Acallam Bec or Agallamh Bheag ("The Little Colloquy") is the title of a medieval Irish compilation of fianaigecht tales, preserved in the fifteenth-century Book of Lismore and the Reeves manuscript. It is closely related to the Acallam na Senórach ("The Colloquy of the Elders"), of which it is sometimes considered to be a later recension. It differs from it in making Oisín rather than Caílte the principal character. Douglas Hyde has suggested that the text may preserve the lost beginning of Acallam na Senórach.

References

Editions and translations
Kuehns, Julia Sophie. An edition and translation of the Agallamh Bheag from the Book of Lismore. (2005). Unpublished MPhil(R) thesis, University of Glasgow. Full text available online.
An Craoibhín (pseudonym of Douglas Hyde) (ed. and trans.). "An Agallamh Bheag." Lia Fáil 1 (1927): 79-107. Partial edition with translation into Modern Irish. Available online from Celtic Digital Initiative
Pennington, Walter (tr.). "The Little Colloquy." Philological Quarterly 9.2 (1930): 97-110. Translation of Hyde's edition, together with which it is available online from Celtic Digital Initiative

Secondary sources
Hyde, Douglas. "The Reeves Manuscript of the Agallamh na Senorach." Revue Celtique 38 (1920): 289-95.
Murphy, Gerard. The Ossianic Lore and Romantic Tales of Medieval Ireland. Dublin, 1955. Text Extract from 1961 edition reproduced online

Fenian Cycle
Early Irish literature
Medieval texts in Irish
Irish books

Acallam Bec


Luisa A. Igloria (born 1961) is a Filipina American poet and author of various award-winning collections, and is the most recent Poet Laureate of Virginia (2020-2022).

Education
B.A. Humanities - Cum Laude - major in Comparative Literature, minor in English, cognate in Philosophy), 1980 University of the Philippines Baguio

M.A. in Literature at Ateneo de Manila University, Manila, Philippines, 1988 [Robert Southwell Fellow]

Ph.D. in English/Creative Writing, University of Illinois at Chicago, July 1995 as Fulbright Fellow.

Career
Originally from Baguio City, Philippines, Luisa A. Igloria is the author of 16 full-length books and 5 chapbooks. She is a tenured Professor of Creative Writing and English, and from 2009-2015 was Director of the MFA Creative Writing Program at Old Dominion University.

In the Spring Term 2018, Igloria was the inaugural Glasgow Visiting Writer in Residence at Washington & Lee University. She was a Visiting Humanities Scholar in 1996 at the Center for Philippine Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She taught briefly at De La Salle University where she became the Graduate Programs Coordinator and Senior Associate for Poetry at the Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing Center at De La Salle University. While in Chicago, she was an active member of PINTIG, a Filipino-American cultural and theatre group, where she served in PINTIG's cultural and education committee.

Igloria's work has appeared or been accepted in numerous anthologies and journals including New England Review, The Common, Poetry, Crab Orchard Review, Orion Magazine, The Missouri Review, Indiana Review, Poetry East, Natural Bridge, Umbrella, Sweet, qarrtsiluni, poemeleon, Smartish Pace, Rattle, The North American Review, Bellingham Review, Shearsman (UK), PRISM International (Canada), Poetry Salzburg Review (Austria), The Asian Pacific American Journal, and TriQuarterly, among others. Her work is included in the very first electronic anthology of Women's Poetry Fire On Her Tongue (Two Sylvias Press, 2011), Language for a New Century, ed. Tina Chang, Ravi Shankar, and Nathalie Handal (W.W. Norton, 2008), and Letters to the World: Poems from the Wom-po Listserv], ed. by Moira Richards, Rosemary Starace, and Lesley Wheeler (Red Hen Press, 2007). She edited the anthology Not Home, But Here: Writing from the Filipino Diaspora (Anvil, 2003); and more recently (with Amanda Galvan Huynh), the anthology Of Color: Poets' Ways of Making (New York: The Operating System, 2018).

In July, 2020, the Governor of Virginia announced that Igloria had been appointed as the Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Personal life
Married to Ruben V. Igloria of Chicago.

Four daughters:
Jennifer Patricia A. Cariño, Julia Katrina A. Parlette-Cariño, Josephine Anne A. Cariño, and Gabriela Aurora Igloria.

Awards
In July 2020, Governor Ralph Northam appointed Luisa A. Igloria the 20th Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia (2020–22); she is the 4th poet of color to receive this distinction. She is highly decorated for her expanse of work: Luisa is an eleven-time (five First Prizes, plus six lesser prizes) recipient of the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature in three genres (poetry, nonfiction, and short fiction); the Palanca award is the Philippines' highest literary distinction. In 1996 she became the first Filipina woman of letters installed in the Palanca Literary Hall of Fame. She is also the recipient of the 1988 Black Warrior Literary Award from the literary magazine of the University of Alabama; the Charles Goodnow Endowed Award for Creative Writing from the Chicago Bar Association in 1993 and 1995; the 1998 Illinois Arts Council Literary Award and the George Kent Prize for Poetry.

Her awards include the 2019 Crab Orchard Open Poetry Competition Prize for Maps for Migrants and Ghosts, Southern Illinois University Press, 2020; the 2018 Center for the Book Arts (New York) Poetry Chapbook Prize for What is Left of Wings, I Ask; the (inaugural) 2015 Resurgence Prize for Ecopoetry] (UK); the 2014 May Swenson Poetry Prize from Utah State University Press for Ode to the Heart Smaller than a Pencil Eraser; the 2009 Ernest Sandeen Prize in Poetry from the University of Notre Dame Press; the 2007 49th Parallel Prize in Poetry from Bellingham Review; the 2007 James Hearst Poetry Prize (selected by former US Poet Laureate Ted Kooser); the 2006 National Writers Union Poetry Prize (selected by Adrienne Rich); the 2006 Stephen Dunn Award for Poetry; the first Sylvia Clare Brown Fellowship, Ragdale Foundation (Summer 2006 Residency); Finalist for the 2005 George Bogin Memorial Award for Poetry (Poetry Society of America; selected by Joy Harjo); the 2005 Richard Lemon Poetry Fellowship to the Napa Valley Writers Conference; First Prize in the 2004 Fugue poetry contest (selected by Ellen Bryant Voigt); Finalist in the 2003 Larry Levis Editors Prize for Poetry from The Missouri Review; Finalist in the 2003 Dorset Prize for Poetry (Tupelo Press); a 2003 partial fellowship to the Summer Literary Seminars in St. Petersburg; three Pushcart Prize nominations and the 1998 George Kent Award for Poetry.

Books and publications

 Since November 20, 2010, Luisa has been writing (at least) a poem a day as part of her daily writing practice.
 Other works are listed through her website and in various online publications.

Books:

Cordillera Tales (New Day, 1990); 1991 National Book Award (Manila Critics Circle, Philippines)
Cartography (Anvil, 1992); 1993 National Book Award for Poetry (Manila Critics Circle, Philippines)
Encanto (Anvil, 1993); 1994 National Book Award for Poetry (Manila Critics Circle, Philippines)
In the Garden of the Three Islands (Moyer Bell/Asphodel, 1995)
Blood Sacrifice (University of the Philippines Press, 1997); 1998 National Book Award for Poetry (Manila Critics Circle, Philippines)
Songs for the Beginning of the Millennium (De La Salle University Press, 1997); Finalist, 1998 National Book Award for Poetry (Manila Critics Circle, Philippines)
Turnings: Writing on Women's Transformations, co-edited with Renee Olander (Friends of Women's Studies at Old Dominion University, March 2000)
Not Home, But Here: Writing from the Filipino Diaspora, as central editor (Anvil, 2003)
Trill and Mordent (WordTech Editions, fall 2005); Runner-up, 2004 Editions Prize
Juan Luna's Revolver; 2009 Ernest Sandeen Prize in Poetry
The Saints of Streets (University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2013)
Night Willow (Phoenicia Publishing, Montreal, 2014)
Ode to the Heart Smaller than a Pencil Eraser (2014 May Swenson Prize, Utah State University Press)
 Of Color: Poets' Ways of Making (anthology of craft essays by poets of color, co-edited with Amanda Galvan Huynh) (New York: The Operating System, 2018)
The Buddha Wonders if She is Having a Mid-Life Crisis (Phoenicia Publishing, Montreal, 2018)
 Maps for Migrants and Ghosts (2019 Crab Orchard Poetry Open Competition Co-Winner, Southern Illinois University Press, 2020)

Chapbooks:
Bright as Mirrors Left in the Grass (Kudzu House Quarterly, spring 2014)
Check & Balance (Moria Press/Locofo Chaps, 2017)
Haori (Tea & Tattered Pages Press, April 2017)
 Puñeta: Political Pilipinx Poetry, vol. 3; ed. Luisa A. Igloria (Chicago: Locofo Chaps, Moria Press, 2017)
 What is Left of Wings, I Ask (2018 Center for the Book Arts Poetry Chapbook Prize, New York, 2018)

References

Bibliography
 Stephen Hong Sohn, "Los Indios Bravos: The Filipino/American Lyric and the Cosmopoetics of Comparative Indigeneity," in American Quarterly, Volume 62, Number 3, September 2010, pp. 547–568.

External links
Official Website
Luisa A. Igloria

Filipino writers
American poets of Asian descent
American writers of Filipino descent
University of Illinois Chicago alumni
Palanca Award recipients
1961 births
Living people
Filipino women writers
University of the Philippines Baguio alumni
Ateneo de Manila University alumni
Filipino emigrants to the United States
20th-century American poets
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American poets
21st-century American women writers
Academic staff of De La Salle University
Old Dominion University faculty
Poets Laureate of Virginia
American women academics
People from Baguio

Luisa Igloria


The ruins of the Château de Bellocq are in the commune of Bellocq in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département of France.

This Béarnaise fortress from the end of the 13th century consists of an irregular quadrilateral reinforced by seven towers, linked to the fortified house built in 1281. It was remodelled during the 14th century. The castle was burned down by Louis XIII in 1620 to prevent it being used by Protestants.

History
At the end of the 13th century, Bellocq was at the frontier with English controlled Guyenne. Gaston VII Moncade de Béarn built the castle on the Gave de Pau, the main river access to Béarn, to fortify his territory. Construction took place between 1250 and 1280. From the beginning, the castle was intended to house a large garrison.  The simple plan of an irregular quadrilateral without a keep had four round towers, a semicircular tower and two square towers, one of which formed the main entrance.  The curtain walls were pierced with cruciform arrow slits.

