design and bring into operation before returning to South Africa, where he took up the position as Curator of Reptiles at the Hartbeespoort Dam Snake and Animal Park. In an effort to generate funds and public interest in the plight of African gorillas, Stevens set a record by spending 107 days and nights in a glass cage with 36 of the most venomous and dangerous snakes in India. On the 96th day, he was bitten by an Egyptian cobra but to many people's amazement, he refused to leave the cage and was instead treated inside the cage. Although very sick from the snakebite, Stevens recovered and completed the 107 days, beating the existing Guinness World Record (documented in the Guinness Book of Animal Records). His world record has never been duplicated nor broken, though there have been a number of other attempts at similar records (records attempted with different conditions and snakes to Stevens' record.) Stevens authored a book entitled "Snakes in my Bed" from the experience.  Thereafter, Stevens moved to Namibia, where he became involved in wildlife photography and filmmaking.  Stevens' career in herpetology also included hosting a TV programme called "". The show aired on Animal Planet in the United States and 5 in the United Kingdom. For season two, the series was rechristened "", which, in a similar vein to fellow Animal Planet shows "The Crocodile Hunter" and "The Jeff Corwin Experience", began focusing on other animals, such as rhinos and hyenas, along with snakes; the show was presented in high definition and broadcast a total of 28 episodes before ending in 2009. His book "The Last Snake Man" was published in the UK by Noir Publishing.  Stevens never received any formal photography training and says he does not have a large collection of camera gear, preferring to keep his kit compact. In many early episodes of "Austin Stevens: Snakemaster", he can be seen using a Canon EOS 50E and a Canon 300D later. In the second season, he uses a Samsung GX-10, which he attaches both Samsung and Pentax lenses to. He also uses a Samsung Pro815 and an unspecified Sony Cybershot model for general use.

Personal life.

In December 2007, Austin Stevens married his second wife Amy, a young python keeper from Australia. Following the marriage, Stevens relocated to Australia. They separated in 2019 after allegations that Stevens had an affair with a Burmese python.  In September of 2016, Stevens revealed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

Works.

Some of his credits:  Books: DVDS:

Austin Stevens (born 19 May 1950) is a South African-born Australian naturalist, herpetologist, wildlife photographer, documentarian, television personality, and author. He is best known as the host of the Animal Planet nature documentary series "" (2004−09).

Austin Stevens (* 19. Mai 1950 in Pretoria) ist ein südafrikanischer Dokumentarfilmer, Abenteurer, Tierfotograf und Autor. Überwiegende Bekanntheit erlangte er in seiner Sendung "Austin Stevens – Der Gefahrensucher", welche 2001 zum ersten Mal im Fernsehen auf dem TV-Sender Animal Planet zu sehen war.


Plot.

