1.
Kingdom of Romania
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The Kingdom of Romania was a constitutional monarchy which existed between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania. As such, it is distinct from the Romanian Old Kingdom. From 1859 to 1877, Romania evolved from a union of two vassal principalities under a single prince to a full-fledged independent kingdom with a Hohenzollern monarchy. During 1918-20, at the end of World War I, Transylvania, Eastern Moldavia, in 1947 King Michael was compelled to abdicate and a socialist republic ruled by the Romanian Communist Party replaced the monarchy. The 1859 ascendancy of Alexandru Ioan Cuza as prince of both Moldavia and Wallachia under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire united an identifiably Romanian nation under a single ruler. On 5 February 1862 the two principalities were united to form the Principality of Romania, with Bucharest as its capital. On 23 February 1866 a so-called Monstrous coalition, composed of Conservatives and radical Liberals, the German prince Charles of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was appointed as Prince of Romania, in a move to assure German backing to unity and future independence. He immediately adopted the Romanian spelling of his name, Carol, on 15 March 1881, as an assertion of full sovereignty, the Romanian parliament raised the country to the status of a kingdom, and Carol was crowned as king on 10 May. Abstaining from the Initial Balkan War against the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Romania entered the Second Balkan War in June 1913 against the Tsardom of Bulgaria,330,000 Romanian troops moved across the Danube and into Bulgaria. One army occupied Southern Dobrudja and another moved into northern Bulgaria to threaten Sofia, Romania thus acquired the ethnically-mixed territory of Southern Dobrudja, which it had desired for years. In 1916 Romania entered World War I on the Entente side, the term came into use after World War I, when the Old Kingdom was opposed to Greater Romania, which included Transylvania, Banat, Bessarabia, and Bukovina. Nowadays, the term mainly has a historical relevance, and is used as a common term for all regions in Romania included in both the Old Kingdom and present-day borders. Romania delayed in entering World War I, but ultimately declared war on the Central Powers in 1916, War with the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919 resulted in the occupation of Budapest by Romanian troops and the end of Béla Kuns Bolshevik regime. At the Paris Peace Conference, Romania received territories of Transylvania, part of Banat, Bessarabia, thus, Romania in 1920 was more than twice the size it had been in 1914. Although the country was satisfied and had no territorial claims, it aroused the enmity of Bulgaria, and especially Hungary. Greater Romania now encompassed a significant minority population, especially of Hungarians, by contrast, the prewar Romanian state had only one real minority, Jews, but nonetheless anti-Semitism was widespread. Transylvania had significant Hungarian and German population, and with a contemptuous attitude towards Romanians. Both groups were excluded from politics as the postwar Romanian regime passed an edict stating that all personnel employed by the state had to speak Romanian
2.
Romania
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Romania is a sovereign state located in Southeastern Europe. It borders the Black Sea, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia and it has an area of 238,391 square kilometres and a temperate-continental climate. With over 19 million inhabitants, the country is the member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city, Bucharest, is the sixth-largest city in the EU, the River Danube, Europes second-longest river, rises in Germany and flows in a general southeast direction for 2,857 km, coursing through ten countries before emptying into Romanias Danube Delta. The Carpathian Mountains, which cross Romania from the north to the southwest are marked by one of their tallest peaks, Moldoveanu, modern Romania was formed in 1859 through a personal union of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877, at the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the sovereign Kingdom of Romania. Romania lost several territories, of which Northern Transylvania was regained after the war, following the war, Romania became a socialist republic and member of the Warsaw Pact. After the 1989 Revolution, Romania began a transition back towards democracy and it has been a member of NATO since 2004, and part of the European Union since 2007. A strong majority of the population identify themselves as Eastern Orthodox Christians and are speakers of Romanian. The cultural history of Romania is often referred to when dealing with artists, musicians, inventors. For similar reasons, Romania has been the subject of notable tourist attractions, Romania derives from the Latin romanus, meaning citizen of Rome. The first known use of the appellation was attested in the 16th century by Italian humanists travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia, after the abolition of serfdom in 1746, the word rumân gradually fell out of use and the spelling stabilised to the form român. Tudor Vladimirescu, a leader of the early 19th century. The use of the name Romania to refer to the homeland of all Romanians—its modern-day meaning—was first documented in the early 19th century. The name has been officially in use since 11 December 1861, in English, the name of the country was formerly spelt Rumania or Roumania. Romania became the predominant spelling around 1975, Romania is also the official English-language spelling used by the Romanian government. The Neolithic-Age Cucuteni area in northeastern Romania was the region of the earliest European civilization. Evidence from this and other sites indicates that the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture extracted salt from salt-laden spring water through the process of briquetage
3.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
4.
Dada
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Dada or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centers in Zürich, Switzerland at the Cabaret Voltaire, in New York, and after 1920, in Paris. The art of the movement spanned visual, literary, and sound media, including collage, sound poetry, cut-up writing, Dadaist artists expressed their discontent with violence, war, and nationalism, and maintained political affinities with the radical left. Others note that it suggests the first words of a child, evoking a childishness, still others speculate that the word might have been chosen to evoke a similar meaning in any language, reflecting the movements internationalism. The roots of Dada lay in pre-war avant-garde, the term anti-art, a precursor to Dada, was coined by Marcel Duchamp around 1913 to characterize works which challenge accepted definitions of art. Cubism and the development of collage and abstract art would inform the movements detachment from the constraints of reality, the work of French poets, Italian Futurists and the German Expressionists would influence Dadas rejection of the tight correlation between words and meaning. Works such as Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry, and the ballet Parade by Erik Satie would also be characterized as proto-Dadaist works, the Dada movements principles were first collected in Hugo Balls Dada Manifesto in 1916. The movement influenced later styles like the avant-garde and downtown music movements, Dada was an informal international movement, with participants in Europe and North America. The beginnings of Dada correspond to the outbreak of World War I, avant-garde circles outside France knew of pre-war Parisian developments. Futurism developed in response to the work of various artists, many Dadaists believed that the reason and logic of bourgeois capitalist society had led people into war. They expressed their rejection of that ideology in artistic expression that appeared to reject logic and embrace chaos, for example, George Grosz later recalled that his Dadaist art was intended as a protest against this world of mutual destruction. According to Hans Richter Dada was not art, it was anti-art, Dada represented the opposite of everything which art stood for. Where art was concerned with aesthetics, Dada ignored aesthetics. If art was to appeal to sensibilities, Dada was intended to offend, as Hugo Ball expressed it, For us, art is not an end in itself. But it is an opportunity for the perception and criticism of the times we live in. A reviewer from the American Art News stated at the time that Dada philosophy is the sickest, most paralyzing and most destructive thing that has ever originated from the brain of man. Art historians have described Dada as being, in large part, a systematic work of destruction and demoralization. In the end it became nothing but an act of sacrilege, to quote Dona Budds The Language of Art Knowledge, Dada was born out of negative reaction to the horrors of the First World War. This international movement was begun by a group of artists and poets associated with the Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich, Dada rejected reason and logic, prizing nonsense, irrationality and intuition
5.
