text:
Sonic the Fighters

Sonic the Fighters, (ソニック・ザ・ファイターズ) also known as Sonic Championship on arcade versions outside Japan, is a fighting game developed by Sega AM2. First released in 1996 in arcades on Sega's Model 2 arcade system, Sonic the Fighters pits players in one-on-one battles with a roster of characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog series.

Sonic the Fighters was built using the 3D fighting engine for Fighting Vipers (1996), another game by Sega AM2, and it was the first 3D game in the Sonic series. The idea for a Sonic fighting game was conceived when a Sega AM2 programmer experimented with a 3D Sonic the Hedgehog model in Fighting Vipers. The smoothness of the character animations convinced Sonic Team to approve the project and supervise it.

A home console port for the Sega Saturn was announced, but ultimately canceled, resulting in the game staying an arcade exclusive until 2005 with the compilation Sonic Gems Collection for GameCube and PlayStation 2. It was rereleased again in 2012 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, featuring new playable characters and an online versus mode. It has since been included as a bonus game in the Like a Dragon series.

Sonic the Fighters received mixed reviews. Critics praised the graphics, especially the cartoon-like animations, but criticized the gameplay as rudimentary. It was ultimately regarded as disappointing for fans of the fighting game genre but an obscure novelty for Sonic fans.

Gameplay
Sonic the Fighters is a 3D fighting game in which players compete in one-on-one battles with characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. In the game's scenario, Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends each own one of the Chaos Emeralds. They are holding a fighting tournament to determine who will take the emeralds in order to power a spaceship and stop series antagonists Doctor Robotnik and Metal Sonic from building an evil fortress in space. The original arcade and 2005 release included eight playable characters: Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, Amy Rose, Espio the Chameleon, Fang the Sniper, and new characters Bean the Dynamite and Bark the Polar Bear. The 2012 re-release added Metal Sonic, Doctor Robotnik, and Honey the Cat as playable characters, all previously only accessible through hacking into the original arcade version. Honey is based on a character with the same name from Fighting Vipers (1996).

The game employs simple fighting game mechanics. Each character can punch, kick, and use a defensive barrier. Combining these buttons also allows for a variety of special moves unique to each character. The barrier can block attacks, but it can be damaged and eventually be destroyed by an opponent; players have access to limited number of barriers per match. The barrier does not protect from being grabbed or thrown, or from attacks from behind. Players can spend a barrier to temporarily enter "Hyper Mode" which allows them to perform several attacks in quick succession. Some attacks can be avoided by squatting or dodging. Players can also perform a "safe landing" which allows them to recover quickly when thrown or launched into the air.

Development and release
Sonic the Fighters was developed by Sega AM2, Sega's arcade game development team behind the Virtua Fighter series. The idea for a Sonic the Hedgehog fighting game was conceived by AM2 lead developer Yu Suzuki who saw one of his programmers dabbling with a Sonic the Hedgehog model in AM2's Fighting Vipers. Suzuki pitched the idea for a Sonic fighting game to Hiroshi Kataoka, another one of the heads of AM2. Since Sonic Team was in charge of licensing the Sonic characters, Kataoka had to present the idea to the head of Sonic Team, Yuji Naka. Kataoka was worried Naka would not like the concept of Sonic characters fighting each other, but Naka was receptive. At first Naka was concerned that Sonic would be unable to fight considering his large head and short arms, but he was delighted after seeing the smooth animation accomplished by Suzuki's team. Original Sonic character designer Naoto Ohshima was also pleased with Sonic's animations. Sega AM2 began development with Sonic Team supervising over the implementation of the characters and setting. They developed for the Sega Model 2 arcade board using the Fighting Vipers engine as a foundation to build from.

Since this was the first time Sonic was being rendered with 3D graphics, Naka gave Kataoka a Sonic figurine to help his team model the character. Suzuki focused his team on modeling the characters' faces correctly so they were instantly recognizable on arcade floors. The development team added in the barrier mechanism because the characters' arms were too small for traditional blocking to look distinct. They also added rings that drop when a player is hit to make it easier for beginners to judge how much damage they were taking instead of referring to the health bar. AM2 explored whether dropped rings could be picked up to restore health or the barrier's power, but ultimately did not include this feature. They made the controls simple to help beginners to the genre.

In early prototypes demonstrated for the press, only Sonic and Tails were shown fighting on an early stage based on Green Hill Zone. Other characters were added later, and Naka personally asked AM2 to create new characters for the Sonic universe. Suzuki jokingly said that anyone who attempted a Sonic game had the duty to create new characters. They conceived two new characters, Bean the Dynamite and Bark the Polar Bear. Bean's design was inspired by the lead character in the Sega arcade game Dynamite Düx (1989). In later years, hackers found Honey from Fighting Vipers was hidden in Sonic the Fighters as a playable character, and modeled as an anthropomorphic cat. Kataoka believes Honey's character designer slipped her in there purposely.

Sonic the Fighters was first released in Japanese arcades in June 1996 followed by a limited release in North America in July. With its simplified controls, the game was marketed towards beginners, including women and children. In August 2005, it received its first home console release through Sonic Gems Collection, a Sonic games compilation for the GameCube and PlayStation 2. The collection also included Sonic CD, Sonic R, and several Sonic Game Gear titles. In November 2012, Sonic the Fighters was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 via each consoles' respective online marketplace. This version added Metal Sonic, Doctor Robotnik, and Honey the Cat as playable characters and featured new online versus modes. Sonic the Fighters is playable at the in-game arcades in Lost Judgment (2021), added as part of the Sonic series' 30th anniversary, and Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man who Erased His Name (2023). This version of the game retains the hidden characters from the digital re-releases.

Kataoka stated in 2006 that Sonic the Fighters was the game he was most proud of. Naka also approved of the final product.

Abandoned Sega Saturn port
In early stages of development, Sega was planning to port Sonic the Fighters to the Sega Saturn. Initial release windows were theorized for late 1996, a few months after the planned arcade release. At the E3 1996 video game convention, a SquareSoft representative was given a private demonstration of new Sega Saturn development software, and reported to the press later that a Saturn version of Sonic the Fighters was shown. In 1997, Computer and Video Games reported a rumor that Sonic the Fighters would release for the Saturn in Japan mid-year and North America a couple months later. In 1998, the Saturn port was still scheduled for release in Japan, though the North American release had since been dropped. Ultimately, a Saturn port was never released. Yojiro Ogawa of Sonic Team said in retrospect that Sonic the Fighters was not ported to the Saturn because it was difficult to reproduce a similar experience to the arcade version. He felt they were able to accomplish this when it was re-released in 2005.

Reception
In July 1996, Game Machine listed Sonic the Fighters as being the thirteenth most popular arcade game in Japan at the time. After seeing it demoed at a Japanese arcade expo, GamePro shared their admiration of the game's cartoon-like animation, comparing it to Looney Tunes. Next Generation gave an average review, praising the visuals but criticizing the gameplay. They believed the backgrounds and character animations were detailed well, but felt that hardcore fighting game fans would be disappointed with the lack of gameplay depth. They concluded by giving the game 3 out of 5 stars, calling it a fun game that "exploits Sonic milieu without feeling too aggressive."

Critics shared mixed thoughts for its 2005 re-release on Sonic Gems Collection. Both IGN and GameSpy called it a stripped-down version of the original Virtua Fighter, and GameSpot believed it was a simplified version of Virtua Fighter 2. The gameplay was criticized, with most reviewers describing it as rudimentary, simple, and dated. The lack of extensive combos and depth to the game's strategy contributed to this. Some critics recommended the game to fans of the Sonic series for the novelty of seeing a sizable roster of Sonic characters fighting with cartoon-like moves, and because this release was the only way to play the game at home at the time.

The 2012 release received unfavorable reviews. Official Xbox Magazine called it an interesting and obscure release, and a fascinating part of Sega's history, but concluded that it loses traction because of its lack of seriousness as a fighting game. They did, however, praise the cartoon quality of the graphics. They thought the way the characters squashed and stretched was rarely seen and still uncommon even in 2012. GamesMaster felt the game lacked depth to its gameplay compared to other fighting games. X360 criticized its repetitive, simplistic gameplay and lamented how the game "repeatedly discourages the use of skill."

title: Sonic the Fighters


text:
Isabelle (comics)

Isabelle was a Belgian comic series drawn by Will and written by André Franquin, Delporte and Raymond Macherot.

The comic first appeared in Spirou magazine in 1969. Created by a top team of already-famous contributors to the magazine, the series gained a small but fanatical following. The first stories were written by Franquin (of Gaston Lagaffe fame), Delporte (editor of Spirou and writer of many comics) and Macherot (creator of Sibylline). Later, Delporte alone wrote the stories in collaboration with Will. Twelve albums were published until the series ended with Will's death in 2000.

Plot
The little girl Isabelle (named after Franquin's daughter) gets into a lot of adventures when the evil witch Kalendula troubles Isabelle's uncle Hermès and his fiancée, the good witch Calendula (who is the descendant of the evil Kalendula). Other stories are about a magical painting, a flying village or a floating island.

The stories have a poetical tone, although mixed with tons of jokes and puns, rhyming ghosts, a talking diamond and Isabelle's down-to-earth aunt – whose greatest concern when Isabelle gets into an adventure is whether she's dressed warmly enough, even when she descends into Hades. The drawings are packed with details and the poetic nature of the stories comes through in the imaginative animals and backgrounds.

Main characters

 * Isabel, an apparently normal girl who in reality experiences extraordinary adventures
 * Hermes, magician and Isabelle's uncle
 * Calendula, a witch Hermes is in love with
 * Kalendula, cruel witch and grandmother of the previous one
 * Chuintufle, a critter of darkness, with the appearance of a hairy worm
 * Ursula, Isabel's aunt who bakes cakes and pies, but is not aware of Isabel's adventures

Albums

 * 1) Le tableau enchanté (1972)
 * 2) Isabelle et le Capitaine (January 1983)
 * 3) Les maléfices de l'oncle Hermès (July 1978)
 * 4) L'astragale de Cassiopée (April 1979)
 * 5) Un empire de dix arpents (June 1980)
 * 6) L'étang des sorciers (October 1981)
 * 7) L'envoûtement du Népenthés (August 1986)
 * 8) La lune gibbeuse (June 1991)
 * 9) La Traboule de la Géhenne (April 1992)
 * 10) Le sortilège des gâtines (January 1993)
 * 11) Le Grand Bonbon (May 1994)
 * 12) Les Abraxas pernicieux (May 1995)

Reprints
All the stories have been reprinted in 2007 in three omnibus editions by Le Lombard.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Isabelle (comics)


text:
User:Sesha

Iam from Unjalur, a village in the district of Erode,Tamilnadu, India. Iam a strong supporter of the open software movement. My interests include Organic farming, Carnatic music, Java coffee & Java software),Tamil Literature, Advaita Philosophy. Wikipedian since June 2003.

title: User:Sesha


text:
Party of the Democratic Left (Slovakia)

The Party of the Democratic Left (Strana demokratickej ľavice, SDĽ) was a social-democratic political party in Slovakia from 1990 to 2004. It was founded in 1990 out of the Communist Party of Slovakia.

History
At the party congress on 14 December 1991 in Trenčín, the congress adopted new party constitution and decided to leave federation of Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia, due to disputes with the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia and changing situation in the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic. Congress reconfirmed Peter Weiss as party chairman.

