was a Japanese Zen Buddhist monk and painter of the Muromachi period.

History
Shūbun was born in the late 14th century in Ōmi Province and became a professional painter around 1403. He settled in Kyoto, then the capital city. He became director of the court painting bureau, established by Ashikaga shōguns, which consisted of influential art patrons. He was chosen by the members of the diplomatic mission to Joseon in 1423.

Shūbun is considered to be the founder of the Chinese style of suiboku ink painting in Japan. He was influenced by Chinese landscape painters Xia Gui and Ma Yuan.

Throughout his life, Shūbun was associated with the Zen Buddhist temple, Shōkoku-ji. Early in his career, he studied painting there under Josetsu, a Chinese immigrant who became the father of the new Japanese ink painting tradition. Under Josetsu's influence, Shūbun started studying Chinese Song Dynasty painting by masters such as Xia Gui and Ma Yuan; consequently, Shūbun's style was an intermediate step between early Japanese artists who imitated Chinese models very closely, and later artists, who developed a national style. Later in life, Shūbun became overseer of buildings and grounds at Shōkoku-ji.

In the 1440s he taught the young Sesshū Tōyō, who became his best pupil and the most highly regarded Japanese artist of his time. Another important pupil may have been Kanō Masanobu, who succeeded Shūbun as the chief painter of the Ashikaga shogunate, and also founded the Kanō school of painting.

Shūbun's most well-known painting, designated as a National Treasure in Japan, is Reading in a Bamboo Grove, now kept in the Tokyo National Museum. The same museum houses a few other works attributed to Shūbun, among them a pair of  titled . Two more pairs of folding screens depicting landscapes of the four seasons are held by the Seikadō Bunko Art Museum. As with many Japanese and Chinese artists of this and earlier periods, many works survive that are attributed to Shūbun, but only for a few is this attribution secure. Contemporary accounts describe Shūbun as a very versatile artist, yet the only extant works with the authorship issue resolved are landscapes.

See also
Annals of the Joseon Dynasty

Notes

References
 Deal, William E. 2007. Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan. Oxford University Press US.
 Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005).  Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ;  OCLC 58053128
 Varley, H. Paul. (2000). Japanese Culture.  Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

External links

 Landscapes of the Four Seasons in the Seikado Foundation
 Ten Oxherding Pictures, attributed to Shūbun
 Landscape in the Seattle Art Museum Permanent Collection, attributed to Shūbun
Bridge of dreams: the Mary Griggs Burke collection of Japanese art, a catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Tenshō Shūbun (see index)

1414 births
1463 deaths
Japanese painters
National Treasures of Japan
Buddhist artists
Japanese Buddhist clergy
Zenga

Tenshō Shūbun


Staff may mean:
 Staff (stick), a stick or pole to help with walking, or to use as a weapon.
Employees, a group of people who work for a firm or other organization.
 Staff (music) (or stave),  five horizontal lines used for writing musical notes.
 Staff of office, a stick or pole used for ceremony by someone important.
 Staff (building material), artificial stone product for ornamental uses.
 Staff (military), the people of military command and planning.
 Jacob's staff, a tool used in surveying.
 Quarterstaff, a long pole used as a Medieval weapon.
 Bō, a long stick used as a weapon, usually in Japanese martial arts.
 Leopold Staff (1878–1957), a Polish poet.
 Gun (staff), a weapon in Chinese martial arts.
 staff is a safeworking apparatus used on single track railways.

NB
The plural of "staff" is staves.  The word  stave can also be used as a singular noun to mean:
 a single staff (music).
 a curved wooden member which is used with others to form the side of a barrel.

Staff


Steve LaTreal McNair (February 14, 1973 – July 4, 2009, nicknamed "Air McNair") was an American football quarterback who played for the Tennessee Titans and the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League. He played college football for Alcorn State University. McNair was murdered on July 4, 2009.

Early life
McNair was born in Mount Olive, Mississippi, USA McNair credits much of his success to his older brother, Fred, who played a very important part in raising McNair and his siblings, plus helping their mother. He and attended Mount Olive High School starting in 1987, where he played football, baseball, and basketball, and ran track. He led his school to the State Championship as a sophomore.

College career
McNair was offered a full scholarship to the University of Florida to play defensive back but wanting to play quarterback. McNair played college football for Alcorn State University in the NCAA. In 1992, McNair threw for 3,541 yards and 29 touchdowns, and ran in for 10 more scores. The Braves went 7–4. McNair helped Alcorn State to another good year in 1993, as the Braves upped their record to 8–3 while McNair threw for more than 3,000 yards and 30 touchdowns.

As a senior in 1994, McNair had nearly 6,000 yards rushing and passing, with 53 touchdowns and was named an All-American. McNair also won the Walter Payton Award as the top I-AA player and finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting behind Rashaan Salaam and Ki-Jana Carter. McNair set career records for the Football Championship Series with 14,496 passing yards.

Professional career

Houston/Tennessee Oilers/Titans
McNair was selected by the Houston Oilers with new head coach Jeff Fisher. McNair stayed in Houston for a few solid years, although McNair was often used as a backup. Runningback Eddie George assisted McNair with his strong running. In 1997 (McNair's first year as a starter), the Oilers moved to Tennessee, and became the Titans before the 1999 season, and also began play in LP Field, or as it was called then, Adelphia Collesium, in 1999.

Early in the 1999 season, McNair was diagnosed with an inflamed disk following Tennessee's 36–35 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, and needed surgery. He was replaced by veteran Neil O'Donnell. Over the next five games, O'Donnell led the Titans to a 4–1 record. McNair returned against the St. Louis Rams, and with McNair starting, Tennessee won seven of its last nine games to finish 13-3.

Tennessee opened the at home against the Buffalo Bills in a Wild Card game, winning on the "Music City Miracle" and got to Super Bowl XXXIV in a re-match with the St. Louis Rams. On the final play of the game, a McNair pass to Kevin Dyson was complete, but Dyson could not break the plane of the goal line, giving the Rams the win. McNair signed a six-year contract with the Titans after the season.

McNair led the Titans to another solid 13-3 season in 2000, but it ended in a hard-fought playoff loss to the Baltimore Ravens in the Divisional Round.

In 2001, McNair had passing highs in yards (3,350), completions (264), touchdowns (21) and quarterback rating (90.2). He also had five scores rushing. McNair was named to the Pro Bowl for the first time, but the game due to a shoulder injury.

After a solid 2002 season, McNair was arrested for DUI (and he also had a handgun in his possession). However, all charges were eventually dropped. McNair and Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning were named co-MVPs for the 2003 season, although McNair had to sit out two games. Injuries continued to bother McNair over the next two seasons, as he played in only eight games in 2004 and fourteen in 2005.

Baltimore Ravens
On June 8, 2006 McNair was traded to the Baltimore Ravens. McNair was given the starting job in Baltimore over the disappointing Kyle Boller. McNair started all 16 games in 2006, but often rotated in and out with Boller. McNair got the Ravens to a 13-3 record. McNair's 2006 statistics with the Ravens included 295 pass completions on 468 attempts for 3,050 passing yards, 16 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions. McNair also ran for a score in a win against the New Orleans Saints.

McNair and the Ravens both had a bad season in 2007. The Ravens went 5-11, and McNair was often injured. Due to bad quarterback play, McNair would always play when healthy over Kyle Boller and rookie Troy Smith, but McNair still threw only two touchdowns next to four interceptions. That was his last year in the NFL. McNair had his retirement press conference with the Ravens in April, 2008.

Personal
McNair was married to Mechelle McNair from June 21, 1997 until his death. McNair had a farm in Mississipi, USA, where he would often go.

McNair had two sons by Mechelle: Steve LaTreal McNair, Steven O'Brian Koran McNair; and two sons - Tyler and Trenton - by two other women.

McNair earned the nickname "Air McNair" in High School. He opened his own restaurant in Nashville, which he named Gridiron9. McNair was also a mentor to quarterback Vince Young.

Death
On July 4, 2009, McNair and 20-year old Sahel Kazemi were found dead in a condominium rented by McNair in Nashville. McNair had several gunshot wounds, and Kazemi had only one to the head. Kazemi had been arrested for DUI two days earlier, and McNair left with his restaurant chef in a taxi. Traces of gunpowder were found on Kazemi's hand, as well as a gun. Kazemi was having trouble financially, and apparently found out that McNair had other relationships. Police ruled this a murder-suicide, with Kazemi as the killer, McNair as the victim. Many people came to McNair's funeral, including some notable players, like fellow QB Brett Favre and former teammate Ray Lewis. Said Titans owner Bud Adams:

To the Associated Press, Ravens General Manager Ozzie Newsome added:

McNair was buried in Memphis on July 11, 2009.

Other websites
 Steve McNair Foundation official site

References

Steve NcNair found dead-News Channel 5.com
McNair introduced as new Ravens QB-USA Today
Questions still linger in McNair's murder
Judge: Officer didn't have 'sufficient basis' to stop McNair for DUI-CBS Sports
Police declare murder-suicide in McNair case
McNair's estate not a problem-ESPN
Bud Adams on McNair-Titans.com
Steve McNair founded murdered-Baltimore Ravens.com

1973 births
2009 deaths
African American players of American football
American football quarterbacks
American murder victims
Baltimore Ravens players
Murdered African-American people
Murdered sportspeople
Murder-suicides in the United States
Murders by firearm in the United States
Sportspeople from Mississippi

Steve McNair


Ecosystem valuation is a widely used tool to find out the impact of human activities on an environmental system. It is done by giving an economic value to an ecosystem or its ecosystem services.

Value of ecosystem services
The simplest form of ecosystem valuation is that one looks at an ecosystem as if its ecological yield had the same value as it would be on commodity markets. That means one looks at the value of water, wood, fish or game, that is produced in that ecosystem.  Thus, a price can be put on the natural capital of an ecosystem based on the price of natural resources it yields each year.

More complex arguments in ecosystem valuation regard nature's services and the assignment of values in a service economy to all that nature does "for humans".  Studies compiled by Robert Costanza in the 1990s argued strongly that even just considering the most basic seventeen of these services, the combined value of the ecosystems of the earth was worth more (US$33T) each year than the whole human exchange economy (US$25T) at that time (1995). Other studies have focused on the marginal value of ecosystem changes, which can be used in cost-benefit analysis of environmental policies.

