Pinus wangii

Pinus wangii, commonly known as the Guangdong white pine (), is a species of conifer in the family Pinaceae.
It was named after Dr. Shao-Ping Wang, a professor of forest genetics.
Distribution.
This pine tree is native to Yunnan Province of southern China, where two populations are known from Wenshan Prefecture. It is uncertain whether it occurs in northern Vietnam.
"Pinus wangii" is an IUCN Red List Endangered species, threatened by continued logging. It is under second-class national protection in China.


Ferdinand (bull)


Japanese Black

The Japanese Black (, Kuroge Washu) is a breed of Japanese beef cattle. It is one of six native Japanese cattle breeds, and one of the four Japanese breeds known as wagyū, the others being the Japanese Brown, the Japanese Polled and the Japanese Shorthorn.
All wagyū cattle derive from cross-breeding in the early twentieth century of native Japanese cattle with imported stock, mostly from Europe. In the case of the Japanese Black, the foreign influence was from European breeds including Braunvieh, Shorthorn, Devon, Simmental, Ayrshire and Holstein.
History.
Cattle were brought to Japan from China at the same time as the cultivation of rice, in about the second century AD, in the Yayoi period. Until about the time of the Meiji Restoration in 1868, they were used only as draught animals, in agriculture, forestry, mining and for transport, and as a source of fertiliser. Milk consumption was unknown, and – for cultural and religious reasons – meat was not eaten. Cattle were highly prized and valuable, too expensive for a poor farmer to buy.
Japan was effectively isolated from the rest of the world from 1635 until 1854; there was no possibility of intromission of foreign genes to the cattle population during this time. Between 1868, the year of the Meiji Restoration, and 1887, some 2600 foreign cattle were imported. At first there was little interest in cross-breeding these with native stock, but from about 1900 it became widespread. It ceased abruptly in 1910, when it was realised that, while the cross-breeds might be larger and have better dairy qualities, their working capacity and meat quality was lower. From 1919, the various heterogeneous regional populations that resulted from this brief period of cross-breeding were registered and selected as "Improved Japanese Cattle". Four separate strains were characterised, based mainly on which type of foreign cattle had most influenced the hybrids, and were recognised as breeds in 1944. These were the four wagyū breeds, the Japanese Black, the Japanese Brown, the Japanese Polled and the Japanese Shorthorn.
The Japanese Black developed in south-western Japan, in the prefectures of Kyoto and Hyogo in the Kansai region; of Hiroshima, Okayama, Shimane, Tottori and Yamaguchi in the Chūgoku region; of Kagoshima and Oita on the island of Kyūshū; and of Ehime on the island of Shikoku.
Among the European breeds which influenced its development were Braunvieh and Simmental cattle from Switzerland, Ayrshire, Devon and Shorthorn stock from the United Kingdom, and Holstein cattle from Germany and the Netherlands.
In 1960 the total breed population was reported to be over 1800000. In 2008 it was reported as about 707000. In 1999, the Japanese Black constituted about 93% of the national beef herd.
Tajima cattle.
When registration of "Improved Japanese Cattle" began in 1919, there were notable variations between regional populations. It was left up to the prefectural administration to decide breed
objectives. As a result, several different strains or sub-types developed with the Japanese Black population. One of these is the Tajima strain (, Tajima Ushi or Tajima-gyu). Meat from animals of this strain only, raised only in Hyōgo Prefecture, may be approved for marketing as Kobe beef.


Musser Lumber Company

Musser Lumber Company was a US lumber company, and one of Iowa's pioneer lumber concerns. In its day, it was one of the most complete and modern lumber mills on the Mississippi River, employing about 400 men during the working season, and between 200 and 300 men in the logging end of the business.
History.
The Musser Lumber Company of Muscatine, Iowa, was incorporated in February, 1881, with a capital stock of $200,000. Peter Musser was elected president; Richard Musser, vice-president; P. M. Musser, secretary and treasurer; and C. R. Fox, yard and planing mill superintendent. This company was an outgrowth of the pioneer lumber firm of R. Musser & Company, which was established by Peter and Richard Musser and Edward Hoch in 1855. These gentlemen began by buying rafts of lumber in the river, which they yarded and sold by retail and Wholesale. They also established a lumber yard at Iowa City in 1856, where Peter Musser resided, it being managed by that gentleman until he went to California, in April, 1864. Hoch continued in the firm for three years until 1858, when he retired, and the firm became R. Musser & Company. In 1864, P. M. Musser bought into the business, without any change of firm name; he assumed charge of the Iowa City yard, which he conducted until 1873, when he and John Porter purchased the interest of R. Musser & Company in the branch yard at Iowa City. They carried on under the firm name of Musser & Porter, with P. M. Musser still retaining his interest in the business in Muscatine. In 1870, having returned from California, Peter Musser joined his brother, Richard, together with C. R. Fox, a former employee, and P. M. Musser, in the organization of the firm of Musser & Company for the purpose of building and operating a saw mill and carrying on the lumber business at Muscatine. In the spring of 1871, they completed their mill at a point on the Mississippi River, since known as Musserville, which was included in the corporate limits of the city of Muscatine, and began the manufacture of lumber. The mill cut about of lumber a year. In 1873, Richard Musser retired from the business, selling his interest to P. M. Musser, and the firm became P. M. Musser & Company. Three years later, Richard Musser renewed his connection with the company, and the firm name of Musser & Company was again adopted.
In 1877, the company enlarged their mill, putting in improved machinery and increasing its capacity materially. Four years later, the proprietors decided to organize under an act of incorporation, which was done in February, 1881, under the name of the Musser Lumber Company, the incorporators being the original proprietors, R. Musser, P. Musser, P. M. Musser and C. R. Fox of Muscatine, and John Musser of Adamstown, Pennsylvania, and the officers elected being the same as given above. During the same year, the company rebuilt and enlarged the mill, which they fitted with the most modern and improved machinery, making it one of the most complete and capacious saw mills on the Mississippi River, with capacity for manufacturing of lumber, of lath and of shingles for the working season. The power was furnished by two engines, the combined force of which equaled 500 horse-power. In 1882, the company erected a planing mill, detached from the saw mill, which afforded facilities for dressing lumber and the manufacture of flooring, siding and boards. The business of this company was strictly wholesale, and their trade was principally located in the states of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado and Dakota. The number of people employed at their mills and yards was about 300.
The Musser Lumber Company owned large tracts of pine lands along the Chippewa in Wisconsin and in the Minnesota lumber region; their logs were cut by contract and were rafted by the Chippewa Logging Company and the Mississippi River Logging Company, two large lumber corporations, of which the Musser Lumber Company was one of the incorporators. For about 12 years, this company owned and operated its own rafting steamers, it having operated the “Silver Wave” and “Le Clare Belle" during all that time, and the steamer, “Musser,” for two years. All were sold during the season of 1888 to Capt. S. R. Van Sant. The company’s plant covered an area of thirty-five acres, and the yards were stocked according to the season of the year, in the amount of of lumber and a proportionate amount of lath and shingles. To convey an idea of the growth of the business from the date of its origin with the firm of Hoeh & Musser, it was reported that the amount of business done the first year was about US$100,000, while the 1898 annual business of the company exceeded $750,000. This corporation had its own system of water-works, which was established in 1872, and in which a Duplex pump and Cameron pump, was used. This company also had one of Barry’s Niagara rotary hydrants, which could throw a three-inch stream a distance of about and to a height of , and thus the supply of water and force was equal to emergencies which might arise.
The Mussers were also the original incorporators of the Mississippi River Logging Company and Chippewa Lumber and Boom Company; they were also largely interested in the Musser-Sauntry Land, Logging and Manufacturing Company of Stillwater, Minnesota, among the largest pine land owners and logging companies in the world.
The aggregate cut of the mills at Muscatine was reported in 1875 at 38,000,000 feet, with 21,000,000 shingles; that of 1880 at 55,000,000 feet, with 18,000,000 shingles, while that of 1897 reached 110,000,000 feet of lumber, 30,000,000 shingles and 25,000,000 lath.
The Musser Lumber Company, one of Iowa's pioneer lumber concerns, closed up its business at Muscatine on November 28, 1916. Following a meeting of the directors of the lumber concern, it was decided to dissolve the company and formal announcement of the dissolution was made on that date by P. M. Musser, president and treasurer. The officers of the company up to the time of the dissolution were: P. M. Musser, president and treasurer; William Musser, vice-president, and R. Drew Musser, secretary.


A. H. Rice Silk Mill

The A. H. Rice Silk Mill is a historic textile mill in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Built in 1876 to house a woolen mill, this multi-section brick building was purchased in 1887 by William Bainbridge Rice, who established his silk-processing operation here. The premises were expanded in 1895 after Rice acquired a New Jersey silkworks and moved its equipment here. The Rice Company was one of Pittsfield's largest business at the turn of the 20th century. It produced a number of highly specialized materials, including silk cords for parachutes, which they later also made out of nylon. The company was particularly known for its braided silk cord. The facilities were used in the production of silk cording until 2006. The property has since been converted residential use.
The mill complex is located northeast of downtown Pittsfield, in the city's Morningside residential neighborhood. It is on , bounded on the north by Burbank Street, the east by Spring Street, and the west by Cherry Street. It consists of five interconnected brick mill buildings, erected between 1876 and 1947, all of which are between two and three stories in height. All exemplify the use of an insurance standard fireproof design, with brick exterior walls, and heavy timber frames inside. Windows are typically set in segmented-arch openings with quarry-faced granite sills. As part of the residential conversion, some ground-floor window bays have been converted into entrances.
The mill was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.


Artificial insemination (dairy)


Christen Winther Obel

Christen Winther Obel (1800-1860) was a Danish businessman from the city of Aalborg.
Obel contributed to Aalborg's prosperity in the 19th century by successfully developing his family's tobacco business, which was founded in 1787. On his mother's and stepfather's death in 1828, he took control of the factory, changing its name to C.W. Obel. Under Obel's leadership, the factory became the city's primary employer, a position it maintained for many years. From 1853 until his death in 1860, Obel was codirector of Aalborg Bys og Omegns Sparekasse, the local savings bank.


