The 2004 South American Summit – the third of its kind, after earlier events in Brasília (September 2000) and Guayaquil (July 2002) – was held in Cuzco and Ayacucho, Peru, on 7 –9 December 2004.  Officially it constituted the Extraordinary Meeting of the Andean Presidential Council (Reunión Extraordinaria del Consejo Presidencial Andino ) and was also billed as the Third Meeting of Presidents of South America (III Reunión de Presidentes de América del Sur).

The main item on the agenda was the signature, by heads of state and plenipotentiary representatives of 12 South American nations, of the Cuzco Declaration, a two-page document containing a preamble to the deed of foundation of the South American Community of Nations (or "South American Union"), uniting the region's two existing free-trade organisations – Mercosur and the Andean Community.

Ayacucho was chosen for symbolic reasons: it was there that Antonio José de Sucre, fighting under the banner of  Simón Bolívar "the Liberator", defeated the last Imperial Spanish troops in South America on  9 December 1824.

While the organisation's exact nature and functions – and even its name – remain unclear, it aspires to evolve along the lines followed by the continental integration efforts of the European Union, rather than becoming a mere free-trade area.  The initiative emerged – largely at the instigation of Brazil – in response to the failed negotiations of the Free Trade Area of the Americas. The FTAA process has been stalemated for more than 12 months in the wake of irreconcilable differences, largely along the geopolitical faultlines between Latin America and the Caribbean on the one hand and the United States and Canada on the other.

Participating nations
Argentina – Néstor Kirchner not attending
Bolivia –  represented by Carlos Mesa
Brazil –  represented by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Colombia – represented by Álvaro Uribe
Chile –  represented by Ricardo Lagos
Ecuador – Lucio Gutiérrez not attending
Guyana – represented by Bharrat Jagdeo
Paraguay – Nicanor Duarte not attending
Peru –  represented by Alejandro Toledo
Suriname – represented by Ronald Venetiaan
Uruguay – Jorge Batlle not attending
Venezuela –  represented by Hugo Chávez

Mexico (Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez) and Panama (President
Martín Torrijos) are also attending the event, with nonparticipating observer status.

See also
 Summit of the Americas
 Pan-American Conference

External links
Sudamérica y un viejo sueño – Eduardo Duhalde, former President of Argentina
Uniendo esfuerzos para el desarrollo – Manuel Rodríguez Cuadros, former Foreign Minister of Peru

Summits of the Union of South American Nations
2004 in Peru
Diplomatic conferences in Peru
21st-century diplomatic conferences (Americas)
2004 in international relations
December 2004 events in South America

2004 South American Summit


C-sharp minor or C minor is a minor scale based on C. Its key signature has four sharps.

Its relative major is E major, and its parallel major is C-sharp major.

Classical music in this key
There are very few symphonies written in this key. One of them is by Joseph Martin Kraus, but he later rewrote it in C minor. Another two are Mahler's Symphony No. 5 (though only the first movement is in C-sharp minor, and the finale is actually in D major) and Prokofiev's Symphony No. 7. Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 2 is also in C-sharp minor.

This key occurs more often in piano music. Domenico Scarlatti wrotetwo keyboard sonatas in C-sharp minor, K. 246 and K. 247. But after Beethoven's famous Moonlight Sonata, the key became more popular for piano. Beethoven used this key again in the outer movements of his String Quartet No. 14 (Op. 131, 1826). However, Johannes Brahms rewrote his C-sharp minor Piano Quartet to be published as Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60. One of the most famous pieces in this key is Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu. Other works include Chopin's Nocturnes  No. 7 (Op. 27, No. 1) and No. 20 (Op. posth.), and his "Raindrop" Prelude in D-flat major (Op. 28, No. 15). Waltz in C sharp minor (op.64 No.2) is another well known musical piece from Chopin that uses this particular key (along with D flat minor key). Another very famous example of a work in C sharp minor is Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C-sharp minor (Op. 3, No. 2).

References

Musical keys
Minor scales

C-sharp minor


Culture is a word for the 'way of life' of groups of people, meaning the way they do things. Different groups may have different cultures. A culture is passed on to the next generation by learning, whereas genetics are passed on by heredity. Culture is seen in people's writing, religion, music, clothes, cooking and in what they do.

The concept of culture is very complicated, and the word has some meanings. The word 'culture' is most commonly used in three ways.
 Excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities, also known as high culture.
 An integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior.
 The outlook, attitudes, values, morals, goals, and customs  shared by a society.

Most broadly, 'culture' includes all human phenomena which are not purely results of human genetics. The discipline which investigates cultures is called anthropology, though many other disciplines play a part.

National cultures

Cultures are what make a country unique and interesting. Each country has different cultural activities and cultural rituals. Culture includes material goods, the things the people use and produce.  Culture is also the beliefs and values of the people and the ways they think about and understand the world and their own lives.

Different countries have different cultures. For example, some older Japanese people wear kimonos, arrange flowers in vases, and have tea ceremonies.  Some countries oppose some things in their culture, like discrimination or religion.

Regional or non-regional cultures

Culture can also vary within a region, society or sub group.  A workplace may have a specific culture that sets it apart from similar workplaces.  A region of a country may have a different culture than the rest of the country. For example, in a large country like China or Canada a region may have a distinctive way of talking, different types of music, and different types of dances.

A group who acts or speaks differently may be said to be, or have, a subculture.

Ethnic groups such as the Romani people in Europe have a distinct culture.

Company cultures
Companies or other organizations (groups of people) can have a separate culture. Japanese manufacturing companies often have a different culture to Western companies; the workday starts with exercise, and the workers are very loyal to the company.

Companies in the high-technology sector often have a different culture than other companies. Software and computer companies sometimes allow employees to play games during the workday, or take time off work to relax, because these companies believe that this will help the workers to think better.

Anthropology
Anthropology is studying human beings and how they relate to each other. An anthropologist is a person who studies anthropology. Anthropologists study how culture shapes people and their lives. Cultures constantly change as people move and communicate with new groups of people.

For example, immigrants (people who move from one country to another) may keep some of their customs and traditions from their old country. By keeping their culture in this way, they bring pieces of their culture to a new place where others begin to experience it.

Related pages
 Tradition
 Roerich Pact
 Lifestyle

References

Website
 Culture_(social) -Citizendium

Culture


Marjorie Florence Lawrence CBE (17 February 190713 January 1979) was an Australian dramatic soprano, particularly noted as an interpreter of Richard Wagner's operas. She was the first Metropolitan Opera soprano to perform the immolation scene in Götterdämmerung by riding her horse into the flames as Wagner had intended. She was afflicted by polio from 1941. Lawrence later served on the faculty of the School of Music at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Her life story was told in the 1955 film Interrupted Melody, in which she was portrayed by Eleanor Parker, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as Lawrence.

Early life
Lawrence was born at Deans Marsh,  south west of Melbourne. She was the fifth of six children of William Lawrence, the local butcher, and Elizabeth (née Smith) Lawrence, church organist. Her mother died when Lawrence was two and she was raised by her father's mother. Lawrence attended local schools, joined the choir at St Pauls Church of England and was a soloist by age ten. Her interest in opera was sparked by gramophone records of Nellie Melba and Clara Butt. She won a number of vocal competitions when aged in her teens, and at the age of 18 she travelled to Melbourne for work. She received voice lessons from Ivor Boustead but had to return home due to financial hardship. Lawrence failed to gain a place at the Royal South Street competitions in Ballarat but went on to win the Sun Aria at Geelong in 1928. Australian baritone John Brownlee advised her to study in Paris with Cécile Gilly. Lawrence boarded with a French family and, under Gilly's tuition, was able to extend her voice's upper range.

Career
In January 1932, Lawrence made her operatic debut in Monte Carlo as Elisabeth in Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser. On 25 February 1933, she made her first appearance at the Opera Garnier in Paris, singing Ortrud in Lohengrin, and in the same year she sang in the world premiere of Joseph Canteloube's Vercingétorix.

On 18 December 1935, she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City singing Brünnhilde in Die Walküre, and the following year performed the immolation scene in Götterdämmerung by riding her horse into the flames as Wagner had intended, the first Metropolitan Opera soprano to do so. She had been an athletic child and learned to ride in Australia. In this famous performance, Lauritz Melchior was her Siegfried. The performance was recorded and is the only complete Götterdämmerung with Melchior as Siegfried on record.

Lawrence's physicality and beauty made her popular with audiences – she performed the "Dance of the Seven Veils" in Richard Strauss's Salome more convincingly than most other sopranos. Just as Lawrence's great compatriot Florence Austral had been able to alternate the role of Brünnhilde with Frida Leider, she herself was able to alternate the role with Kirsten Flagstad at the Metropolitan in 1937.

She turned down a small role in the premiere of George Enescu's opera Œdipe in 1938, which caused her fellow Australian (by adoption) Hephzibah Menuhin (a close friend of Enescu's) to consider the soprano "snobbish and petty".

Lawrence returned to Australia periodically from 1939, where English critic Neville Cardus wrote of the "'unselfconscious pathos' and 'intimate poetry' in her performances, of the 'superb range' of her powerful voice, 'rich in vocal splendour' throughout".

In 1939 it was announced she would play Dame Nellie Melba in the film The Life of Melba for Australia's Cinesound Productions. However the film never materialised due to the war.

On 29 March 1941, at New York City's City Hall, she married Dr. Thomas King, an osteopath and Christian Scientist.

During a performance in 1941 in Mexico, Lawrence found herself unable to stand—she had polio. She undertook the Sister Kenny treatment of muscle stimulation for paralysis in both legs. She returned to the stage 18 months later, performing in a chair, reclining or on a special platform; although hampered by her lack of mobility, she continued to perform until 1952. In 1944, during World War II, she performed in charity concerts to entertain troops in Australia, seated in a chair. A performance as Amneris in Giuseppe Verdi's Aida in Paris in 1946 was well received as were concert appearances of Richard Strauss's Elektra in December 1947 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Artur Rodzinski, but Lawrence left the stage, and instead began to work as a teacher. She retired to her ranch, Harmony Hills, in Hot Springs, Arkansas where she taught international students. She later accepted students from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock from the late 1970s until her death in 1979.

Although best known for her Wagnerian interpretations, Lawrence sang a range of other works, including Salome and Georges Bizet's Carmen. She made a number of excellent recordings, mainly of works by Wagner. She received many good reviews throughout her career. She had a solid career in France, Mexico, Australia and throughout South America, as well as the US. However, she was unable to build a substantial career in other parts of the world due to World War II, when her voice was prime. In 1946 she was awarded the cross of the Légion d'honneur for her work in France.

