Germanic languages.

English.

In modern English, augmentatives can be created with the prefixes:  Since the early 1990s, the prefix "über-" or "uber-" has also frequently been used as a borrowing from German. The suffix -zilla, expressing a monstrous quality, can also be considered an augmentative form.  In some parts of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, the prefix "auld" is used as an augmentative, and a pejorative in some cases. An example of this is using "auld'un" or "auld one" to describe one's parents/grandparents.

Dutch.

In modern Dutch, augmentatives are usually created with the prefixes:  There are also prefixes that can be used for some adjectives:

German.

In German, there are different ways to build augmentatives. They are rarely used prefixes:

Swedish.

In Swedish the way to build augmentative is to add one of many prefixes before the word. This can be done on words in most word classes. The most common prefixes are: "jätte-" "giant", "bauta-", "mega-". For example:  There are many synonyms to "jätte-", although only when "jätte-" means "very", not big. Some of these synonyms are: "as-", "gör-", "svin-", "skit-", and "ur-" although, as written above, these do not change the size of a noun but just change e.g. "gul" "yellow" to "jättegul" "very yellow". The use of prefixes to build augmentatives is quite colloquial and is seldom used in formal text and speech, where adjectives and adverbs are used instead.

Greek language.

Modern Greek has a variety of augmentative suffixes: -α, -άρα, -αράς, ́-αρος, -άκλα, -ακλάς, ́-ακλας.

Romance languages.

Italian.

Italian has several augmentatives:  Suffixes "-accio", "-accia", and "-astro", "-astra", also exist, but they are used to form pejorative words, with no properly augmentative meaning: "coltellaccio" (< "coltello" 'knife'; gives English "cutlass"); the family name "Carpaccio".

Portuguese.

In Portuguese, the most common augmentatives are the masculine "-ão" (sometimes also "-zão" or "-zarrão") and the feminine "-ona" (or "-zona"), although there are others, less frequently used. E.g. "carro" "car", "carrão" "big car"; "homem" "man", "homenzarrão" "big man"; "mulher" "woman", "mulherona" "big woman".  Sometimes, especially in Brazilian Portuguese, the masculine augmentative can be applied to a feminine noun, which then becomes grammatically masculine, but with a feminine meaning (e.g. ""o mulherão"" instead of ""a mulherona"" for "the big woman"); however, such cases usually imply subtle meaning twists, mostly with a somewhat gross or vulgar undertone (which, nonetheless, is often intentional, for the sake of wit, malice or otherwise; so, "mulherão" actually means not a big woman, but a particularly sexy one).

Romanian.

In Romanian there are several augmentative suffixes: "-oi/-oaie", "-an/-ană" etc. (masculine/feminine pairs). They originate from Latin "-ō" (acc. sg. "-ōnem"), the origin of the other Romance augmentative suffixes. The archaic form has survived unchanged in Banat (and in Aromanian) as "-on"', "-oan'e". As in other Romance languages, a feminine base word may have masculine or feminine forms in the augmentative. Examples:

Spanish.

In Spanish, -o becomes -ón and -a becomes -ona most frequently, but -ote/-ota and -azo/-aza (also meaning "-blow") are also commonly seen. Others include -udo/-uda, -aco/-aca, -acho/-acha, -uco/-uca, -ucho/-ucha, -astro/-astra and -ejo/-eja. "More detail at Spanish nouns".

Slavic languages.

Bulgarian.

In Bulgarian, as in Russian, mainly with "-ище".

Polish.

In Polish there is a variety of augmentatives formed with suffixes, for example: żaba (a frog) → żabucha / żabsko / żabisko / żabula; or kamień (a stone) → kamulec / kamior / etc.

Russian.

In Russian there is a variety of augmentatives formed with prefixes (including loans from Latin) and suffixes, including "-ище" and "-ин" for example: дом (the house) домище (great house) домина (huge house). To provide an impression of excessive qualities the suffix "-га" can be used for example: ветер (the wind), ветрюга (strong wind).

Croatian and Serbian.

In Croatian and Serbian there is a variety of augmentative nouns formed with suffixes:  Augmentative nouns are either pejoratives or hypocorisms. All augmentative nouns have female grammatical gender. Some nouns can have their augmentatives formed with different suffixes, for example, see 'kuća' above.  In "Hrvatska gramatika", Barić et al. do not classify adjectives formed with suffixes which intensify an action or property as augmentatives. The augmentative prefixes for adjectives listed in "Hrvatska gramatika" are pre- ("excessively"; or excess of a favorable property), hiper- ("hyper-"), super- and ultra-. According to "Hrvatska enciklopedija", augmentative verbs surpass their base verb with their intensity. However, by defining augmentative verbs as an action done excessively, "Hrvatska gramatika" only lists pre- ("over-") as an augmentative verb.

Semitic languages.

Arabic.

Form II of the Arabic verb often has an augmentative sense, which may indicate intensity (intensive) or repetition (frequentative).

Bantu languages.

Bantu languages' noun class markers often double as augmentative and diminutive markers, and some have separate classes that are used only as a augmentative or a diminutive.

Chichewa.

Chichewa noun class 7 prefix "chi-" doubles up as augmentative marker. For example, "chindege" which is a huge plane as opposed to "ndege" which is just a regular plane.

International auxiliary languages.

Esperanto.

In Esperanto, the "--" suffix is included before the final part-of-speech vowel. For example, "domo" (house) becomes "domego" (mansion). See Esperanto vocabulary.

Interlingua.

Interlingua does not have an augmentative suffix, but international prefixes such as "super-", "hyper-", "mega-" can be used as augmentatives. See also Interlingua grammar.

An augmentative (abbreviated ) is a morphological form of a word which expresses greater intensity, often in size but also in other attributes. It is the opposite of a diminutive.

Un augmentatif est un procédé de dérivation lexicale qui ajoute à un mot l'idée de grande taille ou de forte intensité. C'est l'opposé d'un diminutif.


History.

Before the advent of the compact disc, flexi discs were sometimes used as a means to include sound with printed material such as magazines and music instruction books. A flexi disc could be moulded with speech or music and bound into the text with a perforated seam, at very little cost and without any requirement for a hard binding. One problem with using the thinner vinyl was that the stylus's weight, combined with the flexi disc's low mass, would sometimes cause the disc to stop spinning on the turntable and become held in place by the stylus. For this reason, most flexi discs had a spot on the face of the disc for a coin, or other small, flat, weighted object to increase the friction with the turntable surface and enforce consistent rotation. If the turntable's surface is not completely flat, it is recommended that the flexi disc be placed on top of a full sized record.  In Japan, starting in the early 1960s, Asahi Sonorama published the monthly "Asahi Sonorama" magazine which included an inserted flexi disc ("Sonosheet").  Every year between 1963 and 1969, The Beatles made a special Christmas recording which was made into a flexi disc and sent to members of their fan club. While the earlier discs largely contained 'thank you' messages to their fans, the later Christmas flexis were used as an outlet for the Beatles to explore more experimental areas; the 1967 disc, for example, became a pastiche of a BBC Radio show and even included a specially recorded song entitled "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)."  In 1964, the National Geographic Society released "Song and Garden Birds of North America" which included a 12-sided clear flexidisk, bound alternating with pages giving the titles and birds on the recordings. The work was done by Arthur A. Allen and Peter Paul Kellogg of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.  The August 1965 issue of "National Geographic Magazine" included a soundsheet of the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill narrated by David Brinkley. The recording has the sounds of the funeral procession to St. Paul's, a hymn sung by the leaders of the world, and an excerpt of the funeral sermon. Excerpts from various recordings of Churchill's speeches are included. The recording ends with bagpipes accompanying Churchill's coffin to the funeral barge on the Thames, as the public phase of the funeral ends.  During the 1970s, "MAD" magazine included Soundsheets in several special editions. One was a dramatization of "Gall in the Family Fare", its parody of "All in the Family," packaged with "MAD Super Special " #11 (1973). The Summer 1980 edition of "MAD Super Special" (published in 1979) featured "It's a Super-Spectacular Day", a song with eight different versions pressed into eight concentric grooves; which version was played depended on where the needle was dropped onto the disc. Another issue included "It's a Gas", a song whose lyrics were belches. There was also a "Mad Disco" special issue containing a Soundsheet.  ABBA/Live 77 was a special single-sided promo gold flexi disc given as a bonus to children who sold magazines and books at Christmas for Jultidningsförlaget, a publishing company using door sales as their main distribution channel. The disc contained excerpts from the Swedish group's recent concert appearance in Australia.  A two-sided flexible sheet record of the songs of humpback whales (produced by Roger Payne) was included with the January 1979 issue of "National Geographic Magazine". With a production order of 10,500,000 copies, it became the largest single press run of any record at the time.  Computer magazines began to provide software in audio form "Vinyl Data" on flexi discs from June 1979 until 1986.  While flexi-discs were usually just used as occasional giveaways, from 1980 to 1982, "Flexipop" made a speciality of giving away such a disc with each edition. Compact discs and the internet have rendered flexi discs largely obsolete, but gimmick discs are still produced occasionally: Amelia’s Magazine included a one-sided Libertines flexi of "What Katie Did".  American manufacturer Eva-Tone, believed to be one of the last manufacturers of flexi discs, stopped production of the product in August 2000.  As of December 2010, Pirates Press, an independent record manufacturing company based in San Francisco, California, USA, has started production of flexi discs of various sizes and color.  In November 2010 extreme metal magazine "Decibel" began releasing flexi discs with each issue, starting with the January 2011 issue. The content on the disc features "100 percent exclusive songs" from artists that have been previously featured in the publication.  In October 2011, the Los Angeles-based record company, Side One Dummy Records, teamed up with Alternative Press to offer a Title Fight flexi disc (containing 2 previously unreleased B-Sides) along with a year of AP subscription as a limited edition offer. Due to manufacturing delays the discs arrived packaged with the November issue of AP magazine in mid December.  On April 2, 2012, Third Man Records released 1000 flexi discs tied to blue helium balloons into the air in Nashville, Tennessee. The discs contained the first release of "Freedom At 21", a track on Jack White's debut solo album, "Blunderbuss". It is estimated that fewer than 100 of the discs will ever be found and they will be a valuable collector's item for many years.  On April 20, 2012, Domino Recording Company released a zine exclusively for Record Store Day that included five individual, multi-colored flexi-discs, each containing a song by Dirty Projectors, Real Estate, Cass McCombs, John Maus, and Villagers. The Dirty Projectors disc was previewed on April 19 by frontman Dave Longstreth via a YouTube video of him playing the record on a turntable.  In 2012 Rookie online magazine released its first hardcopy edition, Rookie Yearbook One, which contained a red flexi disc with two songs written specifically for the site: "I Don't Care" by Dum Dum Girls and "Rookie" by Supercute!.  In the summer 2013 issue of German fanzine PUNKROCK!, the punk rock band Riots, based in Oslo, Norway, gave away a free 2-track exclusive flexi disc to the 200 odd subscribers of the fanzine. This flexi featured 2 tracks - Riots and We're All Slaves. This was pressed by Pirates Press out of the USA.  Shortly before the release of the 2014 Foo Fighters album "Sonic Highways" some of the pre-orders came with a cover of Two Headed Dog on Flexi-Disk  In the summer 2015, PizzaDischi, an independent record manufacturing company based in Italy, has started production of flexi discs too, in collaboration with the European Slimer Records independent label run by Panda Kid members, dedicated to limited and rare edition of worldwide artists.

