History.

The first plans to establish the Malta Maritime Museum were made in 1988, when an advisory committee was set up to set up the museum and collect artifacts from a number of sources. The then-derelict former Royal Naval Bakery in Birgu was chosen to house the museum.  After four years, the museum opened to the public on 24 July 1992. It was inaugurated by the Minister for Education and Museums, Ugo Mifsud Bonnici. Since its establishment, the museum's collections have increased by donations from Maltese and foreign individuals, foreign maritime museums, foreign navies, and several companies and corporate bodies.

The building.

The museum is housed in a large building on the Birgu waterfront which was formerly the Royal Naval Bakery. It was constructed between 1842 and 1845 on the site of the arsenal of the navy of the Order of Saint John. It was designed by the architect William Scamp, and its façade was reportedly inspired by Windsor Castle. The bakery took over the role of the Order's bakery in Valletta.  The bakery formed part of the Victualling Yard of the Malta Dockyard, which supplied naval personnel of the Mediterranean Fleet with food and drink. At its peak, the bakery produced of bread and biscuits every day using steam-powered machinery.  After World War II, the bakery was converted into the headquarters of the Admiralty Constabulary, also housing some offices and stores. It remained in use until British forces left Malta in 1979, and it was subsequently abandoned before reopening as the Malta Maritime Museum in 1992.

Collection.

The Malta Maritime Museum's collection includes over 20,000 artifacts illustrating Malta's maritime history. The collection includes boats, models of various ships and boats, anchors, amphorae, cannons, weapons, documents, paintings, uniforms, and a 1950s steam engine. Highlights include a large model of a third-rate ship of the navy of the Order of Saint John. This particular model dates back to the mid 18th-century, and it was probably used by the Order's nautical school. Another notable artifact is the largest known Roman anchor in the world, which weighs 4 tons. The collection also includes the figurehead of the Napoleonic-era ship of the line HMS "Hibernia".  The museum is open every day from 09:00 to 17:00, and it is closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day and Good Friday.

The Malta Maritime Museum () is a maritime museum in Birgu, Malta. It is housed in the former Royal Naval Bakery, which was built in the 1840s as the main bakery for the Mediterranean Fleet. The museum has a collection of over 20,000 artifacts, and it is the largest museum on the island.

Le musée maritime de Malte est situé dans une ancienne installation navale à Vittoriosa, près de La Valette, sur l'île de Malte. Il présente l'histoire maritime de Malte depuis la Préhistoire jusqu'à nos jours, île étroitement liée à la mer Méditerranée. Il illustre aussi le caractère mondial de la navigation et son impact sur la société, depuis. Le musée héberge également de nombreux objets de différentes époques : des peintures de marins maltais, des graphiques, des outils et l'évolution des technologies maritimes.


Biography.

Zadoc-Kahn was born on 2 September 1870, in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris. He was one of six children of Ernestine Meyer and Zadoc Kahn, the Chief Rabbi of France; his sisters were Hélène, Anne and Berthe; his brothers were Paul and Edmond. He began a medical career as an intern in Paris hospitals from 1892. He qualified as a medical doctor in 1897. In 1899, he married Suzanne Esther Lang, who was born on 26 March 1876 in Paris to Fleurette Silz Lang and Ernest Lang, a textile manufacturer. He is recorded on his marriage certificate as being a doctor at Hôtel-Dieu de Paris. They had three children, Bertrand, Jacqueline and Jean. In 1914, he became the Chief Medical Officer of the Rothschild Hospital and remained in that role until his murder. He was a board member and assistant treasurer of the Curie Foundation in 1924, and later treasurer.  In 1915, during World War I, he travelled as a military doctor aboard the hospital ship, the "Sphinx", as part of the Allied Powers' expedition to Salonika, to rally the large Jewish population of the city to the Allied cause, to help the beleaguered (mostly French) troops; this resulted in the creation of the Macedonian front. He had the rank of major in 1918 and was awarded the "Croix de Guerre" and the Cross of the Order of St. Sava (from Serbia).  In 1923, his wife Suzanne co-founded the Jewish Women's Union for Palestine with feminist advocate Yvonne Netter; the Union later became the French section of the Women's International Zionist Organization. In 1925, he became one of the eight-member editorial board of "" ("The Jewish Review") - a short-lived journal begun by Albert Cohen, the aim of which was to be at the political centre of the perceived contemporary Jewish renaissance; - other members included Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Georg Brandes and Charles Gide.  Upon the defeat of France to Nazi forces in 1940, Zadoc-Kahn's son, Bertrand, a cardiologist at the American Hospital of Paris shot himself in despair. Katharine Graham, owner of "The Washington Post", wrote how her father, Eugene Meyer, the American financier and cousin of Zadoc-Kahn who had lived with him for six months, offered to resettle his family to the U.S.A. as he had with others. Zadoc-Kahn and his wife were too devastated at their son's suicide and declined the offer. The couple went into hiding in a village on the outskirts of Paris; their daughter, Jacqueline, was hidden by a catholic family. Annette Benacerraf, Zadoc-Kahn's grand-niece, related to her husband (Nobel laureate, Baruj Benacerraf) how one of his last known addresses in France was in Le Ruel, Haravilliers in Seine-et-Oise, north-west of Paris (now part of the Val d'Oise département) and from here a letter was sent by Zadoc-Kahn to Désirée Damengout, a nursing colleague at the Rothschild Hospital, containing the following:  "I beg you to convey my wishes to all my friends on Santerre Street, nurses and doctors. If you have the time, I will be very happy to hear from you and all of you."  The couple was discovered in a house at Marines, Seine et Oise, on 1 November 1943 by the French gendarmérie and taken away. They were transported on Convoy No. 62, on 20 November, from Le Camp de Drancy (Drancy internment camp) to Auschwitz [most of the approximately 76,000 French Jews who were rounded up and sent to German concentration camps went through Drancy]. They were killed on their arrival at Auschwitz on 23 November. Meyer found out about their arrest and disappearance from Adolphe Dreyfus in New York in the spring of 1944. He kept a portrait of Zadoc-Kahn in his New York home. Jacqueline Zadoc-Kahn survived the war.

Léon Zadoc-Kahn (2 September 1870 - 23 November 1943) was a French doctor, the Chief Medical Officer of the, treasurer of the Curie Foundation and the Chair of the Central Committee of Keren haYesod, France. During the time of Vichy France, he was arrested and transported with his wife from his homeland to Auschwitz Concentration Camp where they were killed.

Léon Zadoc-Kahn (, Paris -, Auschwitz) est un médecin français, médecin-chef de l'Hôpital Rothschild et président du Comité central du Keren Hayessod France, fils du grand rabbin de France Zadoc Kahn, déporté et assassiné, avec son épouse Suzanne, à Auschwitz.


Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999

Belgique au Concours Eurovision de la chanson 1999

Before Eurovision.

Eurosong '99.

Eurosong '99 was held between 7 February and 28 February 1999. Three semi-finals were held for the contest, where the winner of each semi-final, as well as the highest scoring runner-up over all three semi-finals, qualified to the final, where they were joined by four more songs, internally selected by the Belgian broadcaster, Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep (VRT). The results of the semi-finals and final were determined through the votes of five juries: a three-member expert jury (consisting of Liliane Saint-Pierre, Anja Daems and Marcel Vanthilt); juries from two Belgian radio stations: Radio 2 and Radio Donna; a Eurojury consisting of European expats living in Belgium, along with the votes of televoting. The televote counted for 1/5 of the overall vote, with the other four juries counting for 4/5.  Each of the three semi-finals and the final were held at the VRT TV Studios in Schelle, with all four shows hosted by Bart Peeters.

Competing entries.

Artists and songwriters were able to submit their song entries from 1 November until 15 December 1998. From all 199 songs submitted to VRT, 21 songs were selected for the national final. VRT also invited composers to participate, with 4 songs being selected as pre-qualified finalists. The selected entries were announced on 12 January 1999.

Semi-final 1.

The first semi-final was held on 7 February 1999. Vanessa Chinitor won the semi-final, receiving 36 points for her song "Like The Wind".

Semi-final 2.

The second semi-final was held on 14 February 1999. Wendy Fierce won this semi-final with "Never Give Up", receiving 45 points. Runners-up Voice Male also qualified as the highest scoring runner-up, having received 32 points for their song "This Is My Life".

Semi-final 3.

The final semi-final was held on 21 February 1999. Alana Dante was the final winner, receiving 32 points for her performance of "Get Ready For The Sunsand".

Final.

The final was held on 28 February 1999. Eight songs competed, including the four qualifiers from the semi-finals: Vanessa Chinitor; Wendy Fierce; Alana Dante and Voice Male, as well as the four internally selected songs: Natural High; Medusa; Petra and Sarah.  The winner of the contest was Vanessa Chinitor with "Like The Wind", which would go on to represent Belgium at the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest in Jerusalem, Israel.

At Eurovision.

Chinitor performed second on the night of the contest, following Lithuania and preceding Spain. "Like The Wind" received 38 points, placing 12th in a field on 23.

Belgium entered the Eurovision Song Contest 1999 with Vanessa Chinitor and "Like The Wind". The song was selected to represent Belgium at the contest by winning the Belgium national final Eurosong '99.

La Belgique a participé au Concours Eurovision de la chanson 1999 le 29 mai à Jérusalem, en Israël. C'est la participation belge au Concours Eurovision de la chanson.


Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000

Belgique au Concours Eurovision de la chanson 2000

Before Eurovision.

Finale Nationale Concours Eurovision de la Chanson 2000.

The final was held on 18 February 2000 in Studio 6 of RTBF, hosted by Jean-Pierre Hautier. Ten songs competed, with the winner being chosen by public televoting. For the purposes of announcing the results, the country was split into six regions: Brussels, four in the Francophone provinces (the votes from the provinces of Namur and Luxembourg were combined and announced together) and one termed the "Rest of Belgium", covering the five Dutch-speaking provinces where viewing figures were likely to be much lower. Each region announced the actual number of televotes received, rather than converting them into the Eurovision 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-10-12 format. Sorce emerged the winner by a margin of over 3,500 votes.

Controversy.

Although it did not affect the outcome, there was initially some degree of uncertainty about the disproportionately high number of votes to Sabrina Klinkenberg from the province of Liège, but RTBF subsequently confirmed that it was correct, citing the fact that Klinkenberg was a native of that province as the most probable explanation, and pointing out that Sorce had also received an exceptionally high number of votes from her home province of Hainaut.

