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Czech Republic, also called Czechia, country located in central Europe. It comprises the historical provinces of Bohemia and Moravia along with the southern tip of Silesia, collectively often called the Czech Lands. In 2016 the country adopted the name "Czechia" as a shortened, informal name for the Czech Republic.
Despite its landlocked location, there were brief periods in the Middle Ages during which Bohemia had access to the Baltic and Adriatic seacoasts—which no doubt was on William Shakespeare's mind when he set much of his play The Winter's Tale there. A region of rolling hills and mountains, Bohemia is dominated by the national capital, Prague. Set on the Vltava River, this picturesque city of bridges and spires is the unique work of generations of artists brought in by the rulers of Bohemia. Perhaps only the French are as focused on their capital, Paris, as the Czechs are on theirs; of the two, Prague has a more magical quality for many. Called "the handsomest city of Europe" since the 18th century, it has intoxicated writers, poets, and musicians alike. While Prague was the birthplace of the writer Franz Kafka and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, Brno, Moravia's largest city, was the site of Gregor Mendel's groundbreaking genetic experiments in the 19th century and the birthplace of contemporary novelist Milan Kundera. Moravians are as proud of their vineyards and wine as Bohemians are of their breweries and the Pilsner beer that originated in the town of Plzeň (Pilsen), which is also noted as the site of the Škoda Works—a heavy industrial complex that originated with the Habsburg monarchy. Moravia was equally endowed with skilled labour, which helped make Brno into one of the leading industrial towns in textiles and engineering during the 19th century and Ostrava, in the north, into a major coal-mining region, thanks to the vast fossil fuel deposits stretching over from Silesia.
History is always close at hand in the Czech Republic, where stunning castles such as Karlštejn (former keep of the royal crown of St. Wenceslas) and manor houses dot the landscape and medieval town centres abound. During its 1,000-year history, the country has changed shape and reshuffled its population. As the kingdom of Bohemia, it reached its zenith of wealth and power during the 13th and 14th centuries. Through a multitude of cultural, economic, ecclesiastical, and dynastic links, Bohemian kings became directly involved in the affairs of the German rulers of the Holy Roman Empire and opened the country to German colonization, which brought prosperity through silver mining and rapid urbanization. Prague, with the oldest university north of the Alps (Charles University, 1348), functioned as a royal and imperial capital. However, German colonization, which soon accounted for one-third of the total population and disadvantaged the majority Czechs, brought the seeds of discontent, resulting in an ugly, insolvable conflict in the 20th century. In the early 15th century Bohemia witnessed the Hussite revolution, a pre-Reformation movement named for Jan Hus, a follower of the English theologian and reformer John Wycliffe. Religious antagonism prevailed over ethnic tensions when Czechs and Germans jointly led the Protestant uprising that started the Thirty Years' War (1618–48) against the Catholic Habsburgs, the Austro-German dynasty that ruled Bohemia from 1526 to 1918. After the Habsburg victory, the German language replaced Czech for almost two centuries—until the Czechs experienced an extraordinary linguistic and cultural revival that coincided with the revolutions of 1848 and the spread of industrialization. In historian František Palacký and composers such as Bedřich Smetana and Antonín Dvořák, Czech nationalism found its ideal spokesmen.
The collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War I brought the Czechs and Slovaks together for the first time as "Czechoslovaks." The Czechs became the ruling ethnic group in Czechoslovakia, a new state in which Germans and Hungarians lived as unwilling citizens, bound to become disloyal minorities bent on undermining the democratic constitution engendered by the country's founders, Tomáš G. Masaryk and Edvard Beneš. Many among this German population turned into Nazi sympathizers with the ascent to power of Adolf Hitler in Germany, whose design on the German-speaking border region of Czechoslovakia was appeased by England and France in the Munich Agreement of September 1938. Emasculated, Czechoslovakia succumbed to direct German invasion six months later. Bohemia and Moravia became a protectorate of the "Greater German Empire," while Slovakia—whose Hungarian districts were ceded to Hungary—was induced by Hitler to proclaim its independence.
After six years of brutal Nazi occupation (with its legacy of the Holocaust and the postwar mass expulsion of some three million Bohemian and Slovak [Carpathian] Germans), Czechoslovakia was reconstituted, this time without Ruthenia (Transcarpathian Ukraine), which was annexed by the Soviet Union. A communist coup in February 1948 sealed Czechoslovakia's fate as a member of the Soviet bloc for the entire Cold War—though briefly, in the Prague Spring of 1968, a reform movement took over, only to be crushed by Soviet military invasion in August of that year. Still, that experience of freedom produced an underground dissident movement, later called Charter 77, whose leader, playwright Václav Havel, was propelled from prison to the royal castle, becoming the first president of postcommunist Czechoslovakia with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
The last modification of the modern Czech nation-state was inaugurated on January 1, 1993, when the union with Slovakia was dissolved. As the Czech Republic, the new country joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1999 and the European Union (EU) in 2004.
The country is bordered by Poland to the north and northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest. The Bohemian Massif occupies the major portion of the Czech Republic. It consists of a large, roughly ovoid elevated basin (the Bohemian Plateau) encircled by mountains divided into six major groups. In the southwest are the Šumava Mountains, which include the Bohemian Forest (Böhmerwald). In the west are the Berounka River highlands. In the northwest, the Ore Mountains (Czech: Krušné hory; German: Erzgebirge) form the frontier with Germany. The point at which the Elbe (Labe) River breaches this range is the lowest in the country, with an elevation of 384 feet (117 metres). The so-called Sudeten system of mountains (a name never applied in the Czech language) in the northeast forms most of the border with Poland west of the city of Ostrava. The highest point in the Czech Republic, Mount Sněžka, with an elevation of 5,256 feet (1,602 metres), is found in the major segment of this system, the Giant Mountains (Czech: Krkonoše; German: Riesengebirge). Farther to the east is the Oder (Odra) River lowland, a small fringe along the Polish border. Finally, southeast of the Bohemian Plateau are the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, which include the spectacular Moravian Karst.
In the east the Outer Carpathian Depressions, known to geographers as the Moravian-Silesian Beskids, include the valleys of the upper Oder and Morava rivers and the headstreams of the Dyje. Along the Czech-Slovak border rise the Little Carpathian (Bílé Karpaty) and Javorníky ranges, the westernmost of the Western Carpathian Mountains that dominate Slovakia.
Drainage and soils
The Czech Republic lies in the headwater area of the central European watershed. The Elbe River rises near the Czech-Polish border and sweeps southwestward across Bohemia, receiving the Jizera, Vltava, and Ohře rivers before flowing northward into Germany. The Vltava is navigable from Prague to Mělník, where it empties into the Elbe. From that point onward river traffic can travel all the way to Hamburg. The Morava River, flowing south toward the Danube (Dunaj) River, drains most of Moravia in the east. The Oder River rises in the northeastern Czech Republic and flows northward into Poland. There also are many smaller rivers of little economic importance. Larger rivers such as the Vltava are sources of hydroelectric power. The country is rich in mineral springs, and groundwater reserves are extensively used.
The soil profile of the Czech Republic consists of some rich, black chernozems and good-quality brown soils in the drier and lower areas. Podzols are found in the wet districts, and stony mountain soils are typical at high elevations. Alluvial soils occur in the river basins, and heavy clay soils are found in the eastern ridges.
The Czech climate is mixed. Continental influences are marked by large fluctuations in both temperature and precipitation, while moderating oceanic influences diminish from west to east. In general, temperatures decrease with increasing elevation but are relatively uniform across the lower portions of the country. The mean annual temperature at Cheb in the extreme west is 45 °F (7 °C) and rises to only 48 °F (9 °C) at Brno in southern Moravia. High temperatures can exceed 90 °F (32 °C) in Prague during July, and low temperatures may drop as low as 0 °F (−17 °C) in Cheb during February. The growing season is about 200 days in the south but less than half that in the mountains.
Annual precipitation ranges from 18 inches (450 mm) in the central Bohemian basins to more than 60 inches (1500 mm) on windward slopes of the Krkonoše Mountains of the north. Maximum precipitation falls during July, while the minimum occurs in February. There are no recognizable climatic zones but rather a succession of small and varied districts; climate thus follows the topography in contributing to the diversity of the natural environment.
Plant and animal life
Although large areas of the original forest cover have been cleared for cultivation and for timber, woodlands remain a characteristic feature of the Czech landscape. Oak, beech, and spruce dominate the forest zones in ascending order of elevation. In the highest reaches can be found taiga and tundra vegetation characteristic of more-northerly or more-elevated regions elsewhere in Europe. The timberline runs at about 4,500 feet (1,400 metres) above sea level. At these higher elevations, as in the Giant Mountains, the tree cover below the timberline consists of little more than dwarf pine. The Alpine zone supports grasses and low-growing bushes.
