Fossils () is an Indian hard rock band from Bengal formed in Kolkata, West Bengal, India in 1998.
The group is considered one of the pioneering rock acts in Kolkata's Bengali music scene.
The band currently comprises Rupam Islam (lead vocals, additional guitars), Deep Ghosh (rhythm guitar), Allan Temjen Ao (lead guitar), Tanmoy Das (drums), Prasenjit 'Pom' Chakraborty (bass guitar).

Their music is flavoured by a blend of blues, rock and psychedelia, along with Rupam Islam's vocal renditions of his characteristic psychoanalytical lyrics.
They are noted for their social commentary and advocation of causes such as the welfare of HIV positive people.

History

Formation and early years: 1998–2000
The band was formed by Rupam Islam, the vocalist. Their first stage show was held on 9 January 1999 at Najrul Mancha for Gaan 99 organised by HMV. While performing on stage as Rupam Islam and group, on that very day Rupam announced that henceforth he will perform as Fossils. This show had Deep on acoustic guitar, Deep Ghosh on guitars, Tanmoy on bass, Rajiv on drums and Rupam. This line up was short lived and the very next show saw Chandra and Teno on guitars, Baji on drums, Bumpy on bass, Jatu on keyboards and Rupam.

The group started to call themselves "Fossils" after a suggestion by their guitarist Deep.
The name is inspired by a line from one of Rupam's lyrics:
"Khoro aamar fossil, onubhutir michhil protikriashil kono biplobe".

Initial audience reaction to the band's music was not encouraging. During their first few shows, they met with jeering and hostile objection to the rock style and techniques they employed.

Thus, the band name was meant to convey a sense of an "underground" movement that the members felt they had initiated and their belief that they would be fossilised into history under the pressure of social disapproval of their music, only to be excavated decades later by musicologists wishing to discover the roots of Bengali rock.

The band would experience a flurry of line-up changes until the end of 1999, by which time a sort of permanency was achieved with Rupam  (vocals), Chandra (bass), Allan (guitar), Stephen (drums), Indra (keyboards), and Parikhshit (manager) as the members.

In spite of the hostile feedbacks, the band decided to stick to their sound, and for the first time in the history of Indian Bengali rock, a full-fledged, continuous, effort was made to establish the Bengali rock sound.

Fossils: 2000–2003
In 2000, the band recorded a demo version of their tracks. They faced rejection several times from different record houses.

In 2001, the guitarist Allan left the band for a corporate career. Former members Teno and Deep re-joined in Allan's stead.

A contract was landed with Asha Audio and by the end of the same year, recording for the band's first studio album began. The recording had to start without Allan, whose departure was so sudden there was not enough time to rework their tracks. Some of the guitar tracks for this album had to be lifted from the demo version.
The album was entitled Fossils and released in 2002.
It was not an instant success, but the music caught on once the FM radio stations started broadcasting the tracks. The album's popularity has increased with time, and today it has achieved a cult following.

Teno left the band in 2002 and was replaced by Partha.

In 2003, the drummer Stephen underwent rehabilitation. Andre served as part-time drummer till Bubun joined.

By this time, the band had created a nice audience and dedicated following among the youth.

Fossils 2: 2004–2005
The band's second album, entitled Fossils 2, was released in 2004.
It was then noted as the Bengali band album with the highest budget to date.
The album was partly sponsored by the Thums Up brand.
The mastering engineer was Steve Fallone of Sterling Sound, New York.

The band witnessed a surge in popularity.

In 2005, the manager Parikshit was expelled from the band; Rupam and Deep jointly took over his work. As of 2007, management has been handled by Deep and Rupam's wife Rupsha Dasgupta.

Mission F: 2006
The band's third studio album, entitled Mission F, was released in 2006.
It was a theme album for the first Kolkata Police Friendship Cup Football Tournament.

A special track, "Aeka Nauo", dedicated to HIV positive people, was included in the album. It featured Usha Uthup and was produced in collaboration with the Kolkata Sukriti Foundation.
A free VCD distributed with the album contains the music video for the track, which shows HIV positive people with their faces uncovered interacting freely with Uthup and the band members.
The VCD also contained a chat session with band members.

Radio Mirchi collaborated with the band to produce two "unplugged" versions of previously recorded tracks that were included in the album.

According to a survey conducted by Radio Mirchi, Mission F was declared the best-selling album in Kolkata for the year 2006.

On Earth Day, the band covered Michael Jackson's Earth Song in Bengali exclusively for the news channel CNN IBN.

Aupodartho: 2007
In the first half of 2007, Rupam Islam worked on a separate project named RnB with the bassist Bumpy.

In the second half of 2007, the band released a music video album entitled Aupodartho.

The album was scheduled to be launched in Music World, Park Street, Kolkata. The crowd turnout was so unexpectedly huge that fans had to be turned out and the outlet's premises closed. The police had a tough time controlling the crowd. The release eventually happened on the same day, with Rupam Islam placing himself atop a stool outside the outlet and addressing the fans without a microphone.

During the Pujas of 2007, Rupam Islam's 1998 solo album was re-launched by Sa Re Ga Ma HMV.

On 9 November, Fossils played lived for the first time in Bangladesh at the Dhaka Rock Fest 2007, the first ever international Bengali rock festival.

Fossils 3: 2008–2013
Fossils featured in the Rolling Stone India magazine in 2008.

The end of 2008 saw Fossils begin the recording of their fifth studio album, which was released on 19 September 2009. It was titled Fossils 3 and developed as a concept album. It endeavours to tell the story of a mysterious character known only as Shada Jama (White Shirt) through the interlinked audio tracks as well as a separate graphic account contained in the inlay cards. Mayookh Bhowmick on the distortion tabla, Indrajit Dey (Indra) on the keyboards, and a team from the Kolkata Music Academy Chamber Orchestra led by Abraham Mazumder were the guest contributors to the album. Fossils 3 would go on to win in the Best Non-Film Album category of the Anandalok Awards 2009.

2009 marked the band's tenth anniversary.

The band's official fan club, Fossils Force, was launched the same year, which started their operations through a blood donation camp on 1 May 2009. They continue to engage in activities for social welfare, such as contributing to the relief of people affected by the Cyclone Aila and another blood donation camp in 2010.

Rupam on the Rocks, written by Rupam Islam and published by Ananda Publishers was launched at the Kolkata Book Fair 2009.

The same year saw Fossils touring the UK and Bangalore.

2010 started with a change in the line-up. Bubun was replaced by Tanmoy on the drums.

In July 2010, the band played live at Nashville in the United States.

Later in the year, Rupam Islam won a National Film Award (Silver Lotus or Rajat Kamal) in the Best Male Playback Singer category from the Government of India for his work in the film Mahanagar @ Kolkata.

June 2011, Allan rejoined the band in place of Partha.

September 2011, Fossils visited Dhaka, Bangladesh for the third time.

July 2012, Fossils performed at Las Vegas, USA; which was a huge hit.

Fossils 4: 2015
The sixth studio album of the band is scheduled to be released on 19 October 2013 at City Centre II, Rajarhat – Kolkata. For the first time, the band has soft launched their album "Fossils 4" as full-length online streaming to the audience days before physical release of the album. It is also the first time the band holds both copyright and publishing rights of this album while INRECO will do the distribution and marketing.
Sayantan the drummer joined as Tanmoy went for a degree. Tanmoy will be rejoining sooner as heard by the fans. another young artist from Kolkata, is set to join the band in 2017 as a bass guitarist and lyricist.

Discography

 Fossils 1  (2002)
 Aro Ekbar
 Ekla Ghor
 Nemesis
 Hasnuhana
 Dekho Manashi
 Bishakta Manush
 Nishkraman
 Millennium
 Fossils 2 (2004)
 Keno Korle
 Manob Boma
 Chhal
 Harano Podok
 Tritiyo Bishwa
 Acid
 29 Se October
 Bicycle Chor
 Shasti
 Mission F (2006)
 Etwastata
 Sototar Bilashita
 Manob Boma
 Friendship Chai
 Bondhu He
 Kichuta Somoy
 Bishakta Manush
 Eka Naow
 Sono Amra Ki
 Hari Na
 Aupodartho (2007)
 Aupodartho [Video Album]
 Fossils 3 (2009)
 Swabhabhik Khoon
 Maa
 Danober Utthan
 Guru
 Phire Chaulo
 Bidroher Pandulipi
 Mummy
 Bhoot Ar Tilottoma 1
 Dhongsho Romonthon
 Haspatale
 Mrityu: Mrityur Pore
 Railline-e Mrityu
 Schizophrenic Bra
 Bhoot Ar Tilottoma 2
 Fossils 4 (2013)
 Khnoro Aamar Fossil
 Bñaador
 Haajar Bichhana
 Mohakaash
 Baari Esho
 Shoytaan
 Resolutions
 Sthaabor Austhaabor
 Mrityu
 Fossils 5 (2017)
 Janla
 Stobdho Jibon
 Mrito Manush
 Palao
 Fossils 6 (2019)
 Ghreena
 Hridoy Bhangbar Gaan
 Dewali Pee

Gallery

See also
 Rupam Islam
 Music of India
 Indian rock

References

External links
 Rupam Islam's Official Site
 Interview with Rupam Islam on his playback singing in "Jannat"
 Rupam Islam: A profile
 Interview with Rupam Islam on Fossils
 The Telegraph reports on Fossils 3 pre-release buzz
 The Times of India reports on Bengali rock bands
 Rupam Islam and composer Debojyoti Mishra talk about the history of comic songs in Bengal
 The Telegraph reports on the impact of a new generation of singers on Bengali film music

Indian progressive rock groups
Musical groups established in 1998
Bengali musical groups


Ballathie House is a 19th-century mansion in Perthshire, Scotland. It is located around  north of Perth, and  west of Coupar Angus, close to the River Tay. The present house was built in 1886, and since 1972 it has operated as a country house hotel.

History

Before 1886
The Drummond family, the Earls of Perth, owned the Ballathie lands in the 17th century, selling to the Robertson family. According to Historic Environment Scotland, the house was built during the 1850s. General Richardson Robertson of Tullybelton undertook the building of the current house but died in 1883, 3 years before it was completed.

Country house, 1886-1972

General Richardson Robertson's nephew, Colonel Edmund Robert Stewart Richardson took over the house, selling it in 1910 to Sir Stewart Coats, from Paisley. The house was enlarged by alterations to the servants quarters and a new entrance porch. Central heating and electric lighting were also installed. An army hut was erected for use as a dance hall after the World War I and dances were held for staff and locals. A 9-hole golf course was laid out by professional golfer Ben Sayers but this was ploughed up as part of the campaign to provide more food during World War II.

Ballathie's fame as a sporting estate led to many famous guests coming to stay during this period. These included:

Duke Michael of Russia and his wife, Natalia, Princess Brassova
John Wolfe-Barry, civil engineer whose most famous projects included Tower Bridge and the District Line in London
Arthur Winnington-Ingram, Bishop of London from 1901 to 1939
The Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII
Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster

In 1936, the estate was sold to Colonel Stephen Hardie, a chartered accountant in Glasgow and founder member of the British Oxygen Company. The estate was sold again in 1964 to the Maxwell siblings, descendants of John Maxwell (1879-1940), the film producer and founder of the ABC cinema empire.

