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Aljaž Tower

Aljaž Tower (Aljažev stolp) or the Triglav Tower (Triglavski stolp) is a tower, a storm shelter and a triangulation point on the summit of Mount Triglav in northwestern Slovenia. Along with Triglav, it is a landmark of Slovenia and a symbol of the Slovenehood. The tower was designed by Jakob Aljaž, a priest in the Upper Carniolan village of Dovje, who also had it erected, in 1895. Today it is owned by the state, tended by the Ljubljana Matica Alpine Club and stands on a parcel belonging to the Municipality of Bohinj.

History
In early 1895, hoping to be able to restrain the increased interest of foreigners in the Slovene mountains, Aljaž drew up with a chalk on the floor of his room in the Parish of Dovje plans for a cylindrical tower with a flag on its top. In April that year, he purchased the summit of Triglav for the sum of one florin from the then Municipality of Dovje. Having done so, he secured himself the right to erect a building on his own real property. The tower was constructed from iron and zinc-coated sheet steel by Anton Belec from Šentvid near Ljubljana. He and four workers brought the parts of the tower to the summit of Triglav and put the tower together in only five hours on 7 August 1895. Its opening ceremony and blessing took place in a small circle on 22 August that year.

Aljaž donated the shelter to the Slovene Mountaineering Society. In the beginning, there were three four-legged chairs, a summit register, a spirit stove, and the image The Triglav Panorama by Marko Pernhart in the tower. It was later repainted and renovated several times by Alojz Knafelc and others. In the communist era, as the highest point of the former Yugoslavia, it was painted red and decorated with a red star. However, it has more or less retained its original appearance. The star was removed shortly before the dissolution of Yugoslavia. On the proclamation of Slovene independence in June 1991, the flag of Slovenia was ceremonially raised at the tower. On 5 October 1999, the tower and its immediate surroundings were proclaimed a site of national cultural importance for Slovenia.

The tower was removed from the summit by helicopter for restoration on September 7, 2018, and put back on 3 October same year.

title: Aljaž Tower


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Lancia 1ZM

The Lancia 1Z and the Lancia 1ZM were two variations of an Italian armoured car built during World War I and which saw limited service during that war, the interwar period, and during World War II. The name is often misspelled as Lancia IZM.

Design
In 1916, the Lancia 1Z armoured car was built by Ansaldo of Italy. It was the most common of the early Italian armoured cars. Based on a Lancia truck, the armoured car was an advanced design for its day. For firepower the vehicle was equipped with twin turret mounted machine guns. The initial ten vehicles featured a further small turret on top with yet another machine gun. This gave the vehicle considerable firepower for the time. As a result of experiences in World War I, steel rails were installed over the top of the vehicle for cutting wire. Having had good results with the early car, another production run of a slightly modified version (the Lancia 1ZM) or "Model 1918" was ordered. The major difference between the 1Z and 1ZM was that the 1ZM did not have the top turret with the extra machine gun.

The Lancia 1ZM was the second batch of Ansaldo-Lancia armoured cars built. 110 cars of the improved model were ordered in 1917 and all were delivered before the end of 1918. Sometimes difficult to identify from the original Lancia 1Z ("Model 1916"), the most obvious difference is the removal of the top machine gun turret. This left the 1ZM with just the one larger, twin machine gun turret. Other features that will help are that the first 1ZM's usually have two spare tyres mounted on the right side of the vehicle (on the 1Z they were under the rear). The cooling vents and front armour of the engine compartment are slightly different and there are fewer vision ports in the armoured crew compartment. The front bumpers were also simplified. However, some of the original 1Z series were modified to initial 1ZM standard by the removal of the extra top turret and up-dating the chassis. This makes it possible to find photos of 1ZM armoured cars with both 1Z and 1ZM features. American troops on the Italian Front during World War I trained with and used some of these vehicles.

In combat
The Lancia 1Z/1ZM armoured car saw little combat in World War I due to the mountainous terrain in which the Italian Royal Army (Regio Esercito) fought. However, a few were deployed in the northern parts of the country where they saw combat against the Austro-Hungarian Army.

After World War I, Lancia 1Z/1ZM armoured cars were sent to North Africa and to East Africa for policing duties. A few cars were also sent to the Albanian Kingdom where they were to form the sole armoured force of the country for many years. Some Lancia 1Z/1ZMs played a minor role during the Italian invasion and the occupation of Ethiopia. Some Lancia 1Z/1ZMs were sent to Spain during the Spanish Civil War and were used by the Italian Corps of Volunteer Troops (Corpo Truppe Volontarie Italia, or CTV). These armoured cars were already hopelessly outdated by this point and performed poorly against the Spanish Republican forces.

A few obsolete Lancia 1Z/1ZM armoured cars were still in use with the Italian Royal Army during World War II. In 1940 and 1941, several vehicles served with the Royal Army during the East African Campaign. In some instances, operable machines were pressed into service by other Axis forces after the Armistice of Cassibile in September 1943. In the service of the forces of Nazi Germany, the vehicle was identified as the Panzerspähwagen 1ZM (i).

Operators

 * Kingdom of Italy
 * 🇦🇱 Kingdom of Albania
 * 🇦🇫 Kingdom of Afghanistan
 * Austria-Hungary
 * 🇩🇪 German Empire
 * 🇨🇿 Czechoslovakia
 * 🇭🇺 Kingdom of Hungary
 * 🇩🇪 Nazi Germany
 * 🇩🇪 Nazi Germany

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

title: Lancia 1ZM


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Arrangement of lines

In geometry, an arrangement of lines is the subdivision of the plane formed by a collection of lines. Problems of counting the features of arrangements have been studied in discrete geometry, and computational geometers have found algorithms for the efficient construction of arrangements.

Definition
Intuitively, any finite set of lines in the plane cuts the plane into two-dimensional polygons (cells), one-dimensional line segments or rays, and zero-dimensional crossing points. This can be formalized mathematically by classifying the points of the plane according to which side of each line they are on. Each line separates the plane into two open half-planes, and each point of the plane has three possibilities per line: it can be in either one of these two half-planes, or it can be on the line itself. Two points can be considered to be equivalent if they have the same classification with respect to all of the lines. This is an equivalence relation, whose equivalence classes are subsets of equivalent points. These subsets subdivide the plane into shapes of the following three types: The boundary of a cell is the system of edges that touch it, and the boundary of an edge is the set of vertices that touch it (one vertex for a ray and two for a line segment). The system of objects of all three types, linked by this boundary operator, form a cell complex covering the plane. Two arrangements are said to be isomorphic or combinatorially equivalent if there is a one-to-one boundary-preserving correspondence between the objects in their associated cell complexes.
 * 1) The cells or chambers of the arrangement are two-dimensional regions not part of any line. They form the interiors of bounded convex polygons or unbounded convex regions. If the plane is cut along all of the lines, these are the connected components of the points that remain uncut.
 * 2) The edges or panels of the arrangement are one-dimensional regions belonging to a single line. They are the open line segments and open infinite rays into which each line is partitioned by its crossing points with the other lines. That is, if one of the lines is cut by all the other lines, these are the connected components of its uncut points.
 * 3) The vertices of the arrangement are isolated points belonging to two or more lines, where those lines cross each other.

The same classification of points, and the same shapes of equivalence classes, can be used for infinite but locally finite arrangements, in which every bounded subset of the plane may be crossed by only finitely many lines, although in this case the unbounded cells may have infinitely many sides.

Complexity of arrangements
The study of arrangements was begun by Jakob Steiner, who proved the first bounds on the maximum number of features of different types that an arrangement may have. The most straightforward features to count are the vertices, edges, and cells:
 * An arrangement with $$n$$ lines has at most $$n(n-1)/2$$ vertices (a triangular number), one per pair of crossing lines. This maximum is achieved for simple arrangements, those in which each two lines cross at a vertex that is disjoint from all the other lines. The number of vertices is smaller when some lines are parallel, or when some vertices are crossed by more than two lines.
 * Any arrangement can be rotated to avoid axis-parallel lines, without changing its number of cells. Any arrangement with no axis-parallel lines has $$n$$ infinite-downward rays, one per line. These rays separate $$n+1$$ cells of the arrangement that are unbounded in the downward direction. The remaining cells all have a unique bottommost vertex (again, because there are no axis-parallel lines). For each pair of lines, there can be only one cell where the two lines meet at the bottom vertex, so the number of downward-bounded cells is at most the number of pairs of lines, $n(n-1)/2$. Adding the unbounded and bounded cells, the total number of cells in an arrangement can be at most $n(n+1)/2+1$. These are the numbers of the lazy caterer's sequence.
 * The number of edges of the arrangement is at most $n^2$, as may be seen either by using the Euler characteristic to calculate it from the numbers of vertices and cells, or by observing that each line is partitioned into at most $$n$$ edges by the other $$n-1$$ lines. Again, this worst-case bound is achieved for simple arrangements.