At Eurovision.

On the night of the final Sorce performed 10th in the running order, following Russia and preceding Cyprus. A somewhat shrill and at times off-key vocal performance, combined with a much-criticised choice of outfit, contributed towards an ignominious result, with only 2 points received (from the unlikely source of Macedonia) and a last place finish of the 24 entrants, the eighth time that Belgium had finished at the foot of the Eurovision scoreboard. The 12 points from the Belgian televote were awarded to Latvia.

Belgium was represented by Nathalie Sorce with the song '"Envie de vivre" at the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place in Stockholm on 13 May. Sorce was the winner of the Belgian national final for the contest, held in Brussels on 18 February.

La Belgique a participé au Concours Eurovision de la chanson 2000 le 13 mai à Stockholm, en Suède. C'est la participation belge au Concours Eurovision de la chanson.


Geography.

Runaway Bay is located at (33.175379, −97.874794). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of, of which, of it is land and is water.  The city is built around an 18-hole golf course and the city's main water tower resembles a golf ball on a tee.

Demographics.

As of the census of 2000, there were 1,104 people, 492 households, and 348 families residing in the city. The population density was 478.5 people per square mile (184.5/km2). There were 588 housing units at an average density of 254.9/sq mi (98.3/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 98.28% White, 0.45% African American, 0.27% Native American, 0.45% Asian, 0.27% from other races, and 0.27% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.27% of the population.  There were 492 households out of which 21.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 64.6% were married couples living together, 4.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.1% were non-families. 24.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.24 and the average family size was 2.69.  In the city, the population was spread out with 18.9% under the age of 18, 5.3% from 18 to 24, 23.2% from 25 to 44, 31.4% from 45 to 64, and 21.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 47 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.7 males.  The median income for a household in the city was $50,795, and the median income for a family was $57,656. Males had a median income of $34,688 versus $25,625 for females. The per capita income for the city was $25,152. About 2.2% of families and 4.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.3% of those under age 18 and 5.0% of those age 65 or over.

Golf course.

The Club at Runaway Bay is an 18-hole golf course and club house designed by Leon Howard and established in 1969. It is Par 72, length 7032 yards and has a course rating of 73.1. It was featured in the 2008–09 edition of "Golf Digest" as one of the "Best Places to Play."

Alleged chupacabra sighting.

On January 17, 2010, the golf course was the subject of a chupacabra sighting in which the unidentified dead animal was described as a "brown, earth-colored creature is hairless with oversized canines and elongated padded feet with inch-long toes tapered with sharp, curved claws. The creature also had long hind legs." Upon investigation, a biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department identified the animal as a hairless raccoon.

Education.

The City of Runaway Bay is served by the Bridgeport Independent School District.

Runaway Bay is a city in Wise County, Texas, lying at the Southern end of Lake Bridgeport. The population was 1,286 at the 2010 census.

La ville de Runaway Bay est située dans le comté de Wise, dans l’État du Texas, aux États-Unis. Sa population s’élevait à lors du recensement, estimée à.


History.

Gatka's theory and techniques were taught by the Sikh gurus. It has been handed down in an unbroken lineage of Ustads (masters), and taught in many akharas (arenas) around the world. Gatka was employed in the Sikh wars and has been thoroughly battle tested. It originates from the need to defend dharam (righteousness), but is also based on the unification of the spirit and body (miri piri). It is, therefore, generally considered to be both a spiritual and physical practise.  After the Anglo-Sikh wars the art was banned by the new British administrators of India in the mid-19th century. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Sikhs assisted the British in crushing the mutiny. As a consequence of this assistance, restrictions on fighting practices were relaxed, but the Punjabi martial arts which re-emerged after 1857 had changed significantly. The new style applied the sword-fighting techniques to the wooden training-stick. It was referred to as "gatka", after its primary weapon. Gatka was used mainly by the British Indian Army in the 1860s as practice for hand-to-hand combat.

Competition.

"Khel" (meaning sport or game) is the modern competitive aspect of gatka, originally used as a method of sword-training ("fari-gatka") or stick-fighting ("lathi khela") in medieval times.  While "khel" gatka is today most commonly associated with Sikhs, it has always been used in the martial arts of other ethno-cultural groups. It is still practiced in India and Pakistan by the Tanoli and Gurjara communities.

Influence on Defendu.

The Defendu system devised by Captain William E. Fairbairn and Captain Eric Anthony Sykes borrowed methodologies from Gatka, jujutsu, Chinese martial arts and "gutter fighting". This method was used to train soldiers in close-combat techniques at the Commando Basic Training Centre in Achnacarry, Scotland.

Gatka ( Urdu: "") is the name of an Indian martial art associated with the Sikhs of the Punjab and the Tanoli and Gujjar communities of the mountainous regions of northern Pakistan who practice an early variant of the martial art. It is a style of stick-fighting, with wooden sticks intended to simulate swords. The Punjabi name "gatka" properly refers to the wooden stick used. The word originates as a diminutive of Sanskrit "gada" "mace".

Le gatka (Punjabi : ਗਤਕਾ) est le nom d'un art martial indien associé aux Sikhs de la région du Punjab. C'est un style de combat au bâton, avec des bâtons en bois destinés à simuler des épées. Le nom punjabi gatka fait référence au bâton de bois utilisé. Le gatka peut être pratiqué comme un sport (khel) ou un rituel (rasmi). La forme sportive est jouée par deux adversaires brandissant des bâtons de bois appelés gatka. Ces bâtons peuvent être associés à un bouclier. Les points sont marqués lorsque l'on entre en contact avec le bâton. Les autres armes ne sont pas utilisées pour les combats à plein contact, mais leurs techniques sont enseignées par le biais d'une formation aux formes. La forme rituelle est purement à des fins de démonstration et est interprétée en musique lors d'occasions telles que les mariages ou dans le cadre d'une représentation théâtrale telle que la danse chhau. Un pratiquant de gatka s'appelle un gatkabaj.


Early life.

Savage was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the daughter of John Savage, a wealthy industrialist. She grew up in what was then the rural area of Dorval, Quebec, and spent her summers at the family cottage in the Laurentian mountains, where she developed a love of her surroundings that became a source of inspiration for her art. She studied at the High School of Montreal.

Artistic career.

Between 1914 and 1918, Savage studied art at the Art Association of Montreal under several instructors including William Brymner (1855–1925) and Maurice Cullen. Her private world was permanently changed when her beloved twin brother was killed in action in France during World War I. After the end of the War, Anne Savage went to Minneapolis, Minnesota where she studied design at the Minneapolis School of Art. On her return to Montreal, she took a job as an art teacher at Baron Byng High School where she would remain for 26 years (1922-1947). In addition, she taught art courses to children, promoting their early exposure to the field and years later was able to see the formation of the Child Art Council in Quebec, later known as the Quebec Society for Education through Art.  In 1921, she joined the Beaver Hall Hill Group whose painters were closely allied to the Group of Seven. A. Y. Jackson, a member of the Group of Seven would become Savage's lifelong close friend. After spending some time at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto with the painter Arthur Lismer, another member of the Group of Seven, Savage traveled to Europe where some of her works were exhibited. Savage also spent time in British Columbia and did sketches of native villages on the northwest coast; this work was displayed in 1927 at the National Gallery in the exhibition "Canadian West Coast Art, Native and Modern". In 1933, she was one of the founding members of the Canadian Group of Painters and in 1949 and 1960 would serve as its president. She was appointed supervisor of art for the Protestant School Board of Montreal in 1948. She was instrumental in the founding of the High School Art Teaching Association and in 1955 inspired the formation of the Child Art Council which became the Quebec Society for Education through Art.  She retired from full-time teaching in 1953 and was named the Supervisor of Art for the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal. She was then invited by McGill University to teach, where she ended up teaching between 1954 and 1959.  Throughout her life, Anne Savage spoke out about gender inequity.

Death.

Savage died in Montreal in 1971 and was interred there in the Mount Royal Cemetery.  The Anne Savage Archives can be found at Montreal's Concordia University.

Anne (Annie) Douglas Savage (July 27, 1896 – March 25, 1971) was a Canadian painter and art teacher known for her lyrical, rhythmic landscapes. She was a founding member of the Canadian Group of Painters.

Anne (Annie) Douglas Savage (née le à Montréal et morte le ) est une peintre et professeure d’art canadienne reconnue pour ses paysages lyriques et rythmés.


Development.

The FN.333 Riviera was originally developed by the Nardi Company at Aeroporto Forlanini, Milan, Italy. The first prototype Riviera was registered "I-KISS", and was a three-seat aircraft. This plane made its maiden flight on 4 December 1952, and was to be the only FN.333 powered by a 145 hp Continental fan-cooled engine. Beginning with the second prototype a more powerful engine was used, as well as the addition of a fourth seat. The second prototype made its first flight on 8 December 1954. The Nardi Company lacked the resources to fully develop the Riviera, and as a result the third aircraft did not fly until 14 October 1956. Improved power for this aircraft was provided by a 240 hp Continental O-470-H engine. This aircraft was designated the FN.333S and was to be the basis for series production. Lacking further resources, Nardi sold the manufacturing rights for the Riviera to the much larger SIAI-Marchetti in March 1959.  This deal resulted in the first series of 10 production Rivieras being manufactured at the SIAI-Marchetti factory in Sesto Calende, Varese near Milano, Italy. The first S.I.A.I.-Marchetti manufactured Riviera was completed in February 1962, and by January 1963 the company had delivered four of the aircraft to customers in the USA. The SIAI-Marchetti version had improved power provided by a 250 hp Continental IO-470-P engine, equipped with fuel injection, and manufactured for a pusher-style aircraft. In 1961 the Riviera became available in the United States, where it was initially sold through the North Star Company of Newark, New Jersey. ServAir Inc. of Detroit sold the Riviera in Detroit, Michigan, and received its first Riviera on 13 July 1962. This aircraft, already complete and ready to fly, was placed in the cargo hold of a ship and transported directly from Italy, arriving in Newark, New Jersey. Excluding this example, most Rivieras were shipped partially assembled, and were then completed at Southwest Airmotive before delivery to their owners. Most of the 26 built by SIAI-Marchetti were sold to customers in the United States, but examples were also sold to Australia, Norway and Sweden. A pure flying boat version, lacking landing gear and designated FN.333W, was planned but never built.

Design.

