title: Tungusic languages

text: Below are Proto-Tungusic consonants as reconstructed by Tsintsius (1949) and the vowels according to Benzing (1955):


title: Tungusic languages

text: Below are the reconstructed Proto-Tungusic forms for the lexical items in the Leipzig–Jakarta list, extracted from the "Etymological Dictionary of the Altaic Languages" (2003).


title: Tungusic languages

text: Tungusic is today considered a primary language family. Especially in the past, some linguists have linked Tungusic with Turkic and Mongolic languages in the Altaic language family. However, a genetic, as opposed to an areal, link remains unproven. Others have suggested that the Tungusic languages may be related (perhaps as a paraphyletic outgroup) to the Koreanic, Japonic, or Ainu languages as well (see Macro-Tungusic).


title: Tungusic languages

text: In 2017, a link to Turkic and Mongolic languages was again proposed by Martine Robbeets in her "Transeurasian family" (another name for Macro-Altaic). According to Robbeets, Tungusic is closest to Mongolic languages. The evidence for this proposal has been criticized by Tian. et al.


title: Tungusic languages

text: Despite some similarities between the Tungusic and Koreanic languages, Alexander Vovin (2013) considers Tungusic and Koreanic to be separate, unrelated language groups that share areal rather than genetic commonalities through mutual influence of Goguryeo and Jurchen on each other.


title: Tungusic languages

text: The language of the Avars in Europe which created the Avar Khaganate is believed by some scholars to be of Tungusic origin.


title: Turkish Van

text: The Turkish Van (pronounced Von) is a naturally occurring breed of domestic cat that originated in the Lake Van area of modern-day Turkey, part of Armenian Highlands. The Van is classified as a semi-long hair, but it has two lengths of hair, determined by season. In the winter, the hair is thick and long. In the summer, the hair sheds to leave a short light coat. Both coat lengths are typified as being as soft as cashmere, down to the root. There is no evident undercoat on the Van, only one coat. The breed is rare, and is distinguished by the Van pattern (named after the breed), where the color is restricted to the head and the tail, and the rest of the cat is white; this is due to the expression of the piebald white spotting gene, a type of partial leucism. A Turkish Van may have blue or amber eyes, or be odd-eyed (having one eye of each colour). The breed has been claimed to be descended from the landrace of usually all-white Van cats, mostly found near Lake Van. The Western preference for matching eyes in the Van cat is a source of amusement to the people of the Lake Van region.


title: Turkish Van

text: The term "Turkish " is used by some as a name for all-white specimens of the formal Turkish Van breed, although they are not considered show quality and are therefore actively bred against. They are prone to deafness; this is a common defect with many all-white animals.


title: Turkish Van

text: Breed standards allow for one or more body spots as long as there is no more than 20% colour and the cat does not give the appearance of a bicolour. A few random spots are acceptable, but they should not detract from the pattern. The rest of the cat is white. Although red tabby and white is the classic van colour, the color on a Van's head and tail can be one of the following: red, cream, black, blue, red tabby, cream tabby, brown tabby, blue tabby, tortoiseshell, dilute tortoiseshell (also known as blue-cream), brown-patched tabby, blue-patched tabby, and any other colour not showing evidence of crossbreeding with the point-coloured breeds (Siamese, Himalayan, etc.). Not all registries recognize all of these color variations.


title: Turkish Van

text: While a few registries recognize all-white specimens as Turkish Vans, most do not. The US-based Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA, the world's largest registry of pedigreed cats) and Fédération Internationale Féline (FIFe, the largest international cat fancier organisation) recognise only van-patterned specimens, as they define the breed by both its type and pattern. The Germany-based but international World Cat Federation (WCF) considers the all-white specimens a separate breed, which it calls the Turkish , a name that is easily confused with the landrace "" (Van cat).


title: Turkish Van

text: This cat breed has lived in the Lake Van region (and the areas bordering it in the Armenian Highlands) for centuries, hence its name. It's uncertain when the Van made this region their home, but ornaments, drawings, carvings, and jewelry, from at least 5000 years ago, have been found during archaeological digs around the City of Van and its surrounding regions, all bearing the likeness of a semi-longhaired cat with a ring around its tail, much like the Van.


title: Turkish Van

text: The length of time it has spent in the region might also be determined by how well it has adapted to the seasonal climates of the Eastern Turkey area, where Lake Van is located. Remote, mountainous, and rugged, it sits more than 5,600 feet above sea level, with long, frigid winters, and comparatively hot summers.


title: Turkish Van

text: The Van cat has physically adapted by growing its hair in thick and full for the winter, and then shedding its semi-long hair for the summer, appearing as a short-haired cat. Presumably, it adapted this trait so that it could swim to cool off.


title: Turkish Van

text: It is believed the Van came to Europe between 1095 and 1272 A.D. Originally brought by soldiers returning from the Crusades, it was transported throughout the Eastern continents by invaders, traders, and explorers. Over the years, the Van cats have been called by a variety of names, including Eastern Cat, Turkish, Ringtail Cat, and Russian Longhair.


title: Turkish Van

text: In 1955, two British photographers, Laura Lushington and Sonia Halliday, while on assignment in Turkey for the Turkish Ministry of Tourism, were given two unrelated Van cats, which Lushington took home with her and allowed to mate. When the offspring came out identical to their parents—chalk white with dark tail and head markings, she realized that they were pure breed cats, and she set to breeding the Van cat and having it recognized by the British cat fancy organizations. Lushington returned to Turkey to find another pair, with the goal of breeding to the standard "three clear generations."


title: Turkish Van

text: According to Lushington, her original imported cats were: Van Iskenderun Guzelli (female), a cat that came from Hatay Province, Iskenderun, and Stambul Byzantium (male), a cat given by a hotel manager in Istanbul, both in 1955. Two later additions to the gene pool were Antalya Anatolia (female), from the city of Antalya, and Burdur (male), from Burdur city, both in 1959. Lushington did not see Van city before 1963, and only stayed there "for two days and two nights". It is unclear why the name "Turkish Van" was chosen, or why one of the original 1955 kittens was named "Van Iskenderun Guzelli", given their provenance. Of the founding 1955 pair, Lushington wrote, in 1977:


title: Turkish Van

text: It is unclear whether Lushington was intending to imply that the Hatay and Istanbul kittens had originally come from the Lake Van region, or was simply referring to the Turkish Van founding stock as "Van kittens" for short. Neither city is near Van Province.


title: Turkish Van

text: She stayed true to her ideal of perfection in the Van line, breeding only within the stock of authentic Turkish Van's, and refusing to outcross to other breeds, thereby preserving the features the Van breed had carried through hundreds of generations. She gave little thought to the conformation of the Van to the already set standards, insisting that the Van had its own established standard that must be held to.


title: Turkish Van

text: Her labor was finally rewarded in 1969, when the Turkish Van was given full pedigree status by The Governing Council of the Cat Fancy. Called the Turkish cat when first given breed recognition in 1969, the name was changed in 1979 in the UK (1985 in the US) to Turkish Van to better distance the breed from the Turkish Angora cat (originally called Angora) which had its origins around Ankara, in central Turkey.


title: Turkish Van

text: The Van began to be imported into America in the 1970s. Beginning in 1983, two Florida breeders, Barbara and Jack Reark, worked hard to popularize this breed, and in 1985, The International Cat Association granted the Turkish Van championship status. In 1988, the Cat Fanciers Association (CFA) accepted the breed for registration in the miscellaneous class. The CFA later bestowed provisional status to the Van in 1993, and Championship status in 1994. In that first year, four Turkish Vans attained the grand title.


title: Turkish Van

text: It is still possible to import a Turkish Van from its homeland, but imports are rare. The Van cat has long been considered a national treasure, and is relatively rare in population.


title: Turkish Van

text: The Turkish Van is a large, muscular, well-built cat with a moderately long body and tail. It has strong, broad shoulders and a short neck; the jock of the cat world. The body of a Van should neither be stocky, or thin. It should call to mind the body build of an athlete, and indeed, it is one of the largest cats. They take from 3 to 5 years to reach their full maturity and when they do males range in weight from 10 - 20 pounds with females ranging from 7 - 12 pounds.


title: Turkish Van

text: The coat on a Turkish Van is considered semi-long-haired. While many cats have three distinct hair types in their coat – guard hair, awn hair and down hair – the Turkish Van has no evident undercoat, only one coat. This makes their coat feel like cashmere or rabbit fur. The lack of an undercoat gives a sleek appearance. The coat is uncommonly water repellant, which makes bathing these cats a challenge, though the coat dries quickly. The coat begins short at birth and grows in gradually over a period of three to five years, so that the kittens will be shorthair in appearance, with thin tails, but as they mature, the fur on the chest will fill out, and the tail will thicken into a full brush tail. The tail does not shed hair or change according to the season, but remains long and full. The ears remain feathered with fur, so that even with its summer coat, the Van looks soft and fluffy.


title: Turkish Van

text: The Turkish Van is one of the larger cat breeds. Ideal type should feature broad shoulders with a body that is "top-heavy", that is, a cat with its center of gravity forward. The cat is moderately long, and its back legs are slightly longer than its front legs, but neither the cat itself nor its legs are so long as to be disproportionate. They have large paws and rippling hard muscle structure which allows them to be very strong jumpers. Vans can easily hit the top of a refrigerator from a cold start on the floor. They are slow to mature and this process can take 3 years, possibly longer. Vans have been known to reach long from nose to tip of tail.


title: Turkish Van

text: The Van typically has very large ears when it is a kitten, growing into its ears over time. The nose is straight and Asiatic, considered long for a semi-longhair, and with its high cheek bones, and startlingly bright eyes, it gives off quite an exotic appearance.


title: Turkish Van

text: The Standard notes several characteristics, including their high intelligence, energy and playfulness - also making them somewhat mischievous. Muscular and highly driven, they like to climb and perch high up, to study their environment, and they get around their domain with impressive athleticism. They make quite successful hunters as a consequence. Their drive makes them easily trainable with positive reinforcement - to play fetch, do tricks or walk on a leash. Although there may be efforts to move the breed towards greater sociability. a 2021 study in Finland did find that the Turkish Vans in their research showed higher than average tendencies towards fearfulness, aggression towards humans, as well as a lower stress tolerance (notable excessive grooming and litter-box problems), and lower sociability to humans and cats.


