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Inglourious Basterds

Inglourious Basterds is a 2009 war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger and Mélanie Laurent. The film tells an alternate history story of two converging plots to assassinate Nazi Germany's leadership at a Paris cinema—one through a British operation largely carried out by a team of Jewish American soldiers led by First Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Pitt), and another by French Jewish cinema proprietor Shosanna Dreyfus (Laurent) who seeks to avenge her murdered family. Both are faced against Hans Landa (Waltz), an SS colonel with a fearsome reputation for hunting Jews.

The title was inspired by Italian director Enzo G. Castellari's 1978 Euro War film The Inglorious Bastards, though Tarantino's film is not a remake. When questioned about the unusual spellings, Tarantino would not explain the first u in Inglourious, but said, "The Basterds? That's just the way you say it: Basterds." He later stated that the misspelled title is "a Basquiat-esque touch". He further commented on Late Show with David Letterman that Inglourious Basterds is a "Quentin Tarantino spelling".

Tarantino wrote the script in 1998, but struggled with the ending and chose instead to direct the two-part film Kill Bill. After directing Death Proof in 2007, Tarantino returned to work on Inglourious Basterds. A co-production of the United States and Germany, the film began principal photography in October 2008 and was filmed in Germany and France with a $70 million production budget. It premiered on May 20, 2009, at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival, and received a wide release in theaters in the United States and Europe in August 2009 by the Weinstein Company and Universal Pictures.

Inglourious Basterds grossed over $321.5 million in theaters worldwide, making it Tarantino's highest-grossing film to that point, until it was surpassed in box office by Django Unchained (2012) and pushed to third-highest-grossing by Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). The film received positive reviews, with Waltz's performance as Hans Landa being singled out for praise, but some criticized the historical liberties taken. It also won multiple awards and nominations, among them eight Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay). For his role as Landa, Waltz won the Cannes Film Festival's Best Actor Award, as well as the BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild, Critics' Choice, Golden Globe, and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Plot
In 1941, Austrian SS-Standartenführer Hans Landa interrogates French farmer Perrier LaPadite, suspecting that his family is hiding a Jewish family, the Dreyfuses, under their floorboards. LaPadite confirms this to spare his own family, and Landa has the hidden family shot, but allows Shosanna Dreyfus to escape.

Three years later, U.S. Army Lieutenant Aldo Raine recruits Jewish-American soldiers to the "Basterds", a black ops commando unit instilling fear among Nazis in occupied France by killing and scalping them. The group includes Sergeant Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz, Privates First Class Smithson Utivich and Omar Ulmer, rogue German Sergeant Hugo Stiglitz, and Austrian-born translator Corporal Wilhelm Wicki. In Germany, Adolf Hitler interviews a German soldier, who reveals that Raine carved a swastika into his forehead after massacring his squad.

In Paris, Shosanna operates a cinema under the name Emmanuelle Mimieux, and meets Fredrick Zoller, a famed German sniper set to star in the German propaganda film Stolz der Nation (Nation's Pride). Infatuated with Shosanna, Zoller convinces Joseph Goebbels to hold the film's premiere at her cinema. Landa, the premiere's head of security, interrogates Shosanna but does not reveal if he recognizes her. She plots with her Afro-French lover and projectionist, Marcel, to kill the German leaders in attendance.

British Commando Lieutenant Archie Hicox is recruited to lead an attack on the premiere with the Basterds. Disguised as German officers, Hicox, Stiglitz, and Wicki meet with German film star Bridget von Hammersmark, an undercover Allied agent, at a tavern in Nazi-occupied northern France. Hicox inadvertently draws the attention of Wehrmacht Sergeant Wilhelm and Major Dieter Hellström, first with his unusually accented German and then by using a British hand gesture. Their cover is blown, and a gunfight ensues, killing everyone except Wilhelm and a wounded von Hammersmark. Raine arrives and negotiates for von Hammersmark's release, but she shoots Wilhelm. Raine tortures von Hammersmark, believing she set his men up, but she convinces him she is loyal and reveals Hitler will be attending the premiere. Raine decides to carry out their plan with himself, Utivich, Donowitz and Ulmer. Investigating the tavern, Landa finds von Hammersmark's shoe and a napkin with her signature.

The Basterds infiltrate the premiere with timed explosives, while Landa confronts von Hammersmark with her missing shoe before strangling her to death. Raine and Utivich are discovered and taken prisoner, but Landa has Raine contact his superior to cut a deal: Landa will allow the mission to proceed in exchange for safe passage through the Allied lines, a full pardon, and other privileges.

During the screening, Zoller slips away to the projection booth and berates Shosanna for rejecting his advances, leading them to shoot each other dead. As the film reaches its climax, Shosanna's spliced-in footage tells the audience that they are about to be killed by a Jew. Having locked the auditorium, Marcel ignites a pile of flammable film behind the screen, setting the theater ablaze. Ulmer and Donowitz break into the opera box, gunning down Hitler and Goebbels and firing into the crowd until their explosives kill everyone inside the cinema, including themselves.

Landa and his radio operator drive Raine and Utivich into Allied territory, where they surrender themselves. However, Raine shoots the radio operator before ordering Utivich to scalp him, and carves a swastika into Landa's forehead, professing it to be his "masterpiece".

Cast
Director Enzo G. Castellari also makes a cameo appearance in the film at the movie premiere. He previously cameoed as a German in his own The Inglorious Bastards and reprised the same role in this film, but under a different rank and SS organization. Bo Svenson, who starred in Castellari's The Inglorious Bastards, also has a small cameo in the film as a US colonel in the Nation's Pride movie.

Additionally, Samuel L. Jackson narrates the film, Harvey Keitel voices the Office of Strategic Services Commander, Bela B appears as an usher and Tarantino appears as an American soldier in Nation's Pride and a scalped German. Two characters, Mrs. Himmelstein and Madame Ada Mimieux, played by Cloris Leachman and Maggie Cheung, respectively, were both cut from the final film due to length.

Development
Quentin Tarantino spent just over a decade creating the film's script because, as he told Charlie Rose in an interview, he became "too precious about the page", meaning the story kept growing and expanding. Tarantino viewed the script as his masterpiece in the making, so felt it had to become the best thing he had ever written. He described an early premise of the film as his "bunch-of-guys-on-a-mission" film, "my Dirty Dozen or Where Eagles Dare or Guns of Navarone kind of thing".

By 2002, Tarantino found Inglourious Basterds to be a bigger film than planned and saw that other directors were working on World War II films. Tarantino had produced three nearly finished scripts, proclaiming that it was "some of the best writing I've ever done. But I couldn't come up with an ending." He moved on to direct the two-part film Kill Bill (2003–2004). After the completion of Kill Bill, Tarantino went back to his first storyline draft and considered making it a mini-series. Instead he trimmed the script, using his script for Pulp Fiction (1994) as a guide to length. The revised premise focused on a group of soldiers who escape from their executions and embark on a mission to help the Allies. He described the men as "not your normal hero types that are thrown into a big deal in the Second World War".

Tarantino planned to begin production in 2005. In November 2004, he delayed production and instead took an acting role in Takashi Miike's Western film Sukiyaki Western Django (2007), and intended to make a kung fu film entirely in Mandarin; this project foundered. He directed Death Proof (2007), part of the double feature Grindhouse, before returning to work on Inglourious Basterds.

The film's title was inspired by the English-language title of director Enzo G. Castellari's 1978 war film, The Inglorious Bastards.

Tarantino has said that the film's opening scene, in which Landa interrogates the French dairy farmer, is his "favorite thing" he's "ever written".

Casting
Tarantino originally sought Leonardo DiCaprio to be cast as Hans Landa, before deciding to have the character played by a native German-speaking actor. The role ultimately went to Austrian Christoph Waltz who, according to Tarantino, "gave me my movie" as he feared the part was "unplayable". Pitt and Tarantino had wanted to work together for a number of years, but they were waiting for the right project. When Tarantino was halfway through the film's script, he sensed that Pitt was a strong possibility for the role of Aldo Raine. By the time he had finished writing, Tarantino thought Pitt "would be terrific" and called Pitt's agent to ask if he was available.

Tarantino asked Adam Sandler to play the role of Donny Donowitz, but Sandler declined due to schedule conflicts with the film Funny People (2009). Eli Roth was cast in the role instead. Roth also directed the film-within-the-film, Nation's Pride, which used 300 extras. The director also wanted to cast Simon Pegg in the film as Lt. Archie Hicox, but he was forced to drop out due to scheduling difficulties with The Adventures of Tintin (2011). Irish-German actor Michael Fassbender began final negotiations to join the cast as Hicox in August 2008, although he originally auditioned for the role of Landa. B. J. Novak was also cast in August 2008 as Private First Class Smithson Utivich, "a New York-born soldier of 'slight build.