The country's wildlife is extensive and varied. Large mammals include bears, wolves, lynx, and wildcats (Felis sylvestris). Smaller mammals, such as marmots, otters, martens, and minks, also inhabit the forests and wetlands. Game birds, especially pheasants, partridges, wild geese, and ducks, are common. Rarer species, such as eagles, vultures, ospreys, storks, eagle owls, bustards, and capercaillies, generally are protected.
The preservation of the natural heritage is an important goal of the Czech government. Rare or endangered species such as the mouflon (a mountain sheep) are bred in game reserves, and nature reserves have been created to preserve especially important landscapes, notably the Šumava Forest, Moravian Karst, and Jizera Mountains. Tourists are given controlled access to the reserve areas. Krkonoše National Park, established in 1963, protects glacial landscapes and Alpine vegetation as well as some relict boreal-Arctic species, such as the Alpine shrew (Sorex alpinus); despite these preservation efforts, however, the park has been extensively developed as a ski resort.
Ethnic groups
Czechs make up roughly two-thirds of the population. The Moravians consider themselves to be a distinct group within this majority. A small Slovak minority remains from the Czechoslovakian federal period. An even smaller Polish population exists in northeastern Moravia, and some Germans still live in northwestern Bohemia. Roma (Gypsies) constitute a still smaller but distinct minority, having resisted assimilation for the most part.
Czech is the official state language and as a literary language dates to the late 13th century. The majority of the population speaks Czech as their first language. Czech and Slovak are mutually intelligible languages belonging to the West Slavic language group, which uses the Latin (Roman) rather than the Cyrillic alphabet. Among the other languages spoken by minorities in the Czech Republic are Romani, German, and Polish.
During the communist era, no official statistics were kept on religion, though the activities of churches were financed by the government following the nationalization of all church property by 1949. Atheism was the official policy of the communist government, and the churches' role was largely restricted to religious rites. Although religious freedom was restored in 1989, in the early 21st century almost nine-tenths of Czechs claimed no religious affiliation. A visit to Czechoslovakia by Pope John Paul II in April 1990 celebrated the resurgence of Roman Catholicism, and roughly one-tenth of Czechs are adherents of that faith. There are also Eastern Orthodox congregations and various small Protestant sects, of which the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren is one of the most important. A significant number of Czechs are members of the national Czech church, which was founded in 1920 and took the name Czechoslovak Hussite Church in 1972.
Settlement patterns
Industrialization and urbanization have changed the face of the Czech traditional regions, although Bohemia and, to a lesser extent, Moravia are still recognizable entities, reflecting different national and cultural heritages. Southern Bohemia and southeastern Moravia preserve local traditions of cuisine, and residents wear folk costumes on special occasions. Traditional wooden architecture is a distinctive feature of some rural areas.
Population density in the Czech Republic is high; in general, communities are only a few miles apart. A notable exception are some frontier areas—the low densities of which reflect the induced emigration of minorities, such as the three million Sudeten Germans who were expelled after World War II. Rural settlements are characteristically compact, but in the mountainous regions, colonized during the 13th and 14th centuries, villages straggling along narrow valleys are common. The collectivization of farmland that took place in the decades following World War II resulted in a pattern of large, regularly shaped fields, replacing the centuries-old division of land into small, irregular, privately owned plots.
Urbanization in the Czech Republic is not particularly high for an industrialized country, with about three-fourths of the population being urban. Even the smallest urban centres, however, usually contain some manufacturing industry. Prague, the national capital, has historically occupied a predominant role. Brno is the chief industrial and cultural city of Moravia. Other large cities include Ostrava, the leading coal-mining and steel centre, and Plzeň, with old, established engineering and brewing industries.
New towns were founded both before and after World War II. Notable among prewar settlements is the Moravian valley town of Zlín, founded in 1923. The towns of Havířov, in the Ostrava region, and Ostrov, near Karlovy Vary in the west, were built since World War II.
Demographic trends
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, population growth was mitigated by emigration to the urban centres of Austria-Hungary and overseas, especially to the United States. In general, the outstanding feature of the years of federation was stable population growth. This rather slow rate of growth was attributable in part to changes in lifestyle associated with urbanization and with the increased employment of women outside the home. Since the mid-1990s, however, the population of the Czech Republic has been declining. Moreover, by the early 21st century a decrease in the birth rate and increase in the average life span resulted in a generally older Czech population.
With the so-called Velvet Revolution of 1989, Czechoslovakia freed itself of communist control and set out to adapt its command economy to the free market. The government introduced a program based on policies of price liberalization, the opening of markets to foreign trade and investment, internal convertibility of the country's currency, privatization of state-owned enterprises, and tax reform. While the Czech Republic and Slovakia both were successors to the federal state, long-standing inequities in economic development gave the Czechs a decided advantage over the Slovaks. Rigid economic compartmentalization under Comecon (Council on Mutual Economic Assistance) made Slovakia, with its mineral resources and hydroelectric potential, a major producer of armaments for the former communist countries of eastern Europe. The economy of the Czech Republic, on the other hand, was relatively diversified and stable, reflecting both a more amenable geography and the historic predominance of Czechs in the federal administration.
Once the political breach appeared inevitable, Czechs and Slovaks faced the unprecedented challenges of dividing Czechoslovakia's economy and assets. The historical imbalance in government assets between the two and the problems it posed for fair apportionment were particularly pronounced in the case of military installations and equipment, of which the Czech Republic held the great majority. The bulk of Slovakia's military-industrial component, by contrast, consisted of its armament manufacture, which declined precipitously with the collapse of its communist markets.
Based on its inherent advantages—a well-educated and skilled labour force, proximity to western Europe, and a low level of foreign debt—the Czech Republic experienced fairly low unemployment and respectable economic performance during its first years as a separate entity. The new government, headed by Pres. Václav Havel and Prime Minister Václav Klaus (Czechoslovakia's former finance minister and a principal architect of postcommunist economic policy), pledged to continue along the path of economic reform, with the goal of large-scale privatization as a priority. Privatization was achieved by means of a voucher system through which Czech citizens purchased shares in state-owned enterprises. Restructuring of the country's antiquated and inefficient manufacturing sector, however, lagged behind. Nevertheless, the Czech Republic's success in keeping down unemployment and inflation while maintaining steady growth resulted in its being singled out as one of the greatest economic successes of postcommunist eastern Europe. In addition, large influxes of visitors fostered the rapid development of the tourism industry and service sector, which provided new employment that helped limit some of the usual hardships of economic restructuring.
Within a few years, however, it became obvious that the Czech economy was not as healthy as had been believed. The government's failure to proceed with restructuring of key sectors of the economy and to create transparent financial market regulations began to take a toll. Poor management and corruption in the banking industry (much of which had remained largely state controlled) resulted in the failure of eight banks in 1996. In addition, many Czechs who had turned over their privatization vouchers to unregulated private investment funds—in exchange for promises of substantial returns—lost their investments when these dubious funds began to go bankrupt. In 1997 the government responded to the economic crisis by instituting a package of austerity measures and introducing a floating exchange rate, which resulted in a significant depreciation of the koruna, the state currency.
Despite these economic measures and the establishment of a new securities commission, in the late 1990s the Czech Republic fell into a recession, marked by declines in gross domestic product (GDP) and wages, a growing foreign-trade deficit, and rising unemployment. In the opening years of the 21st century, the economy rebounded, faltered briefly, and then rebounded again; and though the country's public finance deficit grew precipitously, many positive economic indicators surpassed the high levels of the mid-1990s, as the Czech economy became among the fastest-growing in the European Union (EU), which the Czech Republic joined in 2004.
For the most part, Czechs enjoy a standard of living higher than other former communist countries in eastern Europe. However, employment rates and, consequently, standards of living vary by region. For example, Prague, with its thriving international tourist trade, has had a negligible unemployment rate of less than 1 percent at the same time that some rural regions were experiencing rates as much as 20 times higher. Nationally, by the middle of the first decade of the 2000s, less than one-tenth of the workforce was unemployed. While the euro zone struggled with a devastating debt crisis that had begun in 2009, the Czech Republic continued to post modest growth. This owed in part to the country's status within the EU: it had open access to European markets and EU subsidies, but it had not yet adopted the euro as its national currency and was thus insulated from the worst effects of the downturn.Francis William Carter Milan Hauner
Agriculture and forestry
Czech agriculture is among the most advanced in eastern Europe, with better than average yields. The country does not suffer from a shortage of agricultural land, but its land is used far less efficiently than that in western Europe. With the end of communism, land that had been confiscated after World War II to form large state-controlled farms was gradually restored to its previous owners. Although members of smaller collective farms were entitled to withdraw their land from the collective, small land holders did not necessarily receive their own land back; instead, they often were allotted a plot of comparable worth at another location. The agricultural market is now wholly liberalized, with about one-fourth of farmland cultivated by individuals, one-third by cooperatives, and about two-fifths by corporations.
Wheat, sugar beets, barley, rye, oats, and potatoes are the most important crops. Pigs, cattle, sheep, and poultry are the dominant livestock. High-quality hops used by the country's breweries are cultivated in Bohemia. Moravia, particularly southern Moravia, is a grape-growing region and is the centre of the Czech Republic's wine industry, though vineyards are also found elsewhere.
