Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of pelagic fish, mostly from the family Scombridae. They are found in both temperate and tropical seas, mostly living along the coast or offshore in the oceanic environment.

Mackerel species typically have deeply forked tails and vertical 'tiger-like' stripes on their backs with an iridescent green-blue quality. Many are restricted in their distribution ranges and live in separate populations or fish stocks based on geography. Some stocks migrate in large schools along the coast to suitable spawning grounds, where they spawn in fairly shallow waters. After spawning they return the way they came in smaller schools to suitable feeding grounds, often near an area of upwelling. From there they may move offshore into deeper waters and spend the winter in relative inactivity. Other stocks migrate across oceans.

Smaller mackerel are forage fish for larger predators, including larger mackerel and Atlantic cod. Flocks of seabirds, whales, dolphins, sharks, and schools of larger fish such as tuna and marlin follow mackerel schools and attack them in sophisticated and cooperative ways. Mackerel flesh is high in omega-3 oils and is intensively harvested by humans. In 2009, over 5 million tons were landed by commercial fishermen. Sport fishermen value the fighting abilities of the king mackerel.

Species
Over 30 different species, principally belonging to the family Scombridae, are commonly referred to as mackerel. The term "mackerel" is derived from Old French and may have originally meant either "marked, spotted" or "pimp, procurer". The latter connection is not altogether clear, but mackerel spawn enthusiastically in shoals near the coast, and medieval ideas on animal procreation were creative.

Scombroid mackerels
About 21 species in the family Scombridae are commonly called mackerel. The type species for the scombroid mackerel is the Atlantic mackerel, Scomber scombrus. Until recently, Atlantic chub mackerel and Indo-Pacific chub mackerel were thought to be subspecies of the same species. In 1999, Collette established, on molecular and morphological considerations, that these are separate species. Mackerel are smaller with shorter lifecycles than their close relatives, the tuna, which are also members of the same family.

Scombrini, the true mackerels

The true mackerels belong to the tribe Scombrini. The tribe consists of seven species, each belonging to one of two genera: Scomber or Rastrelliger.

Scomberomorini, the Spanish mackerels
The Spanish mackerels belong to the tribe Scomberomorini, which is the "cousin tribe" of the true mackerels. This tribe consists of 21 species in all—18 of those are classified into the genus Scomberomorus, two into Grammatorcynus, and a single species into the monotypic genus Acanthocybium.

Other mackerel
In addition, a number of species with mackerel-like characteristics in the families Carangidae, Hexagrammidae and Gempylidae are commonly referred to as mackerel. Some confusion had occurred between the Pacific jack mackerel (Trachurus symmetricus) and the heavily harvested Chilean jack mackerel (T. murphyi). These have been thought at times to be the same species, but are now recognised as separate species.

The term "mackerel" is also used as a modifier in the common names of other fish, sometimes indicating the fish has vertical stripes similar to a scombroid mackerel:

 Mackerel icefish—Champsocephalus gunnari
 Mackerel pike—Cololabis saira
 Mackerel scad—Decapterus macarellus
 Mackerel shark—several species
 Shortfin mako shark—Isurus oxyrinchus
 Mackerel tuna—Euthynnus affinis
 Mackerel tail goldfish—Carassius auratus

By extension, the term is applied also to other species such as the mackerel tabby cat, and to inanimate objects such as the altocumulus mackerel sky cloud formation.

Characteristics

Most mackerel belong to the family Scombridae, which also includes tuna and bonito. Generally, mackerel are much smaller and slimmer than tuna, though in other respects, they share many common characteristics. Their scales, if present at all, are extremely small. Like tuna and bonito, mackerel are voracious feeders, and are swift and manoeuvrable swimmers, able to streamline themselves by retracting their fins into grooves on their bodies. Like other scombroids, their bodies are cylindrical with numerous finlets on the dorsal and ventral sides behind the dorsal and anal fins, but unlike the deep-bodied tuna, they are slim.

The type species for scombroid mackerels is the Atlantic mackerel, Scomber scombrus. These fish are iridescent blue-green above with a silvery underbelly and near-vertical wavy black stripes running along their upper bodies.

The prominent stripes on the back of mackerels seemingly are there to provide camouflage against broken backgrounds. That is not the case, though, because mackerel live in midwater pelagic environments which have no background. However, fish have an optokinetic reflex in their visual systems that can be sensitive to moving stripes. For fish to school efficiently, they need feedback mechanisms that help them align themselves with adjacent fish, and match their speed. The stripes on neighbouring fish provide "schooling marks", which signal changes in relative position.

A layer of thin, reflecting platelets is seen on some of the mackerel stripes. In 1998, E J Denton and D M Rowe argued that these platelets transmit additional information to other fish about how a given fish moves. As the orientation of the fish changes relative to another fish, the amount of light reflected to the second fish by this layer also changes. This sensitivity to orientation gives the mackerel "considerable advantages in being able to react quickly while schooling and feeding."

Mackerel range in size from small forage fish to larger game fish. Coastal mackerel tend to be small. The king mackerel is an example of a larger mackerel. Most fish are cold-blooded, but exceptions exist. Certain species of fish maintain elevated body temperatures. Endothermic bony fishes are all in the suborder Scombroidei and include the butterfly mackerel, a species of primitive mackerel.

Mackerel are strong swimmers. Known in the latin family as "punctualis piscis" which translates to "punctual fish." This is due to its punctuality of migration during mating season as it moves from warm to cold waters. Atlantic mackerel can swim at a sustained speed of 0.98 m/sec with a burst speed of 5.5 m/sec, while chub mackerel can swim at a sustained speed of 0.92 m/sec with a burst speed of 2.25 m/sec.

Distribution

Most mackerel species have restricted distribution ranges.

 Atlantic Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus maculatus) occupy the waters off the east coast of North America from the Cape Cod area south to the Yucatan Peninsula. Its population is considered to include two fish stocks, defined by geography.  As summer approaches, one stock moves in large schools north from Florida up the coast to spawn in shallow waters off the New England coast. It then returns to winter in deeper waters off Florida. The other stock migrates in large schools along the coast from Mexico to spawn in shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico off Texas. It then returns to winter in deeper waters off the Mexican coast. These stocks are managed separately, even though genetically they are identical.
 The Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus) is a coastal species found only in the north Atlantic. The stock on the west side of the Atlantic is largely independent of the stock on the east side. The stock on the east Atlantic currently operates as three separate stocks, the southern, western and North Sea stocks, each with their own migration patterns. Some mixing of the east Atlantic stocks takes place in feeding grounds towards the north, but there is almost no mixing between the east and west Atlantic stocks.
 Another common coastal species, the chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus), is absent from the Atlantic Ocean but is widespread across both hemispheres in the Pacific, where its migration patterns are somewhat similar to those of Atlantic mackerel. In the northern hemisphere, chub mackerel migrate northwards in the summer to feeding grounds, and southwards in the winter when they spawn in relatively shallow waters. In the southern hemisphere the migrations are reversed. After spawning, some stocks migrate down the continental slope to deeper water and spend the rest of the winter in relative inactivity.
 The Chilean jack mackerel (Trachurus murphyi), the most intensively harvested mackerel-like species, is found in the south Pacific from West Australia to the coasts of Chile and Peru. A cousin species, the Pacific jack mackerel (Trachurus symmetricus), is found in the north Pacific. The Chilean jack mackerel occurs along the coasts in upwelling areas, but also migrates across the open ocean. Its abundance can fluctuate markedly as ocean conditions change, and is particularly affected by the El Niño.

Three species of jack mackerels are found in coastal waters around New Zealand: the Australasian, Chilean, and Pacific jack mackerels. They are mainly captured using purse seine nets, and are managed as a single stock that includes multiple species.

Some mackerel species migrate vertically. Adult snake mackerel conduct a diel vertical migration, staying in deeper water during the day and rising to the surface at night to feed. The young and juveniles also migrate vertically, but in the opposite direction, staying near the surface during the day and moving deeper at night. This species feeds on squid, pelagic crustaceans, lanternfishes, flying fishes, sauries, and other mackerel. It is, in turn, preyed upon by tuna and marlin.

Lifecycle

Mackerel are prolific broadcast spawners, and must breed near the surface of the water because the eggs of the females float. Individual females lay between 300,000 and 1,500,000 eggs. Their eggs and larvae are pelagic, that is, they float free in the open sea. The larvae and juvenile mackerel feed on zooplankton. As adults, they have sharp teeth, and hunt small crustaceans such as copepods, forage fish, shrimp, and squid. In turn, they are hunted by larger pelagic animals such as tuna, billfish, sea lions, sharks, and pelicans.

Off Madagascar, spinner sharks follow migrating schools of mackerel. Bryde's whales feed on mackerel when they can find them. They use several feeding methods, including skimming the surface, lunging, and bubble nets.

Fisheries

Chub mackerel, Scomber japonicus, are the most intensively fished scombroid mackerel. They account for about half the total capture production of scombroid mackerels. As a species, they are easily confused with Atlantic mackerel. Chub mackerel migrate long distances in oceans and across the Mediterranean. They can be caught with drift nets and suitable trawls, but are most usually caught with surround nets at night by attracting them with lampara lamps.

The remaining catch of scombroid mackerels is divided equally between the Atlantic mackerel and all other scombroid mackerels.
Just these two species (Chub mackerel and Atlantic mackerel) account for about 75% of the total catch of scombroid mackerels.

Chilean jack mackerel are the most commonly fished nonscombroid mackerel, fished as heavily as chub mackerel. The species has been overfished, and its fishery may now be in danger of collapsing.

Smaller mackerel behave like herrings, and are captured in similar ways. Fish species like these, which school near the surface, can be caught efficiently by purse seining. Huge purse-seine vessels use spotter planes to locate the schooling fish. Then they close in using sophisticated sonar to track the shape of the school, which is then encircled with fast auxiliary boats that deploy purse seines as they speed around the school.

Suitably designed trollers can also catch mackerels effectively when they swim near the surface. Trollers typically have several long booms which they lift and drop with "topping lifts". They haul their lines with electric or hydraulic reels. Fish aggregating devices are also used to target mackerel.