The Riviera is a unique somewhat similar to the famous Republic Seabee of the 1940s. The major difference between the Riviera and the Seabee is the use of a high twin-boom tail arrangement on the Riviera while the Seabee uses a single conventional tail. The Riviera uses a tricycle landing gear, with the nose gear retracting into the nose and concealed behind two small nose gear doors. As a result, forward visibility is somewhat better in the Riviera than in the Seabee when taxiing or taking off on land. The Riviera is powered by a Continental IO-470-P six-cylinder flat engine mounted above the fuselage in a pusher arrangement. A three-bladed propeller was standard.

Surviving aircraft.

Out of an original production run of just 26 aircraft over six years less only half a dozen are believed flyable today. Riviera #0110 (N95DR) crashed while attempting an emergency landing in Minden, Nevada, USA. According to the "Nevada Appeal" newspaper dated May 24, 2007, the article "Air Crash victim from Germany" stated the accident occurred on Sunday, May 18, 2007  On October 25, 1968, FN-333, Serial # 007 was destroyed in an accident at Akron Municipal Airport. The pilot, Perry A. Strohl, Jr. was killed in the incident. The accident was described as follows:

The Nardi FN.333 Riviera, later the SIAI-Marchetti FN.333 Riviera, is an Italian luxury touring amphibious aircraft designed and developed by Fratelli Nardi in the 1950s and produced in small numbers by Savoia-Marchetti during the following decade.

Le Nardi FN.333 Riviera, devenu le SIAI-Marchetti FN.333 Riviera, est un avion de tourisme amphibie, conçu en Italie par Fratelli Nardi dans les années 1950. Il fut fabriqué en petit nombre par SIAI Marchetti au cours de la décennie suivante.


Assemblies of God Statement of Fundamental Truths

Contents.

Most of the statement reiterates basic tenets of evangelicalism while adding articles on "healing by the atonement" and tongues as "initial evidence" of baptism in the Holy Spirit. Article 12 concerns divine healing. The official church teaching is that Christ paid for all physical suffering with his atoning work and that as a consequence, when Christians get sick they can be supernaturally healed by the Holy Spirit. Article 9 reflects a non-Wesleyan perspective on sanctification. Articles 13-16 deal largely with the subject of eschatology. The Assemblies of God has a premillennial dispensationalist perspective on the future, including belief in the rapture and a literal earthly millennium. The following is a summary of the 16 Fundamental Truths:

History.

The Assemblies of God was founded in 1914 but it was not until 1916 that it reluctantly created the Fundamental Truths in response to several doctrinal controversies. The first controversy, referred to as the Finished work controversy, arose from disagreement over the second blessing and the practical meaning of holiness. The second or "Oneness" controversy questioned the baptismal formula, the doctrine of the Trinity, and the understanding of the process of salvation. The third one was over whether speaking in tongues was the "initial physical evidence" of Holy Spirit baptism or not.  The outcome of these controversies, reflected in the Statement of Fundamental Truths, not only shaped the denomination but also shaped American Pentecostalism. In 1916, the General Council (the denomination's governing body) took a strong stand against the Oneness teaching and upheld the position that speaking in tongues was the initial evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit. The Assemblies of God remains Trinitarian and continues to affirm the doctrine of initial evidence.

Statement on Sanctification.

The position adopted in the Statement of Fundamental Truths regarding sanctification was less clear. The men behind the formation of the Assemblies of God were Pentecostals who had come to the conclusion that holiness or sanctification was not a second blessing or a definite experience but instead a lifelong process. This idea of progressive sanctification was believed by many within the Assemblies of God but there were adherents who still held to the theology of the holiness movement.  The original language on sanctification in the Fundamental Truths was a compromise between Wesleyan and non-Wesleyan members which allowed the two doctrines to coexist. Under the heading "Entire Sanctification, The Goal For All Believers", it read, "Entire sanctification is the will of God for all believers, and should be earnestly pursued by walking in obedience to God's Word". The term "entire sanctification" is distinctly Wesleyan, but the statement actually called "for an ongoing, process of obedience in reliance on, and cooperation with the Holy Ghost".  In 1961, the General Council revised the statement significantly, giving it its current form. It eliminated some of the Wesleyan language, such as "entire". Stanley M. Horton, who served on the revision committee, stated that the committee "... felt that the word entire was ambiguous because we were using it with a different meaning than that promoted by holiness Pentecostals who taught a second definite work". While the current statement does represent the Assemblies of God's position more accurately, the denomination's teaching on sanctification remains ambiguous.

The Statement of Fundamental Truths is a confession of faith outlining the 16 essential doctrines adhered to by the Assemblies of God USA. These doctrines are heavily based on other evangelical confessions of faith but differ by being clearly Pentecostal. Of the 16 articles, four are considered core beliefs "due to the key role they play in reaching the lost and building the believer and the church". They are the doctrines concerning salvation, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, divine healing, and the Second Coming of Christ. The Statement of Fundamental Truths has undergone several permutations since its original adoption in 1916 (when it actually included 17 items) despite common claims that it has remained largely unchanged.

La Déclaration de vérités fondamentales des Assemblées de Dieu () est une confession de foi pentecôtiste publiée aux États-Unis en 1916.


Early years and education.

Perk grew up in a fairly wealthy and large family; her parents were Adrianus Perk and Lessina Elizabeth Visser. Her father, a merchant, married three times and she was the third daughter of the second marriage. As a result, Perk had three brothers, three half-sisters and five half-brothers. She lived with her step-mother Theodora Veeren until 1876. One of her brothers was the father of the poet Jacques Perk.

Career.

From an early age she was interested in writing: she published some stories at age 19, and her first novel, "Een kruis met rozen", was published in 1864. Her father had been wealthy enough to send his sons for an academic education, but not his daughters, and in the 1860s her life was turned upside down: her fiancee broke off their engagement in 1866, and the next year her father died. Perk began publishing feminist articles, arguing that men and women should be valued equally, even if they had biological differences.  She started "Ons Streven" ("Our Striving") in 1870, the country's first women's periodical, but left the magazine after the first edition since the publisher had placed two male editors on equal footing with her, and she feared the magazine would publish anti-emancipatory articles. In response she founded another magazine, "Onze Roeping" ("Our Calling"), in which she suggested, among other things, that the work of unmarried and married women would promote the country's wellbeing. In 1871, she established "Arbeid Adelt", a women's association, for which "Onze Roeping" was the official journal, but quickly had a dispute with fellow associates: the organization sold poor women's needlework at bazaars, and unlike her colleagues Perk wished the names of the creators to be known: "her ambition was the recognition of labor as a worthy manner of life". A number of associates split off and founded a competing organization, and within her own organization she was soon pushed aside.  Her last attempt to make her ideas known and simultaneously earn a living was in 1873, when she became a lecturer and went on tour with fellow-feminist Mina Kruseman, and while both women also published their ideas in the same magazines, the flamboyancy of Kruseman was compared in the press with Perk's modesty. When the tour ended, so did Perk's public work in feminism. These years had asked a lot of her weak physique, and she withdrew to Valkenburg, where she toured the area on a donkey, and wrote an autobiography, "Mijn ezeltje en ik. Een boek voor vriend en vijand" ("My donkey and I: A book for friend and enemy", 1874), in which she settled her accounts with the world of literature and feminism. It was clear, though, that she may have been finished with the feminist movement, but she remained a firm proponent of emancipation.

Later years.

Perk had been a proponent of women's right to vote, and in 1894 joined the newly-founded Vereeniging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht. The women's movement seemed to have forgotten her: she was not invited to attend the large National Exhibition of Women's Labor in 1898. By then, she was back in the Netherlands, having moved to Arnhem in 1890 and to Nijmegen in 1903. She devoted her last years to art.

Christina Elizabeth (Betsy) Perk (Delft, March 26, 1833 - Nijmegen, March 30, 1906), was a Dutch author of novels and plays, and a pioneer of the Dutch women's movement, who wrote under the pen names Philemon, Liesbeth van Altena, and Spirito. She is known as the founding member of the Algemeene Nederlandsche Vrouwenvereeniging Arbeid Adelt ("General Dutch Women's Association 'Labor Ennobles'") in 1871, the women's magazine "Onze Roeping", and the weekly magazine for women "Ons Streven" in 1869, the latter publication being the country's first women's periodical. In later years, her influence and activism diminished due to poor health, and she mainly focused on writing historical novels. From 1880 to 1890, she lived in Belgium. She is buried at the cemetery Rustoord in Nijmegen.

Christina Elizabeth (Betsy) Perk (Delft, le - Nimègue, le ), est une écrivaine néerlandaise de romans et de pièces de théâtre et une pionnière du mouvement féministe néerlandais qui écrit sous les pseudonymes de Philemon, Liesbeth van Altena et Spirito. Elle est connue comme membre fondatrice de l'Algemeene Nederlandsche Vrouwenvereeniging Arbeid Adelt (Association générale hollandaise des femmes 'Labor Ennobles'), du magazine féminin "Onze Roeping" et de l'hebdomadaire pour femmes "Ons Streven" en 1869, ce dernier étant le premier périodique féminin du pays. Par la suite, son influence et son activisme diminuent en raison de sa mauvaise santé et elle se concentre alors principalement sur l'écriture de romans historiques. Elle est enterrée au cimetière Rustoord à Nimègue.


Name sources.

There are very few reliable name sources for Horus-Bird. The first known attestation of this king may be a "serekh" with an undetailed bird found by Flinders Petrie in the tomb of Qa'a at Abydos. Another more legible inscription showing a "serekh" with a bird was later found on a vessel fragment PD IV n.108 in Djoser's pyramid complex at Saqqara. An inscription on a schist vase (P.D. IV n.97) from Djoser's pyramid complex could also refer to Horus-Bird.  Since the hieroglyphic sign is written in such an erratic way, the correct reading remains uncertain. Whilst Egyptologists such as Wolfgang Helck and Peter Kaplony see a depiction of a goose, they read the name as "Sa" (which would make it a “Son of Horus”) or as "Geb(eb)" (which would make it an "Heir of Horus"). Egyptologist Nabil Swelim instead sees a depiction of a sattle-billed stork and reads "Ba" (making it a “Soul of Horus”).

Identity.

