1.
Cross-country skiing (sport)
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Ski and Snowboard Association and Cross Country Ski Canada. International competitions include the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, the FIS Cross-Country World Cup, such races occur over homologated, groomed courses designed to support classic and freestyle events, where the skiers may employ skate skiing. Norwegian army units were skiing for sport in the 18th century, athletes train to achieve endurance, strength, speed, skill and flexibility at different levels of intensity. Offseason training often occurs on dry land, sometimes on roller skis, the organization of cross-country ski competitions aims to make those events accessible both to spectators and television audiences. As with other sports that require endurance, strength and speed, hurling themselves while racing downhill among trees without falling or breaking skis. Downhill racing on large slopes without riding or resting on their stick or falling, long racing with full military kit and a gun on the shoulder over ca.2.5 km of flat ground within 15 minutes. An early record of a ski competition was for an 1843 event in Tromsø. The announcement called the event a wagering race on skis, a distinct alpine technique emerged around 1900 from how skiing was practiced up until then when Mathias Zdarsky advocated the Lilienfelder Ski Method as an alternative to the Norwegian technique. In Norwegian, langrenn refers to competitive skiing where the goal is to complete a distance in pre-set tracks in the shortest possible time. Alpine skiing competitions existed in Norway during the 18th and 19th centuries, the alpine disciplines reemerged in Central Europe around 1920. Ski touring competitions are long-distance cross-country competitions open to the public, in the 1800s racers used a single, wooden pole, which was longer and stronger than modern poles, and could be used for braking downhill, as well. In Norway, racing with two poles met with resistance, starting in the 1880s, when some race rules forbade them, skate skiing was introduced to competition in the 20th Century. Johan Grøttumsbråten used the technique at the 1931 World Championship in Oberhof. This technique was used in ski orienteering in the 1960s on roads. Bill Koch further developed the marathon skate technique in the late 1970s, skate-skiing became widespread during the 1980s after Kochs success with it in the 1982 Cross-country Skiing Championships drew more attention to the technique. Norwegian skier, Ove Aunli, started using the technique in 1984, the Winter Olympic Games are a major international sporting event that occurs once every four years. The first Winter Olympics, the 1924 Winter Olympics, was held in Chamonix, France, Cross-country events have evolved in the Winter Olympics since 1924, as seen in the following timeline,1924 Winter Olympics, Cross-country skiing debuts. Womens Nordic skiing debuts 1956 Winter Olympics, mens 30 km,1964 Winter Olympics, Womens 5 km added
2.
Ski
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A ski is a narrow strip of semi-rigid material worn underfoot to glide over snow. Substantially longer than wide and characteristically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, for climbing slopes, ski skins can be attached at the base of the ski. Originally intended as an aid to travel over snow, they are now mainly used recreationally in the sport of skiing, the word ski comes from the Old Norse word skíð which means stick of wood or ski. In Norwegian this word is usually pronounced, in Swedish, another language evolved from Old Norse, the word is skidor. English and French use the original spelling ski, and modify the pronunciation, prior to 1920, English usage of skee and snow-shoe is often seen. In Italian, it is pronounced as in Norwegian, and the spelling is modified, Portuguese, German and Spanish adapt the word to their linguistic rules, esqui, Schier and esquí. In Dutch, the word is ski” and pronunciation was originally as in Norwegian, but since approximately the 1960s changed to. Many languages make a form out of the noun, such as to ski in English, skier in French, esquiar in Spanish, sciare in Italian, skiën in Dutch. Finnish has its own ancient words for skis and skiing, in Finnish ski is suksi and skiing is hiihtää. The Sami also have their own words for skis and skiing, for example, the Lule Sami word for ski is sabek and skis are sabega. The Sami use cuoigat for the verb to ski, the term may date back to 10,000 years before present. The oldest wooden skis found were in what is today Russia, Sweden, Nordic ski technology was adapted during the early 20th century to enable skiers to turn at higher speeds. New ski and ski binding designs, coupled with the introduction of ski lifts to carry skiers up slopes, meanwhile advances in technology in the Nordic camp allowed for the development of special skis for skating and ski jumping. This type of ski was used at least in northern Finland, on one leg, the skier wore a long straight non-arching ski for sliding, and on the other a shorter ski for kicking. Early record of this type of skis survives in works of Olaus Magnus and he associates them to Sami people and gives Sami names of savek and golos for the plain and skinned short ski. Finnish names for these are lyly and kalhu for long and short ski and this is called skredstång in Swedish. Around 1850 artisans in Telemark, Norway invent the cambered ski and this ski arches up in the middle, under the binding, which distributes the skiers weight more evenly across the length of the ski. Earlier plank-style skis had to be thick enough not to bow downward and this new design made it possible to build a thinner, lighter ski, that flexed more easily to absorb the shock of bumps, and that maneuvered and ran faster and more easily
3.
Ski pole
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Ski poles, also referred to as poles or sticks, are used by skiers for balance and propulsion. Modern ski poles are most commonly made from aluminum and carbon fiber, poles are used in alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, and cross-country skiing. Ski jumpers do not use poles, early skiers would use this pole for the purposes of balancing, braking, and turning. Alpine societies such as those in Nordic regions or the Altai mountains used their ski poles to hunt as well, skiers began to use two ski poles in 1741. This provided greater balance than one pole could provide and made pushing through the snow easier, early ski poles were made of pine and bamboo, materials which today are used for novelty poles. US patents for steel ski poles began in 1933 when John B. Dickson invented a new calling for the use of steel as the shaft material. This construction was superseded by Edward L. Scott, who is credited with popularizing the lightweight aluminum ski pole in 1959 and this new stiff and lightweight pole made it easier for skiers to pole-plant and initiate fast, short turns. The most modern material used in ski pole production is carbon fiber, a patent has been filed on a biocomposite material that can be used for ski poles, but this design has yet to be manufactured. Axel Composites has a patent for carbon fiber ski poles dating back to 1975, however, the carbon fiber pole builds on the same qualities of the aluminum pole, lightness and stiffness while being extremely strong. Basket, Near the bottom end of the shaft, designed to stop the pole from sinking significantly into deep snow and these can range from being small, aerodynamic cones used in racing, to large snowflake shaped baskets which are used in powder skiing. Many poles feature methods of switching between baskets, such as threading on the basket and pole. Grip, Attached to the part of the pole is a grip with a strap. These are slipped over the wrist to improve the skiers hold on the grip, when backcountry skiing, the wrist strap may not be used to prevent wrist injury if the pole should catch on an unseen branch or root. Releasable strap systems have implemented by pole manufacturers as well. Length, Pole length varies according to use, telescopic poles are available for adjustment while out skiing. Material, As noted previously, poles come in a two overarching materials, aluminum and carbon, alongside niche materials such as wood, Ski poles will sometimes use a mixture of materials, such as carbon-kevlar composites. Poles are used in skiing to add propulsion and to aid in controlling upper body position at turn initiation. Racing poles have their own unique distinctions, super giant slalom, downhill, and speed skiing poles are designed to bend around the skiers body while in a tuck position to minimize drag
4.
Ski boot
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Ski boots are footwear used in skiing to provide a way to attach the skier to skis using ski bindings. The ski/boot/binding combination is used to transmit control inputs from the skiers legs to the snow. Ski boots were leather winter boots, held to the ski with leather straps, as skiing became more specialized, so too did ski boots, leading to the splitting of designs between those for alpine skiing and cross-country skiing. Modern skiing developed as a sport with uphill, downhill. The introduction of the cable binding started a parallel evolution of binding, the binding looped a strap around the back of the boot to hold it forward into a metal cup at the toe. Boots with the sole extended rearward to produce a flange for the cable to firmly latch to become common, the upper portions, the cuff, was relatively soft, designed primarily for comfort and warmth. Modern cross-country ski boots remain almost unchanged since 1950s, although modern materials have replaced leather and other natural fibres. A key development was the invention in 1928 of the Kandahar cable binding, the design required a stiffer, reinforced boot sole, often build on a wooden shank. New boots that had been boiled in oil or soaked in glue were introduced to stiffen the upper cuff and these were universally uncomfortable, especially during the break-in period when they were new. Once broken-in, they wore out quickly as they continued to soften up, racers typically had only weeks to wear a particular pair before it was no longer useful. Another attempt to stiffen the leg/ski connection was the long thong and this offered a great improvement in control, but increased the risk of injury in the event of an accident. Modern alpine ski boots have rigid soles and attach to the ski at both toe and heel using a spring-loaded binding. The interface between boot and binding is standardized by ISO5355, which defines the size and shape of the hard plastic flanges on the toe, ski boots are sized using the Mondopoint system. Front-entry boots have been the primary design for most of the history of downhill skiing. The design evolved from existing leather boot through several steps, in 1956, the Swiss factory Henke introduced the buckle boot, using over-center levered latches patented by Hans Martin to replace laces. Laces spread the load across a number of eyelets in the leather, to spread it back out again, the boots featured C-shaped flaps that stretched over the opening where the laces would be, to the side where the buckles were located. These had the advantage of also helping block snow from entering the front of the boot. Beginning around 1960 Bob Lange experimented with ways to replace leather with plastic, production examples appeared in 1966, and when Nancy Greene started winning races on them, the plastic boot became a must-have item
5.
Ski binding
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A ski binding is a device that connects a ski boot to the ski. Generally, it holds the boot firmly to allow the skier to maneuver the ski, however, if certain force limits are exceeded, it releases the boot to minimize skier injury, such as in the case of a fall or impact. There are different types of bindings for different types of skiing, modern alpine skiing bindings fix the boot at the toe and heel. In some bindings, to injury the boot can release in case of a fall. The boot is released by the if a certain amount of torque is applied. The torque required is adjustable, according to the weight, foot size, a snow brake prevents the ski from moving while it is not attached to a boot. Also known as randonee, a touring binding allows the heel to be clipped down to the ski when skiing downhill. Most touring bindings are designed for ski boots falling under one of two ISO specifications, ISO5355,2005, for traditional alpine boots, in this variation the pivot is located in the front of the binding. ISO9523,2008, for boots in which the pivot is formed at the boot / binding interface, the cable binding was widely used through the middle of the 20th century. It has the toe section of the boot anchored, and a cable around the heel secures the boot. While binding designs vary, before 2007 almost all dedicated Telemark models had been designed to fit boots with 75mm Nordic Norm duckbill toes, the Rottefella binding was developed in 1927 by Bror With. The name means rat trap in Norwegian and it is also known as the 75 mm, Nordic Norm, or 3-pin. After victories at the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz and they are no longer as popular as they were but are still for sale. The binding has three pins that stick up from the binding. The toe of the boot has three holes into which the pins are inserted, the boot is then clamped down by a bail. The binding is asymmetrical, having left and right foot orientations, rottefellas NNN has a bar in the toe of the boot hooked into a corresponding latch in the binding. There have been versions of NNN, and the first NNN version is not compatible with current designs. A stronger BC version also exists, NIS, introduced in 2005 by Rossignol, Madshus, Rottefella, and Alpina, is fully compatible with NNN boots and bindings, but is a different way of attaching the bindings to the ski
6.
