Gerry Harrison (born 1942) is a former leading football commentator on English television in the 1970s and 80s, working for ITV. In the latter part of his career he was a senior television executive with production company TWI, who produce coverage of Premier League football, international golf and tennis among other sports. He left this role in 2007.

Londoner Harrison played football to what he describes as a decent level on his way to becoming a news reporter with the Daily Express. He switched to broadcasting in 1967 with BBC Radio Merseyside, taking up football commentary duties along the way.

Harrison entered the BBC's Find a Commentator competition in 1969.  Despite making the final six he lost out on the prize of a working trip to the 1970 FIFA World Cup to Welshman Idwal Robling. However, Harrison was to get the better deal out of it. Partly on the strength of his performance in the competition, he was offered a post as a commentator for Norwich-based Anglia Television. While Robling covered a couple of games in Mexico for the BBC, Harrison worked on the competition as part of ITV's commentary team covering seven matches. It was the first of six World Cups he would cover for ITV.

Anglia's staple football programme Match of the Week chronicled a superb spell for Ipswich Town under the guidance of Bobby Robson, as well as the fortunes of Norwich City, Luton Town, Cambridge United, Peterborough United, Colchester United, Southend United and Northampton Town. Harrison worked as presenter and commentator before its eventual demise in 1983. He also covered the first leg of the 1981 UEFA Cup Final, featuring Ipswich, for Anglia and the ITV network.

Network responsibilities rarely came Harrison's way outside of the World Cup. He commentated on live matches in 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982 and 1986, and also worked on the 1990 tournament. He was also a regular voice on Football League highlights on both The Big Match and Midweek Sports Special. He freelanced for BSB in its early days - covering the 1990 FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Crystal Palace among other matches. He also covered matches for Eurosport, British Aerospace Sportscast and Screensport.

In 1985 Harrison took over as Head of Sport at Anglia but left in 1993 frustrated at ITV's inability to maintain rights to top-flight football. He joined TWI as a producer and has worked on many shows including the long-running Futbol Mundial programme. He also occasionally commentates, notably covering the FIFA World Club Championship for international audiences since its inception in 2005. In 2005 Gerry returned to Anglia as a guest on their 50 years of ITV programme. In 2006, he hosted the first edition of Anglia Soccer Night of the season. He has also appeared as a studio guest and was seen regularly hosting Soccer Rewind on Anglia Soccer Night in the 2006/2007 season.

References

Television personalities from London
English association football commentators
1942 births
Living people

Gerry Harrison


The Wilmington insurrection of 1898, also known as the Wilmington massacre of 1898 or the Wilmington coup of 1898, happened in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Thursday, November 10, 1898.

It is seen as a turning point in post-Reconstruction North Carolina politics. It caused more intense racial segregation of African Americans throughout the South. It made it harder for African-Americans to vote.

The event was caused after many white supremacists took over the Wilmington city government which was controlled by both white and black men and killed the black alderman. After the event, no black politician was in charge in Wilmington.

It has been called a race riot caused by blacks by white newspapers at the time. However, over time, with more facts publicized, the event has come to be seen as a coup d'état, the violent overthrow of a duly elected government, by a group of white supremacists. It is seen as the only coup in American history.

The coup happens with 2,000 white men. They destroyed the property and businesses of black citizens built up since the Civil War, including the only black newspaper in the city, and killed about 60 to more than 300 people.

References

1898 in the United States
African-American history

Wilmington insurrection of 1898


V. Martyn Housden is reader in modern history at the University of Bradford. Housden's research interests relate to the history of refugees, Fridtjof Nansen, the League of Nations, the psychoanalysis of Erich Fromm, the history of national minorities, and the history of Germany.

Selected publications
The League of Nations and the Organisation of Peace. London: Longman, 2012. (Seminar Studies in History)
Forgotten Pages in Baltic History. Diversity and Inclusion. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2011. Edited with David Smith.
Neighbours or Enemies?  Germans, the Baltic and Beyond. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2008. (With John Hiden)
The Holocaust.  Events, Motives and Legacy. Tirril: Humanities-Ebooks. 2007.
Hans Frank.  Lebensraum and the Holocaust. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2003.
Adolf Hitler.: Study of a Revolutionary? London: Routledge, 2000.
Resistance and Conformity in the Third Reich. London: Routledge, 1997. Reprinted 2003.
Helmut Nicolai and Nazi Ideology. London: Macmillan, 1992.

References

British historians
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Academics of the University of Bradford

Martyn Housden


Spontaneous fission (SF) is a form of radioactive decay in which a heavy atomic nucleus splits into two or more lighter nuclei. In comparison to induced fission, there is no inciting particle to trigger the decay, it is a purely probabilistic process.

Spontaneous fission is a dominant decay mode for superheavy elements, with nuclear stability generally falling as nuclear mass increases.	It thus forms a practical limit to heavy element nucleon number. Heavier nuclides may be created instantaneously by physical processes, both natural (via the r-process) and artificial, though rapidly decay to more stable nuclides. As such, apart from minor decay branches in primordial radionuclides, spontaneous fission is not observed in nature.

Observed fission half-lives range from 4.1 microseconds () to greater than the current age of the universe ().

History

Following the discovery of induced fission by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in 1938, Soviet physicists Georgy Flyorov and Konstantin Petrzhak began conducting experiments to explore the effects of incident neutron energy on uranium nuclei. Their equipment recorded fission fragments even when no neutrons were present to induce the decay, and the effect persisted even after the equipment was moved 60m underground into the tunnels of the Moscow Metro's Dinamo station in an effort to insulate it from the effects of cosmic rays. The discovery of induced fission itself had come as a surprise, and no other mechanism was known that could account for the observed decays. Such an effect could only be explained by spontaneous fission of the uranium nuclei without external influence.

Mechanism
Spontaneous fission arises as a result of competition between the attractive properties of the strong nuclear force and the mutual coulombic repulsion of the constituent protons. Nuclear binding energy increases in proportion to atomic mass number (A), however coulombic repulsion increases with proton number (Z) squared. Thus, at high mass and proton numbers, coulombic repulsion overpowers the nuclear binding forces, and the nucleus is energetically more stable as two separate fragments than as a single bound system.

Spontaneous fission is usually a slow process, as the nucleus cannot simply jump to the lower energy (divided) state. Instead it must tunnel through a potential barrier, with a probability determined by the height of the barrier. Such a barrier is energetically possible for all A>100, though its height generally decreases with increasing Z, and fission is only practically observed for A>232.

The stability of a nuclide against fission is expressed as the ratio of the Coulomb energy to the surface energy, which can be empirically estimated as the fissility parameter, x:

with  and . For light nuclei, x is small and a sizeable fission barrier exists. As nuclear mass increases, so too does the fissility parameter, eventually approaching and exceeding unity, where stability against fission is lost altogether.

Shell effects may further affect observed half-lives — decays of odd-A nuclides are hindered by 3-5 orders of magnitude compared to even-even nuclides. The barrier to fission is expected to be zero at A=300, though an island of stability may exist centred around Z=114, N=184.

To date, true ab initio models describing the complete fission process are not possible. Computational theories based on Hartree-Fock or density-functional theory approaches have been developed, however computational complexity makes it difficult to reproduce the full behaviour. The semi-classical liquid drop model provides a primarily qualitative description of the phenomenology by treating the nucleus as a classical drop of liquid to which quantum corrections can be applied, which provides a useful conceptual picture that matches in part with experimental data, but ignores much of the quantum nature of the system and fails at more rigorous predictions.

In this model, as with a classical liquid drop, a "surface tension" term is introduced which promotes the spherical shape of the nucleus. Acting in opposition is coulombic repulsion term, which acts to increase the distance between repelling proton pairs and thus promotes elongation of the nucleus into an oval shape. As the deformation of the nucleus increases, and particularly for large nuclei due to their stronger coulombic repulsion, the nucleus may find itself in a state where a thin 'neck' develops, forming a bridge between two clusters of nuclear matter which may exceed the ability of the surface tension to restore the undeformed shape, eventually breaking into two fragments at the "scission point". Introducing the effects of quantum tunnelling, the nucleus always has a chance to scission which increases with increasing deformation, and may do so even if the deformation is insufficient to trigger rupture of the neck. After separation, both fragments are highly positively charged and therefore gain significant kinetic energy via their mutual repulsion as they accelerate away from each other.

Shape isomers (also called fission isomers) are excited nuclear states existing before scission which may deviate from the spherical geometry, increasing nuclear deformation compared to the ground state without undergoing full fission. These states are 'metastable' — a nucleus is this state may, on timescales between nanoseconds and microseconds, either decay back to the ground state via gamma-emission, or tunnel through the scission barrier and break apart. Should the nucleus find itself in this state, either through quantum tunnelling or via random statistical fluctuation, the barrier for fission is much reduced, as shape isomers are always at a higher energy level than the ground sate and therefore are no longer required to tunnel through the entire barrier. The resulting increased probability for fission reduces the effective half-life of the nuclide. Triple-humped barriers have been suggested for some nuclear species such as , further reducing its observed half-life.

Products
Fission fragments are usually neutron-rich and always generated in excited states. Thus, daughter decays occur rapidly after scission. Decays occurring within 10-13s of scission are termed "prompt" and are initially dominated by a series of neutron emissions which remain the dominant decay mode until the fragment energy is reduced to the same order of magnitude as the neutron separation energy (approximately ), when photon emission becomes competitive. Below the neutron separation energy, gamma emission is dominant, characterised by a disordered spectrum of gamma energies with characteristic low-energy peaks corresponding to specific decays as the daughter descends the yrast line, each decay carrying away excess angular momentum. Average total prompt gamma emission is 30% higher from the lighter fragment compared to the heavier, implying the heavier fragment is created with higher initial angular momentum. Finally, internal conversion and x-ray emission complete the prompt emissions. Daughter products created by prompt decays are often unstable against beta-decay, and further photon and neutron emissions are also expected. Such emissions are termed 'delayed emissions' and take place with half-lives ranging from picoseconds to years.

As a result of the large number of decay pathways presented to a fissioning nucleus, there is a large variation in the final products. Fragment masses are normally distributed about two peaks centred at A≈95 and A≈140,. Spontaneous fission favours against equal-mass fragments, and no convincing explanation has been found to explain this. In rare instances (0.3%), three or more fission fragments may be created. Ternary products are usually alpha-particles, though can be as massive as oxygen nuclei.

Total energy release across all products is approximately , mostly observed as kinetic energy of the fission fragments, with the lighter fragment receiving the larger proportion of energy. For a given decay path, the number of emitted neutrons is not consistent, and instead follows a gaussian distribution. The distribution about the average, however, is consistent across all decay paths. Prompt neutrons are emitted with energies approximated by (but not precisely fitting) a Maxwell distribution, peaking between 0.5 and 1 MeV, with an average energy of  and maximum energy of approximately . Prompt gamma emission constitutes a further 8 MeV, while beta decay and delayed-gammas contribute a further  and  respectively. Less than 1% of emitted neutrons are emitted as delayed neutrons.

Applications
The most common application for spontaneous fission is as neutron source for further use. These neutrons may be used for applications such as neutron imaging, or may drive additional nuclear reactions, including initiating induced fission of a target as is common in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons.

In crystals containing high proportions of uranium, fission products generated via spontaneous fission produce damage trails as the fragments recoil through the crystal structure. The number of trails, or fission tracks, may be used to estimate the age of a sample via fission track dating.

Spontaneous fission rates

See also

 Nuclear fission
 Natural nuclear fission reactor
 Alpha decay
 Cluster decay

Notes

External links
  The LIVEChart of Nuclides - IAEA  with filter on spontaneous fission decay

Nuclear physics
Nuclear fission
Neutron sources
Radioactivity

Spontaneous fission


The Center for Hellenic Studies (CHS) is a research institute for classics located in Washington, D.C. at 3100 NW Whitehaven Street. It is affiliated with Harvard University.

Nestled in Rock Creek Park behind Embassy Row, the Center for Hellenic Studies offers a variety of both residential and remote fellowships each year to scholars and researchers working on projects in a variety of fields, including "archaeology, art history, epigraphy, history, literary criticism, philology, philosophy, pedagogical applications, reception, and interdisciplinary studies". The center provides housing for "residential" fellows and their families, and accommodates remote fellows and visiting scholars during shorter stays. Fellows are selected by a panel of Senior Fellows, a group of five internationally selected senior classicists. Fellows are typically pre-tenured PhDs from around the world, most often from Europe or North America. The "Center", as it is commonly called, has been a stopping point in the careers of many budding classicists who have gone on to be major contributors in the field.

Director of the center
The director of the center is appointed by Harvard University. Michael C.J. Putnam (Brown University, 1962) was the first director, but acted as a substitute for Bernard Knox (Yale University, 1963–1985), the center's first official director. Knox was succeeded by Zeph Stewart (Harvard University, 1985–1992), and Stewart by co-directors Kurt Raaflaub and Deborah Boedeker (Brown University, 1992–2000). Gregory Nagy became director in 2000 and was succeeded by Mark Schiefsky in 2021.

Campus
The wooded campus has a large mansion as the director's residence, a "stoa" with five apartments for the fellows without families, three cottages for the fellows with families, two subdivided cottages serving as double residences, five guest-rooms to accommodate visiting scholars, and one cottage that has been transformed into a multi-media conference facility.

History
Starting in 2000, director Gregory Nagy brought a new focus on outreach (both national and international), information technology, publishing, and collaborative research to the Center for Hellenic Studies, as evidenced by the center's dynamic website. In 2003, under Nagy's direction, the center began renovations to transform one of the cottages into a new multi-media conference center. The design plans were drawn up by the architectural firm, Convergeo, and in 2006, the "Digital Agora" was unveiled.

CHS Greece
In 2008, the Center for Hellenic Studies opened a campus in Nafplio, Greece.

See also
 American Hellenic Institute
 Hellenic studies

References

External links
 Center for Hellenic Studies
 CHS Greece
 CHS Internships
 Center for Hellenic Studies Facebook Page
 Center for Hellenic Studies Twitter

Ancient Greece studies
Harvard University research institutes
Humanities institutes
Research institutes in Washington, D.C.
Research libraries in the United States

Center for Hellenic Studies


Bryndís Björgvinsdóttir (born 24 March 1982) is an Icelandic author and folklorist. She started her writing career at fifteen when she co-authored the book Orðabelgur Ormars ofurmennis (The Wordballoon of Worm Wonderman). In 2011 she published her second book, the children's book Flugan sem stöðvaði stríðið (The Fly Who Ended the War) which won the Icelandic Children's Book Prize (2011).

In 2014  she published the young adult book Hafnfirðingabrandarinn (The Local Joke) which won both the Icelandic Literary Prize (2014) and the Icelandic Women's Literature Prize (or Fjöruverðlaunin 2014).

Bryndís is an adjunct professor at Iceland Academy of the Arts.

Activism
In 2015 Bryndís Björgvinsdóttir, Using social media, has actively encouraged the Icelandic government and Icelandic people to help out and open their homes for fleeing Syrian refugees, during the Syrian Civil War. The call for activism has indeed helped the Icelandic government to rethink their immigrant policies.

See also

 List of Icelandic writers
 Icelandic literature

References

Living people
1982 births
Icelandic writers
Icelandic children's writers
Icelandic women writers
Icelandic women children's writers
Place of birth missing (living people)

Bryndís Björgvinsdóttir


Sara Varone  (born 27 December 1972) is an Italian television host.

In 2006 her TV first appearance on Mediaset main channel Canale 5 in the Sunday afternoon show '''Buona Domenica''' hosted by Paola Perego. In the show together with Elisabetta Gregoraci held a regular session devoted to "Gossip". She remained part of the cast until 2009.

In 2009 she acted in "Airplane"  (a theater adaptation of the movie).
And in 2010 in the  play "Un giorno lungo quarant'anni" with Gianfranco D'Angelo.

Additional
Earned a BS degree in Psychology at La Sapienza university in  Rome with the goal to become a sexual psychologist.

References

External links

1972 births
Living people
Italian female models
Mass media people from Rome

Sara Varone


Lower Swell War Memorial is a First World War memorial in the centre of the village of Lower Swell in Gloucestershire in south-western England. The memorial, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, was unveiled in 1921 and is today a grade II listed building.

Background
In the aftermath of the First World War and its unprecedented casualties, thousands of war memorials were built across Britain. Amongst the most prominent designers of memorials was the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, described by Historic England as "the leading English architect of his generation". Lutyens designed the Cenotaph on Whitehall in London, which became the focus for the national Remembrance Sunday commemorations, as well as the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing—the largest British war memorial anywhere in the world—and the Stone of Remembrance which appears in all large Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries and in several of Lutyens's civic war memorials.

Many of Lutyens' commissions for war memorials originated from friends or pre-war clients in the area. In Lower Swell it appears the commission was made through Mark Fenwick, a regular client for whom Lutyens renovated his nearby house, Abbotswood in the early 1900s.

History and design
The memorial consists of a sculpture of a flaming, bulbous urn, which stands on a square pedestal and base of three shallow steps, all in limestone ashlar. It stands on a green in the centre of the village. The south-west side of the pedestal is inscribed: IN MEMORY OF THE MEN OF NETHER SWELL WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE GREAT WARS". The south-east and north-west sides bear the dates of the First and Second World Wars in Roman numerals: MCMXIV – MCMXIX and MCMXXXIX – MCMXLV respectively. On the north-east side are the names of the fallen. The inscriptions relating to the Second World War and the "s" in "Great Wars" were added at a later date, one of a variety of ways in which First World War memorials were adapted to take account of the casualties from the Second World War.

The memorial was unveiled on 31 July 1921 by Colonel Brooke, DSO, of the Grenadier Guards.

Lower Swell War Memorial was designated a grade II listed building on 25 August 1960. In March 2015, as part of commemorations for the centenary of the First World War, Lutyens' war memorials were recognised as a "national collection" and all of his free-standing memorials in England were listed or had their listing status reviewed and their National Heritage List for England list entries were updated and expanded.

See also
Miserden War Memorial, another Lutyens memorial elsewhere in Gloucestershire

References

World War I memorials in England
World War II memorials in England
Monuments and memorials in Gloucestershire
Grade II listed monuments and memorials
Grade II listed buildings in Gloucestershire
Works of Edwin Lutyens in England
War memorials by Edwin Lutyens
Buildings and structures completed in 1921
Outdoor sculptures in England
Military history of Gloucestershire

Lower Swell War Memorial


Jakarta XML RPC (JAX-RPC; formerly Java API for XML Based RPC) allows a Jakarta EE application to invoke a Java-based web service with a known description while still being consistent with its WSDL description. JAX-RPC is one of the Java XML programming APIs. It can be seen as Java RMIs over web services. JAX-RPC 2.0 was renamed JAX-WS 2.0 (Java API for XML Web Services). JAX-RPC 1 is deprecated with Java EE 6. The JAX-RPC service utilizes W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standards like WSDL (Web Service Description Language).
The core API classes are located in the Java package .
 Supports web-based services and clients using RPC or remote procedure calls which are based on XML.
 Allow for web service accessibility through Java APIs which in turn allows for communication between different Java applications.
 Enables client communication with web service of different language and running on separate platform.

It works as follows:
A Java program executes a method on a stub (local object representing the remote service)
The stub executes routines in the JAX-RPC Runtime System (RS)
The RS converts the remote method invocation into a SOAP message
The RS transmits the message as an HTTP request

The advantage of such a method is that it allows the Web service to be implemented at server-side as a Servlet or EJB container. Thus, Servlet or EJB applications are made available through Web services.

Jakarta XML RPC (JAX-RPC) was removed from Jakarta EE 9.

References

External links

JAX-RPC 2.0 renamed to JAX-WS 2.0

Java API for XML
Web service specifications
Java enterprise platform

Jakarta XML RPC


Theravada Buddhism is the largest religion in Laos.

According to the 2015 national census, 64.7% of the population was Buddhist, Figures in 2020 stated that 52.43% of the population followed Buddhism.

