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Overscan

Overscan is a behaviour in certain television sets in which part of the input picture is cut off by the visible bounds of the screen. It exists because cathode-ray tube (CRT) television sets from the 1930s to the early 2000s were highly variable in how the video image was positioned within the borders of the screen. It then became common practice to have video signals with black edges around the picture, which the television was meant to discard in this way.

Origins
Early analog televisions varied in the displayed image because of manufacturing tolerance problems. There were also effects from the early design limitations of power supplies, whose DC voltage was not regulated as well as in later power supplies. This could cause the image size to change with normal variations in the AC line voltage, as well as a process called blooming, where the image size increased slightly when a brighter overall picture was displayed due to the increased electron beam current causing the CRT anode voltage to drop. Because of this, TV producers could not be certain where the visible edges of the image would be. In order to compensate, they defined three areas:

 * Title safe: An area visible by all reasonably maintained sets, where text was certain not to be cut off.
 * Action safe: A larger area that represented where a "perfect" set (with high precision to allow less overscanning) would cut the image off.
 * Underscan: The full image area to the electronic edge of the signal with additional black borders which weren't part of the original image.
 * Fullscan: The full image area to the electronic edge of the signal (with the black borders of the image if they exist).
 * Observable fullscan: An overscan image area which dismisses only the additional black borders of the image (if they exist).

A significant number of people would still see some of the overscan area, so while nothing important in a scene would be placed there, it also had to be kept free of microphones, stage hands, and other distractions. Studio monitors and camera viewfinders were set to show this area, so that producers and directors could make certain it was clear of unwanted elements. When used, this mode is called underscan.

Despite the wide adoption of LCD TVs that do not require overscan since the size of their images remains the same irrespective of voltage variations, many LCD TVs still come with overscan enabled by default, but it can be disabled by the user using the TV's on-screen menus.

Modern video displays
Today's displays, being driven by digital signals (such as DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort), and based on newer fixed-pixel digital flat panel technology (such as liquid crystal displays), can safely assume that all pixels are visible to the viewer. On digital displays driven from a digital signal, therefore, no adjustment is necessary because all pixels in the signal are unequivocally mapped to physical pixels on the display. As overscan reduces picture quality, it is undesirable for digital flat panels; therefore, 1:1 pixel mapping is preferred. When driven by analog video signals such as VGA, however, displays are subject to timing variations and cannot achieve this level of precision.

CRTs made for computer display are set to underscan with an adjustable border, usually colored black. Some 1980s home computers such as the Apple IIGS could even change the border color. The border will change size and shape if required to allow for the tolerance of low precision (although later models allow for precise calibration to minimise or eliminate the border). As such, computer CRTs use less physical screen area than TVs, to allow all information to be shown at all times.

Computer CRT monitors usually have a black border (unless they are fine-tuned by a user to minimize it)—these can be seen in the video card timings, which have more lines than are used by the desktop. When a computer CRT is advertised as 17-inch (16-inch viewable), it will have a diagonal inch of the tube covered by the plastic cabinet; this black border will occupy this missing inch (or more) when its geometry calibrations are set to default (LCDs with analog input need to deliberately identify and ignore this part of the signal, from all four sides).

Video game systems have been designed to keep important game action in the title safe area. Older systems did this with borders for example, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System windowboxed the image with a black border, visible on some NTSC television sets and all PAL television sets. Newer systems frame content much as live action does, with the overscan area filled with extraneous details.

Within the wide diversity of home computers that arose during the 1980s and early 1990s, many machines such as the ZX Spectrum or Commodore 64 had borders around their screen, which worked as a frame for the display area. Some other computers such as the Amiga allowed the video signal timing to be changed to produce overscan. In the cases of the C64, Amstrad CPC, and Atari ST it has proved possible to remove apparently fixed borders with special coding tricks. This effect was called overscan or fullscreen within the 16-bit Atari demoscene and allowed the development of a CPU-saving scrolling technique called sync-scrolling a bit later.

Datacasting
Analog TV overscan can also be used for datacasting. The simplest form of this is closed captioning and teletext, both sent in the vertical blanking interval (VBI). Electronic program guides, such as TV Guide On Screen, are also sent in this manner. Microsoft's HOS uses the horizontal overscan instead of the vertical to transmit low-speed program-associated data at 6.4 kbit/s, which is slow enough to be recorded on a VCR without data corruption. In the U.S., National Datacast used PBS network stations for overscan and other datacasting, but they migrated to digital TV due to the digital television transition in 2009.

Overscan amounts
There is no hard technical specification for overscan amounts for the low definition formats. Some say 5%, some say 10%, and the figure can be doubled for title safe, which needs more margin compared to action safe. The overscan amounts are specified for the high definition formats as specified above.

Different video and broadcast television systems require differing amounts of overscan. Most figures serve as recommendations or typical summaries, as the nature of overscan is to overcome a variable limitation in older technologies such as cathode ray tubes.

However the European Broadcasting Union has safe area recommendations regarding Television Production for 16:9 Widescreen.

The official BBC suggestions actually say 3.5% / 5% per side (see p21, p19). The following is a summary:

Microsoft's Xbox game developer guidelines recommend using 85 percent of the screen width and height, or a title safe area of 7.5% per side.

Terminology
Title safe or safe title is an area that is far enough in from the edges to neatly show text without distortion. If you place text beyond the safe area, it might not display on some older CRT TV sets (in worst case).

Action-safe or safe action is the area in which you can expect the customer to see action. However, the transmitted image may extend to the edges of the MPEG frame 720x576. This presents a requirement unique to television, where an image with reasonable quality is expected to exist where some customers won't see it. This is the same concept as used in widescreen cropping.

TV-safe is a generic term for the above two, and could mean either one.

720 vs. 702 or 704
The sampling (digitising) of standard definition video was defined in Rec. 601 in 1982. In this standard, the existing analogue video signals are sampled at 13.5 MHz. Thus the number of active video pixels per line is equal to the sample rate multiplied by the active line duration (the part of each analogue video line that contains active video, that is to say that it does not contain sync pulses, blanking, etc.).

 * For 625-line 50 Hz video (usually, though incorrectly, called "PAL"), the active line duration is 52 μs, giving 702 pixels per line.
 * For 525-line 60 Hz video (usually, and correctly, called "NTSC"), the active line duration is 52.856 μs, giving ≈713.5 pixels per line.

In order to accommodate both formats within the same line length, and to avoid cutting off parts of the active picture if the timing of the analogue video was at or beyond the tolerances set in the relevant standards, a total digital line length of 720 pixels was chosen. Hence the picture will have thin black bars down each side.

704 is the nearest mod(16) value to the actual analogue line lengths, and avoids having black bars down each side. The use of 704 can be further justified as follows:

 * 625-line analogue video contains 575 active video lines (this includes two half lines). When the half lines are rounded up to whole lines for ease of digital representation, this gives 576 lines, which is also the nearest mod(16) value to 575. To maintain the same picture aspect ratio, the number of active pixels could be increased to 703.2, which can be rounded up to 704.
 * 525-line analogue video contains 485 active video lines (this include two half lines, though typically only 483 picture lines are present due to Closed Captions data taking up the first "active picture" line on each field). The nearest mod(16) value is 480. To maintain the same picture aspect ratio, the number of active pixels could be decreased to 706.2, which can be rounded down to 704 for mod(16).

