title: Norm Benning Racing

text: Norm Benning Racing opened in 1993, DNQ'ing all attempts by team owner Norm Benning in Cup competition. Benning began fielding the No. 8 and 84 car in the ARCA Racing Series in 1995 for himself and other drivers. Benning ran the team in four Nationwide races from 2003–2004. The team's most successful series has been the Truck Series, after successfully making 7 of the 8 races they attempted in 2008. The team ran the full Truck season making 24 of the 25 races and finishing 21st in points. Benning once again attempted the Daytona 500 in 2010 but failed to qualify. The team attempted to race the 2010 Truck season full-time in the No. 57 and had a good degree of success, gaining locked-in for a few races in owner points. For 2011 the team struggled to make some races early in the year. Later on, the team began fielding a second truck, the No. 75 starting at Iowa. In 2012, the team again had problems with qualifying for some events but finished 21st in points. In 2013, Benning made all but one race, and gained national notoriety after his battle during the Last Chance Qualifier for the inaugural Mudsummer Classic at Eldora Speedway, barely finishing in the final transfer position over Clay Greenfield. Benning finished 20th in points. 2014 saw the team make all 22 races.


title: Norm Benning Racing

text: Midway through 2014 season, Norm changed his iconic 57 to the number 6 on his truck. The 2015 season began on a high note as Benning finished 14th at Daytona. However, the remainder of the season would prove to be very difficult. Lack of sponsorship would force Benning to do several start and parks. Towards the end of the season, the 6 began missing races as the poor finishes left the team ranking lower in points, plus the fields being cut from 36 to 32 trucks. 2016 would be a disastrous season, as the team failed to make any of the first 8 races. Once again, 2017 began on a low note. After missing the first 3 races of the season, Benning was able to make the 4th race of the season at Kansas. Benning would also strike a deal with GMS Racing, purchasing the owner points from the 24 team, locking him into all the remaining races. In 2018, Benning would again return and was running in the top 10 at Daytona, but a fuel pump issue resulted in a 14th place finish. Benning's next highlight would come at Eldora, where he would have a strong run in his heat race. In the closing laps of the main event, Benning would be involved in an accident that saw the driver's side door ripped off the car. Benning missed the season opener at Daytona for the sixth time in 2019. However, he managed to finish 17th at Texas Motor Speedway and got another top 20 at Talladega Superspeedway. In 2020, Benning missed the first three races he attempted. For the first time since 2008, he didn't finish in the top 20 a single time, with his best finish being a 22nd at Talladega Superspeedway. Benning elected to run full-time in 2021. He did not qualify at Daytona for the third straight year in a row. During the Spring Kansas weekend, the team's truck used for pulling the hauler was stolen from the hotel parking lot where they were staying. Benning attempted just 4 races in 2022 but they did not qualify for any of them.


title: Norm Benning Racing

text: Since 2008, Norm Benning Racing has fielded a truck. Beginning in 2009, Norm has run the full schedule despite having poor performing equipment and little to no funding. Beginning in 2011, Norm began fielding a second truck on a part-time basis to help fund the 57. In the 2013 Mudsummer Classic, Norm Benning and his team gained media attention when he beat Clay Greenfield to qualify in the 30th position. The 57 made its lone appearance at Gateway in 2015, parking after one lap with Joey Gattina. Steve Fox withdrew at Pocono. After not running in 2016, the 57 returned exactly two years after its previous race at Gateway in 2017 with Tommy Regan driving. BJ McLeod and J. J. Yeley ran the 57 before Mike Senica became the primary driver. Senica announced that he was to drive the 57 fielded by Benning with several different companies sponsoring the truck, however, Benning and Senica couldn't reach an agreement because Benning only wanted Senica to start and park the 57. The 57 then showed up at Martinsville with Jeff Zillweger behind the wheel. The 57 would withdraw after not showing enough speed to have a good chance of qualifying.


title: Dwell Community Church

text: Dwell originated as a Christian underground newspaper called "The Fish" first published in 1970 around the Ohio State University, in Columbus, Ohio, by brothers Dennis and Bruce McCallum. The newspaper sparked the formation of bible study groups around the university. Bible studies were conducted for several years at the "Fish House," a large campus-area residence where a group of OSU students lived. The group was known as "Fish House Fellowship" at the time. During this period, the leaders, Dennis McCallum and Gary Delashmutt, supported themselves as house painters, with some occasional help from fellowship members, under the name "Christian Brothers Painting". As the church grew, it was permitted to use at least two local churches for its central meetings, and eventually rented out large warehouse spaces located near Sinclair Road. Coincident with this growth, McCallum and Delashmutt quit house painting and were supported by church donations and pledges. The name "Xenos Christian Fellowship" was adopted in 1982. Up to 1991, home churches were allowed to act somewhat independently. Some members refused to accept the church hierarchy, and its interpretation of the Bible. Around 1,400 members left the church in this three-year church conflict. In February 2020, the church again took on a new name, Dwell Community Church.


title: Whiggism

text: Even after 1760, the Whigs still included about half of the noble families in England, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, as well as most merchants, dissenters, and the middle classes. The opposing Tory position was held by the other great families, the non-juring and high church factions within the Church of England, many Catholics and Protestant Dissenters, most of the landed gentry and the traditional officer class of the British armed forces. Whigs especially opposed regime change efforts by adherents of Jacobitism, a movement of legitimist monarchists which promised freedom of religion and civil rights to all outside the Established Churches, devolution in the United Kingdom, linguistic rights for minority languages, and many other political reforms, and which shared a substantial overlap with and heavily influenced both early Toryism and what is now termed traditionalist conservatism. While in power, Whig politicians frequently denounced all their political opponents and critics as "Jacobites" or "dupes of Jacobites".


title: Whiggism

text: The term "Old Whigs" was also used in Great Britain for those Whigs who opposed Robert Walpole as part of the Country Party. Whiggism originally referred to the Whigs of the British Isles, but the name of "Old Whigs" was largely adopted by the American Patriots in the Thirteen Colonies. Before and during the American Revolution, American Whiggism transitioned from monarchism into republicanism and Federalism, while also co-opting many traditionally Jacobite and early Tory positions. A similar but far more discreet co-opting was also taking place among many self-described Whigs, such as Edmund Burke, Henry Grattan, William Wilberforce, Daniel O'Connell, and William Pitt the Younger, in the British Isles. Even though they were often influenced in this regard by the writings of early Tories and other intellectual critics of the Whig party like Jonathan Swift and David Hume, these reformist Whigs refused to use the word "Tory" as anything other than a term of abuse against those with more traditionalist Whig ideology, which ultimately changed the word's meaning completely. Whig history, which was largely developed by Thomas Babington Macaulay to justify the party's political ideology and past practices, remained the official history of the British Empire until serious challenges were raised to its claims by John Lingard, William Cobbett, Hilaire Belloc, G.K. Chesterton, Roger Scruton, Saunders Lewis, and John Lorne Campbell.


title: Whiggism

text: Lee Ward argues that the philosophical origins of Whiggism came in James Tyrrell's Patriarcha Non Monarcha , John Locke's Two Treatises of Government and Algernon Sidney's Discourses Concerning Government . All three were united in opposing Sir Robert Filmer's defence of divine right and absolute monarchy. Tyrrell propounded a moderate Whiggism which interpreted England's balanced and mixed constitution "as the product of a contextualized social compact blending elements of custom, history, and prescription with inherent natural law obligations". Sidney, on the other hand, emphasised the main themes of republicanism and based Whig ideology in the sovereignty of the people by proposing a constitutional reordering that would both elevate the authority of Parliament and democratise its forms. Sidney also emphasised classical republican notions of virtue. Ward says that Locke's liberal Whiggism rested on a radically individualist theory of natural rights and limited government. Tyrrell's moderate position came to dominate Whiggism and British constitutionalism as a whole from 1688 to the 1770s. The more radical ideas of Sidney and Locke, argues Ward, became marginalised in Britain, but emerged as a dominant strand in American republicanism. The issues raised by the Americans, starting with the Stamp Act crisis of 1765, ripped Whiggism apart in a battle of parliamentary sovereignty (Tyrrell) versus popular sovereignty (Sidney and Locke).


title: Canada's Worst Driver 11

text: While Jillian seems the obvious frontrunner to graduate, as she passed every single challenge this episode, she tells the panel that she'd prefer to stay in rehab in order to get more confidence, as she still feels unable to face driving in public. Tina and Alex both express the desire to graduate and the panel note that both are clearly capable of driving well (Tina doing so around motorcyclists due to being an occasional biker herself and Alex being more considerate when driving his grandmother, Pearl), but have doubts over their attitudes. The remaining drivers all admit that they should stay in rehab. Tim votes that Tina should graduate based on her overall better performance in the episode, while Philippe prefers graduating Alex, pointing to Tina's angry, defensive reaction when the panel initially confronted her on her attitude toward driving. Shyamala sides with Tim and Cam with Philippe, leaving Andrew with the deciding vote. In the end, Andrew makes a shock decision and decides that both are equally worthy of graduating, making this the first episode to have a double-graduation since Jodi Slobodesky and Sean McConnell in the penultimate episode of the second season. Before they leave, however, Andrew gives Alex a cardboard cut-out of his grandmother, Pearl, to ensure that he always drives as if she's with him and also confiscates the "If you don't like my driving, f*** off" sign from Tina's car.


title: Canada's Worst Driver 11

text: When she meets with the experts, Polly admits to having zoned out during the Swerve and Avoid and Cam informs her of a recent incident where a 66-year-old woman was jailed after hitting and killing two children when she accidentally hit the gas instead of the brakes in a parking lot. Jordan says that his glasses are proving a major help, while Sholom admits that he lucked out in actually getting a driving license. Shmuel initially wants to graduate, but quickly retracts his request after being shown footage of his performance on the Swerve and Avoid. Jillian and Renee both say they don't want to graduate, but Cameron does feel he's learned enough to graduate. The experts quickly agree that Cameron is the overwhelmingly obvious choice to graduate, seeing as how he passed every challenge this episode. Andrew questions the other experts as to whether or not they'd be better not graduating anyone and making Cameron stick around a little longer to fully prove himself, but they ultimately decide that this is not necessary, thus making Cameron the season's third graduate.


