Constantin BrÃ¢ncuÅi is an internationally renowned Romanian sculptor, whose sculptures blend simplicity and sophistication that led the way for modernist sculptors.   As a testimony to his skill, one of his pieces, "Bird in Space" , was sold in an auction for $27.5 million in 2005, a record for any sculpture.  Brancusi's 'Bird in Space' soars to new auction record    Brancusi's 'Bird in Space' Sets World Auction Record for Sculpture at $27,456,000    The price record for a Brancusi masterpiece was set up in 2005 when âBird in Spaceâ was sold for USD 27.5 M


Hunyadi Castle, 1419, with its impressive size and architectural beauty sets it among the most precious monuments of medieval art.


Romanian cinema has recently achieved worldwide acclaim with the appearance of such films as The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, directed by Cristi Puiu, (Cannes 2005 Prix un certain regard winner), and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, directed by Cristian Mungiu (Cannes 2007 Palme d'Or winner).    The latter, according to Variety, is "further proof of Romania's new prominence in the film world."


The UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites  Official list of WHS within Romania  includes Romanian sites such as the Saxon villages with fortified churches in Transylvania, the Painted churches of northern Moldavia with their fine exterior and interior frescoes, the Wooden Churches of Maramures unique examples that combine Gothic style with traditional timber construction, the Monastery of Horezu, the citadel of SighiÅoara, and the Dacian Fortresses of the OrÄÅtie Mountains.  UNESCO World Heritage List from Romania  Romania's contribution to the World Heritage List stands out because it consists of some groups of monuments scattered around the country, rather than one or two special landmarks.  World Heritage Site - Romania  Also, in 2007, the city of Sibiu famous for its Brukenthal National Museum is the European Capital of Culture alongside the city of Luxembourg.


the city of Sibiu famous for its Brukenthal National Museum is the European Capital of Culture alongside the city of Luxembourg.


Romania is a semi-presidential democratic republic where executive functions are shared between the president and the prime minister.  The president is elected by popular vote, and resides at Cotroceni Palace. Since the constitutional amendment of 2003, the president's term is five years (previously it was four).  The Romanian Government, which is based at Victoria Palace, is headed by a prime minister, who appoints the other members of his or her cabinet and who is nearly always the head of the party or coalition that holds a majority in the parliament. If, however, none of the parties hold 50% + 1 of the total seats in parliament, the president will appoint the prime minister. Before beginning its term, the government is subject to a parliamentary vote of approval.


iamentary vote of approval.


[[Image:Palatul-parlamentului-SW-angle.jpg|thumb|left|The Palace of the Parliament , the seat of Romania's bicameral parliament. Built in 1984, it is the largest building in Europe and the world's second largest administrative building behind the Pentagon  The Palace of the Parliament  and 10% larger by volume than the Great Pyramid of Giza.  The building of Parliament Bucharest International Conference Center - Description ]]


The legislative branch of the government, collectively known as the Parliament (Parlamentul RomÃ¢niei), consists of two chambers   the Senate (Senat), which has 137 members, and the Chamber of Deputies (Camera DeputaÅ£ilor), which has 332 members. The members of both chambers are elected every four years under a system of party-list proportional representation.


The justice system is independent of the other branches of government, and is made up of a hierarchical system of courts culminating in the High Court of Cassation and Justice, which is the supreme court of Romania.  High Court of Cassation and Justice - Presentation  There are also courts of appeal, county courts and local courts. The Romanian judicial system is strongly influenced by the French model,  CIA Factbook 2000 - Legal system  considering that it is based on civil law and is inquisitorial in nature. The Constitutional Court (Curtea ConstituÅ£ionalÄ) is responsible for judging the compliance of laws and other state regulations to the Romanian Constitution, which is the fundamental law of the country. The constitution, which was introduced in 1991, can only be amended by a public referendum; the last amendment was in 2003. The Romanian Constitutional Court structure is based on


ntroduced in 1991, can only be amended by a public referendum; the last amendment was in 2003. The Romanian Constitutional Court structure is based on the Constitutional Council of France, being made up of nine judges who serve nine-year, non-renewable terms.  Following the 2003 constitutional amendment, the court's decisions cannot be overruled by any majority of the parliament.


The country's entry into the European Union in 2007 has been a significant influence on its domestic policy. As part of the process, Romania has instituted reforms including judicial reform, increased judicial cooperation with other member states, and measures to combat corruption. Nevertheless, in 2006 Brussels report, Romania along with Bulgaria were described as the two most corrupt countries in the EU.  Romania will be EU's most corrupt new member


Romania is divided into forty-one counties (judeÅ£e), as well as the municipality of Bucharest (BucureÅti) - which is its own administrative unit. Each county is administered by a county council (consiliu judeÅ£ean), responsible for local affairs, as well as a prefect, who is appointed by the central government but cannot be a member of any political party.


Alongside the county structure, Romania is also divided into four NUTS-1 level divisions (Romanian:Macroregiunea) and eight development regions corresponding to NUTS-2 divisions in the European Union.    These divisions have no administrative capacity and are instead used for co-ordinating regional development projects and statistical purposes. The NUTS-3 level divisions reflect Romania's administrative-territorial structure, and correspond to the 41 counties and the Bucharest municipality.


Map of the 8 development regions. The 41 local administrative units are also highlighted.


The country is further subdivided into 319 cities and 2686 communes (rural localities).     Communes and towns have their own local councils and are headed by a mayor (primar). Out of these, 103 of the larger and more urbanised towns have the status of municipality, which gives them greater administrative power over local affairs.


Since December 1989, Romania has pursued a policy of strengthening relations with the West in general, more specifically with the United States and the European Union.  It joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) on March 29, 2004, the European Union (EU) on January 1, 2007, and the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in 1972, and is a member of the World Trade Organization.


The current government has stated its goal of strengthening ties with and helping other Eastern European countries (in particular Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia) with the process of integration with the West.  Romania has also made clear over the past 10 years that it supports NATO and EU membership for the democratic former Soviet republics in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.   Romania also declared its public support for Turkey, Croatia and Moldova joining the European Union.  With Turkey, Romania shares a privileged economic relation.  Because it has a large Hungarian minority, Romania has also developed strong relations with Hungary - the latter playing a key role in supporting Romania's bid to join the EU.


In December 2005,  President  Traian BÄsescu and U.S. Secretary of State  Condoleezza Rice signed an agreement that would allow a U.S. military presence at several Romanian facilities primarily in the eastern part of the country.  U.S. Department of State - Background Note: Romania - U.S.-ROMANIAN RELATIONS


Relations with Moldova are rather special, considering that the two countries practically share the same language, and a fairly common historical background. Signs in the early 1990s that Romania and Moldova might unite after both countries achieved emancipation from communist rule, quickly faded away when a pro-Russian government was formed in Moldova. Romania remains interested in Moldovan affairs, but the two countries have been unable even to reach agreement on a basic bilateral treaty; Romania is insistent (against determined Moldovan resistance) that such a treaty would have to refer to Romania and Moldova's 'special relationship'. For more information see Movement for unification of Romania and Moldova.


In the 1976 Summer Olympics, the gymnast Nadia ComÄneci (coach: Bela Karolyi) became  the first gymnast ever to score a perfect "ten". She also won three gold medals, one silver and one bronze, all at the age of fifteen.  "Gymnast Posts Perfect Mark" Robin Herman, New York Times, March 28, 1976  Her success continued in the 1980 Summer Olympics, where she was awarded two gold medals and two silver medals.


Football (soccer) is popular in Romania, the most internationally known player being Gheorghe Hagi, who played for Steaua BucureÅti (Romania), Real Madrid, FC Barcelona (Spain) and Galatasaray (Turkey), among others. In 1986, the Romanian soccer club Steaua BucureÅti became the first Eastern European club ever, and only one of the two (the other being Red Star Belgrade) to win the prestigious European Champions Cup title.In 1989, it played the final again, but lost to AC Milan. Another strong Romanian team is Dinamo Bucuresti who is the first Romanian team who played a semifinal in the European Champions Cup in 1984 with Liverpool FC and a semifinal in the Cup Winners Cup 1989-1990 against Anderlecht Bruxelles . Other important Romanian football clubs are  Rapid BucureÅti, FC Progresul BucureÅti, FCU Politehnica TimiÅoara, FC Universitatea Craiova, CFR 1907 Cluj-Napoca, FC OÅ£elul G


ootball clubs are  Rapid BucureÅti, FC Progresul BucureÅti, FCU Politehnica TimiÅoara, FC Universitatea Craiova, CFR 1907 Cluj-Napoca, FC OÅ£elul GalaÅ£i, Sportul StudenÅ£esc, FC Farul ConstanÅ£a, FC Arges Pitestietc. Romanian National Football Team has taken part 7 times in the Football World Cup, and it had a very successful period through the 1990s, reaching the quarter-finals in the 1994 World Cup in USA, when the "Golden Generation" was at its best.


Ilie NÄstase, the tennis player, is another internationally known Romanian sports star. He won several Grand Slam titles and dozens of other tournaments and was the first player to be ranked as number 1 by ATP from 1973 to 1974; he also was a successful doubles player. Romania has also reached the Davis Cup finals three times. Virginia Ruzici was a successful tennis player in the 1970s.


Though maybe not the force they once were, the Romanian national rugby team has so far competed at every Rugby World Cup.


For a country of its size, Romania has been one of the most successful countries in the history of Summer Olympic Games (15th overall) with a total of 283 medals won throughout the years, 82 of which are gold medals. |All-Time Medal Standings, 1896-2004


*Much of the material in these articles comes from the CIA World Factbook 2006 and the 2005 U.S. Department of State website.


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Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water.


Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians  Photo of a duck eating a frog , worms, and small molluscs.


Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots.


Many species of duck are temporarily flightless while moulting; they seek out protected habitat with good food supplies during this period. This moult typically precedes migration.


Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not. Some ducks, particularly in Australia where rainfall is patchy and erratic, are nomadic, seeking out the temporary lakes and pools that form after localised heavy rain.


