Background.

The Sephardim (Hebrew for "Jews of Spain") were issued with the Spanish Royal Alhambra Decree in 1492, whereby they were given the choice of exile from Spain, or conversion to Catholicism, or failing to do either, execution. Of Spain's estimated 200,000 Jews at that time, around half converted; many by coercion, others because of social and financial pressures preventing their departure, and a few out of genuine religious conviction. They became Spain's Jewish-origin New Christians or conversos (i.e. "converts" to Catholicism).  Of the other half of Spain's Jews who did not convert, and instead chose exile, some sailed south (becoming the North African Sephardim), others went east (becoming the Eastern Sephardim), but most crossed the border west to Portugal.  In Portugal, Jewish life was interrupted only a few years later, when there too they were issued with the Portuguese decree against the Jews in 1496. While in theory, the Jews now in Portugal who chose not convert to Catholicism also had the option to be expelled (or executed) by 1497, the Portuguese king, not wanting a similar Jewish flight and brain drain as happened in Spain, in practice blocked Portugal's ports of exit, and subsequently reasoned that those who stayed behind agreed to become Christians by default. Thus the Jews in Portugal were forced to convert to Catholicism in 1496 after the decree and, all but a few who did manage to flee, became Portugal's Jewish-origin New Christians or conversos.  For the next few centuries, the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal continued to investigate the conversos and their descendants on suspicions that they continued to practice Judaism in secret. Many in fact did continue to practice Judaism behind closed doors, while publicly professing to be Catholics; in Spanish and Portuguese these were called Marranos.  The persecutions and trials by the inquisition against conversos lasted well into the late 1800s. Furthermore, the legal distinction between so-called Old Christians and New Christians was maintained for centuries, with a person's pedigree always on record.  Both those who actively maintained Jewish practices in secret, and also some sincere conversos who had converted fully to Catholicism, were at times hounded, persecuted and executed on charges of being Marranos. This was often a pretext for the confiscation of their property. Many of them wished to have freedom of religion again and to be free from this institutionalized anti-Semitism. Amsterdam, then one of the greatest cities in the world, offered both of these things.  In this historical context, a substantial migration of conversos from the Iberian Peninsula to Amsterdam took place from the 1600s to the early 1800s. Once in Amsterdam, many returned to Judaism openly and publicly. They called themselves Portuguese Jews, even those who came directly from Spain. They wanted to avoid being identified with Spain, which was at war with the Dutch Republic at the time during the Eighty Years' War. This branch of Judaism is also known as the Western Sephardim.  The Sephardic Jews in Amsterdam were known as the "first modern Jews" because they were the first to distinguish between religious and secular spheres of their individual and collective lives. Their religious life was focused primarily on the synagogue, the religious calendar of Jewish life, and an eagerness to provide a Jewish education for their children.  During the Holocaust, the facility was slated to become a deportation center for Jews, but Leo Palache and a team of volunteers managed to dissuade the Nazis from this plan. Instead, the building concealed Jewish ritual items for deported Jews in the sanctuary ceiling and attic floor.  The WWII diary of executive director, Salomon Coutinho, was discovered in Amsterdam and details the synagogues works and efforts to protect the building during the War.

Construction and building.

On December 12, 1670, the Sephardic Jewish community of Amsterdam acquired the site to build a synagogue and construction work began on April 17, 1671, under the architect Elias Bouman. On August 2, 1675, the Esnoga was finished. The design is based on the plans for King Solomon's temple.  The inscription above the entrance is from Psalm 5:8: "In the abundance of Thy lovingkindness will I come into Thy house". The sign also contains "1672", the year the building was intended to be completed, and "Aboab", the name of the chief rabbi who initiated the construction project.  The building is free-standing and rests on wooden piles; the foundation vaults can be viewed by boat from the canal water underneath the synagogue. The entrance to the main synagogue is off a small courtyard enclosed by low buildings housing the winter synagogue, offices and archives, homes of various officials, the rabbinate, a mortuary, and noted Etz Hayim library. The interior of the synagogue is a single, very high rectangular space retaining its original wooden benches. The floor was covered with fine sand, in the old Dutch tradition, to absorb dust, moisture and dirt from shoes and to muffle the noise. Only five synagogues in the world had a sand floor, and this was the only one with such a floor surviving outside the Caribbean region.  During the 1955–1959 renovation, the former Etz Hayim seminary auditorium was redesigned as a winter synagogue; central heating and electric lighting were added. The benches were taken from a synagogue originally built in 1639 and the Hechal dates from 1744.The ark is made from a solid piece of jacaranda wood from Brazil and the main sanctuary does not have any internal electric system; two chandeliers that hold 1000 candles are lit when necessary.

Ets Haim Library.

The Portuguese Synagogue has one of the oldest Jewish libraries in the world and filled with original and rare texts and is constantly called upon for academic and rabbinical research. It was founded in 1616 and has been housed in the historical complex of the Portuguese Jewish community of Amsterdam since 1675. In 1889 the private library of the then librarian David Montezinos was donated to Ets Haim and the library is known since then as Ets Haim/Livraria Montezinos. In the 1940s, the library's contents were shipped to Germany by the Nazis and the books were returned to the Netherlands after the war; the books were sent to Israel in 1979 and returned to Amsterdam in 2000. In 2014, in partnership with the National Library of Israel, a majority of the manuscripts were digitized, making the catalog available online and free.

Interior.

The interior of the Portuguese Synagogue is of the longitudinal Iberian-Sephardic type. The Holy Ark is situated in the South East Corner of the building and faces Jerusalem. On the other side of the room, opposite of the ark, is a tebah.  The Women's Gallery is supported by twelve stone columns, each which represents one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. In addition to these columns, there are four large brass chandeliers that hold a total of a thousand candles. All of the candles are lit in the synagogue during worship services. The light of these candles shine together through the 72 windows that exist in the building.  Around the building, there are numerous offices, archives, the rabbinate, the mortuary, and the Ets Haim. The Ets Haim (Tree of Life) is the library that contains valuable collections of Sephardic manuscripts.

The Portuguese Synagogue, also known as the Esnoga, or Snoge, is a late 17th-century Sephardic synagogue in Amsterdam, completed in 1675. "Esnoga" is the word for synagogue in Ladino, the traditional Judaeo-Spanish language of Sephardic Jews.

La Synagogue portugaise, également connue sous les noms d'Esnoga (en judéo-espagnol אסנוגה) ou de Snoge, est une synagogue séfarade du, située à Amsterdam aux Pays-Bas.


Biography.

Ochiai was born in what was then Motoyoshi County, Mutsu Province, as the second son to Ayukai Tarō Tairamorifusa (鮎貝太朗平盛房), a high-ranking retainer of the Sendai Domain. From the ages 11 to 13, he studied, among other things, kangaku (Chinese studies), at the Sendai Private School (仙台私塾), and in 1874 was adopted by the kokugaku scholar Ochiai Naoaki (落合直亮). His adopted father's research took him to Ise, where he studied in the Jingū Kyōin (神宮教院; later to become Kogakkan University).  In 1881, he moved to Tokyo, and the following year entered the School of Literature at Tokyo Imperial University. In 1884 he dropped out, and began three years of military service.  From 1889 onward, he taught at various academic institutions including Dai-ichi Kōtō Chūgakkō (第一高等中学校) and the "Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō" (the predecessor to modern Waseda University). One of his students at the "Dai-ichi Kōtō Chūgakkō" was the tanka poet and calligrapher Saishū Onoe.  In 1889, he joined Mori Ōgai in forming the literary society Shinsei Sha (新声社), and in August of that year they jointly translated and published the poetry anthology "Omokage" (於母影) which was to have a significant impact on contemporary Japanese poetry.  In 1893, he formed another literary society, the.

Legacy.

Donald Keene called him "[t]he first distinctively new poet of the Meiji period" but commented that while he attempted to update tanka for the modern era, his attempts were "halfhearted". (Keene 1999, p. 12)  The is named after him.

Ochiai Naobumi (16 December 1861 - 16 December 1903) was a Japanese tanka poet and scholar of Japanese literature of the Meiji Era. He was born as Ayukai Morimitsu and was the biological elder brother of the Korean scholar Ayukai Fusanoshin.

Ochiai Naobumi, -, est un poète japonais de tanka et lettré de littérature japonaise de l'ère Meiji. Son nom à la naissance est Ayukai Morimitsu. Il est le frère ainé d'Ayukai Fusanoshin, l'érudit de coréen.


Design.

German Type VIIC submarines were preceded by the shorter Type VIIB submarines. "U-240" had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. She had a total length of, a pressure hull length of, a beam of, a height of, and a draught of. The submarine was powered by two Germaniawerft F46 four-stroke, six-cylinder supercharged diesel engines producing a total of for use while surfaced, two AEG GU 460/8–27 double-acting electric motors producing a total of for use while submerged. She had two shafts and two propellers. The boat was capable of operating at depths of up to.  The submarine had a maximum surface speed of and a maximum submerged speed of. When submerged, the boat could operate for at ; when surfaced, she could travel at. "U-240" was fitted with five torpedo tubes (four fitted at the bow and one at the stern), fourteen torpedoes, one SK C/35 naval gun, 220 rounds, and two twin C/30 anti-aircraft guns. The boat had a complement of between forty-four and sixty.

Service history.

After training with the "5th U-boat Flotilla" at Kiel, "U-240" was transferred to the "9th U-boat Flotilla" for front-line service on 1 February 1944.  She sailed from Kiel to Kristiansand in Norway, on 27 to 28 March 1944, departing from there on her first combat patrol on 13 May.  The U-boat was listed as missing in the North Sea west of Norway from 17 May 1944. No definite explanation exists for her loss, but Sunderland JM667/V of No. 330 Norwegian Squadron (RAF Coastal Command) attacked and sank an unidentified U-boat in that area on 16 May. This is believed to be the U-240.