High-quality feed block

High-quality feed block or HQFB, is a solid block consisting of molasses, non-protein nitrogen (NPN), rumen by-pass protein (cassava hay), minerals and lipids. It is provided to livestock ruminants in a manner similar to a salt lick.
HQFB is used for ruminant feeding as a method of improving digestion and to help lactation, reproduction, and weight gain. More details can be searched from AJAS, "Asia-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences".
Feed blocks are cost-effective food supplements that are used in preserving high moisture agro-industrial by-products. The general formula of feed blocks includes binders, a preservative, a mixture of ingredients that contain the desired nutrients (nitrogen, minerals, vitamins) and one of many energy rich agro-industrial by-products, such as molasses. The levels of these substances may vary, as well as the main component of the block, in different regions or countries. The main ingredient may vary from date pulp, rice bran and poultry waste in Iraq, tomato pulp and olive cake in Tunisia, brewery grains and olive cake in Jordan or molasses in Morocco. Feed blocks aid small scale farmers as conventional feed, such as barley grain or bran, are often expensive.
A major function of high-quality feed blocks is so promote microbial activity in ruminant animals, thus improving digestion of lower quality roughages or feed, such as low quality hays, straw, stubble, etc. . High-quality feed blocks may also be treated with anthelmintic medicines for treatment against parasites in animals. High-quality feed blocks also have a significant effect on ruminant reproduction. The supplemental energy and nutrients from the feed block helps reduces weight loss in animals, as well as improved fertility, and lambing rates. This is significant during summer when natural feed does not contain enough of the essential nutrients required of animals for reproduction.
High-quality feed blocks have been observed to have a noticeable effect on milk yield composition and yield in dairy cows. In addition with a concentrate mixture that consisted mainly of cassava chips, palm kernel meal, cottonseed meal, kapok meal and soybean meal, cows that are fed the concentrate that was supplemented with the high-quality feed block not only result in a higher milk yield, fat content was also significantly higher. The feed block also attributes additional nutrients to cows and weight loss prevention.


Isabelline (colour)

Isabelline , also known as isabella, is a pale grey-yellow, pale fawn, pale cream-brown or parchment colour. It is primarily found in animal coat colouring, particularly plumage colour in birds and, in Europe, in horses. It also has historically been applied to fashion. The first known record of the word was in 1600 as "isabella colour"; this use later became interchangeable in literature with "isabelline" after the latter was introduced into print in 1859. The origin of the word is unclear; the uncertainty prompted by this has generated several attempts to provide an etymology and led to one prominent legend.
Usage and origins.
The first recorded use of "isabella" as the name of a colour in English was in the year 1600, to describe an item in Elizabeth I of England's wardrobe inventory: "one rounde gowne of Isabella-colour satten ... set with silver spangles". "Isabelline" as a derivative term was first used in the journal "Ibis" in 1859 by Henry Baker Tristram to describe the common colour of the upper plumage in the birds of Northern Africa.
A few theories have been proposed for the origin of the colour's name. According to a popular legend, the name comes from Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain; during the Siege of Ostend, which started in July 1601, Isabella is claimed to have vowed not to change her shift until the siege was over, expecting a quick victory for her husband Archduke Albert of Austria. Since the siege lasted over three years, finally ending in September 1604, it is claimed that the discolouration of her shift in that interval led to the naming of the colour. However, this theory was discounted by the Oxford English Dictionary as the word was in use before the siege had begun. A variation of the legend refers to Isabella I of Castile and the eight-month siege of Granada by Ferdinand II of Aragon starting in April 1491. This siege ended in January 1492 and again was said to have resulted in overworn shift belonging to an Isabella.
Other theories focus on animals close to the colour as the source of the word. In 1904 several writers to the journal "Notes and Queries", prompted by a question of etymology, debated that the word could have begun as a corruption of the word zibellino (a sable pelt accessory), noting the similarity in colour and the popularity of the accessory around the period the word first came into use. Etymologist Michael Quinion reported that certain sources suggested an alleged Arabic word for lion, "izah", might be the origin, indicating an intended original meaning close to "lion-coloured", but has since concluded that "there seems to be no such word in Arabic and we must disregard the suggestion".
In animals.
The term is found in reference to plumage colouring in the bird species names isabelline bush-hen, isabelline wheatear, and isabelline shrike, as well as in other descriptions of birds. The genetic pigmentation disorder "isabellinism" seen in birds is derived from the colour word and is a form of leucism caused by a uniform reduction in the production and expression of melanin resulting in areas of plumage on the back of the bird, normally black, being strongly faded, or isabelline, in appearance. Isabellinism has been reported in several species of penguin.
Isabelline and isabella are terms applied in Europe to very pale palomino or cremello horses, animals with a coat colour that is variously described as cream, pale gold or almost white; this is the primary usage of the French ("isabelle") and German ("Isabella") versions of the word. In horses, this colour is created by the action of the cream gene, an incomplete dominant dilution gene that produces a horse with a gold coat and dark eyes when heterozygous, and a light cream-coloured horse with blue eyes when homozygous.
A subspecies of the Himalayan brown bear ("Ursus arctos isabellinus") was named subspecifically for the colour and is also sometimes known as the isabelline bear.
The description has also been used in the UK for fawn coloured Doberman dogs.


Bender Machine Works

The Bender Machine Works in Hayward, Wisconsin, is a dairy equipment manufacturer that played a major role in the history of the dairy farming business in the United States from the 1950s to the 1980s, producing milk pipeline and milk transfer cart components, and washing/vacuum-releasing equipment.
The company continues to be in business but now focuses its manufacturing on private label electromechanical milk pipeline washing systems.
Washer/Releaser and Step-Saver.
The Bender Washer/Releaser was a vacuum-operated device first invented and patented by Lloyd Bender of Hayward, WI, USA in the 1950s, used to both wash dairy milking equipment and to transfer milk from piping containing a vacuum, into a storage tank at normal atmospheric pressure.
As a non-electric pneumatically operated device, the washer/releaser could be used on small dairy farms without electricity that used an engine to supply milking vacuum, and used well water to cool milk.
The Washer/Releaser could be used in association with both dairy pipelines and the "Step-Saver", a milk transfer cart used with bucket milkers. The Step-Saver and the Washer/Releaser were once extremely common in the 1960s to 1980s on small family dairy farms in the United States, to reduce the labor of bucket milking before the milk pipeline became more popular.
Purpose and Usage.
"(Expanded topic section from Dairy farming article.)"
As barns began to increase in size from perhaps 6 to 12 cows to 30 or 40 cows, the bucket milker became a very laborious milking system. As the barn length increased, the farmer had to walk an increasing distance from the cow to the milk bulk tank to dump the collected milk. An early vacuum milk-transport system known as the Step-Saver was developed to save the farmer the trouble of carrying the heavy steel buckets of milk all the way back to the storage tank in the milkhouse. The system used a very long vacuum hose coiled around a receiver cart, and connected to a vacuum-breaker device in the milkhouse.
Following milking each cow, the bucket milker would be dumped into the receiver cart. A foot pedal on the base of the cart lifted the cover, which kept contaminating dust and debris out of the cart, and allowed the farmer to hold the heavy bucket milker with both hands while pouring. A diffuser plate in the top of the cart prevented milk from splashing out while rapidly pouring the milk, and a large filter disk under the diffuser removed any debris from the milk.
Milk collected in a chamber below the filter, and was slowly sucked through the long hose to the milkhouse. When empty, a large float ball in the bottom of the cart would settle down over the drain hole to seal the line and retain system vacuum. When milk was poured into the cart, the ball would float up, unsealing the drain.
An automatic vacuum breaker in the milkhouse cyclically pulled milk from the cart into a glass jar using system vacuum, followed by a release of vacuum to atmospheric pressure, allowing the milk to flow into the bulk tank by gravity flow. When the float level in the jar dropped to setpoint, system vacuum was reapplied to restart the process. Check valves on the vacuum breaker milk hose prevented milk from flowing backwards to the cart when the jar vacuum was released.
As the farmer milked the cows in series, the cart would be rolled further down the center aisle, the long milk hose unwrapped from the cart, and hung on open hooks along the ceiling of the aisle.
Wisconsin legislative code references.
Use of the step saver and similar non-pipeline milk transfer systems is described in the legislative code of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP).
Continued usage of the washer/releaser.
The Bender washer/releaser patents have long expired and so now anyone is free to manufacture the system components. Replacement gaskets for the original equipment, and entire new washer/releaser hardware are being produced today by other equipment companies.
Maple syrup production and sap collection.
The washer/releaser has found new applications for maple syrup production. In the past, maple sap was collected using gravity flow and weeping of sap from tap holes drilled into trees. It was eventually discovered that much more sap could be collected from trees by attaching a vacuum hose to the tree, which results in higher sap collection. The vacuum collection does not appear to harm the tree.
The washer/releaser has a particular advantage that it is not electrically powered, which allows it to be installed outdoors in an extremely remote location, next to a large sap collection tank that is at normal atmospheric pressure. Only a small low-flow vacuum line needs to be provided at the collection point, with a small vacuum buffer tank to quickly restore vacuum after the releaser has emptied. (Old milk stainless steel milk bulk tanks from small dairies are similarly useful for sap collection, as the bulk tank insulation keeps the sap cold and fresh on warm sunny spring days.)
The standard vacuum for dairy use is 15 inches or 38 centimeters of mercury. A higher vacuum will cause injury and lesions to the cellular structure of cow teats. For maple application, 30 inches or 76 centimeters of vacuum does not cause harm to the tree. The original washer/releaser works fine with this much higher system vacuum.
Maple syrup requires a large ratio of sap to produce the final syrup product. Due to this, much larger versions of the washer/releaser are used for large scale sap collection. The smaller original dairy versions can also be connected in parallel to provide higher volume sap flow.
Electromechanical pipeline washing.
The Bender Machine Works also developed some of the first automated "wash-in-place" milk pipeline systems, which is generally constructed similar to an automatic dishwasher with automated fill, drain, soap dispensing, and various wash cycles. They continue to manufacture these washing systems today.