Very little is known about King Horus-Bird. The few archaeological evidences point to the existence of one or more ephemeral rulers following Qa'a's death and before Hotepsekhemwy of which Horus-Bird may have been one.  Egyptologists such as Jaroslav Černý and Kaplony think that Horus-Bird could be identical to the likewise sparsely attested King Horus-Ba. Indeed, this ruler wrote his name with the leg sign or the leg and ram signs, which read "Ba". Černý and Kaplony think that the bird in the "serekh" of Horus-Bird is the goose sign with the same transcription, "Ba". In this case Horus-Ba and Horus "Bird" could be the same historical figure. Černý and Kaplony's theory is not commonly accepted; the presence of the Horus-Bird "serekh" in the tomb of Qa'a pointing rather to an interregnum with Horus-Bird between the first and second dynasties.  Egyptologists such as Wolfgang Helck and Peter Kaplony believe that Horus Bird and Sneferka fought each other to gain the throne of Egypt. The struggles peaked in the plundering of the royal cemetery of Abydos, which was therefore abandoned. The struggle for the throne was possibly brought to an end by the founder of the 2nd dynasty, king Hotepsekhemwy. A piece of evidence supporting this theory is the Horus name of Hotepsekhemwy which means ""The two powers are reconciled"", and could relate to a re-unification of the Egyptian realm after a period of discord.  Horus-Bird's burial site is unknown.

Horus Bird, also known as Horus-Ba, is the serekh-name of a pharaoh who may have had a very short reign between the 1st dynasty and 2nd dynasty of Egypt.

Horus "Oiseau" est un roi de la pendant la période thinite. L'appartenance de ce roi à cette dynastie n'est pas complètement assurée, il a également pu régner à la fin de la.


History.

Warrenton Training Center was established on June 1, 1951, as part of a "Federal Relocation Arc" of hardened underground bunkers built to support continuity of government in the event of a nuclear attack on Washington, D.C. The center was ostensibly designated a Department of Defense Communication Training Activity and served as a communications training school. The CIA listed personnel and other expenses at Warrenton Training Center in its fiscal year 1955 budget.  Initially, the United States Army served as the executive agent for the administration and management of the center on behalf of the Department of Defense. In 1973, the center was transferred to the Department of the Army under the administration of its signals intelligence branch, the Army Security Agency, a subordinate to the NSA, and the base was renamed U.S. Army Training Group, Warrenton Training Center. In 1982, the center was restored its original name and reverted to Department of Defense control with the Army as the executive agent for administration on behalf of the National Communications System (NCS).  Under the NCS (dissolved and functions transferred to the United States Department of Homeland Security in 2012), the center is mandated to provide communication for the federal government under any circumstances, including a nuclear attack. Its underground bunkers house communications infrastructure that provides service for most major federal departments. In 2002, the Brookings Institution listed an unspecified WTC "relocation bunker" as a facility with an active nuclear weapons, weapons-related or naval nuclear propulsion mission.  The CIA has used Warrenton Training Center as a communications facility since the 1950s. Short-wave radio enthusiasts have identified WTC antennas broadcasting suspected intelligence transmissions. In 1989, a WTC spokesperson acknowledged that the stations "are operated... to communicate with embassies, and for espionage transmissions" to American intelligence agents in Cuba and Central America. In 1998, laboratories at WTC were reported to produce concealed radio equipment used to send and receive communications, typically in the form of furniture items.  In 1986, the KGB threw U.S. investigators off the trail of CIA officer and Soviet mole Aldrich Ames by constructing an elaborate diversion whereby a Soviet case officer told a CIA contact that the mole was stationed at Warrenton Training Center. Ames was stationed in Rome at the time. U.S. mole hunters investigated 90 employees at WTC for almost a year and came up with ten suspects, although the lead investigator noted that "there are so many problem personalities that no one stands out."  WTC has continued its role as a communications training facility for various government agencies, including the CIA, NSA, Department of Defense, and the Department of States's Foreign Service Institute. In 1995, a former NSA employee told "The Baltimore Sun" that WTC's communications training included listening in on the phone calls of U.S. citizens, using a loophole in the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that permitted domestic eavesdropping so long as the tapes were destroyed immediately afterward.  In April 2013, Dominion Virginia Power representatives indicated that facility expansion plans at WTC had accelerated the need for electrical transmission line upgrades in the area, and in November 2015, Vadata, a subsidiary of Amazon, announced plans to build a $200 million Department of Defense data center on the site. The center addresses a federal government requirement that the cloud infrastructure be entirely separate from the public cloud.

Facilities.

Warrenton Training Center is spread across four separate facilities in two different counties. Station A, Station B and Station C are located in Fauquier County, while Station D is located in Culpeper County.  Station A, near Warrenton, is an administrative, training and residential compound. Numerous structures on site include both residential and office buildings. Station A is used as a training facility by multiple agencies, including the Department of State and the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence and Directorate of Support.  Station B, also near Warrenton, houses the headquarters of WTC and, at, is the largest of the four facilities. It consists of several multi-story buildings concealed atop the heavily forested View Tree Mountain, as well as underground bunkers that house communications infrastructure. Operations at Station B include a communications laboratory, communications training, electronics testing, and equipment maintenance. The facility is a node on a fiber-optic cable that runs from Stations C and D, and which also connects WTC with other facilities in the Washington, D.C. area, such as the Tysons Corner Communications Tower. Station B also houses the Brushwood conference facility, constructed in the 1990s. The United States Environmental Protection Agency classifies Station B as a superfund site due to the presence of an inactive landfill and two chemical pits that have released trichloroethylene into nearby residential drinking water wells.  Station C was at one time a CIA numbers station, which transmitted coded signals to U.S. embassies overseas and intelligence agents in the field. Transmissions carried a female voice, dubbed "Cynthia" by radio hobbyists, that would recite groups of numbers in English. The transmissions were last heard in 2003.  Station D, also known as Brandy Station due to its proximity to the community of the same name, is the primary high frequency receiver facility for the CIA Office of Communications, and also hosts a variety of satellite communications ground station facilities. Station D is also a core regional relay facility for the Department of State's Diplomatic Telecommunications Service, a system of secure integrated networks that supports U.S. government departments and agencies operating from diplomatic missions and consulate facilities outside the United States.

Warrenton Training Center (WTC) is a classified United States government communication complex located in the state of Virginia. Established in 1951, it comprises four discrete stations located in Fauquier and Culpeper counties.

Le Warrenton Training Center (WTC) est un complexe de communication classifié du gouvernement des États-Unis situé dans l'État de Virginie. Fondée en 1951, il comprend quatre stations distinctes situées dans les comtés de Fauquier et de Culpeper.


Early life / Personal.

Castro was born in the village of Mondrões, in Vila Real. For much of his childhood and youth he suffered from a debilitating disease, going on to major in physics at the University of Coimbra.

Playing career.

Castro spent most of his 17-year professional career in the lower leagues, representing U.D. Leiria, O Elvas CAD, AD Fafe and R.D. Águeda in the Segunda Liga and Vitória S.C. and Elvas in the Primeira Liga.  With the latter, he appeared in 28 matches in the 1987–88 season, but his team ranked in 15th place and suffered relegation.

Coaching career.

One year after retiring from professional football, Castro began working as a manager with his final club Águeda, where he would remain for two seasons. He went on to be in charge of lowly G.D. Mealhada, C.D. Estarreja and A.D. Sanjoanense, before being appointed at F.C. Penafiel in the top level in summer 2004 and guiding it to the 11th position in his debut campaign, the highlight being a 1–0 home win against S.L. Benfica.  Following Penafiel's relegation in 2006, Castro left the club, joining FC Porto's youth academy and eventually coaching the B-team. On 5 March 2014, following the resignation of Paulo Fonseca at the helm of the main squad, he was named an interim until the end of the season.  Castro continued working in the Portuguese top flight after leaving Porto's reserves in November 2016, with Rio Ave FC, G.D. Chaves and Vitória de Guimarães. On 12 June 2019, he signed a two-year contract at FC Shakhtar Donetsk as a replacement for compatriot Paulo Fonseca who left for A.S. Roma after winning three Ukrainian Premier League championships in a row.

Luís Manuel Ribeiro de Castro (born 3 September 1961) is a Portuguese retired footballer who played as a right back, and the current manager of Ukrainian club FC Shakhtar Donetsk.

Luís Castro, de son nom Luís Manuel Ribeiro de Castro, est un entraîneur de footballeur portugais né le à Mondrões.


Quantity and location.

In his 1984 journalistic expose “The Day After World War III”, Edward Zuckerman states there were then nine Presidential Emergency Facilities within a 25-minute helicopter trip from Washington, D.C. According to Zuckerman, sites known to him at that time were code-named Cartwheel (at Fort Reno Park), Corkscrew, Cowpuncher, and Cannonball (Cross Mountain, Pennsylvania), though all have since been decommissioned. The White House itself is known as Crown while the presidential compound at the High Point Special Facility is Crystal (sometimes referred to as Crystal Palace).  In a 2004 report to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) concerning Corkscrew, which at the time had been decommissioned as a PEF site and transferred to the FCC, historian David Rotenstein contended there were 75 PEFs “scattered throughout the United States”, a number also claimed by the Brookings Institution.

Design and staffing.

Construction on Presidential Emergency Facilities began in the 1960s from classified, black budget government appropriations.  Purpose-built Presidential Emergency Facilities are silo-like structures constructed from reinforced concrete that sit atop an underground warren of bunkers and chambers designed to withstand a nuclear explosion. One of the few descriptions of a Presidential Emergency Facility observed while still in operation was provided by U.S. Coast Guard Captain Alex R. Larzelere, a former White House military aide, who visited one such site in 1968.  Larzelere went on to describe the subterranean interior of the site, noting there were quarters for the President and his staff with beds kept ready for immediate use with fresh linens, communications facilities, and stores stocked with emergency rations, medicine, and other supplies to sustain several people for a prolonged period.  Bill Gulley, a former U.S. Marine assigned to the White House Military Office, reported in 1980 that PEFs were all "manned twenty-fours a day".

A Presidential Emergency Facility (PEF), also called Presidential Emergency Relocation Centers and VIP Evacuation and Support Facilities, is a fortified, working residence intended for use by the President of the United States should normal presidential residences, such as the White House or Camp David, be destroyed or overrun during war or other types of national emergencies. Some Presidential Emergency Facilities are specially designated sections of existing government and military installations, while others are dedicated sites that have been purpose-built. Various sources state there are, or were, between 9 and 75 such facilities.