Tarantino talked to actress Nastassja Kinski about playing the role of Bridget von Hammersmark and even flew to Germany to meet her, but a deal could not be reached and Tarantino cast Diane Kruger instead. Rod Taylor was effectively retired from acting and no longer had an agent, but came out of retirement when Tarantino offered him the role of Winston Churchill in the film. This would be Taylor's last appearance on film before his death on January 7, 2015. In preparation for the role, Taylor watched dozens of DVDs with footage of Churchill in order to get the Prime Minister's posture, body language, and voice, including a lisp, correct. Taylor initially recommended British actor Albert Finney for the role during their conversation, but agreed to take the part because of Tarantino's "passion". Mike Myers, a fan of Tarantino, had inquired about being in the film since Myers' parents had been in the British Armed Forces. In terms of the character's dialect, Myers felt that it was a version of Received Pronunciation meeting the officer class, but mostly an attitude of "I'm fed up with this war and if this dude can end it, great because my country is in ruins."

Tarantino met Mélanie Laurent in three rounds, reading all the characters on the first round. On the second meeting, he shared the lines with her; the third was a face-to-face dinner. During the dinner, he told Laurent, "Do you know something—there's just something I don't like. It's that you're famous in your country, and I'm really wanting to discover somebody." Laurent replied "No, no, no. ... I'm not so famous." After four days, he called to finalize her for the role of Shosanna. Samm Levine was cast as PFC Hirschberg, because, according to Levine, Tarantino was a big fan of Freaks and Geeks, which starred Levine. Filmmaker Tom Tykwer, who translated parts of the film's dialogue into German, recommended Daniel Brühl to Tarantino, who recalled that upon seeing the actor's performance in Good Bye, Lenin! (2003), he declared, "That's my [Fredrick Zoller] right there. If Daniel's mother had never met Daniel's father, I don't know if we'd ever have the right Zoller".

Isabelle Huppert was originally cast in the role of Madame Mimieux before being fired due to creative differences. It was also reported that Catherine Deneuve was considered for the role. According to French musician and actor Johnny Hallyday, Tarantino had originally written a role for him in the film.

Filming
Tarantino teamed with the Weinstein Company to prepare what he planned to be his film for production. In July 2008, Tarantino and executive producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein set up an accelerated production schedule to be completed for release at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009, where the film would compete for the Palme d'Or.

The Weinstein Company co-financed the film and distributed it in the United States, and signed a deal with Universal Pictures to finance the rest of the film and distribute it internationally. Germany and France were scheduled as filming locations and principal photography started in October 2008 on location in Germany.

Filming was scheduled to begin on October 13, 2008, and shooting started that week. Special effects were handled by KNB EFX Group with Greg Nicotero and much of the film was shot and edited in the Babelsberg Studio in Potsdam, Germany, and in Bad Schandau, a small spa town near Germany's border with the Czech Republic.

Roth said that they "almost got incinerated", during the theater fire scene, as they projected the fire would burn at 400 C, but it instead burned at 1200 C. He said the swastika was not supposed to fall either, as it was fastened with steel cables, but the steel softened and snapped.

On January 11, 2013, on the BBC's The Graham Norton Show, Tarantino said that for the scene where Kruger was strangled, he personally strangled the actress, with his own bare hands, in one take, to aid authenticity.

Following the film's screening at Cannes, Tarantino stated that he would be re-editing the film in June before its ultimate theatrical release, allowing him time to finish assembling several scenes that were not completed in time for the hurried Cannes première.

Music
Tarantino originally wanted Ennio Morricone to compose the film's soundtrack. Morricone was unable to, because the film's sped-up production schedule conflicted with his scoring of Baarìa (2009). However, Tarantino did use eight tracks composed by Morricone in the film, with four of them included on the CD.

The opening theme is taken from the pseudo-folk ballad "The Green Leaves of Summer", which was composed by Dimitri Tiomkin and Paul Francis Webster for the opening of the 1960 film The Alamo. The soundtrack uses a variety of music genres, including Spaghetti Western and R&B. Prominent in the latter part of the film is David Bowie's theme from the 1982 film Cat People. The soundtrack, the first of Tarantino's not to include dialogue excerpts, was released on August 18, 2009.

Release
When the script's final draft was finished, it was leaked on the Internet and several Tarantino fan sites began posting reviews and excerpts from the script.

The film's first full teaser trailer premiered on Entertainment Tonight on February 10, 2009, and was shown in US theaters the following week attached to Friday the 13th. The trailer features excerpts of Lt. Aldo Raine talking to the Basterds, informing them of the plan to ambush and kill, torture, and scalp unwitting German servicemen, intercut with various other scenes from the film. It also features the spaghetti-westernesque terms Once Upon A Time In Nazi Occupied France, which was considered for the film's title, and A Basterd's Work Is Never Done, a line not spoken in the final film (the line occurs in the script during the Bear Jew's backstory).

The film was released on August 19, 2009, in the United Kingdom and France, two days earlier than the US release date of August 21, 2009. It was released in Germany on August 20, 2009. Some European cinemas, however, showed previews starting on August 15. In Poland, the artwork on all advertisements and on DVD packaging is unchanged, but the title was translated non-literally to Bękarty Wojny (Bastards of War), so that Nazi iconography could stylize the letter "O". Tarantino did not misspell the title to differentiate his film from the 1978 movie by the same name. He said it instead was a creative decision which he initially refused to explain, simply saying that "Basterds" was spelled as such because "that's just the way you say it".

Promotion in Germany and Austria
Universal Pictures adjusted the film's publicity materials and website in Germany and Austria to comply with both countries' penal laws, as the display of Nazi iconography is restricted there: the swastika was removed from the typography of the title, and the steel helmet had a bullet hole in place of the Nazi symbol. The site's download section was also revised to exclude wallpaper downloads that openly feature the swastika. Though advertising posters and wallpapers may not show Nazi iconography, this restriction does not apply to "works of art", according to German and Austrian law, so the film itself was not censored in either Germany or Austria.

Home media
The film was released on single-disc DVD and a two-disc special-edition DVD and Blu-ray Disc on December 15, 2009, by Universal Studios Home Entertainment in the United States and Australia. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on December 7, 2009, in the United Kingdom. On its first week of release, the film was number two, only behind The Hangover, selling an estimated 1,581,220 DVDs, making $28,467,652 in the United States.

The German version is 50 seconds longer than the American version. The scene in the tavern has been extended. Although in other countries, the extended scene was released as a bonus feature, the German theatrical, DVD, and Blu-ray versions are the only ones to include the full scene.

Box office
Inglourious Basterds grossed $120.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $200.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide gross $321.4 million, against a production budget of $70 million. It became Tarantino's highest-grossing film, both in the US and worldwide, until Django Unchained in 2012.

Opening in 3,165 screens, the film earned $14.3 million on the opening Friday of its North American release, on the way to an opening-weekend gross of $38 million, giving Tarantino a personal best weekend opening and the number one spot at the box office, ahead of District 9. The film fell to number two in its second weekend, behind The Final Destination, with earnings of $20 million, for a 10-day total of $73.8 million.

Inglourious Basterds opened internationally at number one in 22 markets on 2,650 screens, making $27.49 million. First place openings included France, taking in $6.09 million on 500 screens. The United Kingdom was not far behind making $5.92 million (£3.8 m) on 444 screens. Germany took in $4.20 million on 439 screens and Australia with $2.56 million (A$2.8 m) on 266 screens.

Critical reception
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 89% of 332 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "A classic Tarantino genre-blending thrill ride, Inglourious Basterds is violent, unrestrained, and thoroughly entertaining." Metacritic, which assigns a rating on reviews, gives the film a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

Critics' initial reactions at the Cannes Film Festival were mixed. The film received an eight- to eleven-minute standing ovation from critics after its first screening at Cannes, although Le Monde dismissed it, saying "Tarantino gets lost in a fictional World War II". Despite this, Anne Thompson of Variety praised the film, but opined that it was not a masterpiece, claiming: "Inglourious Basterds is great fun to watch, but the movie isn't entirely engaging ... You don't jump into the world of the film in a participatory way; you watch it from a distance, appreciating the references and the masterful mise en scène. This is a film that will benefit from a second viewing".

Critic James Berardinelli gave the film his first four-star review of 2009, stating, "With Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino has made his best movie since Pulp Fiction", and that it was "one hell of an enjoyable ride". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times also gave the film a four-star review, writing that "Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds is a big, bold, audacious war movie that will annoy some, startle others and demonstrate once again that he's the real thing, a director of quixotic delights."

Author and critic Daniel Mendelsohn was disturbed by the portrayal of Jewish American soldiers mimicking German atrocities done to European Jews, stating, "In Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino indulges this taste for vengeful violence by—well, by turning Jews into Nazis". Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian stated he was "struck ... by how exasperatingly awful and transcendentally disappointing it is".

While praising Christoph Waltz's performance ("a good actor new to American audiences"), David Denby, of The New Yorker, dismissed the film with the following words: "The film is skillfully made, but it's too silly to be enjoyed, even as a joke. ... Tarantino has become an embarrassment: his virtuosity as a maker of images has been overwhelmed by his inanity as an idiot de la cinémathèque". Journalist Christopher Hitchens likened the experience of watching the film to "sitting in the dark having a great pot of warm piss emptied very slowly over your head".

The film also met some criticism from the Jewish press. In Tablet, Liel Liebowitz criticizes the film as lacking moral depth. He argues that the power of film lies in its ability to impart knowledge and subtle understanding, but Inglourious Basterds serves more as an "alternative to reality, a magical and Manichaean world where we needn't worry about the complexities of morality, where violence solves everything, and where the Third Reich is always just a film reel and a lit match away from cartoonish defeat". Anthony Frosh, writer for the online magazine Galus Australis, has criticized the film for failing to develop its characters sufficiently, labeling the film "Enthralling, but lacking in Jewish content". Daniel Mendelsohn was critical of the film's depiction of Jews and the overall revisionist history aspect of the film, writing "Do you really want audiences cheering for a revenge that turns Jews into carboncopies of Nazis, that makes Jews into 'sickening' perpetrators? I'm not so sure." Jonathan Rosenbaum equated the film to Holocaust denial, stating "A film that didn't even entertain me past its opening sequence, and that profoundly bored me during the endlessly protracted build-up to a cellar shoot-out, it also gave me the sort of malaise that made me wonder periodically what it was (and is) about the film that seems morally akin to Holocaust denial, even though it proudly claims to be the opposite of that." When challenged on his opinion, Rosenbaum elaborated by stating, "For me, Inglourious Basterds makes the Holocaust harder, not easier to grasp as a historical reality. Insofar as it becomes a movie convention – by which I mean a reality derived only from other movies – it loses its historical reality."

Inglourious Basterds was later ranked #62 on a BBC critics' poll of the greatest films since 2000. In 2010, the Independent Film & Television Alliance selected the film as one of the 30 Most Significant Independent Films of the last 30 years.

Top ten lists
Inglourious Basterds was listed on many critics' top ten lists.

 * 1st – Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
 * 1st – Kyle Smith, New York Post
 * 1st – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club
 * 2nd – Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News
 * 2nd – James Berardinelli, Reelviews
 * 2nd – Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
 * 2nd – Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly
 * 3rd – Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald
 * 3rd – Nathan Rabin, The A.V. Club
 * 4th – Mark Mohan, Portland Oregonian
 * 5th – Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle
 * 5th – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
 * 5th – Richard Roeper
 * 5th – Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter
 * 7th – Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News
 * 7th – Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
 * 8th – Claudia Puig, USA Today
 * 8th – J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
 * 8th – Kimberly Jones, Austin Chronicle
 * 9th – Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle
 * 9th – Mike Scott, The Times-Picayune
 * 10th – Keith Uhlich, Time Out New York

Accolades
Christoph Waltz was singled out for Cannes honors, receiving the Best Actor Award at the festival's end. Film critic Devin Faraci of CHUD.com stated: "The cry has been raised long before this review, but let me continue it: Christoph Waltz needs not an Oscar nomination but rather an actual Oscar in his hands. ... he must have gold".

The film received four Golden Globe Award nominations including Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Supporting Actor for Waltz, who went on to win the award.

The film also received three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations and went on to win the awards for Best Cast and Best Supporting Actor, which was awarded to Waltz.

The film was nominated for six BAFTA Awards, including Best Director for Tarantino, winning only one award—Best Supporting Actor for Waltz.

In February 2010, the film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Waltz, and Best Original Screenplay. Waltz was awarded the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

title: Inglourious Basterds


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Mizmar (instrument)

In Arabic music, a mizmār (plural مَزَامِير mazāmīr) is any single or double reed wind instrument. In Egypt, the term mizmar usually refers to the conical shawm that is called zurna in Turkey and Armenia.

Mizmar is also a term used for a group of musicians, usually a duo or trio, that play a mizmar instrument along with an accompaniment of one or two double-sided bass drums, known in Arabic as tabl baladi or simply tabl.

Mizmars are usually played in Egypt at either weddings or as an accompaniment to belly dancers. At Egyptian weddings, the Mizmar Baldi is accompanied with a belly dancer to greet the bride and groom.

In The Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, and Syria, it is influenced by the Anatolian/Armenian zurna, a higher-pitched version of the mizmar, and may also be known in those countries as a zamr (زمر) or zamour, as well as mizmar. In Algeria a similar instrument is called ghaita or rhaita (غيطة). Along with belly dancing, the mizmar may accompany the dabke, a folkloric line dance done in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Iraq.

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

title: Mizmar (instrument)


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Eliška Junková

Eliška Junková-Khásová (born Alžběta Pospíšilová; 16 November 1900 – 5 January 1994), also known as Elisabeth Junek, was a Czechoslovak automobile racer. She is regarded as one of the most significant drivers in Grand Prix motor racing history, and was the first woman to win a Grand Prix event.

Early life
Junková was born on November 16, 1900, in Olomouc, Habsburg Moravia, listed in the registrar's office as Betke ("Betty") Pospisilová.

The sixth of eight children, born to a locksmith in Olomouc, Moravia in the Austro-Hungarian empire, she was nicknamed smíšek at an early age for her ever-present smile. Following the end of World War I, when her native Moravia became part of the new republic of Czechoslovakia, she found work in the Olomouc branch of the Pražská úvěrová banka (Prague Credit Bank) thanks to her multilingual skills, honed through her desire to travel the world.

At the age of sixteen, Junková got a job at a bank, where she met young banker Vincenc "Čeněk" Junek. He was several years older than her, and the two soon began a courtship. Upon her marriage to Vincenc she changed her first name to Eliška ("Beth") and her surname Junková (the feminine of Junek in Czech)

Work took her first to Brno, then Prague, then abroad to France and Gibraltar, although bureaucracy prevented her travelling as far as North Africa, London or Ceylon, as had been her original intention. She returned to Paris to be reunited with her partner, who by this time had become wealthy enough to indulge his automotive passions. Eliška later said, "If he is going to be the love of my life, then I better learn to love these damned engines." But she too soon fell for the charms of sports cars of the time, especially Bugattis. They returned to Prague in 1922, where she took clandestine driving lessons to obtain her license. Meanwhile, Čeněk had started racing in earnest. He won the Zbraslav-Jíloviště hillclimb in 1922, the year they finally married.

Racing career
They purchased a Mercedes that same year, and then a Bugatti Type 30 which had previously been raced in the French Grand Prix. Initially she served as riding mechanic to her husband, but a hand injury incurred during the war affected his ability to shift gears, and this afforded her the opportunity to take the wheel in his place. Eliška's first professional race was in 1923, with Čeněk at her side. The following year, she raced by herself, winning her class at the Lochotín-Třemošná hillclimb event which made her a national celebrity overnight. She then placed first at Zbraslav-Jíloviště in 1925, and the Juneks bought a second Bugatti to celebrate, together building a close friendship with Ettore Bugatti. By 1926, Eliška Junková was confident enough to compete in races throughout Europe. She gained fame across the continent, garnering the nickname Queen of the Steering Wheel, and in the racing press of the day, Eliška became anglicized to Elizabeth.

In 1926, she was runner up in the Klausenpass hill climb in Switzerland. She was easily identifiable for always racing in a blue skirt, white blouse, helmet and goggles.

Despite her slight stature, Eliška was a gifted technical driver, and she is often credited for being one of the first drivers to walk round a course before an event, noting landmarks and checking out the best line through the corners.

1927 Targa Florio
She competed in the Targa Florio in Sicily for the first time in 1927, driving a 2.3-litre Bugatti Type 35B with her husband as accompanying mechanic-passenger. This was a tough 8-hour race over mountain roads, where stamina was as necessary as speed, due to the demands of the rough and often muddy course. That year, the race was five laps of the 108 km circuit for a total of 540 km. With a strong start, at the end of the first lap, her elapsed time of 1h27m placed her fourth just ten seconds behind the works Bugatti of Emilio Materassi and ahead of the works Maserati and Peugeot. However, her impressive run ended abruptly a third of the way into the next lap when the steering gear broke, throwing them off the road. Fortunately, neither was injured and they were picked up and brought back to the startline pits by fellow driver Saverio Candrilli. This performance garnered great respect from her contemporary drivers and the spectators alike.

Shortly thereafter, she won the Brno-Soběšice hillclimb and then also won the two-litre sports car class of the German Grand Prix at the new Nürburgring circuit, and the 50-kilometer ladies handicap organized in Montlhéry during the 24 hours of Paris.

1928 Targa Florio
With her sights firmly set on winning the 1928 Targa Florio, she acquired a new Type 35B to keep her competitive with the top male racers. Race organiser Conte Vincenzo Florio arranged for Vincenzo Gargotta, one of his press officers and a local resident, to accompany her on sighting laps around the course. Periodically she would stop to put chalk marks on posts, walls and trees along the route. This year, there was a strong field with works entries from Bugatti, Maserati and Alfa Romeo. On race day, the cars were flagged off at two-minute intervals, with Junková starting well into the second half of the grid, coincidentally just ahead of Candrilli again. The fastest car on the first lap was Louis Chiron in his works Bugatti, followed by Giuseppe Campari in an Alfa Romeo and Chiron's teammate Albert Divo. Junková was a remarkable fourth on elapsed time, barely 30 seconds behind Chiron, showing her skill and the value of her meticulous preparation. On the second lap, Chiron pushed too hard and went off. Divo had pitted and this put Junková into the overall lead, having passed many of the twenty cars that had started ahead of her. Divo, an experienced Grand Prix veteran, had started just ahead of her, and, by now following closely, she was ahead of him on elapsed time. Meanwhile, Campari pushed very hard to take the lead by the end of the third lap after four and a half hours. He built his lead, only to lose time with a puncture and driving the last 10 kilometres on the wheel rim. Going into the final lap, Junková was still in second and had closed to within a minute, with Divo ten seconds back on elapsed time. Campari crossed the line first of the leaders, but as he had started forty minutes ahead, everyone waited for the rest to arrive to determine the actual winner. First to appear was Conte Caberto Conelli in his works Bugatti T37, finishing faster than Campari. Divo came through faster still and eyes were looking for "Miss Bugatti" (as the locals called her ). It was not to be, as in the last half of the lap she had suffered a puncture, losing two vital minutes while her husband, as mechanic, changed the tyre. The stop also overheated the engine and they were stymied by loss of radiator water, so she had to ease back to nurse the car home. She finished a creditable fifth out of only twelve finishers, eventually almost nine minutes behind the winner, Divo,  and beating 25 other top drivers, including the likes of Luigi Fagioli, René Dreyfus, Ernesto Maserati and Tazio Nuvolari.

In his book My Two Lives, Dreyfus says: Her tenacity and determination were remarkable. For this event, she travelled to Sicily with a governess and a car like the one with which she would compete, a full month before the race. She began slowly, one lap one day, two laps the next and so on - she must have put up thirty or forty laps in that car. She knew the course better than anybody. She really pounded her Bugatti; it was a very used car by race day, but she had thought ahead of course and the Bugatti team arrived with the new car she had ordered, a T35B painted black and yellow and arranged to have delivered to the course. She was ready with her plan. In the early laps of the race she started to scare the wits out of the other drivers - being beaten by a woman was unthinkable then - and she was up with the leaders until the final lap. What she hadn't considered in all her careful pre-race calculations and what she couldn't have foreseen, was that mechanical problems might interfere with her plan. When they did, she was forced to drop back. Still, she finished fifth - a terrific showing. Nobody who was in that Targa, ever forgot that formidable Lady.

Vincenzo Florio warmly congratulated her at the finish and, begging Divo's pardon, called her the moral victor of the day.

Retirement from racing
Two months later, back at the Nürburgring, she shared the driving with her husband in the German Grand Prix (that year run as a sports-car race). On the fifth lap, having just changed places with her, Vincent was rushing to make up lost time after a tyre change. He went wide at the Breitscheid corner, hitting a rock and rolling. Although thrown out of the car, he collapsed and died soon after from a head injury. Junková was devastated — she gave up racing and sold her vehicles.

Travelling
Junková now returned to her first passion of travelling. Ettore Bugatti himself gave her a new touring car for her journey to Ceylon and hired her to seek out new business opportunities in Asia.

In 1929, Junek spent three months travelling 6000km across difficult terrain to drive two Bugatti Type 44 cars to India as part of a promotional campaign. She wasn't very complimentary in her analysis of the cars' performance on the journey but did to sell the two Bugattis on arrival (one car still survives).

Later life
Eliška eventually found love again and married Czech writer Ladislav Khás shortly after the Second World War. But from 1948 to 1964, the communist authorities, disapproving of the high-flying, "bourgeois" lifestyle that she had lived, refused to allow her to travel abroad. Like Hellé Nice, her great female counterpart from France, she was largely forgotten by the motor racing world. In 1969 she attended the 40th anniversary of the Bugatti Owners' Club in Great Britain. In 1972, she published her autobiography Má vzpomínka je Bugatti ("My memory is Bugatti").

In 1970 she was the inspiration for the founding of the Český automobilový klub žen [Czech Women’s Automobile Club] which is still active today.

She lived well into her nineties, long enough for the Iron Curtain to fall and for the "Queen of the Steering Wheel" to have her place in automotive racing history be recognized. In 1989, at the age of 89, she attended a Bugatti reunion in the United States as the guest of honour.

In 1990, Porsche design chief Tony Lapine and Automobile magazine editor Jean Jennings drank Johnnie Walker Red with her in her apartment in the Swedish Embassy in Prague, where she recounted her racing history, including her 1928 race in the Sicilian Targa Florio in a supercharged 2.3-liter Bugatti Type35B.

Death
She died on January 5, 1994, aged 93, in Prague, Czech Republic.

Legacy
On June 28, 2016, the mayor of Prague 1, conveyed the honorary citizenship of Prague 1 posthumously to Eliška Junková. The ceremony was held at the Old Town Hall.

On November 16, 2020, her 120th birthday, Google recognized her by featuring a doodle with an image of her in a racecar.

title: Eliška Junková


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Royal Naval Amateur Radio Society

The Royal Naval Amateur Radio Society (RNARS) is a specialised group or club for amateur radio operators who have a link with maritime employment, such as members of a navy, merchant marine or similar employment. As such, RNARS has become a de facto international group for such people.

RNARS is well known for fostering amateur radio stations in museum ships. The best known in the UK is HMS Belfast.

RNARS is open to membership by people from "allied" nations. For instance, there are members in countries such as the United States and the Netherlands, and a semi-autonomous national group in Australia that has stations in three museum ships: HMAS Vampire, HMAS Diamantina, and HMAS Castlemaine.

RNARS offers several certificates for amateurs and shortwave listeners (SWLs) who make contacts or copy transmissions by RNARS members. There is also a Morse code speed certificate.

title: Royal Naval Amateur Radio Society


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Presbyterian Church in Taiwan

The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT; ) is the largest Protestant Christian denomination based in Taiwan.

The PCT is a member of the World Council of Churches, and its flag features a "burning bush", which signifies the concept of burning yet not being destroyed.

History
The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan was started in the 19th century by James Laidlaw Maxwell of the Presbyterian Church of England in Southern Taiwan, and George Leslie Mackay of the Presbyterian Church in Canada in Northern Taiwan.

In Taiwan, Presbyterians have historically been active in promoting the use of the local vernacular Taiwanese, both during the Japanese colonial period, as well as after the transfer of rulership to the Republic of China (ROC), during which the exclusive use of Mandarin was legally mandated.

Also, the church has historically been an active proponent of human rights and democracy in Taiwan, a tradition which began during the Japanese colonial period and extended into the "White Terror" period of the ROC.

Pre-1945
When Maxwell and Mackay arrived in Taiwan, Taiwan was under the control of the Qing dynasty from the mainland of China. In the beginning, the Taiwanese mission works were not smooth, but the missionaries persevered and continued their works.

In 1895, as a result of Chinese defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan was taken over by Japan, and the Japanese colonial period started. The PCT continued their mission work during the Japanese colonial period and dedicated themselves to the human rights of the Taiwanese people under colonization.

The Presbyterian Church has been heavily involved in evangelization among the indigenous since the 1930s. Today, about 30 percent of the native Taiwanese belong to the denomination.

Post-1945
After the end of World War II in 1945, the Kuomintang (KMT) party, which controlled the Chinese government at that time, took over Taiwan. However, after the loss in the Chinese Civil War, the KMT retreated to Taiwan in 1949. By then, the churches in Taiwan were starting to experience conflicts due to linguistic and cultural differences.

The most rapid church growth was experienced from 1955 to 1965 during the Double Church Movement. From 1978, the denomination was engaged in an extensive evangelization effort known as the "Ten plus One Movement", aimed at 10% increase of the communicant membership each year.

During the martial law period, the Church was monitored by KMT authorities. This came to light during Taiwan’s transitional justice process.

Conflicts with the KMT government for WCC membership
The Kuomintang government forced the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan to withdraw from the World Council of Churches in 1970, as the WCC began supporting China's admission to the United Nations, and admitted Chinese religious organizations to its ranks. The WCC, which is more liberal and left-wing on many issues, was condemned by the KMT as a supporter of communism, thus standing on the same side with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Therefore, the KMT strongly urged the PCT to withdraw from WCC membership, which the PCT rejected at first, but gave in later to political pressure. However, because of the PCT’s ongoing disobedience to the KMT government, the PCT was still condemned as disloyal to the country even after they left the WCC.

Three important statements
The fate of Taiwan dramatically changed in the 1970s because of the gradually global recognition of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which was under the CCP's control. The KMT government in Taiwan felt extreme pressure, especially when the PRC replaced the ROC as the representative of China in the United Nations in 1971. Considering the global situation and diplomatic challenges, the PCT between 1971-1977 released three important documents in PCT history.

Led by then General Secretary Kao Chun-ming, the PCT released the Statement of Our National Fate by the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan in 1971, which asked the KMT government to give Taiwanese people the rights to decide their own future. Reverend Daniel Beeby was expelled from Taiwan in 1972 due to his support of Taiwan independence.