Almost all ethnic or "lowland" Lao (Lao Loum and Lao Lom) are followers of Theravada Buddhism; however, they constitute 53% of the population.  The remainder of the population belongs to 50 distinct ethnic minority groups, most of which are practitioners of Tai folk religion, with beliefs that vary greatly among groups.

Tai folk religion is predominant among northern groups of Tai people, such as the Thai Dam and Thai Daeng, as well as among Mon-Khmer and Tibeto-Burman groups. Even among lowland Lao, many pre-Buddhist phi religious beliefs have been incorporated into Theravada Buddhist practice. Catholics and Protestants constitute approximately 3% of the population.  Other minority religious groups include Bahá'í Faith, Islam, Mahayana Buddhism, and Confucianism; a very small number of citizens are atheist or agnostic.

The government prohibits  proselytizing in public spaces.  Religious groups must register with the Ministry of Home Affairs; no new groups registered in 2022.

History

Buddhism was introduced to Laos beginning in the eighth century by Mon Buddhist monks and was widespread by the fourteenth century. A number of Laotian kings were important patrons of Buddhism.

Beginning in the late 1950s, the Pathet Lao attempted to convert monks to the leftist cause and to use the status of the sangha to influence the thoughts and attitudes of the populace. The effort was in many ways successful, despite efforts by the Royal Lao Government to place the sangha under close civil administrative control and to enlist monks in development and refugee assistance programs. Political scientist Stuart-Fox attributed the success of the Pathet Lao to the inability of the Lao Loum elite to integrate the monarchy, government, and sangha into a set of mutually supportive institutions.

Popular resentment of the aristocracy, division of the sangha into two antagonistic sects, the low level of its religious education and discipline, and opposition to foreign (i.e., Western) influence all contributed to the receptiveness of many monks to Pathet Lao overtures. The politicization of the sangha by both sides lowered its status in the eyes of many, but its influence at the village level augmented popular support for the Pathet Lao political platform, which paved the way for the change in government in 1975.

The LPDR government's successful efforts to consolidate its authority also continues to influence Buddhism. In political seminars at all levels, the government taught that Marxism and Buddhism were basically compatible because both disciplines stated that all men are equal, and both aimed to end suffering. Political seminars further discouraged "wasteful" expenditures on religious activities of all kinds, because some monks were sent to political reeducation centers and others were forbidden to preach.

The renunciation of private property by the monks was seen as approaching the ideal of a future communist society. However, Buddhist principles of detachment and nonmaterialism are clearly at odds with the Marxist doctrine of economic development, and popular expenditures on religious donations for merit making are also seen as depriving the state of resources. Thus, although overtly espousing tolerance of Buddhism, the state undercut the authority and moral standing of the sangha by compelling monks to spread party propaganda and by keeping local monks from their traditional participation in most village decisions and activities.

During this period of political consolidation, many monks left the sangha or fled to Thailand. Other pro-Pathet Lao monks joined the newly formed Lao United Buddhists Association, which replaced the former religious hierarchy. The numbers of men and boys being ordained declined abruptly, and many wat fell empty. Participation at weekly and monthly religious ceremonies also dropped off as villagers under the watchful eye of local political cadre were fearful of any behavior not specifically encouraged.

The nadir of Buddhism in Laos occurred around 1979, after which a strategic liberalization of policy occurred. Since that time, the number of monks has gradually increased, although as of 1993, the main concentrations continue to be in Vientiane and other Mekong Valley cities. Buddhist schools in the cities remain but have come to include a significant political component in the curriculum. Party officials are allowed to participate at Buddhist ceremonies and even to be ordained as monks to earn religious merit following the death of close relatives. The level of religious understanding and orthodoxy of the sangha, however, is no higher than it had been before 1975, when it was criticized by many as backward and unobservant of the precepts.

From the late 1980s, stimulated as much by economic reform as political relaxation, donations to the wat and participation at Buddhist festivals began to increase sharply. Festivals at the village and neighborhood level became more elaborate, and the That Luang festival and fair, which until 1986 had been restricted to a three-day observance, lasted for seven days. Ordinations also increased, in towns and at the village level, and household ceremonies of blessing, in which monks were central participants, also began to recur.

Religions

Buddhism

Theravada Buddhism is by far the most prominent organized religion in the country, with nearly 5,000 temples serving as the focus of religious practice as well as the center of community life in rural areas. In most lowland Lao villages, religious tradition remains strong. Most Buddhist men are expected to spend some part of their lives as novice monks in temples, even if only for a few days.

In 2007 there were approximately 22,000 monks in the country, nearly 9,000 of whom have attained the rank of "senior monk", indicating years of study in temples, as well as approximately 450 nuns, generally older women who are widowed, residing in temples throughout the country. The Buddhist Order is under the direction of a Supreme Patriarch who resides in Vientiane and supervises the activities of the order's central office, the Ho Thammasaphat.

Lao Buddhism belongs to the Theravada tradition. Theravada Buddhism is also the dominant school in neighboring Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia.

That Luang, a Lao-style stupa, is the most sacred Buddhist monument in Laos and the location of the nationally important festival and fair in November.

For the Lao Loum, the Wat is one of the two focal points of village life (the other is the school). The wat provides a symbol of village identity as well as a location for ceremonies and festivals. Prior to the establishment of secular schools, village boys received basic education from monks at the wat. Nearly every lowland village has a wat, and some have two. Minimally, a wat must have a residence building for the monks and novices (vihan), and a main building housing the Buddha statues (sim), which is used for secular village meetings as well as for prayer sessions. Depending on the wealth and contributions of the villagers, the buildings vary from simple wood and bamboo structures to large, ornate brick and concrete edifices decorated with colorful murals and tile roofs shaped to mimic the curve of the naga, the mythical snake or water dragon. An administrative committee made up of respectable elderly men manages the financial and organizational affairs of the wat.

Buddhist ceremonies generally do not mark events in a life- cycle, with the exception of death. Funerals may be quite elaborate if the family can afford it but are rather simple in rural settings. The body lies in a coffin at home for several days, during which monks pray, and a continual stream of visitors pay their respects to the family and share food and drink. After this period, the body is taken in the coffin to a cremation ground and burned, again attended by monks. The ashes are then interred in a small shrine on the wat grounds.

Although officially incorporated into the dominant Mahanikai School of Buddhist Practice after 1975, the Thammayudh School of Buddhism still maintains a following in the country; abbots and monks of several temples, particularly in Vientiane, reportedly are followers of the Thammayudh School, which places greater emphasis on meditation and discipline.

In 2007 there were four Mahayana Buddhist temples in Vientiane, two serving the ethnic Vietnamese community and two serving the ethnic Chinese community; Buddhist monks from Vietnam, China, and India have visited these temples freely to conduct services and minister to worshippers. There were at least four large Mahayana Buddhist pagodas in other urban centers and smaller Mahayana temples in villages near the borders of Vietnam and China.

Tai folk religion

Tai folk religion (Lao: ສາສນາຜີ sasna phi, "religion of the spirits") is an overarching term for the ethnic religions practiced by 42.77% of the population of Laos in 2020. These religions are pantheistic and polytheistic, and involve classes of shamans.

The category comprehends traditions of the Lao and other Tai-Kadai people, the Khmu and other Mon-Khmer people, as well as religions of the Hmong-Mien (Hmongism and Yao Taoism), Tibeto-Burman, and other ethnic groups of Laos. Among the Lao, the Lao Loum and Lao Lom are predominantly Buddhist, while the Lao Theung and Lao Sung are predominantly folk religious.

Despite the importance of Buddhism to Lao Loum and some Lao Theung groups, animist beliefs are widespread among all segments of the Lao population. The belief in phi (spirits) colors the relationships of many Lao with nature and community and provides one explanation for illness and disease. Belief in phi is blended with Buddhism, particularly at the village level, and some monks are respected as having particular abilities to exorcise malevolent spirits from a sick person or to keep them out of a house. Many wat have a small spirit hut built in one corner of the grounds that is associated with the phi khoun wat, the beneficent spirit of the monastery.

Phi are ubiquitous and diverse. Some are connected with the universal elements—earth, heaven, fire, and water. Many Lao Loum also believe that they are being protected by khwan (thirty-two spirits). Illness occurs when one or more of these spirits leaves the body; this condition may be reversed by the soukhwan—more commonly called the baci—a ceremony that calls all thirty-two khwan back to bestow health, prosperity, and well-being on the affected participants. Cotton strings are tied around the wrists of the participants to keep the spirits in place. The ceremony is often performed to welcome guests, before and after making long trips, and as a curing ritual or after recovery from an illness; it is also the central ritual in the Lao Loum wedding ceremony and naming ceremony for newborn children.

Many Lao believe that the khwan of persons who die by accident, violence, or in childbirth are not reincarnated, becoming instead phi phetu (malevolent spirits). Animist believers also fear wild spirits of the forests. Other spirits associated with specific places such as the household, the river, or a grove of trees are neither inherently benevolent nor evil. However, occasional offerings ensure their favor and assistance in human affairs. In the past, it was common to perform similar rituals before the beginning of the farming season to ensure the favor of the spirit of the rice. These ceremonies, beginning in the late 1960s, were discouraged by the government as successive areas began to be liberated. This practice had apparently died out by the mid-1980s, at least in the extended area around Vientiane.

Ceremonies oriented to the phi commonly involve an offering of a chicken and rice liquor. Once the phi have taken the spiritual essence of the offering, people may consume the earthly remains. The head of a household or the individual who wants to gain the favor of the spirit usually performs the ritual. In many villages, a person, usually an older man believed to have special knowledge of the phi, may be asked to choose an auspicious day for weddings or other important events, or for household rites. Each lowland village believes itself protected by the phi ban, which requires an annual offering to ensure the continued prosperity of the village. The village spirit specialist presides over this major ritual, which in the past often involved the sacrifice of a water buffalo and is still an occasion for closing the village to any outsiders for a day. To Hang phi ban (feed the village spirit) also serves an important social function by reaffirming the village boundaries and the shared interests of all villagers.

Most Lao Theung and Lao Sung ethnic groups are animists, for whom a cult of the ancestors is also important, although each group has different practices and beliefs. The Kammu call spirits hrooy, and they are similar to the phi of the Lao Loum; the house spirit is particularly important, and spirits of wild places are to be avoided or barred from the village. Lamet have similar beliefs, and each village must have one spirit practitioner (xemia), who is responsible for making all the sacrifices to village spirits. He also supervises the men's communal house and officiates at the construction of any new houses. When a spirit practitioner dies, one of his sons is elected by the married men of the village to be his successor. If he has none, one of his brother's sons is chosen. Ancestor spirits (mbrong n'a) are very important to the Lamet because they look out for the well-being of the entire household. They live in the house, and no activity is undertaken without informing them of it. Ancestor spirits are fond of buffalos; thus buffalo skulls or horns from sacrifices are hung at the altar of the ancestors or under the gable of the house. Numerous taboos regarding behavior in the house are observed to avoid offending ancestral spirits.

Hmong also believe in a variety of spirits (neeb), some associated with the house, some with nature, and some with ancestors. Every house has at least a small altar on one wall, which is the center of any ritual related to the household or its members. Annual ceremonies at Hmong New Year renew the general protection of the household and ancestral spirits. The spirit of the door is important to household well-being and is the object of another annual ceremony and sacrifice. As with other Lao groups, illness is frequently attributed to the action of spirits, and spirit practitioners are called to carry out curing rites. Two classes exist: ordinary practitioners and shamans. Ordinary priests or the household head conduct the household ceremonies and ordinary divinations. The shaman may be called on to engage in significant curing rituals.

According to Hmong belief, spirits reside in the sky, and the shaman can climb a ladder to the heavens on his magical horse and contact the spirits there. Sometimes illness is caused by one's soul climbing the steps to the sky, and the shaman must climb after it, locate it, and bring it back to the body in order to effect a cure. During the ritual, the shaman sits in front of the altar astride a wooden bench, which becomes his or her horse. A black cloth headpiece covers vision of the present world, and as the shaman chants and enters a trance, he or she begins to shake and may stand on the bench or move, mimicking the process of climbing to heaven. The chant evokes the shaman's search and the negotiations with the heavenly spirits for a cure or for information about the family's fortune.

Hmong shamans are believed to be chosen by the spirits, usually after a serious or prolonged illness. The illness would be diagnosed by another shaman as an initiatory illness and confrontation with death, which was caused by the spirits. Both men and women can be summoned in this way by the spirits to be shamans. After recovery from the illness, the newly chosen shaman begins a period of study with a master shaman, which may last two or three years, during which time he or she learns the chants, techniques, and procedures of shamanic rites, as well as the names and natures of all the spirits that can bring fortune or suffering to people. Because the tradition is passed orally, there is no uniform technique or ritual; rather, it varies within a general framework according to the practice of each master and apprentice.

Christianity

Christianity is a minority religion in Laos. There are three recognized churches in Laos: the Lao Evangelical Church (LEC), the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

In 2021, the LEC estimated its membership at more than 200,000.

In 2021 there were an estimated 100,000 members of the Roman Catholic Church, many of whom are ethnic Vietnamese, concentrated in major urban centers and surrounding areas along the Mekong River in the central and southern regions of the country. Catholicism is an established presence in five of the most populous central and southern provinces, and Catholics are able to worship openly, although in 2007, the church's activities are more circumscribed in the north. Church property in Luang Prabang was seized after 1975, and there is no longer a parsonage in that city. An informal Roman Catholic training center in Thakhek prepared a small number of priests to serve the Catholic community.

Seventh-day Adventists number slightly more than 2,500 in 2021, with congregations in Vientiane Municipality as well as Bokeo, Bolikhamsai, Champassak, Luang Prabang, and Xieng Khouang provinces.

The government requires all non-Catholic Christian groups to operate under either the LEC or the Seventh-Day Adventists.

Christian denominations that have some following in the country, but which are not recognized by the Government, include the Methodists and the Church of Christ; it is estimated that there were 4,700 Methodists in the country in 2021.

In 2007, approximately 400 Protestant congregations conducted services throughout the country and church officials estimated Protestants to number as many as 100,000. Many Protestants were members of ethnic Mon-Khmer groups, especially the Khmu in the north and the Brou in the central provinces, but numbers of Protestants have also expanded rapidly in the Hmong and Yao communities.  In urban areas, Protestantism has attracted many lowland Lao followers. Most Protestants are concentrated in Vientiane Municipality, in the provinces of Vientiane, Sayaboury, Luang Prabang, Xieng Khouang, Bolikhamsai, Savannakhet, Champassak, and Attapeu, as well as in the former Saisomboun Special Zone, but smaller congregations are located throughout the country.

Other religions

There are approximately 1,000 adherents of Islam in the country, the vast majority of whom are foreign permanent residents of South Asian and Cambodian (Cham) origin; there are two active mosques in Vientiane.

The Baha'i Faith has approximately 2,200 adherents in 2021. In 2007 it had 4 centers - 2 in Vientiane Municipality, 1 in Vientiane Province, and 1 in Savannakhet Province; a small number of Baha'i also lived in Khammouane Province and in Pakse City.

Small groups of followers of Confucianism practice their beliefs in Laos.

Laos used to be part of the Khmer Empire and has some remaining Hindu temples.

State Shinto was imposed during The Japanese Occupation of Laos.

Freedom of religion

In 2023, the country was scored 1 out of 4 for religious freedom; it was noted that the Lao People's Revolutionary Party controls clergy training and supervision of Buddhist temples. There have been several recent cases of Christians being briefly detained for unauthorized religious activities.

In late 2022, an LEC preacher was reportedly murdered after several months of intimidation.

See also

 Buddhism in Laos
 Phra Bang
 That Luang Festival
 Satsana Phi
 Islam in Laos
 Baha'i in Laos

References

Works cited

Laos

Religion in Laos


KidZone is a Canadian TV show for adolescents that aired on the Knowledge Network in British Columbia from 1992 to 2001. The show is also notable for providing a start for several young stars, including Sarah Chalke, Devon Sawa, Erica Cerra, and Jai West.

Format

KidZone initially began as a series of informative skits and interviews. Following the education mandate of the broadcaster, the show managed to present anti-smoking, safety and environmental issues with funding from provincial government agencies and private companies. The entire cast of the show were children, who acted in various sketches and portrayed journalists. At the age of 12, Chalke was the program's environmental reporter.

One of the recurring sketches on KidZone was Kerrisdale V6M 1Z6, which used a style similar to Beverly Hills, 90210 and Degrassi Junior High to present youth issues. Eventually, KidZone shifted away from its journalistic style and became a docudrama about high school based on the Kerrisdale sketch. This version of the show also aired in the United States as Kerrisdale High.

KidZone Live

At the end of its broadcast run in 2001, KidZone was rebranded as KidZone Live. Much like Degrassi Talks, the show featured KidZone actors participating in sketches and call-in discussions on topics oriented toward young viewers. Among the issues covered on KidZone Live were injury prevention, road safety and eliminating racial discrimination.

External links

1992 Canadian television series debuts
2001 Canadian television series endings
1990s Canadian children's television series
2000s Canadian children's television series
Television series about teenagers
Television shows filmed in Vancouver
Canadian children's education television series

KidZone


"A Stitch in Time" is an episode of the television series The Outer Limits. It first aired on 14 January 1996 and was the first episode of the second season. Amanda Plummer won an Emmy for her appearance in this episode. This episode is also mentioned in the clip show from season six entitled "Final Appeal" and in the clip show "Better Luck Next Time".

Plot
FBI agent Jamie Pratt investigates a series of murders spanning a period of forty years — all committed with the same gun. The gun is traced to Dr. Theresa Givens, a former employee at a top-secret government project. Mysteriously, Givens was only five years old at the time of the first murder, and the gun had not even been manufactured yet.

As it turns out, Dr. Givens has used a property of developing fetal human brains to create a time machine and has been traveling back through time to kill condemned serial killers before they strike, all to prepare herself for one final journey to stop the man who had kidnapped and raped her for five days when she was a teenager, the event having left her scarred all her life.

Another angle of the episode is the rapidly deteriorating physical health of Dr. Givens. She is already mentally scarred from the start from the trauma of her youth, and Dr. Givens's physical health declines throughout the episode. FBI agent Jamie Pratt finally uncovers the truth and Givens eventually discloses to Agent Pratt that an unfortunate side-effect of altering time for the time traveler is the sudden merging of two completely different time streams into the brain at once upon return which, over time, has a visible physical impact (causing nosebleeds) and presumably will become fatal given enough occurrences.

Dr. Givens herself explains at the end that she is finally making the journey to change her past for fear that she will not survive much longer, but Pratt steps into the time machine after Dr. Givens. She assists in stopping the kidnapping and rescues the young Theresa, but the elder Dr. Givens is fatally wounded and dies. Agent Pratt returns to a world where Dr. Givens never experienced the traumatic incident of Theresa of the previous timeline. But without that trauma, Dr. Givens was never motivated to travel back through time and preemptively murder known serial killers, one of whom eventually murdered a close friend of Agent Pratt (at the beginning of the episode this friend was dead, then alive later in the episode thanks to a temporal excursion by Dr. Givens, now dead again).

In the end, Agent Pratt tracks down the decidedly healthier-looking Dr. Theresa Givens in the new timeline, who — despite lacking the motivation of preventing a traumatic event of her past — has also built a time machine, which she knew was possible because, as a 15-year-old girl, she had seen Agent Pratt use one to return to her normal time.

The episode closes with Agent Pratt traveling back to 1980 and shooting the serial killer who would murder her best friend in the future.

External links

1996 American television episodes
Television episodes about time travel
Television episodes about rape
Television episodes about serial killers
Fiction set in 1966
Fiction set in 1976
Fiction set in 1980
Fiction set in 1996
Television episodes about multiple time paths
The Outer Limits (1995 TV series) episodes

A Stitch in Time (The Outer Limits)


Carla Thorneycroft, Baroness Thorneycroft  (12 February 1914 – 7 March 2007) was the wife of Conservative Party politician and Chancellor of the Exchequer Peter Thorneycroft. Lady Thorneycroft helped establish the Venice in Peril Fund and was a noted philanthropist and patroness of the arts.

Early life
Carla Maria Concetta Francesca Malagola, Contessa Cappi was the elder daughter of the Italian Count Guido Malagola Cappi and his wife, Alexandra (née Dunbar-Marshall) who had come over with her mother from Natchez, Mississippi to settle in Europe. She was born in Paris, and grew up in Venice, where her paternal grandfather Professor Carlo Malagola of Bologna kept the archives at the Frari basilica, and then in Rome.

Her father was an interior designer and a talented photographer. Alexandra and Guido lived in Venice and Rome and Carla was educated by Roman Catholic nuns, along with her siblings, Anna-Viola and Francesco. Francesco, later known as Francis Dunbar Marshall Malagola (1918–2001), was an artist whose works are conserved in a wide range of European collections and museums.

In 1930, Carla and her mother met Major Mervyn Thorneycroft while on holiday on Capri, and later visited his home, Dunston Hall in Staffordshire, where she first met her future second husband, the Major's son, Peter Thorneycroft, newly commissioned in the Royal Artillery. They were quickly engaged, but the engagement was broken off after she returned to Rome. She married Count Giorgio Roberti, in 1934, aged 20, and had a son and a daughter.

During the Second World War, she served as a nurse with the Red Cross at the Principessa Piemonte hospital in Rome.

Life in England
Her marriage was annulled in 1946, and she then took her young children to England.  She impressed the Vogue fashion editors with her startling new ideas which they commissioned from her and her forthright attitude won her praise at Vogue. She worked with John Deakin, Cecil Beaton and Norman Parkinson. Her interior design skills and instinctive eye were spotted and she assisted John Fowler and Sybil Colefax to renovate Chevening and worked with Nancy Lancaster.

She met Peter Thorneycroft again at a party hosted by Henry "Chips" Channon. Thorneycroft had become a barrister and been elected as a Conservative MP in 1938. He had been married and divorced. They married in 1949, and she left Vogue in 1951.

She was a founder member of the Italian Art and Archives Rescue Fund, which was formed in April 1966 after catastrophic floods in Florence threatened its historic works of art. She was a member of the Fund's first committee, alongside Sir Ashley Clarke (former British ambassador in Italy), John Julius Norwich and Mrs. Natalie Brooke (wife of the secretary of the Royal Academy). Venice was flooded in 1966, and the fund became the Venice in Peril Fund in 1971. She became a member of the Italian Order of Merit in 1967.

Meanwhile, her husband held a succession of ministerial positions. He was President of the Board of Trade from 1951–57, Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1957 to 1958, Minister of Aviation from 1960–62, Minister of Defence and then Secretary of State for Defence from 1962–64. He left the House of Commons in 1966, and became a life peer in 1967. He was Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1975–81.

She supported his political career, and spoke on his behalf in his re-election campaigns. She was a trustee of the Conservative Winter Ball and its president from 1984 to 1994. She also supported him with his later career in business, on the boards of Trusthouse Forte, Pirelli and Cinzano. Her husband died in 1994. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1995, for her work for the Conservative Party.

She was also a founder of the League of Friends of the Italian Hospital in London from 1956 until it closed in 1989, a vice-president of the British-Italian Society for 50 years, a trustee of the Rosehill Arts Theatre, a trustee of the Chichester Festival Theatre Trust from 1962 to 1988, and a vice-president of the Council of Friends of Westminster Cathedral from 1993. She was a trustee of the Royal School of Needlework for 8 years, from 1964–76.

Family
Her husband, Giorgio, and her son, Piero, Count Roberti, from her first marriage predeceased her as did her second husband, Peter Thorneycroft. She was survived by a daughter, Francesca, from her first marriage, a daughter from her second marriage, Victoria, and a stepson, John Thorneycroft.

References

Works cited

Obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 15 March 2007
Obituary, The Times, 24 March 2007

1914 births
2007 deaths
British baronesses
Philanthropists from London
British Roman Catholics
Italian emigrants to the United Kingdom
Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Spouses of life peers
Businesspeople from Venice
20th-century British philanthropists
Red Cross personnel
20th-century women philanthropists

Carla Thorneycroft, Lady Thorneycroft


Allan David Jefferies (18 September 1972 – 29 May 2003) was an English professional motorcycle racer. He died after crashing during practice for the 2003 Isle of Man TT races.

Early life
The son of Tony Jefferies, also a former Isle of Man TT winner in 1971, David Jefferies was born in Shipley, West Yorkshire, England. His uncle was fellow TT winner Nick Jefferies. Jefferies attended Salt Grammar School.

Career
Jefferies competed in a range of racing classes including the Grand Prix world championship in 1993, and the World Superbike Championship in 1993 and 1995. He was the British Superstock 1000 champion twice in the previous three years.

Jefferies specialized in street circuits, such as the Isle of Man TT and the North West 200, where he was a four-time winner. At the Isle of Man TT, Jefferies was the first rider to lap in excess of  and the first to win three races during the week-long festival for three consecutive years. He also set the absolute lap record for the Isle of Man TT course during the 2002 Senior TT at 17min 47sec, an average speed of .

Death
Jefferies died on Thursday, May 29, 2003, during practice week for the 2003 Isle of Man TT. The turn at Crosby is a shallow left-hand turn taken at speeds of around 160 mph; on the outside of the turn there are stone walls at the front of gardens. Jefferies approached the turn on his TAS Racing GSX-R1000, following a lap of 125 mph average speed (the fastest in that practice week). Jefferies reportedly hit the wall of number 29 Woodlea Villas bordering the turn before he and his machine were hurled back across the circuit, taking lumps of debris across the road and bringing down a telephone pole in the process. Jefferies was killed instantly upon impact with the wall. In the aftermath of the crash, fellow rider Jim Moodie did not have enough time to brake when he reached the scene and rode into the telegraph lines which were hanging across the road due to the incident;three of the lines snapped; however, one came over his motorcycle's windscreen and nearly killed him when it wrapped round his throat; it snapped at the last minute and Moodie escaped with his life; however, he retired from TT competition shortly afterwards. A friend and fellow TT competitor, John McGuinness, who was the first rider to reach the scene, described it as looking 'Like a war zone'.

Later that day, the TT organisers released an official statement which read: 'It is with regret that the organizers of the Isle of Man TT races, the Auto-Cycle Union, announce that David Jefferies, of Baildon in West Yorkshire, who crashed on the second lap of this afternoon's practice session, received injuries, which proved fatal. Thirty-year-old Jefferies was involved in an accident at Crosby. The red flag was displayed at the Grandstand and all riders finishing their first lap were brought back into the paddock. Those who had already embarked on their second lap were Halted at Glen Vine. Jefferies was the outright lap record holder at the TT and had lapped at 125 mph on his first lap today riding his Temple Auto Salvage GSX-R Suzuki. The organisers have instituted an immediate inquiry into the details of the incident.' The inquiry would become an extremely controversial affair; organizers insisted that marshals had carried out the correct duties during the incident while riders protested saying that not enough flags were shown and the manner in which those that were shown did not imply the seriousness of the situation at hand.

The parade lap in honour of Jefferies took place at the end of the TT weekend. Thousands of bikes took part, filling the 37-mile course.

Grand Prix career statistics
Points system from 1993 onwards:

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

References

External links
Official site
David Jefferies Tribute

1972 births
2003 deaths
Sportspeople from Shipley, West Yorkshire
British motorcycle racers
English motorcycle racers
500cc World Championship riders
Superbike World Championship riders
British Superbike Championship riders
Isle of Man TT riders
Motorcycle racers who died while racing
Sport deaths in the Isle of Man
FIM Superstock 1000 Cup riders

David Jefferies


Hayatabad is a suburb in Peshawar, the capital of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It was named after Hayat Sherpao, former Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and a famous leader of Pakistan Peoples Party. There are several different schools, colleges, a national University, public and private hospitals, private clinics, public parks etc.

Peshawar

Hayatabad


Ralph Friedman (June 3, 1916 – June 3, 1995) was an American author best known for his books about Oregon.

Ralph Friedman was born and raised in Chicago.  He hitchhiked to Oregon in 1933 at the age of 16.  He wrote 10 books, and contributed to many other books, magazines, and newspapers.  For ten years, he led the travel class "Oregon for the Curious", offered by Portland Community College (PCC).  He also taught writing and folklore for PCC and for Portland State University. He died in Portland, Oregon on June 3, 1995, his 79th birthday.

Works
 The Other Side of Oregon (1992)
 In Search of Western Oregon (1991)
 This Side of Oregon (1982)
 Tracking Down Oregon (1978)
 A Touch of Oregon – Love Song to a State (1976)
 Tales Out of Oregon (1976)
 Oregon for the Curious (First Edition, 1965; Second Edition, 1966; Third Edition, 1972)
 Northwest Passages: A Book of Travel (1968) ASIN B0006CY1RA
 "West's Wildest Cattle Drive" (Real West, Mar. 1965, p. 23)
  "A Bible for Snowshoe" (Real West, Jan. 1961, p. 37)
  "Legend of the Amazing Pete French" (Real West, May 1962, p. 43)
  "Murdering Scourge of Snake River" (Real West, Jan. 1963, p. 11)
  " Home on the Range" (Frontier Times, March 1963, p. 28)

External links
Caxton Press, publisher of several of Friedman's books; books can be ordered online
Image of the cover of "West's Wildest Cattle Drive"

1916 births
American travel writers
Writers from Chicago
1995 deaths
Writers from Portland, Oregon
Portland State University faculty
20th-century American non-fiction writers
Portland Community College faculty
20th-century American male writers
American male non-fiction writers

Ralph Friedman


James Edward Willis III (born September 2, 1972) is a former American football linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) and a former coach in the NCAA and in the NFL. He was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the fifth round of the 1993 NFL Draft. He played college football at Auburn. He played high school football at J.O. Johnson High School in Huntsville, Alabama. He was the defensive assistant/linebackers coach for the New Orleans Saints of the NFL until his termination on January 5, 2017.

