Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara (; 21 December 1949 – 15 October 1987) was a Burkinabè military officer, Marxist revolutionary and Pan-Africanist who served as President of Burkina Faso from his coup in 1983 to his assassination in 1987. He is viewed by supporters as a charismatic and iconic figure of revolution.

After being appointed Prime Minister in 1983, disputes with the sitting government led to Sankara's eventual imprisonment. While he was under house arrest, a group of revolutionaries seized power on his behalf in a popularly-supported coup later that year. Aged 33, Sankara became the President of the Republic of Upper Volta and launched social, ecological and economic programmes and renamed the country from the French colonial name Upper Volta to Burkina Faso ('Land of Incorruptible People'), with its people being called Burkinabé ('upright people'). His foreign policies were centred on anti-imperialism and he rejected aid from organizations such as the International Monetary Fund. Sankara welcomed foreign aid from other sources but tried to reduce reliance on aid by boosting domestic revenues and diversifying the sources of assistance.

His domestic policies included famine prevention, agrarian self-sufficiency, land reform, and suspending rural poll taxes, as well as a nationwide literacy campaign and vaccinating program against meningitis, yellow fever and measles. His government also focused on building schools, health centres, water reservoirs, and infrastructure projects and he combated desertification of the Sahel by planting over 10 million trees. Moreover, he outlawed female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy. Sankara set up Cuban-inspired Committees for the Defence of the Revolution. He set up Popular Revolutionary Tribunals to prosecute public officials charged with political crimes and corruption, considering such elements of the state counter-revolutionaries. This led to criticism by Amnesty International for human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions and arbitrary detentions of political opponents.

Sankara's revolutionary programmes for African self-reliance made him an icon to many of Africa's poverty-stricken nations, and Sankara remained popular with a considerable majority of his country's citizens, though some of his policies alienated elements of the former ruling class, including the tribal leaders — and the governments of France and its ally the Ivory Coast. On 15 October 1987, Sankara was assassinated by troops led by Blaise Compaoré, who assumed leadership of the state shortly thereafter and retained it until the 2014 Burkina Faso uprising.

Early life

Thomas Sankara was born Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara on 21 December 1949 in Yako, French Upper Volta, as the third of ten children to Joseph and Marguerite Sankara. His father, Joseph Sankara, a gendarme, was of mixed Mossi–Fulani (Silmi–Moaga) heritage while his mother, Marguerite Kinda, was of direct Mossi descent. He spent his early years in Gaoua, a town in the humid southwest to which his father was transferred as an auxiliary gendarme. As the son of one of the few African functionaries then employed by the colonial state, he enjoyed a relatively privileged position. The family lived in a brick house with the families of other gendarmes at the top of a hill overlooking the rest of Gaoua.

Sankara attended primary school at Bobo-Dioulasso. He applied himself seriously to his schoolwork and excelled in mathematics and French. He went to church often, and impressed with his energy and eagerness to learn, some of the priests encouraged Thomas to go on to seminary school once he finished primary school. Despite initially agreeing, he took the exam required for entry to the sixth grade in the secular educational system and passed. Thomas's decision to keep on his education at the nearest lycée Ouezzin Coulibaly (named after a pre-independence nationalist) proved to be a turning point. This step got him out of his father's household since the lycée was in Bobo-Dioulasso, the country's commercial centre. At the lycée, Sankara made close friends, including Fidèle Too, whom he later named a minister in his government; and Soumane Touré, who was in a more advanced class.

His Roman Catholic parents wanted him to become a priest, but he chose to enter the military. The military was popular at the time, having just ousted a despised president. It was also seen by young intellectuals as a national institution that might potentially help to discipline the inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy, counterbalance the inordinate influence of traditional chiefs and generally help modernize the country. Besides, acceptance into the military academy would come with a scholarship; Sankara could not easily afford the costs of further education otherwise. He took the entrance exam and passed.

He entered the military academy of Kadiogo in Ouagadougou with the academy's first intake of 1966 at the age of 17. While there he witnessed the first military coup d'état in Upper Volta led by Lieutenant-Colonel Sangoulé Lamizana (3 January 1966). The trainee officers were taught by civilian professors in the social sciences. Adama Touré, who taught history and geography and was known for having progressive ideas, even though he did not publicly share them, was the academic director at the time. He invited a few of his brightest and more political students, among them Sankara, to join informal discussions about imperialism, neocolonialism, socialism and communism, the Soviet and Chinese revolutions, the liberation movements in Africa and similar topics outside of the classroom. This was the first time Sankara was systematically exposed to a revolutionary perspective on Upper Volta and the world. Aside from his academic and extracurricular political activities, Sankara also pursued his passion for music and played the guitar.

In 1970, 20 year old Sankara went on for further military studies at the military academy of Antsirabe in Madagascar, from which he graduated as a junior officer in 1973. At the Antsirabe academy, the range of instruction went beyond standard military subjects, which allowed Sankara to study agriculture, including how to raise crop yields and better the lives of farmers—themes he later took up in his own administration and country. During that period, he read profusely on history and military strategy, thus acquiring the concepts and analytical tools that he would later use in his reinterpretation of Burkinabe political history.

Military career
After basic military training in secondary school in 1966, Sankara began his military career at the age of 19 and a year later was sent to Madagascar for officer training at Antsirabe where he witnessed popular uprisings in 1971 and 1972 against the government of Philibert Tsiranana and first read the works of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, which profoundly influenced his political views for the rest of his life.

Returning to Upper Volta in 1972, he fought in a border war between Upper Volta and Mali by 1974. He earned fame for his performance in the conflict, but years later would renounce the fighting as 'useless and unjust', a reflection of his growing political consciousness. He also became a popular figure in the capital of Ouagadougou. Sankara was a decent guitarist. He played in a band named Tout-à-Coup Jazz and rode a bicycle.

In 1976 he became commander of the Commando Training Centre in Pô. In the same year he met Blaise Compaoré in Morocco. During the presidency of Colonel Saye Zerbo, a group of young officers formed a secret organization called the 'Communist Officers' Group' (, or ROC), the best-known members being Henri Zongo, Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lingani, Blaise Compaoré and Sankara.

Government posts
Sankara was appointed Minister of Information in Saye Zerbo's military government in September 1981. Sankara differentiated himself from other government officials in many ways such as biking to work everyday, instead of driving in a car. While his predecessors would censor journalists and newspapers, Sankara encouraged investigative journalism and allowed the media to print whatever it found. This led to publications of government scandals by both privately-owned and state-owned newspapers. He resigned on 12 April 1982 in opposition to what he saw as the regime's anti-labour drift, declaring 'Misfortune to those who gag the people!' ().

After another coup (7 November 1982) brought to power Major-Doctor Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo, Sankara became Prime Minister in January 1983 but he was dismissed (17 May). In between those four months, Sankara pushed Ouédraogo's regime for more progressive reforms. Sankara was then arrested after the French President's African affairs adviser, , met with Col. Yorian Somé. Henri Zongo and Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lingani were also placed under arrest. The decision to arrest Sankara proved to be very unpopular with the younger officers in the military regime and his imprisonment created enough momentum for his friend Blaise Compaoré to lead another coup.

Presidency

A coup d'état organized by Blaise Compaoré made Sankara President on 4 August 1983 at the age of 33. The coup d'état was supported by Libya, which was at the time on the verge of war with France in Chad (see history of Chad).

Sankara saw himself as a revolutionary and was inspired by the examples of Cuba's Fidel Castro and Che Guevara and Ghana's military leader Jerry Rawlings. As President, he promoted the 'Democratic and Popular Revolution' (, or RDP). The ideology of the Revolution was defined by Sankara as anti-imperialist in a speech on 2 October 1983, the  (DOP), written by his close associate Valère Somé. His policy was oriented toward fighting corruption and promoting reforestation.

On 4 August 1984, the first anniversary of his accession, he renamed the country Burkina Faso, meaning 'the land of upright people' in Mooré and Dyula, the two major languages of the country. He also gave it a new flag and wrote a new national anthem (Ditanyè).

Council of the Revolution
When Sankara assumed power on August 4th, he named the leadership of the country the Council of the Revolution (CNR). This was a way for Sankara to signal that he was going to try for political and social change. The CNR composed of both civilians and soldiers, all ordinary people. But the member count was secret due to security reasons and only known to Sankara and others in his inner circle.

The CNR regularly met to talk about important plans and decisions for the country. They helped give advice and direction to the government's actions. They voted on suggestions and decisions from governments officials, the decision making was collective. On some occasions, proposals even favored by Sankara himself was overruled.

Health care and public works
Sankara's first priorities after taking office were feeding, housing and giving medical care to his people who desperately needed it. Sankara launched a mass vaccination programme in an attempt to eradicate polio, meningitis and measles. From 1983 to 1985, 2 million Burkinabé were vaccinated.

Prior to Sankara's presidency infant mortality in Burkina Faso was about 20.8%; during his presidency it fell to 14.5%. Sankara's administration was also the first African government to publicly recognize the AIDS epidemic as a major threat to Africa.

Large-scale housing and infrastructure projects were also undertaken. Brick factories were created to help build houses in an effort to end urban slums. In an attempt to fight deforestation, The People's Harvest of Forest Nurseries was created to supply 7,000 village nurseries, as well as organizing the planting of several million trees. All regions of the country were soon connected by a vast road- and rail-building programme. Over  of rail was laid by Burkinabé people to facilitate manganese extraction in 'The Battle of the Rails' without any foreign aid or outside money. These programmes were an attempt to prove that African countries could be prosperous without foreign help or aid.

Sankara also launched education programmes to help combat the country's 90% illiteracy rate. These programmes saw great success. Shortly after the assassination of Sankara, wide-scale teachers' strikes, coupled with the new regime's unwillingness to negotiate, led to the creation of 'Revolutionary Teachers'. In an attempt to replace the nearly 2,500 teachers fired over a strike in 1996, anyone with a college degree was invited to teach through the revolutionary teachers' programme. Volunteers merely received a 10-day training course before beginning to teach.

Under Sankara's presidency the literacy rate went from 13% in 1983 to 73% in 1987.

People's Revolutionary Tribunals
Shortly after attaining power, Sankara constructed a system of courts known as the Popular Revolutionary Tribunal. The courts were created originally to try former government officials in a straightforward way so the average Burkinabé could participate in or oversee trials of enemies of the revolution. They placed defendants on trial for corruption, tax evasion or counter-revolutionary activity. Sentences for former government officials were light and often suspended. The tribunals have been alleged to have been only show trials, held very openly with oversight from the public.