Following the confiscation of the church's Hoklo materials in 1975, the PCT published a second statement, which stressed the importance of religious freedom. The statement is called Our Appeal by the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan – Concerning the Bible, the Church and the Nation, in which the PCT proposed five (5) ways that the PCT could help the government in that time.

The PCT did not formally advocate for the Taiwan independence movement until a third statement was released in August 1977, A Declaration on Human Rights by the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. It asked the KMT government to declare Taiwan as a novel and independent country. These three documents brought much tension between the PCT and the KMT government, but at the same time they also reflected the PCT’s deep involvement in Taiwanese society beyond the religious community.

Taiwanese democracy movement
Since the 1980s, the church formed strong ties with the Tangwai movement and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Although the PCT was never officially involved in the Taiwanese democracy movement by the name of the church, many of its members and clergy dedicated their lives to it.

Reverend Kao was one of the most prominent figures of the movement. He was imprisoned in 1979 for assisting the leader of the Meilidao movement, Shih Ming-teh. At the same time, Elder Lin Wen-cheng was also arrested because of her involvement during the process of Shih’s hiding from the KMT government. The Meilidao movement is considered one of the most important events in the history of the Taiwanese democracy movement.

After martial law
In 1987, the KMT government finally ended the 38-year-long martial law and Taiwanese society entered a time of democratization. Even after the democratization of Taiwan, the PCT is still deeply involved in social movements, including human rights and other issues, and continues to play a significant role in Taiwanese society.

Indigenous rights
The PCT has also been a consistent and conspicuous proponent of indigenous rights:

… over 64 percent [of Taiwanese aborigines] identify as Christian… [For decades, the PCT] has used its organizational strengths to mobilize its people for repeated campaigns, and has provided a continuing solid institutional base for most Aboriginal political initiatives …organizations like the Alliance of Taiwanese Aborigines – and even the DPP itself – have often fallen back on the Church as a ready-made resource. (Stainton 2002)

Governance
In terms of governance, the PCT has a general assembly, and only one synod (the Northern Synod); the presbyteries connect directly to the general assembly. It has 23 presbyteries and four districts. In the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, session is composed of the pastor and elders. Elders must have served two terms as deacon before becoming elders.

Creeds
The church subscribes to:

 * Apostles Creed
 * Heidelberg Catechism
 * Nicene Creed
 * Westminster Confession of Faith

Announcements & Declarations

 * Statement of Our National Fate by the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (12.29.1971)

 * Our Appeal by the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan-Concerning the Bible, the Church and the Nation(11.18.1975)
 * A Declaration on Human Rights by the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (08.16.1977)

 * Recommendations from the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan- Concerning the Present Situation (05.15.1990)
 * The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan-A Public Statement on the Sovereignty of Taiwan (08.20.1991)

Interchurch relations
The PCT is a member church of the World Council of Churches and the World Communion of Reformed Churches. It is also a member of the Council for World Mission through which it is linked in mission with 30 other churches around the world.

Immigrants from Taiwan to the United States and Canada have also started Taiwanese Hokkien churches which are closely related to the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. While most of these churches are affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, the Presbyterian Church in Canada, and the United Church of Canada, the liturgy and church practices are rooted in the Taiwanese Presbyterian tradition, and the pulpits are usually filled by ministers trained in the PCT.

Affiliated Institutions
The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan has a number of affiliated institutions.

Education
Universities and colleges include Aletheia University, Chang Jung Christian University, Mackay Medical College, and Mackay Junior College of Medicine, Nursing and Management.

The PCT has three theological institutions: the Taiwan Theological College and Seminary in Taipei (also known as Taiwan Graduate School of Theology), the Tainan Theological College and Seminary in Tainan, and the Yu-Shan Theological College and Seminary in Hualien. Secondary schools include the Tamkang Middle and High Schools and the related Suntek Elementary School in Tamsui, as well as the Changjung High School and Changjung Girls' Senior High School in Tainan.

Hospitals
The Mackay Memorial Hospital, Changhua Christian Hospital and Sin-Lau Hospital are affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan.

Media

In 1885, the PCT published the printed newspaper in Taiwanese history, the Taiwan Church News (which was first called Taiwan Prefecture City Church News).

In 2004, the PCT established News Eyes Television, which aims to serve the Christians in Taiwan and abroad. At the same time, News Eyes Television also visions to be an anchor in global mission works.

title: Presbyterian Church in Taiwan


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Police authority

A police authority in the United Kingdom is a public authority that is responsible for overseeing the operations of a police force. The nature and composition of police authorities has varied over time, and there are now just four dedicated "police authorities" in the United Kingdom, although the term can refer to various similar successor bodies.

Until 2012/13, individual police authorities were maintained for each of the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, and for the 8 territorial police forces in Scotland. Police authorities in England and Wales were abolished in November 2012, and replaced with directly elected police and crime commissioners, and those in Scotland were merged in April 2013 to form the Scottish Police Authority as part of the creation of Police Scotland, the single police force for Scotland. The Police Service of Northern Ireland is overseen by the Northern Ireland Policing Board, and two of the three UK-wide special police forces continue to be overseen by individual police authorities. The oversight of the two police forces serving London continues to be implemented via unique arrangements.

Early history to 1964
The introduction of police forces on a national scale in England and Wales began with the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which required each borough to establish a "watch committee" and thus appoint constables to "preserve the peace". Before the advent of police authorities, the regulatory bodies for police forces confined to a single borough were these watch committees, whilst those for counties from 1889 had been "standing joint committees" (after 1889 some control passed to the elected county council; the joint committee also had magistrates).

1964: creation of independent police authorities
The Police Act 1964 introduced major reforms to the organisation and oversight of the police in England and Wales, following the report of the Royal Commission on the Police in 1962. The 1964 act abolished the old watch committee system which had come under severe criticism following several high-profile corruption scandals.

The act introduced police areas, which would be administrative counties, county boroughs or "combined police areas", consisting of combinations of counties and county boroughs, served by a single force, overseen by an independent "police authority". The new police authorities would consist of two-thirds elected members of county or borough councils, and one-third magistrates. Under the Local Government Act 1972 the remaining borough police forces were abolished, and police authorities consisted of county councillors and magistrates in a ratio of two to one.

The Police and Magistrates' Courts Act 1994 altered the composition of the authorities with independent members being added. Typically, a police authority was made up of seventeen members – nine elected members (who were drawn from the local authority or authorities for the force area, and would be reflective of the political makeup of those authorities). The remaining eight members were called independent members, and were appointed from the local community for fixed terms of four years by the police authority itself - a long list, from applications received, was submitted by a committee of elected members and magistrates to the Home Office. That committee then appointed the independent members from a shortlist returned by the Home Office. At least three of the police authority's independent members were magistrates. There was no difference in power or responsibility between the different types of member – there were examples of elected, independent and magistrate members chairing police authorities throughout England and Wales.

Funding
The bulk of police funding came from the Home Office in the form of an annual grant (calculated on a proportionate basis by the Home Office to take into account the differences between the 43 forces in England and Wales, which vary significantly in terms of population, geographical size and crime levels and trends), though police authorities could also set a precept on the Council Tax to raise additional funds. The Home Office had the power to prevent any precept increases deemed to be excessive. It was the police authority's responsibility to set the budget for the force area, which included allocating itself enough money from the overall policing budget to ensure that it can discharge its own functions effectively.

In its annual Policing Plan, a police authority was obliged to publish its budget for the year, as well as a value for money statement and to outline planned efficiency savings.

Inspections
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and the Audit Commission (or the Welsh Audit Commission in Wales) began a programme of inspection for police authorities in September 2009. Inspection scores four areas of police authority capability: Each theme was scored from one to four: The police authority was also given an overall score using the same 1-4 system.
 * Setting strategic direction and priorities
 * Scrutinising performance outcomes
 * Achieving results through community engagement and partnerships
 * Ensuring value for money and productivity
 * 1) Performs poorly
 * 2) Performs adequately
 * 3) Performs well
 * 4) Performs excellently

Ten inspection reports were published, with the majority of inspected authorities scoring 2. The inspectorates published "Learning Lessons: An overview of the first ten joint inspections of police authorities by HMIC and the Audit Commission", outlining their findings from the first ten inspections, in March 2010.

2012: abolition of police authorities in England and Wales
In the 2010 British general election campaign, both the Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats' manifestos outlined plans, respectively, to replace or reform police authorities, both parties raising concerns about the perceived lack of accountability of police authorities to the communities they served. The Conservatives proposed to replace them with a single elected individual (a 'police and crime commissioner', criticised as a model by some in policing), whilst the Liberal Democrats proposed to introduce direct elections to police authorities, whilst strengthening their powers. Following Royal Assent of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 police authorities were abolished and replaced with directly elected police and crime commissioners on 22 November 2012. Many of the outgoing members of police authorities stood for the role of PCC, highlighting their successive experience in the field, and many were elected.

