Li Jing (571 – July 2, 649), courtesy name Yaoshi, posthumously known as Duke Jingwu of Wei (also spelled as Duke of Wey), was a Chinese military general, strategist, and writer who lived in the early Tang dynasty and was most active during the reign of Emperor Taizong. In 630, Li Jing defeated the Göktürks, led by Jieli Khan, with just 3,000 cavalry soldiers in a surprise attack, allowing the Tang Empire to subjugate the Göktürks and reduce them to the status of a vassal under the Tang Empire. Li Jing and Li Shiji are considered the two most prominent early Tang generals.

During the Sui dynasty
Li Jing was born in 571, during the Sui dynasty's predecessor state Northern Zhou. His clan was from the Chang'an region. His grandfather Li Chongyi (李崇義) served as a provincial governor during the Northern Wei, and his father, Li Quan (李詮), served as a commandery governor during Sui. In his youth, Li Jing was said to be handsome and ambitious, and was talented both in literary and military matters. His maternal uncle was the Sui general Han Qinhu (韓擒虎), and it was said that Han was impressed by his talent, stating, "You are the only person that I can talk to about Sun Tzu's and Wu Qi's strategies."

Early in his career, Li Jing served as a minor county official for Chang'an countyone of the two counties within Chang'an, which served as Sui's capital. He later served as a low level official within the imperial administration, and it was said that he impressed both the prime minister Yang Su and the important minister Niu Hong (牛弘).

Near the end of the reign of Emperor Yang, Li Jing served as the vice prefect of the Mayi Commandery (馬邑, roughly modern Shuozhou, Shanxi), when he served under the general Li Yuan the Duke of Tang, who was in charge of the nearby important city of Taiyuan (太原, in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi) against Eastern Tujue forces. Li Jing came to suspect that Li Yuan was plotting a rebellion, and therefore pretended to commit a crime and asked to be locked up and delivered to Emperor Yang, who was then at Jiangdu (江都, in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu). However, he was first delivered to Chang'an, and then, as nearly the entire Sui state was engulfed in agrarian rebellions at that time, there was no way to deliver him to Jiangdu from there.

In 617, Li Yuan indeed rebelled, and soon captured Chang'an, declaring Emperor Yang's grandson Yang You the Prince of Dai emperor (as Emperor Gong) but seizing power as regent. Knowing that Li Jing was planning to report his plans to Emperor Yang, Li Yuan set to execute him. At the execution, Li Jing yelled, "You, duke, rose in order to eliminate tyrannical rule for the people. You are not concerned about what is important, but instead are executing a brave man on account of personal enmity!" Li Yuan was impressed by his words, and Li Yuan's son Li Shimin interceded on Li Jing's behalf. Li Yuan released Li Jing, whom Li Shimin soon retained Li Jing to serve on his staff.

During Emperor Gaozu's reign

In 618, after news arrived at Chang'an that Emperor Yang was killed in a coup at Jiangdu led by the general Yuwen Huaji, Li Yuan had Yang You yield the throne to him, establishing Tang dynasty as its Emperor Gaozu. Li Jing continued serving the new dynasty. In 619, Li Jing participated in a campaign against one of Tang's major enemies, Wang Shichong the Emperor of Zheng, and was promoted for his accomplishments. Later that year, Emperor Gaozu sent him to Kui Prefecture (夔州, modern eastern Chongqing) to plan a military operation against another major enemy, Xiao Xian the Emperor of Liang, who then ruled the modern Hubei, Hunan, and Guangxi region. When he first reached Jin Prefecture (金州, roughly modern Ankang, Shaanxi), he encountered bandits in the mountain, who had several times defeated Li Yuàn (李瑗, note different tone and character than Emperor Gaozu's name (淵, yuān)) the Prince of Lujiang (Emperor Gaozu's distant nephew). Li Jing joined forces with Li Yuàn to defeat those bandits. However, as he arrived at the borders with Liang, he was blocked by Liang forces and long could not reach there, having to stop at Xia Prefecture (峽州, roughly modern Yichang, Hubei). Emperor Gaozu, believing that Li Jing was intentionally not advancing, was sufficiently angry that he secretly ordered the commandant at Xia Prefecture, Xu Shao (許紹), to execute Li Jing. Xu, however, was appreciative of Li Jing's talent, and submitted a petition urging that Li Jing be spared, and Emperor Gaozu relented. Meanwhile, in spring 620, around the same time, Ran Zhaoze (冉肇則) the leader of the Kaishan Tribe (開山蠻), rebelled against Tang rule and attacked Kui Prefecture. When Emperor Gaozu's distant nephew Li Xiaogong the Duke of Zhao Commandery fought Ran, he was initially unsuccessful, but Li Jing reinforced him with 800 men and defeated and killed Ran.

In 621, Li Jing submitted 10 strategies against Liang, and Li Xiaogong submitted them to Emperor Gaozu. Emperor Gaozu approved of Li Jing's plans, and made Li Jing Li Xiaogong's assistant in the campaign against Liang. It was said that as Li Xiaogong was still inexperienced, Emperor Gaozu actually put Li Jing in charge of most of the operations, although Li Xiaogong was formally commander of the operations.

In fall 621, Emperor Gaozu commissioned Li Xiaogong, with Li Jing as his assistant, to launch a major attack on Xiao Xian's Liang state, with Li Yuàn and the other generals Tian Shikang (田世康) and Zhou Faming (周法明) attacking on other fronts. At that time, the Yangtze River had a high water level and was flowing rapidly. While many officers under him suggested delaying the campaign, Li Jing suggested to Li Xiaogong that the rapid water was a good opportunity to launch a surprise attack on Xiao Xian's capital Jiangling (江陵, in modern Jingzhou, Hubei). After defeating the Liang general Wen Shihong (文士弘), Li Xiaogong put Jiangling under siege, cutting off Xiao Xian's communications with the armies in the rest of his territory. Li Jing suggested floating the Liang ships that they captured down the Yangtze, to confuse the approaching Liang relief forces into believing that Jiangling had fallen already. Xiao, not knowing that the relief forces were only a few days away, surrendered to Li Xiaogong. By the suggestion of Li Jing and Xiao's official Cen Wenben, who had persuaded Xiao to surrender, Li Xiaogong strictly prohibited pillaging and retribution against Liang generals. The Liang provinces, upon hearing the news of Jiangling's fall, soon largely submitted to Tang. Li Xiaogong delivered Xiao to Chang'an, where Emperor Gaozu executed him. For his accomplishments, Li Jing was created the Duke of Yongkang. Subsequently, Emperor Gaozu commissioned Li Jing to head south to persuade the modern Guangdong and Guangxi region, which had submitted to Xiao Xian and another rebel ruler, Lin Shihong the Emperor of Chu, to submit to Tang. Li Jing advanced to Gui Prefecture (桂州, roughly modern Guilin, Guangxi) and was able to persuade several of the most major warlords of the region, including Feng Ang (馮盎), Li Guangdu (李光度), and Ning Zhenzhang (甯真長) to submit to Tang. Subsequently, Li Jing was made the commandant at Gui Prefecture.

In fall 623, the Tang general Fu Gongshi, who had served as the deputy of the powerful general Li Fuwei the Prince of Wu as the military governor of the lower Yangtze region, rebelled against Tang rule while Li Fuwei was at Chang'an, declaring himself the Emperor of Song. Emperor Gaozu commissioned Li Xiaogong to attack Fu, again making Li Jing Li Xiaogong's assistant, and also sending other generals Huang Junhan (黃君漢) and Li Shiji to attack Fu from other fronts. Li Xiaogong and Li Jing sailed down the Yangtze, attacking and defeating the Song generals at multiple battles. Fu ordered his generals Feng Huiliang (馮慧亮) and Chen Dangshi (陳當世) to take up position at Mount Bowang (博望山, in modern Ma'anshan, Anhui, preparing for the assault, instructing Feng and Chen not to engage Li Xiaogong, but to wear him down. However, Li Xiaogong, under Li Jing's suggestion, cut off their supply route, and when Feng and Chen's food supplies ran low, they challenged Li Xiaogong. Against suggestions by some officers that he bypass Feng and Chen and attack the Song capital Danyang (丹楊, in modern Nanjing, Jiangsu) directly, Li Xiaogong, again with Li Jing's suggestion, confronted Feng and Chen, initially using the weaker segment of his forces to battle Feng and Chen and, after initial losses, draw Feng and Chen in deeper, and then attacked them, defeating them decisively, with the aid of Li Fuwei's subordinate general Kan Leng (闞稜). After the victory, Li Xiaogong and Li Jing attacked Danyang. Fu, in fear, abandoned Danyang and fled east, but was captured by the local men and delivered to Danyang. Emperor Gaozu, praising Li Jing, made the comment: "Li Jing is the fatal illness for Xiao and Fu. How could even Han Xin, Bai Qi, Wei Qing, or Huo Qubing exceed him?" Subsequently, Li Xiaogong was put in charge of the region, and Li Jing served as his assistant. it was said that Li Jing contributed much in pacifying the region after the region had seen much bloodshed for years.

In 625, Eastern Tujue attacked Taiyuan, and Li Jing led some of his troops north to resist Eastern Tujue. It was said that all of the other Tang generals were defeated by Eastern Tujue forces, but Li Jing was able to preserve his troops. In 626, when Eastern Tujue attacked again, Li Jing was made the commandant at Ling Prefecture (靈州, roughly modern Yinchuan, Ningxia), and he tried to cut off Eastern Tujue's return path, although soon Tang and Eastern Tujue made peace. It was said that at this time that Li Shimin, then engaged in an intense rivalry with his older brother Li Jiancheng the Crown Prince and fearing that Li Jiancheng might be intending to kill him, solicited advice from Li Jing and Li Shiji, and both refused to speak on the matter, drawing respect from Li Shimin for their unwillingness to be involved in an internecine struggle. In 626, Li Shimin set a show down for Li Jiancheng and another brother, Li Yuanji the Prince of Qi at Xuanwu Gate, killing them, and then effectively forced Emperor Gaozu to create him crown prince and then pass the throne to him (as Emperor Taizong).

During Emperor Taizong's reign
Li Jing continued to serve in Emperor Taizong's administration, and was soon made the minister of justice. In 628, in addition to that post, he also became acting Zhongshu Ling (中書令) – the head of the legislative bureau of the government (中書省, Zhongshu Sheng), a post considered one for a chancellor. In 629, he was made the minister of war.

Around the new year 630, with Eastern Tujue in internal turmoil, with its Jiali Khan Ashina Duobi attacking his nephew and subordinate khan, the Tuli Khan Ashina Shibobi (阿史那什鉢苾), Emperor Taizong commissioned Li Jing, Li Shiji, Wei Xiaojie, Li Daozong, Chai Shao (柴紹), and Xue Wanche (薛萬徹) to attack Eastern Tujue, with Li Jing in overall command. Li launched his attack in a surprise manner, from Mayi through Wuyang Range (惡陽嶺, in modern southern Hohhot, Inner Mongolia), capturing the important city of Dingxiang (定襄, in modern Hohhot). In fear, Ashina Duobi retreated to Qikou (磧口, in modern Xilin Gol League, Inner Mongolia). Li Jing then sent secret messengers to persuade his associate to surrender. One of them, Kangsumi (康蘇密), took Emperor Yang's wife Empress Xiao and her grandson Yang Zhengdao, whom Eastern Tujue had created the Prince of Sui, and surrendered to Li Jing. Ashina Duobi sent messengers to Emperor Taizong, offering to submit and to pay homage to him later, but was still considering fleeing further with his forces. Emperor Taizong sent the official Tang Jian (唐儉) as an envoy to Ashina Duobi, but also ordered Li Jing to escort Ashina Duobi. Li Jing, reading between the lines and believing that Emperor Taizong's order was to attack Ashina Duobi, after joining forces with Li Shiji, launched the attack. They defeated and captured most of Ashina Duobi's remaining forces and killed his wife, Sui's Princess Yicheng. Ashina Duobi fled further, and was soon captured by the generals Li Daozong and Zhang Baoxiang (張寶相). Eastern Tujue's nobles all submitted to Tang. In recognition of Li Jing's great victory, Emperor Taizong issued a general pardon and ordered his people to feast for five days. He also created Li Jing the greater title of Duke of Dai.

When Li Jing returned to the capital, however, the imperial censor Xiao Yu accused him of allowing his soldiers to plunder the Eastern Tujue treasury. Emperor Taizong rebuked Li Jing, but still increased the size of his fief and awarded him with silk. Later, regretting rebuking Li Jing, he stated to Li Jing, "People have accused you to hurt you. I realize this now. Please do not mind it." He awarded Li Jing with even more silk. Later in 630, he made Li Jing Shangshu Pushe (尚書僕射), the head of the important executive bureau of government (尚書省, Shangshu Sheng), also a chancellor post. It was said that Li Jing spoke very little when conferencing with other chancellorsthen considered a virtue. A more plausible explanation is that Taizong didn't trust his high officials, especially the generals, and Li Jing was very sure about it. He deliberately tried to keep a low profile in order not to raise Taizong's suspicion.

In 634, Emperor Taizong wanted to send some officials to examine the circuits in the empire, to see whether the local officials were capable, to find out whether the people were suffering, to comfort the poor, and to select capable people to serve in civil service. Li Jing recommended Wei Zheng, but Emperor Taizong, believing that he needed Wei to stay at Chang'an to examine his own faults, declined, instead sending Li Jing and 12 other officials to the circuits to examine them. Li Jing's zone was Ji'nei Circuit (畿內道, roughly modern Shaanxi). After this tour, Li Jing, giving the reason that he had a foot illness, requested to retire. Emperor Taizong agreed, but still ordered that he maintain a staff and that, once he got better, he should visit the legislative and examination (門下省, Menxia Sheng) bureaus every two or three days to serve as an alternative head of those bureaus.

Later in 634, Tuyuhun attacked Tang. Emperor Taizong was considering whom to send as the commander of the counterattacking force, and he made the comment, "It would have been wonderful to have Li Jing as commander." When Li Jing heard this, he personally met with the chancellor Fang Xuanling and offered to be the commander. Emperor Taizong was pleased, and made Li Jing the commander, assisted by the other generals Hou Junji, Li Daozong, Li Daliang, Li Daoyan (李道彥), and Gao Zengsheng (高甑生). Tang forces achieved initial victories against Tuyuhun forces; in response, Tuyuhun burned the grass on grazing fields to try to cut off the Tang horses' food supplies, and the Tang generals mostly believed that they should retreat them. Hou advocated attacking, however, and Li jing agreed, pushing deep into Tuyuhun territory and greatly defeating them, capturing the wives and sons of Tuyuhun's Busabo Khan Murong Fuyun. Murong Fuyun's son Murong Shun surrendered, and Murong Fuyun was soon killed by his subordinates. Emperor Taizong created Murong Shun the new khan, and Tang forces largely withdrew, although Li Daliang remained.

During the campaign, on one occasion, Li Jing rebuked Gao for arriving late, but did not punish him. Gao nevertheless was displeased with Li Jing's rebuke, and he and the official Tang Fengyi (唐奉義) accused Li Jing of plotting treason. The matter was investigated, and the evidence was found lacking. Gao and Tang were accused of false accusations and exiled, notwithstanding pleas by others that Gao contributed to Emperor Taizong's ambush at Xuanwu Gate against Li Jiancheng. However, from this point on, Li Jing refused to receive guests, and he even did not see his relatives often.

In 637, as a part of Emperor Taizong's scheme to bestow prefectures on his relatives and great generals and officials as their permanent domains, Li Jing's title was changed to Duke of Wei, and he was given the post of prefect of Pu Prefecture (濮州, roughly modern Heze, Shandong), to be inherited by his heirs. Soon, however, with many objections to the system, the strongest of which came from Zhangsun Wuji, Emperor Taizong cancelled the scheme, although Li Jing's title remained Duke of Wei. In 640, Li Jing's wife died, and Emperor Taizong ordered that a large tomb, made in the shape of Mount Tie (鐵山) in Eastern Tujue territory and Mount Jishi (積石山) in Tuyuhun territory, under the precedents that the great Han dynasty generals Wei Qing and Huo Qubing had their tombs built in the shapes of mountains in Xiongnu territory to commemorate their victories, be constructed for Li Jing's wife (as Li Jing would eventually be buried there as well). In 643, when Emperor Taizong commissioned the Portraits at Lingyan Pavilion to commemorate the 24 great contributors to Tang rule, Li Jing's portrait was one of the 24.

In 644, when Emperor Taizong was set to attack Goguryeo, he summoned Li Jing to consult his opinion. Emperor Taizong stated to him:

You, duke, pacified the Wu region [i.e., the lower Yangtze] to the south, cleared the desert to the north, and settled the Murong [i.e., Tuyuhun] to the west. Only Goguryeo has not submitted. What do you think?

Li Jing responded:

Your subject had, in the past, depended on your heavenly power to give my minor contributions. I am old and my bones are weak, but if Your Imperial Majesty does not look down on me, I am nevertheless willing to go despite my sickness.

Emperor Taizong, however, saw that Li Jing was ill and decided not to send him. Emperor Taizong later personally led a largely unsuccessful attack on Goguryeo. Li Jing died in 649briefly before Emperor Taizong's own deathand was buried with great honor, near Emperor Taizong's own tomb.