title: Turkish Van

text: Curious, Turkish Vans want to be with their owner participating in whatever is happening, and so they may follow you from room to room. While Turkish vans are affectionate to their family members, these are not normally lap cats. They may lie next to their owners and will happily allow themselves to be petted, but this is not a breed that tolerates being picked up and often wants to be "near" their owner, not "on" their owner.


title: Turkish Van

text: Turkish vans do well in a single-pet household and don't seem to suffer much from separation anxiety. When put in a home with other cats, they much prefer being around other Turkish vans. Dogs can be no problem as long as they are introduced properly and patiently.


title: Turkish Van

text: When it comes to families, Turkish vans are happy to play with children, but care must be taken to make sure small ones are reminded that the van does not enjoy being held, and may strike out if forced into such a situation. The native Van cats of Turkey have been nicknamed the "swimming cats", due to an unusual fascination with water. Despite the modern Turkish Van breed consisting almost entirely of pedigreed, indoor-only cats with no access to large bodies of water, and despite dubious connections between them and the cats of the Lake Van area, some feel that the Turkish Van has a notable affinity for water; for example, instead of swimming in a lake, they may stir their water bowls or play with water in the toilet, and some may even follow their owners into water. However, the idea that the breed likes water more than other cats may be mistaken according to some pet writers.


title: Turkish Van

text: As an extremely old, naturally occurring breed, the Turkish van is largely free of genetic issues and breed-specific health defects. Unlike the Turkish Angora, the Turkish van doesn't have issues with deafness. Keeping an eye on common feline issues as they age is a safe bet, and older cats may have to have their diets adjusted to keep them from falling into the trap of obesity.


title: Turkish Van

text: Additionally, due to the Turkish van's larger size, you may want to talk to your vet about delaying any spay or neutering procedure, as an early adjustment to their hormone levels can affect how their bones and muscles grow. “Sometimes these larger breeds are being spayed at four or five months of age because that’s been the veterinary norm,” says Carol Margolis, DVM, DACT, of the Gold Coast Center for Veterinary Care on Long Island, N.Y. “But I’m a reproductive specialist, so I’m a big fan of reproductive hormones. I’ll let my larger breeds of cats go closer to 1 year of age (before spay/neutering) if we can.”


title: Turkish Van

text: The piebald spotting gene (partial leucism) appears in other different species (like the horse and the ball python). It also shows up in the common house cat, and other breeds of cat, since the van pattern is merely an extreme expression of the gene.


title: Turkish Van

text: A Turkish Van may have blue eyes, amber eyes, or be odd-eyed (having one eye of each colour, a condition known as heterochromia iridis). The variability of eye colour is genetically caused by the white spotting factor, which is a characteristic of this breed. The white spotting factor is the variable expression of the piebald gene that varies from the minimal degree (1), as in the blue-eyed cats with white tip on the tail to the maximal degree (8–9) that results in a Van-patterned cat, as in Van cats, when coloured marks occupy at most 20% of the white background, but the white background in the breed covers about 80% of the body. Breeding two cats together with the same level of white spotting will produce cats with a similar degree of spotting.


title: Turkish Van

text: Van-patterned Turkish Vans are not prone to deafness, because their phenotype is associated with the van pattern (S) semi-dominant gene. Solid-white Turkish angoras carry the epistatic (masking) white colour (W) dominant gene associated with white fur, blue eyes and often deafness. All white Van cats may share this gene. All three types of cat may exhibit eye colours that are amber, blue or odd. Deafness is principally associated with cats having two blue eyes.


title: Commuter rail

text: Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are considered heavy rail, using electrified or diesel trains. Distance charges or zone pricing may be used.


title: Commuter rail

text: The term can refer to systems with a wide variety of different features and service frequencies, but is often used in contrast to rapid transit or light rail.


title: Commuter rail

text: Similar non-English terms include "Treno suburbano" in Italian, "Cercanías" in Spanish, Aldiriak in Basque, Rodalia in Catalan/Valencian, Proximidades in Galician, "Proastiakos" in Greek, "Train de banlieue" in French, " Banliyö treni " in Turkish, "Příměstský vlak" or "Esko" in Czech, "Elektrichka" in Russian, "Pociąg podmiejski " in Polish and "Pendeltåg" in Swedish.


title: Commuter rail

text: Some services share similarities with both commuter rail and high-frequency rapid transit, examples being the German S-Bahn in some cities, the Réseau Express Régional (RER) in Paris, the S Lines in Milan, many Japanese commuter systems, the East Rail line in Hong Kong and some Australasian suburban networks, such as Sydney Trains. Some services, like British commuter rail, share tracks with other passenger services and freight.


title: Commuter rail

text: In the United States, commuter rail often refers to services that operate a higher frequency during peak periods and a lower frequency off-peak. Since the creation of Toronto's GO Transit commuter service in 1967, commuter rail services and route length have been expanding in North America. In the US, commuter rail is sometimes referred to as regional rail.


title: Commuter rail

text: Most commuter (or suburban) trains are built to main line rail standards, differing from light rail or rapid transit (metro rail) systems by:


title: Commuter rail

text: Compared to rapid transit (or metro rail), commuter/suburban rail often has lower frequency, following a schedule rather than fixed intervals, and fewer stations spaced further apart. They primarily serve lower density suburban areas (non inner-city), generally only having one or two stops in a city's central business district, and often share right-of-way with intercity or freight trains. Some services operate only during peak hours and others uses fewer departures during off peak hours and weekends. Average speeds are high, often 50 km/h (30 mph) or higher. These higher speeds better serve the longer distances involved. Some services include express services which skip some stations in order to run faster and separate longer distance riders from short-distance ones.


title: Commuter rail

text: The general range of commuter trains' travel distance varies between 15 and 200 km (10 and 125 miles), but longer distances can be covered when the trains run between two or several cities (e.g. S-Bahn in the Ruhr area of Germany). Distances between stations may vary, but are usually much longer than those of urban rail systems. In city centers the train either has a terminal station or passes through the city centre with notably fewer station stops than those of urban rail systems. Toilets are often available on-board trains and in stations.


title: Commuter rail

text: Their ability to coexist with freight or intercity services in the same right-of-way can drastically reduce system construction costs. However, frequently they are built with dedicated tracks within that right-of-way to prevent delays, especially where service densities have converged in the inner parts of the network.


title: Commuter rail

text: Most such trains run on the local standard gauge track. Some systems may run on a narrower or broader gauge. Examples of narrow gauge systems are found in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Switzerland, in the Brisbane (Queensland Rail's City network) and Perth (Transperth) systems in Australia, in some systems in Sweden, and on the in Italy. Some countries and regions, including Finland, India, Pakistan, Russia, Brazil and Sri Lanka, as well as San Francisco (BART) in the US and Melbourne and Adelaide in Australia, use broad gauge track.


title: Commuter rail

text: Metro rail and rapid transit usually cover smaller inner-urban areas within of city centers, run more frequently, and use dedicated tracks (underground or elevated), whereas commuter rail often shares tracks, technology and the legal framework within mainline railway systems.


title: Commuter rail

text: However, the classification as a metro or rapid rail can be difficult as both may typically cover a metropolitan area exclusively, run on separate tracks in the centre, and often feature purpose-built rolling stock. The fact that the terminology is not standardised across countries (even across English-speaking countries) further complicates matters. This distinction is most easily made when there are two (or more) systems such as New York's subway and the LIRR and Metro-North Railroad, Paris' Métro and RER along with Transilien, Washington D.C.'s Metro along with its MARC and VRE, London's tube lines of the Underground and the Overground, Elizabeth Line, Thameslink along with other commuter rail operators, Madrid's Metro and Cercanías, Barcelona's Metro and Rodalies, and Tokyo's subway and the JR lines along with various privately owned and operated commuter rail systems.


title: Commuter rail

text: Regional rail usually provides rail services between towns and cities, rather than purely linking major population hubs in the way inter-city rail does. Regional rail operates outside major cities. Unlike Inter-city, it stops at most or all stations between cities. It provides a service between smaller communities along the line that are often byproducts of ribbon developments, and also connects with long-distance services at interchange stations located at junctions, terminals, or larger towns along the line. Alternative names are "local train" or "stopping train". Examples include the former BR's Regional Railways, France's TER ("Transport express régional"), Germany's Regionalexpress and Regionalbahn, and South Korea's Tonggeun services.


title: Commuter rail

text: In some European countries, the distinction between commuter trains and long-distance/intercity trains is subtle, due to the relatively short distances involved. For example, so-called "intercity" trains in Belgium and the Netherlands carry many commuters, while their equipment, range, and speeds are similar to those of commuter trains in some larger countries. In the United Kingdom, there is no division of organisation or branding between commuter, regional, and inter-city trains, providing no obvious means for their categorization.


title: Commuter rail

text: Russian commuter trains, on the other hand, frequently cover areas larger than Belgium itself, although these are still short distances by Russian standards. They have a different ticketing system from long-distance trains, and in major cities they often operate from a separate section of the train station.


title: Commuter rail

text: Some consider "inter-city" service to be that which operates as an express service between two main city stations, bypassing intermediate stations. However, this term is used in Australia (Sydney for example) to describe the regional trains operating beyond the boundaries of the suburban services, even though some of these "inter-city" services stop all stations similar to German regional services. In this regard, the German service delineations and naming conventions are clearer and better used for academic purposes.


title: Commuter rail

text: Sometimes high-speed rail can serve daily use of commuters. The Japanese Shinkansen high speed rail system is heavily used by commuters in the Greater Tokyo Area, who commute between by Shinkansen. To meet the demand of commuters, JR sells commuter discount passes. Before 2021, they operated 16-car bilevel E4 Series Shinkansen trains at rush hour, providing a capacity of 1,600 seats. Several lines in China, such as the Beijing–Tianjin Intercity Railway and the Shanghai–Nanjing High-Speed Railway, serve a similar role with many more under construction or planned.


