title: Years & Years

text: In January 2016, Years & Years were nominated for four Brit Awards, including British Group, British Breakthrough Act, British Single (for "King") and British Artist Video (also for "King"). On 2 March 2016, the band announced that Tove Lo would feature on their next single; a new version of, "Desire". The music video was released on the next day, accompanied by an open letter from frontman Olly Alexander on the band's Facebook page. This detailed the concept of the video and highlighted the LGBT issues addressed by it (such as sexuality and gender dynamics), for which Alexander had become something of a spokesperson. The band played their biggest headline show to date on 8 April 2016, at Wembley Arena, London, as part of their 2016 UK headline tour. The show was completely sold out, with support coming from MØ, Nimmo and Mabel. In July 2016, the band released the music video for their next single from Communion, "Worship". The music video was directed by Matt Lambert, with choreography from Ryan Heffington. On 11 September 2016, Years & Years performed the last show of their Communion tour at Lollapalooza in Berlin.


title: My Winnipeg

text: Maddin then describes Winnipeg in general terms, introducing it to the viewer, noting primarily its location at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, a place known as "the Forks". Maddin equates this Y-like junction to a woman's groin and associates it with his mother. Maddin also notes the apocryphal aboriginal myth of a secret "Forks beneath the Forks", an underground river system below the aboveground river system –the superimposition of these two sets of rivers has imbued the site and Winnipeg itself with magical/magnetic/sexual energy. Maddin also notes that Winnipeg is the geographical centre of North America, and thus these secret rivers are "the Heart of the Heart" of the continent and of Canada. Maddin regales the viewer with one of the film's many suspect historical "facts" about Winnipeg: "the Canadian Pacific Railway used to sponsor an annual treasure hunt required our citizens to wander our city in a day-long combing of the streets and neighbourhoods. First prize was a one-way ticket on the next train out of town." No winners in a hundred years could bring themselves to leave the city after coming to know the city so closely over the course of the treasure hunt. Maddin then posits an alternative explanation for Winnipeggers never leaving Winnipeg: sleepiness. He notes that Winnipeg is the sleepwalking capital of the world, with ten times the normal rate of sleepwalking, and that everyone in Winnipeg carries around the keys to their former homes in case they return while asleep. Winnipeg by-laws require that sleepwalkers be allowed to sleep in their old homes by the new tenants.


title: My Winnipeg

text: Maddin rents his own childhood home at 800 Ellice Avenue for a month, hiring actors to play his family (including Ann Savage as his mother) in order to recreate scenes from his childhood memories, excluding his father and himself. The "family" gathers to watch the television show LedgeMan, a fictional drama in which "the same oversensitive man takes something said the wrong way, climbs out on a window ledge, and threatens to jump." His mother, in the next window, convinces him to live. Maddin's mother is noted as the star of the show. The film recounts the conditions of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike, a real-world event with international significance, before returning to the family re-enactments, including Mother's suspicion of Janet Maddin, who hit a deer on the highway but is accused of covering up a sexual encounter. Maddin announces that this, like "everything that happens in is a euphemism." The film then recounts the city's history of Spiritualism, including a visit by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1923. The film next examines Winnipeg architectural landmarks, including the Eaton's building and the Winnipeg Arena, both of which are demolished (while the arena is being destroyed, Maddin becomes the last person to urinate in its washroom). Maddin imagines the arena's salvation by the "Black Tuesdays", a fictional team of hockey heroes "in their 70s, 80s, 90s and beyond", then re-enacts a family scene where Mother is harassed to cook a meal.


title: My Winnipeg

text: The film recounts a racetrack fire that drove horses to perish in the Red River – the horse heads reappear, ghostly, each winter, frozen in the ice. Further Winnipeg landmarks, including the Golden Boy statue atop the provincial legislative building, the Paddle Wheel restaurant, the Hudson's Bay department store, and the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame, make appearances in distorted versions of themselves, as does the Sherbrook Pool. The film then recalls If Day (an actual historical event when a faked Nazi invasion of the city was mounted during World War II to promote the sale of war bonds), and a buffalo stampede set off by the mating of two gay bison. Time is now running out for Guy Maddin, who fears he will never leave Winnipeg, since the family re-enactments have failed to free him fully. To accomplish this feat of leaving, Maddin imagines a pinup girl for the 1919 strike's newsletter The Citizen: dreaming up this "Citizen Girl" allows Maddin to leave Winnipeg, guilt-free. The final family re-enactment then involves Maddin's brother Cameron, who in real life committed suicide, rationalizing this death calmly in a discussion with Maddin's "Mother".


title: Lila Oliver Asher

text: Lila was born Lila Estelle Oliver on November 15, 1921, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She started drawing as a child and received her first set of oil paints as a birthday gift from her parents when she was seven. At the age of 12, Lila began studying with Joseph Grossman and started painting lessons with Frank B. A. Linton, a protégé of Thomas Eakins while attending classes at Fleischer Art Memorial from 1933 to 1938. She was also a pupil of Prof. Gonippo Raggi and held a four-year scholarship to the now University of the Arts. She attended in 1943, during World War II, where the skills and abilities she showed with sketching would lead to the job of sketching soldiers at military hospitals and Stage Door Canteens through the USO. These portraits would then be sent to the soldiers' loved ones back home and sometimes were even used by plastic surgeons in reconstructing faces disfigured by combat wounds. Asher was an unconventional volunteer for the USO Program having been an artist, but made the important and unique contribution of approximately 3,600 keepsake portraits for soldiers and their families.


title: Ernest A. Gross

text: After the war, Gross rejoined the State Department, serving as Legal Adviser of the Department of State and as deputy to the Assistant Secretary of State for Occupied Areas . In 1948, Gross signed the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide on behalf of the United States. From March through October 1949, Gross was the Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs. On October 11, 1949, United States Secretary of State Dean Acheson appointed Gross as the United States' deputy delegate to the United Nations. Only two months later, the chief delegate, Warren Austin, took a leave of absence, and Gross took over as acting head of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. The major issue facing the United Nations at that time was the Soviet Union's proposal that, with the conclusion of the Chinese Civil War, the Communist People's Republic of China should replace the Republic of China on the United Nations Security Council. On January 13, 1950, the Soviet delegate, Jacov Malik, walked out of the Security Council in protest. Malik remained absent for several months, and as such the Soviet Union failed to exercise its veto power to block United Nations Security Council Resolution 82, which condemned North Korea at the beginning of the Korean War; on behalf of the U.S., Gross voted in favor of the resolution. In fall 1950, Warren Austin returned from his leave of absence, and Gross continued to serve as Austin's deputy until 1953.


title: Humberto Ortega

text: Following the electoral defeat of Daniel Ortega and the Sandinista Party in 1990, Humberto maintained control of the military. Later that year accusations arose against Humberto claiming his involvement in the murder and cover-up of sixteen-year-old Jean Paul. Ortega's bodyguards allegedly shot and killed the young man when he attempted to pass the general's motorcade on October 28, 1990. In November 1990 the Nicaraguan National Assembly along with experts from the Venezuelan Ministry of Justice began an investigation of this incident. Most of the evidence found by the investigators proved to be circumstantial and the travel records for the motorcade were never found. Civil District Judge Boanerges Ojeda suggested Ortega's bodyguards, two officers, and Humberto be tried in court before he passed the case to the military prosecutors office where it was closed in July 1992. He retired in 1995, turning the job over to his second in command, Joaquín Cuadra. General Humberto Ortega started transforming the EPS into the non-political Nicaraguan National Army.


title: Bobby Rivers

text: Rivers was born in Los Angeles in 1953, and grew up in South Central Los Angeles during the tumultuous 1960's. He graduated from Marquette University in Wisconsin. Rivers' first television appearance was as a high school student on a 1970 syndicated classic-film trivia game show. During those times on The Movie Game, shot in Hollywood, he was the program's first African-American contestant, and its youngest winner. After working in Milwaukee radio, he made his professional television debut in 1979 on Milwaukee's ABC affiliate, WISN-TV, as the city's first African-American film critic on TV. He did this as a contributor on Milwaukee's edition of PM Magazine, a syndicated show that had national hosts, such as Matt Lauer, Mary Hart and Leeza Gibbons. During that time, he was tapped to audition as a possible replacement as movie critic when Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert left Chicago PBS for Disney syndication. In 1984, he had moved up to co-host and associate producer of a live weekday show on WISN.


title: Music of South Korea

text: Korean traditional music is also known as Gugak (national music). The first evidence of Korean music appeared in the extant text of Samguk sagi (History of the three kingdoms) in 1145, which described two string-like instruments; Gayageum and Geomungo. Traditional Korean music was brought to heights of excellence under the Lee kings of the Joseon Dynasty (Chosun Dynasty) between 1392 and 1897. During the Joseon Dynasty, a social hierarchy was observed with the King and the Yangban (government officials, generals, and the elite) at the top and the Sangmin (merchants, craftsman) and slaves at the bottom. There were two forms of music: Jeongak (court music) and Minsokak (folk music). Jeongak was the music category that the Yangban listened to for enjoyment and was played during state rituals like banquets, military processions, etc. However, Minsokak and Nongak (farmer's music) dominated among the common people. The different types of folk music were: Pansori, Pungmulnori, and Minyo (folk songs). Pansori became definite in the seventeenth century and gained respect over time. It is now considered as the ideal traditional music in Contemporary South Korea. Pansori requires a solo singer as well as a drummer. This type of music contains body language, emotions, and sounds observed in nature. Pungmulnori is traditional Korean percussion music with the sound of drums standing out. As for Minyo, it was enjoyed by commoners while Nongak was played during agrarian festivals. Folk songs were not specific; as in, the features varied among different regions. The most famous folk song of South- and North Korea is "Arirang". The popularity of this song sky-rocketed after it was sung solo at the screening of a silent nationalistic film produced by Na Woongyu in 1926. There are several regional variations of this song.