Reforestation efforts of the early 1980s were offset by the effects of acid rain, which prompted cutting beyond the projected rate. By 1989 nearly three-fifths of the republic's forests had been destroyed or seriously damaged. Since then, renewed reforestation efforts have been more effective with deciduous trees than with conifers, resulting in little overall change in the total forest area, which occupies about one-third of the country.
Resources and power
Although reserves are limited, the Czech Republic produces significant quantities of bituminous, anthracite, and brown coal. Most of the bituminous coal is derived from the Ostrava-Karviná coalfield in the northeast, although it is also mined near Kladno in the Plzeň basin, as well as near Trutnov and Brno. A high proportion of the bituminous coal is of coking quality. Production of brown coal increased rapidly up to the mid-20th century and remained fairly static until the 1990s, when production declined as the industry faced restructuring and privatization. The main areas of brown-coal mining are in the extreme west around Chomutov, Most, Teplice, and Sokolov. Brown coal is used in thermal power stations, as fuel in the home, and as raw material in the chemical industry. Small quantities of petroleum and natural gas are produced near Hodonín on the Slovak border. Pipelines import Russian oil and natural gas, the latter supplementing existing coal gas supplies. The completion in the late 1990s of an oil pipeline that transports oil from the port of Trieste, Italy, allowed the Czech Republic to be less reliant on Russian oil sources. Nuclear power plants located in Dukovany and Temelín, as well as nuclear power from Slovakia, have reduced the country's dependence on coal only slightly; about three-fourths of the Czech Republic's electricity is derived from fossil fuels.
The Czech Republic has limited deposits of metallic ores. Lead and zinc ores are mined near Kutná Hora and Příbram in Bohemia and in the Hrubý Jeseník Mountains in the northeast. Uranium is mined near Příbram and around Hamr in northern Bohemia. There is a significant gold deposit at Mokrsko, in central Bohemia, south of Prague. The Ore Mountains of Bohemia yield small quantities of tin. Other mineral resources include graphite near České Budějovice and kaolin near Plzeň and Karlovy Vary.
Although much of the industry in the Czech Republic in the early 1990s could be characterized as obsolete by western European standards, some sectors, notably the automobile and electronics industries, are now modern and efficient. Engineering is the largest branch of industry. Also very important are food processing and brewing, as well as the chemical, rubber, cement, textile, footwear, and glass industries. The Czech iron and steel industries have traditionally been among the largest in eastern Europe but rely mainly on imported ores (especially from Ukraine). Steel production is centred on the plants of the Ostrava area (in Moravia), with lesser amounts produced at Kladno, Plzeň, and Chomutov (all in Bohemia). The heavy manufacturing sector produces automobiles, trucks, tractors, buses, airplanes, motorcycles, and diesel and electric locomotives and rail and tram cars.
The major Czech car manufacturer remains Škoda, eastern Europe's oldest car manufacturer, whose main plant is located in Mladá Boleslav. Taken over in the early 1990s by the German company Volkswagen and thoroughly modernized, Škoda became the Czech Republic's biggest export earner in the early 2000s, accounting for about one-tenth of the country's overall exports and becoming a source of national pride.
On the day of partition, the Czech National Bank and its Slovak counterpart replaced the federal monobank, the State Bank of Czechoslovakia. Initially, however, the federal monetary system remained essentially intact, with each country identifying its currency by applying stamps to it. The rapid economic divergence of the two republics, however, ended this arrangement after only one month, and separate currencies were inaugurated.
The National Bank oversees all financial institutions in the country. Numerous commercial and joint-venture banks, providing a full range of financial services, came into being after democratization. Improper lending practices and embezzlement contributed to the failure of the Kreditni bank, the sixth largest in the nation, in 1996 and sparked a major crisis in the banking industry that put a serious strain on the state's financial resources. Moreover, continued instability in the banking sector at the end of the 20th century spurred the government to hasten preparations for fuller privatization of the largest banks.
Since the demise of the command economy, numerous joint ventures have taken place between foreign and Czech firms, and there has been significant foreign direct investment in the country. German banks, firms, and individuals were the first to become leading investors, but investment also has come from the United States, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, and Austria. The largest proportion of it was made in the communications, transportation and transportation equipment, and consumer goods industries.
Czechoslovakia was one of the largest foreign traders in eastern Europe and a member of Comecon until the organization disbanded in 1991. Czech trade patterns shifted during the early 1990s in response to the changes occurring both within the country and throughout eastern Europe. By 2000, four years before the Czech Republic joined the EU, its exports to former Comecon members had declined to about one-fourth of total exports. In the early 21st century, Germany ranked as the chief destination for exports as well as the main source of imports. Other important trading partners included Slovakia and Austria. Machinery and transportation equipment made up the largest share of both exports and imports.
Prior to 1989 the Czech tourism industry catered largely to visitors from other eastern European countries. Following the demise of the Soviet bloc, an increasing proportion of tourists came from western Europe and the United States. Among the principal attractions are historic Prague, numerous spas and mineral springs, winter resorts, and various cultural festivals. Earnings from tourism increased dramatically throughout the 1990s, contributing significantly to the country's revenues and playing a major role in the development of the service sector, which by the first years of the 21st century accounted for more than half of the country's GDP and employed more than half of all Czech workers.
The Czech Republic has a wealth of cultural and historic sites that have been designated by UNESCO as World Heritage sites. Among them are the historic centres of Český Krumlov, Prague, and Telč (all inscribed in 1992), the Holašovice Historical Village Reservation (1998), Litomyšl Castle (1999), and the Jewish Quarter and St. Procopius's Basilica in Třebíč (2003).
Labour and taxation
Under the communist regime, trade union activity was very restricted. Nevertheless, a general labour strike in November 1989 was one of the catalysts of the Velvet Revolution. The leading trade organization to arise in the postcommunist era was the Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions (C̆eskomoravská Konfederace Odborových Svazů), which held its first congress meeting in 1994.
Personal income tax in the Czech Republic is progressive. The corporate tax rate during this period was roughly one-fourth less than it had been in 1992, in the final year of federation. The country also employs a value-added tax (VAT), with exemptions for certain types of businesses, including postal services, financial institutions, health and welfare services, broadcasting, and nonprofit organizations.
Transportation and telecommunications
Owing to terrain, settlement patterns, former federal policies, and geographic orientation toward western Europe, the Czech Republic possesses a more extensive transportation system than that of Slovakia. Rail lines serve all regions of the country, link the republic with its neighbours, and connect Prague with most major European cities. Urban light-rail serves the major metropolitan areas. Most freight moves along main-line routes, but shorter routes between the larger towns accommodate considerable passenger traffic. However, there has been a steady decline in both passenger and freight operations, in spite of the fact that the railways were modernized at the end of the 20th century. An extensive network of paved roads crisscrosses the Bohemian Plateau, while a superhighway links Prague, Brno, and Bratislava.
The Elbe and the Vltava are the principal navigable rivers in the Czech Republic, with Děčín and Prague as their chief ports, respectively. The Oder provides access to the Baltic Sea via the Polish port of Szczecin. Prague is a major international air terminus; foreign flights also arrive in Brno, Ostrava, and Karlovy Vary.
Per capita personal computer availability is greater in the Czech Republic than it is in the rest of central Europe but still lags far behind western European standards. On the other hand, per capita cell phone availability in the country is equal to or greater than that in most western European countries.
Learn More in these related Britannica articles:
alcohol consumption: Alcohol consumption worldwide…2003 were Luxembourg, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Ireland, and Germany. There were significant disparities in the level of consumption across countries among different types of alcoholic beverages. For example, although most of the leading consumers of alcoholic beverages drank significant quantities of wine, many drank relatively low quantities of distilled…
name: Legal aspects of namingWhen a Czech woman, Anna Klímová, for example, marries a Josef Novák, both may retain their original family names, or the wife may become Anna Nováková or, more remarkably, the husband may become Josef Klíma, accepting the wife's family name. This must be decided by mutual agreement,…
North Atlantic Treaty OrganizationSpain (1982); the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland (1999); Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,…
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Europe, second smallest of the world's continents, composed of the westward-projecting peninsulas of Eurasia (the great landmass that it shares with Asia) and occupying nearly one-fifteenth of the world's total land area. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, and…
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customs and traditions
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physical geography
- Elbe River
- In Elbe River


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Nicolas Cage became famous for his distinctive work in offbeat movies like "Raising Arizona," "Red Rock West" and "Leaving Las Vegas."
But for many years now, Cage has been earning big paychecks doing a Bruce Willis imitation in several action thrillers of mixed quality. His new release, "Drive Angry," seems to be the latest effort by Cage to make the worst B-movie of his career.
Over-the-top acting is just the first flaw in this nasty potboiler. Cage plays John Milton, a former low-life who starts the film already dead in Hell. He escapes the fiery realm to avenge the death of his daughter. Amber Heard is the hot blonde he picks up to play his pretty sidekick. What follows purports to be a supernatural romp, but it's full of grisly violence played for sick laughs.