Surrealism
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Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks and writings. The aim was to resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream, leader André Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was, above all, a revolutionary movement. Surrealism developed out of the Dada activities during World War I, the word surrealist was coined by Guillaume Apollinaire and first appeared in the preface to his play Les Mamelles de Tirésias, which was written in 1903 and first performed in 1917. The Dadaists protested with anti-art gatherings, performances, writings and art works, after the war, when they returned to Paris, the Dada activities continued. Meeting the young writer Jacques Vaché, Breton felt that Vaché was the son of writer. He admired the young writers anti-social attitude and disdain for established artistic tradition, later Breton wrote, In literature, I was successively taken with Rimbaud, with Jarry, with Apollinaire, with Nouveau, with Lautréamont, but it is Jacques Vaché to whom I owe the most. Back in Paris, Breton joined in Dada activities and started the literary journal Littérature along with Louis Aragon and they began experimenting with automatic writing—spontaneously writing without censoring their thoughts—and published the writings, as well as accounts of dreams, in the magazine. Breton and Soupault delved deeper into automatism and wrote The Magnetic Fields, continuing to write, they came to believe that automatism was a better tactic for societal change than the Dada form of attack on prevailing values. They also looked to the Marxist dialectic and the work of such theorists as Walter Benjamin, freuds work with free association, dream analysis, and the unconscious was of utmost importance to the Surrealists in developing methods to liberate imagination. They embraced idiosyncrasy, while rejecting the idea of an underlying madness, as Salvador Dalí later proclaimed, There is only one difference between a madman and me. Beside the use of analysis, they emphasized that one could combine inside the same frame, elements not normally found together to produce illogical. The more the relationship between the two juxtaposed realities is distant and true, the stronger the image will be−the greater its emotional power, the group aimed to revolutionize human experience, in its personal, cultural, social, and political aspects. They wanted to people from false rationality, and restrictive customs. Breton proclaimed that the aim of Surrealism was long live the social revolution. To this goal, at various times Surrealists aligned with communism and anarchism, in 1924 two Surrealist factions declared their philosophy in two separate Surrealist Manifestos. That same year the Bureau of Surrealist Research was established, leading up to 1924, two rival surrealist groups had formed. Each group claimed to be successors of a revolution launched by Guillaume Apollinaire, the other group, led by Breton, included Louis Aragon, Robert Desnos, Paul Éluard, Jacques Baron, Jacques-André Boiffard, Jean Carrive, René Crevel and Georges Malkine, among others. Goll and Breton clashed openly, at one point literally fighting, at the Comédie des Champs-Élysées, in the end, Breton won the battle through tactical and numerical superiority
6.
History of the Jews in Romania
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The history of the Jews in Romania concerns the Jews both of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is present-day Romanian territory. Minimal until the 18th century, the size of the Jewish population increased after around 1850, the latter, coupled with successive waves of aliyah, has accounted for a dramatic decrease in the overall size of Romanias present-day Jewish community. Today, the majority of Romanian Jews live in Israel, while modern-day Romania continues to host a modest Jewish population, in the 2011 census,3,271 declared to be Jewish. Jewish communities existed in Romanian territory in the 2nd century AD, during the reign of Peter the Lame the Jews of Moldavia, mainly traders from Poland who were competing with locals, were taxed and ultimately expelled. The authorities decided in 1650 and 1741 required Jews to wear clothing evidencing their status, the first blood accusation in Moldavia was made in 1710, when the Jews of Târgu Neamț were charged with having killed a Christian child for ritual purposes. An anti-Jewish riot occurred in Bucharest in the 1760s, during the Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774 the Jews in the Danubian Principalities had to endure great hardships. Massacres and pillages were perpetrated in almost every town and village in the country, during the Greek War of Independence, which signalled the Wallachian uprising of 1821, Jews were victims of pogroms and persecutions. In the 1860s, there was another riot motivated by blood libel accusations, antisemitism was officially enforced under the premierships of Ion Brătianu. The emigration of Romanian Jews on a larger scale commenced soon after 1878, by 1900 there were 250,000 Romanian Jews,3. 3% of the population,14. 6% of the city dwellers, 32% of the Moldavian urban population and 42% of Iași. Between the establishment of the National Legionary State and 1942,80 anti-Jewish regulations were passed, after Romania entered the war at the start of Operation Barbarossa atrocities against the Jews became common, starting with the Iași pogrom. The existence of Jews before the Roman conquest of Dacia is not supported by current historiography, decebal calling Jews after the destruction of the Second Temple has been proved as to be only a legend. The earliest Jewish presence in what would become Moldavia was recorded in Cetatea Albă, in Wallachia, they were first attested in the 1550s, living in Bucharest. During the second half of the 14th century, the territory of Romania became an important place of refuge for Jews expelled from the Kingdom of Hungary. In Transylvania, Hungarian Jews were recorded in Saxon citadels around 1492, Prince Roman I exempted the Jews from military service, in exchange for a tax of 3 löwenthaler per person. Also in Moldavia, Stephen the Great treated Jews with consideration, isaac ben Benjamin Shor of Iași was appointed stolnic, being subsequently advanced to the rank of logofăt, he continued to hold this office under Bogdan the Blind, the son and successor of Stephen. Although they took an important part in Ottoman government and formed a part of a community of foreign creditors and traders. During the first short reign of Peter the Lame the Jews of Moldavia, mainly traders from Poland who were competing with locals, were taxed and ultimately expelled. In Wallachia, Prince Alexandru II Mircea engaged as his secretary and counselor Isaiah ben Joseph
7.
Avant-garde
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The avant-garde are people or works that are experimental, radical, or unorthodox, with respect to art, culture, and society. It may be characterized by nontraditional, aesthetic innovation and initial unacceptability, the avant-garde pushes the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm or the status quo, primarily in the cultural realm. The avant-garde is considered by some to be a hallmark of modernism, the avant-garde also promotes radical social reforms. Several writers have attempted, with limited success, to map the parameters of avant-garde activity, the Italian essayist Renato Poggioli provides one of the best-known analyses of vanguardism as a cultural phenomenon in his 1962 book Teoria dellarte davanguardia. Other authors have attempted both to clarify and to extend Poggiolis study, bürgers essay also greatly influenced the work of contemporary American art-historians such as the German Benjamin H. D. Buchloh. Buchloh, in the collection of essays Neo-avantgarde and Culture Industry critically argues for an approach to these positions. Subsequent criticism theorized the limitations of these approaches, noting their circumscribed areas of analysis, including Eurocentric, chauvinist, and genre-specific definitions. The concept of avant-garde refers primarily to artists, writers, composers and thinkers whose work is opposed to cultural values. For Greenberg, these forms were therefore kitsch, phony, faked or mechanical culture, for instance, during the 1930s the advertising industry was quick to take visual mannerisms from surrealism, but this does not mean that 1930s advertising photographs are truly surreal. In this way the autonomous artistic merit so dear to the vanguardist was abandoned and sales became the measure. It has become common to describe successful rock musicians and celebrated film-makers as avant-garde, nevertheless, an incisive critique of vanguardism as against the views of mainstream society was offered by the New York critic Harold Rosenberg in the late 1960s. Since then it has been flanked by what he called avant-garde ghosts to the one side, and this has seen culture become, in his words, a profession one of whose aspects is the pretense of overthrowing it. Avant-garde in music can refer to any form of working within traditional structures while seeking to breach boundaries in some manner. The term is used loosely to describe the work of any musicians who radically depart from tradition altogether, although most avant-garde composers have been men, this is not exclusively the case. Women avant-gardists include Pauline Oliveros, Diamanda Galás, Meredith Monk, there are movements in theatre history that are characterized by their contributions to the avant-garde traditions in both the United States and Europe. Among these are Fluxus, Happenings, and Neo-Dada, Avant-garde – Wikipedia book Barron, Stephanie, and Maurice Tuchman. The Avant-garde in Russia, 1910–1930, New Perspectives, Los Angeles County Museum of Art Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art ISBN 0-87587-095-3, Cambridge, MA, ISBN 0-671-20422-X Berg, Hubert van den, and Walter Fähnders
8.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
9.
