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MLB 07: The Show | MLB 07: The Show makes the transition to next-gen with a suite of advanced features in its race to become MVP of 2007's baseball crop. The all-new Road to The Show mode enables gamers to play both offense and defense from the created player's perspective. Providing an even more realistic experience from the mound, the all-new New Pitch Command System (PCS) delivers comprehensive strategy to pitch selection, as a pitcher's "pitch comfort" will be predetermined based on a best to worst pitch scenario. It is up the gamer to decide if he/she should try to "work on a pitch" or just go with what is working. Additionally, with the Adaptive Pitching Intelligence (API) feature, catchers will call the game based on the individual strengths and weaknesses of each pitcher as well as analyze tendencies of batters. Gamers will now have the ability to either trust the pitches called by the catcher or shake them off. MLB 07: The Show also delivers a robust online feature set, including Online League Play, which offers the ability to set up customizable leagues with up to 30 teams, complete with full stat tracking, point benefits and rewards. |
MLB 07: The Show | Maxim gave the PlayStation 2 version a score of eight out of ten, saying, "It's become fashionable for billionaire ballplayers to discuss their feelings which is no doubt why The Show's developers decided to focus on your pitcher's feelings this year." The same magazine also gave the PlayStation 3 a score of eight out of ten, saying, "The PS3's graphics are certainly crisp, and the inclusion of SIXAXIS control for fielding... is very cool; but overall, the game feels less like a fully realized next-gen baseball game and more like a blueprint for next year's installment. For now, we'll trade this game for two minor league pitchers, a half gallon of Gatorade, and a case of fungo bats." Detroit Free Press gave the PS2 version three stars out of four, saying, "If John Smoltz is getting a lot of strikes with his slider, the confidence meter will increase, making it even nastier for opposing batters. If his curveball is getting pounded out of the park, throwing another one will be a risky venture. A new Road to the Show career mode allows players to create a rookie who must toil in the minors while awaiting a chance to crack the big league lineup." 411Mania gave the PS2 and PSP versions a similar score of 7.5 out of 10, saying, "There is plenty here for baseball fans and newbies to do. With all the various modes, online play, and customizable content, it is definitely a fan friendly title." However, USA Today gave the PS3 version six stars out of ten, saying that "As a baseball title, is a solid and has a wide array of choices. As a PS3 title, The Show whiffs badly. You're better off saving that $20 and purchasing the equally satisfying PlayStation 2 edition." |
Firaxis Games | Firaxis Software announced their first title, Sid Meier's Gettysburg!, in June 1997. Interimly, on July 24, 1997, the company was legally renamed Firaxis Games. Electronic Arts announced to have acquired a minority interest in Firaxis Games, to undisclosed terms, in August 1997. By September 1997, Firaxis Games signed life insurances for its three founders. Gettysburg! was released in October 1997 to critical and commercial success, scoring near-perfect reviews from critics, and selling 200,000 copies by August 1999. Starting with Gettysburg!, Firaxis Games prefixed all games designed by Meier with "Sid Meier's", a trend the three founders carried over from MicroProse, as they believed that Meier's name added more recognizability to their games. For his works on many MicroProse games, as well as Gettysburg! and Firaxis Games' second title, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Meier became the second-ever person in the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences's Hall of Fame, following Shigeru Miyamoto. Co-founder Reynolds left Firaxis Games to pursue his personal interests in February 2000. To compensate his departure, the company started hiring various industry veterans by March 2000. For his executive engagement at Firaxis Games, co-founder and chief executive officer Briggs was named "CEO of the Year" by Smart CEO Magazine in October 2004. Briggs later left the company in November 2006, and was succeeded by Steve Martin. Also for his executive work at Firaxis Games, Martin was awarded the "Maryland International Business Leadership Award" by the World Trade Center Institute in March 2011. |
Firaxis Games | In November 2004, Infogrames, at the time owner of the Civilization franchise and parent to the series' publisher, sold all intellectual property (IP) to an undisclosed buyer for US$22.3 million. The buyer was announced to be Take-Two Interactive on January 26, 2005. The publisher announced that the franchise would be managed by their 2K label, which was founded the day before, and that Firaxis Games would stay in charge of the series' development. In March 2005, NDL announced a partnership with Firaxis Games, wherein their Gamebryo engine would be used for the development of Civilization IV, which was to be released later that year. On November 7, 2005, Take-Two Interactive announced that they had acquired Firaxis Games. Through the deal, Firaxis Games became part of 2K, although its present management and development plans would stay intact. Meier and Briggs both expressed that the acquisition saw a great opportunity for Firaxis Games in terms of creative development and marketing capabilities, and were fortunate to have re-gained full control over the Civilization franchise. In April 2007, Soren Johnson, lead designer on Civilization IV, left the company to move to Maxis and work on Spore. Similarly, Civilization V's lead designer Jon Shafer departed following the game's release, in December 2010. |
River Boards Act 1948 | During the 1930s, there was a growing realisation that data on river flows and water quality was lacking, and in 1935 an Inland Water Survey Committee was created. They attempted to collect what data there was, and three annual reports were produced before the onset of the Second World War, but it was clear that gauging of rivers was in need of improvement, and its coverage was sporadic. Attempts to understand groundwater levels from data obtained from wells also showed the shortcomings of such an approach. In 1942, the Institution of Civil Engineers produced a report, discussing the development of a post-war water resources survey, and the Ministry of Health's Central Advisory Committee proposed a network of river boards, who would be responsible for systematic river gauging, as well as land drainage, fisheries and pollution. Again, the lack of comprehensive flow and water quality data was mentioned. In 1944, the government published a white paper, entitled "A National Water Policy", which stated that the collection of flow and water quality data, as well as the understanding of underground water resources should be resumed and pressed on with vigour as soon as circumstances permit. Such data was to be made available to all who needed it. Under the terms of the Water Act 1945, the Ministry of Housing and Local Government were given the responsibility for the conservation and appropriate use of water resources. Those wishing to construct wells were obliged to provide details of their drilling and testing operations to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, while anyone abstracting water had to keep proper records of the volume of water taken. |
River Boards Act 1948 | The concern with collecting data outlined in the 1944 white paper were addressed in the Act, requiring the river boards to plan and implement systematic flow gauging of the rivers within their areas. They were also required to collect data about water abstraction, as part of their general responsibility for the conservation of water resources, but an obvious shortcoming of this was that water supply companies could develop new sources without any reference to the river boards. Another area of responsibility was the enforcement of pollution laws. Until the passing of the Act, this had been the remit of local sanitary authorities, who usually also owned the sewers that were the main sources of pollution. There was therefore little incentive to invest in better sewage treatment works. Such investment was encouraged by the passing of the Rivers (Prevention of Pollution) Acts of 1951 and 1961, during the currency of the 1948 Act, but a Working Party on Sewage Disposal suggested in 1970 that there were some 3,000 sewage treatment plants that were discharging inadequately-treated effluent into the rivers. |
Squared triangular number | The identity also admits a natural probabilistic interpretation as follows. Let X, Y, Z, W be four integer numbers independently and uniformly chosen at random between 1 and n. Then, the probability that W is the largest of the four numbers equals the probability that Y is at least as large as X and that W is at least as large as Z. That is, P = P. For any particular value of W, the combinations of X, Y, and Z that make W largest form a cube 1 ≤ X, Y, Z ≤ n so (adding the size of this cube over all choices of W) the number of combinations of X, Y, Z, W for which W is largest is a sum of cubes, the left hand side of the Nichomachus identity. The sets of pairs (X, Y) with X ≤ Y and of pairs (Z, W) with Z ≤ W form isosceles right triangles, and the set counted by the right hand side of the equation of probabilities is the Cartesian product of these two triangles, so its size is the square of a triangular number on the right hand side of the Nichomachus identity. The probabilities themselves are respectively the left and right sides of the Nichomachus identity, normalized to make probabilities by dividing both sides by n4. |
Squared triangular number | Charles Wheatstone gives a particularly simple derivation, by expanding each cube in the sum into a set of consecutive odd numbers. He begins by giving the identity n 3 = ( n 2 − n + 1 ) + ( n 2 − n + 1 + 2 ) + ( n 2 − n + 1 + 4 ) + ⋯ + ( n 2 + n − 1 ) ⏟ n consecutive odd numbers . {\displaystyle n^{3}=\underbrace {\left(n^{2}-n+1\right)+\left(n^{2}-n+1+2\right)+\left(n^{2}-n+1+4\right)+\cdots +\left(n^{2}+n-1\right)} _{n{\text{ consecutive odd numbers}}}.} That identity is related to triangular numbers Tn in the following way: n 3 = ∑ k = T n − 1 + 1 T n ( 2 k − 1 ) , {\displaystyle n^{3}=\sum _{k=T_{n-1}+1}^{T_{n}}(2k-1),} and thus the summands forming n3 start off just after those forming all previous values 13 up to (n − 1)3. Applying this property, along with another well-known identity: n 2 = ∑ k = 1 n ( 2 k − 1 ) , {\displaystyle n^{2}=\sum _{k=1}^{n}(2k-1),} produces the following derivation: ∑ k = 1 n k 3 = 1 + 8 + 27 + 64 + ⋯ + n 3 = 1 ⏟ 1 3 + 3 + 5 ⏟ 2 3 + 7 + 9 + 11 ⏟ 3 3 + 13 + 15 + 17 + 19 ⏟ 4 3 + ⋯ + ( n 2 − n + 1 ) + ⋯ + ( n 2 + n − 1 ) ⏟ n 3 = 1 ⏟ 1 2 + 3 ⏟ 2 2 + 5 ⏟ 3 2 + ⋯ + ( n 2 + n − 1 ) ⏟ ( n 2 + n 2 ) 2 = ( 1 + 2 + ⋯ + n ) 2 = ( ∑ k = 1 n k ) 2 . {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\sum _{k=1}^{n}k^{3}&=1+8+27+64+\cdots +n^{3}\\&=\underbrace {1} _{1^{3}}+\underbrace {3+5} _{2^{3}}+\underbrace {7+9+11} _{3^{3}}+\underbrace {13+15+17+19} _{4^{3}}+\cdots +\underbrace {\left(n^{2}-n+1\right)+\cdots +\left(n^{2}+n-1\right)} _{n^{3}}\\&=\underbrace {\underbrace {\underbrace {\underbrace {1} _{1^{2}}+3} _{2^{2}}+5} _{3^{2}}+\cdots +\left(n^{2}+n-1\right)} _{\left({\frac {n^{2}+n}{2}}\right)^{2}}\\&=(1+2+\cdots +n)^{2}\\&=\left(\sum _{k=1}^{n}k\right)^{2}.\end{aligned}}} |
Andrew Gale | He became a more regular member of Yorkshire's one-day and Twenty20 sides, and played six one day internationals for England's Under 19s, captaining that team. In November 2007, he signed a new three-year contract with Yorkshire. In December 2009, Anthony McGrath resigned from his post as Yorkshire captain, with Gale being named as his replacement. He became the youngest captain of the county in the post-war era. In January 2014 Gale extended his contract with Yorkshire until 2016. In 2014 he became the first Yorkshire captain to lift the LV County Championship for 13 years, and he won it again as captain the following year. Gale received a two-match ban in 2014 after accusations were made of him verbally abusing Lancashire batsman Ashwell Prince in September. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) referred the matter to the Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC), which imposed another suspension and ordered Gale to attend an anger management course. Prince accepted that he had been involved in time-wasting and whilst he didn't like Gale's tone and the way Gale spoke to him, did not detect any racism from Gale, making a point that it was the umpires who made the report, not himself. |
Edward Henry Burke Cooper | Despite having no previous military experience, in 1936 Cooper volunteered to join the International Brigades to fight for the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. After enlisting in Oxford on October 1936, Cooper travelled to Spain and joined the French Commune de Paris Battalion, and by December was fighting near Madrid. At the end of December 1936, he was transferred to the XIV International Brigade with five other volunteers from the Commune de Paris Battalion. During his time in Spain, Cooper became friends with fellow English communist and Cambridge poet John Cornford. Cooper fought alongside Cornford and Oxford communist Ralph Winston Fox at the Battle of Lopera, however all three of them would die from wounds sustained during the battle. In a letter to Margot Heinemann, Cornford described Cooper as "a very good guy...promoted to section leader, he did really well on a really nasty bit of the front line". Claud Cockburn, in an article for the Daily Worker, described how Cooper was put in charge of a machine-gun section, due to his "extraordinary flair for machinery" |
Priest (manhwa) | A massively multiplayer online game based on the comic was in production by South Korean developer JC Entertainment back in 2003, but was later cancelled following being renamed Rust Online. Appropriately given the comic's inspiration, the game attempted to meld in elements of first-person shooters; combat was real time and aiming and movement directly controlled by the player. Successful attacks brought players more experience points. The game featured two factions: Heretics, who side with Temozarela, and Templars who are more aligned with Ivan Isaacs. Players were then further divided into four weapons classes (leader, fighter, distance weapon and mage), with both demonic and spiritual abilities. Set among 48 different environments in New Mexico (including ghost towns, mines and desserts), factions would fight for control of twelve "sacred sites" which provide bonuses to the possessing faction. The conflict to control each of the counties containing these sites formed the basis of the main faction vs. faction mode. Other modes included single player and player vs. player. JC Entertainment described the game as controversial, owing to its graphic violence and religious mysticism. The game received extensive previews from The Adrenaline Vault and IGN's RPG Vault. |
Antoine Thompson | When Thompson assumed office, he worked on economic revitalization issues and the redevelopment of brownfield land, but he had to combat government inaction and bureaucracy in this effort. In 2010, Thompson arranged for a $400,000 grant from the State's Economic Development Program for Manhattan billionaire Howard Milstein's Niagara Falls Redevelopment company to demolish properties in Niagara Falls, New York. Thompson was a vocal spokesman against the May 2007 bill to raise State Senator salaries because the lack of raises for Buffalo city workers made it seem wrong to him. After refusing to comment on the issue for some time, Thompson was one of eight Democratic defectors on Eliot Spitzer's unpopular policy allowing illegal aliens to obtain driver's licenses. Thompson was one of eleven New York State Senators to be uncontested in the November 2008 general election. He supported the streamlining of minority- and woman-owned business certification and opposed fracking Thompson voted in favor of same-sex marriage legislation on December 2, 2009, but the bill was defeated. |