title: Music of South Korea

text: However, the Joseon Dynasty came to an end after Japan's successful war against China and Russia which ultimately took over the Korean peninsula. Japan then controlled the major levers of politics, economics, and culture in Korea. During this period, the Japanese did not impose gagaku (the Japanese imperial court music) but European art music instead. Western music education soon became a part of the Korean educational curriculum for the elite and included choral singing and playing instruments. Hence, the Japanese and Korean elites embraced Western music; thereby neglecting Gugak. However, to avoid going extinct Gugak adapted the western style of music. In the 1900s, Pansori gave rise to a new genre influenced by western music called Changga (choral song/theater) which gave way to musical theaters and opera. Since Western music was not accessible to the common people, two different cultural groups arose; one where the elite listened to the government-imposed western music and as for the commoners, traditional music. This led to a new generation, often termed as 'modernized', who were accustomed to listening to Western music.


title: Music of South Korea

text: Rock music is said to have spread to Korea from the Eighth United States Army (EUSA) bases after the Korean War. Shin Jung-hyeon, frequently referred to as the "Godfather of Korean Rock," got his start playing popular rock covers for American servicemen in the 1950s, particularly being noted for his take on Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. Shin developed his style of psychedelic rock in the '60s and '70s and recorded albums with several bands, such as the Add 4, the Men, and the Yup Juns, and wrote songs and played on albums for well-known singers, such as Kim Chu Ja and Jang Hyun, and lesser known singers, like Kim Jung Mi. After refusing an order from then-president Park Chung Hee to write a song praising the president, Park banned Shin's music and ultimately imprisoned him for marijuana possession. The imprisonment of Shin slowed the production of Korean rock, but other artists, most notably Sanulrim emerged during the late '70s, before dance music came to dominate Korean popular music in the '80s.


title: Francisco Velázquez

text: Velázquez started playing roller hockey at the age of 4 in Club Atlético Social San Juan as a goalkeeper, following the footsteps of his father, a former goalkeeper of Argentina between 1966 and 1974. By the age of 16 he reached the first division of Argentine hockey. As a senior, he played in his hometown for Social San Juan, Deportivo Union Estudiantil, Concepción Patín Club and Sindicato Empleados de Comercio, in Angola for Primeiro de Agosto, in Italy for Follonica, in Spain for Voltregà and FC Barcelona, in Portugal for Benfica. The last time he represented Argentina was at the 2005 World Championship, as a captain. On 19 February 2010, after four years and a half without practicing and training, the 35 years old Panchito returned to competitive hockey for the Torneo Apertura de San Juan but only for one year so that his children, Francisco and Nazarena, could watch him playing and to put an end to his career at Sindicato, a club where he was later joined by his younger brother Mariano Ernesto Velazquez who had left Follonica.


title: Paan Singh Tomar

text: Upon retiring in 1977, Tomar returned to Bhidosa village. There arose a land dispute between him and his nephews Jandel Singh, Havaldar Singh, and Babbu Singh Tomar. Babbu Singh Tomar was a powerful landowner, who owned seven licensed guns and was the head of the 200-strong extended Tomar family. To solve the dispute, a panchayat (congregational meeting) was held with the collector, where Paan Singh was asked to give ₹3,000 to Babbu Singh Tomar and his siblings, to keep his own land. Tomar obliged, but his own nephew, Balwant Singh Tomar, retaliated for the duplicity. The collector promised to return in 15 days. In the meantime, Babbu Singh Tomar came to Tomar's house and assaulted his 95-year-old mother who was alone in the household at the time. Following Tomar's return, his mother asked him to take revenge and return her izzat (honor) by the morning. Balwant and Tomar went to the fields armed where they found Babbu Singh. Tomar then shot at Babbu Singh, who continued to run for about a kilometer before he collapsed, despite being shot several times. Tomar would later give an interview to a local newspaper in Gwalior, which may have prompted the administration to start taking his case seriously. At that time, there was a price of ₹10,000 on his head. He stated in the interview that he did not want to kill the eight villagers, whose tip-off led to the killing of his elder brother Matadin Singh Tomar. But he could not stop his nephew Balwant, who was Matadin's son.


title: Sea turtle migration

text: Juveniles often reside in coastal feeding grounds, as with green sea turtles and loggerheads. Adult sea turtles can be divided into 3 categories according to their movements. Leatherbacks and olive ridley turtles roam widely and unpredictably before returning to specific breeding sites. Satellite tracking of leatherbacks showed that they tended to stay within relatively food-rich areas of the ocean during their migration. Kemp's ridley sea turtles, loggerheads and flatback sea turtles migrate between breeding areas and a series of coastal foraging areas. Green sea turtles and hawksbill sea turtles shuttle between fixed foraging and nesting sites. Both species of ridley sea turtle nest in large aggregations, arribadas. This is thought to be an anti-predator adaptation — there are simply too many eggs for the predators to consume. One unifying aspect of sea turtle migrations is their ability to return to specific nesting sites over vast areas of ocean year after year. They may return to the beach where they hatched, an ability called natal philopatry; this has been demonstrated in green turtles using mitochondrial DNA analysis.


title: Sea turtle migration

text: The post-nesting migration of adult female green sea turtles from Ascension Island to Brazil has been recorded using satellite transmitters as part of an experiment into their navigation. In addition to the transmitters, some turtles were fitted with magnets which were expected to disrupt any ability to use the Earth's field for navigation. There was no difference in migratory performance between these turtles and turtles which were not carrying magnets, but the experimental design has been criticised. There is strong evidence that green turtles are sensitive to magnetic cues. For example, juvenile green turtles exposed to fields north and south of a capture site (i.e. displaced in geomagnetic but not geographical space) oriented in a direction that would have led them back to the capture site, suggesting that they can use the earth's magnetic field to acquire positional information. Adult turtles also use magnetic cues. Whilst geomagnetic cues may guide navigation over long distances, close to the goal, it is thought that turtles use wind-borne cues emanating from the goal to home in on their target. Juvenile greens can orient using a 'sun compass'. In other words, they can use directional information to determine their headings.


title: Sea turtle migration

text: In regards to the magnetic field hypothesis, there are three main concepts. The concepts include electromagnetic induction, magnetic field chemical reactions, and magnetite. In regards to electromagnetic induction, it is assumed that the sea turtles have electroreceptors. Although evidence has been found in other species such as rays and sharks, no evidence has shown that there are electroreceptors in sea turtles making this hypothesis invalid. A second concept from the experimentation by Irwin involves chemical reactions commonly found in newts and birds. The strength of the magnetic field affects the chemical reactions within the bodies of the newts and birds. The final concept includes the magnetic crystals that form during the magnetic pulses from the Earth's magnetic fields. These magnetic crystals formed by magnetite give the turtles directional information and guides in migration. The magnetite affects the cells of the nervous system of the sea turtle by producing a signal that references the forces of the magnetic field and the direction and magnitude that is applied. If this magnetite is used in the migration, when the Earth's magnetic poles reverse at the dipole moment, the signal that the sea turtle nervous system receives will change the migration direction. Regardless of the hypothesis, hatchling turtles have the ability to determine the direction and inclination angle of which they are swimming with aide from magnetic fields.


title: Sea turtle migration

text: Geomagnetic imprinting is done by the use of inclination angle and field intensity to imprint onto the magnetic fields of the sea turtles natal homes. Imprinting is an innate learning process that is inherited within species to recognize important landmarks and resources. The use of geomagnetic imprinting helps the sea turtles to navigate back in later timelines. This process is not only used in sea turtles, but can also be seen in fish such as Salmo Salar (Atlantic salmon) and Bird migration. This method of navigation is important for female sea turtles, as it has been proven that they will return to their natal beaches to lay their own eggs. Intensity and inclination of the magnetic field depend on latitude, which is helpful in navigating the turtles north or south. This makes it easier for the turtles to follow along the coastline that is most related to their natal beach, ultimately guiding them back. Previous research concluded that returning to the natal beach in order to lay offspring is an advantage towards parasitic resistance and disease, which overall increases the fitness of the turtles.


title: Kentucky Historical Society

text: Members of the public can purchase memberships to the Kentucky Historical Society. The memberships purchased support the efforts of the KHS and give members the benefit of free admission to the history campus and reduced admission prices to KHS events and programs. The KHS is administered by an executive committee and supported by the KHS Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization (nonprofit). There are also options to visit the society in a guided group tour, self-guided touring, or virtual touring. Prices range from $5 to $75 depending on the type of tour chosen. The KHS is home to the major digital humanities project, the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition (CWGK). Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the CWGK is a "freely-accessible online collection of historical documents associated with the chief executives of the state, 1860–1865" that seeks to reconstruct "the lost lives and voices of tens of thousands of Kentuckians who interacted with the office of the governor during the war years" through some 40,000 related documents. After an early access version was published, the work of the CWGK was celebrated in a June 2017 symposium that featured a keynote by renowned historian and digital humanist Edward L. Ayers. Later that same year, in August 2017, the CWGK's annotation tech was featured at the international Digital Humanities 2017 conference in Montreal, Canada.


title: American studies

text: Until the mid-2000s, the use of American for this multidisciplinary field was widely defended. In 1998, Janice Radway argued, "Does the perpetuation of the particular name, American, in the title of the field ... support the notion that such a whole exists even in the face of powerful work that tends to question its presumed coherence? Does the field need to be reconfigured conceptually?" She concluded, "the name American studies will have to be retained." In 2001, Wai Chee Dimmock argued that the field "is largely founded on this fateful adjective. governs the domain of inquiry we construct, the range of questions we entertain, the kind of evidence we take as significant. The very professionalism of the field rests on the integrity and the legitimacy of this founding concept." In 2002, Heinz Ickstadt argued that American studies "should accept its name as its limitation and its boundary." In 2006, Dimmock affirmed that the field "does stand to be classified apart, as a nameable and adducible unit."