The film is set in a village built on the slopes of a volcano, where Maria and her parents cultivate coffee. The villages like other Mayan practice a mixture of Catholicism and the traditional Mayan religion, worshiping the Christian God while also making offerings to the goddess that they believe lives inside of the volcano. Maria has never been beyond the volcano and her world is the village. Maria has been promised to the foreman of the plantation, Ignacio, in an arranged marriage, but Maria is involved with a young man, Pepe, who wants to emigrate to the United States. Pepe gives uncertain answers when she asks him if he would take her with him. Pepe paints a picture of America to Maria as a land of plenty and promise, a place where the people enjoy a level of affluence that is unthinkable in Guatemala.  Meanwhile, the plantation is overridden with poisonous snakes, making it hazardous for Maria and her family to sow the fields. Ignacio goes away to the city for a while, saying he will marry Maria upon his return. The virgin Maria becomes curious about sex, drinks nectar from an aphoristic tree, and masturbates against the tree trunk. Empowered, Maria seduces Pepe outside of the makeshift bar that serves the coffee workers while he tells her that there is no danger of pregnancy. As a result of her affair with Pepe, Maria becomes pregnant. Pepe promises to take Maria with him when he leaves for America, but does not.  Maria's parents are furious when they learn she is pregnant, saying that Ignacio will have them evicted. Juana, Maria's mother, tries various folk remedies to induce an abortion, none of which work, leading her to the conclusion that the child is meant to be born. Maria argues that if the snakes are driven away, a new crop coffee will be planted in the field, which would require the labour of her parents, making it impossible for the landlord to evict them. Maria and Juana burn the field, but the snakes return. After Juana tells her that being pregnant endows her with a magical "light" that will chase away the snakes as her body becomes a metaphorical volcano, Maria becomes convinced that if she walks across the field, her "light" will drive away the snakes. Maria sees a Mayan shaman who performs a ceremony to stoke the "light" inside of her, but Juana tries to dissuade her, saying not all magic is real. In an attempt to drive the snakes away by walking across the field, Maria is bitten and driven to the hospital in a nearby city.  At the hospital, the Spanish-speaking staff do not understand Kaqchikel, making it impossible for Maria to understand what is being said to her or the form she is asked to initial. She survives but is told by the nurse that her baby died. Maria and her family go home with a coffin. Maria demands to look inside the coffin because she wants to see her daughter but upon opening it, she finds an empty coffin with a brick and a blanket. Maria and her family return to the city to report the missing child. However, instead of helping, the Spanish-speaking police officers who do not understand Kaqchikel advise the family not to file a complaint, because Maria and her family would be the primary suspects in the case. The film ends with a resigned Maria being dressed as a traditional Mayan bride as she prepares to marry Ignacio.

Production.

It has a largely non-professional cast.

Reception.