Previously recorded fate.

"U-240" was originally thought to have been sunk west of Norway by depth charges dropped by a Norwegian Short Sunderland flying boat of No. 330 Squadron RAF. The attack was against. No damage was caused.

German submarine "U-240" was a Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's "Kriegsmarine" during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 14 May 1942 at the Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft yard at Kiel as yard number 670, launched on 18 February 1943 and commissioned on 3 April 1943 under the command of "Oberleutnant zur See" Günther Link.

Le Unterseeboot 240 (ou U-240) est un sous-marin allemand (U-Boot) de type VII.C utilisé par la Kriegsmarine (marine de guerre allemande) pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale


History.

Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar founded Atlassian in 2002. The pair met while studying at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. They bootstrapped the company for several years, financing the startup with a $10,000 credit card debt.  The name is an "ad hoc" derivation from the titan Atlas in Greek mythology who had been punished to hold up the Heavens after the Greek gods had overthrown the Titans. (The usual form of the word is "Atlantean".) The derivation was reflected in the company's logo used from 2011 through to the 2017 re-branding through a blue X-shaped figure holding up what is shown to be the bottom of the sky.  Atlassian released its flagship product, Jira – a project and issue tracker, in 2002. In 2004, it released Confluence, a team collaboration platform that lets users work together on projects, co-create content, and share documents and other media assets.  In 2006, Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar were named Ernst & Young's Entrepreneurs of the Year for Australia.  In July 2010, Atlassian raised $60 million in venture capital from Accel Partners.  In June 2011, Atlassian announced revenue of $102 million, up 35% from the year before.  In August 2011, Jay Simons became president, while Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar kept their positions as "co-chief executive". For the June 2014 fiscal year, Atlassian reported $215 million in revenue, up from $144 million in 2013.  In a 2014 restructuring, the parent company became Atlassian Corporation PLC of the UK, with a registered address in London—though the actual headquarters remained in Sydney.  Atlassian has nine offices in six countries: Amsterdam, Austin, New York, San Francisco and Mountain View, California, Manila, Yokohama, Bangalore, and Sydney.  The group has over 3,000 employees serving more than 130,000 customers and millions of users.  In November 2015, Atlassian announced sales of $320 million, and Shona Brown was added to its board. On 10 December 2015 Atlassian made its initial public offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ stock exchange, under the symbol TEAM, putting the market capitalization of Atlassian at $4.37 billion.  In March 2019, Atlassian's value was US$26.6 billion. Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar own approximately 30 percent each.

Sales setup.

Atlassian does not have a traditional sales team, instead relying on its website, and its partner channel.

Acquisitions and product announcements.

In 2010, Atlassian acquired Bitbucket, a hosted service for code collaboration. In May 2012, Atlassian Marketplace was introduced as a website where customers can download plug-ins for various Atlassian products. That year, Atlassian also released Stash, a Git repository for enterprises, later renamed Bitbucket Server.  Additional products include Crucible, FishEye, Bamboo, and Clover, which target programmers working with a code base. FishEye, Crucible and Clover came into Atlassian's portfolio through the acquisition of another Australian software company, Cenqua, in 2007. In 2012, Atlassian acquired HipChat, an instant messenger for workplace environments.  Doug Burgum became chairman of its board of directors in July 2012.  In 2013, Atlassian announced a Jira service desk product with full service-level agreement support. Sourcetree is a Git and Mercurial desktop client for developers on Mac or Windows.  In 2015 it announced its acquisition of work chat company Hall, with the intention of migrating all of Hall's customers across to its own chat product HipChat.  A small startup called Dogwood Labs in Denver, Colorado which had a product called StatusPage was acquired in July 2016.  In January 2017 Atlassian announced the purchase of Trello for $425 million.  On 7 September 2017 the company launched Stride, a web chat alternative to Slack. Less than a year later, on 26 July 2018, Atlassian announced it was going to exit the chat business, that it had sold the intellectual property for HipChat and Stride to competitor Slack, and that it was going to shut down HipChat and Stride in 2019. As part of the deal, Atlassian took a small stake in Slack.  On 4 September 2018 the company acquired OpsGenie for $295 million.  On 18 March 2019, the company announced that it had acquired Agilecraft for $166 million. On 25 April 2019, AgileCraft was rebranded as Jira Align.  On 12 May 2020, Atlassian acquired Halp for an undisclosed amount.

Philanthropy.

In March 2011, the company raised $1 million for the charity Room to Read from sales of its $10 "Starter" licences.

Atlassian Corporation Plc () is an Australian enterprise software multinational that develops products for software development, project management, and content management.

Atlassian est un éditeur de logiciels, basé en Australie, qui développe des produits pour la gestion de développement et de projets.


Discovery and naming.

"Canardia" is known by various cranial and postcranial remains found in several sites in southwestern France (Haute-Garonne Department). The type locality of Tricouté 3, near the village of Marignac-Laspeyres, was discovered in 1999 by a team of The Musée des Dinosaures d’Espéraza. This site is located in the basal part of the Marnes d’Auzas Formation, which corresponds to a laguno-continental environment. The hadrosaur remains were preserved in a small lenticular marly-sandstone level within a thick sandstone bed. They belong to at least two different individuals as indicated by the presence of two left scapulae among the samples. The cranial elements include a nearly complete right maxilla (the holotype), a partial left maxilla, a right prefrontal, an incomplete right postorbital, a left quadrate, a right pterygoid, a partial left surangular, a right articular, an isolated dentary tooth crown, and a partial dental battery of the lower jaw. The postcranial material is represented by two partial left scapulae, an incomplete left sternal plate, a left humerus, and a partial right pubis. In 2003, these specimens were provisionally attributed to "Pararhabdodon" sp., a Spanish genus that at the time was the only known lambeosaurin in Europe. It was not until 2013 that Prieto-Márquez and colleagues recognized these bones as those of a new genus. All bones are of relatively small sizes (the holotype maxilla is 16,9 cm, the scapula is 21,8 cm, and the humerus is only 19,4 cm) and belong to immature individuals.  The same authors have also attributed to "Canardia" an associated maxilla and quadrate found in marine deposits of the Marly Limestone of Gensac Formation in Larcan quarry, about twenty km west of Marignac-Laspeyres. The two bones, first described in 2010 by Bilotte et al., were located approximately 1 m under an iridium level marking the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. This level is a lateral equivalent to the uppermost part of the Marne d’Auzas Formation. This shows that the Larcan individual is geologically younger than the Marignac-Laspeyres specimens. This discovery also indicates that "Canardia" was one of the last non-avian dinosaurs to exist in Europe just before the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. The Larcan specimen belongs to a juvenile individual (the length of the maxilla is 11,5 cm), whose remains were carried by a river to the sea.

Description.

The main feature of "Canardia" is the maxilla characterized by an enlarged rostrodorsal region that forms a prominent subrectangular flange that rises vertically above the rostroventral process. This character is also known in "Aralosaurus tuberiferus" from Kazakhstan that lived 20 million years before "Canardia". However, the maxilla of "Canardia" differs from that of "Aralosaurus" in its subhorizontal ectopterygoid shelf (it is parallel to the posterior segment of the dental row) whereas it is clearly inclined in "Aralosaurus". The maxilla of "Canardia" shows at least 26 teeth positions against 30 in "Aralosaurus", but the entire tooth row is not preserved in the French form. The maxillary teeth have a single median carina while the dentary teeth have an accessory ridge in front of the sub-central carina, as is the case in "Aralosaurus" and in many other hadrosaurs. "Canardia" differs also from "Aralosaurus" by the shape of the prefrontal in dorsal view. In "Canardia", the rostroventral process of the prefrontal is rostrocaudally narrow, whereas in "Aralosaurus", the same bone process is broad and laterally well-exposed. In addition, the prefrontal of "Canardia" has a dorsomedial flange that is absent in "Aralosaurus". "Canardia" and "Aralosaurus" are closely related, and Prieto-Márquez and colleagues brought them together in a new group of basal lambeosaurines which they call Aralosaurini. It is not known if "Canardia" had a hollow bony crest on the skull like most lambeosaurines. Its close relative "Aralosaurus" appears to have had a hollow structure in front of the orbits. However, as only a fragment of this structure has been preserved, its size and shape are unfortunately unknown. Maybe "Canardia" had a similar structure, but the discovery of more complete cranial remains is necessary to make comparisons.

Phylogeny.

With its sister group "Aralosaurus tuberiferus", "Canardia garonnensis" form a small clade, the tribe of Aralosaurini. These two genera are the most basal Lambeosaurinae.  The phylogenetic analyzes carried out by Prieto-Márquez and his colleagues led to the following cladogram:

Palaeoecology.

Paleobiogeography.

The close relationship of "Canardia" with "Aralosaurus" confirms the existence of faunal exchange in the Late Cretaceous between the islands of the European archipelago and the Asian continent. "Canardia" and "Aralosaurus" are temporally distant for at least 20 million years. As no lambeosaurines were known in the rich localities of late Campanian and early Maastrichtian ages of the Ibero-Armorican Island, it was suggested that the ancestors of "Canardia" had to reach this island rather late, perhaps at the end of the early Maastrichtian or during the late Maastrichtian. The discovery later in Spain of numerous lambeosaurines remains in the highest levels of the lower Maastrichtian argues for the first hypothesis. This migration was probably carried out in several stages, firstly by temporary terrestrial links between the landmass of Western Asia and the eastern islands of the European archipelago, then between the different European islands up to the Ibero-Armorican Island. A similar scenario probably applies to the presence on this island during the late Maastrichtian of another lambeosaurine with Asian affinity, the genus "Pararhabdodon" which is close to the Chinese "Tsintaosaurus" (which lived 15 million years earlier). Both "Canardia" and "Pararhabdodon" belong to lambeosaurines groups that are rather archaic for their time (Aralosaurini and Tsintaosaurini respectively) and the Ibero-Armorican Island was perhaps an ultimate refuge for these ancient groups of lambeosaurines hadrosaurs.

