title
stringlengths 3
85
| text
stringlengths 1k
2.99k
|
|---|---|
Snowy owl | Egg-laying normally begins during early May to the first 10 days of June. Late thaws are harmful to them since they allow too little time for the full breeding process, with particularly importance given to good food supply in May for adults, even more so apparently than food supply in July when young are being fed. Late nests are possible cases of inexperienced pairs, low food supplies, bigamy or even replacement clutches. The clutch is extremely variable in size averaging around 7–9, with up to 15 or 16 eggs recorded in extreme cases. The clutch size very large relative to related species. Mean clutch sizes were 7.5 in a sample of 24 in Hooper Bay (range of 5–11); 6.7 in a sample of seven from Utqiaġvik (4–9); 9 in a sample of a sample of 5 in Baffin Island; 9.8 on Victoria Island; 8.4 (in a sample of 14) on Elsemere Island; 7.4 on Wrangel Island and 7.74 in Finnish Lapland. The average clutch size was 9.8 in a good year in Victoria Island while in a good year in Utqiaġvik the mean was 6.5. The clutch is laid directly to the ground and are pure, glossy white. An average egg is around 56.4 mm × 44.7 mm (2.22 in × 1.76 in) with a range of heights from 50 to 70.2 mm (1.97 to 2.76 in) and diameter of 41 to 49.3 mm (1.61 to 1.94 in). Egg weights are around 47.5 to 68 g (1.68 to 2.40 oz), the median or average being 53 and 60.3 g (1.87 and 2.13 oz) in different datasets. The average egg size is relatively small, about 20% smaller than Eurasian eagle-owl eggs and 8% smaller than great horned owl eggs. Laying intervals are normally 2 days (41–50 hours mostly). The laying intervals can range up to 3–5 days in inclement weather. The laying of a clutch of 11 eggs can take 20–30 days, while a more typical nest of around 8 takes about up to 16 days. The interval between the 8th and 9th eggs can be up to about 4 days. Incubation begins with the first egg and is by female alone, while she is fed by her mate. |
Snowy owl | Food is brought to the nest by males and surplus food is stored nearby. Females in breeding season often develop a very extensive brood patch which in this species is a fairly enormous, high vascularized featherless area of pink belly skin. Incubation lasts 31.8–33 days (unconfirmed and possibly dubious reports from as little as 27 to as much as 38-day incubations). The female alone broods the young, often while simultaneously incubating still unhatched eggs. Sometimes older chicks incidentally brood their younger siblings and females may shelter the young under her wings during inclement weather. When first feeding the young, the female may dismantle prey to feed the young only the softer body parts then gradually ramping up the size of proportions until they eat a whole prey item. Aggressive encounters with parent snowy owls are said to be "genuinely dangerous" and one resource claimed the snowy owl to be the bird species with the most formidable nest defense displays towards humans. The usual response to sighted humans near the nest is mild but continued approach begins to increasingly irritate the parents. At times, humans are forcefully dive-bombed upon, while other potential threats are dealt with in a "forward-threat" where the male walks towards the intruders, engaging in impressive feather-raising and fanning out of half-spread wings until they run forward and slash with both their feet and bill. Fairly serious injuries have been sustained in the worst of snowy owl defensive attacks, including cranial trauma, requiring researchers to make the long trek back to medical care, although human fatalities are not known. Snowy owl parents have been seen to aggressively attacked glaucous gulls, arctic fox and dogs in breeding ground in Utqiaġvik. Non-predatory animals like caribou in Utqiaġvik and sheep (Ovis aries) in Fetlar are attacked as well, possibly to avoid potential trampling of the eggs or the young. Males are said to do the majority of nest defense but the female will also often become involved as well. Analysis showed in Lapland, Sweden, that females in nest defense against people engaged in vocal displays (warning and mewing calls) and that males did not engage in mewing but did engage in most hooting calls, many warning calls and almost all physical attacks. In other instances, distraction displays are engaged in against predators, with a "broken-wing act" including high, thin squeals interspersed with weird squeaks, often taking flight only to quickly fall from the sky and imitate a struggle. One author recorded a male to draw him about 2 km (1.2 mi) from the nest before ceasing. 77% of 45 distraction displays in Lapland, Sweden were by females. |
Snowy owl | Hatching intervals are generally from 1 to 3 days, quite often within 37–45 hours apart. New chicks are semi-altricial (i.e. typically helpless and blind), initially being white and rather wet but dry by the end of the first day. The weight of 7 hatchlings was 35 to 55 g (1.2 to 1.9 oz), with an average of 46 g (1.6 oz) while 3 were 44.7 g (1.58 oz). Due to the pronounced asynchrony of the egg-laying and hatching, the size difference between siblings can be enormous and in some cases when the smallest chick weighs only 20 to 50 g (0.71 to 1.76 oz), the biggest chick already has attained a weight of around 350 to 380 g (12 to 13 oz). When the oldest chick is about 3 weeks, the female will start to hunt as well as the male and both may directly feed the young although in some cases they may not need hunt very much if lemmings are particularly numerous. Caches of lemmings around a nest may include more than 80 lemmings that can support the family. Unlike many owls, the chicks of snowy owls are not known to behave aggressively toward one another or to engage in siblicide, perhaps in part due to the need for energy conservance. Some cases of cannibalism of chicks by the family group were thought to be cases where chicks die from other causes. When they are about 2 weeks, the chicks may begin to walk around the nest site which they leave by 18–28 days, although they are still unable to fly and may find safety in nooks and crannies of vegetation and rocks usually only about 1 to 2 m (3.3 to 6.6 ft) from the nest mound, as well as via their parents defense. Leaving the nest is thought to likely be an anti-predator strategy. The male snowy owl may drop fresh prey deliveries directly on the ground near the wandering young. After about three weeks of age, the young may wander fairly widely, rarely to 1 km (0.62 mi), but usually stay within 500 m (1,600 ft) of the nest mound. Threat postures by young in reaction to researchers were first noticeable at about 20–25 days of age and common at about 28 days and the chicks can be impressively quick and agile-footed. The first fledgling occurs at around 35–50 days, and by 50–60 days the young can fly well and hunt on their own. The total care period is for 2–3.5 months, increasing in length with increased size of the brood. Although independence was once thought to be sought by late August or early September but is more likely by late September to October when migration season for the species begins. The nesting cycle is similar in length to the Arctic short-eared owls and faster than Eurasian eagle-owls by up to 2 months. |
Snowy owl | Sexual maturity reached the following year but the first breeding is normally at no sooner than the end of the second year of life. There is little strong evidence of typical age of first breeding but initial breeding by males could be inferred by the plumage of males in Utqiaġvik by plumage. At that stage, which the males were essentially all pure white, most were aged to about 3 to 4 years old. The snowy owl seems to markedly inconsistent in regard to breeding every year, often taking at least up to two years between attempts and sometimes as much as nearly a decade. 7 satellite-marking females in Canada proved that they did breed in consecutive years, with 1 breeding over 3 consecutive years. In 23 years at Utqiaġvik, snowys bred in 13 of them. Nesting success can reach 90–100% in even the largest clutches in high lemming years. While over the course of 21 years, 260 total nests were recorded in Utqiaġvik. There, from 4–54 nests were recorded annually. The Utqiaġvik nests bore 3 to 10 sized-clutches with a mean of 6 eggs per nest and an annual mean hatching success from 39 to 91%. 31–87% of chicks were able to depart on foot and 48–65% were annually estimated to survive to fledge; elsewhere, 40% survived to fledge. In another set, 97% of observed eggs both hatched and fledged. In Norway, the fledging success from 10 nests was much lower at about 46%. Norwegian data, which previously indicated it to be an almost accidental breeder in northern Norway, indicates that it is a more regular breeder than expected, though. 3 good years were found for snowy owls between 1968 and 2005: 1974 (when there were 12 pairs), 1978 (22 pairs) and 1985 (20 pairs), with 14 additional locations when potential (but not confirmed) breeding has occurred. The main determinable causes of nest failure were deemed to be starvation and exposure. A number of Norwegian and Finnish nests were known to fail due to severe black fly parasitism. |
Snowy owl | The snowy owl can live a long life for a bird. Records show that the oldest snowy owls in captivity can live to 25 to even 30 years of age. Typical lifespans probably reach around 10 years in the wild. The longest known lifespan in the wild was of a snowy owl initially banded (possibly in its first winter) in Massachusetts and recovered dead in Montana 23 years and 10 months later. The annual survival rate for twelve females on Bylot Island was estimated at around 85–92.3%. It is often reputed that snowy owls frequently died from starvation, with historical accounts opining that they "had to" leave their breeding grounds due to lemming "crashes" but would starve to the south. However, it was proven fairly early on that snowy owls often do survive throughout the winter. This is reinforced somewhat by small radio-tracking and banding studies of snowy owls in the northern Great Plains and the intermountain valleys of the northwestern United States. More circumstantial evidence shows a lack of starvation in the eastern part of North America as well. There is evidence that some adults are known to return to the same wintering areas in ensuing years, areas which are far south of their breeding range. At Logan Airport, most snowy owls that are seen appear to be in good condition. Of 71 dead snowy owls found in winter in the northern Great Plains, 86% died from assorted traumas, including collisions with automobiles and other, usually manmade, objects as well as electrocutions and shootings. Only 14% of the 71 deaths were due to apparent starving. Data showed some owls appeared to incur injuries but healed and survived. More evidence was found in wintering snowy owls in New York of healed fractures, though some may require surgery to recover. 537 wintering birds in Saskatchewan were studied based on fat reserves, which were superior in females over males and adults over juveniles; while 31% of females lacked fat reserves, at least 45% of males found starving or in a state of infirmity were males and 63% turned into Wildlife rehabilitation centres were also males. In British Columbia, of 177 snowy owl deaths, of owls to die, only a small percentage were due to natural causes, such as assumed starvation at 13% and 12% were "found dead". One fledgling on Fetlar died due to pneumonia and Staphylococcus, while a second died from Aspergillosis. Evidence shows that in Utqiaġvik during exceptionally prolonged rains (i.e. 2 to 3 days), nest-departed young were vulnerable to starvation, leading to hypothermia and pneumonia. Due to their natural history, the snowy owl may be affected more severely by blood parasitism than other raptors, due to lowered immunity. Conversely, they appear to have lower levels of ectoparasites such as chewing lice than other large owls per large samples from Manitoba. The snowy owls averaged about 3.9 chewing lice per host against 7.5 for great grey owls and 10.5 for great horned owls. |
Snowy owl | This species presence and numbers is dependent on amount of food available. In "lemming years", snowy owls can appear to be quite abundant in habitat. Numbers of snowy owls are difficult to estimate even within studies that take place over decades due to the nomadic nature of adults. The population of Scandinavia has long been perceived as very small and ephemeral with Finland holding 0–100 pairs; Norway holding 1–20 pairs and Sweden holding 1–50 pairs. A low breeding population within European Russia has been estimated to hold 1,300–4,500 pairs and Greenland to have 500–1,000 pairs. Other than northern part of the American continent, a majority of the snowy owl's breeding range is in northern Russia, but overall estimates are not known. An exact count of 4,871 individuals were seen on surveys between the Indigirka and Kolyma rivers. The numbers estimated by Partners in Flight and other authors by the 2000s was that North America held about 72,500 snowy owls, about 30% of which were juveniles. The Canadian population of snowy owls was estimated at 10,000–30,000 or even to 50,000–100,000 individuals, perhaps improbably. Within Canada, the population on Banks Island was once claimed at up to 15,000–25,000 in productive years and in Queen Elizabeth Islands at about 932 individuals. Alaska is the only state with breeding snowy owls but has probably quite a bit fewer breeding owls than does Canada. Furthermore, the Partners in Flight and the IUCN estimated that the world population was roughly 200,000–290,000 individuals as recently as the 2000s. However, in the 2010s, it has been discovered that all prior estimates were extremely excessive and that more precise numbers could be estimated with better surveying, phylogeographic data and more insights into the owl's free-wheeling wanderings. It is now believed that there are only 14,000–28,000 mature breeding pairs of snowy owls in the world. During lemming declines, the number of nesting females may drop down to as low as 1,700 worldwide, a dangerously low number, and the number of snowy owls worldwide is less than 10% of what it was once thought to be. Due to the small and rapidly declining population, the snowy was uplisted in 2017 to being a vulnerable species by the IUCN. A 52% decline has been inferred for the North American population since the 1960s with another even more drastic estimate placing the decline from 1970 to 2014 at 64%. Trends are harder to delineate in Scandinavia but a similar downward trend is thought to be occurring. Snowy owls are listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meaning international trade (including in parts and derivatives) is regulated. |
Snowy owl | Of 438 band encounters in the USG banding laboratory, almost all causes of death that could be determined, whether intentional or not, were correlated with human interference. 34.2% or 150 were dead due to unknown causes, 11.9% were shot, 7.1% were hit by automobiles, 5.5% were found dead or injured on highways, 3.9% were collision from towers or wires, 2.7% were in animal traps, 2.1% in airplane birdstrikes, 0.6% were entangled while the remaining 33.3% recovered injured due to assorted or unknown causes. Snowy owls are endangered by heavy airport usage resulting in birdstrikes. Many such collisions are known in Canada and likely also in Siberia and Mongolia . Despite their danger to planes, no human fatalities have been recorded in collisions with this species. Snowy owls are always far outnumbered in Canadian airports in winter by short-eared owls. However, relative to its scarcity, the snowy accounts for a very large balance of the birdstrikes recorded at American airports due to the attractiveness of the habitat, accounting for 4.6% of 2456 recorded collisions (the barn owl is the most frequently involved in birdstrikes). The species is locally vulnerable to pesticides. The placement of buildings in the Utqiaġvik is now thought to have displaced some snowy owls. In Norway, potential sources of disturbance near the nests include tourism, recreation, reindeer husbandry, motorized traffic, dogs, photographers, ornithologists and scientists. Some biologist have expressed concern that radio-tagging of snowy owls may cause some unclear detrimental effect on snowy owls but little evidence is known if they actually make the owls more susceptible to death. |