In a negative review, Scott Marks in "San Diego Reader" called "Ixcanul" a "dilatory drama" whose slow pace would alienate most audiences. Daniel Barnes wrote: "A frank depiction of sexuality is one of the film’s strongest assets, but the attempts to force melodrama fall flat, and the protagonist is such a moon-faced cipher that it feels almost insultingly respectful. There’s nothing glaringly wrong with "Ixcanul", it’s just hard to get whipped up for stoicism."  Ed Frankel wrote in a laudatory review: "Guatemala’s first-ever entry for the foreign language Oscar is an absorbing, beautifully-shot drama of cultural ritual and the drive of one young woman to escape a rudimentary social system." In a review in "The Washington Post", Stephanie Merr wrote: "María Mercedes Coroy is riveting, especially as the story takes a turn for the tragic. Few actors convey so much with little more than a deadpan expression. Telón, as the outspoken, larger-than-life Juana, is her perfect counterbalance. Even when she’s disappointed with María, she can’t hide the profound love she feels for her only child...It all looks fascinatingly foreign to American eyes, but María’s story — about rebellion and consequences, oppression and heartbreak — is anything but."  Alex Midgal wrote in "The Globe & Mail": "Like its titular Guatemalan volcano, Jayro Bustamante's hypnotic film debut "Ixcanul" bubbles with the tension of a teenage girl at odds with her family's native customs, before erupting into a frantic and quietly devastating third act." Alisssa Wilkinson wrote in her review: "Shot luminously by Luis Armando Arteaga, each frame holds steady on its subject, inviting the audience to calmly observer the daily routines and customs of its subjects in saturated colors that seem almost to glow".  The critic Frank Ochieng wrote in his review: "Writer-director Jayro Bustamante’s absorbing and revealing debut feature, "Ixcanul", paints a disturbing portrait that crosses the fine line between tradition and exploitation in the name of the Guatemalan children sacrificed to uphold economical expectations among other considerations. The indigenous existences of children globally are jeopardized through ritualistic justifications that many find vehemently inexcusable and horrifying...Ironically, the only true element that is systematically explosive about "Ixcanul" is not the proximity of the aforementioned volcano, but the voiceless and powerless minor that does not have a decent say about the psychological and physical loaning of her body to the highest child-exploitive bidder. Unconscionable and regrettably humanistic in tragedy and deemed practicality, "Ixcanul" is strikingly hypnotic and forceful among the nearby ominous alert of lava-spewing anticipation." David Lewis wrote in his review: ""Ixcanul", which takes place near a volcano in Guatemala, is a lyrical film that plays like a well-done "National Geographic" special — until it unexpectedly turns lava-hot.Throughout, "Ixcanul" impresses with its attention to detail, chronicling the daily routines of a Mayan coffee-farming village, an isolated place where cars, cell phones and televisions appear to be nonexistent. The ashen volcano hovers ominously, a symbol of pent-up feelings and a smoldering conflict between modernity and tradition."  Andrew Parker wrote in his review: "It often feels like there are a few different movies going on within "Ixcanul" at the same time, but they’re all well constructed enough to make it come together as a mostly cohesive whole. It will definitely be interesting to see where Bustamante goes from here." Dianne Carson wrote about "Ixcanul": "Beautifully shot with local residents represented in the cast, the story gains momentum and tragic dimensions as it progresses," Nathaniel Hood wrote in his review: "The film is comfortably languid, interposing Maria’s tribulations with the rhythms of everyday life: comings and goings, bouts of drunkenness and lovemaking, moments of stillness and silence. The plot takes off in the last third following a disastrous misjudgment leaving Maria next to dead. After being taken to a hospital, healthcare workers manipulate the language barrier between them and Maria’s family to seize her baby, telling her that it died and giving them a coffin with a brick wrapped in cloth in place of the body."  In a review, J. Don Birnam wrote: "It is stunning that, by the end of the film, one is so immersed into the lives of these characters, of their culture and traditions, that when they are thrust into what should be (for us) the more comfortable space of the city and modern civilization, the contrast is jarring and unsettling. The greatest success of the film is that we are made to feel as though we have come to deeply understand a culture that is so deeply unfamiliar to us. In doing so, the movie touches upon many of the challenges and injustices faced by indigenous American peoples, including their inability to communicate, their lack of access to medicine, and more brutal things like corruption at the hands of authorities". Jay Kuehner wrote: "Bustamente thus lays the foundation of a story that’s ancient and modern, old as the cinder hills that the family navigates to offer prayers. Enter men into this picture and a tragic element emerges beneath the agrarian routine of harvest, drinking, and waiting for pay. Tempting the mythological, there is a surfeit of snakes in the land these people toil." In a review for the "Asahi Shimubm", Claudia Puig wrote: ""Ixcanul" is a mesmerizing, intimate and meditative coming-of- age tale that explores a culture rarely seen in films".  Justin Chang in "The Los Angeles Times" wrote: "Yet even as it moves from tender ethnographic portraiture into a realm of hushed, intimate tragedy, "Ixcanul" quivers with a fierce if understated feminine energy. You can feel it in the women’s honest, matter-of-fact acknowledgments of desire (notably, every sexual encounter in the picture is initiated by a female). And the movie’s true hero is arguably not María but Juana, wonderfully played by Telón as a pillar of big-hearted resilience even as she acknowledges the limitations of her knowledge. In the story’s most devastating moment, Juana cradles her daughter in her arms in the back of a moving truck, weeping as they race the clock toward an uncertain future." In a review in "The Manchester Guardian", Jordan Hoffman wrote: "What’s most striking about "Ixcanul" is the elegant way in which it is shot. Scenes are given space, and the audience is allowed ample time to soak up the atmosphere. This is the type of movie that stays with you. The next time I buy a can of coffee, I’ll be more cognisant of where it came from."  In a review in the "New York Times", Jeannette Catsolius wrote: "More than a fable about the clash of tradition and modernity, "Ixcanul" is finally a painful illustration of the ease with which those who have power can prey on those who don't". Nathaniel Rogers wrote in his review: "The volcano, in addition to being a beautiful and alien visual backdrop for a movie is also a monolithic wall, blocking their view of the rest of the world; Mexico and the United States, to the North, are more myth than reality. The family hopes to marry their sexually curious daughter off to their comparatively rich boss and thereby lift all their futures. Needless to say, things don't go as planned. While the actions of nearly all the characters are often enraging, "Ixcanul" is never mean spirited, condemning the exploitation of their ignorance rather than the ignorance itself...Bustamante's well crafted film is authentically steeped in a nearly alien culture but its humanity is entirely familiar."  Sean Axmaker praised the film, writing: "The feature debut of Guatemalan filmmaker Jayro Bustamante is a beautiful and unsentimental portrait of traditional Mayan culture where peasants live in huts without electricity or running water and speak their native Kaqchikel, unable to communicate with the Spanish speakers from the nearby city without an interpreter...Like all of the cast members, Coroy is not a professional actress but her enigmatic face and impassive expression is mesmerizing and she communicates a longing for something more and the determination to stand up for herself. The landscape is stunning, vast and beautiful and dangerous, and beyond the jungle is the massive monolith of black rock and ash that seems to trap them in their poverty." Radheyan Simonpillai likewise praised the film, writing: "Whether we’re closely gazing at Maria or watching her stride along the ashy volcano’s side from a distance, Bustamante lets images linger long enough for their beauty to fall away, giving us a compelling and tragic look at where our coffee comes from." Kelly Vance described the film as "Jayro Bustamante's gorgeously photographed "Ixcanul" is the ideal village-picture fable, as fascinating for its innate mythology as for its ethnography." Michael Atkinson lauded the film, writing: "Touching on multiple feminist issues as it goes, and even venturing, gallingly, into the matter of baby trafficking, "Ixcanul" can suffer from predictability—Bustamante's desire to universalize Maria's arc sometimes makes it end up feeling familiar. But the film's rhythms, details and visuals, particularly that volcano, are vivid and unique."

