The Mark IV weighs 65 tons. It has 1500 horsepowers and the maximum speed is over 60 km/h. The Mark IV is armed with a 120-millimeter MG253 main gun using an electrical semi-automatic revolving magazine for 10 rounds. Coaxially with the main gun, a machine gun was mounted; on the turret, there is one more machine gun operated from inside the tank, in addition to an internally mounted 60-mm mortar. Mark IV has a new fire-control system that allows for shooting down helicopters; upgraded tracks; a digital battlefield management system; etc.
One tank (Mark I) was donated to the Prague Military Technical Museum (Czech Republic), the only such exhibit in the world outside Israel.
Mining in Kutná Hora
In the Middle Ages, Kutná Hora belonged to one of the most important cities in the Bohemian Kingdom. The silver mining started in the second half of 13th century. Unfortunately, the exact date and place, where it all started, remains unknown. Because of that there are lots of legends about the discovery of silver. The most common legend tells a story of a monk named Anthony from the monastery in Sedlec. According to this legend
the monk found out three silver rods at the foot of the hill.
The peak of mining in Kutná Hora was reached in 14th century. During ages there were lots of mines, but only few of them have been preserved. Last mine was closed during 17th century.
Mines were formed by shafts – pits going underground. Their depth varied from 20 to 150 metres.
Miners worked with simple tools. Only 50 dm3 of rock were extracted within a six-hour shift. This technology allowed them to reach depths ranging from 400 to 450 metres in 14th century. The deepest mine in 16th century was the Osel (donkey) mine, which reached the depth of 600 metres.
Mine was discovered in 1967 during a hydro-geological exploration of the heart of the city. Originally it was thought that the legendary Osel mine had been discovered. But further exploration proved that it is St. George mine.
The mine was established around 1330’s and remained operational until the end of 15th or beginning of 16th century.
Nowadays visitors may see 250 meters long tunnel, but in total there more than 800m of stopes, drifts or corridors. During those 250 meters it’s possible to see several interesting areas. Such as drifts to other levels of mine, exploration drifts, partly flooded stope, fragments of wooden drainage or wooden props (protection against collapsing of ceiling).
Ultima Online
Ultima Online is an fantasy-themed MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) played all around the world. Game servers are called shards. The game was launched in 1997 by Origin Systems. Nowadays it is owned by Electronic Arts. Like in other games, play is mostly about getting the best character.
The game continues with game mechanisms from the original single player game "Ultima". It was designed as a kind of social and economic experiment.
Skill are measured in percent. The game has about 50 kinds of them. Magery, Necromancy, Alchemy, Mining... The highest amount of skill is 100%, but with special items it can be raised to 120%.
Basic player statistics are strength, intelligence and dexterity.
"Ultima Online" has a huge craft system. Players can make various things from weapons to whole ships.
Datadiscs mostly add new monsters, items and maps.
OSI (Origin Systems Inc., now part of EA) is the name for official servers (shards). These servers have run more than 10 years.
"Ultima Online" files can be easily modified. This ability gives a free hand to many projects. To run your shard, you need a server emulator. The EA games tolerates other projects.
Urdă
Urdă (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈurdə]) is a Romanian fresh white cheese made from whey of sheep, goat or cow.
Urdă is produced by heating the whey resulting from the draining of any type of cheese. It is often made into molds to the shape of a half sphere. The paste is finely grained, silky and palatable.
Since urdă is produced by Romanian shepherds since time immemorial in Romania, this product is considered a traditional Romanian dairy product. It is used especially in the preparation of several desserts as clătită and plăcintă.
Rântaş
Rântaş is a Romanian sauce based on oil and grilled flour. If chopped onions are added, the recipe is called "rântaş de ceapa". This sauce is a component of certain ciorba and the sarmale.
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR; ) also known as Azerbaijan People's Republic () was the first successful attempt to establish a democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world (before the Republic of Turkey). The ADR was founded on May 28, 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire that began with the Russian Revolution of 1917 by the Azerbaijani National Council in Tiflis, Georgia. Its borders were with Russia in the north, Democratic Republic of Georgia in the north-west, Democratic Republic of Armenia in the west, and Persian Empire (Iran) in the south. It had a population of 2.86 million. Ganja was the temporary capital of the Republic as Baku, which is the de jure capital, was under Bolshevik control.
Under the ADR, a the government was a parliamentary system in which a parliament, called the Milli Majlis (National Assembly of Azerbaijan) elected on the basis of universal, free, and proportional representation, was the highest political institution of state authority and the Council of Ministers was responsible before it. Fatali Khan Khoyski became its first prime minister. Besides the political party Musavat who had the majority in parliament, other political parties were Ehrar, Ittihad, Muslim Social-democrats as well as representatives of Armenian (21 out of 120 seats), Russian, Polish, Jewish and German minorities gained seats in the parliament. Some members supported Pan-Islamist and Pan-Turkist ideologies.
Among the important accomplishments of the parliament was to give women the right to vote, making Azerbaijan the first Muslim nation to give women equal political rights with men. Apart from this accomplishment, Azerbaijan made these reforms earlier than the United Kingdom and the United States. Another important accomplishment of ADR was the establishment of Baku State University, which was the first modern-type university founded in Azerbaijan.
By March 1920, it became clear that Soviet Russia would attack and invade Azerbaijan. The Soviet Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin said that the invasion was justified by the fact that Soviet Russia could not survive without the Baku oil fields, which was at that time the largest oil field in the world with more than half of the world's oil reserves. According to the common opinion in Moscow, Russian Bolsheviks were to "help" the Baku proletariat (workers) in overthrowing the "counter-revolutionary nationalists", meaning the government and the state of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.
After a major political crisis, the Fifth Cabinet of Ministers of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic resigned on April 1, 1920. On April 25, 1920, the Soviet Russian 11th Red Army crossed into Azerbaijan, entering Baku on April 27. They demanded the closing of the Azerbaijani parliament and set up their own Bolshevik government headed by Nariman Narimanov. To avoid bloodshed, the members of parliament had to agree with the demand and the ADR officially ended on April 28, 1920, giving way to the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (Azerbaijan SSR) as its successor state. The Red Army met very little resistance in Baku from the Azerbaijani army, which was tied up on the Karabakh front. The first Communist government of Azerbaijan consisted almost entirely of native Azerbaijanis from the left-wing political factions of the "Hummat" and "Adalat" political parties.