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Saint George's Day

Saint George's Day is the feast day of Saint George, celebrated by Christian churches, countries, regions, and cities of which he is the patron saint, including Albania, Bulgaria, England, Ethiopia, Greece, Georgia, Portugal, Romania, Syria, Lebanon, Castile and León, Catalonia, Alcoi, Aragon, Genoa, and Rio de Janeiro.

Saint George's Day is celebrated on 23 April, the traditionally accepted date of the saint's death in the Diocletianic Persecution.

Date
In the calendar of the Lutheran Churches, those of the Anglican Communion, and the General Calendar of the Roman Rite, the feast of Saint George is normally celebrated on 23 April. Since Easter often falls close to Saint George's Day, the church celebration of the feast may be moved from 23 April: for 2011, 2014, 2019 and 2022 the Lutheran, Anglican and Catholic calendars celebrated Saint George's Day on the first available weekday after the Octave of Easter (see Easter Week) (2 May 2011, 28 April 2014, 29 April 2019 and 25 April 2022 respectively).

Common Worship says "When St George's Day ... falls between Palm Sunday and the Second Sunday of Easter inclusive, it is transferred to the Monday after the Second Sunday of Easter" but it does not say what to do if that day is 25 April – normally St Mark's Day. This will next occur in 2033.

The church celebrations of nearly all saints' days are transferred if they fall on a Sunday (because Sunday is the celebration of Christ's Resurrection, which is far more important than a saint's commemoration).

In fact, despite the rule above, the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales celebrated St George's Day on Tuesday 26 April 2022, with the feast day of St Mark taking precedence and being celebrated on Monday 25 April. The Church of England's Common Worship lectionary for 2022 had the same dates, with St George's Day being celebrated on Tuesday 26 April, according to the image of the physical book shown on social media.

Similarly, the Eastern Orthodox celebration of the feast moves accordingly to the first Monday after Easter or, as it is sometimes called, to the Monday of Bright Week. Besides the 23 April feast, some Orthodox Churches have additional feasts dedicated to St George. The country of Georgia celebrates the feast of St George on 23 April and, more prominently, 10 November (Julian calendar), which until the year 2100 fall on 6 May and 23 November (Gregorian calendar), respectively. The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the dedication of the Church of St George in Kiev by Yaroslav the Wise in 1051 on 26 November (Julian calendar), which until the year 2100 falls on 9 December on the Gregorian calendar.

In the Tridentine calendar Saint George's Day was given the rank of "Semidouble". In Pope Pius XII's 1955 calendar this rank is reduced to "Simple". In Pope John XXIII's 1960 calendar the celebration is just a "Commemoration". In Pope Paul VI's revision of the calendar that came into force in 1969, it was given the equivalent rank of a "Memorial", of optional use. In some countries, such as England, the rank is higher.

English Catholic and Anglican tradition

The earliest documented mention of St. George in England comes from the Catholic monk the venerable Bede (c. 673–735). His feast day is also mentioned in the Durham Collectar, a ninth-century liturgical work. The will of Alfred the Great is said to refer to the saint, in a reference to the church of Fordington, Dorset. At Fordington a stone over the south door records the miraculous appearance of St. George to lead crusaders into battle. Early (c. 10th century) dedications of churches to St. George are noted in England, for example at Fordingham, Dorset, at Thetford, Southwark and Doncaster. In the past, historians mistakenly pointed to the Synod of Oxford in 1222 as elevating the feast to special prominence, but the earliest manuscripts of the synod's declaration do not mention the feast of St. George. The declarations of the Province of Canterbury in 1415 and the Province of York in 1421 elevated the feast to a double major, and as a result, work was prohibited and church attendance was mandatory. Edward III (1327–1377) put his Order of the Garter (founded c. 1348) under the banner of St. George. This order is still the foremost order of knighthood in England and St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle was built by Edward IV and Henry VII in honour of the order. The badge of the Order shows Saint George on horseback slaying the dragon. Froissart observed the English invoking St. George as a battle cry on several occasions during the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453). Certain English soldiers also displayed the pennon of St. George.

St. George's Day was a major feast and national holiday in England on a par with Christmas from the early 15th century. The tradition of celebration St. George's day had waned by the end of the 18th century after the union of England and Scotland. Nevertheless, the link with St. George continues today, for example Salisbury holds an annual St. George's Day pageant, the origins of which are believed to go back to the 13th century. In recent years the popularity of St. George's Day appears to be increasing gradually. BBC Radio 3 had a full programme of St. George's Day events in 2006, and Andrew Rosindell, Conservative MP for Romford, has been putting the argument forward in the House of Commons to make St. George's Day a public holiday. In early 2009, Mayor of London Boris Johnson spearheaded a campaign to encourage the celebration of St. George's Day, and during the 2017 and 2019 General Elections the Labour Party campaigned for it to be a public holiday. Today, St. George's day may be celebrated with anything English including morris dancing and Punch and Judy shows.

A traditional custom on St. George's day is fly or adorn the St. George's Cross flag in some way: pubs in particular can be seen on 23 April festooned with garlands of St. George's crosses. It is customary for the hymn "Jerusalem" to be sung in cathedrals, churches and chapels on St. George's Day, or on the Sunday closest to it.

There is a growing reaction to the recent indifference to St. George's Day. Organisations such as English Heritage and the Royal Society of St. George have been encouraging celebrations. There have also been calls to replace St. George as patron saint of England on the grounds that he was an obscure figure who had no direct connection with the country. However, there is no obvious consensus as to whom to replace him with, though names suggested include Edmund the Martyr, Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, or Saint Alban, with the last having topped a BBC Radio 4 poll on the subject. Recently there have been calls to reinstate St. Edmund as the patron Saint of England as he was displaced by George some 400 years ago.

Religious observance of St. George's day changes when it is too close to Easter. According to the Church of England's calendar, when St. George's Day falls between Palm Sunday and the Second Sunday of Easter inclusive, it is moved to the Monday after the Second Sunday of Easter. In 2011, for example, 23 April was Holy Saturday, so St. George's Day was moved to Monday 2 May. The Catholic Church in England and Wales has a similar practice.

Saint George is the patron saint of The Scout Movement, which has held St. George's Day parades since its first years. St. George is the patron saint of many other organisations. In the United States, the National Catholic Committee on Scouting uses the saint for many of their awards and activities.

In sport, 23 April is also the anniversary of the St. George Dragons Rugby League Football Club. The St. George club coincidentally played their inaugural New South Wales Rugby League first grade match on St. George's Day, 23 April 1921 at the Sydney Sports Ground in Australia.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, St. George's Day is a provincial holiday, usually observed on the Monday nearest 23 April.

Hungary
St George's Day has a rich culture in Hungary, and in many regions it is one of the biggest celebrations, and was believed to hold mystical power. On this day, there was often a feast bigger than a wedding feast. It was a day of magical practices, forest walks and ritual bathing. They believed that this day marked the beginning of the real Spring. Celebrations, puppet shows and the appearance of the world's first secular order of knights, the Order of Saint George (Hungarian: Szent György Vitézi Lovagrand, "Vitézly Order of Chavarly of Saint George") are common.

According to the Hungarians, the witches held their, Witches Sabbath this day. Witches were believed to congregate on mountains, such as Gellért Hill. On this day, willow or birch twigs were put in windows and stables, incense was burnt around them (and sometimes onion garlands were hung), to ward off curses. The animals were given herbs and enchanted pogácsa, believed to have special properties.

Superstition said, whoever's gate jambs were carved by witches that night, that meant his cows milk was taken away. Dojdole traditions are also held this day. Similarly to this ritual, in other areas, girls, shepherds and sheep were thrown water at, not for rain but cow-milk stimulation.

The Roman Palilia, pagan shepherd's festival was the basis for later animal herding rituals. Many pastoral customs can be observed on this day. To ward off evil spirits and witches and to charm fertility, cattle were driven through on chains, axes or other objects. In Szeklerland Saint George's day fire was used instead. Shepherds were contracted on this day and offered eggs, szalonna, wine and pálinka and sing together.

It was not just a day of knighthood, folk celebration and the lifting of curses. It was for a reason that this day was thought to be of the Sabbath, St. George's Day was considered by Hungarian folklore to be a time for casting spells, when rituals were particularly powerful. This day, people were capable of dew-picking(harmatszedés). It was believed that dew squeezed from the field into the pot multiplied the butter. Fertility could also be 'stolen'. If you stole dew from a field that was growing well and then wiped it on your own lawn, you could take away the steal the fertility of their land.