In 1949, Lawrence wrote her autobiography Interrupted Melody; by February 1950, Hollywood was interested in making a film and Lawrence indicated "If a film is made I will do the singing". In 1955, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released the film version, Interrupted Melody, starring Eleanor Parker as Lawrence; Parker loved opera and learned to sing all of the arias, although her singing was later dubbed in by soprano Eileen Farrell. Lawrence criticised the film as being untrue to her life.

Lawrence died, aged 71, of heart failure on 13 January 1979 at St Vincent's Hospital, Little Rock, Arkansas, and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Hot Springs, where she had made her home for many years.

Honours
In 1946 she was awarded the cross of the Légion d'honneur for her work in France. In 1976 she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire on the recommendation of the Government of Australia.

References

G. Davidson. Opera Biographies (London: Werner Laurie, 1955), pp. 158–159
Lawrence, Marjorie. Interrupted Melody: An Autobiography, Sydney, NSW, 1949, Invincible Press.

External links
 Majorie Lawrence Collection in the Performing Arts Collection, the Arts Centre, Melbourne (correspondence, photographs, programmes, scrapbooks etc.)
 [ biography] at AllMusic
 Marjorie Lawrence Papers, 1926–1977 at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Special Collections Research Center
 Pathé News Clip showing Lawrence performing Elektra with Rodzinski and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra following her return to performance - the only publicly available film footage of Lawrence performing.

1907 births
1979 deaths
Musicians from Victoria (state)
Australian operatic sopranos
Australian Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
People from Carbondale, Illinois
Southern Illinois University Carbondale faculty
Recipients of the Legion of Honour
Australian emigrants to the United States
20th-century Australian women opera singers

Marjorie Lawrence


The Network Rail New Measurement Train (NMT) is a special train used to check how good rail tracks are. Network Rail engineers use this information to decide which tracks to work on. The NMT is converted from High Speed Train Class 43 power cars and Mark 3 coaches. It can check the condition of all main lines in Great Britain in two weeks.

Related pages
Doctor Yellow – measurement trains in Japan

Network Rail
High-speed trains

Network Rail New Measurement Train


Manuel de Falla (born Cádiz, Spain, 23 November 1876; died Alta Gracia, Argentina, 14 November 1946) was a Spanish composer. Falla (pronounce: "FA-ya"), together with Albéniz and Granados, helped to make Spanish music important again after three centuries during which there had been no important Spanish composers.

Life

Early years
Falla had his first music lessons in Cádiz. At first he did not know whether he wanted to take music or literature as a career. When he was ten he started to go to music evenings where he heard chamber music being played. Then he started to go to the opera, and he heard church music and orchestral music. He liked the music of Grieg and decided that he wanted to do something similar with Spanish music. He went to Madrid where he studied very hard and won prizes. His first compositions were played in Cádiz. He studied with Pedrell who had also taught Albéniz and Granados.

He wrote a song called Tus ojillos negros which became very popular, and he won a prize for a piano composition, but it was his opera La vida breve (1904-1905) which really showed his genius, although it was not performed at the time. No one in Spain wanted to perform his zarzuelas, so he went to Paris in 1907. He soon made friends with Dukas, Debussy and Ravel. He made changes to La vida breve and it was performed in Paris in 1913. His piano works and songs were also performed in Paris, and in Madrid.

Mid career
In 1915 he wrote El amor brujo. It was a work with dances, songs and spoken passages. He soon turned it into a ballet. The music uses the songs of Andalusia and the rhythms of Spanish folkmusic. He wrote a work for solo piano and orchestra called Noches en los jardines de España (Nights in the gardens of Spain). Later he changed it to a ballet for Diaghilev, calling it El sombrero. It was performed in London in 1919 with designs by Picasso. The music is very lively and often sounds like a guitar. He wrote a piano piece called Fantasia bética (1919) which is the most important Spanish piano work after Albéniz's Iberia.

Falla had many friends, including Lorca. They liked small theatre pieces and Falla wrote El retablo and set it as a puppet opera. He liked the music of the past centuries, and wrote a concerto for harpsichord and five other instruments.

Final years
During his final years Falla was composing a very large work called Atlántida. It was a long oratorio for soloists, chorus and orchestra. The words were in Catalan. Falla did not live long enough to finish the work. He became very depressed because of World War II. In the end he was invited to Argentina where he settled. He continued to work at Atlántida, but he had not finished it when he died. A man called Ernesto Halffter spent many years trying to finish it and prepare it for a performance. It was performed on stage at La Scala, Milan, in 1962, but it does not work well as an opera. Occasionally it is performed as a concert piece.

References
 The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians ed. Stanley Sadie, 1980

1876 births
1946 deaths
20th-century Spanish composers
People from Cádiz

Manuel de Falla


Alan Orr Anderson (1879–1958) was a Scottish historian and compiler. The son of Rev. John Anderson and Ann Masson, he was born in 1879. He was educated at Royal High School, Edinburgh, and the University of Edinburgh.

In 1908, after five years of work sponsored by the Carnegie Trust, he published Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers, a reasonably comprehensive compilation of sources about Scottish history before 1286 written either in England or by chroniclers born in England. Fourteen years later, he was able to publish the 2-volume work entitled Early Sources of Scottish History, A.D. 500 to 1286, a similar but larger collection of sources, this time taken from non-English (mostly Gaelic) material. To a certain extent, the latter work overlapped with the compilations published by Skene's Chronicles of the Picts and Scots (Edinburgh, 1867), but both of Anderson's compilations differed from Skene's in that all were translated into English.

Years of reading difficult manuscripts in dull light were perhaps the cause of Anderson's failing eyesight, and for a large period of time, he relied on his graduate student (subsequently his wife) Marjorie Cunningham to do much of the readings. He died 9 December 1958.

Today, most scholars working in early Scottish history regard Anderson's three volumes as among their most essential scholarly possessions. As a result, much of the course of early Scottish historiography was set by what Anderson chose to publish or chose not to publish. In 1990 and 1991, the compilations were reissued by the Stamford-based organisation Paul Watkins Publishing.

Bibliography
 Anderson, Alan Orr, Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500–1286, 2 vols, Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1922; republished, Marjorie Anderson (ed.) Stamford, 1990
 Anderson, Alan Orr, Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers: AD 500–1286, London: David Nutt, 1908; republished, Marjorie Anderson (ed.) Stamford, 1991

References
'ANDERSON, Alan Orr', Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007, accessed 28 Jan 2009

1879 births
1958 deaths
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Celtic studies scholars
Scottish antiquarians
20th-century Scottish historians
People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh
Historiographers

Alan Orr Anderson


A distributor is an enclosed rotating shaft uised in spark-ignition internal combustion ingines that hae mechanically-timed ignition. The distributor's main function is tae route seicontar, or heich voltage, current frae the ignition coil tae the spark plugs in the correct firing order, an for the correct amount o time. Except in magneto seestems, the distributor an aa houses a mechanical or inductive breaker switch tae open an close the ignition coil's primary circuit.

The first reliable battery operated ignition wis developed bi Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co. (Delco) an introduced in the 1910 Cadillac. This ignition wis developed bi Charles Kettering an wis considered a wonder in its day. Atwater Kent invented his Unisparker ignition seestem aboot this time in competeetion wi the Delco seestem. Bi the end o the 20t century mechanical ignitions war disappearing frae automotive applications in favour o inductive or capacitive electronic ignitions, fully controlled bi ingine control units (ECU), rather than directly timed tae the ingine's crankshaft speed.

References

Internal combustion ingine

Distributor


Honey is a 2003 movie released by Universal Pictures. Featuring music produced by Rodney Jerkins, the movie stars Jessica Alba, Mekhi Phifer, Lil' Romeo,Zachary Isaiah Williams Joy Bryant, Missy Elliott and David Moscow. A number of popular hip hop and R&B musicians make cameos in the movie, including Jerkins, Jadakiss and Sheek Louch of The Lox, Tweet, and Ginuwine. Canadian R&B artist Shawn Desman was also featured. R&B and hip-hop singer Aaliyah, a close friend of Missy Elliott, was originally cast as the star of the movie before her death.

The movie grossed $27 million at the US box office, and was released on DVD and VHS on March 23, 2004.

2003 movies
2000s English-language movies
Movies about singers

Honey (2003 movie)


Turquoise is an opaque (cannot be seen through), blueish-green mineral. It is not common and can be valuable in finer grades.  It has been prized as a gem and ornamental stone for thousands of years because of its interesting coloring.

The word 'turquoise' means Turkish in French.

Gemstones
Birthstones

Turquoise


In music, a riff is an ostinato; a repeated set of notes, pattern, or melody, often played by rhythmic instruments. The riff is the base of the musical composition. They are most common in rock music, funk, and jazz.

Some of famous riffs in rock music can be found in the following songs:

Deep Purple – "Smoke On The Water"
AC/DC – "Highway to Hell"
Nirvana – "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
Metallica – "Enter Sandman"
Michael Jackson – "Beat It"
Chuck Berry – "Johnny B. Goode"
The White Stripes – "Seven Nation Army"
Black Sabbath – "Iron Man"
Jimi Hendrix – "Purple Haze"
The Rolling Stones – "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"
Guns n Roses – "Sweet Child O'Mine"
 Queen – "Bohemian Rhapsody"

Musical terminology

Riff


Sir Alec Victor Bedser  (4 July 1918 – 4 April 2010) was an English professional cricketer, primarily a medium-fast bowler. He is widely regarded as one of the best English cricketers of the 20th century.

Bedser played first-class cricket for Surrey from 1939 to 1960 alongside his identical twin brother Eric.  He took 1924 first-class wickets in 485 matches. He played Test cricket for England from 1946 to 1955, taking 236 wickets in 51 Test matches.  He passed Clarrie Grimmett's world record for Test wickets in 1953.  He held the record until his final tally was passed by Brian Statham in 1963.

After retirement as an active cricketer, Bedser became the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and was the president of Surrey County Cricket Club.  He was knighted in the 1997 New Year Honours.

Early life and career
Bedser was born in Reading, Berkshire, ten minutes after his identical twin brother Eric (1918–2006).  His father was a bricklayer, but had been stationed in Reading with the Royal Air Force during the First World War.  The brothers remained inseparable through their lives: they often dressed identically, and shared a bank account; neither married.