The "standard" pixel aspect ratio data found in video editors, certain ITU standards, MPEG etc. is usually based on an approximation of the above, fudged to allow either 704 or 720 pixels to equate to the full 4x3 or 16x9 picture at the whim of the author.

Although standards-compliant video processing software should never fill all 720 pixels with active picture (only the center 704 pixels must contain the actual image, and the remaining 8 pixels on the sides of the image should constitute vertical black bars), recent digitally generated content (e.g. DVDs of recent movies) often disregards this rule. This makes it difficult to tell whether these pixels represent wider than 4x3 or 16x9 (as they would do if following Rec.601), or represent exactly 4x3 or 16x9 (as they would do if created using one of the fudged 720-referenced pixel aspect ratios).

The difference between 702/704 and 720 pixels/line is referred to as nominal analogue blanking.

625 / 525 or 576 / 480
In broadcasting, analogue system descriptions include the lines not used for the visible picture, whereas the digital systems only "number" and encode signals that contain something to see.

The 625 (PAL) and 525 (NTSC) frame areas therefore contain even more overscan, which can be seen when vertical hold is lost and the picture rolls.

A portion of this interval available in analogue, known as the vertical blanking interval, can be used for older forms of analogue datacasting such as Teletext services (like Ceefax and subtitling in the UK). The equivalent service on digital television does not use this method and instead often uses MHEG.

480 vs 486
The 525-line system originally contained 486 lines of picture, not 480. Digital foundations to most storage and transmission systems since the early 1990s have meant that analogue NTSC has only been expected to have 480 lines of picture – see SDTV, EDTV, and DVD-Video. How this affects the interpretation of "the 4:3 ratio" as equal to 704x480 or 704x486 is unclear, but the VGA standard of 640x480 has had a large impact.

title: Overscan


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Belovo, Bulgaria

Belovo (Белово ) is a town in South West Bulgaria. It is the seat of Belovo Municipality. It is located in Pazardzhik Province, where the Yadenitsa flows into the Maritsa river, at the foot of three mountain ranges (Rila, Rhodopes and Sredna Gora), on the western end of the Thracian Plain.

Belovo town as a municipal center is surrounded by the villages of Akandzhievo, Gabrovitsa, Golyamo Belovo, Dabravite, Menekyovo, Momina Klisura, and Sestrimo.

With the construction of the railway line Istanbul — Belovo by Baron Hirsch's company in 1873, Belovo become the most important center of wood and wood processing in the Balkans during the 18th century. Today the international road and the railway from West Europe through Belgrade and Sofia to Istanbul are passing through the town. The Belovo paper mill produces toilet paper and other disposable paper products.

Twin towns — Sister cities
Belovo is twinned with:

 * Skotoussa, Greece
 * 🇷🇺 Nevinnomyssk, Russia

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

title: Belovo, Bulgaria


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Air Astana

Air Astana (Эйр Астана) is an airline and the flag carrier of Kazakhstan. Based in Almaty, the airline was founded by the Government of Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk Kazyna (51%) and BAE Systems (49%) and commenced operations on 15 May 2002. In February 2024 it became a dual listed company, being listed on the Kazakhstan and London stock exchanges. It is the largest airline in Central Asia and the Caucasus region with 69% and 40% of market share on domestic and intra-regional routes from Kazakhstan.

History
Air Astana was described by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation in January 2012 as having "performed better in its first decade than just about any other start-up carrier". Originally intended to be a purely domestic airline, BAE Systems later agreed in mid-2001 to participate in the proposed startup at the request of Kazakhstan's then head of state, President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Their assistance was requested to facilitate an air radar contract. This was then negotiated with the Government of Kazakhstan.

Richard Evans, BAE Systems' chairman, was considered instrumental to the success of the deal. The radar contract never materialized, however, and subsequent senior management changes and strategic reviews at BAE Systems led to the closure of its offices in Kazakhstan. Additionally, despite the support of Nazarbayev, the start-up, initially seen as a foreign entity, faced immediate and vocal opposition from many elements of Kazakhstan's media and political establishment.

2002–2019
Despite facing opposition and a lack of support, Air Astana launched its operations under the leadership of its first president, Lloyd Paxton, a former executive of British Airways. After a few short-lived pre-operational leaders, the airline leased its first three Boeing 737s from the International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) and started commercial operations on 15 May 2002.

Later in 2003, the airline leased Fokker 50s from Aircraft Finance Trading BV (AFT) and three Boeing 757s from Pegasus Leasing Corp. In its first full year of operations, Air Astana declared a net profit in 2003. When Air Kazakhstan, the previous flag carrier, declared bankruptcy in February 2004, Air Astana expanded its operations from its domestic network to key international routes including Dubai, Istanbul, Moscow, Beijing, Frankfurt, and London.

Early growth pains and disagreements over fleet plans and hub strategy led to tensions between the shareholders and a management change in the autumn of 2005. Peter Foster, a former executive of Cathay Pacific who had led the rehabilitation team at Philippine Airlines in 1999 before a spell as CEO at Royal Brunei Airlines, was appointed as the airline's president on 1 October 2005. Long-term development plans and management structures were established that have remained largely unchanged since then. The airline has been consistently profitable and was listed in the top 20 most profitable airlines in terms of net margin in the world for the years 2010, 2011, and 2012, according to Airline Business and Air Finance Journal, which ranked it 20th in its 2015 survey of global airline financial ratings, with a score of BBB−.

In an article on BAE Systems' offset programmes (10/10/13) the Financial Times stated, "BAE’s 49 percent stake in Kazakhstan’s Air Astana became one of the company’s highest-yielding investments".

Air Astana received its first Airbus A320neo in November 2016. Until 8 December 2016, Air Astana was the only Kazakh airline allowed to fly to the European Union.

Air Astana was the Official Air Carrier of Expo 2017 and the official carrier and general partner of the 2017 Winter Universiade, which took place from 29 January to 8 February 2017 in Almaty. Also in 2017, Air Astana took delivery of its first A321neo and in 2018 the first Embraer E190-E2. The E2 aircraft featured a special Snow leopard livery to draw global attention to the threat of extinction faced by this large wild cat, which is a native to the mountain ranges of southern Kazakhstan. Air Astana also donated to Kazakhstan’s Zoology Association, which is taking urgent action to protect the diminishing numbers of Snow leopards in the country.

In 2018, Air Astana marked its 16th anniversary with the opening of a new Aviation Technical Centre at Astana’s international airport, which enabled Air Astana to undertake all aircraft engineering and servicing requirements up to a heavy maintenance level. Air Astana decided to establish a low-cost brand in 2018.

In 2019, Air Astana took delivery of the first Airbus A321LR aircraft under an operating lease agreement with Air Lease Corporation and became the first operator of the aircraft type in the CIS. Also in 2019, Air Astana became the first airline in Kazakhstan able to independently perform heavy maintenance C1 and C2 checks on Airbus family aircraft at its engineering bases in Almaty and Astana.

