Helen Marot (June 9, 1865 – June 3, 1940) was an American writer, librarian, and labor organizer. She is best remembered for her efforts to address child labor and improve the working conditions of women. She was from Philadelphia and became active in investigating working conditions among children and women. As a librarian, she worked at several important institutions and helped organize the Free Library of Economics and Political Science in 1897. Marot was a member of the Women's Trade Union League. She later organized the Bookkeepers, Stenographers and Accountants Union in New York. In 1912, she was part of a commission that investigated the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. She was an active writer and her articles about the labor movement appeared in many periodicals of the day.

Early life
Marot was born on June 9, 1865, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She grew up in an affluent family and received a Quaker education. From 1895 to 1896, Marot was the literary editor of Ladies' Home Journal where she was responsible for answering literary queries to the magazine. During this time, she compiled a 288-page reader's guide containing over 5,000 books. Included were some 170 author summaries.

Early library work
Marot left Ladies' Home Journal in April 1896 to organize the King Library of the Church of the Redeemer in Andalusia, Pennsylvania. In September 1896 she worked as a librarian in Wilmington, Delaware, as a cataloger. She stayed at the library for three years. The head librarian at the time, Enos L. Doan, remarked on her work: "She brought to it taste and literary discrimination of a high order—qualities which, in addition to her thorough technical training, gave her unusual efficiency in the performance of her duties."

The Free Library of Economics and Political Science
In 1897 Marot, along with Dr. George M. Gould and Innes Forbes, opened a private library specializing in works on social and economic topics. The Free Library of Economics and Political Science concentrated on issues relating to social and economic reform and was greatly influenced by The Fabian Society, a socialist organization. It was located on the second floor of a department store on Filbert Street in Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Record described the library in its pages on June 15, 1897:
Philadelphia has been enriched with a library distinctively modern and progressive in spirit... The new library forms an important supplement to the municipal system, since the topics of the day and the problems of the industrial and sociological world cannot be thoroughly followed by an institution for the general circulation of books. With its proposed technical classification of magazine literature and an accessible collection of pamphlets and volumes, the Library of Economics should become a powerful factor for civic and social education in the community and Commonwealth.

Marot explained the importance of the library in 1902: "It was founded on the idea that freely offered opportunities from education in economics and political science make directly for a more intelligent public opinion and a higher citizenship."

The collection included foreign and domestic literature. It consisted of six hundred books, over two thousand pamphlets, and ninety-one periodicals. This literature, more particularly the periodicals, was not found elsewhere and thus met a most specific community need. The entire collection was donated by individuals and various organizations such as American Academy of Political and Social Science, Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, Church Social Union, Civic Club of Philadelphia, Direct Legislation League, Englishwoman's Review, Fabian Society, Humboldt Publishing Company, Independent Labour Party, Indian Rights Association, Labor Exchange, and Land Nationalization League, among others.

To keep up to date with current information, the library collected news clippings and government publications, reports of labor societies, and other similar works. Indeed, a considerable part of the collection consisted of government, state, and municipal reports received from the United States government, the different states, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and New South Wales. Although the collection was small, teachers, students, and library patrons found its classified and indexed pamphlets and magazine literature concerning present-day problems to be satisfactory.

In addition, the patrons could purchase books and were permitted to check out books when they were unable to come to the reading room during library hours. The library was open daily from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. and on Sunday, until 10 p.m. The small library soon became "the center of liberal thought in Philadelphia"—a popular gathering place for Philadelphian reformers and socialists. In addition to the usual work of a special library, public and private lectures and classes were given to different associations. Besides being the chairwoman of the library committee, Marot was also on the lectures committee, which were all well attended, the rooms being, in fact, more than filled.

The first lecture addressed the topic of "The Economics of Socialism." It was given free on October 30, 1897, by James R. MacDonald of the London Fabian Society and future Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. At the second meeting, on February 8, 1898, Professor Joseph French Johnson, Dr. Henry Rogers Seager, Charles Richardson, and Professor William I. Hull discussed and lectured on "Education in Economics." On March 19, 1898, a lecture on "Economic Education, the Salvation of Society" was given by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton.

Through her library, Helen Marot participated in educating Philadelphians to social changes and pursued the socialist cause for building a more just and humane society with perseverance, courage, and a combination of hardheaded realism and guileless romanticism.

Labor and publishing work

In 1899 she published A Handbook of Labor Literature and also conducted and investigation for the U.S. Industrial Commission into working conditions in the custom tailoring trades in Philadelphia. In 1902 Marot investigated child labor in New York City for the Association of Neighborhood Workers and helped form the New York Child Labor Committee. With Florence Kelley and Josephine Clara Goldmark she drew up a report on child labor in the city that influential in the passage of the 1903 Compulsory Education Act by the state legislature.

In 1906 Marot became executive secretary of the New York branch of the national Women's Trade Union League. Marot also was responsible for creating the Bookkeepers, Stenographers and Accountants Union of New York. She was the organizer and leader of the first great strike of shirtwaist makers and dressmakers (1909–10) under the banner of the new International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.

In 1913, Marot resigned from her work with the trade union league. In 1914, she published American Labor Unions (1914), a work on the syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World. She then served on the editorial board of The Masses (1916–17), a radical journal. After, she then served on the staff of The Dial (1918–20). She was also a member of the U.S. Industrial Relations Commission (1914–16).

Helen Marot lived with her life partner, progressive educational reformer Caroline Pratt, until her death in on June 3, 1940, in New York, New York.

See also
 Caroline Pratt (educator)

References

Further reading
 Faderman, Lillian. (1999.) To Believe in Women: What Lesbians Have Done for America--a History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999.
 Marot, H. (1899.) A handbook of labor literature: Being a classified and annotated list of the more important books and pamphlets in the English language. Philadelphia Free Library of Economics and Political Science: PA. Digitized by University of Michigan Library.
 Marot, H. (1914.) American labor unions. Henry Holt: NY. Digitized.
 Marot, H. (1918.) Creative impulse in industry: A proposition for educators. E.P. Dutton: NY. Digitized.

External links

American librarians
American women librarians
Workers' rights activists
1865 births
1940 deaths
Writers from Philadelphia
American women writers
American librarianship and human rights
Trade unionists from Pennsylvania
International Ladies Garment Workers Union leaders
Activists from Philadelphia
American women trade unionists

Helen Marot


Johannes Bosscha Jr. (18 November 1831 – 15 April 1911) was a Dutch physicist.

Bosscha came from a family long known for their academic achievements. His great-grandfather and grandfather were classical scholars. His father, Johannes Bosscha Sr. (1797–1874), was a professor of history and literature and also was minister of church-state relationships in two governments (1853–1861).
From 1844–1848 Johannes Jr. attended a Latin school in Amsterdam, after which he enrolled  at Leiden University. In 1854 he obtained his doctoral degree (promotor Pieter Rijke) with a thesis on galvanometry.  After a brief sojourn in Berlin he returned to the physics department in Leiden.

Here he made important investigations on galvanic polarization and the rapidity of sound waves. He initiated the mechanical theory of electrolysis, and he was one of the first (1855) to suggest the possibility of sending two messages simultaneously over the same wire. In 1858 he published "Conservation of Energy in Galvanic Currents", in which he applied the recently formulated first law of thermodynamics to electrical phenomena.

In 1860, Boscha became chair of natural sciences at the Koninklijke Militaire Academie in Breda and in 1863 became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. In that year Thorbecke appointed him as inspector of secondary education for the southern part of the country, in which capacity he had much influence on Thorbecke's newly introduced schooling system, insisting, for example, on specialized classrooms for physics and chemistry.  In 1873 he accepted the chair of the physics department at the Polytechnic School in Delft, which would turn into the Delft University of Technology. In 1875, he published a three-volume Leerboek der natuurkunde (Textbook of Physics) in which no higher math was used and which saw many editions.

In 1878 Boscha became director of the Polytechnic School. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was his assistant from 1878 to 1882, after which Kamerlingh Onnes became professor at Leiden University. In 1885 Boscha needed to resign as director because of poor health.

His Verspreide Geschriften  (Diverse Writings) were published in three volumes (Leyden, 1902).

Personal life
In 1855 he married Paulina Emilia Kerkhoven in the town of Voorst. They had four daughters and two sons. The Bosscha Observatory on Java has been named after his son Karel Albert Rudolf Bosscha (1865–1928), who contributed much to the technical development of Indonesia.

References

Sources
 Klaas van Berkel, Albert van Helden & L.C. Palm [ A History of Science in the Netherlands], BRILL 1999, pp. 425–6.

 W.G. Stam, Johannes Bosscha Jr. (1831-1911) and the development of the field of physics in the Netherlands in the second half of the 19th century  (2017)

External links

1831 births
1911 deaths
19th-century Dutch physicists
People from Breda
Leiden University alumni
Academic staff of the Delft University of Technology
Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

Johannes Bosscha


Alphonse I or Alphonzo I (in Portuguese Afonso I) (25 July 1109 - 6 December 1185) was the first king of Portugal. He is best known by his prince name Afonso Henriques.

Afonso Henriques was the son of Henry of Burgundy, Count of Portugal and Teresa of León.

He became King on 25 July 1139, after winning the Battle of Ourique. He doubled the area of Portugal with the Reconquista and was nicknamed the Conqueror (Port. o Conquistador). He died on 6 December 1185 in Coimbra.

1109 births
1185 deaths
Kings and Queens of Portugal

Afonso I of Portugal


Franz Kafka (born Prague July 3, 1883 – died near Vienna June 3, 1924) was a Czech-born, German-speaking writer. His best known works are The Metamorphosis and the novels The Trial and The Castle. Not much of his work was published during his lifetime. He asked his friend to make sure that all his writings which were not published, including his three novels, would be destroyed when he died. Fortunately his friend did not destroy them, and they were published after Kafka's death.

Kafka's writings are about the frightening world around him which he often did not understand. A typical situation in his books might be someone who has gone somewhere to take a message, but he does not know what the message is or who it is for. The people he meets confuse him even more. Sometimes, when people find themselves in strange, nightmarish situations like this, they are described as Kafkaesque situations.

