1.
Number Six (Battlestar Galactica)
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Number Six is a family of fictional characters from the reimagined science fiction television series, Battlestar Galactica. She is portrayed by Canadian actress and model Tricia Helfer, of the twelve known Cylon models, she is the sixth of the Significant Seven. Like the others of the Significant Seven, there are versions of her, including Caprica-Six, Shelly Godfrey, Gina Inviere, Natalie Faust, Lida. She is the model that does not use one particular human alias for all copies. The character was named after Number Six, Patrick McGoohans character from the show The Prisoner, Six is a seductive, statuesque Cylon infiltrator. She was the first example shown of a new generation of Cylons capable of adapting to human form, little else is known of her earlier years. She can, like other Cylons, retain memories which can be downloaded into another body if the body is killed. Like her counterparts, her body was designed to mimic the human body at the level, making her almost undetectable to testing procedures. Sixes and Eights are the Humanoid Cylon models shown most frequently, Sixes tend to have individualistic traits, and are considerably susceptible to the full array of human emotions. Although extremely effective and adaptive, Sixes always show certain disdain for their given chores, most versions of Six have platinum-blonde hair, including Caprica-Six, Shelly Godfrey and Sonja. Others such as Gina Inviere, Natalie Faust and Lida have honey-blonde hair and it was stated by Caprica showrunner Kevin Murphy that had the prequel series Caprica continued, it would be revealed that the Sixes default personality was modeled after that of Zoe Graystone. Since her debut in the mini-series, a leitmotif has been used in scenes featuring Tricia Helfer as Six and this simple 9-note motif was composed by Richard Gibbs. The 9/8 figure is divided unevenly into a group of 3 notes and it is almost always performed on a gamelan, and also plays over the introduction to each episode of the series. On the published series soundtrack, the melody is listed as The Sense of Six, copies of Number Six appear regularly, mostly within Cylon society. Several notable versions have had prominent roles, At the beginning of the miniseries. Pretending to be an employee of a corporation, Six seduces Baltar while helping him with his work on the Colonial Defense System. After infiltrating the mainframe, Six reveals her true nature to Baltar and that same day, the Cylons launch their multi-targeted attack and destroy most of humanity. Six uses her body to shield Baltar from a nuclear blast during the attack, saving his life, in the episode Downloaded, this Six copy is downloaded into a new body
2.
History of the European Union
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The European Union is a geo-political entity covering a large portion of the European continent. It is founded upon numerous treaties and has undergone expansions that have taken it from 6 member states to 28, both the ECSC and EEC were later incorporated into the European Union while the EAEC maintains a distinct legal identity despite sharing members and institutions. The Maastricht Treaty created the European Union with its pillars system, including foreign and this in turn led to the creation of the single European currency, the euro. The Maastricht Treaty has been amended by the treaties of Amsterdam, Nice, large areas of Europe had previously been united by empires built on force, such as the Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Frankish Empire, the First French Empire and Nazi Germany. An example of an organisation formed to promote the association of states between the wars to promote the idea of European union is the Pan-Europa movement, World War II from 1939 to 1945 saw a human and economic catastrophe which hit Europe hardest. It demonstrated the horrors of war, and also of extremism, through the Holocaust, once again, there was a desire to ensure it could never happen again, particularly with the war giving the world nuclear weapons. Most European countries failed to maintain their Great Power status leaving two rival ideologically opposed superpowers, however, the exception was the USSR, which became a superpower after World War II and maintained the status for 45 years. To ensure Germany could never threaten the peace again, its industry was partly dismantled and its main coal-producing regions were detached. With statements such as Winston Churchills 1946 call for a United States of Europe becoming louder and it gave birth to the first institutions, such as the High Authority and the Common Assembly. The first presidents of institutions were Jean Monnet and Paul-Henri Spaak respectively. The attempt to turn the Saar protectorate into a European territory was rejected by a referendum in 1955, the Saar was to have been governed by a statute supervised by a European Commissioner reporting to the Council of Ministers of the Western European Union. After failed attempts at creating defence and political communities, leaders met at the Messina Conference, the report was accepted at the Venice Conference where the decision was taken to organise an Intergovernmental Conference. The two new communities were created separately from ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly, the executives of the new communities were called Commissions, as opposed to the High Authority. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom would integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union between members. Throughout the 1960s tensions began to show with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. While the political progress of the Communities was hesitant in the 1960s, after much negotiation, and following a change in the French Presidency, Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom eventually joined the European Communities on 1 January 1973. This was the first of several enlargements which become a policy area of the Union. In 1979, the European Parliament held its first direct elections by universal suffrage,410 members were elected, who then elected the first female President of the European Parliament, Simone Veil
3.
