Geography.

The town stands in the gently undulating basin of the Avoca River, which rises in the Pyrenees Ranges to the west. To the south, the region is bounded by low hills of the Great Dividing Range; eastwards, the basin ends in a dry forested rise; to the north the Avoca River runs slowly through the plains of the Wimmera before joining Lake Bael Bael and the lake and swamps just south of the Murray. The town and river were named after Avoca, the village and River Avoca in County Wicklow, Ireland.  The region takes in an area of about, and includes the towns of Redbank, Natte Yallock, Rathscar, Bung Bong, Lamplough, Amphitheatre, Percydale, Moonambel, and Warrenmang. A few miles to the northeast, bare paddocks mark the site of Homebush, once a flourishing mining village.  Avoca has many small businesses servicing the local community including 2 pubs, several cafes, a chemist, convenience store, a butcher, a supermarket, its own newspaper (Pyrenees Advocate) and a community bank. Since the 1970s, the wine industry has grown to be one of the most significant economic drivers and the sector is now the largest employer in the region and has increased tourism.

History.

Early settlement and the gold rush.

The explorer and surveyor Thomas Mitchell was the first European recorded to have travelled through the Avoca district. He found the area more temperate in climate and better watered than inland New South Wales, and he encouraged settlers to take up land in what he described as "Australia Felix".  The Blood Hole massacre occurred at Middle Creek, near Glengower at the end of 1839 or early 1840 killing an unknown number of Dja Dja Wurrung people.  By 1850 there were several large sheep runs, and pastoral settlement was well established.  Like Ballarat and many other Victorian towns, Avoca sprang into being suddenly in the 1850s with the discovery of gold. Gold was first found in Victoria in 1849 in the Pyrenees Ranges near Avoca. But it was not for another two years that the first discovery of any importance took place. In 1851 a shepherd called James Esmond found gold at Clunes, forty kilometres from present-day Avoca, setting off a gold rush to the region. In 1853 gold was found at Four Mile Flat, near Avoca, and the main lead at Avoca itself was opened up a few months later.  By the beginning of December 1853, the population had increased from 100 to 2,200, and by June the following year, Avoca, with a population of 16,000, was regarded as one of Victoria's more important gold rush districts.  With a Court, a police station, Post Office (opened 1 September 1854), gold wardens, churches, and schools, Avoca had established itself as an administrative centre. This was a crucial development in its survival as a town, for when the gold miners left their Avoca claims to travel to the new Dunolly rush in 1856, Avoca continued to serve as the focus of the region's commercial and administrative life. With the Lamplough rush in 1859, miners returned to the Avoca district, and in that year rich deposits were also opened up at Homebush, established on the site of the 1853 Four Mile Flat rush. This discovery brought renewed activity to the district. The value of gold mining to the economy of the area may be seen in a single statistic: from 1859 to 1870 gold worth £2,500,000 was sent from Avoca to Melbourne. (Even this huge sum may represent as little as one third of the gold won as private sales were not included.) On 16 April 1889, gold mining ceased in Avoca with the closure of the Golden Stream Company mine. All that is visible today of the Golden Stream Mine is several large mullock heaps of mainly white pipeclay on the west side of the Sunraysia Highway between the railway crossing and the Avoca Cemetery.

From mining to agriculture and pastoralism.

Avoca's economic basis was shifting rapidly from gold mining to agriculture. Many of the miners who had rushed the area in the 1850s and early 1860s settled and took up land. The big pastoral runs that had existed before the rushes were broken up for closer settlement. In addition to running sheep, several vineyards were planted from the late 1850s onward. Mining continued to be an important source of employment, but for the last decades of the nineteenth century most miners no longer worked individually or in small teams except for a small number of larger companies still working deep leads. Homebush, about ten kilometres from Avoca, was based almost entirely on company mines and flourished for several decades before these mines became uneconomical. Rural Victoria was hit particularly by the depression and drought of the 1890s. From 1895 the larger mines in the Avoca district closed and at the outbreak of World War I very few companies were still in operation. The downturn also affected agriculture in general with the last vineyard ceasing activity in 1929.  Across Australia rural productivity was rising, partly through the development of agricultural machinery by implement makers such as Mackay and Shearer. Some rural areas in 1901 recorded five times the harvest yields of the 1890s, at a small fraction of the cost.  In the first decade of the twentieth century Avoca's infrastructure was further developed. More and better roads were being built, the Shire Engineer attributed the problem of bad roads to heavier traffic from increased cultivation of land and more produce being brought to market. In 1911 the Sugarloaf reservoir was opened, and in the same year the district was linked to the rest of the State by telephone.  The Avoca Magistrates' Court closed on 1 April 1979, not having been visited by a Magistrate since 1971.

The town today.

Avoca Soldiers' Memorial.

The Avoca Soldiers' Memorial is prominent in the park in the centre of the High Street. The war memorial often features on souvenirs of Avoca and could be said to be the symbol of the town.  The memorial was built in 1921. Since early in the First World War there had been a desire in the community to honour the men from the district who had enlisted. Finally in 1920 it was decided to hold a "Back to Avoca" celebration the next year and for the memorial to be opened at this time.  The memorial cost £1,100. Most monuments in Victoria and New South Wales cost between £100 and £1000, one in five between £1000 and £2000, and a few more than that. (It has been estimated that £100 in the 1920s was roughly equivalent to A$8000 in 1998.) Avoca, too small to be allocated a gun for a war trophy, built a monument on a scale suitable for the largest twenty per cent of communities. Having not built a band rotunda to date, it appears that the community may have used the opportunity of erecting the memorial to overcome this deficiency in the town's furnishings.  The Avoca memorial, which was initially conceived as a band rotunda, is an irregular octagon with eight piers carrying a roof obscured by a parapet. A frieze above the columns contains the names of the main areas where volunteers from Avoca fought: Gallipoli, France, Palestine and Belgium. Low walls on four sides each have a soldier's helmet and pack sculptured in high relief. The entrances on the other sides are guarded by free-standing granite tablets, inscribed with the names of soldiers from the district who fought in the First World War. The tablet on the northern side of the memorial records the names of those who died. The memorial is based on a classical model but with few references to classical detailing.

Cemetery.

The cemetery is located at 247 Sunraysia Highway Avoca Vic 3467. ( Coordinates ) Information on the interments, with more details and images of the headstones - here. The Avoca and District Historical Society Inc has erected a Memorial Wall in the old section of the Avoca Cemetery, to enable memorialisation of early citizens of the district buried in unmarked graves. Early in 2012 the Chinese Memorial Foundation in Melbourne sought permission to erect a memorial in the Avoca Cemetery in honour of their fellow countrymen who died in the area. This memorial was unveiled at a ceremony conducted on 23 November 2012.

Chinese Garden.

Local business in conjunction with the Pyrenees Shire and Victorian government constructed a Chinese Garden in 2014. The Avoca Chinese Garden was named the Garden of Fire and Water by artist Lindy Lee. This contemporary Chinese garden represents the important contribution of Chinese people in the culture, those who came from China as immigrants and those Australians whose parents or grandparents came from China.

Churches.

There are 5 current churches and 1 former church in Avoca.

Population.

At the 2016 census, Avoca had a population of 1,193. 82.6% of people were born in Australia and 90.5% of people only spoke English at home. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 35.9% and Anglican 22.2%.

Sport.

The town has an Australian rules football team competing in the Maryborough Castlemaine District Football League, the Avoca Bulldogs. Avoca have played in this league since 2005. They played in the Lexton Football League from 1944 until 1999. Then played with the Lexton Plains Football League until 2004 which was a merger of the Lexton Football League and the Western Plains Football League. The Avoca Football Club was formed in 1872.  Avoca has a horse racing club, the Avoca Shire Turf Club, which hosts several race meetings throughout the year. Best known are the ANZAC Races on Anzac Day every year and The Avoca Cup meeting in October.  Golfers play at the Avoca Golf Club on Davey Street.  Avoca has had a number of Australian Football League. players over the years. The most notable being Jim Jess who played 223 games for Richmond Football Club and playing in the 1980 Premiership. Jim Jess also represented Victoria on five occasions and was an All Australian representative. Ex-Collingwood and Sydney Swans player Darren Jolly also has ties with Avoca.  Avoca also hosts a wide range of other sporting events including mountain and road cycling events, running events and car rallies that profit from the natural beauty, space and support from local business and local government.

Tourism.

Tourism is important for Avoca. The Avoca region is home to an established agricultural and winery industry thanks to its Mediterranean climate, good soil and running streams. The Tourist Information Office provides a pamphlet outlining a walking tour of the town's historic buildings which lists around 40 separate destinations.

Transport.

The town is located at the intersection the Sunraysia Highway and the Pyrenees Highway. It was once served by a railway station, until it was closed in 1979. Freight traffic ceased in 2005. Subsequently, the railway from Ararat to Maryborough was closed for conversion to standard gauge.  In 2017, there is a proposal entitled the, "Murray Basin rail project" designed to link Mildura to Portland with standard gauge track to carry grain and mineral sands on the now disused Avoca railway line. This upgrading will include the Maryborough to Ararat section of the line, past the site of the disused station.

Water supply.

Today's Avoca town water supply is largely dependent upon the "Bung Bong Bore" which was originally installed in an attempt to overcome flooding of deep lead mine shafts at Caralulup.

Wineries.

In the late twentieth century viticulture was re-established and wine and tourism are now of significant economic importance to the region. Avoca is regarded as the gateway to the Pyrenees wine region. 1963 saw the rebirth with government ministers attending the official planting ceremony. While wineries extend from near Waubra in the south to St Arnaud in the north, Avoca is considered the epicentre of the wine region.

Climate.

The Bureau of Meteorology maintains temperature and rainfall statistics for Avoca, showing it has an mean maximum temperature of 20.3 C and an annual rainfall of 543 mm.

Avoca is a town in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia, north west of Ballarat. It is one of two main towns in the Pyrenees Shire, the other being Beaufort to the south.

Avoca ist eine Kleinstadt im Zentrum des australischen Bundesstaates Victoria. Sie liegt 71 km nordwestlich von Ballarat in der Local Government Area Pyrenees Shire am Avoca River. Bei der Volkszählung 2016 wurden 972 Einwohner gezählt.


People's Republic of China.

After the 1997 decision to legalize lethal injection as a form of execution, PRC officials began using execution vans across China. Becoming popular in 2007, these officials state that the vans are cost-effective by allowing communities without the money to build dedicated death rows to kill prisoners without the costs associated with sending prisoners away for death. Former Chinese judge and current lawyer Qiu Xingsheng argues that "some places can't afford the cost of sending a person to Beijing—perhaps $250—plus $125 more for the drug." Because Beijing is the only place where the drug is manufactured, the vans have allowed localities to administer the death sentence where the crime took place. Estimates place the number of execution vans in operation at around 40; the PRC has not confirmed this number.  A converted 24-seat bus, the execution van keeps the appearance of a normal police van on the outside with no markings indicating its purpose. The rear of the vehicle houses a windowless chamber where the execution takes place. Several cameras are present and feed closed-circuit televisions in the front of the van; a recording can be made if desired. The bed itself slides out of the wall under its own power, on which the convicted person is strapped down. A syringe is put into the arm by a technician and a police official administers the injection by pressing a button.

Controversy.

The PRC government claims that this is a more humane form of killing people, being far less painful than firing squad executions. Zhao Shijie, president of the Yunnan Provincial High Court, was quoted as praising the new system: "The use of lethal injection shows that China's death penalty system is becoming more civilized and humane." While the vans have moved China away from previous days of large public executions, human rights activists counter that they are "like government-sanctioned death squads", and allow for an increased number and a higher efficiency of executions.

Notable executions.

On December 22, 2003, organized crime leader Liu Yong was executed in an execution van in a controversial ruling. Liu was convicted of 32 charges and sentenced to death in 2000, but was granted a reprieve after appealing the case on the grounds that his confession was forced. Liu had been given a retrial by the Supreme Court on December 17. It was the first time the Supreme Court had bypassed China's two-trial system in which two trials are permitted and the verdict of the second trial may be appealed by either side.  On March 17, 2006, billionaire Yuan Baojing was executed in a van for the arranged murder of a blackmailer.  The former Director of the State Food and Drug Administration of the People's Republic of China Zheng Xiaoyu was executed in an execution van on July 10, 2007, for corruption. Zheng tried to appeal the sentence, but the court ruled that he was a "great danger" to the country and its reputation.

The execution van, also called a mobile execution unit, was developed by the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and was first used in 1997. The prisoner is strapped to a stretcher and executed inside the van. The van allows death sentences to be carried out without moving the prisoner to an execution ground. The vans also require less manpower per execution, requiring four persons to assist with the injection and are mobile. The PRC states that the vans are more humane than previous forms of execution. Human-rights groups predict that the execution rate in China will increase because of mobile capital punishment.

Ein Hinrichtungsbus ist ein Fahrzeug für Exekutionen mittels der Giftspritze. Diese Tötungsgeräte wurden in der Volksrepublik China entwickelt und dort vor allem von Schnellgerichten eingesetzt.


Gameplay.

"Tropico 2" is a city-building game. Though much of it is based on the original "Tropico", the gameplay is very different. The player runs a pirate island and, as the Pirate King, must keep the pirates happy while stealing as much booty as possible. Workers, called captives, are taken on raids, from shipwrecks off the player's island, or from nations with which an alliance has been established. The captives are responsible for production and construction on the island. They can take on most of the jobs available, including farmer, lumberjack, and blacksmith, and can even be promoted to a pirate. Skilled captives may perform more specialized jobs which unskilled captives cannot. Still, the main goal of the game, other than the objectives stated in a scenario, is to stay in power, much like the original Tropico.  To keep captives happy, certain needs will need to be fulfilled, such as food, rest, religion, fear, and order. Pirates, however, prefer anarchy and defense, along with grub, grog, wenches, and betting from various entertainment buildings as well as resting and stashing at personal homes. Anarchy measures the level of disorder in an area and mostly comes from entertainment buildings. Captives are prevented from escaping through the fear mechanic, which is maintained by special structures. Escaped workers may report to other monarchs and cause uprisings. Pirate ships may be built at boatyards or shipyards, and are used to plunder other islands or board enemy ships to steal gold with which the player can build a greater pirate base and occasionally wealthy captives, who do not work but have a ransom that increases as they use entertainment buildings. There are also several challenging scenarios in which the goal is to survive in harsh environments, from angry pirates to escaping captives.  The game offers fewer choices for development compared to its predecessor. In Tropico, the economy could be focused on industry, tourism, military despotism, commodities, or a combination of all four. In Pirate Cove, the player is more limited in scope and path, and will end up building many of the same buildings every time with few additions, which means Pirate Cove does not have the emphasis on spreadsheets and statistics that its predecessor did.  Tropico 2 is the first game to have a campaign in the series, in which each scenario has a goal to be accomplished within the time limit. Goals can range from constructing certain structures, having enough money in the treasury or personal stash, ensuring overall pirate happiness is above a certain point, achieving harmonious relations with a faction, and having a certain number of ships on the island. The campaign follows a pirate king whose traits change as the campaign goes on.

Development.

Origins.

After PopTop Software completed the original "Tropico", its president Phil Steinmeyer was uninterested in developing further games in the series. However, the game's publisher, Take-Two Interactive, requested an expansion pack to capitalize on "Tropico"s success. Steinmeyer explained that he "really wanted to work with" Frog City Software on the project and approached the studio in 2001, but it was unavailable due to scheduling conflicts. During their talks, the possibility of Frog City's developing "Tropico 2" arose instead, and PopTop requested a design pitch from the company in September.  According to Steinmeyer, the teams agreed that "there just wasn't enough material" to develop a second "Castro-style game", and so Frog City began to consider alternative settings. Eventually, the company's Mark Falange suggested a piracy theme, of which Frog City, Steinmeyer and Take-Two Interactive all approved. Frog City's president, Rachel Bernstein, considered the game's approach "a fresh angle" on piracy in games, compared to earlier projects like "Sid Meier's Pirates!" "Tropico 2" entered development shortly thereafter.

Production.

Although Frog City developed "Tropico 2", PopTop remained involved as the game's producer. At the time, the former company's Bill Spieth explained that PopTop "looks at "Pirate Cove" milestones, approves Frog City's work, and gives feedback on game play, interface, or whatever." PopTop also created the game's cutscenes. Frog City chose to reuse PopTop's game engine from "Tropico", which had also appeared in the earlier "Railroad Tycoon II". However, the engine went through a "major rework, and was essentially broken" for the project's initial six months, Steinmeyer explained at the time. This made it impossible for the team to display "Tropico 2" and receive public feedback, an aspect of game development that Steinmeyer considered important.  Frog City's initial goal was to produce a "playable build" by March 2002, in preparation for a May announcement and fall release. This schedule was interrupted in February 2002, when "Computer Games Magazine", a publication for which Steinmeyer worked as a columnist, opted to do a cover story on "Tropico 2". The game was ultimately announced on March 1, 2002. While the preview received positive feedback and energized the team, Frog City was inspired by fan comments to expand the game, especially with regard to pirate captains. This necessitated a delay past the holidays and a budget increase of "several hundred thousand", according to Steinmeyer. However, he was able to negotiate the new schedule and budget with the game's publisher.  Frog City attempted to capture the visual and humor style of the first "Tropico", while changing the gameplay mechanics. It occurred to the team that pirates' pleasure-seeking behavior was similar to the behavior of tourists in "Tropico", and so they chose to amplify the game's focus on entertainment compared to its predecessor. Spieth described "Tropico 2" as a "reverse economy", since money and workers are stolen and expended on the player's pirates, instead of earned as in "Tropico". In an effort to solve the first game's pathfinding issues, Frog City decided to restrict unit movement to roads. Despite these changes, much of the original game's interface was retained. In addition, "Tropico"s composer, Daniel Indart, was hired again to score "Tropico 2".  To create "Tropico 2"s pirate setting, the team "went almost completely with myth and fiction", according to Spieth. Rafael Sabatini's adventure novels were a main reference point for the game, and Spieth compared the game's setting to the island of Tortuga portrayed in "Captain Blood". The story of "Tropico 2"s protagonist was based on the plot of "Captain Blood" as well. To design the historical pirate leaders, such as Blackbeard and Laurens de Graaf, the team studied tales of their exploits and crafted the characters' strengths and weaknesses accordingly. For example, they were inspired by de Graaf's hatred of Spain to make him unable to work with that country in "Tropico 2". The team strove to keep "Tropico 2" lighthearted and comedic despite its piracy theme; for example, the pirate overseer unit was made to use a towel whip at Rachel Bernstein's suggestion.  In designing the sequel, Frog City sought to balance its differences from and similarities to its predecessor, which Spieth called "a tightrope [walk] between 'too different,' and 'not different enough.' " Steinmeyer remarked that this concern persisted until near the game's release: certain spectators called "Tropico 2" too much unlike "Tropico", while its "sales, marketing, [and] overseas offices" considered it to be too similar to sell. He believed that the latter problem was caused by the game's reuse of terrain visuals from "Tropico", which led the team to create new tree models, and to edit the "colors and textures" of "Tropico 2"s reused water and earth graphics. To appease those who found "Tropico 2" too different from its predecessor, Frog City increased the game's emphasis on city-building, which had previously been marginalized in favor of pirate raids.  "Tropico 2" reached gold status on April 2, 2003. It was released in North America on April 8.

Reception and legacy.

In the United Kingdom, "Tropico 2" sold poorly during the first half of 2003. Kristan Reed of GamesIndustry.biz wrote that it was "struggling to sell upwards of 5k", and speculated that software piracy could be the cause. According to former members of Frog City employed at Sidecar Studios, "Tropico 2" sold over 300,000 copies worldwide and was commercially successful. The review aggregation website Metacritic designated "Tropico 2"s critical reception as "generally favorable".  Kristian Brogger of "Game Informer" summarized "Tropico 2" as addictive and "a blast", and noted its "irrepressible charm". However, he called the game a small step down from "Tropico", and found its pirate setting unoriginal and its gameplay repetitive. In "Computer Gaming World", Di Luo considered "Tropico 2" to be a missed opportunity, and found its new mechanics limited and "tedious" compared to the gameplay of its predecessor. Although he enjoyed its theme and audiovisual style, he found that "Tropico 2" contains "nothing to set it apart from the crowd." However, Luo argued that the game never loses its "inexplicable charm", and that it "never really gets bad".  Writing for IGN, Barry Brenesal called "Tropico 2" an improvement upon "Tropico", thanks to its "more open-ended quality" and new setting. He praised its interface, particularly the logbook, and called the game a refreshing standout in the management simulation genre. While Brenesal considered certain aspects of "Tropico 2" to be unintuitive, he highlighted its "strong economic engine, [and] well-balanced gameplay." IGN went on to name "Tropico 2" "IGNPC's Game of the Month" for April 2003. Conversely, Jason Cross of "Computer Games Magazine" called "Tropico 2"s interface superior to that of "Tropico", but he felt that the game featured "too much interface and busy work." He found it dated compared to current strategy games, and concluded, ""Tropico 2" doesn't come through with enough swashbuckling, ship-boarding flair."  "PC Format"s Matt Avery summarized "Tropico 2" as "short-lived fun with information overload in place of interaction." Although he remarked that "statisticians will have a field day" with the game's detailed economics, he disliked "Tropico 2"s lack of direct control over units, and found the overall product "rather limited." Writing for "PC Gamer US", Stephen Poole criticized the game's combination of piracy and management gameplay, which he found awkward, unrealistic and unsatisfying. He also argued that the game's musical style is incongruous with its setting. Poole concluded that "Tropico 2"s theme is "barely a skin-deep covering on a sim that could just as easily have been made about the ACME Widget Factory."  "Tropico 2" was the final entry in the series to be published by Take-Two Interactive. No further "Tropico" games were greenlighted until November 2008, when Kalypso Media bought the "Tropico" intellectual property from Take-Two and announced "Tropico 3", developed by Bulgaria's Haemimont Games. The game was released in 2009. Afterward, Haemimont Games developed "Tropico 4" (2011) and "Tropico 5" (2014), both published by Kalypso. "Tropico 6", developed by Limbic Entertainment and published again by Kalypso Media, was announced in June 2017. It was released for PC on March 29th, 2019.

Tropico 2: Pirate Cove is a city-building game developed by Frog City Software and published by Gathering of Developers in April 2003. It is the sequel to "Tropico".

Tropico 2: Die Pirateninsel ist der zweite Teil einer mittlerweile sechsteiligen Computerspiel-Reihe mit Namen Tropico aus dem Wirtschaftssimulationsgenre, die auf einer fiktiven Karibikinsel gleichen Namens spielt. Im Gegensatz zu den anderen Versionen der Reihe übernimmt der Spieler im zweiten Teil das Kommando über einen Piratenstützpunkt in der Karibik.


Common technologies.

Raking technology can be used on dry or wet sand. When using this method, a rotating conveyor belt containing hundreds of tines combs through the sand and removes surface and buried debris while leaving the sand on the beach. Raking machines can remove materials ranging in size from small pebbles, shards of glass, and cigarette butts to larger debris, like seaweed and driftwood. By keeping the sand on the beach and only lifting the debris, raking machines can travel at high speeds.  Sifting technology is practiced on dry sand and soft surfaces. The sand and waste are collected via the pick-up blade of the vehicle onto a vibrating screening belt, which leaves the sand behind. The waste is gathered in a collecting tray which is often situated at the back of the vehicle. Because sand and waste are lifted onto the screening belt, sifters must allow time for the sand to sift through the screen and back onto the beach. The size of the materials removed is governed by the size of the holes in the installed screen.  Combined raking and sifting technology differs from pure sifters in that it uses rotating tines to scoop sand and debris onto a vibrating screen instead of relying simply on the pick-up blade. The tines' position can be adjusted to more effectively guide different-sized materials onto the screen. Once on the screen, combined raking and sifting machines use the same technology as normal sifters to remove unwanted debris from the sand.  Sand sifting by hand is used for smaller areas or sensitive habitat. Sand and debris is collected into a windrow or pile and manually shoveled onto screened sifting trays to separate the debris from the sand. While effective, it requires the movement of sand to the site of the tray, and then redistribution of the sand after sifting. A more efficient method is the use of a screened fork at the place where the debris is located. The effort to manually agitate the sand can become tiresome; however, a recent development of a battery-powered sand rake combines the spot cleaning effectiveness of manual screening with the ease of an auto-sifting hand tool.

Areas of operation.

Sand cleaning machines are used all over the world for the purpose of the safety and happiness of beach-goers. By removing litter, unwanted seaweed, and other debris from the beach, municipalities and resorts are able to maintain their beaches with fewer invested hours.  In addition to their regular litter-removing uses, beach and sand cleaners have been used to clean up after natural disasters. For example:  In Galveston, Texas, low oxygen levels in the water resulted in thousands of dead fish washing ashore. Raking sand cleaners were then used to remove the rotting fish off the beach before they released excessive toxins into the air, sand, and water.  The Olympic Games 2008 saw the first remote-control Sandbonis for the beach volleyball fields in Beijing Chaoyang Park.  The cleanup after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill saw large applications of sand cleaners to the area. Similarly, the Rena oil spill in New Zealand also saw beach cleaners deployed in an effort to remove the affected sand.

Manufacturers.

The major manufacturers of large beach-sand cleaning machines are considered to be D'Hooghe machinebouw, ingeniería Flozaga Guterh Sl, H Barber & Sons, Cherrington, Beach Tech, PFG Srl, Tuareg srl, Scam Srl, Rockland, Qingzhou Rio and Tirrenia Srl.  There are many other manufacturers of sand cleaners being used for other purposes. For example, a smaller 4-wheel and halftrack sand cleaning machine is used for sandpits in Kindergarten and municipality playing fields and for beach volleyball. When environmental or spot-cleaning requires hand operations, an auto-sifting, lightweight, screened rake can be the best choice

A sand cleaning machine, beach cleaner, or (colloquially) sandboni is a vehicle that drags a raking or sifting device over beach sand to remove rubbish and other foreign matter. They are manually self-pulled vehicles on tracks or wheels or pulled by quad-bike or tractor. Seaside cities use beach cleaning machines to combat the problems of litter left by beach patrons and other pollution washed up on their shores. A chief task in beach cleaning strategies is finding the best way to handle waste matter on the beaches, taking into consideration beach erosion and changing terrain. Beach cleaning machines work by collecting sand by way of a scoop or drag mechanism and then raking or sifting anything large enough to be considered foreign matter, including sticks, stones, litter and other items. Similar applications include lake beaches, sandfields for beach volleyball and kindergarten and playing field sandpits. The word "sandboni" is a back-formation referencing the ice-surfacing machine Zamboni.

Eine Sandreinigungsmaschine (auch "Sandbearbeitungsmaschine" oder "Sandboni") oder Strandreinigungsmaschine (kurz "Strandreiniger") ist ein zur Reinigung und Oberflächenaufbereitung von Sandstränden, Sandspielplätzen oder Beachvolleyballfeldern eingesetztes mobiles Gerät. Die Bezeichnung „Strandreiniger“ wurde analog zu den Eisbearbeitungsmaschinen auf Kunsteisbahnen gebildet, die in den englischsprachigen Ländern den Gattungsnamen nach dem Erfinder und Hersteller Frank J. Zamboni erhalten haben.


United Arab Emirates at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Olympische Sommerspiele 2012/Teilnehmer (Vereinigte Arabische Emirate)

Background.

The United Arab Emirates National Olympic Committee was recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 1 January 1980. The nation debuted at the Olympics four years later at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games, and have taken part in every Summer Olympics since, making London their eighth appearance at a Summer Olympiad. They have never participated in a Winter Olympic Games. The 2012 Summer Olympics were held from 27 July to 12 August 2012; a total of 10,568 athletes represented 204 National Olympic Committees (NOC).  The United Arab Emirates named its Olympic team at the Dubai Aquarium on 21 June 2012. It sent 26 athletes to complete in the London Summer Olympics: 2 in track and field, 18 football players, 3 shooters, and 1 each in judo, swimming and weightlifting. This was the largest Olympic team that the nation had sent to the Olympic Games. Along with the athletes, the United Arab Emirates sent the president of its NOC Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and various government delegates to the Games. Shooter Saeed Al Maktoum was chosen as the flag bearer for the parade of nations during the opening ceremony, and a LOCOG Games Maker held it for the closing ceremony.

Athletics.