His life
Kafka was born into a middle-class Jewish family. His father was a merchant. He was very strict and unkind to his family. Kafka's stories often have fathers who are very brutal and unkind. Kafka spent most of his life living at home. He never married or became free from his parents. He felt that he had no will of his own. He wrote about people who are dominated by some mysterious power. He found it difficult to make friends, he hated his job and everyone around him. He often felt that he belonged nowhere. He was German-speaking but lived in a Czech-speaking country (Bohemia, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now part of the Czech Republic). He was different because he was Jewish, but he did not become part of the Jewish community either. He said that he was a socialist and an atheist, but although he was interested in politics he never took part in political activity. He supported Czechs who wanted to rule their own country and let their culture flourish, but he was not one of them because he himself was brought up in a German culture.

It was while he was studying law at the University of Prague that he met Max Brod who was to become his friend. Brod was a writer himself, and he later wrote a biography of Kafka.

After his studies Kafka took a job in an insurance company. He was good at his job although he hated it. He found the office work boring, and he spent his nights writing. In 1917 he got tuberculosis. Gradually he became more and more ill. He had to retire in 1922. He spent some time in hospital. He died in Klosterneuburg in 1924.

His works
Several publishers realized how good Kafka's writings were and asked him whether they could publish his works. Kafka reluctantly let a few things be published. One of these works was a story called  Metamorphosis (German: Die Verwandlung). It is about a man called Gregor Samsa (the name "Samsa" means "loner" or "lonely"). Gregor wakes up one morning to find he has changed into a giant cockroach. His family becomes ashamed of him and they stop looking after him so that he slowly dies. Stories like these are a kind of fable. They are full of strange and frightening situations.

His novel Amerika (published in 1927) is about a man who arrives in America looking for a father figure to protect him. He is quiet and timid and other people use him. In the end he dies.

In The Trial (German: Der Prozess, published in 1925), a man who works in a bank is arrested and taken to court. He is never told what he has done wrong. Even the priest tells him that if he asks what he has done wrong it proves that he is guilty. Finally he is executed.

In The Castle (German: Das Schloss) a man who is simply called "K" (the first letter of "Kafka") arrives at a castle saying that he has been given a job there, but the people there say they have not been told about his appointment. Kafka never finished the novel, but Max Brod says that Kafka was going to end it with K receiving permission to stay at the castle just as he was dying. The German word "Schloss" has two meanings: "castle" and "lock". K becomes locked (trapped) in this strange situation.

At the time of his death only a few people understood Kafka's writings. Max Brod saved all the unpublished books which would otherwise have been lost. Kafka is now thought of as one of the most important writers of the 20th century. His works had a lot of influence on German literature.

Other websites
 Franz Kafka
 Oxford Kafka Research Centre

1883 births
1924 deaths
Austrian Jews
Austrian writers
Czech Jews
Czechoslovak writers
Deaths from tuberculosis
Disease-related deaths in Austria
Jewish atheists
Jewish writers
Czech novelists
Writers from Prague

Franz Kafka


Bob Arno (born 1940) is a Swedish-American entertainer, known primarily as a comedy pickpocket, and more recently criminologist specializing in global street crime. He grew up in Stockholm, Sweden, and became a US citizen in 1992.

Career

Arno's stage pickpocket performance is billed as comedy, though it includes some non-comedic elements which, nevertheless, fascinate and impress audience members. First among these is his incorporation of documentary-style video which is projected during his presentation. As described in a March 9, 2004 article in The New York Times, the video is footage shot by himself and his wife, Bambi Vincent, of criminal pickpockets and other street thieves before, during, and after committing their crimes. This "reality factor" contributes greatly to the presentation's originality and adds elements of awe and enlightenment that give it depth beyond comedy.

Unlike most other performers in the small, specialized field of pickpocket entertainment, Arno does not present magical effects for their own sake. He does incorporate principles of magic in much the same manner that criminal pickpockets, con artists, and other street thieves do. And, given that his show is comedy, he is not above preparing a volunteer on occasion to enhance his humorous finale. Regardless, Arno's thievery skills are legendary. Blue Moon Talent Agency says "Nothing a victim possesses is safe from Bob Arno's lightning lifts." He has perfected the art of the steal to include neckties, suspenders, glasses, belts, cell phones, wallets, and pocket contents, as well as watches.

Criminology

In 1993, looking to expand the show, Arno and his wife, Bambi Vincent, challenged themselves to bring elements from the street to the stage. They began a serious study of street criminals, filming them in the act of tricking and/or stealing from victims, and interviewing them when possible. "Wearing hidden camera and recording equipment, they do everything they can to put themselves in the thick of the action," according to Las Vegas Review Journal. Arno and Vincent began calling themselves "thiefhunters" and soon amassed a valuable film archive of a (then) little-documented crime.

In the preface of their book (see below), Arno and Vincent claim to have initially suffered inner turmoil created by failing to prevent incidents occurring in their presence, but they overcame that discomfort after realizing the value of their study. Certainly they were able to port street techniques to the stage, as originally intended. But the video footage and interviews garnered interest from law enforcement and security agencies, while the video mixed with anecdotes and lessons became a popular lecture to laymen.

Thus began Arno's career as a criminologist and speaker.  His study had begun much earlier with observations of soldiers on R&R leave in Asia during the 1960s. On May 11, 1969, a front page profile written by Brian Moynahan in the London Sunday Times called Arno "one of the world's pickpocketing experts." In the four-column article Arno describes theft risks peculiar to various Asian countries and compares victim reaction by nationality. In its June 20, 1969 issue, Time magazine wrote: "One of the world's foremost experts in the techniques of first-rank 'wires' (or 'cannons' or 'pit workers') is Bob Arno, a 29-year-old Swede whose demonstrations onstage and in nightclubs earn him more than $100,000 a year." In a January 9, 1981 article entitled "Beware the Stiff-Armed Stranger; He May be Lifting Your Wallet," The Wall Street Journal quoted "Robert [sic] Arno, a Miami, Fla., pickpocketing expert who's advised police in various countries."

In 1993, armed with video cameras to document his findings, Arno revived his research in earnest. His knowledge base started with common and specialized forms of street thievery, and later grew to include off-the-street theft from tourists. His expertise now includes behavior profiling, identity theft, laptop theft, credit card fraud and internet scams. He lectures to corporate and lay audiences and presents training workshops for law enforcement and security, and other government agencies in the United States and abroad. Promenade Speakers Bureau calls Arno's presentations "a tad provocative," and says they include "pattern recognition" and "body language profiling."

In December 2015 he was invited to speak at Europol's International Pickpocketing Gangs Conference in The Hague. Arno "was invited as a guest speaker, presenting pickpocket techniques as well as an insight in the countermeasures and tactical behavior of the offenders" to law enforcements specialists from across Europe.

With Vincent, Arno is co-author of the book Travel Advisory: How to Avoid Thefts, Cons, and Street Scams (Bonus Books, 2003).

The feature article "Thieves Among Us" in the April 2005 issue of National Geographic Traveler documents several of Arno's "unorthodox surveillance tactics." Arno walked into the picturesque but crime-ridden Spanish Quarter of Naples, Italy, to see how long it would take for his (fake) Rolex to be stolen by scooter-riding bandits. By alleging to be a pickpocket, he establishes a rapport with street thieves, which has resulted in at least one offer to join an organized crime ring at US$1,000/day for himself and Vincent.

History

At age 15, Arno began performing magic at youth centers in his native Sweden and was successful enough to tour the country for several years. He briefly experimented with hypnotism before settling on pickpocketing, having been inspired by french entertainer "Dominique" Risbourg, the reigning pickpocket performer of the time. When Dominique had an extended run in Stockholm in 1956, he solicited the local Magic Circle for an assistant, and Arno volunteered.

On starting his pickpocket career Bob said:

From age 20 to 23, Arno toured Asia with his pickpocket show, working nightclubs and U.S. military bases. From 23 to 25 he toured across Europe working nightclubs and theaters. At 25 he worked for two months at the Latin Quarter (nightclub) in New York City, which began his career in America. He worked steadily from then on, mostly in casino revues, moving from Atlantic City to the Caribbean to Canada to Las Vegas. In 1992, after many years in Las Vegas and three years (1990–1992) in the Jubilee! show at Bally's Casino there, he quit his casino revue career to travel with his wife. Cruise ships served a triple purpose in the 1990s: a steady income as a performing venue; exotic world travel; and putting Arno in the middle of huge tourist crowds, which is generally where pickpockets operate. These crowds, primarily in the great cities of Europe, but also in Asia, Africa, and South America, were the inspiration for Arno's research on criminal pickpocketing. The study soon became the motivation for further cruise ship engagements.

The 1990s also saw Arno in theater productions. He starred in his own show with Swedish comedy magician John Houdi at Berns Salonger in Stockholm, performed at the Lido in Amsterdam, at Liseberg and Gröna Lund in Sweden, at theaters in Sydney, and at Sun City, North West. He also began performing at private corporate events, which is currently his main focus along with keynote speaking and law enforcement training.

In 2008 he toured as part of a stage show called Hoodwinked with Banachek, Todd Robbins and Richard Turner.

He was featured in the Just for Laughs Comedy Tour of 2010, along with Jeremy Hotz, Robert Kelly, Ryan Hamilton, and Gina Yashere.

In 2011, he was featured with Ben Seidman in a series of hidden camera videos directed by Jamie Kennedy and Michael Addis. Using their pickpocketing skills they slipped computers into people's handbags without them knowing. The "I Was Framed" project, gained online popularity and quickly reached over 900,000 views.

In August 2015, he was a featured speaker at DeceptiCon 2015 at University of Cambridge, UK, the International Conference on Deceptive Behavior and deception detection.

In December 2015 he was an invited speaker at Europol's International Pickpocketing Gangs Conference in The Hague, The Netherlands.

Film

The National Geographic documentary film Pickpocket King was shot in Naples, Italy in September 2010, and premiered around the world (region by region) in 2011 and 2012. Conceived and directed by Kun Chang, director, the film follows Arno as he meets and infiltrates the city's most prolific pickpocket gang. Once a relationship is established, the thieves challenge Arno to steal in the real world. [The film can now be seen on YouTube in many languages.]

Books
 Travel Advisory: How to Avoid Thefts, Cons, and Street Scams (Bonus Books, 2003), by Bambi Vincent and Bob Arno.  Now available as an eBook.
 Scam-Proof Your Life: 377 Smart Ways to Protect You & Your Family from Ripoffs, Bogus Deals & Other Consumer Headaches (Sterling, 2006), by Sid Kirchheimer. (Bob Arno is a contributor)

Television
Arno has appeared on numerous television shows in the United States and abroad, both as a performer and as an authority on street crime. Between 1972 and 1975, he had several of his own one-hour specials on TROS television in the Netherlands. On Late Night with David Letterman (December 1983) he stole Letterman's tie and heirloom watch. He was on HBO's Just for Laughs in 1989 and 2009. His 1996 appearance on World's Greatest Magic III revived interest in theatrical pickpocketing.
As Arno's study of criminal pickpockets and con artists advanced, he appeared more and more frequently on national and local news shows around the world. Notable were his highly-rated (and repeated) segments on ABC's 20/20 (November 3, 2000, June 22, 2001, July 30, 2004, July 13, 2012, March 23, 2013). In Arno's early appearances on ABC 20/20, he narrated his crime-in-action video and walked the news crews through popular travel destinations where they became the victims of pickpockets and con artists. Those segments launched an entirely new genre in television, in which street thieves were filmed with hidden cameras and then confronted. In the space of three years, Arno made the two early 20/20 broadcasts, and many, many others including:
 ITV London Weekend Television's Beware: Pickpockets, broadcast in June 2000
 ITV London Weekend Television's Beware: Street Thieves, broadcast in July 2001
 The Travel Channel's Las Vegas Caught on Tape, broadcast January 17, 2002
 The Travel Channel's Travel Scams & Rip-offs Revealed,  broadcast December 3, 2002
 Court TV's Safety Challenge, broadcast March 13, 2003
 Jimmy Kimmel Live, broadcast June 2, 2003

The "beware of thieves" genre thus became popular. When, for some productions, Bob Arno was unwilling or unable to demonstrate pickpocket techniques and license his crime-in-action video, actors were assembled to dramatize scenarios without his expertise.

With his pickpocket footage, demonstrations, and expertise, Arno also appeared in the BBC's History of Magic (2004), and appeared as "the fastest fingers" on Ripley's Believe it or Not (2003 Episode 4.9). The Travel Channel's endlessly repeated Travel Scams & Rip—offs Revealed-Las Vegas, garnered consistently high ratings. Just for fun, Arno appeared on NBC's "Little Big Shots Forever Young with Steve Harvey", which aired on July 19, 2017 to a rousing standing ovation.

Arno's foreign television credits are many, including appearances in Germany, Sweden, South Africa, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Canada, Slovenia, Brazil, India, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom.

References

External links
Bob Arno's official website
Thiefhunters in Paradise, Bambi Vincent & Bob Arno's blog
Europol International Pickpocketing Gangs Conference
Little Big Shots Forever Young on NBC, 7/19/17
Good Morning America, 5/12/14
ABC Nightline, 5/12/14
Electric Playground, 12/19/11
Choosy Nomad, Jan. 2012
Colleen Williams interviews Bob Arno on NBC, 12/1/11
Coup de Coeur (in French) 12/21/11
Travel Plan Idea Blog, 12/25/11
JustLuxe, 1/4/12
Fortune magazine, 10/30/06
Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, 11/06
The New York Times, 3/9/04
CNN/fn, 7/14/05
ABC 20/20 "Bob Arno's anti-theft tips"
CBS The Early Show, 4/21/04
National Public Radio, Weekend Edition Saturday, 7/11/04
Tasmanian radio
Carte Blanche, South Africa
NBC Dateline (video), 9/3/07
Bob Arno in action (video)
Bob Arno on Mumbai television, 3/2/10

Living people
Pickpocket entertainers
Swedish emigrants to the United States
21st-century American comedians
American male comedians
1940 births
Entertainers from Stockholm

Bob Arno


Dorah Pass, also spelled and pronounced Durah Pass, connects Badakshan in Afghanistan with Chitral in Pakistan. The Dorah Pass is more than 14,000 feet (4,300 m) high. It crosses the Hindu Kush mountains. The pass became important during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan because the Soviets could not stop the flow of arms and men back and forth across the pass. Almost all the Munji-speaking people of Afghanistan fled across the border to Chitral during the War in Afghanistan.

Pamir is a high plateau sometimes called "The roof of the world" that joins Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, China and Kashmir. Marco Polo is believed to have crossed the Pamir Mountains on his way to China.

The Dorah Pass is one of the four major mountain passes that enter Chitral. The others are the Broghol Pass from the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan, Shandur Top from Gilgit, and Lowari Top from Dir in Pakistan.

Mountain passes of Pakistan

Dorah Pass


The duodenum is a short section of the small intestine, and is where most digestion in the small intestine takes place. It receives secretions, including bile and juice, from the pancreas and the liver through the pancreatic and common bile ducts. These secretions limit, or neutralise, the stomach acidity. Also, enzymes help to digest the food.

Anatomy of the digestive system

Duodenum


L.A. Style was a Dutch electronic dance music group, consisting of founder, producer and radio DJ Wessel van Diepen (who later also created Nakatomi and the successful Vengaboys),  composer Denzil Slemming (a.k.a. Michiel Van Der Kuy of Laserdance fame) and FX aka Frans Merkx, as well as Foco (Alfons "Fonny" de Wulf) and Ray Decadance (surname Muylle) of the Belgian project Rofo (credited i.e. as writers and producers of "Balloony"). L.A. Style was most notable for their 1991 single "James Brown Is Dead", which appeared on Billboard's Hot 100 Airplay chart, becoming the first EDM group to venture near the top 50 of the main Billboard singles chart.

Another famous song of L.A. Style was Balloony of 1992.

Career
The group was fronted by rapper/singer/songwriter & producer FX AKA Eazee F & The BFD (real name Frans Merkx). Wessel van Diepen was known for his skill in bringing a different sound to dance and mixing that with the talents of the lead artist FX. FX is considered as one of the first to set the trend of combining Euro pop with Rap in an effort to bring the masses the flavor of Rap music with a different twist. FX had numerous hits with Infobeat, most notable the single 'We got the Funk' and 'Are u Ready'. At the time L.A. Style followed up the huge success of International hit "James Brown Is Dead" with the smash hit 'I'm Raving'. L.A. Style appeared on 'MTV 'The Grind' and toured extensively all over North America, Asia & Europe with massive success. FX [also known as The Godfather of Techno] and Wessel van Diepen helped pushed the boundaries of dance music to another level where it was acceptable to mix Rap, Rock & Techno and for all genres and people from walks of life to come together. It was a bold statement but because of their groundbreaking styles L.A. Style set the trend for other super groups like 2 Unlimited and 2 brothers on the 4th floor to name but a few.

They released a self-titled album as well as other singles, but despite massive success overseas as well as dance club play, L.A. Style's moment faded after the departure of the lead artist FX Frans Merkx and they quickly faded and dispersed in 1995. In recent years the group has again come to the attention of the pop world and rumors are that the group could be reformed with the original line up of FX as lead artist. There were also rumors that L.A. Style would be fronted by a totally new line up, however all agreed this would not go down well with the fans. Since the time of L.A. Style Wessel van Diepen continues to be one of the most sought after radio DJ's in The Netherlands and FX has been working with the main producer and old friend behind DJ Chukie, Mr. Fabian Lennsen. As FX has said, "I've worked with many great artists and even found  great artists and if something comes a long that excites me then I will be back in the studio."

Discography

Albums
L.A. Style (1993)

Singles

References

Dutch dance music groups
Dutch techno music groups
Hardcore techno music groups
Musical groups established in 1991
Musical groups disestablished in 1995
1991 establishments in the Netherlands

L.A. Style


is a character in Frank Miller's Sin City graphic novel series. In the film adaptation  of Sin City, she is portrayed by Devon Aoki. Jamie Chung replaces Aoki in the 2014 expansion, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.

Character
Miho is a mute female assassin of Japanese descent (Miho is offended by anti-Japanese racial slurs, such as "Jap slut" and "Jap slag"; in response, she behaves in an even more sadistic way than she normally does). Along with Gail, she serves as an enforcer and defender of the city's Old Town. She is often referred to as "Deadly Little Miho" by the character Dwight McCarthy in his narrations. Despite residing in Old Town, there is nothing to suggest that she herself is a prostitute (contrary to the opinion expressed by some film critics such as Andrew Sarris and Ty Burr, as well as by IGN).

Miho is very small and light; she has long dark hair, a very slim figure, and dark eyes. Normally she dresses in a short, modified black kimono worn over a bra, and a belt into which she tucks all sorts of weapons. A wakizashi is sometimes shown hanging from her belt. In Family Values, her appearance changes drastically. She is drawn only with white and her body is devoid of shading (including her dark hair).

Miho uses Japanese swords of various sizes, and shuriken in the shape of the manji, as seen in The Big Fat Kill and Family Values. She is also skilled with the longbow and has various other small weaponry tucked in her clothing. She utilizes a wide array of weapons, such as katana, wakizashi and kusarigama. On the DVD commentary track for the film, Quentin Tarantino states that after he suggested that Miho's swords were made by Hattori Hanzō, writer/director Frank Miller enthusiastically agreed.

Much of Miho's past remains a mystery. Three years before the events of A Dame To Kill For, she was saved by Dwight during an attack by Tong gangsters. As Dwight himself explains to Goldie and Wendy, "three of the Tong who attacked Miho were dead by her hand. But the last two had her dead to rights. Point blank range." Because of this incident, she owes a debt of honor to Dwight. Subsequently, Dwight is the only male character she is ever shown to have any non-lethal interaction with, even taking orders from him at one point. They have some sort of friendship, as he is also the only character she ever shows any physical attraction or affection towards.

In a fight Miho typically uses her swords to "play" with her opponent (in Family Values Dwight likens her to a cat), often dodging her opponent's blows while hitting him/her (with seeming ease) in return. She would appear to be a modern-day master of traditional ninjutsu as she tends to rely on stealth, evasion, and counterattacks more than directly engaging an opponent. This puts to good use her acrobatic/gymnastic ability and knowledge of pressure points, veins, and arteries. She is also sometimes seen using roller-skates to get around, much as Carrie Kelley did as Catgirl in Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, which was also written by Frank Miller.

Frank Miller has stated in the Sin City: Recut and Extended DVD commentary that Kevin and Miho are the supernatural beings in Sin City. Miller characterizes them as "demons"; Miho is a good "demon" and Kevin is an evil one. They share many similarities: they both never speak and are not even seen with their mouths open. They are the most skilled characters in martial arts (though they never fought Wallace), and never show any sign of pain. So far, Miho was never shown seriously injured and defeated all her opponents with relative ease, although Dwight stated in A Dame to Kill For that he rescued her from a hopeless situation with Asian Tong gangsters.

Appearances
Miho has appeared in four of the Sin City yarns (aside from the film adaptations):

A Dame to Kill For (1993) - After Dwight is shot multiple times and he discovers Ava Lord has been manipulating him to commit murder, he flees to Old Town. He seeks refuge from Gail, and in order to gain the help of the Girls of Old Town, he tells the story of saving Miho's life from Tong gangsters. As according to honor, the girls are obligated to help him in his plan for revenge. Miho is instrumental during the fight with Manute at Ava Lord's estate, stopping him from reaching Dwight and crucifying him through the arms with her twin swords. This leads Manute to have a great disdain for the Old Town girls.
The Big Fat Kill (1994-1995) - Miho is responsible for incapacitating and murdering Jackie Boy when he attempts to kidnap one of the Old Town girls. After Dwight discovers that Jackie Boy is a police officer, he attempts to prevent a war between the Old Town girls and the police by disposing of the body in the tar pits. Upon arrival, he is attacked by Irish mercenaries sent by Wallenquist, who steal Jackie Boy's severed head and leave Dwight to drown in the tar pits. As Dwight sinks beneath the surface of the pits, Miho dives in and rescues him.
The Babe Wore Red and Other Stories (1994)
Family Values (1997) - Miho and Dwight get involved in a mob war between the families of Don Magliozzi and Boss Wallenquist, after being told about a recent mob hit. Dwight is soon kidnapped by Vito, who is the nephew of Magliozzi, and is driven toward the Projects. Unknown to the hitmen is that Miho has been following Dwight to make sure that he is protected. Upon mention, Miho kills Spinelli, one of the goons, and they park in a hilltop rest area, overlooking the Projects. There, Miho "toys" with Vinnie, a hitman who spends the whole fight hurling slurs at her, as Dwight tells Vito to kill the other hitman, which is Vito's own brother Luca. After Miho and Dwight are through, they head straight to Sacred Oaks to confront Don Magliozzi, driven by Vito. Miho simply cuts through the guards and Dwight makes his appearance. He tells the Don he is going to die along with Vito for the accidental death of Carmen, one of the Old Town girls.

She was also supposed to appear in the video game adaptation of Sin City, which was canceled in 2008. An action figure based on the first film's version of the character was released by NECA.

Reception
In 2011, UGO Networks featured Miho in their list of "25 Hot Ninja Girls" and together with Kevin at #1 in "Quiet as the Grave: The Silent Killers of Film and TV".

References

External links
 Miho (comic book character) - Comic Vine

Characters created by Frank Miller (comics)
Comics characters introduced in 1993
Crime film characters
Demon characters in comics
Fictional female assassins
Female characters in comics
Female soldier and warrior characters in comics
Fictional characters from Washington (state)
Fictional criminals in comics
Fictional criminals in films
Fictional female ninja
Fictional Japanese American people
Fictional kenjutsuka
Fictional kyūjutsuka
Fictional mute characters
Fictional prostitutes
Fictional swordfighters in comics
Prostitution in comics
Sin City characters
Vigilante characters in comics

Miho (Sin City)


The Seventh Bullet (, translit. Sedmaya pulya) is a Soviet Ostern film of 1972 directed by Ali Khamraev.

Plot
In the same tradition as The White Sun of the Desert and The Bodyguard, The Seventh Bullet is set after the Russian Civil War which ended in the 1920s when Soviet power established itself in Central Asia in the wake of the Basmachi rebellion. Despite this slight shift in emphasis and a post-war setting, The Seventh Bullet is closer to a typical war film than other Red Westerns because of a prominence of tactical resourcefulness in the development of the plot. Although of course this is a staple of many American Westerns from John Ford's cavalry series to the many Apache war films.

Despite the restoration of Soviet power in the area, Basmachis continue to arrive from across the border, bringing death and destruction to peaceful villages. One of the bands of rebels is led by Khairulla who is pitted against the militsiya (local militia) leader Maxumov. At first it seems hopeless for Maxumov as the rebels capture most of his men, winning them over to his side. He has only one strategy left; to give himself up, and try to explain to the people that Khairulla has deceived them, turning the soldiers back to revolution. Later in pursuit of his enemy, he chases Khairulla across a river. He has only one bullet left—the seventh, and he must not miss his target.

References

External links

Ostern films
1972 films
1970s Russian-language films
1972 Western (genre) films

The Seventh Bullet


Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough,  (2 January 1760 – 17 January 1838) was an English politician and connoisseur of the arts.

Early life
Born in London, he was the fourth surviving son of West Indies merchant Beeston Long and his wife Sarah Cropp. A senior branch of the family of Hurts Hall in Suffolk established themselves in Jamaica after the conquest of the island in 1665. Educated at a private school in Greenwich and at  Emmanuel College of Cambridge University, Long matriculated in 1779, but is not known to have taken a degree. He was entered at the Inner Temple, later making the grand tour between 1786 and 1788, exploring Rome and laying the foundation of his art collection under the tuition of James Byres.

Political career
Long was a friend of William Pitt, whom he had met at Cambridge, and his involvement in politics began as early as 1788 when he was canvassing for Lord Hood, the ministerial candidate in the Westminster election, and he himself entered parliament in January 1789 as member for Rye, a Treasury controlled seat. He afterwards sat as member for Midhurst (1796–1802) and for Wendover (1802–06), (boroughs whose parliamentary representatives were nominated by Pitt's friend Lord Carrington) and for Haselmere (1806–26), where the sole patron was the Pittite Earl of Lonsdale.  Becoming junior secretary to the Treasury in 1791, he acted as parliamentary whip and teller and in 1796 on the government's behalf, undertook much of the general election management.  In 1801 when Pitt left office, Long followed, and was rewarded with a yearly pension of £1500. At Pitt's behest he was appointed Treasury advisor to the Prime Minister Henry Addington, and in 1802 was sworn of the Privy Council.

The following year his house at Bromley Hill in Kent was the location for negotiations between Pitt and Addington, in which he was the chief intermediary. When Pitt returned to power in 1804 Long was made a lord of the Treasury (1804–06) and then chief secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1805–06). During his brief tenure in Dublin he was prevailed upon to visit Anne Devlin, a co-conspirator in the republican rising Robert Emmet had staged in the city in July 1803, imprisoned in the tower of Dublin Castle. He was so appalled by the condition in which he found her that he arranged her immediate release.

Long took office in the Portland ministry as paymaster-general of the forces after Pitt's death in 1806, a post he retained until 1826 when he retired from politics. He was offered the Chancellorship of the Exchequer and the Secretaryship at War by Perceval, both of which he refused, considering himself neither inclined nor fit to fill either position. Except on matters arising from his ministerial responsibilities, he rarely spoke in the House of Commons. Rather than an initiator of policy, his strengths lay in his loyal and efficient political adjudications. In 1792 with Sir James Bland Burges, Long established the Sun newspaper as an instrument of the Tories, and he was the author of pamphlets on the French Revolution (1795) and the price of bread (1800).

In 1820 King George IV made Long a Knight of the Bath, and on his retirement from political life in 1826 he was raised to the peerage as "Baron Farnborough, of Bromley-Hill-Place, in the county of Kent". (Farnborough was then a village in Kent, near his country residence). Long was elected FRS in 1792, FSA in 1812, and was given an honorary LLD by his old university in 1833. The arts were Long's real passion, but due to limited resources he was unable to be a major patron or collector in his own right, however, as a minister and MP he was influential in furthering artistic causes such as the establishment of the National Gallery and the purchase of the Elgin marbles, and was a founder of the British Institution in 1805. He acted as intermediary in 1792 between Pitt and Humphry Repton over improvements to the former's grounds at Holwood, and in 1799 when the Altieri Claudes were brought to England, they were first exhibited to English connoisseurs at Long's house in Grosvenor Place. In subsequent years he maintained a high profile in connection with his public patronage of the arts. A committee of taste was appointed in 1802 to supervise the erection of monuments to the heroes of the Napoleonic wars, of which Long was chairman, and in 1809 the responsibilities were extended to the repair of Henry VII's chapel at Westminster, with money voted by parliament. Long was consulted on everything from the need for a fig-leaf on the heroic statue honouring the Duke of Wellington, that had been subscribed for by the ladies of Great Britain (1821), to the appropriate order for the facade of the privy council offices in Whitehall (1824).

Retirement from politics

Long's political ambitions were modest, though his retirement was nevertheless, a reluctant one. His reputation as an arbiter of taste led in 1834, to the opening of a campaign for the establishment of an Institution of British Architects, by way of an open letter to Lord Farnborough. He was an active trustee both of the British Museum and of the National Gallery, and as deputy director he was for many years a leading figure in the affairs of the British Institution. Long's advice on artistic matters was valued at the highest level. George IV, both as prince regent and as king, consulted him frequently over the commissioning of architecture, sculpture and painting. The prince's secretary once said that in matters of art, "The Prince Regent saw through Mr. Long's spectacles". Long negotiated royal commissions with artists such as Canova, Westmacott, and Lawrence, and when the king decided to reconstruct Windsor Castle, Long drew up a brief which detailed every important feature of the castle as subsequently remodelled by Jeffry Wyattville, from the formation of the Grand Corridor to the heightening of the keep, and he also made a sketch-plan in 1823 for the sunken garden below the east terrace.

Only a few miles from Pitt's at Holwood, Long's own country villa at Bromley Hill in Kent was an elegant enlargement of an earlier house which he bought in 1801. He and his wife were amateur artists and architects, and provided their own designs for the improvement to the house. The extensive grounds were progressively improved to create a much-admired garden which by 1809 offered two picturesque walks, each a mile long, and a distant view of the dome of St Paul's Cathedral. It was here that Long entertained George IV, William IV, and Queen Adelaide. He died here on 17 January 1838, leaving to the National Gallery fifteen artworks by Rubens, Vandyck, Canaletto, Teniers, Mola, Cuyp, and others.

Lady Farnborough

Long married in 1793 Amelia Hume, eldest daughter of the prominent art collector Sir Abraham Hume, 2nd Baronet, by Amelia, daughter of John Egerton, Bishop of Durham. A watercolourist and garden designer, she completed her formal classical education with a visit to Italy, prior to her marriage. She designed the celebrated Italianate grounds at their country residence Bromley Hill, which subsequently became the main source for her sketches. Reputed to be the favourite pupil of Thomas Girtin, her early work is distinguished by a broad topographical style, and later work was influenced by Henry Edridge and Dr Thomas Monro. She died 15 January 1837, and a London newspaper reported that her husband Lord Farnborough was "dangerously ill in consequence of a shock occasioned by the death of his lady". He never properly recovered his health, and died a year later. There were no children from the marriage.