Un Presidential Emergency Facility (site d'urgence présidentiel) (PEF), également appelé Presidential Emergency Relocation Centers (centre de relogement d'urgence présidentiel) et VIP Evacuation and Support Facilities (centre d'évacuation et d'assistance VIP), est une résidence de travail fortifiée destinée au président des États-Unis, dans le cas où une résidence présidentielle normale, telle que la Maison Blanche ou le camp David, serait détruite, envahie par la guerre ou victime de tout types d’urgence nationale. Certaines installations d'urgence présidentielles sont des sections spécialement désignées des installations gouvernementales et militaires existantes, tandis que d'autres sont des sites dédiés qui ont été construits à cet effet. Selon diverses sources, il existe ou existait entre 9 et 75 installations de ce type.


History.

Televisa San Ángel is one of two surviving motion picture studios in Mexico. The other, Estudios Churubusco Azteca, had been cofounded by, ironically, Televisa San Ángel's current owners. The studio had been built by Jorge Stahl as a production facility; the earliest Mexican movie to credited with being filmed at San Ángel is "Mi campeón," released in 1952. At least 60 different motion pictures would be produced at the studio until 1969. In 1968, a new network, Television Independiente de Mexico (TIM) was launched from the San Ángel studios. Ownership of the studios was passed onto the Azcarraga family when TIM and Telesistema Mexicano merged to become Televisa in 1973; under Televisa's watch, the studio became a leading production facility in Mexico. In 1979, Televisa's Televicine (now Videocine) motion picture unit was established; at the same time the network's Centro de Educación Artística was set up at the studio.  Mexico's first electronic character generator was installed at Televisa San Ángel in 1980; it would be replaced in 1987 by a Chyron machine. When the 1985 Mexico City earthquake struck down Televisa's Chapultepec studios, two programs that had originated there, "En familia con Chabelo" and "Siempre en Domingo", moved production permanently to Televisa San Ángel. Many Televisa contract players who had worked at Chapultepec began to work at San Ángel at this time. Several of them have worked at the studios in both the pre-Televisa and modern eras of the facility.

The Facility.

Televisa San Ángel is divided into 16 sound stages known as "Foros". As of 2013, all of them had converted into high definition. Each sound stage measures 900 square meters (9,687 square feet). The Centro de Post Produccion is the most advanced post-production facility of its kind in the world, and contains 10 editing stations. There is a wide assortment of microphones at San Ángel, including lavalier, boom, handheld and headset microphones, most of them wireless. Most telenovelas produced at the studio use boom and lavalier microphones. An average of 15 telenovelas and several other television series, not to mention a handful of theatrical movie releases are produced at San Ángel every year. Each studio contains three cameras a laptop computer. Televisa San Ángel also contains five audio recording studios and three mixing suites.  Thirty different producers who have been with Televisa for years have offices at San Ángel. These include Andre Barren Díaz, Pedro Damián, Guillermo del Bosque, Luis de Llano Macedo, Carla Estrada, Emilio Larrosa, Chabelo, Rosy Ocampo, Jorge Ortiz de Pinedo, Juan Osorio, Angelí Nesma Medina, Nicandro Díaz González, Salvador Mejía Alexandre, Carmen Amendáriz, and Enrique Segoviano.  Televisa San Ángel's main entrance plaza, Plaza Televisa, is dedicated to the producers, directors, actors and other personnel who have been with Televisa, off and on, for at least 30 years total. Plaques at Plaza Televisa honor many of these personnel. Most of the honored personnel are famous, including many actors as well as some of the aforementioned producers.

Televisa San Ángel (originally Estudios y Laboratorios San Ángel, S.A.) is a film and television studio located in Mexico City. It was originally built by Jorge Stahl as a motion picture studio, and in the 1970s would be sold to the Azcárraga family, which, through ownership of the Televisa networks, continues to own the studios. It is the headquarters facility of the Centro de Educación Artística (CEA) and the Videocine (formerly Televicine) motion picture production and distribution company. The network's Centro de Post Produccion is also housed at San Ángel. Moreover, it is best known as a motion picture and television studio. It is the oldest movie and television production facility in Mexico and the most famous telenovela studio facility in Latin America. It was one of the four main Mexican film studios along with Estudios Churubusco, Estudios América, and Estudios Tepeyac.

Televisa San Ángel (est à l'origine un laboratoire d'études de San Ángel SA de CV) pour les films et la télévision du Groupe Televisa, situé à Mexico. Ils abritent le Centre d'éducation artistique (CEA) et la société de production et de distribution de films Videocine (anciennement Televicine). Dans ses installations, se trouve également le centre de post-production de la société. Cependant, ils sont mieux connus sous le nom de studios de cinéma et de télévision, étant le plus ancien du Mexique. Dans les années 1950, San Ángel était l’un des quatre principaux studios de cinéma auÉtudes Churubusco (Churubusco-Azteca, à partir de 1950), Estudios América et Estudios Tepeyac.


Plot.

Marla is a formerly free-spirited girl who has grown up to be responsible yet overprotective in order to care for her brother Charlie, who has grown lonely and disconnected from her after the death of their parents. One night, Charlie sneaks out to visit a toy museum with a Playmobil exhibit. After Marla arrives and scolds Charlie for running away, a lighthouse illuminates them and transports them to the Playmobil world.  Marla and Charlie find themselves in the middle of a Viking battle, and Charlie helps them until he is kidnapped by some pirates. Frantic to find her brother, Marla goes to the nearest town hoping to ask for help, and runs into Del, the driver of a food truck whose client refuses to pay him over pink hay that causes the town's horses to sprout wings. As Marla tries to form a posse to find Charlie, Del gets her out of trouble when she shows Viking gold to the whole town, and agrees to help Marla find her brother in exchange for the gold.  Marla and Del run into Rex Dasher, a secret agent and an old friend of Del. Rex explains that a number of characters have disappeared, and the group sneaks into a villainous spy headquarters to find information about the disappearances. Despite some issues, they successfully gather the data and escape, but Rex is later captured by the pirates. He is taken away to Constantinopolis and finds Charlie, who had been locked up with other characters by Emperor Maximus, who intends to have the prisoners fight to their deaths. Rex tells Charlie that Marla had been looking for him, which encourages Charlie to break away. However, he later allows himself to be recaptured so the other characters could escape.  Del recognizes that a device used by the pirates belongs to Glinara, an alien crime lord. After meeting with her in exchange for information, Del offers to pay twice as much as he owes her. Glinara agrees and reveals that she sold the device to Maximus. However, Del is unable to uphold his end of the bargain, as Marla only had two pieces of gold left. Angered, Glinara captures them and attempts to drop them into a portal, but they are spared by Glinara's robot servant Robotitron, who hacks the portal and drops the group into a forest. Del leaves the group, upset by Marla's deception. Marla and Robotitron get lost in the forest until Marla accidentally hits a fairy godmother, who encourages her to continue her search and sends her to Constantinopolis.  Arriving at the city, Marla reaches a coliseum where Charlie is about to fight a Tyrannosaurus rex. Charlie and Marla work together to fight off the T-Rex, but to no avail. Del soon arrives with his food truck, and Marla uses the last of Del's pink hay to turn the T-Rex harmless. An enraged Maximus orders his guards to arrest them, but the guards reveal themselves to be Rex and the missing warriors, who then lock Maximus inside a cage. As everyone celebrates their victory, Marla and Charlie use the T-Rex to fly back to the lighthouse and return to the real world, where it is revealed that they were missing for only five minutes. On good terms, Marla promises to Charlie that their relationship will be mended.  In a mid-credit scene, one of the security guards finds a figure of Maximus on the floor next to a cage. As he places him on top of Mount Olympus, Maximus's laugh is heard.

Production.

Development.

An animated feature film based on Playmobil figurines, produced by On Entertainment, Wild Bunch and Pathé, was announced in November 2014 and originally expected to be released at the end of 2017.  The film originally involved Bob Persichetti as director and screenwriter. The film would be the first in a trilogy of theatrical animated films based on Playmobil. Persichetti initially pitched the film to Sony Pictures Animation. Although Sony tried to buy the pitch, it fell through. He was eventually offered instead to direct the 2018 superhero film "."  The film was animated in On Animation's Canadian facilities. The film was also originally supposed to be distributed by Cross Creek Pictures.  ON Animation's producers acquired the rights for the film circa January 2016. On 9 February 2016, Lino DiSalvo came on board to direct the $75 million budgeted film, replacing Persichetti. Dimitri Rassam and Aton Soumache of On Animation Studios produced the film.  On 12 May 2016, Open Road Films acquired the US rights to the film, whose screenplay was written by Blaise Hemingway. It marks DiSalvo's directorial debut after spending 17 years at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Alexis Vonarb, Axel Von Maydell, and Moritz Borman also produced the film. Maydell was first associated with the Playmobil brand fifteen years before the film's release, when he was involved in producing interactive games for the company. Heitor Pereira's involvement was announced on 21 June 2017.  On 17 November 2017, it was reported that Wendi McLendon-Covey would star in the film. In June 2018, the film's production was underway and some details of the film were revealed, during a session at Annecy International Animated Film Festival. In October 2018, lead voice cast was announced which included Anya Taylor-Joy, Gabriel Bateman, Daniel Radcliffe, Jim Gaffigan, Meghan Trainor, and Adam Lambert, while Trainor and Lambert would also write and sing original songs for the film.

Writing.

DiSalvo instantly got to work on animatics following Open Road's acquisition, completing five animatics in Los Angeles in Montreal before work on the assets began. The first 15 months of the film's production was spent in Los Angeles, with a crew of ten people. When the project moved to Montreal, 300 people ("more than half of the animation crew at a typical Disney movie") were involved. Both DiSalvo and Hemingway, long-time friends, re-watched their favorite 1980s films like "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) in writing "Playmobil"; Hemingway explained that both the movie and the old-school films they referenced knew "how to find what is magical in the most mundane situations."  The producers wanted to capture a child's emotion of playing with toys with "Playmobil", which meant DiSalvo had to research. He interviewed more than 200 fans of Playmobil from across the globe, finding that the toy series was mostly enjoyed for its role play element, where "they don’t tell you who the hero is — the player defines who the hero is." Thus, he went for a role-playing vibe in writing the film's story. DiSalvo also revisited his childhood home to look at the toys he played with as a kid. The German Playmobil company also sent every Playmobil set ever released to the Los Angeles development location, and the writers used them to conceive characters. A food truck and a figure wearing a Hawaiian shirt, for instance, led to the creation of Del.  Initially, the writers planned "Playmobil: The Movie" to start with either a shot of an opening storybook or a narration, similar to most fairy tale movies. These ideas were rejected due to not being "organic" enough for the overall product. They finally chose to have opening and closing live-action sequences: "Marla, has lost touch with the child’s point of view that she used to have. It felt right to show her in a live-action world where there is no magic. When she finds herself in a very magical situation — which is the entrance to the world of Playmobil, it becomes the catalyst for the whole movie."