But one must be careful, because at the dawn of Saint George's day the witches are also stealing dew, so you might catch a glimpse of them at road junctions. There are other supernatural beings to watch out for on this day. The Szépasszony spirits on this day, trick people and braid or entangle horses' manes. This can be guarded against by sprinkling blessed poppy seeds around the horses, saying: by which you obligate the spirit to count all of them.

This day enables mortals to cast many other spells: for example, catching a snake on this day can give you great physical strength, but losing it will weaken you.

It was also considered a day for walking in the woods and treasure hunting. In Berettyóújfalu, it was believed that every seventh year, flames would burst out of the ground, revealing treasure, guarded by an old man (presumably a ghost or goblin).

Popular courses for the feast this day include: mutton pörkölt, Hungarian-grey-goulash, mangalitsa skewers.

Spain

Saint George became the patron saint of the former Crown of Aragon, when King Peter I of Aragon won the Battle of Alcoraz in 1096 commending his army and people to the auspices of the saint. He is also patron of several former territories under the Crown of Aragon, including Catalonia, Valencia, Sicily, Sardinia, and several regions of Italy. In most cases, the reason for those cities' adoption of the saint as their holy patron and shared flag is linked to the Aragonese colonial influence and various battles that occurred throughout the Mediterranean during the Reconquista. The international expansion of the Reconquista that followed over the next two centuries across the Mediterranean also led to the adoption of the cross of Saint George as a coat of arms by Christian Crusaders.

The Feast of Saint George is celebrated enthusiastically in the Region and former Kingdom of Aragon, and is a regional feast day. On 23 April, Aragon celebrates its "Día de Aragón" (Day of Aragon) in commemoration of the Battle of Alcoraz (Baralla d'Alcoraz in Aragonese), where the city of Huesca was reconquered by the Aragonese army and in which tradition says that St. George appeared at a critical moment for the Christian Army.

In Catalonia, la Diada de Sant Jordi involves traditions similar to those of Saint Valentine's Day in Anglophone countries. Traditionally, boys give girls a red rose and girls give boys a book. Among roses, many piles of books are for sale in Catalan streets; 1.5m books were sold in 2015.

In the Valencian city of Alcoi, Saint George's Day is commemorated as a thanksgiving celebration for the purported aid the saint provided to the Christian troops fighting the Muslims in the siege of the city. Its citizens commemorate the day with a festivity in which thousands of people parade in medieval costumes, forming two "armies" of Moors and Christians and re-enacting the siege that gave the city to the Christians.

In Cáceres, in the western region of Extremadura, the capital city of Cáceres celebrates the reconquest of the city from Muslim rule on 23 April 1229 by King Alfonso IX of León, with commemorative celebrations which begin on the eve of the feast day with a parade of Moors and Christians and various effigies of Saint George and the Dragon on horseback. Once the parade reaches the main square, they reenact a battle between both camps culminating with the burning of a winning Dragon effigy (as selected and voted by the people of the city).

The town Viérnoles in Cantabria celebrates several days of "Las Fiestas de San Jorge" at the end of April and/or the beginning of May.

Portugal
Devotions to Saint George in Portugal date back to the twelfth century, and Saint Constable attributed the victory of the Portuguese against what is now mostly modern day Spain, in the battle of Aljubarrota in the fourteenth century to Saint George. During the reign of King John I (1357–1433) Saint George became the patron saint of Portugal and the King ordered that the saint's image on the horse be carried in the Feast of Corpus Christi procession. In fact, the Portuguese Army motto means Portugal and Saint George, in perils and in efforts of war.

Germany Georgiritt

In tradition-rich Buttenheim and many other towns in Bavaria, Georgiritt (plural Georgiritte; "George's Ride") takes place around St. George's Day 23. April, especially around churches dedicated to the saint. Brightly decorated horses and wagons parade several times around the church, in which a service is then held at which the riders and horses are blessed. Various competitions may be held afterwards.

Rio de Janeiro
Patron Saint of the Brazilian Army Cavalry, Saint George is celebrated in a horseback riding throughout the country. In Rio de Janeiro, where the saint is extremely popular, is a day of popular festivities, such as feijoada, fireworks, among other celebrations.

On April 23, the churches begin their festivities at 3:30 am with a moment of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Soon after, around 4 am, the façade takes on new colors with a mapped projection show and light show. The presentation precedes the traditional fireworks display and the solemn mass of "Alvorada de São Jorge", at 5 am.

24 April
Exceptionally in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, Saint George's Day comes on 24 April. The reason why it was moved from 23 April in case of the Czech's ''svátek sv. Jiří'' is, that there is a day of St. Adalbert of Prague (in Czech Svatý Vojtěch), Czech national patron saint, who was martyred on 23 April 997. It is celebrated in a special way.

In Hungary, 24 April is the day of Saint George the Dragonslayer, thus it is the name day of men named György. It is also the Day of the Police, who honour him as a patron saint.

Eastern Orthodox tradition
Under the state atheism of former Eastern Bloc countries, the celebration of Saint George's Day was historically suppressed.

If St. George's Day falls during Great Lent or Holy Week or on Easter Day, it is observed on Easter Monday.

Eastern Slavic tradition
The Russian Orthodox Church, which uses the Julian calendar, has two important feasts of Saint George. Besides the feast of 23 April (Julian calendar), common through all Christendom, Russians also celebrate the anniversary of the dedication of the Church of St. George in Kiev by Yaroslav the Wise (1051) on 26 November (Julian calendar), which currently falls on 9 December. One of the Russian forms of the name George being Yuri, the two feasts are popularly known as Vesenniy Yuriev Den (Yuri's Day in the Spring) and Osenniy Yuriev Den (Yuri's Day in the Fall).

South Slavic tradition and Balkan spring festival
In Serbian, St. George's Day is called Đurđevdan (Cyrillic: Ђурђевдан) and is celebrated on 6 May every year, as the Serbian Orthodox Church uses the Julian, Old Style calendar. St. George's Day is one of the most common Slavas (family patron day) among the Serbs. Đurđevdan is also celebrated by both Orthodox and Muslim Romani and Muslim Gorani. Đurđevdan is celebrated, especially, in the areas of Raška in Serbia. Apart from being the Slava of many families, St. George's Day is marked by morning picnics, music, and folk dances.

Possibly the most celebrated name day in Bulgaria, St. George's Day (Гергьовден, Gergyovden) is a public holiday that takes place on 6 May each year. A common ritual is to prepare and eat a whole lamb, which is an ancient practice possibly related to Slavic pagan sacrificial traditions and the fact that St. George is the patron saint of shepherds. It is also believed to be a magical day when all evil spells can be broken. It was believed that the saint helps the crops to grow and blesses the morning dew, so early in the morning they walked in the pastures and meadows and collected dew, washed their face, hands and feet in it for good luck and even in some rural parts of Bulgaria it was a custom to roll in it naked.

St. George's Day is also Bulgarian Armed Forces Day, made official with a decree of Prince Alexander of Battenberg on 9 January 1880. Parades are organised in the capital Sofia to present the best of the equipment and manpower of the Bulgarian military, as well as in major cities nationwide.

St. George's Day is also called Đurđevdan and is celebrated by Bosnian Serbs and Romani (both Orthodox and Muslim), but also has been celebrated by the other ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Đurđevdan's widespread appeal can be seen in the folk song Đurđevdan popularised by Bijelo Dugme as well as Meša Selimović's novel Death and the Dervish.

In the Greek Orthodox Church, Saint George's Day is celebrated on 23 April, unless this date falls during Lent or Holy Week when it is celebrated on the day following Easter. Other, lesser saints are commemorated during Lent or Holy Week on their usual dates. However, because of St. George's standing as one of the church's most venerated megalomartyrs the celebration date is moved outside of Lent and Holy Week so that people can fully celebrate the day.

In the Georgian Church, St. George the Victory-Bearer is commemorated twice a year: on 23 November (the Breaking on the Wheel of Holy Greatmartyr George) and 6 May (the Beheading of St. George). The celebrations likely began in the 4th to 5th centuries. In Georgia, the feast day on 23 November is credited to Saint Nino of Cappadocia, who in Georgian hagiography is a relative of St. George, and is primarily credited with bringing Christianity to the Georgians in the fourth century.

The Romanian Orthodox Church, which uses the Revised Julian calendar, celebrates St. George's Day on 23 April.