title: Canada's Worst Driver 11

text: Despite the generally very poor performances of everyone in this episode, with only three challenge passes in total (Renee on the first challenge, Jordan on the second and Polly on the third), Jordan and Polly put themselves forward to graduate. Jillian, meanwhile, admits that she should be forced to take more challenges by herself in order to build up her confidence. While the experts consider Jillian the best overall of the remaining drivers, her failure to pass a challenge this episode and admitting to still having confidence issues rules her out as a feasible candidate for graduation. Jordan and Polly are shortlisted simply because they were the only people who wanted to graduate and Jordan receives the half-hearted backing of Shyamala and Cam, while Philippe and Tim just as unenthusiastically support Polly. On further discussion, it's pointed out that Jordan quit the trailer challenge and performed disastrously in the Icy Corner, while Polly had a similarly disastrous run in the reversing challenge and overall seems a much less attentive driver than Jordan. In the end, the experts agree that no one did well enough to be seriously considered for graduation, meaning that the episode ends with nobody leaving rehab.


title: Canada's Worst Driver 11

text: In her meeting with the experts, Jillian admits that she's still not ready to face the roads, although she is also confident that she is not Canada's Worst Driver. Sholom also admits that he's nowhere near ready to graduate, as does Polly, who asks for the same public lessons that Jillian and Renee have been getting. Renee wants to graduate, though admits that she doesn't quite feel confident enough to take her son on the highway and wants to get used to doing it herself first, which perturbs the experts. Jordan also wants to graduate, feeling beyond any doubt that he is ready to drive in public again; Cam also compliments him on the huge improvement he's shown in his previously selfish attitude. Andrew and Shyamala favour graduating Jordan for being more confident in himself, while Cam and Tim feel that Renee deserves to graduate for her superior technical abilities; Philippe is therefore left with the deciding vote. At the graduation ceremony, Andrew tells Renee that while there was a strong case to be made for letting her go this episode, she ultimately talked herself out of graduating by admitting that she lacked the confidence to take her son on the highway. Jordan is therefore this episode's graduate and he vows to never again be as blatantly selfish as he was before coming to rehab.


title: Krifo scholio

text: In Greek history, a krifó scholió (κρυφό σκολειό or κρυφό σχολείο, lit. 'secret school') was a supposed underground school for teaching the Greek language and Christian doctrine, provided by the Greek Orthodox Church under Ottoman rule in Greece between the 15th and 19th centuries. There are many hidden schools within Greek Orthodox churches in Greece, Anatolia, and Cyprus. Many of these schools had trap doors, hidden passage ways, and were mainly held in the attic, or behind false rooms. The schools would start usually at dusk, when the sun was setting. Many villages with ancient Churches still contain hidden rooms, where classes would start. Upon many hidden schools, one well known in Cyprus is Archangel Michael Plantanisa Village. Another in Chandria village in Cyprus in Arch Angel Michael church. Also, many of the villages in Troodos mountains, in hundreds mostly contain hidden rooms where Greek Language, Arts, Greek Mythology, Christian Theology, History, Philosophy, and many other subjects were taught. Ottoman rule was very harsh for non-Turkish populations. If they were unable to afford to pay the Jizza Tax their families would be forced into joining the Turkish Janisarian armies, or forced to convert to Islam. Many Greek Orthodox families also practiced naming their children with separate last names, or names of identification to avoid alerting Ottoman officials from knowing how many children belong to the family. Many children of Greek descent would be taken at age 5 to be Turkified and to join the Janisarian armies. This is why it was important for Greek families to keep up, risking their lives, to educate their children. Other historians accept that secret schools only existed during periods of intense Islamization, while other see it as a possible "myth" and others believe that the Krifo Scholio was a reality. Professor of philology Alkes Angelou , in one of his last publications on the subject, finds that the krifó scholió persisted as a national myth. Other Greek scholars criticize Angelou's work as politically motivated and biased.


title: Aaron Lockett

text: Lockett played for Wereton Queen's Park, Audley, and Kidsgrove Wellington before joining Port Vale in the summer of 1914. He scored on his debut at The Old Recreation Ground in a 3–1 win over Oldham Athletic Reserves in a Central League match on 13 February 1915. He finished the season with four goals in eight games and was one of the goalscorers in the North Staffordshire Infirmary Cup final 3–0 win over Macclesfield Town in 1915. With World War I still raging, the Vale went into abeyance, and Lockett returned to Audley. Port Vale resumed activities in August 1916, and Lockett rejoined them for several games. He returned to Audley in the summer of 1917 and then moved on to Stoke. He scored five goals in nine games in 1917–18 and six goals in 12 games in 1918–19 – this tally included a hat-trick against Blackburn Rovers and three goals in two games against Port Vale. He then played for Stafford Rangers before returning to Vale a third time in September 1919. He played nine games in the Football League for the club before being released at the season's end; for a fourth time he joined Audley.


title: VMF(N)-531 GCI Detachment

text: The VMF(N)-531 GCI Detachment was a short-lived aviation command and control unit that was part of the United States Marine Corps's first night fighter squadron, VMF(N)-531. This detachment was the Marine Corps' first dedicated GCI detachment utilized in a combat zone. In the early phases of World War II the Marine Corps did not have stand-alone early warning and ground-controlled intercept (GCI) units so these capabilities were initially placed in the headquarters of each Marine Aircraft Group and with individual night fighter squadrons. The detachment was deployed in the South Pacific from August 1943 through August 1944 and was responsible for the interception of numerous Japanese aircraft. Lessons learned from this deployment were instrumental in establishing tactics and procedures for the Marine Corps' newly established Air Warning Program. Upon returning from its first and only deployment, the detachment was dissolved and its members went on to serve as instructors at the 1st Marine Air Warning Group, which was responsible for training new squadrons. Many of them later served in leadership roles in these Air Warning Squadrons as they supported follow on combat operations.


title: VMF(N)-531 GCI Detachment

text: Marine Night Fighter Squadron 531 (VMF(N)-531) was commissioned on 16 November 1942, at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina. As -531 struggled to organize administratively, accept aircraft, and begin training as a first of its kind unit in the Marine Corps, it also had to contend with an establishing a tactical ground element responsible for GCI which existed in no other Marine Corps squadron. The unit's formation was hampered by slow aircraft delivery, poor VHF radios, uncalibrated radars and an inconsistent electrical system on the aircraft. Good news arrived on 19 December 1942, when Lt William D. Felder arrived from the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics at Camp Murphy, Florida as the squadron's first schoolhouse trained GCI controller. The next day the first set of non-portable GCI equipment arrived at MCAS Cherry Point marking the beginning of "Project 88." Project 88 was the nickname given to the Marine Corps's program to train its own GCI controllers and operators at MCAS Cherry Point. The name "88" was derived from the SCR-588 that was used for training. The SCR-588 was an immobile, Americanized version of the British Chain Home Low radars that VMF(N)-531 personnel trained on prior to receiving deployable radars.


title: VMF(N)-531 GCI Detachment

text: The detachment arrived at Espiritu Santo in September 1943. After initial staging and acclimatization, the detachment departed Espiritu Santo on 9 October onboard LST-395 bound for Vella Lavella. While on the way, they picked up the remainder of the radar detachment on Guadalcanal. The detachment's gear was initially set up near Liapari Point however the position was untenable for controlling due to local terrain interference. It was not until 18 October that the squadron's pilots were able to work with their own GCI section during night patrols. On 25 October the GCI Detachment moved again, this time to Pakoi Bay in the northwest part of Vella Lavella and again began nighttime GCI controls using the callsign "Moon." A few days later on 31 October, two controllers from the GCI detachment controlled the first dedicated kill by a night fighter in the Pacific. They led an intercept by an F4U-2 Corsiar from the U.S. Navy's VF(N)-75. The squadron's first successful ground controlled intercept of a Japanese aircraft utilizing the squadron's own aircraft occurred on 6 December 1943, when Captain Owen M. Hines vectored one of the squadron's PV-1s against a Japanese boat plane near Motupina Point on Bougainville.


title: Edward Lewknor (died 1556)

text: Lewknor was elected a Member for Horsham to the Parliament of March 1553, jointly with the younger Henry Hussey of Slinfold. John Michell of Stammerham had been in tenure of High Barns in 1548, and was so still in May 1553, when Lewknor granted to him and his heirs the lands called New Park in Beeding. The accession of Queen Mary followed on 6 July. Thomas Wroth, a signatory to the Letters supporting Jane Gray's succession, attended the King's deathbed and assisted in the proclamation of Mary, but was briefly imprisoned: soon afterwards he escaped to Italy, expecting worse consequences, and did not return to England until 1558. Lewknor remained a royal servant (by Machyn's account, groom porter), and received a commission for the peace, but he did not remain in Parliament. John Michell succeeded to his seat for Horsham in October 1553, but within the next year the Duke of Norfolk, being rehabilitated, challenged Michell's title to the New Park. Neither Michell nor Lewknor is known to have sat in Parliament again.


title: Edward Lewknor (died 1556)

text: Lewknor was not overtly implicated in Wyatt's rebellion of 1554 (incited by Mary's decision to marry King Philip II of Spain): he was lent a corslet from the Tower armoury to oppose it. However, as Dorothy Lewknor was cousin-german to Jane Hawte, Wyatt's wife, there was room for suspicion. It was in the aftermath of the executions of Wyatt and of Jane Gray and Guilford Dudley, and in the context of the Marian persecutions, that Lewknor allowed his position within the royal household to be exploited as part of a more widespread resistance. With a group of sympathetic gentlemen, Henry Dudley planned to raise an army of Englishmen exiled in Europe, and with assistance from the King of France to land in England and rally enough support to depose the Queen and instal Elizabeth as monarch. France however made a truce with Mary, so to fund the project an attempt was made to steal £50,000 in Spanish silver from the Queen's exchequer. In the process, on 18 March 1555/6 the plot was revealed, and several involved were imprisoned in the Tower, racked for confessions and executed between April and July 1556. Dudley however escaped abroad.


title: Edward Lewknor (died 1556)

text: Henry Peckham, son of Sir Edmund Peckham (Receiver-general of the Exchequer), on 1 February 1555/6 disclosed the plot to Edward Lewknor and his cousin William West, (heir to the 9th Baron De La Warr but then unable to inherit his title). Prompted by Sir Anthony Kingston, a fellow conspirator, Peckham asked them to obtain a copy of the Will of King Henry VIII, by which they hoped to disprove Mary's title to the throne. Lewknor was said to have met with sympathisers in Sussex and London, and to have heard loose talk about an attack on the Queen over a game of cards. He procured a copy of the Will and sent it to West's house within a fortnight, where it was given to Peckham. Both were implicated by Peckham's confession. Lewknor (now positively identified as the Groom Porter) was committed to the Tower of London on 6 June, arraigned at the Guildhall on 15 June together with Francis Verney, convicted of treason and condemned to death. West was arraigned on 30 June and in an attainder by verdict was also convicted and condemned, but later received a pardon.