In Natural Capitalism, 1999, Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and Hunter Lovins advanced an argument to assign the value of Earth in current currency.  See value of Earth article for that and other examples of this extreme case of ecosystem valuation - biosphere valuation.

Four types of values can be assigned to ecosystems (Pearce and Turner, 1990):
 direct use value is the value attributed to direct use of ecosystem services;
 indirect use value is the value attributed to indirect use of ecosystem services, through the positive externalities that ecosystems provide;
 option value is the value attributed to preserving the option to use ecosystem services in the future;
 non-use value is the value attributed to the pure existence of an ecosystem and consists of three components: value based on the welfare the ecosystem may give other people; value based on the welfare the ecosystem may give future generations; and value based on knowing that the ecosystem exists.

Methods to estimate the value of ecosystem services which cannot be derived from market prices include "stated preference" methods and "revealed preference" methods. Stated preference methods, such as the contingent valuation method ask people for their willingness to pay for a certain ecosystem (service). Revealed preference methods, such as hedonic pricing and the travel cost method, use a relation with a market good or service to estimate the willingness-to-pay for the service.

Is valuation economics, or ecology?
Such valuation, and that of the effectiveness of various environmental health measures that affect the value of life and quality of life, are usually thought to be part of economics.  Natural capital and individual capital are studied ecology as living systems, however, this does not extend to the economics of valuation by which they are related:

Considering "valuation" as an "economic not ecological issue" reflects the way these fields divide of the activities of humans versus non-humans in "making a living".  When humans go out to get food or homes, that is studied in "economics", but when non-humans do it, that is "ecology", though it is clear that there are motivations, methods and certainly bodily needs in common.

Since animals do not put explicit prices on ecosystems they use, but do behave as if they are valuable, e.g. by defending turf or access to water, it is mostly a matter of definition whether ecology should include valuation as an issue.  It may be anthropocentric to do so, since "valuation" more clearly refers to a human perception rather than being an "objective" attribute of the system perceived.  Ecology itself is also human perception, and such related concepts as a food chain are constructed by humans to help them understand ecosystems.  In many cases by those who hold that markets and pricing exist independently of any individual human observers and "users", and especially those who deem markets to be "out of control", ecosystem valuation is considered a (marginal, ignored) part of economics.

Some versions of conflict theory focus on the role of resource scarcity in sparking or propagating human conflicts - in effect holding that the resources or ecosystems they fight over are being held so valuable that they are worth considerable risk of harm to control.  This is at least a relative notion of value and value at risk applied to ecosystem.

References
 Hanley, N. and C. L. Spash (1993). Cost-benefit analysis and the environment. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
 Pearce, D.W. and R.K. Turner, 1990. Economics of natural resources and the environment. BPCC Wheatsons Ltd., Exeter, UK. 378 pp.

Other websites
Environmental Valuation Reference Inventory
The EcoValue Project
Ecosystem Valuation Toolkit
 Ecosystem Valuation
Earth Economics' ESVs
Green politics
Sustainable development

Ecosystem valuation


Iqbal Park is a park in Lahore, Pakistan. It was called Minto Park during British Indian times. It is named after Allama Sir Muhammad Iqbal, the National Poet of Pakistan. In the All India Muslim Leagues session of 21-24 March 1940, which was held here, the famous Lahore Resolution was passed. This led to the eventual creation of independent Pakistan in 1947. This event is remembered in this park, by the structure of the Minar-e-Pakistan (Pakistan Tower/Minaret), which is visited by many people every year.

Pakistan Movement
Lahore
Parks in Pakistan

Iqbal Park


Ontario is a province of Canada. It is in the eastern half of Canada, between Manitoba and Quebec. Ontario has the most people of any province, with 13,150,000 in 2009, and is home to the biggest city in Canada, Toronto, which is also the capital of the province. In the eastern part of the province, placed on the border with Quebec, is Ottawa, the capital of Canada, located on the Ottawa River.

Ontario also has the second largest land area, with 1,076,395 km²; only Quebec is larger by size. (Nunavut and Northwest Territories are also larger, but are called territories and not provinces). The province has one of the longest borders with the United States and there are several border crossings including the one at Niagara Falls. Along this border are 4 large lakes called Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Huron, and Lake Superior. They each are partly in Ontario and partly in the United States, and the border runs through them, but not Lake Michigan, which is entirely in the United States. These five lakes are together are called the Great Lakes.

There are a number of symbols that represent the province of Ontario. The flag is red with the British Union Jack in the top left corner and the provincial shield is on the right hand side of the flag. The provincial bird is the loon, and the provincial flower is the trillium. It has three flower petals and it is usually white but some times is pink or purple.

History
Ontario became part of Canada when it was created in 1867. Before 1840, it was known as Upper Canada, which was a colony in the British Empire. Between 1840 and 1867 it was known as Canada West. The government of Ontario sits at Queen's Park in Toronto. The leader of the government is called the Premier, and the current Premier is Doug Ford. There is also a Lieutenant Governor who represents the Queen, and the current Lieutenant Governor is Elizabeth Dowdeswell.

Geography
Ontario is very large, so sometimes people break it into two. The two parts are called Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario. Most of the people in Ontario live in the south, and that is where the big cities are. The big cities in Southern Ontario are Toronto and the rest of the Greater Toronto Area, Ottawa and the National Capital Region, Hamilton, London, Windsor, and Sarnia. The cities in the north are smaller. In the far north of Ontario hardly any people live at all, and there are no roads or railways making it difficult to even get to those places.

Much of Ontario gets lots of snow in the winter. In the summer, it can get very hot in the south parts. In some big cities, there is smog in the summer.

References

Other websites

Government of Ontario

1867 establishments in Canada

Ontario


The Bristol and North Somerset Railway was a railway line in the West of England that connected Bristol with Radstock, through Pensford and further into northern Somerset, to allow access to the Somerset Coalfield. The line ran almost due south from Bristol and was  long.

Opened in 1873, it joined with an existing branch from Frome to Radstock, and was later worked with it as a single entity. In 1882 the Camerton Branch was opened by the Great Western Railway to serve collieries at Camerton; it was later extended to Limpley Stoke, on the Bath to Trowbridge line. It closed to passenger traffic in 1925.

The line's primary traffic was coal, and travel to work commuting into Bristol. Both of these traffic sources substantially declined in the 1950s, with the Camerton Branch fully closed in 1951. Passenger traffic ceased on the rest of the entire line complex before the Beeching Axe in 1959, with complete closure of the line in 1973 following the closure of the last colliery in the Somerset Coalfield at Kilmersdon.

History

Getting an Act for the line
The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway (WS&WR) was established in 1845 to build a network of lines, running from near Chippenham on the Great Western Railway (GWR) to Salisbury and Weymouth. At that time Radstock was the most important mining centre of the Somerset Coalfield, and the WS&WR included in its plans a branch from near Frome to Radstock. The WS&WR found raising money for its ambitious network difficult, and the Company sold its lines, not all of which were complete, to the GWR on 14 March 1850, confirmed by an Act of Parliament on 3 July 1851. The GWR opened the Radstock branch to mineral traffic only on 14 November 1854, built to broad gauge.

As early as 1863 the Board of the GWR had resolved to create a standard gauge line from Bristol to Salisbury through the district, and there were numerous independent schemes to serve the important colliery sites north of Radstock, and link them to the city of Bristol.

These schemes came to nothing until in September 1862 when promoters formed an agreement to make a line from Bristol, with connections to other lines there, to a junction with the newly formed Somerset and Dorset Railway near Bruton, running through the colliery areas of Pensford and Clutton, and with a branch to Camerton, where there were further collieries. It was to connect at Bristol with both broad gauge and narrow gauge lines, as well as having a tramway to the City Docks at the Floating Harbour.

The proposal became a Parliamentary bill, and received the Royal Assent on 21 July 1863: it was to be called the Bristol and North Somerset Railway, with capital of £275,000 and borrowing powers of £91,000.

This appeared to serve the GWR objective admirably; the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth had a branch to Radstock, and the network also served Salisbury; if the gauge of their Radstock branch were mixed, the desired through route to Salisbury would be created via Radstock at minimum cost. However, when the Bristol and North Somerset Railway (B&NSR) approached the GWR to explore the GWR's willingness to work the line, and to run passenger trains on their Frome - Radstock line, the GWR's reaction was cool.

A series of proposed extensions
Following this success in Parliament, the Company immediately set about proposing extensions as Bills for the 1864 session: from onward from the authorised Camerton branch to Bath; from the main line to Shepton Mallet, to join the East Somerset Railway there; and various branches in Bristol and at the docks there.

Three Bills followed for the 1865 session: for a railway from Radstock passing Writhlington (where there was an important colliery) and through Wellow and Midford to Monkton Combe, on the Bradford on Avon to Bathampton line; for a line from Farrington Gurney to Shepton Mallet and the East Somerset line again; and from near Hallatrow to the Midland Railway Bath branch, joining it between Weston and Kelston, west of Bath, connecting with the GWR line in passing.

In 1866 the GWR and the B&NSR jointly submitted a bill for a line from Mells to through Nettlebridge, south of Radstock to Chilcompton.

In 1869 the B&NSR obtained an Act confirming its powers to build the harbour tramway at Bristol.

None of these lines was built by the Company; only the line from a junction with the GWR immediately east of Bristol Temple Meads to Radstock was built.

The Somerset and Dorset Railway was independent at this time, and the B&NSR made overtures to that company about an alliance or merger. This seemed to be a more fruitful way forward, and Parliamentary Bills were deposited to authorise the merger, and a physical connection at Shepton Mallet, but in May 1866 it emerged that the S&DR had undertaken to route major traffic flows via the Bristol and Exeter Railway, with which it connected at Highbridge. This frustrated any advantage for the B&NSR in merging, and its Bill was withdrawn.

Construction, and collapse
Having obtained its authorising Act, the Company appointed its engineer, James Frazer, and a contractor, Bethell and Walton. However Bethell and Walton asked for an advance of payment, but only got some shares in the Company. They had what is now called a cash-flow problem, and further requests for cash came from them, with little work output to show. On 9 April 1864 they were given a formal ultimatum by the Company Secretary, at which they declared that they would not continue with the work. A firm called Lawrence and Fry took over the works, while Bethell and Walton issued demands for payment for work done. The Company itself was desperately short of money as subscribers had failed to respond to calls, and land acquisition was proving unaffordable; then on 27 June 1864 it was announced that Lawrence and Fry had become bankrupt. Lawrence subsequently approached the Company in his private capacity, and a deal was struck enabling him to work as the Company's contractor.

