title: Overpopulation

text: Humans are blamed as the ultimate cause for the increase, directly and indirectly, due to management legislation limiting hunting introduced specifically in order to protect bird populations, but most importantly due to the increase in agriculture and large parks, which has had the effect of creating vast amounts of unintentional sanctuaries filled with food. Urban geese flocks have increased enormously. City ordinances generally prohibit discharging firearms, keeping such flocks safe, and there is abundant food. Geese profit from agricultural grain crops, and seem to be shifting their habitat preferences to such farmlands. Ironically, the creation of wildlife refuges may have exacerbated this: as geese overpopulations destroyed the "Scirpus" salt marsh habitats that they were originally restricted to, this has speeded their conversion to adopt new feeding habitats, while maintaining roosting sites in refuges. The creation of wildlife refuges to protect wetland habitats in the continental United States from the 1930s to 1950s seems to have had the effect of disrupting the migration routes, as geese no longer fly as far south to Texas and Louisiana as they once did. Reduction of goose hunting in the US since the 1970s seems to have further had the effect of protecting populations. In Canada hunting has also decreased dramatically, from 43.384% harvest rates in the 1960s to 8% in the 1990s. Nonetheless, when kill rates were compared to populations, hunting alone does not seems to be solely responsible for the increase -weather or a not yet completed shift in habitat preference to agricultural land may also be factors. Although hunting may have formerly been the main factor in maintaining stable populations, ecologists no longer consider it a practical management solution, as public interest in the practice has continued to wane, and the population is now so large that the massive culls needed are unrealistic to ask from the public. Climate change in the Arctic would appear to be an obvious cause for the increase, but when subpopulations are correlated with local climatic increases, this does not seem to hold true, and furthermore, breeding regions seem to be shifting southwards anyway, irrespective of climate change.


title: Overpopulation

text: The nutrient subsidy provided by foraging in agricultural land has made the overall landscape use by geese unsustainable. Where such geese congregate local plant communities have been substantially altered; these chronic effects are cumulative, and have been considered a threat to the Arctic ecosystems, due to knock-on effects on native ducks, shorebirds and passerines. Grubbing and overgrazing by geese completely denudes the tundra and marshland, in combination with abiotic processes, this creates large desert expanses of hypersaline, anoxic mud which continue to increase each year -eventually these habitat changes become irreversible remaining in this state for decades. Biodiversity drops to only one or two species which are inedible for geese, such as "Senecio congestus", "Salicornia borealis" and "Atriplex hastata". Because grazing occurs in serial stages, with biodiversity decreasing at each stage, floral composition may be used as an indicator of the degree of goose foraging at a site. Other effects are destruction of the vegetation holding dunes in place, the shift from sedge meadows and grassy swards with herbaceous plants to moss fields, which can eventually give way to bare ground called 'peat barrens', and the erosion of this bare peat until glacial gravel and till is bared. In the High Arctic research is less developed: "Eriophorum scheuchzeri" and "E. angustifolium" fens appear to be affected, and are being replaced by carpets of moss, whereas meadows covered in "Dupontia fisheri" appear to be escaping destruction. There does not appear to be the damage found at lower latitudes in the Arctic. There is little proper research in effects on other birds. The yellow rail ("Coturnicops noveboracensis") appears to be extirpated from areas of Manitoba due habitat loss caused by the geese, whereas on the other hand the semipalmated plover ("Charadrius semipalmatus") appears to be taking advantage of the large areas of dead willows as a breeding ground.


title: Overpopulation

text: In the wintering grounds in continental USA, effects are much less pronounced. Experimentally excluding geese by means of fencing in North Carolina has found heavily affected areas can regenerate after only two years. Bulrush stands ("Schoenoplectus americanus") are still an important component of the diet, but there are indications the bulrush is being impacted, with soft mudflats gradually replacing areas where it grows.


title: Overpopulation

text: Damage to agriculture is primarily to seedlings, winter wheat and hay production. Changing the species composition to species less palatable to geese, such as "Lotus" may alleviate losses in hay operations. Geese also feed on agricultural land without causing economic loss, gleaning seeds from corn, soya or other grains and feeding on wheat, potato and corn stubble. In Québec crop damage insurance for the hay industry began in 1992 and claims increased yearly; actual compensation paid by the government, including administrative costs, amount to some half a million dollars a year.


title: Overpopulation

text: The fact that Arctic regions are remote, there is little public understanding for combatting the problem, and ecologists as yet do not have any effective solutions for combatting the problem anyway. In Canada, the most important hunters of geese are the Cree people around Hudson Bay, members of the Mushkegowuk Harvesters Association, with an average kill rate of up to 60.75 birds per species per hunter in the 1970s. Kill rates have dropped, with hunters taking only half as much in the 1990s. However, total numbers of kills have increased, i.e. there are more hunters, but they are killing less per person. Nonetheless, per household the kills are approximately the same, at 100 birds. This indicates that stimulating an increase in native hunting might be difficult to achieve. The Cree population has increased. Elders say the taste of the birds has gotten worse, and they are thinner, both possibly effects due to the overpopulation. Elders also say that hunting has gotten more difficult, because there are less young and goslings, which are more likely to fall for decoys. Inuit and other people in the north do much less hunting of geese, with kill rates of 1 to 24 per species per hunter. Per kilogram, hunters save some $8.14 to $11.40 from buying poultry at stores. Total kill numbers from hunters elsewhere in the US and southern Canada has been falling steadily. This is blamed on a decline in people interested in hunting, more feeding areas for the birds, and larger flocks with more experienced adult birds which makes decoying difficult. Individual hunters are bagging higher numbers, compensating lower hunter numbers.


title: Overpopulation

text: Management strategies in the USA include increasing the bag limit and the number of open hunting days, goose egg addling, trapping and relocation, and egg and nest destruction, managing habitat to make it less attractive to geese, harassment and direct culling. In Denver, Colorado, during moulting season biologists rounded up 300Canada geese (of 5,000 in the city), ironically on Canada Day, killing them and distributing the meat to needy families (as opposed to sending it to a landfill), to try to curb the number of geese, following such programs in New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Maryland. Complaints about the birds were that they had taken over the golf courses, pooped all over the place, devoured native plants and scared citizens. Such culls have proven socially controversial, with intense backlash by some citizens. Park officials had tried dipping eggs in oil, using noise-makers and planting tall plants, but this was not sufficient.


title: Overpopulation

text: In Russia, the problem does not seem to exist, likely due to human harvest and local long-term cooling climate trends in the Russian Far East and Wrangel Island.


title: Overpopulation

text: It is also possible that the population growth is completely natural, and that when the carrying capacity of the environment is reached the population will stop growing. For organisations such as Ducks Unlimited, the resurgence of goose populations in North America can be called one of the greatest success story in wildlife management. By 2003 the US goose harvest was approaching 4 million, three times the numbers 30 years ago.


title: Overpopulation

text: In the United States, over half of the households own a dog or a cat. Even with so much pet ownership there is still an issue with pet overpopulation, especially seen in shelters. Because of this problem it is estimated that between 10 and 25 percent of dogs and cats are killed yearly. The animals are killed humanely, but the goal is to greatly lower and eventually completely avoid this. Estimating the overpopulation of pets, especially cats and dogs, is a difficult task, but it has been a continuous problem. It has been hard to determine the number of shelters and animals in each shelter around even just the US. Animals are constantly being moved around or euthanized, so it is difficult to keep track of those numbers across the country. It is becoming universally agreed upon that sterilization is a tool that can help reduce population size so that less offspring are produced in the future With less offspring, pet populations can start to decrease which reduces the amount that get killed each year.


title: Overpopulation

text: In the wild, rampant population growth of prey species often causes growth in the populations of predators. Such predator-prey relationships can form cycles, which are usually mathematically modelled as Lotka–Volterra equations.


title: Overpopulation

text: In natural ecosystems, predator population growth lags just behind the prey populations. After the prey population crashes, the overpopulation of predators causes the entire population to be subjected to mass starvation. The population of the predator drops, as less young are able to survive into adulthood. This could be considered a perfect time for wildlife managers to allow hunters or trappers to harvest as much of these animals as necessary, for example lynx in Canada, although on the other hand this may impact the ability of the predator to rebound when the prey population begins to exponentially increase again. Such mathematical models are also crucial in determining the amount of fish which may be sustainably harvested in fisheries, this is known as the maximum sustainable yield.


title: Overpopulation

text: Predator population growth has the effect of controlling the prey population, and can result in the evolution of prey species in favour of genetic characteristics that render it less vulnerable to predation (and the predator may co-evolve, in response).


title: Overpopulation

text: In the absence of predators, species are bound by the resources they can find in their environment, but this does not necessarily control overpopulation, at least in the short term. An abundant supply of resources can produce a population boom followed by a population crash. Rodents such as lemmings and voles have such population cycles of rapid growth and subsequent decrease. Snowshoe hares populations similarly cycle dramatically, as did those of one of their predators, the lynx. Another example is the cycles among populations of grey wolves and moose in Isle Royale National Park. For some still unexplained reason, such patterns in mammal population dynamics are more prevalent in ecosystems found at more arctic latitudes.


title: Overpopulation

text: Some species such as locusts experience large natural cyclic variations, experienced by farmers as plagues.


title: Overpopulation

text: When determining whether a population is overpopulated a variety of factors must be looked at. Given complexity of the issue, often it is determined by scientist and wildlife management as to what constitutes such a claim. In many cases scientists will look to food sources and living space to gauge the abundance of a species in a particular area. National parks collect extensive data on the activities and quality of the environment they are established in. This data can be used to track whether a specific species is consuming larger amounts of their desired food source over time.


title: Overpopulation

text: This is done typically in four ways, the first being "total counting". Researchers will use aerial photography to count large populations in a specific area such as deer, waterfowl, and other "flocking" or "herd" animals. Incomplete counts involve counting a small subsection of a population and extrapolating the data across the whole area. This method will take into account the behavior of the animals such as how much territory a herd may cover, the density of the population, and other potential factors that may come into question.