title: Edward Lewknor (died 1556)

text: Lewknor was returned to the Tower, but his sentence was deferred. In his confinement Dorothy and one of his daughters were permitted to live with him in his quarters for several weeks. On 7 June Mary had given orders to William Paget for the leading exiles (Sir Thomas Wroth heading the list of nine names) to be summoned immediately to England, "all excuses, delayes, lettes, hindrances and other occasions happening to you whatsoever utterly sett apte", to appear before the King and Queen and privy council on the last day of October to answer such matters as may be objected against them, not failing upon their faith or allegiance. During August 1556 Thomas Wroth, then living in Strasbourg, evaded receiving delivery of the summons and instead obtained a permit to become fully resident there. Lewknor, who may have hoped for a pardon, sent a message to the Queen praying forgiveness and grace for his wife and children. Frances Malet, priest to Sir Henry Bedingfeld (Lieutenant of the Tower of London), took a letter to the Queen about Lewknor, but could not obtain a positive reply. On Sunday 6 September he died without receiving the final Sacrament. He was buried in the Tower precincts on the following day.


title: General American English

text: The term "General American" was first disseminated by American English scholar George Philip Krapp, who in 1925 described it as an American type of speech that was "Western" but "not local in character". In 1930, American linguist John Samuel Kenyon, who largely popularized the term, considered it equivalent to the speech of "the North" or "Northern American", but, in 1934, "Western and Midwestern". Now typically regarded as falling under the General American umbrella are the regional accents of the West, Western New England, and the North Midland (a band spanning central Ohio, central Indiana, central Illinois, northern Missouri, southern Iowa, and southeastern Nebraska), plus the accents of highly educated Americans nationwide. Arguably, all Canadian English accents west of Quebec are also General American, though Canadian vowel raising and certain newly developing features may serve to increasingly distinguish such accents from American ones. William Labov et al.'s 2006 Atlas of North American English put together a scattergram based on the formants of vowel sounds, finding that Midland U.S., western Pennsylvania, the western U.S. and Canada to be closest to the center of the scattergram, and concluding that they had fewer marked dialectical features than other accents such as New York or the south.


title: General American English

text: Though General American accents are not commonly perceived as associated with any region, their sound system does have traceable regional origins: specifically, the English of the non-coastal Northeastern United States in the very early 20th century, which was relatively stable since that region's original settlement by English speakers in the mid-19th century. This includes western New England and the area to its immediate west, settled by members of the same dialect community: interior Pennsylvania, Upstate New York, and the adjacent "Midwest" or Great Lakes region. However, since the early to mid-20th century, deviance away from General American sounds started occurring, and may be ongoing, in the eastern Great Lakes region due to its Northern Cities Vowel Shift (NCVS) towards a unique Inland Northern accent (often now associated with the region's urban centers, like Chicago and Detroit) and in the western Great Lakes region towards a unique North Central accent (often associated with Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota).


title: General American English

text: One factor fueling General American's popularity was the major demographic change of twentieth-century American society: increased suburbanization, leading to less mingling of different social classes and less density and diversity of linguistic interactions. As a result, wealthier and higher-educated Americans' communications became more restricted to their own demographic. This, alongside their new marketplace that transcended regional boundaries (arising from the century's faster transportation methods), reinforced a widespread belief that highly educated Americans should not possess a regional accent. A General American sound, then, originated from both suburbanization and suppression of regional accent by highly educated Americans in formal settings. A second factor was a rise in immigration to the Great Lakes area (one native region of supposed "General American" speech) following the region's rapid industrialization period after the American Civil War, when this region's speakers went on to form a successful and highly mobile business elite, who traveled around the country in the mid-twentieth century, spreading the high status of their accents. A third factor is that various sociological (often race- and class-based) forces repelled socially-conscious Americans away from accents negatively associated with certain minority groups, such as African Americans and poor white communities in the South and with Southern and Eastern European immigrant groups (for example, Jewish communities) in the coastal Northeast. Instead, socially-conscious Americans settled upon accents more prestigiously associated with White Anglo-Saxon Protestant communities in the remainder of the country: namely, the West, the Midwest, and the non-coastal Northeast.


title: General American English

text: Typical General American accent features (for example, in contrast to British English) include features that concern consonants, such as rhoticity (full pronunciation of all /r/ sounds), pre-nasal T-glottalization (with satin pronounced , not ), T- and D-flapping (with metal and medal pronounced the same, as ), L-velarization (with filling pronounced , not ), yod-dropping after alveolar consonants (with new pronounced /nu/, not /nju/), as well as features that concern vowel sounds, such as various vowel mergers before /r/ (so that Mary, marry, and merry are all commonly pronounced the same), raising of pre-voiceless /aɪ/ (with price and bright using a higher vowel sound than prize and bride), raising and gliding of pre-nasal /æ/ (with man having a higher and tenser vowel sound than map), the weak vowel merger (with affecting and effecting often pronounced the same), and at least one of the LOT vowel mergers (the LOT–PALM merger is complete among most Americans and the LOT–THOUGHT merger among at least half). All of these phenomena are explained in further detail under American English's phonology section. The following provides all the General American consonant and vowel sounds.


title: Sussan Deyhim

text: Sussan Deyhim was born into a liberal Iranian family on December 14, 1958, in Tehran, Iran. She was the youngest of eleven children and her house was filled with every conceivable style of music, old and new. Growing up, Deyhim spent her summers at a special dance and arts camp at the Caspian Sea and at the Shirazz Festival. At the age of 13, she joined the Iranian National Ballet Company and was offered a scholarship to attend School of Performing Arts in Brussels. Deyhim won coveted admission into the Bejart Ballet in 1976 and moved to New York to pursue music. Her music remains true to the spirit of her ancient heritage while pointing to the future with a very personal and poetic dramatic sensibility. In her own words, Deyhim said "I had been trained to do unusual vocals and I started doing choreography and composing music myself, using my voice as my instrument. Gradually I started getting very excited about music. My apartment was in the Village and I got into the downtown music and arts scene. I wanted to do something cool and an interesting hybrid relevant to our times."


title: List of Emmerdale characters introduced in 1990

text: In 1992 Michael takes part in an armed robbery of Home Farm, which leaves Joe Sugden badly injured and fighting for his life. The robbery was organised by Neil Kincaid's stable hand, Steve Marshal. Following his mother Elizabeth's marriage to Eric Pollard, several months later, Michael is arrested for his involvement in the attack, and consequently sentenced to four months imprisonment. Michael resents his mother's relationship with Eric and attacks him the Woolpack, punching him. When Elizabeth is killed, in the Emmerdale plane crash of 1993, Michael accuses Eric of murder. It transpires that Elizabeth had uncovered evidence of Eric committing cheque fraud, for which he had framed Michael, and was about to report him to the police when she was killed by falling plane debris. Eric is then suspected of murdering Elizabeth and things are not helped when Eric's first wife, Eileen Pollock, arrives and claims that Eric and Elizabeth's marriage was bigamous. This leads to a fight between Michael and Eric, which sees Eric pinning Michael to the floor. Elsa arrives and Michael takes advantage of the distraction to shove Eric, who hits head on the coffee table. Elsa, believing that Michael has killed Eric, tells Michael to run and he flees in Eric's car, which he later abandons at an airport.


text: In 2010 Eric begins receiving letters, messages and cards, claiming to be from Elizabeth. Originally suspecting the messages to be sent by Amy Wyatt, it is on 30 December, 17 years to the day of the plane crash, that the messages are instead found to be from Michael. Michael, who has been in-and-out of jail, confronts Eric at Elizabeth's grave. He later follows Eric back to The Grange, where he again confronts him, prompting him to reveal his history to his current wife, Val. Michael then leaves. However, he later informs Amy that he wants Eric to pay him a large sum or money, otherwise he will reveal Eric to be a murderer. Eric tells Michael to come in his car with him, and he will pay him off. Eric drives Michael to a remote area, however, and, after an exchange of words, Eric produces a tyre iron, advancing on Michael, who cowers into a corner. The result of the incident was not revealed. Eric returns to Emmerdale alone, appearing at edge and nervous, telling Val that he had given Michael a lift to the station.


text: Nearly seventeen years after her death, in December 2010, Eric started to receive notes, messages and Christmas greetings, signed from Elizabeth. Originally believing them to be from Amy Wyatt (Chelsea Halfpenny), it later transpired that Elizabeth's son Michael had been sending the notes and returned to the village after 16 years of absence, in order to make Eric pay for the murder of his mother. Eric told Val on 3 January 2011 about the night of the plane crash 17 years before and stated the events leading up to her death such as about the cheque fraud and stolen Roman bracelet. He then stated that he went round to see her then after a brief row she had stormed out of the house and he followed her, caught up with her and tried to get her to listen and that she had run off into the night screaming but a tree near her burst into flames as plane wreckage shot down and the sky lit up. Eric explains that he went back a bit later and found her dead. On 4 January 2011, Eric's current wife Val Pollard (Charlie Hardwick) obtained the coroners report into Elizabeth's death which confirmed she had been killed by falling debris from the plane.


title: Battle of Rawa

text: According to Prit Buttar, "Conrad issued further orders to prepare for what he hoped would be a decisive blow by Auffenberg's Fourth Army. Leaving only four infantry divisions and two cavalry divisions facing north, under the collective command of Archduke Joseph Ferdinand, Auffenberg was to turn and march southeast. Meanwhile, Ivanov finally prevailed upon Ruzsky to turn northwest, so that he could march to the aid of Plehve's army. Unwittingly, the Russians and Austro-Hungarians thus created the circumstances that would lead to a head-on collision between Auffenberg's Fourth Army and Ruzsky's Third Army." Auffenberg's IX, VI, and XVII Corps were located between Niemirów and Rawa Ruska. The Russian Third Army consisted of the IX, X, XI, and XXI Corps. On 6 September, the Austro-Hungarian XVII and VI Corps met the Russian IX and X Corps respectively, while the Russian XXI Corps extended beyond the left flank of the Austro-Hungarians. At the same time, Plehve's Fifth Army advanced to the south. Joseph Ferdinand now faced the Russian XXI Corps to the east, the Russian Fifth Army to the north, while the Austro-Hungarian First Army retreated towards the south. Protecting the Austro-Hungarian Fourth army's rear, Joseph Ferdinand located his men north of Rawa Ruska.


title: Natsupoi

text: Maki is considered one of the founding pillars of Actwres Girl'Z where she debuted in 2015. Maki would go on to perform numerous times for Actwres girl'Z until 2018. Maki wrestled a couple of matches for Reina, one of them at REINA Year End Battle In Korakuen 2015 on December 26, where she teamed up with Tae Honma in a losing effort to Saori Anou and her trainer Yuna Manase. She participated at Kyoko Kimura Retirement Produce Last Afro on January 22, 2017, where she competed in a 20-man battle royal also involving other popular superstars such as Takashi Sasaki, Munenori Sawa, Yuki Miyazaki, Yuko Miyamoto, Hercules Senga and others. While competing in All Japan Pro Wrestling, she participated at the AJPW Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori 25th Anniversary event from October 21, 2017, where she teamed up with Saori Anou, picking up a victory against Haruka Kato and Saki. At Oz Academy's AKINO Produce 20th Anniversary, an event from on July 8, 2018, which portraited the 20th career anniversary of Mika Akino, she fell short to Mayumi Ozaki. Maki wrestled for DDT Pro-Wrestling at Wrestle Peter Pan 2019 on July 15, where she teamed up with Unagi Sayaka and Yuna Manase in a losing effort to Rika Tatsumi and The Bakuretsu Sisters (Nodoka Tenma and Yuki Aino). She once competed for Sendai Girls' Pro Wrestling, at a house show which took place on February 16, 2020, where she teamed up with Sareee in a losing effort to Dash Chisako and Meiko Satomura.


title: Natsupoi

text: At Stardom Nippon Budokan Great Eve on January 31, 2021, she teamed up with Himeka to unsuccessfully challenge Oedo Tai's Bea Priestley and Konami for the Goddesses of Stardom Championship. Maki won her first title in the promotion, the High Speed Championship at the 10th Anniversary Of Stardom from March 3, 2021, where she defeated AZM. At Stardom Yokohama Dream Cinderella 2021 from April 4, she unsuccessfully challenged Tam Nakano for the Wonder of Stardom Championship. On the first night of the Stardom Cinderella Tournament 2021 from April 10, Maki fell short to fellow stablemate Syuri in a Cinderella Tournament First-round match. At Stardom 5 Star Grand Prix 2021, Maki fought in the "Red Stars" block where she scored a total of 9 points. At Stardom in Nagoya on October 3, 2021, Maki teamed up with Donna Del Mondo stablemates Maika and Himeka to defeat Cosmic Angels (Tam Nakano, Mina Shirakawa and Unagi Sayaka) for the Artist of Stardom Championship. At Stardom 10th Anniversary Grand Final Osaka Dream Cinderella on October 9, they scored the first successful defense by defeating Queen's Quest (Momo Watanabe, AZM and Saya Kamitani). At Tokyo Super Wars on November 27, she fell short to Saya Kamitani and Himeka in a three-way match to determine the number one contender for the Wonder of Stardom Championship. At Osaka Super Wars, the last event from December 18, Maki teamed up with Maika and Himeka and took part in a ¥10 Million Unit Tournament which was also contested for the Artist of Stardom Championship by first defeating Marvelous (Takumi Iroha, Rin Kadokura and Maria) in the semi-finals, and eventually Mayu Iwatani, Hazuki and Koguma in the finals on the same night as a result of a Six-woman tag team ladder match to both retain the titles and win the money prize. At Stardom Dream Queendom on December 29, 2022, Maki alongside Maika and Himeka defended the titles again against Cosmic Angels (Mina Shirakawa, Unagi Sayaka and Mai Sakurai).


title: 2nd Division (Vietnam)

text: Senior Colonel Giáp Văn Cương, a former commander of the 3rd Division, became the Division's new commander and was given orders to destroy the US 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division.: 235 On the afternoon of 2 January, elements of the 12th Cavalry Regiment engaged a unit of the Division in a four-hour-long battle 5 km south of Ross resulting in 3 U.S. and 39 PAVN killed. On the early morning of 3 January the PAVN attacked four U.S. firebases in the Quế Sơn Valley, launching ground attacks against Ross and Landing Zone Leslie, which were defeated by dawn for the loss of 18 U.S. and 331 PAVN killed.: 100 : 235–6 On 7 January, Division anti-aircraft gunners shot down a helicopter carrying the commander of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry, Lt. Col. Robert L. Gregory, killing him and six others on board.: 239 On 10 January the 2/12th Cavalry, engaged a reinforced battalion of the Division near Firebase Ross resulting in 122 PAVN killed.: 239 In total the Division had lost more than 1,100 soldiers killed in action between December and January.: 239


title: 2nd Division (Vietnam)

text: For the Tet Offensive of January/February 1968 the Division was ordered to attack Đà Nẵng however its slow approach to the city meant that it was still 25 km away on 30 January.: 315 As the Division approached Đà Nẵng on 31 January, its 8th Battalion, 31st Regiment, attacked the district capital of Điện Bàn, but the attack was resisted by ARVN troops and Korean Marines. On 3 February when the ARVN 51st Regiment swept through Thanh Quit, they stumbled onto a battalion from the 31st Regiment hidden there and engaged them in battle, supported by the Korean marines until they broke contact at nightfall.: 316 On 6 February the Division began a concerted push north towards Đà Nẵng. At 03:00 the 21st Regiment attacked the ARVN 51st Regiment's base camp, the ARVN were reinforced by US Marines and the fighting continued until the PAVN withdrew at nightfall on 7 February with losses estimated at more than 586 killed.: 317 Following the Battle of Lo Giang on 8–9 February a combined US Army/Marine task force named Task Force Miracle pursued the Division as it withdrew to its base areas near Go Noi Island (15°51′04″N 108°11′10″E / 15.851°N 108.186°E / 15.851; 108.186) killing 236 PAVN/VC soldiers near there on 9 February.: 319–20 In total the Division had lost 1,200-1,400 soldiers in the period from 29 January to 14 February 1968 and had completely failed to penetrate Đà Nẵng.: 320–1


title: Gaetano Crocco

text: G.A. Crocco was a pioneer in aeronautics and astronautics. In 1898 he was serving in the Italian Army Engineers Corps in the Wireless Dept. when he met Captain Maurizio Moris. Moris, heading a Specialists Brigade, was deeply interested in the new field of aeronautics: he took Crocco in his staff starting a lifelong cooperation. At the time the Specialists Brigade was testing anchored balloons on Lake Bracciano north of Rome. In 1904 Crocco started experimenting with airships. In 1906, together with Ottavio Ricaldoni he developed Airship 1 featuring a revolutionary semi-rigid flexible structure. On 31 October 1908, piloting an improved version of the airship, the N1, with a rudder and direction indicators, Crocco flew from Vigna di Valle to Rome and back, covering 50 miles in one hour and a half. N1 was the first airship ever to fly over Rome at an altitude of 500 mt . In 1912 Crocco and Rinaldoni tested a hydroplane on the Bracciano lake while experimenting with airships together with other researchers (one of them, Umberto Nobile, would become eventually a famous polar explorer). In the meantime Crocco kept studying propellers' shapes and sections and in 1914 drew plans for a closed-circuit wind tunnel to be built in Rome.


title: Gaetano Crocco

text: Basing his calculations on Hohmann's orbit, the sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke had stated once that an Earth to Mars flight with a minimum fuel consumption would require at least 259 days. Then another 425 days should elapse on the Red Planet to re-align the planets so as to travel back again in 259 days. Crocco deemed this period too long and drew his own calculations exploiting Mars gravity pull to fly over the planet without landing. Mars gravity would deflect the spaceship's trajectory towards the Earth cutting the flight's overall length to less than a year, the only objection being the poor quality of data gathered passing over Mars at an altitude of more than a million miles. But, Crocco added, should the spaceship be re-directed towards Venus and not the Earth, it would fly over Mars at a much closer range: observation by the astronauts would be much more satisfactory, and moreover they could observe Venus as well, still keeping the trip's time under a year. He calculated 113 days from Earth to Mars, 154 to reach Venus from Mars and 98 days from Venus back to Earth and affirmed that the first occasion for this 'Crocco Grand Tour' would be occurring in 1971. Such missions have not been attempted but many interplanetary space probes have used similar gravity assist manoeuvres.


title: Bluegrass Conference (Iowa)

text: After losing some of the bigger schools to other conferences, the Bluegrass reached out to many of the smaller schools in the area. These new schools were some of the smallest in the state. The Bluegrass Conference operated with 12 teams for a while, but with three schools having been shut down in recent years, the conference is now left with just nine schools. In 2002, Fox Valley Community School in Milton closed its doors, after the district voted to shut down the school and allow the pupils to open enroll where they wished. The next casualty came in 2008, when Russell became the first public school to be shut down by the state in over a decade. East Monona had been the most recent. Then, in 2010, Lineville-Clio was closed by the state. Currently, the conference hosts four of the six smallest public schools in the state, with Diagonal (26 BEDs), Orient-Macksburg (35), Moulton-Udell (38), and Mormon Trail (45). Not all conference schools are in as bad of shape when it comes to enrollment numbers, but all schools are easily in the 1A classification (the smallest classification for schools in Iowa).


title: CNEC Christian College

text: Student Council of CNEC ("The Council") was established in the early 90s. The council composes of the Executive Committee and the representatives of all student organizations in the college. The role of student council is to be the bridge between the school and students. The council is obliged to serve both students and school authority by establishing a harmonious and effective learning environment. The election of student council has been changed from the individual system to cabinet since 2014. The first elected cabinet is Stardust with 10 members. The chairman of the council is also the one who holds and calls general meetings. General meeting is an official occasion that allows student bodies, including four houses, different clubs and society, to initiate and report events planned to be held. The initiations will be questioned in the course by council members and participating teachers. Approval or disapproval for the initiation of events is given after the polling of student body representatives.


title: Mataram conquest of Surabaya

text: The Mataram conquest of Surabaya or Mataram-Surabaya War was a military campaign by the Sultanate of Mataram in the early 17th century that resulted in the capture of the Duchy of Surabaya (Kadipaten Surabaya) and its allies in eastern Java, in modern-day Indonesia. Prior to this conquest, Mataram and Surabaya were rivals for power in central and eastern Java. The campaign began in 1614 when Mataram, under the leadership of Sultan Agung, attacked Surabaya's allies, including Wirasaba. Surabaya and its allies launched a counterattack but were defeated near Pajang in 1616. Over the next few years, Mataram gradually conquered members of the Surabayan alliance, and by 1620, the city of Surabaya itself was under siege, holding out until it surrendered in 1625. With this conquest, Mataram unified most of central and eastern Java under its control, and cemented its position as the dominant power in Java. Surabaya and other conquered areas would remain in Mataram's hands until it was ceded to the Dutch East India Company in 1743.