From 1994 to 1997, SDĽ was a member of a coalition called "Common Choice" (Spoločná voľba) that gained 10.18% (18 seats) in the Slovak parliament. They did not form a part of the government. Since the 2002 elections, it has had no seat in the Slovak legislature. It was a member of the Party of European Socialists and the Socialist International.

On 4 December 2004, the party membership voted to merge with Direction – Social Democracy from 1 January 2005. The latter party had broken off from the SDL five years earlier.

Name changes

 * Communist Party of Slovakia (succeeding Communist Party of Slovakia) (22. 11. 1990)
 * Communist Party of Slovakia – Party of the Democratic Left (12. 2. 1991)
 * Party of the Democratic Left (1. 2. 1992)

title: Party of the Democratic Left (Slovakia)


text:
Aluísio Azevedo

Aluísio Tancredo Gonçalves de Azevedo (14 April 1857 – 21 January 1913 ) was a Brazilian novelist, caricaturist, diplomat, playwright and short story writer. Initially a Romantic writer, he would later adhere to the Naturalist movement. He introduced the Naturalist movement in Brazil with the novel O Mulato, in 1881. He founded and occupied the 4th chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1897 until his death in 1913.

Biography
Azevedo was born in São Luís, to David Gonçalves de Azevedo (the Portuguese vice-consul in Brazil) and Emília Amália Pinto de Magalhães. He was the younger brother of the famous playwright Artur Azevedo.

As a child, Aluísio would work as a traveling salesman. Following this, due to his love of painting and drawing, he would move to Rio de Janeiro in 1876 (where his brother Artur was living already), to study at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes. After graduating, he drew caricatures for journals such as O Fígaro, O Mequetrefe, Zig-Zag and A Semana Illustrada.

His father's death, in 1878, made him return to São Luís, in order to take care of his family. He then initiated his writer career, publishing in 1880 a typical Romantic novel, Uma Lágrima de Mulher. He helped on the creation of an anticlerical journal named O Pensador, where he wrote Abolitionist articles. In 1881 he publishes the first Brazilian Naturalist novel ever: O Mulato, that deals with the themes of racism. Consolidating his career as a writer, he could return to Rio.

He would write endlessly during the period of 1882–1895. Also dating from this period are his famous novels Casa de Pensão (1884) and O Cortiço (1890), as well as many other works written in partnership with his brother or with Émile Rouède.

In 1895 he became a diplomat. He served as a minister in Spain, Japan, England, Italy and Argentina, where he died.

Novels

 * Uma Lágrima de Mulher (A Woman's Tear) (1880)
 * O Mulato (The Mulatto) (1881)
 * Mistérios da Tijuca, ou Girândola de Amores (Tijuca's Mystery, or the Girony of Lovers) (1882)
 * Memórias de um Condenado, ou A Condessa Vésper (Memoirs of a Fatedmen, or the Vesper Countess) (1882)
 * Casa de Pensão (Pension House) (1884)
 * Filomena Borges (1884)
 * O Homem (The Man) (1887)
 * O Cortiço (The Slum) (1890)
 * O Coruja (The Owl) (1890)
 * A Mortalha de Alzira (The Shroud of Alzira) (1894)
 * O Livro de uma Sogra (A Mother-in-law Book) (1895)

Theatre plays

 * Os Doidos (The Madmen) (1879)
 * Flor-de-lis (Fleur-de-lis) (1882)
 * Casa de Orates (Prayers House) (1882)
 * O Caboclo (The Caboclo) (1886)
 * Fritzmack (1889 – in partnership with Artur Azevedo)
 * A República (The Republic) (1890)
 * O Adultério (The Adultery) (1891)
 * Em Flagrante (In Flagrant) (1891)

Miscellaneous

 * O Japão (Japan) (chronicles – 1894)
 * Demônios (Devils) (short stories – 1895)

title: Aluísio Azevedo


text:
User talk:GregLee

Hi Greg. Welcome to Wikipedia! Thanks for your work on linguistics, and your note on the new user log. I hope you'll continue to contribute, even if only occasionally.

If you need editing help, visit How does one edit a page. For format questions, visit our manual of style

Some time when you're bored, you can read through our policies and guidelines. If you made any edits before you got an account, you might be interested in assigning those to your username.

If you have any other questions about the project then check out Help or add a question to the Village pump. You can also drop me a question on my talk page.

Happy editing, Isomorphic 20:43, 22 Feb 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:GregLee


text:
Grigorij Mesežnikov

Grigorij Mesežnikov (born 25 March 1958, Oryol, USSR) is a political analyst of Jewish descent who lives in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Born in the Soviet Union, in 1979 Mesežnikov moved to Slovakia with his wife. At first, he worked in the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. With Martin Bútora (presidential candidate in the 2004 election), he founded the Slovak Institute for Public Affairs (IVO). He has been president of the institute since 1998. IVO's aim is spreading principles of democracy in Slovakia.

Mesežnikov is a frequent contributor to many politics-related newspapers in Slovakia.

title: Grigorij Mesežnikov


text:
Inspiration

Inspiration, inspire, or inspired often refers to:
 * Artistic inspiration, sudden creativity in artistic production
 * Biblical inspiration, the doctrine in Christian theology concerned with the divine origin of the Bible
 * Creative inspiration, sudden creativity when a new invention is created
 * Inhalation, the movement of air into the lungs, breathing in

Inspiration and the like may also refer to:

Places

 * Inspiration, Arizona, a community in the United States of America

Brands and enterprises

 * Inspire (fragrance), a fragrance by Christina Aguilera
 * Inspiration (car), a British-designed and built steam-propelled car designed by Glynne Bowsher
 * Carnival Inspiration, a Fantasy-class cruise ship operated by Carnival Cruise Line
 * Honda Inspire, a luxury sedan introduced by Honda in 1990
 * Inspiration, a type of diver's rebreather scuba made by AP Diving
 * Inspire (company), a healthcare social network

Films

 * Inspiration (1915 film), starring Audrey Munson
 * Inspiration (1931 film), starring Greta Garbo
 * Inspiration (1948 film), directed by Karel Zeman
 * Inspirations (film), a 1997 film directed by Michael Apted

Genres

 * Inspirational fiction, a fiction genre
 * Inspirational music, a music genre

Albums

 * Inspiration (Aziza Mustafa Zadeh album), 2000
 * Inspiration (Cathy Dennis album), 1993
 * Inspiration (Eddie Henderson album), 1994
 * Inspiration (Elkie Brooks album), 1989
 * Inspiration (Jane McDonald album), 2000
 * Inspiration (Maze album), 1979
 * Inspiration (Sam Rivers album), 1999
 * Inspiration (Shinhwa album), 2006
 * Inspiration (Tammy Wynette album), 1969
 * Inspiration (William Hung album), 2004
 * Inspiration (Yngwie Malmsteen album), 1996
 * The Inspiration, a 2006 album by Young Jeezy
 * Inspire (Casiopea album), 2002
 * Inspire (Jack Vidgen album), 2012
 * Inspire (La'Mule album), 1998
 * Inspired (album), a 2007 album by Lea Salonga
 * Inspirations (Saxon album), 2021

Songs

 * "Inspire" (song), a 2004 song by Ayumi Hamasaki
 * "Inspired" (song), a 2017 song by Miley Cyrus

Periodicals

 * Inspire (magazine), an online magazine published by the militant Islamist organization al-Qaeda
 * Inspire, a quarterly newsletter published by Australian intellectual property firm, Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick

Other arts, entertainment, and media

 * Inspiration (sculpture), a 2010 public artwork by American artist Ethan Kerber
 * Inspiration FM, a community radio station in Northampton, United Kingdom
 * The Inspiration Network, a worldwide family and religious cable-television network

Space exploration

 * Inspiration4, a SpaceX tourism mission chartered by Jared Isaacman
 * Space Shuttle Inspiration, a full-scale Space Shuttle mockup

Other

 * Inspiration (racehorse), a Hong Kong-based thoroughbred racehorse
 * INSPIRE, acronym for "Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community" directive
 * Inspired, a loyalty program tier of SLH (Small Luxury Hotels Worldside), a partner of Hyatt's
 * ANA Inspiration, the first major championship of the LPGA season in women's golf
 * INSPIRE-HEP, a database of particle physics literature

title: Inspiration


text:
Grzegorz Rosiński

Grzegorz Rosiński ( Polish: ; born 3 August 1941) is a Polish comic book artist, illustrator and painter. He is best known for providing the artwork for the series Thorgal. His other notable work includes art drawn in the Hans and Chninkel series of comic books.

Early life and education
Grzegorz Rosiński was born in Stalowa Wola in 1941. In 1967 he graduated the Liceum of Fine Arts in Warsaw and then joined the Academy of Fine Arts of Warsaw.

Major works
Until the late 1970s he authored numerous book illustrations for various Polish publishers and authors. He also authors some of the most popular Polish comic book series of the time, including the Illustrated History of Poland, Kapitan Żbik and Pilot śmigłowca. Initially publishing his comic books only in newspapers and magazines (among them Sztandar Młodych), with time his works started to be published separately. He is also the creator and the first editor of the Relax magazine, the first Polish language magazine devoted solely to comic books.

In 1976 Rosiński received a scholarship in Belgium, where he met Jean Van Hamme, who wrote for him the series Thorgal, one of the most popular European comic book series. Since 1980, 31 volumes have been published. The comic has appeared in Tintin magazine. Rosiński also has made some comics for the Spirou magazine, under the pseudonym 'Rosek'. Although he returned to Poland, he continued in the next decades to collaborate with Belgian and French authors. In 1980 he started another successful series of comic books named Hans, this time with André-Paul Duchâteau. In 1992 Rosiński was replaced by Zbigniew Kasprzak (Kas) as the artist of the series.

After the imposition of the Martial Law in Poland in 1981, Rosiński moved to Belgium. At first, he lived with Jean Van Hamme while his wife and three kids stay behind in Warsaw. A few years later he received Belgian citizenship. He became one of the most popular authors of comic books in Western Europe. Among his later works are a series Chninkel (with Van Hamme) started in 1987 and a 1992 series titled La complainte des landes perdues (with Jean Dufaux). In 2001 the Rosiński-Van Hamme duo published yet another comic book titled Western, based on a western plot, in which Rosiński changed his style considerably. Since 2004 he published a series on Count Skarbek (with Yves Sente).

During the summer of 2011, a major exhibition was shown in the medieval town of Saint-Ursanne, Switzerland.

Honours
In 2006, he was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta for his "outstanding artistic achievements and the promotion of Polish culture". In 2007, during the International Festival of Comics and Games in Łódź, he was awarded the Silver Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis. In 2010, he received the Knight's Cross of the Order of Leopold II from King Albert II of Belgium.

Personal life
Currently, Grzegorz Rosiński lives in Burgdorf, Switzerland.

