Blanche of Lancaster was a member of the English royal House of Plantagenet and the daughter of the kingdom's wealthiest and most powerful peer, Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster. She was the first wife of John of Gaunt, the mother of King Henry IV, the grandmother of King Henry V of England. Blanche was born on 25 March 1342, according to her father's inquisitions post mortem, she is said to have been born as late as 1347, but this has been called into question as that would mean she had her first child at only about age 13. She was the younger daughter of Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster and his wife Isabel de Beaumont, she and her elder sister Maud, Countess of Leicester, were born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lindsey. Maud married Ralph de Stafford and William I, Duke of Bavaria. On 19 May 1359, at Reading Abbey, Berkshire, Blanche married her third cousin, John of Gaunt, third son of King Edward III; the whole royal family was present at the wedding, the King gave Blanche expensive gifts of jewellery.

The title Duke of Lancaster became extinct upon her father's death without male heirs in 1361. However, John of Gaunt became Earl of Lancaster, Earl of Derby, Earl of Lincoln and Earl of Leicester as he was married to Blanche; the Duchy of Lancaster was bestowed on Gaunt. The influence associated with the titles would lead him to become Lord High Steward. Jean Froissart described Blanche as "jone et jolie". Geoffrey Chaucer described "White" in such terms as "rody and lyvely hewed", her neck as "whyt, smothe and flat", her throat as "a round tour of yvoire": she was "bothe fair and bright", Nature's "cheef patron of beautee". Gaunt and Blanche's marriage is believed to have been happy, although there is little solid evidence for this; the assumption seems to be based on the fact that Gaunt chose to be buried with Blanche, despite his two subsequent marriages, on the themes of love and grief expressed in Chaucer's poem – a rather circular argument, as it is on the basis of these themes that the couple's relationship is identified as the inspiration for the poem.

Blanche and Gaunt had seven children. Blanche died at Staffordshire, on 12 September 1368 while her husband was overseas. Froissart reported that she died aged about 22, it is believed that she may have died after contracting the Black Death, rife in Europe at that time. Her funeral at St. Paul's Cathedral in London was preceded by a magnificent cortege attended by most of the upper nobility and clergy. John of Gaunt held annual commemorations of her death for the rest of his life and established a joint chantry foundation on his own death. In 1373, Jean Froissart wrote a long poem, Le Joli Buisson de Jonece, commemorating both Blanche and Philippa of Hainault, it may have been for one of the anniversary commemorations of Blanche's death that Geoffrey Chaucer a young squire and unknown writer of court poetry, was commissioned to write what became The Book of the Duchess in her honour. Though Chaucer's intentions can never be defined with absolute certainty, many believe that at least one of the aims of the poem was to make John of Gaunt see that his grief for his late wife had become excessive, to prompt him to try to overcome it.

The poem tells the story of the poet's dream. Wandering a wood, the poet discovers a knight clothed in black, inquires of the knight's sorrow; the knight representing Gaunt, is mourning a terrible tragedy, which may mirror Gaunt's own extended mourning for Blanche. In 1374, six years after her death, John of Gaunt commissioned a double tomb for himself and Blanche from the mason Henry Yevele; the magnificent monument in the choir of St Paul's was completed by Yevele in 1380, with the assistance of Thomas Wrek, having cost a total of £592. Gaunt himself died in 1399, was laid to rest beside Blanche; the two effigies were notable for having their right hands joined. An adjacent chantry chapel was added between 1399 and 1403. Blanche and John of Gaunt together had seven children, of whom three survived to adulthood: Philippa of Lancaster, wife of John I of Portugal. John of Lancaster. Elizabeth of Lancaster. Edward of Lancaster. John of Lancaster. Henry IV of England. Isabel of Lancaster.

Jeff Nicholson is an American comic book writer and self-publisher, known for his work on Ultra Klutz, Through the Habitrails, Father & Son, Colonia. Nicholson received a total of six Comics Industry Eisner Award nominations in his 25-year career, was one of the first four recipients of the Xeric Award comic book self-publishing grants in 1992. Nicholson's first self-published title was a 1981 underground comic book Ultra Klutz, which used humor and satire, he published 31 issues of a more mainstream Ultra Klutz comic in the direct sales market under his Onward Comics imprint. Ultra Klutz was “a comic that began as a parody of Japanese superstar Ultraman but soon evolved into a convoluted and complex fantasy soap opera. All issues of Ultra Klutz were acquired from Alexander Street Press and are available digitally to the library market worldwide. During this period Nicholson issued the 60 page Nicholson’s Small Press Tirade, a “A critical examination and critique of the small press scene of the 1980's in comics form,”, selected for inclusion in the Treasury of Mini-Comics Vol. 2 from Fantagraphics Books in 2015.

