1.
Structuralism (architecture)
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Structuralism is a movement in architecture and urban planning evolved around the middle of the 20th century. It was a reaction to CIAM-Functionalism which had led to an expression of urban planning that ignored the identity of the inhabitants. Structuralism in a sense is a mode of thought of the 20th century. It can also be found in linguistics, anthropology, philosophy, alternately, as summarized by philosopher Simon Blackburn, Structuralism is the belief that phenomena of human life are not intelligible except through their interrelations. These relations constitute a structure, and behind local variations in the surface there are constant laws of abstract culture. In Europe, structuralism is seen as a movement to American postmodern architecture. The first interpretations of both came up in the 1960s. Through publications and presentations by authors such as Charles Jencks, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, while postmodernism is concerned with an architectural style, many aspects of architecture and urbanism are treated in the structuralist movement. In contrast to the movement, structuralism has developed more slowly. The theoretical contributions of structuralism were developed in Europe, Japan, US, in 2011, the first comprehensive compilation of structuralist activity appeared in a publication called Structuralism Reloaded. In this extensive book, articles by 47 international authors were published about philosophical, historical, artistic, the selecting process for all these different views, including what is more or less important, needs time to give a definitive overall picture of structuralism. The following parts of this article are based on the current state of the publication Structuralism Reloaded, a few months after publishing this book, the RIBA Institute in London discussed the new candidates for the RIBA Gold Medal in 2012. An actual question was, Should the Venturis be given this years RIBA Gold Medal, the times had changed and a shift in emphasis had occurred. The comment of the former RIBA president Jack Pringle was, The Royal Gold Medal, Britains most prestigious award, should go to an architect that has taken us forward, not backwards. Today, postmodern architecture can be compared, to some degree with the movement, Traditionalismus. The anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss, remarked, I do not believe that we can speak of one structuralism. There were a lot of movements that claimed to be structuralist and this diversity can also be found in architecture. However, architectural structuralism has an autonomy that does not comply with all the principles of structuralism in human sciences, in architecture, the different directions have created different images
2.
Syria
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Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a number of military coups. In 1958, Syria entered a union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favours the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, in the past, others believed that it was derived from Siryon, the name that the Sidonians gave to Mount Hermon. However, the discovery of the inscription in 2000 seems to support the theory that the term Syria derives from Assyria. The area designated by the word has changed over time, since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period is represented by houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gyps, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations. Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic, archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only those of Mesopotamia. The earliest recorded indigenous civilisation in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla near present-day Idlib, gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Eblas contact with Egypt. One of the earliest written texts from Syria is an agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c.2300 BC. The Northwest Semitic language of the Amorites is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages, Mari reemerged during this period, and saw renewed prosperity until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia, Ugaritic was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugarites kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC, Yamhad was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi of Babylon. Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh, Qatna, the Hurrians states, the army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam
3.
Hafez al-Assad
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In 1966, Assad participated in a second coup, which toppled the traditional leaders of the Baath Party, and brought a radical military faction headed by Salah Jadid to power. Assad was appointed minister by the new government. In 1970 Assad seized power by toppling Jadid, and appointed himself the leader of Syria in the period 1970–71. He sided with the Soviet Union during the Cold War in turn for support against Israel, while he had forsaken pan-Arabism—or at least the pan-Arab concept of unifying the Arab world into one Arab nation—he did seek to make Syria the defender of Arab interest against Israel. When he took power, Assad instituted one-man rule and organized state services into sectarian lines, the formerly collegial powers of Baathist decision-making were curtailed, and were transferred to the Syrian presidency. The Syrian government ceased to be a one-party system in the sense of the word. To maintain this system, a cult of personality centered on Assad. Having become the source of initiative inside the Syrian government. His first choice as successor was his brother Rifaat, who was seen as corrupt. In 1983–84, when Hafezs health was in doubt, Rifaat attempted to seize power, when Hafezs health did improve, Rifaat was exiled from Syria. His next choice of successor was his eldest son, Bassel, however Bassels 1994 death in a car accident forced Assad to turn to his third choice—his younger son Bashar al-Assad, who at that time had no practical political experience. This move was met with criticism within some quarters of the Syrian ruling class. Assad died in 2000 and was succeeded by Bashar al-Assad as President, Hafez was born on 6 October 1930 in Qardaha to an Alawite family of the Kalbiyya tribe. His parents were Nasa and Ali Sulayman al-Assad, Hafez was Alis ninth son, and the fourth from his second marriage. Sulayman married twice, had children and was known for his strength and shooting abilities. By the 1920s he was respected locally, and like others he initially opposed the French Mandate for Syria. Nevertheless, Ali Sulayman later cooperated with the French administration and was appointed to an official post. In 1936, he was one of 80 Alawite notables who signed a letter addressed to the French Prime Minister saying that Alawi people rejected attachment to Syria, for his accomplishments, he was called al-Assad by local residents and made the nickname his surname in 1927
4.
Carrara marble
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Carrara marble is a type of white or blue-grey marble of high quality, popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It is quarried in the city of Carrara located in the province of Massa and Carrara in the Lunigiana, Carrara marble has been used since the time of Ancient Rome. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the quarries were monitored by the Cybo and Malaspina families who ruled over Massa. The family created the Office of Marble in 1564 to regulate the mining industry. The city of Massa, in particular, saw much of its plan redesigned in order to make it worthy of an Italian countrys capital, following the extinction of the Cybo-Malaspina family, the state was ruled by the House of Austria and management of the mines rested with them. The Basilica of Massa is built entirely of Carrara marble and the old Ducal Palace of Massa was used to showcase the precious stone, by the end of the 19th century, Carrara had become a cradle of anarchism in Italy, in particular among the quarry workers. According to a New York Times article of 1894, workers in the quarries were among the most neglected labourers in Italy. Many of them were ex-convicts or fugitives from justice, the work at the quarries was so tough and arduous that almost any aspirant worker with sufficient muscle and endurance was employed, regardless of their background. The quarry workers and stone carvers had radical beliefs that set apart from others. Anarchism and general radicalism became part of the heritage of the stone carvers, many violent revolutionists who had been expelled from Belgium and Switzerland went to Carrara in 1885 and founded the first anarchist group in Italy. In Carrara, the anarchist Galileo Palla remarked, “even the stones are anarchists. ”The quarry workers were the protagonists of the Lunigiana revolt in January 1894. It was unveiled by future UK Prime Minister Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery on 6 April 1882. Marble Arch, London Some sections of the Palace of the Marqués de Dos Aguas, Valencia, Spain Prem Mandir, Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh, India Duomo di Siena, Siena, the Carrara quarries have produced more marble than any other place on earth. Working the quarries has been dangerous and continues so to this day, in September 1911, a collapsing cliff face at the Bettogli Quarry crushed 10 workers who were on lunch break under a precipice. A2014 video made at a Carrara quarry shows workers with missing fingers, the prized yield from Carrara quarries through millennia has been Statuario, a pure white marble. However, by the end of the 20th century, the deposits of Statuario near Carrara are played out. The quarries continue to remove and ship up to a million tons/year of less-esteemed marble, calcite, obtained from an 80 kg sample of Carrara marble, is used as the IAEA-603 isotopic standard in mass spectrometry for the calibration of δ18O and δ13C. List of types of marble Lizza di Piastreta Marmifera di Carrara railway Lardo, the Economy of Renaissance Florence, JHU Press, ISBN0801889820 Newman, Cathy
5.
Bill Clinton
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William Jefferson Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Prior to the Presidency he was the 40th Governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, before that, he served as Arkansas Attorney General from 1977 to 1979. A member of the Democratic Party, Clinton was ideogically a New Democrat, Clinton is married to Hillary Clinton, who served as United States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013 and U. S. Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, and served the Democratic nominee for President in 2016, Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham both earned degrees from Yale Law School, where they met and began dating. As Governor of Arkansas, Clinton overhauled the states education system, Clinton was elected President of the United States in 1992, defeating incumbent George H. W. Bush. At age 46, he was the third-youngest president and the first from the Baby Boomer generation, Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history and signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement. After failing to pass health care reform, the Democratic House was ousted when the Republican Party won control of the Congress in 1994. Two years later, in 1996, Clinton became the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to be elected to a second term, Clinton passed welfare reform and the State Childrens Health Insurance Program, providing health coverage for millions of children. Clinton was acquitted by the U. S. Senate in 1999, the Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus between the years 1998 and 2000, the last three years of Clintons presidency. In foreign policy, Clinton ordered U. S. Clinton left office with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U. S. President since World War II, since then, Clinton has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work. He created the William J. Clinton Foundation to address international causes, such as the prevention of AIDS, in 2004, Clinton published his autobiography, My Life. In 2009, Clinton was named the United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti, since leaving office, Clinton has been rated highly in public opinion polls of U. S. Presidents. Clinton was born on August 19,1946, at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, Arkansas and he was the son of William Jefferson Blythe Jr. a traveling salesman who had died in an automobile accident three months before his birth, and Virginia Dell Cassidy. His parents had married on September 4,1943, but this later proved to be bigamous. Soon after their son was born, his mother traveled to New Orleans to study nursing, leaving her son in Hope with her parents Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, who owned and ran a small grocery store. At a time when the Southern United States was segregated racially, in 1950, Bills mother returned from nursing school and married Roger Clinton Sr. who owned an automobile dealership in Hot Springs, Arkansas, with his brother and Earl T. Ricks. The family moved to Hot Springs in 1950, although he immediately assumed use of his stepfathers surname, it was not until Clinton turned fifteen that he formally adopted the surname Clinton as a gesture toward his stepfather. In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. Johns Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School—where he was a student leader, avid reader
6.
Israel
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Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. The country contains geographically diverse features within its small area. Israels economy and technology center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, in 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, next year, the Jewish Agency declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and it extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Israels occupation of the Palestinian territories is the worlds longest military occupation in modern times, efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed, the population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2017 to be 8,671,100 people. It is the worlds only Jewish-majority state, with 74. 8% being designated as Jewish, the countrys second largest group of citizens are Arabs, at 20. 8%. The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins, other minorities include Arameans, Armenians, Assyrians, Black Hebrew Israelites, Circassians, Maronites and Samaritans. Israel also hosts a significant population of foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia, including illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea. In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish, Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature, Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2016. The country benefits from a skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the third highest in Asia, in the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett. The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel. The name Israel in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, jacobs twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. The earliest known artifact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt. The area is known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam
7.
Bashar al-Assad
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Bashar Hafez al-Assad is the 19th and current President of Syria, holding the office since 17 July 2000. He is also commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces, General Secretary of the ruling Arab Socialist Baath Party and he is a son of Hafez al-Assad, who was President of Syria from 1971 to 2000. Born and raised in Damascus, Assad graduated from the school of Damascus University in 1988. Four years later, he attended postgraduate studies at the Western Eye Hospital in London, in 1994, after his elder brother Bassel died in a car crash, Bashar was recalled to Syria to take over Bassels role as heir apparent. He entered the academy, taking charge of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon in 1998. On 10 July 2000, Assad was elected as President, succeeding his father, in the 2000 and subsequent 2007 election, he received 99. 7% and 97. 6% support, respectively, in referendums on his leadership. On 16 July 2014, Assad was sworn in for another term after taking 88. 7% of votes in the first contested presidential election in Baathist Syrias history. The Assad government describes itself as secular, while some claim that the government exploits sectarian tensions in the country. During the Syrian Civil War, an inquiry by the United Nations reported finding evidence which implicated Assad in war crimes, in June 2014, Assad was included in a list of war crimes indictments of government officials and rebels handed to the International Criminal Court. Assad has rejected allegations of war crimes, and criticised the American-led intervention in Syria for attempting regime change, however, after the election of Donald Trump, the priority of the United States concerning Assad is to no longer force him out of power. Bashar Hafez al-Assad was born in Damascus on 11 September 1965, al-Assad in Arabic means the Lion, Assads peasant paternal grandfather had changed the family name from Wahsh upon acquiring minor noble status in 1927. Hafez promoted his supporters within the Baath Party, many of whom were also of Alawite background, after the coup, Alawite strongmen were installed while Sunnis, Druzes and Ismailis were purged from the army and Baath party. Assad had five siblings, three of whom are deceased, a sister named Bushra died in infancy. Assads youngest brother, Majd, was not a figure and little is known about him other than he was intellectually disabled. Unlike his brothers Bassel and Maher, and second sister, also named Bushra, Bashar was quiet, reserved and lacked interest in politics or the military. The Assad children reportedly rarely saw their father, and Bashar later stated that he entered his fathers office once while he was president. Assad received his primary and secondary education in the Arab-French al-Hurriya School in Damascus, in 1982, he graduated from high school and went on to study medicine at Damascus University. In 1988, Assad graduated from school and began working as an army doctor at the Tishrin military hospital on the outskirts of Damascus
8.
Fox News
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Fox News, officially known as the Fox News Channel, is an American basic cable and satellite news television channel that is owned by the Fox Entertainment Group subsidiary of 21st Century Fox. As of February 2015, approximately 94,700,000 American households receive the Fox News Channel, the channel broadcasts primarily from studios at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York City, New York. The channel was created by Australian-American media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who hired former Republican Party media consultant and it launched on October 7,1996, to 17 million cable subscribers. It grew during the late 1990s and 2000s to become a dominant cable news network in the United States, Rupert Murdoch is the current chairman and acting CEO of Fox News. Fox News Channel has been accused of biased reporting and promoting the Republican Party, critics have cited the channel as detrimental to the integrity of news overall. Fox News Channel employees have responded that news reporting operates independently of its opinion and commentary programming, in July 1985, 20th Century Fox announced that Murdoch had completed his purchase of 50 percent of Fox Filmed Entertainment, the parent company of 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. A year later, 20th Century Fox earned $5.6 million in its third period ended May 31,1986. Prior to founding FNC, Murdoch had gained experience in the 24-hour news business when News Corporations BSkyB subsidiary began Europes first 24-hour news channel in the United Kingdom in 1989, in February 1996, after former U. S. Republican Party political strategist and NBC executive Roger Ailes left cable television channel Americas Talking, Ailes demanded five months of 14-hour workdays and several weeks of rehearsal shows before its launch on October 7,1996. At its debut 17 million households were able to watch FNC, however, it was absent from the markets of New York City. Rolling news coverage during the day consisted of 20-minute single-topic shows such as Fox on Crime or Fox on Politics, interviews featured facts at the bottom of the screen about the topic or the guest. The flagship newscast at the time was The Schneider Report, with Mike Schneiders fast-paced delivery of the news, during the evening, Fox featured opinion shows, The OReilly Report, The Crier Report and Hannity & Colmes. From the beginning, FNC has placed emphasis on visual presentation. Graphics were designed to be colorful and attention-getting, this helped the viewer to grasp the main points of what was being said, Fox News also created the Fox News Alert, which interrupted its regular programming when a breaking news story occurred. To accelerate its adoption by cable providers, Fox News paid systems up to $11 per subscriber to distribute the channel and this contrasted with the normal practice, in which cable operators paid stations carriage fees for programming. Time Warner selected MSNBC as the news channel, not Fox News. Fox News claimed that this violated an agreement, citing its agreement to keep its U. S. City officials threatened to take action affecting Time Warners cable franchises in the city, during the September 11,2001 attacks, Fox News was the first news organization to run a news ticker on the bottom of the screen to keep up with the flow of information that day
9.
Citadel of Damascus
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The Citadel of Damascus is a large medieval fortified palace and citadel in Damascus, Syria. It is part of the Ancient City of Damascus, which was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, after the assassination of Atsiz bin Uvak, the project was finished by the Seljuq ruler Tutush I. The emirs of the subsequent Burid and Zengid dynasties carried out modifications, during this period, the citadel and the city were besieged several times by Crusader and Muslim armies. In 1174, the citadel was captured by Saladin, the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, Saladins brother Al-Adil rebuilt the citadel completely between 1203 and 1216 in response to the development of the counterweight trebuchet. After his death, power struggles broke out between the other Ayyubid princes and although Damascus switched hands several times, the citadel was taken by force only once, in 1239. The citadel remained in Ayyubid hands until the Mongols under their general Kitbuqa captured Damascus in 1260, after an unsuccessful revolt broke out in the citadel, the Mongols had most of it dismantled. After the defeat of the Mongols in 1260 by the Mamluks, except for brief periods in 1300 and 1401, when the Mongols conquered Damascus, the Mamluks controlled the citadel until 1516. In that year, Syria fell into the hands of the Ottoman Empire, Damascus surrendered without a fight and from the 17th century onward the citadel functioned as barracks for the Jannisaries—Ottoman infantry units. The citadel continued to serve as a barracks and prison until 1986, as of 2011, excavation and restoration efforts are still ongoing. The citadel is located in the northwest corner of the city walls, the citadel consists of a more or less rectangular curtain wall enclosing an area of 230 by 150 metres. The walls were protected by 14 massive towers, but today only 12 remain. The citadel has gates on its northern, western and eastern flanks, the current citadel dates primarily to the Ayyubid period while incorporating parts of the older Seljuq fortress. Extensive repairs in response to sieges and earthquakes were carried out in the Mamluk and it is uncertain whether a building stood on the site of the citadel before the 11th century AD. The area occupied by the citadel was most likely outside this first settlement. The presence of a citadel during the Hellenistic period is uncertain, Damascus certainly had a citadel during the Roman period, but whether it was located on the site of the present citadel is uncertain and subject to scholarly debate. In 1076, Damascus was conquered by the Turkman warlord Atsiz bin Uvak and he then tried to invade the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt but was defeated in 1077. The Fatimids subsequently built on their victory over Atsiz and besieged Damascus in 1077 and again in 1078, the siege of 1078 was eventually lifted by Tutush I, brother of the Seljuq sultan Malik Shah I, to whom Atsiz had appealed for help. After the Fatimid besiegers had left, Tutush I took over the city and, the construction of the citadel was finished under Tutush I
10.
Maktab Anbar
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Maktab Anbar is an old house in the center of Old Damascus near the Umayyad Mosque and a short distance from the Street Called Straight. The house was built as a residence by a local Jewish notable Mr. Anbar in the mid 19th century and was later confiscated by the Ottoman government after Mr. Anbar went bankrupt. He had made his fortune in the Far East, returned to Damascus many years later, the family story was that he had lent a lot of money to the Sultan of Turkey who refused to return the money. The family in desperation asked the Kaiser of Germany to intervene, the Sultan was so furious that he never returned the funds and Mr. Anbar then went into bankruptcy and lost the house. The family later was said to have emigrated to Alexandria in Egypt, the house is built around three courtyards, first the formal reception courtyard, behind this the attractive female courtyard, and finally the spartan servants courtyard. The main sections were completed at tremendous expense, and due to high costs Mr. Anbar abandoned the project In 1887, the house was restored by the Ministry of Culture in 1976. It now holds an exhibition hall, museum and craft workshops