title: American studies

text: European centers for American studies include the British Association for American Studies, the Center for American Studies in Brussels, Belgium, and most notably the John F. Kennedy-Institute for North American Studies in Berlin, Germany. Other centers for American studies in Germany include the Bavarian America-Academy, the University of Munich, the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) and the Center for North American Studies (Zentrum für Nordamerikaforschung or ZENAF) at Goethe University Frankfurt. Graduate studies in the field of North American studies can also be undertaken at the University of Cologne, which works together in joint partnership with the North American studies program at the University of Bonn. American Studies Leipzig at the University of Leipzig is a center for American studies on the territory of former East Germany. Founded in 1992, the Center for American Studies at the University of Southern Denmark now offers a graduate program in American studies. In the Netherlands the University of Groningen and the Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen offer a complete undergraduate and graduate program in American studies. The University of Amsterdam, the University of Leiden and the University of Utrecht only offer a graduate program in American studies. Both the University of Sussex and the University of Nottingham in England offer both a number of postgraduate and undergraduate programs. In Sweden, the Swedish Institute for North American Studies at Uppsala University offers a minor in American studies. In Slovakia, the University of Presov and Pavol Jozef Safarik University offer a complete undergraduate and graduate program in American studies combined with British studies. The Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library also offers a range of events and fellowships, as well as promoting the American collections held at the British Library.


title: Battle of Irish Bend

text: On the morning of April 13, 1863, Grover's division landed in the vicinity of Franklin and scattered Confederate troops attempting to stop them from disembarking. That night Grover ordered the division to cross Bayou Teche and prepare for an attack towards Franklin, Louisiana, at dawn. Meanwhile, however, Major General Richard Taylor reacted, feeling the obvious threat to his rear. He started withdrawing his forces from Fort Bisland, and his advance guard arrived quickly. On the morning of April 14, Taylor and his men were at Nerson's Woods, around a mile and a half above Franklin. As Grover's lead brigade marched out a few miles, it found Taylor's men on its right and skirmishing began. The fighting became intense; the Confederates attacked, forcing the Federal soldiers to fall back. The gunboat Diana arrived and anchored the Confederate right flank on the Teche. Still, Grover's men outnumbered the Confederates and when he paused to deploy his full force, Taylor withdrew rather than risk a pitched battle against superior numbers. Grover's men had taken the strategic position they sought. This victory, along with the one at Fort Bisland, two days earlier, assured the success of the expedition into west Louisiana.


title: Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia

text: Olga was raised at the Gatchina Palace outside Saint Petersburg. Olga's relationship with her mother, Empress Marie, the daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark, was strained and distant from childhood. In contrast, she and her father were close. He died when she was 12, and her brother Nicholas became emperor. In 1901, at 19, she married Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg, who was privately believed by family and friends to be homosexual. Their marriage of 15 years remained unconsummated, and Peter at first refused Olga's request for a divorce. The couple led separate lives and their marriage was eventually annulled by the Emperor in October 1916. The following month Olga married cavalry officer Nikolai Kulikovsky, with whom she had fallen in love several years before. During the First World War, Olga served as an army nurse and was awarded a medal for personal gallantry. At the downfall of the Romanovs in the Russian Revolution of 1917, she fled with her husband and children to Crimea, where they lived under the threat of assassination. Her brother Nicholas and his family were shot and bayoneted to death by revolutionaries.


text: Their engagement, announced in May 1901, surprised family and friends, as Peter had shown no prior interest in women, and members of society assumed he was homosexual. At the age of 19, on 9 August 1901, Olga married 33-year-old Peter. After the celebration the newlyweds left for the Oldenburg palace on the Field of Mars. Olga spent her wedding night alone in tears, while her husband left for a gambling club, returning the next morning. Their marriage remained unconsummated, and Olga suspected that Peter's ambitious mother had pushed him into proposing. Biographer Patricia Phenix thought Olga may have accepted his proposal to gain independence from her own mother, the Dowager Empress, or to avoid marriage into a foreign court. The couple initially lived with her in-laws Alexander Petrovich and Eugénie Maximilianovna of Oldenburg. The arrangement was not harmonious, as Peter's parents, both well known for their philanthropic work, berated their only son for his laziness. Olga took a dislike to her mother-in-law; although Eugénie, a close friend of the Dowager Empress, gave her daughter-in-law many gifts, including a ruby tiara that Napoleon had given as a present to Joséphine de Beauharnais. A few weeks after the wedding Olga and her husband travelled to Biarritz, France, from where they sailed to Sorrento, Italy, on a yacht loaned to them by King Edward VII of Great Britain.


text: From 1904 to 1906 Duke Peter had an appointment to a military post in Tsarskoye Selo, a complex of palaces just south of Saint Petersburg. In Tsarskoye Selo, the Grand Duchess grew close to her brother Nicholas and his family, who lived at the Alexander Palace near her own residence. Olga prized her connection to the Tsar's four daughters. From 1906 to 1914, Olga took her nieces to parties and engagements in Saint Petersburg, without their parents, every weekend throughout the winter. She especially took a liking to the youngest of Nicholas's daughters, her god-daughter Anastasia, whom she called Shvipsik ("little one"). Through her brother and sister-in-law, Olga met Rasputin, a self-styled holy man who purported to have healing powers. Although she made no public criticisms of Rasputin's association with the imperial family, she was unconvinced of his supposed powers and privately disliked him. As Olga grew close to her brother's family, her relationship with her other surviving brother, Michael, deteriorated. To her and Nicholas's horror, Michael eloped with his mistress, a twice-divorced commoner, and communication between Michael and the rest of the family essentially ceased.


text: Public unrest over the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 and demands for political reform increased in the early years of the twentieth century. At Epiphany 1905, a band of revolutionaries fired live rounds at the Winter Palace from the Peter and Paul Fortress. Olga and the Dowager Empress were showered with glass splinters from a smashed window, but remained unharmed. Three weeks later, on "Bloody Sunday" , Cossack troops killed at least 92 people during a demonstration, and a month later Olga's uncle, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, was assassinated. Uprisings occurred throughout the country, and parts of the navy mutinied. Olga supported the appointment of the liberal Pyotr Stolypin as prime minister, and he embarked on a programme of gradual reform, but in 1911 he was assassinated. The public unrest, Michael's elopement, and Olga's sham marriage placed her under strain, and in 1912, while visiting England with her mother, she suffered a nervous breakdown. Tsarina Alexandra was also unwell with fatigue, concerned by the poor health of her hemophiliac son, Alexei. Olga stood in for the Tsarina at public events and accompanied her brother on a tour of the interior, while the Tsarina remained at home.


text: The Romanovs isolated in Crimea knew little of the fate of the Tsar and his family. Nicholas, Alexandra, and their children were originally held at their official residence, the Alexander Palace, but the Provisional government under Alexander Kerensky relocated them to Tobolsk, Siberia. In February 1918, most of the imperial family at Ai-Todor was moved to another estate at Djulber, where Grand Dukes Nicholas and Peter were already under house arrest. Olga and her husband were left at Ai-Todor. The entire Romanov family in Crimea was condemned to death by the Yalta revolutionary council, but the executions were delayed by political rivalry between the Yalta and Sevastopol Soviets. By March 1918, the Central Power of Germany had advanced on Crimea, and the revolutionary guards were replaced by German ones. In November 1918, the German forces were informed that their nation had lost the war, and they evacuated homewards. Allied forces took over the Crimean ports, in support of the loyalist White Army, which allowed the surviving members of the Romanov family time to escape abroad. The Dowager Empress and, at her insistence, most of her family and friends were evacuated by the British warship HMS Marlborough. Nicholas II had already been shot dead and the family assumed, correctly, that his wife and children had also been killed.


text: Olga and her husband refused to leave Russia and decided to move to the Caucasus, which the White Army had cleared of revolutionary Bolsheviks. An imperial bodyguard, Timofei Yatchik, guided them to his hometown, the large Cossack village of Novominskaya. In a rented five-room farmhouse there, Olga gave birth to her second son, Guri Nikolaevich, on 23 April 1919. He was named after a friend of hers, Guri Panayev, who was killed while serving in the Akhtyrsky Regiment during World War I. In November 1919, the family set out on what would be their last journey through Russia. Just ahead of revolutionary troops, they escaped to Novorossiysk and took refuge in the residence of the Danish consul, Thomas Schytte, who informed them of the Dowager Empress's safe arrival in Denmark. After a brief stay with the consul, the family was shipped to a refugee camp on the island of Büyükada in the Dardanelles Strait near Istanbul, Turkey, where Olga, her husband and children shared three rooms with eleven other adults. After two weeks, they were evacuated to Belgrade in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes where she was visited by Prince Regent Alexander. Alexander offered the Grand Duchess and her family a permanent home, but Olga was summoned to Denmark by her mother. On Good Friday 1920, Olga and her family arrived in Copenhagen. They lived with the Dowager Empress, at first at the Amalienborg Palace and then at the royal estate of Hvidøre, where Olga acted as her mother's secretary and companion. It was a difficult arrangement at times. The Dowager Empress insisted on having Olga at her beck and call and found Olga's young sons too boisterous. Having never reconciled with the idea of her daughter's marriage to a commoner, she was cold towards Kulikovsky, rarely allowing him in her presence. At formal functions, Olga was expected to accompany her mother alone.


text: ... she did not strike me as an out-and-out impostor. Her brusqueness warred against it. A cunning impostor would have done all she could to ingratiate herself ... But Mrs. Anderson's manner would have put anyone off. My own conviction is that it all started with some unscrupulous people who hoped they might lay their hands on at least a share of the fabulous and utterly non-existent Romanov fortune ... I had a feeling she was 'briefed,' as it were, but far from perfectly. The mistakes she made could not all be attributed to lapses of memory. For instance, she had a scar on one of her fingers and she kept telling everybody that it had been crushed because of a footman shutting the door of a landau too quickly. And at once I remembered the real incident. It was Marie, her elder sister, who got her hand hurt rather badly, and it did not happen in a carriage but on board the imperial train. Obviously someone, having heard something of the incident, had passed a garbled version of it to Mrs. Anderson.