Awards

 * 1979: Award for Best Realistic Artwork at the Prix Saint-Michel, Brussels, Belgium
 * 1983: Award for Best Comic at the Prix Saint-Michel
 * 1987: Grand prix des Alpages, Sierre, Switzerland
 * 1989: Audience award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, France
 * 1990: nominated for Best Long Comic Strip at the Haxtur Awards, Spain
 * 1991: winner of the Best Drawing award and the Public Vote award and nominated for Best Short Comic Strip at the Haxtur Awards
 * 1994: nominated for Best Cover at the Haxtur Awards
 * 2003: nominated for the Audience Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival
 * 2004: Grand Prix Saint-Michel
 * - nominated for Best Short Comic Strip at the Haxtur Awards

 * 2005: Sanglier d'Or at the festival of Nîmes, France
 * - nominated for the Audience Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival
 * - nominated for Best Short Comic Strip and Best Cover at the Haxtur Awards

 * 2006: nominated for Best Comic (French language) at the Prix Saint-Michel
 * - nominated for Best Long Comic Strip a Best Drawing at the Haxtur Awards

Selected bibliography

 * Thorgal 1980-still published (with Jean van Hamme and Yves Sente), 34 albums, Le Lombard
 * Hans 1983-1996 (with André-Paul Duchâteau), 5 albums solo, 3 albums together with Kas, Le Lombard
 * The fantastic boottrip 1987-1988 (with J-C Smit Le Bénédicte), 2 albums, Le Lombard
 * Le Grand Pouvoir du Chninkel 1988 (with Jean van Hamme), 1 album, Casterman
 * La complainte des landes perdues 1993-1998 (with Jean Dufaux), 4 albums, Dargaud
 * Western 2001 (with Jean van Hamme), 1 album, Le Lombard
 * The revenge of count Skarbek 2004-2005 (with Yves Sente), 2 albums, Dargaud

title: Grzegorz Rosiński


text:
Afghanistan Meteorological Authority

The Afghanistan Meteorological Authority, also referred to as the Afghanistan Meteorological Department, is located in Kabul, Afghanistan. The agency operates under the Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority and is led by Abdul Qadeer.

History
During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the Afghanistan Meteorological Authority had one of the most advanced weather stations available at the time and a staff of 600.

First Taliban Regime
In 1996, Taliban forces sacked its office because weather forecasting had been banned as it was considered to be sorcery. Equipment was ruined and over 100 years worth of weather records were destroyed. During that time, only real-time observers remained on staff. Because of the ban, farmers were harmed because drought information and forecasting could not take place. In 1998, an Ariana Afghan Airlines flight flew into unexpected weather, causing it to crash into a mountain, killing 45 people.

Recovery
In 2003, France financed the installation of over a dozen simple weather stations around Afghanistan. The stations provide basic information such as temperature, barometric pressure, and rainfall. Also in 2003, the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva provided the Authority with copies of its lost records.

Canadian troops at Camp Julien assisted in collecting data by launching weather balloons twice a day. The data was primarily for NATO and the armies of the U.S. and Germany, but was shared with the AMA as well. In 2016, weather balloon launches at Kabul International Airport were done by contract and NATO meteorologists on the NATO side of the complex. NATO had a Combined Meteorological Unit staffed by a Romanian Officer in Charge, Czech Republic military, and U.S. and Turkish contractors. With the aim of providing full services while the Afghans were trained to take over operations.

title: Afghanistan Meteorological Authority


text:
Express Weekly

Express Weekly was a British children's comic magazine, published between 1954 and 1962 under a progression of titles: Junior Express, Junior Express Weekly, Express Weekly, and TV Express Weekly.

The publication was similar in format to the popular children's comic Eagle: tabloid with photogravure colour, with a mixture of comic strips and features.

Publication history
Published by Beaverbrook Newspapers, whose flagship title was the Daily Express, the publication started out in 1954 as Junior Express. It was renamed Junior Express Weekly in 1955 and then Express Weekly in 1956. In 1960, the title was acquired by City Magazines and renamed TV Express Weekly.

It was acquired by Polystyle Publications in 1962 (after issue #375) and merged into TV Comic.

 * Junior Express (38 issues, 4 Sept. 1954–June 1955)
 * Junior Express Weekly (35 issues, June 1955–11 Feb. 1956)
 * Express Weekly (212 issues, 18 Feb. 1956–Apr. 1960)
 * TV Express Weekly (91 issues, 23 Apr. 1960–13 Jan. 1962)

Comic strips (selected)

 * Biggles, by Mike Western and then Ron Embleton (1960–1962)
 * Journey into Space, drawn first by Ferdinando Tacconi, and then Bruce Cornwall and Terence Patrick (from 1956)
 * No Hiding Place, by Mike Western (1960–1962)
 * Lone Ranger and Tonto, by Mike Noble (1958–1962)
 * Sky Masters of the Space Force, drawn by Jack Kirby (issues #208-259)
 * Wulf the Briton (originally Freedom Is The Prize), written by Mike Butterworth and drawn by Ron Embleton (1955–1960)

title: Express Weekly


text:
Expiration (film)

Expiration is an independent feature film, directed by Gavin Heffernan and released in 2003. The film stars Heffernan as Sam, a man who unwittingly walks in on a convenience store robbery in Montreal and must team up with drug dealer Rachel (Janet Lane) in an attempt to recover their stolen goods.

It was the winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Best Feature Film at the 2004 Canadian Filmmakers' Festival.

title: Expiration (film)


text:
The Raveonettes

The Raveonettes are a Danish indie rock duo, consisting of Sune Rose Wagner on guitar, instruments and vocals, and Sharin Foo on bass, guitar and vocals. Their music is characterized by close two-part vocal harmonies inspired by The Everly Brothers coupled with hard-edged electric guitar overlaid with liberal doses of noise. Their songs juxtapose the structural and chordal simplicity of 1950s and 1960s rock with intense electric instrumentation, driving beats, and often dark lyrical content (e.g., crime, drugs, murder, suicide, love, lust, and betrayal), similar to another of the band's influences, The Velvet Underground.

Early years
The duo met in Copenhagen and, after forming the band, began recording Whip It On at Once Was & Sauna Recording Studio, a former Sony Studios facility. They booked the studio for three weeks during non-session down time late in 2001 and handled all production chores by themselves. Adding guitarist Manoj Ramdas and jazz drummer Jakob Hoyer, The Raveonettes booked one of their first gigs at the SPOT festival in Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark. After the release of Whip It On on the seminal Danish Crunchy Frog label, Hoyer and Ramdas would contribute to the next three Raveonettes albums, along with other additional musicians. However, by the time Lust Lust Lust was released in 2007, Sune and Sharin would be the only two musicians credited, showing a return to the dynamic around the time of the mini-album.

Officially,the band was discovered by Rolling Stone editor David Fricke at the SPOT festival, and his rave review of the duo immediately resulted in a number of offers from major labels. Unofficially, the band discovered that David Fricke would be present at the SPOT festival, and they rushed a band together and headed for the festival. The band is managed by Richard Gottehrer, who has been with them from the start.

Whip It On was named "Best Rock Album of the Year" at the Danish Music Awards (Denmark's Grammy equivalent) on 1 March 2003, while The Raveonettes were picked by Rolling Stone and Q Magazine as being among the harbingers of the "Next Wave" of contemporary music.

In 2006, Blender named Sharin Foo one of rock's hottest women, alongside Courtney Love, Joan Jett and Liz Phair.

Chain Gang of Love
The band's first full-length album, Chain Gang of Love, was produced by Richard Gottehrer and The Raveonettes' own Sune Rose Wagner. The album was recorded in Denmark and New York from 9–17 October, 6–12 November, and 4–10 December 2002, and mixed in London in early 2003. The thirteen songs on Chain Gang of Love are written by Sune Rose Wagner with the exception of "That Great Love Sound", which Sune co-wrote with Gottehrer. Portions of this song were featured in a U.S. ad for Kmart. The album is notable in that all the songs were written in the key B-flat major.

Pretty in Black
The band's follow-up album, Pretty in Black, broadened their musical palette, featuring guest vocals from Ronnie Spector of The Ronettes as well as guest instrumental spots from Maureen Tucker (of The Velvet Underground) and Martin Rev (of Suicide). This was their first album in which Sharin Foo did not play bass; instead, The Raveonettes added bass player Anders Christensen, who had toured with seminal jazz drummer Paul Motian, amongst others. Christensen recorded on the album and toured with the band. At the end of the 2005 tour, guitar player Manoj Ramdas left the band to concentrate on his new band SPEKTR.

The video for the single "Love in a Trashcan", directed by Peder Pedersen, features pink bars and blocks with words like "Vamp" and "Teaser" scrolling by the band members, and is reminiscent of an early-1960s cosmetic ad.

Lust Lust Lust
The duo's third studio album, Lust Lust Lust, was released in November 2007 in Europe and February 2008 in the U.S. The album received generally positive reviews, with the NME's Hardeep Phull describing it as "their most engrossing album."

In December 2008, Sune Rose Wagner released a solo album, simply titled Sune Rose Wagner. All of the songs are sung in his native language of Danish.

In and Out of Control
The Raveonettes' fourth album, In and Out of Control, was released 6 October 2009, with "Last Dance" released as the lead-off single. The album was co-written and produced by Thomas Troelsen. Both "Last Dance" and "Suicide", another song from the album, have been featured on The CW's Gossip Girl.

Raven in the Grave
Raven in the Grave, The Raveonettes fifth album, was released 4 April 2011. The album has produced three singles to date.

Observator
The duo released a new album, titled Observator, on 11 September 2012. The lead single 'Observations' was released 25 June. The second single 'She Owns the Streets' was released 9 July.

Pe'ahi
The band's seventh album, Pe'ahi, was released 22 July 2014. Due to the purposeful lack of promotion or formal announcement of a release date the album was dubbed a "surprise" release.

2016 Atomized (Anti-Album), hiatus, return and The Raveonettes Sing…
In 2015 the band announced the Rave-Sound-of-the-Month saying that in every month of 2016 the band were recording and releasing a new song. Dubbed by the band as the Anti-Album, the twelve songs were released individually for download online in each month of the year and were released 21 April 2017 as a full album titled 2016 Atomized.

In March 2018 the band released a song called "Ghost", recorded during the 2016 Atomized project. The duo then went on an indefinite hiatus to allow Sune to release a solo album in 2018; though this never materialised. In November 2020, the band released the song "Snowstorm", their first release in over two years.

The band returned to touring in 2022, performing their EP Whip It On in full at various festivals throughout the summer as well as a tour at the end of the year. New music is also in the works, with a new album completed in late 2023. The band will release their ninth studio album, The Raveonettes Sing…, on 19 July 2024. The album, according to the press released, is a "collection of some of the songs that inspired us to start the band". The album's release was preceded by its first single, a cover of the Gram Parsons song, "Return of the Grievous Angel", on 17 May 2024. The album's second single, a cover of The Everly Brothers song "All I Have to Do Is Dream", was released on 29 May 2024

Instruments
During live performances, the band usually utilizes Fender instruments (Sune uses a number of Jazzmasters while Sharin opts for either Mustang or jazz bass, and a Jazzmaster). Sune plays a number of different guitars and basses on their albums, including different Fenders, Gibsons, and Gretsches. In the fall of 2005, the tour van containing the band's equipment (including Sune's prized 1960 Jazzmaster and Sharin's treasured Gretsch 6120) was stolen during their tour of the U.S.A.

Chain Gang of Love line-up

 * Sune Rose Wagner: guitars and vocals
 * Sharin Foo: bass and vocals
 * Manoj Ramdas: guitars
 * Jakob Hoyer: drums

Pretty in Black line-up

 * Sune Rose Wagner: guitars, vocals, synth, percussion, drums, bass, and programming
 * Sharin Foo: vocals and percussion
 * Jakob Hoyer: drums and percussion
 * Anders Christensen: bass, percussion, and organ
 * Manoj Ramdas: guitar

Subsequent line-up

 * Sune Rose Wagner: instruments and vocals
 * Sharin Foo: vocals

Studio albums
1 Lust Lust Lust's inclusion of 3D glasses rendered it ineligible for the UK Albums Chart.
 * Notes

EPs

 * Whip It On (6 August 2002) ( UK No. 114)
 * Sometimes They Drop By (23 September 2008)
 * Beauty Dies (21 October 2008)
 * Wishing You a Rave Christmas (25 November 2008)
 * Into the Night (24 April 2012) ( DEN No. 36)
 * The End (23 July 2015)

Compilations

 * Rarities/B-Sides (15 December 2011)

Soundtracks and compilations

 * FIFA 2004 (2003) with "That Great Love Sound"
 * Driv3r (2004) with "Bowels of the Beast"
 * Stubbs the Zombie: The Soundtrack (2005) with "My Boyfriend's Back" (cover of The Angels' #1 hit)
 * Nordkraft – Original Soundtrack (2005) with "Beat City"
 * Amnesty International's Instant Karma (2007) with "One Day at a Time" (John Lennon cover, download only)
 * Whip It! Soundtrack (2009) with "Dead Sound"
 * Drive Angry Soundtrack (2011) with "You Want the Candy"
 * Batman: Arkham City (2011) with "Oh, Stranger"
 * Catch .44 Soundtrack (2011) with "Dead Sound"
 * Van God Los de serie (2012) with "Evil Seeds"
 * Lockout (2012) with "Beat City"
 * A Psych Tribute to the Doors (2014) with "The End" (The Doors cover)
 * American Honey (2016) with "Recharge & Revolt"
 * Can't Get You Out of My Head (2021) with "Recharge & Revolt"

title: The Raveonettes


text:
Turkish coffee

Turkish coffee is a style of coffee prepared in a cezve using very finely ground coffee beans without filtering.

Preparation
Turkish coffee is very finely ground coffee brewed by boiling. Any coffee bean may be used; arabica varieties are considered best, but robusta or a blend is also used. The coffee grounds are left in the coffee when served. The coffee may be ground at home in a manual grinder made for the very fine grind, ground to order by coffee merchants in most parts of the world, or bought ready-ground from many shops.

Coffee and water, usually with added sugar, is brought to the boil in a special pot called cezve in Turkey, and often called ibrik elsewhere. As soon as the mixture begins to froth, and before it boils over, it is taken off the heat; it may be briefly reheated twice more to increase the desired froth. Sometimes about one-third of the coffee is distributed to individual cups; the remaining amount is returned to the fire and distributed to the cups as soon as it comes to the boil. The coffee is traditionally served in a small porcelain cup called a kahve fincanı 'coffee cup'.

Another ancient tradition involves placing the cezve filled with coffee in a pan filled with hot sand. The pan is heated over an open flame, thereby letting the sand take total control of the heat. The heat created by the sand lets the coffee foam to the top almost immediately. The heat can also be adjusted by the depth of the cezve in the sand. This process is usually repeated three to four times and then the coffee is finally served in small cups called demitasse cups.

The amount of sugar is specified when ordering the coffee. It may be unsweetened (sade kahve), with little or moderate sugar (az şekerli kahve, orta şekerli kahve or orta kahve), or sweet (çok şekerli kahve). Coffee is often served with something small and sweet to eat, such as Turkish delight. It is sometimes flavoured with cardamom, mastic, salep, or ambergris. A lot of the powdered coffee grounds are transferred from the cezve to the cup; in the cup, some settle on the bottom but much remains in suspension and is consumed with the coffee.

According to connoisseurs
In a paper for the 2013 Oxford Food Symposium, Tan and Bursa identified the features of the art or craft of making and serving Turkish coffee, according to the traditional procedures:

 * Roasting. Ideally the best green Arabica beans are medium-roasted in small quantities over steady heat in a shallow, wrought-iron roasting pan. It is crucial to stop at the right moment, then transfer the beans to the next stage:

 * Cooling. The beans are allowed to cool down in a wooden box and absorb excess oil. The kind of wood is claimed to affect the taste, walnut being the best.

 * Pounding or grinding. The beans must be reduced into a very fine powder. The fineness of the powder is crucial to the success of Turkish coffee since it affects the foam and mouth feel. (According to one source, the particle size should be 75–125 microns.) Strict connoisseurs insist that they must be hand-pounded in a wooden mortar, although it is difficult to do this while achieving an uniform fineness. Consequently it has become more usual to grind them in a brass or copper mill, though it does make for drier particles.

 * Brewing. It is essential to use a proper cezve. This vessel is a conical flask, being wider at the base than at the neck, and is made of thick forged copper. (A common sized cezve will make one cup of coffee, and they can easily be ordered online in many western countries.) Cold water, several teaspoons of the ground coffee (at least 7 grams per person) and any sugar are put in the cezve and it is put on the fire. The tapering shape of the vessel encourages the formation of foam and retains the volatile aromas. The coffee should never be allowed to come to a rolling boil, and must not be over-done. "This stage requires close monitoring and delicate timing since a good Turkish coffee has the thickest possible layer of froth at the top". Some think that the metallic copper helps to improve the taste.

 * Serving. The cezve has a spout by which it is poured into the serving cup. While the cup design might not seem to have anything to do with the taste of the beverage, connoisseurs say it makes a difference. The best cups are made of porcelain with a thin rim: it affects mouth feel. A long cultural tradition emphasises the pleasure of being served coffee in beautiful cups, which are family heirlooms. The beverage is served together with a glass of water which should be sipped first to cleanse the mouth. Other cultural traditions affect the guest's appreciation of the beverage and the conviviality of the occasion, including story-telling, fortune-telling, and so forth.

While some of these stages may be curtailed in modern coffee drinking, for example the coffee might be purchased already roasted and ground, the rituals and paraphernalia (e.g. the anticipatory smell of the roasting beans) do act on the imagination and have a psychological effect.

History
Coffee drinking spread in the Islamic world in the 16th century. From the Hijaz it arrived in Cairo;  from thence it went to Syria and Istanbul. The coffee tree was first cultivated commercially in the Yemen, having been introduced there from the rainforests of Ethiopia where it grew wild. For a long time Yemenis had a world monopoly on the export of coffee beans (according to Carl Linnaeus, by deliberately destroying their ability to germinate). For nearly a century (1538–1636) the Ottoman empire controlled the southern coastal region of the Yemen, notably its famous coffee port Mocha. In the 18th century Egypt was the richest province of the Ottoman empire, and the chief commodity it traded was Yemeni coffee. Cairo merchants were responsible for moving it from the Yemen to markets in the Islamic world.

Coffee was in use in Istanbul by 1539, for a legal document mentions Ottoman admiral Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha's house had a coffee chamber. It appears that the first coffeehouse in Istanbul was opened in 1554 (some say 1551)  by Hakem of Aleppo and Șems of Damascus (they may have been separate establishments at first). Soon, coffeehouses spread all over Istanbul and even to small towns in Anatolia.

Ignatius d'Ohsson described for French readers the Turkish method of brewing coffee (Tableau Général de l’Empire Othoman, 1789). His description, translated in this note, closely resembles the present day version, including the production of foam. From the traveller Jean de Thévenot it appears Turks were using it at least a century before that. He mentions that they drank it black; some added cloves, cardamom or sugar, but it was thought to be less healthy, and until recently, an older generation of connoisseurs disdained the habit of sugaring Turkish coffee.

Origin of the Turkish method
There are inconsistent claims as to the origin of Turkish coffee. Without citing historical sources, some authors have asserted the method originated in the Yemen. or in Damascus (a plausible, if unsubstantiated claim, since the Middle Eastern coffeehouse did probably originate in Damascus and was brought to Istanbul by Syrians, see above); or with the Turkish people themselves.

Yemenis may have been the first to consume coffee as a hot beverage (instead of chewing the bean, or adding it to solid food) and the earliest social users were probably Sufi mystics in that region who needed to stay awake for their nocturnal vigils. However a 1762 Danish scientific expedition noted that Yemenis did not like coffee made the "Turkish" way, and rarely drank it, thinking it bad for the health: they much preferred kisher, a beverage made of the coffee shells which more closely resembled a tea; Likewise, according to scientist John Ellis (1774), French visitors to the Yemeni royal court noticed that only a version was drunk made from coffee husks with a colour like beer. In 1910, the U.S. consul at Aden reported "the Yemen Arab never uses coffee himself, contrary to general opinion and the reports of some travelers, but raises it almost wholly for export. He uses kishar, a beverage he brews from the dried hulls, in large quantities... So little is coffee used by the people that a few months after the new crop has been gathered it is impossible for one passing through the country to buy a single pound" and it has been said that Yemenis do not drink much coffee to this day.

If Turkish coffee is defined as "a very strong black coffee served with the fine grounds in it", then the method is generic in Middle Eastern cities (in rural areas a different method is used and is called Arabic coffee) and goes by various other names too, such as Egyptian coffee, Syrian coffee, and so forth, though there may be some local variations.

Illegality and acceptance
The English word coffee derives from Turkish kahve, which came from Arabic qahwah, which could mean wine. It is sometimes stated that coffee was forbidden in Islam, albeit the ban was not very effective. However, it seems most Muslim religious scholars actually supported coffee, or were not averse to it on principle. It was governments who wanted to suppress coffee gatherings, fearing they were foci of political dissent. "What was condemned was not caffeine's physiological effects but rather the freedom of coffeehouse talk which rulers consided subversive".

Already in 1543 several ships were ordered to be sunk in Istanbul harbour for importing coffee. Under Sultan Murad IV those found keeping a coffeehouse were cudgelled for a first offence, sewn in a bag and thrown into the Bosphorus for a second. These bans were sporadic and often ignored. (Similarly, the government of Charles II of England tried to suppress coffee houses as seditious gatherings - the ban lasted a few days - and, much later, the republican government of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk tried to prohibit or discourage coffeehouses in Turkish villages, saying they were places where men gathered to waste their time). Eventually the authorities found it to their advantage to tax the trade not suppress it. Fifteen years after coffee arrived in Istanbul there were over 600 coffeehouses, wrote an Armenian historian.

To prepare Turkish coffee really well is not easy,  and prominent Ottoman Turks kept specialist coffee cooks for the purpose. Sultan Süleyman had a kahvecibasi or chief coffee-cook, and it became a traditional practice for Sultans. To demonstrate the civility of their rule they built magnificent coffeehouses in newly conquered parts of the Ottoman empire.

Western Europe
From the Ottoman empire, coffee-drinking spread to western Europe, probably being first introduced into Venice, where it was consumed as a medicine. Early consumers were travellers who imported it for their own use. Other early users were virtuosi: gentleman-scholars curious about the outside world and willing to try exotic products. Since these early adopters were trying to recreate the genuine article, probably they were making proper Turkish coffee, or at least something like it. For example Jean de Thévenot imported authentic ibriks from the Ottoman empire.

However, most early modern Europeans did not like coffee,  which is an acquired taste,  and especially they did not like the black, bitter Turkish version. In any case it was too expensive: in France, coffee beans sold for the equivalent of $8,000 a kilo. Coffee did not become a popular beverage until it was altered to appeal to European palates and its price drastically lowered, as follows.