Further reading
Inheriting The Earth: The Long Family's 500 Year Reign in Wiltshire; Cheryl Nicol

References

Sources
 Dictionary of National Biography Long, Charles, Baron Farnborough, by Howard Colvin

1760 births
1838 deaths
Charles
Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London
Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies
Members of the Privy Council of Great Britain
Members of the Privy Council of Ireland
Tory MPs (pre-1834)
Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
Fellows of the Royal Society
English art collectors
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
British MPs 1784–1790
British MPs 1790–1796
British MPs 1796–1800
UK MPs 1801–1802
UK MPs 1802–1806
UK MPs 1806–1807
UK MPs 1807–1812
UK MPs 1812–1818
UK MPs 1818–1820
UK MPs 1820–1826
UK MPs who were granted peerages
Commissioners of the Treasury for Ireland
Chief Secretaries for Ireland
Peers of the United Kingdom created by George IV

Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough


In Ancient Rome, Dignitas was regarded as the sum of the personal influence that a male citizen acquired throughout his life. It included personal reputation, moral standing, and ethical worth and the man's entitlement to respect and proper treatment as well.

The word does not have a direct connotation or translation in English. Some interpretations include dignity (merely a derivation) and prestige. The Oxford Latin Dictionary defines the expression as fitness, suitability, worthiness, visual impressiveness or distinction, dignity of style and gesture, rank, status, position, standing, esteem, importance, and honor.

Origins
Authors who had used dignitas extensively in their writings and oratories include M. Tullius Cicero, Julius Caesar, Cornelius Tacitus, and T. Livius (Livy). The most prolific user was Cicero, who initially related it to the established term auctoritas. These two words were highly associated, auctoritas was thought to be the expression of a man's dignitas.

The changing definition of dignitas
Over the course of Ancient Roman history, dignitas took on different meanings over time, adjusting for the gradually changing viewpoints of society, politicians, and the various authors.

Years after Caesar's death, his heir Augustus rejected the contemporary meaning of dignitas. Augustus found the related term auctoritas to be a suitable alternative.

References
Balsdon, J.p.v.d. "Auctoritas, Dignitas, Otium." The Classical Quarterly ns 10 (1960): 43-50.
Cicero, Ad Familiares 4.14
Cicero, Epistulae Ad Familiares. J. Paul Leonard Library, San Fransisco. Cicero, Epistulae ad familiares. San Francisco State University. 18 May 2007
Radin, Max. "Roman Concepts of Equality." Political Science Quarterly 38 (1923): 262-289.
Ridler, Vivian. "Dignitas." Oxford Latin Dictionary. 1 vols. London: Oxford UP, 1968.

Ancient Rome

Dignitas


Helen Jewett (born Dorcas Doyen; October 18, 1813 – April 10, 1836) was an American prostitute in New York City who was brutally murdered. One of her regular clients, Richard P. Robinson, was tried and sensationally acquitted of her murder. Jewett's murder and Robinson's subsequent trial was one of the first sex scandals to receive detailed press reporting, notably in the New York Herald. Public opinion was divided between those who felt that Jewett had deserved her fate, and others claiming that Robinson had escaped justice through powerful connections.

Early history
Jewett was born Dorcas Doyen in Temple, Maine, into a working-class family. Her father was an alcoholic; her mother died when Jewett was young. From the age of 12 or 13, Jewett was employed as a servant girl in the home of Chief Justice Nathan Weston of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Upon reaching the age of 18, Jewett left the Weston home at the first opportunity. She moved to Portland, Maine, where she worked as a prostitute under an assumed name. She subsequently moved to Boston and finally New York under a succession of fake names.

The murder
Jewett's body was discovered by the matron of the brothel, Rosina Townsend, at 3 a.m. on April 10, 1836.  The murder had taken place sometime after midnight. Jewett was struck on the head three times with a sharp object. (The coroner's report called it a 'hatchet'.) Based on the position of the corpse in bed, the coroner concluded that the blows were not expected: there were no signs of struggle. After inflicting the lethal blows, the murderer then set fire to Jewett's bed. Townsend discovered the room full of smoke, and Jewett's body charred on one side.

The trial
Based on the testimony of the women who lived in the brothel, the police arrested 19-year-old Richard P. Robinson on suspicion of Jewett's murder. Robinson, a repeat customer of the victim, flatly denied killing her, and did not display much emotion even when confronted with the still warm corpse. Nevertheless, based on the testimony of various witnesses and the recovery of a cloak that resembled Robinson's, the coroner's jury, hastily assembled on the scene and made up of on-lookers, concluded that Jewett met her end "by blows ... inflicted ... with a hatchet by the hand of Richard P. Robinson." This was enough to gain an initial indictment.

On June 2, 1836, Robinson's trial for murder began. Ex-D.A. of New York Ogden Hoffman appeared for the defence. After days of testimony from several witnesses, including Rosina Townsend, the judge gave the jury its instructions. As most of the witnesses were other prostitutes, the judge ordered his jury to disregard their testimony. Presented primarily with circumstantial evidence against Robinson, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty in less than a half hour.

The press
Jewett's murder excited the press and the public. The coverage of the murder and trial was highly polarized, with reporters either sympathizing with Jewett and vilifying Robinson or attacking Jewett as a seductress who deserved her fate. The New York Herald, edited by James Gordon Bennett, Sr., provided the most complete (if not unbiased) coverage of the sensational murder. Almost from the beginning and throughout the trial, Bennett insisted that Robinson was the innocent victim of a vicious conspiracy launched by the police and Jewett's madam. He also emphasized the sensational nature of the story and worked to exploit the sexual, violent details of Jewett's death. The New York Sun, in contrast, whose readers tended to come from the working class, argued that Robinson was guilty and that he was able to use money and the influence of wealthy relatives and his employer to buy an acquittal. This theory continued to gain traction for many years later.

Most notably, the trial was largely responsible for nationwide changes in the approach to sex and scandal coverage by American journalists. Prior to the case, coverage of such topics by major newspapers was nearly nonexistent. Additionally, some historians credit Bennett with the first journalistic interview, namely that of Rosina Townsend. Other historians, however, argue that Bennett never actually talked to Townsend and that his reported interview was a hoax.

Post trial
Personal letters of Robinson's that became public after the trial undercut some of his claims and showed him to be capable of vicious and (for the time) deviant sexual behavior and the public turned against him, including some who had been his vocal supporters. Robinson eventually moved to Texas where he became a respected frontier citizen.

References in popular culture
Jewett and Robinson are the subject of The Lives of Helen Jewett, And Richard P. Robinson, an 1849 novel by journalist George Wilkes. The novel was originally published in serial form in Wilkes' newspaper the National Police Gazette. This story is a fictionalized narrative based around the stories about Jewett and Robinson that circulated after the murder.

Jewett is a character in the novel Burr by Gore Vidal—being the love interest of the narrator. Although her murder is peripheral to the story, it is foreshadowed throughout by the title character's having secured, in a notorious trial at the turn of the century, the acquittal of Levi Weeks, the apparent murderer of Elma Sands.

See also
List of unsolved murders

References

Further reading

1813 births
1836 deaths
American murder victims
American prostitutes
Axe murder
Female murder victims
Sex workers murdered in the United States
People from Temple, Maine
People murdered in New York City
Stabbing attacks in the United States
Unsolved murders in the United States
History of women in New York City
Women in New York City
19th-century American women

Helen Jewett


The Just-World phenomenon is when people think that because bad things happen to someone, they did something to deserve the bad things. The concept is a lot like Karma, except it is more like a popular superstition instead of a religious belief. The phenomenon also happens in reverse, with good things being deserved.

Examples
Amy is watching Bob cook. Bob gets burnt by the hot frying pan. Amy assumes this is because Bob did something mean to Amy's friend Charles. (Here, the Just-World phenomenon is happening in Amy's mind. Bob getting burnt has nothing to do with Charles.)
Albert is watching Brianna walk across the room. when Brianna touches the doorknob, she is shocked by static electricity. Albert decides that this is because she does not give to charity. (Brianna giving to charity has nothing to do with getting shocked. She was walking across the carpet in socks, which is why she was shocked.)
Brianna watches Albert buy a lottery ticket. Albert later wins. Brianna thinks this is because Albert said "thank you" when buying the ticket.

Related pages
Karma

Ethics
Logical fallacies

Just-World phenomenon


Joshua Robert Hampson (born 10 June 1965) is an English musician and composer, known primarily as a guitarist in the band Loop, which he co-founded in London in 1985 with his then-girlfriend Becky "Bex" Stewart. Loop recorded three albums, the last of which, A Gilded Eternity (1990), made the UK Albums Chart. Following the band's breakup, Hampson formed the experimental project Main with Scott Dawson.

Music career
After Loop disbanded, Hampson formed the more experimental Main with fellow Loop member Scott Dowson, releasing several albums and EPs on Beggars Banquet Records. Although a strong signature in the early material of Main, the guitar was slowly eroded from the stable sounds Hampson and Dowson produced, together with field recordings and other electro-acoustic sounds. When Dowson left the line-up in 1996, Main became a solo project for Hampson, who then abandoned the guitar altogether, feeling he had taken the instrument to such extremes that there was no longer any scope to create with it.

Between 1999 and 2003, he formed the electroacoustic duo Comae with Janek Schaefer touring in Europe, US, Japan, and released their self titled album on Rhiz Records.

He deactivated Main as a project in 2006, in an attempt to free himself of the restraints of critical and fan-based reviews, that still mentioned the guitar as the focal point of the material, even though he had not used it in many years. He was quoted in interviews as saying the guitar was a chain around his neck, and he was unhappy to be still so strongly associated with it.

Preferring to now explore other avenues of sound and its diffusion, especially multichannel systems for live performances, Hampson was invited by the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) in Paris to compose and perform on many occasions. He has also been associated with like-minded organisations and institutes around the world, exploring intricacies in sound composition.