title: Overpopulation

text: The third method is "indirect counts" ; this is done by looking at the environment for signs of animal presence. Typically done by counting fecal matter or dens/nesting of a particular animal. This method is not an accurate method, but gives general counts of a population in a specific locale.


title: Overpopulation

text: Lastly the method of mark-recapture is used extensively to determine general population sizes. This method involves the trapping of animals after which some form of tag is placed on the animal and it is released back into the wild. After which, other trappings will determine population size based on the number of marked versus unmarked animals.


title: Overpopulation

text: similar methods can be used to determine the population of fish however some key differences arise in the extrapolation of data. Unlike many land animals in-land fish populations are divided into smaller population sizes. Factors such as migration may not be relevant when determining population in a specific locales while more important for others such as the many species of salmon or trout. Monitoring of waterways and isolated bodies of water provide more frequently updated information on the populations in specific areas. This is done using similar methods to the mark-recapture methods of many land animals.


title: Overpopulation

text: The introduction of a foreign species has often caused ecological disturbance, such as when deer and trout were introduced into Argentina, or when rabbits were introduced to Australia and when predators were introduced in turn to attempt to control the rabbits.


title: Overpopulation

text: When an introduced species is so successful that its population begins to increase exponentially and causes deleterious effects to farmers, fisheries or the natural environment, these introduced species are called invasive species.


title: Overpopulation

text: In the case of the Mute swan, "Cygnus olor", their population has rapidly spread across much of North America as well as parts of Canada and western Europe. This species of swan has caused much concern for wildlife management as they damage aquatic vegetation, and harass other waterfowl, dislocating them. The population of the Mute swan has seen an average increase of around 10-18% per year which further threatens to impact the areas they inhabit. Management of the species comes in a variety of ways. Similar to overpopulated or invasive species, hunting is one of the most effective methods of population control. Other methods may involve trapping, relocation, or euthanasia.


title: Overpopulation

text: In natural ecosystems, populations naturally expand until they reach the carrying capacity of the environment; if the resources on which they depend are exhausted, they naturally collapse. According to the animal rights movement, calling this an 'overpopulation' is more an ethics question than a scientific fact. Animal rights organisations are commonly critics of ecological systems and wildlife management. Animal rights activists and locals earning income from commercial hunts counter that scientists are outsiders who do not know wildlife issues, and that any slaughter of animals is evil.


title: Overpopulation

text: Various case studies indicate that use of cattle as 'natural grazers' in many European nature parks due to absence of hunting, culling or natural predators (such as wolves),may cause an overpopulation because the cattle do not migrate. This has the effect of reducing plant biodiversity, as the cattle consume native plants. Because such cattle populations begin to starve and die in the winter as available forage drops, this has caused animal rights activists to advocate supplemental feeding, which has the effect of exacerbating the ecological effects, causing nitrification and eutrophication due to excess faeces, deforestation as trees are destroyed, and biodiversity loss.


title: Overpopulation

text: Despite the ecological effects of overpopulation, wildlife managers may want such high populations in order to satisfy public enjoyment of seeing wild animals. Others contend that introducing large predators such as lynx and wolves may have similar economic benefits, even if tourists rarely actually catch glimpses of such creatures.


title: Overpopulation

text: In regards to population size, most of the methods used give estimates that vary in accuracy to the actual size and density of the population. Criticisms of theses methods generally fall onto the efficacy of methods used.


title: Overpopulation

text: Overpopulation can result from an increase in births, a decline in mortality rates against the background of high fertility rates. It is possible for very sparsely populated areas to be overpopulated if the area has a meagre or non-existent capability to sustain life (e.g. a desert). Advocates of population moderation cite issues like quality of life and risk of starvation and disease and human pressures on the environment as a basis to argue against continuing high human population growth and for population decline.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich (Соломон Наумович Рабинович), better known under his pen name Sholem Aleichem (Yiddish and , also spelled in Soviet Yiddish, ; Russian and ) (May 13, 1916), was a Yiddish author and playwright who lived in the Russian Empire and in the United States. The 1964 musical "Fiddler on the Roof", based on Aleichem's stories about Tevye the Dairyman, was the first commercially successful English-language stage production about Jewish life in Eastern Europe.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: The Hebrew phrase שלום עליכם (shalom aleichem) literally means "[May] peace [be] upon you!", and is a greeting in traditional Hebrew and Yiddish.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: Solomon Naumovich (Sholom Nohumovich) Rabinovich () was born in 1859 in Pereiaslav and grew up in the nearby "shtetl" of , in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire (now in the Kiev Oblast of central Ukraine). (Voronkiv has become the prototype of Aleichem's Kasrilevka.) His father, Menachem-Nukhem Rabinovich, was a rich merchant at that time. However, a failed business affair plunged the family into poverty and Solomon Rabinovich grew up in reduced circumstances. When he was 13 years old, the family moved back to Pereiaslav, where his mother, Chaye-Esther, died in a cholera epidemic.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: Sholem Aleichem's first venture into writing was an alphabetic glossary of the epithets used by his stepmother. At the age of fifteen, he composed a Jewish version of the novel "Robinson Crusoe". He adopted the pseudonym "Sholem Aleichem," a Yiddish variant of the Hebrew expression "shalom aleichem," meaning "peace be with you" and typically used as a greeting.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: In 1876, after graduating from school in Pereiaslav, he began to work as a teacher. During 1877-1880 in Sofijka village, Bohuslav region, he spent three years tutoring a wealthy landowner's daughter, Olga (Hodel) (1865–1942). From 1880 to 1883 he served as crown rabbi in Lubny.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: On May 12, 1883, he and Olga married, against the wishes of her father, whose estate they inherited a few years later. Their first child, a daughter named Ernestina (Tissa), was born in 1884. In 1890, Sholem Aleichem lost their entire fortune in stock speculation and fled from his creditors. Daughter Lyalya (Lili) was born in 1887. As Lyalya Kaufman, she became a Hebrew writer. (Lyalya's daughter Bel Kaufman, also a writer, was the author of "Up the Down Staircase", which was also made into a successful film.) A third daughter, Emma, was born in 1888. In 1889, Olga gave birth to a son. They named him Elimelech, after Olga's father, but at home they called him Misha. Daughter Marusi (who would one day publish "My Father, Sholom Aleichem" under her married name Marie Waife-Goldberg) was born in 1892. A final child, a son named Nochum (Numa) after Solomon's father was born in 1901 (under the name Norman Raeben he became a painter and an influential art teacher).


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: After witnessing the pogroms that swept through southern Russia in 1905, including Kyiv, Sholem Aleichem left Kyiv (which was fictionalized as Yehupetz) and immigrated to New York City, where he arrived in 1906. His family set up house in Geneva, Switzerland, but when he saw he could not afford to maintain two households, he joined them in Geneva in 1908. Despite his great popularity, he was forced to take up an exhausting schedule of lecturing to make ends meet. In July 1908, during a reading tour in Russia, Sholem Aleichem collapsed on a train going through Baranowicze. He was diagnosed with a relapse of acute hemorrhagic tuberculosis and spent two months convalescing in the town's hospital. He later described the incident as "meeting his majesty, the Angel of Death, face to face", and claimed it as the catalyst for writing his autobiography, "Funem yarid" [From the Fair]. He thus missed the first Conference for the Yiddish Language, held in 1908 in Czernovitz; his colleague and fellow Yiddish activist Nathan Birnbaum went in his place.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: Sholem Aleichem spent the next four years living as a semi-invalid. During this period the family was largely supported by donations from friends and admirers (among his friends and acquaintances were fellow Yiddish authors I. L. Peretz, Jacob Dinezon, Mordecai Spector, and Noach Pryłucki). In 1909, in celebration of his 25th Jubilee as a writer, his friend and colleague Jacob Dinezon spearheaded a committee with Dr. Gershon Levine, Abraham Podlishevsky, and Noach Pryłucki to buy back the publishing rights to Sholem Aleichem’s works from various publishers for his sole use in order to provide him with a steady income. At a time when Sholem Aleichem was ill and struggling financially, this proved to be an invaluable gift, and Sholem Aleichem expressed his gratitude in a thank you letter in which he wrote,


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: Sholem Aleichem moved to New York City again with his family in 1914. The family lived at first in Harlem at 110 Lenox Avenue (at 116th Street) and later moved to 968 Kelly Street in the Bronx. His son, Misha, ill with tuberculosis, was not permitted entry under United States immigration laws and remained in Switzerland with his sister Emma.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: Sholem Aleichem died at his Bronx apartment in 1916. He is buried in the main (old) section of Mount Carmel Cemetery in Queens, New York City.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: Like his contemporaries Mendele Mocher Sforim, I.L. Peretz, and Jacob Dinezon, Sholem Rabinovitch started writing in Hebrew, as well as in Russian. In 1883, when he was 24 years old, he published his first Yiddish story, צוויי שטיינער "Tsvey Shteyner" ("Two Stones"), using for the first time the pseudonym Sholem Aleichem.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: By 1890 he was a central figure in Yiddish literature, the vernacular language of nearly all East European Jews, and produced over forty volumes in Yiddish. It was often derogatorily called "jargon", but Sholem Aleichem used this term in an entirely non-pejorative sense.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: Apart from his own literary output, Sholem Aleichem used his personal fortune to encourage other Yiddish writers. In 1888–89, he put out two issues of an almanac, די ייִדישע פאָלקסביבליאָטעק "Di Yidishe Folksbibliotek" ("The Yiddish Public Library") which gave important exposure to young Yiddish writers.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: In 1890, after he lost his entire fortune, he could not afford to print the almanac's third issue, which had been edited but was subsequently never printed.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: "Tevye the Dairyman", in Yiddish טבֿיה דער מילכיקער "Tevye der Milchiker", was first published in 1894.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: Over the next few years, while continuing to write in Yiddish, he also wrote in Russian for an Odessa newspaper and for "Voskhod", the leading Russian Jewish publication of the time, as well as in Hebrew for "Ha-melitz," and for an anthology edited by YH Ravnitzky. It was during this period that Sholem Aleichem contracted tuberculosis.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: In August 1904, Sholem Aleichem edited הילף : א זאַמלבוך פיר ליטעראטור אונ קונסט "Hilf: a Zaml-Bukh fir Literatur un Kunst" ("Help: An Anthology for Literature and Art"; Warsaw, 1904) and himself translated three stories submitted by Tolstoy ("Esarhaddon, King of Assyria"; "Work, Death and Sickness"; "The Three Questions") as well as contributions by other prominent Russian writers, including Chekhov, in aid of the victims of the Kishinev pogrom.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: Sholem Aleichem's narratives were notable for the naturalness of his characters' speech and the accuracy of his descriptions of shtetl life. Early critics focused on the cheerfulness of the characters, interpreted as a way of coping with adversity. Later critics saw a tragic side in his writing. He was often referred to as the "Jewish Mark Twain" because of the two authors' similar writing styles and use of pen names. Both authors wrote for adults and children and lectured extensively in Europe and the United States. When Twain heard of the writer called "the Jewish Mark Twain," he replied "please tell him that I am the American Sholem Aleichem."