Betlhem Desalegn was 20 years old at the time of these Games, and was likewise making her only appearance in Olympic competition. She qualified for the women's 1500 metres event by setting a personal best of 4 minutes and 8.87 seconds at a meet in Casablanca on 9 June 2012. Desalegn underwent intensive training in Addis Ababa as preparation for the Olympics. Her coach said he was optimistic she would advance beyond the first round of the contest due to her light weight and fitness. On 6 August, Desalegn entered the first round of the women's 1500 metres, and was assigned to run in heat three. She finished the race in a time of 4 minutes and 14.07 seconds, placing 14th out of 15 athletes in her heat. Since the top three in each heat plus the next six fastest runners could make the semi-finals, Deslaegn was eliminated from the competition because she was 35th overall. She said she was disappointed with the result because she had a cold which hindered her performance.  At the age of 26, Mohamed Abbas Darwish was the only male athlete in the sport of athletics. He was making his debut in the Olympic Games in London, having qualified for the men's triple jump by using a wild card since his personal best was less than the "B" qualifying standard of for his competition. Darwish trained under the coach Svetoslav Topuzov to prepare for the London Olympics, and did so barefooted. On 7 August, he took part in the qualifying round of the men's triple jump. Darwish fouled on his first try, but he achieved his best mark of on his second attempt, which put him 13th in Group B and 24th overall. Only the top 12 overall finishers were allowed to progress from the qualifying round to the final, and therefore, he was eliminated from the competition. Darwish said post-event that he did not where he was weak but that he would improve his performance in time for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Football.

The United Arab Emirates under-23 team qualified for the men's football tournament by topping Group B in the third preliminary round of the men's Asian qualifying rounds. It was the first time that the nation had qualified for an Olympic football tournament. The 18-player squad and 4 alternate players included players from clubs in the UAE Pro League and three players over the age of 23. The country was drawn to play Great Britain, Senegal and Uruguay in Group A. Its first match was between Uruguay at Old Trafford, Manchester on 26 July. Ismail Matar took the lead for the United Arab Emirates with a 23rd minute goal from an Omar Abdulrahman left footed pass. Uruguay took a 2–1 win with goals from Gastón Ramírez on 42 minutes and Nicolás Lodeiro after 56 minutes with involvement from Luis Suárez both times. They faced the Great Britain side three days later at Wembley Stadium, London. Great Britain captain Ryan Giggs headed in a Craig Bellamy cross to take the lead for the home team in the 16th minute. The UAE had tied the match at 1–1 with a goal from Rashed Eisa, but Scott Sinclair restored his team's lead with another Bellamy cross on the 73rd minute. The home team took a 3–1 victory when Daniel Sturridge curled the ball over the top of UAE goalkeeper Ali Khasif's head. At the City of Coventry Stadium, the UAE drew 1–1 to Senegal in its final match of the tournament as the nation finished bottom of the group and advanced no further with a single point.

Judo.

Humaid Al-Derei was 21 years old at the time of the Games and was making his Olympic debut. He was the second Judoka after Saeed Rashid Al Qubaisi to represent the United Arab Emirates in Olympic competition. Al-Derei received a wild card entry to the London Summer Olympics by participating in the 2011 World Judo Championships in Paris, but this was upgraded to a direct entry through his participation in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. He trained in Belarus, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates as preparation for the Games; he was required to wear sunglasses due to an eye disease that gave him extreme sensitivity to light. Al-Derei said his objective for the Games was to perform to the best of his ability, "I will do what I can and the rest I will leave up to God." He took part in the second round of the men's 66kg competition at ExCeL London on 29 July and faced world number 10 Ahmed Awad of Egypt. Al-Derei lost when Awad caused an elbow injury to the former that restricted his movement a minute after the game commenced and executed a match-winning Ippon after 2 minutes and 37 seconds. He said post-match that Awad's grip was too tight but was proud to have competed in the Olympics.

Shooting.

Aged 35 at the time of the London Olympics, Saeed Al-Maktoum was making his fourth appearance at the Olympic Games. He attained qualification for the skeet competition after winning two bronze medals at the 2012 Asian Shooting Championships in January. Al-Maktoum trained in the United Arab Emirates and attended a long-term training camp Italy before the Games. Ahmad Al Kamali, the UAE Athletics Federation president, said his experience gave him an opportunity to win. On 30 July, Al-Maktoum took part in the qualification round of the skeet tournament at the Royal Artillery Barracks. He finished 13th of the 36 participating shooters with a score of 118 points. Al-Makotum was thus eliminated at the qualification round since he scored two points less than the two lowest scoring qualifiers. He said afterwards that some errors in the qualification round and rushing himself on occasion led to his elimination.  Juma Al-Maktoum was 28 years old at the London Games and was debuting in Olympic competition. He qualified for the Olympic double trap tournament by winning the gold medal in the discipline at the 2012 Asian Shooting Championships. Al-Maktoum went to a training camp outside of Milan in Italy before the Games. He said of his chances in London, "It is a matter of pride that I am here to represent my country at an Olympic Games. I don’t want to feel any pressure, but everything has gone well with my training." On 2 August Al-Maktoum competed in the qualification round of the men's double trap at the Royal Artillery Barracks. He finished 13th out of 23 finishing shooters with a score of 133 points after he scored a respective 42, 45 and 46 points in all three rounds that were contested. Al-Maktoum scored four less points than the two lowest scoring shooters and was not able to advance to the final of the event.  The oldest member of the team at the age of 39, Dhaher Al-Aryani was making his debut in the Olympic movement. He qualified for the Games for the men's trap event through his participation in the 2012 Asian Shooting Championships. The team's trap shooting coach Rustam Yambulatov said that hot weather would be advantageous to Al-Aryani. He partook in the qualification round of the men's trap competition held at the Royal Artillery Barracks between 5 and 6 August. Al-Aryani placed 32nd out of the 34 entered shooters with a two-day score total of 107. He accumulated 17 points less than the two lowest ranked qualifiers and his competition ended at the qualification round. After the Games, Al-Aryani said, "Now after finishing this competition against some of the world's best champion shooters, I have learnt so much that I feel confident for the future."

Swimming.

Mubarak Al-Besher, who at the age of 24 was competing in his first Olympic Games, was granted a universality place from the world governing body of swimming FINA after his best time of 1 minute and 4.60 seconds was 0.99 seconds slower than the "B" (FINA/Olympic Invitation) qualifying standard for the men's 100 metre breaststroke. He attended training camps in Málaga, Spain and London, United Kingdom and later swam in the first leg of the Mare Nostrum meets as preparation for the Games. Al-Besher stated his objective was to record a personal best and would perform to the best of his ability, "Inshallah, I’ll clock another personal best in London. I’m expecting a surprise there, So God willing, if I clock 1min 3sec or 1min 2sec, I will be very happy in London." On 28 July, he competed in the first heat of the contest, finishing second out of four swimmers, with a time of 1 minute and 5.26 seconds. Al-Besher placed 42nd out of 44 swimmers overall and failed to advance to the semi-finals since the competition's formal allowed only the quickest 16 competitors to enter the semi-finals. After he was eliminated, he commented on his result, "I was very nervous today because it was my first time at the Olympics but still I’m happy I got the chance to compete against the best in the world."

Weightlifting.

Khadija Mohammed participated on the United Arab Emirates' behalf in the sport of weightlifting. At age 17, she was the youngest athlete to represent the nation at the 2012 London Games, and was making her debut in the Olympics. Mohammed qualified for the Games through her nation's fifth-place finish at the 2012 Asian Weightlifting Championships in South Korea in April that year, making her the first Olympic female athlete from a Gulf country to earn automatic qualification, the first Emirati woman weightlifter to qualify for the quadrennial event and the first hijab wearing athlete in her Olympic sport. She was poorly prepared because of financial issues and delayed payment of salaries. Mohammed said that she wanted to venture to London to make "a statement on behalf of women from the UAE and the Gulf countries" and inspire young girls to take up weightlifting. On 3 August, she partook in the women's heavyweight (–75 kg) weightlifting competition at ExCel London. During the event's snatch phase, Mohammed was given three attempts, successfully lifting of weight before failing at. She then successfully lifted up to during her three tries in the clean and jerk phrase. Overall, the combination of Mohammed's highest scores in snatch (51) and clean and jerk (62) yielded a score of 113 points. She ranked ninth in the event, 152 points behind the gold medallist Lidia Valentín of Spain. Afterwards she said, "I would never trade this feeling for anything else in the world. This was my time to do something for my country and I think I did the UAE proud. There is nothing more than this feeling and I want to go on and bring medals for my country."

The United Arab Emirates participated in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, which were held from 27 July to 12 August 2012. The country's participation at the London Olympics marked its eighth appearance in the Summer Olympic Games since its début at the 1984 Summer Olympics. The delegation sent by the United Arab Emirates National Olympic Committee consisted of 26 athletes in six different sports: athletics, association football, judo, shooting, swimming and weightlifting. Two of the 26 athletes were women, which included the first Emirati Olympic weightlifter, Khadija Mohammed. The nation also made its Olympic debut in association football with its national under-23 team. None of the athletes won any medals at the Games, with the best result being a pair of 13th-place finishes in shooting.

Die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate nahmen in London an den Olympischen Spielen 2012 teil. Sie nehmen seit 1984 an den Olympischen Spielen teil. Das NOC al-Ladschna al-ulimbiyya al-wataniyya bi-Daulat al-Imarat al-ʿarabiyya al-muttahida nominierte acht Einzelathleten und eine Mannschaft in sechs Sportarten.


Early life and education.

Barber was born in Wakefield, England, during World War II. His father was an airman stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Barber graduated from Tucson's Rincon High School in 1963, and earned a B.A. from the University of Arizona in 1967.

Early public sector career.

Barber worked as director and program manager of the Arizona Division of Developmental Disabilities in Pima County from 1974 to 2006.  Barber worked as Giffords' district director beginning in 2007. On January 8, 2011, Barber was shot in the thigh and face during an attempt on Giffords' life, in which Giffords was badly injured and six people were killed.

U.S. House of Representatives.

Elections.

In 2012, following the resignation of Giffords, Barber decided to seek election to the seat. On June 12, 2012, he defeated Jesse Kelly, an Iraq War veteran, in a special election.  On March 19, 2012, Barber announced that he would run for a full term in the district, which had been renumbered as the 2nd District, in the 2012 general election. The district was, at least on paper, slightly more Democratic than its predecessor. However, his race against Republican Martha McSally was one of the closest in the nation. McSally led on election night by a few hundred votes, but the race was initially too close to call due to a large number of provisional ballots. Barber eventually overtook McSally as more ballots were counted. By November 16, most of the outstanding ballots were in heavily Democratic precincts near Tucson. "The Arizona Republic" determined that as a result, McSally would not be able to pick up enough votes to overcome Barber's lead. By November 17, Barber's lead over McSally had grown to 1,400 votes. The same day, the Associated Press determined there weren't enough ballots outstanding for McSally to regain the lead, and called the race for Barber. McSally conceded the race later that morning.  Barber ran for re-election in 2014. The Democratic primary election took place on August 26, 2014, with the general election slated for November 4, 2014. Martha McSally, whom Barber defeated in the 2012 election, won the Republican primary. According to "USA Today", Arizona's 2nd Congressional District will feature one of the most competitive House races of 2014.  In September 2014, Americans for Responsible Solutions, a pro-gun control PAC founded by Gabby Giffords, began running television ads in support of Barber.  With 100% of the votes counted, McSally had a 161-vote lead and declared victory on November 12, 2014, but due to the fact that the margin of victory was less than 1%, an automatic recount was legally required. Barber's campaign had been holding on to hope that 762 rejected ballots from Pima County would be counted during the recount, which began on December 3, 2014. Ultimately, Barber lost the recount to McSally by 167 votes.

Tenure.

Touting his independence, Barber has voted the same way as Speaker of the House John Boehner on 10 out of the 16 occasions that Boehner has chosen to cast a vote – more than any other House Democrat.  In May 2013, Barber voted against repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  Barber is a strong supporter of gun control laws. In 2013, Barber co-sponsored a bill that would expand background checks on gun sales.  Barber characterizes himself as pro-choice, and has voted against legislation that would prohibit federal funding for health plans that include abortion services.  Barber is a co-sponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act. He supported the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.  Barber has called for increased border security. He supports the DREAM Act.

Committee assignments.

Barber served on these committees.

Personal life.

Ron Barber and his wife Nancy live in Tucson, Arizona; the couple has two daughters. The Barbers operate a small business.

Ronald Sylvester Barber (born August 25, 1945) is an American politician. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 2012 to 2015. Barber, a member of the Democratic Party from Arizona, served as district director for U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords before Giffords resigned her seat due to the severe injuries she sustained in an assassination attempt, during which Barber was also injured. He won the Democratic nomination for the special election to finish Giffords's term and was sworn into office on June 19, 2012.

Ronald Sylvester Barber (* 25. August 1945 in Wakefield, England) ist ein US-amerikanischer Politiker der Demokratischen Partei. Er war von 2012 bis 2015 Abgeordneter im US-Repräsentantenhaus für den Südosten Arizonas.


Spy career.

Infiltration.

In the late 1970s, Craig Williamson had inveigled Lars Eriksson, director of the (IUEF) in Geneva, into employing him as deputy director and help in the award of IUEF scholarships to African students. He was thus able to infiltrate the banned African National Congress (ANC) and, at the same time, make high-level contacts in Sweden which provided most of the funding for the IUEF. Williamson's networking through prime minister Olof Palme's office in Stockholm put him in touch with a number of Palme's close associates including Pan Am Flight 103 victim, Bernt Carlsson, who had become secretary-general of the Socialist International in 1976 and was based in London until 1983. In 1981, Williamson recruited the woman who would become South Africa's best-known female spy, Olivia Forsyth.

Dirty tricks.

The same source accused Williamson of syphoning off IUEF funds to establish a dirty tricks operation in Pretoria known as "Long Reach" in order to target apartheid's opponents both in South Africa and abroad. This dirty tricks operation also involved arms trafficking.

Counter-intelligence.

Again using IUEF funds, Williamson set up the "South African News Agency" to recruit and use journalists for apartheid South African counter-intelligence purposes. Williamson also attempted to infiltrate the International Defence and Aid Fund (IDAF), though he was successfully deflected by Phyllis Altman, general secretary of IDAF. His cover was finally revealed by Arthur McGiven who reported his activities in the "Observer."

Bombing and burglary.

PAC office in London.

In 1982, a burglary took place at the Pan Africanist Congress office in London. Two suspects were arrested. One of them, a Swedish journalist, Bertil Wedin, was eventually acquitted by an English court. Wedin admitted, however, that he was working for South African intelligence and that he had been recruited by Craig Williamson. The other suspect, South African Defence Force Sergeant Joseph Klue had diplomatic immunity as a member of staff at the South African embassy in London and was ordered to leave the United Kingdom.

ANC office in London.

Williamson applied for amnesty in 1995 from South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) for bombing the London office of the ANC in March 1982. In the British House of Commons in June 1995, Peter Hain MP asked through the then Home Secretary, Michael Howard, that the British police should interview and consider extraditing Williamson to stand trial for the London bombing. The Home Secretary turned down Hain's request. Amnesty was eventually granted by the TRC to Williamson and seven others on 15 October 1999. Following the TRC hearing, South African lawyer Anton Alberts commented to the "woza" news agency: "If you look at the Lockerbie disaster - this is very similar. I think Britain would like to see these guys are prosecuted in England even though they get amnesty here."

Kidnapping and assassination.

Ruth First.

Williamson ordered the assassination of Ruth First, who was an exiled campaigner for the Anti-Apartheid Movement, close friend of Sweden's prime minister, Olof Palme, and the ANC author of a pioneering study of Namibia. She was also the wife of the South African Communist Party's leader, Joe Slovo. She was killed by a letter-bomb in Maputo, Mozambique on 18 August 1982.

Mozambique.

In January 1984, minutes of the apartheid State Security Council, chaired by Prime Minister P. W. Botha, recorded Craig Williamson as plotting the overthrow of the government in Mozambique

Jeanette and Katryn Schoon.

In mid-1984 Craig Williamson mailed a letter-bomb which on 28 June killed Jeanette Curtis Schoon, wife of Marius Schoon, and their six-year-old daughter Katryn, at the family's home in exile in Lubango in Angola. Both Jeanette and Marius Schoon were prominent South African anti-apartheid activists and members of the ANC. While in exile in Botswana some years earlier, the Schoons had broken Williamson's cover internally within the ANC, several months before his public exposure in the UK, allowing the ANC leadership to attempt to manipulate Williamson covertly for their own purposes.  The Schoons' younger son Fritz, then aged three, witnessed the murder of his mother and sister at close hand; found wandering alone in the house, and severely traumatised, he developed epilepsy from which he never fully recovered. Following Williamson's application for amnesty for the killings, Schoon filed a civil suit against Williamson, seeking damages for his son. However, the suit was suspended pending Williamson’s Amnesty hearing.  It has never been determined whether the letter-bomb had been addressed specifically to Marius Schoon or to both him and his wife; Williamson claimed to his subordinate, the bomb-maker Jerry Raven, that the former was the case. In June 2000, a year after Marius Schoon died of lung cancer, TRC amnesty for this killing and that of Ruth First was granted to Williamson, despite Marius Schoon's earlier testimony strongly opposing amnesty. Schoon had argued that the whole truth about the murder of his wife and daughter had not, as required, been revealed by Williamson, and that the murder of his wife and daughter had been carried out in revenge.  Williamson's bomb-maker, Jerry Raven, testified:

Propaganda.

Williamson was one of the main collaborators with Peter Worthington in the anti-militant video "The ANC method - violence" which was distributed by "Citizens for foreign aid reform" throughout Canada in 1988.  In the summer of 1988 the US-produced film "Red Scorpion" was made on location in South-West Africa (Namibia). South Africa helped finance the movie and the SADF provided trucks, equipment as well as extras. The action-packed movie was a sympathetic portrayal of an anti-communist guerrilla commander loosely based on Jonas Savimbi, the leader of UNITA – the Angolan rebel movement – supported by both Washington and Pretoria. The film's producer, Jack Abramoff, was also head of the International Freedom Foundation (IFF). Established in Washington in 1986 as a conservative think-tank, the IFF was in fact part of an elaborate intelligence gathering operation and, according to Craig Williamson, was designed to be "an instrument for political warfare against apartheid's foes". South Africa spent up to $1.5 million a year – until funding was withdrawn in 1992 – to underwrite "Operation Babushka", the code-name by which the IFF project was known.  An article about the "enigma" Craig Williamson in the SA "Sunday Times" of 20 September 1998 entitled "The spy who never came in from the cold" concluded with the Williamson dictum:  In a television interview in early August 2001, Williamson told the BBC's Tim Sebastian in a defence of his actions during the apartheid era, that his actions should be contrasted against the background of the Cold War and were in support of the West. The NATO bombing of Belgrade in 1999, he said, killed far more civilians than his "dirty tricks brigade" ever did.

Craig Michael Williamson (born 1949), is a former South African Police major, who was exposed as a spy in 1980, and was involved in a series of state-sponsored overseas bombings, burglaries, kidnappings, assassinations and propaganda during the apartheid era.

Craig Michael Williamson (* 23. April 1949 in Johannesburg) ist ein ehemaliger Major der südafrikanischen Polizei während der Zeit der Apartheid. Zeitweise war er als „Maulwurf“ tätig. Er ist für zahlreiche politische Morde und andere Verbrechen verantwortlich und war als "apartheid superspy" („Superspion der Apartheid“) bekannt.