There are dozens of slow-motion explosions. Killers crack jokes while blowing their victim's brains out. It's full of endless noise, fury and mean-spirited nonsense. Watching this movie is as obnoxious and pointless as listening to a 90-minute interview with Charlie Sheen.
It's dreadful and ridiculous on every level.
There's something about "Hall Pass" that makes me feel so sad for the Farrelly brothers. Like the guys in the movie who long to relive their glory days, these filmmakers have gone from "Dumb and Dumber" to lame and lamer.
Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis play mild-mannered dorks who are convinced that, if they weren't married, they could still have their pick of all the babes they see. They don't realize yet how lucky they were to find great women to marry them.
Their wives (Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate) get fed up and decide to just give them a pass on marriage for a week and let them sow their wild oats.
What starts as a mildly amusing premise (the guys hit Applebee's for their first wild night on the town) soon sinks into adolescent jokes about body parts, stupid slapstick and a new, decidedly gross low in toilet humor.
Stick around if you can to the ending credits for a truly funny sequence, when pal Stephen Merchant imagines getting his own hall pass. Too little, too late for us.
JOHN DEPKO is a retired senior investigator for the Orange County public defender's office. He lives in Costa Mesa and works as a licensed private investigator.
SUSANNE PEREZ lives in Costa Mesa.

subset: commoncrawl


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Mr. Crackerz wrote:bada wrote:Did you just say Neuheisal is a GOOD coach???? As a Husky fan, I can tell you that Neuheisal is GARBAGE!!!
I think he is pretty good. I really think he will turn around UCLA (which sucks cuz i am a Stanford Cardinal fan). Sorry to hear your a Huskies fan... another long season awaits you guys. DO you like your new coach?
he is really bad. players dont trust him and he has different rules for different players. he can recruit pretty good but he is soft in his schemes. cant stand the guy.
I am fired up about Sark as coach of the huskies. While they dont have a ton of talent, they played LSU very tough the other day. If he can get recruits to come north from southern cal, they should be able to turn it around pretty quick.


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HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — The locals will talk about it forever.
What would the Hawks have been like with Chris Paul or Deron Williams instead of Marvin Williams? Or Rudy Gay or Brandon Roy instead of Shelden Williams or basically anyone other than Speedy Claxton?
Conference finals appearances instead of first round exits? Global recognition of a basketball brand reborn with superstar talent instead of a league laughingstock (after a 13-win season in 2004-05) and the team that can always be counted on not to come through when they should?
Hypothetical questions with no clear-cut answers make the Hawks' past every bit as murky as their immediate future. They enter free agency this summer with only six players under contract, four Draft picks (two in each round) and approximately $33.1 million in cap space for their GM, Danny Ferry, to work with in rebuilding the roster.
The Hawks choices in the Draft and free agency have come to define the franchise over the past eight years more so than anything they have actually done on the court. They ended an eight-year playoff drought after the 2007-08 season with a core group of Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Al Horford, Mike Bibby, Josh Childress, Marvin Williams, Zaza Pachulia, Shelden Williams and Acie Law. That group kicked off a run of six straight playoff appearance that came crashing to an ugly end Friday night at Philips Arena in a Game 6 loss to the Indiana Pacers in their first round series.
It was the official end to not only their season but also an era for the Hawks, who have just three players — Horford, Lou Williams and rookie John Jenkins — under guaranteed contacts for next season. Even Hawks coach Larry Drew, who has been on staff (the last three as head coach) throughout this entire era, does not have a contract for next season.
We've seen the last of these Hawks as we know them, Drew acknowledged as much after the Game 6 loss.
"Even with the injuries to Zaza and Lou, we were able to juggle some things around, move people around," Drew said. "And we stayed together. We did not fragment. We stayed together even when it got tough. A lot of people didn't predict us to make the playoffs. No one gave us a chance, but this group hung in there. They persevered and I'm really proud of them."
It was an honorable finish to a tumultuous season for all involved. A team loaded with three times as many pending free agents as players under guaranteed contracts, has issues that go above and beyond the professionalism required to do the job under those circumstances.
That said, Ferry is sticking to his plan. He's going to be rebuilding basically from scratch, with nine players heading into free agency July 1.
Smith, one of the only remaining building blocks from the franchise's last rebuild and a long-time source of division within the franchise (some folks loved the hometown kid who flashed signs of being an All-Star caliber player over the years while others loathed the enigmatic performer who clashed with his coaches and drove fans nuts with his play), going into the summer as one of the marquee names on the market.
It's time for Smith and the Hawks to go their separate ways, amicably, of course. Everyone involved knows that it's time for a mutual parting of the ways for the good of all involved.
Point guard Jeff Teague is a restricted free agent and while he's shown loads of improvement since Drew took over for Woodson, there remain questions about whether or not he is best suited as the starting point guard for this team.
Ferry can make a clean break from the Hawks' recent past, from all of the second-guessing, head-scratching and eye-rolling that has surrounded the Hawks for years. No one will vilify him for cleaning up the mess made before he arrived last summer, the one he started clean up himself by moving both Johnson and Marvin Williams in trades last summer.
It's the uncertainty of what's to come, however, that makes skeptical Hawks fans nervous. There will be big fish on the free agent market, guys like Los Angeles Lakers' big man and Atlanta native Dwight Howard and the Los Angeles Clippers' Paul, stars capable of turning an uncertain situation around by signing their names on the dotted line.
The Hawks have the necessary resources to pursue those two, who will be first and second, in whatever order, on every free agent wish list of a team with money to spend this summer.
The summer of 2013 is the Hawks' biggest since the summer of 2005, when Johnson (sign-and-trade) and Marvin Williams (No. 2 pick overall in the Draft) were added to the mix. That was the beginning of a painstaking rebuilding process that ultimately led to six straight playoff appearances, the second-best stretch of its kind in the Hawks' Atlanta history.
For a franchise that has endured a recent stretch of complete insignificance during that playoff drought, followed by the past six postseason runs, a return to the non-playoff abyss is a bit frightening.
That's what made the end of Friday night so bittersweet for Horford, who has only known the playoffs during his time with the Hawks and in the league.
"I feel for our fans," he said. "I know they wanted us to do better. I felt like, as a team, we did about as much as we could. We had some adversity and we handled it well. We had a good season, looking at the big picture. One thing I appreciate about these guys was how they competed. Even tonight, we could've gone the other way. That is something I'm proud of the guys for."
The "guys" will look a lot different next season.
In fact, Horford might be one of the only truly familiar faces around if Ferry carries out his master plan.


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vim and vigor
This page is about the idiom vim and vigor
If you have vim and vigor, you have lots of energy and enthusiasm for life.
For example
- Our grandmother is always full of vim and vigor when we go to visit her.
- If you want to have lots of vim and vigor when you get older, you need to eat good food and get plenty of exercise when you're young.
Quick Quiz
Politicians are advised to act as if they are full of vim and vigor so that voters will think they
Contributor: Matt Errey


text:
Israel News - Stay Informed, Pray Informed
Charles Bolden, the current Administrator of NASA, took part in the inauguration of a new science and space center in the Israeli Arab town of Sakhnin in the Galilee region on Monday.
Bolden is in Israel to take part in a week of space exploration-related events honoring the 10th anniversary of the Columbia shuttle disaster, in which Israel's first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, was killed.
While there are a number of seemingly higher profile events taking place, it was important to NASA and the US Embassy that Bolden be at the opening of the Moona science, environment and space center in Sakhnin, as the new facility has the opportunity to further promote Arab-Jewish coexistence.
"A space shuttle successfully connects between 14 astronauts from around the world, no matter what culture, religion, race, gender or nationality they are," Bolden told the students attending the opening. "They all connect, which means that we can also do that on the ground, and in this way, you can act and succeed."
The Moona facility in Sakhnin was a joint effort by the local municipality, the Galilee Development Authority and several private Jewish and Arab organizations. It's establishment further belies the myth that Israel's Jews are practicing apartheid against local Arabs.
Bolden stated on Sunday that he is certain Israel will eventually produce another astronaut, given the country's keen interest in space exploration and its many technological contributions to the field.
Sakhnin Mayor Mazin G'Nayem told Israel's Ynet news portal that with the opening of the new space center, "who knows, maybe Sakhnin will produce an astronaut of its own."
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"It's too bad jalopnik had to be thrown into this mess. I still remember before they were part of the gawker network. I like that site."
Do you guys even remember how Gawker got started? The original website was called gawker stalker and it was supposed to be a TMZ type of site that would provide the location and info of celebrities in NYC. The foundation of the brand was started by a celebrity stalker.
Gawker is a decentralized blog network, meaning a bunch of independent contributors write articles that get featured on Gawker, who then pays them a cut of the advertising revenue. It's a lot of gossip and news-type stuff.
Gawker has exposed and slandered plenty of people and organizations that did not deserve it.
Gawker is a great example of the leftist lynch mob.