According to the US State Department, procedures in these trials, especially legal protections for the accused, did not conform to international standards. Defendants had to prove themselves innocent of the crimes they were charged with committing and were not allowed to be represented by counsel. The courts were originally met with adoration from the Burkinabé people but over time became corrupt and oppressive. So called 'lazy workers' were tried and sentenced to work for free or expelled from their jobs and discriminated against. Some even created their own courts to settle scores and humiliate their enemies.

Revolutionary Defence Committees
The Committees for the Defence of the Revolution () were formed as mass armed organizations. The CDRs were created as a counterweight to the power of the army as well as to promote political and social revolution. The idea for the Revolutionary Defence Committees was taken from Fidel Castro, whose Committees for the Defence of the Revolution were created as a form of 'revolutionary vigilance'.

Relations with the Mossi people
A point of contention regarding Sankara's rule is the way he handled the Mossi ethnic group. The Mossi are the largest ethnic group in Burkina Faso, and they adhere to strict traditional hierarchical social systems. At the top of the hierarchy is the Morho Naba, the chief or king of the Mossi people. Sankara viewed this arrangement as an obstacle to national unity, and proceeded to demote the Mossi elite. The Morho Naba was not allowed to hold courts, and local village chiefs were stripped of their executive powers and given to the CDR.

Women's rights
Sankara had extensively worked for women's rights and declared "There is no true social revolution without the liberation of women".

Improving women's status in Burkinabé society was one of Sankara's explicit goals, and his government included a large number of women, an unprecedented policy priority in West Africa. His government banned female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy, while appointing women to high governmental positions and encouraging them to work outside the home and stay in school even if pregnant. Sankara also promoted contraception and encouraged husbands to go to market and prepare meals to experience for themselves the conditions faced by women. Sankara recognized the challenges faced by African women when he gave his famous address to mark International Women's Day on 8 March 1987 in Ouagadougou. Sankara spoke to thousands of women in a highly political speech in which he stated that the Burkinabé Revolution was 'establishing new social relations' which would be 'upsetting the relations of authority between men and women and forcing each to rethink the nature of both. This task is formidable but necessary'. Furthermore, Sankara was the first African leader to appoint women to major cabinet positions and to recruit them actively for the military.

Agacher Strip War

Following the 1974 clashes between Burkina Faso and Mali over the disputed territory of the Agacher Strip, the Organization of African Unity had created a mediation commission to resolve the disagreement and provide for an independent, neutral demarcation of the border. Both governments had declared that they would not use armed force to end the dispute.

Nevertheless, by 1983 the two countries were in disagreement about the work of the commission. Sankara also personally disliked Malian President Moussa Traoré, who had taken power by deposing Modibo Keïta's left-leaning regime. On 17 September Sankara visited Mali and met with Traoré. With Algerian mediation, the two agreed to have the border dispute settled by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and subsequently petitioned the body to resolve the issue.

In July 1985 Burkina Faso declared the Malian secretary general of the Economic Community of West Africa, Drissa Keita, a persona non grata after he criticized Sankara's regime. In September Sankara delivered a speech in which he called for a revolution in Mali. Malian leaders were particularly sensitive to the inflammatory rhetoric, as their country was experiencing social unrest. Around the same time Sankara and other key figures in the CNR became convinced that Traoré was harbouring opposition to the Burkinabé regime in Bamako and plotting to provoke a border war which would be used to support a counterrevolution.

Tensions at the border first began to rise on 24 November when one Burkinabé national killed another near the border in Soum Province. Malian police crossed the boundary to arrest the murderer and also detained several members of a local Committee for the Defence of the Revolution who were preparing a tribunal. Three days later Malian police entered Kounia to 'restore order'. Burkina Faso made diplomatic representations on the incidents to Mali, but was given no formal response. At the beginning of December Burkina Faso informed Mali and other surrounding countries that it was conducting its decennial national census from 10 to 20 December. On 14 December military personnel entered the Agacher to assist with the census. Mali accused the military authorities of pressuring Malian citizens in border villages to register with the census, a charge which Burkina Faso disputed. In an attempt to reduce tensions, ANAD (a West African treaty organization) dispatched a delegation to Bamako and Ouagadougou to mediate. President of Algeria Chadli Bendjedid also contacted Sankara and Traoré to encourage a peaceful resolution. At the request of ANAD members, Burkina Faso announced the withdrawal of all military personnel from the disputed region.

Despite the declared withdrawal, a 'war of the communiques' ensued as Burkinabé and Malian authorities exchanged hostile messages with one another. Feeling threatened by Sankara, Traoré began preparing Mali for hostilities with Burkina Faso. Three groupements were formed and planned to invade Burkina Faso and converge on the city of Bobo-Dioulasso. Once there, they would rally Burkinabé opposition forces to take Ouagadougou and overthrow Sankara. Former Sankara aide Paul Michaud wrote that the Burkinabé president had actually intended to provoke Mali into conflict with the aim of mobilizing popular support for his regime. According to him "an official—and reliable—Malian source" had reported that mobilization documents dating to 19 December were found on the bodies of fallen Burkinabé soldiers during the ensuing war.

Sankara's efforts to provide evidence of his bona fides were systematically undermined. 'It is hard to believe that the Malian authorities are unaware that the rumors circulating are false,' says U.S. Ambassador Leonardo Neher. A Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) cable states, 'The war was born of Bamako's hope that the conflict would trigger a coup in Burkina Faso.'

At dawn on 25 December 1985, about 150 Malian Army tanks crossed the frontier and attacked several locations. Malian troops also attempted to envelope Bobo-Dioulasso in a pincer attack. The Burkina Faso Army struggled to repel the offensive in the face of superior Malian firepower and were overwhelmed on the northern front; Malian forces quickly secured the towns of Dionouga, Selba, Kouna, and Douna in the Agacher. The Burkinabé government in Ougadougou received word of hostilities at about 13:00 and immediately issued mobilization orders. Various security measures were also imposed across the country, including nighttime blackouts. Burkinabé forces regrouped in the Dionouga area to counter-attack. Captain Compaoré took command of this western front. Under his leadership soldiers split into small groups and employed guerrilla tactics against Malian tanks.

Immediately after hostilities began other African leaders attempted to institute a truce. On the morning of 30 December Burkina Faso and Mali agreed to an ANAD-brokered ceasefire. By then Mali had occupied most of the Agacher Strip. Over 100 Burkinabé and approximately 40 Malian soldiers and civilians were killed during the war. The Burkinabé towns of Ouahigouya, Djibo, and Nassambou were left badly damaged by the fighting. At an ANAD summit in Yamoussoukro on 17 January Traoré and Sankara met and formalized an agreement to end hostilities. The ICJ later split the Agacher; Mali received the more-densely populated western portion and Burkina Faso the eastern section centred on the Béli River. Both countries indicated their satisfaction with the judgement.

Burkina Faso declared that the war was part of an 'international plot' to bring down Sankara's government. It also rejected speculation that it was fought over rumoured mineral wealth in the Agacher. The country's relatively poor performance in the conflict damaged the domestic credibility of the CNR. Some Burkinabé soldiers were angered by Sankara's failure to prosecute the war more aggressively and rally a counteroffensive against Mali. It also demonstrated the country's weak international position and forced the CNR to craft a more moderate image of its policies and goals abroad. The Burkinabé government made little reference to supporting revolution in other countries in the conflict's aftermath, while its relations with France modestly improved. At a rally held after the war, Sankara conceded that his country's military was not adequately armed and announced the commutation of sentences for numerous political prisoners.

Relations with other countries

Thomas Sankara defined his program as anti-imperialist. In this respect, France became the main target of revolutionary rhetoric. These attacks culminated in François Mitterrand's visit to Burkina Faso in November 1986, during which Thomas Sankara violently criticized French policy for having received Pieter Botha, the Prime Minister of South Africa, and Jonas Savimbi, the leader of UNITA, in France, both 'covered in blood from head to toe'. French economic aid was reduced by 80% between 1983 and 1985.

, President François Mitterrand's advisor on African affairs, organized a media campaign in France to denigrate Thomas Sankara in collaboration with the DGSE, which provided the press with a series of documents on supposed atrocities intended to fuel articles against him.

A program of cooperation with Cuba was set up. After meeting with Fidel Castro, Thomas Sankara sent young Burkinabés to Cuba in September 1986 to receive professional training and to participate in the country's development upon their return. These were volunteers recruited on the basis of a competition with priority given to orphans and children from rural and disadvantaged areas. Some 600 teenagers were flown to Cuba to complete their schooling and receive professional training to become doctors, engineers, agronomists or gynecologists.

Denouncing the support of the United States to Israel and South Africa, he called on African countries to boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. At the United Nations General Assembly, he also denounced the invasion of Grenada by the United States, which responded by implementing trade sanctions against Burkina Faso. Also at the UN, he called for an end to the veto power granted to the great powers. In the name of the 'right of peoples to sovereignty', he supported the national demands of the Western Sahara, Palestine, the Nicaraguan Sandinistas and the South African ANC. While he had good relations with Ghanaian leader Jerry Rawlings and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, he was relatively isolated in West Africa. Leaders close to France, such as Houphouët-Boigny in Côte d'Ivoire and Hassan II in Morocco, were particularly hostile to him.

Environment
In the 1980s, when ecological awareness was still very low, Thomas Sankara was one of the few African leaders to consider environmental protection a priority. He engaged in three major battles: against bush fires 'which will be considered as crimes and will be punished as such'; against cattle roaming 'which infringes on the rights of peoples because unattended animals destroy nature'; and against the chaotic cutting of firewood 'whose profession will have to be organized and regulated'. As part of a development program involving a large part of the population, ten million trees were planted in Burkina Faso in fifteen months during the 'revolution'. To face the advancing desert and recurrent droughts, Thomas Sankara also proposed the planting of wooded strips of about fifty kilometers, crossing the country from east to west. He then thought of extending this vegetation belt to other countries. Cereal production, close to 1.1 billion tons before 1983, rose to 1.6 billion tons in 1987. Jean Ziegler, former UN special rapporteur for the right to food, emphasized that the country 'had become food self-sufficient'.

