Sternhalma known as Chinese Checkers or Chinese Chequers, is a strategy board game of German origin which can be played by two, four, or six people, playing individually or with partners. The game is a simplified variation of the game Halma; the objective is to be first to race all of one's pieces across the hexagram-shaped board into "home"—the corner of the star opposite one's starting corner—using single-step moves or moves that jump over other pieces. The remaining players continue the game to establish second-, third-, fourth-, fifth-, last-place finishers; the rules are simple, so young children can play. Despite its name, the game is not a variation of checkers, nor did it originate in China or any part of Asia; the game was invented in Germany in 1892 under the name "Stern-Halma" as a variation of the older American game Halma. The "Stern" refers to the board's star shape; the name "Chinese Checkers" originated in the United States as a marketing scheme by Bill and Jack Pressman in 1928.

The Pressman company's game was called "Hop Ching Checkers". The game was introduced to Chinese-speaking regions by the Japanese. In Japan, the game is known as "Diamond Game"; the aim is to race all one's pieces into the star corner on the opposite side of the board before opponents do the same. The destination corner is called home; each player has 10 pieces, except in games between two players. In "hop across", the most popular variation, each player starts with their colored pieces on one of the six points or corners of the star and attempts to race them all home into the opposite corner. Players take turns moving a single piece, either by moving one step in any direction to an adjacent empty space, or by jumping in one or any number of available consecutive hops over other single pieces. A player may not combine hopping with a single-step move – a move consists of one or the other. There is no capturing in Sternhalma, so hopped pieces remain active and in play. Turns proceed clockwise around the board.

In the diagram, Green might move the topmost piece one space diagonally forward as shown. A hop consists of jumping over a single adjacent piece, either one's own or an opponent's, to the empty space directly beyond it in the same line of direction. Red might advance the indicated piece by a chain of three hops in a single move, it is not mandatory to make the most number of hops possible. Can be played "all versus all", or three teams of two; when playing teams, teammates sit at opposite corners of the star, with each team member controlling their own colored set of pieces. The first team to advance both sets to their home destination corners is the winner; the remaining players continue play to determine second- and third-place finishers, etc. The four-player game is the same as the game for six players, except that two opposite corners will be unused. In a three-player game, all players control either two sets of pieces each. If one set is used, pieces race across the board into opposite corners.

If two sets are used, each player controls two differently colored sets of pieces at opposite corners of the star. In a two-player game, each player plays two, or three sets of pieces. If one set is played, the pieces go into the opponent's starting corner, the number of pieces per side is increased to 15. If two sets are played, the pieces can either go into the opponent's starting corners, or one of the players' two sets can go into an opposite empty corner. If three sets are played, the pieces go into the opponent's starting corners. A basic strategy is to create or find the longest hopping path that leads closest to home, or into it. Since either player can make use of any hopping'ladder' or'chain' created, a more advanced strategy involves hindering an opposing player in addition to helping oneself make jumps across the board. Of equal importance are the players' strategies for emptying and filling their starting and home corners. Games between top players are decided by more than a couple of moves.

Differing numbers of players result in different starting layouts, in turn imposing different best-game strategies. For example, if a player's home destination corner starts empty, the player can build a'ladder' or'bridge' with their pieces between the two opposite ends, but if a player's opponent occupies the home corner, the player may need to wait for opponent pieces to clear before filling the home vacancies. While the standard rules allow hopping over only a single adjacent occupied position at a time, this version of the game allows pieces to catapult over multiple adjacent occupied positions in a line when hopping. In the fast-paced or Super Chinese Checkers variant popular in France, a piece may hop over a non-adjacent piece. A hop consists of jumping over a distant piece to a symmetrical position on the opposite side, in the same line of direction; as in the standard rules, a jumping move may consist of any number of a chain of hops. (When making a chain of

Proto-Algonquian is the proto-language from which the various Algonquian languages are descended. It is estimated to have been spoken around 2,500 to 3,000 years ago, but on the question of where it was spoken, there is less agreement; the Algonquian family, a branch of the larger Algic language family, is divided into three subgroups: Eastern Algonquian, a genetic subgroup, Central Algonquian and Plains Algonquian, both of which are areal groupings. In the historical linguistics of North America, Proto-Algonquian is one of the best studied, most reconstructed proto-languages, it is descended from Proto-Algic. Most Algonquian languages are similar enough that their relatedness has been recognized for centuries and was commented on by the early English and French colonists and explorers. For example, in 1787, the theologian and linguist Jonathan Edwards Jr. deduced that the Algonquian languages of the eastern and central United States were "radically the same", contrasted them with the neighboring Iroquoian languages.

