Alexander Calder was an American sculptor, best known for his innovative mobiles that embrace chance in their aesthetic and his monumental public sculptures. Born into a family of artists, Calder's work first gained attention in Paris in the 1920s and was soon championed by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, resulting in a retrospective exhibition in 1943. Major retrospectives were held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Calder's work is in many permanent collections, most notably in the Whitney Museum of American Art, but the Guggenheim Museum. C.. He produced many large public works, including.125, Pittsburgh Spirale and Universe, Mountains and Clouds. Although known for his sculpture, Calder created paintings and prints, theater set design, jewelry design and rugs, political posters. Calder was honored by the US Postal Service with a set of five 32-cent stamps in 1998, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, posthumously in 1977, after refusing to receive it from Gerald Ford one year earlier in protest of the Vietnam War.

An important work of Calder's is the monumental "Floating Clouds" of the Aula Magna of the University City of Caracas in Venezuela. This work is a Unesco World Heritage Site. Calder's clouds were specially designed to combine art and technology, making the auditorium one of the top 5 university auditoriums in the world by sound quality. Alexander "Sandy" Calder was born in 1898 in Pennsylvania, his actual birthday, remains a source of confusion. According to Calder's mother, Calder was born on August 22, yet his birth certificate at Philadelphia City Hall, based on a hand-written ledger, stated July 22; when Calder's family learned about the birth certificate, they reasserted with certainty that city officials had made a mistake. Calder's grandfather, sculptor Alexander Milne Calder, was born in Scotland, had immigrated to Philadelphia in 1868, is best known for the colossal statue of William Penn on top of Philadelphia City Hall's tower, his father, Alexander Stirling Calder, was a well-known sculptor who created many public installations, a majority of them in nearby Philadelphia.

Calder's mother was a professional portrait artist, who had studied at the Académie Julian and the Sorbonne in Paris from around 1888 until 1893. She moved to Philadelphia, where she met Stirling Calder while studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Calder's parents married on February 22, 1895. Alexander Calder's sister, Mrs. Margaret Calder Hayes, was instrumental in the development of the UC Berkeley Art Museum. In 1902, Calder posed nude for his father's sculpture The Man Cub, a cast of, now located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; that same year he completed his earliest sculpture, a clay elephant. Three years Alexander's father contracted tuberculosis, Calder's parents moved to a ranch in Oracle, leaving the children in the care of family friends for a year; the children were reunited with their parents in late March 1906 and stayed at the ranch in Arizona until autumn of the same year. After Arizona, the Calder family moved to California; the windowed cellar of the family home became Calder's first studio and he received his first set of tools.

He used scraps of copper wire. On January 1, 1907, Nanette Calder took her son to the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, where he observed a four-horse-chariot race; this style of event became the finale of Calder's miniature circus performances. In the fall of 1909, the Calder family moved back to Philadelphia, where Calder attended Germantown Academy moved to Croton-on-Hudson, New York; that Christmas, he sculpted a duck out of sheet brass as gifts for his parents. The sculptures are three-dimensional and the duck is kinetic because it rocks when tapped. In Croton, during his early high school years, Calder was befriended by his father's painter friend Everett Shinn with whom he built a gravity powered system of mechanical trains. Calder described it, "We ran the train on wooden rails held by spikes. We lit up some cars with candle lights". After Croton, the Calders moved to Spuyten Duyvil to be closer to New York City, where Stirling Calder rented a studio. While living in Spuyten Duyvil, Calder attended high school in nearby Yonkers.

In 1912, Stirling Calder was appointed acting chief of the Department of Sculpture of the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco and began work on sculptures for the exposition, held in 1915. During Calder's high school years, the family moved forth between New York and California. In each new location, Calder's parents reserved cellar space as a studio for their son. Toward the end of this period, Calder stayed with friends in California while his parents moved back to New York, so that he could graduate from Lowell High School in San Francisco. Calder graduated with the class of 1915. Alexander Calder's parents did not want him to be an artist, so he decided to study mechanical engineering. An intuitive engineer since childhood, Calder did not e

The Ecuadorian Navy is responsible for the surveillance and protection of national maritime territory and has a personnel of 9,127 men to protect a coastline of 2,237 km which reaches far into the Pacific Ocean. The vessels are identified by a ship prefix of B. A. E.: Buque de la Armada del Ecuador or L. A. E.: Lancha de la Armada del Ecuador. Organize, train and maintain naval capabilities, as well as to assist and support all procedures involving national security and development. Contribute to the achievement of safeguarding national objectives in times of peace and war. Maintain trained naval forces to secure victory within the maritime zone in order to support developing communities; as a consequence operate qualified military personnel whom are able to fulfill this role based on elevated moral and principles. The roots of the Ecuadorian Navy or date back to 1823 whilst forming a part of the Gran Colombian fleet. In 1832 the by Ecuadorian congress established "The Ecuadorian Maritime Department".