Nicholson made a major career shift with Through the Habitrails, in which “There is a frightening internal logic to Nicholson’s stories, the hallmark of the best of horror. This series of surreal, dark humored short stories about life in the corporate world of commercial illustration was first published in four volumes of Stephen R. Bissette’s Taboo anthology, elevated Nicholson from a cult-like status to receiving more substantial coverage in the comics journalism and mainstream media of the time, his comics were published by various larger or more mainstream publishers from 1992-1997, including Hyena magazine, Negative Burn, The Big Book of Little Criminals, The Big Book of Losers, The Dreaming (Vertigo. and Father & Son, a four issue series published by Kitchen Sink Press,depicting “the misadventures of a slacker Gen-Xer and his type-A boomer dad… nominated for two Eisner Awards … depicting the ironies of mundane everyday life". Nicholson returned to self-publishing with an all-ages fantasy adventure series.

The unique spin on the series was the setting in the New World with real geography and alternative history considerations. “As an artist, Jeff Nicholson adopts a lean, earnestly straightforward approach… he conveys genuine enthusiasm for both his characters and for the legendary age of exploration which frames their adventures. Nicholson was selected as a featured creator for the book Character Design for Graphic Novels based on his Colonia characters. After a ten-year absence from comics, Nicholson came out of retirement to create a new ten page Epilogue to his acclaimed Through the Habitrails for a third edition of the book from Nicholson, Jeff. Through the Habitrails. Chico, Calif: Bad Habit, 1996. ISBN 9781885047038 Nicholson, Jeff. Colonia: Islands and Anomalies. San Francisco, CA: AiT/PlanetLar, 2002. ISBN 9780970936073 Nicholson, Jeff. Nicholson's Small Press Tirade and Other Works, 1983-1989: Obscure Short Stories. Chico, CA: Bad Habit, 1994. ISBN 9781885047014 Nicholson, Jeff. Colonia: On into the Great Lands.

San Francisco, CA: AiT/PlanetLar, 2005. ISBN 9781932051407 Ultra Klutz Chico, CA: Onward Comics. 1986-1991 Nicholson, Jeff. Through the Habitrails, Life Before and After My Career In the Cubicles. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 2016. ISBN 9780486802862 “A Horrific View of Comics: A chat with Stephen Bissette” Comic Book Resources Austin English Interview with Jeff Nicholson Sequential Tart Interview with Jeff Nicholson New Radio Nicholson interview

According to the biblical narrative, Zerubbabel was a governor of the Achaemenid Empire's province Yehud Medinata and the grandson of Jeconiah, penultimate king of Judah. Zerubbabel led the first group of Jews, numbering 42,360, who returned from the Babylonian captivity in the first year of Cyrus the Great, the king of the Achaemenid Empire; the date is thought to have been between 538 and 520 BC. Zerubbabel laid the foundation of the Second Temple in Jerusalem soon after. In all of the accounts in the Hebrew Bible that mention Zerubbabel, he is always associated with the high priest who returned with him, Joshua son of Jozadak. Together, these two men led the first wave of Jewish returnees from exile and began to rebuild the Temple. Old Testament theologian John Kessler describes the region of Judah as a small province that contained land extending 25 km from Jerusalem and was independently ruled prior to the Persian rule. Zerubbabel was the governor of this province. King Darius I of Persia appointed Zerubbabel governor of the Province.

It was after this appointment. Elias Bickerman speculates that one of the reasons that Zerubbabel was able to rebuild the Temple was because of "the widespread revolts at the beginning of the reign of Darius I in 522 BC, which preoccupied him to such a degree that Zerubbabel felt he could initiate the rebuilding of the temple without repercussions"; the Davidic line from Jeconiah had been cursed by Jeremiah, saying that no offspring of "Coniah" would sit on the throne. Zerubbabel was of the main Davidic line through Jeconiah; the prophets Zechariah and Haggai both give unclear statements regarding Zerubbabel's authority in their oracles, in which Zerubbabel was either the subject of a false prophecy or the receiver of a divine promotion to kingship. He could be viewed as a governor of a state within another nation and thus technically "not on the throne" of a nation. Either way, he was given the task of rebuilding the Temple in the second year of the reign of Darius I, along with the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak.