title: Commuter rail

text: In South Korea, some sections of the high-speed rail network are also heavily used by commuters, such as the section between Gwangmyeong Station and Seoul Station on the KTX network (Gyeongbu HSR Line), or the section between Dongtan Station and Suseo station on the SRT Line.


title: Commuter rail

text: The high-speed services linking Zürich, Bern and Basel in Switzerland () have brought the Central Business Districts (CBDs) of these three cities within 1 hour of each other. This has resulted in unexpectedly high demand for new commuter trips between the three cities and a corresponding increase in suburban rail passengers accessing the high-speed services at the main city-centre stations ("Hauptbahnhof"). The Regional-Express commuter service between Munich and Nuremberg in Germany runs at on the Nuremberg–Munich high-speed railway.


title: Commuter rail

text: The regional trains Stockholm–Uppsala, Stockholm–Västerås, Stockholm–Eskilstuna and Gothenburg–Trollhättan in Sweden reach and have many daily commuters.


title: Commuter rail

text: In Great Britain, the HS1 domestic services between London and Ashford runs at a top speed of 225 km/h, and in peak hours the trains can be full with commuters standing.


title: Commuter rail

text: The Athens Suburban Railway in Greece consists of five lines, 4 of which are electrified. The Kiato–Piraeus line and the Aigio–Airport lines reach speeds of up to . The Athens–Chalcis line is also expected to attain speeds of up to upon upgrading of the SKA–Oinoi railway sector. These lines also have many daily commuters, with the number expected to rise even higher upon full completion of the Acharnes Railway Center.


title: Commuter rail

text: Eskişehir-Ankara and Konya-Ankara high speed train routes serve as high speed commuter trains in Turkey.


title: Commuter rail

text: Commuter/suburban trains are usually optimized for maximum passenger volume, in most cases without sacrificing too much comfort and luggage space, though they seldom have all the amenities of long-distance trains. Cars may be single- or double-level, and aim to provide seating for all. Compared to intercity trains, they have less space, fewer amenities and limited baggage areas.


title: Commuter rail

text: Commuter rail trains are usually composed of multiple units, which are self-propelled, bidirectional, articulated passenger rail cars with driving motors on each (or every other) bogie. Depending on local circumstances and tradition they may be powered either by diesel engines located below the passenger compartment (diesel multiple units) or by electricity picked up from third rails or overhead lines (electric multiple units). Multiple units are almost invariably equipped with control cabs at both ends, which is why such units are so frequently used to provide commuter services, due to the associated short turn-around time.


title: Commuter rail

text: Locomotive hauled services are used in some countries or locations. This is often a case of asset sweating, by using a single large combined fleet for intercity and regional services. Loco hauled services are usually run in push-pull formation, that is, the train can run with the locomotive at the "front" or "rear" of the train (pushing or pulling). Trains are often equipped with a control cab at the other end of the train from the locomotive, allowing the train operator to operate the train from either end. The motive power for locomotive-hauled commuter trains may be either electric or diesel-electric, although some countries, such as Germany and some of the former Soviet-bloc countries, also use diesel-hydraulic locomotives.


title: Commuter rail

text: In the US and some other countries, a three-and-two seat plan is used. However, few people sit in the middle seat on these trains because they feel crowded and uncomfortable.


title: Commuter rail

text: In Japan, South Korea and Indonesia, longitudinal (sideways window-lining) seating is widely used in many commuter rail trains to increase capacity in rush hours. Carriages are usually not organized to increase seating capacity (although in some trains at least one carriage would feature more doors to facilitate easier boarding and alighting and bench seats so that they can be folded up during rush hour to provide more standing room) even in the case of commuting longer than 50 km and commuters in the Greater Tokyo Area, Seoul metropolitan area, and Jabodetabek area have to stand in the train for more than an hour.


title: Commuter rail

text: Currently there are not many examples of commuter rail in Africa. Metrorail operates in the major cities of South Africa, and there are some commuter rail services in Algeria, Botswana, Kenya, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia.


title: Commuter rail

text: In Algeria, SNTF operates commuter rail lines between the capital Algiers and its southern and eastern suburbs. They also serve to connect Algiers' main universities to each other. The Dar es Salaam commuter rail offers intracity services in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In Botswana, the (Botswana Railways) "BR Express" has a commuter train between Lobatse and Gaborone.


title: Commuter rail

text: In Japan, commuter rail systems have extensive network and frequent service and are heavily used. In many cases, Japanese commuter rail is operationally more like a typical metro system (frequent trains, an emphasis on standing passengers, short station spacings) than it is like commuter rail in other countries. Japanese commuter rail commonly interline with city center subway lines, with commuter rail trains continuing into the subway network, and then out onto different commuter rail systems on the other side of the city. Many Japanese commuter systems operate various stopping patterns to reduce the travel time to distant locations, often using station passing loops instead of dedicated express tracks. It is notable that the larger Japanese commuter rail systems are owned and operated by for-profit private railway companies, without public subsidy.


title: Commuter rail

text: East Japan Railway Company operates a large suburban train network in Tokyo with various lines connecting the suburban areas to the city center. While the Yamanote Line, Keihin Tohoku Line, Chūō–Sōbu Line services arguably are more akin to rapid transit with frequent stops, simple stopping patterns (relative to other JR East lines) no branching services and largely serving the inner suburbs; other services along the Chūō Rapid Line, Sōbu Rapid Line/Yokosuka Line, Ueno–Tokyo Line, Shōnan–Shinjuku Line etc. are mid-distance services from suburban lines in the outer reaches of Greater Tokyo through operating into these lines to form a high frequency corridor though central Tokyo.


title: Commuter rail

text: Commuter rail systems have been inaugurated in several cities in China such as Beijing, Shanghai, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Changsha and the Pearl River Delta. With plans for large systems in northeastern Zhejiang, Jingjinji, and Yangtze River Delta areas. The level of service varies considerably from line to line ranging high to near high speeds. More developed and established lines such as the Guangshen Railway have more frequent metro-like service.


title: Commuter rail

text: The two MTR lines which are owned and formerly operated by the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (East Rail line and Tuen Ma line which is integrated from the former West Rail line and Ma On Shan line in 2021), then the "KCR"), and MTR's own Tung Chung line connect the new towns in New Territories and the city centre Kowloon together with frequent intervals, and some New Territories-bound trains terminate at intermediate stations, providing more frequent services in Kowloon and the towns closer to Kowloon. Most of the sections of these four lines are overground and some sections of the East Rail Line share tracks with intercity trains to mainland China. The three KCR lines are integrated into the MTR network since 2008 and most passengers do not need to exit and re-enter the system through separate fare gates and purchase separate tickets to transfer between such lines and the rest of the network (the exceptions are between the Tuen Ma line's East Tsim Sha Tsui station and the Tsuen Wan line's Tsim Sha Tsui station.


title: Commuter rail

text: In Taiwan, the Western line in the Taipei-Taoyuan Metropolitan Area, Taichung Metropolitan Area and Tainan-Kaohsiung Metropolitan Area as well as the Neiwan-Liujia line in the Hsinchu Area are considered commuter rail.


title: Commuter rail

text: In South Korea, the Seoul Metropolitan Subway includes a total of 22 lines, and some of its lines are suburban lines. This is especially the case for lines operated by Korail, such as the Gyeongui-Jungang Line, the Gyeongchun Line, the Suin-Bundang Line, or the Gyeonggang Line. Even some lines not operated by Korail, such as the AREX Line, the Seohae Line or the Shinbundang Line mostly function as commuter rail. Lastly, even for the "numbered lines" (1-9) of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway which mostly travel in the dense parts of Seoul, some track sections extend far outside of the city, and operate large sections at ground level, such as on the Line 1, Line 3 and Line 4. In Busan, the Donghae Line, while part of the Busan Metro system, mostly functions as a commuter rail line.


title: Commuter rail

text: In Indonesia, the KRL Commuterline is the largest commuter rail system in the country, serving the Greater Jakarta. It connects the Jakarta city center with surrounding cities and sub-urbans in Banten and West Java provinces, including Depok, Bogor, Tangerang, Bekasi, Serpong, Rangkasbitung, and Maja. In July 2015, KA Commuter Jabodetabek served more than 850,000 passengers per day, which is almost triple of the 2011 figures, but still less than 3.5% of all Jabodetabek commutes. Other commuter rail systems in Indonesia include the Metro Surabaya Commuter Line, Prambanan Express, KRL Commuterline Yogyakarta–Solo, Kedung Sepur, Greater Bandung Commuter, and Cut Meutia.


title: Commuter rail

text: In the Philippines, the Philippine National Railways has two commuter rail systems currently operational; the PNR Metro Commuter Line in the Greater Manila Area and the PNR Bicol Commuter in the Bicol Region. A new commuter rail line in Metro Manila, the North–South Commuter Railway, is currently under construction. Its North section is set to be partially opened by 2021.


title: Commuter rail

text: In Malaysia, there are two commuter services operated by Keretapi Tanah Melayu. They are the KTM Komuter that serves Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding Klang Valley area, and the KTM Komuter Northern Sector that serves Greater Penang, Perak, Kedah and Perlis in the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia.


title: Commuter rail

text: In Thailand, the Greater Bangkok Commuter rail and the Airport Rail Link serve the Bangkok Metropolitan Region. The SRT Red Lines, a new commuter line in Bangkok, started construction in 2009. It opened in 2021.


title: Commuter rail

text: In India, commuter rail systems are present in major cities. Mumbai Suburban Railway, the oldest suburban rail system in Asia, carries more than 7.24 million commuters on a daily basis which constitutes more than half of the total daily passenger capacity of the Indian Railways itself. Kolkata Suburban Railway is the biggest Suburban Railway network in India covering 348 stations carries more than 3.5 million commuters per day. The Chennai Suburban Railway along with MRTS is another railway of comparison where more than 2.5 million people travel daily to different areas in Chennai. Other commuter railways in India include Hyderabad MMTS, Delhi Suburban Railway, Pune Suburban Railway and Lucknow-Kanpur Suburban Railway.