text: Conceivably, Olga was initially either open to the possibility that Anderson was Anastasia or unable to make up her mind. Anderson's biographer and supporter Peter Kurth claimed that Olga wrote to the Danish ambassador, Herluf Zahle, at the end of October 1925: "My feeling is that she is not the one she believes—but one can't say she is not as a fact". Within a month she had made up her mind. She wrote to a friend, "There is no resemblance, and she is undoubtedly not A." Olga sent Anderson a scarf and five letters, which were used by Anderson's supporters to claim that Olga recognized Anderson as Anastasia. Olga later said she sent the gift and letters "out of pity", and called the claims "a complete fabrication". When Olga refused to recognize Anderson as Anastasia publicly and published a statement denying any resemblance in a Danish newspaper, Anderson's supporters, Harriet von Rathlef and Gleb Botkin, claimed that Olga was acting on instructions received from her sister Xenia by telegram, which Olga denied in private letters and sworn testimony. She told her official biographer, "I never received any such telegram." The telegram was never produced by Anderson's supporters, and it has never been found among any of the papers relating to the case. Xenia said,


text: Neutral Denmark was invaded by Nazi Germany on 9 April 1940 and was occupied for the remainder of World War II. Food shortages, communication restrictions, and transport closures followed. As Olga's sons, Tikhon and Guri, served as officers in the Danish Army, they were interned as prisoners of war, but their imprisonment in a Copenhagen hotel lasted less than two months. Tikhon was imprisoned for a further month in 1943 after being arrested on charges of espionage. Other Russian émigrés, keen to fight against the Soviets, enlisted in the German forces. Despite her sons' internment and her mother's Danish origins, Olga was implicated in her compatriots' collusion with German forces, as she continued to meet and extend help to Russian émigrés fighting against communism. On 4 May 1945, German forces in Denmark surrendered to the British. When economic and social conditions for Russian exiles failed to improve, General Pyotr Krasnov wrote to the Grand Duchess, detailing the wretched conditions affecting Russian immigrants in Denmark. She in turn asked Prince Axel of Denmark to help them, but her request was refused.


title: William Polk (colonel)

text: The country of Phocion and Leonidas may again be free; and some future Phidias, catching inspiration from the sublime ruins around him, make the marble tell to posterity the heroic actions of his contemporaries. America may justly glory in her Washington, the founder of her liberty, the friend of man. History and tradition are explored in vain for a parallel to his character. In other illustrious men, each possessed some shining quality, that was the foundation of his fame; in Washington, all the virtues were united- force of body, vigor of mind, ardent patriotism, contempt for riches, gentleness of disposition, courage and conduct in war. In the annals of modern greatness he stands alone, and noblest names of antiquity lose their luster in his presence. Born the benefactor of mankind, he united all the qualities necessary to an illustrious career. Nature made him great; he made himself virtuous. Called by his country to the defense of her liberties, the triumphantly vindicated the rights of man, and laid in the principles of freedom the foundations of a great republic. Twice invested with the supreme magistracy by the unanimous voice of the free people, he surpassed in the cabinet the glories of the field; and, voluntarily resigning the scepter of the sword, retired to the private shades of life.


title: William Polk (colonel)

text: To those who did not witness, history has presented a faithful record of your disintereste and persevering services in our cause; and all have felt a correspondent interest in your life and fortunes, amidst the great events which have agitated Europe, since your return thither. They have mourned over your personal sufferings, but they have been consoled, by the reflection, that no adverse fortune, could make you cease to be the steady and incorruptible friend of Rational Liberty, and the empire of laws; and by the certainty, that the same just views of human society and strong benevolence of heart, that governed your honorable career in America, would preside over it, in Europe; and enshrine you in the affections of all the enlightened friends of man. The excellence of the government you assisted in establishing, would be manifest to all nations could they witness its practicable operation in securing the happiness and elevating the character of its citizens, in giving a useful direction to their physical powers, and developing their moral energies.


title: William Polk (colonel)

text: He was a contemporary and personal friend of Andrew Jackson, not less heroic in war, and quite as sagacious, and more successful in private life. It is known that Colonel Polk greatly advanced the interests and enhanced the wealth of the hero of New Orleans by information furnished him from his field notes as a surveyor, and in directing Jackson in his selection of valuable tracts of land in the State of Tennessee; that to Samuel Polk, the father of the President (James K. Polk), he gave the agency of renting and selling his (William's) immense and valuable estate in lands in the most fertile section of that state; that as President of the Bank of North Carolina, he made Jacob Johnson, the father of President Andrew Johnson, its first porter; so that of the three native North Carolinians who entered the White House through the gates of Tennessee, all were indebted alike for the benefactions, and for promotion to a more favorable position in life, to the same individual, Colonel William Polk.


title: Alta Bates Summit Medical Center

text: In 1904, Dr. LeRoy Francis Herrick, a graduate of the Kentucky College of Medicine , purchased a Berkeley mansion known as the Hume House, located on the same block upon which the current Herrick Campus is situated, between Dwight and Channing Ways, and Milvia and Grove (now Martin Luther King Way). He converted the large home into a 25-bed hospital which he chose to name for President Theodore Roosevelt whom he admired. (President Roosevelt was an early proponent of a government-supported national public health system.) The Roosevelt Hospital was expanded to 50 beds by 1924, and renamed Berkeley General Hospital. In 1932, Dr. Herrick died, and his heirs converted the hospital into a non-profit corporation. By 1934, the hospital had 100 beds. The original Roosevelt Hospital building was demolished to accommodate additional wings and facilities which were added over time. In 1945, the hospital was again renamed Herrick Memorial Hospital, in honor of its founder. Further improvements and expansions continued through the ensuing decades.


title: Business rule

text: A business rule defines or constrains some aspect of a business. It may be expressed to specify an action to be taken when certain conditions are true or may be phrased so it can only resolve to either true or false. Business rules are intended to assert business structure or to control or influence the behavior of the business. Business rules describe the operations, definitions and constraints that apply to an organization. Business rules can apply to people, processes, corporate behavior and computing systems in an organization, and are put in place to help the organization achieve its goals. For example, a business rule might state that no credit check is to be performed on return customers. Other examples of business rules include requiring a rental agent to disallow a rental tenant if their credit rating is too low, or requiring company agents to use a list of preferred suppliers and supply schedules. While a business rule may be informal or even unwritten, documenting the rules clearly and making sure that they don't conflict is a valuable activity. When carefully managed, rules can be used to help the organization to better achieve goals, remove obstacles to market growth, reduce costly mistakes, improve communication, comply with legal requirements, and increase customer loyalty.


title: Herbie Kronowitz

text: Kronowitz defeated fellow Jewish boxer Harold Green before a riveted crowd of around 12,000 on June 14, 1947, at Ebbet's Field in New York. Ebbets Field, the beloved home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, was the inevitable choice for the bout that drew a sizable crowd from Brooklyn's Jewish community. In a ten-round unanimous decision, Kronowitz took what some reporters called the "Middleweight Championship of Brooklyn" as both participants were well known Brooklyn natives. It was a close fight, though the points decision reflected the official's agreement that Kronowitz had thrown more punches. Kronowitz won the bout largely by his long range boxing, whereas Green dominated the infighting. With an inferior reach, Green dominated the infighting, but Kronowitz put up an excellent defense, using his reach to confine most of Greens well-connected blows to his midsection. Though Kronowitz had only an inch advantage in height over Green, he seemed to use his slight reach advantage effectively and succeeded in keeping most of the fighting at long range. His left was his most effective weapon against his opponent. As in other bouts, Kronowitz was able to use his longer reach to deliver harder punches, particularly at long range.


title: Herbie Kronowitz

text: On October 28, 1949, Kronowitz faced Jimmy Flood losing in a unanimous ten-round decision before a crowd of 13,000, who had come to see a vicious feature fight featuring featherweight Sandy Saddler. It was Kronowitz's last appearance at New York's Madison Square Garden. Flood, at only 20, had a large and vocal following in New York. With a constant two-fisted body attack, Flood wore down his opponent as the boxers slugged away in a give and take fashion through most of the fight. Though both boxers were very near the 160 middleweight mark, Kronowitz was seven years older than his rival, and the constant battering he had taken in his ten years as a professional was likely the critical factor in the outcome of the fight. The audience responded to the unanimous decision with both boos and cheering. Flood was on a considerable winning streak before facing Kronowitz and had lost only one bout in his busy two years of professional fighting. He was far younger and had fought far fewer battles than the ring veteran Kronowitz.


title: IWRG Rey del Ring

text: Originally the Rey del Ring tournament was a 30-man elimination match, starting with four wrestlers in the ring, then when a wrestler was eliminated through pinfall, submission, count out or disqualification another participant was added until 29 men had been eliminated. In 2008 IWRG changed the format to be more like World Wrestling Entertainment's Royal Rumble match; two men start in the ring and a new wrestler joins the match at a specific time interval. Unlike the Royal Rumble throwing a wrestler out of the ring did not result in elimination. The first tournament, the 2002 Rey del Ring was held on June 6, 2002, in IWRG's primary arena, Arena Naucalpan in Naucalpan, State of Mexico, Mexico. The tournament was won by Último Vampiro when he eliminated Bombero Infernal as the last participant. In 2004 the winner of that year's Rey del Ring tournament was also awarded the vacant IWRG Intercontinental Middleweight Championship; the match saw Fantasy eliminate Avisman as the last participant to win the tournament and the championship. Cerebro Negro won both the 2005 and 2006 tournaments, making him the only person to win the tournament twice. In 2007 the Rey del Ring was won by Yamato, the first non-Mexican to win the tournament. Yamato worked for IWRG through a deal struck with Japanese wrestling promotion All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) that allowed AJPW to send young wrestlers to Mexico to gain in-ring experience. The 2008 Rey del Ring was won by Scorpio, Jr. while the 2009 Rey del Ring tournament was won by Puerto Rican Ricky Cruzz. The two Rey del Ring winners would later team up to win the IWRG Intercontinental Tag Team Championship from Los Junior Dinamitas . IWRG did not hold a Rey del Ring tournament in 2010 and never gave an official explanation as to why not. In 2011 IWRG introduced the Rey del Ring Championship to be awarded to the winner of the 2011 Rey del Ring tournament winner El Pantera. Pantera would vacate the Championship on the date of the 2012 Rey del Ring tournament, allowing tournament winner Oficial Factor to become the new champion as well. After Oficial 911 won the 2013 Rey del Ring tournament Oficial Factor handed over the championship belt to 911.


