History.

The Department of Corrections was formed in 1995, by the Department of Justice (Restructuring) Act 1995. Prior to this prisons, the probation system and the courts were all managed by the Department of Justice. The new Act gave management of prisoners, parolees and offenders on probation to a new Department of Corrections while leaving administration of the court system and fines collection with the Ministry of Justice. The intention was to enable the new Department to improve public safety and assist in the rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders.  In 2000, an approach based on enhanced computerised access to information about offenders was tried. The new chief executive of the department, Mark Byers, introduced a $40 million scheme designed to reduce reoffending called Integrated Offender Management (IOM). At the time it was described as "the biggest single initiative the department has undertaken to reduce reoffending". Seven years later, Greg Newbold said the scheme was an expensive failure and described it as "another wreck on the scrapheap of abandoned fads of criminal rehabilitation."  In 2012, the government revealed it would spend $65 million over the next four years on reducing criminal reoffending. It will go towards additional alcohol and drug treatment, increased education, skills training and employment programmes for prisoners. Corrections Minister Anne Tolley and Associate Corrections Minister Dr Pita Sharples said the'reprioritised' operational funding was aimed at reducing reoffending by 25 per cent by 2017.

Prison Privatisation.

The use of private prisons has also been tried, stopped and reintroduced. New Zealand's first privately run prison, the Auckland Central Remand Prison, also known as Mt. Eden Prison, opened under contract to Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) in 2000. In 2004, the Labour Government, opposed to privatisation, amended the law to prohibit the extension of private prison contracts. A year later, the 5-year contract with ACM was not renewed. In 2010, the National Government again introduced private prisons and international conglomerate Serco was awarded the contract to run the Mt Eden Prison. Numerous scandals surrounding the Mt Eden Prison led to Serco's contract not being renewed there.  On 16 July 2015, footage of "fight clubs" within the prison emerged online and was reported by TVNZ. Serco was heavily criticized for not investigating until after the footage was screened. On 24 July 2015, Serco's contract to run the Mount Eden prison was revoked and operation was given back to the New Zealand Department of Corrections. Serco was ordered to pay $8 million to the New Zealand government as a result of problems at Mount Eden Prison while it was under Serco's management.  Serco has also been given the contract to build and manage a new 960-bed prison at Wiri. The contract with Serco provides stiff financial penalties if its rehabilitation programmes fail to reduce reoffending by 10% more than the Corrections Department programmes. The Auckland South Corrections Facility was opened on 8 May 2015. The contract to operate the prison ends in 2040.

Growth in Prison Population.

Since it was established, the department has had to cope with a dramatic growth in the prison population. Between 1997 and 2011 the number of inmates increased by 70% and, at 201 prisoners per 100,000 of population (in 2018), New Zealand has one of the higher rates of imprisonment in the Western world. The Fifth Labour Government built four prisons – at Ngawha (Northern Region) housing 420 prisoners, Springhill (north of Huntly) housing 840, Auckland Women's' holding 330 and Milton (Otago) holding 425 – at a cost of $890 million. When National came to power in 2008, the Department built a new 1,000 bed prison at Mt Eden for $218 million in a public private partnership and gave the contract to Serco.  The Department's growth has been such that in July 2010, Finance Minister Bill English expressed concerns that Government spending was "led by a rapidly expanding prison system which would soon make Corrections the government's biggest department". As at December 2011, New Zealand had 20 prisons and the Department employed over 8,000 staff. The Department's operating budget is over $1 billion a year.  As at 30 September 2019, there were 10,040 people in prison in New Zealand. However, the prison population is very fluid and altogether about 20,000 people spend time in prison each year, the vast majority on remand. Nearly 75% of those given a prison sentence are sentenced to two years or less, and all these are automatically released halfway through their sentence. As 30 September 2019, 93% percent of inmates were male. 51.9% of prisoners were Māori, compared with about 16% of New Zealand's resident population. The cost of keeping a person in prison for 12 months is $91,000. In 2001 the Department estimated that a lifetime of offending by one person costs victims and taxpayers $3 million.  Despite English's concerns about the growing cost, in 2011 the government approved the building of a new 960-bed prison at Wiri estimated to cost nearly $400 million. Later that year justice sector forecasts showed a drop in the projected prison forecast for the first time. Charles Chauvel, Labour Party spokesperson for justice, and the Public Service Association both questioned the need for a new prison when there were 1,200 empty beds in the prison system. In March 2012, Corrections Minister Anne Tolley announced that the new prison would enable older prisons such as Mt Crawford in Wellington and the New Plymouth prison to be closed. Older units at Arohata, Rolleston, Tongariro/Rangipo and Waikeria prisons will also be shut down.

Rehabilitation policies.

In 2012 the government announced that an extra $65 million would be put into rehabilitation, in an effort to reduce re-offending by 25% within five years. As part of the package, Corrections Minister Anne Tolley indicated the 14,000 offenders who spend time in prison on remand each year would become eligible for rehabilitation for the first time. Rethinking Crime and Punishment spokesman Kim Workman supported the proposals but said it would be difficult to achieve the change given the "very high imprisonment rate" in New Zealand.  On 22 November 2019, it was reported that the Department of Corrections had adopted a policy of referring to prisoners as "men in our care" and "clients." Staff were also instructed to address prisoners by their first names instead of surnames. The Minister of Corrections Kelvin Davis confirmed that this was part of the Sixth Labour Government's Hōkai Rangi strategy to address the high rate of Māori reoffending and imprisonment by "humanising" prisoners. The Government's decision was criticised by Corrections staff and the Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges as "political correctness" and "being soft on crime."

Structure.

The Department comprises three service arms and four other groups. The service arms are prisons, community probation, and rehabilitation and reintegration and each arm used to have separate internal processes, infrastructure and support staff. As of May 2012 the newly appointed chief executive, Ray Smith proposed merging the three service arms into one team. Smith said the segregated infrastructure "creates replication of work, is inefficient and has resulted in an overly layered structure."

Chief executives.

Mark Byers was chief executive of the Department of Corrections for its first ten years, until he retired from the public service in 2005. Byers oversaw a range of organizational initiatives in his time at the helm and, in 2000, introduced a new computer system called "Integrated Offender Management". At the time, this was described as "the biggest single initiative the Department has undertaken to reduce reoffending." IOMS cost $40 million but had no impact of the rate of re-conviction which remained at 55% two years after release.  Barry Matthews, who replaced Byers, had formerly been Deputy Commissioner of Police in New Zealand and the Commissioner of the Western Australian Police Force. He served as chief executive of Corrections for five years from 2005 to 2010 and, in a farewell interview, listed his top three achievements as the implementation of cell phone blocking technology in prisons, better enforcement by the Probation Service of sentence compliance, and the establishment of the Professional Standards Unit to investigate corruption by prison officers.  During Matthews' tenure there was public concern about the management of the Department. Simon Power, Opposition spokesman for justice from 2006 through to 2008, made a number of calls for an inquiry into Corrections, but none was held. In 2009 Matthews' leadership was questioned by the new Corrections Minister, Judith Collins, after a run of bad publicity that included the murder of 17-year-old Liam Ashley in a prison van; the murder of Karl Kuchenbecker by Graeme Burton six months after he was released on parole; and the Auditor General's critical report on the Probation Service's management of parolees. Matthews exacerbated speculation about his leadership during the Burton debacle when he claimed: "There's no blood on my hands". After the Auditor General's report was released in 2009, Collins refused to express confidence in Matthews and media commentators expected him to resign. However, Matthews refused to do so and served out his term; on his retirement he admitted he had dealt with so many crises, the Department was like a "landmine".  Ray Smith, former deputy chief executive of Work and Income and former deputy chief executive of the Ministry of Social Development's Child, Youth and Family, became chief executive in 2010. Six months into his five-year term, Smith said he intended to shuffle the Department's $1.1 billion annual budget to focus more on rehabilitation and wanted his legacy to be a significant reduction in New Zealand's high reoffending rates.

Mental health in prisons.

In New Zealand there are five times more people with mental illness in prison than in the general population. All prisoners who are over eighteen are screened for mental illness and if they are mild to moderate then they will be referred to resources to help them. Prisoners are also more likely to commit suicide or self-harm in prison than the general population. Inmates are interviewed when they arrive to prison to see if they are at risk of committing suicide or self-harming themselves. For inmates who are prone to suicide and self-harm they have fourteen programs to help them and have specific cells which are under twenty-four hours of observation.

Violence in prisons.

In April 2015, a 44-year-old inmate, Benton Parata, died in Christchurch Men's Prison after being bashed by three other prisoners. An expert on gangs in New Zealand, Dr Jarrod Gilbert, said revenge attacks could "snowball" out of control while the prison officers' union said assaults in New Zealand prisons already occurred almost daily and it was only "good luck" there weren't more deaths.

Recidivism.

In March 2009 analysis of the previous 60 months, showed that 70% of prisoners reoffend within two years of being released from prison and 52% return to prison within five years (some of them more than once). For teenage prisoners, the recidivism rate (return to prison) is 71%. The government estimated that if it reached its reduced reoffending target of 25%, there would be 600 fewer people in prison by 2017. In 2014, prison numbers went up (to 8,700) rather than down, due to more offenders being held on remand.

The Department of Corrections (Māori: "Ara Poutama Aotearoa") is the public service department of New Zealand charged with managing the New Zealand corrections system. Corrections' role and functions were defined and clarified with the passing of the Corrections Act 2004. In early 2006, Corrections officially adopted the Māori name "Ara Poutama Aotearoa".

Das, in, ist ein (Behörde des öffentlichen Dienstes) in Neuseeland, das für den Strafvollzug im Lande zuständig ist.


Products.

Ushahidi.

Ushahidi v2 was built on the Kohana web framework, a fork of the CodeIgniter framework. It includes support for Nexmo wholesale SMS API and Clickatell SMS Gateway. Furthermore, the official Ushahidi-hosted websites use the commercial service. Ushahidi provides the option of using OpenStreetMap maps in its user interface, but requires the Google Maps API for geocoding. Ushahidi is often set up using a local SMS gateway created by a local FrontlineSMS set-up.  Ushahidi v3 was released in September 2015. As an improvement to the v2 platform it is built as an API with a web client. It allows for custom survey creation, and the running of multiple surveys on a single deployment, amongst other feature improvements from v2 such as embeddable maps and surveys, analytics, private deployments, and management of roles and permissions. It is built on the Laravel PHP web framework. It is open source under the AGPL license.  Ushahidi v4 was released in 2018, and replaces Kohana with Lumen.

Crowdmap.

Crowdmap is designed and built by the team behind Ushahidi, a platform that was originally built to crowdsource crisis information. As the platform evolved, so did its users. Crowdmap now allows users to set up their own deployments of Ushahidi without having to install it on a web server. Since its release in 2010, prominent deployments of Crowdmap have documented the global Occupy movement and the 2011 London anti-cuts protest. The original Crowdmap was a hosted version of the Ushahidi v2 open source software platform.  On 31 December 2010, the Ushahidi team announced a new version of Crowdmap, that differed from the Ushahidi v2 codebase: Checkins, a geosocial add-on to Crowdmap that allows users to create a white-label alternative to sites like Foursquare and Gowalla. Rather than filling out submission forms online, checkins allow Crowdmap users to expedite data entry to their deployment, focussing first on location and adding more detailed information later. Ushahidi describes the effort as "checkins with a purpose".

SwiftRiver (discontinued).

SwiftRiver was designed as a suite of intelligence and real-time data gathering products that complement Ushahidi's mapping and visualization products. Often referred to as "the SwiftRiver Initiative" the goal of the project was "to democratize access to the tools for making sense of information". The project attracted a lot of interest from newsrooms.  In December 2014, Ushahidi announced that it would stop development and support and reallocate the resources.  SwiftRiver was a free and Open-source platform that helped people make sense of a lot of information in a short amount of time. It was born out of the need to understand and act upon a wave of massive amounts of crisis data that tends to overwhelm in the first 24 hours of a disaster. There had been a great deal of interest in Swift for other industries such as newsrooms, political analysts and marketers as an open-source alternative to more expensive, proprietary intelligence software platforms. The SwiftRiver platform offered applications which combine natural language/artificial intelligence process, data-mining for SMS and Twitter, and verification algorithms for different sources of information.  Rollcall  Ushahidi built RollCall after a team member was involved in the terrorist attack at Westgate Malle in Nairobi in 2013. Rollcall is a quick way to check in with the people someone is responsible for during critical situations. Rollcall sends a one-click message with a binary question such as "Are you okay?" to a pre-prepared contact list, such as list of colleagues, parents at a school, or an embassy's list of citizens in a country at that time, via text, email, mobile app, and Slack. The recipients respond with a "yes" or "no" allowing the organization responsible for them to quickly triage who is in danger.

History.

Beginnings in Kenya.

Ushahidi (Swahili for "testimony" or "witness") is a website created in the aftermath of Kenya's disputed 2007 presidential election (see 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis) that collected eyewitness reports of violence sent in by email and text-message and placed them on a Google map. It is also the name of the open source software developed for that site, which has since been improved, released freely, and used for a number of similar projects around the globe.  The Kenyan site was developed and run by several bloggers and software developers, all current or former residents of Kenya. They include Erik Hersman, Juliana Rotich, Ory Okolloh, and David Kobia. The site was initially proposed by Okolloh, developed cheaply, and put online within a few days. International media, government sources, NGOs, and Kenyan journalists and bloggers were used to verify eyewitness testimony. The site was later also used to facilitate donations from abroad.  An analysis by Harvard's Kennedy School of Government found that Ushahidi was better overall at reporting acts of violence as they began. The data collected by Ushahidi was superior to that reported by the mainstream media in Kenya at the time. The service was also better at reporting non-fatal violence as well as information coming in from rural areas.  On 23 December 2010, Ushahidi Co-founder and Executive Director Ory Okolloh announced that she was stepping down from her role to become Manager of Policy for Africa at Google.

Post-Kenya crisis uses.

Soon after its initial use in Kenya, the Ushahidi software was used to create a similar site to track anti-immigrant violence in South Africa, in May 2008. The software has since been used to map violence in eastern Congo, beginning in November 2008. Ushahidi is used in Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, and Zambia in June 2009 to track pharmacy stockouts in several Southeast African countries. Finally, it was used to monitor elections in Mexico and India, among other projects. It was also used by Al Jazeera to collect eyewitness reports during the 2008–09 Gaza War.  The post election violence in Kenya was the subject of a Harvard Humanitarian Institute study and mentioned in a Berkman Center report.

2010.

Haiti.

In 2010, due to the earthquake in Haiti, Patrick Meier launched a joint effort between Ushahidi, The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University, UN OCHA/Colombia and the International Network of Crisis Mappers (CM*Net) to start the Haiti implementation. A few hours later many humanitarian/tech workers joined this initiative. Nearly 40,000 independent reports were sent to the Ushahidi Haiti Project of which nearly 4,000 distinct events were plotted.

Chile.

Only a month after the Haiti earthquake, the 2010 earthquake in Chile prompted Patrick Meier to launch Ushahidi-Chile within hours of the initial quake. The Chile site is co-managed with the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University in the United States, supported by Chilean Americans.

Louisiana, U.S..

On 20 April 2010 BP's offshore Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded killing eleven workers and precipitating the largest accidental offshore oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. On 3 May the Louisiana Bucket Brigade (LABB) publicly released the Oil Spill Crisis Map, the first application of the Ushahidi platform in a humanitarian response in the United States.  In the years since the BP oil spill, LABB continues to use the map (now the iWitness Pollution Map) as a repository of eyewitness reports and photos documenting the impacts of petrochemical pollution on human health and the environment. Reports to the map come from cities all over Louisiana, including Baton Rouge, St. Rose, and Chalmette. Since 2010 LABB has collected over 14,000 reports, making it the largest and longest-running deployment of an Ushahidi instance.

Washington, D.C..

In the wake of winter storms, the "Washington Post" and the web development company PICnet used the software to create a site mapping blocked roads and other information.

Italy.

Elena Rapisardi, together with Giovanni Lotto, launched the first Italian crowdmap Open Foreste Italiane in order to list and map information to prevent and manage forest fires; the meaning of this project has been reported on the Ushahidi blog.  Though OpenForeste did not completely achieve his goals, it showed importance for two reasons: (1) unlike previous instances, the platform was utilized in absence of an acting crisis or emergency to collect, map, share and spread information in order to manage future and potential emergencies, thus joining the awareness of the possibilities of Web 2.0 and a different approach to natural risk prevention; (2) it brought to Italy the knowledge and potential of Ushahidi, crowdmapping and social use of crowdsourcing, which was then used in following years in several instances, both private and public, especially from local Civil Protection structures and based on the new approach to the Ushahidi platform (see here a non-complete crowdmap of Italian Crowdsourcing Projects).

Russia.

Ushahidi was used in Russia to set up a "map of help" for voluntary workers needed after the 2010 Russian wildfires.  Using Ushahidi, the Christchurch Recovery Map website was launched less than 24 hours after the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. The site maps locations of services such as food, water, toilets, fuel, ATMs, and medical care. Information was gathered via Twitter using the #eqnz hashtag, SMS messages, and email. The site was founded by a group of web professionals, and maintained by volunteers.  This software allowed pro-democracy demonstrators across the Middle East to organise and communicate what was happening around them in early 2011. On 2 March, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) requested that the Standby Volunteer Task Force be activated for Libya. The Task Force's Tech Team set up a password protected Ushahidi platform almost immediately and several days later launched a public version at OCHA's request. This allowed users to contribute relevant information about ground conditions as they occurred.

2011.

In July 2011, Giuseppe Calamita had created the first crowdmap to monitor a WIMAX/LTE Internet Service Provider to answer the issues not due to the ISP (jammer, etc.)  India Citizen Reports has been using Ushahidi since 2011 to collect and disseminate reports in various categories like civic problems, crimes and corruption. TelecomMap.com uses Ushahidi to map 3G network quality and Wi-Fi hotspots.  Australian Broadcasting Corporation used Ushahidi to map the Queensland floods in January.  The MightyMoRiver Project used Ushahidi's hosted service Crowdmap to track the Missouri River floods of 2011.  Transparency Watch Project is using the Ushahidi platform to track corruption reported cases in the Republic of Macedonia. PrijaviKorupcija is a joint project by Transparency International and the Center for International Relations allowing citizens to report cases of corruption via ONE by sending SMS from their mobile phones, sending an email, using the web form, the hashtag #korupcijaMK on Twitter or by reporting via phone call.  Nigerian Elections  Ushahidi was used to monitor the Nigerian 2011 elections under the project Reclaim Naija. A published article in the Journal of Information Technology & Politics by Catie Snow Bailard & Steven Livingston showed that, "Controlling for a number of factors, we find that the number and nature of crowdmap reports generated by citizens is significantly correlated with increased voter turnout (by 8%) in the 2011 Nigerian presidential election as a result of providing officials with improved information about the functionality of local polling stations."

2012.

Al Jazeera Balkans deployed Ushahidi crisis mapping platform on 5 February 2012 to track the snow/cold emergency in the Balkans.

2013.

Kenya Elections  Ushahidi helped run the Uchaguzi partnership to monitor the 2013 Kenyan elections. The deployment gathered over 8000 reports, a report "Uchaguzi: A Qualitative and Quantitive Analysis of ICTS, Statebuilding, and Peacebuilding in Kenya." showed that 75% of reporters said their report was responded to.

2014.

Kenya  Ushahidi announced Ping (now called Rollcall) in response to the attacks on Westgate Mall in Nairobi. The software was used to map out all the blood drive center locations in Nairobi and let users quickly identify places to donate, see which blood types were in demand, and identify whether equipment or volunteers were needed at any locations. Among the goals of this map was to help ensure that when the Kenyan population came out to donate blood, they would know which donation centers needed their blood type the most.

2015.

Crowd sourced data were extensively used during the relief and rescue operations at Quakemap.org. Kathmandu Living Labs (KLL), a volunteer organization, set up a platform to collect and manage data from crowd using Ushahidi. KLL further managed to conduct first level of verification as well, providing the Nepalese Army with the following details: location, number of affected people, number of death/injured, support requirements, level of urgency, and contact information.  The Nepalese army report said that "Crowd Sourcing is one of the common approaches to collect information from the public. Although it is not new in the context of disaster management, but during April Earthquake in Nepal, this approach was appropriately used in a matured way. The systematic process defined by Kathmandu Living Labs volunteers marked a path in utilization of crowd sourced data by implementing agency like Nepalese Army."

2016.

Ushahidi created USAelectionmonitor.com to monitor the USA 2016 Presidential Election. After the election Ushahidi set up Documenthate.org to monitor the spike in hate crimes against minorities in the USA post election. Ushahidi partnered with journalist and activist Shaun King and non-profit journalism group Propublica. The New Yorker covered the story, saying: "Now Shaun King, a writer for the "Daily News", is working with the open-source software company Ushahidi to create a map of post-election intimidation. “Thousands of people have emailed me incident reports over the past seven days,” King wrote me in an e-mail. “The team at Ushahidi is helping me go through them, verify them the best we can, catalogue and then map them, then share them.” The aim is to raise awareness of politically motivated violence and help people stay safe, report it to authorities as needed, and create a database of such incidents."

2017.

Ushahidi ran the Uchaguzi partnership to monitor the 2017 Kenyan elections, the fourth country-wide election monitoring effort for the organization. Ushahidi integrated a Facebook Messenger bot to allow the 7 million Facebook users in Kenya to report via Messenger. The platform received over 7000 reports on election day.  As of 2017, the platform reported that it had been deployed over 125,000 times in over 160 countries, although most of these were for evaluation, training or curiosity.

Awards.

Ushahidi has received several awards in recognition to its effectiveness and creativity, latest being The MacArthur Award. The awards received by Ushahidi so far include the following:

Criticism.

Sexual harassment allegations.

On 9 July 2017, allegations surfaced online of Ushahidi covering up a sexual harassment incident perpetrated by one of the members of their senior leadership. Ushahidi released a statement the next day confirming they were aware of the allegations which were the subject of an ongoing internal inquiry.  Former Ushahidi board member and co-founder Ory Okolloh, strongly condemned the laxity with which the board dealt with the issue on 11 Jul saying:  “More clarity on steps that have been taken so far and the relevant timelines should be shared and those found culpable either by their action or inaction should resign”.  Ushahidi released a second statement on 17 July 2017 detailing the chronology of events showed that the incident occurred on 19 January 2017 and was reported to the board on 4 May 2017, and that on 5 May the accused was placed on temporary leave, given due process, and an investigation was undertaken. After back and forth with both parties' lawyers, the board held an inquiry on 3 July and the accused was alerted of his firing 14 days later on 17 July the date of the statement.  Angela Kabari came out publicly on 20 July as the victim in a Medium post detailing a 6-month ordeal and called for the resignation of the entire Ushahidi board that consisted of David Kobia, Erik Hersman, Juliana Rotich and Jenny Stefanotti at the time. She identified Daudi Were, Ushahidi's Executive Director, as the accused. Her statement to the board when she reported the matter included an un-notarized transcript of the recording of the incident and claimed an earlier occurrence the previous year. In her post, she said she encountered 11 other victims some of whom were current employees of the organisation and that the board members were aware of Daudi's misconduct in separate incidents spanning 10 years, however, no others came forward. She castigated the board for lack of support, victim shaming, slander, delays and character attacks. Angela resigned on 28 June citing frustration due to “continual stalling and inaction from the board 55 days after my complaint.”  Daudi Were was alerted of his dismissal on 17 July, formally dismissed on 22 July, and Ushahidi released an apology to Angela for the harassment she experienced while working at Ushahidi.  Ushahidi staff and staff from Ushahidi related organizations, under the banner "Women in Tech Kenya", released a statement on 24 Jul that supported Angela's speaking out, condemned Daudi Were's conduct, applauded his dismissal, and supporting the board following due process.  The Ushahidi board did not resign and through a series of posts defended their conduct, saying that they followed due process in the pursuit of justice. In a statement released on 28 July, Ushahidi said that due to the legal process, agreed upon by all parties, all communications had to go through the legal representation and called Ms. Kabari's claims that they did not care about her disingenuous for not understanding the neutral position the board undertook in the sexual harassment investigation.

Ushahidi is an open source software application, and a non-profit technology company with staff in nine countries whose mission is to help marginalized people raise their voice and those who serve them to listen and respond better. It has been instrumental in creating the Kenyan tech ecosystem, known as the Silicon Savannah, and its employees have gone on to found iHub, Akirachix, and BRCK.

Ushahidi, Inc. ist ein gemeinnütziges Technologieunternehmen mit Mitarbeitern in neun Ländern, deren Aufgabe es ist, unterprivilegierten Menschen dabei zu helfen, gehört zu werden, und jenen zu helfen, die die Informationen dieser Menschen be- und verarbeiten. Es wurde 2008 von Erik Hersman, Ory Okolloh, Juliana Rotich und David Kobia in der kenianischen Hauptstadt Nairobi gegründet. Die Software Ushahidi war maßgeblich an der Schaffung des kenianischen Tech-Ökosystems beteiligt, das als Silicon Savannah bekannt ist. Seine Mitarbeiter gründeten iHub, Akirachix und BRCK.


Band members.

The full-time members of Fiddler's Dram, drawn from the Oyster Ceilidh Band, were:

Career.

Dave Arbus, violinist with East of Eden, was a founder member but left long before the band achieved success.  The full-time members of the band were drawn from a group of musicians at the University of Kent at Canterbury and members of Duke's Folk Club in Whitstable. Jamming sessions in a Canterbury squat often took place with additional club members given the opportunity to take part in these sessions and sometimes at local performances. The band had an enthusiastic local following and played regularly at local clubs and bars in and around the Canterbury area, with the open nature of the band's ever-changing part-time line-up contributing to the band's popularity. With other various club members, including John Jones and Ian Kearey, the full-time members of the band formed the Oyster Ceilidh Band in about 1976, with Cathy Lesurf singing and later assuming the role of caller at dances.  The first Fiddler's Dram album "To See the Play" was released on the Dingles label in 1978. It featured acoustic arrangements of mainly British traditional songs and tunes, but also included live favourite "Day Trip to Bangor", written by Whitstable Folk Club regular Debbie Cook. Dingles' David Foister suggested that this track be released as a single. It was re-recorded at a faster tempo than on the original LP, and with the acoustic instruments augmented by other instruments including bass guitar, synthesiser and drums.  It has been claimed that "Day Trip To Bangor" was actually inspired by a day trip to Rhyl (a seaside resort 35 miles east of Bangor, North Wales), but because Bangor had an extra syllable and slipped off the tongue more easily, it was used instead of Rhyl. This caused an outcry from councillors and businesses in Rhyl who complained that the publicity would have boosted the resort's tourist economy. Songwriter Cook has unconditionally denied this, however. Cook, when interviewed for the BBC Radio 4 documentary, broadcast on 29 September 2011, said the song was "absolutely yes" about the Bangor in Wales. She said "I was so ignorant at the time that I didn't know that any other Bangor existed, so it was categorically this Bangor, and it was Bangor because it scanned and for no other reason than that. And it was the only place I knew along the north Wales coast." In the documentary, when interviewer Jonathan Maitland reminded Cook that there was a furore about the song really being about Rhyl, Cook laughed and called it "a great piece of nonsense".  The single reached a peak of number 3 in the UK Singles Chart in January 1979, having been released the previous month, and is now available via iTunes.  A version of the song, with altered lyrics, was used the following year in a TV commercial for Anchor butter. The band received no royalties for this, and the story was featured on the BBC TV series "That's Life!". Also in 1980, a spoof version, "Daytrip To Barnhurst" by Jackie & The Commuters, was released on a single and much played on Capital Radio though without any chart success.  Songwriter Cook subsequently went on to write scripts for "The Archers" and "EastEnders".  Will Ward had joined the Oyster Ceilidh Band by 1978, and became the fifth member of Fiddler's Dram on their eponymous second LP, recorded hurriedly to follow up on their unexpected success in the UK Singles Chart. The band were unable to achieve subsequent success however – in the words of Ian Telfer "Day Trip To Bangor" was "the kind of success you don't easily recover from. Fiddler's Dram did one more tour then gratefully took the money (and the gold discs) and ran".  The Oyster Ceilidh Band continued as both a dance and concert band however, changing their name around 1982 to The Oyster Band and later to just Oysterband. Cathy Lesurf subsequently left the Oysters for a spell with the Albion Band.  In 2009 Lesurf released a Christmas single called "Christmas Time". She said she hoped it would be a hit so it would be a "companion" for "Day Trip to Bangor".

Fiddler's Dram were a British folk band of the late 1970s most widely known for their hit single, "Day Trip to Bangor (Didn't We Have a Lovely Time)", which reached no. 3 on the UK Singles Chart in January 1980.

Fiddler’s Dram war eine britische Folkband der späten 1970er Jahre. Ihr Stil war geprägt von akustischer Musik. Mit der Single "Day Trip to Bangor (Didn't We Have a Lovely Time)" erreichten sie 1979 die Top Ten der britischen Singlecharts.


History.

Hard shaving soaps in their modern form have existed since at least the early 19th century. Williams (a common American shaving soap intended for use in a mug rather than a scuttle) has been produced since 1840, and a US patent for a shaving scuttle for use with a hard soap was granted in 1867.  Shaving sticks (shaving soap formed into a cylinder) have existed at least since the mid-19th century.

Appearance.

Traditional shaving soap is often sold as a round puck, either with a rounded bottom intended for use with a shaving scuttle or a flat bottom for use in a mug. High-end soaps may be sold with their own dishes, typically made of either wood or ceramic, and be formed to fit the dish with which the puck is sold. Shaving soap may also be formed in a stick, sold either in a plastic tube or wrapped in foil or paper. Shaving soap is more rarely sold as rectangular bars (as is common with body soap).

Use.

A hard shaving soap is used with a shaving brush to create lather for shaving. For soap in the form of a puck or bar, the brush is first soaked in water and then swirled vigorously over the surface of the soap, causing moist soap to coat the brush's bristles. The brush is then transferred either to a separate bowl or to the shaver's face to be lathered.  Shaving sticks are typically used by rubbing the exposed end of the stick across the shaver's face, coating the face with soap. The soap is then lathered with a moistened brush. Owing to their compact form and ease of use, shaving sticks are popular for use while traveling.

Ingredients.

Shaving soap is produced like a traditional soap with an ingredient selection oriented to producing a stable, slick lather. Its manufacture often differs slightly from normal bath soap in that both potassium hydroxide and sodium hydroxide may be used as saponification agents. Sodium hydroxide creates a harder soap such as is used in pucks, where potassium hydroxide facilitates creation of a softer soap which loads on the brush more easily. Historically, tallow has been a popular ingredient in shaving soaps and is still in use in some traditional products. Palm oil is frequently used as a substitute for tallow where animal fats are not desired. Other oils such as coconut oil are commonly used. Component fatty acids such as stearic acid are also used in shaving soaps for the properties which they contribute; stearic acid contributes to a more stable dense lather.

Advantages and disadvantages.

The primary advantages of shaving soap over aerosol shaving creams is the additional hydration provided by shaving soaps.  Shaving soaps are also approved by the Transportation Security Administration and other airport security agencies as permitted in carry-on luggage. There is furthermore little risk of accidental discharge of the product during transport.  The principal disadvantages of shaving soap is lack of convenience and space. Creating the lather and preparing the face is more time-consuming than with other shaving creams. In addition, use of a shaving mug and optionally a lather bowl, consumes more space and takes more time than most shaving creams do.  Shaving soaps typically cost more initially, when the shaving mug and soap is purchased. These costs can be significantly reduced by using mugs and bowls found in the kitchen, or purchased for a small amount at resale stores. Even though shaving soaps may cost more initially when buying the soap and equipment, over a longer period of time, shaving soaps are comparable in cost, or even cheaper than many shaving creams. Furthermore, shaving soaps have less ecological impact with respect to aerosol shaving creams.

Shaving soap is a hard soap that is used to produce lather with a shaving brush. The lather it produces is used to coat the face during shaving, softening the hair in preparation for shaving.

Die Rasierseife ist eine spezielle Form der Seife für Nassrasuren. Im Gegensatz zum Rasierschaum aus der Dose muss die Seife mithilfe eines Rasierpinsels selbst aufgeschäumt werden. Dieser Nachteil führte dazu, dass sie jahrzehntelang immer weniger benutzt wurde. Erst durch das Comeback der Vollbärte und der damit verbundenen Barbiere gelangte die Rasierseife zu einem Comeback.


Location.

The logging railway with a gauge of 1067 mm (3 foot 6inch) was used to bring timber from the bush in the Charming Creek Valley to Watson's Mill and from there to Ngakawau railway station of New Zealand Rail (NZR). Later, the line was also used to transport coal from the Charming Creek Coal Mine to the coal bins near Ngakawau for reloading it into NZR wagons.

History.

Logging railway.

The brothers George and Robert Watson commissioned the new Watson's Mill at Ngakawau in 1903 or 1905, after their Granity Creek Sawmill had burned down to the ground under suspicious circumstances, without being insured against fire. The new location was surrounded by plenty of bush for logging and was located near a NZR railway line. To achieve a cost-effective transport, and because the steep Ngakawau Gorge was not suitable as a route for hauling timber by horses or oxen, the Watson brothers built a forest railway from the sawmill on the north side of the Ngakawau River to Hector. This had a very steep incline, which fell down to the mill and which was mastered by an 8-horsepower hilltop steam winch similar to a funicular. As the first forest railway had presumably been uneconomic or inefficient to operate because of the steep incline, a new logging railway was built between 1907 and 1912, from the mill through the steep Lower Ngakawau Gorge to the railway line in Ngakawau. The construction of the logging railway was a technical masterpiece with elaborate cuts, embankments, tunnels and bridges. One of the tunnels, however, was called the "Irishman's Tunnel", as it was constructed with an S-shaped bend to compensate for a fault, which was noted, when the tunnel boring teams, who propelled from both sides did not meet. Due to the steep topography of the Lower Ngakawau Gorge, this stretch of track had many tight turns and a very steep 1:7 (14 ‰) downward slope. Initially, the track had wooden rails. These were replaced by steel rails in the 1920s, when the use of steam locomotives and converted to rail vehicles tractors was common. The gauge of the tram was chosen at 3 feet 6 inches (1067 mm) to match that of New Zealand Rail (NZR). Steep sections of the tram had a raised wooden center rail for braking with a Fell style friction wheel drive.

Mining railway.

On 24 May 1926 Robert Watson and six other investors set-up the Charming Creek Westport Coal Company (CCWCC) to mine hard coal just above the sawmill. On 9 September 1928 Robert Watson and another director of the CCWCC, SJ Akinson, died in a car accident at Buller Gorge, on their way home from a business trip to Christchurch.  In 1928, a 3.5 m (12 ft) thick coal seam was found after digging a flat, 200m long adit with a cross section of 2.5m x 2.25m (8 x 7.5 ft). By the end of that year, 1928, a small amount of coal was mined. Contrary to the original plans to transport the coal in water-filled flumes into the valley, a mining railway was chosen as a means of transport for the coal. It was completed by 1929 and served both the wood and the coal transport. When the existing logging railway had to be extended from Watson's Mill to the coal mine, the entire route was reconstructed with reduced slopes and larger radii of curvature. The mine railway led directly into the mine. The coal was blasted off the face using the board and pillar method of extraction and shoveled into coal-wagons weighing 1.7 tons. These were brought to the surface with horses and then brought by a rail tractor on the logging and mining railway to Ngakawau. In Ngakawau, a coal bin was built, into which the coal from the lorries could be tipped from above, to load it later via shutes into the NZR freight cars. The large wagons that transported the coal to Ngakawau required the installation of an improved center brake rail and the use of a special brake car for safety reasons, if one of the couplings broke.

Locomotives.

The first experimental steam locomotive was built by Seagar Bros. in 1909. It had a vertical boiler rated at 100 psi (7 bar) and an output of 8 hp. It did not prove her worth and was sold to Westport in 1910 as a pile driver.  A self-made construction with a transportable Ruston & Procter boiler (works No. 8698 from 1897) and only one cylinder was built on a wooden frame. The flywheel crankshaft turned the drive shaft via a sprocket and chain, and this turned the two-axis bogies via another sprocket and chain. The boiler was removed in 1913 and was in operation until February 1918.  From May 1918, Watson used another locomotive, again with a transportable Ruston & Procter boiler. It probably had a similar structure and was in operation until February 1921. In addition, converted to rail vehicles converted tractors in different sizes. In some of these tractors, all four wheels were driven by toothed chains.

Historic relevance.

Logging railway.

In the period 1866-1914, the West Coast New Zealand timber industry served mainly the domestic market by a number of small local sawmill companies. Later, from 1915 to 1932, the West Coast became a major export-oriented wood production region. At its peak in the 1920s-1930s, Westland's timber accounted for about 20% of New Zealand's total produce.  The Charming Creek sawmill became successful because of its own forest railway and state NZR railroads. The NZR enabled low-cost timber transport and required a lot of sawn beams and boards for sleepers and building products. In this context, the Charming Creek sawmill was representative of the previously relatively common type of sawmill, which focused on the supply of lumber for the home improvement and mining industries.

Mining railway.

At the beginning of the 20th century, when most of the Buller region's coal mines were operated by the government, Watson and his co-investors took the risk of building a coal mine that would eventually become one of the largest and most durable private coal mines in the region. The mine's location at the top of Charming Creek presented numerous difficulties in transporting the coal. New methods to increase efficiency were implemented, e.g. using hydro-mining and water for the transport of coal from the mine and the tribute system as a new employment system. In later years, the miners used strikes to put pressure on the mine owners to join the lobby for the completion of the Seddonville road.

Current use.

Today, a hiking trail leads along and along the Ngakawau route over the ruins of Watson's Mill to the former Charming Creek Coal Mine.

The Charming Creek Tramway was a long private logging and mining railway at Ngakawau in Buller District on the West Coast in New Zealand. It was used from 1903 or 1905 to 1958.

Die Charming Creek Tramway war eine neun Kilometer lange private Wald- und Grubenbahn bei Ngakawau im Buller District der Region in Neuseeland. Sie war von 1903 oder 1905 bis 1958 in Betrieb.


Background.

Prime Minister Hun Sen announced the planned date of the elections on 30 May 2007, saying that the date of 27 July 2008 had been decided on because it was a holiday and because it fell exactly five years after the previous elections. While the ruling Cambodian People's Party was expected to retain its majority, FUNCINPEC was considered likely to fall behind the two major opposition parties, the Sam Rainsy Party and the Sangkum Jatiniyum Front Party. The newly founded Human Rights Party was also expected to make an impact.

Campaign.

By the deadline of 12 May 2008, only twelve parties had registered for the elections, only half of the 23 parties which contested the 2003 elections and a third of the 39 in the 1998 elections. Ten of those parties fielded candidates in all of Cambodia's 24 provinces and municipalities, while the remaining two fielded candidates in only nine and seven provinces, respectively. Ten parties were approved, one was asked to submit more documents and subsequently approved and one was denied registration.  In early July, the Khmer Anti-Poverty Party and the Society of Justice Party decided to form a political alliance, and the Khmer Republican Party also stated it was willing to make alliances.

Conduct.

The EU observing mission stated that based on the provisional results, the lead of the CPP was so large that there would have to be very large-scale fraud in order to call the CPP's victory into question. They still criticised the disenfranchisement of a large number of voters, but lauded the improvement over the 2003 elections; on the whole, however, the election fell short of international standards.

Results.

Preliminary results from CPP sources indicated that the CPP had won 58.3% of the vote and 91 seats, whilst the SRP had won 21.9% of the vote and 26 seats, with the Human Rights Party on three seats, the NRP on two and FUNCINPEC with one. NGOs and other supervising bodies stated that the distribution was more likely 70 for CPP and 50 for SRP.  <onlyinclude></onlyinclude>

Aftermath.

Prime Minister Hun Sen claimed victory the day after the elections, The stand-off with Thailand over the Preah Vihear Temple was widely seen as a successful attempt of the ruling CPP to garner more support. Analysts expected the CPP to increase its majority; as the constitution was amended to remove the need for a two-thirds majority to govern, requiring the more common simple majority instead, it was considered likely that the CPP would be able to govern without a coalition partner.  The CPP announced it would retain its coalition with the severely diminished FUNCINPEC, but ordered its leaders Keo Puth Rasmey and his wife Princess Arun Rasmey to stand down and let army general Nhek Bun Chhay take over; he would be the first non-royal to lead FUNCINPEC.  The SRP, HRP and NRP threatened to boycott the first parliamentary session unless the irregularities were investigated; the PM replied that in that case, the opposition's seats would be redistributed between CPP and FUNCINPEC.

General elections were held in Cambodia on 27 July 2008. The result was a victory for the ruling Cambodian People's Party, which won 90 of the 123 seats.

Die Parlamentswahl in Kambodscha 2008 (Wahlen zur vierten kambodschanischen Nationalversammlung) wurde am 27. Juli 2008 durchgeführt. Gewonnen wurden sie von der regierenden Kambodschanischen Volkspartei (engl. "Cambodia People’s Party", CPP) des Premierministers Hun Sen, die eine absolute Mehrheit von 90 der 123 Sitze gewann.


Gameplay.

Players control Scrooge McDuck as he travels around the world and outer space in search of five treasures to further increase his fortune. Scrooge is able to attack enemies and get around using his cane. On the ground, Scrooge can swing his cane to attack enemies and to break open or throw certain objects. While jumping, Scrooge can bounce on his cane similarly to a pogo stick and attack enemies from above. This also allows him to reach higher areas as well as bounce across hazardous areas that would hurt him on foot. Along the way, Scrooge can find various diamonds, hidden inside treasure chests or appearing in certain areas, to increase his fortune and ice cream that can restore his health. Scrooge will also encounter various characters from the series who have a variety of roles, such as providing hints, offering useful items, opening access to new areas, or attempting to stop Scrooge's progress. Hidden in the game is a secret life-restoring cheat, accessed by pressing the select button while standing still, that will refill Scrooge's heart points for $3,000,000.  The game features five levels: African mines, The Amazon, The Himalayas, Transylvania, and the Moon. The player can visit any of the destinations to pursue the treasures in any order. However, The African mines and Transylvania must be revisited to acquire certain essential items. Two secret treasures are scattered between all five destinations. Each destination's treasure is protected by a boss that Scrooge must defeat to retrieve. When all five main treasures are collected, the player returns to Transylvania for a final boss fight against Dracula Duck. After defeating him, the player must contend with Flintheart Glomgold and Magica DeSpell for the final treasure.  Upon completing the game, the player can receive one of three endings based on his performance: a regular ending for simply clearing the game, a great ending for clearing the game with at least $10,000,000, and a bad ending for clearing the game with $0. As the player is given $1,000,000 for each level's treasure, the bad ending is only achievable by spending all accumulated money on the life-restore cheat before the player ends the game. In order to do that, the player has to collect exactly $1,000,000 to get a total money of $6,000,000 because he gets a total of $5,000,000 from the bosses. Then, the player has to apply the life-restore cheat two times to end up with $0.

Development.

Although Capcom had previously worked with Disney by publishing the Hudson-produced "Mickey Mousecapade" in North America in 1988, "DuckTales" became the first licensed game that the company developed, and shared many key personnel with the original "Mega Man" series including producer Tokuro Fujiwara, character designer Keiji Inafune, and sound programmer Yoshihiro Sakaguchi.  Revisions to the game included the removal of crosses from the coffins in the Transylvania stage, replacing them with the letters "RIP", replacing hamburgers as power-ups with ice cream, and the omission of an option for Scrooge to give his money up, an action deemed too "un-Scrooge-like." A leaked prototype cartridge from a private collector reveals several differences between the original, unfinished version and the final release, such as different level names, unused music for the Transylvania stage, slower tempo on the music for the Moon stage, unused or altered text, and the character Gizmoduck going by his Japanese name "RoboDuck". Despite the changes, images of the unfinished beta version could be seen in the 1990 books "Consumer Guide: Hot Tips for the Coolest Nintendo Games" and the "NES Game Atlas" by Nintendo.  "DuckTales" was later ported to the Game Boy in late 1990. This version features the same gameplay, music and levels of the original console release, though the layout of each level was changed to accommodate the handheld's lower resolution screen.

Reception.

"DuckTales" was a commercial success, with the NES and Game Boy versions selling approximately 1.67 million and 1.43 million copies worldwide respectively, each becoming Capcom's highest-selling titles for their respective platforms. It was released to generally positive reviews, with "Electronic Gaming Monthly" praising the NES version for its gameplay and colorful graphics, calling it "a prime example of very good game design." The magazine would additionally comment that the title was probably made "with younger players in mind" due to its short length and relative lack of difficulty or complexity, declaring that "you'll probably enjoy this game but find it beaten after the first day of play." Conversely, "Mean Machines" magazine would call the game "very tough and challenging", elaborating that "it requires plenty of skill to get all the way through the game in one go." "Nintendo Power" would later call the Game Boy port "a faithful translation from the NES version."  "Nintendo Power" would list "DuckTales" as the 13th best Nintendo Entertainment System game in 2008, praising it as fun in spite of being a licensed product. The magazine would later place the game 44th in its list of the "285 Greatest Games of All Time" in 2012. In 2009, website IGN would rank the title 10th on its list of the 100 greatest NES games, remarking that "Out of all of the games built on Capcom's famous Mega Man architecture (but wasn't an actual Mega Man game), Duck Tales is perhaps the best of the bunch." "Official Nintendo Magazine" would also include the game at number 85 on their own list of the "100 Best Nintendo Games" that same year, and 9th in its "Top Ten Best NES Games" list in 2013. It also placed 9th on 1UP.com's "Top 25 NES Games" feature in 2010, and 12th in GamesRadar's own "Best NES Games of All Time" list in 2012.  Creative director of "DuckTales Remastered", Matt Bozon, called the music of "DuckTales" "some of the best 8-bit music [he's] ever heard," with his developer team citing themes as that of the Transylvania and Himalayas stages as memorable. "Polygon" cites the "Moon Theme" as the most famous piece of music from the title, with Geekparty calling it "the most perfect piece of 8-bit music ever written." The "Moon Theme" appears in the 2017 animated series reboot during scenes set on the moon, most prominently as the basis for a lullaby that Della Duck sings in the second season episode, "What Ever Happened To Della Duck?!"

"DuckTales: Remastered".

A remake of the game, titled "DuckTales: Remastered", was released in 2013 for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U and in 2015 for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. Developed by WayForward Technologies, "Remastered" features updated graphics and music, expanded story content, and full voice-acting for the characters, including the surviving members of the animated series' cast. The original game's levels are included, but expanded with new areas and new boss patterns, along with two new levels exclusive to "Remastered".

DuckTales is an action platformer video game developed and published by Capcom and based on the Disney animated TV series of the same name. It was first released in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1989 and was later ported to the Game Boy in 1990. The story involves Scrooge McDuck traveling around the globe collecting treasure and outwitting his rival Flintheart Glomgold to become the world's richest duck.

DuckTales ist ein Jump-’n’-Run-Videospiel von Capcom. Es basiert auf der Fernsehserie DuckTales – Neues aus Entenhausen von Disney. Erstmals erschien das Spiel im September 1989 in den USA für das Nintendo Entertainment System, eine Portierung für den Game Boy erschien erstmals am 21. September 1990 in Japan. Das Spiel konnte sich über 3 Millionen Mal verkaufen und erhielt durchweg positive Kritiken.


History.

Ancien Régime.

Prior to 1791, under the Ancien Régime, there existed a variety of means of capital punishment in France, depending on the crime and the status of the condemned person:  On 6 July 1750, Jean Diot and Bruno Lenoir were strangled and burned at the stake in Place de Grève for sodomy, the last known execution for sodomy in France. Also in 1750, Jacques Ferron was either hanged or burned at the stake in Vanvres for bestiality, the last known execution for bestiality in France.

Adoption of the guillotine.

The first campaign towards the abolition of the death penalty began on 30 May 1791, but on 6 October that year the National Assembly refused to pass a law abolishing the death penalty. However, they did abolish torture, and also declared that there would now be only one method of execution: 'Tout condamné à mort aura la tête tranchée' (All condemned to death will have their heads cut off).  In 1789, physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin proposed that all executions be carried out by a simple and painless mechanism, which led to the development and eventual adoption of the guillotine. Beheading had previously been reserved only for nobles and carried out manually by handheld axes or blades; commoners would usually be hanged or subjected to more brutal methods. Therefore, the adoption of the guillotine for all criminals regardless of social status not only made executions more efficient and less painful, but it also removed the class divisions in capital punishment altogether. As a result, many felt the device made the death penalty more humane and egalitarian.  The guillotine was first used on Nicolas Jacques Pelletier on 25 April 1792. Guillotine usage then spread to other countries such as Germany (where it had been used since before the revolution), Italy, Sweden (used in a single execution), and French colonies in Africa, French Guiana and French Indochina. Although other governments employed the device, France has executed more people by guillotine than any other nation.

Penal Code of 1791.

On October 6, 1791, the Penal Code of 1791 was enacted, which abolished capital punishment in the Kingdom of France for bestiality, blasphemy, heresy, pederasty, sacrilege, sodomy, and witchcraft.

1939 onwards.

Public executions were the norm and continued until 1939. From the mid-19th century, the usual time of day for executions changed from around 3 pm to morning and then to dawn. Executions had been carried out in large central public spaces such as market squares but gradually moved towards the local prison. In the early 20th century, the guillotine was set up just outside the prison gates. The last person to be publicly guillotined was six-time murderer Eugen Weidmann who was executed on 17 June 1939 outside the St-Pierre prison in Versailles. Photographs of the execution appeared in the press, and apparently this spectacle led the government to stop public executions and to hold them instead in prison courtyards, such as La Santé Prison in Paris. Following the law, the first to be guillotined inside a prison was Jean Dehaene, who had murdered his estranged wife and father-in-law, executed on 19 July 1939 at St-Brieuc.  The 1940s and the wartime period saw an increase in the number of executions, including the first executions of women since the 19th century.  Marie-Louise Giraud was executed on 30 July 1943 for being an abortionist, which was labeled a crime against state security.  In the 1950s to the 1970s, the number of executions steadily decreased, with for example President Georges Pompidou, between 1969 and 1974, giving clemency to all but three people out of the fifteen sentenced to death. President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing oversaw the last executions.  Up to 1981, the French penal code stated that: In addition, crimes such as treason, espionage, insurrection, piracy, aggravated murder, kidnapping with torture, felonies committed with the use of torture, setting a bomb in a street, arson of a dwelling house, and armed robbery made their authors liable to the death penalty; moreover, committing some military offenses such as mutiny or desertion or being accomplice or attempting to commit a capital felony were also capital offenses.

Clemency.