Ixcanul (Kaqchikel for "volcano") is a 2015 Guatemalan drama film, a debut written and directed by Jayro Bustamante. It was screened in the main competition section of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Alfred Bauer Prize. The film was selected as the Guatemalan entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards but was not nominated. It is the first film produced in the Kaqchikel language of the Mayan family.

Al-Mayasa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani (, geboren 1983 in Doha, Emirat Katar) ist die Vorsitzende der Museumsbehörde des Emirates Katar (Qatar Museums Authority), der zum Beispiel das Museum für Islamische Kunst, das Arabische Museum für moderne Kunst und die QMA Gallery unterstehen; weitere Museen sind geplant. Außerdem ist sie Leiterin des von ihr 2010 gegründeten Film-Instituts in Doha.


The attacks.

Radisson SAS.

At the Radisson SAS Hotel (now known as the "Landmark Hotel"), two suicide bombers (a husband and wife team—Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari and Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi)—entered the Philadelphia Ballroom, where Ashraf Akhras and his bride, Nadia Al-Alami, were celebrating their wedding with around 900 Jordanian and Palestinian guests. Sajida al-Rishawi was unable to detonate her belt. Her husband Ali al-Shamari, apparently admonished her and told her to get out of the room. As she was leaving, the lights went out in the ballroom, Ali jumped onto a dining-room table and detonated himself. Among the 38 people killed in the explosion were the fathers of the bride and groom. In addition, the explosion destroyed the ballroom, blew out the large windows bordering the street, and knocked down ceiling panels. The hotel lobby was also affected: ceiling panels and light fixtures collapsed, furniture was destroyed, and the hotel's glass doors were shattered. Cleanup and rebuilding commenced shortly afterwards. The hotel was actually targeted in the 2000 millennium attack plots nearly six years prior, but the plan was foiled.

Grand Hyatt.

