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Countries, Nations, and Regions Across the World

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Alpha, Beta and Gamma Cities (Updated 2020) Alpha++ city New York Every few years, important global economic cities are ranked by the Globalization and World Rankings Research Institute.

Alpha, Beta and Gamma Cities (Updated 2020)

It is considered the leading institute ranking the world’s cities. Cities are categorized as Alpha, Beta or Gamma cities based on their connectivity to the rest of the world. Many factors are taken into account in this analysis, including cultural and political influence, although economic factors are the most important consideration.

Western Europe

Australia. Maori Culture / Issues. Coastal Science and Societies. Oceanic Linguistics. Oceanic Linguistics is the only journal devoted exclusively to the study of the indigenous languages of the Oceanic area and parts of Southeast Asia.

Oceanic Linguistics

The thousand-odd languages within the scope of the journal are the aboriginal languages of Australia, the Papuan languages of New Guinea, and the languages of the Austronesian (or Malayo-Polynesian) family. Articles in Oceanic Linguistics cover issues of linguistic theory that pertain to languages of the area, report research on historical relations, or furnish new information about inadequately described languages.

Monographs on the same languages are published as Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications (now in JSTOR), distributed by UH Press, and by Pacific Linguistics at the Australian National University. New: Subscribe to table of contents and abstracts by. The Little Horse, Steen, Anderson. Sixty-Six Manuscripts From the Arnamagnæan Collection, Driscoll, Óskarsdóttir. House of Shadows, Meur, Fagan. After the failed revolutions of 1848, Galicia has been brought under the rule of the Habsburg Empire, and the Zemka family find themselves embroiled in the struggle for Polish independence.

House of Shadows, Meur, Fagan

This is a history of Eastern Europe told in miniature through the tumultuous saga of one family as they try to reclaim their estate in the decades of violence and political confusion that follow. In this extraordinary novel, Diane Meur calls upon an unusual narrator: the ancestral house itself—the House of Shadows of the title—which, from behind its unmoving façade, watches the comings and goings of generations of inhabitants. The house is everywhere in the story, hearing and observing everything; it encompasses all the shadows of a past that it knows better than its occupants do. But it envies the mobility of those who reside there, and though the years pass, nothing changes for the house.

Emerging Memory: Photographs of Colonial Atrocity in Dutch Cultural Remembrance, Bijl. Capitalism and Cartography in the Dutch Golden Age, Sutton. Nationaal Comité - Tweedewereldoorlog.nl. A Strangely Funny Russian Genius by Ian Frazier. “I Am a Phenomenon Quite Out of the Ordinary”: The Notebooks, Diaries, and Letters of Daniil Kharms selected, translated from the Russian, and edited by Anthony Anemone and Peter Scotto Academic Studies Press, 586 pp., $69.00, $35.00 (paper)

A Strangely Funny Russian Genius by Ian Frazier

Uldus Bakhtiozina Confronts Russian Stereotypes. Seven years ago Bakhtiozina began to create the ironic self-portraits that make up her Desperate Romantics collection, which illustrate and laugh at stereotypes of nationalities, genders, and social issues.

Uldus Bakhtiozina Confronts Russian Stereotypes

She uses photography as a tool to send powerful messages regarding the norms of Russian society, balanced with beauty and aesthetics. Desperate Romantics takes inspiration from English Pre-Raphaelite paintings produced in the mid-19th century and relates this aesthetic to contemporary issues in her native Russia. Her work takes a sideways look at the roles and perceptions of men and women in Russian society, in a stunning form. She tackles a number of issues head-on, including the unrealistic expectations that Russian men have about women. Irony is a key factor in this project, as Bakhtiozina feels that it motivates girls to fight for their goals, for their dreams, and to alter their stereotypes. My Fellow Prisoners by Mikhail Khodorkovsky. I’m writing these notes because I want people who care about these things to know what I have personally experienced in prison.

My Fellow Prisoners by Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Over time I’ve turned from an ordinary victim into an interested observer, and I’ve discovered that for many people the prison world remains terra incognita. And yet in our country one in every hundred people is currently in prison; one in ten (maybe by now one in seven) of the male population passes through prison at some point in their lives.