The earliest work on reconstructing the Algonquian proto-language was undertaken by the linguists Truman Michelson and Leonard Bloomfield. In 1925 Bloomfield reconstructed what he called "Primitive Central Algonquian", using what were at the time the four best-attested Algonquian languages: Fox, Ojibwe and Plains Cree. Following his initial reconstructions, investigations of other languages revealed that his "Primitive Central Algonquian" was equivalent to Proto-Algonquian. Bloomfield wrote a refinement and expansion of his reconstruction in 1946, his two papers remain the starting point for all research and reconstructions of Proto-Algonquian. In the years since there has been an enormous amount of comparative work undertaken on the Algonquian family. There remains some disagreement over the Algonquian Urheimat; the initial theory, first put forth by Frank T. Siebert, Jr. in 1967 based on examining of the ranges of numerous species of plants and animals for which reliable Algonquian cognates existed, holds that Proto-Algonquian was spoken between Georgian Bay and Lake Ontario, in Ontario, at least as far south as Niagara Falls.

Research a generation suggests that in fact it was spoken farther west than this "somewhere west of Lake Superior." Proto-Algonquian had four basic vowels, *i, *e, *a, *o, each of which had a long counterpart, for a total of eight vowels. The same inventory of eight vowels was found in Proto-Algic, but Proto-Algonquian did not inherit its inventory directly from Proto-Algic. Rather, several sound changes left pre-Proto-Algonquian without short *i and *o, it is not clear. All instances in which Bloomfield reconstructed *o can now be reconstructed as *we based on evidence from some of the Eastern languages. There are still a handful of instances where *o can be reconstructed as the result of a morphophonological process of vowel shortening. Goddard concludes that "an independent phoneme *o is of no great antiquity in Proto-Algonquian", but recommends continuing to use it in reconstructions. Berman states that "PA *i is also of recent origin", derived from earlier *ye sequences and morphophonological shortening.

Proto-Algonquian had a smaller number of consonants than Proto-Algic. The reconstructed consonants are as follows: The phoneme given in the table as ⟨r⟩ was reconstructed by Bloomfield as *l, but Goddard has more argued that it should be reconstructed as *r because the earliest attestations of the majority of languages show some sort of rhotic as its reflex, which in many languages subsequently changed to a lateral within the historical period; the precise pronunciation of the phoneme written ⟨θ⟩ is unknown. It has merged with the reflex of *r in all Algonquian languages except for Cree and the Arapahoan languages. Leonard Bloomfield suggested that it could have been either an interdental fricative or a lateral fricative. One piece of evidence for the interdental fricative is. However, other researchers have argued for its reconstruction as a lateral fricative, */ɬ/, in part because of the aforementioned merger in most languages with the phoneme traditionally reconstructed as *l; as with * i and * o, it is unclear.

All instances where *č is reconstructed are before *i, *i·, or *y, where it does not contrast with *t, or are cases of diminutive consonant symbolism. However, Goddard recommends continuing to write it in reconstructions, since it seems to have been present in the clusters *čp and *čk. Reconstruction of the consonant clusters has been difficult, the paths the clusters take in their evolutions to the daughter languages have been complex; the current view is that the permissible consonant clusters were: In several cases the actual phonetic identity of the first member of the clusters was unknown, Bloomfield's choice of symbols to represent them was purely arbitrar