Diving ducks and sea ducks forage deep underwater. To be able to submerge more easily, the diving ducks are heavier than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly.


Dabbling ducks feed on the surface of water or on land, or as deep as they can reach by up-ending without completely submerging.


Along the inside of the beak they have tiny rows of plates called lamellae like a whale's baleen. These let them filter water out of the side of their beaks and keep food inside.


A few specialized species such as the smew, goosander, and the mergansers are adapted to catch large fish.


In the Mallard the tongue is a flat plate, and on the tongue's back end is a short liftable flap with about 18 short spikes on for pushing struggling prey and other food down its throat.


The males (drakes) of northern species often have extravagant plumage, but that is moulted in summer to give a more female-like appearance, the "eclipse" plumage. Southern resident species typically show less sexual dimorphism.


Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males, for the species described here; others use "hen" and "drake", respectively.


A worldwide group like the ducks has many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for avian hunters but also large fish like pike, crocodilians,  and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Nests may also be raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may sometimes be caught unaware on the nest by mammals (e.g. foxes) and large birds, including hawks and eagles.


Adult ducks are fast fliers, but may be caught on the water by large aquatic predators. This can occasionally include fish such as the muskie in North America or the pike in Europe. In flight, ducks are safe from all but a few predators such as humans and the Peregrine Falcon, which regularly uses its speed and strength to catch ducks.


The word duck (from Anglo-Saxon dÅ«ce), meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" (from Anglo-Saxon supposed *dÅ«can) meaning "to bend down low as if to get under something" or "to dive", because of the way many species in the dabbling duck group feed by upending (compare Dutch duiken, German tauchen = "to dive").


This happened because the older Anglo-Saxon words ened (= "duck") and ende (= "end") came to be pronounced the same: other Germanic languages still have similar words for "duck" and "end": for example, Dutch eend = "duck", eind = "end", German ente = "duck", ende = "end"; this similarity goes back to Indo-European: compare Latin anas (stem anat-) = "duck", Lithuanian antis = "duck", Ancient Greek Î½Î·ÏÏÎ±, Î½Î·ÏÏÎ± (nÄssa, nÄtta) = "duck"; Sanskrit anta = "end".


Duck headcount in 2004


In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target".


Ducks have many economic uses, being farmed for their meat, eggs, feathers, (particularly their down). They are also kept and bred by aviculturists and often displayed in zoos. All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck


. Many domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult British Common Frog Rana temporaria whole.


Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese.


Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from.


A common urban legend says that quacks do not echo


, however this has been shown to be false.


Ducks have become an accepted presence in populated areas. Migration patterns have changed such that many species remain in an area during the winter months. In spring and early summer ducks sometimes influence human activity through their nesting; sometimes a duck pair nests well away from water, needing a long trek to water for the hatchlings: this sometimes causes an urgent wildlife rescue operation (e.g. by the RSPCA) if the duck nested somewhere unsuitable like in a small enclosed courtyard.


FAO reports that China is the top duck market in 2004 followed by Vietnam and other South East Asian countries.


In 2002, psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that, of the animals in the world, the duck is the type that attracts most humor and silliness; he said "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck." The word "duck" may have become an inherently funny word in many languages because ducks are seen as a silly animal, and their odd appearance compared to other birds. Of the many ducks in fiction, many are silly cartoon characters like Daffy Duck (see the New Scientist article  mentioning humor in the word "duck").


In Mexico the word "Patito" (= "duckling") is used to refer to something unimportant, cheap, or generic.


in some silent cartoons. a picture of a duck is used to say "heads up".


The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck.", used as proverbial to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be.


The expression is part of a conceptual framework for testing (see Duck test) of some computer systems. In a sense, this usage results from a need for 'behavioral' analysis of an entity (virtual or otherwise) in an attempt to know what it is or whether it is what is 'claimed' of it (by itself or another). One can even argue several philosophical points (see Operational definition). But, it's really in 'computing' where entities emerge (evolve) that are not 'covered' by theory or some known 'meta' view where this idea has taken hold, especially in forms related to advanced techniques. (As aforementioned though, very few ducks actually do "quack")


Moche Duck. Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru.


*Some ancient Egyptian art depicts some ships of the Sea Peoples with ornamental prows shaped like a duck's head.


*In 2007, a duck in Tallahassee, Florida survived a gunshot wound and two days stored in a refrigerator whilst presumed dead.  The duck was operated on and was again presumed dead after a bad reaction to anesthesia. After further procedure the duck lived.


*A rare genetic mutation sees some ducks born with four legs (ie six limbs): this is a type of polymelia.


*The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature.  Benson, Elizabeth, The Mochica: A Culture of Peru. New York, NY: Praeger Press. 1972  They placed emphasis on animals and often depicted ducks in their art.  Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum. The Spirit of Ancient Peru:Treasures from the Museo ArqueolÃ³gico Rafael Larco Herrera. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997.


*Angel Wing - A disease common in ducks.


*  - A modern illustrated guide to identification of US waterfowl.