Hélène Monastier (2 December 1882 in Payerne - 7 March 1976 in Lausanne) was a Swiss teacher. She was a well-known person of the Christian Socialists, the International Civil Service and the Religious Society of Friends in French-speaking Switzerland.

Life
Hélène-Sophie Monastier was born in Payerne. She studied at the Vinet School. She trained as a teacher in Germany, in Lausanne, and in England.

Hélène Monastier was a teacher at the Vinet School from 1904 to 1943. From 1905, she also gave lessons to young apprentices and workers at the Maison du Peuple. She met Christian socialists during a Paul Passy conference in Lausanne, and helped to create a local group. In 1914, she became the first president of the Federation of French Christian Socialists. She participated in May day processions.

During the First World War, she became friends with Leonhard Ragaz and Clara Ragaz. In 1917, she met Pierre Ceresole . She worked closely with him until his death in 1945, participating in the creation of the Voluntary Civil Service which became the International Civil Service (SCI) . She is "the most active, the most assiduous and the most convinced of collaborators"  of the SCI.  In the 1940s she was its international president. She participated in the Vaumarcus camps (Center for meetings, training and vacations of the Christian Unions of young people). In 1932, she became a member of the Société des Amis, (Religious Society of Friends).

In 1954-1955, she helped found the Lausanne committee for Swiss aid to non-European regions, which became Helvetas.

References

1882 births
1976 deaths
Swiss teachers
Broye-Vully (district)
Quakers
People from Vaud

Hélène Monastier


Monroe Community College (MCC) is a public community college in Monroe County, New York. It is part of the State University of New York. The college has two campuses; the main campus in the town of Brighton, and the Downtown Campus in the City of Rochester. The college also has off-site learning at the Applied Technologies Center, Monroe County Public Safety Training Facility, and offers online classes. , MCC has enrolled more than a half a million students.

History
In 1961, community leaders, led by local physician Samuel J. Stabins, established the college to prepare students to work in healthcare. That same year, MCC became part of the SUNY system, and its program offerings were expanded to prepare graduates for employment, or transfer to a four-year institution. Initially, the college was lodged in East High School located at 410 Alexander Street. The location was condemned by the city as a fire hazard, which forced the school to make renovations. On September 9, 1962, the original campus re-opened with the first class of 720 students.

In June 1965, MCC became the first college in the nation to receive accreditation within three years of its founding. Due to increasing enrollment, the college overflowed its first location's capacity. In 1968, the college moved to its present main campus on East Henrietta Road in Brighton. In 1991, the college announced plans for a second campus. The Damon City Campus, named in honor of longtime Trustee E. Kent Damon, opened its doors the following year in downtown Rochester. In 2003, MCC opened the Alice Holloway Young Commons, its on-campus housing.

Presidents

Campuses
MCC occupies two campuses: the  main campus on 1000 East Henrietta Road in the Town of Brighton, New York and the Downtown Campus on 321 State Street near Frontier Field and Kodak Tower. MCC also offers classes at the Applied Technologies Center on West Henrietta Road which includes automotive technologies, heating/cooling ventilation, and precision tooling and machinery. In addition, the college trains law enforcement, fire safety, and emergency medical services personnel at the county Public Safety Training Facility.

Academics

Monroe Community College offers 100+ degree and certification programs.

Of the approximately 25,000+ students who take classes through Monroe Community College annually, 65 percent are under 25 years old, and more than half are women. The majority of students are enrolled in certificate and degree programs. In addition, the college trains the area's workforce through open enrollment and corporate training programs, serving small to mid-size employers.

MCC offers a "2+2" transfer program, in which students enroll in a program to earn their associate degree in two years with the intent of transferring to a college or university — such as the University of Rochester, Rochester Institute of Technology, Saint John Fisher College, Roberts Wesleyan College, SUNY Geneseo, SUNY Brockport, Nazareth College, or the Eastman School of Music — to complete a bachelor's degree.

Student life

MCC is home to over 60 chartered clubs and organizations, including an online radio station (WMCC) and a regular newspaper, The Monroe Doctrine. The newspaper includes both a print version and an online version.