Works attributed to Li Jing
As one of the best generals and strategists of the Tang dynasty remaining undefeated in his career, Li Jing wrote several books about military doctrines. Although most of his work is not preserved today, fractions of them were cited by the Tongdian, an encyclopedia about the historic system of politics in China. One of the Seven Military Classics of China, Duke Li of Wei Answering Emperor Taizong of Tang (唐太宗李衛公問對/唐太宗李卫公问对, Táng Tàizōng Lǐ Wèigōng Wènduì), is a purported dialogue between Li Jing and Emperor Taizong about strategies, policies, and tactics. They criticised The Art of War, Zhuge Liang's strategies book and the New Book of Mengde. The work is attributed to Li Jing, although many modern scholars doubt the attribution, as neither the Old Book of Tang nor the New Book of Tang mentions the work in their biographies of Li Jing.

Li Jing in fiction
Li Jing appears in many Chinese folk tales and novels. Many of his legends were recorded in the Taiping Guangji (太平廣記), a record of stories compiled during the Song dynasty. The novel Romance of Sui and Tang (隋唐演義), written by the Qing dynasty author Chu Renhuo (褚人獲), for example, had Li prominently featured. The novel that most prominently featured Li, however, was the late Tang dynasty short story Biography of the Dragon-Beard Man (虬髯客傳), written by the official Du Guangting (杜光庭), which featured, as its three central characters, Li, his purported wife Zhang Chuchen (張出塵), and an ambitious man who taught Li military strategies, known only as the "Dragon-Beard Man." There is no evidence to show that any of the fictional treatments of Li's life had bases in fact. The novel Fengshen Yanyi also had a substantial character named Li Jing, apparently borrowing a number of the real Li's personal characteristics, but as the Fengshen Yanyi was set near the end of the legendary Shang dynasty, more than 2,000 years before the historical Li Jing, it was not actually referring to the same person.

See also
 Emperor Taizong's campaign against Tuyuhun

References

 Old Book of Tang, vol. 67.舊唐書 列傳 卷十一至二十
 New Book of Tang, vol. 93.唐書 列傳 第十一至二五
 Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 184, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 193, 194, 196, 197, 198, 199.

571 births
649 deaths
Chancellors under Emperor Taizong of Tang
Chinese military writers
Military strategists
Northern Zhou people
Sui dynasty people
Tang dynasty generals at war against the Göktürks
Tang dynasty writers
Transition from Sui to Tang
Tuyuhun

Li Jing (Tang dynasty)


Hurricane Kenna was a destructive hurricane of the 2002 Pacific hurricane season. It was one of the strongest Pacific hurricanes to ever strike Mexico.

Kenna formed in the eastern Pacific on October 22. It strengthened rapidly, reaching category five on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale on October 25. Hurricane Kenna weakened to category four before striking land near Puerto Vallarta later that day. The only Pacific hurricanes to strike Mexico at greater intensity were 1976's Hurricane Madeline and an unnamed 1959 storm.

Officials reported four deaths from Hurricane Kenna.

Other websites
Tropical Cyclone Report - Hurricane Kenna

2002 in weather
East Pacific hurricanes
Retired tropical cyclone names
Hurricanes in Mexico
2000s in Mexico

Hurricane Kenna


RuneScape is a video game that is played on the Internet. Multiple people play RuneScape all at the same time, which makes it a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (or MMORPG). It began in 2001, and is owned by Jagex Ltd. It is set in a fantasy land.

History
The game first started in 2001 as Runescape (now referred to as RuneScape Classic), but the code and graphics engine was rewritten in 2004 to form Runescape 2. Again, in 22 July 2013, the game was rewritten as RuneScape 3, which is the version playable today. The game is designed to allow players all over the world to connect and play together in real-time. There may be over 100,000 people playing the game at any one time, and even more at peak times such as weekends.

Development
The game was originally made by Andrew Gower. He created a game named "DeviousMUD" in 1998. DeviousMud used two dimensional graphics.  It was only briefly released to the public before being taken down. RuneScape is entirely made of  three dimensional graphics.

Jagex was formed soon after. It stands for Java Gaming Experts. Andrew Gower is head of development. It was renamed to Just About the Game Experience.

Old School RuneScape
Old School RuneScape (OSRS) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Jagex. The game can be played with or without buying membership. The game was released on February 22, 2013 as a copy of the main game. After players grew frustrated with updates to the main game, Jagex opened a poll where players could vote whether or not to bring back an older version of the game from 2007. The number of votes would determinine the support it would receive from Jagex. The poll ended with over 450,000 votes in favor of the servers; this meant it would not require an additional subscription and would have a small development team. In order for new content to be added to the game, the update must pass a game-wide poll with a seventy-fine percent ratio. Since release, OSRS has received many engine improvements, new content, and quality of life updates. Despite having a smaller staff and a slower relative update schedule, OSRS had more than twice the active players that RuneScape had by 2017. A mobile version of the game for Android and iOS was released in October 2018.

Gameplay
The RuneScape world has many different areas and places where players can explore and do activities such as quests or training a skill. RuneScape skills are abilities that players can train to be able to do special things. Smithing is an example of a skill that can allow a player to create metal items.

Cost
RuneScape is an online game. Like most free online games, the free version is basic, and there is an option to become a paying member and buy more features. RuneScape members who pay get to explore a world three times as big. RuneScape is played on 172 servers. Each server can have up to 2,000 people playing on it at a time.

As an optional service one can become a Member. Members get a larger area to play in, and go past the level 5 trial that free players get in the 10 members skills, 6 times the space in the game's bank, and access to member only weapons, tools, armor and quests. There are over one million (1,000,000) members in Runescape.

Weapons, Armor, and Shields
Like most MMORPGs, RuneScape has weapons, armor and shields. Weapons, armor and shields can be made out of many things. Common materials for items include bronze, iron, steel, black, mithril, adamantite, rune, granite, and dragon. Some of these materials can be obtained by mining rocks that contain ore. Players can then create items from the ore by smelting the ore using the smith skill into bars and then use the bar and smith it also using the smithing skill. There are also other armors that can not be made but must be gotten through methods such as trade or quests. Some members only weapons have special abilities to help the player, such as the abyssal whip and the dragon scimitar. Mages use magic to protect themselves and others so they use a light clothing. Rangers usually wear dragon-skin to protect themselves from opponents.

Skills
RuneScape has skills to train, including 16 free to play skills and 10 members skills. Players can train their skills by doing different actions. Skills are usually trained by collecting a resource, like logs, and doing something with them such as burning them. All of the skills can be leveled up to a max of 99 and Dungeoneering has a max of 120. All are also able to be trained to 200,000,000exp.
The Current Skills as of the 26th August 2013:
Attack,
Strength,
Defence,
Range,
Prayer,
Magic,
Runecrafting,
Construction,
Dungeoneering,
Divination,
Constitution,
Agility,
Herblore,
Thieving,
Crafting,
Fletching,
Slayer,
Hunter,
Mining,
Smithing,
Fishing,
Cooking,
Firemaking,
Woodcutting,
Farming,
Summoning.

Player Killing
RuneScape has a Player Killing part in the game. Player killing takes place in the Wilderness, a large area north of all major cities. Player killing also takes place in some mini-games but it is different from main player killing because in mini-games, there are different rules that control player killing. Player killing was limited to only minigames on December 10, 2007. However, Wilderness player killing was reinstated on February 1, 2011.

References

Other websites

 The official RuneScape website
 The official Jagex site
 A runescape community website
 The RuneScape Wiki

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games
2001 video games
Online games

RuneScape


Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions, Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Malaysia. Peninsular Malaysia shares a land and maritime border with Thailand and maritime borders with Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia. East Malaysia shares land and maritime borders with Brunei and Indonesia and a maritime border with the Philippines and Vietnam. Kuala Lumpur is the national capital, largest city and the seat of the legislative branch of the federal government. The nearby planned capital of Putrajaya is the administrative capital; which represents the seat of both the executive branch (Cabinet, federal ministries and agencies) and the judicial branch of the federal government. With a population of over 33 million, Malaysia is the world's 43rd-most populous country. The southernmost point of continental Eurasia is in Tanjung Piai. In the tropics, Malaysia is one of 17 megadiverse countries, home to a number of endemic species.

The country is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, with most people being Malay, but there are also Chinese and Indians. Its official language is Malay written in the Latin alphabet. English is a recognised language and also the official language in Sarawak state along with Malay. Tamil and Chinese is also often used. There are over 130 other languages spoken in Malaysia, with 94 in Malaysian Borneo and 40 on the peninsula. Islam is the official religion, but non-Malay citizens have the freedom to practice other religions.

History
Between China and India, Malaysia was an ancient trading place. When Europeans came to this area, Malacca was already an important trade port. Several Sultanates rose and fell during the time between the fall of Malacca and when Penang became a colony in 1768.

The states of Malaysia became a colony of the British Empire, starting with Penang in 1786. The peninsular part became independent on 31 August 1957 as the Federation of Malaya. In September 1963, Malaya, Singapore and the Borneo part joined to become Malaysia. In 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation and declared independence.

Politics and Economy
Malaysia has 13 states, which are Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak, Perlis, Penang, Sabah, Sarawak, Selangor and Terengganu, and three Federal Territories, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan. The number of points of the star on the flag represents the number of states Malaysia has, but it has 14 because Singapore was one of the states in Malaysia during its creation. The 14th point now represents the federal territories, called Wilayah Persekutuan. The head of state of Malaysia is known as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, otherwise called the "King of Malaysia". That title is currently held by Sultan Abdullah of Pahang. Malaysia's head of government is the Prime Minister. Its current prime minister is Anwar Ibrahim. It also has a parliament and a court system. It is a founding member of ASEAN.

Malaysia is considered an upper-middle income economy by the World Bank. Malaysia is known for its openness to trade with 40% of jobs in export activities. After the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997, the economy of Malaysia has continued to grow at an average rate of 5.4% since 2010. In 2017, the biggest economic sector is the services sector (53.6%), followed by the manufacturing sector (37.6%) with the agriculture sector (8.8%) being the smallest.

Cities
The following is a list of places in Malaysia. They are in order by the date they were given city status.
 George Town (1 January 1957)
 Kuala Lumpur (1 February 1972)
 Ipoh (27 May 1988)
 Kuching (1 August 1988)
 Johor Bahru (1 January 1994)
 Kota Kinabalu (2 February 2000)
 Shah Alam (10 October 2000)
 Melaka City (15 April 2003)
 Alor Setar (21 December 2003)
 Miri (20 May 2005)
 Petaling Jaya (20 June 2006)
 Kuala Terengganu (1 January 2008)
 Iskandar Puteri (22 November 2017)
 Seberang Perai (16 September 2019)
 Seremban (20 January 2020)
 Subang Jaya (20 October 2020)
 Pasir Gudang (22 November 2020)
 Kuantan (21 February 2021)
 Sandakan (22 February 2022)

Religion
Malaysia is a multi-religious society, and Islam is the largest population of believers. Most of the Malay people in Malaysia embrace Islam naturally as their religion. Besides Islam, Malaysia has other religions such as Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism.

Culture
Malaysia is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multilingual society, consisting of 58% Malays and other indigenous tribes, 23% Chinese, 7% Indians. The Malays, which form the largest community, are all Muslims since one has to be Muslim to be legally Malay under Malaysian law. The Malays play a dominant role politically and are included in a grouping identified as Bumiputera.

Food and drink
Many cultures from within the country and from surrounding areas have influenced the cuisine. Much of the influence comes from the Malay, Chinese, Indian, Thai, Javanese, and Sumatran cultures, largely because the country was part of the ancient spice route.

Food from one culture is sometimes also cooked using ways taken from another culture, for example, shrimp paste (belacan) and sambal are commonly used by Chinese restaurants for cooking. This means that although much of Malaysian food can be traced back to a certain culture, they have their own identity. Rice is popular in many dishes. Chili is commonly found in local cuisine, although this does not necessarily make them spicy. Examples of Malaysian food are laksa, which is a spicy noodle dish common in Malaysia and teh tarik, which is a popular drink.

Sports
Malaysia's national sports center is the Bukit Jalil Sports Complex. Nicol David (squash) and Lee Chong Wei (badminton) are notable athletes from Malaysia. Malaysia won 12 gold medals in the Commonwealth Games 2010 in India, and broke their Commonwealth Games target.

Transport
Malaysia's road network covers 98,721 kilometres (61,342 mi) and includes 1,821 kilometres (1,132 mi) of expressways. The longest highway of the country, the North-South Expressway, extends over 800 kilometres (497 mi) between the Thai border and Singapore. The road systems in Sabah and Sarawak are less developed and of lower quality in comparison to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Malaysia has 118 airports, of which 38 are paved. The official airline of Malaysia is Malaysia Airlines, providing international and domestic air service alongside two other carriers. The railway system is state-run, and covers a total of 1,849 kilometres (1,149 mi). There are also Light Rail Transit in Kuala Lumpur.

Related pages
 States of Malaysia
 List of rivers of Malaysia
 Malaysia at the Olympics
 Malaysia national football team
 Kuala Lumpur International Airport

References

Other websites

 Malaysian Government Portal
 Malaysian maps
 Malaysia Travel Guide  - Most comprehensive travel guide to Malaysia attractions

1963 establishments in Asia
States and territories established in the 1960s
Current monarchies
Monarchies of Asia

Members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
Commonwealth member states

Malaysia


The United States Department of Commerce  is the Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with promoting economic development. It was originally created as the United States Department of Commerce and Labor on February 14, 1903. It was subsequently renamed to the Department of Commerce on March 4, 1913, and its bureaus and agencies specializing in labor were transferred to the new Department of Labor.

References

1913 establishments in the United States

United States Department of Commerce


The modulation error ratio or MER is a measure used to quantify the performance of a digital radio (or digital TV) transmitter or receiver in a communications system using digital modulation (such as QAM). A signal sent by an ideal transmitter or received by a receiver would have all constellation points precisely at the ideal locations, however various imperfections in the implementation (such as noise, low image rejection ratio, phase noise, carrier suppression, distortion, etc.) or signal path cause the actual constellation points to deviate from the ideal locations.

Transmitter MER can be measured by specialized equipment, which demodulates the received signal in a similar way to how a real radio demodulator does it. Demodulated and detected signal can be used as a reasonably reliable estimate for the ideal transmitted signal in MER calculation.

Definition
An error vector is a vector in the I-Q plane between the ideal constellation point and the point received by the receiver. The Euclidean distance between the two points is its magnitude.

The modulation error ratio is equal to the ratio of the root mean square (RMS) power (in Watts) of the reference vector to the power (in Watts) of the error. It is defined in dB as:

where Perror is the RMS power of the error vector, and Psignal is the RMS power of ideal transmitted signal.

MER is defined as a percentage in a compatible (but reciprocal) way:

with the same definitions.

MER is closely related to error vector magnitude (EVM), but MER is calculated from the average power of the signal. MER is also closely related to signal-to-noise ratio. MER includes all imperfections including deterministic amplitude imbalance, quadrature error and distortion, while noise is random by nature.

See also
Error vector magnitude
Carrier to Noise Ratio
Signal-to-noise ratio

References
 ETSI technical report ETR 290: "Measurement guidelines for DVB systems", Errata 1, May 1997

Quantized radio modulation modes
Radio electronics
Digital radio
Telecommunications

Modulation error ratio


A pedal point (or pedal note) is a note which keeps sounding for several bars, usually in the bass (the lowest notes).  They are often used towards the end of a piece of music to help to drive the music to a climax.  They are called "pedal" notes because they are often heard in organ music where the player puts one of his feet on a pedal note and holds it there.

Pedal points are usually on either the tonic (main key note) (tonic pedal) or the dominant (5th note of the scale) (dominant pedal) tones.

A good example of a dominant pedal can be seen in the Prelude in C major from Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach.

An example of a tonic pedal can be seen in the third movement of Brahms's German Requiem, where the double basses play continuous D's in the last section.  Because this lasts for the whole section some people might prefer to call this a drone.

A double pedal is two pedal tones played at the same time.

An inverted pedal is a pedal that is not in the bass.  It is often in the highest part.

Related pages
Ostinato
Drone (music)
Pedal (music)

Musical terminology

Pedal point


The Qingdao International Sailing Centre () is a sailing marina located on the former site of the Beihai Shipyard by Qingdao's Fushan Bay at Shandong Province in China. It was constructed for the 2008 Summer Olympics. It hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Sailing competitions. Wind conditions vary greatly from very light winds to +15 knots. During the Olympic competitions, fog was also an occasional factor.

The venue hosted "Good Luck Beijing - 2006" and in May 2008, the IFDS Qingdao International Regatta, where Olympic and Paralympic sailors got a headstart on familiarizing themselves with the venue and weather conditions.

Access from the Qingdao Paralympic Village to the dock, work areas, etc. was provided by numerous golf carts making endless daytime rounds. Both ends of the work area had two cranes apiece, which could lift large keelboats like the Sonar from cradles and lower these into the water. At night, a laser light show from the main breakwater lighthouse would play from early evening to midnight. Facing the Yellow Sea, the main breakwater with spectator seating, windmills, flags and lighthouse was also the viewing area for the sailing competitions when not on the spectator ferry. Across the bay, the famous May 4 monument and Qingdao's landmark seaside building are easily visible.

The Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center covers 45 hectares, comprising a 30 hectare competition area and 15 hectare area for development after the Games. The seven facilities, include the Qingdao Sub-Village, Athletes Center, Administrative Center, Venue Media Center, Logistics Center, Reception Center and Accreditation Center.

Ground was broken on May 25, 2004 and was completed in 2008.

Paralympic Medalists
In the 2-person keelboat event, all three of the medal-winning SKUD 18 teams were composed of one man and one woman. Maureen McKinnon-Tucker (United States), Rachael Cox (AUS) and Stacie Louttit (CAN) became the first three women to win Paralympic medals in sailing.

References

Beijing2008.cn profile
Sept 2008 Paralympic Sailing Competition, Qingdao

Venues of the 2008 Summer Olympics
Buildings and structures in Qingdao
Olympic sailing venues
Sailing centers
Sport in Qingdao
Sports venues in Shandong
Tourist attractions in Qingdao

Qingdao International Sailing Centre


Olivier Messiaen (born Avignon, 10 December 1908; died Clichy, near Paris, 27 April 1992) was a French composer and organist. He is the most famous French composer of the mid-20th century and one of the most important and original composers of his time. He was a brilliant organist and played the organ at the church of La Trinité in Paris for over 60 years.  He wrote music for orchestra, piano and organ, most of which is very difficult to play. He was also a great music teacher who taught several young students who became well-known composers e.g. Pierre Boulez, Yvonne Loriod (who became his second wife), Karlheinz Stockhausen, George Benjamin and Iannis Xenakis.

Biography
Messiaen started to compose when he was seven years old. When he was given the score of Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande he could imagine the music in his head and he knew he wanted to be a composer. He went to the Paris Conservatoire when he was 11.  His teachers included some famous composers such as Paul Dukas, Maurice Emmanuel, Charles-Marie Widor and Marcel Dupré. He was appointed organist at the church of La Trinité in Paris in 1930, a post he held until his death.

When World War II broke out Messiaen was made a prisoner of war in 1940.  While he was held in a Silesian camp he composed a work which was to become a very famous piece of chamber music: the Quatour pour la fin du temps ("Quartet for the end of time") for piano, violin, cello, and clarinet.  He composed for these instruments because they were the instruments available. The piece was first performed by Messiaen and fellow prisoners to an audience of 5000 inmates and prison guards. He played a poorly maintained upright piano in freezing conditions and the trio played third-hand unkempt instruments. The work is about the life at the prison camp. Today the work is seen as   one of 20th-century classical music's acknowledged masterpieces. The title's "end of time" alludes to the Apocalypse. It is also about the way that Messiaen, through rhythm and harmony, used time in a manner completely different from other people..

When he was free again in 1941 Messiaen became professor of harmony at the Paris Conservatoire.  He composed 20 pieces for piano which are called Vingt regards sur l'enfant Jésus (Twenty visions of the child Jesus).  He wrote a book about the way he composed, called Technique de mon langage musical (The Technique of my musical language).

Messiaen soon became famous for his teaching and was invited to teach in other countries such as Germany, Hungary and the United States.  He became interested in the rhythms of Greek and Hindu music.

In 1952, Messiaen was asked to provide a test piece for flautists  at the Paris Conservatoire. He composed the piece e  for flute and piano. He had long been fascianted by birdsong. Birds had also appeared in many of his earlier works, such as  ,  and . This flute piece, however, was  based entirely on the song of the blackbird.

He took this development to a new level with his 1953 orchestral work . Its material consists almost entirely of the birdsong one might hear between midnight and noon in the Jura. From this period onward, Messiaen incorporated birdsong into his compositions and composed several works for which birds provide both the title and subject matter (for example the collection of 13 piano pieces  completed in 1958, and  of 1971). Paul Griffiths observed that Messiaen was a more conscientious ornithologist than any previous composer, and a more musical observer of birdsong than any previous ornithologist.

His first wife died in 1959 and he remarried in 1961.  He also became very interested in birdsong and spent a lot of time with his wife in the country with a tape recorder recording birdsong.  He imitated the birdsong in his music, especially in piano pieces called Oiseaux exotiques (Exotic birds) and the Catalogue d'oiseaux (Catalogue of birds).

Messiaen wrote a lot of organ music which he performed himself.  One very popular work is called Transports de joie (Outburst of joy).  It is one of four pieces called L'Ascension (The Ascension).  A much longer work, consisting of nine movements, is the La Nativité du Seigneur (The Birth of our Lord).  The last movement of this piece is a toccata called Dieu parmi nous (God among us).  It has become a favourite piece for organists to play at recitals or after Christmas carol services.

Messiaen wrote a long piece for orchestra called the  Turangalîla  Symphony.  It was first performed in Boston in 1949 with Bernstein conducting.  The French government commissioned a piece called Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum (And we expect the rising of the dead) which was dedicated to people who had died in the two world wars.  It was performed in the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and then in Chartres Cathedral in 1965 in the presence of General Charles de Gaulle.  In 1966 Messiaen became professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire.

His visit to the Grand Canyon inspired him to write a ten-movement orchestral piece called Des Canyons aux étoiles (From the canyons to the stars), which was first performed in 1974 in New York.

Messiaen had been asked in 1971 to write an opera for the Paris Opéra. At first he did not want to start such a large work, but in 1975 he was persuaded to accept the commission and began work on his Saint-François d'Assise.  It took him several years to compose.  It was performed in 1983.  Messiaen said that he preferred to call it a "spectacle" instead of an "opera".

Messiaen retired from teaching at the Conservatoire in 1978. In 1987 he was given the highest rank: the Grand-Croix of the Légion d'honneur.

Messiaen was in a lot of pain near the end of his life.  He needed operations on his back.  He still managed to finish a piece called  Éclairs sur l'au delà, which was first performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra six months after the composer's death. Messiaen had also been composing a concerto for four musicians he felt particularly grateful to: his wife Loriod, the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, the oboist Heinz Holliger and the flautist Catherine Cantin. This was nearly finished when Messiaen died, and Yvonne Loriod orchestrated the last movement with advice from George Benjamin.

Music style

Messiaen said of himself that he was a "composer and rhythmician".  He meant by this that rhythm was very important in his music.  He taught himself all about Greek metres although he did not speak the Greek language.  He liked rhythms which use odd numbers.  Very often a bar of his music may have one extra semiquaver so that there might be 17 semiquavers in a bar.  He studied Hindu rhythms and found ways of changing the rhythms during the music.  He was very influenced by the rhythms in  Stravinsky's famous piece The Rite of Spring.

Messiaen's harmonies are very individual.  He was fascinated by scales which can only be transposed in two or three different ways.  He called these scales "modes of limited transposition".

Messiaen's music is full of different sounds.  He wrote extremely well for large orchestras and for the organ, using different instruments or organ sounds in very original ways, e.g. in Chronochromie (1960) for large orchestra and Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité.(1969), a work which uses styles from his earlier period together with birdsong. Messiaen had synesthesia which meant that music often made him think of particular colours.  In his orchestra Messiaen often used an instrument called the ondes Martenot which was a kind of electronic keyboard instrument. His sister-in-law Jeanne Loriod was a famous player of the ondes Martenot.  Messiaen was also influenced by Indonesian gamelan music.  For a short time he experimented with total serialism.

In some of his later works such as the La Transfiguration de notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ'', for choir of 100 voices, seven instrumental soloists and large orchestra, composed in the late 1960s, he used a simpler musical language which has helped it to become very popular.

Messiaen was a devout Roman Catholic all his life.  His religion was a very important influence on his life and music.

References
The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians; edited by Stanley Sadie

1908 births
1992 deaths
People from Avignon
20th-century French composers
French military people
French organists
French Roman Catholics
Grammy Award winners
Musicians from Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur
World War II people

Olivier Messiaen


Bartolomeo Cesi (; 16 August 1556 – 11 July 1629) was an Italian painter and draftsman of the Bolognese School.  He made easel paintings as well as frescoes. He is known mainly for his religious paintings but he also painted portraits and mythological scenes.

Life
He was born to a wealthy family of Bologna. He first received a humanist education and later studied painting under Giovanni Francesco Bezzo. In Bologna, he contributed works to the Duomo, San Procolo, and Santo Stefano. He collaborated with Ludovico Carracci and Prospero Fontana on some projects. His pious sobriety was influenced by his friendship with Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti of Bologna, who had attended the Council of Trent. His biography is contained in Carlo Cesare Malvasia's Felsina Pittrice.

He traveled to Rome and worked there with Scipione Pulzone. After his return in 1591, one of his project was a series of frescoes on the Passion of Christ for the Carthusian Monastery (Charterhouse) or San Girolamo in Bologna.  In 1595, Cesi completed the triptych including the 'Adoration of the Magi and Virgin and Saints for the Basilica of San Domenico in Bologna.

Together with his contemporary Lodovico Carracci, Cesi campaigned successfully to create a guild of painters in Bologna in 1599. Cesi's last years were less productive, but he became the drawing master of the Accademia degli Ardenti in 1620.

Alessandro Tiarini was his pupil.

Work
He made easel paintings as well as frescoes. He is known mainly for his religious paintings but is also known to have painted portraits.

Cesi was inspired by the Counter Reformation's interest in education and the use of art as a vehicle for renewing faith and promoting the Roman Catholic creed. Three versions of a Crucifixion with saints (1585–1600) of which one made for an altar in the church San Martino, Bologna, show his mature style: sober mood and intellectual and abstract composition and naturalistic figures. They reflect his interest in making designs based on his studies from life.

Passion Cycle by Cesi at Certosa di San Girolamo of Bologna

References

External links

1556 births
1629 deaths
16th-century Italian painters
Italian male painters
17th-century Italian painters
Painters from Bologna
Fresco painters
Italian Baroque painters

Bartolomeo Cesi


Thomas William "Tom" Hiddleston (born 9 February 1981) is an English actor. His most famous roles include 'Thor: Ragnarok' (2017), Jonathan Pine in 'The Night Manager' (2016), Loki in 'Thor' (2011),  Scott Fitzgerald, Midnight in Paris (2011), 'The Avengers(2012), and 'Thor: The Dark World' (2013). He also stars in 'Kong: Skull Island' (2017) as Captain James Conrad.

Early life
Thomas William Hiddleston was born in Westminster, London, to English-born Diana Patricia and Scottish-born James Norman Hiddleston. His mother is a former stage manager, and his father, a scientist, was the managing director of a pharmaceutical company. He started off at the preparatory school, The Dragon School in Oxford, and by the time he was 13, he boarded at Eton College, at the same time that his parents were going through a divorce. He continued on to the University of Cambridge, where he earned a double first in Classics. He continued to study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, from which he graduated in 2005.

Career
Whilst at University of Cambridge, he was seen by the agency 'Hamilton Hodell' in the play "A Streetcar Named Desire" and was signed. Following this, he was cast in his first television role in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (2001). Tom Hiddleston won his first film role as Oakley in Joanna Hogg's award-winning first feature, Unrelated (2007). His breakthrough role came when he portrayed the nemesis Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe feature film Thor (2011). He reprised the character in The Avengers (2012), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018).

He has also appeared in Steven Spielberg's War Horse (2011), The Deep Blue Sea (2011), Woody Allen's romantic comedy Midnight in Paris (2011), and the romantic vampire film Only Lovers Left Alive (2013). On television, he appeared on the BBC series The Hollow Crown (2012), in the adaptations of Shakespeare's "Henry IV" and "Henry V". In theatre, he has been in the productions of "Cymbeline" (2007) and "Ivanov" (2008). In December 2013, he starred as the title character in the Donmar Warehouse production of "Coriolanus" which played until February 2014. He won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Newcomer in a Play for his role in "Cymbeline" while also being nominated for the same award the same year for his role as Cassio in "Othello".

On 8 November 2018, it was announced that Tom Hiddleston would be reprising his role as Loki in a new Marvel limited series centered on the character which will air on Disney's streaming service, Disney+. Loki is Hiddleston's seventh time taking on the role, following three Avengers movies and all three Thor films.

Awards and nominations

References

Other websites

1981 births
Living people
Alumni of the University of Cambridge
English movie actors
English stage actors
English television actors
People educated at Eton College
People from Westminster

Tom Hiddleston


The Flour Exchange Building is an office building in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, designed by architects Long and Kees, who also designed Minneapolis City Hall and the Lumber Exchange Building.  Construction originally began in 1892, but halted abruptly in 1893 after only four floors had been built.  This was due to the effects of the Panic of 1893.  Construction resumed later, and the building was completed in 1909 with eleven stories.  The building is generally in the Chicago school, using a relatively straightforward approach without a lot of historic details.  The modern influence of this style later influenced the Butler Square building.  The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

References

Buildings and structures in Minneapolis
National Register of Historic Places in Minneapolis
Office buildings completed in 1909
Office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota
Chicago school architecture in Minnesota

Flour Exchange Building


Alvaro Obregón Salido (February 19, 1880 – July 17, 1928) was a Mexican farmer, warlord and general. He was one of the key players in the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) and it is his election as President in 1920 that is considered by many as the ending point of the Revolution, although the violence continued afterwards. A brilliant and charismatic general, his rise to power is contributed to his effectiveness, ruthlessness, and the fact that he was the only one of the Revolution's "Big Four" still standing after 1923, as Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata and Venustiano Carranza all were assassinated.

1880 births
1928 deaths
Mexican generals
Presidents of Mexico

Álvaro Obregón


An actuator is a type of motor that either pushes, pulls, or rotates.

Linear Actuators
Linear actuators are actuators that move in a straight line. They can be made to move by electricity, or by pushing water or air very hard. When water (or oil or another liquid) is used, it is called hydraulic, and when air is used, it is called pneumatic. Hydraulic systems are used for moving very heavy things, like in cranes, excavators, or bulldozers.

Machines

Actuator


Paul Radisich (born 9 October 1962, in Auckland) is a retired New Zealand racing driver and businessman of Croat origin. He has competed in saloon cars for many years — both European-style tourers and the V8 Supercars of Australia and New Zealand.

Early Years
In 1983 he was Formula Atlantic runner-up, earning the prestigious Driver To Europe award. In 1985 and 1986 he raced in British Formula 3, alongside Damon Hill. He later raced in Indy Lights and Formula Super Vee with some success, before finishing second in the 1990 Bathurst 1000. This led him towards racing saloon cars full-time.

European Touring Cars

He won the 1993 and 1994 Touring Car World Cup events at Monza and at Donington respectively. 1993 was his first British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season, in a Ford Mondeo prepared by Andy Rouse. He finished 3rd in the series despite only competing in half the year. He would again drive for Andy Rouse in 1994 where he finished 3rd again behind Gabriele Tarquini for Alfa Romeo and Alain Menu for Renault. Radisich would again drive for Andy Rouse in 1995 but by the end of the 1995 season the car had reached the end of its development cycle and was increasingly uncompetitive during the end of the 1995 season and in the 1996 season when West Surrey Racing took over the Ford team from Andy Rouse. 1996 would be a disappointment for the Ford team with no podium places and Radisich finishing 13th in the championship. 1997 would see a new Mondeo however it too was uncompetitive, and would not challenge the front running teams. In 1998 he raced for Peugeot where he again had a disappointing season. He left the series and went to race for Dick Johnson Racing in the V8 Supercar series in Australia.

At the end of the 2004 season, Radisich entered the BTCC Masters event at Donington, and was considering a comeback to the BTCC the following year, but he instead chose to continue his racing career down under.

V8 Supercars

In 1999 he joined Dick Johnson Racing replacing the departed John Bowe.  He remained with Dick Johnson Racing until the end of 2002.  In 2003 he joined Briggs Motor Sport which was later sold to British outfit Triple Eight Race Engineering in 2004.  In total he has three race wins and eight other podium results in the championship.

Team Kiwi Racing
He surprised a lot of people by signing for the patriotic Team Kiwi Racing for 2 years in 2005 racing in a Holden for the first time, helping the team to their first ever podium finish at Shanghai International Circuit in China, (third).  He finished the 2005 season in 14th place, TKR's highest ever finish in a Supercar season.

In the 2006 Supercheap Auto 1000 endurance race at Mount Panorama he had a major crash at around 200 km/h in The Chase.  While attempting to overtake Nathan Pretty he ran wide into the dirt and could not brake in time and careered into a tyre wall head on, flipping the car onto its side.  Rescue teams had to cut the roof off the car in order to get him out. He was then taken to a nearby hospital and then flown to a hospital in Sydney for further scans. He broke his ankle and sternum in the crash and missed the remainder of the season.

In November 2006 it was confirmed that Radisich had signed for a further 2 years with TKR and would once again be back racing in a Ford for 2007–08.  He has commented that he has unfinished business in V8 Supercars.

Paul returned to the cockpit at Barbagallo for the first time since Bathurst, to the delight of many fans.  He had a very good result at Pukekohe, the final round to be held at that circuit, finishing 7th in the third race.

Ford Performance Racing terminated its contract to supply and service the TKR Falcon on 31 May 2007. Paul Radisich said he had terminated his contract with TKR following the team's fallout with Ford Performance Racing that ran the car on behalf of TKR.
"TKR is in breach of contract and I have therefore terminated my contract with immediate effect."

Toll HSV Dealer Team
The New Zealand international joined fellow Kiwi Craig Baird and regular drivers Rick Kelly and Garth Tander in the Toll HSV ranks for the big endurance races in September and October.

The formal announcement was put on hold until Carrera Cup star and Bathurst rookie David Reynolds was signed and sealed with Super Cheap Auto Racing for the enduros. Reynolds had been in line for a drive with Toll HSV in the big races in September and October, but was happy to transfer to Super Cheap for his V8 Supercar debut without the potential pressure of a fellow driver's championship hanging over him.

At Sandown, Paul was paired with Championship front-runner, Rick Kelly. The car was qualified by Rick Kelly, and they started from 8th position on the grid. Paul and Rick Kelly drove the Number 1 Toll HSV Commodore to 2nd place, 2.8 seconds behind Triple Eight Racing's Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup.

At Bathurst, Paul was paired with Craig Baird. After qualifying 9th after the top-10 shootout, Paul and Craig Baird started strongly, and were running on the fringe of top 10 for the majority of the race, slowed by persistent braking problems which also afflicted their more illustrious team-mates. Ultimately, the team withdrew from the race on lap 137 of 161 so as not to risk damaging Tander and Kelly's race cars for the championship battle to come.

Retirement and later career
Returning to the team in 2008, Radisich crashed heavily during practice for the 2008 Bathurst 1000, after the throttle jammed open at McPhillamy Park Corner, hitting the concrete wall in a gap in the tyre barriers. Radisich fractured both ankles, reopened the fractured sternum sustained in an accident two years prior, fractured lumbar and thoracic vertebrae, cracked ribs and suffered bruising to his lungs. His recovery has been protracted and brought an end his motor racing career.

Paul raced a Ford Mustang S550 in the invitational non-championship Class Three of the 2018-19 BNT V8 Championship

He was team manager of the Super Black Racing team until the team was disbanded at the end of the 2016 season. He is managing director of New Zealand oil company Aegis Oil, a company founded by his father Frank.

Paul is the in-studio co-host of the British Touring Car Championship segment of TV3's CRC Motorsport with Shaun Summerfield.

Career results

Complete World Touring Car Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

† Not eligible for points.

Complete Asia-Pacific Touring Car Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete British Touring Car Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position - 1 point awarded all races 1996 onwards) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) (* signifies that driver lead feature race for at least one lap - 1 point awarded 1998 only)

† Not eligible for points due to being an endurance driver.

‡ Endurance driver.

Complete Japanese Touring Car Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete V8 Supercar Championship results

Complete Bathurst 1000 results

* Super Touring race

References

People educated at Liston College
Supercars Championship drivers
New Zealand racing drivers
1962 births
British Touring Car Championship drivers
Indy Lights drivers
Atlantic Championship drivers
SCCA Formula Super Vee drivers
Trans-Am Series drivers
New Zealand people of Croatian descent
Racing drivers from Auckland
Living people
Porsche Carrera Cup GB drivers
New Zealand Formula Pacific Championship drivers
Australian Endurance Championship drivers
Peugeot Sport drivers
Dick Johnson Racing drivers
Japanese Touring Car Championship drivers

Paul Radisich


Joseph Beuys (pronounced "boyce") (12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist who made arts in many forms including sculpture, performance art (happening, fluxus), video art, and installations. He was an important artist in the second half of the 20th century.

Early life
Beuys was born in Krefeld on 12 May 1921, and grew up in the nearby city of Kleve. His family was strong catholic. As a young child he began his interest in art by often engaging in making watercolours. He first saw modern art when visiting the studio of Achilles Moortgat. At the age of seventeen in 1938, he joined Hitler Youth, like many young German men at that time. He studied many disciplines before engaging in his art practice, and was particularly interested in natural sciences and history, including alchemy, and focussed on medicine with the intention of becoming a doctor. During his studies, however, World War II began, and he became a soldier in the German air force. There, he was a rear gunner (gunner in the back) in a military airplane. In 1943 one of his close friends died in a concentration camp.

One fascinating aspect of Joseph Beuys's personal history is the reason he consistently used felt and fat in his works. He is quoted as saying: "For me, fat was a great discovery, because it was the very material that could seem the most chaotic and indeterminate. I could use it with heat or cold, I could transform it with means that are not the traditional ones for sculpture- with temperature, for example. So I could turn the character of this fat from a chaotic and fluctuating condition to that of a rigid form... So I took an extreme position in sculpture and a material that was absolutely fundamental for life and not associated with art."

Many people believe that this use of felt and fat recalled a plane crash experienced while flying for the  Luftwaffe in the Crimea in the winter of 1942-43. Beuys claimed that he had been saved by a nomadic tribe of Tartars who, sympathetic to the Germans after persecution by the Soviets, 'covered my body in fat to help it regenerate warmth, and wrapped it in felt as an insulator to keep warmth in'. In fact this episode was fabricated, partly on the basis of a dream, but he consistently referred to this episode and it can be seen as a private mythology of his.

Development as artist
After the war Beuys studied at the academy in Düsseldorf from 1946 to 1951. For most of the 1950s he was mostly drawing.

In 1961 he became professor of sculpture there, but was fired in 1972 because he said that his classes must be open to anybody who wanted to take them. He thought that classes should be free and he worked in his classes with everybody who wanted. His students protested when he was fired, so he was allowed to hold his studio there, but he still lost his job.

In 1962 Beuys was member of the "Fluxus movement". They made art together by drawing, sculpting, making music, and literature.

Politics
Beuys believed that arts has an important role in society. His first problems with politicians were when he lost his job as professor.
In the 1980s he was part of the Peace Movement and protested against nuclear missiles in Germany. He was one of the first members of the Green Party in the 1980s.

Works
Famous works are for example:
 Felt Suit (1970), a felt suit exhibited on a coat hanger;
 the performance piece Coyote, "I Like America and America Likes Me" (1974), Beuys wore felt and carried a shepherd's staff and stayed in a room with a coyote for five days;
 sculpture Fat Corner, fat piled into the corner of a space, left to melt and turn rancid over many days. However the fat was accidentally destroyed by the cleaning crew.
 How To Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare (1965), he walked around with his face covered in honey and gold leaf, carrying a dead hare which he talked with, explaining the pictures before them.

In 1979, a large retrospective of Beuys' work at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City confirmed his reputation as one of the most important artists of his time. He died in 1986 in Düsseldorf.

Pop cultural references
The web comic Cat And Girl makes frequent reference to Joseph Beuys, including his art (reference 1 reference 2) and cultural references.

Related pages

German art

Other websites
 actual exhibitions with Joseph Beuys on Artfacts.Net
 Details of the 7000 oaks project
 Joseph Beuys Music on Ubuweb
 Athena—The Joseph Beuys Online Guide
 Beuys' writings and works influenced by Beuys (In German)
 Articles about Beuys

1921 births
1986 deaths
German sculptors
People from Düsseldorf
German politicians of Alliance '90/The Greens

Joseph Beuys


Peter Reyner Banham Hon. FRIBA (2 March 1922 – 19 March 1988) was an English architectural critic and writer best known for his theoretical treatise Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (1960) and for his 1971 book Los Angeles:  The Architecture of Four Ecologies. In the latter he categorized the Los Angeles experience into four ecological models (Surfurbia, Foothills, The Plains of Id, and Autopia) and explored the distinct architectural cultures of each. A frequent visitor to the United States from the early 1960s, he relocated there in 1976.

Early life and education

[Peter] Reyner Banham was born in Norwich, England to Percy Banham, a gas engineer, and Violet Frances Maud Reyner. He was educated at Norwich School and gained an engineering scholarship with the Bristol Aeroplane Company, where he spent much of the Second World War. In Norwich he gave art lectures, wrote reviews for the local paper and was involved with the Maddermarket Theatre. In 1949 Banham entered the Courtauld Institute of Art in London where he studied under Anthony Blunt, Sigfried Giedion and Nikolaus Pevsner. Pevsner, who was his doctoral supervisor, invited Banham to study the history of modern architecture, following his own work Pioneers of the Modern Movement (1936).

Career
Having previously written regular exhibition reviews for ArtReview, then titled Art News and Review, Banham began working for the Architectural Review in 1952. Notably in its December 1955 issue, Banham contributed an essay titled "The New Brutalism", in which he sought to stylistically define New Brutalism. His hypotheses became widely discussed and debated topics among members of Team X and other groups involved in urban planning at the time. Banham also had connections with the Independent Group, the 1956 This Is Tomorrow art exhibition – considered by many to the birth of pop art – and the exponents of Brutalist architecture, which he documented in his 1966 book The New Brutalism: Ethic or Aesthetic?. Before this, in Theory and Design in the First Machine Age, he had cut across mentor Pevsner's main theories, linking modernism to build structures in which the 'functionalism' was actually subject to formal structures. Later, he wrote a Guide to Modern Architecture (1962, later titled Age of the Masters, a Personal View of Modern Architecture). Banham predicted a "second age" of the machine and mass consumption. The Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment (1969) follows Giedion's Mechanization Takes Command (1948), putting the development of technologies such as electricity and air conditioning ahead of the classic account of structures. In the 1960s, Cedric Price, Peter Cook, and the Archigram group also found this to be an absorbing arena of thought.

Green thinking (Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies) and then the oil shock of 1973 affected him. The 'postmodern' was for him uneasy, and he evolved into becoming the conscience of postwar British architecture. He broke with utopian and technical formalism. Scenes in America Deserta (1982) talks of open spaces and his anticipation of a 'modern' future. In A Concrete Atlantis: U.S. Industrial Building and European Modern Architecture, 1900–1925 (1986) Banham demonstrated the influence of American grain elevators and "Daylight" factories on the Bauhaus and other modernist projects in Europe.

Banham was a prolific journalist (of some 750 articles), both within and outside of the architectural press, including regular columns in New Statesman (1958–63) and New Society (1966-88). Selections of his journalism articles were collected in Design by Choice, edited by Penny Sparke and A Critic Writes (which includes a full bibliography), edited by his wife Mary Banham and others.

Teaching
Banham taught at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (1964–76) and the State University of New York (SUNY) Buffalo (1976 to 1980), and through the 1980s at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He had been appointed the Sheldon H. Solow Professor of the History of Architecture at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University shortly before his death, but he never taught there. In 2014 The Bartlett established a named chair appointment of the Reyner Banham Professor of Architectural History and Theory.

Awards and tributes
He was featured in the short documentary Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles; in his book on Los Angeles, Banham said that he learned to drive so he could read the city in the original.

In 1988 he was awarded the Sir Misha Black award and was added to the College of Medallists.

Criticism
In 2003, Nigel Whiteley published a critical biography of Banham, Reyner Banham: Historian of the Immediate Future, in which he gives an in-depth overview of Banham's work and ideas.

Bibliography

"The New Brutalism". The Architectural Review. 1955.

 "Hawks, Doves, and Flights of Fancy." Wilson Quarterly vol. 3, no. 1, 1979, pp. 128–34. online
  "The New Brutalism." October, vol. 136, 2011, pp. 19–28. online

References

External links
 52 minute episode from the BBC series One pair of eyes. Banham narrates a video tour of Los Angeles; the program incorporates interviews with authors Henry Miller and Norman Mailer, among others.

Reyner Banham Papers at the Getty Research Institute

English architecture writers
Architectural theoreticians
University of California, Santa Cruz faculty
1922 births
1988 deaths
People educated at Norwich School
Alumni of the Courtauld Institute of Art
Academics of University College London
20th-century English architects
Fellows of the Royal Institute of British Architects

Reyner Banham


The poundal is a unit o wechts an meisures at isnae a pairt o SI. It is a unit o force.  It is a pairt o the absolute foot-pound-second system o units, a subsystem o English units inbrocht in 1879, an ane o several specialized subsystems o mechanical units uised as aids in calculations.  It is defined as 1 lb·ft/s².

1 pdl = 0.138 254 954 376 N exactly

SI

Poundal


The Battle of al-Babein took place on March 18, 1167, during the third Crusader invasion of Egypt. King Amalric I of Jerusalem, and a Zengid army under Shirkuh, both hoped to take the control of Egypt over from the Fatimid Caliphate. Saladin served as Shirkuh's highest-ranking officer in the battle. The result was a tactical draw between the forces, however the Crusaders failed to gain access to Egypt.

Background

After the death of Zengi, his son, Nur al-Din came to power in Aleppo. In 1154, he gained control of Damascus when there was no one in power over the city. He became the first Seljuq leader since the 1090s to unite north and south Syria. Nur al-Din embraced jihad ideals when battling against the Franks and was a crucial figure in the recovery of Jerusalem.

Vizier Shawar had full authority over the Fatimids and was the advisor to the caliph. Shawar required the support of Nur al-Din's generals to gain control. Shawar turned to Shirkuh for assistance. After Shawar found out Shirkuh's price for fighting for him was higher than he was willing to pay, Shawar turned to Amalric. Shirkuh was almost ready to establish territory of his own in Egypt when Amalric I invaded. After several months of campaigning, Shrikuh was forced to withdraw.

Shirkuh had the ability to conduct politics and aspired to become Nur al-Din's right-hand man. Shirkuh fought in the Battle of Inab in 1149. He had killed Raymond of Antioch in the battle fighting one-on-one with him. After that battle, he gained his reputation for his attention to detail and his excellence with tactics. When Nur al-Din captured Damascus in 1154, he sent Shirkuh before the ambassadors to negotiate the terms for the border lines between Damascus and Aleppo.

Amalric I was the king of Jerusalem, and held power from 1163 to 1174. Amalric had been an ally and nominal protector for the Fatimid government. In 1167, Amalric wanted to destroy the Zengid army sent by Nur al-Din from Syria. Amalric depended on his Military Orders for his invasion of Egypt. The Military Orders is a Christian order of Knighthood. The Military Orders were set down for the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar to go against pagans or Muslims, or in the Holy Lands, to anyone who persecuted the Christian beliefs and practices. Amalric's obsession was to take over Egypt, after first trying to befriend the nation. Later on, he decided to serve under Saladin after he declared himself sultan in 1171.

Another key participant in the battle of al-Babein was Saladin. Saladin entered the army at the age of 14. At age of 18, he was promoted to personal officer to Nur al-Din. At first Saladin was reluctant to go with his uncle, Shirkuh, to take over Egypt. Saladin only agreed to this because Shirkuh was family. He took thousands of troops, his bodyguards, and 200,000 gold pieces to Egypt, to take over the nation.

Because Amalric was an ally and protector of the Fatimid government, fighting in the Battle of al-Babein was in his best interest. He invaded Egypt several times during his reign. These campaigns were not very successful, as they always ran into complications leading to failure each time. Nur al-Din organized the battle strategy on the Muslim side. Nur al-Din was the Muslim leader who unified Syria. The troops were led by Shirkuh. Since both sides wanted to be in charge of Egypt, whoever won the battle would accomplish that goal. This contest brought on the Battle of al-Babein in 1167.

Battle

King Amalric ordered only his mounted forces to chase Shirkuh and the Muslims out of Egypt at the beginning of the battle. Amalric chased Shirkuh's troops up the valley of the Nile and across the river to Giza. The chase almost worked, but the Muslims turned to fight Amalric where the cultivated ground ended and the desert began. The steep slopes and soft sand reduced the effectiveness of the Latin army. King Amalric I's army was weakened because he only took a handful of men with him to pursue Shirkuh. He commanded 374 armed Frankish horsemen along with the mounted archers known as Turcopoles. The Christian knights also sided with Amalric I in order to go after Shirkuh's army.

Shirkuh came up with a plan to draw the Franks, along with Amalric, away from the battlefield. Shirkuh's plan was for the Latin cavalry charge to find no worthy target. Shirkuh hoped to lessen the severity of the fight. He wanted the Franks to think that all his best men were in the center surrounding him. Among those in the center line was Saladin, Shirkuh's nephew. Saladin, under Shrikuh's orders, was to retreat once the Franks moved closer.

Amalric fell for Shirkuh's plan. Amalric sent his main attack toward the center of Shirkuh's troops. Saladin then drew Amalric and the Franks away from the battlefield. The fight broke off into smaller skirmishes. Some of the skirmishes were won by the Franks and others by the Turks.

When Amalric returned from pursuing Saladin, he rallied his troops together. Amalric lined up his troops and marched straight through the enemy lines, fighting all enemy opposition along the way. Amalric then marched off the battlefield with his army. Neither side left with a victory. The Franks lost one hundred knights and failed to destroy Shrikuh's army. This also cost Amalric's chance to become the ruler of Egypt.

References

Literature
 Baldwin, Marshall W. A History of The Crusades. Volume 1. (Madison, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1969), 553, 385.
 Hindley, Geoffrey.  (New York, Harper & Row Publishers, Inc.), 149-159.
 Jotischky, Andrew.  Crusading and the Crusader States.  (Edinburgh Gate, Pearson Education Limited, 2004), 83-93.
 Smail, R.C. Crusading Warfare (1097–1193). (New York, The Cambridge University Press, 1956), 183-185.
 Tyerman, Christopher. Fighting for Christendom: Holy War and the Crusades.  (New York, Oxford University Press, 2004), 149, 166.

Battles of the Crusades
Battles involving the Fatimid Caliphate
Battles involving the Seljuk Empire
12th century in the Fatimid Caliphate
Conflicts in 1167
1167
Battles involving the Kingdom of Jerusalem
1160s in the Kingdom of Jerusalem
Egypt under the Fatimid Caliphate
Battles of Saladin

Battle of al-Babein


The Dnepropetrovsk maniacs is a media name for two serial killers from Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, who caused 21 murders in June and July 2007. The murderers are named Viktor Sayenko (born March 1, 1988) and Igor Suprunyuck (born April 20, 1988). They gained notoriety when a video recording of one of the murders was leaked to the internet. The video on the internet is often called 3guys1hammer. Sayenko and Suprunyuck were charged with murder after they were arrested. Alexander Hanzha, one of their friends, was charged with two robberies that took place before the murder spree. They were all found guilty by a court in February 2009, and Suprunyuck and Sayenko were sentenced to life imprisonment. Hanzha received nine years in prison.

The leaked internet video shows the murder of a 48-year-old man named Sergei Yatzenko. He is shown lying on his back in a wooded area, and is struck many times in the face with a hammer that is held inside a yellow plastic bag. Suprunyuck pokes out Yatzenko's eyes, and stabs him in the abdomen with a screwdriver. He is then struck with the hammer again in order to ensure that he is dead. The attack lasts over four minutes, during which the victim slips in and out of consciousness. During the video, Suprunyuck is shown smiling at the camera.

Related pages
 Academy maniacs

Living people
Prisoners
Serial killers
Ukrainian criminals

Dnepropetrovsk maniacs