Palaeoenvironment.

The Marnes d’Auzas Formation is 100 m thick. It corresponds to sediments whose depositional environment evolved from the paralic domain (coastal lagoons, tidal marsh, tidal muddy channel) at the base of the formation, towards a more continental domain (alluvial plain, fluvial channels) in its upper part. From a paleogeographic point of view, the sites of the Marnes d’Auzas Formation were located on the west coast of the Ibero-Armorican Island (which included much of France and Spain), facing the Atlantic Gulf.  Few other vertebrates fossils have been found with the "Canardia" remains. The type locality of Tricouté 3, in the basal part of the Marnes d’Auzas Formation, has yielded only a crocodilian tooth, whereas the marine Marly limestone of Gensac Formation (the lateral equivalent of the top of the Marnes d’Auzas) has not yet yielded other terrestrial vertebrates remains. However, a more diverse fauna is known from the Cassagnau localities, in the middle part of the Marnes d’Auzas Formation. The Cassagnau's fauna is also located near Marignac-Laspeyres and includes several fish (Lepisosteidae, Phyllodontidae, Sparidae), Amphibians (Albanerpetontidae), several turtles including a complete carapace of "Iberoccitanemys convenarum", various crocodylians including teeth of a "Musturzabalsuchus"-like form and a complete skull attributed to "Thoracosaurus neocesariensis", two squamates (an indeterminate lizard and a varanoid form which is probably a freshwater mosasauroid), a probable enantiornithe bird, an indeterminate dromaeosaurid (known only by teeth), an indeterminate theropod of larger size (only known by a tooth characterized by its anterior carina running on the lingual side of the teeth), an indeterminate titanosaurian sauropod represented by teeth and a metacarpal (the shape of the teeth suggests that they belong to an "Atsinganosaurus"-like form), and an indeterminate lambeosaurine hadrosaur. The latter is exclusively represented by juvenile individuals and includes an articulated postcranial skeleton, teeth, and two left dentaries, one of them being associated with a predentary. No maxilla is preserved in these specimens, so it is not possible to know if this hadrosaur belongs to "Canardia" or to another lambeosaurine. The Marnes d’Auzas Formation is also present in the department of Ariège, notably near the village of Mérigon. There, a coarse sandstone bed at the top of the formation, has yielded a tooth and a dentary fragment of an indeterminate hadrosaur, as well as a cervical vertebra of a giant Azhdarchid pterosaur of 9 meters wingspan.

Canardia is an extinct genus of aralosaurin lambeosaurine dinosaur known from the Late Cretaceous Marnes d'Auzas Formation (late Maastrichtian stage) of Haute-Garonne department, in Occitanie region, southwestern France. The type species "Canardia garonnensis" was first described and named by Albert Prieto-Márquez, Fabio M. Dalla Vecchia, Rodrigo Gaete and Àngel Galobart in 2013. The name of the genus comes from “canard”, the French word for “duck”, an allusion to the fact that this animal belongs to the hadrosaurids which are also known as duck-billed dinosaurs. The specific epithet "garonnensis" refers to the Haute-Garonne department where this dinosaur has been found. "Canardia" was one of the last non-avian dinosaurs and lived between 67,5 and 66 my on the former Ibero-Armorican Island, which included much of France and Spain.

Canardia est un genre éteint de dinosaures hadrosauridés, classé dans la sous-famille des Lambeosaurinae. Ses restes fossiles ont été retrouvés près du village de Marignac-Laspeyres dans le département de la Haute-Garonne, en région Occitanie (France). Ils proviennent de la Formation des Marnes d’Auzas, datée du Maastrichtien terminal (Crétacé supérieur), il y a entre 67,5 et 66 millions d'années, juste avant l'extinction massive de la fin du Crétacé il y a 66 millions d'années. L'espèce type et seule espèce connue, Canardia garonnensis, a été décrite et nommée en 2013 par Albert Prieto-Márquez, Fabio M. Dalla Vecchia, Rodrigo Gaete et Àngel Galobart. Le nom du genre vient du Français « canard », une allusion au fait que cet animal appartient aux hadrosauridés, également appelés « dinosaures à bec de canard ». L'épithète spécifique "garonnensis" fait référence au département de la Haute-Garonne où ce dinosaure a été trouvé. "Canardia" fut l'un des derniers dinosaures non aviens et a vécu dans ce qui était à l'époque l'île Ibéro-Armoricaine, une terre émergée qui comprenait une grande partie de la France et de l'Espagne actuelle.


Early years.

In 1842, she married the second-lieutenant Victor Burle but seven years later, in 1849, she became a widow at the age of 32.  She married again on 15 September 1851, this time to the doctor Auguste Salaün-Penquer (1809-1882) and became known as Léocadie Hersent-Penquer. They settled in his hometown of Brest and had two children, Yves and Marie, but only their daughter lived to adulthood. She died in 1933.

Literary life.

On many occasions, especially during winter months, Hersent-Penquer visited many Parisian literary salons. There she met, among others, the writers José-Maria de Heredia, Victor Hugo, Alphonse de Lamartine and Charles Leconte de Lisle, all of whom would have a significant influence on her literary work. Hugo actively supported and encouraged her writing efforts. Leconte de Lisle introduced her to the other poets belonging to the Parnassians movement, and soon she and her husband became part of vibrant literary circles in Paris.  Of her first novel, "Chants du Foyer", one reviewer, Alphose Séché, said, "One finds there, expressed with feeling and harmony, the thoughts of the girl, the young woman and the young mother. Beside a great spiritualistic faith, there is, in this book, a profound feeling of nature"  According to Séché, her second novel, "Poetic Revelations", was directly influenced by Victor Hugo. Although Séché found its tone to be more serious, he said it contained more emphasis on ideas, and less on feelings. When comparing it to her first book, he concluded: "the language is more flexible and more visual and the inspiration harmonious and brilliant."  Back in her hometown of Brest, she followed the traditions she learned in the Paris salons, organizing literary soirees at her home. There she also read from her latest works, as she had in Paris. Together with her husband Auguste (who served as mayor of Brest from 1871 to 1881), they founded an art museum (Musée des Beaux-Arts of Brest) in 1875 and arranged funding for it from the municipality.  She and her second husband were both named honorary members of the Brest Academic Society, which declared Hersent-Penquer the "Muse of Brest."

Later years.

After her husband Auguste died of pneumonia in 1882, Hersent-Penquer gave a commission to the prolific sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi (famous for his Statue of Liberty in New York) for a monument dedicated to her husband and where she could be interred as well. The completed granite tomb was erected in St. Martin Cemetery in Brest.  Following her husband's death, she retired from social life and devoted her time to her children and grandchildren.  Hersent-Penquer died seven weeks before her 72nd birthday on 19 December 1889 in Brest. Her eulogy was given by the president of the Brest Academic Society, who lauded her many literary accomplishments and wide influence and caller her "a poet in the most noble sense of the word."

Selected works.

Hersent-Penquer's first poem, one about loneliness, was written at the age of 16.  Many of her poems and plays were published under the names Léocadie Hersent-Penquer or Léocadie Salaün-Penquer although some work, such as her epic poem (370 pages in length) "Vélléda" ("which glorifies Brittany and the Christian idea") and "Le Paradis retrouvé", and others, list the author as “Mme Auguste Penquer.”

Léocadie Hersent-Penquer (1817-1889) was a French poet, writer and co-founder of the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Brest, France. Hersent-Penquer, sometimes known as Léocadie Salaün-Penquer or Mme Auguste Salaün-Penquer, was born on 14 February 1817 into an established Breton family living at Château de Kerouartz near Lannilis in northwest France, where today a street is named after her. Her father was the doctor Jacques Hersent and her maternal grandfather was said to be General Marc-Antoine Coban (1763-1813), who died before she was born.

Léocadie Hersent-Penquer, née le au château de Kerouartz à Lannilis et morte le, est une poétesse française, dite "la muse brestoise".


History.

The area between the Kloveniersburgwal and the Zwanenburgwal was still "outside the fortress" (outside the city walls) until the late 16th century. It was added to the city in 1593. At that time there were weaving mills in the area, where after washing, carding, spinning, weaving and dying the woolen fabric was stretched on wooden frames ("raamen") to dry and stretch. The names Raamgracht, Ververstraat and Staalstraat recall that period. On a map from 1625 by Balthasar Florisz. van Berckenrode the canal is called the "Verwers Graft" (Dyers Canal). It then makes a right angle near the Moddermeule Steech and merges into a wider area that is also called Verwers Graft (now called Zwanenburgwal).  In the 17th century the cloth weavers moved to the then western border of the city, near the Bloemgracht and the Jordaan. The Raamstraat, Raamplein and Raampoort can still be found there.  The Raamgracht is located in the former Jodenbuurt (Jewish quarter) of Amsterdam. During World War II many Jewish residents of Raamgracht were taken to concentration camps and did not survive the war. Afterwards, part of the buildings on the north side of the Raamgracht was demolished for the construction of the Oostlijn metro line. The Pentagon designed by Theo Bosch was then built here.

Trivia.

The weekly "Vrij Nederland" has been established for many years in a monumental building from 1914 on Raamgracht 4, on the corner with the Kloveniersburgwal. The Weekbladpers (publisher of "Vrij Nederland" and magazines like "Opzij" and "Hollands Diep") is also located at Raamgracht 4. Journalist Igor Cornelissen wrote the book Raamgracht 4 about his time as editor of Vrij Nederland in the 1960s.  Sal Meijer painted the Raamgracht. This painting was purchased by the government in 1957 on the occasion of its 80th birthday  In the early seventies of the 20th century, the poet and writer Hugo Claus, together with his then muse, the actress Sylvia Kristel, occupied the Raamgracht 5-7 building.