title: IWRG Rey del Ring

text: El Pantera became the first ever Rey del Ring Champion as a result of winning the 2011 Rey del Ring tournament on June 16, 2011 when he eliminated Último Gladiador as the last tournament participant. He was awarded with an actual championship belt, to be work for IWRG matches and defended when appropriate between tournaments. Pantera made the first ever championship defense on July 10, 2011 when he successfully defeated Último Gladiador to retain the championship. The championship was vacated for the 2012 Rey del Ring tournament so that the winner of the tournament could become the new Rey del Ring Champion at the same time. Oficial Factor won the tournament, lastly eliminating Hijo del Pirata Morgan to win the Championship. on August 12, 2012 Hijo del Pirata Morgan became the first person to win the Rey del Ring Championship outside of the tournament when he defeated Oficial Factor. He held the championship for a total of 42 days, until September 23, 2012 when Oficial Factor regained the championship. Factor won the title in a Relevos Suicidas match that also included Trauma I and Mascara Ano 2000 Jr., and as a result of his victory Factor also won the IWRG Junior de Juniors Championship from Hijo del Pirata Morgan.


title: Walnut twig beetle

text: Pityophthorus juglandis can easily be distinguished from other members of its genus. Curtis Utley, a researcher at Colorado State University, elaborates on these differences stating, "Among these differences there are the 4 to 6 concentric rows of asperities on the prothorax, usually broken and overlapping at the median line. The declivity at the end of the wing covers is steep, very shallowly bisulcate, and at the apex it is generally flattened with small granules." The walnut twig beetles' small size is common for its genus. Adult beetles average between 1.5 and 1.9 millimeters in length. Although little is known about the life-cycle of the walnut twig beetle, during experimentation with the beetle in a controlled environment, the lifespan of one generation of walnut twig beetles was seven weeks after logs of black walnut, Juglans nigra, were harvested from the wild in May, marking what scientists think is the beginning of the feeding season of the walnut twig beetle. Gatherings of the beetle in sections of the walnut tree are known as galleries. The outward appearance of the walnut above these galleries seemed normal except for small beetle entrance holes. In later stages of decline, beetle entrance holes and galleries were found scattered every 2 to 5 centimeters, essentially crippling the tree.


title: Walnut twig beetle

text: The walnut twig beetle is not the first bark beetle to be associated with a species of Geosmithia. The deaths of black walnut trees associated with the walnut twig beetle are not caused by the beetle but instead G. morbida. The origin of G. morbida is not known, but experts strongly believe that its emergence is connected to the walnut tree beetle and the Arizona walnut tree, and was not caused by the transfer of the disease from another area but instead by an evolutionary change in a similar species of fungi that inhabited closely to where the beetle was first identified. The fungus and beetle have developed a symbiotic relationship in which the fungus allows itself to be eaten by the beetle in return for a ride to the fungus's next host. The walnut twig beetle's hard shell covers two wings, and because the beetle can fly, G. morbida is reliant on the walnut twig beetle to be spread across distances, making the fungus entomochoric, or completely dependent upon the walnut twig beetle for dispersal, and only found in habitats containing the beetle.


title: Walnut twig beetle

text: Human intervention in disturbances related to tree extinction because of infectious disease or invasive wildlife has historically been costly and therefore limited at best. Pruning a tree is one way humans combat fungi spread by bark beetles, and has been the reported course of action to take when dealing with similar fungi such as the Dutch elm disease. Bark beetles usually feast on limbs no greater than 10 centimetres (3.9 inches) in diameter, spreading Dutch elm disease to a place that is still manageable to prune. However, the walnut twig beetle is not limited to attacking the limbs. Because the beetle can attack the trunk, pruning is rendered useless. In 2010, an outbreak of both G. morbida and the walnut twig beetle was identified in the community of Knoxville, Tennessee, threatening over 27 million black walnuts in Tennessee alone. The establishment of quarantine in the area was enacted, denoting a most drastic need to stop the spread of the disease. Since then several other states have enacted an exterior state quarantine in order to stop the spread of these pests into their states. Currently the most successful cure for G. morbida is the insertion of sterile agar into the site of the infection. However, since the magnitude of the number of holes in one tree bored by the walnut tree beetle is so great, this method does not seem to be an effective solution either. Community officials claim that the best thing people can do is not transport firewood, limiting the human spread of the disease.


title: 1951 Formula One season

text: The French Grand Prix, given the honorary designation of the European Grand Prix this year, was held at the very fast 4.8 miles (7.7 km) Reims-Gueux circuit (a circuit only two mph slower than Spa) deep in northern French champagne country played the host for an exciting race. Fangio, on pole again, was beaten off the line by 3rd-placed qualifier Ascari, with 2nd-placed qualifier Farina making a terrible start and dropping to 11th. On this triangular public road circuit, made up entirely of long straights, slight kinks, and slow, angular corners saw Ascari retire his car with a broken gearbox and Fangio nursing a sick car. Farina pushed very hard and eventually took the lead. Argentine José Froilán González was 2nd in a Ferrari, and 53-year old pre-war great Luigi Fagioli in an Alfa was 3rd in a one-off appearance this year. González was chasing Farina very hard, but Farina's car developed magneto problems and had to fall back, which put González in the lead, with Fagioli in 2nd. However, during both the leader's pitstops, as was commonplace in Grand Prix racing up until 1957, when it was banned – González handed his car over to Ascari, and Fagioli exchanged his healthy car with Fangio's mechanically unhealthy car, so Ascari and Fangio were back in 1st and 2nd where they had been before. But Fangio took advantage of Ascari's brake problems on his Ferrari (the Reims-Gueux circuit was very hard on engines and brakes) to win a race that holds the record for farthest racing distance ever completed for a Grand Prix, 373 miles (600 km). Fagioli, finishing 22 laps down and furious over having to swap cars with Fangio, quit Grand Prix racing on the spot. The veteran Italian would die after crashing a Lancia during a sportscar race at Monaco in 1952.


title: 1951 Formula One season

text: The first ever Formula One Spanish Grand Prix, held at the Pedralbes street circuit in Barcelona, took place four weeks after the Goodwood Trophy race. The Ferrari and Alfa Romeo teams each ran four cars, with Ferrari fielding Ascari, Gigi Villoresi, Froilan González, and Piero Taruffi and Alfa Romeo running Fangio, Giuseppe Farina, Felice Bonetto, and Baron Emanuel de Graffenried. Ascari was fastest in practice and shared the front row of the 4–3–4 grid with Fangio, González, and Farina. Behind them were Villoresi, de Graffenried and Taruffi. Ascari led from the start, with González chasing, but by the end of the first lap, González had dropped to fifth behind Farina, Fangio, and Bonetto. Fangio quickly passed Farina and took the lead from Ascari on the fourth lap. As Fangio sailed away to victory, Ferrari's challenge fell apart along with its tires – the team having opted to use smaller wheels than normal. By the time the team had sorted out the problem, Ascari was two laps behind. Fangio duly won the race and his first of five championships, with González finishing second and Farina third.


title: Ima Ani Lo Rotze Lehigamel

text: The album's songs were written first by Dothan writing the lyrics, then singing them down the telephone to Avramov, who would write and play the chords back to Dothan. All the songs took a week to write, and "Sheled Umlal" was the first song written for the album. Ima Ani Lo Rotze Lehigamel was recorded after more than a year of live shows, and took about 100 hours of studio time to finish. "Tzaleket Ktana" had previously been recorded in 1980 at Kolinor, and "Sheat Haze'evim" in January 1981 at Triton, both with Uzi Binder on Lead Guitar, then released as 12-inch DJ-only promo singles, though due to Binder's sacking for being too virtuoso they were re-recorded for the album. On the cover painting there is a visual gap between Goldberg and Efrat; this was originally where Binder had been painted when he was still a member of the band. "Makom Belibech", which backed the original version of "Tzaleket Ktana", was not re-recorded for inclusion on the album, though both were included in the 2002 box-set Hakufsa.


title: USS Freedom (LCS-1)

text: Freedom left for a 10-month deployment to Singapore, in March 2013. On 11 March 2013, Freedom became the first LCS to reach Hawaii. On 16 March, while en route to Singapore, the ship briefly lost power when one of the diesel engines shut down. On 18 April, Freedom arrived at the Changi Naval Base in Singapore, set to participate in joint military exercises. On 18–19 May, Freedom participated in the Republic of Singapore Navy's Open House 2013 at Changi Naval Base. Visitors to the Open House were allowed to board and visit Freedom. On 21 May, Freedom's first venture from Singapore harbor was cut short by another equipment failure, followed on 20 July 2013, by another breakdown requiring a return to port. The frequent breakdowns found the crew short of the Navy's sleep requirement, even with the maximum possible core crew and help from contractors and the mission module crew. Although billed as a trip for training and international cooperation exercises, Freedom conducted standard patrols while in the South China Sea. Despite suffering several breakdowns, the deployment was deemed a success from a research and development platform standpoint; while deployed for 10 months, the ship had 70 percent availability, on par with most other forward deployed ships in the fleet.


title: Komainu

text: In Asia, the lion was popularly believed to have the power to repel evil, and for this reason it was habitually used to guard gates and doors. The Komainu strongly resemble Chinese guardian lions and in fact originate from Tang dynasty China. The Chinese guardian lions are believed to have been influenced by Asiatic lion pelts and lion depictions introduced through trade from either the Middle East or India, countries where the lion existed and was a symbol of strength. During its transportation along the Silkroad, however, the symbol changed, acquiring a distinctive look. The first lion statue in India appears around the 3rd century BC on top of a column erected by King Ashoka. The tradition later arrived in China where it developed into the guardian lion that was later exported to Korea, Japan, and Okinawa. During the Nara period (710–794), as in the rest of Asia, the pair always consisted of two lions. Used only indoors until the 14th century, they were made mainly of wood. During the Heian period , for example, wooden or metal pairs were employed as weights and door-stops, while at the Imperial Palace they were used to support screens or folding screens.


title: MIRA Ltd.