Snowy owl | Snowy owls can be quite wary, as they are not infrequently hunted by Circumpolar peoples. Historically, the snowy owl was one of the most persecuted owl species. In the irruption of 1876–77, an estimated 500 snowy owls were shot, with similar numbers in 1889–90 and an estimated 500–1,000 killed in Ontario alone during 1901–02 invasion and about 800 killed in the 1905–06 invasion. Indigenous people of the Arctic historically killed snowy owls as food but now many communities in northern Alaska are fairly modernized, therefore biologists feel that the permitted killing of snowy owls by the indigenous is outdated. The consumption of snowy owls by humans has been proven as far back as ancient cave deposits in France and elsewhere, and they have even been considered as one of the most frequent food species for early humans. They do not shun developed areas especially with old field that hold rodents and, due to lack of human experience, can be extremely tame and unable to escape armed humans. In British Columbia, of 177 snowy owl deaths, the most often diagnosed cause of death was shootings at 25%, often well after legal protection of the species. The number poached snowy owls in Ontario is opined to be unusually high considering their scarcity. While the species was once otherwise killed as food and then later shot out of resentment for perceived threats against domestic and favored game stock, the reasoning behind ongoing shooting of snowy owls into the 21st century is not well-understood. Siberian snowy owls are frequently victim to baited fox traps, with possibly up to around 300 killed in a year based upon very rough estimates. Warfarin poisoning in use as rodenticides are known to kill some wintering snowy owls, including up to six at Logan Airport alone. Mercury concentrations, most likely through bioaccumulation, have been detected in snowy owls in the Aleutian Islands but it is not known whether fatal mercury poisoning has occurred. PCBs may have killed some snowy owls in concentration. Some airports have advocated and instituted the practice of shooting owls to avoid birdstrikes but successful translocation is possible and preferred given the species protected status. |
Snowy owl | Climate change is now widely perceived to perhaps the primary driver of the snowy owl's decline. As temperatures continue to rise, abiotic factors such as increased rain and reduced snow are likely to effect lemming populations and, in turn, snowy owls. These and potentially many other issues (possibly including modifying migrating behavior, vegetation composition, increased insect, disease and parasite activities, risk of hyperthermia) are a matter of concern. Additionally, reduction of sea ice, which snowy owls are now known to rely extensively on, as a result of warming climates, impacts could be significant. The effect of climate change was essentially confirmed in northern Greenland where a perhaps irrevocable collapse of the lemming population was observed. From 1998 to 2000, the lemming numbers appeared to have quickly declined. The number of lemmings per hectare (ha) is less than one-fifth of what it once was in Greenland (i.e. from 12 lemmings per ha to less than 2 per ha at peak). This is almost certainly correlated with a 98% decline in owl productivity as well as that of the local stoats (the long-tailed jaeger and Arctic foxes, though previously thought to be almost as reliant on lemmings, seem to be more loosely coupled and more generalized and did not decline as much). The amount of lemming mounds is much less than it once in northern Greenland and any variety of population cycle has been apparently abandoned by what remains of the lemmings. |
Rapid plant movement | A variety of mechanisms are employed by plants in order to achieve these fast movements. Extremely fast movements such as the explosive spore dispersal techniques of Sphagnum mosses may involve increasing internal pressure via dehydration, causing a sudden propulsion of spores up or through the rapid opening of the "flower" opening triggered by insect pollination. Fast movement can also be demonstrated in predatory plants, where the mechanical stimulation of insect movement creates an electrical action potential and a release of elastic energy within the plant tissues. This release can be seen in the closing of a Venus flytrap, the curling of sundew leaves, and in the trapdoor action and suction of bladderworts. Slower movement, such as the folding of Mimosa pudica leaves, may depend on reversible, but drastic or uneven changes in water pressure in the plant tissues This process is controlled by the fluctuation of ions in and out of the cell, and the osmotic response of water to the ion flux. |
Bombing of Yawata (June 1944) | The B-29 Superfortress had a difficult introduction into service. Work began on designing the bomber in early 1940, and the first prototype flew on 21 September 1942. The Superfortress was the largest combat aircraft of World War II and boasted a heavy maximum bomb load, long range, and powerful defensive armament. The B-29 also incorporated a number of new features, such as a pressurized cabin and remote-controlled turrets. While 1,664 B-29s had been ordered by the USAAF before the aircraft first flew, its development was set back by several months when the second prototype crashed on 18 February 1943 and problems with the design were gradually solved. The 58th Bombardment Wing was formed in June 1943 to operate the USAAF's first B-29s, but it did not begin receiving these aircraft until October. The slow delivery of B-29s and mechanical problems with the aircraft meant that the wing lagged behind its training schedule and only became capable of deployment in March 1944, after the so-called "Battle of Kansas" program began to produce combat-ready aircraft. |
Bombing of Yawata (June 1944) | In late 1943, the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff approved a proposal to begin a strategic air campaign against the Japanese home islands and East Asia by basing B-29s in India and establishing forward airfields in areas of China. This strategy, which was designated Operation Matterhorn, required the construction of large airstrips near Chengdu in inland China which would be supplied by Allied cargo aircraft and be used to refuel B-29s traveling from bases in Bengal en route to bombing targets in Japan. XX Bomber Command was assigned responsibility for this effort, and its ground crew began to leave the United States for India by sea in December 1943. The Twentieth Air Force was formed in April 1944 to oversee all B-29 operations. In an unprecedented move, the commander of the USAAF, General Henry H. Arnold, took personal command of this unit and ran it from the Pentagon. The 58th Bombardment Wing was XX Bomber Command's main combat unit, and its movement from Kansas to India took place from April to mid-May. While the wing had not completed training at the time that it left for India, its combat groups were more experienced than most newly deployed USAAF bomber units. |
Bombing of Yawata (June 1944) | On 6 June, Wolfe received a message from Arnold informing him that the Joint Chiefs of Staff wanted a raid to be conducted against Japan as soon as possible. The goals of this operation were to relieve pressure on Chinese forces which were being attacked by the Japanese and to support the invasion of Saipan. Arnold's message also asked how many B-29s could be dispatched on 15 and 20 June. At the time, the first raid on Japan was tentatively scheduled for 23 June, when sufficient supplies were expected to be available in China to support 100 B-29 sorties. Wolfe replied, stating that 50 B-29s could be used on 15 June and 55 if the operation was conducted on the 20th of the month. Arnold regarded these numbers as too low and directed that a raid by at least 70 B-29s be conducted against Japan on 15 June. Following this order, XX Bomber Command's B-29s and transport aircraft embarked on an intensive effort to move fuel to China. Further fuel supplies were made available to the heavy bombers by reducing the activities of USAAF fighter units based in China. During the same period, the command's ground crews reconditioned as many B-29s as possible to improve their reliability. |
Bombing of Yawata (June 1944) | The Superfortresses began to depart their bases at 16:16 local time on 15 June. The raiding force was led by the 58th Bombardment Wing's commander, Brigadier General LaVerne G. Saunders. One aircraft crashed immediately after taking off with no casualties and a further four turned back suffering mechanical problems. The remaining 70 aircraft proceeded on a direct course to Okino Island, where they turned for the run-in to Yawata. Each of the 58th Bombardment Wing's four groups sent two aircraft ahead to mark the target and the other aircraft flew in a long bomber stream; both of these tactics had been adopted from those used by the British Royal Air Force's Bomber Command in Europe. The raiders were detected by Japanese Army and Army Air Force units in China. These reports were passed onto the 19th Air Brigade, which estimated that the bombers were bound for northern Kyūshū and would arrive there at about midnight local time. A radar station and lookout posts on Cheju-Do subsequently detected the bombers from 23:31 to 00:30 local time. An air raid alarm was issued at 00:24 and 24 aircraft of the 4th Air Regiment began to take off three minutes later to patrol over northern Kyūshū. The 59th Air Regiment was not scrambled, as its pilots had not worked with those of the 4th Air Regiment in night operations, its aircraft were suffering from mechanical problems, and it was feared that the B-29s would sight and attack the base at Ashiya. |
Bombing of Yawata (June 1944) | The Yawata raid revealed serious shortcomings in Japan's air defenses. While the 19th Air Brigade initially claimed to have shot down eight B-29s and damaged a further four, it was soon determined that only two of the bombers had been destroyed. This loss ratio was considered too low to defeat attacks on the home islands. The raid demonstrated that Japan had too few airbases and not enough aircraft were available for night operations. It was also found that the Toryu fighter was not well suited to intercepting B-29s, as it was slower than the bombers, too lightly armed, and most aircraft lacked radar. While the air raid alert system had proved successful in this instance, the radars which detected the American aircraft had been unable to determine their altitude, and it was decided that there was a need to further expand radar coverage. The performance of the 131st Anti Aircraft Regiment during the raid was judged to be so poor that its commander was transferred to Manchuria. News reports of the Yawata raid and successful U.S. landing at Saipan on the same day also indicated to Japanese civilians that the war was not going well. In response to the raid, Japanese Government ministers urged families living in the country's four major cities to evacuate their children to rural areas. |
Bombing of Yawata (June 1944) | The 15–16 June 1944 raid on Yawata marked the beginning of the USAAF's strategic bombing campaign against Japan. The city was struck again by B-29s during daylight and night raids on 20 August, but no serious damage was caused. XX Bomber Command conducted 49 raids from its bases in China and India between June 1944 and March 1945, of which nine were made on targets in the Japanese home islands, but Operation Matterhorn did not achieve its goals. Despite initial problems, XXI Bomber Command's operations from the Mariana Islands, which began on 28 October 1944, proved much more effective. As a result, XX Bomber Command was transferred to the Mariana Islands in early 1945. Yawata was targeted again by B-29s on 8 August 1945, two days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. On this day the city was attacked by 221 B-29s, escorted by three groups of P-47N Thunderbolt fighters, including the 318th Fighter Group based on Ie Shima off the coast of Okinawa. The bombers were armed with incendiary bombs, and the resulting firestorm destroyed 21 percent of Yawata's urban area. |
Dmitry Kabalevsky | Kabalevsky was born in Saint Petersburg in 1904, but moved to Moscow at a young age. His father was a mathematician and encouraged him to study mathematics, but he showed a fascination for the arts from a young age. He studied at the Academic Music College in Moscow and graduated in 1922. He then continued his studies with Vasily Selivanov. In 1925, he then went on to study at the Moscow Conservatory where he learned composition with first Georgy Catoire, then Nikolai Myaskovsky and piano with Alexander Goldenweiser. By the age of 26 his list of compositions included the String Quartet, Op. 8, Piano Concerto, Op. 9, Eight Children's Songs, Op. 17, and various works for solo piano. In 1925 he joined PROKULL (Production Collective of Student Composers), a student group affiliated with Moscow Conservatory aimed at bridging the gap between the modernism of the ACM and the utilitarian "agitprop" music of the RAPM. (add cit.) In 1932 he was appointed senior lecturer at the Moscow Conservatory and by 1939 was a full-time professor. He also worked as a music critic for the All-Union Radio and as an editor for the Sovetskaya muzïka and the publisher Muzgiz. |
Dmitry Kabalevsky | Kabalevsky was a prolific composer in many musical forms; he wrote symphonies, concertos, operas, ballets, chamber works, songs, theatre, film scores, pieces for children and some pieces for the proletariat. During the 1930s he wrote music for the emerging genre of films with sound. (Shostakovich and Prokofiev also wrote music for this genre.) Some of his film music became recognized in its own right. However, his biggest contribution to the world of music-making was his consistent effort to connect children to music. During 1925–1926 he worked as a piano teacher in a government school and was struck by the lack of proper material for helping children to learn music. He set out to write easy pieces that would allow children to conquer technical difficulties and to form their taste. His music focused on bridging the gap between children's technical skills and adult aesthetics. He also wrote a book on the subject, which was published in the United States in 1988 as Music and Education: A Composer Writes about Musical Education. |
Dmitry Kabalevsky | According to musicologist Marina Raku, "Through verbal commentaries on music the Soviet ideology 'appropriated' the classical musical heritage." In 1924, Maxim Gorky said that Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin was a quasi-religious admirer of Issay Dobrowen's performance of the "preterhuman music" of one of Beethoven's 32 sonatas. Kabalevsky successfully developed and promoted that "quasi-religious" system and attitude towards musical education. The system included, at one stage, thousands of free, state-sponsored regional children's musical schools that offered an 8-year course promoting musical literacy and appreciation but not professional musicianship. The next stage included dozens of music schools training teachers for the previous stage, and conservatories training world-class performers. Classical music performers, like ballet dancers, were household names through their frequent appearances on Soviet TV. Kabalevsky's oft-quoted credo was "Beauty Evokes Kindness" (‹See Tfd›Russian: Прекрасное пробуждает доброе, romanized: Prekrasnoe probuzhdaet dobroe). The system was criticised for its alleged psychological violence towards the youth, e.g., threats towards that violin students would "be raped by the bow" unless they practice enough, and for being a "tortuous tool for the gender socialization of girls." After 1991, music teachers' salaries, said to be "microscopic", were below the living wage in Russia. |
Semi-reflexive space | Suppose that X is a topological vector space (TVS) over the field F {\displaystyle \mathbb {F} } (which is either the real or complex numbers) whose continuous dual space, X ′ {\displaystyle X^{\prime }} , separates points on X (i.e. for any x ∈ X {\displaystyle x\in X} there exists some x ′ ∈ X ′ {\displaystyle x^{\prime }\in X^{\prime }} such that x ′ ( x ) ≠ 0 {\displaystyle x^{\prime }(x)\neq 0} ). Let X b ′ {\displaystyle X_{b}^{\prime }} and X β ′ {\displaystyle X_{\beta }^{\prime }} both denote the strong dual of X, which is the vector space X ′ {\displaystyle X^{\prime }} of continuous linear functionals on X endowed with the topology of uniform convergence on bounded subsets of X; this topology is also called the strong dual topology and it is the "default" topology placed on a continuous dual space (unless another topology is specified). If X is a normed space, then the strong dual of X is the continuous dual space X ′ {\displaystyle X^{\prime }} with its usual norm topology. The bidual of X, denoted by X ′ ′ {\displaystyle X^{\prime \prime }} , is the strong dual of X b ′ {\displaystyle X_{b}^{\prime }} ; that is, it is the space ( X b ′ ) b ′ {\displaystyle \left(X_{b}^{\prime }\right)_{b}^{\prime }} . |