When Col. Hardie died in 1969, the house was also acquired by the Maxwell Family, and converted into a hotel in 1972 which was run for many years by Colonel & Mrs Brassey.

Hotel, since 1972
John Milligan purchased the estate separately in 1998, then also the hotel in 2005. The estate is still used for farming and sports. The Sportsman's Lodge was completed in 2003, within the grounds of the hotel.

Hotel facilities
Ballathie has 23 bedrooms in the main hotel, plus 11 more at the Sportsman's Lodge. It is a venue for wedding ceremonies and receptions and also has rooms for conferences and meetings up to a capacity of 50. The hotel is on the River Tay, a salmon fishing river. Clay pigeon and grouse shooting are available.

Awards
 VisitScotland, the Scottish tourist board, rates Ballathie as a 4 star hotel.
 The hotel's restaurant received the Silver Award from EatScotland, the restaurant guide of VisitScotland.
 The AA gives the hotel 4 stars and 2 red rosettes.
 Rural Restaurant Award win at the Scottish Hotel Awards 2010.

External links
 Ballathie House Hotel official website

References

Hotels in Perth and Kinross
Category B listed buildings in Perth and Kinross
Hotels established in 1972
Country houses in Perth and Kinross


The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) and its variants was the highest military award in Nazi Germany. Recipients are grouped by grades of the Knight's Cross. During or shortly after World War II, 145 German sailors and officers of the U-boat service as part of the Kriegsmarine received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Among them, 29 officers received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub), five the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern), and two won the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves Swords and Diamonds (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub, Schwertern und Brillanten). Of these, 144 presentations were formally made and one recipient received the award after 11 May 1945, when Großadmiral Karl Dönitz ordered a cease of all promotions and illegalized all subsequent awards. The final recipient is therefore considered to have received the medal without legal authority.

Background
The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grades were based on four separate enactments. The first enactment,  of 1 September 1939 instituted the Iron Cross (), the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross (). Article 2 of the enactment mandated that the award of a higher class be preceded by the award of all preceding classes. As the war progressed, some of the recipients of the Knight's Cross distinguished themselves further and a higher grade, the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (), was instituted. The Oak Leaves, as they were commonly referred to, were based on the enactment  of 3 June 1940. In 1941, two higher grades of the Knight's Cross were instituted. The enactment  of 28 September 1941 introduced the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords () and the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds (). At the end of 1944 the final grade, the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds (), based on the enactment  of 29 December 1944, became the final variant of the Knight's Cross authorized.

Recipients
The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht kept separate Knight's Cross lists, one for each of the three military branches, Heer (Army), Kriegsmarine (Navy), Luftwaffe (Air force) and for the Waffen-SS. Within each of these lists a unique sequential number was assigned to each recipient. The same numbering paradigm was applied to the higher grades of the Knight's Cross, one list per grade.

Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds
The Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds is based on the enactment Reichsgesetzblatt I S. 613 of 28 September 1941 to reward those servicemen who had already been awarded the Oak Leaves with Swords to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Ultimately, it would be awarded to twenty-seven German soldiers, sailors and airmen, ranging from young fighter pilots to field marshals. Two recipients were members of the U-boat arm.

Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
The Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords is also based on the enactment Reichsgesetzblatt I S. 613 of 28 September 1941 to reward those servicemen who had already been awarded the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves
The Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves was based on the enactment Reichsgesetzblatt I S. 849 of 3 June 1940. The last officially announced number for the Oak Leaves was 843. Higher numbers are unofficial and therefore denoted in brackets.

Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross is based on the enactment Reichsgesetzblatt I S. 1573 of 1 September 1939 Verordnung über die Erneuerung des Eisernen Kreuzes (Regulation of the renewing of the Iron Cross).

Legally disputed Knight's Cross recipients
Großadmiral Karl Dönitz ordered a cease of all promotions and awards as of 11 May 1945. Nevertheless, a number of Knight's Crosses were awarded after this date and are considered "illegal" hand-outs. One sailor of the U-boat service is often listed as a recipient of the Knight's Cross but falls outside of the Dönitz-decree. Karl Jäckel received his Knight's Cross confirmation after 11 May 1945 and is therefore a de facto but not de jure recipient.

References

Footnotes
  Some sources indicating that von Forstner succumbed to his injuries aboard  on 22 October 1943 have been found incorrect.
  Author Clemens Range dates Hans Lehmann's Knight's Cross on 8 June 1945, thus after the effectiveness of the Dönitz-decree. Walther-Peer Fellgiebel, author of Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939-1945, indicates that Lehmann received the Knight's Cross on 11 May 1945, before the Dönitz-decree prohibited the awarding of the Knight's Cross. The sequential number 317 within the Kriegsmarine, 144 within the U-boat service, associated to Lehmann's Knight's Cross is based on author Clemens Range's work Die Ritterkreuzträger der Kriegsmarine and Busch and Röll's book Der U-Boot-Krieg 1939-1945 - Die Ritterkreuzträger der U-Boot-Waffe von September 1939 bis Mai 1945. Historian Veit Scherzer, whose work Die Ritterkreuzträger Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives is based on the primary data from the German Federal Archives, indicates that the 7 May 1945 is the correct date.

Citations

Bibliography

External links

Lists of Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross recipients
 Uboote


Haim Hefer ( 29 October 1925 – 18 September 2012) was a Polish-born Israeli songwriter, poet and writer. He wrote for numerous composers and musical artists, as well as for military bands. Several of his songs, including "Hafinjan" and "Hayu Zmanim", are considered Israeli classics. He was awarded the Israel Prize in 1983 as recognition for his contributions to Israeli music.

Biography
Haim Feiner (later Hefer) was born in Sosnowiec, Poland in 1925 to Jewish parents Issachar Feiner, a chocolate salesman, and Rivka Herzberg, a housewife. He had a private Hebrew tutor. His family immigrated to Palestine in 1936 and settled in Raanana. He began writing at the age of 13, as part of a national contest. He never finished high school and joined the Palmach in 1943. He took part in smuggling illegal immigrants through Syria and Lebanon. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, he was one of the founders of the Chizbatron, the Palmach army troupe, and was its chief songwriter. He had a nickname, "Kilometer", because he "weighed a kilo and was only a meter in height."

Hefer owned a house in Ein Hod, but resided in Tel Aviv. He was married to Ruti Haramati, with whom he had a daughter, Mimi. In 1975–1978 Hefer was a cultural attaché at the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles.

On 18 September 2012 (the second day of Rosh Hashanah, 5773), Hefer died at Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv, after a long illness.

Music career
In the 1950s, Hefer and Dahn Ben-Amotz wrote A Bag of Fibs, a collection of tall tales made up in the Palmach, and founded the "Hamam" club in Jaffa. During that time, he founded "Revi'iat Moadon HaTeatron" (Theater Club Quartet). He wrote a weekly column for Yediot Aharonot, which included maqamas on current affairs. A Bag of Fibs achieved cult status in Israel. He was later made a cultural attache to the Israeli consul in Los Angeles.

He wrote for dozens of composers, including Sasha Argov, Moshe Wilensky and Dubi Seltzer. Artists who performed his songs include Arik Lavie, Yehoram Gaon, Shoshana Damari and Yafa Yarkoni, as well as The High Windows and most Israeli military bands. He wrote lyrics for musicals, including Kazablan and I Like Mike.  Many of his songs, such as "Hafinjan" (The Billy Kettle), "Hayu Zmanim" (In Those Days), "The Red Rock" (HaSela haAdom) and "Hamilkhama Ha'achrona" (The Last War) are considered Israeli classics. He also published several collections of his verses. Shortly before the 1948 war, he wrote a song titled "Between the Borders", about immigration. It included the words "We are here, a defensive shield". In 2002, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched an operation in the West Bank and named it Operation Defensive Shield.

Controversy
In 2002, Hefer described Moroccan Jewish culture as inferior to that of the Polish Jews. He called Aviv Geffen a phony and criticized Yaffa Yarkoni for badmouthing the IDF. His remarks were condemned as racist and criticized by then President of Israel, Moshe Katsav, members of the Moroccan community, and representatives of the Shas Party, as well as Mizrahi musicians such as Margalit Tzan'ani. Hefer made a public apology and wrote a song for singer Zehava Ben.

Awards
In 1983, Hefer was awarded the Israel Prize, for Hebrew song (words), for his contribution to the Music of Israel.

In 2008 in Poland was published a book, "Chaim Chefer—Memorable Days"("Chaim Chefer – Pamiętne Dni"), the development of the graphic made by Pawel Slota under the artistic supervision of Agnieszka Tyrman. The book was out of admiration and respect for the work of Chaim Chefer in the jubilee year the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel.

Gallery

See also
Music of Israel
Culture of Israel
List of Israel Prize recipients

References

External links

1925 births
2012 deaths
Israeli male songwriters
Israeli male poets
Polish emigrants to Mandatory Palestine
Israeli people of Polish-Jewish descent
Jewish Israeli writers
Palmach members
Israel Prize in Hebrew song recipients
Israeli columnists
20th-century Israeli male writers
20th-century Israeli songwriters
20th-century Israeli poets
Yedioth Ahronoth people
Chizbatron members


Rabbi Haim (Emile) Amsalem (; born 12 October 1959) is an Israeli politician and a former member of the Knesset. Following a rift between him and his former party Shas, he established the Am Shalem party to run for the 2013 Knesset elections, but failed to win any seats.

Biography
Amsalem was born in Oran, French Algeria, to David and Freha Amsalem, who immigrated to there from Morocco. When he was six months old, his family moved to Lyon, France, where he grew up until the age of 11. In 1970, the family immigrated to Israel. He graduated from the Kisse Rahamim yeshivah where was ordained as rabbi in 1980, and served as a Head of Yeshiva ("RAM"). In 1990, he obtained certification as a rabbinical legal representative ("to'en rabbani"), and in 1993, he was ordained a City rabbi by the Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

In 1982, he married Hannah, the granddaughter of Rabbi Nissim Cohen, Av Beit Din in Djerba, Tunisia. After his marriage, he served as rabbi of the Sharsheret moshav for seven years. He has also served also as a neighborhood rabbi in Netivot, as Head of Yeshiva of "Ohalei Yaakov ve Tifereth Israel" and as Head of the kollel "Baba Sali" in the city. From there, he moved to the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem, and established there the "Shirei David" Kollel in the name of his father. He was later appointed as rabbi of the Sephardic Jewish community, "Heichal Haness" in Geneva, Switzerland, a position he held until his entry into the Knesset.