Clear Moon | Musically, Clear Moon is a departure from Elverum's previous studio album, the distortion-heavy Wind's Poem; replacing the heavy guitars for "ominous rumbling and isolated feedback squalls." Described as "lush and expansive," the album is predominantly guitar-based, featuring downplayed vocals, droning organs, 4/4 drum beats, chimes and "overlapping, hypnotic guitar lines." The album takes inspiration from multiple genres such as psychedelia, folk, chamber, electronic, ambient and metal. Themes of solitude, which Elverum presents through the imagery of the moon, a recurring motif in the album and his work at large, and maturity are present, with the album seeing Elverum exploring new avenues of his established sound and lyrical content. According to Thomas May the songs on Clear Moon are the most melodically dynamic he has created since The Glow Pt. 2. Tonally, the album is clearer and lighter than Ocean Roar, while still retaining Elverum's typical dark style, and has more extensive use of synthesizer and vocals. The range of tempo is diverse throughout the record. |
Media Bias/Fact Check | A 2018 year-in-review and prospective on fact-checking from the Poynter Institute (which develops PolitiFact) noted a proliferation of credibility score projects, including Media/Bias Fact Check, writing that "While these projects are, in theory, a good addition to the efforts combating misinformation, they have the potential to misfire," and stating that "Media Bias/Fact Check is a widely cited source for news stories and even studies about misinformation, despite the fact that its method is in no way scientific." Also in 2018, a writer in the Columbia Journalism Review described Media Bias/Fact Check as "an armchair media analysis" and characterized their assessments as "subjective assessments leave room for human biases, or even simple inconsistencies, to creep in". A study published in Scientific Reports wrote: "While credibility is sometimes questioned, it has been regarded as accurate enough to be used as ground-truth for e.g. media bias classifiers, fake news studies, and automatic fact-checking systems." |
Biskupin | In 1933 Polish archaeologists discovered remains of a Bronze Age fort/settlement in Wielkopolska Region (Greater Poland) and the discovery became famous overnight. The site was excavated from 1934 onwards by the team from Poznań University, led by archaeologists Józef Kostrzewski and Zdzisław Rajewski . The first report was published in 1936. By the beginning of 1939, ca. 2,500 m2 (26,909.78 sq ft) had been excavated. Biskupin soon became famous, attracting numerous distinguished guests, including officials of the Marshal Piłsudski government, members of the military, and high churchmen such as the primate of Poland. The site soon became part of Polish national consciousness, the symbol of achievements of the Slavonic forebears in prehistoric times. It was called the "Polish Pompeii" or "Polish Herculaneum". The existence of a prehistoric fortress, 70 km (43 mi) from the German border, was used to show that the prehistoric "Poles" had held their own against foreign invaders and plunderers as early as the late Bronze Age. Biskupin came to feature in paintings and popular novels. |
Fiat 1800 and 2100 | Abarth also proposed a sportier, 2+2 car based on the 2100. He discussed his plan with Fiat's Vice President Gaudenzio Bono in 1959 and it was arranged to supply Abarth with bare 2100 chassis and drivetrains. The chassis was strengthened and shortened, now on a 2,450 mm (96 in) wheelbase, and was fitted with a bored out and tuned engine with an Abarth exhaust system and Dunlop disc brakes on all four wheels. The bodywork was designed by Giovanni Michelotti and executed by Allemano. The Abarth 2200 was available as a two-door coupé or convertible and was introduced at the Turin Auto Show in October–November 1959. The bore was increased to 79.0 mm (3.11 in), which gave a displacement of 2162 cc. Along with an increased compression ratio and triple Weber 40 DCOE carburettors, maximum power increased to 135 hp (99 kW) at 6000 rpm, making for top speeds of 197 and 186 km/h (122 and 116 mph) for the Coupé and Spider respectively. Unlike Fiat's column-shifted original, the Abarth 2200 had the shifter relocated to the floor. As originally presented, the Spider was given a different front end treatment of a rectilinear nature, with twin headlights mounted at an angle. This rather awkward looking arrangement was shortlived; during 1960 Abarth changed it to a single-headlight design similar to that of the Coupé. |
Rood | Numerous near life-size crucifixes survive from the Romanesque period or earlier, with the Gero Cross in Cologne Cathedral (AD 965–970) and the Volto Santo of Lucca the best known. The prototype may have been one known to have been set up in Charlemagne's Palatine Chapel in Aachen, apparently in gold foil worked over a wooden core in the manner of the Golden Madonna of Essen, though figureless jeweled gold crosses are recorded in similar positions in Hagia Sophia in Constantinople in the 5th century. Many figures in precious metal are recorded in Anglo-Saxon monastic records, though none now survive. Notables sometimes gave their crowns (Cnut the Great at Winchester Cathedral), necklaces (Lady Godiva to the Virgin accompanying the rood at Evesham Abbey), or swords (Tovi the Proud, Waltham Abbey) to decorate them. The original location and support for the surviving figures is often unclear but a number of northern European churches preserve the original setting in full – they are known as a Triumphkreuz in German, from the "triumphal arch" (or "chancel arch") of Early Christian architecture. As in later examples the Virgin and Saint John often flank the cross, and cherubim and other figures are sometimes seen. A gilt rood in the 10th-century Mainz Cathedral was only placed on a beam on special feast days. |
Rood | An engraving from 1822/1823 (Dunkin) shows the dressed rood cross as a more open, foliage-covered framework, similar to certain types of corn dolly, with a smaller attendant figure of similar appearance. Folklorists have commented on the garland crosses' resemblance to human figures, and noted that they replaced statues of St Mary and Saint James the Great which had stood on the rood screen until they were destroyed during the Reformation. Until the 1850s, the larger garland cross was carried in a May Day procession, accompanied by morris dancers, to the former Benedictine Studley priory (as the statue of St Mary had been, until the Reformation). Meanwhile, the women of the village used to carry the smaller garland cross through Charlton, though it seems that this ceased some time between 1823 and 1840, when an illustration in J.H. Parker's A Glossary of Terms Used in Grecian, Roman, Italian, and Gothic Architecture shows only one garland cross, centrally positioned on the rood screen. |
Ioan Judea | On 19 March 1990, he brought in drunken Romanians armed with hoes, sticks and pitchforks on 13 buses; as it turned out later, he was also responsible for their transportation. He was the one who, together with General Ion Scrieciu, guaranteed the physical integrity of the Hungarians trapped in the attic, including András Sütő. At first, the Hungarians were reluctant, Judea later gave his word of honor that no one would be hurt, and asked that people come down, but those trapped in the attic continued to distrust him. Later Gheorghe Gambra, the police chief of Mureș County appeared, but only as an idle observer. Since they didn't come down even after 2 o'clock, Colonel Judea changed to a threatening tone and told them that the drunken Romanian mob will really set the attic on fire should they not come down. András Sütő witnessed that they brought gasoline from military trucks for lighting. Judea insisted that they wouldn't have any problems so some of them finally started leaving the attic. |
Cumberland Records | Cumberland Records is an independently owned label in Nashville, TN. It was started in 1988 by 3 musicians, Mark Howard, Alisa Jones, and Ron Wall. It specializes in Old Time Acoustic Instrumental Music, and was one of the first labels to offer music in what is now known as the "gift market". Cumberland produced over 50 CDs ranging from old time classics like "Church In The Wildwood" to Big Band CD's and Irish selections. Cumberland had a long-running display in Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, and produced an exclusive series of another 60 or so classic artist compilations called American Music Legends. as well as Instrumental packages like Bluegrass Highway, Front Porch Gathering and countless more. Cumberland Records is still available in limited US markets. The "Cumberland" label was originally started around 1963. The label produced original "country music" from old-time fiddle, bluegrass, and banjo to more modern electric guitar and steel guitar albums. These original "Cumberland Record" albums were all produced by Kelso Herston, a Nashville producer at the time. All the 12 albums were released for retail sales. These original Cumberland albums were released in both mono and stereo versions. |
Lago Agrio oil field | In 1993, local residents started a class action lawsuit, Aguinda v. Texaco, Inc. to force former well operator Texaco to clean up the area and provide for the care of the 30,000 inhabitants affected by oil contamination. In February 2011, an Ecuadorian court ordered Chevron to pay $8 billion in compensation. The verdict was later confirmed by the Ecuador Supreme Court in 2013, with the amount fixed to $9.5 billion. Despite having previously insisted to move the process from the New York Court to Ecuadorian tribunals and having accepted jurisdiction there, Chevron Corporation has refused to pay the judgement claiming that the decision was "illegitimate and inapplicable". A ruling deeming the Ecuadorian verdict as unenforceable was issued by a United States court in 2014 and by an appeals court two years later. In 2018 the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in favor of Chevron and said the 2013 Ecuador Supreme Court case was obtained "through fraud, bribery and corruption." |
Lago Agrio oil field | One of the most cited reports on environmental damage to Lago Agrio is Amazon Crude written by Judith Kimerling for the Natural Resources Defence Council. This report, which covers the Oriente region more broadly, includes a prediction that Ecuador's entire oil reserves would have been depleted by 2005 if the 1991 rate of 100 million barrels per year had continued. According to Kimerling's interviews with technical staff, approximately 19.3 billion gallons of produced water, with a petroleum content of 500–5,000 parts per million, were diverted into 880 unlined open pits where the water could reach streams and rivers relied on by local inhabitants for their drinking water, bathing and fishing. The produced water contained polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at levels many times higher than permitted in the US, where produced water was typically re-injected underground since at least the 1970s. An additional byproduct of the crude oil extraction was natural gas. Although Texaco had agreed to preserve the supply of natural gas, the Ministry of Energy and Mines estimated that 85%-88% of it was burned into the atmosphere. For each well that was dug, on average, an estimated 4,165 cubic metres of toxic drilling fluid accumulated in an open pit. The majority of the wells were dug in the first few years when Texaco and Gulf had the largest number of shares. Paul C. Lambert quoted a Petroecuador manager as saying "at some points, the rivers are like the sea" referring to the salinity of the water. |
Lago Agrio oil field | A full reinjection of produced water into the ground would have cost $5 billion according to environmental advocates. In 1980, Texaco rejected a $4 million proposal to build pits with a concrete barrier and transfer existing waste into them. In 1990, the Petroecuador-Texaco consortium committed to spending $8-$13 million on an environmental cleanup. In 1995, amid litigation, Texaco signed an agreement with the Ecuadorian government to clean 161 waste pits in proportion to its interest in the consortium, at a cost of $40 million. It hired engineering firm Woodward Clyde to oversee the cleaning which in turn contracted a predominantly Ecuadorian workforce. The release certifying that Texaco had met its obligations was issued by the government in 1998. Evidence has been found that the cleanup was incomplete, as the largest part of the area was not restored and the pits Texaco supposedly cleaned up were simply filled with ground on top to hide the toxic wastes. Plastic coverings have also been reported. Activists who criticized the pits for being easily permeable also stated that pipes connecting them to waterways were left in place. |
Lago Agrio oil field | An excess rate of cancer is one of the most commonly alleged health effects of the oil waste. Attempts to quantify this have varied widely with "130% higher" and "30 times higher" being among the quoted findings. Pablo Fajardo stated that by 2019, the pollution had caused 2,000 cancer deaths. Luis Yanza pointed out that Lago Agrio residents are uniquely vulnerable to cancer as the nearest treatment facility is a full day's drive away in Quito. Apart from maintaining its lack of responsibility for the bulk of the pollution, Chevron has maintained that there is no causal link between the produced water and cancer. Critics have pointed to an American study from 1987 which found increased cancer incidence from much lower volumes of produced water that were poured into streams. A 2017 study from Ecuador has been used to dispute this as well. Since the pits that were left uncovered were also left unfenced, local farmers have reported casualties among their livestock. Fishing tribes have described sick or dead fish in rivers close to the covered and uncovered pits. Chevron has instead blamed the water contamination on improperly routed sewers. As the vast majority of Ecuadorians in Lago Agrio do not have a centralized water supply, some of them have described rainwater as their cleanest alternative to the local rivers. In March 2020, James North wrote in The Nation that "ive peer-reviewed scientific studies have shown an increased incidence of cancer and other health risks in the area. (Chevron funded its own peer-reviewed study, which claimed to find no such cancer risk)". |
Lago Agrio oil field | In 2009, Chevron released videos that it said showed evidence that the Ecuadorian judicial proceedings were corrupted by bribery and political influence. Chevron stated that it had been given secretly recorded videos of three meetings, in one of which the presiding judge appears to state that he will rule against Chevron and that the company's appeals would be denied in spite of the fact that the trial was still in progress. In a second video, Patricio Garcia, who claims to be a political coordinator for the presidency and an official of the ruling political party, suggests that government lawyers would help write the judge's final ruling. Garcia also demands a bribe of $3 million from contractors seeking cleanup contracts, and states that the money will be divided between the judge, the presidency, and the plaintiffs. The judge was forced to resign. Chevron claims it had no involvement in the videotaping; however, in April 2010 it was found that one of the men involved in the filming was a long-time Chevron contractor, who in turn was later caught on hidden camera saying he "has enough evidence to ensure a victory by the Amazon communities if Chevron failed to pay him what he was promised." This man was later relocated to the United States with his family at Chevron's expense, where he is also receiving an undisclosed amount of living expenses. The other man involved in filming the video is a convicted drug smuggler. |
Lago Agrio oil field | In 2010, the plaintiffs engaged the Washington D.C. law firm of Patton Boggs to oversee the legal strategy of suing Chevron in various countries around the world, to collect the Ecuadorean judgment. Patton Boggs is one of the top three lobbying firms in the US in terms of revenue, and was seen as having the international legal experience needed to enforce the award against Chevron; in return, Patton Boggs was to have received 5% of moneys collected. Chevron sued Patton Boggs, alleging that by participating in the case, the law firm knowingly abetted fraud on the part of the plaintiff's lead attorney, Steven Donziger. In May 2014 Patton Boggs agreed to withdraw from the Lago Agrio case, pay Chevron $15 million in damages, assign to Chevron its percentage of claims collected, and assist Chevron in discovery in Chevron's lawsuits against Donziger and others. In return, Chevron dropped all claims against Patton Boggs. Patton Boggs released a statement that, in view of a US court finding of fraud on the part of Donziger, it regretted its involvement in the case. |
Pachliopta jophon | The male upperside is black. The forewing has three or four broad white streaks in a cell and a variable number of similar somewhat broader streaks that are bifid along their apical half in the interspaces beyond; these streaks do not reach the terminal margin and become obsolete towards the costal margin of the wing. The hindwing is in the apical half of the cell and short apically truncate streaks in the interspaces beyond white; these broad streaks broad are divided only by the black veins, followed by a subterminal curved series of crimson lunules irrorated with black scales. The underside is similar, the markings more distinct and more sharply defined; the discal white streaks and the subterminal series of crimson spots are each seven in number. The antennae, head, thorax, and abdomen above up to the pre-anal segment are black; the head in front and beneath, the thorax at the sides and the apical half of the abdomen crimson, the last with one or two black lateral spots. The female is similar, but the forewing is broader, the white and crimson markings larger and more conspicuous. |
Jon Toral | Toral caught the attention of Premier League club Arsenal while playing in England at the Manchester United Premier Cup in 2010. Along with Barcelona youth teammate Héctor Bellerín, he signed for the Gunners in the summer of 2011 for a fee reported as around £300,000; Barcelona president Sandro Rosell described the deal as "a little immoral". Toral began his career at Arsenal out injured with a damaged meniscus of his right knee, suffered in his final appearance for Barcelona in May 2011. After recovering, Toral made his debut for the reserves in a 2–0 Premier Reserve League defeat to Aston Villa on 30 November 2011, but was injured again in January 2012. Toral appeared for Arsenal in the 2012–13 NextGen Series and the 2013–14 UEFA Youth League, scoring two goals in five appearances in the latter competition. He broke into the reserve team during the 2013–14 season, scoring six goals in twenty appearances. Toral was called into the first team squad for pre-season friendly matches against Boreham Wood and New York Red Bulls in July 2014, making a start and a substitute appearance respectively. Toral spent the entire 2014–15 season away on loan and impressed sufficiently to be awarded a one-year contract extension. Toral was involved in Arsenal's pre-season tour of Singapore ahead of the 2015–16 season. He came on as a substitute against Singapore Selection XI on 15 July 2015 and won the penalty from which Chuba Akpom made it 3–0. |
Jon Toral | Toral joined newly promoted Championship club Brentford on a season-long loan on 15 August 2014. After the signing, manager Mark Warburton said Toral was "an excellent addition to our group. This is a sign of the relationship we have with Arsenal and our continuing desire to add quality to our playing squad". Assigned the number 17 shirt, Toral made the first professional appearance of his career with a start in a 1–0 League Cup second-round defeat to West London rivals Fulham on 26 August; he lasted 63 minutes before being substituted by Toumani Diagouraga. He made his league debut in the following match against Rotherham United, coming on for goalscorer Andre Gray and assisting Nick Proschwitz for the Bees' second goal in a 2–0 win. After four further substitute appearances, Warburton commented that Toral had been outstanding in training and was pushing for a first-team start. He scored the first senior goal of his career with what proved to be a consolation in a 3–1 defeat to Bolton Wanderers on 25 October, just two minutes after coming on as a late substitute for Alex Pritchard. He scored his second goal with the opener in a 3–1 win at Nottingham Forest on Bonfire Night, shooting in the box through a crowd of players. Toral said in February 2015 that Griffin Park was "a great place to be now and I'm enjoying every minute of it – every game, every training session I'm learning". He scored the first senior hat-trick of his career to send the Bees on the way to a 4–0 victory over Blackpool on 24 February, and took his tally to four goals in three matches in a 4–1 defeat of Huddersfield Town a week later. He finished the season with 37 appearances and 6 goals, after the Bees' defeat to Middlesbrough in the playoff semi-finals. |
Jon Toral | He returned to the starting eleven and to goalscoring in the 5–2 away win at Fulham on 7 November, when manager Gary Rowett described him as "the best player on the pitch, in terms of his composure and his vision." From then on, he kept his place in the starting eleven, despite competition from January purchase Diego Fabbrini for the playmaker role, until his season ended prematurely. He was sent off in stoppage time of the home defeat against Burnley on 16 April for a second yellow card, and then injured a hamstring in training that kept him out for the last four matches of the season. He finished as the team's second highest scorer with eight goals. The sixth, at home to Ipswich Town in January, for which "Tomasz Kuszczak launched a free kick down the middle, Clayton Donaldson headed on and before the ball hit the ground Toral fired a dipping volley over the goalkeeper from 25 yards", earned him the club's Goal of the Season award, to add to his Players' Player of the Season and Supporters' Player of the Season awards. |
Jon Toral | Toral returned to Birmingham City in August 2020; he signed a one-year contract with an option for a second year. He made his second debut as a substitute in the opening fixture of the season, a 1–0 defeat at home to fourth-tier Cambridge United in the EFL Cup, and started the first four Championship matches. A groin injury kept him out for a few weeks, but once fit, he found it difficult to force his way into Aitor Karanka's squad. He started two games in a row in early December: in what the Birmingham Mail called "an inexplicable difference to the form he had showed so far this season", he scored both goals in the 2–1 win away to Reading. The player himself attributed his improvement to hard work, getting used to how his team-mates play, and renewed confidence from being given consecutive starts, particularly after the arrival of a rival for the number 10 role in Alen Halilović. With Karanka reportedly concerned about his fitness, Toral was omitted from the next match; he started five more by the end of January, after which he fell behind Halilović in the pecking order. Under new head coach Lee Bowyer, Toral made two more appearances from the bench; in the second, he suffered a hamstring injury that would keep him out for the rest of the season. Birmingham confirmed that he would leave the club when his contract expired. |
364th Rifle Division | It began forming on August 10, 1941, as a standard Red Army rifle division at Omsk. It did not reach the front until March 1942, assigned to the 1st Shock Army in Northwestern Front. It served under these commands until September, then was pulled out of the line for rebuilding before being moved north to 8th Army of Volkhov Front. The division remained in Volkhov Front until the Front was disbanded in February 1944, fighting in Operation Iskra, which partly broke the siege of Leningrad, and then in the Leningrad-Novgorod Offensive, which completed the task, and won a battle honor. During the spring-summer 1944 it advanced through the Baltic States, being so worn down in the process that in September it was again moved to the reserves to be returned to a viable strength. In October it was reassigned to the 3rd Shock Army, and would advance with that Army through Poland and into Germany in 1945. The 364th ended the war in the Battle of Berlin with 1st Belorussian Front, and went on to serve postwar in the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany. |
364th Rifle Division | A fifth attempt to liberate Siniavino began in July. 8th Army was to attack from a 13.6 km sector in the Voronovo region, penetrate the enemy defenses and exploit to link up near Mga with the 55th and 67th Armies. The attacking forces were divided into two shock groups, with the 364th, reinforced with a tank regiment, in the first echelon of the southern group. This group faced the remnants of 5th Mountain Division and the left flank regiment of the 69th Infantry Division. The attack began at 0635 hours on July 22, but had been preceded by six days of artillery preparation attempting to destroy as much of the German fixed defenses as possible. The assault troops gained the first enemy trenches, but then encountered stiff resistance and heavy airstrikes; many of the tanks bogged down in the marshy terrain. In late July the second echelon divisions were committed to the battle, but made little difference. On August 9 units of the southern group found what they thought was a weak point in the positions held by 5th Mountain. The group was reinforced with two more rifle divisions and two tank regiments and attacked again on August 11. This effort was successful in taking the strongpoint at Poreche, but was again halted when the German 132nd Infantry Division arrived as reinforcements. The offensive collapsed in sheer exhaustion and ended on the 14th. The 364th was also involved in the sixth Siniavino offensive which finally seized the objective on September 15. |
364th Rifle Division | Volkhov Front was disbanded later in February, at which time the 364th was back in 54th Army, which was now in Leningrad Front. By the end of April it was in the 123rd Rifle Corps of 67th Army in the 3rd Baltic Front, and it continued to serve in that Front through the summer. On May 29, Colonel Vershbitskii was replaced in command by Col. Fyodor Aristarovich Makulkin, who was in turn replaced by Col. Ivan Andreevich Vorobev on July 9. Vorobev would continue in command for the duration of the war. By this time the division was down to 5,000 men; on July 24 it was reorganized with 4,202 total personnel, and just 60 men in each rifle company, after fighting southeast of Ostrov since the end of March. By August 1 the division was back in 1st Shock Army, having just helped to liberate Ostrov. However, its strength was minimal at this point. The 1212th Rifle Regiment had just 693 men in two small rifle battalions, and the 1216th Rifle Regiment had 718 men total, organized into five rifle companies and one reconnaissance platoon. In September the division was finally pulled back into the reserve of the 3rd Baltic Front. When that Front was disbanded in October, the division was reassigned to the 3rd Shock Army. |
364th Rifle Division | The Corps was finally committed to the battle on the morning of April 22 from behind 3rd Shock Army's left front, advancing 2 km, and by the end of the day was fighting in the western outskirts of Hohenschönhausen, within Berlin itself. On April 23, Senior Sergeant Semyon Vasilievich Gretsov was uniquely awarded his sixth Medal "For Courage". Gretsov was a medical technician of the 1214th Rifle Regiment who was credited with evacuating 130 of his wounded comrades from the battlefield from July 1943 to April 1945, being wounded himself twice in the process. By the end of April 25 the city was encircled. 7th Corps and 12th Guards Corps broke through the urban defensive line southwest and south of Weissensee and began fighting in the city's core. Throughout the next five days the 7th Corps was engaged in stubborn fighting to take the city blocks next to the Friedrichshain Park and other positions north of the Spree River and made painfully slow gains, even as the 79th Corps was planting the victory banner on the Reichstag and linking up with 8th Guards Army in the city's center. |
Morocco–United States Free Trade Agreement | The US - Middle East Free Trade Area (USMFTA) is expected to bring about new market access for U.S. consumer and industrial products; opportunities for farmers and ranchers; banks, insurance, securities; telecommunications; and e-commerce. The agreement also includes assurances for U.S. businesses in regards to corruption, intellectual property, trademarks, copyright, patents and trade secrets. In order to prevent exploitation by either party, there are also provisions regarding protection of the environment and workers rights. It also makes the legal framework in which disputes are to be settled more transparent to help reduce risk for U.S. businesses. Since the U.S., for the most part, has these mechanisms already in place, the bulk of the updating and reforming will be done by the Moroccan government. For example, just prior to the agreement , a news release by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced major revisions in Moroccan labor laws spurred by the proposed signing of the agreement. |
Bram van Velde | On 6 October 1928 van Velde married the German painter Lilly (Sophie Caroline) Klöker , whom he had been seeing since perhaps his stay at Worpswede. With the Great Depression, their material conditions deteriorated and they moved to Spain, and in September 1932 they were living in Majorca. It is here that van Velde used the early painting of Matisse as his inspiration and he made a series of still-lives in which his later abstraction started to show itself. When the Spanish Civil War started in 1936, Lilly died in a hospital and Bram van Velde fled back to Marseille with several of his canvases made on Majorca. He came back to Paris and moved in with his brother Geer. He met Marthe Arnaud, a former Lutheran missionary in the Zambezi, and they became a couple. At the studio of his brother Geer van Velde—also becoming an abstract painter—Bram van Velde met the writer Samuel Beckett, and the two would develop a friendship. Stopped on the street by the police in 1938 because he was speaking German with Marthe, van Velde was briefly imprisoned (his papers were not in order), and brief incarcerations would occur several times in the coming years. |
Bram van Velde | In 1962, 1964 and 1968 van Velde had exhibitions in the United States organized by the Knoedler gallery. In 1968 the art critic can appreciate him as 'an important abstract expressionist painter with an independent vision'. In 1962 he visited Willem de Kooning—also of Dutch origins—but the contact between the two artists is not very satisfying for either side. After 1970, van Velde travelled to visit his own expositions in Poland, Iceland, Italy and Norway, Brussels, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Rome. He did not make much new work during this period. In 1964, he was named "chevalier" of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and the Netherlands awarded him the Order of Orange-Nassau in 1969. In 1973, he painted at La Chapelle-sur-Carouge several large gouaches which are seen as the last "savage" appearance of colour in his work. Aimé Maeght took him back in his gallery, almost 20 years after having dropped him. In 1975, he was received by universities in Lausanne, Geneva and Neuchâtel, and in 1980 he was made chevalier of the "Order of the Falcon" in Iceland. For his 80th birthday, a collective homage was published by the presses at Fata Morgana (Montpellier). |
Warsaw Fortress | Warsaw Fortress (Polish: Twierdza Warszawa, ‹See Tfd›Russian: Варшавская крепость) was a system of fortifications built in Warsaw, Poland during the 19th century when the city was part of the Russian Empire. The fortress belonged to a chain of fortresses built in Congress Poland and the region adjacent to it during this period. It was built in stages, with the first part, known as Warsaw Citadel, built the years 1832-1834, in the immediate aftermath of the November Uprising of 1830. This initial fortification was then continually improved by the addition of further forts in its vicinity, with the work finally completed in 1874. In 1879 the government of the Russian Empire decided to carry out a major expansion of the fortress, which would incorporate a system of large forts surrounding the whole city. 20 forts forming this new system were constructed between 1883 and 1890. There were plans to combine the Warsaw fortress with the nearby Modlin Fortress by building a chain of connecting forts, but this work was carried out only partially. The rapid progress in the power of siege artillery required the forts to be continually strengthened. In the final period of its existence the fortress consisted of 29 forts and major works, including the older forts of the original Citadel, which were reinforced by numerous smaller fieldworks. |
Thomas Hemingway | Brigadier General Thomas Hemingway is an American military lawyer who has served as a legal advisor to the Office of Military Commissions. Thomas Hemingway was a distinguished graduate of the Air Force ROTC program, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in November 1962 after earning his undergraduate degree at Willamette University. Upon graduation, he took an educational delay and earned his doctor of jurisprudence in 1965 at Willamette University College of Law. Hemingway entered active service in November 1965. He has also been an associate professor of law at the United States Air Force Academy and a senior judge on the Air Force Court of Military Review. He is a current member of the state bar in Oregon and the District of Columbia, and has been admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States. He retired from active service in October 1996. General Hemingway was recalled to active service in August 2003 to fill the position as Legal Adviser to the Convening Authority in the Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions, Washington, D.C. General. He was replaced by Thomas W. Hartmann in July 2007. |
2008 ECAC Hockey men's ice hockey tournament | The tournament featured four rounds of play. The teams that finish above fifth place in the standings receive a bye to the quarterfinal round. In the first round, the fifth and twelfth seeds, the sixth and eleventh seeds, the seventh and tenth seeds and the eighth and ninth seeds played a best-of-three series with the winners advancing to the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals the one seed plays the lowest remaining seed, the second seed plays the second-lowest remaining seed, the third seed plays the third-lowest remaining seed and the fourth seed plays the fourth-lowest remaining seed another best-of-three series with the winners of these the series advancing to the Semifinals. In the semifinals the top remaining seed plays the lowest remaining seed while the two remaining teams play against each other. The winners of the semifinals play in the championship game while the losers play in a third-place game. All series after the quarterfinals are single-elimination games. The tournament champion receives an automatic bid to the 2008 NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey Tournament. |
Freud, Biologist of the Mind | Schwartz considered the book likely to be the most important work "written for modern sexologists unaware or uncertain of their intellectual heritage", and wrote that it discussed various topics of great importance to sexologists. He credited Sulloway with suggesting a way of integrating the various methods used in multidisciplinary approaches to the scientific study of sex and with carefully reviewing "pages of references, letters, and even margin notes from Freud's personal library to write one of the most valuable studies of the history of both sexology and science". He found Sulloway's view that Freud was a "scientific heir" of Darwin and other 19th-century evolutionary thinkers convincing. He believed that Sulloway made clear that "most of Freud's ideas remain remarkably contemporary", and concluded that while Sulloway showed that "many of the concepts attributed to Freud are not uniquely his", his biography "increases, in a realistic way, the appreciation of Freud's genius." Haeberle wrote that the book had "gained considerable attention and justified praise", calling it a model of scholarship. He credited Sulloway with carefully retracing Freud's intellectual development and placing psychoanalysis in a wider historical context through the use of many original sources, such as Freud's library, showing how Freud's thinking was related to the biological theories of his time. He suggested that Sulloway's discussion of the influence of Moll and other sexologists on Freud gave his work special importance for sex researchers. |
Freud, Biologist of the Mind | Wollheim described the book as ambitious and erudite, and credited Sulloway with making careful use of sources such as "the scientific literature that provides the background to Freud's thought" and "the polemical literature that surrounded the publication of Freud's own work", as well as "Freud's personal library" and marginalia. He wrote that Sulloway placed Freud in historical context and avoided reliance on Freud's own account of "the progress of his influence and reputation", and found his work sometimes more coherent and detailed than that of Jones. However, he believed Sulloway failed to provide a detailed treatment of Freud's revised theory of anxiety or to provide a useful discussion of Freud's relationship with Breuer, and was guilty of some inaccuracies in reporting Freud's views. He questioned Sulloway's interpretation of Freud as "essentially a biologist of the mind". He also faulted Sulloway's criticism of the "legend" surrounding Freud, writing that it offers a single explanation to material "from very different periods and variegated sources". |
Freud, Biologist of the Mind | Mollinger called the book "scholarly" and "well-researched". He considered its strength to be Sulloway's "thorough and detailed exploration of Freud's relations to and with Breuer, Fliess, Darwin, and late 19th-Century sexologists", but criticized it for Sulloway's "lack of awareness of the psychoanalytic process and thus of the essentials of psychoanalysis." Schoenwald credited Sulloway with being the first to demonstrate "the pervasive biological content of essential Freudian notions" and with offering the best interpretations he had encountered of some issues, such as why Freud posited the existence of the death instinct. However, he also wrote that by "Skimping on theoretical structure in a very long book", Sulloway "heightens the impression that Freud mostly borrowed or took a good deal from others" while failing to clarify why Freud borrowed ideas or how he reshaped them, and maintained that Sulloway's interest in criticizing psychoanalysis sometimes lead him into "unnecessary all-or-nothing formulations", for example concerning the role of Freud's self-analysis. Schoenwald also argued that while Sulloway showed Freud's borrowings from other writers, he failed to explain how Freud created psychoanalysis. |
Freud, Biologist of the Mind | Himmelstein described the book as "well-researched, enlightening, but ultimately paradoxical", writing that it had received much discussion. He credited Sulloway with revealing a Freud "about whom one can only muse as a historical curiosity and then quickly rebury" and with discrediting the received picture of Freud's development by showing that Freud "never labored in total isolation" and always had "intellectual intimates", such as Fliess, as well as with demonstrating that Fliess's ideas were considered respectable when he put them forward and anticipated Freud, and showing that the negative reception of Freud's work had been exaggerated, that psychoanalytic theory was "strongly rooted in contemporary biology and sexology", that Freudian theory is based in biogenetic and Lamarckian ideas, and that the idea of infantile sexuality was already familiar before Freud. He considered Sulloway's explanation of why "official biographers" of psychoanalysis would have obscured the origins of Freudian theory plausible, but was less convinced by his suggestion that psychoanalysis is a form of "psychobiology". He wrote that Sulloway failed to explain why the biological content of Freudian theory had been ignored. He found Sulloway's "psychobiological" interpretation of Freud overstated despite its "kernel of truth", and criticized Sulloway for ignoring the most interesting non-orthodox approaches to understanding Freud's work. He concluded that "Sulloway's psychobiological reading of Freud seems to lead nowhere; its intellectual implications are nil." |
Freud, Biologist of the Mind | The philosopher Adolf Grünbaum credited Sulloway with showing that "Freud's successive modifications of many of his hypotheses throughout most of his life were hardly empirically unmotivated" and thereby disproving the philosopher Karl Popper's argument that psychoanalytic ideas cannot be falsified. The historian Peter Gay described Freud, Biologist of the Mind as an "overargued" and "irritatingly self-indulgent" work that suggests "some revisions of the accepted view of the Freud-Fliess relationship". Gay wrote that while Sulloway presented the book as "a great unmasking document", his conclusion that Freud's theory had a biological background was not novel. However, he complimented its analysis of Freud's dependence on Fliess and "nineteenth-century psychophysics". The psychiatrist Allan Hobson called the book "pioneering", and credited Sulloway with showing that "Freud was the careful custodian of his own image and was willing to suppress the truth to protect himself." Hobson has also credited Sulloway with demonstrating that Freud carefully concealed the fact that his psychology was derived from neurobiology. The psychologist Hans Eysenck praised Sulloway, crediting him with exposing many myths which have accumulated around Freud. The historian Roy Porter described Freud, Biologist of the Mind as tendentious, but necessary as a supplement to the "hagiographical" The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud. The psychoanalyst Joel Kovel credited Sulloway with helping to establish the immense impact of biological thinking on Freud. The historian Paul Robinson described Freud, Biologist of the Mind as being "among the most important anti-Freudian writings". |
Freud, Biologist of the Mind | The critic Alexander Welsh identified Freud, Biologist of the Mind as the key work that discredited psychoanalysis as science. He credited Sulloway with using careful research to "historicize Freud's thinking more thoroughly than has ever been done in a single volume." He denied that Sulloway wanted to damage Freud's reputation, suggesting that he would have been incapable of writing the book had he not been sympathetic to Freud. The critic Frederick Crews argued that Sulloway "revolutionized our idea of Freud's scientific affinities and habits", helping to make possible subsequent works such as Grünbaum's The Foundations of Psychoanalysis and the psychologist Malcolm Macmillan's Freud Evaluated . Crews wrote that Freud, Biologist of the Mind was rightly considered a classic work on Freud. He credited Sulloway with helping scholars understand Freud's relationship with Fliess and demonstrating Fliess's enduring influence on Freud. However, he added that the book was limited by Sulloway's lack of access to the complete correspondence between Freud and Fliess, arguing that this made Sulloway more "indulgent" in his assessment of Freud and Fliess than he should have been. |
Scouts Australia | The organisation was formed in 1958 under the name ' Australian Boy Scouts Association, as a branch of the Boy Scouts Association of the United Kingdom. Before its formation, branches of the Boy Scouts Association had been formed in each Australian state. Initially, each Australian state branch was directly responsible to the Imperial Headquarters of the Boy Scouts Association in London. In 1922, the Boy Scouts Association formed its Australian Federal Council, consisting of nominees of its Australian state branches, to achieve cooperation and coordination at a national level. The Boy Scouts Association later appointed an Australian commissioner. The Australian Federal Council functioned as a branch of the Boy Scouts Association of the United Kingdom, and the Australian commissioner was appointed by the Imperial Headquarters in London. The Australian Federal Council of the Boy Scouts Association became a member of the International Conference of the Boy Scout Movement in 1953, rather than being represented through the Boy Scouts Association of the United Kingdom. In 1958, when the Australian Boy Scouts Association was formed, it succeeded the Australian Federal Council of the Boy Scouts Association. |
Scouts Australia | In February 2000, Roderick Albert Joseph Corrie, a former NSW Branch Commissioner and scout leader of nearly thirty-two years was convicted of child sexual offences. "Corrie, one of the most senior and highly decorated Scouts in NSW, was jailed for seven years in February 2000 after pleading guilty in the District Court to eight most serious of 77 charges of sexually abusing children as young as 11, including rape and buggery, occurring 1969–1995. Two years earlier, Corrie had been convicted of eight charges of "aggravated indecent assault" and placed on a bond, given counselling and 70 hours of community service." The head of Scouts Australia, "Dr. Bruce Munro, apologised to the families of those abused after The Sydney Morning Herald obtained a copy of a 14-page report written by a senior Scout leader in 1981 that detailed serious allegations of Corrie abusing four boys, one aged 12 at the time. Munro admitted that those allegations were not properly investigated or referred to the police and that although Corrie was initially suspended, he was then simply allowed to transfer as a leader to a North Shore Scouting group. Even after police began investigating Corrie in 1994, he was allowed to continue having contact with, and sexually abusing, scouts until at least May 1995." |
Hadji Ali | Hadji Ali was born into a working-class family in approximately 1887 or 1892, depending on the source consulted, probably in Egypt. His fame was as a practitioner of a recognized vaudeville subgenre known as a "regurgitation act", involving the swallowing of material or objects and their regurgitation in various ways. Ali became aware as a child that he possessed an unusual gastric ability. He explained in response to audience questions at a performance held at St. Mary's Hospital in Niagara Falls, New York, in May 1926, that while swimming in the Nile as a ten-year-old boy, he naturally discovered that he could swallow a large amount of water and blow it out like a whale spouting. He continued to develop and refine the ability as he grew older. A more dramatic version of these events was provided by Ali's daughter, Almina Ali, in an interview in England after his death. She stated that his abilities were first learned through a single incident: while bathing in the Nile, he inadvertently swallowed a fish and an ample volume of water. Instead of dying, as those present thought he might, Ali simply regurgitated the liquid and the fish without ill effect. |