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: Sholem Aleichem was an impassioned advocate of Yiddish as a national Jewish language, which he felt should be accorded the same status and respect as other modern European languages. He did not stop with what came to be called "Yiddishism", but devoted himself to the cause of Zionism as well. Many of his writings present the Zionist case. In 1888, he became a member of Hovevei Zion. In 1907, he served as an American delegate to the Eighth Zionist Congress held in The Hague.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: Sholem Aleichem had a fear of the number 13. His manuscripts never had a page 13; he numbered the thirteenth pages of his manuscripts as 12a. Though it has been written that even his headstone carries the date of his death as "May 12a, 1916", his headstone reads the dates of his birth and death in Hebrew, the 26th of Adar and the 10th of Iyar, respectively.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: Sholem Aleichem died in New York on May 13, 1916 from tuberculosis and diabetes, aged 57, while working on his last novel, "Motl, Peysi the Cantor's Son", and was buried at Old Mount Carmel cemetery in Queens. At the time, his funeral was one of the largest in New York City history, with an estimated 100,000 mourners. The next day, his will was printed in the "New York Times" and was read into the Congressional Record of the United States.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: Sholem Aleichem's will contained detailed instructions to family and friends with regard to burial arrangements and marking his "yahrtzeit".


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: He told his friends and family to gather, "read my will, and also select one of my stories, one of the very merry ones, and recite it in whatever language is most intelligible to you." "Let my name be recalled with laughter," he added, "or not at all." The celebrations continue to the present day, and, in recent years, have been held at the Brotherhood Synagogue on Gramercy Park South in New York City, where they are open to the public.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: In 1997, a monument dedicated to Sholem Aleichem was erected in Kiev; another was erected in 2001 in Moscow.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: The main street of Birobidzhan is named after Sholem Aleichem; streets were named after him also in other cities in the Soviet Union, including Kiev, Odessa, Vinnytsia, Lviv, and Zhytomyr. In New York City in 1996, East 33rd Street between Park and Madison Avenue is additionally named "Sholem Aleichem Place". Many streets in Israel are named after him.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: Postage stamps of Sholem Aleichem were issued by Israel (Scott #154, 1959); the Soviet Union (Scott #2164, 1959); Romania (Scott #1268, 1959); and Ukraine (Scott #758, 2009).


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: On March 2, 2009, 150 years after his birth, the National Bank of Ukraine issued an anniversary coin depicting and celebrating Aleichem.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: Vilnius, Lithuania has a Jewish school named after him and in Melbourne, Australia a Yiddish school, Sholem Aleichem College is named after him. Several Jewish schools in Argentina were also named after him.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil a library named BIBSA – Biblioteca Sholem Aleichem was founded in 1915 as a Zionist institution by a local Jewish group. Next year, in 1916 same group that created BIBSA, founded a Jewish school named Escola Sholem Aleichem that was closed in 1997. BIBSA had a very active theatrical program in Yiddish for more than 50 years since its foundation and consistently performed Sholem Aleichem plays. In 1947 BIBSA became Associação Sholem Aleichem, under which name it continues to exist. Both the library and club became communist institutions due to a normal transition of power in the founding group, although non-communist members left to found their own school, Colégio Eliezer Steinbarg, in 1956. It is named after the first director of Escola Sholem Aleichem, a Jewish writer born in Romania who immigrated to Brazil.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: In the Bronx, New York, a housing complex called The Shalom Aleichem Houses was built by Yiddish speaking immigrants in the 1920s, and was recently restored by new owners to its original grandeur. The Shalom Alecheim Houses are part of a proposed historic district in the area.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: On May 13, 2016 a Sholem Aleichem website was launched to mark the 100th anniversary of Sholem Aleichem's death. The website is a partnership between Sholem Aleichem's family, his biographer Professor Jeremy Dauber, Citizen Film, Columbia University's Center for Israel and Jewish Studies, The Covenant Foundation, and The Yiddish Book Center. The website features interactive maps and timelines, recommended readings, as well as a list of centennial celebration events taking place worldwide. The website also features resources for educators.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: Hertz Grosbard recited many of his works in so called "word concerts". A reading in Yiddish of his monologue "If I Were a Rothschild" and several others can be found on the Grosbard Project.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: Writer's brother Wolf Rabinovich published the memoir "My Brother Sholom Aleichem" in Kiev, Soviet Union, in 1939.


title: Sholem Aleichem

text: Sholem Aleichem's granddaughter, Bel Kaufman, by his daughter Lala (Lyalya), was an American author, most widely known for her novel, "Up the Down Staircase", published in 1964, which was adapted to the stage and also made into a motion picture in 1967, starring Sandy Dennis.


title: Krondon

text: Marvin Jones III (born July 9, 1976), also known as Krondon, is an American rapper and actor from Los Angeles, California. He is a member of the group Strong Arm Steady, along with rappers Phil Da Agony and Mitchy Slick. As an actor Jones portrays the character Tobias Whale in The CW superhero television series "Black Lightning", and voices Tombstone in the superhero film "".


title: Krondon

text: Strong Arm Steady formed in 2003, and released its debut album "Deep Hearted" in 2007 followed by the mixtape "Gang Mentality", the conceptual album "In Search of Stoney Jackson" and their most recent installment, "Arms & Hammers".


title: Krondon

text: Krondon collaborated with Shafiq Husayn (Sa-Ra Creative Partners) under the group name "White Boiz," releasing the 2015 album "Neighborhood Wonderful" on Stones Throw Records.


title: Eventual consistency

text: Eventual consistency is a consistency model used in distributed computing to achieve high availability that informally guarantees that, if no new updates are made to a given data item, eventually all accesses to that item will return the last updated value. Eventual consistency, also called optimistic replication, is widely deployed in distributed systems and has origins in early mobile computing projects. A system that has achieved eventual consistency is often said to have converged, or achieved replica convergence. Eventual consistency is a weak guarantee – most stronger models, like linearizability, are trivially eventually consistent.


title: Eventual consistency

text: Eventually-consistent services are often classified as providing BASE semantics (basically-available, soft-state, eventual consistency), in contrast to traditional ACID (atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability). In chemistry, a base is the opposite of an acid, which helps in remembering the acronym. According to the same resource, these are the rough definitions of each term in BASE:


title: Eventual consistency

text: Eventual consistency is sometimes criticized as increasing the complexity of distributed software applications. This is partly because eventual consistency is purely a liveness guarantee (reads eventually return the same value) and does not guarantee safety: an eventually consistent system can return any value before it converges.


title: Eventual consistency

text: In order to ensure replica convergence, a system must reconcile differences between multiple copies of distributed data. This consists of two parts:


title: Eventual consistency

text: The most appropriate approach to reconciliation depends on the application. A widespread approach is "last writer wins". Another is to invoke a user-specified conflict handler. Timestamps and vector clocks are often used to detect concurrency between updates. Some people use "first writer wins" in situations where "last writer wins" is unacceptable.


title: Eventual consistency

text: Reconciliation of concurrent writes must occur sometime before the next read, and can be scheduled at different instants:


title: Eventual consistency

text: Whereas eventual consistency is only a liveness guarantee (updates will be observed eventually), strong eventual consistency (SEC) adds the safety guarantee that any two nodes that have received the same (unordered) set of updates will be in the same state. If, furthermore, the system is monotonic, the application will never suffer rollbacks. A common approach to ensure SEC is conflict-free replicated data types.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Yaroslavl () is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historic part of the city is a World Heritage Site, and is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl rivers. It is part of the Golden Ring, a group of historic cities northeast of Moscow that have played an important role in Russian history. Population:


title: Yaroslavl

text: The city lies in the eastern portion of Yaroslavl Oblast. The nearest large towns are Tutayev ( to the northwest), Gavrilov-Yam ( to the south), and Nerekhta ( to the southeast). The historic center of Yaroslavl lies to the north of the mouth of the Kotorosl River on the right bank of the larger Volga River. The city's entire urban area covers around and includes a number of territories south of the Kotorosl and on the left bank of the Volga.


title: Yaroslavl

text: With nearly 600,000 residents, Yaroslavl is, by population, the largest town on the Volga until it reaches Nizhny Novgorod. It is a large transport node, and a great number of important national and regional roads, railways, and waterways pass through the city. Many of the roads that connect Yaroslavl to Moscow and beyond are two-lane highways.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Yaroslavl and its respective oblast are located in the central area of the East European Plain, which in areas to the northeast of Moscow is characterized by rolling hills and a generally uneven landscape; however, most of these hills are no larger than in height. Typical for this region, the area in and around Yaroslavl is rich in mixed and coniferous forests. In addition to these, there are also large areas of swampland.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Yaroslavl and its local area have a typical temperate continental climate, in comparison to central and western Europe. This makes for a climate of snowier, colder, and drier winters, and typically temperate, warmer summers.