In the Soviet Union.

Flexi discs were mass-produced from 1964 to 1991 by the Soviet government as inserts in the popular "Krugozor" magazine for teens. The appearance of the Soviet flexi disc was always the same, vivid blue, and the discs are familiar to virtually anyone who grew up in the Soviet Union and even the post-Soviet era. In 1969 in addition to the successful audio-magazine "Krugozor", the government also launched the audio-magazine for children "Kolobok", which also consisted of flexi disks.  Because of a shortage of vinyl recording material (and official censorship of some Western music) during the Soviet era, bootleg recordings known as "Ribs", "Bones" or "roentgenizdat" were produced on discarded medical X-ray prints. The musician Stephen Coates of UK band The Real Tuesday Weld has created the X-Ray Audio Project devoted to these.

Human League track.

"Flexi Disc" is also the title of a spoken-word track recorded by electronic band The Human League on a flexi disc which accompanied their 12" single "The Dignity of Labour" in 1978. Re-released as a bonus track on their album "Reproduction", the song is a discussion between the band members concerning the advantages and disadvantages of the flexi disc format and the possibility of including one with the album to provide commentary.

The flexi disc (also known as a phonosheet, Sonosheet or Soundsheet, a trademark) is a phonograph record made of a thin, flexible vinyl sheet with a molded-in spiral stylus groove, and is designed to be playable on a normal phonograph turntable. Flexible records were commercially introduced as the Eva-tone Soundsheet in 1962, and were very popular among children and teenagers and mass-produced by the state publisher in the Soviet government.

Un flexi disque (flexi disc, flexidisc, disque souple ou en anglais sonosheet ) est un disque microsillon fabriqué en un matériau flexible, et gravé généralement en format sept pouces (environ 18 cm) de diamètre.


Family.

He was the son of Geoffrey I of Anjou, also known as Geoffrey "Grisegonelle", and Adélaide of Vermandois. He had an older sister: Hermengarde (b. 960), who married Conan of Brittany and a younger brother Geoffrey. A half-brother, Maurice, was born in 980.  Fulk married Elisabeth de Vendôme (~979–999), daughter of Count Bouchard of Vendome, and they had a daughter: Elisabeth's death was recounted in the "Chronicles of Saint-Florent": Elisabeth occupied the citadel at Anger with some supporters and while under siege from Fulk, she suffered a fall from a great height, and then was burnt at the stake for adultery.  Fulk married Hildegarde de Sundgau, whose family was from Lorraine, around December 1005. They had two children:

Combat.

Fulk Nerra's first victory was in June 992 at Battle of Conquereuil, where he managed to defeat Conan I, Duke of Brittany. Conan's territorial ambitions had been quashed by Geoffroy Grisgonelle in 980, and seven years later, he planned an ambush on Angers while Fulk was at the crowning of Robert the Pious. Fulk and his men foiled the ambush, killing Conan's son, Alain, in the process. In 992 Fulk laid siege to Conan's castle at Nantes, but he slipped away to Conquereuil. Conan was killed in the battle, and Fulk installed a governor/regent, as the succeeding count was a child.  While Fulk and Eudes II fought many skirmishes over territory and alliances, their biggest battle occurred in July 1016 at Battle of Pontlevoy. Eudes marched 10,000 men southward toward Fulk's tower at Montboyau; meanwhile, Fulk and his much smaller group attacked him from behind. Fulk's men were routed, retreated, and Eudes, thinking the battle won, went for a swim in the Cher River. Reinforcements led by Herbert Wake-Dog of Maine arrived to help Fulk, fought and routed Eudes' surprised men. Several thousand were reported killed.

Pilgrimages.

Fulk also undertook four pilgrimages to Jerusalem--first and second as a penitent seeking forgiveness for sins and third and fourth to protect pilgrims. In 1003, Fulk traveled to Jerusalem for his first pilgrimage. The journey was across the Alps at the Grand Bernard Pass in today's Switzerland, over land to Bari in the southern Italian peninsula (a stop in Rome was usually made), by ship to the Holy Land. The travel took as long as six months, through deeply dangerous territory.  Fulk made a second pilgrimage in 1008, obliged to do so by the king as punishment after Fulk ordered the murder of an enemy. For his third and fourth trips, Fulk had a moral obligation to protect pilgrims in the years following the desecration of Jerusalem by the "Mad Caliph" Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, and provided armed security against robbers, murderers and enslavers along the route. In 1035, the third pilgrimage with Robert I, Duke of Normandy and in 1038, he made his final pilgrimage. He died in Metz in 1040 on his return from that trip, and was buried in the chapel of his monastery at Beaulieu.

Succession.

Geoffroy Martel was Count of Anjou from 1040 to 1060, but had no children from either of two marriages. The Anjou title went to his nephews, the two sons of his sister Ermengarde-Blanche (m. Geoffroy V of Château-Landon). Geoffroy III "Le Barbu" (the Bearded) was Count of Anjou from 1060 to 1098; Fulk IV Réchin (the Mouth) was count from 1098 to 1109. Fulk IV's grandson, Geoffrey Plantagenet, married Matilda, heir to the English throne, and began the House of Plantagenet line of English kings.

Fulk III, the Black (970–1040; ) was an early Count of Anjou celebrated as one of the first great builders of medieval castles. It is estimated Fulk constructed approximately 100 castles, along with abbeys throughout the Loire Valley in what is now France. He fought successive wars with neighbors in Brittany, Blois, Poitou and Aquitaine and made four pilgrimages to Jerusalem during the course of his life. He had two wives and three children.

Foulques III, dit Foulques Nerra (« le Noir »), en raison de son teint sombre, né vers 965/970 et mort à Metz le, fut comte d'Anjou de 987 à 1040. Il a marqué l'histoire de son temps par sa violence et les actions entreprises pour se racheter de ses crimes.


Early life, education and family.

Maas was born on 19 September 1966 to a Catholic, middle class family in Saarlouis, a city near the French border that is named for Louis XIV of France. His father was a professional soldier who later became a manager at Saarlouis Body & Assembly, a car plant owned by Ford Germany, while his mother was a dressmaker. He graduated from the gymnasium in 1987 and served his compulsory military service from 1987 to 1988; he thereafter worked for a year at Saarlouis Body & Assembly. From 1989 he studied law at Saarland University, and he passed his first state examination in 1993 and was called to the bar in 1996.  He lives with the actress Natalia Wörner, and has two children from a former marriage.

Political career.

Career in state politics.

Maas was first elected to the Saarland Parliament in 1996, under the mentorship of Oskar Lafontaine who would later leave the Social Democrats to found his own party. He served as Minister of the Environment, Energy and Transport from 9 November 1998 to 29 September 1999.  Maas led the SPD into the 2009 state election, in which his party only gained 24.5 percent, making it the party’s worst election result in the state.  Maas was an SPD delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2010 and 2012.  After the 2012 state election, the SPD went into coalition with the CDU, which before that election had been governing the state in coalition with the Green Party and the Liberals. While the Social Democrats and Left had won enough seats to form a coalition, Maas ruled out such an alliance in favor of a coalition with the CDU led by incumbent Minister-President Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. As deputy minister-president, he took over responsibility for the economy, transport, and employment.

Career in national politics.

Following the 2013 federal elections, Maas was part of the SPD team in the negotiations with the CDU/CSU on a coalition agreement; he was a member of the energy policy working group led by Peter Altmaier and Hannelore Kraft. On 17 December 2013, he was sworn in as the Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection in the third cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel, succeeding Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger. He left his position of Deputy Minister-President of the Saarland and Minister of Economy, Labor, Energy and Transport he was holding since 9 May 2012.  Maas earned the nickname 'Prohibition Minister' by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung for his many unapproved legislative proposals.  In June 2017, Maas disclosed to the Bild newspaper that he was the recent recipient of an unprecedented number of death threats including a bullet casing in the mailbox of his private residence. He attributed the threats to dissatisfaction with current German immigration policy.

Political positions.

Foreign policy.