title: Commuter rail

text: In 2020, Government of India approved Bengaluru Commuter Rail to connect Bengaluru and its suburbs. It will be unique and first of its kind in India as it will have metro like facilities and rolling stock.


title: Commuter rail

text: Karachi in Pakistan has had a circular railway since 1969. Also, in Bangladesh, there are several commuter rail systems.


title: Commuter rail

text: In Iran, SYSTRA proposed 4 express lines similar to RER suburban lines in Paris. Tehran Metro is going to construct express lines. For instance, the Rahyab Behineh, a consultant for Tehran Metro, is studying Tehran Express Line 2. Tehran Metro currently has a commuter line, which is Line 5 between Tehran and Karaj. Isfahan has two lines to its suburbs Baharestan and Fuladshahr under construction, and a third line to Shahinshahr is planned.


title: Commuter rail

text: Major metropolitan areas in most European countries are usually served by extensive commuter/suburban rail systems. Well-known examples include BG Voz in Belgrade (Serbia), S-Bahn in Germany, Austria and German-speaking areas of Switzerland, Proastiakos in Greece, RER in France and Belgium, Servizio ferroviario suburbano in Italy, Cercanías and Rodalies (Catalonia) in Spain, CP Urban Services in Portugal, Esko in Prague and Ostrava (Czech Republic), HÉV in Budapest (Hungary) and DART in Dublin (Ireland).


title: Commuter rail

text: The Merseyrail network in Liverpool consists of two commuter rail routes powered by third rail, both of which branch out at one end. At the other, the Northern Line continues out of the city centre to a mainline rail interchange, while the Wirral Line has a city-centre loop.


title: Commuter rail

text: The Tyneside Electrics system in Newcastle existed from 1904 to 1967 using DC third rail. British Rail did not have the budget to maintain the ageing electrification system. The Riverside Branch was closed, while the remaining lines were de-electrified. 13 years later, they were re-electrified using DC overhead wires, and now form the Tyne & Wear Metro Yellow Line.


title: Commuter rail

text: Many of the rail services around Glasgow are branded as Strathclyde Partnership for Transport. The network includes most electrified Scottish rail routes.


title: Commuter rail

text: The Metro run eleven services which feed into Leeds, connecting the city with commuter areas and neighbouring urban centres in the West Yorkshire Connurbation.


title: Commuter rail

text: MetroWest is a proposed network in Bristol, northern Somerset & southern Gloucestershire. The four-tracking of the line between Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway stations will enable local rail services to be separated from long-distance trains.


title: Commuter rail

text: The Réseau express régional d'Île-de-France (RER) is a commuter rail network in the agglomeration of Paris. In the centre the RER has high frequency underground corridors where several suburban branches feed similar to a rapid transit system.


title: Commuter rail

text: Commuter rail systems in Germany are called S-Bahn. While in some major cities S-Bahn services run on separate lines exclusively other systems use the existing regional rail tracks.


title: Commuter rail

text: Randstadspoor is a network of Sprinter train services in and around the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands. For the realisation of this network, new stations were opened. Separate tracks have been built for these trains, so they can call frequently without disturbing high-frequent Intercity services parallel to these routes. Similar systems are planned for The Hague and Rotterdam.


title: Commuter rail

text: In Sweden, electrified commuter rail systems known as "Pendeltåg" are present in the cities of Stockholm and Gothenburg. The Stockholm commuter rail system, which began in 1968, shares railway tracks with inter-city trains and freight trains, but for the most part runs on its own dedicated tracks. It is primarily used to transport passengers from nearby towns and other suburban areas into the city centre, not for transportation inside the city centre. The Gothenburg commuter rail system, which began in 1960, is similar to the Stockholm system, but does fully share tracks with long-distance trains.


title: Commuter rail

text: In Norway, the Oslo commuter rail system mostly shares tracks with more long-distance trains, but also runs on some local railways without other traffic. Services converge on a primary main line between Asker and Lillestrøm. Oslo has the largest commuter rail system in the Nordic countries in terms of line lengths and number of stations. But some lines have travel times (over an hour from Oslo) and frequencies (once per hour) which are more like regional trains. Also Bergen, Stavanger and Trondheim have commuter rail systems. These have only one or two lines each and they share tracks with other trains.


title: Commuter rail

text: In Finland, the Helsinki commuter rail network runs on dedicated tracks from Helsinki Central railway station to Leppävaara and Kerava. The Ring Rail Line serves Helsinki Airport and northern suburbs of Vantaa and is exclusively used by the commuter rail network. On 15 December 2019 Tampere got its own commuter rail service.


title: Commuter rail

text: In Spain "Cercanías" networks exist in Madrid, Sevilla, Murcia/Alicante, San Sebastián, Cádiz, Valencia, Asturias, Santander, Zaragoza, Bilbao and Málaga. The Rodalies de Catalunya operate in Barcelona. All these systems include underground sections in the city centre. There is also a network of narrow-gauge commuter systems in North Spain and Murcia.


title: Commuter rail

text: In Poland, commuter rail systems exist in Tricity, Warsaw, Kraków (SKA) and Katowice (SKR). There is also a similar system planned in Wrocław and Szczecin. The terms used are "Szybka Kolej Miejska" (fast urban rail) and "kolej aglomeracyjna" (agglomeration rail). These systems are:


title: Commuter rail

text: The Proastiakos (; "suburban") is Greece's suburban railway (commuter rail) services, which are run by TrainOSE, on infrastructure owned by the Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE). There are three Proastiakos networks, servicing the country's three largest cities: Athens, Thessaloniki and Patras. In particular, the Athenian network is undergoing modifications to completely separate it from mainline traffic, by re-routing the tracks via a tunnel underneath the city center. A similar project is planned for the Patras network, whereas a new line is due to be constructed for the Thessalonian network.


title: Commuter rail

text: In Romania, the first commuter trains were introduced in December 2019. They operate between Bucharest and Funduea or Buftea.


title: Commuter rail

text: BG Voz is an urban rail system that serves Belgrade. It currently has only two routes, with plans for further expansion. Between early 1990s and mid-2010s, there was another system, known as Beovoz, that was used to provide mass-transit service within the Belgrade metropolitan area, as well as to nearby towns, similarly to RER in Paris. Beovoz had more lines and far more stops than the current system. However, it was abandoned in favor of more accurate BG Voz, mostly due to inefficiency. While current services rely mostly on the existing infrastructure, any further development means furthering capacities (railways expansion and new trains). Plans for further extension of system include another two lines, one of which should reach Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport.


title: Commuter rail

text: In Russia, Ukraine and some other countries of the former Soviet Union, electrical multiple unit passenger suburban trains called Elektrichka are widespread. The first such system in Russia is the Oranienbaum Electric Line in St. Petersburg. In Moscow the Beskudnikovskaya railway branch existed between the 1940s and 1980s. The trains that shuttled along it did not go to the main lines, so it was a city transport. Today there are the Moscow Central Circle and the Moscow Central Diameters.


title: Commuter rail

text: In Turkey, Marmaray line stations from Sirkeci to Halkalı are located at the European side. Overground section between Kazlıçeşme and Sirkeci, stations like Cankurtaran, are closed since 2013.


title: Commuter rail

text: In the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Mexico regional passenger rail services are provided by governmental or quasi-governmental agencies, with a limited number of metropolitan areas served.


title: Commuter rail

text: Eight commuter rail systems in the United States carried over ten million trips in 2018, those being in descending order:


title: Commuter rail

text: Examples include an commuter system in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area, the long Supervia in Rio de Janeiro, the Metrotrén in Santiago, Chile, and the Valparaíso Metro in Valparaíso, Chile.


title: Commuter rail

text: Another example is Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos (CPTM) in Greater São Paulo, Brazil. CPTM has 94 stations with seven lines, numbered starting on 7 (the lines 1 to 6 and the line 15 belong to the São Paulo Metro), with a total length of . Trains operates at high frequencies on tracks used exclusively for commuter traffic. In Rio de Janeiro SuperVia provides electrified commuter rail services.


title: Commuter rail

text: The five major cities in Australia have suburban railway systems in their metropolitan areas. These networks have frequent services, with frequencies varying from every 10 to every 30 minutes on most suburban lines, and up to 3–5 minutes in peak on bundled underground lines in the city centres of Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne. The networks in each state developed from mainline railways and have never been completely operationally separate from long distance and freight traffic, unlike metro systems. The suburban networks are almost completely electrified.


title: Commuter rail

text: New Zealand has two frequent suburban rail services comparable to those in Australia: the Auckland rail network is operated by Auckland One Rail and the Wellington rail network is operated by Transdev Wellington.


title: Commuter rail

text: Hybrid urban-suburban rail systems exhibiting characteristics of both rapid transit and commuter rail serving a metropolitan region are common in German-speaking countries, where they are known as S-Bahn. Other examples include the RER in France and the Elizabeth Line, London Underground Metropolitan line, London Overground and Merseyrail in the UK. A comparable system in India, the Delhi RRTS, is also under construction.


title: Rostam Batmanglij

text: Rostam Batmanglij (, ; born November 28, 1983), known mononymously as Rostam, is an American record producer, musician, singer, songwriter, and composer. He was a founding member of the band Vampire Weekend, whose first three albums he produced. He has been described by Stereogum as one of the greatest pop and indie-rock producers of his generation. Rostam also works as a solo artist and is a member of electro-soul group Discovery. He produced his first number-one album, Vampire Weekend's "Contra", when he was 27 years old.


title: Rostam Batmanglij

text: Batmanglij has been nominated for three Grammy Awards: twice for Best Alternative Music Album with Vampire Weekend (winning for "Modern Vampires of the City") and once for Album of the Year as producer of Haim's "Women in Music Pt. III".