Skiing
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Skiing is a mode of transport, recreational activity and competitive winter sport in which the participant uses skis to glide on snow. Many types of skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee. Skiing has a history of almost five millennia, although modern skiing has evolved from beginnings in Scandinavia, it may have been practiced as early as 600 BC in what is now China. The word ski is one of a handful of words Norway has exported to the international community and it comes from the Old Norse word skíð which means split piece of wood or firewood. Asymmetrical skis were used at least in northern Finland and Sweden until the late 19th century, on one leg the skier wore a long straight non-arching ski for sliding, and on the other a shorter ski for kicking. Early skiers used one long pole or spear, the first depiction of a skier with two ski poles dates to 1741. Until the mid-19th century skiing was primarily used for transport, and since then has become a recreation, military ski races were held in Norway during the 18th century, and ski warfare was studied in the late 18th century. As equipment evolved and ski lifts were developed skiing evolved into two main genres during the late 19th and early 20th century, Alpine and Nordic, also called downhill skiing, alpine skiing typically takes place on a piste at a ski resort. It is characterized by fixed-heel bindings that attach at both the toe and the heel of the skiers boot, because alpine equipment is somewhat difficult to walk in, ski lifts, including chairlifts, bring skiers up the slope. Backcountry skiing can be accessed by helicopter, snowcat, hiking, facilities at resorts can include night skiing, après-ski, and glade skiing under the supervision of the ski patrol and the ski school. Alpine skiing branched off from the older Nordic skiing around the 1920s, Alpine equipment specialized to where it can only be used with the help of lifts. The Nordic disciplines include cross-country skiing and ski jumping, which share in common the use of binding that attach at the toes of the skiers boots, cross-country skiing may be practiced on groomed trails or in undeveloped backcountry areas. Ski jumping skiing is practiced at certain areas that are deemed for ski jumping only, Telemark skiing is a ski turning technique and FIS-sanctioned discipline. It is named after the Telemark region of Norway, using equipment similar to nordic skiing, the ski bindings having the ski boot attached only at the toe. This allows the skier to raise his/her heel throughout the turn, the following disciplines are sanctioned by the FIS and USSA. Many have their own cups and are in the Winter Olympic Games. Cross-country, The sport encompasses a variety of formats for cross-country skiing races over courses of varying lengths, such races occur over homologated, groomed courses designed to support classic and free-style events, where the skiers may employ skate skiing. Alpine skiing discliplines include combined, downhill, slalom, giant slalom, Super-G, one run of each even like one run of Super-G and one run of Slalom skiing this is called a Super Combined
7.
Terrestrial locomotion
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Terrestrial locomotion has evolved as animals adapted from aquatic to terrestrial environments. Locomotion on land raises different problems than that in water, with reduced friction being replaced by the effects of gravity, important aspects of legged locomotion are posture, the number of legs, and the functional structure of the leg and foot. There are also many gaits, ways of moving the legs to locomote, such as walking, running, appendages can be used for movement in a number of ways. The posture, the way the body is supported by the legs, is an important aspect, there are three main ways in which vertebrates support themselves with their legs - sprawling, semi-erect, and fully erect. Some animals may use different postures in different circumstances, depending on the mechanical advantages. Interestingly, there is no difference in energetic cost between stances. The sprawling posture is the most primitive, and is the limb posture from which the others evolved. The upper limbs are held horizontally, while the lower limbs are vertical. The body may drag along the ground, as in salamanders, or may be substantially elevated and this posture is typically associated with trotting gaits, and the body flexes from side-to-side during movement to increase step length. All limbed reptiles and salamanders use this posture, as does the platypus, unusual examples can be found among amphibious fish, such as the mudskipper, which drag themselves across land on their sturdy fins. Among the invertebrates, most arthropods—which includes the most diverse group of animals, there is also anecdotal evidence that some octopus species can also drag themselves across land a short distance by hauling their body along by their tentacles - there may be video evidence of this. The semi-erect posture is more accurately interpreted as an extremely elevated sprawling posture and this mode of locomotion is typically found in large lizards such as monitor lizards and tegus. Mammals and birds typically have an erect posture, though each evolved it independently. In these groups the legs are placed beneath the body and this is often linked with the evolution of endothermy, as it avoids Carriers constraint and thus allows prolonged periods of activity. For example, the mesozoic prehistoric crocodilian Erpetosuchus is believed to have had an erect stance. The number of locomotory appendages varies much between animals, and sometimes the same animal may use different numbers of its legs in different circumstances, a number of species move and stand on two legs, that is, they are bipedal. The group that is exclusively bipedal is the birds, which have either an alternating or a hopping gait, there are also a number of bipedal mammals. Most of these move by hopping – including the macropods such as kangaroos, only a few mammals such as humans and the ground pangolin commonly show an alternating bipedal gait
8.
Ski lift
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A ski lift is a mechanism for transporting skiers up a hill. Ski lifts are typically a paid service at ski resorts, the first ski lift was built in 1908 by German Robert Winterhalder in Schollach/Eisenbach, Hochschwarzwald. Types of lifts are, Aerial lifts transport skiers while suspended off the ground, cable railways, including funiculars Helicopters are used for heliskiing and snowcats for snowcat skiing. This is backcountry skiing or boarding accessed by a snowcat or helicopter instead of a lift, cat skiing is less than half the cost of heliskiing, more expensive than a lift ticket but is easier than ski touring. Skiing at select, extreme resorts, like Silverton Mountain, is also guided, even when skiing just off the lift
9.
Alpine skiing
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Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the sport or recreation of sliding down snow-covered hills on skis with fixed-heel bindings. It is typically practiced at ski resorts which provide such as ski lifts, artificial snow making and grooming, first aid. Back-country skiers use alpine skiing equipment to ski off the marked pistes, in cases with the assistance of snowmobiles. Alpine skiing has been an event at the Winter Olympic Games since 1936, as of 1994, there were estimated to be 55 million people worldwide, who engaged in Alpine skiing. Approximately 30 million of these were in Europe,15 million in the US, as of 1996, there were reportedly 4,500 ski areas, operating 26,000 ski lifts and enjoying skier visits. The preponderant region for downhills skiing was Europe, followed by Japan, a skier following the fall line will reach the maximum possible speed for that slope. A skier with skis pointed perpendicular to the line, across the hill instead of down it. The speed of descent down any given hill can be controlled by changing the angle of motion in relation to the fall line, downhill skiing technique focuses on the use of turns to smoothly turn the skis from one direction to another. Good technique results in a motion from one descent angle to another one. This looks more like a series of Ss than turns followed by straight sections. The oldest and still form of alpine ski turn is the stem. In doing so, the ski pushes snow forward and to the side, the force backwards directly counteracts gravity, and slows the skier. The force to the sides, if unbalanced, will cause the skier to turn, carving is based on the shape of the ski itself, when the ski is rotated onto its edge, the pattern cut into its side causes it to bend into an arc. The contact between the arc of the ski edges and the snow naturally causes the ski to tend to move along that arc, slowing the skier, modern alpine skis are shaped to enable carve turning, and have evolved significantly since the 1980s. During the 1930s, the Kandahar binding was introduced, which could be locked down at the heel for the downhill portions, the Kandahar remained in widespread use until the 1960s. As more skiers took up the sport, especially in the 1950s, dr. Richard Spademan saw 150 spiral fractures pass through his emergency department near Squaw Valley in three days, an event that led to the development of the Spademan binding. By the early 1950s, several safety bindings were on the market allowed the ski to come off when the ski twisted to the side. This helped reduce the incidence of spiral fractures, originally boots were cut low, just over the ankle, and soft laterally, both of which limited the amount of sideways rotating force that could be applied
10.
Ski jumping
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Ski jumping is an Olympic winter sport which was firstly contested in Norway in the late 19th century, and later spread through Europe and North America in the early 20th century. The ski jumping venue consists of the ramp, take-off table. Each jump is evaluated according to the distance traveled and the style performed, the distance score is related to the construction point, which is a line drawn in the landing area and serves as a target for the competitors to reach. The score of each judge evaluating the style can reach a maximum of 20 points, the jumping techniques has evolved over the years, from jumps with the parallel skis with both arms pointing forwards, to the V-style, which is widely used today. Ski jumping has been included at the Winter Olympics since 1924, womens participation in the sport began in the 1990s, while the first womens event at the Olympics has been held in 2014. All major ski jumping competitions are organised by the International Ski Federation, stefan Kraft holds the official record for the longest ski jump with 253.5 metres, set in Vikersund in 2017. Ski jumping can also be performed in the summer on an in-run where the tracks are made from porcelain, the highest level summer competition is the FIS Ski Jumping Grand Prix, contested since 1994. Like most of the Nordic skiing disciplines, the first ski jumping competitions were held in Norway in the 19th century, the recorded origins of the first ski jump traces back to 1808, when Olaf Rye reached 9,5 metres. Sondre Norheim, who is regarded as the father of the ski jumping, won the first-ever ski jumping competition with prizes. The first larger ski jumping competition was held on Husebyrennet hill in Oslo, Norway, the event was moved to Holmenkollen in 1892 due to the poor infrastructure and the weather conditions, and is today still one of the main ski jumping events in the season. In the late 19th century, Sondre Norheim and Nordic skiier Karl Hovelsen emigrated to the United States, in 1924, ski jumping was featured at the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France. The sport has been featured at the every Olympics since then, in 1935, the origins of the ski flying began in Planica, Slovenia, where Josef Bradl became the first competitor in the history to jump over 100 metres. At the same venue, the first official jump over 200 metres was achieved in 1994, in 1964 in Zakopane, Poland, the large hill event was introduced at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. In the same year, the normal hill event was included on the Olympic programme at the 1964 Winter Olympics, the team event was added later, at the 1988 Winter Olympics. In 1990, qualifiers for the event were introduced to limit the number of competitors. The slopes are composed of the ramp and the hill and are classified according to the distance that the competitors travel in the air. Each hill has a point, which serves as a target that the competitors must reach. The classification of the hills are as follows, The winner is decided with a system based on distance, style, inrun length, gate factor
11.
