1.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
2.
Television
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Television or TV is a telecommunication medium used for transmitting moving images in monochrome, or in color, and in two or three dimensions and sound. The term can refer to a set, a television program. Television is a medium for entertainment, education, news, politics, gossip. Television became available in experimental forms in the late 1920s. After World War II, a form of black-and-white TV broadcasting became popular in the United States and Britain, and television sets became commonplace in homes, businesses. During the 1950s, television was the medium for influencing public opinion. In the mid-1960s, color broadcasting was introduced in the US, for many reasons, the storage of television and video programming now occurs on the cloud. At the end of the first decade of the 2000s, digital television transmissions greatly increased in popularity, another development was the move from standard-definition television to high-definition television, which provides a resolution that is substantially higher. HDTV may be transmitted in various formats, 1080p, 1080i, in 2013, 79% of the worlds households owned a television set. Most TV sets sold in the 2000s were flat-panel, mainly LEDs, major manufacturers announced the discontinuation of CRT, DLP, plasma, and even fluorescent-backlit LCDs by the mid-2010s. In the near future, LEDs are gradually expected to be replaced by OLEDs, also, major manufacturers have announced that they will increasingly produce smart TVs in the mid-2010s. Smart TVs with integrated Internet and Web 2.0 functions became the dominant form of television by the late 2010s, Television signals were initially distributed only as terrestrial television using high-powered radio-frequency transmitters to broadcast the signal to individual television receivers. Alternatively television signals are distributed by cable or optical fiber, satellite systems and. Until the early 2000s, these were transmitted as analog signals, a standard television set is composed of multiple internal electronic circuits, including a tuner for receiving and decoding broadcast signals. A visual display device which lacks a tuner is correctly called a video monitor rather than a television, the word television comes from Ancient Greek τῆλε, meaning far, and Latin visio, meaning sight. The Anglicised version of the term is first attested in 1907 and it was. formed in English or borrowed from French télévision. In the 19th century and early 20th century, other. proposals for the name of a technology for sending pictures over distance were telephote. The abbreviation TV is from 1948, the use of the term to mean a television set dates from 1941
3.
Franciscans
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The Franciscans are a group of related mendicant religious orders within the Catholic Church, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. These orders include the Order of Friars Minor, the Order of Saint Clare, Francis began preaching around 1207 and traveled to Rome to seek approval from the Pope in 1209. The original Rule of Saint Francis approved by the Pope disallowed ownership of property, the austerity was meant to emulate the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Franciscans traveled and preached in the streets, while boarding in church properties, Saint Clare, under Franciss guidance, founded the Poor Clares in 1212, which remains a Second Order of the Franciscans. The extreme poverty required of members was relaxed in final revision of the Rule in 1223, the degree of observance required of members remained a major source of conflict within the order, resulting in numerous secessions. The Order of Friars Minor, previously known as the Observant branch, is one of the three Franciscan First Orders within the Catholic Church, the others being the Capuchins and Conventuals. The Order of Friars Minor, in its current form, is the result of an amalgamation of smaller orders completed in 1897 by Pope Leo XIII. The latter two, the Capuchin and Conventual, remain distinct religious institutes within the Catholic Church, observing the Rule of Saint Francis with different emphases, Franciscans are sometimes referred to as minorites or greyfriars because of their habit. In Poland and Lithuania they are known as Bernardines, after Bernardino of Siena, the name of original order, Friars Minor, means lesser brothers, and stems from Francis of Assisis rejection of extravagance. Francis was the son of a cloth merchant, but gave up his wealth to pursue his faith more fully. Francis adopted of the tunic worn by peasants as the religious habit for his order. Those who joined him became the original Order of Friars Minor and they all live according to a body of regulations known as the Rule of St Francis. First Order The First Order or the Order of Friars Minor are commonly called simply the Franciscans and this Order is a mendicant religious order of men, some of whom trace their origin to Francis of Assisi. Their official Latin name is the Ordo Fratrum Minorum, St. Francis thus referred to his followers as Fraticelli, meaning Little Brothers. Franciscan brothers are informally called friars or the Minorites and they all live according to a body of regulations known as the Rule of St Francis. These are The Order of Friars Minor, known as the Observants, most commonly simply called Franciscan friars, official name, the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin or simply Capuchins, official name, Friars Minor Capuchin. The Conventual Franciscans or Minorites, official name, Friars Minor Conventual, Second Order The Second Order, most commonly called Poor Clares in English-speaking countries, consists of religious sisters. The order is called the Order of St. Clare, but in the century, prior to 1263, this order was referred to as The Poor Ladies, The Poor Enclosed Nuns
4.
John Barrowman
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John Scot Barrowman, MBE, is a Scottish-American actor, singer, dancer, presenter and writer who holds both British and American citizenship. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, he moved to the United States with his family in 1975 and his most recent West End credit was in the 2009 production of La Cage aux Folles. Aside his theatrical career, Barrowman has appeared in films including the musical biopic De-Lovely. Barrowman has also had a number of guest roles in television both in the US and the UK. Any Dream Will Do and Id Do Anything, in 2006, he was voted Stonewalls Entertainer of the Year. Starting in 2013, he hosts the BBC One quiz show Pressure Pad, Barrowman now stars in the CWs Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow as Malcolm Merlyn, the shows version of the DC villain Merlyn and one of the two series main antagonists. Barrowman is also featured on more than a musical theatre recordings including cover tunes found on his 2007 album, Another Side. Both albums accrued places on the UK Albums Chart, as did his self-titled John Barrowman, furthermore, Barrowman has published two memoirs and autobiographies, Anything Goes and I Am What I Am, with his sister Carole as co-author. The siblings also teamed up to write a novel, Hollow Earth, the second book in the series, Bone Quill, has been released in the UK and was released in the US in July 2013. Barrowman was born in 1967 in Glasgow, the youngest of three siblings and he lived in Glasgow for the first eight years of his life. Barrowmans mother was a singer and worked as a clerk in a shop while his father was employed by the Caterpillar heavy machinery company in Uddingston. In 1975, his fathers company relocated the family to the United States, Barrowman recalls his family as loving, but strict and mindful of etiquette, always polite and respectful towards others. Comparing the two countries where he was raised, Barrowman concludes, Scotland gave us, as a family, closeness, the family settled in Joliet, where Barrowman attended Joliet West High School in the heart of a quintessentially middle-class conservative town. His English teacher moved him into a Gifted Programme and coached Barrowman for the speech team. With the support of his teacher, Barrowman competed with schools in statewide speech competitions. As a freshman, Barrowman won parts in musical productions and from 1983 to 1986. Barrowman spent his senior year shovelling coal for an Illinois power company and his father had arranged the job to give Barrowman the experience of manual labour. His father told him, If you want to do manual labour for the rest of your life youll know that when you do it, its a choice
5.
SWAT
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SWAT is a term for law enforcement units which use specialized or military equipment and tactics in the United States. In the United States as of 2005, SWAT teams were deployed 50,000 times every year, almost 80% of the time to search warrants. Other countries have developed their own police units that are also described as or compared to SWAT forces. SWAT units are equipped with specialized firearms including submachine guns, assault rifles, breaching shotguns, sniper rifles, riot control agents. The tactic worked and was soon to resolve other types of incidents involving heavily-armed criminals. The LAPD promoted what became known as SWAT teams for a variety of reasons, after the racially charged Watts Riots in Los Angeles in August 1965, the LAPD began considering tactics it could use when faced with urban unrest, rioting, or widespread violence. Daryl Gates, who led the LAPD response to the riots, would write that police at the time didnt face a single mob. New York University professor Christian Parenti has written that SWAT teams were originally conceived of as an urban counterinsurgency bulwark. Another reason for the creation of SWAT teams was the fear of lone or barricaded gunmen who might outperform police in a shootout, after the LAPDs establishment of its own SWAT team, many law enforcement agencies across the United States established their own specialized units under various names. At the time, the United Farm Workers union led by César Chavez was staging numerous protests in Delano, though the strike never turned violent, the Delano Police Department responded by forming ad-hoc SWAT-type units involving crowd and riot control, sniper skills and surveillance. Television news stations and print media carried live and delayed reportage of events across the United States. Personnel from the LAPD, having seen these broadcasts, contacted Delano, inspector Gates approved this idea, and he formed a small select group of volunteer officers. This first SWAT unit initially consisted of fifteen teams of four men each and these officers were given special status and benefits, and were required to attend special monthly training sessions. The unit also served as a security unit for police facilities during civil unrest, the LAPD SWAT units were organized as D Platoon in the Metro division. Early police powers and tactics used by SWAT teams were aided by legislation passed in 1967-8 with the help of Republican House representative Donald Santarelli. The legislation was promoted within the context of fears over the Civil Rights Movement, race riots, the Black Panther Party, and the emerging War on Drugs. The first significant deployment of the LAPDs SWAT unit was on December 9,1969, the raid was problematic from the start, leading to a shoot-out in which Daryl Gates phoned the Department of Defense, requesting and receiving permission to use a grenade launcher. The Panthers eventually surrendered, with four Panthers and four officers being injured, all six arrested Panthers were acquitted of the most serious charges brought against them, including conspiracy to murder police officers, because it was ruled that they acted in self-defense
6.
Keeping Up Appearances
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The show spawned five series and 44 episodes, four of which are Christmas specials. Since its original release, all five series—including Christmas specials—have been available on DVD and it is also available for viewing on Netflix. In 2004, it came 12th in the poll for Britains Best Sitcom, in February 2016, it was confirmed by BBC Worldwide that Keeping Up Appearances is the corporations most exported television programme, being sold nearly 1000 times to overseas broadcasters. A prequel titled Young Hyacinth, featuring Hyacinth as a 19-year-old maid in the 1950s, was made that year, shes terrified that her background will be revealed, and goes to great lengths to hide it. Hyacinth likes to spend her days visiting stately homes and hosting executive-style candlelight suppers and she speaks in an exaggerated RP-like accent with Northern undertones, while her relatives speak in broad Northern accents. Her neighbours speak in milder RP accents, when flustered, Hyacinth regresses to her native Northern accent for a while. Although Hyacinth is not deterred by the lack of response to her attempts, nearly everyone around her lives in fear of being invited, the one who suffers the most is her husband Richard. He initially worked for the council but, at the beginning of series 3, although he loves her with a long-suffering endurance, he is notably exasperated by her plans and her habit of making extravagant and unnecessary purchases. They, along with Hyacinths senile father, frequently turn up inconveniently, Hyacinths senile father frequently has flashbacks to the Second World War, and often exhibits bizarre behaviour, sometimes involving embarrassing situations with women. Two relatives Hyacinth is not ashamed of are her wealthy sister Violet, Violet frequently telephones Hyacinth for advice, allowing her to loudly announce to anyone in earshot, Its my sister Violet – the one with a Mercedes, swimming pool/sauna and room for a pony. However, Violets social acceptability is damaged by the behaviour of her transvestite, equestrian-loving husband Bruce. Hyacinth also tries to impress people with the prowess of her beloved Sheridan. Hyacinth boasts about the closeness of their relationship and how often he writes to her and phones her, although he never writes to her. Hyacinth is blissfully oblivious of the seemingly obvious hints that Sheridan and it is at one point implied that Sheridan has come out to his father. Hyacinths neighbour Elizabeth Warden is frequently invited round to the Buckets for coffee, though she is ordinarily calm, Lizs nerves go to pieces in Hyacinths house, causing her to smash Hyacinths china and spill coffee and biscuits on Hyacinths Burmese rug. She is married with a daughter away at University, but her works abroad and, like Sheridan. Elizabeth is occasionally able to one-up Hyacinth herself by reminding her neighbour that her daughter is at University, Lizs brother Emmet moves in with her at the beginning of series 2 after a messy divorce. Emmets problems are complicated by Hyacinths mistaken belief that his frightened reactions indicate that he is infatuated with her