title: Rostam Batmanglij

text: Batmanglij was born to Iranian parents, and grew up in Washington, D.C. His mother is cookbook author Najmieh Batmanglij, while his father is a publisher. His parents arrived in D.C. in 1983. His brother is independent filmmaker Zal Batmanglij. The two have collaborated on multiple projects. They worked together on the film "Sound of My Voice", which Rostam scored and which Zal directed and co-wrote. Rostam also composed an original piece for piano that was featured in Zal's film "The East". Most recently, Rostam composed the music for both seasons of Zal's television series "The OA".


title: Rostam Batmanglij

text: Batmanglij majored in music at Columbia University, where he joined the band Vampire Weekend in 2006. "At Columbia, I would study classical harmony in classes and I would study music on my own, and I would try to re-create songs that I love in recordings...that was really how I learned." The name of the group comes from the movie of the same name that bandmate Ezra Koenig and his friends made over summer vacations. Batmanglij produced their self-titled debut album shortly after graduation while concurrently working multiple full-time jobs. He also produced the band's follow-up album, "Contra", which sold 124,000 copies in its first week and landed atop the "Billboard" 200 charts. Batmanglij plays guitar, keyboard and sings in the band but also acts as a lyricist and songwriter, co-writing the song "Diplomat's Son" on "Contra". Koenig has described himself and Batmanglij as "the two main songwriters in the band".


title: Rostam Batmanglij

text: On March 18, 2013, Vampire Weekend released two songs from their album "Modern Vampires of the City", "Diane Young" and "Step". Within two weeks each song had garnered more than 1 million views on YouTube. Music for both songs is credited to Batmanglij and Koenig, and lyrics are credited to Koenig. "Modern Vampires of the City" is the first Vampire Weekend album Batmanglij did not produce alone; for this record he collaborated with longtime friend Ariel Rechtshaid to co-produce the album together. It was released May 14, 2013.


title: Rostam Batmanglij

text: On January 26, 2016, Batmanglij announced on Twitter that he had left Vampire Weekend to pursue solo projects, but that he would continue to collaborate with Koenig on future projects and Vampire Weekend songs.


title: Rostam Batmanglij

text: Batmanglij began recording with Ra Ra Riot vocalist Wes Miles on a project which was later to become Discovery. They released their debut album, "LP", through XL Recordings on July 7, 2009. The album features guest vocal contributions from Koenig as well as Angel Deradoorian of Dirty Projectors.


title: Rostam Batmanglij

text: In 2015, Batmanglij produced and contributed vocals on the song "Water" for Ra Ra Riot's fourth album, "Need Your Light".


title: Rostam Batmanglij

text: In September 2011, Batmanglij released a solo track called "Wood". "Time Out Chicago"s Brent DiCrescenzo gave the song 4 out of 5 stars and wrote that "his voice pleasantly recalls a drowsy David Byrne". On November 1, 2011, Zane Lowe debuted another a solo song sung by Batmanglij called "Don't Let it Get to You" as the Hottest Record in the World on BBC Radio 1. "The Fader" referred to it as "a seismic event of a song". In January 2016, Batmanglij released the song "EOS" along with its music video which he had directed. On March 11, 2016, Batmanglij released the song "Gravity Don't Pull Me" along with its music video directed by himself and Josh Goleman. The video was filmed at "The 1896" and features dancers Jack Grabow and Sam Asa Pratt.


title: Rostam Batmanglij

text: On November 27, 2016, Rostam teased his new solo album, which was to be released in 2017. In the spring of 2017, Rostam released two songs from the album: "Gwan", released on April 26, and "Bike Dream", released on June 14. With the release of "Bike Dream", Rostam revealed that his debut solo album would be titled "Half-Light" and released on September 8, 2017.


title: Rostam Batmanglij

text: On September 12, 2018, Rostam self-released a new single, "In a River". On October 15, 2020, Rostam self-released another new single, "Unfold You".


title: Rostam Batmanglij

text: On February 2, 2021, Rostam self-released a single, "These Kids We Knew", and teased an upcoming album release. Exactly one month later, Batmanglij confirmed the release of his second solo album, titled "Changephobia", on June 4, as well as releasing a single from the album called "4Runner".


title: Rostam Batmanglij

text: In 2010, Converse released "All Summer", produced by Batmanglij and featuring Kid Cudi and Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast.


title: Rostam Batmanglij

text: Batmanglij produced and co-wrote two songs for the Walkmen frontman Hamilton Leithauser's solo album, "Black Hours", which was released in June 2014. Also in 2014, Batmanglij produced two songs for singer Charli XCX. The song "Need Ur Luv" appears on her album "Sucker", and the song "Kingdom", featuring Simon Le Bon, appears on "". In December 2014, Batmanglij along with Diplo and Ed Droste remixed Ty Dolla Sign's "Stand For" into a new song titled "Long Way Home". Batmanglij also wrote original music for a play by Kenneth Lonergan called "This Is Our Youth", starring Kieran Culkin, Michael Cera, and Tavi Gevinson, which premiered on Broadway in 2014.


title: Rostam Batmanglij

text: In 2015, Batmanglij worked alongside Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen on her third studio album, "Emotion". In an interview with "Stereogum", Jepsen described working with Batmanglij as writing with a musician she admires, and said that together they had made "what’s maybe one of [her] favorite songs" on the record. Batmanglij produced and co-wrote the fourth single, "Warm Blood", which was released on July 31, 2015. "Emotion" was released worldwide on August 21, 2015.


title: Rostam Batmanglij

text: In 2016, he formed Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam with Hamilton Leithauser of the Walkmen. They released the single "1000 Times" in July 2016, which they performed on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on September 12, 2016. Their song "In a Black Out" was featured in a commercial for the Apple iPhone 7. Their debut album, "I Had a Dream That You Were Mine", was released on September 23, 2016.


title: Rostam Batmanglij

text: Batmanglij produced and co-wrote the song "Listen to Your Friends" from English singer Declan McKenna's debut album, "What Do You Think About the Car?", which was released in July 2017.


title: Rostam Batmanglij

text: Batmanglij is gay and talked about his sexual orientation in the magazine "Out". In an Instagram post in 2015, he said that Ed Droste of the band Grizzly Bear influenced his decision to publicly come out.


title: Alkaline hydrolysis (body disposal)

text: Alkaline hydrolysis (also called biocremation, resomation, flameless cremation, aquamation or water cremation) is a process for the disposal of human and pet remains using lye and heat, and is an alternative to burial or cremation.


title: Alkaline hydrolysis (body disposal)

text: The process is based on alkaline hydrolysis: the body is placed in a pressure vessel that is then filled with a mixture of water and potassium hydroxide, and heated to a temperature around , but at an elevated pressure, which prevents boiling. Instead, the body is effectively broken down into its chemical components, which takes approximately four to six hours. A lower temperature and pressure may be used, but at a longer duration (, 14 to 16 hours). At the beginning of the process, the mixture is fairly basic, with a pH level of approximately 14; pH drops to 11 by the end, but the final pH level depends on the total operation time and the amount of fat in the body.


title: Alkaline hydrolysis (body disposal)

text: The result is a quantity of green-brown tinted liquid (containing amino acids, peptides, sugars and salts) and soft, porous white bone remains (calcium phosphate) easily crushed in the hand (although a cremulator is more commonly used) to form a white-colored dust. The "ash" can then be returned to the next of kin of the deceased. The liquid is disposed of either through the sanitary sewer system, or through some other method, including use in a garden or green space. To dispose of , approximately of water are used, resulting in of effluent, which carries a dried weight of (approximately 2% of original weight).


title: Alkaline hydrolysis (body disposal)

text: This alkaline hydrolysis process has been championed by a number of ecological campaigning groups, for using 90 kWh of electricity, one-quarter the energy of flame-based cremation, and producing less carbon dioxide and pollutants. It is being presented as an alternative option at some British crematorium sites. , about 1,000 people had chosen this method for the disposition of their remains in the United States. The operating cost of materials, maintenance, and labor associated with the disposal of of remains was estimated at $116.40, excluding the capital investment cost of equipment.


title: Alkaline hydrolysis (body disposal)

text: Alkaline hydrolysis has also been adopted by the pet and animal industry. A handful of companies in North America offer the procedure as an alternative to pet cremation. Alkaline hydrolysis is also used in the agricultural industry to sterilize animal carcasses that may pose a health hazard, because the process inactivates viruses, bacteria, and prions causing transmissible spongiform encephalopathy.


title: Alkaline hydrolysis (body disposal)

text: The process was originally developed as a method to process animal carcasses into plant food, patented by Amos Herbert Hobson in 1888. In 2005, Bio-Response Solutions designed, sold, and installed the first single cadaver alkaline hydrolysis system at the Mayo Clinic where it was still in use as of 2019. In 2007, a Scottish biochemist, Sandy Sullivan, started a company making the machines, and calling the process (and company) Resomation.


title: Alkaline hydrolysis (body disposal)

text: In Christian countries and cultures, cremation has historically been discouraged and viewed as a desecration of God's image, and as interference with the resurrection of the dead taught in Scripture. It is now acceptable to some denominations.


title: Alkaline hydrolysis (body disposal)

text: The Roman Catholic Church allows cremation of bodies as long as it is not done in denial of the beliefs in the sacredness of the human body or the resurrection of the dead. However, the Catholic Church in the United States does not approve of alkaline hydrolysis as a method of final disposition of human remains. In 2011, Donald Cardinal Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington and then chairman of the Committee on Doctrine of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), determined it "unnecessarily disrespectful of the human body."


title: Alkaline hydrolysis (body disposal)

text: Judaism forbids cremation as it is not in line with the teachings of respect and dignity due to humans, who are created in God's image.


title: Alkaline hydrolysis (body disposal)

text: When alkaline hydrolysis was proposed in New York state in 2012, the New York State Catholic Conference condemned the practice, stating that hydrolysis does not show sufficient respect for the teaching of the intrinsic dignity of the human body.


title: Alkaline hydrolysis (body disposal)

text: Aquamation based in New South Wales is the only company to currently provide alkaline hydrolysis in Australia, with the remains being used as fertilizer on plantation forests, due to difficulty with obtaining permits from Sydney Water.