A founding member of Shas, Amsalem was first elected to the Knesset in 2006, and was re-elected in 2009. After breaking away from Shas, he founded his own party, Am Shalem. In the 2013 elections, the new party failed to cross the electoral threshold of 2%, and Amsalem subsequently lost his Knesset seat. On 15 September 2014, the Yeshiva World News website reported that Amsalem would be running in the upcoming elections for the post of Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem.

Amsalem has written books in a variety of religious topics, and has published religious articles and Torah research papers in the religious publications "Ohr Torah", "Ohr Israel", "Beit Hillel", and more. He specialized in deciphering manuscripts and published writings of famous Sephardic scholars, including the "P'nei Moshe" by Rabbi Moshe Kalfon HaCohen and "Ya'amod  Pinchas" by Rabbi Pinchas Abitbol. He lives in Har Nof, Jerusalem, and is married, with eight children.

In February 2019, Amsalem joined the Zehut party and was offered the #2 spot on the list.

Conversions
One of Amsalem's focuses has been in conversion to Judaism, and making the conversion process less stressful for the convert. He was one of the founding rabbis of Giyur keHalacha, and together with his protégé Rabbi Chuck Davidson, he has founded Ahavat HaGer, an organisation that aims to ensure that converts can go through the conversion process with a minimum of fuss. He called for an "independent conversion court system that will be run according to halacha, not politics".

He is an advocate for significant leniency when dealing with the case of a halachically non-Jewish child with a Jewish parent. He was even more lenient in the case of an IDF soldier, with Amsalem considering the army service itself to be the 'acceptance of the mitzvot', a key component in the conversion process. He was savaged for this stance in the Hareidi press, and was called "worse than the "Conservatives" and that his views were "baseless and ridiculous".

Amsalem's is alone in his stance on the "acceptance of the mitzvot", and most of the rabbis of Tzohar do not accept this stance. In spite of his stance as a rebel, Amsalem is relying on past Torah scholars, including Rav Bentzion Uziel, and he is well versed in the Jewish sources and has penned his own book, Zera Yisrael, which is an exhaustive summary of the sources connected to conversion, and shows his mastery of the topic. Defenders of Amsalem say that there is an ideal in the Haredi world to not be controversial and to follow the group think, and that this has only entered the religious sphere recently.

He has also attacked the Israeli Chief Rabbinate, as well as some other Beth Dins around the world, such as the London Beth Din and the Melbourne Beth Din, for retrospectively cancelling conversions. Based on the Halacha, Amsalem argues that there is no basis for doing such a thing, and it is unprecedented in Jewish history. The only way this could happen is because of political considerations.

References

External links

1959 births
Living people
People from Oran
Algerian Jews
Israeli Orthodox rabbis
Sephardic Haredi rabbis in Israel
Shas politicians
Algerian emigrants to Israel
Israeli people of Moroccan-Jewish descent
20th-century Israeli rabbis
21st-century Israeli rabbis
Members of the 17th Knesset (2006–2009)
Members of the 18th Knesset (2009–2013)
Rabbinic members of the Knesset


Harry Kesten (November 19, 1931 – March 29, 2019) was a Jewish American mathematician best known for his work in probability, most notably on random walks on groups and graphs, random matrices, branching processes, and percolation theory.

Biography

Harry Kesten was born in Duisburg, Germany in 1931, and grew up in the Netherlands, where he moved with his parents in 1933 to escape the Nazis. Surviving the Holocaust, Kesten initially studied chemistry, and later theoretical physics and mathematics, at the University of Amsterdam. He moved to the United States in 1956 and received his PhD in Mathematics in 1958 at Cornell University under the supervision of Mark Kac.  He was an instructor at Princeton University and the Hebrew University before returning to Cornell in 1961.

Kesten died on March 29, 2019, in Ithaca at the age of 87.

Mathematical work
Kesten's work includes many fundamental contributions across almost the whole of probability, including the following highlights.

Random walks on groups.  In his 1958 PhD thesis, Kesten studied symmetric random walks on countable groups G  generated by a jump distribution with support G. He showed that the spectral radius equals the exponential decay rate of the return probabilities.  He showed later that this is strictly less than 1 if and only if the group is non-amenable. The last result is known as Kesten's criterion for amenability. He calculated the spectral radius of the d-regular tree, namely  .
Products of random matrices. Let  be the product of the first n elements of an ergodic stationary sequence of random  matrices.  With Furstenberg in 1960, Kesten showed the convergence of , under the condition .
Self-avoiding walks.  Kesten's ratio limit theorem states that the number  of n-step self-avoiding walks from the origin on the integer lattice satisfies  where  is the connective constant.  This result remains unimproved despite much effort. In his proof, Kesten proved his pattern theorem, which states that, for a proper internal pattern P, there exists  such that the proportion of walks containing fewer than  copies of P is exponentially smaller than .
Branching processes. Kesten and Stigum showed that the correct condition for the convergence of the population size, normalized by its mean, is that  where L is a typical family size.  With Ney and Spitzer, Kesten found the minimal conditions for the asymptotic distributional properties of a critical branching process, as discovered earlier, but subject to stronger assumptions, by Kolmogorov and Yaglom.

Random walk in a random environment. With Kozlov and Spitzer, Kesten proved a deep theorem about random walk in a one-dimensional random environment.  They established the limit laws for the walk across the variety of situations that can arise within the environment.
 Diophantine approximation. In 1966, Kesten resolved a conjecture of Erdős and Szűsz on the discrepancy of irrational rotations. He studied the discrepancy between the number of rotations by  hitting a given interval I, and the length of I, and proved this bounded if and only if the length of I is a multiple of .
Diffusion-limited aggregation. Kesten proved that the growth rate of the arms in d dimensions can be no larger than .
Percolation. Kesten's most famous work in this area is his proof that the critical probability of bond percolation on the square lattice equals 1/2. He followed this with a systematic study of percolation in two dimensions, reported in his book Percolation Theory for Mathematicians. His work on scaling theory and scaling relations has since proved key to the relationship between critical percolation and Schramm-Loewner evolution.
First passage percolation. Kesten's results for this growth model are largely summarized in Aspects of First Passage Percolation. He studied the rate of convergence to the time constant, and contributed to the topics of subadditive stochastic processes and concentration of measure. He developed the problem of maximum flow through a medium subject to random capacities.

A volume of papers was published in Kesten's honor in 1999. The Kesten memorial volume of Probability Theory and Related Fields contains a full list of the dedicatee's publications.

Selected works
with Mark Kac:  correction 65 1958 p. 67

with Zbigniew Ciesielski:
with Don Ornstein and Frank Spitzer:

with Geoffrey Grimmett:

See also
 Amenable group
 Percolation theory

References

1931 births
2019 deaths
20th-century American mathematicians
21st-century American mathematicians
Dutch emigrants to the United States
Princeton University faculty
Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Probability theorists
Cornell University alumni
Cornell University faculty
Brouwer Medalists
Fellows of Churchill College, Cambridge
Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Fellows of the American Mathematical Society


Pruzhinki () is a village (selo) in Lipetsky District of Lipetsk Oblast, Russia.

It was founded in the 17th century by service class people.  In 1764, there were 100 farms in Pruzhinki.  In 1803, the church of John the Theologian, which is now a monument of regional importance, was built.

Rural localities in Lipetsk Oblast


Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesty's Dominions by the English writer John Evelyn was first presented in 1662 as a paper to the Royal Society. It was published as a book two years later in 1664, and is recognised as one of the most influential texts on forestry ever published.

Editions

 1662 Sylva paper was presented to the Royal Society on 16 February 1662.
 1664 Sylva First Edition book printed by publisher John Martyn for the Royal Society, and the first book published after the granting of their Royal Charter as publishers in 1662.
 1670 Sylva Second Edition. Various engravings added.
 1679 Sylva Third Edition. Included an essay from Evelyn about soils: Terra, a Philosophical Essay of Earth, being a Lecture in Course.
 1706 Silva Fourth Edition, now spelt Silva, contained new sections Dendrologia, Pomona; Or, An Appendix concerning Fruit-Trees in relation to CIDER and Kalendarium Hortense. This was the last edition during Evelyn's lifetime.

Posthumous editions
 1707 Silva edition.
 1729 Silva edition.

Five editions were edited by Alexander Hunter (1729-1809):
  1776 (illustrations by John Miller)
 1786
 1801
 1812
 1825

Recent reproductions
 A facsimile of the first edition (1664) was produced in 1972 by the publisher Scolar Press.
 The fourth edition (1706) was republished in 1908 by Doubleday & Co. with a foreword by John Nisbet. This 1908 edition was republished in facsimile by Kessinger Publishing (30 Nov 2007).
 A new edition by Gabriel Hemery with illustrations by Sarah Simblet is published by Bloomsbury to coincide with the 350th anniversary in 2014 of the book's first publication. It is titled The New Sylva: a discourse of forest and orchard trees for the twenty-first century. The authors have their own blog following the book's creation: sylva.org.uk

See also

Hans Carl von Carlowitz

References

External links
 Sylva, Fourth Edition (1706, republished 1908), vol. 1, text download from Project Gutenberg
 Sylva, Fourth Edition (1706, republished 1908), vol. 2, text download from Google Books
 Sylva, Fifth Edition (republished 1825), vol. 2, text download from Google Books
 Commons:Category:Royal Society Library, includes several photos of the 1st edition of Sylva.

1664 books
Forestry in the United Kingdom
Forest history
Science books
Environmental history of the United Kingdom


is a caldera lake in Akan National Park, eastern Hokkaidō, Japan. As with many geographic names in Hokkaidō, the name derives from the Ainu language. It is the largest caldera lake in Japan in terms of surface area, and the sixth largest lake in Japan. It is also the largest lake in Japan to freeze over completely in winter. The name Lake Kutcharo is also sometimes used.

The lake's central island, Nakajima (not to be confused with another island of the same name in Lake Tōya), is a stratovolcano. It is also Japan's largest recursive island. Volcanic gases render the lake water acidic, and it supports few fish, except in areas where inflowing streams dilute the water. Rainbow trout, which are resistant to fairly acidic water, have been artificially introduced. In 1951, a rare form of cicada (Hyalessa maculaticollis) was discovered, and is now protected by the government. The lake is also on the migratory path of the whooper swan.

Along the lake shore are several outdoor hot springs and a sand beach, with naturally heated sand and hot groundwater. Wakoto Peninsula, extending into the lake, has a number of active sulfurous vents.

The lake is also known as "Japan's Loch Ness", after numerous reported sightings on a lake monster, dubbed Kusshii by the press from 1973.

See also

Tourism in Japan

References

External links
 Geological Survey of Japan
  |  Kussharo Caldera | Kussharo Nakajima

  Teshikaga Navi - Teshikaga Town

Calderas of Hokkaido
Volcanic crater lakes
Lakes of Hokkaido
Pleistocene calderas
VEI-6 volcanoes


Raidió Rí-Rá (), founded in 2008, is an Irish language chart music radio station broadcasting on the Internet, and, for approximately one month a year, on FM radio. The station has offices on Harcourt Street in Dublin.