text: After World War Two, the UK car industry was finding it difficult to export to countries where it formerly had little trouble finding markets for its wide range of cars. It was decided by the government to pool the research resources of UK car manufacturers into one site to reduce costs and possibly find new technological advances sooner that could be incorporated into all ranges of UK vehicle makes. The principal auto-makers were located in the Birmingham area, apart from Vauxhall which had its factory in Luton and Ford which by now was located at Dagenham to the east of London. The Motor Industry Research institution under its director Dr Albert Fogg (who would later become Engineering Chief at British Leyland) therefore looked for a location that was reasonably accessible from all these locations, and the site near Nuneaton fulfilled that criterion. The facilities became available to MIRA member companies in October 1948, though at this stage the test tracks consisted only of disused runways. They were finally opened on 28 April 1949 by Dr Fogg who used explosives to cut the ceremonial tape. Facilities were nevertheless developed under Dr Fogg and Professor Robert Macmillan who took over the directorship from Fogg in 1964. Such examples include the half mile Belgian Pavé road used in vehicle tests, completed in 1950.


title: 2nd/10th Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery

text: 2nd Field Regiment – Arguably until 2013 the oldest artillery unit in Australia, being directly descended from the Royal Victoria Volunteer Artillery Regiment which was formed in the Melbourne metropolitan area on 1 January 1856 by redesignation of the Victoria Volunteer Rifle Regiment, raised on 30 November 1854. It became the Victorian Brigade, Australian Field Artillery, in 1903 and in 1921 formed II. Brigade, Australian Field Artillery, later the 2nd Field Artillery Brigade, perpetuating the unit of the same name that had served at Gallipoli and on the Western Front during the Great War. It became 2nd Field Regiment in early 1942, deploying operationally in New Guinea and Bougainville during 1943–1945, and disbanding in 1946. In 1948, the regiment was raised again as part of the CMF in the 3rd Division in Victoria. In 1952, the regiment was at full strength and located at Batman Avenue with S Battery at Warragul. This latter battery later transferred to 31st Medium Regiment RAA. The regiment was amalgamated with 15th Field Regiment in 1975 to become 2nd/15th Field Regiment with elements at Batman Avenue, Frankston and Dandenong. In 1988, the 3rd Division Royal Australian Artillery Band was incorporated into 2nd/15th Field Regiment.


text: 8th Medium Regiment – descends from the oldest Victorian volunteer unit, first raised in September 1854 in Geelong as a Volunteer Rifle Corps and converted to artillery as the 2nd Brigade, Royal Victoria Volunteer Artillery Regiment in 1862. It formed two companies of the Australian Garrison Artillery in 1903 but these were relocated to Williamstown between 1925 and 1929. In 1938 the unit was reformed at Geelong as 4th Anti-Aircraft Battery RAA(M). In 1948 this unit was perpetuated as Regimental Headquarters and P Battery, 2nd Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment RAA, being converted to 2nd Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment RAA in 1951 and having the title (City of Geelong) conferred in 1953. In 1955 it was renumbered 8th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment RAA (City of Geelong Regiment). In 1957 the Regiment absorbed elements of 38th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment RAA (City of Hamilton Regiment) to form 8th Medium Regiment with RHQ at Geelong and elements at Warrnambool and Colac. In 1960 the Regiment was absorbed into 10th Medium Regiment, forming P and R batteries of that regiment. 8th Medium Regiment was retained at nil strength on the Order of Battle for inclusion in the Combat Support Group, 3rd Division, and RHQ was reformed at Holsworthy, New South Wales, in 1969 as a sub-unit of the Australian Regular Army by redesignation of RHQ 19th Composite Regiment RAA. 8th Medium Regiment amalgamated with 12th Field Regiment in 1973 to form 8th/12th Medium Regiment RAA, currently 8th/12th Regiment RAA.


text: 15th Field Regiment – raised as XV. Brigade, Australian Field Artillery, at Williamstown in 1921 from the 7th Australian Garrison Artillery which had its origins in the Williamstown and Harbour Trust batteries of garrison artillery raised in 1856 and 1885 respectively. It perpetuated the 15th Field Artillery Brigade which served on the Western Front during the Great War. In 1922 the greater part of the brigade was relocated to the Albert Rd depot at South Melbourne and the whole brigade was concentrated at Batman Ave, Melbourne, by late 1935. It was redesignated 15th Field Regiment RAA in 1941, serving in Western Australia under command of the 4th Aust Division until its disbandment in 1943. In 1952 15th Light Regiment RAA was raised at Sale from a squadron of 8th/13th Victorian Mounted Rifles, later expanding to Bairnsdale and Traralgon. In 1957 the Regiment was disbanded; elements at Sale, Bairnsdale and Traralgon were absorbed by 31st Medium Regiment which was redesignated 15th Field Regiment with Regimental Headquarters and one battery at Dandenong, and two batteries spread between Sale, Bairnsdale, Warragul and Traralgon. In 1962 the Regiment was granted the title (City of Dandenong and Gippsland) and by 1965 was located at Dandenong and Frankston. In 1975 it amalgamated with 2nd Field Regiment to form 2nd/15th Field Regiment.


text: 10th Medium Regiment – raised as X. Brigade, Australian Field Artillery, in 1921 at Albert Rd, South Melbourne, perpetuating the 10th Field Artillery Brigade that had served on the Western Front during the Great War. It was redesignated 10th Field Regiment in 1941, serving in Western Australia with the 4th Aust Division before being disbanded in late 1943. In 1948 it was reformed at Batman Ave, Melbourne, relocating to Railway Parade, Frankston, about 1954. In 1957 the Regiment was redesignated 10th Medium Regiment with RHQ and one battery at Frankston, the 19th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment (City of Caulfield) at Ripponlea was absorbed as a second battery, and the personnel of 4th Medium Regiment and 22nd Field Regiment (Self-Propelled) at Brighton formed the third battery. RHQ relocated to Brighton in 1958. In 1960 the Regiment absorbed 8th Medium Regiment to comprise RHQ at Brighton and batteries at Geelong, Frankston, and Warrnambool/Colac. In 1961 however, the Brighton and Frankston elements amalgamated as Q Battery, 2nd Field Regiment; RHQ and Q Battery, 10th Medium Regiment, were reformed in Geelong, with R Battery at Warrnambool. The Warrnambool element transferred to the Royal Australian Infantry in 1965 and the third battery was reformed in Geelong. In 1991 the Regiment amalgamated with 2nd/15th Field Regiment to form 2nd/10th Medium Regiment with 37th and 39th Medium batteries amalgamating to form 38th Medium Battery.


title: 2020–21 Russian Premier League

text: The 13th and 14th Premier League teams will play the 4th and 3rd FNL 2020–21 teams respectively in two (home-and-away) playoff games with the winners securing Premier League spots for the 2021–22 season. In case one of the Premier League teams that finish 13th and 14th will not pass licensing for the 2021–22 Premier League season, the other Premier League club will remain in the league, and the 3rd and 4th FNL teams will play each other in a two-game playoff for the remaining spot. In case one of the FNL teams that finish 3rd and 4th will not pass licensing for the 2021–22 Premier League season, the team that finished Premier League in 13th place will remain in the league, and the team that finished 14th will play the FNL team that passed licensing in a two-game playoff, with the winner securing the Premier League spot. In case only two of the clubs otherwise eligible for the playoffs pass licensing for the 2020–21 season, the playoffs will not be held and the clubs that passed licensing will get the Premier League spots. In case any teams otherwise eligible for the 2021–22 Premier League will not pass licensing or will be unable to participate in the season for any other reason, the spots will be passed on to the teams that lost in the playoffs, in order of their 2020–21 league position, with the Premier League positions considered higher than FNL positions (for example, if 13th Premier League team and 3rd FNL team lose in the playoffs, the spot will go to the 13th Premier League team). If, after following these procedures, there are still 2021–22 Premier League spots available (in case 3 or more teams otherwise qualified are unable to participate), the remaining replacements will be chosen by the Russian Football Union with agreement of the Premier League and FNL.


title: BAA USA

text: In 2000, as part of a long-running dispute between the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and New York City, the Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani threatened to award BAA USA the management contracts for John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport with the intended view that BAA USA would eventually buy the airports. Giuliani eventually did award the contracts to BAA USA. In response, the Port Authority cancelled BAA USA's contract with Newark, which Mayor Giuliani accused of being a "vindictive" move. In 2001, BAA USA's contract with Harrisburg Airport was terminated by the Susquehanna Area Regional Airport Authority due to failing to provide workers' compensation and failing to meet promised targets. BAA USA sued over this and despite an injunction being denied, it was settled out of court with BAA USA being given $650,000 in compensation. All BAA USA employees at Harrisburg were retained except for the director. The plans to take over the New York airports also fell through after Giuliani's successor as Mayor, Michael Bloomberg signed an extension to the Port Authority's lease.


title: USNS Furman

text: On 18 September 1963 the USNS Furman (T-AK-280) was refitted to be a Fleet Ballistic Missile Cargo Ship at the American Ship Building Company of Toledo, Ohio, to support Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM) submarine tender. USNS Furman was put in to service on 14 October 1964, having work completed on 14 September 1964. As a fleet ballistic missile cargo ship, she transported torpedoes, Poseidon missiles, packaged petroleum, and spare parts to deployed to the submarine tender. She was placed into service with Military Sealift Command (MSC) as USNS Furman (T-AK-280) on 30 December 1963. USNS Furman regular assignment into the 1970s was the transportation of missile components and ship's stores from Bangor Base, Washington to Apra Harbor, Guam, as a submarine tender, an U.S. Navy auxiliary ship. In April 1983, the USNS Furman was converted to a cable cargo ship at the Atlantic Drydock Corp. in Jacksonville, Florida. USNS Furman could hold 2,100 miles of new cable that it delivered to cable layer ships at sea. She operated out Newington, New Hampshire of


title: Bandhgora

text: Bokaro district consists of undulating uplands on the Chota Nagpur Plateau with the Damodar River cutting a valley right across. It has an average elevation of 200 to 540 metres (660 to 1,770 ft) above mean sea level. The highest hill, Lugu Pahar, rises to a height of 1,070 metres (3,510 ft). The East Bokaro Coalfield located in the Bermo-Phusro area and small intrusions of Jharia Coalfield make Bokaro a coal rich district. In 1965, one of the largest steel manufacturing units in the country, Bokaro Steel Plant, operated by Steel Authority of India Limited, was set-up at Bokaro Steel City. The Damodar Valley Corporation established its first thermal power station at Bokaro (Thermal). The 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) long, 55 metres (180 ft) high earthfill dam with composite masonry cum concrete spillway, Tenughat Dam, across the Damodar River, is operated by the Government of Jharkhand. The average annual rainfall is 1,291.2 millimetres (50.83 in). The soil is generally infertile and agriculture is mostly rain-fed.