Since taking office as foreign minister in 2018, Maas has been markedly tougher than his immediate predecessors – Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Sigmar Gabriel – in his rhetoric and approach towards Russia. On his first day in office, he issued a frank warning about Russian “aggression” and chastised its leadership for “defining itself in antagonism to many in the west”. Under his leadership, Germany – in coordination with its allies – expelled four Russian diplomats over Russia’s suspected involvement in the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, UK.  Also, Maas has voted in favor of German participation in United Nations peacekeeping missions as well as in United Nations-mandated European Union peacekeeping missions on the African continent, such as in Darfur/Sudan (2017 and 2018), South Sudan (2017 and 2018) and Mali (2017 and 2018).  Maas has supported the creation of an international financial system independent of the United States, including the creation of a European Monetary Fund and an independent version of the SWIFT network.  Maas supported eight anti-Israel resolutions during a UN General Assembly vote, including resolution that calls on Israel to return the Golan Heights to Syria. He also refused to join U.S. sanctions against Iran.  In October 2018, Maas questioned the sale of German arms to Saudi Arabia after the murder of Saudi opposition journalist Jamal Khashoggi.  In November 2018, Maas raised the issue of Xinjiang re-education camps and human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim minority in a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He.  Regarding the Yemeni Civil War, Maas told "Spiegel Online": "In Yemen, an unprecedented humanitarian tragedy is unfolding before the eyes of the international community...The call from Mike Pompeo and James Mattis for a ceasefire and the resumption of talks comes at the right time. We fully support their appeal."  In 8 May 2019, European Union struggle to keep preserve Iran Nuclear Deal agreement Maas said, “Our opinion is and remains: We want to preserve the agreement, in particular to prevent Iran from coming into possession of nuclear weapons, We don’t need further escalation in the region”.  In September 2019, the Chinese Foreign Ministry called a meeting between Hong Kong student activist Joshua Wong and Maas as "disrespectful of China's sovereignty and an interference in China's internal affairs".  Maas condemned the 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria and warned that the offensive would cause more destabilization in the region and could cause ISIS to grow.  On 3 January 2020, the high-level Iranian General, Qasem Soleimani, was assassinated by the United States, which considerably heightened the existing tensions between the two countries. Maas said that the airstrikes had not "made it easier to reduce tensions", but noted they "followed a series of dangerous Iranian provocations".

Homeland security.

Following the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture in December 2014, Maas told German newspaper "Bild": "The CIA's practice of torture is gruesome [...] Everybody involved must be legally prosecuted."  In early 2015, Maas successfully introduced a new law meant to mitigate radical Islamist attacks, by making it a criminal offence to travel abroad to receive military training. Shortly after, he and Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière (CDU) jointly submitted a draft law permitting the temporary retention of internet and telephone data – excluding e-mail traffic – to aid criminal investigations.

Crime and prosecutions.

In July 2015, Maas announced plans to amend Germany's penal code on sexual assault in accordance with the Istanbul Convention of the Council of Europe; the reform is to punish abuse which exploits a victim's fear of a "perceived menace" and tighten sentences in rape cases.  In August 2015, Maas initiated the dismissal and retirement of chief federal prosecutor Harald Range; his ministry had questioned Range's decision to open a much-criticized treason investigation against journalists of "netzpolitik.org" who had reported about plans of Germany's domestic spy agency – the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution – to expand surveillance of online communication. Range, meanwhile, had accused the government of interfering in the investigation.

Digital policy.

In a 2014 interview with the "Financial Times", Maas called it "not acceptable" that Google "dominates the search engine world, and is able to rank its search results in a manner apt to promote its own business interests." In 2015, he endorsed criticism expressed by Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VzBz) which held that Facebook’s data protection terms were too vague. Later that year, he publicly accused Facebook of doing too little to thwart racist posts and hate comments on the social media platform.

Anti-whistleblower law.

After the Netzpolitik scandal in 2015, where a German language blog leaked top secret documents, Maas proposed new legislation called 'Data Stolen Goods'. Ulf Buermeyer, a judge at the District Court in Berlin cautioned that this anti-whistleblower law would be a massive attack on democracy and freedom of speech.  The law was passed as Section 202d of the German Penal Code (§202d StGB) by the Bundestag on 16 October 2015.

Freedom of speech.

In early 2017, Maas proposed the "Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz" ("network enforcement law") to combat online hate speech and fake news. The United Nations responded with a letter, warning that several democratic freedoms were under attack. The proposed law was met with criticism throughout Germany from industry associations, IT experts, scientists, net-politicians, lawyers, privacy activists and civil rights campaigners who regard it as unconstitutional and defiant of EU-law and warn of "catastrophic effects for freedom of expression", causing online platforms to drastically censor online speech, resulting in privatization of legal enforcement and abolishing online anonymity.  The law was passed on 30 June 2017. It also requires social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, to publish a biannual report on received complaints and how they dealt with them. Fines of up to €50 million are possible for companies that "systematically refuse to act or do not set up a proper complaint management system" and some warn that this threat of punishment may motivate companies to delete content rather than risk punishment. In 2018, it was reported that the law had led to the deletion of one of Maas's own tweets in which he said an opponent was an "idiot".

State Trojan horse surveillance.

On 22 June 2017, Maas expanded by 27 the number of offenses for which a lawful online search using malware can be used. Experts and civil rights defenders have strongly criticized the law for being a gross provocation, violating privacy and undermining cyber-security. Maas has also been accused of using tricks for the proceeding of passing these amendments and using a "backdoor" that has "nothing to do with democratic debate culture".

Gender policy.

Law governing sexual offences.

After the massive sexual assaults of New Year 2016 in Cologne, Heiko Maas wanted to reform sexual prosecution laws. Tonio Walter, writing an op-ed in "Die Zeit", said that the law was overly broad: under a proposed ban on groping, he claimed, a wife could be punished for embracing her husband from behind, while rules against sex by coercion could punish a boss whose employee consented to sex under a (possibly mistaken, said Walter) fear of losing the job. Walter likewise said that the penalty of 10 years in prison for a sexual assault and 15 for rape by coercion would be too much, noting that non-sexual assaults received a lesser penalty under the laws.

Sexist advertisement.

In April 2016, Maas called for a legal ban on sexist advertisements, which "reduce women or men to sexual objects." Germany's Association of Communications Agencies (GWA) observed that it is a subjective matter of taste whether an advertisement is sexist or not. FDP leader Christian Lindner remarked that the proposed ban indicated a similar mindset as radical Islamic leaders.

Personal life.

Maas enjoys football and is a triathlete. He's a fan of the Hamburger SV. He has two children.

Heiko Josef Maas (born 19 September 1966) is a German politician who serves as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the fourth cabinet of Angela Merkel since 14 March 2018. He served as the Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection from 17 December 2013 to 14 March 2018. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party.

Heiko Maas, né le à Sarrelouis, est un homme politique allemand. Membre du Parti social-démocrate d'Allemagne (SPD), il est ministre fédéral des Affaires étrangères depuis le dans le quatrième cabinet d'Angela Merkel, auparavant ministre fédéral de la Justice et de la Protection du consommateur à partir du dans son troisième cabinet.


Background.

Derry City lies near the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It has a majority nationalist population, and nationalists won a majority of seats in the 1920 local elections. Despite this, the Ulster Unionist Party controlled the local council, Londonderry Corporation, from 1923 onwards. The Unionists maintained their majority, firstly, by manipulating the constituency boundaries (gerrymandering) so that the South Ward, with a nationalist majority, returned eight councillors while the much smaller North Ward and Waterside Ward, with unionist majorities, returned twelve councillors between them; secondly, by allowing only ratepayers to vote in local elections, rather than one man, one vote, so that a higher number of nationalists, who did not own or rent homes, were disenfranchised; and thirdly, by denying council housing to nationalists outside the South Ward constituency. The result was that there were about 2,000 nationalist families, and practically no unionists, on the housing waiting list, and that housing in the nationalist area was crowded and of a very poor condition. The South Ward comprised the Bogside, Brandywell, Creggan, Bishop Street and Foyle Road, and it was this area that would become Free Derry.  The Derry Housing Action Committee (DHAC) was formed in March 1968 by members of the Derry Branch of the Northern Ireland Labour Party and the James Connolly Republican Club, including Eamonn McCann and Eamon Melaugh. It disrupted a meeting of Londonderry Corporation in March 1968 and in May blocked traffic by placing a caravan that was home to a family of four in the middle of the Lecky Road in the Bogside and staging a sit-down protest at the opening of the second deck of the Craigavon Bridge. After the meeting of Londonderry Corporation was again disrupted in August, Eamon Melaugh telephoned the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) and invited them to hold a march in Derry. The date chosen was 5 October 1968, an ad hoc committee was formed (although in reality most of the organising was done by McCann and Melaugh) and the route was to take the marchers inside the city walls, where nationalists were traditionally not permitted to march. The Minister of Home Affairs, William Craig, made an order on 3 October prohibiting the march on the grounds that the Apprentice Boys of Derry were intending to hold a march on the same day. In the words of Martin Melaugh of CAIN "this particular tactic...provided the excuse needed to ban the march." When the marchers attempted to defy the ban on 5 October they were stopped by a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) cordon. The police drew their batons and struck marchers, including Stormont MP Eddie McAteer and Westminster MP Gerry Fitt. Subsequently, the police "broke ranks and used their batons indiscriminately on people in Duke Street". Marchers trying to escape met another party of police and "these police also used their batons indiscriminately." Water cannons were also used. The police action caused outrage in the nationalist area of Derry, and at a meeting four days later the Derry Citizens' Action Committee (DCAC) was formed, with John Hume as chairman and Ivan Cooper as vice-chairman.

The first barricades.