The Company's money shortage meant that little real progress seems to have taken place; perhaps the Company's management focus had been on Parliamentary work on extensions. In July 1866 the banking firm of Overend, Gurney and Company failed, and this triggered a financial crisis; many people lost large amounts of money, and obtaining share subscriptions for new construction became, for a time impossible. The Bristol and North Somerset Company found that raising finance was now impossible, and the Company "collapsed". At a shareholders' meeting on 4 May 1867, the Board disclosed that the Company was now in the hands of creditors. Moreover, of the authorised share capital of £275,000, only £16,080 of shares had been applied for and issued; more had been given free to unfortunate suppliers and contractors in payment. Individual Directors had given personal surety for Company borrowings in the amount of £180,000; this was twice the authorised quantum. The liabilities were said to amount to £300,000, and sums expended could not be made to equate to work actually completed. The Company Secretary John Bingham became embroiled in claims of improper dealings. The "collapse" of the Company was complete.

A new company
Many people had lost a lot of money, but the area still needed a railway line, and a new Bristol and North Somerset Railway was created, authorised by Act of 31 July 1868. The engineer was William Clarke and his first task was to assess what physical works had actually been made. As well as doing so, he proposed a simplification of the route at Radstock making a northerly sweep and avoiding housing in the town centre, and joining more directly into the GWR terminus. This required another authorising Act and it was obtained on 14 July 1870.

On getting the Act, the Company sought offers from contractors and John Perry and Sons of Stratford quoted £90,000 to complete the line, and was awarded contracts. The intention was to open at least between Bristol and Pensford by the following spring of 1871. Further problems were encountered with the quality and rate of progress of the construction, but at length the line was ready for the Board of Trade inspection. Col Rich visited the line on 2 September 1873. His report alluded to a great number of detail matters, but he approved the opening.

Opening at last
The opening of the line took place on 3 September 1873. It was built on the standard gauge, and it was worked by the Great Western Railway.

The new B&NSR line met the WS&WR line at Radstock, but that was a broad gauge line, so there was a break of gauge at Radstock. The opening of the B&NSR activated a neglected obligation on the GWR: in February 1874 the GWR Board recorded that:

By the terms of an Agreement with the Bristol and North Somerset Company and the principal Colliery Proprietors of the Radstock District, this Company is under engagement to lay the narrow gauge between Radstock and Salisbury on or before 3rd September next ... In view of this obligation, the Directors ... consider that the convenience of the public will be best met, and the interest of the Proprietors best secured, by the alteration from Broad to Narrow Gauge of all the Lines in the district which these railways accommodate.

In fact the entire Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth network, 131 miles of line, now GWR property, was to be converted to standard gauge, triggered by the opening of the B&NSR line. The standard gauge was ready for the first time on 22 June 1874.

The GWR continued with the upgrading of the Frome to Witham line, making it ready for passenger operation; this included laying a west curve at Frome to reach the station there; the mineral line connection faced Westbury. On 5 July 1875 following an inspection by Col Yolland, the line opened to passengers. There were five trains between Bristol and Frome via Radstock daily, with two on Sundays.

MacDermot summarises the events from the GWR point of view in stark terms:

The opening of the Bristol and North Somerset Railway, a line with a tragic financial story too involved to be recounted here, and of little interest nowadays, created a new break of gauge at Radstock, where it joined the old Great Western mineral branch from Frome; so, until the latter was converted to narrow gauge in June 1874, the 23 miles between Bristol and Frome had of course to be worked in two distinct sections, the southern of which was not adapted for passenger traffic until the 5th July 1875.

Poor financial results
On 20 July 1874 the Somerset and Dorset Railway opened its Bath extension, passing through Radstock. Running through Midsomer Norton and Radstock from the south-west it crossed over the B&NSR between the two places, paralleling the B&NSR through Radstock itself. There were thus two adjacent level crossings in the centre of the town. The Bath extension exhausted the S&DR Company financially, and it leased its line to the Midland Railway and the London and South Western Railway jointly on 13 July 1876, and became known as the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway.

The opening of the line gave easy rail access to cheap Midlands coal which was now brought into the area. The Somerset coalfield had the limitation that the seams were narrow and had exceptionally high costs, which were now massively undercut. Miners' wages were reduced leading to industrial action, and local coal production declined. In addition deficient siding accommodation led to congestion in actually getting offered traffic away.

The Company had assumed that the GWR would route through goods traffic over its line, and the GWR did not rush to do this, preferring their own double track line via Bradford on Avon. The Company sustained a loss of £5,600 in 1876.

The situation revived somewhat, and the former WS&WR section carried heavy volumes of coal, and was partly doubled in 1880. Easier coal seams were exploited and deep pits at Pensford and Dunkerton were sunk in the period 1901 - 1920, resulting in a 25% increase in the area's production.

For the entire life of the reconstructed B&NSR Company, money had been short and the line had been worked by the GWR. From time to time negotiations had been opened with a view to selling the line to the larger company, and these were repeatedly fruitless. The B&NSR had huge debts and was making a loss every year, and it is unlikely that the GWR would pay dearly to acquire it. The shareholders may have expected a sale price that would get them their money back; an unrealistic expectation that led them to reject an offer when the GWR made it in 1880, even though the Directors recommended acceptance. Resentment against the GWR for supposedly excessive charges for working the line were also a factor.

The Earl of Warwick had long been owed £113,000 and in January 1882 judgement in his favour was given in the court. The B&NSR had no money to pay, and were put in receivership.

A hostile rival
A remarkable Parliamentary Bill was submitted for the 1883 session: a Bristol and South Western Junction Railway was to be created. Its route would leave Andover, on the LSWR main line and run via Amesbury and Westbury to Radstock, where it would join both the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway and the Bristol and North Somerset line. The latter would be doubled, and a new central Bristol station would be built adjacent to the floating harbour, as well as a new central goods station at Lewins Mead. From a much more convenient Bristol station, the journey to London over this route and the LSWR was only 12 miles longer than by the GWR. The capital was to be £1,866,000.

Although the proposal had some popular support, all the directly affected parties opposed the scheme, and during its passage in Parliament it was considerably scaled down. However the preamble was shown not to be proved, and the Bill failed. This had been a direct assault by the LSWR and its friends on the heartland of the GWR network, and if it had succeeded it could have tapped the GWR's core traffic at a number of locations; and in consequence the GWR started to think more defensively about its position.  This seems to have pushed the GWR into granting better terms to purchase the B&NSR line, and the Bristol and North Somerset Railway was amalgamated with the GWR in July 1884; the WS&WR had been absorbed by the GWR in 1850, so that the entire line between Bristol and Frome via Radstock was in GWR control and was operated as a single unit.

Features

The original stations were in most cases built to a standard but distinctive design by the architect William Clarke, featuring large canopies and three tall chimneys.

The B&NSR was one of the railways carried on the Midford viaducts (see photograph above). This had three levels: the B&NSR traversed a river valley on a bridge which crossed by the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway which crossed the line and the river valley on an almost perpendicular course on a viaduct.

The biggest civil engineering project on the line was the Pensford Viaduct over the River Chew. The viaduct is  long, reaches a maximum height of  to rail level and consists of sixteen arches and is now a Grade II listed structure.

Until 1966 there was no running connection between the North Somerset route and the Somerset and Dorset line; occasional wagon exchange took place through Ludlow Pit private siding; the owner charged 1s 0d per wagon exchanged in this way.

Topography
The line was single throughout.

The line left the Bristol to Bath main line at North Somerset Junction, a little east of  station. An east curve was later built giving access towards Bath, in connection with the enhanced goods facilities at East Depot in 1892. This line trailed in at Marsh Junction, where the Bristol Relief line immediately diverged, towards Pylle Hill.

Passenger stations on the line were then:

 , opened 1925

 ; the Camerton line trailed in
 , opened 1927
 Welton; renamed Welton and Midsomer Norton in 1898, and renamed Midsomer Norton and Welton in 1904
 Radstock; renamed Radstock West in 1949

On the Camerton line from Hallatrow, the passenger stations were:
 Paulton Halt, opened 1914
 Radford and Timsbury Halt, opened 1910
 Camerton
 Dunkerton Colliery Halt, opened 1911
 Dunkerton
 Combe Hay Halt
 Midford Halt, opened 1911
 Monkton Combe, opened 1910

The line joined the Bathampton to Bradford on Avon line at Limpley Stoke.

The B&NSR main line was steeply graded; leaving Marsh Junction it climbed at 1 in 62 to Brislington station, continuing at 1 in 60 to Whitchurch, a single platform halt, continuing to climb to the bridge for the Norton Malreward road. The line then fell at 1 in 66 to Pensford, where there was a sixteen arch viaduct. The line then climbed again, passing Pensford Pit; reaching another summit it fell at 1 in 169, and then 1 in 71 towards Clutton, first passing sidings that accessed a siding serving Fry's Bottom Pit. The sidings at Clutton handled coal from Greyfield Pit.

The line now fell at 1 in 58 to Hallatrow, where the Camerton line trailed in. There was a short bay platform for Camerton branch passenger trains. Rising again, the line climbed at 1 in 65 and then fell again to Farrington Gurney Halt, where passengers obtained tickets at the Miner's Arms public house. Farrington Pit was alongside. Continuing to fall, the line reached Midsomer Norton and Welton passenger station and finally Radstock, later named Radstock West.

Services
The passenger service was typical for a rural railway; in 1884 there were five passenger trains in each direction. By 1910, there were eight trains a day on Thursdays and Saturdays, fewer on other weekdays, and not all of those ran through to or from Frome.

On 28 December 1946 the dirt batch at Pensford Pit slipped, burying and blocking the line; it was closed there for three months, with passenger operation from Bristol to Pensford and from Clutton to Frome.

In the 1950s new and efficient bus services were introduced in the greater Bristol area; there had been good business from passengers travelling to work in Bristol, and the bus services hit passenger carryings on the line. In September 1958 the passenger service on the line was halved. Nonetheless the line was stated to be losing £18,542 annually, and the last passenger train ran on 31 October 1959.