The Gawker crowd is a pretty strange lot that seem to be universally convinced that they are the golden content creators of the internet.
Gawker has always been one to violate copyright for fun and profit. Gawker is just an ad-click bait site.
I feel like Gawker has baited us for page views.
They wanted more hits and more hate hits, you know, like "OMG you won't believe what this IDIOT wrote – link." It's called link bait. It's worked pretty well for them so far
I feel like the Gawker Media group is worse than the Daily Mail and Fox News put together. Lifehacker and Jalopnik are the only ones that can be saved from that group. Gawker, Jezebel, Gizmodo, Kotaku, io9 and Deadspin are second-hand garbage. Who in their right mind can even conjure the idea of a Gawker acquisition? Am I alone in this?
Richard Blakeley isn't the editor-in-chief. Nick Denton is.
Denton founded Gawker and owns it but the editor-in-chief is Remy Stern.
It's too bad jalopnik had to be thrown into this mess. I still remember before they were part of the gawker network. I like that site.
Gawker is just a Reddit feed reader with a Hipster-Docuhe filter turned on.
The Gawker.com is ridiculously not credible.
The New Yorker had a great piece on all this back when Nick Denton took control of Gawker by forcing out Chris Batty.
Ever since Denton took over, Gawker has made more and more questionable decisions – iPhonegate, the whole "Fuck you contributors" post by Joel Johnson, and articles becoming less and less researched, and more just reposts/tweets linking to other sites.
That and their sister site Jezebel, which recently paid $10,000 for some unretouched Lena Dunham pics to make some point about the artifice of entertainment. Who is running the Kinja network?
Fun fact: one of Gawker's favorite things to do over the past couple of years is attack large corporations, Republicans, etc for using the Cayman Islands as tax shelters. I'll give you one guess where Gawker Media Group, Inc is based out of. The whole entity is operates like an international money laundering organization. Much of its international revenues are directed through Hungary, where the tech side of the company was originally based out of and it uses a shell company in the Caymans to avoid having nearly any taxable income.
Denton thinks he is smarter than everyone, including usability experts, designers, his audience, etc.
I know you're not trying to emulate The New York Times, but if you have any respect for your craft as a journalist, then start by applying some maturity to your writing style. Cut the gloating, for one. You think this will be your only exclusive? Then stop acting like it was. Cut the French, for another. I know you're a part of the dredge of society on the Internet that is Gawker, but if you want your readers to respect you then start by respecting your readers.
He tricked reddit with a fake AMA, they got mad that their gullibility was shown.
You've got the egg before the chicken there. The whole mess started when Adrian Chen decided to troll /r/AskReddit by faking cancer, and the thing snowballed from there.
I think the inciting incident in the "blackball" of Gawker was when the president pretended to be a terminal cancer patient on reddit to illicit sympathy, was found out, and then mocked reddit for believing him at all.
"President of Gawker" isn't exactly a prestigious title. He's just some douche who got lucky in life.
They give money to Adrian Chen, a guy who faked a suicide here on reddit. He's literally paid to troll.
That guy is a fearmonger of the highest order.
This guy absolutely hates any sort of freedom, that much is obvious.
Why the fuck should anyone believes anything this wannabe sad sack of karma-whoring shit writes, especially about Reddit? Hasn't he been totally discredited? Shameless Gawker still employs him, and still has him write about Reddit? Fire the dumb fuck, Gawker, then we'll talk. Hey Douchebag, did you ever consider having enough journalistic integrity to recuse yourself from a story because of possible bias? No? Well that's no surprise because no matter how much you want to be, you're not a journalist, you're a sad sack of karma-whoring shit. And no, not all publicity is good publicity. Just ask the other wannabe journalists who lied their way right up to when they were exposed as frauds. It's you who raves from the crater of your own self-fulfilled exile, and your insane jealousy of a legitimate and successful crowd-sourced public forum from which you can take absolutely zero credit. Fuck you, and fuck Gawker.
Adrian Chen does it for money, while others do it by hate. Knowing your enemy is an important thing.
Brian Lam, Jason Chen, Jesus Diaz are the biggest douch nozzles on the Internet. They beg you to be their friend on Facebook.
The straw that broke the camel's back for my putting up with Gizmodo was the whiny, entitled, Joel Johnson.
Well if that isn't a face that would feel good to punch, I don't know what is.
Wow, he looks so smug and arrogant, I think a good face punching is in order.
John Cook's most recently recco'd article is titled "I Can't Stop Staring at This Picture of Stevie Nicks with a Dog Vagina". So there's that.
I go there for Caity Weaver. Because Caity is amazing.
Richard Lawson was the Shakespeare of Real Housewives recaps.
Notably, they exposed the name, picture, addresses, phone numbers, job details etc of Reddit moderators whom they disagreed with.
It has been revealed that Gawker media have attempted to blackmail subreddit moderators to gain modship of their subs.
Adrian Chen killed journalism when he gave violentacrez an interview this one time.
When adrian chen calls Reddit terrible, he is talking as an official member of Gawker media, whose front pages are daily posted with articles specifically designed to destroy people's lives for profit.
Gizmodo has proved time and time again they do not have the maturity to maintain a healthy relationship with hardware manufacturers.
They hate any website that allows opinions and content to be generated without soviet style censorship and disgustingly biased, ideologically motivated editorial oversight.
Jalopnik.com is technically part of Gawker, yes, but I know the 2 guys who started it and they have nothing to do with Gawker. This is ludacris! I mean, imagine if Conde Nast screwed up in one of their magazines and in the shitstorm Reddit got banned from, lets say, mainstream media or something. Is that fair? No.
I've found that Gawker consistently has great comments for their articles. I wonder how they of all people pulled that off.
Strangely, gawker seems to have one of the most respectful comment sections I have seen in a long time pertaining to Detroit.
Gawker's awful comment system turns comments into an exclusive "boy's club" while insightful and interesting comments are hidden away in light grey because people aren't "starred."
The site that slams Reddit everyday and yet is entirely made up of Reddit posts. Fuck Nick Denton!
I would love to see a lawsuit break Gawker…. just locking up everything the owners of Gawker have would be enough.
Living in Toronto I've had to listen to the gawker editor belittle the Toronto media and rant and rave about how he's such a pioneering journalist for accepting the invitation to have a video of our mayor smoking crack. He turned this into an even bigger circus, and it drove me crazy. Gawker and Journalism are two words that are not ever allowed to be spoken in a row. I hope they get sued to bankruptcy.
They treat contributors like shit anyway, like the guy who leaked the iPhone 4S and treat their unpaid interns like shit also.
What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo.
Without reddit complaining about gawker I would literally have no idea it exists.


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Thanks to a single court decision, the federal government's responsibilities for Canada's aboriginal peoples have suddenly become a whole lot larger.
After more than 13 years of legal wrangling, the Federal Court ruled on Tuesday that Metis and non-status Indians are indeed "Indians" under a section of the Constitution Act, and fall under federal jurisdiction.
The decision adds to the mounting pressure on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to rethink the way Canada deals with native populations, who are among the most impoverished in Canada.
The ruling helps to clarify the relationship between Ottawa and the more than 600,000 aboriginal people who are not affiliated with specific reserves and have essentially no access to First Nations programs, services and rights.
"This is huge and it ends the denial of aboriginal birthrights that has existed for far too long among off reserve Metis and non-status Indians," said Betty Ann Lavallee, national chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples. "Today is a very emotional day for me and a very hopeful day for all off-reserve aboriginal people."
In British Columbia, the decision is expected to impact thousands of non-status aboriginals and Metis people, said Lillian George, B.C. president of the United Native Nations Society, which represents status, non-status and Metis people.
The society represents about 60,000 aboriginals in B.C., of which 40 per cent are non-status and about 23,000 Metis who are not affiliated with the Metis Nation of B.C., which represents the majority of Metis in B.C.
According to the 2006 census, 196,075 British Columbians identified themselves as aboriginal. Nationwide that figure was 1,172,790 but only 564,870 people reported they were Registered Indians.
"It's a major step. We'll have a lot of excited Metis people across Canada and B.C. finally getting recognition they are identified as Indian," said Dumont.
Vancouver Metis Leonard Laboucan said while his family has survived for generations without financial support from the government, he hopes the future will be easier for his three-year-old son Kyell.
"Certainly there are tax breaks (for Indians) but you have to live and work on reserve. And also there's never enough education dollars to go around. My hope is more money will become available," he said.
United Native Nations' George said she also hopes the decision will force the federal government to look at its funding of all aboriginals across Canada.
She said in her own case, although she is a status Indian, she does not receive financial support from her band because it simply doesn't get enough money to help support the status members who live off reserve.
"There's a mindset of non-aboriginals who believe we get everything for nothing because we have a status card. I bought my house. I pay land taxes. If the government was handing out free money I missed the memo because I didn't get mine ... maybe now the federal government will have to look at their funding for all aboriginals. We want what rightfully belongs to us," she said.
"Immigrants coming into Canada get treated better and get more benefits than aboriginal people get."