Raamgracht in other cities.

There was a Raamgracht in The Hague that was filled in around 1850. There was also a Raamgracht in Haarlem, now the Gedempte Raamgracht.

The Raamgracht (Frame Canal) is a canal in central Amsterdam that runs from the Kloveniersburgwal to the Zwanenburgwal. The Groenburgwal, Verversstraat and Zanddwarsstraat lead to the Raamgracht. Bridge 225 over the canal is beside the Kloveniersburgwal, and Theo Boschbrug (bridge 230) over the canal is beside the Zwanenburgwal.

Le Raamgracht (« canal du bélier » en néerlandais) est un canal secondaire de la ville d'Amsterdam. Il est situé à l'est de l'arrondissement de Centrum (dans le Lastage) et relie le Kloveniersburgwal au Zwanenburgwal. Son tracé est parallèle à celui de l'Amstel. Jusqu'à la fin du, le quartier situé entre le "Kloveniersburgwal" et le "Zwanenburgwal" était connu comme « l'espace situé hors des limites de la ville vers l'Amstel ». Il fut consolidé dans la ville en 1593.


Bacterium morphology and staining.

The bacteria are curved or straight rods. They sometimes form filaments, which fragment into bacilli or cocci once disturbed. In tissues they form slender rods, straight or curved, or club-shaped. Short, relatively plump bacilli (rods) in tissue smears, large slender beaded rods in culture. They have no flagella or fimbria, no capsule.  "Mycobacterium tuberculosis" group bacteria are 1.0 - 4.0 μm long by 0.2 - 0.3 μm wide in tissues. In culture they may appear as cocci, or as bacilli up to 6 - 8 μm long.  The bacteria stain Gram-positive, acid-fast. The cell wall contains as high as 60% lipid, giving the mycobacteria their hydrophobic characteristics, slow growth and resistance to desiccation, disinfectants, acids and antibodies. ("Mycobacterium" Family). They are not easy to stain with analine dyes; although they are Gram positive it may not be easy to confirm this. Ziehl-Neelsen staining results in stain pink with hot carbol fuscin and then resist decolourisation with 3 percent hydrochloric acid in 95% alcohol (i.e. they are acid-alcohol fast); following washing, the slide is counterstained with e.g. methylene blue.  They are non-spore-forming.

Culture and biochemical features.

Growth requirements.

"Mycobacterium bovis" is a facultative intracellular parasite"." For "in vitro" growth, special culture media are required, for example Dorset's egg medium incorporates egg yolk, phosphate buffer, magnesium salts and sodium pyruvate; amino acids may be added but glycerol is not included as it is inhibitory. It is inhibited by glycerine. Culture generally requires several weeks at 37 °C to reach colonies visible to the unaided human eye. Strictly aerobic. Grows at 37 °C, does not grow at 25 °C. Optimum growth at 37-38 °C. Does not reduce nitrate, does not reduce niacin. Resistant to pyrazineamide. Sensitive to thiophene-2-carboxylic acid hydrazide.

Appearance of colonies.

Initially (after 3–4 weeks), minute dull flakes, thickening to form dry irregular masses standing high above the culture medium surface. Eventually confluent growth over the whole culture surface, forming a rough waxy blanket, becoming thick and wrinkled and reaching up the sides of the container. Yellow when they are first visible, darkening to deep yellow and eventually brick red, if exposed to light. In fluid media, growth on the surface only, unless a wetting agent (e.g. Tween 80) is added to the medium.

Cell structure and metabolism.

"M. bovis" is similar in structure and metabolism to "M. tuberculosis". "M. bovis" is a Gram-positive, acid-fast, rod-shaped, aerobic bacteria. Unlike "M. tuberculosis", "M. bovis" lacks pyruvate kinase activity, due to pykA containing a point mutation that affects binding of Mg cofactor. Pyruvate kinase catalyses the final step of glycolysis, the dephosphorylation of phosphorenolpyruvate to pyruvate. Therefore, in "M. bovis", glycolytic intermediates are unable to enter into oxidative metabolism. Although no specific studies have been performed, it seems that "M. bovis" must rely on amino acids or fatty acids as an alternative carbon source for energy metabolism.

Pathogenesis.

During the first half of the 20th century, "M. bovis" is estimated to have been responsible for more losses among farm animals than all other infectious diseases combined. Infection occurs if the bacterium is ingested.  "M. bovis" is usually transmitted to humans by consuming raw, infected cows' milk, although it can also spread via aerosol droplets. Actual infections in humans are nowadays rare in developed countries, mainly because pasteurisation kills "M. bovis" bacteria in infected milk. In the UK, cattle are tested for the disease as part of an eradication program and culled if they test positive. Such cattle can still enter the human food chain, but only after a government veterinary surgeon has inspected the carcass and certified that it is fit for human consumption. However, in areas of the developing world where pasteurisation is not routine, "M. bovis" is a relatively common cause of human tuberculosis.  Bovine tuberculosis is a chronic infectious disease which affects a broad range of mammalian hosts, including humans, cattle, deer, llamas, pigs, domestic cats, wild carnivores (foxes, coyotes) and omnivores (common brushtail possum, mustelids and rodents); it rarely affects equids or sheep. The disease can be transmitted in several ways; for example, it can be spread in exhaled air, sputum, urine, faeces, and pus, so the disease can be transmitted by direct contact, contact with the excreta of an infected animal, or inhalation of aerosols, depending on the species involved.

Application to biotechnology.

"M. bovis" is the ancestor of the most widely used vaccine against tuberculosis, "M. bovis" bacillus Calmette-Guérin. BCG is a strain that was created by growing "M. bovis" on potato slices soaked in ox-bile and glycerol over a period of 13 years.

Epidemiology and control.

New Zealand.

In New Zealand, the introduced common brushtail possum is a vector for the spread of "M. bovis". The Biosecurity Act 1993, which established a national pest-management strategy, is the legislation behind control of the disease in New Zealand. The Animal Health Board operates a nationwide programme of cattle testing and possum control, with the goal of eradicating "M. bovis" from wild vector species across 2.5 million hectares – or one-quarter – of New Zealand's at-risk areas, by 2026 and, eventually, eradicating the disease entirely.  The TB-free New Zealand programme is regarded as "world-leading". It has successfully reduced cattle and deer herd infection rates from more than 1700 in 1994 to fewer than 100 herds in July 2011. Much of this success can be attributed to sustained cattle controls reducing cross-infection and breaking the disease cycle. For example, at Hohotaka, in New Zealand's central North Island, control work from 1988 to 1994 achieved a sustained mean reduction of 87.5% in the density of TB‐infected possums. As expected, annual TB incidence in local cattle herds consequently declined by a similar amount (83.4%).  Possums are controlled through a combination of trapping, ground-baiting, and where other methods are impractical, aerial treatment with 1080 poison.  From 1979 to 1984, possum control was stopped due to lack of funding. From that point until 1994, TB rates in herds steadily increased. The area of New Zealand harbouring TB-infected wild animals expanded from about 10% of the country to 40%.  That possums are such effective transmitters of TB appears to be facilitated by their behaviour once they get the disease.

United Kingdom.

In the 1930s, 40% of cattle in the UK were infected with "M. bovis" and 50,000 new cases of human "M. bovis" infection were reported every year. According to DEFRA and the Health Protection Agency, the risk to people contracting TB from cattle in Great Britain would be low.  Badgers ("Meles meles") were first identified as carriers of "M. bovis" in 1971, but the report of an independent review committee in 1997 (the Krebs Report) concluded:'strong circumstantial evidence [exists] to suggest that badgers represent a significant source of "M. bovis" infection in cattle... [h]owever, the causal link... has not been proven'. In essence, the contribution of badgers 'to the TB problem in British cattle' was at this point a hypothesis that needed to be tested, according to the report. The subsequent Randomised Badger Culling Trial (designed, overseen and analysed by the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB, or ISG ) examined this hypothesis by conducting a large field trial of widescale (proactive) culling and localised reactive culling (in comparison with areas which received no badger culling). In their final report, the ISG concluded: "First, while badgers are clearly a source of cattle TB, careful evaluation of our own and others’ data indicates that badger culling can make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain. Indeed, some policies under consideration are likely to make matters worse rather than better. Second, weaknesses in cattle-testing regimens mean that cattle themselves contribute significantly to the persistence and spread of disease in all areas where TB occurs, and in some parts of Britain are likely to be the main source of infection. Scientific findings indicate that the rising incidence of disease can be reversed, and geographical spread contained, by the rigid application of cattle-based control measures alone." On 26 July 2007, the Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Rooker) said, "My Lords, we welcome the Independent Scientific Group’s final report, which further improves the evidence base. We are carefully considering the issues that the report raises, and will continue to work with industry, government advisers, and scientific experts in reaching policy decisions on these issues."  In the UK, many other mammals have been found to be infected with "M. bovis", although the frequency of isolation is generally much less than cattle and badgers. In some areas of south-west England, deer, especially fallow deer due to their gregarious behaviour, have been implicated as possible maintenance hosts for transmission of bovine TB  In some localised areas, the risk of transmission to cattle from fallow deer has been argued to be greater than it is from badgers.  The main reason that the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs requires infected or suspected cattle to be culled is to meet EU regulations for the export of meat and dairy products to other member states. No ethical or veterinary reason exists as to why infected animals cannot continue to live out their lives until the normal age for slaughter. All meat and dairy products can still be sold into the human food chain, providing the relevant carcass inspections and milk pasteurisation have been applied.  Spread of the disease to humans by domestic pets became evident in March 2014 when Public Health England announced two people in England developed bTB infections after contact with a domestic cat. The two human cases were linked to 9 cases of bTB infection in cats in Berkshire and Hampshire during 2013. These are the first documented cases of cat-to-human transmission.  In a 2010 opinion piece in "Trends in Microbiology", Paul and David Torgerson argued that bovine tuberculosis is a negligible public-health problem in the UK, providing milk is pasteurized. Bovine TB is very rarely spread by aerosol from cattle to humans. Therefore, the bovine tuberculosis control programme in the UK in its present form is a misallocation of resources and provides no benefit to society. Indeed, very little evidence exists of a positive cost benefit to the livestock industry, as few studies have been undertaken on the direct costs of bovine TB to animal production. Milk pasteurisation was the single public health intervention that prevented the transmission of bovine TB to humans, and no justification for the present test and cull policy in the UK is seen.  In July 2010, the second issue of the discussion document "Bovine TB, Time for a Rethink" was published by Rethink Bovine TB, an independent research group. The paper considers current policy in England and Wales. It proposes an alternative solution that is both practical and cost effective. In the paper, evidence is drawn from DEFRA and the work by Professors Paul and David Torgerson.  In March 2012, think tank the Bow Group published a target paper urging the government to reconsider its plans to cull thousands of badgers to control bovine TB, stating that the findings of Labour's major badger-culling trials several years prior were that culling does not work. The paper was authored by Graham Godwin-Pearson with a foreword by singer Brian May and contributions by leading tuberculosis scientists, including Lord Krebs.  In 2017 Rachel Tanner and Helen McShane, of the Jenner Institute, Oxford, published research on replacing, reducing and refining the use of animals in tuberculosis vaccine research.