Semi-reflexive space | Let X be a topological vector space over a number field F {\displaystyle \mathbb {F} } (of real numbers R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} } or complex numbers C {\displaystyle \mathbb {C} } ). Consider its strong dual space X b ′ {\displaystyle X_{b}^{\prime }} , which consists of all continuous linear functionals f : X → F {\displaystyle f:X\to \mathbb {F} } and is equipped with the strong topology b ( X ′ , X ) {\displaystyle b\left(X^{\prime },X\right)} , that is, the topology of uniform convergence on bounded subsets in X. The space X b ′ {\displaystyle X_{b}^{\prime }} is a topological vector space (to be more precise, a locally convex space), so one can consider its strong dual space ( X b ′ ) b ′ {\displaystyle \left(X_{b}^{\prime }\right)_{b}^{\prime }} , which is called the strong bidual space for X. It consists of all continuous linear functionals h : X b ′ → F {\displaystyle h:X_{b}^{\prime }\to {\mathbb {F} }} and is equipped with the strong topology b ( ( X b ′ ) ′ , X b ′ ) {\displaystyle b\left(\left(X_{b}^{\prime }\right)^{\prime },X_{b}^{\prime }\right)} . Each vector x ∈ X {\displaystyle x\in X} generates a map J ( x ) : X b ′ → F {\displaystyle J(x):X_{b}^{\prime }\to \mathbb {F} } by the following formula: |
Ali Karimi | He played in 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification for Iran and on 10 June 2009, Karimi scored in a 1–0 victory over U.A.E. to keep Iran's 2010 World Cup qualifying hopes alive. On 17 June 2009, he played in Iran's 1–1 draw with South Korea, which eliminated Iran from the 2010 World Cup finals. During the match, a number of Iranian players, including Karimi, wore green wristbands, which were interpreted to be a show of support for Iranian opposition leader Hossein Mousavi, who accused the Iranian government of vote rigging the election on 12 June. Western media reported after the game that the players who wore the green wristbands had been banned lifetime to play in national team, while a newspaper in Iran reported that the players concerned had retired. On 24 June 2009, FIFA wrote to Iran's football federation asking for clarification on the situation. The Iranian football federation replied that no disciplinary action had been taken against any player. On 3 March 2010, he returned for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup qualification match against Thailand. |
Leon Loeb | Leon (Leopold) Loeb, was born to a Jewish family in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, the son of Rosalie (née Levi) and Jacob Loeb. He worked as a bookkeeper in Switzerland before immigrating to Los Angeles in September 1864. He was able to secure a job at S. Lazard & Company (founded by Solomon Lazard and Maurice Kremer) where his cousin Marc Eugene Meyer worked. On 3 March 1874, Solomon Lazard retired and Marc Eugene Mayer, his brother Constant Meyer, and Nathan Kahn (Cahn) purchased S. Lazard & Co. renaming it Eugene Meyer & Company. At Loeb's urging, they promoted the firm as "The City of Paris" (not to be confused with the similarly named store in San Francisco), the city's first department store. The store would grow to be the largest and most elaborate department store in the Southwest. On 31 January 1879, Loeb purchased the interest held by Constant Meyer and the firm was renamed Meyer, Kahn and Loeb. In October 1883, Eugene Meyer sold his interest and moved to San Francisco to work for Lazard Frères. After the admission of to Emmanuel L. Stern as a partner, the company was renamed Stern, Cahn & Loeb. After the departure of Nathan Cahn, it was renamed Stern, Loeb & Company until its liquidation in the early 1890s. |
Print design | The letterpress, perfected in the mid fifteenth century by Johannes Gutenberg through the combined use of the printing press, oil-based inks, and cast metal type, remained the most common and efficient method of printing until the 1960s. Used frequently with typography design and type layout, the letterpress operates through the stamping of type and photo-engraved metal blocks on paper. The metal blocks are arranged in a frame by the printer, and the text columns and etchings are separated by vertical or horizontal metal bars; it is even possible to arrange the blocks at an angle using a letterpress. With the letterpress, print design and graphics remained black and white print on paper until the late nineteenth century. The letterpress was the first technology that allowed for mass production and distribution of printed material at a large scale, and because of this, quickly replaced the slow processes of woodblock printing and hand copying of print design. As time went on and technology progressed, the letterpress did as well. The Industrial Revolution brought about steam powered printing presses and Linotype machines, advancing the mechanical process of printing to a speed never seen before. |
Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder | A majority of those with lifelong gambling disorder have some sort of personality disorder, and the most common personality disorder amongst them is obsessive compulsive personality disorder. OCPD has a strong comorbidity with individuals who have gambling disorder. A study of data collected in the 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions looked at pathological gambling and psychiatric conditions as defined by the DSM-IV. Of the surveyed population consistent with gambling disorder, 60.8% also had a personality disorder, with OCPD appearing most frequently at 30%. About 300,000 U.S citizens have both a gambling disorder and obsessive compulsive personality disorder; and yet, there is little research on the comorbidity of the two disorders. Those with gambling disorders and OCPD do, indeed, exhibit different behavioral patterns than those with gambling disorders alone. More research on the relationship between the disorders is thought to help uncover causes and develop treatments for patients. |
Linear differential equation | In the case where the characteristic polynomial has only simple roots, the preceding provides a complete basis of the solutions vector space. In the case of multiple roots, more linearly independent solutions are needed for having a basis. These have the form x k e α x , {\displaystyle x^{k}e^{\alpha x},} where k is a nonnegative integer, α is a root of the characteristic polynomial of multiplicity m, and k < m. For proving that these functions are solutions, one may remark that if α is a root of the characteristic polynomial of multiplicity m, the characteristic polynomial may be factored as P(t)(t − α)m. Thus, applying the differential operator of the equation is equivalent with applying first m times the operator d d x − α {\textstyle {\frac {d}{dx}}-\alpha } , and then the operator that has P as characteristic polynomial. By the exponential shift theorem, ( d d x − α ) ( x k e α x ) = k x k − 1 e α x , {\displaystyle \left({\frac {d}{dx}}-\alpha \right)\left(x^{k}e^{\alpha x}\right)=kx^{k-1}e^{\alpha x},} |
Linear differential equation | The general solution of the associated homogeneous equation y ( n ) + a 1 y ( n − 1 ) + ⋯ + a n − 1 y ′ + a n y = 0 {\displaystyle y^{(n)}+a_{1}y^{(n-1)}+\cdots +a_{n-1}y'+a_{n}y=0} is y = u 1 y 1 + ⋯ + u n y n , {\displaystyle y=u_{1}y_{1}+\cdots +u_{n}y_{n},} where (y1, ..., yn) is a basis of the vector space of the solutions and u1, ..., un are arbitrary constants. The method of variation of constants takes its name from the following idea. Instead of considering u1, ..., un as constants, they can be considered as unknown functions that have to be determined for making y a solution of the non-homogeneous equation. For this purpose, one adds the constraints 0 = u 1 ′ y 1 + u 2 ′ y 2 + ⋯ + u n ′ y n 0 = u 1 ′ y 1 ′ + u 2 ′ y 2 ′ + ⋯ + u n ′ y n ′ ⋮ 0 = u 1 ′ y 1 ( n − 2 ) + u 2 ′ y 2 ( n − 2 ) + ⋯ + u n ′ y n ( n − 2 ) , {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}0&=u'_{1}y_{1}+u'_{2}y_{2}+\cdots +u'_{n}y_{n}\\0&=u'_{1}y'_{1}+u'_{2}y'_{2}+\cdots +u'_{n}y'_{n}\\&\;\;\vdots \\0&=u'_{1}y_{1}^{(n-2)}+u'_{2}y_{2}^{(n-2)}+\cdots +u'_{n}y_{n}^{(n-2)},\end{aligned}}} which imply (by product rule and induction) y ( i ) = u 1 y 1 ( i ) + ⋯ + u n y n ( i ) {\displaystyle y^{(i)}=u_{1}y_{1}^{(i)}+\cdots +u_{n}y_{n}^{(i)}} for i = 1, ..., n – 1, and y ( n ) = u 1 y 1 ( n ) + ⋯ + u n y n ( n ) + u 1 ′ y 1 ( n − 1 ) + u 2 ′ y 2 ( n − 1 ) + ⋯ + u n ′ y n ( n − 1 ) . {\displaystyle y^{(n)}=u_{1}y_{1}^{(n)}+\cdots +u_{n}y_{n}^{(n)}+u'_{1}y_{1}^{(n-1)}+u'_{2}y_{2}^{(n-1)}+\cdots +u'_{n}y_{n}^{(n-1)}.} |
Resident Evil Zero | Resident Evil Zero is a third-person survival horror video game. The gameplay remains largely the same as previous entries in the series. However, unlike controlling one sole character like the previous games, the player controls two protagonists throughout the game. The player may switch between police officer and medic Rebecca Chambers and convicted former Force Reconnaissance Officer Billy Coen. If they travel together, either one of them can be controlled while the other character is handled by the game's artificial intelligence (AI). The player may also control both simultaneously or split them up to explore areas separately. Each character has unique abilities. Rebecca has a mixing kit which allows her to combine herbs and other chemicals, but she is weak defensively. In contrast, Billy can move heavy objects, use a lighter, and has higher defense, but cannot mix herbs (a staple ability in Resident Evil games). The partner system is central to solving many of the game's puzzles.: 17 |
Resident Evil Zero | On July 23, 1998, a train owned by the pharmaceutical company Umbrella, the Ecliptic Express, comes under attack from a swarm of leeches. As the passengers and crew are attacked, a mysterious young man watches from a hillside. Two hours later, the Bravo Team of the Special Tactics And Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.), a tactical unit of Raccoon City Police Department's (R.P.D.), is sent to investigate a series of cannibalistic murders in the Arklay Mountains outside of Raccoon City. On the way to the scene, its helicopter has an engine failure and crash-lands in a forest. Searching the area, officer Rebecca Chambers of Bravo Team comes across the Express, now motionless. She begins to investigate the scene, only to find the passengers and crew transformed into zombies. She is unaware their transformation is a result of exposure to Umbrella's T-virus contained within the leeches. As she explores the train, she teams up with Billy Coen—a former Marine Force Reconnaissance officer, who was to be executed for killing 23 people until the military police van transporting him crashed in the region. |
Resident Evil Zero | Eventually, Rebecca and Billy catch up with the leech-controlling man, who happens to be Marcus' final experiment, the Queen Leech. In 1988, Marcus was assassinated on the orders of Umbrella's other co-founder, Oswell E. Spencer, who sought his research. After his corpse was dumped, the Queen Leech entered his body and reanimated it, gaining his memories and the ability to shapeshift, thus believing itself to be the resurrected Marcus and orchestrated the T-virus outbreak in the facility and on the train as a means of revenge against Umbrella. After temporarily defeating it, Billy and Rebecca attempt to escape to the surface via a lift, just as William Birkin trips the facility's self-destruct mechanism. Pursued by the Queen Leech, the pair eventually kill it and escape before the facility is destroyed. Following their escape, Rebecca notices the mansion that Marini mentioned and prepares to head for it. Before she does, she assures Billy that her police report will list him as another casualty of the incident. Thanking her for his freedom, Billy departs as Rebecca heads towards the mansion to seek out the whereabouts of her fellow Bravo Team members (seen in Resident Evil). |
Resident Evil Zero | While the original Resident Evil was still in development, the idea for a prequel came up shortly after the 64DD peripheral for the Nintendo 64 was announced in 1995. Following the 64DD's low sales four years later, Capcom developed Resident Evil Zero as a cartridge-based Nintendo 64 game. Capcom started development on the Nintendo 64 version in mid-1998, one of many Resident Evil games being developed at the time. One of these was Resident Evil – Code: Veronica which was taking full advantage of the capacities of the GD-ROM format. The Nintendo 64 cartridge could only store 64MB of data, one tenth that of a traditional CD-ROM. For these reasons, the team approached Resident Evil Zero with different ideas for gameplay and visual design that would function better with less storage space. After the script had been completed in early 1999, the production of a Resident Evil game for Nintendo 64 was revealed to the public by Yoshiki Okamoto, the president of Capcom's screenplay company Flagship. |
Resident Evil Zero | Resident Evil Zero was designed to be more difficult than its predecessors, removing the item boxes to make the game more like Sweet Home . The real-time "partner zapping" system was designed to take advantage of the console's unique features and strengths, namely the lack of load times, which are necessary for optical disc based gameplay as with the PlayStation. In an effort to make 1-on-1 zombie fights more intense, Capcom experimented with giving the zombies different reactions when they were shot and allowing the player to counter-attack when bitten. The team also toyed with faster zombies, a precursor to Resident Evil's crimson head enemies. The prototype also supported local co-operative play. Resident Evil Zero was officially announced at 20 percent completion in January 2000, after which it was presented with a playable demo at Tokyo Game Show. The game was expected to release in July 2000 and reportedly had an atmosphere close to the first Resident Evil, focusing more on suspense than the more action-oriented gameplay of Resident Evil 2 . However, development began to slow down when it became apparent that the data for Resident Evil Zero would not fit on a single cartridge. |
Resident Evil Zero | Production shifted to the newly announced GameCube, with the concept and story carried over but all of the data recreated. The platform change was confirmed in September 2000. The game's final version was developed primarily by Capcom Production Studio 3 with additional support provided by Tose. As a result of the transition to the GameCube, it was delayed so that the environments could be upgraded visually. More CGI videos were created as a result of the increased memory capacities, and the voice acting was re-recorded. The iconic sounds of the leeches were actually from recordings of cooking hamburgers. For the gun models, the modelling team was provided realistic-looking airsoft guns to base their designs from. Their designs were so close to the source material that the models, at first, featured replica markings and gas refill inlets. No one on the team noticed until half-way through development. Scenario writer Noboru Sugimura was called back to make some changes to the story. In the prototype's story, either Rebecca or Billy could die with the other character surviving and completing the game. This idea was scrapped as Rebecca dying would ruin the canon of the Resident Evil timeline. Billy was also originally designed in the prototype as a more ambiguous character, possibly becoming friend or foe as the story progressed. This idea was scrapped. The character designs were also adjusted: Rebecca for example lost her beret and shoulder pads while Billy received a new hairstyle. The GameCube's use of optical discs reintroduced load times, so the programmers had to use sophisticated programming to make the "partner zapping" system work. Capcom announced its intention to release a game demo in Japan around August 2002. |
Resident Evil Zero | On May 26, 2015, Capcom announced that a high-definition remastered version of the game was in development, Resident Evil Zero HD Remaster. The success of the high-definition remaster of Resident Evil inspired producer Tsukasa Takenaka to provide the same treatment to that game's prequel. Takenaka recognized that many Resident Evil fans preferred the old style of gameplay pre-Resident Evil 4, and so he reasoned that the HD remasters were to provide that same gameplay experience on modern hardware. The remaster was produced by Tsukasa Takenaka and the team was made up of many members from the original team, including director Koji Oda. Takenaka was glad Oda was on board, as this ensured Oda's original vision of the game would not be tarnished. Resident Evil Zero HD Remaster was released on January 19, 2016. A retail compilation called Resident Evil Origins Collection that includes Resident Evil HD Remaster and Resident Evil Zero HD Remaster was released on January 22, 2016. The game was released for the Nintendo Switch on May 21, 2019, along with Resident Evil and Resident Evil 4. |
Resident Evil Zero | For the remaster, Capcom used the original 2002 models and textures from their archives. To Takenaka's surprise, the models and textures were actually designed in a very high quality and then downscaled for the original release. This meant that some assets had to be redone, as items that were intentionally blurry or illegible in the original were now much more clear and did not make sense in context, such as posters or signs in the environment. The models and textures were re-touched, and then the backgrounds were re-captured. Some backgrounds in the original also featured video effects such as fire. In the remaster, these videos were transitioned into 3D effects. Additional modes were added as well, including an easy mode and Wesker mode. In Wesker mode, the player controls Albert Wesker instead of Billy, and can move quickly and use special attacks. Other improvements include an upgrade to 5.1 surround sound, video options for both the original 4:3 ratio or a new 16:9 option, as well as more control styles including a modern non-tank-like control scheme. Overall, Takenaka felt that putting together the remaster for Resident Evil Zero was more difficult than that of Resident Evil, largely due to the companion function. |
Resident Evil Zero | Resident Evil Zero received generally positive reviews after its initial GameCube release in 2002. The graphics and atmosphere were universally praised, being described as "wonderfully spooky" and "moody" with an "astonishing level of detail". Scott Steinberg of GameSpy noted how the animated backgrounds, such as flickering lights and dripping water, brought the environments to life. Giancarlo Varanini of GameSpot shared these sentiments, and complimented Capcom on how they were able to blend the game's models with pre-rendered backgrounds to create highly detailed visuals. The sound design was also complimented, with Matt Casamassina of IGN noting that "Capcom uses silence at times, too, to scare, which is brilliant." Varanini described the soundtrack as one "that will keep you in constant fear." Louis Bedigian of GameZone praised the sound effect work, such as thunder, gunshots, and footsteps for building a scary environment. The controls were universally panned as archaic, and the series was criticized for not evolving the control scheme to something more similar to Devil May Cry or Eternal Darkness . |
Resident Evil Zero | Critics had mixed reactions to the gameplay changes from previous series entries. Regarding the new item system, a critic from Game Revolution noted that it prevents the need to return to item boxes to empty inventory. However, he also noted a drawback, in that it introduces more backtracking to pick up an item that was dropped. Contrary to this, Mark MacDonald of 1UP.com praised it for eliminating the backtracking that slowed down previous series entries. Varanini from GameSpot gave credit to Capcom for attempting a new item system, but it is ultimately not too useful since it is easiest to drop all the items in a save location anyway. Casamassina of IGN called the system "perfect" and much better than the item boxes in previous games. Regarding the partner system, Varanini said that it works well, although he found the puzzles too simple and the companion's AI was lacking at times. Bedigian of GameZone praised the companion system for adding a new dimension to the Resident Evil series and it left him excited for future games. Steinberg of GameSpy liked the puzzles which required both characters working together, but he was not keen to fight alongside them, feeling like he was "babysitting" the other character due to weak AI. |
Joule | In 1935, the International Electrotechnical Commission (as the successor organisation of the International Electrical Congress) adopted the "Giorgi system", which by virtue of assuming a defined value for the magnetic constant also implied a redefinition of the joule. The Giorgi system was approved by the International Committee for Weights and Measures in 1946. The joule was now no longer defined based on electromagnetic unit, but instead as the unit of work performed by one unit of force (at the time not yet named newton) over the distance of 1 metre. The joule was explicitly intended as the unit of energy to be used in both electromagnetic and mechanical contexts. The ratification of the definition at the ninth General Conference on Weights and Measures, in 1948, added the specification that the joule was also to be preferred as the unit of heat in the context of calorimetry, thereby officially deprecating the use of the calorie. This is the definition declared in the modern International System of Units in 1960. |
Sophy Burnham | After moving to New York City with her husband and baby, she began freelancing for magazines. From 1964 on she wrote, including cover stories, for such publications as The New York Times Magazine, New York, Vogue, Reader's Digest of Japan and South America, Redbook, Ms., Town & Country, and Esquire. She joined the New York-based feminist group, Media Women, participated in the Ladies Home Journal sit-in of 1970, and many of her articles had a feminist twist. An influential cover story for New York magazine about the Manhattan art scene led to publication in 1973 of her first book, The Art Crowd, which became a New York Times bestseller and an alternate selection of the Book of the Month Club. From 1972 to 1974 she held her second job, as an associate editor at David McKay Publications in New York. Later in the 1970s having moved back to Washington D.C., she wrote The Landed Gentry: Passions and Personalities Inside America's Propertied Class as well as two plays, Penelope and The Study, and two children's books, Buccaneer—illustrated by Miki Eagle—and The Dogwalker. |
Bowmanville Zoo | On 13 April 2016, as a result of the video of Michael Hackenberger whipping the leashed tiger, five animal cruelty charges were brought against him. The Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says it began investigating alleged abuse at the Bowmanville Zoo immediately after reviewing the footage that emerged in December. The agency said the zoo's owner, Michael Hackenberger, was charged with four counts of causing an animal distress; causing an animal distress by striking the animal with a whip handle, causing an animal distress by repeatedly striking an animal with a whip, causing an animal to be in distress by striking the animal in the face with a whip, and causing an animal distress by pushing his thumb into the animals eye. The last charge was one of failing to comply with the prescribed standards of care for an animal. Three of the distress charges relate to the use of a whip, and one related to Hackenberger pushing his thumb into the tigers eye. The OSPCA said it would continue to conduct inspections of the zoo and continue to closely monitor the animals there. |
Worker center | Some centers are founded by previous union organizers, or have affiliations with unions, however, as previously stated, they are not unions. Worker centers exist to meet the demand for services that unions could or would not give. Many worker centers are established for immigrant and minority groups that work jobs where they are left out of the formal labor market and do not have the right to NLRA protection, such as day laborers, domestic workers and agricultural workers. Others have organized around groups, such as restaurant workers (Fight for 15, ROC United), that traditional unions have ignored as being too difficult to organize. In order to establish a union in a workplace, the union must get union cards from at least half the workers or have a majority vote for the union in an election. This is a great challenge in workplaces such as fast food jobs that suffer from high turnover, or in industries such as contracted cleaning companies, where even figuring out the number of employees and where they are located can be extremely difficult. |
Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya | The faculty has 1120 MBBS undergraduate students, 400 Speech and Hearing Sciences students and 73 Occupational Therapy students on its roll. This includes some foreign students, mainly from other South Asian countries, who have been admitted on a self-financing basis. The faculty also welcomes students for elective appointments and many students from medical schools in Europe, United States and Australia have spent their elective periods here. The faculty has a full range of academic departments consisting of about 145 academic staff members, including 23 professors. They are complemented by over 60 visiting staff, including consultants who are based in the affiliated teaching hospitals and other universities. In keeping with the need to expand and improve allied health services in the country the faculty established the Disability Studies Unit in 1993 and the Centre for Tropical Medicine and International Health, which conducts courses for primary health care workers, in 1999. The Molecular Medicine Unit was established in 2003 with the aims of improving molecular diagnostic facilities for infectious diseases and providing DNA fingerprinting. In 2007 the Disability Studies Unit was upgraded to the Department of Disability Studies, the only one of its kind in the South Asian region. |
Nikolai Dudorov | Dudorov's appointment as the minister of internal affairs was the end of the hegemony of the NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs) origin figures in the ministry. One of the reasons for Dudorov's appointment by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was his organization skills which were needed to reorganize the Gulag system, the network of forced labor camps. Dudorov advocated parole as a solution to the Gulag problem. He also developed a detailed plan to modify the Gulag, but his plan was not accepted by the related commission although it included three major points, namely Khrushchev's idea of smaller camps, Stalin's views on the prison camps based on industrial development and dominant ideas of the ministry executives on criminals. Later, Dudorov managed to implement a plan to reorganize the penal system depending on smaller colonies, but the plan was not a success. Dudorov's reformist views could not save him from the dismissal on 1 May 1960. Dudorov's membership in the central committee of the Communist party also ended in 1961. |
Daniel T. Barry | Following graduate school at Princeton University, Barry was a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow in physics at Princeton. He then attended the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami, where he graduated in 1982. He completed an internship and a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residency at the University of Michigan in 1985. He was appointed as an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and in the Bioengineering Program at the University of Michigan in 1985, and his tenure was approved by the Regents in 1992. He spent the summers of 1985–87 at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, supported by the Grass Foundation for work in skeletal muscle physiology and as the Associate Director of the Grass Foundation Fellowship Program . His research primarily involves biological signal processing, including signal processing theory, algorithms, and applications to specific biological systems. The applications include acoustic signals generated by contracting skeletal muscle, electrical signals from muscle, and heart sounds. He has also worked in prosthetic design. Barry's work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Grass Foundation, and the American Heart Association of Michigan. He has five patents, over 50 articles in scientific journals, and has served on two scientific journal editorial boards. |
Myosotis laingii | Myosotis laingii plants are rosettes. The rosette leaves have long petioles and are 80–150 mm long by 10–20 mm wide, and the leaf blade is obovate to elliptic-oblong, widest at or above the middle, with an acuminate apex. Both surfaces of the leaf are uniformly and sparsely to densely covered in appressed, antrorse hairs. Each rosette has several erect, ebracteate inflorescences that are up to 400 mm long. The cauline leaves are similar to the rosette leaves, but are smaller, become smaller toward the top of the inflorescence, oblong, and subacute, and have hairs similar to the rosette leaves. The flowers are about 12 per inflorescence, and each is borne on a short pedicel, without a bract. The calyx is 5–6 mm long at flowering and fruiting, lobed to more than one-half of its length, and with densely distributed hairs, some of which are hooked. The corolla is white and 8–10 mm in diameter, with a cylindrical tube, and small scales alternating with the petals. The anthers are fully exserted above the faucal scales. The nutlets were not described. |
Tarr Steps | Within the reserve is the scheduled monument Tarr Steps grid reference SS867321, a clapper bridge over the River Barle. The name "clapper bridge" comes from the Medieval Latin "claperius" which means "pile of stones". It is an ancient form of bridge constructed with large unmortared slabs of stone resting on one another; this is the largest example of its type. There are 17 spans across 50 metres (55 yd), the top slabs weigh 1-2 tons and are about 39 inches (99 cm) above normal water level. The largest slab is over 8 feet (2.4 m) long and is about 5 feet (1.5 m) wide. This is one of the best known monuments on Exmoor. Its age is unknown, as several theories claim that Tarr Steps dates from the Bronze Age but others date them from around 1400 AD. It has been restored several times in recent years, following flood damage. Over the years the damage provides a good indicator of the strength of each flood. Some of the top slabs have been washed away in extreme flood conditions and they have now all been numbered to facilitate replacement. The Exmoor National Park web site says |
Cairns Plywood Pty Ltd Sawmill Complex | Yungaburra was surveyed in 1888 under the Village Settlement scheme and was called Allumbah Pocket. This scheme was introduced in 1885 and offered settlers farm blocks with home sites clustered as a village. Around this time the Tablelands railway from the port of Cairns to the Tableland was begun, although it took far longer to reach its objective than originally envisaged, due largely to the difficult terrain. The first farms at Allumbah were taken up in 1891, though the village scheme proved unsuccessful. The railway reached Mareeba in 1895 and a sawmill was set up at Ravenshoe cutting cedar and pine in 1897. The arrival of the railway meant that large scale processing of timber at sawmills was practical and profitable. The line arrived at Atherton in 1903, greatly improving access to the area, and another sawmill was set up there. It supplied timber for mines in the area and later for building to support farming expansion. Timber was also exported and fine furniture varieties supplied from the Tablelands included cedar, maple, pines, walnut, penda, bean, ash and oak. Sawmilling became a part of every town on the Tablelands. |
Cairns Plywood Pty Ltd Sawmill Complex | The Moulding Shed and Borax Plant extends well into the road reserve area beside the modern bitumen road at the front of the complex. The Moulding Shed has a frame of timber poles and has a gabled roof clad with corrugated iron. It includes storage and loading areas and has a tiny office in one corner. Two kilns with tongue and groove lining with steam pipes set into the ceiling and small covered chimneys are in the Moulding Shed. The Borax Plant is a large steel-framed and steel sided box with vertically sliding doors at each end adjacent to the Moulding Shed. It has a series of large pipes at points around the structure and a large borax tank on the top. There are the remains of rails in the floor and narrow gauge rails which lead from this building once led through the gate and under the road to the railway station. The railway has gone but small sections of the line remain and a few timber sleepers can be seen in the tunnel. 3. The Switching Shed is beside the pathway leading to the sheds and veneer mill from the Office. It is a small square timber building set on a concrete slab and has a skillion roof. |
Cairns Plywood Pty Ltd Sawmill Complex | The Former Workshop is a rectangular timber and weatherboard building with a gabled roof clad in corrugated iron. It has a timber parapet an awning and a double door on the west side. There are open skillion verandahs on the west and north side of the building and a corrugated iron clad skillion section on the rear, or east side. The machinery housed in the workshop were operated by a set of interconnected flat belts running to a single electric engine and drive shaft which is still present. Machinery includes a drill press, mechanical hacksaw, set of grinding wheels, a hydraulic press, a large bandsaw, a large metal lathe, a small lathe and a fan set to the forge in the blacksmiths room at the rear of the building. A short chimney protrudes through the roof above the blacksmiths forge. Tools such as spanners, and equipment including scrap iron, an old welder and welding masks remain in situ on the workbench. Other industrial equipment includes cogs, bolts, scrap metal, tin, chains, belt repair hooks and belt pieces. A large jack supports the centre of the skillion roof on the north side. |
Brodmann area 10 | In humans the six cortical layers of area 10 have been described as having a "remarkably homogeneous appearance". All of them are readily identified. Relative to each other, layer I is thin to medium in width making up 11% of the depth of area 10. Layer II is thin and contains small granular and pyramidal medium to dark staining cells (in terms of Nissl staining) which colors RNA and DNA. The widest layer is III. Its pyramidal neurons are smaller nearer the above layer II than the below layer IV. Like layer II its cells are medium to dark. Layers II and III make up 43% of the cortex depth. Layer IV has clear borders with layers III above and V below and it is thin. Its cells are pale to medium in staining. Layer V is wide and contains two distinct sublayers, Va and Vb. The density of cells Va is greater than in Vb and have darker staining. Layers IV and V make up 40% of cortical thickness. Layer VI below layer V and above the white matter contains dark pyramidal and fusiform neurons. It contributes 6% of area 10 thickness. |
Brodmann area 10 | Research upon primates suggests that area 10 has inputs and output connections with other higher-order association cortex areas particularly in the prefrontal cortex while having few with primary sensory or motor areas. Its connections through the extreme capsule link it to the auditory and multisensory areas of the superior temporal sulcus. They also continue in the medial longitudinal fasciculus in the white matter of the superior temporal gyrus areas on the superior temporal gyrus (areas TAa, TS2, and TS3) and nearby multisensory areas on the upper bank of the superior temporal sulcus (TPO). Another area connected through the extreme capsule is the ventral region of the insula. Connections through the cingulate fasciculus link area 10 to the anterior, posterior cingulate cortex, and retrosplenial cortex. The uncinate fasciculus connects it with the amygdala, temporopolar proisocortex and anterior most part of the superior temporal gyrus. There are no connections to the parietal cortex, occipital cortex nor inferotemporal cortex |
Brodmann area 10 | Although this region is extensive in humans, its function is poorly understood. Koechlin & Hyafil have proposed that processing of 'cognitive branching' is the core function of the frontopolar cortex. Cognitive branching enables a previously running task to be maintained in a pending state for subsequent retrieval and execution upon completion of the ongoing one. Many of our complex behaviors and mental activities require simultaneous engagement of multiple tasks, and they suggest the anterior prefrontal cortex may perform a domain-general function in these scheduling operations. Thus, the frontopolar cortex shares features with the central executive in Baddeley's model of working memory. However, other hypotheses have also been proffered, such as those by Burgess et al.. These also take into consideration the influence of the limbic system, to which the frontopolar cortex is connected through the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. A 2006 meta-analysis found that the rostral prefrontal cortex was involved in working memory, episodic memory and multiple-task coordination. This area has also been implicated in decision making prior to the decision being available to conscious awareness |
Haplogroup R1a | In Mesolithic Europe, R1a is characteristic of Eastern Hunter-Gatherers (EHGs). A male EHG of the Veretye culture buried at Peschanitsa near Lake Lacha in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia c. 10,700 BCE was found to be a carrier of the paternal haplogroup R1a5-YP1301 and the maternal haplogroup U4a. A male, named PES001, from Peschanitsa in northwestern Russia was found to carry R1a5, and dates to at least 10,600 years ago. More examples include the males Minino II (V) and Minino II (I/1), with the former carrying R1a1 and the latter R1a respectively, with the former being at 10,600 years old and the latter at least 10,400 years old respectively, both from Minino in northwestern Russia. A Mesolithic male from Karelia c. 8,800 BCE to 7950 BCE has been found to be carrying haplogroup R1a. A Mesolithic male buried at Deriivka c. 7000 BCE to 6700 BCE carried the paternal haplogroup R1a and the maternal U5a2a. Another male from Karelia from c. 5,500 to 5,000 BC, who was considered an EHG, carried haplogroup R1a. A male from the Comb Ceramic culture in Kudruküla c. 5,900 BCE to 3,800 BCE has been determined to be a carrier of R1a and the maternal U2e1. According to archaeologist David Anthony, the paternal R1a-Z93 was found at the Oskol river near a no longer existing kolkhoz "Alexandria", Ukraine c. 4000 BCE, "the earliest known sample to show the genetic adaptation to lactase persistence ." R1a has been found in the Corded Ware culture, in which it is predominant. Examined males of the Bronze Age Fatyanovo culture belong entirely to R1a, specifically subclade R1a-Z93. |
Haplogroup R1a | R1a is virtually composed only of the Z284 subclade in Scandinavia. In Slovenia, the main subclade is Z282 (Z280 and M458), although the Z284 subclade was found in one sample of a Slovenian. There is a negligible representation of Z93 in Turkey, 12,1% West Slavs and Hungarians are characterized by a high frequency of the subclade M458 and a low Z92, a subclade of Z280. Hundreds of Slovenian samples and Czechs lack the Z92 subclade of Z280, while Poles, Slovaks, Croats and Hungarians only show a very low frequency of Z92. The Balts, East Slavs, Serbs, Macedonians, Bulgarians and Romanians demonstrate a ratio Z280>M458 and a high, up to a prevailing share of Z92. Balts and East Slavs have the same subclades and similar frequencies in a more detailed phylogeny of the subclades. The Russian geneticist Oleg Balanovsky speculated that there is a predominance of the assimilated pre-Slavic substrate in the genetics of East and West Slavic populations, according to him the common genetic structure which contrasts East Slavs and Balts from other populations may suggest the explanation that the pre-Slavic substrate of the East and West Slavs consisted most significantly of Baltic-speakers, which at one point predated the Slavs in the cultures of the Eurasian steppe according to archaeological and toponymic references. |
Haplogroup R1a | A Chinese paper published in 2018 found R1a-Z94 in 38.5% (15/39) of a sample of Keriyalik Uyghurs from Darya Boyi / Darya Boye Village, Yutian County, Xinjiang (于田县达里雅布依乡), R1a-Z93 in 28.9% (22/76) of a sample of Dolan Uyghurs from Horiqol township, Awat County, Xinjiang (阿瓦提县乌鲁却勒镇), and R1a-Z93 in 6.3% (4/64) of a sample of Loplik Uyghurs from Karquga / Qarchugha Village, Yuli County, Xinjiang (尉犁县喀尔曲尕乡). R1a(xZ93) was observed only in one of 76 Dolan Uyghurs. Note that Darya Boyi Village is located in a remote oasis formed by the Keriya River in the Taklamakan Desert. A 2011 Y-DNA study found Y-dna R1a1 in 10% of a sample of southern Hui people from Yunnan, 1.6% of a sample of Tibetan people from Tibet (Tibet Autonomous Region), 1.6% of a sample of Xibe people from Xinjiang, 3.2% of a sample of northern Hui from Ningxia, 9.4% of a sample of Hazak (Kazakhs) from Xinjiang, and rates of 24.0%, 22.2%, 35.2%, 29.2% in 4 different samples of Uyghurs from Xinjiang, 9.1% in a sample of Mongols from Inner Mongolia. A different subclade of R1 was also found in 1.5% of a sample of northern Hui from Ningxia. in the same study there were no cases of R1a detected at all in 6 samples of Han Chinese in Yunnan, 1 sample of Han in Guangxi, 5 samples of Han in Guizhou, 2 samples of Han in Guangdong, 2 samples of Han in Fujian, 2 samples of Han in Zhejiang, 1 sample of Han in Shanghai, 1 samples of Han in Jiangxi, 2 samples of Han in Hunan, 1 sample of Han in Hubei, 2 samples of Han in Sichuan, 1 sample of Han in Chongqing, 3 samples of Han in Shandong, 5 samples of Han in Gansu, 3 samples of Han in Jilin and 2 samples of Han in Heilongjiang. 40% of Salars, 45.2% of Tajiks of Xinjiang, 54.3% of Dongxiang, 60.6% of Tatars and 68.9% of Kyrgyz in Xinjiang in northwestern China tested in one sample had R1a1-M17. Bao'an (Bonan) had the most haplogroup diversity of 0.8946±0.0305 while the other ethnic minorities in northwestern China had a high haplogroup diversity like Central Asians, of 0.7602±0.0546. |
Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera | For 1996, the final model year, the 'Cutlass' nomenclature was dropped and the car was now known simply as the 'Ciera SL', which continued to be available in 'Series I' or 'Series II' equipment levels. The chrome "Oldsmobile" badge above the driver's headlight was deleted. As Oldsmobile attempted to reposition itself as a European-styled upscale make with new products such as the Aurora, the Cutlass Ciera continued to have strong sales. Because the tooling for the A-body platform had long since been monetized, GM was guaranteed a profit off each Cutlass Ciera and Buick Century sold. At the same time, GM was losing money on its other midsized platform, the W-platform. Production of the Ciera ended on August 30, 1996. It was replaced in the U.S. by the N-body 1997 Oldsmobile Cutlass, also built at the Oklahoma City assembly plant. As a result, the 1996 Cruiser wagon was the final Oldsmobile station wagon model produced. Sales of this Cutlass peaked at 53,438 in 1998 and it was discontinued in 1999. |
Dr. Dio Lewis's School for Young Ladies | The pupils came from California, Missouri and Iowa. Girls of delicate constitutions were sent to the Institution, and they became healthier and strong. Beginning very cautiously with the practice of the mildest forms of muscular movement a few minutes each day, they soon were able to practice two or three hours a day in vigorous gymnastic exercises. Many young ladies came with the condition that they were not to go up stairs, for they were not able to ascend a flight of stairs. Almost without exception, within a few months, those most delicate girls found themselves able to practice the more active gymnastic exercises for more than two hours a day, and on occasions walked 5–10 miles (8.0–16.1 km). Careful measurements of the size of the chest under the arms, of the waist, shoulders, and arms, were made when the pupils entered the school. It was found that the average gain in a single year's training was about 2.5 inches (64 mm) in the chest, and much in the same proportion about the waist, arms, and shoulders. All learned to walk with grace and dignity. The progress of the pupils in all the intellectual departments of the school, which were as broad and complete as in any institution in the U.S., was singularly rapid. |
My Favorite Murder | Kilgariff and Hardstark each select a single murder, true crime story, survivor story, or historical event to recount and discuss. The podcast consists mainly of dialogue between the hosts with one host telling the story and the other host reacting and providing commentary. Episodes were initially thematically based, though this concept was abandoned early in the series. Episodes 1-32 were titled with murder-themed puns and pop culture references. From then on, episode titles were based on jokes from the conversations within the episodes. While the show traditionally consists only of Kilgariff, Hardstark and producer Steven Ray Morris, a few episodes have featured guest appearances. Past guests have included Guy Branum, Paul Holes, Patton Oswalt, Bellamy Young, Conan O'Brien, and Cameron Britton, among others. Additionally, My Favorite Murder has collaborated with other podcasts, including the Cracked podcast, Unqualified with Anna Faris, The Dollop, Harmontown, Disgraceland and Movie Crush. Karen Kilgariff was also on Mother, May I Sleep With Podcast in an episode on the movie Flowers in the Attic. |
My Favorite Murder | I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer is a true crime book by Michelle McNamara about the Golden State Killer. The book and McNamara's work on the case are frequently discussed in My Favorite Murder, which boasts a large fan base of true crime aficionados. The debut episode of the show "Episode 1: My Firstest Murder" featured the case as well as discussion of McNamara's work. Prior to the arrest, "Episode 115: I'll Be Gone In The Dark at Skylight Books" featured McNamara's widower Patton Oswalt, Paul Haynes, and Billy Jensen discussing the book and their roles in finishing project following McNamara's death. In this episode, Oswalt discusses McNamara's writing process, including making "era-appropriate playlists to help her get into a proper mindset." Oswalt explains finishing of the book as a bittersweet experience: "It's another part of her that's kind of gone. In a very a sick way, not having the book done—and us working on it—meant she was still here." |
Tuskegee Veterans Administration Medical Center | At the same time, African Americans wanted the hospital to be a place where they could get professional jobs. Dr. Robert Russa Moton, president of Tuskegee Institute, had to maneuver carefully to maintain local relations in the city, where whites were pushing to control jobs at the hospital. At the same time, he was under considerable pressure from the NAACP and the National Medical Association (made up of black doctors) to help guarantee professional jobs for black doctors and nurses at the center, who were restricted in their opportunities, especially in Alabama. Together with representatives of the NAACP and NMA, he appealed directly to Republican President Warren G. Harding, on the grounds that his party would lose the support of blacks, many of whom had supported the nation in the war, unless he helped them get jobs at this center. Harding directed regional and veterans' officials to ensure that black doctors and nurses were recruited for the center and eventually committed to these positions being reserved for blacks. There was so much opposition to this among whites in Tuskegee that Moton received threats on his life, and made plans to go on a lecture tour. The Harding administration, made Dr. R. R. Moton a sort of referee for 12 million Negroes as to the personnel of the hospital and the Veterans' Bureau promised him categorically that he would be consulted before anybody was appointed superintendent of the hospital. Colonel Robert H. Stanley, a white man, was made superintendent of the hospital and arrived at Tuskegee two days before Dr. Moton was notified. |
Tuskegee Veterans Administration Medical Center | Members of a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan marched on the hospital, but their action resulted in a broader campaign by the NAACP and NMA, attracting national attention. Tuskegee whites did not gain the support of others in the South. The VA invited their participation in selection of a railroad route to serve the hospital. By 1924, the situation had calmed and Brig. Gen. Frank T. Hines, the director of the Veterans Bureau, appointed Dr. Joseph H. Ward, an African American, to head the hospital complex. During the next decade, "half of all black veterans who received hospital care were treated at Tuskegee, and all the black doctors employed by the Veterans Bureau worked there." While arguments continued over segregated federal facilities (the NAACP refused to support proposals for an exclusive African-American VA hospital in the North), the civil rights movement of this period helped ensure that black veterans gained access to top care and services, and that African Americans gained access to professional jobs in the health system. Dr. Moton wrote to President Harding and told him that if negro physicians and nurses were debarred from service in the hospital without at least being given a chance to qualify under the civil service rules it would bring justifiable criticism upon him and upon the Harding Administration. |
NFL controversies | In February 2013, the Rams and the City of St. Louis went to arbitration over a clause in the Rams' lease that stated the Rams' current stadium must be in the top tier of NFL stadiums. The arbitrators agreed with the Rams, giving the Rams the ability to break their original lease and go to a year-to-year lease agreement. On January 5, 2015, it was announced that the Kroenke Group was teaming up with Stockbridge Capital Group to build a 70,000-seat NFL stadium and venue in Inglewood, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, threatening the Rams' future in St. Louis. In response, St. Louis countered with National Car Rental Field, a proposed open-air stadium in the north riverfront in downtown St. Louis, with the hope of the Rams staying in St. Louis. The fanbase in St. Louis felt it was not being treated fairly—in 2014 the St. Louis Rams had 86% attendance despite a 6-10 record and 10 prior years of non-win seasons, forcing fans and local sportswriters to question the integrity of the NFL and Kroenke for even considering the Los Angeles plans. St. Louis officials felt they were not receiving fair treatment either as Kroenke had no talks or discussions with city officials, who have expressed interest in keeping the team in St. Louis. In a radio interview, Kroenke was labeled as "enemy number one" in his home state due to his uncanny willingness to cooperate. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stated that St. Louis' funding plan did not meet the criteria set by the NFL because St. Louis offered a stadium plan lacking $100 million. On January 4, 2016, the team applied for relocation to Los Angeles for the 2016 NFL season. The following day, the Rams and Stan Kroenke released their proposal for relocation. Some of the Rams' conclusions were disputed by St. Louis mayor Francis Slay (in a letter to Roger Goodell), The St. Louis Regional Chamber, and Forbes. |