In his decision, Federal Court Judge Michael Phelan rejected the federal government's attempts to maintain a narrow definition of who can be considered Indian.
He waded through centuries of aboriginal history to look at definitions of who has been considered Indian in the past, and how they were treated — by native communities and various levels of government.
The case for Canada's 400,000 non-status Indians was more clear-cut than the case for the 200,000 Metis, but on balance, historical evidence weighs in favour of the Metis too, he wrote.
"The recognition of Metis and non-status Indian as Indians under section 91 (24) should accord a further level of respect and reconciliation by removing the constitutional uncertainty surrounding these groups," wrote Phelan.
While the decision does not go so far as to declare the federal government has a fiduciary responsibility to the group, it says such duties would flow automatically now that their standing has been clarified.
"There is no dispute that the Crown has a fiduciary relationship with aboriginal people both historically and pursuant to section 35 (of the Constitution)," Phelan wrote.
However, he adds: "That duty is not an open-ended undefined obligation but must be focused on a specific interest."
Legal experts expect the federal government to appeal the decision, partly because its implications are major and complex.
If left to stand, the ruling would affect a wide range of provincial and federal policies, said Robert James, a Victoria lawyer who focuses on aboriginal issues but was not involved in the case.
Governments would now have a duty to consult with non-status Indians and Metis on changes to law and policy, he said. And they will have to revisit the scope of their social services, economic development and protection for aboriginals.
"This is going to require a lot of bureaucratic re-thinking and policy development, and it's going to be years of figuring this out."
Until now, he said, many non-status or Metis people have grown up in households where their half-brothers and half-sisters on reserves have access to hunting and fishing rights or funding for post-secondary education — services they were denied because of their parentage.
Instead, they were told they were a provincial responsibility, only to have the provinces tell them they were the purview of the federal government — leaving a growing number of people in jurisdictional limbo.
The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples and several Metis and non-status Indians took the federal government to court in 1999, alleging discrimination because they are not considered "Indians" under a section of the Constitution Act.
They argued they are entitled to some or all of the same rights and benefits as on-reserve First Nations members.
They say that includes access to the same health, education and other benefits Ottawa gives status Indians; being able to hunt, trap, fish and gather on public land; and the ability to negotiate and enter treaties with the federal government.
The Congress and the Metis and non-status Indians involved in the case alleged in court documents that they've been the victims of "deprivations and discrimination" by the federal government.
The federal government had little to say Tuesday, but hinted it would consider an appeal.
"We are reviewing the court's decision to determine the next steps," said Jan O'Driscoll, spokesman for Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan.


text:
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text:
451 2nd Ave SW Cedar Rapids, IA 52404
- New Construction
- 2 Beds
- 2 Full/ 1 Half
- 1,840 SqFt
Mr. Steve Emerson and his design team with Aspect have done it again! Welcome to the newest downtown living option to hit the Cedar Rapids skyline, Kingston Quarters! This is a new and exciting luxury option to the downtown living of Cedar Rapids. Located the perfect distance off the river but within walking distance of downtown. All units will have private balconies, private garages, and will be built above the 500-year flood plain. Bylaws and covenants are in development and floor plans can be customized.
Property Files
Request More Info or Schedule a Showing
Jason Vestweber
- Mobile319-551-0373
Property Details
- Status
- Active
- 20182649
- Property Type
- Single Family
- Beds
- 2
- Full Baths
- 2
- Half Baths
- 1
- Total Square Feet
- 1,840
- Year Built
- 2018
- Elementary School
- Taylor
- Middle School
- Wilson
- High School
- Jefferson
- Above Ground SqFt
- 1,840
- Main
Financing Terms
- Cash
- Conventional
- City Sewer
- City Water
Map & Community
Driving Directions
About Cedar Rapids
Known as the City of Five Seasons, Cedar Rapids celebrates winter, spring, summer, fall, and a fifth season meant to enjoy life and all the other seasons. As the second largest city in the state of Iowa, Cedar Rapids is a vibrant city offering a dynamic arts and culture scene, a thriving downtown area with a wide variety of restaurants and nightlife and a growing urban living community. After experiencing a devasting flood in 2008, the Cedar Rapids community has flourished. With more than 1.5 billon spent for revitalization the community is booming with new and renovated entertainment venues and historic neighborhoods have been renewed. The Newbohemia district is a fast growing community offering a year round farmers marketing, local shops such as Raygun - famous for t-shirts - and aplethora of local bars and restaurants. Visit...
Mortgage Calculator
- Listing Agent: Jason Vestweber
- Office: Skogman Realty Corridor
- Data courtesy of Iowa City Area Association of Realtors MLS


text:
The Barns Green Music Festival is something that we, as a committee, are
really excited about. Our aim is to promote music and arts to the local
community, as well as raise money and awareness for the people of our chosen
Previous festivals have been very well supported, which is why we want the
next one to be the most successful to date.
Unfortunately, due to certain time constraints the committee have realised
that it will be too challenging to achieve this for July 2015 and therefore
regrettably, the decision has been made to postpone the event until summer
More things need to be put in place to achieve the best festival Barns Green
has to offer and we need to ensure all our resources are working together to
achieve what we hope you agree will be an amazing local music festival that
best achieves our goals and reflects the ambition of the organisers.
We will be continuing to raise awareness for the festival during 2015
through our Acoustic Showcase Evenings and with other local events. We would
like to thank you for expressing an interest in helping us in 2015 and hope
that you will continue to show your support moving forward in to 2016.


text:
Yenisey River, also spelled Yenisei or Enisei, Evenk Ioanesi ("Great River"), river of central Russia, one of the longest rivers in Asia. The world's sixth largest river in terms of discharge, the Yenisey runs from south to north across the great expanse of central Siberia. It traverses a vast region of strikingly varied landscapes where ancient peoples and customs as well as an enormous economic infrastructure are found.
Physical features
The river begins at the city of Kyzyl in the republic of Tyva (Tuva), Russia, at the confluence of its headstreams—the Great (Bolshoy) Yenisey, or By-Khem, which rises on the Eastern Sayan Mountains of Tyva, and the Little (Maly) Yenisey, or Ka-Khem, which rises in the Darhadïn Bowl of Mongolia. From the confluence the Yenisey River runs for 2,167 miles (3,487 km), mainly along the border between eastern and western Siberia, before emptying into the icy Kara Sea. If the Great Yenisey is considered the source, then the river is 2,540 miles (4,090 km) long. The headwaters of the Selenga (Selenge) River, which rise in western Mongolia and flow through Lake Baikal (the world's deepest freshwater lake) into the Angara tributary of the Yenisey, may, however, be considered the river's ultimate source. With the inclusion of the Selenga, the Yenisey is 3,442 miles (5,539 km) long and drains a basin that, at 996,000 square miles (2,580,000 square km), is the seventh largest in the world. The system within Siberia's boundaries comprises some 20,000 tributary or subtributary streams, with an aggregate length of approximately 550,000 miles (885,000 km). All of the major tributaries of the Yenisey flow from the Central Siberian Plateau to its east, a region constituting 80 percent of the basin area.
Extending for some 2,200 miles (3,500 km) from north to south and for 1,100 miles (1,700 km) from east to west, the Yenisey basin exhibits a considerable diversity of features. Lowlands constitute only 6 to 7 percent of the total area: a narrow strip on the edge of the West Siberian Plain and part of the North Siberian Lowland. In the south the Western and Eastern Sayan, the Tyva, the Baikal, the Hangayn, and the Hentiyn mountains constitute a larger proportion of the basin's area, with elevations mostly between 2,300 and 7,200 feet (700 and 2,200 metres), steep valleys, and vast bowls between ranges. In southern Tyva and in the Sayans, there are some magnificent higher peaks, culminating in Mount Munku-Sardyk (Mönh Sarĭdag), which reaches an elevation of 11,453 feet (3,491 metres). Most of the basin stretches over the western sector of the Central Siberian Plateau—with elevations between 1,640 and 2,300 feet (500 and 700 metres). The basin is bordered in the northeast by the Putorana Mountains, which rise to 5,580 feet (1,701 metres); in the west by the Yenisey Ridge, with an elevation of 3,622 feet (1,104 metres); and in the southeast by the Angara Ridge, with an elevation of 3,353 feet (1,022 metres).
The Yenisey River proper is divisible into three principal sections: the 295 miles (475 km) from Kyzyl to Oznachennoye on the southern edge of the Minusinsk Basin, the 544 miles (875 km) from Oznachennoye to the Angara confluence, and the 1,328 miles (2,137 km) from the Angara confluence to the sea.
Flowing west through the Tyva Basin for the first 115 miles (185 km) from Kyzyl, the Yenisey varies in width from 100 to 700 yards (90 to 640 metres) and often splits into braided channels around gravelly shoals. At the western end of the basin, the river flows into the Sayano-Shushen Reservoir, which receives the Khemchik River. The Yenisey flows north through the reservoir, occupying a now-submerged canyon that cuts across the Western Sayan.