2020–present
In 2020, due to entry and exit restrictions imposed by several countries to limit the spread of COVID-19, 95% of Air Astana flights were cancelled between 22 March and 14 April 2020, with only 140 flights operated instead of almost 2,900. Air Astana CEO in its message to passengers assured that all requests for rebooking and refunds will be managed and that "in 18 years Air Astana has never failed to meet its obligations to customers. That commitment is absolute and will not change". Air Astana gradually restored its domestic flights from May 2020 and international flights from June, 2020.

In 2021, Air Astana received the highest level 5-Star COVID-19 Airline Safety Rating by Skytrax; and became the first airline from the CIS and Southeast Asia to successfully pass an APEX audit, with Diamond status being awarded for minimizing and preventing the spread of the COVID-19 virus during flights.

On 28 February and 1 March 2022, Air Astana successfully undertook repatriation flights for Kazakhstan citizens in Ukraine. Flights were operated between Katowice in southern Poland and Almaty/Astana. CEO Peter Foster went to Kyiv on the last international flight into the country on 23 February with Alexander Neboga, a senior colleague, to organize repatriation flights, and returned on the first of those.

On 11 March 2022, Air Astana informed that due to the withdrawal of insurance coverage for commercial flights to, from and over the Russian Federation, all flights to the Russian Federation were suspended with immediate effect.

Air Astana signed an agreement with Air Lease Corporation for the long-term lease of three new wide-body Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. The leased aircraft are scheduled to begin arriving in the first half of 2025.

In 2023, Air Astana commissioned its new Flight Training Centre at Astana International Airport. The new training centre is equipped with the L3 Harris Reality Seven full-flight simulation that delivers the most realistic training environment. The simulator is the first one with Air Astana and the first ever installation in Kazakhstan.

In 2023, Air Astana completed its first six-year C-Check at the carrier’s engineering and technical center in Astana.

In 2023, Air Astana Group achieved a record result for nine months of operation, total revenue and other income amounted to about $900.6 million, which is 20.5% more than a year ago, when the result was $747.2 million.

In February 2024, Air Astana completed its initial public offering and was listed on the London, Astana and Kazakhstan stock exchanges.

Staff
Air Astana employs over 6,000 people, mostly in Kazakhstan, supplemented by local employees at its foreign offices. It employs 460 pilots, of whom 64 are foreign nationals. All of its pilots hold EASA-European licenses. Since 2008 it has operated an ab initio pilot training program for Kazakhstan nationals at flight training schools in the US and EU. As of January 2022, 320 of its operating pilots were graduates of this scheme. In 2012, the company introduced a general management training program at Cranfield University, since transferring to Henley Business School. The airline's cabin crew consists of over 1,100 flight attendants, all of whom are Kazakhstan nationals. Its management is a combination of Kazakhstani and foreign nationals.

FlyArystan
In November 2018, the airline announced plans to launch a low-cost airline, FlyArystan. FlyArystan began operations on 1 May 2019 with a pair of Airbus 320s configured to 180 seats operating a classic low-cost model, on the same Airline Operator Certificate (AOC) as its parent but with separate specialist management. As of January 2022, FlyArystan operated 10 A320s with a further 7 on firm order through to 2023. The high passenger growth of FlyArystan (553% 2021 v 2020) has potentially contributed to Kazakhstan becoming the fastest-growing domestic aviation market in the world in 2021.

Activity in Russia
In September 2002 the airline launched flights between Astana and Moscow with a frequency of 3 times a week and daily flights between Almaty and Moscow performed by Boeing 737-700. In 2014, the number of weekly services on the Astana – Moscow route was increased to 9 flights a week, and Almaty – Moscow flights up to 14. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the airline operated 54 weekly services on 11 routes to Russia: Almaty – Moscow performed by Airbus A321 and Boeing 767, Astana – Moscow, Almaty – St Petersburg performed by Airbus A320 and Astana – Novosibirsk, Astana – Yekaterinburg, Astana – Omsk, Astana – St Petersburg, Almaty – Kazan, and Almaty – Samara performed by Embraer 190.

After a pandemic-driven halt from March to May 2020, the airline resumed services from Almaty and Astana to Moscow's Domodedovo Airport, and between Almaty and St Petersburg, both operated in code-share with its long-term code-share partner S7 Airlines of Russia. In addition, FlyArystan started operating from Karaganda International Airport to Moscow Domodedovo, and from Almaty to Novosibirsk.

On 11 March 2022, the group suspended all flights to, from, and over Russia due to sanctions and restrictions imposed on a number of essential business partners as a consequence of the war in Ukraine.

Activity in the rest of C.I.S.
Air Astana has built on its geographical strength by expanding its network to cover all key cities of the region with short-haul flights. In Central Asia and the Caucasus, the airline flies to Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Baku (Azerbaijan), Tbilisi (Georgia), Kyiv (Ukraine) and Dushanbe (Tajikistan) both from Almaty and Astana. Following the global pandemic, all these routes, which were temporarily suspended from March to May 2020, were resumed, and FlyArystan started operating in Kutaisi (Georgia). However, Kyiv was suspended again in February 2022 due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Activity in China and Korea
Before the pandemic, the airline operated daily flights to Beijing from both Almaty and Astana and flights to Ürümqi in Xinjiang. Since July 2020 passenger charter flights have been resumed to Chengdu International Airport, in addition to regular all-cargo charters to various points in China with a partially-converted Boeing 767. In reflection of increasing passenger demand, the aircraft was re-converted to a passenger configuration in September 2021.

Following the pandemic, flights that had been operated daily to Seoul (Korea) from Almaty and twice a week from Astana have been reduced to a once-weekly flight between Almaty and Seoul because of travel restrictions imposed by the Government of Korea. Flights between Almaty and Hong Kong have been indefinitely suspended.

As of May 2023, all flights to Beijing and Seoul have been restored to their pre-pandemic frequencies.

ICAO and the EU
The airline's international route development was heavily influenced by regulatory factors from 2009 until April 2014. In April 2009, an audit by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), found the Kazakhstan Civil Aviation Committee (CAC) to be non-compliant in key areas of regulatory oversight. This resulted in, except for Air Astana, a blanket ban of all Kazakhstan-registered airlines from flying to, from, or within the European Union by the EU's Air Safety Committee (ASC), until the ban was lifted on 8 December 2016. Air Astana was exempted from the ban "...taking into account oral and written presentations made...." particularly the registration of its aircraft with the Department of Civil Aviation of Aruba, a Netherlands-dependent dependent territory, and its operations safety management programme as presented to the ASC. However, it was included in the ASC's Annex B, restricting its EU operations to the level of frequencies and fleet operated at the time of imposition of the ban in July 2009. The ASC removed the fleet restriction in November 2012 for the Boeing and Airbus fleets based on the airline's fleet renewal programme but retained the restriction on Embraer aircraft. On 10 April 2014, the ASC lifted the frequency restrictions based on the airline's safety performance, including the Safety Audit of Foreign Airlines (SAFA) monitoring programme results, as well as continuing transparent communications. This allowed the airline to start planning for new destinations in Europe and increased its daily service to Frankfurt from Astana, a 6x weekly service to Amsterdam from Atyrau, and a 4x weekly service to London. The airline subsequently commenced service between Astana and Paris in April 2015. The restrictions on the Embraer aircraft, which were the last to be banned from the EU, were removed in December 2015.