History
Raidió Rí-Rá was created to mark Seachtain na Gaeilge in March 2008 under the working title of Raidió X. Following a competition, its name was changed to Raidió Rí-Rá. The station was created as part of a collaboration between Digital Audition Productions and Conradh na Gaeilge to create an Irish language chart music radio station for young people. It broadcasts 24 hours a day with music and the latest pop news in Irish.

During March each year, Raidió Rí-Rá broadcasts on FM in Dublin, Cork, Galway and, prior to 2011, Limerick, to mark Seachtain na Gaeilge.

As of 2014, the station was broadcasting on DAB digital radio in Dublin and Waterford. During March 2011, it also broadcast on DAB as part of the South-East DAB Trial. It also launched a smartphone app.

The station proposed to obtain sufficient funding and a full national license on FM radio from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. In the interim, the station proposed to be available on Saorview, Ireland's Digital terrestrial television service.

See also
List of Irish-language media
List of Celtic-language media
Radio in Ireland

References

External links

Irish language
Irish-language radio stations
2008 establishments in Ireland
Radio stations in Ireland
Radio stations established in 2008
Irish-language mass media


Avraham Michaeli (, born 29 March 1957) is an Israeli politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for Shas between 2006 and 2015.

Biography
Born in Kulashi in the Soviet Union (today in Georgia) as Abraam Mikhelashvili (), Michaeli made aliyah to Israel on 29 June 1971. He studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion, and he attended Bar-Ilan University where he studied law, gaining an LLB in 1984. In 2006 he was placed twelfth on the Shas list for the Knesset elections that year, and became a Knesset member after the party won 12 seats. He retained his seat in the 2009 elections, having been placed eleventh on the Shas list. He was re-elected for a third term in 2013 after again being placed eleventh on the party's list.

He was placed eighth on the Shas list for the 2015 elections, but lost his seat as the party was reduced to seven seats.

Michaeli currently lives in  Or Yehuda.

References

External links

1957 births
Soviet Jews
Israeli lawyers
Living people
Shas politicians
Jews from Georgia (country)
Bar-Ilan University alumni
Yeshivat Har Etzion
Soviet emigrants to Israel
People from Or Yehuda
Israeli people of Georgian-Jewish descent
Members of the 17th Knesset (2006–2009)
Members of the 18th Knesset (2009–2013)
Members of the 19th Knesset (2013–2015)


{{Speciesbox
| image = Viviparus georgianus 02.jpg
| image_caption = A shell of Viviparus georgianus.
| status =
| taxon = Viviparus georgianus
| authority = (I. Lea, 1834)<ref name="Lea 1834">Lea I. (1834). Observations on the genus Unio, together with descriptions of new genera and species. Philadelphia, Printed by J. Kay, jun., & co. [etc.], page 228.</ref>
| synonyms =Paludina georgiana}}Viviparus georgianus, common name the banded mystery snail, is a species of large freshwater snail with gills and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Viviparidae, the river snails.

This snail is native to the southeastern United States. The specific epithet georgianus is a reference to the southern State of Georgia, where the type locality is situated.

 Original description Viviparus georgianus was originally discovered and described (under the name Paludina georgiana) by Isaac Lea in 1834.

Lea's original text (the type description) reads as follows:

Shell description

 Ecology

 Habitat
This snail is found in lakes and slow-moving rivers with mud bottoms. The species thrives in eutrophic lentic environments such as lakes, ponds and some low-flow streams. It is usually absent from larger, faster flowing rivers; however, it is able to survive conditions of high water velocity in the St. Lawrence River, and in the United States it may even be better adapted than the introduced species Bithynia tentaculata to such habitats.

Individuals are generally found in a range of habitats, including: regions with silt and mud substrate; communities dominated by diatoms and filamentous algae (not blue-green algae); shallow waters with sand or gravel substrate; soft and hard water; water with pH between 6.3 and 8.5; freshwater habitats only; river reaches more than meanders.Duch T. M. (1976). "Aspects of the feeding habits of Viviparus georgianus". The Nautilus 90(1): 7-10.Pace, G. L. and E. J. Szuch. 1985. An exceptional stream population of the banded apple snail Viviparus georgianus in Michigan, USA. Nautilus 99(2-3):48-53.  Viviparus georgianus breeds and lives in shallow waters, often amongst macrophytes, in spring to fall, then moves out to deeper areas in the fall in order to overwinter away from shore. In more open waters, fall migration begins earlier than in smaller lakes and ponds. Most growth generally occurs when waters become warmer in spring and summer, although reduced growth continues in winter.

 Life cycle
It is dioecious (it has two distinct sexes), iteroparous (reproducing more than once in a lifetime) and ovoviviparous, laying eggs singly in albumen-filled capsules. Females generally brood eggs for 9–10 months. Fecundity is generally between 4 and 81 young per female, but on average is closer to 11 young/female.Vail. V. A. 1978. Seasonal reproductive patterns in 3 viviparid gastropods. Malacologia 17(1):7-98. Females can brood more than one batch of young at a time, and the number of young in one brood is positively related to the size of the female. Reproductive females are usually larger than 16 mm. Female banded mystery snails live 28–48 and males live 18–36 months.

 Feeding habits Viviparus georgianus is known to be a facultative or even obligate filter-feeding detritivore. Because of this, it can be used as a bioindicator of sediment contamination by oil and fertilizer, because its growth, survival and histology are significantly affected by the ingestion of contaminated sediments.

This species grazes on diatom clusters found on silt and mud substrates, but it may also require the ingestion of some grit, in order to be able to break down algae.

The banded mystery snail often lives at high densities, sometimes up to around 864/m2.

 Parasites
This snail is host to many parasites in its native habitat, including cercaria, metacercaria, ciliated protozoans, annelids, and chironomid larvae.

Distribution

Indigenous distribution

The banded mystery snail is native to North America, generally found from the northeastern United States to Florida and the Gulf of Mexico primarily in south central Florida, Georgia, Alabama and north, mainly in the Mississippi River system, to Illinois and northwestern Indiana. Massachusetts, Indiana and Connecticut are probably some of the states marking the northern limit of this species' native range.Mills, E. L., J. H. Leach, J. T. Carlton and C. L. Secor. 1993. Exotic species in the Great Lakes: a history of biotic crises and anthropogenic introductions. Journal of Great Lakes Research 19(1):1-54.

A recent study found that Viviparus georgianus is in fact not one species, but a species complex in North America. It was determined that Viviparus limi is native to the Ochlockonee River and southwestern Georgia, while Viviparus goodrichi lives in the Florida panhandle and southwestern Georgia, and Viviparus georgianus defined sensu stricto is found in eastern and southern Florida as well as the Altamaha River in Georgia.

Other populations in the Altamaha, Mississippi and St. Lawrence River basins have not been studied yet with respect to their specific genetic make-up, and so they are simply named as being part of the Viviparus georgianus'' species complex.

Nonindigenous distribution
This species has invaded the northern part of the United States: Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, New England, as well as Quebec and Ontario in Canada.

In the Mid-Atlantic Region it is found in the Niagara River, Erie Canal, Hudson River drainage in New York, and possibly Lake Champlain. It is established in the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland.

In the Great Lakes Region: The first record of this introduced species in the Great Lakes basin is from the Hudson River drainage, connected to the Erie Canal and Mohawk River, in 1867. It was later reported from the Lake Michigan watershed by 1906 and Lake Erie by 1914. Other records are from 1931 near Buffalo, Lake Erie and the Niagara River. The New York State Museum has records from the 1950s and 1960s from 11 counties Mackie et al. (1980) list this species as recorded from Lake Huron, but they do not give the date of establishment, or any references.

References
This article incorporates public domain text from references.

External links

Viviparidae
Freshwater molluscs
Freshwater animals of North America
Endemic molluscs of the United States
Gastropods described in 1834
Taxa named by Isaac Lea


This is a list of VHS and DVD releases of the animated children's television series VeggieTales.

Videos

Original videos (1993–2015)

Theatrical films

Compilation videos

Collections

 Lessons From The Sock Drawer (May 6, 2008): Includes various "Veggie Vault" Silly Songs, shorts, and briefs including Binky the Opera Singer, Dr. Jiggle & Mr. Sly, The Story of St. Patrick, Paco and The Singing Aardvark,  Gated Community, Paco and the Chicken, The Englishman Who Went Up The Hill, Larry's High Silk Hat, Larry's Lagoon, Modern Major General, Forgive-O-Matic, Larry's Blues, Going Up, Omelet, and Lunch
 The Bumblyburg Super-Hero Value Pack: Includes Larry-Boy! And the Fib from Outer Space!, Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed, Dave and the Giant Pickle (first Larry-Boy Appearance), and all four episodes of Larryboy: The Cartoon Adventures.
 LarryBoy Superhero Power Pack: Includes Larry-Boy! And the Fib from Outer Space!, Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed, LarryBoy and the Bad Apple, the 16 Feature Songs of LarryBoy: The New Soundtrack! CD and all four episodes of Larryboy: The Cartoon Adventures.
 The Ultimate Christmas Collection: Includes The Toy That Saved Christmas, The Star of Christmas, Saint Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving, the 25 Favorite Christmas Songs! CD, Christmas Sing-Along Songs!, It's a Meaningful Life, and The Little Drummer Boy.
 A Very Veggie Easter Collection: Includes An Easter Carol, Twas The Night Before Easter, and the songs from CD collections "A Very Veggie Easter" and "Hosanna!".
 The Complete Silly Song Collection: Includes Very Silly Songs!, The End of Silliness? and The Ultimate Silly Song Countdown.
 VeggieTales: 30 Episodes DVD Set: Includes Where's God When I'm S-Scared?, God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?!, Are You My Neighbor?, Larry-Boy! And the Fib from Outer Space!, Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed, LarryBoy and the Bad Apple, The Toy That Saved Christmas, The Star of Christmas, Saint Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving, King George and the Ducky, Esther... The Girl Who Became Queen, Duke and the Great Pie War, Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Samson's Hairbrush, Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Noah's Umbrella, Sheerluck Holmes and the Golden Ruler, Rack, Shack and Benny, Dave and the Giant Pickle, Josh and the Big Wall!, The Ballad of Little Joe, Moe and the Big Exit, Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry's Big River Rescue, It's a Meaningful Life, Sweetpea Beauty: A Girl After God's Own Heart, The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's, Sumo of the Opera, Gideon: Tuba Warrior, Abe and the Amazing Promise, Lyle the Kindly Viking, A Snoodle's Tale and Pistachio - The Little Boy That Woodn't.
 All the Shows Volume 1 1993–2000: Includes "Where's God When I'm S-Scared", "God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?!", "Are You My Neighbor?", "Rack, Shack and Benny", "Dave and the Giant Pickle", "The Toy That Saved Christmas", "Larry-Boy! And the Fib from Outer Space!", "Josh and the Big Wall", "Madame Blueberry" and "Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed".
 All the Shows Volume 2 2000–2005: Includes "King George and the Ducky", "Esther: The Girl Who Became Queen", "Lyle the Kindly Viking", "The Star of Christmas", "The Ballad of Little Joe", "An Easter Carol", "A Snoodle's Tale", "Sumo of the Opera", "Duke and the Great Pie War" and "Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Samson's Hairbrush".
 All the Shows Volume 3 2006–2010: Includes "Sheerluck Holmes and the Golden Ruler", "LarryBoy and the Bad Apple", "Gideon: Tuba Warrior", "Moe and the Big Exit", "Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry's Big River Rescue", "Abe and the Amazing Promise", "Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Noah's Umbrella", "Saint Nicholas", "Pistachio" and "Sweetpea Beauty".
 25th Anniversary 10-Movie Collection: Includes Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie, A Snoodle's Tale, Lyle the Kindly Viking, Pistachio - The Little Boy That Woodn't, Sweetpea Beauty, Sumo of the Opera, Sheerluck Holmes and the Golden Ruler, Robin Good and His Not So Merry Men and The Penniless Princess.
 The VeggieTales Christmas Classics: Includes The Toy That Saved Christmas, The Star of Christmas, Saint Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving, Christmas Sing-Along Songs!, It's a Meaningful Life, The Little Drummer Boy and Merry Larry and the True Light of Christmas.
 LarryBoy Ultimate Superhero Collection: Includes Larry-Boy! And the Fib from Outer Space!, Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed, LarryBoy and the Bad Apple, The League of Incredible Vegetables, and all four episodes of Larryboy: The Cartoon Adventures.