Hadji Ali | At some performances, a panel or "jury" from the audience was invited on stage to verify that no trick mechanism was being employed—that he was actually swallowing the items in question and delivering them back through acts of regurgitation. Sometimes Ali would stroll into the audience during his nut swallowing trick. His stomach exposed by his standard costume, he invited audience members to pat his stomach, allowing them to hear the nuts rattling within. One newspaper reported that Ali's feats, essentially controlled vomiting, were performed in "a manner without the least bit of unpleasantness or anything bordering on repulsiveness." Not everyone felt the same: at least one of Ali's engagements was cut short once the proprietor realized that the nature of the act "was killing their supper shows". Famed escapologist and magician Harry Houdini remarked in his 1920 work Miracle Mongers and Their Methods that water spouting was a "performance that could not fail to disgust a modern audience." |
Hadji Ali | Ali died on November 5, 1937, in Wolverhampton, England, from heart failure during a bout of bronchitis. Even before his death, a rumor had circulated that the Rockefeller Institute sought to procure Ali's stomach upon his death, and would pay as much as $50,000 for it. This claim appeared in a poster advertising Ali's impending appearance at a theater during his lifetime. After Ali's death was reported, the rumor resurfaced as an active offer of $10,000. When a Rockefeller Institute manager was interviewed about the story, he said the offer had never been made but that nevertheless, "we should very much like to see the body." Almina and Julian transported Ali's body back to the United States on board the Queen Mary. According to a November 29, 1937, article in the New York Post, upon their arrival, Almina offered her father's body to Maryland's Johns Hopkins University for investigation by surgeons, after which it would be transported to Egypt for interment in a mausoleum. However, The Afro-American newspaper reported on December 11, 1937, that Johns Hopkins's officials had declined the offer. |
Battle of Soltau | The defeated Brunswick army probably lost around 3,000 to 3,500 killed, most of them drowned in the marshes, as well as numerous prisoners (including Duke Eric I of Calenberg and William, Count of Wunstorf and Regenstein). Some 136 noblemen and 400 knight's chargers were also captured, along with the silver, tableware, and garments of the Brunswick dukes and the war chest with 10,000 Gulden. The victors, by contrast, only suffered light casualties. Reports vary between 10 and 200 dead. The first figure (10) is hardly believable, even if the favourable circumstances for the Lüneburg forces are taken into account. No figures are given for the wounded, although these usually greatly exceeded the number killed. The report of 3,000 to 3,500 dead on the Brunswick side is clearly estimated and is probably based on the number of remaining troops that gathered again after the battle. The nobility of both sides complained about the high number of horses lost in the battle. This could be due to the fact that the cavalry at Soltau did most of the work (which in the case of the Lüneburgers at least affected the first half of the battle). It is also quite feasible that the miry terrain led to the demise of many of the horses. |
Battle of Soltau | Eric of Calenburg was captured, but later freed on payment of a considerable ransom to Bishop John and the surrender of various castles. Henry the Younger escaped to Rothenburg Castle. Although Henry the Middle and Bishop John IV were able to take control of the regional situation for a time through their victory at Soltau, the wider political direction of the empire took a different turn. After Charles from the House of Habsburg had been elected as the new emperor, the defeated party made various attempts to show that the victors of Soltau had been in the wrong. Because the latter had supported Francis I of France, the reaction of Charles V was unsurprising. In the end the Lüneburg-Hildesheim party had to acquiesce to significant material forfeitures at the Quedlinburg Recess of 1523. The victor of Soltau, Henry the Middle, was placed under an imperial ban and by 1520 had to seek exile in France. In 1530 Charles V lifted the ban and Duke Henry was able to spend his last years at Wienhausen near Celle where he died in 1532. Bishop John was also banned and later resigned from office. |
Glidden Co. v. Zdanok | In Ex parte Bakelite Corp. and Williams v. United States, the Court held that the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals and the United States Court of Claims were courts created under Article I of the Constitution. However, the U.S. Congress in 67 Stat. 226 and 72 Stat. 848 , had indicated that the two courts were constituted under Article III of the Constitution. This distinction was important as judges of Article III courts are considered part of the independent judiciary as they are appointed for life and their salary cannot be decreased, which is in turn considered a requirement for the operation of judiciary as a separate branch of government. In the two cases at hand, judges from these courts had been assigned to courts of appeals and districts court by the Chief Justice of the United States as part of the task of balancing the workloads among the various courts. It was contended that these judges were judges of Article I courts and therefore could not adjudicate decisions on Article III courts. It was contended that as the judgments of the Court of Claims had traditionally required Congressional appropriation to pay prevailing plaintiffs, because the Court of Claims issued advisory reports in response to matters referred to it by Congress under 28 U.S.C. § 1492, and because the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals could review certain administrative decisions of the Tariff Commission under 28 U.S.C. § 1543, that they there not truly independent as required by Article III. |
Glidden Co. v. Zdanok | In a plurality opinion, the Justice Harlan, writing for himself, Justice Brennan and Justice Stewart, held that Bakelite and Williams were decided incorrectly and that the courts had always been Article III courts and that the Congressional act of 1953 and 1958 confirmed that status. As such, it was permissible for judges from either court to be designated for service on courts of appeals and district courts and the decisions of the lower courts in this instance were valid. Justice Clark, writing for himself and the Chief Justice, concurred in the result, but concurred on the grounds that the 1953 and 1958 Acts made the courts Article III courts in light of the confusion that led to the Bakelite and Williams decisions, which were otherwise accurate. He found that the issues of Congressional reference cases under 28 U.S.C. § 1492 could be resolved by the Court of Claims declining future cases and that the Tariff Commission cases under 28 U.S.C. § 1543 were too insignificant to countermand the express Congressional intent of the 1958 act. Justice Douglas, writing for himself and Justice Black, dissented on the grounds that the courts were Article I courts and that the importance of an independent judiciary prevented non-Article III judges from deciding matters brought before Article III courts. The same confluence of practical considerations that dictated the result in Canter has governed the decision in later cases sanctioning the creation of other courts with judges of limited tenure. Tenure that is guaranteed by the Constitution is a badge of a judge of an Article III court. The argument that mere statutory tenure is sufficient for judges of Article III courts was authoritatively answered in Ex parte Bakelite Corp.: |
Video game console emulator | By the mid-1990s, personal computers had progressed to the point where it was technically feasible to replicate the behavior of some of the earliest consoles entirely through software, and the first unauthorized, non-commercial console emulators began to appear. These early programs were often incomplete, only partially emulating a given system, resulting in defects. Few manufacturers published technical specifications for their hardware, which left programmers to deduce the exact workings of a console through reverse engineering. Nintendo's consoles tended to be the most commonly studied, for example the most advanced early emulators reproduced the workings of the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and the Game Boy. The first such recognized emulator was released around 1996, being one of the prototype projects that eventually merged into the SNES9X product. Programs like Marat Fayzullin's iNES, VirtualGameBoy, Pasofami (NES), Super Pasofami (SNES), and VSMC (SNES) were the most popular console emulators of this era. A curiosity was also Yuji Naka's unreleased NES emulator for the Genesis, possibly marking the first instance of a software emulator running on a console. Additionally, as the Internet gained wider availability, distribution of both emulator software and ROM images became more common, helping to popularize emulators. |
Video game console emulator | An emulator is created typically through reverse engineering of the hardware information as to avoid any possible conflicts with non-public intellectual property. Some information may be made public for developers on the hardware's specifications which can be used to start efforts on emulation but there are often layers of information that remain as trade secrets such as encryption details. Operating code stored in the hardware's BIOS may be disassembled to be analyzed in a clean room design, with one person performing the disassembling and another person, separately, documenting the function of the code. Once enough information is obtained regarding how the hardware interprets the game software, an emulation on the target hardware can then be constructed. Emulation developers typically avoid any information that may come from untraceable sources to avoid contaminating the clean room nature of their project. For example, in 2020, a large trove of information related to Nintendo's consoles was leaked, and teams working on Nintendo console emulators such as the Dolphin emulator for GameCube and Wii stated they were staying far away from the leaked information to avoid tainting their project. |
Video game console emulator | Outside of official usage, emulation has generally been seen negatively by video game console manufacturers and game developers. The largest concern is nature of copyright infringement related to ROM images of games, typically distributed freely and without hardware restrictions. While this directly impacts potential sales of emulated games and thus the publishers and developers, the nature of the value chain of the industry can lead to potential financial harm to console makers. Further, emulation challenges the industry's use of the razorblade model for console games, where consoles are sold near cost and revenue instead obtained from licenses on game sales. With console emulation being developed even while consoles are still on the market, console manufacturers are forced to continue to innovate, bring more games for their systems to market, and move quickly onto new technology to continue their business model. There are further concerns related to intellectual property of the console's branding and of games' assets that could be misused, though these are issues less with emulation itself but with how the software is subsequently used. |
Video game console emulator | Alternatively, emulation is seen to enhance video game preservation efforts, both in shifting game information from outdated technology into newer, more persistent formats, and providing software or hardware alternates to aged hardware. Concerns about cost, availability, and longevity of game software and console hardware have also been cited as a reason for supporting the development of emulators. Some users of emulation also see emulation as means to preserve games from companies that have long-since gone bankrupt or disappeared from the industry's earlier market crash and contractions, and where ownership of the property is unclear. Emulation can also be seen as a means to enhance functionality of the original game that would otherwise not be possible, such as adding in localizations via ROM patches or new features such as save states. In November 2021, Phil Spencer stated that he hoped for video game companies to eventually develop and propagate legal emulation which would allow users to play any game from the past that they already owned a copy of, characterizing it as "a great North Star" for the industry to aim towards in the future. |
Video game console emulator | As computers and global computer networks continued to advance and become more popular, emulator developers grew more skilled in their work, the length of time between the commercial release of a console and its successful emulation began to shrink. Fifth generation consoles such as Nintendo 64, PlayStation and sixth generation handhelds, such as the Game Boy Advance, saw significant progress toward emulation during their production. This led to an effort by console manufacturers to stop unofficial emulation, but consistent failures such as Sega v. Accolade 977 F.2d 1510 , Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. v. Connectix Corporation 203 F.3d 596 , and Sony Computer Entertainment America v. Bleem 214 F.3d 1022 , have had the opposite effect, which has ruled that emulators, developed through clean room design, are legal. The Librarian of Congress, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), has codified these rules as allowed exemptions to bypass technical copyright protections on console hardware. However, emulator developers cannot incorporate code that may have been embedded within the hardware BIOS, nor ship the BIOS image with their emulators. |
Video game console emulator | Due to the high demand of playing old games on modern systems, consoles have begun incorporating emulation technology. The most notable of these is Nintendo's Virtual Console. Originally released for the Wii, but present on the 3DS and Wii U, Virtual Console uses software emulation to allow the purchasing and playing of games for old systems on this modern hardware. Though not all games are available, the Virtual Console has a large collection of games spanning a wide variety of consoles. The Virtual Console's library of past games currently consists of titles originating from the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and Wii, as well as Sega's Master System and Genesis/Mega Drive, NEC's TurboGrafx-16, and SNK's Neo Geo. The service for the Wii also includes games for platforms that were known only in select regions, such as the Commodore 64 (Europe and North America) and MSX (Japan), as well as Virtual Console Arcade, which allows players to download video arcade games. Virtual Console titles have been downloaded over ten million times. Each game is distributed with a dedicated emulator tweaked to run the game as well as possible. However, it lacks the enhancements that unofficial emulators provide, and many titles are still unavailable. |
Video game console emulator | Until the 4.0.0 firmware update, the Nintendo Switch system software contained an embedded NES emulator, referred to internally as "flog", running the game Golf (with motion controller support using Joy-Con). The Easter egg was believed to be a tribute to former Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, who died in 2015: the game was only accessible on July 11 (the date of his death), Golf was programmed by Iwata, and the game was activated by performing a motion gesture with a pair of Joy-Con that Iwata had famously used during Nintendo's video presentations. It was suggested that the inclusion of Golf was intended as a digital form of omamori—a traditional form of Japanese amulets intended to provide luck or protection. As part of its Nintendo Switch Online subscription service, Nintendo subsequently released an app featuring an on-demand library of NES and SNES titles updated regularly. The app features similar features to Virtual Console titles, including save states, as well as a pixel scaler mode and an effect that simulates CRT television displays. |