After leaving the reservoir and flowing out of the mountains at Oznachennoye, the Yenisey broadens its valley in the Minusinsk Basin: just below the Abakan confluence, the valley is more than 3 miles (5 km) wide; the bed, about 500 yards (460 metres) from bank to bank, is studded with islands; the flow velocity is reduced to about 6 feet (2 metres) per second; and the long and narrow Krasnoyarsk Reservoir, contained on the east by northwestern spurs of the Eastern Sayan, begins. The reservoir stretches some 240 miles (390 km) downstream to Divnogorsk. Downstream from the reservoir and slightly above Krasnoyarsk, the river valley broadens, as does the bed. Rapids are common there, the best-known being those at Kazachinskiy.
Below the Angara confluence, the right bank of the Yenisey remains an upland and is often precipitous, but the left bank becomes a floodplain. The bed, only 870 yards (800 metres) wide above the confluence, broadens to 3,000 yards (2,700 metres) wide below it; depth increases to between 32 and 56 feet (10 and 17 metres), and the flow velocity drops by 50 percent or more. Farther downstream, however, just above the confluence of the Stony (Podkamennaya) Tunguska River, the Yenisey cuts through spurs of the Yenisey Ridge; rapids occur at Osinovo, and below them the river plunges down a scenic gorge in which its bed narrows to a width of 800 yards (730 metres). Below the confluence with the Lower (Nizhnyaya) Tunguska River, the valley widens to 23 miles (37 km), expanding to about 93 miles (150 km) wide around Dudinka and Ust-Port; the bed's width increases to 2,700 yards (2,500 metres) and then to 5,500 yards (5,000 metres); depths over the Yenisey's lower course range from 16 feet (5 metres) to more than 80 feet (24 metres).
The estuary of the Yenisey begins as far upstream as the confluence of the Kureyka (the next considerable tributary north of the Lower Tunguska). Below Dudinka the bed is in places divided by islands, some of them 10 or 12 miles (16 or 19 km) long, and a true delta begins north of Ust-Port, where the numerous Brekhov Islands divide the river into channels, with the westernmost bank about 47 miles (76 km) from the easternmost. The several channels empty into a long, wide bay leading into the Yenisey Gulf of the Kara Sea.
The largest tributaries of the upper and middle Yenisey are the Khemchik and Abakan rivers from the left and the Tuba River from the right. Fed chiefly by rainwater and melting snow, they begin their spring high water in late April and are swollen by summer rain floods. The Angara, on the other hand, is highly regulated by its source—the huge Lake Baikal—and rarely experiences low water. With a length of 1,105 miles (1,778 km), its own basin of more than 407,700 square miles (1,056,000 square km)—twice the size of the Yenisey's above their confluence—and a greater volume at its mouth than that of the Yenisey above the confluence, the Angara might better be recognized as the upper course of the main river than as a tributary. The Stony Tunguska and the Lower Tunguska rivers, with an aggregate volume of about 176,000 cubic feet (4,980 cubic metres) per second, also make a substantial contribution to the Yenisey's runoff.
About half of the Yenisey's water comes from snow, a little more than one-third from rainwater, and the remainder from groundwater. For the greater part of the system, the eastern Siberian hydrologic regime prevails: violent spring floods are followed first by a rapid fall of levels, then by a slower fall, with summer and autumn rain floods punctuating the sequence; in winter the runoff is reduced sharply, but levels remain high as ice jams are formed. In terms of runoff, the Yenisey is the largest river in Russia, with about 150 cubic miles (620 cubic kilometres) annually. It carries about 10.5 million tons of alluvium into the Kara Sea every year, in addition to nearly 30 million tons of dissolved mineral substances. In midsummer the water temperature varies from 57 °F (14 °C) to 66 °F (19 °C), but freezing begins on the lower Yenisey early in October and affects the entire river by mid-November; ice jams and underwater ice are characteristic. Thawing occurs toward the end of April on the upper reaches, in May on the middle, and from May to mid-June on the lower. The water of the middle Yenisey is highly turbid in spring and summer and contrasts sharply with the limpid water of the Angara; and in summer the two streams flow in the same bed without mingling for 9 miles (14 km) or so from their confluence.
The Yenisey basin has a subarctic climate in its northern part and markedly continental conditions in the middle and southern portions. The cold season prevails from late September to mid-June in the north and from mid-October to late April in the south. Even summer is cool in the northern basin, with average temperatures of 46 to 54 °F (8 to 12 °C) in July, when frosts may still occur; but summer is warm in the south, with July averages between 64 and 68 °F (18 and 20 °C). The average temperature for January in the north ranges from −25 to −18 °F (−32 to −28 °C) and in the south warms to about −4 °F (−20 °C). Annual precipitation averages 16 to 20 inches (400 to 500 mm) in the north; 20 to more than 30 inches (500 to more than 750 mm) in the central portion, and up to 47 inches (1,190 mm) in the mountains south of the basin. The closed depressions in the upper basin receive from less than 8 to about 12 inches (less than 200 to about 300 mm) annually. Most of the rain (80 to 90 percent) falls in the warmer months, chiefly in late summer and early autumn. Snow cover is light in most of the basin, averaging 16 inches (40 cm) in the south, 24 inches (60 cm) in the north, and 35 inches (90 cm) on the Yenisey Ridge. Because the light snow offers little insulation, the soil and subsoil are frozen to a considerable depth for long periods over most of the basin. Permafrost is prevalent north of the Lower Tunguska.
Plant and animal life
Most of the basin is covered with taiga (marshy, primarily coniferous forest), with Siberian spruce, fir, and cedar predominating in the south and larch farther north. In Mongolia, Transbaikalia, and Tyva there are also steppe grasslands, bordered in the extreme south of the Selenga River basin by semidesert. In the far north of the basin, taiga is superseded by tundra (marshy plain covered with moss and other low, cold-tolerant plants).
The Yenisey and its tributaries are rich in fish: the mountain streams of the headwaters support grayling, trout, lenok, roach, and dace; the middle course has sterlet, trout, goldilocks, several species of whitefish (genus Coregonus), and grayling; the lower course has Siberian lamprey, Siberian sturgeon, sterlet, Alpine char, trout, gold and silver carp, pike, and many others. The estuary has fewer species of fish but is rich in the economically valuable sturgeon. The lower reaches of the Yenisey are also much favoured in summer by migrant waterfowl from the south; the small lakes and islands support ducks, geese, and swans; and the muskrat has adapted to the channels of the delta.
The peoples of the Yenisey valley are diverse. Around the western headwaters (Great and Little Yenisey), Tyvans (Tuvans) predominate in the rural areas, but they are joined by significant numbers of Russians in Kyzyl, the capital of Tyva. To the north of Tyva the Krasnoyarsk kray (territory) of Russia extends down the entire valley northward to the Kara Sea; its population comprises Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, and numerous other indigenous peoples. The Khakass people occupy Khakassia southwest of Krasnoyarsk. The vast Evenk autonomous okrug (district), extending from south of the Stony Tunguska to north of the Kureyka, is inhabited both by the Evenk people and by Russians from the west and Sakha (Yakut) from the east. In the far north, the Taymyr autonomous okrug has a majority of Russians and some Evenk but also the Sakha, Dolgan, Nenets, and Nganasan peoples.
Hunting, fishing, the breeding of reindeer, and fur farming are the traditional occupations of the more northerly peoples, and there is some mining of coal and nonferrous ores (copper, nickel) around Norilsk. Considerable industrial development has occurred in the south, with major centres at Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, and Bratsk. The hydroelectric potential of the Yenisey and its major tributary, the Angara—the greatest of any river system in Russia—is also among the most heavily exploited. Since the 1950s, power stations have been built on the Angara at Irkutsk, Bratsk, and Ust-Ilimsk and on the upper and middle Yenisey at Krasnoyarsk and Sayan, with a combined total generating capacity exceeding 25 million kilowatts. Another station on the Angara, at Boguchany, was completed in the late 1980s.
The Yenisey is regularly navigated between Oznachennoye and the sea. A great elevator capable of lifting ships along an inclined railroad between the upper and lower waters of the Krasnoyarsk Hydroelectric Station has been constructed to permit through traffic. The chief ports are Krasnoyarsk, Strelka (at the Angara confluence), Yeniseysk, Igarka, Dudinka, and Ust-Port; seagoing vessels sail up to Igarka. Lumber is the main cargo. Some of the cargo goes upstream to Krasnoyarsk, but the downstream traffic carries bread, coal, petroleum products, and machinery, as well as lumber.