Management
The North Sea has been overfished to the point where the ecological balance has become disrupted and many jobs in the fishing industry have been lost.

The Southeast US region spans the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the US Southeast Atlantic. Overfishing of king and Spanish mackerel occurred in the 1980s. Regulations were introduced to restrict the size, fishing locations, and bag limits for recreational fishers and commercial fishers. Gillnets were banned in waters off Florida. By 2001, the mackerel stocks had bounced back.

As food

Mackerel is an important food fish that is consumed worldwide. As an oily fish, it is a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids. The flesh of mackerel spoils quickly, especially in the tropics, and can cause scombroid food poisoning. Accordingly, it should be eaten on the day of capture, unless properly refrigerated or cured.

Mackerel preservation is not simple. Before the 19th-century development of canning and the widespread availability of refrigeration, salting and smoking were the principal preservation methods available. Historically in England, this fish was not preserved, but was consumed only in its fresh form. However, spoilage was common, leading the authors of The Cambridge Economic History of Europe to remark: "There are more references to stinking mackerel in English literature than to any other fish!" In France, mackerel was traditionally pickled with large amounts of salt, which allowed it to be sold widely across the country.

For many years mackerel was regarded as 'unclean' in the UK and other places due to folklore which suggested that the fish fed on the corpses of dead sailors. A 1976 survey of housewives in Britain undertaken by the White Fish Authority indicated a reluctance to departing from buying the traditional staples of cod, haddock or salmon. Less than 10% of the survey's 1,931 respondents had ever bought mackerel and only 3% did so regularly. As a result of this trend many UK fishmongers during the 1970s did not display or even stock mackerel.

References

Further reading

 Bigelow HB and Schroeder WC (1953) Fishes of the Gulf of Maine: Mackerel Fisheries Bulletin, Volume 53, Number 74, United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
 Burton M and Burton R (2002) International Wildlife Encyclopedia Marshall Cavendish, pp. 1517–1518. .

 Keay JN (2001) Handling and processing mackerel  Torry advisory note 66.

 SPRFMO(2009) Information describing Chilean jack mackerel (Trachurus murphyi) fisheries relating to the South Pacific Regional Fishery Management Organisation  Working draft.

External links

 Atlantic Mackerel British Marine Life Study Society. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
 Mackerel nutrition facts
 Fishing for mackerel

Scombridae

Oily fish
Commercial fish
Fish common names

Mackerel


A lunar module is a lunar lander designed to allow astronauts to travel between a spacecraft in lunar orbit and the lunar surface. As of 2021, the Apollo Lunar Module is the only lunar module to have ever been used in human spaceflight, completing six lunar landings from 1969 to 1972 during the United States' Apollo program.

The LK lunar module was developed by the Soviet Union in the 1960s as a part of several Soviet crewed lunar programs. Several LK modules were flown without crew in low Earth orbit, but the LK lunar module never flew to the Moon, as the development of the N1 Rocket Launch Vehicle required for the lunar flight suffered setbacks (including several launch failures), and after the first crewed Moon landings were achieved by the United States, the Soviet Union cancelled both the N1 Rocket and the LK Lunar Module programs without any further development.

Proposed lunar modules
 Altair (spacecraft), a proposed lunar module for the Constellation program previously known as the Lunar Surface Access Module
 Human Landing System, a class of proposed lunar modules for NASA's Artemis program
 Boeing Lunar Lander, proposed by Boeing
 Lockheed Martin Lunar Lander, proposed by Lockheed Martin
 Starship HLS, proposed by SpaceX
 Luna-Glob, a lunar exploration program by the Russian Federal Space Agency
 XEUS, a lunar module being developed by United Launch Alliance and Masten Space Systems
 Chinese crewed lunar lander, a lunar module being developed by the China Academy of Space Technology.

See also
 List of crewed lunar lander designs
 Moon landing
 Moonbase

References

External links
 NASA report on the Apollo 11 Lunar Module

Crewed spacecraft
Exploration of the Moon
Soft landings on the Moon

Lunar module


Joseph Maria Pernter (15 March 1848 at Neumarkt, South Tyrol, – 20 December 1908 at Arco) was an Austrian Jesuit and scientist.

Life
He entered the Society of Jesus after graduation from the Gymnasia at Bolzano and Merano. For a time he acted as professor of physics at Kalocsa and Kalksburg.

In 1877 he was obliged to leave the order, for health reasons. He then studied physics at the University of Vienna and received the doctor's degree. After entering the Central Institute as volunteer in October, 1878, Pernter became assistant in 1880, and adjunct in 1884; in 1885 he also began to act as a privatdozent at the university.

In 1890 he was called to the University of Innsbruck in the capacity of extraordinary professor, and in 1893 was appointed ordinary professor of cosmic physics.

In 1897 Pernter became professor at the University of Vienna, and director of the Central Meteorological Institute. He reorganized the institute and extended it considerably, increasing the staff from fifteen to thirty-one. He made it possible for the institute to take part in balloon ascents for scientific purposes. A laboratory, a printing office, a reading room, etc., were added, also a bureau for seismic observations. Instruments for recording earth tremors were set up, and the institute supervised the network of stations for the study of earthquakes, its name being changed to "Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik".

Pernter was also one of the founders of the "Leo-Gesellschaft" in Vienna and of the branch at Innsbruck.

Works
At Innsbruck he began a number of works including papers on the conditions of wind, humidity, radiation, and meteorological optics. In his most important work "Meteorologische Optik", he collected all published treatises and also supplied original papers necessary to complete certain subjects; he died before he had finished it. His German translation of Abercromby's work, "The weather", is also noteworthy.

He introduced various improvements in practical weather forecasting, such as the free delivery of forecasts in the summer to all telegraph stations. During his directorate were introduced the experiments on so-called "weather-shooting", as a prevention of the dangers due to hail. These experiments created considerable interest in the agricultural circles of Austria and Italy. Pernter examined the matter carefully, and came to a conclusion that proved to be the deathblow of this practice.

In the essay "Voraussetzungslose Forschung, freie Wissenschaft und Katholizismus", published during the Mommsen agitation, he sought to prove the possibility of combining strict religious faith with exact research.

References

Attribution

1848 births
1908 deaths
19th-century Austrian Jesuits
Austrian scientists
University of Vienna alumni
Academic staff of the University of Innsbruck
People from Neumarkt, South Tyrol

Joseph Maria Pernter


The Mediterranean dry woodlands and steppe is a Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregion of North Africa. It occupies interior plateaus and mountain ranges of the Maghreb region, lying generally between the coastal Mediterranean woodlands and forests to the north and the Sahara to the south.

Setting
The Mediterranean woodlands and forests occupy an area of  in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt. The main portion of the ecoregions extends from the southern slopes of the High Atlas in eastern Morocco across Algeria and Tunisia, where it meets the Mediterranean shore at the Gulf of Gabes. In Algeria, it lies south of the coastal Tell Atlas, covering the high plateau and Saharan Atlas. Further east, several enclaves of the ecoregion lie nearer the coast. In western Tripolitania it lies to the Mediterranean shore, and on the Cyrenaica peninsula it forms a belt between the Mediterranean woodlands and forests and the Sahara. The easternmost portion of the ecoregion is a small coastal enclave lying just west of the Nile Delta in Egypt, near the city of Alexandria.

Climate
The climate of the region is arid and annual rainfall is between 100 and 300 mm. The rainfall occurs mainly during the winter months, normally as intermittent storms. It can get as cold as 0°C during the winter and temperatures can climb to 40 °C during the summer months, the mean annual temperature is around 18 °C.

Settlement
The human population of these regions is low, settled agriculture is only viable in valleys where there is a supply of water, such as dayas, depressions with good quality soil, and the beds of wadis. In these areas it is possible to cultivate fodder and food crops. Such agriculture may not be possible every year and thus farmers shift to follow the rainfall. Pupulation densities are low and most of the population is somewhat nomadic, however, there are some permanent settlements in coastal towns where the main economic activity is fishing.

Habitat
At higher elevations on the plateau, different types of steppe vegetation dominate depending on soil conditions, for example in the slopes and foothills of the Atlas Mountains there is a steppe dominated by Stipa tenacissima whereas Artemisia herba-alba dominates in where there are silty slopes and depressions; Lygeum spartum steppe grows in sandy soils. Where sand accumulates  there is a mosaic of vegetation types including patches of Thymeleae muicrophila, Aristida pungens, Retama retam, and of tamarisks Tamarix spp. In depressions the vegetation includes a scrub consisting of the Mount Atlas mastic tree Pistacia atlantica, Ziziphus lotus, Asterichus graveolens and mallows Malva spp.

Fauna
The fauna lacks endemism and most species found are widespread. There are abundant small mammals including many gerbil species, the endangered four-toed jerboa Allactaga tetradactyla and the Günther's vole Microtus guentheri. Barbary sheep Ammotragus lervia and mountain gazelle Gazella cuvieri still have populations in the region, as does the striped hyena Htaena hyaena, and these are mixed with mammals which have more European origins such as wild boar Sus scrofa, Eurasian otter Lutra lutra and red fox Vulpes vulpes. These European affinities are echoed in the herpetofauna where grass snake Natrix natrix, Sahara frog Pelophylax saharicus and the European green toad Bufo viridis mixed with the African common toad Amietophrynus regularis. The North African ostrich Struthio camelus camelus occurred in this region but is now largely extirpated.

References

External links

Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub
Ecoregions of Africa
Ecoregions of Algeria
Ecoregions of Egypt
Ecoregions of Libya
Ecoregions of Morocco
Ecoregions of Tunisia

Atlas Mountains
Maghreb
Palearctic ecoregions
Ecoregions of the Mediterranean Basin

Mediterranean dry woodlands and steppe


Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi is a Nigerian diplomat. He is best known as the former President of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Uhomoibhi's term as President was from 19 June 2008 to 18 June 2009. Martin Uhomoibhi served as Permanent Secretary of the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In October 2015 he was appointed as Joint Special Representative for Darfur and Head of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID).

Early life and education
A native of the Ewatto Community, Esan South-East Local Government Area of Edo State, Uhomoibhi was born 3 November 1954 in Nigeria.