Video game console emulator | Due to differences in hardware, the Xbox 360 is not natively backwards compatible with original Xbox games. However, Microsoft achieved backwards compatibility with popular titles through an emulator. On June 15, 2015, Microsoft announced the Xbox One would be backwards compatible with Xbox 360 through emulation. In June 2017, they announced original Xbox titles would also be available for backwards compatibility through emulation, but because the Xbox original runs on the x86 architecture, CPU emulation is unnecessary, greatly improving performance. The PlayStation 3 uses software emulation to play original PlayStation titles, and the PlayStation Store sells games that run through an emulator within the machine. In the original Japanese and North American 60 GB and 20 GB models, original PS2 hardware is present to run titles; however all PAL models, and later models released in Japan and North America removed some PS2 hardware components, replacing it with software emulation working alongside the video hardware to achieve partial hardware/software emulation. In later releases, backwards compatibility with PS2 titles was completely removed along with the PS2 graphics chip, and eventually Sony released PS2 titles with software emulation on the PlayStation Store. |
Commander (song) | "Commander" is a song performed and co-written by American singer Kelly Rowland featuring French DJ and record producer David Guetta from Rowland's third studio album, Here I Am . It serves as the project's international lead single and her debut release with Universal Motown. It was the pair's second collaboration, having previously topped charts around the world with a similar dance production, "When Love Takes Over", in 2009. Rowland and Guetta co-wrote the song with French DJ Sandy Vee and American songwriter Rico Love, who described the song as a "fun and aggressive club record" with themes of female empowerment and lyrics with deliberate grammatical errors. Guetta and Vee produced "Commander" with synthesized dance beats that blend R&B with electronica and house music, with Love providing backing vocals and vocal production. The song was premiered at the 2010 Winter Music Conference and subsequently garnered widespread acclaim from contemporary critics for Rowland's vocal performance as well as Guetta's musical production. |
Commander (song) | In 2009, before Rowland and Guetta collaborated for "When Love Takes Over", the media reported that Columbia Records and Rowland were to part ways by mutual agreement. However in a 2010 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Rowland stated the decision to leave was not hers: the label ended their contract because singles from the previous record Ms. Kelly did not sell sufficiently well. After the release of "When Love Takes Over" she would go on to fire Mathew Knowles as her manager. It has since been suggested Rowland had fallen out with former fellow Destiny's Child singer Beyoncé Knowles. The media reported that Knowles' decision to release one more video ("Why Don't You Love Me") from her album I Am... Sasha Fierce just before Rowland released "Commander" was unfair on Rowland. These claims would be denied by the singer who said that despite the clip for "Why Don't You Love Me" airing several days before "Commander", the media was "making too much of a big deal of release schedules and trying to create a feud where it doesn't exist." She also said, "we all came out at the same time and it really doesn't matter ... I think there's room for everybody ... There's Bey, there's Ciara putting something out and GaGa putting something out, but, because we started out together, people are going to say things like that. But I really don't care, I love her 'til our dying days and that's all that counts." |
Commander (song) | Rowland was quoted on the theme of the song, saying "I hope to see women singing the song like they're in charge. It's important to know that we are commanders who have the power to shape our own destiny." Love explained to Rap-Up magazine his view of the song, "It's just such an aggressive record, it's a club record, it's a worldwide international record. She's stretching her legs out and she's showing her true vocal ability, she's like the queen of the night on this record." Then during the video shoot of the song Rowland said "I feel like I've finally come into my own," a reference to the exploration of a new musical sound. "With the sound of dance music getting embraced more, I'm very excited, seeing how fans have been responding to the music. Dance music is more of a European thing, but I've been looking on Twitter and seeing fans (in different parts of the country) talking about playing 'Commander'." She said working with Guetta was "amazing" because it is "effortless" and she feels a great sense of "chemistry" when working with him. Rowland felt she was trying something different: "In this generation and this day and time, no one is putting soul in dance music ... no pop artist. I thought maybe that was something I could try. And then it works." In an interview for MSN Xin Rowland admitted the song was "darker" than her previous material but still fun. "I just thought it'd be so much fun to be a commander of course. It's just a statement for me definitely, coming out on my own, filling my space. I'm happy being a commander". |
Commander (song) | "Commander" was selected as the album's first single. Rowland said there were initially two songs in the running for the lead single, but "without a doubt we had to go with , I just fell in love with it ... It's definitely a club banger. You know the first time I heard it, I went bananas." At Pat Field's Disco Party in New York, she told Universal Music Group executives "I know in my gut that it felt good. Nobody could take my thoughts away from that. I doesn't need anyone else to tell me it's good". The song was released on May 17 and 18, 2010 to the iTunes Stores, in France and the United States, respectively. The official extended dance remix was released alongside the main single on May 18, 2010. In the United Kingdom, "Commander" was planned for a June 28, 2010 release. Love and Rowland would later unveil plans for an urban mix of the song with a slower, smoother sound. American rapper Nelly heard the new version in its early stages and asked if he could be featured on the remix. It was released as part of the UK Remixes EP. as well as the second U.S. remixes EP. The official press from Universal Motown Records on May 19, 2010 confirmed that "Commander" would serve only as the "international lead single", leading to speculation another song would be released domestically. This speculation was confirmed when the Ne-Yo-penned, "Shake Them Haters Off" was set to impact on radio stations in the United States. However those plans were changed and on June 29, 2010 two singles were serviced to impact in the United States. "Grown Woman" was sent to urban contemporary/rhythmic contemporary radio stations and "Rose Colored Glasses" for pop radio. |
Commander (song) | "Commander" received critical acclaim, with particular praise for the collaboration between Rowland and Guetta. Robert Copsey of Digital Spy said "It looks as though they're going to be ruling the airwaves all over again ... After she lulls us into a false sense of security ("I feel like the DJ is bodyguard / You see the way he keeps me safe? / With the treble and the bass?"), the track plunges into a pounding electro-house chorus that quite literally orders us to the dance floor ... The result isn't quite as fresh and inventive as some of Guetta's recent output – Kelis' 'Acapella', for example – but it goes a long way towards recapturing some of last summer's magic." The site's other reviewer, Nick Levine, agreed saying that the song "thumps as persuasively as Muhammad Ali circa 1967." Robert Daw of Idolator said "if you think Ms. Kelly is taking the go-go boots off anytime soon, then you'd best go lean against the wall, flower. Rowland's Guetta-produced new single 'Commander' is pure strobe-light adrenaline rush ... will appear on Kelly's as-yet-untitled third solo album ... we're predicting a full on Rowland Renaissance!". With Alex Catarinella of Paper saying "she belts out soaring vocals, is further proof that she's no longer the cute teenage girl sharing a chorus." |
Commander (song) | Rebecca Nicholson of The Guardian said that before Guetta's collaborations with Kelis ("Acapella") and Rowland, she felt " was ruining R&B by turning all of my favorite ladies into Euro cheesemongers". However "Acapella" changed Nicholson's mind and she said, "'Commander' is further evidence of this". Whilst Fraser McAlpine awarded the song four stars, his review was neither positive nor negative. He said "Singers always like to sing about how brilliantly attractive and astonishing (and bossy) they are. Even if the words have a double meaning, which hints that they are merely mouthing the self-regard of a rampant egomaniac, who is laughing and rubbing his hands every time they start to sing, they don't mind. Why would they? The song mentions hair, and being better than the other ladies. That's what singers live for. one extra star for the stoopid grammar switcheroo ... because of the chorus, which rules." Gavin Martin of The Mirror made similar comments neither praising nor criticizing the song, instead saying it will put her "firmly in control of the dance floor". |
Commander (song) | In the United Kingdom, single and dance mixes were released as standalone downloads on May 17, 2010, whilst the song was added to urban music radio and UK's biggest mainstream station, BBC Radio 1's C-playlist, that same week. Consequently "Commander" debuted on the UK Dance Singles chart at number thirty-four. The following week the song debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number one-hundred-and-sixty-seven supported by the song's ascension to the B-playlists on the UK's urban music radio station BBC 1Xtra as well as on mainstream radio. Then a week ahead of the remixes EP, "Commander" reached its peak at number two on the UK Dance Chart and number nine on the Official Singles Chart as well as reaching the A-playlist on urban radio. It peaked at number nine on the UK Download Chart and number nineteen on the UK Subscription Plays chart, the single was one of Rowland's longest runs on the UK Top 40 with sixteen weeks. The single became Rowland's third best selling solo single in the United Kingdom with 285,000 copies being sold as of November 2011. |
Commander (song) | Rowland stated to Rap Up TV that "the concept of the video is very futuristic and great. The red line in the story is that I am above all the lead but in the club atmosphere with cool people. I fight against myself with my haircut, makeup, and dance moves." According to Love, in the clip Rowland is transformed into a fashionista, "Kelly's look in this video is just utterly sexy. It's like a jungle feel. I feel like we're in Avatar somewhere, running through the woods, minus the blue paint." Later one of her outfits was described as an "Avatar-esque bodysuit". Rowland said "I had to pull out my dancing shoes for this video!" The video features "Kelly Rowland facing off against herself. The two Kellys start what appears to be a voguing competition on the dancefloor, then are flanked by respective dance teams." Guetta makes an appearance at the end of the clip he "undergoes a 'Transformers'-like metamorphosis, turning into a mixer." Paper magazine described Rowland's look in the video as "superhero-esque". Joanna Goh from MSN China said that in the clip " sports a new femme fatale image a la the bodysuits and masculine imaging". |
Commander (song) | As of July 6, 2010 and according to a press release from Universal Motown, the video has received critical acclaim with over two million Vevo views. When Robbie Daw of Idolator saw the unfinished version of the video compared it to the earlier works of Janet Jackson saying it had "old-school Janet vibe". Later after seeing the fully finished version he said it was "a colorful, militant dance-off". The theme, wardrobe, and choreography also drew comparisons to Jackson's "Feedback" video, with HitFix commenting "Rowland even has Janet's singular and straight pony tail." E! Online's Natalie Finn also had praise for the video. She said it "takes the themes of the song: taking charge, owning the floor and staying sexy and feminine throughout..." and "dresses 'em in tight little outfits and turns 'em loose to break hearts and dominate the opposite sex at will." "The music video is great and it might be a must-spin" according to Martin from Above&Beyond magazine, who praised Rowland's beauty by saying, "I didn't know Kelly was that well-equipped from the back but I always found Kelly more attractive than Beyoncé ... I'm just saying". |
Commander (song) | The video was criticized for the absence of story line by critics such as Laura Brooks of 'TeenToday', who described the video as " to show off her lovely hair and her thighs" that "also features David Guetta who appears to have remembered at several points throughout the video that he's left his iron on dashes off to remedy the situation." Alyssa Rosenberg of The Atlantic agreed, calling the clip "dopey ... with guys who forgot to wash the home dye out of their hair" (sic) and the dancing was on-par with sci-fi film The Matrix Reloaded. However she did say that "It's a high-concept understanding of the dance floor, even if it's not my preferred interpretation of that space. If love and shaking it are war, Kelly seems like she'd be a pretty decent person to have boss you around in both." Meanwhile Sound Savvy said "There's some nice moves and Kelly sports some sexy looks for the clip. 'Commander' has received CRAZY airplay and the reception has been overwhelmingly positive for this track. I kinda dig the video, but I would've liked more choreography." |
Commander (song) | Rowland debuted "Commander" live at Cathy Guetta's Fuck Me I'm Famous party in Miami, as part of Winter Music Conference on March 27, 2010. Immediately after the performance she said, "I was nervous and anxious, but when I hit the stage I felt the inner 'Commander' come to life!" Then on May 4, whilst playing a DJ set at a club in Frankfurt (Germany), Guetta premiered his extended remix. Rowland performed "Commander" at KIIS FM's Wango Tango 2010 Staples Centre (Los Angeles) on May 15, 2010. International promotion for the song began a week later with live UK debut of "Commander" at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend. This was followed up on June 15 with a live performance and interview on The Graham Norton Show and a medley performance on June 25 in Singapore. Rowland has subsequently appeared three more times in the UK on GMTV, an acoustic performance on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge; as well as The 5 O'Clock Show. "Commander" was performed in acoustic for a second time on Radio 2's Saturday Sessions with Dermot O'Leary. In August 2010 the Canadian dance show, So You Think You Can Dance Canada used the song for their season three promotion TV clips. The music was also used in the presentation of delegates and opening number of the live telecast of Miss Universe 2010 in Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas. |