Telemark skiing
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Telemark skiing is a skiing technique that combines elements of Alpine and Nordic skiing. Telemark skiing is named after the Telemark region of Norway, where the discipline originated, sondre Norheim is often credited for first demonstrating the turn in ski races, which included cross country, slalom and jumping, in Norway around 1868. Sondre Norheim also experimented with ski and binding design, introducing side cuts to skis, Telemark skiing was reborn in 1971 in the United States. Doug Buzzell, Craig Hall, Greg Dalbey, Jack Marcial, Telemark skiing gained popularity during the 1970s and 1980s. The appeal of Telemark skiing lies in access - long pieces of fabric, known as skins. In addition to allowing a skier to travel both downhill and uphill, Telemark equipment generally weighs less than its alpine counterparts, Telemark skiing uses a specialized type of equipment. Generally, Telemark skiers use flexible Alpine skis with specially designed bindings that fix only the toe of the ski boot to the ski, oftentimes the heel is attached to the front of the binding by a hinged cable, which holds the ski boot firmly in the binding. Originally made popular as a mode of transportation, Telemark skiing is now a world cup sport focused on carving. At its core, the Telemark discipline combines elements of Alpine racing, Nordic skate skiing, and ski jumping. World Cup Telemark is offered in a number of formats, including “Classic”, “Sprint Classic, ” and “Parallel Sprint. ”A typical Classic Telemark race involves a jump that must be landed in a lunged position, a series of gates, a skate section. Telemark Racing was governed by the International Telemark Federation until 1995, the first FIS Telemark World Championships were held at Hafjell, in Lillehammer, Norway. Today, Telemark Racing is organized by FIS and by national sport committees such as the United States Telemark Ski Association, Nordic skiing Alpine skiing Ski touring
12.
Northern Europe
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Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. However, narrower definitions may also be used based on geographical factors, such as climate. Greenland, geographically a part of North America, is politically a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, while Northern Europe overlaps with most of Northwestern Europe, north-Central Europe, and Northeastern Europe, it does not border Southern Europe. Countries which are central-western, central-central, or central-eastern are generally considered part of neither Northern Europe or Southern Europe. Historically, when Europe was dominated by the Mediterranean region, everything not near this sea was termed Northern Europe, including southern Germany, all of the Low Countries and this meaning is still used today in some contexts, such as in discussions of the Northern Renaissance. In medieval times, the term Thule was used to mean a place in the extreme northern reaches of the continent. The region has a south west extreme of around 50 degrees north, the entire regions climate is mildly affected by the Gulf Stream. From the west climates vary from maritime and maritime subarctic climates, in the north and central climates are generally subarctic or Arctic and to the east climates are mostly subarctic and temperate/continental. With the exception of the United Kingdom and Ireland, Northern European countries are known for harsh winters with temperatures reaching as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius in some parts. Countries in Northern Europe have large, developed economies and some of the highest standards of living in the world and they often score highly on surveys measuring quality of life, such as the Human Development Index
13.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
14.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
15.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
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Nordic skiing
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Recreational disciplines include cross-country skiing and Telemark skiing. Olympic events are cross-country skiing, ski jumping and nordic combined—competition in which athletes both cross-country ski and ski jump, the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships host these sports, plus Telemark skiing, at the championship level in the winter of every odd numbered year. Biathlon combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting, but is not included as a Nordic discipline under FIS rules, instead, it is under the jurisdiction of the International Biathlon Union. The biomechanics of competitive skiing and ski jumping have been the subject of serious study
17.
Marksman
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In popular and historical usage, sharpshooter and marksman are considered synonyms. Within the shooting sports and military usages today, however, sharpshooter and marksman refer to different levels of skill. Specifically, in the US Army, marksman is a rating below sharpshooter, four levels of skill are generally recognized today in both military and civilian shooting circles, unqualified, marksman, sharpshooter, and expert. Marksmanship badges for the three qualified levels are commonly awarded to civilian and military shooters who attain proficiency in shooting higher than unqualified. Snipers are also tasked with responsibilities other than delivering long-range fire—specifically, conducting reconnaissance. In the Middle Ages, in the first use of the marksman was given to the royal archers, or bowmen, of a palace guard. This was around the 10th century, although records of some 9th century English Kings show the listings of groups of marksmen specifically chosen for their militaries, in the Australian Army, marksmanship is currently recognized by the award of one of three skill-at-arms badges. The Skill at Arms Badge consists of a representation of crossed.303 Short Magazine Lee–Enfield rifles and is awarded for achieving a prescribed standard of shooting skill and this must be repeated within twelve months for the badge to be awarded in perpetuity to the recipient. The Snipers Badge is similar in design but incorporates the letter S into the design and is awarded to soldiers who qualify on the Army Snipers Course. The Army Top 20 Badge consists of crossed.303 SMLE rifles upon a laurel wreath and is awarded to the final 20 competitors in the annual Champion Shot for the Army, the winner of this competition is also awarded the Champion Shots Medal. Only one badge may be worn, in the British Armed Forces, marksman is traditionally the highest shooting rating and holders may wear a crossed rifles badge on the lower sleeve. From Army Operational Shooting Policy for the Annual Personal Weapons Test Combat Infantryman, Marksman, to qualify for Marksman all practices are to be completed and the firer must achieve a score of 55 or more of the total Highest Possible Score for the entire shoot. Soldiers achieving a non-marksman passing score are NOT permitted to re-shoot practices in order to qualify for Marksman, Infantry soldiers who qualify as Marksmen during the Combat Infantrymans Course are entitled to retain the award on joining their units. Soldiers who qualify as Marksmen are entitled to wear the Marksman badge for one year before they must requalify, in the United States Army and Marine Corps, the marksmanship of the soldiers is ranked based on their skill, marksman-sharpshooter-expert. Holders of each level wear qualification badges below their ribbons with bars for the weapons they qualify in, in the United States Navy and the United States Coast Guard, full-sized medals are only issued at the expert level. Both services award separate medals for pistol and rifle proficiency, the United States Air Force gives just a ribbon for qualifying at the expert level, although a bronze star can be earned if the wearer qualifies on both of these types of small arms. Within the United States military, a marksman in the U. S. Army is referred to as Squad Designated Marksman, and a marksman in the Marines is called a Designated Marksman. The United States Army particularly emphasizes the concept, according to US Army Field Manual 3-21.8 a typical United States Army fireteam consists of four soldiers
18.
Biathlon
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The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. According to Encyclopædia Britannica, the biathlon is rooted in the traditions of Scandinavia. In modern times, the activity that developed into this sport was an exercise for Norwegian people that was a training for the military. In modern terminology these military contests included downhill, slalom, biathlon, one of the worlds first known ski clubs, the Trysil Rifle and Ski Club, was formed in Norway in 1861 to promote national defense at the local level. 20th century variants include Forsvarsrennet – a 17 km cross-country race with shooting, the modern biathlon is a civilian variant of the old military combined exercise. In Norway, the biathlon was until 1984 a branch of Det frivillige Skyttervesen, in Norwegian, the biathlon is called skiskyting. In Norway there are still separate contests in skifeltskyting, a race at 12 km with large-caliber rifle shooting at various targets with unknown range. During the mid-1950s, however, the biathlon was introduced into the Soviet and this newfound popularity aided the effort of having the biathlon gain entry into the Winter Olympics. The first Biathlon World Championship was held in 1958 in Austria, at Albertville in 1992, women were first allowed in the Olympic biathlon. The competitions from 1958 to 1965 used high-power centerfire cartridges, such as the. 30-06 Springfield, the ammunition was carried in a belt worn around the competitors waist. The sole event was the mens 20 kilometres individual, encompassing four separate ranges and firing distances of 100 metres,150 metres,200 metres, the target distance was reduced to 150 metres with the addition of the relay in 1966. The shooting range was reduced to 50 metres in 1978 with the mechanical targets making their debut at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. In 1948, the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne et Biathlon was founded, to standardise the rules for the biathlon, in 1993, the biathlon branch of the UIPMB created the International Biathlon Union, which officially separated from the UIPMB in 1998. Biathlon at the Winter Olympics Biathlon World Championships Biathlon World Cup Biathlon Junior World Championships The complete rules of the biathlon are given in the official IBU rule books, depending on the shooting performance, extra distance or time is added to the contestants total running distance/time. The contestant with the shortest total time wins, adding one minute to the skiers total time. Use of a cartridge to hit the target, only three such extras are available for each round, and a penalty loop must be done for each target left standing. In order to track of the contestants progress and relative standing throughout a race, split times are taken at several points along the skiing track. All cross-country skiing techniques are permitted in the biathlon, which means that the technique is usually the preferred one
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Ski-orienteering
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Ski orienteering is a cross-country skiing endurance winter racing sport and one of the four orienteering disciplines recognized by the IOF. A successful ski orienteer combines high physical endurance, strength and excellent technical skiing skills with the ability to navigate, navigation tactics is similar to mountain bike orienteering. Standard skate-skiing equipment is used, along with a map attached to the chest. Compared to cross-country skiing, upper body strength is important because of double poling needed along narrow snow trails. Ski orienteering events are designed to test both physical strength and navigation skills of the athletes, Ski orienteers use the map to navigate a dense ski track network in order to visit a number of control points in the shortest possible time. The track network is printed on the map, and there is no marked route in the terrain, the control points must be visited in the right order. The map gives all information the athlete needs in order to decide which route is the fastest, including the quality and width of the tracks. The athlete has to take hundreds of route choice decisions at high speed during every race, Ski orienteering is time-measured and objective. The clock is the judge, fastest time wins, the electronic card verifies that the athlete has visited all control points in the right order. International competitions The World Ski Orienteering Championships is the event to award the titles of World Champions in Ski Orienteering. The World Championships is organized every odd year, the programme includes Sprint, Middle and Long Distance competitions, and a Relay for both men and women. The World Cup is the series of events to find the worlds best ski orienteers over a season. The World Cup is organized every even year, junior World Ski Orienteering Championships and World Masters Ski Orienteering Championships are organized annually. World-wide sport Ski orienteering is practiced on four continents, the events take place in the natural environment, over a variety of outdoor terrains, from city parks to countryside fields, forests and mountain sides - wherever there is snow. The leading ski orienteering regions are Asia, Europe and North America, national teams from 35 countries are expected to participate in the next World Ski Orienteering Championships to be held in Sweden in March 2011. Ski orienteering is on the programme of the Asian Winter Games, the IOF has applied for inclusion of ski orienteering in the 2018 Olympic Winter Games and will also apply to FISU for inclusion in the 2013 Winter Universiades. A person taking part in competitions in ski orienteering is equipped with, Clothing adequate for cross-country skiing, boots and skis, an orienteering map provided by the organizer, showing the control points which must be visited in order. The map is designed to give all the information the competitor needs to decide which route is the fastest, such as the quality of the tracks, gradient, green lines on the map show a trail suited to race on skis
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History of skiing
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Skiing, or traveling over snow on skis, has a history of at least eight millennia. The earliest archaeological examples of skis were found in Russia and date to 6000 BCE, although modern skiing has evolved from beginnings in Scandinavia,10, 000-year-old wall paintings suggest use of skis in the Xinjiang region of what is now China. The word ski comes from the Old Norse word skíð which means stick of wood or ski, the word ski has a wider meaning in Norwegian, for instance vedski meaning splitwood for making fire or skigard meaning a wooden split-rail fence. In modern Norwegian this word is usually pronounced, english and French use the original spelling ski, and modify the pronunciation. In Italian it is pronounced as in Norwegian, and the spelling is modified, german, Portuguese and Spanish adapt the word to their linguistic rules, Schifahren/Schilaufen, esqui and esquí. In Swedish, a relation to Norwegian, the word is skidor. Finnish has its own ancient words for skis and skiing, in Finnish ski is suksi and skiing is hiihtää. The Sami also have their own words for skis and skiing, for example, the Lule Sami word for ski is sabek and skis are sabega. The oldest information about skiing is based on archaeological evidence, the earliest Scandinavian examples of skiing date to 5000 BCE with primitive carvings, which depict a skier with one pole, found in Rødøy in the Nordland region of Norway. Rock drawings in Norway dated at 4000 BC depict a man on skis holding a stick, the first primitive Scandinavian ski was found in a peat bog in Hoting in Jämtland County in Sweden which dates back to 4500 or 2500 BCE. In 1938 a ski was found from Salla, Finland that has dated back to 3245 BCE. Noted examples are the Kalvträskskidan ski, found in Sweden and dated to 3300 BCE, a ski excavated in Greenland is dated to 1010. In 2014, a ski complete with leather bindings, emerged from a glacier in Reinheimen mountains, the binding is at a small elevated area in the middle of the 172 cm long and 14,5 cm wide ski. According to the report the ski is some 1300 years old, a large number of organic artifacts have been well preserved for several thousand years by the stable glaciers of Oppland county and emerge when glaciers recede. Norse mythology describes the god Ullr and the goddess Skaði hunting on skis, early historical evidence includes Procopius description of Sami people as skrithiphinoi translated as ski running samis. Birkely argues that the Sami people have practiced skiing for more than 6000 years, egil Skallagrimssons 950 CE saga describes King Haakon the Goods practice of sending his tax collectors out on skis. The Gulating law stated that No moose shall be disturbed by skiers on private land, Ski warfare, the use of ski-equipped troops in war, is first recorded by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus in the 13th century. The speed and distance that ski troops are able to cover is comparable to that of light cavalry, Swedish writer Olaus Magnuss 1555 A Description of the Northern Peoples describes skiers and their climbing skins in Scricfinnia in what is now Norway
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Sami people
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The Sami people are an indigenous Finno-Ugric people inhabiting the Arctic area of Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. The Sami are the indigenous people of Scandinavia recognized and protected under the international conventions of indigenous peoples. Sami ancestral lands are not well-defined and their traditional languages are the Sami languages and are classified as a branch of the Uralic language family. Traditionally, the Sami have pursued a variety of livelihoods, including fishing, fur trapping. Their best-known means of livelihood is semi-nomadic reindeer herding, currently about 10% of the Sami are connected to reindeer herding, providing them with meat, fur, and transportation. 2,800 Sami people are involved in herding on a full-time basis. For traditional, environmental, cultural, and political reasons, reindeer herding is legally reserved only for Sami people in regions of the Nordic countries. The Sámi are often known in other languages by the exonyms Lap, Lapp, some Sami regard these as pejorative terms, while others do not. Finn was the originally used by Norse speakers to refer to the Sami, as attested in the Icelandic Eddas. As Old Norse gradually developed into the separate Scandinavian languages, Swedes apparently took to using Finn exclusively to refer to inhabitants of Finland, Finnish immigrants to Northern Norway in the 18th and 19th centuries were referred to as Kvens to distinguish them from the Sami Finns. Ethnic Finns are a group from Sami. In fact, Saxo never explicitly connects the Sami with the two Laplands, there is another suggestion that it originally meant wilds. In Finland and Sweden, Lapp is common in names, such as Lappi, Lappeenranta and Lapinlahti in Finland. As already mentioned, Finn is an element in Norwegian place names. In the North Sámi language, láhppon olmmoš means a person who is lost, Sámi refer to themselves as Sámit or Sápmelaš, the word Sámi being inflected into various grammatical forms. It has been proposed that Sámi, Häme, and perhaps Suomi are of the origin and ultimately borrowed from the Baltic word *žēmē. The Baltic word is cognate with Slavic земля, which means land. The Sámi institutions—notably the parliaments, radio and TV stations, theatres, etc. —all use the term Sámi, including when addressing outsiders in Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, or English
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Old Norse
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Old Norse was a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during about the 9th to 13th centuries. These dates, however, are not absolute, since written Old Norse is found well into the 15th century, Old Norse was divided into three dialects, Old West Norse, Old East Norse and Old Gutnish. Old West and East Norse formed a continuum, with no clear geographical boundary between them. For example, Old East Norse traits were found in eastern Norway, although Old Norwegian is classified as Old West Norse, most speakers spoke Old East Norse in what is present day Denmark and Sweden. Old Gutnish, the more obscure dialectal branch, is included in the Old East Norse dialect due to geographical associations. It developed its own features and shared in changes to both other branches. The 12th century Icelandic Gray Goose Laws state that Swedes, Norwegians, Icelanders and Danes spoke the same language, another term used, used especially commonly with reference to West Norse, was norrœnt mál. In some instances the term Old Norse refers specifically to Old West Norse, the Old East Norse dialect was spoken in Denmark, Sweden, settlements in Kievan Rus, eastern England, and Danish settlements in Normandy. The Old Gutnish dialect was spoken in Gotland and in settlements in the East. In the 11th century, Old Norse was the most widely spoken European language, in Kievan Rus, it survived the longest in Veliky Novgorod, probably lasting into the 13th century there. Norwegian is descended from Old West Norse, but over the centuries it has heavily influenced by East Norse. Old Norse also had an influence on English dialects and Lowland Scots and it also influenced the development of the Norman language, and through it and to a smaller extent, that of modern French. Various other languages, which are not closely related, have heavily influenced by Norse, particularly the Norman dialects, Scottish Gaelic. The current Finnish and Estonian words for Sweden are Ruotsi and Rootsi, of the modern languages, Icelandic is the closest to Old Norse. Written modern Icelandic derives from the Old Norse phonemic writing system, contemporary Icelandic-speakers can read Old Norse, which varies slightly in spelling as well as semantics and word order. However, pronunciation, particularly of the phonemes, has changed at least as much as in the other North Germanic languages. Faroese retains many similarities but is influenced by Danish, Norwegian, although Swedish, Danish and the Norwegian languages have diverged the most, they still retain asymmetric mutual intelligibility. Speakers of modern Swedish, Norwegian and Danish can mostly understand each other without studying their neighboring languages, the languages are also sufficiently similar in writing that they can mostly be understood across borders
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Scandinavia
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Scandinavia /ˌskændᵻˈneɪviə/ is a historical and cultural region in Northern Europe characterized by a common ethnocultural North Germanic heritage and mutually intelligible North Germanic languages. The term Scandinavia always includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the remote Norwegian islands of Svalbard and Jan Mayen are usually not seen as a part of Scandinavia, nor is Greenland, an overseas territory of Denmark. This looser definition almost equates to that of the Nordic countries, in Nordic languages, only Denmark, Norway and Sweden are commonly included in the definition of Scandinavia. In English usage, Scandinavia sometimes refers to the geographical area, the name Scandinavia originally referred vaguely to the formerly Danish, now Swedish, region Scania. Icelanders and the Faroese are to a significant extent descended from the Norse, Finland is mainly populated by Finns, with a minority of approximately 5% of Swedish speakers. A small minority of Sami people live in the north of Scandinavia. The Danish, Norwegian and Swedish languages form a continuum and are known as the Scandinavian languages—all of which are considered mutually intelligible with one another. Faroese and Icelandic, sometimes referred to as insular Scandinavian languages, are intelligible in continental Scandinavian languages only to a limited extent, Finnish and Meänkieli are closely related to each other and more distantly to the Sami languages, but are entirely unrelated to the Scandinavian languages. Apart from these, German, Yiddish and Romani are recognized minority languages in Scandinavia, the southern and by far most populous regions of Scandinavia have a temperate climate. Scandinavia extends north of the Arctic Circle, but has mild weather for its latitude due to the Gulf Stream. Much of the Scandinavian mountains have a tundra climate. There are many lakes and moraines, legacies of the last glacial period, Scandinavia usually refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Some sources argue for the inclusion of the Faroe Islands, Finland and Iceland, though that broader region is known by the countries concerned as Norden. Before this time, the term Scandinavia was familiar mainly to classical scholars through Pliny the Elders writings, and was used vaguely for Scania, as a political term, Scandinavia was first used by students agitating for Pan-Scandinavianism in the 1830s. After a visit to Sweden, Andersen became a supporter of early political Scandinavism, the term is often defined according to the conventions of the cultures that lay claim to the term in their own use. More precisely, and subject to no dispute, is that Finland is included in the broader term Nordic countries, various promotional agencies of the Nordic countries in the United States serve to promote market and tourism interests in the region. The official tourist boards of Scandinavia sometimes cooperate under one umbrella, Norways government entered one year later. All five Nordic governments participate in the joint promotional efforts in the United States through the Scandinavian Tourist Board of North America, Scandinavia can thus be considered a subset of the Nordic countries
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Daxing'anling Prefecture
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Daxinganling Prefecture, also known as Da Hinggan Ling Prefecture, is the northernmost Chinese prefecture-level division, located in Heilongjiang Province. Its area is 46,755 square kilometres and has a population of 520,000 and it is named after the Greater Khingan Range Mountains. In 2007 it had a GDP of RMB6.1 billion, in 2015 Daxinganling Prefecture had a GDP of RMB13.49 billion, while a GDP of RMB15.39 billion in the year 2014. Daxinganling Prefecture administrates 3 counties,4 Forestry administration districts and these counties and management districts contain 6 urban subdistricts,24 towns,11 townships,2 ethnic townships,41 residential communities, and 80 villages. Administrate by the State Forestry Administrations Heilongjiang Daxinganling Forestry Group Corporation with 10 Forestry Bureaux and 61 Woodlands, administrate by Daxinganling Prefecture Administrative Operation Forestry Bureau with 3 County-level Forestry Bureaux and 6 Woodlands. Official website of Daxinganling Prefecture government
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China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
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Procopius
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Procopius of Caesarea was a prominent late antique scholar from Palaestina Prima. He is commonly held to be the last major historian of the ancient Western world, apart from his own writings, the main source for Procopius life is an entry in the Suda, a Byzantine encyclopaedia, written sometime after 975, which tells everything about his early life. He was a native of Caesarea in the Roman Province Palaestina Prima and he evidently knew Latin, as was natural for a man with legal training. In 527, the first year of Eastern Roman Emperor Justinians reign, he became the adsessor for Belisarius, Procopius was with Belisarius on the eastern front until the latter was defeated at the Battle of Callinicum in 531 and recalled to Constantinople. Procopius witnessed the Nika riots of January,532, which Belisarius, Procopius recorded a few of the extreme weather events of 535–536, although these were presented as a backdrop to Roman military activities, such as a mutiny, in and near Carthage. He rejoined Belisarius for his campaign against the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy and experienced the Gothic siege of Rome that lasted a year and nine days and he witnessed Belisarius entry into the Gothic capital, Ravenna, in 540. Book Eight of the Wars of Justinian, and the Secret History, suggest that his relationship with Belisarius seems to have cooled thereafter. When Belisarius was sent back to Italy in 544 to cope with a renewal of the war with the Goths, now led by the able king Totila, Procopius appears to have no longer been on Belisarius staff. As magister militum, Belisarius was a vir illustris, and Procopius, as his adsessor, must and he thus belonged to the middle-ranking group of the ordo senatorius. However, the Suda, which is well informed in such matters. Should this information be correct, then Procopius had a seat in the senate of Constantinople and it is not known when Procopius himself died, and many historians date his death to 554, but in 562 there was an urban prefect of Constantinople who happened to be called Procopius. In that year, Belisarius was implicated in a conspiracy and was brought before this urban prefect, the writings of Procopius are the primary source of information for the rule of the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian. Procopius Wars of Justinian is clearly his most important work, although it is not as known as the Secret History. The first two deal with the conflict between the Romans and Sassanid Persia in Mesopotamia, Syria, Armenia, Lazica and Caucasian Iberia. They also cover the early career of the Roman general Belisarius, Procopius patron, the next two books, the Vandal War, cover Belisarius successful campaign against the Vandal kingdom in Roman Africa. The remaining books cover the Gothic War, the campaigns by Belisarius and others to recapture Italy and this includes accounts of the sieges of Naples and Rome. Later, Procopius added a book, which brings the history to 552/553. This eighth book covers both in Italy and on the Eastern frontier
27.