Later events
The line crossed the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway at Radstock, and when that line closed to all traffic on 6 March 1966, there was a need to continue to serve a colliery at Writhlington, a little east of Radstock. As the Bristol and North Somerset line was still open for mineral traffic, a connection between the two lines was formed at Radstock, and for a period Writhlington was served in that way.

Somerset coal continued to be transported to the Bristol area, although not in the former volumes, until the embankment near Pensford was washed out in the summer of 1968. It was considered uneconomic to reinstate it, but the former WS&WR line to Frome was intact, although it had been dormant since April 1966. Accordingly, the line to Frome was re-opened and Somerset coal ran to Bristol via Frome. The Bristol and North Somerset line was finally closed north of the washout site to Marsh Junction, Bristol.

Nonetheless the coalfield was in terminal decline, and the last pit closed in 1973; the final revenue movement of coal on the line was on 16 November 1973. There was an independent wagon repair activity at Radstock, and that continued to be rail served for a time.

The Camerton branch
The Camerton branch had been authorised by the original Act for the Bristol and North Somerset Railway, but not proceeded with by the impecunious company. Coal had been extracted for some time at Camerton – the Camerton New Colliery had been opened in 1800 – and in the 1873 session of Parliament the B&NSR received authority to build the branch; the Act was passed on 21 July with capital of £40,000; the GWR was permitted to fund the construction. The development of this scheme for a relatively short branch line seems to have been ill-prepared. Only after the passage of the Act was Clarke, the Company's engineer, told to prepare detailed estimates for the construction. At a Board meeting on 30 June 1875 was it decided to start negotiations with the Somerset Coal Canal Company to get permission to cross its canal. On 24 October 1875 the GWR accepted a tender for the construction from W Monsley in the sum of £19,000. Evidently the B&NSR had persuaded the GWR to handle the management of the work.

In October 1880 and again on 21 May 1881 Major-General Hutchinson performed the formal inspection of the line and, with some comments, approved the line for opening. The construction had cost £42,214. It appears that the GWR had funded the construction on the basis of a promise of reimbursement by the B&NSR, for Vincent records that "a special meeting was held of the North Somerset's board of directors on 31 March 1882 which then allowed the company to raise the Camerton branch capital".

Although authorised for opening in 1881, no colliery company applied for a siding connection, and for a period the line remained in suspense. In fact it opened for passengers and goods and mineral traffic on 1 March 1882. The line was three miles long and very steeply graded, falling at 1 in 47 from Hallatrow, that is, against the loaded direction. Train loads were limited to fifteen wagons.

The opening of the branch hit the Somerset Coal Canal hard, and by 1898 it was derelict. In 1903 the GWR purchased the canal for £2,000, and extended the Camerton branch along the canal alignment to Limpley Stoke, there forming a junction with the GWR line from Bath to Trowbridge. The first section, about a mile in length from Camerton, reached Dunkerton Pit, and was opened on 26 August 1908, and the remainder on 9 May 1910. From that time most of the coal was routed via Freshford sidings.

A passenger service was operated on the Camerton branch from the time of opening as a through line; but despite serving mining communities, there was little business. Attempts to run an economic service with railmotors were made, but the passenger service was discontinued during the First World War, ceasing on 22 March 1915. It was restored in the summer of 1923 (on 9 July) as an experimental service, omitting Midford Halt, but was finally abandoned on 21 September 1925.

Goods services on the section from Hallatrow to Camerton ceased on the same day; the track was lifted on this section about 1930. Goods and mineral traffic continued, accessed at the Limpley Stoke end only, but that finally closed too on 15 February 1951 and the track was taken up in 1958.

The Titfield Thunderbolt

The Camerton line achieved some fame after closure. The Ealing Studios film, The Titfield Thunderbolt, was shot in 1952 using the line. The plot of the film involved a rural line being closed to passengers by British Railways, so local people club together and, against all the odds, run their own passenger service.

Future potential reopening
Numerous proposals have been made to reopen the railway line in some form, most involving the still-existing branch line from Frome to Radstock. A consultation report produced by Halcrow Group in 2014 outlines the feasibility reinstating service on that branch which was estimated to cost £40 million in 2013. Furthermore, the possibility of opening a heritage railway line has been discussed. The former line through Bristol via Brislington and Whitchurch has been described by pressure group Transport for Greater Bristol as 'technically feasible' but would require a large land acquisition budget due to most of the old route being built over.

In January 2019, Campaign for Better Transport released a report identifying the line from Frome to Radstock as Priority 2 for reopening. Priority 2 is for those lines which require further development or a change in circumstances (such as housing developments).

Notes

References

Further reading
 Colin G Maggs, The Bristol - Radstock - Frome Line, Oakwood Press, Usk, 2013,
 Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith, Frome to Bristol: Including the Camerton Branch, Middleton Press, Midhurst, 1996,
 Bradshaw's Railway Guide, April 1910 edition, reprinted by David & Charles, 1968
 Mike Oakley, Somerset Railway Stations, Dovecote Press, Wimborne, 2002,

External links

 Signalling of the Camerton Branch

Rail transport in Somerset
Great Western Railway constituents
Transport in Bath and North East Somerset
Rail transport in Bristol
Rail transport in Wiltshire
Railway lines opened in 1873
Railway companies disestablished in 1875
Closed railway lines in South West England
1873 establishments in England
Railway companies established in 1873
1875 disestablishments in England
British companies established in 1873
British companies disestablished in 1875

Bristol and North Somerset Railway


A canteen is a bottle which can be re-used.  Canteens are most used for carrying water to places where water is hard to find. Many canteens can be worn on a belt, or held with a strap, like a purse.  They are carried often by soldiers, hikers, and campers.  Old canteens were mostly made of metal but newer ones can be made of plastic. The idea of a canteen comes from ancient times when water and wine were carried in bags made from animal skins.

Containers

Canteen (bottle)


Hovhannes Shiraz (Armenian: Հովհաննես Շիրազ) (April 27, 1915 - April 14, 1984) was a notable Armenian poet.

He was born Hovhannes (Onig) Garabedyan in the city of Alexandropol, then part of the Russian Empire (now Gyumri, Armenia). His first work called Beginning of Spring was published in 1935. Novelist Atrpet gave the talented poet the epithet "Shiraz", because "this youth's poems have the fragrance of roses, fresh and covered with dew, like the roses of Shiraz." Shiraz being one of Iran's major cities, famous for its roses and poets. Most of Shiraz's publications were poetry.

He married famous Armenian poetess Silva Kaputikyan. His son with Kaputikyan, Ara Shiraz, is a sculptor. A street in Julfa of Isfahan is named after him. In 2005 Levon Mkrtchyan released a documentary film titled "Hovhannes Shiraz".  Hayk Studio 43min.

1915 births
1984 deaths

Armenian poets

Hovhannes Shiraz


For other meanings of the term ministry, see Ministry.

A ministry is a department of a government, led by a political minister.
Ministries are usually subordinate to the cabinet, and prime minister, president or chancellor.  A government will usually have several ministries, each with a specialised field of service.  National ministries vary greatly between countries, but some common ones include Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and  Ministry of Health.

Some countries such as Switzerland, the Philippines and the United States do not use the term "ministry" for their government departments, and instead simply call them departments.  In Hong Kong the term "bureau" is used.

In Canada, some provincial-level government departments are called "ministries" (such as in Ontario and British Columbia) but most are called "departments."  Their heads are referred to as "ministers" in both levels of government, however.

Related pages
 Cabinet

Ministries

Ministry (government department)


Nikolaus August Otto (June 14, 1832 - January 28, 1891) was a German engineer. He is the inventor of the internal-combustion engine. This engine was the first to burn fuel directly in a piston chamber. Up until his invention, all engines were external-combustion engines steam engines and burnt their fuel in a separate compartment.

1832 births
1891 deaths
German mechanical engineers
German inventors
Scientists from Cologne

Niklaus Otto


Cinématon is a 207-hour-long experimental film by French director Gérard Courant. It was the longest film ever released until 2011. Composed over 30 years from 1978 until 2009, it consists of a series of over 3,111 silent vignettes (cinématons), each 3 minutes and 25 seconds long, of various celebrities, artists, journalists and friends of the director, each doing whatever they want for the allotted time. Subjects of the film include directors Barbet Schroeder, Nagisa Oshima, Volker Schlöndorff, Ken Loach, Benjamin Cuq, Youssef Chahine, Wim Wenders, Joseph Losey, Jean-Luc Godard, Samuel Fuller and Terry Gilliam, chess grandmaster Joël Lautier, and actors Roberto Benigni, Stéphane Audran, Julie Delpy and Lesley Chatterley. Gilliam is featured eating a 100-franc note, while Fuller smokes a cigar. Courant's favourite subject was a 7-month-old baby. The film was screened in its then-entirety in Avignon in November 2009 and was screened in Redondo Beach in April 2010.

See also
List of longest films by running time

References

External links
Cinématon on IMDB
Approx. 900 of the vignettes on YouTube

French avant-garde and experimental films
2009 films
French anthology films
Compilation films
2000s French films

Cinématon


The National Negro Business League (NNBL) was an American organization founded in Boston in 1900 by Booker T. Washington to promote the interests of African-American businesses. The mission and main goal of the National Negro Business League was "to promote the commercial and financial development of the Negro." It was recognized as "composed of negro men and women who have achieved success along business lines".   It grew rapidly with 320 chapters in 1905 and more than 600 chapters in 34 states in 1915.

In 1966, the League was renamed and reincorporated in Washington D.C. as the National Business League, which remains in operation.

History

Establishment
The National Negro Business League (NNBL) was established in Boston, Massachusetts in 1900 by Booker T. Washington. The effort was supported by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

The organization was formally incorporated in 1901 in New York , and established 320 chapters across the United States. In May 1913, a respected Black journalist, Ralph Waldo Tyler was elected as the first National Organizer of the NNBL. Tyler's role was to travel throughout the Southern United States and document the state of negro businesses and encourage enrollment in the NNBL.

The League included Negro small- business owners, doctors, farmers, other professionals, craftsmen, etc. Its goal was to allow business to put economic development at the forefront of getting African-American equality in the United States.  Business was the main concern, but civil rights came next. In 1905 the Nashville, Tennessee, chapter protested segregation in local transit with a boycott. Booker T. Washington felt that there was a need for African Americans to build an economic network and allow that to be a catalyst for change and social improvement. Also, extant press releases indicate that "the League organized the National Negro Business Service to 'help . . the Negro business men of the country solve their merchandising and advertising problems,' promoted advertising in Negro newspapers and magazines, and 'influenced . . . national advertisers to use Negro publications in reaching this importantly valuable group of people with its tremendous purchasing power.'"

After the death of Booker T. Washington in 1915, the League was headed by his successor at Tuskegee, Robert Russa Moton. Albon L. Holsey, an executive at Tuskegee, was executive secretary of the League. Other leaders in 1922-23 were John L. Webb, treasurer (succeeding Charles H. Anderson), and Charles Clinton Spaulding, head of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Durham, North Carolina.

Affiliations
Affiliated professional organizations included: the National Negro Bankers Association, the National Negro Press Association, the National Association of Negro Funeral Directors, the National Negro Bar Association, the National Association of Negro Insurance Men, the National Negro Retail Merchants' Association, the National Association of Negro Real Estate Dealers, and the National Negro Finance Corporation. The National Negro Bankers Association was organized at a meeting of the League in 1906 by Birmingham's William R. Pettiford.

The organization inspired Robert R. Church Sr. to open Solvent Savings Bank in Memphis, Tennessee in 1906. In 1927, the bank merged with Fraternal Savings Bank and Trust, which closed in 1929.

See also
 Civil rights movement (1896–1954)
 American business history
 African American business history

Footnotes

Further reading
  Burrows, John H. The Necessity of Myth: A History of the National Negro Business League, 1900–1945 (Auburn, AL: Hickory Hill Press, 1988).
 Harlan, Louis R. "Booker T. Washington and the National Negro Business League" in Raymond W. Smock, ed. Booker T. Washington in Perspective: Essays of Louis R. Harlan (1988) pp. 98–109. online

 Verney, Kevern J. The Art of the Possible: Booker T. Washington and Black Leadership in the United States, 1881-1925. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Primary sources
 Kenneth Hamilton (ed.), A Guide to the Records of the National Negro Business League. Bethesda, MD: University Publications of America, 1995.
 National Negro Business League, Proceedings of the National Negro Business League: Its First Meeting, Held in Boston, Massachusetts, August 23 and 24, 1900. Boston: J.E. Hamm, Publisher, 1901.

External links

National Business League website
 Joseph Bernardo, "National Negro Business League (1900 - )," Black Past
 Library of Congress, "National Negro Business League," American Memory, www.memory.loc.gov/
 Richard Wormer, "National Negro Business League," The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: Jim Crow Stories, PBS

Organizations established in 1900
1900 establishments in the United States
African-American professional organizations
African Americans' rights organizations
Business organizations based in the United States
Organizations based in Washington, D.C.
African-American businesspeople
American businesspeople

National Negro Business League


This list consists of players who have appeared in Major League Baseball. Note that the list also includes players who appeared in the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, which is not universally considered a major league.

The list is broken down into a page of each letter to reduce the size. Some letters are also broken down further for the same reason.

See also

List of 19th-century baseball players
List of baseball players who have played in the Caribbean Series
List of Major League Baseball replacement players
List of first black Major League Baseball players
List of second-generation Major League Baseball players
Lists of major league players by national origin
Current MLB rosters
MLB All-Time rosters

Lists of Major League Baseball players


Helmet boxing or locker boxing (also called a "cage rage", "buckets", "helmet fight" or "helmets and gloves") is a game played by primarily teenage hockey or lacrosse players in their dressing rooms, basements or locker rooms. These are generally not supervised by adults. Participants wear helmets and sometimes gloves and fight in a locker room. The object of the game is to score as many hits on the head as possible until the opponent is knocked down, gives up, or their helmet falls off.

The game is often seen as rite of passage for players and fighters feel peer pressure to participate. There is false sense of security among teens that face and head are protected.

An editorial in the May/June 2006 Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine brought attention to the game and its risk of concussion. The teenagers also frequently video tape the game and post the videos to video sharing websites like Myspace or YouTube.

See also

 Professional boxing

References

External links
 www.ctv.ca

Sports culture
Rites of passage
Ice hockey culture
Boxing

Helmet boxing


Dharma in Buddhism means the teachings of the Buddha which lead to enlightenment.

What is called Buddhism in western countries is called buddha-dharma in eastern countries. This term simply means "Path of Awakening" and is thus a form of dharma.

 "Dharma" usually refers not just to the sayings of the Buddha but to the later traditions of the various schools of Buddhism which expanded upon the Buddha's teachings.  Tradition says that the Buddha gave 84,000 different teachings to various types of people based on their needs.
 Alternately, "dharma"
may be seen as the truth which is beyond worldly things, so the word may refer to the ultimate reality, "truth", "phenomena", or "the way things are".

The Dharma is one of the Three Jewels of Buddhism of which followers of Buddhism seek refuge in (what one relies on for his/her lasting happiness).  The three jewels of Buddhism are the Buddha (mind's perfection of enlightenment), the Dharma (teachings and methods), and the Sangha (awakened beings who provide guidance and support).

Buddhist terminology

de:Dharma#Dharma im Buddhismus

Dharma (Buddhism)


Haldimand County is a single-tier municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is on the nothern shore of Lake Erie, on the Niagara Peninsula.

The county was created in 1800 from part of Norfolk County. In 1974, Haldimand was merged with Norfolk County to form the Regional Municipality of Haldimand-Norfolk. In 2001, they were separated into two counties again.

The main towns in Haldimand County are:
 Jarvis
 Hagersville
 Caledonia
 Cayuga
 Dunnville
There are also several smaller communities across the county. Two of the major highways through the area are Ontario Highway 3 and Ontario Highway 6. Rock Point Provincial Park is in the county.

The county's population according to the 2011 census is 44,876. The county is part of the federal riding of Haldimand—Norfolk and the provincial riding of Haldimand—Norfolk.

Counties of Ontario

Haldimand County


Noel Ahern (born December 1944) is a politeecian in the Republic o Ireland, an a member o the Irish pairlament in Dublin, representin the pairty Fianna Fáil.  He represents the North-wast Dublin consteetuency in Dáil Éireann.

1944 births
Livin fowk
Noel
Alumni o Dublin Institute o Technology
Alumni o Varsity College Dublin
Fianna Fáil politeecians
Members o the 27t Dáil
Members o the 28t Dáil
Members o the 29t Dáil
Members o the 30t Dáil
Meenisters o State o the 29t Dáil
Meenisters o State o the 30t Dáil
Politeecians frae Dublin (ceety)
Teachtaí Dála

Noel Ahern


Waldemar Tatarczuk, born in 1964 in Siemiatycze, Poland, lives and works in Lublin, Poland. He is a performance and installation artist, art curator, was the founder and curator of Performance Art Centre in Lublin (1999–2010), director of Galeria Labirynt (Labyrinth Gallery) in Lublin (since 2010). He has been active as a performance artist since 1988. He has taken part in performance art events throughout Europe, North America and Asia including: Infr'action (Paris/France), Navinki (Minsk/Belarus), Asiatopia (Bangkok/Thailand), Open (Beijing/China) KIPAF (Seoul/South Korea), undisclosed territories (Solo/Indonesia), 7a*11d (Toronto/Canada), Differences (Warsaw/Poland), Interakcje (Piotrkow Trybunalski/Poland).
His curatorial projects include: 'Art Kontakt' Performance Art Festival (Lublin/Poland), European Performance Art Festival EPAF (Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw/Poland), Performance Arsenal (Arsenal Gallery Bialystok/Poland), 'Open City' Festival of Art in Public Spaces (Lublin/Poland), and Performance Art Days (Kiev and Lviv/Ukraine).

References

1964 births
Living people
Artists from Lublin

Waldemar Tatarczuk


Carl Bosch was a German chemist. He developed the Haber-Bosch process which allows the production of Ammonia. BASF developed a procedure to industrially produce fertilizers on the base of nitrogen. These fertilizers can be produced with the Haber-Bosch process. Today, Nitrogen-based fertilizers are commonly used to help food production in the world. Carl Bosch was also a diplomat: He had a big influence on the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the First World War. He also worked to find a solutions about finding ways to end hunger after the war. Between 1919 and 1925 he was the head of BASF. later he became involved with I.G. Farben, a chemical company he founded. At that time, I.G. Farben was the biggest chemical company in the world. In 1931, Bosch was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, for his work in high-pressure chemistry, together with Friedrich Bergius. In 1937, he followed Max Planck as the head of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. Because of the political situation in Germany, Bosch developed depression. In 1939, he tried to commit suicide, but failed. He died a year later, in Heidelberg.

1874 births
1940 deaths
German chemists
German businesspeople
German Nobel Prize winners
Scientists from Cologne

Carl Bosch


In probability theory and directional statistics, a circular uniform distribution is a probability distribution on the unit circle whose density is uniform for all angles.

Description

Definition

The probability density function (pdf) of the circular uniform distribution, e.g. with , is:

Moments with respect to a parametrization
We consider the circular variable  with  at base angle . In these terms, the circular moments of the circular uniform distribution are all zero, except for :

where  is the Kronecker delta symbol.

Descriptive statistics
Here the mean angle is undefined, and the length of the mean resultant is zero.

Distribution of the mean

The sample mean of a set of N measurements  drawn from a circular uniform distribution is defined as:

where the average sine and cosine are:

and the average resultant length is:

and the mean angle is:

The sample mean for the circular uniform distribution will be concentrated about zero, becoming more concentrated as N increases. The distribution of the sample mean for the uniform distribution is given by:

where  consists of intervals of  in the variables, subject to the constraint that  and  are constant, or, alternatively, that  and  are constant. The distribution of the angle is uniform

and the distribution of  is given by:

where  is the Bessel function of order zero. There is no known general analytic solution for the above integral, and it is difficult to evaluate due to the large number of oscillations in the integrand. A 10,000 point Monte Carlo simulation of the distribution of the mean for N=3 is shown in the figure.

For certain special cases, the above integral can be evaluated:

For large N, the distribution of the mean can be determined from the central limit theorem for directional statistics. Since the angles are uniformly distributed, the individual sines and cosines of the angles will be distributed as:

where  or . It follows that they will have zero mean and a variance of 1/2. By the central limit theorem, in the limit of large N,  and , being the sum of a large number of i.i.d's, will be normally distributed with mean zero and variance . The mean resultant length , being the square root of the sum of squares of two normally distributed independent variables, will be Chi-distributed with two degrees of freedom (i.e.Rayleigh-distributed) and variance :

Entropy

The differential information entropy of the uniform distribution is simply

where  is any interval of length . This is the maximum entropy any circular distribution may have.