Animation.

"Playmobil: The Movie" was animated with Autodesk Maya. Julien Bocabeille supervised the film's animation team that consisted of 56 animators. Being that "Playmobil: the Movie" was a story about wish fulfillment, the scale was one of the biggest priorities. According to production designer Rémi Salmon: "We see those toys from a kid's eyes, not what he has in front of him but what he imagines. The pirate in his hand has a stiff plastic cape, but when he plays, he sees the cape floating in the wind." The animators' biggest challenges came in the set designs and character animation. While each Playmobil universe varied in tone and lighting due to their differing styles, they had to have some consistences with the Playmobil world. "The Fifth Element" and the works of J.J. Abrams were influences in designing the city of Glinara.  Having "a touch of richness and life" in the film's Playmobil world depended on not just the lighting being "pushed pretty far in a very cinematographic way;" but also the characters, particularly their movements and textures. While not entirely animated like humans and having plastic hair and skin, the toys were given "a 20 percent freedom to bend and stretch" and wrote actually cloth-made attire for close-up shots. The animators had to work with limits that came with moving the Playmobil figures, especially when it came to animating faces. The faces are 2D shapes imposed onto 3D heads, meaning that big parts of how human faces are expressed (cheekbones, nose and jaws) are not present.  Coming up with a convenient workflow for animating 2D faces on 3D objects was another challenge, which Jeremy Ringard and Claude Levastre was responsible for. They first came up with the idea of modeling and rigging the features as 3D shapes, but this lead to problems of Z-fighting, intersection and "floating" appearances in close-up shots. They then thought of a "texture flipbook" where the animators chose from a set of facial features in order to keep the look of the movie consistent; however, they figured that it would disallow any variations to the expressions and be very expensive due to the amount of storage, texture resolution and file management involved. Finally, they came up with a system where the animators used 3D-rig-controlled 2D shapes that were converted as a dynamic texture applied on the 3D head in the viewport, and the animation would be rendered real-time through a shader free of resolution or sampling restrictions.  The car Dasher drives is a Porsche Mission E, the 2015 concept version of the Porsche Taycan; "Playmobil" is the Porsche's first appearance in a major film, and a remote-controlled Mission E toy was released as a movie tie-in.

Themes and style.

According to DiSolvo, the moral of "Playmobil: The Movie" is, "The only rules that matter are the ones you set." As Nick Hasted of "The Arts Desk" categorized "Playmobil", "it’s a breezy B-movie in a genre aspiring to "Mad" comic satire and grand opera;" with a "unpretentious good nature" a la 1980s and 1990s after-school specials. Due to "Playmobil" being set in a world filled with different universes, the film caricaturizes and plays with the tropes of several genres, including western films, fantasy, science fiction, and musicals. In acknowledging inevitable comparisons to "The Lego Movie", DiSalvo claimed, "The movie "Lego" relied a lot on comedy and wasn't so much driven by characters, while our film will follow more the Disney tradition of storytelling and is meant to appeal to girls as much as boys." According to Tito Ortiz, "Playmobil" is about the importance of forgiveness, tolerance, and unity in broken families.  DiSalvo also described "Playmobil: The Movie" as similar to the Tom Hanks film "Big" (1988), in that the main character has to think like a child to achieve her goal. Its premise of two siblings being sucked into a fantastical setting also garnered comparisons by journalists to "The Pagemaster" (1994), the "Jumanji" films, and "Pleasantville" (1998); while the use of a live-action opening and a brother-and-sister relationship was also in "" (2019). Some reviewers noted the shedding of gender roles in "Playmobil", including Hasted: "When DiSalvo detours to Playmobil’s girl-focused range with the arrival of Meghan Trainor’s tattooed fairy godmother and pink flying horses, Marla’s brisk bravery muddles gender stereotypes with similar irreverence." Caroline Siede honored the film's "Be anything you want to be" message for allowing Marla to be any type of character regardless of her gender, and Charlotte O'Sullivan of the "Evening Standard" called her a better Susan Pevensie: "Though interested in lipstick, and keen on being grown-up, she is never dismissed as silly or vain." One "NBC News" review noted Dasher's "pointed jabs about sexist archetypes."

Soundtrack.

"Run Like the River" was released as a promotional single on 26 July 2019 from the film's soundtrack album, which was released on 2 August 2019.

Release and promotion.

"Playmobil: The Movie" premiered as the opener of the 2019 Annecy festival, which ran from 10–15 June 2019. As reported by "Cartoon Brew", it "was widely criticized by festival attendees and caused large numbers of the audience to leave in the middle of the film." On 17 June, CineEurope presented a trailer and a clip of "Playmobil".  "Playmobil: The Movie" had its first trailer released on 16 December 2018, with a release date set for 16 August 2019. The second trailer was unleashed on 23 July 2019, the release date changed to 22 November. Each trailer present a different premise: the first presented the film as focusing on Marla trying to save his brother in a Playmobil. while the second revealed the live-action segments and depicted it as being about Rex Dasher saving the Playmobil population from a secret organization. Ben Pearson of /Film noted that the marketing strategy "trie[d] to shield its actual plot." He also called the film's animation promising: "While the characters are clearly simplified to match the Playmobil toys that inspired them, the animation looks pretty slick and there's some interesting lighting going on in a few of the shots on display here."  Chris Evangelista of /Film wrote upon the first trailer's release, "It's pretty clear that "Playmobil: The Movie" is skewing to a young audience [...] And while this may seem like a cynical cash-grab, many people felt the same way before the first "LEGO Movie" came out, until the final results proved to be surprisingly enjoyable. Maybe "Playmobil" will manage to do the same." CNET, also responding to the trailer, opined that "It looks fun and hopefully will boast the same universal appeal as "the Lego Movie"." Commenting on the second trailer, "Screen Rant" writer Mike Jones felt the humor had its "own charm and feel" despite being comparable to "The Lego Movie": "there does appear to be a decent amount of fun, laughs and adventure on display." However, he also questioned the scheduling of "such a small scale" production being scheduled in a season having to compete with "" and "". "Collider"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s coverage of the second trailer was ecstatic, noting its "fun" factor and opining it had the same meta humor style as "The Lego Movie". Sarah El-Mahmoud of "Cinema Blend" summarized, "the trailer showcases tons of fun action sequences with fast car chases, dinosaurs, and scared squirrels. [...] One has to wonder if a connection to human kids will also be present in this movie as "The LEGO Movie" and "Toy Story" do." However, with the awareness that the film was trying to capitalize on the fame of "The Lego Movie", she also had skepticism toward its success due to the weak box office of "". A "PopSugar" journalist claimed, "damn, it looks good," also showing enthusiasm for Radcliffe's appearance. According to "Geekspin", "a few people already have a hunch that the Playmobil movie will flop at the box office," due to the superior popularity of Legos over Playmobil, and the film's lack of intellectual properties, and star power.  "Playmobil: The Movie" was released in France by Pathé on 7 August 2019, on 610 screens, and was released in the US by STX Entertainment on 6 December 2019. It was originally scheduled to be released in the United States by Open Road Films on 18 January 2019, which was later delayed to 19 April 2019, Due to the bankruptcy of Global Road, STX bought the U.S. distribution rights to the film in early April 2019, and set the U.S. release date to 30 August 2019. On 5 August 2019, STX pushed the U.S. release date back once more to 6 December 2019, among other schedule changes of other films from STX that reportedly happened due to STX having limited cash flow, and wanting to pull their resources in to support "Hustlers", although STX has denied that this was the case. Upon its release in the United States on 6 December, STX reportedly encouraged theaters to offer tickets to all showings of the film for just US$5, a significantly lower cost than most American movie tickets. The film news site "Moviehole" also gave away ten family passes of "Playmobil".  In other territories, "Playmobil" was released to theaters in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland on 7 August 2019; Bolivia and Israel on 8 August 2019; the United Kingdom on 9 August 2019, Mexico and South Africa on 16 August 2019; Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras, and Slovakia on 22 August 2019; Germany, Singapore, and Thailand on 29 August 2019; Poland on 23 August 2019; Austria, Indonesia, Spain, and Venezuela on 30 August 2019; Egypt and the Philippines on 4 September 2019; Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, the Dominican Republic, and the United Arab Emirates on 5 September 2019; South Korea on 11 September 2019; Czech Republic, Malaysia, Paraguay, and Uruguay on 12 September 2019; Iceland on 13 September 2019; Bulgaria and Sweden on 20 September 2019; Hungary on 26 September 2019; Finland and Romania on 27 September 2019; Portugal on 3 October 2019; Ecuador on 4 October 2019; Argentina on 10 October 2019; Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia on 25 October 2019; Colombia on 7 November 2019; and Australia on 12 December 2019. In Australia, Seven Network's show "Sunrise" promoted it with a giveaway where two winners received a "Playmobil Prize Pack" for both tickets to the film and toy sets. "The Sunday Times" ran a contest where five people could enter to win tickets, with one of them winning an Instax mini-camera in addition.  On 4 February 2020, "Playmobil: The Movie VR Adventures", a virtual reality video game, was released on Steam.

Reception.

Box office.

