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The 21st century
Breaking news
The biggest spectacle in television history began on the morning of September 11, 2001. For days the networks and cable news channels suspended all regularly scheduled programming and showed nothing but round-the-clock images, interviews, and reporting about the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. Saturation coverage of a single news story went back to the assassination of Pres. John F. Kennedy in November 1963, when networks presented nearly continuous coverage over four days. Since the introduction of 24-hour news channels, many other stories had received this intensive treatment as well. When the Persian Gulf War began in September 1991, for example, CNN essentially emerged as a 24-hour war channel. To a lesser but still significant extent, the car chase and subsequent murder trial involving former football star O.J. Simpson, the Columbine High School shootings, and the 2000 presidential election were among the succession of stories to receive what came to be known as "wall-to-wall coverage."
Television's role on September 11, however, was like nothing that had been seen before. Hundreds of cameras were focused on one burning tower in Manhattan when a second tower was hit by a jet aircraft. That crash, along with the subsequent collapse of both buildings, was broadcast live to millions of stunned viewers, then replayed countless times throughout the following hours and days.
Regular programming began to return in the following weeks, but with noticeable tenuousness. Every one of the late-night comedians—Letterman, Leno, Kilborn, O'Brien, and the ensemble of Saturday Night Live—felt obliged to spend several minutes of their first episode back discussing the difficulty of performing comedy under the circumstances of such a profound national tragedy. On The Daily Show, Jon Stewart fought back tears while adding his thoughts to the discussion. After an awkward few weeks, however, the late-night comedies, and American popular culture in general, had returned to business as usual.
Cable news as entertainment
During important breaking news stories, ratings for cable news channels always go up. The problem is how to keep them up even when there are not big stories being reported. One way is to present personalities that audiences would want to watch every day, regardless of what is happening. This model, designed after the opinionated shows on talk radio, was employed with great success by the Fox News Channel, which was launched in 1996 and before long was outperforming both CNN and MSNBC in the ratings. Two conservative personalities, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, emerged as stars of Fox in the late 1990s. MSNBC tried to counter Fox's prime-time strategy with a liberal personality, Phil Donahue, in 2002, with considerably less success: O'Reilly was regularly outperforming Donahue by a factor of six. In 2003 MSNBC introduced Countdown with Keith Olbermann and then, in 2008, The Rachel Maddow Show. Although these prime-time opinion shows did not earn audience numbers as high as their counterparts on Fox, MSNBC's ratings did climb considerably. Opinion shows became the norm during prime time. Even CNN, on its Headline News Channel, abandoned its usual repetition of 30-minute headline reports during prime time in favour of personality-driven shows featuring the likes of Nancy Grace and Glenn Beck (who moved to Fox in 2009).
The return of the game show
The biggest prime-time story of the brand-new century was a surprising one. After a decades-long absence from the network prime-time schedules, an evening game show was introduced in August 1999 on ABC with astonishing results. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, hosted by TV talk-show veteran Regis Philbin, began as a series of limited runs, functioning as a game show miniseries of sorts. In August, November, and January the show aired on consecutive nights—as many as 18 in a row. By January it was not uncommon to see the seven daily installments of the show holding all seven of the top slots in the Nielsen ratings for the week. The show's ratings continued to climb, and by the time it was finally given a regular place in the schedule—three times per week starting in February 2000—it had become a cultural phenomenon, reaching an audience of more than 30 million per episode. Based on a British series of the same title, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire had a simple premise: contestants, selected by phone-in competitions open to the public, were asked 15 questions of increasing value if answered correctly, the last of which was worth a million dollars. During the process, a contestant who was stumped for an answer was allowed three assists: phoning a friend, polling the audience, or having the four multiple-choice answers reduced by half.
The idea to bring game shows back to prime-time television was a natural one. The game show had been a viable genre twice before: once on radio and again on television in the 1950s. In daytime programming and syndication the genre had never gone away, and shows such as Wheel of Fortune (NBC, 1975–89; syndication, 1983– ) and Jeopardy! (NBC, 1964–75; 1978–79; syndication, 1984– ) were among the best syndicated performers throughout the 1980s and '90s. Any negative associations left over from the quiz show scandals had dissipated, and, more important, the shows were inexpensive—a crucial factor at the turn of the 21st century, when budgets for other prime-time shows were spinning out of control. Although audiences responded enthusiastically to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, the other three game shows introduced by Fox, NBC, and CBS on the heels of Millionaire's success did not even make it to the next season.
In the age of target marketing, demographically sensitive programming strategies, and proliferating programming options, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire seemed to be able to attract almost everyone. The first questions asked of each contestant were extraordinarily simple, aimed at the very young. From there, questions appealed to the cultural memories of every generation. Just as the network era was coming to a close—just as the memory of everyone watching the same thing at the same time was fading—Who Wants to Be a Millionaire reminded viewers what the experience of network TV used to be like all the time. The template of the show proved adaptable to local versions around the globe, one of which was featured in the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire (2008). The show evoked the 1950s, not only because it was a prime-time quiz show but because it attracted an audience that was as wide and diverse as the TV audience had been in the past. Cable, direct satellite, the VCR, and the Internet had shattered that audience into fragments during the 1980s and '90s, but in 2000 this modest game show reminded viewers of what had been one of television's greatest appeals.
Reality TV
"Reality TV" was one of the most significant new program developments of the new century, though the genre is in fact nearly as old as the medium itself. Live variety shows had taken cameras into the streets in the 1950s, and Candid Camera, which surreptitiously filmed people responding to elaborate practical jokes, debuted on ABC in 1948 (with stints on all three networks until 1967, its longest tenure coming on CBS [1960–67], before it was revived in 1989–90 and again in 1998). With the appearance of Real People (NBC, 1979–84), however, the genre began to thrive. Called "infotainment" by some critics and "schlockumentary" by others, Real People presented several short documentaries per episode featuring "real people" who did unusual things: one man ate dirt, for example, and another walked only backward. The program's imitators included That's Incredible! (ABC, 1980–84) and Those Amazing Animals (ABC, 1980–81). As home-video technology spread in the 1980s and '90s, entire shows were designed around content produced by amateurs. ABC introduced America's Funniest Home Videos (ABC, begun 1990), featuring tapes sent in by home viewers hoping to win prize money. When that show immediately reached the Nielsen top 10, it was followed by America's Funniest People (ABC, 1990–94), a sort of updated version of Real People that mixed professional and amateur video productions.
Reality shows began taking on other forms as well. America's Most Wanted (Fox/Lifetime, 1988–2012) and Unsolved Mysteries (NBC/CBS, 1988–99; Lifetime, 2001–02) used actors to dramatize stories about crimes for which the suspects were still at large. Traditional journalists decried the use of these reenactments, but hundreds of criminals were apprehended as a result of viewers' calling the station in response to photographs of the suspects that were shown at the end of each episode. In Cops (Fox, 1989–2013; Spike, begun 2013), a camera crew rode along with the police as they patrolled various urban settings. Episodes of Cops had been taped in more than 100 cities by the end of the century. The reality genre owed much to An American Family, a 12-part documentary series that aired on PBS from January to March in 1973. In the making of this series, camera crews followed the Louds, a Santa Barbara, Calif., family, for seven months, revealing, among other things, the breakup of the parents' marriage and the openly gay lifestyle of son Lance, a first for a television series.
At century's end, however, the reality genre was tending more toward voyeurism and less toward reality. In spite of its title, MTV's The Real World (begun 1992) was much more contrived than An American Family, and it set the style for future series of its kind. The Louds, after all, were a real family, as were the officers that were portrayed in Cops. For each new season of The Real World, however, seven young adults who had never met before were selected from thousands of applicants to live together for several months in a large MTV-supplied apartment or house in a major city. Cameras recorded them both inside and outside their home, and the footage was then edited into 13 half-hour episodes per year. It was, in effect, a documentary about a totally contrived and artificial situation. Eight years after the debut of The Real World, CBS picked up on the idea, introducing two series, both based on similar European shows, that brought the voyeuristic genre to a much larger audience than ever before. For Survivor (CBS, begun 2000), 16 applicants were selected to spend some 39 days on an uninhabited island in the South China Sea under the scrutiny of a hundred cameras. Taped footage was edited into 13 episodes. Although the "survivors" were forced to cooperate with each other for their daily needs and in competitive events that were set up by the producers, conflict was injected by forcing the group to vote one of their fellow castaways off the island at three-day intervals. The ultimate survivor at the end of the series won a million dollars. A month later, CBS debuted a variant of the genre, Big Brother, which featured 10 people locked in a house for the summer. Contestants on Big Brother were also voted out until one winner remained. It aired on consecutive nights during the week and included one episode per week that was broadcast live; there was also an Internet component, which allowed online viewers to access four cameras in the house 24 hours per day. In subsequent seasons the premium cable channel Showtime offered an "after-hours" version of the show.
By the end of the summer of 2000, Survivor was the most popular show on television, with a finale episode reaching more that 50 million viewers. After that, reality shows proliferated across the schedules of both network and cable channels. Not only was there the promise of high ratings, but these shows were significantly less expensive to produce than scripted series.
Subgenres developed with extraordinary speed. The dating/courtship reality show evolved in a matter of a few seasons with shows such as The Bachelor (ABC, begun 2002), Temptation Island (Fox, 2001 and 2003), Looking for Love: Bachelorettes in Alaska (Fox, 2002), Joe Millionaire (Fox, 2003), and Average Joe (NBC, 2003–05). Survivor-like challenge shows included The Mole (ABC, 2001–04 and 2008), The Amazing Race (CBS, begun 2001), and I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here (ABC, 2003; NBC, 2009). Makeovers, once the subject of daytime talk-show segments, got the full prime-time treatment on series such as Extreme Makeover (ABC, 2003–07), The Swan (Fox, 2004), and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (Bravo, 2003–07).