Location.

The Großer Ehrenberg lies in the South Harz within the South Harz Nature Park. It rises around 2.5 kilometres west of Rothesütte and about 3.5 kilometres north-northwest of Sülzhayn, which both belong to Ellrich. To the north the terrain drops into the valley of the "Großer Kunzenbach" and, to the west, into the valley of the "Kleiner Kunzenbach" which each flow along the border between Thuringian and Lower Saxony and merge to form the Kunzenbach immediately west of, and below, the mountain. The eastern spur of the mountain is the Dornkopf (). This spur and the Großer Ehrenberg itslet are passed by the "Landesstraße" 1014, which branches off the Bundesstraße 4 between the tripoint of the states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia und Rothesütte and runs from there roughly in a north-south direction to Sülzhayn. Both peaks are accessible "inter alia" from this road on forest tracks.

Inner-German Border.

The old Inner German Border used to run along the valleys of the "Großer Kunzenbach" and "Kleiner Kunzenbach" to the north and west of, and below, the Großer Ehrenberg. However, the Iron Curtain, including the convoy track, ran right over the summit. Today the German Green Belt runs over the mountain. To the northeast of the peak on the former Inner German Border at the tripoint of the three states is the Dreiländerstein.

Height.

The Großer Ehrenberg is high. On topographic maps a trig point is shown near its highest point with a height of.

The Großer Ehrenberg is a mountain,, and the highest peak in the Thuringian part of the Harz mountains. It is also the highest point of the county of Nordhausen in Germany.

Der Große Ehrenberg ist mit der höchste Berg im thüringischen Teil des Mittelgebirges Harz und auch der höchste im Landkreis Nordhausen (Deutschland).


Personal life.

Holland was born on May 27, 1927, to Jewish parents in Mannheim, Germany. He escaped Nazi Germany by Kindertransport to England. He was re-united with his family in the Dominican Republic. They moved to the United States in 1940 where they first resided at Kew Gardens in New York.  Holland was married for 57 years to Alice. They had four children, three boys and one girl.

Education and career.

Holland received his bachelor's degree in chemistry (high honors) in 1946 from Princeton University. He served in the U.S. Army from 1946-47 on secret and classified government projects with Wernher von Braun. In 1947 he entered graduate school at Columbia University, receiving a master’s degree in 1948 and Ph.D. in 1952, both in geology. He served on the faculty of Princeton University from 1950 to 1972, rising from the rank of instructor to full professor.  Holland moved to Harvard University in 1972. He later became the Harvard Harry C. Dudley Professor of Economic Geology. In 2006 he ‘retired’ from Harvard and became a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania where he remained active in research and writing until his death. During his career he held visiting appointments at University of Oxford, Durham University, University of Hawaii, Heidelberg University, Penn State, Imperial College, London, and Hebrew University, Jerusalem.  He was vice president of the Geochemical Society from 1969 to 1970 and president from 1970 to 1971.

Awards.

Holland was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His awards included the V.M. Goldschmidt Award of the Geochemical Society(1994), the Penrose Gold Medal of the Society of Economic Geologists (1995), and the Leopold von Busch Medal of the Deutsche Geologische Gesellschaft (1998).

Death.

Holland died from cancer aged 84 on May 21, 2012 in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania.

Heinrich Dieter 'Dick' Holland (May 27, 1927 – May 21, 2012) was an emeritus professor in the Earth and Planetary Sciences department of Harvard University. He made major contributions to the understanding of the Earth's geochemistry, especially large-scale geochemical and biogeochemical cycles. He has also contributed to the field of planetary chemistry and planetary evolution.

Heinrich Dieter „Dick“ Holland (* 27. Mai 1927 in Mannheim; † 21. Mai 2012 in Wynnewood, Montgomery County) war ein deutschamerikanischer Geochemiker.


Biography.

Taisa was born in the Campo Grande district, located in the western part of Rio de Janeiro. Her father is a serviceman Domingos di Menezis and her mother Monica Daher is a descendant of immigrants from Lebanon. Until the age of 13, Taisa was engaged in swimming, but then, following the example of her brother, Tiago switched to volleyball.  A year later, she was accepted into the youth team of the Tizhuk club, where Julio Cugna, one of the best mentors for working with young athletes, became her coach. In 2002, Taisa was invited to the Minas team (Belo Horizonte)- one of the strongest in Brazil, with which she won her first club level medal that same season, becoming the silver medalist of the Brazilian championship. In the same 2002 (at the age of 15), Thais made her debut in two teams of her country at once - youth and junior, becoming the champion of two championships of South America with them. A year later, the volleyball player became the world champion both among youth teams and among juniors.

Career.

Menezes was part of the Brazilian team that won the gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics.  Menezes won the silver medal with Sollys Osasco at the 2010 FIVB World Club Championship. She also earned the Best Spiker award.  At the 2011 Pan-American Cup, Menezes was given the Best Blocker award, and also won the gold medal with her national team.  Menezes was part of the national team who won the gold medal at the 2011 Pan American Games held in Guadalajara, Mexico.  In the 2012 FIVB World Grand Prix, Menezes won the silver medal with her national team and the individual award of Best Blocker.  Menezes was part of the national team which won the gold medal at the 2012 Olympic Games held in London, UK.  Playing with Sollys Nestlé Osasco, Menezes won the gold medal and the Best Spiker award in the 2012 FIVB Club World Championship held in Doha, Qatar.  Menezes claimed the silver medal in the 2014 FIVB Club World Championship, playing with Molico Osasco, when her team lost 0–3 to the Russian Dinamo Kazan the championship match. She was named among the championship Best Team as Best Middle Blocker.  Menezes played with her national team, winning the bronze at the 2014 World Championship when her team defeated Italy 3–2 in the bronze medal match.

Personal.

Menezes is of partial Lebanese origin. She is often cited in social media as one of the sexiest female volleyball athletes. She was previously married to Guilherme Pallesi.

Thaísa Daher de Menezes (born 15 May 1987 in Rio de Janeiro) or simply known as Thaísa Menezes or Thaísa, is a professional volleyball player from Brazil. She won back-to-back gold medals at the Olympics in 2008 and 2012. She has won numerous Best Spiker and Best Blocker Awards and is often singled out as one of the greatest Brazilian players of all time.

Thaísa Daher de Menezes (* 15. Mai 1987 in Rio de Janeiro) ist eine brasilianische Volleyballspielerin. Bei den Olympischen Spielen 2008 und 2012 gewann sie die Goldmedaille.


Life.

He was born in Haseley, in Warwickshire in 1620. He was the son of John & Judith Aneley (not to be confused with John Annesley, the brother of Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey, a mistake that many historians made). His father, a wealthy man, died when he was four years old. He started to read the bible at an early age. In Michaelmas term, 1635, he was admitted a student at The Queen's College, Oxford, and there he proceeded successively B.A. and M.A. He underwent presbyterian ordination, on 18 Dec. 1644, and subscribed by seven presbyterian ministers, having possibly already received Episcopal ordination, and became chaplain to Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, then admiral of the parliament's fleet, on the Globe.  He succeeded Griffin Higgs in the living of Cliffe, Kent, when Higgs was ejected for his loyalty to the king and treason to the Commonwealth. On 26 July 1648 he preached the fast sermon before the House of Commons, and around this time Oxford gave him an honorary doctorate. He was also again at sea with the Earl of Warwick, who was in action against the royalist navy. In 1657 he was nominated by Oliver Cromwell lecturer of St. Paul's, and in 1658 was presented by Richard Cromwell to the vicarage of St. Giles, Cripplegate. He was presented again there after the Restoration, but was ejected after the Act of Uniformity 1662.  He preached semi-privately, but his goods were distrained for keeping a conventicle, a meeting-house in Little St. Helen's. In 1669 he was preaching in Spitalfields to a congregation estimated at 800.

Death.

He died on 31 December 1696, his funeral sermon being preached by Daniel Williams, while Daniel Defoe, a member of his congregation, wrote an elegy on his death:  He was buried in St. Leonard's Churchyard, Shoreditch, in an unmarked plot.

Works.

His writings consisted of sermons separately published, and in the various collections under the title "Morning Exercises at Cripplegate" and biographical works including a life of Thomas Brand. In addition to furnishing the first sermon for these Morning Exercises"," Annesley edited this volume of sermons from prominent Puritan ministers considering practical issues of conscience and three sequel volumes, for each of which he provided the first sermon.

Family.

He had a large family, of whom one daughter, Elizabeth, married John Dunton, while another daughter, Susanna Wesley, became the wife of the Rev. Samuel Wesley, and the mother of John Wesley and Charles Wesley, the founders of Methodism. His eldest son was also called Samuel Annesley; he obtained a position in the employ of the East India Company in Bombay and is the source of the supposed lost legacy of the Wesleys.

Samuel Annesley (c. 1620 – 1696) was a prominent Puritan and nonconformist pastor, best known for the sermons he collected as the series of "Morning Exercises".

Samuel Annesley (* 1620 in Kellingworth bei Warwick, Mittelengland; † 31. Dezember 1696) war ein englischer anglikanischer puritanischer Pastor. Am bekanntesten war er für seine "Morning excercises", eine Sammlung von Predigten.


First efforts.

In 1621 Jean Chenu, an "avocat" at the Parlement of Paris, published "Archiepiscoporum et episcoporum Galliæ chronologica historia". Nearly a third of the bishops are missing, and the episcopal succession as given by Chenu was very incomplete. In 1626, Claude Robert, a priest of Langres, published with the approbation of André Fremiot, Archbishop of Bourges, a "Gallia Christiana". He entered a large number of churches outside of Gaul, and gave a short history of the metropolitan sees, cathedrals, and abbeys.