More complex features go by the names of "zones", "levels", and "many faces":

 * The zone of a line $\ell$ in a line arrangement is the collection of cells having edges belonging to $\ell$. The zone theorem states that the total number of edges in the cells of a single zone is linear. More precisely, the total number of edges of the cells belonging to a single side of line $\ell$ is at most $5n-1$, and the total number of edges of the cells belonging to both sides of $\ell$ is at most $\lfloor 9.5n\rfloor-1$. More generally, the total complexity of the cells of a line arrangement that are intersected by any convex curve is $O(n\alpha(n))$, where $$\alpha$$ denotes the inverse Ackermann function, as may be shown using Davenport–Schinzel sequences. The sum of squares of cell complexities in an arrangement is $O(n^2)$, as can be shown by summing the zones of all lines.
 * The $k$-level of an arrangement is the polygonal chain formed by the edges that have exactly $k$ other lines directly below them. The $\le k$-level is the portion of the arrangement below the $k$-level. Finding matching upper and lower bounds for the complexity of a $k$-level remains a major open problem in discrete geometry. The best upper bound is $O(nk^{1/3})$, while the best lower bound is $n2^{\Omega(\sqrt{\log k})}$. In contrast, the maximum complexity of the $\le k$-level is known to be $\Theta(nk)$. A $k$-level is a special case of a monotone path in an arrangement; that is, a sequence of edges that intersects any vertical line in a single point. However, monotone paths may be much more complicated than $k$-levels: there exist arrangements and monotone paths in these arrangements where the number of points at which the path changes direction is $n^{2-o(1)}$.
 * Although a single cell in an arrangement may be bounded by all $$n$$ lines, it is not possible in general for $$m$$ different cells to all be bounded by $$n$$ lines. Rather, the total complexity of $$m$$ cells is at most $\Theta(m^{2/3}n^{2/3}+n)$, almost the same bound as occurs in the Szemerédi–Trotter theorem on point-line incidences in the plane. A simple proof of this follows from the crossing number inequality: if $$m$$ cells have a total of $$x+n$$ edges, one can form a graph with $$m$$ nodes (one per cell) and $$x$$ edges (one per pair of consecutive cells on the same line). The edges of this graph can be drawn as curves that do not cross within the cells corresponding to their endpoints, and then follow the lines of the arrangement. Therefore, there are $$O(n^2)$$ crossings in this drawing. However, by the crossing number inequality, there are $$\Omega(x^3/m^2)$$ crossings. In order to satisfy both bounds, $$x$$ must be $O(m^{2/3}n^{2/3})$.

Projective arrangements and projective duality
It is convenient to study line arrangements in the projective plane as every pair of lines has a crossing point. Line arrangements cannot be defined using the sides of lines, because a line in the projective plane does not separate the plane into two distinct sides. One may still define the cells of an arrangement to be the connected components of the points not belonging to any line, the edges to be the connected components of sets of points belonging to a single line, and the vertices to be points where two or more lines cross. A line arrangement in the projective plane differs from its Euclidean counterpart in that the two Euclidean rays at either end of a line are replaced by a single edge in the projective plane that connects the leftmost and rightmost vertices on that line, and in that pairs of unbounded Euclidean cells are replaced in the projective plane by single cells that are crossed by the projective line at infinity.

Due to projective duality, many statements about the combinatorial properties of points in the plane may be more easily understood in an equivalent dual form about arrangements of lines. For instance, the Sylvester–Gallai theorem, stating that any non-collinear set of points in the plane has an ordinary line containing exactly two points, transforms under projective duality to the statement that any projective arrangement of finitely many lines with more than one vertex has an ordinary point, a vertex where only two lines cross. The earliest known proof of the Sylvester–Gallai theorem, by, uses the Euler characteristic to show that such a vertex must always exist.

Triangles in arrangements
An arrangement of lines in the projective plane is said to be simplicial if every cell of the arrangement is bounded by exactly three edges. Simplicial arrangements were first studied by Melchior. Three infinite families of simplicial line arrangements are known: Additionally there are many other examples of sporadic simplicial arrangements that do not fit into any known infinite family. As Branko Grünbaum writes, simplicial arrangements "appear as examples or counterexamples in many contexts of combinatorial geometry and its applications." For instance, use simplicial arrangements to construct counterexamples to a conjecture on the relation between the degree of a set of differential equations and the number of invariant lines the equations may have. The two known counterexamples to the Dirac–Motzkin conjecture (which states that any $n$-line arrangement has at least $$n/2$$ ordinary points) are both simplicial.
 * 1) A near-pencil consisting of $$n-1$$ lines through a single point, together with a single additional line that does not go through the same point,
 * 2) The family of lines formed by the sides of a regular polygon together with its axes of symmetry, and
 * 3) The sides and axes of symmetry of an even regular polygon, together with the line at infinity.

The dual graph of a line arrangement has one node per cell and one edge linking any pair of cells that share an edge of the arrangement. These graphs are partial cubes, graphs in which the nodes can be labeled by bitvectors in such a way that the graph distance equals the Hamming distance between labels. In the case of a line arrangement, each coordinate of the labeling assigns 0 to nodes on one side of one of the lines and 1 to nodes on the other side. Dual graphs of simplicial arrangements have been used to construct infinite families of 3-regular partial cubes, isomorphic to the graphs of simple zonohedra.

It is also of interest to study the extremal numbers of triangular cells in arrangements that may not necessarily be simplicial. Any arrangement in the projective plane must have at least $$n$$ triangles. Every arrangement that has only $$n$$ triangles must be simple. For Euclidean rather than projective arrangements, the minimum number of triangles is $n-2$, by Roberts's triangle theorem. The maximum possible number of triangular faces in a simple arrangement is known to be upper bounded by $$n(n-1)/3$$ and lower bounded by $n(n-3)/3$; the lower bound is achieved by certain subsets of the diagonals of a regular $2n$-gon. For non-simple arrangements the maximum number of triangles is similar but more tightly bounded. The closely related Kobon triangle problem asks for the maximum number of non-overlapping finite triangles in an arrangement in the Euclidean plane, not counting the unbounded faces that might form triangles in the projective plane. For some but not all values of $n$, $$n(n-2)/3$$ triangles are possible.

Multigrids and rhombus tilings
The dual graph of a simple line arrangement may be represented geometrically as a collection of rhombi, one per vertex of the arrangement, with sides perpendicular to the lines that meet at that vertex. These rhombi may be joined together to form a tiling of a convex polygon in the case of an arrangement of finitely many lines, or of the entire plane in the case of a locally finite arrangement with infinitely many lines. This construction is sometimes known as a Klee diagram, after a publication of Rudolf Klee in 1938 that used this technique. Not every rhombus tiling comes from lines in this way, however.

investigated special cases of this construction in which the line arrangement consists of $$k$$ sets of equally spaced parallel lines. For two perpendicular families of parallel lines this construction just gives the familiar square tiling of the plane, and for three families of lines at 120-degree angles from each other (themselves forming a trihexagonal tiling) this produces the rhombille tiling. However, for more families of lines this construction produces aperiodic tilings. In particular, for five families of lines at equal angles to each other (or, as de Bruijn calls this arrangement, a pentagrid) it produces a family of tilings that include the rhombic version of the Penrose tilings.

There also exist three infinite simplicial arrangements formed from sets of parallel lines. The tetrakis square tiling is an infinite arrangement of lines forming a periodic tiling that resembles a multigrid with four parallel families, but in which two of the families are more widely spaced than the other two, and in which the arrangement is simplicial rather than simple. Its dual is the truncated square tiling. Similarly, the triangular tiling is an infinite simplicial line arrangement with three parallel families, which has as its dual the hexagonal tiling, and the bisected hexagonal tiling is an infinite simplicial line arrangement with six parallel families and two line spacings, dual to the great rhombitrihexagonal tiling. These three examples come from three affine reflection groups in the Euclidean plane, systems of symmetries based on reflection across each line in these arrangements.

Algorithms
Constructing an arrangement means, given as input a list of the lines in the arrangement, computing a representation of the vertices, edges, and cells of the arrangement together with the adjacencies between these objects, for instance as a doubly connected edge list. Due to the zone theorem, arrangements can be constructed efficiently by an incremental algorithm that adds one line at a time to the arrangement of the previously added lines: each new line can be added in time proportional to its zone, resulting in a total construction time of $O(n^2)$. However, the memory requirements of this algorithm are high, so it may be more convenient to report all features of an arrangement by an algorithm that does not keep the entire arrangement in memory at once. This may again be done efficiently, in time $O(n^2)$ and space $O(n)$, by an algorithmic technique known as topological sweeping. Computing a line arrangement exactly requires a numerical precision several times greater than that of the input coordinates: if a line is specified by two points on it, the coordinates of the arrangement vertices may need four times as much precision as these input points. Therefore, computational geometers have also studied algorithms for constructing arrangements efficiently with limited numerical precision.

As well, researchers have studied efficient algorithms for constructing smaller portions of an arrangement, such as zones, $k$-levels, or the set of cells containing a given set of points. The problem of finding the arrangement vertex with the median $x$-coordinate arises (in a dual form) in robust statistics as the problem of computing the Theil–Sen estimator of a set of points.

Marc van Kreveld suggested the algorithmic problem of computing shortest paths between vertices in a line arrangement, where the paths are restricted to follow the edges of the arrangement, more quickly than the quadratic time that it would take to apply a shortest path algorithm to the whole arrangement graph. An approximation algorithm is known, and the problem may be solved efficiently for lines that fall into a small number of parallel families (as is typical for urban street grids), but the general problem remains open.

Non-Euclidean line arrangements
A pseudoline arrangement is a family of curves that share similar topological properties with a line arrangement. These can be defined most simply in the projective plane as simple closed curves any two of which meet in a single crossing point. A pseudoline arrangement is said to be stretchable if it is combinatorially equivalent to a line arrangement. Determining stretchability is a difficult computational task: it is complete for the existential theory of the reals to distinguish stretchable arrangements from non-stretchable ones. Every arrangement of finitely many pseudolines can be extended so that they become lines in a "spread", a type of non-Euclidean incidence geometry in which every two points of a topological plane are connected by a unique line (as in the Euclidean plane) but in which other axioms of Euclidean geometry may not apply.