Although one of the appeals of reality TV was that it featured "regular people," celebrities could not resist the thriving genre. Among the many pseudo-documentary series that presented celebrities in intimate situations were The Osbournes (MTV, 2002–05), focusing on heavy metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne and his family; The Anna Nicole Show (E!, 2002–04), whose eponymous star was a former Playboy model; The Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica (MTV, 2003–05), chronicling the ultimately failed marriage of singers Nick Lachey (formerly of the boy band 98 Degrees) and Jessica Simpson; and Surreal Life (WB/VH1, 2003–06), a sort of Real World populated by where-are-they-now? personalities. Most of these shows were created with a heavy sense of irony, inviting the viewer to watch with a sense of affectionate mockery.
Competitions for "dream jobs" constituted the core of another subgenre of reality TV programming. The Apprentice (NBC, begun 2003) offered the opportunity to be hired by real-estate developer Donald Trump; the winner of Last Comic Standing (NBC, 2003–08, 2010) received a special on Comedy Central; and Dream Job (ESPN, 2004–05) promised an on-air position at the premier cable sports channel. Other series of this genre included America's Next Top Model (UPN, 2003–06; CW, begun 2006), Hell's Kitchen (Fox, begun 2005), and Project Runway (Bravo, 2004–08; Lifetime, begun 2009).
Of all the competition shows introduced during this period, however, the most successful was American Idol (Fox, begun 2002). Unlike some of the other shows in this category, American Idol was an old-fashioned talent competition in the tradition of The Original Amateur Hour, which had aired on the radio in the 1930s and '40s and then on television from 1948 through 1970, spending some time on each of the four networks. As was the case with The Original Amateur Hour, American Idol was responsible for creating a number of stars who went on to make hit recordings and win a variety of awards, including Grammys—notably Kelly Clarkson—and, in the case of Jennifer Hudson, who did not win the competition, an Oscar.
Prime time in the new century
In addition to competition and reality shows, network television found success in some tried-and-true old genres in the new century. Procedural dramas thrived, especially on CBS. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS, begun 2000) was the top-rated show for three consecutive seasons, from 2002 through 2005, and engendered two spin-offs: CSI: Miami (CBS, 2002–12) and CSI: NY (CBS, 2004–13). NBC's Law & Order, which debuted in 1990, broke into the top 10 for the first time in 2000–01 and inspired four spin-offs: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC, begun 1999), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC/USA, 2001–11), Law & Order: Trial by Jury (NBC, 2005–2006), and Law & Order: Los Angeles (NBC, 2010–11). The medical serial ER (NBC, 1994–2009) remained a hit, but it was eventually displaced in the top 10 by a new medical serial, Grey's Anatomy (ABC, begun 2005). The legal drama, a standard genre since the days of radio, was represented by The Practice (ABC, 1997–2004) and Boston Legal (ABC, 2004–08), both created and produced by David Kelley, who had written for L.A. Law (NBC, 1986–94) and had created the legal comedy-drama Ally McBeal (Fox, 1997–2002).
Desperate Housewives (ABC, 2004–12) rejuvenated the prime-time soap opera, one of the most popular programming forms during the last quarter of the 20th century. After the highly successful runs of shows such as Dallas (CBS, 1978–91), Dynasty (ABC, 1981–89), Falcon Crest (CBS, 1981–90), and Melrose Place (Fox, 1992–99), the genre seemed to have played out by 2000. Desperate Housewives, however, with its provocative title and mischievous and intertwined story lines, consistently achieved high ratings.
The situation comedy was in bad decline in the early 2000s. The big hits of the 1990s were departing one after another, and there were few new sitcoms to take their places. Roseanne left the air in 1997, followed by Seinfeld in 1998. Both Friends (NBC, 1994–2004) and Frasier (NBC, 1993–2004) completed their network runs in 2004, and Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS, 1996–2005) concluded the following year. Although there were few traditional sitcoms left, new half-hour comedies shot in a single-camera style without a live audience began to find success, if not the spectacular hit status of the earlier sitcoms. Scrubs (NBC/ABC, 2001–10), The Office (NBC, 2005–13), My Name Is Earl (NBC, 2005–09), and 30 Rock (NBC, 2006–13) were among this new generation of comedy series.
Shortly after the September 11 attacks, Fox introduced 24 (2001–10), an innovative espionage drama. Like Murder One (ABC, 1995–97), a legal drama from the 1990s, each season of 24 was like a miniseries, presenting a single story line (with many intertwining threads) that concluded at the end of the season. In the case of 24, however, each 24-episode season represented a single 24-hour day; each episode presented an hour in the life of intelligence agent Jack Bauer (played by Kiefer Sutherland). Another notable program was Lost (ABC, 2004–10), perhaps the most narratively complex series in American TV series history. Borrowing elements of the paranormal from previous series such as Twin Peaks (ABC, 1990–91) and The X-Files (Fox, 1993–2002), Lost followed 48 survivors of a plane crash on an island in the Pacific, employing a dizzying number of tricks, from flash-forwards and flashbacks to parallel times and spaces. It was a perfect show for the Internet age, engendering amateur speculation and analysis from bloggers around the world.
Many argued, however, that the most interesting new programs of the 2000s were coming from cable, not the networks. Not regulated by federal indecency rules that limit content on over-the-air programs from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm, cable channels could, and did, present more "adult" content than their network counterparts. Basic cable channels began introducing original programming in the early 2000s that garnered a significant amount of critical acclaim and awards. FX aired The Shield (2002–08), Nip/Tuck (2003–10), Rescue Me (2004–11), Over There (2005), and Damages (2007–10; Audience Network, 2011–12); TNT supplied The Closer (2005–12), Saving Grace (2007–10), and Raising the Bar (2008–09); USA Network's Monk (2002–09) won seven Emmy Awards; and AMC's Mad Men (begun 2007) won six in its first season, including that for Outstanding Drama Series.
The premium pay-cable channels HBO and Showtime continued to offer extraordinary examples of literate and sophisticated television art in the new century. Although HBO's subsequent series did not reach the ratings heights of Sex and the City or The Sopranos, the network did continue to bring out acclaimed dramas such as Six Feet Under (2001–05) and The Wire (2002–08), comedies such as Curb Your Enthusiasm (begun 2000) and Entourage (2004–11), miniseries such as Angels in America (2003) and John Adams (2008), and experimental oddments such as K Street (2003) and Carnivale (2003–05). Showtime's output of original scripted series also picked up in the early 2000s, with such notable series as The L Word (2004–09), Weeds (2005–12), Dexter (2006–13), and The Tudors (2007–10).
An indication of significant change for network prime-time television was announced by NBC in late 2008: starting in the fall of 2009 Jay Leno, who had just completed a 17-year run as host of The Tonight Show, would host a daily comedy show from 10:00 to 11:00 pm Eastern Time, Monday through Friday. In deciding to fill these time slots with a show that would be much cheaper to produce than scripted dramas, NBC ceded all the places on its schedule that had featured and nurtured such influential dramas as Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, L.A. Law, and ER. The scripted network drama was not going away, but it seemed like there would be a lot less of it in the future.
The "new technologies"
When the videocassette recorder (VCR) began to penetrate the mass market in the late 1970s, for the first time consumers were able to store television programming and view it at their convenience. Around the same period, cable TV, with its increased array of stations and abetted by remote-control capability, ushered in the practice of "channel surfing." Viewer choice and control increased dramatically with these technologies and would increase even more profoundly in the new century.
Digital video recorders (DVRs) appeared on the market in 1999 from ReplayTV and TiVo. These digital set-top devices allowed users to record television programs without the use of videotape. More versatile than the VCR, recording set-up and playback was also significantly easier. By mid-decade, video delivered on the Internet had become commonplace. YouTube, a Web site that made uploading and viewing video clips practically effortless, began operation in 2005 and within a year had become a firmly established element of global popular culture. Almost immediately, YouTube had provided access to a staggering number of viewer-generated as well as professional short videos.
By the middle of the new century's first decade, the Internet had become an important new way of distributing commercial television shows. A number of services emerged that offered both new and old programming for free, with advertising. CBS launched Innertube in 2006, the same year that AOL introduced In2TV. Both services offered shows over the Internet that had originally played on network television (as well as a few direct-to-Internet original programs). NBC Universal began testing Hulu in 2007 and officially launched it in 2008. By 2009 Hulu was offering a wide menu of movies and TV series from NBC Universal, Fox, ABC-Disney, and a variety of cable channels.
As the Internet was making it possible to watch TV anywhere, anytime, on small portable devices, another contrary revolution was taking place: television screens in the home were getting bigger and bigger. As high-definition television (HDTV) finally got up and running after a long period of gestation, the sales of bigger, flatter HDTV sets became substantial. By 2008 about one-third of American homes had at least one high-definition television set. Many people purchased their first HDTV set for use with DVD players and video-gaming devices. As the decade progressed, however, more and more television programming was being produced in high definition, and more stations were upgrading their facilities to be able to broadcast in HD. For all the advances in Internet technologies, Nielsen ratings data for the last quarter of 2008 indicated that television viewing in the home was not suffering—it was in fact increasing.
A symbolic moment in television history arrived in June 2009, by which time federal regulations had mandated that all TV stations needed to have converted from analog to digital signals. Anyone still using an antenna—that venerable symbol of the TV era—would no longer be able to receive a television signal without adding a special translator device to their set.
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Tripura, state of India. It is located in the northeastern part of the subcontinent. It is bordered to the north, west, and south by Bangladesh, to the east by the state of Mizoram, and to the northeast by the state of Assam. It is among the smallest of India's states and is located in an isolated hilly region of the country, with various indigenous peoples—or tribes—accounting for a significant portion of the population. The capital is Agartala, near the Bangladesh border in the northwestern part of the state. Area 4,049 square miles (10,486 square km). Pop. (2011) 3,671,032.