Study and exploration
Russians first settled on the Yenisey in 1607, when a winter station was established on the Turukhan River (a left-bank tributary joining the Yenisey just below the Lower Tunguska confluence). Novgorod merchants, however, may have been trading with peoples of the valley as early as the 11th century. In 1619 a fort was built at Yeniseysk. Nine years later Krasny Yar (now Krasnoyarsk) was founded, and Irkutsk was settled in 1652. From these places roads went eastward into the Buryat country and southward into the fertile Minusinsk Basin. The Russian hold on the line of the Yenisey was definitively secured early in the 18th century. Exploration of the rivers was then initiated, with a detachment of the Great Northern Expedition (1733–42) operating on the Yenisey. Later, the lower Yenisey was explored by an expedition of 1894–96; and from 1907 to 1912 a party made a more thorough investigation of the entire river. Studies for development plans or for scientific purposes continued throughout the 20th century.Constantine Gennadiyevich Tikhotskiy Philip P. Micklin Lewis Owen
Learn More in these related Britannica articles:
Russia: Rivers…3,362 miles [5,410 km]), the Yenisey (2,540 miles [4,090 km]), and the Lena (2,734 miles [4,400 km]). Their catchments cover a total area in excess of 3 million square miles (8 million square km) in Siberia north of the Stanovoy Range, and their combined discharge into the Arctic averages 1,750,000…
Central Asian arts: Neolithic and Metal Age cultures…the middle reaches of the Yenisey River, especially in the Minusinsk Basin, where metallurgy developed early. They testify to the existence of three main, basically successive, yet often overlapping cultures: the Afanasyevskaya, Andronovo, and Karasuk, so called after the villages near which each culture was identified.…
Siberia: Land…drained by the Ob and Yenisey rivers, varying little in relief, and containing wide tracts of swampland. East of the Yenisey River is central Siberia, a vast area that consists mainly of plains and the Central Siberian Plateau. Farther east the basin of the Lena River separates central Siberia from…
Krasnoyarsk…on both banks of the Yenisey River where the river is crossed by the Trans-Siberian Railroad.…
Russia, country that stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. Once the preeminent republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.; commonly known as the Soviet Union), Russia became an independent country after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991.…
More About Yenisey River4 references found in Britannica articles
Assorted References
- drainage system
- Krasnoyarsk
- In Krasnoyarsk
- Neolithic art findings
- Siberia


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New Ferndale brewery and beer garden, a couple miles north of campus, will offer "Livernois Lager":
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20 ... eer-garden
This could develop into a conveniently located post-game spot to celebrate a Titans victory.
Rogobob77 wrote:Made it to Saturday's grand opening of Livernois Tap. This will be a great place to gather before and after Titan games.
uofdmik2008 wrote:How close is it to campus?
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Even after transitioning to a Flexitarian, developing a love for Chicken Biryani and Mutton Kurma, I still continued with my cinnamon-hating stint. Except this time it was being averse to baked goodies that had it. Given a choice between eating boiled cow's testicles or a cinnamon bun I would clearly choose the former. Ironically, I started craving for McDonald's Cinnamon Spiced Baked Apple Pie, Cinnabon's Classic Cinnamon Rolls when I was pregnant. I suppose it wasn't me. It was my boy who was wanting them when he was "In-Utero". He will keep kicking me until I have my share of those with a tall glass of orange juice. LoL. The fact that there were was a McDonald's a stone throw away from my work place at Park Avenue didn't help. Every-time I passed by, I would smell the Cinnamon Apple Pie in the air. What used to be revolting suddenly became pleasing. :-). Now I am at peace with the Cinnamon. Yeah, we have a treaty of sorts, thanks to my little boy. Its not high up there with Cardamom, the much-loved spice but not much hated either.
Anyways, today I will address my son's second favorite -- Soft and Fluffy. Right after little A wakes up he will ask me if he can either have Marshmallow and Charms Cereal or Fluffy pancakes. I prefer the latter cause I can always sneak in a few fruits in the pancake batter and he wouldn't know.While I am much of a Cocoa Pancake or a Banana Berry Pancake fan, my son prefers(you guessed it) Spiced Pancakes. Well, he knew what he wanted while he was still "In-Utero". While I don't care for the strong aftertaste it leaves on my taste-buds it doesn't bother him. So I happily make this for him.
- 1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
- 3/4 Cup Apple Juice
- 1/4 Cup Apple Sauce
- 1/4 Cup Blueberries
- 1 Apple, peeled and grated
- 1 Egg, whisked
- 1 Tbsp Brown Sugar
- 1 Tbsp Milk
- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 Tsp Baking Powder
- 1/8 Tsp Allspice powder (Cinnamon Powder may be used instead)
- A pinch of salt
- Add all the dry ingredients(Flour, Baking Powder, All Spice, Sugar and Salt) in a wide shallow bowl.
- Add the Oil, Apple Sauce, Milk to the dry ingredients and mix.
- Stir in the whisked egg along with the blueberries and grated apple. Let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Pour a ladle-ful of batter on a greased nonstick skillet and cook for 2 minutes on a low-medium flame.
- Flip and cook for a minute or two. Repeat for the remaining batter.
- Pile and serve with warmed maple syrup.
Check out the Blogging Marathoners doing (Group 3) BM#4 along with me-
Diabetes Diet/Management: Kamalika, Smitha, Suma
Kid Friendly Recipes: Anusha, Cool Lassi(e)
Seven Days of Soup: Priya Suresh
Seven Days of Indian Bread: Jayasree, Pavani
Seven Days of Cakes: Priya Vasu
Seven Days of Preserves: Gayathri Kumar, Vaishali
30 Minutes Meals: Priya Mahadevan, Sriv
Note: If you are a sneaky mom looking to sneak in veggies into a pancake, check this recipe.


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Stewart steps out with Pattinson for 'On the Road'
Despite a long day with the press, Stewart was in good spirits at her AFI Fest premiere
LOS ANGELES — Kristen Stewart had a blockbuster weekend.
The actress spent Saturday at the press junket for The Twilight Saga:Breaking Dawn, Part 2, and at night, after a quick change into a white cut-out Balenciaga cropped tank and high-waisted trousers, walked the red carpet for her indie film On the Road. Amy Adams, Garrett Hedlund and director Walter Salles were also on hand at Grauman's Chinese theater to debut the film (due out Dec. 21) at the AFI Fest 2012.
It was a heavy load, but you'd never know it from talking to Stewart, who will premiere Part 2 in just a week. She walked the press line calm, collected and friendly. Not even a stray piece of double-sided tape stuck to her top fazed her when a publicist stepped in to remove it halfway down the red carpet.
"Somebody wore this before me?" she joked, in mock horror.
Her good mood continued at the Audi SkyLounge after-party at the Roosevelt Hotel, where she arrived — more casual now, in jeans, flats and a black leather bomber jacket — with Robert Pattinson. Both sported wide smiles, and the pair hung out with friends until well after midnight.
On the red carpet, Stewart shared some insight about what drew her to the film adaptation of the infamous Jack Kerouac tale. The actress first read the novel at 15, and said the lessons it held stayed with her.
"I had the exact same feeling that I had when I was 15 that I did when I was like, 20," she said. "At that age you look up and realize that you have anything that you could ever possibly imagine very much within reach. And I still feel that way."
On the Road is a big departure for Stewart, whose character, Marylou, daringly explores sexuality, drug use and heartbreak over the course of a meandering cross-country road trip. Ask if she's leaning toward making more indies vs. big-budget blockbusters, and she'll tell you that the level of risk feels the same regardless.
"If you're working for reasons that drive me," she began, and then continued, "It's a shame, it's like, absolutely heartbreaking when you find yourself on a movie set that you don't find a commonality with the director and the cast and all of that. It doesn't really matter what scale movie it is."
Her favorite road trip? "The one that I took right before I did On the Road, probably," she said. "We had to cram it into three days. I went to many diners."


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Thank you so much for sharing your awesome talents and generosity!
You are hereForums › Site Meta › Site Updates and Announcements › All kit prices cut in half
All kit prices cut in half
You guys have just made my creativity soooo much better.. thanking you !
Hi Jordan,
I'm dl'ing some kits, but I don't see any discount being applied. Can you check to see that it is working properly for me?
Thank you for your help!
Also, where do we get our supporter badge? Scratch that...I see it!
Thanks for the reduction of points. There are so many great things here and so many I wanted but I didn't have enough points.
Thank you.
@Cindy: The deduction/discount Jordan is referring to has already applied to the entire store of kits for everyone to see the new costs. For example I downloaded at least 4 of the kits before they did this discount announcement and I used on average about 4-5 more points per kit than they require to download now.
Oh, okay, thank you, Shawna! Much better that way, too!
Again, thank you for your generosity. Besides not having the skill, I don't have the creativity to produce all these wonderful kits. Thank you.


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29 CFR § 2400.1 - Purpose and scope.
The purpose of the provisions of this part is to provide procedures to implement the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a). This part is applicable only to records that are maintained by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC or the Commission), which includes all systems of records operated on behalf of OSHRC, pursuant to a contract, to accomplish an agency function, except for records that are disclosed to consumer reporting agencies under section 3711(e) of title 31, United States Code. This part is not applicable to the rights of parties appearing in adversary proceedings before the Commission to obtain discovery from an adverse party. Such matters are governed by the Commission's Rules of Procedure, which are published at 29 CFR 2200.1et seq.