The family moved to Horsell, Surrey, where, at the age of seven, the brothers played their first organised cricket. The family moved to Knaphill and then to a house they helped their father to build in Woking.  They were educated at Maybury Junior School and then Monument Hill Central School in Woking.  Over the next decade, the twin brothers played cricket together for Monument Hill School and Woking Cricket Club.   They also both played football for Monument Hill School, both as full backs.

After leaving school, Eric and Alec became clerks at the same firm of solicitors in Lincoln's Inn Fields. They were spotted practising in the nets for Woking Cricket Club by Surrey coach Alan Peach, and he recruited them to the staff at the Oval in 1938. Initially, they were both medium-fast bowlers, but (after Alec won a toss of a coin) Eric became an off spinner instead. They made their first-class débuts for Surrey against Oxford University in June 1939.

Second World War
Their cricket careers were soon interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War.  They both joined the RAF police, and were sent to France with the British Expeditionary Force. They both narrowly escaped being shot before being evacuated from Dunkirk, and later served in North Africa, Italy and Austria. They were demobilised in 1946.

Playing career

Alec Bedser's performances during war-time cricket matches were impressive: in games for the RAF he took 6 wickets for 27 runs (including a hat-trick) against the West Indies and 9 for 36 (featuring another hat-trick) against a Metropolitan Police team.

In his first full season for Surrey, in 1946, he passed 100 wickets before July and established himself as a bowler in the England Test team. In each of his first two Tests, against the visiting Indians, he took eleven wickets: 11 for 139 in his début at Lord's, including 7 in the first innings, and 11 for 96 in the next game at Old Trafford, Manchester. His amazing season resulted in his nomination as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year for 1947. He was selected for the 1946–47 Ashes series in Australia and for most of the next decade "carried England's bowling attack".

In Australia he was overbowled and exhausted and found that his natural in-swingers were liked by Australian leg-side batsmen like Sid Barnes. To counter this he gripped the ball across the seam like a spinner and the result was an in-swinging leg-break which would be known as Bedser's "Special Ball". Don Bradman wrote "the ball with which Alec Bedser bowled me in the Adelaide Test Match was, I think, the finest ever to take my wicket. It must have come three-quarters of the way straight on my off-stump, then suddenly dipped in to pitch on the leg stump, only to turn off the pitch and hit the middle and off stumps."

Meanwhile, his brother Eric became an all-rounder in the Surrey team, concentrating on his batting as the team also included spinners such as Jim Laker and Tony Lock. The Bedser twins were difficult to tell apart, both 6'3" tall and just over 15 stone. Playing for Surrey against an England representative team in 1946, they are reputed to have shared an over – Alec bowling the first three balls and then swapping with Eric fielding at mid-on for Eric to complete the over – without being detected by the batsman, Frank Woolley.

In the 1950-51 Ashes series, Alec began his dominance of Australian batsmen, taking 30 wickets at an average of 16.06 and 10 for 105 in the Fifth Test when he ended Australia's unbeaten run of 26 Tests since 1938. In 1953 at 35, an age by which many fast bowlers have retired from first-class cricket, Bedser demonstrated his longevity by helping England regain the Ashes. He took 39 wickets at an average of 17.48 at home to Australia, including career-best match figures of 14 for 99 in the Nottingham Test.

Bedser founded his success on accuracy of line and length, bowled at a medium pace from a short run-up, using his powerful shoulders and large hands to achieve sharp inswing and surprising batsmen with occasional leg cutters.

Bedser was aged 36 by the first Test of the 1954–55 tour of Australia. He took 1 for 131 as seven catches were dropped off his bowling, including Arthur Morris (153) before he had scored – and England lost by an innings. He was subsequently diagnosed as suffering from shingles; despite recovering from this, and with a green wicket in the second Test that would have suited his bowling, he was dropped from the side, and watched as the younger Frank Tyson and Brian Statham bowled England to victory. He was recalled for one Test against South Africa in 1955.

In a Test career extending from 1946 to 1955, Bedser played 51 matches and took 236 wickets (average 24.89), at the time the most wickets taken in Test cricket. He was England's post-war bowling spearhead. He had 14 new ball partners, and took five wickets in an innings 15 times and ten wickets in a match five times. His entire first-class career spanned 485 matches, in which he helped Surrey to eight County Championships between 1950 and 1958. Bedser occasionally captained the side in place of Stuart Surridge or Peter May. He took 100 wickets in a county season eleven times, figures that place him high amongst the game's greats. He took five or more wickets in an innings 96 times, and ten wickets or more in a match 16 times. Bedser retired from cricket in 1960, and his brother Eric retired in 1962.

After retirement

After retiring from playing cricket, Bedser went into business with his brother. Among other business interests, they co-operated with Ronald Straker in a successful stationery firm, Straker-Bedser, which was later taken over by Ryman in 1977.

Bedser served as a national team selector from 1962 to 1985, and was chairman of selectors from 1968 to 1981. He was on the board of selectors who controversially left Basil d'Oliveira out of the England team for 1968's tour of South Africa. England won ten of the 18 series while Bedser was chairman of selectors. Bedser also managed two England overseas tours. Bedser was made president of Surrey in 1987 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the county's cricketing fortunes over the previous five decades. In October 2004 Bedser was selected in 'England's Greatest Post-War XI' by The Wisden Cricketer, an authoritative monthly cricket magazine. In May 2009, Christopher Martin-Jenkins ranked Bedser 29th in picking his 100 greatest cricketers of all time.

Outside of cricket, Bedser was a founding member during the 1970s of the Freedom Association, a right-wing pressure group that advocated the maintenance of sporting relations with South Africa during the apartheid era.

He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1964, advanced to Commander (CBE) in 1982, and in 1997 he became the first (and still only) England bowler to be knighted for services to cricket.

Neither Alec nor his brother Eric ever married. They lived together in Woking until Eric's death in 2006. Sir Alec Bedser died in hospital in Woking on 4 April 2010 after a short illness. Among those to pay tribute to the more famous of the two brothers was former Prime Minister, well-known cricket lover and lifelong Surrey supporter John Major, who said: "Alec Bedser was one of the greatest medium-fast bowlers of all time. He was also one of the great thinkers about cricket and his wisdom was one of the great untapped resources of the modern game." For three months following the death of Arthur McIntyre on 26 December 2009, Bedser was the oldest surviving England Test cricketer. On Bedser's death, that distinction passed to Reg Simpson.

Career highlights

Tests
Test debut: vs India, Lord's, Middlesex, 1946
Last Test: vs South Africa, Old Trafford, Manchester, 1955

Bedser's best Test batting score of 79 was made against Australia, Headingley, Leeds, 1948
His best Test bowling figures for an innings, 7 for 44, came against Australia, at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, 1953
He dismissed Don Bradman, widely regarded as the greatest batsman of all time, on six occasions. Only Hedley Verity (8 times) took Bradman's wicket more often. Bedser was included when Bradman selected a "dream team" shortly before his death in 2001; he was the only Englishman to be so honoured in the XI.

References

External links

Wisden Cricketer of the Year – 1947
 HowSTAT! statistical profile of Alec Bedser
 Alec Bedser at 90: Timeline, Cricinfo
 Obituary: Sir Alec Bedser, BBC Sport, 5 April 2010
 Sir Alec Bedser – The Daily Telegraph obituary, 5 April 2010
 1947 film footage of Alec Bedser in Melbourne test match , British Pathe

1918 births
2010 deaths
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Cricket people awarded knighthoods
Cricketers who have taken five wickets on Test debut
England cricket team selectors
England Test cricketers
English cricket administrators
English cricketers
English cricketers of 1946 to 1968
English identical twins
Identical twin males
Knights Bachelor
Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers
North v South cricketers
Sportspeople from Woking
Players cricketers
Presidents of Surrey County Cricket Club
Royal Air Force airmen
Royal Air Force personnel of World War II
Surrey cricketers
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Wisden Leading Cricketers in the World
H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers
T. N. Pearce's XI cricketers
20th-century British businesspeople
Marylebone Cricket Club South African Touring Team cricketers
Cricketers from Surrey

Alec Bedser


A caucus revolt occurs when enough members of a political party pressure its leadership to step down or to remove planned bills, legislation or policies from its platform.  A caucus revolt generally concludes with the party leader resigning their position as such a revolt is usually seen to show poor leadership skills.  Often the mere appearance of a revolt in the caucus maybe enough to force a leader to step down.

In Westminster style governments, if the party suffering from a caucus revolt is the current government, often an interim leader will be appointed by the party until a leadership convention can be held to elect a new leader, or a general election can be called should the party leader find a way to survive the revolt.

Examples

The 1937 Social Credit backbenchers' revolt against the premiership of William Aberhart in Alberta ultimately forced the premier to hand over considerable power to a committee of backbenchers, the Social Credit Board.  The Board brought in British social credit "experts" who proposed radical legislation which led to a constitutional crisis when it was repeatedly blocked: first disallowed by the federal government, then reserved by Lieutenant-Governor John C. Bowen, and ultimately struck down by the Supreme Court of Canada.

After successfully leading the Liberal Party of Canada and being Prime Minister of Canada for over ten years, Jean Chrétien was forced to step down as both Party Leader and Prime Minister of Canada at the threat of a Caucus Revolt from his longtime Minister of Finance and political rival, Paul Martin Jr.

Political terminology in Canada
Political terms in the United Kingdom
Political terminology in Australia
Westminster system

Caucus revolt


The muskox (Ovibos moschatus, in Latin "musky sheep-ox"), also spelled musk ox and musk-ox, plural muskoxen or musk oxen (in ; in , ), is a hoofed mammal of the family Bovidae. Native to the Arctic, it is noted for its thick coat and for the strong odor emitted by males during the seasonal rut, from which its name derives. This musky odor has the effect of attracting females during mating season. Its Inuktitut name "umingmak" translates to "the bearded one".

Its Woods Cree names "mâthi-môs" and "mâthi-mostos" translate to "ugly moose" and "ugly bison", respectively. In historic times, muskoxen primarily lived in Greenland and the Canadian Arctic of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, They were formerly present in Eurasia, with their youngest natural records in the region dating to around 2,700 years ago, with reintroduced populations in the American state of Alaska, the Canadian territory of Yukon, and Siberia, and an introduced population in Norway, part of which emigrated to Sweden, where a small population now lives.

Evolution

Extant relatives

The muskox is in the subtribe Ovibovina (or tribe Ovibovini) in the tribe Caprini (or subfamily Caprinae) of the subfamily Antilopinae in the family Bovidae. It is more closely related to sheep and goats than to oxen; it is placed in its own genus, Ovibos (Latin: "sheep-ox"). It is one of the two largest extant members of the caprines, along with the similarly sized Takin Budorcas. While the takin and muskox were once considered possibly closely related, the takin lacks common ovibovine features, such as the muskox's specialized horn morphology, and genetic analysis shows that their lineages actually separated early in caprine evolution. Instead, the muskox's closest living relatives appear to be the gorals of the genus Naemorhedus, nowadays common in many countries of central and east Asia. The vague similarity between takin and muskox is therefore an example of convergent evolution.

Fossil history and extinct relatives

The modern muskox is the last member of a line of ovibovines that first evolved in temperate regions of Asia and adapted to a cold tundra environment late in its evolutionary history. Muskox ancestors with sheep-like high-positioned horns (horn cores being mostly over the plane of the frontal bones, rather than below them as in modern muskoxen) first left the temperate forests for the developing grasslands of Central Asia during the Pliocene, expanding into Siberia and the rest of northern Eurasia. Later migration waves of Asian ungulates that included high-horned muskoxen reached Europe and North America during the first half of the Pleistocene. The first well known muskox, the "shrub-ox" Euceratherium, crossed to North America over an early version of the Bering Land Bridge two million years ago and prospered in the American southwest and Mexico. Euceratherium was larger yet more lightly built than modern muskoxen, resembling a giant sheep with massive horns, and preferred hilly grasslands.

A genus with intermediate horns, Soergelia, inhabited Eurasia in the early Pleistocene, from Spain to Siberia, and crossed to North America during the Irvingtonian (1.8 million years to 240,000 years ago), soon after Euceratherium. Unlike Euceratherium, which survived in America until the Pleistocene-Holocene extinction event, Soergelia was a lowland dweller that disappeared fairly early, displaced by more advanced ungulates, such as the "giant muskox" Praeovibos (literally "before Ovibos"). The low-horned Praeovibos was present in Europe and the Mediterranean 1.5 million years ago, colonized Alaska and the Yukon one million years ago and disappeared half a million years ago. Praeovibos was a highly adaptable animal that appears associated with cold tundra (reindeer) and temperate woodland (red deer) faunas alike. During the Mindel glaciation 500,000 years ago, Praeovibos was present in the Kolyma river area in eastern Siberia in association with many Ice Age megafauna that would later coexist with Ovibos, in the Kolyma itself and elsewhere, including wild horses, reindeer, woolly mammoth and stag-moose. It is debated, however, if Praeovibos was directly ancestral to Ovibos, or both genera descended from a common ancestor, since the two occurred together during the middle Pleistocene. Defenders of ancestry from Praeovibos have proposed that Praeovibos evolved into Ovibos in one region during a period of isolation and expanded later, replacing the remaining populations of Praeovibos.

Two more Praeovibos-like genera were named in America in the 19th century, Bootherium and Symbos, which are now identified as the male and female forms of a single, sexually dimorphic species, the "woodland muskox", Bootherium bombifrons. Bootherium inhabited open woodland areas of North America during the late Pleistocene, from Alaska to Texas and maybe even Mexico, but was most common in the Southern United States, while Ovibos replaced it in the tundra-steppe to the north, immediately south of the Laurentian ice sheet.

Modern Ovibos appeared in Germany almost one million years ago and was common in the region through the Pleistocene. By the Mindel, muskoxen had also reached the British Isles. Both Germany and Britain were just south of the Scandinavian ice sheet and covered in tundra during cold periods, but Pleistocene muskoxen are also rarely recorded in more benign and wooded areas to the south like France and Green Spain, where they coexisted with temperate ungulates like red deer and aurochs. Likewise, the muskox is known to have survived in Britain during warm interglacial periods.

Today's muskoxen are descended from others believed to have migrated from Siberia to North America between 200,000 and 90,000 years ago, having previously occupied Alaska (at the time united to Siberia and isolated periodically from the rest of North America by the union of the Laurentide and Cordilleran Ice Sheets during colder periods) between 250,000 and 150,000 years ago. After migrating south during one of the warmer periods of the Illinoian glaciation, non-Alaskan American muskoxen would be isolated from the rest in the colder periods. The muskox was already present in its current stronghold of Banks Island 34,000 years ago, but the existence of other ice-free areas in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago at the time is disputed.

Along with the bison and the pronghorn, the muskox was one of a few species of Pleistocene megafauna in North America to survive the Pleistocene/Holocene extinction event and live to the present day. The muskox is thought to have been able to survive the last glacial period by finding ice-free areas (refugia) away from prehistoric peoples.

Fossil DNA evidence suggests that muskoxen were not only more geographically widespread during the Pleistocene, but also more genetically diverse. During that time, other populations of muskoxen lived across the Arctic, from the Ural Mountains to Greenland. By contrast, the current genetic makeup of the species is more homogenous. Climate fluctuation may have affected this shift in genetic diversity: research indicates colder periods in Earth's history are correlated with more diversity, and warmer periods with more homogeneity. Muskox populations survived into the Holocene in Siberia, with their youngest records in the region being from the Taymyr Peninsula, dating to around 2,700 years ago (~700 BC).

Physical characteristics

Both male and female muskoxen have long, curved horns. Muskoxen stand  high at withers, with females measuring  in length, and the larger males . The small tail, often concealed under a layer of fur, measures only  long. Adults, on average, weigh , but can range from . The thick coat and large head suggest a larger animal than the muskox truly is; the bison, to which the muskox is often compared, can weigh up to twice as much. However, heavy zoo-kept specimens have weighed up to . Their coat, a mix of black, gray and brown, includes long guard hairs that almost reach the ground. Rare "white muskoxen" have been spotted in the Queen Maud Gulf Bird Sanctuary. Muskoxen are occasionally semi-domesticated for wool, and rarely for meat and milk. The U.S. state of Alaska has several muskoxen farms specifically aimed at wool harvesting. The wool, called qiviut, is highly prized for its softness, length, and insulation value. Prices for yarn range between .

A muskox can reach speeds of up to . Their life expectancy is between 12 and 20 years.

Range

Prehistory
During the Pleistocene period, muskoxen were much more widespread. Fossil evidence shows that they lived across the Siberian and North American Arctic, from the Urals to Greenland. The ancestors of today's muskoxen came across the Bering Land Bridge to North America between 200,000 and 90,000 years ago. During the Wisconsinan, modern muskox thrived in the tundra south of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, in what is now the Midwest, the Appalachians and Virginia, while distant relatives Bootherium and Euceratherium lived in the forests of the Southern United States and the western shrubland, respectively. Though they were always less common than other Ice Age megafauna, muskox abundance peaked during the Würm II glaciation 20,000 years ago and declined afterwards, especially during the Pleistocene/Holocene extinction event, where its range was greatly reduced and only the populations in North America survived. The last known muskox population in Europe died out in Sweden 9,000 years ago. In Asia, muskox persisted until just 615-555 BCE in Tumat, Sakha Republic.

Following the disappearance of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, the muskox gradually moved north across the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, arriving in Greenland from Ellesmere Island at about 350 AD, during the late Holocene. Their arrival in northwestern Greenland probably occurred within a few hundred years of the arrival of the Dorset and Thule cultures in the present-day Qaanaaq area. Human predation around Qaanaaq may have restricted muskoxen from moving down the west coast, and instead kept them confined to the northeastern fringes of the island.

Recent native range in North America

In modern times, muskoxen were restricted to the Arctic areas of Northern Canada, Greenland, and Alaska. The Alaskan population was wiped out in the late 19th or early 20th century. Their depletion has been attributed to excessive hunting, but an adverse change in climate may have contributed. However, muskoxen have since been reintroduced to Alaska. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service introduced the muskox onto Nunivak Island in 1935 to support subsistence living. Other reintroduced populations are in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Yukon's Ivvavik National Park, a wildlife conservation center in Anchorage, Aulavik National Park in Northwest Territories, Kanuti National Wildlife Refuge, Gates of the Arctic National Park, and Whitehorse, Yukon's wildlife preserve.

There have been at least two domestication endeavours. In the 1950s an American researcher and adventurer was able to capture muskox calves in Northern Canada for relocation to a property he prepared in Vermont. One condition imposed by the Canadian government was he was not allowed to kill adults defending their young.  When nets and ropes proved useless, he and his crew herded family groups into open water, where calves were successfully separated from the adults.  Once airfreighted to Montreal and trucked to Vermont, the young animals habituated to the temperate conditions.  Although the calves thrived and grew to adulthood, parasite and disease resistance problems impaired the overall success of the effort.  The surviving herd was eventually moved to a farm in Palmer, Alaska, where it has been successful since the mid-1950s.

Reintroductions in Eurasia

The species was reintroduced from Banks Island to the Dovre mountain range of Norway in 1932 but were hunted to extinction there during the Second World War. It was reintroduced to Norway in 1947; this population expanded into Härjedalen, Sweden, in 1971.

In 1913, workers building a railway over Dovrefjell found two fossil muskox vertebrae. This led to the idea of introducing muskoxen to Norway from Greenland. The first release in the world was made on Gurskøy outside Ålesund in 1925–26. They were muskoxen caught by Norwegian seal-hunting boats in Greenland. The animals colonized the island, but eventually died out there. An attempt to introduce the muskox to Svalbard also failed. Seventeen animals were released in 1929 by Adventfjorden on West Spitsbergen. In 1940, the herd numbered 50, but in the 1970s, the whole herd disappeared. In September 1932, polar researcher Adolf Hoel conducted another experiment, importing 10 muskoxen to Dovrefjell. This herd survived until World War II, when they were hunted and exterminated. In 1947 and later, new animals were released. A small group of muskoxen from Dovrefjell migrated across the national border to Sweden in 1971 and established themselves in Härjedalen, whereby a Swedish herd was established.

The Norwegian population on Dovrefjell is managed over an area of  and in the summer of 2012 consisted of approximately 300 animals. Since 1999, the population has mostly been increasing, but it suffered a measles outbreak in the summer of 2004 that killed 29. Some animals are also occasionally killed as a result of train collisions on the Dovre Railway. The population is divided into flocks in the  area,  area and Hjerkinn. In the summer they move down towards Driva, where there are lush grass pastures.