Disco Raja is a 2020 Indian Telugu-language science fiction action film directed by Vi Anand. It stars Ravi Teja in the titular role along with Payal Rajput, Nabha Natesh, Tanya Hope, Bobby Simha, Vennela Kishore and Sunil. Ram Talluri produced the film under SRT Entertainments banner; the film follows a dead man discovered to be frozen in the mountains of Ladakh. Once brought back to life using advanced technology by doctors at the Re-Live lab, he attempts to find out his identity and the people responsible for killing him. Disco Raja was released theatrically on 24 January 2020. Despite praise for Teja's performance and Thaman's music, the film became a commercial failure. Due to the disappointing box office performance, Teja decided not to experiment with his roles in the future, plans for a sequel were canceled. A brutally attacked man left for dead in the mountain ranges of Ladakh is found frozen by an expedition team, he is taken to the Re-Live lab where doctor Shishir introduces a technology that can revive dead people, to doctor Parineeti and her colleague.

Following the experiment, the subject wakes up but with no memory of his past. On the other hand, his girlfriend Nabha explains to a loan officer that he, handled multiple professions from day to night during which she fell for him. While searching for his stepbrother Kaushik who snatched the family's money, Vasu found him but never returned, she reveals that Vasu's family members are orphans who came to live together. Back to the lab, Vasu escapes using Parineeti's card but is recaptured after he faints due to being exposed to heavy lighting. Parineeti explains he was killed by someone and revived by the doctors. However, Parineeti is adamant on making Vasu revive his memories, retrieves a commodity found with his corpse, giving it to Vennela for servicing. In an attempt to gain attention of those who remember him, Vasu thrashes a minister and the video goes viral following his arrest. An aged gangster named Burma Sethu is surprised to find him alive and sends his men to pick him from the police station.

The henchmen take away his brother and the doctors. Circumstances force Vennela to throw out Vasu's package given by Parineeti, Vasu picks up the package to find a music player and headphones. Listening to the music, his memories are revived and he fights off the henchmen, revealing himself to be Disco Raj, before Shishir explains Raj's actual age is 70 as he was frozen for 35 years. Raj takes Vennela along with him on a quest to rediscover his identity. In the hospital, an injured Shishir explains to Sethu about Raj's revival. Raj visits the Madras Bar founded by him, where a friend explains how Raj used to be a music-loving gangster at loggerheads with Sethu, a rival gangster whose refusal to collaborate sparked a gang war. Both parties killed each other's members. Raj fell for a deaf and mute girl named Helen who declined but reciprocated; when she got pregnant before marriage, Raj married her, faked his own death and left behind his gang. However, Sethu vengefully killed Raj's gang members.

Raj and Helen were attacked in Ladakh, but Raj managed to send Helen away in a truck before himself getting killed. On the other hand, a police officer who has rescued Vasu and told him about Raj, his father, tells him to murder him for killing Helen. Arriving at the spot and Vennela are attacked by Vasu, who questions Raj about Helen's murder. Raj denies killing her, gets into a fight with Sethu. A stabbed Sethu reveals he didn't get Raj killed in Ladakh, he came after him to avenge his wife's murder. Raj denies killing her and realizing the truth, shoots the police officer who had not just brainwashed Vasu but sent goons to kill Vasu's family. Seeing the officer's dead corpse's photo, the goons retreat. Raj and Vennela discover a man named Anthony Das gave the cop orders to kill them, along with Vasu, hold Anthony's son on gunpoint, before Anthony, revealed to be Raj's gang member Uttar Kumar, shoots Raj, he reveals he got the latter to kill Raj's gang. He faked his own death and was one of the men who stabbed Raj in Ladakh.

However, Raj and Vennela together fight off and kill the goons. Raj kills Anthony and himself succumbs to the injuries. Returning to Delhi, Vasu reconciles with Nabha. At the end, Raj is brought back to life once again by the doctors, while Sethu and Anthony are recovering in the lab. Music was composed by S. Thaman, collaborating with Ravi Teja for the eleventh time and with Vi Anand for the second time after Tiger; the first single track titled "Nuvvu Naatho Emannavo" was released on 19 October 2019, the melody was sung by S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and lyrics penned by Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry; the second single track "Dilli Wala" was released on 20 December 2019, peppy number was sung by Aditya Iyengar, Geetha Madhuri, Rahul Nambiar and lyrics penned by Ramajogayya Sastry. Thaman has given an EDM touch to it with his contemporary score. Movie is scheduled to release on 24 January 2020. Motion poster was released on Ravi Teja's birthday and Republic Day i.e. 26 January 2019. First look poster of Bobby Simha was released on 6 November 2019, on his birthday and revealed his character as Burma Sethu.