In 2010, Hampson announced that he would be reactivating Main, which along with his solo acousmatic work, he will start performing and recording as a more collaborative process with fellow sound artists. A planned Loop reunion (of the Gilded Eternity line-up) later followed, in a statement by Hampson in April 2013.

Discography
on Editions Mego
 Five Mountains of Fire / Antarctica Ends Here - Cindytalk / Robert Hampson 10-inch vinyl only, limited to 500 copies.
 Répercussions (eMEGO 132) CD + 5.1 DVD
 Signaux (eMEGO 148.1)
 Suspended Cadences (eMEGO 148.2)
 Ablation (as Main with Stephan Mathieu) (eMEGO 160)

with Godflesh
 Cold World (1991)
 Pure (1992)

on Touch
 Vectors - Robert Hampson CD

on Rhiz
 Comae - s/t CD {Robert Hampson with Janek Schaefer} 2001

on Reactor (Loop re-issues)
 Heaven's End Fade Out: A Gilded Eternity – studio albums, remastered two-disc sets with extra material and Peel Sessions
 The World in Your Eyes – three-disc set, compilation of singles, EPs and rarities

References

External links

 RobertHampson.com (semi-official Robert Hampson website)

English rock guitarists
English male guitarists
Living people
Godflesh members
1965 births
Musicians from Bromley

Robert Hampson


Tenzing Norgay (May 29, 1914 – May 9, 1986) was a Sherpa climber. Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary were the first people to reach the top of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953. During his life he had several wives, as it is part of Sherpa lifestyle. Norgay was born in Kharta Valley, Nepal. He died aged 71 in Darjeeling, India.

Early Life
There are different views about his early life. The account that he gave in his first autobiography, accepted for several years, is that he was a Sherpa born and brought up in Khumbu in Nepal. However more recent research has led to the claim that he was born a Tibetan in Kharta valley, Tibet, but his family were left destitute when their yaks were killed by disease, and he was sold as a bonded servant to a Sherpa family in Thamey in Nepal. Khumbu lies near Mount Everest, which the Tibetans and Sherpas call Chomolungma which in Tibetan means Mother Goddess of the Earth.
His exact date of birth is not known, but he knew it was in late May by the weather and the crops. After his ascent of Everest on 29 May, he decided to celebrate his birthday on that day thereafter.

He was originally called "Namgyal Wangdi", but as a child his name was changed on the advice of the head lama and founder of the famous Rongbuk Monastery, Ngawang Tenzin Norbu. Tenzing Norgay translates as "wealthy-fortunate-follower-of-religion." His father, a yak herder, was Ghang La Mingma (d. 1949) and his mother was Dokmo Kinzom (who lived to see him climb Everest); he was the 11th of 13 children, most of whom died young.

He ran away from home twice in his teens, first to Kathmandu and later Darjeeling, and, at age 19, eventually settled in the Sherpa community in Too Song Bhusti in Darjeeling, West Bengal, India.

One of his autobiographies is Tiger of the snows: The Autobiography of Tenzing of Everest, written in 1955.

Journeys
Tenzing Norgay had been on several attempts to reach the top of Mount Everest. Two of the attempts were stopped by bad weather which caused them to turn around. One of failed attempts was in 1935 with Eric Shipton. Eventually, after 6 failure attempts, Norgay finally reached the top of Mount Everest in 1953 along with Sir Edmund Hillary. They came back down from the top of the mountain on May 29, 1953 .

After Mount Everest
Tenzing later became director of field training for the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling. In 1978 he started Tenzing Norgay Adventures, a company providing trekking adventures in the Himalaya.

As of 2003 the company was run by his son Jamling Tenzing Norgay, who himself reached the summit of Everest in 1996.

He was honored with the prestigious Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour, in 1959.

The Government of India instituted the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Awards in his honour, awarded annually.

Death
Tenzing Norgay died of a cerebral hemorrhage on 9 May 1986.

1914 births
1986 deaths
Autobiographers
Sherpa

Tenzing Norgay


The Burke and Hare murders (or West Port murders) were serial murders in Edinburgh, Scotland, from November 1827 to 31 October 1828.

The murders were done by Irish immigrants William Burke and William Hare. They sold the corpses of their 17 victims to  Dr Robert Knox. Knox was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the Conservator of the Museum of Comparative Anatomy in Edinburgh. He was a teacher of human anatomy to Edinburgh medical students, so needed bodies for his students to dissect.

The murderer's accomplices included Burke's mistress, Helen McDougal, and Hare's wife, Margaret Laird.  From their method of killing their victims has come the word "burking", meaning to purposefully smother and, more generally, to quietly suppress.

The Resurrectionists
From 1826 to 1840 Knox ran Barclay's anatomy school in Surgeon's Square, Edinburgh. He was the most popular lecturer on anatomy in Scotland, but his class were always short of bodies to dissect.

Before the Anatomy Act of 1832 widened the supply, the only legal supply of corpses for anatomical purposes in the UK were those condemned to death and dissection by the courts. This led to a shortage of legitimate subjects for dissection. The shortage became more serious as the need to train medical students grew, and the number of executions fell.

In his school Knox ran up against the problem from the start, since – after 1815 – the Royal Colleges had increased the study of anatomy in the medical curriculum. If he taught according to what was known as 'French method' the ratio would have had to approach one corpse per pupil. As a consequence, body-snatching became so common that it was not unusual for relatives and friends of someone who had just died to watch over the body before and after burial, to stop it being taken.

In November 1827 William Hare began a new career when an indebted lodger died on him by chance. He was paid  £7.10/- (seven pounds & ten shillings) for delivering the body to Knox. Now Burke and his accomplice Hare set about murdering tramps and drunks on a regular basis. After 16 more transactions, in what became known as the West Port Murders, on 2 November 1828 Burke and Hare were caught. The whole city were convulsed with horror, fed by ballads, broadsides and newspapers, at the terrible deeds of Burke & Hare. Hare turned King's evidence, and Burke was hanged, dissected and displayed.

As well as Butcher and Hare killing and selling the bodies, they also manipulated them into thinking they were coming over to have an even drink.
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief,Knox, the boy who buys the beef!

Knox was not prosecuted, which outraged many in Edinburgh. His house was attacked by a mob, and windows were broken. A committee of the Royal Society of Edinburgh cleared him of blame, but there was no forgetting his part in the case, and many were wary of him.

Discovery and trial
The last victim was Marjory Campbell Docherty. Burke lured her into the lodging house by claiming that his mother was also a Docherty. He had to wait to kill her because the lodgers James and Ann Gray were present. The Grays left for the night and neighbours heard the sounds of a struggle.

The next day Ann Gray, who had returned, became suspicious when Burke would not let her approach a bed where she had left her stockings. When the Grays were left alone in the house, they checked the bed and found Docherty's body under it. On their way to alert the police, they ran into McDougal who tried to bribe them with an offer of £10 a week. They refused.

Burke and Hare had removed the body from the house before the police arrived. However, under questioning, Burke claimed that Docherty had left at 7:00 a.m., while McDougal claimed that she had left in the evening. The police arrested them. An anonymous tip-off led them to Knox's classroom where they found Docherty's body, which James Gray identified. William and Margaret Hare were arrested soon there after. The murder spree had lasted twelve months.

References

1820s in the United Kingdom
People from Edinburgh
Murder in Scotland
British serial killers
19th century in Scotland
1827
1828

Burke and Hare murders


A semiconductor is a material that in some cases will conduct electricity but not in others. Good electrical conductors, like copper or silver, easily allow electricity to flow through them. Materials that block the flow of electricity, like rubber or plastic, are called insulators. Insulators are often used to protect people from electric shock. As the name implies, a semiconductor does not conduct as well as a conductor. Silicon is the most used semiconductor, but gallium arsenide is also used.

By the addition of different atoms into the crystal lattice (grid) of the semiconductor it changes its conductivity by making n-type and p-type semiconductors. Silicon is the most important commercial semiconductor, though many others are used. They can be made into transistors, which are small amplifiers. Transistors are used in computers, mobile phones, digital audio players and many other electronic devices.

Like other solids, the electrons in semiconductors can have energies only within certain bands (i.e. ranges of energy levels) between the energy of the ground state, corresponding to electrons tightly bound to the atomic nuclei of the material, and the free electron energy, which is the energy required for an electron to escape entirely from the material.

History
Semiconductors were being studied in laboratories as early as the 1830s. In 1833 Michael Faraday was experimenting with silver sulfide. He discovered that as the material was heated it conducted electricity better. This was the opposite of how copper acted. When copper is heated it conducts less electricity. A number of other early experimenters discovered other properties of semiconductors. In 1947 at Bell Labs in New Jersey, the transistor was invented. This led to the development of integrated circuits, which power almost all electronic devices today.

Doping
Doping is the process of adding a small impurity to a pure semiconductor to change its electrical properties. Lightly and moderately doped semiconductors are called extrinsic. A semiconductor doped to such high levels that it acts more like a conductor than a semiconductor is referred to as degenerate. Most semiconductors are made out of silicon crystals. Pure silicon has little use but doped silicon is the basis for most semiconductors. Silicon Valley was named for the large number of semiconductor startup companies that were located there.

Semiconductors today
Today, semiconductors are used far and wide. Semiconductors can be found in nearly every electronic device. Desktop computers, the Internet, tablet devices, smartphones all would not be possible without semiconductors.
Semiconductors can be made into very precise switches with a small amount of voltage. The voltage that the semiconductor doesn't need can be sent to other electrical components in the device. Semiconductors can also be made very tiny and many of them can fit into a rather small circuit. Since they can be made so small, electrical devices today can be made thin and lightweight without compromising processing power.
Some of the dominating companies in the semiconductor business are Intel Corporation, Samsung Electronics, TSMC, Qualcomm and Micron Technology.

Related pages
 Diode
 Transistor
 Light-emitting diode
 N-type Semiconductor
 Integrated circuit
 Quantum dot

References

Electronics

Semiconductor


A latch or catch (called sneck in Northern England and Scotland) is a type of mechanical fastener that joins two (or more) objects or surfaces while allowing for their regular separation. A latch typically engages another piece of hardware on the other mounting surface. Depending upon the type and design of the latch, this engaged bit of hardware may be known as a keeper or strike.

A latch is not the same as the locking mechanism of a door or window, although often they are found together in the same product.

Latches range in complexity from flexible one-piece flat springs of metal or plastic, such as are used to keep blow molded plastic power tool cases closed, to multi-point cammed latches used to keep large doors closed.