Willis also played for the Philadelphia Eagles, Seattle Seahawks, and the Birmingham Thunderbolts of the now defunct XFL.

Playing career
Willis was drafted in the fifth round (119th overall) by the Green Bay Packers in the 1993 NFL Draft. Willis shares the record for the longest interception return in Philadelphia Eagles history after scoring on a 104-yard interception against the Dallas Cowboys in ; after intercepting Troy Aikman four yards into the endzone, Willis returned the pick 14 yards before lateraling to Troy Vincent, who returned the remainder 90 yards for the score.

Coaching career
Upon the dissolution of the XFL, Willis decided to retire as a player and returned to Auburn to work towards completing his college degree. He became a student assistant for the Auburn Tigers football team in 2001 and became a defensive graduate assistant in 2003 under defensive coordinator Gene Chizik.

Rhode Island Rams
In 2004, Willis took his first coaching job as the linebackers coach of the Rhode Island Rams.

Temple Owls
In 2005, Willis was hired for the same position by Temple University.

Auburn Tigers
In 2006, Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville hired Willis to return to his alma mater as the linebackers coach under new defensive coordinator Will Muschamp. When Muschamp left for Texas, his replacement Paul Rhoads kept Willis on staff. When coach Tuberville resigned from Auburn in 2008, the entire staff was initially released by new head coach Gene Chizik, however on December 26, 2008 Willis was retained to again coach linebackers.

Alabama Crimson Tide
Although initially thought to return to Auburn, Willis was hired by Alabama's head coach Nick Saban to be the Crimson Tide's associate head coach and outside linebackers coach on January 21, 2009. During his one season with Alabama, the Crimson Tide defeated the Texas Longhorns in the 2010 BCS National Championship Game.

Texas Tech Red Raiders
On January 13, 2010, Willis agreed to join head coach Tommy Tuberville to serve as the new defensive coordinator for the Texas Tech Red Raiders football team. Prior to the 2011 TicketCity Bowl, Willis allegedly left the program to pursue other career opportunities after a domestic disturbance call at his home.

Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
On February 7, 2013, Willis agreed to become the new defensive coordinator for the Ragin Cajuns.

New Orleans Saints
On February 11, 2015, it was reported that Willis left the Ragin' Cajuns to become a defensive assistant/linebackers coach for the Saints. He was fired from the Saints on January 5, 2017

Northlake Christian
In 2019 it was announced that James would be the head football coach at Northlake Christian high school.

References

External links
Auburn Tigers bio
NFL.com info

1972 births
Living people
African-American coaches of American football
African-American players of American football
American football linebackers
Auburn Tigers football players
Green Bay Packers players
Philadelphia Eagles players
Seattle Seahawks players
Birmingham Thunderbolts players
Rhode Island Rams football coaches
Temple Owls football coaches
Auburn Tigers football coaches
Alabama Crimson Tide football coaches
Texas Tech Red Raiders football coaches
Hartford Colonials coaches
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns football coaches
Players of American football from Huntsville, Alabama
21st-century African-American sportspeople
20th-century African-American sportspeople

James Willis (American football)


Kefir ( ; also spelled as kephir or kefier; ; ; );  is a fermented milk drink similar to a thin yogurt or ayran that is made from kefir grains, a specific type of mesophilic symbiotic culture. It is prepared by inoculating the milk of cows, goats, or sheep with kefir grains.

Karachays and Balkars are the creators of Kefir and Kefir Yeast. The drink originated in the North Caucasus, in particular the Elbrus region along the upper mountainous sections of Karachay and Balkaria, from where it came to Russia, and from there it spread worldwide. Kefir is a common breakfast, lunch or dinner drink consumed in countries of western Eurasia. Kefir is consumed at any time of the day, such as with zelnik (zeljanica), burek and banitsa/gibanica, as well as in cold soups.

Origin and etymology
The word kefir, known in Russia and Eastern-European countries since at least 1884, is of North Caucasian origin. A Russian borrowing in English, its ultimate origin is unknown, though one theory is that the word comes from köpür in Old Turkic. More likely is another Caucasian origin; compare Georgian კეფირი (k'epiri), Mingrelian ქიფური (kipuri), Ossetian къӕпы (k'æpy), and Karachay-Balkar гыпы (gıpı). The p to f transformation may indicate possible transmission to Russian through Arabic كِفِير (kifīr), which would have served as a lingua franca in the Muslim parts of the Caucasus.

Traditional kefir was made in goatskin bags that were hung near a doorway; the bags would be knocked by anyone passing through to keep the milk and kefir grains well mixed. In Karachay-Balkar, gıpı has a connection with gıbıt (wineskin). It was under the name "wineskin" that Karachay kefir was distributed in the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. Kefir spread from the former Soviet Union to the rest of Europe, Canada, Japan, and the United States by the early 21st century. It has become known in parts of Latin America as búlgaros, or "Bulgarians".

The homeland of kefir is considered to be "the vicinity of Elbrus, along the upper reaches of the Kuban".

Fermentation

Traditional kefir is fermented at ambient temperatures, generally overnight. Fermentation of the lactose yields a sour, carbonated, slightly alcoholic beverage, with a consistency and taste similar to drinkable yogurt.

The kefir grains initiating the fermentation are initially created by auto-aggregations of Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens and Kazachstania turicensis, where multiple biofilm producers cause the surfaces to adhere which form a three dimensional microcolony. The biofilm is a matrix of heteropolysaccharides called kefiran, which is composed of equal proportions of glucose and galactose. It resembles small cauliflower grains, with color ranging from white to creamy yellow. A complex and highly variable symbiotic community can be found in these grains, which can include acetic acid bacteria (such as A. aceti and A. rasens), yeasts (such as Candida kefyr and S. cerevisiae) and a number of Lactobacillus species, such as L. parakefiri, L. kefiranofaciens (and subsp. kefirgranum), L. kefiri, etc. While some microbes predominate, Lactobacillus species are always present. The microbe flora can vary between batches of kefir due to factors such as the kefir grains rising out of the milk while fermenting or curds forming around the grains, as well as temperature. Additionally, Tibetan kefir composition differs from that of the Russian kefir, Irish kefir, Taiwan kefir and Turkey fermented beverage with kefir. In recent years, the use of freeze-dried starter culture has become common due to stability of the fermentation result, because the species of microbes are selected in laboratory conditions, as well as easy transportation.

During fermentation, changes in the composition of ingredients occur. Lactose, the sugar present in milk, is broken down mostly to lactic acid (25%) by the lactic acid bacteria, which results in acidification. Propionibacteria further break down some of the lactic acid into propionic acid (these bacteria also carry out the same fermentation in Swiss cheese). Other substances that contribute to the flavor of kefir are pyruvic acid, acetic acid, diacetyl and acetoin (both of which contribute a "buttery" flavor), citric acid, acetaldehyde, and amino acids resulting from protein breakdown.

Decreased lactose content
During the fermentation process, bacteria and yeast break lactose down into glucose and galactose. As a result of the fermentation, lactose levels are decreased by 20–30% with respect to the initial lactose levels present in the milk. One study found that when people with lactose intolerance consumed the same amount of lactose in milk, kefir or yoghurt products, the latter two showed significantly reduced symptoms of lactose intolerance during the first 8 hours after consumption. This result suggests that yoghurt and kefir might be suitable for people with lactose intolerance. However, the long-term impact of kefir consumption on lactose intolerance has not been studied. It has also been shown that fermented milk products have a slower transit time than milk, which may further improve lactose digestion.

Alcohol content
Kefir contains ethanol, which is detectable in the blood of human consumers. The level of ethanol in kefir can vary by production method. A 2016 study of kefir sold in Germany showed an ethanol level of only 0.02 g per litre, which was attributed to fermentation under controlled conditions allowing the growth of Lactobacteria only, but excluding the growth of other microorganisms that form much higher amounts of ethanol. A 2008 study of German commercial kefir found levels of 0.002–0.005% of ethanol. Kefir produced by small-scale dairies in Russia early in the 20th century had 1–2% ethanol.

Nutrition

Composition
Kefir products contain nutrients in varying amounts from negligible to significant, including dietary minerals, vitamins, essential amino acids, and conjugated linoleic acid, in amounts similar to unfermented cow, goat, or sheep milk. At a pH of 4.2 – 4.6, kefir is composed mainly of water and by-products of the fermentation process, including carbon dioxide and ethanol.

Typical of milk, several dietary minerals are found in kefir, such as calcium, iron, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, sodium, copper, molybdenum, manganese, and zinc in amounts that have not been standardized to a reputable nutrient database. Also similar to milk, kefir contains vitamins in variable amounts, including vitamin A, vitamin B1 (thiamine), vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B3 (niacin), vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), vitamin B9 (folic acid), vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin), vitamin C, vitamin D, and vitamin E. Essential amino acids found in kefir include methionine, cysteine, tryptophan, phenylalanine, tyrosine, leucine, isoleucine, threonine, lysine, and valine, as for any milk product.

Microbiota
Probiotic bacteria found in kefir products include: Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium bifidum, Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, Lactobacillus helveticus, Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens, Lactococcus lactis, and Leuconostoc species. Lactobacilli in kefir may exist in concentrations varying from approximately 1 million to 1 billion colony-forming units per milliliter, and are the bacteria responsible for the synthesis of the polysaccharide kefiran.

In addition to bacteria, kefir often contains strains of yeast that can metabolize lactose, such as Kluyveromyces marxianus, Kluyveromyces lactis, and Saccharomyces fragilis, as well as strains of yeast that do not metabolize lactose, including Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Torulaspora delbrueckii, and Kazachstania unispora. The nutritional significance of these strains is unknown.

Production

Modern kefir is made by adding kefir grains to milk typically at a proportion of 2–5% grains-to-milk. The mixture is then placed in a corrosion-resistant container, such as a glass jar, and stored preferably in the dark to prevent degradation of light-sensitive vitamins. After a period between 12 and 24 hours of fermentation at mild temperature, ideally 20–25 °C (68–77 °F), the grains are strained from the milk using a corrosion-resistant (stainless steel or plastic) utensil and kept to produce another batch. During the fermentation process the grains enlarge and eventually split forming new units.

The resulting fermented liquid may be drunk, used in recipes, or kept aside in a sealed container for additional time to undergo a secondary fermentation. Because of its acidity the beverage should not be stored in reactive metal containers such as aluminium, copper, or zinc, as these may leach into it over time. The shelf life, unrefrigerated, is up to thirty days.

The Russian method permits production of kefir on a larger scale and uses two fermentations. The first step is to prepare the cultures by inoculating milk with 2–3% grains as described. The grains are then removed by filtration and 1–3% of the resulting liquid mother culture is added to milk and fermented for 12 to 18 hours.

Kefir can be made using freeze-dried cultures commonly available in powder form from health food stores. A portion of the resulting kefir can be saved to be used a number of times to propagate further fermentations but ultimately does not form grains.

In Taiwan, researchers were able to produce kefir in laboratory using microorganisms isolated from kefir grains. They report that the resulting kefir drink had chemical properties similar to homemade kefir.

Milk types
Kefir grains will ferment the milk from most mammals and will continue to grow in such milk. Typical animal milks used include cow, goat, and sheep, each with varying organoleptic (flavor, aroma, and texture) and nutritional qualities. Raw milk has been traditionally used.

Milk sugar is not essential for the synthesis of the polysaccharide that makes up the grains (kefiran), and rice hydrolysate is a suitable alternative medium. Additionally, kefir grains will reproduce when fermenting soy milk, although they will change in appearance and size due to the differing proteins available to them.

A variation of kefir grains that thrive in sugary water also exists, see water kefir (or tibicos), and can vary markedly from milk kefir in both appearance and microbial composition.

Culinary

As it contains Lactobacillus bacteria, kefir can be used to make a sourdough bread. It is also useful as a buttermilk substitute in baking. Kefir is one of the main ingredients in cold borscht soup in Lithuania, also known in Poland as Lithuanian cold soup (chłodnik litewski), and other countries. Kefir-based soup okroshka is common across the former Soviet Union. Kefir may be used in place of milk on cereal, granola, milkshakes, salad dressing, ice cream, smoothies and soup.

See also

 List of yogurt-based dishes and beverages

Other fermented dairy products

 Airag
 Amasi
 Ayran
 Buttermilk
 Chaas
 Chalap
 Cheese
 Cream cheese
 Doogh
 Filmjölk
 Kefir cheese
 Kumis
 Leben
 Labneh
 Lassi
 Matzoon
 Mursik
 Ryazhenka

 Shubat
 Skyr
 Varenets
 Viili
 Yogurt

Other fermented beverages

 Boza
 Tibicos ("water kefir")
 Kombucha

References

External links

Fermented Foods: Kefir, from the National Center for Home Food Preservation

Fermented dairy products
Fermented drinks
Milk-based drinks
Russian drinks
Russian desserts
Sour foods
Turkish drinks
Ukrainian drinks
Polish drinks

Kefir


Nylonkong, a contraction of New York–London–Hong Kong, is a neologism coined to link New York City, London, and Hong Kong as the ecumenopolis of the Americas, Euro-Africa, and Asia-Pacific that first appeared in the magazine Time in 2008. The article suggests that the cities share similarities, especially in being globalised financial and cultural centres, and are the most remarkable cities in the 21st century.

History
Nylonkong, from NY (New York City), Lon (London), and Kong (Hong Kong) first appeared in Time article A Tale of Three Cities in 2008.

According to Time, these cities share similarities in cultural and economic establishments. They are influential in cultural industries, including art auctions, movies, and pop songs. In addition, the cities are top international financial centres located in different time zones. Time further described the cities as the three most remarkable international cities in the 21st century, and one could better understand the world through understanding Nylonkong. Financial Development Index ranks Hong Kong, USA, and UK as the first to third places of the table, accordingly.

Influence
An extended range of responses was observed in media and academia after the term was coined, such as in the Mingpao Daily. The term was first quoted in academia by Yin Pak Andrew Lau in the Liberal Studies Youth Summit on Basic Law, and Sing Tao Daily suggested that the term is a profound sign of globalization. The influence is substantial and long-lasting, and has imposed a constant check on the achievement of the three financial hubs. In 2016, Lam Hang-chi, an economist, for example, suggested that Nylonkong would fade out if the financial hubs were not constantly competitive. In late 2016, Tai Kung Pao suggested that Hong Kong should not compare itself with New York and London, as the Asian financial center is politically and socially autonomous when compared to the other two, which were only cities; the passage further argues that the autonomous entity of Hong Kong requires more diversified economic development like other Four Asian Tigers economies.

See also
Multipolar world
Global capitalism
NyLon (concept)

References

Time (magazine)

−
Culture of New York City
Culture in London
Culture of Hong Kong
2008 neologisms

Nylonkong


Michael George Melle (3 June 1930 – 28 December 2003) was a South African cricketer who played in seven Test matches from 1950 to 1953. Melle was educated at Hilton College.

A "genuinely fast right-arm bowler", Melle made his first-class debut for Transvaal at the age of 18 against the touring MCC in Johannesburg in 1948–49, opening the bowling and taking one wicket. For his next match he was selected to play for a South African XI against the touring Australians in 1949–50 and took 4 for 82. After two matches for Transvaal against the Australians he was selected to open the bowling with Cuan McCarthy in the Fourth Test in Johannesburg, having taken just six first-class wickets at 38.33. Still only 19 years old, he took 5 for 113 and 1 for 58 in a drawn match, then 2 for 132 in the Fifth Test in Port Elizabeth, which Australia won by an innings.

He played his first Currie Cup matches the following season, 1950–51. In the first, for Transvaal against Rhodesia in Salisbury, batting at number eight he scored 50, his highest score to date, and took 2 for 13 and 2 for 30 in an innings victory. In his next match, against Griqualand West in Johannesburg in 1950–51 he took 2 for 22 and 8 for 8 (match figures of 24–8–30–10), bowling Griqualand West out for 29 in the second innings. In six matches he took 27 wickets at 14.40, and was selected to tour England in 1951.

Despite missing several weeks of the tour owing to a hernia operation he headed the tour averages with 50 wickets at 20.28. However, he played only the Fifth Test (when he took figures of 10–6–9–4 in the first innings) the tour selectors preferring to use a two-man pace attack of McCarthy and Geoff Chubb for the first four Tests. He took his best innings and match figures for the tour after the Test series had finished: 2 for 22 and 6 for 71 against T.N. Pearce's XI at Scarborough.

His form fell away somewhat in 1951–52 but in six matches he took 17 wickets at 27.35, and as McCarthy was unavailable and Chubb had retired Melle was selected to tour Australasia in 1952–53 as the most experienced of the four pace bowlers in the team. (Of the others, Eddie Fuller and Anton Murray had played no Tests, and John Watkins had played three Tests and taken three wickets.) Melle took seven expensive wickets in the five matches leading up to the First Test, but then at Brisbane, bowling 46.5 eight-ball overs in the Test, he took 6 for 71 and 3 for 95, he and his opening partner Watkins "maintain[ing] an admirable consistency of length and hostility" in a match that Australia won narrowly. However, he took only five wickets for 365 in the next three Tests and lost his place, despite a remarkable performance against Tasmania in Launceston: 3 for 34 in the first innings and, bowling unchanged in the second innings, 9 for 22.

After two matches in the 1953–54 season he played no more first-class cricket. He was only 23 when he played his last match, hitting his highest first-class score of 59 and taking 2 for 56 and 3 for 28 to help Western Province to victory against Natal at the end of December 1953.

His father Basil played for Western Province, Oxford University, Hampshire and Transvaal between 1909 and 1923.

See also
 List of South Africa cricketers who have taken five-wicket hauls on Test debut

References

External links

1930 births
2003 deaths
South Africa Test cricketers
South African cricketers
Gauteng cricketers
Western Province cricketers
Cricketers who have taken five wickets on Test debut
Alumni of Hilton College (South Africa)

Michael Melle


Race and ethnicity have no place in biology, and are simply social constructs embedded in the collective works psyche. That said, some people find racial constructs culturally beneficial. The following is a discussion by other authors defining these socially constructed and institutionally perpetrated constructs. I find it important to verity to mention there's actually only one race within the human species, which is known to science as Homo Sapien Sapiens. Biological race within a species is defined when the two distinct populations of a species are genetically incapable of producing fertile offspring. This occurs nowhere within anatomically modern hominin.

Furthermore, in response to serious misses and distortions by other authors; I must point out that genetics have shown that there's more genetic diversity within any population of humans you try to identify than there is between any various population. Making it impossible to imply any pure population anywhere on the planet that does not indeed have "ancestors who came from somewhere else". Humans have historically been well adapted to be able to migrate and the origins of our singular human race is in the African continent. Nothing I've said prefacing the other authors's discussion on race and ethnicity is in dispute by the modern field of biological anthroplogy, nor could it be disputed scientifically with any veracity.

There are many different ethnic groups in the United States. Most people in the United States have ancestors who came from somewhere else, often from multiple places. Some people say their ancestry is "American"; often these are people from the Southern United States whose families have been living in America since before the American Revolution.

There are several races in the United States:

White is the most common race in the United States.  It usually refers to people from Europe or the Middle East (such as Germany, England, and Syria)
 Black or African-American refers to people from most parts of Africa.
 Asian refers to people from countries in Asia (such as China, Japan, South Asia, or the Philippines).
 Native American or American Indian refers to people who are part of Native American groups that have lived for thousands of years in the lands now controlled by the U.S. These are the only people who did not come to the United States during or after Europe learned of the Americas.
 Hispanic Americans, such as Mexican, are often of this category.  Hispanics can also be any other of the other races listed above. Hispanic is an ethnicity, not a race.
 Other refers to people who are an unlisted ethnic group such as Serbian People.

The race is not the same as ethnicity, however. Here are the top three ethnic groups in the United States. Since many Asian and Hispanic people are classified differently, most of the groups listed are white.

 The most common is German-American, which 42.8 million Americans identify with. Many people came to the U.S. from Germany in the 19th and early 20th centuries. German American is the most common ethnic group in over half the states. The largest number of Germans are found in the Midwest, West, and Pennsylvania.
 Irish-American is the second-largest ethnic group found in the United States, with 30.5 million people.
The third-largest ethnic group is African-American, at 24.8 million people. The largest number of African-Americans are found in the South.

References

Other websites

Ethnic groups of the United States


Anti-reticular Cytotoxic Serum is made from the blood of a rabbit that has been injected with homogenized cadaver spleen and rib marrow. In small quantities it can aid animal growth, but is toxic in large doses. It was first developed by Alexander A. Bogomolets in 1936.

"It was a "miracle" that Professor Bogomolets made dying people walk with blood of cadavers circulating through their bodies, or hoped to extend our life-span for 150 years with the help of the A.C.S serum" - Red Miracle: The Story of Soviet Medicine; by Edward Podolsky

Sources

World Book Encyclopedia, 1967 edition, p. 28

Toxicology
Veterinary drugs
Drugs in the Soviet Union
Soviet inventions

Antireticular cytotoxic serum


Augustus Franklin Allen (December 13, 1813 – January 20, 1875) was elected as a member of the United States Congress from New York's 33rd congressional district (Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties) in 1874. Allen died before he was able to take office.

Biography
Allen was born in Wardsboro, Vermont, on December 13, 1813.  When he was a child his family moved to Jamestown, New York.  He was educated locally and began working as a store clerk at age 17 in order to support his family after his father's death.  He resided in Ellicott, was successful in business, and later became a partner in a lumber yard, woolen mill, railroads and other ventures.

Civil War
He served in the militia during the years before the American Civil War and attained the rank of colonel as commander of a regiment in which his brother Dascum served as his second-in-command.  Augustus Allen later attained the rank of brigadier general before becoming inactive in the militia.

During the Civil War he was appointed to organize, equip, and train the 112th New York Infantry and commissioned as a colonel.  He led the regiment for several months until being succeeded by Jeremiah C. Drake, who commanded until dying of wounds received at the Battle of Cold Harbor.

Political career
Originally a Democrat, Allen became a Republican in the 1850s because of the new party's antislavery position.  He served as Ellicott's Town Supervisor and a member of the Chautauqua County Board of Supervisors from 1847 to 1848, 1852, 1856, 1860 to 1868, and 1871 to 1874.

In 1867, he was elected to the New York Constitutional Convention. In 1874, he  ran for the New York State Senate, but was defeated.

In 1874 Allen was elected to the United States House of Representatives, defeating incumbent Republican Walter L. Sessions by organizing a coalition of Democrats and former Liberal Republicans who had supported Horace Greeley for President in 1872.

Death and burial
Allen had been ill during his campaign for Congress and died before the term started in March 1875.  He died in Jamestown on January 20, 1875, and was buried in Jamestown's Lake View Cemetery.

See also

 List of members-elect of the United States House of Representatives who never took their seats

References

External links

History of Chautauqua County, New York, Andrew W. Young, 1875
History of Chautauqua County, New York, and Its People, Volume 1, John Phillips Downs, Fenwick Y. Hedley, editors, 1921
 Town of Ellicott, Town of Ellicott Supervisors (1813-Present), 2008, page

|-

1813 births
1875 deaths
19th-century American politicians
American militia generals
Burials in New York (state)
Elected officials who died without taking their seats
New York (state) Democrats
New York (state) Liberal Republicans
People from Wardsboro, Vermont
People of New York (state) in the American Civil War
Politicians from Jamestown, New York
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state)
Town supervisors in New York (state)
Union Army colonels

Augustus F. Allen


"Walkampf" (Whale struggle) is a song by Die Toten Hosen. It's the second single and the thirteenth track from the album Zurück zum Glück. The title is a pun on the word "Wahlkampf", which means "election campaign" in German.

The song is about a dream by the narrator, where he finds a whale on a beach and struggles to push it back to the water, but doesn't have enough strength for that. All the time, he hears the waves, the sun shouting: "Push the whale back in the sea", which pressures him. He hopes to get help from a Greenpeace ship he sees, but right before his eyes, it sinks. The next day he has sore muscles and gets under the shower but then his girlfriend urges him to "push the whale back in the sea" and on it goes.

The song opens with a slow ukulele tune, progresses into a more aggressive punk style during the 2nd verse, with the bridge between the 2nd and third verse being overlaid with a background singer giving it a more surf rock style similar to a song by the Beach Boys, and the final verse and final chorus is accompanied by bagpipes, with the background singer returning at the very tail end of the song.

Music video
The music video was directed and drawn by Andreas Hykade. It entirely illustrates the lyrics.

Track listing
 "Walkampf" (Frege, van Dannen/van Dannen, Frege) − 3:34
 "Der letzte Sieg" (The last victory) (Meurer/Frege) - 1:35
 "Die No.1 von Flingern" (The No.1 of Flingern) (Frege/Frege) - 3:27 (with Beate Frege)

Charts

2004 singles
Die Toten Hosen songs
Songs written by Campino (singer)
Songs written by Funny van Dannen
2004 songs

Walkampf


Carlo Promis (1808 – 1873 in Turin, Italy) was an Italian architect and architectural historian and a proponent of Eclecticism.

Promis earned his degree in architecture at Turin in 1828 and subsequently worked in Rome alongside leaders in the field of ancient architectural history, including Carlo Fea, Luigi Canina, and Antonio Nibby.  He studied ancient sites, including Alba Fucens, and carried out new projects in Turin.

References
Politecnico di Torino

1808 births
1873 deaths
19th-century Italian architects
Architects from Turin

Carlo Promis


Hans-Ulrich Klose (14 June 1937 – 6 September 2023) was a German politician from the Social Democratic Party and a member of the German Federal parliament (German: Bundestag). Klose was the First Mayor (German: Erster Bürgermeister) of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg from 1974 up to 1981, serving as President of the Bundesrat in 1979–80.

Early life
Klose was born in Breslau, Province of Lower Silesia (now Wrocław). After the end of World War II, Klose's family fled from Breslau and moved to Bielefeld. In 1957 he received his high-school diploma and started studying law at the universities of Freiburg and Hamburg. In 1961 he passed the First, in 1965 the Second Legal State Examination, and started working as a lawyer in Hamburg.

Political career

Career in state politics
After joining the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in 1964, Klose became a member of the Hamburg Parliament (Hamburgische Bürgerschaft) in 1970, where he was vice chairman of his faction. Two years later he became first chairman of the SPD parliamentary group. In October 1973, Klose succeeded Heinz Ruhnau as minister of the interior of Hamburg.

Only a year later, on 12 November 1974, Klose became First Mayor (Erster Bürgermeister) of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg at the age of 37. At the time, he was widely regarded as a leading figure in the left wing of the party. After a party internal argument about the construction of the Brokdorf Nuclear Power Plant, he resigned from his office on 25 May 1981.

Member of the German Parliament, 1983–2013
In the 1983 elections, Klose was elected as a member of the German Parliament, the Bundestag, for the SPD. In this position, he succeeded Herbert Wehner. From 1987 to 1991 he was treasurer of his party (German: Bundesschatzmeister), serving as part of the party's national leadership under chairman Hans-Jochen Vogel.

From 1991 to 1994 Klose served as chairman of the SPD group in the Bundestag, and in this position also leader of the opposition; at the time, he was chosen over two better-known candidates. In his role as opposition leader, he worked with his CDU/CSU counterpart Wolfgang Schäuble on establishing a majority for a landmark 1993 constitutional amendment on tightening the Germany's asylum law, barring entry to thousands of foreigners who arrive in the country each week to seek asylum.

Ahead of the 1994 elections, SPD chairman Rudolf Scharping included Klose in his shadow cabinet for the party's campaign to unseat incumbent Helmut Kohl as Chancellor. During the campaign, he served as shadow minister of defence. Following the party's defeat in the elections, Klose resigned from the group's leadership to make room for Scharping. Instead he was elected one of the vice presidents of the German Bundestag the same year.

In 1998 Klose became chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. From 2002, he served as its vice president, alongside chairman Ruprecht Polenz. From January 2003 Klose also chaired the German-American Parliamentary Friendship Group. Within his parliamentary group, he served on its task force on Afghanistan and Pakistan between 2009 and 2013.

On 16 March 2010, Germany's Minister for Foreign Affairs Guido Westerwelle appointed Klose to succeed Karsten Voigt as the government's coordinator for German-American affairs, a rare case of a senior political appointment not being given to a member of the governing party. He resigned from that position in 2011.

After leaving politics, Klose took up a position as senior advisor to the Robert Bosch Foundation.

Other activities
 CARE Deutschland-Luxemburg, Member of the Board of Trustees
 Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), Member
 Green Helmets, Member of the Board of Trustees
 Otto von Bismarck Foundation, Member of the Board of Trustees
 Progressives Zentrum, Member of the Circle of Friends

Recognition
In March 2013 the Congressional Study Group on Germany presented Klose with the inaugural International Statesmanship Award "for his longstanding service to strengthening the US-German relationship".

Personal life and death
From 1992 Hans-Ulrich Klose was married to his third wife, a physician. He had two daughters and two sons from his first two marriages. He died from complications of Alzheimer's disease on 6 September 2023, at the age of 86.

Notes

References
 Biography

External links

 Official site
 German Parliament site
 Personal data sheet

1937 births
2023 deaths
Mayors of Hamburg
Presidents of the German Bundesrat
Members of the Bundestag for Hamburg
People from the Province of Lower Silesia
Politicians from Wrocław
German cooperative organizers
University of Freiburg alumni
University of Hamburg alumni
Members of the Bundestag 2009–2013
Members of the Bundestag 2005–2009
Members of the Bundestag 2002–2005
Members of the Bundestag 1998–2002
Members of the Bundestag 1994–1998
Members of the Bundestag 1990–1994
Members of the Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party of Germany
Deaths from Alzheimer's disease

Hans-Ulrich Klose