The Student Association, of which all currently enrolled students are members, is governed by the Brighton Campus Student Government Association (SGA) and the Downtown Campus Student Events and Governance Association (SEGA).

The Campus Activities Board (CAB) is the events organization at MCC. The CAB sponsors on-campus activities such as Freestyle Fridays, Fall Fest and Spring Fling. CAB also brings in Guest Speakers to present on various current issues of interest to students.

Phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society of two-year colleges and academic programs, has a chapter on the MCC campus. The chapter also participates in the Honors in Action Study Topic and the College Project to remain a 5-star chapter.

MCC offers smart classrooms, interactive videoconferencing capabilities, eight electronic learning centers, the Warshof Conference Center, dental clinic, fitness and dance studios, a synthetic turf field, and a variety of dining and restaurant options. The Brighton Campus, along with the Applied Technologies Center on West Henrietta Road and the Downtown Campus is completely wireless. A . athletics facility – the PAC Center – is also located on the Brighton Campus.

MCC provides residence halls for on-campus living. The Alice Holloway Young Residence Halls opened on the Brighton Campus in 2003, in honor of Alice Holloway Young, a trustee of the college. There are four residence halls: Alexander Hall, Canal Hall, Pioneer Hall, and Tribune Hall.

Athletics

The Monroe Community College athletics program, commonly known as the MCC Tribunes, competes in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) in Region 3. MCC's athletics program began in 1962 with a men's basketball team coached by George C. Monagan, the school's athletic director from 1962 to 1988. Men's soccer and baseball teams were added the following year.  the Tribunes' website lists 12 active programs (5 men's teams, 6 women's teams, and a co-ed esports team).

The school's athletic facilities include an indoor recreational center with a turf field and running track, an aquatic center, a basketball court, and outdoor fields for baseball, softball, and soccer/lacrosse. John L. DiMarco Field, a 1,500-seat outdoor venue used by MCC's soccer and lacrosse teams, also served as the home of professional soccer team Rochester New York FC in 2022. The team folded afterwards.

Title IX
On April 27, 2016, the U.S. Department of Education opened a federal Investigation to investigate if MCC had violated Title IX.

Notable people

Alumni

Kelly Brannigan, model (Deal or No Deal)
Robert Duffy (1988), Mayor of the City of Rochester, Lieutenant Governor of New York
 Kimika Forbes, association football goalkeeper for Trinidad and Tobago women's national football team
Lou Gramm (1971), original lead singer of Foreigner
Travis McCoy, lead singer of Gym Class Heroes
Tim Redding, former Major League Baseball pitcher
Dave Sarachan, assistant coach, LA Galaxy; former head coach, Chicago Fire, and U.S. soccer player
Jeff Sluman (1977), professional golfer
Cathy Turner (1984), Olympic gold medalist

Faculty
Otis Young, first black actor to star in a television western, The Outcasts; former assistant professor of Communications and head of the Drama Department at MCC from 1989 to 1999. Professor Young died in 2001.

References

External links
Official website

Education in Rochester, New York
Educational institutions established in 1964
SUNY community colleges
Two-year colleges in the United States
Universities and colleges in Monroe County, New York
1964 establishments in New York (state)
NJCAA athletics

Monroe Community College


The Report of 1800 was first written by James Madison. It argued for the sovereignty of the individual states under the United States Constitution. It argued against the Alien and Sedition Acts. The Virginia General Assembly adopted the Report in January 1800. The document mostly makes small changes to arguments from the 1798 Virginia Resolutions. The main reason for making the Report was to respond to criticism of the Resolutions. The Report was the last important writing by Madison meant to explain the Constitution in great detail, until the 1817 Bonus Bill Veto Message.

The arguments made in the Resolutions and the Report were used many times during the nullification crisis of 1832. In this crisis, South Carolina said that federal tariffs were unconstitutional and not valid within the state. Madison, however, did not agree. He said that the report did not support nullification. Modern historians debate whether Madison's theory of republicanism really supported the nullification movement. More broadly, historians debate whether the ideas Madison expressed between 1798 and 1800 agree with his work before and after this period. Election of 1800 was significant because it marked the first peaceful change in power from one political party to another.