Beginning in October 1984, over the space of fifteen months Sankara's government planted ten million trees in a campaign of reforestation. Sankara said "In Burkina wood is our only source of energy. We have to constantly remind every individual of his duty to maintain and regenerate nature".

Criticism
The British development organization Oxfam recorded the arrest of trade union leaders in 1987. In 1984, seven individuals associated with the previous régime were accused of treason and executed after a summary trial. A teachers' strike the same year resulted in the dismissal of 2,500 teachers; thereafter, non-governmental organizations and unions were harassed or placed under the authority of the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution, branches of which were established in each workplace and which functioned as 'organs of political and social control'.

Popular Revolutionary Tribunals, set up by the government throughout the country, placed defendants on trial for corruption, tax evasion or 'counter-revolutionary' activity. Procedures in these trials, especially legal protections for the accused, did not conform to international standards. According to Christian Morrisson and Jean-Paul Azam of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the 'climate of urgency and drastic action in which many punishments were carried out immediately against those who had the misfortune to be found guilty of unrevolutionary behaviour, bore some resemblance to what occurred in the worst days of the French Revolution, during the Reign of Terror. Although few people were killed, violence was widespread'.

Personal image and popularity

Accompanying his personal charisma, Sankara had an array of original initiatives that contributed to his popularity and brought some international media attention to his government:

Cuba rewarded Sankara with the highest honour of the state, the Order of Jose Marti.

Solidarity
 He sold off the government fleet of Mercedes cars and made the Renault 5 (the cheapest car sold in Burkina Faso at that time) the official service car of the ministers.
 He reduced the salaries of well-off public servants (including his own) and forbade the use of government chauffeurs and first class airline tickets.
 He opposed foreign aid, saying that 'He who feeds you, controls you'.
 He spoke in forums like the Organization of African Unity against what he described as neocolonialist penetration of Africa through Western trade and finance.
 He called for a united front of African nations to repudiate their foreign debt. He argued that the poor and exploited did not have an obligation to repay money to the rich and exploiting.

 In Ouagadougou, Sankara converted the army's provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country).
 He forced well-off civil servants to pay one month's salary to public projects.
 He refused to use the air conditioning in his office on the grounds that such luxury was not available to anyone but a handful of Burkinabés.
 As President, he lowered his salary to $450 a month and limited his possessions to a car, four bikes, three guitars, a refrigerator, and a broken freezer.

Style
 He required public servants to wear a traditional tunic, woven from Burkinabé cotton and sewn by Burkinabé craftsmen.
 He was known for jogging unaccompanied through Ouagadougou in his track suit and posing in his tailored military fatigues, with his mother-of-pearl pistol.
 When asked why he did not want his portrait hung in public places, as was the norm for other African leaders, Sankara replied: "There are seven million Thomas Sankaras".
 An accomplished guitarist, he wrote the new national anthem himself.

Africa's Che Guevara
Sankara is often referred to as "Africa's Che Guevara". Sankara gave a speech marking and honouring the 20th anniversary of Che Guevara's 9 October 1967 execution, one week before his own assassination on 15 October 1987.

Assassination
On 15 October 1987, Sankara was killed by an armed group with twelve other officials in a coup d'état organized by his former colleague Blaise Compaoré. When accounting for his overthrow, Compaoré stated that Sankara jeopardized foreign relations with former colonial power France and neighbouring Ivory Coast, and accused his former comrade of plotting to assassinate opponents.

Prince Johnson, a former Liberian warlord allied to Charles Taylor and killer of the Liberian president Samuel Doe whose last hours of life were filmed, told Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission that it was engineered by Charles Taylor. After the coup and although Sankara was known to be dead, some CDRs mounted an armed resistance to the army for several days.

According to Halouna Traoré, the sole survivor of Sankara's assassination, Sankara was attending a meeting with the Conseil de l'Entente. His assassins singled out Sankara and executed him. The assassins then shot at those attending the meeting, killing 12 other people. Sankara's body was riddled with bullets to the back and he was quickly buried in an unmarked grave while his widow Mariam and two children fled the nation. Compaoré immediately reversed the nationalizations, overturned nearly all of Sankara's policies, rejoined the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to bring in 'desperately needed' funds to restore the 'shattered' economy and ultimately spurned most of Sankara's legacy. Compaoré's dictatorship remained in power for 27 years until it was overthrown by popular protests in 2014.

Assassination trial
In 2017, the Burkina Faso government officially asked the French government to release military documents on the killing of Sankara after his widow accused France of masterminding his assassination.

In April 2021, 34 years after Sankara's assassination, former president Compaoré and 13 others were indicted for complicity in the murder of Sankara as well as other crimes in the coup. This development came as part of President Roch Kaboré's framework of 'national reconciliation'.

In October 2021, the trial against Compaoré and 13 others began in Ouagadougou, with Compaoré being tried in absentia. Ex-presidential security chief Hyacinthe Kafondo, was also tried in absentia. A week before the trial, Compaoré's lawyers stated that he wouldn't be attending the trial which they characterized as having defects, and also emphasized his privilege for immunity, being the former head of state. After requests made by the defence attorneys for more time to prepare their defence, the hearing was postponed until 1 March.

On 6 April 2022, Compaoré and two others were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in absentia. Eight others were sentenced to between 3 and 20 years in prison. Three were found innocent.

Exhumation
The exhumation of what are believed to be the remains of Sankara started on African Liberation Day, 25 May 2015. Permission for an exhumation was denied during the rule of his successor, Blaise Compaoré. The exhumation would allow the family to formally identify the remains, a long-standing demand of his family and supporters.

In October 2015, one of the lawyers for Sankara's widow Mariam reported that the autopsy revealed that Sankara's body was 'riddled' with 'more than a dozen' bullets.

Legacy
Twenty years after his assassination, Sankara was commemorated on 15 October 2007 in ceremonies that took place in Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Niger, Tanzania, Burundi, France, Canada and the United States.

A statue of Sankara was unveiled in 2019 at the location in Ouagadougou where he was assassinated; however due to complaints that it did not match his facial features, a new statue was unveiled a year later.

In 2023, the government of Burkina Faso formally proclaimed Sankara as a "hero of the nation".

In October 2023, on the 36th anniversary of his assasination, the government changed a main road name in Ouagadougou to honor Sankara. The road in question was the Boulevard Charles De Gaulle now known as Boulevard Capitaine Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara.

List of works
 Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution, 1983–87, Pathfinder Press: 1988. .
 We Are the Heirs of the World's Revolutions: Speeches from the Burkina Faso Revolution 1983–87, Pathfinder Press: 2007. .
 Women's Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle, Pathfinder Press: 1990. .

Further reading

Books

 Who killed Sankara?, by Alfred Cudjoe, 1988, University of California, .
 La voce nel deserto, by Vittorio Martinelli and Sofia Massai, 2009, Zona Editrice, .
 Thomas Sankara – An African Revolutionary, by Ernest Harsch, 2014, Ohio University Press, .
 A Certain Amount of Madness: The Life, Politics and Legacies of Thomas Sankara (Black Critique), by Amber Murrey, 2018, Pluto Press, .
 Sankara, Compaoré et la révolution burkinabè, by Ludo Martens and Hilde Meesters, 1989, Editions Aden, .

Historical Novel including Thomas Sankara
 American Spy, by Lauren Wilkinson, 2019, Random House, .

Web articles
 Burkina Faso's Pure President by Bruno Jaffré.
 Thomas Sankara Lives! by Mukoma Wa Ngugi.
 There Are Seven Million Sankaras by Koni Benson.
 Thomas Sankara: "I have a Dream" by Federico Bastiani.
 Thomas Sankara: Chronicle of an Organised Tragedy by Cheriff M. Sy.
 Thomas Sankara Former Leader of Burkina Faso by Désiré-Joseph Katihabwa.
 Thomas Sankara 20 Years Later: A Tribute to Integrity by Demba Moussa Dembélé.
 Remembering Thomas Sankara, Rebecca Davis, The Daily Maverick, 2013.
 "I can hear the roar of women's silence", Sokarie Ekine, Red Pepper, 2012.
 Thomas Sankara: A View of The Future for Africa and The Third World by Ameth Lo.
 Thomas Sankara on the Emancipation of Women, An internationalist whose ideas live on! by Nathi Mthethwa.
 Thomas Sankara, le Che africain by Pierre Venuat (in French).
 Thomas Sankara e la rivoluzione interrotta by Enrico Palumbo (in Italian).

Documentaries
 , 1987 documentary by Didier Mauro
 , 1991 documentary by Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda
 Thomas Sankara: The Upright Man, 2006 documentary by Robin Shuffield
 , 2007 documentary by Thuy-Tiên Hô and Didier Mauro
 , 2011 documentary by Tristan Goasguen
 , 2012 documentary by Christophe Cupelin
 , 2017 documentary by Thuy-Tiên Hô

References

Sources

External links

 ThomasSankara.net, a website dedicated to Thomas Sankara

1949 births
1987 deaths
1987 murders in Africa
African revolutionaries
Assassinated Burkinabé politicians
Assassinated heads of government
Burkinabé military personnel
Burkinabé communists
Burkinabé pan-Africanists
Burkinabé revolutionaries
Burkinabé Roman Catholics
Burkinabé nationalists
Heads of state of Burkina Faso
Leaders ousted by a coup
Leaders who took power by coup
Male feminists
Marxist theorists
Assassinated revolutionaries
National anthem writers
People from Nord Region (Burkina Faso)
People from Sud-Ouest Region (Burkina Faso)
People murdered in Burkina Faso
Prime Ministers of Burkina Faso
Anti-imperialism
African Marxists
Assassinated heads of state in Africa
1980s assassinated politicians

Thomas Sankara


Cortébert was a Swiss premium watch brand, manufacturing their own movements, supplying movements to other brands such as Rolex and introducing a jump-hour movement later adopted by IWC. When the quartz crisis hit the industry in the 1970s, the majority of prestige brands ceased production, including Cortébert.

History
Abraham-Louis Juillard opened his small watchmaking store in Cortébert village in Switzerland in 1790. This date is commonly used as the date of founding although the Cortébert brand name was not registered until 1855 using the bottony cross as a logo.

Cortébert became well known for their railroad watches: they supplied both the Turkish railroad system and the Italian railroad system, as well as a number of street car systems throughout Europe.

In the 1927, at the request of Mussolini, Cortébert started distributing their watches in Italy under the Perseo brand name, as fascist Italy rejected foreign brand names. It is under this name that they were used by the Italian railway system.

The Russian watch factory Molnija produced a number of calibers that were very similar to Cortébert's 16 Ligne Cal. 620.

By 1944 Cortébert had a lineup consisting of 20 different calibers.

Perseo continued to be used by the Italian railway system after World War II and became well regarded by the Italian public. Perseo continues their relationship with the Italian Railroad System.

In the early 1970s, Cortébert suffered deeply from the quartz revolution sweeping the world watch industry. The representatives of Cortébert in Italy bought the Perseo brand name from Cortébert and continue today as an independent company.

Cortébert closed in the early 1970s and production ceased.

Jump-hour watches

In the late 19th century, Cortébert obtained license for the jump-hour movement designed by Josef Pallweber. The same movement was used in some IWC models.

The early 1920s saw the development of the jump-hour into a wristwatch. Because it displayed the time with digits instead of rotating hands, it was the first digital wristwatch produced.

References

External links
Perseo's current website

Defunct watchmaking companies
Companies established in 1790
Luxury brands
1790 establishments in Europe
18th-century establishments in the Old Swiss Confederacy
Companies based in the canton of Bern
Swiss watch brands
Watch movement manufacturers

Cortébert (watch manufacturer)


The government of Manitoba has three parts. The head of state, Elizabeth II, is represented by the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba. The Lieutenant Governor is appointed by the Governor General of Canada, with the advice of the Prime Minister of Canada.

Manitoba has a unicameral legislature, which is called the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba. It has fifty-seven members, who are elected from single-member districts (meaning that only one member is elected from each district). The largest party in the legislature forms the executive branch. The party leader of the largest party becomes the Premier of Manitoba.

As of 2015, the most recent general election in Manitoba was on October 4, 2011. The New Democratic Party of Manitoba won a majority of seats. On October 19, 2009, Greg Selinger became the Premier.

Related pages
 List of Manitoba general elections
 List of political parties in Manitoba

Government of Manitoba


James Slade,  (1783–1860), generally remembered as Canon Slade, was the Vicar of St Peter's Church, Bolton le Moors, Lancashire, England from 1817 to 1856.

Life
James Slade was born in Daventry, Northamptonshire on 2 May 1783 to the Reverend James Slade and Elizabeth Slade (née Waterfield). He had two brothers and a sister. He was educated like his father at Emmanuel College, Cambridge where he studied mathematics. He was ordained a deacon at Peterborough Cathedral in 1806, and a priest in 1807. He was a Curate at Willingham from 1806 to 1811. On 18 May 1812, he married Augusta Law, daughter of George Henry Law, Bishop of Chester and under his patronage Slade was made Rector of Teversham, Cambridgeshire in 1813 and a Canon of Chester Cathedral in 1816. The following year, it was arranged for him to exchange his Teversham living for the position of vicar of Bolton le Moors, then a large parish in the Diocese of Chester with a fast-growing population living in appalling conditions with only one town centre parish church.

For the next forty years Canon Slade dedicated himself to improving the conditions of the people of Bolton and to building churches in the expanding suburbs. He was the main force behind the establishment of a Trustee Savings Bank (1813), Bolton Dispensary (1820) and the Bolton Church Institute School (later Canon Slade Grammar School) in 1846. During the same period he oversaw the building of eleven churches including St John, Farnworth (1826), Holy Trinity, Bolton (1827), Emmanuel, Bolton (1838), Christ Church, Harwood (1840), Christ Church, Heaton (1844), St Stephen, Lever Bridge (1845), St John, Bolton (1849), St Paul, Astley Bridge (1845), St Peter, Belmont (1850), St James, Breightmet (1855) and the rebuilding of Christ Church, Walmsley and St Anne, Turton.

His first wife died in 1822 after they had had two children, one who died in infancy and the other, Mary Elizabeth Christian, married the Reverend Thomas foster Chamberlain. James remarried in 1824 to Mary Bolling, the sister of William Bolling, Member of Parliament for Bolton. There were no children of this second marriage. On 29 December 1856, he resigned his Bolton living and retired to West Kirby on the Wirral Peninsula. He died in Breightmet, Bolton on 15 May 1860, during a visit to see his brother, who had by then also moved there. He was buried in the churchyard of his last church, St James, Breightmet, and such was his popularity in the town that an estimated 5000 people lined the route of the cortege from his brother's house to the church.
He was good friends with James Caunce and Steven Moore.

See also
John Hick

Notes

References

External links
Canon Slade School official site
Holy Trinity Church, Bolton

1783 births
1860 deaths
People from Daventry
Burials in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton

James Slade


Elbert George Mathews (November 24, 1910October 31, 1977) was an American diplomat.

Early life
Mathews was born on November 24, 1910, in Troy, New York to parents Samuel Blumenthal and Anna Margare Mathews.

Diplomatic career
Mathews was the United States Vice Consul to Vancouver from 1935 to  1936. He held the same position in Sydney from 1937 to 1940 and Kabul from 1943 to 1946. Mathews was the United States Consul to Calcutta from 1946 to 1947 and the United States Consul General in Istanbul from 1951 to 1952. Mathews was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the position of United States Ambassador to Liberia on August 12, 1959. The presentation of his credentials occurred on September 30, 1959. He remained in this position until May 4, 1962. Mathews was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to the position of United States Ambassador to Nigeria on March 10, 1964. The presentation of his credentials occurred on April 11, 1964. He remained in this position until July 26, 1969.

Personal life
Mathews married Naomi Pearl Meffert on August 20, 1934. Mathews at some point resided in California.

Death
Mathews died on October 31, 1977, in Washington, D.C. Mathews was interred at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

References

1910 births
1977 deaths
American consuls
Burials at Rock Creek Cemetery
People from Troy, New York
Ambassadors of the United States to Liberia
Ambassadors of the United States to Nigeria
20th-century American diplomats

Elbert G. Mathews


The SyncML Initiative, Ltd. was a non-profit corporation formed by a group of companies who co-operated to produce an open standard for data synchronization and device management.

Prior to SyncML, data synchronization and device management had been based on a set of different, proprietary protocols, each functioning only with a limited number of devices, systems and data types.

The  SyncML Initiative, Ltd. consolidated into the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) in 2002, contributing their technical work to the OMA technical Working Groups: Device Management Working Group and Data Synchronization Working Group. The SyncML legacy specifications were converted to the OMA format with the 1.2.2 versions of OMA SyncML, OMA Data Synchronization and OMA Device Management specifications.

References
Recent documents
OMA SyncML Section (old site)

Companies disestablished in 2002
SyncML

The SyncML Initiative


The Hampshire County Courthouse is a Neoclassical edifice in the center of downtown Romney, county seat of Hampshire County, West Virginia. The present building was constructed in 1922 to replace the previous 1833 Neoclassical courthouse that had been destroyed by fire in 1921. The original bell from the 1833 courthouse hangs in the domed bell tower.

Civil War history
During the Civil War, John Baker White was the Clerk of Court for the courthouse.

No court proceedings convened in Hampshire County between 1861 and 1864 and the county's courthouse was used as a stable by Union soldiers stationed in Romney during the war.

Upon learning of this, White was again concerned for the safety of the county's records and proceeded to load land registration records ledger books onto wagons and had them transported to Winchester for safekeeping. White selected for transport only the bound volumes of records which included "deed books, wills, and settlements of estates" and kept the unbound paper records in the courthouse, thus separating them so that the entirety of the county's records could not be destroyed by Union forces. White likely chose to transport the bound volumes of records, as the loose paper records would have been more cumbersome to keep together.

In 1863, when Winchester was no longer a safe location for the storage of Hampshire County's records and they again risked destruction by Union Army forces, White's son Captain Christian Streit White took responsibility for the records and transferred them to Front Royal. When Front Royal became endangered by advancing Union Army forces, Captain White had the records moved to Luray Caverns where they remained for several months. In the Fall of 1864, the county's record books were rescued by Captain White and his company as Union Army troops were in the process of destroying them. Captain White's company loaded about 150 record books into a wagon and they were taken to North Carolina where they remained safely for the duration of the war. Hampshire County's land records survived and were returned to the courthouse following the conclusion of the American Civil War, likely by a soldier returning to the area from North Carolina. Had White not separated the records and sent the bound volumes away for safekeeping, Hampshire County would have lost all its records during the course of the war, as those that remained in the courthouse were destroyed.

Miscellany
The original cast-iron fence that surrounded the 1833 courthouse was removed during reconstruction of the present courthouse and relocated to the Hiett Graveyard on North River between the communities of North River Mills and Pleasant Dale.

Gallery

References

Bibliography

See also
List of historic sites in Hampshire County, West Virginia
National Register of Historic Places listings in Hampshire County, West Virginia

American Civil War sites in West Virginia
Buildings and structures in Romney, West Virginia
Neoclassical architecture in West Virginia
County courthouses in West Virginia
Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in West Virginia
Government buildings completed in 1833
Government buildings completed in 1922
Hampshire County, West Virginia, in the American Civil War
National Register of Historic Places in Hampshire County, West Virginia
Northwestern Turnpike
Tourist attractions in Hampshire County, West Virginia
1833 establishments in Virginia
1922 establishments in West Virginia
Clock towers in West Virginia

Hampshire County Courthouse (West Virginia)


Juan Carreño de Miranda (25 March 1614 – 3 October 1685) was a Spanish painter of the Baroque period.

Born in Avilés in Asturias, he was the son of a painter with the same name, Juan Carreño de Miranda. His family moved to Madrid in 1623, and he trained in Madrid during the late 1620s as apprentice of Pedro de Las Cuevas and Bartolomé Roman. He came to the notice of Velazquez for his work in the cloister of doña María de Aragón y en la iglesia del Rosario, he was asked to help paint in the Royal Palace of Madrid with frescoes on mythological fables. He was named "Painter of the King" in 1669. In 1658 Carreño was hired as an assistant on a royal commission to paint frescoes in the Alcázar palace, now the Royal Palace of Madrid. In 1671 he was appointed court painter to the queen (pintor de cámara) and began to paint primarily portraits. In 1671, upon the death of Sebastian de Herrera, he was named chamber painter. He refused to be knighted in the order of Santiago, saying "Painting needs no honors, it can give them to the whole world". He is mainly remembered as a painter of portraits. His main pupilswere Mateo Cerezo, Cabezalero, Donoso, Ledesma y Sotomayor. He died in Madrid.

