title: Poltava Oblast

text: Poltava Oblast (; also referred to as Poltavshchyna – , literally 'Poltava Country') is an oblast (province) of central Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Poltava. Most of its territory is part of the historic Cossack Hetmanate (its southern regions: Poltava, Myrhorod, Lubny, and Hadiach). Population:


title: Poltava Oblast

text: During the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine, the town of Myrhorod was bombed. However as of April 2022, there has been no ground fighting and the province remains completely under Ukrainian control.


title: Poltava Oblast

text: Poltava Oblast is situated in the central part of Ukraine. Located on the left bank of Dnieper, Poltava region was part of the Cossack Hetmanate. It has an area of 28,800 km. The oblast borders upon Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Cherkasy and Kyiv Oblasts.


title: Poltava Oblast

text: The oblast is a center of Ukraine's oil and natural gas industry, with many wells and pipelines situated here. There is a major oil refinery plant in the city of Kremenchuk. Important iron ore processing facilities also present. In general, there are 374 large industrial organization and 618 small industrial organizations.


title: Poltava Oblast

text: In 1999 the gross grain yield was about 14,529 thousand tons, sugar beets – 1,002,900 tons, sunflower seeds – 166,200 tons, potatoes – 279,900 tons. The oblast also produced 120,500 tons of meat, 645,900 tons of milk and 423,200,00 eggs. At the beginning of 1999 there were 1,311 registered farms in the region.


title: Poltava Oblast

text: The following data incorporates the number of each type of administrative divisions of the Poltava Oblast’:


title: Poltava Oblast

text: The local administration of the oblast' is controlled by the Poltava Oblast Rada. The governor of the oblast’ is the Poltava Oblast’ Rada speaker, appointed by the President of Ukraine.


title: Poltava Oblast

text: Note: Asterisks (*) Though the administrative center of the rayon is housed in the city/town that it is named after, cities do not answer to the rayon authorities only towns do; instead they are directly subordinated to the oblast government and therefore are not counted as part of rayon statistics.


title: Poltava Oblast

text: Most of Ukraine's oblasts are named after their capital cities, officially referred to as "oblast centers" (, translit. "oblasnyi tsentr"). The name of each oblast is a relative adjective, formed by adding a feminine suffix to the name of respective center city: "Poltava" is the center of the "Poltavs’ka oblast’" (Poltava Oblast). Most oblasts are also sometimes referred to in a feminine noun form, following the convention of traditional regional place names, ending with the suffix "-shchyna", as is the case with the Poltava Oblast, "Poltavshchyna".


title: Valence (psychology)

text: Valence, or hedonic tone, is the affective quality referring to the intrinsic attractiveness/"good"-ness (positive valence) or averseness/"bad"-ness (negative valence) of an event, object, or situation. The term also characterizes and categorizes specific emotions. For example, emotions popularly referred to as "negative", such as anger and fear, have "negative valence". Joy has "positive valence". Positively valenced emotions are evoked by positively valenced events, objects, or situations. The term is also used to describe the hedonic tone of feelings, affect, certain behaviors (for example, approach and avoidance), goal attainment or nonattainment, and conformity with or violation of norms. Ambivalence can be viewed as conflict between positive and negative valence-carriers.


title: Valence (psychology)

text: Theorists taking a valence-based approach to studying affect, judgment, and choice posit that emotions with the same valence (e.g., anger and fear or pride and surprise) produce a similar influence on judgments and choices. Suffering is negative valence and the opposite of this is pleasure or happiness. Suffering can mean all unpleasant emotions.


title: Valence (psychology)

text: The use of the term in psychology entered English with the translation from German ("Valenz") in 1935 of works of Kurt Lewin. The original German word suggests "binding," and is commonly used in a grammatical context to describe the ability of one word to semantically and syntactically link another, especially the ability of a verb to require a number of "additions" (eg subject and object) to form a complete sentence. The word has been used in the hard sciences to describe the mechanism by which atoms bind to one another since the nineteenth century (see chemical valence).


title: Valence (psychology)

text: Valence is one criterion used in some definitions of emotion. The possible absence of valence is cited as a reason to exclude surprise from the list of emotions, though some would include it.


title: Valence (psychology)

text: Valence could be assigned a number and treated as if it were measured, but the validity of a measurement based on a subjective report is questionable. Measurement based on observations of facial expressions, using the Facial Action Coding System and microexpressions (see Paul Ekman) or muscle activity detected through facial electromyography, or on modern functional brain imaging may overcome this objection. The perceived emotional valence of a facial expression is represented in the right posterior superior temporal sulcus and medial prefrontal cortex.


title: Bell XV-15

text: The Bell XV-15 is an American tiltrotor VTOL aircraft. It was the second successful experimental tiltrotor aircraft and the first to demonstrate the concept's high speed performance relative to conventional helicopters.


title: Bell XV-15

text: The idea of building VTOL aircraft using helicopter-like rotors at the wingtips originated in the 1930s. The first design resembling modern tiltrotors was patented by George Lehberger in May 1930, but he did not develop the concept further. In World War II, a German prototype called the Focke-Achgelis Fa 269 was developed starting in 1942, but it never flew.


title: Bell XV-15

text: Two prototypes that made it to flight were the one-seat Transcendental Model 1-G and two-seat Transcendental Model 2, both powered by single reciprocating engines. Development started on the Model 1-G in 1947, and it flew in 1954. The Model 1-G flew until a crash in Chesapeake Bay on 20 July 1955, destroying the prototype aircraft but not seriously injuring the pilot. The Transcendental 1-G was the first tiltrotor aircraft to have flown, and it accomplished most of a helicopter-to-aircraft transition in flight to within ten degrees of true horizontal aircraft flight. The Model 2 was developed and flew shortly afterward, but it did not fly much beyond hover tests. The United States Air Force withdrew funding in favor of the Bell XV-3.


title: Bell XV-15

text: The Bell XV-3 was first flown in 1955. Like its predecessors, the XV-3 had the engines in the fuselage and driveshafts transferring power out to tilting wingtip rotor assemblies.


title: Bell XV-15

text: Other rotor concepts, such as slowed rotors, stopped rotors, folding rotors, and variable-diameter rotors, were investigated for subsequent designs, but Bell engineers Kenneth Wernicke and Bob Lichten deemed them unfeasible compared to experience with the XV-3 project.


title: Bell XV-15

text: One of the major problems with the early tiltrotor aircraft designs was that the driveshafts carrying power from the fuselage out to the wingtip rotors, along with the gearbox and tilting mechanisms at the wingtips, had substantial loads placed upon them and were heavy. They were transferring large amounts of power and torque long distances for an aircraft power transmission system.


title: Bell XV-15

text: The XV-15 experimental aircraft introduced a major design concept advance: instead of engines in the fuselage, the XV-15 moved the engines out to the rotating wingtip pods, directly coupled to the rotors. The normal path for power was directly from the engine into a speed-reduction gearbox and into the rotor/propeller without any long shafts involved. There was still a driveshaft along the wings for emergency use to transfer power to the opposite rotor in case of engine failure, but that shaft did not normally carry any power loads, allowing it to be lighter.


title: Bell XV-15

text: The tilting engine concept introduced complexities in the design of the engines and engine pods to be able to shift from operating horizontally to operating vertically. Those problems were addressed fairly early in the XV-15 program.


title: Bell XV-15

text: In the late 1960s and early 1970s, NASA and other researchers worked extensively on theoretical and wind tunnel tests of various rotor pods. Two companies were involved in the research and proposing designs: Bell Helicopter and Boeing Vertol. The focus was on tilt-rotor pods, integration of the tilting rotors with the wings and fuselage of the aircraft, and studying the airflow as the rotors tilted. Tilt rotors with fixed rotors and with folding rotors were investigated.


title: Bell XV-15

text: What was to become the XV-15 program was launched in 1971 at NASA Ames Research Center. After preliminary work, a competition was held to award two $0.5 million research and development contracts for prototype designs. Companies that responded included Sikorsky Aircraft, Grumman Aircraft, Boeing Vertol, and Bell Helicopter.


title: Bell XV-15

text: R&D contracts were issued to Bell Helicopter and Boeing Vertol on 20 October 1972. The two companies' design proposals were delivered on 22 January 1973.


title: Bell XV-15

text: Boeing Vertol proposed its Model 222 (not to be confused with the later Bell 222 conventional helicopter), in which the engines were in fixed pods at the end of each wing, and a small, rotating pod with the rotor was slightly closer to the fuselage on the wing. This design simplified the engine design by keeping it horizontal at all times without having very long driveshafts to the tilting rotors.


title: Bell XV-15

text: In the Bell design, Bell Model 301, the whole wingtip pod rotated between horizontal and vertical, with the engine and rotor assembly fixed together within the pod. This simplified the power transmission, but it had more complicated requirements for the engine design and was probably slightly heavier than the Boeing proposal.


title: Bell XV-15

text: After a review of both proposals, NASA selected the Bell 301 for further development, and a contract for further R&D was issued on 31 July 1973. Extensive engineering and testing took the next four years to complete the development of the aircraft. The first of two Bell XV-15s, tail number N702NA, first flew on 3 May 1977. After minimal flight tests at the Bell test facility, the aircraft was moved to Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, where it was then mounted in the large Ames wind tunnel and tested extensively in various simulated flight environments.


title: Bell XV-15

text: For the U.S. Department of Defense Joint-service Vertical take-off/landing Experimental (JVX) aircraft program, Bell Helicopter and Boeing Vertol teamed to submit a bid for an enlarged version of the XV-15 in 1983. The Bell Boeing team received a preliminary design contract that year, which led to the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey.


title: Bell XV-15

text: Following wind tunnel and flight testing by Bell, the aircraft was then moved to NASA Dryden, which is at Edwards Air Force Base in the California High Desert. The XV-15 flight testing continued expanding its flight envelope. It was able to successfully operate in both helicopter and normal aircraft flight modes and smoothly transition between the two. Once the aircraft was considered sufficiently tested, it was returned to Ames Research Center for further testing.