title: Yaroslavl

text: The winter weather in Yaroslavl begins in about November and usually goes on for five months, into spring. The coldest month of the year is typically January, with an average temperature of . However, at this time it is not uncommon for temperatures to drop below . In some cases (for example, most recently in January 2006), temperatures of can be experienced. Record low is . On the other hand, Yaroslavl can also experience positive temperatures during this time of the year (for example, in 1932, when a thaw lasted for seventeen days of January). Typically the Volga freezes over during the winter. Snow cover is usually , but can in some cases be up to in depth. The springtime months are best characterized by a typical lack of precipitation. From the end of March into April, there is often a thaw, and much of the ice and snow melts to reveal foliage underneath. It is not uncommon for temperatures in April to reach . Summers in Yaroslavl are typically wet with some heavy rainstorms. The summer often reaches its hottest point during the months of June/July, with a mean daily temperature of and often days over . From September begins the two-month-long fall, which is characterized by relatively high humidity, fewer sunny days, and unpredictable temperatures (it is possible to first see ground frost in September). The average amount of precipitation during a year is , of which (the most precipitation in one month) falls in July. The very least precipitation occurs in winter and spring (particularly in February and March).


title: Yaroslavl

text: The following figures for precipitation and temperature values in Yaroslavl have been collated on the basis of data from the years 1961–1990.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Reportedly the capital of an independent Principality of Yaroslavl from 1218, it was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Moscow in 1463.


title: Yaroslavl

text: In the 17th century, it was Russia's second-largest city, and for a time (during the Polish occupation of Moscow in 1612), the country's de facto capital. Today, Yaroslavl is an important industrial center (petrochemical plant, tire manufacturing plant, diesel engines plant and many others). It developed at the confluence of major rivers, which were important for transportation and, later, for power. Because of the city's importance, several major railways and later highways were constructed to intersect here.


title: Yaroslavl

text: The oldest settlement in the city is to be found on the left bank of the Volga River in front of the Strelka (a small cape at the confluence of the Volga and Kotorosl); this dates from the 5th–3rd millennium BCE.


title: Yaroslavl

text: In the 9th century the so-called Russian Khanate formed, near Yaroslavl, a large Scandinavian-Slavic settlement in Timerevo. It is known for a surviving range of burial mounds. When excavations were carried out, a large number of artifacts, including Scandinavian weapons with runic inscriptions, chess pieces, and the largest collection of Arabian coins (treasure) in northern Europe (the earliest were struck in the first Idrisid), were found. In Timerevo the fourth set of Scandinavian brooches ever found in Russia was discovered. Apparently, this "proto-Yaroslavl" was a major center for the Volga trade route. Soon after the founding of Yaroslavl, the settlement went into decline, probably in connection with the termination of the operation of the Volga trade route. Upstream of the Volga River, just outside the boundaries of the modern city, archaeologists have studied a large necropolis with a predominance of ordinary graves of the Finno-Ugric-type.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Based on its earliest date of foundation, Yaroslavl is the oldest of all the existing towns on the Volga. Yaroslavl was founded by Yaroslav the Wise, a prince of Kievan Rus', during the period of his ruling the Principality of Rostov (988—1010) when he stepped ashore for the first time near the area now known as 'Strelka.' This is used as a contemporary park. On this spot, which was well protected from attack by the high, steep banks of the Volga, Kotorosl and Medveditsa rivers, Yaroslavl and his men began to set about building the first Yaroslavl Kremlin. The first recorded event of Yaroslavl occurred as a result of famine; it was recorded as the Rostov Uprising of 1071. The name of the city is traditionally linked to that of its founder: Yaroslav.


title: Yaroslavl

text: By the 12th century, the Petropavlovsky and Spaso-Preobrazhensky monasteries of Yaroslavl had already been developed. At that time, they were located well beyond the city limits, but the city later grew to encompass these institutions. During its first two centuries, Yaroslavl remained a minor fortified city of the Rostov-Suzdal lands.


title: Yaroslavl

text: From the beginning of the thirteenth century, Yaroslavl was ruled by the lordship of Konstantin and became one of his primary residences. Just before his death in 1218, Konstantin broke up his land among his various sons, bequeathing the Yaroslave land to his second son Vsevolod. The son ruled it as the Principality of Yaroslavl. This principality, of which Yaroslavl became the capital, included a number of territories to the north and operated independently until its eventual absorption in 1463 into the Principality of Moscow.


title: Yaroslavl

text: During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Yaroslavl was a city largely built from wood, as a result of which it often found itself plagued by disastrous fires, which in some cases almost destroyed the entire city, a good example of which would be that which took place just before the transfer of power in the city to Vsevolod on 1221. Another constant source of danger for the city and for the many Russian princes of the time came from the East and the many foreign invaders, usually from the Mongol Horde. A particularly successful attack took place in 1257, when troops from the Golden Horde under Möngke Khan overran the Principality of Yaroslavl and murdered both the larger population of the area and the prince's close family. On the site of that unfortunate event, on the right bank of the Kotorosl, there is now a memorial church and cross. A mass grave containing at least 300 bodies of victims of a Mongol invasion in the year 1238, was discovered during an excavation in 2005.


title: Yaroslavl

text: In 1293 and 1322 there were further disastrous attacks on Yaroslavl launched by the Golden Horde, and in 1278 and 1364 the Plague struck. On many an occasion Yaroslavl had to be completely rebuilt, both in terms of residential buildings which no longer exist, to those larger more permanent structures which remain to this day, such as the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery and 1314 Monastery of Maria of Tolga, which is located on the left bank of the Volga. In 1463 the Principality of Yaroslavl was finally absorbed into the Grand-duchy of Moscow, with the area it once covered becoming an oblast within the new structure of the Muscovite state. From this point onwards the history of the city and its lands became completely inseparable from that of Moscow and eventually Russia.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Even in the 16th century, Yaroslavl continued to suffer from large scale fires and the damage they did to the city's developing economy and infrastructure. As a result, the age old tradition of building in wood was abandoned and a new city built of stone began to appear; unfortunately, this meant that very little of the Yaroslavl of the Middle Ages remained unchanged. The most prominent example of this is the Spaso-Preobrazhensky monastery which was destroyed in 1501 and rebuilt in just under a few years. Resultantly the monastery's cathedral was built up in 1506–1516, a building which remains, to this day, the oldest unchanged building in the city. By the middle of the sixteenth century, a number of other building works had been completed in the monastery, also, other than this, for the first time in its history, Yaroslavl gained a stone-built wall with a number of large watchtowers which were intended to be used to spot attackers from miles away. During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, when all the Russian principalities gave up their traditional rights and submitted to the Tsardom of Russia, the two large monasteries of Yaroslavl profited very much from rich gifts from the court of the Tsar, largely because Ivan IV made a number of pilgrimages to Yaroslavl over the course of his life.


title: Yaroslavl

text: New building works were also made affordable by a large upswing in Yaroslavl's economic fortunes which the city experienced in the middle part of the 16th century. The main reason for this largely unexpected improvement in Yaroslavl's fortunes came largely from the city's position on the Volga which allowed trade to be brought from and to Moscow via the river, linking the new Russian capital with the port of Archangelsk darstellte. Resultantly Yaroslavl became an important place for the conduct of international trade and a number of shipping berths and warehouses grew up around the city for the use of merchants, especially those from England and Germany.


title: Yaroslavl

text: The economic prosperity of Yaroslavl during the late 16th century was put to an end by the unsteady years of troubles which lasted from around 1598 until 1613. Like most Russian cities of the time, Yaroslavl was devastated by famine and became a potential target city for Polish-Lithuanian troops acting in their capacity as 'interventionists' in the troubled Russian state. The Polish-Lithuanian-supported pretender to the Russian throne captured Karachev, Bryansk, and other towns, was reinforced by the Poles, and in the spring of 1608 advanced upon Moscow, routing the army of Tsar Vasily Shuisky at Bolkhov. Promises of the wholesale confiscation of the estates of the boyars drew many common people to his side. The village of Tushino, twelve versts from the capital, was converted into an armed camp where Dmitry gathered his army. Resultantly this pretender won the appreciation of the powers in Yaroslavl and thus their loyalty. However, despite having promised to pay a higher rate of taxes and dues to the Polish occupiers, Yaroslavl was on numerous occasions plundered by the forces of the pretender Dmitry. This led to a number of popular uprisings. Thus in early 1609, a Russian peasant army was formed to free as many of the Volga's cities as possible, including, among others, Vologda and Yaroslavl.


title: Yaroslavl

text: In May 1609, another Polish army under the command of Aleksander Józef Lisowski tried to bring the strategically important city of Yaroslavl under the power of the invaders. However, the majority of the city's citizens had withdrawn into the center of the city and found refuge behind the protective earthen wall, thus denying the Poles entry without a fight. Yet even when Lisowski successfully (through deceit) managed to get behind this wall, he found that the citizens of Yaroslavl had retreated into their ancient wooden Kremlin and the two stone-built monasteries. The ensuing siege of Yaroslavl lasted until 22 May, but despite constant attempts to take the city, the Poles had to return to Moscow having not fulfilled their duty to bring Yaroslavl under direct control of their command.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Despite their failure at Yaroslavl, Polish forces remained in control of Moscow, and despite an attempt in 1610 by the Russian peasants' army to unseat the Poles from the Moscow Kremlin, little was accomplished and there seemed no end in sight for the occupation of the Russian tsardom. One year later, however, Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky founded yet another peasants' army in Nizhny Novgorod, that on the way to Moscow, found itself stationed in Yaroslavl for many months. In this time from April to June 1612, Yaroslavl became the "de facto" capital of Russia, since in this place the most important matters of state were settled until the eventual liberation of Moscow came. After its time in Yaroslavl the peasants' army moved on towards Moscow, and with thanks to the rest and help they had received voluntarily from the people of Yaroslavl, the army was able to liberate Moscow and finally put an end to the Polish-Lithuanian 'intervention' in the affairs of the Russian state.