A year after completion of the castle, Gaston VII built a bastide close by and this, as well as the fortified church of Bellocq, became integral parts of the complex.

In 1370, Gaston Fébus reinforced the castle and built new strong points in order to preserve his territory's independence from the powerful kingdoms of France, England and Navarre.

In 1542, Henri II d'Albret (Henry II of Navarre) repaired the castle, in case of a Spanish invasion. From this date, the kings of Navarre sometimes left their castle at Pau for the country of Bellocq. Jeanne d'Albret stayed there regularly in the 16th century while she took the waters at Salies-de-Béarn.

In 1568, the French king Charles IX sent the baron of Terride to subjugate and govern the Béarn, then largely Protestant. Terride's troops occupied the region and re-established the Catholic hierarchy. The following year, Jeanne d'Albret asked count Gabriel de Montgomery to form an army of resistance - the castle at Bellocq passed into Catholic hands.  It resisted a short siege by Montgomery. In 1620, the Béarn Protestants once again gaining power, Louis XIII had the castle burned down to prevent it being of use to them in the future.

From 1620, the castle played no further role in the history of the region and fell into disrepair. In 1925, the ruins were declared a monument historique and in 1997 they were classed as a Monument de France by the French Ministry of Culture.

See also
 List of castles in France

References

External links

 Château de Bellocq

Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Monuments historiques of Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Ruined castles in Nouvelle-Aquitaine

Château de Bellocq


Marquis Xiao of Jin (), ancestral name Ji (姬), given name Ping (平), was the thirteenth ruler of the state of Jin. He was also the third ruler of Jin in the Spring and Autumn period. He ruled for sixteen years.

In 739 BC, the 7th year of the reign of Marquis Zhao of Jin, a Jin official named Panfu (潘父) murdered Marquis Zhao of Jin and welcomed Uncle Huan of Quwo to ascend the throne of Jin. He accepted Panfu's welcome and entered Jin. When he entered, the Jin people brought troops to stop him from entering. He lost and receded back to Quwo. Then, the Jin people asked the son of Marquis Zhao of Jin, Ping, to ascend the throne and he became the next ruler of Jin: Marquis Xiao of Jin. After he ascended the throne, he killed Panfu in revenge for his father.

In 724 BC, the 15th year of his reign, the son of Uncle Huan of Quwo, Count Zhuang of Quwo, murdered Marquis Xiao of Jin while in the capital of Jin, Yi (翼). Then, Jin troops attacked Count Zhuang of Quwo so he retreated back to Quwo. The Jin people asked the son of Marquis Xiao of Jin, Xi, to become the next ruler of Jin and he became Marquis E of Jin.

Monarchs of Jin (Chinese state)
8th-century BC Chinese monarchs
724 BC deaths
Year of birth unknown
8th-century BC murdered monarchs
Assassinated Chinese politicians
Assassinated Chinese heads of state
Ancient assassinated Chinese people

Marquis Xiao of Jin


Win! is an all-access, vérité film about a former player turned sporting director, a coach and a team of diverse football players given the mission to create a professional soccer team from scratch in New York City. Manchester City FC, an English club with ambitions to spread a style of "beautiful" football around the globe, joined up with the New York Yankees and handed the job of Sporting Director of New York City FC to Claudio Reyna, former captain of the US National team. When Reyna selected Jason Kreis as the team's first coach, a race began to find players in the months before the inaugural season. Global soccer stars like David Villa and Frank Lampard join a growing squad of American rising stars, to face the highs and lows, joys and sacrifices, disappointments and triumphs of the first season. Playing in front of their home fans in Yankee Stadium, at a time when soccer has never been more popular in the US, they fight to win the hearts of New Yorkers.

The film had its World Premiere at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.

References

2016 films
2016 documentary films
Documentary films about association football
American association football films
American sports documentary films
New York City FC
Films shot in New York City
Films set in the Bronx
2010s American films

Win!


Black Legion is a 1937 American crime drama film, directed by Archie Mayo, with a script by Abem Finkel and William Wister Haines based on an original story by producer Robert Lord.  The film stars Humphrey Bogart, Dick Foran, Erin O'Brien-Moore and Ann Sheridan. It is a fictionalized treatment of the historic Black Legion of the 1930s in Michigan, a white vigilante group. A third of its members lived in Detroit, which had also been a center of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.

The plot is based on the May 1935 kidnapping and murder in Detroit of Charles A. Poole, a Works Progress Administration organizer. Twelve men were tried and 11 convicted of his murder; all were sentenced to life. Authorities prosecuted another 37 men for related crimes; they were also convicted and sentenced to prison, breaking up the Legion. Columbia Pictures had made Legion of Terror (1936) based on the same case.

Black Legion was praised by critics for its dramatization of a dark social phenomenon. It was one of several films of this period in opposition to fascist and racist organizations. Having followed Bogart's breakthrough in The Petrified Forest (1936), a number of reviewers commented that Bogart's performance should lead to his becoming a major star. Warner Bros. did not give the film any special treatment, however, promoting it and Bogart in their standard fashion. Stardom did come with High Sierra in 1941.

Plot
Frank Taylor works in a Midwestern factory and expects to receive a job promotion that has become available. When he is passed over in favor of hard-working Polish immigrant Joe Dombrowski, Taylor joins the Black Legion, a secret organization that drives away immigrants and racial minorities through violent means. Dressed in black robes, Taylor and the Black Legion go on a torchlight raid, driving Dombrowski and his family from their home.

With Dombrowski gone, Taylor receives the promotion, but when the Black Legion leadership forces him to spend time recruiting new members, Taylor is demoted in favor of his Irish neighbor, Mike Grogan. That night, the Black Legion attacks Grogan.

Taylor's co-worker and friend, Ed Jackson, who is married to Grogan's daughter, suspects Taylor is connected to the attacks on immigrants. Jackson mentions his concerns to Taylor's wife, Ruth, who confronts Taylor. When he responds to her with violence, Ruth leaves him. As his Black Legion activities and drinking increases, Taylor loses his job and begins a relationship with Pearl Danvers, a woman of ill repute.

Seeing his friend's life unraveling, Jackson goes to see Taylor to express concern. A drunken Taylor tells Jackson about his secret life with the violent Black Legion. Afraid that his slip-of-the-tongue might prompt Jackson to go to the police, Taylor tells the Black Legion leadership what happened. The leadership orders Taylor to capture and execute Jackson.

Unlike the Black Legion's other victims, Jackson is unafraid and threatens to go to the police. When Jackson tries to escape, Taylor panics and shoots him. Taylor is arrested for Jackson's murder. Ruth returns for Taylor's trial to support him. The lawyer for the Black Legion threatens Taylor's wife and son to stop him from implicating the hate organization, but filled with self-loathing, Taylor tells the truth in court. All of the members of the Black Legion are sentenced to life in prison for Jackson's murder.

Cast

Humphrey Bogart as Frank Taylor
Dick Foran as Ed Jackson
Erin O'Brien-Moore as Ruth Taylor
Ann Sheridan as Betty Grogan
Helen Flint as Pearl Danvers
Joseph Sawyer as Cliff Moore
Clifford Soubier as Mike Grogan
Alonzo Price as Alf Hargrave
Paul Harvey as Billings
Dickie Jones as Buddy Taylor
Samuel Hinds as Judge
Addison Richards as Prosecuting Attorney

Eddie Acuff as Metcalf
Dorothy Vaughan as Mrs. Grogan
John Litel as Tommy Smith
Henry Brandon as Joe Dombrowski
Charles Halton as Osgood
Pat C. Flick as Nick Strumpas
Francis Sayles as Charlie
Paul Stanton as Barham
Harry Hayden as Jones
Egon Brecher as Old Man Dombrowski (credited as Dombrowski, Sr.)
Robert Homans as Motorcycle Cop (uncredited)
Jack Mower as Court Clerk (uncredited)

Production
Black Legion went into production in late August 1936. Many of the details about the Legion portrayed in the film, such as the initiation oath and the confessions in the trial scenes, were based on known facts about the historic organization. Because United States libel laws had recently been broadened in scope by court rulings, Warner Bros. underplayed some aspects of the group's political activities to avoid legal repercussion. The Ku Klux Klan sued Warner Bros. for patent infringement for the film's use of a patented Klan insignia: a white cross on a red background with a black square. A judge threw out the case.

Location shooting took place in private homes in the Hollywood area, the Providencia Ranch in the Hollywood Hills and the Warner Ranch in Calabasas.  Executive producer Hal B. Wallis had wanted Edward G. Robinson to play the lead role, but producer Robert Lord thought Robinson was too foreign looking, and wanted a "distinctly American looking actor to play [the] part."

Reception
Writing for Night and Day in 1937, Graham Greene gave the film a good review, characterizing it as "an intelligent and exciting, if rather earnest film". Greene praises Bogart's acting and comments that the film's intelligence comes from the director's attention to the moments of horror. Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times praised the film's direction, writing, performances, and strong themes; calling it "editorial cinema at its best". Dennis Schwartz from Ozus' World Movie Reviews awarded the film a grade B−, calling it "A gripping social drama based on the newspaper headlines of the day". TV Guide gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, calling it "A grim, often brutal film", while criticizing Bogart's performance as being unsympathetic and Sheridan's role as "thankless".

Awards and honors
Robert Lord's original screenplay received an Academy Award nomination in 1937, but lost to William Wellman and Robert Carson's work for A Star Is Born.  The National Board of Review named Black Legion as one of the ten best films of 1937, and Humphrey Bogart as one of the best actors of the year for his work in the film. It was one of a series of anti-fascist films in this period that addressed the dangers to society from groups that opposed immigrants (especially Catholics and Jews), Asians, and blacks, showing that fascism and racism resulted in similar "crimes against humanity."

Notes

External links

1937 crime drama films
1937 films
American black-and-white films
Films directed by Archie Mayo
Films about the Ku Klux Klan
Melodrama films
Warner Bros. films
Race in the United States
American crime drama films
Films produced by Robert Lord (screenwriter)
1930s English-language films
1930s American films
Films scored by Bernhard Kaun
Films set in the Midwestern United States
Anti-racism in the United States
Anti-fascism in the United States

Black Legion (film)


John Stanwix (born about 1690, England; died at sea, 29 October 1766) was a British soldier and politician.

Background
He was born John Roos, the son of Rev. John Roos, rector of Widmerpool, Nottinghamshire. In 1725 he succeeded to the estates of his uncle Thomas Stanwix MP and adopted the name of Stanwix.

Stanwix entered the army in 1706, rose to a captain of the grenadiers in 1739, major of marines in 1741, and lieutenant-colonel in 1745, and was appointed equerry to Frederick, Prince of Wales, in 1749. In 1750, he was appointed Governor of Carlisle, and also represented the town in the British parliament as the Member of Parliament for Carlisle (1741–42 and 1746–61).

In 1754 he became deputy quartermaster-general of the forces, and on 1 January 1756 he was made colonel-commandant of the 1st battalion of the 60th or Royal American Regiment. On his arrival in America he was given the command of the southern district. During 1757 his headquarters were at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and he was appointed brigadier-general on 27 December of that year.

After his relief by General John Forbes in 1758, General Stanwix went to Albany, New York, whence he was ordered to the Oneida carrying-place, to secure that important position by the erection of a work which was called Fort Stanwix in his honor. This was later the location of the signing of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768. In 1759 Stanwix returned to Pennsylvania, built and named Fort Pitt, and surmounted the works with cannon. He worked with George Croghan, the deputy superintendent of Indian affairs, to secure the good will of the Indians.

Final years and disappearance
On 19 June 1759, Stanwix was appointed major-general, but he was relieved by General Robert Monckton on 4 May 1760, and became lieutenant-general on 19 January 1761. After his return to England he was appointed lieutenant-governor of the Isle of Wight and made colonel successively of the 49th Regiment of Foot (1761–1764) and the 8th (The King's) Regiment of Foot (1764–1766).

He was also Member of Parliament for Appleby in Westmorland from 1761 to 1766.

He was lost at sea while crossing from Dublin, Ireland, to Holyhead, Wales, in a packet boat The Eagle.

See also
Carlisle (UK Parliament constituency)
List of people who disappeared mysteriously at sea

External links
John Stanwix at the Probert Encyclopedia
John Brooke, STANWIX, John (1693-1766), of Carlisle, Cumb. at The History of Parliament
Romney R. Sedgwick, STANWIX, John (1693-1766), of Carlisle, Cumb. at The History of Parliament

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1690s births
1760s missing person cases
1766 deaths
British Army lieutenant generals
British Army personnel of the French and Indian War
British MPs 1741–1747
British MPs 1747–1754
British MPs 1754–1761
British MPs 1761–1768
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Appleby
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Carlisle
People lost at sea
Royal American Regiment officers
Royal Marines officers

John Stanwix


Social status is the relative level of social value a person is considered to possess. Such social value includes respect, honor, assumed competence, and deference. On one hand, social scientists view status as a "reward" for group members who treat others well and take initiative. This is one explanation for its apparent cross-cultural universality. On the other hand, while people with higher status experience a litany of benefits--such as greater health, admiration, resources, influence, and freedom--those with lower status experience poorer outcomes across all of those metrics.

Importantly, status is based in widely shared beliefs about who members of a society judge as more competent or moral. While such beliefs can stem from an impressive performance or success, they can also arise from possessing characteristics a society has deemed meaningful like a person's race or occupation. In this way, status reflects how a society judges a person's relative social worth and merit--however accurate or inaccurate that judgement may be. Because societies use status to allocate resources, leadership positions, and other forms of power, status can make unequal distributions of resources and power appear natural and fair, supporting systems of social stratification.

Definition
The sociologist Max Weber outlined three central aspects of stratification in a society: class, status, and power. In his scheme, which remains influential today, people possess status in the sense of honor because they belong to specific groups with unique lifestyles and privileges. Modern sociologists and social psychologists broadened this understanding of status to refer to one's relative level of respectability and honor more generally.

Some writers have also referred to a socially valued role or category a person occupies as a "status" (e.g., gender, social class, ethnicity, having a criminal conviction, having a mental illness, etc.). As social network analysts, Stanley Wasserman and Katherine Faust Stanley cautioned "there is considerable disagreement among social scientists about the definitions of the related concepts of social position, social status, and social role." They note that while many scholars differentiate those terms, they can define those terms in a way that clashes with the definitions of another scholar; for example they state that "[Ralph] Linton uses the term 'status' in a way that is identical to our use of the term "position".

Determination

Status hierarchies depend primarily on the possession and use of status symbols. These are cues or characteristics that people in a society agree indicate how much status a person holds and how they should be treated. Such symbols can include the possession of valued attributes, like being beautiful or having a prestigious degree. Other status symbols include wealth and its display through conspicuous consumption. Status in face-to-face interaction can also be conveyed through certain controllable behaviors, such as assertive speech, posture, and emotional displays. Social network analysts have also shown that one's affiliations can also be a source of status. Several studies document that being popular  or demonstrating dominance over peers  increases a person's status. Analyses of private companies also find that organizations can gain status from having well-respected corporate partners or investors.

Because status is always relative to others, a person may enter many situations throughout their life or even a single day in which they hold high, equal, or low status depending on who is around them. For instance, a doctor holds high status when interacting with a patient, equal status in a meeting with fellow doctors, and low status when meeting with their hospital's chief of medicine. A person can also be a 'big fish in a small pond' such that they have higher status than everyone else in their organization, but low or equal status relative to professionals in their entire field.

Some perspectives on status emphasize its relatively fixed and fluid aspects. Ascribed statuses are fixed for an individual at birth, while achieved status is determined by social rewards an individual acquires during his or her lifetime as a result of the exercise of ability and/or perseverance. Examples of ascribed status include castes, race, and beauty among others. Meanwhile, achieved statuses are akin to one's educational credentials or occupation: these things require a person to exercise effort and often undergo years of training. The term master status has been used to describe the status most important for determining a person's position in a given context, like possessing a mental illness.

However, the concept of a master status is controversial. Status characteristics theory argues members of a task group will listen to whomever they believe will most help them solve a problem. One's external status in society (e.g., race or gender) determines influence in small groups, but so does a person's known ability on the task (e.g., mechanical ability when a car breaks down). This implies that known ability would attenuate the effect of external status, implying a given external status characteristic is not a master status. The program of research finds characteristics assumed to be master statuses (e.g., mental illness) are, in fact, attenuated by known ability. Moreover, status affects group members' assertiveness only when characteristics differentiate group members (i.e., groups are mixed-race or mixed-gender). With respect to gender, experimental tests repeatedly found that women are highly deferential only in the presence of men. Although for disadvantaged groups, status disadvantage is not completely negated by valued characteristics, their social status does not depend predominantly on any one group membership. As such, status characteristics research has yet to identify a social characteristic that operates like a robust cross-situational master status.

Uses of status
Although a person's status does not always correspond to merit or actual ability, it does allow the members of a group to coordinate their actions and quickly agree on who among them should be listened to. When actual ability does correspond to status, then status hierarchies can be especially useful. They allow leaders to emerge who set informed precedents and influence less knowledgeable group members, allowing groups to use the shared information of their group to make more correct decisions. This can be especially helpful in novel situations where group members must determine who is best equipped to complete a task.

In addition, groups accord more respect and esteem to members who help them succeed, which encourages highly capable members to contribute in the first place. This helps groups motivate members to contribute to a collective good by offering respect and esteem as a kind of compensation for helping everyone in the group succeed. For instance, people recognized as achieving great feats for their group or society are sometimes accorded legendary status as heroes.

Finally--for good or ill--status maintains social inequality. Because status is based on beliefs about social worth and esteem, sociologists argue it can then appear only natural that higher-status people have more material resources and power. Status makes it appear that a person's rank or position in society is due to their relative merit, and therefore deserved. For instance, if a society holds that the homeless are unworthy of respect or dignity, then their poor material conditions are not evaluated as unjust by members of that society, and therefore are not subject to change.

In different societies
Whether formal or informal, status hierarchies are present in all societies. In a society, the relative honor and prestige accorded to individuals depends on how well an individual is perceived to match a society's values and ideals (e.g., being pious in a religious society or wealthy in a capitalist society). Status often comes with attendant rights, duties, and lifestyle practices.

In modern societies, occupation is usually thought of as the main determinant of status, but other memberships or affiliations (such as ethnic group, religion, gender, voluntary associations, fandom, hobby) can have an influence. Achieved status, when people are placed in the stratification structure based on their individual merits or achievements like education or training, is thought to be reflective of modern developed societies. Consequently, achieved status implies that social mobility in a society is possible, as opposed to caste systems characterized by immobility based solely on ascribed status.

In pre-modern societies, status differentiation is widely varied. In some cases it can be quite rigid, such as with the Indian caste system. In other cases, status exists without class and/or informally, as is true with some Hunter-Gatherer societies such as the Khoisan, and some Indigenous Australian societies. In these cases, status is limited to specific personal relationships. For example, a Khoisan man is expected to take his wife's mother quite seriously (a non-joking relationship), although the mother-in-law has no special "status" over anyone except her son-in-law—and only then in specific contexts.

Status maintains and stabilizes social stratification. Mere inequality in resources and privileges is perceived as unfair and thus prompts retaliation and resistance from those of lower status, but if some individuals are seen as better than others (i.e., have higher status), then it seems natural and fair that high-status people receive more resources and privileges. Historically, Max Weber distinguished status from social class, though some contemporary empirical sociologists combine the two ideas to create socioeconomic status or SES, usually operationalized as a simple index of income, education and occupational prestige.

In nonhuman animals
Social status hierarchies have been documented in a wide range of animals: apes, baboons, wolves, cows/bulls, hens, even fish, and ants. Natural selection produces status-seeking behavior because animals tend to have more surviving offspring when they raise their status in their social group. Such behaviors vary widely because they are adaptations to a wide range of environmental niches. Some social dominance behaviors tend to increase reproductive opportunity, while others tend to raise the survival rates of an individual's offspring. Neurochemicals, particularly serotonin, prompt social dominance behaviors without need for an organism to have abstract conceptualizations of status as a means to an end. Social dominance hierarchy emerges from individual survival-seeking behaviors.

Status inconsistency

Status inconsistency is a situation where an individual's social positions have both positive and negative influences on his or her social status. For example, a teacher may have a positive societal image (respect, prestige) which increases their status but may earn little money, which simultaneously decreases their status. In task-focused interpersonal encounters, people unconsciously combine this information to develop impressions of their own and others' relative rank. At one time, researchers thought status inconsistency would be a source of stress, though evidence for this hypothesis proved inconsistent, leaving some to conclude conflicting expectations through occupying incompatible roles may be the true stressor.

Social stratification

Status is one of the major components of social stratification, the way people are hierarchically placed in a society. The members of a group with similar status interact mainly within their own group and to a lesser degree with those of higher or lower status in a recognized system of social stratification. Although the determinants of status are specific to different cultures, some of the more common bases for status-based stratification include:
 Wealth/Income
 Gender
 Race/Ethnicity
 Social class
 Occupation
 Popularity (also called sociometric status)

Max Weber's three dimensions of stratification

The German sociologist Max Weber argued stratification is based on three factors: property, status, and power. He claimed that social stratification is a result of the interaction of wealth (class), prestige status (or in German Stand) and power (party).
 Property refers to one's material possessions. If someone has control of property, that person has power over others and can use the property to his or her own benefit.
 Status refers to a person's relative level of respectability and social honor. Weber's interest was particularly in status groups, which have distinct cultural dispositions and privileges, and whose members mostly socialize with one another.
 Power is the ability to do what one wants, regardless of the will of others. (Domination, a closely related concept, is the power to make others' behavior conform to one's commands).

Status group

Max Weber developed the idea of "status group" which is a translation of the German Stand (pl. Stände). Status groups are communities that are based on ideas of lifestyles and the honor the status group both asserts, and is given by others. Status groups exist in the context of beliefs about relative prestige, privilege, and honor. People in status groups are only supposed to engage with people of like status, and in particular, marriage inside or outside the group is discouraged. Status groups in some societies include professions, club-like organizations, ethnicity, race, and any other socially (de)valued group that organizes interaction among relative equals.

See also

References

Further reading

 Botton, Alain De (2004), Status Anxiety, Hamish Hamilton
 Michael Marmot (2004), The Status Syndrome: How Social Standing Affects Our Health and Longevity, Times Books
 Social status. (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved October 17, 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online:

 MacDonald, Paul K.; Parent, Joseph M. (2021). "The Status of Status in World Politics". World Politics 73(2): 358–391.

 Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: a Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, translated by Richard Nice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984.

 Weber, Max (2015) "Classes, Stände, Parties," pp. 37–58 in Weber's Rationalism and Modern Society: New Translations on Politics, Bureaucracy, and Social Stratification Edited and Translated by Tony Waters and Dagmar Waters.  New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Anthropology
Sociological terminology
Social stratification

Social status


Cornish Dialect (also called Anglo-Cornish Dialect) is the dialect of the English language spoken in Cornwall.

History

A long time ago, people in Cornwall spoke the Cornish language. This is a language similar to Welsh and Breton. After a while, people speaking English came into Cornwall, and the Cornish people started to learn English. They didn't speak in exactly the same way as the people they learned English from, instead they spoke in a distinct way, the Cornish dialect of English. Eventually they forgot how to speak the original Cornish language by about the year 1800.

International use

Cornish people also spoke Cornish dialect when they went abroad to America and Australia and other places.

Geography

The Cornish dialect changes between the west and east of Cornwall. In the east, it is more like how people in Devon speak.

Differences between Cornish Dialect and 'proper' English

Sometimes Cornish people use different words to people who speak 'proper' English. They might also say the words in a different order when they speak Cornish dialect from when they speak 'proper' English, which is a difference in grammar between Cornish dialect and 'proper' English. Other times, they say the same words in a different way using different vowel sounds from 'proper' English.

Decline
When Cornish people started to go to school in the late 19th century, teachers told them to speak 'proper' English not dialect. A lot of people thought that people who spoke the dialect were not as intelligent and educated as those who spoke 'proper' English, so people spoke the dialect less, and the dialect declined. In the 20th century, a lot of people moved into Cornwall from the south east part of England near London. These people did not speak the Cornish dialect and found it hard to understand Cornish people who spoke it. The Cornish people spoke the dialect less because they did not want people not to be able to understand them.

Preservation
As fewer people spoke the Cornish dialect, other people, such as people in the Old Cornwall Society,  wrote down the dialect, and made audio recordings, so the dialect wouldn't be lost.

Literature
People have written books, short stories, and poetry in Cornish Dialect.

References

Further reading
 M. A. Courtney; T. Q. Couch: Glossary of Words in Use in Cornwall. West Cornwall, by M. A. Courtney; East Cornwall, by T. Q. Couch. London: published for the English Dialect Society, by Trübner & Co., 1880
Pol Hodge: The Cornish Dialect and the Cornish Language. 19 p. Gwinear: Kesva an Taves Kernewek, 1997
David J. North & Adam Sharpe: A Word-geography of Cornwall. Redruth: Institute of Cornish Studies, 1980 (includes word-maps of Cornish words)
Martyn F. Wakelin: Language and History in Cornwall. Leicester University Press, 1975  (based on the author's thesis, University of Leeds, 1969)

Other websites
Old Cornwall Society dialect webpages

Cornwall
British English

Cornish dialect


Forward Operating Base Duke is a base of the Iraqi Armed Forces located 20 km northwest of Najaf, Iraq.

History

In mid-April 2004 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, an element of Task Force 1st Armored Division. The "Dragoons" assumed control of the former Iraqi army ammunition depot from the 1st Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade, which moved north for another mission. The FOB was named for the 3rd Brigade known as the "Dukes".

FOB Duke was only a temporary staging area until forces can move to another base closer to the city. Elements of the regiment soon began moving out.

The 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit assumed operational control of Forward Operating Base Duke July 31, 2004.

Later, the 155th Brigade Combat Team of the Mississippi National Guard, supported by a multi-state National Guard Unit containing elements from the Utah, Montana and Missouri National Guard, (combined unit 115th GS Co. - UTANAMO) assumed command and was visited by Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour in November 2005.  It was later occupied by units assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team (BCT), 4th Infantry Division from Fort Hood, TX during OIF rotation 05-07 from December 2005 to December 2006.

The 3rd Battalion, 16th Field Artillery Regiment (3/16 FA) and the 204th Brigade Support Battalion (204th BSB) supported brigade combat operations in the An-Najaf and Babil provinces.  The units sent M1114 Gun Trucks on Reconnaissance & Security (R&S) patrols outside the FOB.  The patrols checked on all noticeable areas of interest (NAIs) outside the base and established observation posts (OPs) to detect suspicious persons, vehicles or activity near the FOB.  Unauthorized persons, vehicles and/or activities presented a threat to the FOB and resupply convoys.  They also made sure the protective concertina wire around the FOB was intact.  They also had a "cop on the beat" role, monitoring local Bedouins and ensured that only authorized persons were present at landfill sites near the FOB.  During daily R&S patrols, the Soldiers occasionally discovered Iraqi civilians exploring the bunkers outside the FOB for usable items that had been discarded or abandoned.  Patrolling the perimeter and the immediate area reduced the ability of anti-Iraqi forces to attack the FOB.

Iraqi officials and Multi-National Division – Baghdad leaders transferred responsibility of Forward Operating Base Duke to Iraqi security forces during a press conference on October 1, 2006.

See also
 List of United States Military installations in Iraq

References

Military installations of Iraq

Forward Operating Base Duke


Kreis Dorpat (Tartu kreis, Дерптский уезд, 1893-1918 Юрьевский уезд)  was one of the nine subdivisions of the Governorate of Livonia of the Russian Empire. It was situated in the northeastern part of the governorate (in present-day eastern Estonia). Its capital was Tartu (Dorpat). The territory of Kreis Dorpat corresponds to the present-day Tartu County, most of Jõgeva County, parts of Põlva and Valga counties and a small part of Ida-Viru County.

Demographics
At the time of the Russian Empire Census of 1897, Kreis Dorpat had a population of 190,317. Of these, 86.8% spoke Estonian, 7.2% Russian, 4.4% German, 0.8% Yiddish, 0.4% Latvian and 0.3% Polish as their native language.

References

Kreis Dorpat


A connotation is a commonly understood cultural or emotional association that any given word or phrase carries, in addition to its explicit or literal meaning, which is its denotation.

A connotation is frequently described as either positive or negative, with regard to its pleasing or displeasing emotional connection. For example, a stubborn person may be described as being either strong-willed or pig-headed; although these have the same literal meaning (stubborn), strong-willed connotes admiration for the level of someone's will (a positive connotation), while pig-headed connotes frustration in dealing with someone (a negative connotation).

Usage
"Connotation" branches into a mixture of different meanings. These could include the contrast of a word or phrase with its primary, literal meaning (known as a denotation), with what that word or phrase specifically denotes. The connotation essentially relates to how anything may be associated with a word or phrase; for example, an implied value, judgement or feelings.

Logic
In logic and semantics, connotation is roughly synonymous with intension. Connotation is often contrasted with denotation, which is more or less synonymous with extension. Alternatively, the connotation of the word may be thought of as the set of all its possible referents (as opposed to merely the actual ones). A word's denotation is the collection of things it refers to; its connotation is what it implies about the things it is used to refer to (a second level of meanings is termed connotative). The connotation of dog is (something like) four-legged canine carnivore. So, saying, "You are a dog" would connote that you were ugly or aggressive rather than literally denoting you as a canine.

Related terms
It is often useful to avoid words with strong connotations (especially pejorative or disparaging ones) when striving to achieve a neutral point of view. A desire for more positive connotations, or fewer negative ones, is one of the main reasons for using euphemisms.

Semiotic closure, as defined by Terry Eagleton, concerns "a sealed world of ideological stability, which repels the disruptive, decentered forces of language in the name of an imaginary unity. Signs are ranked by a certain covert violence into rigidly hierarchical order. . . . The process of forging 'representations' always involves this arbitrary closing of the signifying chain, constricting the free play of the signifier to a spuriously determinate meaning which can then be received by the subject as natural and inevitable".

Examples

See also

Context as Other Minds
Double entendre
Extension
Extensional definition
Intension
Intensional definition
Loaded language
Metacommunicative competence
Pun
Semantic differential
Semantic property
Subtext

References

Concepts in logic
Meaning (philosophy of language)
Semantics
Subjective experience

Connotation


William Brownie Garden (December 2, 1869 – 1960) was a Scottish inventor and entrepreneur. He is probably best known for his invention of the "revolving blackboard". Up until his death at age 90, in 1960, the 'Inventor' still worked at his own bench in the factory, from which came innovations like an improved saw which cut ten times quicker than any other, and an eight-wheeled car for faster cornering. For relaxation he produced scores of beautifully carved walking sticks, which he presented free to the older townspeople. His mind roamed the entire mechanical firmament. He was a dreamer with the most practical of brains, who, even in his youth, foresaw the future by drawing tentative plans for a vertical take-off aero engine.

'Wullie Gairden' as he was known locally had six children, two sons and four daughters of which two sons William and John and daughter Mary joined the firm. As well as being a Master Joiner he was a genius for invention.

Business
William Brownie Garden was a Master Joiner and in 1904 he set up his own joinery business. His company, Wilson & Garden, Ltd., was founded in Kilsyth, Scotland. The main product was the rollerboard.

Wilson & Garden became a limited company in 1923 as 'Builders and Joiners'. At this time they were also the local undertakers. As the demand for the roller boards increased in the early 1950s the focus of the company switched from property building to the manufacture of the roller boards and by the late 1950s the building side ceased altogether.

The company was taken over by Ultralon Holdings in 2005. In 2008 the company became Spaceright Europe, Ltd.

Inventions

Infinitely variable gear box
In 1955 he decided that cars didn't need a clutch, a gear lever, or brakes, and took out a provisional patent on what he described as his 'Infinitely variable gear Box'. Motor engineers, who checked the plans, pronounced the invention foolproof and gave their opinion that it could be mass-produced quite cheaply.

The method was that, on the movement of a lever, the car would glide away from rest to full speed. Moving the lever back would bring the car to a halt, the engine acting as a brake; the lever moved further back would put the car in reverse.

Skid proofing vehicles
At one time he set his mind to the problem of combating the hazards of driving on icy roads, and patented a device to make vehicles skid proof. It was fitted to one of the firm's Lorries and tried out on the severest of days. It was a complete success, the vehicle just refused to lose adhesion, but having proved his point, his interest waned and the project wasn't pursued. Having successfully solved one problem, he couldn't wait to get to the next.

Totalisator
Around 1929 another of his inventions was the 'Totalisator' for racetracks. This 'Tote' was an automatic system for registering bets, and working out the odds on winners according to the extent to which they have been backed. Tickets for bets in variable amounts are issued, and after percentage deductions for expenses, the total sum received is divided among the backers of winning or placed horses, in accordance with the odds offered.

Revolving Blackboard
Perhaps his most practical invention was the Revolving Surface Writing Board, or rollerboard, in 1911.

Originally instigated by Mr. McCubbin the rector of Kilsyth Academy, who had drawn 'Wullie Gairden's attention to the limitations of the old slate blackboard with its necessity for constant cleaning. Small teachers had to stand on boxes to reach the top of the slate board and tall teachers had to stoop to reach the bottom of the board. "Couldn't you do something about that?" he asked, and the challenge was enough for him.

Using the roller towel principle, and substituting a specially treated fabric for slate, the first of the now internationally known revolving boards was created. The original prototype is still in use today.

The largest board of all is in Oxford University in the Clarendon Laboratory, a giant over 20 feet high.

References

1869 births
1960 deaths
Scottish businesspeople
Scottish inventors

William Brownie Garden


Valor was a comic book published by EC Comics in 1955 as the second title in its New Direction line. The bi-monthly comic was published by Bill Gaines and edited by Al Feldstein. It lasted a total of five issues before being cancelled, along with EC's other New Direction comics.

Valor was dedicated to tales of action and adventure in various period settings, including Ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages, the Crusades, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic era. It was similar in vein to the historical stories that previously appeared in EC's Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat from 1950 through 1954.

Artists included Reed Crandall, George Evans, Gardner Fox, Graham Ingels, Bernard Krigstein, Joe Orlando, Angelo Torres, Al Williamson and Wally Wood.

Valor was reprinted as part of publisher Russ Cochran's Complete EC Library in 1988. Between October 1998 and February 1999, Cochran (in association with Gemstone Publishing) reprinted all five individual issues. This complete run was later rebound, with covers included, in a single softcover EC Annual. Dark Horse reprinted Valor as part of the EC Archives series in 2017.

Issue guide

EC Comics publications
Comics by Carl Wessler
Comics by Gardner Fox
1955 comics debuts
1955 comics endings

Valor (EC Comics)


William Holmes D.D. (5 April 1689 – 4 April 1748) was an English academic, Vice-Chancellor and Regius Professor of Modern History of the University of Oxford. He was also Dean of Exeter between 1742 and 1748.

Life
Holmes was born on 5 April 1689 in the parish of St Swithin, in the City of London, the son of Thomas and Margaret Holmes of London, England. He began his education at Merchant Taylors' School, London, on 12 September 1701 and went up to St John's College, Oxford, on 11 June 1707, matriculating on 2 July. In 1710, he became a Fellow and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree on 16 May 1711, and was awarded the Master of Arts degree on 9 April 1715.

In 1721 Holmes was appointed as a proctor of the University. He took the Bachelor of Divinity degree on 13 April 1722 and the Doctorate of Divinity on 5 March 1725. Holmes held two college livings; between 1725 and 1726 that of North Leigh, near Oxford, and of Henbury, Gloucestershire from 1726 to 1728. He was elected President of St John's College on 3 June 1728. Holmes became the Rector of Boxwell, Gloucestershire, on 24 September and was given the college living of Hanborough, a few miles north of Long Hanborough, Oxfordshire, and between 1731 and 1737, he was proctor for the clergy of the diocese of Oxford in convocation.

Holmes was Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University between 1732 and 1735, and in this post, was appealed to by John Wesley about the concerns of the critics of the Holy Club. In 1734, he became a King's Chaplain. In his role as Vice-Chancellor, Holmes presented addresses from the university on the marriage of Anne, Princess Royal to William, Prince of Orange, the Prince having been under Holmes's care whilst in Oxford.

In 1736 Holmes was appointed as the Oxford Regius Professor of Modern History, a post he held until 1742. Whilst President of St John's, Holmes had the last letter of Sir Thomas White, the founder of college, printed to give every scholar on entering college, urging the fellows to peacefully with each other and suggests they "take a coppye of yt for my sake".

Holmes was ridiculed as "time-serving" in an imitation of the first satire of Juvenal, printed in London in 1740, and in a letter purporting to be written from Oxford, published in British Champions, or, The Impartial Advertiser on 10 January 1743, which printed "that ornament of learning and politeness H—es" is an example of those that "steer judiciously between all extremes". Holmes was the first president of St John's to be loyal to the House of Hanover.

Holmes was supportive of sound learning and met with Thomas Hearne, who wished the University to plan the printing of Oxford manuscripts. On 9 July 1733, acting as Vice-Chancellor he revived the ceremony of "the act", which had been discontinued, and invited George Frideric Handel to play before and after the ceremony. However, his allowing Handel to perform inside the Sheldonian Theatre on several occasions outside of University ceremonies and to charge 5 shillings. for admission, offended Hearne and other traditionalists. Hearne stated that "Handel and (his lousy crew) a great number of foreign fiddlers". At another time, Holmes refused a company of players from visiting Oxford.

He was from 1728 to 1748 the President of St John's College, Oxford. He was nominated by George II to the deanery of Exeter Cathedral on 4 June 1742. Holmes was buried in the college chapel, and on the instruction of his wife, Sarah, a monument to him was erected in the college chapel. On his death on 4 April 1748, Holmes left an estate of two farms and £200 a year to St John's College.

Works
Only one work is ascribed to Holmes, The Country Parson's Advice to his Parishioners … of the Younger Sort, which was an anonymous publication of 1742.

References

1689 births
1768 deaths
People from the City of London
Alumni of St John's College, Oxford
People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood
18th-century English historians
English chaplains
Fellows of St John's College, Oxford
Presidents of St John's College, Oxford
Vice-Chancellors of the University of Oxford
Regius Professors of History (University of Oxford)

William Holmes (academic)


Inferno by the Italian author Dante is a work of fiction published in the 1500s, as part of The Divine Comedy. It tells of the fictional journey that two men, Dante himself as well as Greek poet Virgil, takes through Christian Hell. Hell is made up of several levels, or circles, in which sinners are divided and punished according to their sins. Their punishments are measured according to how many good deeds vs bad deeds were done.

The Divine Comedy describes the journey of the soul toward  God. And Inferno is about the recognition and rejection of sin.

References

14th-century books
Afterlife

Inferno (Dante)


SWOT Analysis is a tool to find out the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats that are to be expected in a project or in a business venture or in something similar. It means that the situation (internal and external to the organization or individual) is looked at. It is one of the best tools to conduct the internal and external analysis for any company.

Internal and external factors
Internal factors may include employment, finance, manufacturing opportunities, and all of the marketing mix's 4Ps.

External factors include macroeconomics, technological change, legislation, and sociocultural changes, as well as changes in the marketplace.

Use
SWOT analysis can be used in any decision-making situation. SWOT analysis can be used:

 to build organizational or personal strategy;
 for matching and converting;
 allow organizations to achieve their goals;
 as a basis for the analysis of business and environmental factors;
 in marketing — analyzing competitors.

In community organizations
The SWOT analysis has been used in community work as a tool to identify positive and negative factors within organizations.

Although SWOT analysis is a part of the planning, it will not provide a strategic plan if used by itself, but a SWOT list can becomes a series of recommendations.

Strengths and weaknesses (internal factors within an organization):

Human resources — staff, volunteers, board members, target population;
Physical resources — your location, building, equipment;
Financial — grants, funding agencies, other sources of income;
Activities and processes — programs you run, systems you employ;
Past experiences — building blocks for learning and success, your reputation in the community.

Opportunities and threats (external factors from community or societal forces):

Future trends in your field or the culture;
The economy — local, national, or international;
Funding sources — foundations, donors, legislatures;
Demographics — changes in the age, race, gender, culture of those you serve or in your area;
The physical environment — is your building in a growing part of town? Is the bus company cutting routes?;
Legislation — do new federal requirements make your job harder...or easier?;
Local, national, or international events.

References

Management
Planning

SWOT Analysis


is a Japanese-American stop motion animated film produced by Sanrio, very loosely based on Tchaikovsky's 1892 ballet The Nutcracker and E.T.A. Hoffmann's 1816 story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It is directed by Takeo Nakamura and written by Shintaro Tsuji, Eugene A. Fournier and Thomas Joachim. It was officially released in Japan on March 3, 1979 and later in the United States on July 6, 1979. The film was nominated for the 1980 Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film and the 1980 Young Artist Award for Best Motion Picture featuring youth and won the 1980 Young Artist Award for Best Musical Entertainment.

Nutcracker Fantasy was the first stop-motion project by Sanrio. The film's overall animation style is reminiscent of all the original Rankin/Bass "Animagic" productions, shot at Tadahito Mochinaga's MOM Production (later renamed Video Tokyo Production) in which Nakamura had previously worked for. A remastered version of the film was announced by Sanrio, with an advanced screening at the 27th Tokyo International Film Festival on October 29, 2014 and released formally in theaters on November 29, 2014 as part of Hello Kitty'''s 40th anniversary.

Plot
Narrated by the adult Clara, she tells the story of Ragman, a mysterious old man who roams about the city looking into people's houses and turns children into mice if he catches them up past their bed time.

Clara is excited about her friend Fritz coming to visit the next day and refuses to go to sleep. Her Aunt Gerda  tries to frighten her with stories about the Ragman, but Clara says she's too grown up to believe in him. Uncle Drosselmeyer startles them with his arrival. He gives Clara a nutcracker doll, which she adores. She promises to go to bed immediately if she can keep it.

Clara awakens in the middle of the night to find her nutcracker gone. She sees a group of mice carrying it down the stairs and follows them into the living room. As she takes back the doll, she's confronted by the leader of the mice, a two-headed rat queen. The queen orders Clara to hand over the nutcracker, but she refuses. Clara is knocked out just as the nutcracker springs to life to defend her against the mice.

The next morning, Clara finds herself back in her bedroom. She tells her aunt about the mice and her doll being missing, but Gerda insists that she is talking nonsense and is ill with a fever. In her delirious state, Clara goes down to the living room and stares at the grandfather clock. Thinking she sees Uncle Drosselmeyer inside, she climbs in, only to be scared by the Ragman.

She wanders, looking for Drosselmeyer, until she finds herself in a palace. There she sees a portrait of a girl identical to her and a glass coffin containing a sleeping mouse person. A king and a group of mourners appear, believing Clara to be their Princess Mary returned. After Clara corrects their mistake, King Goodwin explains that she's in the Doll Kingdom. They were at war with the mice, led by the two-headed queen Morphia. When defeat seemed inevitable, the dolls surrendered. However, the King refused to agree to Morphia's final term: Princess Mary must marry her son, Gaar. As punishment for refusing, Morphia cursed the princess to look like a hideous mouse and lie in sleep until King Goodwin agrees to the marriage.

King Goodwin gathers all the world's wise men in hopes they can find a way to break the curse, but all their ideas are far fetched and illogical, and an argument quickly breaks out between them. Despairing that no one knows how to help, Clara leaves the castle and wanders the streets. A street singer points her in the direction of The Queen of Time, who is known for having the answer to everything. Clara goes to her and asks if she knows how to save the princess and defeat Morphia. The Queen of Time uses her magical crystal ball to spy on Morphia, revealing the only way to save the princess is to destroy the queen's source of power, the Nut of Darkness. This can only be done if the magical Sword of Pearl is wielded by someone with a pure heart. The Queen of Time provides the sword, but it's up to Clara to find someone to carry it into battle.

Clara returns to the castle, believing Franz, the captain of the guard, has a pure enough heart. She tells him what he must do in order to save the princess. King Goodwin promises Franz his daughter's hand in marriage if he's successful, and Franz leads the doll army off to battle. They arrive as the mice are celebrating Gaar's eminent marriage to the princess. Just as it seems the toy soldiers are losing, Franz destroys The Nut of Darkness and kills Morphia - but not before she places a curse on him, turning him into a nutcracker doll.

Clara carries the Nutcracker back to the palace, where she finds the court and King Goodwin are celebrating Princess Mary's awakening. Seeing Franz's new state, the princess abandons the marriage promise and calls the Nutcracker ugly. Clara leaves the kingdom to wander in search of anyone who knows how to return Franz to human, unaware that Gaar survived the attack and is following her. She eventually comes across the Watchmaker, who tells her the only way to save Franz is through an act of true, unselfish love. Clara declares  she loves Franz, but the Watchmaker says that isn't enough.

Exhausted from travelling, Clara falls asleep. She dreams that Franz is human again and they enter a magical kingdom made of candy. As they're about to ascend the stairs to live happily ever after in their castle, Clara's foot becomes stuck. Franz continues without her, leading Clara to grab his foot and beg him not to go. She wakes up to realize she's clutching the Nutcracker as Gaar tries to pull him away. She begs Gaar to spare Franz and kill her instead, but Gaar insists Franz must die for killing his mother. As he's about to stab the Nutcracker, Clara uses her own body as a shield. This frees Franz from the spell and destroys Gaar.

Clara wakes up in bed, with Uncle Drosselmeyer beside her. As Clara is recounting what happened and trying to ask Drosselmeyer what he was doing in the clock, Aunt Gerda comes in to say Fritz has arrived. He comes in, identical to Franz. Older Clara narrates that she and Fritz lived happily ever after.

Voice Cast (in order of appearance)

Remake
A remastered version of the film was greenlit by Sanrio on August 1, 2014 and was released on November 29, 2014 as part of Hello Kitty's 40th anniversary.広末涼子、市村正親、板野友美ら豪華声優陣が追加発表!サンリオ『くるみ割り人形』(シネマトゥデイ、2014年8月6日) Sebastian Masuda, the illustrator to Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's official albums, was in charge of directing the film while Kasumi Arimura voiced the film's lead character, Clara.

The remake film's theme song is a newly remixed version of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's song Oyasumi'', composed by Yasutaka Nakata of Capsule.

Home media
Discotek Media released the movie to Region 1 DVD in both its English and original Japanese versions on August 29, 2017. They will release the film on Blu-Ray with a new transfer and a restoration of the English dub.

See also
Rankin/Bass Productions
1979 in film
Kihachirō Kawamoto-Legendary anime stop-motion animator

References

External links
  Remastered Ver. Website

Trailer

1979 films
1979 anime films
Discotek Media
Animated films based on The Nutcracker and the Mouse King
Films about sentient toys
1970s stop-motion animated films
Japanese animated fantasy films
Japanese fantasy adventure films
Japanese Christmas films
1970s English-language films

Nutcracker Fantasy


Neiafu is a relatively new Saturday market and shopping centre on Vava'u, Tonga. It is regarded as a municipal market and sells a range of items, including handicrafts, ancient headrests, kava bowls, stone adzes, old whale teeth and other craftswork. Also sold are taro, alocasia, manioc, yams as well as bananas, amongst others. The market is well connected by bus and minibus to surrounding villages on the island.

References

Economy of Tonga
Vavaʻu

Neiafu Market


The Mond Crucifixion or Gavari Altarpiece is an oil on poplar panel dated to 1502–1503, making it one of the earliest works by Italian Renaissance artist Raphael, perhaps the second after the c.1499-1500 Baronci Altarpiece.  It originally comprised four elements, of which three survive, now all separated: a main panel of the Crucified Christ with the Virgin Mary, Saints and Angels which was bequeathed to the National Gallery, London, by Ludwig Mond, and a three-panel predella from which one panel is lost; the two surviving panels are Eusebius of Cremona raising Three Men from the Dead with Saint Jerome's Cloak in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, in Lisbon, and Saint Jerome saving Silvanus and punishing the Heretic Sabinianus in the North Carolina Museum of Art.

Background
This early work by Raphael was commissioned by the wool merchant Domenico Gavari as the altarpiece for his burial chapel in the south aisle of the church of San Domenico in Città di Castello, in Umbria, near Raphael's home town of Urbino.  The side chapel was dedicated to Saint Jerome, where most of the painting's original pietra serena stone frame survives including the inscribed date 1503.  Gavari was an associate of Andrea Baronci, for whom Raphael had already made the Baronci Altarpiece.  Gavari's first son Girolamo (Jerome) died young.

Main panel
The main panel portrays the Crucifixion of Jesus, against a background of hills in the Umbrian countryside, with a view of Città di Castello in the distance.  Jesus looks peaceful even as he is dying on the cross, crowned with thorns and clad only in a loincloth that has an unusual red colour.  Above, a sun in gold leaf and moon in silver leaf appear together in the sky.  Two angels with flowing robes and scrolling ribbons at their waists, one floating to either side of the cross, are using gold chalices similar to communion vessels to catch the blood dripping from Jesus' nail-pierced hands and spurting from the wound in his side. To the proper right (Jesus' left) kneels Mary Magdalene, with John the Evangelist standing behind her.  To the proper left (Jesus' right) his mother Mary stands behind the kneeling Saint Jerome, who is holding a stone with which the hermit would piously beat his own chest.

The two kneeling figures are both reverently contemplating Jesus on the cross, while the two standing figures are wringing their hands while looking out at the viewer.  A panel at the top of the cross bears the inscription "INRI", while the foot of the cross bears a Latin inscription in silver letters: "RAPHAEL/ VRBIN / AS /.P.[INXIT]" ("Raphael of Urbino painted this").  The work is lit from the left, consistent with the illumination of the altarpiece by the windows in the chapel.

The main panel measures  and is now housed in a 19th-century frame. The geometrical precision of the composition suggest it was laid out using a grid, using a rule and compasses to copy from a preparatory drawings.
A drawing of a kneeling person, perhaps a study for the figure of Mary Magdalene, is held by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

The painting was influenced by Perugino, whom Raphael knew while living in Perugia.  It is similar to Perugino's c.1502 Monteripido Altarpiece, made the convent of San Francesco al Monte at Monteripido near Perugia, a similar crucifixion scene which has two similar angels with ribbons catching the blood of Jesus is chalices, accompanied by four figures, two standing and two kneeling, including the Virgin Mary, John the Evangelist, and Mary Magdalene, but the fourth is Francis of Assisi rather than Saint Jerome.  In the Mond Crucifixion, Raphael has used Perugino's technique of cross-hatched shadows, but also used his fingers to smear and soften the wet paint in places, leaving some detectable fingerprints.  Vasari later famously commented that no one would have believed it was painted by Raphael rather than Perugino if he had not signed it.

Predella
The two surviving panels of the predella each measure approximately  and depict miracles from the life story of Saint Jerome from the Hierominianum of Giovanni d'Andrea.  Saint Jerome lived in the late 4th and early 5th century AD, so he could not have attended the crucifixion, but he is portrayed here as the patron saint of the chapel.

One of the surviving predella panels has been in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon since 1866.  It depicts Eusebius of Cremona raising Three Men from the Dead with Saint Jerome's Cloak
  Eusebius of Cremona was a close associate and active supporter of Jerome against the teachings of Origen.

The other surviving predella panel is in the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, North Carolina.  It depicts Saint Jerome saving Silvanus and punishing the Heretic Sabinianus.  Saint Jerome is holding back the arm of the executioner ready to behead bishop Silvanus, but the heretic Sabinianus has been miraculously decapitated instead.

Provenance
The main panel was bought by Cardinal Fesch in 1808 for 2500 scudi, and replaced in the chapel by a copy.  At the Fesch sale in 1845, it was sold to the Principe di Canino, and quickly bought by Lord Ward (later Earl of Dudley).  It was then in several English collections, and eventually acquired by Ludwig Mond in 1892, after whose death in 1909 it was acquired by the National Gallery in 1924.

The predella panels seem to have been removed in the 17th century, and given as gifts to a visiting cardinal.  The panel in North Carolina was formerly in the collection of Sir Francis Cook at Doughty House, Richmond, London.

Painting materials
The main panel was analyzed in the National Gallery London and the typical pigments of the Renaissance period were identified. He painted the Crucifixion among other pigments with natural ultramarine, lead-tin-yellow, verdigris, vermilion and ochres.

See also
List of paintings by Raphael

References

Sources
 The Mond Crucifixion, Raphael, National Gallery, London
 Henry, Tom. "Raphael's Altar-Piece Patrons in Città Di Castello", The Burlington Magazine, vol. 144, no. 1190, 2002, pp. 268–278

External links

Collections of the National Gallery, London
Paintings by Raphael
Paintings depicting the Crucifixion of Jesus
Raphael
Raphael
Angels in art
Raphael
Altarpieces
Paintings in the National Museum of Ancient Art
Paintings in the North Carolina Museum of Art

Mond Crucifixion


John Monro of Bearcrofts (1670–1740) was a Scottish surgeon who was the progenitor of the Monro dynasty of anatomists in Edinburgh. He is credited with conceiving and playing a major role in founding the University of Edinburgh Medical School. He served as Deacon (President) of the Incorporation of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Medical education
John Monro was the third son of Sir Alexander Monro (1629–1704) of Bearcrofts, commissary of Stirling. He was initially apprenticed on 8 April 1687, to the Edinburgh surgeon William Borthwick of Pilmuir (1641–89), the first in the Edinburgh Incorporation of Surgeons to have an international perspective, having studied at Padua, Italy and at Leiden, Holland.

Borthwick's Leiden education and his appointment in 1679 as Chirurgeon Major to the Army in Scotland, both influenced his young apprentice. From 1689, Monro served as an apprentice to Dr Christopher Irvine who had obtained a medical degree abroad. Monro matriculated at the University of Leiden in Holland on  11 October 1692. While studying there he attended the lectures of Archibald Pitcairne from Edinburgh who had been appointed Professor of Physic.

Military career

In 1694, he returned home and married his cousin, Jean Forbes, granddaughter of the first Duncan Forbes of Culloden. On 7 March 1695 he was commissioned Surgeon in General Sir Henry Belasyse's 22nd Regiment of Foot.

During that spring the regiment served in the Netherlands and were in camp between Bruges and Ghent. Later in that year, they took part in the Siege of Namur under the personal command of King William III of Great Britain.

From 1696 to 1700 Monro was stationed in England and in Ireland but he appears to have been given long periods of leave which enabled him to set up a house with his wife in London and it was there that his son, Alexander Monro was born in 1697. In 1700, Monro left the army and settled in Edinburgh.

Surgical career
As a necessary prerequisite to practising surgery, he opened an apothecary's shop then became a burgess of the city on 19 August 1702. He was admitted to the Incorporation of Surgeons on 11 March 1703, having passed the necessary examinations. Monro was elected as Boxmaster (Treasurer) from 1708 to 1710 and was elected Deacon (President) in 1712. This gave him an ex officio seat on Edinburgh Town Council and later that year he was elected  Deacon of the Edinburgh Convenery of  Trades, a position which gave him considerable local political power and status. The following year he was re-elected to these offices, and in addition, was appointed one of the City's representatives on the Convention of the Royal Burghs of Scotland. In 1713 the Town Council appointed him surgeon to the poor of the city for an annual salary of '300 merks Scots', a position he held until 1720.

Political allegiance
Monro was loyal to the British monarchy.  He was present in his official robes as Deacon of Convenery along with other civic dignitaries at the proclamation of George I as King of Great Britain, France and Ireland at the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh on 5 August 1714. It seems likely that he attended the wounded at the Battle of Sherrifmuir in 1715 during the Jacobite rising.

Role in establishing the Edinburgh Medical School
Having established himself in Edinburgh as a man of influence and authority in professional and civic affairs, John Monro set about the fulfilment of his ambition of founding in the City a "Seminary of Medical Education" modelled on the medical school of the University of Leiden, where he had studied. In 1720, he produced "a plan which he had long formed in my own mind, of having the different branches of Physic and Surgery regularly taught at Edinburgh, which was highly approved by them".

His plan was favourably received by the Town Council, the University of Edinburgh the Royal College of Physicians and the Incorporation of Surgeons.   The key to its success was the appointment to the University Chair of Anatomy of John Monro's son, Alexander, whose education and training had been planned with this specific objective. Indeed, Alexander arguably had the best medical education available at the time, studying in Edinburgh, London, Paris and Leiden. To facilitate his son's appointment to this key chair, John Monro used his influence in 1720 to force the Incorporation's two Professors of anatomy, John McGill and Adam Drummond to resign in favour of his son. The reason for these resignations was because "...the state of their health and business were such that they could not duly attend the said professorships" and they unanimously recommended Alexander Monro to be Professor of Anbatomy to the city and the University. The following week, on 29 January 1720 Alexander was appointed by the town Council as Professor of Anatomy in the University.

In the following months, John Monro was involved in the arrangement that Charles Alston should become Professor of Materia Medica and that James Crawford should become Professor of Chemistry. These appointments and the lectures that resulted from them are regarded as the origin of the Edinburgh University medical school. The role played by powerful patrons such as Archibald Campbell, 1st Earl of Ilay (1682– 1761) and Lord Provost George Drummond (1688–1766) in these events, which remains the subject of controversy, has been explored at length by Emerson.

Family, anatomy dynasty and death
John Monro married twice. In 1694 he married his first cousin Jean Forbes, granddaughter of the first Duncan Forbes of Culloden. They had one son Alexander Monro primus (1697–1767). In turn his son, who would become Prof Alexander Monro secundus (1733–1817) also held the chair of Anatomy at the University of Edinburgh as did his son who would become Prof Alexander Monro tertius (1773–1859) Between them these 3 men occupied the chair of Anatomy for a total of 126 years, from 1720-1846. They were distant relatives of the 'Bedlam Monros' another dynasty, known for their treatment of insanity in London.
Jean Monro died c 1710. In August 1721 John Monro married Margaret Main (née Crichton) and she outlived him. In later years he lived at Carolside near Earlston in Berwickshire, where he died in 1740.

Further reading
Morrell,J. The Edinburgh town council and its university, 1717–1766 in Anderson R. Simpson A. (eds) The early years of the Edinburgh medical school,Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Museum, 1976

Alison M. Stevenson, 'Monro, John (bap. 1670, d. 1740)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 23 Sept 2017

Wright-St Clair R.E. Doctors Monro.London, Wellcome,1964.

References

1670 births
1740 deaths
Scottish surgeons
Leiden University alumni
British Army regimental surgeons
17th-century Scottish medical doctors
18th-century Scottish medical doctors
Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
Presidents of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

John Monro (surgeon)


Fishery Bay whaling station  was a whaling station  located in the Colony of South Australia on the coast of Fishery Bay, a subsidiary  of the larger Sleaford Bay, on Eyre Peninsula about  south-west of Port Lincoln. It operated in the 1830s and 1840s and helped to provide the colony with one of its first export commodities.

History

A shore-based whaling station was operating at Fishery Bay by late 1837. In November the schooner Siren left Port Adelaide for Sleaford Bay "to take on a cargo of oil from the station there." By 1839 the station was under the control of the United Fishing Company of Adelaide, which was a partnership between the South Australian Company and Messsrs Hack and Company.

The South Australian company sold out in 1841 and the Hack brothers then became sole owners. They in turn found themselves in financial difficulties in the depression of the early 1840s and were declared insolvent in 1843. Hagan and Hart purchased the station, as well as another owned by the Hack brothers at Rosetta Head. They operated the Fishery Bay station for three or four months before closing it down. No further whaling seems to have occurred at the location after 1843.

Archaeological investigations in the area have identified the remains of buildings and artifacts associated with the whaling station.

The site, which is located in the locality of Sleaford, was added the South Australian Heritage Register on 23 September 1982.  The land on which the former whaling station was located was previously declared as a historic reserve under the Aboriginal and Historic Relics Preservation Act 1965 on 31 August 1972.

References

Whaling stations in Australia
Eyre Peninsula
South Australian Heritage Register

Fishery Bay Whaling Station


The Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway (L&MVLR) was a narrow gauge railway in Staffordshire, England that operated between 1904 and 1934.  The line mainly carried milk from dairies in the region, acting as a feeder to the  system.  It also provided passenger services to the small villages and beauty spots along its route.  The line was built to a  narrow gauge and to the light rail standards provided by the Light Railways Act 1896 to reduce construction costs.

The route of the line is now a foot- and cycle- path.

Route

The North Staffordshire Railway's branch from Leek ended at Waterhouses ().  The L&MVLR continued from an end-on junction with this line. It ran for  down the valley of the River Hamps as far as Beeston Tor, before turning up the limestone gorge that the River Manifold had formed, through to Hulme End ().  The line had a large number of stations in a relatively short distance, and there were refreshment rooms at Thor's Cave and Beeston Tor. In all the line crossed the river Manifold dozens of times - including nine times in the short section between Sparrowlee and Beeston Tor.

All stations had rather grand signs (sometimes grander than the facilities) and platforms were just  high. All stations had sidings except for Beeston Tor and Redhurst Halt.

 Hulme End station was a large building, with adjacent engine and coach sheds (two roads in each). On the timetable it was described as "Hulme End for Hartington".  Hartington being some  distant.
 Ecton station had both a standard gauge and narrow gauge siding, with a narrow gauge extension to the milk factory.  The presence of the railway did not kick-start the local mining industry, as hoped.
 Butterton station (also known locally as Ecton Lea) had a waiting room. There was a siding.
 Wetton Mill station had a station with waiting room, and a standard gauge siding. (It had ceased to be a working mill before the railway was built.)
 At Redhurst Halt an old coach served as a waiting room. There was no siding here.
 Thor's Cave station largely served Wetton village.  It had a waiting room.  Its refreshment room was moved to Wetton in 1917.
 Grindon station, located at Weags Bridge, had a loop containing a  standard gauge siding.
 Beeston Tor station had no siding, but a refreshment room.
 Sparrowlee station served Lee House Farm, but nowhere else, and there was not even a waiting room here. The siding included a  standard gauge section.
 At Waterhouses station the platform had booking offices, and there was a goods shed. There were two short loops, and three short sidings which joined with standard gauge lines. The site of the station is now a carpark for the Manifold Trail; a road-widening scheme in the 1960s removed some of the evidence of the L&MR station.

History

Authorised in 1898, this was the narrow gauge section of the Leek Light Railways. The railway ran for 30 years, from 1904 to 1934. Its engineer was Everard Calthrop, a leading advocate of narrow gauge railways and builder of the Barsi Light Railway in India; the chairman of the company was Charles Bill, MP for Leek. A private concern, it was run by the North Staffordshire Railway on a percentage basis, but it later came under the control of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923.

The line was constructed to a high standard, Calthrop applying lessons learned on his other railways. Rail used was 35 lb/yard (17.28 kg/m), and the quality of trackwork is reflected in the fact that no re-laying was ever necessary.

The line was a single track, and most services (which began from Hulme End, where the locomotive sheds were) only involved the use of one engine in steam. There was passing loop at Wetton Mill, but it was never used as such.

At Waterhouses the timetable allowed for connections from Leek.

Trains ran at a maximum speed of , and most halts were run on a request basis.  More than this, the train would also often stop to pick up passengers at other places on the lineside footpath, if requested. Timetables mostly show single journey times of 50 minutes (with some showing an hour).

Most outbound freight consisted of milk, in both churns and bulk tankers, and the products of the dairy goods factory at Ecton. In all, some 300 milk churns were handled daily at Waterhouses, and from 1919 a daily milk train ran from Waterhouses to London specifically for this traffic. Latterly milk tanks were used, carried on the transporter wagons. Passenger traffic was minimal – the settlements were mostly some distance from the line – except on Bank Holidays when all the line's rolling stock was used to run frequent services to handle the crowds.

There was some talk of extending the line northwards to Buxton, whereby Hulme End (and its engine shed) would become the half-way point of the line, but this never materialised.

The railway was filmed in operation for Pathé News in 1930 under the title "A quaint little Railway".

Locomotives and rolling stock
The company only had two locomotives: outside-cylindered 2-6-4Ts, built by Kitson & Co. of Leeds in 1904, which were the first 2-6-4T locomotives to run in Britain - the first standard gauge examples being the Great Central Railway's Class 1B of 1914. Number 1 was named E.R. Calthrop, after the line's engineer, and number 2 was named J.B. Earle (the resident engineer).  Due to the influence of Calthrop, the locomotives had a somewhat colonial appearance with large headlights which were never used. They also had fittings for cow catchers - again never fitted, and they sported rerailing jacks by the smokebox.  The locos were originally painted brown with gold and black lining, after the grouping replaced by crimson lake with gold and black lining. Latterly, after the Great Depression had set in, they ran in plain black.

There was no turntable on the line, and engines ran chimney first towards Waterhouses, despite initial concerns (usually engines on a gradient run the other way, to keep the water over the firebox crown) about the steeper down section (1 in 40) out of Waterhouses. In latter years E.R. Calthrop returned from repairs in Crewe facing the other way, as can be seen in later photographs.

There were four coaches; two first class and two brake composite thirds.  These were originally painted primrose yellow, and later repainted in LMS Midland red.

Freight wagons consisted of one box van and two open wagons.  These open wagons were built by the Leeds Forge Company and were largely designed for the transport of loose milk churns.

Additionally there were also five (four short and one long) transporter wagons, technically "low side bogie goods wagons".  These were supplied by the Cravens Railway Carriage & Wagon Company at a cost of £315 each.  Uniquely in Britain, in a piggy-back style these were capable of carrying standard gauge wagons - particularly milk tankers and coal wagons - to standard gauge sidings along the route.  However, the extra height and width of the loading gauge caused by this arrangement (such as seen in the dimensions of Swainsley Tunnel) undid some of the benefits of using a narrow gauge. This arrangement also meant that standard gauge lengths of track (on sidings) had to be constructed level with the rails of the low transporters.

Frequency of service
Trains started and finished at Hulme End, at the northern end of the line, where the engine sheds were located.

After opening, there were initially three trains daily in each direction. This increased to four on Thursdays and Saturdays (and later to five).
After an attempt by the North Staffordshire Railway as early as 1904 to reduce the service during the winter months to a service only on Wednesdays and Saturdays, the Manifold Company secured an agreement that there should be a minimum of two trains in each direction throughout the year.
On Bank Holidays there were some seven trains daily, and at peak times both engines and all carriages/wagons would be in use - planks and awnings were placed on the open wagons to make them usable by passengers, albeit rather rudimentary.  It is recorded that in Whit Week in 1905 some 5000 passengers were carried, and the most intensive service saw trains operating from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Sunday services began in 1905, but stopped in 1930, thus losing much tourist revenue.

The most important traffic on the line was from the Express Dairies creamery at Ecton. Most of the product was destined via dedicated milk trains for London. In 1911  were brought in from the L&MVLR growing to  in 1922. Initially all the milk was carried in milk churns, which had to be manhandled across the platforms at Waterhouses. But after the First World War the churns were loaded into standard gauge vans taken to and from Ecton on the transporter wagons. Eventually milk tankers were also used, again being transferred between Ecton and Waterhouses on the transporters. The importance of the milk traffic was such that between 1919 and 1926, special milk trains ran direct between Waterhouses and London, rather than the vans being shunted between various trains until the milk reached its ultimate destination. The year after the closure of the creamery in 1933, the L&MVLR closed.

Closure

In 1932 Express Dairies closed its Ecton creamery, concentrating on its new Rowsley creamery, re-routing milk collection in the area to road transport.  The loss of this milk trade removed most of the goods traffic from the line.  Furthermore, the developing motor bus services served the villages much better, these settlements being largely on the hills, and often some distance from the line itself.  The railway closed briefly in consequence, to re-open briefly in 1933, but closed finally to all traffic on Monday 12 March 1934.

J.B.Earle was cut up at the LMSR Crewe railway works, whilst E.R. Calthrop was used in the track-removal train, which worked south from Hulme End, before being itself cut up at Waterhouses.  All that remains of the engines are three name plates.

The line today – The Manifold Way

The Manifold Valley footpath and cycle way (now called the Manifold Way) was opened in July 1937 after the LMS handed over the trackbed to Staffordshire County Council. It continues on to Waterhouses, via Hulme End, as a bridle path, and, being tarmacked throughout, is ideal for wheelchair users, prams, etc. For about , near Wetton Mill, the route is shared with motor traffic where the C-road has been diverted, and this section includes Swainsley tunnel, built by Sir Thomas Wardle who, despite being a shareholder in the railway, did not want to see it crossing his land. Some spectacular scenery can be found along the  route, including Thor's Cave, Wetton Hill and Beeston Tor. Many consider that this section bears comparison with the better-known Dovedale a few miles to the east. (The National Trust own several of these sites, as part of their South Peak Estate.)

The Old Light Railway Hotel at Hulme End is now called the Manifold Inn. There are campsites at Hulme End and Wetton Village.

At Ecton Hill a 4,000-year-old copper mine lies along the route; there is still evidence of the railway's loading platforms along the route of the old railway. A dairy once stood here and one can still see where milk churns were once loaded onto the morning milk train. The Ecton dairy was famous for its Stilton cheese.

The old engine shed at Hulme End opened as a cafe called The Tea Junction in 2010.

Modelling

Slater's Plasticard produce an O16.5 scale kit of the locomotives, with Dorset Kits offering brass coach construction kits together with etched brass kits for both long and short transporter wagons, the open bogie wagons and the bogie van to match in this scale. These can all be built to run on the correct 17.5mm track.

PortWynnstay models of Derby offer a resin outline of the short wheelbase transport car/wagon.

Meridian Models recently produced an (009) scale locomotive body in white metal to fit on a (Minitrix) chassis and Worsley Works produce a basic scratch kit for the carriages, requiring addition of bogies (where applicable), couplings, door handles, and interior to complete. A third company has apparently produced the transporter cars/wagons in this scale.

Roundhouse has produced a live steam model in 1:19 scale, (16mm/foot), of the Kitson 2-6-4 locomotive in the NSR livery.

There is a model at the visitors' centre in Hulme End along one wall inside the former station building. This shows a representation of Hulme End station, yard and nearby buildings in (009) scale with a short run (scaled down distance) to a model of Butterton station.

See also
 British narrow gauge railways
 Cycleways in England
 Rail trails
 2 ft 6 in gauge railways

References
Notes

Bibliography

Further reading

 Jenkins, S.C. Leek and Manifold Light Railway (video)
 Porter, L. (1997) Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway
 Gratton, R. (2005) The Leek and Manifold Light Railway
 Keys R and Porter L (1972) The Manifold Valley and its Light Railway, Moorland publishers

External links

 Staffordshire Past Track has several photographs and a video of the railway in operation
 BFI footage (1930), including the loading of a transporter wagon
 Narrow Gauge Pleasure page
 Details of operating models of the steam locomotives at nearby Rudyard Lake
 Pathé News film of the line in 1933

Closed railway lines in the West Midlands (region)
Rail transport in Staffordshire
History of Staffordshire
2 ft 6 in gauge railways in England
Staffordshire Moorlands
Railway companies established in 1898
Railway lines opened in 1904
Railway companies disestablished in 1923
Railway lines closed in 1934
North Staffordshire Railway
London, Midland and Scottish Railway constituents
Light railways
1904 establishments in England
1923 disestablishments in England
British companies established in 1898
British companies disestablished in 1923

Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway


Solomon ben Semah, also known as Abu Bishr Sulayman ben Semah, was a Jewish scribe who lived in Ramla during the 11th-century. He held a position at the Palestinian talmudical academy. Fragments of his letters to distant Jewish communities were discovered in the Cairo genizah, most of them dealing with public affairs. One of them described the earthquake at Ramla in 1033.

References

People from Ramla
Jewish scribes (soferim)

Solomon ben Semah