was a town in Shisō District, Hyōgo, Japan.

As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 25,629 and a density of 143.27 persons per km2. The total area was 178.89 km2.

On April 1, 2005, Yamasaki, along with the towns of Chikusa, Haga and Ichinomiya (all from Shisō District), was merged to create the city of Shisō and no longer exists as an independent municipality.

Yamasaki was about 45 minutes by car from the nearest city, Himeji, which is to the east.

This population was served by a large hospital, the administrative center of Shisō City, and a major intercity highway, the Chūgoku Expressway. There was no rail link, largely dictated by geography. There was one large high school, three junior high schools,

Yamasaki translates as "Mountain Cape", a reference to its seclusion amongst a range of forest-covered mountains. The extensive forest area provides the town's biggest industry, logging. The new Shisō City incorporates a number of local townships and villages, most significantly the castle town of Haga and Chikusa.

Yamasaki has existed as a town for about fifty years, but the area has been occupied since the Ōnin period in the fifteenth century, as its ancient "Hachiman Shrine" denotes. Today, it includes substantial rice paddy cultivation.

Yamazaki Anzai, an important Confucian scholar, had ancestry in the area and was Yamasaki's best known personage.

External links
  Official website of Shiso

Dissolved municipalities of Hyōgo Prefecture
Shisō, Hyōgo

Yamasaki, Hyōgo


Lost in Yonkers is a play by  Neil Simon. The play won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Production
The play premiered at The Center for the Performing Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on December 31, 1990, then moved to Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on February 21, 1991, where it ran for  780 performances and 11 previews. Produced by Emanuel Azenberg and directed by Gene Saks, the cast included Jamie Marsh as Jay, Irene Worth as Grandma, Mercedes Ruehl as Bella, Kevin Spacey as Louie, Lauren Klein as Gert, Danny Gerard as Arty, and Mark Blum as Eddie.

Plot
In Brooklyn in 1942, Evelyn Kurnitz has just died following a lengthy illness. Her husband, Eddie Kurnitz, needs to take a job as a traveling salesman to pay the medical bills incurred, so he decides to ask his stern and straight-talking mother (from whom he is slightly estranged) if his two early-teen sons, Jay and Arty (whom she insists on calling by their full given names, Jacob and Arthur, which she pronounces "Yakob" and "Artur"), can live with her and their Aunt Bella Kurnitz in Yonkers. She refuses. After a threat by Bella, she lets them stay without ever saying they could stay. Despite their grandmother owning and operating a candy store, Jay and Arty do not like their new living situation.  They are afraid of their grandmother and find it difficult to relate to their crazy Aunt Bella, whose slow mental state is manifested by perpetual excitability and a short attention span, which outwardly comes across as a childlike demeanor.

Into their collective lives returns one of Eddie and Bella's other siblings, Louie Kurnitz, a henchman for some gangsters. He is hiding out from Hollywood Harry, who wants what Louie stole and is hiding in his small black bag. Jay and Arty's mission becomes how to make money fast so that they can help their father and move back in together, which may entail stealing the $15,000 their grandmother has hidden somewhere. Bella's mission is to find a way to tell the family that she wants to marry Johnny, her equally slow movie theater usher boyfriend; the two could also use $5,000 of Grandma's hidden money to open their dream restaurant. And Louie's mission is to survive the next couple of days.

Characters

Jay: He is fifteen "and a half" years old. He insists on the "and a half". The death of his  mother forces him to be more mature than he is ready to be when his father leaves him and his younger brother with his family so he can sell scrap iron during World War Two. The play tells his coming-of-age story.

Arty: Jay's younger brother, he is 13 "and a half" years old. More of an observer than the rest of his family, he often goes with the flow of things, but also can be a little childish.

Bella: Jay's aunt, late 30's to early 40's. She is sometimes a bit off-center and is mentally challenged, but despite this she is also loving and protective of her nephews. Much of the second half of the play focuses on her attempts at independence from her stern mother.

Louie: Jay's flamboyant, jovial uncle, in his late 30s, who comes to live with the family when he is hiding from the local mob. He is considered by Grandma Kurnitz to be the "survivor" of the family. He has a strong, mercurial nature, and a certain underlying dark side, which the kids uncover in the second act of the play. He works as a "bag-man" for the mob.

Grandma Kurnitz: Jay's grandmother. A very old and stern woman, an immigrant from Germany. Owing to her harsh childhood, she has always been very intolerant of what in others she calls "weaknesses". She is blunt, sometimes even in a funny way, and always knows what is going on with the people around her.

Eddie: Jay's middle-aged father. After the death of his wife, he is forced to send his two sons to live with their grandmother, while he repays his large financial debts. He is shown to be, much like his sisters, a nervous wreck around Grandma.

Gert: Jay's aunt, and Grandma's daughter. She is a very interesting addition to the family. Her most noticeable issue is that when she breathes she has a tendency to suck in while still speaking, as a result of trauma instilled in her by Mother, from a young age.

Film adaptation

Simon adapted his play for a 1993 feature film directed by Martha Coolidge, and starring Brad Stoll as Jay. Worth and Ruehl reprised their stage roles, and Richard Dreyfuss was cast as Louie. Bella's beau Johnny, an unseen character in the play, was portrayed by David Strathairn.

Awards and nominations
Source: Playbill Vault
Awards
 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play (Mercedes Ruehl)
 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (Kevin Spacey)
 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (Irene Worth)
 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play
 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (Mercedes Ruehl)
 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play (Kevin Spacey)
 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play (Irene Worth)
 Tony Award for Best Play

Nominations
 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play (Gene Saks)
 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design (Santo Loquasto)

References

External links

1991 plays
Jews and Judaism in Westchester County, New York
Plays by Neil Simon
Broadway plays
Drama Desk Award-winning plays
Pulitzer Prize for Drama-winning works
Tony Award-winning plays
American plays adapted into films
Plays set in New York (state)
Plays set in the 1940s
Yonkers, New York

Lost in Yonkers


The Old Fall River Road, sometimes referred to as "The Old Road" by park staff in Rocky Mountain National Park, was the first automobile road to penetrate the interior of the park. The road linked the east side of the park near Estes Park with Grand Lake on the west side. Work began in 1913 but was interrupted in 1914 by World War I with final work being completed between 1918 and 1920.

The narrow road was partly replaced by Trail Ridge Road in 1932, which incorporated sections of the Fall River Road. The road runs westward from Sheep Lakes to the Alpine Visitor Center. A rockslide closed the road in 1953 and it was not re-opened until 1968 when the National Park Service cleared the rocks and paved the lower third of the route. Both the one-way Old Fall River Road and the paved Trail Ridge Road are maintained and open to motor vehicles from Memorial Day weekend through the first major autumn snowstorm. Both roads are also open to bicycles from April 1 through November 30, but are not patrolled in the pre- and post-season times. Old Fall River Road may be closed for a time to all uses for maintenance.

See also
National Register of Historic Places listings in Larimer County, Colorado

References

External links

Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) documentation, filed under Estes Park, Larimer County, CO:

Road Status Report

National Register of Historic Places in Rocky Mountain National Park
Transportation in Larimer County, Colorado
Roads on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado
Historic American Engineering Record in Colorado
National Register of Historic Places in Larimer County, Colorado

Fall River Road


Ina-Maria Schnitzer (born 30 January 1986), better known as Jordan Carver, is a German glamour model and actress.

Early life
After graduating from secondary school and vocational school, Carver worked as a hotel manager. She also worked behind-the-scenes as a beautician and make-up artist for a large French cosmetic company. Carver met a photographer who encouraged her to become a model and moved to Los Angeles.

Career
In January 2010, Carver launched her modelling career with her own website featuring glamour photos, videos and other content. In addition to her own exclusive content, Carver began posing for magazine publications in 2011. In February, Carver posed for British men's magazine Zoo Weekly. In June 2011, Carver posed for the Italian fetish magazine Alula. At the same time, Carver was receiving media publicity in her native Germany.

Carver was featured in the German Bild magazine, which proclaimed her as "Yoga-Jordan", due to her yoga workouts. In January 2012, Carver was featured in the American tabloid and entertainment television show TMZ. In late 2012, Carver released a yoga workout DVD that became available in both the United States and Europe. In addition to her features in publications, Carver also appeared on many YouTube videos, and the WGN Morning News in Chicago.

In 2013, Carver made her acting debut in the German-American comedy Who Killed Johnny, in which she appeared as a naïve German model named Gudrun. From July to August 2013, Carver participated on the German reality show Wild Girls – Auf High Heels durch Afrika (Wild Girls - In High Heels Through Africa), in which she along with other participants lived in the deserts of Namibia with the indigenous people. Carver was voted off the show on 14 August.

Carver briefly trained as a boxer, fighting Melanie Muller in 2014 in Düsseldorf as part of "Das Grosse Prosieben Promiboxen" event.

In 2017, Schnitzer said that she no longer identifies with the public figure "Jordan Carver" and was starting a new chapter in her life.

Personal life
Carver announced that she had given birth to her first child, a boy, in January 2017.

See also
 List of Nuts Magazine models

References

External links

1986 births
Living people
German film actresses
German female models
People from Trier
21st-century German actresses
German emigrants to the United States
Models from Los Angeles
Glamour models

Jordan Carver


Mary Gindhart Herbert Roebling (July 29, 1905 – October 25, 1994) was an American banker, businesswoman, and philanthropist. She was the first woman to serve as president of a major US bank.