title: Yaroslavl

text: With the general economic revival of the Russian state's economy after the end of the Troubles, Yaroslavl continued to be an important trading post and retained its place on the route of numerous traditional trading routes from the West to East and vice versa. By way of the Volga trade was carried out with the lands of the Orient. The northern trade route through the city ran to the port of Arkhangelsk in Russia's far north, whilst other Eastern trade lines ran East over the Urals to Siberia. The town benefited very much from its geographical location over the years and the wealth which business produced for the town helped ensure its prosperous future. In fact, in the 17th century, a number of early industrial concerns were set up in the city, including a number of leather-working shops, in which around 700 people eventually came to work. Other trades for which Yaroslavl became a center over the years were in the production of textiles, cosmetics (fragrances) and silver work.


title: Yaroslavl

text: As a result of the prosperity enjoyed by the city, Yaroslavl saw a huge expansion in the size of its population over the course of the 17th century, and by the end of this century, the town had a population of around 15,000 people, making it the second-largest city of the Russian Tsardom after Moscow. This period was also particularly important for the urban development of the city because during the 17th century a multitude of stone-walled churches were built in the city; today these churches still form a major part of the old town's city center. Work on most of these churches was begun with funds gifted to the city by rich local merchants, and thus they had a large say in what form the buildings would eventually take.


title: Yaroslavl

text: In 1658, Yaroslavl endured a disastrous fire that destroyed most of the city's few remaining wooden buildings, including the ancient Kremlin. From this point onwards the city began to develop in the same way as it has done up to this very day, as a city built almost exclusively out of brick and mortar.


title: Yaroslavl

text: At the beginning of the 18th century Yaroslavl finally began to transform itself from a trading post into a major industrial town; this largely came about because with the foundation by Peter the Great of Saint Petersburg in 1703, the importance of Arkhangelsk as a port on the Northern Ocean was drastically decreased, and the amount of trade being channeled through the city for export fell accordingly. Luckily, the wealth which Yaroslavl had amassed over its many years as an important trading post allowed it to invest great amounts of money into the development of the city's new industrial base, and thus make the city very attractive to new investors. In 1772 the textiles factory of Ivan Tames opened on the right bank of the Kotorosl. This plant was not only Yaroslavl's first major industrial enterprise but also one of Russia's largest textiles producers. The establishment still exists today under the name 'Textile factory 'Krasny Perekop' (russ. ). In addition to the rise in textile manufacturing, Yaroslavl's traditional position as a center for skilled leatherwork remained unchanged.


title: Yaroslavl

text: In the 1770s, as a result of the city's economic development and ever-rising population, the city became a major provincial center, thus in the course of the Russian Empire's administrative reforms under Catherine the Great Yaroslavl, in 1777, became the center of its own governorate, and in 1778 received its own grant of arms. In 1796, the city finally became the seat of one of the Empire's new governorates. As an administrative center of the highest order, Yaroslavl, in 1778, received its own plan for urban development specially drawn out by Ivan Starov. This led to another wave of building works in the city, the results of which are still visible in the city today. With the Ilyinskaya Square and Church of Elijah the Prophet at its center, the new plan called for the development of a network of long boulevards and streets that would be bordered by large classical-style buildings and numerous city parks. A prominent example of this later development is the former House of Charity (built in 1786), which is now one of the buildings of the city's 'Demidov' State University.


title: Yaroslavl

text: For Yaroslavl, the 19th meant a period of intensive building work, infrastructural development and industrialization. In 1803 the 'School of Higher Sciences' was opened, this was the city's first educational institute and is recognized as the forerunner to the city's current state university. In 1812 the first permanent bridge (built near the Transfiguration Monastery) over the Kotorosl was finished, and by 1820 the city's Volga embankment was stabilized and turned into a large shaded promenade. Also, other major classicist building works were started, among which was the Governor's House (1821–1823) (today location of the city's gallery). In 1860 Yaroslavl was finally connected, through Moscow, via telegraph to the other major cities of Russia, and this was then soon followed, in 1870, by the building of Yaroslavl's first railway station and inauguration of Yaroslavl-Moscow railway. In 1873 the city gained municipal waterworks and by 1900 an electrified tramway. Just before the end of the 19th century in 1897, Yaroslavl had a recorded population of around 71,600 people.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Right up until the beginning of the First World War Yaroslavl remained a large industrial town with a well-developed municipal infrastructure. However, the effects of the 1917 October Revolution were wide-reaching, and after the Russian Civil War of 1917–1920 the city's economy suffered rather drastically; this led to a significant contraction of the city's population. The Yaroslavl Rebellion, which lasted from 6 to 21 July 1918 had particularly grave consequences. In this event, a group of conservative activists tried to remove the newly installed Bolshevik municipal authorities through an armed intervention. The rebels managed to secure a number of large parts of the city, however, this led only to an assault by the Red Army which saw the city surrounded, cut off from supplies and bombarded day and night with artillery and air forces. The rebellion was eventually put down, and ended with official figures putting the number of deaths among the city's residents at about 600, in addition to which around 2,000 of the city's buildings were either destroyed or badly damaged.


title: Yaroslavl

text: The economy of Yaroslavl took part in the early Soviet Union's program of accelerated industrialization. Milestones for this period include the opening of the city's first municipal power plant in 1926, the beginning of Synthetic rubber mass production in factory "SK-1", the reestablishment of domestic production facilities for the production of automobile and aircraft tires in the 1928-founded Yaroslavl Tyre Factory, and the opening of the rubber-asbestos combined works in 1933. In addition to all this, the Yaroslavl Automobile Works (founded 1916) continued to produce vehicles, including a number for the municipal transport administration of Moscow, well into the 1930s.


title: Yaroslavl

text: During the years of World War II, Yaroslavl managed to escape the prospect of German occupation, since the Wehrmacht did not manage to break through the Soviet defense lines surrounding Moscow. However, due to its location as a large transportation hub, and since the 1913-built railway bridge over the Volga in Yaroslavl was the only point at which to cross the river, the city became a major target for air raids during 1942–1943. During one of the heaviest of all these raids on 11 June 1943, over 120 of the city's inhabitants were killed, while another 150 or so were badly injured. In addition to this around 200 buildings (including one of the tire factory's main workshops) were completely destroyed. Most of the city's industry, including the automobile, tyre and textile plants, were converted, during the war, to produce armament and equipment for the Soviet Red Army. Overall about 200,000 people from the Yaroslavl area died on the fronts during World War II. This sacrifice is today memorialized through a monument and eternal flame which was opened near the mouth of the Kotorosl River in 1968.


title: Yaroslavl

text: During the Blockade of Leningrad a great number of children, who were brought over the frozen Lake Ladoga (the so-called Road of life) were evacuated to a safer new life in Yaroslavl. Yaroslavl was at the time also home to a camp for military prisoners of war 'Camp No. 276' for German soldiers imprisoned for taking part in hostilities against the Soviet Union.


title: Yaroslavl

text: In the second half of the century, the industrialization and development of the city took the foremost position in Yaroslavl's history. In 1961, an oil refinery was opened and from the 1960s a large number of residential districts began to spring up all over the city, including, for the first time in the city's history, on the left bank of the Volga, where development had traditionally not taken place. This left-bank development was further encouraged by the construction, in 1965, of a new Volga crossing for automobiles. In 1968 the city's population finally rose, for the first time, to over half a million inhabitants; it has been growing, almost constantly, ever since.


title: Yaroslavl

text: In July 2005 Yaroslavl's historic city center was inscribed onto the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The support for this was in line with the list's second (a unique example of the combining of cultural and architectural styles between Western Europe and the Russian Empire) and fourth (a unique example of urban development influenced by the Municipal Planning Reform in Russia of Empress Catherine the Great 1763–1830). In the same year, the preparations for the celebration of the millennium of Yaroslavl's foundation began; this was finally celebrated on the second weekend in September 2010. Under the conditions of the preparations for the city's 1000th anniversary, the municipal authorities invested a great deal of money into the development of the city's road and rail infrastructure, much of the funds for which were granted by the federal government in Moscow. Included in these preparations was the opening of a new bridge (in 2006) over the Volga; this is now known as the Jubilee Bridge. Also in August 2008, the newly built Yaroslavl Zoo was opened; this was then expanded further in 2010.


title: Yaroslavl

text: In 2009, Yaroslavl became a meeting place for global policy debates within the International Conference 'The Modern State and Global Security'. AKA Yaroslavl Global Policy Forum. The conference in Yaroslavl gathered the most authoritative representatives of political science, business community as well as the representatives of the governments of a number of different states. Dmitry Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation, José Luis Zapatero, Prime Minister of Spain and François Fillon, Prime Minister of France were all participants at the Conference.


title: Yaroslavl

text: In 2010, Russian officials gathered together with international authorities in Yaroslavl to discuss the challenges facing the modern state at the Global Policy Forum for 'The Modern State: Standards of Democracy and Criteria of Efficiency'. In 2011 Yaroslavl will bring together participants from all over the world to discuss the 2011 agenda: 'The modern state in the age of social diversity'.


title: Yaroslavl

text: On September 7, 2011, most of the members of the city's KHL (ice hockey) team, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, perished in the 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash on takeoff from Yaroslavl's Tunoshna Airport.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Yaroslavl currently has a coat of arms and a flag which are both made up of two heraldic symbols. Both of these items are intrinsically linked with the legend surrounding the foundation of the city; the bear and halberd.