During the global pandemic, the airline was able to maintain flights between Atyrau and Amsterdam (its only international route at that time) to transport key oil field workers to and from Western Kazakhstan. Since July 2020 its other EU operations have gradually resumed, and by January 2022 the airlines were operating from Astana to Frankfurt (in code-share with Lufthansa) and London Heathrow, in addition to its Amsterdam and Frankfurt flights from Atyrau and Uralsk.

As of May 2023, all flights to Frankfurt and Amsterdam have been restored to their pre-pandemic frequencies. As of June 2023, flights from Almaty to London, and from Aktau to London, operate 5 times per week, and flights from Almaty to Heraklion operate 4 times per week.

Destinations
Air Astana's 91 routes include 48 international and 43 domestic destinations. The airline covers most large cities in Central Asia and the Caucasus (and formerly Siberia), which is the result of a decision to implement what its managers refer to as an "extended home-market strategy".

Its long-haul growth has been towards south and east Asia, with flights to Delhi, Seoul (operated in code share with Asiana Airlines), Beijing, Bangkok. In addition to its existing Almaty-Seoul services, Air Astana launched a service from Astana to Seoul in June 2015. Air Astana operates from Astana to Frankfurt and to London Heathrow. The European services are connected with Air Astana's extensive domestic services as well as regional services in Central Asia and China.

Lifestyle Destinations
Air Astana was additionally obliged to cease flights from Kazakhstan to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur in March 2020 due to strict COVID-19-driven travel restrictions across Southeast Asia. In October 2020, following the partial withdrawal of travel restrictions for both Kazakhstan citizens and at certain leisure destinations, the airline resumed services to Antalya (Turkey) and Sharm El Sheikh (Egypt) and commenced flying to The Maldives (Male International Airport) and Colombo (Sri Lanka). These flights, referred to as "lifestyle routes" by the airline's management due to an increased average length of stay at destinations by travellers, were added in March 2021.

Codeshare agreements
Air Astana has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:

 * Asiana Airlines
 * Azerbaijan Airlines
 * Bangkok Airways
 * Cathay Pacific
 * KLM
 * Lufthansa
 * Turkish Airlines

Interline agreements
Air Astana has interline agreements with the following airlines:

 * AccesRail
 * Aeroflot
 * Air France
 * Air Malta
 * Air India
 * airBaltic
 * All Nippon Airways
 * Asiana Airlines
 * Austrian Airlines
 * Azerbaijan Airlines
 * Bangkok Airways
 * Belavia
 * British Airways
 * Cathay Pacific
 * Cayman Airways
 * China Southern Airlines
 * Czech Airlines
 * Delta Air Lines
 * EgyptAir
 * El Al
 * Emirates
 * Etihad Airways
 * Garuda Indonesia
 * Georgian Airways
 * Hainan Airlines
 * Hong Kong Airlines
 * Japan Airlines
 * KLM
 * Korean Air
 * Malaysia Airlines
 * MIAT Mongolian Airlines
 * LOT Polish Airlines
 * Lufthansa
 * Philippine Airlines
 * Qatar Airways
 * Qantas
 * Royal Jordanian
 * S7 Airlines
 * Saudia
 * Shandong Airlines
 * Singapore Airlines
 * SriLankan Airlines
 * TAROM
 * Thai Airways International
 * Turkish Airlines
 * Ukraine International Airlines
 * United Airlines
 * Uzbekistan Airways
 * Vietnam Airlines
 * FitsAir

Current fleet
The Air Astana fleet (excluding subsidiary airline FlyArystan) consists of the following aircraft (as of December 2022):

Fleet history
Air Astana formerly also operated the following aircraft types:

Cabins
Air Astana operates a 2 class service, Business and Economy, on all aircraft, and Economy Sleeper on its Airbus 321neo Long Range aircraft. All aircraft except its Embraer E2s are equipped with an individual in-flight entertainment system supplied by RAVE in both cabins.

Frequent-flyer program
The Nomad Club frequent flyer program consists of Diamond, Gold, Silver and Blue membership tiers, and has reciprocal agreements with Lufthansa's Miles & More and Asiana Airlines's Asiana Club programs.

Accidents and incidents

 * On 11 November 2018, Air Astana Flight 1388, an Embraer ERJ-190, suffered severe control problems after takeoff due to faulty installation of control cables following a heavy maintenance check by a third-party maintenance provider in Portugal. After more than 90 minutes, the aircraft, with three flight-deck crew and three maintenance personnel on board, was able to land at Beja Airbase, however, the aircraft had already suffered severe structural stress and was written off. Air Astana pilots were recognized for preventing a crash during a flight on an Embraer 190 aircraft on 11 November 2018 and were received the Hugh Gordon-Burge Memorial Award for Outstanding Courage or Devotion to Duty in the Air at the Guildhall in London.

title: Air Astana


text: User talk:204.38.177.3

title: User talk:204.38.177.3


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Xiao Qiang

Xiao Qiang (, born November 19, 1961) is the Director and Research Scientist of the Counter-Power Lab, an interdisciplinary faculty-student research group focusing on digital rights and internet freedom, based in the School of Information, University of California, Berkeley and is funded by the US Department of State. He also serves as the director of the China Internet Project at Berkeley. Xiao is an adjunct professor at the School of Information and the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the founder and editor-in-chief of China Digital Times, a bilingual news website.

Xiao teaches classes Digital Activism, Internet Freedom and Blogging in China at both the School of Information and the Graduate School of Journalism, University of California at Berkeley. In fall 2003, Xiao launched China Digital Times to explore how to apply cutting edge technologies to aggregate, contextualize and translate online information from and about China. His current research focuses on state censorship, propaganda and disinformation, as well as mass surveillance in China.

Biography
A theoretical physicist by training, he studied at the University of Science and Technology of China and entered the PhD program (1986–1989) in Astrophysics at the University of Notre Dame. He became a full-time human rights activist after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. Xiao was the executive director of the New York-based organization Human Rights in China from 1991 to 2002 and vice chairman of the steering committee of the World Movement for Democracy.

Recognition
Xiao is a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship in 2001, and is profiled in the book "Soul Purpose: 40 People Who Are Changing the World for the Better" (Melcher Media, 2003). He was also a visiting fellow of the Santa Fe Institute in Spring, 2002.

In January 2015, Xiao has been named to Foreign Policy magazine's Pacific Power Index, a list of "50 people shaping the future of the U.S.-China relationship." He was named on the list "for taking on China's Great Firewall of censorship."

title: Xiao Qiang


text:
Boston Public Garden

The Public Garden, also known as Boston Public Garden, is a large park in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts, adjacent to Boston Common. It is a part of the Emerald Necklace system of parks and is bounded by Charles Street and Boston Common to the east, Beacon Street and Beacon Hill to the north, Arlington Street and Back Bay to the west, and Boylston Street to the south. The Public Garden was the first public botanical garden in America.

History
Boston's Back Bay, including the land the garden sits on, was mudflats until filling began in the early 1800s. The land of the Public Garden was the earliest filled, as the area that is now Charles Street had been used as a ropewalk since 1796. The town of Boston granted ropemakers use of the land on July 30, 1794, after a fire had destroyed the ropewalks in a more populated area of the city. As a condition of its use, the ropewalk's proprietors were required to build a seawall and fill in the land which is now Charles Street and the land immediately bordering it (now a part of the Public Garden).

Much of the landfill material came from Mount Vernon, formerly a hill in the Beacon Hill area of Boston. Initially, gravel and soil were brought from the hill to the landfill area by handcart. By 1804, a gravity railroad had been constructed to rapidly bring material from the top of the hill to the marsh; today, Mount Vernon no longer exists, having been completely removed to be used as landfill for the Back Bay.

In February 1824, the city of Boston purchased back the land granted to the ropemakers, for a cost of $50,000. The next year, a proposal to turn the land into a graveyard was defeated by a vote of 1632 to 176. The Public Garden was established in 1837, when philanthropist Horace Gray petitioned for the use of land as the first public botanical garden in the United States. By 1839, a corporation was formed, called Horace Gray and Associates, and made the "Proprietors of the Botanic Garden in Boston." The corporation was chartered with creating what is now the Boston Public Garden. Nonetheless, there was constant pressure for the land to be sold to private interests for the construction of new housing. The year that Boston's Public Garden opened, Mr. John Fottler Sr., dubbed "the Father of Our Parks", delivered the first load of plants ever set at the gardens, from the Hon. Marshall P. Wilder of Dorchester.

While most of the land of the present-day garden had been filled in by the mid-1800s, the area of the Back Bay remained an undeveloped tidal basin. In 1842, the state legislature created The Commissioners on Boston Harbor and the Back Bay, in order to determine how to best develop the land; the state wanted to control the lands and to build an upper-class neighborhood in the area beyond the Public Garden. The City of Boston petitioned the state to grant control over the basin (which was controlled by the then-independent city of Roxbury), in hopes of generating significant revenue from any developments that would be built after filling it in. When the state commission rejected Boston's petition, the Boston City Council threatened to sell the garden to housing developers, which would have significantly reduced the desirability of the area for the upper-class elite that the state was hoping to attract.

The conflict between the City of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was finally resolved when the Tripartite Indenture of 1856 was agreed to by both parties and passed a general vote of citizens 6,287 to 99. In the agreement, Boston gave up its rights to build upon the Public Garden; in return, it received a strip of land which is now a part of the garden, abutting Arlington Street.

In October 1859, Alderman Crane submitted the detailed plan for the Garden to the Committee on the Common and Public Squares and received approval. Construction began quickly on the property, with the pond being finished that year and the wrought iron fence surrounding the perimeter erected in 1862. Today the north side of the pond has a small island, but it originally was a peninsula, connected to the land. The site became so popular with lovers that John Galvin, the city forester, decided to sever the connection with the land.

The 24 acre landscape was designed by George F. Meacham. The paths and flower beds were laid out by the city engineer, James Slade, and the forester, John Galvin. The plan for the garden included a number of fountains and statues, many of which were erected in the late 1860s. The most notable statue is perhaps that of George Washington, done in 1869 by Thomas Ball, which dominates the western entrance to the park facing Commonwealth Avenue. The signature suspension bridge over the middle of the pond was erected in 1867.

Gas lamps were originally used to light the garden at night, but in 1883, construction of electric lamps was begun. There was initially concern over the use of electric lamps, as it would require wires to be run through the garden, and some members of government feared that it would harm the aesthetics of the place. But as electric lighting replaced gas lighting, and vandalism of the garden – such as the theft and destruction of its flowers – was a growing concern, electric lighting was eventually installed throughout.

In the early 20th century, baby alligators were kept in a basin near the Commonwealth Avenue entrance; they were fed live rats and mice by local residents.

A flagpole stands today on the eastern side of the garden, close to Charles Street and just south of the main entrance there. The original flagpole was struck by lightning and destroyed in 1918, and in 1920 the city appropriated $2,500 for construction of a new one. In 1982, the city granted an additional $25,000 for improvements to the flagpole. A circular granite bench was installed around the pole, with the work being done by the Friends of the Public Garden.

On January 6, 1913, the City Council placed the garden, along with the Boston Common, under the direct management of the Public Grounds Department of the city. That department declared walking upon the grass of the Common or garden to be illegal, and arrests were made for that offense until at least the 1960s. Today, sitting on the grass is permitted except for specific sections of the lawn where a posted sign forbids access.

In 2008 an automated sprinkler system was installed at a cost of $800,000. Heavy foot traffic, a multitude of plant types, the garden's historical and cultural importance, and a variety of microclimates increased the complexity of the automated system.

Originally, the Charles Street side of the Public Garden (along with the adjacent portions of Boston Common) was used as an unofficial dumping ground, due to being the lowest-lying portion of the Garden; this, along with the Garden's originally being a salt marsh, resulted in this edge of the Public Garden being "a moist stew that reeked and that was a mess to walk over, steering people to other parts of the park". Although plans had long been in place to regrade this portion of the Garden, the cost of moving the amount of soil necessary (approximately 9000 cuyd, weighing 14,000 ST) prevented the work from being undertaken. This finally changed in the summer of 1895, when the required quantity of soil was made available as a result of the excavation of the Tremont Street Subway and was used to regrade the Charles Street sides of both the Garden and the Common.

The Public Garden is managed jointly between the Mayor's Office, The Parks Department of the City of Boston, and the non-profit Friends of the Public Garden. It was designated a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission in 1977 and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

Description

Together with the Boston Common, the parks form the northern terminus of the Emerald Necklace, a long string of parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. While the Common is primarily unstructured open space, the Public Garden contains a pond and a large series of formal plantings that are maintained by the city and others and vary from season to season. Mostly flat and varying in elevation by less than five feet, the garden is designed in the style of an English landscape garden. A straight pathway, including a bridge that crosses over its pond, spans the two main entrances of Charles and Arlington streets; but its pathways are otherwise winding and asymmetrical.

The Public Garden is rectangular in shape and is bounded on the south by Boylston Street, on the west by Arlington Street, and on the north by Beacon Street where it faces Beacon Hill. On its east side, Charles Street divides the Public Garden from the Common. The greenway connecting the Public Garden with the rest of the Emerald Necklace is the strip of park that runs west down the center of Commonwealth Avenue towards the Back Bay Fens and the Muddy River.

The pond
During the warmer seasons, the 4 acre pond is the home of a great many ducks, as well as of one or more swans. A popular tourist attraction is the Swan Boats, which began operating in 1877. For a small fee, tourists can sit on a boat ornamented with a white swan at the rear. The boat is then pedaled around the pond by a tour guide sitting within the swan.

The current pair of swans are mute swans named Romeo and Juliet after the Shakespearian couple, however, it was found that both are female.

Being no more than three feet deep at its deepest point, the pond easily freezes during the colder months. In 1879, the Boston City Council passed an order to maintain the pond for skating during the winter; today, there is an official skating rink maintained at Frog Pond on the Common, instead.

The pond represented a significant health concern shortly after it was constructed, as it was fed by a combination of salt water from the Charles River, sewer water, and fresh water from Frog Pond in the Common. As a result, there was often a thick slime present in the pond, and an accompanying stench. Consequently, the caretakers of the garden drain and clean the pond annually.

Plantings
Permanent flower plantings in the garden include numerous varieties of roses, bulbs, and flowering shrubs. The beds flanking the central pathway are replanted on a rotating schedule throughout the year, with different flowers for each season from mid-spring through early autumn. Plantings are supplied from 14 greenhouses the city operates at Franklin Park for the purpose.

The Public Garden is planted with a wide assortment of native and introduced trees; prominent among these are the weeping willows around the shore of the lagoon and the European and American elms that line the garden's pathways, along with horse chestnuts, dawn redwoods, European beeches, ginkgo trees, and one California redwood. Other notable trees include:

 * Beech trees
 * European beech
 * Purple beech
 * Weeping European beech
 * River birch
 * Castor aralia
 * Western catalpa
 * Kwanzan cherry
 * Kentucky coffee tree
 * Tea crab
 * Bald Cypress
 * Elm trees
 * American elm
 * Belgian elm
 * Camperdown elm
 * English elm
 * Rock elm
 * Scotch elm
 * Horsechestnut
 * Japanese larch
 * Linden trees
 * Common linden
 * Littleleaf linden
 * Star magnolia
 * Maidenhair tree
 * Maple trees
 * Norway maple
 * Red maple
 * Silver maple
 * Oak trees
 * Burr oak
 * English oak
 * Pin oak
 * Pagoda trees
 * Pagoda tree
 * Weeping pagoda
 * Redwood trees
 * Dawn redwood
 * Giant redwood
 * Silk tree
 * Silverbell
 * Japanese stewartia
 * Japanese tree lilac
 * Tulip tree
 * Tupelo
 * Yellowwood
 * Weeping willow

Statues and structures
Several statues are located throughout the Public Garden:
 * Located at the Arlington Street gate and facing Commonwealth Avenue is the equestrian statue of George Washington, designed and cast by Thomas Ball. Unveiled on July 3, 1869, the statue itself is 16 feet tall and made of bronze and stands upon a granite pedestal of 16 ft, for a total height of 38 ft. The statue was funded mostly by donations from local citizens and was constructed entirely by Massachusetts artists and artisans.
 * Just north of the Equestrian Statue is Mary E. Moore's "Small Child Fountain".
 * The Ether Monument, located towards the corner of Arlington and Beacon streets in the northwest corner of the garden, commemorates the first use of ether as an anesthetic. Designed by John Quincy Adams Ward and gifted to the city on June 27, 1868, by Thomas Lee, it is the oldest monument in the garden. Standing 30 feet tall and made of granite and red marble, the statue's carved figures tell the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
 * Just north of the Ether Monument is Daniel Chester French and Henry Bacon's memorial fountain to the Boston philanthropist George Robert White entitled "The Angel of the Waters", created in 1924. Constructed of granite and bronze, the fountain was disabled in the 1980s and remained so until 2016 when it was repaired and restored by the Friends of the Public Garden at a cost of $700,000.
 * The first statue in the Garden that was made by a woman was Anna Coleman Ladd's Triton Babies Fountain on the east side of the garden. Though some people think the children are a boy and girl, they are in fact her two daughters. It was acquired by the garden in 1927.
 * Bashka Paeff's "Boy and Bird", in the fountain on the west side of the garden, was made by a Russian immigrant who did the model of it while she was working as a ticket taker at the Park Street Station of the MBTA.
 * Lillian Saarinen's fountain piece, "Bagheera", a dynamic statue of the panther from Kipling's Jungle Book, is nearly hidden by a tree.
 * A set of bronze statues by Nancy Schön, dating from 1987 and based on the main characters from the children's story Make Way for Ducklings, is located between the pond and the Charles and Beacon streets entrance.
 * At the east gate on Charles Street is a bronze statue of Edward Everett Hale by Bela Pratt, presented to the city on May 22, 1913.
 * Along the south walk in the park is a statue erected in 1915 of Wendell Phillips (1811–1884), an orator and abolitionist. Mayor John F. Fitzgerald appropriated funds of $20,000 for the statue, which was designed by Daniel Chester French.
 * Colonel Thomas Cass, commander of the 9th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry which served in the American Civil War is also memorialized on the south walk. The statue was erected in 1899.
 * Next to the statue of Cass is Thomas Ball's statue of Charles Sumner, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts from 1851 to 1874. This statue was constructed in 1878.
 * The walk also has a statue of Tadeusz Kościuszko, a Polish citizen who fought as a colonel in the American Revolution. The statue was erected by artist Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson in 1927.
 * A statue of William Ellery Channing stands at the southwest corner of the garden, facing the Arlington Street Church. Completed in June 1903 by Herbert Adams, it was given to the city by John Foster, a member of that church, and placed in its location at his request.
 * The Boston Public Garden Foot Bridge crossing the lagoon, designed by William G. Preston, opened on June 1, 1867. It was the world's shortest functioning suspension bridge before its conversion to a girder bridge in 1921. Its original suspension system is now merely decorative.
 * A Japanese garden lantern dating from 1587 was gifted to Boston by Bunkio Matsuki and installed at the edge of the pond in 1906. One of the oldest lanterns of its kind in existence, it was originally in the garden of the Momoya palace in Kyoto and is made of cast iron.
 * In July 2004, a memorial was dedicated to the 206 people from Massachusetts who died in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Designed by Victor Walker, it is located just inside the Public Garden, at the corner of Arlington and Newbury streets.
 * At the beginning of the bridge by the steps leading to the Swan Boats is a plaque honoring United States Marine Lt. Michael P. Quinn of Charlestown, who was killed in action in Vietnam on August 29, 1969. The plaque was dedicated by the committee members of the Michael P. Quinn Scholarship Fund on Patriots Day in 1986.

Care and upkeep
The park is maintained by the City of Boston, which in 2005 spent $1.2 million to keep up its three parks. The city's efforts are supplemented by a charitable organization known as the Friends of the Public Garden, also known as the Rose Brigade. The charity helped finance the repair of the Ether Monument in 2006, and hires specialists to help care for the trees and bushes. Volunteers meet regularly to prune and maintain bushes. Financial support also comes from private sources such as the Beacon Hill Garden Club.

title: Boston Public Garden


text:
Talk:Peak of eternal light

Untitled
Any reason Malapert (crater) is not linked from here? Currently it looks like PELs are only on the lunar north pole. 85.164.123.89 17:44, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Why is it that the article says only at the north pole, and the referenced paper is titled The Peaks of Eternal Light on the Lunar South Pole: ...? Is there a variance in which pole is called the north pole? Gene Nygaard 22:00, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Good question. On searching the web on where the PELs are located you see much confusion. I have also seen comments that the lunar north pole is too smooth to have PELs. Would it help clarifying this if we had specific artiles on Lunar North Pole and Lunar Sourth Pole as opposed to North Pole and South Pole which are mostly focussed on terrestrial poles? 85.164.123.46 16:02, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)

More north south confusion
This is weird. While the article claims No similar regions of eternal light exist at the less-mountainous south pole. which seems borrowed from a BBC article Unlike the lunar south pole, which has no mountains of eternal light, the north pole has peaks that are constantly illuminated - at least during the lunar summer the same article also features a link to an article called The Peaks of Eternal Light on the Lunar South Pole: How they were found and what they look like This paper is available on the net in PDF. Moreover Malapert (crater) is on the lunar south pole, the article has a link to PEL but, strangely, does not mention that in the article itself. 85.164.66.66 22:41, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