The right to commute death sentences belonged exclusively to the President of the Republic, whereas it had belonged exclusively to the monarch in earlier ages.  President Charles de Gaulle, a death penalty supporter, commuted 19 death sentences. During his term of office, 13 people were guillotined, and a few others executed by firing squad for crimes against the security of the state. The last of those executed by firing squad was OAS member, Lt. Colonel Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry, who was an organizer of the famous assassination attempt on de Gaulle in 1962.  No executions took place during two-term Interim President Alain Poher, in 1969 and 1974.  President Georges Pompidou, a death penalty opponent, commuted all but three death sentences imposed during his term.  President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who stated that he "felt a deep aversion to the death penalty," also commuted all but three death sentences. He was President at the time of the last execution in France.

Amnesty.

Parliament (rather than the executive) held the power to grant amnesty for death sentences. One example of general amnesty for all people sentenced to death and awaiting execution took place in 1959 after de Gaulle's inauguration when an Act of Parliament commuted all such sentences.

Abolition.

The first official debate on the death penalty in France took place on 30 May 1791 with the presentation of a bill aimed at abolishing it. The advocate was Louis-Michel Lepeletier of Saint-Fargeau and revolutionary leader Maximilien de Robespierre supported the bill. However, the National Constituent Assembly, on 6 October 1791, refused to abolish the death penalty. Soon after, tens of thousands of people of various social classes would be executed by guillotine during the Reign of Terror.  On 26 October 1795, the National Convention abolished capital punishment, but only to signify the day of general peace. With the arrival of Napoleon Bonaparte, the death penalty was reinstated on 12 February 1810, in the French Imperial Penal Code.  President Armand Fallières, a supporter of abolition, systematically pardoned every convict condemned to death over the first three years of his term (1906-1913). In 1906 the Commission of the Budget of the Chamber of Deputies voted for withdrawing funding for the guillotine, with the aim of stopping the execution procedure. On 3 July 1908 the Garde des Sceaux, Aristide Briand, submitted a draft law to the Deputies, dated November 1906, on the abolition of the death penalty. Despite the support of Jean Jaurès, the bill was rejected on 8 December by 330 votes to 201.  Under the pro-Nazi Vichy Regime, Marshal Pétain refused to pardon five women due to be guillotined; no woman had been guillotined in France in over five decades. Pétain himself was sentenced to death following the overthrow of the Vichy Regime, but General Charles de Gaulle commuted Pétain's sentence to life imprisonment on the grounds of his old age (89 years). Other Vichy officials, including notably Pierre Laval, were not so fortunate and were shot. Under Vincent Auriol's presidency, three more women were beheaded, one in Algeria and two in France. The last Frenchwoman to be beheaded (Germaine Leloy-Godefroy) was executed in Angers in 1949. In 1963, Lt. Colonel Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry became the last person to be executed by a firing squad.  Defended by lawyer Robert Badinter, child murderer Patrick Henry narrowly escaped being condemned to death on 20 January 1977, and numerous newspapers predicted the end of the death penalty. On 10 September 1977, Hamida Djandoubi was guillotined and became both the last person executed in France as well as the last person executed by beheading in the Western world, and by any means in Western Europe. On September 18 1981, Badinter - the new Minister of Justice - proposed the final abolition of the death penalty in the National Assembly, the same day as the newly-elected socialist president François Mitterrand backed his efforts, and the National Assembly finally pushed abolition through that same year. Badinter had been a longtime opponent of capital punishment and the defense attorney of some of the last men to be executed.

Current status.

Today, the death penalty has been abolished in France. Although a few modern-day French politicians (notably the far-right Front national former leader Jean-Marie Le Pen) advocate restoring the death penalty, its re-establishment would not be possible without the unilateral French rejection of several international treaties. (Repudiation of international treaties is not unknown to the French system, as France renounced its obligations under the NATO treaty in 1966, though it rejoined the pact in 2009.)  On 20 December 1985, France ratified Additional Protocol number 6 to the European Convention to Safeguard Human Rights and fundamental liberties. This prevents France from re-establishing the death penalty, except in times of war or by denouncing the Convention.  On 21 June 2001, Jacques Chirac sent a letter to the association "Ensemble" saying he was against the death penalty: "It's a fight we have to lead with determination and conviction, because no justice is infallible and each execution can kill an innocent; because nothing can legitimise the execution of minors or of people suffering from mental deficiencies; because death can never constitute an act of justice." On 3 May 2002, France and 30 other countries signed Protocol number 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights. This forbids the death penalty in all circumstances, even in times of war. It went into effect on 1 July 2003, after having been ratified by 10 states.  Despite these efforts, in 2004, a law proposition (number 1521) was placed before the French National Assembly, suggesting re-establishment of the death penalty for terrorist acts. The bill was not adopted. On 3 January 2006, Jacques Chirac announced a revision of the Constitution aimed at writing out the death penalty. (On the previous 13 October, the Constitutional Council had deemed the ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the international pact necessitated such a revision of the Constitution. The protocol concerned civil and political rights aimed at abolishing the death penalty.)  On 19 February 2007, the Congress of the French Parliament (the National Assembly and the Senate, reunited for the day) voted overwhelmingly for a modification of the Constitution stating that "no one can be sentenced to the death penalty." There were 828 votes for the modification, and 26 against. The amendment entered the Constitution on 23 February.

Variations in French opinion.

During the 20th century, French opinion on the death penalty has greatly changed, as many polls have showed large differences from one time to another.

Executions since 1959.

The following people were executed during the Fifth Republic (between 1959 and 1977).

Capital punishment in France (French: "peine de mort en France") is banned by Article 66-1 of the Constitution of the French Republic, voted as a constitutional amendment by the Congress of the French Parliament on 19 February 2007 and simply stating "No one can be sentenced to the death penalty" (French: "Nul ne peut être condamné à la peine de mort"). The death penalty was already declared illegal on 9 October 1981 when President François Mitterrand signed a law prohibiting the judicial system from using it and commuting the sentences of the six people on death row to life imprisonment. The last execution took place by guillotine, being the main legal method since the French Revolution; Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian citizen convicted of torture and murder on French soil, who was put to death in September 1977 in Marseille.

Die Todesstrafe in Frankreich wurde am 9. Oktober 1981 vom damaligen Präsidenten François Mitterrand durch die Unterzeichnung eines entsprechenden Gesetzes abgeschafft. Seit dem 19. Februar 2007 ist die Todesstrafe auch von der Verfassung der Fünften Französischen Republik verboten, nachdem das Parlament diese dahingehend geändert hatte. Die letzte Hinrichtung wurde im September 1977 durch die Guillotine an Hamida Djandoubi ausgeführt, der wegen Folter und Mordes auf französischem Boden verurteilt worden war.


Biography.

Paul was born on August 21, 1842 to Heinrich Friedrich Simon Unterberger and Marie Rudolph. His father, the son of the carriage master from Riga, was one of the founders of the veterinary business in Russia, for which he received a noble title. His family were Austrian Protestants from Salzburg which moved to Prussia during the early-18th Century. His grandfather Simon Thomas Unterberger moved to Riga during the early-19th Century. After the Russian Revolutions, most members of the family, including Paul, all moved back to their German homeland.  In 1849, together with his father, Paul moved to Dorpat, where his father and uncle were appointed professors of the University of Dorpat. He graduated from the classical gymnasium.  In 1860 he entered the Nikolaev Engineering School, which he graduated from in 1862 as a second lieutenant. In 1868 he graduated from the Nikolaev Academy of Engineering in the first category in the rank of staff captain. After graduating from the Academy, he was sent on a business trip to Europe, then left at the Academy for teaching and research work.  In the years 1870–1871, Paul Simon Unterberger, in the rank of captain, was seconded to Turkestan to take part in a military campaign. After a business trip, he lost interest in his academic career and went to serve in Eastern Siberia.  In 1875–1877, in the rank of lieutenant colonel, he served in Irkutsk as a staff officer for special assignments under the district engineering department of the East Siberian Military District. He was engaged in construction work in the underdeveloped areas of the Far East. He conducted a large research work, studying the military geography of the territories included in the East Siberian governorship. During the uprising in Mongolia, he was seconded to Urga for the construction of fortifications in the Russian embassy. Then, overcoming difficulties, he proceeded for research purposes (as a specialist in military geography) through Mongolia and the Gobi Desert, visited Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Japan.  One of the goals of the trip was to hire 134 workers in China for construction in the Khabarovka post area. Under the terms of the contract, workers were hired for 2 years.  In 1877–1878, he served as chairman of the Irkutsk Provisional Military Prison Commission. In April 1878, promoted to colonel and appointed head of the engineering part of the East Siberian Military District. He is engaged in the fortification of Nikolaevsk and especially of Vladivostok, where he initiates a large-scale construction plan for the Vladivostok Fortress. In 1879, he again visited Vladivostok and completed the development of a plan for the deployment of defensive structures around him and the drafting of their projects.  On October 1, 1888, Unterberger was appointed military governor of the Primorskaya Oblast and the appointed leader of the Ussuri Cossack Host. On August 30, 1889, a fortress flag was raised on the fortifications of Vladivostok in connection with obtaining the status of a fortress of the 2nd rank. The role of Vladivostok increased, and in August 1890, the seat of the military governor of the Primorsky region and the regional administration was transferred from Khabarovsk to Vladivostok. In 1896 he received the rank of lieutenant general.  Paul Unterberger spent almost 9 years as a military governor of the Primorskaya Oblast. During this time, with his participation or with his knowledge, the Ussuriysk railway, port, floating and coastal docks, many residential and office buildings were built, medical and educational institutions were put into operation, trade developed, ships on the coastal coast were established, nautical classes, large deposits of coal were discovered in Suchan and mining began, many settlements in the Primorye territory were founded.  In 1897, Unterberger was appointed governor of Nizhny Novgorod. When in May 1897, Pavel Unterberger handed over his affairs to the military governor of the Primorskaya Oblast, General Dean Subbotich, the city duma, noting his services to the city, elected him an honorary citizen of Vladivostok.  In Nizhny Novgorod, Unterberger makes an impression on Nizhny Novgorod with civil engineering and social activities: he builds stone moorings, arranges places for mooring vessels. He initiated the redemption of the Boldin estate of Alexander Pushkin in order to create a state memorial museum. He also initiated the creation of the Nizhny Novgorod Society of Art Lovers. He was a member of 29 charitable societies, in which he regularly paid considerable contributions.  A demonstration took place in his governorship in Sormovo, and Peter Zalomov was arrested. The severity of the measures against the revolutionaries intensified the efforts of the Social Revolutionaries, who, led by Boris Savinkov, were preparing an attempt on the Nizhny Novgorod governor.  Unterberger stayed in the post of the Nizhny Novgorod governor until the beginning of November 1905. A few days before the end of the governorship, he was promoted to senator.  On November 8, 1905, Lieutenant-General Pavel Unterberger was appointed commander of the Amur military district and ataman of the Amur Cossack troops, and 10 days later he was appointed Amur Governor-General. As governor-general, he made efforts to develop and settle the region. With his participation, new educational and medical institutions, including rural ones, were put into operation, development of polymetallic ores in Tetyukh was started, fisheries supervision was introduced, the Kamchatka and the Commander Islands were separated from the regional administration of the Primorsk region, new settlements were based. He contributed to the activities of Vladimir Arsenyev.  In foreign policy issues, he adhered to conservative positions, was extremely wary of Japan, despite the Russian-Japanese rapprochement after the Russo-Japanese War and the signing of a number of bilateral agreements of a general political and economic nature. Known as a systematic opponent of the migration of Koreans to the Russian Far East. In 1910, on his initiative, a cross was installed in honor of Semyon Dezhnev on Cape Dezhnev.  Unterberger completed his re-service in the Far East on December 6, 1910, at the age of 68. He passed the case to the Grand Master of the Stables Nikolai Gondatti and departed for Petersburg, where he was appointed a member of the State Council on December 6, 1910.  In 1912, Pavel Unterberger published the work "The Amur Region. 1906–1910" on the basis of materials collected during the service.  After the revolution, Unterberger went to Germany to visit his wife, daughter Maria and her husband, and became manager at Remplin Castle, where he died at the age of 78.