title: Bell XV-15

text: The XV-15s were deemed sufficiently tested, and one aircraft was taken to the 1981 Paris Air Show for demonstration flights. The New York Times praised its performance. "And if ever there was a lovable plane, it is the Bell XV-15... The machine, the hit of the show, performed a series of maneuvers including bowing to the crowd." Over the next year, Senator Barry Goldwater, Navy Secretary John Lehman, and other officials were offered guest co-piloting flights to promote tiltrotor technology for military development.


title: Bell XV-15

text: The XV-15s were a standard demonstration in the annual summer airshow at the co-located Moffett Field Naval Air Station for several years during the 1980s. Both XV-15s were flown actively throughout the 1980s testing aerodynamics and tiltrotor applications for civilian and military aircraft types that might follow, including the V-22 and AW609 program.


title: Bell XV-15

text: The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale classifies the XV-15 as a Rotodyne, and as such it holds the speed record of , and the 3 km and 6 km time-to-climb.


title: Bell XV-15

text: The first XV-15 prototype aircraft, N702NA, was transferred back to Bell for company development and demonstration use. On 20 August 1992, the aircraft crashed while being flown by a guest test pilot. He was lifting off for a final hover when a bolt slipped out of the collective control system on one pylon, causing that rotor to go to full pitch. The aircraft rolled upside down out of control and crashed inverted. While significantly damaged, the aircraft was largely structurally intact and both the pilot and copilot escaped with only minor injuries from the crash. The cockpit of the aircraft was salvaged and converted for use as a flight simulator.


title: Bell XV-15

text: The second XV-15 prototype, N703NA, was used for tests to support the V-22 Osprey military tiltrotor program and Bell/Agusta BA609 civilian medium tiltrotor transport aircraft. It continued in primarily NASA test operations until September 2003. The shortest takeoff distance was achieved with the nacelles at 75 degrees angle.


title: Bell XV-15

text: After N703NA was retired from test operations, it was donated to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The XV-15 was flown cross-country from Fort Worth, Texas to the museum before being decommissioned for display. It is now on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Washington Dulles International Airport.


title: Negativity bias

text: The negativity bias, also known as the negativity effect, is the notion that, even when of equal intensity, things of a more negative nature (e.g. unpleasant thoughts, emotions, or social interactions; harmful/traumatic events) have a greater effect on one's psychological state and processes than neutral or positive things. In other words, something very positive will generally have less of an impact on a person's behavior and cognition than something equally emotional but negative. The negativity bias has been investigated within many different domains, including the formation of impressions and general evaluations; attention, learning, and memory; and decision-making and risk considerations.


title: Negativity bias

text: Paul Rozin and Edward Royzman proposed four elements of the negativity bias in order to explain its manifestation: negative potency, steeper negative gradients, negativity dominance, and negative differentiation.


title: Negativity bias

text: Negative potency refers to the notion that, while possibly of equal magnitude or emotionality, negative and positive items/events/etc. are not equally salient. Rozin and Royzman note that this characteristic of the negativity bias is only empirically demonstrable in situations with inherent measurability, such as comparing how positively or negatively a change in temperature is interpreted.


title: Negativity bias

text: With respect to positive and negative gradients, it appears to be the case that negative events are thought to be perceived as increasingly more negative than positive events are increasingly positive the closer one gets (spatially or temporally) to the affective event itself. In other words, there is a steeper negative gradient than positive gradient. For example, the negative experience of an impending dental surgery is perceived as increasingly more negative the closer one gets to the date of surgery than the positive experience of an impending party is perceived as increasingly more positive the closer one gets to the date of celebration (assuming for the sake of this example that these events are equally positive and negative). Rozin and Royzman argue that this characteristic is distinct from that of negative potency because there appears to be evidence of steeper negative slopes relative to positive slopes even when potency itself is low.


title: Negativity bias

text: Negativity dominance describes the tendency for the combination of positive and negative items/events/etc. to skew towards an overall more negative interpretation than would be suggested by the summation of the individual positive and negative components. Phrasing in more Gestalt-friendly terms, the whole is more negative than the sum of its parts.


title: Negativity bias

text: Negative differentiation is consistent with evidence suggesting that the conceptualization of negativity is more elaborate and complex than that of positivity. For instance, research indicates that negative vocabulary is more richly descriptive of the affective experience than that of positive vocabulary. Furthermore, there appear to be more terms employed to indicate negative emotions than positive emotions. The notion of negative differentiation is consistent with the mobilization-minimization hypothesis, which posits that negative events, as a consequence of this complexity, require a greater mobilization of cognitive resources to deal with the affective experience and a greater effort to minimize the consequences.


title: Negativity bias

text: Most of the early evidence suggesting a negativity bias stems from research on social judgments and impression formation, in which it became clear that negative information was typically more heavily weighted when participants were tasked with forming comprehensive evaluations and impressions of other target individuals. Generally speaking, when people are presented with a range of trait information about a target individual, the traits are neither "averaged" nor "summed" to reach a final impression. When these traits differ in terms of their positivity and negativity, negative traits disproportionately impact the final impression. This is specifically in line with the notion of negativity dominance (see "Explanations" above).


title: Negativity bias

text: As an example, a famous study by Leon Festinger and colleagues investigated critical factors in predicting friendship formation; the researchers concluded that whether or not people became friends was most strongly predicted by their proximity to one another. Ebbesen, Kjos, and Konecni, however, demonstrated that proximity itself does not predict friendship formation; rather, proximity serves to amplify the information that is relevant to the decision of either forming or not forming a friendship. Negative information is just as amplified as positive information by proximity. As negative information tends to outweigh positive information, proximity may predict a failure to form friendships even more so than successful friendship formation.


title: Negativity bias

text: One explanation that has been put forth as to why such a negativity bias is demonstrated in social judgments is that people may generally consider negative information to be more diagnostic of an individual's character than positive information, that it is more useful than positive information in forming an overall impression. This is supported by indications of higher confidence in the accuracy of one's formed impression when it was formed more on the basis of negative traits than positive traits. People consider negative information to be more important to impression formation and, when it is available to them, they are subsequently more confident.


title: Negativity bias

text: An oft-cited paradox, a dishonest person can sometimes act honestly while still being considered to be predominantly dishonest; on the other hand, an honest person who sometimes does dishonest things will likely be reclassified as a dishonest person. It is expected that a dishonest person will occasionally be honest, but this honesty will not counteract the prior demonstrations of dishonesty. Honesty is considered more easily tarnished by acts of dishonesty. Honesty itself would then be not diagnostic of an honest nature, only the absence of dishonesty.


title: Negativity bias

text: The presumption that negative information has greater diagnostic accuracy is also evident in voting patterns. Voting behaviors have been shown to be more affected or motivated by negative information than positive: people tend to be more motivated to vote against a candidate because of negative information than they are to vote for a candidate because of positive information. As noted by researcher Jill Klein, "character weaknesses were more important than strengths in determining...the ultimate vote".


title: Negativity bias

text: This diagnostic preference for negative traits over positive traits is thought to be a consequence of behavioral expectations: there is a general expectation that, owing to social requirements and regulations, people will generally behave positively and exhibit positive traits. Contrastingly, negative behaviors/traits are more unexpected and, thus, more salient when they are exhibited. The relatively greater salience of negative events or information means they ultimately play a greater role in the judgment process.


title: Negativity bias

text: Studies reported in a paper in the "Journal of Experimental Psychology: General" by Carey Morewedge (2009) found that people exhibit a negativity bias in attribution of external agency, such that they are more likely to attribute negative outcomes to the intentions of another person than similar neutral and positive outcomes. In laboratory experiments, Morewedge found that participants were more likely to believe that a partner had influenced the outcome of a gamble in when the participants lost money than won money, even when the probability of winning and losing money was held even. This bias is not limited to adults. Children also appear to be more likely to attribute negative events to intentional causes than similarly positive events.


title: Negativity bias

text: As addressed by negative differentiation, negative information seems to require greater information processing resources and activity than does positive information; people tend to think and reason more about negative events than positive events. Neurological differences also point to greater processing of negative information: participants exhibit greater event-related potentials when reading about, or viewing photographs of, people performing negative acts that were incongruent with their traits than when reading about incongruent positive acts. This additional processing leads to differences between positive and negative information in attention, learning, and memory.


title: Negativity bias

text: A number of studies have suggested that negativity is essentially an attention magnet. For example, when tasked with forming an impression of presented target individuals, participants spent longer looking at negative photographs than they did looking at positive photographs. Similarly, participants registered more eye blinks when studying negative words than positive words (blinking rate has been positively linked to cognitive activity). Also, people were found to show greater orienting responses following negative than positive outcomes, including larger increases in pupil diameter, heart rate, and peripheral arterial tone


title: Negativity bias

text: Importantly, this preferential attendance to negative information is evident even when the affective nature of the stimuli is irrelevant to the task itself. The automatic vigilance hypothesis has been investigated using a modified Stroop task. Participants were presented with a series of positive and negative personality traits in several different colors; as each trait appeared on the screen, participants were to name the color as quickly as possible. Even though the positive and negative elements of the words were immaterial to the color-naming task, participants were slower to name the color of negative traits than they were positive traits. This difference in response latencies indicates that greater attention was devoted to processing the trait itself when it was negative.


title: Negativity bias

text: Aside from studies of eye blinks and color naming, Baumeister and colleagues noted in their review of bad events versus good events that there is also easily accessible, real-world evidence for this attentional bias: bad news sells more papers and the bulk of successful novels are full of negative events and turmoil. When taken in conjunction with the laboratory-based experiments, there is strong support for the notion that negative information generally has a stronger pull on attention than does positive information.


title: Negativity bias

text: Learning and memory are direct consequences of attentional processing: the more attention is directed or devoted toward something, the more likely it is that it will be later learned and remembered. Research concerning the effects of punishment and reward on learning suggests that punishment for incorrect responses is more effective in enhancing learning than are rewards for correct responses—learning occurs more quickly following bad events than good events.


title: Negativity bias

text: Drs. Pratto and John addressed the effects of affective information on incidental memory as well as attention using their modified Stroop paradigm (see section concerning "Attention"). Not only were participants slower to name the colors of negative traits, they also exhibited better incidental memory for the presented negative traits than they did for the positive traits, regardless of the proportion of negative to positive traits in the stimuli set.


title: Negativity bias

text: Intentional memory is also impacted by the stimuli's negative or positive quality. When studying both positive and negative behaviors, participants tend to recall more negative behaviors during a later memory test than they do positive behaviors, even after controlling for serial position effects. There is also evidence that people exhibit better recognition memory and source memory for negative information.


title: Negativity bias

text: When asked to recall a recent emotional event, people tend to report negative events more often than they report positive events, and this is thought to be because these negative memories are more salient than are the positive memories. People also tend to underestimate how frequently they experience positive affect, in that they more often forget the positively emotional experiences than they forget negatively emotional experiences.


title: Negativity bias

text: Studies of the negativity bias have also been related to research within the domain of decision-making, specifically as it relates to risk aversion or loss aversion. When presented with a situation in which a person stands to either gain something or lose something depending on the outcome, potential costs were argued to be more heavily considered than potential gains. The greater consideration of losses (i.e. negative outcomes) is in line with the principle of negative potency as proposed by Rozin and Royzman. This issue of negativity and loss aversion as it relates to decision-making is most notably addressed by Drs. Daniel Kahneman's and Amos Tversky's prospect theory.


title: Negativity bias

text: However, it is worth noting that Rozin and Royzman were never able to find loss aversion in decision making. They wrote, "in particular, strict gain and loss of money does not reliably demonstrate loss aversion". This is consistent with the findings of a recent review of more than 40 studies of loss aversion focusing on decision problems with equal sized gains and losses. In their review, Yechiam and Hochman (2013) did find a positive effect of losses on performance, autonomic arousal, and response time in decision tasks, which they suggested is due to the effect of losses on attention. This was labeled by them as loss attention.


title: Negativity bias

text: Research points to a correlation between political affiliation and negativity bias, where conservatives are more sensitive to negative stimuli and therefore tend to lean towards right-leaning ideology which considers threat reduction and social-order to be its main focus.


title: Negativity bias

text: Individuals with lower negativity bias tend to lean towards liberal political policies such as pluralism and are accepting of diverse social groups which by proxy could threaten social structure and cause greater risk of unrest.


title: Negativity bias

text: Although most of the research concerning the negativity bias has been conducted with adults (particularly undergraduate students), there have been a small number of infant studies also suggesting negativity biases.


title: Negativity bias

text: Infants are thought to interpret ambiguous situations on the basis of how others around them react. When an adult (e.g. experimenter, mother) displays reactions of happiness, fear, or neutrality towards target toys, infants tend to approach the toy associated with the negative reaction significantly less than the neutral and positive toys. Furthermore, there was greater evidence of neural activity when the infants were shown pictures of the "negative" toy than when shown the "positive" and "neutral" toys. Although recent work with 3-month-olds suggests a negativity bias in social evaluations, as well, there is also work suggesting a potential positivity bias in attention to emotional expressions in infants younger than 7 months. A review of the literature conducted by Drs. Amrisha Vaish, Tobias Grossman, and Amanda Woodward suggests the negativity bias may emerge during the second half of an infant's first year, although the authors also note that research on the negativity bias and affective information has been woefully neglected within the developmental literature.


title: Negativity bias

text: Some research indicates that older adults may display, at least in certain situations, a positivity bias or positivity effect. Proposed by Dr. Laura Carstensen and colleagues, the socioemotional selectivity theory outlines a shift in goals and emotion regulation tendencies with advancing age, resulting in a preference for positive information over negative information. Aside from the evidence in favor of a positivity bias, though, there have still been many documented cases of older adults displaying a negativity bias.


title: Bret Iwan

text: Bret William Iwan (born September 10, 1982) is an American voice actor and illustrator. He has been the fourth official voice of Mickey Mouse following the death of Wayne Allwine in May 2009.


title: Bret Iwan

text: Iwan was born on September 10, 1982, and raised in Pasadena, California; he is the son of Bill and Fiona Iwan.


title: Bret Iwan

text: He attended LeRoy High School in Le Roy, Illinois, from 1996–2000. He graduated from the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, in 2004. Iwan was previously an illustrator at Hallmark.


title: Bret Iwan

text: Iwan was hired to voice Mickey Mouse and replace Wayne Allwine after the latter died on May 18, 2009. They never had the chance to meet each other. Iwan had previously understudied for the role when Allwine was facing health difficulties, and Iwan credits Allwine's archival work as providing excellent mentorship.


title: Bret Iwan

text: Iwan first recorded Mickey Mouse dialogue for the Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park as well as the 2009 shows "Disney On Ice: Celebrations" and "Disney Live: Rockin' Road Show". He voiced Mickey Mouse in "Have a Laugh!". He gave his first full performance as Mickey Mouse for the English version of the PlayStation Portable game "Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep".


title: Bret Iwan

text: His first voice-over work in a Disney Park could be heard in the Animal Kingdom closing show "Adventurers' Celebration Gathering" as well as on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover attraction at the Magic Kingdom in which, upon passing through Mickey's Star Traders, Mickey responds with his signature laugh and says, "That's right, it's outta this world!"


title: Bret Iwan

text: Iwan is gay, and thus the first LGBTQIA+ performer to voice Mickey Mouse. He married his longtime partner, art director Douglas Hoffman, in July 2021.


title: Minute by Minute

text: Minute by Minute is the eighth studio album by American rock band The Doobie Brothers, released on December 1, 1978, by Warner Bros. Records. It was their last album to include members John Hartman (until "Cycles") and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter.


title: Minute by Minute

text: The album spent 87 weeks on the "Billboard" 200 chart. In the spring of 1979 "Minute by Minute" was the best-selling album in the U.S. for five non-consecutive weeks. It was certified 3× Platinum by the RIAA.


title: Minute by Minute

text: The song "What a Fool Believes" hit No. 1 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in April 1979 and became the band's biggest hit. The title track and "Depending on You" were also released as singles and reached the top 30.


title: Minute by Minute

text: "Minute by Minute" made The Doobie Brothers one of the big winners at the 22nd Grammy Awards. The album got the trophy for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group and received a nomination for Album of the Year; the single "What a Fool Believes" earned them three Grammys, including Song and Record of the Year.


title: Pub rock (United Kingdom)

text: Pub rock is a rock music genre that was developed in the early to mid-1970s in the United Kingdom. A back-to-basics movement which incorporated roots rock, pub rock was a reaction against the expensively-recorded and produced progressive rock and flashy glam rock scenes of the time. Although short-lived, pub rock was live rock played in small traditional venues like pubs and clubs. Since major labels showed no interest in pub rock groups, pub rockers sought out independent record labels such as Stiff Records. Indie labels used relatively inexpensive recording processes, so they had a much lower break-even point for a record than a major label.


title: Pub rock (United Kingdom)

text: With pub rock's emphasis on small venues, simple, fairly inexpensive recordings and indie record labels, it was the catalyst for the development of the British punk rock scene. Despite these shared elements, though, there was a difference between the genres: while pub rock harked back to early rock and roll and R&B, punk was iconoclastic, and sought to break with the past musical traditions.


title: Pub rock (United Kingdom)

text: Pub rock was deliberately nasty, dirty and post-glam. Dress style was based around denim and checked shirts, tatty jeans and droopy hair. The figureheads of the movement, Dr. Feelgood, were noted for their frontman's filthy white suit. Bands looked menacing and threatening, "like villains on "The Sweeney"". According to David Hepworth, Dr. Feelgood looked as if they had "come together in some unsavoury section of the army".


title: Pub rock (United Kingdom)

text: Pub rock groups disdained any form of flashy presentation. Scene leaders like Dr. Feelgood, Kilburn and the High Roads and Ducks Deluxe played simple, "back to mono" rhythm and blues in the tradition of white British groups like The Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds, with fuzzy overdriven guitars and whiny vocals. Lesser acts played funky soul (Kokomo, Clancy, Cado Belle) or country rock (The Kursaal Flyers, Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers). While pub rockers did not have expensive stage shows, they took inspiration from early R&B and increased the dynamism and intensity of their live shows.


title: Pub rock (United Kingdom)

text: Pub rock allowed a variety of singers and musicians to perform, even if they did not adhere to a clearly defined musical genre. Major labels scouted pub rock acts, thinking they might find the next Beatles at a local pub; however A&R representatives decided that pub rock did not have potential for mass market hits. With no interest from major labels, pub rockers put out their records through small independent record labels such as Stiff Records and Chiswick Records.


title: Pub rock (United Kingdom)

text: By 1975, the standard for mainstream rock album recordings was expensive, lengthy studio recording processes overseen by highly-paid record producers, with the goal of creating highly polished end products, with overdubs, double-tracking and studio effects. Some mainstream bands spent months in the studio perfecting their recording, to achieve a meticulously crafted and perfect product. Pub rockers rejected this type of costly, complex recording process; instead, with pub rockers, the goal was simply to capture the band's "live" sound and feel in the studio. The difference between mainstream rock and pub rock recording approaches not only produced different sounds (polished vs. raw), it also had a significant impact on the economics of each rock genre. With mainstream rock, the costly sound recording process meant that the break-even point for the record label was around 20,000 records; with pub rock, the less expensive recording process meant that pub rock labels could break even with as few as 2,000 records.


title: Pub rock (United Kingdom)

text: This means that pub rock labels could afford to put out records with a tenth of the sales of mainstream bands.