On December 4, 2019 movie has announced the teaser release date by releasing a new poster featuring Ravi Teja. First look poster of Payal Rajput was released on 5 December 2019, on her birthday. First look poster of Nabha Natesh was released on 11 December 2019, on her birthday; the Official Teaser of the film was released on 6

Las Chinchillas National Reserve is a nature reserve located in the Choapa Province, Coquimbo Region, Chile. The reserve gives shelter to the last colonies of Long-tailed Chinchillas in the wild. In addition to the chinchillas, other small mammals, two fox species and felines like the Puma inhabit the reserve and surrounding hills. Only about half of the wild chinchillas are located within the reserve boundaries; the other half live on communally owned lands. The reserve is home to a number of species of birds, including the Chilean mockingbird, Chilean tinamou, long-tailed meadowlark, moustached turca and Harris's hawk. Owl species inhabiting the park include austral pygmy-owl and great horned owl; the Andean condor can be seen in the area. Reserva Nacional Las Chinchillas

Verticordia nitens known as Christmas Morrison and other names, is a flowering plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. The Noongar peoples know the plant as kotyeningara, it is an upright shrub with glistening and perfumed flower heads that appear between October and February. The small compact and erect flowers have been noted for their beauty. Although it occurs in areas near Perth, Morrison featherflower is not classed as rare or endangered because it still occurs in large populations, although its numbers have undoubtedly been reduced as a result of urban development. Verticordia nitens is a shrub which grows to a height of between 0.45 and 1.8 m although it will sometimes reach a height of 3 m in the Gingin area. It will sometimes spread to a width of 0.9 m from upper parts of its solitary basal stem. Unlike some others in the genus, it does not possess a lignotuber. Plants have slender branches, corymb-like in the upper parts; the leaves are needle-like.

The flowers are scented and arranged corymb-like on the ends of the branches, each flower on a stalk 5–16 mm long. The flowers vary in colour from bright golden, to orange and to a lemon yellow colour in the taller plants of the Gingin area; the floral cup is about 1.5 mm long and glabrous. The sepals are spreading, 3–4 mm long, have 7 to 8 feathery lobes; the petals are erect, egg-shaped to round, about 3 mm long, with a toothed margin. The style is about 4 mm long and bent but straightens as the flower opens; the first formal description of this species was by John Lindley in 1837. The description was published in W. J. Hooker's Companion to the Botanical Magazine from a dried specimen that Lindley had received. Lindley gave it the name Chrysorhoe nitens; the type specimen for this species was first collected in the 1830s somewhere around the Swan River, Western Australia "by Toward." Lindley recognised its similarity to Verticordia but raised the new genus, noting differences between the two genera.

In 1838, Stephan Endlicher changed its name to Verticordia nitida and published the change in Stirpium Australasicarum Herbarii Hugeliani Decades Tres although this is regarded as an orthographical variant and the name Verticordia nitens Endl. is accepted. Schauer made a similar change of genus in 1841 unaware that Endlicher had published. Lindley did not agree with the change to Verticordia, recording in his 1840 book, A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony - "by Dr. Endlicher it is reduced to the genus Verticordia, but I think the character assigned to it in the work alluded to is sufficient to define the genus."When Alex George reviewed the genus in 1991, he revived Lindley's epithet and placed this species in subgenus Chrysoma, section Chrysorhoe along with V. aurea and V. patens. Verticordi aurea has larger flowers and broader staminodes, V. patens has lemon-yellow flowers, lobed staminodes, a much shorter style and an earlier flowering period. Verticordia nitens occurs as far north as Moore River, as far south as Yarloop in the Avon Wheatbelt and Swan Coastal Plain biogeographic regions although it does not reach as far as Harvey.