NFL controversies | In 2006, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was involved in a dog fighting ring, and over seventy dogs, with most of them being pit bull terriers, with some said to be showing signs of injuries, were seized, along with physical evidence during several searches of Vick's 15-acre (61,000 m2) property by local, state and federal authorities. During the investigation, Vick was revealed to be working with four others (Tony Taylor, Purnell Anthony Peace, Quanis Lavell Philips, and Oscar Allen). Eventually, they were convicted for "Conspiracy in interstate commerce/aid of unlawful animal cruelty venture". On September 13, Vick tested positive for marijuana, and was ordered by federal judge Henry E. Hudson to "submit to any method of testing required by the pretrial services officer or the supervising officer for determining whether the defendant is using a prohibited substance", and before getting sent to prison, Vick was placed under house arrest. After spending time at Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Virginia, awaiting his trial, on December 10, Vick was given 23 months in federal prison, followed by 3 years of probation. Vick was later placed in United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth until 2009. Vick was later released by the Falcons, and signed with the Philadelphia Eagles. |
NFL controversies | Players' usage of steroids has been forbidden by the league since 1987, with players testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs being suspended without pay for four games for the first offense (a quarter of the regular season), eight games for a second offense (half of the regular season), and 12 months for a third offense. This policy has been praised by some and criticized by others. In 2006, former San Diego Chargers player Shawne Merriman tested positive for steroids, and was given a four-game suspension. The incident later led to the "Merriman Rule", forbidding players who tested positive for PEDs from participating in the Pro Bowl. Another popular drug in recent years amongst players has been the emergence of the amphetamine Adderall. Multiple players, particularly defensive backs, have been suspended for testing positive for the substance. Adderall is believed to heighten focus and attention and to allow for quicker thought and reaction time, potentially giving a player an advantage. |
NFL controversies | On December 27, 2015, Al Jazeera America released a report conducted by the Al Jazeera Investigative Unit investigating professional athletes' use of Performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) which named Peyton Manning, among other prominent athletes, as having received illegal drugs from Charles Sly, a pharmacist who had worked at the Guyer Anti-Aging Clinic in Indianapolis during the fall of 2011. The report involved Liam Collins, a British hurdler, going undercover in an attempt to obtain banned substances from Sly and other medical professionals. The report claimed that Manning's wife, Ashley, had been shipped off-label human growth hormone (HGH) by the Guyer Institute during the fall of 2011 while Manning was out with a severe neck injury, with the intention of hiding that Manning was the one actually receiving the drugs. Al Jazeera reported on January 3, 2016, that they were in contact with a second source, who was "impeccably placed, knowledgeable , and credible" and was a former employee at the Guyer Institute, which confirms Sly's allegation that HGH was sent to Ashley Manning. On February 5, 2016, it was confirmed that Ashley Manning did receive shipments from the Guyer Institute, but refused to confirm that the shipments had included HGH. |
NFL controversies | According to a database compiled by USA Today in 2014, 85 of the 713 arrests of NFL players since 2000 were due to domestic violence. On September 8, 2014, TMZ Sports released a video of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punching his fiancée and dragging her unconscious body out of an elevator led to a two-game suspension. Criticism of the league's policy towards domestic violence led the league to adopt six-game bans for violations of its domestic violence policy. Additional scrutiny was directed towards players who were convicted of domestic violence but were still allowed to play. Carolina Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy was accused of assaulting an ex-girlfriend in June 2014. He was disciplined by neither his team nor the NFL and has been allowed to continue playing. 16 female U.S. Senators urged the league to adopt a zero tolerance policy towards domestic violence. Shortly after the aforementioned incidents, there were a number of PSAs led by NOMORE.org and over a dozen former and current NFL players that aired during NFL games. The purpose of the PSAs were to promote the NOMORE.org campaign of saying no more to domestic violence and raising awareness about the problems surrounding domestic violence. |
NFL controversies | In 1989, rivals Philadelphia and Dallas played two games. Later, it was discovered that Eagles head coach Buddy Ryan had placed a bounty on Cowboys and former Eagles kicker Luis Zendejas. Concerns first came around when Ryan was the defensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears, who allegedly pooled money into a bag, and if any of the Bears defensive players injures a player, he would get the bag. Suspicions started in the game when various fights happened between the two teams, with Zendejas going out of the game with a concussion from a hard tackle by linebacker Jessie Small after a kickoff. After the game, Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson alleged that Ryan had placed a bounty on two players: Zendejas and quarterback Troy Aikman, with injuring Aikman being worth possibly $500. However, Ryan dismissed the claims as "high school Charlie stuff". Zendejas later claimed that when he was with the Eagles, a player had once received at least $100–200 each for hits on a kicker and punter, which was the reason why Johnson made the accusation. |
NFL controversies | Dubbed Spygate, in 2007, despite the New England Patriots going 16–0 for the first time in league history, the team was still in the midst of a controversy surrounding head coach Bill Belichick. In the early part of the season, the Patriots were caught videotaping the hand signals of a New York Jets coach from a non-fixed roof covered position, and Belichick was fined a league-high $500,000, and the Patriots were fined $250,000. Additionally, the Patriots lost their first-round pick in the 2008 NFL draft (if they made the playoffs), or their second- and third-round picks (if they missed the playoffs). In a widely criticized move, the league destroyed the tapes. However, Belichick and most other coaches were then revealed to have done this in the past until it was stopped by memo from Roger Goodell. Belichick's stance was that the rule does not allow videotaping from a mobile camera and the information then used in the same game. The NFL found that Belichick did not use the tape during the same game, yet penalized him more than any other coach in history. From an unknown source, the Boston Herald published an article stating that Belichick had done this practice with the St. Louis Rams practice before Super Bowl XXXVI, an allegation that Belichick denied. The Boston Herald later printed a retraction to the story, stating that they had been given "bad information". In a statement from Mike Martz, the St. Louis Rams ex-offensive coordinator and coach also recalls that Goodell asked him to write a statement, saying that he was satisfied with the NFL's Spygate investigation and was certain the Patriots had not cheated and asking everyone to move on—like leaders of the Steelers and Eagles had done. A congressional inquiry that would put league officials under oath had to be avoided, Martz recalls Goodell telling him. "If it ever got to an investigation, it would be terrible for the league," Goodell said. |
NFL controversies | In 2012, the New Orleans Saints were discovered to have run a "slush fund" under former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, that paid out bonuses, called "bounties", to purposely injure offensive players that the Saints were playing against. The system was known to have operated during Williams's time in Buffalo and Washington. Rumors started in 2009 during the Saints' Super Bowl XLIV run in the 2009 NFC Championship game against the Minnesota Vikings, where the Saints defense was allegedly trying to hurt Vikings quarterback Brett Favre. Other than the Vikings, the Saints also allegedly targeted Chicago Bears and Carolina Panthers players, and the program became even more notorious in the 2011 NFC Divisional Playoff Game against the San Francisco 49ers, when filmmaker Sean Pamphilon released audio tapes of Williams telling his players to injure a select group of 49ers, one of them being running back Kendall Hunter, and to knock him out, as well as going after Kyle Williams because of his history of concussions. Williams also told them to injure Vernon Davis' ankles and tear wide receiver Michael Crabtree's ACL. According to Pamphilon, Williams also appeared to put a bounty on quarterback Alex Smith after he told his men to hit Smith in the chin, "then he rubs his thumb against his index and middle fingers—the cash sign—and says, 'I got the first one. I got the first one. Go get it. Go lay that motherfucker out.'" |
NFL controversies | The league's free agency system originally used a system that was adopted from Major League Baseball, where a player stays with a team until his contract expires, then can negotiate with the team to stay. In 1947, the league adopted the 1-year system, where a team can only renew a player's contract for one year. In 1963, the "Rozelle Rule" was created, where a team that signs a player must compensate for the player's expenses from his previous team. If a team refuses, commissioner Rozelle decided the compensation. The players union found this system to be unfair, and eventually won a court action in 1976. However, the league's collective bargaining agreement still kept the compensation rule, but removed Rozelle's authority. Ultimately, in 1987, the players union went on strike. Two years later, the union sued again, but was prohibited from suing the league for anti-trust. From 1989 to 1992, instead of the current free agent system, the league used a system to acquire and release players called Plan B free agency. The system consisted of teams protecting 37 players, and having the remaining players becoming unrestricted free agents. The players eventually decertified the union, leading to players filing individual lawsuits. However, eight players sued the league for violating their antitrust laws, and calling the system an unfair trade restraint. The system ultimately was deemed illegal by the jury, and was ended in 1992. The lawsuit eventually led to the establishment of the current system, which involves the use of a salary cap. |
NFL controversies | In the 1972 AFC wild card game, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Oakland Raiders fought to a 7–6 lead for Oakland. With 22 seconds left in the game, Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw heaved a pass towards John Fuqua, and Raiders safety Jack Tatum collided with Fuqua at the same time as the ball's arrival. Tatum's hit knocked Fuqua down and the ball flying backwards. Steelers running back Franco Harris, who had been heading downfield in the event that Bradshaw needed another receiver, caught the ball before it hit the ground and ran for the game-winning touchdown. However, fans and critics eventually asked the question: Whom did the ball touch in the Tatum/Fuqua collision? If it hit only Fuqua, the pass would have been illegal under the rules at the time, and Oakland would have won; if it hit Tatum, or both Fuqua and Tatum (in any order), it would have been legal. The rule stated that once an offensive player touches a pass, he is the only offensive player that can catch the pass. However, if a defensive player touches the pass "first, or simultaneously with or subsequent to its having been touched by only one player, then all players become and remain eligible" to catch the pass. |
NFL controversies | In 1978, the Oakland Raiders were trailing the San Diego Chargers 20–14 with 10 seconds left in the game. Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler took the snap, and saw Chargers linebacker Woodrow Lowe about to sack him. Stabler eventually deliberately fumbled the ball towards San Diego's goal line, where running back Pete Banaszak attempted to recover, but lost his footing and sent the ball closer to the end zone. Tight end Dave Casper attempted to pick it up, but was unable to, and kicked the ball into the end zone, where he recovered it for the game-tying touchdown. This later led to disputes over whether or not Banaszak and Casper intentionally batted the ball forward, which would be a penalty, as well as whether or not Stabler fumbled the ball or threw a forward pass. The play was eventually ruled as legal. The Raiders would then make the extra point to win 21–20. In the ensuing off-season, the league enacted the so-called "Ken Stabler Rule": on fourth down at any time in the game or any down in the final two minutes of a half, if a player fumbles forward, only the fumbling player can recover and/or advance the ball. If that player's teammate recovers the ball, it is placed back at the spot of the fumble. |
NFL controversies | On September 24, 2012, the Green Bay Packers faced the Seattle Seahawks on Monday Night Football. With the NFL and the league's regular referees locked in a contract dispute, replacement officials were acquired to call the games for the first 3 weeks. As in previous games, there were many questionable calls made by the replacement officials during the game. In the 4th quarter, with only 8 seconds left in the game, the Packers were winning 12–7, with the Seahawks inside the 30-yard line, with one last play to decide the game. Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson threw a Hail Mary pass to the end zone. The pass ended up being caught by both Seahawks receiver Golden Tate and Packers defensive back M. D. Jennings. The two officials standing near the play each made their own call of the play. One official seemed to raise his arms to signal a Packers interception, while the other official raised his arms to signal a Seahawks touchdown. As with new NFL rules on instant replay, all touchdowns were liable to official review. The play was reviewed, while the Seahawks crowded the field in celebration. After a few minutes, full of controversy, the officials declared the play's ruling stood as a Seahawks touchdown, giving Seattle a 14–12 win. |
NFL controversies | Almost instantly, controversy reigned as replays showed that before the catch, Tate pushed off Packers defender Sam Shields, but the officials missed an offensive pass interference penalty call on Tate that would have disallowed the score and ensured a Packers victory. As pass interference is not reviewable, the replay officials (who were not replacements) could only review the simultaneous catch ruling. After they upheld the simultaneous possession as a completion in favor of the Seahawks, the controversy surrounding the play led to a plausible disdain from not only irate Packers fans but also NFL fans in general. It was reported that in the hours after the game, the NFL commissioner's office received over 70,000 voice-mails regarding the play. The controversy even drew remarks from people outside of football, as basketball player LeBron James and professional golfer Bubba Watson both sent messages via Twitter giving their own criticism on the play. NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. stated that the season had been "stained in a way that's irreparable". |