Although the muskox belongs to the dry Arctic grassland, it seems to do well on Dovrefjell. However, the pastures are marginal, with little grass available in winter (the muskox eats only plants, not lichen as reindeer do), and over time, inbreeding depression is expected in such a small population which originated from only a few introduced animals.

In addition to the population on Dovrefjell, the University of Tromsø had some animals on  outside Tromsø until 2018.

Muskoxen were introduced to Svalbard in 1925–26 and 1929, but this population died out in the 1970s. They were also introduced in Iceland around 1930 but did not survive.

In Russia, animals imported from Banks and Nunivak were released in the Taymyr Peninsula in 1974 and 1975, and some from Nunivak were released in Wrangel Island in 1975. Both locations are north of the Arctic Circle. By 2019 the population on Wrangel Island was about 1100, and the Taymyr Peninsula, about 11,000–14,000. A few muskoxen herds migrated from the Taymyr Peninsula far to the south to the Putorana Plateau. Once established, these populations have been, in turn, used as sources for further reintroductions in Siberia between 1996 and 2010. One of the last of these actions was the release of six animals within the Pleistocene Park project area in the Kolyma River in 2010, where a team of Russian scientists led by Sergey Zimov aims to prove that muskoxen, along with other Pleistocene megafauna that survived into the early Holocene in northern Siberia, did not disappear from the region due to climate change, but because of human hunting.

Introductions in eastern Canada
Ancient muskox remains have never been found in eastern Canada, although the ecological conditions in the northern Labrador Peninsula are suitable for them. In 1967, 14 animals were captured near Eureka on Ellesmere Island by the Institute for Northern Agricultural Research (INAR) and brought to a farm in Old Fort Chimo Kuujjuaq, northern Quebec, for domestication to provide a local cottage industry based on qiviut, a fine natural fiber. The animals thrived and the qiviut industry showed early success with the training of Inuit knitters and marketing, but it soon became clear that the Quebec government had never intended that the muskoxen be domestic, but had used INAR to capture muskoxen to provide a wild population for hunting. Government officials demanded that INAR leave Quebec and the farm be closed. Subsequently, 54 animals from the farm were released in three places in northern Quebec between 1973 and 1983, and the remaining were ceded to local zoos. Between 1983 and 1986, the released animals increased from 148 to 290, at a rate of 25% per year, and by 2003, an estimated 1,400 muskoxen were in Quebec. Additionally, 112 adults and 25 calves were counted in the nearby Diana Island in 2005, having arrived there by their own means from the mainland. Vagrant adults are sometimes spotted in Labrador, though no herds have been observed in the region.

Ecology
During the summer, muskoxen live in wet areas, such as river valleys, moving to higher elevations in the winter to avoid deep snow. Muskoxen will eat grasses, arctic willows, woody plants, lichens, and mosses. When food is abundant, they prefer succulent and nutritious grasses in an area. Willows are the most commonly eaten plants in the winter. Muskoxen require a high threshold of fat reserves in order to conceive, which reflects their conservative breeding strategy. Winter ranges typically have shallow snow to reduce the energy costs of digging through snow to reach forage. The primary predators of muskoxen are arctic wolves, which may account for up to half of all mortality for the species. Other occasional predators, likely mainly predators of calves or infirm adults, can include grizzly bears and polar bears and wolverines.

Physiology
Muskox are heterothermic mammals, meaning they have the ability to shut off thermal regulation in some parts of their body, like their lower limbs. Maintaining the lower limbs at a cooler temperature than the rest of their body helps reduce the loss of body heat from their extremities. Muskox display the unique characteristic of having hemoglobin that is three times less temperature sensitive than human hemoglobin. This temperature insensitivity allows the muskox's hemoglobin to have a heightened oxygen affinity in an extremely cold environment and continue to diffuse high amounts of oxygen into its cold tissues.

Social behavior and reproduction

Muskoxen live in herds of 12–24 in the winter and 8–20 in the summer. They do not hold territories, but they do mark their trails with preorbital glands. Male and female muskoxen have separate age-based hierarchies, with mature oxen being dominant over juveniles. Dominant oxen tend to get access to the best resources and will displace subordinates from patches of grass during the winter. Muskox bulls assert their dominance in many different ways. One is a "rush and butt", in which a dominant bull rushes a subordinate from the side with its horns, and will warn the subordinate so it can have a chance to get away. Bulls will also roar, swing their heads, and paw the ground. Dominant bulls sometimes treat subordinate bulls like cows. A dominant bull will tap a subordinate with its foreleg, something they do to cows during mating. Dominant bulls will also mock copulate subordinates and sniff their genitals. A subordinate bull can change his status by charging a dominant bull.

The mating (or "rutting") season of the muskoxen begins in late June or early July. During this time, dominant bulls will fight others out of the herds and establish harems of usually six or seven cows and their offspring. Fighting bulls will first rub their preorbital glands against their legs while bellowing loudly, and then display their horns. The bulls then back up about , lower their heads, and charge into each other, and will keep doing so until one bull gives up. Subordinate and elderly bulls will leave the herds to form bachelor groups or become solitary. However, when danger is present, the outside bulls can return to the herd for protection. Dominant bulls will prevent cows from leaving their harems. During mating, a bull will tap an estrous cow with his foreleg to calm her down and make her more receptive to his advances. The herds reassemble when summer ends.

While the bulls are more aggressive during the rutting season and lead their groups, the females take charge during gestation. Pregnant females are aggressive and decide what distance the herd travels in a day and where they will bed for the night. The herds move more often when cows are lactating, to let them get enough food to nurse their offspring. Cows have an eight- to nine-month gestation period, with calving occurring from April to June. Cows do not calve every year. When winters are severe, cows will not go into estrus and thus not calve the next year. When calving, cows stay in the herd for protection. Muskox are precocial, and calves can keep up with the herd within just a few hours after birth. The calves are welcomed into the herd and nursed for the first two months. After that, a calf then begins eating vegetation and nurses only occasionally. Cows communicate with their calves through braying. The calf's bond with its mother weakens after two years.

Muskoxen have a distinctive defensive behavior: when the herd is threatened, the adults will face outward to form a stationary ring or semicircle around the calves. The bulls are usually the front line for defense against predators, with the cows and juveniles gathering close to them. Bulls determine the defensive formation during rutting, while the cows decide the rest of the year.

Components of glandular secretions

The preorbital gland secretion of muskoxen has a "light, sweetish, ethereal" odor. Analysis of preorbital gland secretion extract showed the presence of cholesterol (which is nonvolatile), benzaldehyde, a series of straight-chain saturated γ-lactones ranging from C8H14O2 to C12H22O2 (with C10H18O2 being most abundant), and probably the monounsaturated γ-lactone C12H20O2. The saturated γ-lactone series has an odor similar to that of the secretion.

The odor of dominant rutting males is described as "strong" and "rank". It derives from the preputial gland and is distributed over the fur of the abdomen via urine. Analysis of extract of washes of the prepuce revealed the presence of benzoic acid and p-cresol, along with a series of straight-chain saturated hydrocarbons from C22H46 to C32H66 (with C24H50 being most abundant).

Danger to humans
Muskox are not known to be aggressive but have occasionally attacked humans who came close, although fatal attacks are extremely rare.

On 22 July 1964, a 73-year-old man was killed in a muskox attack in Norway. The animal was later killed by local authorities.

On 13 December 2022, a court services officer with the Alaska State Troopers was killed by a muskox near Nome, Alaska. The officer was trying to scare away a group of muskox near a dog kennel at his home when one of the animals attacked him.

Conservation status
Historically, this species declined because of overhunting, but population recovery has taken place following enforcement of hunting regulations. Management in the late 1900s was mostly conservative hunting quotas to foster recovery and recolonization from the historic declines. The current world population of muskoxen is estimated at between 80,000 and 125,000, with an estimated 47,000 living on Banks Island.

In Greenland there are no major threats, although populations are often small in size and scattered, which makes them vulnerable to local fluctuations in climate. Most populations are within national parks, where they are protected from hunting. Muskoxen occur in four of Greenland's protected areas, with indigenous populations in Northeast Greenland National Park and introduced populations in  and Kangerlussuaq and . In these areas, muskoxen receive full protection.

Muskoxen are being domesticated for the production of qiviut.

References

External links

 Robert G. White Large Animal Research Station at the University of Alaska Fairbanks
 Alex Trebek and John Teal's Reintroduction of Muskox to Alaska
 Jork Meyer, "Sex ratio in muskox skulls (Ovibos moschatus) found at East Greenland" (Geschlechterverhältnis bei Schädeln des Moschusochsen (Ovibos moschatus) in Ostgrönland) Beiträge zur Jagd- und Wildtierforschung 29 (2004): 187–192.

 "The Dovrefjell Musk Ox Trail" – Dovrefjell Narional Park Board 2018
 The Papers of Frank H. Atkinson at Dartmouth College Library
 The Papers of John J. Teal at Dartmouth College Library
 Burges Smith diary concerning Nunivak Island Musk Ox Expedition at Dartmouth College Library

Arctic land animals
Caprids
Extant Pleistocene first appearances
Holarctic fauna
Mammals described in 1780
Mammals of Canada
Mammals of Europe
Mammals of Greenland
Mammals of the Arctic
Mammals of the United States
Taxa named by Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann
Wool animals

Muskox


Lucy Clementina Davies (née Drummond de Melfort; 21 November 1795 – 27 April 1879) was a French-born author of Scottish Jacobite ancestry, known as a writer by the publication in 1872 of her two-volume Recollections of Society in France and England, a work which contains much of her family history and interesting details of the court of France under the Bourbons and the Bonapartes. She was the only sister of George Drummond, 5th Earl of Perth (1807–1902), also de jure 14th Earl of Perth, 6th Earl of Melfort, 6th Duc de Melfort, Comte de Lussan.

Life
Davies was born at the Château of St. Germain to Marie Elizabeth Luce de Longuemarre (died 1824) and Lord Leon Maurice Drummond de Melfort (1761–1826), the fourth son of James Drummond, 3rd Duke of Melfort in France. Her father's elder brother would have been thirteenth earl of Perth but for the attainder of his ancestor. Her brother George's claim to be heir male of the Earls of Perth was admitted by the House of Lords in 1848, and the attainder was reversed in his favour on 28 June 1853, and she herself was granted a patent of precedence as an earl's daughter on 30 September 1853. She was educated in Scotland under Miss Playfair, sister of Professor Playfair, and in the various changes of residence of her parents between France and England. She saw a great deal of life, and at times suffered some hardships.