Old Dominion Monarchs baseball, 2010–2019 | The Monarchs 2015 season included wins over two top 10 teams, beating #1 Virginia and winning the conference series from #8 Rice as well as defeating Virginia again when the team was ranked #22. The team also played and was defeated by then #18 Maryland and lost the series to #14 FAU making their record against ranked teams 5–4. In conference play the Monarchs won their series against Rice, FIU and swept LA Tech. The Monarchs lost their conference series to Western Kentucky, UTSA, Marshall, FAU, UAB and Charlotte after a Saturday win was vacated for a 27-man roster violation and got swept for the first time in C-USA play at MTSU. Out of conference play the Monarchs swept the weekend series from Penn and the season match ups from VMI and Virginia and won their weekend series from Rutgers. The team also split a home and home season series from Liberty and William & Mary and were swept by ECU and VCU. After finishing with a 13–17 conference record ODU ended up tied for 7th in conference standings with the tie-breaker over FIU to be the 7 seed in the 2015 C-USA Conference Baseball Tournament. |
Against the Wall (1994 film) | Although the prisoners were discontented with the ghastly prison conditions, the unplanned uprising began with a misunderstanding. On Sept. 8, 1971, a prisoner had been accused of hitting an officer. The next morning, after more prisoner infractions and a miscommunication among officers, a group of prisoners were locked in a tunnel connecting different parts of the prison. Believing that officers were coming to beat them up in reprisal, the prisoners attacked the officers in the tunnel and some attacked each other. Prisoners in other parts of the facility figured out what was happening and began to arm themselves e.g. with two-by-fours, chair legs, etc. When the prisoners in the tunnel burst out, the other inmates were taking over the prison. They created a society, with some rules by consensus and elected leaders. Observers like radical defense lawyer William M. Kunstler, The New York Times columnist Tom Wicker, and Bobby Seale, chairman of the Black Panther Party, were invited to inspect prison conditions and monitor negotiations. The observers took on the role of mediators, relaying demands which included amnesty from reprisals and basic rights. |
Against the Wall (1994 film) | The prison uprising ended on September 13, 1971, when 1,000 New York state troopers, sheriff's deputies, correction officers and members of the National Guard under the order of Governor Nelson Rockefeller to fire at will, raided the prison and killed 29 inmates and 10 officers who were being held hostage. Rockefeller, who wanted to be president, had decided not to go to the prison to broker a peaceful resolution as the inmates and their negotiators had asked. Although agreement appeared near on many of the inmates' demands, the assault was approved when negotiations over amnesty had stalled and there were concerns for the safety of the hostages. Some prisoners beat up their least favorite officers. One officer, William Quinn, died early in the uprising after a blow to the head; he fell and was trampled. After that, officers taken hostage were treated well. After a helicopter sprayed a cloud of tear gas, troopers shot indiscriminately some 2,000 rounds of ammunition. After the shooting stopped, scores of prisoners were beaten and tortured, hundreds of whom were seriously wounded and initially denied medical care; the identity of the person who shot Michael Smith has not been revealed. The brutalization of inmates continued long after the re-taking of the prison. |
Aadama Jaichomada | The film is about unraveling the identity of the mysterious 'Albert', who heads the spot fixing operations for the IPL matches in Chennai. The Chennai Police Commissioner gets a tip off that Albert plans to fix a bowler to spot fix a specific over in the semifinal match of the IPL. He informs his officers to be sharp and on the lookout for 'Albert' or any clues leading to Albert. Dhayalan, Albert's agent, uses a taxi belonging to Panneer to travel all over Chennai, his motive being to confuse the police by constantly travelling and confusing the GPS locators. Dhayalan and Panneer bond and swap life stories. Panneer drops Dhayalan at his hotel and is asked to return the following morning. When Panneer goes to Dhayalan's room the following morning, he sees Dhayalan dead with a knife in his chest. This brings Inspector Bhoominathan and his sidekick Constable Mariadas, who arrest Panneer as a suspect for murdering Dhayalan. However, Panneer is whisked away by a film producer, who comes in the guise of a Maharashtra Police Officer. He wants Panneer, who is the last person to have seen Dhayalan alive, because he wants to place a bet on the match to win big and pay off a producer to whom he owes several crores. Eventually, the police sets a trap for Albert with Panneer playing a major role, but the plot turns awry when Albert manages to get away with it and with Panneer winning two crores from his bet, which he uses to set up his own call taxi company, and his wife Rama, who sets up her own restaurant. |
Aadama Jaichomada | The film received overall positive reviews. The Times of India gave the film 2.5 stars out of 5 and wrote, "There is scope for an interesting black comedy in this plot but Aadama Jaichomada often feels less quirky and less funny than it should have been. It is as if the makers decided to stick to the lowest possible yardstick and were satisfied for managing to cross it. As a result, many of the jokes do not work that well...We are amused..we smile...we chuckle...but we never truly laugh non-stop". The New Indian Express wrote, "Laced with dark humour, Aadama Jaichomada keeps one entertained for the most part. Taking just about two hours of viewing time, Aadama Jaichomada has its good moments and is a breezy watch". Rediff gave 2.5 stars out of 5 and wrote, "The characters and the situation they unwittingly get themselves into, is well thought out, and cleverly woven into the screenplay. The narrative too is totally unpredictable, keeping you guessing. At just two hours, the story moves at a brisk pace", going on to add that the film "does work as an entertainer". Sify wrote, "The film works for its performances of Karunakaran, Balaji and the interactions between the bumbling cops Simhaa, KS Ravikumar and Chetan. There is something quirky about it that makes the film a watchable fun ride. Aadama Jaichomada is like a T:20 match fast and thoroughly enjoyable". IANS gave 3 stars and wrote, "Aadama Jaichomada, at two hours, attempts to be a crime-thriller as well as a sports-based comedy. But it only succeeds as the latter, and fails to do justice to the former form...Despite a weak story, the humour in Aadama Jaichomada will bowl over the movie buffs". The Hindu wrote, "Picture yourself reading an average joke book. You flip page after page, reading the jokes, many of which barely evoke a smile. Just as you decide to try one last one before flinging the book away, you find a tickler that gets you laughing. Aadama Jaichomada is this joke book that surprises you with a witty line or funny joke just when you are resigned to expecting nothing". Cinemalead rated a 2.5 out of 5 and wrote,"Short and Fun" |
Retrogenix | The human Cell Microarray tool developed by Retrogenix utilises a library of expression vectors containing open reading frames (ORFs) encoding full-length human plasma membrane proteins, as well as a green fluorescent protein (GFP). Each vector is combined with a lipid, and the complexes are spotted in precise locations on specialized slides. Reverse transfection of human cells, which are grown on the microarray slides, results in over-expression of each membrane protein located over its respective vector spot. Expression of GFP acts as a control to ensure transfection efficiency and to confirm positioning of the spot co-ordinates. Putative receptor targets are identified by assessing gain-of-binding when a test ligand is applied to the cell microarrays. Further tests determine whether the receptor 'hit' is reproducible and to confirm specificity to the test ligand. Currently, more than 4,500 proteins are simultaneously expressed in the Cell Microarray system for individual screening. The human expression system allows for correct folding and localisation at the surface of the cell and there are documented cases of biological interactions that are mediated by post-translational modifications being detected using the technology. |
Munirathna Anandakrishnan | Anandakrishnan was the president of the Madras Science Association and Tamil Nadu Academy of Sciences and a member of the Indian Society for Technical Education and the Indian Society for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. He was also associated as a member with organizations such as Madras School of Economics, A. M. M. Murugappa Chettiar Research Centre, C. P. R. Environmental Education Centre, Tamil Virtual University, Assam University, Tamil Nadu Foundation, Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group (CAG), Madras Management Association, Madras Craft Foundation, Tamil Nadu Council for Sustainable Livelihood, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, and International Forum for Information Technology in Tamil, Singapore, (INFITT). He was a member of the Managing Committee of the Tamil Nadu chapter of the Transparency International, a trustee of the Information Technology Bar of India, Chennai, a trustee and subsequently the chairman of the Ranganathan Centre for Information Studies and held the chair of the Academic Advisory Committee of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), Bangalore. |
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics | The MPI-CBG is located in a hub of biomedical research institutes including research centers of the Technische Universität Dresden (TUD) such as, the Center for Regenerative Therapies (CRTD), the B CUBE - Center for Molecular Bioengineering as well as the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden, the Medical Theoretical Centre (MTZ) and the BioInnovationsZentrum (BIOZ). The MPI-CBG has collaborations with its neighbouring research institutes and with other centres in the city like the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (MPI-PKS). Together with the MPI-PKS and the TUD, the MPI-CBG founded the Center for Systems Biology Dresden (CSBD). This center develops theoretical and computational approaches to biological systems across different scales, from molecules to cells and from cells to tissues. The MPI-CBG is also part of DRESDEN-concept, a research alliance of the TUD together with the four major research institutions – Max Planck, Helmholtz, Fraunhofer, and Leibniz – and the research-active museums in Dresden. It also collaborates with institutions abroad. In addition, it operates an international PhD program together with the aforementioned neighbours. |
Strategic bombing during World War II | Strategic bombing during World War II in Europe began on 1 September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland and the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) began bombing Polish cities and the civilian population in an aerial bombardment campaign. As the war continued to expand, bombing by both the Axis and the Allies increased significantly. The Royal Air Force, in retaliation for Luftwaffe attacks on the UK which started on 16 October 1939, began bombing military targets in Germany, commencing with the Luftwaffe seaplane air base at Hörnum on the 19–20 March 1940. In September 1940 the Luftwaffe began targeting British civilians in the Blitz. After the beginning of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, the Luftwaffe attacked Soviet cities and infrastructure. From February 1942 onward, the British bombing campaign against Germany became even less restricted and increasingly targeted industrial sites and civilian areas. When the United States began flying bombing missions against Germany, it reinforced British efforts. The Allies attacked oil installations, and controversial firebombings took place against Hamburg , Dresden , and other German cities. |
Strategic bombing during World War II | Preparations were made for a concentrated attack (Operation Wasserkante) by all bomber forces against targets in Warsaw. However, the operation was cancelled, according to Polish professor Tomasz Szarota due to bad weather conditions, while German author Horst Boog claims it was possibly due to Roosevelt's plea to avoid civilian casualties; according to Boog the bombing of military and industrial targets within the Warsaw residential area called Praga was prohibited. Polish reports from the beginning of September note strafing of civilians by German attacks and bombing of cemeteries and marked hospitals (marking of hospitals proved counterproductive as German aircraft began to specifically target them, until hospitals were moved into the open to avoid such targeting), and indiscriminate attacks on fleeing civilians which according to Szarota was a direct violation of the Hague Convention. Warsaw was first attacked by German ground forces on 9 September and was put under siege on 13 September. German author Boog claims that with the arrival of German ground forces, the situation of Warsaw changed; under the Hague Convention, the city could be legitimately attacked as it was a defended city in the front line that refused calls to surrender. |
Strategic bombing during World War II | The Germans used the threat of bombing Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to try to get the Dutch to come to terms and surrender. After a second ultimatum had been issued by the Germans, it appeared their effort had failed and on 14 May 1940, Luftwaffe bombers were ordered to bomb Rotterdam in an effort to force the capitulation of the besieged city. The controversial bombing targeted the centre of the besieged city, instead of providing direct tactical support for the hard-pressed German 22nd Infantry Division (under Lt. Gen. von Sponeck, which had airlanded on 10 May) in combat with Dutch forces northwest of the city, and in the eastern part of the city at the Meuse river bridge. At the last minute, the Netherlands decided to submit and sent a plenipotentiary and other negotiators across to German lines. There was an attempt to call off the assault, but the bombing mission had already begun. In legal terms, the attack was performed against a defended part of a city vital for the military objectives and in the front-line, and the bombing respected Article 25 to 27 of the Hague Conventions on Land Warfare. |
Strategic bombing during World War II | Following the attack on Rotterdam, RAF Bomber Command was authorized to attack German targets east of the Rhine on 15 May 1940; the Air Ministry authorized Air Marshal Charles Portal to attack targets in the Ruhr, including oil plants and other civilian industrial targets which aided the German war effort, such as blast furnaces. The underlying motive for the attacks was to divert German air forces away from the land front. Churchill explained the rationale of his decision to his French counterparts in a letter dated the 16th: "I have examined today with the War Cabinet and all the experts the request which you made to me last night and this morning for further fighter squadrons. We are all agreed that it is better to draw the enemy on to this Island by striking at his vitals, and thus to aid the common cause." Due to the inadequate British bomb-sights the strikes that followed "had the effect of terror raids on towns and villages." On the night of 15/16 May, 96 bombers crossed the Rhine and attacked targets in Gelsenkirchen. 78 had been assigned oil targets, but only 24 claimed to have accomplished their objective. |
