title: Irish nationality law

text: Citizenship may be involuntarily removed from naturalised persons who fraudulently acquired the status, willfully perform an overt act that constitutes a breach of loyalty to the state, holds citizenship of a country at war with the Republic, or has voluntarily acquired another citizenship by any method except through marriage or civil partnership. Naturalised persons (other than those of Irish descent or employed in the civil service) who reside outside of the Republic for a continuous period of seven years without annually registering their intention to retain Irish citizenship are liable to be stripped of their citizenship. Individuals who obtained citizenship through their marriage or civil partnership to an Irish citizen before 2005 and who reside outside of the island of Ireland may also have their status removed. This provision for citizenship loss is not enforced in practice.


title: Irish nationality law

text: On advice from the government, the President of Ireland has authority to grant honorary Irish citizenship to any person deemed to have rendered an extraordinary service to the nation. Despite being labeled "honorary", this type of citizenship is a substantive status and gives its holders all the rights and privileges that other Irish citizens have. Honorary Irish citizenship has only been awarded to eleven people:


title: Irish nationality law

text: Taoiseach Seán Lemass intended to award United States president John F. Kennedy with honorary citizenship during his state visit to Ireland in 1963, but this was declined due to restrictions in U.S. law that made it difficult for the head of state to accept a foreign honour.


title: Hounsfield scale

text: The Hounsfield scale , named after Sir Godfrey Hounsfield, is a quantitative scale for describing radiodensity. It is frequently used in CT scans, where its value is also termed CT number.


title: Hounsfield scale

text: The Hounsfield unit (HU) scale is a linear transformation of the original linear attenuation coefficient measurement into one in which the radiodensity of distilled water at standard pressure and temperature (STP) is defined as 0 Hounsfield units (HU), while the radiodensity of air at STP is defined as −1000 HU. In a voxel with average linear attenuation coefficient formula_1, the corresponding HU value is therefore given by:


title: Hounsfield scale

text: Thus, a change of one Hounsfield unit (HU) represents a change of 0.1% of the attenuation coefficient of water since the attenuation coefficient of air is nearly zero.


title: Hounsfield scale

text: Calibration tests of HU with reference to water and other materials may be done to ensure standardised response. This is particularly important for CT scans used in radiotherapy treatment planning, where HU is converted to electron density. Variation in the measured values of reference materials with known composition, and variation between and within slices may be used as part of test procedures.


title: Hounsfield scale

text: The above standards were chosen as they are universally available references and suited to the key application for which computed axial tomography was developed: imaging the internal anatomy of living creatures based on organized water structures and mostly living in air, "e.g." humans.


title: Hounsfield scale

text: HU-based differentiation of material applies to medical-grade dual-energy CT scans but not to cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans, as CBCT scans provide unreliable HU readings.


title: Hounsfield scale

text: Exact HU dynamics can vary from one CT acquisition to another due to CT acquisition and reconstruction parameters (kV, filters, reconstruction algorithms, etc.). The use of contrast agents modifies HU as well in some body parts (mainly blood).


title: Hounsfield scale

text: A practical application of this is in evaluation of tumors, where, for example, an adrenal tumor with a radiodensity of less than 10 HU is rather fatty in composition and almost certainly a benign adrenal adenoma.


title: The Leading Hotels of the World

text: The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd. (LHW) is a marketing organization, representing more than 400 hotels in over 80 countries. Established in 1928 by European hoteliers, LHW is headquartered in New York City.


title: The Leading Hotels of the World

text: The company was established in 1928 by a group of European hoteliers. With 38 initial members, among them Hotel Negresco in Nice, the Mena House in Cairo, the Montreux Palace in Montreux and King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the organization was initially known as "The Luxury Hotels of Europe and Egypt".


title: The Leading Hotels of the World

text: The founders opened an office in New York named Hotel Representative, Inc. (HRI). By the end of the 1960s, HRI had grown to represent 70 hotels – all of which were in Europe.


title: The Leading Hotels of the World

text: From 1971, it admitted new member properties worldwide. As of 2018, LHW represents "more than 400 hotels in over 80 countries".


title: The Leading Hotels of the World

text: The properties include independent and unusual hotels throughout the world, including former castles, mountain hideaways, safari camps and private islands. Hotels seeking to join must have a referral from an existing member hotel and apply for admission.


title: Sharon White (businesswoman)

text: Dame Sharon Michele White, Lady Chote, (born 21 April 1967) is a British businesswoman. She is currently Chair of the John Lewis Partnership, having previously held a variety of roles in the Civil Service. She was the Chief Executive of the British media regulator Ofcom from March 2015 to November 2019, and was Second Permanent Secretary at HM Treasury from 2013 to 2015. She was the first black person, and the second woman, to become a Permanent Secretary at the Treasury.


title: Sharon White (businesswoman)

text: White was born in east London and brought up in Leyton, where she attended Connaught School for Girls. Her parents emigrated to the UK from Jamaica in the 1950s, when her father was aged 15 and her mother 11. White attended Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, from where she received a BA degree in economics. She later earned an MSc in economics from University College London.


title: Sharon White (businesswoman)

text: White worked for a church in Birmingham before joining the British civil service in 1989. She worked first at the Treasury and later for the British Embassy in Washington, which was where she met her husband Robert Chote. She also worked at the 10 Downing Street policy unit during the Blair government, at the World Bank, and as a director general at the Department for International Development in 2003–09 and then at the Ministry of Justice in 2009–11, and also at the Department for Work and Pensions.


title: Sharon White (businesswoman)

text: At the Treasury, she supervised a review of the financial management of government and the Treasury's management response to the international financial crisis of 2007–08. She was Director General for Public Spending at the Treasury from 2012 to 2013, and then replaced Tom Scholar as Second Permanent Secretary in 2013. She was the first black person to become a Permanent Secretary at the Treasury, and the second woman after Dame Anne Mueller in the 1980s.


title: Sharon White (businesswoman)

text: In November 2014, "The Voice" named White the 7th most powerful black person in Britain. White has been recognised for her influence as one of the most powerful Black British people in the UK on a number of occasions by Powerlist, topping the 2023 list, as well as regularly ranking in the top 10 since 2016, including second place in 2019 and last listed in the 2020 and 2021 editions


title: Sharon White (businesswoman)

text: In December 2014, it was announced that White would be the chief executive of Ofcom from March 2015, replacing Ed Richards as the previous chief executive and Steve Unger as the interim chief executive.


title: Sharon White (businesswoman)

text: In June 2019, it was announced that White would be stepping down from her role at Ofcom to replace Sir Charlie Mayfield as the sixth Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership. White succeeded Mayfield during a meeting of the John Lewis Partnership Council on 4 February 2020. It was confirmed that White will be awarded an annual salary of £990,000 for her role at the John Lewis Partnership, a significant increase on her previous salary, which was £341,700 according to data released by Ofcom.


title: Sharon White (businesswoman)

text: White was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for public service.


title: Sharon White (businesswoman)

text: White is a visiting fellow of Nuffield College, University of Oxford. She took up the role of Non-Executive Director of Barratt Developments on 1 January 2018.


title: Sharon White (businesswoman)

text: White married economist Robert Chote at the British Embassy in Washington, DC, in 1997, when she was working at the British embassy and Chote was working for the International Monetary Fund. Chote has been the chairman of the Office of Budget Responsibility since 2010. The media have dubbed the couple "Mr and Mrs Treasury". They have two children.


title: Jesus healing the bleeding woman

text: Jesus healing the bleeding woman (or "woman with an issue of blood" and other variants) is one of the miracles of Jesus recorded in the synoptic gospels (, , ).


title: Jesus healing the bleeding woman

text: In the Gospel accounts, this miracle immediately follows the exorcism at Gerasa and is combined with the miracle of the raising of Jairus' daughter. The narrative interrupts the story of Jairus' daughter, a stylistic element which scholars call an intercalated or sandwich narrative.


title: Jesus healing the bleeding woman

text: The incident occurred while Jesus was traveling to Jairus' house, amid a large crowd, according to Mark:


title: Jesus healing the bleeding woman

text: The woman's condition, which is not clear in terms of a modern medical diagnosis, is translated as an "issue of blood" in the King James Version and a "flux of blood" in the Wycliffe Bible and some other versions. In scholarly language she is often referred to by the original New Testament Greek term as the haemorrhoissa (ἡ αἱμοῤῥοοῦσα, "bleeding woman"). The text describes her as γυνὴ αἱμορροοῦσα δώδεκα ἔτη ("gynē haimorroousa dōdeka etē"), with "haimorroousa" being a verb in the active voice present participle ("having had a flow ["rhēon"], of blood ["haima"]"). Some scholars view it as menorrhagia; others as haemorrhoids.


title: Jesus healing the bleeding woman

text: Because of the continual bleeding, the woman would have been continually regarded in Jewish law as a "niddah" or menstruating woman, and so ceremonially unclean. In order to be regarded as clean, the flow of blood would need to stop for at least 7 days. Because of the constant bleeding, this woman lived in a continual state of uncleanness which would have brought upon her social and religious isolation. It would have prevented her from getting married - or, if she was already married when the bleeding started, would have prevented her from having sexual relations with her husband and might have been cited by him as grounds for divorce.


title: Jesus healing the bleeding woman

text: Matthew's and Luke's accounts specify the "fringe" of his cloak, using a Greek word which also appears in Mark 6. According to the "Catholic Encyclopedia" article on fringes in Scripture, the Pharisees (one of the sects of Second Temple Judaism) who were the progenitors of modern Rabbinic Judaism, were in the habit of wearing extra-long fringes or tassels (), a reference to the formative "çîçîth (tzitzit)". Because of the Pharisees' authority, people regarded the fringe as having a mystical quality.