Biography
Mary Gindhart was born in West Collingswood, New Jersey on July 29, 1905. Mary's parents were Isaac Dare Gindhart Jr. and Mary (Simon) Gindhart, and was the eldest of four children. Mary's father Isaac was the president of the Keystone & Eastern Telephone Company, and her mother was a singer and pianist. She attended public schools in Moorestown and Haddonfield. She married musician Arthur Herbert in her teens (15), in 1920, and had a daughter, Elizabeth, in 1921
. Arthur died in 1922. She then worked in Philadelphia at an investment house while taking night classes in business administration and merchandising at the University of Pennsylvania.
Her second husband, was Hugh Graham. They married in 1923. She divorced Graham and married Siegfried Roebling in 1932 (a son of John A. Roebling II. Siegfried died in 1936 and left her Trenton Trust stock. She took his seat on a Trenton Trust Company board. She was elected president of the board on January 21, 1937, and became the first woman to serve as president of a major American commercial bank. She served as either president or chair of the board until 1972 when the bank merged with National State. She then chaired the combined banks until 1984.

Over the years Mary was requested to serve in various public service capacities including Citizen's Advisory Committee on Armed Forces Installations, Atlantic Congress for NATO, White House Congress on Refugee Programs, International Chamber of Commerce's 17th Congress, and Citizens Advisory Council to the Committee on the Status of Women. Through several administrations, Roebling served as a civilian aide to the Secretary of the Army. She was made president of the new Army War College Foundation in 1978. That year she also founded Women's Bank N.A. in Denver, the nation's first chartered bank established by women, and chaired its board until 1983. From 1958 to 1962, she was governor of the American Stock Exchange. She was their first woman governor.

In a 1965 speech, Mrs. Roebling said: "As a woman who for years has competed in the business world, I would be the first to agree that the American woman has almost unbelievable economic power, but American women, like women of all civilized nations, do not use the influence their economic power gives them."

She died on October 25, 1994, of renal failure at her home in Trenton, NJ.

Awards and recognition
In 1973, Roebling received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
In 2019, Roebling was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

Further reading

 The Women's Project of New Jersey Inc. (1997). Past and Promise: Lives of New Jersey Women. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.

References

Roebling, Mary
Roebling, Mary
Roebling, Mary
Roebling, Mary
Roebling, Mary
Roebling, Mary
Roebling, Mary
Roebling, Mary
Mary

Mary Roebling


The Battle of Ravenna was fought between supporters of Orestes and supporters of Julius Nepos for control of the Western Roman Empire. In prelude to the battle, Orestes had been ordered to raise a large army to confront tribal rulers in Gaul. Instead he led his force against emperor Julius Nepos in the capital Ravenna. Nepos was defeated and deposed, but managed to flee to Dalmatia. Orestes in turn enthroned his son Romulus Augustulus as Roman emperor. He was in turn overthrown by Odoacer in September 476 following the Roman defeat at Pavia.

Sources

475
Ravenna
Battles involving the Roman Empire
Ravenna
Ravenna

Battle of Ravenna (475)


DVD region codes are a digital rights management technique introduced in 1997. It is designed to allow rights holders to control the international distribution of a DVD release, including its content, release date, and price, all according to the appropriate region.

This is achieved by way of region-locked DVD players, which will play back only DVDs encoded to their region (plus those without any region code). The American DVD Copy Control Association also requires that DVD player manufacturers incorporate the regional-playback control (RPC) system. However, region-free DVD players, which ignore region coding, are also commercially available, and many DVD players can be modified to be region-free, allowing playback of all discs.

DVDs may use one code, multiple codes (multi-region), or all codes (region free).

Region codes and countries

Any combination of regions can be applied to a single disc. For example, a DVD designated Region 2/4 is suitable for playback in Europe, Latin America, Oceania, and any other Region 2 or Region 4 area. So-called "Region 0" and "ALL" discs are meant to be playable worldwide. The term "Region 0" also describes the DVD players designed or modified to incorporate Regions 1–8, thereby providing compatibility with most discs, regardless of region. This apparent solution was popular in the early days of the DVD format, but studios quickly responded by adjusting discs to refuse to play in such machines by implementing a system known as "Regional Coding Enhancement" (RCE).

DVDs sold in the Baltic states use both region 2 and 5 codes, having previously been in region 5 (because of their history as part of the USSR), but EU single market law concerning the free movement of goods caused a switch to region 2. European region 2 DVDs may be sub-coded "D1" to "D4". "D1" are the UK only releases; "D2" and "D3" are not sold in the UK and Ireland; "D4" are distributed throughout Europe. Overseas territories of the United Kingdom and France (both in region 2) often have other regions (4 or 5, depending on geographical situation) than their homelands.

Most DVDs sold in Mexico and the rest of Latin America carry both region 1 and 4 codes. Some are region 1 only after 2006 to coincide with Blu-Ray region A.

Egypt, Eswatini, Lesotho, and South Africa are in DVD region 2, while all other African countries are in region 5, but all African countries are in the same Blu-ray region code (region B).

North Korea and South Korea have different DVD region codes (North Korea: region 5, South Korea: region 3), but use the same Blu-ray region code (region A). In China, two DVD region codes are used: Mainland China uses region 6, but Hong Kong and Macau use region 3. There are also two Blu-ray regions used: China uses region C, while Hong Kong and Macau use region A. Most DVDs in India combine the region 2, region 4, and region 5 codes, or are region 0.

Region-code enhanced
Region-code enhanced, also known as just "RCE" or "REA", was a retroactive attempt to prevent the playing of one region's discs in another region, even if the disc was played in a region-free player. The scheme was deployed on only a handful of discs. The disc contained the main program material region coded as region 1. But it also contained a short video loop of a map of the world showing the regions, which was coded as region 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. The intention was that when the disc was played in a non-region 1 player, the player would default to playing the material for its native region. This played the aforementioned video loop of a map, which was impossible to escape from, as the user controls were disabled.

The scheme was fundamentally flawed, as a region-free player tries to play a disc using the last region that worked with the previously inserted disc. If it cannot play the disc, then it tries another region until one is found that works. RCE could be defeated by briefly playing a "normal" region 1 disc, and then inserting the RCE protected region 1 disc, which would now play. RCE also caused a few problems with genuine region 1 players.

Many "multi-region" DVD players defeated regional lockout and RCE by automatically identifying and matching a disc's region code or allowing the user to manually select a particular region. Some manufacturers of DVD players now freely supply information on how to disable regional lockout, and on some recent models, it appears to be disabled by default. Computer programs such as DVD Shrink can make copies of region-coded DVDs without RCE restriction.

Purpose
One purpose of region coding is controlling release dates. One practice of movie marketing which was threatened by the advent of digital home video was the tradition of releasing a movie to cinemas and then for general rental or sale later in some countries than in others. This practice was historically common because before the advent of digital cinema, releasing a movie at the same time worldwide used to be prohibitively expensive. Most importantly, manufacturing a release print of a film for public exhibition in a cinema has always been expensive, but a large number of release prints are needed only for a narrow window of time during the first few weeks after a film's release. Spreading out release dates allows for reuse of some release prints in other regions. For example, the film 28 Days Later was available on DVD in the United Kingdom before it was released in theaters in the United States.

Videotapes were inherently regional since formats had to match those of the encoding system used by television stations in that particular region, such as NTSC and PAL, although from the early 1990s PAL machines increasingly offered NTSC playback. DVDs are less restricted in that sense. Region coding allows movie studios to better control the global release dates of DVDs.

Also, the copyright in a title may be held by different entities in different territories. Region coding enables copyright holders to (attempt to) prevent a DVD from a region from which they do not derive royalties from being played on a DVD player inside their region. Region coding attempts to dissuade importing of DVDs from one region into another.

PAL/SECAM vs. NTSC
DVDs are also formatted for use on two conflicting regional television systems: 480i/60 Hz and 576i/50 Hz, which in analog contexts are often referred to as 525/60 (NTSC) and 625/50 (PAL/SECAM) respectively. Strictly speaking, PAL and SECAM are analog color television signal formats which have no relevance in the digital domain (as evident in the conflation of PAL and SECAM, which are actually two distinct analog color systems). However, the DVD system was originally designed to encode the information necessary to reproduce signals in these formats, and the terms continue to be used (incorrectly) as a method of identifying refresh rates and vertical resolution. However, an "NTSC", "PAL" or "SECAM" DVD player that has one or more analog composite video output (baseband or modulated) will only produce NTSC, PAL or SECAM signals, respectively, from those outputs, and may only play DVDs identified with the corresponding format.

NTSC is the analog TV format historically associated with the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Philippines, Taiwan, and other countries. PAL is the analog color TV format historically associated with most of Europe, most of Africa, China, India, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, North Korea, and other countries (Brazil adopted the variant PAL-M, which uses the refresh rate and resolution commonly associated with NTSC). SECAM, a format associated with French-speaking Europe, while using the same resolution and refresh rate as PAL, is a distinct format which uses a very different system of color encoding. Some DVD players can only play discs identified as NTSC, PAL or SECAM, while others can play multiple standards.

In general, it is easier for consumers in PAL/SECAM countries to view NTSC DVDs than vice versa. Almost all DVD players sold in PAL/SECAM countries are capable of playing both kinds of discs, and most modern PAL TVs can handle the converted signal. NTSC discs may be output from a PAL DVD player in three different ways:

using a non-chroma encoded format such as RGB SCART or YPBPR component video.
using PAL 60 encoded composite video/S-Video—a "hybrid" system which uses NTSC's 525/60 line format along with PAL's chroma subcarrier
using NTSC encoded composite video/S-Video.

However, most NTSC players cannot play PAL discs, and most NTSC TVs do not accept 576i video signals as used on PAL/SECAM DVDs. Those in NTSC countries, such as the United States, generally require both a region-free, multi-standard player and a multi-standard television to view PAL discs, or a converter box, whereas those in PAL countries generally require only a region-free player to view NTSC discs (with the possible exception of Japanese discs in most European countries, since they are in the same region - this means European region 2 users could import Japanese discs and play them on their players without any obstacles.) There are also differences in pixel aspect ratio (720 × 480 vs. 720 × 576 with the same image aspect ratio) and display frame rate (29.97 vs. 25).

Most computer-based DVD software and hardware can play both NTSC and PAL video and both audio standards. Blu-ray players, which use up to 1080p signals, are backwards compatible with both NTSC and PAL DVDs.

Implementations of region codes

Standalone DVD players
Usually a configuration flag is set in each player's firmware at the factory. This flag holds the region number that the machine is allowed to play. Region-free players are DVD players shipped without the ability to enforce regional lockout (usually by means of a chip that ignores any region coding), or without this flag set.

However, if the player is not region-free, it can often be unlocked with an unlock code entered via the remote control. This code simply allows the user to change the factory-set configuration flag to another region, or to the special region "0". Once unlocked this way, the DVD player allows the owner to watch DVDs from any region. Many websites exist on the Internet offering these codes, often known informally as hacks. Many websites provide instructions for different models of standalone DVD players, to hack, and their factory codes.

Computer DVD drives
Older DVD drives use RPC-1 (Regional Playback Control) firmware, which means the drive allows DVDs from any region to play. Newer drives use RPC-2 firmware, which enforces the DVD region coding at the hardware level. These drives can often be reflashed or hacked with RPC-1 firmware, effectively making the drive region-free. This may void the drive warranty.

Some drives may come set as region-free, so the user is expected to assign their region when they buy it. In this case, some DVD programs may prompt the user to select a region, while others may actually assign the region automatically based on the locale set in the operating system.

In most computer drives, users are allowed to change the region code up to five times. If the number of allowances reaches zero, the region last used will be permanent even if the drive is transferred to another computer. This limit is built into the drive's controller software, called firmware. Resetting the firmware count can be done with first- or third-party software tools, or by reflashing (see above) to RPC-1 firmware.

Since some software does not work correctly with RPC-1 drives, there is also the option of reflashing the drive with a so-called auto-reset firmware. This firmware appears as RPC-2 firmware to software, but will reset the region changes counter whenever power is cycled, reverting to the state of a drive that has never had its region code changed.

Software DVD players
Most freeware and open source DVD players ignore region coding. VLC, for example, does not attempt to enforce region coding; however, it requires access to the DVD's raw data to overcome CSS encryption, and such access may not be available on some drives with RPC-2 firmware when playing a disc from a different region than the region to which the drive is locked. Most commercial players are locked to a region code, but can be easily changed with software.

Other software, known as DVD region killers, transparently remove (or hide) the DVD region code from the software player. Some can also work around locked RPC-2 firmware.

Circumvention
The region coding of a DVD can be circumvented by making a copy that adds flags for all region codes, creating an all-region DVD. DVD backup software can do this, and some can also remove Macrovision, CSS, and disabled user operations (UOps).

In common region-locked DVDs (but not in RCE-DVDs), the region code is stored in the file "VIDEO_TS.IFO" (table "VMGM_MAT"), byte offsets 34 and 35. The eight regions each correspond to a value which is a power of 2: Region 1 corresponds to 1 (20), Region 2 to 2 (21), Region 3 to 4 (22), and so on through Region 8, which corresponds to 128 (27). The values of each region that the disc is not encoded for are added together to give the value in the file. For example, a disc that is encoded for Region 1 but not Regions 2–8 will have the value 2+4+8+16+32+64+128=254. A disc encoded for Regions 1, 2 and 4 will have the value 4+16+32+64+128=244. A region-free or RCE-protected DVD will carry the value zero, since no regions are excluded.

Video game consoles
The Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 consoles are all region-locked for DVD playback. The PlayStation 2 can be modified to have its regional-locking disabled through the use of modchips. Although region locked on film DVDs and film Blu-ray Discs, the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X are region free for video games, though add-on content on the online store is region locked and must match the region of the disc.

Blu-ray Disc region codes

Blu-ray Discs use a much simpler region-code system than DVD with only three regions, labeled A, B and C. As with DVDs, many Blu-rays are encoded region 0 (region free), making them suitable for players worldwide.

Blu-ray regions are verified only by the player software, not by the computer system or the drive, not like DVD regions. The region code is stored in a file or the registry, and there are hacks to reset the region counter of the player software. In standalone players, the region code is part of the firmware. Some Blu-Rays are region-free.

For bypassing region codes, there are software and multi-regional players available.

A new form of Blu-ray region coding tests not only the region of the player/player software, but also its country code. This means, for example, while both the US and Japan are Region A, some American discs are not going to be played on devices/software installed in Japan or vice versa, due to the two countries having different country codes (the United States has 21843 or Hex 5553 ("US" in ASCII, according to ISO 3166-1), and Japan has 19024, or Hex 4a50 ("JP"); Canada has 17217 or Hex 4341 ("CA").
Although there are only three Blu-ray regions, the country code allows much more precise control of the regional distribution of Blu-ray discs than the six (or eight) DVD regions.
In Blu-ray discs, there are not any "special regions" like the regions 7 and 8 in DVDs.

UMD region codes

For the UMD, a disc type used for the PlayStation Portable, UMD movies have region codes similar to DVDs, although many PSP games are region-free.

Region 0: Any disc is played worldwide
Region 1: Any disc is played in North and Central America
Region 2: Any disc is played in Europe, Japan, Middle East, South Africa and Greenland
Region 3: Any disc is played in Southeast Asia, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong
Region 4: Any disc is played in Oceania and South America
Region 5: Any disc is played in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, India, Pakistan, Africa (without Egypt or South Africa), North Korea and Mongolia
Region 6: Any disc is played in China

Criticism and legal concerns

Region coding has been criticized for facilitating unlawful market control strategies, such as price fixing. Sale of region-coded DVDs is illegal in New Zealand.

Oceania
The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) have warned that DVD players that enforce region-coding may violate the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. A December 2000 report from the ACCC advised consumers to "exercise caution when purchasing a DVD video player because of the restrictions that limit their ability to play imported DVDs." The report stated, "These restrictions are artificially imposed by a group of multinational film entertainment companies and are not caused by the existing differences in television display formats such as PAL, NTSC and SECAM [...] The ACCC is currently investigating whether Australian consumers are paying higher prices for DVDs because of the ability of copyright owners, such as film companies, to prevent competition by restricting imports from countries where the same (authorised) video titles are sold more cheaply." In 2012, a report from The Sydney Morning Herald revealed that region-free DVD players were legal in Australia, as they were exempt from the Technological Protection Measures (TPMs) included in the US Free Trade Agreement. Under New Zealand copyright law, DVD region codes and the mechanisms in DVD players to enforce them have no legal protection.

Europe
The practice was also criticized by the European Commission which as of 14 March 2001 were investigating whether the resulting price discrimination amounts to a violation of European competition law.

North America
The Washington Post highlighted how DVD region-coding was a major inconvenience for travelers who have the desire to legally purchase DVDs worldwide and return with them to their countries of origin, students of foreign languages, immigrants who want to watch films where they are from and foreign film fans. Another criticism is that region-coding allows for local censorship, such as the Region 1 DVD of the 1999 drama film Eyes Wide Shut which contains the digital manipulations needed for the film to secure an MPAA R-rating, while these manipulations are not evident in discs that are not in region 1.

See also

 Broadcast television systems
 DVD Copy Control Association
 Geo-blocking
 Regional lockout

References

External links
 Blu-ray and DVD Region Codes and Video Standards at Brenton Film
 DVD region information with regards to RCE from Home Theater Info
 Region Coding - Explanations & Help from The DVDCodes Source
 Amazon.co.uk DVD Regions guide

Digital rights management
Region code
Self-censorship
Hardware restrictions

DVD region code


In baseball, a series refers to two or more consecutive games played between the same two teams. Historically and currently, professional baseball season revolves around a schedule of series, each typically lasting three or four games.  In college baseball, there are typically midweek single games and weekend series, with all conference games in series of three games, with the second and fourth rounds of the NCAA Division I playoffs being best two out of three game series.  These series are often geographically grouped, allowing teams to visit adjacent cities conveniently. This is known in baseball as a road trip, and a team can be on the road for up to 20 games, or 4-5 series.

When a team hosts series at home (mainly two-four consecutive series), it is called a homestand. During the Major League Baseball Postseason, there are four wild card series (two in each League), each of which are a best-of-3 series. The remainder of the Postseason consists of the League Division Series, which is a best-of-5 series, and the League Championship Series, which is a best-of-7 series, followed by the World Series, a best-of-7 series to determine the Major League Baseball Champion. The "series" schedule gives its name to the MLB championship series, the World Series. The record for the longest series was set in 1904, when the St. Louis Browns played the Detroit Tigers for 11 consecutive games.

References

Baseball terminology

Series (baseball)


The Berenstain Bears (also known as "The Berenstain Bears Show" in its original run) is an animated comedy television series based on  the children's book series of the same name by Stan and Jan Berenstain, produced by Hanna-Barbera Pty Ltd., and Southern Star Productions. It aired in the United States from September 14, 1985, to March 7, 1987 on CBS with 52 11-minute episodes in 26 half-hour shows produced. Reruns of the show would continue to air on the network until September 5, 1987. Each show consisted of two episodes, the first being an adaptation of one of the books, the second being an original story.

The series was nominated in 1987 for a Daytime Emmy award for Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming; it was also nominated that year for a Humanitas Prize in the category of Non-Prime Time Children's Animated Show.

A second cartoon series aired on PBS Kids in 2003.

Plot
The series is set in a nearby forested land populated only by anthropomorphic bears and primarily centers around the Berenstain Bears. The Berenstain Bears are a family residing in the rural community of Bear Country. The family consists of Mama Bear, Papa Q. Bear, Brother Bear, and Sister Bear. The series teaches lessons, continues from the TV specials, and expands Bear Country as well as character development. Each episode follows the struggles of the family, mainly the cubs.

The characters and setting are from various books written by Stan & Jan Berenstain as well as from several television specials by Joe Cates. Other characters are Actual Factual, Big Paw, Mayor Horace J. Honeypot, Farmer Ben, Cousin Fred, and Grizzly Gramps & Gran.

Characters also introduced are Officer Marguerete, Scout Leader Jane, Lizzy Bruin, Queen Nectar, and Old Jake the Catfish (Queen Nectar and Jake are not bears but they do talk and interact with the Cubs).

The main antagonists of the series are the "swindler" con artist Raffish Ralph and occasionally Weasel McGreed, seen in six episodes. To a lesser extent, Too-Tall Grizzly is another antagonist, serving as the school bully.

Other episodes involve "The Bear Detectives" and their sniffer hound Snuff, Papa Q. Bear's attempts of honey gathering, interaction with forest creatures, and attempts by Weasel McGreed to take over Bear Country.

Episodes

Voice Cast
 Ruth Buzzi as Mama Bear, Grizzly Gran, Scout Leader Jane, Queen Nectar, and others
 Brian Cummings as Papa Q Bear, Actual Factual, Bigpaw, Horace J. Honeypot, Too-Tall and others
 Christina Lange as Sister Bear
 David Mendenhall as Brother Bear
 Marissa Mendenhall as Lizzy Bruin and others
 Josh Rodine as Cousin Fred
 Frank Welker as Raffish Ralph, Weasel McGreed, Grizzly Gramps, Farmer Ben, and others

Production
From 1979 to 1983, The Berenstain Bears made their television debut as a series of holiday specials that aired on NBC. The specials were created and written by Stan & Jan Berenstain, produced by Joe Cates, and directed by Buzz Potamkin. They continued to make one holiday special each year for five years.

After the release of The Berenstain Bears Play Ball,  the team began making a TV series based on the books and to a lesser extent, the same TV specials produced. Joe Cates and Buzz Potamkin produced this TV series as well and Elliott Lawrence continuing to score music for the episodes which were based on his compositions from the five specials, but in a faster pace. Some of the production staff who worked on the specials would continue to help out on the show's development. In addition to creating the original books, Stan and Jan Berenstain were producers on the show, and wrote some of the scripts.

Since Joe Cates was responsible for contracting NBC to fund the TV specials, he tried to pitch the show to the network, but his efforts would sadly be ineffetive due to a change in network leadership at the time. However, CBS got interested in the project and would soon struck a deal to pick up the series for a first 26-episode season as an attempt to lure a new audience for their Fall 1985 Saturday Morning lineup.

Development of the series would bring some "executive meddling" to the production staff. In addition to adapting existing works, CBS executives wanted the series to have an original story tied in to the episodes. Allegedly, some  of the pre-existing episodes that were planned (mainly the adaptation of the books "Too Much TV" and "Too Much Junk Food") were turned down by the executives. This actually frustrated Stan and Jan Berenstain, but it wasn't all that bad as many of the original segments would end up being turned into books.

The program was produced by Southern Star Productions/Hanna-Barbera Australia with new voice actors. The characters no longer talk in rhyme, and the TV series has the updated appearance and no longer has the rustic design of the earliest books.

The series expanded tremendously on Bear Country which includes many characters and landmarks as well as the economy and government. As a result, the episodes have a faster timing, and the characters seem much busier compared with the TV specials. The stories are now told without the narrator and are 11–12 minutes in length.

Broadcast
The show aired briefly on TLC's Ready Set Learn block from September 28, 1998, to January 8, 1999, when a contract dispute forced TLC to pull the show off the schedule.

During the early 2000s, reruns were later seen on DIC Kids Network syndicated programming block which primarily aired on some stations of FOX, the also now-defunct UPN, and The WB, but the episodes were edited and time-compressed by DIC.

In Australia, where Southern Star is based in, the series was aired on Network Ten.

Home Media Releases
A few episodes were released on VHS and DVD from various home entertainment labels, such as Random House Home Video, Goldstar Video, Feature Films for Families and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, albeit with slight alterations (such as a different design for the episode title cards).

Streaming
All of the episodes are available to watch for free on YouTube via the Official Berenstain Bears channel, though with varied video quality.

References

External links

1980s American children's television series
1980s American animated television series
1985 American television series debuts
1987 American television series endings
1985 Australian television series debuts
1987 Australian television series endings
American children's animated comedy television series
American television shows based on children's books
Australian children's animated comedy television series
Australian television shows based on children's books
English-language television shows
1985 TV
CBS original programming
Animated television series about bears
Animated television series about families
Television series by Endemol Australia
Television series by Hanna-Barbera

The Berenstain Bears (1985 TV series)


A cricket bat is a specialised piece of equipment used by batters in the sport of cricket to hit the ball, typically consisting of a cane handle attached to a flat-fronted willow-wood blade. It may also be used by a batter who is making batter's ground to avoid a run out, by holding the bat and touching the ground with it. The length of the bat may be no more than 38 inches (96.5 cm) and the width no more than 4.25 inches (10.8 cm). Its use is first mentioned in 1624. Since 1979, a law change has provided that cricket bats can only be made from wood.

Construction

The blade of a cricket bat is a wooden block that is generally flat on the striking face and with a ridge on the reverse (back) which concentrates wood in the middle where the ball is generally hit. The bat is traditionally made from willow wood, specifically from a variety of white willow called cricket bat willow (Salix alba var. caerulea), treated with raw (unboiled) linseed oil, which has a protective function. This variety of willow is used as it is very tough and shock-resistant, not being significantly dented nor splintering on the impact of a cricket ball at high speed, while also being light in weight. The face of the bat is often covered with a protective film by the user. In 1900 Percy Stuart Surridge developed a reinforced toe.

The blade is connected to a long cylindrical cane handle, similar to that of a mid-20th-century tennis racquet, using a splice. The handle is usually covered with a rubber grip. Bats incorporate a wooden spring design where the handle meets the blade. The current design of a cane handle spliced into a willow blade through a tapered splice was the invention in the 1880s of Charles Richardson, a pupil of Brunel and the first Chief Engineer of the Severn Railway Tunnel. Spliced handles had been used before this but tended to break at the corner of the join. The taper provides a more gradual transfer of load from the bat's blade to the handle and avoids this problem.

The edges of the blade closest to the handle are known as the shoulders of the bat, and the bottom of the blade is known as the toe of the bat.

Bats were not always this shape. Before the 18th century, bats tended to be shaped similarly to modern hockey sticks. This may well have been a legacy of the game's reputed origins. Although the first forms of cricket are obscure, it may be that the game was first played using shepherd's crooks.

The bat generally recognised as the oldest bat still in existence is dated 1729 and is on display in the Sandham Room at The Oval in London.

Maintenance
When first purchased, most bats are not ready for immediate use and require knocking-in to allow the soft fibres to strike a hard new cricket ball without causing damage to the bat, and allowing full power to be transferred to the shot. Knocking-in involves striking the surface with an old cricket ball or a special mallet. This compacts the soft fibres within the bat and reduces the risk of the bat snapping. The bat may also need raw linseed oil, which fills in the gaps between the fibres.

Raw linseed oil is used, rather than boiled linseed oil, as the raw form is also a drying oil but very slow "drying", and so the surface remains tacky. Applied regularly, this has a protective effect on the wood and makes it less sensitive to humidity changes in the atmosphere, which could cause warping or splitting. Another important factor is that it increases the surface friction of the ball to the bat surface, giving better control of the shot. A worn surface can be noticed by the player, indicating that re-oiling is needed.

Sizes of bats
Law 5 of the Laws of Cricket state that the length of the bat may be no more than 38  in (965  mm), the width no more than 4.25  in (108  mm), the overall depth no more than 2.64  in (67  mm) and edge no more than 1.56  in (40  mm). Appendix B of the Laws of Cricket set out more precise specifications. This rule was introduced following the Monster Bat Incident 1771.

The 2017 update to the Laws saw no changes to the maximum length of the bat, which is still 38  inches/96.52  cm, but a new specification stated that the edge of the bat cannot be more than 1.56  inches / 4  cm while the depth cannot be more than 2.64  inches / 6.7  cm. The umpires are now given a bat gauge so they can check the legality of the bat at any time.

Bats are available in a range of sizes, with some manufacturers offering unique variations. Commonly found are children's sizes 0 to 6, youth size Harrow and adult sizes. SH (Short Handle) is the most common adult size, whilst long handle and long blade options are also available. Children's sizes increase in length and width as the size increase. Although most adult bats will be the maximum width permitted (4.25  inches), no generally available cricket bat is a maximum length of 38  very few exceed 35  inches.

Variations

Various companies have over the years tried new shapes that come within the laws of the game to make a name for themselves and to improve sales. In the 1960s the first shoulderless bats appeared from Slazenger. This allowed more of the weight to be redistributed to the "sweet spot" of the blade providing more power to each stroke, whilst still having good balance and light "pick up". This style of the bat was made famous by Lance Cairns's six sixes in a match played in 1983.

The 1970s saw double-sided bats from Warsop Stebbing. With the advent of Twenty20 cricket, double-sided bats are experiencing renewed interest.

In 1974 the first GN100 Scoop was released; this was the first bat to turn to shape on its head by removing the wood from the centre of the rear of the bat. By removing this wood, the bat became lighter, its sweet spot grew and its pick-up improved. Even though there is less material, strong strokes are still possible if well-timed. It allows weaker players to play many strokes they would otherwise omit from their repertoire.  This bat quickly became a big seller and various scooped bats such as the GN500, Dynadrive and Viper have been released by Gray-Nicolls ever since, including a re-release of the Scoop itself for the 2012 English season. The removal of wood from the rear has been copied by many other companies without much critical acclaim.

In 1979 Australian cricketer Dennis Lillee briefly used a ComBat aluminium metal bat. After some discussion with the umpires, and after complaints by the English team that it was damaging the ball, which was later proved untrue, he was urged by the Australian captain Greg Chappell to revert to a wooden bat as Chappell believed it was not delivering the same amount of power to the ball as a regulation wooden bat. The rules of cricket were shortly thereafter amended, stating that the blade of a bat must be made entirely of wood.

In the 1980s Stuart Surridge & Co developed the Turbo. Designed by John Surridge, the bat was formed from two pieces of willow which reduced the flex and increased the transfer of power. The bat was used by Graham Gooch for his record 333 against India in 1990.

In 2005 Kookaburra released a new type of bat that had a carbon fibre-reinforced polymer support down the spine of the bat. It was put on the bat to provide more support to the spine and blade of the bat, thus prolonging the life of the bat. The first player to use this new bat in international cricket was Australian Ricky Ponting. Kookaburra withdrew it after advice was received by the ICC from MCC that it was illegal under Law 6.

In 2005 Newbery created a carbon fibre handle, the C6 and C6+, which weighed 3 ounces/85 grams less than a standard laminated cane and rubber handle. It was used by Newbery and Puma for three years before the concept was copied by Gray Nicolls with a hollow plastic tube. However, this provoked the MCC to change the law on materials in handles amid fears that the new technology would lead to an increase in the distance the ball was hit. Now only 10% of the volume of the handle can be other than cane.

Also in late 2008, SAFBats created a cricket bat with an offset edge. The edge offsetting allowed for an extended middle, better swing weight and increased performance without compromising the cricket bat's balance. The production models were available in 2009, and the bat won awards in 2010 and 2012.

Twenty20 bats
In 2004, Newbery created the Uzi, with a truncated blade and elongated handle for the new Twenty20 format of the game. This change allowed more wood to be placed in the middle, as more attacking shots are played in the shorter version of the game. In 2009, an extreme version of the Newbery Uzi shape named the Mi3 was launched by Mongoose. The design is unusual in that the blade is 33% shorter than a conventional bat and the handle is 43% longer. Launched with a fanfare of publicity, it proclaimed the idea of not defending the ball in the T20 format and purely playing attacking shots.

On 11 March 2010, Mongoose launched its range in India with the announcement of Matthew Hayden as the brand ambassador. Stuart Law, the former Australian Test player, called it "a half-brick on a stick". The bat was used by Hayden in the 2010 version of the IPL. Gareth Andrew, the Worcestershire all-rounder, scored his maiden 100 with an MMi3 in professional cricket when he hit 100 off 58 balls at the Oval in 2010 against Surrey.

In 2008, Lekka Cricket launched a T20 format bat, the Big Hitter. Black Cat Cricket then launched a T20 format bat, the Joker, in 2009. These worked on a similar principle to other T20 bats with the blade length reduced by one inch and an inch longer handle, but uniquely reduced the width of the bat to 4 inches in an adult bat.

Manufacturing

Modern bats are usually hand-made in the Indian sub-continent (India or Pakistan) due to the low cost of labour. However a few specialists in England, Australia, and New Zealand still make bats, mostly with use of a CNC lathe.

Cricket bat industry of India
Traditional Indian cricket bats are made in the regions of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. In Kashmir they are made out of willow found in northern India. Some bats made in Kashmir are of international standards and are/were used by national players in India Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh.

Kashmir willow bats

The willow used in making bats in Kashmir was brought in by the British, who ruled India, during the 1820s. The industry combines traditional tools with modern technology. Some of the districts where these bats are made in Kashmir are Anantnag, Baramula, and Pahalgam.

The species is identical (Salix alba var. caerulea) to English willow and the only difference is that the willow is not grown in England. Kashmir willow bats play well and no evidence has been presented that the wood or finished product has different properties or plays any differently. However, Kashmir willow bats sell for significantly lower prices than English willow, on the belief that the English willow bats are superior. Kashmir willow bats are widespread in social and amateur competitions, although English willow is seen as a more "serious" cricketer's bat.

Much of the English Willow cricket bat market consists of bats that are made in India from imported English willow blanks. It would be virtually impossible to detect "counterfeit" English willow bats made from Kashmir willow. The marketing of English willow bats is, therefore, a trust exercise between the buyer and the brand, that the brand has not inflated their supply of "English willow" bats by sourcing blanks from India as well as England. This risk of substitution is a major hurdle for small brands looking to get bats manufactured in India. Resources are needed to ensure the integrity and custody of the English willow at all stages of production.

English willow bats with minor visual defects such as grains that are not perfectly straight, or discolourations, are also cheaper. Former England captain Geoffrey Boycott has stated that such bats will play just as well as better-looking ones and that players ought to buy the cheaper ones to get the same performance at a better price. It is unlikely that any difference in performance can be noted by most players from imperfections unless they are severe. Provided the willow has been handled and prepared competently after felling and during the bat's creation, the much more important factor is the pickup (or weight distribution) of the bat, and its suitability to the player's style. Different shaping techniques create a higher or lower centre of balance, and different "sweet spot" sizes and locations.

One issue presented as the case against Kashmir willow is the warmer growing region. The timber is said to be firmer, with less spring. However, this is a common issue for English willow bats, too. Due to the shortage of stock and demand for English willow, many small plantations on private property have been established in ideal conditions, with trees maturing as young as 10 to 12 years. This has meant a much wider grain in the wood, sometimes leading to bats with as few as 6 or even 4 grains. Bats with 8 or fewer grains are held to be harder and take longer to play well, but also to last longer. Bats with 16 or more grains are held to be softer and more playable immediately but with a reduced lifespan. 8 to 12 grains is commonly the desirable range.

Australia is another country growing Salix alba var. caerulea for cricket bats, with the entire Australian stock descended from staves sent to Australia in the 1930s from the then-England captain to his Australian counterpart. Australia grew its willow for decades until Slazenger bought the company which owned most of the plantations. Slazenger's only interest was in apparel and the plantations were mostly sold and destroyed. In the 1990s a project was launched to again commercially grow cricket bat willow. There are now plantations in Victoria and New South Wales, but not Queensland, where all forms of willow cultivation are banned.

Modern alternatives to willow
With the English willow (Salix alba var. caerulea) trees diminishing in numbers across England, researchers have tried to invent modern alternatives to cricket bats made of wood from the willow tree. According to a study published in The Journal of Sports Engineering and Technology by Dr Darshil Shah and Ben TInkler-Davies of the University of Cambridge, cricket bats made of wood from the bamboo plant provide higher strength than a traditional willow bat and hence, can be thinner and lighter than a willow bat, providing strength similar to a willow bat. The bamboo bat the researchers used was a specially made prototype laminated bat made by sticking layers of bamboo wood together. The sweet spot on the bamboo bat performed 19% better than that on a willow bat.

Alternatives to willow, such as bamboo can further drive cricket's global expansion in regions where the willow tree does not grow, such as China and South-East Asia, where bamboo thrives. This would make cricket bats made of bamboo substantially cheaper than traditional willow bats and thus make the sport more accessible.

The Marylebone Cricket Club issued a statement saying that a bat made from bamboo would be illegal under the current set of laws, as Law 5.3.2 of the Laws of Cricket states that in a cricket bat, "The blade shall consist solely of wood..." Since bamboo is grass, this Law would need to be changed to allow bamboo bats. The statement further read that the issue of bamboo bats and other alternatives to willow would be discussed in the next Laws sub-committee meeting.

Giant bats
Several organisations have made giant cricket bats and claimed them as the largest bat in the world. According to the Laws of Cricket, a bat can have a maximum width of 4.25 inches (108  mm), so these bats cannot be used in an official game. , Guinness World Records state that the largest bat is  long and was made by Classic Mall Development Company in Chennai, India.

Other giant bats include:
 A synthetic cricket bat  high and  wide is installed at Indira Gandhi Stadium in Vijayawada, India.
 LEMU Soft Drinks in Bangladesh created a  long and  wide bat to wish the Bangladesh cricket team good luck in the 2007 Cricket World Cup.
 LG Electronics presented a  long,  wide,  deep bat to the South Africa national cricket team at their final warmup game prior to the 2003 Cricket World Cup. LG's press release shows this bat is the largest ever constructed.
 The Pasban Giant Cricket Bat was unveiled at Defense Stadium, Karachi, Pakistan in the lead up to the 1996 Cricket World Cup. The bat is  in length.

See also

Cricket clothing and equipment

References

External links

Cricket equipment
Batting (cricket)
Cricket

Cricket bat


The Teton Dam was an earthen dam in the western United States, on the Teton River in eastern Idaho. It was built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, one of eight federal agencies authorized to construct dams. Located between Fremont and Madison counties, it suffered a catastrophic failure on June 5, 1976, as it was filling for the first time.

The collapse of Teton Dam killed 11 people and 16,000 livestock. The dam cost about $100 million to build and the federal government paid over $300 million in claims related to its failure. Total damage estimates have ranged up to $2 billion, and the dam was not rebuilt.

History and geology
Interest in building a dam in the eastern Snake River Plain had arisen for many years to control spring runoff and provide a more constant water supply in the summer. The area had suffered a severe drought in 1961, followed by severe flooding in 1962. The Bureau of Reclamation proposed the Teton Dam in 1963 and Congress passed, without opposition, an authorizing bill the following year. The planned dam was to be an earthen structure  high and  long, creating a reservoir  in length. The impounded water would be used to generate hydroelectric power. An environmental impact statement was issued for the dam in 1971, but it did not raise the possibility of a collapse. Lack of funding and site preparation work and questions surrounding the required environmental impact statement stalled the project. Barely 14 pages long, the statement quickly drew the ire of opponents of the project.

On September 27, 1971, several environmental and conservation groups filed a lawsuit in Idaho District Court to stop the construction. Opponents of the dam questioned the project's justifications. They argued that damming a wild and scenic river would result in the destruction of its trout fishery and other wildlife habitat and "replace a unique resource with a vulgar one." The suit questioned the economic return on the investment, the bureau's compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act, and the geologic soundness of the dam's location. Concerns over the seismic conditions of the dam site delayed the bid process pending further review by the Department of the Interior. Pressure from Idaho's congressional delegation stopped the review, and in spite of the lawsuit, bids were taken in Idaho Falls on October 29, 1971. The contract was awarded to Morrison-Knudsen Co. of Boise, assisted by Peter Kiewit Sons Co. of Omaha, Nebraska. The $39 million contract was awarded in December 1971. In spite of the lawsuit, work began in February 1972. After various motions, amended complaints, attempted injunctions, and appeals, the suit was dismissed on December 23, 1974.

The eastern Snake River Plain is almost entirely underlain by basalt erupted from large shield volcanos on top of rhyolitic ash-flow tuff and ignimbrites. The tuff, a late-Cenozoic volcanic rock, is 1.9 million years old. The dam site is composed of basalt and rhyolite, both of which are considered unsuitable for dam construction because of their high permeability. This was confirmed by long-term pump-in tests at rates of  per minute. Test cores, drilled by engineers and geologists employed by the Bureau of Reclamation, showed that the canyon rock at the dam site is highly fissured and unstable, particularly on the right side (as one faces the direction of flow). The widest fissures were determined to be  wide. The bureau planned to seal these fissures by injecting grout into the rock under high pressure to create a grout curtain in the rock.

In addition, an investigation of the area by geologists of the U.S. Geologic Survey indicated that it was seismically active; five earthquakes had occurred within  of the dam site in the previous five years, two of which had been of significant magnitude. This information was provided to the Bureau of Reclamation in a memorandum, but the geologists' concerns were considerably watered down in the 6-month redrafting process before the USGS sent the final version of the memo to the USBR in July 1973.

In 1973, when the dam was only half built, but almost $5 million had already been spent on the project, large, open fissures were encountered during excavation of the keyway trench near the right end of the dam, about  from the canyon wall. The two largest, near-vertical fissures trended generally east-west and extended more than  below the bottom of the key trench. Some of the fissures were lined with calcite, and rubble filled others. Several voids, as much as  wide, were encountered  below the ground surface beyond the right end of the dam and grout curtain. The largest fissures were actually caves. One of them was  wide and  long. Another one was  wide in places and  long. These were not grouted because they were beyond the keyway trench and beyond the area where the bureau had decided grouting was required. This necessitated using twice as much grouting as had been originally anticipated; the total injected grout included 496,515 ft3 of Portland cement, 82,364 ft3 of sand, 132,000 pounds of bentonite, and 418,000 pounds of calcium chloride, injected into 118,179 linear ft of drilled holes.

Later, the report of a committee of the House of Representatives, which investigated the dam's collapse, felt that the discovery of the caves should have been sufficient for the Bureau of Reclamation to doubt its ability to fill them in with grout, but this did not happen.  Even after the dam had failed, the bureau continued to insist that the grouting was appropriate.

In December 1972, concerned about the geological conditions of the Teton River Canyon, USGS geologist David Schleicher wrote about the Teton Dam while it was still under construction, "A final point is that flooding in response to seismic or other failure of the dam—probably most likely at the time of highest water—would make the flood of February 1962 look like small potatoes. Since such a flood could be anticipated, we might consider a series of strategically placed motion-picture cameras to document the process."

Filling
The dam was completed in November 1975 and filling the reservoir began at the standard rate of  a day. However, snows were heavy that winter, and five months later, the project's construction engineer requested permission to double the filling rate to deal with the additional spring run-off, while continuing to inspect for leaks and monitor the groundwater. A month later,  though monitoring showed that groundwater was flowing a thousand times faster than had been originally anticipated, the filling rate was doubled again, to  a day.

On June 3 and 4, 1976, three small springs were discovered downstream of the dam, although the water running through the leaks was clear and such leaks are not unexpected for an earthen dam. At the time, the reservoir was almost at capacity, with a maximum depth of . The only structure that had been initially prepared for releasing water was the emergency outlet works, which could carry just . The main outlet works and spillway gates were not yet in service; the gates were cordoned off by steel walls while they were being painted.

Collapse and flood

On Saturday, June 5, 1976, at 7:30 am MDT, a muddy leak appeared, suggesting sediment was in the water, but engineers did not believe there was a problem. By 9:30 am, the downstream face of the dam had developed a wet spot, which began to discharge water at  and the embankment material began to wash out. Crews with bulldozers were sent to plug the leak, but were unsuccessful. Local media appeared at the site and at 11:15, officials told the county sheriff's office to evacuate downstream residents. Work crews were forced to flee on foot as the widening gap, now larger than a swimming pool, swallowed their equipment. The operators of two bulldozers caught in the eroding embankment were pulled to safety with ropes.

At 11:55 am MDT (UTC−17:55), the crest of the dam sagged and collapsed into the reservoir; two minutes later, the remainder of the right-bank third of the main dam wall disintegrated. Over  (many times the average flow rate of Niagara Falls) of sediment-filled water emptied through the breach into the remaining  of the Teton River canyon, after which the flood spread out and shallowed on the Snake River Plain. By 8:00 pm, the reservoir had completely emptied, although over two-thirds of the dam wall remained standing.

Cause
Study of the dam's environment and structure placed blame for the collapse on the permeable loess soil used in the core and on fissured (cracked) rhyolite in the abutments of the dam that allowed water to seep around and through the earth-fill dam. The permeable loess was found to be cracked. The combination of these flaws is thought to have allowed water to seep through the dam and to lead to internal erosion, called piping, that eventually caused the dam's collapse.

An investigating panel had quickly identified piping as the most probable cause of the failure, then focused its efforts on determining how the piping started. Two mechanisms were possible. The first was the flow of water under highly erodible and unprotected fill, through joints in unsealed rock beneath the grout cap and development of an erosion tunnel. The second was "cracking caused by differential strains or hydraulic fracturing of the core material." The panel was unable to determine whether one or the other mechanism occurred, or a combination:

The fundamental cause of failure may be regarded as a combination of geological factors and design decisions that, taken together, permitted the failure to develop.

A wide-ranging controversy ensued from the dam's collapse. According to the Bureau of Reclamation, bureau engineers assess all reclamation dams under strict criteria established by the Safety of Dams program. Each structure is periodically reviewed for resistance to seismic activity, for internal faults, and for physical deterioration. The dam safety program identified two other dangerous dams – Fontenelle, which very nearly failed 11 years earlier, when it was filled, in a manner similar to the Teton Dam, and again in May 1985; and the Jackson Lake Dam, which would have failed during an earthquake on the nearby Teton Fault.

Deaths, damage, and property claims

Teton Canyon ends about  below the dam site, where the river flows onto the Snake River Plain. When the dam failed, the flood struck several communities immediately downstream, particularly Wilford at the terminus of the canyon, Sugar City, Salem, Hibbard, and Rexburg. Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed. The small agricultural communities of Wilford and Sugar City were wiped from the river bank. Five of the 11 deaths attributed to the flood occurred in Wilford. The similar community of Teton, on the south bank of the river, is on a modest bench and was largely spared. One Teton resident was fishing on the river at the time of the dam failure and was drowned. An elderly woman living in the city of Teton died as a result of the evacuation.

An estimated 80% of existing structures were damaged in the Hibbard and Rexburg area, whose population was about 10,000. The Teton River flows through the industrial, commercial, and residential districts of north Rexburg. Much of the damage in the area was done by thousands of logs dislodged from a lumber yard. Dozens of them hit a bulk gasoline-storage tank a few hundred yards away. The gasoline ignited and sent flaming slicks adrift on the racing water. The force of the logs and cut lumber and the subsequent fires practically destroyed the town.

The flood waters traveled west along the route of the Henrys Fork of the Snake River, around both sides of the Menan Buttes, damaging the community of Roberts. The city of Idaho Falls, even further down on the flood plain, had time to prepare. At the older American Falls Dam downstream, engineers increased discharge by less than 5% before the flood arrived. That dam held and the flood was effectively over, but tens of thousands of acres of land near the river were stripped of fertile topsoil.

The force of the failure destroyed the lower part of the Teton River, washing away riparian zones and reducing the canyon walls. This damaged the stream's ecology and hurt the native Yellowstone cutthroat trout population. The force of the water and excessive sediment also damaged stream habitat in the Snake River and some tributaries, as far downstream as the Fort Hall bottoms.

Debris clean-up began immediately and took the remainder of the summer. Rebuilding of damaged property continued for several years. Within a week of the disaster, President Gerald Ford requested a $200 million appropriation for initial payments for damages, without assigning responsibility for Teton Dam's failure.

The Bureau of Reclamation set up claims offices in Rexburg, Idaho Falls, and Blackfoot. By January 4, 1977, seven months after the disaster, victims had filed over 4,800 claims totaling $194 million and the federal government had paid 3,813 of those claims worth $93.5 million. The claims program was originally scheduled to end in July 1978, but continued until January 1987, when the federal government had paid 7,563 claims for a total amount of $322 million.