United States.

According to Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz, the late 19th-century discovery of the relationship between bovine and human tuberculosis led to state and federal attempts to stamp out bovine tuberculosis. The campaigns for clean milk and meat frightened city people into supporting controls, although at the time there was little evidence that tuberculosis was spread to humans through infected meat or milk. The campaigns against impure meat and milk led to tension between the developing veterinarian profession and the medical profession, each claiming that area as part of their own expertise.  By 1917, 5 percent of American cattle were infected with "Mycobacterium bovis" (bovine tuberculosis or BTB), including 10 percent of dairy animals and 1–2 percent of range cattle. The rates were going up. Around 1900 15,000 Americans, mostly children, died each year from BTB and many more suffered pain and disfigurement. Threatened by a sales cutoff ordered by urban public health officials, Vermont state government officials launched and innovative eradication campaign bovine tuberculosis on farms, 1877 to 1936. They made use of the latest German research, and thereby kept the New York City and Boston markets. Vermont was exceptional, for across the country many farmers strenuously resisted bovine tuberculosis eradication as an expensive violation of their liberetarian right to farm.  In recent decades "M. bovis" infections in cattle herds in the United States is not common. "M. bovis" is endemic in white-tailed deer ("Odocoileus virginianus") in the northeastern portion of Michigan and northern Minnesota, and sporadic import of the disease from Mexico. Only the white-tailed deer has been confirmed as a maintenance host in the Michigan outbreak of bovine tuberculosis, although other mammals such as raccoons ("Procyon lotor"), opossums ("Didelphis virginiana"), and coyotes ("Canis latrans") can serve as spill-over and dead-end hosts. The fact that white-tailed deer are a maintenance host for "M. bovis" remains a significant barrier to the US nationwide eradication of the disease in livestock. In 2008, 733,998 licensed deer hunters harvested around 489,922 white-tailed deer in attempts to control the disease spread. These hunters purchased more than 1.5 million deer-harvest tags. The economic value of deer hunting to Michigan's economy in the drive to eradicate TB is substantial. For example, in 2006, hunters spent US$507 million hunting white-tailed deer in Michigan.

Global.

The disease is found in cattle throughout the globe, but some countries have been able to reduce or limit the incidence of the disease through a process of 'test and cull' of the cattle stock. Most of Europe and several Caribbean countries (including Cuba) are virtually free of "M. bovis". Australia is officially free of the disease since the successful BTEC program, but residual infections might exist in feral water buffalo in isolated parts of the Northern Territory. In Canada, affected wild elk and white-tailed deer are found in and around Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba. To improve control and eliminate bovine TB, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has split Manitoba into two management areas: The Riding Mountain TB eradication area, where the disease has been found, and the Manitoba TB Eradication Area, the rest of the province outside RMEA where the disease has not been found. The disease has also been found in African buffalo in South Africa.  "M. bovis" can be transmitted from human to human; an outbreak occurred in Birmingham, England, in 2004, and from human to cattle, but such occurrences are rare.  In Mexico, the disease is prevalent and rising among humans.

Zoonotic tuberculosis.

The infection of humans with "M. bovis" is referred to as zoonotic tuberculosis. In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO), World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), published the first Roadmap for Zoonotic Tuberculosis, recognizing zoonotic tuberculosis as a prominent global health problem. The main route of transmission is through the consumption of unpasteurized milk or other dairy products, although transmission via inhalation and via consumption of poorly cooked meat has also been reported. In 2018, based on the most recent Global Tuberculosis Report, an estimated 142,000 new cases of zoonotic tuberculosis, and 12,500 deaths due to the disease occurred. Cases of zoonotic tuberculosis have been reported in Africa, the Americas, Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Western Pacific. Human zoonotic tuberculosis cases are linked to the presence of bovine tuberculosis in cattle, and regions without adequate disease control measures and/or disease surveillance are at higher risk. It is difficult to clinically distinguish zoonotic tuberculosis from tuberculosis caused by "Mycobacterium tuberculosis" in people, and the current most commonly used diagnostics cannot effectively distinguish between "M. bovis" and "M. tuberculosis", which contributes to an underestimation of total cases worldwide. Controlling this disease requires animal health, food safety, and human health sectors to work together under a One Health approach (multi-disciplinary collaborations to improve the health of animals, people, and the environment).  The 2017 Roadmap identified ten priority areas for addressing zoonotic tuberculosis, which include collecting more accurate data, improving diagnostics, closing research gaps, improving food safety, reducing "M. bovis" in animal populations, identifying risk factors for transmission, increasing awareness, developing policies, implementing interventions, and increasing investments. To align with goals outlined in the Stop TB Partnership Global Plan to End TB 2016-2020, The Roadmap outlines specific milestones and goals to be met within this time frame.

Treatment.

"M. bovis" is innately resistant to pyrazinamide; therefore, the standard treatment is isoniazid and rifampicin for 9 months. However, most cattle with TB are culled.

Mycobacterium bovis ("M. bovis") is a slow-growing (16- to 20-hour generation time) aerobic bacterium and the causative agent of tuberculosis in cattle (known as bovine TB). It is related to "Mycobacterium tuberculosis", the bacterium which causes tuberculosis in humans. "M. bovis" can jump the species barrier and cause tuberculosis-like infection in humans and other mammals.

Mycobacterium bovis est la bactérie responsable d'une maladie dite « tuberculose bovine » (TB) qui affecte les bovins d'élevage et sauvages, mais aussi de nombreux animaux sauvages mammifères autres que les bovins. C'est l'une des formes du bacille de Koch (BK) responsables de diverses formes de tuberculose humaine. Elle en est très proche génétiquement, mais avec un agencement différent des gènes. C'est à partir d'une forme atténuée de ce bacille qu'est produit le vaccin BCG


History.

Suburban passenger rail services in Auckland and Wellington were a part of the New Zealand Railways Department, while bus services were owned either by city corporations or the Railways. With the restructuring of the department into the New Zealand Railways Corporation in the early 1980s, suburban bus and rail services came under the "Cityline" brand as part of the Corporation's Rail Passenger Group. Further restructuring of the rail network came in the 1990s, and the suburban rail operations were renamed CityRail after they were transferred to New Zealand Rail Limited in 1991. That year the Auckland Regional Council bought the Auckland CityRail fleet and contracted New Zealand Rail to run it, extending the contract until 1993 and again for 10 years until 2003.  In 1993 New Zealand Rail Limited was privatised, renamed Tranz Rail in 1995, with CityRail rebranded Tranz Metro. On 15 December 2000, as part of management changes at Tranz Rail, the company split Tranz Metro into wholly owned subsidiaries Tranz Metro Auckland Ltd and Tranz Metro Wellington Ltd, with the intention of selling them. Stagecoach New Zealand and Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) announced their intention to bid for the Wellington company, but both were barred by the Commerce Commission from doing so. Tranz Rail did not bid for the Auckland contract when it expired in 2003. Connex (later Veolia and now Transdev) won the contract, and took over from 23 August 2004. Tranz Metro Wellington reverted to a business unit of Tranz Rail, with new contracts being signed with GWRC in 2006 for network access, rolling stock maintenance and service delivery. The contracts expired in 2016.  In 2004 Toll Holdings bought a majority shareholding in Tranz Rail and renamed the company Toll NZ, and on 1 July 2008 it was bought (less the Tranz Link trucking and distribution arm) by the government and renamed KiwiRail. In October 2009 Cabinet agreed on a Metropolitan Rail Operating Model, which requires the operating contracts for metropolitan rail operations to be "contestable". This is in line with Auckland's rail contract.  An agreement signed in July 2011 transferred ownership of KiwiRail's station buildings, excluding Wellington railway station, to the GWRC, along with the D/DM class and EM/ET units (the FP/FT units were already owned by GWRC). KiwiRail retained ownership of the tracks, platforms, electric traction and signalling systems. The assets were valued at $107.5 million. Ownership of the fleet transferred on 1 July 2011 to Greater Wellington Rail Ltd, formed by Greater Wellington Regional Council in 2006.  In 2014, Transdev announced its intention to bid for the operations contract when it came up for renewal in 2016. The contact was awarded to a partnership between Transdev and Hyundai Rotem effective from July 2016.

Operations.

Metlink trains are operated under contract from the GWRC, which subsidises the operation and owns station buildings and rolling stock. Typically, 60% of that subsidy comes from central government through the NZ Transport Agency (formerly Land Transport New Zealand), which approves such funding after analysis of the economics and net benefits, the remainder coming from the GWRC. Public consultation in 2005–2006 resulted in some changes of emphasis in the new contract, which runs for ten years from June 2006. The September 2006 fare rises and section changes were stated to part-pay for a major upgrade of trains and facilities over the next few years in conjunction with regional bus service improvements.