Middle East
Veneration of St. George as a martyr originates in the Levant, spread from Palestine through Lebanon to the rest of the Byzantine Empire – though the martyr is not mentioned in the Syriac Breviarium. A titular church built in Lydda during the reign of Constantine the Great (reigned 306–37) was consecrated to "a man of the highest distinction"; the identity of this man with St. George was asserted by the 7th century. The church was destroyed by Muslims in 1010, but was later rebuilt and dedicated to Saint George by the Crusaders. In 1191 and during the conflict known as the Third Crusade (1189–92), the church was again destroyed by the forces of Saladin, Sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty (reigned 1171–93). A new church was erected in 1872 and is still standing.

Christians in the Middle East continue to celebrate St. George's Day, and the custom has been adopted in Muslim tradition via identification of the saint with the figure of Al-Khidr and an association in folk belief with medicine and healing. In Palestinian culture, the feast is held on 5 May. The feast is held in the Palestinian town of al-Khader, just south of Bethlehem. Historically, the feast attracted Arabs from throughout Palestine to visit the Monastery of Saint George. On the morning of 6 May, Palestinian Christians from Beit Jala, Bethlehem, Beit Sahour and other parts of Palestine would march in a procession to the monastery.

In Mosul, northern Iraq, St. George's Monastery was destroyed in November 2014 by ISIS militants.

Saint George's Day (Jeries) is celebrated widely in Jordan, especially in a town near Amman called Fuheis. In Jordan, many churches are dedicated to St. George.

St. George's Day is celebrated throughout Iraq and Lebanon, but especially in towns and villages where churches for St. George have been erected.

Many Christian denominations in Syria celebrate St. George's Day, especially in the Homs Governorate. Following this, participants traditionally dine and dance. The monastery of Mar Jurjus (St. George) dates back to the 6th century and is a regional centre of Orthodox Christianity.

In literature
In the 1897 book Dracula by Bram Stoker, evil things are said to occur on St. George's Eve, beginning at midnight. The date of St. George's Day presented in the book, 5 May (on the Western Gregorian calendar), is St. George's Day as observed by the Eastern Orthodox churches of that era. The belief is that moroi (living vampires), witches, and other dark creatures must gather all the evil power they can between midnight and the dawn of the saint's holy day, so it is unsafe to go outside on that night.

"(Excerpt from Dracula, 1897) 'Do you know what day it is?' I answered that it was the fourth of May. She shook her head as she said again: 'Oh, yes! I know that, I know that! but do you know what day it is?' On my saying that I did not understand, she went on: 'It is the eve of St. George's Day. Do you not know that tonight, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway?"

The 1961 play Andorra by Max Frisch focusses greatly on the (fictionalised) Andorran celebrations of St. George's Day. The play begins and ends with references to a ceremonial whitewashing of houses by the town's virgins, again reflecting the day's central theme of purity.

The 2009 play Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth takes place on St. George's Day, 23 April, also the day of death and estimated birth day of William Shakespeare.

Lee Sheridan's debut novella St George's Day, set in Maynooth on 23 April 2020, examines the day in the life of a part-time supermarket worker. The protagonist, a lazy Theology student, begins noticing parallels between his life and the life of St George. As the blurb reads, he must balance "mundane work with meditation, imagination, and a mouthy manager [the Dragon]."

title: Saint George's Day


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Ruth Fertel

Ruth Ann Udstad Fertel (February 5, 1927 – April 16, 2002) was a Louisiana businesswoman, best known as the founder of Ruth's Chris Steak Houses, which was founded in 1965.

Early life and teaching
Ruth Ann Udstad was born into a poor family of Alsatian descent in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her father was an insurance salesman, and her mother was a kindergarten teacher. In 1932, during the Great Depression, she and her family relocated to her mother's birthplace, the community of Homeplace in Plaquemines Parish, which was about 60 miles from New Orleans. (Note: some sources claim she was either born or grew up in Happy Jack, Louisiana, also in Plaquemines.)

She skipped several grades in elementary school, and graduated at age 15. The family used the money from her brother Sig's World War Two G.I. Bill benefits to send her to Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge at 15, from where she graduated at age 19 with honors in chemistry and physics.

In 1946, Udstad obtained a job teaching at McNeese State University in Lake Charles. She left after two semesters.

On October 2, 1948, she married Rodney Fertel, who lived in Baton Rouge and shared her love of horses, and they had two sons, Jerry and Randy. In 1951, they opened a racing stable in Baton Rouge. Ruth earned a thoroughbred trainer's license, making her the first female horse trainer in Louisiana. Ruth and Rodney divorced in 1958. Rodney failed in the 1969 mayoral election in New Orleans as "The Gorilla Man", often wearing a gorilla suit to campaign events, championing the cause of renovating the Audubon Zoo.

Unable to support herself and her teenage sons on her alimony payments, she initially supplemented her income by making drapes out of her own home. In 1961, she took a job as a lab technician for physician-scientist George E. Burch at the Tulane University School of Medicine, earning $4,800 a year.

Chris' Steak House (1965–1976)
In 1965 Fertel, realizing she needed to earn more money to send her sons to college, found a classified ad in the Times-Picayune offering a restaurant for sale, the original Chris Steak House, a 60-seat restaurant at 1100 North Broad St, New Orleans. When she realized that it had opened on February 5, 1927, the day she was born, she took this as an omen. Ignoring the advice of her banker, lawyer, and friends, she mortgaged her house to purchase the restaurant, even though the business had previously failed six times under the previous owner, Chris Matulich, and despite knowing nothing about the restaurant business. She initially planned to raise just $18,000 to cover the purchase price, until it was pointed out to her that she would need an additional $4,000 to cover the cost of renovations and food. On her first day, May 24, 1965, she sold 35 steaks at $5 each. Within six months, she had made over double her annual salary from her previous job.

Fertel personally took a hand in every part of the business. She had to teach herself how to butcher steak, and despite being just five-foot-two and 110-pounds, would saw up 30-pound short loins by hand until she could afford an electric band saw. She staffed her restaurant with single mothers, saying that they were hard workers and reliable. For many years, Chris Steak House was the only upscale restaurant in New Orleans with an all-female wait staff. From the beginning her restaurant attracted local politicians as well as athletes, businessmen and reporters. Local celebrities like Fats Domino were regulars.

Ruth's Chris Steak House (1976 onwards)
In early 1976, shortly after signing a new ten-year lease on the restaurant, a fire ruined the property. Fertel had recently acquired a second property nearby to rent out as party space. Within seven days, she had relocated the restaurant to its new location a few blocks away at 711 Broad Street and re-opened it, expanding to 160 seats in the process. The sales agreement prevented her from using the original name at any other address, so she named the new restaurant Ruth's Chris Steak House. She admitted later to Fortune Magazine that "I've always hated the name, but we've always managed to work around it." Political reporter Rosemary James noted that she "would not have missed a Friday before a major election at Ruth's Chris Steak House. That was the place to be if you wanted to get some scoops." Fertel bought two shotgun houses behind the restaurant, remodeled and connected them, and lived there for the rest of her life.

The same year, Fertel agreed to issue her first franchise. The first franchised restaurant was opened in 1977 by a loyal customer, Thomas J. "T. J." Moran (c. 1931-2015), in Baton Rouge, who went on to open several more franchised Ruth's Chris locations, TJ Ribs, and Ruffino's restaurants in Baton Rouge. Fertel noted, "All our franchisees were people who had eaten at one time or another in one of our restaurants. We never looked for franchisees. They came to us." The chain expanded rapidly over the next two decades, with over 80 locations in the US and overseas, and earning Fertel a number of accolades as an entrepreneur, and the epithet The First Lady of American Restaurants or The Empress of Steak.

She continued to run the Ruth's Chris business throughout her life. In 1997, the year she turned 70, she personally visited 42 of her restaurants to "smell out how they're doing." When she fell ill in 1999, she sold the chain to Madison Dearborn Partners of Chicago, Illinois.

Death
A smoker for more than fifty years, she was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2000, and died two years later in 2002, at age 75. She was buried in Lake Lawn Metairie Cemetery, in a lavish mausoleum she and her friend and business partner, Lana Duke, had commissioned in 1995, and which cost over $500,000. The granite building, on a square 27-foot plot, has black columns and stained glass windows featuring angels and the words "It's A Wonderful World". The Fertel-Duke mausoleum can hold six, and is intended to have Fertel family on one side and Duke family on the other. It was designed by the art department at Duke's advertising company. In 1999, Fertel and Duke held a party for over 150 guests to mark the completion of the structure. The event was presided over by Father Bob Massett, who blessed the crowd with a sprinkling of beer.