King Michael's Coup
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King Michaels Coup was a coup détat led by King Michael I of Romania during World War II on 23 August 1944. The king removed the government of Ion Antonescu, which had aligned Romania with Nazi Germany, the first meeting between King Michaels representatives with the Communists was during the night of 13–14 June 1944 in a secret house of the communists, at 103 Calea Moșilor. The Communist Party thought that this plan was naïve and dangerous, as it would have alerted the Gestapo, after this, a coalition government of the National Democratic Bloc would take power. This proposal was accepted by both the representatives and the Kings advisers, who then convinced King Michael that it was the best solution. On 23 August 1944 King Michael joined with pro-Allied opposition politicians, Michael, who was initially considered to be not much more than a figurehead, was able to successfully depose dictator Ion Antonescu. The Romanian First Army, the Romanian Second Army, the remnants of the Romanian Third Army, the king then offered to put Romanias battered armies on the side of the Allies. The coup sped the Red Armys advance into Romania and it is estimated that the coup shortened the war by as much as six months. The complexities of negotiations between the Soviet Union and Britain postponed formal Allied recognition of the de facto change of orientation for three weeks, until 12 September, during this time Soviet troops started moving into Romania, taking approximately 140,000 Romanian prisoners of war. About 130,000 Romanian POWs were transported to the Soviet Union, the armistice was signed on 12 September 1944, on Soviet terms and effectively amounted to a capitulation to the Soviets. The Soviet Union was offered a 90% share of influence in Romania, the Annex to Article 18, specified that The Rumanian Government and their organs shall fulfill all instructions of the Allied Control Commission arising out of the Armistice Agreement. It also made clear that the Allied Control Commission would have its seat in Bucharest, in line with Article 14 of the Armistice Agreement two Romanian Peoples Tribunals were set up to try suspected war criminals. The Romanian Army ended the war fighting alongside the Soviets against Germany and they fought in Transylvania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. In May 1945 the Romanian First and Fourth Armies took part in the Prague Offensive, the Romanians suffered a total of 169,822 casualties fighting on the Allied side. He was later returned to Romania, where he was tried and executed in 1946 and he was also awarded the highest degree of the Legion of Merit by President Harry S. Truman a year later. Nevertheless, he functioned as more than a figurehead under the communist régime and was finally forced to abdicate. Michael remained in exile until after the Romanian Revolution of 1989 and was allowed to return in 1992
10.
Allies of World War II
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The Allies of World War II, called the United Nations from the 1 January 1942 declaration, were the countries that together opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Allies promoted the alliance as seeking to stop German, Japanese, at the start of the war on 1 September 1939, the Allies consisted of France, Poland and the United Kingdom, and dependent states, such as the British India. Within days they were joined by the independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Poland was a minor factor after its defeat in 1939, France was a minor factor after its defeat in 1940. China had already been into a war with Japan since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937. The alliance was formalised by the Declaration by United Nations, from 1 January 1942, however, the name United Nations was rarely used to describe the Allies during the war. The leaders of the Big Three – the UK, the Soviet Union, in 1945, the Allied nations became the basis of the United Nations. The origins of the Allied powers stem from the Allies of World War I, Germany resented signing Treaty of Versailles. The new Weimar republics legitimacy became shaken, by the early 1930s, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler became the dominant revanchist movement in Germany and Hitler and the Nazis gained power in 1933. The Nazi regime demanded the cancellation of the Treaty of Versailles and made claims to German-populated Austria. The likelihood of war was high, and the question was whether it could be avoided through strategies such as appeasement, in Asia, when Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, the League of Nations condemned it for aggression against China. Japan responded by leaving the League of Nations in March 1933, after four quiet years, the Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937 with Japanese forces invading China. The League of Nations condemned Japans actions and initiated sanctions on Japan, the United States, in particular, was angered at Japan and sought to support China. In March 1939, Germany took over Czechoslovakia, violating the Munich Agreement signed six months before, Britain and France decided that Hitler had no intention to uphold diplomatic agreements and responded by preparing for war. On 31 March 1939, Britain formed the Anglo-Polish military alliance in an effort to avert a German attack on the country, also, the French had a long-standing alliance with Poland since 1921. The Soviet Union sought an alliance with the powers. The agreement secretly divided the independent nations of eastern Europe between the two powers and assured adequate oil supplies for the German war machine, on 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. Then, on 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, a Polish government-in-exile was set up and it continued to be one of the Allies, a model followed by other occupied countries. After a quiet winter, Germany in April 1940 invaded and quickly defeated Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Britain and its Empire stood alone against Hitler and Mussolini
11.
Romania in World War II
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Following the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, the Kingdom of Romania under King Carol II officially adopted a position of neutrality. However, the changing situation in Europe during 1940, as well as domestic political upheaval. Fascist political forces such as the Iron Guard rose in popularity and power, urging an alliance with Nazi Germany and its allies. In summer 1940, a series of disputes were diplomatically resolved unfavorably to Romania. The new regime firmly set the country on a course towards the Axis camp, Romanian forces played a large role during the fighting in Ukraine, Bessarabia, Stalingrad, and elsewhere. Romanian troops were responsible for the persecution and massacre of up to 260,000 Jews on Romanian-controlled territories, after the tide of war turned against the Axis, Romania was bombed by the Allies from 1943 onwards and invaded by advancing Soviet armies in 1944. Despite this late association with the side, Greater Romania was largely dismantled, losing territory to Bulgaria and the Soviet Union. Approximately 370,000 Romanian soldiers died during the war, most of them in Soviet captivity and this led to the achievement of the long-standing nationalist goal of creating a Greater Romania, a national state that would incorporate all ethnic Romanians. However, the gained territories also included significant Hungarian, German, Bulgarian, Ukrainian and Russian minorities. This occasionally led to violent conflict, as exemplified by the Hungarian-Romanian War, to contain Hungarian irredentism, Romania, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia established the Little Entente in 1921. Under the pretext of stabilizing the country, the increasingly autocratic King Carol II proclaimed a dictatorship in 1938. The new regime featured corporatist policies that often resembled those of Fascist Italy, on 13 April 1939, France and the United Kingdom had pledged to guarantee the independence of the Kingdom of Romania. Negotiations with the Soviet Union concerning a similar guarantee collapsed when Romania refused to allow the Red Army to cross its frontiers, on 23 August 1939 Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Among other things, this pact recognized the Soviet interest in Bessarabia and this Soviet interest was combined with a clear indication that there was an explicit lack of any German interest in the area. Eight days later, Nazi Germany invaded the Second Polish Republic, expecting military aid from Britain and France, Poland chose not to execute its alliance with Romania in order to be able to use the Romanian Bridgehead. In 1940, Romanias territorial gains made following World War I were largely undone, in July, after a Soviet ultimatum, Romania agreed to give up Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Two thirds of Bessarabia were combined with a part of the Soviet Union to form the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. The rest was apportioned to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Hungary had lost Transylvania after World War I in the Treaty of Trianon
12.