title: Jesus healing the bleeding woman

text: Matthew's version is much more concise, and shows notable differences and even discrepancies compared to the Markan and Lukan accounts. Matthew does not say the woman failed to find anyone who could heal her (as Luke and Mark do), let alone that she spent all her savings paying physicians but the affliction had only grown worse (as Mark does). There is no crowd in Matthew's account; Jesus immediately notices that the woman touched him instead of having to ask and look amongst the crowd who touched him. Neither is the woman trembling in fear and telling him why she did it. Jesus is not said to feel a loss of power according to Matthew; the woman is only healed after Jesus talks to her, not immediately upon touching his cloak.


title: Jesus healing the bleeding woman

text: Cornelius a Lapide comments on why the woman, after being healed was fearful of Jesus, writing that she had "approached secretly, and, unclean," touching Christ who was clean, and so had, "stolen a gift of healing from Christ without His knowledge." Thus it appears she was concerned that Christ might rebuke her, and potentially recall the benefit, or punish her with a worse disease. From this Lapide concludes "that she had not perfect faith."


title: Jesus healing the bleeding woman

text: Venerable Bede wrote that Christ asked the question, "Who touched My garments?" so that the healing which He had given her, being declared and made known, "might advance in many the virtue of faith, and bring them to believe in Christ."


title: Jesus healing the bleeding woman

text: Given that the woman was cured when she touched the hem of the garment, John McEvilly writes in his Gospel commentary, supports the doctrine of "the efficacy of relics", that is that physical objects can have divine power in them. The same being clear from the miracles produced from contact with the bones of Elisha (2 Kings 13:21), as well as the shadow of Peter curing diseases (Acts 5:15).


title: Jesus healing the bleeding woman

text: Eusebius, writing in the reign of Constantine I, says he himself saw a pair of statues in bronze in Panease or Caesarea Philippi (on the Golan Heights in modern terms) of Jesus and the "haemorrhoissa", sculpture being at this time an unusual form for the depiction of Jesus. By his description they resembled a sculptural version of the couple as they were shown in a number of paintings in the Catacombs of Rome (see illustration at top). He sees this in terms of ancient traditions of commemorating local notables rather than newer ones of Early Christian art. The statues were placed outside the house of the woman, who came from the city, and was called Veronica (meaning "true image"), according to the apocrypha "Acts of Pilate" and later tradition, which gave other details of her life.


title: Jesus healing the bleeding woman

text: When Julian the Apostate became emperor in 361 he instigated a programme to restore Hellenic paganism as the state religion. In Panease this resulted in the replacement of the statue of Christ, with results described by Sozomen, writing in the 440s:


title: Jesus healing the bleeding woman

text: However, it has been pointed out since the 19th century that the statues were probably a misunderstanding or distortion of a sculptural group in fact originally representing the submission of Judea to the Emperor Hadrian. Images of this particular coupling, typical of Roman Imperial adventus imagery, appear on a number of Hadrian's coins, after the suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132–136. The statues seem to have been buried in a landslide and some time later rediscovered and interpreted as Christian. Since Caesarea Philippi had been celebrated for its temple of the god Pan, a Christian tourist attraction was no doubt welcome news for the city's economy.


title: Jesus healing the bleeding woman

text: Representations of the episode which seem clearly to draw on the lost statue, and so resemble surviving coins of the imperial image, appear rather frequently in Early Christian art, with several in the Catacombs of Rome, as illustrated above, on the Brescia Casket and Early Christian sarcophagi, and in mosaic cycles of the "Life of Christ" such as San Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna. It continued to be depicted sometimes until the Gothic period, and then after the Renaissance.


title: Jesus healing the bleeding woman

text: The story was later elaborated in the 11th century in the West by adding that Christ gave her a portrait of himself on a cloth, with which she later cured Tiberius. This Western rival to the Image of Edessa or Mandylion eventually turned into the major Western icon of the Veil of Veronica, now with a different story for "Veronica". The linking of this image with the bearing of the cross in the Passion, and the miraculous appearance of the image was made by Roger d'Argenteuil's "Bible in French" in the 13th century, and gained further popularity following the internationally popular work, "Meditations on the Life of Christ" of about 1300 by a Pseudo-Bonaventuran author. It is also at this point that other depictions of the image change to include a crown of thorns, blood, and the expression of a man in pain, and the image became very common throughout Catholic Europe, forming part of the Arma Christi, and with the meeting of Jesus and Veronica becoming one of the Stations of the Cross.


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: America's Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) is an American right-wing political organization. Affiliated with Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin and publicly led by Simone Gold, the group is opposed to measures intended to control the COVID-19 pandemic, such as business closures, stay-at-home orders, and vaccination. The group promotes falsehoods about the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 vaccines.


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: AFLDS made its first public appearance during a media event on July 27, 2020, where they advocated for the use of repurposed drugs such as hydroxychloroquine as treatments for COVID-19. Their statements were made without the support of peer-reviewed evidence or regulatory approval, and the group also alleged that the pharmaceutical industry was intentionally sponsoring studies showing the drugs to be ineffective. Video of the event was distributed via right-wing websites and social media outlets, and also promoted by then-U.S. president Donald Trump and his son.


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: In 2021, AFLDS shifted to anti-vaccine activism with the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines; the group made false claims about the vaccines' efficacy and safety, and began to promote paid telehealth consultations with "AFLDS-trained" physicians that would prescribe medications claimed to be COVID-19 treatments. It also filed lawsuits in attempts to block an expansion of the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for one of the vaccines, and to block a proof of vaccination mandate in New York City under a claim that it was inherently discriminatory against African Americans.


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: Although it is described by its founders as a "grassroots" organization, America's Frontline Doctors has a connection to the Council for National Policy (CNP)—a conservative advocacy and networking group, and the Tea Party Patriots.


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: In opposition to measures to control the COVID-19 pandemic such as business closures and lockdowns, the CNP formed a coalition in late-April 2020 known as "Save Our Country". The group's leadership included FreedomWorks' Adam Brandon, Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin, Stephen Moore, and Lisa Nelson of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). In a press release announcing the coalition, Martin argued that "the long-term consequences of a prolonged societal shutdown outweigh the damage done by the virus itself. As part of the coalition, FreedomWorks and the Tea Party Patriots promoted anti-lockdown protests.


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: In May 2020, a conference call by the CNP's lobbying arm was leaked by the Center for Media and Democracy, which included CNP president William Walton, Mercedes Schlapp—a senior advisor for Donald Trump's 2020 re-election campaign, and Nancy Schulze—wife of retired congressman Richard T. Schulze. During the call, Schulze disclosed that a coalition of doctors was being created to pursue their push to "reopen" the economy; she argued that they had a high degree of trust, that the left had a tendency to "appreciate and listen to" science, and that "we have doctors that have the facts, that lived this themselves, that are in the trenches, that are saying it's time to reopen." Schlapp remarked that they were "the type of guys we want to get out on TV and radio to help push out the message."


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: On May 19, 2020, the coalition—A Doctor a Day—published an open letter to President Trump with Simone Gold as lead signatory, which argued that lockdowns themselves were a "mass casualty incident", and that "it is impossible to overstate the short, medium, and long-term harm to people's health with a continued shutdown." During a White House meeting on schools in early-July, Martin publicly called for schools to be reopened in the fall, and told Trump that she had "been in touch with almost a thousand doctors from around the country", and had "helped" Gold with the aforementioned open letter. A clip of her remarks went viral on conservative media outlets, often without any reference to Martin or her affiliations.


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: In media appearances leading up to July 27, 2020 (including "Whiskey Politics" and "The Charlie Kirk Show"), Gold promoted various forms of COVID-19 misinformation, including claims surrounding the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine as a therapeutic, that there was no scientific basis for mandating face masks in public spaces, and that death certificates were being falsified by physicians to artificially increase the number of COVID-19-related deaths.


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: On July 27, 2020, the Tea Party Patriots hosted and funded a press conference in Washington, D.C., in front of the Supreme Court Building, dubbed the "White Coat Summit", which featured a group led by Gold that referred to themselves as "America's Frontline Doctors". The group claimed that a cocktail of hydroxychloroquine, Zithromax, and zinc could be used as a "cure" for COVID-19, and that public health measures such as lockdowns, social distancing, and mask mandates were therefore unnecessary. None of these drugs have been approved by the FDA or other regulators as therapeutics for COVID-19, and the claims were made without peer-reviewed evidence


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: One of the speakers, Stella Immanuel, said that she herself had treated and cured 350 COVID-19 patients using the aforementioned cocktail, and referred to doctors refusing to use hydroxychloroquine as being like the "good Germans who allow the Nazis to kill the Jews." They also accused "fake pharma companies" of sponsoring studies that found hydroxychloroquine to be ineffective against COVID-19.


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: The event was live streamed by "Breitbart News", and video of the event was shared on social media platforms, such as Facebook groups dedicated to anti-vaccination and conspiracy movements, and on Twitter—where Donald Trump (who had also promoted the drugs) and his son Donald Trump Jr. both shared versions of the video. Citing policies against COVID-19 misinformation, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube began to delete posts of the video. It was estimated that posts of the video on Facebook had reached over 14 million views before the takedown. Twitter restricted the account of Trump Jr. for 12 hours after he uploaded a version of the video to his account.