The urban sprawl around Perth has created disjunct populations to its south. It grows in sand in Banksia woodland and occurs with Nuytsia floribunda, the Western Australian Christmas Tree, both species having flowers of a "brilliant orange colour". Verticordia nitens and V. aurea are not attractive to typical insect pollinators. Instead, they are pollinated by oligolectic species of solitary bee. In the case of V. nitens, the bee is Euryglossa morrisonii of family Colletidae, which feeds on nectar and the oil retained on the anthers of this species. The species is not considered to be threatened by extinction as it is common and populations are large. Occurring plants have been targeted for the cut flower industry, intermittent reports from 1993 record trends upward of 250,000 stems per annum, but the plant recovers well after harvesting; these figures show a reduction after closer scrutiny of harvests, though much was obtained from private land, leading to increased sustainability when combined with greater care by pickers.

V. nitens' records in the early 1980s were 83 000 bunches, the majority of the 2 000,000 verticordia stems in an annual harvest that sometimes permanently damaged the shrubs. Collection from Crown Land has remained permissible, with industry self-regulating its harvesters, but this may destroy local populations on reserves where this has occurred; the shrub is listed for it susceptibility to Phytophthora cinnamomi, as an'indicator species' it is used to detect its presence in banksia woodland, though without observations of its ability to recover. The plant was regarded as desirable by gardeners in England; the spectacular display, "strikingly beautiful", was expected to be marketable, yet it has presented difficulties in its propagation. It was introduced to English gardens in 1840, but was not known to have flowered until 1861; the introduction to the eastern states of Australia has met with some success, due to the refining of the technique of propagation and the application of early pruning.

Heavy pruning was first suggested by James Drummond, an early collector and promoter of the region's flora. The species was mentioned in the early survey, A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony (Edwards's Botanical Registe

Force is the fourth studio album by Japanese pop-rock unit Superfly. It was released on September 19, 2012. Force commemorates the group's fifth anniversary and was released in several formats, including a special fifth anniversary edition which includes a bonus CD, a vinyl version of the album, a commemorative poster. Japanese convenience store Lawson will exclusively sell a special edition of the album which includes a bonus DVD. On the iTunes Store, the album will be packaged with one bonus track, with a second reserved for those who pre-ordered the album; the album's title comes from both the English word "force" as well as the similarity between the Japanese pronunciations of "force" and "fourth". To support Force, Superfly is going on two separate tours, the "Live Force" national concert hall tour from October 2012 through January 2013 and the tentatively titled "Superfly Arena Tour 2013" in March and April 2013. Force sold 119 thousand copies in its first week of sales, making it Superfly's 5th consecutive album to debut at number 1 on the Oricon charts, placing her with Namie Amuro, Mai Kuraki, Hikaru Utada as female solo artists with 5 consecutive number 1 debuts.

The album was announced while Shiho Ochi and her backing band were performing on a live stream of a recording session, broadcast via Ustream and Nico Nico Douga while celebrating the release of their recent video album Shout In the Rainbow!!. One of the new songs on the record will be "Heisei Homo Sapiens"; the band's singles "Ai o Kurae", "Kagayaku Tsuki no Yō ni" and "The Bird Without Wings" were included on the album. The song "No Bandage", used on Superfly's Facebook radio show, was released to iTunes and other digital stores as a promotional single on July 18, 2012; the title track "Force" was released to iTunes as a special album pre-order incentive. A re-cut version of the song will serve as the album's final single. Five tracks from the album are used as theme songs in various Japanese productions; the first single "Ai o Kurae" had its title track and B-side used in the film adaptation of the manga Smuggler. Second single "Kagayaku Tsuki no Yō ni" / "The Bird Without Wings" had both of its title tracks used as theme songs as well.

"No Bandage" was featured in the Ushijima the Loan Shark film. The album's title track "Force" is in use as the theme song for the new TV Asahi drama Doctor X. To promote the album's release, Superfly held a free concert in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park on the release date, broadcast over the Internet on various websites. Twenty thousand people attended the concert in person while an additional 130 thousand watched online. Official discography