London
The Metropolitan Police and City of London Police have historically been exceptions to the national rule. The Metropolitan Police were under the direct control of the Home Secretary from their establishment in 1829 until 2000, when the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) was established under the Greater London Authority to oversee the force. The MPA was replaced in January 2012, alongside the introduction of police and crime commissioners, by the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime, under the control of the Mayor of London, and reporting to the Police and Crime Committee of the London Assembly. Unlike the other police forces in England and Wales, where the chief officer is appointed by the locally elected police and crime commissioner, the national and international importance of the work of the Metropolitan Police means the appointment of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner is still in the hands of the Home Secretary (and constitutionally made by the Monarch), although they must "have regard to any recommendations made" by the Mayor of London since the introduction of that position in 2000.

The City of London Corporation has been the police authority for the City of London Police since their formal establishment in 1839. Despite the introduction of police and crime commissioners in 2012, the function of the Corporation as the police authority was retained by the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011. This function is currently exercised by the Police Authority Board of the Court of Common Council, the elected body that runs the Corporation. Eleven of the members of the Board — including the chair and their deputy — are elected members of the Common Council, and the other three are appointed independent members. The appointment of the Commissioner of the City of London Police is now made by the Common Council (although technically by the Monarch).

Northern Ireland
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is supervised by the Northern Ireland Policing Board, of which ten are members of the Northern Ireland Assembly and nine are independent. The Board and the PSNI are the successors to the Police Authority for Northern Ireland and Royal Ulster Constabulary respectively, who they replaced on 4 November 2001.

Scotland
In Scotland, supervision of the police was historically the responsibility of the elected local authority which either directly supervised the local police force where its border was conterminous with the force, or through joint boards with neighbouring local authorities where one forces covered more than one council area. The eight territorial police forces in Scotland were replaced in April 2013 by Police Scotland, which is overseen by the Scottish Police Authority, an independent public body that reports to the Scottish Parliament. The SPA also incorporated the Scottish Police Services Authority, which was the police authority for the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (itself merged into Police Scotland).

Single authority
The following police forces were supervised by one single local authority:

Joint police boards
The following police forces were supervised by a joint board:

Special police forces
The various special police forces in the United Kingdom each have different oversight arrangements.

British Transport Police
The British Transport Police, a privately funded police force responsible for policing the railways of Great Britain, is overseen by the British Transport Police Authority. The Authority was created in 2004 by the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003 and is made up of approximately 12-15 members, each of whom represents groups concerned with the control, operation or use of the railways. They include representatives of the railway operators, railway users (freight and passenger), employees and the appropriate government departments dealing with transport in England, Scotland and Wales.

Civil Nuclear Constabulary
The Civil Nuclear Constabulary, which polices nuclear power-related facilities and shipments in the United Kingdom, is overseen by the Civil Nuclear Police Authority. The Authority was created in 2004 by the Energy Act 2004; it is made up of eight members; four are nominated by the nuclear industry, while the remaining four include the Chairman.

Ministry of Defence Police
The Ministry of Defence Police does not have a police authority; however, the Ministry of Defence Police Committee, established by the Ministry of Defence Police Act 1987, advises the Secretary of State for Defence on matters concerning the Ministry of Defence Police. The Committee (or its members) also has various functions in determining police misconduct and appeals cases.

title: Police authority


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Battle of Vyšehrad

The Battle of Vyšehrad was a series of engagements at the start of the Hussite War between Hussite forces and Catholic crusaders sent by Emperor Sigismund. The battle took place at the castle of Vyšehrad from 16 August 1419 to c. 1 November 1420.

Start of the battle
After the death of King Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia, Queen Sophia (with the help of Čeněk of Wartenberg) tried to gain control of Prague. Sophia and Čeněk recruited soldiers from Germany, who took up positions at Vyšehrad, Hradčany, and at the archbishop's palace and the cloister of St. Thomas in a part of Prague called New Town. The Hussite uprising was successful in other parts of Bohemia, and the towns of Klatovy, Písek, Louny, Žatec, and Plzeň came under Hussite control. On 25 October 1419, Hussites captured Vyšehrad as well.

In November 1419, fighting took place between Catholic fighters under Petr from Šternberk and Hussite peasants under the command of a priest, Ambrosius. These Hussites went from the area near Usti to Prague, surrounded Novy Knin, and attacked. After gaining reinforcements, Ambrosius's forces crossed the Vltava River. The Hussites won the battle but lost about 300 people.

After taking Prague, the Hussites decided to assist citizens in Novy Knin. More fighting commenced as Hussite fighters captured the bridge to New Town on the Vltava River. Catholic soldiers who guarded the bridge were forced to withdraw to Hradcany, but many buildings in New Town were destroyed.

On 13 November 1419 Queen Sophia promised to protect the Hussites in all of Bohemia. Utraquists gave back Vyšehrad to the royal army.

Battle under Nekmierz
Later in November, formations of Taborites, several hundred strong, left Prague. In December 1419, one of these formations under the command of Jan Žižka was surprised by Catholic forces under the command of Bohuslav of Švamberk. A cavalry attack at Nekmierz (Nekmer) castle near Plzeň (Pilsen) by the Catholics was stopped by crossbow and gunfire from Hussite soldiers hiding behind wagons. Catholic infantry and cavalry were forced to withdraw. After the battle Žižka ordered a night march to Plzeň.

In the Spring of 1420, after capturing the town of Ústí (German: Aussig), Hussite forces went to a hill near the Lužnice river where they built a new town which they named Tábor after the biblical Mount Tabor (but the noun means also camp). This new town became the capital of the Taborites' collective. Citizens of Tábor chose four hetmen, or generals: Nicholas of Husí, Jan Žižka, Zbyněk of Buchovo, and Chval of Machovice.

Similar army camps were also built, notably one on the mountain of Oreb, where another group of radical Hussites established themselves, and became known as the Orebici (Orebites). Their civil leader was the priest Ambrosius, and their hetman was Hynek Krušina from Lichtenburk.

Battle at Sudoměř
The Hussites lost Plzeň, in arrangement with the Catholics. Hussites, under command of Jan Žižka, were allowed to leave the town without difficulties. Catholics from Plzen sent information about Žižka's forces to Jindrich from hradce master of knights of St. John of Jerusalem and Bohuslav from Švamberk. After massing at Sudoměř, they decided to attack; they had more soldiers than Žižka, as well as reinforcements from Písek. In the opinion of writers of chronicles, the attackers would not have had to fight with the Hussites because the few rebels would be trampled to death beneath the horses' hooves.

Žižka deployed his men on a small dam between two ponds, one of which was without water. The backs of the Hussites were protected by a swamp. The Catholic commanders divided their forces into two groups. The first group assaulted the Hussites from the front, and sustained heavy casualties. The second group of knights crossed the empty pond and attacked on foot. Soon the field of battle was covered by fog, and the Catholics withdrew, both sides having suffered heavy losses.

In May 1420 Čeněk von Wartenberg surrounded Hradčany and joined Emperor Sigismund's side. Soldiers from Vyšehrad advanced on New Town. The Hussites begun a siege of Vyšehrad. In June 1420 there was a successful advance from Vyšehrad. Soldiers from this castle secured supplies which were sent to Hradčany.

Siege of Prague
On 12 June 1420, some formations of Sigismund's forces successfully entered Hradčany with supplies. They took horses from the castle.

At the time of the Prague siege, Sigismund's soldiers, who were placed in Hradčany and Vyšehrad, advanced on the Hussites' position in Prague. After a successful defence of Vítkov Hill and the crusaders' withdrawal, the Hussites begun artillery fire on Vyšehrad, but received heavier losses than Prague's defenders.

After an unsuccessful assault on Vítkov Hill, the crusaders decided to attack the local Hussites' position. In August 1420, Hetman Jan Žižka left Prague with relief forces and headed to Písek, which was in danger from crusaders under the command of Oldřich from Rožmberk. 15 September 1420 saw the beginning of a second siege of Vysehrad. In the last days of October, the commandant of the castle accepted a capitulation arrangement. If he didn't receive any help from Sigismund's forces by 8 o'clock in the morning of 1 November 1420, he would surrender the castle. Meanwhile, another formation of Taborites, among them commander Jan Roháč z Dubé, captured the town of Lomnice.

Battle of Vyšehrad
Sigismund planned a main attack using soldiers from Hradčany and Vyšehrad, and counting on reinforcements from Plzeň Union. The plan of battle was sent to Hradčany and Vyšehrad by courier, but the courier was captured by Hussites. The Hussites sent some soldiers under the command of Jan Žižka to stop the march of soldiers from Plzeň.

Hussite artillery fire successfully stopped the attack of the Hungarian and German cavalry. Then the Hussite forces made their attack. After the battle, the crusaders' formations withdrew. Four hundred knights were killed by the Hussites, who didn't take any prisoners of war. Among the dead were Petr Konopišťský from Šternberk, Jindřich of Kravaře and Plumlov, Jaroslav of Šternberk and Veselí, Vilém Zajíc of Valdek and Židlochovice, and Vok IV of Holstein.