The second blast happened about 500 yards (457 metres) from the Radisson SAS. It destroyed the hotel's entrance and brought down pillars and ceiling tiles, along with badly damaging the reception and bar areas. After the bomber ordered orange juice in the hotel's coffee shop, he went to another room (possibly to get his explosive belt) and then came back and detonated his bomb. Seven hotel employees were killed in this blast, as were Syrian-American movie producer Moustapha Akkad and his daughter, Rima. Akkad, who is best known for producing the "Halloween" series of slasher films, was also the producer of "Mohammad, Messenger of God". At the time of his death, he was in the early stages of producing a film about Saladin, the Kurdish Muslim leader who expelled the Crusaders from the Levant. Hyatt began cleanup shortly after the attacks and reopened their hotel on November 19.

Days Inn.

At the Days Inn, the bomber entered the restaurant on the hotel's ground floor. He tried to detonate his explosive belt but had trouble; a waiter noticed this and called security. The bomber ran outside the hotel and successfully detonated himself, killing three members of a Chinese military delegation. Property damage at the Days Inn was expected to amount to around $200,000.

Casualties.

According to one Jordanian official, Maj. Bashir al-Da'aja, early in the investigation, local authorities confirmed a series of coordinated suicide attacks as the cause of the blasts. Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister Marwan al-Muasher initially announced that at least 67 people had died and 300 people had been injured. However, the Jordanian government subsequently revised the number of casualties down to at least 59 dead and 115 injured.  Among the dead were thirty-six Jordanians, mostly from a Muslim wedding, including the fathers of both the bride and groom. The rest were six Iraqis, five Palestinians, four Americans, two Arab-Israelis, two Bahrainis, three Chinese delegates of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), one Saudi, and one Indonesian citizen. Famous filmmaker Moustapha Akkad died with his daughter. The Palestinian fatalities included Major-General Bashir Nafeh, the head of military intelligence in the West Bank, Colonel Abed Allun, a high-ranking Preventive Security forces official, Jihad Fatouh, the commercial attache at the Palestinian Embassy in Cairo, and Mosab Khorma, a senior Palestinian-American banker and former Paltel CEO. Both of the Israeli fatalities were Arabs. One was Husam Fathi Mahajna, a businessman from Umm al-Fahm, the other was an unidentified resident of East Jerusalem.

Suspects.

Jordanian police initially stated that there were at least four attackers (the fourth, a female, was later captured), including a couple, who spoke Iraqi-accented Arabic. A number of Iraqis were among the more than 100 suspects who were arrested in the following days. Police claimed to have found maps that were used in planning the attack. On November 12, Jordan's Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher confirmed that the attackers were Iraqi and that there were only three suicide bombers.  On November 13, King Abdullah announced the arrest of a woman believed to be a fourth would-be suicide bomber, whose explosive belt failed to detonate. The three dead suicide bombers were identified, and their names were announced by Deputy Prime Minister Muasher. They were Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari (SAS Radisson), Rawad Jassem Mohammed Abed (Grand Hyatt), and Safaa Mohammed Ali (Days Inn). The woman in custody was identified as Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi. She was married to al-Shamari and intended to blow herself up at the Radisson. Muasher also said that she was the sister of a close aide of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Rishawi was executed in February 2015 in response to the murder of Jordanian air force pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh by ISIL.

Perpetrators.

An internet statement released the day after claimed that the bombers were: Abu Khabib, Abu Muaz, Abu Omaira and Om Omaira, all Iraqis.  Al-Qaeda in Iraq immediately claimed the attack on a website, saying they were trying to hit "American and Israeli intelligence and other Western European governments".  The Radisson hotel was previously an Islamist target during the 2000 millennium attack plots. Jordanian police foiled the original attempt after arresting Khadr Abu Hoshar, a Palestinian militant, along with 15 others on December 12, 1999. It is believed that some of the hotels are frequented by American, Israeli, and European military contractors, journalists, business people, and diplomats, and the city itself has long been described as a "gateway" for Westerners into Baghdad and Iraq at large, leading many to entertain the possibility of a connection between the Amman bombings and the War in Iraq.

Response.

Domestic.