The Yemeni coffee monopoly was broken by the Dutch, who managed to obtain viable coffee plants from Mocha and propagated them to their empire in Java. They were followed by the French, who planted a tree at the Jardin des Plantes de Paris; it has been claimed that "This tree was destined to be the progenitor of most of the coffee of the French colonies, as well as those of South America, Central America, and Mexico",  i.e. most of the coffee in the world, though it has been called "a neat story". By the time of the French Revolution, 80% of the world's coffee was grown in the Americas and French coffee was ousting the Yemeni product in Cairo, even being exported back to Mocha itself. The price of coffee fell so much that by mid-18th century it was accessible to French townspeople of all classes.

When coffee was eventually popularised, what was served was not genuine Turkish coffee, but a product heavily diluted with water (much weaker than modern espresso) or milk,  and sweetened with sugar. "Combining coffee with fresh milk turned a Turkish drink into a French one". Already in 1689, in a paper for fellow scientists at the Royal Society, London, John Houghton though stressing coffee's Ottoman origins, said very good coffee was made by boiling the grounds in plenty of water and letting them settle, leaving a clear, reddish liquor: which is not Turkish coffee.

Despite this, the "Turkish" connection was strongly promoted, since its exotic connotations helped the new drink to sell. Coffeehouse keepers wore turbans, or called their shops "Turk's Head" and suchlike. Especially in France there was a craze for things Turkish: fashion plates depicted aristocratic ladies taking coffee while dressed as sultanas, attended by servants in Moorish costume. Its medical value was stressed: it became popular in France when doctors advised café au lait was good for the health. In England, the earliest advertisement (1652) for a coffee house — owned by Pasqua Rosée, an Armenian from Ragusa (modern Dubrovnik) — claimed that Turkish people "are not troubled with the Stone, Gout, Dropsie, or Scurvey" and "their skins are exceedingly cleer and white". Despite this, Rosée's product was weak enough to be drunk a half pint (485 ml) at a time on an empty stomach, not an attribute of real Turkish coffee. If there were 'Turkish' coffeehouses in Oxford or Paris, the cited historical sources do not show they were serving coffee made in the Turkish manner.

The real Ottoman influence was on European coffee house culture. "The coffeehouse and café, far from being English and French creations, were at heart an import from Mecca, Cairo, and Constantinople", a topic outside the scope of this article.

America
The first person who brought coffee to America may have been Captain John Smith and, since he had been in Turkish service (he had been enslaved and given to a pasha's mistress), conceivably he prepared it in the Turkish manner. Already by 1683 William Penn was complaining about the price of coffee in Pennsylvania.

Decline
In the 20th century, especially in wartime and the 1950s, shortages in Turkey meant that coffee was scarcely available for years at a time, or was adulterated with chickpeas and other substances. Habits changed; the old coffee culture declined; the epicurean coffee aficionado was less to be seen. Although still important in Turkish tradition, today Turks drink more tea than coffee. A survey of Turkish regions found that in some areas "coffee" was made without using coffee beans at all. By 2018 there were said to be over 400 Starbucks stores in Istanbul alone, and younger Turks were embracing third-wave coffee. The most popular brand in Turkey is Nescafé. However, UNESCO has inscribed Turkish coffee culture and tradition on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and "there still exist serious aficionados who would never trade the taste of Turkish coffee with anything else".

Fortune-telling

The grounds left after drinking Turkish coffee are sometimes used to tell fortunes, a practice known as tasseography. The cup is turned over into the saucer to cool, and the patterns of the coffee grounds are interpreted.

Turkish weddings
As well as being an everyday beverage, Turkish coffee is also a part of the traditional Turkish wedding custom. As a prologue to marriage, the bridegroom's parents (in the lack of his father, his mother and an elderly member of his family) must visit the young girl's family to ask the hand of the bride-to-be and the blessings of her parents upon the upcoming marriage. During this meeting, the bride-to-be must prepare and serve Turkish coffee to the guests. For the groom's coffee, the bride-to-be sometimes uses salt instead of sugar to gauge his character. If the bridegroom drinks his coffee without any sign of displeasure, the bride-to-be assumes that the groom is good-tempered and patient. As the groom already comes as the demanding party to the girl's house, in fact it is the boy who is passing an exam and etiquette requires him to receive with all smiles this particular present from the girl. In some regions, however, "if the coffee is brewed without any froth. it means 'You have no chance!'".

Names and variants
There is controversy about its name e.g. in some ex-Ottoman dependencies, mostly due to nationalistic feelings or political rivalry with Turkey.

Armenia
This type of strong coffee is a standard of Armenian households. The main difference is that cardamom is used in Armenian coffee. Armenians introduced the coffee to Corfu when they settled the island, where it is known as "eastern coffee" due to its Eastern origin. Corfu, which had never been part of the Ottoman holdings, did not have an established Ottoman coffee culture before it was introduced by the Armenians. According to The Reuben Percy Anecdotes compiled by journalist Thomas Byerley, an Armenian opened a coffee shop in Europe in 1674, at a time when coffee was first becoming fashionable in the West.

The term Turkish coffee is still used in many languages but in Armenian it is either called հայկական սուրճ, or սեւ սուրճ, referring to the traditional preparation done without milk or creamer. If unsweetened it is called bitter (դառը or daruh) in Armenia, but more commonly it is brewed with a little sugar (normal). Armenians will sometimes serve a plate of baklava, gata, or nazook alongside the coffee.

Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Lithuania
A beverage called turecká káva or turek is very popular in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, although other forms of coffee preparation such as espresso have become more popular in the last few decades, decreasing the popularity of turek. Turek is usually no longer served in cafés, but it is prepared in pubs and kiosks, and in homes. The Czech and Slovak form of Turkish coffee is different from Turkish coffee in Turkey, the Arab world or Balkan countries, since a cezve is not used; instead the desired amount of ground coffee is put in a cup and boiling or almost boiling water is poured over it. In recent years, Turkish coffee is also made in a cezve (džezva in Czech), but Turkish coffee usually means the method described above. Coffee is prepared in the same way in Poland and Lithuania.

Greece
In Greece, Turkish coffee was formerly referred to simply as 'Turkish' (τούρκικος). But political tensions with Turkey in the 1950s led to the political euphemism Greek coffee (ελληνικός καφές)," which became even more popular after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974: "[…] Greek–Turkish relations at all levels became strained, 'Turkish coffee' became 'Greek coffee' by substitution of one Greek word for another while leaving the Arabic loan-word, for which there is no Greek equivalent, unchanged." There were even advertising campaigns promoting the name Greek coffee in the 1990s. The name for a coffee pot remains either a briki (μπρίκι) in mainland Greek or a tzisves (τζισβές) in Cypriot Greek.

Former Yugoslavia
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkish coffee is also called Bosnian coffee (bosanska kahva), which is made slightly differently from its Turkish counterpart. A deviation from the Turkish preparation is that when the water reaches its boiling point, a small amount is saved aside for later, usually in a coffee cup. Then, the coffee is added to the pot (džezva), and the remaining water in the cup is added to the pot. Everything is put back on the heat source to reach its boiling point again, which only takes a couple of seconds since the coffee is already very hot. Coffee drinking in Bosnia is a traditional daily custom and plays an important role during social gatherings.

In Serbia, Slovenia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Croatia it is called 'Turkish coffee' (turška kava / turska kava / турска кафа / turska kafa), 'domestic coffee' (domača kava, домаћа кафа / domaća kafa / domaća kava) or simply 'coffee' (kava, кафа / kafa). It is nearly identical to the Turkish version. In Serbia, Turkish coffee is also called српска кафа, which means 'Serbian coffee'. The most common name is домаћа кафа, meaning 'domestic coffee'.

title: Turkish coffee


text:
Runoff

Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to:
 * Runoff (hydrology), the flow of water over land
 * Channel runoff, the confined flow of water
 * Surface runoff, the unconfined flow of water over land
 * Runoff model (reservoir), a mathematical model involving rainfall and runoff
 * Runoff curve number, an empirical parameter used in hydrology
 * RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program
 * Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed
 * Runoff or run-off, a stock market term
 * Runoff voting system, also known as the two-round system, a voting system where a second round of voting is used to elect one of the two candidates receiving the most votes in the first round
 * Instant-runoff voting, an extension or variation of runoff voting where a second round can be rendered unnecessary by voters ranking candidates in order of preference
 * Run-off area, a racetrack safety feature
 * Runoff (2014 film) directed by Kimberly Levin

title: Runoff


text:
User talk:Bird

bird: i see you too have suffered at the hand of the wikopedia fascists. they are evil. they are the great shaytan. they pretend to be the high and mighty "oh we are for free exchange of information. we even have a gpl liscense nonsense, but they practice the most subtle form of censorship. kepp on fighting the good fight. - User:sayyed al afghani

 * Have a look at that guy's record. Subtlety is definitely not his strong point... - Mustafaa 23:55, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I've seen some of your contributions, mustafaa- objectivity sure isn't one of your strong points.

- Whomever last reverted this page to a March 8 version may please now go do something productive and allow this contributor to manage this contributors talk page. Previous versions of this page are available in the Page history and are widely available at several other user sites.

Hello, "bird" I am User:Plato, I have noticed that you are another victim of the "Wikipedia Witch Hunt," trust me, its quite comman...here's an offical policy on it:Wikipedians should generally refrain from witch hunts of users who may be reincarnations of banned users. My suggestion to you is to talk to User:Jimbo Wales, trust me, he will solve most of your problems...If you are banned E-mail me, I will respond.--Plato 05:41, 17 Mar 2004 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Plato, but I'm sure most of my problems will be solved within the next nine or ten decades by my inevitable death, so there is nothing so urgent taking place here as to warrant bothering Jimbo. Many of the aggressive responses I get from other users are helpful to me in sorting out the various behaviors typical of various users. I also am observing the development of a type of neural network at Wikipedia. I notice that the network is an immature network that easily develops frightened, unlearned reactions then attempts to explain those reactions as having been caused by the object of its fear. Bird 05:52, 17 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Interesting....sort of like our MTV Culture in America (as I jokingly put it), it seems even wiki (which i thought was above the Fray is not) gets afraid of "gadflys" such as yourself and I.--Plato 06:18, 17 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Hello Bird. I'm not sure if you've seen, the thread of our discussion on the Wikipedia board was inadvertently deleted. I would have asked for it to be deleted shortly anyway so in that sense it doesn't matter, but I got a message notification from that thread and didn't get a chance to read the message. If it was from you, and you want to repeat the message, I can be reached on the board, my talk page or by e-mail as usual. Regards -- sannse (talk) 23:25, 17 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Bird, Thanks for warning me about Jimbo, its evident to I that he and his syops are bothering me only because i used to be a vandal. You and I will always be viewed with suspicion because of our backround.--Plato 00:29, 18 Mar 2004 (UTC)

--- Bird, I will get banned from wiki eventally because no one on this site (expect you and few other) like someone who speaks the truth. You where right no one on this site thinks highly of anyone who doesn't fit into there mold--Plato 03:07, 18 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * It is easy enough to avoid conflict with other writers. You really don't need to have any conflicts other than those you choose to engage. But it might seem lucrative to engage in conflict to resolve disonance this document tends to create. This document can tend to create disonant cognition by its encouragement of faulty, substandard information produced by writers of unreliable commitment to the credibility of their work. Bird 03:39, 18 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Bird, if you want people to read and understand your views, write them in common language. Many of us can decipher it, but if we can't, we just won't read it. Plato, us sysops are not a band of people plotting against you, trying to stamp out all dissonants. We are simply attempting to keep the peace on Wikipedia; otherwise, it would run rampant with vandalism and other such actions. Because both of you have partaken in such actions, we are inherently more suspicious of you than others. (I used that language because you guys like verboseness...) ugen64 04:04, Mar 18, 2004 (UTC)

 * Ugen, I have no problem explaining my views to intelligent, articulate and interested individuals. If you are unable to understand this simple language, I am certain you are unqualified to contribute to an encyclopedia. Your distrust for this username is a product of efforts by the creator of this username to undermine your trust. I have manipulated other user names to demonstrate continued niave trust among this juvenile group. And while you claim sysops are keeping the peace, evidence suggests they are practicing aggressive behaviors learned from their primarily middle class backgrounds, including hazing, peer pressure and class-hatred. If you want to repair the ignorance you discovered in yourself reading my repoly to Plato, and to which you intervened in my conversation with Plato to suggest incoherence, click on this link, cognitive dissonance since apparently some Wikipedia editors are unable to use their own neural networks and cannot funciton without a hyperlinked neural prosthesis. From the tone, stance and approach of your writing, Ugen, I beleive you have failed to comprehend basic personal boundaries, such as in your creation of "if-then" orders that assume I have no intelligence or agency as an individual. Put simply, Ugen, your psychopathology is evidence of the reasons much of the world hates Western culture.