Serge Moscovici
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Serge Moscovici was a Romanian-born French social psychologist, director of the Laboratoire Européen de Psychologie Sociale, which he co-founded in 1974 at the Maison des sciences de lhomme in Paris. Moscovicis son, Pierre Moscovici, is the current European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation, born in Brăila to Jewish parents who were grain merchants, Moscovici frequently relocated, together with his father, spending time in Cahul, Galaţi, and Bucharest. From an early age Moscovici suffered the effects of discrimination, in 1938. In later years he commented on the impact of the Iron Guard, Moscovici trained as a mechanic at the Bucharest vocational school Ciocanul. During World War II Moscovici witnessed the Iron Guard-instigated Bucharest Pogrom in January 1941, later the Ion Antonescu régime interned him in a forced-labor camp, where, together with other persons of his age, he worked on construction teams until freed by the Soviet Red Army in 1944. During those years he taught himself French and educated himself by reading philosophical works, subsequently, Moscovici travelled extensively, notably visiting Palestine, Germany and Austria. During the late stages of World War II he met Isidore Isou, initially welcoming Soviet occupation, Moscovici grew increasingly disillusioned with communist politics, and noted the incidence of anti-Semitism among Red Army soldiers. As the communist regime was taking over and the Cold War started, for this, he was involved in a 1947 trial held in Timişoara, and decided to leave Romania definitively. Choosing clandestine immigration, he arrived in France a year later, having passed through Hungary and Austria, in Paris, helped by a refugee fund, he studied psychology at the Sorbonne while employed by an industrial enterprise. At the time, Moscovici became close to Paris-based writers, including the Romanian-born Jewish Paul Celan and we were caught between a rock and a hard place, on one side, the French university environment who saw us as «fascists». Moscovicis 1961 thesis, directed by the psychoanalyst Daniel Lagache, explored the social representations of psychoanalysis in France, Moscovici also studied epistemology and history of sciences with philosopher Alexandre Koyré. By 1968, together with Brice Lalonde and others, he involved in green politics. A doctor honoris causa of several universities, Moscovici received the Balzan Prize in 2003 for social psychology, in 1997, Serge Moscovici authored an autobiographical essay titled Chronique des années égarées. It was translated into Romanian as Cronica anilor risipiţi and his research focus was on group psychology and he began his career by investigating the way knowledge is reformulated as groups take hold of it, distorting it from its original form. His theory of representations is now widespread in understanding this process of cultural Chinese whispers. He also researched the dynamics of group decisions and consensus-forming, Moscovici claimed that majority influence in many ways was misleading – if the majority was indeed all-powerful, we would all end up thinking the same. They were then placed in a group of four participants and two confederates and they were all shown 36 slides that were different shades of blue and asked to state the colour out loud. There were two groups in the experiment, in the first group the confederates were consistent and answered green for every slide
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Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
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Raymond Queneau
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Raymond Queneau was a French novelist, poet, critic, editor and co-founder and president of Oulipo, notable for his wit and cynical humour. Queneau was born in Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, the child of Auguste Queneau. After his completion of his studies in Le Havre, Queneau moved to Paris in 1920, Queneau performed military service as a zouave in Algeria and Morocco during the years 1925–26. During the 1920s and 30s Queneau took odd jobs for income such as bank teller, tutor, translator and some writing in a column entitled, Queneau was drafted in August 1939 and served in small provincial towns before we was promoted to corporal just before being demoblized in 1940. After a prolific career of writing, editing and critique, Queneau passed away on October 25,1976 and he married Janine Kahn in 1928 after returning to Paris from the his first military service. Kahn was the sister-in-law of Andre Breton, leader of the surrealist movement, in 1934 they had a son, Jean-Marie, who eventually became a painter. They remained married until Janines death in 1972, Queneau spent much of his life working for the Gallimard publishing house, where he began as a reader in 1938. He later rose to be general secretary and eventually director of lEncyclopédie de la Pléiade in 1956. During some of time, he also taught at lÉcole Nouvelle de Neuilly. He entered the Collège de ‘Pataphysique in 1950, where he became Satrap, during this time, Queneau also acted as a translator, notably for Amos Tutuolas The Palm-Wine Drinkard in 1953. Additionally, he edited and published Alexandre Kojèves lectures on Hegels Phenomenology of Spirit, Queneau had been a student of Kojève during the 1930s and was, during this period, also close to writer Georges Bataille. As an author, Queneau came to attention in France with the publication in 1959 of his novel Zazie dans le métro. In 1960 the film directed by Louis Malle was released during the Nouvelle Vague movement. Zazie explores colloquial language as opposed to standard written French, a distinction that is more marked in French than in some other languages. The first word of the book, the alarmingly long Doukipudonktan is a transcription of Doù quils puent donc tant. – How come they stink so much, juliette Greco popularized the song Si tu timagines, a song by Joseph Kosma, with lyrics by Queneau. Before he founded the Ouvroir de littérature potentielle in 1960, Queneau was attracted to mathematics as a source of inspiration and he became a member of la Société Mathématique de France in 1948. In Queneaus mind, elements of a text, including seemingly trivial details such as the number of chapters, were things that had to be predetermined, perhaps calculated
15.
Stan Brakhage
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James Stanley Brakhage, better known as Stan Brakhage, was an American non-narrative filmmaker. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th-century experimental film, interested in mythology and inspired by music, poetry, and visual phenomena, Brakhage sought to reveal the universal in the particular, exploring themes of birth, mortality, sexuality, and innocence. Brakhages films are noted for their expressiveness and lyricism. Born Robert Sanders in Kansas City, Missouri on January 14,1933, as a child, Brakhage was featured on radio as a boy soprano and sang in church choirs and as a soloist at other events. He was raised in Denver, Colorado, where he attended school with the filmmaker Larry Jordan. Together, Brakhage, Jordan, Tenney and Subotnick formed a group called the Gadflies. Brakhage briefly attended Dartmouth College on a scholarship before dropping out to make films and he completed his first film, Interim, at the age of 19, the music for the film was composed by his school friend James Tenney. In 1953, Brakhage moved to San Francisco to attend the San Francisco Art Institute and he found the atmosphere in San Francisco more rewarding, associating with poets Robert Duncan and Kenneth Rexroth, but did not complete his education, instead moving to New York City in 1954. There he met a number of artists, including Maya Deren, Willard Maas, Jonas Mekas, Marie Menken, Joseph Cornell. Brakhage would collaborate with the two, making two films with Cornell and using Cages music for the soundtrack of his first color film. Brakhage spent the few years living in near poverty, depressed about what he saw as the failure of his work. While living in Denver, Brakhage met Mary Jane Collom, whom he married in late 1957, known as Jane Brakhage, she became his first wife. Brakhage tried to make money on his films, but had to take a job making industrial shorts to support his family. In 1958, Jane gave birth to the first of the five children they would have together, from 1961 to 1964, Brakhage worked on a series of 5 films known as the Dog Star Man cycle. The Brakhages moved to Lump Gulch, Colorado in 1964, though Brakhage continued to make visits to New York. During one of those visits, the 16mm film equipment he had been using was stolen, Brakhage couldnt afford to replace it, instead opting to buy cheaper 8mm film equipment. He soon began working in the format, producing a 30-part cycle of 8mm films known as the Songs from 1964 to 1969, the Songs include one of Brakhages most acclaimed films, 23rd Psalm Branch, a response to the Vietnam War and its presentation in the mass media. Brakhage began teaching history and aesthetics at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1969
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Orson Welles