The Samarthani.

Two brothers de Sainte-Marthe, Scévole (1571–1650) and Louis (1571–1656), appointed royal historiographers of France in 1620, had assisted Chenu and Robert. At the assembly of the French Clergy in 1626, a number of prelates commissioned these brothers to compile a more definitive work. They died before the completion of their work, and it was issued in 1656 by the sons of Scévole de Sainte-Marthe, Pierre de Sainte-Marthe (1618–90), himself historiographer of France, Abel de Sainte-Marthe (1620–71), theologian, and later general of the Oratory, and Nicolas-Charles de Sainte-Marthe (1623–62), prior of Claunay. On 13 September 1656, the Sainte-Marthe brothers were presented to the assembly of the French Clergy, who accepted the dedication of the work on condition that a passage suspected of Jansenism be suppressed. The work formed four volumes in folio, the first for the archdioceses, the second and third for the dioceses, and the fourth for the abbeys, all in alphabetical order. It reproduced a large number of manuscripts. Defects and omissions, however, were obvious. The Sainte-Marthe brothers themselves announced in their preface the early appearance of a second edition corrected and enlarged.  As early as 1660 the Jesuit Jean Colomb published at Lyons the "Noctes Blancalandanæ", which contains certain additions to the work of the Samarthani, as the brothers and their successors are often called. "The name of Sainte-Marthe", wrote Voltaire, "is one of those of which the country has most reason to be proud." The edition promised by the Sainte-Marthe brothers did not appear.

Revision by the Maurists.

In 1710 the Assembly of the French Clergy offered four thousand livres to Denys de Sainte-Marthe (1650–1725), a Benedictine monk of the Congregation of Saint-Maur, renowned for his polemics against the Trappist Abbé de Rancé on the subject of monastic studies, on condition that he should bring the revision of the "Gallia Christiana" to a successful conclusion, that the first volume should appear at the end of four years, and that his Congregation should continue the undertaking after his death. Through his efforts the first volume appeared in 1715, devoted to the ecclesiastical provinces of Albi, Aix, Arles, Avignon, and Auch. In 1720 he produced the second volume dealing with the provinces of Bourges and Bordeaux; and in 1725 the third, which treated Cambrai, Cologne, and Embrun.  After his death the Benedictines issued the fourth volume (1728) on Lyons, and the fifth volume (1731) on Mechelen and Mainz. Between 1731 and 1740, on account of the controversies over the Bull "Unigenitus", Dom Félix Hodin and Dom Etienne Brice, who were preparing the latter volumes of the "Gallia Christiana", were expelled from Saint-Germain-des-Prés. They returned to Paris in 1739 and issued the sixth volume, dealing with Narbonne, also (1744) the seventh and eighth volumes on Paris and its suffragan sees. Père Duplessis united his efforts with theirs, and the ninth and tenth volumes, both on the province of Reims, appeared in 1751. The eleventh volume (1759) dealing with the province of Rouen was issued by Père Pierre Henri and Dom Jacques Taschereau. In 1770 the twelfth volume on the province of Sens and province of Tarentaise appeared, and in 1785 the thirteenth, on the provinces of Toulouse and Trier.  At the outbreak of the revolution, four volumes were lacking: Tours, Besançon, Utrecht, and Vienne. Barthélemy Hauréau published (in 1856, 1860 and 1865), for the provinces of Tours, Besançon and Vienne, respectively, and according to the Benedictine method, the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth volumes of the "Gallia Christiana".  The province of Utrecht alone has no place in this great collection, but this defect has been remedied in part by the "Bullarium Trajectense", edited by Gisbert Brom, and extending from the earliest times to 1378 (The Hague, 1891–96).  The new "Gallia Christiana", of which volumes I to V and XI to XIII were reprinted by Dom Paul Piolin between 1870 and 1877, and volumes VI to IX and XII by the publisher H. Welter, places after each metropolitan see its suffragan sees, and after each see the abbeys belonging to it. The original documents, instead of encumbering the body of the articles, are inserted at the end of each diocese under in a section titled "Instrumenta". This colossal work does great honour to the Benedictines and to the Sainte-Marthe family. "The name of Sainte-Marthe", wrote Voltaire, "is one of those of which the country has most reason to be proud."

Later works.

In 1774 the Abbé Hugues du Temps, vicar-general of Bordeaux, undertook in seven volumes an abridgement of the "Gallia" under the title "Le clergé de France" of which only four volumes appeared. About 1867 Honoré Fisquet undertook the publication of an episcopal history of France ("La France Pontificale"), in which, for the early period, he utilized the "Gallia", at the same time bringing the history of each diocese down to modern times. Twenty-two volumes appeared.  Canon Albanès projected a complete revision of the "Gallia Christiana", each ecclesiastical province to form a volume. Albanès, who was one of the first scholars to search the Lateran and Vatican libraries, in his efforts to determine the initial years of some episcopal reigns, found occasionally either the acts of election or the Bulls of provision. He hoped in this way to remove certain suppositious bishops who had been introduced to fill gaps in the catalogues, but died in 1897 before the first volume appeared. Through the use of his notes and the efforts of Canon Ulysse Chevalier three addition volumes of this "Gallia Christiana (novissima)", treating Arles, Aix, and Marseilles, appeared at Montbéliard.

The Gallia Christiana, a type of work of which there have been several editions, is a documentary catalogue or list, with brief historical notices, of all the Catholic dioceses and abbeys of France from the earliest times, also of their occupants.

Die Gallia Christiana („Das christliche Gallien“) ist eine lateinische Enzyklopädie in 16 Bänden zur Geschichte der Römisch-katholischen Kirche in Frankreich; sie wurde in mehreren Ausgaben zwischen dem 17. und 19. Jahrhundert publiziert. Sie beinhaltet eine Geschichte fast aller französischen Diözesen und Abteien, ergänzt um biographische Listen der Bischöfe und Äbte. Da sie „Gallien“ am Rhein enden lässt, erfasst sie auch die linksrheinischen Gebiete Deutschlands, der Schweiz, Belgiens und der Niederlande.


Contents.

The book is dedicated to Rowling's husband, Dr Neil Murray. This was the third time Murray has received a dedication from his wife, after she shared a dedication in the fifth "Harry Potter" book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and the seventh "Harry Potter" book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".  The book is split into seven parts, and features varying narratives. Each section is headed by a definition from Charles Arnold-Baker's book "Local Council Administration".

Plot summary.

The novel is split into seven parts, the first depicting the aftermath of the death of local Pagford Parish Councillor, Barry Fairbrother, who suffers a burst aneurysm in the car park of a local golf course. The inhabitants of the town share the news with their friends and relatives and chaos ensues. The problem arises in deciding whether local council estate 'The Fields' should remain as part of Pagford, or instead join the local city of Yarvil, a contentious debate in which Barry Fairbrother was passionately in favour of the former option; his death is seen by many as an opportunity to end the debate once and for all. The fate of the methadone rehabilitation clinic, Bellchapel, is also a key controversy in the parish.  After the date for the election to elect a replacement for Fairbrother is announced, the children of some of the councillors and election candidates decide to make damaging, yet often accurate, posts on the Parish Council online forum. Andrew, son of Simon Price is the first to do so, by means of an SQL injection which he learned how to perform in school, operating under the name 'The_Ghost_Of_Barry_Fairbrother' and informing everyone that his father had obtained a stolen computer. Sukhvinder (who, like Andrew, learns about hacking in ICT class) follows, posting that her mother, Dr. Parminder Jawanda, was in love with Barry. Thirdly, Fats Wall posts, claiming his adoptive father Cubby (a Deputy Headteacher) suffers from obsessive fear of having molested a child without any memory of the fact. Finally, in a desperate attempt to relieve the guilt weighing on him for costing his father his job, Andrew confides in Simon and posts that Council leader, Howard Mollison, is having an affair with his business partner Maureen. Howard's son, Miles Mollison, is the winning candidate, much to the displeasure of his wife, Samantha, who confesses she did not know if she still loves him, only to eventually reconcile.  Another focus of the novel is the traumatic life of Krystal Weedon. Sixteen-year-old Krystal lives in The Fields with her four-year-old brother Robbie and their heroin addicted prostitute mother Terri. Social worker Kay is determined for Terri to stop her drug use and take responsibility for the care of Robbie; however, Terri relapses and her drug dealer Obbo rapes Krystal. Spurred on to start a family elsewhere, Krystal has unprotected sex with Fats in an attempt to become pregnant. It is during one of these instances that Robbie runs away from the pair in a park, eventually falling and drowning in a river, despite Sukhvinder's attempts to save him. Krystal is so distraught she commits suicide by taking a heroin overdose, the novel culminating with the siblings' funeral.

Background.

Conception.

Rowling first had the idea on an aeroplane to the United States, whilst on tour for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". Referring to the original conception of the "Harry Potter" series on a train from Manchester to London, Rowling said "Obviously I need to be in some form of vehicle to have a decent idea. This time I was on a plane. And I thought: local election! And I just knew. I had that totally physical response you get to an idea that you know will work. It's a rush of adrenaline, it's chemical. I had it with Harry Potter and I had it with this. So that's how I know."  Rowling's movement from children's literature to adult literature arose from being "ready to change genre". Referring to the "Harry Potter" series Rowling commented, "The thing about fantasy—there are certain things you just don't do in fantasy. You don't have sex near unicorns. It's an ironclad rule. It's tacky." Critics questioned whether younger "Harry Potter" fans might be drawn into wanting to read the book, Rowling responded saying, "There is no part of me that feels that I represented myself as your children's babysitter or their teacher. I was always, I think, completely honest. I'm a writer, and I will write what I want to write."  Rowling rejected Little, Brown's claims that the book was a "black comedy", saying in an interview with "The New Yorker", "It's been billed, slightly, as a black comedy, but to me it's more of a comic tragedy." If the novel had precedents, "it would be sort of nineteenth-century: the anatomy and the analysis of a very small and closed society."