 * What's more, since you demonstrate no interest in the way this contributors views of Wikipedia developed and then were infected by a realization of the harm and innacuracy of this pseudo-encyclopedia, I can only conclude your reply to me is an act of personal hostility intended to colonize my thoughts, and to imply to other readers that your niave view of why people persue sysop privilages here is the only correct view. I trust your habits will cause you repeated problems as you continue to live. Bird

Hey
Haven't talked in a while Bird, I feel you deserve a Barnstar for being brave in standing up to the wikipedia establishment--Plato 15:55, 6 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * Thank you, Plato. I am currently contemplating whether I wish to help repair damage to Wikipedia's evolving jurisprudence that presented when one admin arbitrarily and permanently blocked this username, after I contributed comments and a vote to the Quickpoll page. You can see my statements that apparently led to that unilateral action by reviewing the user contributions I attributed to this username. But there is only so much one person can do to remediate an unrepentant group of antagonists. Sometimes, especially in the past week, it has been easier to assume that Western culture will have an opportunity to learn the futility of unilateral, vigilante jurisprudence in the context of more significant conflicts elsewhere. At this juncture, the function of this emerging network more accurately demonstrates the disfunctional aspects of the human brain better than anything I could contribute to the articles I donated on the subject.

Article Licensing
Hi, I've started a drive to get users to multi-license all of their contributions that they've made to either (1) all U.S. state, county, and city articles or (2) all articles, using the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC-by-sa) v1.0 and v2.0 Licenses or into the public domain if they prefer. The CC-by-sa license is a true free documentation license that is similar to Wikipedia's license, the GFDL, but it allows other projects, such as WikiTravel, to use our articles. Since you are among the top 2000 Wikipedians by edits, I was wondering if you would be willing to multi-license all of your contributions or at minimum those on the geographic articles. Over 90% of people asked have agreed. For More Information:
 * Multi-Licensing FAQ - Lots of questions answered
 * Multi-Licensing Guide
 * Free the Rambot Articles Project

To allow us to track those users who muli-license their contributions, many users copy and paste the " " template into their user page, but there are other options at Template messages/User namespace. The following examples could also copied and pasted into your user page:

 * Option 1
 * I agree to multi-license all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below:

OR
 * Option 2
 * I agree to multi-license all my contributions to any U.S. state, county, or city article as described below:

Or if you wanted to place your work into the public domain, you could replace " " with "  ". If you only prefer using the GFDL, I would like to know that too. Please let me know what you think at my talk page. It's important to know either way so no one keeps asking. -- Ram-Man (comment| talk)

Hi bird, what is going on here mate? Check out WP:AFL Rogerthat 12:23, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

What the heck is that thing? Is that supposed to be the Goat.cx man or something?

Vandal

 * [[Image:Stop_hand.svg|left|30px]] This is your last warning. The next time you vandalize a page, you will be blocked from editing Wikipedia.  -- Jeff3000 03:59, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Unspecified source for Image:Atmospheric radiation to man.png
Thanks for uploading Image:Atmospheric radiation to man.png. I notice the file's description page currently doesn't specify who created the content, so the copyright status is unclear. If you have not created this file yourself, then there needs to be an argument why we have the right to use it on Wikipedia (see copyright tagging below). If you did not create the file yourself, then you need to specify where it was found, i.e., in most cases link to the website where it was taken from, and the terms of use for content from that page.

If the file also doesn't have a copyright tag, then one should be added. If you created/took the picture, audio, or video then the GFDL-self tag can be used to release it under the GFDL. If you believe the media meets the criteria at Fair use, use a tag such as or one of the other tags listed at Image copyright tags. See Image copyright tags for the full list of copyright tags that you can use.

If you have uploaded other files, consider checking that you have specified their source and tagged them, too. You can find a list of files you have uploaded by following this link. Unsourced and untagged images may be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. User:Angr 09:05, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!
Hi, You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:12, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Bird


text:
User:Uriel Apeiron

@ Hello World

@ Don't let the @ sign bother you, i use it in forums to mark my paragraphs. As in the A stands for Apeiron.

@ See ya later.

title: User:Uriel Apeiron


text:
Talk:Cork cambium

moved from article:
 * (Does anyone know if monocots and gymnosperms have cork cambium?)

To my knowledge, monocots don't (although others here have said that some do), and all gymnosperms do. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Zujua (talk • contribs) 04:56, 3 November 2011 (UTC)

title: Talk:Cork cambium


text:
Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll

Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll, 10th Earl of Argyll (25 July 1658 – September 1703) was a Scottish peer.

Biography
The eldest son of Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll and Mary Stuart, daughter of James Stuart, 4th Earl of Moray, Campbell sought to recover his father's estates (by gaining King James VII's favour). However, after failing to do so, he went to The Hague and supported William and Mary's quest for the throne; this important support later led to the monarchs returning his father's estate in 1690. In spite of the attainder, he was admitted in 1689 to the Convention of the Estates of Scotland as earl of Argyll, and he was deputed, with Sir James Montgomery and Sir John Dalrymple, to present the crown to William in its name, and to tender him the coronation oath. Also, he was made a Privy Councillor. He was William's chief Scottish advisor, and was colonel-in-chief of the Earl of Argyll's Regiment of Foot, that was involved in the 1692 massacre of the MacDonalds of Glen Coe, but took no part in any of its field operations. In 1696 he was made a lord of the treasury, and was created a duke in 1701.

On 12 March 1678, he married Elizabeth Tollemache (daughter of Elizabeth and Sir Lionel Tollemache, 3rd Baronet) at Edinburgh, Scotland. Elizabeth's stepfather John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale was a dominant figure in Scottish politics of the era. They had four children, born at Ham House outside London:

 * John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll (10 October 1680 – 4 October 1743)
 * Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll (June 1682 – 15 April 1761)
 * Lady Margaret Campbell (2 June 1690 – died bef 1703), not mentioned in father's will
 * Lady Anne Campbell (12 Jan 1692 – 20 October 1736), m. James Stuart, 2nd Earl of Bute

The 1st Duke of Argyll is buried at Kilmun Parish Church.

title: Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll


text:
Template:DANFS

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

title: Template:DANFS


text:
Member states of the World Customs Organization

As of January 2023, the World Customs Organization has a total of 185 members. The European Communities (now: European Union) joined "on an interim basis akin to those enjoyed by WCO Members".

Members list with date of membership
The 185 WCO members include 179 United Nations member states, one United Nations General Assembly non-member observer state (the State of Palestine), as well as Kosovo and 4 customs territories which are dependent territories. Those 185 members and the European Union are divided into the following regional groups:

East and Southern Africa

 * United Nations member states
 * 🇦🇴 Angola— 1990-09-26
 * 🇧🇼 Botswana— 1978-08-25
 * 🇧🇮 Burundi— 1964-10-20
 * 🇰🇲 Comoros— 1993-07-01
 * 🇩🇯 Djibouti— 2008-03-19
 * 🇪🇷 Eritrea— 1995-08-08
 * Eswatini— 1981-05-15
 * 🇪🇹 Ethiopia— 1973-08-06
 * 🇰🇪 Kenya— 1965-05-24
 * 🇱🇸 Lesotho— 1978-08-02
 * 🇲🇬 Madagascar— 1964-02-18
 * 🇲🇼 Malawi— 1966-06-06
 * 🇲🇺 Mauritius— 1973-03-29
 * 🇲🇿 Mozambique— 1987-07-01
 * 🇳🇦 Namibia— 1992-07-01
 * 🇷🇼 Rwanda— 1964-03-03
 * 🇸🇨 Seychelles— 2000-07-25
 * 🇸🇴 Somalia— 2012-10-04
 * 🇸🇸 South Sudan— 2012-07-18
 * 🇿🇦 South Africa— 1964-03-24
 * 🇹🇿 Tanzania— 1964-11-07
 * 🇺🇬 Uganda— 1964-11-03
 * 🇿🇲 Zambia— 1978-09-27
 * 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe— 1981-03-19

Europe

 * United Nations member states (founders in bold)
 * 🇦🇱 Albania— 1992-08-31
 * 🇦🇩 Andorra— 1998-09-03
 * 🇦🇲 Armenia — 1992-06-30
 * 🇦🇹 Austria— 1953-01-21
 * 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan — 1992-06-17
 * 🇧🇾 Belarus— 1993-12-16
 * 🇧🇪 Belgium— 1952-12-11
 * 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina— 2008-07-04
 * 🇧🇬 Bulgaria— 1973-08-01
 * 🇭🇷 Croatia— 1993-07-01
 * 🇨🇾 Cyprus — 1967-08-31
 * 🇨🇿 Czech Republic— 1993-01-01
 * 🇩🇰 Denmark— 1951-10-19
 * 🇪🇪 Estonia— 1992-06-18
 * 🇫🇮 Finland— 1961-01-27
 * 🇫🇷 France— 1952-10-06
 * Georgia (country)— 1993-10-26
 * 🇩🇪 Germany— 1952-11-04
 * 🇬🇷 Greece— 1951-12-10
 * 🇭🇺 Hungary— 1968-09-16
 * 🇮🇸 Iceland— 1971-02-15
 * 🇮🇪 Ireland— 1952-09-23
 * 🇮🇱 Israel — 1958-05-23
 * 🇮🇹 Italy— 1952-11-20
 * 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan— 1992-06-30
 * 🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan — 2000-02-10
 * 🇱🇻 Latvia— 1992-06-22
 * 🇱🇹 Lithuania— 1992-06-18
 * 🇱🇺 Luxembourg— 1953-01-23
 * 🇲🇹 Malta— 1968-07-06
 * 🇲🇩 Moldova— 1994-10-28
 * 🇲🇪 Montenegro— 2006-10-24
 * 🇳🇱 Netherlands— 1953-01-23
 * North Macedonia — 1994-07-01
 * 🇳🇴 Norway— 1951-08-06
 * 🇵🇱 Poland— 1974-07-17
 * 🇵🇹 Portugal— 1953-01-26
 * 🇷🇴 Romania— 1969-01-15
 * Russian Federation— 1991-07-08
 * 🇷🇸 Serbia— 2001-03-27
 * 🇸🇰 Slovakia— 1993-01-01
 * 🇸🇮 Slovenia— 1992-09-07
 * 🇪🇸 Spain— 1952-07-13
 * 🇸🇪 Sweden— 1952-10-17
 * 🇨🇭 Switzerland— 1952-12-19
 * 🇹🇯 Tajikistan — 1997-07-01
 * 🇹🇷 Turkey— 1951-06-06
 * 🇹🇲 Turkmenistan — 1993-05-17
 * 🇺🇦 Ukraine— 1992-06-26
 * 🇬🇧 United Kingdom— 1952-09-12
 * 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan — 1992-07-28
 * non-UN member, partially recognised state
 * Kosovo— 2017-01-25
 * customs union
 * 🇪🇺 European Union

