The Dassault AVE-C Moyen Duc was a sub-scale experimental stealth UAV built in France in 2004 as a step in the development of a UCAV under Dassault Aviation's LOGIDUC programme. AVE-C stands for Aéronef de Validation Expérimentale - Contrôle, Moyen Duc is the French name for the long-eared owl, but a wordplay on the LOGIDUC programme name, with moyen meaning "middle"; as the AVE-D was designed by Dassault according to a rapid prototyping to cost methodology, the AVE-C was developed and completed within a year and the first prototype was produced in July 2001. The AVE-C is a stealth tactical UAV prototype developed according to the French Army's post-SDTI needs in reconnaissance. In 2002, Dassault planned to create an industrial partnership with French electronic company Sagem; the company was founded the following year as Dassault-Sagem Tactical UAV with the purpose to mass-produce the Moyen Duc. The 2004 tactical UAV Dassault-Sagem SlowFast is based on the Moyen Duc, with the Sagem Sperwer's ground control station, will be used by the French Army.
General characteristics Crew: None Gross weight: 500 kg Performance Endurance: 4 hoursArmament
Cocuy is a liquor distilled from the fermented juices of the head, body or leaves of Agave cocui, produced artisanally in the Venezuelan regions of Falcón and Lara. With a taste similar to other agave-based liquors such as tequila and mezcal, it is known as the Tequila of Venezuela. Long considered a cheap rural drink, since the 2013 collapse of the Venezuelan economy its popularity has boomed compared to more expensive imported competitors; the liquor has become popular in Caracas, with trendy bars serving cocuy-based cocktails. Both the plant and their products have been declared by the government as part of the cultural and natural heritage of Falcón and Lara, the cultural and ancestral heritage of Venezuela as a whole. In pre-Columbian times, in the semi-arid Central-Western Venezuela, the Cocuy plant was known as life and food for aboriginal tribes Aymanes and Jiraharas; the plant is used as raw material for the drink of the same name. Cocuy de penca; the Cocuy Liquor manufactured in the Pecaya Parish, Sucre Municipality of the Falcón State is formally known as "Cocuy Pecayero" by the "Autonomous Service of Intellectual Property in May 2002.
Despite of being a cultural heritage, this activity was classified as unlawful by an unexpected change in the law in 1974, subjecting artisans to persecution. As a consequence'aguardiente de cocuy' -a combination of neutral alcohol and artisanal cocuy not exceeding 42GL° - was the only form of Cocuy liquor legal to be sold. However, in 2005 the law changed, after being ratified in 2007, Cocuy made from Agave was made legal again and many artisanal producers have entered the market competing with the existing industrial Cocuy Brands Finally, on 4 December 2013, eight artisans were awarded their final permits to produce Cocuy in Pecaya. Today Venezuela has 8 brands and duly authenticated, is expected that during 2014 the rest of the artisans can get their permits; the Cocuy is made by hand, from the stalk, head or pineapple obtained after removal of the Agave cocui leaves, this is baked in artisan ovens at ground level, they coated the walls and bottom with river stones, on which they pile the heads or pads, which are covered with leaves removed.
The leaves are cooked over low heat with wood. After three to four days in the oven, the leaves are removed and macerated using a wooden bucket and mace; the leaves are pressed to extract the juice, subjected to a fermentation process and subsequent distillation. (Standard-cocuy Pecayero Covenin 3662. The distillation is done today in stills craft consisting of a Saucepan, a rectifier and copper coil. During distillation is obtained a clear drink with a characteristic aroma and bouquet, with high alcohol content, equivalent to tequila and mezcal produced in Mexico with similar plants; the first liquid obtained by distillation is called pringote. Due to its high alcohol content, the liquid is not suitable for consumption, hence, it is only used as a disinfectant; the fluid obtained through further distillation is called "body or heart" having an alcohol content between 35 and 70 degrees. The third and last part is called "tail" with an alcohol content ranging from 10 to 35 degrees and, as a result, mixes well with other fluids or drinks.
Cocuy can be aged in oak barrels giving the spirit a much distinct flavor
Sentinel-2 is an Earth observation mission from the Copernicus Programme that systematically acquires optical imagery at high spatial resolution over land and coastal waters. The mission is a constellation with two twin satellites, Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B; the mission supports a broad range of services and applications such as agricultural monitoring, emergencies management, land cover classification or water quality. Sentinel-2 has been developed and is being operated by ESA, the satellites were manufactured by a consortium led by Airbus DS; the Sentinel-2 mission has the following key characteristics: Multi-spectral data with 13 bands in the visible, near infrared, short wave infrared part of the spectrum Systematic global coverage of land surfaces from 56° S to 84° N, coastal waters, all of the Mediterranean Sea Revisiting every 5 days under the same viewing angles. At high latitudes, Sentinel-2 swath overlap and some regions will be observed twice or more every 5 days, but with different viewing angles.
Spatial resolution of 10 m, 20 m and 60 m 290 km field of view Free and open data policyTo achieve frequent revisits and high mission availability, two identical Sentinel-2 satellites operate together. The planned orbit is Sun synchronous at 786 km altitude, 14.3 revolutions per day, with a 10:30 a.m. descending node. This local time was selected as a compromise between minimizing cloud cover and ensuring suitable Sun illumination, it is close to the Landsat local time and matches SPOT's, allowing the combination of Sentinel-2 data with historical images to build long-term time series. The launch of the first satellite, Sentinel-2A, occurred 23 June 2015 at 01:52 UTC on a Vega launch vehicle. Sentinel-2B was launched on 7 March 2017 at 01:49 UTC aboard a Vega rocket; the Sentinel-2 satellites will each carry a single multi-spectral instrument with 13 spectral channels in the visible/near infrared and short wave infrared spectral range. Designed and built by Airbus Defense and Space in France.
It has a three-mirror anastigmat design with a focal length of about 600 mm. The mirrors are rectangular and made of silicon carbide, a similar technology to those on the Gaia mission; the system employs a shutter mechanism preventing direct illumination of the instrument by the sun. This mechanism is used in the calibration of the instrument. Due to the layout of the focal plane, spectral bands within the MSI instrument observe the surface at different times and vary between band pairs; these temporal offsets can be used to our benefit, for example to track propagating natural and man-made features such as clouds, airplanes or ocean waves. Sentinel-2 will serve a wide range of applications related to Earth's land and coastal water; the mission will provide information for agricultural and forestry practices and for helping manage food security. Satellite images will be used to determine various plant indices such as leaf area chlorophyll and water content indexes; this is important for effective yield prediction and applications related to Earth's vegetation.
As well as monitoring plant growth, Sentinel-2 can be used to map changes in land cover and to monitor the world's forests. It will provide information on pollution in lakes and coastal waters. Images of floods, volcanic eruptions and landslides contribute to disaster mapping and help humanitarian relief efforts. Examples for applications include: Monitoring land cover change for environmental monitoring Agricultural applications, such as crop monitoring and management to help food security Detailed vegetation and forest monitoring and parameter generation Observation of coastal zones Inland water monitoring Glacier monitoring, ice extent mapping, snow cover monitoring Flood mapping & management The Sentinel Monitoring web application offers an easy way to observe and analyse land changes based on archived Sentinel-2 data; the following two main products are generated by the mission: Level-1C: Top-of-atmosphere reflectances in cartographic geometry. Level-1C products are tiles of 100 km2 each one with a volume of 500 MB.
These products are radiometrically and geometrically corrected. This product can be obtained from the Copernicus Open Access Hub. Level-2A: Surface reflectances in cartographic geometry; this product is considered as the mission Analysis Ready Data, the product that can be used directly in downstream applications without the need for further processing. This product can be obtained either from the Copernicus Open Access Hub or generated by the user with the sen2cor processor from ESA's SNAP Toolbox. Additionally, the following product for expert users is available: Level-1B: Top of atmosphere radiances in sensor geometry. Level-1B is composed of granules, one granule represents the sub-image one of the 12 detectors in the across track direction, contains a given number of lines along track; each Level-1B granule has a data volume of 27 MB. Given the complexity of Level-1B products, their usage require an advanced expertise. Examples of images taken. Sentinel-2 at ESA Copernicus at ESA Sentinel-2 data sheet Sentinel-2 Mission Requirements Document
Lucas Hartong is a Dutch politician. He served as a member of the European Parliament for the Party for Freedom between 22 June 2010 and 1 July 2014, he was leader of the PVV delegation from 24 March to 1 July 2014. Hartong was born on 24 May 1963 in Dordrecht, he went to the gymnasium in Breda and he studied theology at Christelijke Hogeschool Ede. Hartong unsuccessfully tried to win a seat in the municipal council with his own Democratisch Platform Nederland party, he became a member of the board of the Pim Fortuyn List in South Holland. He went on to serve as a parliamentary assistant to the Party for Freedom group in the European Parliament. On 22 June 2010 he replaced Louis Bontes, chosen as a Member of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands in the 2010 general election. Hartong was supposed to have joined the European Parliament earlier, as the Netherlands, with it the Party for Freedom, received an extra seat when the European Parliament increased the number of seats; the judicial procedures were howevever not finished.
At the start of his term Hartong said he wished to represent the Christian voters in the European Parliament. He claimed that another concern of him would be fishery, he found it surprising that the Dutch had no seat in the Committee on Fisheries. In 2013 Hartong was critical of the European Parliament paid trips of journalist to the Parliament, with costs of around 700,000 euro in 2011, he saw a relation between pro-EU stories in the paid trips. His term ended on 1 July 2014, he served amongst others as member of the Committee on Budgets and the Delegation for relations with the United States. He declined to be on the Party for Freedom candidate list for the European Parliament elections of 2014, citing he did not want to cooperate with "wrong figures" from parties such as the Freedom Party of Austria and the French National Front. Page at European Parliament website Biography at parlement.com
Sara Miller Driver is an American independent filmmaker and actress from Westfield, New Jersey. A participant in the independent film scene that flourished in lower Manhattan from the late 1970s through the 1990s, she gained initial recognition as producer of two early films by Jim Jarmusch, Permanent Vacation and Stranger Than Paradise. Driver has directed two feature films and When Pigs Fly, as well as a notable short film, You Are Not I, a documentary, Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat, on the young artist's pre-fame life in the burgeoning downtown New York arts scene before the city's massive changes through the 1980s, she served on the juries of various film festivals throughout the 2000s. Driver made her directorial debut in 1981 with You Are Not I, a short subject film based on a Paul Bowles story and co-written by Jim Jarmusch. Shot in six days on a $12,000 budget, it developed a following soon after a well-received premiere at the Public Theater, only to be pulled out of circulation when a warehouse fire destroyed the film's negative.
Seen, it was still championed by renowned critics and film journals like Jonathan Rosenbaum and Cahiers du Cinéma, which hailed You Are Not I as one of the best films of the 1980s. Considered'lost' for many years, a print was discovered among Bowles's belongings. Driver was awarded a preservation grant from Women in Television; the restored film screened in the Master Works section of The New York Film Festival 2011. Driver directed her first feature film, Sleepwalk in 1986, it was awarded the Prix Georges Sadoul by the Cinémathèque Française, the Special Prize at the 1986 International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg, was the opening night selection for the 25th Anniversary of the International Critics' Week at the Cannes Film Festival. Sleepwalk was featured at the Museum of Modern Art's 1987 New Directors/New Films Festival and the Sundance Film Festival. Driver directed the "Boar" episode of the TV series Monsters, her second feature film as a director, When Pigs Fly, stars Marianne Faithfull and Alfred Molina and is scored by Joe Strummer.
The film received the Best of Festival Feature award at the 1994 Long Island Film Festival. When Pigs Fly premiered in competition at the Locarno Film Festival, played a limited engagement at the Lighthouse Cinema on Suffolk Street in New York in 1996. Driver wrote and directed the short documentary, The Bowery - Spring, 1994, part of Postcards from New York, an anthology program for French TV. Driver has producer and production credits for many films of Jim Jarmusch, as well as minor roles in three of his films. Driver's theater work includes the play What the Hell - Zelda Sayre. Driver was a juror at the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema where they did a retrospective of her films, she was a juror at the Miami International Film Festival, San Sebastián Film Festival, Bahamas International Film Festival, director Emir Kusturica's Küstendorf Film and Music Festival. Driver has been described as an "often overlooked linchpin of the downtown New York independent film scene."
Film critic Luc Sante describes Driver's movies as "doorways into the unknown." Rosenbaum wrote that Driver's films "belong to what the French call la fantastique— a conflation of fantasy with surrealism, science fiction, horror, sword-and-sorcery, the supernatural that stretches all the way from art cinema to exploitation by way of Hollywood."The moving image collection of Sara Driver is held at the Academy Film Archive. Driver was born in the daughter of Albert and Martha Driver, she attended Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, graduating with a degree in theatre and classics in 1977. She spent her junior year studying in Athens, participated in a production by the National Opera of Greece. Driver taught directing in NYU's Graduate Film School, where she received her Master of Fine Arts degree in 1982. José Teodoro, COUNTER CAREERISM: THE FILMS OF SARA DRIVER, Toronto Film Critics, July 24, 2014 Dennis Lim, "Sleepwalking in Fantasy Worlds Like This One", The New York Times, March 18, 2012.
Gene Markopoulos, "A Few Remarks on Sara Driver's'Sleepwalk'", in: ART IN SOCIETY, No.5 Andreas Weiland, "Sleepwalk. Notes on A Film by Sara Driver", in: ART IN SOCIETY, No.5 Janet Maslin, "FILM REVIEW - When Pigs Fly: Ghosts Inspiring a New Life", The New York Times, July 26, 1996. Peter Watrous, "Jazz and Theater Add Up to a New Form of Vaudeville", The New York Times, December 13, 1990. Jonathan Rosenbaum, "Two Neglected Filmmakers: Eduardo de Gregario and Sara Driver" BAFICI Catalogue, 2004. Kennedy, Randy. "Film of Paul Bowles Short Story Rediscovered". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 June 2012. Sara Driver on IMDb