Relief and drainage
Central and northern Tripura is a hilly region crossed by four major valleys—from east to west, the Dharmanagar, the Kailashahar, the Kamalpur, and the Khowai, all carved by northward-flowing rivers (the Juri, Manu and Deo, Dhalai, and Khowai, respectively). North-south-trending ranges separate the valleys. East of the Dharmanagar valley, the Jampai Tlang range rises to elevations between 2,000 and 3,000 feet (600 and 900 metres). Elevation decreases westward through the successive ranges—the Sakhan Tlang, the Langtarai Range, and the Athara Mura Range—with the westernmost hills, the Deotamura, attaining heights of only 800 feet (240 metres).
The lower valleys in the west and south tend to be open and marshy, although in the south the terrain is heavily dissected and densely forested. West of the Deotamura Range is the Agartala Plain, an extension of the lowlands of the Ganges (Ganga) and Brahmaputra river basins, with an elevation of less than 200 feet (60 metres). It is drained by numerous rivers, the largest of which, the Gumti, emerges from the eastern hills in a steep-sided valley near Radhakishorepur.
The warmest months in Tripura are April and May, when maximum daily temperatures in the lowlands average in the low 90s F (about 33 °C), and minimum temperatures average in the mid-70s F (about 23 °C). The coolest month is January, with temperatures typically rising from the low 50s F (about 10 °C) into the upper 70s F (about 25 °C) daily. Throughout the year, it is cooler in the hill regions.
Annually, the state registers about 80 inches (2,000 mm) of rainfall, most of which is brought by the monsoon, which generally blows from June to September. North-central Tripura usually receives the most rainfall; the southwestern region typically receives the least.
Plant and animal life
About half of Tripura's land area is under forest cover. One of the most notable types of trees of the state's forests is sal, a valuable tropical hardwood. There also are large tracts of bamboo, some species of which are believed to be endemic to the state.
Animal life includes tigers, leopards, elephants, jackals, wild dogs, wild boars, serows (goatlike mammals), and various species of wild cattle, including gayals and other types of gaurs. Several species of primates, including langurs and gibbons, also inhabit Tripura's woodlands. The state's lowlands are visited by many types of migratory birds, such as teals, ibises, and storks. Tripura's flora and fauna are protected in a number of wildlife sanctuaries.
Population composition
More than two-fifths of the state's population belongs officially to Scheduled Castes (a term designating those classes that have traditionally occupied a low position in the Indian caste system) and Scheduled Tribes (a term generally applied to indigenous peoples who fall outside the traditional Indian social hierarchy). The Tripuri constitute more than half the tribal community. Other prominent tribal groups include the Reang, the Chakma, the Halam (a subgroup of the Kuki), the Garo, the Lusai (Mizo), and the Marma (Mogh); most originally moved to Tripura from various hill regions in neighbouring states.
Bengali (Bangla), an Indo-Aryan language, is spoken by more than half the population; it and Kokborok (Tripuri), a Tibeto-Burman language, are the state's official languages. Manipuri, another Tibeto-Burman language, also is widely spoken.
Hinduism is the religion of the great majority of Tripura's people. Muslims constitute the largest minority but account for less than one-tenth of the population. There also are small minorities of Christians, particularly among the tribal peoples. Most of the Chakma and Mogh are Buddhist.
Settlement patterns
Tripura is predominantly rural. The highest densities of rural population are found in the state's most fertile agricultural lands, located in the western plain and the Gumti, Dharmanagar, and Khowai valleys. Towns are concentrated on the western plain. The state capital of Agartala is the largest city; major towns include Badharghat, Jogendranagar, and Dharmanagar.
The agriculture sector engages roughly two-thirds of Tripura's workforce and accounts for nearly half the state's gross product. The major crop is rice, which is grown throughout the state. Cash crops include jute (used in the manufacture of sacking, burlap, and twine), cotton, tea, sugarcane, and various fruits, such as jackfruit, pineapples, oranges, and mangoes. Coconuts and potatoes are also important. Livestock plays only a subsidiary role in the state's agriculture. Forestry-based industries produce timber, firewood, rubber, and charcoal.
Cottage and small-scale industries account for most of Tripura's manufacturing sector. Weaving, carpentry, basketry, and pottery are among the state's most significant cottage industries. Notable products of small-scale industries include processed foods (especially tea, sugar, fruit, nuts, and spices), rubber products, and bricks. Yarn, jute, and steel milling, as well as wood and chemical processing, are among Tripura's larger-scale manufacturing activities.
Resources and power
Tripura has extensive resources of natural gas that in the early 21st century remained largely untapped. The bulk of the state's energy is provided by several gas- and diesel-powered thermal plants. There is also a small hydroelectric station on the Gumti River.
Tripura's hilly topography has continued to impair transportation and communication within the state. Moreover, with Bangladesh bordering the state on three sides, Tripura is virtually isolated from India. There is, however, a national highway that passes through the state, linking the capital city of Agartala in the west with the state of Mizoram in the northeast and Bangladesh in the southeast. Larger towns of Tripura are connected through a network of major roads. The North-East Frontier Railway of India's national rail network serves several cities in Tripura. Most rivers carry boat traffic, but this is generally for local transport. Agartala is linked by air to several cities in India, including Kolkata (Calcutta) in West Bengal, Guwahati in Assam, and the national capital of New Delhi.
Government and society
Constitutional framework
The structure of the government of Tripura, like that of most other states of India, is determined by the national constitution of 1950. The governor is the constitutional head of state and is appointed by the president of India. The actual administration, however, is conducted by the Council of Ministers, headed by a chief minister responsible to the elected unicameral Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha). The jurisdiction of the Guwahati High Court (in Assam) extends over Tripura.
Tripura is divided into a handful of administrative districts, each of which is headed by a district magistrate, who also serves as the district collector. For administrative purposes, each district contains a few subdivisions, which are divided into smaller units called tehsils, which in turn embrace a number of villages and sometimes also a few towns.
Among the major health concerns in Tripura are diarrheal diseases, respiratory diseases, hepatitis, and malaria and other vector-borne illnesses. Medical treatment is offered through an array of public health facilities, including district hospitals, subdivisional hospitals, community health centres, public health centres, and dispensaries. In addition, there are family-planning centres, as well as specialized clinics for the treatment of leprosy, sexually transmitted diseases, and diseases of the eye, chest, and teeth. The state supports not only institutions offering allopathic (Western) medicine but also those specializing in Ayurvedic (traditional Indian) and homeopathic treatments.
Education in Tripura is compulsory and free for children between the ages of 6 and 14 through thousands of public primary and secondary schools. The Umakanta Academy, established in Agartala in the 19th century, is one of the oldest educational institutions in India's northeastern region. Higher educational facilities include Tripura University (1987) in Suryamaninagar (near Agartala) and numerous general degree colleges, teachers colleges, and professional and technical institutions, including nursing and engineering schools.
Cultural life
Most of the population, adhering to Hinduism and speaking Bengali, shares in the broader cultural traditions of India, while the Muslim minority is closer in culture to Bangladesh. Traditions of the tribal peoples also are important elements of Tripura's cultural life, with each community possessing its own festivals, folklore, music, and dance.
Two of Tripura's largest festivals are the Kharchi Puja and the Garia. The Kharchi Puja—also known as the Festival of the 14 Gods—has its origins in tribal tradition but is now a major temple festival celebrated within a predominantly Hindu framework by both tribal and nontribal peoples; it takes place in Agartala every July and honours the deities and the Earth. The Garia celebration is a prominent festival of the indigenous population and is associated particularly with the Tripuri people. Garia is held each April following the planting of the fields to pray for a successful agricultural year.
The history of Tripura includes two distinct periods—the largely legendary period described in the Rajamala, a chronicle of the supposed early maharajas (kings) of Tripura, and the period since the reign of the great king Dharma Manikya (reigned c. 1431–62). The Rajamala, written in Bengali verse, was compiled by the Brahmans in the court of Dharma Manikya. During his reign and that of his successor, Dhanya Manikya (reigned c. 1463–1515), Tripura suzerainty was extended over much of Bengal, Assam, and Myanmar (Burma) in a series of remarkable military conquests. It was not until the beginning of the 17th century that the Mughal empire extended its sovereignty over much of Tripura.
When the British East India Company obtained the diwani, or financial administration, of Bengal in 1765, the part of Tripura that had been under Mughal rule came under British control. From 1808 each successive ruler had to receive investiture from the British government. In 1905 Tripura was attached to the new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam and was known as Hill Tippera.
The last ruling maharaja of Tripura, Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya, ascended the throne in 1923, and before his death in 1947, he settled Tripura's accession to the newly independent country of India. Tripura officially became part of India on Oct. 15, 1949; it was made a union territory on Sept. 1, 1956, and it became a state on Jan. 21, 1972.
In the 1980s there was considerable ethnic violence in Tripura, fueled largely by local demands for an independent tribal homeland. In 1988 tribal dissidents ceased hostilities and dropped demands for autonomy in return for increased participation in state government.Deryck O. Lodrick
Learn More in these related Britannica articles:
India, country that occupies the greater part of South Asia. It is a constitutional republic consisting of 29 states, each with a substantial degree of control over its own affairs; 6 less fully empowered union territories; and the Delhi national capital territory, which includes New Delhi, India's capital. With roughly…
Bangladesh, country of south-central Asia, located in the delta of the Padma (Ganges [Ganga]) and Jamuna (Brahmaputra) rivers in the northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent. The riverine country of Bangladesh ("Land of the Bengals") is one of…
Mizoram, state of India. It is located in the northeastern part of the country and is bounded by Myanmar (Burma) to the east and south and Bangladesh to the west and by the states of Tripura to the northwest, Assam to the north, and Manipur to the northeast. The capital…
Assam, state of India. It is located in the northeastern part of the country and is bounded to the north by the kingdom of Bhutan and the state of Arunachal Pradesh, to the east by the states of Nagaland and Manipur, to the south by the states of Mizoram and…
Agartala, city, capital of Tripura state, northeastern India. It is situated near the Bangladesh border astride the Haroa River amid numerous villages in an intensively cultivated plain. Agartala is the commercial centre of the region. It is home to the Ujjayanta Palace, the meeting…

subset: commoncrawl


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Teaching the Tea Party and Terrorism
I've previously noted a pattern of right-wing media reporting on supposedly faulty teaching of Revolutionary history just before Thanksgiving. That timing means that the stories can play out over long weekends while audiences are home and school administrators are away from their offices and unavailable to coordinate a reply.