NFL controversies | After completing the pass, however, a flag was thrown onto the field for illegal touching by Decker. Brad Allen had claimed that it was not Decker whom reported eligible, rather it was offensive tackle Dan Skipper who had reported eligible, despite clear footage of Decker reporting. This infuriated Dan Campbell and many Lions fans, but the game continued and the play was to be replayed. Goff threw a pass to Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, only for it to be intercepted by Cowboys safety Markquese Bell. However, a flag was thrown for an offsides penalty by Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons, causing the 2-point conversion attempt to be replayed yet again. Goff threw a pass to Lions tight end James Mitchell, only for the pass to end up incomplete. The game ended soon after with the Cowboys kneeling out the ball, giving them the controversial win over the Lions. Lions fans were livid over this incident, with many fans expressing their disappointment and anger specifically onto Brad Allen, who called for the penalty on Taylor Decker. Many posts were sent on X.com demanding that Allen be fired for his disorderly conduct, however he was not fired; rather, he was demoted and suspended from officiating any playoff games. Billboards in Detroit were put up, some of a crossed out "11-5" with a "12-4" written in black next to it, some others reading "DECKER REPORTED" in large white lettering. Many t-shirt printing companies sold unofficial shirts reading "DECKER REPORTED AS ELIGIBLE" with the Lions logo on it. |
Fish hydrolysate | Fish hydrolysate, in its simplest form, is ground up fish transformed into a liquid phase, where the cleavage of molecular bonds occurs through various biological processes. Raw material choice; either whole fish or by-products, depends on the commercial sources of the fish. In some cases, the fillet portions are removed for human consumption, the remaining fish body (generally the guts, bones, cartilage, scales and remaining meat) is put into water and ground up. Some fish hydrolysate is ground more finely than others so more bone material is able to remain suspended. Enzymes may also be used to dissolve bones, scale and meat. If the larger chunks of bone and scales are screened out, calcium or mineral content may be lacking in the finished product form. If purchasing fish hydrolysate for agricultural applications, one should look at the label carefully for the concentration of mineral elements in the liquid. Some fish hydrolysates have been made into a dried product, increasing the potential for inclusion as an ingredient in other food or feed products. The oil is separated out in this process, which means the Omega 3 fatty acid would remain with the oil and not the hydrolysate. |
Deinodryinus velteni | Deinodryinus velteni is known only from a single fossil, the holotype, an unnumbered specimen which is housed in the Paläontologie–Sektion Bernstein of the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart in Germany. The specimen is a fully complete adult female wasp. The specimen is preserved as an inclusion in a transparent chunk of amber. The amber dates to between forty and forty-five million years old, and, being Baltic amber that has been redistributed by the sea, a more specific type location than the Baltic region is not possible to identify. Deinodryinus velteni was first studied by paleoentomologists Adalgisa Guglielmino and Massimo Olmi, both of the University of Tuscia. Guglielmino and Olmi's 2011 type description of the new species was published in the online journal ZooKeys. The specific epithet velteni is in honor of Jürgen Velten who loaned the authors specimens that they studied. D. velteni is the most recent of three Deinodryinus species to be described from the fossil record: Deinodryinus areolatus is also known from a fossil preserved in Baltic amber, while Deinodryinus? aptianus is known only from a Mongolian compression fossil in marl. |
Deinodryinus velteni | The holotype specimen is a complete adult female with an overall coloration that is brown to black, except the palpi, which are a dull brick red. The female is 4.0 millimetres (0.16 in) in length, with antennae that are approximately three times the length of the head and macropterous forewings. The antennae are composed of ten segments, densely hairy, and distinctly club-shaped (clavate) in structure. The forewings have three cells at the base that are formed by pigmented veins. The forewings have a pterostigma which is approximately five times as long as it is wide, and a stigmal vein that is not S-shaped. Both the fore and hind wings are uniformly slightly darkened, rather than the glassy hyaline seen in the other two described fossil species of Deinodryinus. The length of the stigmal vein is used to separate D. areolatus and D. velteni, with the distal portion of the vein being much longer than the proximal portion in D. velteni as opposed to D. areolatus where the two portions are approximately the same length. |
Manolín "El Médico de la salsa" | His background as a medical student who turned to music out of dissatisfaction with his life possibilities reflects the frustration of an entire generation of Afro-Cubans. Manolín came out in 1992, and by 1994, there were antigovernment riots in the streets of Los Sitios in Havana, a black neighborhood. In this way, Manolín was "a character perfectly tuned to the new social reality of the special period" . As the life of ordinary Cubans receded to 4th World levels, the stars of salsa projected a representation of success and sophistication, an image of escapism and self-empowerment, which, in the context of the decline of the economic role of the state, acquired obvious political meanings. In 1996, a doctor earned $15 per month, while Manolín earned $9,200 per month. His success seemed to represent the triumph of materialism and individualism over revolutionary moral values. According to Manolín, "people started associating money with me." Manolín, Paulito FG, and bands like La Charanga Habanera and Bamboleo became symbols of the new market-adjusted pop artist, articulating into a modern, cosmopolitan image the desires and aspirations of their young black barrio audiences . |
Beggiatoa | The capability to oxidize sulfide and store sulfur are the main features which define Beggiatoa and its close relative Thioploca as filamentous colorless sulfur bacteria, in contrast to other filamentous bacteria like cyanobacteria and the non-sulfur-oxidizing Cytophaga and Flexibacter. Another defining feature is the ability to store nitrate inside the vacuoles of the wide marine species' cells. 16S rRNA sequences base studies inferred that this characteristic is shared between members of a monophyletic clade nested in the Beggiatoa genera; this clade also includes members of Thioploca and Thiomargarita, both presenting only slight differences with Beggiatoas: whereas the former grows sharing a common slime sheath, the latter has not conserved filamentous growth and forms chains of rounded cells. Since the phylogenic history do not reflect the nomenclature, there is a need for a new denomination of genera and species. The Neo-type strain is the B18LB and it settled the criteria for identification of the freshwater species Beggiatoa alba. |
Beggiatoa | In Beggiatoa group are present both autotrophic and heterotrophic metabolisms. Autotrophic Beggiatoa carry out the CO2 fixation through the Calvin cycle and the employment of the RuBisCO enzyme. The latter shows different regulation levels in obligated and facultative autotrophs. For instance, in the obligately autotrophic strain MS-81-1c RuBisCO cannot be repressed, while in the facultatively autotrophic strain MS-81-6 it is tightly regulated to switch from autotrophic to heterotrophic growth and vice versa. Beside the autotrophic strains, most of the freshwater Beggiatoa strains are heterotrophic, requiring organic substrates for growth. Specifically, many of them can be considered mixotrophs, because they grow heterotrophically, oxidizing organic compounds, but they can also use sulfide or other reduced sulfur compounds as electron donors. By this strategy, the organic carbon skeletons are saved for the purpose of increasing biomass and the CO2 autotrophic fixation is not required. Mixotrophy has been suspected to be the trophic modality for many freshwater strains, but it has only been found in one marine strain of Beggiatoa, MS-81-6. Also a metabolic pathway of C-1 compounds utilization has been revealed in Beggiatoa leptomitoformis strain D-402, through comprehensive analysis of its genomic, biochemistry, physiology and molecular biology. |
Beggiatoa | The incredible number of adaptations and metabolisms of this genus of bacteria are consequences of the extraordinary environmental variability they can live in. Beggiatoa is almost benthic, it can be found in marine (Beggiatoa sp. MS-81-6 and MS-81-1c) or freshwater (Beggiatoa alba) environments and they only need sulfide or thiosulfide as electron donor and an oxidizer. They can usually be found in habitats that have high levels of hydrogen sulfide, these environments include cold seeps, sulfur springs, sewage contaminated water, mud layers of lakes, and near deep hydrothermal vents. Beggiatoa can also be found in the rhizosphere of swamp plants, in soil, marine sediments and in the mangrove lagoon too (where they contribute to the lipid pool of the sediments). The freshwater species have typical habitats in sulfur springs, ditches, puddles, wetlands, lake sediments and in rice fields, where it can grow associated with the rice plants' roots. The Beggiatoa that live in marine water can be found in regions where their source of energy (sulfide or thiosulfide) is available. It can be extracted from both inorganic or organic source and usually it is coupled with microoxic condition, therefore very low concentration of oxygen. This genus of Gammaprotobacteria is also common in localized area of anaerobic decomposition, such as whale carcasses on the deep ocean seafloor. |
Beggiatoa | Autotrophic strains coming from a single filament isolation on agar can easily be maintained and propagated in sulfide gradient tubes in which sulfide-rich agar plugs are overlaid with sulfide-free soft agar. Tubs are loosely closed in order to permit the exchange of headspace gasses with the atmosphere. As result, two opposite layers are formed, one that contains sulfide while the other one oxygen: this allows the growth of a well-defined Beggiatoa layer at the sulfide-oxygen interface. The gradient medium construction requires different amounts of J3 medium (made by agar and NaHCO3) supplemented with neutralized Na2S placed in a screw-capped tube. Here, the sulfur source is provided by the flux of sulfide. Another "layer" is made by NaHCO3 without sulfide or thiosulfate: all of the sulfide will be below the interface between the sulfidic agar plug and the sulfide-free overlay agar while there will be another layer in the top of the tube that represents the oxygen reservoir. It begins to form a gradient shape due to the reaction between sulfide and oxygen: as a result, the filaments rapidly proliferate at the sulfide-oxygen interface, forming a marked layer, or "plate", of 1 mm but it is also possible to appreciate that these bacteria can track the interface and slowly descend owing to the gradual depletion of the sulfide reservoir. |
Dan (rank) | In many martial arts, black belts are often worn for all dan grades. In others, different colors are used, with the highest grade (10th dan) sometimes wearing a red belt in some systems. In Jūdo, 6th to 8th dan may wear a red and white-patterned belt, and 9th dan and above may wear a solid red belt. Blue with a red stripe is sometimes worn for Renshi (錬士) or for a person recognized by the older Ryu Kyu Kingdom title of Shinshi (from Shenshi, 紳士), a general Confucian term for a resident Chinese scholar and emissary. There is some variation even within styles. Generally, belts do not have markings that indicate the actual dan grade. Okinawan styles often use gold bars to denote the various masters titles rather than grades after fifth dan. Thus one gold stripe can designate Renshi (錬士), two designated Kyōshi (教士), and three designated Hanshi (範士). In the early 2000s, different Okinawan styles started using the stripes to designate individual dan grades above godan. Others, including many Uechi organizations, have followed suit, while others have not. |
Battle of Piave River (1809) | Once the Franco-Italian army arrived near Verona it gathered reinforcements. Eugène also reorganized his army, assigning Generals of Division Jacques MacDonald, Paul Grenier, and Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers to command his infantry corps, and General of Division Emmanuel Grouchy to lead his cavalry. Baraguey d'Hilliers halted Chasteler's drive in the upper Adige valley. Because Archduke John sent a division to blockade Venice, his army arrived on the Adige with only about 30,000 troops, much fewer than Eugène. Napoleon's victory in the Battle of Eckmühl and the subsequent retreat of Archduke Charles, caused Emperor Francis II to order John to fall back and defend Austria. Anticipating an Austrian withdrawal, Eugène created a Light Brigade consisting of three voltigeur battalions, a squadron of light cavalry, and two cannon. The voltigeur units were formed by taking the skirmisher companies from infantry battalions. Eugène placed this pursuit force under General of Brigade Armand Louis Debroc. |
Battle of Piave River (1809) | On 1 May, Archduke John ordered his army to withdraw to the east. In several clashes on 2 May, the Austrian rear guard held off the French, inflicting 400 killed and wounded including Debroc wounded. Austrian losses were only 200 killed and wounded, but the French rounded up an additional 850 stragglers and sick. The Austrians paused on the Brenta River until 5 May, then continued retreating to the Piave. Eugène followed while sending the division of General of Division Pierre François Joseph Durutte along a more southerly route in order to relieve the blockade of Venice. When he reached that city, Durutte was reinforced by 4,000 troops from the garrison and marched to join Eugène on the Piave. The Light Brigade having proved too weak to pursue effectively, Eugène strengthened it into a Light Division by adding three additional voltigeur battalions, attaching an entire cavalry regiment, and boosting its artillery complement to four cannons. Replacing Debroc, the French army commander gave the Light Division to General of Brigade Joseph Marie, Count Dessaix. |
Battle of Piave River (1809) | MacDonald's corps consisted of two French infantry divisions, those of Generals of Division Jean-Baptiste Broussier and Jean Maximilien Lamarque. Grenier's corps included the French infantry divisions of Durutte and General of Brigade Louis Abbé. Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers only had General of Division Achille Fontanelli's Italian infantry division available. His other Franco-Italian division under General of Division Jean-Baptiste Dominique Rusca was detached. Grouchy's cavalry reserve included General of Division Louis Michel Antoine Sahuc's light cavalry division, General of Division Charles Randon de Pully's dragoon division, and Grouchy's own dragoon division which was led by General of Brigade François Guérin d'Etoquigny. In addition to Dessaix's Advance Guard, Eugène held three units in reserve under his personal command. These were General of Division Jean-Barthélemot Sorbier's reserve artillery, General of Division Jean Mathieu Seras' French infantry division, and General of Brigade Teodoro Lecchi's 2,500-man Italian Guard. |
Battle of Piave River (1809) | Most of the villages in Gunther E. Rothenberg's maps of the battle can be located on modern maps. However, since 1809 a few places either changed names, moved to a new location, vanished due to the river's action, or were destroyed in the Battle of the Piave River in 1918. The changes are listed as follows. Susignano is now called Susegana. Santa Maria is near the Rothenberg map location of Campana. Ponte della Priula appears to have moved from its map position to a place 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) northwest, closer to Nervesa. San Nichiol has disappeared. In 1809 a stream or canal known as the Piavisella began near Barco and ran west to east through Mandre, Santa Maria (Campana), and Tezze di Piave before turning northeast. A dike ran east and west about 800 meters south of the Piavisella. Both the dike and stream played important parts in the battle. Two nearby canals known as the Piavesella and Piavesella di Maserada lie on the south bank of the Piave, while the Piavisella of the 1809 battle is located on the north bank. |
Philosophy education | In many other European countries philosophy is part of the high school curriculum, such as for example in Austria, Croatia, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and mainly Spain. In Germany the subject ethics has been introduced in more and more parts since the 1970s. In Croatia the subject ethics can be taken instead of religious education which mainly focuses on Catholic tradition. Spain is the most clear example of a philosophy education. In Secondary school all the students must take a little introduction to ethics, but it is during the sixth form, known there as 'bachillerato', where it is compulsory to take philosophy and citizenship in the first course, as well as history of philosophy in the second course in order to apply for university or just to get the title. University-level philosophy courses are widespread and are usually thought to have the longest tradition in the subject due to the historical ascription for the invention of philosophy as a separate discipline to the philosophers of Ancient Greece. |