Garigal National Park

The Garigal National Park is a protected national park that is located within the North Shore and Forest District regions of Sydney, New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The national park is situated approximately north of the Sydney central business district.
Split into three distinct sections, divided by natural geography, urban development and road infrastructure, the park comprises the valley of Middle Harbour Creek and its tributaries, the slopes along
the northern side of Middle Harbour as far as and part of the catchment of Narrabeen Lakes.
The park trails are popular with bushwalkers and mountain bike riders, particularly between and in an area known as Cascades after the Cascades Track that runs through the area. There are over 35 trails in the park covering 120km, including both authorised bushwalking and mountain-biking trails, and unofficial or unsanctioned tracks.
Etymology and indigenous heritage.
The word "Garigal" is a derivation of the word "Carigal" or "Caregal" used to describe the indigenous people who lived in Guringai country, translated in modern English as Ku-ring-gai.
The Guringai people are the traditional custodians of the land now reserved as the Garigal National Park and there is considerable evidence of past Aboriginal activity in the area, with over 100 Aboriginal sites recorded to date, including shelters, cave art, rock engravings, middens, grinding grooves and a possible stone arrangement.
Location.
Much of the park is bounded by residential development along the ridge tops and it is easily accessible at numerous points by road and water. Several other conservation reserves and areas of bushland are adjacent or close by the Garigal National Park, including the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, the Sydney Harbour National Park, the Manly Warringah War Memorial Park (commonly known as the Manly Dam Reserve) and a number of areas of Crown land and other reserves in Northern Beaches, Ku-ring-gai and Willoughby local government areas.
The national park is defined by the following boundaries
Features.
Fauna.
A "Dry Sclerophyll Forest", Garigal National Park is home to a wide range of fauna, including birds, snakes and a wide range of native mammals (such as bandicoots, koalas, wallabies).
There is also a number of introduced pests, including rabbits and foxes.


Malpighamoeba mellificae

Malpighamoeba mellificae is a single celled parasite which affects excretory organs (malphigian tubules) of adult bees, causing the contagious disease called amoebiasis, which ultimately leads to death of the host. Worker bees are most prone to being infected. It is commonly found in collaboration with nosemosis. In order to diagnose the 3 - 15 μm size parasite, removal of the malphigian tubule is necessary. Because of there being no viable treatment against this parasite, preventional measures such as providing a clean food supply for the hive are crucial.
Size, means of movement and nutrition.
Although molecular data is sparse, it is known that the size of "Malpighamoeba mellificae" can reach from 3 - 15 μm. The function of locomotion is executed by a lash-like appendage called flagellum or pseudopodia. In order for the amoeba to get nutrients, either endocytosis or phagocytosis are utilized.
Transmission.
The disease is most commonly found Europe, Oceania and America, as the amoeba only attacks the western honey bee ("Apis mellifera"). Infection and transmission is the same as in nosemosis. Transmission occurs through cysts, which are constructed by the amoeba. Usual ways of transmission are by feeding of larvae by worker bees or through feces, where the cysts can survive up to one month. Drones and queen bees are mostly unaffected. Infected bees can spread the disease further by traveling off to other hives.
Diagnosis.
The parasites are found in the feces or the malphigian tubules of the bees. Microscopical examination of a tubule is necessary for the positive diagnosis of the disease. Therefore, removal of the malphigian tubules is an important step in diagnosing the parasite. They can be detached from the digestive tract with tweezers and need to be put on a microscope slide for examination. Cysts should be observed with a microscope, which can be seen ranging from 5 - 8 μm. Further attention should be paid to swelling of the striated border on the epithelium. The border can be damaged or completely consumed by the parasite.
Symptoms.
Typically, there will be an unusual increase in mortality rate for bees. Attention should be paid to the behavior of the bees as they will start to show signs of weakness, such as shaking their wings without an uplift into the air. Furthermore, feces will be yellow and fluid, while emitting a strong smell.
Prevention and treatment.
Feeding the hive with honey should be avoided as it can amplify the risk of infection spreading as well as attracting potential robber bees, which can carry diseases to the hive. Clean water should be provided at all times.
There is no viable treatment against "M. mellificae." Weak populations have a chance of self recovery. Strongly infested populations need to be killed off, in order to avoid further spreading of the disease. Special attention should be put into removal of dead bees, feces-infected honeycombs and a proper sanitation inside the hive.


Pshdar dog

The Pshdar dog () or Kurdish mastiff is a dog landrace native to Kurdistan. This dog is often used as a livestock guardian against predators.
The name is most likely derived from the Pshdar region of Kurdistan. It was, and still is, specially prized for its high stamina while fighting external threats, especially wild animals and other dogs. It has a fish-like body, broader at the chest and narrower at the waist, which enables it to twist and turn at high speeds irrespective of its huge frame.
The coats of Kurdish mastiffs can be yellow, white, red, burgundy, blue and black. The breed has loose skin, large dewlaps, and non-cartilaginous (soft and floppy) ears. The breed is longer and stronger than the other Asian mastiffs. Its body length is especially eye-catching, since it has a long and slender body resembling the lion. This breed has a significantly larger amount of endurance comparative to other dog breeds. It also has high body strength and is usually longer than other giant dog breeds.
Weight and height.
Males weigh between 50 and 92 kilograms (even crossing 100 kg in rare cases), females 45 to 80 kilograms. The height of these dogs at the shoulder is between 75 and 90 centimeters in males and between 70 and 85 in
females.
Age.
The Kurdish mastiff live on average 9 to 13 years. If they are used in combat, their expected lifespan is reduced to 6–8 years.


George Benson Hall Jr.

George Benson Hall Jr. (1810 – September 4, 1876) was a businessman involved in the Quebec lumber business. On his death, the Quebec "Morning Chronicle" described him as "one of Quebec’s most prominent and enterprising citizens".
He was born in Amherstburg, Upper Canada, the son of George Benson Hall and Angelica Fortier. In 1843, he married Mary Jane Patterson, the daughter of Peter Patterson, and the couple had 10 children together. On the death of his father-in-law, he became seigneur for Beauport, the last person to hold that title. Hall established a milling complex at the Montmorency Falls in 1851, which eventually grew to employ members of 800 families at Beauport. He served as an alderman for Quebec City from 1853 to 1862. Hall died at Montmorency, at the time one of the richest lumber operators in Canada. He was also known for his generosity to the under-privileged of his community.
In "The storied province of Quebec", the Hall sawmills at Montmorency are described as "the greatest in the world".


Cropout

A cropout, crop-out or crop out is a horse with body spots, including pinto or leopard complex spotting, or "high white" horse markings, with a sire and dam who both appeared to have been solid-colored. There are several variations in the definition, depending on the breed registry involved. There are multiple genetic reasons that may cause a horse to be a cropout. Sometimes solid-colored horses throw cropouts because some spotting patterns are recessive genes that are not necessarily expressed unless the relevant allele is inherited from both parents. Other times a gene may be a dominant or incomplete dominant but so minimally expressed that the horse looks solid but can pass flashy color on to its offspring.
The term originally came about because excess white in certain breeds was considered an undesirable trait and such foals were deemed ineligible for registration, making them grade horses of little economic value. However, many people liked the flashy color, others sought to keep cropout horses from becoming worthless, and thus new breed registries formed, such as the American Paint Horse Association. In recent years, as DNA testing has become available to verify parentage, breed registries that once excluded cropouts are now accepting them.
The term "cropout" is today most closely associated with horses of American Quarter Horse breeding. These horse are often registered as American Paint Horses, where the term usually refers to horses with overo coloring and whose parents were solid horses not registered with the APHA. It may also refer to sabino-patterned horses. For a cropout horse to be registered as a Paint, both sire and dam must either be Quarter Horses registered with the AQHA, or Thoroughbreds registered with The Jockey Club, plus have coloring that qualifies it for the regular registry of the APHA. Since the AQHA modified its "white rule" to allow registration of cropouts as Quarter Horses, the APHA has also limited its registration of cropouts to those foaled prior to January 1, 2005.
Cropouts also occur when two solid-colored Quarter Horses produce a foal with Appaloosa coloring. The leopard (Lp) gene that creates the distinctive spotting pattern of the Appaloosa has several variations, including the Varnish roan, which may appear to be simple roan coloring to many observers. Thus, the foundation bloodlines of the American Quarter Horse contained some horses who carried the Leopard gene, particularly those from the breeding program of an individual named Coke Roberds.
Though the term "cropout" is most closely associated with Quarter Horses, other breeds, such as the Morgan horse, use the term to describe horses with bold white markings, such as leg markings that up the legs to the belly with irregular, lacy and jagged edges. While the APHA is only open to horses of Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse ancestry, some strongly marked sabino Morgans have been double-registered as Pintos.
The overo gene is one of the most frequent genetic sources of cropouts in Paint horses, as there are some forms of overo that are recessive genes, and a significant number of cropout Paints are overos. At one time, the overo gene was thought to be a dominant gene, though it was acknowledged that more than one gene seemed to influence overo color, and overo offspring from nonspotted Quarter Horse parents was known. However, the full genetic basis for overo patterns is still not fully described.
In the case of most pinto and some Paint cropouts, another cause is the sabino gene, which can exhibit its presence with anything from tall white stockings or bold face markings, known as "high white," to significant spotting patterns. Research indicates that most Sabino patterning is probably polygenic, caused by a gene complex that is not the same as the gene or gene-complex which creates the overo pattern. One sabino gene, SB1, has been identified, but there appear to be others, as many sabino marked horses do not carry SB1. People seeking to produce color via the Sabino gene have noticed that crossing horses who both exhibit at least minimal sabino traits will usually result in a foal with more "loud" (flashy) coloring.
Usually a cropout will not be a tobiano. Because the tobiano gene is dominant, all tobianos have a least one tobiano parent.