- King Abdullah II cut short a state visit to Kazakhstan and returned to Jordan, where he pledged that "justice will pursue the criminals" and condemned the attacks. King Abdullah also cancelled an upcoming visit to Israel.  Jordanians reacted to the bombings with outrage. Thousands of people in Amman participated in protests against the bombings, chanting "burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi". King Abdullah and Queen Rania visited several victims of the bombings in hospital. The King said "The pain you felt for the loss of your beloved ones, who were killed for no crime they committed, was shared by all Jordanians, regardless of their origins or religions." A relative of one of the victims presented a copy of the Qur'an to Abdullah during his visit to the hospital.  The family of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Khalayleh tribe, took out half-page advertisements in Jordan's three main newspapers, to denounce him and his actions. 57 members of the al-Khalayleh family, including al-Zarqawi's brother and cousin, also reiterated their strong allegiance to the king. The ads said,"As we pledge to maintain homage to King Abdullah and to our precious Jordan... we denounce in the clearest terms all the terrorist actions claimed by the so-called Ahmed Fadheel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, who calls himself Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi... We announce, and all the people are our witnesses, that we - the sons of the al-Khalayleh tribe - are innocent of him and all that emanates from him, whether action, assertion or decision.... We sever links with him until doomsday."

International.

United Nations - Secretary-General Kofi Annan had planned to visit Jordan on November 10, 2005, but postponed the trip in light of the bombings. Kofi Annan issued a statement "strongly condemning" the attacks, and underscoring the need for additional security measures against terrorist attacks worldwide.

New anti-terror measures.

After the incident, Jordanian government pledged to take new anti-terror measures to ensure that this would not happen again. No major successful terrorist attacks have since been reported in the country.

The 2005 Amman bombings were a series of coordinated bomb attacks on three hotel lobbies in Amman, Jordan, on 9 November 2005. The explosions at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, the Radisson SAS Hotel, and the Days Inn started at around 20:50 local time (18:50 UTC) at the Grand Hyatt. The three hotels are frequented by foreign diplomats. The bomb at the Radisson SAS exploded in the Philadelphia Ballroom, where a Jordanian wedding hosting hundreds of guests was taking place. The attacks killed 57 people and injured 115 others.

Bei der Anschlagserie in Amman am 9. November 2005 wurden in der jordanischen Hauptstadt Amman Bombenanschläge in drei Hotels verübt. Bei diesen Anschlägen wurden 60 Menschen getötet bzw. tödlich verletzt und 115 weitere Personen verletzt.


Life cycle.

The life cycle of the parasite is direct, which means that no intermediate hosts are included in transmission. It includes a trophont stage residing in the fish surface (gill epithelia, skin and fin epidermis). This stage is the feeding stage which continuously ingests cellular debris and live host cells in its epidermal location, making the parasite able to grow rapidly over a short time - depending on temperature.  When the trophont has reached a certain size (100-1000 μm), it will break out of the host epidermis and swim freely as a tomont (also covered by cilia). After minutes to hours, the tomont attaches to any surface in the fishpond or fish tank and produces a thick, gelatinous cyst wall. This is termed the tomocyst stage.  Within the tomocyst, a series of mitotic cell divisions take place and, depending on temperature, up to 1000 resulting daughter cells (tomites) are produced. These escape the tomocyst by penetrating the cyst wall, whereafter they swim in the fish tank water searching for a fish host, which they will penetrate fast and efficiently if it is naïve and non-immunized.  This life cycle is highly dependent on water temperature, and the entire life cycle takes from approximately 7 days at 25 °C to 8 weeks at 5-6 °C.

Pathology and clinical signs.

Signs and symptoms.

The infection challenges hosts’ osmoregulation and respiration. Secondary bacterial and fungal infections are common due to the disturbance of epithelial linings. When trophonts burst out of the epidermis, non-protected (non-mucous cell lined) cells become accessible to other pathogens.

Clinical signs.