Another group formed as a result of the events of 5 October was People's Democracy, a group of students in Queen's University Belfast. They organised a march from Belfast to Derry in support of civil rights, starting out with about forty young people on 1 January 1969. The march met with violent opposition from loyalist counter-demonstrators at several points along the route. Finally, at Burntollet Bridge, five miles outside Derry, they were attacked by a mob of about two hundred wielding clubs—some of them studded with nails—and stones. Half of the attackers were later identified from press photographs as members of the B-Specials. The police, who were at the scene, chatted to the B-Specials as they prepared their ambush, and then failed to protect the marchers, many of whom ran into the river and were pelted with stones from the bank. Dozens of marchers were taken to hospital. The remainder continued on to Derry where they were attacked once more on their way to Craigavon Bridge before they finally reached Guildhall Square, where they held a rally. Rioting broke out after the rally. Police drove rioters into the Bogside, but did not come after them. In the early hours of the following morning, 5 January, members of the RUC charged into St. Columb's Wells and Lecky Road in the Bogside, breaking windows and beating residents. In his report on the disturbances, Lord Cameron remarked that "for such conduct among members of a disciplined and well-led force there can be no acceptable justification or excuse" and added that "its effect in rousing passions and inspiring hostility towards the police was regrettably great."  That afternoon over 1,500 Bogside residents built barricades, armed themselves with steel bars, wooden clubs and hurleys, and told the police that they would not be allowed into the area. DCAC chairman John Hume told a meeting of residents that they were to defend the area and no-one was to come in. Groups of men wearing armbands patrolled the streets in shifts. A local activist painted "You are now entering Free Derry" in light-coloured paint on the blackened gable wall of a house on the corner of Lecky Road and Fahan Street. For many years, it was believed that it was John 'Caker' Casey that painted it, but after Casey's death it emerged that it might have been another young activist, Liam Hillen. The corner where the slogan was painted, which was a popular venue for meetings, later became known as "Free Derry Corner". On 7 January, the barricaded area was extended to include the Creggan, another nationalist area on a hill overlooking the Bogside. A clandestine radio station calling itself "Radio Free Derry" began broadcasting to residents, playing rebel songs and encouraging resistance. On a small number of occasions law-breakers attempted crimes, but were dealt with by the patrols. Despite all this, the "Irish Times" reported that "the infrastructure of revolutionary control in the area has not been developed beyond the maintenance of patrols." Following some acts of destruction and of violence late in the week, members of the DCAC including Ivan Cooper addressed residents on Friday, 10 January and called on them to dismantle the barricades. The barricades were taken down the following morning.

April 1969.

Over the next three months there were violent clashes, with local youths throwing stones at police. Violence came to a head on Saturday, 19 April after a planned march from Burntollet Bridge to the city centre was banned. A protest in the city centre led to clashes with "Paisleyites"—unionists in sympathy with the anti-civil rights stance of Ian Paisley. Police attempting to drive the protesters back into the Bogside were themselves driven back to their barracks. A series of pitched battles followed, and barricades were built, often under the supervision of Bernadette Devlin, newly elected MP for Mid Ulster. Police pursuing rioters broke into a house in William Street and severely beat the occupant, Samuel Devenny, his family and two friends. Devenny was brought to hospital "bleeding profusely from a number of head wounds." At midnight four hundred RUC men in full riot gear and carrying riot shields occupied the Bogside. Convoys of police vehicles drove through the area with headlights blazing.  The following day, several thousand residents, led by the DCAC, withdrew to the Creggan and issued an ultimatum to the RUC – withdraw within two hours or be driven out. With fifteen minutes of the two hours remaining, the police marched out through the Butcher's Gate, even as the residents were entering from the far side. The barricades were not maintained on this occasion, and routine patrols were not prevented.  Samuel Devenny suffered a heart attack four days after his beating. On 17 July he suffered a further heart attack and died. Thousands attended his funeral, and the mood was sufficiently angry that it was clear the annual Apprentice Boys' parade, scheduled for 12 August, could not take place without causing serious disturbance.

August – October 1969.

The Apprentice Boys' parade is an annual celebration by unionists of the relief of the Siege of Derry in 1689, which began when thirteen young apprentice boys shut the city's gates against the army of King James. At that time the parade was held on 12 August each year. Participants from across Northern Ireland and Britain marched along the city walls above the Bogside, and were often openly hostile to the residents. On 30 July 1969 the Derry Citizens Defence Association (DCDA) was formed to try to preserve peace during the period of the parade, and to defend the Bogside and Creggan in the event of an attack. The chairman was Seán Keenan, an Irish Republican Army (IRA) veteran; the vice-chairman was Paddy Doherty, a popular local man sometimes known as "Paddy Bogside" and the secretary was Johnnie White, another leading republican and leader of the James Connolly Republican Club. Street committees were formed under the overall command of the DCDA and barricades were built on the night of 11 August. The parade took place as planned on 12 August. As it passed through Waterloo Place, on the edge of the Bogside, hostilities began between supporters and opponents of the parade. Fighting between the two groups continued for two hours, then the police joined in. They charged up William Street against the Bogsiders, followed by the 'Paisleyites'. They were met with a hail of stones and petrol bombs. The ensuing battle became known as the Battle of the Bogside. Late in the evening, having been driven back repeatedly, the police fired canisters of CS gas into the crowd. Youths on the roof of a high-rise block of flats on Rossville Street threw petrol bombs down on the police. Walkie-talkies were used to maintain contact between different areas of fighting and DCDA headquarters in Paddy Doherty's house in Westland Street, and first aid stations were operating, staffed by doctors, nurses and volunteers. Women and girls made milk-bottle crates of petrol bombs for supply to the youths in the front line and "Radio Free Derry" broadcast to the fighters and their families. On the third day of fighting, 14 August, the Northern Ireland Government mobilised the Ulster Special Constabulary (B-Specials), a force greatly feared by nationalists in Derry and elsewhere. Before they engaged, however, British troops were deployed at the scene, carrying automatic rifles and sub-machine guns. The RUC and B-Specials withdrew, and the troops took up positions outside the barricaded area.  A deputation that included Eamonn McCann met senior army officers and told them that the army would not be allowed in until certain demands were met, including the disarming of the RUC, the disbandment of the B-Specials and the abolition of Stormont (the Parliament and Government of Northern Ireland). The officers agreed that neither troops nor police would enter the Bogside and Creggan districts. A 'peace corps' was formed to maintain law and order. When the British Home Secretary, Jim Callaghan, visited Northern Ireland and announced his intention to visit the Bogside on 28 August, he was told that he would not be allowed to bring either police or soldiers with him. Callaghan agreed. Accompanied by members of the Defence Committee, he was "swept along by a surging crowd of thousands" up Rossvile Street and into Lecky Road, where he "took refuge" in a local house, and later addressed crowds from an upstairs window. In preparation for Callaghan's visit the "Free Derry" wall was painted white and the "You are now entering Free Derry" sign was professionally re-painted in black lettering.  Following Callaghan's visit, some barricades were breached, but the majority remained while the people awaited concrete evidence of reform. Still the army made no move to enter the area. Law and order was maintained by a 'peace corps'—volunteers organised by the DCDA to patrol the streets and man the barricades. There was very little crime. Punishment, in the words of Eamonn McCann, "as often as not consisted of a stern lecture from Seán Keenan on the need for solidarity within the area." In September the barricades were replaced with a white line painted on the road.  The Hunt Report on the future of policing in Northern Ireland was presented to the Stormont cabinet in early October. Jim Callaghan held talks with the cabinet in Belfast on 10 October, following which the report's recommendations were accepted and made public. They included the recommendation that the RUC should be 'ordinarily' unarmed, and that the B-Specials should be phased out and replaced by a new force. The new RUC Chief Constable, Arthur Young, an Englishman, was announced, and travelled to Belfast with Callaghan. The same day, Seán Keenan announced that the DCDA was to be dissolved. On 11 October Callaghan and Young visited Free Derry, and on 12 October the first military police entered the Bogside, on foot and unarmed.

IRA resurgence.

The Irish Republican Army (IRA) had been inactive militarily since the end of the Border Campaign in 1962. It was low in both personnel and equipment—Chief of Staff Cathal Goulding told Seán Keenan and Paddy Doherty in August 1969 that he "couldn't defend the Bogside. I haven't the men nor the guns to do it." During the 1960s the leadership of the republican movement had moved to the left. Its focus was on class struggle and its aim was to unite the Irish nationalist and unionist working classes to overthrow capitalism, both British and Irish. Republican Clubs were formed in Northern Ireland, where Sinn Féin was proscribed. These clubs were involved in the formation of NICRA in 1967. In Derry, the James Connolly Republican Club worked closely with Labour Party radicals, with whom they set up the Derry Housing Action Committee and Derry Unemployed Action Committee. The Derry Citizens' Defence Association was formed initially by republicans, who then invited other nationalists to join. Although there were tensions between the younger leaders like Johnnie White and the older, traditional republicans such as Seán Keenan, both sides saw the unrest of 1968–69 as a chance to advance republican aims, and the two shared the platform at the Easter Rising commemoration in April 1969.  The events of August 1969 in Derry, and more particularly in Belfast where the IRA was unable to prevent loss of life or protect families burned out of their homes, brought to a head the divisions that had already appeared within the movement between the radicals and the traditionalists, and led to a split in December 1969 into the Official IRA and the Provisional IRA. Initially, both armies organised for defensive purposes only, although the Provisionals were planning towards an offensive campaign. In Derry there was far less hostility between the two organisations than elsewhere and householders commonly paid subscriptions to both. When rioters were arrested after the Official's Easter parade in March 1970, Officials and Provisionals picketed their trial together. At the start the Officials attracted most of the younger members. Martin McGuinness, who in August 1969 had helped defend the barricades, initially joined the Officials, but a few months later left to join the Provisionals.  Relations between the British Army and the residents had steadily decayed since the first appearance of troops in August 1969. In September, after clashes between nationalist and unionist crowds that led to the death of a Protestant man, William King, the British Army erected a 'peace ring' to enclose the nationalist population in the area they had previously controlled. Roads into the city centre were closed at night and people were prevented from walking on certain streets. Although some moderate nationalists accepted this as necessary, there was anger among young people. Clashes between youths and troops became more frequent. The riot following the Officials' Easter parade in March 1970 marked the first time that the army used'snatch squads', who rushed into the Bogside wielding batons to make arrests. The snatch squads soon became a common feature of army arrest operations. There was also a belief that they were arresting people at random, sometimes days after the alleged offence, and based on the identification of people that they had seen from a considerable distance. The rioters were condemned as hooligans by moderates, who saw the riots as hampering attempts to resolve the situation. The Labour radicals and Official republicans, still working together, tried to turn the youth away from rioting and create socialist organisations—one such organisation was named the Young Hooligans Association—but to no avail. The Provisionals, while disapproving of riots, viewed them as the inevitable consequence of British occupation. This philosophy was more attractive to rioters, and some of them joined the Provisional IRA. The deaths of two leading Provisionals in a premature explosion in June 1970 resulted in young militants becoming more prominent in the organisation. Nevertheless, up to July 1971 the Provisional IRA remained numerically small.  Two men, Séamas Cusack and Desmond Beattie, were shot dead in separate incidents in the early morning and afternoon of 8 July 1971. They were the first people to be killed by the British Army in Derry. In both cases the British Army claimed that the men were attacking them with guns or bombs, while eyewitnesses insisted that both were unarmed. The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), the newly formed party of which John Hume and Ivan Cooper were leading members, withdrew from Stormont in protest, but among residents there was a perception that moderate policies had failed. The result was a surge of support for the IRA. The Provisionals held a meeting the following Sunday at which they called on people to "join the IRA". Following the meeting, people queued up to join, and there was large-scale rioting. The British Army post at Bligh's Lane came under sustained attack, and troops there and around the city came under fire from the IRA.