Rolling stock.

Rolling stock as at 2 July 2016:

Upgrades.

In 2008-2011 KiwiRail and GWRC undertook a major upgrade of the Metlink network, dubbed the Wellington Regional Rail Programme (WRPP). The $390 million program included:  Work started on the programme in 2008, and was largely completed in February 2011.

Funding.

In 2011/2012, Tranz Metro had annual operational expenses of $80.437m, and revenues of $80.442m. Most revenue (47% or $37.8m) comes from fares, 22% or $17.69m comes from Wellington Regional Council rates, and 30% or $24.13m from NZ Transport Agency public transport funding.

Tranz Metro (formerly CityRail and before that Cityline) was a New Zealand public transport operator. Beginning as the New Zealand Railways Corporation's Cityline division as a result of restructuring in the 1980s, in its final form Tranz Metro was the operator of Metlink's' suburban trains owned by the Greater Wellington Regional Council in the Wellington Region of New Zealand.

Le Train de banlieue de Wellington est le réseau de trains de banlieue de la ville de Wellington, capitale de la Nouvelle-Zélande. Il compte actuellement cinq lignes, qui ont toutes pour terminus la gare de Wellington.


Toponymy.

Camécuaro derives from the native language purépecha or tarasca which means "Place of Bathing"

Geography.

Lago de Camécuaro National Park is located 14 km (8.5 mi) east of the city of Zamora de Hidalgo, Michoacán on Federal Highway 15 heading towards Morelia, Michoacán. The lake itself has a surface area of approximately and has a maximum depth of. The lake is supplied with water from numerous springs slightly to the south of the lake. Camécuaro Lake then empties at a slow rate into the Duero River which is an important tributary to the Lerma River.  The park is part of a large alluvial plain surrounded by mountains with a northeast-southeast orientation. The topography of the park is flat with no slopes greater than 5%. The park is found at 1,700 m (5,577 ft) above sea level. During the Cenozoic the area was a flood plain of the Duero River which deposited large amounts of basalt, breccia, calcareous tuff, tuff, andesite, and rhyolite. The dominant basalt rock found in the area give the soil a rich source of: calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, and sodium. The soils in the park and surrounding areas are rich and fertile making the region perfect for agriculture. The soil in the area is classified as pellic vertisol with significant amounts of chromate; the soil is of fine texture with rocky layer containing rocks smaller than 7.5 cm3.

History.

The park was declared a national park by President Lázaro Cárdenas del Río on July 18, 1940 in efforts to conserve the flora and fauna found there. The presidential decree was later signed into law on December 8, 1941.

Climate.

The park has a humid subtropical climate (Cwa) with average annual temperature of 18.5 °C (65 °F). The warmest month is May with an average temperature of 23.3 °C (74 °F), and the coldest month is December with an average temperature of 14.7 °C (59 °F). The park has an average annual precipitation of about 900.6 mm (35.4 in) mostly falling during the summer.

Lago de Camécuaro National Park is located east of the city of Zamora de Hidalgo in the municipality of Tangancícuaro in the state of Michoacán. The Park consists of of protected area including Camécuaro Lake which is supplied by a series of natural springs. The lake is popular due to crystal clear water and the beautiful vegetation that surrounds the lake. Even though the lake is relatively small, many photographers from all over Mexico come to take professional photographs that capture the parks picturesque views.

Le parc national Lago de Camécuaro () est un parc national du Mexique situé au Michoacán. Ce parc de protège le lac de Camécuaro, populaire pour ses eaux cristallines et sa végétation. Il a été créé en 1941 et est géré pat la "Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas".


Design.

A large group of artists participated in the extensive decoration of both the exterior and the interior of the building. The shipping companies housed inside were all involved in global trade, their combined lines "circumnavigated the earth in several directions" from Dutch hub points in the East and West Indies. As it was intended to serve as a practical, modern and functional office and also refer to the rich maritime tradition of the Netherlands, there are numerous maritime symbols incorporated into the design. For example, the outside of the building is covered in carving and relief sculptures that reflect the Dutch colonial empire, with the sculpted personifications of the oceans around the main entrance presented as "exotic mysterious women".  The building's design and execution were entrusted to the brothers Johan Godart and Adolf Daniel Nicholas van Gendt. The van Gendt brothers were responsible for the technical implementation and the design of the concrete frame. The architectural design was left to the then relatively unknown architect Johan van der Mey. The Amsterdam School architects Michel de Klerk and Piet Kramer also contributed.  The design has been described as still holding "the charm and brilliance" of the era.

Construction.

For the construction a public company was founded with a capital of 1,000,000 guilders. The building was planned to occupy 1,400 square metres at the corner of the Prins Hendrikkade and Binnenkant. Thirteen buildings had to be demolished: numbers 108 to 114 on Prins Hendrikkade and numbers 1 to 6 on Binnenkant. The first phase was 1913-16 and the expansion was completed twelve years later (1926–28). In order to avoid colour variation, the bricks were baked at the same time for both construction phases. Various types of brick, ironwork, stained glass, exotic hardwoods and textiles were processed in large quantities. The materials used were extremely costly with some types of brick and moulds for profiles being specially designed. Besides terracotta, much precious stone was also used, including granite, marble and varieties of porphyry diorite. The former main entrance on the corner Prins Hendrikkade and Binnenkant is topped by a truncated tower structure, coated with copper-coloured English slate. The lead eaves were executed in the form of ship ropes, golf, and fishing cups.

Interior.

Staircase.

Several features of the building are particularly noteworthy: the richly decorated central staircase; the boardroom on the floors at the corner of the Prins Hendrikkade and the Binnenkant; and the large meeting room on the third floor on the Prins Hendrikkade side.  The ironwork in the central staircase forms a connecting link between the floors. The stairwell is enclosed by stained-glass, implemented and designed - as was almost all the other stained-glass work in the building - by the glazier William Bogtman.

Large meeting room.

The large meeting or deliberation room on the third floor was by the interior designer T. Nieuwenhuis. Its interior fittings are made of dark tropical woods such as mahogany, ebony and coromandel. During a renovation in 1972 the stained-glass windows were shortened, original wall coverings were redone in a lighter shade and the original wall lamps, ceiling and chandelier removed. The original chandelier, executed in openwork brass, was replaced in 1974.

Hotel.

The last shipping company left the building in 1981 and the Shipping House was occupied in August 1983 by the Amsterdam Municipal Transport Company (GVB). By 2004, the GVB had gone elsewhere. After a major renovation, the building was opened on 8 June 2007 as a five star hotel/ restaurant/ conference centre containing 165 rooms, including 22 suites, eight banquet and meeting rooms, a restaurant, a bar/lounge and a wellness centre.  In designing the hotel interior, Amsterdam-based architect Ray Kentie was inspired by the original sumptuous Art Nouveau style. In keeping with the tradition of the Gesamtkunstwerk, he invited artists like Gerti Bierenbroodspot and Christie van der Haak to complete the renovation. Bierenbroodspot paintings and sculptures of shells, fish, mermaids and sea monsters can be viewed in all the rooms and corridors, and there are even hand painted Delft Blue dolphins on the bottom of the pool. Bierenbroodspot also designed the porcelain used in the restaurant. Christie van der Haak was inspired by Van Nieuwenhuis patterns in the designs for the decoration of the room interiors, the restaurant and the bar. The damask table napkins were hand woven in the workshops of the National Dutch Textile Museum.

The Shipping House () is a building on the western tip of the Waalseiland near Amsterdam harbour that is one of the top 100 Dutch heritage sites and generally regarded as the first true example of the Amsterdam School, a style characterised by "expressive dynamism, lavish ornamentation and colourful embellishments". It is situated on the Prins Hendrikkade and was erected on the spot whereCornelis Houtman's first trip to the East Indies had begun in 1595. The first part was built 1913 - 1916 (during World War I); the second part was built 1926 -1928. Originally, it was the headquarters of six leading Amsterdam shipping companies: the "Netherlands Steamship Company" (SMN), the "Royal Packet Navigation Company" (KPM), the "Java-China-Japan Line" (JCJL) and the "Royal Dutch Steamboat Company" (KNSM) with subsidiary "New Rhine Navigation Company" (NRM) and acquired in 1912 "Royal West India Mail Service" (KWIM).

La Scheepvaarthuis (« Maison de la Marine » en néerlandais) est un immeuble d'Amsterdam situé sur le Prins Hendrikkade et qui fut construit pour abriter les bureaux et le siège social de six entreprises de transport maritime amstellodamoises. Construit sur la pointe ouest de l'île artificielle de Waalseiland, il est considéré comme l'un des tout premiers bâtiments représentatifs de l'École d'Amsterdam. Il est inscrit au registre des rijksmonumenten depuis 1974. Le bâtiment accueille aujourd'hui l'un des hôtels les plus luxueux de la ville, le "Grand Hotel Amrâth Amsterdam".


History.