Background
Madison, a member of the Republican Party, was elected to the Virginia General Assembly from Orange County in 1799. At this time, most members of the General Assembly were Republicans. A major item on his agenda was the defense of the General Assembly's 1798 Virginia Resolutions, which Madison had written earlier. The Virginia Resolutions, usually discussed together with Thomas Jefferson's contemporaneous Kentucky Resolutions, were a response to various perceived outrages perpetrated by the Federalist-dominated national government. The most significant of these were the Alien and Sedition Acts, four laws that allowed the President to deport aliens at will, required a longer period of residence before aliens could become citizens, and made it a crime to publish malicious or defamatory material against the government or its officials. Republicans were outraged by the legislation, and Madison and Jefferson drafted the highly critical Resolutions adopted in response by the Virginia and Kentucky state legislatures.

The Virginia Resolutions had in the year since publication received highly critical replies from state legislatures, including those of New York, Delaware, and the five New England states. The reason for the criticism was that the General Assembly, led in the effort by state-sovereignty advocate John Taylor of Caroline, had put a state-sovereignty spin on the Virginia Resolutions of 1798 despite Madison's hopes. These replies contended that the Supreme Court of the United States had the ultimate responsibility for deciding whether federal laws were constitutional, and that the Alien and Sedition Acts were constitutional and necessary. The Federalists accused the Republicans of seeking disunion, even contemplating violence. At the time, leading Virginia Republican figures such as Rep. William Branch Giles (in public) and Sen. John Taylor of Caroline (in private) actually were contemplating disunion, and the Virginia General Assembly chose this juncture for finally constructing a new state armory in Richmond, so there was some truth to the charge.

Jefferson, the leader of the Republican Party and then–Vice President, wrote to Madison in August 1799 outlining a campaign to strengthen public support for the principles expressed in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 (commonly referred to as "the principles of '98"):

That the principles already advanced by Virginia & Kentucky are not to be yielded in silence, I presume we all agree. I should propose a declaration of Resolution by their legislatures on this plan. 1st. Answer the reasonings of such of the states as have ventured in the field of reason, & that of the Committee of Congress. ... 2. Make a firm protestation against the principle & the precedent; and a reservation of the rights resulting to us from these palpable violations of the constitutional compact by the Federal government, ... 3. Express in affectionate and conciliatory language our warm attachment to union with our sister-states, and to the instrument & principles by which we are united; … fully confident that the good sense of the American people and their attachment to rally with us round the true principle of our federal compact. But determined, were we to be disappointed in this, to sever ourselves from that union we so much value, rather than give up the rights of self government which we have reserved, & in which alone we see liberty, safety & happiness.
In response to this letter, Madison visited Jefferson at Monticello during the first week of September. Their discussion was important in that it persuaded Jefferson to depart from his radical stance on dissociation from the Union, which is expressed at the end of the excerpt above. At the very least, Virginia or Kentucky taking such a stance publicly would have justified the Federalist attacks against the secessionist tendencies of the Republicans. Madison won over Jefferson, who shortly thereafter wrote to Wilson Cary Nicholas that: "From [this position] I retreat readily, not only in deference to [Madison's] judgment but because as we should never think of separation but for repeated and enormous violations, so these, when they occur, will be cause enough of themselves." Adrienne Koch and Harry Ammon, examining Jefferson's later writing, conclude that Madison had a significant role "in softening Jefferson's more extreme views."

Jefferson hoped for further involvement with the production of the Report and planned to visit Madison at Montpelier on his way to Philadelphia, the national capital, for the winter session of the United States Congress. However, James Monroe, who would become Governor of Virginia before the end of the year, visited Jefferson at Monticello and cautioned him against meeting with Madison, since another meeting between two of the most important Republican leaders would provoke significant public comment. The task of writing the Virginia Report was left solely to Madison. Jefferson underlined the importance of this work in a November 26 letter to Madison in which he identified "protestations against violations of the true principles of our constitution" as one of the four primary elements of the Republican Party plan.