On 8 September 1823, in Marylebone, London, she was married to Francis Henry Davies, a registrar of the Court of Chancery. They had one son and two daughters, including Lucy Elizabeth Drummond Davies, a children's writer. Her husband died at Koblenz on the Rhine on 22 October 1863, aged 72. Lady Lucy Clementina Drummond, Mrs. Davies, died on 27 April 1879 in Kensington, London at 22 Palace Gardens Terrace, the residence of her son-in-law John Sale Barker, barrister-at-law.

Publication
 Recollections of society in France and England. Vol. I. by Lady  Clementina  Davies. Publisher: Hurst and Blackett London, 1872
  Recollections of society in France and England. Vol. II.

References

Attribution

1795 births
1879 deaths
Drummond family
French people of Scottish descent
Scottish memoirists
Scottish people of French descent
Scottish women writers
Victorian women writers
British women memoirists
19th-century women writers

Lucy Clementina Davies


Jacob ben Ephraim (died in Lublin 1648) was a Polish rabbi. At first he occupied the post of rabbi and instructor at the yeshivah of that city, whence he was called to officiate as rabbi in Brest. There he entertained in 1631 R. Yom-Ṭob Lipman Heller, who speaks of him with great respect, and mentions his officiating as rabbi in the two cities cited ("Megillat Ebah," p. 28). From Brest he returned to Lublin as rabbi, and remained there till his death.

Jacob was known as "the Gaon Rabbi Jacob of Lublin"; for he was the teacher of the most eminent Polish rabbis of his time, who studied in his yeshivah and profited by his extensive knowledge of Halakah. Only a few of his responsa have been preserved: these are to be found among the responsa of the Geone Batra'e. Some novellæ by him and by his son R. Höschel, on Yoreh De'ah, Eben ha-'Ezer, and Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ, are still in manuscript.

Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography
 Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, p. 535;
 Oẓerot Ḥayyim, p. 252;
 Carmoly, Ha-'Orebim u-Bene Yonah, pp. 32, 33

References

Year of birth missing
1648 deaths
17th-century Polish rabbis
Rabbis from Lublin

Jacob ben Ephraim


In the fictional Star Wars universe, the Sith are users of the Dark side of The Force and the opposite of the Jedi.

The Sith live to dominate all others and to control society throughout the Star Wars galaxy so they can get more power. Some famous Sith are Darth Vader, Darth Sidious and Darth Maul.

They lead the Galactic Empire, the antagonists of the Star Wars series who are known for brutality, being a dictatorship, and having a strong control over peoples lives. The Sith lost power for hundreds of years, before slowly taking over the Republic, or the Jedi Government, and turning it into the Galactic Empire.

Expanded universe

In the Expanded Universe, The Sith at the start were a different species, looking like Humans, but with red skin and small bones coming out from their heads.

The Sith Species almost all died after the Jedi committed genocide on them thousands of years before the movies. This is why some people think the Sith Empire are the "good guys", who bring law and order to the Galaxy and are just responding to the Jedi actions.

Star Wars characters

Sith


Ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound. Its chemical formula is NH4NO3. It contains ammonium and nitrate ions. The nitrogen is in the -3 and +5 oxidation states.

Properties
Ammonium nitrate is a colorless solid. It dissolves in water. It makes water cold when it dissolves. It is an oxidizing agent. When it is heated gently, it turns into water and nitrous oxide. It can detonate when heated strongly. There were several disasters where ammonium nitrate exploded. Ammonium nitrate fertilizers were banned in some places because they were used to make explosives.

Preparation
Ammonium nitrate is made by reacting ammonia with nitric acid. This reaction is very violent. It can be made by reacting sodium nitrate with ammonium sulfate. This makes a solution of ammonium nitrate and sodium sulfate. When the mixture is cooled, the sodium sulfate is crystallized and can be filtered.

Uses
Ammonium nitrate is used as a fertilizer. It contains more nitrogen than most fertilizers. It is also used in explosives. It can be used as an oxidizer in rockets.

Related pages
Ammonium chlorate
Ammonium perchlorate

Nitrogen compounds

Ammonium nitrate


Non-games are a class of software on the border between video games and toys. The term "non-game game" was coined by late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, who describes it as "a form of entertainment that really doesn't have a winner, or even a real conclusion". Will Wright had previously used the term "software toy" for the same purpose. The main difference between non-games and traditional video games is the lack of structured goals, objectives, and challenges. This allows the player a greater degree of self-expression through freeform play, since they can set up their own goals to achieve. Some genres that have been considered non-games include language-learning software, digital tabletop games, puzzle games, simulation games, and art games.

History
Non-games have existed since the early days of video games, although there hasn't been a specific term for them. One of the first is Atari Inc.'s 1977 Surround, a two-player snake game for the Atari VCS, which contains a free-form drawing mode called "Video Graffiti." Later examples which were sold as games but present a less structured experience are Alien Garden (Epyx, 1982), Moondust (Creative Software, 1983),  Worms? (one of the 1983 launch titles from Electronic Arts), I, Robot (Atari, 1983) which contains an "ungame mode" called "Doodle City," and Jeff Minter's Psychedelia (Llamasoft, 1984), which is an interactive light synthesizer.

Bill Budge's Pinball Construction Set (Electronic Arts, 1983) popularized software where building something is more entertaining than playing the finished product. To a lesser extent, some games became construction sets through the inclusion of level editors, like Doug Smith's Lode Runner (Broderbund, 1983), Ron Rosen's Mr. Robot and His Robot Factory (Datamost, 1983), and John Anderson's Rally Speedway (Adventure International, 1983). Other more proper construction sets followed, such as EA's Adventure Construction Set (1984) and Racing Destruction Set (1985).

In January 1984, Joel Gluck presented a simple toy called Bounce in his game design column in ANALOG Computing. Bounce lets users draw low-resolution lines, then release a block that leaves a permanent trail as it moves across the screen, making patterns as it reflects off of obstacles. The program is specifically designed not to have goals or scorekeeping, other than what's in the user's head. Bounce was revisited several times in ANALOG, including a version which allows multiple active blocks at once.

The 1989 simulation game SimCity was called a software toy by its creator Will Wright, since there is no ultimate objective in the main game; scenarios with objectives existed in some incarnations of the game, such as SimCity 2000, but these were not the focus.

Non-games have been particularly successful on the Nintendo DS and Wii platforms, where a broad range of Japanese titles have appealed to a growing number of casual gamers. Types of non-games included language-learning software for English and Japanese (including one for the memorization of kanji), Go-learning games, puzzle games and cooking games.

See also
 Falling sand game
 Sandbox game
 Serious game
 Video games as art

References

Further reading
 gamesindustry.biz: When is a game not a game?
 Lost Garden:  Nintendogs: The case of the non-game that barked like a game
 Qubrix Brain Twister - a 3D combinatorics toy.

Video game genres

Non-game


Magnetic flux is what generates the field around a magnetic material. It consists of photons, however, unlike the light we receive from the Sun, it is at a much lower frequency. (1) This is why magnetic field lines are not visible to the naked eye.

It is the alignment of electrons in the atomic shells of Ferromagnets and, separately, the "spinning" electrons in Electromagnets, that provides a material with it's Magnetism. (2)

The number of magnetic field lines passing through a surface (such as a loop of wire). The magnetic flux through a closed surface (such as a ball) is always zero.

The SI unit of magnetic flux is the Weber (Wb) (in derived units: volt-seconds).

The CGS unit is the Maxwell.

Magnetic flux is sometimes used by electrical engineers designing systems with electromagnets or designing dynamos.  Physicists designing particle accelerators also calculate magnetic flux.

Related pages
Magnetic field
James Clerk Maxwell demonstrated that electric and magnetic forces are two complementary aspects of electromagnetism.
Maxwell's equations describe the behavior of both the electric and magnetic fields, as well as their interactions with matter.
Gauss's law gives the relation between the electric flux flowing out a closed surface and the electric charge enclosed in the surface.
Magnetic circuit is a method using an analogy with electric circuits to calculate the flux of complex systems of magnetic components.
Magnetic mono pole is a hypothetical particle that may be loosely described as "a magnet with only one pole".
Magnetic flux quantum is the quantum of magnetic flux passing through a superconductor.
Carl Friedrich Gauss developed a collaboration with  Wilhelm Weber which led to new knowledge in the field of magnetism.

References
1 - https://www.rpi.edu/dept/phys/ScIT/InformationStorage/faraday/magnetism_a.html

2 -https://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=414

Other websites
Vicci, , Magnetic-flux conduits
Magnetic Flux through a Loop of Wire by Ernest Lee, Wolfram Demonstrations Project by Wolfram Research.
Conversion Magnetic flux Φ in nWb per meter track width to flux level in dB - Tape Operating Levels and Tape Alignment Levels

Magnetism

Magnetic flux


Naofumi Yamamoto (born August 1, 1977 in Gifu, Japan) is a Japanese professional wrestler and retired boxer. He is currently signed to All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and is one-half of the All Asia Tag Team Champions with Atsushi Onita. He competes under the ring name Yoshitatsu which is a tweaked version of his former ring name. He is best known for his time working with New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) and the WWE. During his time in the WWE, he competed under the ring name Yoshi Tatsu. He has challenged Christian in the past for the ECW Championship and has also challenged for the Unified Tag Team Championship with Goldust but came up short in capturing the titles.

New Japan Pro Wrestling
He traveled to Los Angeles and trained at the local NJPW dojo. He debuted for the promotion in a match against Wataru Inoue at the Korakuen Hall on October 12, 2002. He started out working on the lower card to gain experience. He lost to Ryusuke Taguchi on December 27, 2003 in a chance to compete at the January 4 Dome Show. He defeated Hirooki Goto, Aikya Anzawa, and Hiroshi Nagao in the 2004 Young Lion Cup and earned six points but it was not enough to qualify in the finals. Yamamoto also competed in the 2005 Young Lion Cup where he only won one match when he defeated Yujiro. In 2006, he competed in his first G1 Climax tournament but lost all four matches. He competed and teamed with Manabu Nakanishi in the 2006 G1 Tag League and they defeated Giant Bernard and Travis Tomko to earn their only win in the tournament. During the Summer of 2007, he teamed with Hiroshi Tanahashi in a team called "New Japan Dragons" in a number of matches. Yamamoto and Tanahashi challenged then-champions Bernard and Tomko for the IWGP Tag Team Championship but lost. His last match in NJPW was on November 2, 2007 where he teamed with Yuji Nagata against Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano but they lost the match.

