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| ICI |
ICIICI can refer to:
- Imperial Chemical Industries PLC.
- The ICI programming language.
- The Internet Computer Integration project.
- Inter-Channel-Interference.
- Ici, an alternative weekly newspaper in Montreal.
Imperial Chemical Industries
Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) is a British chemical company, based in London. It produces paints and specialty products (including ingredients for foods, specialty polymers, electronic materials, fragrances and flavours). It employs around 35,000 people and had a turnover of just over £5.6 billion in 2004.
For much of the 20th century ICI was generally regarded as the leading company in the United Kingdom. The phrase "the chairman of ICI" became a colloquialism for the top person in British business. However ICI's status has fallen steadily in recent decades, and its unique prestige is now dissipated. Today ICI is simply a medium sized player in the global chemical industry, which is an unfashionable industry with low margins and weak growth prospects. It is now one of the smaller constituents of the FTSE 100 Index, much smaller than its own offspring AstraZeneca.
History
ICI was founded in December 1926 from the merger of four companies - Brunner Mond, Nobel Explosives, the United Alkali Company and British Dyestuffs Corporation. Competing with DuPont and IG Farben (later BASF), the new company produced explosives, fertilisers, insecticides, dyestuffs, industrial chemicals, printing materials, and paints. In its first year turnover was £27m.
ICI played a key role in the development of new products, including the pigment phthalocyanine (1929), the acrylic plastic Perspex (1932), Dulux paints (1932, co-developed with DuPont), Polythene (1937), sulfamethazine (the first sulfonamide antibiotic), paludrine (1940s, an anti-malarial drug), halothane (1951, an anaesthetic agent), Inderal (1965, a beta-blocker), tamoxifen (1978, a frequently used drug for breast cancer), and PEEK (1979, a high performance thermoplastic) . Because of their success in the pharmaceutical industry, ICI formed ICI Pharmaceuticals in 1957.
One of the main plants was at Billingham, County Durham.
From 1971 to 1988 ICI operated a small General Atomics TRIGA Mark I nuclear reactor at its Billingham factory.
In 1993 the company decided to demerge its chemical business from the pharmaceutical bioscience divisions. Pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, specialities, seeds and biological products were placed into a new and independent company called Zeneca Group (which merged with Astra AB in 1999 to form AstraZeneca PLC, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world). The company also moved away from bulk and industrial chemicals towards specialty chemicals during the 1990s in the hope making its income less dependent on the business cycle, earning higher profit margins, and developing businesses with long term growth potential. However its financial performance so far in the 21st century has been erratic.
ICI sold its Australian subsidiary, ICI Australia, in 1997 and the following year it changed its name to Orica.
External links
- [http://www.ici.com Official site]
- [http://www.nationalstarch.com National Starch and Chemical Company] ICI subsidsiary.
- [http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=ICI.L Yahoo! profile]
- [http://www.orica.com.au Orica]
Category:Chemical companies of the United Kingdom
Category:Companies traded on the London Stock Exchange
ICI programming languageThe ICI Programming Language is a general purpose interpreted, computer programming language originally developed by Tim Long in 1992. It has dynamic typing and flexible data types, with the basic syntax, flow control constructs and operators of C.
Primitive data types in ICI include integers, reals, strings, files, safe pointers, and regular expressions. Aggregate data types are arrays, sets, and associative tables. Sets can be heterogenous, nested, and support the usual set operations: union, intersection, etc.
The language supports subroutines and nested modules. All variables are lexically scoped at the subroutine or module level, but unlike most structured languages, ICI allows the current scope to be adjusted (Tcl, for example, also allows this).
Although ICI is not object-based, many object programming features can be emulated in the language by using data structure inheritance feature called super-structures.
To support application development, ICI has C-like file I/O and system interface support, as well as a high-level event trigger facility. The language also has a modest standard library of built-in functions.
ICI can be compared to Lua, Tcl and many other Extension/embeddable scripting languages. ICI's core language and source code are free for any use without even GPL based licensing, thus making ICI a convenient choice for commercial applications.
External links
- [http://ici.sourceforge.net/ The ICI homepage]
- [http://sourceforge.net/projects/ici/ ICI Sourceforge project home]
- [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=3600 ICI download page]
Category:Programming languages
Category:Scripting languages
Category:SourceForge projects
Alternative weeklyAn alternative weekly, alternately referred to as an alternative newsweekly or alternative newspaper, is a form of alternative media in the United States and Canada. These publications are typically independent of larger media conglomerates, though exceptions exist, and are found in most large urban centers in North America, in many smaller cities, and even in some more rural or exurban areas.
Alternative weeklies represent the contemporary, earnest (though often ironic in tone), more commercial and more mainstream evolution of the underground press associated with the 1960s counterculture. Their focus remains on arts and entertainment and social and political reportage. Eschewing comprehensive coverage of general news, the typical alternative weekly's content is dominated by opinionated reviews, investigations of topics mainstream media won't get involved in, features and columns. Editorial positions at alternative weeklies are predominantly left-leaning, though there is a small contingent of strongly conservative and/or libertarian alt-weeklies as well.
Columns commonly syndicated to alternative weeklies include "The Straight Dope," Dan Savage's "Savage Love," Rob Breszny's "Free Will Astrology," and Ben Tausig's crossword puzzle "Ink Well." Quirky, non-mainstream comics, such as Matt Groening's Life in Hell, Lynda Barry's Ernie Pook's Comeek and Ruben Bolling's Tom the Dancing Bug, are also common.
Alternative weeklies are favored advertising media for local bars, clubs, arts, and entertainment. They usually include comprehensive classified and personals sections, as well as ads for adult entertainment (such as adult bookstores and strip clubs). Audiences tend to be young to middle-aged adults. Most alternative weeklies are free of charge and completely advertiser-supported. The typical alternative weekly is tabloid-sized and printed on newsprint.
The Village Voice, based in New York City, is one of the first and best-known examples of the form.
The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies is the alternative weeklies' trade association. The Alternative Weekly Network and the Ruxton Group are national advertising sales representatives for alternative weeklies.
Alternative weeklies
Canada
- The Coast, Halifax (ISSN 1095-3965)
- Uptown, Winnipeg
- Echo Weekly, Kitchener-Waterloo-Guelph
- eye weekly, Toronto
- FFWD, Calgary
- Monday Magazine, Victoria
- Montreal Mirror
- NOW Magazine, Toronto
- Ottawa X-Press
- The Georgia Straight, Vancouver
- here, chain in New Brunswick
- Ici-Montréal (French)
- Planet S, Saskatoon (every 2 weeks)
- Prairie Dog, Regina (every 2 weeks)
- Pulse Niagara
- SEE Magazine, Edmonton
- Voir, chain in Quebec and Ottawa-Gatineau (French)
- View, Hamilton
- Vue Weekly, Edmonton
United States
- Austin Chronicle
- Artvoice, Buffalo, NY [http://www.artvoice.com/]
- Baltimore City Paper [http://www.citypaper.com/]
- Boston Phoenix
- Boulder Weekly [http://www.boulderweekly.com/]
- Chicago Reader [http://www.chireader.com/]
- CityLife, Las Vegas, NV [http://www.lvcitylife.com/]
- City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul
- Cityview, Des Moines, Iowa [http://www.dmcityview.com/]
- Creative Loafing, Atlanta, Georgia; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Tampa, Florida [http://www.creativeloafing.com/]
- Hartford Advocate
- Honolulu Weekly
- The Hub Weekly, Champaign, IL [http://www.thehubweekly.com]
- Folio Weekly, Jacksonville, Florida and the surrounding area [http://www.folioweekly.com/]
- The Free Times, Cleveland
- Independent Weekly, Durham, NC
- LA Weekly
- Las Vegas Weekly [http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/]
- Long Island Press
- Memphis Flyer [http://www.memphisflyer.com/]
- Metro Silicon Valley (San Jose, California) [http://www.metroactive.com/] (also publishes Metro Santa Cruz [http://www.metcruz.com/])
- Metro Times, Detroit, Michigan; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Southeastern Michigan; Windsor & Southern Ontario, Canada [http://www.metrotimes.com]
- Metroland, Albany, New York [http://www.metroland.net]
- New Haven Advocate
- New Times [http://www.newtimes.com/] alternative weeklies
- Cleveland Scene
- Dallas Observer
- East Bay Express, Oakland
- New Times Broward-Palm Beach
- Houston Press
- The Pitch, Kansas City
- Miami New Times [http://www.miaminewtimes.com/]
- Phoenix New Times [http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/]
- The Riverfront Times, St. Louis
- SF Weekly
- Westword, Denver
- New York Press
- North Bay Bohemian [http://www.bohemian.com/]
- Nuvo Newsweekly, Indianapolis [http://www.nuvo.net/]
- OC Weekly
- Omaha City Weekly
- Omaha Reader
- Pittsburgh City Paper [http://www.pghcitypaper.com/]
- Philadelphia City Paper [http://www.citypaper.net/]
- Portland Tribune, Portland, Oregon (Every Tuesday and Thursday)
- Rock City News, Los Angeles [http://www.rockcitynews.com/]
- Real Detroit Weekly, Detroit, Michigan; Southeastern Michigan[http://www.realdetroitweekly.com/]
- Salem Monthly [http://www.salemmonthly.com/]
- Salt Lake City Weekly [http://www.slweekly.com/]
- [http://www.sacurrent.com San Antonio Current]
- San Diego Reader
- San Francisco Bay Guardian
- The Stranger , Seattle [http://www.thestranger.com/current/]
- Seattle Weekly
- Tucson Weekly [http://www.tucsonweekly.com/]
- Village Voice, New York
- Washington City Paper [http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/]
- Weekly Alibi, Albuquerque, NM [http://www.alibi.com]
- Weekly Dig, Boston
- Willamette Week, Portland, Oregon
Past alternative weeklies
- The Great Speckled Bird, Atlanta (1968-1976)
- [http://www.punchlinemag.com/ Punchline], Richmond, VA
External links
- [http://www.aan.org Association of Alternative Newsweeklies]
- [http://www.awn.org Alternative Weekly Network]
- [http://www.ruxton.com/index.php?page=alternative&nav=navigation_alt&active=1&PHPSESSID=00dc7fab4f8416f4b055ce5f0f1a66b9 Ruxton Media Group: Alternative Press]
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Montreal
Montreal or Montréal1 (pronounced Image:ltspkr.png in Canadian English, Image:ltspkr.png in standard French, in Quebec French and in American English) is the second largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. According to the last Canadian census, the city itself – constituting an administrative region in the province – has 1,852,723 inhabitants, while 3,663,000 people live in the Greater Montreal Area (Statistics Canada 2004), making it one of the largest French-speaking cities in the world
As in most parts of Quebec, French is the most common spoken language in the city. Nevertheless, Montreal has a substantial anglophone population and many of the residents are bilingual. Montreal is a global city, hosting a multitude of international festivals and events including the XXI Summer Olympiad, Juste pour Rire (Just for Laughs), the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix, and many others. During the period of prohibition in the United States, Montreal became well-known as one of North America's "Sin Cities" with unparalleled nightlife, a reputation it still holds today.
Montreal has the highest concentration of post-secondary students of all major cities in North America. The city is a centre of health and aerospace science. In 2005, it won the distinction of being chosen UNESCO's “World Book Capital City 2005–2006” due to its vibrant literary scene.
Montreal is situated in the south western corner of Quebec approximately 270 kilometres (168 miles) southwest of Quebec City, the provincial capital, and 190 kilometres (118 miles) east of Ottawa, the federal capital. The city is located on the Island of Montreal at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. The port of Montreal lies at one end of the St. Lawrence Seaway, which is the river gateway that stretches from the Great Lakes up into the Atlantic Ocean.
History
Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean.]]
Algonquin, Huron, and Iroquois have inhabited the Montreal area for some eight thousand years. The first European to reach the area was Jacques Cartier, when, on October 2, 1535, he entered the village of Hochelega, on the Island of Montreal.
Seventy years later, Samuel de Champlain arrived on the island, but the village of Hochelaga no longer existed. In 1611, he established La Place Royale, a fur trading post on the Island of Montreal, but the local Iroquois successfully defended their land. The first permanent European settlement was created on the Island of Montreal in 1639 by a French tax collector named Jérôme Le Royer. Missionaries Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, Jeanne Mance and a few French colonists set up a mission named Ville Marie on May 17, 1642.
Ville Marie became a centre for the fur trade and the Catholic religion, as well as a base for further exploration into New France. The Iroquois continued their attacks on the settlement until a peace treaty was signed in 1701. The town remained French until 1760, when Pierre de Cavagnal, Marquis de Vaudreuil surrendered it to the British army under Jeffrey Amherst. Fire destroyed one quarter of the town on May 18, 1765.
The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ended the Seven Years' War and ceded New France to the Kingdom of Great Britain. American Revolutionists briefly held the city in 1775 but soon left. By this time, the city had gained its present name of Montreal, and it started to grow from British immigration. The golden era of fur trading began in the city with the advent of the locally owned North West Company, the main rival to the primarily British Hudson's Bay Company.
Montreal was incorporated as a city in 1832. The city's growth was spurred by the opening of the Lachine Canal, which permitted ships to pass by the unnavigable Lachine Rapids south of the island. Montreal was the capital of the United Province of Canada from 1844 to 1849, bringing more English-speakers to the city, making it roughly bilingual. The now large Anglophone community built one of Canada's first universities, McGill, and the wealthy began building large mansions at the foot of Mont Royal.
In 1852, Montreal had 58,000 inhabitants and by 1860, it was the largest city in British North America and the undisputed economic and cultural centre of Canada. The Canadian Pacific Railway made its headquarters there in 1880, and the Canadian National Railway in 1919. Saint Jacques Street in what is now Old Montreal, then better known as Saint James Street, became the centre of the Canadian financial industry in the late 19th century; the name "Saint James Street" was used as a metonym for Canadian high finance much as "Wall Street" is used in the United States, or "Bay Street" is used today. With the annexation of neighbouring towns between 1883 and 1918, Montreal became a mostly Francophone city again. The tradition to alternate between a francophone and an Anglophone mayor thus began and lasted until 1914.
After World War I, the Prohibition movement in the United States turned Montreal into a haven for Americans looking for alcohol. Despite the increase in tourism, unemployment remained high in the city, and was exacerbated by the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. However, Canada began to recover from the Great Depression in the mid-1930s, and skyscrapers, such as the Sun Life Building, began appearing.
During World War II, Mayor Camillien Houde protested against conscription and urged Montrealers to ignore the federal government's registry of all men and women. Ottawa was furious over Houde's insubordination and put him in a prison camp until 1944, when the government was forced to institute conscription (see Conscription Crisis of 1944).
After Montreal's population surpassed one million in the early 1950s, Mayor Jean Drapeau laid down plans for the future development of the city. These plans included a new metro system and an underground city, the expansion of Montreal's harbour, and the opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway. New buildings were built on top of old ones in this time period, including Montreal's two tallest skyscrapers up to then: the 43-storey Place Ville-Marie and the 47-storey Tour de la Bourse. Two new museums were also built, and finally in 1966, the metro opened, along with several new expressways.
The city's international status was cemented by Expo '67 and the Summer Olympics in 1976. A major league baseball team, called the Montreal Expos, was named after the Expo and started playing in Montreal in 1969, but the team moved to Washington, DC in 2005.
Montreal celebrated its 350th anniversary in 1992, prompting the construction of two of Montreal's tallest skyscrapers: 1000 de La Gauchetière and 1250 René-Lévesque. Currently, Montreal's favourable economic conditions allow further improvements in infrastructure, with the expansion of the metro system and the development of a ring road around the island. Neighbourhood gentrification is also occurring. Montreal now constitutes its own region of Quebec.
In late 2005, Montreal hosted the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the first meeting joint meeting of the parties to the Kyoto Protocol and to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
City government
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
The head of the city government in Montreal is the mayor, who is first among equals in the City Council. The current mayor is Gérald Tremblay, who is a member of the Union des citoyens et des citoyennes de l'Île de Montréal (English: Montreal Island Citizens Union). The city council is a democratically elected institution and is the primary decision-making authority in the city. It currently consists of 73 members from all boroughs of the city. The Council has jurisdiction over many matters, including public security, agreements with other governments, subsidy programs, the environment, urban planning, and a three-year capital expenditure program. The City Council is also required to supervise, standardise or approve certain decisions made by the borough councils.
Reporting directly to the City Council, the executive committee exercises the decision-making powers appropriate to it and is responsible for preparing various documents including budgets and by-laws, submitted by the City Council for approval. The decision-making powers of the executive committee cover, in particular, the awarding of contracts or grants, the management of human and financial resources, supplies and buildings. It may also be assigned further powers by the City Council.
Standing committees are the council's instruments for public consultations. They are responsible for the public study of pending matters and for making the appropriate recommendations to the council. They also review the annual budget forecasts for departments under their jurisdiction. A public notice of meeting is published in both French and English daily newspapers at least seven days before each meeting. All meetings include a public question period. The current standing committees, of which there are seven, have terms lasting two years. In addition, the City Council may decide to create special committees at any time. Each standing committee is made up of seven to nine members, including a chairman and a vice-chairman. The members are all elected municipal officers, with the exception of a representative of the government of Quebec on the public security committee.
The city of Montreal is only one component of the larger Communauté Métropolitaine de Montréal (English: Metropolitan Community of Montreal or CMM), which is in charge of planning, coordinating, and financing economic development, public transportation, garbage collection, etc., across the metropolitan area of Montreal. The president of the CMM is the mayor of Montreal. The CMM covers 3,839 km² (1,482 mi²), with 3,431,551 inhabitants in 2002; it is thus larger in area and population than the city of Toronto, even after its 1998 merger. However, the city of Toronto is larger than the city of Montreal proper, and the Greater Toronto Area (a statistical area, and not an administrative entity like the CMM) is larger than the CMM, with 7,000 km² (2,700mi²); of area and over 5.2 million people.
Montreal was merged with the 27 surrounding municipalities on the Island of Montreal on 1 January 2002. The merger created a unified city of Montreal which covered the entire Island of Montreal. This move proved to be unpopular, and several former municipalities totalling 13% of the population of the Island of Montreal voted to leave the newly unified city in separate referendums which took place on 20 June 2004. The demerger will take place on 1 January 2006, after which there will be 16 municipalities on the Island of Montreal, which will be the city of Montreal proper plus 15 much smaller municipalities.
Climate
2006
Montreal lies at the confluence of several climactic regions and thus the climate in Montreal varies greatly, both by season and by day to day, and is considered a part of the culture of the city by Montrealers.
Precipitation is abundant with an average snowfall of 2.4 metres (7.9 ft) per year in the winter and regular rainfall throughout the year. Each year the city government spends more than CAN$50 million on snow removal. Frequent thunderstorms make summer the wettest season statistically, but it is also the sunniest. Possibly as a consequence of global warming, the weather patterns have begun to change slightly in the past years. Winters tend to be less cold, with less snow and higher temperatures, while summers are getting hotter and longer, as there was a heatwave throughout most of September 2005. However, it will take more time and data to know for sure whether or not these are statstical anomalies.
The coldest month of the year is January, which has a daily average temperature of -10.4°C (13°F). Due to wind chill, the perceived temperature can be much lower than the actual temperature and wind chill factor is often included in Montreal weather forecasts. The warmest month is July which has a daily average temperature of 20.9°C (69.6°F). The lowest temperature ever recorded was -37.8°C (-36.0°F) on 15 January 1957 and the highest temperature ever was 37.6°C (99.7°F) on 1 August 1975.[http://www.climate.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/climate_normals/results_e.html?Province=ALL&StationName=montreal&SearchType=BeginsWith&LocateBy=Province&Proximity=25&ProximityFrom=City&StationNumber=&IDType=MSC&CityName=&ParkName=&LatitudeDegrees=&LatitudeMinutes=&LongitudeDegrees=&LongitudeMinutes=&NormalsClass=A&SelNormals=&StnId=5415& ] Moderate to high humidity is common in the summer. In spring and autumn, rainfall averages between 55 and 94 mm (2.2 and 3.7 in) a month. Some snow in spring and autumn is normal. Similarly, late heat waves as well as "Indian summers" are a regular feature[http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/climatology/monthly/CAXX0301] of the climate.
Despite its widely varying climate, the Montreal region supports a diverse array of plants and wildlife. The maple is one of the most common trees and the sugar maple in particular is an enduring symbol of Montreal and Quebec, thanks to the production of maple syrup.
Demographics
See also: List of famous Montrealers
The Communauté Métropolitaine de Montréal has a population of 3,607,000 in 2004 according to Statistics Canada. This total includes the neighbouring cities of Laval and Longueuil, as well as other smaller cities. Montreal proper will have a population of 1,500,000 people after the demerger on 1 January 2006. A resident of Montreal is known as a Montrealer in English and a Montréalais(e) in French. Residents sometimes refer to the city by the shorthand of MTL, or occasionally by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport designation of YUL. The large population of Montreal justifies it having its own postal district, H span, together with Laval.
Most Montrealers speak French[http://www.statcan.ca/english/Pgdb/demo14b.htm] as their first language while a minority speaks English as their first language. About 67.8% of the population of Montreal area is composed of francophones, 18.4% have neither French nor English as their first language and are called allophones, and 13.8% are anglophones. On the island of Montreal itself, these numbers change and francophones constitute only 53% of the population, allophones 29%, and anglophones 18%. However, the majority of residents have at least a working knowledge[http://www.statcan.ca/english/Pgdb/demo18a.htm] of both languages, and a majority of allophones speak either English or French as a second language. This trend has increased after the French language reforms of the 1970s. Italian, Arabic, Greek, Portuguese, Spanish, and Hindi are also very popular languages.
The Caucasian population is vastly decended from people of French, Irish, and Italian origin[http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/demo27h.htm]. According to Statistics Canada 2001, the top four ethnic groups in the city are Canadian at 55.7% (1,885,085), French at 26.6% (900,485), Italian at 6.6% (224,460), and Irish at 4.7% (161,235). Statistics Canada concludes that those who identified themselves as Canadian are most likely of British, French, or Irish origin whose families have been in Canada for many generations.
Montreal is a multi-ethnic city. Caucasians are the majority in the city but there are substantial groups of minorities.[http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/standard/themes/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?Temporal=2001&PID=58628&METH=1&APATH=3&PTYPE=55440&THEME=44&FREE=0&AID=0&FOCUS=0&VID=0&GC=99&GK=NA&SC=1&CPP=99&SR=1&RL=0&RPP=9999&D1=0&D2=0&D3=0&D4=0&D5=0&D6=0&GID=431565]
- White: 2,886,400 or 86.8%
- Blacks: 129,705 or 3.9%
- Arab: 67,830 or 2.0%
- Asian: 56,655 or 1.7%
- Chinese: 50,115 or 1.5%
- mixed race: 46,900 or 1.4%,
Religion
For a major North American city of its size, the Catholic population used to be visibly high as hundreds of churches dot the streets of Montreal. Over 84% of the population identify with the Christian heritage, the vast majority of them being of Roman Catholic heritage mostly due to the heavy numbers of French, Italian, Irish, and Portuguese inhabitants in the city. The Protestant, and Orthodox presence which is much smaller are chiefly those of English, Greek, and Lebanese peoples. However, since Quebec's Quiet Revolution in the 1960s, very few francophone quebekers practice their religion. The proportion of practicing Christians (especially Catholics) in Quebec is now significantly lower than the proportion of practicing Christians in the rest of Canada, or even North America.
Non-Christian religions are very large as well. The largest non-Christian group is now Muslim and is mostly composed of fairly recent arrivals. Montreal's Jewish community, while in decline, has had a huge impact on the cultural, artistic, economic and gastronomic life of the city, dating back to the mid-18th century. There are also small Buddhist, Sikh, Baha'i and Hindu communities.
Economy
Once the largest city in Canada, Montreal remains a vibrant major centre of commerce, industry, culture, finance, and world affairs. Montreal is a major port city, being at the start of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, a deep-draft inland waterway which links it to the industrial centres of the Great Lakes. As one of the most important ports in Canada, it is a trans-shipment point for grain, sugar, petroleum products, machinery, and consumer goods. For this reason, it is part of the railway backbone of Canada and has always been an extremely important rail city; it is the eastern terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway and home to the headquarters of the Canadian National Railway.
Montreal industries include pharmaceuticals, high technology, textile and clothing manufacturing (the schamata industry), higher education, electronic goods, software engineering (specifically video games), building and city engineering, transportation devices, printed goods, fabric, and tobacco.
Montreal is one of the world's top aerospace industry centres. It is often said that Montreal is the only city in the world where an entire airplane can be built, from the start of engine crafting to the last paint drop. The leading wagon of the industry is unquestionably Bombardier, a manufacturer best known for medium-sized aircraft.
The headquarters of the Canadian Space Agency are located in Longueuil, southeast of Montreal. Montreal also hosts the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, a United Nations body); the World Anti-Doping Agency (an Olympic body); and the International Air Transport Association (IATA); as well as some 60 other international organizations in various fields.
Places in Montreal
Downtown Montreal
International Air Transport Association
International Air Transport Association
International Air Transport Association
Downtown Montreal lies at the foot of Mount Royal, which is designated as a major urban park. The Downtown area contains dozens of notable skyscrapers—which, by law, cannot be higher than Mount Royal—including the aforementioned 1000 de La Gauchetière and 1250 René-Lévesque, as well as Ieoh Ming Pei's Place Ville-Marie. The Tour de la bourse is also a significant building in Montreal, as it's where all stock and derivative trades take place (Montreal World trade center), and is also home to a successful program to encourage nesting peregrine falcons.
This cruciform office tower (Place Ville-Marie), built in 1962, sits atop an underground shopping mall that forms the nexus of Montreal's underground city, one of the world's largest, with indoor access to over 1,600 shops, restaurants, offices, and businesses, as well as metro stations, transportation terminals, and tunnels extending all over downtown. The central axis for downtown is Saint Catherine Street.
Other streets like Peel, de la Montagne, de Maisonneuve and Crescent are very popular as well. Downtown Montreal is located between the mountain Mount Royal and the river St Lawrence River.
Two man-made islands are located in front of the Montreal Skyline panorama, Île Ste. Hélène, and Ile Notre-Dame. The Notre Dame island hosts the Canadian Grand Prix and Formula One car races, as well as the Champ Car tournament.
La Ronde (now owned by American company 6 Flags) is the biggest amusement park in Montreal and is located on Île Ste. Hélène. The International Fireworks Festival is held there every summer.
The basic Skyline view may be seen from one of two lookouts on Mount Royal. The lookout at the Belevedere takes in downtown, the river, and the Montérégien Hills, and on clear days the Green Mountains of Vermont are visible. The view of eastern lookout on Remembrance Rd. sweeps out toward the Olympic Stadium, and beyond. Many tourists visit these lookouts.
Montreal is known for the contrast between old and new. The Maison des Cooperants (a 146 m [479 ft] tall building) is right in front of an old church. Much of Old Montreal has been kept the way it was back in the day Montreal was first established. Old Montreal was a worldwide port, but shipping has been moved further east to the Port de Montreal site, leaving the Old Port/Vieux-Port as an historical area. The most recent trip to the North Pole departed from that specific port.
The Montreal Skyline is ranked 8th in the Emporis in skyline views, a focal point in Montreal's recognition.
The reason the Olympic Stadium was built 6 kilometres (3.7 miles) from downtown is that the owners thought that Montreal's downtown would expand to where the Olympic Stadium now stands.
Old Montreal
Southeast of downtown is Old Montreal (Vieux-Montréal), a historic centre with such attractions as the Old Port, Place Jacques-Cartier, City Hall, Place d'Armes, Pointe-à-Callière Museum, and the Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica.
Buildings and roads in Old Montreal have been maintained or restored to keep the look of the city in its earliest days as a settlement. Old Montreal was a worldwide port, but shipping has been moved further east to the Port de Montreal site, leaving the Old Port/Vieux-Port as an historical area. The most recent trip to the North Pole departed from that specific port.
Downtown and Old Montreal are connected by the recent Quartier international de Montréal development.
Olympic Village
Quartier international de Montréal
Montreal was host to one of the most successful World's Fairs in history, Expo '67. Partially based upon the success of the World's Fair, Montreal was awarded the 1976 Summer Olympics. The Olympic Stadium has the world's tallest inclined tower and, until the end of the 2004 season, was the home of the Montreal Expos baseball team. The Olympic complex also includes the Montreal Biodome, Montreal Insectarium, and the Montreal Botanical Garden, one of the largest botanical gardens in the world, second only to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in England.
Today, the CFL's Montreal Alouettes play their last game of their season and playoff games in the Olympic Stadium. It is nicknamed the "Big O" because of its oval shaped roof. It holds up to 56 040 fans for a football game (45 000 for baseball) and it may hold more in the future when temporary overflow stands are added to the dugout pits and center field for football. It is also sometimes called the "Big Owe" due to the outrageous total cost of the stadium which is still being paid by taxpayers to this day.
Museums and Cultural Centres
Montreal is the centre of Quebec culture and a major centre of Canadian culture in general. It has many specialized museums such as the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), the Musée d'art contemporain (MAC), the Redpath Museum, the McCord Museum of Canadian History, and the Canadian Centre for Architecture. The Place des Arts cultural complex houses the MAC and several theatres, and is the seat of the Montreal Opera and for the moment the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, which is slated to receive a new concert hall adjacent to Place des Arts.
Religious Sanctuaries
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Nicknamed "the city of saints," or "la ville aux cent clochers" (the city of a hundred belltowers), Montreal is renowned for its churches. As described by Mark Twain, "This is the first time I was ever in a city where you couldn't throw a brick without breaking a church window." The city has four Roman Catholic basilicas: Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral, the aforementioned Notre-Dame Basilica, St. Patrick's Basilica, and Saint Joseph's Oratory.
The Oratory is the largest church in Canada, with the largest dome of its kind in the world after that of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Other well-known churches include the pilgrimage church of Notre-Dame-du-Bon-Secours, which is sometimes called the Sailors' Church, and the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral, which was completely excavated and suspended in mid-air during the construction of part of the Underground City. All of the above are major tourist destinations, particularly Notre-Dame and the Oratory.
An impressive number of other churches can be found, as such that a five minute walk is usually enough to find another one. A common expression of Montrealers is that we stumble into them walking.
Chinatown
Christ Church Cathedral
Montreal has a small but active Chinatown (Quartier chinois) just south of downtown, featuring many Chinese shops and restaurants, as well as a number of Vietnamese establishments. Several of these restaurants offer dim sum from as early as seven a.m. to three p.m. and can be quite crowded, especially on Sundays. The principal axes of Chinatown are Saint Lawrence Boulevard and La Gauchetière Street.
The Gay Village
Montreal is known as a Queer or Gay-friendly city. Its pride festival, Divers/Cité, is the largest in North America; organizers estimate that it [http://fugues.vortex.qc.ca/main.cfm?p=100&Article_ID=3224 drew 1.4 million people] in 2002. It benefits from financial support from all three levels of government. Montreal is home to one of the largest gay villages in North America, centred around the downtown Beaudry metro station (known in French as le Village gai). Montreal is an epicentre of Queer life and culture in Canada and hosts several circuit parties every year. The 2006 World Outgames are to be held in Montreal.
The Plateau
World Outgames
Montreal's trendy and colourful Plateau neighbourhood is located on the twin North-South axes of Saint Laurent Boulevard and Saint Denis Street, and East-West axis of Mount Royal Avenue. The cobbled, pedestrian-only Prince Arthur Street is also located in this neighbourhood. In the summer, night life often seems as active as in the day in this area.
It boasts the highest population density of all Montréal and the has the greatest number of creative people in canada, according to Statistics Canada. The same source also states that it is the urban place where the most people travel mainly by foot, bicycle or public transport. Thousands of bicycles occupying the sidewalks and public places can attest of that fact. The Plateau Mont-Royal has been dubbed the "coolest neighbourhood in North America by Wallpaper Magazine.
Mount Royal
Mount Royal is Montreal's outstanding urban park, and was designed by Frederick Olmstead, best known as the designer of New York's Central Park. Mount Royal features include the Chateau overlooking downtown Montreal and Beaver Lake. It is topped by an illuminated cross that has become a Montreal landmark. Observant hikers on its many trails will find an abundance of small wildlife. In the winter, it is home to numerous cross-country ski trails.
Every Sunday in the summer, hundreds of people gather at the foot of Mount Royal for several hours of drumming, dancing, and juggling (among many other activities), in an event that has come to be known as the Tam-Tams. It is unclear how this event started; but, as it has no formal organization and has carried on both in a lively and peaceful way since at least the late 1980s, it remains a popular event.
Night Life
Saint Denis Street is also the heart of the Latin Quarter of Montreal (Quartier latin), which is just south of the Plateau and filled with clubs, bars, and street festivals. The principal east-west axes of this district are Saint Catherine Street and Boulevard de Maisonneuve, with the Saint Denis as its north-south axis. The mood is bohemian.
Crescent Street is "party central" for Montreal's Anglophone population, lying at the edge of the Concordia Ghetto (around the Concordia University campus where many students live). Throughout the summer, it features street fairs and festivals. The Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix unofficially starts off Montreal's non-stop festival season in the summer. Crescent Street also features many clubs and bars.
St Laurent is also filled with bars and clubs, and the best place to find nightlife, along with cozy restaurants which open their terraces in the summer.
Strip Clubs
Montreal is know as the strip(or genltleman's) club capital of Canada. The city has over 30 strip clubs in the downtown area alone. The strip clubs in Montreal are unique in that the majority of them offer full contact lap dances. Full-contact lap dances are legal in the province of Quebec as of 2001. Strip clubs in Montreal are either categorized as full-contact or non-contact.