title: Pub rock (United Kingdom)

text: The pub rock scene was primarily a live phenomenon. During the peak years of 1972 to 1975, there was just one solitary Top 20 single (Ace's "How Long"), and all the bands combined sold less than an estimated 150,000 albums. Many acts suffered in the transition from pub to studio recording and were unable to recapture their live sound. The genre's primary characteristic is, as the name suggests, the pub. By championing smaller venues, the bands reinvigorated a local club scene that had dwindled since the 1960s as bands priced themselves into big theatres and stadia. New aspiring bands could now find venues to play without needing to have a record company behind them.


title: Pub rock (United Kingdom)

text: Pub rock was generally restricted to Greater London with some overspill into Essex, although the central belt in Scotland also produced local bands such as The Cheetahs and The Plastic Flies. Pub rockers believed that mainstream stars who played at arenas had lost touch with their audiences. Instead, pub rock groups preferred intimate venues, which were essential to creating meaningful music and connecting with the audience. Pub rock's small venue approach increased the importance of good songwriting and well-written lyrics, in contrast to mainstream pop which had marginalized both elements. The UK pub rock scene wound down by 1976. The record industry was already looking into early punk, thinking it might be the next "big thing". In 1976, some pub rock labels were putting out both the harder-edged pub rock acts and early punk bands such as The Damned.


title: Pub rock (United Kingdom)

text: American country-rock band Eggs over Easy were the precursors of the movement when they broke the jazz-only policy of the "Tally Ho" pub in Kentish Town, in May 1971. They were impressive enough to inspire local musicians such as Nick Lowe. They were soon joined by a handful of London acts such as Brinsley Schwarz who had been victims of the prevailing big-venue system. Along with Max Merritt and the Meteors who were originally from Australia ( not the later rockabilly The Meteors ) and had moved to London, Kilburn and the High Roads, Bees Make Honey, Ace, Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers, Dr. Feelgood, Ducks Deluxe, Roogalator, and The Amber Squad.


title: Pub rock (United Kingdom)

text: Most of the venues were in large Victorian pubs "north of Regents Park", where there were plenty of suitable establishments. One of the most notable venues was the Hope and Anchor pub on Islington's Upper Street, still a venue.


title: Pub rock (United Kingdom)

text: Following the Tally Ho and the Hope and Anchor came the Cock, the Brecknock, the Lord Nelson, the Greyhound in Fulham, the Red Lion, the Rochester Castle, the Nashville in West Kensington, the Pegasus Pub on Green Lanes, The Torrington in North Finchley, Dingwalls and the Dublin Castle in Camden Town, the Pied Bull at Angel, Bull and Gate in Kentish Town, the Kensington near Olympia, the Newlands Tavern in Nunhead, the Cricketers at Kennington Oval, Half Moon in Putney and Half Moon in Herne Hill (south London outposts) and The Sir George Robey in Finsbury Park. Out of London, venues included the Dagenham Roundhouse, the Grand in Leigh on Sea and the Admiral Jellicoe on Canvey Island. This network of venues later formed a ready-made launch pad for the punk scene.


title: Pub rock (United Kingdom)

text: In 1974, pub rock was the hottest scene in London. At that point it seemed that nearly every large pub in London was supplying live music, along with hot snacks and the occasional stripper. The figureheads were Essex-based R&B outfit Dr. Feelgood. By Autumn 1975, they were joined by acts such as Lemmy's first incarnation of Motorhead, Hammersmith Gorillas, Joe Strummer's 101ers, Eddie and the Hot Rods, and The Count Bishops.


title: Pub rock (United Kingdom)

text: Pub rock was rapidly overtaken by the UK punk explosion after spawning what are now seen as several proto-punk bands. Some artists were able to make the transition by jumping ship to new outfits, notably Joe Strummer, Ian Dury and Elvis Costello. A few stalwarts like the Radio Stars or Wreckless Eric were later able to realise Top 40 chart success with singles like Whole Wide World (song) which achieved a cross over success with punk rock and new wave music audiences, but the moment was gone. Many of the actual pubs themselves survived as punk venues (especially the Nashville and The Hope & Anchor), but a range of notable pubs such as the George Robey and the Pied Bull have since been closed or demolished. The Newlands Tavern survived and is now called The Ivy House.


title: Pub rock (United Kingdom)

text: According to Nostalgia Central, "Pub rock may have been killed by punk, but without it there might not have been any punk in Britain at all". The boundaries were originally blurred: at one point, the Hot Rods and the Sex Pistols were both considered rival kings of "street rock". The Pistols played support slots for the Blockheads and The 101ers at the Nashville. Their big break was supporting Eddie and the Hot Rods at the Marquee in Feb 1976. Dr. Feelgood played with the Ramones in New York. The word "punk" debuted on "Top of the Pops" on a T-shirt worn by a Hot Rod. Punk fanzine "Sniffin' Glue" reviewed the Dr. Feelgood album "Stupidity" as "the way rock should be".


title: Pub rock (United Kingdom)

text: Apart from the ready-made live circuit, punk also inherited the energy of pub rock guitar heroes like Dr. Feelgood's Wilko Johnson, his violence and mean attitude. Dr. Feelgood have since been described as John the Baptist to punk's messiahs. In the gap between the music-press hype and vinyl releases of early punk, the rowdier Pub Rock bands even led the charge for those impatient for actual recorded music, but it was not to last.


title: Pub rock (United Kingdom)

text: Punks such as Sex Pistols singer John Lydon eventually rejected the pub rock bands as "everything that was wrong with live music" because they had failed to fight the stadium scene and, as he saw it, preferred to narrow themselves into an exclusive pub clique. The back-to-basics approach of pub rock apparently involved chord structures that were still too complicated for punk guitarists like the Sex Pistols' Steve Jones, who complained "if we had played those complicated chords we would have sounded like Dr. Feelgood or one of those pub rock bands". By the time the Year Zero of punk (1976) was over, punks wanted nothing to do with pub rockers. Bands like The Stranglers were shunned but they did not care.


title: Pub rock (United Kingdom)

text: It was independent record label Stiff Records, formed from a £400 loan from Dr. Feelgood's Lee Brilleaux, who went on to release the first British punk single—The Damned's "New Rose". Stiff Records' early clientele consisted of a mix of pub rockers and punk rock acts for which they became known.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: Until the end of the Ethiopian monarchy in 1974, there were two categories of nobility in Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Mesafint ( , modern , singular መስፍን , modern , "prince"), the hereditary nobility, formed the upper echelon of the ruling class. The Mekwanint ( , modern , singular መኰንን , modern or , "officer") were the appointed nobles, often of humble birth, who formed the bulk of the aristocracy. Until the 20th century, the most powerful people at court were generally members of the "Mekwanint" appointed by the monarch, while regionally, the "Mesafint" enjoyed greater influence and power. Emperor Haile Selassie greatly curtailed the power of the "Mesafint" to the benefit of the "Mekwanint", who by then were essentially coterminous with the Ethiopian government.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: The "Mekwanint" were officials who had been granted specific offices in the Abyssinian government or court. Higher ranks from the title of "Ras" through to "Balambaras" were also bestowed upon members of the "Mekwanint". A member of the "Mesafint", however, would traditionally be given precedence over a member of the "Mekwanint" of the same rank. For example, "Ras" Mengesha Yohannes, son of Emperor Yohannes IV and thus a member of the "Mesafint", would have outranked "Ras" Alula Engida, who was of humble birth and therefore a member of the "Mekwanint", even though their ranks were equal.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: There were also parallel rules of precedence, primarily seniority based on age, on offices held, and on when they each obtained their titles, which made the rules for precedence rather complex. Combined with the ambiguous position of titled heirs of members of the "Mekwanint", Emperor Haile Selassie, as part of his programme of modernising reforms, and in line with his aims of centralising power away from the "Mesafint", replaced the traditional system of precedence with a simplified, Western-inspired system that gave precedence by rank, and then by seniority based when the title had been assumed irrespective of how the title was acquired.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: Although several kings of Aksum used this style, until the restoration of the Solomonic dynasty under Yekuno Amlak, rulers of Ethiopia generally used the style of "Negus", although "King of Kings" was used as far back as Ezana of Axum (320's–360 CE/AD).


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: The full title of the Emperor of Ethiopia was "Negusa Nagast" and "Seyoume Igziabeher" (; "Elect of God"). The title "Moa Anbessa Ze Imnegede Yehuda" ("Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah") always preceded the titles of the Emperor. It was not a personal title but rather referred to the title of Jesus and placed the office of Christ ahead of the Emperor's name in an act of Imperial submission. Until the reign of Yohannes IV, the Emperor was also "Neguse Tsion" (, , "King of Zion"), whose seat was at Axum, and which conferred hegemony over much of the north of the Empire.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: The Emperor was referred to by the dignities of the formal "Girmawi" (, , "His Imperial Majesty"), in common speech as "Janhoy" ( , "Your [Imperial] Majesty," or lit. "sire"), in his own household and family as "Getochu" (our Master in the plural), and when referred to by name in the third person with the suffix of "Atse" (effectively "Emperor", i.e. "Atse" Menelik).


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: All formal speech concerning the Emperor was in the plural, as was his own speech; Haile Selassie, for instance, referred to himself in the first-person plural at all times, even in casual conversation and when speaking in French (however this was not the case when he spoke in English, in which he was not fully fluent).


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: The Negesta Nagastat (Ge’ez: ንግሥተ ነገሥታት ) was Empress Regnant in her own right, literally "Queen of Kings," or "Queen of Queens," or "female ruler of an empire."


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: Zewditu (reigned 1917–1930) was the only woman to be crowned in Ethiopia in her own right since ancient times. Rather than take the title "itege", which was reserved for empress consorts, Zewditu was given the feminine version of "nigusa nigist" to indicate that she reigned in her own right. She was accorded the dignity of "Girmawit" ("[Her] Imperial Majesty") and the title of "Siyimta Igzi'abher" (Ge’ez: ሥይምተ እግዚአብሔር , "Elect of God"). She was commonly referred to as "nigist", translated as "Queen". The 1955 Constitution of Ethiopia excluded women from the succession to the throne so this title was effectively abolished.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: Empresses were generally crowned as consorts by the emperor at the Imperial Palace. However, Taytu Betul, consort of Menelik II, became the first Itege to be crowned by the Emperor at church rather than at the Palace. Her coronation took place on the second day of the emperor's coronation holiday. Menen Asfaw became the first Itege to be crowned by the archbishop on the same day and during the same ceremony as her husband, Haile Selassie. The Itege was entitled to the dignity of "Girmawit" ("Her/Your Imperial Majesty").