1614 births
1685 deaths
Spanish painters

Carreño de Miranda


Ice Harbor Brewing Company is a brewery founded in Pasco, Washington in 1996 by two former workers at the Hanford Site. They entered this venture after buying the Meheen & Collins brewery.

The brewery is located in what was once a grain mill at 206 N. Benton St. in Kennewick, Washington. This building serves as a brewery, and as a brewpub. The menu offers sandwiches and various fare as well as the brewery's creations.  The brewpub recently installed a beer engine, which allows the beer to be pulled from the cask, rather than pushed by carbon dioxide gas.  The brewpub is believed to be the only Tri-City brewpub that uses such a device.

Recently, Ice Harbor Brewing had opened its second pub, which is located at the Port of Kennewick's commercial building at 350 Clover Island Dr. on Clover Island in Kennewick.  The pub opened in late October 2007, and features much of the same brews and fare at the Railroad Avenue brewpub, but without the homebrewing inventory.

The Brewery
The brewery (located at 206 N. Benton St., #C in Kennewick) uses a 10-barrel (bbl) system and uses a single-stage infusion mash system.  The brewery is capable of producing an annual yield of 1300 bbls, both for sale outside the brewery and in the brewpub.

In addition to being a brewery and a brewpub, Ice Harbor also sells homebrewing equipment and supplies. They also provide monthly classes for beginning homebrewers as well as the meeting place for the local homebrew club the Mid-Columbia Zymurgy Association.

The Beers
Ice Harbor Brewing provides a wide variety of handcrafted ales and lagers, all of which have names that reflect the local area.

Columbia Kölsch
This Kölsch beer is brewed in the style of the beers of Cologne, Germany.  Light in color, dry and refreshing. This is one of the company's best sellers.

The Tangerine exBEERience

A hefewiezen beer with added tangerines.

India Pale Ale

A classic ale style, with double the hop rate.

Runaway Red Ale

A red ale, generously hopped with local hops.

Sternwheeler Stout

Closely modeled after the classic Irish stout.  A nitrogen-charged version of this stout is often made available around St. Patrick's Day.

Barley Wine-style beer

A high-gravity ale, hopped heavily to counter the malt sweetness.  Available mostly in the winter months.

Cask-conditioned Hop Warrior
This beer, one of the few offered at the brewpub which is cask-conditioned (their Pale Ale is another), is dry-hopped with Amarillo hops, and is only offered sporadically.

References

External links
Ice Harbor Brewing Company

Food and drink companies established in 1996
Beer brewing companies based in Washington (state)
Pasco, Washington
American beer brands
American companies established in 1996
1996 establishments in Washington (state)

Ice Harbor Brewing Company


Assistant Secretary is a title used by politicians or government officials in certain countries. These are often junior ministers assigned to a specific cabinet minister.

Australia
The level of Assistant Secretary is a position in the Government of Australia (also referred to as the Australian Government, Commonwealth Government or the Australian Federal Government). The position falls under the Australian Public Service Act 1999, and holds the level of Senior Executive Service (SES) Level Band 1. The position also holds several other titles such as: Branch Head, National Manager, Group Manager, and Executive Director.

Ireland
The grade of Assistant Secretary is a position in the Irish Civil Service. It is very similar to its British counterpart. It may now be called a different name, depending on the department or office.

The Netherlands
An Assistant Secretary (in Dutch: "staatssecretaris") assists a specific minister. Each assistant secretary works in a particular department of the government, and helps the minister of that department.

United States
In the United States, the rank of Assistant Secretary is a high level civilian official within the United States federal government. They are an official of sub-Cabinet rank. Assistant Secretaries are appointed by the President of the United States with the consent of the United States Senate. They are assigned to assist a specific cabinet secretary.

References

Assistant secretary


The Slothouber–Graatsma puzzle is a packing problem that calls for packing six 1 × 2 × 2 blocks and three 1 × 1 × 1 blocks into a 3 × 3 × 3 box. The solution to this puzzle is unique (up to mirror reflections and rotations). It was named after its inventors Jan Slothouber and William Graatsma.

The puzzle is essentially the same if the three 1 × 1 × 1 blocks are left out, so that the task is to pack six 1 × 2 × 2 blocks into a cubic box with volume 27.

Solution

The solution of the Slothouber–Graatsma puzzle is straightforward when one realizes that the three 1 × 1 × 1 blocks (or the three holes) need to be placed along a body diagonal of the box, as each of the 3 x 3 layers in the various directions needs to contain such a unit block. This follows from parity considerations, because the larger blocks can only fill an even number of the 9 cells in each 3 x 3 layer.

Variations
The Slothouber–Graatsma puzzle is an example of a cube-packing puzzle using convex polycubes. More general puzzles involving the packing of convex rectangular blocks exist. The best known example is the Conway puzzle which asks for the packing of eighteen convex rectangular blocks into a 5 x 5 x 5 box. A harder convex rectangular block packing problem is to pack forty-one 1 x 2 x 4 blocks into a 7 x 7 x 7 box (thereby leaving 15 holes); the solution is analogous to the 5x5x5 case, and has three 1x1x5 cuboidal holes in mutually perpendicular directions covering all 7 slices.

See also
Soma cube
Bedlam cube
Diabolical cube

References

External links
The Slothouber-Graatsma puzzle in Stewart Coffin's "The Puzzling World of Polyhedral Dissections"
Jan Slothouber and William Graatsma: Cubic constructs
 William Graatsma and Jan Slothouber: Dutch mathematical art

Packing problems
Tiling puzzles
Mechanical puzzle cubes

Slothouber–Graatsma puzzle


Ground truth is information that is known to be real or true, provided by direct observation and measurement (i.e. empirical evidence) as opposed to information provided by inference.

Etymology
The Oxford English Dictionary (s.v. ground truth) records the use of the word Groundtruth in the sense of 'fundamental truth' from Henry Ellison's poem "The Siberian Exile's Tale", published in 1833.

Statistics and machine learning
"Ground truth" may be seen as a conceptual term relative to the knowledge of the truth concerning a specific question. It is the ideal expected result. This is used in statistical models to prove or disprove research hypotheses.  The term "ground truthing" refers to the process of gathering the proper objective (provable) data for this test.  Compare with gold standard.
For example, suppose we are testing a stereo vision system to see how well it can estimate 3D positions. The "ground truth" might be the positions given by a laser rangefinder which is known to be much more accurate than the camera system.

Bayesian spam filtering is a common example of supervised learning.  In this system, the algorithm is manually taught the differences between spam and non-spam.  This depends on the ground truth of the messages used to train the algorithm – inaccuracies in the ground truth will correlate to inaccuracies in the resulting spam/non-spam verdicts.

Remote sensing
In remote sensing, "ground truth" refers to information collected at the imaged location. Ground truth allows image data to be related to real features and materials on the ground. The collection of ground truth data enables calibration of remote-sensing data, and aids in the interpretation and analysis of what is being sensed.  Examples include cartography, meteorology, analysis of aerial photographs, satellite imagery and other techniques in which data are gathered at a distance.

More specifically, ground truth may refer to a process in which "pixels" on a satellite image are compared to what is imaged (at the time of capture) in order to verify the contents of the "pixels" in the image (noting that the concept of "pixel" is imaging-system-dependent). In the case of a classified image, supervised classification can help to determine the accuracy of the classification by the remote sensing system which can minimize error in the classification.

Ground truth is usually done on site, correlating what is known with surface observations and measurements of various properties of the features of the ground resolution cells under study in the remotely sensed digital image. The process also involves taking geographic coordinates of the ground resolution cell with GPS technology and comparing those with the coordinates of the "pixel" being studied provided by the remote sensing software to understand and analyze the location errors and how it may affect a particular study.

Ground truth is important in the initial supervised classification of an image. When the identity and location of land cover types are known through a combination of field work, maps, and personal experience these areas are known as training sites. The spectral characteristics of these areas are used to train the remote sensing software using decision rules for classifying the rest of the image. These decision rules such as Maximum Likelihood Classification, Parallelopiped Classification, and Minimum Distance Classification offer different techniques to classify an image. Additional ground truth sites allow the remote sensor to establish an error matrix that validates the accuracy of the classification method used. Different classification methods may have different percentages of error for a given classification project. It is important that the remote sensor chooses a classification method that works best with the number of classifications used while providing the least amount of error.

Ground truth also helps with atmospheric correction. Since images from satellites have to pass through the atmosphere, they can get distorted because of absorption in the atmosphere. So ground truth can help fully identify objects in satellite photos.

Errors of commission
An example of an error of commission is when a pixel reports the presence of a feature (such as trees) that, in reality, is absent (no trees are actually present). Ground truthing ensures that the error matrices have a higher accuracy percentage than would be the case if no pixels were ground-truthed. This value is the inverse of the user's accuracy, i.e. Commission Error = 1 - user's accuracy.

Errors of omission
An example of an error of omission is when pixels of a certain type, for example, maple trees, are not classified as maple trees.  The process of ground-truthing helps to ensure that the pixel is classified correctly and the error matrices are more accurate. This value is the inverse of the producer's accuracy, i.e. Omission Error = 1 - producer's accuracy

Geographical information systems

In GIS the spatial data is modeled as field (like in remote sensing raster images) or as object (like in vectorial map representation).  They are modeled from the real world (also named geographical reality),  typically by a cartographic process (illustrated).

Geographic information systems such as GIS, GPS, and GNSS, have become so widespread that the term "ground truth" has taken on special meaning in that context. If the location coordinates returned by a location method such as GPS are an estimate of a location, then the "ground truth" is the actual location on Earth. A smart phone might return a set of estimated location coordinates such as 43.87870,-103.45901. The ground truth being estimated by those coordinates is the tip of George Washington's nose on Mount Rushmore. The accuracy of the estimate is the maximum distance between the location coordinates and the ground truth. We could say in this case that the estimate accuracy is 10 meters, meaning that the point on earth represented by the location coordinates is thought to be within 10 meters of George's nose—the ground truth. In slang, the coordinates indicate where we think George Washington's nose is located, and the ground truth is where it really is. In practice a smart phone or hand-held GPS unit is routinely able to estimate the ground truth within 6–10 meters. Specialized instruments can reduce GPS measurement error to under a centimeter.

Military usage
US military slang uses "ground truth" to refer to the facts comprising a tactical situation—as opposed to intelligence reports, mission plans, and other descriptions reflecting the conative or policy-based projections of the industrial·military complex. The term appears in the title of the Iraq War documentary film The Ground Truth (2006), and also in military publications, for example Stars and Stripes saying: "Stripes decided to figure out what the ground truth was in Iraq."

See also
Baseline (science)
Calibration
Foundationalism

References

External links
 Forestry Organization Remote Sensing Technology Project (includes an example of an error matrix)

Applications of artificial intelligence
Applications of computer vision
Automatic identification and data capture
Computational linguistics
Machine learning task
Satellite meteorology

Ground truth


Helge Simonnes (born 21 December 1955) is a Norwegian editor.

He is the current editor-in-chief of Vårt Land, and has been the chair of the Norwegian Press Association and the Norwegian Media Businesses' Association. A siv.øk. by education, he has also minored in political science and law.

He hails from Vanylven.

References

1955 births
Living people
Norwegian newspaper editors
People from Møre og Romsdal

Helge Simonnes


The Hamaj Regency ( ) was a political order in modern-day central Sudan from 1762 to 1821. During this period the ruling family of the Funj Sultanate of Sennar continued to reign, while actual power was exercised by the regents.

Origins
The Shankalla were people from the upper Blue Nile, between Sennar and Ethiopia.  They predate the arrival of the Arabs in that part of Sudan, and are considered by some to be part of the Shilluk group of peoples. Their language is part of the Koman branch of the Sudan linguistic family. They were often the targets of Funj slave raids, and the term 'hamaj' was a derogatory term (meaning 'riffraff') used by the Funj to describe them.  The Hamaj were incorporated into the Funj Sultanate of Sennar in the seventeenth century. Funj society was strictly divided by skin colour and other physical characteristics. The Funj classified themselves as 'blue' ( ) and they described the Hamaj as 'red' ( ). According to the Funj Chronicle, a slave called Hamaj settled in Sennar along with his extended family, where they prospered and 'increased greatly until they had the power and the prestige in the kingdom.

Seizure of Power
The Hamaj came to power during the reign of Sultan Badi IV.  He made himself unpopular among the ruling elite by distributing lands of old established families to his new non-Funj followers — Nuba and others. This continued a policy advanced by some of his predecessors, of relying less on the traditional Funj military aristocracy and more on slave armies. Badi placed his military forces under the command of the Hamaj general Muhammad Abu Likayik, whom he had appointed as shaykh (possibly, governor) of Kordofan in 1747.  When news of Badi's increasingly arbitrary rule reached the Funj armies in Kordofan, they agreed to depose him under the leadership of Abu Likayik. They crossed the White Nile back into core Funj territory at Alays, where they were joined by Badi's son Nasir.  They advanced on Sennar and surrounded it, but agreed to allow Badi to leave under an amnesty.  Abu Likaylik then installed Nasir as sultan, and the regency began.

Hamaj rule
The sixty years of the Hamaj regency were characterised by constant internal strife, both between the Hamaj and the Funj sultans, and between different members of Abu Likayik's family.

Eight years after he had installed Nasir as sultan, Abu Likayik removed him and banished him. When he learned that Nasir was conspiring to regain his throne, he had him executed. When Abu Likayik died in 1776 or 1777 he was replaced as regent by his brother, Badi walad Rajab. Once again the ruling Funj sultan, now Ismail, conspired unsuccessfully to remove the regent. Ismail was banished to Suakin and his son Adlan II made sultan in his place.

Some of the sons of Abu Likayik rebelled against Badi walad Rajab in alliance with Adlan II, and killed him. One of the sons, Rajab, then assumed the regency himself. During his regency the Hamaj faced their greatest crisis when the Funj nearly succeeded in overthrowing them. While Rajab was on campaign in Kordofan in 1784/1785, the sultan Adlan II carried out a coup against Rajab's brother who was ruling as his deputy in Sennar. Returning from the west, Rajab was killed in the Battle of Taras with Funj forces in November 1785, and the Hamaj forces retreated in disarray. Adlan's restoration was short-lived however.  In 1788/1799 the Hamaj defeated him again, restored their regency, and he died soon after. Rajab's campaign in 1785 marked the end of attempts by the Hamaj to control Kordofan, which was conquered in 1787 by the Keira Sultanate of Darfur, which thereafter exercised effective control over all of the territory west of the White Nile. The beginning of the loss of territory to the Funj state which culminated, in 1821, with the sultans and regents controlling little outside the city of Sennar itself.

Internecine warfare continued as the new regent Nasir found his position challenged by two of his brothers, Idris and Adlan. After several months of fighting he was killed in 1798, in an act of revenge, by the son of regent Badi walad Rajab, to avenge his father. Both Idris and Adlan became co-regents. Idris was distinguished by his reputation for justice and kindness and after his death Adlan ruled on his own. His nephew Muhammad, then apparently also as co-regent, conspired against him, overthrew him and held power until 1808, when he was killed by Muhammad, son of the regent Adlan, in revenge for his father's murder. Muhammad wad Adlan managed to retain power until 1821, on the eve of the Egyptian invasion, when he was overthrown by his cousin Hasan wad Rajab.

List of Funj Regents
 1762 – 1775/1776 - Muhammad Abu Likayik
 1775/1776 – 1780 - Badi wad Rajab
 1780 – 1786/1787 - Rajab wad Muhammad
 1786/1787 – 1798 - Nasir wad Muhammad
 1798 – 1804 - Idris wad Abu Likayik or Muhammad
 1798 – 1804 - Adlan wad Abu Likayik or Muhammad
 1798 – 1808 - Muhammad wad Rajab
 1804 – 1821 - Muhammad wad Adlan

Final years

As the Egyptian army advanced south through Sudan in 1821, taking the submission of various tribes and towns as it went, the Hamaj regent Muhammad wad Adlan had sent a defiant message to its commander Ismail Pasha but early in April he was overthrown and killed by his cousin Hasan wad Rajab. By the time Hasan had suppressed all opposition, it was too late to mount any kind of opposition to the Egyptians. Hasan fled to the Ethiopian border, leaving the murdered regent's brother Ali wad Adlan to lead negotiations for capitulation. Probably on 12 June, the last Funj sultan Badi VII offered his submission to Ismail in person, and the following day the Egyptian army entered Sennar unopposed. The descriptions of the town they found are a sad testament to the ruin to which the endless wars and strife of the Hamaj had reduced Sennar - the royal palace was derelict, and the mosque covered in graffiti.

Shortly after taking Sennar Ismail Pasha suspected Ali wad Adlan of disloyalty, and had him hanged. Ismail also hunted down Hasan wad Rajab and the killers of the regent Muhammad wad Adlan. Hasan was imprisoned but treated with leniency - many of his confederates however were executed va impalement. Ismail released Hasan wad Rajab from prison and Hasan accompanied him on an expedition to Fazughli, near the Ethiopian border, raiding for slaves with a force of Hamaj cavalry alongside the Egyptians. In 1822, Ismail Pasha was killed by the Jaaliyyin at Shendi. Rebellions broke out all over central Sudan, but were steadily suppressed by the Egyptian garrisons along the Nile. Hasan wad Rajab led one rebellion but was killed fighting them at the Battle of Abu Shawka, south of Sennar.

Idris Muhammad Adlan Abu Likaylik was a Hamaj chieftain who was lord of the Funj mountains near the Ethiopian border. He didn't submit to Egyptian rule until 1826, when Ali Khurshid Bey, Egyptian governor of Sennar, brought about his reconciliation with the new regime. He was then appointed shaykh of the Funj mountains, where he remained in office until 1851 when the Governor-General Abdul Latif Pasha removed him and replaced him with his nephew Adlan. Thereafter, as the Egyptians steadily modernised local government, Hamaj clan members played little influence in Sudanese public life.

References

History of Sudan
Islam in Africa
Countries in precolonial Africa
States and territories disestablished in 1821
Muslim dynasties
Blue Nile

Hamaj Regency


Matthew O'Halloran (born 18 November 1982) is an English football coach and former professional footballer who is a first team coach at Lincoln United.

As a player he as a midfielder who notably played in the Football League between 2000 and 2005 for Derby County, Oldham Athletic, Chesterfield and Boston United, as well as playing non-league football for Burton Albion, King's Lynn, Corby Town, Lincoln United, Lincoln Moorlands Railway and Sleaford Town.

Career

Professional
O'Halloran began his professional football career with Derby County in 2000 but after a promising start, starring for the youth team including a memorable individual goal in the FA youth cup against Aston Villa and featuring regularly for the reserves he never featured in the first team.

In late 2002 he spent over a month on loan at Burton Albion scoring the winner on debut in a 2-1 win away at Nuneaton. Grimsby Town and Hartlepool United were linked with a move for O'Halloran in May 2003 where he spent 3 weeks on trial with the club.

He signed for Oldham Athletic on a non-contract basis at the start of the 2003–04 season, which was extended for another month in September 2003 with the highlight being his last minute winner against Rushden and Diamonds in a 3-2 win. He moved on a free transfer to Chesterfield in December 2003 but after tearing his hamstring on debut he struggled to return to full fitness. He then signed for Boston United in August 2004 making his debut against Leyton Orient but was in and out of the team and apart from his stoppage time thunderbolt against Scunthorpe United in a 2-1 win he failed to make a name for himself.

Non-league
O'Halloran signed for King's Lynn in March 2005 following becoming disillusioned with professional football and became an integral part of the team that challenged for the Southern Premier league title where he was joined by former Boston United teammate Dean West. He also played a prominent role scoring important goals in the clubs FA cup run in the 2006/2007 season, culminating in their 2nd-round game being televised live on Sky Sports against his former club Oldham Athletic eventually losing 2-0. . He re-signed for Boston in August 2007 but after a positive start injuries took their toll and he underwent a double hernia operation in the latter stages of the season . He was offered a new contract by manager Tommy Taylor but instead chose to sign for Corby Town where he scored on debut in the opening game of the season. Injuries again played their part and limited his appearances in the second half of the season but he was a member of the Southern Premier league title winning side that season.

He left Corby at the end of the 2008–09 season and joined his home town club Lincoln United alongside former Boston and King's Lynn teammate Steve Melton becoming a regular on the scoresheet from midfield. In October 2010, he joined Lincoln Moorlands Railway but persistent concerns with an ongoing back injury resulting in ruptured discs continued and he was forced to retire from competitive football at the age of 28. O'Halloran came out of retirement at the start of the 2013–2014 season having rejoined Lincoln United but overcoming the injuries proved difficult and following a stint at Sleaford Town he officially retired in October 2014.