title: Mataram conquest of Surabaya

text: The Duchy of Surabaya was centered roughly in today's city of Surabaya on the northern coast of eastern Java. It was a wealthy and powerful state, and the city was an important port in the trade route between Malacca and the Spice Islands. The city was approximately 37 kilometres (23 mi) in circumference, and was fortified by canals and cannons. Allied with the nearby state of Pasuruan, the Duchy expanded its influence throughout the eastern part of Java in the beginning of the 17th century. By 1622, it was in control of Gresik and Sedayu in eastern Java. It was also the overlord of Sukadana and Banjarmasin in southern Borneo. More doubtful reports said it might have also extended its influence to Pasuruan, Blambangan, the Brantas valley region, and Wirasaba. Other than these, Surabaya was also allied with Tuban, Malang, Kediri, Lasem, all in eastern Java, as well as Madura off the northern coast. This alliance was primarily a response to the growing power of Mataram, and Surabaya was the founder and the most powerful member.


title: Tufail Niazi

text: Tufail Niazi was a folk musician deeply influenced by classical forms. His mastery of classical vocals, combined with a soulful melodic voice mesmerised audiences. The profound Punjabi Sufi elements in his storytelling, which was characteristic of his repertoire, together with his energetic singing while clothed in a Punjabi 'Lacha' and a silk 'Kurta', created the impression of a performer for whom art was inseparable from life. His singing was often intensely moving, as when he sang about the lives of Punjabi epic lovers, most notably Heer Ranjha, richly evoking their anguish against the setting of a Punjabi rural social environment. Work of Tufail Niazi has been recreated in various TV music programmes and movies, both in Pakistan and India. In 1998, Tufail's song "Laai beqadaran naal yaari" was recreated in Indian movie Wajood as "Tut gai tarak kar ke" by Anu Malik, although his name remained uncredited. In 2006, Pakistani movie Majajan featured Tufail's "Ve tu naire naire wass ve" performed by Azra Jahan.


title: Plasma Wave Subsystem

text: Plasma Wave Subsystem (sometimes called Plasma Wave System), abbreviated PWS, is an instrument that is on board the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 unmanned probes of the Voyager program. The device is 16 channel step frequency receiver and a low-frequency waveform receiver that can measure electron density. The PWS uses the two long antenna in a V-shape on the spacecraft, which are also used by another instrument on the spacecraft. The instrument recorded data about the Solar System's gas giants, and about the outer reaches of the Heliosphere, and beyond. In the 2010s, the PWS was used to play the "sounds of interstellar space" as the spacecraft can sample the local interstellar medium after they departed the Sun's heliosphere. The heliosphere is a region essentially under the influence of the Sun's solar wind, rather than the local interstellar environment, and is another way of understanding the Solar System in comparison to the objects gravitationally bound (e.g in orbit) around Earth's Sun.


title: The Metallica Blacklist

text: At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album has an average score of 66 based on 10 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The album received reviews that were generally favorable toward the project's wide variety of genres and often surprising selection of contributors, but with some qualms about its repetitive or inconsistent nature as a listening experience. Metal Hammer noted that there are too many versions of some songs, especially "Enter Sandman" and "Nothing Else Matters", but concluded that the tribute album "underscores how, unlike any other band in history, Metallica have transcended heavy metal and emerged as one of music's greatest cultural exports." Metal Hammer also endeavored to rank all 53 songs on the album, concluding that the best is the version of "Nothing Else Matters" by Miley Cyrus, who was supported by Elton John, Yo-Yo Ma, Andrew Watt, Chad Smith, and current Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo.


title: Siege of Melos

text: In the summer of 416 BC, during a truce with Sparta, Athens sent an army of at least 3,400 men to conquer Melos: 1,600 heavy infantry, 300 archers, and 20 mounted archers all from Athens, plus 1,500 heavy infantry from other Delian League cities. The fleet that transported this army had 38 ships: 30 from Athens, 6 from Chios, and 2 from Lesbos. This expedition was led by the generals Cleomedes and Tisias. After setting up camp on the island, the Athenians sent emissaries to negotiate with the rulers of Melos. The emissaries demanded that Melos join the Delian League and pay tribute to Athens or face destruction. The Melians rejected the ultimatum. The Athenians laid siege to the city and withdrew most of their troops from the island to fight elsewhere. The Melians made a number of sorties, at one point capturing part of the Athenian line, but failed to break the siege. In response, Athens sent reinforcements under the command of Philocrates. The Athenians also had help from traitors within Melos. Melos surrendered in the winter.


title: SMS S49 (1915)

text: Between 16 and 18 November 1915, S49, part of the 11th torpedo-boat half-flotilla, was one of 18 torpedo boats that carried out a sortie into the Skagerrak to intercept merchant shipping. On 10 February 1916, S49 took part in a sortie by 25 torpedo boats of the 2nd, 6th and 9th Torpedo-boat Flotillas into the North Sea. The sortie led to an encounter between several German torpedo boats and British minesweepers off the Dogger Bank, which resulted in the British minesweeper Arabis being torpedoed and sunk by ships of the 2nd Flotilla. On 25 March 1916, the British seaplane carrier Vindex, escorted by the Harwich force, launched an air attack against a Zeppelin base believed to be at Hoyer on the coast of Schleswig. The raid was a failure, with the airship base actually at Tondern, and while engaging German patrol boats, the British destroyer HMS Medusa was rammed by the destroyer HMS Laverock and badly damaged. (Medusa was later abandoned and eventually sank). Forces of the High Seas Fleet were ordered to sea in response to the attack, and on the evening of 25 March, 18 German torpedo boats of the 1st and 6th Torpedo Boat Flotillas, including S49 were deployed in a wide front with orders to search for Medusa to the North West of Horns Rev. The torpedo boat G194 of the 1st Flotilla encountered British cruisers and was rammed and sunk by the cruiser Cleopatra, which was then rammed and damaged by the cruiser Undaunted, while another German torpedo boat, S22, was sunk by a mine.


title: SMS S49 (1915)

text: On 24 April 1916, the German battlecruisers of I Scouting Group and the light cruisers of the II Scouting Group set out from Kiel on a mission to bombard the British East-coast towns of Yarmouth and Lowestoft, with the torpedo boats of the 6th and 9th Torpedo Boat Flotillas as escorts, and S49 as part of the 6th Flotilla. The battleships of the High Seas Fleet were deployed in support, with the hope of destroying isolated elements of the British Forces if they tried to intercept. There was a brief engagement between the German forces and the light cruisers and destroyers of the Harwich Force, which caused the German battlecruisers to break off the bombardment of Lowestoft, but rather than take the chance to destroy the outnumbered British force, the Germans chose to retire. In May 1916, S49 was listed as part of the 11th half-flotilla of the 6th Torpedo Boat Flotilla. S43 did not sail with the rest of the 6th Torpedo-boat Flotilla when it left Kiel on 31 May 1916, and so missed the Battle of Jutland.


title: SMS S49 (1915)

text: In January 1917, the 6th Flotilla was transferred to Flanders to reinforce the German torpedo boat forces based in the Belgian ports. Eleven torpedo boats of the flotilla, including S49, set out from Helgoland for Flanders on 22 January, but decoding of German radio signals by Room 40 warned the British of the German intentions, and the Harwich Force of cruisers and destroyers sent to intercept the German torpedo boats. During the night of 22–23 January, the 6th Flotilla encountered three British light cruisers (Aurora, Conquest and Centaur). In a confused engagement, V69 was hit by a shell and collided with G41, with both badly damaged, although both survived the encounter, while S50 lost contact with the remainder of the flotilla and, after an encounter with a separate group of British destroyers in which Simoom was sunk, returned to Germany. The remaining eight ships of the flotilla reached Zeebrugge unharmed on 23 January. On the evening of 25 January, the 6th Torpedo boat Flotilla took part in a raid with the intent of attacking British patrols, but when none were encountered, shelled Southwold, damaging several buildings but causing no casualties. More unsuccessful sorties took place on the night of 29/30 January, and on 11/12 February 1917.


title: SMS S49 (1915)

text: The Flanders-based torpedo boat forces were further reinforced on 19 February by the arrival of six large and four small torpedo boats, with the strengthened force being used to carry out new operations. On the night of 25/26 February, the Flanders-based torpedo boats launched a three-pronged attack against Allied shipping in the English Channel and the Dover Barrage. S49, commanded by Korvettenkapitän Werner Tillessen , led a force of six torpedo boats of the 6th Flotilla, were to attack the Dover Barrage and bombard Dover, with five more torpedo boats to attack shipping on The Downs and three to operate off the River Maas against shipping running between the Netherlands and Britain. The 6th Flotilla ran into the British destroyer Laverock which was patrolling the Barrage. S49 and Laverock spotted each other, and S49 opened fire and fired a torpedo at Laverock, which avoided the torpedo. A heavy exchange of gunfire followed between the German torpedo boats and Laverock (which was hit by a torpedo that failed to explode), but no damage was sustained by either side. Believing that British forces were closing in, Tillessen ordered the 6th Flotilla to turn back for Zeebrugge, with the drifters of the Dover Barrage unharmed. The force sent against The Downs briefly shelled the North Foreland and Margate before withdrawing, hitting a house and killing three civilians but doing little other damage, while the patrol off the Mass encountered no ships.


title: SMS S49 (1915)

text: The next major German attack took place on the night of 17/18 March 1917, with two groups of torpedo boats sent against the barrage, one of seven boats of the 6th Flotilla led by S49 and commanded by Tillessen attacking the Northern part of the barrage, and one of 4 torpedo boats attacking the south, while four more torpedo boats were sent against The Downs. At 11:47 pm, S49, at the head of the 6th Flotilla, encountered the British destroyer Paragon on patrol. Paragon attempted to challenge the German ships, but S49 responded by opening fire with guns and torpedoes before Paragon had finished sending her challenge, with G86 firing two more torpedoes. Paragon was hit by two or three torpedoes, broke in half and sank. The explosion was spotted by the British destroyers Llewellyn and Laforey, which were patrolling nearby, and the two British ships went to pick up survivors, switching on searchlights to help rescue operations. The searchlights were spotted by S49, which was leading the 6th Flotilla back to Zeebrugge, and S49 and G87 carried out a torpedo attack on the British ships as they passed, hitting Llewellyn with one torpedo. Llelwellyn remained afloat, and made it back to Dover. The 6th Flotilla were not spotted by the British ships, with Laforey reporting that the attack had been by a submarine. Meanwhile, the force sent against the Downs sank the steamer Greypoint and shelled targets in Kent. The 6th Flotilla, including S49, returned to Germany on 29 March 1917.