Uhomoibhi graduated from Nigeria's University of Ibadan in 1976 with a bachelor's degree in history. He also holds a master's in history and political science from the University of Ibadan and a D. Phil. from Oxford University in Modern History and International Relations.

Career
From 1977 to 1984, Uhomoibhi was a lecturer in diplomatic and African history at the University of Ibadan. He began his diplomatic career in 1984 by joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a Senior First Secretary. From 1993 to 1995, he served as coordinator and alternative representative of Nigeria to the Security Council in New York. From 1995 to 1999, Uhomoibhi served as Nigeria's Special Assistant to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. In 1999, he was the Consul-General of Nigeria in Atlanta, with responsibility for United States-Nigeria relations in the southeastern United States. From 2000 to 2003, Uhomoibhi was Minister and Deputy Head of Mission to the Nigerian Embassy in Addis Ababa while he served as his country's representative to the African Union and to the Economic Commission for Africa. From July 2003 to January 2004, he was Deputy Director and Head of Division for Inter-African Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria. From 2004 to 2007, Uhomoibhi was the acting Director of the Office of the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Then he became the Nigerian ambassador to Switzerland and Nigeria's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva. From September 2007, he was also the President of the General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization.

After his retirement from the civil service of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as the longest permanent secretary of the ministry of foreign affairs in November 2014, ambassador Martin opened an institute called Pan African Institute for Global Affaires and Strategy (PAIGAS) where he is the president.

On 28 October 2015, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and African Union Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma announced the appointment of Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi of Nigeria as their Joint Special Representative for Darfur and Head of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), with responsibilities including those of African Union-United Nations Joint Chief Mediator.

United Nations Human Rights Council
During Uhomoibhi's presidency, the Council adopted the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Protocol will allow persons to petition an international human rights body about violations of rights guaranteed in the Covenant. In December 2008, the Council considered human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Personal life

References

1954 births
University of Ibadan alumni
Alumni of the University of Oxford
Academic staff of the University of Ibadan
Permanent Representatives of Nigeria to the United Nations
Ambassadors of Nigeria to Switzerland
Permanent Representatives of Nigeria to the African Union
Living people
Nigerian Permanent Secretaries

Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi


On Tuesday, 18 November 1947, a fire engulfed Ballantynes department store in central Christchurch, New Zealand. 41 people died in the fire, all of whom have found themselves trapped by the fire or overcome by smoke, since there was no fire alarm or evacuation plan. It remains the deadliest fire in New Zealand history.

Background
Ballantynes is a Christchurch department store that traces its origins back to a millinery and drapery business that began in the front room of a Cashel Street residence in 1854. After being named Dunstable House and going through various of owners and buildings as it grew, it was purchased by John Ballantyne in 1872. The business was managed as a series of partnerships involving Ballantyne family members until the company formed as J. Ballantyne & Co. in 1920.

From its humble beginnings the Ballantyne's business expanded until, by 1947, it occupied 80 m of street front in Cashel Street, 50 m in Colombo Street and another 21 m in Lichfield Street. This prime corner site covered approximately an acre, which contained seven conjoined buildings - six of which had three or more hardwood floors - that were interconnected on multiple levels by large passageways between the buildings to allow staff and customers to move freely about the store.

By the time of the fire, Ballantyne's was widely known as the queen of department stores in the city. The showrooms, fitting rooms, art gallery and sumptuous tearooms catered to the elite of Canterbury. The business was owned and managed by two brothers who were of the Ballantyne family.

Prior to the fire, the store's interior partitions had untreated soft wood-fibre linings that had been permitted by the Christchurch City Council contrary to its own bylaws. Due to the quantity of clothes made on the premises, the buildings were classified as factory buildings, which helped them to pass a Labour Department inspection in 1943. Two of the buildings had been constructed before fire escapes became a mandatory requirement, and the Fire Brigade had not directed the owners to install them despite a 1930 bylaw requiring it to do so.

Fire protection was provided by manual fire extinguishers, although staff were not formally trained in their use. There were manually operated fire doors that could be closed across the openings between buildings. Klaxons that had been installed during the Second World War and the Vigilant sprinkler fire alarm in one building had not been maintained and both were eventually removed. Although the store had held evacuation drills during wartime, these had ended when hostilities ceased. There was no emergency evacuation plan and evacuation was left to the initiative of individual department heads. Many staff only knew the layout of their own workrooms and were unaware of alternative egress routes.

At the time of the fire, Ballantynes employed 458 people, over 300 of whom were women. Many of these workers worked on the upper floors in various back-office departments. The company claimed after the fire that around 250 to 300 customers were inside the building when smoke was first seen coming from a cellar, many of whom were not inside the showrooms but inside the elaborate neoclassical tearooms on an upper floor, having afternoon tea while listening to a string trio.

Fire
The fire started in the cellar of the furniture department, which was located at the southern end of the Colombo Street frontage of the complex. The cause of the fire was never established. Although an electrical fault or a discarded cigarette butt were both suggested as possibilities, the former could not be excluded by the commission of enquiry. The latter was considered equally unlikely as Keith Smith, the employee who was last working in the cellar, had left at about 3:30pm for his afternoon tea break. He had gone across the street to smoke a cigarette with a friend, since Ballantynes had a strict no-smoking policy on its premises{{Citation needed}}.

At 3:31 on Tuesday 18 November 1947, an employee told a colleague that smoke was coming up the stairs from a stairwell, and asked them to call the fire brigade. The staff had no access to a formal fire evacuation plan. Staff discovering the fire informed their floor manager about their own initiative. Someone contacted the phone operator and stated that the fire brigade was called. The sequence of delays, errors, and fatal mistakes made by management during the next 25 minutes have been portrayed most memorably in the novel Gardens of Fire by historian and novelist Stevan Eldred-Grigg, who based the book on detailed research and interviews with survivors. Some showrooms on the ground floor were evacuated by sales employees taking their own initiative, but staff in some of the other showrooms on the ground floor were ordered by management to 'carry on' or 'stand by'. As soon as things got hot for them, they left on their own behest. Staff in other areas of the building complex were not even made aware of the fire, as there was no fire alarm. Some staff returned to their work areas after their tea-break while others evacuated the building. Even the arriving fire brigade crews did not realise at once that there were still people on the upper floors of the building complex.

The first telephone call to the fire brigade was logged at 3:46pm, though the phone operator simply stated that she was told to inform them there was a cellar fire at Ballantyne's. When the first fire appliance arrived about two minutes later at the Lichfield Street entrance, the firefighters saw no sign of fire there. They then moved onto Colombo Street, where they saw smoke coming out of an enclosed alleyway. They were met by joint managing director Roger Ballantyne, who showed the fire crew a back access way to the cellar. They spent about 10 minutes searching for the seat of the fire but were unable to locate it. Two other appliances had made their way to Ballantynes via Cashel Street and set up as the search commenced. The senior fire officer ordered a Brigade Call, although that order was only received by the fire station at 4:00pm. The firefighter making the call had to first push through the crowd to get to a pharmacy and then had to wait for the overloaded telephone exchange lines to clear before he could make the call.

Half an hour after the fire was approximately discovered, the heat and smoke went into flashover, erupting across the conjoined first-floors of the Congreve's, Goodman's, and Pratt's buildings. After flashover the first floor was almost instantly consumed by a wall of flame. Over time superheated gas and fire began working into the floors above. Workers on the multiple top floor attempted to denote their location to firefighters by banging at windows before being killed by heat, fire or smoke. However, the fire-brigade ladders were obstructed from reaching the top floor by the store's rigid verandahs.

Two credit department employees jumped together from a top-floor window of Pratt's Building on the corner of Colombo and Cashel Streets. They landed, injured but alive, on a slate verandah and were rescued by members of the public using a ladder and taken to hospital. Violet Cody, another credit worker, leapt from another window in Pratt's Building, whereupon she landed on another slate verandah. She then slewed upside down and then fell head first to the pavement in Cashel Street. She and her unborn child later died in the hospital.

Kenneth Ballantyne had found himself trapped. Along with some of the women from the credit department and in spite of the growing signs of disaster, he had kept the staff working until about 3:55pm. At this point he climbed out onto a window ledge as the fire engulfed the floor behind him and was the last person to be rescued by firefighters from Pratt's Building at 4:10pm. Forty-one of his staff perished.

It has been noted that office employees were not evacuated as the policy required that insured equipment be stored away in a fireproof strong room first. These consisted of 25 bins, two typewriters, several adding machines and a number of boxes of records. These survived the fire.

The centre of the complex began to collapse soon after. Firefighters and Police were able to gain entry to the ground floor about 6pm, where they found a number of bodies near the exits and others hanging from beams. None of the victims were identifiable apart from Violet Cody. The fire was put out by 8pm, leaving the building as a gutted shell. It took four days to dampen down hot spots, demolish unsafe walls and recover other human remains.

Planned celebrations for the wedding of Princess Elizabeth that were due to be held on 20 November 1947 were cancelled and flags were instead flown at half mast throughout New Zealand, apart from a few official exemptions on Government Buildings. The ChristChurch Cathedral bell-ringers cancelled their wedding peals that were to be recorded and later broadcast on the radio.

A civic mass funeral was held on 23 November at Ruru Lawn Cemetery in Bromley, the largest funeral in Christchurch's history. The Ballantyne Memorial Rose Garden was built at Ruru Lawn Cemetery. The pergola that is part of the memorial collapsed in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake but was later rebuilt.

Commission of Enquiry
A commission later determined that the fire response had been inadequate, and the building had not met fire regulations, though it had passed its last inspection four years earlier. The commission noted that the 30 minutes between the first call to the fire brigade and the point of flashover would have been enough time to evacuate everyone in the building without injury. Recommendations were made for changes in fire prevention and firefighting for all of New Zealand. Urgent changes were recommended for building regulations and fire safety requirements to prevent similar disasters.

Business recovery
After the fire, Ballantynes continued to trade from its undamaged building on Lichfield Street. The fire-damaged buildings were demolished and the main Ballantynes store was rebuilt on the corner of Colombo Street and Cashel Street.

Legacy
A dramatisation of the fire, Ablaze, was directed by Josh Frizzell and screened by TVNZ in 2019.

References

Fires in New Zealand
1940s in Christchurch
1947 in New Zealand
1940s fires in Oceania
1947 fires
November 1947 events in New Zealand
Department store fires
Building and structure collapses caused by fire
1947 disasters in New Zealand

Ballantyne's fire


In Philippine mythology, a Bal-Bal is an undead monster that steals corpses whether it is in a funeral or grave and feeds on them. It has a strong sense of smell for dead human bodies. It also has claws and teeth sharp enough to rip the clothing of the dead. Since it eats nothing but corpses, it has a foul breath. Once this monster has spotted and eaten the corpse, it will leave the trunk of a banana tree in the coffin creating an illusion of the stolen body to trick people.

Bal-Bal was also associated to Aswang, Amalanhig, and even to Busaw, which were all flesh eaters. They were classified to one of the most fearful creatures in the Philippines because of their appearance. They were even described and compared to the vampire of the western continents. I

References

Undead
Visayan mythology
Philippine legendary creatures

Bal-Bal


Human Nature is an original novel written by Paul Cornell, from a plot by Cornell and Kate Orman, and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The work began as fan fiction.

The novel was later serialised in e-book form on the BBC Doctor Who website, but was removed from the site in 2010. A prelude to the novel, also penned by Cornell, appeared in Doctor Who Magazine #226, and was also available on the BBC website. It was later adapted for TV.

Plot
Bernice Summerfield is grieving since the death of Guy de Carnac (as seen in the previous novel, Sanctuary). The Seventh Doctor takes her to a market on a planet called Crex in the Augon system. He quickly sets off, telling her he'll be back in an hour, and Benny finds a pub where she orders a beer and finds a group of female human drinking partners. After Benny's had several drinks with them, the Doctor arrives and places a patch on her cheek — a pad that disperses the alcohol in her system. He tells her that they need to leave immediately, and leads her back to the TARDIS. He hands her a scroll, tells her he'll see her in three months, and collapses.

Meanwhile, the genesmith Laylock meets with his associates. They plan to follow the Doctor.  In a long, dark room, a teenager named Tim awakens from a dream, having had a premonition that everyone will die.

Unable to understand Benny's grief on a human level, the Doctor has purchased a device which alters his biodata, transforming him into a human named Dr John Smith. Smith lives as a history teacher at a public school in 1914 England, and falls in love with a fellow teacher named Joan. However, when alien Aubertides, hoping to acquire Time Lord abilities, attack the school, Smith sacrifices himself and becomes the Doctor once more; as the Time Lord, he is unable to love Joan in the way the human John Smith did.

Reception
In a poll conducted by Doctor Who Magazine to mark the 35th anniversary of Doctor Who (#265, June 1998), Human Nature was voted the readership's favourite novel of the New Adventures series.

Television adaptation

Cornell adapted his own work for a two-part story in the 2007 TV series of Doctor Who.  The first episode is titled "Human Nature" and the second, "The Family of Blood". The names of many of the human characters in the novel are reused for characters in the television story, which is also set in a boys' school shortly before World War I. The Family of Blood have some resemblance to the descriptions of the antagonists in the novel, though they have different names and have possessed humans from the area rather than being shapeshifters. Finally, the roles of the Seventh Doctor and Benny are replaced by the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones respectively.

Prelude
Doctor Who Magazine published preludes to several New Adventures.  The prelude to Human Nature appeared in issue 226.  According to Cornell, he wrote his novel's plots with these preludes in mind.

Sequels

During the COVID-19 pandemic, several well-regarded episodes of the show were broadcast with live internet commentary from the writers, often paired with new content. Cornell released three interlinked short stories, The Shadow Passes, Shadow of a Doubt, and The Shadow in the Mirror that collectively functioned as a sequel to both the novel and its television adaptation.

See also

 Time Lords - History
 The Doctor and romance

References

External links
Human Nature Prelude

1995 British novels
1995 science fiction novels
Virgin New Adventures
Novels by Paul Cornell
Novels set in high schools and secondary schools
Seventh Doctor novels
Fiction set in 1914

Human Nature (novel)


Carl Owens (1929 – December 11, 2002) was an American artist born in Detroit, Michigan. His professional experience in the Art began as an illustrator in the U.S. Army. Later, he taught art in the Detroit Public Schools and served as staff artist for the school system. He was a member of the National Conference of Artists and worked as a self-employed artist from 1968 until his death.

In addition to numerous private collections, his fine art has been on exhibition at: The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Minneapolis Institute of Arts; The Art Institute of Chicago; the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco; the Detroit Institute of Arts; the Cincinnati Art Museum; the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; the North American Black Historical Museum, Ontario, Canada; the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, Michigan; and the Detroit Historical Museum.

Awards

the New York Society of Illustrators Citation for Merit
Outstanding Artist Award, Michigan Chapter
National Conference of Artists
the Mayor's Award of Merit
the American Black Artists Pioneer Award
the Optimists International Certificate of Appreciation for Community Service
the American Black Artists Award for Outstanding Achievement in Visual Arts
The National Conference of Artists First Afrikan World Festival Award
Testimonial Resolution and Spirit of Detroit Award from the Detroit City Council

Paintings

Great Kings of Africa
Soul of a Nation
Roots, Stems and Flowers
Ford Salutes the Black Composer
Ingenious Americans
The Life of Frederick Douglass
A Picture History of the Afro-American
Sisters of The Sun
Strong Women
Strong Men

References

Carl Owens - First Art Source (2006). Retrieved on April 23, 2007 from https://web.archive.org/web/20070403123815/http://www.firstartsource.com/Bios/CarlOwens.htm
Carl Owens African American Artist (2005). Retrieved on April 22, 2007 from http://www.brianowensart.com/article2.html
Tech Times Carl Owens (2006). Retrieved on April 23, 2007 from https://web.archive.org/web/20070930185841/http://www.tntech.edu/techtimes/2005/05_08/08_12/owens.html

20th-century American artists
1929 births
2002 deaths
Artists from Detroit

Carl Owens


In comics, a one-shot is a work composed of a single standalone issue or chapter, contrasting a limited series or ongoing series, which are composed of multiple issues or chapters. One-shots date back to the early 19th century, published in newspapers, and today may be in the form of single published comic books, parts of comic magazines/anthologies or published online in websites. In the marketing industry, some one-shots are used as promotion tools that tie in with existing productions, movies, video games or television shows.

Overview
In the Japanese manga industry, one-shots are called , a term which implies that the comic is presented in its entirety without any continuation. One-shot manga are often written for contests, and sometimes later developed into a full-length series, much like a television pilot. Many popular manga series began as one-shots, such as Dragon Ball, Fist of the North Star, Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Berserk, Kinnikuman and Death Note. Rising Stars of Manga was an annual competition for original English-language one-shot manga, many of which have gone on to become full-length manga series. Some noted manga authors, such as Akira Toriyama and Rumiko Takahashi, have worked on numerous one-shot stories in addition to their serialized works.

In the United States, one-shots are usually labeled with a "#1" despite there being no following issues, and are sometimes subtitled as "specials". On occasion, a character or concept will appear in a series of one-shots, in cases where the subject matter is not financially lucrative enough to merit an ongoing or limited series, but still popular enough to be published on a regular basis, often annually or quarterly. A current example of a series of one-shots would be Marvel Comics' Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius publications. This type of one-shot is not to be confused with a comic book annual, which is typically a companion publication to an established ongoing series.

The term has also been borrowed into the Franco-Belgian comics industry, with basically the same meaning, although there it mostly refers to comic albums.

One-shot manga

The comic art histories of different countries and regions are following divergent paths. Japanese early comic art or manga took its rise from the 12th century and developed from Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga ("Animal-person Caricatures"), went so far as to ukiyo-e ("floating world") in the 17th century. Western-style humour comics and caricatures had been introduced into Japan in the late 19th century and impacted on the styles of comic art. On the other hand, the significant development of modern era Japanese comic art was arising in the aftermath of World War II and further developed into diversified genres. Nowadays, almost a quarter of all printed materials in Japan are in forms of manga, while the audiences are from all ages.

Most modern era one-shot manga (yomikiri 読み切り) have independent settings, characters, and storylines, rather than sharing them with existing works. In Japan and other Asian countries, some one-shot manga are more like takeoff boards to determine the popularity among the audience. The format of a one-shot manga could be changed if it has a broad market prospect, so that:
 a one-shot manga could become a serialized continuing manga after adapting;
 a one-shot manga could develop into a series of one-shot manga or serial manga, which are sharing the same world set and character design, but in different story lines; and
 side stories could derive from the original one-shot manga, such as a prequel, a sequel, and an antagonist or supporting role's side story.

One-shot Western comics
The prototype comic works in Western countries were pamphlets, giveaways, or Sunday newspaper comic sections in the 19th century. These were then developed and published as comic magazines which were distributed with the newspapers sales on newsstands. On the other hand, graphic books in America were also viewed as developing from pamphlets that sold on newsstands. Comics were not highly regarded in the early market, for example, during the Depression comics were used to increase the sales of newspapers and some other products in the United States. Most of the comics were one-shot comics before the rise of long continuities in newspaper strips. After some early developments, weekly comic magazines became the major way of dissemination in European comic markets. Influenced by the chaos of social revolutions and changings in the 20th century, Western alternative comic art was quickly developed as well as 1970s and 1980s' America. Also, America has stirred up a spree of superhero comics since 1930s, and this comic form is still dominating the comic market.

The 19th and early 20th century

In this period, comic strips and magazines were the major reading formats that had been leading the markets. Divergent genres such as humour, caricature, and horror were dominant forms of comics in that time. In the very beginning, magazines were divided from the comic supplements of newspapers within a decade of their first appearance in America. On the other side of the coin, in Europe, magazine format was developed as a comic supplement of newspapers along European features and never lost the identification. It is worth mentioning that comic art is developing more rapidly during social revolutions, while comic strips were very topical and aimed at all ages.

Modern era one-shot comics

Since the 1930s, a specific form of comic, the superhero comic, has been causing a feeding frenzy in America and further impacted on other countries' comic markets. It dominated the publishing industry on comic art, and most of the published comic books were contained one-shot stories rather than serialized stories. It is also worth mentioning that a single popular protagonist always centered all the highlights in a superhero comic story. This best-selling model is still the majority of American comic market until today. Around the late 1960s- mid-1970s, due to the dislocations of social developments, alternative comic art traditions were developing under the era. This alternative underground comix movement used the medium as a method for radical changes.

In more recent years, European albums are still the dominant comic format in their own markets, while superhero comic books dominate the American market rather than continued stories. Several large comic book publishers, Entertainments and animation production companies were established such as DC Comics and Marvel Comics. On another note, Japanese comics are increasing in popularity as Japanese-style anthologies are published in America in recent decades.

See also
 Four Color – a prolific anthology series from Dell Comics (1939-1962) that featured many issues that were designated as "one shots".

References

Comics terminology

One-shot (comics)


Vandiyur Mariamman Teppakulam is the temple tank located near to Vandiyur Mariamman Temple. It is situated at a distance of about 2 km from the Meenakshi Amman Temple. The tank is connected to Vaigai River through an underground channel (passage). It has total of 12 long stairs (steps). It is made of granite on all four sides. This tank was built in 1645 A.D. This was the biggest tank in Tamil Nadu at that time.

7 foot tall Mukuruny Vinayakar idol in Meenakshi Amman Temple is believed to be found during excavation process of this pond.Vandiyur Mariamman Teppakulam is famous for the celebrations of the Float festival. This is celebrated in the Tamil month of Thai (January 14th to February 15th). At present this temple tank is the third largest in the world.

References

Temple tanks in India

Vandiyur Mariamman Teppakulam


Allston D.I.Y. Festival (commonly known as Allston DIY Fest or DIY Fest) is an annual community event in Allston, Massachusetts which takes place during one Saturday each July. Founded in 2010, it was promoted as a free, all-ages, sober festival celebrating do-it-yourself culture.  Founded on a punk, anarchist & anti-capitalist ethos, the festival discouraged the use of money and was organized non-hierarchically in a series of open meetings.

The festival showcased many emerging music acts in the area. Notable artists include: Fat History Month, Mornin' Old Sport, Doomstar!, Arvid Noe, The Rodeo Church, Chris North, and Melodeego. Featuring two stages, one acoustic and one electric, the festival also included skillshares, workshops, artists, and a free market.

The event takes place in Ringer Park, close to the Allston Street MBTA station.

Notes

External links
Allston DIY Fest official website

Punk rock genres
Rock festivals in the United States

Allston DIY Fest


Black Cube (BC Strategy Ltd) is a private intelligence agency based in London, Tel Aviv and Madrid. The company was founded in 2010 by former Israeli intelligence officers Dan Zorella (in Hebrew: דן זורלא) and Avi Yanus (in Hebrew: אבי ינוס). Its employees include former members of Israeli intelligence units. In the past, it has supported Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) activities. Black Cube drew widespread condemnation for its work surveilling and assisting with efforts to slander the reputations of women accusing Harvey Weinstein of sexual violence and journalists reporting on them.

Black Cube provides intelligence, evidence, and advisory services in multi-jurisdictional legal and white collar crime cases. Its clients include primarily very high net worth individuals, oligarchs and corporations around the world, about whom Black Cube exposed fraud, bribery, money laundering, corruption and asset dissipation. The company uncovered high-level corruption in Italy, Panama, and Mexico. It is estimated that Black Cube has managed to trace and recover billions of dollars in hidden assets around the world.

Black Cube's tactics have resulted in a number of international controversies. In Romania, two of its employees were convicted of criminal charges involving harassment and hacking.

History
BC Strategy Ltd. (Black Cube)  has offices in Tel Aviv, London, and Paris. It was founded in 2010 by Avi Yanus a former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) strategic planning officer and Dan Zorella, who was in IDF Military Intelligence. Yanus and Zorella met at the Technion University in Haifa, where they both did undergraduate studies in economics. Yanus went on to complete his PhD in organizational behavior. By 2018, Black Cube had been involved in operations in over sixty countries.

Since 2011, Black Cube has provided evidence for high-profile cases in Canada, Italy, Israel, Mexico, Panama, the United Kingdom and the United States. The company describes itself as a "select group of veterans from the Israeli elite intelligence units that specialises in tailored solutions to complex business and litigation challenges."

Black Cube's International Advisory Board includes Meir Dagan,  a former chief of Mossad—Israel's national intelligence agency—from 2002 to 2011, and Black Cube's president. Their IAB includes Efraim Halevy, who was also a head of Mossad for 30 years. Other IAB members include Yohanan Danino, Giora Eiland, Adrian Leppard, Robert Amaee, Asher Tishler, Paul Reyniers, Golan Malka, and Itiel Maayan.

In a court deposition Yanus described the bilateral relationship between the IDF and Black Cube's civilian market, where former Israeli intelligence operators advise Black Cube and provide it with a business network. According to Forbes Israel, Black Cube is one of many business intelligence firms such as GPW, and K2,  for an industry that expanded to 80 billion dollars in 2015 alone. These intelligence firms attract people who previously worked in IDF Military Intelligence. Salaries are high in the business intelligence sector. Dozens of these firms were established as the demand grew. Forbes Israel called this a "new trend in Israeli exports."

Media coverage

In 2014, Israel's Globes published a favorable article about Black Cube after they won several high-profile cases. In their 2018 article, Forbes Israel called Black Cube the "Mossad" of the "business world".

Black Cube has been criticized by the international press. In his November 6, 2017 The New Yorker article, Ronan Farrow described them as an "army of spies" who attempted to stifle stories about Harvey Weinstein's sexual assaults by seeking to discredit the women Weinstein attacked and the journalists who investigated his crimes. A lengthy June 2021 report in the Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail—one in a series of articles that were highly critical of its methods—detailed the many ways Black Cube agents worked to fabricate evidence against innocent civilians, including a Canadian judge and journalists. In August 2021, the podcast Darknet Diaries featured a first-hand account of Black Cube operatives targeting journalists and Citizen Lab staff member John Scott-Railton. In his 2021 publication, Spooked: The Trump Dossier, Black Cube, and the Rise of Private Spies, former investigative reporter with The New York Times, Barry Meier, described the "oversized impact" Black Cube and other private spies in their "murky world"—were "suddenly having on politics, business and our personal lives."

Notable investigations and clients

Vincent Tchenguiz
The first case that brought Black Cube to the attention of the media, was the legal dispute between Vincent Tchenguiz, a major donor to the Conservative Party (UK) and an investor in the SCL Group and the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO). Tchenguiz first hired Black Cube in 2011, following his arrest on March 10, 2011, as part of the SFO investigation into the collapse of the Icelandic bank Kaupthing. and continued to use their services on a number of cases. Black Cube analysed the network of relationships surrounding the collapse of the bank, and helped build a successful challenge to the SFO arrests and search warrants, causing the judge to declare the SFO's actions unlawful in 2013. Tchenguiz's lawsuit against Black Cube, alleging fraudulent invoices, was dropped in an undisclosed settlement agreement.

Nochi Dankner
In 2014, Black Cube was hired by Israeli businessman Nochi Dankner, to examine a court decision assigning control of IDB Holding Corp. Ltd. to Motti Ben Moshe. Black Cube investigated the sources of capital of Ben Moshe, revealing an ongoing investigation by German regulatory authorities into Ben Moshe's company ExtraEnergy, and locating a witness who held evidence of money laundering and tax evasion by Ben Moshe.

Joseph Kabila
In 2019, the Israeli investigative television program Uvda (which airs on channel 12) released a report detailing how Dan Zorella had met with then-president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila in 2015 to hire Black Cube for Operation Coltan, an operation to spy on Kabila's political opponents. Black Cube investigators rented out the entire floor of a hotel in Kinshasa to serve as a base of operations. Opposition figures expressed outrage at the revelations.

Nobu Su
In 2015, Black Cube assisted Taiwanese businessman Nobu Su, owner of the shipping company TMT, in his efforts to gain permission to appeal a 2014 judgement in favor of Lakatamia Shipping in which Su was found personally liable for the amount of almost $47m. Black Cube delivered intelligence to Su's legal team showing that 20% of the judgement amount was due to a company called Slagen Shipping, which had ceased operations at the time of the establishment of the claim, thereby rendering it unable to act as a claimant, both reducing the quantum of the judgement significantly, and causing the appeal to be granted.

Kfar Giladi Quarries
Black Cube was hired to assist Kfar Giladi Quarries in their highly publicized dispute with Caesarstone in Israel. Black Cube engaged a Caesarstone engineer in conversation during a group bicycle trip in Kfar Giladi. In the recording, the engineer contradicted the allegations that were made by Caesarstone in the arbitration proceeding with Kfar Giladi. After six years of deliberations, Judge Boaz Okun ordered Caesarstone to pay more than $14m as compensation to Kfar Giladi.

AmTrust Financial Services
In 2016, Black Cube was involved in exposing bribery and corruption in a set of Italian arbitrations between AmTrust and an Italian named Antonio Somma totaling €2bn. Somma admitted to the company's undercover agents that he could control the arbitration panels, and that he had an agreement to pay the chair of the arbitration panel 10% of any money they awarded him. Following Black Cube's findings, the arbitrator was dismissed and in July 2016, the two sides reached a settlement on the total of 60 million euros instead of the initial 2 billion euro claim.

Rami Levy Hashikma Marketing
In 2016, Black Cube was hired by Rami Levy, the owner of Rami Levy Chain Stores Hashikma Marketing who is considered a champion of low prices in Israel, to verify his suspicions that he was being targeted by a rival chain in a negative media campaign. Black Cube provided Levy with evidence that the PR agent who worked for Levy's competitor, Victory supermarket chain, exposed the negative campaign that they carried out aimed at damaging Levy's public reputation. Levy later used those materials in a lawsuit against his competitor.

