February is the second month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, with 28 days in common years and 29 days in leap years, with the quadrennial 29th day being called the leap day. It is the first of five months to have fewer than 31 days and the only one to have fewer than 30 days; the other seven months have 31 days. February starts on the same day of the week as March and November in common years and August in leap years, it begins on the same day of the week as June of the previous year. In 2020, February had 29 days. February is the last month of meteorological winter in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, February is the last month of summer. February is pronounced either as FEB-roo-err-ee. Many people drop the first "r", replacing it with, as if it were spelled "Febuary"; this comes about by analogy with "January", as well as by a dissimilation effect whereby having two "r"s close to each other causes one to change for ease of pronunciation. The Roman month Februarius was named after the Latin term februum, which means purification, via the purification ritual Februa held on February 15 in the old lunar Roman calendar.

January and February were the last two months to be added to the Roman calendar, since the Romans considered winter a monthless period. They were added by Numa Pompilius about 713 BC. February remained the last month of the calendar year until the time of the decemvirs, when it became the second month. At certain times February was truncated to 23 or 24 days, a 27-day intercalary month, was inserted after February to realign the year with the seasons. February observances in Ancient Rome included Amburbium, Februa, Parentalia, Feralia, Terminalia and Agonium Martiale; these days do not correspond to the modern Gregorian calendar. Under the reforms that instituted the Julian calendar, Intercalaris was abolished, leap years occurred every fourth year, in leap years February gained a 29th day. Thereafter, it remained the second month of the calendar year, meaning the order that months are displayed within a year-at-a-glance calendar. During the Middle Ages, when the numbered Anno Domini year began on March 25 or December 25, the second month was February whenever all twelve months were displayed in order.

The Gregorian calendar reforms made slight changes to the system for determining which years were leap years, but contained a 29-day February. Historical names for February include the Old English terms Solmonath and Kale-monath as well as Charlemagne's designation Hornung. In Finnish, the month is called helmikuu, meaning "month of the pearl". In Polish and Ukrainian the month is called luty or лютий, meaning the month of ice or hard frost. In Macedonian the month is sechko, meaning month of cutting. In Czech, it is called meaning month of submerging. In Slovene, February is traditionally called svečan, related to Candlemas; this name originates from sičan, written as svičan in the New Carniolan Almanac from 1775 and changed to its final form by Franc Metelko in his New Almanac from 1824. The name was spelled sečan, meaning "the month of cutting down of trees". In 1848, a proposal was put forward in Kmetijske in rokodelske novice by the Slovene Society of Ljubljana to call this month talnik, but it did not stick.

The idea was proposed by Blaž Potočnik. Another name of February in Slovene was vesnar, after the mythological character Vesna. Having only 28 days in common years, February is the only month of the year that can pass without a single full moon. Using Coordinated Universal Time as the basis for determining the date and time of a full moon, this last happened in 2018 and will next happen in 2037; the same is true regarding a new moon: again using Coordinated Universal Time as the basis, this last happened in 2014 and will next happen in 2033. February is the only month of the calendar that, once every six years and twice every 11 years consecutively, either back into the past or forward into the future, has four full 7-day weeks. In countries that start their week on a Monday, it occurs as part of a common year starting on Friday, in which February 1st is a Monday and the 28th is a Sunday. In countries that start their week on a Sunday, it occurs in a common year starting on Thursday, with the next occurrence in 2026, previous occurrences in 1987, 1998, 2009 and 2015.

The pattern is broken by a skipped leap year, but no leap year has been skipped since 1900 and no others will be skipped until 2100. February meteor showers include the Alpha Centaurids, the Beta Leonids known as the March Virginids, the Delta Cancrids, the Omicron Centaurids, Theta Centaurids, Eta Virginids, Pi Virginids (F

The white-necked jacobin is a large and attractive hummingbird that ranges from Mexico, south to Peru and south Brazil. It is found on Tobago and in Trinidad Other common names are great jacobin and collared hummingbird; the white-necked jacobin is a widespread inhabitant of forest being seen at a high perch or just above the canopy. It is less common at lower levels, except near hummingbird feeders; the 12 cm long male white-necked jacobin is unmistakable with its white belly and tail, a white band on the nape and a dark blue hood. Immature males have less white in a conspicuous rufous patch in the malar region. Females are variable, may resemble adult or immature males, have green upperparts, white belly, white-scaled green or blue throat, white-scaled dark blue crissum, or be intermediate between the aforementioned plumages, though retain the white-scaled dark blue crissum. Female identification can be confusing, but the pattern on the crissum is distinctive and not shared by superficially similar species.