Internment and the third Free Derry.

The increasing violence in Derry and elsewhere led to increasing speculation that internment would be introduced in Northern Ireland, and on 9 August 1971 hundreds of republicans and nationalists were arrested in dawn raids. In Derry, residents came out onto the streets to resist the arrests, and fewer people were taken there than elsewhere; nevertheless leading figures including Seán Keenan and Johnnie White were interned. In response, barricades were erected once again and the third Free Derry came into existence. Unlike its predecessors, this Free Derry was marked by a strong IRA presence, both Official and Provisional. It was defended by armed paramilitaries—a no-go area, one in which British security forces were unable to operate.  Gun attacks on the British Army increased. Six soldiers were wounded in the first day after internment, and shortly afterwards a soldier was killed—the first to be killed by either IRA in Derry. The army moved in in force on 18 August to dismantle the barricades. A gun battle ensued in which a young Provisional IRA officer, Eamonn Lafferty, was killed. A crowd staging a sit-down protest was hosed down and the protesters, including John Hume and Ivan Cooper, arrested. With barricades re-appearing as quickly as they were removed, the army eventually abandoned their attempt.  The Derry Provisionals had little contact with the IRA elsewhere. They had few weapons (about twenty) which they used mainly for sniping. At the same time, they launched their bombing campaign in Derry. Unlike in Belfast, they were careful to avoid killing or injuring innocent people. Eamonn McCann wrote that "the Derry Provos, under Martin McGuinness, had managed to bomb the city centre until it looked as if it had been hit from the air without causing any civilian casualties."  Although both IRAs operated openly, neither was in control of Free Derry. The barricades were manned by unarmed 'auxiliaries'. Crime was dealt with by a volunteer force called the Free Derry Police, which was headed by Tony O'Doherty, a Derry footballer and Northern Ireland International.

Bloody Sunday.

An anti-internment protest organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) at Magilligan Camp in January 1972 was met with violence from the 1st Battalion, The Parachute Regiment (1 Para). NICRA had organised a march from the Creggan to Derry city centre, in defiance of a ban, on the following Sunday, 30 January 1972. Both IRAs were asked, and agreed, to suspend operations on that day to ensure the march passed off peacefully. The British Army erected barricades around the Free Derry area to prevent marchers from reaching the city centre. On the day, march organisers turned the march away from the barriers and up to Free Derry Corner, but some youths proceeded to the barrier at William Street and stoned soldiers. Troops from 1 Para then moved into Free Derry and opened fire, killing thirteen people, all of whom were subsequently found to be unarmed. A fourteenth shooting victim died four months later in June 1972. Like the killing of Cusack and Beattie the previous year, Bloody Sunday had the effect of hugely increasing recruitment to the IRA, even among people who previously would have been'moderates'.

February – July 1972.

Both the Provisional and Official IRA stepped up attacks after Bloody Sunday, with the tacit support of the residents. Local feelings changed, however, with the killing of Ranger William Best by the Official IRA. Best was a 19-year-old local man who was home on leave from the British Army at his parents' house in the Creggan. He was abducted, interrogated and shot. The following day 500 women marched to the Republican Club offices in protest. Nine days later, on 29 May, the Official IRA declared a ceasefire. The Provisional IRA initially stated that they would not follow suit, but after informal approaches to the British Government they announced a ceasefire from 26 June. Martin McGuinness was the Derry representative in a party of senior Provisionals who travelled to London for talks with William Whitelaw, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. The talks were not resumed after the ending of the truce following a violent confrontation in Belfast when troops prevented Catholic families from taking over houses in the Lenadoon estate.  Political pressure for the action against the "no-go" areas increased after the events of Bloody Friday in Belfast. A British Army attack was considered inevitable, and the IRA took the decision not to resist it. On 31 July 1972, Operation Motorman was launched when thousands of British troops, equipped with armoured cars and armoured bulldozers (AVREs), dismantled the barricades and occupied the area.

Subsequent history.

After Operation Motorman, the British Army controlled the Bogside and Creggan by stationing large numbers of troops within the area, by conducting large-scale'search' operations that were in fact undertaken for purposes of intelligence gathering, and by setting up over a dozen covert observation posts. Over the following years IRA violence in the city was contained to the point where it was possible to believe 'the war was over' in the area, although there were still frequent street riots. Nationalists—even those who did not support the IRA—remained bitterly opposed to the army and to the state.  Many of the residents' original grievances were addressed with the passing of the Local Government (Northern Ireland) Act, 1972, which redrew the electoral boundaries and introduced universal adult suffrage based on the single transferable vote. Elections were held in May 1973. Nationalists gained a majority on the council for the first time since 1923. Since then the area has been extensively redeveloped, with modern housing replacing the old houses and flats. The Free Derry era is commemorated by the Free Derry wall, the murals of the Bogside Artists and the Museum of Free Derry.

Free Derry () was a self-declared autonomous Irish nationalist area of Derry, Northern Ireland, that existed between 1969 and 1972, during the Troubles. It emerged during the Northern Ireland civil rights movement, which sought to end discrimination against the Irish Catholic/nationalist minority by the Protestant/unionist government. The civil rights movement accused the overwhelmingly Protestant police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), of sectarianism and police brutality. The area, which included the mainly-Catholic Bogside and Creggan neighbourhoods, was first secured by community activists on 5 January 1969 following an incursion into the Bogside by RUC officers. Residents built barricades and carried clubs and similar arms to prevent the RUC from entering. Its name was taken from a sign painted on a gable wall in the Bogside which read, "You are now entering Free Derry". After six days the residents took down the barricades and RUC patrols resumed, but tensions remained high over the following months.

Free Derry (, ) était une enclave nationaliste, autoproclamée autonome, de Derry (Irlande du Nord) entre 1969 et 1972. Ce nom provient d'une peinture d'un pignon de mur dans le Bogside en : "« You are now entering Free Derry »" (« Vous entrez maintenant dans Derry libre »). L'enclave, qui incluait les quartiers du Bogside et de, était sécurisée par des activistes de la communautés pour la première fois le faisant suite à une incursion dans le Bogside de membres des forces de police, les "Royal Ulster Constabulary" (RUC). Les résidents érigèrent des barricades et préparèrent des pierres et autres armes pour empêcher les RUC d'entrer. Après six jours, les résidents démontèrent les barricades et les patrouilles policières reprirent, mais la tension resta élevée pendant les mois qui suivirent.


Plot.