Choice of title.

For two years, the working title of the novel was "Responsible", until Rowling picked up Charles Arnold-Baker's work on local government, "Local Council Administration", whilst looking something up and came across the term "casual vacancy." "The New Yorker" questioned Rowling's original choice of title, and she remarked "This is a book about responsibility. In the minor sense—how responsible we are for our own personal happiness, and where we find ourselves in life—but in the macro sense also, of course: how responsible we are for the poor, the disadvantaged, other people’s misery."

Themes.

Social issues.

"The Casual Vacancy" features a range of social issues, including rape, racism, heroin and marijuana use, pornography, domestic abuse, child abuse, self-harm and suicide.  Sukhvinder Jawanda is often berated by her mother, Parminder, and will resort to self-harm. Andrew Price, along with his brother Paul, suffer child abuse from their father Simon Price during the novel. "The New Yorker" questioned Rowling whether this represented her difficult childhood and relationship with her father, Rowling replied "Andrew's romantic idea that he'll go and live among the graffiti and broken windows of London—that was me. I thought, I have to get away from this place. So all of my energies went into that.", although she added, "I did not have an easy relationship with my father, but no one in 'The Casual Vacancy' is a portrait of any living person."

Politics and poverty.

One of the novel's major themes is politics. "The Guardian" referred to "The Casual Vacancy" as a "parable of national politics", with Rowling saying, "I'm interested in that drive, that rush to judgment, that is so prevalent in our society, We all know that pleasurable rush that comes from condemning, and in the short term it's quite a satisfying thing to do, isn't it?" Rowling was also critical of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition that had led since the general election in 2010 saying, "There has been a horribly familiar change of atmosphere [since the 2010 election], it feels to me a lot like it did in the early 90s, where there's been a bit of redistribution of benefits and suddenly lone-parent families are that little bit worse off. But it's not a 'little bit' when you're in that situation. Even a tenner a week can make such a vast, vast difference. So, yeah, it does feel familiar. Though I started writing this five years ago when we didn't have a coalition government, so it's become maybe more relevant as I've written." Rowling went on to say that Britain held a "phenomenally snobby society", and described the middle class as "pretentious" and "funny".  Rowling has commented on her economic situation before the success of "Harry Potter" as being "poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless" and said that this was why she was drawn to writing about poverty.

Reception.

Critical response.

Rowling was interviewed in "The Guardian" concerning the response "The Casual Vacancy" would receive. She said "I just needed to write this book. I like it a lot, I'm proud of it, and that counts for me." Referring to her initial idea of publishing under a pseudonym she commented, "I think it's braver to do it like this. And, to an extent, you know what? The worst that can happen is that everyone says, 'Well, that was dreadful, she should have stuck to writing for kids' and I can take that. So, yeah, I'll put it out there, and if everyone says, 'Well, that's shockingly bad—back to wizards with you', then obviously I won't be throwing a party. But I will live. I will live."  When released, "The Casual Vacancy" received mixed reviews. Lev Grossman for "Time" wrote in a positive review, "It's a big, ambitious, brilliant, profane, funny, deeply upsetting and magnificently eloquent novel of contemporary England, rich with literary intelligence and entirely bereft of bullshit." The "Wall Street Journal" wrote "Once you get your Mileses and Simonses straight and events begin to unfurl, it becomes a positively propulsive read. 'The Casual Vacancy' may not be George Eliot, but it's J.K. Rowling; and that's pretty good." "The Guardian" wrote, "The Casual Vacancy is no masterpiece, but it's not bad at all: intelligent, workmanlike, and often funny." "The Economist" opined, "This is a novel of insight and skill, deftly drawn and, at the end, cleverly pulled together. It plays to her strengths as a storyteller." David Robinson of "The Scotsman" praised the novel, saying, "It is far grittier, bleaker (and, occasionally, funnier) than I had expected, and—the acid test—I suspect it would do well even if its author's name weren't J.K. Rowling." "The Telegraph" lauded the novel as well, writing, "One marvels at the skill with which Rowling weaves such vivid characters in and out of each other's lives, rendering them so complex and viscerally believable that one finds oneself caring for the worst of them." Further positive reviews have come from reviewers for the Associated Press, "Express.co.uk", "The Daily Mirror", "The Kansas City Star", "The New Zealand Herald" and the "Daily Beast", the latter remarked that the book was a "page turner."  "The New York Times"' Michiko Kakutani panned the novel, comparing it unfavourably to Rowling's "Harry Potter" series and saying, "We do not come away feeling that we know the back stories of the 'Vacancy' characters in intimate detail the way we did with Harry and his friends and enemies, nor do we finish the novel with a visceral knowledge of how their pasts—and their families' pasts—have informed their present lives." The "Los Angeles Times" criticised the book, stating that it "fails to conjure Harry Potter's magic." "The Daily Telegraph" maintained the novel was humorous but said "The novel pretty much explodes towards the end, losing shape in its fury at the dirty, unfair England that we Muggles have made for ourselves. It's like "The Archers" on amyl nitrate." "The Times" said "The difficulty, in this fat novel, is the difference between the reader's level of interest in a wholly invented world, such as Harry Potter's, and the world we're stuck with. Rowling has a sharp eye for vivid details, and there are passages of very good writing in this book... But her fictions have little shadow in them."

Sales, awards and honours.

Within hours of the book's release, it had reached Number 1 position on the Amazon Book Chart in the United States. It was the second biggest adult opening of all time in the United Kingdom, falling short of Dan Brown's 2009 novel, "The Lost Symbol", which sold 550,946 copies. It also fell short of Rowling's last release, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", that sold 2.6 million copies and became the fastest-selling book in history. It became the 15th best-selling book of 2012 during its first week of release. Little, Brown and Company has announced that within the first three weeks the book's total sales have topped one million copies in English in all formats across all territories, including the US and the UK.  The book won the Best Fiction category in the Goodreads Choice Awards 2012.

Portrayal of Sikhism.

A Sikh family plays an important part in the novel, and the description of the character Sukhvinder sparked some controversy amongst followers of the Sikh faith. Avtar Singh Makkar, the head of India's Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, commented that Rowling's book would be examined by the scrutiny board of SGPC for anything objectionable. Rowling stated that she admires the Sikh religion and had done a vast amount of research on Sikhism. Other members of the Sikh community appreciated the fact that Rowling portrayed Sikhs and Sikhism in a favourable light and actually draws attention to discriminations faced by Sikhs.

Adaptation.

On 3 December 2012, BBC One and BBC Drama commissioned an adaptation of "The Casual Vacancy". It was a joint production with US channel HBO. Filming began in August 2014. In 2015, the adaptation was broadcast on BBC One, as 3 one-hour segments. Warner Bros. is serving as the worldwide TV distributor of the series, except in the United Kingdom.  Some aspects of the story were modified for the TV adaptation. For example, the controversial decision to be made by the parish council was changed from closing a methadone clinic, to closing a country house bequeathed to the village as a public amenity by a rich philanthropist, and replacing it with a spa.

The Casual Vacancy is a 2012 novel written by J. K. Rowling. The book was published worldwide by the Little, Brown Book Group on 27 September 2012. A paperback edition was released on 23 July 2013. It was Rowling's first publication since the "Harry Potter" series, her first apart from that series, and her first novel for adult readership.

Ein plötzlicher Todesfall (Originaltitel: "The Casual Vacancy") ist ein Roman von Joanne K. Rowling, der am 27. September 2012 im Carlsen-Verlag erschien.


Orbit and classification.

"Parchomenko" orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 1.9–2.5 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,228 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.13 and an inclination of 4° with respect to the ecliptic.  First identified as at Lowell Observatory, the body's first used observation was taken at Nice Observatory in 1939, extending its observation arc by 32 years prior to its official discovery observation at Nauchnyj.

Physical characteristics.

In the SMASS classification, "Parchomenko" is a common S-type asteroid.

Diameter and albedo.

According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, "Parchomenko" measures 7.99 and 9.84 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo of 0.295 and 0.333, respectively. The "Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link" assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of 8.5 kilometers, based on an absolute magnitude of 12.4.

Rotation period.

In December 2005, a rotational lightcurve of "Parchomenko" was obtained from a photometric observations by Robert Stephens, Brian Warner and Petr Pravec. It gave a well-defined rotation period of 3.1177 hours with a brightness variation of 0.22 magnitude ().

Suspected binary.

Three possible occultation events were observed, suggesting that "Parchomenko" might be a binary asteroid, having a minor-planet moon as companion. However, no new findings have been made since. In October 2008, Italian amateur astronomer Silvano Casulli measured a similar period of 3.08 hours with an amplitude of 0.27 magnitude ().

Naming.

This minor planet was named in honor of Russian astronomer Praskoviya Parchomenko (1886–1970), who observed and discovered the minor planets 1129 Neujmina and 1166 Sakuntala at the Crimean Simeiz Observatory during the 1930s and 1940s. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on 1 June 1975 ().

1857 Parchomenko, provisional designation, is a stony asteroid and suspected binary from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 8 kilometers in diameter.

(1857) Parchomenko ("1971 QS"; "1931 XT"; "1941 WJ"; "1974 OE") ist ein Asteroid des Hauptgürtels, der am 30. August 1971 von Tamara Michailowna Smirnowa am Krim-Observatorium entdeckt wurde. Der Name erinnert an die sowjetische Astronomin Praskowja Georgijewna Parchomenko.