title: Admiralty court

text: The sole survivor of the independent courts of admiralty is the Court of Admiralty for the Cinque Ports, which is presided over by the early-merged role of Judge Official and Commissary. This office is normally held by a High Court Judge who holds the appointment of Admiralty Judge. The jurisdiction of the Court of Admiralty of the Cinque Ports extends in an area with boundaries running from the Naze Tower, Essex along the shore to Brightlingsea, then to Shoe Beacon (or Shore Beacon), (to the east of Shoeburyness, Essex), across the mouth of the Thames Estuary to Shellness, Kent, and around the coast to Redcliffe, near Seaford, Sussex. It covers all the sea from Seaford to a point five miles off Cape Grisnez on the coast of France, and the Galloper Sands off the coast of Essex. The last full sitting was in 1914. According to general civilian practice, the registrar can (and here does) act as deputy to the judge. Unless the judge finds a conflict of interest in the registrar's work their main task is to co-invest each successive Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. Appeal from the court's decisions lies to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.


title: Admiralty court

text: Since Elizabethan times, the symbol of authority for a British admiralty court has been a silver oar, placed before the judge when the court is in session. In this respect the silver oar is the equivalent of a ceremonial mace, representing the authority of the Crown and the Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom. An antique silver oar is still placed before the bench when the High Court sits in London on matters relating to its admiralty court functions; in past times it was borne by the marshal in procession, not only in court but on occasions of arrest of persons or vessels, and also on the way to Execution Dock for the last journey of those convicted of piracy. The date of the London oar is uncertain: it is depicted on the tomb of David Lewis, Judge of the High Court of Admiralty from 1559 until 1584, there is some evidence that it may date from the beginnings of the court in the fourteenth century, though one of several assay marks suggests that it was remade three centuries later (based on the earlier pattern). Local courts and vice-admiralty courts had their own silver oars; early examples survive from colonial courts in Bermuda , Boston , New York City , Colombo , Cape of Good Hope and Calcutta.


title: Biochemical Predestination

text: Kenyon began to doubt his theory in the mid-1970s after a student posed the question to him as to how the first proteins could have been assembled without specific genetic instructions. On a fellowship at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley during the 1969–1970 academic year, he reviewed literature on the relationship of science and religion. He began to rethink his Christian faith, and explored the topic further in a 1974 sabbatical at the University of Oxford. In 1976, a student gave him a book by the young Earth creationist A. E. Wilder-Smith, and "Eventually, several other books and articles by neo-creationists came to my attention. I read some of Henry Morris' books, in particular, The Genesis Flood. I'm not a geologist, and I don't agree with everything in that book, but what stood out was that here was a scientific statement giving a very different view of earth history. Though the book doesn't deal with the subject of the origin of life per se, it had the effect of suggesting that it is possible to have a rational alternative explanation of the past." In 1976 he wrote a new section for Morris and Whitcomb's The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and Its Scientific Implications. In the 1982 foreword he wrote to What Is Creation Science? by Morris and Gary Parker, Kenyon said that he no longer accepted the pro-evolution arguments in Biochemical Predestination. At the Edwards v. Aguillard trial he provided an affidavit in support of creation science and noted the book as one of his publications. Kenyon subsequently became a co-author of Of Pandas and People which rebranded creation science as intelligent design.


title: Jacqueline Jones

text: Jones was born in Delaware. Jones's mother taught at Delaware Technical and Community College. Her father, Albert P. Jones , worked for DuPont and was the president of the Delaware State Board of Education for many years; she attended an elementary school in Christiana, Delaware that was renamed in his honor a year after his death. Jones received a B.A. in 1970 from the University of Delaware, and a Ph.D. in 1976 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She has held academic positions at Wellesley College, Brown University and Brandeis University. In July 1999 Jones was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. Although the award typically allows academics to take time off from their teaching, she decided to wait before beginning her research and worked through the period of the fellowship, saying, "I think I will take time off in a few years, but I really like being here on campus, being around my colleagues, teaching." Jones has also been awarded a Ford Foundation fellowship, a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, and an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, and won the Pulitzer Prize in history for her 2023 book No Right to an Honest Living: The Struggles of Boston's Black Workers in the Civil War Era. The Pulitzer jury cited Jones's "original reconstruction of free Black life in Boston that profoundly reshapes our understanding of the city's abolitionist legacy and the challenging reality for its Black residents." She is married to the political scientist and law professor Jeffrey Abramson, author of We, The Jury and Minerva's Owl, among other texts. The couple has two daughters, Sarah Jones Abramson and Anna Jones Abramson.


title: Jacqueline Jones

text: In 1986, Jones's second book Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work, and the Family from Slavery to the Present won her the Bancroft Prize. In Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow, Jones demonstrates her extensive knowledge of the history of the South from 1830 to 1915. The book begins as a study of African Americans and the hardships they faced during the nineteenth century but then develops to include commentary on the impact of class and gender on women in the South. The book attempts to debunk ideas about race and also to blend analysis of the hardships faced by women and blacks into a single integrated picture centering on the figure of the black working-class woman. The book's combination of historical and feminist scholarship is characteristic of Jones's career. Upon winning a MacArthur fellowship Jones noted that finishing her Bancroft-winning volume inspired her to write her third book, The Dispossessed, America's Underclasses from the Civil War to the Present, which examines poverty in America across the boundaries of race and gender. That book would go on to win her a Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Title in 1992 as well as finalist standing for the Lillian Smith Award for non-fiction. In 2001, Jones published Creek Walking, a memoir of her childhood in Delaware during the 1950s. Although her expertise is primarily in African American history, Jones's books range widely, from the effect of economic policies on workers' lives to American educational history. Her understanding of women's history has gained her recognition outside her own field among feminist circles, and she continues to reach non-academic audiences with the expansion of her areas of research. American Work: Four Centuries of Black and White Labor was a History Book Club Selection and in 2002 she was named a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Jones has reflected in an interview that her work involves "writing about issues of race and class and how the United States has changed over the years, how different groups have viewed each other and interacted, how certain groups have been assigned certain kinds of work." Her history writing increasingly features case studies focusing on the overlooked but nonetheless exemplary lives of individuals.


title: Joseph Margoshes

text: Margoshes worked as a writer for the Tageblatt from 1901 to 1914, Der Tog from 1914 to 1921, and the Jewish Morning Journal from 1921 to 1954. When the Tog and the Morning Journal were merged into the Der Tog Morgn Zshurnal, he wrote for that paper as well. From 1927 to 1929, he wrote for YIVO's American division's publication Pinkes (Records). He also wrote for a number of other publications, including Di Tsukunft (The Future). Over the years, he published a large number of a series of articles on historical and folkloric topics. He wrote about old Jewish folktales, explained the origin and reason behind widespread Jewish customs and traditions, and wrote about the history of and development of topics like the ban on excommunication. He complied the first full bibliography of New York's Yiddish press and published a number of essays on the history of Jewish journalism. During World War I, he was a founder of New York's Jewish writers' union, called the I. L. Perets Writers' Association. As the Association's first secretary, he initiated a writers' relief fund that helped alleviate the hardship of Jewish writers in Europe after World War I. He was one of the first to join YIVO's American division. In 1936, he published a memoir, Derinerungen fun mayn Lebn (Experiences from my Life). He owned a large private library, with over 20,000 books on Jewish subjects.


title: Spaghetti House siege

text: The ringleader of the attempted robbery of a branch of the Spaghetti House restaurant was Franklin Davies, a 28-year-old Nigerian student who had previously served time in prison for armed robbery; he was accompanied by two men, Wesley Dick (later known as Shujaa Moshesh), a 24-year-old West Indian, and Anthony "Bonsu" Munroe, a 22-year-old Guyanese. All three had been involved in black liberation organisations. Davies had tried to enlist in the guerrilla armies of Zimbabwe African National Union and FRELIMO in Africa; Munroe had links to the Black Power movement; Dick was an attendee at meetings of the Black Panthers, the Black Liberation Front (BLF), the Fasimba, and the Black Unity and Freedom Party; he regularly visited the offices of the Institute of Race Relations to volunteer and access their library. Sivanandan and the historian Rob Waters identify that the three men were attempting to obtain money to "finance black supplementary schools and support African liberation struggles".


title: Spaghetti House siege

text: At approximately 1:30 am on Sunday 28 September 1975 Davies, Moshesh and Munroe entered the Knightsbridge branch of the Spaghetti House. One carried a sawn-off shotgun, the others each carried a handgun. The three demanded the week's takings from the chain—between £11,000 and £13,000. In the dim lights of the closed restaurant, the staff were able to swiftly hide the two briefcases of money under the tables. The robbers forced the staff down into the basement; the company's general manager took the opportunity to escape out of a rear fire escape while they were being moved. He alerted the Metropolitan Police, who arrived on the scene within minutes. The getaway driver, Samuel Addison, saw the plan had gone wrong, and drove off in a stolen Ford. When the police entered the ground floor of the restaurant, Davies and his colleagues forced the staff into a rear storeroom measuring 14 by 10 feet (4.3 by 3.0 m), locked the door, barricaded it with beer kegs and shouted to the police that they would shoot if they approached the door; the police surrounded the building and the siege began.


title: Spaghetti House siege

text: The trial opened on 8 June 1976. As well as Davies, Dick and Munroe, three accomplices were present, charged with different offences, including assisting the robbery (the getaway driver), supplying firearms, and conspiracy charges. Davies, Dick and Munroe refused to accept the legitimacy of the court. When asked how they pleaded to the charges, Davies shouted "We've stopped pleading—we've been pleading for 500 years. This isn't a trial—it's a lynching party." The three men turned their backs on the court and talked between themselves. The judge, Mervyn Griffith-Jones, ordered that the three men be taken back to their cells and that a plea of not guilty be entered on their behalf. One of the accomplices, Lillo Termine, pleaded guilty to the charges of conspiracy to rob the restaurant. Police said that he had been the one behind the robbery, and had planned it to pay off gambling debts. The trial ended on 30 June. Davies, Dick and Munroe were sentenced to 22, 18 and 17 years in prison respectively; Termine was given six years. One of the accomplices was acquitted and Addison, the getaway driver, was sent for re-trial as the jury could not reach a verdict. That November, following the second trial, Addison was found guilty and imprisoned for eleven years. Davies, Dick and Munroe died after being released from prison, two of them at relatively young ages; Dick changed his name to Shujaa Moshesh by the time of his death in Africa.