Iwaida of the Nishiwaki Group is sent by his boss to collect a debt. He does not find the debtor so he rapes the debtor's wife Haruko while her husband and young son Takashi hide secretly in the closet. The husband later gets drunk during the daytime and gets into a fight with some street thugs who beat him to death. His older son Hideshi encounters them and kills one of the thugs by stomping on his skull.
 30 years later in Kyoto a hired killer shoots three men protecting Iwaida in a lift. The aging Iwaida, now head of the Mutsumi Group, recognizes him by a scar on his left cheek before he is shot dead by the killer. A nurse witnesses the killing but the killer lets her live. Two men later question Mr. Yoshikawa, a witness who saw the nurse on the roof at the time the murder of Iwaida was committed, but they gain no information. They manage to get an image of the killer's scar from the camera footage and identify him as "Lightning Takeshi", the most famous killer in Japan.
 While driving to a crime family meeting in Yokohama, the wealthy criminal Hideshi Miwa notices another vehicle with a Kyoto license plate following him and has security at his house beefed up by his man Kono. The host calls the meeting to order and first hears from the Kanto Block. The woman running the block, Hisako, says that things are set up so that the newspapers and TV stations will be on top of the matter of corruption within the Ministry of International Trade and Industry when the time is right. The host then calls upon Omaeda of the Osaka-Kobe block to speak. After that Hideshi explains that profits are 10% less than in the previous year but he is expecting counterfeit money from the Philippines, which will mean a total of 360 billion yen for the family. Finally, Omaeda announces that the secret code word name of the organization, "Japan Mafia", has been leaked to the outside. Hideshi explains that there is either a traitor in their midst or else someone from another group deliberately leaked the code word from negotiations.
 After the meeting, Hisako shows Hideshi a photo of the killer with the scar that the Mutsumi Group is distributing around Tokyo. Hideshi recognizes the killer as his younger brother Takeshi but feels that Iwaida needed to die. Hideshi asks if the boss asked for his younger brother to killer Iwaida and Hisako admits that he did because Iwaida was a thorn in the side of the crime family. Even though they could crush the Mutsumi Group, the boss wishes to avoid an all-out war so Hisako asks Hideshi to find his brother before the killer goes into hiding. She also asks if he would like to have sex with her but he merely leaves.
 Hideshi's younger brother Takashi is also an underboss in the crime family. He and Hideshi visit their mother at a care home but she is suffering from Alzheimer's and claims not to know anyone named Takeshi. The nurses recall that Takeshi visited earlier in the month, the day before the murder of Iwaida, and that he would not be able to come back for a while so he made arrangements to have money sent to her but did not leave any address. Hideshi and Takashi split up, with Hideshi searching Kyoto and Takashi combing Kobe and Osaka.
 At the police station Detective Kakuta questions the nurse Rie Ishibashi. She denies that the man in the photograph is the killer, claiming that the killer did not have any scar on his cheek. One of the men searching for Takeshi bribes Detective Kakuta at a pachinko parlor. Katuka gives Rie Ishibashi's name and explains that no one called for a nurse. Takeshi tracks down the girl working as an escort role-playing a nurse.
 Takashi speaks with Hatanaka at Rakuhoku University, a fellow student of Takeshi's from his study of medicine, who says that Takeshi spoke with him two days after the murder. At that time Takeshi said that he was cursed and that his enemies were watching all of the roads and flights, preventing him from leaving the city, but when he ran out of money he planned on hitting the headquarters with guns blazing to die a noble death. He then says that he spoke with Takeshi again earlier that morning, when Takeshi said that he had been reunited with the love of his life, his "angel in white", and was leaving Kyoto with her.
 Takashi receives a call from Kenmochi, head of the Mutsumi group, who has kidnapped Takashi's wife Mariko and demands that he hand over "Lightning Takeshi" before the week is over. Takashi drives through the gates of their headquarters with a tank so Kenmochi quickly rapes Mariko while he has time. Takashi and Hideshi beat up Kenmochi's men and find Mariko as she is being raped by one of the henchmen, whom Takashi shoots.
 Takashi and Hideshi meet with their boss, who explains that Kenmochi has leaked photos to the police of Takashi and Hideshi from the murder. He asks if they have found Takeshi. Takashi says that they have. He plays Hideshi a phone message he received from Hatanaka saying that Takeshi contacted him and told him that he was in Nagano. They hide Mariko with Mr. Shao, a Chinese friend living in Chinatown. Mariko grew up in China and feels close to him. He agrees to take in Takashi as well so Hideshi leaves Takashi and Mariko with Mr. Shao to seek out Takeshi alone.

Sequel.

The story is continued in its sequel "Family 2", released on home video.

Family is a 2001 Japanese yakuza film directed by Takashi Miike. This film together with its sequel "Family 2" comprise the complete "Family" saga.

Family est un film japonais de yakuza réalisé par Takashi Miike et sorti en 2001. Il est adapté d'un manga de Hisao Maki.


Geography.

Geologically speaking, Dragonera is an emerged part of the geologic system running southwest-northeast in the Iberian Peninsula. This runs from the Málaga province through Cap de la Nau and then gets submerged under the Mediterranean Sea. It surfaces again to form the island of Ibiza, the Tramuntana Range in the island of Majorca and Sa Dragonera itself. The silhouette of the mountain range vaguely resembles a dragon, hence its name.  Sa Dragonera is approximately 3,200 metres in length and has a maximum width of 500 metres. Although its highest hill Pico Popi is only 360 metres high, the island's overall relief is very abrupt, especially considering its small size, which made the islet of little importance in historic times.  The island is a part of the municipality of Andratx, which is, along with Sant Elm (both in nearby Majorca), the closest towns to the island.  Dragonera has a small natural port in the Cala Lladó area.

History.

The name of Dragonera comes from Dragon that was associated to the shape that the island has from a specific perspective, and from the large number of endemic Lilford's wall lizards.  There is an Ancient Roman necropolis in the Es Lladó area, but there are no other signs of historical permanent settling.  During the 18th century two defensive watchtowers were built on the island in order to watch for the numerous Barbary pirates operating in the area.  In 1910 the lighthouses of Tramuntana (north) and Llebeig (southwest) began to operate, replacing the "Faro Viejo" or old lighthouse, which was built in a lower part of the island, in an area often surrounded by mist.  In 1941 Juan Flexas bought the islet and started farming activities in the Es Lladó area.  By the mid 20th century, the islet was often used by "estraperlo" smugglers for their illegal activities.  Between 1960 and 1975 the lighthouses were improved and became automatic, which meant that the only permanent and tiny population (that of the lighthouse keeper and family) left the islet.  In 1974 the islet was bought by a Spanish company in order to build a touristic resort. The original plan included a luxury residential, an hotel, a casino and, to serve all these, a manmade port. These plans were heavily contested by the ecologist movements and a harsh and long legal battle followed. The ecologists managed to get all the plans on hold until the legal controversy was cleared. It only finished ten years after, in 1984, when the Audiencia Nacional finally barred any building activities on the uninhabited islet.  Part of the 1982 film adapting Agatha Christie's mystery "Evil Under the Sun" was shot in Sa Dragonera, presented as an island of the fictional Tyrania by the Adriatic.  Then, in 1987, the Consell Insular de Mallorca bought the islet. In 1995 the Balearic regional Government declared the islet natural park status along with the nearby islets of Pantaleu and Isla Mediana.

Sa Dragonera () is an uninhabited islet in the Balearic Islands, Spain, located just off the west coast of Majorca. It is currently a natural park.

Sa Dragonera est une île de l'archipel des îles Baléares en Espagne située à l'ouest de l'île de Majorque. Faisant partie de la municipalité de Sant Telm dans la commune d'Andratx, l'île constitue dans sa globalité le parc naturel de Sa Dragonera depuis 1995.


Early life.

Born to Francis and Clare Sullivan in Arlington, Massachusetts, Sullivan is the oldest of six children. He attended Saint Agnes School, then Arlington Catholic High School, and received his B.A. in criminal justice from Saint Anselm College in 1977. He is married to the former Laurie Bell and has three daughters.

Career.

Sullivan began his Secret Service career as a special agent assigned to the Detroit Field Office in 1983 after having served for five years as a special agent in the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 1990, Sullivan began working at the Fraud Division in Washington, D.C. One year later, in 1991, Sullivan was assigned to the Presidential Protective Division. In 1996, he was made Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Office of Protective Operations. From 1997 to 1998 he was the resident agent in charge of the Columbus, Ohio, office. After being special agent in charge of the Counterfeit Division from 1998 to 1999, he returned to the Presidential Protective Division in 1999.  In July 2000, Sullivan was made a Deputy Assistant Director in the Office of Protective Operations. In 2002, he was reassigned to the position of Deputy Special Agent in Charge of the Vice Presidential Protective Division. A year later, he was reassigned to the position of Deputy Assistant Director, Office of Human Resources and Training. In 2006, Sullivan was appointed by George W. Bush to the position of Director of the Secret Service.  On February 1, 2013, Sullivan announced he was retiring after 30 years with the agency to be effective February 23.  After his retirement, Sullivan partnered with Noah Kroloff, Dennis Burke, David Aguilar, John Kaites and Jerry Reinsdorf to found Global Security and Innovative Strategies.

Scandal while director of the United States Secret Service.

In April 2012, a scandal involving the President's security detail received international press attention. The scandal involved 11 agents and more military personnel from all four branches who allegedly engaged prostitutes while assigned to protect President Barack Obama at the 6th Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia. As of April 24, nine employees had resigned or retired.  Starting June 30, 2011, agents on the Presidential Protection Detail were ordered to leave their posts and conduct surveillance on a neighbor of Lisa Chopey, Sullivan's assistant, in an operation named "Moonlighting". This continued for at least several days and according to some accounts, months. The neighbors eventually moved away, they said partly because of the intimidation.

Mark J. Sullivan was the Director of the United States Secret Service from May 31, 2006 to March 27, 2013. Sullivan succeeded W. Ralph Basham and was sworn in as the 22nd Director of the Secret Service on May 31, 2006. He was succeeded by Julia Pierson on March 27, 2013.

Mark Sullivan est le directeur de l'United States Secret Service (USSS), l'agence fédérale chargée de lutter contre la fausse monnaie et d'assurer le protection du président et du vice-président des États-Unis.


Geography.

Fanning Springs is located at.  According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of, of which is land and, or 3.40%, is water.

Demographics.

As of the census of 2000, there were 737 people, 311 households, and 198 families residing in the city. The population density was 207.2 people per square mile (79.9/km2). There were 397 housing units at an average density of 111.6/sq mi (43.1/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 89.01% White, 4.34% African American, 0.68% Native American, 0.54% Asian, 3.66% from other races, and 1.76% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8.96% of the population.  There were 311 households out of which 25.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.8% were married couples living together, 15.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.3% were non-families. 29.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.37 and the average family size was 2.84.  In the city, the population was spread out with 24.7% under the age of 18, 9.5% from 18 to 24, 23.7% from 25 to 44, 25.0% from 45 to 64, and 17.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.4 males.  The median income for a household in the city was $17,875, and the median income for a family was $24,167. Males had a median income of $25,139 versus $14,306 for females. The per capita income for the city was $11,389. About 26.1% of families and 30.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 46.6% of those under age 18 and 19.9% of those age 65 or over.

Attractions.

The Nature Coast State Trail, which follows abandoned railway lines, has a junction at Fanning Springs. Fanning Springs State Park is located just south of the center of town, along the Suwannee River. Fort Fanning Historic Park is the site of a fort that was built in 1838 to counter Native American attacks in north Florida during the Seminole Wars.