Elmer (comics)

Elmer is a Filipino comic book created, written, and illustrated by Gerry Alanguilan. It was originally self-published as a four-issue miniseries under a Komikero Publishing imprint between 2006 and 2008 before being collected in a trade paperback in 2009. In 2010, it was published in France by Editions Ca Et La and North America by Slave Labor Graphics.
"Elmer" is set in a world where chickens suddenly gain human-level intelligence and the ability to speak. It focuses on one particular chicken, Jake Gallo, who is part of the second generation of intelligent chickens. When his father dies, Jake inherits a diary chronicling a struggle for equal rights that spans twenty years. It was favorably compared to George Orwell's "Animal Farm" and received critical acclaim for its art and seriousness. It won two awards in France and was nominated for one in North America.
Publication history.
Production.
Alanguilan grew up in San Pablo, Laguna, a city in a fairly rural area of the Philippines where chickens roam freely through the streets. By the mid 1990s, he was established in the American comic industry as an inker for popular artists such as Whilce Portacio and Leinil Yu and his work had been published by DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and Image Comics. He had been fascinated by chickens his whole life and had been making comic strips about them since 1997. He distributed these strips as photocopied minicomics under the title "Crest Hut Butt Shop". One of the features was "Stupid Chicken Stories".
In 2005, he set out to do a sequel, "Ultimate Chicken Story", which he intended to be "the most hysterically ridiculous story about chickens ever written." He spent more than a year researching chickens before he began writing, and the idea became more serious as he explored it, developing into "an opportunity to tell a story that isn't really about chickens, but of humanity in general, and how we treat each other."
The first draft was very different from what was eventually published because he removed parts he felt were too sensational or dramatized. In the first draft, the story was told entirely from the point of view of Elmer, an intelligent chicken who is also an actor. Influenced by David Beauchard’s "Epileptic" and David Mazzucchelli’s "City of Glass", Alanguilan altered the story's structure to focus on Elmer's son, Jake. Alanguilan also drew on an event from his teenage years, when he found his father's diary and read about the death of Gerry's uncle Dennis. The new format turned the story into one about Alanguilan, his parents, and his "fears of losing them as they get older." The original opening scene was a human attacking a chicken before being revealed as a film production. Alanguilan believed the scene was too much of a gimmick and moved it to the middle of the book.
Although a comic book about sentient chickens could have been fantasy or science fiction, he decided to make it an outright drama. The storyline eventually became too serious for a title as silly as "Ultimate Chicken Story", so he changed it to "Elmer". The story was fully planned when he began work on the first issue, and he wrote it in English because he wanted an international audience.
He began drawing the comic book in early 2005 with traditional art tools such as Mongol pencils and brushes. He took great care while illustrating "Elmer" because he felt his earlier work, "Wasted", was poorly drawn. To devote time to completing the comic book, he had to quit his job working for US comic companies. As a result, the period between 2006 and 2008 was one of the most financially difficult times of his life.
Publication.
Alanguilan did not expect "Elmer" to be as successful as it later became, but he knew it was good enough to pay for professional printing. He self-published it in the Philippines between 2006 and 2008 as a four-issue miniseries under the name "Komikero Publishing." The second and third issues had twice as many pages as a standard comic book. In 2006, he sent copies of the first issue to online columnists, reviewers, retailers, and industry insiders to let people know it existed. This self-promotion led the book to get good reviews from well-known writers like Steven Grant and Neil Gaiman and a widely read interview with Tom Spurgeon on "The Comics Reporter." The Spurgeon interview led the entertainment megastore Forbidden Planet to order copies directly from Alanguilan and promote it with special offers.
After the series was complete, Alanguilan offered all four issues in a special box set release, followed by a Filipino edition trade paperback in 2009. When the first edition of the Filipino collection was about to sell out in 2011, National Book Store offered to finance and print a second edition for Alanguilan. He was allowed to keep ownership of the material and the book included the "Komikero Publishing" label. The second edition had a different cover, additional material, and was only available in the Philippines.
International publishers expressed some interest in carrying "Elmer", but none of them would commit to it. To generate more interest among readers, Alanguilan released the sold-out first issue for free online. This led publisher Editions Ca Et La to purchase the French rights in 2010. After Alanguilan exchanged emails with publisher Dan Vado, Slave Labor Graphics released "Elmer" as a 144-page trade paperback in North America. Slave Labor Graphics also distributes the comic digitally.
Plot.
In 1979, an unexplained phenomenon causes the sky to flash white. Afterward, every chicken around the world develops instantaneous intelligence on par with humans. They are also able to speak clearly.
In 2003, second-generation intelligent chicken Jake Gallo is struggling to fit into a society he does not believe respects him. When his father, Elmer, falls ill, Jake returns to his childhood home in the remote countryside (hinted though never explicitly stated to be in Alanguilan's native Philippines). He reunites with his mother Helen, his brother Frankie, his sister May, and his parents’ human neighbor and friend, Ben. Elmer, who is in a coma, does not wake up and Jake does not get to say goodbye. Per Elmer's request, Helen gives his diary to Jake.
Jake glances through it and realizes it is a record of events after chickens gained human intelligence, beginning with Elmer's memories of the first day. He reads a random section in which Elmer and his brother Joseph were attacked by Ben. Jake confronts Ben and accuses him of only pretending to be his parents’ friend. Ben becomes angry and tells Jake that it was a different time, and that he would not understand. Ben reveals that there were a few chickens who became intelligent prior to 1979, and that he met one at the poultry where he worked. Ben recognized that the chicken was aware, but he beat it to death with a brick out of fear. This filled him with guilt, so when all chickens gained awareness he protected the three he could – Elmer, Helen, and Joseph. Ben suggests Jake read the whole diary from beginning and offers to add context if he can.
Elmer recounts the initial violent backlash by humanity and how Ben hid the three of them from groups out to kill chickens. This is followed by retaliation against humans by chickens, chicken-rights groups, and eventually recognition of chickens as humans by the United Nations. During this time, Elmer becomes a syndicated columnist in a newspaper and writes about chicken-related topics, both light-hearted and serious. The peace between humans and chickens is disrupted in the late 1980s by an outbreak of bird flu. Millions of healthy chickens are killed by humans to prevent the spread of the disease, and Ben hides Elmer and Helen again. When others come for them, Ben intervenes and is accidentally shot protecting Elmer. Once the flu is contained, humanity expresses regret for its rash actions and Elmer writes a scathing editorial about the panic. His journal entries become less frequent after he and Helen have children.
While he reads the diary over the course of several months, Jake is confronted by his siblings about his own view of humans. He spends time with his sister's human fiancée and visits the set of a film in which his brother stars. Jake is introduced to a human actress whom he finds attractive. As he reaches the end of his father's diary, there is an entry detailing a time Jake was attacked by some human boys as a child. Jake, who had repressed the memory, discusses it with his mother. He learns the attack was stopped by members of ‘’Gallus Rex’’, an anti-human chicken group. Their actions colored Jake’s perception, and Elmer recorded his concerns about their effect on Jake in his diary.
Jake turns his father’s diary into a successful book and begins dating the actress he met on the movie set.
Critical reception.
"Elmer" received mostly positive reviews from critics, winning the French ACBD Prix Asie (Asia Prize for Criticism) Award and the Prix Quai des Bulles Award in 2011 and being nominated for the 2011 Best New Graphic Album Eisner Award. The major United Kingdom retailer Forbidden Planet offered the book at a discount because they felt it was something that should be read, promoting it to customers by comparing it to George Orwell's "Animal Farm" and saying Alanguilan uses "the child fable-like idea ... to comment on morality, family and prejudice." The comparison to "Animal Farm" was reiterated by SLG Publisher Dan Vado and critic Carl Doherty. In an interview with PhilStar Global, famed writer Neil Gaiman described the work as "heartbreaking and funny", adding that it is "beautifully drawn." Veteran comic writer Steven Grant called it "work of a mature talent".
The art was praised by critics for supporting the seriousness of the text. "Publishers Weekly" said the art "takes what should be a self-evidently ludicrous proposition and somehow imbues it with plausibility". Jeff VanderMeer agreed, describing the art as detailed but never cluttered, adding realism to the plot. Reviewer Christopher Allen said Alanguilan's "inking gifts [are] on display with lots of rural texture." Greg McElhatton said "Elmer" "takes its subject quite seriously, avoiding chicken puns, jokes, and other sorts of trickery," but expressed disappointment that Jake was not as compelling of a character as Elmer.


Kenneth De Groot

Kenneth Roy De Groot (October 16, 1929 – April 22, 1993) was an American politician who sat in the Iowa House of Representatives between 1979 and 1993 as a member of the Republican Party. He held the District 1 seat until 1983, when he began representing District 8.
De Groot was born in Perkins, Iowa on October 16, 1929. He was a graduate of Hull High School, and pursued tertiary education at Iowa State University and Northwestern College. After college, De Groot became a dairy farmer for 42 years. Alongside his sons, De Groot owned and operated DG Valley-View Farms. De Groot held membership and executive positions in several agricultural collectives, companies, and associations, among them, 4-H, the Dairy Herd Improvement Association, the Land O'Lakes Northwest Iowa Dairy Division, and the Farm Bureau.
De Groot served in the Iowa House of Representatives between 1979 and 1993 as a member of the Republican Party. He held the District 1 seat until 1983, when he began representing District 8. De Groot died on April 22, 1993, months after completing his seventh and final term in office.


Maryland (cigarette)

Maryland is a Luxembourgish brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by "Landewyck Tobacco".
History.
Maryland was introduced in 1944 when raw tobacco from Landewyck's other brand Africaine was in short supply and became a popular brand in Luxembourg, becoming known as a "cigarette for everyone".
Markets.
Maryland cigarettes are mainly sold in Luxembourg, but also were or still are sold in Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Israel, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and the United States.


Bonsmara

The Bonsmara is a breed of cattle known for its high quality beef and resistance to local diseases. Originating in South Africa as a scientific experiment of professor Jan Bonsma, the Bonsmara was created after many cross matings and back-crosses consisting of five-eighths Afrikaner (Sanga-type), three-sixteenths Hereford, and three-sixteenths Shorthorn (both taurine types).


Platero

Platero is the eponymous donkey of the 1914 story "Platero and I" (English for "Platero y yo"). The book is one of the most popular works by Spanish poet Juan Ramón Jiménez, the recipient of the 1956 Nobel Prize in Literature. In 1960, the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco composed a suite of music for guitar with narrator based on the book.
Platero ("silvery") is described in the lyric prose of the book as a "small donkey, a soft, hairy donkey: so soft to the touch that he might be said to be made of cotton, with no bones. Only the jet mirrors of his eyes are hard like two black crystal scarabs."
The little donkey remains a symbol of tenderness, purity and naiveté, and is used by the author as a means of reflection about the simple joys of life, memories, and various characters and their ways of life.