Muslim historian Ya'qubi attributed the recovery of the Torah and the Books of the Prophets to him instead of Ezra. The Seder Olam Zutta lists him as the Exilarch in Babylon to succeed Shealtiel; the texts are conflicting as to whether Zerubbabel was the son of his nephew. His son Meshullam succeeded him as Exilarch, was followed by another son Hananiah, his other sons were Hashubah, Berechiah and Jushab-hesed. He had a daughter called Shelomith. Zerubbabel may have had a Babylonian style name because of his interaction with the Babylonian court. Ezra begins with Cyrus the Great entrusting the Temple vessels to Sheshbazzar. Both are both credited with laying the foundation of the Temple. A number of explanations have been proposed, including: the two are the same person. Zerubbabel appears in the prophecies of Zechariah. "'On that day, says the Lord of Hosts, I will take you Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, my servant, wear you like a signet ring. This is the word of the Lord of Hosts'"; this quotation from the Book of Haggai illustrates the messianic expectations that are associated with Zerubbabel.

The term, "my servant," describes Zerubbabel as God's servant. This term is associated with King David. Walter Rose concludes that the fact that "the epithet'servant' is hardly used for kings after David may be related to the fact that most of them were disappointing in their performance as kings appointed by YHVH". Rose emphasizes. Scholars have analyzed the phrase "I will take you." Rose associates this term with a mission, change, or protection. For Zerubbabel, this mission was the rebuilding of the second Temple; the most debated part of this prophecy is the phrase, "wear you like a signet ring." A signet ring is an authoritative symbol, associated with power. Rose interprets this passage by comparing it to the passage in Jeremiah 22:24, in through which he concludes that the King is a signet ring on God's hand. John Kessler interprets the idea of the nature of the Signet ring as such that "the real true figure of speech at issue is a personification of which the simile or metaphor is only a part.

The real trope consists of the personification of Yahweh, likened to the owner of a signet". However, this word when in Hebrew has been translated as meaning both seal and signet ring, it is unclear whether Haggai's prophecy claims that Zerubbabel is going to be the King of the Land of Judah or if he is just to build the second Temple. Many scholars have interpreted the following passage from Haggai as identifying Zerubbabel as a king of the land of Judah, a continuation of the Davidic line: "Zerubbabel is to be made either the representative of YHVH, or the new king who will restore the monarchy, or the new world leader. One sometimes finds words like messianic or Messiah used to describe Zerubbabel's role". According to Peter Ackroyd, Zerubbabel was "'a royal representative of God'". Both historians' interpretations of the prophecy of Hagg

Mesilau, named after Mesilau River, is an area situated at 2000 m above sea level on the East Ridge of Mount Kinabalu in Kinabalu National Park, Malaysian Borneo. It is the site of the Mesilau Nature Resort, owned and operated by Sutera Sanctuary Lodges. Mesilau East River and Mesilau West River pass through the Mesilau area. Mesilau East River forms a deep ravine, Mesilau Cave is located nearby. One of the two main summit routes of Mount Kinabalu starts at the Mesilau Nature Resort and is called the Mesilau Trail; the Mesilau Trail meets the old Kinabalu Summit Trail just above Layang-Layang, situated at 2700 m. Mesilau is home to the only population of Nepenthes rajah pitcher plants accessible to regular visitors; the plants grow on a steep hillside overlooking Mesilau East River. A number of other species, including N. burbidgeae, N. fusca, N. macrovulgaris, have been transplanted there from the area around the Mesilau Nature Resort on Pinosok Plateau. A single example of the rare natural hybrid N. lowii × N. rajah grows nearby.

Daily guided tours are organised to the "Nepenthes Garden". This nature trail operates daily from 9 am to 4 pm. Sabah Parks Directory: Mesilau Kinabalu Park - Guide to Mesilau Summit Trail Mount Kinabalu Information Travel Guide: Mesilau Kundasang & Mesilau The Sabah Society Mesilau Trip, 26–27 March 2011

Jean Claude Ameisen is a French doctor and researcher in biology. He is Director of the Center for Life Studies of the Paris Institute of Humanities, Paris Diderot University and President of the National Consultative Ethics Committee, he has published several hosts the radio show Sur les épaules de Darwin. He is an immunologist and a French researcher in biology, he is the Director of the Center for Life Studies of the Paris Institute of Humanities, Paris Diderot University and President of the National Consultative Ethics Committee. His father, Emanuel Ameisen, with Polish and Jewish origins, emigrated to Paris in the 1930s, where he became an engineer after completing studies in Grenoble, his mother Janine Ameisen was a survivor of Auschwitz. She lived in the United States where Jean Claude Ameisen was born, he is the older brother of Olivier Ameisen, a doctor known to have experimented baclofen against alcohol dependence, Éva Ameisen and songwriter. He studied at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and the École Alsacienne studied medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of Cochin and Lille University Hospital where he did his internship.