These birds visit flowers of tall trees and epiphytes for nectar, hawk for insects. Birds of Venezuela by Hilty, ISBN 0-7136-6418-5 ffrench, Richard. A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago. Comstock Publishing. ISBN 0-8014-9792-2. A guide to the birds of Costa Rica by Stiles and Skutch ISBN 0-8014-9600-4 Media related to Florisuga mellivora at Wikimedia Commons Data related to Florisuga mellivora at Wikispecies White-necked Jacobin videos on the Internet Bird Collection Picture of White-necked Jacobin Stamps with RangeMap White-necked Jacobin photo gallery VIREO

Ortogh ortoq was a merchant partnered with the state and individual aristocrats in the Mongol Empire. The term derived from the Turkic word ortak, meaning "partner." The institution allowed merchants to pool their resources and thereby reduce the risk of failed caravans, allowing for the expansion of long-distance trade and a substantial reduction in its costs. The institution of ortogh began when Chinggis Khan had his family members and military commanders select Muslims Uyghurs or West Turkistanis, to entrust with gold and silver ingots for trade purposes; the merchants were offered high commissions and permitted to use official relay stations as long as they did not interfere with military actions. The Mongols offered low-interest loans to merchants if they belonged to an ortogh. In 1268, Kublai Khan creates the General Administration for the Supervision of Ortogh to lend them money at low interest; the Mongols adopted and developed the concepts of liability in relation to investments and loans in Mongol–ortoq partnerships, promoting trade and investment to facilitate the commercial integration of the Mongol Empire.

The contractual features of a Mongol-ortoq partnership resembled that of qirad and commenda arrangements, Mongol investors used metal coins, paper money and silver ingots and tradable goods for partnership investments and financed money-lending and trade activities. Moreover, Mongol elites formed trade partnerships with merchants from Eastern and Western Asia, Europe, including Marco Polo’s family. Ortogh merchants had a low reputation among Chinese for their special treatment and their moneylending at high interest rates. Wang Yun was critical in particular the right to bear arms. By the Ming dynasty, the word ortogh no longer had a special meaning and meant merchant

A population decline in humans is a reduction in a human population caused by events such as long-term demographic trends, as in sub-replacement fertility, for example as a result of economic recession, urban decay, rural flight, food resource decline or high death rates due to violence, disease, or other catastrophes. Depopulation in humans can be beneficial for a region, allocating more resources with less or no competition for the new population. In addition to exempting the disadvantages of overpopulation, such as increased traffic, real estate prices, environmental destruction, etc. Per-capita wealth may increase in depopulation scenarios, in addition to improvement of environmental quality-of-life indicators such as improved air and water quality, return of native species and mangroves, reduction of carbon emissions, etc; the accompanying benefits of depopulation have been termed shrink and prosper, with benefits being similar to the post-Civil War Gilded Age, post-World War I economic boom, the post-World War II economic boom.

A reduction over time in a region's population can be caused by several factors including sub-replacement fertility, heavy emigration, disease and war. History is replete with examples of large-scale depopulations. Many wars, for example, have been accompanied by significant depopulations. Before the 20th century, population decline was due to disease, epidemic or emigration; the Black Death in Europe, the arrival of Old World diseases to the Americas, the tsetse fly invasion of the Waterberg Massif in South Africa, the Great Irish Famine all caused sizable population declines. In modern times, the AIDS epidemic caused declines in the population of some African countries. Less population declines are caused by genocide or mass execution. Sometimes the term underpopulation is applied to a specific economic system. Does not refer to carrying capacity, is not a term in opposition to overpopulation, which deals with the total possible population can be sustained by available food, water and other infrastructure.

"Underpopulation" is defined as a state in which a country's population has declined too much to support its current economic system. Thus the term has nothing to do with the biological aspects of carrying capacity, but is an economic employed to imply that the transfer payment schemes of some developed countries might fail once the population declines to a certain point. An example would be if retirees were supported through a social security system which does not invest savings, a large emigration movement occurred. In this case, the younger generation may not be able to support the older generations. A long-term decline in birth rates has a positive effect on the labour market due a decreasing number of job applicants. A phenomenon of a declining youth unemployment was observed in Germany in 2010 and 2011. From population decline the competition for resources within the population is reduced. Population decline can rise the income per capita. Additionally, the life quality increases due to lower motorised traffic, less environmental destruction, reduced carbon and nitrogen emissions, reduced pollution and better air and water quality due to industries operating for fewer hours and increased carbon sinks.

The human carrying capacity of the Earth is estimated to 500 million according to the National Strategy for a Sustainable America, other authors estimate 1 to 12 billion. According to these studies, the human carrying capacity is exceeded or would be exceeded by 2100, therefore a global population decline would counteract the negative effects of human overpopulation. From pre-history to the beginning of the Early Modern Period, world population grew slowly, around 0.04% per year. During that period, population growth was governed by conditions now labeled the “Malthusian Trap”. After 1700, driven by increases in human productivity produced by the Industrial Revolution, population growth accelerated to around 0.6% per year, a rate, over ten times the rate of population growth of the previous 12,000 years. This rapid increase in global population caused Malthus and others to raise the first concerns about “overpopulation”. After World War I birth rates in the United States and many European countries fell below replacement level.