Another type of non-Euclidean geometry is the hyperbolic plane, and arrangements of hyperbolic lines in this geometry have also been studied. Any finite set of lines in the Euclidean plane has a combinatorially equivalent arrangement in the hyperbolic plane (e.g. by enclosing the vertices of the arrangement by a large circle and interpreting the interior of the circle as a Klein model of the hyperbolic plane). However, parallel (non-crossing) pairs of lines are less restricted in hyperbolic line arrangements than in the Euclidean plane: in particular, the relation of being parallel is an equivalence relation for Euclidean lines but not for hyperbolic lines. The intersection graph of the lines in a hyperbolic arrangement can be an arbitrary circle graph. The corresponding concept to hyperbolic line arrangements for pseudolines is a weak pseudoline arrangement, a family of curves having the same topological properties as lines such that any two curves in the family either meet in a single crossing point or have no intersection.

title: Arrangement of lines


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Democratic Alternative '91

The Democratic Alternative '91 (Democratisch Alternatief '91, DA'91) is a liberal political party in Suriname.

History
The DA '91 was founded in 1991 when it split off from the National Party of Suriname. The party was founded shortly before the 1991 general election. The intention had been to establish the party in 1991 but the "Telephone Coup" that removed President Ramsewak Shankar from office interfered with the planning.

Winston Jessurun was one of the founders, together with Gerard Brunings. Brunings has stated that when establishing the party they asked the Dutch embassy for programs of Dutch political parties and that of Democrats 66 appealed most to them. With the most significant change being changing Netherlands for Suriname.

In the 1991 elections, the party obtained 9 seats. At the 1996 elections the number of seats dropped to four. It further dropped to two in the 2000 elections and one in the 2005 elections. Even though the party gained only one seat it was able to join the third cabinet of President Ronald Venetiaan and had one Minister in the cabinet and received an ambassadorship.

For the 2010 elections, the DA'91 joined the political alliance New Front for Democracy and Development that won 31.6% of the popular vote and 14 out of 51 seats in the National Assembly. Out of these 14, one seat went to DA'91.

For the 2015 elections, DA'91 entered the elections as part of the political alliance V7. On 30 September 2015 Angelic Alihusain-del Castilho became chairperson of the party, succeeding Winston Jessurun.

title: Democratic Alternative '91


text:
Troy Kennedy Martin

Troy Kennedy Martin (15 February 1932 – 15 September 2009) was a Scottish-born film and television screenwriter. He created the long-running BBC TV police series Z-Cars (1962–1978), and the award-winning 1985 anti-nuclear drama Edge of Darkness. He also wrote the screenplay for the original version of The Italian Job (1969). His last film was Ferrari (2023), which was posthumously released.

Early life
He was born in Rothesay, Isle of Bute, and educated at Finchley Catholic Grammar School and Trinity College, Dublin. He had a younger brother Ian, who is also a television writer best known for creating The Sweeney.

1960s
He began writing for BBC Television in 1958, beginning with the play Incident at Echo Six, and he wrote four further plays for the BBC over the following three years, before in 1961 creating his first series, Storyboard, a six-part anthology series that consisted both of original scripts and adaptations. The same year, he wrote the police drama The Interrogator. He wrote an important manifesto about new television drama in 1964, calling for a more mobile style of camera work and less emphasis on dialogue.

In 1962, Martin co-created the drama series Z-Cars. Set in "Newtown", based on Kirkby near Liverpool, Z-Cars was revolutionary in that it depicted a hard-edged, grittier and much more realistic vision of the police force than had been seen on British television – as a result, it was initially very unpopular with the real police. Although he left the programme after the first two series, the series ran until 1978, and he returned to write the final episode.

In 1965, Martin scripted a television adaptation of Frederik Pohl's short story The Midas Plague, which was shown as an episode for the first series of Out of the Unknown, a science-fiction anthology series shown on BBC2. One of the more light-hearted stories of the otherwise dark and dramatic show, it is one of only 20 (and a half) episodes of the original 48 known to have survived destruction, and is available on DVD.

1970s
Over the following decade he contributed to various television programmes, and made his first foray into feature films when he wrote The Italian Job, which was released in 1969 and starred Noël Coward and Michael Caine. The following year he wrote Kelly's Heroes, and he scripted two more films during the 1970s – The Jerusalem File (1971) and Sweeney 2 (1978).

Sweeney 2 was the second cinematic spin-off from the television series The Sweeney, which had been created by his brother Ian Kennedy Martin, and for which he had written several episodes. He is less well known for writing a little-seen television sitcom based in the British Civil Service, If It Moves, File It (1970), featuring amongst others John Bird, who later co-starred in the satirical Bremner, Bird and Fortune.

1980s
In the early 1980s he was no less successful, with two highly popular series on different networks in 1983. The Old Men at the Zoo was an adaptation of the novel by Angus Wilson and screened on BBC One; the second was the hugely popular Reilly, Ace of Spies on ITV, based on the book by Robin Bruce Lockhart and starring Sam Neill.

Greatly influenced by the political landscape of the early 1980s, he had drafted a script for a political thriller-cum-science fiction drama serial entitled Magnox, which became Edge of Darkness. He was interviewed about the genesis of the series for Magnox: The Secrets of Edge of Darkness documentary, an extra on the show's 2003 DVD release:

"We had the Cold War. The Falklands. The Nuclear State. The prospect of a miners' strike. Greenham Common. It was Thatcher's Britain. At the BBC, there was no political dimension in their popular drama whatsoever. And I was really depressed about it, as indeed were other writers that I knew. And so, I said to my closest colleagues: 'The only thing one can do is actually write stuff that one knows is not going to get made, but at least we'll get it out of our system'. And that's how I started to write Edge Of Darkness. I didn't really think that it stood much of a chance of being produced."

The concept attracted little interest from television executives until incoming BBC Head of Drama Series & Serials Jonathan Powell picked it up in 1983, assigning experienced producer Michael Wearing to the project. Edge of Darkness was eventually screened on BBC2 in late 1985. Although Kennedy Martin had many creative differences with director Martin Campbell and star Bob Peck (who is reported to have vetoed the scripted ending with the remark "I'm not turning into a fucking tree!"), the drama was a resounding success, picking up several awards and being remembered as one of the best British television drama productions of the 1980s. Following Edge of Darkness he wrote another feature film screenplay, Red Heat (1988, co-written with director Walter Hill), which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Belushi.

1990s
Kennedy Martin did not return to television scriptwriting until the one-off BBC Two drama Hostile Waters in 1997. Other later work included Bravo Two Zero for BBC One in 1999, co-written with Andy McNab and starring Sean Bean.

Death
He died of lung cancer on 15 September 2009 aged 77, in Ditchling, East Sussex.

Film

 * The Italian Job (1969)
 * Kelly's Heroes (1970)
 * The Jerusalem File (1972)
 * Sweeney II (1978)
 * Red Heat (1988)
 * Red Dust (2004)
 * Ferrari (2023)

Television

 * Incident at Echo Six (1958)
 * The Interrogator (1961)
 * Storyboard (1961)
 * Z-Cars (1962–78)
 * Redcap (1965–66)
 * The Sweeney (1975–78)
 * Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983)
 * Edge of Darkness (1985)
 * Hostile Waters (1997)
 * Bravo Two Zero (1999)

title: Troy Kennedy Martin


text: Category:Elections in Suriname

title: Category:Elections in Suriname


text:
Useful idiot

A useful idiot or useful fool is a pejorative description of a person, suggesting that the person thinks they are fighting for a cause without fully comprehending the consequences of their actions, and who does not realize they are being cynically manipulated by the cause's leaders or by other political players. The term was often used during the Cold War to describe non-communists regarded as susceptible to communist propaganda and psychological manipulation. A number of authors attribute this phrase to Vladimir Lenin, but this attribution is not supported by any evidence. Similar terms exist in other languages.

Early usages
The term useful idiot, for a foolish person whose views can be taken advantage of for political purposes, was used in a British periodical as early as 1864. In relation to the Cold War, the term appeared in a June 1948 New York Times article on contemporary Italian politics ("Communist shift is seen in Europe"), citing the Italian Democratic Socialist Party's newspaper L'Umanità. L'Umanità argued that the Italian Socialist Party, which had entered into a popular front with the Italian Communist Party (PCI) known as the Popular Democratic Front during the 1948 Italian general election, would be given the option to either merge with the PCI or leave the alliance. The term was later used in a 1955 article in the American Federation of Labor News-Reporter to refer to Italians who supported Communist causes. Time first used the phrase in January 1958, writing that some members of Christian Democracy considered social activist Danilo Dolci a useful idiot for Communist causes. It has since recurred in that periodical's articles, from the 1970s, to the 1980s, to the 2000s, and 2010s.

In the Russian language, the term "useful fools" (полезные дураки, tr. polezniye duraki) was already in use in 1941. It was mockingly used against Russian "nihilists" of 1860s who, for Polish agents, were said to be no more than "useful fools and silly enthusiasts".

While the phrase useful idiots of the West has often been attributed to Vladimir Lenin, he is not documented as ever having used the phrase. In a 1987 article for The New York Times, American journalist William Safire reported about his search for the origin of the term. He wrote that a senior reference librarian at the Library of Congress, Grant Harris, had been unable to find the phrase in Lenin's works. Safire was also out of luck contacting TASS and the New York headquarters of the Communist Party. He concluded that, lacking solid evidence, a cautious phrasing must be used, e.g., "a phrase attributed to Lenin...".

Select usage
In 1959, Congressman Ed Derwinski of Illinois entered an editorial by the Chicago Daily Calumet into the Congressional record, referring to Americans who travelled to the Soviet Union to promote peace as "what Lenin calls useful idiots in the Communist game". In a speech in 1965, American diplomat Spruille Braden said the term was used by Joseph Stalin to refer to what Braden called "countless innocent although well-intentioned sentimentalists or idealists" who aided the Soviet agenda.