Awards and titles.

Unterberger is a knight of many orders, including St. Stanislav, 1st class, St. Anna, 1st class, St. Vladimir, 2nd class, White Eagle, St. Alexander Nevsky with the diamond sign.  On June 3, 1897, he was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of the city of Vladivostok.  In 1902, the annual meeting of the Russian Geographical Society awarded Pavel Unterberger a small gold medal for his work "Primorskaya Oblast. 1856–1898".

Paul Simon Unterberger (, tr. ; August 21, 1842, Simbirsk, Russian Empire – February 12, 1921, Remplin, Weimar Republic) was a Russo-German military and state leader, military governor of the Primorskaya Oblast (1888–1897), Nizhny Novgorod Governor (1897–1905), Military ataman of the Ussuri Cossack Host, Amur Governor-General (1905–1910). General Engineer (December 6, 1906).

Paul Simon Unterberger (; * in Simbirsk; † 12. Februar 1921 in Remplin) war ein russischer Generalleutnant, Ataman der Kosaken, Gouverneur in Ostsibirien und Staatsrat im Russischen Kaiserreich.


Club career.

Early career.

A native of Castellammare di Stabia, Donnarumma started his football career with local team Juve Stabia, before joining Milan at the age of 15. He spent five seasons in the club's youth system and he was a member of the under-17 squad who won the "Campionato Nazionale Allievi" in 2007, as well as a member of the under-20 side who claimed the Coppa Italia Primavera in 2010, 25 years after the team's last success in the competition – though he missed the second leg of the final through suspension.  Donnarumma was also selected five times for first-team games since 2008, but eventually he was never fielded nor named on the bench. In spite of that, Milan Youth Department Manager Filippo Galli hinted that the young goalkeeper might have been ready to join the first team permanently.

Piacenza.

In the end, however, Donnarumma was loaned out to Serie B club Piacenza for the 2010–11 season, in order to gain some first team experience. He made his official debut for the club on 14 August 2010, in the second preliminary round of the Coppa Italia against Virtus Lanciano; he played the whole 120 minutes, as Piacenza won 5–3 after extra time. However, the next week he was dropped in favour of Mario Cassano for the first league game of the season. His second appearance came on 27 October, in the third preliminary round of the Coppa Italia against Serie A club Cagliari; despite his team suffering a 3–0 defeat, Donnarumma's performance was considered good.  Donnarumma continued to serve as Cassano's understudy throughout the season, but with two games remaining Cassano was given a three-game ban for insulting a referee. This allowed Donnarumma to make his Serie B debut on 21 May 2011, in a home against Albinoleffe; although he pulled off some good saves in the first half, Piacenza lost the game 3–1. The following week, he was still in the starting line up, as his team suffered a 1–0 loss to Varese. Piacenza finished the season in 19th place and set to play a relegation play–off against Albinoleffe. Donnarumma played in the first leg, keeping a clean sheet in a 0–0 draw, but he was benched in favor of the returning Cassano for the second leg, a 2–2 away draw, which meant Piacenza were relegated to Prima Divisione.

Gubbio.

For the 2011–12 season, Milan sent Donnarumma to newly promoted Serie B club Gubbio on another loan spell, with an option to sign the player on a permanent basis the following season. Donnarumma made his official debut for the club on 15 August 2011, in the second preliminary round of the Coppa Italia against Benevento; he played the whole 120 minutes of a 2–2 extra time draw and then pulled off two saves in the penalty shoot-out, helping his team to win 3–2. The following week, he made a couple of crucial saves in a 4–3 win over Atalanta in the third preliminary round. Donnarumma retained his place in the starting line up also for the first league game of the season, a 2–0 away loss to Grosseto, on 27 August. He went on to make 37 league appearances throughout the 42-game season, as Gubbio finished second-to-last in the table and were relegated to Prima Divisione.  While answering questions from fans during a live chat session on 30 May 2012, Donnarumma stated that he was "99.9% sure" he would sign an extension to his contract with Milan, which was due to expire the following year. However, he also pointed out that he was "not going to stay at Milan to be the third-choice goalkeeper" and instead he would prefer to spend another season on loan in order to play regularly, hopefully with "a Serie B team that fights for promotion".

Genoa.

Despite his earlier statements, on 31 August 2012 – transfer deadline day – Donnarumma was transferred to Serie A club Genoa for a €1.8 million transfer fee and a 3-year contract, as a part of a deal which saw youth prospect Johad Ferretti join Milan, also for a €1.8 million transfer fee. Donnarumma spent the season as the third-choice goalkeeper behind Sébastien Frey and Alexandros Tzorvas, making his only one appearance and Serie A debut in a 0–0 draw at Bologna on the last day. He kept the same role in the following season, backing up his new teammates Mattia Perin and Albano Bizzarri. Despite not making a single appearance throughout the season, in February he signed an extension to his contract with Genoa until 2018.

Bari.

For the 2014–15 season, Donnarumma moved to Serie B club Bari on loan. He started the season as the regular goalkeeper for the side, before losing out his place in the line-up to Enrico Guarna in mid-February.

Asteras Tripolis.

On 27 July 2016, Donnarumma moved to Superleague Greece club Asteras Tripoli on a three-year contract for an undisclosed fee. On 30 October 2016, he made his debut with the club in a home cup game against Veria.

Return to Milan.

On 12 July 2017, Donnarumma re-joined his brother Gianluigi at Milan, signing a four-year deal. Due to injuries to both Milan's first choice keeper and Donnarumma's brother, Gianluigi, as well as the club's second goalkeeper, Marco Storari, Antonio made his Milan debut on 27 December 2017 against Inter Milan in a Derby della Madonnina match in the Coppa Italia, keeping a clean sheet over 120 minutes in a 1–0 victory after extra time. He made his European debut on 22 February 2018, in the second leg of a 1–0 home victory over Ludogorets in the round of 32 of the Europa League. After a season without appearances, Donnarumma was rumored to have been placed on the transfer market, primarily due to his unusually high yearly salary of €1 million for a third-choice goalkeeper. However, as no transfer move happened during the summer of 2019, he remained on the team. On 15 January 2020, Donnarumma made his third appearance for the club in a 3–0 home win against S.P.A.L. in the round of 16 of Coppa Italia, once again keeping a clean sheet. As a result, he became the first goalkeeper in Milan's history not to concede goals within 300 minutes of play since the debut appearance.

Personal life.

He has a younger brother, Gianluigi, who also is a goalkeeper and plays for Milan.

Career statistics.

"As of match played 15 January 2020"

Antonio Donnarumma (; born 7 July 1990) is an Italian footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Serie A club Milan.

Antonio Donnarumma (* 7. Juli 1990 in Castellammare di Stabia) ist ein italienischer Fußballtorwart, der seit 2017 wieder bei seinem Jugendklub AC Mailand in der Serie A unter Vertrag steht. Er ist der ältere Bruder von Gianluigi Donnarumma.


History.

TransUnion was originally formed in 1968 as a holding company for the railroad leasing organization, Union Tank Car Company. The following year, it acquired the Credit Bureau of Cook County, which possessed and maintained 3.6 million credit accounts. In 1981, a Chicago-based holding company, The Marmon Group, acquired TransUnion for approximately $688 million.  In 2010, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Advent International acquired it from Madison Dearborn Partners In 2014, TransUnion acquired Hank Asher's data company TLO. On June 25, 2015, TransUnion became a publicly traded company for the first time, trading under the symbol TRU.  TransUnion eventually began to offer products and services for both businesses and consumers. For businesses, TransUnion updated its traditional credit score offering to include trended data that helps predict consumer repayment and debt behavior. This product, referred to as CreditVision, launched in October 2013.  Its SmartMoveTM service facilitates credit and background checks for consumers who work as landlords.  In September 2013, the company acquired eScan Data Systems of Austin, Texas, to provide post-service eligibility determination support to hospitals and healthcare systems. The technology was integrated into TransUnion's ClearIQ platform, which tracks patients demographic and insurance related information to support benefit verification.  In November 2013, TransUnion acquired TLO LLC, a company that leverages data in support of its investigative and risk management tools. Its TLOxp technology aggregates data sets and uses a proprietary algorithm to uncover relationships between data.  In 2014, a TransUnion analysis found that reporting rental payment information to credit bureaus can positively affect credit scores. As a result, TransUnion initiated a service called ResidentCredit, making it easy for property owners to report data about their tenants on a monthly basis. These reports include the amount each tenant pays, the timeliness of their last payment, and any remaining balance the tenant currently owes. As a result, some companies have started reporting rent payment information to TransUnion.  As part of its fraud protection products, it also offers business a tool called DecisionEdge that aggregates the data needed to prevent fraud through a system that customizes the information needed to finalize a transaction.  For consumers, TransUnion offers credit monitoring and identity theft protection tools. The company's app offers a function called CreditLock that allows an individual to unlock and lock their credit to help protect against fraudulent activity.  In 2017, TransUnion acquired FactorTrust, a consumer reporting agency specializing in alternative credit data.  In mid-April 2018, TransUnion announced it intended to buy UK-based CallCredit Information Group for $1.4 billion, subject to regulatory approval.