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: When asked about the video, Trump referred to the group as being "very respected doctors", and referred to Immanuel as "spectacular". When asked why he trusted Immanuel despite her history of promoting conspiracies (such as alien DNA being used as part of medical treatments), Trump replied, "I thought she was very impressive, in the sense that, from where she came — I don't know what country she comes from — but she said that she's had tremendous success with hundreds of different patients." Following the event, Gold said that she had been fired from her position as an emergency room physician at two hospitals.


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: After the 2021 United States Capitol attack in January 2021, Gold, as well as AFLDS communications director Jason Strand, were both arrested for their participation in the insurrection, with Gold later being sentenced to 60 days' imprisonment.


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: By January 2021, AFLDS had shifted to anti-vaccine activities and promoting misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. The group has referred to the vaccines as "experimental biological agents", falsely claimed they were "not effective in treating or preventing" COVID-19, and falsely contended that the vaccines were responsible for 45,000 deaths (a claim based on raw data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which relies on unverified, public submissions). The group has opposed mandating or "forcing" the use of "experimental vaccines", and published a white paper with false claims surrounding the safety of the vaccines, which recommended the use of "early or prophylactic treatment" using "established medications".


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: In May 2021, AFLDS filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, seeking a restraining order to prevent the expansion of the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the Pfizer vaccine to children under 16. The suit cited AFLDS's previous claims surrounding the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, and additionally alleged that the vaccines had a higher risk of harming children than COVID-19 itself. Scott Jensen, a former member of the Minnesota Senate and Republican candidate for governor of Minnesota, was a plaintiff on the lawsuit.


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: The organization has also targeted African Americans, citing the Tuskegee Syphilis Study as a justification for vaccine hesitancy among the population, and having collaborated with social media influencer Kevin Jenkins and author Angela Stanton-King. In September 2021, AFLDS filed a lawsuit against the New York City government, aiming to overturn its proof of vaccination mandate. The suit argued that the mandate was inherently discriminatory against African Americans due to the "historical context", and thus violated the city's human rights law.


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: On December 8, 2021, President of the Medical Board of California Kristina Lawson published accusations that she had been stalked by a group of people who identified themselves as members of AFLDS, stating that they had spied on her and her children outside her home, followed her to work, and ambushed her in a parking garage "with cameras and recording equipment" as she was preparing to leave. When confronted by law enforcement, the group claimed that they were seeking an interview with Lawson. She stated that "the private investigator traveling with them told law enforcement they are producing a video about me that will include footage of my house and neighborhood, and, of course, me."


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: America's Frontline Doctors is affiliated with SpeakWithAnMD, a telehealth website run by conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi. It primarily distributes drugs that have been claimed by right-wing figures to be therapeutics for COVID-19. When referred via the AFLDS website, the site charges US$90 for a doctor consultation with an "AFLDS-trained" physician, which is provided by Encore Telemedicine. Orders are then fulfilled via the online pharmacy Ravkoo, which is charged on top of the consulting fee and can vary.


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: Hundreds of customers and donors accused the organization of charging fees for ivermectin prescriptions and consultations but failing to deliver, as well as referring customers to online pharmacies that charged excessive prices for the common anti-parasitic drug, which has also not been approved by the FDA or other regulators as a therapeutic for COVID-19.


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: In September 2021, based on data leaked from an anonymous breach of Cadence Health and Ravkoo, "The Intercept" estimated that AFLDS and its partners had made $6.7 million in revenue from these consultations between July 16 and September 12, 2021.


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: On November 4, 2022, AFLDS filed a lawsuit against Gold, accusing her of misappropriation of funds to buy and rent property for herself, purchase vehicles for personal use, fund a housekeeper and a personal security detail, and other unspecified personal expenses. The lawsuit also accused her of tortious interference, claiming that she was attempting to "take back control of AFLDS and restore herself into a leadership role with the organization".


title: America's Frontline Doctors

text: The group is registered in Arizona as the Free Speech Foundation; "Time" found that its charitable status in the state had been listed as "pending inactive", and that the group had never made any financial disclosures.


title: Nebra sky disc

text: The Nebra sky disc () is a bronze disc of around diameter and a weight of , having a blue-green patina and inlaid with gold symbols. These symbols are interpreted generally as the Sun or full moon, a lunar crescent, and stars (including a cluster of seven stars interpreted as the Pleiades). Two golden arcs along the sides, interpreted to mark the angle between the solstices, were added later. A final addition was another arc at the bottom with internal parallel lines, which is usually interpreted as a solar boat with numerous oars, though some authors have also suggested that it may represent a rainbow, or the Aurora Borealis.


title: Nebra sky disc

text: The disc was found buried on the Mittelberg hill near Nebra in Germany. It is dated by archaeologists to and attributed to the Early Bronze Age Unetice culture. Various scientific analyses of the disc, the items found with the disc, and the find spot have confirmed the Early Bronze Age dating.


title: Nebra sky disc

text: The Nebra sky disc features the oldest concrete depiction of astronomical phenomena known from anywhere in the world. In June 2013, it was included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register and termed "one of the most important archaeological finds of the twentieth century."


title: Nebra sky disc

text: The disc, together with two bronze swords, two hatchets, a chisel, and fragments of spiral bracelets were discovered in 1999 by Henry Westphal and Mario Renner while they were treasure-hunting with a metal detector. The detectorists were operating without a license, and knew their activity constituted looting and was illegal. Archaeological artefacts are the property of the state in Saxony-Anhalt. They damaged the disc with their spade and destroyed parts of the site. The next day, Westphal and Renner sold the entire hoard for 31,000 DM to a dealer in Cologne. The hoard changed hands, probably several times, within Germany during the next two years, being sold for up to a million DM. By 2001 knowledge of its existence had become public. In February 2002 the state archaeologist, Harald Meller, acquired the disc in a police-led sting operation in Basel from a couple who had put it on the black market for 700,000 DM. The original finders were eventually traced. In a plea bargain, they led police and archaeologists to the discovery site. Archaeologists opened a dig at the site and uncovered evidence that supported the looters' claims. There were traces of bronze artefacts in the ground, and the soil at the site matched soil samples found clinging to the artefacts. The disc and its accompanying finds are held by the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.


title: Nebra sky disc

text: The two looters received sentences of four months and ten months, respectively, from a Naumburg court in September 2003. They appealed, but the Appeals Court raised their sentences to six and twelve months, respectively.


title: Nebra sky disc

text: The discovery site is a prehistoric enclosure encircling the top of a elevation in the , known as "Mittelberg" ("central hill"), some 60 km west of Leipzig. The surrounding area is known to have been settled in the Neolithic era, and Ziegelroda Forest contains approximately 1,000 barrows.


title: Nebra sky disc

text: At the enclosure's location, the sun seems to set every summer solstice behind the Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz mountains, some 80 km to the north-west. The treasure-hunters claimed the artefacts were discovered within a pit inside the bank-and-ditch enclosure.


title: Nebra sky disc

text: Axes and swords found buried with the disc can be dated typologically to c.1700-1500 BCE. Remains of birch bark found in the sword hilts have been Radiocarbon dated to between 1600 and 1560 BCE, confirming this estimate. This corresponds to the date of burial, at which time the disc had likely been in existence for several generations. Analyses of metal radioactivity and the corrosion layer on the disc further support the early Bronze Age dating.


title: Nebra sky disc

text: According to an initial analysis of trace elements by x-ray fluorescence by E. Pernicka, then at the University of Freiberg, the copper originated at Bischofshofen in Austria, whilst the gold was thought to be from the Carpathian Mountains. A more recent analysis found that the gold used in the first development phase (see below) was from the River Carnon in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The tin present in the bronze was also of Cornish origin.


title: Nebra sky disc

text: The find is regarded as reconfirming that the astronomical knowledge and abilities of the people of the European Bronze Age included close observation of the yearly course of the Sun, and the angle between its rising and setting points at the summer and winter solstices. While much older earthworks and megalithic astronomical complexes, such as the Goseck circle and Stonehenge, had already been used to mark the solstices, the disc presents this knowledge in the form of a portable object. The disc may have had both a practical astronomical purpose as well as a religious significance.


title: Nebra sky disc

text: The depiction of the Pleiades on the disc in conjunction with a crescent moon has been interpreted as representing a calendar rule for harmonising the solar and lunar calendars. This rule is known from a Babylonian text dating from the 7th century BC (MUL.APIN). According to this rule, a leap month should be added when the Pleiades appear next to a crescent moon a few days old in the spring, as depicted on the disc. This conjunction occurs approximately every three years. suggests that knowledge of this rule may have come from Babylonia to Central Europe through long distance trade and contacts, despite it being attested earlier on the Nebra disc than in Babylonia.


title: Nebra sky disc

text: Archaeoastronomist Emília Pásztor has argued against a practical astronomical function for the disc. According to Pásztor "the close agreement of the length of the peripheral arcs with the movement of the sun’s risings or settings might be a pure coincidence". This claim is undermined by the finding of a similar feature on the roughly contemporary gold lozenge from Bush Barrow at Stonehenge, where the acute angles of the overall design (81°) are equal to the angle between the solstices at the latitude of Stonehenge. According to Euan MacKie (2009) "The Nebra disc and the Bush Barrow lozenge both seem to be designed to reflect the annual solar cycle at about latitude 51° north." MacKie further suggests that both the Nebra disc and Bush Barrow lozenge may be linked to the solar calendar reconstructed by Alexander Thom from his analysis of standing stone alignments in Britain. Both the Nebra sky disc and Bush Barrow gold artefacts were made with gold from Cornwall, providing a direct link between them. According to the gold plating technique used on the Nebra sky disc also originated in Britain, and was introduced from there to the continent.