In this case, The Blaze responded to comments that the lesson plan was no longer circulating by saying that it had been on the web as recently as January 2012. Which suggests that the site had sat on this dire threat to Texas schoolchildren for more than ten months without checking further. And then Thanksgiving break approached.
Aside from Houston's CBS affiliate and the Daily Mail tabloid in London, the report appears to have been picked up largely on right-wing blogs. [Personally if I wanted to blog respectably about politics, I'd keep away from the term "Blitzkrieg," but that's just me.] Because there really wasn't a story in that lesson plan.
Preserved as a PDF download with some typos and outdated facts, the lesson plan starts by suggesting the teacher distribute and read this fictional announcement:
Read the following to the students as a whole as if it just happened within the hour in a location near by.After leading some discussion, the teacher is supposed to reveal that that's a description of the Boston Tea Party from the British government's perspective, using modern terms. (And some distortion: although militia-like companies provided the watch on Griffin's Wharf and men from the artillery company joined in destroying the tea, that destruction wasn't organized by "a local militia.")
News report: A local militia, believed to be a terrorist organization, attacked the property of private citizens today at the port. Although no one was injured in the attack, a large quantity of merchandise, considered to be valuable to its owners and loathsome to the perpetrators, was destroyed. The terrorists, dressed as natives and apparently intoxicated, were able to escape into the night with the help of local citizens who harbor these fugitives and conceal their identities from the authorities. It is believed that the terrorist attack was a response to the policies enacted by the occupying country's government.
Students aren't supposed to accept the preceding description of the Tea Party uncritically. In fact, the teacher is supposed to ask questions like:
Do you think that in the eyes of the British that the Boston Tea Party was a terrorist activity? Why or why not? Were the colonists justified in taking this action due to their beliefs? Is anyone ever justified in committing these types of activities? What drives people to do this type of activity? These are things that we will explore further.The lesson plan leads on to a discussion of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo. It asks some important if ill-phrased questions ("Even though our Bill of Rights states that no 'cruel and unusual punishments inflicted,' should that apply to non-citizens (or prisoners)?") and skips others (Since over 570 of the 779 men and boys held at Guantanamo since 2002, plus 87 of the 166 men still held there as of 3 October, have been cleared for release, should the U.S. have imprisoned them there at all?).
The lesson plan comes with "placards" describing six terrorist attacks, from the Wall Street bombing of 1920 and through the kamikaze hijackings of 2001. All of those attacks targeted the U.S. and Israel, with four of the six carried out by Islamic nationalists. There are no placards for military attacks on civilian targets, for terrorist acts by Americans (or Israelis), or for other types of political violence like lynchings, riots, disappearances, and assassinations. (At the back of the lesson plan are descriptions of the Earth Liberation Front and the Oklahoma City bombing, following descriptions of seven Arabic or Pashtun and two far-left organizations.)
In short, while starting from the provocative example of the Boston Tea Party (one of the most controlled, though costly, acts of political violence in pre-Revolutionary America), the lesson plan actually ends up reinforcing a pretty common American perspective on terrorism: it's something other people—particularly mysterious, leftist, and/or non-white, non-Christian people—do to Americans and our close allies. I suspect the folks at The Blaze never read that far.
TOMORROW: The Sons of Liberty and the original meaning of "terrorism."


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BBC News
- Huawei row: Top civil servant demands leak inquiry co-operation
- Port Talbot Tata steelworks: Police attend 'explosion'
- UK warns against all but essential Sri Lanka travel
- How a missed council tax bill of £167 can cost £2,065
- Blue Peter: Richie Driss announced as new presenter
- Syndrome without a name: The boy who baffles doctors
- Two degrees now needed to get higher pay
- G4S driver admits stealing £1m in cash from van
- Extinction Rebellion activists end London protests
- Carson Price 'pale and shaking' in park before death
- Guilty drugs gang flashed cash on Snapchat
- Colchester council candidate Carla Hales punched taking selfies
- Royal baby: What do we know?
- Sri Lanka attacks: 'They gave me a hug the night before'
- 'My son was fatally stabbed outside school'
- Norwich Cathedral peregrine falcons' chicks hatch
- Primary school Sats: Pupils and parents protest
- London Marathon runner: 'I've never surrendered to blindness'
- Sri Lanka attacks: Son wants to 'bring mum home'
- BBC Breakfast
- Clothes worth £60,000 donated anonymously to charity shop
- Sir Ian McKellen stages free show for 80 octogenarians
- Newspaper headlines: Huawei leak probe and Sri Lanka warning
- Skin positivity: How I got comfortable with my acne
- Do lesbians need more safe spaces?
- Climate change: Is Greta Thunberg right about UK carbon emissions?
- Council elections: 'Not enough' women and minorities stand
- Cyber-flashing: 'I froze when penis picture dropped on to my phone'
- Marina loses her Diamonds and finds herself
- Extinction Rebellion Protests: What happened?
- Incontinence: 'Lack of support' for older children
- 2019 European elections: A party-by-party UK guide
- Lyra McKee: What's next for Northern Ireland?
- Mollie King: Dyslexia made reading aloud 'scary and intimidating'
- Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp says his side are "the team of the season"
- Archibald Leitch: The man who built Britain's football grounds
- How much screen time should children be allowed?
- The teachers live streaming bedtime stories
- Cyclist's appeal after thief thwarts sixth round-the-world attempt
- James Bond: What to expect from Bond 25 announcement
- Why your car might be covered in red dust
- Donald Trump state visit to UK: What can we expect?
- Will indyref2 happen before May 2021?
- The Lego bricks designed for children with sight loss
- Wanted: New Bank of England boss
- Extinction Rebellion: How might ministers win over the protesters?
- How did the qwerty keyboard become so popular?
Below we are listing a number of UK job websites that have full-time and part-time job opportunities available in the FOBBING area.
Fish4 Jobs
JobSeekers (Direct.Gov.uk)
http://api.indeed.com/ads/apisearch?publisher=4773927896266615&q=&l=SS17 9BN&sort=&radius=5&st=&jt=&start=&limit=10&fromage=&filter=&latlong=1&co=gb&chnl=AVUK&userip=22.214.171.124&useragent=CCBot/2.0 (https://commoncrawl.org/faq/)&v=2
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Interstice: New Economies for Creative Communities
Interstice: New Economies for Creative Communities, is framed as a recent historical survey that speaks about the relevance and contribution of past artistic practices that have contributed to a particular direction in art making now beyond the year 2012. Beginning with the 1970's, this show examines an artistic journey that spans the movements of pre and post relational aesthetics, social aesthetics, participatory artwork, and art and social practice.Two dimensional, three dimensional, video and performance works as well as a variety of educational programming are included in our scope. The goal of this show is to speak, and raise awareness about, the roots of current relational and community based art practices as well as the future of those practices. We are very interested a curatorial concept that functions within the context of how fine art, and fine art exhibitions can benefit and contribute to the community and the values and projects within communities.
Art is it's own currency: it can reside outside the conversation of money, helping to develop new economies. The artist lives in a world where one is free to make. Although western culture operates within the capitalist structure, rewriting the rules is accessible. This is an exploration of those incongruities.
Our goal is to create a conversation between artists who step away from or question traditional economic structures calling attention the phenomenon that is today's Art Market. The nature of Art and means of distribution are changing with the globalization of the world. The functionality of art is no longer living only within the gallery walls. Art is free to do is at it pleases, define and redefine: a continuous conversation. "The artwork now looks like a social interstice and in which these experiences and these new 'life possibilities' prove to be possible." (Bourriaud 170)
For more information please visit www.neweconomies.net


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How energy efficient are "Xenon" halogen bulbs in light fixtures?
Editorial Rating:
Average Rating: ( 0 votes)
Many of the light fixtures I would like to purchase for our new home say that they have halogen or "Xenon" halogen bulbs. My architect is trying to steer me away from halogens since they are not as efficient as curly bulbs. I thought I read that Xenon bulbs may be more efficient, though. We are trying to get an Energy Star rating and I can't get information about these bulbs.
I love that green architects (as well as the rest of us) are becoming more knowledgeable about energy-efficient lighting -- and I'm happy, therefore, to say that your architect is correct.
- Xenon bulbs, despite the techy-sounding name, are just a type of halogen.
- And halogen bulbs, in turn, are basically a type of good (well, not so good) old incandescent.
The difference between standard incandescent bulbs and halogen bulbs is that the glass container surrounding the filament is filled with a halogen gas which serves to extend the life of the filament and decrease the blackening of the glass that would otherwise occur. (The blackening is tungsten from the filament accumulating on the glass as the filament wears down.) Xenon is one of a few types of halogen gas used in light bulbs; more common ones are neon, argon, and krypton.
To get to the crux of your question: halogen bulbs are indeed more energy efficient than incandescents, but only incrementally.
- In general, filament-type bulbs have an efficacy (the industry term for efficiency) of somewhere around 10–20 lumens per watt (LPW); and
- they are only around 5% efficient, meaning just a small amount of the electricity consumed is actually converted into light.
The majority of the electricity the bulb uses becomes heat which, of course, is not really what you're looking for from a light fixture. Incandescent bulbs mostly fall into the lower part of that 10–20 LPW range while halogens tend toward (and sometimes exceed) the higher end of the range.
Neither of these is close to a compact fluorescent bulb, i.e. the "curly" bulb you mention. CFLs get around 40 LPW, making them 3–4 times more efficient than incandescent and 2–3 times more efficient than halogen.
Two related things to note:
- Don't be confused by the fact that many halogen bulbs are "low voltage." That doesn't mean they are more energy efficient.
- And, if you are installing new lights and want them to count as energy efficient, a light fixture that uses regular screw-base bulbs -- even if you use a screw-base CFL -- will not cut it.
There is no such thing as an Energy Star rated fixture with that type of socket. Energy Star fixtures need to use a socket that can only accept CFLs and can't be retrofitted with less efficient bulbs. Those lights and bulbs will have a twist-lock type socket labeled "GU-24."
There's lots more to be said about the differences between incandescent, halogen, and fluorescent (as well as LED), but it sounds like your architect is giving you some good advice.
For more information:
Read David Bergman's Q&A, "I want energy efficient lighting, but hate the cold light of fluorescents. Can you help?"


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Buried Child
An alcoholic patriarch and his adulterous wife live in squalor with their two children, an All-American football player turned semi-idiot and a son long-ago disfigured in a chainsaw accident. When a forgotten grandson and his girlfriend come to town the family's long-held secrets are revealed. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Buried Child provides an entertaining and brilliantly conceived investigation of the demise of the American Dream. Tickets: $12 general public; $10 BU Alumni, Huntington Theatre subscribers, WGBH members, students, senior citizens, and groups. BU community: One free ticket with BU ID at the door, day of performance, subject to availability. *Full Performance Run: December 11-16.
- Starts:
- 7:30 pm on Tuesday, December 11, 2012
- Location:
- BU Theatre, Lane-Comley Studio 210
- Registration:
- http://www.bostontheatrescene.com/season/Buried-Child/


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Charter Arms Bulldog Leather Holsters
- Bestsellers
- Low price
- High price
About Leather Holsters for Charter Arms Bulldog
Choosing the right Leather holster for Charter Arms Bulldog is not a simple task, so you should better bet on craftsmanship and quality that is proven by years. With quality holster, you can rely on your self-defense setup in every situation and your gun will have a safe shelter for a lifetime. Our offer includes 59 Charter Arms Bulldog Leather concealed carry and duty holsters from traditional European holster producers, known for their quality materials and hand crafted manufacture. Holsters above are made of premium quality leather with traditional craftsmanship. Leather holsters has better warm feeling, longer lifetime and better fit, compared with other materials. Charter Arms Bulldog Leather holsters are custom made for this gun model for perfect fit and smooth draw and allows you to wear your gun in comfortable and safety way. You can choose between IWB, OWB, Ankle, Cross Draw, Drop Leg, Duty, Magazine & Ammo, Molle, Paddle, Shoulder and Small of Back holster designs for Charter Arms Bulldog. See all holster designs for Charter Arms Bulldog.
About Charter Arms Bulldog
American guns designer Douglas McClenahan established the Charter Arms Company in 1964, in Stratford.The first revolvers were chambered in several calibers .22 Long Rifle, .32 Long, .32 H&R Magnum, .22 Winchester Magnum, .327 Federal Magnum, .44 Special, .357 Magnum, and .38 Special. The most popular revolvers are .38 Special Bulldog Pug and .44 Special Bulldog.
The original company went bankrupt in the 1990s and was later on resurrected by Charter 2000, founded by the Ecker family. The new models contain entirely blocked hammer system to avoid discharges. The most popular revolvers there were announced are The Undercover, The Bulldog, and The Pitbull. The Charter 2000 entered into an agreement with the MKS Supply that would handle marketing, sales, and distribution. In 2008, the Charter Arms introduced new "Patriot" revolver that was available in 2.2" and 4" barrel, chambered in .327 Federal Magnum, but this revolver model is no longer listed under the official products category/list.
The Charter Arms managed to adapt to changing conditions and to achieve a distinctive approach to handgun design. Nowadays, The Charter Arms offers reliable, rugged and affordable revolvers, ideal for a personal protection.
The Bulldog represents a double action snub-nosed revolver, designed by Doug McClenahan and introduced by the Charter Arms in 1973.The Bulldog is available with the barrel length of 2.2" or 2.5", with the total length of 6.7" or 7.2", chambered in the .44 Special and .357 Magnum calibers. .The Charter introduced an improved version of the Bulldog later on, with a one-piece barrel, front sight, and ejector-shroud assembly unlike to the original model.Since 2007, the Charter Arms gun manufacturer continuous in production with the Bulldog model enriching of the advanced features.
The Bulldog is available in five different models in .44 Special and .357 Magnum calibers.All Bulldog models typically contain a cylinder of 5 shots. Currently, the revolver is available in its 14420, 74420 and 74421 versions. Charter's Police Undercover model was built to resemble the Bulldog with the same frame model, but with a different caliber.The revolver was used by the famous character of the FBI Investigator Will Graham in the movie Manhunter and by the serial killer David Berkowitz ("Son of Sam"), who was responsible for a series of attacks and murders in New York during 1976-1977.Due to its small size without containing sharp edges, the Bulldog can be easily concealed and is ideal for a self-defense use.
Craft Holsters offers quality represented by the combination of Old World holster production legends and top quality service. This quality comes with a guarantee that safeguards the whole purchase. It's the features implemented into the ordering process and credit card checkout that make your order safe. It's the email communication that we provide that tells you every single detail of your order because we want you to be in touch and informed. It's the tryout period and money back guarantee that turns the whole purchase into a relationship between our quality and your satisfaction. We thank you.


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What We Do
The Events Management Office is responsible for coordinating the use of Buffalo State facilities by campus groups and community organizations. We are the primary contact for all conference and special event planning.
We are available to help you determine the best venue, date availability, and to coordinate the campus services necessary for your event.
Office Hours:
Monday - Friday
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Cleveland Hall 319


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Every new head coach faces challenges. But Mike Pettine, Jim Caldwell and Lovie Smith inherit enviable situations in Cleveland, Detroit and Tampa Bay, respectively. All three landed talented rosters that aren't far from playoff contention.
As the Browns, Lions and Buccaneers wrap up their offseason programs with minicamps this week, we decided to take a look at the obstacles that each new head coach faces at his new locale.
Mike Pettine, Cleveland Browns
1. The toughest challenge for Pettine might be off the field. Johnny Manziel has brought the national media to town, and there will be scrutiny on everything the team does. Pettine appears to be up for the job, with a blunt style that can successfully shut down silly storylines. Many coaches say the toughest part of being a first-time head coach is dealing with added responsibilities as they try to get their system installed.
2. The pressure won't just be from the media. There will be an intense drumbeat from the vocal Browns fans to start Johnny Manziel over Brian Hoyer in Week 1. Pettine has preached competition, and it's hard to imagine him benching Manziel if he clearly outplays Hoyer in training camp. NFL Media's Aditi Kinkhabwala noted Tuesday that Hoyer has held his own during OTA sessions, although we don't put a lot of stock in non-contact work.
3. One of the challenges in constructing the Browns' offense: Hoyer and Manziel are very different style quarterbacks. Offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan must balance getting ready for the season with developing Manziel.
4. Pettine also has to successfully prepare for life without star wide receiver Josh Gordon. His expected suspension has been hanging over the team for over a month now. With Gordon out of the mix, the Browns have a rag tag group of wideouts with Andrew Hawkins, Miles Austin and Nate Burleson atop the depth chart.
5. The challenge on defense is a good one. Pettine needs to find a way to get a host of talented players together on the field at the same time, especially pass rushers. His system isn't the simplest to install, but there is plenty of connective tissue with Ray Horton's scheme from a year ago.
Jim Caldwell, Detroit Lions
1. Caldwell's second go-round as a head coach will include a lot of teaching within his own coaching staff. In offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and defensive coordinator Teryl Austin, the Lions have the least experienced coordinator tandem in the NFL.
2. It's a young staff but a relatively experienced roster. Detroit's offense has enviable continuity, especially on the offensive line. The defensive tackle combination rivals any in the league. Under previous coach Jim Schwartz, the Lions added up to less than the sum of their parts. (Penalties were a big reason why.) It's Caldwell's task to turn that around.
3. The front four in Detroit looks strong, but there are still plenty of questions about the secondary. This is especially challenging in an NFC North division full of great wide receivers. Caldwell and Austin need to settle on a depth chart that works and coach up the positions better than the previous staff.
4. Ultimately, Caldwell was hired to get more out of quarterback Matthew Stafford. No one questions the talent or the arm strength, but he hasn't developed the mental side of his game as quickly. It looked like Stafford had taken significant strides last year until his late-season swoon.
Lovie Smith, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
1. Smith has great talent to work with on defense. But his system is a big departure from the scheme that Greg Schiano ran last year. This group has the makings of a top-five unit if Smith can teach his philosophy well.
2. "Every team says they have a leader -- but not every team has a leader like Josh," Smith said of his new starting quarterback Josh McCown. Translating that leadership into a 16-game starter will be trickier. There's reason to believe McCown has the talent to make the leap to quality starter.
3. The Buccaneers need to integrate rookies Mike Evans and Austin Seferian-Jenkins into their offense quickly. The team is short on pass catchers otherwise, and counting on rookie pass catchers is always dangerous.
4. Offensive coordinator Jeff Tedford is a wild card. Smith essentially is betting his second act on a college coach that had a disastrous end to his run at Cal. Tedford is a noted quarterback tutor, but he has no NFL experience. He is one of the biggest X-factors in the entire league.
The end to the latest Around The League Podcast is full of shock and awe.


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Express. Home of the Daily and Sunday Express.