Star Cigar

Star Cigar is a brand of premium cigars and accessories. Its most popular blend is S.O.B. Robusto, which is manufactured in the Dominican Republic and distributed worldwide. Fran “Shon” Shatone Brooks invented the product and introduced it to the United States in May 2013. Robusto cigars are a class of cigars created from a mixture of Dominican tobacco leaves, and finished with a round cap. Its six other blends are the churchill, corona, double corona, panatela, toro and torpedo.
Smoke Magazine Review and Hard Rock Casino Debut.
In March 2014, less than a year after it was introduced to consumers, S.O.B. Robusto was featured in "Smoke Magazine, cigarweekly (The limited Shon Brooks" ""Star Cigar" becomes one of the highest rated cigars on the planet.)", a quarterly lifestyle publication for cigar enthusiasts. The cigar received ratings between 87 and 95 on a 100-point rating scale, which represent very good to excellent.
In 2014 Brooks secured an agreement with Hard Rock to retail the cigars in the five-star Hard Rock Casino in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.


Petplan Australia

 Petplan Australia is a pet insurance company underwritten by MS Amlin Syndicate 2001 at Lloyd's (Amlin).
Petplan has separately-operated insurance companies in Australia, Brazil, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, the USA and Spain. Petplan is among the largest pet insurance companies in Australia.
History.
Founded by Gwen and Doug Ford in 2004, Petplan Australia is a branch of Petplan UK that began in 2006 to cover pets for life. The Australian branch extended to New Zealand in 2008.
In 2016, following ASIC action, Allianz Australia Insurance Limited (Allianz) has compensated 740 Petplan insurance customers over $231,000 and its agent, Petplan Australasia Pty Ltd (Petplan), has corrected its Petplan advertising. https://www.choice.com.au/money/insurance/pet/articles/allianz-refunds-petplan-pet-insurance-customers
In 2017 Petplan changed underwriters causing a massive increase in premiums sparking a large number of negative reviews. https://www.productreview.com.au/p/petplan.html
Service.
There are two types of insurance that Petplan Australia offers: the Petplan Professional for businesses and the Maximum Benefit plans for pet owners. Pet owner insurance plans cover dogs, cats and horses. The four plans are:
Petplan Australia covers veterinarians, dog breeders, brokers and pet shops. The Petplan Professional are plans that insure pet-related businesses including kennels, groomers, training schools and veterinarians. Petplan business insurance covers pet-related businesses from theft, catastrophic events and other business interruptions.
Like other pet insurance companies, Petplan does not offer coverage for pre-existing conditions, defined as those medical conditions that first occurred or showed clinical sign(s) or symptoms before the effective date of the policy or that occurred or showed clinical sign(s) or symptoms in the first 14 days of the policy.
Philanthropy.
Petplan Australia conducts pet food drives for animal shelters throughout Australia and New Zealand. The pet insurance company sponsors special events for the ASAVA, Canine Community of South Australia and Agility Nationals SA. Annual Charitable donations go to Australian organizations like Animal Aid and Guide Dogs Australia. Petplan Australia sponsored of the Best in Show first prize for the Royal Melbourne Dog Show competition.
Recognition and awards.
Petplan Australia has been credited the following awards:
1 Choice Awards Top 9 of 10 Pet Insurance Products
2 Best Pet Insurance Company 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012 awarded by the Master Dog Breeders Association.
External links.
Petplan is the WORLDWIDE leader in dog insurance:


Tree baler

A tree baler is a machine that wraps trees to allow for easier shipment and storage. Wrapped trees take up much less space and are less likely to be damaged during shipment. The aim of the device is to replace work that previously required hand-tying individual trees, most often used at commercial nurseries.
Tree balers use a funnel, through which the tree is forced, thereby compressing the branches tight to the trunk. The baler then wraps or ties the branches to maintain a compressed shape for shipment and storage. Simple machines are operated manually, usually requiring one person to push the tree through the funnel and another to wrap it. A mechanized baler does both operations and can bale over 100 trees per hour.
According to the "Berks-Mont News", the motorized christmas tree baler was invented in Pennsylvania in 1944.
A manual baler may also keep the branches compressed by encasing the tree in a plastic netting, rather than wrapping them with twine. This type of baler is often used in retail sales of christmas trees to package the tree for transport by the customer. Manual balers do not compress trees as tightly as mechanized ones.


Signature Select

Signature Select is a brand of handmade premium cigar owned by Top Shelf Cigar Co. of Skippack, Pennsylvania.
History and background.
José "Don Pepin" Garcia created the Signature Select Green Label at the company's request and the brand made its debut in late 2004.
The cigars are manufactured at the El Rey de los Habanos factory in the Little Havana section of Miami, Florida.
Description.
The brand bears the company owner's signature on the cigar band and box. Nicaraguan grown, the filler is a Cuban-seed “Corojo ‘99” blend, the wrapper is a Colorado leaf. The cigars are celloed and packed in boxes of 25. Each box is dated.


Osier bed

An Osier bed is where historically willows were planted and coppiced to produce withies, which were used for basket making, fish-traps, and other purposes. The willow species "salix viminalis", known as the "common osier" was typically, although not exclusively grown for this purpose. The marshy fringes of rivers, especially those which are often overwhelmed regularly by tides and those with small islands, aits, eyots, or holts, were are the most common locations for osier beds. Willow rods (cuttings) would be planted, which root easily in moist ground, and the growth of the willow withies would be cut every one or two years.
Osier beds and basket-weaving using willow were a significant industry in Great Britain until the early 20th Century, when industrial machinery and the import of cheaper materials made them unprofitable and commercially unviable.


Companion dog

A companion dog is a dog that does not work, providing only companionship as a pet, rather than usefulness by doing specific tasks. Many of the toy dog breeds are used only for the pleasure of their company, not as workers. Any dog can be a companion dog, and many working types such as retrievers are enjoyed primarily for their friendly nature as a family pet, as are mixed breed dogs. The American Kennel Club also offers a Companion dog title for judged dog obedience competitions.
Working vs. companion.
Breed groups argue that any dog in the working group type is inherently a "working" dog, while others argue that only a dog with an active occupation, either in a breed-related field (such as water trials for retrievers or herding trials for herding dogs) or in a breed-nonspecific field that requires training and discipline, such as being assistance dogs or participating in dog agility, can be considered a working dog.
Dogs that have been chosen for traits that make a convenient pet are generally smaller breeds, and the tradition of keeping pretty dogs for no purpose other than to be court decorations stems back thousands of years to Chinese nobility. The Pekingese and the Pug are both examples of canines chosen for their ability to be pets. In the case of the Pekingese, it was for their lion-like demeanor; for the Pugs, it was for their "lucky" wrinkles and their monkey-like face.
Other dogs that appear to be strictly a decorative or entertaining breed of dog originally also had jobs outside of their main companionship task, such as the Lhasa Apso's job as a watch dog, or the delicate Yorkshire Terrier's exceptional rat catching abilities.
Competition Obedience Titles.
Companion Dog ("CD" added to the dog's registered name) - is officially a "Novice obedience Title" in the AKC Competition Obedience Ring, whereby a team enters the "ring" with 200 points, and needs to leave with at least 170 points to "qualify". It requires three "legs" (trials) under three different AKC judges. Any dog can earn a CD title. Levels for obedience are Companion Dog (CD), Companion Dog Excellent (CDX), Utility Dog (UD), Utility Dog Excellent (UDX), Obedience Trial Champion (OTCH), and National Obedience Champion (NOC). A pet dog is not considered a "Companion Dog" without entering a competition ring and creating a document trail. The first AKC licensed obedience trial was held in 1936, where 200 dogs were entered.
Companion versus toy dogs.
Toy dogs and companion dogs have a large overlap. However companion dogs are not limited by size, whereas all toy dogs are small.


Ainsworth Mill, Breightmet

Ainsworth Mill, Breightmet is a mercerising mill near the Breightmet neighborhood of Bolton, Greater Manchester. It was bought by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in the 1940s as an attempt to develop a cotton finishing presence.
Location.
Breightmet is a small town to the east on Bolton town centre and west of Bury. The Ainsworth estate though physically attached to Breightment is for administrative purposes in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The early name Bolton le Moors described the position of the town amid the low hills on the edge of the West Pennine Moors south east of Rivington Pike (456 m). Breightmet lies on relatively flat land on west of the clough or steep-banked valley through which the Bradshaw Brook flows in a southerly direction towards the River Tonge and then the River Irwell. The geological formation around Breightmet consists of sandstones of the Carboniferous series and coal measures, to the north of Bolton Bury road the lower coal measures are mixed with underlying Millstone Grit.
History.
The site was in use in 1850. It was reconfigured in 1893. It was driven by a condensing stationary steam engine which required a reservoir or mill lodge to contain water to condense the steam; this was filled in the 1970s. The mill took advantage of the copious soft water to engage in finishing yarn or fabric. The processes involved bleaching, mercerising and dyeing.
The industry peaked in 1912 when it produced 8 billion yards of cloth. The great war of 1914–1918 halted the supply of raw cotton, and the British government encouraged its colonies to build mills to spin and weave cotton. The war over, Lancashire never regained its markets. The independent mills were struggling. The Bank of England set up the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in 1929 to attempt to rationalise and save the industry. Ainsworth Mill, Breightmet was one of 104 mills bought last by the LCC. It one of the 53 mills that LCC owned in 1950, and was extensively refurbished to provide a mercerising facility. They established a research and quality control laboratory here to service the group and ensure the stability of the colour. Yarn was received from other mills in the group in warp or in hank, and is mercerised, bleached and dyed, then wrapped into hank, cone, quiller pirn, back beam, weaver's beam, cheese or precision wound multiple end cheese as required. On LCC demise, Ainsworth Mill continued in business as a bleaching and dyeing work until the dyeing company that went into liquidation in 2006. The works is derelict, but surveys have been done showing an intention to bring the mill back into industrial use.
Mercerisation.
Mercerisation is a treatment for cotton fabric and thread that gives fabric a lustrous appearance. The process is applied to materials like cotton or hemp. The process was devised in 1844 by John Mercer of Great Harwood, Lancashire, who treated cotton fibres with sodium hydroxide. The treatment caused the fibres to swell, which in Mercer's version of the process shrunk the overall fabric size and made it stronger and easier to dye. In 1890 H. A. Lowe held the yarn under tension during treatment. This prevented shrinking and gave the yarn or resulting fabric a lustrous appearance.
Mercerisation alters the chemical structure of the fibre, inter-convertings from alpha-cellulose to a thermodynamically more favorable beta-cellulose polymorph thus swelling of the cell wall. This increases the surface area and reflectance, and gives the fibre a softer feel.
Architecture.
A ten bay three storey early mill, with triple pitch roof and one internal stair column. The engine house is separate and possesses a square chimney.