title: Nebra sky disc

text: There were some initial suspicions that the disc might be an archaeological forgery. Peter Schauer of the University of Regensburg, Germany, argued in 2005 that the Nebra disc was a fake and that he could prove that the patina of the disc could have been created with urine, hydrochloric acid, and a blow torch within a short amount of time. He had to admit in court that he had never held the disc in his own hands, unlike the eighteen scientists who had examined the disc. Scientific analyses of the patina (or corrosion layer) have confirmed its authenticity.


title: Nebra sky disc

text: Richard Harrison, professor of European prehistory at the University of Bristol, stated in a BBC documentary that "When I first heard about the Nebra Disc I thought it was a joke, indeed I thought it was a forgery", due to the extraordinary nature of the find, although he had not seen the sky disc at the time. The same documentary presented scientific analyses confirming the authenticity of the disc.


title: Nebra sky disc

text: A paper published in 2020 by Rupert Gebhard and Rudiger Krause questioned the Early Bronze Age dating of the Nebra disc and proposed a later Iron Age date instead. A response paper was published in the same year by Ernst Pernicka and colleagues, rejecting the arguments of Gebhard and Krause. Scientific analyses of the disc, the items found with the disc, and the find spot have all confirmed the Early Bronze Age dating.


title: Nebra sky disc

text: The disc was the centre of an exhibition entitled "Der geschmiedete Himmel" (German "The forged sky"), showing 1,600 Bronze Age artefacts, including the Trundholm sun chariot, shown at Halle from 15 October 2004 to 22 May 2005, from 1 July to 22 October 2005 in Copenhagen, from 9 November 2005 to 5 February 2006 in Vienna, from 10 March to 16 July 2006 in Mannheim, and from 29 September 2006 to 25 February 2007 in Basel.


title: Nebra sky disc

text: The disc is part of the permanent exhibition in the Halle State Museum of Prehistory (Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte) in Halle.


title: Nebra sky disc

text: The disc was on display at the British Museum in London as part of The World Of Stonehenge Exhibition from 17 February to 17 July 2022.


title: Nebra sky disc

text: In November 2021, a Replica of the Nebra Sky Disc was launched to the International Space Station on the Crew-3 mission, taken by German astronaut Matthias Maurer. Maurer, who is part of the European mission Cosmic Kiss, designed the mission's patch with inspiration from the Nebra Sky Disk, as well as the Pioneer plaques and Voyager Golden Records that were sent into the unknown carrying messages from Earth.


title: Nebra sky disc

text: The State of Saxony-Anhalt has registered the disc as a trademark, which has resulted in two lawsuits. In 2003, Saxony-Anhalt successfully sued the city of Querfurt for depicting the disc design on souvenirs. Saxony-Anhalt also successfully sued the publishing houses Piper and Heyne over an abstracted depiction of the disc on book covers. The Magdeburg court assessed the case's relevance according to German copyright law. The defenders argued that as a cult object, the disc had already been "published" approximately 3,500 years earlier in the Bronze Age, and that consequently, all protection of intellectual property associated with it has long expired. The plaintiff, on the other hand, argued that the "editio princeps" of the disc is recent, and according to German law protected for 25 years, until 2027. Another argument concerned the question of whether a notable work of art may be registered as a trademark in the first place. The Magdeburg court decided in favour of the State of Saxony-Anhalt.


title: Nebra sky disc

text: The case was appealed and on the basis of decisions from the Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf in 2005 and the Federal Court of Justice in 2009, the initial ruling was overturned and the German Patent and Trademark Office withdrew the trademark rights. Thereafter, the State of Saxony-Anhalt registered the design of the disc as a trademark with the European Union Intellectual Property Office.


title: Two Princes

text: "Two Princes" is a song by American rock group Spin Doctors, released as the second single from their debut album, "Pocket Full of Kryptonite" (1991). It peaked at number seven on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 and number three on the "Cash Box" Top 100. Outside of the US, it topped the charts in Iceland and Sweden and peaked within the top 10 of the charts in Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. The song earned them a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group.


title: Two Princes

text: Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic stated that "Two Princes" is one of the "best tracks" of the album. Larry Flick from "Billboard" wrote, "The Doctors' growing legion of fans will devour this treat from "Pocket Full of Kryptonite" within seconds." He explained further, "Percolating rhythm section, courtesy of Aaron Comess and Mark White, propels Eric Schenkman's scratchy guitars and a pure-pop hook. Engaging vocals by Christopher Barron and lively instrumentation assure instant album-rock and alternative play, with visions of successfully crossing into the pop arena realistically dancing in everyone's heads." Randy Clark from "Cash Box" commented, "This crunchy rock/funk groove hints of the same raw, unpolished but infectious street quality of the early Rolling Stones except with an unspoiled and urgent alternative style." A reviewer from "Kingston Informer" viewed the song as "brilliant". Music writer James Masterton noted in his weekly UK chart commentary, "Leaping just as dramatically into the Top 10 come the Spin Doctors, almost 18 months after the track was first heard by the American public. It touches a chord with many as well. Marry him or marry me, I'm the one who loves you baby can't you see..."


title: Two Princes

text: Pan-European magazine "Music & Media" wrote, "Although the album "Pocket Full of Kryptonite" was released about two years ago, the singles of the medicals are still doing fine. Put your faith in this one too, as the funky guitar rock of this 'royal' track is as infectious as you could wish for." Leesa Daniels from "Smash Hits" rated it five out of five, adding, "This is their second bash at the UK charts and it's just marvellous. A thumping drum beat with guitars rocking all over the place, it makes you want to jump onto the nearest table and dance and twirl and swing your head around until you eventually, er, pass out!" Troy J. Augusto from "Variety" declared the song as one of their "undeniable gems".


title: Two Princes

text: "Two Princes" was ranked No. 41 on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the '90s"; conversely, it was ranked No. 21 on "Blender" magazine's "50 Worst Songs Ever".


title: Two Princes

text: The band filmed two different music videos for the song; one of them was in black-and-white. One of the videos was directed by Richard Murray and premiered in February 1992.


title: Stephen Spender

text: Sir Stephen Harold Spender (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry by the United States Library of Congress in 1965.


title: Stephen Spender

text: Spender was born in Kensington, London, to journalist Harold Spender and Violet Hilda Schuster, a painter and poet, of German Jewish heritage. He went first to Hall School in Hampstead and then at 13 to Gresham's School, Holt and later Charlecote School in Worthing, but he was unhappy there. On the death of his mother, he was transferred to University College School (Hampstead), which he later described as "that gentlest of schools". Spender left for Nantes and Lausanne and then went up to University College, Oxford (much later, in 1973, he was made an honorary fellow). Spender said at various times throughout his life that he never passed any exam. Perhaps his closest friend and the man who had the biggest influence on him was W. H. Auden, who introduced him to Christopher Isherwood. Spender handprinted the earliest version of Auden's "Poems". He left Oxford without taking a degree and in 1929 moved to Hamburg. Isherwood invited him to Berlin. Every six months, Spender went back to England.


title: Stephen Spender

text: Spender was acquainted with fellow Auden Group members Louis MacNeice, Edward Upward and Cecil Day-Lewis. He was friendly with David Jones and later came to know William Butler Yeats, Allen Ginsberg, Ted Hughes, Joseph Brodsky, Isaiah Berlin, Mary McCarthy, Roy Campbell, Raymond Chandler, Dylan Thomas, Jean-Paul Sartre, Colin Wilson, Aleister Crowley, F. T. Prince and T. S. Eliot, as well as members of the Bloomsbury Group, particularly Virginia Woolf.


title: Stephen Spender

text: Spender began work on a novel in 1929, which was not published until 1988, under the title "The Temple". The novel is about a young man who travels to Germany and finds a culture at once more open than England's, particularly about relationships between men, and shows frightening harbingers of Nazism that are confusingly related to the very openness the man admires. Spender wrote in his 1988 introduction:


title: Stephen Spender

text: In the late Twenties young English writers were more concerned with censorship than with politics... 1929 was the last year of that strange Indian Summer—the Weimar Republic. For many of my friends and for myself, Germany seemed a paradise where there was no censorship and young Germans enjoyed extraordinary freedom in their lives


title: Stephen Spender

text: His early poetry, notably "Poems" (1933), was often inspired by social protest. Living in Vienna, he further expressed his convictions in "Forward from Liberalism"; in "Vienna" (1934), a long poem in praise of the 1934 uprising of Austrian socialists; and in "Trial of a Judge" (1938), an antifascist drama in verse.


title: Stephen Spender

text: At the Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris, which published the first edition of James Joyce's "Ulysses", historic figures made rare appearances to read their work: Paul Valéry, André Gide and Eliot. Hemingway even broke his rule of not reading in public if Spender would read with him. Since Spender agreed, Hemingway appeared for a rare reading in public with him.


title: Stephen Spender

text: In 1936, Spender became a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Harry Pollitt, its head, invited him to write for the "Daily Worker" on the Moscow Trials. In late 1936, Spender married Inez Pearn, whom he had recently met at an Aid to Spain meeting. She is described as 'small and rather ironic' and 'strikingly good-looking'. In 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, the "Daily Worker" sent him to Spain on a mission to observe and report on the Soviet ship "Komsomol", which had sunk while carrying Soviet weapons to the Second Spanish Republic. Spender travelled to Tangier and tried to enter Spain via Cadiz, but was sent back. He then travelled to Valencia, where he met Hemingway and Manuel Altolaguirre. (Tony Hyndman, alias Jimmy Younger, had joined the International Brigades, which were fighting against Francisco Franco's forces in the Battle of Guadalajara.) In July 1937 he attended the Second International Writers' Congress, the purpose of which was to discuss the attitude of intellectuals to the war, held in Valencia, Barcelona and Madrid and attended by many writers, including Hemingway, André Malraux, and Pablo Neruda. Pollitt told Spender "to go and get killed; we need a Byron in the movement". Spender was imprisoned for a while in Albacete. In Madrid, he met Malraux; they discussed Gide's "Retour de l'U.R.S.S.". Because of medical problems, he went back to England and bought a house in Lavenham. In 1939, he divorced.