Fanning Springs is a city in Gilchrist and Levy counties in the U.S. state of Florida. The population was 764 at the 2010 census.

La ville de Fanning Springs est située dans les comtés de Gilchrist et Levy, dans l’État de Floride, aux États-Unis. Sa population s’élevait à lors du recensement, estimée à.


Demographics.

The 2007 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 21,744, of whom 11,219 were men and 10,525 were women; 875 or 4.02% of its population were urban dwellers. The majority of the inhabitants said they were Moslem, with 69.28% of the population reporting they observed this belief, while 19.03% of the population were Protestant, 7.03% were Catholic, and 4.39% practised Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity.  Based on figures from the CSA in 2005, this woreda has an estimated total population of 12,948, of whom 6,613 are men and 6,335 are women. With an estimated area of 645.78 square kilometers, Komesha has a population density of 20.1 people per square kilometer which is greater than the Zone average of 19.95.  The 1994 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 9,762 in 2,261 households, of whom 5,008 were men and 4,754 were women; no urban dwellers were recorded. The largest ethnic group reported in Komesha was the Berta with 99.5% of the population; an equal share spoke Berta (99.5%), and 99.5% of the population said they were Muslim. Concerning education, 15.97% of the population were considered literate, which is less than the Zone average of 18.49%; 14.29% of children aged 7–12 were in primary school; 1.01% of the children aged 13–14 were in junior secondary school; and a negligible number of the inhabitants aged 15–18 were in senior secondary school. Concerning sanitary conditions, 2.8% of all houses had access to safe drinking water, and 16.8% had toilet facilities at the time of the census.

Komesha is one of the 20 woredas in the Benishangul-Gumuz Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Asosa Zone, it is bordered by the Asosa on the south, Kormuk on the northwest and Menge on the east. The largest settlement in this woreda is Komesha. Sherkole refugee camp housing 9,526 displaced people from Sudan and South Sudan, is also located in Komesha.

Komesha est un des 21 woredas de la zone Asosa dans la région Benishangul-Gumaz, en Éthiopie. La principale ville de ce woreda est Komesha.


Traité d'amitié et d'alliance entre le gouvernement de Mongolie et le Tibet

Treaty's signing and validity.

After the collapse of the Qing Empire in 1911, both Tibet and Mongolia declared their formal independence under theocratic heads of states, and both had had no success in gaining official recognition from the Republic of China. In the treaty signed on 11 January 1913, Mongolia and Tibet declared mutual recognition and allegiance. Both sides declared mutual relationships based on the "Yellow religion" (Gelug sect of Buddhism), obliged to provide aid each other against "internal and external enemies", declared free trade etc.(see for facsimile of Mongolian and Tibetan originals and for comments to text). The Mongolian representatives signing the treaty were foreign minister Da Lama Ravdan and commander-in-chief Manlaibaatar Damdinsüren. The Tibetan representatives who signed this document were Dalai Lama's representative Agvan Dorjiev, a Buryat, i.e. subject of Russia, and Tibetan officials in Mongolia: Ngawang Choizin, Yeshe Gyatso and Gendun Kalsang. There existed some doubts to the validity of this treaty: the 13th Dalai Lama denied that he had authorized Dorjiev to negotiate political issues. It was supposed more important that neither the cleric nor the Tibetan government appeared to have ever ratified the treaty. Nevertheless, such ratification in that time monarchic Mongolia and Tibet was not necessary.  The Russian government maintained that, as a Russian subject, Dorjiev could not possibly act in a diplomatic capacity on behalf of the Dalai Lama. Nevertheless, before signing the treaty, Dorjiev met in Mongolia I. Ya. Korostovets, Russian plenipotentiary in Urga, and told him that Tibet wants to come in treaties with Mongolia and Russia. Korostovets, having mentioned that "Khlakha (Outer Mongoloia) had just declared its independence, recognized by Russia", had no objections against conclusion of treaty between Mongolia and Tibet, but he was against a treaty of Tibet with Russia  According to the 14th Dalai Lama, this treaty was signed under the reign of the 13th Dalai Lama.  There are data that the treaty signed by Russia with Mongolia in 1912 (i.e. before signing the treaty with Tibet) meant international recognition of Mongolia as a state which was not required a sanction from a third side; as a result, the treaty between Tibet and Mongolia is considered as de jure recognition of Tibet as a state.  In any case, the independence of both Tibet and Mongolia continued being unrecognized in international law although Russia and the United Kingdom continued to recognize at least the suzerainty of the Republic of China over these areas. Russia and the UK were more comfortable with formally recognizing China's suzerainty and keeping an ambivalent position towards Mongolia and Tibet's independence. In addition, there was also a concern among Russia and UK that recognizing Tibetan or Mongolian independence would allow those areas to come under the other power's influence, respectively, a situation which all concerned believed to be worse than a situation in which those areas were nominally under the control of a weak China.

Aftermath.

News of the treaty aroused considerable suspicion amongst the British negotiators at the Simla Convention, who feared that Russia might use the treaty to gain influence on Tibetan matters. While China ultimately did not sign the Simla Convention, a similar treaty, the tripartite Treaty of Kyakhta, was signed by Mongolia, the Republic of China and Russia on 25 May 1915. The agreement affirmed Mongolia's complete autonomy in internal matters and Russian privileges in Mongolia, at the same time formally recognized China's suzerainty over the country.

A Treaty of friendship and alliance between the Government of Mongolia and Tibet was signed on 11 January 1913 (corresponding to 29 December 1912 of the Julian calendar), at Urga (now Ulaanbaatar). However, there have been doubts about the authority of the Tibetan signatories to conclude such a treaty, and therefore about whether it constitutes a valid contract.

Un traité d'amitié et d'alliance entre le gouvernement de Mongolie et le Tibet a été signé à Ourga, l'actuelle Oulan-Bator, en Mongolie, le correspondant au selon le calendrier julien. Son texte en langue mongole a été publié par l'Académie des sciences de Mongolie en 1982, et en 2007 un exemplaire original en langue tibétaine et en écriture tibétaine est apparu dans les archives mongoles.


Overview.

The altitude of this woreda ranges from 960 to 2930 meters above sea level; Adem Gedi Burqa is the highest point. Perennial rivers include the Jerjertu, Jaja, Dugo and Ramis. A survey of the land in this woreda shows that 17.3% is arable or cultivable, 5.6% pasture, 12.9% forest, and the remaining 64.2% is considered degraded, built-up or otherwise unusable. Khat, fruits and vegetables are important cash crops. Coffee is also an important cash crop; over 50 square kilometers are planted with it.  Industry in the woreda includes 12 grain mills employing 45 people, as well as 210 registered businesses including wholesalers, retailers and service providers. Copper and marble deposits are known, but have not been extracted. There were 23 Farmers Associations with 25,579 members and 4 Farmers Service Cooperatives with 3210 members. Malka Balo has 6 kilometers of gravel and 85 kilometers of dry-weather road, for an average road density of 61.9 kilometers per 1000 square kilometers. About 19.4% of the urban, 9.2% of the rural and 9.7% of the total population has access to drinking water.

Demographics.

The 2007 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 177,416, of whom 90,609 were men and 86,807 were women; 9,342 or 5.27% of its population were urban dwellers. The majority of the inhabitants said they were Muslim, with 94.96% of the population reporting they observed this belief, while 4.78% of the population practised Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity.  Based on figures published by the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, this woreda has an estimated total population of 171,483, of whom 83,930 are men and 87,553 are women; 10,320 or 6.02% of its population are urban dwellers, which is about the same as the Zone average of 6.9%. With an estimated area of 1,469.53 square kilometers, Malka Balo has an estimated population density of 116.7 people per square kilometer, which is greater than the Zone average of 102.6.  The 1994 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 123,082, of whom 63,108 were men and 59,974 women; 5,763 or 4.68% of its population were urban dwellers at the time. (This total also includes an estimate for the inhabitants of one rural kebele, which was not counted; it was estimated to have 13,111 inhabitants, of whom 6,594 were men and 6,517 women.) The two largest ethnic groups reported in Malko Balo were the Oromo (93.65%), and the Amhara (6.12%); all other ethnic groups made up 0.23% of the population. Oromiffa was spoken as a first language by 94.95%, and 4.92% spoke Amharic; the remaining 0.13% spoke all other primary languages reported. The majority of the inhabitants were Muslim, with 93.34% of the population having reported they practiced that belief, while 6.52% of the population said they professed Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity.

Malka Balo is one of the woredas in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Misraq (East) Hararghe Zone, Malka Balo is bordered on the west by the Mirab (West) Hararghe Zone, on the north by Deder, on the northeast by Bedeno, and on the southeast by Gola Odana Meyumuluke; part of the boundary with the Mirab Hararghe Zone is defined by the Galetti River. The administrative center for this woreda is Jaja; other towns include Harawacha and Harew.

Malka Balo (ou Melka Belo) est un des 180 woredas de la région Oromia, en Éthiopie. Le woreda compte en 2007. Son centre administratif est Jaja.


Site and similar findings in Slovenia.

Divje Babe is the oldest known archaeological site in Slovenia. The location of the site is a horizontal cave, long and up to wide; it is above the Idrijca River, near Cerkno, and is accessible to visitors. Researchers of Pleistocene climate change working at the site have uncovered more than 600 archaeological items in at least ten levels, including twenty hearths and the skeletal remains of cave bears. According to the museum's statements, the presumed flute has been associated with the "end of the middle Pleistocene" and with Neanderthals, about 55,000 years ago.  In the 1920s and 1930s, archaeologist Srečko Brodar (father of Mitja Brodar) discovered tens of bones with holes at another site, the Potok Cave () in the Eastern Karawanks, but almost all of them were destroyed during the World War II Italian annexation. Of those still preserved, the best known is a mandible of a cave bear with three holes in the mandibular canal. Since World War II, like specimens have been found in Mokrica Cave () and Betal Rock Shelter (). These bones are preserved today at the National History Museum of Slovenia as well. According to Mitja Brodar, who discovered many of them, bones with holes have been dated only to the end of the Mousterian and the beginning of the Aurignacian, and have not yet been found in Western Europe. Brodar assumes these bones are still not recognized by the international research community due to the fact that most of them were found in France, and the Paleolithic is still considered to be the French's domain. Bones with holes such as those found in the Potok Cave have been ascribed to modern human Cro-Magnon, and Mitja Brodar asserts that they are an element of the Central European Aurignacian. He further posits that the Divje Babe Flute is a product of modern humans, but this has been disputed by other Slovene scholars.