title: Yaroslavl

text: The first coat of arms of Yaroslavl was officially granted on August 31, 1778. At that time it was made up of a silver field upon which the form of a bear was placed, and which, with its left forepaw held a golden halberd. In 1856 the coat of arms was modified slightly, which left the traditional image of the halberd-carrying bear as it was but added an imperial crown surmounted on top of the shield. In addition to this a sprig of golden oak leaves was added to surround the shield, intertwined with the blue ribbon of the Order of Saint Andrew. This form of the coat of arms was then left unaltered until 1918, just after the Bolsheviks came to power as a result of the October Revolution. After the abolition of the Tsarist municipal and provincial symbols by the newly installed Soviet administration in Yaroslavl, the city received no new official symbols, and thus the situation remained until the end of the twentieth century. The third and current version of the city's coat of arms was adopted on August 23, 1995 by the municipal council. The coloring and form of the arms are taken from those of 1856; however, the sprig of oak and ribbon of St. Andrew were removed and have not yet been reintroduced to the symbols of the city. In addition to this, the imperial crown which previously surmounted the whole design has been replaced, in the current version by the Cap of Monomakh—a symbol of the Russian autocracy and an otherwise powerful symbol of the Russian state.


title: Yaroslavl

text: The flag of Yaroslavl was adopted on May 22, 1996. It is a simple design that depicts the coat of arms of the city (1995 version), which must take up at least one-third of the flag's entire size, upon a light blue background. The whole flag is rectangular in shape.


title: Yaroslavl

text: The local government of Yaroslavl consists of the Mayoralty, the head of which is the mayor, and the Municipal Council, the members of which may cast votes at council meetings.


title: Yaroslavl

text: The mayoralty plays the role of the executive in the city's municipal administration. The mayor is elected by the city's electorate for four years in a direct election.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Between December 1991 and April 2012 this office has been held by Viktor Volonchunas, a member of the United Russia party.


title: Yaroslavl

text: In April 2012, Yevgeny Urlashov was elected the new mayor. However, on July 3, 2013, he was detained by police on charges of bribery extortion. On July 18, 2013, he was officially removed from his post and replaced with acting mayor Alexander Nechayev.


title: Yaroslavl

text: The Municipal Council of the city makes up the administration's legislative branch, thus effectively making it a city 'parliament' or city duma. The municipal council is made up of 36 elected members, who represent a certain district of the city for a four-year term. In the regular meetings of the municipal council, problems facing the city are discussed, and annually the city's budget is drawn up. The council also has a court of audit and four standing committees.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Each of the city's six districts has its own district administration, all of which are ultimately part of the city's administration.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Yaroslavl serves as the administrative center of the oblast and, within the framework of administrative divisions, it also serves as the administrative center of Yaroslavsky District, even though it is not a part of it. As an administrative division, it is incorporated as the city of oblast significance of Yaroslavl—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the city of oblast significance of Yaroslavl is incorporated as Yaroslavl Urban Okrug.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Yaroslavl is divided into six city districts. The center is located on the northern bank of the Kotorosl River, where it converges with the Volga on the Volga's western bank. The center is the economic and political hub of the city. It is also the oldest district in the city and where it was first settled. The center contains the majority of landmarks and attractions in the city, including the Volkov Theater, the Church of Elijah the Prophet, the football stadium, and the Volga embankment and the monastery, which is often mistakenly called the kremlin. Pyatyorka is located north of the center but is still under its administrative jurisdiction. Pyatyorka is largely a residential region with very few notable sites, aside from a few houses of culture.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Across the Kotorosl lie Frunzensky and Krasnoperekopsky City Districts, which are divided by Moskovsky Avenue. Frunzensky is a relatively new district, constructed in the post-war era. Most of the buildings are of typical grey Soviet construction. Frunzensky City District is divided into three microdistricts: Suzdalka, Dyadkovo, and Lipovaya Gora.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Krasnoperekopsky City District is one of the oldest parts in Yaroslavl. Before the 1917 Revolution, it was home to the bulk of Yaroslavl's industry, and a good deal of industry remains today. Krasnoperekopsky City District is divided into two micro-districts, one of which is Neftestroy, an up-and-coming region, named for its proximity to Yaroslavl's oil refinery. Neftestroy is home to the newly built hockey arena, and there were plans to build an indoor football stadium there by the millennial anniversary of Yaroslavl's founding in 2010. On the other side of the railway tracks that run through Krasnopereposky City District lies the Perekop proper. Today, Perekop is known as one of the most dangerous areas of Yaroslavl. It consists largely of run-down, pre-Soviet izbas and decaying factory buildings. There are plans to pump life into this depressed district, but at the time of writing, it remains extremely impoverished and dangerous. Much of Yaroslavl's mafia grew out of Perekop. Perekop has some of Yaroslavl's most notable churches, including the Church of Saint John the Baptist, which is located next to a paint factory on the Kotorosl embankment; and Peter and Paul's Cathedral, a Protestant-style Orthodox church.


title: Yaroslavl

text: North of the center there is a small industrial region, which is home to the tire factory, the engine plant, as well as many other smaller factories. Further north on the Western bank lies Dzerzhinsky City District, named after "Iron" Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Cheka, the Soviet secret police. Dzerzhinsky City District's core micro-district is Bragino, named after a small village that was eventually consumed by Yaroslavl's post-war expansion. Bragino is the largest area in Yaroslavl in terms of population, but like Frunzensky City District, it is largely a residential area, mostly consisting of middle- to lower-middle-income families.


title: Yaroslavl

text: On the other bank of the Volga lies Zavolzhsky City District. This city district was Yaroslavl's quietest and most-rural area, but now it is one of the most dynamic parts of the city with expansive new buildings with big hypermarkets, such as "Globus" and "Real". Birch and evergreen forests separate the apartment blocks.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Yaroslavl is one of the eight cities of Russia's Golden Ring, a group of touristic, historic towns around Moscow. Yaroslavl is situated on the north-eastern side of this 'ring' and is the largest city in its chain. While the city is best known for its architectural merits, it also has a relatively large repertoire of cultural attractions.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Despite the effects of the Russian Civil War and a number of air-raids during World War II, the city of Yaroslavl has managed to retain a great deal of its 17th, 18th and 19th-century urban substance. This has helped make the city recognized as a monument to the architectural development and style of the Russian Tsardom. The center of the city, which covers an area of around 600 hectares has around 140 individual federally-protected architectural monuments. Since 2005, this ensemble, along with the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery has been included on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Despite all this, there are a number of buildings of architectural merit which are located outside of the city center.


title: Yaroslavl

text: The old town is effectively triangular in shape; this triangle is formed by the natural border provided to the south and east by the Kotorosl and Volga rivers, and on the land side by the geometric pattern of the street plan, which dates from the 18th and 19th centuries.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Constructed in 1506–1516 on the foundations of the original edifice dating back to 1216–1224. In the 16th century, the first stone wall is built around the monastery. It is from this monastery that an army of volunteers led by Minin and Prince Pozharsky set out to liberate Moscow from Polish invaders. In 1787, the monastery was closed and converted into a residence of the Yaroslavl and Rostov bishops. At that time, monastery buildings began to be reconstructed. New cells and the prior's chambers were built.


title: Yaroslavl

text: The most well-known building in the city is the 'Spaso-Preobrazhensky' ('Transfiguration of the Savior') Cathedral of the Spassky (St Savior) Monastery (russ. ). This monastery was founded in the 12th century and thus it, and its cathedral, is the oldest buildings in the city. The Transfiguration Cathedral itself, built in 1516, is the oldest detached building standing in the city, (). Typical for a Russian monastery of the Middle Ages, the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery in Yaroslavl was built to be not a place of worship, but also to be a citadel and kremlin in case, in times of war, there was a need for such a facility. This is still visible today as the monastery is surrounded by a thick 16th century, white-painted wall, complete with watchtowers and embattlements. Within these walls stand the magisterial churches, which, with their asymmetrically-ordered towers and decorated interiors, make for examples of traditional Russian sacral architecture. In addition to this, there is a gatehouse church, with which the monastery's dungeons and treasury were connected. The monastery has long had a place in the history of Yaroslavl and continues, albeit nowadays as a museum, to play a role in the life of the city. It was largely thanks to the impregnability of the monastery that, during the time of the Troubles, the Russian peasants' army was able to defend the city and then go on to liberate Moscow from its Polish-Lithuanian occupiers. At the end of the 18th century, the oldest known text of the Tale of Igor's Campaign, the most renowned work of Russian-language literature from the Middle Ages, was found in the library of the SPaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery. This work is now on display as a permanent exhibition within the monastery, along with other works of the age and an exhibition showing the conditions an author of the era would have lived in.


title: Yaroslavl

text: The often hectic square which is to be found just beyond the north gate of the monastery (main gate), is called Bogolavyenskaya Square (Epiphany Square) (). This name comes from the nearby "Epiphany Church" () which is seated at the south end of the square, near the bank of the Kotorosl. This church, with its five domes, and traditional Russian sacral architecture, is a classic example of a medieval Russian church. However, the church has a separate clock tower which was built in accordance with the sacral-architectural style of Muscovy in the years 1684–1693; this all goes to make the church one of the most noticeable examples of 17th-century architecture in the city. In addition to this, the fresco-work inside the church was carried out by local artists during the building of the church and has remained, almost unchanged, to this day.