title: Ernie Ashcroft

text: Ernie Ashcroft played at centre and scored a try in Wigan's 3-7 defeat by Widnes in the 1945–46 Lancashire Cup Final during the 1945–46 season at Wilderspool Stadium, Warrington on Saturday 27 October 1945, played at centre in the 9-3 victory over Belle Vue Rangers in the 1946–47 Lancashire Cup Final during the 1946–47 season at Station Road, Swinton, on Saturday 26 October 1946, played stand-off in the 10-7 victory over Belle Vue Rangers in the 1947–48 Lancashire Cup Final during the 1947–48 season at Wilderspool Stadium, Warrington, on Saturday 1 November 1947, played at centre in the 14-8 victory over Warrington in the 1948–49 Lancashire Cup Final during the 1948–49 season at Station Road, Swinton, on Saturday 13 November 1948, played at centre in the 20-7 victory over Leigh in the 1949–50 Lancashire Cup Final during the 1949–50 season at Wilderspool Stadium, Warrington, on Saturday 29 October 1949. played at centre in the 14-6 victory over Leigh in the 1951–52 Lancashire Cup Final during the 1951–52 season at Station Road, Swinton on Saturday 27 October 1951, played at centre in the 8-16 defeat by St. Helens in the 1953–54 Lancashire Cup Final during the 1953-54 season at Station Road, Swinton on Saturday 24 October 1953, played at centre in the 8-13 defeat by Oldham in the 1957–58 Lancashire Cup Final during the 1957–58 season at Station Road, Swinton on Saturday 19 October 1957, played at centre, and was coach/captain in Huddersfield's 10-16 defeat by Wakefield Trinity in the 1960–61 Yorkshire Cup Final during the 1960–61 season at Headingley, Leeds on Saturday 29 October 1960.


title: Huldar saga

text: En er menn lögðust til svefns, þá spurði stafnbúi konungs, hverr skemmta skyldi. Flestir létu hljótt yfir því. Þá mælti hann: "Sturla inn íslenzki, viltu skemmta?" "Ráð þú," segir Sturla. Sagði hann þá Huldar sögu — betr ok fróðligar en nökkurr þeira hafði fyrr heyrt, er þar váru. Þröngdust þá margir fram á þiljurnar ok vildu heyra sem gerst. Varð þar þröng mikil. Dróttning spurði: "Hvat þröng er þar fram á þiljunum?" Maðr segir: "Þar vilja menn heyra til sögu, er hann íslendingrinn segir." Hon mælti: "Hvat sögu er þat?" Hann svaraði: "Þat er frá tröllkonu mikilli, ok er góð sagan, enda er vel frá sagt." Konungr bað hana gefa at þessu engan gaum ok sofa. Hon mælti: "Þat ætla ek, at íslendingr þessi muni vera góðr drengr ok sakaðr minnr en flutt hefir verit." Konungr þagði. Sváfu menn þá af nóttina. En um morgininn eftir var engi byrr, ok lá konungr í sama lægi. En er menn sátu at drykk um daginn, sendi konungr Sturlu sendingar af borði. Mötunautar Sturlu urðu við þetta glaðir, — "ok hlýzt betra af þér en vér hugðum, ef slíkt venst oft á." En er menn váru mettir, sendi dróttning eftir Sturlu, bað hann koma til sín ok hafa með sér tröllkonusöguna. Gekk þá Sturla aftr í lyftingina ok kvaddi konung ok dróttningina. Konungr tók kveðju hans lágt, en dróttning vel ok léttiliga. Bað dróttning hann segja þá sömu sögu, er hann hafði sagt um kveldit. Hann gerði svá ok sagði mikinn hluta dags sögu. En er hann hafði sagt, þakkaði dróttning honum ok margir aðrir ok þóttust skilja, at hann var fróðr maðr ok vitr. En konungr svarar engu ok brosti at nökkut svá.


title: Huldar saga

text: But when people lay down to sleep, the King's helmsman asked who would provide entertainment. Most were silent on that. Then he said, "Sturla the Icelander, do you want to try?" "you decide", says Sturla. Then he recounted Huldar saga — better and more sagaciously than any of the people who were there had previously heard. Then many of them crowded forward on the deck-planks, wanting to hear what happened. A great crowd formed there. The Queen asked "What is that crowd out on deck?" Someone says "People there want to hear the saga which that Icelander is telling". She said "What saga is that?" He replied: "It's about a great troll-woman, and it's a good saga, and moreover it's well told". The King told her to pay it no attention and to sleep. She said: "I think that this Icelander must a good chap, and less blameworthy than reported." The king fell silent. Then everyone slept the night through. But the next morning, there was no breeze, and the King was still in the same spot. But when, during the day, everyone was sitting and drinking, the King sent Sturla some offerings from the table. Sturla's dinner-companions were pleased about this — "and you're better news than we thought, if he makes a habit of this". And once everyone had eaten, the Queen sent for Sturla, asked her to come to her, and bring the troll-woman story with him. Then Sturla went back to the quarter-deck and greeted the King and Queen. The King showed little pleasure at his greeting, but the Queen received it well and without concern. The Queen asked him to tell the same story which he had told the evening before. He did so and told it for a large part of the day. And when he was done, the Queen and many others thanked him, and perceived that he was a wise and experienced person. But the King didn't reply, and smiled a little.


title: Holmes E. Dager

text: For extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations on 31 July, 1944 against an armed enemy at Avranches, France. When his own headquarters was surrounded on three sides by vastly superior numbers of the enemy, Brigadier General Dager took extraordinarily heroic action in the face of heavy odds, thereby saving his unit from annihilation and defeating the enemy. Upon being fired upon, he immediately organized the concentrated fire of his headquarters and ordered artillery fire on the enemy, who were so close that several rounds fell into the area occupied by his headquarters. General Dager personally organized a counter-attack of light tanks and armored cars. General Dager participated in all actions in his own light tank, alternately loading the 37mm gun and firing the 30. caliber machine gun. In addition to directing all operations, he directed the attack from the open turret of his tank in the face of a hail of enemy gun fire. This counter-attack into the enemy positions forced more than 2,000 Germans to surrender. During the entire engagement which lasted more than two hours, General Dager was in the midst of the extremely heavy fire, which destroyed three medium tanks, and one light tank and inflicted numerous casualties in personnel. His entire conduct in this action demonstrated unsurpassed personal valor, aggressiveness, and initiative.


title: PCSX-Reloaded

text: PCSX supports network play and external plugins as used by ePSXe. As with many modern emulators, PCSX-Reloaded supports savestates and also has Save Rewind feature (currently only OSX and Linux version), Support for ECM files (currently only OS X and Linux version), Support for Libarchive (currently only OSX and Linux version), widescreen hack and makes use of plug-ins to emulate GPU, SPU, and CD-ROM drive functions, a model first established in PSEmu Pro, it uses Peops OpenGL plugin for graphics on default but can also use Pete's OpenGL2, gpuBladeSoft, PCSX2 graphics plugin GSDX, AmiDog GPU plugin, Asmodeans PSXFX shader pack, input plugins such as Lilypad and Pokopom Pad Plugin. It also has multi-track cue support and is the only PS1 emulator with compatibility with anti-jitter options in graphics plugins, such as GTE accuracy in the default Peops OpenGL plugin, or Improved coordinate accuracy in Edgbla's gpuBladeSoft and it also supports PeteOpenGL2Tweak plugin. Additionally, PCSX seeks to simulate the functionality of the PlayStation BIOS and consequently does not require a BIOS file dump to operate, making it easier to emulate legally, however, Bios emulation is still incomplete so it is better to use dumped BIOS to avoid various bugs and reduced compatibility.


title: Ancha monastery

text: The earliest recorded information about the monastery of Ancha is found in c. 951 Vitae of Gregory of Khandzta by Giorgi Merchule, which dates the church roughly to the early 9th century. It functioned as one of the principal religious and cultural centers of the principality of Klarjeti, which was wrested of the Georgian control by the Ottoman Empire in the 1550s. By the middle of the 17th century, the church had been completely abandoned. Its surviving Christian relics, such as the venerated icon of the Savior, were transferred to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. Shortly after the Russian takeover of the Artvin province, the historical Georgian churches and monasteries of the area were visited, in 1879, by the Georgian scholar Dimitri Bakradze, who reported severe damage to Ancha. In 1904, Nicholas Marr reported that only a portion of the monastery's north-western and northern walls and an altar apse with a fragment of the cupola had been survived. Nowadays, the building is almost completely ruined.


title: Puerto Rican women in the military

text: Major Hila Levy was born in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. She was raised in Guaynabo in a military family; her father, Ramon, was a captain in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. She enrolled in flying school at age 16 and obtained her license within a year. She enrolled in the United States Air Force Academy in 2004. In 2008, she was the first resident of Puerto Rico to become a Rhodes scholar. As a Cadet in the U.S. Air Force Academy, she was the top graduate, earning the Outstanding Cadet in the Order of Graduation Award, and placement on the 100-year Honor Roll. She has earned a BS in Biology, three master's degrees (historical research and biology from the University of Oxford, and environmental planning and management from Johns Hopkins University) and a PhD in zoology from the University of Oxford. She serves in the 352nd Special Operations Wing, studies penguins in the Antarctic up to four months per year, and is an intelligence officer at the Joint Reserve Intelligence Support Element, Royal Air Force Molesworth, UK. She has also participated in triathlons, marathons and cycling competitions, and serves in veteran support organizations.


title: Puerto Rican women in the military

text: Brigadier General Irene M. Zoppi also known as "RAMBA," was born in Canóvanas, Puerto Rico. According to the U.S. Army, she is "the first Puerto Rican woman promoted to the rank of general in the U.S. Army Reserve." She was deployed to Kuwait, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia with the 3rd Armored Division as a Military Intelligence Officer. She was one of few Latino women, who served during Desert Shield/Storm War in a Tank Division. She is currently the Deputy Commanding General – Support under the 200th Military Police Command at Fort Meade, Maryland. Zoppi is a Bronze Star Medal Recipient. According to the U.S. Army Reserve, "Brig. Gen. Zoppi's awards and decorations include: Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (with 3 oak leaf clusters), Army Commendation Medal (with 6 oak leaf clusters), Southwest Asia Service Medal (with 3 bronze stars), Kuwait Liberation Medal (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Kuwait Liberation Medal (Government of Kuwait) and U.S. Army Parachutist Badge. Brig. Gen. Zoppi also received the Military Intelligence Excellence Knowlton Award in 2013."