Spurs sneak into last 16
Tottenham's difficult week in Lyon ended on a dramatic high after Mousa Dembele fired his team in to the last 16 of the Europa League with a stunning last-minute strike that secured a 1-1 draw.
Maxime Gonalons, the Lyon captain, looked to have fired Lyon to the 1-0 win they required to advance with his first-half goal.
However, Dembele popped up in the 90th minute, hammering a blistering 25-yard strike past Remy Vercoutre to clinch the tie 3-2 on aggregate and set up a mouth-watering third round tie against Inter Milan.
Much of the pre-match focus had been on the attack by a group of 50 locals which hospitalised three Spurs fans on Wednesday night. Spurs looked like a team on the edge from the start, as Clement Grenier swung in a teasing corner in the first minute, and Brad Friedel was caught in two minds with Jan Vertonghen putting in an emergency clearance.
Grenier tested Friedel again soon after, whipping over a looping ball, but Alexandre Lacazette could only head into the goalkeeper's arms. Careless defending from Benoit Assou-Ekotto allowed Lacazette to break free down the right, but luckily for the Cameroonian, referee Wolfgang Stark brought play back for a foul.
The first time Gareth Bale had a say was when his shoddy marking allowed Lyon to break the deadlock after 16 minutes. Kyle Walker fouled Lisandro Lopez and when Grenier clipped the free-kick to the near post, Bale turned away from Gonalons - who beat a rooted Friedel from eight yards.
Scott Parker and Dembele were painfully slow in possession in midfield while Emmanuel Adebayor struggled up front on his own. Spurs came out much more confidently after the break as Parker worked the ball out to Adebayor, who whipped a beautifully shaped ball to the back post, but Bale sidefooted barely an inch wide.
Lyon raced up the other end and Tottenham needed a superb save from Friedel to deny the ever-impressive Grenier. The goalkeeper then made an error trying to clear a chipped ball over the top, but Assou-Ekotto muscled past Lacazette to retrieve the ball.
Vercoutre had a nightmare trying to punching away two crunching efforts from Bale in quick succession. Adebayor hooked the ball on to the top of the Lyon bar and Aaron Lennon had a penalty appeal turned down soon after.
Clint Dempsey went close twice soon after his introduction, and it seemed Spurs were destined to fail. Dembele had other ideas, however, dropping his shoulder to beat Grenier before hitting a powerful long-range shot beyond Vercoutre.


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Dukes Wooters, dynamic, hard-charging president and chief executive officer of Cotton Incorporated, looking for an image to help convert cotton from a pedestrian agricultural commodity into an identifiable consumer brand, called on Walter Landor, the legendary German designer who was a pioneer in the field of "branding." Company clients have included KFC, Frito-Lay, Microsoft, Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Xerox.
Landor (who died in 1995) subsequently presented 12 designs to Cotton Incorporated. A story in Sternbusiness, the publication of New York University's Stern Business School, recalls:
"The chosen design for the Seal of Cotton — one that Landor's daughter, Susan, had conceived, would become one of the most successful trademarks in the annals of marketing. It was simple and engaging: a white cotton boll, rising up from the two Ts of the word 'cotton,' laid against a background of earth-tone brown.
"The seal… almost instantly gave cotton a new identity, making a deep impact on public awareness — a rare masterpiece of graphic design-as-communication. The design conveyed several positive messages: If nature was good, then cotton was good. Cotton had roots, but it also had bloom. Cotton was pure, soft, comforting, and natural. Cotton was something familiar that you wanted to have and keep around. From its inception, the seal would stand at the center of an intensive and innovative advertising campaign designed to 'pull' cotton back into consumer consciousness."
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the launching of the Seal of Cotton.
Within a year of its introduction, the seal was recognized by 18 percent of consumers. Three years later, it had jumped to 46 percent. In 1978, it topped 50 percent, and today more than eight of 10 consumers can identify it. In the U.S. and worldwide, it's right up there with Coca-Cola, Kodak, and other instantly-recognizable logos.
The seal now serves as the focal point and central visual element around which all of CI's industry/consumer promotions are based, and is a part of the wildly successful "The Fabric of Our Lives" advertising campaign. In 2003, it is estimated that more than 166 million apparel/home fabric items will carry the seal. (It's also featured on the nation's largest-selling laundry detergent, Tide, a product engineered for maximum effectiveness with cotton fabrics.) The biggest-ever agreement for use of the seal was signed in 1997 with Martha Stewart for her Silver Label Collection 100 percent cotton bed sheets.
"Today, more than ever, consumers demand value and quality in the apparel and home fashions they buy," says J. Berrye Worsham, current president and CEO of Cotton Incorporated. "The Seal of Cotton enhances the fact that the 100-percent cotton products they purchase will meet those expectations. Each impression made reinforces consumer recognition of cotton apparel and home textiles and has an impact on the overall demand for cotton and its products."
America's cotton producers, whose check-off funds support Cotton Incorporated's research/promotion programs, can take justifiable pride in the organization's successes — much among them the Seal of Cotton.


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Israel's Lake Hula is one of the oldest documented lakes, providing fertile hunting and fishing grounds for humans for tens of thousands of years. But in the early 1950s, the lake and surrounding marshes were drained.
Though initially celebrated as a great national achievement for tackling malaria, in time it became increasingly evident that the benefits of draining the swamps were limited, but the costs were high. Exposed soil blew away and dried peat ignited, causing underground fires that proved hard to control. A nearby lake became polluted with chemical fertilizers, raising water quality concerns. The draining also led to the near extinction of an entire ecosystem and the unique endemic fauna of the lake, including the Hula painted frog. Ironically, species such as the painted frog feed on mosquitoes that carry malaria.
Concern over the draining of Hula grew among the people of Israel, leading to the formation of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and a movement for the reflooding of the Hula Valley. It took 40 years for the protesters' voices to be heard, but in the mid 1990s, parts of the Hula Valley were reflooded.
While much of the ecosystem was restored, not all species re-appeared and it was believed to be too late for the Hula painted frog; the species was declared extinct in 1996 by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The frog became a poignant symbol for extinction in Israel.
Only three adult Hula painted frogs had ever been found. Two of these were collected into captivity in the 1940s, but the larger one ate the smaller one, leaving just one specimen to remember the species by.
The enigmatic frog was selected as one of the "top ten" species during the Search for Lost Frogs last year, highlighting the global importance of this species. It was lost but not forgotten.
But the story has just had a surprising twist. Earlier this week, Nature and Parks Authority warden Yoram Malka was conducting his routine patrol of the Hula Nature Reserve when something jumped from under him. He lunged after it and caught it: he was holding in his hand the first Hula painted frog seen since the year Elvis Presley first appeared on television.
This rediscovery is the icing on the cake of what is a major victory for conservation in Israel: the restoration of a rare and valuable ecosystem. Because Israel has given the Hula Valley a second chance to thrive, the Hula frog has gone from being a symbol of extinction to a symbol of resilience.
It's stories like this that bring hope to any conservation effort: if we give nature a chance, she may just surprise us.
Robin Moore is CI's amphibian conservation officer and the leader of our Search for Lost Frogs campaign.


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Joseph Stalin, Russian in full Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin, original name (Georgian) Ioseb Dzhugashvili, (born December 18 [December 6, Old Style], 1878, Gori, Georgia, Russian Empire [see Researcher's Note]—died March 5, 1953, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.), secretary-general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–53) and premier of the Soviet state (1941–53), who for a quarter of a century dictatorially ruled the Soviet Union and transformed it into a major world power.
When was Joseph Stalin born?
When did Joseph Stalin die?
What was Joseph Stalin's childhood like?
Where was Joseph Stalin educated?
How did Joseph Stalin change the world?
During the quarter of a century preceding his death, the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin probably exercised greater political power than any other figure in history. Stalin industrialized the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, forcibly collectivized its agriculture, consolidated his position by intensive police terror, helped to defeat Germany in 1941–45, and extended Soviet controls to include a belt of eastern European states. Chief architect of Soviet totalitarianism and a skilled but phenomenally ruthless organizer, he destroyed the remnants of individual freedom and failed to promote individual prosperity, yet he created a mighty military-industrial complex and led the Soviet Union into the nuclear age.
Stalin's biography was long obscured by a mendacious Soviet-propagated "legend" exaggerating his prowess as a heroic Bolshevik boy-conspirator and faithful follower of Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union. In his prime, Stalin was hailed as a universal genius, as a "shining sun," or "the staff of life," and also as a "great teacher and friend" (especially of those communities he most savagely persecuted); once he was even publicly invoked as "Our Father" by a metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church. Achieving wide visual promotion through busts, statues, and icons of himself, the dictator became the object of a fanatical cult that, in private, he probably regarded with cynicism.
The young revolutionary
Stalin was of Georgian—not Russian—origin, and persistent rumours claim that he was Ossetian on the paternal side. He was the son of a poor cobbler in the provincial Georgian town of Gori in the Caucasus, then an imperial Russian colony. The drunken father savagely beat his son. Speaking only Georgian at home, Joseph learned Russian—which he always spoke with a guttural Georgian accent—while attending the church school at Gori (1888–94). He then moved to the Tiflis Theological Seminary, where he secretly read Karl Marx, the chief theoretician of international Communism, and other forbidden texts, being expelled in 1899 for revolutionary activity, according to the "legend"—or leaving because of ill health, according to his doting mother. The mother, a devout washerwoman, had dreamed of her son becoming a priest, but Joseph Dzhugashvili was more ruffianly than clerical in appearance and outlook. He was short, stocky, black-haired, fierce-eyed, with one arm longer than the other, his swarthy face scarred by smallpox contracted in infancy. Physically strong and endowed with prodigious willpower, he early learned to disguise his true feelings and to bide his time; in accordance with the Caucasian blood-feud tradition, he was implacable in plotting long-term revenge against those who offended him.