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George Orson Welles was an American actor, director, writer, and producer who worked in theatre, radio, and film. In 1937 he and John Houseman founded the Mercury Theatre, an independent repertory company that presented a series of productions on Broadway through 1941. It reportedly caused widespread panic when listeners thought that an invasion by extraterrestrial beings was actually occurring, although some contemporary sources claim these reports of panic were mostly false and overstated, they rocketed Welles to notoriety. His first film was Citizen Kane, which he co-wrote, produced, directed, Welles was an outsider to the studio system and directed only 13 full-length films in his career. He has been praised as the ultimate auteur, Welles followed up Citizen Kane with critically acclaimed films including The Magnificent Ambersons in 1942 and Touch of Evil in 1958. Although these three are his most acclaimed films, critics have argued other works of his, such as The Lady from Shanghai and Chimes at Midnight, are underappreciated. Known for his voice, Welles was an actor in radio and film, a Shakespearean stage actor. George Orson Welles was born May 6,1915, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, son of Richard Head Welles and he was named after his paternal great-grandfather, influential Kenosha attorney Orson S. Head, and his brother George Head. Despite his familys affluence, Welles encountered hardship in childhood and his parents separated and moved to Chicago in 1919. His father, who made a fortune as the inventor of a bicycle lamp, became an alcoholic. Beatrice died of hepatitis in a Chicago hospital May 10,1924, the Gordon String Quartet, which had made its first appearance at her home in 1921, played at Beatrices funeral. After his mothers death Welles ceased pursuing music and it was decided that he would spend the summer with the Watson family at a private art colony in Wyoming, New York, established by Lydia Avery Coonley Ward. There he played and became friends with the children of the Aga Khan, Welles briefly attended public school before his alcoholic father left business altogether and took him along on his travels to Jamaica and the Far East. When they returned they settled in a hotel in Grand Detour, Illinois, when the hotel burned down, Welles and his father took to the road again. During the three years that Orson lived with his father, some observers wondered who took care of whom, in some ways, he was never really a young boy, you know, said Roger Hill, who became Welless teacher and lifelong friend. Welles briefly attended school in Madison, Wisconsin, enrolled in the fourth grade. At Todd School, Welles came under the influence of Roger Hill, Hill provided Welles with an ad hoc educational environment that proved invaluable to his creative experience, allowing Welles to concentrate on subjects that interested him. Welles performed and staged theatrical experiments and productions there, Todd provided Welles with many valuable experiences, wrote critic Richard France
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Guy Debord
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Guy Louis Debord was a French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationist International. He was also briefly a member of Socialisme ou Barbarie, Guy Debord was born in Paris in 1931. Debords father, Martial, was a pharmacist who died due to illness when Debord was young, Debords mother, Paulette Rossi, sent Guy to live with his grandmother in her family villa in Italy. During World War II, the Rossis left the villa and began to travel from town to town, as a result, Debord attended high school in Cannes, where he began his interest in film and vandalism. As a young man, Debord actively opposed the French war in Algeria, Debord studied Law at the University of Paris, but left early and did not complete his college education. After ending his stint at the University of Paris, he began his career as a writer, Debord joined the Letterist International when he was 19. The Letterists were led dictatorially by Isidore Isou until an agreed upon schism ended Isous authority. This schism gave rise to several factions of Letterists, one of which was led by Debord upon Gil Wolmans unequivocal recommendation. In the 1960s, Debord led the Situationist International group, which influenced the Paris Uprising of 1968, some consider his book The Society of the Spectacle to be a catalyst for the uprising. In 1972, Debord disbanded the Situationist International after its members, including Asger Jorn and Raoul Vaneigem. Debord then focused on filmmaking with financial backing from the movie mogul and publisher, Gérard Lebovici, Debord was suspected of Lebovicis murder. Distraught by the accusations and his friends death, Debord took his films and he had agreed to have his films released posthumously at the request of the American researcher, Thomas Y. Debords two most recognized films are Society of the Spectacle and In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni, after dissolving the Situationist International, Debord spent his time reading, and occasionally writing, in relative isolation in a cottage at Champot with Alice Becker-Ho, his second wife. He continued to correspond on political and other issues, notably with Lebovici and he focused on reading material relating to war strategies, e. g. Clausewitz and Sun Tzu, and he designed a war game with Alice Becker-Ho. Debord married twice, first to Michèle Bernstein and then Alice Becker-Ho, Debord had affairs with other women, including Michèle Mochot, the daughter of a surrealist. Bernstein wrote a fictional but detailed account of the open relationships Mochot. Just before Debords death, he filmed a documentary, Son art et son temps and it has been suggested that his dark depiction of this period was a suicide note of sorts. Both Debords depression and alcohol consumption had become problematic, resulting in a form of polyneuritis, perhaps in order to end the suffering caused by these conditions, Debord committed suicide by shooting himself in the head on November 30,1994
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London Psychogeographical Association
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The London Psychogeographical Association is an organisation devoted to psychogeography. The LPA is perhaps best understood in the context of psychogeographical praxis, the LPA was first mentioned in 1957 by the British artist Ralph Rumney, as one of the organisers of the First Exhibition of Psychogeography in Brussels, which included his work. According to many accounts the group merged into the Situationist International. Activities of the ELS also included trips to destinations of psychogeographical interest and this version of the LPA has been described by the writer Iain Sinclair, whose work is often described as psychogeographical, as useful in branding that kind of practice. In 1994 Barry Hugill wrote an article for The Observer covering the LPA and he depicted their ideas as so cranky that to mention Mr Ackroyds name in the same breath is to invite a writ. However he also states that the fear that in 2000 there may be an attempt to perpetuate patriarchy through the ritual murder of a top member of royalty. The last LPA Newsletter was issued around the year 2000,1 - February 1993 LPA Newsletter no.2 - May 1993 LPA Newsletter no.3 - August 1993 LPA Newsletter no.12 - May 1995 LPA Newsletter no.18 - May 1997
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Situationist International
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Overall, situationist theory represented an attempt to synthesize this diverse field of theoretical disciplines into a modern and comprehensive critique of mid-20th century advanced capitalism. When the Situationist International was first formed, it had a predominantly artistic focus, emphasis was placed on concepts like unitary urbanism, gradually, however, that focus shifted more towards revolutionary and political theory. Situationist theory sees the situation as a tool for the liberation of everyday life, the experimental direction of situationist activity consisted of setting up temporary environments favorable to the fulfillment of true and authentic human desires in response. However, despite their insistence on this point, the term situationism is still used in reference to the Situationist International. By 1950, a younger and more left-wing part of the Lettrist movement began to emerge. André Breton prominently came out in solidarity with the action in a letter that spawned a debate in the newspaper Combat. The schism finally erupted when the members of the radical Lettrists disrupted a Charlie Chaplin press conference for Limelight at the Hôtel Ritz Paris. They distributed a polemic entitled No More Flat Feet. which concluded, All we can see now is a lugubrious and mercenary old man. Isou was upset with this, his own attitude being that Chaplin deserved respect as one of the creators of the cinematic art. During this period of the Letterist International, many of the important concepts, the meeting established the foundation for the development of the Situationist International, which was officially formed in In July 1957 at a meeting in Cosio. Later, the Situationist International drew ideas from other such as Socialisme ou Barbarie. The most prominent member of the group, Guy Debord, generally considered the organizations de facto leader. In June 1957, Debord wrote the manifesto of the Situationist International and this manifesto plans a systematic rereading of Karl Marxs Das Kapital and advocates a cultural revolution in western countries. During the first few years of the SIs founding, avant-garde artistic groups began collaborating with the SI, Gruppe SPUR, a German artistic collective, collaborated with the Situationist International on projects beginning in 1959, continuing until the group officially joined the SI in 1961. The role of the artists in the SI was of significance, particularly Asger Jorn, Constant Nieuwenhuys. Asger Jorn, who invented Situgraphy and Situlogy, had the role of catalyst. Jorn’s role in the situationist movement was that of a catalyst, Guy Debord on his own lacked the personal warmth and persuasiveness to draw people of different nationalities and talents into an active working partnership. As a prototype Marxist intellectual Debord needed an ally who could patch up the petty egoisms, when Jorns leadership was withdrawn in 1961, many simmering quarrels among different sections of the SI flared up, leading to multiple exclusions
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Poster