title: Alkaline hydrolysis (body disposal)

text: The Flemish minister of Interior Administration Bart Somers asked in September 2021 the opinion of an advisory bioethics committee on resomation. The advice, received in November 2021, saw no objections.


title: Alkaline hydrolysis (body disposal)

text: Saskatchewan approved the process in 2012, becoming the first province to do so. Quebec and Ontario have also legalized the process.


title: Alkaline hydrolysis (body disposal)

text: A funeral home in Granby, Quebec, was the first in the province to receive an alkaline hydrolysis machine.


title: Alkaline hydrolysis (body disposal)

text: From January 2023, Water Cremation becomes available. The first country in the EU to offer this form of burial.


title: Alkaline hydrolysis (body disposal)

text: Handling of the water. When the process is complete the remaining water undergoes further treatment to ensure that it is completely sterile. Analysis is then completed to ensure Water Authority standards are met. Only at this stage is the water recycled back to the Local Authority water treatment plant.


title: Alkaline hydrolysis (body disposal)

text: In May 2020, the Health Council of the Netherlands issued an advisory report on the admissibility of new techniques of disposing of the dead. The Council proposed a framework to assess alkaline hydrolysis. It concluded that alkaline hydrolysis is safe, dignified and sustainable. In addition to alkaline hydrolysis, the council also considered human composting as a technique to dispose bodies yet concluded that too little is known about composting and hence it cannot be assessed whether this technique fulfills the conditions. Taking into account the council's recommendations, the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations currently prepares a law proposal to amend the Corpse Disposal Act. Once the law proposal has been submitted to the Parliament, the democratic process to admit alkaline hydrolysis as body disposal technique can be commenced.


title: Alkaline hydrolysis (body disposal)

text: In November 2019, Avbob introduced aquamation in South Africa, following the mutual assurance society's recent introduction of the alkaline hydrolysis process at its Maitland agency in Cape Town. Aquamation has been legal in South Africa ever since. Following his death in December 2021 the body of Archbishop Desmond Tutu was aquamated.


title: Alkaline hydrolysis (body disposal)

text: A public crematorium operated by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council at Rowley Regis, central England, was the first to receive planning permission to offer the process but in March 2017, the local water utility, Severn Trent Water, refused the council's application for a "trade effluent permit" because there was no water industry standard regulating the disposal of liquefied human remains into sewers.


title: Alkaline hydrolysis (body disposal)

text: Alkaline hydrolysis as a method of final disposition of human remains is currently legal in nineteen states. Additional rules are pending in New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The process was legal in New Hampshire for several years but amid opposition by religious lobby groups it was banned in 2008 and a proposal to legalize it was rejected in 2013.


title: Alkaline hydrolysis (body disposal)

text: Alkaline hydrolysis has been used for cadavers donated for research at the University of Florida since the mid-1990s and at the Mayo Clinic since 2005. UCLA uses the process to dispose of donor bodies.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: The cuisine of the Southern United States encompasses diverse food traditions of several regions, including Tidewater, Appalachian, Lowcountry, Cajun, Creole, and Floribbean cuisine. In recent history, elements of Southern cuisine have spread to other parts the United States, influencing other types of American cuisine.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Many elements of Southern cooking—tomatoes, squash, corn (and its derivatives, such as hominy and grits), and deep-pit barbecuing—are borrowings from indigenous peoples of the region (e.g., Cherokee, Caddo, Choctaw, and Seminole). From the Old World, European colonists introduced sugar, flour, milk, eggs, and livestock, along with a number of vegetables; meanwhile, enslaved West Africans trafficked to the North American colonies through the Atlantic slave trade introduced black-eyed peas, okra, rice, eggplant, sesame, sorghum, melons, and various spices. Rice became prominent in many dishes in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina due to the fact that the enslaved people who settled the region (now known as the Gullah people), were already quite familiar with the crop.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Many Southern foodways are local adaptations of Old World traditions. In Appalachia, many Southern dishes are Scottish or British Border in origin. For instance, the South's fondness for a full breakfast derives from the British full breakfast or fry-up. Pork, once considered informally taboo in Scotland, has taken the place of lamb and mutton. Instead of chopped oats, Southerners have traditionally eaten grits, a porridge normally made from coarsely ground maize.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Certain regions have been infused with different Old World traditions. Louisiana Creole cuisine draws upon vernacular French cuisine, West African cuisine, and Spanish cuisine; Floribbean cuisine is Spanish-based with obvious Caribbean influences; and Tex-Mex has considerable Mexican and Native American influences with its abundant use of New World vegetables (e.g. corn, tomatoes, squash, and peppers) and barbecued meat. In Southern Louisiana, West African influences have persisted in dishes such as gumbo, jambalaya, and red beans and rice.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Interest in American regional cooking continued to grow after the Civil War, especially as concerning the traditions of the Southern United States. Many new cookbooks were added to the existing body of literature. Some of these fell within the scope of domestic manuals offering instruction to southern homemakers to the maintenance of homes in the new post-Slavery era. Some of these works like Mary Stuart Smith's "Virginia Cookery Book" (1885) aimed to preserve the culinary heritage of the South.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: A traditional Southern meal is pan-fried chicken, field peas (such as black-eyed peas), greens (such as collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, or poke sallet), mashed potatoes, cornbread or corn pone, sweet tea, and dessert—typically a pie (sweet potato, chess, shoofly, pecan, and peach are the most common), or a cobbler (peach, blackberry, sometimes apple in Kentucky or Appalachia).


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Other Southern foods include grits, country ham, hushpuppies, beignets (in the Gulf South), Southern styles of succotash, brisket, meatloaf, chicken fried steak, buttermilk biscuits (may be served with butter, jelly, fruit preserves, honey, gravy or sorghum molasses), pimento cheese, boiled or baked sweet potatoes, pit barbecue, fried catfish, fried green tomatoes, macaroni and cheese, bread pudding, okra (principally dredged in cornmeal and fried, but also steamed, stewed, sauteed, or pickled), butter beans, and pinto beans.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: "White barbecue sauce" made with mayonnaise, pepper and vinegar is an Alabama specialty usually served with smoked barbecue chicken.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: "Yellow barbecue sauce" made with a mustard base is unique to South Carolina and has roots in mass immigration of Germans to the area in the mid 1700s.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Fried chicken is among the region's best-known exports. It is believed that the Scots, and later Scottish immigrants to many southern states had a tradition of deep frying chicken in fat, unlike their English counterparts who baked or boiled chicken. However, some sources trace the origin of fried chicken to Southern and Western England where most of the Early settlers to the South came from. They conclude that Southern and Western England had a strong tradition of frying, simmering, and sautéing meats in a skillet as opposed to East Anglia which favored baking and boiling meats.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Coming from Africa, African Americans also brought their methods of frying foods with them. Frying was a common method for food preparation for slaves since it was quick and accessible. During slavery in the 1800s, as the only animals slaves were allowed to own were yard chickens, African Americans began frying their chicken using the same methods they used to fry other foods. Later in the 1800s, before the Civil War, fried chicken could also be sold by enslaved people to raise money to buy their freedom. Soon, this led to the association of African-Americans in the South and fried chicken.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Fried chicken was popularized by African Americans and this helped it become one of the most popular and important southern cuisines in the United States. The importance of fried chicken to southern cuisine is apparent through the multiple traditions and different adaptations of fried chicken, such as KFC; Nashville's Prince's Hot Chicken Shack; or the Cajun-inspired Bojangles' Famous Chicken 'n Biscuits and Popeyes Chicken.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Pork is an integral part of the cuisine. Stuffed ham is served in Southern Maryland. A traditional holiday get-together featuring whole hog barbecue is known in Virginia and the Carolinas as a "pig pickin'".


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Green beans are often flavored with bacon and salt pork, turnip greens are stewed with pork and served with vinegar, ham biscuits (biscuits cut in half with slices of salt ham served between the halves) often accompany breakfast, and ham with red-eye gravy or country gravy is a common dinner dish.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Country ham, a heavily salt-cured ham, is common across the Southern United States, with the most well-known being the Virginia-originating Smithfield ham.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Southern meals sometimes consist only of vegetables, with a little meat (especially salt pork) used in cooking but with no meat dish served. "Beans and greens"—white or brown beans served alongside a "mess" of greens stewed with a little bacon—is a traditional meal in many parts of the South. (Turnip greens are the typical greens for such a meal; they're cooked with some diced turnip and a piece of fatback.)


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Other low-meat Southern meals include beans and cornbread—the beans being pinto beans stewed with ham or bacon—and Hoppin' John (black-eyed peas, rice, onions, red or green pepper, and bacon).


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Cabbage is largely used as the basis of coleslaw, both as a side dish and on a variety of barbecued and fried meats. Sauteéd red cabbage, flavored with vinegar and sugar, is popular in German-influenced areas of the South such as central Texas.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Butternut squash is common in winter, often prepared as a roasted casserole with butter and honey. Other typical vegetable sides include collard greens and congealed salads. Double stuffed potatoes with barbecue pork, cheddar cheese, cream cheese, mayonnaise and chives are served at barbecue restaurants throughout the South.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Country Captain is a regional dish of curry chicken and rice that dates back to at least the 1920s. It became well known after a Columbus, Georgia cook served the dish to then President Franklin D. Roosevelt. George Patton once said "If you can't give me a party and have Country Captain, meet me at the train with a bucket of it."