"Neanderthal flute".

In 1995, archeologist Ivan Turk of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts found the approximately 43,100-year-old cave bear femur at the Divje Babe site near a Mousterian hearth. Because it has the characteristics of a flute, he dubbed it a "Neanderthal flute". Whether it is actually a flute created by Neanderthals is a subject of debate. It is broken at both ends, with two complete holes and what may be the incomplete remains of one hole at each end, meaning that the bone may have had four or more holes before being damaged. The bone fragment is the diaphysis of the left femur of a one- to two-year-old cave bear and is long. The maximum diameter of the two complete holes is and. The distance between the centers of the holes is.  If the bone is indeed a usable flute, it would be an argument for the existence of music 43 thousand years ago. Thus Ivan Turk has asserted that, whether the holes are "artificial" (made by man) or "natural" (punctures from a carnivore bite), origin is the "crucial question." An equally critical issue is that, if the holes in this "flute" are of artificial origin, to date there does not seem to be any available means to determine whether they were deliberately drilled 43 thousand years ago, or are of a more contemporary origin (as part of an elaborate hoax, perhaps).  The bone has become a noted attraction in the National Museum of Slovenia, publicized on official Slovenian websites,<ref name="http://www.ukom.gov.si/en/media_room/background_information/culture/neanderthal_flute/"></ref> aired on TV with tunes played on a clay replica,<ref name="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHy9FOblt7Y"></ref> and is a source of Slovenian national pride. Paintings were made, models constructed, and musicians such as biology professor and flautist Jelle Atema have played them publicly.<ref name="http://sciencenetlinks.org/sci_update.cfm?DocID=37">https://web.archive.org/web/20071007183112/http://sciencenetlinks.org/sci_update.cfm?DocID=37</ref>  French-based Italian taphonomist Francesco D'Errico, as well as Claus-Stephan Holdermann, Jordi Serangeli, Philip G. Chase, and April Nowell have all hypothesized its carnivore origin.

Hole-spacing and alignment.

The probability that four randomly placed holes would appear in line in a recognizable musical scale is very low according to an analysis made by Canadian musicologist Bob Fink in 2000. Responding to the D'Errico carnivore-origin hypothesis, Turk pointed out that the features "common" between the carnivore-origin artifact and other chewed bones studied by D'Errico (see Hole shape below) do not include the alignment of the holes.  There is also no evidence that the two holes could have been bitten at the same time. The tooth spans were analyzed by all taphonomists concerned to see if any animals could bite two or more such holes at once. No match could be found to any known animals. If a match had been found, it could have been cited as "prima facie" evidence that the holes were animal-made. This was noted by Turk in his book and was also noted from the opposing hypothesis holders Nowell and Chase in their article in the August/October 1998 issue of "Current Anthropology". Nowell wrote that holes in the specimen "were almost certainly made sequentially rather than simultaneously and that the distance between them has nothing to do with the distance between any two teeth in a wolf's jaw."  Iain Morley, despite his holding the carnivore-origin hypothesis, observed in his November 2006 article that, "[w]hilst the collections of cave bear bones examined by D'Errico...as well as those discussed by Turk...do show similar shaped and damaged holes...none of these occur in the diaphysis of a femur," as is found on the reputed flute.  Marcel Otte (director of the Museum of Prehistory, University of Liege, Belgium) pointed out in an April 2000 article in "Current Anthropology" that there is a possible thumb-hole on the opposite side of the Divje Babe bone, which, making five holes, would perfectly fit a human hand.  Turk wrote in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology book "The Origins of Music": "If this probability [of having lined-up holes looking like a flute] were greater (and of course it isn't), it is likely that there would have been more such finds, since...carnivores in cave dens were at least as active on bones, if not more so, than people in cave dwellings...".  In 2015 Cajus G. Diedrich suggested the holes could be explained by scavenging from spotted hyena.

Hole shape.

D'Errico made an analysis of the artifact in comparison to cave-bear bone accumulations where no hominid presence was known. They published photos of several bones with holes in them which had more or less circular holes similar to those found in the artifact, but they did not have a single bone coming even close to the linear alignment of Turk's holes. Ignoring the probability of the alignment of the holes, D'Errico's interpretation was that it was possible for the holes to have been made by an animal, and they concluded that of the available options this was the most likely. D'Errico insisted on ignoring the probability of the alignment of the holes and, even after having analyzed the artifact firsthand, claimed that "the presence of two or possibly three perforations on the suggested flute cannot therefore be considered as evidence of human manufacture, as this is a common feature in the studied sample."  Turk conducted laboratory experiments which pierced holes in fresh bear bones in the manner of carnivore punctures, and in every case, the bones split. Yet in the Divje Babe instance, the bone did not break, a fact not matching expectations of carnivore action, as Turk's results showed. Turk wrote, in his book and in his article in MIT's "Origins of Music" anthology, the bone shows no "counter-bites" that one would normally expect on the other side of the bone matching the immense pressure necessary for a bite to make the center holes.  Turk's 1997 book reported that the holes have similar diameters which would accommodate fingertips, and all are circular instead of oval (as carnivore bites often are). Furthermore, all are in the proper ratio of bore size to hole size found in most flutes, and the bone is the kind (femur) usually used for bone flutes.  An examination of the specimen using computed tomography was published in 2005 by Ivan Turk, in which he concluded that "the two partially preserved holes were formerly created before the damage...or before the indisputable intervention of a carnivore."  The National Museum of Slovenia argues that this evidence has "finally refuted hypotheses that the bone was perforated because of a bear bite". The manufacture by Neanderthals "is reliably proven" and its significance in the understanding of their capabilities and the development of music and speech is secure.

Bone marrow.

The issue of how much bone marrow remains in the artifact is important, because the making of flutes from bone usually includes removing the marrow.  Turk et al. (in the volume "Moussterian Bone Flute", p. 160) wrote that "the marrow cavity is basically cleaned of spongiose. The colour of the marrow cavity does not differ from the colour of the external surface of the bone. So we may conclude that the marrow cavity was already open at the time... Otherwise, it would be a darker colour than the surface of the bone, as we know from coloured marrow cavities of whole limb bones."  April Nowell stated in an interview that "at Turk's invitation, [Nowell] and Chase went to Slovenia last year... They came away even more skeptical that the bear bone had ever emitted music. For one thing, both ends had clearly been gnawed away by something, perhaps a wolf, seeking greasy marrow. The holes could have simply been perforated in the process by pointed canine or carnassial teeth, and their roundness could be due to natural damage after the bone was abandoned. The presence of marrow suggests that no one had bothered to hollow out the bone as if to create an end-blown flute. Says Nowell, '[Turk's] willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, whereas we're not.' "

Diatonic scale.

Bob Fink claimed in his essay in 1997, that the bone's holes were "consistent with four notes of the diatonic scale" (do, re, mi, fa) based on the spacing of those four holes. The spacing of the holes on a modern diatonic (minor scale) flute are unique, and not evenly spaced. In essence, Fink said, they are like a simple fingerprint. The Divje Babe bone's holes matched those spacings very closely to a series of note-holes in a minor scale.  Nowell and Chase wrote in "Studies In Music Archaeology III" that the juvenile bear bone was too short to play those four holes in tune to any diatonic series of tones and half-tones. (Fink had suggested there may have originally been a mouthpiece extension added to the bone before it was broken.)  In a 2011 article, Matija Turk published the results of a collaboration with Ljuben Dimkaroski, an academic musician who had made replicas of the artifact. The authors argue that the instrument encompassed a range of two and a half octaves, which can be extended to three octaves by overblowing. Dimkaroski created over 30 wooden and bone replicas of the flute and experimented with them. The replicas were made from femurs of juvenile brown bears provided by the Hunters Association of Slovenia, but also calf, goat, pig, roe and red deer bones. In the end, he concentrated on playing a replica made on a femur of a juvenile cave bear from Divje Babe I Cave, to come as close as possible to the dimensions of the original.

The Divje Babe Flute is a cave bear femur pierced by spaced holes that was found in 1995 at the Divje Babe archeological park located near Cerkno in northwestern Slovenia. It has been suggested that it was made by Neanderthals as a form of musical instrument, its hole spacing and alignment leading to its being labeled a "Neanderthal flute." Slovenian archeologist Mitja Brodar, however, argues that it was made by Cro-Magnons as an element of Central European Aurignacian culture. Despite alternative hypotheses suggesting it was formed by animals, the artifact remains on prominent public display in the National Museum of Slovenia in Ljubljana as a Neanderthal flute. As such, it is possibly the world's oldest known musical instrument.

La « flûte de Divje Babe » est un fémur d'ours des cavernes présentant des perforations et découvert dans le parc archéologique de Divje Babe à proximité d'Idrija au nord-ouest de la Slovénie. Les inventeurs et certains chercheurs pensent que cet objet est une flûte paléolithique et est le plus vieil instrument de musique connu. Cette interprétation est fortement contestée par d'autres chercheurs qui considèrent que les perforations ne sont pas anthropiques et peuvent être liées à l'action des carnivores. L'objet daté d'environ BP est présenté au Musée national slovène ("Narodni Muzej Slovenije") à Ljubljana comme une flûte dont l'authenticité a été prouvée.