Haakon the Good
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Haakon Haraldsson, also Haakon the Good and Haakon Adalsteinfostre, was the king of Norway from 934 to 961. He was noted for his attempts to introduce Christianity into Norway, Haakon was the youngest son of King Harald Fairhair and Thora Mosterstang. He was born on the Håkonshella peninsula in Hordaland, King Harald determined to remove his youngest son out of harms way and accordingly sent him to the court of King Athelstan of England. Haakon was fostered by King Athelstan, as part of an agreement made by his father, the English court introduced him to the Christian religion. On the news of his fathers death, King Athelstan provided Haakon with ships and men for an expedition against his half-brother Eric Bloodaxe, who had been proclaimed king of Norway. At his arrival back in Norway, Haakon gained the support of the landowners by promising to give up the rights of taxation claimed by his father over inherited real property. Eric Bloodaxe soon found himself deserted on all sides, and saved his own, Eric fled to the Orkney Islands and later to the Kingdom of Jorvik, eventually meeting a violent death at Stainmore, Westmorland, in 954 along with his son, Haeric. In 953, Haakon had to fight a battle at Avaldsnes against the sons of Eric Bloodaxe. Haakon won the battle at which Erics son Guttorm died, one of Haakons most famous victories was the Battle of Rastarkalv near Frei in 955 at which Erics son, Gamle, died. By placing ten standards far apart along a low ridge, he gave the impression that his army was bigger than it actually was and he managed to fool Eric’s sons into believing that they were out-numbered. The Danes fled and were slaughtered by Haakon’s army, the sons of Eric returned in 957, with support from King Gorm the Old, King of Denmark, but were again defeated by Haakons effective army system. Three of the sons of Eric Bloodaxe landed undetected on the coast of Hordaland in 961. Haakon was mortally wounded at the Battle of Fitjar after a victory over Eric’s sons. The King’s arm was pierced by an arrow and he died later from his wounds and he was buried in the burial mound in the village of Seim in Lindås municipality in the county of Hordaland. Upon his death his court poet, Eyvindr Skáldaspillir, composed a skaldic poem Hákonarmál about the fall of the King in battle and his reception into Valhalla. After Haakons death, Harald Greycloak, the eldest surviving son of Eric Bloodaxe, ascended the throne as King Harald II, subsequently, the Norwegians were tormented by years of war. In 970, King Harald was tricked into coming to Denmark and killed in a plot planned by Haakon Sigurdsson, Haakons Park is the location of a statue of King Haakon sculpted by Anne Grimdalen. During 1961, the statue was erected opposite Fitjar Church for the one thousand-year commemoration of the Battle of Fitjar, håkonarspelet is a historical play written by Johannes Heggland in 1997
28.
Gulating
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Gulating is the name of both one of the first Norwegian legislative assemblies or things and one of the present-day law courts of western Norway. The Gulatinget Millennium Site is a symbol of the history of this Norwegian representative form of parliament, initially farmers from Western Norway met at Gulen to discuss political matters, things like taxation, the building of roads and churches, and military service. The assembly also passed judgements in disputes and criminal cases. Special legislation, Gulatingslova, was drafted to aid the discussions, the assembly site was established early in the 10th century and the original legislative area covered the regions of Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane. Initially the Gulaþing was an allthing or common assembly, where all free farmers had the right to participate, the practice of periodic regional assemblies of leading men predates recorded history, and was firmly established at the time of the unification of Norway into a single kingdom. These assemblies or lagþings, functioned as judicial and legislative bodies, resolving disputes, the Gulaþing received delegates from Lyngør in the south to north of Ålesund, and its laws were observed from the eastern inland valleys of Valdres and Hallingdal to the Faroe Islands in the west. The Gulaþing served as the model for the establishment of the assemblies of Iceland and of the Faeroe Islands. While the Gulating was not an assembly in the modern sense of an elected body. The laws were typically crafted as social contracts, §35 for instance states, None of us shall take goods from others, or take the law into our own hands. The laws nevertheless applied for every person inside the law area Gulaþingslǫg, if a stranger stole from a Gulaþingsman, that was also in breach of the laws, but the law set no limits to how he could be punished. They provided the institutional and legal framework for subsequent legislative and judicial bodies, homicide of an heir to a property, according to Gulaþing law §218-228, is punished by a collective fee of 189 cattle, where each responsible partys share is spelled out in detail. Murder was expensive, and so was personal physical injury, the cost to the convicted partys extended family of chopping off anothers arm or a leg, for instance, was fixed at the equivalent of $186,000, a thumb, $19,200. The Earliest Norwegian Laws, being the Gulathing law and the Frostathing law Robbestad, Gulatinget official website Thingsites. com - Official website for the Northern European Thing sites
29.
Reichswehr
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The Reichswehr formed the military organisation of Germany from 1919 until 1935, when it was united with the new Wehrmacht. At the end of World War I, the forces of the German Empire had mostly split up, many of them joined the Freikorps, a collection of volunteer paramilitary units that were involved in suppressing the German Revolution and border clashes between 1918 and 1923. The Vorläufige Reichswehr was made up of 43 brigades, on 30 September 1919, the army was reorganised as the Übergangsheer, and the force size was reduced to 20 brigades. About 400,000 men served in the armed forces, in May 1920 it was downsized to 200,000 men and restructured again, forming three cavalry divisions and seven infantry divisions. On 1 October 1920 the brigades were replaced by regiments and the manpower was now only 100,000 men as stipulated by the Treaty of Versailles and this lasted until 1 January 1921, when the Reichswehr was officially established according to the limitations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. The Reichswehr was an organisation composed of the following, The Reichsheer, an army consisting of, seven infantry divisions. General Command 1 at Berlin supervised 1st Division, 2nd Division, 3rd Division, general Command 2 at Kassel supervised 5,6,7 and 3rd Cavalry divisions. The Reichsmarine, a navy with a number of certain types of ships. The Reichswehr was limited to an army of 100,000 men. The establishment of a staff was prohibited. Heavy weapons such as artillery above the calibre of 105 mm, armoured vehicles, submarines and capital ships were forbidden, compliance with these restrictions was monitored until 1927 by the Military Inter-Allied Commission of Control. Despite the limitations on its size, their analysis of the loss of World War I, research and development, secret testing abroad and planning for better times went on. In addition, although forbidden to have a staff, the army continued to conduct the typical functions of a general staff under the disguised name of Truppenamt. During this time, many of the leaders of the Wehrmacht — such as Heinz Guderian — first formulated the ideas that they were to use so effectively a few years later. Reflecting this position as a “state within the state”, the Reichswehr created the Ministeramt or Office of the Ministerial Affairs in 1928 under Kurt von Schleicher to lobby the politicians. The biggest influence on the development of the Reichswehr was Hans von Seeckt, after the Kapp Putsch, Hans von Seeckt took over this post. After Seeckt was forced to resign in 1926, Wilhelm Heye took the post, Heye was in 1930 succeeded by Kurt Freiherr von Hammerstein-Equord, who submitted his resignation on December 27,1933. The reduction of the strength of the German army from 780,000 in 1913 to 100,000 enhanced the quality of the Reichsheer because only the best were permitted to join the army
30.
Ski warfare
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Ski warfare, the use of ski-equipped troops in war, is first recorded by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus in the 13th century. Denmark-Norway ski troops were used against Sweden during the 1807–1814 Napoleonic Wars, during WWI the Italian Army raised 88 Alpini Battalions. Their purpose was to fight summer and winter in the highest regions of the Alpine Arch, most of the battalions were dissolved after WWI. Ski troops played a key role in the successes of the Finnish war effort against the Soviet Union during the Winter War in 1939, forested, rural terrain with no roads was used by Finnish ski troops with great success against the advancing mechanized Soviet troops. In the Battle of Suomussalmi, two Soviet mechanized divisions were annihilated by three Finnish regiments, the Soviet Union deployed 11 ski battalions, among other troops, in November 1941 to reinforce their defenses in the Battle of Moscow. Ski warfare even extended to the Middle East where the Australian Ski Corps were deployed against Vichy French forces in the mountains of Lebanon, also during WWII, the United States Army 10th Mountain Division was established and trained for ski combat. Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian defense forces use skis in cross country skiing, one or two ropes hang from the end of a tracked vehicle such as the famous Swedish Hägglunds Bandvagn 206 or the Finnish Sisu Nasu and troops hang on to the ropes with their hands and ski-poles. Many nations train troops in skiing and winter warfare, including, Danish Navy — Slædepatruljen Sirius patrols Northern and Eastern Greenland. Estonian Army — Conscripts routinely receive training in skiing and other winter warfare skills, Finnish Army — All soldiers are trained in ski combat, and skiing is a part of standard required training for conscripts. Italian Army has the Alpini Corp with 16 Regiments, polish Army — 21st Podhale Rifles Brigade and elements of the 6th Paratroopers Brigade. Romanian Land Forces — Vânători de Munte, all soldiers are trained in ski combat, spain — Brigada de Cazadores de Montaña Aragón I, in Jaca with a specialized section Compañía de Esquiadores-Escaladores, in Jaca. Slovenian army — 132nd Mountain Battalion is trained in ski combat and mountain survival, slovenia is also a host nation for NATOs Multinational Centre of Excellence for Mountain Warfare. The Norwegian military have held skiing competitions since the 1670s, the sport of biathlon was developed from military skiing patrols. The United States ski patrol plays a role in the plot to the book A Separate Peace. Skiing and skiing topics History of skiing Aerosan Military patrol Biathlon Arctic warfare Finnish Tracked transport vehicle, SISU NA110 Greek Ski troops in the Second World War
31.
War
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War is a state of armed conflict between societies. It is generally characterized by extreme aggression, destruction, and mortality, an absence of war is usually called peace. Warfare refers to the activities and characteristics of types of war. Total war is warfare that is not restricted to legitimate military targets. While some scholars see war as a universal and ancestral aspect of human nature, as concerns a belligerents losses in proportion to its prewar population, the most destructive war in modern history may have been the Paraguayan War. In 2013 war resulted in 31,000 deaths, down from 72,000 deaths in 1990, in 2003, Richard Smalley identified war as the sixth biggest problem facing humanity for the next fifty years. Another byproduct of some wars is the prevalence of propaganda by some or all parties in the conflict, the word is related to the Old Saxon werran, Old High German werran, and the German verwirren, meaning “to confuse”, “to perplex”, and “to bring into confusion”. In German, the equivalent is Krieg, the Spanish, Portuguese, the scholarly study of war is sometimes called polemology, from the Greek polemos, meaning war, and -logy, meaning the study of. Studies of war by military theorists throughout military history have sought to identify the philosophy of war, asymmetric warfare is a conflict between two populations of drastically different levels of military capability or size. Biological warfare, or germ warfare, is the use of weaponized biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, chemical warfare involves the use of weaponized chemicals in combat. Poison gas as a weapon was principally used during World War I. Civil war is a war between forces belonging to the nation or political entity. Conventional warfare is declared war between states in which nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons are not used or see limited deployment, cyberwarfare involves the actions by a nation-state or international organization to attack and attempt to damage another nations information systems. Information warfare is the application of force on a large scale against information assets and systems, against the computers. Nuclear warfare is warfare in which weapons are the primary, or a major. War of aggression is a war for conquest or gain rather than self-defense, the earliest recorded evidence of war belongs to the Mesolithic cemetery Site 117, which has been determined to be approximately 14,000 years old. About forty-five percent of the skeletons there displayed signs of violent death, since the rise of the state some 5,000 years ago, military activity has occurred over much of the globe. The advent of gunpowder and the acceleration of technological advances led to modern warfare
32.
Denmark
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The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979. In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government. The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government
33.
Saxo Grammaticus
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Saxo Grammaticus, also known as Saxo cognomine Longus, was a Danish historian, theologian and author. He is thought to have been a clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund and he is the author of the first full history of Denmark. The Jutland Chronicle gives evidence that Saxo was born in Zealand and it is unlikely he was born before 1150 and it is supposed that his death could have occurred around 1220. His name Saxo was a name in medieval Denmark. The name Grammaticus was first given to him in the Jutland Chronicle and he lived in a period of warfare and Danish expansion, led by Archbishop Absalon and the Valdemars. The Danes were also being threatened by the Wends who were making raids across the border, Valdemar I had also just won a civil war and later Valdemar II led an expedition across the Elbe to invade Holstein. Sven Aggesen, a Danish nobleman and author of an earlier history of Denmark than Saxos, describes his contemporary, Saxo. This gives evidence that Saxo and Sven might have soldiered in the Hird or royal guard since Sven used the word contubernium in reference to them, there is also a Saxo to be found on a list of clergy at Lund, where there was a Sven recorded as Archdeacon. Likewise there is Dean Saxo who died in 1190, however the date does not match what is known about Saxo. Both arguments, for a secular or religious Saxo, would confirm that he was educated, as clergy he would have received training in Latin. Saxo comes from a family and writes that he is himself committed to being a soldier. He tells us that he follows the ancient right of hereditary service, Saxos education and ability supports the idea that he was educated outside Denmark. Some suggest the title Grammaticus refers not to his education but rather his elaborate Latin style and we know from his writing that he was in the retinue and received the patronage of Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, who was the foremost advisor to King Valdemar I. In his will Absalon forgives his clerk Saxo a small debt of two and a half marks of silver and tells him to return two borrowed books to the monastery of Sorø, the legacy of Saxo Grammaticus is the sixteen book heroic history of the Danes called Gesta Danorum. In the preface to the work, Saxo writes that his patron Absalon, the history is thought to have been started about 1185, after Sven Aggesen wrote his history. The goal of Gesta Danorum was as Saxo writes to glorify our fatherland, Saxo also may have owed much to Plato, Cicero and also to more contemporary writers like Geoffrey of Monmouth. Saxos history of the Danes was compiled from sources that are of historical value. He drew on oral tales of the Icelanders, ancient volumes, letters carved on rocks and stone, the history is composed of sixteen books and extends from the time of the founders of the Danish people, Dan I of Denmark and Angul into about the year 1187
34.
Cavalry
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Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the most mobile of the combat arms, an individual soldier in the cavalry is known by a number of designations such as cavalryman, horseman, dragoon or trooper. The designation of cavalry was not usually given to any military forces that used animals, such as camels. Cavalry had the advantage of improved mobility, and a man fighting from horseback also had the advantages of greater height, speed, another element of horse mounted warfare is the psychological impact a mounted soldier can inflict on an opponent. In Europe cavalry became increasingly armoured, and eventually became known for the mounted knights, in the period between the World Wars, many cavalry units were converted into motorized infantry and mechanized infantry units, or reformed as tank troops. Most cavalry units that are horse-mounted in modern armies serve in purely ceremonial roles, modern usage of the term generally refers to specialist units equipped with tanks or aircraft. The shock role, traditionally filled by heavy cavalry, is filled by units with the armored designation. Before the Iron Age, the role of cavalry on the battlefield was largely performed by light chariots, the chariot originated with the Sintashta-Petrovka culture in Central Asia and spread by nomadic or semi-nomadic Indo-Iranians. The power of mobility given by mounted units was recognized early on, Cavalry techniques were an innovation of equestrian nomads of the Central Asian and Iranian steppe and pastoralist tribes such as the Persian Parthians and Sarmatians. The photograph above left shows Assyrian cavalry from reliefs of 865–860 BC, at this time, the men had no spurs, saddles, saddle cloths, or stirrups. Fighting from the back of a horse was more difficult than mere riding. The cavalry acted in pairs, the reins of the archer were controlled by his neighbours hand. Even at this time, cavalry used swords, shields. The sculpture implies two types of cavalry, but this might be a simplification by the artist, Later images of Assyrian cavalry show saddle cloths as primitive saddles, allowing each archer to control his own horse. As early as 490 BC a breed of horses was bred in the Nisaean plain in Media to carry men with increasing amounts of armour. However, chariots remained in use for purposes such as carrying the victorious general in a Roman triumph. The southern Britons met Julius Caesar with chariots in 55 and 54 BC, the last mention of chariot use in battle was by the Caledonians at the Mons Graupius, in 84 AD. During the classical Greek period cavalry were usually limited to citizens who could afford expensive war-horses
35.
Trondheim
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Trondheim, historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. It has a population of 187,353, and is the third most populous municipality in Norway and it is the third largest city in the country, with a population of 169,972 inhabitants within the city borders. The city functions as the centre of Sør-Trøndelag county. Trondheim lies on the shore of Trondheim Fjord at the mouth of the river Nidelva. The settlement was founded in 997 as a trading post, from 1152 to 1537, the city was the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of Nidaros, since then, it has remained the seat of the Lutheran Diocese of Nidaros and the Nidaros Cathedral. The current municipality dates from 1964, when Trondheim merged with Byneset, Leinstrand, Strinda, for the ecclesiastical history, see Archiepiscopate of Nidaros Trondheim was named Kaupangen by Viking King Olav Tryggvason in 997. Shortly thereafter it came to be called Nidaros, in the beginning it was frequently used as a military retainer of King Olav I. It was frequently used as the seat of the king, and was the capital of Norway until 1217, people have been living in the region for thousands of years as evidenced by the rock carvings in central Norway, the Nøstvet and Lihult cultures and the Corded Ware culture. In ancient times, the Kings of Norway were hailed at Øretinget in Trondheim, Harald Fairhair was hailed as the king here, as was his son, Haakon I, called the Good. The battle of Kalvskinnet took place in Trondheim in 1179, King Sverre Sigurdsson, some scholars believe that the famous Lewis chessmen, 12th-century chess pieces carved from walrus ivory found in the Hebrides and now at the British Museum, may have been made in Trondheim. Trondheim was the seat of the Archdiocese of Nidaros for Norway from 1152, due to the introduction of Lutheran Protestantism in 1537, the last Archbishop, Olav Engelbrektsson, had to flee from the city to the Netherlands, where he died in present-day Lier, Belgium. The city has experienced major fires. Since much of the city was made of wooden buildings, many of the fires caused severe damage. Great fires ravaged the city in 1598,1651,1681,1708, twice in 1717,1742,1788,1841 and 1842, however, the 1651 fire destroyed 90% of all buildings within the city limits. The fire in 1681 led to an almost total reconstruction of the city, overseen by General Johan Caspar von Cicignon, broad avenues like Munkegaten were created, with no regard for property rights, in order to stop the next fire. At the time, the city had a population of roughly 8000 inhabitants, after the Treaty of Roskilde on 26 February 1658, Trondheim and the rest of Trøndelag, became Swedish territory for a brief period, but the area was reconquered 10 months later. The conflict was settled by the Treaty of Copenhagen on 27 May 1660. During World War II, Trondheim was occupied by Nazi Germany from 9 April 1940, the home of the most notorious Norwegian Gestapo agent, Henry Rinnan, was in Trondheim
36.