Legal and regulatory issues.

In 2003, Judy Thomas of Klamath Falls, Oregon, was awarded $5.3 million in a successful lawsuit against TransUnion. The award was made on the grounds that it took her six years to get TransUnion to remove incorrect information in her credit report.  In 2006, after spending two years trying to correct erroneous credit information that resulted from being a victim of identity theft, a fraud victim named Sloan filed suit against all three of the US's largest credit agencies. TransUnion and Experian settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. In Sloan v. Equifax, a jury awarded Sloan $351,000. "She wrote letters. She called them. They saw the problem. They just didn't fix it," said her attorney, A. Hugo Blankingship III.  TransUnion has also been criticized for concealing charges. Many users complained of not being aware of a $17.95/month charge for holding a TransUnion account.  In March 2015, following a settlement with the New York Attorney-General, TransUnion, along with other credit reporting companies, Experian and Equifax, agreed to help consumers with errors and red flags on credit reports. Under the new settlement, credit-reporting firms are required to use trained employees to respond when a consumer flags a mistake on their file. These employees are responsible for communicating with the lender and resolving the dispute.  In June 2017, a California jury ruled against Transunion with a $60 million verdict in the largest Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) verdict in history. The San Francisco federal court jury awarded $60 million in damages to consumers who were falsely reported on a government list of terrorists and other security threats. The plaintiffs' team of attorneys at Francis & Mailman, P.C. partnered with another California-based firm in the class action.

Security issues.

On 13 October 2017, the website for TransUnion's Central American division was reported to have been redirecting visitors to websites that attempted drive-by downloads of malware disguised as Adobe Flash updates. The attack had been performed by hijacking third-party analytics JavaScript from Digital River brand FireClick.

TransUnion is an American consumer credit reporting agency. TransUnion collects and aggregates information on over one billion individual consumers in over thirty countries including "200 million files profiling nearly every credit-active consumer in the United States". Its customers include over 65,000 businesses. Based in Chicago, Illinois, TransUnion's 2014 revenue was US$1.3 billion. It is the smallest of the three largest credit agencies, along with Experian and Equifax (known as the "Big Three").

TransUnion ist ein US-amerikanischer Finanzdienstleister, der neben Equifax und Experian zu den „Big Three“ der Wirtschaftsauskunfteien in den Vereinigten Staaten zählt. TransUnion verfügt über wirtschaftsrelevante Daten von über 500 Millionen Privatpersonen und Unternehmen. Das Unternehmen wurde 1968 als Holdinggesellschaft für die Union Tank Car Company (UTLX), einem Leasingunternehmen für Güterwagen, gegründet. Im Folgejahr stieg TransUnion mit der Übernahme des "Credit Bureau of Cook County" (CBCC) in die Wirtschaftsauskunft ein. CBCC hielt zu diesem Zeitpunkt Bonitätsdaten auf 3,6 Millionen Karteikarten. Dieser Geschäftszweig wurde in den folgenden Jahrzehnten weiter ausgebaut. Seit 1988 werden die gesamten USA mit den Dienstleistungen TransUnions abgedeckt. 1981 wurde TransUnion von der Marmon Group übernommen, die die Finanz-Sparte in den 1990er Jahren an Madison Dearborn Partners weiterverkaufte. Im Juni 2015 ging TransUnion in New York an die Börse.


Infrastructure.

The rails with a gauge of were laid in the forest park west-south of Engaru. In 1980, former Maruseppu town office (present Maruseppu branch office of Engaru town office) laid this railway on the site of a part of Murii Forest Railway (Murii Shinrin Tetsudō, 武利意森林鉄道) line with construction of forest park. In addition to the narrow-gauge railway there is the Maruseppu local history museum, the Maruseppu insects museum, the Maruseppu thermal spring "Yamabiko" and a campsite.

Rail vehicles.

Steam locomotives.

Amemiya 21-go.

The historic eleven-ton steam locomotive "Amemiya 21-go" (Amemiya Njūichi gō, the 18-series Murii Forest Railway steam locomotive No.21) was built in 1928 by Amemiya Manufacturing Co. Ltd. It was formerly used on the Murii Forest Railway in Maruseppu. It was listed as Hokkaido heritage on October 22, 2004 and is now in working order from the last part of April to the last part of October.  Amemiya Manufacturing (Amemiya Seisakujo, 雨宮製作所) was the legendary railway vehicles manufacturer in Tokyo. It was established in 1907 by Keijirō Amemiya (1846 – 1911) who was the owner of Dai-nippon Kidō Company what had the 8 local light railways in Japan. Amemiya Manufacturing had made many small steam locomotives, tram cars, electric cars, petrol engine cars, coaches and wagons private local railways in Japan. But it became bankrupt in 1931, during the Great Depression. In 21st century, Amemiya 21-go is the sole product of Amemiya Manufacturing to be able to work on the rail.  Amemiya 21-go is called the first completed version of small industrial steam locomotive made in Japan. Over the post-war, many local locomotive manufacturers in Japan followed the structure of it.  Murii Forest Railway had 84 km max-length lines around the Maruseppu Station from 1928 until 1963. It was operated by Hokkaido Prefectual Agency of Home Ministry (1928-1947), National Forestry Bureau of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (1947-1949) and National Forestry Agency of Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (1949-1963).

E103.

Earlier, the E103 steam locomotive of the E-Class Imperial Japanese Army Railways and Shipping Section what was manufactured by Orenstein & Koppel was exhibited there in a non-operational condition. After World War II, It was acquired by Seibu Railway and was used on gravel‐digging line of Ahina Station in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture. After Ahina Station was abolished, it had been exhibited in the amusement park of Seibu Railway, and came to Maruseppu in 1990. In 2002, it was transferred to Frankfurter Feldbahnmuseum in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

532.

The 525-series Seibu steam locomotive 532 was manufactured by Orenstein & Koppel in Germany in 1928. It was imported to Japan by the Seibu Railway in 1973, after being used by a Taiwanese sugar factory and used on the Seibu Yamaguchi Line from 1977 to 1984. After their track had been regauged, it came in October 1993 with four wooden coaches of Seibu type 31 (They had been used by Ikasa Railway) to Maruseppu forest park railway. It has been stored in a non-functional state in the engine shed and have not worked on Maruseppu, not even once.

Diesel locomotive.

A six-ton diesel locomotive operates on the line. It was manufactured by Un'yu Industry Co. in Sapporo in 1959 and used the Tsurui Municipal Railway (Tsurui Village-operated Railway; Tsurui Son'ei Kidō, 鶴居村営軌道; Shin-Fuji - Naka-Setsuri : 28.8 km, Shimo-Hororo - Shin-Hororo : 19.3 km; It was opened in 1929.) in Kushiro Subprefecture. After it was abolished in 1967, the locomotive had been used until 1989 in a plant in the city of Kushiro. Maruseppu town acquired it in 1995 and restored by Sapporo Transport Machinery (Sapporo) in 1996.

Coaches.

Small-size coach for forest railway of National Forestry Agency.

The small-size coach for forest railway was made by Iwasaki Rail Industry Co. in 1956. Iwasaki Rail Industry was a company made many coaches and wagons forest railways in Japan. At first, it was used on a forest railway of Kitami Regional Forestry Bureau in Hokkaido. After that it was transferred to Ōtaki Forest Railway of Agematsu Forestry Transport Station, Nagano Regional Forestry Bureau in Nagano Prefecture and was used until 1975. Maruseppu town acquired it before Amemiya 21-go began to work in Maruseppu Forest Park.

Ikasa Railway's wooden coaches, Hoha 13, Hoha 14, Hoha 18, Hoha 19.

Former Ikasa Railway's wooden coaches were made by Nippon Sharyo Co. in 1925. Hoha 13 and Hoha 14 were used by Ikasa Railway (Ikasa Tetsudō, 井笠鉄道; Kasaoka - Ibara - Kannabe, The period of railway business : 1913-1971, Line length until 1967 : 33.0 km, Track gauge: 762 mm, Non-electrified; "Not to be confused with Ibara Railway") in the west-south of Okayama Prefecture. Hoha 18 and Hoha 19 were used by Ryōbi Light Railway connected Ikasa Railway line, after that Ikasa Railway acquired them when it purchased Jinkō Railway renamed from Ryōbi Light Railway in 1940.  On the named rule of Ikasa Railway, "Ho" meant bogie car and "Ha" meant 3rd class coach.  After Ikasa Railway abolished its railway business, Seibu Railway bought them with other coaches and took renumbering type 31 (Hoha 13 = No.38, Hoha 14 = No.39, Hoha 18 = No.35, Hoha 19 = No.36). These coaches were used on Seibu Yamaguchi Line until 1984. Maruseppu town acquired them with Steam locomotive 532 in 1993. In 1995, Hoha 13 and Hoha 19 were restored to use in forest park. These 2 coaches don't have any marking on their bodies, and the coach to have 4 poles and fence without end panel at one side of vestibule is Hoha 13. Usually, they are used during busy seasons with Amemiya 21-go.

The Hokkaido Maruseppu Recreation Forest Park Railway or Maruseppu Forest Park Ikoi-no-Mori Railway (Japanese: 丸瀬布森林公園いこいの森鉄道, Maruseppu Shinrinkōen Ikoi no Mori Tetsudō) is an approximately long narrow gauge heritage railway with a track gauge of near the Japanese City of Engaru near Mombetsu in the Okhotsk Subprefecture on the island Hokkaidō.

Die Maruseppu-Waldparkeisenbahn (japanisch: 丸瀬布森林公園いこいの森鉄道, Maruseppu Shinrinkōen Ikoi no Mori Tetsudō; englisch: Hokkaido Maruseppu Recreation Forest Park Railway) ist eine 1,5 Kilometer lange Museums-Schmalspurbahn in Engaru bei Mombetsu in der Unterpräfektur Okhotsk auf der Insel Hokkaidō (Japan).