1 November saw the capitulation of soldiers from Vyšehrad. Žižka's forces captured Zlaté Korouny and Prachatice. December 1420 saw the death of Nicholas from Husí.

Aftermath
In January 1421, Taborite forces, under command of Jan Žižka and Chval from Machovice, captured the town of Stříbro and cloister in Krakikov. The commandant of Stříbro Castle, Bohuslav of Švamberk, surrendered; his soldiers were free to go. Because Sigismund didn't send a ransom for him, Bohuslav decided to join the Hussites. Eventually the Taborites chose him as their hetman.

In February, Emperor Sigismund withdrew to Moravia and then to Hungary. June 1421 saw the capitulation of the soldiers in Hradčany.

title: Battle of Vyšehrad


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Zurna

The zurna (Armenian: զուռնա zuṙna; Old Armenian: սուռնայ suṙnay; Albanian: surle/surla; Romanian: surlă; Persian: karna/Kornay/surnay; Macedonian: зурла/сурла zurla/surla; Bulgarian: зурна/зурла; Hungarian: zurna/töröksip; Serbian: зурла/zurla; Assyrian: ܙܘܪܢܐ/zurna; Tat: zurna; Turkish: zurna; Kurdish: zirne; Greek: ζουρνας; Azerbaijani: zurna; Sinhalese: හොරණෑව [horaṇǣva]) is a double reed wind instrument played in the Central Asia, West Asia, the Caucasus, Southeast Europe and parts of North Africa. It is also used in Sri Lanka. It is usually accompanied by a davul (bass drum) in Armenian, Anatolian and Assyrian folk music.

Etymology and terminology
A folk etymology explains that the name is derived from Persian "سرنای" (surnāy), composed of "سور" (sūr) meaning "banquet, feast", and نای (nāy) meaning "reed, pipe". The term is attested in the oldest Turkic records, as "suruna" in the 12th and 13th century Codex Cumanicus (CCM fol. 45a). Zurna has also been suggested as a possible borrowing from Hittite or Luwian into the Armenian language, where Arm. զուռնա zuṙna is compared to Luwian zurni "horn".

Origins
The zurna was said to originate from Central Asia and ancient Asia Minor (Anatolia). Images of the zurna are visible in stone reliefs and artwork by the Hittites, who were an ancient empire from Asia Minor about 2000 to 1200 B.C. It was known in Persia from 6th century A.D., and later introduced in several countries following the spread of Islam (A.D. 650-1500). The zurna played an important role in Ottoman mehter music.

As zurna became popular and intriguing, it spread further to the east and west. In the 16th century, the Central Asian shawms got to China under the name 'sona'. The Kirghiz peoples, from ancient Persia and Afghanistan, had used the zurna, as well as Syrian people, who called it 'zamr'. As the Ottoman Empire sprawled into Europe, the zurna was introduced to the Balkans, Hungary, and even Western Europe. There were alteration of name and its structure, but the similarities to the original zurna was very apparent, as seen in the zurna of Macedonia, the shepherd flute of the Basque and the mountain territories of Italy, and the zurna in North Africa, called 'zmar', of Tunis and Tangier.

In Turkish folk music, the zurna joined with the davul to appoint a melodic concomitant to tribal and village folk dance. Today, the zurna is an essential part of Turkish folk music and dance, as well as in Armenian dance, Assyrian folk dance and Kurdish dance.

Turkish lore says that Adam, who was moulded from clay, had no soul. It is said only the melodious tuiduk-playing of Archangel Gabriel could breathe life into Adam. According to a Turkmen legend, the devil played the main role in tuiduk invention (note the term "devil openings", şeytan delikleri, in Turkish for the small apertures on the bell).

Characteristics
The zurna, like the duduk and kaval, is a woodwind instrument used to play folk music.

The zurna is made from the slow-growing and hardwood of fruit trees such as plum or apricot (Prunus armeniaca). There are several different types of zurnas. The most typical is the Armenian zurna. The longest (and lowest-pitched) is the kaba zurna, used in Bulgaria, the shortest (and highest-pitched), which can be made of bone, is the zurna played in Messolonghi and other villages of Aetolia-Acarnania region in Greece. The zurna, a relative of the oboe, is found almost everywhere where the common reed grows because it uses a short cylindrical reed that is tied to a conical brass tube on one end, flattened to a narrow slit on the other end as a source of the sound.

It requires high pressure to give any tone at all and when it does, it is almost constantly loud, high pitched, sharp, and piercing. The need for high pressure makes it suitable for playing without stop using circular breathing. A small pacifier-style disk that the lips may lean on helps the lip muscles that hold the high-pressure air, rest, and recover during long non-stop playing sessions. The combination of constant volume and non-stop playing makes the zurna unsuitable for emphasis of the rhythm. It has therefore been played almost invariably along with big drums that both provide the rhythm and the lower frequencies that travel further away than the zurna's loud, high pitched sound.

It has a cylindrical bore, and a bell opening out in a parabolic curve, thus adapted to reflect the sound straight ahead. Because of its loud and highly directional sound as well as accompaniment by big drums, it has historically been played outdoors, during festive events such as weddings and public celebrations. It has also been used to gather crowds in order to make official announcements. This use of the zurna as a token of the ruling power developed into Janissary bands and eventually into military music. Seven holes on the front, and one thumb hole, provide a range of over one octave including some transposition.

Usage
Similar to the mizmar and rhaita, zurnas are used in the folk music of many countries and regions, especially in Armenia, Iran, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Central Asia, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, The Maghreb, Albania, Serbia, Bosnia, Kurdistan and the other Caucasian countries, and have now spread throughout India, China, Korea and Eastern Europe.

The zurna is most likely the immediate predecessor of the European shawm, and is related to the Chinese suona still used today in weddings, temple and funeral music. The Japanese charumera, or charamera, traditionally associated with itinerant noodle vendors is a small zurna, its name derived from the Portuguese chirimoya. Few, if any, noodle vendors continue this tradition, and those who do would use a loudspeaker playing a recorded charumera.

A zurna was used by frontman Stu Mackenzie in King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard's 9th studio album, Flying Microtonal Banana.

title: Zurna


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Docking (dog)

Docking is the removal of portions of an animal's tail. While docking and bobbing are more commonly used to refer to removal of the tail, the term cropping is used in reference to the ears. Tail docking occurs in one of two ways. The first involves constricting the blood supply to the tail with a rubber ligature for a few days until the tail falls off. The second involves the severance of the tail with surgical scissors or a scalpel. The length to which tails are docked varies by breed, and is often specified in the breed standard.

Docking is illegal, or restricted, in many countries.

Some dog breeds have naturally occurring bobtail lines. These appear similar to docked dogs but are a distinct naturally occurring phenotype.

Purpose
Historically, tail docking was thought to prevent rabies, strengthen the back, increase the animal's speed, and prevent injuries when ratting, fighting, and baiting.

Tail docking is done in modern times either for prophylactic, therapeutic, cosmetic purposes, and/or to prevent injury. For dogs that work in the field, such as some hunting dogs, herding dogs, or terrier dogs, tails can collect burrs and foxtails, causing pain and infection and, due to the tail's wagging, may be subject to abrasion or other injury while moving through dense brush or thickets. Bones in the tail can also be broken by pulling or impact in the field, causing spinal injury to the tail. The American Veterinary Medical Association (the largest veterinary professional organization in the United States), disputes these justifications, saying "These justifications for docking working dogs' tails lack substantial scientific support. In the largest study to date on tail injuries in dogs the incidence was 0.23% and it was calculated that approximately 500 dogs need to be docked to prevent one tail injury."

Modern practice
Docking of puppies younger than 10 to 14 days old is routinely carried out by both breeders and veterinarians without anesthesia.

While the tails of some working dogs are docked to prevent injury or infection, the tails of larger dogs commonly used for guard work or protection work (not to be confused with patrol work where a handler can provide secondary aid) may be docked to prevent their tails from being grabbed in a fight. This is most common in the Rottweiler, Doberman Pinscher, Bandog, Cane Corso, Boerboel, etc.

Criticism
Robert Wansborough found in a 1996 paper that docking tails puts dogs at a disadvantage in several ways. First, dogs use their tails to communicate with other dogs (and with people); a dog without a tail might be significantly handicapped in conveying fear, caution, aggression, playfulness, and so on. Leaver and Reimchen, in 2007, found that longer tails were more effective than shorter tails at "conveying different intraspecific cues, such as those provided by tail motion".

It has also been suggested that certain breeds use their tails as rudders when swimming, and possibly for balance when running; so active dogs with docked tails might be at a disadvantage compared to their tailed peers. Videos comparing docked and undocked dogs running and jumping show that dogs who are docked have to work harder to compensate for the loss of the tail. Canine pathologist and sports-medicine expert Prof. Chris Zink believes the extra stress imposed on the joints can have long-term health consequences.

