The Saint-François River is a river in the Canadian province of Quebec. The Saint-François takes its source from Lake Saint-François in Chaudière-Appalaches, southeast of Thetford Mines, it flows southwest towards Sherbrooke, where it changes it course northwest towards Drummondville, empties into the Saint Lawrence River near Pierreville. About 15 kilometres upstream of the centre of Drummondville, a meander in the river forms a shape resembling a profile drawing of a duck's head and neck, with an island marking the eye; the peninsula forming the "beak of the duck" is named accordingly, le Bec du Canard, the road running along it is Rue du Bec-du-Canard

The Burma Plate is a minor tectonic plate or microplate located in Southeast Asia, sometimes considered a part of the larger Eurasian Plate. The Andaman Islands, Nicobar Islands, northwestern Sumatra are located on the plate; this island arc separates the Andaman Sea from the main Indian Ocean to the west. To its east lies the Sunda Plate, from which it is separated along a transform boundary, running in a rough north-south line through the Andaman Sea; this boundary between the Burma and Sunda plates is a marginal seafloor spreading centre, which has led to the opening up of the Andaman Sea by "pushing out" the Andaman-Nicobar-Sumatra island arc from mainland Asia, a process which began in earnest 4 million years ago. To the west is the much larger India Plate, subducting beneath the western facet of the Burma Plate; this extensive subduction zone has formed the Sunda Trench. In models of the reconstructed tectonic history of the area, the northwards movement of the Indo-Australian Plate resulted in its substantive collision with the Eurasian continent, which began during the Eocene epoch 50–55 million years ago.

This collision with Asia began the orogenic uplift which has formed the Himalaya mountains, as well as the fracturing of the Indo-Australian plate into the modern Indian Plate, Australian Plate, Capricorn Plate. As the India Plate drifted northwards at a rapid rate of an average 16 cm/yr, it rotated in a counterclockwise direction; as a result of this movement and rotation, the convergence along the plate's eastern boundary with Eurasia was at an oblique angle. The transform forces along this subduction front started the clockwise bending of the Sunda arc. After a further series of transform faulting, the continuing subduction of the India Plate beneath the Burma Plate, backarc spreading saw the formation of the marginal basin and seafloor spreading centre which would become the Andaman Sea, a process well-underway by the mid-Pliocene. On December 26, 2004, a large portion of the boundary between the Burma Plate and the Indian Plate slipped, causing the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

This megathrust earthquake had an estimated moment magnitude of 9.1–9.3 Mw. Over 1600 km of the boundary underwent thrust faulting and shifted up to 5 meters vertically and 11 meters horizontally; this rapid rise in the sea floor over such a short time generated a massive tsunami that killed 229,800 people along the coast of the Indian Ocean. Curray, JR. "2002 Chapman Conference on Continent – Ocean Interactions within the East Asian Marginal Seas". Tectonics and History of the Andaman Sea Region. Retrieved September 8, 2005. Pdf Paul, J. Burgmann, R. Gaur, V. K. Bilham, R. Larson, K. M. Ananda, M. B. Jade, S. Mukal, M. Anupama, T. S.. Satyal, G. Kumar, D. 2001 The motion and active deformation of India. Geophys. Res. Lett. Vol. 28, No. 04, 647–651 2001

Louise of Great Britain was Queen of Denmark and Norway from 1746 until her death, as the first wife of King Frederick V. She was the youngest surviving daughter of King George II of Great Caroline of Ansbach. Princess Louise was born as the fifth daughter and youngest child of the Prince and Princess of Wales, on 7 December 1724, at Leicester House, London, she was baptised "Louisa" there on 22 December. Her godparents were her elder sister and two cousins: Princess Amelia of Great Britain, Princess Louisa Ulrika of Prussia, Frederick, Prince Royal of Prussia Frederick the Great. On 11 June 1727, when Louise was two years old, her grandfather, George I, her father ascended the throne as George II. On 30 August, as a child of the sovereign, Louise was granted use of the arms of the realm, differenced by a label argent of three points, each bearing torteaux gules. In a dynastic marriage, Louise wed Prince Frederick of Denmark and Norway on 11 December 1743 in Copenhagen. A first ceremony was conducted on 10 November 1743 in Hanover with her brother, the Duke of Cumberland, as the representative of the groom.