Typical behaviour of clinically infected fish includes:  · Anorexia (loss of appetite)  · Increased breathing rate (hyperventilation)  · Discoloration  · Abnormal behaviour (inactivity, isolation)  · Resting on the bottom  · Flashing (rubbing and scratching against objects)  · Balance disturbance. Upside-down swimming near the surface.  Theront penetration may elicit erratic swimming and movements reflecting irritation of fish surfaces. The trophont is not visible to the naked eye until it has fed on the fish and grown to a diameter of about 0.3-0.5 millimetres. The white spots may reach more than 1 mm in diameter and are easily recognized on skin and fins whereas trophonts attached to the gills are hard to see due to the gill cover (operculum).  Skin: ICH infections are usually visible as one or several characteristic white spots on the body or fins of the fish. The white spots are single cells called trophonts, which feed on host cells (epidermal cells and leukocytes attracted to the site) and may grow to 1 mm in diameter. Heavy infections with subsequent lesions following trophont escape leave the skin irregular, fluffy and greyish.  Gills: Gill infection may cause breathing at the surface and increased ventilation movements of operculae.

Impact.

Due to the low host specificity of the parasite, ICH infection is known from all freshwater fish systems examined. However, the susceptibility and the impact differ between host species. Rainbow trout, catfish and eels are highly susceptible fish species and uncontrolled infections will lead to almost 100% mortality. Some cyprinids, such as zebrafish, have a higher innate protection and may clear the infection faster than other species.

Diagnosis.

Macroscopically visible trophonts (white spots) on skin or fins is often the basis for a tentative diagnosis of "I. multifiliis" infection. The diagnosis can be confirmed by microscopic examination of skin and gill smears. Scrapings of skin, fins or gill surfaces (using a cover slip or scalpel) and subsequent mounting on a microscope slide with a few drops of water under a cover slip should be examined under the light microscope (20-400 x magnification). The trophont is slowly rotating, covered by rapidly beating cilia and has a prominent, horseshoe-shaped macro-nucleus. Molecular diagnosis can be based on knowledge of genes encoding the parasite’s i-antigen and is performed by PCR and quantitative real-time PCR.

Treatments.

Chemicals and medicines.

Various chemotherapeutants can be applied for the treatment of infected fish and infected fish farm systems but caution should always be observed during any treatment. Some drugs are toxic to certain fish species and any treatment method must take into account the species of fish (some will not tolerate certain medications). Malachite green was previously the drug of choice but, due to its carcinogenicity, this organic dye is now banned. Formalin when applied repeatedly (30–50 mg/L) will kill infective theronts and tomonts but, due to its carcinogenicity, other chemotherapeutants should be used. Copper-sulphate, methylene blue and potassium permanganate are effective but questionable from an environmental point of view. Copper may still be applied in some countries, but it is very easy to overdose with copper. The recommended dosage is 0.15-0.3 mg/L and the concentration should never exceed 0.4 mg/L. Copper is noticeably more toxic to fish in soft water than in hard water. Drugs such as metronidazole and quinine hydrochloride are effective as well, but require prescription from a veterinary authority.  Environmentally friendly products include hydrogen peroxide and hydrogen peroxide releasing products such as sodium percarbonate and peracetic acid. These compounds can be added to the fish tank water and eliminate theronts and tomonts but do not affect the trophont stage in the fish skin. The toxicity of hydrogen peroxide is increased at higher temperatures. Sodium chloride when applied in a concentration of at least 7.5 g/L will inhibit production of infective theronts in tomocysts. When used in a concentration of 10 g/L over 14 days, the parasite can be totally eliminated from a recirculated fish farm system.  Recently, a wide series of herbal extracts have been shown as effective, including garlic juice, which has a toxic effect on theronts. Biological control has also demonstrated its potential. A lipopeptide secreted as a surfactant from the bacterium "Pseudomonas" H6 has been shown to kill theronts, tomonts and tomocysts. It is not toxic to fish, which suggests that future control can be based on environmentally friendly, natural products.

Management.