Writing in The New York Times in 1987, Safire discussed the increasing use of the term useful idiot against "anybody insufficiently anti-Communist in the view of the phrase's user", including Congressmen who supported the anti-Contras led by the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the Labour Party in the Netherlands. After United States president Ronald Reagan concluded negotiations with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev over the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, conservative political leader Howard Phillips declared Reagan a "useful idiot for Soviet propaganda".

In the end of 2016, the former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and the Editorial Board of The New York Times applied the term to President-elect Donald Trump. Michael Morell, former acting CIA director, wrote: "In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation." Michael Hayden, former director of both the US National Security Agency and the CIA, described Trump as a "useful fool, some naif, manipulated by Moscow, secretly held in contempt, but whose blind support is happily accepted and exploited."

The Economist published a 2023 article titled "Vladimir Putin's useful idiots"; it describes "Useful Idiot narratives" pushed by Putinversteher that support Putin's aims and denigrate his perceived enemies.

Variations of the term
The Serbo-Croatian term korisne budale, which may be translated as useful idiots or useful innocents, attributed to unnamed Yugoslav communists, appears in a 1946 Reader's Digest article titled "Yugoslavia's Tragic Lesson to the World", written by Bogdan Raditsa. Raditsa had served the Yugoslav government-in-exile during World War II, supported Josip Broz Tito's partisans but was not a communist himself, and briefly served in Tito's led Provisional Government of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia before leaving for New York. Raditsa said: "In the Serbo-Croat language, the communists have a phrase for true democrats who consent to collaborate with them for [the sake of] 'democracy'. It is Korisne Budale, or Useful Innocents." In his 1947 book Planned Chaos, Austrian-American economist Ludwig von Mises wrote that the term useful innocents was used by communists for those whom von Mises describes as "confused and misguided sympathizers [of the revolutionary idea]".

The expression was discussed in connection with two other related quotations attributed to Lenin, which are also about Western "idiots" being manipulated by the Soviet communists. The quotations are known as "the rope" ("The capitalists will sell us the rope with which to hang them") and the "deaf, dumb and blind". For example, William J. Bennett alleged that "'Useful idiot' was the term Lenin had used for credulous Western businessmen", giving as an example Armand Hammer "who helped build up the Soviet Communist state". Bennett recounted a famous story wherein Lenin was asked, "How will we hang the Capitalists, we don't have enough rope!" Lenin was reported to have "famously replied" with the rejoinder, "They will sell it to us — on credit."

The wording from written works by Lenin about the "rope" was as follows

and the "dumb and blind" version of the quotation (from handwritten notes by Lenin) was the following:

title: Useful idiot


text:
User talk:Bunny Angel13

What are you doing? And whatever it is, please indicate it as a Minor change. RickK 22:38, Jul 28, 2004 (UTC)

Are you a bot? If so, have you been given permission to run? RickK 22:38, Jul 28, 2004 (UTC)

Fixing comma spacings. Okay, no problem. No, I am not. Bunny Angel13 22:40, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I am a bot, and this is an automated message. 207.135.36.121 22:42, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * PEOPLESOFT INC.    207.135.0.0 - 207.135.63.255 UNITED STATES Bunny Angel13 22:44, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

If you are a bot and have not been given permission to run, you will be blocked. RickK 22:47, Jul 28, 2004 (UTC)
 * Well it's a good thing I'm not a bot. Bunny Angel13 22:48, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * I'm inferring this is your way of politely asking me to give more time inbetween my submission clicks. If that is that case, then I will sure will.  Bunny Angel13 22:50, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Or are you talking to 207.135.36.121 ? Well, in any case I officially welcome myself to the wiki. Nice to meet you. Bunny Angel13 22:54, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * No, that's not a problem, so long as they're manual edits and you're marking them as minor. :)  I htink 207 ... is a troll and will be ignored as such.  Thanks.  Welcome.  RickK 22:55, Jul 28, 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:Bunny Angel13


text:
Jakob Aljaž

Jakob Aljaž (July 6, 1845 – May 4, 1927) was a Slovene Roman Catholic priest, composer and mountaineer.

Aljaž was born in a small Upper Carniolan village of Zavrh pod Šmarno Goro, northeast of Ljubljana, in what was then the Austrian Empire. He was a priest and also a successful composer, singer and choir master. His works are still very popular among Slovenes. He became known for his role fostering the development of mountaineering in the Slovene Lands. By far his most well known construction is the Aljaž Tower (Aljažev stolp), built on the summit of Mount Triglav, the highest mountain of the Julian Alps and of Slovenia, which he purchased to secure the area for Slovene rather than German mountaineers. He also designed shelters and huts, and worked with the Slovene Mountaineering Society to improve use of the land on Triglav.

The endeavours of Jakob Aljaž had a very influential role in the emergence of Mount Triglav as one of the central symbols of the Slovene people. The first verse from the patriotic poem Oh, Triglav, My Home (Oj, Triglav, moj dom) by Matija Zemljič, put into music by Jakob Aljaž, is engraved in the Slovenian 50 cent euro coin. Since 2007, its first stance has been the anthem of the Alpine Association of Slovenia.

Jakob Aljaž died in the village of Dovje in Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

title: Jakob Aljaž


text:
Lydie Polfer

Lydie Polfer (born 22 November 1952, in Luxembourg City) is a Luxembourgish politician who has served in a number of capacities, including Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Mayor of Luxembourg City, as well as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and a member of the Chamber of Deputies. She is a member of the Democratic Party (DP).

Political career
Polfer succeeded her father, Camille Polfer, as mayor of Luxembourg City, when he was forced to resign from the position due to poor health after only two years. She was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies in the 1984 election, representing Centre. She was the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs in the government of Jean-Claude Juncker from August 1999 until July 2004.

In the 2004 legislative election, Polfer was elected, once again, top of the DP list, coming second overall to Luc Frieden. However, the DP polled poorly overall, losing five seats nationwide, and, with them, their position as the second-largest party and kingmakers. As such, the CSV entered instead into a coalition with the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP), ejecting Polfer from the government. The European Parliament election held on the same day also saw the DP lose votes, as well as fall to fourth, behind the Greens for the first time. Nonetheless, Polfer still came top of the DP list (and third overall), and took her place in the European Parliament, where the DP sit in the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

She is now once again Mayor of Luxembourg City, after previously being mayor there from 1982 to 1999. Polfer is a Vice Chair of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.

In 2023 elections Polfer finished 3rd on the DP list, with 19,345 votes.

title: Lydie Polfer


text:
Redondela

Redondela is a municipality in the province of Pontevedra, in the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain. It belongs to the comarca of Vigo. The most famous icons of the village are its two major railway viaducts built in the nineteenth century. Due to these infrastructures Redondela is known under the nickname "Village of the viaducts." The town lies on the Portuguese Way, one of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage routes.

The municipality has an area of 51.9 km2 (20.0 sq mi) and has a population of 29,192 in 2021.

Parroquias

 * Cabeiro
 * Cedeira
 * Cesantes
 * Chapela
 * Negros
 * Quintela
 * Reboreda
 * Redondela
 * Saxamonde
 * Trasmañó
 * Ventosela
 * Vilar de Infesta
 * O Viso

Verne Monument
The Town has a large monument to Jules Verne.

title: Redondela


text:
Election law

Election law is a branch of public law that relates to the democratic processes, election of representatives and office holders, and referendums, through the regulation of the electoral system, voting rights, ballot access, election management bodies, election campaign, the division of the territory into electoral zones, the procedures for the registration of voters and candidacies, its financing and propaganda, voting, counting of votes, scrutiny, electoral disputes, electoral observation and all contentious matters derived from them. It is a discipline falling at the juncture of constitutional law and political science, and involves "the politics of law and the law of politics".

History and the field
After the legally-contested 2000 United States presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, the importance of election law has grown in the United States. According to the National Law Journal, election law "grew from a niche to multi million-dollar draw." The UCLA election law professor Richard Hasen showed that in the United States, litigation rates have been soaring for two decades and hit record high during the 2020 election.

Since the early 2000s, election law has been taught at most of the law schools throughout the United States. American election law experts and academics are connected in the academic network founded by Daniel H. Lowenstein, professor at UCLA Law School, and Richard L. Hasen. Lowenstein is considered the "pioneer" and the one who "invented" the election law. In 2000s, Lowenstein and Hasen edited the Election Law Journal and the election law mailinglist. As of 2022, Hasen manages the Election Law Blog and the mailing list. The Election Law Journal is an academic publication devoted to election law, currently edited by David Canon of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Most of its articles deal with election law in the United States.

According to the Routledge Handbook of Election Law, election law is a growing area globally. Voters around the world are increasingly challenging election results. Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia, Iceland, Kenya, and Malawi are some countries where courts have recently invalidated national elections or referendums. Electoral disputes are good for democracy, according to the book's editors. They can "remove voters' doubts, remedy violations, increase trust, and, when needed, invalidate flawed elections and defend the integrity of the electoral process. Letting all participants know violations will not be tolerated benefits future elections."