List of foresters


Lexington (cigarette)

Lexington is a Luxembourgish brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Landewyck Tobacco. In South Africa, it is sold by BAT South Africa, a subsidiary of British American Tobacco.
History.
Lexington was launched in 1950 and became one of the most popular brands of the 1950s, with one billion cigarettes being sold every year since 1955. The cigarettes became a popular brand in the Netherlands and South Africa, but failed on the German market.
Various advertising jingles were created from the 1960s until the 1980s for South African radio, as well as advertising posters in Dutch and South African English and Afrikaans. A hand-drawn dog known as "Lexi" was also created in the 1960s to act as an advertiser for the cigarette brand.
Some of the most popular slogans used to promote the brand were "For after action satisfaction, smoke Lexington" and "Lexington, that's the one".
Controversy.
The Lexington-affaire.
In March 1962, the Dutch Consumentenbond released an article in their own newspaper, the "Consumentengids", comparing the 14 most popular cigarette brands in the Netherlands at the time based on their tar and nicotine levels. The test was done on a special smoking machine that mimics a person who smokes.
The test concluded that there was little difference in the amount of nicotine in the cigarettes. The brands Three Castles, Peter Stuyvesant, Chief Whip, and Alaska had the smallest amount of nicotine in their smoke. The highest amount of nicotine was measured in the Lexington cigarette smoke with 0.88 mg. The differences in tar were much more prominent, however. The Roxy cigarette had the lowest amount of tar with 30.5 mg. The brands Hunter and Lexington had twice the amount of tar in their smoke with 75.0 and 63.9 mg respectively.
At the time there was much concern about possible health hazards of smoking. Since the 1950s, research had been performed about the health risks of smoking and in March 1962, 5 days after the publication of the "Consumentengids" article, a report was released by the Royal College of Physicians titled "Smoking and health", linking smoking to various diseases such as lung cancer and heart attacks. The Dutch press paid a lot of attention to that report, as well as that of the Consumentenbond. Due to all the exposure from the newspapers, the article reached a lot more people than the 35,000 subscribers to "Consumentengids".
The reaction was massive. Many people switched over to the brands that passed the test such as Roxy, others started smoking cigars as a safer alternative, and some reduced their smoking habit or even quit smoking altogether. The Koninklijke Theodorus Niemeyer BV company used the publication as publicity to advertise their Roxy brand as "low tar" and "low nicotine" with the slogan "Roxy – Nu beter dan ooit!".
Most tobacco companies at the time (such as British American Tobacco) refused to acknowledge the "Consumentengids" report, saying it was not factually based, and tried to focus as little attention on their brands as possible. However Abraham Jan Blok, the importer of the Lexington brand to the Netherlands, was furious. Lexington was the market leader at the time, with nearly 25% of all cigarettes sold in the Netherlands being Lexington cigarettes. Blok challenged the Consumentenbod, claiming that their test results were inaccurate, and performing his own tests in London, New York City and Zurich with different results, one showing that the amount of tar was as low as 12.1 mg, compared to the 63.9 mg in the Consumentenbond report. With these results, Blok started a new advertising campaign to "cleanse" Lexington from the dirty image it had acquired. He paid every major Dutch newspaper at the time (117 in total) at a cost of 250,000 guilders to publish a large advertisement claiming that the amount of tar in Lexington cigarettes was much lower than what was reported in the "Consumentengids" report. At the same time he launched a major publicity offensive with leaflets and increased advertising including a cinema advertisement featuring cool stuntmen and rough cowboys.
Bartholomeus Buitendijk, one of the two original founders of the Consumentenbond, reacted on the radio about Blok's accusations concerning the test. Abraham Blok said that it wasnot an exaggeration, due to the fact that the manufacturer of Lexington had lost millions after the publication of the article. On 25 May 1962, the Consumentenbond received a summons in which Blok sued them. The primary demand was that the Consumentenbond would have to release an extra edition of the "Consumentengids" within one week containing a correction to the test report.
The court hearing began on 6 June 1962. J.A. Stoop, Blok's lawyer, attacked the "irresponsible" and "hasty" publication of the results of the "faulty" test by the Consumentenbond and compared it to the results from the other three tests done in London, New York and Zurich. From these results it was shown that a different length of cigarette, puff duration, puff frequency and puff volume were used and that the results for tar and nicotine were different for that reason. The lawyer for the defence, J.A. Nagtegaal, tried to justify the test in every way possible by calling various experts to his defence; Bertram who led the research, a statistician (who abruptly debunked his own research) and a doctor. After several days of testimony, the final judgement on 22 June 1962, concluded that there was no standard way of testing, and the Consumentenbond should have realised this before publishing the article. The judge (an avid subscriber to the "Consumentengids" who had not smoked for years and hoped that he would not lose his subscription) said that Lexington was right but did not agree with all the demands made by Blok. The Consumentenbond was forbidden to repeat the publication and had to pay Blok's court costs of 395 guilders, but wasnot required to publish a retraction as Blok had demanded.
In July 1962, the members of the Consumentenbond and Blok reached a compromise; Blok dropped all the demands for financial compensation, and the Consumentenbond published a correction in "Consumentengids", admitting their wrongdoing.
The whole "Lextington-affaire" was publicised widely in the press. Before the judge reached his final judgement, there was a lot of criticism of the way the Consumentenbond handled the situation. Especially "Elsevier" and several trade magazines lashed out at the company, calling the test "shameful and harmful" and the Consumentenbond "meddlesome" and "left-leaning".
The aftermath of the affair had large and surprising consequences. The Consumentenbond was accused of being inaccurate and "dilettantist", but had also gained valuable publicity and were praised as a small company who had bravely fought against the producer of a big and popular brand of cigarettes. The company gained 25,000 new members, reaching 250,000 in 1969. Even though Blok had won the court case, the constant association between the Consumentenbond test and his brand, as well as the ever-increasing fear of smoking and health hazards in the Dutch market, caused Lexington's market share to crumble within two years from nearly 25% to 7%, declining to a second-tier brand within a few years.
Lexington is still manufactured in the Netherlands, while Abraham Blok moved to Switzerland. The dog "Lexi" was terminated as no longer fitting into Lexington's market strategy.
Sponsorships.
Formula 1.
In the 1975 Formula One season and 1976 Formula One season, Lexington sponsored a private-entry Tyrrell Racing team to compete with Ian Scheckter at the 1975 and 1976 South African Grand Prix. The car used and driven was the Tyrrell 007.
Markets.
Lexington is or was sold in the following countries: Luxembourg, Netherlands, Germany, Greece, Zambia and South Africa.


Romulus (donkey)

Romulus is the world's tallest living donkey, as certified by the Guinness World Records. He is just over 2 2/3 times as tall as KneeHi, the Guinness World Record holder for shortest donkey. He is owned by Phil and Cara Barker Yellott of Adrian, Michigan. Romulus is an American Mammoth Jackstock gelding. Romulus has a brother Remus, who is just shorter.
Overview.
Romulus is years old and has been measured at from hooves to withers. Romulus weighs about . Romulus and Remus are American Mammoth Jackstock donkeys, the world's largest donkey breed. American mammoths were developed and utilized for their potential to produce large mules when cross-bred with horses.
Guinness World Record.
On February 8, 2013, Romulus was measured for the Guinness Book of World Records. His paperwork was received in London and certified by Guinness World Records on May 13, 2013.


Pianissimo Peche

Pianissimo is a Japanese brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Japan Tobacco.
Description.
Originally it was sold as a light variant of the Salem brand in 1995 which was made by the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. Japan Tobacco acquired the overseas division of RJR and made the Pianissimo brand independent in June 2004. It was first launched and tested in July 2005 in the Miyagi (宮城) and Yamagata (山形) prefectures, and then introduced nationwide in October 2005 Since May 1, 2005, JT handles stocks (Domestic production). Since then, other variants like Petil and Franc were added and other JT Menthol brands were made into Pianissimo. Like Virginia S made by Altria, it is a cigarette specifically aimed at women.
The word "Pianissimo" refers to the musical dynamics and volumes of sounds or notes. The word pêche is a French term meaning "peach," as well as the peach taste that the cigarettes contain. Produced and sold almost exclusively in Japan, the cigarettes are sold as 20 Cigarettes Per Pack, 10 Packs Per Carton, and 200 Cigarettes Per Carton.
In December 2011, JTI announced they had changed 7 Pianissimo variants. The same thing happened to 9 variants in mid-2016.
Products.
Below are all the variants of Pianissimo cigarettes, with the levels of tar and nicotine included.


Haymarket Faultless

Ch. Haymarket Faultless was a male Bull Terrier who won best in show at the 1918 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. He was bred and owned by R.H. Elliot. Haymarket Fautless narrowly beat out a Pekingese, Phantom of Ashcroft. The show was so close that the referee had to be called in to decide the winner.


Karel Josephy

Dr. iur. Karel Josephy (13.3.1895, Tábor - 12.6.1968, Oltyne Castle) was the secretary of commerce of Kutná Hora tobacco factory (nowadays Philip Morris International) and chief executive officer of tobacco factory in Tábor, Bohemia. Czechoslovak Tobacco industry was the leading force of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Life.
Karel Josephy was born in family of state officers. During World War I (1915 - 1918) he served as first lieutenant in war service. His working life in tobacco industry was spent within former Austro - Hungarian areal: Eger tobacco factory (secretary of commerce), Košice (secretary of commerce), Mukacheve (secretary of commerce) Kutná Hora and Tábor.
Awards.
Karel Josephy was the first breeder of legendary Borzoi Grifo Karolinger von Wienerwald which established prominent breeding lineages in Europe and Russia.