WWE

Florida Championship Wrestling
Yamamoto joined the WWE in late 2007 and debuted for WWE's developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), where he was to undergo assessment and training in the "WWE Style" of wrestling which is different from the Japanese style. He first wrestled under the name, Mr. Yamamoto and then simply as Yamamoto. He also briefly teamed with Sheamus O'Shaunessy where they formed a tag team under the name, The Movers and the Shakers. He later changed his ring name to Yoshitatsu and tweaked the spelling of it to Yoshi Tatsu, which is the name he currently wrestles under.

ECW (2009–2010)
On June 30, 2009, Tatsu joined the ECW brand and debuted under the ring name, Yoshi Tatsu which he joined because of their new superstar initiative. In his first match on the brand that night he defeated Shelton Benjamin but he lost a rematch to Benjamin on the July 9 episode of ECW. On the October 20 episode of ECW, Tatsu was involved in a number one contender's match for the ECW Championship against Zack Ryder who he defeated to become the number one contender for the title. He was unable to win the championship the next week against Christian who was champion at the time.

On the December 22 edition of ECW, Tatsu had a match against Jack Swagger who he defeated to earn a spot in the ECW Homecoming battle royal where the winner would challenge Christian for the ECW title at the Royal Rumble. He didn't win the battle royal however and was eliminated by Kane. Tatsu competed in his first Royal Rumble but lost when he was eliminated John Cena. Tatsu also formed a tag team with Goldust and they became the number one contenders for the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship but they lost in their championship match against The Miz and Big Show on which was the final episode of ECW on Syfy.

WWE Raw (2010-2011)
When the ECW brand was discontinued, Tatsu made his debut for the Raw brand on the February 22, 2010 edition of Raw, and teamed up with Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston defeating The Legacy (Randy Orton, Ted DiBiase, and Cody Rhodes), after Orton turned on his tag team partners. Tatsu also competed in his first Wrestlemania where he won a 26-Man battle royal dark match which opened WrestleMania XXVI by last eliminating Zack Ryder. After that, Tatsu mainly appeared on WWE Superstars. In July 2010, Tatsu was involved in a few backstage brawls with The Nexus to try and help John Cena get rid of them, which he failed to do and got beaten down backstage. Tatsu then went to Japan to promote the new WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 video game along with Maryse and after months of not appearing on WWE television he returned on the November 11 episode of WWE Superstars where he defeated Zack Ryder. On the November 29 episode of Raw, Tatsu teamed with Mark Henry and defeated the WWE Tag Team Champions Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater, after a distraction by John Cena. A week later, Tatsu and Henry had received a shot at the titles in a Fatal-4-Way type Elimination Tag Team match, which also included The Usos and Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov but were the first ones eliminated. Tastu has since formed a team with former Nexus member Darren Young but lost twice on WWE Superstars to The Usos. Tatsu has been teaming with David Hart Smith on Superstars where they beat the team of Primo and Zack Ryder.

Yoshi Tatsu was announced as a pro for 5th season of NXT Redemption where he trained Byron Saxton who was a competitor on NXT season 4. On the April 26 episode of WWE NXT, Byron Saxton started a feud with Tatsu after he attacked him when Tatsu cost Saxton his match against Lucky Cannon. On the May 31 episode of WWE NXT, Saxton was the second rookie eliminated. After Edge was forced to retire due to a neck injury he gave up the World Heavyweight Championship and they had a 20-man battle royal to determine who the #1 contender was going to be to face Alberto Del Rio in a ladder match at Extreme Rules which Tatsu was a part of. Tatsu was eliminated by Christian. Tatsu also participated in a Smackdown vs. Raw battle royal during the 2011 WWE Draft but was eliminated by the Big Show.

NXT and SmackDown
Tatsu was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2011 Supplemental Draft on April 26. He appeared at Extreme Rules on May 1 at where he was a Lumberjack in the WWE Tag Team Championship match. On the June 3 edition of SmackDown, He made his debut for the brand in a losing effort against Jinder Mahal. After the match, Mahal instructed The Great Khali to attack Tatsu and apply the Vise Grip on him. On the July 26, 2011 episode of NXT, Tatsu defeated Tyson Kidd in the first Necklace on a Pole match. After the match Kidd brutally attacked the right leg of Tatsu and on the August 2nd edition of NXT, Kidd said that "there will be no more Yoshi Tatsu".

Tatsu made an appearance on the August 19 episode of SmackDown, where he competed in a 20-man Over The Top Rope Battle Royal to determine the No. 1 Contender for the World Heavyweight Championship. Tatsu was eliminated by the winner, Mark Henry. He returned to NXT on the September 6th episode and debuted a new dark look with a half face paint and a black ring attire. He stopped wearing the facepaint by October of 2011. He would go on to form an alliance with Trent Barreta and they feuded with Curt Hawkins and Tyler Reks. Tatsu competed on the January 27th edition of Smackdown, teaming with Santino Marella in a losing effort to the WWE Tag Team Champions Primo and Epico. At the Royal Rumble, Tatsu defeated Heath Slater in the dark match.

Tatsu along with Percy Watson entered the NXT Tag Team Championship Tournament on the January 23, 2013 episode of NXT but they were eliminated in the first round by The Wyatt Family (Luke Harper and Erick Rowan). In 2013, he appeared mainly on NXT. After being out of action for a while, Tatsu returned to NXT in a match against Corey Graves in March 2014 which Tatsu lost. Tatsu competed in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania XXX but he was eliminated by The Great Khali.

On June 12, 2014, Tatsu was released from his WWE contract.

Independent circuit (2014)
On September 20, 2014, he debuted for Chikara in a match against Ashley Remington which he lost by disqualification due to outside interference from Juan Francisco de Coronado.

NJPW return (2014)
On October 13, 2014, at King of Pro-Wrestling, Yamamoto returned to New Japan Pro Wrestling. He attacked Jeff Jarrett when Jarrett had interfered in the main event match and, in doing so, he helped Hiroshi Tanahashi defeat A.J. Styles for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

Other media
Tatsu has also been featured in the video games King of Colosseum II, Wrestle Kingdom 2, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011, WWE '12 and as a downloadable character in WWE '13. Tatsu was a part of Santino's Foreign Exchange with Santino Marella and even hosted a couple episodes.

Personal life
Tatsu went to university at Kokushikan University in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan where he graduated with a degree in political studies. Tatsu is married and he has a child with them.

Championships
BELIEVE
SCW Florida Heavyweight Championship (1 time, current)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
He was ranked #78 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2010.
He was ranked #137 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2011.
He was ranked #126 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2012.
He was ranked #174 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2013.
Pro Wrestling Riot
PWR Championship (1 time, current)

References

Other websites
WWE profile

1977 births
Boxers
Former WWE wrestlers
Japanese professional wrestlers
Living people
People from Gifu Prefecture

Yoshi Tatsu


The Xenos is a custom graphics processing unit (GPU) designed by ATI (now taken over by AMD), used in the Xbox 360 video game console developed and produced for Microsoft. Developed under the codename "C1", it is in many ways related to the R520 architecture and therefore very similar to an ATI Radeon X1800 XT series of PC graphics cards as far as features and performance are concerned. However, the Xenos introduced new design ideas that were later adopted in the TeraScale microarchitecture, such as the unified shader architecture. The package contains two separate dies, the GPU and an eDRAM (manufactured by NEC), featuring a total of 337 million transistors.

Specifications
The TeraScale microarchitecture is based on this chip, the shader units are organized in three SIMD groups with 16 processors per group, for a total of 48 processors. Each of these processors is composed of a 5-wide vector unit (total 5 FP32 ALUs), resulting in 240 units, that can serially execute up to two instructions per cycle (a multiply and an addition). All processors in a SIMD group execute the same instruction, so in total up to three instruction threads can be simultaneously under execution.

 500 MHz parent GPU on 90 nm, 65 nm (since 2008) TSMC process or 45 nm GlobalFoundries process (since 2010, with CPU on same die) of total 232 million transistors
 240 vector units floating-point vector processors for shader execution, divided in three dynamically scheduled SIMD groups of 80 units each.
 Unified shading architecture (each pipeline is capable of running either pixel or vertex shaders)
 10 FP ops per vector processor per cycle (5 fused multiply-add)
 Maximum vertex count: 1.21 billion vertices per second
 Maximum polygon count: ~500 million polygons per second
 Maximum shader operations: 240 billion shader operations per second (3 shader pipelines × 80 units × 2 ALUs × 0.5 GHz (500 MHz))
 240 GFLOPS
 MEMEXPORT shader function
 16 texture filtering units (TF) and 16 texture addressing units (TA)
 16 filtered samples per clock
 Maximum pixel fillrate: 4.00 gigapixels per second
 Maximum texel fillrate: 8.00 gigatexels per second (16 textures × 500 MHz)
 16 unfiltered texture samples per clock
 Maximum dot product operations: 24 billion per second
 Support for a superset of DirectX 9.0c API DirectX Xbox 360, and Shader Model 3.0+
 500 MHz, 10 MB daughter embedded DRAM framebuffer (at 256 Gbit/s) on 90 nm, 80 nm (since 2008) or 65 nm (since 2010)
 NEC designed eDRAM die includes additional logic (192 parallel pixel processors) for color, alpha compositing, alpha blending, Z/stencil buffering, and anti-aliasing called "Intelligent Memory", giving developers 4-sample anti-aliasing at very little performance cost.
 Procedural Synthesis Technology (XPS): During read streaming into the CPU, a custom prefetch instruction, extended data cache block touch (xDCBT) prefetches data directly to the L1 data cache of the intended core, which skips putting the data in the L2 cache to avoid thrashing the L2 cache. Writes streaming from each core skip the L1 cache, due to its no-write allocation (avoids thrashing of high-bandwidth, transient, write-only data streams on the L1 cache), and goes directly to the L2 cache. The system allows for the GPU to directly read data produced by the CPU without going to main memory. In this specific case of data streaming, called Xbox procedural synthesis (XPS), the CPU is effectively a data decompressor, generating geometry on-the-fly for consumption by the GPU 3D core.
 105 million transistors
 8 render output units
 Maximum pixel fillrate: 16 gigasamples per second fillrate using 4X multisample anti aliasing (MSAA), or 32 gigasamples using Z-only operation; 4 gigapixels per second without MSAA (8 ROPs × 500 MHz)
 Maximum Z sample rate: 8 gigasamples per second (2 Z samples × 8 ROPs × 500 MHz), 32 gigasamples per second using 4X anti aliasing (2 Z samples × 8 ROPs × 4X AA × 500 MHz)
 Maximum anti-aliasing sample rate: 16 gigasamples per second (4 AA samples × 8 ROPs × 500 MHz)
 Support for bilinear, trilinear, anisotropic filtering, Alpha to Coverage, hardware Tessellation and Predicated Tiling.
 Cooling: Both the GPU and CPU of the console have heatsinks. The GPU's heatsink uses heatpipe technology, to conduct heat from the GPU and eDRAM die to the fins of the heatsink. The heatsinks are actively cooled by a pair of 60 mm exhaust fans. The new XCGPU chipset redesign is featured in both the Xbox 360 S and the Xbox 360 E and integrates the CPU (Xenon) and GPU (Xenos) in one package and is actively cooled by a single heatsink rather than two.