Notes

External links

1982 births
Living people
Footballers from Nottingham
English men's footballers
Men's association football midfielders
Derby County F.C. players
Burton Albion F.C. players
Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players
Chesterfield F.C. players
Boston United F.C. players
King's Lynn F.C. players
Corby Town F.C. players
Lincoln United F.C. players
Lincoln Moorlands Railway F.C. players
Sleaford Town F.C. players
English Football League players
Southern Football League players

Matt O'Halloran


La poupée (The Doll) is an opéra comique in a prelude and three acts composed by Edmond Audran with a libretto by Maurice Ordonneau. The libretto was based on E.T.A. Hoffmann's Der Sandmann, about a friar who falsely promises to marry his rich uncle's daughter to fool his uncle into giving money to the monastery; the scheme involves creating a doll that looks like the daughter. The uncle's daughter, however, turns the scheme on its head and fools the friar into marrying her by substituting herself for the doll.

Productions
The opera opened at the Théâtre de la Gaîté, Paris, on 21 October 1896. Along with Miss Helyett (1890), La poupée was one of Audran's late successes. It then played at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London, opening on 24 February 1897, with an English libretto in two acts by Arthur Sturgess, running for a very successful 576 performances. It starred Courtice Pounds and Willie Edouin, and Edna May later played in the piece.

On 11 September 1897, a single matinee performance of La Poupée at the Prince of Wales Theatre launched a British provincial tour with a new company. It also had a Broadway production in 1897 and was made into a film in 1920.

Roles

Synopsis

Maxime and his fellow monks are penniless and starving. A new member of the monastery, Lancelot, asks his rich uncle for aid. The uncle will assist the friars, but only if Lancelot gets married. The monks scheme to trick the uncle by using one of puppet master Hilarius's dolls, pretending that it is Lancelot's wife. Hilarius's newest puppet was made to look similar to Alesia, his daughter. At the wedding, however, Alesia masquerades as the doll, because she loves Lancelot. Lancelot does not discover that he has married the real Alesia until the wedding is over. Now he must leave the monastery with his wife, but the friars receive the generous sum of money from his uncle.

Musical numbers (from English-language adaptation)
Overture
Act I  -  Scene 1  -  The Monastery
No. 1 - Opening Chorus and Song - Lancelot - "Alas! with lean and empty scrip the Brotherhood are now returning..."
No. 1a - Exit of Chorus - "Yes, though we're poor in luck of late, and all our hearts are full of sorrow..."
No. 2 - Song - Father Maxime - "Soon you are to see life and much adventure..."
No. 3 - Bell Chorus, with Father Maxime and Lancelot - "Hark, how the bell is ringing, here we come with speed..."

Act I - Scene 2 -  Hilarius's Workshop
No. 4 - Workmen's Chorus - "We are workmen waiting for our payment; automatic dolls we make..."
No. 4a -*Exit of Chorus (reprise) - "We are workmen waiting for our payment..."
No. 5 - Song - Alesia - "With careless eye I saw him there, and love took rest within my heart..."
No. 6 - Song - Lancelot - "If in a cell your life is pass'd, nought of temptation you will see..."
No. 7 - Trio - Alesia, Lancelot and Hilarius - "I can dance and sing and chatter, though my speech is rather disjointed..."
No. 8 - Duet - Alesia and Lancelot - "I love you very dearly; my hand and heart at your feet I lay..."
No. 9 - Finale Act I - "Come, let us now to work, our task we never shirk..."

Act II - Scene 1  - Chanterelle's Country House
No. 9a - Entr'acte
No. 10 - Opening Chorus - "Now we appear, neighbours and friends; news that we hear, none can disparage..."
No. 11 - Duet - Chanterelle and Loremois - "This wicked world I've wander'd round, 'mid pleasant scenes and others not..."
No. 12 - Trio - Alesia, Chanterelle and Loremois - "Ah! Lancelot is not yet here; perhaps 'tis Chanterelle I see..."
No. 13 - Quartette - Chanterelle, Loremois, Lancelot and Hilarius - "Though manners change, a girl so strange..."
No. 14 - Duet - Lancelot and Alesia - "Happy world, such maidens possessing if like to thee..."
No. 15 - Ensemble - "Here are the wedding guests, who come to see the bridegroom and the blushing bride..."
No. 16 - Chorus - "After them we go! Follow them, stop them in their flight! Bring them back ere fall of night! ..."

Act II - Scene 2 -  Another part of the Monastery
No. 17 - Chorus - "'Tis night, and brother Lancelot has not returned from his adventure to keep the vow of his indenture..."
No. 18 - Song - Father Maxime - "A jovial monk am I, contented with my lot. The world without this gate I flout..."
No. 19 - Chorus of Monks - "Oh, strange device, so nearly true to life, 'tis worth the price he's paid for such a wife..."
No. 20 - Song - Alesia - "A poor little dummy am I, but still my intellect is shining..."
No. 21 - Exit of Monks - "Creature false and frail as that she's representing, not in strength we fail, not a whit we relent..."
No. 22 - Duet - Alesia and Lancelot - "Was it a kiss? Sweetest caress!  Token of bliss and happiness! ..."
No. 23 - Finale Act II - "And now I mean to leave this place, to start another kind of life..."

Supplementary numbers
No. 24 - Extra Song - Lancelot - "I went to town a simple youth as many more have done..."
No. 25 - Extra Song - Alesia - "'Tis the Springtime of love, with all its store of gladness..."

Adaptations
Ernst Lubitsch filmed an adaptation of the story under the title Die Puppe (The Doll).

Notes

References
Synopsis and information about La Poupée
Song list with links to cast list and other information

External links
List of longest running plays in London and New York
Programme from the original London production of La Poupée
Information about the 1897 New York production from the IBDB database

1897 musicals
French-language operas
Operas
Opéras comiques
1896 operas
Operas by Edmond Audran
Operas based on works by E. T. A. Hoffmann
Works based on The Sandman (short story)
Musicals set in monasteries

La poupée


The Rood Building is a commercial building in Grand Rapids, Michigan, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built in 1873 for Charles Conant Rood, after whom the building is named.

History

The Rood Building was built in 1873 for attorney and investor Charles Conant Rood. It replaced a three-story building at the site, also owned by Rood, which had burned down in October 1872. It was designed by Grand Rapids architect William G. Robinson. Over the years, the building's tenants have generally consisted of offices or residences and at least one restaurant.

The building underwent renovations in the 1980s, which included the installation of a wooden replica cornice and an addition that filled in the angle of the building's original "L" shape. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 4, 1988.

Architecture
The Rood Building is a four-story timber frame structure clad in brick. It is the only surviving High Victorian Gothic commercial building in Grand Rapids and one of only a few High Victorian buildings in the city.

The building originally had an "L"-shaped layout; the head of the "L" formed the narrow facade on Pearl Street and the foot of the "L" had a couple storefronts on a former pedestrian walkway. An addition built in the 1980s filled in the angle of the "L" and houses an elevator and stairwell.

The Pearl Street facade is divided into three bays; the central bay is three windows wide and the two narrower bays on each side have one window each. The facade is topped by a large cornice bearing the year of construction, 1873. The cornice was originally made of iron, but it deteriorated and the last part was removed by the late 1970s; it was replaced with a replica made of painted wood.

See also

National Register of Historic Places listings in Kent County, Michigan

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

National Register of Historic Places in Kent County, Michigan
Gothic Revival architecture in Michigan
Commercial buildings completed in 1873
Buildings and structures in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Rood Building


Asterix in Belgium () is the twenty-fourth volume of the Asterix comic book series, by René Goscinny (story) and Albert Uderzo (illustrations).

It is noted as the last Asterix story from Goscinny, who died during its production.

Plot summary
After fighting the Belgians in the northern part of Gaul, Caesar states that they are the bravest enemies he has ever faced (historically claimed by Caesar). His soldiers agree with him, to the point when they consider being posted to the camps outside Asterix's village as a period of leave.

Chief Vitalstatistix is aghast at the idea that his village, which has been the terror of the Romans for years, is now looked upon as relatively harmless. He is further outraged when he hears of Caesar's remarks. He claims that "his villagers" are in fact the bravest men of Gaul, and travels to Belgium to prove his point. A reluctant Asterix and Obelix go with him after Getafix tells them not doing so could make the story come to a sticky end.

After crossing the border, they encounter a village of Belgians who rely on brute strength (and a regular diet of meat and beer) to successfully scare off Caesar's troops. These Belgians are led by two chiefs, Beefix of the Nervii and Brawnix of the Menapii (though Brawnix comes across mainly as a second-in-command).

To prove that the Gauls are the bravest, Vitalstatistix proposes a competition. The contest consists of raiding and destroying Roman camps on either side of the village. The Belgians and Gauls destroy the camps, telling the soldiers who they are. By the end they have destroyed an equal number of camps. Meanwhile, the Pirates' ship is wrecked when Obelix throws a boulder catapulted at him too high, causing the Captain to complain, saying he and his men are neutrals. Word is sent to Rome, though the facts are exaggerated, talking about vast hordes of Gauls, a savage pack of hounds, and a mysterious fleet of neutrals. Caesar goes to Belgium himself to restore order unaware of the fact that the whole thing is to get him to decide once and for all which side is the bravest.

Upon Caesar's arrival, Asterix and Obelix go to meet him under a flag of truce. Asterix proposes that Caesar meet both parties at an arranged meeting point and tell them they are equally brave so they can all go home. Outraged at being reduced to a mere umpire (as opposed to emperor), Caesar furiously declares that he will meet them in battle instead. In the ensuing fight, the Romans get their way in the early stages of the battle through the use of catapults. But then the three Gauls, and their magic potion, join the Belgians after they thwart a Roman flanking maneuver, and, by combining their efforts, the Gauls win the battle.

With the battle lost, Caesar decides to leave for Rome. On his way he comes across the Gaulish and Belgian chiefs. Caesar proudly announces that he will lay down his life, but the chiefs only want to know who is the bravest. Caesar angrily declares them simply all "crazy" and leaves Vitalstatistix and Beefix laughing the incident off. They have to face the fact that they are all equally brave and, after a victory feast, part on good terms.

Notes

 Goscinny died halfway through writing the comic; as a homage to him, Uderzo drew darkened skies and rain into the comic for the rest of the album, to mark the point at which Goscinny died. This also serves as a spoof on the Belgian weather.
 A further tribute to Goscinny appears in the very last panel of the album: beneath the banquet scene, to the left of the panel, a rabbit glances mournfully at Goscinny's signature.
 Beefix's wife, Bonanza (Nicotine in the French version), is a caricature of Walloon actress and singer Annie Cordy.
Beefix suggests to Bonanza about trying to cook french fries, and, after seeing a pile of mussels, wonders how fish would go with chips (potatoes were actually only introduced in Europe some 1600 years later).
 This album features a small cameo on page 31 from the two detectives Thomson and Thompson from the world famous Belgian comic strip Tintin, who characteristically mispronounce the name of Julius Caesar. The scene is even drawn in a ligne claire style similar to that of Hergé, the author of the Tintin comics.
 On page 39, it also features the famous cyclist Eddy Merckx as a messenger.
 The entire final battle between the Gallo-Belgian and Roman sides is a parody of the Battle of Waterloo, in present-day Belgium. In the French edition, the text scrolls and quotes on them are a stylistic parody of Victor Hugo's text Les Châtiments, about the Battle of Waterloo; whereas even the English edition contains references to the same battle. During the battle the Roman commander is depicted as saying "La garde meurt mais ne se rend pas" ("The guard dies, it does not surrender!"), a quote attributed to the French general Pierre Cambronne at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The pose he takes while saying this is similar to Cambronne's statue in Nantes. Similarly, Julius Caesar believes his reinforcements have arrived, when in fact it is Asterix and Obelix, parodying Napoleon expecting his general Grouchy's army to arrive at the battle, only to encounter the forces of the Prussian general Blücher.
 Of all the Asterix books, this one contains the most literary references to earlier works, including Plutarch's Lives, Caesar's own Gallic Wars, and (in the English translation) Shakespeare's Tragedy of Julius Caesar.
 The picture of the victory feast at the Belgian village is a parody of the Flemish painting The Peasant Wedding (De Boerenbruiloft) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. It was painted by Albert Uderzo's brother Marcel Uderzo.
 Botanix's young son is seen running to urinate, a reference to the iconic statue of Manneken Pis in Brussels.

In other languages
Catalan: Astèrix a Bèlgica
Croatian: Asterix u Belgiji
Czech: Asterix u Belgů
Danish: Styrkeprøven
Dutch: Asterix en de Belgen
Finnish: Asterix Belgiassa
Galician: Astérix na terra dos belgas
German: Asterix bei den Belgiern
Greek: Ο Αστερίξ στους Βέλγους
Icelandic: Ástríkur í Belgíu
Italian: Asterix e i Belgi
Norwegian: Styrkeprøven (The test of strength)
Polish: Asteriks u Belgów
Portuguese: Astérix entre os Belgas
Serbian: Asteriks među Belgijancima
Slovenian: Asterix pri Belgih
Spanish: Astérix en Bélgica
Turkish: Asteriks Belçika'da
Indonesian: Asterik Di Belgia
Swedish: Asterix i Belgien

Reception
On Goodreads, it has a score of 4.09 out of 5.

External links
Astérix chez les Belges annotations
Official Website

References

Belgium, Asterix in
Belgium in fiction
Comics set in Belgium
1979 graphic novels
Works by René Goscinny
Comics by Albert Uderzo
Depictions of Julius Caesar in comics
Cultural depictions of Belgian people
Cultural depictions of Eddy Merckx
Ethnic humour
Parodies of paintings

Asterix in Belgium


The Ford Granada was a car produced by the Ford Motor Company from 1972 to 1985  (to 1994 in the UK). The third generation Granada was sold as the Scorpio in Europe and as the Granada in the UK.

The first generation appeared in March 1972 with saloon and estate versions, some lower-end models were called the Consul.

The second generation launched in September 1977 with the same saloon and estate models and got a facelift in 1981.

The third generation arrived in May 1985 with a hatchback version only, it was sold as the Scorpio in Europe and as the Granada in the UK, the Scorpio name was used as a trim level on higher-end versions in the UK. A saloon version was added in early 1990 and an estate was added in early 1992, alongside a small facelift.

In late 1994, the Granada name was replaced by the Scorpio for all markets and was sold as a saloon or an estate, no hatchback was offered. However, the styling often divided opinion which meant it didn't sell too well and in 1998, the model was axed without a replacement.

Granada
1970s automobiles
1980s automobiles
1990s automobiles

Ford Granada


Decks are the main horizontal parts of a ship's structure. The crew stand and walk on the deck. A deck is the floor of a boat or ship, but open boats only have floorboards.

Common names for decks

Below is a list of the many names given to different decks. They might be confusing. The list should be used with caution because there is no one agreed system for naming decks.

 01 level is the term used to refer to the deck above the main deck. The next higher decks are referred to as the 02 level, the 03 level, and so on. Although these are formally called decks, they are usually referred to as levels. This is because they are usually incomplete decks that do not extend all the way from the stem to the stern or across the ship.
 Afterdeck: The deck closest to the stern.
 Berth deck: (Naval) A deck next below the gun deck. This is where the hammocks of the crew are slung.
 Boat deck: Especially on ships with sponsons, the deck area where lifeboats or the ship's gig are stored.
 Boiler deck: (river steamers) The passenger deck above the vessel's boilers.
 Bridge deck: (a) The deck area including the helm and navigation station, and where the Officer of the Deck/Watch will be found. It is also known as the conn (b) An athwartships structure at the forward end of the cockpit with a deck. It is often lower than the primary deck, to prevent a pooping wave from entering through the companionway. May also refer to the deck of a bridge.
 Flight deck: (Naval) A deck from which aircraft take off or land.
 Flush deck: Any unbroken deck that runs from stem to stern.
 Forecastle deck: A partial deck above the main deck under which the sailors have their berths. It runs from the foremast to the bow.
 Foredeck: In a motorboat the  is the deck ahead of the cockpit. In a sailboat the foredeck is ahead of the mast.
 Freeboard deck: see below.
 Gun deck: (Naval) a deck below the spar deck where the ships' cannon were carried. The term originally referred to a deck aboard a ship that was primarily used for the mounting of cannon to be fired in broadsides. However, on many smaller vessels such as frigates and unrated vessels the upper deck, forecastle and quarterdeck bore all of the cannons but were not referred to as the gun deck. The completely covered level under the upper deck was, however, still called the gun deck although it had no guns at all.
 Hangar deck: (Naval) A deck aboard an aircraft carrier used to store and maintain aircraft.

 Half-deck: That part of the deck next below the spar deck which is between the mainmast and the cabin.
 Helicopter deck (Heli or Helo deck): Usually located near the stern and always kept clear of obstacles hazardous to a helicopter landing.
 Hurricane deck: (River Steamers, etc.), the upper deck, usually a light deck, erected above the frame of the hull (deriving its name from the wind that always seemed to blow on the deck).
 Lido deck: Open area, typically at or near the stern of a passenger ship. It usually has the main outdoor swimming pool and sunbathing area.
 Lower deck: (a) the deck immediately over the hold. Originally the term was only used on a ship with two decks. (b) synonym for berth deck. (c) alternative name for a secondary gun deck
 Main deck: The principal deck of a vessel; the Freeboard Deck is sometimes called Main deck. In some ships, the highest deck of the hull is called Main deck. It can also be the weather deck; in sailing warships often a deck under the upper deck.
 Middle or Waist deck The upper deck amidships, the working area of the deck.
 Orlop deck: In a naval vessel, the deck or part of a deck where the cables are stowed, usually below the waterline. According to . it is the lowest deck in a ship, but the Orlop Deck should not be confused with the tank top of a vessel with double bottom.
 Poop deck: The deck forming the roof of a poop or poop cabin, built on the upper deck and extending from the mizzenmast aft.
 Promenade deck: A "wrap-around porch" found on passenger ships and riverboats encircling the superstructure.  This can have open railings or be enclosed in glass, or a combination.  Often the entire level where this is located is referred to as the promenade deck.
 Quarterdeck: (a) The part of the upper deck abaft the mainmast, including the poop deck when there is one. Usually reserved for ship's officers, guests, and passengers. (b) (Naval) The area to which a gangway for officers and diplomatic guests to board the vessel leads. Also any entry point for personnel.
 Side-deck: The upper deck outboard of any structures such as a coachroof or doghouse, also called a breezeway
 Spar deck: (a) Same as the upper deck. (b) Sometimes a light deck fitted over the upper deck.  On Great Lakes bulk freighters this is the term used for the deck over the cargo holds.
 Sundeck: A deck where people relax in the sun.
 Sweep deck: (Naval) The aftmost deck on a minesweeper, set close to the waterline for ease in launch and recovery of equipment.
 Topgallant forecastle deck: Any raised deck occurring above the forecastle deck (see above).
 Tween deck: the storage space between the hold and the main deck, often retractable.
 Upper deck: The highest deck of the hull, extending from stem to stern.
 Vehicle deck: (Naval) aboard amphibious assault ships the deck or decks used to carry vehicles, aboard civilian ferries and other commercial vessels a deck used for a similar purpose.
 Weather deck: (a) Any deck exposed to the outside. (b) The windward side decks.
 Well deck: (a) An exposed deck (weather deck) lower than decks fore and aft. In particular it is one enclosed by bulwarks limiting flow of water and thus drainage.

Freeboard Deck

Ships over 24m long doing international business have to respect the International Convention on Load Lines. Such vessels have a deck named the Freeboard Deck. It goes from end to end in the ship and from one side to the other. Decks below the weather deck can be the Freeboard Deck, as in most ferries. The distance from the sea surface to the Freeboard Deck is named the freeboard. All these ships have a minimum freeboard. At no time may they be so deep in the water that the freeboard is smaller than the minimum freeboard. For that reason, the Freeboard Deck is an important reference point in the ship. Some shipyards and shipping companies name the Freeboard Deck as Deck 1 or 1st Deck. The decks below are 2nd Deck or Deck 2, 3rd Deck or Deck 3 etc. The decks over the Freeboard Deck have letters. The first level over the Freeboard Deck is Deck A. Over that is Deck B, Deck C etc. This system of deck names says where the deck is in the ship. This is important because the Load Line Convention has special rules about doors, windows, hatch openings and ventilation openings on Deck A and Deck B.

References

Sailing
Ships

Deck (ship)