Paul Garmirian (cigar brand)

Paul Garmirian, or P.G, is a cigar brand named after its founder, Armenian-American cigar connoisseur Paul Garmirian. It is made entirely with Dominican grown tobaccos.
History.
Paul Garmirian founded his company in 1990 after doing extensive research on cigars for his book "The Gourmet Guide to Cigars", published the same year. The company sells its products only via retail locations.
Notable smokers.
Notable Paul Garmirian cigar smokers include Presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush and other Washington insiders. "Law & Order" star Fred Thompson, The West Wing actor Richard Schiff, and David Letterman are also known to smoke PG cigars.


Cuban Diplomat

Cuban Diplomat is a brand of handmade premium cigar owned by Cigar King, Inc..
History and background.
The brand was created by José "Pepin" Garcia and is manufactured at the El Rey de los Habanos factory in the Little Havana section of Miami, Florida.
Description.
The brand consists of two ranges, the Cuban Diplomat and the Cuban Diplomat Corojo Rosado.
Cuban Diplomat.
This range consists of five vitolas and is essentially the filler and binder used in the Havana Soul, but with a Connecticut shade wrapper. The combination results in a medium to full-bodied cigar. The band is red and bears an image of a tobacco field within a broad border. The cigars are packed 25 to a box.
Cuban Diplomat Corojo Rosado.
This range consists of four vitolas. It also takes the filler and binder used in the Havana Soul, but here the wrapper is a rosado Corojo leaf. The combination results in a medium to full-bodied cigar, with a richer flavor. The band is similar to the band for the Cuban Diplomat. The cigars are packed 25 to a box.


Savage Mill

The Savage Mill is a historic cotton mill complex in Savage, Maryland, which has been turned into a complex of shops and restaurants. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. It is located in the Savage Mill Historic District. Buildings in the complex date from 1822 to 1916.
Early history.
The mill property is part of a land grant named Ridgeley's Forest, surveyed on June 3, 1685, by Colonel Henry Ridgley, a future justice of the peace for Anne Arundel who arrived in the colonies in 1659. The property was occupied by Alexander Warfield's (1677-1745) son who transferred it to his cousin, Alexander Warfield (of John) (1704-1740). In 1750, Alexander constructed an early mill along the river at the falls and passed it along to his sons Brice Warfield and John Worthington. The mill was not run profitably and was sold to Francis Simpson (1721-1804) along with portions of "Warfields Range" along the Little Patuxent in 1760. Simpson acquired several local plantation properties and was noted in the 1790 and 1800 Anne Arundel County Census having 16-17 slaves working for him by 1800.
The cotton mill.
Commodore Joshua Barney had a colorful career as a sailor, merchant and privateer ranging from Philadelphia harbor to Jamaica. He acquired the land we know as Savage when it was still part of Anne Arundel county, referencing it in letters as being at "Elkridge" (The name the nearest port at Elkridge Landing). In 1809, Nathaniel F. Williams (1782-1864) married Caroline Barney, daughter of Joshua Barney, who lived at the Commodore Joshua Barney House built in 1760.
The mill was started next to the Barney house in 1810 by brothers Nathanael F. Williams, Amos Adams Williams (1776-), Cumberland Dugan Williams (1781-) and George Williams (1778-). Shortly after starting the enterprise, Joshua Barney and Nathaniel Williams participated in the War of 1812, with Nathanial becoming wounded at the Battle of North Point and Barney wounded at the Battle of Bladensburg. The mill and town were named after the Kingston, Jamaican born John Savage II(1790-1831), of the Philadelphia shipping firm Savage & Dugan. Savage was also known for his association with the old United States Bank. A close family association to the founders of Savage and Dugan is evident in Cumberland Dugan Williams naming. Savage financed the Williams brothers the money to start the business and bought the mill outright in 1823 for $6,667.67. James E. P. Boulden
In December 1821 the mill was chartered as the Savage Manufacturing Company. The main product was cotton duck, used for sailcloth and a wide variety of other uses. On March 26, 1824, $12,000 was loaned from the Bank of Baltimore to expand operations. The mill had established itself early on as a premier site of manufacturing product and machinery for the east coast as noted in an 1825 letter from Daniel Lammott to E.I. Du Pont stating "it would be the best and largest establishment in the country." Most workers were women who were on lockdown throughout their shifts posing a risk of certain peril if a fire broke out. A messenger would deliver notes if communications were needed or they could speak through a small window in the locked door.
By 1829 Amos Williams combined "Whites Contrivance", "Brothers In Partnership", and "Williams Discovery" to expand the mill town to 980 acres. The parcel was named "Conclusion", which was joined with Charles Alexander Warfield's "Wincopin Neck" upstream to form a dam on the Little Patuxent River, which runs adjacent to the mill property. Money was loaned to by additional land from Mrs. Dorsey. Amos managed the company at the time from an office in Baltimore on Calvert street just west of Lexington. In 1831, Mr. Hack, a machinist at the mill developed a machine for reeling and twisting silk that was taken to Washington for a patent The same year, a case of Small Pox struck at least 30 persons. In October 1832, Amos Williams moved to the mill site with a salary of $300 a year to entertain business clients. By this time the cotton mill site had a grist mill, saw mill, machine shop, foundry, blacksmith shop, wheelwright shop, brick-making facility, farm, rental houses and company store. That year, Joseph Bancroft used parts manufactured by the mill to establish a mill in Rockdale, Pennsylvania. In 1835 the post office moved from Waterloo to Savage Factory. In 1837, a furnace purchased for $8,000 operated on the mill property but managed separately by Amos A Williams, Cumberland Dugan Williams and Thomas Landsdale. After a drought in June 1836, the company decided to operate a lower cost wagon path to connect to the new B&O railroad and a portion of the Thomas Snowden's property on the Hammond Branch was added to divert water. The same year the company provided slabbing engines, turning lathes and gear cutters to the Harpers Ferry Armory, location John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry. From 1836 to 1843, The Savage Manufacturing Company started its own currency with scrip amounts of 25 cents, 50 cents and one dollar. On June 6, 1839 Amos A. Williams resigned due to a sickness that would last until 1844, leaving control of the company to his brother Cumberland Dugan Williams. During his sickness, the company developed "Baldwin's Cotton, Hay and Tobacco press which was manufactured onsite for sales in the Southern states and the Rechm planing machine. Additional land was purchased by the mill on November 28, 1843, for $4,755 that included property from Mr. Lambert and William Worthington for firewood and ore for the furnace operations. In 1846, The Savage Manufacturing Company sold existing or manufactured looms and steam power engines for the Powhatan Company in Baltimore. In 1848, Amos A. Williams entered ligation against the Savage Manufacturing Company and his brothers George, Cumberland and Nathanial claiming they tried to force him into poverty from indebtedness during his illness.
The mill had a good source of water power, but the river was unnavigable for delivery. Horses and mules were used to deliver the product to market. In March 1835 the Savage Railroad Company was incorporated by Amos and Cumberland Williams and other investors with $15,000 in stock to bring a rail spur to the mill off the Patuxent branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and in the 1870s a Bollman Truss Bridge was moved to the spur. This bridge survives and is the only one of its kind left.
In 1859, William Henry Baldwin Jr. (1821- ) of the Talbot Jones Co. (Woodward Baldwin & Co.) took over operations as the Savage Manufacturing Company, purchasing the land and factory for $42,000. From 1861 to 1862 the mill closed due to lack of raw cotton from the Southern states during the civil war. The mill was managed by William Henry's son Carroll Baldwin from 1905 to 1918 merging with the New York-based Baldwin, Leslie and Company. In 1918 the company was renamed Leslie Evans and Company after Baldwin's death. Harry M. Leslie (1880-1945) managed the Savage Mill, the Hart Cotton Mill of Tarboro, North Carolina, Postex Cotton Mills of Post, Texas and Clinchfield Manufacturing Company of Marion, North Carolina.
Workers from the factory worked 6 days a week in 10 hours shifts and were issued company scrip in various denominations that were usable in the only store in the village on Commerce street that was also owned by the company.
In 1880, steam engines were installed. In 1911 The Savage Manufacturing Company Patented a process for drying paper using its cotton duck product. Notable factory workers at the mill included Horatio Gambrill of Druid Mills, David Carroll of Mt. Vernon Mills, and Baltimore mayor Samuel Hinks.
In February 1928, in the lull in operations between World War I and World War II, the B&O discontinued its Patuxent rail spur service upstream to the quarries at Guilford, Maryland, leaving Savage at the end of the line. In 1939, Savage still operated as a "company town" under less progressive standards, with the Savage Manufacturing Company stipulating that land it considered donating to the county for a school never be sold for use by an African American, another business, or sales of wine or spirits.
Throughout World War II the mill produced heavy duck for canvas, hoses, refining and sails and community power from the waterwheel. The demand for canvas dropped considerably after the war, and the mill was scheduled to be shut down 1 January 1948. At time the 400 acre complex employed 372, consisted of twelve industrial buildings and 98 houses owned and rented by the mill. All though there were early records of using African American apprentices prior to the civil war, the mill remained segregated through most of its industrial history.
The oldest remaining mill structure is the stone carding and spinning building, probably built between 1816 and 1823. The mill was expanded by the Baldwins before 1881, and that expansion included the brick tower with Romanesque overtones. Other buildings include the weaving shed, preparation area, paymaster's office, and several early-20th century warehouses and power plants.
The Christmas village.
After the mill closed it was bought by Harry Heim for $450,000 who converted it into Santa Novelties, manufacturing Christmas ornaments, featuring a Christmas Display Village named "Santa Heim" (Santa's Home) which opened in December 1948. It featured live reindeer, a one ring circus, and a miniature train that carried guests to the mill from a parking lot on U.S. Route 1. A turreted castle was built at the corner of route one and Gorman road. The Carol Baldwin Hall was used for sales of Christmas products. Several picket fenced homes along the tree-lined Baltimore Avenue were demolished for the operation.
Production included 65 million Christmas tree globes produced onsite with 400 workers.
This business was relatively short lived. Efforts to rename the town to Santa Heim did not go through, as did the plan for a hotel and artificial lake with a waterfall. In 1950 the mill was purchased by Albert Winer and his brothers Samuel, Hyman, and Ephraim who used for warehousing by the National Store Fixture Company.
Renovation.
In 1975, Winer unsuccessfully attempted to rezone the mill property from industrial to business while starting a restoration attempt. The initial restoration was completed by September 1981. In 1985 Albert Winer's son Jay Winer founded Savage Limited Partnership and reopened the mill as a collection of restaurants, specialty shops, and antique dealers. In 1991, The State of Maryland and Howard County loaned Savage Mill Limited Partnership $900,000. The partnership declared bankruptcy in 1994. This has been expanded over the years to encompass five of the larger buildings in the complex. In 2010, tourism numbers for the mill surpassed one million. A series of zip lines and rope obstacles were built along the mill race creating Terrapin Adventures. In 2015 the mill drew regional publicity after the owner of Rams Head was convicted for videotaping women in a bathroom.
Subdivision.
In 2013, the Howard County Department of Planning and Zoning issued a comprehensive zoning update that included zoning changes to allow density increases for the "Savage remainder" property. The five acre plateau of woodland with steep drops to the Patuxent on two sides that was not purchased by the county as part of Savage Park. Buzzutto homes proposed a housing project called the Settlement at Savage Mill which included significant grading changes and donations of land by the parks department to the developer to maximize density, which was opposed by a referendum attempt. The 7000-person referendum attempt was suppressed by the landowners' attorney, William Erskine, who sits on the economic development agency as well as the same law firm as County Executive Ken Ulman's father.