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Georgia is known for peach cultivation and variations of Peach melba are commonly served as desserts. Chess pie is a traditional pastry made with eggs, butter and sugar or molasses. Bananas foster is a specialty of New Orleans.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Gulf seafood like black grouper, shrimp and swordfish can be found, and "channel catfish" ("Ictalurus punctatus") farmed locally in the Mississippi Delta region is especially popular in Oxford, Mississippi. Fried catfish battered in cornmeal is commonly served at local establishments with hot sauce and a side of fries and coleslaw. Oysters Rockefeller is a New Orleans specialty, believed to have originated in the state. Creole dishes like gumbo and jambalaya often feature crawfish, oysters, blue crab and shrimp.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Chains serving Southern foods—often along with American comfort food—have had great success; many have spread across the country or across the world, while others have chosen to stay in the South. Pit barbecue is popular all over the American South; unlike the rest of the country, most of the rural South has locally owned, non-franchise pit-barbecue restaurants, many serving the regional style of barbecue instead of the nationally predominant Kansas City style. Family-style restaurants serving Southern cuisine are common throughout the South, and range from the humble and down-home to the decidedly upscale.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Southern Louisiana is geographically part of the South, but its cuisine is probably best understood as having only mild Southern influences. Creole cuisine makes good use of many coastal animals—crawfish (commonly called crayfish outside the region), crab, oysters, shrimp, and saltwater fish. Mirliton (chayote squash), is popular in Louisiana. Coffee blended with Chicory is sometimes preferred over pure ground—especially as an accompaniment to beignets.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: The Lowcountry region of the coastal Carolinas and Georgia shares many of the same food resources as the Upper Gulf Coast: fish, shrimp, oysters, rice, and okra. It also displays some similarities to Creole and Cajun cuisines.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Because of its geographic location, Appalachia cuisine offers a wide range of ingredients and products that can be transformed using traditional methods and contemporary applications. Staples of Appalachian cuisine that are common in other regional cuisines of the south include coconut cream cake, peanut brittle, sweet potato casserole, pork chops, biscuits and gravy, and chicken and dumplings. Basic soul food dishes like collard greens, hominy, cracklings and ham hocks are also common to the Appalachian kitchen.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: European fruits—especially apples and pears—can grow in the mountains, and sweet fried apples are a common side dish. Appalachian cuisine also makes use of berries, both native and European, and some parts of the mountains are high enough or far enough north that sugar maple grows there—allowing for maple syrup and maple sugar production. Wild morel mushrooms and ramps (similar to scallions and leeks) are often collected; there are even festivals dedicated to ramps, and they figure in some Appalachian fairy tales. The diet included corn, beans, squash, mixed pickles, milk, cheeses, butter, cream, tea, and coffee.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: 19th-century meals included greens fried in bear grease, elk backstrap steaks and venison stew. Ashcakes were cornbread cooked directly on hearth coals. Cornbread was the most common bread in the mountains, and still remains a staple.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Salt, a necessity for life, was always available (much of it coming from Saltville, Virginia), and local seasonings like spicebush were certainly known and used; but the only other seasonings used in the mountains are black pepper and flaked red pepper, along with a little use of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves around Christmas.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Coffee, drunk without milk and only lightly sweetened, is a basic drink in Appalachia, often consumed with every meal; in wartime, chicory was widely used as a coffee substitute.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Rice and cane sugar, grown further south, were not easy to come by in Appalachia and generally sorghum, honey and maple syrup were used as sweetener in local dishes. Travel distances, conditions, and poor roads limited most early settlements to foods that could be grown or produced locally.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: For farmers, pigs and chickens were the primary source of meat, with many farmers maintaining their own smokehouses to produce a variety of hams, bacon, and sausages. Seafood, beyond the occasionally locally caught fresh-water fish (pan-fried catfish is much loved, as is trout in the mountains of western North Carolina, East Tennessee, and Southwest Virginia) and crawfish, were unavailable until modern times.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: However, Appalachia did offer a wide variety of wild game, with venison, rabbit and squirrel particularly common, thus helping to compensate for distance from major cities and transportation networks. The popularity of hunting and fishing in Appalachia means that game and fresh-water fish were often staples of the table. Deer, wild turkey, grouse and other game birds are hunted and utilized in many recipes from barbecue to curing and jerky.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Home canning, of both garden and foraged foods, is a strong tradition in Appalachia as well; mason jars are an everyday sight in mountain life; the most common canned foods are savory vegetables: green beans (half-runners, snaps), shelly beans (green beans that were more mature and had ripe beans along with the green husks), and tomatoes, as well as jam, jelly and local fruits.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Dried pinto beans are a major staple food during the winter months, used to make the ubiquitous ham-flavored bean soup usually called soup beans. Kieffer pears and apple varietals are used to make pear butter and apple butter.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Also popular are bread and butter pickles, fried mustard greens with vinegar, pickled beets, chow-chow (commonly called "chow"), a relish known as corn ketchup and fried green tomatoes; tomatoes are also used in tomato gravy, a variant of sausage gravy with a thinner, lighter roux. A variety of wild fruits like pawpaws, wild blackberries, and persimmons are also commonly available in Appalachia as well.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: As wheat flour and baking powder/baking soda became available in the late 19th century, buttermilk biscuits became popular. Today, buttermilk biscuits and sausage gravy are the classic Appalachian breakfast; they are also a common breakfast everywhere where Appalachian people have emigrated. Both North Carolina and West Virginia have statewide biscuit chain restaurants; many Southern or originally-Southern chains offer biscuits and gravy, and when McDonald's introduced a new breakfast menu selling either Egg McMuffins (with English muffins) or a variant with biscuits, the biscuit zone was practically a map of the South with the exception of Virginia, Maryland, and Florida.


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: The gravy for biscuits and gravy is typically sausage or sawmill, not the red-eye gravy (made with coffee) used in the lowland South. Pork drippings from frying sausage, bacon, and other types of pan-fried pork are collected and saved, used for making gravy and in greasing cast-iron cookware. (Note that Appalachia is overwhelmingly Protestant, the Catholic prohibition on meat-eating during Lent had no impact on Appalachian cuisine.)


title: Cuisine of the Southern United States

text: Chicken and dumplings and fried chicken remain much-loved dishes. Cornbread, corn pone, hominy grits, mush, cornbread pudding and hominy stew are also quite common foods, as corn is the primary grain grown in the Appalachian hills and mountains, but are less common than in the past.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: The Magic Roundabout is an English-language children's television programme that ran from 1965 to 1977. It used the footage of the French stop motion animation show "Le Manège enchanté" but with completely different scripts and characters.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: The French series, created by Serge Danot with the help of Ivor Wood and Wood's French wife, Josiane, was broadcast from 1964 to 1974 on ORTF (Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française). The BBC originally rejected translating the series because it was "charming... but difficult to dub into English", but later produced a version of the series using the French footage with new English-language scripts unrelated to the original storylines. This version, written and told by Eric Thompson, was broadcast in 441 five-minute episodes between 18 October 1965 and 25 January 1977. It proved a great success and attained cult status, and when in October 1966 it was moved from the slot just before the evening news to an earlier children's viewing time, adult viewers complained to the BBC.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: A new version is being made by Method Animation, targeted for 2024, that will try to "find a balance between the French and English contexts".


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: Although the characters are common to both versions, they were given different names and personalities depending on the language.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: The main character is Dougal (also known as Doogal) (Pollux in the original French-language version), who was a drop-eared variety of the Skye Terrier.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: Other characters include Zebedee (Zébulon), a talking jack-in-the-box with magical powers; Brian (Ambroise), a snail; Ermintrude (Azalée), a cow; and Dylan (named after Bob Dylan) (Flappy), a hippy rabbit. There are two notable human characters: Florence (Margote), a young girl; and Mr Rusty (le Père Pivoine), the elderly moustached operator of the roundabout.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: Other characters included Mr McHenry (Bonhomme Jouvence, the elderly gardener who rode a tricycle), and a talking locomotive with a 4-2-2 wheel arrangement and a two-wheel tender. Three other children, Paul, Basil and Rosalie, appeared in the original black-and-white serial and in the credit sequence of the colour episodes, but very rarely in subsequent episodes.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: Dougal, Brian, Ermintrude and Dylan all reside in a place called The Magic Garden (Beautywood in the US version). The exact distance from where the roundabout and The Magic Garden are in relation to each other was never specifically stated, but, given Zebedee and Florence would always travel there by magical teleportation, it was either considerably far away or it was simply faster to get there by those means.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: The show has a distinctive visual style. The set is a brightly coloured and stylised park containing the eponymous roundabout (a fairground carousel). The programmes were created by stop motion animation, which meant that Dougal was made without legs to make him easier to animate. Zebedee was created from a giant pea which was available in the animation studio and was re-painted. The look of these characters was the responsibility of British animator Ivor Wood, who was working at Danot's studio at the time (and who subsequently animated "The Herbs", "Paddington Bear", "Postman Pat", ’’Gran’’ and ‘‘Bertha’’).


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: Narration in the British BBC version was entirely new and bears no resemblance to the French version. It was created by Eric Thompson from just the visuals, without any translation of the French scripts by Serge Danot.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: The first British broadcasts were shown every weekday on BBC1 at 17:50, just before the early-evening news at 17:55. Although the exact time of the early evening news varied over the years, "The Magic Roundabout" kept its slot before the bulletins for the duration of its original broadcasting, except for 16:55 time slots during October to November 1966, and earlier times during parts of 1972 and 1973. This was the first time an entertainment programme had been transmitted in this way in the UK. The original series, which was a serial, was made in black and white. From the second series onwards it was made in colour, but the series was still broadcast in black and white by the BBC; the first colour episode of the show ("Chocolate Soldiers") was transmitted on 5 October 1970.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: 52 additional episodes, claimed to have been not previously broadcast, were shown in the United Kingdom from January to March 1992 on Channel 4's "The Channel Four Daily". Thompson had died by this time, and the job of narrating them in a pastiche of Thompson's style went to actor Nigel Planer. These episodes actually had been previously narrated by Thompson (particularly from the 1970-1971 series), being redubbed editions of the original French colour episodes by AB Productions (with different music and slightly different voices) broadcast in 1990. An additional 43 episodes were narrated by Planer from April to September 1993, this time, with most of the episodes coming from a batch of new French episodes broadcast during that same year up until 1995.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: The English version of Dougal was generally disparaging and had similarities with the television character of Tony Hancock, an actor and comedian. Ermintrude was rather matronly and fond of singing. Dylan was a hippy-like, guitar-playing rabbit, and rather dopey. Florence was portrayed as courteous and level-headed. Brian was unsophisticated but well-meaning.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: Part of the show's attraction was that it appealed to adults, who enjoyed the world-weary Hancock-style comments made by Dougal, as well as to children. The audience measured eight million at its peak. There are speculations about possible interpretations of the show. One is that the characters represented French politicians of the time, and that Dougal represented Charles de Gaulle. In fact, when Serge Danot was interviewed by Joan Bakewell on "Late Night Line-Up" in 1968 his associate (perhaps Jean Biard) said that in France it was thought at first that the UK version of Pollux had been renamed "De Gaulle", mishearing the name Dougal (as seen in the Channel 4 documentary "The Return of the Magic Roundabout" (broadcast 08:50 on 25 December 1991 and 18:00 on 5 January 1992), and in the 2003 BBC4 documentary "The Magic Roundabout Story").