Moreover, prison has a terrible effect on the majority of both prisoners and guards. It’s not yet clear, in fact, which group is affected more. Society has to do something about this human tragedy. This story is about the guards. Interview with a murderer. According to the International Centre for Prison Studies, there are currently 671,700 Russians serving sentences in penal establishments, of whom 59,000 are women.

Interview with a murderer

Only the USA and China have more female prisoners (over 200,000 and 100,000 respectively). According to human rights organisations, conditions in Russian prisons and prison camps are among the harshest in the world. The harsh climate is one obvious factor, but inadequate nutrition, physically demanding and low paid work, isolation in a punishment cell for the slightest misdemeanour, bullying, beatings, and other violence from prison staff are all also the norm.

Russia’s female prisoners Women prisoners are usually too frightened to complain to the legal authorities or human rights groups, as this might trigger immediate and severe punishment. Vova, Vladimir, Vladimir Vladimirovich: What do Russian names mean. Click to enlarge the cartoon.

Vova, Vladimir, Vladimir Vladimirovich: What do Russian names mean

Drawing by Niyaz Karim From a foreigner's point of view, the most "Russian" male name is Ivan. For many centuries this name was popular among all social strata, from ordinary peasants to the royal family (a case in point is the famous Ivan the Terrible). At the same time, it was the name's ubiquity that in the end compromised its reputation somewhat. The Dark Master of Russian Film by Gabriel Winslow-Yost. “The Renaissance didn’t happen here,” the voice-over declares, in the opening minutes of Alexei German’s Hard to Be a God.

The Dark Master of Russian Film by Gabriel Winslow-Yost

In this final film of his career—now receiving a belated American release at Anthology Film Archives in New York—the late Russian filmmaker immerses us, without respite, for nearly three hours, in his reimagined Middle Ages. I don’t think any film has ever depicted a world so awful with such conviction. Hard to Be a God was apparently six years in the shooting and another six in post-production. Canadian History in 10 NFB Films. In fifteen hundred and thirty-four, Jacques Cartier landed on the Canadian shore.

Canadian History in 10 NFB Films

Despite not being as catchy as its Columbus-inspired counterpart, that little rhyme did the trick while I was cramming for my Canadian History final. At 148 years, Canada has an incredibly rich and fascinating history. And, of course, you can learn about the highlights of Canadian history in the NFB archives. In honour of Canada Day, let’s take a little journey back in time and learn about the history of our nation, as presented 10 NFB films. WARNING: While historically accurate, I do not suggest that any procrastinating students use this as a reference for a research paper. Let’s start off at the very beginning (unfortunately not an NFB original). This iconic Heritage Moment, while a little silly, actually summarizes historical events quite aptly. 3 keys to understanding and appreciating pinscreen animation.

* This post is a translation. Read the original French post here. Though in use since the 1930s, the Alexeïeff-Parker pinscreen remains an enigmatic figure within the animation world. An upright board pierced with hundreds of thousands of holes, each with a black retractable pin through it, the pinscreen is used vertically, in complete darkness. It is lit obliquely so that the pins, based on their depth, can project every tone from black to white. To make a film, the animator pushes in groups of pins using various small instruments, to form an embossed design. Watch 6 Stunning Shorts by the First Lady of Canadian Animation. However counterintuitive, constraints are crucial to creativity. Constraints impose a set starting point. They force us to solve problems and come up with innovative twists. A convincing case in point is the visual splendor of Evelyn Lambart’s animation. Known as the First Lady of Canadian Animation, Lambart (1914-1999) was hearing-impaired from a young age, something she later credited with focusing her attention on the visual world.

As a child, she was given paint boxes after paint box and encouraged to paint and draw. “The way I was brought up was to think of yourself as a person who had an obligation to use your talents in any way you could,” Lambart said. The Canadian Heartthrob That Had Girls Screaming Long Before Justin Bieber. Lonely Boy by Wolf Koenig, Roman Kroitor. Film Credits director Wolf Koenig Roman Kroitor producer. Ruby’s Story. Today, I’d like to present to you something a little different; an interview of sorts. A while ago, a comment on one of my blog posts really caught my attention. In it, a mother was describing an experience her young daughter had at school, and that brief description had such a powerful impact on me that I shared it with my own children. Nadia Myre, Indian Act Indian Act speaks of the... Why the Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women Crisis is Greater Than You Realize.

Road Taken ,The by Selwyn Jacob. Confidence Codes. Venezuela’s eternal storm. Ologoa, Venezuela By Jorge Silva In this small fishing village of Ologa lies a square kilometre that is struck by more lightning than anywhere else on the planet almost every other night of the year. Nataly, my travel guide, grew up with it. She knows lightning very well. Jorge Luis Borges in New York. The School of Solitude: Collected Poems, Hernández, Geist. Children of the Dirty War. Magic: A Theory from the South, de Martino, Zinn. 160 pages | 14 halftones | 6 x 9 Paper $19.99 ISBN: 9780990505099 Published June 2015. Radical Linguistics in an Age of Extinction. The Tibetan History Reader/Sources of Tibetan Tradition (Columbia UP, 2013) Agnieszka Helman-Wazny, "The Archaeology of Tibetan Books" (Brill, 2014) Emily T. Yeh, "Taming Tibet: Landscape Transformation and the Gift of Chinese Development" (Cornell UP, 2013)

Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn, “The Myth of the Taliban/Al Qaeda Merger in Afghanistan, 1970-2010″ (Oxford UP, 2014) From Afghanistan With Love — Matter. “I just want to hear your voice once.” We speak to Ruvan Wijesooriya about his documentation of a Kabul school. Yearbook: Afghanistan. A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan by Seamus Murphy. Return to Hope - Home. A Short Reading List for Defining Genocide - Pacific Standard.

The Epic of a Genocide by James Reidel. Rechnitz and The Merchant's Contracts, Jelinek, Honegger. Nicholas Winton, Rescuer of 669 Children From Holocaust, Dies at 106. I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors by Ann Marie Fleming. The moral Nazi? – Herlinde Pauer-Studer and J David Velleman. The Trials of Hannah Arendt. Monsters Together by John Lukacs. Alon Confino, “A World Without Jews: The Nazi Imagination from Persecution to Genocide” (Yale UP, 2014) The Lingering Effect of Nazi Propaganda - Pacific Standard. Holocaust Timeline. The Holocaust’s forgotten black victims – the ‘Rhineland Bastards’ Behind the Picture: The Liberation of Buchenwald, April 1945. The Anatomy of Hell by Richard J. Evans.

The Life of an Auschwitz Guard - Laurence Rees. 70 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, Holocaust survivors in Israel are trapped in poverty. German Concentration Camps Factual Survey. Bellow After Death by Gary Shteyngart. Ariel Sharon kicked my cousins out of Gaza. Here’s what they wanted to say to him before he died. I Love Islam. NJ Dawood - obituary. Qur’an manuscripts from Java. My House in Damascus: An Inside View of the Syrian Revolution, Darke.

Language and Identity: Arabic and Aramaic. Musical Journeys to Oman, Qatar and Kuwait - Music blog. Qatar Digital Library. The Vicar of Baghdad - DecodeDC Story. Talking stamps: Tiny vinyl record postage stamps that were playable, 1972. A lost Lebanon - in pictures. The Arafat-Rabin handshake 20 years on. The archaeology of a manuscript: the Khamsah of Khvaju Kirmani. Beautiful Photos Of Everyday Life In 19th And 20th Century Iran : Code Switch. How to Be a Woman in Tehran by Habibe Jafarian, translated from the Persian by Salar Abdoh. Revival and Awakening: American Evangelical Missionaries in Iran and the Origins of Assyrian Nationalism, Becker. On Israel's little-known concentration and labor camps in 1948-1955. Flickr Search: palestine 1930s. ארץ ישראל - Eight fun facts about Hanukkah. In the Middle: Divergent Bodies and Medieval Studies. The Fallen ‐ Maddison Graphic. Ozone Journal, Balakian. The allure of ISIS resembles that of Tolkien – Benjamin Duehold.

The Laws of Hammurabi, King of Babylonia. Biggest exhumation underway from Peru conflict. The Brazilian ranch where Nazis kept slaves. Caribbean Civilisation — The Taino names  of the Caribbean islands based on... Human Rights - Free West Papua. The Haitian Machete Fencing Project. Are%20signed%20languages. A girl in search of a really good sword, drtanner: dancingspirals: ironychan: ... They Once Touched Roman Lips by Madeleine Schwartz. Team at moovellab find out if all roads actually do lead to rome.