In 2007, Stephen Leaver, a graduate student at the University of Victoria, published a paper on tail docking which found that tail length was important in the transmission of social cues. The study found that dogs with shorter tails (docked tails) would be approached with caution, as if the approaching dog was unsure of the emotional state of the docked dog. The study goes on to suggest that dogs with docked tails may grow up to be more aggressive. The reasoning postulated by Tom Reimchen, UVic Biologist and supervisor of the study, was that dogs who grew up without being able to efficiently transmit social cues would grow up to be more anti-social and thus more aggressive.

H. Lee Robinson argues that reported concerns of tail docking lack empirical evidence, and is primarily supported by animal rights activists that lack experience with working dogs. Robinson suggests that docking the tail of working dogs at approximately one half length provides the benefits of injury prevention and infection prevention, while also maintaining enough tail length to be used for social communication. Robinson, however, is not a veterinarian or researcher but the owner of American Sentinel K9, which derives income from dogs who have been docked.

Docking has been condemned by the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Animal Hospital Association, and the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association. These organizations have also called on breed organizations to remove docking from all breed standards.

Influence of kennel clubs
Critics point out that kennel clubs with breed standards that do not make allowance for uncropped or undocked dogs put pressure on owners and breeders to continue the practice. Although the American Kennel Club (AKC) says that it has no rules that require docking or that make undocked animals ineligible for the show ring, standards for many breeds put undocked animals at a disadvantage for the conformation show ring. The American breed standard for boxers, for example, recommends that an undocked tail be "severely penalized."

The AKC position is that ear cropping and tail docking are "acceptable practices integral to defining and preserving breed character and/or enhancing good health," even though the practice is currently opposed by the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Legal status
Today, many countries ban cropping and docking because they consider the practices unnecessary, painful, cruel or mutilation. In Europe, the cropping of ears is prohibited in all countries that have ratified the European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals. Some countries that ratified the convention made exceptions for tail docking.

United Kingdom
Show dogs are no longer docked in the United Kingdom. A dog docked before 28 March 2007 in Wales and 6 April 2007 in England may continue to be shown at all shows in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland throughout its life. A dog docked on, or after, the above dates, regardless of where it was docked, may not be shown at shows in England and Wales where the public is charged a fee for admission. Where a working dog has been docked in England and Wales under the respective regulations, however, it may be shown where the public is charged a fee, so long as it is shown "only to demonstrate its working ability." It will thus be necessary to show working dogs in such a way as to demonstrate their working ability and not conformity to a standard. A dog legally docked in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, or abroad may be shown at any show in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

England and Wales
In England and Wales, ear cropping is illegal, and no dog with cropped ears can take part in any Kennel Club event (including agility and other non-conformation events). Tail docking is also illegal, except for a few working breeds; this exemption applies only when carried out by a registered veterinary surgeon.

The Animal Welfare Act 2006 makes the docking of dogs' tails a criminal offence, except for working dogs such as those used by the police force, the military, rescue services, pest control, and those used in connection with lawful animal shooting. Three options were presented to Parliament in March 2006 with Parliament opting for the second:
 * An outright ban on docking dogs' tails (opposed by a majority of 278 to 267)
 * A ban on docking dogs' tails with an exception for working dogs (supported by a majority of 476 to 63)
 * Retention of the status quo.

Those convicted of unlawful docking are liable to a fine of up to £20,000, up to 69 weeks of imprisonment, or both.

Prior to the ban, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), the regulatory body for veterinary surgeons in the United Kingdom, had stated in the 1990s that they considered tail docking to be "an unjustified mutilation and unethical unless done for therapeutic or acceptable prophylactic reasons." In 1995, a veterinary surgeon was brought before the RCVS disciplinary council for "disgraceful professional conduct" for carrying out cosmetic docking. The surgeon claimed that the docking was performed to prevent future injuries, and the case was dismissed for lack of evidence otherwise. Although cosmetic docking was still considered unacceptable by the RCVS, no further disciplinary action was taken against vets performing docking prior to the implementation of the ban.

Northern Ireland
In Northern Ireland, legislation known as Welfare of Animals Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 made tail docking illegal except for certain working dogs.

Scotland
In Scotland, docking of any breed is illegal. The Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 contains provisions prohibiting the mutilation of domesticated animals. However, the Scottish government has carried out a consultation on this issue and declared that they intend to legislate to bring the law in Scotland in line with the law in England and Wales, meaning that there will be an exemption for certain breeds of working dogs. This is due to the increase in serious spinal trauma reported in field dogs with undocked tails.

Pro-docking organizations

 * Association for the Preservation of Purebred Dogs
 * The Council for Dock Breeds
 * BC Cropping Coalition

Anti-docking organizations

 * Anti-Docking Alliance – A.D.A.
 * National Pet Advocacy and Welfare Society - NPAWS

title: Docking (dog)


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Talk:The Revolution

Why was my edit reverted? I was de-POVing the article. Mike Church 17:26, 3 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Because a VfD listing is one thing, and changing the article to point out its own uselessness is another. Your new revision was POV as well, it's just that it's your POV, albeit one shared by many others (including myself). Leaving your version up would give an unfair impression of the article's contents to people perusing VfD.

 * An actual attempt to NPOV the article would involve a simple rewording of a few statements. This would still leave the article as an unverifiable vanity page, and a candidate for deletion. -- Cyrius|&#9998 17:51, May 3, 2004 (UTC)

Alright. Hopefully the latest edits dePOV it.

Is there something sick about me that I actually enjoy fixing vanity pages? Mike Church 18:15, 3 May 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:The Revolution


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Presidential

Presidential may refer to:
 * "Presidential" (song), a 2005 song by YoungBloodZ
 * Presidential Airways (charter), an American charter airline based in Florida
 * Presidential Airways (scheduled), an American passenger airline active in the 1980s
 * Presidential Range, a range in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, US
 * Presidential Range (Green Mountains), a mountain range in Vermont, US

title: Presidential


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Vyšehrad Cemetery

Established in 1869 on the grounds of Vyšehrad Castle in Prague, Czech Republic, the Vyšehrad Cemetery (Vyšehradský hřbitov) is the final resting place of many composers, artists, sculptors, writers, and those from the world of science and politics. The centerpiece of the cemetery is the Slavín tomb designed by Antonín Wiehl, a large and notable tomb located within Vyšehrad cemetery.

Notable interments
Some of the famous Czechs interred here:
 * Zdeněk Miler (1921-2011), animator
 * Mikoláš Aleš (1852–1913), painter
 * Karel Ančerl (1908–1973), conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Toronto Symphony Orchestra
 * Josef Bican (1913–2001), footballer
 * Josef Čapek (1887–1945), painter and writer (cenotaph)
 * Karel Čapek (1890–1938), writer
 * Antonin Chittussi (1847–1891), painter
 * Emmy Destinn (Ema Destinnová, 1878–1930), opera singer
 * Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904), composer
 * Ludmila Dvořáková (1923–2015) opera singer
 * Petr Eben (1929–2007), composer and organist
 * Zdeněk Fibich (1850–1900), composer
 * Vlastimil Fišar (1926–1991), composer
 * Eduard Haken (1910–1996), operatic bass
 * Jaroslav Heyrovský (1890–1967), Nobel prize winning founder of polarography
 * Milada Horáková (1901–1950), doctor, victim of 1950s Czechoslovak communist party show trials (cenotaph)
 * František Hrubín (1910–1971), writer and poet, friend of Jaroslav Seifert
 * Ivan Jandl (1937–1987), actor
 * Rafael Kubelík (1914–1996), conductor and composer
 * Vilém Kurz (1872–1945), pianist and piano teacher
 * Karel Hynek Mácha (1810–1836), romantic poet
 * Hana Mašková (1949–1972), figure skater
 * Waldemar Matuška (1932–2009), singer and actor
 * Alphonse Mucha (1860–1939), artist and designer
 * Josef Václav Myslbek (1848–1922), sculptor
 * Jan Neruda (1834–1891), poet and writer
 * Božena Němcová (1820–1862), writer, author of the novel Babička ("The Grandmother")
 * Zdeněk Nejedlý (1878–1962), musicologist, critic, and Communist politician
 * František Ondříček (1857–1922), violinist and composer
 * Otakar Ostrčil (1879–1935), composer and conductor of the National Theater
 * Zdenka Procházková 1926–2021, actress
 * Jan Evangelista Purkyně (1787–1869), anatomist and physiologist, known for the Purkinje effect and Purkinje cells
 * Jana Rybářová (1936–1957), actress
 * Ladislav Šaloun (1870–1946), Art Nouveau sculptor
 * Olga Scheinpflugová (1902–1968), actress and wife of Karel Čapek
 * Václav Smetáček (1906–1998), composer and oboist
 * Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884), composer
 * Pavel Štěpán (1925–1998), pianist and piano teacher
 * Ilona Štěpánová-Kurzová (1899–1975), pianist and piano teacher
 * Josef Suk (1929–2011), violinist and grandson of composer Josef Suk
 * Max Švabinský (1873–1962), painter
 * Vladislav Vančura (1891–1942), avant-garde writer and filmmaker
 * Helena Zmatlíková (1923–2005), illustrator

title: Vyšehrad Cemetery