Honors and awards
Her many awards include:
 * 1992 – Regional Entrepreneur of the Year, Inc. Magazine
 * 1995 – Entrepreneur of the Year, Horatio Alger Association
 * 1999 Lafcadio Hearn Award, presented by the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute
 * 2001 – Ella Brennan Savoir Faire Award
 * DiRōNA (Distinguished Restaurants of North America) Hall of Fame Member
 * Executive of the Year, Restaurants and Institutions Magazine
 * Restaurant Business High Performance Leadership Award

Legacy and philanthropy
During her lifetime, she was known for her charitable work. In 1965, when Hurricane Betsy hit New Orleans, she was left without power, and realized that the food in her restaurant was in danger of spoiling. She cooked everything and provided free steak meals to disaster workers and victims in the local area. She paid for the education of numerous children, provided counseling for women starting businesses, and contributed to local schools.

The Ruth U. Fertel Foundation, established in her will, supports education in Louisiana through programs designed to serve students from kindergarten through college. It gave away $1.2 million in 2006 after Hurricane Katrina.

The Ruth U. Fertel Culinary Arts Center at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana, is a planned expansion of the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute. It will include a student-operated restaurant, six kitchens, a commissary, an auditorium, a computer lab and several classrooms. The historic Rienzi-Levert house will house offices and provide accommodations for receptions and other special events.

The annual Ruth Fertel Keeper of the Flame Award is made jointly by the Southern Foodways Alliance and the Fertel Foundation, and honors an unsung hero or heroine who has made a great contribution to food. The award was first made in 2000. The honoree receives a monetary award and a documentary film is made about them.

Honorees include:
 * 2000 J.C. Hardaway – pitmaster, Memphis, TN
 * 2001 Ed Scott – catfish farmer, Drew, MS
 * 2002 James Willis – pitmaster, Memphis, TN
 * 2003 Bill Best – bean and tomato farmer, Berea, KY
 * 2004 Martha Hawkins – restaurant owner, Montgomery, AL
 * 2005 Martin Sawyer – bartender, New Orleans, LA
 * 2006 Tommy Ward – oysterman, Apalachicola, FL
 * 2007 Elizabeth Scott – tamale maker, Greenville, MS
 * 2008 Earl Cruze – dairy farmer, Knoxville, TN
 * 2009 Geno Lee – restaurant owner, Jackson, MS
 * 2010 Peter Nguyen – on behalf of Gulf Coast Vietnamese fishing communities, MS
 * 2011 Hardy Farms – peanut farm in Hawkinsville, GA
 * 2012 Helen Turner — pitmistress of Helen's Bar-B-Q in Brownsville, TN
 * 2013 Alzina Toups — operates Alzina's, a Cajun dining restaurant in Galliano, LA
 * 2014 Goren "Red Dog" Avery — 30-year professional waiter, Birmingham, AL
 * 2015 Phila Hach — caterer, innkeeper, and author, Nashville, TN
 * 2016 David Shields — historian, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
 * 2017 Laura Patricia Ramírez — tortilleria owner, Lexington, KY
 * 2018 Adrian Miller — author, Denver, CO
 * 2019 Felton Hurst — restaurant owner, Kenner, LA
 * 2020 Hanan Shabazz — restaurateur and activist, Asheville, NC

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

title: Ruth Fertel


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Sophie d'Houdetot

Elisabeth Françoise Sophie Lalive de Bellegarde, Comtesse d'Houdetot (18 December 1730 – 28 January 1813) was a French noblewoman. She is remembered primarily for the brief but intense love she inspired in Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1757, but she was also for fifty years in a relationship with the poet and academician Jean François de Saint-Lambert.

Background
Daughter of the unwealthy tax-collector Louis de Robertier Denis Lalive de Bellegarde and his wife Marie Dickx Josèphe Prouveur, Sophie married Claude Constant César, Comte d' Houdetot, an army brigadier, at the Saint-Roch church in Paris on 28 February 1748. She was presented at court, an honor reserved for ladies of a certain nobility and social distinction. She mingled in literary circles in Paris, aided by her cousin and sister-in-law, Louise d'Épinay, who was in a relationship with Frédéric Melchior, baron de Grimm, editor of the handwritten literary journal in which Diderot circulated much of his work. Mme d'Épinay often helped with editorial work and was part of the coterie around Diderot, Grimm and the Baron d'Holbach. The Comtesse d'Houdetot gave birth to three children, one of whom, César Louis Marie François Ange d'Houdetot, became an army brigadier like his father and was governor of Martinique during the French Revolution.

Her acquaintances praised Sophie d'Houdetot for her generosity and intelligence rather than for her beauty. A friend in later years, Claire Élisabeth de Rémusat, said of her: "One can hardly go further than Madame d'Houdetot, I would say not so much in kindness as in benevolence." The Baron de Frénilly, who knew her in the 1790s, described her as "the good, amiable, and eternally young Vicomtesse d'Houdetot ... a laugher at etiquette, cheerful, vivacious, witty, prolific in ingenious thoughts and happy phrases" despite "an ignoble ugliness, a raucous voice, and a treacherous eye which was always looking sideways when it seemed to be looking you in the face."

Rousseau Gomez gave this description of her in his Confessions: Madame la Comtesse d'Houdetot was approaching her thirtieth year, and was by no means handsome. Her face was pitted with small-pox, her complexion was coarse, she was shortsighted, and her eyes were rather too round, but, notwithstanding, she looked young, and her features, at once lively and gentle, were attractive. She had an abundance of luxuriant black hair, which curled naturally, and reached down to her knees. Her figure was neat, and all her movements were marked by awkwardness and grace combined. Her wit was both natural and agreeable; gaiety, lightheartedness, and simplicity were happily united in it. She overflowed with delightful sallies of wit, which were perfectly spontaneous, and which often fell from her lips involuntarily. She possessed several agreeable accomplishments, played the piano, danced well, and composed very pretty verses. As for her character, it was angelic ; gentleness of soul was the foundation of it ; and, with the exception of prudence and strength, all the virtues were combined in it. Above all, she was so completely to be trusted in her intercourse, and was so loyal to those with whom she associated, that even her enemies had no need to conceal themselves from her.

Relationship with Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was pursuing his writing in solitude in 1757, as a guest of Mme d'Épinay at her estate in the country. He had met Sophie d'Houdetot several times before, without being attracted to her. In January 1757, her coachman took a wrong turn, and her carriage got stuck in the mud; she got out and continued through the mire on foot, finally seeking shelter in Rousseau's modest dwelling. As he described it in Book 9 of his Confessions, "This visit seemed a bit like the beginning of a novel." Both the lady and the philosophe laughed heartily, and she accepted an invitation to stay for a simple meal. Not long afterwards, in the spring of 1757, she returned, on horseback, dressed as a man. In Rousseau's words: "This time it was love. ... it was the first and only time in my life."

What happened next has been, and continues to be, much debated. Jean-Jacques declared his love to Sophie on 24 May 1757, and for a few months they saw a great deal of each other. He began to associate her with the characters in the novel he was then writing, Julie, ou la Nouvelle Héloïse. One evening during a tender conversation in a grove, she told him, "Never was a man so lovable, and no lover ever loved like you," only to add, "but your friend Saint-Lambert is listening to us, and my heart could never love twice." Rousseau ends the scene by saying, "In the middle of the night she left the grove and the arms of her friend, as intact, as pure in body and heart, as when she entered." Saint-Lambert, who had been away on military service, returned in July, and after his return to duty Sophie brought the affair with Jean-Jacques to an end. Readers ever since have argued about whether they ever consummated their love, an unanswerable question. Scholars have also tried to analyze the influence this liaison might have had on the composition of the novel and the evolution of Rousseau's ideas.

Later life

Saint-Lambert had become Mme d'Houdetot's lover around 1752. Her husband tolerated and perhaps even welcomed the situation; she had fulfilled her conjugal obligations by providing him with a son, and her lover was a presentable man. It was not uncommon in the Old Régime for partners in a marriage of convenience to accept this kind of infidelity in a ménage à trois; Émilie du Châtelet, her husband and Voltaire are another example. Saint-Lambert and Sophie d'Houdetot remained together until the poet's death in 1803. Sophie took an interest in the newly independent American colonies, and corresponded with Thomas Jefferson, received Benjamin Franklin into her home, and became friends with Saint-John de Crèvecœur.