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: Sometimes, the series broke the fourth wall. At the end of one episode, "A Peaceful Day", when Zebedee called his catchphrase of "Time for bed.", Florence asked "Already?", and Zebedee replied that "It's nearly time for the news, and you've had enough magic for one day." The news was broadcast just after "The Magic Roundabout". This story was later republished in print from Bloomsbury's 1998 book "The Adventures of Brian".


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: In 1971 Brockhampton Press, under their paperback imprint Knight Books, published two books written by Eric Thompson, "The Adventures of Dougal" and "Dougal's Scottish Holiday". These were original stories written by Thompson using the characters, and not versions of scripts from the series.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: In 1998, Thompson's stories were published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc as a series of four paperbacks, "The Adventures of Dougal", "The Adventures of Brian", "The Adventures of Dylan" and "The Adventures of Ermintrude" with forewords by his daughter Emma Thompson. While "The Adventures of Dougal" featured republications of three exclusive book stories, the latter three featured scripts from the TV series. She explains that her father had felt that he was most like Brian of all the characters and that Ermintrude was in some respects based upon his wife, Phyllida Law.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: For years, the series had re-runs on Cartoon Network, and was later moved to its sister channel, Boomerang. These airings mainly used episodes from the 1974 series, which have been re-narrated by Jimmy Hibbert (who, unlike the previous British dubs, actually translated the French scripts, though not entirely verbatim), though some episodes from the Nigel Planer dub aired as well.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: The show's theme by Alain Legrand, was a cheerful organ tune. In the early black-and-white episodes, it was played more slowly with a degree of sadness. There were also two different additional theme songs for reruns of the original French version; the first, "C'est moi, Pollux" (1983), was a moderately popular single in France, while the theme from 1990 was an upbeat Hammond organ pop tune with children's vocals.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: Danot made a longer film, "Pollux et le chat bleu", in 1970 which was also adapted by Thompson and shown in Britain as "Dougal and the Blue Cat". The story centers around Dougal, who becomes suspicious when a blue cat arrives at the Magic Garden. It turned out the cat, named Buxton, was working for an unseen voice (named the Blue Voice) of an abandoned factory, who wanted to take over the garden and turn everything into the colour blue. Upon this takeover, the residents of the garden also ended up being imprisoned, except for Dougal, who made a plan to rescue his friends. Among the film's many highlights, Buxton made a disguised Dougal face his ultimate weakness by locking him in a room full of sugar. The Blue Voice was voiced by Fenella Fielding and was the only time that Eric Thompson called in another person to voice a character.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: In 2005, a film adaptation (also called "The Magic Roundabout") was released. The movie was about Dougal, Ermintrude, Brian and Dylan going on a quest to stop Zebadee's evil twin Zeebad, who intends on creating an eternal winter. It was made using modern computer animation, and adopted the approach of the original creator, Serge Danot, of giving each character its own voice rather than using a narrator. The voices included Tom Baker, Joanna Lumley, Ian McKellen, Jim Broadbent, Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams, Bill Nighy and Lee Evans. The film received mixed reviews, with a 60% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while "Total Film" ranked it as the 45th worst children's movie ever made. The two-disc special edition of the UK DVD of the film features five of the original "Magic Roundabout" episodes (including the English version of “Mr. Rusty Meets Zebedee”, The very first episode from 1965) on the second disc. They are all presented in the original black and white with the option of viewing them in English or in the original French.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: In 2006, the film was released in the U.S. as "Doogal". The majority of original British voices were replaced by celebrities more familiar to the American public, such as Whoopi Goldberg and Chevy Chase. Only two original voices remained: those of Kylie Minogue and Ian McKellen. The final North American version was panned. As of September 2020, it had an 8% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It received a score of 23 out of 100 ("generally unfavorable") on Metacritic, and an F rating from "Entertainment Weekly" magazine. It was also a financial failure, grossing a total of 7.2 million dollars in the United States, which is considered low by CGI animated film standards.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: In 2007, a new TV version of "The Magic Roundabout" was created, with 52 x 11-minute episodes. The series was produced by Action Synthese, Films Action, Ellipsanime and Play Production with the participation of M6, Nickelodeon UK and Disney Television France. The scripts and voices produced in the UK. Directed by Graham Ralph of Silver Fox Films and produced by Theresa Plummer Andrews.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: Using the CGI designed versions of the original characters from the 2005 movie also produced by Action Synthese, the only new characters taken from the film are Mr. Grimsdale the baker and Soldier Sam. The series takes place after the events of the 2005 film of the same name. The new series also created a few original characters of its own such as Fly and Dougal's Auntie Primrose.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: Every episode would begin with Zebedee giving a brief summary to the audience of what will happen, before the plot begins. The episodes would also end with Zebedee throwing a party after the problems have been solved, with Dylan droopily remarking, "I wish it was time for bed, man..." (in reference to the original series' quote "Time for bed") before drifting off to sleep.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: The series was first broadcast in the UK from Monday 22 October 2007 at 8.00 am on satellite channel Nick Jr. This series picks up where the 2005 film left off. It was also broadcast on the children's channel of China Central Television (CCTV-14) in Chinese during 2017 and was briefly available on Netflix in the US.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: On 6 October 2008, a Double DVD Bumper Pack Boxset of the 2007 reboot was released from Abbey Home Media, called "Dougal's Darling and The Wishing Tree". It featured 12 Season 1 episodes, all of which are in order except for the two titular episodes.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: In 2010, a second season of 52 11-minute episodes was created. This season included ZDF as an additional participator.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: In 1975, Jasper Carrott released "The Magic Roundabout" (originally featured on his first live LP "Jasper Carrot – In the Club"), a short, risqué comic monologue, parodying the children's TV series, as the B-side of a 7-inch single, featuring his comic song "Funky Moped" on the A-side. The record was a hit, reaching number 5 in the UK Singles Chart. The show's theme music also featured on two minor UK hit singles in 1991, "Summer's Magic" by Mark Summers and "Magic Style" by The Badman.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: In 1971, BBC Records released "The Magic Roundabout" (RBT 8), an LP containing 10 stories taken from the soundtracks of the TV series as told by Eric Thompson. The stories were: "Dougal's Experiment", "A Starry Night", "The Moody Concerto", "Dougal's Adventure", and "The Stiff Necked Heliotropes" on side one and "The Birds School", "The Piano Carrier", "Banana Skin", "The Musical Box", and "The Announcer" on side two. This album has been re-released twice on CD by the BBC, first in 2005 (BBC Audio:Children's) to coincide with the 'new' film and again in 2010 (Vintage Beeb), featuring the original LP artwork and a bonus interview with Eric Thompson.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: French soundtrack recordings were also issued in France in the 1960s on three EPs and again on an LP "Pollux" in 1983, along with an original single "C'est moi Pollux".


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: In 1999, the original film "Dougal and the Blue Cat" has released on video by Second Sight Television.


title: The Magic Roundabout

text: Apart from the original film "Dougal and the Blue Cat", the series has yet to receive any standalone release on DVD, but five of the original black-and-white episodes, including the series premiere, "Mr. Rusty Meets Zebedee", have been included as a bonus on the second disc of the UK Special Edition DVD of the 2005 CGI film. The other episodes included are "Camping", "Perfume", "Jumping Beans", and "Rocking Chair" from March 1967. Except for the series premiere, those four episodes also feature their original French versions with English subtitles.


title: Margarete Himmler

text: Margarete Himmler ("née" Boden), also known as Marga Himmler (9 September 1893 – 25 August 1967), was the wife of "Reichsführer-SS" Heinrich Himmler.


title: Margarete Himmler

text: Margarete Boden was born in Goncarzewo near Bromberg, the daughter of landowner Hans Boden and his wife Elfriede (née Popp). Margarete had three sisters (Elfriede, Lydia and Paula) and a brother. In 1909, she attended the Höhere Töchterschule (High School for Girls) in Bromberg, then a city in the German Empire (now Bydgoszcz, Poland). Himmler trained and worked as a nurse during the First World War followed by a stint at a German Red Cross hospital at the war's end.


title: Margarete Himmler

text: Her first marriage was short and produced no children. Due to the economic support of her father, she was able to operate and direct a private nursing clinic in Berlin.


title: Margarete Himmler

text: Himmler met his future wife, Margarete Boden, in 1927. They met during one of his lecture tours and remained thereafter in written contact. In one surviving letter, Boden refers to Heinrich Himmler as the "Landsknecht with the hard heart" but she was nevertheless impressed by his romantic style of writing and his sincere love for her. The blonde, blue-eyed nurse corresponded perfectly to Heinrich Himmler's ideal woman.


title: Margarete Himmler

text: Seven years his senior, Boden shared his interest in herbal medicine and homoeopathy, and was part owner of a small private clinic. They shared an excessive propensity for efficiency, neatness, longed for strict domesticity, and both preferred a parsimonious lifestyle. From her husband she received a consistent diet of anti-Semitism and diatribes against Communists and Freemasons. Her anti-Semitism was evident in a letter to Heinrich Himmler dated 22 June 1928, in which she made disparaging remarks about the co-owner of the private clinic in Berlin, gynaecologist and surgeon Bernhard Hauschildt, exclaiming, "That Hauschildt! Those Jews are all the same!"