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A poster is any piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface. Typically posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either graphical or wholly text. Posters are designed to be both eye-catching and informative, Posters may be used for many purposes. They are a frequent tool of advertisers, propagandists, protestors, Posters are also used for reproductions of artwork, particularly famous works, and are generally low-cost compared to original artwork. The modern poster, as we know it, however, dates back to the 1840s and 1850s when the printing industry perfected colour lithography, according to the French historian Max Gallo, for over two hundred years, posters have been displayed in public places all over the world. The modern poster, as we know it, however, dates back to the mid-nineteenth century, First, the printing industry perfected colour lithography and made mass production of large and inexpensive images possible. Second, government censorship of public spaces in countries like France was lifted, and finally, advertisers began to market mass-produced consumer goods to a growing populace in urban areas. They have ranged in styles from Art Nouveau, Symbolism, Cubism, and Art Deco to the more formal Bauhaus, Posters, in the form of placards and posted bills, have been used since earliest times, primarily for advertising and announcements. Purely textual posters have a history, they advertised the plays of Shakespeare. The invention of lithography was soon followed by chromolithography, which allowed for mass editions of posters illustrated in vibrant colours to be printed, by the 1890s, the technique had spread throughout Europe. Chéret is considered to be the father of advertisement placards and he was a pencil artist and a scene decorator, who founded a small lithography office in Paris in 1866. He used striking characters, contrast and bright colours, and created over 1000 advertisements, primarily for exhibitions, theatres, the industry soon attracted the service of many aspiring painters who needed a source of revenue to support themselves. Not surprisingly, Chéret is said to have introduced sex in advertising or, at least, Posters soon transformed the thoroughfares of Paris, making the streets into what one contemporary called the poor man’s picture gallery. Their commercial success was such that some artists took up poster design in earnest. Some of these artists were, like Alphonse Mucha, in great demand, the popularity of poster art was such that in 1884 a major exhibition was held in Paris. By the 1890s, poster art had widespread usage in other parts of Europe, by the end of the 19th century, during an era known as the Belle Époque, the standing of the poster as a serious artform was raised even further. Between 1895 and 1900, Jules Chéret created the Maîtres de lAffiche series that became not only a commercial success, Alphonse Mucha and Eugène Grasset were also influential poster designers of this generation, known for their Art Nouveau style and stylized figures, particularly of women. Advertisement posters became a type of graphic art in the modern age. ”In the United States
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Barricade
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Barricade, from the French barrique, is any object or structure that creates a barrier or obstacle to control, block passage or force the flow of traffic in the desired direction. Adopted as a term, a barricade denotes any improvised field fortification. Stripes on barricades and panel devices slope downward in the traffic must travel. There are also pedestrian barricades - sometimes called bike rack barricades for their resemblance to a now obsolete form of bicycle stand and they originated in France approximately 50 years ago and are now produced around the world. They were first produced in the U. S.40 years ago by Friedrichs Mfg for New Orleanss Mardi Gras parades, anti-vehicle barriers and blast barriers are sturdy barricades that can respectively counter vehicle and bomb attacks. Contrary to a number of sources, barricades were present in various incidents of the great French Revolution of 1789. The barricade had, by the middle of the nineteenth century, Barricade references appear in many colloquial expressions and are used, often metaphorically, in poems and songs celebrating radical social movements. Bulwark Border barrier Rampart Jersey barrier Visi-Flash Barricade Lights
22.
May 1968 events in France
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The volatile period of civil unrest in France during May 1968 was punctuated by demonstrations and massive general strikes as well as the occupation of universities and factories across France. At the height of its fervor, it brought the economy of France to a virtual halt. May 68 had a impact on French society that would be felt for decades to come. It is considered to this day as a cultural, social and moral turning point in the history of the country, as Alain Geismar—one of the leaders of the time—later pointed out, the movement succeeded as a social revolution, not as a political one. The unrest began with a series of student occupation protests against capitalism, consumerism and traditional institutions, values and it then spread to factories with strikes involving 11 million workers, more than 22% of the total population of France at the time, for two continuous weeks. It was the largest general strike ever attempted in France, the student occupations and wildcat general strikes initiated across France were met with forceful confrontation by university administrators and police. De Gaulle went to a French military base in Germany, and after returning dissolved the National Assembly, Violence evaporated almost as quickly as it arose. Workers went back to their jobs, and when the elections were held in June. In February 1968, the French Communists and French Socialists formed an electoral alliance, the universitys administration called the police, who surrounded the university. After the publication of their wishes, the left the building without any trouble. After this first record some leaders of what was named the Movement of 22 March were called together by the committee of the university. Following months of conflicts between students and authorities at the Paris University at Nanterre, the shut down the university on May 2,1968. Students at the Sorbonne University in Paris met on May 3 to protest against the closure and the threatened expulsion of several students at Nanterre. More than 20,000 students, teachers and supporters marched towards the Sorbonne, still sealed off by the police, who charged, wielding their batons, as soon as the marchers approached. While the crowd dispersed, some began to create out of whatever was at hand, while others threw paving stones. The police then responded with tear gas and charged the crowd again, high school student unions spoke in support of the riots on 6 May. Negotiations broke down, and students returned to their campuses after a report that the government had agreed to reopen them. The students now had a near revolutionary fervor, on Friday,10 May, another huge crowd congregated on the Rive Gauche
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Existentialism
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While the predominant value of existentialist thought is commonly acknowledged to be freedom, its primary virtue is authenticity. Many existentialists have also regarded traditional systematic or academic philosophies, in style and content, as too abstract and remote from concrete human experience. Søren Kierkegaard is generally considered to have been the first existentialist philosopher and he proposed that each individual—not society or religion—is solely responsible for giving meaning to life and living it passionately and sincerely, or authentically. Existentialism became popular in the years following World War II, and strongly influenced many disciplines besides philosophy, including theology, drama, art, literature, and psychology. The term is seen as a historical convenience as it was first applied to many philosophers in hindsight. In fact, while existentialism is generally considered to have originated with Kierkegaard, Sartre posits the idea that what all existentialists have in common is the fundamental doctrine that existence precedes essence, as scholar Frederick Copleston explains. Sartre himself, in a lecture delivered in 1945, described existentialism as the attempt to draw all the consequences from a position of consistent atheism and this assertion comes from two sources. The Norwegian philosopher Erik Lundestad refers to the Danish philosopher Fredrik Christian Sibbern, Sibbern is supposed to have had two conversations in 1841, the first with Welhaven and the second with Kierkegaard. This was then brought to Kierkegaard by Sibbern, the second claim comes from the Norwegian historian Rune Slagstad, who claims to prove that Kierkegaard himself said the term existential was borrowed from the poet. He strongly believes that it was Kierkegaard himself who said that Hegelians do not study philosophy existentially, on the other hand, the Norwegian historian Anne-Lise Seip is critical of Slagstad, and believes the statement in fact stems from the Norwegian literary historian Cathrinus Bang. The actual life of the individuals is what constitutes what could be called their true essence instead of there being an arbitrarily attributed essence others use to define them, thus, human beings, through their own consciousness, create their own values and determine a meaning to their life. However, an existentialist philosopher would say such a wish constitutes an inauthentic existence - what Sartre would call bad faith, instead, the phrase should be taken to say that people are defined only insofar as they act and that they are responsible for their actions. For example, someone who acts cruelly towards other people is, by that act, furthermore, by this action of cruelty, such persons are themselves responsible for their new identity. This is as opposed to their genes, or human nature, as Sartre writes in his work Existentialism is a Humanism. Man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world—and defines himself afterwards. Of course, the positive, therapeutic aspect of this is also implied, A person can choose to act in a different way. Here it is clear that since humans can choose to be either cruel or good, they are, in fact. Sartres definition of existentialism was based on Heideggers magnum opus Being and this way of living, Heidegger called average everydayness
24.
University of Paris
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The University of Paris, metonymically known as the Sorbonne, was a university in Paris, France. Emerging around 1150 as an associated with the cathedral school of Notre Dame de Paris. Vast numbers of popes, royalties, scientists and intellectuals were educated at the University of Paris, following the turbulence of the French Revolution, education was suspended in 1793 whereafter its faculties were partly reorganised by Napoleon as the University of France. In 1896, it was renamed again to the University of Paris, in 1970, following the May 1968 events, the university was divided into 13 autonomous universities. Others, like Panthéon-Sorbonne University, chose to be multidisciplinary, in 1150, the future University of Paris was a student-teacher corporation operating as an annex of the Notre-Dame cathedral school. The university had four faculties, Arts, Medicine, Law, the Faculty of Arts was the lowest in rank, but also the largest, as students had to graduate there in order to be admitted to one of the higher faculties. The students were divided into four nationes according to language or regional origin, France, Normandy, Picardy, the last came to be known as the Alemannian nation. Recruitment to each nation was wider than the names might imply, the faculty and nation system of the University of Paris became the model for all later medieval universities. Under the governance of the Church, students wore robes and shaved the tops of their heads in tonsure, students followed the rules and laws of the Church and were not subject to the kings laws or courts. This presented problems for the city of Paris, as students ran wild, students were often very young, entering the school at age 13 or 14 and staying for 6 to 12 years. Three schools were especially famous in Paris, the palatine or palace school, the school of Notre-Dame, the decline of royalty brought about the decline of the first. The other two were ancient but did not have much visibility in the early centuries, the glory of the palatine school doubtless eclipsed theirs, until it completely gave way to them. These two centres were much frequented and many of their masters were esteemed for their learning, the first renowned professor at the school of Ste-Geneviève was Hubold, who lived in the tenth century. Not content with the courses at Liège, he continued his studies at Paris, entered or allied himself with the chapter of Ste-Geneviève, and attracted many pupils via his teaching. Distinguished professors from the school of Notre-Dame in the century include Lambert, disciple of Fulbert of Chartres, Drogo of Paris, Manegold of Germany. Three other men who added prestige to the schools of Notre-Dame and Ste-Geneviève were William of Champeaux, Abélard, humanistic instruction comprised grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. To the higher instruction belonged dogmatic and moral theology, whose source was the Scriptures and it was completed by the study of Canon law. The School of Saint-Victor arose to rival those of Notre-Dame and Ste-Geneviève and it was founded by William of Champeaux when he withdrew to the Abbey of Saint-Victor
25.
Asemic writing
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Asemic writing is a wordless open semantic form of writing. The word asemic means having no specific semantic content, or without the smallest unit of meaning, with the non-specificity of asemic writing there comes a vacuum of meaning which is left for the reader to fill in and interpret. All of this is similar to the way one would deduce meaning from a work of art. Where asemic writing differs from abstract art is in the authors use of gestural constraint. Asemic writing is an art form that fuses text and image into a unity. It may be compared to writing, or writing for its own sake. The open nature of asemic works allows for meaning to occur across linguistic understanding, Asemic works leave for the reader to decide how to translate and explore an asemic text, in this sense, the reader becomes co-creator of the asemic work. In 1997 visual poets Tim Gaze and Jim Leftwich first applied the word asemic to name their quasi-calligraphic writing gestures and they then began to distribute them to poetry magazines both online and in print. The authors explored sub-verbal and sub-letteral forms of writing, and textual asemia as a creative option, since the late 1990s, asemic writing has blossomed into a worldwide literary/art movement. Jim Leftwich has recently stated that a condition of an asemic work is an impossible goal. He has begun to use the term pansemic to describe this type of work, others such as author Travis Jeppesen have found the term asemic to be problematic because it seems to infer writing with no meaning. Asemic writing exists in different forms. It is often created with a pen or brush, but can range from being drawn in the sand with a stick and documented by photography, or to works on canvas, paper, computer images. The key to writing is that even though it is traditionally unreadable it still maintains a strong attractive appeal to the readers eye. Asemic writing, at times, exists as a conception or shadow of conventional writing practices, reflecting writing, but not completely existing as a traditional writing system, asemic writing seeks to make the reader hover in a state between reading and looking. Asemic writing has no sense, though it may have clear textual sense. Through its formatting and structure, asemic writing may suggest a type of document and, thereby, true asemic writing occurs when the creator of the asemic piece cannot read their own asemic writing. Relative asemic writing is a writing system that can be read by some people
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Anti-art
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Anti-art is a loosely used term applied to an array of concepts and attitudes that reject prior definitions of art and question art in general. Somewhat paradoxically, anti-art tends to conduct this questioning and rejection from the point of art. The term is associated with the Dada movement and is accepted as attributable to Marcel Duchamp pre-World War I around 1914. It was used to describe forms of art. An expression of anti-art may or may not take traditional form or meet the criteria for being defined as a work of art according to conventional standards. Indeed, works of anti-art may express an outright rejection of having conventionally defined criteria as a means of defining what art is, anti-artworks may reject conventional artistic standards altogether, or focus criticism only on certain aspects of art, such as the art market and high art. Some anti-artworks may reject individualism in art, whereas some may reject universality as an accepted factor in art. Additionally, some forms of anti-art reject art entirely, or reject the idea that art is a separate realm or specialization, anti-artworks may also reject art based upon a consideration of art as being oppressive of a segment of the population. Anti-art artworks may articulate a disagreement with the generally supposed notion of there being a separation between art and life, indeed, anti-art artworks may voice a question as to whether art really exists or not. Anti-art itself is not an art movement, however. This would tend to be indicated by the time it spans—longer than that usually spanned by art movements, some art movements though, are labeled anti-art. Theodor W. Adorno in Aesthetic Theory stated that. even the abolition of art is respectful of art because it takes the truth claim of art seriously. Anti-art has become accepted by the artworld to be art, although some people still reject Duchamps readymades as art, for instance the Stuckist group of artists. Anti-art can take the form of art or not and it is posited that anti-art need not even take the form of art, in order to embody its function as anti-art. Some of the forms of anti-art which are art strive to reveal the limits of art by expanding its properties. Some instances of anti-art are suggestive of a reduction to what might seem to be fundamental elements or building blocks of art, examples of this sort of phenomenon might include monochrome paintings, empty frames, silence as music, chance art. Anti-art is also seen to make use of highly innovative materials and techniques. These types of anti-art can be readymades, found art, détournement, combine paintings, appropriation, happenings, performance art, anti-art can involve the renouncement of making art entirely
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Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
28.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
29.