title: Dateline NBC

text: Executive producer Neal Shapiro pioneered several "signature segments" that appeared regularly on the program. These included Dateline: Survivor, in which a person recounts a near-death experience and their eventual rescue; Dateline Timeline, in which a popular product, person and music single are shown/played that viewers are invited to guess what year it was from; State of the Art, explaining how a special effect or stunt in a movie was technically accomplished; Consumer Alert, in which common consumer complaints or issues (such as food safety and products of suspect quality that may be dangerous) are investigated, Dateline Hidden Camera Investigation, a story using hidden cameras to focus on an issue of public concern; and Newsmakers, light interviews with major figures in politics, entertainment, and business, as well as regular people in the news. The program also included cross-promotional segments with Court TV and magazines People, Good Housekeeping and Consumer Reports. In the 1990s, a common week would feature several "signature segments," breaking news, updates on past stories shown on the program, multi-part investigations, and interviews. Dateline also pioneered the use of viewer feedback including telephone polling and a unique format, the "Interactive Dateline Mystery," where viewers voted (similar to Choose Your Own Adventure) on where the story should go next.


title: Spannagel Cave

text: The cave is characterised by the strong presence of damps and heavy moisture penetration (even leading to cascades). The various stream passages (Mündungslöcher) form siphons in places that are only accessible by diving. In those cave passages far from daylight there are rare helictites. The Spannagel Cave System extends from the Gefrorne-Wand-Kees glacier to the Lärmstange, 2,686 m, and is the highest large cave in Europe with a measured length to date of 10 kilometres. During guided tours, the cave's many features (coloured marble, various calc-sinter formations, speleothems, crystals, banded marbles and kolks) are explained. In addition, the age of the cave and its formation are described, as are its flora and fauna, climate and cave atmosphere which is beneficial for those suffering from lung ailments. Bats only appear in the vicinity of the cave exits - albeit some get lost in the entrance area. A cave museum has been established in the eastern section of this passageway where several discoveries from the interior of the mountain are displayed.


title: Spannagel Cave

text: In 1960 Rudolf Radislovich first explored the front part of the cave with its main entrance (Hauptgang) and "water entrance" (Wassergang), both of which meet in the Hall of Union (Halle der Vereinigung). In the following year, Max H. Fink surveyed the known section of the cave and discovered the Labyrinth. In 1964 the Federal Monuments Office (Bundesdenkmalamt) designated the cave as a natural monument because of its scientific importance. In 1968 Walter Knezicek and Günther J. Wolf discovered two shafts and the Knesi-Harnisch at the right hand edge of the Halle der Vereinigung, which all led down into a tunnel about 10 metres below. This was the start of what later became known as the Schrauben-Cañon ("Screw Canyon"). In 1970 Hannes Jodl found the Postkastl ("Postbox") at the left hand end of the Halle der Vereinigung, which turned out to be a continuation of the Spannagel Cave. The first person to enter this section was Günther J. Wolf with seven members of his ice course. The research of the Kolkgang passage (ascending to the Elchschädelgang passage and Dirndlkammer chamber, a link with the Wassergang, and descending via the Kolkgang to the Hannes-Jodl-Dom, at whose ceiling the Schrauben-Cañon enters, onwards to the Dr.-Klaus-Karger-Halle and continuing as the Kolkgang to the edge of the ÖTK-Schacht shaft) resulted in a doubling of the hitherto known extent of the cave and offered an incentive for further exploration.


title: Emily Poynton Weaver

text: Weaver was born in Greater Manchester, England in 1865 to Richard Thomas Weaver and Elizabeth Dutton Smith. She attended private schools in England and came to Canada with her family at age 15. Initially the family lived on a farm near Waterloo, Ontario and it was here that she was inspired to start writing. The family eventually relocated to Toronto where the children could receive a better education. She lived in Toronto but spent a brief period in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She supported herself primarily through journalism and worked as a writer and editor for the Toronto Globe (precursor to The Globe and Mail). She began to submit short stories and articles to magazines which were published. She wrote over a dozen works of fiction, histories, and textbooks. Several of her books were published through religious organizations and her novels reflect a high moral tone. Her first novel, My Lady Nell, published in 1890, won a prize from the Congregationalist Society of Boston. She wrote a textbook in 1900, A Canadian History for Boys and Girls which was adopted for use in schools in the provinces of Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.


title: Jet engine

text: In 1935, Hans von Ohain started work on a similar design to Whittle's in Germany, both compressor and turbine being radial, on opposite sides of the same disc, initially unaware of Whittle's work. Von Ohain's first device was strictly experimental and could run only under external power, but he was able to demonstrate the basic concept. Ohain was then introduced to Ernst Heinkel, one of the larger aircraft industrialists of the day, who immediately saw the promise of the design. Heinkel had recently purchased the Hirth engine company, and Ohain and his master machinist Max Hahn were set up there as a new division of the Hirth company. They had their first HeS 1 centrifugal engine running by September 1937. Unlike Whittle's design, Ohain used hydrogen as fuel, supplied under external pressure. Their subsequent designs culminated in the gasoline-fuelled HeS 3 of 5 kN (1,100 lbf), which was fitted to Heinkel's simple and compact He 178 airframe and flown by Erich Warsitz in the early morning of August 27, 1939, from Rostock-Marienehe aerodrome, an impressively short time for development. The He 178 was the world's first jet plane. Heinkel applied for a US patent covering the Aircraft Power Plant by Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain on May 31, 1939; patent number US2256198, with M Hahn referenced as inventor. Von Ohain's design, an axial-flow engine, as opposed to Whittle's centrifugal flow engine, was eventually adopted by most manufacturers by the 1950s.


title: Jet engine

text: A jet engine at rest, as on a test stand, sucks in fuel and generates thrust. How well it does this is judged by how much fuel it uses and what force is required to restrain it. This is a measure of its efficiency. If something deteriorates inside the engine (known as performance deterioration) it will be less efficient and this will show when the fuel produces less thrust. If a change is made to an internal part which allows the air/combustion gases to flow more smoothly the engine will be more efficient and use less fuel. A standard definition is used to assess how different things change engine efficiency and also to allow comparisons to be made between different engines. This definition is called specific fuel consumption, or how much fuel is needed to produce one unit of thrust. For example, it will be known for a particular engine design that if some bumps in a bypass duct are smoothed out the air will flow more smoothly giving a pressure loss reduction of x% and y% less fuel will be needed to get the take-off thrust, for example. This understanding comes under the engineering discipline Jet engine performance. How efficiency is affected by forward speed and by supplying energy to aircraft systems is mentioned later.


title: Jet engine

text: The η o {\displaystyle \eta _{o}} at flight speed depends on how well the intake compresses the air before it is handed over to the engine compressors. The intake compression ratio, which can be as high as 32:1 at Mach 3, adds to that of the engine compressor to give the Overall pressure ratio and η t h {\displaystyle \eta _{th}} for the Thermodynamic cycle. How well it does this is defined by its pressure recovery or measure of the losses in the intake. Mach 3 manned flight has provided an interesting illustration of how these losses can increase dramatically in an instant. The North American XB-70 Valkyrie and Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird at Mach 3 each had pressure recoveries of about 0.8, due to relatively low losses during the compression process, i.e. through systems of multiple shocks. During an 'unstart' the efficient shock system would be replaced by a very inefficient single shock beyond the inlet and an intake pressure recovery of about 0.3 and a correspondingly low pressure ratio.


title: Abner Hunt Francis

text: Throughout his life, Abner Hunt Francis was an influential leader of the Black community. While in New Jersey, Francis protested the American Colonization Society, acted as an agent for the Liberator, and attended national black conventions. Francis later became a founding member of the Buffalo Anti-Slavery Society and sought progressive change such as school integration and even coordinated a state suffrage campaign. Moreover, Francis corresponded with Frederick Douglass, talking about abolitionist movements and the state of the nation. Abner's wife, Sydna Edmonia Robella Dandrich Francis was also an activist. She was a prominent leader in the women's suffrage movement and worked toward the abolition of slavery. In addition to working alongside Abner, Sydna was the secretary of the Female Dorcas Society and president of the Ladies' Literary and Progressive Improvement Society of Buffalo. In addition, Sydna E.R. Francis's work was sometimes published in Frederik Douglass's newspaper, The North Star.


title: Abner Hunt Francis

text: Abner Hunt Francis arrived with his wife and brother, I.B. Francis (Isaac B. Francis), in Portland, Oregon in 1851. Abner and his family were among the only African-American residents in the city. Shortly after opening their boarding house, Abner's brother was jailed for violating the territorial exclusion law of 1849. The family was subsequently ordered to appear in front of Justice Orville C. Pratt who ordered their removal from the territory within 4 months. In December 1851, an exception petition signed by 225 Oregon residents was presented to the territorial legislature which sparked an unsuccessful attempt to abolish the exclusion law. However, Abner and his family resided in Oregon for the next 10 years, amassing a fortune of $36,000 through his successful business ventures until bankruptcy finally encouraged the family to relocate. In 1865 they voluntary left Portland and begun residing in Victoria, Canada where he became the first black person elected to Victoria city council. However in 1865, the day after being sworn in, Francis resigned since he was not listed in the 1863 Assessment Role.


title: Capital punishment

text: Crimes that are punishable by death are known as capital crimes, capital offences, or capital felonies, and vary depending on the jurisdiction, but commonly include serious crimes against a person, such as murder, assassination, mass murder, child murder, aggravated rape, terrorism, aircraft hijacking, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, along with crimes against the state such as attempting to overthrow government, treason, espionage, sedition, and piracy. Also, in some cases, acts of recidivism, aggravated robbery, and kidnapping, in addition to drug trafficking, drug dealing, and drug possession, are capital crimes or enhancements. However, states have also imposed punitive executions, for an expansive range of conduct, for political or religious beliefs and practices, for a status beyond one's control, or without employing any significant due process procedures. Judicial murder is the intentional and premeditated killing of an innocent person by means of capital punishment. For example, the executions following the show trials in the Soviet Union during the Great Purge of 1936–1938 were an instrument of political repression.