title: Puerto Rican women in the military

text: SPC Frances M. Vega was born in San Francisco, California, and graduated from Antilles High School. Her grandfather, father and uncle had served in the U.S. military. Vega was deployed to Iraq in what is known as the War on Terrorism, and became the first female soldier of Puerto Rican descent to die in a combat zone when on November 2, 2003, a surface-to-air missile was fired by insurgents in Al Fallujah and hit the U.S. transport helicopter (Chinook) she was in. Vega was one of 16 soldiers who died in the Chinook crash. She was buried with full military honors and posthumously awarded a Bronze Star for bravery and a Purple Heart. An Army Post Office in Iraq was named in her honor, and a sign from the post office was moved to the U.S. Army Adjutant General's Corps Museum in 2012. One of the main gates at the Fort Buchanan military installation is also named in her honor, with a plaque that includes, "Specialist Frances M. Vega epitomizes the character and patriotism of the countless American Soldiers who have answered the call to defend freedom."


title: Cleveland Abbe

text: He tutored mathematics at the Trinity Latin School in New York City in 1857 and 1858. He then taught engineering, as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan in 1859, followed by a tutoring job, also in engineering, until he left in 1860. During this stay in Michigan, he also was studying astronomy under Franz Brünnow from 1858 to 1859. He received his second degree, a Master of Arts in 1860, from City College. When the US Civil War broke out, he tried to join the Union Army; however, he failed the vision test, due to myopia, and spent the war years in Cambridge, Massachusetts, attending Harvard, and working as an assistant to Benjamin Gould, astronomer and head of the Longitude Department of the United States Coast Survey. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Harvard in 1864, which also marked the end of his working at the U.S. Coast Survey. It was while in Cambridge that he rubbed shoulders with scientists from the Nautical Almanac, specifically, William Ferrel, which probably piqued his meteorological curiosity.


title: Cleveland Abbe

text: Abbe was appointed chief meteorologist at the United States Weather Bureau on 3 January 1871, which at the time was part of the U.S. Signal Corps. One of the first things that he addressed was the forecasting dimension of meteorology. He recognized that predicting the weather required a widespread, yet coordinated team. And so with short-term funding granted from the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, he enlisted twenty volunteer weather observers to help report conditions. Western Union agreed to permit the observers to communicate without charge, and Abbe and his team went to work. He selected data-collecting instruments that would be critical to the success of weather predicting, and he trained Army observer sergeants in their use. Field data was transmitted using code designed to minimize word count. Each message started with a station location, with code words for temperature, pressure, dew point, precipitation and wind direction, cloud observations, wind velocity and sunset observations. At the designated times, information flooded the transmission stations. Clerks would then decode and record the messages and manually enter data onto weather maps, which were then used to predict the weather.


title: Cleveland Abbe

text: On February 19, 1871, Abbe personally gave the first official weather report. He continued to forecast alone for the next six months, while simultaneously training others. He was joined in mid-1871 by two Army lieutenants and a civilian professor in giving reports, and the team was then able to rotate the heavy workload. Abbe demanded precise language in the forecasts and ensured that every forecast covered four key meteorological elements: weather (clouds and precipitation), temperature, wind direction, and barometric pressure. By the end of the first year of reporting, over 60 copies of weather charts had been sent to Congress, the press, and various scientific institutions. By 1872, Abbe regularly sent over 500 sets of daily maps and bulletins overseas in exchange for European meteorological data. Abbe also insisted on verifying predictions. During the first year of operation, in 1871, Abbe and his staff verified 69 percent of their predictions; the annual report apologized for the other 31 percent, citing the time constraints as the cause.


title: Teledildonics

text: Teledildonics (also known as cyberdildonics) is the name coined for virtual sex encounters using networked electronic sex toys to mimic and extend human sexual interaction. The term became known after technology critic and writer Howard Rheingold used it in his 1991 book Virtual Reality. In the publication, Rheingold made futuristic conclusions and summaries surrounding technology and used the term 'teledildonics' to refer to remote sexual activity using technology. Nowadays, the term is commonly used to describe remote sex (or, at least, remote mutual masturbation), where tactile sensations are communicated over a remote connection between the participants. The term can also refer to the integration of telepresence with sexual activity that these interfaces make possible and can be used in conjunction or interchangeably with sex-technology. The term has also been used less accurately (since there's no "tele-" element) to refer to robotic sex, i.e., computer-controlled sex toys that aim to substitute for or improve upon sex with a human partner. Nowadays, it is commonly used to refer to Bluetooth-enabled sex toys.


title: Teledildonics

text: The term was coined as early as 1975 by Ted Nelson in his book Computer Lib/Dream Machines. The idea of virtual sex has been prominent in literature, fiction and popular culture, and promoters of these devices have claimed since the 1980s they are the "next big thing" in cybersex technology. At the time Howard Rhinegold started using this term in 1990s, there were already many enthusiasts seeking to explore the power of technology, sex and intimacy. A report in the Chicago Tribune in 1993 suggested that teledildonics was "the virtual-reality technology that may one day allow people wearing special bodysuits, headgear and gloves to engage in tactile sexual relations from separate, remote locations via computers connected to phone lines." It was the same year that the Cyber-SM suit was released by Stahl Stensile, which featured on the cover of FutureSex, a 1990s San Francisco–based magazine that focused on the emergence of teledildonics. Some products have been shown at the Museum of Sex in New York City and there was an exhibition about Stensile's Cyber-SM suit in 2016.


title: Vacuum brake

text: In the earliest days of railways, trains were slowed or stopped by the application of manually applied brakes on the locomotive and in brake vehicles through the train, and later by steam power brakes on locomotives. This was clearly unsatisfactory, given the slow and unreliable response times (each brake being separately applied by a member of the train crew in response to signals from the driver, which they might miss for any number of reasons, and necessarily in sequence rather than all at once where there were more brakes than crew members, making emergency braking extremely hit-and-miss) and extremely limited braking power that could be exerted (most vehicles in the train being wholly unbraked, and the power of all but the locomotive's own brakes relying on the strength of a particular crewmember's arm on a screw handle), but the existing technology did not offer an improvement. A chain braking system was developed, requiring a chain to be coupled throughout the train, but it was impossible to arrange equal braking effort along the entire train.


title: Vacuum brake

text: Opposition to the fitting of the automatic type of brake on the grounds of cost (particularly by the LNWR and its chairman Richard Moon - as one of the largest British companies, the refusal of the LNWR to adopt the automatic brake was a strong factor against its wider use by other companies, especially those interchanging traffic with the North Western) meant that it took a serious accident at Armagh in 1889 before legislation compelled the adoption of the automatic system. In this accident at Armagh, a portion of a train was detached from the locomotive on a steep gradient and ran away, killing 80 people. The train was fitted with the simple vacuum brake, which was useless on the disconnected portion of the train. It was clear that if the vehicles had been fitted with an automatic continuous brake, the accident would almost certainly not have happened, and the public concern at the scale of the accident prompted legislation mandating the use of a continuous automatic brake on all passenger trains.


title: Vacuum brake

text: The automatic vacuum brake as described represented a considerable technical advance in train braking. In practice steam locomotives had two ejectors, a small ejector for running purposes (to maintain the partial vacuum at the correct level against inevitable slight air leaks in the train pipe and its connections) and a large ejector to release brake applications. The small ejector used much less steam than the large ejector but could not generate vacuum in the train pipe sufficiently quickly for operational purposes, especially in a long train. Later Great Western Railway practice was to use a vacuum pump instead of the small ejector – the pump was fitted to one of the engine crossheads and so did not use any steam, with the disadvantage that it only operated when the locomotive was in motion. The GWR favoured this due to the use of braking systems working on a vacuum level higher than other railways (see below) which would have required a relatively large and steam-hungry "small" ejector.


title: Vacuum brake

text: With the introduction of diesel and electric locomotives by British Railways from the early 1950s, this same basic arrangement was carried over. BR's Modernisation Plan of 1955 called for, amongst other things, a long-term aim to switch to air brakes for both passenger and freight stock. The standard Mark 1 coaching stock had been designed and procured before the decision to switch to modern traction and air brakes had been taken, so the majority of the stock was fitted with traditional vacuum brakes. Air-braked goods wagons were introduced steadily from the mid-1960s (starting with the HAA-type hoppers for the new 'merry-go-round trains' trains) and the Mark 2a coaching stock with air brakes was built from 1967. Diesel and electric locomotives naturally could not use the traditional steam-driven ejector to generate vacuum. Smaller locomotives had exhausters or vacuum pumps driven directly by their prime mover while larger ones had similar machines mounted separately and driven by dedicated electric motors. It was normal practice on mainline locomotives to fit two exhausters (and two air compressors for the air brake system) for redundancy. Just as steam locomotives had a small and large ejector, the diesels and electrics (most of which had braking equipment supplied by either British Westinghouse or Davies and Metcalfe) had their brake controls set up to run one exhauster continuously to generate and maintain the vacuum in the system (analogous to the small ejector), with the second one being started when the brake handle was set to its 'Release' position to provide a quicker response (the same function as the large ejector). A switch in the locomotive cab allowed the driver to choose which exhauster would serve each function.


title: Vacuum brake

text: American and continental European practice had long favoured compressed air brake systems, the leading pattern being a proprietary Westinghouse system. This has a number of advantages, including smaller brake cylinders (because higher air pressure could be used) and a somewhat more responsive braking effort. However, the system requires an air pump. On steam engines this was usually a reciprocating steam-driven compressor, which was quite bulky and much more complicated and maintenance-intensive than the vacuum ejector, which was compact and had no moving parts. The compressor's distinctive shape and the characteristic puffing sound when the brake is released (as the train pipe has to be recharged with air) make steam locomotives fitted with the Westinghouse brake unmistakable. Another disadvantage of the earlier air brake systems (although later overcome) was that it was impossible to make a partial release. The vacuum brake can very simply be partially released by restoring some (but not all) of the vacuum, without having to fully release the brakes. The original air brake systems, on the other hand, did not allow this, the only way of partially releasing the brake being to fully release it, then re-apply it to the desired setting.