Upon finishing his film "Tale of Tales" in 1979 Norstein decided that the next project for his small team (consisting of himself as the animator and director, his wife Franchesca Yarbusova as the artist and his friend Aleksandr Zhukovskiy as the cinematographer) would be an approximately 60-minute-long film based on Gogol's short story "The Overcoat". Norstein has said that he considers "The Overcoat" to be as important a work of literature for him personally as one of the chapters of the Bible.  By 1981, when work on the film began, Norstein had been working at Soyuzmultfilm (the main Soviet animation studio) for 13 years and had worked on some 40 films and directed or co-directed six. Progress was slow, with many interruptions (Norstein estimates that only about three years of work were actually done). Norstein says that Viktor Tinyaev (Виктор Тиняев) helped him during this period. In 1986, with only 10 minutes of the film completed, Norstein was fired from the Soyuzmultfilm studio in which he had worked. This was despite the fact that his films had gathered many international awards, and "Tale of Tales" had been voted the best animated film of all time by a large panel of international critics in 1984.  With the help of Rolan Bykov, Norstein managed to set up his own animation studio in his home. There, he and his team continued to slowly work on the film. Funding has been sporadic and has come from many different sources, including the Savings Bank of Russia (Sberbank) and TNK oil company. A few minutes were shot under the Soros Fund before 1999. Norstein has been known for refusing funding from certain sources. He refused to accept money from Mikhail Shvydkoy, the Russian Minister of Culture, saying "one cannot take money from those who don't care about you." He also refused help from Nick Park's company Aardman Animations, accepting from them only a few boxes of lightbulbs.  Production came to a temporary halt on November 17, 1999 with the death of cinematographer Aleksandr Zhukovskiy (Александр Жуковский). The loss was crippling for Yuriy Norstein — he said of Zhukovskiy that he was the only person who ever saw exactly eye-to-eye with him both as an artist and as a friend. Nevertheless, by 2001 production had resumed with a new cinematographer — Maksim Granik (Максим Граник), one of Zhukovskiy's students. Production soon halted again — this time for three years. Norstein spent a year and a half making a 3-minute animation for the introduction to "Spokoynoy nochi, malyshi!", a popular Russian nightly show for young children to watch before they go to bed (his segment was taken off the air in the summer of 2001; the show moved to another channel while the copyright for the sequence stayed with the old one). He also spent nine months working on a 2-minute sequence for the Japanese collaborative film "Winter Days" (released in 2003). Norstein said that this sequence required as much work as a 10-minute film, and that his work on it influenced "The Overcoat" and vice versa (the sequence contains a scene with Bashō searching for ticks in his cloak which is similar to a scene in "The Overcoat").  In a July 4, 2004 interview, Norstein said that 25 minutes of "The Overcoat" had been shot.  The studio stopped working on the film for nearly a year while Norstein worked to release his two-volume book, "Snow on the Grass", released on August 10, 2008.  To this day (at least as of March 2013), Norstein is still working on the film—his ardent perfectionism has earned him the nickname "The Golden Snail". Although he has been offered chances to leave Russia, Norstein believes that finishing his film in "circumstances approaching comfort" would be impossible. By 2012, "The Overcoat" had surpassed "The Thief and the Cobbler"'s record of the longest production time for a motion picture in history when it continued unfinished.  In a February 2014 interview, Norstein revealed that profits from sales of his recent books and licensing deals are going into supporting his work on a new film, but refused to confirm whether that film is "The Overcoat". In April 2015, Norstein said in an interview that most of his time is being spent working on "The Overcoat".

Cast and crew.

Yuri Norstein is the writer, director, and animator for the film. His wife Francheska Yarbusova is the main artist responsible for the characters and backgrounds. Other artists who were working on the film as of 2004 were Larisa Zenevich, Lena Sharapova and Valentin Olshvang (who earlier worked with Norstein on the "Spokoynoy nochi, malyshi!" sequence). Aleksandr Zhukovskiy was the cinematographer until his death on November 17, 1999. A student of his, Maksim Granik, has been the cinematographer since 2001.  There is not expected to be much dialogue in the film. Norstein originally wanted Aleksandr Kalyagin to play the main role. However, he has said that his idea of the main character has since changed, and that he is not yet sure who the final voice actor will be.

Technique.

Norstein uses a special technique in his animation, involving multiple glass panels to give his animation a three-dimensional look. The camera is placed at the top looking down on a series of glass panels about a meter deep (one every 25–30 cm). The individual glass panels can move horizontally as well as toward and away from the camera (to give the effect of a character moving closer or further away). Some scenes required a different approach, as can be seen in the image on the right.  The animation used is cutout animation, a type of stop motion.  Norstein refuses to use a computer in his work, and says that even watching computer-animated films makes him ill.  The film is being shot in black-and-white film. Due to the closure of Moscow labs that develop black-and-white film, Norstein's team is currently being forced to develop it themselves.

Plot.

The film is based on Nikolai Gogol's "The Overcoat". However, Norstein has said that "the cinematographer should not be interested in that which is described in detail – he should look to that which is skipped, to that which is implied but is not explicitly written. The break in the text is the most promising, the most alive place for cinema."

External links.

Russian

The Overcoat (, "Shinyel") is an unfinished animated feature film that has been the main project of acclaimed Russian director and animator Yuri Norstein since 1981. It is based on the short story by Nikolai Gogol with the same title.

Le Manteau (en, "Shinyel") est un film d'animation en cours de réalisation depuis 1981, principal projet du metteur en scène russe de renom et animateur Iouri Norstein (parfois orthographié Youri Norstein). Le scénario est basé sur la nouvelle de même nom "Le Manteau" de Nicolas Gogol.


Plot.

The film centers on Rommel, a mechanic at a motorbike repair shop who works alongside his partner Luke, and competes in sidehack-style races. He and his fiancée Rita plan to get married soon. One day at work, he meets J.C., a hot-tempered entertainer and his crew, when he brings in his bike for repair. He sees a sidehack bike in the shop and takes a liking to it. Rommel offers J.C. and his group to join him in a sidehack event the upcoming weekend. At the event, J.C. enjoys watching Rommel race on the sidehack. Rommel offers J.C to give a ride on a sidehack with him at his and Rita's cabin, and he accepts.  After a fun day of racing on Rommel's sidehack, everyone has a get together dinner in the cabin and J.C. offers Rommel to join him, who politely declines. J.C. loses his temper as a result, and takes out his anger on his girlfriend, Paisley, after telling him he's not interested in his offer. The next day, while Rommel and Luke are working on a bike, Paisley comes over and tries to seduce Rommel into getting with her, wanting to get away from J.C., but he rejects her and sends her away crying. Later, when J.C. and his men return to their hotel, they find Paisley drunk and her clothes tattered, claiming that Rommel raped her. Angered, J.C. and his gang find Rommel and Rita in their cabin making love, and proceed to beat Rommel unconscious, then they rape and kill Rita afterwards. Luke finds out what happened to Rommel and informs the police. J.C., now on the verge of being wanted for his actions, has to hide himself in isolation.  Despite Luke's warnings to let the police handle the situation, Rommel wants revenge on J.C. for killing his former fiancée, and gathers a group of men to back him up, consisting of one of J.C.'s (now former) henchmen, Nero (who joined Rommel after finally having enough of J.C.'s abuse), muscle-bound Big Jake, bailed out criminal Crapout, and another one of J.C.'s henchmen, Cooch (who's secretly working undercover for J.C.).  Rommel and his gang head out into the canyons where J.C. is hiding. Luke goes after Rommel to stop him from getting his revenge. Meanwhile, Rommel discusses the plan on what they're going to do to J.C., which involves being stealthy, using their hands and no guns in spite of the risk that J.C.'s men may have some on them. They're reluctant on the plan, but stick to it regardless.  The next morning, Cooch sneaks over to J.C.'s hideout while everyone is still asleep and fills him in on everything, and after he takes off, Paisley breaks up with J.C. after putting up with all of his abuse and tries to escalate his fury with Rommel. Angry, he strangles Paisley to death, and then apologizes to her dead body and chides her for making him so angry. Luke attempts to talk Rommel out of getting his revenge on J.C., but refuses and sticks with the plan. Suddenly, they see Cooch sneaking back into the spot where everyone was sleeping, and Rommel, Big Jake, Nero and Crapout gang up on him trying to find out what's going on. Cooch feigns ignorance, and they beat him up to get him to talk. Finally giving in, he tells Rommel J.C. is hiding in a rock quarry in the canyons, and Rommel orders Crapout to tie him up. Rommel goes over to Luke and asks him to call the police to let them know where J.C. is hiding, finally acknowledging that going after J.C. isn't worth it. However, he still keeps a tied-up Cooch to his side while keeping an eye out on J.C. to make sure he doesn't escape from his hideout, as Rommel's men stick with the original plan, resulting in Big Jake being killed after taking down two of J.C.'s men through stealth, and Cooch escaping, pleading J.C. not to kill Rommel, only for J.C. to kill his former weasel for being caught. With two of Rommel's men already killed, Nero and Crapout decide to play by their own rules and escape on a bike as the latter kills all of J.C.'s men with a gun instead of a battering ram as he originally planned, while J.C. attempts to shoot Rommel after Cooch exposed him.  With Rommel and J.C. left in the quarry, no guns on them, the two men brawl. When Rommel manages to gain the upper hand, he elects to walk away when the police are about to arrive, but J.C. picks up a gun and shoots Rommel from behind. The last images of the film are a flashback of Rommel and his fiancée rolling about in a grassy field, superimposed over a shot of Rommel's dead body.

"Mystery Science Theater 3000".

On September 29, 1990, "The Sidehackers" was featured and lampooned on "Mystery Science Theater 3000". The episode (Season 2, Episode 2) includes one of the few occasions Cambot actually interacts in a way other than filming the experiment, by placing an ESPN-like score graphic during the movie's racing scenes.  The episode was released on DVD by Rhino Entertainment as part of the third volume of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" DVD box sets. The collection also included the MST3K versions of "The Atomic Brain" (episode #518) and "The Unearthly" (episode #320) plus a disc of six MST3K shorts. The four-disc collection was later re-issued by Shout Factory in September 2016.

Edits.