title: Stephen Spender

text: His 1938 translations of works by Bertolt Brecht and Miguel Hernández appeared in John Lehmann's "New Writing".


title: Stephen Spender

text: He felt close to the Jewish people; his mother, Violet Hilda Schuster, was half-Jewish (her father's family were German Jews who converted to Christianity, and her mother came from an upper-class family of Catholic German, Lutheran Danish and distant Italian descent). Spender's second wife, Natasha, whom he married in 1941, was also Jewish. In 1942, he joined the fire brigade of Cricklewood and Maresfield Gardens as a volunteer. Spender met several times with the poet Edwin Muir.


title: Stephen Spender

text: After he was no longer left-wing, he was one of those who wrote of their disillusionment with communism in the essay collection "The God that Failed" (1949), along with Arthur Koestler and others. It is thought that one of the big areas of disappointment was the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union, which many leftists saw as a betrayal. Like Auden, Isherwood and several other outspoken opponents of fascism in the 1930s, Spender did not see active military service in World War II. He was initially graded "C" upon examination because of his earlier colitis, poor eyesight, varicose veins and the long-term effects of a tapeworm in 1934. But he pulled strings to be re-examined and was upgraded to "B", which meant that he could serve in the London Auxiliary Fire Service. Spender spent the winter of 1940 teaching at Blundell's School, taking a position that had been vacated by Manning Clark, who returned to Australia as a consequence of the war to teach at Geelong Grammar.


title: Stephen Spender

text: After the war, Spender was a member of the Allied Control Commission, restoring civil authority in Germany.


title: Stephen Spender

text: With Cyril Connolly and Peter Watson, Spender co-founded "Horizon" magazine and served as its editor from 1939 to 1941. From 1947 to 1949, he went to the US several times and saw Auden and Isherwood. He was the editor of "Encounter" magazine from 1953 to 1966 but resigned after it emerged that the Congress for Cultural Freedom, which published it, was covertly funded by the CIA. Spender insisted that he was unaware of the ultimate source of the magazine's funds. He taught at various American institutions and accepted the Elliston Chair of Poetry at the University of Cincinnati in 1954. In 1961, he became professor of rhetoric at Gresham College, London.


title: Stephen Spender

text: Spender helped found the magazine "Index on Censorship", was involved in the founding of the Poetry Book Society and did work for UNESCO. He was appointed the 17th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1965. During the late 1960s, Spender frequently visited the University of Connecticut, which he declared had the "most congenial teaching faculty" he had encountered in the United States.


title: Stephen Spender

text: Spender was Professor of English at University College London from 1970 to 1977 and then became Professor Emeritus. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) at the 1962 Queen's Birthday Honours, and knighted in the 1983 Queen's Birthday Honours. At a ceremony commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Normandy Invasion on 6 June 1984, US President Ronald Reagan quoted from Spender's poem "The Truly Great" in his remarks:


title: Stephen Spender

text: Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender's poem. You are men who in your "lives fought for life... and left the vivid air signed with your honor".


title: Stephen Spender

text: Spender also had profound intellectual workings with the world of art, including Picasso. The artist Henry Moore did etchings and lithographs conceived to accompany the work of writers, including Charles Baudelaire and Spender. Moore's work in that regard also included illustrations of the literature of Dante, Gide and Shakespeare. The exhibition was held at The Henry Moore Foundation.


title: Stephen Spender

text: Spender "collected and befriended artists such as Arp, Auerbach, Bacon, Freud, Giacometti, Gorky, Guston, Hockney, Moore, Morandi, Picasso and others". In "The Worlds of Stephen Spender", the artist Frank Auerbach selected art work by those masters to accompany Spender's poems.


title: Stephen Spender

text: Spender wrote "China Diary" with David Hockney in 1982, published by Thames and Hudson art publishers in London.


title: Stephen Spender

text: In 1933, Spender fell in love with Tony Hyndman, and they lived together from 1935 to 1936. In 1934, Spender had an affair with Muriel Gardiner. In a letter to Christopher Isherwood in September 1934, he wrote, "I find boys much more attractive, in fact I am rather more than usually susceptible, but actually I find the actual sexual act with women more satisfactory, more terrible, more disgusting, and, in fact, more everything". In December 1936, shortly after the end of his relationship with Hyndman, Spender fell in love with and married Inez Pearn after an engagement of only three weeks. The marriage broke down in 1939. In 1941, Spender married Natasha Litvin, a concert pianist. The marriage lasted until his death. Their daughter, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Spender, previously an actor, is married to the Australian actor and satirist Barry Humphries, and their son, Matthew Spender, is married to the daughter of the Armenian artist Arshile Gorky.


title: Stephen Spender

text: Spender's sexuality has been the subject of debate. Spender's seemingly changing attitudes have caused him to be labelled bisexual, repressed, latently homophobic or simply something complex that resists easy labelling. Many of his friends in his earlier years were gay. Spender had many affairs with men in his earlier years, most notably with Hyndman, who was called "Jimmy Younger" in his memoir "World Within World". After his affair with Muriel Gardiner, he shifted his focus to heterosexuality, but his relationship with Hyndman complicated both that relationship and his short-lived marriage to Inez Pearn. His marriage to Natasha Litvin in 1941 seemed to have marked the end of his romantic relationships with men but not the end of all homosexual activity, as his unexpurgated diaries have revealed. Subsequently, he toned down homosexual allusions in later editions of his poetry. The following line was revised in a republished edition: "Whatever happens, I shall never be alone. I shall always have a boy, a railway fare, or a revolution" to "Whatever happens, I shall never be alone. I shall always have an affair, a railway fare, or a revolution". Nevertheless, he was a founding member of the Homosexual Law Reform Society, which lobbied for the repeal of British sodomy laws. Spender sued author David Leavitt for allegedly using his relationship with "Jimmy Younger" in Leavitt's "While England Sleeps" in 1994. The case was settled out of court with Leavitt removing certain portions from his text.


title: Stephen Spender

text: On 16 July 1995, Spender died of a heart attack in Westminster, London, aged 86. He was buried in the graveyard of St Mary on Paddington Green Church, in London.