He specializes in pneumology and focuses on immunology research within INSERM. He is a postdoctoral fellow associate researcher in immunology at Yale University School of Medicine, he is a hospital practitioner in immunology at Lille University Hospital. In 1994, he was appointed director of the Inserm U415 unit at the Institut Pasteur in Lille. In 1996, he was appointed Visiting Associate Professor at the Institute of Allergy and Immunology at La Jolla in California and, in 1998, Professor of Immunology at Bichat Hospital. In September 2011, he was appointed director of the Center for Life Studies at the Paris Institute of Humanities. Jean Claude Ameisen was president of the INSERM ethics committee from 2003 to 2012, in 2005 became a member of the National Consultative Ethics Committee. On October 3, 2012, on the proposal of the President of the Republic François Hollande, the Social Affairs Committee of the National Assembly and that of the Senate approved his appointment to the presidency of the CCNE to replace Alain Grimfeld having completed his term.

He took office on November 9, 2012, he became honorary president at the time of the appointment of Jean-François Delfraissy on December 14, 2016. He was president of the Ethics and Scientific Committee of the International Foundation for Applied Research on Disability from 2009 to 2013. Author of many essays on science, he is, since September 2010, the designer and the host of the show Sur les épaules de Darwin de France Inter, he was the President of the French Conference for Biodiversity held in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc in May 2010, the International Year of Biodiversity the National Strategy for Biodiversity Review Committee in 2011. In July 2011, he joined Martine Aubry's campaign team for the 2012 presidential election, in charge, with Charlotte Brun, of the subject "Elderly people and Disability". In 2016, he became the sponsor of the ECN 2020 promotion at Nancy's Faculty of Medicine. Jean Claude Ameisen is known for his work on the processes of programmed cell death or apoptosis in physiopathology and evolution.

La sculpture du vivant: le suicide cellulaire ou la mort créatrice, éditions du Seuil, 1999 ISBN 202036856-0. En collaboration avec Danièle Hervieu-Léger et Emmanuel Hirsch, éditions Le Pommier / Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, 2003 ISBN 2-74650152-X, 2010 ISBN 978-2746504981 Quand l'art rencontre la science, en collaboration avec Yvan Brohard et l'Inserm, éditions de La Martinière, 2007 ISBN 978-2-7324-3654-8. ISBN 9782708242814 Sur les épaules de Darwin: Retrouver l'aube, France Inter / Les liens qui libèrent, 2014 ISBN 979-10-209-0160-6 Les chants mêlés de la Terre et de l'Humanité, éd. de l'Aube, 2015 ISBN 978-2-8159-1348-5 Sur les épaules de Darwin, France Inter, since 2010. Grand Prix des Médias 2013 from CB News 1992: Winner of l'Académie Nationale de Médecine. 1993: Winner of Inserm/Académie des sciences. 1997: Winner of BNP/Fondation pour la recherche médicale. 2000: Prix Jean-Rostand and prix Biguet from the Académie française for the book La Sculpture du vivant. 2009: Laureate in the sciences of the prize awarded by the Fondation Renée-et-Léonce-Bernheim pour les arts, les sciences et les lettres under the Fondation du judaïsme français.

2013: Award for best radio program of CB News Media Grand Prix for the show Sur les épaules de Darwin

Mihály Simai is a noted Hungarian economist, researcher at the Institute for World Economics, Research Centre for Economic and Regional Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and professor at Corvinus University. His main area of specialization is world economics and the transformation of the world economic system. Previous posts include his directorship of the World Institute for Development Economics Research, Helsinki between 1993-1995, membership and presidency of the United Nations University Council between 1987-1993, directorship of the Institute for World Economics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences between 1987-1991, vice-chairmanship of the UNICEF Governing Council between 1979-1985. Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Honorary President of the World Federation of United Nations Associations UN Meritorious Service Award Széchenyi Prize Simai, Mihály The future of global governance: managing risk and change in the international system, US Institute of Peace Press Simai, Mihály The Democratic Process and the Market: Challenges of the Transition, Tokyo: United Nations University Press Simai, Mihaly The Age of Global Transformations: the Human Dimension, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó