Kartel (electoral alliance)

A kartel is the Dutch term for an electoral alliance between two or more parties in Belgium.

In a system of proportional representation in which the country is divided in multiple electoral districts, such as Belgium the threshold to obtain one seat can be very high (5% of votes since 2003), which also favours larger parties. Therefore some parties pool their voters in order to gain more (or any) seats.

The SP.A-Spirit cartel between the Socialist Party - Different (SP.A) and the left-liberal Spirit (later FlemishProgressives, then Social-Liberal Party) is an example of such a cartel.

Vlaams Kartels in Brussels

On several occasions some or all Flemish parties bundled forces on 'Vlaams Kartel' lists for municipal elections in Brussels (in Dutch Vlaams Kartel), sometimes getting together one or two seats in the municipal council, sometimes getting none. As these parties are minority parties in every Brussels municipality, i.e., the parties of an ethnic or linguistic minority (on the average 10-15% of the population), this is a case of an electoral coalition of ethnic parties.

Storm

A storm is any disturbed state of an environment or astronomical body's atmosphere especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstorm), heavy precipitation (snowstorm, rainstorm), heavy freezing rain (ice storm), strong winds (tropical cyclone, windstorm), or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere as in a dust storm, blizzard, sandstorm, etc.

Storms generally lead to negative impacts on lives and property such as storm surge, heavy rain or snow (causing flooding or road impassibility), lightning, wildfires, and vertical wind shear; however, systems with significant rainfall can alleviate drought in places they move through. Heavy snowfall can allow special recreational activities to take place which would not be possible otherwise, such as skiing and snowmobiling.

The English word comes from Proto-Germanic *sturmaz meaning "noise, tumult".

Storm (1999 film)

Storm is a 1999 American science fiction thriller film starring Luke Perry and Martin Sheen. The story and screenplay were written by Harris Done. The story talks about the secret weather control experiment which goes awry.

Plot

The film begins on 23 August 1992 with the top-secret weather experiment led by Air Force General James Roberts (Martin Sheen) off the coast of Florida. The team uses a specially modified cargo plane to launch a special generator into the developing storm to enhance its power. As the plane is destroyed by a lightning strike, the control of the experiment is lost and within a few hours the storm develops into the hurricane Andrew which devastates Miami. The details about the experiments are buried after the disaster.

The story then moves to 1999 where Dr. Ron Young (Luke Perry) and his assistant Dr. Brian Newmeyer perform the experiment designed to steer the path of the storm with the generator towed by a small airplane. While the experiment is successful, Dr. Young's flight license is revoked because of the airspace violation which nearly causes the accident. His boss has enough of the risky experiments and decides to fire both Dr. Young and Dr. Newmeyer.

Transformers (toy line)

The Transformers (トランスフォーマー, Toransufomā) is a line of toys produced by the Japanese company Takara (now known as Takara Tomy) and American toy company Hasbro. The Transformers toyline was created from toy molds mostly produced by Japanese company Takara in the toylines Diaclone and Microman. Other toy molds from other companies such as Bandai were used as well. In 1984, Hasbro bought the distribution rights to the molds and rebranded them as the Transformers for distribution in North America. Hasbro would go on to buy the entire toy line from Takara, giving them sole ownership of the Transformers toy-line, branding rights, and copyrights, while in exchange, Takara was given the rights to produce the toys and the rights to distribute them in the Japanese market. The premise behind the Transformers toyline is that an individual toy's parts can be shifted about to change it from a vehicle, a device, or an animal, to a robot action figure and back again. The taglines "More Than Meets The Eye" and "Robots In Disguise" reflect this ability.