"Playmobil: The Movie" grossed $1.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $14.3 million in other territories, totaling $15.4 million worldwide.  In France, "Playmobil" opened to 604 theaters before playing at a maximum of 683 in its third week; it opened at number five with an opening weekend gross of $963,910. By the end of its seven-week run, it grossed a total of $2,627,246.  In the United States, "Playmobil: The Movie" opened in 2,300 theaters; industry experts predicted the film would have a three-day opening gross of around $905,000 and would likely become a box office bomb. Preview screenings on 4 December and 5 December were very low, with 4 December totaling around $40,000 and 5 December $230,000. As "The A.V. Club" summarized, "STX is dropping it into U.S. theaters the weekend after Thanksgiving without press screenings, giving it the authentic discount-bin appearance of a toy store going out of business."  The US marketing budget was limited to roughly $3 million, and RelishMix reported a lack of social promotion of any of its stars except for one tweet from Trainor. STX set the marketing money this low due to the film's poor international box office. "Boxoffice Pro" analyzed the film "would open just two weeks after "Frozen II", one week before "Jumanji: The Next Level", two weeks before "Star Wars: The Rise of the Skywalker", and less than three weeks before "Spies in Disguise" — all of which are shoe-ins to attract young audiences and dwarf potential interest in "PLAYMOBIL"." According to STX president Kevin Grayson, "STX is a 52-week-a-year business and we were looking for an opportunity to utilize the early December play date."  According to "Deadline Hollywood", "Playmobil" was released only weeks after "Frozen II" and used a variable pricing strategy where STX and many theater chains offered $5 tickets. Originally projected to gross $600,000–$800,000 on its opening day, "Playmobil" grossed just $167,000, making it the third-worst opening day of all time for a 2,000-plus theatre production, behind "Delgo" (2008) and "The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure" (2012); fourth if counting the 2014 re-release of "Saw" (2004) and 24th if also including films with between 1,000-1,999 theaters. It went on to gross $660,000 in its opening weekend (an average of $287 per-venue), the fourth-worst of all-time.  Shortly after the weekend, Grayson responded that STX would use variable pricing in their future projects: "we have already learned from this experiment. And we will continue to learn more and will tweak it for the future so it can be the benefit to the industry that we know it can be." While the film's several worldwide distributors recouped TV sale money, they also financed it via pre-sales and thus face losses. Rebecca Rubin, a "Variety" writer, attributed the low box office to the Playmobil brand being far less popular than Lego.

Critical response.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 17% based on 60 reviews, with an average rating of 3.71/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Much like the toys it advertises, "Playmobil: The Movie" seems sadly destined to be regarded as a superficially similar yet less desirable alternative to the competition." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 25 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an average 1.5 out of 5 stars, with 36% saying they would definitely recommend it. In the PostTrak grade, adult audiences made up 31% of poll, children under 12 69%; the adult gave the film an average two-and-a-half stars, the kids under 12 around 3.5 to four stars. The New Zealand online publication "Stuff" named it "a strong contender for the worst film of 2019."  Reviewers primarily criticized "Playmobil: The Movie" for being more of an advertisement than a compelling story that practiced its moral about being bold and adventurous. In a Rotten Tomatoes editorial, the site said critics generally called it "a regrettably mediocre outing that offers little aside from a barrage of colorful images and a brisk but ultimately generic and uninspired story." As "Entertainment.ie", calling it "the worst animation of the year so far," put it, "the story is boring, the characters are utterly unlikeable, and [...] one is increasingly struck by the lack of anything new or interesting in the film whatsoever. Its lack of imagination or creativity is painful." A couple of reviews viewed it as part of a major problem of poorly-done toy films from Hollywood. Several reviews made negative comparisons to "The Lego Movie", such as a "Variety" review by Day Lodge that summarized "Playmobil: The Movie" as "The Lego Movie" "but without that blockbuster's dizzy, self-aware wit and visual invention."  Nell Minow wrote that "it does not even work as a commercial, never showing us why these toys could be especially fun to play with," and called the settings and toys "bland and generic." Some critics found it way too safe for a film about imagination, including Katherine McLaughlin of "The List": "The references are simply too familiar to excite, as it coasts along on nostalgia and a well-worn formula." According to "The Observer", ""Playmobil" shamelessly steals ideas. This eyesore of a cash-in lifts plot elements from "Thor" and "Jumanji", then thinly threads them together with a few songs and shrill mantra about the need for adventure."  Multiple errors in worldbuilding were spotted by critics, such as its odd mixture of replications of historical and fictional settings; and the overly-realistic textures and movements of the Playmobil figures. As Minow explained, "After a whole scene establishing the limited mobility of the Playmobil characters, they suddenly switch to being able to have human-like joints and range of motion." Clariss Loughrey asked, "Shouldn’t everything be plastic? Then why do the horses have fur?" Yolanda Machado noted, "Marla can’t figure out how to walk without the use of knees and yet, a minute later, she’s running." Maryann Johanson noticed even more issues with the figure movements: "A big joke is made out of how Marla, in her Playmobil body, can't walk because she has no knees... and then knees inexplicably appear and she can walk fine. Everyone has elbows, too, which the toy figures also don't have. And everyone is stuck with those clamshell hands, yet are still able to manipulate chopsticks." As Paul Whitington felt, "the themed kingdoms they visit only seem to have been chosen because Playmobil do toys based on these scenarios: sometimes, as in the wild west sequence, they are passed through virtually without comment." The live-action sequences also garnered some derision; one reviewer opined it felt "like something out of an ‘80s movie," while another panned the sequence's stiff direction.  "Salt Lake City Weekly" called all of the film's concepts "all pointlessly random and head-smackingly dumb, even when it sounds on paper like it might be funny." According to Machado, "Playmobil: The Movie" suffered from storytelling "whiplash," using the "mishmash of odd characters" and the sudden death of the main characters' parents as examples. "The A.V. Club" criticised the choppy plot and erratic pace, reasoning it made "Playmobil: The Movie" "poorly conceived at every story turn, unable to even stick to a particular generic message to make up for its extremely basic humor." The film's hurried speed also came up in a "Radio Times" review that stated it "never stops long enough to make its story memorable." Lodge wrote the film had so little amusement it was absent of sight gags, while Minow bashed the inclusion of parental death as too dark for a kid's film. An "RTÉ.ie" review called its emotional moments "heavy-handed and forced," and criticized the parents' death as "solely a plot device for the sake of plot device." The songs were also called forgettable, generic, and "terrible" by several journalists; one wrote that they "have remarkably little melodic staying power," and another analyzed, "there’s no chorus and the characters simply just say things to a tune." However, some reviewers did highlight Taylor-Joy's singing on the opening number.  "Playmobil: The Movie" wasn't without supporting reviewers. Siede was appreciative towards the "low-key, non-judgmental" writing of the film, praising it for being more "heartfelt and earnest" than other "crass and cheap" offerings usual for children's flicks. O'Sullivan summarized, "for a movie so clearly doubling as product placement, it’s also fun, a cartoon (bookended by live-action sequences) which allows talented actors to riff on unexpected themes." She called the characters of Del and Rex "properly funny." Most admirations came towards the characters and performances, especially Radcliffe's voice-acting, the campy villain Emperor Maximus, and Taylor-Joy's acting. Hasted opined, "Taylor-Joy’s tendency towards introverted, perhaps dangerous outsiders [...] finds little outlet in mostly mild Marla, but still makes her harassed heroine warmly sympathetic."

Home media.

"Playmobil: The Movie" was released to Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on 2 December 2019, France on 7 December 2019, Germany on 27 December 2019, Australia on 25 March 2020, and Canada on 30 June 2020. DVDs were released in the United Kingdom on 2 December 2019 and the United States on 3 March 2020. The film was released digitally in France on 7 December 2019, Denmark on 6 January 2020, and the United States on 3 March 2020.

Playmobil: The Movie is a 2019 English-language French computer-animated musical adventure comedy film based on the German building toy Playmobil. The film is directed by Disney veteran Lino DiSalvo, in his directorial debut, written by Blaise Hemingway, Greg Erb and Jason Oremland, and produced by On Animation Studios. The film stars the voices of Anya Taylor-Joy, Jim Gaffigan, Gabriel Bateman, Adam Lambert, Kenan Thompson, Meghan Trainor and Daniel Radcliffe. The film follows a girl named Marla who tries to save her brother from a Playmobil world the two are sucked into, and becomes involved in the midst of a population-capturing scheme by Emperor Maximus.

Playmobil, le film est un film français réalisé par Lino DiSalvo, sorti en 2019. Mêlant animation 3D et prise de vues réelles, le film est une adaptation de l'univers de la marque de jouets allemande Playmobil.


How Arjuna got the Gandiva.

Agni, the God of fire, wanted to devour the forest of Khandavaprastha, to regain his power and splendor. He had enlisted the help of the two heroes, Krishna and Arjuna. Arjuna was one of the best and greatest archers of all time and demanded from Agni a bow that would suit his strength, skill and the power of celestial weapons.  Agni then requested Varuna to bless the heroes with the desired weapons. Varuna gave the Gandiva bow to Arjuna, as well as two quivers which would provide an inexhaustible number of arrows.  The weapon was dreaded by many during the Kurukshetra war, having defeated and killed many great warriors and the gods themselves.

Features.

The Gandiva gives the wielder self confidence, self belief. The bow was well adorned and endued with great energy and is said to equivalent to a hundred thousand bows, it was also incapable of being damaged and was worshiped by the celestials and the Gandharvas.

Return to the gods.

At the end of the Dwapara yuga, Krishna departed the mortal world and left for Vaikuntha. Arjuna could not string the bow, or remember the spells necessary in order to summon his celestial weapons. Later the pandavas retired and journeyed to the himalayas. On their route, Agni came and asked Arjuna to return the Gandiva to Varuna, for it belonged to him. Arjuna obliged and dropped them in the waters of the sea. Thus the celestial bow was returned to the gods.

References.

Metaphysically, Gandiva is the “bow of self-control.” With it Arjuna was equipped for victory over “the sense soldiers of the blind king Mind.” “Charioteered by God, he must rally the army of emperor Discrimination with its forces of virtue and its allies of spiritual perception.” (Paramahansa Yogananda-ji’s commentary on XVIII:78)

Gandiva (IAST: Gāṇḍīva; ) is the bow of Arjuna, one of the pandavas from Hindu epic "Mahabharata" and was made by Brahma.

Gandiva ( IAST : Gandiva; ) est l'arc d'Arjuna, l'un des pandavas de l'épopée hindoue "Mahabharata." Il a été fabriqué par Brahmā.


Geography.

The line ran from Paddington Head District Sorting Office in the west to the Eastern Head District Sorting Office at Whitechapel in the east, a distance of. It had eight stations, the largest of which was underneath Mount Pleasant, but by 2003 only three stations remained in use because the sorting offices above the other stations had been relocated.

History.

Usage as post office railway.