title: Yaroslavl

text: The two streets which lead off Bogolavyenskaya Square to the northwest are very good examples of the type of urban planning which was formulated for Yaroslavl in the 18th and 19th centuries. They were laid out in 1820–1821 as new boulevards to run around the historic city center and were built on terrain previously occupied by a number of earthen and wooden fortifications which dated from the 16th century. There was also a small defensive moat in this area, and after the infilling of the moat and removal of all other fortifications, the defensive uses of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky monastery largely disappeared. This was, in general, not considered to be a great loss, as the requirement for such earthworks in order to maintain defensive readiness had long since been surpassed by other methods of securing a city by the point of their removal. The two municipal watchtowers which have been retained (the Vassily tower and Volzhskaya tower) were both positioned on the city's outer defensive walls which afforded them clear views of oncoming enemy forces.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Within the old defensive limits of the city, one can find many other examples of classicism, one important example of which would be the municipal trade rows 'Gostiny Dvor' () – these were built in 1813–1818, not long after the clearing of the land upon which they now stand. The style of the building, made noticeable by its many Ionic columns, is similar to that of many Russian trade rows and market halls built in the early to mid-19th century, all over the country. This style is also very complementary to the 1911-built neoclassical Volkov Theater. At the end of Komsomolskaya Boulevard, upon which the trade rows are located, one finds themselves at 'Volkov Square' (); where the ring-boulevard makes a slight deviation to the north-eat and carries on towards 'Red Square' () and the city's Volga embankment. Yaroslavl's Red Square does not have the same etymology as the likewise-named Red Square in Moscow (the name of which stems from the old-Russian for 'beautiful square'), rather in Yaroslavl's case, its Red Square was first so-called in the 1920s, and was officially named in honor of the Soviet Red Guards. There are a number of buildings of historical interest on Red Square, one of which is the three-story building on the square's north side which once housed Yaroslavl's 'aristocrat's meeting house' (), and is now the main building for the city's 'Demidov' State University. Furthermore, the square is also the location where the city's main fire department can be found; this is contained within a jugendstil building, built in 1911, and which has a large look-out tower, which even until the 1970s was actively used by the city's fire brigade.


title: Yaroslavl

text: To the east of the boulevard, within the borders of the former defensive earthworks, the architecturally-rich 'nucleus' of the old city is to be found; an area crisscrossed by many narrow, small streets, in the middle of which one of Yaroslavl's most well-recognized architectural monuments is to be found. This is the Church of Elijah the Prophet (), which, in the same way as the Epiphany Church, is a very prominent example of the way in which the city developed in the 17th century. Before the completion of the church which currently stands in 1650, a number of other predecessor churches stood on this spot. From these, the oldest dates back to the foundation of Yaroslavl and the reign of Yaroslav the Wise. The church, with its five onion domes, is a cross and dome-style church, the architecture of which is typical of Muscovite designs, is particularly well known for its interior fresco paintings, which, despite a history which has seen great fires and disasters, have been kept in good condition. The frescos on the walls and ceilings were painted by around fifteen experienced artists from Yaroslavl and Kostroma around the year 1680. The fresco-work is festooned with many references to the Old Testament. The square, upon which the church, with its clock tower and neighboring chapel, is situated, was in the early 19th century, according to the city's urban plan, to be the central square of Yaroslavl and the place upon which markets and national holidays would take place. Nowadays it is an area largely reserved for official events, with the other buildings surrounding the square all belonging to the municipal administration.


title: Yaroslavl

text: In general, the streets of the city center are characterized by a noticeable mix of classical and sacral architecture. There are a number of major public and commercial buildings of architectural merit in the center of the city, among which are the 1785 'Governmental offices' building' () and the Vakromeyev House, which today houses the Yaroslavl Seminary for young priests. The Volga embankment is a good example of urban planning in the classicist style; built in the 1840s, this promenade walk has remained a favorite place for residents to take a stroll and relax ever since.


title: Yaroslavl

text: The southern part of the city center, around the area where the Kotorosl and Volga intersect, is an area abundant in green park-like spaces. Until the 17th century this area was occupied by the wooden Yaroslavl Kremlin and is thus referred to nowadays as 'Wooden Town' (). The Kremlin burnt down in 1658 and was never rebuilt. Close by the 1642 Church of Maria () stood until its demolition in 1937, however, since 2004 the church was under reconstruction and was finally opened on 12 September 2010 by Patriarch of Moscow Kirill.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Yaroslavl is the site of the Volkov Theater (built 1750), the oldest theater in Russia, and the Demidovsky Pillar.


title: Yaroslavl

text: The city has many Russian Orthodox churches, one Russian Old Believers church, one Baptist church, one Lutheran church, one Armenian Apostolic church, one mosque and one synagogue.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Yaroslavl has three theaters, the most famous of which is the 'Volkov Theater', an institution which since 1911 has been housed in a large neoclassical building in the city's old town. Named after its founder, Fyodor Volkov, the theater was first opened to the public in 1750, this making it Russia's first (by official figures) theatre. The Volkov Theater still has a reputation for being one of Russia's most pioneering dramatic institutes and is considered, among the Russian acting community, to be one of the most prestigious playhouses in which to perform. Even though Volkov's original theater troop only performed in Yaroslavl for a few months before then moving to Saint Petersburg (there was no regular theater company in Yaroslavl again until the beginning of the 19th century), the town is still recognised as the spiritual home of the Russian theater and dramatics. Nowadays the Volkov Theater has two stages and a combined amount of around 1000 seats for spectators.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Apart from the Volkov Theater, there are a number of other theatres in Yaroslavl, including the State Puppet Theater (founded in 1927), a children's and youth theater (Yaroslavl State Theater for Young Spectators, founded 1984), and the Yaroslavl Chamber Theater (founded 1999). In addition to these theaters, the city also has a philharmonic (founded 1937) and a permanent circus (founded 1963).


title: Yaroslavl

text: There are around ten movie theaters in the city, the oldest of which 'Rodina' was built during the Soviet era in 1959. This particular theatre, despite maintaining its Soviet-era exterior, has been comprehensively modernised and is now even able to show 3D films. The city also has a number of large, modern multiplex cinemas, including those of the Russian cinema chains "Cinema-Star" and "Kinomax".


title: Yaroslavl

text: Uncommon for a provincial Russian city, Yaroslavl has a large municipal Planetarium This was founded in 1948 and was situated, for a long time, in an old church. However, in April 2011, after two years of construction, the city's new 'Valentina Tereshkova' planetarium (named after the first female cosmonaut) was opened to the public.


title: Yaroslavl

text: In recent years Yaroslavl has become well known for the high-level political discourse it has hosted under the auspices of the Yaroslavl Global Policy Forum. This event, organised by the Russian government, and with the backing of President Dmitry Medvedev, has been running since 2009 and represents one of the highest level political-diplomatic forums in the world today. It is the largest political science event organised in Russia and is held on an annual basis, with a number of foreign officials appearing as participants each year. For example, in the past, French and Italian prime ministers François Fillon and Silvio Berlusconi have been guests, as well as Spanish prime minister Jose Zapatero.


title: Yaroslavl

text: In 2011 Turkish president Abdullah Gül was received as a guest participant by the Russian authorities.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Yaroslavl was chosen to host the event due to its thousand-year history of being a meeting point for people of all cultures, a significant trading post, and its former status as Russia's second-largest city, within which a great number of foreign embassies were situated. The award of this forum to the city coincided with the city's millennium celebrations and thus it is commonly viewed by residents to have been a gift from the Russian president to the city which has helped raise the city's global profile.


title: Yaroslavl

text: In 2011, this event became headline news in a number of countries due to the unfortunate events which led to the deaths of around forty people (players, support staff, and aircrew) from Yaroslavl's 'Lokomotiv' ice hockey team. President Medvedev was, at the time of the crash, attending the conference at Lokomotiv's home stadium 'Arena 2000', and specially postponed a number of important meetings to make sure he could travel to the crash site and meet with crash victims' relatives. Later Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin also arrived in the city to pay his condolences.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Yaroslavl has a large number of educational establishments which enclose all three levels of the Russian educational system: primary (ca. 20 establishments), middle (ca. 20 colleges and other secondary schools), and higher (8 state and 2 non-state funded higher educational institutions). In Yaroslavl, one can study for both masters' and bachelors' level courses.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Yaroslavl is currently home to the following state higher educational institutions: Yaroslavl 'Demidov' State University, Yaroslavl State Technical University, Ushinskiy Pedagogical University, Yaroslavl State Medical Academy, Yaroslavl State Agricultural Academy, Yaroslavl State Institute for Theatrical Studies, Military School of Finance and Economics, and the Yaroslavl Higher School for Anti-Aircraft and Missile Defence. Amongst the non-state funded institutions for further education in the city is the International Academy for Business and New Technologies (MUBiNT), and also a number of branches from Moscow-based universities. In addition to these establishments, there is also the Yaroslavl Seminary, a large establishment for the training of new Russian Orthodox priests.


title: Yaroslavl

text: By the end of 2008 Yaroslavl had around 187 pre-school teaching and care groups registered within the city, within these there were around 22,700 places that were oversubscribed and thus filled by around 26,000 pre-school aged children. The number of registered children was around 78.7%, or around 0.4% more than in 2007. At the beginning of the 2008–9 academic year, the city had around 100 daytime general educational groups for children within which around 48,100 infants were registered. This figure was around 200 people less than in the previous year. According to the situation in 2010 around 16,000 people are to be found working in Yaroslavl's educational sector.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Yaroslavl is situated at the crossing point of a number of major automotive, rail, and riverboat routes. The M8 (Moscow–Yaroslavl–Vologda–Arkhangelsk) links the city to Moscow and also onwards to the north in the direction of Arkhangelsk. One major railway bridge and two automotive bridges (Oktyabrsky and Yubileyny Bridge) traverse the Volga River. The Kotorosl River is crossed by as many as four bridges for automobiles and one for railway traffic (built in 1896).


title: Yaroslavl

text: In the last few years, the authorities of Yaroslavl have been acting on the initiative to build a bypass around the city. For this reason, the center of the city is now largely free of freight transporters and other larger vehicles transiting through the city. In August 2010, the first piece of this new bypass was opened, it included an interchange, which connects the Yubileyny Bridge with the Southwest Yaroslavl relief road.