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: A Negus ( , "king") was a hereditary ruler of one of Ethiopia's larger provinces, over whom collectively the monarch ruled, thus justifying his imperial title. The title of "Negus" was awarded at the discretion of the Emperor to those who ruled important provinces, although it was often used hereditarily during and after the Zemene Mesafint. The rulers of Begemder, Shewa, Gojjam, Wollo, all held the title of Negus at some point, as the ""Negus" of Shewa", ""Negus" of Gojjam", and so forth.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: During and after the reign of Menelik II virtually all of the titles either lapsed into the Imperial crown or were dissolved. In 1914, after having been appointed ""Negus" of Zion" by his son Lij Iyasu, Mikael of Wollo, in consideration of the hostile feelings this provoked in of much of the nobility in northern Ethiopia (particularly "Le'ul Ras" Seyoum Mengesha, whose family had resented being denied the title by Menelik), who were now technically made subordinate to him, instead elected to use the title of "Negus" of Wollo. Tafari Makonnen, who later became Emperor Haile Selassie, was bestowed the title of "Negus" in 1928; he would be the last person to bear the title.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: Despite this, European sources referred to the Ethiopian monarch as the "Negus" well into the 20th century, switching to Emperor only after the Second World War – around the same time the name Abyssinia fell out of use in favour of Ethiopia in the west.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: Leul or Leoul ( , "Prince") was a princely style used by sons and grandson of the Emperor. It conferred upon its holder the title of "Imperial Highness". The style was introduced in 1916 by Ras Teferi Mekonen, following the enthronement of Empress Zewditu.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: Le'elt ( , "Princess"). This title came into use in 1916 upon the enthronement of Zewditu. Reserved at birth for daughters of the monarch and patrilineal granddaughters. Usually bestowed on the wives of "Leul Ras", as well as the monarch's granddaughters in the female line upon their marriages. The notable exception to the rule was "Leult" Yeshashework Yilma, Emperor Haile Selassie's niece by his elder brother, who received the title with the dignity of "Highness" from Zewditu upon the princess' marriage to "Leul Ras" Gugsa Araya Selassie in 1918, and then again from her uncle upon his coronation in 1930 with the enhanced dignity of "Imperial Highness".


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: Abetohun ( ) or Abeto ( , "Prince") Title reserved for males of imperial ancestry. The title fell into disuse by the late 19th century. "Lij" Iyasu attempted to revive the title as Abeto-hoy (, "Great Prince"), and this form is still used by the current Iyasuist claimant Girma Yohannes Iyasu.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: Ras (, compare with Arabic Rais)One of the powerful non-imperial; historian Harold G. Marcus equates this to a duke. The combined title of Leul Ras (Amharic: ልዑል ራስ) was given to the heads of the cadet branches of the imperial dynasty, such as the Princes of Gojjam, Tigray and the Selalle sub-branch of the last reigning Shewan Branch.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: An Emebet Hoy (እመቤት ሆይ , "Great Royal Lady") was a title reserved for the wives of those bearing the title of "Leul Dejazmach" and other high ranking women of royal blood.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: Alternatively, an Emebet (እመቤት , "Royal Lady") was a title reserved for the unmarried granddaughters of the monarch in the female line (they were generally granted the title of "leult" upon marriage), and to the daughters of the "Leul Ras".


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: Bitwoded ()An office thought to have been created by Zara Yaqob who appointed two of these, one of the Left and one of the Right. These were later merged into one office, which became the supreme grade of Ras, "Ras Betwadad". Marcus equates the style to an earl.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: The Enderase () acted as the Regent of the Empire in times of the Emperor's youth, infirmity, or other limited capacity. Empress Zewditu, who reigned from 1917 to 1930, was obliged to share power with an "Enderase", "Ras" Tafari Makonnen, who was also her designated heir, and thus assumed the throne as Emperor Haile Selassie in 1930.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: The title used by the monarch's representatives to fiefs and vassals (in this sense, a Viceroy). In the 20th century, the title was used by some provincial governors, chiefly that of the autonomous province of Eritrea which was restored to Ethiopia in 1952. The title was still used after the dissolution of the federal arrangement, and was uniformly adopted by the rulers of the other provinces as well.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: Emperor-in-exile Amha Selassie appointed Prince Bekere Fikre-Selassie "Enderase" in right of the Crown Council of Ethiopia in 1993, as his representative, and who still holds the office, as Crown Prince Zera Yacob Amha Selassie has not declared himself Emperor.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: Reise Mekwanint (ርእሰ መኳንንት , "head of the nobles") was a title granted during the Zemene Mesafint, which raised its holder over all appointed nobles. It was bestowed upon the "Enderase", who during that period held most of the (considerably diminished) imperial power. It was last granted to Yohannes IV by his brother-in-law Tekle Giyorgis II (Wagshum Gobeze) before the former deposed the later and seized the throne for himself.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: The Tsehafi Taezaz (, translated as "Minister of the Pen") was the most powerful post at the Imperial court. According to John Spencer, he was "the one who traditionally walked two steps behind the Emperor to listen to and write down all orders that the latter gave out in the course of an audience or an inspection tour." Spencer adds that under Haile Selassie the "Tsehafe Tezaz" safeguarded the Great Seal, kept the records of all important appointments, and was responsible for publishing all laws and treaties; "his signature, rather than that of the Emperor, appeared on those [official] publications although the heading in each case referred to His Imperial Majesty." The office was combined with that of Prime Minister during the tenure of Aklilu Habte-Wold (1961–1974).


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: Afe Negus (, lit: "mouth of the King") Title for the Imperial Supreme Court Justices that is equivalent to "Lord Justice" or "Lord Chief Justice" (in the case of the Chief Justice). The title was originally given to the two chief heralds who acted as official spokesmen for the Emperor, hence the name "mouth of the King". Since the Emperor never spoke in public, these officials always spoke in public on his behalf (speaking as if they were the Emperor). By 1942, this title was granted only to Justices of the Imperial Supreme Court.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: The Liqe Mekwas (ሊቀ መኳስ ) was the impersonator or double of the Emperor, who accompanied him in battle. Two trusted and highly favored officials were given this title. They always walked or rode on either side of the monarch in battle, or in public processions, dressing as magnificently, or more magnificently then he, in order to distract assassins.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: The Aqabe Se'at (ዐቃቤ ሰዓት , "keeper of time") was a high official, often a clergyman, who was responsible for keeping the Emperor's schedule and had authority over the clergy assigned to the Imperial Court. The position was one of immense power in medieval times, but became largely titular under the Gondarine Emperors and eventually went out of existence.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: The Blattengeta (ብላቴን ጌታ , "lord of the pages") was a high court official that served as administrator of the Palaces. The title was later used as an honorific.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: Blatta (ብላታ , "page") was the rank of high court officials in charge of maintaining palace protocol and meeting the personal needs of the Imperial family.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: Basha (ባሻ ) was a rank originally derived from the Turkish (Ottoman)/Egyptian title of Pasha, but considered a lower rank in Ethiopia, whereas Pasha was a high rank at the Turkish and Egyptian courts.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: A Negadras (ነጋድራስ , "head of the merchants") was the appointed leader of a larger town's merchants, who supervised the operations of the markets, the administration of customs, and the collection of taxes. By the end of the 19th century a "negadras" was often the single most important official in a town, essentially acting as its mayor.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: By 1900 the various "negadrasoch" had been subordinated to the "negadras" of Addis Ababa, Haile Giyorgis Woldemikael, who by 1906 supervised foreign businesses and diplomatic missions in the capital, the organisation of hand was responsible for granting concessions and contracts to foreign enterprises, making the post the "de facto" Mayor of Addis Ababa, Chief of police, Minister of Commerce and Minister of Foreign Affairs. These functions were separated by the formation of the first cabinet in 1907, with Haile Giyorgis appointed to those posts. With Haile Giyorgis' removal from office by then-Regent "Ras" Tafari Makonnen in 1917, the post of "negadras" of Addis Ababa lost most of its powers to the office of "Kantiba", the head of the municipal government, which had been created in 1910, with other towns later following suit.


title: Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles

text: Kantiba (ከንቲባ , "mayor" or "Lord Mayor") is a mayor of a large town or city in modern times. In ancient times a kantiba was a chief, the king's lieutenant that used to govern a province or more provinces. He had soldiers. The kantiba had the task to administrate the given areas. In certain cases the title of kantiba could have passed down from father to son, and in some others the title was given to elected individuals for a few years, where at the end of the mandate another person was elected.


title: Common dolphin

text: The common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) is the most abundant cetacean in the world, with a global population of about six million. Despite this fact and its vernacular name, the common dolphin is not thought of as the archetypal dolphin, with that distinction belonging to the bottlenose dolphin due to its popular appearances in aquaria and the media. However, the common dolphin is often depicted in Ancient Greek and Roman art and culture, most notably in a mural painted by the Greek Minoan civilization.


title: Common dolphin

text: It is presently the only member of the genus Delphinus. The common dolphin belongs to the subfamily Delphininae, making this dolphin closely related to the three different species of bottlenose dolphins, humpback dolphins, striped dolphins, spinner dolphins, clymene dolphin, spotted dolphins, fraser's dolphin and the tucuxi and guiana dolphin. The common dolphin was originally categorized into two different species (now thought to be ecotypes), the short-beaked common dolphin and the long-beaked common dolphin. However, recent evidence has shown that many populations of long-beaked common dolphins around the world are not closely related to one another and are often derived from a short-beaked ancestor and do not always share common derived characteristics. For this reason, they are no longer considered different species.


title: Common dolphin

text: Common dolphin are medium-sized dolphins; adults range between long, and can weigh between , although the range between is more common. Males are generally longer and heavier. The color pattern on the body is unusual. The back is dark and the belly is white, while on each side is an hourglass pattern colored light grey, yellow, or gold in front and dirty grey in back. They have long, thin rostra with up to 50–60 small, sharp, interlocking teeth on each side of each jaw.


title: Common dolphin

text: Despite the historic practice of lumping the entire genus "Delphinus" into a single species, these widely distributed dolphins exhibit a wide variety of sizes, shapes and colors. Indeed, over the past few decades, over 20 distinct species in the genus have been proposed. Scientists in California in the 1960s concluded there were two species — the long-beaked and short-beaked. The long-beaked common dolphin was thought to have a disjointed range in coastal areas in tropical and warmer temperate oceans. The range included parts of western and southern Africa, much of western South America, central California to central Mexico, coastal Peru, areas around Japan, Korea and Taiwan, and possibly near Oman. Vagrants have been recorded as far north as Vancouver Island.


title: Common dolphin

text: This analysis was seemingly confirmed by a more in-depth genetic study in the 1990s. This study also suggested a third species ("D. tropicalis", common name usually Arabian common dolphin or Indo-Pacific common dolphin), characterized by an extremely long and thin beak and found in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, might be distinguished from the long-beaked species. The current standard taxonomic works recognize this as a subspecies of "D. delphis" rather than a separate species.


title: Common dolphin

text: Recent evidence has demonstrated that different populations of long-beaked common dolphins around the world are not closely related to one another and are often derived from a short-beaked ancestor (as well as not sharing common derived characters). Therefore, long-beaked and short-beaked common dolphins are now listed as the same species under the scientific name of "Delphinus delphis". Currently, the common dolphin is divided into four subspecies:


title: Common dolphin

text: Many extinct cetacean species were once lumped into "Delphinus", but have since been placed in other genera. In the late 19th century several fossil species were described, including taxa: "Delphinus baltringii", "Delphinus delannoy" and "Delphinus domeykoi". However, these species are no longer considered valid. Another species known as "Delphinus brevidens" was reassigned to the genus "Stereodelphis" which is now generally considered synonymous with "Squalodon".


title: Common dolphin

text: Common dolphins live in both warm-temperate and tropical waters ranging from 40–60°N to 50°S. Long-beaked common dolphins mostly inhabit shallow, warm coastal water. Short-beaked common dolphins are common "along shelf edges and in areas with sharp bottom relief such as seamounts and escarpments". Common dolphins have a varied diet consisting of many species of fish and squid. This includes both mesopelagic species and epipelagic schooling species. They have been recorded to make dives up to deep.


title: Common dolphin

text: Common dolphins are a widely distributed species. They can be found around the world in both offshore and coastal waters. In the Northwest Atlantic, they can be found from Cape Hatteras North Carolina, to Newfoundland and are strongly associated with the Gulf Stream. Dolphins in this region can often be found in areas that have certain geological factors like underwater canyons and ridges because this is where up-welling occurs which result in greater nutrients. In the Eastern Pacific, common dolphins are found along the coast of California and are associated with the California current. Short-beaked Common dolphins can also be found in Europe, particularly the Scotian shelf, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. In the Southern Hemisphere, they are abundant in the southwestern Pacific, around New Zealand and southern Australia. They are generally a pelagic species that are often found in waters 650–6,500 feet deep, with the short-beaked type preferring deeper waters than the long-beaked type Temperature also plays a large role in the congregation of dolphins. For example, in the Western North Atlantic, almost all sightings of Common dolphins took place in waters from 16 to 20 °C. However, there were common dolphin sightings in waters as low as 5 °C.


title: Common dolphin

text: Common dolphins can live in aggregations of hundreds or even thousands of dolphins. Common dolphins are often seen in groups numbering several hundred individuals (with subgroups consisting of 20-30 individuals). Occasionally, different groups will come together to form mega-pods which can consist of over 10,000 dolphins. Genetic studies in the Northeast Atlantic suggest that common dolphin pods generally do not consist of close kin, but rather of members that are not closely related. Unlike many delphinids, common dolphins do not live in a matriarchal society. That being said, closely related individuals are usually found in similar geographical locations fairly consistently, providing evidence that this species displays site fidelity (at least in the Northeastern Atlantic). Male common dolphins display greater site fidelity in relation to their kin than females. Common dolphin pod structure often consists of nursery pods (which includes females and calves), bachelor pods (consisting of all males) and mixed groups of males and females, including sub-adults and calves. Genetic evidence seems to indicate that common dolphins live in fission-fusion societies, where dolphins form pods that are not necessarily stable and do not necessarily consist of related individuals. It is not known if common dolphins form lifelong bonds with other individuals  like the long-term male alliances seen in bottlenose dolphins.


title: Common dolphin

text: There is some evidence that common dolphins use signature whistles, similar to that of the bottlenose dolphin. These whistles are believed to serve as an acoustic label, and provide identification information similar to that of a name.  It takes approximately 1 year for a calf to learn its signature whistle after which it remains stable for the rest of a dolphin's life. In South Africa, as many as 29 common dolphin signature whistle types were detected. However, it was difficult to determine if each dolphin had its own signature whistle due to the vast number of dolphins present (over 1,000) and anthropogenic background noise. Additionally, considering the vast number of dolphins present and  taking into account their feeding and diving behavior, it appears that common dolphin signature whistles are also used for group cohesion. Another hypothesis for the function of signature whistles, is that they serve as a beacon for lost individuals.


title: Common dolphin

text: Common dolphins sometimes associate with other dolphin species, such as pilot whales. In the Gulf of Corinth, common dolphins frequently display mixed species association, especially with striped and Rissos’ dolphins. Over one third of all dolphin sightings in the gulf consisted of mixed species associations that partially consisted of common dolphins. In mixed species associations, the ratio of striped to common dolphins ranged from 6-11:1. When Rissos’ dolphins were present (there would usually be only one or two individuals), it appeared that much of their scars were the result of interactions between striped and spinner dolphins. In much of the interactions, the Rissos’ dolphins would chase and herd the common dolphins toward the boat, while the common dolphins would try and swim under the Rissos’ dolphin. When groups of common and striped dolphins would charge at each other, the Rissos’ dolphin would chase the striped dolphins. Sometimes these interactions appeared to be playful, and at other times aggressive. Synchronized swimming and surfacing was commonly observed. These interactions take place in the deepest part of the Gulf, furthest from shore and usually consist of a total of 60 dolphins from all three species.


title: Common dolphin

text: There have been confirmed cases of hybridization between striped and common dolphins in this region. There have been 15 cases of common dolphin and striped dolphin hybrids. Genetic and observational evidence has demonstrated that the hybrids are fertile and are capable of not only reproducing with other hybrids, but are capable of reproducing with each of the parent species. Striped dolphins have been known to mate with other dolphins, as the Clymene dolphin is the result of hybrid speciation between striped and spinner dolphins. However, this is unlikely to happen with common dolphins, as their population in the Gulf of Corinth is too low. Common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins have been known to interbreed in captivity. There is one confirmed case of a hybrid between a bottlenose and common dolphin in Southern Spain, an important feeding ground for both species. The mother was a female bottlenose dolphin (dubbed as Billie) who has spent 10 years within a common dolphin pod. Billie was observed assisting common calves reach the surface at three different intervals and would babysit the calves after the mother went through labor. The length of the calf was similar to a bottlenose dolphin calf, with the lateral stripes and coloration of a common dolphin. The calf was spotted with its mother, almost daily on dolphin watching tours among a nursery pod of common dolphins which also contained some immature striped dolphins. Sightings of the calf took place when temperatures were between 14 and 26 °C. The calf was mainly observed swimming in the echelon position (swimming alongside the mother). The calf was found rubbing its head on its mother, jumping backwards over its mother and flipper-to flipper, belly-to flipper and belly-to belly contact was observed. They have also been observed bow riding on baleen whales, and they also bow ride on boats. They are fast swimmers and breaching behavior and aerial acrobatics are common with this species. They are also known to display altruistic behaviors to support injured members.


title: Common dolphin

text: The short-beaked common dolphin has a gestation period of 10 to 11 months. The newborn calf has a length of and weighs about . For the Black Sea population, weaning occurs at between five and six months, but occurs later (up to about 19 months) in other areas. Typical interbirth interval ranges from one year for the Black Sea population to three years for eastern Pacific Ocean populations. Age of sexual maturity also varies by location, but can range between two and seven years for females and three and 12 years for males. No evidence exists of any major reproductive differences between the two species. In captivity, the long-beaked common dolphin has hybridized with the common bottlenose dolphin ("Tursiops truncatus"). One of the hybrids has been bred back to a bottlenose dolphin, demonstrating such hybrids are fertile.


title: Common dolphin

text: The common dolphin is probably the most abundant cetacean species on the planet, and the overall species is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, indicating that it is in no danger of extinction. Abundance has been estimated for most major portions of the species range in the Northern Hemisphere, but only for a few places in the Southern Hemisphere.  In the Pacific Ocean, there are an estimated 1,428,000 off Japan and in the temperate central Pacific Ocean, 969,000 off the U.S. west coast (Carretta et al. 2019); and 2,963,000 in the eastern tropical Pacific. In the Atlantic Ocean, 70,000 are estimated for the western Atlantic Ocean (Waring et al. 2019); 467,000 for European waters; more than 19,400 for the Mediterranean Sea; and several tens of thousands for the Black Sea.  In the southern part of the Indo-Pacific Ocean, there are an estimated 20,000-22,000 common dolphins in a small portion of southern Australia (Bilgmann et al. 2017), and 15,000-20,000 off southern Africa.  There are no estimates for the population of dolphins in the northern Indian Ocean.  Taken together, these estimates suggest that well over six million common dolphins inhabit the World's oceans.


title: Common dolphin

text: Common dolphins face a mixture of threats due to human influence. Moderate levels of metal pollutants, which are thought to negatively impact dolphin health, have been measured in some populations. Populations have been hunted off the coast of Peru for use as food and shark bait. In most other areas, the dolphins have not been hunted directly. Several thousand individuals have been caught in industrial trawler nets throughout their range.


title: Common dolphin

text: Bycatch is the main threat that common dolphins face today. Short-beaked common dolphins are taken as cetacean bycatch the most in all of Europe, given that they are the most abundant dolphin in the Eastern Atlantic. About 1000 short-beaked common dolphins are bycaught in the North Atlantic each year by either tuna drift, trawling and gillnetting. The regulation is that only cetacean bycatch can not be longer than 15 meters and this can lead to be a problem because short-beaked common dolphins are only about 2.7 meters. Common dolphin bycatch is a particularly important issue in Galicia Spain, via trawler fishing. The bycatch of short beaked dolphins in Galicia from May to September from 2001 to 2002, consisted of 394 individuals annually. Depth was an important factor in bycatch, as incidental capture mostly took place along the continental shelf in water less than 300 m deep. Very few entrapments took place when the depth exceeded 300 m. Time of day was also important as most dolphins became trapped in trawling nets at night (most active feeding takes place at night). Most of the dolphins captured were males and had a mean age of 13+- 4.4 years. It is believed that the reason why the vast majority of bycatch consisted of males is because bachelor pods appear to be particularly abundant in Galicia from the May–October season. This fact reinforces the hypothesis that common dolphins may be sexually segregated in the Northeast Atlantic. If there was a ban on fishing in Galicia in waters than less than 250 m deep, and if there were seasonal closures, it is estimated that 78% of the dolphins would not have been caught. In the Western North Atlantic, dolphins are vulnerable to swordfish driftnet fishing, with the number of males being caught as bycatch, doubling the number of females. It was also found from stranding samples that males tend to strand more. This provides evidence of sex-based habitat partitioning or pod congregation.


title: Common dolphin

text: Common dolphins were abundant in the western Mediterranean Sea until the 1960s but occurrences there have tailed off rapidly. The reasons are not well understood, but are believed to be due to extensive human activity in the area. In the US, they are a protected species and sometimes are caught by accident in some trawler nets as by-catch, though despite this they are still quite common throughout their range. Despite these potential threats, the short-beaked common dolphin is considered to be Least Concern by the IUCN Red List, and the long-beaked common dolphin is listed as Data Deficient.


title: Common dolphin

text: The short-beaked common dolphin "Delphinus delphis" is listed globally on Appendix II of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). As amended by the Conference of the Parties in 1985, 1988, 1991, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2005 and 2008. Effective: 5 March 2009 of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) as it has an unfavourable conservation status or would benefit significantly from international co-operation organised by tailored agreements. The Mediterranean population of the short-beaked common dolphin is also listed on Appendix I, as this population has been categorized as being in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant proportion of their range and CMS Parties strive towards strictly protecting these animals, conserving or restoring the places where they live, mitigating obstacles to migration and controlling other factors that might endanger them. In addition, the species is also covered by the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas (ASCOBANS) and the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans in the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS).


title: Common dolphin

text: On June 8, 2009, a mass-stranding event (MSE) occurred in Falmouth Bay, Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is believed the MSE was likely caused by naval involvement, as all other factors which cause MSEs in cetaceans currently appear unlikely to have influenced the event. During the event, twenty-six common dolphins washed ashore, and about the same amount floated back out to sea. There were three other MSEs in the UK before this event, all of unknown cause, from the years 1915 to 1938, but with arguably lower counts of stranded dolphins.


title: Common dolphin

text: Common dolphins are not common in captivity. But on at least three occasions, a beached common dolphin in California was nursed back to health at SeaWorld San Diego, but deemed unfit to release back to the ocean. These common dolphins remained at SeaWorld with the bottlenose dolphin exhibit. On one occasion, a male common dolphin managed to impregnate one of the female bottlenose dolphins in the exhibit, leading to four hybrid births. One of the resulting common dolphin/bottlenose dolphin hybrids remained at SeaWorld, San Diego (alternately under the name Cindy or Bullet) while the other (named CJ) was kept at Discovery Cove, and was moved to SeaWorld Orlando in 2016.


title: Common dolphin

text: Other than at SeaWorld, at least 90 common dolphins are known to have been captured from the wild and kept in captivity. Captured common dolphins are said to be difficult to keep in captivity.


title: Common dolphin

text: The behavior of captive common dolphins is not very well studied. However, a study was conducted in New Zealand of common dolphin reacting to swimmers at Marineland. Unlike bottlenose dolphins (which demonstrated antagonistic or sexual behaviors), the common dolphins retreated to the refuge center of the pool, where swimmers were not allowed. They did not leave the refuge section until the swimmers left. The dolphins also surfaced much more frequently, which is a possible indicator of stress. Aggressive and playful behavior among the dolphins decreased when swimmers were present. This behavior is consistent with wild common dolphins off of New Zealand, as they actively avoid swimmers.


title: Convair YB-60

text: On 25 August 1950, Convair issued a formal proposal for a swept-winged version of the B-36 with all-jet propulsion. The Air Force was sufficiently interested that on 15 March 1951, it authorized Convair to convert two B-36Fs (49-2676 and 49-2684) as the B-36G. Since the aircraft was so radically different from the existing B-36, the designation was soon changed to YB-60.


title: Convair YB-60

text: The YB-60 had 72% parts commonality with its piston-engined predecessor. The fuselages of the two aircraft were largely identical although the radar and bombing systems were located in a removable nose section as a result of the poor reliability of the B-36 installation. For initial flight testing a more streamlined nose with an instrumented boom was fitted; a wedge-shaped insert was added just outboard of the main landing gear to increase wing sweep and the tail surfaces were swept to match. The swept wings also used many B-36 parts. A steerable tail wheel was added to prevent the aircraft tipping backwards. It was not necessarily extended when on the ground but depended on how the aircraft was loaded.


title: Convair YB-60

text: The YB-60's unofficial competitor for an Air Force contract was Boeing's B-52 Stratofortress. Convair's proposal was substantially cheaper than Boeing's, since it involved modifying an existing design rather than starting from scratch. Like the B-52, it was powered by eight Pratt & Whitney J57-P-3 turbojets mounted in pairs in four pods suspended below the wing. Prior to this engine configuration Convair had evaluated a six-turboprop design and one with 12 J47 engines.


title: Convair YB-60

text: The first YB-60 prototype's crew numbered five; the second prototype's numbered nine, as it did in the planned production B-60s. Production B-60s were to have defensive armament similar to those of the B-36.


title: Convair YB-60

text: Convair YB-60 serial number "49-2676" made its maiden flight on 18 April 1952, piloted by Beryl Erickson. The Boeing YB-52 beat the Convair aircraft into the air by three days. The YB-60 was approximately slower than the YB-52 and also had significant handling problems, due to its controls having been designed for slower operating speeds. It did carry a heavier bomb load — against for the YB-52 — but the Air Force did not see the need for the extra capacity, given the YB-60's other drawbacks. Later, "big belly" modifications increased the B-52's bomb load to . The flight test programs were canceled on 20 January 1953, with 66 flying hours accumulated. The second prototype was nearing completion but its engines had not been installed and other equipment installations had not been completed. Since Convair completed their prototype contract satisfactorily, both YB-60s were formally accepted by the Air Force in 1954. The operational aircraft never flew again, and both airframes were scrapped by July.


title: Convair YB-60

text: An airliner adaptation of the YB-60 was proposed by Convair, but its wingspan and weight would have required unacceptable airport infrastructure changes beyond those required for the upcoming Boeing 707. The company decided to pursue the Convair 880 series airliner instead.


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: This article is about the demographic features of the population of Moldova, including distribution, ethnicity, languages, religious affiliation and other statistical data.


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: According to the 2014 Moldovan Census, 2,789,205 people resided in the areas controlled by the central government of Moldova. Another 209,030 were non-resident citizens living abroad, for a total of 2,998,235.


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: According to the 2015 census in Transnistria, 475,007 people lived in the breakaway Transnistria, including the city of Bender, and the other localities "de facto" controlled by Transnistrian authorities. Thus, the total population of the country in 2014 amounted to 3,473,242.


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: According to the 2014 census, 1,144,428 residents or 38,2% live in cities while 1,853,807 are rural residents. The largest cities under the control of the constitutional authorities are Chișinău with 644,204 (with 590,631 actual urban dwellers) and Bălți with 102,457 (97,930 urban dwellers). The autonomous territorial unit of Gagauzia has 134,535, out of which 48,666 or 36,2% are urban dwellers. Ungheni is the third largest city with 32,828, followed by Cahul with 28,763, Soroca with 22,196 and Orhei with 21,065.


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: Out of the 2,804,801 people covered by the 2014 Moldovan census, 2,754,719 gave an answer as to their ethnic affiliation. Among them, 2,068,068 or 73.7% declared themselves Moldovans and 192,800 or 6.9% Romanians. Some organisations like the Liberal party of Moldova have criticised the census results, claiming Romanians comprise 85% of the population and that census officials have pressured respondents to declare themselves Moldovans instead of Romanians and have purposefully failed to cover urban respondents who are more likely to declared themselves Romanians as opposed to Moldovans


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: At the same time, 181,035 declared themselves Ukrainians, 111,726 Russians, 126,010 Gagauz and 51,867 Bulgarians. The proportion of Ukrainians and Russians in the area controlled by Chișinău has fallen from 8,4% to 6,5% and 5,9% to 4,0% respectively between 2004 and 2014. Meanwhile, the percentage of Gagauz has risen slightly from 4,4% in 2004 to 4,5% in 2014.


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: The proportion of Ukrainians and Russians in the previous 2004 census also decreased considerably in comparison to the last Soviet census in 1989: from 13.8% to 11.2% and from 13.0% to 9.4% respectively out of the combined population including Transnistria. This is mostly due to emigration.


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: Ukrainians mostly live in the east (Transnistria) and the north, while Russians mostly live in urban areas: 27% of all Russians live in Chișinău, 18% live in Tiraspol, 11% in Bender and 6% in Bălți. Most of the Gagauz live in the south of Moldova in the autonomous region of Gagauzia.


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: Declared country of birth for the current inhabitants of the part of Moldova under the central government control, according to the 2004 census:


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: According to the last census in Transnistria (October 2015), the population of the region was 475,373, a 14.47% decrease from the figure recorded at the 2004 census. By ethnic composition, the population of Transnistria was distributed as follows:


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: Around 14% did not declare any ethnicity. For the first time, the population had the option to identify as "Transnistrian".


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: Romanian is the official language of Moldova. However, many speakers use the term Moldovan to describe the language they speak, despite the fact that its literary standard is virtually identical to Romanian. Officially since 1990, it is written in the Latin alphabet.


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: Currently, 2,184,065 people or 80.2% of those covered by the 2014 census on the right bank of the Dniester or Moldova (proper) have Moldovan/Romanian as native language, of which 1,544,726 (55.1%) declared Moldovan and 639.339 (22.8%) declared it Romanian. 263,523 people or 9.4% have Russian as native language, 107,252 or 3.8% – Ukrainian, 114,532 or 4.1% – Gagauz, 41,756 or 1.5% – Bulgarian, 12,187 or 0.5% – another language. Only 2,723,315 declared their native language out of the 2,804,801 covered by the 2014 census.


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: According to the 2014 census, 2,720,377 answered to the question on "language usually used for communication". 2,138,964 people or 78.63% of the inhabitants of Moldova (proper) have Moldovan/Romanian as first language, of which 1,486,570 (53%) declared it Moldovan and 652,394 (23.3%) declared it Romanian. 394,133 people or 14.1% have Russian as language of daily use, 73.802 or 2.6% – Ukrainian, 74.167 or 2.6% – Gagauz, 26,577 or 0.9% – Bulgarian, and 12,734 or 0.5% – another language.


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: In the Soviet census of 1989 members of most of the ethnic groups in Moldavian SSR claimed the language of their ethnicity as their mother tongue: Moldovans (95%), Ukrainians (62%), Russians (99%), Gagauz (91%), Bulgarians (79%), and Gipsies (82%). The exceptions were Jews (26% citing Yiddish), Belarusians (43%), Germans (31%), and Poles (10%).


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: In the Soviet census of 1989, 62% of the total population claimed Moldovan as their native language. Only 4% of the entire population claimed Moldovan as a second language.


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: In 1979, Russian was claimed as a native language by a large proportion of Jews (66%) and Belarusians (62%), and by a significant proportion of Ukrainians (30%). Proportions of other ethnicities naming Russian as a native language ranged from 17% of Bulgarians to 3% of Moldovans (Russian was more spoken by urban Moldovans than by rural Moldovans). Russian was claimed as a second language by a sizeable proportion of all ethnicities: Moldovans (46%), Ukrainians (43%), Gagauz (68%), Jews (30%), Bulgarians (67%), Belarusians (34%), Germans (53%), Roma (36%), and Poles (24%).


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: In 1940–1941, and 1944–1991, the Soviet government strictly limited the activities of the Orthodox Church (and all religions) and at times sought to exploit it, with the ultimate goal of abolishing it and all religious activity altogether. Most Orthodox churches and monasteries in Moldova were demolished or converted to other uses, such as administrative buildings or warehouses, and clergy were sometimes punished for leading services. Still, many believers continued to practice their faith.


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: People in the independent Moldova have much greater religious freedom than they did in Soviet times. Legislation passed in 1992 guarantees religious freedom, but requires all religious groups to be officially recognized by the government.


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: In 1991, Moldova had 853 Orthodox churches and eleven Orthodox monasteries (four for monks and seven for nuns). In 1992 construction or restoration of 221 churches was underway, but clergy remained in short supply. As of 2004, Christian Orthodox constitute the vast majority of the population in all districts of Moldova.


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: In the interwar period, the vast majority of ethnic Moldovans belonged to the Romanian Orthodox Church (Bucharest Patriarchate), but today both Romanian and Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) have jurisdiction in Moldova, with the latter having more parishes. According to the local needs, liturgy is performed in Romanian, Russian, and Turkic (Gagauz). After the revival of religious activity in the last 20 years, a minority of the clergy and the faithful wanted to return to the Bucharest Patriarchate (Metropolis of Bessarabia). Because higher-level church authorities were unable to resolve the matter, Moldova now has two episcopates, one for each patriarchate. After the Soviet occupation in 1940, the Metropolis was downgraded to a Bishopric. In late 1992, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia issued a decree upgrading its eparchy of Chișinău and Moldova to a Metropolis.


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: Moldova also has a Greek Catholic minority, mainly among ethnic Ukrainians, although the Soviet government declared the Greek Catholic Churches illegal in 1946 and forcibly united them with the Russian Orthodox Church. However, the Greek Catholic Churches had survived underground until the dissolution of the Soviet Union.


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: In addition, the Old Russian Orthodox Church (Old Believers) had fourteen churches and one monastery in Moldova in 1991.


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: Despite the Soviet government's suppression and harassment, Moldova's practicing Jews managed to retain their religious identity. About a dozen Jewish newspapers were started in the early 1990s, and religious leaders opened a synagogue in Chișinău; there were six Jewish communities of worship throughout the country. In addition, Moldova's government created the Department of Jewish Studies at Chișinău State University, mandated the opening of a Jewish high school in Chișinău, and introduced classes in Judaism in high schools in several cities. The government also provides financial support to the Society for Jewish Culture.


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: There are around 65,000 Protestants of all sects in Moldova today. There are more than 1,000 Baptists in the cities of Chișinău and Bălți, in Cahul, Fălești, Hîncești, Sîngerei, Ștefan Vodă, and Ungheni districts, and in Găgăuzia. There are more than 1,000 Seventh-day Adventists in Cahul, Hîncești and Sîngerei districts, and in Găgăuzia, there are more than 1,000 Pentecostals in Chișinău and in Briceni district. There are more than 1,000 members of Brethren assemblies only in Chișinău. There are more than 1,000 Evangelical Synod-Presbyterians only in Chișinău.


title: Demographics of Moldova

text: Since 2000, there has been a continuous increase in life expectancy, except for 2005, a year in which there was a high level of general and infant mortality. In 2013, this indicator recorded the maximum value of the given period – 71.85 years, including men – 68.1 and women – 75.5 years. The significant increase in life expectancy was influenced by the decrease in the overall mortality rate to 10.7 deaths per 1000 inhabitants, and the infant death rate, which constituted 9.4 deaths under one year per 1,000 live births.


title: C battery

text: The C battery (C size battery or R14 battery) is a standard size of dry cell battery typically used in medium-drain applications such as toys, flashlights, and musical instruments.


title: C battery

text: As of 2007, C batteries accounted for 4% of alkaline primary battery sales in the United States. In Switzerland as of 2008, C batteries totalled 5.4% of primary battery sales and 3.4% of secondary (rechargeable) battery sales.


title: C battery

text: The voltage and capacity of a C-size battery depends on the battery chemistry and discharge conditions. The nominal voltage is 1.5V. Alkaline C batteries have a storage capacity up to 8000 mAh while rechargeable NiMH C batteries can hold up to 6000 mAh. Zinc-carbon C batteries usually hold up to 3800 mAh. Compared to the AAA and AA batteries, C-batteries' storage capacities are significantly higher.


title: C battery

text: Like the D battery, the C battery size has been standardized since the 1920s. The AA, AAA, and N sizes have been in common use since the 1950s.


title: C battery

text: The C battery is called "14" in current ANSI standards of battery nomenclature, and in IEC standards is designated "R14".


title: Kismat Konnection

text: Kismat Konnection ("Fate Connection") is an Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy film directed by Aziz Mirza who previously directed films including "Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman" (1992), "Yes Boss" (1997), "Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani" (2000) and "Chalte Chalte" (2003). The film stars Shahid Kapoor and Vidya Balan in the lead roles with Juhi Chawla in a guest appearance. Shah Rukh Khan is the narrator. Produced by Ramesh S. Taurani under the banner of Tips Industries, "Kismat Konnection" was released on July 18th, 2008. The film was declared a "Semi-Hit" at the box office.


title: Kismat Konnection

text: "Kismat Konnection" is a remake of the Hollywood film, "Just My Luck" which stars Lindsay Lohan and Chris Pine.


title: Kismat Konnection

text: This is a story about an Architect Raj Malhotra. While he was a top student in his school and college days, he is not having much luck in finding work, clients or projects. All he does, seems to go wrong. Raj Malhotra goes to a Romani people named Haseena Bano Jaan. She advises him that his luck is not good and he needs a Good Luck Charm or a person who can change his life. Afterwards, Raj Malhotra meets Priya Saluja, who is ready to help the citizens of a community by trying to save a Community centre. Although they do not get along at first, Raj Malhotra eventually realizes that Priya Saluja is his lucky charm. Priya Saluja ends up helping Raj Malhotra through sticky situations and Raj Malhotra eventually figures out that she is, in fact, changing his life. Knowing this, Raj Malhotra lies to Priya Saluja by telling her that he will help her save the community center, but instead, he is trying to build a Shopping mall there so he can finally be recognized as an architect. He also falls in love with Priya Saluja and she too falls for him. However, when Priya Saluja finds out the truth about what Raj Malhotra is trying to do, she becomes sad. To make up for his lie, Raj Malhotra sells everything he has, not caring about his job. He proposes a plan to save the community center and ends up winning Priya's love and admiration.


title: Kismat Konnection

text: "Kismat Konnection" (in other words "Connection of Fate") was previously titled "Lucky Charm". Kapoor and Balan began shooting for the film in Toronto, Canada and later continued in Mumbai. Actress Juhi Chawla played the role of a gypsy fortune-teller dressed in typical colorful bright attire.