Alstom and Afcon
In 2016, France's Alstom and its Israeli partner Afcon hired Black Cube to assist them with their dispute against the Israel Railways' electrification bid, which the Spanish company SEMI won. Black Cube presented recordings of officials from the Israel Railway discussing malfunctions that occurred in the bid. Based on these findings in January 2018, the Superior Court in Israel issued an agreement of compromise according to which the work on the railway will be divided between all three of the companies and that Black Cube's clients' work will be priced at 580 million NIS, after they originally lost the bid.

Harvey Weinstein
In 2017, Black Cube made headlines after it was revealed that in 2016 the film executive Harvey Weinstein had hired private investigators—including Kroll and Black Cube—with its highly trained "former Mossad agents"— in his efforts to suppress allegations by numerous women that he had sexually harassed or assaulted them. Weinstein was referred to the company by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who denied any personal connection with the company or its associates. In his July 2016 contract with Black Cube, Weinstein clarified that the explicit goal of the investigation was to stop the abuse allegations from surfacing. In his November 6, 2017 The New Yorker article, entitled "Harvey Weinstein's Army of Spies", Ronan Farrow described in detail how Black Cube agents tracked and met journalists and actresses. They focused in particular on Rose McGowan, who later publicly accused Weinstein of rape. Over the course of a year, Black Cube and other agencies, "target, or collect information on, dozens of individuals, and compile psychological profiles that sometimes focused on their personal or sexual histories." One agent, Stella Penn Pechanac, used an alias to pose as a women's rights supporter interested in hiring McGowan for a formal dinner speech, enabling her to secretly record conversations with the actress. Black Cube apologized for taking the case in November 2017. , Manhattan federal prosecutors investigating Weinstein were probing into the firm's activities on his behalf, and McGowan's separate racketeering suit against it remained active. During Weinstein's 2020 trial for assault in Manhattan, Black Cube's spying on behalf of Weinstein was entered into evidence in January. In November 2017, Black Cube set up a fake recruitment firm, and flew an employee and a former employee of a hedge fund company to London for fake job interviews, in order to gain proprietary information about the hedge fund, according to The New York Times. Black Cube refused to comment. In New York State, private investigators are required to be licensed, but the Times could not find a record of a license for Black Cube or B.C. Strategy.

Gefen Biomed
In 2017, Gefen Biomed filed a NIS 60 million lawsuit which claims that entrepreneurs Moshe (Mori) Arkin and others deliberately misled or deceived minority shareholders in biomed company cCam Biotherapeutics. The lawsuit is based on evidence collected by Black Cube, which conducted recorded interviews with key figures in cCam that prove a deliberate and systematic attempt to conceal exit talks with Merck for up to $625 million.

Iran Nuclear Deal
In 2017 aides to U.S. President Donald Trump had contracted with Black Cube in order to undermine the Iran Nuclear Deal by discrediting former Obama administration officials Colin Kahl and Ben Rhodes. They looked for evidence of unsubstantiated and false claims that Kahl and Rhodes were being enriched by Iran lobbyists and that they were cheating on their spouses. The goal was to seek damaging information about former Obama administration officials and help the Trump administration undermine the Iran nuclear deal. Black Cube claimed in response that it had no relation to the Trump administration, to Trump aides, or to the Iran nuclear deal. In August 2018, The New Yorker connected Black Cube's research to a memo circulated in the Trump White House in early 2017 alleging former Obama officials 'conspired with reporters' "to undermine President Trump's foreign policy" in hopes of saving Obamacare and the Iran nuclear deal. In October 2018, Haaretz newspaper revealed that Black Cube's activities were aimed at tracking transfers of Iranian funds and assets in order to seize them, following US court rulings against Iran in favor of victims of terror attacks. Furthermore, it was published that the goal of the intelligence gathering was tracing unknown Iranian assets and revealing Obama's administration collaboration with Iran, in violation of US or international law, in order to find other possible parties to sue such as banks.

Project Maple Tree - Project Camouflage
A detailed June 12, 2021 report in Toronto, Canada's Globe and Mail described Black Cube's "Bay Street sting that went bust" as "Project Camouflage". It was revealed in Ontario provincial court documents that Black Cube's client Toronto-based private equity firm Catalyst owned by Newton Glassman had paid about $CDN 11 million to Black Cube for an effort code-named 'Project Maple Tree' to "embarrass" and improperly discredit Ontario Justice Frank Newbould. Catalyst Capital Group and West Face Capital had been involved in a lengthy and multi-pronged legal battle after West Face acquired WIND Mobile, a Canadian wireless provider in 2014. In his August 18, 2016  Ontario Superior Court of Justice decision, Justice Newbould ruled against Catalyst in favor of West Face, and said that Catalyst's owner, Newton Glassman was "aggressive," "argumentative" and "considerably difficult." Justice Newbould awarded West Face $1,239,965, saying that Glassman was "certainly playing hardball attacking the reputation and honesty of West Face" because he had lost the opportunity to acquire Wind. In retaliation, Glassman hired Black Cube, to dispatch agents to discredit Newbould and West Face, according to a March 31, 2021 Wall Street Journal article. Through this story, Black Cube received coverage in Canadian media.

Bank Hapoalim
In 2018, Black Cube was hired by Bank Hapoalim to trace the assets of Motti Zisser, who left behind a high debt to the bank. Black Cube provided intelligence of Zisser having a number of assets in Europe which were transferred from him to his son David through a sophisticated network of shell companies. As a result of the intelligence gathered by Black Cube, Bank Hapoalim was granted an injunction that applied an effective freeze on all the companies of the Zisser Family, which resulted in a settlement of the Zisser family returning 95 million NIS to the bank.

Viktor Orban's re-election
In 2018, Black Cube supported Viktor Orban's re-election campaign gaining taped telephone conversations of individuals associated with George Soros who was actively opposing Orban's re-election. According to Tamar Zandberg, Hungary was "carrying out an anti-Semitic campaign against Soros", and Benjamin Netanyahu, whose Likud party, she stated, has dangerous ties to "extreme right-wing parties in Europe", openly supported Orban's anti-Semitic re-election campaign. She stated that Black Cube's support for Orban is an "Israeli embarrassment."

Janio Lescure and Judge Oydén Ortega
In 2019, Black Cube uncovered proof of bribery and corruption between lawyer Janio Lescure of Panama and various judges and magistrates in the country, including Judge Oydén Ortega of the Supreme Court. Black Cube was able to procure audios of Lescure admitting his close relationships with judges, state officials, and mafiosos as well as his ability to control court verdicts, bypass inspections of illegal activities, and avoiding paying taxes.

NSO Group
In October 2018, Associated Press reported that two University of Toronto cybersecurity researchers were being pursued by undercover operatives with false identities who were inquiring about the researchers' work concerning the Israeli spyware company NSO Group. The operatives also appeared to be trying to goad the researchers into making anti-Semitic or otherwise damaging remarks. After a sting operation organised by one of the researchers and the AP, one operative was photographed and later identified as a former Israeli security official who had previously worked on a case linked to Black Cube. Responding to the revelation, NSO Group denied contracting Black Cube, and Black Cube likewise denied involvement.

In February 2019, Associated Press reported that at least four more individuals - three lawyers, and one journalist - were pursued by undercover operatives for their work on NSO. Undercover agents again tried to goad the individuals into making racist or anti-Israel remarks. Channel 12, an Israeli television channel, obtained and aired the secret recordings made by the undercover operatives shortly before the AP published the revelations. Channel 12 confirmed that Black Cube undercover investigators were involved, and claimed the individuals being investigated by Black Cube were attempting to smear NSO Group on behalf of Qatar. At the time, Black Cube declined to comment besides a generic reply that it follows the law in all jurisdictions it operates in. An April 2022 article in The New Yorker included more denials from both NSO and Black Cube but included a quote from NSO chief Hulio Shalev that contradicted those denials: "NSO Group has denied hiring Black Cube to target opponents. However, Hulio acknowledged the connection to me, saying, "For the lawsuit in Cyprus, there was one involvement of Black Cube," because the lawsuit "came from nowhere, and I want to understand." Black Cube denied involvement in the case in the same article.

Eliezer Fishman
In 2019, Black Cube exposed Eliezer Fishman's hidden assets valued at around €100 million. Fishman, once considered one of Israel's wealthiest businessmen, was declared bankrupt in 2016. Black Cube secretly recorded several meetings with associates of Fishman, which led the London High Court to rule that the businessman had illicitly hidden assets and properties across Europe, mainly Germany, through legal entities, trustees, and representatives.

Beny Steinmetz
In May 2020, Black Cube submitted on behalf of Beny Steinmetz evidence to a New York court that the Brazilian company Vale SA withheld critical information concerning a mining license in Guinea obtained by Steinmetz. During a four-month operation, Black Cube gathered recordings with Vale senior executives, who admitted that Vale assumed the mining license was obtained illegally when they entered into the contract, contradicting an arbitration award of $1.8 billion in favor of Vale. As a result, in February 2022 Vale dropped its lawsuit against Steinmetz seeking to enforce the award.

Petróleos Mexicanos
In October 2019, it was revealed that Black Cube recorded evidence of bribery and corruption of senior officials at Mexico's Petróleos Mexicanos, known as Pemex. The recordings were submitted as part of a lawsuit filed in 2018 by Oro Negro, a Mexican oil-field drilling company, claiming that Pemex drove Oro Negro into bankruptcy when the company refused to pay bribes. Black Cube recordings offer evidence of long-standing corruption in Mexico's largest state enterprise, in all levels of Pemex management up to the CEO and board. This evidence was additionally presented to the DOJ in their investigation into Pemex.

Mediterranean Oil Spill
In February 2021 an oil spill washed up tar along 160km of Israel's Mediterranean coast, resulting in beach closures across the country. The Israeli Environmental Protection Ministry declared it Israel's worst environmental disaster in its history. Officials estimated that more than 1000 tons of oil had been spilled. The source was unknown, with no ship providing warning of the spill or reporting it. Black Cube, in cooperation with the Israeli environment minister, undertook an investigation on a pro-bono basis and concluded that the ship responsible is owned by the Syrian Malah family via a complex structure of shell companies. The ship is suspected to have been illegally transporting oil from Iran to Syria. Both Israel and the chairman of the compensation fund agreed that the oil was apparently dumped into the sea on purpose during the cleaning out of oil barrels on board, according to a ministry statement.

The tanker was insured by UAE-based Islamic P&I club, which "is solely used by Iranian ship owners that cannot find cover elsewhere" according to Lloyd's List. With support from Black Cube's evidence, The London-based International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund agreed to pay damages, as it does in cases where suits against a ship's owner are "unlikely to bear fruit."

Controversies

Laura Codruța Kövesi
In April 2016, two of the company employees were arrested, and later convicted, in Bucharest on suspicions of spying, phishing, and cyberharassing the chief prosecutor of the Romanian National Anticorruption Directorate, Laura Codruța Kövesi, and people close to her. After sentencing, the company reached an understanding with the Romanian authorities and the two employees were released and returned to Israel after a few months. At the time of the arrest, Black Cube denied any wrongdoing, saying that they were working under contract from the highest political powers in Bucharest and that "all of Black Cube's employees follow local law to the letter, and the allegations against them are unfounded and untrue".

Hungarian election campaign
Between December 2017 and February 2018 Black Cube set up a cover company called Smart Innotech, seated in London, UK, and contacted Hungarian Migration Aid Hungary by email, urging them to have a meeting in Vienna, Austria. Migration Aid contacted the Hungarian foreign intelligence (Alkotmányvédelmi Hivatal) and recorded and tightly controlled the meetings. Black Cube attempted to collect data on migrants, and on Hungarian opposition party members, to uncover alleged ties with George Soros; which were proven to be false. Black Cube failed to gather any information; the company—which was never registered—disappeared after February. Black Cube used the same methods with multiple NGOs, like Open Society Foundations Hungary and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee.

Russia probe
On 5 April 2019 the Senate Intelligence Committee sent a letter to Walter Soriano, the owner of USG Security Limited based in Britain and Israel, requesting his communications with Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Psy-Group, Wikistrat, Orbis Business Intelligence (a firm co-founded by Christopher Steele), and Black Cube. In response, the company denied any connection and stated that "neither they nor anyone acting on their behalf has ever had any communication or collaboration with Walter Soriano or anyone on his behalf."

International Advisory Board
 Meir Dagan (Deceased) – Former head of Mossad, Honorary President of the Board.
Efraim Halevy – Former head of Mossad, headed the National Security Council and the Hebrew University Center for Strategic Studies.
Yohanan Danino – Former Israeli Police Commissioner, served as Chairman of Migdal Insurance Group.
 Major General Giora Eiland – Former head of the Israeli National Security Council, headed the IDF's Operation Branch and IDF's Planning Branch.
 Robert Amaee – Former Head of Anti-Corruption, Proceeds of Crime and International Assistance at the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
Professor Asher Tishler – President of the College of Management Academic Studies
 Brigadier General Mati Leshem – Recipient of the 1997 Israel Defense Prize
 Paul Reyniers – Former partner at Price Waterhouse and author of GARP (Generally Accepted Risk Principles)
 Itiel Maayan – Member of Microsoft's Customer Advisory Board
 Lieutenant Colonel Golan Malka – Former Vice President Marketing and Business Development of NICE Systems

References

Sources

External links

Israeli companies established in 2010
Business intelligence companies
Companies based in Tel Aviv
Business services companies established in 2010
Private investigators
Private intelligence agencies

Black Cube


Minneapolis–Saint Paul Joint Air Reserve Station is a United States Air Force base, located at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport. It is located in the
Fort  Snelling Unorganized Territory
on the southeast border of Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was formerly the location of Naval Air Station Twin Cities.

Overview
Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport Air Reserve Base is home to the United States Air Force Reserve's 934th Airlift Wing (934 AW) "Flying Vikings" who fly the C-130 Hercules aircraft. The 934 AW, which functions as the "host wing" for the installation, employs more than 1,300 Reservists of which about 250 are full-time Active Guard and Reserve (AGR) or Air Reserve Technician (ART) personnel. The 934th reports to the Air Force Reserve Command's 22d Air Force (22 AF) at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia.

The 934th's gaining active-duty force is the Air Mobility Command's 18th Air Force(18 AF)  at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. The wing directly or indirectly supports approximately 5,000 members of the Air Force, Air Force Reserve Command, Minnesota Air National Guard, U.S. Army Reserve, Minnesota Army National Guard, U.S. Navy Reserve, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and the Minnesota Wing of the Civil Air Patrol.

In addition to the Air Force Reserve, MSPJARS is the home of the Minnesota Air National Guard's 133d Airlift Wing (133 AW).  Like the 934 AW, the 133 AW also utilizes the C-130 Hercules, augmenting the active-duty Air Force with tactical airlift of troops, cargo, and medical patients anywhere in the world.  Additionally, the 133 AW is prepared to support the State of Minnesota with troops capable of assisting in a disaster or other emergencies as directed by the Governor of Minnesota. There are five major units in the 133 AW: Headquarters Group; Maintenance Group; Operations Group; Medical Group; and Mission Support Group.

The Minnesota National Guard Joint Force Headquarters (JFHQ-MN) is a joint Army National Guard and Air National Guard command headquartered at MSPJARS. JFHQ-MN provides personnel, intelligence, operations, logistics, and resource guidance and support to the Major Commands in the Minnesota National Guard: 34th (Red Bull) Infantry Division; 1/34th Brigade Combat Team; 34th Combat Aviation Brigade; 84th Troop Command; 347th Regional Support Group; 175th Regional Training Institute; 133rd Airlift Wing; and the 148th Fighter Wing at Duluth Air National Guard Base.

JFHQ-MN coordinates military support at the request of the Governor in the event of a disaster and is capable of providing a joint command staff for federal military forces operating within the State of Minnesota.

History
In 1920 a hangar was built on a former auto racing track to accommodate airmail service, and the 160-acre property became known as Speedway Field. In 1923, the airport was renamed Wold-Chamberlain Field in honor of two local pilots, Ernest Wold and Cyrus Chamberlain, who lost their lives in combat during World War I. The airport soon became home to Northwest Airways, which in 1926 won the government's airmail contract and acquired the airport's only hangar.

Navy
In 1928 Naval Reserve Air Station Minneapolis was created At Wold Chamberlain Field.  That same year the name changed to Naval Reserve Air Base (NRAB) Minneapolis.  In 1943 it was changed to NAS Minneapolis.  During WWII it served as a training facility for aviation cadets. In 1946 the Navy established VP-911 at the base and changed the name to NAS Twin Cities.  The squadron flew Consolidated PBY-5A and PBY-6A Catalinas until 1954.   In 1979 the name changed to NARC Twin Cities.

Army Air Corps
In February 1942, after the United States' entry into World War II, the United States Army Air Corps 1454th Base Unit was assigned to Wold-Chamberlain Field to conduct a survey about the usefulness of the airport to the war effort.  The unit's mission was to organize, coordinate and supervise the movement of cargo and passengers travelling though the airport by contract airlines and to and from Ferrying Command.  Northwest Airlines remained in control of the control tower and flight facilities.  Other construction  was initiated to expand flight facilities, base operations, passenger service facilities, customs and port of entry facilities.  The Army Corps of Engineers was authorized to expand the ramp facilities and also to expand the airfield.

Personnel from the Alaskan Wing, Air Transport Command arrived at the airport on 29 December 1942 to organize a control detachment.  On 20 September 1943, the detachment was re designated as Station No. 11, Alaskan Wing, Air Transport Command.  The airport became a key stop on what was designated the "Alaskan Route", in which aircraft were ferried north to Edmonton Airport in Northern Alberta on the Alaska Route, to support the Alaskan Campaign against the Japanese,  and also for eventual transport to Siberia as part of Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.

Minneapolis was also a stop on ATC's  "Crimson Route", the ferrying route between the manufacturing facilities in Southern California and the combat bases being constructed in the United Kingdom. It operated as a refueling and maintenance base on the transport route north to Crystal II in the Canadian Northern Territories or Goose Air Station in Labrador to support the combat forces in the United Kingdom, North Africa and other destinations.

With the end of the war in September 1945, the military mission of the airport was changed on 1 January 1946 to be a supply depot for Air Transport Command cargo aircraft throughout the upper Great Lakes region and to serve as a terminus for transcontinental planes and their upkeep.

Continental Air Command
On 1 July 1948 with the inactivation of Air Transport Command, control of the military facilities was transferred to Continental Air Command (ConAC), with the 2465th Air Force Reserve Training Center being activated 28 August.  Its mission was to conduct reserve training.  The 440th Troop Carrier Group (Medium) was activated at the field on 3 September equipped with C-47 Skytrains.  The 440th trained for troop carrier operations in the Reserve, and became part of the 440th Troop Carrier Wing when it activated in June 1949. It was called  to active duty on 1 May 1951 and inactivated four days later with its personnel and equipment being reassigned to other units as a result of the Korean War.  After its federal service ended in January 1953, it was reactivated and after a short period as a Fighter-Bomber Group, it transitioned to C-119 Flying Boxcars in 1954.  The 440th remained in Minneapolis until November 1957 when it was transferred to the new Air Reserve Station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Air Defense Command
With the inactivation of the 440th Troop Carrier Group in May 1951, the active-duty Air Defense Command (ADC) brought the federalized Kentucky Air National Guard's 123d Fighter-Interceptor Wing to the airport later in May.  The 123d FIG's 165th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron was equipped with F-51 Mustangs and trained until the end of its federal service in February 1952.

The F-51s were taken over by the active-duty 18th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, under ADC's 514th Air Defense Group in February 1952.  These World War II fighters, used as interceptors, were replaced by F-86F Sabre jet interceptors in 1953.  The 514th was redesignated as the 475th Fighter-Interceptor Group (Air Defense) on 18 August 1955 as part of an ADC program to reactivate notable World War II combat units.  The 18th FIS was also redesignated as the 432d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron.  The F-94 Starfire-equipped 337th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron became the second interceptor squadron at Minneapolis later in 1955.

In late 1957, Air Defense Command began to wind down operations at Minneapolis, due to the expansion of the civilian airport and jet noise of the interceptors over the urban area surrounding the facility.  The 475th FIG was inactivated on 2 January 1958.

Air Force Reserve
The USAF Reserve returned to Minneapolis on 11 February 1963 when the 934th Tactical Airlift Group was activated.  Initially flying the C-119 Flying Boxcar, the unit has also periodically deployed to Panama, and later Puerto Rico, to fly cargo and personnel throughout Central and South America since 1979.

Upgraded to the C-130 in 1970, the 934th deployed personnel and aircraft to participate in allied operations in the Persian Gulf area and the Balkans in 1990 and later. It has also participated in numerous joint airborne training exercises and humanitarian airlifts.

Minnesota Air National Guard
The Minnesota 109th Fighter Squadron was allocated to the Air National Guard on 24 May 1946 at Minneapolis.  During the Korean War it was activated, contributing pilots to Korea's "Mig Alley."

In the 1950s and early 1960s, the 109th Fighter Interceptor Squadron was providing active air defense commitments with 24-hour alert status.  Threats by the Soviet Union to oust Western troops from West Berlin in 1961 prompted the "Berlin Crisis" and a call-up of selected National Guard forces throughout the nation. Included in this mobilization were members of the 133rd Air Transport Wing, Minnesota Air National Guard, who served in federal active service for 11 months while operating out of their home station at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport.

During the Vietnam War, although never officially mobilized, the Air Guard flew hundreds of supply and transport missions to Southeast Asia.

See also

 Minnesota World War II Army Airfields
 Air Transport Command
 Aerospace Defense Command Fighter Squadrons

References

 A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946–1980, by Lloyd H. Cornett and Mildred W. Johnson, Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado
 Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. .
 Ravenstein, Charles A. (1984). Air Force Combat Wings Lineage and Honors Histories 1947–1977. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. .
 Aerospace Defense Command publication, The Interceptor, January 1979 (Volume 21, Number 1).

Installations of the United States Air Force in Minnesota
Installations of the United States Air National Guard
Military installations established in 1963
Military facilities in Minnesota
Joint Air Reserve Station


Christian Medical Fellowship of Australia has its historical roots in the Inter Varsity Fellowship (IVF) and the Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF) that started in the UK. At the same time as many other similar groups were being set up around the world after World War II, many separate Australian state fellowships of doctors and dentists were being founded.

These groups united as a national body in 1962 but it was not until 1998 that the Christian Medical and Dental Fellowship of Australia (CMDFA) was officially established. In 2000 the central office in Sydney opened to assist with growing administrative needs.

CMDFA is linked with the International Christian Medical and Dental Association.

Aims of CMDFA
To provide a Fellowship in which members may share and discuss their experience as Christians in the professions of medicine and dentistry.
To encourage Christian doctors and dentists to realise their potential, serving and honouring God in their professional practice.
To present the claims of Christ to colleagues and others and to win their allegiance to Him.
To provide a forum to discuss the application of the Christian faith to the problems of national and local life as they relate to medicine and dentistry.
To foster active interest in mission.
To strengthen and encourage Christian medical and dental students in their faith.
To encourage members to play a full part in the activities of their local churches.
To provide pastoral support when appropriate.

See also
ICMDA

External links
CMDFA
ICMDA

Evangelical parachurch organizations
Medical and health organisations based in Australia
Dental organizations


Earliest eligible virtual deadline first (EEVDF) is a dynamic priority proportional share scheduling algorithm for soft real-time systems.

Algorithm
EEVDF was first described in the 1995 paper "Earliest Eligible Virtual Deadline First : A Flexible and Accurate Mechanism for Proportional Share Resource Allocation" by Ion Stoica and Hussein Abdel-Wahab. It uses notions of virtual time, eligible time, virtual requests and virtual deadlines for determining scheduling priority. It has the property that when a job keeps requesting service, the amount of service obtained is always within the maximum quantum size of what it is entitled.

Linux kernel scheduler

In 2023, Peter Zijlstra proposed replacing the Completely Fair Scheduler (CFS) in the Linux kernel with an EEVDF process scheduler. The aim was to remove the need for CFS "latency nice" patches. The EEVDF scheduler replaced CFS in version 6.6 of the Linux kernel.

See also
 Brain Fuck Scheduler
 Earliest deadline first scheduling (EDF)
 nice (Unix)
 SCHED_DEADLINE

References

Processor scheduling algorithms
Real-time computing
Linux kernel process schedulers
Free software

Earliest eligible virtual deadline first scheduling


Miguel Augusto Rodríguez Garrido is a Venezuelan actor and model born in Caracas on 20 October 1977. He has appeared in several telenovelas for RCTV and Venevisión.

He began his career modelling for a famous agency in Caracas. His acting career began when he went for a casting call conducted by RCTV. He was then given a scholarship to study acting at Luz Columba RCTV's acting school. He studied under acting professor Ospino, and this is the time he discovered his passion for acting.

His first acting role was in the telenovela La mujer de Judas in 2003. He has also acted in telenovelas in the United States such as Sacrificio de Mujer for Venevisión International and Aurora and La Casa de al Lado for Telemundo.

In 2012, he returned to Venezuela to play the role of Eulogio Parra in the telenovela Válgame Dios.

Telenovelas
2013: De todas maneras Rosa (Venevisión) as Eduardo Revete
2012: Válgame Dios (Venevisión) as Eulogio Parra
2011: La Casa de al Lado (Telemundo) as Omar Blanco
2011: Sacrificio de Mujer (Venevisión International) as Jorge
2010: Aurora (Telemundo) as Dr. Williams
2007: Toda una dama (RCTV) as Lucas Gallardo
2005: Amor a Palos (RCTV) as Beltrán Ponce De León
2004: Estrambotica Anastasia (RCTV) as Leon Borofsky Castellanos "El Monje Asesino"
2003: La mujer de Judas (RCTV) as Pitercito
2002: Trapos íntimos (RCTV) as Chato

References

External links

Living people
1977 births
Models from Caracas
Actors from Caracas
21st-century Venezuelan male actors
Venezuelan male telenovela actors
Venezuelan male models

Miguel Augusto Rodríguez


Flinders Island is an island in the Investigator Group off the coast of South Australia approximately  west of mainland town Elliston.  It was named by Matthew Flinders after his younger brother Samuel Flinders, the second lieutenant on  in 1802.

It is part of the  Investigator Islands Important Bird Area and has a colony of little penguins, but has suffered from the feral cats, black rats and mice, which threaten the bird life. The island is privately owned and was used mostly for farming since 1911, although that tailed off as transport costs rose. In 2020 the owners signed an agreement with the Government of South Australia which places a conservation agreement over , which is most of the island.

The island has been subject to diamond exploration following the discovery of a wide range of kimberlite indicator minerals there, which was continuing .

History

European discovery and use
Flinders named the island after his younger brother Samuel, who was the sloop's second lieutenant, on 13 February 1802. Flinders' expedition described some aspects of the island's flora and fauna. Lower land was covered with large bushes, unlike islands previously passed further north. There was very little of the white, velvety grass striplex or tufted wiry grass previously seen. A small macropod species was described as "numerous" and specimens were shot. There were a few small casuarinas growing on the island but firewood was scarce. The beaches were frequented by Australian sea lions, of which several family groups were closely inspected.

A sealing camp was in place on the south-east side of the island by the 1820s. There was also a whaling station. The sealers, their Aboriginal wives and children numbered up to twenty people at one stage. A pastoral survey of the site in 1890 identified ten separate structures associated with the sealing community, and archaeological examination of the structures took place in the 1980s. The Flinders Island Whaling and Sealing Site is listed on the South Australian Heritage Register.

Some time prior to 1911, sheep, horses, cattle, milk thistles and oats were introduced to Flinders Island, presumably by Willie Schlink and his family. At this time  of the island had been cleared and was producing 1,400 to 2,000 bags of wheat annually. 4,000 sheep were kept and black and white rabbits ran wild on the island. By the time of the island's sale in 1911, 30,000 wallabies had been killed there.  The island continued to be used mostly for farming, although that tailed off as transport costs rose. In the late 1970s, the island was bought by the Woolford family, who ran it as a sheep station for merinos. By 2020, there were only a few sheep and the island was used mainly for tourism (via house rental) and recreation.

Conservation
Flinders Island is one of the islands included in the Investigator Islands Important Bird Area identified by BirdLife International, a non-statutory status, awarded in 2009 because of the island group's population of fairy tern (a vulnerable species), as well as significant populations of Cape Barren geese, Pacific gull and black-faced cormorant. Other birds for which the IBA is significant include large numbers of breeding short-tailed shearwaters and white-faced storm-petrels. The biome-restricted rock parrot has been recorded from most islands in the group.

An account of Flinders Island's wildlife published in 1934 stated that penguins could "be seen waddling soldier-like among the rocks and cave entrances that constitute their homes". In 2006 there was an colony of little penguins believed to be "probably declining", with an estimated population of fewer than twenty birds, nesting at the base of some cliffs where feral cats have limited access. A risk assessment for the penguins commissioned by Department for Environment & Natural Resources in 2016 report based their recommendations on the 2006 estimate. It reported that the feral cats were responsible for the probable decline, but if they were eliminated, the rat population would grow, so both would need to be removed.

A strip of land along the north coast of the island extending west from the island's most northerly headland, Point Malcolm, has been the subject of the subject of a heritage agreement as a protected area since 29 August 1995. The parcel of land which is identified as No. HA1003 is sized at . Since 2012, the waters adjoining the Flinders Island  have been part of a habitat protection zone in the Investigator Marine Park.

In 2020 the owners signed an agreement with the Government of South Australia which places a conservation agreement over , which is most of the island. The feral cats, black rats and mice, which threaten the bird life, need to be eradicated, and threatened animals will be introduced. The three-year Flinders Island Safe Haven Project received  through the Federal Government's Environment Restoration Fund, and  from the Government of South Australia to co-manage the establishment of the project with the Woolford family.

Mining exploration
The island has been subject to diamond exploration following the discovery of a wide range of kimberlite indicator minerals there, which was continuing .

Citations

References

Islands of South Australia
Great Australian Bight
Seal hunting
Whaling in Australia
Wildlife conservation
Private islands of Australia

Flinders Island (South Australia)