IMDb
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In 1998 it became a subsidiary of Amazon Inc, who were then able to use it as an advertising resource for selling DVDs and videotapes. As of January 2017, IMDb has approximately 4.1 million titles and 7.7 million personalities in its database, the site enables registered users to submit new material and edits to existing entries. Although all data is checked before going live, the system has open to abuse. The site also featured message boards which stimulate regular debates and dialogue among authenticated users, IMDb shutdown the message boards permanently on February 20,2017. Anyone with a connection can read the movie and talent pages of IMDb. A registration process is however, to contribute info to the site. A registered user chooses a name for themselves, and is given a profile page. These badges range from total contributions made, to independent categories such as photos, trivia, bios, if a registered user or visitor happens to be in the entertainment industry, and has an IMDb page, that user/visitor can add photos to that page by enrolling in IMDbPRO. Actors, crew, and industry executives can post their own resume and this fee enrolls them in a membership called IMDbPro. PRO can be accessed by anyone willing to pay the fee, which is $19.99 USD per month, or if paid annually, $149.99, which comes to approximately $12.50 per month USD. Membership enables a user to access the rank order of each industry personality, as well as agent contact information for any actor, producer, director etc. that has an IMDb page. Enrolling in PRO for industry personnel, enables those members the ability to upload a head shot to open their page, as well as the ability to upload hundreds of photos to accompany their page. Anyone can register as a user, and contribute to the site as well as enjoy its content, however those users enrolled in PRO have greater access and privileges. IMDb originated with a Usenet posting by British film fan and computer programmer Col Needham entitled Those Eyes, others with similar interests soon responded with additions or different lists of their own. Needham subsequently started an Actors List, while Dave Knight began a Directors List, and Andy Krieg took over THE LIST from Hank Driskill, which would later be renamed the Actress List. Both lists had been restricted to people who were alive and working, the goal of the participants now was to make the lists as inclusive as possible. By late 1990, the lists included almost 10,000 movies and television series correlated with actors and actresses appearing therein. On October 17,1990, Needham developed and posted a collection of Unix shell scripts which could be used to search the four lists, at the time, it was known as the rec. arts. movies movie database
30.
Bibsys
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BIBSYS is an administrative agency set up and organized by the Ministry of Education and Research in Norway. They are a provider, focusing on the exchange, storage and retrieval of data pertaining to research. BIBSYS are collaborating with all Norwegian universities and university colleges as well as research institutions, Bibsys is formally organized as a unit at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, located in Trondheim, Norway. The board of directors is appointed by Norwegian Ministry of Education, BIBSYS offer researchers, students and others an easy access to library resources by providing the unified search service Oria. no and other library services. They also deliver integrated products for the operation for research. As a DataCite member BIBSYS act as a national DataCite representative in Norway and thereby allow all of Norways higher education, all their products and services are developed in cooperation with their member institutions. The purpose of the project was to automate internal library routines, since 1972 Bibsys has evolved from a library system supplier for two libraries in Trondheim, to developing and operating a national library system for Norwegian research and special libraries. The target group has expanded to include the customers of research and special libraries. BIBSYS is an administrative agency answerable to the Ministry of Education and Research. In addition to BIBSYS Library System, the product consists of BISBYS Ask, BIBSYS Brage, BIBSYS Galleri. All operation of applications and databases is performed centrally by BIBSYS, BIBSYS also offer a range of services, both in connection with their products and separate services independent of the products they supply
31.
Integrated Authority File
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The Integrated Authority File or GND is an international authority file for the organisation of personal names, subject headings and corporate bodies from catalogues. It is used mainly for documentation in libraries and increasingly also by archives, the GND is managed by the German National Library in cooperation with various regional library networks in German-speaking Europe and other partners. The GND falls under the Creative Commons Zero license, the GND specification provides a hierarchy of high-level entities and sub-classes, useful in library classification, and an approach to unambiguous identification of single elements. It also comprises an ontology intended for knowledge representation in the semantic web, available in the RDF format
32.
MusicBrainz
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MusicBrainz is a project that aims to create an open data music database that is similar to the freedb project. MusicBrainz was founded in response to the placed on the Compact Disc Database. MusicBrainz has expanded its goals to reach beyond a compact disc metadata storehouse to become an open online database for music. MusicBrainz captures information about artists, their works, and the relationships between them. Recorded works entries capture at a minimum the album title, track titles, and these entries are maintained by volunteer editors who follow community written style guidelines. Recorded works can also store information about the date and country. As of 26 July 2016, MusicBrainz contained information about roughly 1.1 million artists,1.6 million releases, end-users can use software that communicates with MusicBrainz to add metadata tags to their digital media files, such as MP3, Ogg Vorbis or AAC. As with other contributions, the MusicBrainz community is in charge for maintaining and reviewing the data, besides collecting metadata about music, MusicBrainz also allows looking up recordings by their acoustic fingerprint. A separate application, such as MusicBrainz Picard, must be used for this, in 2000, MusicBrainz started using Relatables patented TRM for acoustic fingerprint matching. This feature attracted many users and allowed the database to grow quickly, however, by 2005 TRM was showing scalability issues as the number of tracks in the database had reached into the millions. This issue was resolved in May 2006 when MusicBrainz partnered with MusicIP, tRMs were phased out and replaced by MusicDNS in November 2008. In October 2009 MusicIP was acquired by AmpliFIND, some time after the acquisition, the MusicDNS service began having intermittent problems. Since the future of the free service was uncertain, a replacement for it was sought. The Chromaprint acoustic fingerprinting algorithm, the basis for AcoustID identification service, was started in February 2010 by a long-time MusicBrainz contributor Lukáš Lalinský, while AcoustID and Chromaprint are not officially MusicBrainz projects, they are closely tied with each other and both are open source. Chromaprint works by analyzing the first two minutes of a track, detecting the strength in each of 12 pitch classes, storing these 8 times per second, additional post-processing is then applied to compress this fingerprint while retaining patterns. The AcoustID search server then searches from the database of fingerprints by similarity, since 2003, MusicBrainzs core data are in the public domain, and additional content, including moderation data, is placed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA-2.0 license. The relational database management system is PostgreSQL, the server software is covered by the GNU General Public License. The MusicBrainz client software library, libmusicbrainz, is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License, in December 2004, the MusicBrainz project was turned over to the MetaBrainz Foundation, a non-profit group, by its creator Robert Kaye
33.
National Library of the Czech Republic
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The National Library of the Czech Republic is the central library of the Czech Republic. It is directed by the Ministry of Culture, the librarys main building is located in the historical Clementinum building in Prague, where approximately half of its books are kept. The other half of the collection is stored in the district of Hostivař, the National Library is the biggest library in the Czech Republic, in its funds there are around 6 million documents. The library has around 60,000 registered readers, as well as Czech texts, the library also stores older material from Turkey, Iran and India. The library also houses books for Charles University in Prague, the library won international recognition in 2005 as it received the inaugural Jikji Prize from UNESCO via the Memory of the World Programme for its efforts in digitising old texts. The project, which commenced in 1992, involved the digitisation of 1,700 documents in its first 13 years, the most precious medieval manuscripts preserved in the National Library are the Codex Vyssegradensis and the Passional of Abbes Kunigunde. In 2006 the Czech parliament approved funding for the construction of a new building on Letna plain. In March 2007, following a request for tender, Czech architect Jan Kaplický was selected by a jury to undertake the project, later in 2007 the project was delayed following objections regarding its proposed location from government officials including Prague Mayor Pavel Bém and President Václav Klaus. Later in 2008, Minister of Culture Václav Jehlička announced the end of the project, the library was affected by the 2002 European floods, with some documents moved to upper levels to avoid the excess water. Over 4,000 books were removed from the library in July 2011 following flooding in parts of the main building, there was a fire at the library in December 2012, but nobody was injured in the event. List of national and state libraries Official website