Eclipses
What about eclipses. The Earth must get in the way from time to time... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.194.59.251 (talk • contribs)

 * Good catch. As far as I can tell, yes, a Lunar eclipse would indeed cut off the sunlight at the Peaks of Eternal Light on the Moon. If any such peaks exist at the poles of Mercury, though, those ones are safe from shadow since Mercury doesn't have any moons of its own. Bryan 00:06, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Nature article: illumination map of the north pole of the Moon, Peary crater
From: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v434/n7035/abs/434842a.html Nature 434, 842 (14 April 2005)
 * Images returned by the spacecraft Clementine have been used to produce a quantitative illumination map of the north pole of the Moon, revealing the percentage of time that points on the surface are illuminated during the lunar day. We have used this map to identify areas that are constantly illuminated during a lunar day in summer and which may therefore be in permanent sunlight. All are located on the northern rim of Peary crater, close to the north pole. Permanently sunlit areas represent prime locations for lunar outpost sites as they have abundant solar energy, are relatively benign thermally (when compared with equatorial regions), and are close to permanently shadowed regions that may contain water ice.

This might be a useful link in resolving the long standing issue regarding lunar north or south pole. --22:39, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Nature article: No evidence for thick deposits of ice at the lunar south pole
From: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v443/n7113/abs/nature05167.html
 * Here we present new 20-m resolution, 13-cm-wavelength radar images that show no evidence for concentrated deposits of water ice in Shackleton crater or elsewhere at the south pole.

Seems then the investigations cover both lunar poles. --22:42, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

What does "a.o." stand for?
In the article it reads in part starting with this version of the article by Michielkruijff on June 18 2007:

 * It is interesting to note that these regions themselves appear rather dark in the imagery due to a.o. the long shadows of local terrain features.

Anyone know what the "a.o." stands for? Please expand this abbreviation in the article. Thanks. WilliamKF (talk) 20:21, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Amongst others? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.238.222.117 (talk) 16:58, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Scientific American
the april 2010 issue of sci am features a Ron Miller graphic of this feature. Does a sci am mention qualify as a "further reading", or a maybe a reference? cant do external link, as its behind a subscription wall. its a small paragraph in the article, no new info, but still possibly important here.Mercurywoodrose (talk) 03:30, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

Good call re sci am article. Not only that, the accompanying article to this picture (the article presents 8 "wonders of the solar system") categorically states that the peaks have "eternal" light, thus contradicting this Wikipedia article. Quote: "Discovered in 1994 on Peary crater near the north pole, the so-called peaks of eternal light are the only known region in the solar system where the sun never sets." (c) SciAm, April 2010 issue, UK edition. Nrubdarb (talk) 10:13, 9 January 2011 (UTC)

 * The authors of the Scientific American article may have believed that, but later data from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows that no points on the moon actually receive perpetual sunlight (c.f. Speyerer and Robinson, "Persistently illuminated regions at the lunar poles: Ideal sites for future exploration",  Icarus 222:1, January 2013, pp. 122-136.) Geoffrey.landis (talk) 20:03, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

South Pole Illumination Map
I'd like to suggest this NASA image for the article: It nicely illustrates the level of illumination at the south pole averaged over a lunar orbit. Regards, RJH (talk) 20:10, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

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Venus
Couldn't Venus too have a peak of eternal light? It has little axial tilt and rotates very slowly. --212.186.15.191 (talk) 09:37, 18 February 2019 (UTC)

title: Talk:Peak of eternal light


text: User talk:62.240.53.76

title: User talk:62.240.53.76


text:
Firemouth cichlid

The firemouth cichlid (Thorichthys meeki) is a species of cichlid fish native to Central America. They occur in rivers of the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, south through Belize and into northern Guatemala.

Their natural habitat is typically shallow, slow-moving, often turbid, water with a pH of 6.5 - 8.0. It has also been reported to live in cave systems. As fish with a tropical distribution, firemouth cichlids live in warm water with a temperature range of 23 –. The common name "firemouth" is derived from the bright orange-red colouration on the underside of the jaw, while the specific epithet meeki honors American ichthyologist Seth Eugene Meek. Males in particular flare out their gills, exposing their red throats, in a threat display designed to ward off male rivals from their territory.

Like most cichlids, brood care is highly developed; this species is an egg-layer. Firemouth cichlids form monogamous pairs and spawn on flattened surfaces of rocks, leaves or submerged wood. Breeding males are primarily responsible for territorial defense, while females are more intensively involved in raising the fry, though both parents lead the fry in search of food. Firemouth cichlids are omnivorous and opportunistic in their feeding strategies. Their ability to protrude their jaw 6% standard length limits their diet to about 6% evasive prey. Sexual dimorphism is present, though limited in this species. Males are generally larger than females (up to 15 cm), with brighter and more red colouration around the throat. They also have more pointed dorsal and anal fins. Firemouths are suitable for community aquaria, though they may become extremely aggressive to other members of its species and other community fish during spawning.

title: Firemouth cichlid


text: User talk:63.203.181.19

title: User talk:63.203.181.19


text:
Belitsa

Belitsa (Белица ) is a town in southwestern Bulgaria, located in the Belitsa Municipality of the province of Blagoevgrad.

Geography
Belitsa is close to the municipalities of Razlog, Yakoruda, and Bansko. The municipality of Belinitsa is situated in the northeastern part of the Razlog Valley in the Blagoevgrad region, in the dale of the river Mesta, in between the southern slopes of Eastern Rila and the northern slopes of the Beliyshko-Videnishki part of the western Rhodopes.

It contains twelve settlements, eight of which are scattered in the mountainous area of the Rhodopes. The municipal centre, Belitsa, is located in the southern part of the Rila mountains and is connected to the Razlog-Velingrad route (with international E79 and E80) but off to the side by four kilometres. This makes for easy transportation from the town to Sofia (172 kilometres away) and Blagoevgrad (72 kilometres away).

History

The area of Belitsa first fell into the hands of the Roman Empire. The Romans made many settlements larger in the Razlog valley and led Hellenized and Romanized colonists into them.

Belitsa is recorded for the first time in Tatarpazardzhiyska province (kaza) of the Ottoman Empire in 1516, under the name Belitsa, together with Little Belitsa (Малка Белица, Malka Belitsa).

In the 19th century, it was a Christian-Muslim village in the Nevropska kaaza of the Ottoman Empire. In The Ethnography of the Vilayets Adrianopole, Manastir, and Salonica in Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1878 and statistics reflecting the male population from 1873, Belitsa (Bielitsa) is shown as a village with 303 households, 640 Bulgarian Christians, and 250 Pomaks. In agreement with the statistics of Vasil Kanchov, c. 1900, Belitsa (in old Bulgarian orthography Бѣлица) is a mixed Bulgarian-Christian and Bulgarian-Muslim village. 2,700 Bulgarian Christians live in it, as well as 550 Pomaks and 50 Vlachs.