title: Capital punishment

text: In certain parts of the world, nations in the form of ancient republics, monarchies or tribal oligarchies emerged. These nations were often united by common linguistic, religious or family ties. Moreover, expansion of these nations often occurred by conquest of neighbouring tribes or nations. Consequently, various classes of royalty, nobility, various commoners and slaves emerged. Accordingly, the systems of tribal arbitration were submerged into a more unified system of justice which formalized the relation between the different "social classes" rather than "tribes". The earliest and most famous example is Code of Hammurabi which set the different punishment and compensation, according to the different class or group of victims and perpetrators. The Torah/Old Testament lays down the death penalty for murder, kidnapping, practicing magic, violation of the Sabbath, blasphemy, and a wide range of sexual crimes, although evidence suggests that actual executions were exceedingly rare, if they occurred at all.


title: Capital punishment

text: The death penalty also targeted sexual offences such as sodomy. In the early history of Islam (7th–11th centuries), there is a number of "purported (but mutually inconsistent) reports" (athar) regarding the punishments of sodomy ordered by some of the early caliphs. Abu Bakr, the first caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, apparently recommended toppling a wall on the culprit, or else burning him alive, while Ali ibn Abi Talib is said to have ordered death by stoning for one sodomite and had another thrown head-first from the top of the highest building in the town; according to Ibn Abbas, the latter punishment must be followed by stoning. Other medieval Muslim leaders, such as the Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad (most notably al-Mu'tadid), were often cruel in their punishments. In early modern England, the Buggery Act 1533 stipulated hanging as punishment for "buggery". James Pratt and John Smith were the last two Englishmen to be executed for sodomy in 1835. In 1636 the laws of Puritan governed Plymouth Colony included a sentence of death for sodomy and buggery. The Massachusetts Bay Colony followed in 1641. Throughout the 19th century, U.S. states repealed death sentences from their sodomy laws, with South Carolina being the last to do so in 1873.


title: Capital punishment

text: Historians recognise that during the Early Middle Ages, the Christian populations living in the lands invaded by the Arab Muslim armies between the 7th and 10th centuries suffered religious discrimination, religious persecution, religious violence, and martyrdom multiple times at the hands of Arab Muslim officials and rulers. As People of the Book, Christians under Muslim rule were subjected to dhimmi status (along with Jews, Samaritans, Gnostics, Mandeans, and Zoroastrians), which was inferior to the status of Muslims. Christians and other religious minorities thus faced religious discrimination and religious persecution in that they were banned from proselytising (for Christians, it was forbidden to evangelise or spread Christianity) in the lands invaded by the Arab Muslims on pain of death, they were banned from bearing arms, undertaking certain professions, and were obligated to dress differently in order to distinguish themselves from Arabs. Under sharia, Non-Muslims were obligated to pay jizya and kharaj taxes, together with periodic heavy ransom levied upon Christian communities by Muslim rulers in order to fund military campaigns, all of which contributed a significant proportion of income to the Islamic states while conversely reducing many Christians to poverty, and these financial and social hardships forced many Christians to convert to Islam. Christians unable to pay these taxes were forced to surrender their children to the Muslim rulers as payment who would sell them as slaves to Muslim households where they were forced to convert to Islam. Many Christian martyrs were executed under the Islamic death penalty for defending their Christian faith through dramatic acts of resistance such as refusing to convert to Islam, repudiation of the Islamic religion and subsequent reconversion to Christianity, and blasphemy towards Muslim beliefs.


title: Capital punishment

text: More recent opposition to the death penalty stemmed from the book of the Italian Cesare Beccaria Dei Delitti e Delle Pene ("On Crimes and Punishments"), published in 1764. In this book, Beccaria aimed to demonstrate not only the injustice, but even the futility from the point of view of social welfare, of torture and the death penalty. Influenced by the book, Grand Duke Leopold II of Habsburg, the future emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, abolished the death penalty in the then-independent Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the first abolition in modern times. On 30 November 1786, after having de facto blocked executions , Leopold promulgated the reform of the penal code that abolished the death penalty and ordered the destruction of all the instruments for capital execution in his land. In 2000, Tuscany's regional authorities instituted an annual holiday on 30 November to commemorate the event. The event is commemorated on this day by 300 cities around the world celebrating Cities for Life Day. Leopolds brother Joseph, the then emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, abolished in his immediate lands in 1787 capital punishment, which though only lasted until 1795, after both had died and Leopolds son Francis abolished it in his immediate lands. In Tuscany it was reintroduced in 1790 after Leopolds departure becoming emperor. Only after 1831 capital punishment was again at times stopped, though it took until 2007 to abolish capital punishment in Italy completely.


title: Capital punishment

text: Iran, despite its ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, was the world's largest executioner of juvenile offenders, for which it has been the subject of broad international condemnation; the country's record is the focus of the Stop Child Executions Campaign. But on 10 February 2012, Iran's parliament changed controversial laws relating to the execution of juveniles. In the new legislation the age of 18 (solar year) would be applied to accused of both genders and juvenile offenders must be sentenced pursuant to a separate law specifically dealing with juveniles. Based on the Islamic law which now seems to have been revised, girls at the age of 9 and boys at 15 of lunar year (11 days shorter than a solar year) are deemed fully responsible for their crimes. Iran accounted for two-thirds of the global total of such executions, and currently has approximately 140 people considered as juveniles awaiting execution for crimes committed . The past executions of Mahmoud Asgari, Ayaz Marhoni and Makwan Moloudzadeh became the focus of Iran's child capital punishment policy and the judicial system that hands down such sentences. In 2023 Iran executed a minor who had knifed a man that fought him for following a girl in the street.


title: Capital punishment

text: Japan has not executed juvenile criminals after August 1997, when they executed Norio Nagayama, a spree killer who had been convicted of shooting four people dead in the late 1960s. Nagayama's case created the eponymously named Nagayama standards, which take into account factors such as the number of victims, brutality and social impact of the crimes. The standards have been used in determining whether to apply the death sentence in murder cases. Teruhiko Seki, convicted of murdering four family members including a 4-year-old daughter and raping a 15-year-old daughter of a family in 1992, became the second inmate to be hanged for a crime committed as a minor in the first such execution in 20 years after Nagayama on 19 December 2017. Takayuki Otsuki, who was convicted of raping and strangling a 23-year-old woman and subsequently strangling her 11-month-old daughter to death on 14 April 1999, when he was 18, is another inmate sentenced to death, and his request for retrial has been rejected by the Supreme Court of Japan.


title: Capital punishment

text: Some countries, including Singapore and Malaysia, made the death penalty mandatory for murder, though Singapore later changed its laws since 2013 to reserve the mandatory death sentence for intentional murder while providing an alternative sentence of life imprisonment with/without caning for murder with no intention to cause death, which allowed some convicted murderers on death row in Singapore (including Kho Jabing) to apply for the reduction of their death sentences after the courts in Singapore confirmed that they committed murder without the intention to kill and thus eligible for re-sentencing under the new death penalty laws in Singapore. In October 2018 the Malaysian Government imposed a moratorium on all executions until the passage of a new law that would abolish the death penalty. In April 2023, legislation abolishing the mandatory death penalty was passed in Malaysia. The death penalty would be retained, but courts have the discretion to replace it with other punishments, including whipping and imprisonment of 30–40 years.


title: Capital punishment

text: In one of the most recent cases relating to the death penalty in Singapore, activists like Jolovan Wham, Kirsten Han and Kokila Annamalai and even the international groups like the United Nations and European Union argued for Malaysian drug trafficker Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, who has been on death row at Singapore's Changi Prison since 2010, should not be executed due to an alleged intellectual disability, as they argued that Nagaenthran has low IQ of 69 and a psychiatrist has assessed him to be mentally impaired to an extent that he should not be held liable to his crime and execution. They also cited international law where a country should be prohibiting the execution of mentally and intellectually impaired people in order to push for Singapore to commute Nagaenthran's death penalty to life imprisonment based on protection of human rights. However, the Singapore government and both Singapore's High Court and Court of Appeal maintained their firm stance that despite his certified low IQ, it is confirmed that Nagaenthran is not mentally or intellectually disabled based on the joint opinion of three government psychiatrists as he is able to fully understand the magnitude of his actions and has no problem in his daily functioning of life. Despite the international outcry, Nagaenthran was executed on 27 April 2022.


title: Capital punishment

text: Trends in most of the world have long been to move to private and less painful executions. France adopted the guillotine for this reason in the final years of the 18th century, while Britain banned hanging, drawing, and quartering in the early 19th century. Hanging by turning the victim off a ladder or by kicking a stool or a bucket, which causes death by strangulation, was replaced by long drop "hanging" where the subject is dropped a longer distance to dislocate the neck and sever the spinal cord. Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, Shah of Persia introduced throat-cutting and blowing from a gun (close-range cannon fire) as quick and relatively painless alternatives to more torturous methods of executions used at that time. In the United States, electrocution and gas inhalation were introduced as more humane alternatives to hanging, but have been almost entirely superseded by lethal injection. A small number of countries, for example Iran and Saudi Arabia, still employ slow hanging methods, decapitation, and stoning.


title: Capital punishment

text: A study of executions carried out in the United States between 1977 and 2001 indicated that at least 34 of the 749 executions, or 4.5%, involved "unanticipated problems or delays that caused, at least arguably, unnecessary agony for the prisoner or that reflect gross incompetence of the executioner". The rate of these "botched executions" remained steady over the period of the study. A separate study published in The Lancet in 2005 found that in 43% of cases of lethal injection, the blood level of hypnotics was insufficient to guarantee unconsciousness. However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2008 (Baze v. Rees) and again in 2015 (Glossip v. Gross) that lethal injection does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. In Bucklew v. Precythe, the majority verdict – written by Judge Neil Gorsuch – further affirmed this principle, stating that while the ban on cruel and unusual punishment affirmatively bans penalties that deliberately inflict pain and degradation, it does in no sense limit the possible infliction of pain in the execution of a capital verdict.