Double features

 Holiday Double Feature: Includes The Toy that Saved Christmas and The Star of Christmas.
 Lessons in Telling the Truth and The Power of Words Double Feature: Includes Larry-Boy! And the Fib from Outer Space! and Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed.
 Lessons in Thankfulness and Courage Double Feature: Includes Madame Blueberry and Esther... The Girl Who Became Queen.
 Lessons in Obedience and Selfishness Double Feature: Includes Josh and the Big Wall and King George and the Ducky.
 Halloween Double Feature: Includes Where's God When I'm S-Scared? and Rack, Shack & Benny.
 Heroic Legends Double Feature: Includes The League of Incredible Vegetables and Esther... The Girl Who Became Queen.
 Lessons in Friendship and Facing Hardship Double Feature: Includes Sheerluck Holmes and the Golden Ruler and The Ballad of Little Joe.
 Silly Songs! Double Feature: Includes Very Silly Songs! and The Ultimate Silly Song Countdown.
 Good Friends! Double Feature: Includes Rack, Shack & Benny and Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry's Big River Rescue .
 Growing Generous Kids!: Includes Lyle the Kindly Viking and King George and the Ducky.
 Growing Patient Kids!: Includes Abe and the Amazing Promise and Sumo of the Opera.
 Growing Faithful Kids!: Includes "The Grapes Of Wrath" (from God Wants Me To Forgive Them!?!) and 'Gideon: Tuba Warrior'''.
 Growing Kindhearted Kids!: Includes  Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry's Big River Rescue and Babysitter in De Nile" (from Duke and the Great Pie War)
 Growing Courageous Kids!: Includes The Ballad of Little Joe and "Bully Trouble" (from Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Samson's Hairbrush).
 Growing Confident Kids!: Includes Rack, Shack and Benny and A Snoodle's Tale.
 Movie Time!: Includes Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie &  The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.

 Triple features

 Bob and Larry's Favorite Stories! (March 31, 1998): Includes Where's God When I'm S-Scared?, God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?!, and Are You My Neighbor?.
 More of Bob and Larry's Favorite Stories (August 25, 1998): Includes Rack, Shack and Benny, Dave and the Giant Pickle, and Larry-Boy! And the Fib from Outer Space!.
 Junior's Favorite Stories (November 9, 1999): Includes Josh and the Big Wall!, Very Silly Songs!, and Madame Blueberry.
 Larry's Favorite Stories (May 23, 2000): Includes Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed, The End of Silliness, and King George and the Ducky.
 Classics from the Crisper (September 18, 2001): Includes Esther: The Girl Who Became Queen, Lyle the Kindly Viking, and The Ultimate Silly Song Countdown.
 "Lions, Shepherds and Queens (Oh My!)" Includes "Daniel and the Lions' Den", "Dave and the Giant Pickle" and "Esther... The Girl Who Became Queen".
 "Stand Up, Stand Tall, Stand Strong!" Includes "The Story of Flibber-o-Loo", "Rack, Shack and Benny" and "Josh and the Big Wall!"
 Multi-Feature: Includes Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Samson's Hairbrush, Sumo of the Opera, and Dave and the Giant Pickle.
 Girl Power! A VeggieTriple Feature: Includes Madame Blueberry, Duke and the Great Pie War, and Esther: The Girl Who Became Queen.
 Superhero! A VeggieTriple Feature: Includes Larry-Boy! And the Fib from Outer Space!, Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed, and LarryBoy and the Bad Apple.
 Lessons for a Lifetime! A VeggieTriple Feature: Includes Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie, Lyle the Kindly Viking, and Gideon: Tuba Warrior.
 God Made You Special! (August 11, 2007): Includes "Dave and the Giant Pickle", "The Gourds Must Be Crazy", and "A Snoodle's Tale". Also includes a new short, "Bob's Vacation"
 "A Baby, A Quest and the Wild Wild West!": Includes "The Ballad of Little Joe", "Babysitter in DeNile" and "Mo and the Big Exit".
 God Loves You Very Much! A VeggieTriple Feature: Includes "The Ballad of Little Joe", "Gideon, Tuba Warrior", and "Rack, Shack and Benny".
 "A Silly Little Thing Called Love" A VeggieTale Triple Feature : Includes "The Story of Flibber -o-Loo", "Duke and the Great Pie War", and "Madame Blueberry".
 "Happy Together": Includes "Sherlock Holmes and the Golden Ruler", "The Grapes of Wrath" and "Esther... The Girl Who Became Queen".
 Veggie Classics! A VeggieTriple Feature: Includes Where's God When I'm S-Scared?, God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?!, and Are You My Neighbor?.
 Bible Heroes! A VeggieTriple Feature: Includes Josh and the Big Wall!, Esther... The Girl Who Became Queen, and Moe and the Big Exit.
 Royalty Collection! A Queen, A King and a Very Blue Berry: Includes Madame Blueberry, King George and the Ducky, and Esther: The Girl Who Became Queen.
 Adventure Pack! The Search and Rescue Edition!: Includes Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Samson's Hairbrush, Sheerluck Holmes and the Golden Ruler, and Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry's Big River Rescue.
 Good Guys! Triple Feature: Includes Dave and the Giant Pickle, Josh and the Big Wall!, and Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry's Big River Rescue.

 Quadruple features

 Funtastic Four!: Includes Robin Good, Big River Rescue, Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Noah's Umbrella, and Sheerluck Holmes.
 Bible Story Collection: Includes King George and the Ducky, Dave and the Giant Pickle, Rack, Shack and Benny and Josh and the Big Wall! Princess Story Collection: Includes Sweetpea Beauty, Esther... The Girl Who Became Queen, The Penniless Princess, and Princess and the Popstar.
 Bible Heroes - 4 Movie Collection: Includes Noah's Ark, Gideon: Tuba Warrior, Josh and the Big Wall! and King George and the Ducky.
 Bible Heroes - 4 Movie Collection 2: Includes Moe and the Big Exit, The Ballad of Little Joe, Esther... The Girl Who Became Queen and Dave and the Giant Pickle.
 Superhero! - 4 Movie Collection: Includes Larry-Boy! And the Fib from Outer Space!, Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed, LarryBoy and the Bad Apple and The League of Incredible Vegetables''.

References

VeggieTales
VeggieTales


Unsubscribe may refer to:

 Unsubscribing from a mailing list, where an individual or an organization sends material to multiple recipients
 Unsubscribing from a subscription business model, where a customer must pay a subscription price to have access to a product or service
 Unsubscribe (film), a 2020 short film


Angelo Grizzetti (14 May 1916 – 20 December 1998) was an Italian-born French footballer and coach.

He played for Sochaux, RC Paris, Angoulême and CA Paris.

After his playing career, he became a coach with Monaco, Red Star, CA Paris, Angoulême and Racing Paris-Neuilly.

External links and references

1916 births
1998 deaths
French men's footballers
Italian emigrants to France
FC Sochaux-Montbéliard players
Racing Club de France Football players
Angoulême Charente FC players
Ligue 1 players
Ligue 2 players
French football managers
AS Monaco FC managers
Red Star F.C. managers
Angoulême Charente FC managers
US Boulogne managers
CA Paris-Charenton managers
Men's association football midfielders


Amnon Cohen (; born 1 June 1960) is an Israeli former politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for Shas from 1999 until 2015.

Biography
Born in Samarkand in the Soviet Union (today in Uzbekistan), Cohen made aliyah to Israel in 1973. He gained a BA in business administration at the Center for Academic Studies in Kiryat Ono and took a two-year course at the Institute for Local Government in Bar-Ilan University.

Cohen served as deputy mayor and acting mayor of Ramla, and chaired the city's Organisation for Prisoner Rehabilitation. He has also been a member of the city union on Secondary Education, the Ayalon Sewage Programme, the Ayalon Fire Department and the board of Amal College.

He was first elected to the Knesset on Shas' list in 1999 and chaired the Public Petitions committee. He retained his seat in the 2003 elections, after which he chaired the State Control and Economic Affairs committees. He was re-elected again in 2006, and served as a Deputy Speaker of the Knesset. In 2006 he won the Quality of Government Badge for legislators. He retained his seat in the 2009 elections after being placed fourth on the Shas list. He was re-elected again in 2013.

Prior to the 2015 elections Cohen announced that he would not contest the elections, and would leave the Knesset. In 2016 he was investigated for allegations of corruption, following an investigative report on Israel Channel 2. The case was closed in June 2021 due to difficulties in collecting evidence.

References

External links

1960 births
Living people
Deputy mayors of places in Israel
Deputy Speakers of the Knesset
Israeli people of Uzbekistani-Jewish descent
Jewish Israeli politicians
Mayors of places in Israel
People from Ramla
Members of the 15th Knesset (1999–2003)
Members of the 16th Knesset (2003–2006)
Members of the 17th Knesset (2006–2009)
Members of the 18th Knesset (2009–2013)
Members of the 19th Knesset (2013–2015)
People from Samarkand
Shas politicians
Soviet emigrants to Israel
Soviet Jews
Uzbekistani emigrants to Israel
Uzbekistani Jews
Ono Academic College alumni
Israeli Mizrahi Jews


NERO International is a live action role-playing game (LARP) played in the United States. The NERO name originally was an acronym for "New England Role playing Organization", but the game has expanded well beyond its original New England roots and thus simply adopted the acronym as part of the official name.

NERO is a lightest touch "boffer" style LARP that uses simulated combat with padded weapons. At a NERO event, players gather at a group campsite (often a State or National Park) on weekends reserved by the local chapter.  A group of staff members write the plot and story for the event, while a cast of volunteer NPCs play the roles of monsters and townspeople.  The heroes of the event (or Player characters called PCs), play participate in the event.