Snowshoe Thompson
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Snowshoe Thompson was a nickname for the Norwegian-American John Albert Thompson, an early resident of the Sierra Nevada of Nevada and California. He is considered the father of California skiing, jon Torsteinson Rue was born on the Rue farm in Tinn, Telemark county, Norway. He was the son of Torsten Olsen Rue and Gro Jonsdatter Håkaland and his father died when Thompson was 2 years old. In 1837, at the age of 10, Thompson came to America with his mother, settling first on a farm in the Fox River settlement in LaSalle County, Illinois. The family subsequently moved on the Norwegian immigrant settlement in Shelby County, in 1839, they were joined by Thompsons brother Tostein and sister Kari. In 1840, they followed Hans Barlien and moved to the Sugar Creek Settlement in Lee County, in 1846, Thompson and his brother Tostein came to Dane County, Wisconsin. In 1851, Thompson drove a herd of cows to California. For a short while he mined in Kelsey Diggins, Coon Hollow, with the small amount he saved, he bought a small ranch at Putah Creek, in the Sacramento Valley. In 1860, Thompson homesteaded a 160-acre ranch in Diamond Valley, between 1856 and 1876, he delivered mail between Placerville, California and Genoa, Nevada and later Virginia City, Nevada. He knew this version of cross-country skiing from his native Norway, Thompson delivered the first silver ore to be mined from the Comstock Lode. Later he taught others how to make skis, as well as the basics of their use, despite his twenty years of service, he was never paid for delivering the mail. Thompson typically made the trip in three days, and the return trip in two days. Thompson carried no blanket and no gun, he claimed he was never lost even in blizzards, a rescue attributed to him was that of a man trapped in his cabin by unusually deep snow. Thompson usually traveled the known as Johnsons Cutoff, a pathway first marked by John Calhoun Johnson. Today this approximates the route of U. S. Route 50 as it winds its way from Placerville, in 1866, Thompson married Agnes Singleton who had come to America from England. The Thompson’s only child, Arthur Thomas, was born on February 11,1867, from 1868 to 1872 Thompson served on the Board of Supervisors of Alpine County, and was a delegate to the Republican State Convention in Sacramento in 1871. Snowshoe Thompson died of appendicitis which developed into pneumonia on May 15,1876 and his grave can be seen in Genoa, Nevada, in Carson Valley, east of Lake Tahoe. His son, Arthur, died two years later of diphtheria, and was buried next to his father at the cemetery in Genoa, in 1885, a marble stone was erected on the site of Snowshoes grave
37.
Fridtjof Nansen
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Fridtjof Nansen was a Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In his youth he was a skier and ice skater. He led the team made the first crossing of the Greenland interior in 1888. He won international fame after reaching a record latitude of 86°14′ during his North Pole expedition of 1893–96. Between 1906 and 1908 he served as the Norwegian representative in London, in the final decade of his life, Nansen devoted himself primarily to the League of Nations, following his appointment in 1921 as the Leagues High Commissioner for Refugees. In 1922 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on behalf of the victims of the First World War. Among the initiatives he introduced was the Nansen passport for stateless persons and he worked on behalf of refugees until his sudden death in 1930, after which the League established the Nansen International Office for Refugees to ensure that his work continued. This office received the Nobel Peace Prize for 1938, Nansen was honoured by many nations, and his name is commemorated in numerous geographical features, particularly in the polar regions. The Nansen family originated in Denmark, Hans Nansen, a trader, was an early explorer of the White Sea region of the Arctic Ocean. In later life he settled in Copenhagen, becoming the citys borgmester in 1654, later generations of the family lived in Copenhagen until the mid-18th century, when Ancher Antoni Nansen moved to Norway. His son, Hans Leierdahl Nansen, was a magistrate first in the Trondheim district, after Norways separation from Denmark in 1814, he entered national political life as the representative for Stavanger in the first Storting, and became a strong advocate of union with Sweden. After suffering a stroke in 1821 Hans Leierdahl Nansen died, leaving a four-year-old son, Baldur Fridtjof Nansen. Baldur was a lawyer without ambitions for public life, who became Reporter to the Supreme Court of Norway, Baldur and Adelaide settled at Store Frøen, an estate at Aker, a few kilometres north of Norways capital city, Christiania. The couple had three children, the first died in infancy, the second, born 10 October 1861, was Fridtjof Nansen, Store Frøens rural surroundings shaped the nature of Nansens childhood. In the short summers the main activities were swimming and fishing, the long winter months were devoted mainly to skiing, which Nansen began to practice at the age of two, on improvised skis. At the age of 10 he defied his parents and attempted the ski jump at the nearby Huseby installation. This exploit had near-disastrous consequences, as on landing the skis dug deep into the snow, pitching the boy forward, I, head first, hen I came down again I bored into the snow up to my waist. The boys thought I had broken my neck, but as soon as they saw there was life in me, a shout of mocking laughter went up
38.
Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway
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The Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway was one of the Big Four broad gauge,1,676 mm, British-owned companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina. The original concession was awarded by the Argentine government in 1872 to John E. Clark for the construction of a railway from Buenos Aires to Chile. It was not until 1882, when the BA&P was registered as a company in London. Initially the new company intended to build the section between Mercedes, in Buenos Aires Province, and Villa Mercedes in San Luis Province. From Mercedes the company planned to access to the city of Buenos Aires over the Ferrocarril Oeste track. At Villa Mercedes it connected with the Ferrocarril Andino line that ran on to Mendoza, work began on the line to Villa Mercedes in July 1882 and the line was opened on 8 October 1886. After a change of plan, the applied for, and was granted. Therefore, in 1888 the BAPR opened the 100-km length Mercedes−Palermo and it was a long-distance service with only two stops existing, Caseros and Muñiz. In Buenos Aires, Retiro was a stop before reaching Central Station terminus through Buenos Aires Northern Railway rail tracks. As Buenos Aires population increased, new stations were opening and frequencies were also increased, the Sánez Peña-Villa Luro line was opened in 1909, that same year Palermo station began to be built. Three years later the line reached Retiro, that was a station so the BAPR had planned to build a terminus in front of Correo Central. Nevertheless, the project was never carried out and the lands were sold in 1931 to build Luna Park, in 1938 the Sánez Peña-Villa Luro section was closed because of the construction of Avenida General Paz. The Municipality of Buenos Aires had stated there could be no level crossings in the freeway which obligated BAPR to build a bridge over it. The line had been thought for freight services mainly, carrying merchandise to Riachuelo, however the creation of Port of Buenos Aires made cargo traffic decrease in the South of the city. The BAPR decided to close the line, leaving the Villa Real district without services, in 1898 the BA&P took over the British-owned company Villa Maria and Rufino Railway and a year later John Wynford Philips became chairman of the BA&P, a post he held until 1938. During this period the company developed into an amalgamation of companies and dependent lines reaching from Buenos Aires to the Andes. In 1907 the Argentine Great Western Railway, which had long been a rival of the BA&P, was taken over, in 1908 the BA&P acquired part of a building in Florida Street, in the centre of Buenos Aires, for offices. As a result, the became known as Edificio Pacífico and since 1990 has housed Galerías Pacífico
39.
Roald Amundsen
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Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the Antarctic expedition of 1910–12 which was the first to reach the South Pole, in 1926, he was the first expedition leader for the air expedition to the North Pole. Amundsen is recognized as the first person, without dispute, as having reached both poles and he is also known as having the first expedition to traverse the Northwest Passage in the Arctic. In June 1928, while taking part in a mission for the airship Italia. Amundsen was a key leader during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, in the class of Douglas Mawson, Robert Falcon Scott. Amundsen was born to a family of Norwegian shipowners and captains in Borge and his parents were Jens Amundsen and Hanna Sahlqvist. Roald was the son in the family. His mother wanted him to avoid the family trade and encouraged him to become a doctor. He promptly quit university for a life at sea, Amundsen had hidden a lifelong desire inspired by Fridtjof Nansens crossing of Greenland in 1888 and Franklins lost expedition. He decided on a life of exploration of wilderness places. Amundsen joined the Belgian Antarctic Expedition as first mate and this expedition, led by Adrien de Gerlache using the ship the RV Belgica, became the first expedition to winter in Antarctica. The Belgica, whether by mistake or design, became locked in the sea ice at 70°30′S off Alexander Island, the crew endured a winter for which they were poorly prepared. By Amundsens own estimation, the doctor for the expedition, the American Frederick Cook, probably saved the crew from scurvy by hunting for animals and feeding the crew fresh meat. In cases where citrus fruits are lacking, fresh meat from animals that make their own vitamin C contains enough of the vitamin to prevent scurvy and this was an important lesson for Amundsens future expeditions. In 1903, Amundsen led the first expedition to successfully traverse Canadas Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and he planned a small expedition of six men in a 45-ton fishing vessel, Gjøa, in order to have flexibility. His ship had relatively shallow draft and his technique was to use a small ship and hug the coast. Amundsen had the ship outfitted with a gasoline engine. They traveled via Baffin Bay, the Parry Channel and then south through Peel Sound, James Ross Strait, Simpson Strait and they spent two winters at King William Island in the harbor of what is today Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, Canada
40.