Padilla Hybrid

Padilla Hybrid is a brand of handmade premium cigar owned by Padilla Cigar Company.
History and background.
The brand was created by Ernesto Padilla and is manufactured in the Dominican Republic. It was introduced into the U. S. market in 2003.
Description.
The wrapper that gives this cigar its name is a hybrid of Cuban-seed and Connecticut-seed tobaccos grown in Ecuador. The binder is Nicaraguan and the filler is a Dominican, Nicaraguan & Peruvian blend. The cigars come celloed in a varnished box, 20 to the box.
The band was designed by Ernesto Padilla. The ends and the top represent pen points and are a tribute to his father, Cuban ex-patriate, poet, writer and teacher Heberto Padilla. The black and gold background distinguishes it from the band of the Padilla Maduro, which is blue and silver.
Notes.
The br


Drayton Mill

Drayton Mill is a historic textile mill complex located near Spartanburg, Spartanburg County, South Carolina. The complex includes the distinctive Tudor Revival company store and office building, constructed in 1919. Other buildings and structures include the three-story, rectangular, red brick spinning mill (1902-1904) with later additions, a cotton warehouse (1918), a two-story weaving building (1928), a 1,500,000 gallon mill pond, two water towers, two pump buildings, and an information center.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
Redevelopment.
From 2014 to 2017, the mill complex underwent a $60 million redevelopment, making it the largest historic renovation project in South Carolina's history.
In 2016, Charlotte-based TMS Development completed a $35 million renovation of the spinning and weaving buildings into 289 apartments as the first phase of the project, known as Drayton Mills Lofts. In addition to apartments, Drayton Mills Lofts includes several common areas, a fitness center, an outdoor pool, and artwork made from repurposed textile equipment throughout the interior of the two buildings.
In 2017, Montgomery Development Group completed a second phase of redevelopment of the warehouses and company store into 60,000-square-feet of commercial space, known as Drayton Mills Marketplace. As of summer 2017, two restaurants, a coffee shop, a fitness studio and a corporate office have opened or announced leases. The developer hopes to attract additional, similar tenants to the Marketplace as part of their vision for a live-work-play community.
A 2-mile long, public, paved multi-use trail connecting the mill to nearby Mary Black Hospital was completed in 2015. There are plans to connect the trail to others in Spartanburg as part of a larger system of greenways that will eventually span 21 miles.
Future Developments.
The renovation of the Drayton Mills complex is expected to spur investment in the adjacent community and on the east side of Spartanburg as a whole. Already, a new $36 million elementary school is under construction nearby on land donated by Pacolet Milliken. They own a significant amount of land in the Drayton area and plan to develop it into a mix of housing and commercial uses over the next several years.


Border disease

Border disease (BD) is a viral disease of sheep and goats, primarily causing congenital diseases, but can also cause acute and persistent infections. It first appeared in the border regions of England and Wales in 1959, and has since spread world-wide. Lambs that are born with BD are commonly known as 'hairy shakers' due to the primary presentation of the disease. The disease was recognized before the virus, therefore the common name of the disease predates the understanding of the viral pathology. The virus can cause a significant reduction in the percentage of surviving lambs, thus it has a large economic impact on farmers.
Virus.
Border disease is caused by Pestivirus D, also called simply "border disease virus" (BDV), in the family "Flaviviridae". It is the same virus causing the disease. It was given a scientific name in 2018 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, after it had been identified. This virus is not host exclusive. It is noncytopathogenic -it does not kill its host cells.
It is a single stranded RNA virus that is labile in the environment.
Epidemiology.
Transmission is vertical or horizontal by nose to nose contact. The main source of infection is persistently infected animals. While border disease is caused by border disease virus, in areas of the world where close contact between sheep and goats and cattle occurs, similar clinical signs may be caused in sheep and goats by bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV). It is therefore important to identify truly infected animals through direct detection of the virus by finding viral RNA in the blood or tissues, or by isolating the virus, growing it in a cell culture, and identifying it with immunostaining.
Vaccination.
There is currently no vaccine available in the UK, but there are vaccines available in the USA and other areas of Europe. While there are vaccines, not all authorities consider them efficacious. BVDV vaccines for cattle have been used, but the viruses are distinct, and therefore will not work.
Control is established through blood-testing sheep, and culling seropositive animals.
Clinical signs.
While border disease primarily causes congenital issues, it can also manifest as acute infection or persistent infection.
Acute infection.
Most healthy animals will only experience subclinical disease or very mild infection. A slight fever and a mild leukopenia may be seen with a short-lived viremia, detectable between days 4-11 post infection, at which point the virus is neutralized by the animal's immune system.
Fetal infection.
While the level of evident maternal infection may be minimal, the consequences for the fetus are serious before day 85 of gestation. After day 85, the lamb is most likely to be born normal with antibodies to the virus, given the state of the fetal immune system at this stage in gestation.
Fetal infection manifests as four syndromes:
The animals that do survive to live birth will frequently show the 'hairy shaker' signs. The virus gathers in fetal lymphoid tissue, hair follicles, and the central nervous system. The 'hairy shakers' are born with hair (not wool) and the shaking comes from cerebellar hypoplasia.
Persistent viraemia.
Feti that are infected between 60–85 days of gestation have a 50% chance of survival. The fetus is not immunocompetent at this stage and viral replication within fetal tissues is uncontrolled. Feti that survive infection at this stage of gestation will be tolerant of the virus and their immune system will not properly respond to it. As such there is no inflammatory response, but the characteristic 'hairy shaker' changes are still present. Some animals will continue to survive with viremia, while most will die by 6 months of age.
Diagnosis.
Diagnosis is made through observation of clinical signs, presence of disease in the area, and confirmation made by serology: ELISA for virus antigen


Fuente Fuente OpusX

Fuente Fuente OpusX is the premier cigar line in the Arturo Fuente Cigar family. Made by Tabacalera A. Fuente, this cigar is consistently ranked as the single most sought-after cigar in the world by "Cigar Aficionado" and the line is held by many to be the greatest cigar in history to date. The cigars are rare and can be difficult to obtain. Prized by collectors, many OpusX's sell for 300% or more of their suggested retail price on the secondary market. Fuente Fuente OpusX cigars are wrapped in Rosado leaves which are grown in the Chateau de la Fuente plantation in a tropic river valley in the Dominican Republic. The Opus name is derived from its unique Rosado leaf wrapper.


Dutch Masters (cigar)

Dutch Masters is a brand of natural wrapped cigars sold in the United States since 1912. Its distinctive packaging features Rembrandt's 1662 painting "Syndics of the Drapers' Guild". Dutch Masters cigars are currently manufactured and sold by Imperial Brands. They are machine-rolled cigars and come in two varieties: standard cigars and smaller cigarillos.
G.H. Johnson Cigar Company was the original producer of the Dutch Masters cigar brand. Dutch Masters became a mainstay of the Consolidated Cigar Corporation, which merged the G.H. Johnson Cigar Company and six others in 1921. The Consolidated Cigar Corp. later became part of Altadis, formed in 1999 by a merger of the French and Spanish state tobacco monopolies. Through its history the Dutch Masters cigar brand has become one of the most popular and profitable cigar brands in America.
Dutch Masters became well known in the late 1950s and early 1960s for its sponsorship of various television projects of comedian Ernie Kovacs. (Kovacs, a well known cigar smoker, never smoked Dutch Masters off camera, sticking almost exclusively to Havana cigars.) He was appreciative of Dutch Masters' allowing him nearly complete creative freedom in the production of their sponsored shows and commercials. His silent Dutch Masters commercials have become classics in their own right.
In 2015, Dutch Masters sponsored Wrap Parties hosted by Cipha Sounds and Drewski, The MVMT.


Arcadia Sawmill and Arcadia Cotton Mill

The Arcadia Sawmill and Arcadia Cotton Mill (also known as the Arcadia Mill Site or Escambia Manufacturing Company) is a historic site a mile southwest of Milton, Florida, United States. On August 3, 1987, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
The remains of the early 19th century industrial water-powered mill complex are now part of the Arcadia Mill Archaeological Site, which is managed by the West Florida Historic Preservation. There is a visitor center and museum with exhibits about the site, and an elevated boardwalk through the archaeological remains of the complex and adjacent swamp.
The West Florida Historic Preservation, part of the University of West Florida, also manages Historic Pensacola Village, the T.T. Wentworth, Jr. Florida State Museum, and the Pensacola Historical Society.