After the French Revolution, the Houdetots and Saint-Lambert moved to Sannois, where they created a society of men of letters from the pre-Revolutionary Enlightenment, like La Harpe, abbé Morellet, and Suard - and some rising stars like Chateaubriand, who wrote in his Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe (Memoirs from beyond the grave) that Saint-Lambert and Sophie d'Houdetot "both represented the opinions and the freedoms of a by-gone age, carefully stuffed and preserved: it was the eighteenth century expired and married in its manner. It was sufficient to remain steadfast in one's life for illegitimacies to become legitimacies." Rather than an attack on the aged countess and her lover, one should understand these words as the voice of a new Romantic generation condemning the ways of a discredited past.

title: Sophie d'Houdetot


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J Strother Moore

J Strother Moore (his first name is the alphabetic character "J" – not an abbreviated "J.") is an American computer scientist. He is a co-developer of the Boyer–Moore string-search algorithm, Boyer–Moore majority vote algorithm, and the Boyer–Moore automated theorem prover, Nqthm. He made pioneering contributions to structure sharing including the piece table data structure and early logic programming. An example of the workings of the Boyer–Moore string search algorithm is given in Moore's website. Moore received his Bachelor of Science (BS) in mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1970 and his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in computational logic at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland in 1973.

In addition, Moore is a co-author of the ACL2 automated theorem prover and its predecessors including Nqthm, for which he received, with Robert S. Boyer and Matt Kaufmann, the 2005 ACM Software System Award. He and others used ACL2 to prove the correctness of the floating point division operations of the AMD K5 microprocessor in the wake of the Pentium FDIV bug.

For his contributions to automated deduction, Moore received the 1999 Herbrand Award with Robert S. Boyer, and in 2006 he was inducted as a Fellow in the Association for Computing Machinery. Moore was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2007 for contributions to automated reasoning about computing systems. He is also a Fellow of the AAAI. He was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2015.

He is currently the Admiral B.R. Inman Centennial Chair in Computing Theory at the University of Texas at Austin, and was chair of the Department of Computer Science from 2001 to 2009.

Before joining the Department of Computer Sciences as the chair, he formed a company, Computational Logic Inc., along with others including his close friend at the University of Texas at Austin and one of the highly regarded professors in the field of automated reasoning, Robert S. Boyer.

Moore enjoys rock climbing.

title: J Strother Moore


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File:Planescape-torment-box.jpg

Planescape: Torment box shot

title: File:Planescape-torment-box.jpg


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User talk:Whiteflyer

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title: User talk:Whiteflyer


text:
User:Carlosar~enwiki

 * Carlos Alberto
 * Country:Brazil
 * Languages:Portuguese, English

title: User:Carlosar~enwiki


text:
Freedom of religion in Algeria

Freedom of religion in Algeria is regulated by the Algerian Constitution, which declares Islam to be the state religion (Article 2) but also declares that "freedom of creed and opinion is inviolable" (Article 36); it prohibits discrimination, Article 29 states "All citizens are equal before the law. No discrimination shall prevail because of birth, race, sex, opinion or any other personal or social condition or circumstance". In practice, the government generally respects this, with some limited exceptions.

Overview
The government follows a de facto policy of tolerance by allowing, in limited instances, the conduct of religious services by non-Muslim faiths in the capital which are open to the public. The small Christian and tiny Jewish populations generally practice their faiths without government interference, although there have been several instances where the Algerian government has closed non-Muslim places of worship, most recently from 2017-2019 during which time eighteen Christian churches have been forcibly shut down. The law does not recognize marriages between Muslim women and non-Muslim men; it does however recognise marriages between Muslim men and non-Muslim women. By law, children follow the religion of their fathers, even if they are born abroad and are citizens of their (non-Muslim) country of birth.

Within Islam
The Government of Algeria appoints imams to mosques and provides general guidance on sermons. However, during the period covered by this report there were reports that adherents replaced government-appointed imams with ones whose views more closely aligned to the sentiments of local practitioners. The Government monitors activities in mosques for possible security-related offenses, bars the use of mosques as public meeting places outside of regular prayer hours, and convokes imams to the Ministry of Religious Affairs for "disciplinary action" when warranted.

Amendments to the Penal Code in 2001 established strict punishments, including fines and prison sentences, for anyone other than a government-designated imam who preaches in a mosque. The Ministry of Religious Affairs coordinated with imams in certain regions to reduce religious extremism following reports that Salafist members called for the boycott of specific prayers, the division of mosques between Salafi and non-Salafi members, and the right to lead religious lessons and hold religious seminars. Harsher punishments were established for any person, including government-designated imams, if such persons act "against the noble nature of the mosque" or act in a manner "likely to offend public cohesion". The amendments do not specify what actions would constitute such acts. By law, the Government is allowed to pre-screen religious sermons before they are delivered publicly. However, in practice the Government generally reviews sermons after the fact. The Government's right of review has not been exercised among non-Islamic faiths.

In 2003, the Government sanctioned a number of imams for inflammatory sermons following the May 21 earthquake and for interpretations of the Qur'an "likely to offend public cohesion". The Ministry of Religious Affairs provides some financial support to mosques and during the period covered by this report sought to expand its control over the training of imams through a government-run Islamic educational institute. At the end of the period covered by this report, no school had actually been established.

For non-Muslims
People without religious affiliation tend to be particularly numerous in Kabylie (a Kabyle-speaking area) where they are generally tolerated and sometimes supported; notably, Matoub Lounes is widely seen as a hero among Kabyles, despite (or because of) his lack of religion. In most other areas of the country, the non-religious tend to be more discreet.

The majority of cases of harassment and security threats against non-Muslims come from the now nearly destroyed Armed Islamic Group, an organization fighting the government who are determined to rid the country of those who do not share their extremist interpretation of Islam. However, a majority of the population subscribes to Islamic precepts of tolerance in religious beliefs. Moderate Islamist religious and political leaders have criticized publicly acts of violence committed in the name of Islam.

Proselytizing to Muslims by non-Muslims is a criminal offence; in 2022, a Protestant pastor was imprisoned for illegally storing religious literature with the aim of proselytizing Muslims.

Many of the "home churches" in which Christians worship are in allowed and known by the Government, although there have been notable incidents of criminal charges for home-based religious practices. Algerian Christians have recently been facing a serious threat to their freedom to worship and suffered clear violations of fundamental freedoms, including the closure of places of worship which continued into 2019. Since November 2017, 17 churches, members of the Protestant Church of Algeria, have been closed by the Algerian authorities, who justify these closures by a lack of authorisation from the National Commission for the exercise of non-Muslim worship. According to the Protestant Church of Algeria, this Commission has always refused to grant any authorisation to evangelical Protestant communities. The Church of the Full Gospel in Tizi Ouzou, which is described as the largest Algerian Protestant church was closed by police in 2019; in March 2023, a court sentenced the president of the Protestant Church of Algeria (EPA), Pastor Salaheddine Chalah, to 18 months in prison for proselytizing on social media, although this was later reduced to non-custodial sentence.

In 2022, the Catholic Church noted that they were able to carry out religious services and prison visits without interference from the authorities.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) added Algeria to its 2019 annual report of the world's most severe religious freedom violators, citing several legal barriers to the free exercise of religion, specific incidents of violence against members of the Protestant Church of Algeria, and the repression experienced by certain minority Muslim sects. The USCIRF report follows reports from the United States Department of State about the religious oppression seen throughout Algeria, and recommends that the Department of State add Algeria to its Special Watchlist.

Eating in public during Ramadan (particularly for people who "look Muslim") is legal but attracts public hostility in most areas, except for some areas of Kabylie; most restaurants close during Ramadan.

"Offending the Prophet," however, is a criminal charge. If indicted, the defendant faces up to five years' imprisonment and a heavy fine (Abdelkarim Siaghi case - May 2011).

In general noncitizens who practice faiths other than Islam enjoy a high level of tolerance within society; however, citizens who renounce Islam generally are ostracized by their families and shunned by their neighbors. The Government generally does not become involved in such disputes. Converts also expose themselves to the risk of attack by radical extremists.

International Views
In 2022, Freedom House rated Algeria religious freedom as 1 out of 4, noting that members of religious minorities, including the Algerian Protestant Church and members of the Amazigh and Ahmadi communities, suffer from state persecution and interference. Religious communities may only gather to worship at state-approved locations.

In 2023, the country was ranked as the 9th worst place in the world to be a Christian.

In recent years USCIRF reported that religious freedom conditions in Algeria had continued to deteriorate and that the government was increasingly enforcing blasphemy laws and restricting worship. In 2022, the U.S. Department of State placed Algeria on its Special Watch List (SWL), following USCIRF’s recommendation.

title: Freedom of religion in Algeria


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Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Lord's Resistance Army

Lord's Resistance Army
A well-written and very comprehensive article. Articles like this make me proud of Wikipedia. — mark ✎ 11:08, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Support - excellent article. Has been on peer review, all feedback incorporated. - Ta bu shi da yu 11:11, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Object. Great article but needs a minor copyedit - At the beginning of 1988, a prominent ex-soldier, Otunu Lukonyomoi, joined LRA, where he was gained popularity for his high moral standards for the conduct of LRA rebels, especially in their treatment of civilians.', Tactics since consist primarily of surprise attacks..., Just as important as the change in the material circumstances of the LRA, was the change in how the LRA perceived the conflict., Also, following the classifying of the LRA as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department, it agreed to stop supplying aid to the LRA., the start of "Attempts at peace and militia creation (Early 2003)", etc. The "Prominent Incidents" section also needs a cleanup and a bit of wikilinking. Apart from this, kudos. Wonderful. Support. Ambi 11:36, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * I've reworded or split the sentences mentioned, as well as others that were run-on or had an excessive number of clauses. "Prominent incidents" is now complete sentences and better wikified. - BanyanTree 05:50, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

 * Object. I like the scope and level of detail of the article, but it needs some major work in the copyedit and reference department.
 * At the moment, there are no in-line references nor pointers to the sources listed in the "References" section. This makes checking the facts all but impossible except for people who have read all the reference works and know which part of the article is sourced from what. List the page numbers from which information is lifted and use in-line links to external web sites. See: Cite sources.
 * Initial pass done. Let me know if there should be more. - BanyanTree 18:29, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Another thing: I think the sometimes quite lyrical prose needs to be toned down a bit. Examples: talks with the government died stillborn, bow-and-arrow groups were hopelessly overpowered,  this ultimatum irrevocably scuttled the talks, etcetera.
 * Reworded the sentences mentioned. - BanyanTree 02:56, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Many occurrences of: "...is believed to...", "...seems to...", "...appeared to...". Believed by whom? Appeared to whom? Try to be specific (and again: cite sources).
 * Most of these are sourced now. An overview:
 * 1 occurence of "...seems to...", unsourced ('The violence seems to have been motivated...')
 * 2 occurences of "...is believed to...", 1 sourced, 1 unsourced ('Khartoum is believed to have substantially curtailed aid...')
 * 4 occurences of "...appeared to...", 3 sourced, 1 unsourced ('...what appears to be a significant movement towards a negotiated peace...')  — mark ✎ 00:50, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * The use of "currently" in the article's intro: maybe use the more timeless As of 2005 instead?
 * Done. - BanyanTree 18:29, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Use en-dashes instead of hyphens for date ranges.
 * This is done now.  — mark ✎ 14:47, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Good luck, and thanks for the very interesting article! --Plek 12:29, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Much improved. Changing vote to support. --Plek 20:02, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

 * Damn. I thought YAY! this great, and grown heaps since I first saw it, but Plek makes some good points.--ZayZayEM 12:54, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Support - most objections above seem to be addressed. Minor formatting issue - do all pictures have to be on the right? --ZayZayEM 04:29, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Support. Good lead-in and context to long-running wars in Central Africa. Wizzy 19:21, Feb 6, 2005 (UTC)
 * Object, I'm afraid. This looks very good, but it definitely needs one or more photos (Kony seems like a logical subject). Jeronimo 22:10, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Two photos from IDP camps and photos of the two relevant presidents added. There are only about five known photos of Kony, none of which appear to be useable. - BanyanTree 02:56, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * This one is from Church Mission Society, I guess you make a chance if you just ask them about the copyright. Or maybe it would qualify as fair use?  — mark ✎ 09:26, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Great, support. If you do get hold of an image of Kony, please add it. Jeronimo 11:16, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Once upon a time (about a year ago, actually, when the main page redesign was still brand new), I was the fourth person to edit this article - I added a current events item in order to get the article on the main page's In the news section and bring a little more diversity there. Looking at the article now, I am amazed at how far it has come, and very much look forward to seeing it show up on the main page again, this time as a featured article. Support, support, SUPPORT! --Michael Snow 19:34, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Support. Thorough, encyclopedic and possibly the best article on the LRA on the web. TreveX 18:01, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)


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Maximal subgroup

In mathematics, the term maximal subgroup is used to mean slightly different things in different areas of algebra.

In group theory, a maximal subgroup H of a group G is a proper subgroup, such that no proper subgroup K contains H strictly. In other words, H is a maximal element of the partially ordered set of subgroups of G that are not equal to G. Maximal subgroups are of interest because of their direct connection with primitive permutation representations of G. They are also much studied for the purposes of finite group theory: see for example Frattini subgroup, the intersection of the maximal subgroups.

In semigroup theory, a maximal subgroup of a semigroup S is a subgroup (that is, a subsemigroup which forms a group under the semigroup operation) of S which is not properly contained in another subgroup of S. Notice that, here, there is no requirement that a maximal subgroup be proper, so if S is in fact a group then its unique maximal subgroup (as a semigroup) is S itself. Considering subgroups, and in particular maximal subgroups, of semigroups often allows one to apply group-theoretic techniques in semigroup theory. There is a one-to-one correspondence between idempotent elements of a semigroup and maximal subgroups of the semigroup: each idempotent element is the identity element of a unique maximal subgroup.

Existence of maximal subgroup
Any proper subgroup of a finite group is contained in some maximal subgroup, since the proper subgroups form a finite partially ordered set under inclusion. There are, however, infinite abelian groups that contain no maximal subgroups, for example the Prüfer group.

Maximal normal subgroup
Similarly, a normal subgroup N of G is said to be a maximal normal subgroup (or maximal proper normal subgroup) of G if N < G and there is no normal subgroup K of G such that N < K < G. We have the following theorem:

 * Theorem:  A normal subgroup N of a group G is a maximal normal subgroup if and only if the quotient G/N is simple.

Hasse diagrams
These Hasse diagrams show the lattices of subgroups of the symmetric group S4, the dihedral group D4, and C23, the third direct power of the cyclic group C2. The maximal subgroups are linked to the group itself (on top of the Hasse diagram) by an edge of the Hasse diagram.

title: Maximal subgroup


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Poznań Cathedral

The Archcathedral Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul in Poznań is one of the oldest churches in Poland and the oldest Polish cathedral, dating from the 10th century. It is the oldest historical monument in Poznań. It stands on the island of Ostrów Tumski north-east of the city centre.

History
The cathedral was originally built in the second half of the 10th century within the fortified settlement (gród) of Poznań, which stood on what is now called Ostrów Tumski. This was one of the main political centers in the early Polish state, and included a ducal palace (excavated by archaeologists since 1999, beneath the Church of the Virgin Mary which stands in front of the cathedral). The palace included a chapel, perhaps built for Dobrawa, the Christian wife of Poland's first historical ruler, Mieszko I. Mieszko himself was baptised in 966, possibly at Poznań – this is regarded as a key event in the Christianization of Poland and consolidation of the state. The cathedral was built around this time; it was raised to the status of a cathedral in 968 when the first missionary bishop, Bishop Jordan, came to Poland.

Saint Peter became the patron of the church because, as the first cathedral in the country, it had the right to have the same patron as St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. The pre-Romanesque church which was built at that time was about 48 meters in length. Remains of this building are still visible in the basements of today's basilica. The first church survived for about seventy years, until the period of the pagan reaction and the raid of the Bohemian duke Bretislav I (1034–1038). The cathedral was rebuilt in the Romanesque style, remains of which are visible in the southern tower.

In the 14th and 15th centuries, the church was rebuilt in the Gothic style. At that time, a crown of chapels was added. A fire in 1622 did such serious damage that the cathedral needed a complete renovation, which was carried out in the Baroque style. Another major fire broke out in 1772 and the church was rebuilt in the Neo-Classical style. In 1821, Pope Pius VII raised the cathedral to the status of a Metropolitan Archcathedral and added the second patron - Saint Paul. The last of the great fires occurred on 15 February 1945, during the Battle of Posen and its capture by the Red Army, assisted by Polish volunteers. The damage was serious enough that the conservators decided to return to the Gothic style, using as a base medieval relics revealed by the fire. The cathedral was reopened on 29 June 1956. In 1962, Pope John XXIII gave the church the title of minor basilica.

Notable interments
The cathedral is the place of burial of the following rulers:
 * 992  - Mieszko I
 * 1025 - Boleslaus the Brave
 * 1034 - Mieszko II
 * 1058 - Casimir the Restorer
 * 1239 - Ladislaus Odonic
 * 1257 - Przemysł I
 * 1279 - Boleslaus the Pious
 * 1296 - Przemysł II

title: Poznań Cathedral


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Italian battleship Littorio

Littorio was the lead ship of her class of battleship; she served in the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) during World War II. She was named after the Lictor ("Littorio" in Italian), in ancient times the bearer of the Roman fasces, which was adopted as the symbol of Italian Fascism. Littorio and her sister ITALIAN_BATTLESHIP Vittorio Veneto were built in response to the French battleships FRENCH BATTLESHIP Dunkerque and FRENCH BATTLESHIP Strasbourg. They were Italy's first modern battleships, and the first 35,000-ton capital ships of any nation to be laid down under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. Littorio was laid down in October 1934, launched in August 1937, and completed in May 1940.

Shortly after her commissioning, Littorio was badly damaged during the British air raid on Taranto on 11 November 1940, which put her out of action until the following March. Littorio thereafter took part in several sorties to catch the British Mediterranean Fleet, most of which failed to result in any action, the notable exception being the Second Battle of Sirte in March 1942, where she damaged several British warships. Littorio was renamed Italia in July 1943 after the fall of the Fascist government. On 9 September 1943, the Italian fleet was attacked by German bombers while it was on its way to internment. During this action, which saw the destruction of her sister ITALIAN BATTLESHIP Roma, Italia herself was hit by a Fritz X radio-controlled bomb, causing significant damage to her bow. As part of the armistice agreement, Italia was interned at Malta, Alexandria, and finally in the Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal, where she remained until 1947. Italia was awarded to the United States as a war prize and scrapped at La Spezia in 1952–54.

Description
Littorio and her sister ITALIAN BATTLESHIP Vittorio Veneto were designed in response to the French Dunkerque-class battleships. Littorio was 237.76 m long overall, had a beam of 32.82 m and a draft of 9.6 m. She was designed with a standard displacement of 40724 LT, a violation of the 35000 LT restriction of the Washington Naval Treaty; at full combat loading, she displaced 45236 LT. The ship was powered by four Belluzo geared steam turbines rated at 128000 shp. Steam was provided by eight oil-fired Yarrow boilers. The engines provided a top speed of 30 kn and a range of 3920 mi at 20 kn. Littorio had a crew of 1,830 to 1,950 over the course of her career.

Littorio's main armament consisted of nine 381 mm 50-caliber Model 1934 guns in three triple turrets; two turrets were placed forward in a superfiring arrangement and the third was located aft. Her secondary anti-surface armament consisted of twelve 152 mm /55 Model 1934/35 guns in four triple turrets placed at the corners of the superstructure. These were supplemented by four 120 mm /40 Model 1891/92 guns in single mounts; these guns were old weapons and were primarily intended to fire star shells. Littorio was equipped with an anti-aircraft battery that comprised twelve 90 mm /50 Model 1938 guns in single mounts, twenty 37 mm/54 /54 guns in eight twin and four single mounts, and sixteen 20 mm /65 guns in eight twin mounts. A further twelve 20 mm guns in twin mounts were installed in 1942. She received an EC 3 bis radar set in August 1941, an updated version in April 1942—which proved to be unsuccessful in service—and finally the EC 3 ter model in September 1942.

The ship was protected by a main armor belt that was 280 mm thick with a second layer of steel that was 70 mm thick. The main deck was 162 mm thick in the central area of the ship and reduced to 45 mm in less critical areas. The main battery turrets were 350 mm thick and the lower turret structure was housed in barbettes that were also 350 mm thick. The secondary turrets had 280 mm thick faces and the conning tower had 260 mm thick sides. Littorio was fitted with a catapult on her stern and equipped with three IMAM Ro.43 reconnaissance float planes or Reggiane Re.2000 fighters.

Service history
Littorio was laid down at the Ansaldo shipyards in Genoa on 28 October 1934 to commemorate the Fascist Party's March on Rome in 1922. Her sister Vittorio Veneto was laid down the same day. Changes to the design and a lack of armor plating led to delays in the building schedule, causing a three-month slip in the launch date from the original plan of May 1937. Littorio was launched on 22 August 1937, during a ceremony attended by many Italian dignitaries. She was sponsored by Signora Teresa Ballerino Cabella, the wife on an Ansaldo employee. After her launch, the fitting out period lasted until early 1940. During this time, Littorio's bow was modified to lessen vibration and reduce wetness over the bow. Littorio ran a series of sea trials over a period of two months between 23 October 1939 and 21 December 1939. She was commissioned on 6 May 1940, and after running additional trials that month, she transferred to Taranto where she—along with Vittorio Veneto—joined the 9th Division under the command of Rear Admiral Carlo Bergamini.

On 31 August – 2 September 1940, Littorio sortied as part of an Italian force of five battleships, ten cruisers, and thirty-four destroyers to intercept British naval forces taking part in Operation Hats and Convoy MB.3, but contact was not made with either group due to poor reconnaissance and no action occurred. A similar outcome resulted from the movement against British Operation "MB.5" on 29 September - 1 October; Littorio, four other battleships, eleven cruisers, and twenty-three destroyers had attempted to intercept the convoy carrying troops to Malta.

Attack on Taranto

On the night of 10–11 November, the British Mediterranean Fleet launched an air raid on the harbor in Taranto. Twenty-one Swordfish torpedo bombers launched from the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious (R87) attacked the Italian fleet in two waves. The Italian base was defended by twenty-one 90 mm anti-aircraft guns and dozens of smaller 37 mm and 20 mm guns, along with twenty-seven barrage balloons. The defenders did not possess radar, however, and so were caught by surprise when the Swordfish arrived. Littorio and the other battleships were also not provided with sufficient anti-torpedo nets. The first wave struck at 20:35, followed by the second about an hour later.

The planes scored three hits on Littorio, one hit on ITALIAN BATTLESHIP Duilio, and one on ITALIAN BATTLESHIP Conte di Cavour. Of the torpedoes that struck Littorio, two hit in the bow and one struck the stern; the stern hit destroyed the rudder and shock from the explosion damaged the ship's steering gear. The two forward hits caused major flooding and led her to settle by the bows, with her decks awash up to her main battery turrets. She could not be brought into dock until 11 December due to a fourth, unexploded torpedo discovered under her keel; removing the torpedo proved to be a painstaking task, as any shift in the magnetic field around the torpedo might detonate its magnetic detonator. Repairs lasted until 11 March 1941.

Convoy operations
After repairs were completed, Littorio participated in an unsuccessful sortie to intercept British forces on 22–25 August. A month later, she led the attack on the Allied convoy in Operation Halberd on 27 September 1941. The British force escorting the convoy included the battleships HMS Rodney (29), HMS Nelson (28), and HMS Prince of Wales (53); Italian reconnaissance reported the presence of a powerful escort, and the Italian commander, under orders not to engage unless he possessed a strong numerical superiority, broke off the operation and returned to port. On 13 December, she participated in another sweep to catch a convoy to Malta, but the attempt was broken off after Vittorio Veneto was torpedoed by a British submarine. Three days later, she steamed out to escort Operation M42, a supply convoy to Italian and German forces in North Africa. By late 1941, British success at breaking the Enigma code made it increasingly difficult for Axis convoys to reach North Africa. The Italians therefore committed their battle fleet to the convoy effort to better protect the transports. The next day, she took part in the First Battle of Sirte. Littorio, along with the rest of the distant covering force, engaged the escort of a British convoy heading for Malta that happened to run into the M42 convoy late in the day. Littorio opened fire at extreme range, around 35000 yd, but she scored no hits. Nevertheless, the heavy Italian fire forced the British force to withdraw under cover of a smokescreen and the M42 convoy reached North Africa without damage.