In December 1899, Dzhugashvili became, briefly, a clerk in the Tiflis Observatory, the only paid employment that he is recorded as having taken outside politics; there is no record of his ever having done manual labour. In 1900 he joined the political underground, fomenting labour demonstrations and strikes in the main industrial centres of the Caucasus, but his excessive zeal in pushing duped workers into bloody clashes with the police antagonized his fellow conspirators. After the Social Democrats (Marxist revolutionaries) of the Russian Empire had split into their two competing wings—Menshevik and Bolshevik—in 1903, Dzhugashvili joined the second, more militant, of these factions and became a disciple of its leader, Lenin. Between April 1902 and March 1913, Dzhugashvili was seven times arrested for revolutionary activity, undergoing repeated imprisonment and exile. The mildness of the sentences and the ease with which the young conspirator effected his frequent escapes lend colour to the unproved speculation that Dzhugashvili was for a time an agent provocateur in the pay of the imperial political police.
Rise to power
Dzhugashvili made slow progress in the party hierarchy. He attended three policy-making conclaves of the Russian Social Democrats—in Tammerfors (now Tampere, Finland; 1905), Stockholm (1906), and London (1907)—without making much impression. But he was active behind the scenes, helping to plot a spectacular holdup in Tiflis (now Tbilisi) on June 25 (June 12, Old Style), 1907, in order to "expropriate" funds for the party. His first big political promotion came in February (January, Old Style) 1912, when Lenin—now in emigration—co-opted him to serve on the first Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party, which had finally broken with the other Social Democrats. In the following year, Dzhugashvili published, at Lenin's behest, an important article on Marxism and the national question. By now he had adopted the name Stalin, deriving from Russian stal ("steel"); he also briefly edited the newly founded Bolshevik newspaper Pravda before undergoing his longest period of exile: in Siberia from July 1913 to March 1917.
In about 1904 Stalin had married a pious Georgian girl, Ekaterina Svanidze. She died some three years later and left a son, Jacob, whom his father treated with contempt, calling him a weakling after an unsuccessful suicide attempt in the late 1920s; when Jacob was taken prisoner by the Germans during World War II, Stalin refused a German offer to exchange his son.
Reaching Petrograd from Siberia on March 25 (March 12, Old Style), 1917, Stalin resumed editorship of Pravda. He briefly advocated Bolshevik cooperation with the provisional government of middle-class liberals that had succeeded to uneasy power on the last tsar's abdication during the February Revolution. But under Lenin's influence, Stalin soon switched to the more-militant policy of armed seizure of power by the Bolsheviks. When their coup d'état occurred in November (October, Old Style) 1917, he played an important role, but one less prominent than that of his chief rival, Leon Trotsky.
Active as a politico-military leader on various fronts during the Civil War of 1918–20, Stalin also held two ministerial posts in the new Bolshevik government, being commissar for nationalities (1917–23) and for state control (or workers' and peasants' inspection; 1919–23). But it was his position as secretary general of the party's Central Committee, from 1922 until his death, that provided the power base for his dictatorship. Besides heading the secretariat, he was also member of the powerful Politburo and of many other interlocking and overlapping committees—an arch-bureaucrat engaged in quietly outmaneuvering brilliant rivals, including Trotsky and Grigory Zinovyev, who despised such mundane organizational work. Because the pockmarked Georgian was so obviously unintellectual, they thought him unintelligent—a gross error, and one literally fatal in their case.
From 1921 onward Stalin flouted the ailing Lenin's wishes, until, a year before his death, Lenin wrote a political "testament," since widely publicized, calling for Stalin's removal from the secretary generalship; coming from Lenin, this document was potentially ruinous to Stalin's career, but his usual luck and skill enabled him to have it discounted during his lifetime.
Lenin's successor
After Lenin's death, in January 1924, Stalin promoted an extravagant, quasi-Byzantine cult of the deceased leader. Archpriest of Leninism, Stalin also promoted his own cult in the following year by having the city of Tsaritsyn renamed Stalingrad (now Volgograd). His main rival, Trotsky (once Lenin's heir apparent), was now in eclipse, having been ousted by the ruling triumvirate of Zinovyev, Lev Kamenev, and Stalin. Soon afterward Stalin joined with the rightist leaders Nikolay Bukharin and Aleksey Rykov in an alliance directed against his former co-triumvirs. Pinning his faith in the ability of the Soviet Union to establish a viable political system without waiting for the support hitherto expected from worldwide revolution, the Secretary General advocated a policy of "Socialism in one country"; this was popular with the hardheaded party managers whom he was promoting to influential positions in the middle hierarchy. His most-powerful rivals were all dismissed, Bukharin and Rykov soon following Zinovyev and Kamenev into disgrace and political limbo pending execution. Stalin expelled Trotsky from the Soviet Union in 1929 and had him assassinated in Mexico in 1940.
In 1928 Stalin abandoned Lenin's quasi-capitalist New Economic Policy in favour of headlong state-organized industrialization under a succession of five-year plans. This was, in effect, a new Russian revolution more devastating in its effects than those of 1917. The dictator's blows fell most heavily on the peasantry, some 25 million rustic households being compelled to amalgamate in collective or state farms within a few years. Resisting desperately, the reluctant muzhiks were attacked by troops and OGPU (political police) units. Uncooperative peasants, termed kulaks, were arrested en masse and shot, exiled, or absorbed into the rapidly expanding network of Stalinist concentration camps and worked to death under atrocious conditions. Collectivization caused a great famine in Ukraine, and Stalin's policies, some of which targeted Ukraine specifically, compounded the death and misery. Stalin continued to export the grain stocks that a less cruel leader would have rushed to the famine-stricken areas. In Ukraine this famine came to be known as the Holodomor, from the Ukrainian words for hunger (holod) and extermination (mor). Some 10 million peasants may have perished through Stalin's policies during these years.
Crash industrialization was less disastrous in its effects, but it, too, numbered its grandiose failures, to which Stalin responded by arraigning industrial managers in a succession of show trials. Intimidated into confessing imaginary crimes, the accused served as self-denounced scapegoats for catastrophes arising from the Secretary General's policies. Yet Stalin was successful in rapidly industrializing a backward country—as was widely acknowledged by enthusiastic contemporary foreign witnesses, including Adolf Hitler and such well-known writers as H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw.
Among those who vainly sought to moderate Stalin's policies was his young second wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, whom he had married in 1919 and who committed suicide in 1932. They had two children. The son, Vasily, perished as an alcoholic after rising to unmerited high rank in the Soviet Air Force. The daughter, Svetlana, became the object for her father's alternating affection and bad temper. She emigrated after his death and later wrote memoirs that illuminate Stalin's well-camouflaged private life.
The great purges
In late 1934—just when the worst excesses of Stalinism seemed to have spent themselves—the Secretary General launched a new campaign of political terror against the very Communist Party members who had brought him to power; his pretext was the assassination, in Leningrad on December 1, of his leading colleague and potential rival, Sergey Kirov. That Stalin himself had arranged Kirov's murder—as an excuse for the promotion of mass bloodshed—was strongly hinted by Nikita Khrushchev, first secretary of the party, in a speech denouncing Stalin at the 20th Party Congress in 1956.
Stalin used the show trial of leading Communists as a means for expanding the new terror. In August 1936, Zinovyev and Kamenev were paraded in court to repeat fabricated confessions, sentenced to death, and shot; two more major trials followed, in January 1937 and March 1938. In June 1937, Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky, at the time the most influential military personality, and other leading generals were reported as court-martialed on charges of treason and executed.
Such were the main publicly acknowledged persecutions that empowered Stalin to tame the Soviet Communist Party and the Soviet elite as a whole. He not only "liquidated" veteran semi-independent Bolsheviks but also many party bosses, military leaders, industrial managers, and high government officials totally subservient to himself. Other victims included foreign Communists on Soviet territory and members of the very political police organization, now called the NKVD. All other sections of the Soviet elite—the arts, the academic world, the legal and diplomatic professions—also lost a high proportion of victims, as did the population at large, to a semi-haphazard, galloping persecution that fed on extorted denunciations and confessions. These implicated even more victims until Stalin himself reduced the terror, though he never abandoned it. Stalin's political victims were numbered in tens of millions. His main motive was, presumably, to maximize his personal power.
Role in World War II
During World War II Stalin emerged, after an unpromising start, as the most successful of the supreme leaders thrown up by the belligerent nations. In August 1939, after first attempting to form an anti-Hitler alliance with the Western powers, he concluded a pact with Hitler, which encouraged the German dictator to attack Poland and begin World War II. Anxious to strengthen his western frontiers while his new but palpably treacherous German ally was still engaged in the West, Stalin annexed eastern Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and parts of Romania; he also attacked Finland and extorted territorial concessions. In May 1941 Stalin recognized the growing danger of German attack on the Soviet Union by appointing himself chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (head of the government); it was his first governmental office since 1923.
Stalin's prewar defensive measures were exposed as incompetent by the German blitzkrieg that surged deep into Soviet territory after Hitler's unprovoked attack on the Soviet Union of June 22, 1941. Khrushchev claimed that Stalin was shocked into temporary inactivity by the onslaught, but, if so, he soon rallied and appointed himself supreme commander in chief. When the Germans menaced Moscow in the winter of 1941, he remained in the threatened capital, helping to organize a great counter-offensive. The Battle of Stalingrad (in the following winter) and the Battle of Kursk (in the summer of 1943) were also won by the Soviet Army under Stalin's supreme direction, turning the tide of invasion against the retreating Germans, who capitulated in May 1945. As war leader, Stalin maintained close personal control over the Soviet battlefronts, military reserves, and war economy. At first over-inclined to intervene with inept telephoned instructions, as Hitler did, the Soviet generalissimo gradually learned to delegate military decisions.