On 25 July 1941 during the Ecuadorian–Peruvian War, the gunboat Abdón Calderón commanded by Rafael Morán Valverde encountered the Peruvian destroyer Almirante Villar in the Jambeli channel. The Ecuadorian gunboat opened fire on Villar, keeping its distance while doing shots for elevation, but the Peruvian destroyer returned fire for the duration of the chase, ended by the Peruvians when the Calderon took refuge in the channels; the Calderon was unharmed in the skirmish and according to Ecuador, the Peruvian Villar suffered from damages, allegation that has always been refuted by Perú. However, this event had no influence over the general outcome of the war as Puerto Bolivar was lost to Peruvian Troops only two days later. BAE Tungurahua was bought from a private owner but was scrapped shortly after conversion due to engine malfunctions. Today, the Ecuadorian Navy is a compact and well-balanced force. However, limited funds hinder any major acquisitions and the chances of maintaining a strong force within the Pacific Ocean.

Since introduction of a restructuring program within the Armed Forces, the Navy's structure became simplified. It supervises the Pacific Galápagos Islands all in one naval zone. Most seagoing assets are based at Guayaquil; the Navy consists of the following vessels: The Ecuadorian Naval Aviation was formed in 1967 with fixed wing aircraft and received some helicopters in 1973. It remains the least effective section of the navy. Aircraft are based at the Eloy Alfaro Air Base in Manta; the most recent acquisition of the ANE are two Heron four Searcher Mk. III from Israel; these have increased the Navy's coastal surveillance capacity significantly. The Navy consists of the following aircraft: The Coast Guard became operational in 1980, their mission is to control maritime activities including all river zones. The objective is the internal security, protection of human life at sea and environmental protection, it disposes of around 250 men and 30 major as well as 40 smaller very modern patrol vessels.

In 2011 Ecuador ordered four 26.5 metres patrol vessels based on the Damen Stan 2600 design for the Coast Guard. The Naval Infantry Corps was formed on 12 November 1962, it maintains a strength of around 1700 marines, with their HQ in Guayaquil. The units are individually spread across the naval coast of Ecuador and are equipped with infantry support weapons, including 60 mm and 81 mm mortars, 106 mm recoilless rifles and Humvees. However, it lacks sealift capacity; the Ecuadorian Marines are to maintain a high level of alert in order to execute special operations in difficult territory as well as to provide a fast response to counter amphibious incursions. Structure: Escuela de la Infanteria Marina Compañia de Seguridad "Guayaquil" Batallon de Infanteria Marina "Jambeli" Battallon de Infanteria Marina "San Eduardo" Battallon de Infanteria Marina "San Lorenzo" Battallon de Infanteria Marina "Jaramijo" Battallon de Infanteria Marina "Esmeraldas" Military of Ecuador Bolivarian Armada of Venezuela Colombian National Armada Peruvian Navy https://web.archive.org/web/20110307063238/http://www.armada.mil.ec/ Homepage of the Ecuadorian Navy

Gustavo Enrique Madero Muñoz is a Mexican politician and businessman, great-nephew of the president Francisco I. Madero, he will serve as a senator in the LXIV Legislature of the Mexican Congress after being a senator between 2006 and 2010. Muñoz was the President of the National Action Party from 2010 to 2013 and again from 2014 to 2015, from 2015 to 2018, he was a federal deputy from the first electoral region representing the state of Chihuahua. Gustavo Madero has a bachelor's degree in communication sciences from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente in 1978 and taught at the Women's University of Guadalajara between 1976 and 1977, he has pursued business interests for most of his life. He served in aseveral public service positions, as a department head in the Directorate General of Adult Education of the SEP and as a coordinator of farmer training at the National Agricultural Training Institute between 1982 and 1986. In 1996, Madero joined the PAN, the next year he served as the Director General of Planning and Evaluation in Chihuahua under Governor Francisco Barrio.

In 2001, he became more involved in politics when he stood as the PAN's candidate for municipal president of Chihuahua. In 2003, voters in the Sixth Federal Electoral District of Chihuahua sent Madero to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time, in the LIX Legislature, after narrowly beating his opponent, Pedro Domínguez Alarcón of the PRI, by 48,683 votes to 48,229, he presided over the Finances and Public Credit Commission, where he worked hard to have value-added tax applied to medicines and foodstuffs, an policy initiative of the Fox administration. In the 2006 federal election, Gustavo Madero was elected to the Senate, representing Chihuahua for the PAN in conjunction with Ramón Galindo Noriega for the period 2006–12, he chaired the Finances and Public Credit Commission, served on the Trade and Industrial Development, Energy and Foreign Relations Commissions. Until 10 June 2008, he was the leader of the PAN delegation in the Senate. On 9 June 2008, it was announced that Gustavo Madero would be replacing Santiago Creel as the coordinator of the PAN bloc in the Senate, this was confirmed on 10 June by PAN President Germán Martínez at a meeting of the party's National Executive Committee.

On 28 August 2008, he was elected President of the Senate for the third year of the LX Legislature. In 2010, the PAN elected Madero as its new president, he remained in the position until 2013, when he became the president of the Guiding Council of the Pacto por México. In 2015, the PAN placed Madero on their list from the first electoral region, returning him to the Chamber of Deputies. In the LXIII Legislature, he is the president of the Commission for Attention to Vulnerable Groups and serves on those dealing with Social Development, Public Education and Educational Services, the Committee for the Center for the Study of Public Finances. In 2018, Madero and Rocío Reza ran as the Por México al Frente Senate ticket for the state of Chihuahua; the ticket finished in second place, sending Madero back to the Senate as the first minority senator. Gustavo Madero on the Senate web site Gustavo Madero in Monitor Legislativo Biography of Gustavo Madero by CIDOB