Over the course of an event, characters earn treasure in the form of fake gold and silver coins, magical components, or enchanted items through battle with fantasy monsters and by solving puzzles or other challenges. Characters also earn experience points for surviving the weekend which they can use to buy more skills and become more powerful.

History
While running his store in 1986, Ford Ivey became interested in the new hobby of Live-Action Role-Playing (LARPing).
Ivey heard of a role-playing game in New Hampshire called Midrealms Adventures that was played outdoors, where participants dressed up like their player characters. However, when he participated in it, he was disappointed. In a 2001 interview, he said, "It was not a lot like what I imagined. It was a module-based game — a few hours and it was over, and a marshal had to be with you all the time."

Ivey decided to try out some new ideas. At the time he was running a role-playing game for a Boy Scouts Explorer group, and had access to a Boy Scout camp at Nobscot Hill. With several friends, Ivey planned out what such a new type of outdoor role-playing adventure would involve. Ivey scripted the game, bought some costumes for the non-player characters, and ran the event that he called Weekend Warriors for six players. This event was, in Ivey's words, "pretty bad", but he persevered, and offered the event several more times. After one of these events, he was approached by several participants — Craig and Debbie Walton, Mike Ventrella, Heidi Hooper, and Bob King — who suggested some changes to the format, including a storyline that would be driven by the non-player characters rather than a marshal, leaving the players free to explore the plot-lines of the event themselves. In March 1988 they began to work on the idea that instead of each event being a separate game with separate characters and a single linear plot-line, there would be a single game world, players would have persistent characters, and the campaign would have multiple overlapping and long-term plotlines.

That summer, with a much-improved product, the group presented a 24-hour LARP called Shandlin's Ferry. Its success led Ivey and the other organizers to create an on-going LARP campaign called the New England Role-playing Organization (NERO), based on the same principles of play that had been used in Shandlin's Ferry. The world they created was called Tyrra — roughly analogous to Earth — and the campaign events happened on the continent of Avalon. In a 2012 interview, Ivey outlined how NERO had developed the idea of LARPing, saying, "Live role-playing started in England, where there are a lot of medieval reenactment societies, but what we do is a fantasy game." The first NERO event was held in August 1989, and attracted 150 participants. By 1991, attendance at regularly scheduled summer weekend events was up to 300–500 participants. Ivey sold his store to NERO, which became their central headquarters.

In 1991, one of the NERO organizers, Mike Ventrella, wrote an article about NERO that appeared in the September 1991 issue of Dragon. Suddenly, paid memberships increased to 5,000, and NERO eventually expanding to chapters in New Jersey and Atlanta. NERO closed the store's sales space in order to use the entire building for event planning. The largest NERO event location became the "Duchy of Ravenholt", where Ivey would oversee feasts and celebrations in the role of Duke Basil Ravenhurst.

On September 1, 1991, the Nero games were formally incorporated under Legends Unlimited, Inc, under the ownership of Ford Ivey and Michael Ventrella.  Under Legends Unlimited, Nero expanded to over 9 National Chapters running games under the Nero rules.  Legends Unlimited, Inc was active until August 31, 1998.

In 1998, Joseph Valenti purchased NERO from Ivey and began selling franchise licenses to people who wished to open and operate a local chapter in their area. After taking a break from gaming for a few years for health reasons, Ford Ivey would return to designing LARPs.

Over the years, a number of chapters or groups of chapters have broken away from NERO to form their own, separate organizations. Among these are LAIRE, Alliance LARP, and Heroic Interactive Theater.

The Tyrran Campaign Setting
The setting of NERO is the world of Tyrra, a medieval fantasy world.  The normal NERO campaign is set on the continent of Avalon.  The world map of Tyrra very roughly resembles Earth, with Avalon being in the position of North America.  Other continents generally only appear as elements of rumor and lore, or as the source of travelers (or enemies) from afar.

See also
 List of live action role-playing groups
 Monster Camp

References

Live-action role-playing games
Role-playing game associations


was originally created by Leiji Matsumoto as an educational-like video aimed more at children. It used information about Earth and outer space which lead many to believe it as an educational video. It was first shown only as a film in the Expo '85 as part of the World Fair.  It was also Leiji Matsumoto's first work with computer graphics in it. The same year it was published a single-volume comic adaptation cured by Sekai Bunkasha.

Plot

The story follows Daichi Meguru and Mayu, a young boy and a pilot, as they flee their war torn planet and into space. Upon their ship a stowaway android named Zero joins their quest as they travel through Halley's Mirror.

Theme Songs

"We Will Be One Someday" by Satoko Shimonari
Lyrics: Kayoko Fuyumori
Composed: Yuri Nishimura

"Aoi Mizuumi" by Satoko Shimonari
Lyrics: Kayoko Fuyumori
Composed: Yuri Nishimura

Cast

Daichi Meguru Keiko Toda
Mayu Yōko Asagami
Zero Hideyuki Tanaka
Linne Hiromi Tsuru
Universal Consciousness Reiko Mutô

Media

The movie was only shown once and was then released on VHS. Very few media or products were released, except for a few at the Expo. There has been no DVD or Blu-ray release.

A soundtrack was released as a vinyl record.

Notes

References

External links

 Arei no Kagami: Way to the Virgin Space on Leijiverse.com

1985 manga
Leiji Matsumoto
Toei Animation films
1985 films


Louis-Marie Turreau (; 4 July 1756, Évreux, Eure – 10 December 1816, Conches), also known as Turreau de Garambouville or Turreau de Linières, was a French general officer of the French Revolutionary Wars. He was most notable as the organiser of the colonnes infernales during the war in the Vendée, which massacred tens of thousands of Vendéens and ravaged the countryside. He attained army command, but without notable military accomplishments. Under the First French Empire, he pursued a career as a high functionary, becoming ambassador to the United States then a Baron of the Empire.

Life

Early life
Louis-Marie Turreau's father was fiscal procurator for waters and forests to the comté d'Évreux, before becoming mayor of Évreux. This situation imparted certain privileges to the Turreau family, even though they were not nobles. Turreau was nevertheless a fervent revolutionary from 1789, profiting like many others, especially the bourgeois of that era. Elected mayor of Aviron, he bought several clerical estates (such as that of the .

Career to 1794
Before the Revolution, he had not had any real military activity, having entered the guards corps of the comte d’Artois but only been inscribed for supernumerary roles (he was only a reservist).  On the Revolution, he entered the National Guard of Conches, and took over as its leader in July 1792. In September he was elected captain of a company of volunteers from Eure and set out to fight on the northern frontiers. Made a colonel in November, he was integrated into the Army of the Moselle.

In June 1793, Turreau was brought into the Army of the coasts of La Rochelle, remaining so until 8 October though the post did not please him. He wrote to a friend, "I would move heaven and earth not to go to Poitou. This kind of war displeases me." Even so, he fought for two months in the Vendée. He served as head of the Army of the Eastern Pyrenees from 12 October until 27 November 1793. During that period, he was defeated by Spanish General Antonio Ricardos at the Battle of the Tech (Pla-del-Rey) on 13–15 October. In January 1794, he denounced fellow general Eustache Charles d'Aoust to the Committee of Public Safety, leading to d'Aoust's execution in July. He became commander in chief of the Armée de l'Ouest from 29 December, but he again regarded this post with little enthusiasm. Before he arrived at his post, the last elements of the Armée catholique et royale were erased by Jean-Baptiste Kléber and François Séverin Marceau at the Battle of Savenay on 23 December.

The colonnes infernales

Later career

On 20 May Turreau was named governor of Belle-Île, then arrested on 28 September 1794. He spent a year in prison, which he used to edit his Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de la Vendée. He refused the amnesty of 4 Brumaire year IV which closed the works of the National Convention, aiming to be unequivocally rehabilitated. On 19 December 1795 he was acquitted by a military tribunal which judged he had only been obeying orders. Under the French Consulate he was sent as an envoy to Switzerland. In May and June 1800, he commanded a division in a diversionary attack on Turin from the west but missed the Battle of Marengo. From 1803 to 1811 he was French ambassador to the United States of America, then commander of several military strongholds.

In 1814, he submitted to Louis XVIII and during the Hundred Days published a Mémoire contre le retour éphémère des hommes à privilèges. On the Bourbon Restoration he was not prosecuted, either for libel or for the colonnes infernales. He was on the list of those awarded the cross of Saint-Louis, but died before being able to attend an official ceremony of the order to receive it.

Distinctions
 Baron de Linières (1812)
 Chevalier de Saint-Louis (1814)
 His name is engraved on the 15th column of the Arc de Triomphe colonne (the Arch shows TURREAU).

Footnotes

Sources

Books
 Arnold, James R. Marengo & Hohenlinden. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK: Pen & Sword, 2005.

External links
 Louis Turreau Sa Defaite au Pla-del-Rey Un Secret Defense by Bernard Prats in French
 Banyuls-sur-Mer, l'Heritage du 25 Frimaire An II des Somatents by Bernard Prats in French

1756 births
1816 deaths
People from Évreux
French generals
French military personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars
French war crimes
Ambassadors of France to the United States
Barons of France
Republican military leaders of the War in the Vendée
French Republican military leaders of the French Revolutionary Wars
Knights of the Order of Saint Louis
Names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe


USS Herald was a full-rigged ship of about 270 tons burthen built in 1797 at Newburyport, Massachusetts. The US Navy purchased her on 15 June 1798, and sold her in 1801. She became the French 20-gun privateer corvette Africaine. In 1804 a British privateer seized her on 4 May 1804 off the coast, near Charleston, South Carolina. The seizure gave rise to a case in the U.S. courts that defined the limits of U.S. territorial waters. The U.S. courts ruled that the privateer had seized Africaine outside U.S. jurisdiction. Africaine then became a Liverpool-based slave ship that made two voyages carrying slaves from West Africa to the West Indies. After the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 she became a West Indiaman that two French privateers captured in late 1807 or early 1808.

Merchantman
Herald was registered at Newburyport on 12 October 1797 with Edward Davis, owner and master.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on 8 May 1798 that on 3 May the excellent and fast sailing ship Herald of Boston, armed with 14 guns, Edward Davis, commander, had arrived Boston as a part of a large convoy in 45 days from London with freight and five passengers. Captain Davis, on coming into the harbour fired a salute of 14 guns. Her voyage had been eventful. She had joined a convoy in  Portsmouth for Boston on 18 March sailing under the protection of  (54 guns), and a sloop of war. On the 19th Herald ran foul of Eliza and carried away her bowsprit, which obliged Herald to put into Falmouth.

The fleet proceeded to Cork and picked up , which was waiting with other ships from Liverpool, Bristol, and Ireland. This first convoy of two, the second was scheduled for later in May, consisted of forty ships all armed except for two, Montezuma and Carlisle. The commodore of the convoy, Captain Pender on St Albans, intended going the southern passage, and to drop the ships along the coast. On the 28th, in longitude 15, in a fog, Herald lost the convoy; and on 30 March, was chased by a frigate, which brought her to, after running 15 hours to the eastward. The frigate proved to be , Captain Pellew, who treated her politely, and informed Pender that Cleopatra had retaken William Penn, from Philadelphia, and also, a French privateer of 16 guns and 130 men.