Strategic bombing during World War II | On 6 August Göring finalised plans for "Operation Eagle Attack" with his commanders: destruction of RAF Fighter Command across the south of England was to take four days, then bombing of military and economic targets was to systematically extend up to the Midlands until daylight attacks could proceed unhindered over the whole of Britain, then a major attack was to be made on London causing a crisis with refugees when the intended Operation Sea Lion invasion was due to begin. On 8 August 1940, the Germans switched to raids on RAF fighter bases. To reduce losses, the Luftwaffe also began to use increasing numbers of bombers at night. From the night of 19/20 August night bombing targeted the aircraft industry, ports, harbours, and other strategic targets in towns and cities, including suburban areas around London. By the last week of August, over half the missions were flown under the cover of dark. On 24 August, several off-course German bombers accidentally bombed central areas of London. The next day, the RAF bombed Berlin for the first time, targeting Tempelhof airfield and the Siemens factories in Siemenstadt. These attacks were seen by the Germans as indiscriminate due to their inaccuracy, and this infuriated Hitler; he ordered that the 'night piracy of the British' be countered by a concentrated night offensive against the island, and especially London. In a public speech in Berlin on 4 September 1940, Hitler announced that: |
Strategic bombing during World War II | The Blitz was underway. Göring – at Kesselring's urging and with Hitler's support – turned to a massive assault on the British capital. On 7 September 318 bombers from the whole KG 53 supported by eight other Kampfgruppen, flew almost continuous sorties against London, the dock area which was already in flames from earlier daylight attacks. The attack of 7 September 1940 did not entirely step over the line into a clear terror bombing effort since its primary target was the London docks, but there was clearly an assumed hope of terrorizing the London population. Hitler himself hoped that the bombing of London would terrorize the population into submission. He stated that "If eight million go mad, it might very well turn into a catastrophe!". After that he believed "even a small invasion might go a long way". Another 250 bomber sorties were flown in the night. By the morning of 8 September 430 Londoners had been killed. The Luftwaffe issued a press notice announcing they had dropped more than 1,000,000 kilograms of bombs on London in 24 hours. Many other British cities were hit in the nine-month Blitz, including Plymouth, Swansea, Birmingham, Sheffield, Liverpool, Southampton, Manchester, Bristol, Belfast, Cardiff, Clydebank, Kingston upon Hull and Coventry. Basil Collier, author of 'The Defence of the United Kingdom', the HMSO's official history, wrote: |
Strategic bombing during World War II | The only heavy bomber design to see service with the Luftwaffe in World War II was the trouble-prone Heinkel He 177A. In the initial design of November 1937, the RLM had mistakenly decided that the He 177 should also have a medium angle "dive bombing" capability. Ernst Heinkel and Milch vehemently disagreed with this, but the requirement was not rescinded until September 1942 by Goering himself. The He 177A went into service in April 1942, despite an ongoing series of engine fires in the small batch of A-0 series production prototype aircraft. This deficiency, along with numerous, seriously deficient design features, led Goering to decry the He 177A's Daimler-Benz DB 606 powerplants to be nothing more than fire-prone, cumbersome "welded-together engines" in August of that year. Production of the B-series by Heinkel's only subcontractor for the Greif, Arado Flugzeugwerke, would not have started until November 1944, because of Arado's focus on the production of its own Arado Ar 234 jet-powered reconnaissance-bomber at the time. The July 1944-initiated Emergency Fighter Program (Jägernotprogramm), as well as the devastating effects of Allied bombing on the entire German aviation industry, prevented any production of the He 177B design. |
Strategic bombing during World War II | British historian Frederick Taylor asserts that "all sides bombed each other's cities during the war. Half a million Soviet citizens, for example, died from German bombing during the invasion and occupation of Russia. That's roughly equivalent to the number of German citizens who died from Allied raids." The Luftwaffe destroyed numerous Soviet cities through bombing, including Minsk, Sevastopol, and Stalingrad. 20,528 tons of bombs were dropped on Sevastopol in June 1942 alone. German bombing efforts on the Eastern Front dwarfed its commitments in the west. From 22 June 1941 to 30 April 1944, the Luftwaffe dropped 756,773 tonnes of bombs on the Eastern Front, a monthly average of 22,000 tonnes. German scientists had invented vengeance weapons – V-1 flying bombs and V-2 ballistic missiles – and these were used to launch an aerial assault on London and other cities in southern England from continental Europe. The campaign was much less destructive than the Blitz. As the Allies advanced across France and towards Germany from the West, Paris, Liège, Lille, and Antwerp also became targets. |
Strategic bombing during World War II | Lindemann was liked and trusted by Winston Churchill, who appointed him the British government's leading scientific adviser with a seat in the Cabinet. In 1942, Lindemann presented the "dehousing paper" to the Cabinet showing the effect that intensive bombing of German cities could produce. It was accepted by the Cabinet, and Air Marshal Harris was appointed to carry out the task. It became an important part of the total war waged against Germany. Professor Lindemann's paper put forward the theory of attacking major industrial centres in order to deliberately destroy as many homes and houses as possible. Working-class homes were to be targeted because they had a higher density and fire storms were more likely. This would displace the German workforce and reduce their ability to work. His calculations (which were questioned at the time, in particular by Professor P. M. S. Blackett of the Admiralty operations research department, expressly refuting Lindemann's conclusions) showed the RAF's Bomber Command would be able to destroy the majority of German houses located in cities quite quickly. The plan was highly controversial even before it started, but the Cabinet thought that bombing was the only option available to directly attack Germany (as a major invasion of the continent was almost two years away), and the Soviets were demanding that the Western Allies do something to relieve the pressure on the Eastern Front. Few in Britain opposed this policy, but there were three notable opponents in Parliament, Bishop George Bell and the Labour MPs Richard Stokes and Alfred Salter. |
Strategic bombing during World War II | On 14 February 1942, the area bombing directive was issued to Bomber Command. Bombing was to be "focused on the morale of the enemy civil population and in particular of the industrial workers." Though it was never explicitly declared, this was the nearest that the British got to a declaration of unrestricted aerial bombing – Directive 22 said "You are accordingly authorised to use your forces without restriction", and then listing a series of primary targets which included Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, and Cologne. Secondary targets included Braunschweig, Lübeck, Rostock, Bremen, Kiel, Hanover, Frankfurt, Mannheim, Stuttgart, and Schweinfurt. The directive stated that "operations should now be focused on the morale of the enemy civilian population, and in particular, the industrial workers". Lest there be any confusion, Sir Charles Portal wrote to Air Chief Marshal Norman Bottomley on 15 February "...I suppose it is clear that the aiming points will be the built-up areas, and not, for instance, the dockyards or aircraft factories". Factories were no longer targets. |
Strategic bombing during World War II | In mid 1942, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) arrived in the UK and carried out a few raids across the English Channel. The USAAF Eighth Air Force's B-17 bombers were called the "Flying Fortresses" because of their heavy defensive armament of ten to twelve machine guns — eventually comprising up to thirteen heavy 12.7 mm calibre, "light barrel" Browning M2 guns per bomber — and armor plating in vital locations. In part because of their heavier armament and armor, they carried smaller bomb loads than British bombers. With all of this, the USAAF's commanders in Washington, D.C., and in UK adopted the strategy of taking on the Luftwaffe head on, in larger and larger air raids by mutually defending bombers, flying over Germany, Austria, and France at high altitudes during the daytime. Also, both the U.S. Government and its Army Air Forces commanders were reluctant to bomb enemy cities and towns indiscriminately. They claimed that by using the B-17 and the Norden bombsight, the USAAF should be able to carry out "precision bombing" on locations vital to the German war machine: factories, naval bases, shipyards, railroad yards, railroad junctions, power plants, steel mills, airfields, etc. |
Strategic bombing during World War II | With the arrival of the brand-new Fifteenth Air Force based in Italy, command of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe was consolidated into the United States Strategic Air Forces (USSTAF). With the addition of the Mustang to its strength — and a major change in fighter tactics by the Eighth Air Force, meant to secure daylight air supremacy for the Americans over Germany from the start of 1944 onwards — the Combined Bomber Offensive was resumed. Planners targeted the Luftwaffe in an operation known as 'Big Week' and succeeded brilliantly – its major attacks came during Operation Steinbock (the so-called "Baby Blitz") period for the Luftwaffe over England, while losses for the Luftwaffe's day fighter forces were so heavy that both the twin-engined Zerstörergeschwader heavy fighter wings (the intended main anti-bomber force) and their replacement, single-engined Sturmgruppen of heavily armed Fw 190As became largely ineffective, clearing each force of bomber destroyers in their turn from Germany's skies throughout most of 1944. With such heavy losses of their primary means of defense against the USAAF's tactics, German planners were forced into a hasty dispersal of industry, with the day fighter arm never being able to fully recover in time. |
Strategic bombing during World War II | Most of the losses by Allied airstrikes in the Netherlands were caused by mistakenly bombing the wrong target, initially aiming at German-occupied factories, transportation facilities, population registries, Sicherheitsdienst headquarters, or even German cities at the border. The Allies generally exercised restraint when planning bombing raids. It is mainly mistakes in implementation that have often caused the greatest damage. The cities of Amsterdam, Breskens, Den Helder, Rotterdam, and The Hague suffered immense losses in civilians and bombing damage by insufficiently accurate aiming. Sometimes the targets were too small, so the risks of 'collateral damage' were very high, as was shown by the bombing of the Sicherheitsdienst headquarters in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, the station yards of Haarlem, Utrecht, Roosendaal and Leiden, and the bridges in Zutphen and Venlo. However, the attacks on such small targets remained relatively limited. Less restraint was exercised by the Allies during the 1944–1945 bombings on the residential areas at the front line, such as Huissen, Venray, Montfort, Nijverdal, Goor and Haaksbergen, resulting in preventable civilian losses. |
Strategic bombing during World War II | The occupying German forces had used the coast of the Netherlands to launch rocket attacks targeting British cities. This was another reasons for the Allies to perform airstrikes on Dutch soil, leading to one of the deadliest civilian airstrikes in the Netherlands. On 3 March 1945, the RAF mistakenly bombed the densely populated Bezuidenhout neighbourhood in the city of The Hague. The British bomber crews had intended to bomb the Haagse Bos ("Forest of the Hague") district where the Germans had installed V-2 launching facilities that had been used to attack British cities. However, the pilots were issued with the wrong coordinates, so the navigational instruments of the bombers had been set incorrectly. Combined with fog and clouds which obscured their vision, the bombs were instead dropped on the Bezuidenhout residential neighbourhood. At the time, the neighbourhood was more densely populated than usual with evacuees from The Hague and Wassenaar; 532 residents were killed and approximately 30,000 were left homeless. |
Strategic bombing during World War II | Italy, first as an Axis member and later as a German-occupied country, was heavily bombed by Allied forces for all the duration of the war. In Northern Italy, after small-scale bombings which mainly targeted factories, only causing little damage and casualties, RAF Bomber Command launched a first large-scale area bombing campaign on Milan, Turin and Genoa (the so-called 'industrial triangle') during the autumn of 1942. All three cities suffered heavy damage and hundreds of civilian casualties, although the effects were less disastrous than those suffered by German cities, mainly because Italian cities had centres made of brick and stone buildings, while German cities had centers made of wooden buildings. Milan and Turin were bombed again in February 1943; the heaviest raids were carried out in July (295 bombers dropped 763 tons of bombs on Turin, killing 792 people) and August (all three cities were bombed and a total of 843 bombers dropped 2,268 tons of bombs over Milan, causing about 900 casualties). These attacks caused widespread damage and prompted most of the cities' inhabitants to flee. The only other city in Italy to be subjected to area bombing was La Spezia, heavily bombed by the Bomber Command during April 1943, with slight casualties but massive damage (45% of the buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged, and just 25–30% remained undamaged). |
Strategic bombing during World War II | Before 1944, the Allies bombed targets in France that were part of the German war industry. This included raids such as those on the Renault factory in Boulogne-Billancourt in March 1942 or the port facilities of Nantes in September 1943 (which killed 1,500 civilians). In preparation of Allied landings in Normandy and those in the south of France, French infrastructure (mainly rail transport) was intensively targeted by RAF and USAAF in May and June 1944. Despite intelligence provided by the French Resistance, many residential areas were hit in error or lack of accuracy. This included cities like Marseille (2,000 dead), Lyon (1,000 dead), Saint-Étienne, Rouen, Orléans, Grenoble, Nice, Paris and surrounds , and so on. The Free French Air Force, operational since 1941, used to opt for the more risky skimming tactic when operating in national territory, to avoid civilian casualties. On 5 January 1945, British bombers struck the "Atlantic pocket" of Royan and destroyed 85% of this city. A later raid, using napalm was carried out before it was freed from Nazi occupation in April. Of the 3,000 civilians left in the city, 442 died. |
Strategic bombing during World War II | In March 1942 the strategic bombing arm of the Soviet Union was reorganized as the Long Range Air Force (ADD). It raided Berlin from 26 to 29 August and again on the night of 9–10 September with 212 planes. It raided Helsinki for the first time on 24 August, Budapest on 4–5 and 9–10 September and Bucharest on 13–14 September. The German-occupied Polish cities of Kraków and Warsaw were not exempt, but the bombers concentrated primarily on military targets. There were 1,114 sorties over Germany in 1942. In March 1943 there was a strategic shift: in preparation for the Kursk Offensive, the bombers were directed against the German railroads behind the front. In April the Long Range Air Force expanded to eight air corps and eleven independent divisions containing 700 planes. After the Kursk preparations, the Soviets turned their attention to administrative and industrial targets in East Prussia in April. With 920 aircraft taking part, they dropped 700 tonnes of bombs there. The largest Soviet bomb of the war, an 11,000-pound weapon, was dropped on Königsberg during one of these raids. |