Common types

Deadbolt latch
A deadbolt latch is a single-throw bolt. The bolt can be engaged in its strike plate only after the door is closed. The locking mechanism typically prevents the bolt from being retracted by force.

Spring latches

 A Latch bolt is an extremely common latch type, typically part of a lockset. It is a spring-loaded bolt with an angled edge. When the door is pushed closed, the angled edge of the latch bolt engages with the lip of the strike plate; a spring allows the bolt to retract. Once the door is fully closed, the bolt automatically extends into the strike plate, holding the door closed. The latch bolt is disengaged (retracted) typically when the user turns the door handle, which via the lockset's mechanism, manually retracts the latch bolt, allowing the door to open.
 A deadlocking latch bolt (deadlatch) is an elaboration on the latch bolt which includes a guardbolt to prevent "shimming" or "jimmying" of the latch bolt. When the door is closed, the latch bolt and guardbolt are retracted together, and the door closes normally, with the latch bolt entering the strike plate. The strike plate, however, holds the guardbolt in its depressed position: a mechanism within the lockset holds the latch bolt in the projected position. This arrangement prevents the latch bolt from being depressed through the use of a credit card or some other tool, which would lead to unauthorized entry.
 A draw latch is a two part latch where one side has an arm that can clasp to the other half, and as it closes the clasp pulls the two parts together. It is fequently used on tool boxes, chests, crates and windows and does not need to be fully closed to secure both halves.
 A Spring bolt lock (or night latch) is a locking mechanism used with a latch bolt

Slam latch
A slam latch uses a spring and is activated by the shutting or slamming of a door. Like all latches, a slam latch is a mechanism to hold a door closed. The slam latch derives its name from its ability to slam doors and drawers shut without damaging the latch. A slam latch is rugged and ideal for industrial, agricultural and construction applications.

Cam lock
A cam lock is a type of latch consisting of a base and a cam. The base is where the key or tool is used to rotate the cam, which is what does the latching. Cams can be straight or offset; offset cams  are reversible. Commonly found on garage cabinets, file cabinets, tool chests, and other locations where privacy and security is needed.

Electronic cam lock

Electronic cam locks are an alternative to mechanical cam locks. The appearance of the electronic cam lock is similar to the mechanical cam lock, but it is different in the lock cylinder.

The keyhole of a mechanical cam lock is usually the same as an ordinary padlock. A physical key is used to unlock the lock. The physical key has a notch or slot corresponding to the obstacle in the cam lock, allowing it to rotate freely in the lock.

Different from mechanical cam locks, electronic cam locks use an electronic key to unlock. The key needs to be programmed which contains the user, unlocking date, and time period. The electronic cam lock has no mechanical keyhole, only three metal contacts are retained. When unlocking, the three contacts on the head end of the electronic key are in contact with the three contacts on the electronic cam lock. At this time, the key will supply power to the electronic cam lock and read the ID number of the electronic cam lock for verification and match. If successful, the lock can be unlocked.

The emergence of electronic cam locks aims to improve the safety and functionality of traditional mechanical cam locks.

Norfolk latch

A Norfolk latch is a type of latch incorporating a simple thumb-actuated lever and commonly used to hold wooden gates and doors closed.  In a Norfolk latch, the handle is fitted to a backplate independently of the thumb piece. Introduced around 1800–1820, Norfolk latches, originating in the English county of the same name, differ from the older Suffolk latch, which lacked a back plate to which the thumbpiece is attached.

Suffolk latch
A Suffolk latch is a type of latch incorporating a simple thumb-actuated lever and commonly used to hold wooden gates and doors closed.

The Suffolk latch originated in the English county of Suffolk in the 16th century and stayed in common use until the 19th century. They have recently come back into favour, particularly in traditional homes and country cottages. They were common from the 17th century to around 1825, and their lack of a back plate made them different from the later, and neighbouring Norfolk latch (introduced 1800–1820). Both the Suffolk latch and Norfolk latch are thought to have been named by architectural draughtsman William Twopenny (1797-1873). Many of these plates found their way into America and other parts of the world.

Crossbar

A crossbar, sometimes called a bolt, is a primitive fastener consisting simply of a post barring a door.

Crossbars were historically common, simple fasteners consisting simply of a plank or beam mounted to one side of a door by a set of cleats.  The board could be slid past the frame to block the door. Alternatively, the bar can be a separate piece that is placed into open cleats or hooks, extending across the frame on both sides. The effect of this device is essentially the opposite of the crash bar in that its operation is to permit the door to be opened inward rather than outward. On a set of double doors, the same principle works, but need not extend past the frame. The bar simply extends into another set of cleats on the other door such as to interfere with the door opening.

Cabin hook

A cabin hook is a hooked bar that engages into a staple. The bar is usually attached permanently to a ring or staple that is fixed with screws or nails to woodwork or a wall at the same level as the eye screw. The eye screw is usually screwed into the adjacent wall or onto the door itself. Used to hold a cupboard, door or gate open or shut.

A cabin hook is used in many situations to hold a door open, like on ships to prevent doors from swinging and banging against other woodwork as the ship moves due to wave action. This usage spread also to other domains, where a door was required to be held open or a self-closing device is used to close the door.

Many buildings are built with fire-resistant doors to separate different parts of buildings and to allow people to be protected from fire and smoke. When using a cabin hook in such a situation, one should keep in mind that a fire-resistant door is an expensive and heavy item, and it only works as a fire door if it is closed during a fire. To hold an often heavy fire door open simply, electromagnetic door holders are used that release when a building's fire alarm system is activated. As cabin hooks must be released manually, they are impractical for fire doors.

Toggle latch
Also named draw latch or draw catch. It has a claw or a loop that catches the strike plate (named catch plate in this case) when reaching a certain position.

Pawl
A pawl is a latch that will allow movement in one direction, but prevents return motion.  Commonly used in combination with a ratchet wheel.

Applications

Architecture
A latch of some type is typically fitted to a door or window.

Weaponry
Many types of weaponry incorporate latches with designs unique to the weapon.

Firearms
Firearms require specialized latches used during loading and firing of the weapon.

A break-action firearm is one whose barrels are hinged and a latch is operated to release the two parts of the weapon to expose the breech and allow loading and unloading of ammunition. It is then closed and re-latched prior to firing. A separate operation may be required for the cocking and latching-open of a hammer to fire the new round. Break open actions are universal in double-barrelled shotguns, double-barrelled rifles and combination guns, and are also common in single shot rifles, pistols, and shotguns, and can also be found in flare guns, grenade launchers, air guns and some older revolver designs.

Several latch designs have been used for loading revolvers.  In a top-break revolver, the frame is hinged at the bottom front of the cylinder. The frame is in two parts, held together by a latch on the top rear of the cylinder.  For a swing out cylinder, the cylinder is mounted on a pivot that is coaxial with the chambers, and the cylinder swings out and down. Some designs, such as the Ruger Super Redhawk or the Taurus Raging Bull, use a latches at the front and rear of the cylinder to provide a secure bond between cylinder and frame.

To fire a revolver, generally the hammer is first manually cocked and latched into place. The trigger, when pulled, releases the hammer, which fires the round in the chamber.

Knives
Various types of knives with folding or retractable blades rely on latches for their function. A switchblade uses an internal spring to produce the blade which is held in place by a button-activated latch.  Likewise a ballistic knife uses a strong latch to restrain a powerful spring from firing the blade as a projectile until triggered by opening the latch. A gravity knife relies on a latch to hold the folding blade in an open position once released. A butterfly knife uses a single latch to hold the folding blade both open and closed, depending on the position of the handles; by rotating 180 degrees the same latch can be used in either configuration. Butterfly knife latches have numerous variations, including magnetic variants and some which can be opened via a spring when the handles are squeezed together.

Utility knives also often use a latch to hold a folding knife both open and closed. This allows it to be locked in orientation to the handle when in use, but also safely stowed otherwise. To open a knife of this type may require significantly more force than the weapons variety as an added safety feature.

Other
Crossbows incorporate a type of latch to hold the drawn bowstring prior to firing.

Automobiles
Automobiles incorporate numerous special-purpose latches as components of the doors, hood/bonnet, trunk/boot door, seat belts, etc.

On passenger cars, a hood may be held down by a concealed latch. On race cars or cars with aftermarket hoods (that do not use the factory latch system) the hood may be held down by hood pins.

The term Nader bolt is a nickname for the bolt on vehicles that allows a hinged door to remain safely latched and closed. It is named after consumer rights advocate and politician Ralph Nader, who in 1965 released the book Unsafe at Any Speed which claimed that American cars were fundamentally flawed with respect to operator safety.

Latches in seatbelts typically fasten the belt which constrains the occupant to the body of the car. Particularly in rear seats slightly different latches may be used for each seat in order to prevent adjacent seatbelts from being attached to the wrong point. Inertial seatbelt release is a potential circumstance where, in a collision, the seatbelt latch can unintentionally come loose leading to potential injury of the passenger. An additional risk of seatbelt latches is that in some cases the occupant may believe the latch is secure (e.g., by hearing a characteristic click) when in fact it is not.

A parking pawl is a device that latches the transmission on automatic vehicles when put in 'park'.

Bakeware

A spring latch (in this case an over-center-latch) is used to hold the walls of a springform pan in place.

See also
 Door chain
 Electric strike
 Single-point locking
 Snib

References

Norfolk
Fasteners
Door furniture

io:Klinko

Latch


Nearest neighbour algorithms is a the name given to a number of greedy algorithms to solve problems related to graph theory. This algorithm was made to find a solution to the travelling salesman problem. In general, these algorithms try to find a Hamlitonian cycle as follows:
Start at some vertex, and mark it as current.
From the current vertex, take the shortest edge that connects it to an unvisited vertex V.
Set the current vertex to V.
If there no unvisited vertices left, you are done.
Else, go to step 2.
Such algorithms are easy to implement, but they do  not always find the best solution. What is worse, the algorithm may not find a tour even if one exists.

Greedy algorithms
Graph theory

Nearest neighbour algorithm


Limburgish, whiles cawed Limburgian or Limburgic (Dutch: Limburgs, German: Limburgisch, French: Limbourgeois) is a group o East Law Franconian leid varieties spoken in the Limburg an Rhineland regions, near the common Dutch / Belgian / German border. The aurie in which it is spoken roughly fits athin a wide circle frae Venlo tae Düsseldorf tae Aachen tae Maastricht tae Hasselt an back tae Tienen. In some pairts of this aurie it is generally uised as the colloquial leid in daily speech.