The strip clubs in Montreal operated differently than U.S. strip clubs. In Montreal the exotic dancers are mostly independent workers, not house dancers. Due to this, the exotic dancers are free to work at a variety of strip clubs, and often do. Unlike U.S. exotic dancers, those working in Montreal retain all of the revenues from their performances; gratuity is not expected.
Sports
Canadian Grand Prix
Montreal is famous for its hockey-hungry fans. The Montreal Canadiens is one of the oldest teams of the NHL, and a member of the 'Original Six'. Montreal is also the site of two high-profile racing events each year: the aforementioned Canadian Grand Prix, and the Molson Indy Montreal of the Champcars Series. Both races take place at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Ile Notre-Dame. On July 13, 1982, Montreal hosted the first Major League Baseball All-Star Game outside the United States. The most important sporting event in Montreal's history, however, was when Montreal played host to the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Once the favored sport mainly of Montreal anglophones, football fever has spread across Quebec, with the pro football Montreal Alouettes of the CFL drawing packed crowds at the small but picturesque Molson Stadium, part of McGill University and nestled against the slopes of Mt-Royal. As noted above, the Alouettes play their last regular season game and post season games at the much-larger and enclosed Olympic Stadium, which has also been home to a number of Grey Cups, the CFL's championship game.
Montreal sports fans usualy follow Boston franchises, like the Boston Red Sox, the New England Patriots and the Boston Celtics. Montreal also has an all-sports radio station, CKGM (The Team 990).
In July 2005 Montreal hosted the 11th FINA World aquatic sports Championship[http://www.fina.org].
In 2006 Montreal will attract some 16,000 LGBT athletes, who will participate in the first-ever World Outgames. The Outgames are being hailed as the largest international event in the city of Montreal since the 1976 Olympics.
Major Sports Venues
Current Professional Franchises
Heinrich-Heine-UniversitätDie Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf ist aus dem heutigen Universitätsklinikum entstanden und mit diesem noch eng verbunden. Erst 1988 erhielt sie, nach fast 20jähigen internen Kämpfen zwischen Studierendenschaft, fortschrittlichen Professoren und städtischer Öffentlichkeit auf der einen und Rektorat und konservativer Professorenschaft auf der anderen Seite, ihren Namen nach dem Schriftsteller Heinrich Heine.
Im Sommersemester 2005 waren 16.938 Personen an der Universität eingeschrieben, die beliebtesten Studiengänge waren Medizin und Germanistik/Deutsch.
Geschichte
Bereits im 17. Jahrhundert gab es in Düsseldorf Bestrebungen eine medizinische Hochschule einzurichten, doch erst im Jahr 1907 wird eine "Düsseldorfer Akademie für praktische Medizin" gegründet. Ein Vorläufer der heutigen medizinischen Fakultät, in der jedoch noch keine Ärzte ausgebildet werden durften.
Erst 1961 wurde die medizinische Hochschule zur vollständigen Universität erhoben, 1965 folgte neben der medizinischen Fakultät die Gründung einer kombinierten Naturwissenschaftlich-Philosophischen Fakultät, bis alle drei 1968 eigenständig wurden.
1974 wird der Botanische Garten Düsseldorf eröffnet und dient seitdem den biologischen und pharmazeutischen Instituten zur Forschung und Lehre.
Ein gut 23 Jahre lang währender Streit um die Namensgebung entbrannte, bis die Universität schließlich 1988 nach dem berühmtesten Sohn der Stadt Düsseldorf, Heinrich Heine, benannt wird.
Heute gibt es neben den bereits genannten die Juristische Fakultät und die Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät. Die Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät wurde zur Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät umbenannt.
Ehrentitel
Prominente Träger einer Ehrendoktorwürde der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf sind u.a. Johannes Rau und Paul Spiegel (11. Februar 2004).
Studentische Organisationen
- Ring Christlich-Demokratischer Studenten (RCDS)
- Liberale Hochschulgruppe (LHG)
- Juso-Hochschulgruppe
- MSB Spartakus
- Grüne Hochschulgruppe
- ELSA in Düsseldorf als Ortsgruppe der European Law Students' Association in Deutschland
- AIESEC Lokalkomitee Düsseldorf
- IPPNW Studierendengruppe Düsseldorf
- SMD-Hochschulgruppe der Düsseldorfer Hochschulen
Veranstaltungen
Seit zehn Jahren findet jedes Jahr Ende Oktober in der Universität der Tag der Forschung statt, der eine Art "Tag der offenen Tür" ist, bei dem der Öffentlichkeit verschiedene Forschungsprojekte vorgestellt werden.
Verkehr
Die Heinrich-Heine-Universität befindet sich im Düsseldorfer Stadtteil Bilk.
ÖPNV:
Siehe auch
- Botanischer Garten Düsseldorf
Weblinks
- [http://www.uni-duesseldorf.de/ Offizielle Website] mit [http://www.uni-duesseldorf.de/HHU/about/info/chronik Geschichtlichem Überblick]
- [http://www.asta.uni-duesseldorf.de AStA]
Düsseldorf
Kategorie:Bildung (Düsseldorf)
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