title: Stephen Spender

text: The Stephen Spender Trust is a registered charity that was founded to widen the knowledge of 20th-century literature, with a particular focus on Spender's circle of writers, and to promote literary translation. The trust's activities include poetry readings; academic conferences; a seminar series in partnership with the Institute of English Studies; an archive programme in conjunction with the British Library and the Bodleian; work with schools via Translation Nation; the Guardian Stephen Spender Prize, an annual poetry translation prize established in 2004; and the Joseph Brodsky/Stephen Spender Prize, a worldwide Russian–English translation competition.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: Blood: The Last Vampire is a 2000 Japanese animated action horror film directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo, written by Kenji Kamiyama and produced by Production I.G. The film premiered in theaters in Japan on November 18, 2000.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: A single-volume manga sequel, titled "Blood: The Last Vampire 2000" and written by Benkyo Tamaoki, was published in Japan in 2001 by Kadokawa Shoten, and in English by Viz Media in November 2002 under the title "Blood: The Last Vampire 2002". Three Japanese light novel adaptations have also been released for the series, along with a video game. It also spawned a fifty-episode anime series set in an alternate universe titled "Blood+" as well as a second anime series, "Blood-C", also set in another alternate universe. A live-action adaptation of the film was released in Japan in May 2009.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: The story is set in 1966. Its main protagonist is a girl named Saya, who hunts bat-like vampiric creatures called Chiropterans. Saya is introduced on a subway train, where she assassinates a man in a suit. Her American contacts or handlers arrive. One of them, David, begins to brief Saya on another mission, while the other, Louis, discovers that the man Saya has just killed was probably not a Chiropteran.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: Saya's next mission begins at the American Yokota Air Base, which is active in the buildup to the Vietnam War. At least one Chiropteran has managed to infiltrate the air base, and it is only a matter of time before they feed again, go into hibernation, and become untraceable. Saya is to pose as a school girl, infiltrate the high school adjacent to the base, and then track and kill the Chiropterans.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: At the school, Saya runs into a meek nurse, Amino Makiho, on the eve of the school's annual Halloween party. Two of Saya's classmates, Sharon and Linda, make a visit to Makiho at the nurse's office. Suddenly, Saya bursts into the room, killing Linda and wounding Sharon, breaking her sword in the process. Both girls are revealed to be Chiropterans. Makiho goes into shock at the revelation. Meanwhile, a third Chiropteran reveals itself and begins making its way to the base. Back at the school, Makiho regains her nerve and pursues Sharon into a room full of dancing Americans in costume, where she finds Sharon transformed. Saya saves her and both flee into a nearby motor pool. The Chiropterans trap them inside and attack.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: David delivers a new sword, and Saya uses it to kill Sharon. The final Chiropteran then decides to flee, attempting to stow away on a departing cargo plane. David and Saya give chase and she manages to strike the Chiropteran and mortally wound it. She then stands over the dying creature and lets some of her blood trickles into its mouth. Louis arrives and recovers Makiho before the local police reach her.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: Afterward, Makiho is seen in an interview with government officials who question her about the night's events. However, it's revealed that all evidence of the battle between Saya and the Chiropterans has been covered up and both David and Saya have disappeared, leaving Makiho with nothing to prove the veracity of her story. Her interviewer then asks her to identify Saya in a picture which has a girl that looks identical to her, except the picture was taken in 1892. The only other description of the picture is the word "VAMPIRE". Makiho then returns to the school, where she narrates that she never really discovered the full truth behind Saya and the Chiropterans, and wonders if she's still out there fighting them.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: Production I.G's president Mitsuhisa Ishikawa wanted to produce a new project that was an original concept rather than being an adaptation of an existing anime or manga series. He approached Mamoru Oshii, who ran a series of lectures known as the "Oshii Jyuku" for teaching new filmmakers how to create their own projects, about his idea and asked him to have his students submit ideas. The submissions of Kenji Kamiyama and Junichi Fujisaku became the basis for the upcoming film: a girl in a sailor suit wielding a samurai sword. Ishikawa suggested Yokota Air Base for the film's setting, referring to it as the "state of California within Japan". Hiroyuki Kitakubo was selected as the film's director, a position he accepted on the condition he be given artistic license with the material.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: After titling the work "Blood: The Last Vampire", Kitakubo chose video game designer Katsuya Terada to work on the character designs, and Kazuchika Kise as the animation director. When asked why he chose Terada instead of a regular character designer, Kitakubo stated "I personally felt he had an amazing talent; his characters have a feel to them that is universal and that is probably why he has drawn characters for video games played by people all over the world." He goes on to note that he wanted both Terada and Kise together, and would not have hired Terada had Kise not agreed to work on the project. The resulting film uses completely digital animation. Rather than following the tradition of using animation cels, the entire film was inked, colored, and then animated with computers. It also uses primarily "low light" settings, with much of the film featuring large amounts of grey and brown.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: In directing the film, Kitakubo notes that his having read "Dracula" and watched the American television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", they may have had some influence on the film as the rest of his life experiences have. Production I.G broke new ground in "Blood: The Last Vampire" by being the first company to film an anime series almost entirely in English, with Japanese subtitles, feeling that it would help the film reach foreign markets more easily.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: The resulting film is very short for a theatrical work, spanning only 45 minutes. Kitakubo stated in a 2001 interview with "Animerica" that he had the remaining story of "Saya's past present and future" in his own mind, but that it was up to the others involved in its making as to whether there would be a sequel. Production I.G noted that they deliberately intended for it to be a three part story, with the rest of Saya's story to be carried through in a light novel trilogy and a two-volume video game.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: Produced by Production I.G, SPE Visual Works and Sony Computer Entertainment, "Blood: The Last Vampire" was directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo. The film's characters designed were crafted by Katsuya Terada. The original screenplay was written by Kenji Kamiyama, while its musical score was composed by Yoshihiro Ike. Before the film was completed, it was licensed for release in North America by Manga Entertainment.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: It first premiered at the 5th annual International Festival of Fantasy, Action and Genre Cinema, nicknamed Fantasia 2000, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada where it was screened for attendees on July 29, 2000. The film aired in Australia on August 26, 2000 at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival. It made its theatrical debut in its home country of Japan on November 16, 2000.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: Manga Entertainment released the film theatrically in North America in the summer of 2001, followed by VHS and DVD releases on August 26, 2001.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: Using a concept from Mamoru Oshii, Production I.G had Benkyo Tamaoki write a sequel to "Blood: The Last Vampire" to complete the story. It brings Saya to the year 2002, with a new generation of handlers and continuing her quest to destroy chiropterans. Appropriately named , the single-volume title was published in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten on May 1, 2001. It was licensed and released in English in North America by Viz Media under the title "Blood: The Last Vampire 2002" on November 5, 2002. In the manga, David has retired and Saya has a new handler who makes it abundantly clear that he has no respect for her. He sends her to Jinkōsen Shūritsu Valley High School under the name of "Saya Otonashi". There, she learns that chiropterans co-existed with humans, until humans began experimenting on them in the 19th century to try to gain immortality. The experiments increased the chiropterans' killing instinct and removed their former regard for humanity. Scientists, in turn, developed twin anti-chiropteran weapons. Maya, a prototype, still required blood and could transform like other chiropteran. The second, Saya, did not need to drink blood and had no transformation abilities so she was considered the perfected weapon. Maya searches for Saya, desiring to have Saya eat her so they can become one pure-blood chiropteran. After this meeting, Maya's body cannot be found, but it is never shown if Saya granted her request. Saya kills her handler and walks off into the night.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: A trilogy of light novels have been created in relation to "Blood: the Last Vampire" and published by Kadokawa. Published in Japan in October 2000, was written by Mamoru Oshii. It was published in English in North America by DH Press on November 23, 2005.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: The second novel, was written by Junichi Fujisaku, who also directed the spin-off "Blood+" anime series. This was published in January 2001.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: In 2000, Production I.G and Sony Computer Entertainment Japan co-produced a two-volume "Blood: The Last Vampire" video game. The game features a musical score by Yuki Kajiura with Youki Kudoh reprising her role as the voice of Saya, and over two hours of theater quality animation. It is a graphical adventure that brings Saya and her hunt for Chiropterans to Tokyo in 2000. There she meets a seventeen-year-old boy who begins wondering about Saya and the history of "Blood". Both volumes of the game were released to the PlayStation 2 in Japan on December 21, 2000. "Famitsu" magazine scored the first volume a 33 out of 40. "Animerica" Dr. Brown called the original game "boring", but did compliment it for having "beautifully animated sequences".


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: In 2006, Production I.G and Sony re-released the game. Both volumes were combined into a single game for the PlayStation Portable (PSP). The game was called and was released in Japan on January 26, 2006. The combined game included new cover art and additional features, including a strategy flow chart, a digital art gallery, and some exclusive films.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: In May 2006, Bill Kong, producer of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero", announced that he was producing a live-action film adaptation of "Blood: The Last Vampire," directed by Ronny Yu, and, like the source anime film, primarily filmed in English rather than Japanese. The film's setting is 1970 at a United States Air Force Base in Tokyo, during the Vietnam War. Early reports indicated that the film's plot will feature Saya as a 400-year-old half human-half vampire who hunts full blooded vampires, both to rid the world of them and as they are her only source for food. She works with an organization known only as "The Council". Normally a loner, Saya forms a friendship with a young girl she meets at an American military base while preparing to battle Onigen, the highest ranking of the vampires.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: Kong and Yu originally planned to finance the project themselves, but in November 2006, Production I.G officially consented to the film and began offering financial support. Through ties to Manga Entertainment, the French company Pathé became the film's production company. Yu was retained as its producer, but Chris Nahon took over as the film's director. Korean actress Jun Ji-hyun, who adopted her English screen name Gianna Jun for the release, plays the role of Saya. Rather than being paid a straight license, Production I.G will receive a percentage of all revenues generated by the film.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: Originally slated to be released worldwide in spring 2008, the film premiered in Japan on May 29, 2009 under the title . The film was released in the United Kingdom on June 26, 2009. Sony Pictures licensed the film for release in North America, where it was released to theaters by Samuel Goldwyn Films on July 10, 2009.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: In 2005, Sony and Production I.G announced the creation of "Blood+", a fifty-episode anime television series. It is held to be an alternate universe telling of "Blood: The Last Vampire"; it has only minor connections and similarities to the film, and many differences. "Blood+" premiered in Japan on October 8, 2005 on MBS/TBS and aired until September 23, 2006. The series was directed by Junichi Fujisaku and features original character designs by Chizu Hashii. Through Sony's international division, "Blood+" was licensed for distribution in multiple regions. In the United States, the series was broadcast as part of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim from March 11, 2007 until March 23, 2008. The anime became its own franchise, with two light novel series adaptations, three manga adaptations, and two video games.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: In 2011, CLAMP and Production I.G announced their collaboration of the twelve-episode anime television series called "Blood-C". This spin-off series is also set in different universe from the film and the previous anime, and only shares the main character, having katana as her main weapon, and basic premise of her defeating monsters with that sword. CLAMP provided the story and original character designs, Tsutomu Mizushima directed the series, Nanase Ohkawa of CLAMP handled the series' scripts, and Junichi Fujisaku co-wrote the scripts and supervised the series. The series aired on Japanese television from July 8, 2011 to September 30, 2011. The sequel anime film, "" was released in theaters on June 2, 2012. The anime also became its own franchise, with two novelizations, two manga adaptations, a stage play, and three live-action films.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: "Blood: The Last Vampire" received multiple awards at various film festivals around the world. In 2000, it was selected as "Public's Prize Best Asia Feature Film" at the Montreal Fantasia Film Festival where it debuted, it won the Grand Prize in the animation category at the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs' Media Arts Festival, and it won the Ofuji Noburo Award at the Mainichi Film Competition. In 2001, it won Special Prize at the akasaki Film Festival and it was selected as the Best Theatrical Feature Film at the World Animation Celebration. Director Hiroyuki Kitakubo won an award for his work on the film at 6th Animation Kobe. It received the Grand Prize for animation at the 2000 Japan Media Arts Festival.


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: In the first week of its North American release, more than 70,000 DVD and 30,000 VHS copies of "Blood: The Last Vampire" had been sold. Within the first month after its release, it became Manga Entertainment's top selling title in the company's history. The film also appeared on both the "Video Business, Billboard, Video Store Magazine" and "Entertainment Weekly" lists of top DVD sales. The company attributes this success to their use of two unconventional marketing methods: a limited theatrical release before the DVD release to market the title and offering the entire film for free on the day the DVD was released through a streaming video broadcast on Sputnik7.com where it was downloaded by more than 61,000 viewers. Marvin Gleicher, then president of Manga Entertainment, stated that the film's "success has proven to be a landmark time in the history of Manga Entertainment."


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: Michael Stroud of "Wired News" praised the film's blend of 2D and 3D elements and quoted Academy Award winning director James Cameron as saying: "Digital imaging has entered a new era. The world will come to consider this work as the standard of top quality in digital animation." In "The Anime Encyclopedia", Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy praised the film for its groundbreaking use of English, its "stunning animation" and its high end action sequences, but criticized its short length and lack of a conclusion. "Animerica" reviewer Urian Brown called it a "piece of superb animation" that a "pretty and gritty...sleek, dark, and sexy" film that will make a viewer forget its lack of "story, depth, and character development."


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: According to "Electronic Gaming Monthly", "Blood: The Last Vampire" was one influence behind the "striking visuals" of the video game "Crackdown". "Cinefantastique" listed the anime as one of the "10 Essential Animations".


title: Blood: The Last Vampire

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 50% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 5.03/10. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 44 out of 100 based on 6 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark (; 11 June 1903 – 16 October 1997) was a Greek princess who became princess of Yugoslavia as the wife of Prince Paul, Regent of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: Princess Olga was a daughter of Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark and Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia, and a granddaughter of King George I of Greece. After a brief engagement in 1922 to Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark, she married Prince Paul of Yugoslavia in 1923. In 1934, after the assassination of King Alexander I, Prince Paul was appointed regent of Yugoslavia on behalf of King Peter II, and Princess Olga became the senior lady of the court and acted as first lady of Yugoslavia, working side by side with her husband on representation duties. In 1941, during the Second World War, Prince Paul was forcibly removed from power after signing the Tripartite Pact, which took Yugoslavia into the Axis with Germany and Italy. Paul, Olga, and their three children were arrested and given as prisoners to the British. They spent the rest of the war in house arrest and exile in Egypt, Kenya and South Africa, and were not allowed to return to Europe until 1948. The couple and their children eventually settled in Paris, where Paul died in 1976. Having become a widow, Olga spent more and more time in the United Kingdom, the adopted country of her sister, Marina. Struck by Alzheimer's disease at the end of her life, Olga died in Paris in 1997. Her remains were buried at the Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery, Lausanne, Switzerland, before being transferred to the royal mausoleum of Oplenac, in Serbia, in 2012.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: A granddaughter of King George I of Greece, Princess Olga was born at Tatoi Palace, the second home of the Greek royal family, in 1903 to Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark (1872–1938) and his wife Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia (1882–1957). As was the Greek tradition, she was then named after her paternal grandmother, Queen Olga.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: She grew up alongside her parents and younger sisters, Princesses Elizabeth (1904–1955) and Marina (1906–1968), at the Nicholas Palace, the current seat of the Italian Embassy in Athens. Olga was brought up in relative simplicity and her early education was overseen by an English Norland nurse by the name of Miss Fox.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: Once a year, Olga and her family travelled to Russia, where they were regularly received by their Romanov cousins. The princess and her sisters thus had the opportunity to play with the daughters of Tsar Nicholas II, who were roughly the same age as them. They were also in Saint Petersburg, when the First World War broke out in 1914.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: The First World War marked a difficult period for the Greek royal family. After the fallout between King Constantine I and his prime minister Eleftherios Venizelos over whether Greece should enter the conflict, a virtual civil war shook the Hellenic kingdom, which was partially occupied by the Allies from 1915.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: Finally, on June 10, 1917, King Constantine was forced to leave power by the ultimatum of the French High Commissioner Charles Jonnart and he went into exile with his wife and children in German-speaking Switzerland. Described as the "evil genius behind the monarchy" by the Venizelists, Prince Nicolas was quickly forced to leave Athens in turn and join his brother abroad. Olga and her family then settled in St. Moritz, when Greece fell into a financial crisis for the first time during her lifetime.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: The restoration of Constantine I in 1920 allowed Olga to return to her native country for a brief period, but the king's final abdication in 1922 forced the young princess and her relatives to resume their life in exile. The princess then settles successively in Sanremo, Paris and London, where she lived with members of her family.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: Considered, along with her sister Marina, to be "one of the most beautiful young women of her time", Princess Olga had, according to biographer Ricardo Mateos Sainz de Medrano, a "discreet, romantic and fragile personality".


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: Prior to her departure into exile, she was linked to the future Frederick IX of Denmark and the engagement of the pair was announced publicly in 1922. However, the awkwardness of the Danish prince, who held the hand of one of Olga's sisters instead of hers during the official presentation of the young couple to the Athenian crowd, lastingly humiliated the future bride. Shortly after the event, Olga decided to return her ring to the heir to the Danish throne and called off their engagement.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: After moving to the UK, Olga's love life was the subject of much speculation. Public rumors and claims circulated about her romantic relationships and she was linked to the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) for some time. Neither Edward nor Olga confirmed the rumors. A frequent guest of the British upper class, the Greek princess met Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, a grandson of Alexander Karađorđević, Prince of Serbia, at a ball given by her cousin Lady Zia Wernher.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: Immediately impressed by the beauty of Olga, Paul sought to win the favor of the princess, but she was rather indifferent to him. However, other encounters followed, notably at Buckingham Palace, and Prince Paul finally managed to catch her attention.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: Once Olga and Paul's engagement was announced on 26 July 1923, the young princess' dowry was purchased and prepared in Paris. However, it was in Belgrade, in the prince's homeland, that the wedding was organized the following October.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: Now Princess of Yugoslavia, Olga set about learning Serbo-Croatian, which she quickly came to master though with a heavy Greek accent. Now dividing her life between the White Palace in Belgrade, a magnificent chalet in the Bohinj valley and a villa on "Rumunska Ulica" (now "Užička Ulica"), Olga benefited from the immense fortune that her husband partly inherited from his maternal family. But, accustomed to a lifestyle less provincial than that which was hers in her new homeland, the princess found her daily life all the more monotonous and boring. Her relationship with King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and his wife were hardly warm.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: Olga, however, received regular visits from her sisters and other family members. She gave birth to three children between 1924 and 1936, Prince Alexander (1924–2016), Prince Nikola (1928–1954), and Princess Elizabeth (born 1936), and spent a lot of time caring for them while her husband devoted himself to his art collections.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: On October 9, 1934, King Alexander I of Yugoslavia was assassinated during an official visit to Marseille by a Macedonian nationalist member of IMRO. His successor, the young Peter II was eleven years old, and a Council of Regency was set up under the leadership of Prince Paul. Although she had never aspired to a political life, Olga's husband had no choice but to accept the responsibility that fell to him and took control of state affairs.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: Having become in essence the "first lady" of Yugoslavia, Olga had to more than ever represent her country alongside her husband. With him, she made several official stays abroad and notably met the dictators Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler in Rome and Berlin in April and June 1939, respectively. In the tense context of the late 1930s, the strongly-Anglophile Prince Paul gradually committed his country to a policy of alliance with the Axis powers. It would seem, moreover, that the family ties between Olga and various members of the German elite who embraced the Nazi ideology (including her cousin, Prince Philippe of Hesse) had an effect on the political development of Prince Paul.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: In 1938, Olga left Yugoslavia for a long time to look after several elderly relatives. She stayed in Athens to witness the final days of her father, Prince Nicolas, and to take care of her mother, the Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna. A few months later, the princess travelled to Paris, where she reunited with her father-in-law, Prince Arsen of Yugoslavia, who died shortly afterward.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: After the outbreak of the Second World War, Prince Paul signed a treaty of alliance on 25 March 1941 and brought his country into the Axis camp. Opposing that decision, the Yugoslav army revolted two days later and proclaimed the majority of young Peter II to assume full power. Paul, Olga and their three children were then arrested and handed over to the British, who deported them to Greece (where they were welcomed by King George II) then to Egypt (under the pretext of intrigue). At the same time, the overthrow of the Yugoslav regency led Hitler to bomb Belgrade and invade the country in April 1941.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: Olga and her family were next sent to Kenya, where they arrived after three days of travel, on 28 April 1941. Settled far from Nairobi, in Oserian, in the region of Lake Naivasha, they took up residence in the country house of the late Lord Erroll, where they would be watched by the former governor of the colony. Condemned to inactivity, Olga therefore devoted her days to maintaining the residence, learning to cook and supervising the education of her children, while her husband sank into melancholy and depression. Relatively isolated, the couple nevertheless befriended the families of settlers who resided in the region. In September 1941, they were allowed to move to Preston's house, a more modern house located in the same region.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: In September 1942, the death of Prince George, Duke of Kent, in an air crash left his wife, Princess Marina, inconsolable and the British government had to allow Olga to stay in the United Kingdom to keep her sister's company. Olga took advantage of her stay in Britain to plead her husband's cause to the government but without much success. Back in Kenya in January 1943, the princess found her husband severely affected by depression. As Paul's condition did not improve, the British government finally allowed Olga's family to settle in South Africa in June 1943. There they found several members of the Greek royal family exiled in the dominion after the invasion of their country by the Axis forces. Above all, they ceased to be treated as prisoners, even though they did not officially regain their freedom until 1 June 1946.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: In 1948, Paul, Olga and their three children were finally granted permission to leave South Africa, but Yugoslavia had adopted a communist regime in 1945 and they could not return to their country. The family first settled in Switzerland, then in Paris. Olga also made frequent trips to London and Florence, where Paul owned Villa di Pratolino located not far from . In Tuscany, Olga had the pleasure of reuniting with her cousin and friend Helen, Queen Mother of Romania, while in the United Kingdom she was always welcomed by her sister Marina, Duchess of Kent, and the rest of the British royal family.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: In 1954, Olga and Paul's second son, Nikola, was killed in a car accident in England. In 1957, Olga's mother Elena Vladimirovna died in Athens.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: Widowed in 1976, Olga stayed for longer periods in Great Britain. With her sister Marina's death in 1968, she was accommodated at Kensington Palace, with Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, and after the latter's death, directly at Clarence House with Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The Greek princess then acquired the reputation of being a demanding guest.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: As she aged, Olga's health began to deteriorate. However, she continued to attend the great events of European royalty, such as the weddings of Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia in 1972, her nephew Prince Michael of Kent in 1978, and Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. At the wedding of the Yugoslav pretender, it was also Princess Olga who accompanied him to the altar, as the prince's mother and grandmother were not able to attend the ceremony due to health issues.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: Affected by Alzheimer's disease at the end of her life, Princess Olga was hospitalized for a long time in Meudon. A few years before her death, in 1993, her daughter Elizabeth decided to make a documentary film about her with the help of a Serbian journalist Mira Adanja Polak. However, with Olga being heavily affected by the disease, the project of her daughter caused a scandal. Prince Alexander brought a complaint against his sister Elizabeth before the French courts for damage to the image of their mother and claimed, in her name, $107,000 in damages.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: Princess Olga died in Paris on 16 October 1997. She was buried alongside her husband, in a family mausoleum located in the Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery, in Lausanne, Switzerland.