No plans have been made for rebuilding the Teton Dam, but its reconstruction has been discussed over the years.

Footage and interviews are featured in Catastrophe-No Safe Place (1980), hosted by Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland.

See also
Great Sheffield Flood
St. Francis Dam, a concrete dam near Los Angeles, which failed in 1928 resulting in over 400 deaths
Fontenelle Dam, an earthen dam in southwest Wyoming, which partially failed in 1965 but remains in operation

References

External links

 Bureau of Reclamation overview with photos and link to final report
 The Teton Basin Project, Eric A. Stene, Bureau of Reclamation History Program, 1996
 "The Bureau That Changed the West" One That Got Away: Teton Dam
 Teton Dam Flood Museum, Rexburg, Idaho
 Teton Dam Collection – Oral History reports and newspaper articles, includes more than 50 oral history interviews of those living in the area when the disaster occurred.
 Images showing progressive dam erosion damage, taken at the time by Mrs. Eunice Olson
 Teton Dam Failure Narrative
 Teton River Canyon, ID Teton Dam Collapse and Flooding, Jun 1976 at GenDisasters.com
 Johnson, Elaine, "Teton Dam Flood, June 5, 1976" now at http://www.fremont.idgenweb.org/history-flood.html
 Watch Catastrophe-No Safe Place (1980) on the Internet Archive

1970s floods in the United States
1970s floods
1976 natural disasters in the United States
1976 in Idaho
Buildings and structures in Fremont County, Idaho
Buildings and structures in Madison County, Idaho
Dams completed in 1976
Dam failures in the United States
Dams in Idaho
Disasters in Idaho
Environmental disasters in the United States
United States Bureau of Reclamation dams

Teton Dam


James Joseph Leyritz (born December 27, 1963) is an American former professional baseball catcher and infielder. In his 11-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, Leyritz played for the New York Yankees, Anaheim Angels, Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox, San Diego Padres, and Los Angeles Dodgers. With the Yankees, Leyritz was a member of the  and 1999 World Series championships, both over the Atlanta Braves.

Early years
Leyritz grew up in Anderson Township, Hamilton County, Ohio with his parents, brother, and sister, and attended Turpin High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. He then attended Middle Georgia College, a junior college in Cochran, Georgia, before transferring to the University of Kentucky. At Kentucky, Leyritz played college baseball for the Kentucky Wildcats baseball team.

Baseball career
After playing the 1985 season for the Kentucky Wildcats, Leyritz went undrafted by Major League Baseball (MLB), but was signed as a free agent by the New York Yankees. Leyritz made his MLB debut for the Yankees on June 8, 1990.

His playing days were highlighted by a pair of memorable postseason home runs he hit with the Yankees in 1995 and 1996 in comeback wins. In Game 2 of the 1995 American League Division Series against the Seattle Mariners at Yankee Stadium, in rainy conditions, Leyritz hit a walk-off two-run home run to right-center field in the 15th inning, giving the Yankees a 7–5 victory and a two-games-to-none lead in the best-of-five series. The home run was surrendered by Mariners pitcher Tim Belcher, who was famously involved in a profanity-laced incident with a cameraman covering him walking through the tunnel to the clubhouse afterwards.

The best known of Leyritz's playoff heroics occurred in Game 4 of the 1996 World Series against the Atlanta Braves at Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium. In the series, the Yankees trailed the Braves two games to one, and in Game 4, the Yankees trailed, 6–0, after five innings. The Yankees rallied for three runs in the 6th inning, setting the stage for Leyritz in the 8th inning. Facing Atlanta closer Mark Wohlers with one out and two runners on base, Leyritz hit a three-run home run to left field to tie the game and cap the improbable Yankee comeback. "In the air to left field... back, at the track, at the wall, we are tied!" said announcer Joe Buck on national television. The Yankees eventually won the game, 8–6, in 10 innings to tie the series. In Game 5, Leyritz caught pitchers Andy Pettitte and John Wetteland for a 1–0 shutout, and the Yankees clinched their championship with a victory in Game 6.

After the 1996 season, the Yankees traded Leyritz to the Anaheim Angels for two players to be named later (PTBNL): minor leaguers Jeremy Blevins and Ryan Kane. On July 29, 1997, the Angels traded Leyritz and a PTBNL (minor leaguer Rob Sasser) to the Texas Rangers for Ken Hill. After the season, the Rangers traded Leyritz to the Boston Red Sox with Damon Buford for Mark Brandenburg, Bill Haselman, and Aaron Sele.

On June 20, 1998, the Red Sox traded Leyritz with Ethan Faggett to the San Diego Padres for Carlos Reyes, Mandy Romero and Darío Veras. Leyritz had a number of unlikely playoff home runs and clutch hits that season. The most dramatic of them came in Game 2 of the National League Division Series against Houston Astros pitcher Billy Wagner. Leyritz hit an opposite-field game-tying home run off the right field foul pole in the top of the 9th inning. However, the Astros won the game in the bottom half of the inning. In Game 3, Leyritz hit the eventual game-winning home run against Scott Elarton in the bottom of the 7th inning that broke a 1–1 tie. Overall, Leyritz batted .400 with three home runs and five runs batted in in that series. Leyritz's Padres were matched against his former team, the Yankees, in the 1998 World Series. During player introductions in Game 1 at Yankee Stadium, Leyritz received a standing ovation from the fans who remembered his heroics from two years earlier. He went hitless in ten at bats in a four-game Yankees sweep.

On July 31, 1999, the Padres traded Leyritz to the Yankees for Geraldo Padua. The Yankees advanced to the 1999 World Series, and in Game 4, in the bottom of the 8th inning, Leyritz hit a solo home run to extend the Yankees' lead to 4–1 and help them complete a sweep of the Braves to win a championship. NBC commentator Bob Costas remarked incredulously about Leyritz after the home run, "You could send this guy to a resort in the spring and summer, as long as he comes back in October." That home run was the last one to be hit in the 1990s.

On June 20, 2000, the Yankees traded Leyritz to the Los Angeles Dodgers for José Vizcaíno and cash. Although he was traded midway during the 2000 season before the Yankees won their third straight World Series title and fourth in five seasons, Leyritz was awarded his third World Series ring by the Yankees.

Leyritz became a free agent after the 2000 season, and signed in 2001 with the Newark Bears of the independent Atlantic League. His performance there led to a contract with the Padres, who assigned him to AAA. He did not receive a call-up to the Major Leagues.

Leyritz served as a pinch-hitter toward the end of his career. He batted and threw right-handed exclusively in the majors, but was known to switch-hit in the minor leagues.

Amphetamine use
On June 8, 2006, while doing an interview on the Opie and Anthony show on XM Satellite Radio, Leyritz admitted to using amphetamines during his playing career when they were not against the rules. The statement came in the wake of an admission by pitcher Jason Grimsley that he used performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career.

Idiosyncrasies at the plate
Leyritz was known for using an unusual stance which involved keeping his front leg (left leg) straight and stiff while his back leg (right leg) behind him considerably bent at the knee. He did this while circling his bat around behind his head, waiting for the pitch. After each pitch that Leyritz did not put into play or strike out on, he grabbed the bat by its center and twirled it at his hip like a baton. He has said that former Yankee Mickey Rivers taught him how to twirl the bat at his hip.

Leyritz was also Pettitte's personal catcher in 1995–96 and again in 1999–2000.

Career after baseball
In February 2011, Leyritz was hired as a pitching coach for the Newark Bears. He left the team after one season, wanting to spend more time with his family.

On April 14, 2012, it was announced that Leyritz was returning to the Yankees on a personal services contract.

Radio
From 2004 to 2007, Leyritz co-hosted a radio show with Vinny Micucci and Billy Sample called MLB Radio Daily on MLB Radio and is a regular contributor to The Michael Kay Show on the New York City ESPN Radio affiliate.

In October 2007, Leyritz worked with Harold Reynolds and Chris Myers covering the pre- and post-game reports on the field for the 2007 Playoffs and World Series for Fox.com.

On January 6, 2014, Leyritz was hired to host a radio show for Angels Radio 830AM with Jason Brennan called "Inside The Game" with Leyritz and Brennan. The show was later postponed due to a conflict with ESPN radio.

Starting in March 2016, Leyritz co-hosted a nationally syndicated weekly radio show with David Meltzer called "Sports Blender" on SB Nation radio.

Writing
Leyritz wrote a book titled Catching Heat: The Jim Leyritz Story, published in June 2011.  The book was co-written by brothers Jeffrey Lyons and Douglas B. Lyons.  In a brief review, Publishers Weekly called the book "a surprisingly defensive attempt at a self-serving memoir."

Charitable work
Leyritz is involved with many charities. He is the spokesperson for Pinktie.org /1st Equity Title Co out of Melville, NY. He also works with many chapters of ALS, a disease which took his brother-in-law, Joe Toerner, in 2010. During his playing days, Leyritz and his wife brought foster children to see games at Yankee Stadium and contributed to Covenant House and Police Benevolent Association.

Personal life
As of March 2015, Leyritz lives in Orange County, California, with his wife Michelle, his three sons, and her two daughters. They married in July 2015. He is a member and usher at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.

Legal troubles

On December 28, 2007, Leyritz was arrested in Broward County, Florida on suspicion of drunk driving and vehicular homicide after his car struck Freida Veitch's car. Veitch, who was not wearing a seat belt, was ejected from the car and died at the scene. Leyritz was released on US$11,000 bond and charged with two counts of drunk driving. Police collected two blood samples from Leyritz, the first 2½ hours after the crash and the second about an hour later. The first sample showed a blood-alcohol level of .14, and the second, .13, police said. Veitch had a blood-alcohol level of .18. Both Leyritz and Veitch were legally drunk at the time of the collision.

Several days after the accident, it was revealed that Leyritz could face further charges because his driver license had been suspended in New York prior to the accident. On June 20, 2007, Leyritz had been issued a ticket outside Albany, New York, for using a cell phone while driving. According to Leyritz's attorney, Leyritz's license "was not suspended in the state of Florida on the day of the accident, nor is it suspended today."

On February 13, 2009, Leyritz was ordered back to jail as his bail was revoked following his apparent consumption of alcoholic beverages in violation of his bail conditions. A judge allowed him to return home on bail on February 23 after agreeing with Leyritz's attorney that his pretrial release conditions were unclear and that Leyritz had misunderstood them.

On May 13, 2009, Leyritz was hospitalized in Florida. Reports on ESPN claimed Leyritz had threatened suicide, but Leyritz issued a statement later saying he was not suicidal but stressed out. Leyritz ran into trouble on May 14 when he attempted to start his car but the alcohol monitoring device on the car malfunctioned, leading to a false positive and triggering an automatic urine test for Leyritz. The test showed he had not consumed any alcohol, and a judge cleared him.

On July 2, 2009, Leyritz was arrested for battery against his former wife; however, the charges were later dropped.

In November 2010, Leyritz's trial for the December 2007 DUI crash was held. He was acquitted on the DUI manslaughter charge in less than 45 minutes, but was convicted—after two days of deliberations—on a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence. He was subsequently sentenced to one year's probation and a $500 fine. In May 2010, Leyritz's insurance company settled a civil lawsuit for the accident, paying $350,000 to the other driver's family.

References

External links

1963 births
Living people
Anaheim Angels players
Boston Red Sox players
Kentucky Wildcats baseball players
Los Angeles Dodgers players
Major League Baseball catchers
New York Yankees players
San Diego Padres players
Texas Rangers players
Fort Lauderdale Yankees players
Oneonta Yankees players
Albany-Colonie Yankees players
Columbus Clippers players
Rancho Cucamonga Quakes players
Las Vegas Stars (baseball) players
Newark Bears players
Portland Beavers players
Baseball players from Cincinnati
Sportspeople from Lakewood, Ohio
Baseball players from Cuyahoga County, Ohio
Middle Georgia Warriors baseball players
People acquitted of manslaughter

Jim Leyritz


The St. Nicholas in-a-Day Church () is a Romanian Orthodox church located at 22 Academiei Street in Bucharest, Romania. It is dedicated to Saint Nicholas.

History
The original church on the site was a small, early 17th-century wooden structure founded by the Postelnic Neagoe. Tradition holds that it was consecrated precisely a year after construction began; another version states that, fulfilling a bet, it was built in a single day; either legend explains the nickname. The church, along with the surrounding land and houses became the dowry of Marica, a descendant of the ktetor, when in 1673 she married future Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu. In 1702, she moved the wooden church to an estate and ordered the current church built, with Ianache Văcărescu as Ispravnic. During the 18th century, it belonged to the barbers' guild. It had four cells, with the lot enclosed by walls. The cells were demolished between 1848 and 1918.

In the early 19th century, the building became a chapel for the princely residence on Podul Mogoșoaiei, located in the houses of Ban Dumitrache Ghica from 1813 to 1834. In order to facilitate his commute, Prince Ioan Caragea ordered the construction of a covered footbridge linking his upper-floor residence to the church. He broke part of its south wall, installing a door that led directly into the balcony. The hole, some 1.70 meters high, was later filled, but its trace remains visible. The footbridge lasted until around 1840.

The roof was damaged by fire in 1825; the church was subsequently repainted, the upper part of the walls rebuilt and the metal roof replaced by tiles. The process, lasting until 1827, rendered Grigore IV Ghica as another ktetor. The church was in very poor shape by 1909, undergoing repairs in 1914–1915. The city authorities proposed its demolition in 1915, leading to its listing as a historic monument that year. Further repairs were carried out in 1958 and from 2005.

Description
The nave-shaped church is some 26 meters long by 8.5 meters wide, with the facade reaching 9.3 meters high. It features a portico and a bell tower above the narthex. There are no side apses; the altar apse is slightly detached, polygonal on the exterior and semicircular on the interior. The portico has three frontal arches and two pairs of side ones; these rest on massive brick columns without capitals. Since 1915, the area has been closed by glass and wall. The narthex was originally separated from the nave by three columns, eliminated after 1825. The wooden bell tower, rising 19.2 meters, sits on a square base; the original was damaged during the fire, and its current form dates to 1915–1916. The rectangular nave has a spherical ceiling.

The partly deteriorated icon of the patron saint is placed above the entrance and dates to 1702. The facades are divided into two nearly equal sections by a brick string course. The latter, composed of two rows of brick, resembles saw teeth. Both upper and lower facade are decorated with arches. Between 1911 and 1947, the church was used by the Albanian Orthodox community; at one point, Fan Noli served as parish priest.

Notes

References
Lucia Stoica and Neculai Ionescu-Ghinea, Enciclopedia lăcașurilor de cult din București, vol. I. Bucharest: Editura Universalia, 2005,

Historic monuments in Bucharest
Romanian Orthodox churches in Bucharest
Churches completed in 1702
Brâncovenesc style architecture

St. Nicholas in-a-Day Church


Acetyl-CoA carboxylase 1 also known as ACC-alpha or ACCa is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ACACA gene.

Function

Acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) is a complex multifunctional enzyme system. ACC is a biotin-containing enzyme which catalyzes the carboxylation of acetyl-CoA to malonyl-CoA, the rate-limiting step in fatty acid synthesis. There are two ACC forms, alpha and beta, encoded by two different genes. ACC-alpha is highly enriched in lipogenic tissues. The enzyme is under long term control at the transcriptional and translational levels and under short term regulation by the phosphorylation/dephosphorylation of targeted serine residues and by allosteric transformation by citrate or palmitoyl-CoA.

References

Further reading

External links

EC 6.4.1
Human proteins

ACACA


Ottomar Gern also known as Konstantin Borisovich Gern (16 November 1827 – 9 November 1882), was a Russian fortification engineer. Gern was born to a Polish noble family of German origin in Vitebsk Governorate, Russia. He studied war engineering at school and later became a lecturer in the field of construction of fortifications.

During the Crimean War in 1854, Gern was sent to Tallinn to organise better protection for batteries. Gern built four submarines during his life. After the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), he made a comprehensive presentation of the protective construction operations of both sides. He was awarded the rank of Lieutenant-General.

Career
In summer 1854, Gern arrived in Tallinn to strengthen the local defence facilities. After a couple of months, the Crimean War (1853-1856) had reached a point where the British and French allies of Turkey has reached the Gulf of Finland, and Russia announced a naval blockade. The British warships were stationed near Naissaar, blocking the exit route from Tallinn. Artillery fire from the shore could not reach them. To resolve this situation, Gern came up with the idea of constructing a submarine, which could reach enemy ships undetected and attack them unexpectedly. Gern got approval for his project and the first submarine was constructed in Tallinn in summer 1854. There were no large shipyards there at the time, so Gern had to do with the options available. In early autumn, the Tallinn military shipyard constructed a 5-metre wooden submarine. It had a crew of four. The weapon to attack enemy ships was located at the forward end.

The following year a second design was constructed by K. & A. Frikke shipyard in St. Petersburg. The second submarine was propelled by muscle power and displaced 8 tons. A third design displacing 10 tons and powered by a petrol engine was constructed by Izhorskiy yard in Kolpino in 1864. Both designs carried a submarine mine as armament.

Gern's fourth design was a steam-powered submarine, the first to be armed with a self-propelled torpedo. No.4 was constructed by I. F. Alexandrovskiy shipyard in St. Petersburg in 1864-1867. The  long boat was launched in October 1867. In August 1871 the 25-ton boat was subjected to trials by the Imperial Russian war ministry. Although successful, the project was abandoned in 1872 after the war ministry had lost interest.

In 1872, Gern presented a 6-ton torpedo, powered by a compressed-air engine, but tests showed only modest results. According to Edwyn Gray, this was "the largest and heaviest torpedo ever built".

Gern died on 9 November 1882, in Menton, France, and was buried in Moscow.

References
Notes

General references

External links
stating 1854: "On 5th of September, Russia's first, wood-bodied submarine was tested in the harbour of Tallinn"
stating "Ship piloted 5th IX, 1854 in Tallinn harbor, where it was found that the body is not tight enough, and the ship is badly managed. Therefore, the submarine could not find a practical use". (Google translate)

1827 births
1882 deaths
People from Vitebsk Governorate
Engineers from the Russian Empire
Russian military engineers
Submarine pioneers
19th-century military personnel from the Russian Empire
Russian men

Ottomar Gern


Independence constitution is the name commonly given by African political scientists to originating constitutions (many of which are extant) of former British colonies, primarily in Africa, which gained their independence approximately 1960-1990.

Due to these colonies' low economic output and the United Kingdom's fading imperial prowess, independence was usually granted after little instigation, with the UK presiding over creation of the new state. Generally local leaders were hand-picked by the UK to be the new governing body and were given a political education in London, during which they often served as the sole representative of their country in the negotiation of their country's new constitution. In short, independence constitutions were written in London, by a primarily British body, in line with British systems of governance. Supporters applaud the UK's responsible transfer of power; critics cite low popular perceptions of legitimacy and claim that the independence constitutions maintained essentially colonial states.

See also
British Empire
Colonialism

Constitutional law
British Empire

Independence constitution