In general speech the Limburgish leid is aften described as a dialect o either German or Dutch, baith o which share mony characteristics wi it. Athin the modren communities o the Belgian an Dutch provinces o Limburg intermediate idiolects are an aa vera common, which combine staundart Dutch wi the accent an some grammatical an pronunciation tendencies derived frae Limburgish. This 'Limburgish Dutch' is confusingly an aa aften referred tae simply as "Limburgish" (Limburgs in Dutch).

Leids o Belgium
Leids o the Netherlands
Leids o Germany
Limburg (region)
Limburgish leid
Low Franconian leids
Tonal leids

Limburgish leid


Adolf von Henselt (born Schwabach, Bavaria, May 9 1814; died Warmbrunn (now Cieplice), Silesia, October 10 1889) was a German pianist and composer.  He had piano lessons from Hummel in Weimar.  When he was a young man he played in concerts all over Germany.  Then he went to Russia where he was very successful and he settled there to live.  He became pianist at the court of the tsar and taught the tsar's children how to play the piano.

Henselt was known for his beautiful playing of the music of Chopin.  He was very good at playing widely spaced arpeggios and could make them sound very smooth (legato) even if he was not using the pedal.

As a composer he is mostly remembered today for a few of his short works which are often quite sentimental, e.g. Frühlingslied (Spring Song) and Si oiseau j'étais (If I were a bird).

19th-century German composers
Romantic composers
German pianists
1814 births
1889 deaths

Adolf von Henselt


Raymond Adolphe Séré de Rivières (20 May 1815 – 16 February 1895) was a French military engineer and general whose ideas revolutionized the design of fortifications in France. He gave his name to the Séré de Rivières system of fortifications constructed after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Described as the Vauban of the 19th century, his Belgian counterpart was Henri Alexis Brialmont.

Early life
Raymond Adolphe Séré de Rivières was born on 20 May 1815 in Albi, France.  His family had been part of the nobility as recently as the 17th century. Studying in Paris, he was admitted in 1833 to the École militaire de Saint-Cyr, but he chose not to enter, preferring to pursue the study of law. He entered the École polytechnique in 1835, where the students included Adolphe Thiers, the future Prime Minister. After two years at Polytechnique he left with the rank of sub-lieutenant. He enrolled at the École d'Application de l'Artillerie et du Génie at Metz where he became familiar with the principals of permanent fortification. In 1839 he joined the second regiment of engineers at Arras where he refined his studies, inspired by the ideas of the Marquis de Montalembert.  He was promoted to lieutenant in 1841, then captain second class in January 1843, and was nominated to the engineering district of Toulon in April of the same year. At this post he showed his abilities with the design of fortifications. At Toulon his work included the Caserne du Centre and the Fort du Cap-Brun. While at Toulon he married the daughter of the mayor of Toulon in September 1847.

He was successively posted to:

Perpignan in October 1848,
Castres in March 1849,
Carcassonne in July 1853,
Orléans in March 1860 (after having participated in the Second Italian War of Independence in 1859)
Paris-north in October 1860,
Nice in January 1862,
Metz in August 1864,
Lyon in April 1868.

His governing idea concerning fortifications - to defend a given place using detached forts arranged in a line - was first used in the places where Séré de Rivières worked: Toulon, as well as Nice (the Tête de Chien and the Drette et de la Revère works), Metz (Forts Saint-Quentin, Plappeville, Saint-Julien and Queuleu, and Lyon (encirclement linking the Caluire and Montessuy forts).

The Franco-Prussian War
In 1870, Séré de Rivières was able to control an urban insurrection in Lyon and to put the city in a state of defense; these accomplishments earned him a promotion to brigadier general in October. Three months later he was named commander of the engineers of the 24th Corps of the Army of the East under the orders of General Charles Denis Bourbaki, receiving significant credit for the French victory at Arcey. This earned a promotion to commander of the Armée de l'Est's engineers. Some weeks later at the head of the engineers of the 2nd Corps of the Army of Versailles, he directed the sieges of the Fort d'Issy, the Fort de Vanves and the Fort de Montrouge, which had been occupied during the Commune, capturing them in May 1871. In the autumn of 1871, Séré de Rivières was in charge of a review of the French defenses along the Italian border. In 1872 he prepared an analysis on the fall of Metz in 1870 for Marshal François Achille Bazaine, with a full published report following on 6 March 1873.

The Séré de Rivières system

In June 1873 Séré de Rivières became secretary of the Committee of Defense, which had been established by Prime Minister Adolphe Thiers. Opposed to the policies of General Charles Auguste Frossard, Séré de Rivières had the opportunity to explain in detail his plan for the reorganization of France's borders. The plan envisioned a combination of offense and defense, with both static and moving elements. The plan was based on a system of strong defensive lines that would channel an enemy to a waiting army. The system took into account the evolution of armaments, and sought to maneuver an attacker away from Paris. This concept was first proposed by Vauban, but was not according to the taste of the times, in part because of the defeat of 1871. Vauban-style fortifications had proven to be poorly suited to new weapons and tactics, and required a complete rethinking of design and employment. Two texts were essential to the doctrine:

Considérations sur la reconstitution de la frontière de l'Est ("Considerations on the reconstitution of the eastern frontier"), submitted to the Committee on 21 June 1873, adopted unanimously and published on 15 November;
Exposé sur le système défensif de la France ("Discussion on the defensive system of France"), presented on 20 May 1874. On 17 July a law relative to the implementation of the defensive measures for the eastern defenses of France was adopted.
In 1874 Séré de Rivières became director of the Service du Génie (Military Engineer Service) at the Ministry of Defense, charged by General François Charles du Barail with the construction of defenses from Dunkerque to Nice which would bear his name. The project was launched on 17 July 1874 by unanimous vote. The northern and north-eastern frontiers were divided into four groups comprising the Jura, the Vosges, the Meuse (river) region, and the northern frontier from Montmédy to Dunkerque.

The program also addressed the Italian frontier's defenses, reinforcing older mountain fortresses. The defenses of the important southern cities of Lyon, Nice and Toulon were also improved. Séré de Rivières' influence is also visible on the Spanish border and along the Atlantic coast, as well Paris, where a new, more distant ring of forts was built to place the city out of artillery range.

Séré de Rivières was replaced as head of the Gènie in 1880 in a political intrigue, but his program continued without significant changes until 1885. In all, 196 forts, 58 smaller works and 278 batteries were built along the borders and at strategic points within the country, for an expenditure estimated at 450 million francs for the works and 229 million francs for their armament.

Death
Séré de Rivières died on 16 February 1895 in Paris. He is buried in Père-Lachaise cemetery in a modest tomb bearing the inscription "Lapides clamabunt" ("the stones will testify").

See also
Séré de Rivières system
Ceintures de Lyon
The works of Antonin Mercié

References

External links
 Fortiff' Séré, website devoted to Séré de Rivières fortifications
 Biography of Séré de Rivières

École Polytechnique alumni
French military engineers
People from Albi
1815 births
1895 deaths
French generals
French military personnel of the Franco-Prussian War
Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery

Raymond Adolphe Séré de Rivières


Lieutenant (; Lt) is a junior officer rank in the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above second lieutenant and below captain and has a NATO ranking code of OF-1 and it is the senior subaltern rank. Unlike some armed forces which use first lieutenant, the British rank is simply lieutenant, with no ordinal attached. The rank is equivalent to that of a flying officer in the Royal Air Force (RAF). Although formerly considered senior to a Royal Navy (RN) sub-lieutenant, the British Army and Royal Navy ranks of lieutenant and sub-lieutenant are now considered to be of equivalent status. The Army rank of lieutenant has always been junior to the Navy's rank of lieutenant.

Usage
In the 21st-century British Army, the rank is ordinarily held for up to three years. A typical appointment for a lieutenant might be the command of a platoon or troop of approximately thirty soldiers.

Before 1871, when the whole British Army switched to using the current rank of "lieutenant", the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers and Fusilier regiments used "first lieutenant" and "second lieutenant".

Form of address
In the United Kingdom, "Lieutenant" is a rank which is not used as a form of address, unlike "Captain" and higher ranks. A Lieutenant called Smith is addressed and referred to as "Mr Smith".

Historical insignia
From 1856 to 1880 a lieutenant's rank insignia was worn on the collar and comprised a single crown, the current insignia for a major.  In 1881 lieutenants had their insignia changed to single pip and moved to the shoulder.  In 1902 they received a second pip, the badge of rank which has been kept to the present.

During the First World War, some officers took to wearing similar jackets to the men, with the rank badges on the shoulder, as the cuff badges made them conspicuous to snipers. This practice was frowned on outside the trenches but was given official sanction in 1917 as an alternative, being made permanent in 1920 when the cuff badges were abolished.  The cuff badges were:

From 1 April 1918 to 31 July 1919, the Royal Air Force maintained the rank of Lieutenant. It was superseded by the rank of flying officer on the following day.

See also

British and U.S. military ranks compared
British Army Other Ranks rank insignia
British Army officer rank insignia

References

Military ranks of the British Army
Military ranks of the Royal Marines
Former military ranks of the Royal Air Force

Lieutenant (British Army and Royal Marines)


Snow is a form of ice. Snow forms when water in the atmosphere becomes frozen. It comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. Snow comes in all different shapes and sizes.

At the freezing point of water (0° Celsius, 32° Fahrenheit), snow melts and becomes liquid water. Sometimes, the snow will melt very fast and become water vapor. This is called sublimation. The opposite, where water vapor becomes snow, is called deposition.

Snow is used for some winter sport activities like skiing and sledding. Sometimes people make artificial snow so they can ski. People also commonly build things out of snow for fun.

Snow can also be dangerous, as it can lower visibility and make driving very difficult. When it snows, the snow will melt a little during the daytime and freeze again at night. This makes ice which can make driving conditions very treacherous. Snow plows are used to remove snow from roads to make driving easier and safer. Also, sand or salt may be added to the road to help tires grip the road. When salt is mixed with snow, the snow will melt more easily. This is because salt water has a lower melting point than fresh water (water without salt).

A blizzard is a dangerous type of a snowstorm. A blizzard produces strong winds that keep the snow in the air, thus reducing visibility. Sometimes it produce thunder snow, which is snow with lightning and thunder.

References

Snow
Snow

Snow