title: Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark

text: On 28 September 2012, the remains of Princess Olga, her husband and their son Nikola were exhumed and then transported to Belgrade, Serbia. On 4 October, an official ceremony was held at St. Michael's Cathedral in Belgrade by Irinej, Serbian Patriarch. The children and grandchildren of the couple, as well as Crown Prince Alexander and his wife Princess Katherine, and Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić and his government participated in the event. Their remains were reburied in the Karađorđević family mausoleum of Oplenac in Topola.


title: Court of Justice of the European Union

text: The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ( or ""CJUE""; Latin: Curia) is the judicial branch of the European Union (EU). Seated in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, this EU institution consists of two separate courts: the Court of Justice and the General Court. From 2005 to 2016 it also contained the Civil Service Tribunal. It has a "sui generis" court system, meaning ’of its own kind’, and is a supranational institution.


title: Court of Justice of the European Union

text: The CJEU is the chief judicial authority of the European Union and oversees the uniform application and interpretation of European Union law, in co-operation with the national judiciary of the member states. The CJEU also resolves legal disputes between national governments and EU institutions, and may take action against EU institutions on behalf of individuals, companies or organisations whose rights have been infringed.


title: Court of Justice of the European Union

text: The CJEU's specific mission is to ensure that "the law is observed" "in the interpretation and application" of the Treaties of the European Union. To achieve this, it:


title: Court of Justice of the European Union

text: The CJEU was originally established in 1952 as a single court called the Court of Justice of the European Coal and Steel Communities (as of 1958 the Court of Justice of the European Communities (CJEC)).


title: Court of Justice of the European Union

text: The General Court was created in 1988 (known as the "Court of First Instance") and the Civil Service Tribunal was created in 2004.


title: Court of Justice of the European Union

text: With the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009, the court system obtained its current name (Court of Justice of the European Union), while the original court itself (the former CJEC) was renamed "Court of Justice".


title: Development economics

text: Development economics is a branch of economics which deals with economic aspects of the development process in low- and middle- income countries. Its focus is not only on methods of promoting economic development, economic growth and structural change but also on improving the potential for the mass of the population, for example, through health, education and workplace conditions, whether through public or private channels.


title: Development economics

text: Development economics involves the creation of theories and methods that aid in the determination of policies and practices and can be implemented at either the domestic or international level. This may involve restructuring market incentives or using mathematical methods such as intertemporal optimization for project analysis, or it may involve a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods. Common topics include growth theory, poverty and inequality, human capital, and institutions.


title: Development economics

text: Unlike in many other fields of economics, approaches in development economics may incorporate social and political factors to devise particular plans. Also unlike many other fields of economics, there is no consensus on what students should know. Different approaches may consider the factors that contribute to economic convergence or non-convergence across households, regions, and countries.


title: Development economics

text: The earliest Western theory of development economics was mercantilism, which developed in the 17th century, paralleling the rise of the nation state. Earlier theories had given little attention to development. For example, scholasticism, the dominant school of thought during medieval feudalism, emphasized reconciliation with Christian theology and ethics, rather than development. The 16th- and 17th-century School of Salamanca, credited as the earliest modern school of economics, likewise did not address development specifically.


title: Development economics

text: Major European nations in the 17th and 18th centuries all adopted mercantilist ideals to varying degrees, the influence only ebbing with the 18th-century development of physiocrats in France and classical economics in Britain. Mercantilism held that a nation's prosperity depended on its supply of capital, represented by bullion (gold, silver, and trade value) held by the state. It emphasised the maintenance of a high positive trade balance (maximising exports and minimising imports) as a means of accumulating this bullion. To achieve a positive trade balance, protectionist measures such as tariffs and subsidies to home industries were advocated. Mercantilist development theory also advocated colonialism.


title: Development economics

text: Theorists most associated with mercantilism include Philipp von Hörnigk, who in his "Austria Over All, If She Only Will" of 1684 gave the only comprehensive statement of mercantilist theory, emphasizing production and an export-led economy. In France, mercantilist policy is most associated with 17th-century finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, whose policies proved influential in later American development.


title: Development economics

text: Following mercantilism was the related theory of economic nationalism, promulgated in the 19th century related to the development and industrialization of the United States and Germany, notably in the policies of the American System in America and the Zollverein (customs union) in Germany. A significant difference from mercantilism was the de-emphasis on colonies, in favor of a focus on domestic production.


title: Development economics

text: The names most associated with 19th-century economic nationalism are the first United States Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, the German-American Friedrich List, and the American economist Henry Clay. Hamilton's 1791 "Report on Manufactures," his "magnum opus", is the founding text of the American System, and drew from the mercantilist economies of Britain under Elizabeth I and France under Colbert. List's 1841 "Das Nationale System der Politischen Ökonomie" (translated into English as The National System of Political Economy), which emphasized stages of growth. Hamilton professed that developing an industrialized economy was impossible without protectionism because import duties are necessary to shelter domestic "infant industries" until they could achieve economies of scale. Such theories proved influential in the United States, with much higher American average tariff rates on manufactured products between 1824 and the WWII period than most other countries, Nationalist policies, including protectionism, were pursued by American politician Henry Clay, and later by Abraham Lincoln, under the influence of economist Henry Charles Carey.


title: Development economics

text: Forms of economic nationalism and neomercantilism have also been key in Japan's development in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the more recent development of the Four Asian Tigers (Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore), and, most significantly, China.


title: Development economics

text: Following Brexit and the 2016 United States presidential election, some experts have argued a new kind of "self-seeking capitalism" popularly known as Trumponomics could have a considerable impact on cross-border investment flows and long-term capital allocation


title: Development economics

text: The origins of modern development economics are often traced to the need for, and likely problems with the industrialization of eastern Europe in the aftermath of World War II. The key authors are Paul Rosenstein-Rodan, Kurt Mandelbaum, Ragnar Nurkse, and Sir Hans Wolfgang Singer. Only after the war did economists turn their concerns towards Asia, Africa and Latin America. At the heart of these studies, by authors such as Simon Kuznets and W. Arthur Lewis was an analysis of not only economic growth but also structural transformation.


title: Development economics

text: An early theory of development economics, the linear-stages-of-growth model was first formulated in the 1950s by W. W. Rostow in "The Stages of Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto," following work of Marx and List. This theory modifies Marx's stages theory of development and focuses on the accelerated accumulation of capital, through the utilization of both domestic and international savings as a means of spurring investment, as the primary means of promoting economic growth and, thus, development. The linear-stages-of-growth model posits that there are a series of five consecutive stages of development that all countries must go through during the process of development. These stages are "the traditional society, the pre-conditions for take-off, the take-off, the drive to maturity, and the age of high mass-consumption" Simple versions of the Harrod–Domar model provide a mathematical illustration of the argument that improved capital investment leads to greater economic growth.


title: Development economics

text: Such theories have been criticized for not recognizing that, while necessary, capital accumulation is not a sufficient condition for development. That is to say that this early and simplistic theory failed to account for political, social and institutional obstacles to development. Furthermore, this theory was developed in the early years of the Cold War and was largely derived from the successes of the Marshall Plan. This has led to the major criticism that the theory assumes that the conditions found in developing countries are the same as those found in post-WWII Europe.


title: Development economics

text: Structural-change theory deals with policies focused on changing the economic structures of developing countries from being composed primarily of subsistence agricultural practices to being a "more modern, more urbanized, and more industrially diverse manufacturing and service economy." There are two major forms of structural-change theory: W. Lewis' "two-sector surplus model", which views agrarian societies as consisting of large amounts of surplus labor which can be utilized to spur the development of an urbanized industrial sector, and Hollis Chenery's "patterns of development" approach, which holds that different countries become wealthy via different trajectories. The "pattern" that a particular country will follow, in this framework, depends on its size and resources, and potentially other factors including its current income level and comparative advantages relative to other nations. Empirical analysis in this framework studies the "sequential process through which the economic, industrial and institutional structure of an underdeveloped economy is transformed over time to permit new industries to replace traditional agriculture as the engine of economic growth."