During 1833–1855, under the control of Pope Iliya, the church of Saint George was built. Construction was unusually slow due to opposition from the local Turkish government, which would often destroy what progress the Christians had made. The church was built contrary to the laws of the empire, in a high and visible part of the village, its domes visible from everywhere. As a compromise, Belitsan Christians convinced the local authority to bring a clock face from Vienna, which would be mounted on the highest dome.

In 1903, during the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising, the church was burned down and the clock fell to the ground, stopping at 16:00. Its parts were collected by the Bulgarian Muslims and later handed back to the returning Christians.

During the Russo-Turkish War from 1877 to 1878, under the Samara flag, 19 Belitsan volunteers fought at Svishtov, Rousse, Sheinovo, and Shipka. They returned to their village with many medals and honors and were received with delight by their neighbours. Belitsan volunteers were also involved in the Kresna-Razlog Uprising as well as the training and fighting at Razlog. A large number of the volunteers were sent to prison or forced to leave the village.

In 1891, Georgi Strezov wrote of Belitsa:

Belitsa, a large village 3 hours northeast from Mehomia: located in a corner, which is formed from the Yakorudska river and [the] Belitsa. Below the village, at the tip of the corner, was the place of Old Belitsa. People say that the modern Belitsa was created 250 years ago by the citizens of Old Belitsa, who were forced to run from the citizens of Kardzhali. East of the village, above a slope is the consecrated "St. Elijah", visible everywhere. Above that area, up to 200 tall pine trees, which create a large copse above the church. In the village, two large towers stand out, each 9 stories tall, left from the Janissaries. The church "St. Georgi" is elevated and at the edge of the village; below the church is a small school, built in 1875. There are 3 teachers and around 150 students, girls and boys. The surrounding area is bare; the ground is the best in Razlog. Because of the scarcity of land, many leave the village and go to other areas, most of them going to Vlashko [an area on the border of Romania], where they make boza. There are 500 houses, of which 110 are inhabited by Pomaks.

In 1903, in retaliation for its participation in the Ilinden Uprising, Belitsa was burned to the ground; over 475 people died.

After the beginning of the First Balkan War, 49 people from Belitsa took part in the Macedonian-Adrianople volunteer regiments.

After the Second Balkan War in 1913, Belitsa remained in Bulgarian territory. According to Dimitar Gadzhanov, in 1916, Belitsa was a mixed Bulgarian-Pomak village, the Pomaks numbering around 400.

In 1920, the Rila Planina forest labour production cooperative was formed. In 1935, it had 480 members.

Economy
The economy of Belitsa is based primarily on small workshops in the wood processing and sewing industries. The NSI reports that in the territory of the municipality, there are 150 registered businesses, the largest being related to transportation, repair, and service (totaling 36.6%), followed by manufacturing (24.3%), and hotel and restaurant services (around 18%), primarily in the neighbourhood Semkovo. The lowest percentage is that of businesses involved with village, hunting, and forest economies, at 4.3%.

Arable land is 54.2% of farming territory and comprises a total of 34,203 decares. Its relative share of the total area of the municipality is 11.7%; about four times less than the national average ( 44.8% ). 3.6 acres of farmland are available per capita, while the country average is 6.3 hectares per capita.

Public institutions
The Georgi Todorov community centre has a history spanning over a century. It was created as a workshop in 1885 by returning war volunteers, who brought Russian books from free Bulgaria, with which to enlighten Belitsans. In addition to its workshop activities, the builders used it to develop the revolution against the Ottomans. The local Turkish authorities forbade its use, but books were still being provided by the local citizens.

Notable residents

 * Vladimir Poptomov, American-Soviet-Bulgarian politician
 * George Andreytchine, journalist, trade union organiser, and diplomat
 * İbrahim Ethem Akıncı, Turkish bureaucrat, guerrilla leader of Demirci, and akinji during the 1919–1922 Greco-Turkish War.

Religion
Belitsa's population is mixed, with both Christians and Muslims.

Points of interest

 * The town's historical museum was opened in 1995 and contains an ethnographic exhibit and a shop with local fabrics and crafts.
 * The Bear Sanctuary Belitsa, a rescue centre for former dancing bears, is located just outside the town.

Honour
Belitsa Peninsula on Graham Land in Antarctica is named after Belitsa.

title: Belitsa


text:
Category talk:Marilyns of England

[Untitled]
I don't think the term Marilyn is at all widely known, and if you would like articles in this category to be widely read, I suggest they should be classified by county as well. Philip 17:50, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * You're righ, and that's precisely what I'm now doing! Grinner 10:28, Mar 31, 2005 (UTC)

Pun
Please explain the pun. I don't get it. 87.115.135.225 (talk) 13:08, 16 February 2016 (UTC)

title: Category talk:Marilyns of England


text:
Talk:Murray Cook

Untitled
I know that this is a stub, but is there much else to know? A lot of what is here is already pretty peripheral (his father's and sister's jobs, etc.), even after I took out the startling and informative statement that he wears a red shirt... Mel Etitis ( Μελ Ετητης ) 17:51, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * The red shirt is a central component of Cook's identity in the Wiggles. Reference to it should definitely remain. I expanded the article a little bit too. --Faustus37 19:31, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Privacy
In the interst of maintaining Murray's family privacy, I have removed the names of his wife and children from this article. I hope this will be respected. Dunks 07:11, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Re-edit
There's plenty out there about Murray, as you can see from the complete overhaul I've done of this page. Some interesting stuff, even. So I added it to the body of the article. I also deleted all content that couldn't be backed up, like his family's history of law enforcement careers and the "Band That Must Not Be Named" line. If anyone can find sources to that stuff, go ahead and put it back.

I also fixed and/or added links and sources as appropriate. Someone must have put his kids' name back in; I deleted them, as per privacy policy. I also deleted the "Daniel Cook" link. Why was that there in the first place? The only connections between Daniel and Murray, I suppose, is their red hair, their residence in a British colony, and their last name. Figureskatingfan 22:18, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one article was rated and this bot brought all the other ratings up to at least that level. BetacommandBot 00:09, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

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External links modified
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I have just modified 3 external links on Murray Cook. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20131015061344/http://www.bangshangalang.com/images/MurrayCookguitarMagazineInterview.doc to http://www.bangshangalang.com/images/MurrayCookguitarMagazineInterview.doc
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120320213444/http://www.bangshangalang.com/images/ABriefHistoryofNearlyEverythingBSL.doc to http://www.bangshangalang.com/images/ABriefHistoryofNearlyEverythingBSL.doc
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070629091254/http://www.bangshangalang.com/index.html to http://www.bangshangalang.com/index.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 13:55, 14 December 2017 (UTC)

External links modified (February 2018)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Murray Cook. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070928215438/http://www.preschoolentertainment.com/html/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=435 to http://www.preschoolentertainment.com/html/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=435
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070928025331/http://www.thewiggles.com/us/about/thewiggles/murray to http://www.thewiggles.com/us/about/thewiggles/murray

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 19:10, 8 February 2018 (UTC)

"MC Stretch" listed at Redirects for discussion
A discussion is taking place to address the redirect MC Stretch. The discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2020 October 21 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. power~enwiki ( π, ν ) 05:00, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

title: Talk:Murray Cook