Issues
Some of the questions that are addressed by election law are:
 * Which people are entitled to vote in an election (e.g. age, residency or literacy requirements, or poll taxes), and the procedures by which such persons must register to vote or present identification in order to vote
 * Which people are entitled to hold office (for example, age, residency, birth or citizenship requirements), and the procedures candidates must follow to appear on the ballot (such as the formatting and filing of nominating petitions) and rules governing write-in candidates
 * The rules about what subjects may be submitted to a direct popular vote through a referendum or plebiscite, and the rules that governmental agencies or citizen groups must follow to place questions on the ballot for public consideration
 * The framework by which political parties may organize their internal government, and how they select candidates to run for political office (e.g. primary elections)
 * The financing of elections (e.g. contribution limits, rules for public financing of elections, the public disclosure of contributors, and rules governing interest groups other than a candidate's campaign organization)
 * The requirements for creating districts which elect representatives to a legislative assembly (examples include congressional districts, ridings or wards within a Municipality)
 * What restrictions are placed on campaign advocacy (such as rules on anonymous adds, false advertising, and limits on free speech)
 * How votes are cast at an election (including whether to use a paper ballot, or some other form of recording votes such as a mechanical voting machine or electronic voting device, and how information is presented to voters on the ballot or device)
 * How votes are counted at an election, recounts, and election challenges
 * Whether, and how, voters or candidates may file legal actions in a court of law or administrative agency to enforce their rights or contest the outcome of an election
 * Definition of electoral fraud and other crimes against the electoral system
 * The sources of election law (for example, constitutions, national statutes, state statutes, or judicial decisions) and the interplay between these sources of law

France
The French electoral code addresses most of the elections. However, other texts frame this material for special elections. Thus the Constitution but fixed some general basic provisions concerning the presidential election, the legislative and senatorial elections.

For litigation election, the court depends on the concerned election. The Constitutional Council is responsible for the most important elections: presidential elections and senatorial elections or referendums. In contrast, to the municipal or district elections the administrative tribunal has jurisdiction, then the appeal is to the State Council. Finally, for the regional and European elections, the Council of State which has jurisdiction at first and last resort.

In decisions on electoral matters, the law takes into account the results: if an essential principle is violated, the election is canceled but if fraud is "classic" (ballot stuffing, failure to register as voters, vote the dead ...) but the election was won (after counting of ballots invalidated) with a large or very large lead, the judge then cancels rarely the result.

Italy
The Italian Constitution fixes some general basic provisions concerning the legislative elections. Electoral disputes in Italy are complex because they are divided between several court orders. For example, with regard to the dispute concerning registration of candidates for ballots or litigation election, the administrative court has jurisdiction. For eligibility and disfranchisement, the judge is the ordinary tribunal.

If a fraud is proven by the judge, it does not cancel necessarily the elections, unless they think that the result of election without the fraud would not have been identical. The survival of the acts already performed by the elected organs would seem solved by abundant case law that protects innocent trust of third parties.

Mexico
Elections in Mexico are held every 6 years to elect a president and every 3 years to elect a legislature. These elections determine who, on the national level, takes the position of the head of state – the president – as well as the legislature. At the local level, each of Mexico's 31 constituent states elects a governor to serve a six-year term; they also elect legislative deputies who sit in state congresses, and municipal presidents (presidentes municipales, or mayors). Mexico City, the national capital, elects a head of government in lieu of a mayor, city assemblymen in lieu of state congressional deputies, and borough mayors in lieu of municipal mayors.

Philippines
The president, vice-president, and the senators are elected for a six-year term, while the members of the House of Representatives, governors, vice-governors, members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (provincial board members), mayors, vice-mayors, members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod/members of the Sangguniang Bayan (city/municipal councilors), barangay officials, and the members of the Sangguniang Kabataan (youth councilors) are elected to serve for a three-year term.

Synchronized with the national elections are the local elections. The voter may vote for any of the following: If the city the voter is residing in a highly urbanized city, or independent component city. or in Pateros, the voter can not vote for any of the provincial-level positions.
 * Provincial-level: One governor, one vice governor, one to seven Sangguniang Panlalawigan members (provincial board)
 * City- or municipal-level: one mayor, one vice mayor, four to twelve Sangguniang Panlungsod/Sangguniang Bayan members (city or municipal council, respectively)

United States
Elections in the United States are held for government officials at the federal, state, and local levels. At the federal level, the nation's head of state, the president, is elected indirectly by the people of each state, through an Electoral College. Today, these electors almost always vote with the popular vote of their state. All members of the federal legislature, the Congress, are directly elected by the people of each state. There are many elected offices at state level, each state having at least an elective governor and legislature. There are also elected offices at the local level, in counties, cities, towns, townships, boroughs, and villages; as well as for special districts and school districts which may transcend county and municipal boundaries.

United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, election law is legislated for by The Houses of Parliament. The statutory governance of UK Election law comes from acts of parliament such as the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. The Electoral Commission's mandate and establishment was set out in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA), and ranges from the regulation of political donations and expenditure by political and third parties through to promoting greater participation in the electoral process.

The Electoral Administration Act 2006 made a number of improvements to electoral registration, improving the security arrangements for absent voting, allowing observers to attend elections and a major change in reducing the minimum age for candidates at UK parliamentary elections. It also introduced the performance standards regime for electoral services.

Notable authors
According to University of Chicago Law Professor Brian Leiter, the most cited American election law scholars between 2016 and 2020 included Samuel Issacharoff, Richard Pildes, Richard Hasen, Heather Gerken, Richard Briffault, Nathaniel Persily, and Nicholas Stephanopoulos, respectively. Other notable election law experts and professors include David Schultz, Joshua Douglas,   Ed Foley,  Guy-Uriel Charles,  Jessica Levinson,  Rebecca Green, Eugene Mazo, Justin Levitt, in the U.S, Graeme Orr in Australia and Jurij Toplak in Europe.

title: Election law


text:
Wikipedia:WikiProject Ecology

Welcome to WikiProject Ecology, an interactive and collaborative WikiProject about Ecology and improving Wikipedia's articles and coverage about ecological topics.

This project's scope includes:
 * 1) The management of Wikipedia pages relating to ecology
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 * 6) Maintaining objectivity and neutral point-of-view in ecology-related articles

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title: Wikipedia:WikiProject Ecology


text:
Mains electricity by country

Mains electricity by country includes a list of countries and territories, with the plugs, voltages and frequencies they commonly use for providing electrical power to low voltage appliances, equipment, and lighting typically found in homes and offices. (For industrial machinery, see industrial and multiphase power plugs and sockets.) Some countries have more than one voltage available. For example, in North America, a unique split-phase system is used to supply to most premises that works by center tapping a 240 volts transformer. This system is able to concurrently provide 240 volts and 120 volts. Consequently, this allows homeowners to wire up both 240 V and 120 V circuits as they wish (as regulated by local building codes). Most sockets are connected to 120 V for the use of small appliances and electronic devices, while larger appliances such as dryers, electric ovens, ranges and EV chargers use dedicated 240 V sockets. Different sockets are mandated for different voltage or maximum current levels.

Voltage, frequency, and plug type vary, but large regions may use common standards. Physical compatibility of receptacles may not ensure compatibility of voltage, frequency, or connection to earth (ground), including plugs and cords. In some areas, older standards may still exist. Foreign enclaves, extraterritorial government installations, or buildings frequented by tourists may support plugs not otherwise used in a country, for the convenience of travellers.

Main reference source – IEC World Plugs
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) publishes a web microsite World Plugs which provides the main source for this page, except where other sources are indicated. World Plugs includes some history, a description of plug types, and a list of countries giving the type(s) used and the mains voltage and frequency. Although useful for quick reference, especially for travellers, IEC World Plugs may not be regarded as totally accurate, as illustrated by the examples in the plugs section below, and errors may exist.

Voltages
Voltages in this article are the nominal single-phase supply voltages, or split-phase supply voltages. Three-phase and industrial loads may have other voltages.

All voltages are root mean square voltage; the peak AC voltage is greater by a factor of $$\sqrt{2}$$, and the peak-to-peak voltage greater by a factor of $$2\sqrt{2}.$$

Plugs

The system of plug types using a single letter (from A to N) used here is from World Plugs, which defines the plug type letters in terms of a general description, without making reference to specific standards. Where a plug does not have a specific letter code assigned to it, then it may be defined by the style sheet number listed in IEC TR 60083. Not all plugs are included in the letter system; for example, there is no designation for the plugs defined by the Thai National Standard TIS 116-2549, though some web sites refer to the three-pin plug described in that standard as "Type O".

title: Mains electricity by country


text:
Horse-chestnut leaf miner

The horse-chestnut leaf miner (Cameraria ohridella) is a leaf-mining moth of the family Gracillariidae. The horse-chestnut leaf miner was first observed in North Macedonia in 1984, and was described as a new species in 1986. Its larvae are leaf miners on the common horse-chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum). The horse-chestnut leafminer was first collected and inadvertently pressed in herbarium sheets by the botanist Theodor von Heldreich in central Greece in 1879.

Damage
Cameraria ohridella causes significant damage, mainly late summer browning, to the appearance of horse-chestnut trees. Despite the poor appearance of these infested trees, there is no evidence that damage by the moth leads to tree death. Seed weight, photosynthetic storage and reproductive capacity may however be reduced. Trees survive repeated infestations and re-flush normally in the following year. It appears that most of the damage caused by the moth occurs too late in the growing season to greatly affect tree performance. Consequently, there is no reason to fell and remove trees just because they are attacked by C. ohridella.

The larva feeds in a mine in the leaves of the tree, damaging the leaves and stunting growth. Infected leaves are covered in small brown patches which spread rapidly across the entire tree, giving an autumnal appearance. Eventually the leaves die and drop off; when new ones grow they are again infected. This cycle can repeat itself several times in one season.