After this, the entourages of Louise and Frederick met at Altona, where Louise exchanged her English retinue for a Danish one, headed by her new chamberlain Carl Juel and her head lady-in-waiting Christiane Henriette Louise Juel. Louise and Frederick traveled together to Copenhagen, where they held their official entry into the capital, followed by a second ceremony with the groom present; the marriage was proposed by Great Britain. At the time of the marriage, both France and Great Britain wished to make an alliance with Denmark, Great Britain had the advantage of being able to make a marriage alliance. Frederick's father, King Christian VI, hoped the marriage would lead to British support for his or his son's claim to the throne of Sweden. On a more personal level, there were hopes that marriage would suppress the frequent drinking and debauched behavior of the Crown Prince; the couple had five children. Although the marriage was arranged, the couple got along quite well, at least during the first years, their relationship was described as happy.

Although Frederick came to feel high regard for her and always treated her with kindness, he was not in love with her and continued to have affairs after their marriage. However Frederick was comfortable with her, Louise pretended not to notice his adultery with multiple partners, notably with Else Hansen, she made herself popular in the Danish court, her father-in-law remarked that she seemed to him to be kind and agreeable. When her husband ascended the throne, on 6 August 1746, as Frederick V, Louise became Queen of Denmark and Queen of Norway. Queen Louise was popular in Denmark, the great popularity of the royal couple has been attributed to Louise. Interested in music and theatre, the royal court acquired a more easy-going tone than under her religious parents-in-law. Louise had a vivacious personality, allowing her to socialize with others. In 1747, she arranged for the Italian opera company of Pietro Mingotti, whose members included Christoph Willibald Gluck and Giuseppe Sarti, to play at the royal court theater, in 1748, the French Du Londel Troupe was invited for dramatic performances.

Her effort to speak the Danish language, including with her children, was much appreciated, as the royal Danish court spoke German. She studied the Danish language under the court priest Erik Pontoppidan, hired teachers so that her children could learn to speak their country's language, she was described as well educated and good at conversation, not beautiful but dignified and well suited to her role as queen. A Swedish diplomat stationed in Denmark described her as follows: "She has good sense and is easy with words, friendly in tone, knows how to converse on many subjects and can speak several languages, she finds pleasure in reading and music, she plays the clavichord well and teaches her daughters to sing."Queen Louise unsuccessfully opposed the dynastic marriage between her daughter Sophia Magdalena and Crown Prince of Sweden in 1751. The reason was her fear that her daughter would not be well treated by the Queen of Sweden, Louisa Ulrika of Prussia. Louisa Ulrika was known for her anti-Danish views and for being opposed to the match, it was known that she was the real ruler at the Swedish court.

Louise disliked arranged marriages because of her own marriage. While pregnant with her sixth child, Louise died due to complications from a miscarriage on 19 December 1751, a day after her 27th birthday, at Christiansborg Palace, predeceasing her husband by fourteen years, she was buried at Roskilde Cathedral. Bibliography Queen Louise at the website of the Royal Danish Collection at Rosenborg Castle

The FIS Alpine World Ski Championships are organized by the International Ski Federation. The first world championships in alpine skiing were held in 1931. During the 1930s, the event was held annually in Europe, until interrupted by the outbreak of World War II, preventing a 1940 event. An event was held in 1941, but included competitors only from nations from the Axis powers or nations not at war with them; the results were cancelled by the FIS in 1946 because of the limited number of participants, so they are not considered official. Following the war, the championships were connected with the Olympics for several decades. From 1948 through 1982, the competition was held in even-numbered years, with the Winter Olympics acting as the World Championships through 1980, a separate competition held in even-numbered non-Olympic years; the 1950 championships in the United States at Aspen were the first held outside of Europe and the first official championships separate of the Olympics since 1939.

The combined event was dropped after 1948 with the addition of the giant slalom in 1950, but returned in 1954 as a "paper" race which used the results of the three events: downhill, giant slalom, slalom. During Olympic years from 1956 through 1980, FIS World Championship medals were awarded in the combined, but not Olympic medals; the combined returned as a separately run event in 1982 with its own downhill and two-run slalom, the Super-G was added to the program in 1987. There were no World Championships in 1983 or 1984 and since 1985, they have been scheduled in odd-numbered years, independent of the Winter Olympics. A lack of snow in southern Spain in 1995 caused a postponement to the following year. * won gold medals as reserve skiers List of Olympic medalists in alpine skiing FIS-ski.com – official results for the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships

The Cook Islands are a constitutional monarchy within the Realm of New Zealand. Under the Cook Islands Constitution, the Sovereign in Right of New Zealand has been Head of State of the Cook Islands since 4 August 1965; the Sovereign is represented by the Queen's Representative. The viceregal position is held by Tom Marsters; the Queen's official title is: Elizabeth the Second, By the Grace of God, Queen of New Zealand and Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith. The heir apparent is Prince Charles, Prince of Wales. In 1965 Queen Elizabeth II became Head of State of the Cook Islands when the country obtained a position of free-association with New Zealand. Article 2 of the Cook Islands Constitution states that "Her Majesty the Queen in Right of New Zealand shall be the Head of State of the Cook Islands." The expression "in Right of New Zealand" refers directly to the constitutional concept of the "Realm of New Zealand," as described in the 1983 Letters Patent Constituting the Office of Governor-General of New Zealand, approved by the Cook Islands after consultation with New Zealand.

In clause 1, the Realm of New Zealand is defined as including New Zealand, the self-governing state of the Cook Islands, the self-governing state of Niue and the Ross Dependency. Thus, Queen Elizabeth II, by virtue of being Head of State of her entire Realm of New Zealand, as described in the Letters Patent, is Head of State of that part of her Realm of New Zealand referred to in the Letters Patent as "the self-governing state of the Cook Islands." The New Zealand - Cook Islands Joint Centenary Declaration states that: Royal succession is governed by the Royal Succession Act 2013. This legislation lays out the rules that the Monarch cannot be a Roman Catholic, must be in communion with the Church of England upon ascending the throne; the Queen's constitutional roles in the Cook Islands have been entirely delegated to the Queen's Representative. The viceregal representative was titled as High Commissioner and was appointed by the Governor-General of New Zealand on the recommendation of the Minister of the Government of New Zealand, deemed responsible for matters relating to the Cook Islands, after consultation with the Premier of the Cook Islands.

In the early 1980s, the Cook Island Constitution was amended so that the words "Queen's Representative" were substituted for the word "High Commissioner," and the words "Prime Minister" were substituted for the word "Premier." Further, the 1981 Constitution Amendment decreed that the Queen's representative was appointed directly by the Queen herself. The text states that " shall be a representative of Her Majesty the Queen in the Cook Islands, to be known as the Queen's Representative by Her Majesty the Queen..."Article 5 of the Constitution states that the Queen's Representative is to act on the advice of her Cook Islands Ministers: "The Queen's Representative in the performance of his functions as the representative of Her Majesty the Queen shall act on the advice of Cabinet, the Prime Minister, or the appropriate Minister as the case may be..."Over the Realm of New Zealand, the Letters Patent established the office of the Governor-General, provide that the Governor-General is " representative in Realm of New Zealand" who may exercise his or her powers and authorities "without prejudice to the office, powers, or authorities of any other person, or may be appointed to represent in any part of Realm of New Zealand and to exercise powers and authorities on behalf."

However, the relationship between the Governor-General of New Zealand and the Queen's Representative is quite different. Under the Cook Islands' Constitution, executive power is "vested in Her Majesty the Queen in right of New Zealand... the executive authority of the Cook Islands may be exercised on behalf of Her Majesty by the Queen's Representative either directly or through officers subordinate to him. This leaves the Governor-General with only an indirect constitutional role in the form of the defence and external affairs prerogatives, arising from the Governor-General's constitutional position in terms of the Realm as a whole. Any viceregal powers and responsibilities in the Cook Islands are vested in the Queen's Representative, leaving the Governor-General with no substantive role in relation to the territory. Royal assent and proclamation are required for all acts of Parliament. References to the monarch are commonplace in public life in the Cook Islands. There are references to the Crown in legal documents, Oaths of office taken by the Queen's Representative, Members of Parliament and Judges of the High Court, prescriptions in the Constitution require allegiance to be sworn to the reigning Sovereign as the Head of State of the Cook Islands.

Unlike in the United Kingdom, the Queen's Official Birthday is a public holiday on the first Monday in June. The Queen's portrait appears on the obverse of coins, all banknotes feature the portrait of the Queen as the watermark. However, only the $20 banknote bears her image as the main feature; the Queen undertook a royal tour of the Cook Islands between 28 January and 29 January 1974. Monarchy in New Zealand Monarchy of the United Kingdom