See also
 Wrapped distribution

References

Continuous distributions
Directional statistics

Circular uniform distribution


Blue shift is one example of the Doppler effect. It is the opposite effect to redshift.

Doppler blueshift is caused by movement of a source towards the observer. The term applies to any decrease in wavelength caused by relative motion, even outside the visible spectrum.

The wavelength of any reflected or emitted photon or other particle is shortened in the direction of travel.

Doppler blueshift is used in astronomy to determine relative motion:
 The Andromeda Galaxy is moving toward our own Milky Way galaxy within the Local Group. When observed from earth, its light shows a blueshift.
 Components of a binary star system will be blueshifted when moving towards Earth
 When observing spiral galaxies, the side spinning toward us will have a slight blueshift relative to the side spinning away from us.
 Blazars may emit relativistic (near the speed of light) jets toward us that appear blueshifted.
 Nearby stars such as Barnard's Star are moving toward us, resulting in a very small blueshift.
 Doppler blueshift of distant objects (high z) can be got from the much larger cosmological redshift. This shows relative motion in the expanding universe.
The reason astronomers can tell how far the light gets shifted is because certain chemical elements, like the calcium in bones or the oxygen people breathe has a unique fingerprint of light that no other chemical element has. They can see what colors of light are coming from a star, and see what it is made of. Once they know that, they look at the difference between where the fingerprint (called spectral lines) is and where it is supposed to be. When they see that, they can tell how far away the star is, whether it is moving toward us or away from us, and also how fast it is going, since the faster it goes, the farther the distance the spectral lines are from where they should be.

References

Astronomical phenomena
Light

Blue shift


The American Revolutionary War was a war fought between Great Britain and the original Thirteen Colonies in North America from 1775 to 1783. Most of the fighting was in North America and other places. The Continental Army, the rebel army, was led by George Washington and helped by France and Spain. They defeated the British Army after the British moved their attention to other matters.

After the war ended, the Thirteen Colonies became independent, which meant that the British Empire was no longer in charge of them. They became the first 13 states of a new country which they called the United States.

Before the American Revolutionary War, another war occured called the French and Indian war. The French and Indian war was fought between France and Britain and started in 1754. Britain lost a lot of money from this, so they began taxing Americans to gain it back.

The war started after years of problems between the British Empire and the colonists of North America after the French and Indian War (also called the Seven Years' War). People in the Thirteen Colonies disliked many of the actions of the British government, such as the Intolerable Acts. For many years, the British government decided the countries that could trade with the colonies instead of letting the colonies decide for themselves. Many colonists wanted free trade.

In 1765, the British Parliament needed money to pay back the debt for the French and Indian War. They passed a Law called the Stamp Act. This law said that colonists had to buy stamps for legal papers, newspapers, and even playing cards, as other British people did. The money from the stamps went to the King. The colonies did not follow this law. The colonies kept refusing to do what the King wanted. The Boston Tea Party and Boston Massacre caused people to become more angry about the situation. The British sent more soldiers (who were called Red Coats by the colonists to insult them) to keep control of the colonies and they sometimes had to fight. In 1774, the British passed the Intolerable Acts to punish the colonists in Boston for the Boston Tea Party.

Not all colonists wanted to leave the British Empire. The Loyalists, or Tories, stayed loyal to Great Britain. They were not going to change their views. The Patriots, or Whigs, wanted independence. Before the Revolutionary War, most people in America were Loyalists; but after it, most people were Patriots.

Many colonists wrote letters showing how they felt. Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense, a famous pamphlet about independence from Britain. Other colonial leaders, such as Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson wanted independence.

Northern battles
The first battles of the American Revolutionary War were Lexington and Concord. One of the first major battles was the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775. Then, the British controlled Boston. Soon, the Second Continental Congress sent an Olive Branch Petition to King George III, which he rejected, and named George Washington head of the army. Early in 1776, Washington's army drove the British out of Boston.

A few months later, the Continental Army and the British troops under William Howe fought the New York and New Jersey Campaign. During the New York battles, the British started using Hessian troops, who were from Germany. Though the colonists lost New York, which the British would hold it for the rest of the war, Washington was able to hold onto most of his army. Over Christmas, 1776, Washington crossed the Delaware River and defeated the Hessians at Trenton and the British at Princeton.

In 1777, the British attacked Philadelphia, which was the American capital. Two battles were fought over Philadelphia: Brandywine and Germantown. Again, the Americans lost a major city, but Washington was able to keep most of his army. Around then, the Marquis de Lafayette joined the American Army from his native France. In 1778, the British left Philadelphia.

Between 1778 and 1781, most battles between Washington and the British were inconclusive and had no major effect militarily.

One of the most important battles was the Battle of Saratoga in 1777. American soldiers under Horatio Gates forced a British surrender under John Burgoyne. That led to France and Spain joining the war on the side of Americans, who they thought would win. Both powerful countries fought the British around the world. From 1778 to 1780, there was fighting in the West.

The Scottish commerce raider John Paul Jones also won several naval battles for the Americans over the British, but the French Navy did most of the fighting at sea. The Americans tried to capture Canada several times but failed.

Southern battles
In 1779, the main fighting shifted to Georgia and South Carolina. As the fighting spread northward, General Nathanael Greene led the rebels' campaign. He caused many people in the South to be Patriots instead of Loyalists and won several battles against the British.

In 1781, Washington and French General Jean Rochambeau led an offensive against British troops at Siege of Yorktown in Virginia. When their soldiers lost this battle, the British surrendered to the Americans. However, the British continued to fight the French and Spanish for two years and won in India, Gibraltar and elsewhere.

End of war
The American Revolution came to an end in 1783 when a peace treaty was signed in Paris, France. In the Treaty of Paris, British King George III accepted the independence of the colonies and recognized the newly created nation as the United States of America.

The treaty also gave all the land Britain claimed to own west of the Appalachians as far as the Mississippi River to the new country. The land would eventually become part of the United States and lead to the creation of 35 new states (some of them later rebelled as part of the Confederate States of America) that now make up the contiguous United States. Many Loyalists fled to Canada.

Casualties
As is usual for 18th-century wars, casualty figures (killed/wounded/missing/captured) for the American Revolution are poorly known. Unlike American Civil War casualties, which were published in newspapers, Revolutionary War casualty reports are found in local town histories; total casualties of the Revolution are rough estimates.

References

Other websites

 American Revolution, military history -Citizendium
 Rosters and Registers of the American Revolution
 Roll of New Hampshire Soldiers in the American Revolution

Revolutions

Wars of independence
Wars involving the United States
Wars involving France
18th-century rebellions
Rebellions in North America

American Revolutionary War


The Puente de la Barqueta (literally "bridge of the barges", in reference to the formerly present "Barqueta Gate"), officially named Puente Mapfre, is a bridge in the city of Seville (Andalusia, Spain), which spans the Alfonso XII channel of the Guadalquivir river. It constituted one of the main means of access to the Isla de la Cartuja ("Cartuja island").

It was built between 1989 and 1992, on the occasion of the Universal Exposition Expo'92, and conceived as the main gate for this.

References

Barqueta
Barqueta
World's fair architecture in Seville
Seville Expo '92
Bridges over the Guadalquivir River

Puente de la Barqueta


Isaac Norris (October 3, 1701 – June 13, 1766) was a merchant and statesman in provincial Pennsylvania.

Early life and education
Isaac Norris was born in Philadelphia in 1701, the son of Isaac Norris, a prosperous Quaker merchant and original participant in William Penn's establishment of the colony of Pennsylvania and Mary Lloyd. Isaac was educated at the Friends' School in Philadelphia, and went abroad in 1722 and 1734–1735.

Business
After his schooling in London, Norris returned to manage the family business, Norris and Company, on behalf of his ailing father. After his father died in 1735, the junior Isaac became a senior partner.

Marriage and family
Well established after inheriting money and property from his father, in 1739 Norris married Sarah Logan, the eldest daughter of James Logan. Logan was a former Mayor of Philadelphia and former Governor of the Pennsylvania Colony, and one of the wealthiest men in the English Colonies. In 1742, the Norrises moved out of Philadelphia and resettled at the Norris family estate, Fairhill, in what is now the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia.

Political career
Engaged in business until 1743, Norris had acquired a large fortune, in addition to what he inherited from his father. He retired from business to devote himself to politics and public life.

Like his father before him, Norris entered into politics at an early age. He served as a councilman and alderman, a member of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly in 1734, and chairman of its most important committees. He was a Quaker of the strictest sect, and endeavored to keep the policy of Pennsylvania consistent with the principles of his religion. On the prospect of war with France and Spain in 1739, he opposed the organization of volunteer companies and preparation for the defense of the province. His followers, in opposition to the war party, were known as the "Norris party," and his subsequent election to the assembly was the occasion of violent political struggles between the Quakers and other residents of the city.

He was one of the commissioners to treat with the Albany Indians in 1745 and 1755, and he and his colleagues effected the purchase of several million acres comprising the southwestern part of Pennsylvania.

In 1751, he was elected speaker of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly, and held that office fifteen years. In the first year of his administration, the statehouse bell was ordered from England. Norris proposed that its inscription should be: "Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof," based on the Bible's book of Leviticus, chapter 25, verse 10.

During his speakership, the colonial representatives and the proprietaries had a long conflict about the taxation and legislative control of the Penn family estates. A leader of the Quakers, Norris joined the opponents of privilege. In a debate in the Assembly he declared, "No man shall ever stand on my grave and say, 'Curse him, here lies he who betrayed the liberties of his country!'"

In 1754, he was selected as a member of the Pennsylvania delegation, led by Benjamin Franklin, that attended the Albany Congress, a gathering of numerous colonial representatives to plan an approach to their defenses before the pending French and Indian War, the North American front of the Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France. Together with Benjamin Chew and Richard Peters), also of Philadelphia, he was on the committee that reviewed plans and chose Franklin's Albany Plan to propose to the full conference.

In 1757, Norris was appointed with Benjamin Franklin as a commissioner to England to work for the removal of grievances related to the proprietary instructions, but declined on account of failing health. Although he opposed the encroachments of the Penns, he would not support the proposition to convert Pennsylvania into a royal province. He resigned his speakership when, in 1764, a petition to that effect passed the Assembly.

Re-elected in the next election, Norris resigned again. Due to poor health, he retired shortly thereafter. He died at his estate, "Fairhill". His death marked the passing of the Quakers' strong influence in Pennsylvania's politics, as more people of other backgrounds came to power.

Scholar
Norris was an excellent French, Latin, and Hebrew scholar, collected a valuable library, and was active in educational and benevolent enterprises. He served as a trustee of the College and Academy of Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania from 1751 until his resignation in 1755.

Daughter
Norris's daughter was Mary Norris Dickinson, who married John Dickinson.

References

Biographical sketch and portrait at the University of Pennsylvania
"Isaac Norris", by George W. Norris, The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 1, No. 4 (1877), pp. 449–454.

External links
The books of Isaac Norris at Dickinson College

1701 births
1766 deaths
American Quakers
Members of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly
Politicians from Philadelphia
People of colonial Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania people
Colonial American merchants
18th-century American politicians

Isaac Norris (statesman)


Václav Junek (born June 17, 1951) is a Czech businessman.

Junek was a chairman of bankrupt conglomerate Chemapol Group.

Junek's company Chemapol Reality (C.H.R.) purchased from Václav Havel his 50 percent stake in a legendary dance-hall Lucerna Palace on Wenceslas Square for CZK 200 mio.  It sold it two years later to Dagmar Havlová for CZK 145 mio. Later, the company went bankrupt.

In 1999, Junek publicly admitted Chemapol bribed the politicians of Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD). The ruling ČSSD politicians secretly used gas cards issued to the name of Chemapol to get gas for free.

References

20th-century Czech businesspeople
1951 births
Living people

Václav Junek


Hildegarde Antoinette "Hilda" Spellman is a character featured in the Archie comic book Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Hilda is a full witch (as opposed to half or fully mortal) who lives in the fictional town of Greendale (in the 1990s live-action sitcom, Hilda lives in fictional Westbridge, Massachusetts). Hilda lives with her niece Sabrina Spellman, her sister Zelda Spellman, and the family cat Salem, a former witch turned into a cat as punishment for his attempt at world domination.

History and character
Hilda was believed to be born in the year 1397. She was debuted as "Hilda the Witch" in Archie's Mad House #19 (June 1962) as an ugly witch with dark hair and green skin. She was featured throughout the series in solo stories, as well as the "host" of the comic book (in a role similar to the Crypt-Keeper from the Tales from the Crypt comic book series). During her early appearances in Archie's Mad House, she was not connected to the Sabrina stories. However, a prototype of the "Aunt Hilda" character named "Greta the Fairy Witch Mother" (who debuted in Archie's Mad House #28 and was similar in physical appearance to Hilda the Witch) appeared in early Sabrina stories. Eventually, Hilda the Witch and Greta the Fairy Witch Mother evolved into the Aunt Hilda character in Archie's Mad House #37 (although the Greta character reappeared one last time in Archie's Mad House #45).

Upon becoming Aunt Hilda, the character was depicted as a tall and thin Caucasian woman with red hair. She tended to be short-tempered and more prone to acting like an evil witch. She was the more prominent of Sabrina's two aunts, appearing in more stories than Zelda. In one story, she was stated to be seven hundred years old, although in one episode of the live action series she claims to be six hundred and twelve years old. Hilda's wardrobe was that of a traditional/stereotypical witch.

Starting in the late 1990s, Hilda's (and Zelda)'s appearances and personalities were revamped to make her more contemporary (as well as match the live-action sitcom's take on the character). In modern stories, Hilda has her trademark orange hair, but appears to physically be only a few years older than Sabrina and dresses in modern fashions.

In other media

Sabrina the Teenage Witch (sitcom)

Hilda (a blonde in the series, whose full name is revealed to be Hildegarde Antoinette Spellman) is portrayed as less pragmatic than her sister Zelda, often doing things on a whim (such as buying a clock shop or running for political office). Though these endeavors rarely come to fruition. She is far more lenient and fun-loving than Zelda, and is usually tolerant of Sabrina's schemes and mistakes, having gotten into many mishaps in her own youth.

As a witch, Hilda's magical abilities often manifested as a puff of smoke, and was accompanied by a "bong" sound (as opposed to Zelda Spellman's stream of violet sparkles or Sabrina Spellman's orange sparkles.) Hilda was portrayed by actress Caroline Rhea.

Childhood
Hilda grew up with at least five siblings: Vesta being the oldest; Edward, Della, Sophia, the youngest, and her sister Zelda whom she lives with.

Vesta was terribly jealous of all the attention that Hilda and Zelda got when they were little. So, she turned their parents into pigs. The Witches Council decided that people with pigs feet could not raise children and so when Vesta refused to turn them back Hilda and Zelda were adopted out to a family in the country.

While the children were living in the farm house the parents stayed in the barn. Their father was "getting very good at working an Instamatic with his snout". When their mother headbutted Vesta about a month later, they were turned back into humans. In order to legally get Hilda and Zelda back, they had to adopt them.

Their overbearing mother, Grandma Lydia, spent 200 years of violin lessons on Hilda. The first thing little Hilda ever zapped was a little clay horse.

Adulthood
As Hilda reached adulthood she went off to college. Hilda went to Clown College and her roommate was Bobo, a monkey. Hilda graduated magna cum seltzer.

When Hilda was forty-eight she had her first kiss, and was later engaged to Drell- the wedding took place at the Acropolis. Drell stood Hilda up at the altar, causing an infuriated Hilda to destroy the Acropolis, although history later blamed the Turks.

Hilda bounced from one job to another over the centuries while trying to find what she wanted to do. Her jobs included being a blacksmith and donkey walker, in addition to deep sea fishing, which she rated as being her worst job. During the early 19th century, Hilda and Zelda worked together at a saloon before eventually being run out of town, but they fortunately found a way to maintain some financial security: junk. During the early 1970s, Hilda went to work for Salem Saberhagen as his secretary. Salem was found out by the Witch's Council, and as punishment was turned into a witch-familiar as a cat; Hilda was forced to keep him worm-free for a century, but she was pardoned at the end of Season Five. But she still keeps Salem. In the early 1990s, before Sabrina came to live with Hilda and Zelda, they had manservants, spent late nights on the town, weekends in Tuscany, took part in Formula One racing, and originally had a disco on the second floor of their house. They decided to turn it into a normal household.

In the season 6 finale Hilda meets her true love; Will, the train conductor from the episode Murder on the Halloween Express. They decide to get married in the finale when Hilda meets him at an Other Realm mall. Zelda and Sabrina, thinking the relationship is just a rebound and a huge mistake, break Hilda and Will up. When Will leaves, Hilda turns to stone, meaning Will was indeed her true love. Realizing this, Sabrina barters her love life for Hilda, causing Josh and Harvey to walk out on her. Zelda, however, trades her years of experience for Sabrina, and it is assumed she travels to the other Realm with Will and Hilda.

Filmation animated series
Hilda's first non-comics appearance was on the 1969-70 Filmation animated series The Archie Comedy Hour. Hilda was similar to her then-current comics portrayal, with a typical "witch" appearance and attire, as well as disapproval of Sabrina doing good deeds, and thus (as ordered by Della the Head Witch) was always trying to get her to do bad deeds (like all the other witches). Hilda also had a typical "witch" cackle. Hilda was voiced by Jane Webb.

DIC animated series
Hilda appears as a character in both Sabrina: The Animated Series and Sabrina's Secret Life. Melissa Joan Hart provided her voice in the first series while in the second series she is voiced by Moneca Stori. Hilda appeared radically different from her comic book appearances; here, she's depicted as a brunette with an olive complexion. Hilda had the same basic personality as in the live-action sitcom. She is depicted as a teenager (instead of the usual middle-aged adult), despite being the same age as in other media (hundreds of years old). It is mentioned in passing that she and Zelda have temporally been changed into their mind into a teenage mind by head witch Enchantra as punishment for minor crimes, but the situation is never fully explained. In Sabrina: The Animated Series both attend high school and are not considered legal adults in the mortal world, which is why Sabrina's maternal great-uncle Quigley (an original character created for the series) lives with them. In Sabrina's Secret Life (set two years later), at the end of the series Hilda married Salem (who actually turned back to human) and have 4 children.

Secrets of a Teenage Witch
Hilda appeared in the animated series Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch, voiced by Tabitha St. Germain. Here, she and Zelda run a bakery and again look after Sabrina. In this series, Hilda looks more like her sister did in the early comics, but with blonde hair similar to Sabrina's.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Hilda appears in the Netflix series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, based on the eponymous comic. She is played by Lucy Davis. Retaining her full name from Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Hildegarde Antoinette Spellman.
Hilda has an English accent and is referred to in several episodes as British or coming from England. The details of how she arrived in America are unclear. Hilda is a member of the Church of Night, a powerful coven of Satanic witches. In keeping with earlier appearances, Hilda is the easier-going of the sisters, although she is portrayed as something of a mother hen rather than a prankster. She is also less devoted to the witches' religion than Zelda. She is nonetheless a very knowledgeable and powerful witch, easily holding her own against rival witches and demons alike.

References

External links

American female characters in television
Archie Comics superheroes
Comics characters introduced in 1962
Comics characters who use magic
Fictional alchemists
Fictional witches
Extraterrestrial superheroes
Sabrina the Teenage Witch characters
Female characters in animation
Female characters in comics

Hilda Spellman


Vital records are records of life events. They include birth certificates, marriage licenses, and death certificates.  In some jurisdictions, vital records may also include records of civil unions or domestic partnerships.  In modern times these would be state-held records, though prior to civil registration these were often church-held records.

Other websites
Where to Write for Vital Records in the US - National Center for Health Statistics

Documents

Vital record


St Peter and St Paul's Church, Lavenham is a Grade I listed parish church in the Church of England in Lavenham, Suffolk. It is a notable wool church and regarded as one of the finest examples of Late Perpendicular Gothic architecture in England.