See also
 TeraScale hardware tesselator
 GCN hardware tesselator
 RSX 'Reality Synthesizer' - GPU used in the PlayStation 3
 Latte (graphics chip) GPU used in the Wii U

References

ATI Technologies products
Graphics processing units
Xbox 360 hardware

Xenos (graphics chip)


Sheikh Fazlollah Noori (Persian: شیخ فضل‌الله نوری, d.Born Mazandaran 31 Julie 1909, Tehran) wis a prominent Shiite Muslim cleric in Iran durin the late 19t an early 20t century opposed the Iranian Constitutional Revolution an wis executit for treason as a result. The day, he is considered a martyr (shahid) in the fecht against democracy bi Islamic conservatives in Iran.

Sheik Fazlullah wis born in 1843. Efter feenishing primary eddication, he left Iran for Najaf an left for Samara tae enjoy Mirza Shirazi's excellence. He went tae Iran in 1883 an teuk residency in Tehran. He believit in the Sharia. He believit that Muslims need an Islamic parliament based on Koran an Mohammad's experience.

Noori wis ane o the maist vigorous opponents o the Iranian Constitutional Revolution, a muivement tae remuive foreign influence frae Iran, leemit the pouer o the Shah an establish a naitional consultative assembly that wad gie the fowk a vyce in the affairs o state. The muivement wis led principally bi merchants, intellectuals an some clerics. Noori initially gae restrained support tae the uprisin, but he suin became an extreme creetic an enemy o the constitutionalists. He authored pamphlets an incitit mobs against constitutionalism an constitutionalists preachin that thay wad bring vice tae Iran. He issued a fatwa declarin aw members o the new parliament an govrenment "apostates", "atheists," "secret Babis," an koffar al-harbi (warlike pagans) whose bluid oucht tae be shed bi the faithful.

Noori allied hissel wi the new Shah, Mohammad Ali Shah, who wi the assistance o Roushie troops stagit a coup against the Majlis (parliament) in 1907. In 1909, housomeivver, constitutionalists mairchit ontae Tehran (the caipital o Iran). Noori wis arrestit, tried an foond guilty o sowin corruption an sedition on earth,` an on 31 Julie 1909, Noori wis hanged as a traitor.

See an aw
Iranian Constitutional Revolution
Qajar Dynasty
Islamic fundamentalism in Iran
Mirza Sayyed Mohammad Tabatabai

References

Further readin
 Ahmad Kasravi, Tārikh-e Mashruteh-ye Iran (تاریخ مشروطهٔ ایران) (History o the Iranian Constitutional Revolution), in Persian, 951 p. (Negāh Publications, Tehran, 2003), ISBN 964-351-138-3. Note: This beuk is an aa available in twa volumes, published bi Amir Kabir Publications in 1984. Amir Kabir's 1961 edition is in ane volume, 934 pages.
 Ahmad Kasravi, History of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution: Tārikh-e Mashrute-ye Iran, Volume I, translated intae Inglis bi Evan Siegel, 347 p. (Mazda Publications, Costa Mesa, California, 2006). ISBN 1-56859-197-7

Iranian politeecians
Iranian clerics
Iranian Islamists
Shia clerics
1843 births
1909 daiths
Fowk executit bi hangin
Iranian Shia Muslims
Executit Iranian fowk
19t-century politeecians

Sheikh Fazlollah Noori


Hanuman Jayanthi is a festival in India. It is the birthday of Hanuman, the Vanara god who looks like a monkey. It is celebrated on the 15th day of Chitra Pournami. It is an important festival of the Hindus. Hanuman is the symbol of strength, energy and devotion. He is worshipped as a deity with supreme powers and conquer evil spirits.

Festivals in India
Hindu festivals

Hanuman Jayanti


Li could mean:

The Chinese word for plum, a very popular surname in China
An alternate romanisation of the Japanese word for plum, ri, which originates from the above word in Chinese. It can also be pronounced as sumomo.
An ethnic group of China, Hlai, which is known as Li among Han Chinese.
The chemical symbol for lithium.
Li (unit) (里), a Chinese unit of length, often used when talking about distance.

Li


Telephone tapping or wire tapping/wiretapping is when somebody listens to another person's telephone calls. They usually use a listening device called a bug to listen to and record the conversation so that another person can then listen to it later.

This is illegal in many countries, including the UK and US because it means that telephone calls are not private. Sometimes, the police need to 'tap' into telephone calls to catch terrorists or other criminals. Evidence from illegal tops may be used in criminal trials in some countries.

Watergate scandal

Telephone
Criminal investigation

Telephone tapping


Colloquy is an IRC client that first came out in 2005. The newest stable, or good version of IceChat is 2.1 that was made in 2007. Colloquy is free which means it does not cost any money to use. The programming language Colloquy is made in is Objective-C. It is licensed as GPL.

Related pages
List of IRC clients

IRC clients

Colloquy (software)


Mainland China, also called the Chinese Mainland, is the part of China not including the Republic of China controlling Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, and the Pescadores.  The term also excludes Hong Kong and Macau.

In the Qing Dynasty (Manchu Dynasty), all of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, the Pescadores, and Mongolia were part of the Manchu Empire. Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau were colonized by foreigners for some years (Taiwan to the Japanese, Hong Kong to the British, and Macau to the Portuguese).

By the end the Qing Empire, China became Nationalist China (the Republic of China) and it got Taiwan back in 1945. After the Communists (the People's Republic of China) took over most of China, the Nationalists kept only Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, and the Pescadores.  Mongolia became an independent state later.

Since then, Communist China only includes the part on the continent (mainland) and some small islands that are very near (the largest communist island is Hainan). This region is Mainland China.

Later Hong Kong and Macau were returned to the government of China, but because the government calls them "special administrative regions" under a "one country, two systems" idea, they are still not thought of as part of Mainland China.

China

Mainland China


Nā Uyana Aranya Senāsanaya (Sinhala: නා උයන ආරණ්‍ය සේනාසනය, meaning 'Ironwood Grove Forest Monastery') is a Buddhist forest monastery in Kurunegala, Sri Lanka, associated with the Sri Kalyani Yogasrama Samstha. It spreads over more than 5000 acres of forest on the 'Dummiya' mountain range and is residence to about 150 Buddhist monks. Na Uyana is so named because of the old Ceylon ironwood forest that forms part of the monastery.

History

Ancient cave dwellings with Brāhmī inscriptions, as well as ruins of a small Stupa complex, have been found at Na Uyana which date back to 3rd century BCE. The new stupa of the monastery is built on the location of this complex. One inscription states that King Uttiya has donated his pleasure grove to the Sangha. As Uttiya was the successor to King Devanampiya Tissa, during whose reign Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka, the ancient monastery at Na Uyana seems to have been one of the first in the country established outside Anuradhapura.

The ancient monastery was rediscovered by Ven. Wigoda Bodhirakkhita Thera in 1954. Sayadaw U Nandavamsa and Sayadaw U Javana, senior Burmese disciples of Mahasi Sayadaw, visited the monastery in 1956.

Ven. Angulgamuwe Ariyananda Thera moved to Na Uyana in 1997 with a group of monks and started a revival that has made it the largest monastery in the Yogasrama Samstha. It is also one of the main international monasteries in Sri Lanka, with about 25 foreign monks. Ven. Nauyane Ariyadhamma Mahathera, the Spiritual Director of Sri Kalyani Yogasrama Samstha, also used to reside at Na Uyana.

Layout

Na Uyana has 4 main sections: Pansiyagama (or Kurunegala), 'Mountain', Matale and Aandagala, each about 30 minutes of a walk apart from the other. Pansiyagama section is the ancient monastery within the ironwood forest and contains the uposatha hall, meditation hall, refectory, library and offices in addition to about 80 kutis (monks' residences). 'Mountain' is the newly developed area on the main hill of the monastery, which has about 80 kutis and the main meditation hall. This area is being reforested. Matale section, which has about 20 kutis and a smaller meditation hall, is situated among grassy hills with less forest cover. Aandagala is a remote, densely forested area in the monastery which is not in direct contact with others, and is reserved for the most austere dhutanga practitioners. There are 4 mud huts in this area, and the occupants must go on almsround to the nearby villages. Meals are provided separately for the first three sections, yet some monks prefer going for alms.

Meditation

Na Uyana is one of the two principal meditation monasteries of the Yogasrama Samstha, along with Nissarana Vanaya. The main meditation method taught is 'Pa-Auk Samatha Vipassana', and the senior meditation teacher is Ven. Ariyananda Thera. It was possible to have interviews with Ven. Ariyadhamma Mahathera, while he was there and before he passed away. Practitioners may join the group sittings conducted in the two main meditation halls, or continue on their own in their kutis.

The Most Ven. Bhaddanta Āciṇṇa, the current Pa-Auk sayadaw, undertook a long-term personal retreat at Na Uyana Aranya in 2007, staying in seclusion and suspending his teaching schedule throughout the year.

Directions
Take the road to Madahapola at the Melsiripura junction (between Kurunegala and Dambulla) on the A6 highway. At the Pansiyagama junction on the Madahapola road, take the road to Galewela. About 1 km on this road is the Na Uyana road, which leads to the monastery.

See also
 Nauyane Ariyadhamma Mahathera
 Sri Kalyani Yogasrama Samstha
 Nissarana Vanaya

Notes

References

External links
 Na Uyana Aranya Official Website
 Pa-Auk Forest Monastery - International Contacts

Buddhist monasteries in Sri Lanka
Buddhist temples in Kurunegala District
Theravada Buddhist monasteries
Pa-Auk Society

Na Uyana Aranya