Seconds pendulum | These early clocks, due to their verge escapements, had wide pendulum swings of 80–100°. In his 1673 analysis of pendulums, Horologium Oscillatorium, Huygens showed that wide swings made the pendulum inaccurate, causing its period, and thus the rate of the clock, to vary with unavoidable variations in the driving force provided by the movement. Clockmakers' realisation that only pendulums with small swings of a few degrees are isochronous motivated the invention of the anchor escapement around 1670, which reduced the pendulum's swing to 4–6°. The anchor became the standard escapement used in pendulum clocks. In addition to increased accuracy, the anchor's narrow pendulum swing allowed the clock's case to accommodate longer, slower pendulums, which needed less power and caused less wear on the movement. The seconds pendulum (also called the Royal pendulum), 0.994 m (39.1 in) long, in which each swing takes one second, became widely used in quality clocks. The long narrow clocks built around these pendulums, first made by William Clement around 1680, became known as grandfather clocks. The increased accuracy resulting from these developments caused the minute hand, previously rare, to be added to clock faces beginning around 1690.: 190 |
Seconds pendulum | Jean Richer and Giovanni Domenico Cassini measured the parallax of Mars between Paris and Cayenne in French Guiana when Mars was at its closest to Earth in 1672. They arrived at a figure for the solar parallax of 9.5 arcseconds, equivalent to an Earth–Sun distance of about 22000 Earth radii. They were also the first astronomers to have access to an accurate and reliable value for the radius of Earth, which had been measured by their colleague Jean Picard in 1669 as 3269 thousand toises. Picard's geodetic observations had been confined to the determination of the magnitude of the Earth considered as a sphere, but the discovery made by Jean Richer turned the attention of mathematicians to its deviation from a spherical form. Christiaan Huygens found out the centrifugal force which explained variations of gravitational acceleration depending on latitude. He also discovered that the seconds pendulum length was a means to measure gravitational acceleration. In the 18th century, in addition of its significance for cartography, geodesy grew in importance as a means of empirically demonstrating the theory of gravity, which Émilie du Châtelet promoted in France in combination with Leibniz's mathematical work and because the radius of the Earth was the unit to which all celestial distances were to be referred. Indeed, Earth proved to be an oblate spheroid through geodetic surveys in Ecuador and Lapland and this new data called into question the value of Earth radius as Picard had calculated it. |
Seconds pendulum | The goal of Principia was not to provide exact answers for natural phenomena, but to theorise potential solutions to these unresolved factors in science. Newton pushed for scientists to look further into the unexplained variables. Two prominent researchers whom he inspired were Alexis Clairaut and Pierre Louis Maupertuis. They both sought to prove the validity of Newton's theory on the shape of the Earth. In order to do so, they went on an expedition to Lapland in an attempt to accurately measure the meridian arc. From such measurements they could calculate the eccentricity of the Earth, its degree of departure from a perfect sphere. Clairaut confirmed that Newton's theory that the Earth was ellipsoidal was correct, but his calculations were in error; he wrote a letter to the Royal Society of London with his findings. The society published an article in Philosophical Transactions the following year in 1737 that revealed his discovery. Clairaut showed how Newton's equations were incorrect, and did not prove an ellipsoid shape to the Earth. However, he corrected problems with the theory, that in effect would prove Newton's theory correct. Clairaut believed that Newton had reasons for choosing the shape that he did, but he did not support it in Principia. Clairaut's article did not provide a valid equation to back up his argument. This created much controversy in the scientific community. |
Seconds pendulum | Instead of the seconds pendulum method, the commission of the French Academy of Sciences – whose members included Lagrange, Laplace, Monge and Condorcet – decided that the new measure should be equal to one ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator (the quadrant of the Earth's circumference), measured along the meridian passing through Paris. Apart from the obvious consideration of safe access for French surveyors, the Paris meridian was also a sound choice for scientific reasons: a portion of the quadrant from Dunkirk to Barcelona could be surveyed with start- and end-points at sea level, and that portion was roughly in the middle of the quadrant, where the effects of the Earth's oblateness were expected to be the largest. The Spanish-French geodetic mission combined with an earlier measurement of the Paris meridian arc and the Lapland geodetic mission had confirmed that the Earth was an oblate spheroid. Moreover, observations were made with a pendulum to determine the local acceleration due to local gravity and centrifugal acceleration; and these observations coincided with the geodetic results in proving that the Earth is flattened at the poles. The acceleration of a body near the surface of the Earth, which is measured with the seconds pendulum, is due to the combined effects of local gravity and centrifugal acceleration. The gravity diminishes with the distance from the center of the Earth while the centrifugal force augments with the distance from the axis of the Earth's rotation, it follows that the resulting acceleration towards the ground is 0.5% greater at the poles than at the Equator and that the polar diameter of the Earth is smaller than its equatorial diameter. |
Seconds pendulum | The task of surveying the Paris meridian arc took more than six years . The technical difficulties were not the only problems the surveyors had to face in the convulsed period of the aftermath of the French Revolution: Méchain and Delambre, and later Arago, were imprisoned several times during their surveys, and Méchain died in 1804 of yellow fever, which he contracted while trying to improve his original results in northern Spain. In the meantime, the commission of the French Academy of Sciences calculated a provisional value from older surveys of 443.44 lignes. This value was set by legislation on 7 April 1795. While Méchain and Delambre were completing their survey, the commission had ordered a series of platinum bars to be made based on the provisional metre. When the final result was known, the bar whose length was closest to the meridional definition of the metre was selected and placed in the National Archives on 22 June 1799 (4 messidor An VII in the Republican calendar) as a permanent record of the result. This standard metre bar became known as the Committee metre (French : Mètre des Archives). |
George River (Quebec) | In June 1839, McLean took a party up the George in his search for a convenient overland route between Ungava Bay and Fort Smith (present-day North West River) on Lake Melville. His predecessor Erland Erlandson had accidentally demonstrated its feasibility in 1834, but along a more circuitous route up the Koksoak. Lacking Innu guides, McLean's expedition ended in failure with the discovery of the Grand Falls (now Churchill Falls) on the Hamilton (now the Churchill) and the party retraced its steps. On the eastern shore of Erlandson's Lake (now Indian House Lake), they erected a post called Fort Trial in the winter of 1839–1840 to serve as a waystation and depot on the supply route they had established with Fort Nascopie on Petitsikapau Lake in the interior. Fort Trial—also referenced in HBC correspondence as "Erlandson's Post"—became superfluous with McLean's 1841 discovery of a route through a series of lakes around the falls and its rapids, after which the prosperous Fort Nascopie was supplied from Fort Smith instead. The HBC closed the entire unprofitable Ungava District soon after, abandoning Fort Trial on 15 June 1842 and Fort Severight around the same time. |
Md Mostafizur Rahman | Rahman and Justice M Enayetur Rahim granted bail to cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore in March 2021 after ten months in pretrial detention in a Digital Security Act case. He co-accused writer Mushtaq Ahmed died in custody. On 26 August 2021, Rahman and M Enayetur Rahim in a verdict declared that the Anti-Corruption Commission does not have the authority to freeze suspect's assets or bank accounts without the explicit authorization of the courts. The verdict was given in a petition filed by a pharmacy owner in Cox's Bazar District whose accounts in Social Islami Bank Limited were frozen on the orders of Md Sharif Uddin, assistant director of the Anti-Corruption Commission in Chittagong. In September 2021, Rahman and Justice M Enayetur Rahim suspended the bail of deputy inspector general Partha Gopal Banik and criticized Special Judge Court-5's Judge Md Iqbal Hossain for granting a secret bail to Banik, who had arrested with 8 million BDT from his home. It sought an explanation from the judge. Rahman and Justice M Enayetur Rahim rejected a petition that called for the Bangladesh High Court to direct the government to protect private phone conversations from being intercepted and recorded illegally on 29 September 2021. In November, Rahman and Justice M Enayetur Rahim ordered the killing of elephants in Bangladesh and stop encroachment on elephant habitats. |
Sami Sirviö | Sirviö formed Kent in 1990 along with vocalist Joakim Berg, bassist Martin Sköld, drummer Markus Mustonen and keyboardist Thomas Bergqvist. The band originally called themselves Jones & Giftet before changing their name first to Havsänglar and later Kent. By that time Bergqvist had been fired from the band and replaced by Martin Roos. After the release of the bands self-titled debut album Roos quit the band to focus on a career at BMG, the band soon recruited Harri Mänty as a replacement. The band continued to release several critically and commercially successful albums with that line-up intact until 2006 when rhythm guitarist Harri Mänty left the band. Instead of recruiting a permanent replacement Sirviö along with Jocke Berg recorded guitars for their 2007 release Tillbaka till samtiden. For live performances the band has since brought along Max Brandt as a non-official guitarist. Besides his role in Kent Sirviö has also appeared on Lisa Miskovsky's 2006 album Changes as well as produce a number of records for Swedish and Finnish artists. |
HMS Sumar | Sumar was obtained by the British Admiralty, armed and commissioned as HMS Sumar in July 1942. Her first commanding officer, Temporary Lieutenant-Commander C. A. King, DSC, Royal Navy Reserve, was appointed on 12 July 1941. Armed for anti-submarine warfare, she was assigned to the Royal Naval Examination Service on the America and West Indies Station, based at the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda. HMS Castle Harbour, a Bermudian tender which had been similarly commissioned, and which had been used by the Royal Naval Examination Service at Bermuda since the start of the war, was transferred to the Mediterranean, but sunk on transit on 16 October 1942 by the German submarine U-160. Although the Examination Service was responsible for anti-submarine duties inside Bermuda's barrier reef, the ocean outside the reef was normally patrolled by HMS Evadne. Evadne was also responsible for escorting merchant vessels to Bermuda where they formed into convoys to cross the Atlantic (convoys formed at Bermuda were coded BHX and merged at sea with convoys from Halifax, Nova Scotia, coded HX, as the relatively smaller circumference of a larger circle meant it took fewer escorts to defend one large convoy than two smaller). |
HMS Sumar | On 2 June, 1942, Sumar (by then under the command of Lieutenant Gordon Emerson Kernohan, Royal Canadian Naval Voluntary Reserve) departed Bermuda with the United States Naval Operating Base Bermuda tender USS Gannet (which had also been built by Todd Shipyards Corporation), under the command of Lieutenant Commander Frances Edward Nuessle, US Navy, in response to a distress call from the British merchant ship SS Westmoreland, which had been torpedoed by the German submarine U-566 220 nautical miles (410 km; 250 mi) northward of Bermuda. The rescue attempt was unnecessary as the sixty-five survivors from the crew of the Westmoreland had already been rescued by the merchant ship SS Cathcart and the former USS Henry R. Mallory. Sumar was limited to 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph), forcing Gannet to lower her speed. The two vessels were unable to communicate with each other by radio (Sumar's radio and compass being inoperable), and Gannet lacked sonar. Both kept their running lights on in order to maintain visual contact, at the cost of exposing themselves to German submarines. Aircraft from Bermuda flew ahead of them to search the area where the Westmoreland had been torpedoed. Finding no trace of the ship or survivors, the two ships were ordered to return to Bermuda at 1300 hours on 6 June. At 0022 Hours on the 7 June (GMT +1 hour, the German time used by the Kriegsmarine; or 1922 Hours on the 6 June Atlantic Time (GMT -4 hours)), the two ships were spotted by the German submarine U-653 under Kapitänleutnant Gerhard Feiler, who fired four homing torpedoes at them at 2320 hours (Atlantic Time). The shallow draughts of the two vessels caused all four to miss, but Feiler launched another two set for a shallower depth at 0242 hours on 7 June (Atlantic Time), causing a catastrophic explosion on Gannet. Although Feiler recorded that Sumar then turned towards his submarine, and that distress signals were visible to him for ten minutes, the crew of Sumar failed to see what had befallen Gannet or the distress signals and returned to Bermuda alone. Gannet went down rapidly, taking 16 of her crew with her. Her commanding officer and other survivors tied together life rafts with wounded and clung to the sides in the heavy seas. Twenty-two men would be rescued by two planes of VP-74 which made daring landings in the heavy seas. USS Hamilton, led to the scene by one of the same planes, rescued 40 others. What appeared to be the abandonment of Gannet by Sumar was to result in a rift between Royal Naval and US Naval personnel in Bermuda. On 4 July 1942, command of Sumar passed to Lieutenant Algernon Hugh Peniston, Royal Navy Reserve (one of many Bermudian officers and ratings serving in the Royal Navy). |
53rd Reserve Division (German Empire) | The 53rd Reserve Division initially fought on the Western Front, entering the line in mid-October. As part of the so-called Race to the Sea, it fought in the Battle of the Yser in October–November 1914. It remained in positional warfare and fighting along the Yser until April 1915, and then was engaged in fighting in the Second Battle of Ypres. After that battle, the division returned to the line on the Yser until September. After a brief period of rest, the division fought against the French offensive in the Second Battle of Champagne. The division again went into army reserve from the end of October 1915 to the end of January 1916, after which it returned to the line on the Yser and then in the Flanders and Artois regions. It saw several weeks' action in the Battle of the Somme, and then returned to positional warfare in the line. In November 1916, the division was transferred to the Eastern Front, where it engaged in positional warfare until June 1917. It then fought against the Russian Kerensky Offensive and in follow-on fighting in Galicia and on the Ukrainian border. At the end of November 1917, the division was transferred back to the Western Front, arriving in mid-December at border defense positions on the Belgian-Dutch border. After a few months there and then in the line in Flanders and the Artois, the division fought in the 1918 German spring offensive, seeing action in the First Battle of the Somme , also known as the Second Battle of the Somme . After that battle, the division went to the Verdun region to recover, and then in June went to the Soisson region, where it saw action in July–August in the Second Battle of the Marne. The division suffered heavily and was relieved on August 10. It went to the Argonne region to be dissolved; some of its understrength units were there when the Meuse-Argonne Offensive began and they were sent to the line to bolster other divisions in the face of American attacks. Allied intelligence considered the division as mediocre in 1917 and rated it third class in 1918. |