This prompted concern about population decline. The recovery of the birth rate in most western countries around 1940 that produced the “baby boom”, with growth rates in the 1.0 – 1.5% range, which peaked in 1962 at 2.1% per year, temporarily dispelled prior concerns about population decline, the world was once again fearful of overpopulation. But, after 1962 the global population growth rate started a long decline and today is estimated to be about 1.1%, half of its peak in 1962. Although still growing, global population is predicted to level out around the end of the 21st century, some sources predict the start of a decline before then; the principle cause of this phenomenon is the abrupt decline in the global total fertility rate, from 5.0 in 1960 to 2.5 in 2016. The decline in the total fertility rate has occurred in every region of the world and has brought renewed concern for population decline; the era of rapid global population increase, concomitant concern about a population explosion, has been a relative short one compared with the span of human history.

It began at the beginning of the industrial revolution and appears to be now drawing to a close in the Western world. Statistical data th

Robert Carlton Breer was an American experimental filmmaker and sculptor."A founding member of the American avant-garde," Breer was best known for his films, which combine abstract and representational painting, hand-drawn rotoscoping, original 16mm and 8mm film footage and other materials. His aesthetic philosophy and technique were influenced by an earlier generation of abstract filmmakers that included Hans Richter, Viking Eggeling, Walter Ruttmann, Fernand Léger, whose work he discovered while living in Europe. Breer was influenced by the concept of Neo-plasticism as described by Piet Mondrian and Vasarely. After experimenting with cartoon animation as a child, he started making his first abstract experimental films while living in Paris from 1949 to 1959, a period during which he showed paintings and kinetic sculptures at galleries such as the renowned Galerie Denise René. Breer explained some of the reasons behind his move from painting to filmmaking in a 1976 interview: This was 1950 or'51...

I was having trouble with a concept, a rigid notion about painting that I was interested in, that I was involved with, and, the school of Mondrian. The notion that everything had to be put in its place and kept there, it seemed to me overly rigid since I could, at least once a week, arrive at a new'absolute.' I had a feeling. So that's. Breer taught at Cooper Union in New York from 1971 to 2001. Breer died on August 2011 at his home in Tucson. Scholarly publications on Breer's work and interviews with the artist can be found in Robert Breer, A Critical Cinema 2: Interviews with Independent Filmmakers by Scott MacDonald, An Introduction to the American Underground Film by Sheldon Renan, Animation in the Cinema by Ralph Stephenson, Film Culture magazine. Breer won the 1987 Maya Deren Independent Film and Video Artists' Award, presented by the American Film Institute, his film "Eyewash" was included in Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film 1947-1986. The following films were preserved by Anthology Film Archives.

Form Phases I Form Phases II Form Phases III Form Phases IV Un Miracle Recreation Motion Pictures No. 1 Jamestown Baloos A Man and His Dog Out for Air Le Mouvement Eyewash – both versions Blazes Breathing Fist Fight 66 69 70 77 Fuji Swiss Army Knife with Rats and Pigeons Bang! Uroskie, Andrew V. "Visual Music After Cage: Robert Breer, Expanded Cinema and Stockhausen's Originals". Organised Sound: An International Journal of Music Technology 17, no. 2: 163–69. Performing A Traumatic Effect: The Films of Robert Breer

Alexandre Comisetti is a former Swiss footballer. He is the manager of FC Echallens Région, he played for several clubs, including Lausanne Sports, Yverdon-Sport FC, Grasshoppers Zürich, AJ Auxerre, Le Mans UC72 and Servette Geneva. He played for Switzerland national football team and was a participant at the 1996 UEFA European Championship. After retiring, Comisetti worked with the youth players at FC Lausanne-Sport as a kind of coordinator or advisor, he worked as a consultant for Radio Télévision Suisse. Everything less started on the occasion of a Swiss-Japan, played in Austria. Alexandre Comisetti was on the set, he was so convincing that someone asked him if he was interested in being the consultant for the Swiss team matches. From 2010, Comisetti was the manager of FC Lausanne-Sport's reserve team, better known as Team Vaud U21. From 22 October 2013 to 6 November, he was caretaker manager for the first team, he left the club at the end of the 2013/14 season. In April 2017 it was announced, that Comisetti would be the manager of his former club FC Echallens Région from the 2017/18 season.

Alexandre Comisetti at WorldFootball.net Alexandre Comisetti – French league stats at LFP