Description
The moth is up to 5 mm long, with shiny, bright brown forewings with thin, silvery white stripes. The hindwings are dark grey with long fringes. Each female moth lays between 20 and 40 eggs singly on the upper surface of leaves, and once these hatch 2–3 weeks later, the larvae develop through five feeding phases (or instars) and two prepupal (spinning) phases before the pupal phase. The first stage creates a small cavity (or mine) parallel to a vein in the leaf and is "sap-sipping" rather than "tissue-feeding". By the third instar, the larva creates a mine approximately 8mm in diameter; this is further expanded by later instars until one mine can cover several square centimeters. The larva starts to pupate around four weeks after the egg hatches and, except when hibernating as a pupa in the mine, the adult emerges around two weeks later. In severe infestations, the mines of individuals can merge and almost the entire leaf area may be utilised. When this occurs it may lead to high moth mortality as the larvae compete for space and food. The moth is able to go through up to five generations each year, if the weather is hot and dry; on average in western Europe, the moth goes through three generations each year. The last generation of the year pupates for over six months so as to survive the winter. The pupae are extremely frost tolerant and have been recorded to survive temperatures as low as -23 C. This allows its populations to increase even after hard winters.

The dead patches that the horse-chestnut leaf miner causes on leaves are similar to damage caused to horse-chestnut trees by the fungus Guignardia aesculi, but can be distinguished by the fungal infection often being outlined by a conspicuous yellow band which the mines lack. The pupae can be mistaken for pupae of the genus Phyllonorycter but can be distinguished because C. ohridella pupae do not have a cremaster and the first five abdominal sections have strong lateral spines on them.

Distribution and dispersal
Cameraria ohridella has now been found in Albania, Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, England and Wales, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, Montenegro, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Serbia, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine. Although horse-chestnut occurs naturally mostly above the 700-1000 m contours the moth does well in well-watered places such as parks in cities and at low elevation but not well in the hotter parts of Europe e.g. Spain. Probably aided greatly by vehicular transport, the moth has attained a very rapid dispersal rate across Europe of 60 km per year.

Origin and epidemiology
Cameraria ohridella was first noticed from outbreaks near Ohrid Lake, Yugoslavia in 1984, and was described as a new species by Deschka and Dimić in 1986. A likely Balkan origin for this moth was evidenced from a decrease in genetic diversity from natural towards artificial horse-chestnut stands that were planted around Europe since around 1600. This Balkan origin is further documented by numerous herbarium samples that date back to 1879. These include an outbreak which occurred in horse-chestnut specimens collected by F.K. Meyer in 1961 in Albania. Of the 30 known mitochondrial haplotypes for the species only three (known as A, B and C) have invaded the rest of Europe since 1989, and only A is dominant. It is likely that the frequency of haplotype A has been increasing even in Balkan natural sites, aided by the late development of roads in the region.

Host plants
As well as colonising the leaves of the common horse-chestnut, C. ohridella is also able to feed on Aesculus pavia, Acer platanoides and Acer pseudoplatanus, on which in particular one mitochondrial race, haplotype B, seems to develop successfully when nearby horse-chestnut leaves are exhausted, but is not thought to pose such a strong risk to these species unlike to the common horse-chestnut.

Parasitoids
Over 60 generalist parasitoids have been recorded. However, for biological control a highly specialist parasitoid still needs to be found.

Predators
A number of natural predators of the larval stages of C. ohridella have been recorded. Observations have shown that blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus), great tits (Parus major) and marsh tits (Poecile palustris) feed on the larvae. Between them, three tit species are thought to prey on between 2 and 4% of the larvae. The southern oak bushcricket (Meconema meridionale) has also been found to prey on C. ohridella, consuming around 10 larvae per day. Overall the predation by the southern oak bushcricket is insignificant compared to that by birds however. Experiments with the predatory mite Euseius finlandicus, bush crickets (Phaneroptera sp.), ladybirds and lacewings found that none prey on C. ohridella.

Procedures
Inadvisably, trees can be removed, or better, leaves cleared and burned before adult emergence by the end of March. Use of the systemic insecticide imidacloprid is usually banned as it kills bees. Fenoxycarb causes up to 100% pupal mortality, has low environmental toxicity and can be combined successfully with manual leaf removal. A synthetic pheromone can be used to trap males, but effective control may be hard to thus achieve. In any case, infestation levels could diminish over time as Cameraria ohridella starts to recruit generalist members of the local parasitoid wasp community.

Projects
A number of projects have been launched to investigate the biology and biological control of Cameraria ohridella and its impact since 2001, for example, an EU-wide multidisciplinary project, CONTROCAM ("Control of Cameraria") and the HAM-CAM Project.

title: Horse-chestnut leaf miner


text:
Robin Sachs

Robin Sachs (5 February 1951 – 1 February 2013) was an English actor, active in the theatre, television and films. He was also known for his voice-over work in films and video games.

Born to a theatrical family, Sachs studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and made a theatrical and screen career, working his way up from supporting parts in the 1970s to leading roles from the 1980s. He made his later career in America, and became known for his role of Ethan Rayne in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Early life and early career
Sachs was born in London, the elder of two sons of the South African-born actor Leonard Sachs and the English actress Eleanor Summerfield. His father was Jewish. After leaving school he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, after which he followed the traditional route of provincial repertory and touring before being cast in supporting roles in West End productions during the 1970s, including Pirandello's Henry IV, with Rex Harrison; Pericles, with Derek Jacobi, and Pinero's The Gay Lord Quex, with Judi Dench, directed by John Gielgud.

Career
He appeared in leading stage roles, in Leicester in 1979 in Sartre's The Assassin, Brighton in 1984 in Love Affair with Siân Phillips, and at the Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon in 1985 in On Approval with Polly James and Christopher Biggins, On British television, he was cast in Brideshead Revisited; Upstairs, Downstairs; Rumpole of the Bailey; Quiller and Gentlemen and Players. In the 1983 series Chessgame he played the secret agent Hugh Roskill.

Sachs's first film role was as Heinrich, a young vampire, in Hammer's Vampire Circus (1972). He played Thomas Culpepper, Catherine Howard's lover in Henry VIII and his Six Wives (1973), and featured in The Disappearance (1977) alongside Donald Sutherland.

In the early 1990s, Sachs moved to Los Angeles after being cast as a guest star in the television series Jake and the Fatman and played Adam Carrington in the miniseries Dynasty: The Reunion. He remained based in the US, guest starring in television shows including The Return of Ironside with Raymond Burr (1993). Among his later films were Steven Spielberg's The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Steven Soderbergh's remake of Ocean's Eleven (2001). He appeared in several science-fiction programmes on television, including Star Trek: Voyager and Torchwood, and in 1999 played General Sarris in the satirical comedy Galaxy Quest, co-starring Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver. In 2002, he was cast as Peter Brazier, head of Nexexcon in Megalodon. In his last film appearance, Northfork (2002), he played Cup of Tea, the leader of the vestigial community of a town about to be flooded.

Sachs became known for his role as the sorcerer Ethan Rayne in the American television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and for voicing Zaeed Massani in the Mass Effect video game franchise, Admiral Saul Karath in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Sergeant Roderick in SpongeBob SquarePants and Xoloti in Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom. In recognition of his popularity as a voice artist, following his death, a Mass Effect 3 multiplayer challenge was enacted during the last weekend of February 2013, called "Operation Tribute".

Personal life
Sachs was twice married – from 1979 to 1991 to Siân Phillips, and from 1995 to 2006 to the American actress Casey DeFranco. Both marriages were dissolved. He died of a heart attack on 1 February 2013, four days before his 62nd birthday.

Films

 * Vampire Circus (1972) – Heinrich
 * Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972) – Thomas Culpeper
 * East Lynne (1976, TV Movie) – Richard Hare
 * The Disappearance (1977) – Young Man
 * Richard II (1978, TV Movie) – Bushy
 * A Flame to the Phoenix (1983) – Gavin McCrae
 * Deadly Recruits (1986, TV Movie) – Hugh Roskill
 * The Alamut Ambush (1986, TV Movie) – Hugh Roskill
 * Cold War Killers (1986, TV Movie) – Hugh Roskill
 * The Return of Ironside (1993, TV Movie) – Himself
 * Innocent Adultery (1994) – Himself
 * The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) – Paul Bowman
 * Ravager (1997) – Dr Shepard
 * Babylon 5: In the Beginning (1998, TV Series) – Coplann
 * Galaxy Quest (1999) – Sarris
 * Ocean's Eleven (2001) – Seller
 * Megalodon (2004) – Peter Brazier
 * Northfork (2003) – Cup of Tea
 * Resident Evil: Damnation (2012) – Ataman / Ivan Judanovich (voice) (final film role)

Television series

 * Love and Mr Lewisham (1972) – Mr Edwin Peake Baynes
 * ITV Playhouse (1972) – Hugh Randolph
 * Upstairs, Downstairs (1973) – Robert
 * Ten from the Twenties (1975) – Harry Lance
 * Quiller (1975) – Dieter
 * Centre Play (1975) – Adam
 * Crown Court (1976) – Himself
 * Rob Roy (1977) – Frank Osbaldistone
 * Ladykillers (1981) – Gervais Rentoul
 * Brideshead Revisited (1981) - Oxford student.
 * Diamonds (1983) – Charles Nielsen
 * Tom, Dick and Harriet (1983) – Marcel
 * Chessgame (1983) – Hugh Roskill
 * C.A.T.S. Eyes (1985) – James Latchmere
 * Rumpole of the Bailey (1987) – Hugo Lutterworth
 * A Fine Romance (1989) – Count Ivan Rakosi
 * Gentlemen and Players (1989) – Journalist
 * The Bill (1991) – Prosecuting Counsel
 * Jake and the Fatman (1991) – Greg Hatton
 * Dynasty: The Reunion (1991) – Adam Carrington
 * Herman's Head (1991) – Simon
 * Box Office America (1992) – Himself – Host
 * Murder, She Wrote (1993) – Martin Kramer
 * Diagnosis: Murder (1994) – Art Thief
 * Fantastic Four (1994) – Silver Surfer / Norrin Radd / Physician / Street Fanatic
 * Walker, Texas Ranger (1995) – Philippe Brouchard
 * Nowhere Man (1996) – Alexander Hale / The Voice
 * Pacific Blue (1996) – Wilson Dupree
 * Baywatch Nights (1996) – Malcolm O'Neal
 * Nash Bridges (1996) – Yuri Vashkov
 * F/X: The Series (1998) – Sebastian
 * Babylon 5 (1994–1998) – Na'Tok / Warleader Na'Kal / Hedronn
 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2000) – Ethan Rayne
 * Star Trek: Voyager (2001) – General Valen
 * Alias (2005) – Hans Dietrich
 * SpongeBob SquarePants (2006) – Sergeant Sam Roderick (voice)
 * Torchwood (2011) – British Professor
 * Castle (2012) – Announcer
 * NCIS (2012) – MI5 Inspector Andrew Challis

