title: Pan (genus)

text: In the 20th century, a new age of scientific research into chimpanzee behaviour began. Before 1960, almost nothing was known about chimpanzee behaviour in their natural habitats. In July of that year, Jane Goodall set out to Tanzania's Gombe forest to live among the chimpanzees, where she primarily studied the members of the Kasakela chimpanzee community. Her discovery that chimpanzees made and used tools was groundbreaking, as humans were previously believed to be the only species to do so. The most progressive early studies on chimpanzees were spearheaded primarily by Wolfgang Köhler and Robert Yerkes, both of whom were renowned psychologists. Both men and their colleagues established laboratory studies of chimpanzees focused specifically on learning about the intellectual abilities of chimpanzees, particularly problem-solving. This typically involved basic, practical tests on laboratory chimpanzees, which required a fairly high intellectual capacity (such as how to solve the problem of acquiring an out-of-reach banana). Notably, Yerkes also made extensive observations of chimpanzees in the wild which added tremendously to the scientific understanding of chimpanzees and their behaviour. Yerkes studied chimpanzees until World War II, while Köhler concluded five years of study and published his famous "Mentality of Apes" in 1925 (which is coincidentally when Yerkes began his analyses), eventually concluding, "chimpanzees manifest intelligent behaviour of the general kind familiar in human beings ... a type of behaviour which counts as specifically human" (1925).


title: Pan (genus)

text: The August 2008 issue of the "American Journal of Primatology" reported results of a year-long study of chimpanzees in Tanzania's Mahale Mountains National Park, which produced evidence of chimpanzees becoming sick from viral infectious diseases they had likely contracted from humans. Molecular, microscopic and epidemiological investigations demonstrated the chimpanzees living at Mahale Mountains National Park have been suffering from a respiratory disease that is likely caused by a variant of a human paramyxovirus.


title: Pan (genus)

text: The US Fish and Wildlife Service finalized a rule on June 12, 2015, creating very strict regulations, practically barring any activity with chimpanzees other than for scientific, preservation-oriented purposes.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: The Eritrean–Ethiopian War, also known as the Badme War, was a major armed conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea that took place from May 1998 to June 2000. The war has its origins in a territorial dispute between the two states. After Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia, relations were initially friendly. However, disagreements about where the newly created international border should be caused relations to deteriorate significantly, eventually leading to full scale war. According to a 2005 ruling by an international commission, Eritrea broke international law and triggered the war by invading Ethiopia. By 2000, Ethiopia held all of the disputed territory and had advanced into Eritrea. The war officially came to an end with the signing of the Algiers Agreement in 12 December 2000; however, the ensuing border conflict would continue on for nearly two decades.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: Eritrea and Ethiopia both spent considerable amount of their revenue and wealth on the armament ahead of the war, and reportedly suffered between 70,000–300,000 deaths combined as a direct consequence thereof, excluding an indeterminate number of refugees. The conflict ultimately led to minor border changes through final binding border delimitation overseen by the Permanent Court of Arbitration.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: After the war ended, the Eritrea–Ethiopia Boundary Commission, a body established by the Algiers Agreement, concluded that Badme, the disputed territory at the heart of the conflict, belongs to Eritrea. On 5 June 2018, the ruling coalition of Ethiopia, headed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, agreed to fully implement the peace treaty signed with Eritrea in 2000, with peace declared by both parties in July 2018, twenty years after the initial confrontation.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: From 1961 until 1991, Eritrea fought a long war of independence against Ethiopia; during this period, the Ethiopian Civil War also began on 12 September 1974, when the Derg staged a coup d'état against Emperor Haile Selassie. Both conflicts lasted until 1991 when the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) – a coalition of rebel groups led by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) – overthrew the Derg government, and installed a transitional government in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. During the civil war, the groups fighting the Derg government had a common enemy, so the TPLF allied itself with the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF).


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: In 1991, as part of the United Nations-facilitated transition of power, it was agreed that the EPLF should set up an autonomous transitional government in Eritrea and organize a referendum. This referendum was held in April 1993, and the vote was overwhelmingly in favour of independence, leading to the establishment of a new state joining the United Nations. Also in 1991, the transitional government of Eritrea and the TPLF-led transitional government of Ethiopia agreed to set up a commission, to look into any problems that arose between the two former wartime allies over the foreseen independence of Eritrea. This commission was not successful, and during the following years relations between the governments of the two sovereign states deteriorated. Eritrea soon began a practice of forcibly expelling Ethiopians from its territory. As early as 1991, about 30,000 wives and children of Ethiopian soldiers stationed in Eritrea were bused by Eritrean forces across the border, and crowded into camps in Adigrat, Adwa and Axum, with the EPLF telling relief officials to expect 150,000 more Ethiopian civilians. Reportedly, many of the deportees were people who were being dismissed from their jobs, some of them longtime residents of Eritrea.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: Determining the border between the two states also became a major source of conflict. In November 1997, a committee was set up to try to resolve it. Before Eritrean independence, the border had been of minor importance, as it was only a demarcation line between federated provinces, and initially, the two governments tacitly agreed that the border should remain as it had been immediately before independence. Upon independence, however, the border became an international frontier, and the two governments could not agree on where, specifically, the border should be demarcated; they looked back to colonial-era treaties between the Italian Empire and Ethiopia as a basis for the precise boundaries between the states. Problems then arose, because they could not agree on the interpretation of those agreements and treaties, and it was not clear, under international law, how binding colonial treaties were on the two states.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: Writing after the war had finished, Jon Abbink postulated that President Isaias Afewerki of Eritrea realised that his influence over the government in Ethiopia was slipping, and "in the absence of a concrete border being marked," calculated that Eritrea could annex Badme. If successful, this acquisition could have been used to enhance his reputation and help maintain Eritrea's privileged economic relationship with Ethiopia. However, because Badme was in Tigray Province – the region from which many of the members of the Ethiopian government originated (including Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian prime minister) – the Ethiopian government came under political pressure from within the EPRDF, as well as from the wider Ethiopian public, to meet force with force.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: After a series of armed incidents in which several Eritrean officials were killed near Badme, on 6 May 1998, a large Eritrean mechanized force entered the Badme region along the border of Eritrea and Ethiopia's northern Tigray Region, resulting in a firefight between the Eritrean soldiers and the Tigrayan militia and security police they encountered. On 13 May 1998, Ethiopia, in what Eritrean radio described as a "total war" policy, mobilized its forces for a full assault against Eritrea. The Claims Commission found that this was, in essence, an affirmation of the existence of a state of war between belligerents, not a declaration of war, and that Ethiopia also notified the United Nations Security Council, as required under Article 51 of the UN Charter.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: The fighting quickly escalated to exchanges of artillery and tank fire, leading to four weeks of intense fighting. Ground troops fought on three fronts. On 5 June 1998, the Eritrean airforce attacked an elementary school in Mekelle that killed 49 of the students and their parents and the neighbors that came to help immediately. Four more people died after reaching hospital. The victims ranged from a three-month-old baby to a 65-year-old man. The Ethiopian Air Force launched air attacks on the airport in Asmara as a retaliation. Eritreans also attacked the airport of Mekele. These raids caused civilian casualties and deaths on both sides of the border. The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1177 condemning the use of force and welcomed statements from both sides to end the air strikes.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: There was then a lull as both sides mobilized huge forces along their common border and dug extensive trenches. Both countries spent several hundred million dollars on new military equipment. This was despite the peace mediation efforts by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and a US/Rwanda peace plan that was in the works. The US/Rwanda proposal was a four-point peace plan that called for withdrawal of both forces to pre-June 1998 positions. Eritrea refused, and instead demanded the demilitarization of all disputed areas along the common border, to be overseen by a neutral monitoring force, and direct talks.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: With Eritrea's refusal to accept the US/Rwanda peace plan, on 22 February 1999, Ethiopia launched a massive military offensive to recapture Badme. Tension had been high since 6 February 1999, when Ethiopia claimed that Eritrea had violated the moratorium on air raids by bombing Adigrat, a claim it later withdrew. Surveying the extensive trenches the Eritreans had constructed, Ethiopian General Samora Yunis observed, "The Eritreans are good at digging trenches and we are good at converting trenches into graves. They, too, know this. We know each other very well".


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: Ethiopia's offensive, codenamed Operation Sunset, began with an air attack on Assab airport by four Ethiopian fighter jets, followed by a massive artillery barrage against Eritrean positions on the Tsorona front, which was meant as a diversion to make the Eritreans prepare for an Ethiopian offensive against eastern or southern Eritrea. The following day, the Ethiopian ground attack began. Three Ethiopian divisions broke through the Eritrean defenses in the Biyukundi area and then advanced toward Dukambiya, 20 kilometers southeast of Barentu, before turning east and hitting an Eritrean division north of Badme in the flank, taking the Eritreans by surprise. The Eritrean division was almost totally destroyed and the Ethiopians continued their advance toward Dukambiya. Realizing that they were about to be cut off, the remaining Eritrean units deployed in the Badme area hastily retreated, abandoning nearly 100 kilometers of fortifications and most of their heavy weapons. Ethiopian helicopter gunships attacked the fleeing Eritreans with rockets.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: After five days of heavy fighting, Ethiopian forces were 10 kilometers (six miles) deep into Eritrean territory. Eritrea accepted the OAU peace plan on 27 February 1999. While both states said that they accepted the OAU peace plan, Ethiopia did not immediately stop its advance, because it demanded that peace talks be contingent on an Eritrean withdrawal from territory occupied since the first outbreak of fighting. The widespread use of trench warfare by both sides resulted in comparisons of the conflict to the trench warfare of World War I. According to some reports, trench warfare led to the loss of "thousands of young lives in human-wave assaults on Eritrea's positions".


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: On 16 May, the BBC reported that, after a lull of two weeks, the Ethiopians had attacked at Velessa on the Tsorona front-line, south of Eritrea's capital Asmara and that after two days of heavy fighting, the Eritreans had beaten back the attack, claiming to have destroyed more than 45 Ethiopian tanks; although not able to verify the claim, which the Ethiopian Government dismissed as ridiculous, a BBC reporter did see more than 300 dead Ethiopians and more than 20 destroyed Ethiopian tanks. In June 1999, the fighting continued with both sides in entrenched positions.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: Proximity talks broke down in early May 2000, with Ethiopia accusing Eritrea of imposing "unacceptable conditions." On 12 May, Ethiopia launched a massive combined arms offensive on multiple fronts involving four armored divisions and 22 infantry divisions, extensive artillery and close air support. The Ethiopians used pack animals such as donkeys for logistical support for their infantry, and, due to their cumbersome logistical chain, primarily relied on infantry assaults to capture Eritrean positions. They held their tanks in reserve, then brought them forward to secure positions captured by the infantry. Ethiopian forces initially struggled to exploit the gaps they had torn in the Eritrean positions, often at great cost in frontal assaults against Eritrean trenches. Ethiopian broke through the Eritrean lines between Shambuko and Mendefera, crossed the Mareb River, and cut the road between Barentu and Mendefera, the main supply line for Eritrean troops on the western front of the fighting.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: Ethiopian sources stated that on 16 May, Ethiopian aircraft attacked targets between Areza and Maidema, and between Barentu and Omhajer, and that all aircraft returned to base, while heavy ground fighting continued in the Da'se and Barentu area and in Maidema. The next day, Ethiopian ground forces (with air support) captured Da'se. Barentu was taken in a surprise Ethiopian pincer movement on the Western front. The Ethiopians attacked a mined but lightly defended mountain, resulting in the capture of Barentu and an Eritrean retreat. Fighting also continued in Maidema. Also on 17 May, due to the continuing hostilities, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1298 imposing an arms embargo on both countries.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: By 23 May, Ethiopia claimed that its "troops had seized vital command posts in the heavily defended Zalambessa area, about south of the Eritrean capital, Asmara". But the Eritreans claimed they withdrew from the disputed border town of Zalambessa and other disputed areas on the central front as a goodwill' gesture to revive peace talks" and claimed it was a 'tactical retreat' to take away one of Ethiopia's last remaining excuses for continuing the war; a report from Chatham House observes, "the scale of Eritrean defeat was apparent when Eritrea unexpectedly accepted the OAU peace framework." Having recaptured most of the contested territories – and having learned that the Eritrean government would withdraw from any other territories it occupied at the start of the conflict, in accordance with a request from the OAU – Ethiopia declared the war was over on 25 May 2000.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: On 18 June 2000, the parties agreed to a comprehensive peace agreement and binding arbitration of their disputes under the Algiers Agreement. On 31 July 2000, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1312 and a 25-kilometer-wide Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) was established within Eritrea, patrolled by the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) from over 60 countries. On 12 December 2000 a peace agreement was signed by the two governments.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: Eritrea officially claimed that 19,000 Eritrean soldiers were killed during the conflict; Ethiopia claimed to have lost between 34,000–60,000. Meanwhile, Voice of the Democratic Path of Ethiopian Unity, a clandestine political opposition group, alleged that 123,000 Ethiopians were killed, while other reports place the number of Eritrean deaths at around 150,000. Most international reports put the total war casualties from both sides as being around 70,000, but some analysts within the region suggested that the overall death toll may have been as high as 300,000. All these figures have been contested, and other news reports simply state that "tens of thousands" or "as many as 100,000" were killed in the war.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: Eritrea accused Ethiopia of using "human waves" to defeat Eritrean trenches. But according to a report by "The Independent", there were no "human waves" because Ethiopian troops instead outmanoeuvred and overpowered the Eritrean trenches.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: The fighting led to massive internal displacement in both countries as civilians fled the war zone – by the end of May 2000, Ethiopia occupied about a quarter of Eritrea's territory, displacing 650,000 people, and destroying key components of Eritrea's infrastructure.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: The Eritrean government forcibly expelled an estimated 70,000 Ethiopians according to the report by Human rights Watch. Ethiopia expelled 77,000 Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin it deemed a security risk, thus compounding Eritrea's refugee problem. The majority of those were considered well off by the Ethiopian standard of living. They were deported after their belongings had been confiscated. Ethiopians living in Eritrea were interned, and thousands of others were deported. After the retaliatory bombings of Asmara Airport by Ethiopia on 5 and 6 June 1998, many Ethiopians working in Eritrean towns were sacked, apparently as a reprisal, and subsequently lost their rented housing through losing their means of income or, in some cases, by being evicted for being Ethiopian. Many Ethiopians were forced to sleep on the streets outside the Ethiopian embassy in Asmara, in church compounds or elsewhere according to a report by Amnesty International. In July 1998, Ethiopia alleged that up to 60 Ethiopians had died in Assab after being locked in a shipping container by the Eritrean police in daytime temperatures of over 40C. According to Human Rights Watch, detainees on both sides were subject in some cases to torture, rape, or other degrading treatment. This was believed to be a continuation of the 1991–93 expulsions of 125,000 Ethiopians from Eritrean territory.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: The economies of both countries were already weak as a result of decades of cold-war politics, colonialism, civil war and drought. The war exacerbated these problems, resulting in food shortages. Prior to the war, much of Eritrea's trade was with Ethiopia, and much of Ethiopia's foreign trade relied on Eritrean roads and ports. According to former Eritrean official Fathi Osman, Eritrea attempted to alleviate its money problems by issuing war bonds to the Eritrean diaspora, as they lacked other means to fund their military operations.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: The fighting also spread to Somalia as both governments tried to outflank one another. The Eritrean government began supporting the Oromo Liberation Front, a rebel group seeking independence of Oromia from Ethiopia that was based in a part of Somalia controlled by Mohamed Farrah Aidid. Ethiopia retaliated by supporting groups in southern Somalia who were opposed to Aidid, and by renewing relations with the Islamic regime in Sudan—which is accused of supporting the Eritrean Islamic Salvation, a Sudan-based group that had launched attacks in the Eritrea–Sudan border region—while also lending support to various Eritrean rebel groups including a group known as the Eritrean Islamic Jihad.


title: Eritrean–Ethiopian War

text: On 13 April 2002, the Eritrea–Ethiopia Boundary Commission that was established under the Algiers Agreement in collaboration with Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague agreed upon a "final and binding" verdict. The ruling awarded some territory to each side, but Badme (the flash point of the conflict) was awarded to Eritrea. Martin Pratt writes:


title: Davy Klaassen

text: Davy Klaassen (born 21 February 1993) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Eredivisie club Ajax and the Netherlands national team.


title: Davy Klaassen

text: Klaassen began his football career in the youth ranks of local amateur side HVV de Zebra's, where he played until 2003, when he transferred to HSV Wasmeer. A year later he was recruited into the famed Ajax Youth Academy. While playing for the Ajax A1 youth squad in 2011–12, Klaassen helped his side to win the Nike Eredivisie league title, as well as finishing as runners-up to Inter Milan in the NextGen Series (the Champions League equivalent for under-19 teams) after losing on penalties (5–3) following a 1–1 deadlock after extra time.


title: Davy Klaassen

text: Klaassen made his debut for the first team in the UEFA Champions League group stage away draw (0–0) against Olympique Lyonnais on 22 November 2011 replacing Lorenzo Ebecilio in the 85th minute. While still competing in the A-Juniors Nike Eredivisie league competing for the Ajax A1 under-19 squad, he made his Eredivisie debut on 27 November as a substitute against NEC and scored only 42 seconds after having been subbed on. He made his debut in the starting XI of the Ajax first team on 11 December 2011, due to starting center midfielder Theo Janssen catching the flu. Klaassen played the entire match which ended in a 0–1 away win for Ajax against RKC Waalwijk.


title: Davy Klaassen

text: On 5 August 2013, Klaassen made his debut in the Dutch Eerste Divisie in the 2–0 win against Telstar while playing for the newly promoted reserves team Jong Ajax, in what would be the first match in the 2nd tier of professional football ever for the reserves. He scored his first goal for Jong Ajax on 20 September 2013 in the 1–2 away victory against FC Eindhoven. On 6 October 2013, while playing for the Ajax first team, he scored his team's second goal in the 59th minute in the 3–0 home win against FC Utrecht. On 7 December 2013, Klaassen scored his first hat-trick while playing for the first team, in a 4–0 victory at home over NAC Breda, taking home the match ball and earning himself the Man of the Match award. Following the departure of Ajax captain Siem de Jong, Klaassen switched to the vacant number 10 shirt for the upcoming season.


title: Davy Klaassen

text: On 15 June 2017, Klaassen signed for Premier League side Everton on a five-year deal worth £23.6 million. He was handed the number 20 jersey at his new club for the 2017–18 season. He made his first official appearance for Everton in a 1–0 win over MFK Ružomberok in the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round first leg. Klaassen made his league debut for Everton on 12 August 2017, when his club beat Stoke City 1–0 at Goodison Park.


title: Davy Klaassen

text: Klaassen endured a difficult season with the club, falling out of favor with both Sam Allardyce and Marco Silva after Ronald Koeman was fired in October 2017. Between late September 2017 and early March 2018, he failed to make a Premier League appearance. At the end of the January transfer window, Klaassen neared a loan move to Napoli, although the move would never materialize. Allardyce claimed the deal collapsed as a result of an image rights dispute between Klaassen and the Italian club, although Klaassen would later reject this statement. Ahead of his summer move to Werder Bremen, Klaassen expressed his desire to prove his worth for the following season. Klaassen stated that he struggled to adapt to the different style of play in the Premier League, hence his struggles with the club.


title: Davy Klaassen

text: On 27 July 2018, Klaassen joined Werder Bremen on a four-year deal while the transfer fee paid to Everton was reported as €13.5 million (£12 million).


title: Davy Klaassen

text: On 5 October 2020, Klaassen rejoined Ajax on a contract until 30 June 2024, with a transfer fee which could rise to €14 million.


title: Davy Klaassen

text: Klaassen made his debut for the Dutch national team at youth levels, debuting for the Netherlands U-16 team on 28 October 2008 in the 10th edition of the Tournoi Val de Marne '08 in the 3–0 victory over Italy U-16, while scoring the second goal for the Netherlands in his first international encounter. Klaassen scored in his second appearance for the Netherlands U-16 in the same tournament as well in 0–1 win over France U-16. In total Klaassen made 5 appearances for the Netherlands U-16 while scoring 4 goals. Scoring two more goals in friendly encounters against Ukraine U-16 and Ireland U-16 as well. On 22 September 2009, Klaassen made his first appearance for the Netherlands U17 team in a friendly encounter against France U17 which ended in a 1–0 loss for the Dutch. On 3 March 2010, he scored his first goal for the under-17 side in his 8th appearance, a friendly match against Greece U17. He also played a major role in the Netherlands qualifying campaign ahead of the 2010 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship as well as playing in the 2009 edition of La Manga Cup. On 2 September 2010, Klaassen made his debut for the Netherlands U19 team in a friendly match against Germany U19 which ended in a 2–2 draw. In his 7th appearance for the under-19 side he scored both his first and second goal on 10 November 2011 in a qualification match ahead of the 2012 UEFA European Under-19 Championship against Moldova U19 with the Netherlands failing to qualify for the final tournament in Estonia.


title: Davy Klaassen

text: Due to injuries sustained by Ruben Ligeon, Yassin Ayoub and Jürgen Locadia for the Netherlands U21 selection, Klaassen received his first call-up for Jong Oranje the under-21 selection of the Netherlands as a replacement along with Thomas Bruns and Timo Letschert for the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualification match against Georgia U21, as well as the friendly match against Austria U21 four days later. He made his debut for the under-21 side on 10 October 2013 in that qualification match helping the Dutch to defeat Georgia 6–0 in which he replaced Luc Castaignos in the 81st minute of the match.


title: Davy Klaassen

text: On 5 March 2014, Klaassen made his debut for the Netherlands first team under head coach Louis van Gaal at the Stade de France in Paris, in a friendly match against France ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. He was substituted on in the 72nd minute for Wesley Sneijder, as the Netherlands lost the match 2–0 to the French. While making his debut for the Netherlands, Klaassen became the 100th Ajax player in the history of the club to make his debut for the Dutch national team while playing his club football at Ajax.


title: Davy Klaassen

text: On 31 March 2015, Klaassen scored his first international goal and the team's second goal in a 2–0 win over Spain in a friendly match.


title: Davy Klaassen

text: Klaassen's nickname is "cheese straw" (Dutch: kaasstengel) due to his physical appearance. Another nickname is "Mister 1-0" due to him often scoring the first goal of a match. On the signing of the former Ajax captain, then Everton manager Ronald Koeman was quoted saying Klaassen was a leader on the pitch. Koeman further described Klaassen's playing style as hardworking, liked to press and would provide creativity and goals.


title: Henri Rousseau

text: Henri Julien Félix Rousseau (; 21 May 1844 – 2 September 1910) was a French post-impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier (the customs officer), a humorous description of his occupation as a toll and tax collector. He started painting seriously in his early forties; by age 49, he retired from his job to work on his art full-time.


title: Henri Rousseau

text: Ridiculed during his lifetime by critics, he came to be recognized as a self-taught genius whose works are of high artistic quality. Rousseau's work exerted an extensive influence on several generations of avant-garde artists.


title: Henri Rousseau

text: Rousseau was born in Laval, Mayenne, France, in 1844 into the family of a tinsmith; he was forced to work there as a small boy. He attended Laval High School as a day student, and then as a boarder after his father became a debtor and his parents had to leave the town upon the seizure of their house. Though mediocre in some of his high school subjects, Rousseau won prizes for drawing and music.


title: Henri Rousseau

text: After high school, he worked for a lawyer and studied law, but "attempted a small perjury and sought refuge in the army." He served four years, starting in 1863. With his father's death, Rousseau moved to Paris in 1868 to support his widowed mother as a government employee.


title: Henri Rousseau

text: In 1868, he married Clémence Boitard, his landlord's 15-year-old daughter, with whom he had six children (only one survived). In 1871, he was appointed as a collector of the octroi of Paris, collecting taxes on goods entering Paris. His wife died in 1888 and he married Josephine Noury in 1898.


title: Henri Rousseau

text: From 1886, he exhibited regularly in the Salon des Indépendants, and, although his work was not placed prominently, it drew an increasing following over the years. "Tiger in a Tropical Storm (Surprised!)" was exhibited in 1891, and Rousseau received his first serious review when the young artist Félix Vallotton wrote: "His tiger surprising its prey ought not to be missed; it's the alpha and omega of painting." Yet it was more than a decade before Rousseau returned to depicting his vision of jungles.


title: Henri Rousseau

text: In 1893, Rousseau moved to a studio in Montparnasse where he lived and worked until his death in 1910. In 1897, he produced one of his most famous paintings, "La Bohémienne endormie" ("The Sleeping Gypsy").


title: Henri Rousseau

text: In 1905, Rousseau's large jungle scene "The Hungry Lion Throws Itself on the Antelope" was exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants near works by younger leading avant-garde artists such as Henri Matisse, in what is now seen as the first showing of The Fauves. Rousseau's painting may even have influenced the naming of the Fauves.


title: Henri Rousseau

text: In 1907, he was commissioned by artist Robert Delaunay's mother, Berthe, Comtesse de Delaunay, to paint "The Snake Charmer".


title: Henri Rousseau

text: When Pablo Picasso happened upon a painting by Rousseau being sold on the street as a canvas to be painted over, the younger artist instantly recognised Rousseau's genius and went to meet him. In 1908, Picasso held a half serious, half burlesque banquet in his studio at Le Bateau-Lavoir in Rousseau's honour. "Le Banquet Rousseau", "one of the most notable social events of the twentieth century," wrote American poet and literary critic John Malcolm Brinnin, "was neither an orgiastic occasion nor even an opulent one. Its subsequent fame grew from the fact that it was a colorful happening within a revolutionary art movement at a point of that movement's earliest success, and from the fact that it was attended by individuals whose separate influences radiated like spokes of creative light across the art world for generations."


title: Henri Rousseau

text: Guests at the "banquet Rousseau" included: Guillaume Apollinaire, Jean Metzinger, Juan Gris, Max Jacob, Marie Laurencin, André Salmon, Maurice Raynal, Daniel-Henri Kahnweiler, Leo Stein, and Gertrude Stein.


title: Henri Rousseau

text: Maurice Raynal, in "Les Soirées de Paris", 15 January 1914, p. 69, wrote about "Le Banquet Rousseau". Years later the French writer André Salmon recalled the setting of the illustrious banquet:


title: Henri Rousseau

text: After Rousseau's retirement in 1893, he supplemented his small pension with part-time jobs and work such as playing a violin in the streets. He also worked briefly at "Le petit Journal", where he produced a number of its covers. Rousseau exhibited his final painting, "The Dream", in March 1910, at the Salon des Independants.


title: Henri Rousseau

text: In the same month Rousseau suffered a phlegmon in his leg, one which he ignored. In August, when he was admitted to the Necker Hospital in Paris where his son had died, he was found to have gangrene in his leg. After an operation, he died from a blood clot on 2 September 1910.


title: Henri Rousseau

text: At his funeral, seven friends stood at his grave: the painters Paul Signac and Manuel Ortiz de Zárate; the artist couple Robert Delaunay and Sonia Terk; the sculptor Constantin Brâncuși; Rousseau's landlord Armand Queval, and Guillaume Apollinaire, who wrote the epitaph Brâncuși put on the tombstone:


title: Henri Rousseau

text: Rousseau claimed he had "no teacher other than nature", although he admitted he had received "some advice" from two established Academic painters, Félix Auguste Clément and Jean-Léon Gérôme. Essentially, he was self-taught and is considered to be a naïve or primitive painter.


title: Henri Rousseau

text: His best-known paintings depict jungle scenes, even though he never left France or saw a jungle. Stories spread by admirers that his army service included the French expeditionary force to Mexico are unfounded. His inspiration came from illustrations in children's books and the botanical gardens in Paris, as well as tableaux of taxidermy wild animals. During his term of service, he had also met soldiers who had survived the French expedition to Mexico, and he listened to their stories of the subtropical country they had encountered. To the critic Arsène Alexandre, he described his frequent visits to the Jardin des Plantes: "When I go into the glass houses and I see the strange plants of exotic lands, it seems to me that I enter into a dream."


title: Henri Rousseau

text: Along with his exotic scenes there was a concurrent output of smaller topographical images of the city and its suburbs.


title: Henri Rousseau

text: He claimed to have invented a new genre of "portrait landscape", which he achieved by starting a painting with a specific view, such as a favourite part of the city, and then depicting a person in the foreground.


title: Henri Rousseau

text: Rousseau's flat, seemingly childish style was disparaged by many critics; people often were shocked by his work or ridiculed it. His ingenuousness was extreme, and he always aspired, in vain, to conventional acceptance. Many observers commented that he painted like a child, but the work shows sophistication with his particular technique.


title: Henri Rousseau

text: Rousseau's work exerted an extensive influence on several generations of avant-garde artists, including Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Fernand Léger Jean Metzinger, Max Beckmann, and the Surrealists. According to Roberta Smith, an art critic writing in "The New York Times", "Beckmann’s amazing self-portraits, for example, descend from the brusque, concentrated forms of Rousseau’s portrait of the writer Pierre Loti."


title: Henri Rousseau

text: In 1911, a retrospective exhibition of Rousseau's works was shown at the Salon des Indépendants. His paintings were also shown at the first Blaue Reiter exhibition.


title: Henri Rousseau

text: Critics have noted the influence of Rousseau on Wallace Stevens's poetry. See, for instance, Stevens's "Floral Decorations for Bananas" in the collection "Harmonium".


title: Henri Rousseau

text: The American poet Sylvia Plath was a great admirer of Rousseau, referencing his art, as well as drawing inspiration from his works in her poetry. The poem, "Yadwigha, on a Red Couch, Among Lilies" (1958), is based upon his painting, "The Dream", whilst the poem "Snakecharmer" (1957) is based upon his painting "The Snake Charmer".


title: Henri Rousseau

text: Underground comic artist Bill Griffith drew a four-page biographical sketch of Rousseau, "A Couch in the Sun", which was included in issue #2 of the "Arcade" anthology.


title: Henri Rousseau

text: The visual style of Michel Ocelot's 1998 animation film, "Kirikou and the Sorceress", is partly inspired by Rousseau, particularly the depiction of the jungle vegetation.


title: Henri Rousseau

text: Rousseau's 1908 painting "Fight Between a Tiger and a Buffalo" was used as the inspiration for a series of 2021 advertisements concerning the rebrand of Facebook into the metaverse company Meta.