The next day, the 31st, Herald was again chased by a privateer brig that came near, but on seeing Heralds guns sheered off.

US Navy
The Navy purchased Herald from Edward Davis on 15 June 1798.

Herald was made ready for sea in Boston as a sloop of war (20 guns), under the command of Captain Severs, and lay there for a period along with the brig  (14 guns), Captain Chapman. The two ships sailed from Boston and then from Newport R.I. on 22 August 1798 onto Halifax as convoy for the brig Commerce, and while there exchanged gun salutes on paying a diplomatic visit to Fort George on Citadel Hill. She cruised in the West Indies during the Quasi-War with France from 1799 to 1800. On 21 January 1800,  and Herald, Captain Charles C. Russel,  encountered and captured the 6-gun privateer schooner La Mutine off Puerto Rico.

In August 1800 Herald, , and  were cruising near Aux Cayes. Both Augusta and Trumbull captured some French vessels, though there is no record that Herald had any such success.

After the treaty of peace with France had been ratified on 18 February 1801, Herald returned to the West Indies on 23 March to recall the US Naval Forces under the command of Silas Talbot.

On 18 April 1801 Herald rescued the crew of the wrecked Dutch ship Cunningham, of Belfast.

The U.S. Navy sold Herald at Boston in 1801 and new owners renamed her Africaine.

French privateer
Captain Burnam of the schooner Betsey reported that on 24 April 1804 as Betsey was sailing from Charleston to Philadelphia she had encountered a French ship named Africaine, Captain Duaberqueny, from Brest. Africaine fired a couple of shot at Betsey and ordered Burnam to come aboard Africaine. After some detention Duaberqueny politely permitted Burnam to proceed.  Burnam further reported that when Africaine spoke him she was then bearing away for Charleston having lost her mizen-mast and thrown her guns overboard in a gale of wind.

The Maryland Gazette carried a report from Charleston, South Carolina dated 3 May 1804, that the French corvette Africa, (late the Herald sloop of war) had sailed from Havana for Charleston 23 days earlier, with 350 French troops as passengers. A gale on 22 April before Africas arrival at Charleston had cost her her mizen mast. She also had had to throw overboard 12 or 14 guns. Sixteen of the passengers were lost at the same time. When Africa arrived off Charleston she took a pilot on board on Thursday evening, and anchored a short distance from Charleston Bar.

The next morning, 4 May 1804, the brig Garland, from Nassau arrived and fired two guns. The corvette struck her colours as she had only four guns mounted. Garland, a British privateer brig, William Pinder (or Pender, or Pendar), master, of Nassau and New Providence, had earlier cleared from Charleston on 9 April. She seized Africaine on 4 May 1804 at Charleston, South Carolina. Africaine had on board 358 French troops that had escaped from St. Domingo and that she had embarked at Havana to carry back to France. The capture took place about 12 leagues from the Charleston Bar. Before Garland captured Africaine, Africaine had captured two British merchant vessels, , of Glasgow, and the brig Chance, of Jamaica. Enterprize, which had sailed from Nassau in company with Garland, hove in sight soon after Africaine had struck (they had left Nassau some six days earlier). Enterprize assisted in removing the prisoners: 500 French troops embarked at Charleston on 10 May on board the American ship Chesapeake, Lee, for Bordeaux.

Court case
In SOULT V. L'AFRICAINE, the commercial agent of the French Republic at Charleston protested Garlands seizure of Africaine, arguing that the seizure had occurred on the Charleston bar and hence had occurred in the territorial waters of a neutral state. In early June the Court found in favour of Garlands owners. The Court defined the U.S. territorial waters as  from the low tide of the shore, not including shoals that are always underwater. In this instance the measurement taken was from the nearest land Sullivan's Island five or six miles away to Rattlesnake breaker one or two miles from the shoals where Africaine had been taken. Consequently, the seizure had taken place outside of U.S. territorial waters and was valid.

Garland, Enterprize,  and their prize L'Africaine, arrived at Nassau on 1 July 1804.

British slave ship and merchantman
Africaine was registered in Liverpool in 1805 and first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) in 1805 as African. LR described her as having been built in America in 1797 and being of 267 tons (bm).

1st slave voyage (1805–1806): Captain Christopher Brew sailed from Liverpool on 24 May 1805. Africaine acquired her slaves at Onim (current day Lagos), and sailed from Africa on 15 October. She arrived at Barbados on 29 December with 216 slaves. She sailed from Barbados on 8 February 1806, and arrived back at Liverpool on 15 April. At some point Captain John French had replaced Brew. Africaine had left Liverpool with 33 crew members and she suffered three crew deaths on the voyage.

2nd slave voyage (1806–1807): Captain Richard Vaughn sailed from Liverpool on 24 July 1806. Africaine arrived at Cape Coast Castle and started acquiring slaves on 19 September. She then gathered further slaves at Accra. She sailed from Africa on 14 December and arrived at Kingston, Jamaica on 25 February 1807 with 250 slaves. She left Kingston on 7 May and arrived back at Liverpool on 18 July.

The 1807 Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade ended British participation in the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. Her owners sold Africaine and new owners started sailing her as a West Indiaman. She also underwent repairs in 1807.

Fate
Lloyd's List of 29 January 1808 reported that two French privateers had captured Africaine, after an action of two hours, and taken her into Cuba. Africaine had been sailing from London to Port-au-Prince.

LR for 1809 carried the annotation "capt" by her name. LR for 1810 no longer listed her.

Notes

Citations

References

1797 ships
Ships of the United States Navy
Privateer ships of France
Age of Sail merchant ships of England
Liverpool slave ships
Captured ships


The Decameron (;   or Decamerone ), subtitled Prince Galehaut (Old  ) and sometimes nicknamed l'Umana commedia ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Dante Alighieri's Comedy "Divine"), is a collection of short stories by the 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375). The book is structured as a frame story containing 100 tales told by a group of seven young women and three young men; they shelter in a secluded villa just outside Florence in order to escape the Black Death, which was afflicting the city. Boccaccio probably conceived of the Decameron after the epidemic of 1348, and completed it by 1353. The various tales of love in The Decameron range from the erotic to the tragic. Tales of wit, practical jokes, and life lessons contribute to the mosaic. In addition to its literary value and widespread influence (for example on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales), it provides a document of life at the time. Written in the vernacular of the Florentine language, it is considered a masterpiece of classical early Italian prose.

Title
The book's primary title exemplifies Boccaccio's fondness for Greek philology: Decameron combines Greek , déka ("ten") and , hēméra ("day") to mean "ten-day [event]", referring to the period in which the characters of the frame story tell their tales.

Boccaccio's subtitle, Prencipe Galeotto, refers to Galehaut, a fictional king portrayed in the 13th-century Lancelot-Grail who was sometimes called by the title haut prince "high prince". Galehaut was a close friend of Lancelot, but an enemy of King Arthur. When Galehaut learned that Lancelot loved Arthur's wife, Guinevere, he set aside his own ardor for Lancelot in order to arrange a meeting between his friend and Guinevere. At this meeting the Queen first kisses Lancelot, and so begins their love affair.

In Canto V of Inferno, Dante compares these fictional lovers with the real-life paramours Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta, whose relationship he fictionalises. In Inferno, Francesca and Paolo read of Lancelot and Guinevere, and the story impassions them to lovemaking.

Dante's description of Galehaut's munificence and savoir-faire amidst this intrigue impressed Boccaccio. By invoking the name Prencipe Galeotto in the alternative title to Decameron, Boccaccio alludes to a sentiment he expresses in the text: his compassion for women deprived of free speech and social liberty, confined to their homes and, at times, lovesick. He contrasts this life with that of the men free to enjoy hunting, fishing, riding, and falconry.

Frame story

In Italy during the time of the Black Death, a group of seven young women and three young men flee from plague-ridden Florence to a deserted villa in the countryside of Fiesole for two weeks. To pass the evenings, each member of the party tells a story each night, except for one day per week for chores, and the holy days during which they do no work at all, resulting in ten nights of storytelling over the course of two weeks. Thus, by the end of the fortnight they have told 100 stories.

Each of the ten characters is charged as King or Queen of the company for one of the ten days in turn. This charge extends to choosing the theme of the stories for that day, and all but two days have topics assigned: examples of the power of fortune; examples of the power of human will; love tales that end tragically; love tales that end happily; clever replies that save the speaker; tricks that women play on men; tricks that people play on each other in general; examples of virtue. Due to his wit, Dioneo, who usually tells the tenth tale each day, is allowed to select any topic he wishes. Many commentators have argued that Dioneo expresses the views of Boccaccio himself. Each day also includes a short introduction and conclusion to continue the frame of the tales by describing other daily activities besides story-telling. These framing interludes frequently include transcriptions of Italian folk songs. The interactions among tales in a day, or across days, as Boccaccio spins variations and reversals of previous material, forms a whole and not just a collection of stories. Recurring plots of the stories include mocking the lust and greed of the clergy; female lust and ambition on a par with male lust and ambition; tensions in Italian society between the new wealthy commercial class and noble families; and the perils and adventures of traveling merchants.

Analysis

Throughout the Decameron the mercantile ethic prevails and predominates. The commercial and urban values of quick wit, sophistication, and intelligence are treasured, while the vices of stupidity, dullness and narrow-mindedness are either remedied, or punished. While these traits and values may seem obvious to the modern reader, they were an emerging feature in Europe with the rise of urban centers and a monetized economic system beyond the traditional rural feudal and monastery systems which placed greater value on piety and loyalty.

Beyond the unity provided by the frame narrative, the Decameron provides a unity in philosophical outlook. Throughout runs the common medieval theme of Lady Fortune, and how quickly one can rise and fall through the external influences of the "Wheel of Fortune". Boccaccio had been educated in the tradition of Dante's Divine Comedy, which used various levels of allegory to show the connections between the literal events of the story and the Christian message. However, the Decameron uses Dante's model not to educate the reader but to satirize this method of learning. The Catholic Church, priests, and religious belief become the satirical source of comedy throughout. This was part of a wider historical trend in the aftermath of the Black Death which saw widespread discontent with the church.

Many details of the Decameron are infused with a medieval sense of numerological and mystical significance. For example, it is widely believed that the seven young women are meant to represent the Four Cardinal Virtues (Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude) and the Three Theological Virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity). It is further supposed that the three men represent the classical Greek tripartite division of the soul (Reason, Spirit, and Appetite, see Book IV of Republic). Boccaccio himself notes that the names he gives for these ten characters are in fact pseudonyms chosen as "appropriate to the qualities of each". The Italian names of the seven women, in the same (most likely significant) order as given in the text, are Pampinea, Fiammetta, Filomena, Emilia, Lauretta, Neifile, and Elissa. The men, in order, are Panfilo, Filostrato, and Dioneo.

Boccaccio focused on the naturalness of sex by combining and interlacing sexual experiences with nature.

Literary sources

Boccaccio borrowed the plots of almost all his stories (just as later writers borrowed from him). Although he consulted only French, Italian and Latin sources, some of the tales have their origin in such far-off lands as India, the Middle East, Spain, and other places. Some were already centuries old. For example, part of the tale of Andreuccio of Perugia (Day II, Story 5) originated in 2nd-century Ephesus (in the Ephesian Tale). Even the description of the central motivating event of the narrative, the Black Plague (which Boccaccio surely witnessed), is not original, but is based on a description in the Historia gentis Langobardorum of Paul the Deacon, who lived in the 8th century. Boccaccio also drew on Ovid's works as inspiration. He has been called "the Italian Ovid," both because of his writing as well as his relationship to Ovid.

Some scholars have suggested that some of the tales for which no prior source has been found may still not have been invented by Boccaccio, but may have been circulating in the local oral tradition. Boccaccio himself says that he heard some of the tales orally. In VII, 1, for example, he claims to have heard the tale from an old woman who heard it as a child.

The fact that Boccaccio borrowed the story lines that make up most of the Decameron does not mean he mechanically reproduced them. Most of the stories take place in the 14th century and have been sufficiently updated to the author's time that a reader may not know that they had been written centuries earlier or in a foreign culture. Also, Boccaccio often combined two or more unrelated tales into one (such as in II, 2 and VII, 7).

Moreover, many of the characters actually existed, such as Giotto di Bondone, Guido Cavalcanti, Saladin, and King William II of Sicily. Scholars have even been able to verify the existence of less famous characters, such as the tricksters Bruno and Buffalmacco and their victim Calandrino. Still other fictional characters are based on real people, such as the Madonna Fiordaliso from tale II, 5, who is derived from a Madonna Flora who lived in the red light district of Naples. Boccaccio often intentionally muddled historical (II, 3) and geographical (V, 2) facts for his narrative purposes. Within the tales of the Decameron, the principal characters are usually developed through their dialogue and actions, so that by the end of the story they seem real and their actions logical given their context.

Another of Boccaccio's frequent techniques was to make already existing tales more complex. A clear example of this is in tale IX, 6, which was also used by Chaucer in his "The Reeve's Tale", which more closely follows the original French source than does Boccaccio's version. In the Italian version, the host's wife and the two young male visitors occupy all three beds and she also creates an explanation of the happenings of the evening. Both elements are Boccaccio's invention and make for a more complex version than either Chaucer's version or the French source (a fabliau by Jean de Boves).

Papal censorship
Despite its enduring popularity, the Decameron's overtly anti-clerical stances frequently brought the work into conflict with the Catholic church. The first instance occurred when the Dominican Friar Girolamo Savonarola incited a bonfire of 'sinful' art and literature in the centre of Florence known later as the "Bonfire of the Vanities". The Decameron was among the works known to have been burned that day.

More official clerical challenges would follow upon the creation of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Instituted by Pope Paul IV in 1559, the Index was a list of texts that were officially anathema to the Catholic Church; Boccaccio's Decameron was among the original texts included. Despite this, the book continued to circulate and grow in popularity, prompting Gregory XIII to commission a revised edition in 1573 in which the clergymen were replaced with secular people. Even this would prove to be too immoral for Sixtus V who commissioned another revision during his time as Cardinal resulting in the 1582  edition by Salviati.

Translations into English
The Decamerons individual tales were translated into English early on (such as poet William Walter's 1525 Here begynneth y[e] hystory of Tytus & Gesyppus translated out of Latyn into Englysshe by Wyllyam Walter, somtyme seruaunte to Syr Henry Marney, a translation of tale X.viii), or served as source material for English authors such as Chaucer to rework. The table below lists all attempts at a complete English translation of the book. The information on pre-1971 translations is compiled from the G. H. McWilliam's introduction to his own 1971 translation.

Incomplete

Complete

Notable early translations
It can be generally said that Petrarch's version in Rerum senilium libri XVII, 3, included in a letter he wrote to his friend Boccaccio, was to serve as a source for all the many versions that circulated around Europe, including the translations of the very Decameron into Catalan (first recorded translation into a foreign language, anonymously hand-written in Sant Cugat in 1429; later retranslated by Bernat Metge), French and Spanish.

The famous first tale (I, 1) of the notorious Ser Ciappelletto was later translated into Latin by Olimpia Fulvia Morata and translated again by Voltaire.

Adaptations

Theatre
 William Shakespeare's 1605 play All's Well That Ends Well is based on tale III, 9. Shakespeare probably first read a French translation of the tale in William Painter's Palace of Pleasure.
 Posthumus's wager on Imogen's chastity in Cymbeline was taken by Shakespeare from an English translation of a 15th-century German tale, "Frederyke of Jennen", whose basic plot came from tale II, 9.
 Lope de Vega adapted at least twelve stories from the Decameron for the theatre, including:
 El ejemplo de casadas y prueba de la paciencia, based on tale X, 10, which was by far the most popular story of the Decameron during the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries
 Discreta enamorada, based on tale III, 3
 El ruiseñor de Sevilla (They're Not All Nightingales), based on parts of V, 4
 Molière's 1661 play L'école des maris is based on tale III, 3.
 Molière borrowed from tale VII, 4 in his play George Dandin ou le Mari confondu (The Confounded Husband). In both stories the husband is convinced that he has accidentally caused his wife's suicide.
 Thomas Middleton's play The Widow is based on tales II, 2 and III, 3.
 The ring parable from tale I, 3 is at the heart of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's 1779 play Nathan the Wise.
 Alfred, Lord Tennyson used tale V, 9 for his 1879 play The Falcon.

Prose works
 Martin Luther retells tale I, 2, in which a Jew converts to Catholicism after visiting Rome and seeing the corruption of the Catholic hierarchy. However, in Luther's version (found in his "Table-talk #1899"), Luther and Philipp Melanchthon try to dissuade the Jew from visiting Rome.
 The story of Griselda (X, 10) was also the basis for the 1694 verse novel   by Charles Perrault, later included in his 1697 collection Histoires ou contes du temps passé.
 Jonathan Swift used tale I, 3 for his first major published work, A Tale of a Tub (1704).

Poetry
 The tale of patient Griselda (X, 10) was the source of Chaucer's "The Clerk's Tale". However, there are some scholars who believe that Chaucer may not have been directly familiar with the Decameron, and instead derived it from a Latin translation/retelling of that tale by Petrarch.
 John Keats borrowed the tale of Lisabetta and her pot of basil (IV, 5) for his poem, Isabella, or the Pot of Basil.
 At his death Percy Bysshe Shelley had left a fragment of a poem entitled "Ginevra", which he took from the first volume of an Italian book called L'Osservatore Fiorentino. The plot of that book was in turn taken from tale X, 4.
 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow adapted tale V, 9 for the poem "The Falcon of Ser Federigo", included in his 1863 collection Tales of a Wayside Inn.

Songs
 Tale IV, 1 was the basis for Child ballad 269, "Lady Diamond".

Opera
 The Venetian writer Apostolo Zeno wrote a libretto named Griselda in 1701, based in part on tale X, 10, and in part on Lope de Vega's theatrical adaptation of it, El ejemplo de casadas y prueba de la paciencia. Various composers wrote music for the libretto, including Carlo Francesco Pollarolo (Griselda, 1701), Tomaso Albinoni (Griselda, 1703), Antonio Maria Bononcini (Griselda, 1718), Alessandro Scarlatti (Griselda, 1721), Giovanni Bononcini (Griselda, 1722) and Antonio Vivaldi (Griselda, 1735).
 Giuseppe Petrosinelli in his libretto for Domenico Cimarosa's comic opera The Italian Girl in London uses the story of the heliotrope (bloodstone) in tale VIII, 3.

Film and television
 Decameron Nights (1924) was based on three of the tales.
 Decameron Nights (1953) was based on three of the tales and starred Louis Jourdan as Boccaccio.
 Archandel Gabriel a paní Husa (Archangel Gabriel and Madam Goose) by Jiří Trnka (1965) is an animated puppet film based on a story from Decameron (IV, 2)
 Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Decameron (1971) is an anthology film which includes nine of the stories.
 The 2007 film Virgin Territory is a romantic comedy based on the framing story of the Decameron.
 The 2015 film Wondrous Boccaccio is loosely based on four of the tales.
 The 2017 comedy The Little Hours adapted tales III, 1 and III, 2.

Wrongly considered to be adaptations
 Chaucer's "The Franklin's Tale" shares its plot with tale X, 5, although this is not due to a direct borrowing from Boccaccio. Rather, both authors used a common French source.
 The motif of the three trunks in The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare is found in tale X, 1. However, both Shakespeare and Boccaccio probably came upon the tale in Gesta Romanorum.

Collections emulating the Decameron
 Marguerite de Navarre's Heptaméron is heavily based on the Decameron.
 Christoph Martin Wieland's set of six novellas, Das Hexameron von Rosenhain, is based on the structure of the Decameron.
 In 2020 State Theatre Company of South Australia and ActNow Theatre created a project called Decameron 2.0 in response to the COVID-19 crisis, which involved 10 writers creating 10 stories each over 10 weeks, loosely connected to themes in the Decameron.
 Also in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the July 12, 2020 issue of The New York Times Magazine featured a short story collection entitled The Decameron Project, with new writings from contemporary authors including Margaret Atwood, and illustrations by Sophy Hollington and other artists.
Published in 2021, The San Diego Decameron Project Anthology features 100 stories from 100 San Diegan authors based loosely around the theme of the COVID-19 pandemic, in tribute to the Decameron. The collection is presented by Write Out Loud, San Diego Public Library, La Jolla Historical Society, and San Diego Writers Ink.

Boccaccio's drawings

Since the Decameron was very popular among contemporaries, especially merchants, many manuscripts of it survive. The Italian philologist Vittore Branca did a comprehensive survey of them and identified a few copied under Boccaccio's supervision; some have notes written in Boccaccio's hand. Two in particular have elaborate drawings, probably done by Boccaccio himself. Since these manuscripts were widely circulated, Branca thought that they influenced all subsequent illustrations. In 1962 Branca identified Codex Hamilton 90, in Berlin's Staatsbibliothek, as an autograph belonging to Boccaccio's latter years.

See also

 Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles
 One Thousand and One Nights
 The Masque of the Red Death
 The Plague (novel)
 Summary of Decameron novellas

References

External links

 Decameron Web, from Brown University
 The Decameron – Introduction from the Internet Medieval Sourcebook
 The Enchanted Garden, a painting by John William Waterhouse

 (Rigg translation)
 (Rigg translation)
 (Payne translation)
 Decameron – English and Italian text for a direct comparison

14th-century books
1353 short story collections
Italian short story collections
1353 in Europe
14th century in Italy
Books adapted into films
Censored books
Culture in Florence
Frame stories
Medieval Italian literature