Stalin participated in high-level Allied meetings, including those of the "Big Three" with Churchill and Roosevelt at Tehrān (1943), Yalta (1945), and Potsdam (1945). A formidable negotiator, he outwitted these foreign statesmen; his superior skill has been acclaimed by Anthony Eden, then British foreign secretary.
Last years
After the war, Stalin imposed on eastern Europe a new kind of colonial control based on native Communist regimes nominally independent but in fact subservient to himself. He thus increased the number of his subjects by about a hundred million. But in 1948 the defection of Titoist Yugoslavia from the Soviet camp struck a severe blow to world Communism as a Stalin-dominated monolith. To prevent other client states from following Tito's example, Stalin instigated local show trials, manipulated like those of the Great Purge of the 1930s in Russia, in which satellite Communist leaders confessed to Titoism, many being executed.
Far from continuing his wartime alliance with the United States and Great Britain, Stalin now regarded these countries—and especially the United States—as the arch-enemies that he needed after Hitler's death. At home, the primacy of Marxist ideology was harshly reasserted. Stalin's chief ideological hatchet man, Andrey Zhdanov, a secretary of the Central Committee, began a reign of terror in the Soviet artistic and intellectual world; foreign achievements were derided, and the primacy of Russians as inventors and pioneers in practically every field was asserted. Hopes for domestic relaxation, widely aroused in the Soviet Union during the war, were thus sadly disappointed.
Increasingly suspicious and paranoid in his later years, Stalin ordered the arrest, announced in January 1953, of certain—mostly Jewish—Kremlin doctors on charges of medically murdering various Soviet leaders, including Zhdanov. The dictator was evidently preparing to make this "Doctors' Plot" the pretext for yet another great terror menacing all his senior associates, but he died suddenly on March 5, according to the official report; so convenient was this death to his entourage that suspicions of foul play were voiced.
A politician to the marrow of his bones, Stalin had little private or family life, finding his main relaxation in impromptu buffet suppers, to which he would invite high party officials, generals, visiting foreign potentates, and the like. Drinking little himself on these occasions, the dictator would encourage excessive indulgence in others, thus revealing weak points that he could exploit. He would also tease his guests, jocularity and malice being nicely balanced in his manner; for such bluff banter Stalin's main henchman, Vyacheslav Molotov, the stuttering foreign minister, was often a target. Stalin had a keen, ironical sense of humour, usually devoted to deflating his guests rather than to amusing them.
Foremost among Stalin's accomplishments was the industrialization of a country which, when he assumed complete control in 1928, was still notably backward by comparison with the leading industrial nations of the world. By 1937, after less than a decade's rule as totalitarian dictator, he had increased the Soviet Union's total industrial output to the point where it was surpassed only by that of the United States. The extent of this achievement may best be appreciated if one remembers that Russia had held only fifth place for overall industrial output in 1913, and that it thereafter suffered many years of even greater devastation—through world war, civil war, famine, and pestilence—than afflicted any of the world's other chief industrial countries during the same period. Yet more appallingly ravaged during World War II, the Soviet Union was nevertheless able, under Stalin's leadership, to play a major part in defeating Hitler while maintaining its position as the world's second most powerful industrial—and now military—complex after the United States. In 1949 Stalinist Russia signaled its arrival as the world's second nuclear power by exploding an atomic bomb.
Against these formidable achievements must be set one major disadvantage. Though a high industrial output was indeed achieved under Stalin, very little of it ever became available to the ordinary Soviet citizen in the form of consumer goods or amenities of life. A considerable proportion of the national wealth—a proportion wholly unparalleled in the history of any peacetime capitalist country—was appropriated by the state to cover military expenditure, the police apparatus, and further industrialization. It is also arguable that a comparable degree of industrialization would have come about in any case—and surely by means less savage—under almost any conceivable regime that might have evolved as an alternative to Stalinism.
Stalin's collectivization of agriculture did not produce positive economic results remotely comparable to those attained by Soviet industry. Considered as a means of asserting control over the politically recalcitrant peasantry, however, collectivization justified itself and continued to do so for decades, remaining one of the dictator's most durable achievements. Moreover, the process of intensive urbanization, as instituted by Stalin, continued after his death in what still remained a population more predominantly rural than that of any other major industrial country. In 1937, 56 percent of the population was recorded as engaged in agriculture or forestry; by 1958 that proportion had dropped to 42 percent, very largely as a result of Stalin's policies.
Another of the dictator's achievements was the creation of his elaborately bureaucratized administrative machinery based on the interlinking of the Communist Party, ministries, legislative bodies, trade unions, political police, and armed forces, and also on a host of other meshing control devices. During the decades following the dictator's death, these continued to supply the essential management levers of Soviet society, often remaining under the control of individuals who had risen to prominence during the years of the Stalinist terror. But the element of total personal dictatorship did not survive Stalin in its most extreme form. One result of his death was the resurgence of the Communist Party as the primary centre of power, after years during which that organization, along with all other Soviet institutions, had been subordinated to a single man's whim. Yet, despite the great power wielded by Stalin's successors as party leaders, they became no more than dominant figures within the framework of a ruling oligarchy. They did not develop into potentates responsible to themselves alone, such as Stalin was during his quarter of a century's virtually unchallenged rule.
That Stalin's system persisted as long as it did, in all its major essentials, after the death of its creator is partly due to the very excess of severity practiced by the great tyrant. Not only did his methods crush initiative among Soviet administrators, physically destroying many, but they also left a legacy of remembered fear so extreme as to render continuing post-Stalin restrictions tolerable to the population; the people would have more bitterly resented—might even, perhaps, have rejected—such rigours, had it not been for their vivid recollection of repressions immeasurably harsher. Just as Hitler's wartime cruelty toward the Soviet population turned Stalin into a genuine national hero—making him the Soviet Union's champion against an alien terror even worse than his own—so too Stalin's successors owed the stability of their system in part to the comparison, still fresh in many minds, with the far worse conditions that obtained during the despot's sway.
Stalin has arguably made a greater impact on the lives of more individuals than any other figure in history. But the evaluation of his overall achievement still remains, decades after his death, a highly controversial matter. Historians have not yet reached any definitive consensus on the worth of his accomplishments, and it is unlikely that they ever will. To the American scholar George F. Kennan, Stalin is a great man, but one great in his "incredible criminality…a criminality effectively without limits," while Robert C. Tucker, an American specialist on Soviet affairs, has described Stalin as a 20th-century Ivan the Terrible. To the British historian E.H. Carr, the Georgian dictator appears as a ruthless, vigorous figure, but one lacking in originality—a comparative nonentity thrust into greatness by the inexorable march of the great revolution that he found himself leading. To the late Isaac Deutscher, the author of biographies of Trotsky and Stalin—who, like Carr, broadly accepts Trotsky's version of Stalin as a somewhat mediocre personage—Stalin represents a lamentably deviant element in the evolution of Marxism. Neither Deutscher nor Carr has found Stalin's truly appalling record sufficiently impressive to raise doubts about the ultimate value of the Russian October Revolution's historic achievements.
To such views may be added the suggestion that Stalin was anything but a plodding mediocrity, being rather a man of superlative, all-transcending talent. His special brilliance was, however, narrowly specialized and confined within the single crucial area of creative political manipulation, where he remains unsurpassed. Stalin was the first to recognize the potential of bureaucratic power, while the other Bolshevik leaders still feared their revolution being betrayed by a military man. Stalin's political ability went beyond tactics, as he was able to channel massive social forces both to meet his economic goals and to expand his personal power.Ronald Francis Hingley The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
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- de-Stalinization
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- In dictatorship
- history of Great Depression
- policy towards Chinese Civil War
- reaction to "Battleship Potemkin"
- statue in Gori
- In Gori
association with
- Alliluyeva
- Bukharin
- Carver
- Churchill


text:
Jenkins and I were invited to this year's EAT! Vancouver festival again, which, incidentally, happened to be the 10th anniversary of this venerable eating extravaganza. I can't believe it's been ten years already since EAT! Vancouver first started but I guess that's just how quickly time passes by these days. In my rush to head over to BC Place, I forgot to check my camera's memory card and as a result, I only had room in my camera for a couple of pictures so hopefully my summary will be descriptive enough with any visual aides.
It seemed to me like there were more booths this year than previously. It took us a while to wind through everything and then backtrack to revisit our favourites so we could pick up some goodies to take home.
Even though the Bosa Foods booth never really has anything that you can't just find in their stores, I always enjoy visiting their booths as they can always be counted on to have a great variety of samples to try out and this year was no different. I picked up a bottle of pesto sauce with truffle oil so I can finally use up the trofie pasta that I picked up from Italy a couple of years ago. I'm always a little sceptical about things that advertise the presence of truffle oil but the pesto sauce actually had a really great truffle flavour to it. I think it will go great with the bottle of blood orange sparkling juice that I also bought.
I love mushrooms and was really impressed with the dried mushrooms at the Untamed Feast booth. I sampled some of their mushrooms, which were used to make a delicious mushroom cream cheese that I'll definitely be recreating at home.
I originally wanted to sign up for one of the pop-up cooking classes that were a new introduction for the year but I decided to hold off until next year since I have already been taking a lot of cooking classes this year already. However, I thought it was a great idea and at only $25 per person, it was very reasonable. Hopefully they will continue this next year so I can give it a try.
We were also lucky enough to catch one round of the Western Regional Barista Championships. Each competitor had to make four each of an espresso, cappuccino, and a specialty drink in 15 minutes. Although we couldn't sample the creations, the smell of freshly brewed espresso was quite intoxicating. while we waited for the competition to start, we snagged mini cups of lattes that were prepared on the side of the competition area. Made with homogenized milk, my latte was creamy, rich, and flavourful.
I thought it was nice that this year's EAT! Vancouver event had a few new attractions added and that they continue to add interesting exhibitors each year. It can be a bit of a hodge podge sometimes but as long as they try to keep the exhibitors mainly food-related, I think it will continue to be a fun event for people to check out each year.