Far East, South and South East Asia, Australasia and the Pacific Islands

 * United Nations member states
 * 🇦🇫 Afghanistan— 2004-08-10
 * 🇦🇺 Australia— 1961-01-05
 * 🇧🇩 Bangladesh— 1978-07-01
 * 🇧🇹 Bhutan— 2002-02-12
 * 🇧🇳 Brunei Darussalam— 1996-07-01
 * 🇰🇭 Cambodia— 2001-04-03
 * People's Republic of China— 1983-07-18
 * 🇫🇯 Fiji— 1997-07-01
 * 🇮🇳 India— 1971-02-15
 * 🇮🇩 Indonesia— 1957-04-30
 * 🇮🇷 Iran— 1959-10-16
 * 🇯🇵 Japan— 1964-01-15
 * 🇰🇷 South Korea— 1968-07-02
 * Laos— 2007-01-16
 * 🇲🇾 Malaysia— 1964-06-30
 * 🇲🇻 Maldives— 1995-09-08
 * 🇲🇳 Mongolia— 1991-09-17
 * 🇲🇲 Myanmar— 1991-03-25
 * 🇳🇵 Nepal— 1986-07-22
 * 🇳🇿 New Zealand— 1963-05-16
 * 🇵🇰 Pakistan— 1955-11-16
 * 🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea— 2002-03-18
 * 🇵🇭 Philippines— 1980-10-01
 * 🇼🇸 Samoa— 2001-10-01
 * 🇸🇬 Singapore— 1975-07-09
 * 🇸🇧 Solomon Islands— 2023-01-26
 * 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka— 1967-05-29
 * 🇹🇭 Thailand— 1972-02-04
 * East Timor— 2003-09-19
 * 🇹🇴 Tonga— 2005-07-01
 * 🇻🇺 Vanuatu — 2009-11-17
 * Vietnam— 1993-07-01
 * dependent, customs territories
 * 🇭🇰 Hong Kong— 1987-07-01
 * Macau— 1993-07-07

North of Africa, Near and Middle East

 * United Nations member states
 * 🇩🇿 Algeria— 1966-12-19
 * 🇧🇭 Bahrain— 2001-04-18
 * 🇪🇬 Egypt— 1956-10-26
 * 🇮🇶 Iraq— 1990-06-06
 * 🇯🇴 Jordan— 1964-01-01
 * 🇰🇼 Kuwait— 1993-10-04
 * 🇱🇧 Lebanon— 1960-05-20
 * 🇱🇾 Libya— 1983-01-11
 * 🇲🇦 Morocco— 1968-07-01
 * 🇴🇲 Oman— 2000-09-11
 * 🇶🇦 Qatar— 1992-05-04
 * 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia— 1973-05-08
 * 🇸🇩 Sudan— 1960-06-08
 * Syria— 1959-11-19
 * 🇹🇳 Tunisia— 1966-07-20
 * 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates— 1979-02-07
 * 🇾🇪 Yemen— 1993-07-01
 * United Nations General Assembly non-member observer state
 * State of Palestine— 2015-03-24

South America, North America, Central America and the Caribbean

 * United Nations member states
 * 🇦🇬 Antigua and Barbuda— 2017-04-10
 * 🇦🇷 Argentina— 1968-07-01
 * 🇧🇸 Bahamas— 1974-08-16
 * 🇧🇧 Barbados— 1999-01-07
 * 🇧🇿 Belize— 2008-04-22
 * 🇧🇴 Bolivia— 1997-08-14
 * 🇧🇷 Brazil— 1981-01-19
 * 🇨🇦 Canada— 1971-10-12
 * 🇨🇱 Chile— 1966-07-01
 * 🇨🇴 Colombia— 1993-07-11
 * 🇨🇷 Costa Rica— 2001-08-29
 * 🇨🇺 Cuba— 1988-07-01
 * 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic— 2004-07-28
 * 🇪🇨 Ecuador— 1997-12-16
 * 🇸🇻 El Salvador— 2005-07-07
 * 🇬🇹 Guatemala— 1985-02-22
 * 🇬🇾 Guyana— 1976-07-29
 * 🇭🇹 Haiti— 1958-01-31
 * 🇭🇳 Honduras— 2005-12-08
 * 🇯🇲 Jamaica— 1963-03-29
 * 🇲🇽 Mexico— 1988-02-08
 * 🇳🇮 Nicaragua— 1998-09-24
 * 🇵🇦 Panama— 1996-03-08
 * 🇵🇾 Paraguay— 1969-10-03
 * 🇵🇪 Peru— 1970-01-27
 * 🇱🇨 Saint Lucia— 2005-05-12
 * 🇸🇷 Suriname— 2018-11-26
 * 🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago— 1973-10-15
 * 🇺🇸 United States— 1970-11-05
 * 🇺🇾 Uruguay— 1977-09-16
 * 🇻🇪 Venezuela— 1996-07-01
 * dependent, customs territories
 * Netherlands Antilles— 1988-07-11
 * 🇦🇼 Aruba
 * 🇨🇼 Curaçao
 * Sint Maarten
 * 🇧🇲 Bermuda— 1990-07-01

West and Central Africa

 * United Nations member states
 * 🇧🇯 Benin— 1998-11-09
 * 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso— 1966-09-16
 * 🇨🇲 Cameroon— 1965-04-09
 * 🇨🇻 Cape Verde— 1992-07-01
 * 🇨🇫 Central African Republic— 1986-07-28
 * 🇹🇩 Chad— 2005-02-16
 * Democratic Republic of the Congo— 1972-07-26
 * Republic of the Congo— 1975-09-02
 * 🇨🇮 Côte d'Ivoire— 1963-09-02
 * 🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea— 2021-12-22
 * 🇬🇦 Gabon— 1965-02-18
 * 🇬🇲 Gambia— 1987-10-14
 * 🇬🇭 Ghana— 1968-08-01
 * 🇬🇳 Guinea— 1991-10-30
 * 🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau — 2010-08-19
 * 🇱🇷 Liberia— 1975-01-07
 * 🇲🇱 Mali— 1987-08-07
 * 🇲🇷 Mauritania— 1979-10-02
 * 🇳🇪 Niger— 1981-07-01
 * 🇳🇬 Nigeria— 1963-08-21
 * São Tomé and Príncipe — 2009-09-23
 * 🇸🇳 Senegal— 1976-03-10
 * 🇸🇱 Sierra Leone— 1975-11-06
 * 🇹🇬 Togo— 1990-02-12

Non-Members
The following states and territories are not members of the WCO:

United Nations member states

 * 🇰🇳 Saint Kitts and Nevis
 * 🇻🇨 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
 * 🇬🇩 Grenada
 * 🇩🇲 Dominica
 * 🇱🇮 Liechtenstein
 * 🇲🇨 Monaco
 * 🇸🇲 San Marino
 * 🇰🇵 North Korea
 * 🇵🇼 Palau
 * 🇲🇭 Marshall Islands
 * Federated States of Micronesia
 * 🇰🇮 Kiribati
 * 🇹🇻 Tuvalu
 * 🇳🇷 Nauru

States not members of the United Nations

 * 🇻🇦 Vatican City
 * 🇨🇰 Cook Islands
 * 🇳🇺 Niue
 * 🇹🇼 Taiwan

The following states with limited recognition are not members of the WCO:

 * Abkhazia
 * Artsakh
 * South Ossetia
 * Somaliland
 * Transnistria
 * 🇪🇭 Western Sahara


text:
Nicholas Longworth

Nicholas Longworth III (November 5, 1869 – April 9, 1931) was an American lawyer and politician who became Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. A Republican, he was elected to the Ohio Senate, where he initiated the successful Longworth Act of 1902, regulating the issuance of municipal bonds. As congressman for Ohio's 1st congressional district, he soon became a popular social figure of Washington, and married President Theodore Roosevelt's daughter Alice Lee Roosevelt. Their relationship became strained when he opposed her father in the Republican Party split of 1912. Longworth became Majority Leader of the House in 1923, and Speaker from 1925 to 1931. In this post, he exercised powerful leadership, tempered by charm and tact.

Early years and education
Longworth was the son of Nicholas Longworth II and Susan Walker. The Longworth family was an old, prominent, and wealthy family which dominated Cincinnati, Ohio. He had two younger sisters, Anna and Clara. Nicholas Longworth II was the son of Joseph Longworth and grandson of winemaker Nicholas Longworth I, both distinguished citizens of Cincinnati.

Nicholas Longworth III attended the Franklin School, a school for boys in Cincinnati, and then went on to attend Harvard College (Class of 1891), where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon (Alpha chapter) and the Porcellian Club. He was a talented, but not necessarily an industrious student; one friend wrote about him: "His good head made it easy for him to get perfectly respectable marks without doing much of any work." After receiving his bachelor's degree from Harvard, he attended Harvard Law School for one year, but transferred to and received his law degree from Cincinnati Law School in 1894.

Longworth was a violinist, and on their first visit to Bayreuth, his wife Alice Lee Roosevelt reported that "Nick was really a musician and cared deeply for music...." Later she observed that "In Washington, Nick never had much time to play his violin, and in those days there were very few people to play with him. In Cincinnati there were the orchestra, the College of Music, and the Conservatory to draw on, and soon we were having musical parties, at least once, and often two or three times a week. ... We would all have dinner first, the musicians and a few others who cared for music, and afterwards lose no time getting started, by about nine at the latest. From then on music and yet more music until midnight and usually long after." In a letter to Longworth's sister Clara, Leopold Stokowski wrote "Your brother had a rare understanding of music. He penetrated directly into the spirit of music. It was his natural element."

Professional life and entry into politics
Longworth began a law practice in Cincinnati after being admitted to the Ohio bar in 1894. His political career began with a position on the city's Board of Education in 1898.

As the protégé of Republican boss George B. Cox, Longworth was elected to the Ohio General Assembly, serving in the Ohio House of Representatives in 1899 and 1900, then in the State Senate from 1901 to 1903. In 1902 he was instrumental in writing and passing the Longworth Act, a bill regulating the issuance of municipal bonds, which has been labeled "one of the most successful laws in Ohio's history." Longworth was elected to the United States House of Representatives from the First Congressional District of Ohio which included the city of Cincinnati and the surrounding counties.