History

A church has existed on the current site, in a prominent position to the west of the town, since Anglo-Saxon times. The original church, which was probably wooden, was rebuilt in stone in the 14th century. The chancel is the oldest part of the current church, having been constructed in  and decorated with money from wealthy citizens, including Thomas Spring II. In the decades following the Black Death the town of Lavenham grew rich as a result of the booming wool trade. The 14th-century church was added to and modified several times in order to convey the new wealth of its religious community. The eastern vestry, built in 1440, is the only other remaining part of the previous church building. Following the victory of Henry VII at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, the Earl of Oxford, a major local landowner and commander of Henry's army, suggested that the church should be rebuilt in the latest style to celebrate the new Tudor king. However, it is likely that plans were already underway to rebuild the church in order to reflect the growing prosperity of Lavenham.

The reconstruction of the church took place mainly between 1485 and 1525. The architect is thought to have been John Wastell, who built the Church of St Mary the Great, Cambridge, which is very similar. The building is late perpendicular in its design, and regarded as one of the finest churches built in that style. It was also one of the last churches to be completed before the English Reformation. The extraordinary cost of the work was paid for by the local merchant families, who had become amongst the wealthiest in England. The same families continued to pay for the upkeep of the building, in some cases for centuries after its completion.

The two principal donors for church were the 13th Earl of Oxford and the cloth merchant, Thomas Spring of Lavenham. As such, the building is decorated with the coat-of-arms of the Spring and de Vere families. The Spring arms, as well as the merchant's mark of Thomas Spring, appears over thirty times on the exterior of the building, while the star of the de Vere family surrounds the top of the tower. A screen in the south aisle was possibly intended as a chantry chapel for the clothier Thomas Spourne, although his remains do not lie here, whilst the parclose screen in the north aisle was to the chantry of the Spring family, later ennobled by Charles I. The remains of Thomas Spring lie in the church and there are several monuments erected to his descendants, such as Francis Spring. North of the chancel is the Branch Chapel dating from around 1500 and south of the chancel is the Spring Chapel dating from around 1525.

The church was extensively restored by Francis Penrose between 1861 and 1867. The diplomat, Sir Cecil Spring Rice, gave substantial funds for repair work to the tower in the 20th century.

Today, the church is one of the most visited in East Anglia. It was awarded four stars by Simon Jenkins in his 1999 book England's Thousand Best Churches. Jenkins writes:
"Many enthusiasts prefer it to Long Melford, finding it less ostentatious, more serene. To the purist, its tower is more original, its nave more Perpendicular, and its chancel arch more majestic. Against this must be set the dire Victorian glass but for that at least there is an easy answer. ... Lavenham's interior is one of the most dramatic in Suffolk."

Furnishings
The church contains five 15th century misericords featuring imagery such as composite creatures; one, half-woman, half beast playing a viol, and another, half-man with the hindquarters and tail of a beast, mimicking her by playing a pair of bellows with a crutch. Another shows a pelican with her chicks, and another depicts a man holding a pig.

There are numerous other outstanding fittings, including a painted rood screen dating from  and an octagonal font also from the 14th century which is much worn. Parclose screens front both the Branch and Spring chapels. The wonderfully carved Spourne parclose screen protects the tomb of John Ponder (d. 1520). Funeral monuments range from the 15th to 17th centuries and include one small memorial brass to an infant, showing the child wrapped in blankets. The carved figures of St Peter and St Paul above the porch were sculpted by Eric Winters and installed in 1965.

The church iron gates and door fittings were made by local blacksmith Edgar Lingley and in 1865, as were the handles on the door. The carved figures of St Peter and St Paul above

Tower and bells

Work started on the tower in 1486 and was completed in 1495. However, due to a large sum of money being left in the will of Thomas Spring, further work was undertaken in the early 16th century, resulting in the unusual size and grandeur of the tower today. It is built in four stages, of knapped flint and stone with rare clasping buttresses. The tower ring comprises eight bells. The tenor weighs 21 cwt 7 lb, and was cast by Miles Graye of Colchester in 1625. The Lavenham Deanery guidebook says the bell has been described as "the finest toned bell in England, probably in the world". The bell is rung whenever a member of the royal family dies.

The church clock, which has no external dial, was made by Thomas Watts in 1775; an hour strike and quarter chimes were installed to mark Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee.

The tower is 138 feet (42 metres) high.

Clergy

The Puritan divine, William Gurnall, known for his 1655–62 literary work The Christian in Complete Armour, and also as one of the few Puritans who conformed to the Act of Uniformity 1662, was Rector of St Peter and St Paul from 1644 until his death in 1679.

Godfrey de Merk 1260
Godfried 1280
Nicholas de Wytcherch 1302
Robert de Elmham 1312
Robert de Stoke 1334
William de Lavenham 1354
John de Pelham 1361
John Poland 1386
John Pygot 1400
John Saddle 1416
William Fallam 1444
William Morton 1453
George Vere 1459
John Walter 1462
Henry Boost 1475
Thomas Ashby 1477
John Gigles 1486
Thomas Appleton 1497
Thomas Stackhouse 1508
William Basse 1529
Christopher Chapman 1558
William Day DD 1569
William Reynolds 1571
Henry Copinger DD 1578
Ambrose Copinger DD 1622
William Gurnall MA 1644
Roger Young MA 1679
William Turner MA 1688
Thomas Kinnersley MA 1710
Robert Wright MA 1729
John Squaire MA 1730
John Davy MA 1763
James Buck MA 1792
William Okes MA 1825
Richard Johnson 1825
Joseph Morrison Croker MA 1855
Thomas Scott MA 1891
Alex Tweedie MA 1907
William Bonner Leighton Hopkins MA 1907
George Hugh Lenox Conyngham MA 1917
Martin Fountain Page MA 1933
Henry Cotton MA 1952
Rex Bird 1965
Harry Crichton 1976
Dennis Pearce 1986
Derrick Malcolm Stiff 1994
Nicholas Woodcock 2003
Stephen Earl
Simon Pitcher

References

External links
 Church website

Church of England church buildings in Suffolk
Grade I listed churches in Suffolk
Religious buildings and structures completed in 1525
 **
English Gothic architecture in Suffolk
St Peter and St Paul's Church

St Peter and St Paul's Church, Lavenham


Joseph Serchuk (1919 in Chełm - 6 November 1993) was the commander of the Jewish partisan unit in the Lublin area in Poland during the Holocaust. After the war, he testified at trials of Nazis and he received special recognition from the State of Israel.

Biography
After his parents and other family members were killed in the ghetto in 1941, Joseph and his brother David were taken to Sobibor extermination camp.  After one day in the camp, he fled with his brother to the nearest forest and together with others fleeing he founded the core of the partisan group.  During the war, the group led by Jews who had escaped from the ghettos caught nearby and from Sobibor. The group also included the writer Dov Freiberg.

After the war, Joseph took part in locating fleeing Nazi war criminals in Europe, and served as a witness in the Nuremberg Trials. Then he returned to Poland and applied to emigrate to Israel, but was declined.

In 1950, Serchuk obtained a passport and went to Israel.  Immediately upon arrival in Israel, he was drafted as a soldier in the army. After service, he married, settled in Yad Eliyahu in Tel Aviv and began business industry and entrepreneurship.

Over the years, Serchuk went to Europe several times to testify in the trials of Nazi war criminals. In one, the trial of Oberscharführer Hugo Raschendorfer, he was the only prosecution witness.  After Raschendorfer was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, Serchuk was awarded a special award from Nazi Crimes Investigation Department of the Israel Police.

In 1967, Levi Eshkol, the Israeli Prime Minister, gave him the Fighters against Nazis Medal, and in 1968 he received in addition the State Fighters Medal.

He saw the establishment and strengthening of the Israel Defense Forces and the State of Israel and the Jewish birthrate - his revenge against the Nazis who slaughtered all of his extended family.

Joseph Serchuk died in 1993 in Tel Aviv at age 74.  He was married, and left behind nine children and more than one hundred grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Further reading
 Dov Freiberg, To Survive Sobibor, New York, 2007.
 Dov Freiberg, A Journey To The Past With Dekel Shibolim, Ramla, 1993.
 Dov Freiberg, A Man as Any Other, Ramla, 1996.
 Mark Paul: Polish-Jewish Relations in Wartime Northeastern Poland and the Aftermath  PEFINA Press, Toronto 2008

Other websites
 About Oberscharführer Hugo Raschendorfer and his sentence
 Joseph Serchuk at Organization of Partisans Underground Fighters and Ghetto Rebels  (Hebrew)

1919 births
1993 deaths
Holocaust survivors
Israeli Jews
Naturalized citizens of Israel
Polish Jews
World War II people

Joseph Serchuk


Balwant Singh Rakkha, Fiji ke ek doctor aur  House of Representatives of Fiji representing the National Federation Party (NFP) ke member rahaa,lekin uske NFP ke leader, S. M. Koya, ke support khatir jaana jaawe hae. but he is best known for his strong support for the former leader of the NFP, Sidiq Koya and the split caused within the NFP when he was rewarded by Koya for his loyalty by being given a seat in a constituency where he was a virtual unknown.

Rakkha was born in Tavua in 1941 and went to India to study medicine. He returned to Fiji after fourteen years and established a practice in Ba. He joined the NFP in 1975 and was the President of the Ba branch from 1977.

When the Lautoka district, Fiji Indian Communal seat became vacant in April 1984 following the resignation of the former leader of the NFP, Jai Ram Reddy, Rakkha was selected to contest the by-election for the NFP. Davendra Singh, a virtually unknown small businessman, managed to persuade the NFP Youth Wing, which had earlier been shunned by Koya, to support him to oppose Rakkha. Singh demanded that a local person be selected by NFP for the vacant seat but when he was ignored by the Party, he nominated himself for the election. The result was a narrow win for Singh by 2209 votes to Rakkha's 2196 votes in an election in which only 4421 of the 12,260 registered voters cast their votes. The election result triggered a series of events which led to the decline of the NFP and the rise of the Fiji Labour Party (FLP).

For the 1987 general election, the NFP-Labour Coalition chose him as a candidate for the Ba Indian Communal Constituency which he won easily, but was a member of Parliament for a month when the military coup of 1987 put a  temporary halt to his political career.

1994 ke election me uu Ba East/Tavua Rural Indian Constituency se NFP ke taraf se kharraa bhais lekin thorra vote Fiji Labour Party ke candidate se haar gais.

References

B
R
Tavua ke log
National Federation Party ke member

Balwant Singh Rakha