Vasa or Wasa is a Swedish warship built between 1626 and 1628. The ship foundered after sailing about 1,300 m into her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628, she fell into obscurity after most of her valuable bronze cannon were salvaged in the 17th century until she was located again in the late 1950s in a busy shipping lane just outside Stockholm harbor. The ship was salvaged with a intact hull in 1961, she was housed in a temporary museum called Wasavarvet until 1988 and moved permanently to the Vasa Museum in the Royal National City Park in Stockholm. The ship is one of Sweden's most popular tourist attractions and has been seen by over 35 million visitors since 1961. Since her recovery, Vasa has become a recognised symbol of the Swedish "great power period"; the ship was built on the orders of the King of Sweden Gustavus Adolphus as part of the military expansion he initiated in a war with Poland-Lithuania. She was constructed at the navy yard in Stockholm under a contract with private entrepreneurs in 1626–1627 and armed with bronze cannons cast in Stockholm for the ship.

Richly decorated as a symbol of the king's ambitions for Sweden and himself, upon completion she was one of the most powerfully armed vessels in the world. However, Vasa was dangerously unstable, with too much weight in the upper structure of the hull. Despite this lack of stability, she was ordered to sea and foundered only a few minutes after encountering a wind stronger than a breeze; the order to sail was the result of a combination of factors. The king, leading the army in Poland at the time of her maiden voyage, was impatient to see her take up her station as flagship of the reserve squadron at Älvsnabben in the Stockholm Archipelago. At the same time the king's subordinates lacked the political courage to discuss the ship's problems or to have the maiden voyage postponed. An inquiry was organised by the Swedish Privy Council to find those responsible for the disaster, but in the end no one was punished. During the 1961 recovery, thousands of artifacts and the remains of at least 15 people were found in and around Vasa's hull by marine archaeologists.

Among the many items found were clothing, cannons, coins, food and six of the ten sails. The artifacts and the ship herself have provided scholars with invaluable insights into details of naval warfare, shipbuilding techniques and everyday life in early 17th-century Sweden. During the 17th century, Sweden went from being a sparsely populated and peripheral northern European kingdom of little influence to one of the major powers in continental politics. Between 1611 and 1718 it was the dominant power in the Baltic gaining territory that encompassed the Baltic on all sides; this rise to prominence in international affairs and increase in military prowess, called stormaktstiden, was made possible by a succession of able monarchs and the establishment of a powerful centralised government, supporting a efficient military organization. Swedish historians have described this as one of the more extreme examples of an early modern state using all of its available resources to wage war. Gustavus Adolphus has been considered one of the most successful Swedish kings in terms of success in warfare.

When Vasa was built, he had been in power for more than a decade. Sweden was embroiled in a war with Poland-Lithuania, looked apprehensively at the development of the Thirty Years' War in present-day Germany; the war had been raging from a Protestant perspective it was not successful. The king's plans for a Polish campaign and for securing Sweden's interests required a strong naval presence in the Baltic; the navy suffered several severe setbacks during the 1620s. In 1625, a squadron cruising in the Bay of Riga was caught in a storm and ten ships ran aground and were wrecked. In the Battle of Oliwa in 1627, a Swedish squadron was outmaneuvered and defeated by a Polish force and two large ships were lost. Tigern, the Swedish admiral's flagship, was captured by the Poles, Solen was blown up by her own crew when it was boarded and nearly captured. In 1628, three more large ships were lost in less than a month. Gustavus Adolphus was engaged in naval warfare on several fronts, which further exacerbated the difficulties of the navy.

In addition to battling the Polish navy, the Swedes were indirectly threatened by Imperial forces that had invaded Jutland. The Swedish king had little sympathy for the Danish king, Christian IV, Denmark and Sweden had been bitter enemies for well over a century. However, Sweden feared a Catholic conquest of Zealand; this would have granted the Catholic powers control over the strategic passages between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, which would be disastrous for Swedish interests. Until the early 17th century, the Swedish navy was composed of small to medium-sized ships with a single gundeck armed with 12-pounder and smaller cannons, they suited the prevailing tactical thinking within the navy, which emphasised boarding as the decisive moment in a naval battle rather than gunnery. The king, a keen artillerist, saw the potential of ships as gun platforms, la

Cowaramup is a town in the South West of Western Australia, 12 kilometres north of Margaret River in the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River. The name Cowaramup derives its name from Cowaramup Siding, located near the townsite, on the now disused Busselton to Augusta railway; the townsite was gazetted in 1925 to support the timber and dairy industries. The name is believed meaning purple-crowned lorikeet. Locals from the region refer to the town as "Cowtown", a reference to the use of "cow" in the town's name and its history of dairy farming. Cowaramup is central to the Margaret River wine region, it is the closest townsite to a number of wineries and other speciality producers including Vasse Felix, Howard Park and Madfish Winery, the Margaret River Chocolate Factory, The Margaret River Dairy Company. The town is close to a popular swimming and surfing beach; as such a large number of tourists to the region pass through and visit the town, playing an important role in the local economy. The town centre consists of a local store providing basic produce, a post office, a bakery, a fruit and vegetable shop, a real estate agent and farm agency, a service station/workshop, a liquor store, a social club and various speciality stores selling everything from gourmet produce and arts and crafts to computing goods.

Accommodation in or near the town consists of the Taunton Farm Caravan Park, a bed and breakfast and various chalets and cottages in the area. There is one restaurant and two cafes in the town as well as numerous others on nearby winery properties; the town has one primary and pre-primary school, a town oval and tennis club, BMX track and a bowling green. The nearest high school and university campuses are in Margaret River. Police and fire services are based in Margaret Busselton. Most residents live in the townsite and surrounding rural properties, including one remaining dairy farm; the local government administration is the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River and the local newspapers are the Augusta Margaret River Times and the Augusta Margaret River Mail. The town is built on Noongar traditional land. Cowaramup is located on the Bussell Highway, which serves as the major link to other towns in the area, as well as Perth, the state capital; the area around Cowaramup is predominantly agricultural/viticulture use, but over the last five years many land releases have proven popular for the many young families and tradesmen who benefited from the building boom in 2005-06.

The Cowaramup Bombora big wave surf break, located 2 km offshore, was the location of two Oakley Biggest Wave award-winning rides. On 26 June 2015 Australian surfer Felicity Palmateer, 22, became the first female to surf Cow Bombie, on the largest wave ridden in Australia by a woman. In 2012 the town installed 42 lifesize fibreglass cow sculptures around the town, as a tourist attraction. In July 2014, the town set a Guinness World Record for the largest group of people – 1,352 – dressed as cows. A permanent cow-themed tourist attraction is the golden cow statue. Created by local artist Ron Roozen in 2010, “Free As A Cow” is located in Pioneer Park and is locally known as “Rump On A Stump”

Vilim Herman is a prominent Croatian university professor at the University of Osijek, attorney at law and former representative in the Croatian Parliament. Herman was born in Osijek to a Jewish family; the first written records of his family date back to 1832, when his great-grandfather moved to Osijek from Warsaw, Poland. Herman's great-grandfather was a merchant who owned a trade business "S. Weiss & D. Herrmann" in Osijek district Donji grad, his father, Maks Herman, advised him to study law. Herman earned his degree from the University of Belgrade's Law School Herman has been member of the Croatian Social Liberal Party since 1990. In the 2nd assembly of Sabor, Herman was elected to fill a minority quota as a Jewish representative, in the Croatian Social Liberal Party electoral list. In the 4th assembly of Sabor, Herman was a member of the HSLS, after that the Party of Liberal Democrats. In the 5th assembly of Sabor, he was a member of LIBRA of HNS-LD, in 2005 he joined the Slavonia-Baranja Croatian Party