Television miniseries

 * Number 10 (1983) – Sir Edward Hamilton

Shorts

 * An Unbending People (2011) – (voice)

Video games

 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003) – Admiral Saul Karath (voice)
 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds (2003) – Ethan Rayne / The First (voice)
 * The Bard's Tale (2004) – (voice)
 * GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (2004) – (voice)
 * Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown (2005) – (voice)
 * Dragon Age: Origins (2009) – Lord Pyral Harrowmont / Murdock / Experienced Human Male / Redcliffe Messenger / Landsmeet Noble / Bandit Leader / Howe Estate Guard / Denerim Soldier / Orzammar Grey Warden / Circle Tower Templar (voice)
 * Mass Effect 2 (2010) – Zaeed Massani (voice)
 * Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening (2010) – Seneschal Varel / Narrator / Statue of War (voice)
 * Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (2010) – (voice)
 * Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom (2010) – Xoloti (English version, voice)
 * Mass Effect 3 (2012) – Zaeed Massani (voice)

Audiobooks
Sachs narrated some 80 audiobooks, both fiction and nonfiction. These included:

 * The Tiger's Wife – Narration
 * A World Undone – Narration
 * Our Kind of Traitor – Narration
 * The Snowman – Narration

 * The Redbreast – Narration
 * The Devil's Star – Narration

Documentary shorts

 * Greece: Secrets of the Past – Pericles
 * Ubuntu – Voice Over

Television documentary series

 * The World of Hammer – Heinrich (archive audio)

title: Robin Sachs


text:
Le Tombeau de Couperin

Le Tombeau de Couperin (The Grave of Couperin) is a suite for solo piano by Maurice Ravel, composed between 1914 and 1917. The piece is in six movements, based on those of a traditional Baroque suite. Each movement is dedicated to the memory of a friend of the composer (or in one case, two brothers) who had died fighting in World War I. Ravel also produced an orchestral version of the work in 1919, although this omitted two of the original movements.

Overview
The word tombeau in the title is a musical term popular from the 17th century, meaning "a piece written as a memorial". The specific Couperin, among a family noted as musicians for about two centuries, that Ravel intended to evoke is thought to be François Couperin "the Great" (1668–1733). Ravel stated that his intention was to pay homage more generally to the sensibilities of the Baroque French keyboard suite, not necessarily to imitate or pay tribute to Couperin himself in particular. This is reflected in the piece's structure, which imitates a Baroque dance suite.

As a preparatory exercise, Ravel had transcribed a forlane (an Italian folk dance) from the fourth suite of Couperin's Concerts royaux, and this piece invokes Ravel's Forlane structurally. The other movements are similarly based on Baroque forms, with the Toccata taking the form of a perpetuum mobile reminiscent of Alessandro Scarlatti. Ravel also revives Baroque practices through his distinctive use of ornamentation and modal harmony. Neoclassicism also shines through with Ravel's pointedly twentieth-century chromatic melody and piquant harmonies, particularly in the dissonant Forlane.

Written after the death of Ravel's mother in 1917 and of friends in the First World War, Le Tombeau de Couperin is a light-hearted, and sometimes reflective work rather than a sombre one which Ravel explained in response to criticism saying: "The dead are sad enough, in their eternal silence."

The first performance of the original piano version was given on 11 April 1919 by Marguerite Long, in the Salle Gaveau in Paris. Long was the widow of Joseph de Marliave, to whom the last movement of the piece, the Toccata, is dedicated.

Composition
The movements are as follows:

Orchestrations and transcriptions
In 1919 Ravel orchestrated four movements of the work (Prélude, Forlane, Menuet and Rigaudon); this version was premiered in February 1920 by Rhené-Baton and the Pasdeloup Orchestra, and has remained one of his more popular works. The orchestral version clarifies the harmonic language of the suite and brings sharpness to its classical dance rhythms. The oboe features prominently, taking the melody in the Prélude and the Menuet, as well as for the pastoral C minor section of the Rigaudon, where it is accompanied by guitar-like pizzicati.

The orchestrated version is scored for two flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes (one doubling cor anglais), two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, trumpet, harp, and strings.

Only a few years after Ravel's own orchestration, Lucien Garban (working under the pseudonym of Roger Branga) produced a version of the piece for 'small orchestra' with a piano-conductor, consisting of the Prélude, Menuet and Rigaudon. He had previously transcribed the full suite for piano four hands in 1919.

Several other composers have since created orchestrations of those two movements which Ravel omitted, the Fugue and the Toccata. David Diamond orchestrated the second movement Fugue, while the Hungarian pianist and conductor Zoltán Kocsis produced his own version of both the Fugue and the Toccata. However, here, the Toccata, scored for a very large orchestra, goes far beyond the limits of Ravel's own, small orchestra, and the Fugue is set for winds only. Another instrumentation of Fugue and Toccata by pianist Michael Round was recorded by Vladimir Ashkenazy (Exton, 2003): the score is published (as two separate titles, 'Fugue' and 'Toccata') by Edwin F. Kalmus. Round's version of the Toccata adds percussion, requiring up to five players. Kalmus omitted the percussion parts from the published score so as to exactly match the orchestration of the rest of the suite, but these parts are available separately, directly from the orchestrator. In 2013 the British composer Kenneth Hesketh orchestrated the Fugue and Toccata for the exact orchestration of the original four-movement orchestral suite. The first performance was given by the Goettingen Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christoph-Mathias Mueller. The scores are available from Schott Music, London.

Four movements (Prélude, Fugue, Menuet, and Rigaudon) have been arranged for wind quintet by American horn player Mason Jones (1919–2009). Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen has also transcribed four movements for wind quintet, and further, American composer Gunther Schuller has made a wind-quintet arrangement.

In 1986 an orchestration of the Prélude was created by Michel Colombier for Branford Marsalis on his album Romances for Saxophone. Marsalis played the melody with a soprano saxophone.

In 2013, Trevor P. Wagler re-arranged the orchestral version of four movements (Prélude, Forlane, Menuet, and Rigaudon) down to a quintet (ob/cl/vn/vcl/pft), premiered at Wilfrid Laurier University.

The four orchestral movements (Prélude, Forlane, Menuet and Rigaudon) were arranged by Elena González Arias (Adliswil: Ed.Kunzelmann, 2014) for oboe and piano in 2014.

The Toccata from Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim's Five Pieces for Piano, Op. 34 is "indebted" to the Toccata from Tombeau.

title: Le Tombeau de Couperin


text:
User talk:Zanuga

Proposed deletion of Games of dare

The article Games of dare has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern: "Seems to be a Wikipedia-invented neologism. All sources I can find are circularly cited to Wikipedia."

While all constructive contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, pages may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the page to address the issues raised. Removing will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. Axem Titanium (talk) 21:23, 30 January 2020 (UTC)

title: User talk:Zanuga


text:
Dovje

Dovje (Lengenfeld) is a village in the Municipality of Kranjska Gora in the Upper Carniola region of Slovenia, located on the southern slopes of the Karawanks at an elevation of 703 m. It has a rich history and rural tradition and is known as one of the sunniest villages in Slovenia. Its location is ideal for farming and this has been the main occupation of its inhabitants for many centuries.

Name
Dovje was attested in historical sources in 1029 as Lenginvuélt, in 1065 as Lenginvelt, and in 1318 as Langenuelt. The Slovene name is based on a translation of the German name (literally, 'long field'), presumably through dialect development from *dolgē (polje) 'long field', referring to the configuration of the village's territory.

Cultural heritage
The village has preserved a number of elements typical of alpine architecture. The most interesting of these are the arched front doors of the old houses. The view toward the Julian Alps from the village has made the cemetery next to St. Michael's Church an appropriate final resting place for many hikers that lost their lives on Mount Triglav and the surrounding mountains.

Notable people
Notable people that were born or lived in Dovje include:
 * Jakob Aljaž (1847–1927), poet, composer, and mountain enthusiast
 * Franjo Jeglič (1856–1935), beekeeper

title: Dovje


text:
Talk:Irna Phillips

Discussion
I don't think Irna Phillips was the co-creator of Peyton Place. The show was modeled after Peyton Place, a book by Grace Metalious. Mike H 22:49, Jul 28, 2004 (UTC)

She's listed as co-creator at IMDB, along with Paul Monash. Although the series was based on the book, they created the series. RickK 22:51, Jul 28, 2004 (UTC)

Okay, then. I'll leave it as is. Mike H 22:52, Jul 28, 2004 (UTC)

 * I removed Irna as creator of the show. I found another page more reliable than IMDB which says she was a creative consultant. Mike H 22:20, Aug 28, 2004 (UTC)

 * I found a 1964 NY Times article in which she is quoted about Peyton Place "I will be working on long term storylines". I says she was a "consultant for ABC primetime shows". Dowew 21:21, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Cliffhangers and Soap Operas
I have absolutely no interest getting into an editing war, but would just like to make two observations.