Ideas of European unity before 1945
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The idea of European unity is a historically recent concept. It was the Greek civilisation that first used these names in their modern senses, the first proposal for peacefully unifying Europe against a common enemy emerged after the Fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453. George of Podebrady, a Hussite king of Bohemia, proposed in 1464 a union of European, Christian nations against the Turks. However, his proposal was based on the shared religious ideology. The idea of Germany and Europe being coterminous was taken to its conclusion by Adolf Hitler. Kikuchi Yoshio of Meiji University suggested that the notion of Holy Roman Empire as a political entity influenced the later structural ideas of the European Union. In 1728, Abbot Charles de Saint-Pierre proposed the creation of a European league of 18 sovereign states, with common treasury, no borders, some suggestion of a European union can be inferred from Immanuel Kants 1795 proposal for an eternal peace congress. In the 1800s, customs union under Napoleon Bonapartes Continental system was promulgated in November 1806 as an embargo of British goods in the interests of French hegemony, felix Markham notes how during a conversation on St. In the conservative reaction after Napoleons defeat in 1815, the German Confederation was established as an association of thirty-eight sovereign German states formed by the Congress of Vienna. Napoleon had swept away the Holy Roman Empire and simplified the map of Germany, in 1834, the Zollverein was formed among the states of the Confederation, to create better trade flow and reduce internal competition. An extension of this union may have been become the model for a unified Europe. The then current ideas of geopolitics and a Mitteleuropa were also influential in providing a framework for European Union in Germany. United States of Europe was also the name of the concept presented by Wojciech Jastrzębowski in About eternal peace between the nations, published 31 May 1831, the project consisted of 77 articles. The envisioned United States of Europe was to be an international rather than a superstate. Italian writer and politician Giuseppe Mazzini called for the creation of a federation of European republics in 1843 and this set the stage for perhaps the best known early proposal for peaceful unification, through cooperation and equality of membership, made by the pacifist Victor Hugo in 1847. Hugo used the term United States of Europe during a speech at the International Peace Congress, organised by Mazzini, a day will come when we shall see. The United States of America and the United States of Europe face to face, however, he was laughed out of the hall, yet returned to his idea again in 1851. Victor Hugo planted a tree in the grounds of his residence on the Island of Guernsey he was noted in saying that when this tree matured the United States of Europe would have come into being
4.