title: Henri Rousseau

text: Two major museum exhibitions of his work were held in 1984–85 (in Paris, at the Grand Palais; and in New York, at the Museum of Modern Art) and in 2001 (Tübingen, Germany). "These efforts countered the persona of the humble, oblivious naïf by detailing his assured single-mindedness and tracked the extensive influence his work exerted on several generations of vanguard artists," critic Roberta Smith wrote in a review of a later exhibition.


title: Henri Rousseau

text: A major exhibition of his work, "Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris", was shown at the Tate Modern from November 2005 for four months, organised by the Tate and the Musée d'Orsay, where the show also appeared. The exhibition, encompassing 49 of his paintings, was on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington from 16 July to 15 October 2006.


title: Federal Reserve Bank

text: A Federal Reserve Bank is a regional bank of the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States. There are twelve in total, one for each of the twelve Federal Reserve Districts that were created by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. The banks are jointly responsible for implementing the monetary policy set forth by the Federal Open Market Committee, and are divided as follows:


title: Federal Reserve Bank

text: Some banks also possess branches, with the whole system being headquartered at the Eccles Building in Washington, D.C.


title: Federal Reserve Bank

text: The Federal Reserve Banks are the most recent institutions that the United States government has created to provide functions of a central bank. Prior institutions have included the First (1791–1811) and Second (1818–1824) Banks of the United States, the Independent Treasury (1846–1920) and the National Banking System (1863–1935). Several policy questions have arisen with these institutions, including the degree of influence by private interests, the balancing of regional economic concerns, the prevention of financial panics, and the type of reserves used to back currency.


title: Federal Reserve Bank

text: A financial crisis known as the Panic of 1907 threatened several New York banks with failure, an outcome avoided through loans arranged by banker J. P. Morgan. Morgan succeeded in restoring confidence to the New York banking community, but the panic revealed weaknesses in the U.S. financial system, such that a private banker could dictate the terms of a bank's survival. In other parts of the country, clearing houses briefly issued their own money notes to carry on business. In response, Congress formed the National Monetary Commission to investigate options for providing currency and credit in future panics. Based on the Commission's findings and other proposals, Congress established the Federal Reserve System in which several Federal Reserve Banks would provide liquidity to banks in different regions of the country. The Federal Reserve Banks opened for business in November 1914.


title: Federal Reserve Bank

text: The Reserve Banks are organized as self-financing corporations and empowered by Congress to distribute currency and regulate its value under policies set by the Federal Open Market Committee and the Board of Governors. Their corporate structure reflects the concurrent interests of the government and the member banks, but neither of these interests amounts to outright ownership.


title: Federal Reserve Bank

text: Legal cases involving the Federal Reserve Banks have concluded that they are "private", but can be held or deemed as "governmental" depending on the particular law at issue. In "United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation v. Western Union Telegraph Co.", the U.S. Supreme Court stated, "Instrumentalities like the national banks or the federal reserve banks, in which there are private interests, are not departments of the government. They are private corporations in which the government has an interest." The United States has an interest in the Federal Reserve Banks as tax-exempt federally created instrumentalities whose profits belong to the federal government, but this interest is not proprietary. In "Lewis v. United States", the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit stated that: "The Reserve Banks are not federal instrumentalities for purposes of the FTCA [the Federal Tort Claims Act], but are independent, privately owned and locally controlled corporations." The opinion went on to say, however, that: "The Reserve Banks have properly been held to be federal instrumentalities for some purposes," such as anti-bribery law. Another relevant decision is "Scott v. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City", in which the distinction is made between Federal Reserve Banks, which are federally created instrumentalities, and the Board of Governors, which is a federal agency.


title: Federal Reserve Bank

text: The original Federal Reserve Act provided starting capital for the Reserve Banks by requiring the participating banks to purchase stock in a Reserve Bank in proportion to their assets. This stock pays a dividend out of the Reserve Bank's earnings but otherwise is quite different from common stock in a private corporation. It may not be traded, transferred or borrowed against, and it grants no ownership of the Reserve Bank's surplus. A bank's stock ownership does not give it proportional voting power to choose the Reserve Bank's directors; instead, each member bank receives three ranked votes for six of the Reserve Bank's nine directors, who are subject to qualifications defined in the Federal Reserve Act. If a Reserve Bank were ever dissolved or liquidated, the Act states that members would be eligible to redeem their stock up to its purchase value, while any remaining surplus would belong to the federal government.


title: Federal Reserve Bank

text: Regarding the structural relationship between the twelve Federal Reserve banks and the commercial (member) banks, political science professor Michael D. Reagan explains that,


title: Federal Reserve Bank

text: Historically the Reserve Banks compensated member banks for keeping reserves on deposit (and therefore unavailable for lending) by paying them a dividend from earnings, limited by law to 6 percent. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA) of 2008 additionally authorized the Reserve Banks to pay interest on member bank reserves, while the FAST Act of 2015 imposed an additional dividend limit equal to the yield determined in the most recent 10-year Treasury Note auction.


title: Federal Reserve Bank

text: Although all Reserve Banks have the legal authority to conduct open-market operations, in practice only the Reserve Bank of New York does so. It manages the System Open Market Account (SOMA), a portfolio of government-issued or government-guaranteed securities that is shared among all of the Reserve Banks.


title: Federal Reserve Bank

text: The Federal Reserve Banks fund their own operations, primarily by distributing the earnings from the System Open Market Account. Expenses and dividends paid are typically a small fraction of a Federal Reserve Bank's revenue each year. The banks may retain part of their earnings in their own surplus funds that are limited to $7.5 billion, system-wide. The rest must be transferred via the Board of Governors to the Secretary of the Treasury, who then deposits it to the Treasury's general fund.


title: Federal Reserve Bank

text: The Reserve Banks were historically capitalized through deposits of gold, and in 1933 all privately held monetary gold was transferred to them under Executive Order 6102. This gold was in turn transferred to the Treasury under the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 in exchange for gold certificates that may not be redeemed under current law. The Reserve Banks continue to report these certificates as assets, but they do not represent direct gold ownership and the Board of Governors has stated that "the Federal Reserve does not own gold."


title: Federal Reserve Bank

text: Although the Reserve Banks operate as distinct financial entities, they participate each April in an interdistrict settlement process that has three purposes: settling the payment balances that the Reserve Banks owe each other; allocating ownership of the SOMA portfolio; and establishing uniform gold certificate backing for Federal Reserve Notes. This process connects the Reserve Banks' different functions — monetary policy, payment clearing and currency issue — as an integrated system.


title: Federal Reserve Bank

text: The Federal Reserve Banks conduct ongoing internal audits of their operations to ensure that their accounts are accurate and comply with the Federal Reserve System's accounting principles. The banks are also subject to two types of external auditing. Since 1978 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has conducted regular audits of the banks' operations. The GAO audits are reported to the public, but they may not review a bank's monetary policy decisions or disclose them to the public. Since 1999 each bank has also been required to submit to an annual audit by an external accounting firm, which produces a confidential report to the bank and a summary statement for the bank's annual report. Some members of Congress continue to advocate a more public and intrusive GAO audit of the Federal Reserve System, but Federal Reserve representatives support the existing restrictions to prevent political influence over long-range economic decisions.


title: Federal Reserve Bank

text: The New York Federal Reserve district is the largest by asset value. San Francisco, followed by Kansas City and Minneapolis, represent the largest geographical districts. Missouri is the only state to have two Federal Reserve Banks (Kansas City and St. Louis). California, Florida, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas are the only states which have two or more Federal Reserve Bank branches seated within their states, with Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee having branches of two different districts within the same state. In the 12th District, the Seattle Branch serves Alaska, and the San Francisco Bank serves Hawaii. New York, Richmond, and San Francisco are the only banks that oversee non-U.S. state territories. The System serves these territories as follows: the New York Bank serves the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; the Richmond Bank serves the District of Columbia; the San Francisco Bank serves American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The Board of Governors last revised the branch boundaries of the System in February 1996.


title: Ross County F.C.

text: Ross County Football Club is a professional football club based in Dingwall, Scotland. They play all of their home matches at Victoria Park in Dingwall. The club currently play in the Scottish Premiership, being promoted after winning the Scottish Championship in the 2018–19 season. Prior to the 1994–95 season they played in the Highland Football League, a competition they won three times. They have also won the Scottish First Division, Scottish Championship, Second Division, Third Division (once each) and the Challenge Cup on three occasions. In 2010, they reached the Scottish Cup Final, and in 2016 they won the Scottish League Cup. Nicknamed "The Staggies", County's colours are dark blue, red and white.


title: Ross County F.C.

text: The club was formed in 1929 in what was then Ross and Cromarty after the previous local club from the North of Scotland Junior League Dingwall Victoria United (the 'Dingwall Vics') successfully applied for Highland Football League membership. The club was subsequently renamed Ross County. Playing in the Highland League from 1929, they won the championship on three occasions, first in 1967, then in 1991 and 1992. They also gained a reputation for their good performances in the early rounds of the Scottish Cup, upsetting league teams on eight occasions. The most notable of these upsets came on 8 January 1994, when they won 4–0 at Forfar Athletic, and were elected to the Scottish Football League three days later.


title: Ross County F.C.

text: At the beginning of season 1994–95 the Scottish Football League was restructured into four tiers, and, following a vote on 11 January 1994, County were allocated one of the two vacancies in the new 10-club Division Three. County gathered 57 votes. They were joined by a new club created as a result of a merger of two teams to form Inverness Caledonian Thistle, who amassed 68 votes.


title: Ross County F.C.

text: In 1998–99, Ross County were crowned Champions of the Third Division and thereby won promotion to the Second Division, where they finished in third place. This resulted in promotion to the First Division thanks to a reorganisation of the League, with the Premier League being expanded from ten clubs to twelve. After seven seasons in the First Division Ross County were relegated back to the Second Division in 2006–07. They won the Second Division in 2007–08, and were promoted back to the First Division. Ross County finished their first season back in the First Division in 8th place.


title: Ross County F.C.

text: Their manager for a very short spell until October 2005, was former Inverness and Hearts manager John Robertson. He left the club on 24 October 2005, due to differences of opinion on a number of fundamental issues with the chairman. Gardner Spiers, a former Aberdeen coach, was appointed caretaker manager, but he too left in April 2006 after being told he would not be considered for appointment on a permanent basis. Director of Football George Adams took temporary charge before former Motherwell player Scott Leitch was appointed on 18 April 2006. Ross County won their first ever nationwide trophy when they won the Scottish Challenge Cup in November 2006 on penalties with Jason Crooks scoring the deciding spot kick on his competitive debut. Leitch, after winning the Challenge Cup but suffering relegation, stood down at the end of the 2006–07 season, almost exactly one year after his appointment. Former Partick Thistle manager Dick Campbell was announced as his replacement in May 2007. However, after a good run of results to start their Division 2 campaign, Campbell and the Ross County board decided to part company on 2 October 2007. Derek Adams (son of George Adams) took over as caretaker, and was confirmed as permanent manager a month later after the side's good form continued. County again reached the final of the Scottish Challenge Cup in 2008. They played Airdrie United at McDiarmid Park. Unlike two years previously, County lost in a penalty shootout where four penalties were missed. Ross County also reached the Challenge Cup final in April 2011 in which they beat Queen of the South 2–0.


title: Ross County F.C.

text: In November 2010 Derek Adams left to become Colin Calderwood's assistant at Hibernian. Former Celtic player Willie McStay was appointed as his replacement in November 2010. McStay's tenure was short – lasting only 9 games. Jimmy Calderwood was then appointed until the end of the 2010–11 season. In May 2011, it was announced that Derek Adams was to return as manager.


title: Ross County F.C.

text: On 23 March 2010, they defeated Scottish Premier League club Hibernian 2–1 in a Scottish Cup quarter-final replay at home at Victoria Park. In the semi-final, they played Celtic on Saturday 10 April 2010. In one of the biggest upsets in cup history, Ross County won 2–0 at Hampden Park and reached the final of the Scottish Cup for the first time in their history. More than 7,000 Ross County fans travelled to Glasgow to watch the game.


title: Ross County F.C.

text: In the 2010 Scottish Cup Final on 15 May 2010, County lost 0–3 to Dundee United at Hampden Park. The match was watched by more than 17,000 Ross County fans.


title: Ross County F.C.

text: Ross County secured promotion to the Scottish Premier League for the first time on 10 April 2012 when their nearest rival to the title Dundee failed to beat Queen of the South. During this push to promotion, Ross County embarked on a 40-game undefeated run in league football, which continued into the Scottish Premier League. The run was ended by St Johnstone on 22 September 2012. The Staggies parted company with George and Derek Adams on 28 August 2014 following a poor start to the 2014–15 campaign. Jim McIntyre was appointed manager on 9 September 2014, with Billy Dodds as his assistant.


title: Ross County F.C.

text: On 13 March 2016, Ross County won their first ever major trophy when they beat Hibernian 2–1 in the final of the 2015–16 Scottish League Cup. The team's fortunes declined after this success, and they were relegated at the end of the 2017–18 season.


title: Ross County F.C.

text: The club secured an immediate return to the Scottish Premiership after a 4–0 win at home to Queen of the South on 26 April 2019 saw them lift the 2018–19 Scottish Championship.


title: Ross County F.C.

text: Their main rivals are fellow Highlanders, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, with whom they contest the Highland derby. This, unlike many rivalries, is generally friendly as both sets of fans live and work together given their close geographic locations. Due to the geographical proximity of the clubs and despite the rivalry, Inverness CT have signed many former Ross County players over the years, including Barry Wilson, Stuart Golabek, Roy McBain, Graham Bayne, Richard Hastings, Steven Hislop, John Rankin, Andrew Barrowman, Lionel Djebi-Zadi and Don Cowie. Many former Inverness CT players have also "crossed the bridge" in the opposite direction, most notably Grant Munro, Michael Fraser, Ross Tokely and Coll Donaldson in recent years. Both Stuart Golabek and Andy Barrowman had two spells at County each, with the former also having two spells at ICT. A notable player is Iain Vigurs, who is one of (if not the first) few player(s) to cross the bridge more than twice, having spent two spells with both County and Caley Thistle.


title: Ross County F.C.

text: The club's nickname is the "Staggies", taken from their badge which is a Caberfeidh, or Stag's Head. This in turn was taken from the regimental badge of the Seaforth Highlanders, the regiment in which many locals had fought and died during the Great War.


title: Ross County F.C.

text: Club anthem "Ross County FC Song" by composer Neil Grant is regularly played at the stadium before matches. The track gained national exposure as part of the BBC's successful football series A View from the Terrace and the hugely popular Off the Ball.


title: Ross County F.C.

text: Ross County's mascot, due to their affiliation with the stag crest of the Seaforth Highlanders, is a stag named Rosco, a play on the club's name.


title: Peter Blunt

text: Major-General Peter John Blunt, (8 August 1923 – 8 August 2003) was a British Army officer and businessman. As a logistics officer in 1959, he was awarded the George Medal for risking his own life to save one of his drivers. He was the father of politician Crispin Blunt and grandfather of actress Emily Blunt.


title: Peter Blunt

text: Born at Farnborough, Hampshire, into an army family, Blunt was the son of Claudia Mabel ("née" Wintle) and Albert Blunt, then a sergeant in the Royal Tank Corps. In 1929, his family moved to Kanpur, where he was educated. He left India in 1937 at the age of 14 to enroll as an apprentice tradesman in the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) school on the island of Jersey.


title: Peter Blunt

text: In 1940, after the fall of France, and with the German occupation of the Channel Islands imminent, the school was evacuated and Blunt found himself in an RASC training battalion in England. Shortly after his 18th birthday, he was sent to the Mediterranean theatre, but first won the lightweight inter-service boxing contest at Letchworth, Hertfordshire. He saw active service in the Italian campaign in 1944, before returning to England for officer training. He was then commissioned into the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Scots Fusiliers in November 1944 as a second lieutenant and commanded a close protection platoon defending Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery's 21st Army Group headquarters. He was present at the signing of the unconditional German surrender at Lüneburg Heath on 4 May 1945.


title: Peter Blunt

text: During the Second World War, Blunt served also in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. After an appointment as adjutant of the British Army garrison in Dieppe, Blunt left the army in 1946 and joined the Allied Control Commission in Germany, then was an inspector at Bletchley Park. He briefly worked as an export manager of the Midland Metal Spinning Company in Wolverhampton but in 1949 returned to the army on a short-service commission in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. As he was unable to advance without a university degree, Blunt transferred back to the Royal Army Service Corps in 1951 on a regular commission. He passed the Staff College, Camberley, in 1957, which opened up his career path as an officer.


title: Peter Blunt

text: In 1959, Blunt saved a driver whose lorry, carrying a load of petrol, crashed near Bielefeld, Germany. While the injured driver was trapped in the cab, Blunt—with disregard for his own safety—climbed into the cab and applied a tourniquet to the driver's badly injured leg and administered morphine. Despite the risk of fire, Blunt stayed with the injured and frightened man for an hour, until he was cut from the vehicle. He was awarded the George Medal for his courage and humanitarian action.


title: Peter Blunt

text: Blunt passed the Joint Services Staff College in 1963, and then in 1965 was sent to command 26 (Heavy Ferry) Bridging Regiment and, by some accounts, to resolve a mutiny. Later that year the unit became 26 Regiment, Royal Corps of Transport. In 1968 he was appointed General Staff Officer 1 for Defence Plans, Far East Land Forces, and from 1970 to 1972 commanded the Royal Corps of Transport 1st Corps, before being seconded to the Royal College of Defence Studies in 1972.


title: Peter Blunt

text: After service as Deputy Transport Officer-in-Chief for the Army, Blunt became Transport Officer-in-Chief in 1973, then was Assistant Chief of Personnel and Logistics (Army) at the Ministry of Defence in 1977–78 and Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Personnel and Logistics), 1978–79, when he retired the service, while continuing in the ceremonial role of Colonel Commandant of the Royal Corps of Transport (1974–1989).


title: Peter Blunt

text: Entering the world of business, Blunt was Managing Director of Earls Court Ltd., 1979–80, Angex-Watson, 1980–83, and Market Sensors, 1980–88. He was Chairman of Angex Ltd., 1988–90, and of Argus Shield Ltd., 1988–89. He was also a director of Associated Newspapers.


title: Peter Blunt

text: Blunt was a special Commissioner of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, from 1979 to 1985, and a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Carmen from 1973. His address at the time of his death was Harefield House, Ramsbury, in Wiltshire.


title: Peter Blunt

text: In 1949, Blunt married Adrienne the daughter of General T. W. Richardson, and they had three sons, including Oliver Blunt QC, and Crispin Blunt, Conservative Member of Parliament for Reigate. His grandchildren include the actress Emily Blunt.


title: David Sullivan (businessman)

text: David Sullivan (born 5 February 1949) is a Welsh businessman and former pornographer. He graduated in Economics from Queen Mary College, University of London. From 1986 to 2007, he owned the "Daily Sport" and "Sunday Sport", which he sold for £40 million.


title: David Sullivan (businessman)

text: He is the joint-chairman and largest single shareholder of Premier League football team West Ham United F.C. He was previously joint-chairman of Birmingham City.


title: David Sullivan (businessman)

text: Born in Cardiff, the son of an RAF serviceman, Sullivan grew up living in a Penarth council house. When Sullivan was 10 years old, his father was posted to Aden, Yemen where they lived for a year before moving to England to live in Hornchurch, Essex. He attended the Abbs Cross school and gained ten O Levels. After his family moved to Hertfordshire he attended Watford Grammar School for Boys obtaining three A levels. He read Economics at Queen Mary College, narrowly missing a first.


title: David Sullivan (businessman)

text: With his business partner, David Gold, Sullivan's first venture was selling softcore pornographic photos. They expanded into sex shops, adult magazines and several low-budget blue movies, making Sullivan a millionaire by the age of 25. By the late 1970s, he was in control of half of the UK adult magazine market, including major titles such as "Playbirds" and "Whitehouse", 80% of the adult mail order market, and 150 shops.


title: David Sullivan (businessman)

text: In the late 1970s, he produced several low-budget British sex movies including "Come Play with Me" (1977) (directed by Harrison Marks). This was followed by "The Playbirds" (1978), "Confessions from the David Galaxy Affair" (1979) and "Queen of the Blues" (1979), all starring his then-girlfriend Mary Millington. After Millington's suicide in August 1979, he continued trading off of her name with "Mary Millington's True Blue Confessions" (1980) and "Emmanuelle in Soho" (1981).


title: David Sullivan (businessman)

text: In 1982, Sullivan was convicted of living off immoral earnings of prostitutes. He successfully appealed and was released after serving 71 days in prison. Sullivan said that he did not feel embarrassed about the initial source of his early fortunes. "I've made a lot of people happy," he said. "If I was an arms manufacturer or a cigarette manufacturer, and my products killed millions of my clients, I'd have a bit of doubt about the whole thing. I was a freedom fighter. I believe in the right of adults to make their own decisions."


title: David Sullivan (businessman)

text: Sullivan operates an investment company, Conegate, which owns property in London including Russell & Bromley's flagship shopbuildings in Oxford Street near to Bond Street tube station.


title: David Sullivan (businessman)

text: In 1993, Sullivan bought into Birmingham City, with David Gold and Ralph Gold. The landmark deal saw the new owners secure an 80% stake of the Midlands outfit.


title: David Sullivan (businessman)

text: In 2007, Sullivan expressed his first desire to sell his share in Birmingham City and openly admitted three reasons for a possible departure. "One, the geographical distance. I've said for years the journey to Birmingham is killing me. Two, I think deep down the public have had enough of us. They think we should have mortgaged our houses to buy more players to compete with Chelsea and Arsenal. The honeymoon is long over and we're at the divorce stage now, unfortunately. And I also feel we've had no support from Birmingham Council."


title: David Sullivan (businessman)

text: After 16 years at the club, Birmingham managing director Karren Brady and chairman David Sullivan agreed to step down from their posts on completion of Carson Yeung's takeover in Autumn 2009. The Birmingham manager at the time, Alex McLeish, praised the Sullivan-Gold duo in the media for providing the club with financial stability, stating he respected them a lot for what they had achieved.


title: David Sullivan (businessman)

text: On Sullivan's departure from Birmingham, he expressed his intentions to remain in football. Less than one year later in January 2010, he and David Gold acquired a 50% share in West Ham United giving them operational and commercial control and valuing the Premier League club at £105 million. Karren Brady, who had also played a significant role in turning around City's fortunes, joined the Hammers as vice-chairman.


title: David Sullivan (businessman)

text: On the day the takeover was confirmed, an emotional Sullivan said: "It's going to take time to sink in. We've been wanting to sit here for 20 years and together we owned 27 per cent of the club 22 years ago and it's taken us 22 years to get to where want to be.


title: David Sullivan (businessman)

text: Both me and David are supporters, I went to university here and I lived in Hornchurch. David lived 50 yards from the ground for 20 years of his life and played for West Ham's youth team. We just want to be here where we've always wanted to be. There is no other club we would want to be at so for us we have come home and that's what it's all about."


title: David Sullivan (businessman)

text: Within five months the Sullivan and Gold duo pledged a further commitment to the club and on 25 May 2010 they increased their stake to 60% (Sullivan with 30%). Vice-chairman Karren Brady later explained the move gave the football club "the much-needed stability."


title: David Sullivan (businessman)

text: In September 2012, Sullivan revealed that together with Gold they were personally funding the club's transfer business.


title: David Sullivan (businessman)

text: As part of his long-term aspirations for the club Sullivan backed West Ham's bid to move into the Olympic Stadium in Stratford. On 22 March 2013, West Ham secured a 99-year lease deal, with the stadium planned to be used as their home ground from the 2016–2017 season. In July 2013, Sullivan became the largest single shareholder of West Ham United acquiring a further 25% of shares in the club. In March 2018, there were protests against Sullivan at the London Stadium during a 3–0 home defeat to Burnley. There were four pitch invasions and Sullivan was escorted from his seat before the end of the match. Sullivan was also hit by a coin thrown by one of the supporters.


title: David Sullivan (businessman)

text: On 26 March 2018, an HMRC tax tribunal ruled that Sullivan had used West Ham United to avoid paying £700,000 tax for his own family business, Conegate Ltd. Sullivan used Conegate to buy £2m of shares in the holding company that owns West Ham. The same day the shares were converted to "deferred shares", deemed practically worthless and sold back for £1 back to the holding company. Conegate thereby used the £2m loss to reduce its tax bill.


title: David Sullivan (businessman)

text: Hornchurch's season in the Isthmian League Premier Division was suspended in November 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and they were unable to play any league football. During this time they were financially supported by Sullivan who once lived in Hornchurch.


title: David Sullivan (businessman)

text: Sullivan lives in Birch Hall, near Theydon Bois, Essex. It was built by Ashby and Horner to Sullivan's design in 1992 and set in around 12 acres (49,000 m2) of land, at a cost of £7.5m for the land and building. This is in addition to a commercial property empire worth an estimated £500m. His girlfriend is Ampika Pickston, star of The Real Housewives of Cheshire. Sullivan has two children, David and Jack with ex-girlfriend Emma Benton-Hughes.


title: David Sullivan (businessman)

text: Sullivan is a philanthropist and has been a patron of Prostate Cancer UK for over 15 years. He is also an active supporter of the Teenage Cancer Trust along with several other charities nationwide. Sullivan celebrated West Ham's promotion to the Premier League in May 2012 by donating a five figure sum to a charity for children with autism. In October 2020, Sullivan donated £25,000 to help combat child food poverty. His donation was given to FareShare who contribute to the Child Food Poverty Taskforce, founded by Marcus Rashford.


title: Mphasis

text: Mphasis Limited is an Indian multinational information technology services and consulting company based in Bengaluru. The company provides infrastructure technology and applications outsourcing services, as well as architecture guidance, application development and integration, and application management services. It serves financial services, telecom, logistics, and technology industries. Mphasis was ranked #7 in India IT companies and overall #189 by Fortune India 500 in 2019. In April 2016, Hewlett Packard Enterprise sold the majority of its stake in Mphasis to Blackstone Group LP for around US$1 billion.


title: Mphasis

text: Mphasis was formed in June 2000 after the merger of the US-based IT consulting company Mphasis Corporation (founded in 1998 in Santa Monica by Jerry Rao and Jeroen Tas.) and the Indian IT services company BFL Software Limited (founded in 1992).


title: Mphasis

text: In June 2006 Electronic Data Systems (EDS) purchased a controlling stake in the company (42%) for $380 million and operated the company as an independent EDS unit.


title: Mphasis

text: On 13 May 2008, Hewlett-Packard confirmed that it had reached a deal with Electronic Data Systems to acquire the company for $13.9 billion. The deal was completed on 26 August 2008.


title: Mphasis

text: In September 2009, Mphasis changed its brand identity by dropping EDS association to become "Mphasis, an HP Company" after HP retired EDS Brand to become "HP Enterprise Services". Mphasis operated as an independent HP subsidiary with its own board and continued to be listed on Indian markets as "Mphasis Limited". HP owned close to 62% in Mphasis and Mphasis got around 50% of its revenues from HP.


title: Mphasis

text: Mphasis marked $1 billion in revenues and registered a consolidated revenue of Rs 50.37 billion ($1,099.3 million) for the year ended 31 October 2010 becoming the sixth Indian IT company to do that.


title: Mphasis

text: In February 2014, Mphasis changed its logo and the brand name as Mphasis Unleash the Next, seeking to boost business other than from parent Hewlett-Packard, its largest client.


title: Mphasis

text: On 30 June 2015, Mphasis announced the signing of a definitive agreement to transfer a significant portion of its domestic business, to Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS). On 10 July 2015, Mphasis announced it will move 2,000 employees to Karvy Data Management Services Ltd (KDMSL) as part of a deal signed to partially sell its domestic outsourcing business to Karvy.


title: Mphasis

text: In 2016, after Hewlett-Packard announced plans to sell its controlling stakes in Mphasis, three companies Tech Mahindra, Apollo Global Management and Blackstone Group entered the race to acquire Mphasis. Tech Mahindra emerged as the frontrunner before it decided to pull out in order to avoid a bidding war with other companies. In April 2016, it was announced that Blackstone had acquired 84 percent of Hewlett-Packard's stake in Mphasis in a deal worth between $1825 million and $2.32 billion.


title: Mphasis

text: On 29 January 2017, Nitin Rakesh joined Mphasis as the chief executive officer and director. On 7 Aug 2018 Mphasis Board announced buyback offer for its shareholders at an approximate premium of 17.4%.


title: Mphasis

text: In April 2021, Blackstone committed up to $2.8 billion to acquire controlling stake in Mphasis. A wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), UC Investments and other long-term investors will be co-investing along with Blackstone.


title: Mphasis

text: Mphasis provides Information Technology (IT) services, including business process outsourcing, infrastructure technology, and application services. The application services offered by the company includes application development, maintenance and support. The markets served by the company are financial services and insurance, healthcare, manufacturing, government, transportation, communications, and consumer and retail industries.


title: Mphasis

text: Mphasis has more than 60 sales and delivery centers in 19 countries with delivery centers in India, China, Australia, North America, UK, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Tunisia, Mauritius, New Zealand, Taiwan, Mexico, Costa Rica,Taiwan and Europe. In India it has presence with operations in Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Noida and Mangalore.


title: Lisa Vicari

text: Lisa Vicari (born 11 February 1997) is a German actress. She is known for portraying Martha Nielsen in the Netflix series "Dark" and the lead role of Isi in the Netflix original film "Isi & Ossi".


title: Lisa Vicari

text: Vicari was born in Munich in 1997, into a family of doctors. She is of Italian descent. At the age of ten, she took an improvisational theatre course and shortly thereafter appeared in her first short film, "Tunnelblicke". In 2010, she acted in the children's film "Hanni & Nanni". The following year, she played Leonie in the post-apocalyptic film "Hell". In 2017, Vicari starred as the title character in the Khaled Kaissar film "Luna", in which she plays a teenager whose father is secretly a Russian agent and whose family is being wiped out before her eyes. From 2017 to 2020, she portrayed Martha Nielsen, the love interest of Jonas and sister of the missing Mikkel in the Netflix science fiction series "Dark". Vicari studies media science in Potsdam.


title: Lisa Vicari

text: In 2020, Vicari played Isi, the daughter of a billionaire, in the romantic comedy "Isi & Ossi", one of the first German Netflix films.


title: The Aftermath (2019 film)

text: The Aftermath is a 2019 drama film directed by James Kent and written by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Rhidian Brook. It stars Keira Knightley, Alexander Skarsgård and Jason Clarke. The film had its world premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival on 26 February 2019. It was released in the United States on 15 March 2019, by Fox Searchlight Pictures. It is the last Fox Searchlight Pictures film to be released before the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney.


title: The Aftermath (2019 film)

text: "The Aftermath" is set in British occupation zone in post-war Germany in 1945. Rachael Morgan arrives in the ruins of Hamburg in the bitter German winter to be reunited with her husband Lewis Morgan, a colonel of British Forces Germany charged with rebuilding the shattered city and dealing with violent insurgent Werwolf activities. The couple, whose relationship is tense due to their son Michael being killed during the Blitz by German bombing, will be staying in the requisitioned house of German architect Stefan Lubert and his teenage daughter Freda Lubert. Lewis decides to let Stefan and Freda stay in the house in the attic, a decision that Rachael is initially unhappy with because of her resentment toward Germans over Michael's death. She is very rude to Stefan. Meanwhile, Freda connects with Bertie, a young German deeply involved in the Werwolf movement.


title: The Aftermath (2019 film)

text: However, Rachael bonds with Stefan over shared grief: Stefan's wife was killed by Allied bombing. Rachael and Stefan begin having an affair. The situation is complicated by British Forces Germany suspecting Stefan of Werwolf involvement, though it is actually Freda's boyfriend Bertie who is involved. Lewis eventually realises Rachael and Stefan are having an affair when he hears of her advocating on Stefan's behalf. When Lewis confronts Rachael, she tells him that she is leaving him to be with Stefan. Bertie tries to assassinate Lewis but instead kills Lewis' chauffeur by mistake. Bertie attempts to escape through the woods but falls through ice to his death. Lewis tells Rachael to leave the next morning. After Lewis admits his grief over Michael to Rachael, she hugs him. She accompanies Stefan and Freda to the railway station but decides to stay with Lewis instead of leaving with Stefan.


title: The Aftermath (2019 film)

text: In August 2016, it was announced Fox Searchlight Pictures acquired the film, with Alexander Skarsgård and Keira Knightley, James Kent directing it from a screenplay by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, while Ridley Scott as a producer under his Scott Free Productions banner. That same month, Jason Clarke joined the cast of the film. In February 2017, Fionn O'Shea joined the cast.


title: The Aftermath (2019 film)

text: The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, reported that of critics have given the film a positive review based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads, "Tasteful to a fault, "The Aftermath" is worth seeking out only for the most passionate period drama enthusiasts." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 43 out of 100 based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."


title: Fujiwara clan

text: The 8th century clan history "Tōshi Kaden" (藤氏家伝) states the following at the biography of the clan's patriarch, Fujiwara no Kamatari (614–669): "Kamatari, the Inner Palace Minister who was also called ‘Chūrō","’ was a man of the Takechi district of Yamato Province. His forebears descended from Ame no Koyane no Mikoto; for generations they had administered the rites for Heaven and Earth, harmonizing the space between men and the gods. Therefore, it was ordered their clan was to be called Ōnakatomi"


title: Fujiwara clan

text: The clan originated when the founder, Nakatomi no Kamatari (614–669) of the Nakatomi clan, was rewarded by Emperor Tenji with the honorific "Fujiwara", which evolved as a surname for Kamatari and his descendants. In time, Fujiwara became known as a clan name.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: The Fujiwara dominated the Japanese politics of Heian period (794–1185) through the monopoly of regent positions, S"esshō" and K"ampaku". The family's primary strategy for central influence was through the marrying of Fujiwara daughters to emperors. Through this, the Fujiwara would gain influence over the next emperor who would, according to family tradition of that time, be raised in the household of his mother's side and owe loyalty to his grandfather. As abdicated emperors took over power by exercising "insei" (, cloistered rule) at the end of the 11th century, then followed by the rise of the warrior class, the Fujiwara gradually lost its control over mainstream politics.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: The Northern Fujiwara (Ōshū Fujiwara) ruled the Tōhoku region (northeast Honshū) of Japan during the 12th century.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: Beyond the 12th century, they continued to monopolize the titles of "Sesshō" and "Kampaku" for much of the time until the system was abolished in the Meiji era. Though their influence declined, the clan remained close advisors to the succeeding Emperors.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: The Fujiwara clan's political influence was initiated during the Asuka period. Nakatomi no Kamatari, a member of the lower-nobility Nakatomi family led a coup against the Soga in 645 and initiated a series of sweeping government reforms that would be known as the Taika Reform. In 668 Emperor Tenji (reigned 668–671), bestowed the "kabane" on Kamatari. The surname passed to the descendants of Fujiwara no Fuhito (659–720), the second son and heir of Kamatari, who was prominent at the court of several emperors and empresses during the early Nara period. He made his daughter Miyako a concubine of Emperor Monmu. Her son, Prince Obito became Emperor Shōmu. Fuhito succeeded in making another of his daughters, Kōmyōshi, the empress consort of Emperor Shōmu. She was the first empress consort of Japan who was not a daughter of the imperial family itself. Fuhito had four sons; and each of them became the progenitor of a cadet branch of the clan:


title: Fujiwara clan

text: Among them, the Hokke came to be considered as the leaders of the entire clan. All four brothers died in 737 during a major smallpox epidemic in Japan.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: During the Heian period of Japanese history, the Hokke managed to establish a hereditary claim to the position of regent, either for an underage emperor ("sesshō") or for an adult one ("kampaku"). Some prominent Fujiwaras occupied these positions more than once, and for more than one emperor. Lesser members of the Fujiwara were court nobles, provincial governors and vice governors, members of the provincial aristocracy, and samurai. The Fujiwara was one of the four great families that dominated Japanese politics during the Heian Period (794–1185), and the most important of them at that time. The others were the Tachibana, the Taira and the Minamoto. The Fujiwara exercised tremendous power, especially during the period of regency governments in 10th and 11th centuries, having many emperors as practically puppet monarchs.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: The Fujiwara dominated the government of Japan 794–1160. There is no clear starting point of their dominance. However, their domination of civil administration was lost by the establishment of the first shogunate (i.e., Kamakura shogunate) under Minamoto no Yoritomo in 1192.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: Fujiwara princes initially served as highest ministers of the imperial Court ("kampaku") and regents ("sesshō") for underage monarchs. The Fujiwara were the proverbial "power behind the throne" for centuries. Apparently they never aspired to supplant the imperial dynasty. Instead, the clan's influence stemmed from its matrimonial alliances with the imperial family. Because consorts of crown princes, younger sons, and emperors were generally Fujiwara women, the male heads of the Fujiwara house were often the father-in-law, brother-in-law, uncle, or maternal grandfather of the emperor. The family reached the peak of its power under Fujiwara no Michinaga (966–1027). He was the grandfather of three emperors, the father of six empresses or imperial consorts, and the grandfather of seven additional imperial consorts; it is no exaggeration to say that it was Michinaga who ruled Japan during this period, not the titular Emperors. As a result of these unusually strong familial links, Michinaga never took the title of Kampaku—he held more than the power that the position would bring, and had no need of the title.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: The Fujiwara clan is featured prominently in "The Pillow Book", by Sei Shōnagon, and the character of Genji is partially based on Michinaga in the eponymous "Tale of Genji".


title: Fujiwara clan

text: The Fujiwara Regency was the main feature of government during most of the Heian era. Kyoto (Heian-kyō) was geopolitically a better seat of government; with good river access to the sea, it could be reached by land routes from the eastern provinces.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: Just before the move to the Heian-kyō, the Emperor had abolished universal conscription in the eighth century and soon local, private militaries came into being. The Fujiwara and the clans of Taira and Minamoto created later during the ninth century were among the most prominent families supported by the new military class.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: In the ninth and tenth centuries, much authority was lost to the great families, who disregarded the Chinese-style land and tax systems imposed by the government in Kyoto. Stability came to Heian Japan, but, even though succession was ensured for the Imperial family through heredity, power again concentrated in the hands of one noble family, the Fujiwara.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: Family administrations now became public institutions. As the most powerful family, the Fujiwara governed Japan and determined the general affairs of state, such as succession to the throne. Family and state affairs were thoroughly intermixed, a pattern followed among other families, monasteries, and even the imperial family.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: As the Soga had taken control of the throne in the sixth century, the Fujiwara by the ninth century had intermarried with the imperial family, and one of their members was the first head of the Emperor's Private Office. While the earliest parts of the Heian period was marked by unusually strong emperors governing themselves (in particular from Emperor Kanmu to Emperor Saga (781–823)), the Fujiwara started to rebuild their influence first under Fujiwara no Fuyutsugu in the first half of the ninth century. Fuyutsugu's son Fujiwara no Yoshifusa was the first person not from the imperial family to become regent for a minor emperor when he gained that position when his grandson was enthroned as Emperor Seiwa in 858. His adopted son, Fujiwara no Mototsune, had himself further appointed "kampaku" (regent for an adult emperor, a newly invented position). After Mototsune's death Emperor Uda (who was not the son of a Fujiwara daughter) managed to regain control of much of government. However, after abdicating in favour of his son, Emperor Daigo (897–930), while apparently intending to control government from retirement, Mototsune's son Fujiwara no Tokihira managed to maneuver himself back to very prominent position until his early death in 909. The remaining period of Daigo's reign was again relatively free from Fujiwara dominance, but from the beginning of the reign of his son Emperor Suzaku, the Fujiwara again re-established their dominance of the court with the leadership of Fujiwara no Tadahira.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: Nevertheless, the Fujiwara were not demoted by Emperor Daigo but in many ways became stronger during his reign. Central control of Japan had continued to decline, and the Fujiwara, along with other great families and religious foundations, acquired ever larger "shōen" and greater wealth during the early tenth century. By the early Heian period, the "shōen" had obtained legal status, and the large religious establishments sought clear titles in perpetuity, waiver of taxes, and immunity from government inspection of the "shōen" they held. Those people who worked the land found it advantageous to transfer title to shōen holders in return for a share of the harvest. People and lands were increasingly beyond central control and taxation, a de facto return to conditions before the Taika Reform.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: Within decades of Emperor Daigo's death, the Fujiwara had absolute control over the court. By the year 1000, Fujiwara no Michinaga was able to enthrone and dethrone emperors at will. Little authority was left for traditional officialdom, and government affairs were handled through the Fujiwara family's private administration. The Fujiwara had become what historian George B. Sansom has called "hereditary dictators".


title: Fujiwara clan

text: The Fujiwara presided over a period of cultural and artistic flowering at the imperial court and among the aristocracy. There was great interest in graceful poetry and vernacular literature. Japanese writing had long depended on Chinese ideograms ("kanji"), but these were now supplemented by "kana", two types of phonetic Japanese script: "katakana", a mnemonic device using parts of Chinese ideograms; and "hiragana", a cursive form of "kanji" writing and an art form in itself. "Hiragana" gave written expression to the spoken word and, with it, to the rise in Japan's famous vernacular literature, much of it written by court women who had not been trained in Chinese as had their male counterparts. Three late tenth century and early eleventh century women presented their views of life and romance at the Heian court in "Kagerō Nikki" ("The Gossamer Years") by "the mother of Michitsuna", "Makura no Sōshi" ("The Pillow Book") by Sei Shōnagon, and "Genji Monogatari" ("Tale of Genji") by Murasaki Shikibu (herself a Fujiwara). Indigenous art also flourished under the Fujiwara after centuries of imitating Chinese forms. Vividly colored "yamato-e" (Japanese style) paintings of court life and stories about temples and shrines became common in the mid and late Heian periods, setting patterns for Japanese art to this day.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: Decline in food production, growth of the population, and competition for resources among the great families all led to the gradual decline of Fujiwara power and gave rise to military disturbances in the mid-tenth and eleventh centuries. Members of the Fujiwara, Taira, and Minamoto families—all of whom had descended from the imperial family—attacked one another, claimed control over vast tracts of conquered land, set up rival regimes, and generally broke the peace of Japan.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: The Fujiwara controlled the throne until the reign of Emperor Go-Sanjō (1068–73), the first emperor not born of a Fujiwara mother since the ninth century. Emperor Go-Sanjō, determined to restore imperial control through strong personal rule, implemented reforms to curb Fujiwara influence. He also established an office to compile and validate estate records with the aim of reasserting central control. Many "shōen" were not properly certified, and large landholders, like the Fujiwara, felt threatened with the loss of their lands. Emperor Go-Sanjō also established the "In no chō", or Office of the Cloistered Emperor, which was held by a succession of emperors who abdicated to devote themselves to behind-the-scenes governance, or "insei" (Cloistered rule).


title: Fujiwara clan

text: The "In no chō" filled the void left by the decline of Fujiwara power. Rather than being banished, the Fujiwara were mostly retained in their old positions of civil dictator and minister of the center while being bypassed in decision making. In time, many of the Fujiwara were replaced, mostly by members of the rising Minamoto family. While the Fujiwara fell into disputes among themselves and formed northern and southern factions, the insei system allowed the paternal line of the imperial family to gain influence over the throne. The period from 1086 to 1156 was the age of supremacy of the "In no chō" and of the rise of the military class throughout the country. Military might rather than civil authority dominated the government.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: A struggle for succession in the mid-twelfth century gave the Fujiwara an opportunity to regain their former power. Fujiwara no Yorinaga sided with the retired emperor in a violent battle in 1158 against the heir apparent, who was supported by the Taira and Minamoto. In the end, the Fujiwara were destroyed, the old system of government supplanted, and the "insei" system left powerless as bushi took control of court affairs, marking a turning point in Japanese history. Within a year, the Taira and Minamoto clashed, and a twenty-year period of Taira ascendancy began. The Taira were seduced by court life and ignored problems in the provinces. Finally, Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147–99) rose from his headquarters at Kamakura (in the Kantō region, southwest of modern Tokyo) to defeat the Taira, and with them the child emperor Emperor Antoku they controlled, in the Genpei War (1180–85).


title: Fujiwara clan

text: After this downfall, the younger branches of the Fujiwara clan turned their focus from politics to the arts, producing literary scholars including Fujiwara no Shunzei and Fujiwara no Teika.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: Only forty years after Michinaga's death, his Fujiwara heirs were not able to prevent the accession of Emperor Go-Sanjō (reigned 1068–73), the first emperor since Emperor Uda whose mother was not a Fujiwara. The system of government by retired emperor ("daijō tennō") (cloistered rule) beginning from 1087 further weakened the Fujiwara's control over the Imperial Court.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: The Fujiwara-dominated Heian period approached its end along disturbances of 12th century. The dynastic struggle known as the Hōgen Disturbance ("Hōgen no Ran") led to the Taira emerging as the most powerful clan in 1156. During the Heiji Disturbance ("Heiji no Ran") in 1160 the Taira defeated the coalition of Fujiwara and Minamoto forces. This defeat marked the end of the Fujiwara's dominance.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: During the 13th century, the Fujiwara Hokke, was split into five regent houses: Konoe, Takatsukasa, Kujō, Nijō and Ichijō.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: They had a "monopoly" to the offices of "sesshō" and "kampaku", and served in turn. The political power had shifted away from the court nobility in Kyoto to the new warrior class in the countryside. However, Fujiwara remained close advisers, regents and ministers to the emperors for centuries; the family retained political reputation and influence even until the 20th century (such as Fumimaro Konoe and Morihiro Hosokawa, who became the Prime Ministers). As such, they had a certain political power and much influence, as often the rival warriors and later bakufu sought their alliance. Oda Nobunaga and his sister Oichi claimed to have descent from the Taira and Fujiwara clans; regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi and shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu were related by marriage to various families from Fujiwara clan. Empress Shōken, wife of Emperor Meiji, was a descendant of the Fujiwara clan.


title: Fujiwara clan

text: Until the marriage of the Crown Prince Hirohito (Emperor Shōwa) to Princess Nagako of Kuni (posthumously Empress Kōjun) in January 1924, the principal consorts of emperors and crown princes had often been recruited from one of the Sekke Fujiwara. Imperial princesses were often married to Fujiwara lords – throughout a millennium at least. As recently as Emperor Shōwa's third daughter, the former Princesss Kazuko and Prince Mikasa's elder daughter, the former Princess Yasuko, married into Takatsukasa and Konoe families, respectively. Likewise a daughter of the last "shōgun" married a second cousin of Emperor Shōwa.


title: Selina Cadell

text: Selina Jane Cadell (born 12 August 1953) is an English actress. She is the younger sister of actor Simon Cadell and granddaughter of actress Jean Cadell. She is the great niece of the Scottish artist Francis Cadell.


title: Selina Cadell

text: Cadell was born in London. She has been appearing on British television, film and theatre over the last thirty years. She has taken on a wide range of supporting and leading roles. In 1985, she appeared in Agatha Christie's "Miss Marple" 'A Pocket Full of Rye' as Mary Dove, also in the TV series "Victoria Wood" in 1989, "Jeeves and Wooster" in 1993, "Pie in the Sky" (S2:E5 "Dead Right") in 1995, and Midsomer Murders 'The Killings at Badger's Drift' in 1997. She played Caroline Sheppard in the 2000 "Agatha Christie's Poirot":"The Murder of Roger Ackroyd". She also appeared as Phyllis Cadel and "The Catherine Tate Show" in 2006 and Eleanor Crouch in "Midsomer Murders" 'Midsomer Life' in 2008. Since then, she has played Dorothy Crowther in "The Amazing Mrs Pritchard"; made regular appearances at Mrs Tishell in "Doc Martin"; and the Dean Mieke Miedema in "Lab Rats". She appeared in Sam Mendes' BAM production of Anton Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard", and played Maria in Mendes' highly acclaimed production of "Twelfth Night" for the Donmar Warehouse (London and New York). She also lent her voice to Jemima Puddle Duck's sister-in-law, Rebecca Puddle Duck, in the British children's animated series "The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends" for the BBC and Fuji Television Network.


title: Selina Cadell

text: In 2015, she directed the Royal Shakespeare Company's first production of "Love for Love" by William Congreve.


title: Selina Cadell

text: In 2009's "Allegory of Love", S3:E1 of "Lewis", she played Professor Bernice "Bernie" Rutherford. She played Pamela Bennett in "Among the Few", a 2011 episode of Foyle's War. In 2012, she briefly appeared in the remake of "Gambit". In 2013, she appeared as Sister Gregory, a Roman Catholic nun, in the "Father Brown" episode "The Bride of Christ". She played the title role as the vanishing lady herself, Miss Froy, the character previously played by May Whitty and Angela Lansbury in the previous two versions, in the 2013 TV film "The Lady Vanishes" from the BBC, directed by Diarmuid Lawrence from an updated screenplay by Fiona Seres. She appeared as Professor Alice Sandwell in New Tricks episode "Buried Treasure" (S4:E6). In 2019, Cadell appeared in the Acorn TV series "Queens of Mystery".


title: Selina Cadell

text: In 2017, Cadell revealed that the American actress Sigourney Weaver has been her good friend for over 40 years. They appeared together onscreen when Weaver guest starred in "Doc Martin".


title: Rack (torture)

text: The rack is a torture device consisting of a rectangular, usually wooden frame, slightly raised from the ground, with a roller at one or both ends. The victim's ankles are fastened to one roller and the wrists are chained to the other. As the interrogation progresses, a handle and ratchet mechanism attached to the top roller are used to very gradually retract the chains, slowly increasing the strain on the prisoner's shoulders, hips, knees, and elbows and causing excruciating pain. By means of pulleys and levers, this roller could be rotated on its own axis, thus straining the ropes until the sufferer's joints were dislocated and eventually separated. Additionally, if muscle fibres are stretched excessively, they lose their ability to contract, rendering them ineffective.


title: Rack (torture)

text: One gruesome aspect of being stretched too far on the rack is the loud popping noises made by snapping cartilage, ligaments or bones. Another method for putting pressure upon prisoners was to force them to watch someone else being subjected to the rack. Confining the prisoner on the rack enabled further tortures to be simultaneously applied, typically including burning the flanks with hot torches or candles or using "pincers made with specially roughened grips to tear out the nails of the fingers and toes" or sliding thin slivers of red-hot coal between pairs of adjacent toes. Usually, the victim's shoulders and hips would be separated and their elbows, knees, wrists, and ankles would be dislocated.