The writers were unaware of the film's darker content when they selected it for the show, only watching it in its entirety during their usual joke-writing sessions. They were horrified to discover the scene in which Rommel's girlfriend Rita is raped and dies, juxtaposed with shots of Luke and Lois' children playfully roughhousing. This scene, and the discovery of Rita's nearly nude body, were removed from the episode. To make up for the missing plot point, the character of Crow later remarks, "For those of you playing along at home, Rita is dead." According to the series' head writer (and future host) Michael J. Nelson, "We were all traumatized, the scene got cut, and from that day forward, movies were watched in their entirety (for such potentially offensive content) before they were selected." Earlier in the episode, the dinner scene at Rommel and Rita's cabin is also edited slightly: when J.C. flies into a rage and Nero tries to calm him, J.C. pushes him away, saying "Take your hands off me, you dirty nigger!" The latter half of the line is muted while Joel and the bots loudly rebuke J.C.

Soundtrack.

The movie's soundtrack LP was issued in 1969 in the U.S. by Amaret Records (ST 5004). The music was composed by Mike Curb and Jerry Styner, with lyrics by Guy Henric, and performed by the psychedelic, West Coast, rock band The New Life.  Track listing:  The New Life were formed from the ashes of another band, The Cindermen, who were a garage rock group signed by Moonglow Records in 1965. The New Life was formed by Don Whaley; Alan Shapazian (ex-member of Raik's Progress); Phil Reed; and Duane Scott (also ex-member of Raik's Progress) who was the original keyboard player. Steve Wood, who had been in an Oak Cliff, Dallas, band called The Penthouse, replaced Duane Scott after about a year into the band. Besides the "Sidehackers" soundtrack, they also scored songs for a film called "Black Water Gold". The New Life broke up in 1970.

The Sidehackers (also known as Five the Hard Way) is a 1969 American action film about motorcycle racing with a twist. Each motorcycle has a sidehack (a sidecar with a rail but no sidewalls or seat), in which a passenger rides and tilts to one side or another when going around curves. The credits thank the "Southern California Sidehack Association"; sidehacking is also known as sidecarcross or "sidecar motocross racing".

Le, il a été utilisé pour un épisode de la série télévisée culte'ce qui lui a redonné un regain de notoriété après avoir sombré dans l'anonymat. Il fait aussi partie du coffret de DVD ', sorti en 2003.


Amateur career.

Doğuş Balbay started playing basketball in the Turkish club Fenerbahçe. After two years in the Turkish Basketball League, he moved to Brewster Academy, Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, U.S. to study.  Balbay spent the last two years playing on the Under-18 Turkish national team, and he helped the squad place fourth at the 2006 European Championships. He also played two years on the Under-16 Turkish national team and led that squad to the 2005 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship.  He led Brewster to a 29-6 record and a runner-up finish at the NEPSAC Class A Championship while averaging 13.5 points and 7.5 assists per game during his senior season under coach Jason Smith.  After Balbay signed a letter of intent with Texas, Longhorns' head coach Rick Barnes declared that "Dogus is an important pickup for our program, as he will provide us quality depth at the point guard position." Barnes also said that Dogus "has a clever international game and good athleticism. Dogus is a strong perimeter defender and a good play maker who has the ability to score in the lane."  At the midway mark of the 2009–10 season, ESPN analyst Jay Bilas named Balbay one of the two top perimeter defenders in college basketball that season, along with Chris Kramer of Purdue. Bilas said about Balbay, Doğuş was not drafted in the 2011 NBA draft but was linked with various European teams, including his native Fenerbahçe. His strength, versality, defensive prowess and speed is said to resemble Fenerbahçe and national player Ömer Onan.  ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla named Doğuş his favourite player in the 2011 Eurocamp.

Professional career.

In July 2011, he signed a three-year contract with Anadolu Efes. He won the 2012 BSL All-Star Slam Dunk Contest, securing the win by jumping over Anadolu Efes teammate and 2010 BSL All-Star Slam Dunk Contest champion Sinan Güler on his way to the basket. In May 2014, he re-signed his contract with Anadolu Efes.

Personal life.

He is the son of Mithat (father) and Şükran (mother) Balbay, and has one older sister, Derya. He was married 8 July 2017 to Erica Balbay.

Doğuş Balbay (, born 21 January 1989) is a Turkish professional basketball player for Anadolu Efes Istanbul of the Turkish Basketball Super League (BSL) and the EuroLeague. He is 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) tall and plays point guard.

Doğuş Balbay, né le, à Istanbul, en Turquie, est un joueur turc de basket-ball. Il évolue au poste de meneur.


Life.

Fokczyński was an autodidact whose formal education did not extend beyond four grades of primary school at Pabianice. He worked there as a journeyman locksmith before moving in 1913 to Łódź, where he found a job in the electrical engineering firm of Knapik and Company. In 1919 Fokczyński enlisted in the Polish Army, serving in a radio battalion and later in Field Wireless Station No. 4. Mustered out in 1922, he worked a couple of years as a technician in the infant Polish broadcasting industry, where he was judged capable, intelligent, reliable, and gifted in radio work.  In 1927, Fokczyński opened a small radio workshop in a single room in Warsaw. Sporadically he received orders from the Cipher Bureau; Captain Maksymilian Ciężki, chief of the Bureau's German section ("BS 4"), had known him since his army years. In 1929–32, the shop on Warsaw's New World Street, ten minutes' walk from the General Staff building, was transformed into the AVA Radio Company. The electronics firm subsequently moved to new facilities in southern Warsaw's Mokotów district.  On a cost-plus basis, AVA produced radio equipment for the Polish General Staff's Cipher Bureau, which was responsible for the radio communications of the General Staff's Intelligence Section ("Oddział II").  After the Cipher Bureau's mathematician-cryptologist Marian Rejewski in December 1932 deduced the wiring in the German Enigma rotor cipher machine, AVA produced Enigma "doubles" and all the electro-mechanical equipment that was designed at the Cipher Bureau to facilitate decryption of the German ciphers. The Poles' reading of German ciphers laid the foundation for the western Allies' Ultra cipher-breaking operations, beginning seven years later, during World War II. Before the war, AVA also produced the Cipher Bureau-designed Lacida rotor cipher machine.  After the invasion of Poland in 1939, Fokczyński was one of the essential Cipher Bureau and AVA personnel who made it to France to continue their war on the Enigma cipher at "PC Bruno", outside Paris, where the Poles collaborated with their French and British allies. When France capitulated to Nazi Germany in June 1940, Fokczyński and his colleagues were transported by their French host, Colonel Gustave Bertrand, to a post codenamed "Cadix", outside Uzès, in southern, Vichy France.  On 8 November 1942 the Allies landed in North Africa (Operation Torch). On 9 November Bertrand evacuated "Cadix", and the Poles set out for the Côte d'Azur. Two days later, the Germans abruptly invaded the French Free Zone, putting an end to the collaborationist but semi-autonomous Vichy regime and, on 12 November, occupying "Cadix".  The Polish team sought, in small groups, to cross the Pyrenees from France into Spain. On 13 March 1943 one such expedition, which included Cipher Bureau chief Colonel Langer, Major Ciężki, Antoni Palluth and Fokczyński, was arrested near Perpignan by the Gestapo. They had been betrayed by their guide. The two officers were sent to "Frontstalag 122" at Compiègne, France, and on 9 September 1943 to the SS concentration camp, "Sonderkommando Schloss Eisenberg", in Czechoslovakia; they were liberated by American forces on 10 May 1945. Palluth and Fokczyński were sent as slave labor to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, near Berlin, where both died before war's end. Palluth was killed in an Allied air raid; Fokczyński died from exhaustion. None of the Poles betrayed to the Germans the secret of Enigma decryption.

Edward Fokczyński was one of the four directors of the AVA Radio Company, an electronics firm established in Warsaw, Poland, in 1929. AVA produced radio equipment for the Polish General Staff's Cipher Bureau, which was responsible for the radio communications of the General Staff's Intelligence Section ("Oddział II").

Edward Fokczyński est un fournisseur du bureau du chiffre polonais, directeur de la Société Radio AVA, mort au camp de concentration d'Oranienbourg-Sachsenhausen en 1944, pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale.


Gameplay.

While traditional 3D action RPG combat is the main focus on the game, plot is often delivered through first person perspective texts similar to the gamebook series. It also includes various supernatural disciplines learned by the Kai to give them otherworldly powers including the ability to psychically attack their opponents and defend against them.

Plot.

The story takes place between "Lone Wolf" books four and five, titled "The Chasm of Doom" and "Shadow on the Sand".

Development.

A week before the Gamescon gaming convention in 2011, a teaser website was posted with the words "Be Kai", which soon after was revealed by game developer Forge Reply to be an upcoming "Lone Wolf" video game. Creator Joe Dever described the game as the one that finally "got it right". Dever described the game as presenting the protagonist Lone Wolf with a Batmanesque darkness while still being a "paragon of virtue". The game was developed to be more action-oriented than the books to help translate the story from book to game.  Audio production studio 93 Steps was used to create the soundscape of the game, including music, sound effects and voices. The studio was curious to test how many fans "Lone Wolf" still had since the books went out of print in several western countries, and used Facebook to let people play through the original "Lone Wolf" book "Flight from the Dark", and vote every time there was a choice of direction in the story.

Reception.

"Pocket Gamer" praised the interactive text that transforms as you make choices into a 3D game with combat done through a 3rd person perspective. "TouchArcade" gave the game a 4/5 star rating, saying the game was exciting taking on the role of guiding the protagonist Lone Wolf through the adventure, but had trouble capturing the fun of the gamebooks they originated from.

Joe Dever's Lone Wolf is a role-playing game video game developed by Italian studio Forge Reply and published by Bulkypix for iOS on October 29, 2013, and is now also available on Android. It is based on the series of gamebooks by author Joe Dever entitled "Lone Wolf". The story involves Lone Wolf adventuring to uncover the secret of the Shianti Cube.

Joe Dever's Lone Wolf est un jeu vidéo de rôle en 4 épisodes développé par le studio italien Forge Reply et édité par la société française Bulkypix. Le premier épisode est sorti en novembre 2013 sur iPhone, iPad et Android. Le second épisode est prévu pour le. Il a été traduit par Scriptarium.