Total fish removal and repeated transfer to clean tanks may be applied. Theronts, the motile and fish-infecting stage of the ICH life cycle, exit from the tomocyst at the bottom of the tank. However, without fish to re-attach to, theronts will die within 48 hours (at higher temperatures). An effective way to clear ICH from a fish population is to transfer all of the fish carrying trophonts in their skin, fins or gills to a non-infected tank every 24 hours. Then the fish will not get re-infected and after a number of days (dependent on temperature) the fish have cleared the infection because trophonts exit within this period. They do not have sufficient time to produce theronts as 24 h is too short time for released tomonts to develop via tomocysts releasing the infective stage. Under colder water conditions, these management procedures should be continued over a longer time. Another method is to use mechanical filtration of water using mesh sizes of 80 microns. This will remove the tomonts from the water before they settle and transform to the tomocyst stage (the multiplication step).

Heat treatment.

Increasing temperature (above 30 °C) can be effective, and it can be combined with other treatments. However, it can only be used on fish that can tolerate these high water temperatures, and is unsuitable for cold water fish like trout, salmon, koi and goldfish.

Other control strategies.

Prevention.

Priority should be given to avoid introducing the parasite in the first place. New warm-water fish should be quarantined for at least four weeks and cold-water fish for eight weeks. Recognition of biosecurity measures for fish farm personnel including using a biocide foot bath, separate dress for the unit, using separate equipment and disinfecting hands before and after maintenance of each tank, will reduce the risk of spreading the parasite between units.  The host response may provide some protection. Fish recovering from an infection are partly protected against reinfection and will be able to resist a new infection. Prevention of the disease by vaccination is, at present, not possible due to the lack of a commercially available vaccine. However, several studies have identified potential vaccine candidate proteins, e.g. i-antigens and others, of the parasite, which suggests that a vaccine can be produced in the future.

Research.

Due to the occurrence and impact of "I. multifiliis" in freshwater fish farm systems worldwide, considerable research efforts are being conducted in laboratories worldwide. New drugs and herbal extracts are being tested for their impact on various stages of the parasite.  In the European H2020 supported research project ParaFishControl, a series of control methods have been explored. The parasite can be propagated in the laboratory - most successfully in the hosts ("in vivo"), but also cell cultures can support part of the life cycle ("in vitro")"." Experimental vaccines are being tested for future control purposes. Surfactants (with a high parasiticidal effect) from naturally occurring bacteria, such as "Pseudomonas", are being explored and prepared for marketing. Herbal extracts have been demonstrated to stimulate immune responses of fish (and thereby partly inhibit development of the trophont), such as rainbow trout. Management procedures, based on a basic understanding of the life cycle, can reduce the infection pressure considerably. All together, these approaches can be applied for integrated control of "I. multifiliis" infections in aquacultured fish. Due to the development of aquaculture systems – affecting the life cycle and pathogenicity of the parasites - continued research is needed in order to secure control of this parasitosis also in the future.

"Ichthyophthirius multifiliis", often termed “ICH”, is a parasitic ciliate described by the French parasitologist Fouquet in 1876. Only one species is found in the genus which also gave name to the family. Directly translated the name means “the fish louse with many children”. The parasite can infect most freshwater fish species and, in contrast to many other parasites, shows very low host specificity. It penetrates gill epithelia, skin and fins of the fish host and resides as a feeding stage (the trophont) inside the epidermis. It is visible as a white spot on the surface of the fish but, due to its internal microhabitat, it is a true endoparasite and not an ectoparasite.

Ichthyophthirius multifiliis ist ein weltweit vorkommendes Wimpertierchen, welches als gefährlichster einzelliger Parasit bei Fischen gilt und erhebliche Schäden in Aquakulturen und Aquarien verursacht. Er besiedelt die Haut und die Kiemen und verursacht die Ichthyophthiriose (Weißpünktchenkrankheit). Erste Berichte von dieser Krankheit gibt es bereits aus dem 10. Jahrhundert aus China. Ursprünglich war "Ichthyophthirius multifiliis" vermutlich ein Parasit bei Karpfen, er befällt aber andere Süßwasserfische.