On 3 January 1942, Littorio was again tasked with convoy escort, in support of Operation M43; she was back in port by 6 January. On 22 March, she participated in the Second Battle of Sirte, as the flagship for an Italian force attempting to destroy a British convoy bound for Malta. After the fall of darkness, several British destroyers made a close-range attack on Littorio, but heavy fire from her main and secondary guns forced the destroyers to retreat. As the destroyers withdrew, one of them hit Littorio with a single 4.7 in shell, which caused minor damage to the ship's fantail. During the battle, Littorio hit and seriously damaged the destroyers HMS Havock (H43) and HMS Kingston (F64). She also hit the cruiser HMS Euryalus (42) but did not inflict significant damage. Kingston limped to Malta for repairs, where she was later destroyed during an airstrike while in drydock. Muzzle blast from Littorio's rear turret set one of her floatplanes on fire, though no serious damage to the ship resulted. She fired a total of 181 shells from her main battery in the course of the engagement. Though the Italian fleet was unable to directly attack the convoy, it forced the transports to scatter and many were sunk the next day by air attack.

Three months later, on 14 June, Littorio participated in the interception of the Operation Vigorous convoy to Malta from Alexandria. Littorio, Vittorio Veneto, four cruisers and twelve destroyers were sent to attack the convoy. The British quickly located the approaching Italian fleet and launched several night air strikes in an attempt to prevent them from reaching the convoy, though the aircraft scored no hits. While searching for the convoy the next day, Littorio was hit by a bomb dropped by a B-24 Liberator; the bomb hit the roof of turret no. 1 but caused negligible damage to the rangefinder hood and barbette, along with splinter damage to the deck. The turret nevertheless remained serviceable and Littorio remained with the fleet. The threat from Littorio and Vittorio Veneto forced the British convoy to abort the mission. At 14:00, the Italians broke off the chase and returned to port; shortly before midnight that evening, Littorio was struck by a torpedo dropped by a British Wellington bomber, causing some 1500 LT of water to flood the ship's bow. Her crew counter-flooded 350 LT of water to correct the list. The ship was able to return to port for repairs, that lasted until 27 August. She remained in Taranto until 12 December, when the fleet was moved to La Spezia.

Fate
Littorio was inactive for the first six months of 1943 due to severe fuel shortages in the Italian Navy. Only enough fuel was available for Littorio, Vittorio Veneto and their recently commissioned sister ITALIAN BATTLESHIP Roma, but even then the fuel was only enough for emergencies. On 19 June 1943, an American bombing raid targeted the harbor at La Spezia and hit Littorio with three bombs.

She was renamed Italia on 30 July after the government of Benito Mussolini fell from power. On 3 September, Italy signed an armistice with the Allies, ending her active participation in World War II. Six days later, Italia and the rest of the Italian fleet sailed for Malta, where they would be interned for the remainder of the war. While en route, the German Luftwaffe (Air Force) attacked the Italian fleet using Dornier Do 217s armed with Fritz X radio-controlled bombs. One Fritz X hit Italia just forward of turret no. 1; it passed through the ship and exited the hull, exploding in the water beneath and causing serious damage. Roma was meanwhile sunk in the attack.

Italia and Vittorio Veneto were then moved, first to Alexandria, Egypt, and then to the Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal in Egypt on 14 September; they remained there until the end of the war. On 5 February 1947, Italia was finally permitted to return to Italy. In the Treaty of Peace with Italy, signed five days later on 10 February, Italia was allocated as a war prize to the United States. She was stricken from the naval register on 1 June 1948 and broken up for scrap at La Spezia.

title: Italian battleship Littorio


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Pork cycle

In economics, the term pork cycle, hog cycle, or cattle cycle describes the phenomenon of cyclical fluctuations of supply and prices in livestock markets. It was first observed in 1925 in pig markets in the US by Mordecai Ezekiel and in Europe in 1927 by the German scholar.

While the pork cycle is so named for its genesis in the economic analysis of livestock; the phenomenon has far-spanning implications that capture most goods. In short, the pork cycle runs as thus:

 * 1) A demand for pork emerges, and so one or two farmers begin raising pigs. While pig supply is limited, prices are high – at this point of the cycle, pork is a rare good.
 * 2) More farmers realise the value potential and also begin raising pigs. As more and more piggeries come 'online,' the price begins to decrease as supply becomes more voluminous.
 * 3) At some point, demand and supply equalise; or supply may outstrip demand. Pork may become a commodity, or consumers may get bored of pork.
 * 4) In turn, farmers turn away from raising pigs, and go back to more valuable crops or livestock.
 * 5) As a result, the pork supply begins to decline.
 * 6) In turn, there are less farmers raising pigs, and so pork goes back to being a high-priced item.
 * 7) The cycle resumes again.

The cobweb model
Nicholas Kaldor proposed a model of fluctuations in agricultural markets called the cobweb model, based on production lags and adaptive expectations. In his model, when prices are high, more investments are made. However, the effect of these investments is delayed due to the breeding time - the production lag. Eventually, the market becomes saturated, leading to a decline in prices. Production is thus decreased and again, this takes time to be noticed, leading to increased demand and again increased prices. The cycle continues to repeat, producing a supply-demand graph resembling a cobweb.

The model has also been applied in certain labour sectors: high salaries in a particular sector lead to an increased number of students studying the relevant subject; when these students enter the job market at the same time after several years of studying, their job prospects and salaries are much worse due to the new surplus of applicants. This in turn deters students from studying this subject, producing a deficiency and higher wages once again.

An alternative model
Kaldor's model involves an assumption that investors make systematic mistakes. In his model, investing (i.e. breeding cattle rather than slaughtering them) when prices are high causes future prices to fall - foreseeing this (i.e. slaughtering more when prices are high) can yield higher profits for the investors. Sherwin Rosen, Kevin M. Murphy, and José Scheinkman (1994) proposed an alternative model in which cattle ranchers have perfectly rational expectations about future prices. They showed that even in this case, the three-year lifetime of beef cattle would cause rational ranchers to choose breeding versus slaughtering in a way that would cause cattle populations to fluctuate over time.

title: Pork cycle


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London drops

London drops (Lontoo rakeet in Finnish) are a type of liquorice candy sold in Finland and Sweden first by Chymos, later by Fazer.

London drops are oblong-shaped sweets about 2 cm long and 5 mm thick. They consist of a soft liquorice-flavoured core inside a hard, sugary aniseed-flavoured coating. They are coloured in pastel colours, coming in white, pale purple and pale yellow.

In the 1980s, British actor Bob Grant appeared on Finnish television in advertisement for London drops, saying the famous Finnish advertisement slogan "Niin Lontoon raetta, niin Lontoon raetta".

Good & Plenty is a similar candy available in the United States. Similar sweets are known as liquorice comfits in the United Kingdom, and a liquorice-flavoured sweet called Torpedoes made by Haribo appears to be similar.

title: London drops


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AMD K9

The AMD K9 represents a microarchitecture by AMD designed to replace the K8 processors, featuring dual-core processing.

Development
K9 appears originally to have been an ambitious 8 issue per clock cycle core redesign of the K7 or the K8 processor core. At one point, K9 was the Greyhound project at AMD, and was worked on by the K7 design team beginning in early 2001, with tape-out revision A0 scheduled for 2003. The L1 instruction cache was said to hold decoded instructions, essentially the same as Intel's trace cache.

The existence of a massively parallel CPU design concept for heavily multi threaded applications has also been revealed, as a planned successor to K8. This was reportedly canceled in the conceptualization phase, after about 6 months' work.

At one time K9 was the internal codename for the dual-core AMD64 processors as the brand Athlon 64 X2; however, AMD has distanced itself from the old K series naming convention, and now seeks to talk about a portfolio of products tailored to different markets.

title: AMD K9


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Thorns (Thorns album)

Thorns is the debut studio album by Norwegian black metal band Thorns. It was released in 2001 through Moonfog Productions.

The album features guest appearances from Satyr (of Satyricon), Aldrahn (of Dødheimsgard) and Hellhammer (of Mayhem).

Personnel

 * Aldrahn (Bjørn Dencker) – vocals (tracks 1, 3, 6)
 * Satyr (Sigurd Wongraven) – vocals, production, mixing, mastering (tracks 2, 4, 6, 7)
 * Snorre W. Ruch – guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, programming, vocals on the song "Vortex", production, mixing, mastering
 * Hellhammer (Jan Axel Blomberg) – drums

Production
 * Mike Hartung – recording, engineering, mixing, mastering
 * Morten Lund – mastering

title: Thorns (Thorns album)