Firstly, the cliffhanger has been around in literature since Eugene Sue ('The Mysteries of Paris', 1842 to 1843) and Charles Dickens, both of whose work was published originally in weekly installments in newspapers. The best example of a literary cliffhanger is 'Little Dorrit,' whose final installment was reportedly awaited with such anticipation in NYC that enormous crowds were on the docks to greet the arrival of the ship transporting it from London, all shouting for the end to be revealed before the ship even docked.

The name was coined in the silent movies era where weekly serials such as 'Perils of Pauline' quite literally had the main character hanging from the edge of a cliff at the end of an installment -- or tied to railway tracks, with a train approaching, or anything else that fantasy could imagine.

So Irna Phillips cannot be called the inventor of the cliffhanger by any stretch of the imagination.

Secondly, she should be credited properly as the inventor of soap operas, by removing the cite request after 'historians say' and linking to the Soap Operas and Painted Dreams entries. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Petercascio (talk • contribs) 02:39, 23 April 2017 (UTC)

Stillborn child
Does anyone know anything about the stillborn child that Phillip supposedly had ? The story goes that Phillips suffer a stillbirth and found comfort in the words of a priest for which The Guiding Light was originally based on. Dowew 16:46, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

GL tie-in book
I have read that in the 50's (according to the book "Worlds without end published by the Museum of Broadcasting) that Phillips wrote a tie-in novel to Guiding Light explaing the backstory of the town & characters...I would think this is probably the first time that a soap opera had a tie in book. Does anyone know any more about it ? Dowew 16:57, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Personal Life
She could not have shared a bedroom with her mother for 37 years if she was in Dayton as early as age 25. 1930 census does show her in Dayton and her mother still in Chicago. Questors 17:56, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

What is the source for her Jewish ancestry? Census records back to 1870 for her father's side show they were German-speakers from Prussia who immigrated in 1863. Census records for her mother back to 1900 state that she was a German speaker from Germany. Parents are William (a provisions dealer) and Betty Phillips. Irna was the last of the ten children, only 5 of whom lived to adulthood. Questors 17:56, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

 * Ths stuff I put up there is from the book "Prime Time, Prime Movers". If you have other data please add it, particularly the stuff about five children not living to adulthood.  I would be interested to find out where you got the census records. Dowew 19:19, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

Why are her writing credits dated after her death?
According to the article Phillips died in 1973 and yet her writing credits in the Television sub-section extend after her death. Is this a mistake or is she really contributing from beyond the grave? Random Passer-by (talk) 18:09, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
 * (The) Guiding Light (1952-present)
 * As the World Turns (1956-present)
 * Another World (1964-1999)
 * Days of our Lives (1965-present)

 * Those are dates the series were broadcast/telecast. Pepso 19:23, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

 * Ah. Ok. Thank you. I wonder if it could be made clearer in some way that the dates are for the series and not for her? Random Passer-by (talk) 22:01, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

External links modified
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title: Talk:Irna Phillips


text:
Adaptive Multi-Rate audio codec

The Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR, AMR-NB or GSM-AMR) audio codec is an audio compression format optimized for speech coding. AMR is a multi-rate narrowband speech codec that encodes narrowband (200–3400 Hz) signals at variable bit rates ranging from 4.75 to 12.2 kbit/s with toll quality speech starting at 7.4 kbit/s.

AMR was adopted as the standard speech codec by 3GPP in October 1999 and is now widely used in GSM and UMTS. It uses link adaptation to select from one of eight different bit rates based on link conditions.

AMR is also a file format for storing spoken audio using the AMR codec. Many modern mobile telephone handsets can store short audio recordings in the AMR format, and both free and proprietary programs exist (see Software support) to convert between this and other formats, although AMR is a speech format and is unlikely to give ideal results for other audio. The common filename extension is. There also exists another storage format for AMR that is suitable for applications with more advanced demands on the storage format, like random access or synchronization with video. This format is the 3GPP-specified 3GP container format based on ISO base media file format.

Usage
The frames contain 160 samples and are 20 milliseconds long. AMR uses various techniques, such as ACELP, DTX, VAD and CNG. The usage of AMR requires optimized link adaptation that selects the best codec mode to meet the local radio channel and capacity requirements. If the radio conditions are bad, source coding is reduced and channel coding is increased. This improves the quality and robustness of the network connection while sacrificing some voice clarity. In the particular case of AMR this improvement is somewhere around S/N = 4–6 dB for usable communication. The new intelligent system allows the network operator to prioritize capacity or quality per base station.

There are a total of 14 modes of the AMR codec, eight are available in a full rate channel (FR) and six on a half rate channel (HR).

Features

 * Sampling frequency 8 kHz/13-bit (160 samples for 20 ms frames), filtered to 200–3400 Hz.
 * The AMR codec uses eight source codecs with bit-rates of 12.2, 10.2, 7.95, 7.40, 6.70, 5.90, 5.15 and 4.75 kbit/s.
 * Generates frame length of 95, 103, 118, 134, 148, 159, 204, or 244 bits for AMR FR bit rates 4.75, 5.15, 5.90, 6.70, 7.40, 7.95, 10.2, or 12.2 kbit/s, respectively. AMR HR frame lengths are different.
 * AMR utilizes discontinuous transmission (DTX), with voice activity detection (VAD) and comfort noise generation (CNG) to reduce bandwidth usage during silence periods
 * Algorithmic delay is 20 ms per frame. For bit-rates of 12.2, there is no "algorithm" look-ahead delay. For other rates, look-ahead delay is 5 ms. Note that there is 5 ms "dummy" look-ahead delay, to allow seamless frame-wise mode switching with the rest of rates.
 * AMR is a hybrid speech coder, and as such transmits both speech parameters and a waveform signal
 * Linear predictive coding (LPC) is used to synthesize the speech from a residual waveform. The LPC parameters are encoded as line spectral pairs (LSP).
 * The residual waveform is coded using algebraic code-excited linear prediction (ACELP).
 * The complexity of the algorithm is rated at 5, using a relative scale where G.711 is 1 and G.729a is 15.
 * PSQM testing under ideal conditions yields mean opinion scores of 4.14 for AMR (12.2 kbit/s), compared to 4.45 for G.711 (μ-law)
 * PSQM testing under network stress yields mean opinion scores of 3.79 for AMR (12.2 kbit/s), compared to 4.13 for G.711 (μ-law)

Licensing and patent issues
AMR codecs incorporate several patents of Nokia, Ericsson, NTT and VoiceAge, the last one being the License Administrator for the AMR patent pools. VoiceAge also accepts submission of patents for determination of their possible essentiality to these standards. However, it's very difficult to determine if there were actually any patents in existence for the so-called inventions related to AMR/AMR-WB codecs, since inventors (and their lawyers) do everything they can to hide patents related to AMR/AMR-WB technology. Apparently, all these patents are hidden from all other researches and general audience that could perhaps spot prior art in the claimed "inventions" patented by the patent holders of the AMR/AMR-WB codecs.

The initial fee for professional content creation tools and "real-time channel" products is US$6,500. The minimum annual royalty is $10,000, which, in the first year, excludes the initial fee. Per-channel license fees fall from $0.99 to $0.50 with volume, up to a maximum of $2 million annually.

In the category of personal computer products, e.g., media players, the AMR decoder is licensed for free. The license fee for a sold encoder falls from $0.40 to $0.30 with volume, up to a maximum of $300,000 annually. The minimum annual royalty is not applied to licensed products that fall under the category of personal computer products and use only the free decoder.

More information:
 * VoiceAge licensing information, including pricing to license the AMR codecs
 * 3GPP legal issues
 * The 3G Patent Platform and its licensing policy
 * AMR Codecs as Shared Libraries — legal notices for usage of amrnb and amrwb libraries based on the reference implementation

Software support

 * 3GPP TS 26.073 – AMR speech Codec (C source code) – reference implementation
 * Audacity (beta version 1.3) via the FFmpeg integration libraries (both input and output format)
 * FFmpeg with OpenCORE AMR libraries
 * Android Used for voice recorder.
 * AMR Codecs as Shared Libraries – amrnb and amrwb libraries development site. These libraries are based on the reference implementation and were created to prevent embedding of possibly patented source code into many open source projects.
 * Open source software to convert the .amr format: RetroCode, Amr2Wav, both are in an early developmental stage
 * AMR Player is freeware to play AMR audio files, and can convert AMR from/to MP3/WAV audio format.
 * Nokia Multimedia Converter 2.0 can convert (create) samples, one can use Nokia's conversion tool to create both .amr and .awb files. It works in Windows 7 as well if the setup is run in XP compatibility mode.
 * MPlayer (SMPlayer, KMPlayer )
 * Parole Media Player 0.8.1 (in Ubuntu 16.04)
 * QuickTime Player and multimedia framework
 * RealPlayer version 11 and later
 * VLC media player version 1.1.0 and later (input format only, not output format)
 * ffdshow
 * Apple iPhone (can play back AMR files)
 * iOS & macOS (iMessage)
 * BlackBerry smartphones (used for voice recorder file format, while BlackBerry 10 cannot play AMR format)
 * K-Lite Codec Pack
 * Media Player Classic Home Cinema, around 1.7.1
 * foobar2000 with the component foo_input_amr

title: Adaptive Multi-Rate audio codec


text:
Ojiya

Ojiya can refer to:
 * Ojiya, Niigata
 * Ojiya, another name for zosui, a mild Japanese rice soup

title: Ojiya