Longworth, a bachelor when he entered Congress, married Alice Lee Roosevelt, the daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt, on February 17, 1906, in a White House wedding that received widespread public attention In 1925, Roosevelt gave birth to a daughter named Paulina Longworth, who was conceived from her affair with Senator William Borah. One family friend said of Paulina, "everybody called her 'Aurora Borah Alice. Biographers and historians have concluded that though Longworth was delighted with Paulina's birth and doted on her, he almost certainly knew that Borah was her father. Longworth also had affairs, but the couple remained married, though Alice's support for the progressive movement while Longworth sided with the conservative wing of the Republican Party caused a political rift between them.

Throughout his political career, Longworth championed issues regarding foreign affairs and the protective tariff. As the progressive Republicans pulled apart from the conservatives in 1910–12, Longworth sided with the conservatives. When they bolted from the party in the 1912 election to support Theodore Roosevelt and establish their own party, Longworth, along with many of Roosevelt's closest political allies, remained firmly behind Republican standard-bearer President William Howard Taft. Longworth agreed more with Taft than Roosevelt on critical issues like an independent judiciary and support for business. As a result of the Republican Party rift, Longworth and his wife Alice found themselves on opposite sides of the divide in the fall campaign. She actively supported her father's third-party presidential candidacy, even though her husband was running for reelection on the Republican ticket. Longworth narrowly lost his House seat to Democratic challenger Stanley E. Bowdle.

Majority leader and Speaker of the House
Longworth returned to Congress in 1915, after defeating Bowdle in an election rematch, and served until his death in 1931. He became House Majority Leader in 1923, and rose to speaker in 1925, succeeding Frederick Gillett, who had been elected to the Senate.

Soon after becoming speaker, he set out to restore to the speakership many of the powers that had been stripped away during the revolt against Joseph Cannon. He also punished 13 progressives who supported Robert M. La Follette instead of Calvin Coolidge in the 1924 election. He expelled the rebels from the GOP caucus, and stripped even the committee chairmen among them of all seniority. Additionally, Longworth took control of the Steering Committee and Committee on Committees and placed his own men on the Rules Committee, guaranteeing that he controlled the work of the House.

Ignoring the progressive wing of the party, Longworth pursued legislation that aimed for balanced budgets and major tax reductions, resisting any new programs that would expand the role of government. However, Longworth defied President Herbert Hoover in 1931 by supporting the long-stalled veterans bonus bill; it passed but Hoover vetoed it, setting up the Bonus March of 1932.

Longworth reached across the aisle to Democrats, forging a productive relationship with John Nance Garner, that party's House minority leader, who relied upon informal methods to strengthen his party's influence. He enjoyed a close rapport with Garner, who said of Longworth, "I was the heathen and Nick was the aristocrat." Together they hosted a daily gathering of Democratic and Republican congressmen in a secluded room in the Capitol, which became known as the "Bureau of Education." This unofficial club provided a place for politicians to relax with a drink and get to know and work with one another across party lines.

Final days and death
Longworth served as speaker until the end of the 71st Congress on March 4, 1931, and was speaker-presumptive for the upcoming 72nd Congress at the time of his death (as he had won reelection in November 1930 and as at the time Republicans retained a narrow 3-seat House majority). He died unexpectedly from pneumonia on April 9 while visiting his friend Dwight Filley Davis (of Davis Cup fame), and Daniel J. Duckett in Aiken, South Carolina. His body was subsequently interred at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati. At a memorial service held at the Library of Congress on May 3, 1931, his old friends Efrem Zimbalist and Harold Bauer played Brahms's D minor sonata.

Character
Donald C. Bacon described Longworth as "Debonair and aristocratic, given to wearing spats and carrying a gold-headed cane. He was perpetually cheerful, quick with a joke or witty retort, and unfailingly friendly. He seemed never to have a care and made hard decisions with such ease and detachment that some people wondered if anything at all really mattered to him."

One particular famous retort is attributed to Longworth. One day, while he was lounging in a chair at the Capitol, another member of the House ran his hand over Longworth's bald pate and commented, "Nice and smooth. Feels just like my wife's bottom." Longworth felt his own head and said: "Yes, so it does."

Journalist Frank R. Kent of The Baltimore Sun wrote of him:

"Without any revision of the rules he completely recovered the power of the speakership and was the undisputed leader of the House with as autocratic control as either Reed or Cannon. It is true he exercised this power with infinitely more tact and grace and gumption and without that touch of offensive arrogance that characterized former House Czars. But he was just as much a Czar. What Mr. Longworth clearly proved was this matter of leadership depends not so much on the rules but on the man."

title: Nicholas Longworth


text:
Power-law fluid

In continuum mechanics, a power-law fluid, or the Ostwald–de Waele relationship, is a type of generalized Newtonian fluid (time-independent non-Newtonian fluid) for which the shear stress, $τ$, is given by

 * $$\tau = K \left( \frac {\partial u} {\partial y} \right)^n $$

where:
 * $K$ is the flow consistency index (SI units Pa sn),
 * $∂u⁄∂y$ is the shear rate or the velocity gradient perpendicular to the plane of shear (SI unit s−1), and
 * $n$ is the flow behavior index (dimensionless).

The quantity

 * $$\mu_\mathrm{eff} = K \left( \frac {\partial u} {\partial y} \right)^{n-1} $$

represents an apparent or effective viscosity as a function of the shear rate (SI unit Pa s). The value of $K$ and $n$ can be obtained from the graph of $\log(\mu_\mathrm{eff})$ and $\log\left( \frac {\partial u} {\partial y} \right) $. The slope line gives the value of $n – 1$, from which $n$ can be calculated. The intercept at $\log\left( \frac {\partial u} {\partial y} \right) = 0 $ gives the value of $\log(K)$.

Also known as the Ostwald–de Waele power law this mathematical relationship is useful because of its simplicity, but only approximately describes the behaviour of a real non-Newtonian fluid. For example, if $n$ were less than one, the power law predicts that the effective viscosity would decrease with increasing shear rate indefinitely, requiring a fluid with infinite viscosity at rest and zero viscosity as the shear rate approaches infinity, but a real fluid has both a minimum and a maximum effective viscosity that depend on the physical chemistry at the molecular level. Therefore, the power law is only a good description of fluid behaviour across the range of shear rates to which the coefficients were fitted. There are a number of other models that better describe the entire flow behaviour of shear-dependent fluids, but they do so at the expense of simplicity, so the power law is still used to describe fluid behaviour, permit mathematical predictions, and correlate experimental data.

Power-law fluids can be subdivided into three different types of fluids based on the value of their flow behaviour index:

Pseudoplastic fluids
Pseudoplastic, or shear-thinning are those fluids  whose behaviour is time independent and  which have a lower apparent viscosity at higher shear rates, and are usually solutions of large, polymeric molecules in a solvent with smaller molecules. It is generally supposed that the large molecular chains tumble at random and affect large volumes of fluid under low shear, but that they gradually align themselves in the direction of increasing shear and produce less resistance.

A common household example of a strongly shear-thinning fluid is styling gel, which is primarily composed of water and a fixative such as a vinyl acetate/vinylpyrrolidone copolymer (PVP/PA). If one were to hold a sample of hair gel in one hand and a sample of corn syrup or glycerine in the other, they would find that the hair gel is much harder to pour off the fingers (a low shear application), but that it produces much less resistance when rubbed between the fingers (a high shear application).

This type of behavior is widely encountered in solutions or suspensions. In these cases, large molecules or fine particles form loosely bounded aggregates or alignment groupings that are stable and reproducible at any given shear rate. But these fluids rapidly and reversibly break down or reform with an increase or decrease in shear rate. Pseudo plastic fluids show this behavior over a wide range of shear rates; however often approach a limiting Newtonian behavior at very low and very high rates of shear. These Newtonian regions are characterized by the viscosities $$\mu_0 $$ and $$\mu_\infty $$ respectively.

Newtonian fluids
A Newtonian fluid is a power-law fluid with a behaviour index of 1, where the shear stress is directly proportional to the shear rate:

 * $$\tau = \mu \frac {\partial u} {\partial y} $$

These fluids have a constant viscosity, μ, across all shear rates and include many of the most common fluids, such as water, most aqueous solutions, oils, corn syrup, glycerine, air and other gases.

While this holds true for relatively low shear rates, at high rates most oils in reality also behave in a non-Newtonian fashion and thin. Typical examples include oil films in automotive engine shell bearings and to a lesser extent in geartooth contacts.

Dilatant fluids
Dilatant, or shear-thickening fluids increase in apparent viscosity at higher shear rates.

They are in common use in viscous couplings in automobiles. When both ends of the coupling are spinning at the same rotational speed, the viscosity of the dilatant fluid is minimal, but if the ends of the coupling differ in speed, the coupling fluid becomes very viscous. They are used to prevent all of the torque from going to one wheel when the traction on that wheel drops, e.g. when one wheel is on ice. The viscous coupling between the two driven wheels ensures that both wheels turn at the same rate, providing torque to the wheel that is not slipping. Viscous couplings are also used to keep the front axle and the rear axle spinning at the same rate in four-wheel drive passenger automobiles.

Dilatant fluids are rarely encountered in everyday situations. One common example is an uncooked paste of cornstarch and water, sometimes known as oobleck. Under high shear rates, the water is squeezed out from between the starch molecules, which are able to interact more strongly, enormously increasing the viscosity.

While not strictly a dilatant fluid, Silly Putty (viscoelastic fluid) is an example of a material that shares these viscosity characteristics.

Velocity profile in a circular pipe
Just like a Newtonian fluid in a circular pipe gives a quadratic velocity profile (see Hagen–Poiseuille equation), a power-law fluid will result in a power-law velocity profile,

 * $$u(r) = \frac{n}{n+1}\left(\frac{dp}{dz}\frac{1}{2K}\right)^\frac{1}{n}\left(R^\frac{n+1}{n}-r^\frac{n+1}{n}\right) $$

where u(r) is the (radially) local axial velocity, $n$ is the pressure gradient along the pipe, and R is the pipe radius.

title: Power-law fluid


text:
Corteno

The Corteno or Pecora di Corteno is a breed of sheep from the Val Camonica, in the province of Brescia in Lombardy, northern Italy. It is raised in the comune of Corteno Golgi, from which it takes its name, and in the neighbouring comuni of Edolo, Malonno and Paisco Loveno, all lying within the Comunità Montana di Valle Camonica. It is one of the forty-two autochthonous local sheep breeds of limited distribution for which a herdbook is kept by the Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia, the Italian national association of sheep-breeders.

History
The origin of the Corteno breed is unknown, but is probably shared with that of other lop-eared breeds of the Alpine region such as the Bergamasca, the Biellese and the Lamon. Numbers were estimated at 4000 in 1983, and at about 1600 in 1995. In 2006 the total number was estimated at 1500, of which 131 were registered in the herdbook. The conservation status of the breed was listed as "critical" by the FAO in 2007. In 2013 the number registered for the breed was 295.

Use
The meat of the Corteno is exceptionally fatty. It is traditionally used to produce Cuz, a local type of preserved meat. Whole carcases of wether mutton are boiled in a cauldron for five or six hours with salt and a little water; the meat is then put up in terracotta jars with more salt and sealed with the mutton-fat.

title: Corteno