title: Yaroslavl

text: There is one railway bridge across the Volga and two road bridges; the second road bridge across the Volga was ready for use in October 2006.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Interurban and regional bus services depart from and arrive at the city's main bus terminal. The services run from this station serve a number of highly populated areas as well as other villages and smaller towns located within Yaroslavl Oblast such as Pereslavl-Zalessky, Rybinsk, and Uglich. Larger cities served include Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ufa, Kostroma, Kazan, and Cherepovets.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Yaroslavl is the major node of the Northern Railway (part of Russian Railways). Northern Railway headquarters are located on the city's Volga Embankment. There are two major passenger railway stations: Yaroslavl-Glavny and Yaroslavl-Moskovsky serving many long-distance passenger trains. The city is connected to Moscow by a fast electric train service (sitting places only) named 'Express'. Nearby areas are served by a network of suburban trains with electrified service to Danilov, Rostov, Alexandrov, Nerekhta, and Kostroma and diesel service to Rybinsk and Ivanovo.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Yaroslavl's main airport is Tunoshna International. It was built as a World War 2 airbase. The airport caters to a variety of aircraft types. Voronezh based Polet Airlines provides several daily flights to Moscow's Domodedovo International Airport.


title: Yaroslavl

text: There are also two smaller airports: Levtsovo Air Base and Karachikha air field. Levtsovo is primarily used for cargo-type aircraft and helicopters and rarely for passenger flights. The Yaroslavl Air Club, which is one of Russia's oldest air clubs and where Valentina Tereshkova first began to attend flight training, is based at the Karachikha air field.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Yaroslavl River Port has an annual import average of around 3.5 million tonnes of freight a year. Climatic conditions allow the port to be used for six months of the year, from May to later October. The river port caters not only for larger river cruise ships which stop off in the city as part of their journey up/down the Volga, but also to a number of regular services which link Yaroslavl with Breytovo, Tolga, Konstantinovo, Bakarevo, and Novye Chentsy.


title: Yaroslavl

text: The city has a network of public transportation, including buses, trolley-buses and tram lines. Below there is a table showing how many people used different types of transport in a number of given years (millions of people):


title: Yaroslavl

text: Every day, over 600 different bus routes are run by a large consortium of both small and large buses and private shuttle buses.


title: Yaroslavl

text: The Yaroslavl tram system is one of the oldest in Russia and has been in existence since 1900. , this system is made up of four routes which run through various parts of the city. Starting in 2004 the number of routes run by trams throughout the city has been steadily reduced, and whilst in 2006 trams could be found in both the historic city center and the Krasnoperekopsky District, the routes serving these areas have now disappeared altogether. While at the beginning of the 21st century, the number of tramcars used by the Yaroslavl tram system stood at around 100, this has now fallen (by 2011) to just 43.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Since 1949, The city's urban transport network has also run a fleet of trolleybuses that runs nine different routes.


title: Yaroslavl

text: FC Shinnik Yaroslavl is an association football club based in Yaroslavl. It plays in the Russian First Division.


title: Yaroslavl

text: Lokomotiv Yaroslavl is the city's ice hockey team, which was the champion of Russia in 1996–1997, 2001–2002, and 2002–2003 seasons. On 7 September 2011, all players on the team were killed in the 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash, when the plane in which they were travelling for their first match of the season crashed on takeoff from Yaroslavl airport. As tribute to the team, the city co-hosted the 2012 Canada–Russia Challenge with Halifax, Nova Scotia.


title: Tom Jones discography

text: Tom Jones, real name Sir Thomas John Woodward OBE (born 7 June 1940), is a Welsh singer whose career has spanned five-and-a-half decades since his emergence as a vocalist in the mid-1960s, with a string of top hits, regular touring, appearances in Las Vegas (1967–2011), and career comebacks. Jones's powerful voice has been described as a "full-throated, robust baritone". His performing range has included pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, soul, indie, folk, disco and gospel.


title: Tom Jones discography

text: Jones has sold over 100 million records with thirty-six Top 40 hits in the United Kingdom and nineteen in the United States, including "It's Not Unusual", "What's New Pussycat", "Delilah", "Green, Green Grass of Home", "She's a Lady", "Kiss", and "Sex Bomb". Jones received a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1966, an MTV Video Music Award in 1989, and two Brit Awards: Best British Male in 2000 and the Outstanding Contribution to Music award in 2003. Jones was awarded an OBE in 1999 and in 2006 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to music.


title: Tom Jones discography

text: As of 2010, during the Nielsen Soundscan era (which tracks sales from 1991) Tom Jones has sold 2.5 million albums in United States.


title: Juniperus virginiana

text: Juniperus virginiana, also known as red cedar, eastern red cedar, Virginian juniper, eastern juniper, red juniper, and other local names, is a species of juniper native to eastern North America from southeastern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and east of the Great Plains. Further west it is replaced by the related "Juniperus scopulorum" (Rocky Mountain juniper) and to the southwest by "Juniperus ashei" (Ashe juniper).


title: Juniperus virginiana

text: "Juniperus virginiana" is a dense slow-growing coniferous evergreen tree that may never become more than a bush on poor soil, but is ordinarily from tall, with a short trunk in diameter, rarely to in height and in diameter. The oldest tree reported, from West Virginia, was 940 years old. The bark is reddish-brown, fibrous, and peels off in narrow strips. The leaves are of two types; sharp, spreading needle-like juvenile leaves long, and tightly adpressed scale-like adult leaves long; they are arranged in opposite decussate pairs or occasionally whorls of three. The juvenile leaves are found on young plants up to 3 years old, and as scattered shoots on adult trees, usually in shade. The seed cones are long, berry-like, dark purple-blue with a white wax cover giving an overall sky-blue color (though the wax often rubs off); they contain one to three (rarely up to four) seeds, and are mature in 6–8 months from pollination. The juniper berry is an important winter food for many birds, which disperse the wingless seeds. The pollen cones are long and broad, shedding pollen in late winter or early spring. The trees are usually dioecious, with pollen and seed cones on separate trees, yet some are monoecious.


title: Juniperus virginiana

text: Eastern juniper is a pioneer species, which means that it is one of the first trees to repopulate cleared, eroded, or otherwise damaged land. It is unusually long lived among pioneer species, with the potential to live over 900 years. It is commonly found in prairies or oak barrens, old pastures, or limestone hills, often along highways and near recent construction sites. It is an alternate host for cedar–apple rust, an economically significant fungal disease of apples, and some management strategies recommend the removal of "J. virginiana" near apple orchards


title: Juniperus virginiana

text: In many areas it is considered an invasive species, even if native. It is fire-intolerant, and was previously controlled by periodic wildfires. Low branches near the ground burn and provide a ladder that allows fire to engulf the whole tree. Grasses recover quickly from low severity fires that are characteristic of prairies that kept the trees at bay. With the urbanization of prairies, the fires have been stopped with roads, plowed fields, and other fire breaks, allowing "J. virginiana" and other trees to invade. Trees are destructive to grasslands if left unchecked, and are actively being eliminated by cutting and prescribed burning. The trees also burn very readily, and dense populations were blamed for the rapid spread of wildfires in drought stricken Oklahoma and Texas in 2005 and 2006.


title: Juniperus virginiana

text: Eastern juniper benefits from increased CO levels, unlike the grasses with which it competes. Many grasses are C4 plants that concentrate CO levels in their bundle sheaths to increase the efficiency of RuBisCO, the enzyme responsible for photosynthesis, while junipers are C3 plants that rely on (and may benefit from) the natural CO concentrations of the environment, although they are less efficient at fixing CO in general.


title: Juniperus virginiana

text: Damage done by "J. virginiana" includes outcompeting forage species in pastureland. The low branches and wide base occupy a significant portion of land area. The thick foliage blocks out most light, so few plants can live under the canopy. The needles that fall raise the pH of the soil, making it alkaline, which holds nutrients such as phosphorus, making it harder for plants to absorb them. However, studies have found that "Juniperus virginiana" forests that replace grasslands have a statistically insignificant decrease to a significant increase in levels of soil nitrogen. "J. virginiana" forests have higher overall nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), despite the common grassland species "Andropogon gerardi" having a far higher NUE during photosynthesis (PNUE). The forests store much greater amounts of carbon in both biomass and soil, with most of the additional carbon stored aboveground. There is no significant difference in soil microbial activity.


title: Juniperus virginiana

text: Cedar waxwings are fond of the "berries" of these junipers. It takes about 12 minutes for their seeds to pass through the birds' guts, and seeds that have been consumed by this bird have levels of germination roughly three times higher than those of seeds the birds did not eat. Many other birds (from bluebirds to turkeys) and many mammals also consume them.


title: Juniperus virginiana

text: The pollen of Eastern Red Cedar ("Juniperus virginiana") is a known allergen. This variety is native to Eastern North America, north of Mexico, with the pollen releasing at various points in the Spring, variable by latitude and elevation.


title: Juniperus virginiana

text: The fragrant, finely grained, soft, brittle, very light, pinkish to brownish red heartwood is very durable, even in contact with soil. Because of its resistance to decay, fence posts are fashioned from the wood. Moths avoid the aromatic wood, and therefore it is in demand as lining for clothes chests and closets, which are often denominated "cedar closets" and "cedar chests". If correctly prepared, excellent English longbows, flatbows, and Native American sinew-backed bows can be made from it. It is marketed as "eastern redcedar" and "aromatic cedar". The best portions of the heartwood are one of the few woods that are suitable for making pencils, however the supply had so diminished by the 1940s that the wood of the incense-cedar largely replaced it.


title: Juniperus virginiana

text: Part of the commercially available cedar oil is produced by steam distillation from wood shavings. It contains a wide variety of terpenes. The three major components, alpha-cedrene, thujopsene and cedrol, constitute more than 60% of the essential oil. The fruits also yield an essential oil which contains mostly D-Limonene.


title: Juniperus virginiana

text: The oil derived from foliage and twigs has two main constituents: safrole and limonene. One minor compound is the podophyllotoxin, a non-alkaloid toxin lignan.


title: Juniperus virginiana

text: Native American tribes have historically used poles of juniper wood to demarcate agreed tribal hunting territories. French traders named Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which denotes "red stick", from the reddish color of these poles. Some nations continue to use it ceremonially.