Amundsen's South Pole expedition
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The first expedition to reach the geographic South Pole was led by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. He and four others arrived at the pole on 14 December 1911, Amundsen and his team returned safely to their base, and later learned that Scott and his four companions had died on their return journey. Amundsens initial plans had focused on the Arctic and the conquest of the North Pole by means of a drift in an icebound ship. He obtained the use of Fridtjof Nansens polar exploration ship Fram, preparations for this expedition were disrupted when, in 1909, the rival American explorers Frederick Cook and Robert E. Peary each claimed to have reached the North Pole. Amundsen made his Antarctic base, which he named Framheim, in the Bay of Whales on the Great Ice Barrier, after months of preparation, depot-laying and a false start that ended in near-disaster, he and his party set out for the pole in October 1911. In the course of their journey they discovered the Axel Heiberg Glacier, the partys mastery of the use of skis and their expertise with sledge dogs ensured rapid and relatively trouble-free travel. Other achievements of the expedition included the first exploration of King Edward VII Land, the expeditions success was widely applauded, though the story of Scotts heroic failure overshadowed its achievement in the United Kingdom. Amundsens decision to keep his plans secret until the last moment was criticised by some. Recent polar historians have more fully recognised the skill and courage of Amundsens party, Amundsen was born in Fredrikstad, Norway, in 1872, the son of a ship-owner. In 1893, he abandoned his studies at Christiania University. After several further voyages he qualified as a mate, when not at sea. In 1896, inspired by the exploits of his countryman Fridtjof Nansen, Amundsen joined the Belgian Antarctic Expedition as mate. Early in 1898 the ship trapped by pack ice in the Bellinghausen Sea. The expedition thus became, involuntarily, the first to spend a winter in Antarctic waters, a period marked by depression, near-starvation, insanity. Amundsen remained dispassionate, recording everything and using the experience as an education in all aspects of polar exploration techniques, particularly aids, clothing and diet. Belgicas voyage marked the beginning of what became known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, however, on his return to Norway in 1899, Amundsen turned his attention northwards. Having earned his masters ticket, Amundsen acquired a small sloop, Gjøa and he secured the patronage of King Oscar of Sweden and Norway, the support of Nansen, and sufficient financial backing to set out in June 1903 with a crew of six. The voyage lasted until 1906 and was successful, the Northwest Passage
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Consul (representative)
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A consul is distinguished from an ambassador, the latter being a representative from one head of state to another. In Classical Greece, some of the functions of the modern consul were fulfilled by a proxenos, unlike the modern position, this was a citizen of the host polity. The proxenos was usually a rich merchant who had ties with another city. The position of proxenos was often hereditary in a particular family, modern honorary consuls fulfil a function that is to a degree similar to that of the ancient Greek institution. Consuls were the highest magistrates of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire, the term was revived by the Republic of Genoa, which, unlike Rome, bestowed it on various state officials, not necessarily restricted to the highest. The Consolat de mar was an institution established under the reign of Peter IV of Aragon in the fourteenth century and it was primarily a judicial body, administering maritime and commercial law as Lex Mercatoria. Although the Consolat de mar was established by the Corts General of the Crown of Aragon and this distinction between consular and diplomatic functions remains to this day. Modern consuls retain limited powers to settle disputes on ships from their country. The Consulado de mercaderes was set up in 1543 in Seville as a merchant guild to control trade with Latin America, as such, it had branches in the principal cities of the Spanish colonies. The connection of consul with trade and commercial law is retained in French, in francophone countries, a juge consulaire is a non-professional judge elected by the chamber of commerce to settle commercial disputes in the first instance. Like the term embassy, the consulate may refer not only to the office of consul. The consulate may share premises with the embassy itself, a consul of the highest rank is termed a consul-general, and his or her office a consulate-general. He or she typically has one or several deputy consuls-general, consuls, vice-consuls, consulates-general need not have their offices in the capital city, but rather could have them in the most important/appropriate cities in terms of bilateral relations. In the United States, for example, most countries have a consulate-general in New York City, consuls of various ranks may have specific legal authority for certain activities, such as notarizing documents. As such, diplomatic personnel with other responsibilities may receive consular letters patent, aside from those outlined in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, there are few formal requirements outlining what a consular official must do. Nonetheless, consulates proper will be headed by consuls of various ranks, and although it is never admitted publicly, consulates, like embassies, may also gather intelligence information from the assigned country. Contrary to popular belief, although many of the staff of consulates may be career diplomats, in practice, the extension and application of consular privileges and immunities can be subject to wide discrepancies from country to country. Consulates are more numerous than diplomatic missions, such as embassies, ambassadors are posted only in a foreign nations capital
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Japanese people
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Japanese people are an ethnic group native to Japan. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of the population of their country. Worldwide, approximately 129 million people are of Japanese descent, of these, people of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries are referred to as the Japanese diaspora. The term ethnic Japanese may also be used in some contexts to refer to ethnic groups, including the Yamato, Ainu. The Japanese language is a Japonic language that in the past was treated as a language isolate, the Japanese language has a tripartite writing system using Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Domestic Japanese people use primarily Japanese for daily interaction, the adult literacy rate in Japan exceeds 99%. Japanese religion has traditionally been syncretic in nature, combining elements of Buddhism, Shinto, a polytheistic religion with no book of religious canon, is Japans native religion. Mahayana Buddhism came to Japan in the century and evolved into many different sects. Today, the largest form of Buddhism among Japanese people is the Jōdo Shinshū sect founded by Shinran, most Japanese people profess to believe in both Shinto and Buddhism. Japanese peoples religion functions mostly as a foundation for mythology, traditions, Christianity in Japan is among the nations minority religions. Just under 2%, or about 2.5 million, of Japans population are Christians, many Japanese practice Christianity in the diaspora in Brazil, which is home to the largest Japanese population outside Japan. About 60% of Japanese Brazilians are Roman Catholics, while 90% of Japanese Mexicans are Roman Catholic, certain genres of writing originated in and are often associated with Japanese society. These include the haiku, tanka, and I Novel, although modern writers generally avoid these writing styles, historically, many works have sought to capture or codify traditional Japanese cultural values and aesthetics. Twentieth-century Japanese writers recorded changes in Japanese society through their works, some of the most notable authors included Natsume Sōseki, Junichirō Tanizaki, Osamu Dazai, Yasunari Kawabata, Fumiko Enchi, Yukio Mishima, and Ryōtarō Shiba. In contemporary Japan, popular authors such as Ryū Murakami, Haruki Murakami, decorative arts in Japan date back to prehistoric times. Jōmon pottery includes examples with elaborate ornamentation, in the Yayoi period, artisans produced mirrors, spears, and ceremonial bells known as dōtaku. Later burial mounds, or kofun, preserve characteristic clay haniwa, beginning in the Nara period, painting, calligraphy, and sculpture flourished under strong Confucian and Buddhist influences from China. Among the architectural achievements of this period are the Hōryū-ji and the Yakushi-ji, after the cessation of official relations with the Tang dynasty in the ninth century, Japanese art and architecture gradually became less influenced by China
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Tour de Ski
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The Tour de Ski is a cross-country skiing event held annually since the 2006-2007 season in Central Europe, modeled on the Tour de France of cycling. Each Tour de Ski has consisted of six to nine stages, held during late December and early January in the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, the prize money for the event amount to 1,055,000 Swiss francs, shared out on both men and women. Mens and womens events are held together on the same days, the Tour is another such new event, and the idea has been reported to come from former Olympic gold medallist Vegard Ulvang. Ulvang has also brought up the idea of a tour of the Barents Region, Tour de Barents, with races in Kirkenes and Vadsø in Finnmark, jürg Capol, FIS chief executive officer for cross-country competitions, said that FIS originally wished to start the race in the Alps. However, as neither Austria or Switzerland were interested, the two races were to be held in Nové Město na Moravě in the Czech Republic. A week before the Tour was due to start, FIS announced that conditions in Nové Město were not good enough. After the first Tour, reactions among athletes were largely positive, the director of FIS cross-country committee, Vegard Ulvang, said the finish would be in the same place next year, but the way up could be changed. The next Tour was held between 28 December 2007 and 6 January 2008, in the Czech Republic and Italy, Oberstdorf in Bavaria was originally scheduled to host two races, but cancelled as the German Ski Association could only arrange a race on 2 January. The overall results are based on the time for all events, as well as bonus seconds awarded on sprint. The sprint races carry bonus seconds for the finish, which are subtracted from the overall time, in mass start competitions, intermediate points carry bonus seconds,15 to the winner,10 to number two, and 5 to number three. The same amount of seconds are awarded at the finish, in the later editions of the Tour, intermediate points has been handed out to the 10 first skiers past the intermediate point. The final stage of the race includes a climb up Alpe Cermis. This last stage is held in a format, with competitors starting with the gaps they have in the overall classification. 1 cancelled due to lack of snow2 relocated from Oberstdorf to Nové Město na Moravě due scheduling problems Official website
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Norwegian language
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Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken mainly in Norway, where it is the official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants. These Scandinavian languages, together with Faroese and Icelandic as well as extinct languages. Faroese and Icelandic are hardly mutually intelligible with Norwegian in their spoken form because continental Scandinavian has diverged from them, as established by law and governmental policy, the two official forms of written Norwegian are Bokmål and Nynorsk. The official Norwegian Language Council is responsible for regulating the two forms, and recommends the terms Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk in English. Two other written forms without official status also exist, one and it is regulated by the unofficial Norwegian Academy, which translates the name as Standard Norwegian. Nynorsk and Bokmål provide standards for how to write Norwegian, no standard of spoken Norwegian is officially sanctioned, and most Norwegians speak their own dialects in all circumstances. Thus, unlike in other countries, the use of any Norwegian dialect. Outside Eastern Norway, this variation is not used. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Danish was the written language of Norway. As a result, the development of modern written Norwegian has been subject to strong controversy related to nationalism, rural versus urban discourse, historically, Bokmål is a Norwegianised variety of Danish, while Nynorsk is a language form based on Norwegian dialects and puristic opposition to Danish. The unofficial form known as Riksmål is considered more conservative than Bokmål, Norwegians are educated in both Bokmål and Nynorsk. A2005 poll indicates that 86. 3% use primarily Bokmål as their written language,5. 5% use both Bokmål and Nynorsk, and 7. 5% use primarily Nynorsk. Thus, 13% are frequently writing Nynorsk, though the majority speak dialects that resemble Nynorsk more closely than Bokmål. Broadly speaking, Nynorsk writing is widespread in western Norway, though not in major urban areas, examples are Setesdal, the western part of Telemark county and several municipalities in Hallingdal, Valdres, and Gudbrandsdalen. It is little used elsewhere, but 30–40 years ago, it also had strongholds in rural parts of Trøndelag. Today, not only is Nynorsk the official language of four of the 19 Norwegian counties, NRK, the Norwegian broadcasting corporation, broadcasts in both Bokmål and Nynorsk, and all governmental agencies are required to support both written languages. Bokmål is used in 92% of all publications, and Nynorsk in 8%
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Cross-country skiing
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Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is practiced as a sport and recreational activity, however. Variants of cross-country skiing are adapted to a range of terrain which spans unimproved, modern cross-country skiing is similar to the original form of skiing, from which all skiing disciplines evolved, including alpine skiing, ski jumping and Telemark skiing. Skiers propel themselves either by striding forward or side-to-side in a skating motion and it is practised in regions with snow-covered landscapes, including Northern Europe, Canada, Russia and regions in the United States. Competitive cross-country skiing is one of the Nordic skiing sports, Cross-country skiing and rifle marksmanship are the two components of biathlon, ski-orienteering is a form of cross-country skiing, which includes map navigation along snow trails and tracks. The word ski comes from the Old Norse word skíð which means stick of wood, Skiing started as a technique for traveling cross-country over snow on skis, starting almost five millennia ago with beginnings in Scandinavia. It may have practised as early as 600 BCE in Daxinganling. Early historical evidence includes Procopius description of Sami people as skrithiphinoi translated as ski running samis, birkely argues that the Sami people have practiced skiing for more than 6000 years, evidenced by the very old Sami word čuoigat for skiing. Egil Skallagrimssons 950 CE saga describes King Haakon the Goods practice of sending his tax collectors out on skis, the Gulating law stated that No moose shall be disturbed by skiers on private land. Cross-country skiing evolved from a means of transportation to being a world-wide recreational activity and sport. Early skiers used one long pole or spear in addition to the skis, the first depiction of a skier with two ski poles dates to 1741. This combination has a long history among the Sami people, skis up to 280 cm have been produced in Finland, and the longest recorded ski in Norway is 373 cm. Ski warfare, the use of ski-equipped troops in war, is first recorded by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus in the 13th century and these troops were reportedly able to cover distances comparable to that of light cavalry. The garrison in Trondheim used skis at least from 1675, skis were used in military exercises in 1747. In 1799 French traveller Jacques de la Tocnaye recorded his visit to Norway in his travel diary, Norwegian immigrant Snowshoe Thompson transported mail by skiing across the Sierra Nevada between California and Nevada from 1856. In 1888 Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen and his team crossed the Greenland icecap on skis, Norwegian workers on the Buenos Aires - Valparaiso railway line introduced skiing in South America around 1890. In 1910 Roald Amundsen used skis on his South Pole Expedition, in 1902 the Norwegian consul in Kobe imported ski equipment and introduced skiing to the Japanese, motivated by the death of Japanese soldiers during a snow storm. An early record of a ski competition occurred in Tromsø,1843