History of the European Union since 2004
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The history of the European Union since 2004 was a period of significant upheaval and reform following the 2004 enlargement of the European Union. The EU had just taken on ten new members, eight of which were much poorer than the EU average and it had just created the euro a few years before and had to expand this, and the Schengen Area to its new members. However this was overshadowed by the recession and damaging disputes over the European Constitution and its successor. Throughout this period, José Manuel Barroso was President of the European Commission, on the 10–13 June 2004, the 25 member states participated in the largest trans-national election in history. The result of the sixth Parliamentary election was a victory for the European Peoples Party-European Democrats group. It also saw the lowest voter turnout of 45. 5%, there was strong backing for Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt from Republic of Ireland, France and Germany who saw him as a convinced European and also a fighter. However the federalist was opposed by Spain the United Kingdom, Italy and Poland due to his opposition to the Iraq War. Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was also a candidate but did not wish to take up the job. Other candidates were High Representative Javier Solana and President of the Parliament Pat Cox however both were light candidates, however Barroso emerged as a leading candidate despite his support for the Iraq War and being seen as the lowest common denominator following objections to other candidates. The Parliament approved Barroso as president on 22 July 2004 by 413 votes to 215 with most of his coming from the EPP-ED group. He did however earn praise for his choice of candidates. During the hearings, members found fault in a number of Commissioners, committees questioned the suitability of Ingrida Udre, László Kovács, Neelie Kroes and Mariann Fischer-Boel. The Socialists were the most vocal critics of Barroso and his proposed Commission, the Peoples Party demanded that if Buttiglione were to go, then a Socialist commissioner must also be sacrificed for balance. Barroso eventually gave in and withdrew his proposed college of Commissioners and, Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU on 1 January 2007 with each being granted a single Commissioner, increasing the college of Commissioners to 27 members. Both new Commissioners were approved by the Parliament on 12 December 2006, meglena Kuneva was proposed by Bulgaria and was assigned the Consumer Protection portfolio, previously part of the joint Health & Consumer Protection portfolio. She was welcomed by Parliament with the Peoples Party and Socialists being impressed by her aims, Kuneva had 583 votes in favour,21 votes against and 28 votes abstentions. That nomination was replaced by Leonard Orban who was given the portfolio of Multilingualism, previously part of Education and this however was met a cool reception for being such a slim portfolio. Socialist leader Martin Schulz MEP suggested it should focus on ethnic minorities
5.
European Communities
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The European Communities, sometimes referred to as the European Community, were three international organizations that were governed by the same set of institutions. When the Communities were incorporated into the European Union in 1993, the European Coal and Steel Community ceased to exist in 2002 when its founding treaty expired. The European Community was dissolved into the European Union by the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009, euratom remained an entity distinct from the EU, but is governed by the same institutions. In 1957, the EAEC and EEC were created by the Treaties of Rome and they were to share some of the institutions of the ECSC but have separate executive structures. The ECSCs aim was to combine the coal and steel industries of its members to create a market in those resources. It was intended that this would increase prosperity and decrease the risk of these going to war through the process of European integration. The EAEC was working on nuclear energy co-operation between the members, the EEC was to create a customs union and general economic co-operation. It later led to the creation of a European single market, the ECSCs treaty had a 50-year limit and thus expired in 2002, all its activities are now absorbed into the European Community. The EAEC had no limit and thus continues to exist. As the EAEC has a low profile, and the profile of the European Community is dwarfed by that of the EU, the Commission and Council of the EEC were to take over the responsibilities of its counterparts in the other organisations. The Maastricht Treaty built upon the Single European Act and the Solemn Declaration on European Union in the creation of the European Union, the treaty was signed on 7 February 1992 and came into force on 1 November 1993. The Union superseded and absorbed the European Communities as one of its three pillars, the first Commission President following the creation of the EU was Jacques Delors, who briefly continued his previous EEC tenure before handing over to Jacques Santer in 1994. Only the first pillar followed the principles of supranationalism, the pillar structure of the EU allowed the areas of European co-operation to be increased without leaders handing a large amount of power to supranational institutions. The pillar system segregated the EU, what were formerly the competencies of the EEC fell within the European Community pillar. Justice and Home Affairs was introduced as a new pillar while European Political Cooperation became the second pillar, the Community institutions became the institutions of the EU but the roles of the institutions between the pillars are different. The Commission, Parliament and Court of Justice are largely cut out of activities in the second and third pillars, with the Council dominating proceedings. This is reflected in the names of the institutions, the Council is formally the Council of the European Union while the Commission is formally the Commission of the European Communities. This allowed the new areas to be based on rather than majority voting
Belgium
France
Germany
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands