St Isidore's is a heritage-listed homestead at 40 Post Office Road, Mapleton, Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from  to  by James Blair Cramb. It is also known as Mapleton Homestead, Seaview House, and St Isidore's Farm College. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 28 July 2000.

History

This substantial, high-set timber residence was erected in the early 1900s in at least two stages, for pioneer Mapleton orchardist William James Smith and his family, at their Seaview Orchard at the top of the Blackall Range. In August 1923 the well-known Seaview Orchard was acquired by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane, the Rev. James Duhig, who hoped to develop it as St Isidore's Farm College. Although this and adjoining farms remained the property of the Church until the early 1950s, the college was never established.

WJ Smith and his brother Thomas David were the first to take up land in the Mapleton district, and had an important association with fruit-growing in Southeast Queensland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They had arrived in Queensland from England in 1880 with their parents, who established banana and strawberry farm at Redland Bay. In 1889 WJ and TD Smith, both in their early twenties, explored the Mapleton district (then unnamed) on the Blackall Range, in search of land suitable for banana growing. Since 1860 the Range had been logged for its extensive cedar, beech and pine resources, but difficulty of access had deterred farming settlement. In 1889 the North Coast railway line was completed as far as Caboolture, and a coach ran to Noosa, but the only way into the Blackall Range was by foot.

The Smith brothers each selected land at the eastern edge of the range, near later Mapleton Falls, but WJ Smith relinquished his claim when he realised the block selected was not the land he anticipated. In 1890 they began clearing Thomas' selection, selling the red cedar to a logging company, and erecting a slab house. Their sister Amy came from Redland Bay to housekeep for them. By 1891 they had established a pasture paddock and had planted bananas (the butts obtained from Redland Bay) and subsistence crops. They also took contracts to open a road into the district – a track suitable for pack horses, opened in 1891.

In the early 1890s other settlers took up land in the area. Bananas were grown initially, but even with the opening of the railway to Nambour in 1890, low prices and the expense and difficulty encountered in transporting produce down the range produced small returns. By 1892, the Smith brothers were pioneering the cultivation of citrus at Mapleton. Strawberries were planted between the citrus seedlings, and these proved profitable as an interim crop.

In September 1891 WJ Smith married Sarah Anne Imogene (Annie) Collins, whose family were Redland Bay settlers, and the couple returned to the Blackall Range. In mid-1892 Smith selected the property which he developed as Seaview Orchard (portion 185v, parish of Maroochy, comprising just under 160 acres of dense vine scrub). About the same time David J Williams, who married Amy Smith in 1892, selected a block adjacent to WJ Smith.

For a brief period the district was known as Luton Vale, after a postal receiving office opened at EH Biggs' Lutonvale Orchard in January 1893. Later, at a public meeting held in March 1894, Mapleton was chosen as the formal name for the settlement, at WJ Smith's suggestion.

During the 1890s, most of the Mapleton settlers resided in slab huts while they established their farms and orchards. DJ Williams reputedly was the first to erect a pit-sawn timber house, in 1895. By August 1897, when WJ Smith was applying for a title to his selection, the family was still residing in a , 4-roomed split timber dwelling with a shingled roof, valued at £20. They had about 8 acres of their 160 acres cleared and planted with fruit trees, 2 acres partly cleared and under grass, and 6 acres felled. Having fulfilled the conditions of selection, title was issued to WJ Smith in January 1898.

By 1900, Mapleton was emerging as an important fruit-growing district. A provisional school opened in mid-1899, and the original Nambour-Mapleton road, used by wheeled vehicles since , had been cleared. The Smiths (David Smith snr (who had joined his sons at Mapleton ), TD Smith and WJ Smith) were the principal citrus growers in the district, Seaview Orchard alone containing over 1,000 fruit trees by 1903. Large quantities of strawberries were still grown, fetching good prices at Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

The first section of Seaview House may have been constructed by October 1906, when the WJ Smiths hosted a luncheon in their barn for the Queensland Governor, Lord Chelmsford, during his brief tour of the Blackall Range. At this time the place was described as a beautiful home, suggesting that it was much more than the slab hut extant in 1897. A photograph published in The Queenslander of 29 July 1911 shows the core of the present house, with its two front gables and front and side verandahs, set in a partly established garden. The house contained 6 rooms originally, but was extended to 10 rooms . The pressed metal internal finishes may have been installed during the extensions, since the Sydney-based pressed metal manufacturer, Wunderlich Ltd, had opened its Brisbane art metal factory and tile yards in January 1913. A photograph published in 1921 but likely taken /16, shows the house in its present form, with the western extension.

Timber used in the construction is likely to have been milled locally, WH Rosser having opened the Mapleton Sawmill, about  northwest of the township in January 1909. Although destroyed by fire , it was quickly rebuilt by Rosser and Willbrandt on the eastern side of Mapleton Hall grounds.

The builder of Seaview House was James Blair Cramb, who married the Smiths' daughter Ethel Florence (Florrie) in 1912. He also built DJ Williams' new home, Caringa, . The Williams were neighbours of the WJ Smiths, related by marriage, and their homes, situated within close proximity, were very similar in appearance. Caringa has been moved to Yandina.

In 1910, WJ Smith subdivided portion 185v, parish of Maroochy, Seaview house and orchard remaining on approximately 35 acres.

By the early 1910s Mapleton was a prosperous agricultural district, specialising in citrus and banana growing and dairying. In 1914-1915 Maroochy Shire Council extended the former Moreton Central Mill tramline from Kureelpa to Mapleton to serve the Blackall Range fruitgrowers. The Range had become one of the leading fruit-producing districts in Queensland, and Seaview Orchard was famous.

The WJ Smiths were pioneers and leaders in their local community, assisting many new farmers in the district. They were heavily involved with the Mapleton Methodist Church and William was a member of the local masonic order and of the School Committee, Tramway Committee, and Progress Association, being elected President of the latter in June 1911. In 1914 he was made chairman of the influential Queensland Fruitgrowers' Industrial Trading Society. Annie Smith was noted for her community activities, and for her First World War patriotic work. In 1919 they retired from citrus growing and moved to Northgate in Brisbane, but prior to their leaving the Mapleton district, they were accorded a public farewell and address. In 1928 they moved to Maroochydore, where they conducted a store at Picnic Point for some years. Both William and Annie died in the 1950s, when in their eighties.

In 1919 WJ Smith sold Seaview Orchard and residence to James Miller, who in 1923 sold the orchard to the Archbishop of Brisbane, Rev. James Duhig. The sale included Seaview House: a large roomy structure, with a delightful garden in front, artistically laid out, with graceful palms at the entrance. Duhig acquired in total about 130 acres at Mapleton, which he intended to develop as a Catholic agricultural college. A dormitory wing extension to Seaview House was planned; a farm manager was employed; and the property was renamed St Isidore's Farm College. However, Duhig's vision was not shared by the Brisbane diocese in general, who refused to finance the establishment of a Catholic agricultural college at Mapleton. In addition, Duhig failed to attract a monastic order to take charge of the proposed college. He more or less abandoned the farm manager, who could not run the place effectively by himself and without funds. The once fine orchard was allowed to deteriorate, and the place was in debt. In June 1932, when Messrs D Zalatel & Co. took possession of the furniture at St Isidore's Farm College, the former Seaview residence had been little altered, comprising hall, sitting room, dining room, kitchen, pantry, breakfast room, laundry, four bedrooms, one verandah bedroom, and a bathroom.

It is unlikely that the former Seaview Orchard would have been sustained, even had the college become a reality. From the 1930s to the 1950s, citrus growing in the Mapleton district gradually gave way to dairying, timber, small cropping and, in the 1950s, pineapples. The once spectacularly successful commercial citrus industry on the Blackall Range disappeared, due to a collapse in the citrus market in the early 1930s, insect damage, and competition from citrus farming in irrigated areas (such as the Lockyer Valley).

By February 1947, when the National Catholic Rural Movement (NCRM) took over management of St Isidore's Farm College, aiming to bring it back into production and to establish an Agricultural Training College, there was no cultivation and no livestock on the farm, the property was overgrown with weeds, and its three houses, including the former Seaview residence, were in disrepair. Within eight months, under a capable farm manager, fields of potatoes, onions and citrus trees had been planted, there were plans to begin softwood silviculture, and an additional 150 acres had been purchased. Yet again, the college did not eventuate. In 1951 Duhig sold the property, which was worked as a private farm until subdivision in the late 1960s, following a real estate boom as weekend hobby farmers and retirees supplanted dairy farmers and fruit growers.

Mapleton is now principally a residential and tourist area, with some small-scale fruit and vegetable farming. By 1980, the former Seaview House was situated on a considerably reduced block of approximately . Known as Mapleton Homestead through the 1980s, it functioned as a private residence until opened in 1990 as Sea View Guest House, run by the MacDonagh family, and later by the O'Briens. The house was sold on yet a smaller subdivision in 1995, the new owners returning it to a family home and renaming it St Isidore's. The front yard remains, although the original garden layout has been altered. The front section of the garden, closest to the road, has been subdivided as two blocks, with different owners.

Description
St Isidore's is a large, high-set timber residence, situated on the eastern edge of the Blackall Range, at Mapleton. From the eastern rooms and verandahs, there are extensive views over the Maroochy Plains to the Pacific Ocean. The house once formed the vista at the northern end of the main road through Mapleton, but trees in the front garden now obscure the house from the street. The house is timber-framed, clad externally mostly with weatherboards, and with vertically-jointed boards on those external walls protected by front or side verandahs. The western extension, which is of a later date to the core of the house, is clad in chamferboards. The original diagonally arranged battens between the stumps have been replaced with later weatherboards, but most of this is obscured by surrounding garden plantings.

St Isidore's presents an aesthetically pleasing exterior, engendered largely by its complex hipped roof clad with corrugated iron sheeting (not the original), and decorative timberwork to verandahs and gables. The house has front and side projecting gables, separate roofs over front and side verandahs, and a projecting, gabled portico over the centrally positioned front steps. There is decorative timber lattice, or a combination of lattice and fretwork, on each of the gables, including the front portico, but that on the western gable, which is a later addition, is much simpler in design. All the gables have timber finials. The eastern verandah has been enclosed, but the front and western verandahs retain their original timber detailing, including double chamfered posts with brackets and a simple dowel balustrade. A late 20th century deck extension off the enclosed eastern verandah, with its side entrance, has a replica gabled portico and steps, echoing that on the front elevation.

There have been a number of alterations to the rear (north) elevation, including the addition of a skillion-roofed, weatherboard-enclosed bathroom at the western end, and a recent breakfast room off the kitchen. Attached to the rear of the house is a conservatory. The remaining back yard is taken up by a swimming pool and garage.

Externally, the house suggests a symmetrical plan, but internally, the rooms are arranged in an idiosyncratic fashion, reflective of its construction in at least two stages. The /16 layout is still highly readable, despite the removal of several internal walls and the creation of an ensuite bathroom for each of the four bedrooms.

The interior is remarkable for its extensive use of decorative pressed metal ceilings, cornices, ceiling roses, architraves, and dados, in almost every room of the house. Many of the designs are Art Nouveau in inspiration, including that of the dado panels in the vestibule, which has been identified in an early 20th century Wunderlich catalogue. There is also a pressed metal architrave used externally on the bay window to the bedroom in the front southwest corner of the house. This window is protected by a verandah.

In addition, much use of early 20th century coloured glass has been made throughout the house – in windows, doors, side and fanlights to doors and to windows, and as a screen between the entrance vestibule and the hallway which leads to the bedrooms. Etched glass has also been used, although not as extensively.

The most distinctive change has been the removal of two walls in the eastern wing, to form one large, L-shaped living room from two smaller rooms and a passageway. However, the pressed metal ceilings of the original rooms have been retained, indicating the original room arrangement. Large, clear-glass casement windows in the eastern and northern walls of this large room offer extensive views to the ocean.

The interior has been painted throughout, and some of the floors have had new timber laid over the original flooring.

The grounds contain several mature trees, possibly part of the early 20th century garden, including a large fig tree on the northern boundary of the house block. Some of the early garden layout may survive.

Heritage listing
St Isidore's was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 28 July 2000 having satisfied the following criteria.

The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history.

St Isidore's, erected in the early 1900s (in at least two stages) as the residence on Seaview Orchard, has historical significance for its association with the successful development of the Blackall Range as one of the principal citrus-producing districts in Queensland in the early 20th century.

The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage.

It is also significant as one of the few remaining substantial homes of this era left on the Range.

The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.

The house is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial and well-detailed early 20th century rural residence.

The place is important because of its aesthetic significance.

It has a number of aesthetic qualities, including the gabled form; decorative facade with wide verandahs intended to take advantage of the breezes and views over the Maroochy plains to the Pacific Ocean; extensive use of decorative pressed metal panelling and coloured glass; and the garden setting.

The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history.

The place is significant for its association with WJ Smith and his family and their important contribution to the establishment and growth of Mapleton and to the development of fruitgrowing in Queensland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

References

Attribution

External links

Queensland Heritage Register
Buildings and structures on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Homesteads in Queensland
Articles incorporating text from the Queensland Heritage Register

St Isidore's


Otis Ferguson (August 14, 1907 – September 14, 1943) was an American writer best remembered for his music and film reviews in The New Republic in the 1930s.

Although he can be seen as a predecessor to film critics James Agee, Manny Farber, Pauline Kael, and Andrew Sarris, he has been characterized by Robert Christgau as "the first rock critic" due to his appreciation of jazz and its impact on popular culture. Ferguson died in action during World War II.

His film criticism is praised and discussed by critics Richard Schickel and Wesley Morris in the documentary film For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism (2009).

On the release of The Wizard of Oz (1939) Ferguson wrote a notoriously negative review. In the review, he made the remark, "It has dwarfs, Technicolor, freak characters, and Judy Garland. It can't be expected to have a sense of humor as well."

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Ferguson joined the Merchant Marine. He died in 1943, aged 36, when his ship was bombed while anchored in the Gulf of Salerno.

Bibliography
 The Film Criticism of Otis Ferguson, edited by Robert Wilson, with a foreword by Andrew Sarris (Temple University Press, 1971)
 In the Spirit of Jazz: The Otis Ferguson Reader, edited by Dorothy Chamberlain and Robert Wilson (December Press, 1982; Da Capo, 1997)

Notes

External links
An essay about Ferguson from Senses of Cinema

1907 births
1943 deaths
American film critics
American music critics
Jazz writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
United States Merchant Mariners of World War II
United States Navy personnel killed in World War II
Deaths by airstrike during World War II

Otis Ferguson


Poltava Air Base (, ) is a military airfield located approximately  northwest of Poltava, Ukraine. It is one of two airfields near Poltava, the other being Poltava Airport.

History

In 1936 the Poltava airfield became a base for Soviet military aviation.

World War II
German forces occupied the  Poltava area from September 1941 until September 1943 as part of Reichskommissariat Ukraine. The Luftwaffe maintained a regional headquarters at the airfield, and Adolf Hitler visited on one occasion (1 June 1942). When they evacuated the area, the Germans placed 12 500-lb bombs connected to a distant, concealed HF-antenna under the main building. (Nearby structures had been largely destroyed.) The bomb was discovered when Soviet-American forces re-commissioned the base in spring 1944.

In February 1944 the Soviets provided the field to the United States Army Air Forces as a heavy-bomber staging-field for use by the Eighth and Fifteenth Air Forces in shuttle-bombing missions against German-held territory (Operation Frantic, June to September 1944). After an intense construction season with increasing American presence, the field was declared ready for U.S. bomber use at the end of May 1944. A high-level USAAF team led by General Frederick Anderson (accompanied by Colonel Elliott Roosevelt and others) inspected the base that month. The runways comprised Marsden steel matting imported from the United States, and the fuel depot was filled with high-octane aviation gasoline from the U.S. A Soviet fighter regiment and several support aircraft were stationed at the field.

Poltava was designated as USAAF Station 559 and became headquarters, Eastern Command, headed by General Alfred Kessler. Two smaller nearby U.S. fields, also along the Kiev railway, were Mirgorod and Pyriatyn (Stations 561 and 560).

Operation Frantic began with 325th Reconnaissance Wing flights from England and Italy in late May 1944, and a photo lab and reconnaissance detachment with a few F-5 Lightnings were based at Poltava. Bombing runs (FRANTIC-1) began from Italy (15th Air Force) on 2 June 1944, returning four days later. The concept of operations was for American aircraft to use England (8th Air Force), Italy, and the Ukrainian bases as vertices of a triangular bombing campaign against Axis targets in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

Difficulties for the US forces began almost immediately, with a good example being how Joseph Stalin promised US military leaders that the Soviets would handle all air base defenses.  Stalin's idea of airbase defense consisted of truck-mounted .50 caliber machine-guns. Stalin's airbase defense strategy proved entirely ineffective on the night of 21 June when a Luftwaffe attack on the base proved an entire success, as not a single Luftwaffe plane was shot down by the .50 cal truck-mounted machine-guns supplied by Stalin for defense.

After seven distinct FRANTIC shuttle operations, bombing missions of Operation Frantic ended in September 1944. At that time, increasing inter-Allied hostility and a decreasing need for the Ukrainian bases caused the USAAF to consolidate at Poltava and to reduce the base there to a caretaker status. U.S. personnel there declined from a peak of about 1,300 to around 300. American command and maintenance personnel of Operation Frantic remained at Poltava until June 22, 1945 according to operation commander Brigadier General William L. Ritchie.  That is the date that he and the last remaining American military personnel left Poltava to attend a victory-parade celebration in Moscow as propaganda guests of Stalin the next day. Most Americans exited via Tehran, the same way they had arrived.

German Air Attack
Spirited celebrations at Poltava during FRANTIC-1 marked the high point of U.S.-Soviet air cooperation. FRANTIC-2, which arrived from England late on 21 June, triggered equal euphoria that ended abruptly with air raid warnings beginning around midnight. Personnel retreated to new slit trenches distant from the aircraft parking area. For this reason, U.S. personnel losses were limited to two killed and several wounded in the subsequent German air attack.

About eighty German aircraft combined in one of history's most effective bombing raids, lasting over two hours. He 111Hs began with level bombardment, followed by low-altitude strafing by Ju 88s. He 177As provided before-and-after reconnaissance. According to the internal history: "43 Fortresses were destroyed or damaged beyond repair; 3 C-47s and 1 F-5 were likewise destroyed. 26 Fortresses, 2 C-47s and 1 C-46, and 25 Russian aircraft (mainly Yak fighters) were heavily damaged but repairable; over 450,000 gallons of gasoline were destroyed and over 500 gallons of aircraft oil; over 3200 bombs, 26,000 bomb fuses, and 1,360,000 cartridges were destroyed."

25 Russians were killed on the night of the raid, but anti-personnel bomblets continued to go off for weeks after the attack, causing continuing casualties.

Flyable aircraft from all three bases were evacuated next morning to Soviet air bases farther east. The other two bases were attacked the next nights. Surviving bombers consolidated into one group and flew home several days later.

The disaster infuriated many Americans because Soviet air defenses were completely ineffective. The head of the Military Mission in Moscow, General John Deane reported back: "The Russian anti-aircraft and fighter defenses failed miserably. Their anti-aircraft batteries fired 28,000 rounds of medium and heavy shells, assisted by searchlights, without bringing down a single German plane. There were supposed to be 40 Yaks on hand as night fighters, but only four or five of them got off the ground. Both their anti-aircraft and night fighters lacked the radar devices which made ours so effective." (If nothing else, the statements by a ranking American that "the Russian...anti-aircraft batteries fired 28,000 rounds of medium and heavy shells..." and that "...only four or five (Yaks) got off the ground" completely refutes certain other claims that the Russians provided nothing more than a single truck carrying .50 caliber machine guns as air defense.) Although no such claim is made concerning "one truck" carrying .50 caliber machine guns, it is likely General Deane was referring to the 28,000 rounds fired being a combination of mostly heavy .50 caliber shells along with some medium Yak fired shells.  The point being that the Russian defenses could not hit the broad side of a barn, or were not trying to actually shoot down the attacking Luftwaffe planes during the three-hour attack.  Five Yaks taking to the air constituted a small fraction of what could have been put into the air to counter the Luftwaffe attack.  For all intents and purposes, the only defenses provided by Stalin were indeed American made .50 caliber machine guns mounted on American made trucks.

American fighters were not permitted to take off (U.S. air operations were governed by a cumbersome 24-hour-long permitting process), but without radar they would have been equally ineffective.  Radar would not have been required to track and locate the attacking Luftwaffe planes.  Everyone knew where they were coming from and what their target was.  Hansen is a counterproductive and unreliable source.  The main point is that Stalin would not allow any effective defenses during the attack by the Luftwaffe.  In the preceding paragraph General Deane stated the Yaks had no radar available like our night fighters there did.

Afterwards the USAAF discontinued heavy bomber operations at Poltava for about a month. FRANTIC-3 and 4 consisted of long-range fighters. The Americans also insisted on stationing radar-equipped night fighters, P-61s of the 427th Night Fighter Squadron, at Poltava, but Soviet permission could not be obtained.

When further issues arose over resupply of the Warsaw uprising (also denied), and a hostile environment at the bases replaced previous amity, the USAAF decided to downgrade the base, and major operations ended by late September.

A few Americans (particularly Infield) have later asserted that Joseph Stalin had been complicit in the German attack, and that the USSR did not want the Americans to "settle in" in Ukraine. More temperate analyses suggest that Stalin wanted to learn from American strategic air power, and when he had obtained what he wanted, cooperation turned to hostility. At any rate, the winter of 1945 at Poltava was characterized by poor morale, orchestrated violence against servicemen, theft of American stores, and non-cooperation with American requests. Before evacuation, the U.S. commander dumped equipment in the river instead of turning it over.

However, all sources agree that the Americans initially received excellent cooperation from the VVS and from the local population, and that obstructions were the work of the Soviet political structure. Ukrainian local women worked extremely hard on completing the base, and initially associated freely with American servicemen. A local black market and barter trade developed. During and after the German raid, locals were sent to fight fires and disable bombs with resulting high casualties.

The American experience at Poltava informed a generation of USAF officers about the Soviet Union, in many ways precipitating the Cold War well before the political leadership gave up on trying to work with the Soviets. However, analysts agree that as a bombing tactic against the Axis, the Frantic raids were of limited effectiveness and entirely disproportionate to the enormous effort invested in the program.

Cold War
After the war the airfield was rebuilt and was used as a Soviet Air Defence Forces base. Dispersal hardstands were built attached to each end of the single runway, expanded for jet aircraft use, some being hardened with Tab-Vee concrete shelters.  It was known as Air Base A2673

From 1945, the airfield was used by the 13th Guards Dnepropetrovsko-Budapeshtskaya order of Suvorov Heavy Bomber Aviation Division (:ru:13-я гвардейская бомбардировочная авиационная дивизия) of Soviet Long Range Aviation. The division traced its history back to the 52nd Aviation Division formed on 5 November 1940. From 1945 to the 13th Division came under the command of the 2nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Corps. On 10 January 1949 a decree was issued renaming the 2nd Corps the 70th Guards Bomber Aviation Corps (which became "Heavy Bomber" the next year). The first Tupolev Tu-4s, copies of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, arrived that year. Since 1956, all the regiments of the 13th Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Division were retrained on Tupolev Tu-16 (ASCC "Badger") heavy jet bombers, with the ability to deliver nuclear weapons. In August 1956, the 70th Guards Heavy Bomber Bryansk Aviation Corps was disbanded and the division became directly subordinate to the 43rd Air Army DA of Long Range Aviation.

Subsequently, the division was successively included in the 2nd Separate Heavy Bomber Aviation Corps, formed on the basis of formations of the disbanded 43rd Air Army of Long-Range Aviation, and from August 1, 1980 - in the 46th Air Army.

After the collapse of the USSR from late 1991, on January 1, 1992, the division became part of the Ukrainian Air Force. The Ukrainian Air Force eventually deployed the Tu-22M3 with the 185th Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment (GvTBAP), before this unit was finally disbanded in 2006.

The base was used by the:
 224th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment between 1945 and 1947

Post-Cold War

From 1991 to 1992 the Soviet Air Force was superseded in Ukraine by the Ukrainian Air Force, which eventually deployed the Tu-22M3 with the 185th GvTBAP, before this unit was finally disbanded in 2006.

In February 2015 the 18th Army Aviation Brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces was formed here. The main equipment: Mi-2MSB, Mi-8MSB and Mi-24P.

Poltava Museum of Long-Range Aviation

Several Soviet military aircraft are on static display at the end of a large dispersal runway .  On display are: Antonov AN-26 (61 Blue) transport; Tupolev Tu-95 bomber; Tupolev Tu-22M3 (80 Blue) bomber; Tupolev Tu-22KD bomber (63 Red); Tupolev Tu-16 (25 Blue) bomber; Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 fighter; Sukhoi Su-24 attack aircraft.

Also, a Tupolev Tu-160 (20 Red), supersonic, variable-sweep wing heavy strategic bomber inherited from the former Soviet Union is on display.  It is the only known example of this aircraft on public display.

References

Citations

 Anderson, Barry, (1985), United States Air Forces Stations, Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA), Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.

 Albert Lepawsky, History of Eastern Command, U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Europe, 13 December 1944. SECRET, declassified. Detailed report in twelve parts. Copy at Air Force Historical Research Agency.

Bibliography
 Infield, Glenn: The Poltava Affair. McMillan, New York, 1973.
 Hansen, Chris: Enfant Terrible: The Times and Schemes of General Elliott Roosevelt. Able Baker, Tucson, 2012. See chapter on Operation Frantic, pp. 354–386.  Uses in part, Soviet sources.
 Deane, John: Strange Alliance. Viking, 1946. Deals with the American Military Mission in Moscow.
 Conversino, Mark: Fighting with the Russians. U. of Kansas Press, 1991.
 A USAAF film, Operation Titanic, shows scenes of US-Soviet cooperation and celebrations at Poltava. (Titanic referred to the 8th Air Force portion of Frantic.)
 Jeremy Dronfield and Lee Trimble: Beyond The Call: The True Story of One World War II Pilot's Covert Mission to Rescue POWs on the Eastern Front, Berkeley Hardcover, 2014, recounts an OSS operation to aid POWs on the Eastern Front-based from Poltava air base.

External links
http://www.ww2.dk/new/air%20force/regiment/bap/185gvtbap.htm

Ukrainian airbases
Soviet Air Defence Force bases
Ukrainian Long Range Aviation
Airports built in the Soviet Union
Buildings and structures in Poltava
Soviet Long Range Aviation bases

Poltava Air Base


Francisco Adolfo "Flor" Crombet Tejera was a Cuban patriot and participated in the three independence conflicts. He was appointed head, in commission, of the division of Cuba and Bayamo and was Major General. He landed with Antonio Maceo Grajales for "Duaba". He participated in the Ten Years' War and protested with Maceo in Mangos de Baraguá in defense of the total and definitive independence of Cuba.

Biography

Early Years
He was born in El Cobre, Santiago de Cuba, Oriente Province, on September 17, 1851 . He was a student of the terrain and of the ordinances and laws of the Cuban Revolutionary Army, for which he distinguished himself as a disciplined and zealous officer of duties.

Ten Years' and Little Wars
Crombet participated in all 3 campaigns of Cuban independence. It won 20 November 1868 incorporated as a soldier forces Colonel Angel Bárzaga . Ten days later he was subordinated to then-Colonel Jesús Pérez. He earned his ranks on the battlefield .

His fame spread throughout eastern Cuba, especially in Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo, and he participated in the preparations for the so-called Little War. Some historians affirm that his second surname was Calderín and others state that it was Bayón. He was promoted to corporal second for the attack on Nueva Málaga; out of Primera for the capture of La Dorotea, as second sergeant for the attack on La Matilde, sergeant on July 22, 1869, for the attack on La Aurora, promoted to Ensign for the Defense of the Gurjiay camp, promoted to lieutenant for the taking of Tio Juan, promoted to Captain on September 13, 1869, by taking El Cristal, promoted to Commander in December to August 1871 for service in the Battle of Cafetal La Indiana and finally to Lt. Col. July 24, 1872, for the attack on Shammah.

In July 1873 he was subordinate to Brigadier General Antonio Maceo , head of the second division of the first Oriental body. He was chosen by Major General Máximo Gómez to integrate the first invading contingent at the beginning of 1874. During the combat of Naranjo Mojacasabe ( February 10, 1874) he received a wound on his upper lip that marked him forever. He participated in the Battle of Las Guásimas on March 19, 1874) and in the attack on "Caobillas" ( September 10, 1874), all in the Camagüey Province.

On September 30, 1874, he returned to the East , together with Maceo, to rejoin the Cuba division . (First Corps of the Second Division). On 3 March as 1875 he participated in the attack on wit "Sabanilla". On October 27, 1875, he was promoted to colonel. In January 1876 he attacked and took the village of "Guayabales". In 1877 he was appointed chief of the "Guanimao Regiment" and participated in the attack on "El Cobre" and in the defense of his camp at "El Aguacate".

Baraguá Protest
He played an active role in the Baraguá Protest, where he reproached Major General Antonio Maceo for granting the interview to the Spanish Captain General Arsenio Martínez Campos, considering that he should not have any contact with the enemy. The provisional government of Baraguá promoted him to brigadier general and appointed him head, in commission, of the division of Cuba and Bayamo. On May 8, 1878, Crombet and his men attacked the village sawmill.

Actions Abroad
After capitulating, he fled to New York City, United States, to return months later with the aim of organizing a new uprising. When he was preparing for the Little War in the Eastern parts of the island, he was arrested in Santiago de Cuba, on March 13, 1879, and sent to Spain. After 23 months in prison and exile, he managed to escape and settle in Central America.

In Honduras he held the positions of commander general of the department of La Paz, inspector general of barracks and secretary of the supreme court of war and justice, successively, which he resigned in 1884 to dedicate himself to the preparations for a new war of independence in Cuba . In 1890 he had an active participation in the frustrated conspiracy known as "La Paz del Manganeso". Discovered, he was forced to leave for Costa Rica, from where he collaborated in the organization of the "Fernandina Plan".

In the United States, he met José Martí, who appointed him to lead the expedition that would arrive on Cuban shores on April 1, 1895 to restart the Cuban War of Independence.

Cuban War of Independence
He failed, he left Puerto Limon, Costa Rica on 25 March 1895 in the steamer "Adirondack" to the front of 22 expedition members , among whom were brothers Antonio and José Maceo. After stopping off at Kingston, Jamaica , they headed to Fortuna Island, in The Bahamas, where they boarded the schooner Honor.

They landed on April 1, 1895, at Duaba, near Baracoa, Oriente , being tenaciously pursued by the enemy. On the 8th, an encounter with an ambush mounted by the guerrillas caused the group to disperse.

Death
From October to April 1895, Crombet fell while fighting in Alto de Palmarito, Baracoa , where the event is remembered and that repeated phrase martiana: "... Flor has a noble heart, sound judgment and think as I think about future destinations of Cuba ".

On June 30, 1899 , the executive committee of the Assembly of Representatives of the Cuban revolution, issued diploma Major General on April 1, 1895 .

References

Bibliography
 radioguantanamo
 somosjovenes
 Encyclopedic Dictionary of Military History of Cuba. Part 1 (1510-1898). Volume I. Biographies, Verde Olivo Editions, Havana, 2004.

1851 births
1895 deaths
Cuban generals
People of the Ten Years' War
19th-century Cuban military personnel
Cuban independence activists
People from Spanish Cuba

Flor Crombet


The plate lunch () is a quintessentially Hawaiian meal, roughly analogous to Southern U.S. meat-and-threes. However, the combination of American and pan-Asian influence makes the plate lunch unique to Hawaii.

Standard plate lunches consist of two scoops of white rice, macaroni salad (in an American style), and an entrée (usually in a Japanese style such as chicken katsu or teriyaki). A plate lunch with more than one entrée is often called a "mixed plate".

Origins

Although the exact origin of the Hawaiian plate lunch is disputed, according to Professor Jon Okamura of the University of Hawaiʻi, the plate lunch likely grew out of the Japanese bento, because "bentos were take away kinds of eating and certainly the plate lunch continues that tradition". Its appearance in Hawaii in recognizable form goes back to the 1880s when plantation workers were in high demand by the fruit and sugar companies on the islands. Laborers were brought to Hawaii from around the world, including from China, Japan, Portugal, and the Philippines. Kaui Philpotts, former food editor of the Honolulu Advertiser, notes that the laborers "didn't eat sandwiches or things like that; it was leftover rice and a lot of things like canned meat or teriyaki or cold meat or maybe scrambled eggs or pickles, and almost no salad or vegetable." Later on, macaroni salad was added to the plates, as it seemed to bridge national tastes and also mixed well with gravy-covered slabs of meat. Some locations also include the traditional Korean side dish kimchi.

As the days of the plantations came to an end, plate lunches began to be served on-site by lunch wagons to construction workers and day laborers. Later, local hole-in-the-wall restaurants and other stand-alone plate lunch restaurants began popping up, then plate lunch franchises. Eventually, these made their way to the U.S. mainland such as the L&L Drive-Inn chain in California in 1999. L&L founder Eddie Flores rebranded it "L&L Hawaiian Barbecue", explaining that "When we went to the mainland, the name 'Hawaiian' is a draw, because everyone just fantasized, everyone wants to come to Hawaii."

Popular entrées
Popular plate lunch entrées overwhelmingly reflect Asian influence.  Chicken katsu (fried boneless chicken breaded with Japanese bread crumbs) and beef teriyaki ("teri beef") are Japanese origin. A common side dish with plate lunches is fried noodles, often chow mein, chow fun or saimin noodles.

Korean entrées include kalbi and meat jun. Some side dishes are taegu, a dish made of shredded codfish, and kongnamul muchim, a dish made of seasoned soybean sprouts.

Other Asian ethnic contributions include the Okinawan shoyu pork (Okinawan: rafute), Chinese-influenced char siu pork, and Filipino chicken adobo and longanisa.  Western European dishes include linguiça, a traditional Portuguese sausage.

Entrées of Hawaiian origin include kālua puaʻa (roast pork) and laulau (pork or other meat or fish wrapped in a taro leaf). Some side dishes are lomi-lomi salmon (salmon salad) and haupia (a coconut dessert).

The traditional mayonnaise-based macaroni salad is an American contribution. Another notably American element is the hamburger steak, a ground beef patty smothered with brown gravy served atop rice; adding a sunny-side-up egg makes it a loco moco.

See also

References

External links
History of the Hawaiian Plate Lunch (New York Times, 2008)
Southern California Plate Lunch Connection
Origins of the plate lunch story from KHNL
"What's in a Hawaiian Plate Lunch?" (video)
Politics of the Plate Lunch, 1997 exhibition at the Japanese American National Museum

Food combinations
Hawaiian cuisine
Hawaiian fusion cuisine
Japanese fusion cuisine
Lunch dishes
Restaurant terminology
Serving and dining

Plate lunch


College Hill is a neighborhood within the city limits of Tampa, Florida, in the United States. As of the 2010 census the neighborhood had a population of 703. However this includes only the subdivision of Belmont Heights Estates. Neighboring Ponce de Leon Estates is also part of this neighborhood the ZIP Codes serving the neighborhood are 33605 and 33610. The neighborhood is part of the East Tampa District. The neighborhood includes a new community of Belmont Heights Estates, which was built out in 2002 to replace substandard housing in the area.

History
The first records show the area listed as A.F. Randall's College Hill Subdivision in 1887. The area was outside of the city limits of Tampa until 1927, and lacked water and sewer connections and most other basic services. The area was mostly rented to blacks, and became the largest black neighborhood in Tampa. College Hill was "practically the only place in Tampa where Negroes can buy building lots at present", wrote Benjamin Mays, director of the Tampa Urban League, in 1927.

The public housing projects College Hill Homes and Ponce de Leon Court played a major role in the area, beginning in the 1940s. They were torn down at the beginning of the twenty-first century The area has been the location of several riots. The area was heavily affected by the cocaine epidemic of the 1980s, causing heavy crime in the area.

Geography
College Hill boundaries are 26th Avenue to the south, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the north, 29th Street to the east and 15th Street to the west. This area is the southern part of the Belmont Heights Neighborhood and is often considered to be part of it

Demographics
Source: Hillsborough County Atlas

As of the 2010 census, there were 703 people and 217 households residing in the neighborhood. The population density was 4,991/mi². The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 4% White, 91% African American, 0% Native American, 0% Asian or Pacific Islander, 2% from other races and 3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8% of the population.

Of the 217 households 39% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 21% were married couples living together, 47% had a female householder with no husband present, and 3% were non-families. 22% of households were made up of individuals.

The age distribution was 35% under the age of 18, 23% from 18 to 34, 17% from 35 to 49, 16% from 50 to 64, and 12% 65 or older. For every 100 females, there were 89.8 males.

The per capita income for the neighborhood was $12,159. About 42% of the population were below the poverty line, 44% of those are under the age of 18.

See also
Neighborhoods in Tampa, Florida

References

External links
College Hill Civic Association
College Hill and Ponce de Leon: A Work in Progress
College Hill of past now calamity's home St. Petersburg Times

Neighborhoods in Tampa, Florida

College Hill (Tampa)


Baker was a controversial figure. Although he was genuine in his efforts to better Tonga, he was not free of megalomania. But whatever his personal shortcomings, without him as prime minister in the first years of the new nation, Tonga would have collapsed and become a colony without doubt. He took over from Tēvita ʻUnga, who had no idea what premiership was about and had left a mess behind. Baker reorganised, enforced taxation, made regulations, and many more. Shortly as administrator he was perfect and loyal to the state. But missionaries, traders and Tongan chiefs, who saw their real or imagined privileges sacrified to the state, they became his bitter enemy. After 10 years they were able to seize on an error the overstressed Baker made and had him deported from Tonga. Siaosi U. Tukuʻaho became his successor. And a few months later the nation was in absolute mess again.
I.C. Campbell; Island kingdom; Canterbury press, 2001

Shirley Waldemar Baker/en


A  (; ) is a specialized top-level educational institution in France.  are part of an alternative educational system that operates alongside the mainstream French public university system and are dedicated to teaching, research and professional training in single academic fields such as engineering, architecture, business administration, academic research, or public policy and administration.

 admit students through a highly selective examination process, hence a significant portion of their graduates obtains influential roles in French business, academia, civil service and civil society.  primarily admit students based on their national ranking in written and oral exams called , which are organized annually by the French Ministry of Education. While anyone can register for , successful candidates have almost always completed two or three years of dedicated preparatory classes () prior to admission. As they are separate from universities, most of them do not deliver the undergraduate degree of the diplôme de licence but deliver master's grande école degrees.

 are generally publicly funded and therefore have limited tuition costs. Some, especially business schools (), are organised privately and therefore have more costly tuition.

Classification of grandes écoles

Origins
The term grande école originated in 1794 after the French Revolution, when the National Convention created the , the mathematician Gaspard Monge and Lazare Carnot created the École centrale des travaux publics (later the École polytechnique), and the abbot Henri Grégoire created the .

The model was probably the military academy at Mézières, of which Monge was an alumnus. The selective admission opens up to higher education based on academic merit.

Some schools included in the category have roots in the 17th and 18th centuries and are older than the term grande école, which dates to 1794. Their forerunners were schools aimed at graduating civil servants, such as technical officers (École d'Arts et Métiers, renamed Arts et Métiers ParisTech, established in 1780), mine supervisors (École des mines de Paris, established in 1783), bridge and road engineers (École royale des ponts et chaussées, established in 1747), and shipbuilding engineers (École des ingénieurs-constructeurs des vaisseaux royaux, established in 1741).

Five military engineering academies and graduate schools of artillery were established in the 17th century in France, such as the école de l'artillerie de Douai (established in 1697) and the later école du génie de Mézières (established in 1748), wherein mathematics, chemistry and sciences were already a major part of the curriculum taught by first-rank scientists such as Pierre-Simon Laplace, Charles Étienne Louis Camus, Étienne Bézout, Sylvestre-François Lacroix, Siméon Denis Poisson, Gaspard Monge (most of whom were later to form the teaching corps of École Polytechnique during the Napoleonic era).

In 1802, Napoleon created the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr, which is also considered a grande école, although it trains only army officers.

During the 19th century, a number of higher-education grandes écoles were established to support industry and commerce, such as École nationale supérieure des Mines de Saint-Étienne in 1816, École supérieure de Commerce de Paris (today ESCP Business School, founded in 1819), L'institut des sciences et industries du vivant et de l'environnement (Agro ParisTech) in 1826, and École centrale des Arts et Manufactures (École centrale Paris) in 1829.

During the latter part of the 19th century and in the 20th century, more grandes écoles were established for education in businesses as well as newer fields of science and technology, including Rouen Business School (NEOMA Business School) in 1871, Sciences Po Paris in 1872, École nationale supérieure des télécommunications in 1878, Hautes Études commerciales in 1881, École supérieure d'électricité in 1894, Ecole des hautes Etudes commerciales du Nord in 1906 , Ecole Supérieure des Sciences économiques et commerciales in 1907, and Supaero in 1909.

Since then, France has had a unique dual higher education system, with small and middle-sized specialized graduate schools operating alongside the traditional university system. Some fields of study are nearly exclusive to one part of this dual system, such as medicine in universités only, or architecture in écoles only.

The grande école (and "prépa") system also exists in former French colonies, Switzerland, and Italy (Napoleon, as king of Italy for ten years, established the French system there). The influence of this system was strong in the 19th century throughout the world, as can be seen in the original names of many world universities (Caltech was originally "Polytechnic Institute", as was ETH Zürich—"the Polytechnicum"—in addition to the Polytechnique in Montréal. Some institutions in China, Russia, the UK, and the US also have names of some French grandes écoles, adapted to their languages). The success of the German and Anglo-Saxon university models from the late 19th century reduced the influence of the French system in some of the English-speaking world.

Today

There is no standard definition or official list of grandes écoles. The term grande école is not employed in the French education code, with the exception of a quotation in the social statistics. It generally employs the expression of "écoles supérieures" to indicate higher educational institutions that are not universities.

The Conférence des grandes écoles (CGE) (Grandes Écoles Conference) is a non-profit organization. It uses a broad definition of grande école, which is not restricted to the school's selectivity or the prestige of the diploma awarded. The members of CGE have not made an official or "accepted" list of grandes écoles. For example, some engineering school members of the CGE cannot award state-recognized engineering degrees.

Admission to grandes écoles

The admissions process for grandes écoles differs greatly from those of other French universities. To be admitted into most French grandes écoles, most students study in a two-year preparatory program in one of the CPGEs (see below) before taking a set of competitive national exams. Different exams are required by groups (called "banques") of different schools. The national exams are sets of written tests, given over the course of several weeks, that challenge the student on the intensive studies of the previous two years. During the summer, those students who succeed in the written exams then take a further set of exams, usually one-hour oral exams, during which they are given a problem to solve. After 20 minutes of preparation, the candidate presents the solution to a professor, who challenges the candidate on the answer and the assumptions being made. Afterwards, candidates receive a final national ranking, which determines admission to their grande école of choice.

Preparatory classes for grandes écoles (CPGE)

Classes préparatoires aux Grandes Écoles (CPGE), or prépas (preparatory classes for grandes écoles), are two-year classes, in either sciences, literature, or economics. These are the traditional way in which most students prepare to pass the competitive recruitment examination of the main grandes écoles. Most are held in state lycées (high schools); a few are private. Admission is competitive and based on the students' lycée grades. Preparatory classes with the highest success rates in the entrance examinations of the top grandes écoles are highly selective. Students who are not admitted to the grande école of their choice often repeat the second year of preparatory classes and attempt the exam again the following year.

There are five categories of prépas:

 Scientifiques:  These prepare for the engineering schools and teach mathematics, physics, chemistry, and technology. They are broken down in sub-categories according to the emphasis of their dominant subject: they are mainly focused on mathematics and either physics (MP), industrial sciences and technologies (TSI), physics and chemistry (PC), physics and engineering science (PSI), physics and technology (PT) and chemistry, physics and technology (TPC) .
 BCPST: biology, chemistry, physics, geology, and mathematics. Commonly called "Agro-Véto", these classes prepare students primarily for agricultural and veterinary schools, but also for schools in geology, hydrology, and forestry, as well as for research and teaching careers via the Écoles normales supérieures.
 Lettres: humanities, essentially for the Écoles normales supérieures (students can also compete to enter business schools, but represent a small minority of those admitted). There are two main sub-categories: "Lettres", in either "A/L" (with Ancient Greek and/or Latin) or LSH (with geography), and B/L (with mathematics and social sciences).
 Économique et commerciale: mathematics and economics. These prepare for the entrance exams to the French business schools, and are subdivided between science (mathematics) and economics tracks - a third track also exists for students with a "technological", i.e. applied background.
 Chartes: humanities, with an emphasis on philology, history and languages, named after the school École nationale des Chartes. By far the smallest prépa in number of students.

Recruitment at baccalauréat level

Some schools are accessible after a selection based on the grades of the two last years of lycée (High school) and/or the baccalaureate (High school diploma) results. For example, in engineering, the most attractive and selective ones are the seven schools composing the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA network), but there are dozens of selective engineering schools accessible directly after the baccalaureate. Some famous ones are the three Universités de Technologie or the thirteen schools of the Polytech Group. It is also possible to join these schools in third year after a preparatory class or university and then the recruitment is based on a contest or the student results.

The top five of these engineering grandes écoles (among 77), according to the French magazine l'Etudiant, are in 2021 the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon (INSA Lyon), University of Technology of Compiègne (UTC), University of Technology of Troyes (UTT), Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon (INSA Toulouse), ESIEE Paris and the Leonardo da Vinci Engineering School (ESILV - Paris-La Défense).

Most of them simply include the two-year preparatory class in their program while others like INSA Toulouse chose the Licence-Master-Doctorat (LMD) to start the specialization earlier. Most students choose to get their licence, master or doctorate close to home.

These years of preparation can be highly focused on the school program so students have a greater chance of succeeding in the admission exam or contest in their school if there is one, but they are not prepared to take the examinations for other schools so their chance of success in these other examinations is low.

The advantage is that instead of studying simply to pass the admission exams, the student will study topics more targeted to their training and future specialization. The main advantage is that students choose their speciality more according to their interests and less according to their rank. (Indeed, the rank obtained after standard preparatory classes determines a list of schools with their specialities).

The selection process during the first preparatory year is considered less stressful than in a standard first preparatory class. Nevertheless, the selection percentage can be the same as during standard preparatory classes. These schools also recruit people who did not manage to follow the programs of CPGE.

Parallel admission

The prépa years are not required to sit the entrance exams. Moreover, in many schools, there is also the possibility of "parallel admission" to a grande école. Parallel admissions are open to university students or students from other schools that decide not to take the entrance exams. This method of recruitment is proving increasingly popular, with many students choosing to first go to a university and then enroll in a grande école.

Some grandes écoles have a dual diploma arrangement in which a student can switch establishments in the last year to receive diplomas from both establishments.

Degrees awarded
The French Grandes écoles mostly do not fit into the international, Anglo-American framework regarding their diplomas, nor in the European Bologna system. In 2007, the OECD remarked in a report that "their diplomas do not fit easily into the increasingly standardised international nomenclature for academic study ... Instead, students effectively study for five years and are then awarded a masters degree, with no intermediate diploma".

However, some Grandes écoles have decided to adopt the standard, European Bologna system of diplomas recently in order to better integrate themselves in the international academic competition. In their 2008 book European Universities in Transition, Carmelo Mazza, Paolo Quattrone and Angelo Riccaboni underlined that "the vast majority of Grandes Ecoles do not give any degree" upon completion of undergraduate studies, but that "[i]n practice, for accreditation or student exchange purposes, they grant a certificate of 'equivalence to a bachelor's degree'".

Faculty in Grande Ecoles

Full-time researchers and teaching faculty
Full-time faculty researchers to assume their responsibility as teaching staff by giving lectures, accompanying students in their projects, participating in the campus life and representing the school during symposia.

Their contractual number of working hours is defined at the beginning of each academic year in a lump sum workload timetable.

Full-time faculty/teaching are in charge of giving lectures, but also shoulder pedagogic coordination. As such, they are deeply involved in their respective campus' life and accountable for the teaching quality as well as the pedagogic continuous improvement of the School.

Prominent professors: according to L'Etudiant, a prominent professor is permanent professor, holding a PhD from a French or foreign Higher Education Institution which is AACSB- or EQUIS-accredited and ranked amongst the Shanghai 2019 top 500 ranking.

Adjunct professors
Adjunct Professors hold chair in another Higher Education Institution. Their teaching conditions are various, but not always stipulated in a contractual form.

Visiting professors are teaching staff which hold a chair along another activity, e.g. a consultant or entrepreneur giving lectures once or twice a week.

Guest professors are international professors who take part in special lectures, classes or programme.

Categories

Grandes écoles can be classified into following broad categories:

Écoles normales supérieures

These schools train researchers and professors and may be a beginning for executive careers in public administration or business. Many French Nobel Prize and Fields Medal laureates were educated at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, Lyon or Paris-Saclay. There are four ENS:

 the École Normale Supérieure of Paris, nicknamed "Ulm" from its address rue d'Ulm (Ulm Street) (sciences and humanities);
 the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon in Lyon (sciences and humanities);
 the École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay, near Paris (sciences, engineering, social sciences, economics and management, foreign languages).
 the École Normale Supérieure de Rennes near Rennes (sciences, engineering, social sciences, economics and management, sport).

Until recently, unlike most other grandes écoles, écoles normales supérieures (ENS) did not award specific diplomas. Students who completed their curriculum were entitled to be known as "ENS alumni" or "normaliens". The schools encourage their students to obtain university diplomas in partner institutions while providing extra classes and support. Many ENS students obtain more than one university diploma. Normaliens from France and other European Union countries are considered civil servants in training (unless they were recruited by parallel admission), and as such are paid a monthly salary in exchange for agreeing to serve France for ten years, including those years spent as students.

Engineering schools (grandes écoles d'ingénieurs)

Many engineering schools recruit most of their students who have completed their education in scientific preparatory classes (2 years of post-baccalaureat study). Many are also joint graduate schools from several regional universities, sometimes in association with other international higher education networks.

In France, the term 'engineer' has a broader meaning compared to the one understood in most other countries and can imply a person who has achieved a high level of study in both fundamental and applied sciences, as well as business management, humanities and social sciences. The best engineering schools will often provide such a general and very intensive education, although this is not always the case. Most of the schools of the following first four groups train the so-called 'generaliste' engineers:

1. Centrale Graduate Schools of engineering; its students are commonly known as pistons (a reference to the piston engine, one of the centrepieces of industrial revolution):
 CentraleSupélec, which is the result of the 2015 merger between École centrale Paris (ECP or Centrale Paris) founded in 1829, and École Supérieure d'Electricité (or Supélec) founded in 1894.
 École centrale de Lille (ECLi, EC-Lille or Centrale Lille)
École centrale de Lyon (ECL, EC-Lyon, or Centrale Lyon) was founded in 1857 as the École centrale lyonnaise pour l'Industrie et le Commerce
École centrale de Marseille (ECM, EC-Marseille, or Centrale Marseille)
École centrale de Nantes (ECN, EC-Nantes, or Centrale Nantes)

2. ParisTech schools of engineering (however, some of these schools are now part of the new Paris-Saclay University. Also some of these schools teach only a specific area):
 Arts et Métiers ParisTech (École nationale d'Arts et Métiers previously called ENSAM or les Arts et Metiers or "Les Arts", administered by the French Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research)
 École nationale supérieure de chimie de Paris (Chimie ParisTech)
 École nationale de la statistique et de l'administration économique (ENSAE ParisTech) – formed by the Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques (INSEE : French Statistical Authority) and administered by the French Ministry for the Economy and Finance;
 École nationale des ponts et chaussées (École des Ponts ParisTech, administered by the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, nicknamed les Ponts) – founded in 1747
 École nationale supérieure de techniques avancées (ENSTA ParisTech) administered by the French Ministry of Defense
 École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris (MINES ParisTech, administered by the French Ministry for Industry) –
 École nationale supérieure des télécommunications (Télécom Paris, administered by the French Ministry of Industry) – part of Institut Télécom
 École polytechnique (l'X) – Engineering school in France, administered by the French Ministry of Defense;
 École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris (ESPCI ParisTech)
 Institut d'Optique Graduate School (IOGS, nicknamed SupOptique);
 Institut des sciences et industries du vivant et de l'environnement (AgroParisTech) - administered by the French Ministry of Agriculture

3. Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA) network is the largest engineer training group in France, with 16,700+ students, administered by the French Ministry of National Education. It consists of grandes écoles distributed throughout mainland France:
 Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon – founded in 1957
 Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Toulouse – founded in 1963
 Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Rennes – founded in 1966
 Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Rouen – founded in 1985
 Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Strasbourg – founded in 2003
 Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Centre Val de Loire – founded in 2014

4. Instituts polytechniques

 the Institut polytechnique de Grenoble: includes the Grenoble Institute of Technology, and the Grenoble INP (formerly INPG) which has six departments (ENSIMAG, Ense3, Phelma, ESISAR, Génie Industriel, Pagora);
 the Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine: includes the EEIGM, the European School of Materials Sciences and Engineering, the École Nationale Supérieure d'Agronomie et des Industries Alimentaires (ENSAIA, the National School of Agronomy and Food Sciences), the École Nationale Supérieure d'Électricité et de Mécanique (ENSEM, the National School of Electricity and Mechanics), the École Nationale Supérieure de Géologie (ENSG), the École nationale supérieure en génie des systèmes et de l'innovation (ENSGSI, the National School of Industrial Systems and Innovation), the École Nationale Supérieure des Industries Chimiques (ENSIC, the National School of Chemical Industries), the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Nancy (ENSMN, the National School of Mines of Nancy) and the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Nancy (ENSA Nancy, the School of Architecture));
 the Polytechnic Institute of Bordeaux : includes the ENSC, the ENSEIRB-MATMECA, the ENSCBP, the ENSTBB, the ENSEGID, and the ENSPIMA;
 the Polytechnic Institute of Clermont-Auvergne: includes the École polytechnique universitaire de Clermont-Auvergne, the Institut d'informatique d'Auvergne, the SIGMA Clermont.

5. Réseau Polytech schools of engineering, is a French network of 15 graduate schools of engineering within France's leading technological universities. All schools in the Group offer Master of Engineering degrees in various specialities:

 Polytech Angers
 École polytechnique de l'université de Lorraine (Polytech Nancy)
 Polytech Grenoble
 Polytech Lille
 Polytech Lyon
 Polytech Marseille
 Polytech Montpellier
 Polytech Clermont-Ferrand
 Polytech Nantes
 Polytech Nice Sophia
 Polytech Orleans
 Polytech Sorbonne, in the Sorbonne University
 Polytech Paris-Saclay, component of the Paris-Saclay University.
 Polytech Savoie
 Polytech Tours
6. Écoles Nationales Supérieures d'Ingénieurs (ENSI), which encompasses approximately 40 grandes écoles:
 the École nationale supérieure d'électronique, d'électrotechnique, d'informatique, d'hydraulique, et de télécommunications (ENSEEIHT, nicknamed N7), considered the largest ENSI, with more than 400 graduates every year. It is one of the schools of the INP Toulouse;
 the École nationale supérieure d'ingénieurs de Caen (ENSICAEN);
 the École nationale supérieure d'ingénieurs de Bretagne Sud (ENSIBS);
 the École nationale supérieure d'ingénieurs de Poitiers (ENSI Poitiers);
 the École d'ingénieurs ENSIL-ENSCI (ENSIL-ENSCI);
 the École nationale supérieure en génie des systèmes et de l'innovation (ENSGSI);
 the École nationale supérieure des arts et industries textiles (ENSAIT);
 the École Nationale Supérieure d'Ingénieurs en Informatique Automatique Mécanique Énergétique Électronique (ENSIAME);

7. Institut Mines-Telecom schools of engineering
 École Nationale Supérieure des Mines Telecom Atlantique Bretagne Pays de la Loire (Telecom Bretagne and École des Mines de Nantes, merged 2017);
 École nationale supérieure des mines d'Albi
 École nationale supérieure des mines d'Alès
 École des Mines-Télécom de Lille-Douai (IMT Lille Douai)
 École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris (MINES ParisTech)(also member of ParisTech);
 École nationale supérieure des mines de Nancy
 École nationale supérieure des mines de Saint-Étienne
 École nationale supérieure des mines de Rabat
 École nationale supérieure des télécommunications (TELECOM ParisTech)
 Telecom SudParis (ex - Telecom INT). On the campus of Telecom & Management SudParis.
 Télécom Physique Strasbourg (ex - ENSPS)
 Institut Eurécom

8. École Nationale d'Ingénieurs (ENI) network is an engineer training group:
 the École nationale d'ingénieurs de Brest (ENIB)
 the École nationale d'ingénieurs de Metz (ENIM )
 the École Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Saint-Étienne (ENISE)
 the École nationale d'ingénieurs de Tarbes (ENIT)

9. Universités de technologie (UT) group: Compiègne (UTC), Troyes (UTT); Belfort-Montbéliard (UTBM)

10. Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers

The following schools usually train each student for a more specific area in science or engineering:

11. Grandes écoles of Actuarial Sciences, Statistics and Econometrics
 the Institut de Science Financiere et d'Assurances (ISFA);
 the Institut de Statistiques de l'Université de Paris (ISUP).

12. Grandes écoles of Chemistry
 the École supérieure de chimie physique électronique de Lyon (ESCPE, or CPE-Lyon);
 the École nationale supérieure de chimie de Rennes (ENSCR);
 the École nationale supérieure de chimie de Lille (ENSCL);
 the École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Montpellier (ENSCM);
 the École européenne de Chimie, Polymères et Matériaux de Strasbourg (ECPM);

13. Grandes écoles of Physics
 the École supérieure de chimie physique électronique de Lyon (ESCPE, or CPE-Lyon);
 the Institut d'Optique Graduate School (IOGS, nicknamed SupOptique);
 the École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris (ESPCI ParisTech);
 the École nationale supérieure de chimie et de physique de Bordeaux (ENSCPB);
 the École nationale supérieure des ingénieurs en arts chimiques et technologiques (ENSIACET, nicknamed A7), also part of the INP Toulouse;
 the École nationale supérieure de l'électronique et de ses Applications (ENSEA);

14. Grandes écoles of Information Technology and Telecommunications
 The École Centrale d'Électronique (ECE Paris);
 the École nationale des sciences géographiques (ENSG - géomatique);
 the École supérieure d'informatique, électronique et automatique (ESIEA);
 the École pour l'informatique et les techniques avancées (EPITA);
 the École nationale supérieure d'électronique, informatique et radiocommunications de Bordeaux (ENSEIRB);
 the École supérieure angevine en informatique et productique (ESAIP);
 the École supérieure d'électronique de l'Ouest (Groupe ESEO);
 the École supérieure d'ingénieurs en génie électrique (ESIGELEC);
 the École catholique des arts et métiers (ECAM Lyon - Groupe ECAM);
 the École d'électricité, de production et des méthodes industrielles (EPMI - Groupe ECAM);
 the École d'ingénieur généraliste en informatique et technologies du numérique (EFREI);
 the École Internationale des Sciences du Traitement de l'Information (EISTI, now called CY Tech);
 the École nationale supérieure d'informatique pour l'industrie et l'enterprise (ENSIIE, previously IIE);
 the Institut supérieur d'électronique de Paris (ISEP);
 the Institut Superieur de l'electronique et du numerique (ISEN);
 the Institut d'informatique d'Auvergne (ISIMA);
 the Institut des Sciences et Techniques des Yvelines (ISTY);
 Telecom Nancy (ex - ESIAL);
 Télécom Saint-Étienne.

15. Grandes écoles of Applied Physics and Technology or Civil and Industrial Engineering
 the École des ingenieurs de la Ville de Paris (EIVP);
 the École nationale de l'aviation civile (ENAC), French civil aviation University;
 the École nationale supérieure de mécanique et d'aérotechnique (ENSMA, or ISAE-ENSMA, Mechanical Engineering);
 the École Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique et des Microtechniques (ENSMM, Mechanical Engineering);
 the École Supérieure d'Ingénieurs en Électrotechnique et Électronique (ESIEE Paris, Electrical & Computer Engineering / Industrial Engineering), administered by the French Ministry for the Economy and Finance - ESIEE Paris was established in 1904 and is part of the ESIEE network of graduate schools (Official website in English);
 the École Supérieure d'Ingénieurs en Électrotechnique et Électronique d'Amiens (ESIEE Amiens);
the École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État (ENTPE, nicknamed TPE, Civil Engineering);
 the École Nationale Supérieure des Sciences Appliquées et de Technologie (ENSSAT);
 the École supérieure des techniques aéronautiques et de construction automobile (ESTACA or ISAE-ESTACA, Mechanical Engineering)
 the École spéciale des travaux publics, du Bâtiment et de l'Industrie (ESTP, Civil Engineering);
 the Institut polytechnique des sciences avancées (IPSA, Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering);
 the Institut supérieur de l'aéronautique et de l'espace (ISAE-SUPAERO) - was formed by a merger of two institutes known as SUPAERO and ENSICA in Toulouse
 the Institut supérieur des matériaux du Mans (ISMANS);
 the École nationale supérieure de techniques avancées de Bretagne (ENSTA Bretagne, formerly ENSIETA), training French military engineers (25%) and civilian engineers (75%);
 the Institut Supérieur de Mécanique (SUPMECA, Mechanical Engineering);
 the SeaTech (Marine Engineering)
 the SIGMA Clermont (chemistry, mechanics)

16. Grandes écoles of Biology and other Natural Sciences
 the École nationale supérieure agronomique (ENSA),  Paris (AgroParisTech), Montpellier (SupAgro), Rennes (Agrocampus Ouest), Toulouse (ENSAT), Nancy (ENSAIA), Bordeaux (Sciences Agro);
 the École supérieure de biotechnologie Strasbourg (ESBS);
 the École Nationale Supérieure de Géologie (ENSG), whose graduates are Géoliens;
 the Ecole et Observatoire des Sciences de la Terre (EOST), whose graduates are Eostiens;
 the École nationale du génie de l'eau et de l'environnement de Strasbourg (ENGEES);
 the École de Biologie Industrielle (EBI), whose graduates are Ebistes;
 the École supérieure d'agricultures d'Angers (ESA) ;
 the École d'ingénieurs de Purpan (EIPurpan), formerly École Supérieure d'Agriculture de Purpan (ESAP);
 the École nationale supérieure d'horticulture (ENSH);
 the Institut Sup'Biotech de Paris (Sup'Biotech).

17. Other private Grandes écoles offering multiple specialities

 the EPF School of Engineering known as "École Polytechnique Féminine", was only for women until 1994;
 the HEI - Hautes Etudes d'Ingénieur in Lille;
the ESTIA Institute of Technology (École supérieure des technologies industrielles avancées in Biarritz), founded in 1985. A generalist engineering school, former IDLS;
 the École Speciale de Mecanique et d'Electricite also called ESME Sudria in Paris since 1905;
 the École supérieure d'ingénieurs de recherche en matériaux et en InfoTronique (ESIREM);
 the Centre des études supérieures industrielles (CESI);
 the École supérieure d'ingénieurs de Rennes (ESIR);

Business schools (grandes écoles de commerce)

Most French business schools are partly privately run, or managed by the regional chambers of commerce.

Business schools recruiting students just after taking the baccalauréat, most of them are private:

 European Business School Paris
 EDC Paris Business School
 ESCE International Business School
 ESDES School of Business and Management
 ESIEE Management
 ESSCA School of Management
 IESEG School of Management
 IPAG Business School
 ISG Business School
 PSB Paris School of Business

The below list contains French business schools that are officially part of the Conférence des grandes écoles.

Business schools recruiting students from post-baccalaureat preparatory classes, high selectivity rate:

 Audencia Business School
 Burgundy School of Business (École supérieure de commerce de Dijon)
 École de management de Normandie (Normandy Business School)
 ESSEC Business School
 ESCP Business School
 ESC Rennes School of Business
 ESC La Rochelle
 ESC Clermont
 ESC Toulouse School of Business
 ESC Troyes
 Emlyon Business School
 EM Strasbourg Business School (École de Management de Strasbourg)
 EDHEC Business School (NGO - Association 1901)
 Grenoble École de management (GEM)
 Groupe ESC Pau
 HEC Paris
 ICN Business School

 INSEEC Business School (private)
 Institut supérieur du commerce de Paris (ISC Paris, private)
 KEDGE Business School
 Montpellier Business School
 NEOMA Business School
 Skema Business School
 Institut Mines-Télécom Business School

Business schools recruiting students with professional experience:

 INSEAD (Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires)

Grandes écoles without preparatory classes

Some schools are accessible after a competitive entrance exam directly after the baccalauréat. Often, students of these schools will progress to an administrative school.

These schools include:

 École du Louvre, for archaeology, history of art and anthropology;
 École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), trains researchers in Social and Human Sciences, for sociology, history, geography, anthropology, linguistics, statistics;
 École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (part of PSL University);
 École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, best known as "les Beaux-Arts" (for fine arts) (part of PSL University);
 École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts à la Villa Arson,
 École Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle,
 École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Lyon (ENSAL), for architecture;
 École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Versailles (ENSAV), for architecture;
 École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Saint-Etienne (ENSASE), for architecture;
 Instituts Nationaux des Sciences Appliquées (INSA) in Lyon, Rennes, Rouen, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Centre-Val de Loire (located in Blois and Bourges) delivering diplôme d'ingénieur degrees in five years including two preparatory years. The three remaining years are also accessible after selection for the best students graduating a first cycle university diploma, or from institutes of technology;
 Universités de Technologies (UTC, UTT, UTBM) in Compiègne, Troyes, Belfort, are also independent national schools delivering diplôme d'ingénieur and selecting students that graduated baccalaureat with top honours.

Universities that have joined the Conférence des grandes écoles
In 2014, Paris-Dauphine University joined the Conférence des grandes écoles and now has the status of university, grand établissement, and grande école.

 Paris-Dauphine University (part of PSL University)

Schools for Political Studies, Social Sciences, Journalism and Communication studies

These schools train students in multidisciplinary fields of social and human studies. Students are prepared for civil service and other public-sector leader positions, but more and more of them do end up working in the private sector. Some of these schools are reserved for French or EEA citizens only.

Institut d'études politiques (IEP, Sciences Po) Sciences Po (also known as Sciences Po Paris, most prestigious and selective among all)
Sciences Po Bordeaux (part of the University of Bordeaux)
 Sciences Po Lille (part of the University of Lille)
 Sciences Po Rennes (part of the University of Rennes)
 Sciences Po Strasbourg (part of the University of Strasbourg)
 Sciences Po Aix
 Sciences Po Lyon (part of the University of Lyon Alliance)
 Sciences Po Grenoble (part of the University of Grenoble-Alpes)
 Sciences Po Saint-Germain-en-Laye (part of the University of Versailles)
 Sciences Po Toulouse (part of the University of Toulouse-Capitole)Grandes Écoles of Journalism and communication studies CELSA Paris (part of Sorbonne University);
 Centre de Formation des Journalistes (part of Assas University);
 Sciences Po Journalism School (part of Sciences Po);
 Sciences Po Rennes Journalism School (part of Sciences Po Rennes);Other Grandes Écoles
 Institut national du service public (INSP), (formerly École nationale d'administration)
 École Nationale de la Magistrature (Bordeaux) (ENM), which trains judicial magistrates;
École nationale supérieure des sciences de l'information et des bibliothèques (Lyon) (ENSSIB), which trains library and information managers (part of the University of Lyon Alliance);
École des Hautes Études en Santé Publique (Rennes) (), trains managers of hospitals and other leaders and technical experts in public health and health care;

Military officer academies
Today, there are only 3 grandes écoles that are officially denominated as military academies of the French Republic.
 The École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, formerly located in Saint-Cyr-l'École but now in Coëtquidan in Brittany, is the Army Academy. Nicknamed Saint-Cyr, its graduates and students are cyrards but are generally referred to as saint-cyriens;
 The École de l'Air (EA) is the Air Force Academy, located in Salon-de-Provence;
 The École Navale (EN) is nicknamed Navale and its graduates and students are Bordaches. It is located in Brest.

While École polytechnique is also under supervision of the French Ministry of Defence, it is no longer officially a military academy. Only a small number of its students progress to military careers, while between a fifth and a quarter choose to remain in France to work for the state's technical administrations.

There are also other specialized military "grandes écoles":

 The École de santé des armées, located in Lyon for the training of army doctors and pharmacists.
 The École nationale de la sécurité et de l'administration de la mer  for the military officers and civil servants of the French Maritime Administration
 The École des commissaires des armées (ECA), training militatry officers in charge of all the support functions (management, purchasing, finance, human support, human resources, legal advice, decision support, logistics)

Facts and influence in French culture

Altogether, grandes écoles awarded approximately 60,000 master's degrees in 2013, compared with 150,000 master's degrees awarded by all French higher institutions in the same year, including universities.

Grande école graduates in 2013 represent 10% of the French population graduating from high school 5 years before (600,000 in 2008).

Some grandes écoles are renowned in France for their selectivity and the complexity of their curriculum. In the press, they are usually called the "A+" schools, referring to the grade given by some rankings. These elite schools represent less than 1% of the higher education students in France.

Admission to a certain number of these institutions (e.g. l'Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature in Bordeaux) is reserved only to French citizens, raising questions relating to European mobility and institutional reciprocity.

Since 1975, the Comité d'études sur les formations d'ingénieurs has studied the questions of training and job placement for engineers graduating from grandes écoles.

Notable alumni

Of the 29 persons who have served as President of France, 17 attended a Grande école.

Many winners of the Nobel prize attended a Grande école

See also
 Academic grading in France
 Commission des titres d'ingénieur
 Conférence des directeurs des écoles françaises d'ingénieurs (CDEFI)
 Conférence des grandes écoles (CGE)
 Education in France
 Grands établissements
 List of universities in France
 List of public universities in France
 Superior Graduate Schools in Italy

References

Educational institutions in France
Public universities in France

Grande école


Camer Country Park is in Meopham, in Kent, England. It is a former estate landscape, with grassland and woodland.

History
This park was originally the country estate of the Smith-Masters family. It was one of the largest estates in Meopham, where there had been a farmstead in the area since the 13th century. The estate reached its peak size in the 18th and 19th centuries under the Smith-Masters.
The family included William Smith-Masters, an English cricketer, who died in Meopham on 27 August 1937. The last known resident was Kate (or Catherine) Smith-Masters. Her son George Smith then inherited the estate. He kept the house but sold the rest of the estate, and it was bought in 1967 by the Strood Rural District Council, for the sum of £9,750.

The council converted the estate into a Country Park.
It was opened in the early 1970s by Kent County Council, who still manages it.

The Smith-Masters estate house (a Grade II listed building) was built in 1716. It still exists in private hands and can be seen from the park.

Walking in the park
Visitors to the park can choose to either wander at ease admiring the variety of original trees of the mature parkland or go on one of the series of walks devised by Meopham Footpaths Group through the adjoining woodland of the park. Camer Park covers more than  of ancient parkland and woods, it is listed as an Area of Outstanding Beauty.

The book A Year of Walks, Kent has an  walk starting in the park car park and leading through the estate to Meopham, Harvel, Luddesdown, Cobham and back to the park.

Common lizards (such as lacerta vivipara) and slowworms (Anguis fragilis) can be found in the park.

How to get there
From the A2 dual carriageway near Gravesend, take the A227 towards Wrotham. Pass through the village of Meopham and turn left into Green Lane and turn right into Camer Park Road. It has a free entry car park.

References

Country parks in Kent
Parks and open spaces in Kent

Camer Park Country Park


The "Three Wise Men Parade" is a traditional parade with floats carrying the wise men taking place in practically all Spanish cities and villages (known in Spanish as Cabalgata de Reyes Magos, in Galician as A Cabalgata dos Reis Magos and in Basque as Errege magoen desfilea, in Catalan Cavalcada de Reis, in Esperanto as Kavalkado de la Tri Reĝoj), in Andorra and Argentina, in some cities and towns in Mexico and Gibraltar. The Magi (of which tradition holds there were three: Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthazar) ride through the streets, as their pages (both boys and girls) collect children's letters to the kings and also throw candy to children. The cavalcade usually includes dancers, musicians, and pages, as well as other assistants to the kings.

The first Cavalcade in Spain is documented from 1855 in Barcelona, and the longest-standing cavalcade is in Alcoi, in the Valencian Country, where it has been celebrated uninterruptedly since 1866.

It is celebrated every January 5 (the day preceding the feast of Epiphany) in the evening. In Spain, after greeting the kings at the cavalcade in town, children are supposed to go home and go to bed early. They clean and put out their shoes, and the following morning, find the gifts of the Magi, which they requested in a letter, in and around their shoes. Paper cut-outs are usually also put out to adorn the scene, and the children usually put out cookies and some brandy or other drink for the kings to sit and enjoy themselves for a moment before moving on to the next house, and a bucket of water for their camels. According to this tradition, the children who have behaved badly during the previous year receive coal rather than candy, though (as in the case of Santa Claus) this is not a frequent occurrence. They might get coal candy, though.

The great cavalcade of Madrid is broadcast live on TVE 1 (the central public Spanish channel) every year, whereas regional television channels broadcast their own parades. The cavalcade of Alcoi is the oldest in the world and is a major draw of international tourism for Spain. Small towns and villages celebrate cavalcades with traditional props, some of which involve Romans, shepherds and camels, while other places have modernized to tractors and fancy cars, though most of the parade goes by on foot and in a few floats.

In Poland the first Cavalcade took place in 2008 in Warsaw. In 2016, the parade took place in over 450 Polish cities.

References

See also
List of Christmas and holiday season parades
Liturgical drama
Medieval theatre
Mystery play
Star boys' singing procession
Santa Claus parade

Medieval drama
Drama
Christmas and holiday season parades
Christmastide
Christmas in Spain
Epiphany (holiday)

Cavalcade of Magi


Kay Thomson (born February 18, 1964) is a Canadian former figure skater who competed in ladies' singles. She is the 1981 Prize of Moscow News champion, the 1983 Skate Canada International silver medallist (behind that years Olympic and World Champion Katarina Witt), and a three-time Canadian national champion.  Her rise to dominance of Canadian ladies figure skating was unexpected as young phenom Tracy Wainmann had been expected to dominate Canadian ladies skating throughout this quadrennial, and beyond, but Thomson dethroned Wainmann at the 1982 Canadian Championships, and was only challenged by rising future superstar Elizabeth Manley thereafter as Wainmann fell off the map for a few years with personal issues and a growth spurt.   She represented Canada at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, placing 12th, and at three World Championships, achieving her best result, fifth, in 1984 (Ottawa).   She also finished a strong 6th at both the 82 and 83 worlds.  At this event she had perhaps her best shot ever of a world podium finish in a heavily weakened post Olympic field (missing amongst other Rosalynn Sumners, Tiffany Chin, Claudia Leistner, and Elena Vodorezova) and a respectable initial finish in compulsory figures which were never her strength, but a turn between her triple lutz-double toe combination in the short, and a miss on her triple flip in the long, was enough to keep her behind silver medallist Anna Kondrashova, bronze medallist Elaine Zayak, and 4th-place finisher Kira Ivanova.

During her competitive career, Thomson was known as a particularly strong spinner.  Her spins included an unusual back layback, performed on the opposite foot than a normal layback spin.  Kay in fact had 3 or 4 unique versions of the layback, performed by no other competitor, and often included each one in her long programs, as well as a unique crossfoot version of the scratch spin.  Thomson was also one of the first female skaters to regularly include the triple Lutz jump in her programs, and the first ever to complete a triple lutz-double toe combination in a short program.
Surprisingly despite having a triple lutz, and sometimes a triple flip, she unfortunately was ever unable to master the standard easier triples of the time- triple salchow, triple toe, and triple loop, which most of the leading female contenders at the time had, which held her back on the international stage.   With strong choreography and musical interpretation, Kay was known as a very strong all around skater, and despite failing to reach a world or Olympic podium is often credited as one of those (along with Elizabeth Manley and Tracy Wainmann) who brought Canadian ladies skating back to prominence after a few years of heavily middling results after the retirements of Karen Magnussen and Lynn Nightingale.

Results

References

1964 births
Living people
Canadian female single skaters
Figure skaters at the 1984 Winter Olympics
Olympic figure skaters for Canada
Figure skaters from Toronto
World Junior Figure Skating Championships medalists

Kay Thomson


CEMLI (Configuration, Extension, Modification, Localization, and Integration) is an ERP software extension framework provided in Oracle Applications by Oracle Corporation. CEMLI is Oracle's published guidelines for developing and implementing custom extensions to Oracle Applications.

They are used to improve flexibility and extra functionality not available in the standard product. CEMLI stands for Configuration, Extension, Modification, Localization, and Integration Framework. There are (at least) 19 categories of extensions that any client can choose from, to enhance their Oracle system.

Background
Initially the acronym CEMLI was used by Oracle On Demand (EBS Hosting) to classify and evaluate the impact when a customized EBS solution shall be overtaken into hosting mode. On Demand has defined restrictive rules how a customization has to be implemented and which documentation has to be provided. In addition to On Demand, in between also Oracle Development, the Consulting organization and Oracle's Unified Method (OUM) has adapted the acronym CEMLI, and is using it in offers and implementation projects.

Best practice
On top of the On Demand rules, Oracle Consulting has specified further criteria and best practice how to create custom code. The challenge here is to avoid modifications, although custom code shall be tightly integrated and not "visible" as custom code to the end users (same behavior as standard functionality). There are a number of techniques and procedures to implement CEMLIs in a most appropriate and safe way, such as Descriptive Flexfields (DFF), Forms Folders, Workflows, Forms and Framework (OAF) Personalizations, BI Publisher Reports, Business Events and User Hooks. Using one of these techniques allows to plug in additional functionality without modifying existing EBS standard code.

References
 Oracle Consulting - Application Upgrade Services, including CEMLI Benchmarking and Analysis Service

External links
 A blog on CEMLI (started in 2007)
 Another blog on Customization and CEMLI Management (started in 2011)
 Custom software

Oracle software

CEMLI