In 1911, a plan evolved to build an underground railway long from Paddington to Whitechapel serving the main sorting offices along the route; road traffic congestion was causing unacceptable delays. The contract to build the tunnels was won by John Mowlem and Co. Construction of the tunnels started in February 1915 from a series of shafts. Most of the line was constructed using the Greathead shield system, with limited amounts of hand-mining for connecting tunnels at stations.  The main line has a single diameter tube with two tracks. Just before stations, tunnels diverge into two single-track diameter tunnels leading to two parallel diameter station tunnels. The main tube is at a depth of around. Stations are at a much shallower depth, with a 1-in-20 gradient into the stations. The gradients assist in slowing the trains when approaching stations, and accelerating them away. There is also less distance to lift mail from the stations to the surface. At Oxford Circus the tunnel runs close to the Bakerloo line tunnel of the London Underground. During 1917, work was suspended due to the shortage of labour and materials. By June 1924, track laying had started. In February 1927, the first section, between Paddington and the West Central District Office, was made available for training. The line became available for the Christmas parcel post in 1927 and letters were carried from February 1928.  In 1954, plans were developed for a new Western District Office at Rathbone Place, which required a diversion, opening in 1958. It was not until 3 August 1965 that the new station and office were opened by the Postmaster General, Anthony Wedgwood-Benn. The disused section was used as a store tunnel; some parts of it still have the track in place.

Closure.

A Royal Mail press release in April 2003 said that the railway would be closed and mothballed at the end of May that year. Royal Mail had earlier stated that using the railway was five times more expensive than using road transport for the same task. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) claimed the actual figure was closer to three times more expensive but argued that this was the result of a deliberate policy of running the railway down and using it at only one-third of its capacity. A local governmental report by the Greater London Authority was in support of continued use and criticized the increase of lorries on local roads, estimated to be 80 more trucks per week. The railway was closed on 31 May 2003.  In April 2011, an urban exploration group called the "Consolidation Crew" published accounts of illicit access to the tunnels. Detailed photography and text revealed that the railway is still largely in good condition, despite some natural decay. More recently, media have been admitted to the tunnels as part of the pre-launch publicity for the Postal Museum. Photographs show much of the infrastructure in place.  A team from the University of Cambridge has taken over a short, double track section of unused Post Office tunnel near Liverpool Street Station, where a newly built tunnel for Crossrail is situated some two metres beneath. The study is to establish how the original cast-iron lining sections, which are similar to those used for many miles of railway under London, resist possible deformation and soil movement caused by the new works. Digital cameras, fibre optic deformation sensors, laser scanners and other low-cost instruments, reporting in real time, have been installed in the vacated tunnel. As well as providing information about the behaviour of the old construction materials, the scheme can also provide an early warning if the new tunnel bores are creating dangerous soil movement.

Redevelopment and preservation.

In October 2013, the British Postal Museum & Archive announced that it intended opening part of the network to the public. After approval was granted by Islington Council, work on the new museum and the railway began in 2014. Special tourist trains were installed in late 2016. It was planned to open a circular route, running beneath the depot at Mount Pleasant with a journey time of around 15 minutes, by mid-2017. The museum opened on 5 September.  In its first year of operation (2017–2018), the trains performed 9,000 trips totalling, with the railway and museum hosting over 198,000 visitors.

Rolling stock.

The first stock was delivered in 1926 with the opening of the system. All stock used was electrically powered.

Electric units.

Some trains have been preserved at the Launceston Steam Railway.

Similar railways.

A pneumatic underground railway was used by the Post Office in London between 1863 and 1874 using individual wheeled capsules, operated by the London Pneumatic Despatch Company.  In 1910, a tunnel railway opened in Munich, Germany between München Hauptbahnhof and the nearby Post office. The tunnels were damaged in World War II, restored in 1948 and partially rebuilt in 1966 to allow for the first Munich S-Bahn tunnel. Operations ceased in 1988.  Postal Telegraph and Telephone (Switzerland) () opened the Post-U-Bahn (underground railway) in Zürich in 1938. It ran between Zürich Hauptbahnhof and the Sihlpost (), Zürich's main post office. The track gauge was 60 cm, and the small electric railcar, which could carry 250 kg of mail, collected power from wires between the tracks. Operations ceased on 11 October 1980 when a rubber-tired system replaced the train.  The Chicago Tunnel Company, in operation between 1906 and 1959, delivered freight, parcels, and coal, and disposed of ash and excavation debris. It operated an elaborate network of narrow gauge track in tunnels running under the streets throughout the central business district including and surrounding the "Loop".

Trivia.

The only known instance of a human travelling on the London Post Office Railway is that of the cricket commentator and entertainer Brian Johnston, who presented the radio show "In Town Tonight" in which he was "travelling as a parcel" on one of the trains on the railway.

The Post Office Railway, known as Mail Rail since 1987, is a narrow gauge, driverless underground railway in London that was built by the Post Office with assistance from the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, to transport mail between sorting offices. Inspired by the Chicago Tunnel Company, it opened in 1927 and operated for 76 years until it closed in 2003. A museum within the former railway was opened in September 2017.

Le London Post Office Railway, également connu sous le nom de Mail Rail depuis 1987, est une ligne spéciale du métro de Londres à voie étroite, sans conducteur, qui est construite par le General Post Office (GPO) avec l'aide de l'Underground Electric Railways Company pour acheminer le courrier entre plusieurs bureaux de tri du courrier.


US Navy career.

Enright graduated from United States Naval Academy in 1933, served three years on USS "Maryland" and achieved submariner's qualification in 1936. During World War II, Lieutenant Commander Enright commanded USS "O-10", USS "Dace" and USS "Archerfish".  Enright assumed command of the newly built USS "Dace" on July 23, 1943, and in October sailed out on her first war patrol into busy Japanese waters. On November 15 an Ultra message alerted him to intercept aircraft carrier "Shōkaku"; Enright located the target and "made a timid approach, abandoning the effort as daylight approached". He then found another target, a tanker, but was depth charged by escort ships and withdrew from active pursuit. In the end the 49-day patrol brought no results. Enright took the blame for failure: "I was responsible for an unproductive patrol and request to be relieved by an officer who can perform more satisfactorily". Admiral Lockwood granted the request and demoted Enright to administrative duties ashore. After half a year at Midway submarine base, Enright requested to be given another submarine command and received "a rare second chance", command of USS "Archerfish", in September 1944.  "Archerfish" left Pearl Harbor on October 30, 1944, and reached Saipan on November 9. For the next two weeks the submarine provided search and rescue support to American aviators in the areas of planned air strikes. On November 28, when the submarine was patrolling south from Nagoya, radar identified a surface contact 12 miles away. Visual contact became possible at 2140, and by 2300 Enright identified it as an aircraft carrier protected by three destroyers. At 0241, on November 29, the target turned away from "Archerfish" and then straight at her. At 0317 at a mere 1,400 yards from the target, Enright fired all six available torpedoes at the carrier. Enright stayed at periscope depth to see first two torpedoes hit "Shinano", then dived down to escape revenge from her escorts. It was only after the war that the carrier was identified as "Shinano", the long-rumored third battleship of the "Yamato" class. Her keel had been converted into a supercarrier while still under construction. Four of his sub's torpedoes had found their mark. Due to crew inexperience and design flaws, she struggled with damage for more than seven hours and finally capsized at 10:57. With a full-load displacement of 72,000 tons, "Shinano" is the largest warship in history to be sunk by a submarine. The action earned Enright his Navy Cross.  On September 2, 1945, Enright and his crew, along with eleven other submarines, were honored with the task of protecting USS "Missouri" during the signing of Japanese Instrument of Surrender.  After the end of the war, Enright commanded Submarine Division 31 (1949–1950), USS "Fulton" (1953–1954), Submarine Squadron 8 (1954–1955), was chief of staff for the submarine force of the United States Atlantic Fleet (1955–1957) and commander of USS "Boston" (1959–1963).

Retirement years.

After retirement in 1963 Enright worked at Northrop on the OMEGA Navigation System.  He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Joseph Francis Enright (September 18, 1910, Minot, North Dakota – July 20, 2000, Fairfax, Virginia) was a submarine captain in the United States Navy. He is best known as the man who sank the Japanese aircraft carrier "Shinano"–the "most significant single submarine sinking of World War II."

Joseph Francis Enright est un commandant de sous-marin américain né le à Minot et mort le à Fairfax. Durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, commandant l', il parvient à couler le porte-avions "Shinano".


Design.

The egg is about tall on its stand, with a diameter of. The outer shell is blue lapis lazuli, with architectural, Louis XV-style gold cagework in a design of leafy scrolls. The gold motifs cover each joint, making the egg look as if it was carved from a single block of lapis. The goldwork includes two Imperial double-headed eagles, as well as cupids, canopies, floral scrolls, flower baskets and garlands. Two large diamonds, one at top and one at bottom, are encrusted into the egg's surface, showing the initials of Tsarina Alexandra Fyodorovna, the year 1912 and the Imperial crown. The location of the original stand is unknown, however it is thought to have not made it out of Russia when purchased by antiques dealer Armand Hammer.

Surprise.

The "surprise" inside is a Russian double-headed Imperial eagle with a miniature portrait of the Tsarevich Alexei, set in platinum and encrusted with diamonds. The Imperial eagle holds the orb and sceptre representative of the Romanov crown jewels. The intricate frame sits on a lapis lazuli base and can be completely removed from inside the egg. The portrait shows Alexei in his sailor suit, a favorite of the Tsarevich's. The original double-sided watercolor miniature portrait has suffered damage and is still in the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The current portrait on display is an archival photograph. Inside the egg, an engraved golden disc with a rose window design serves as a platform for the portrait frame.

History.

Fabergé created the egg as a tribute to Tsarevich Alexei. Unknown to all but the royal family, Alexei was expected to die of hemophilia and was at one point so close to death that the Russian Imperial Court had already drawn up his death certificate. When Alexei survived, Fabergé, who knew of the Tsarevich's health, created the egg for Alexei's mother as a tribute to the miracle of his survival.  Subsequent owners included antiques dealer Armand Hammer, who moved from Paris to New York in the early 1930s. Philanthropist Lillian Thomas Pratt (1876–1947) of Fredericksburg, Virginia, purchased the egg in New York from Hammer in 1933–34. The egg was bequeathed by her in 1947 to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia, where it remains on permanent view.

The Tsarevich Egg, also known as the Czarevich Egg, is a Fabergé egg, one of a series of jewelled eggs made under the supervision of Peter Carl Fabergé. It was created in 1912 for Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna as a tribute by Fabergé to her son the Tsarevich Alexei (Alexei). The egg is currently in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia., US.

LŒuf du tsarévitch est l'une des pièces d'orfèvrerie fabriquées sous la direction du joaillier russe Pierre-Karl Fabergé pour la famille Impériale Russe dont la collection est connue comme les œufs de Fabergé.