Production and passage
The Assembly session began in early December. Once at Richmond, Madison began drafting the Report, though he was delayed by a weeklong battle with dysentery. On December 23, Madison moved for the creation of a special seven-member committee with himself as chairman to respond to "certain answers from several of the states, relative to the communications made by the Virginia legislature at their last session." The committee members were Madison, John Taylor, William Branch Giles, George Keith Taylor, John Wise, John Mercer, and William Daniel. The next day, Christmas Eve, the committee produced a first version of the Report. The measure came before the House of Delegates, the lower house of the General Assembly, on January 2.

Though certain to pass due to the Republican majority, which had recently been solidified by the election of a Republican clerk and speaker of the House, the Report was debated for five days. The main point of contention was the meaning of the third of the Virginia Resolutions:
…this Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare, that it views the powers of the federal government, as resulting from the compact to which the states are parties; … and that in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers not granted by said compact, the states who are parties thereto have the right … to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil…the authorities, rights, and liberties appertaining to them.
This resolution had been the principal target of the Federalist attack on the Resolutions. Particularly at issue was the sense in which the states were parties to the federal compact. The Report was ultimately amended to provide greater clarity on this issue by emphasizing that it was the people themselves, acting through the states in their sovereign capacity, who were parties to the Constitution. The amended Report passed the House of Delegates on January 7 by a margin of 60 to 40. At some point in the next two weeks, it passed the Senate by a margin of 15 to 6.

Virginia Republicans were happy with the Report. The General Assembly arranged for five thousand copies to be printed and distributed in the state, but there was not much public response to the Report, and it appears to have had relatively little impact on the presidential election of 1800 (which was, nevertheless, a major victory for the Republicans and a repudiation of Federalist policies). Parties outside Virginia seemed uninterested in the rehashing of the 1798 Resolutions, and in other states there was very little public comment. Jefferson eagerly sought copies for distribution to Republican members of Congress departing for their home states, and when they failed to arrive he entreated Monroe for at least one copy that he could reproduce. Despite Jefferson's approval of and attempt to distribute Madison's work, the national reaction was tepid. Though it had little impact on the immediate election, Madison's Report clarified the legal argument against the Acts and for states' rights in general, particularly in its advancement of the Tenth Amendment rather than the Ninth as the main bulwark against federal encroachment on state autonomy.

Argument
The general purpose of the Report was the affirmation and expansion of the principles in the Virginia Resolutions. The first major goal of the Resolutions was to bring about the repeal of the Alien and Sedition Acts by generating public opposition that would be expressed through the state legislatures. Madison sought to accomplish this by demonstrating conclusively that the Acts violated the constitution. Laying into the Acts in his Report, Madison described many breaches of constitutional limits. The Alien Act granted the President the unenumerated power of deporting friendly aliens. Contrary to the Sedition Act, the federal government had no power to protect officials from dissent or libelous attack, beyond the protection it accorded to every citizen; indeed, such special intervention against the press was "expressly forbidden by a declaratory amendment to the constitution." As well, Madison attacked Federalist carriage laws and bank laws as unconstitutional.

To remedy the defects revealed by the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, Madison called for citizens to have an absolute right to free speech. Madison writes that the ability to prosecute speech amounts to "a protection of those who administer the government, if they should at any time deserve the contempt or hatred of the people, against being exposed to it." Freedom of the press was necessary, because "chequered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted to the press for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression." The Report supported a strict interpretation of the First Amendment. While the Federalists interpreted the amendment as limiting the power of Congress over the press, but implying that such power existed, Madison argued that the First Amendment wholly prohibited Congress from any interference with the press.

More generally, the Report made the argument in favor of the sovereignty of the individual states, for which it is best known. The basic message was that the states were the ultimate parties constituting the federal compact, and that therefore the individual states were ultimate arbiters of whether the compact had been broken by the usurpation of power. This doctrine is known as the compact theory. It was the presence of this argument in the Resolutions that had allowed the Federalists to paint the Republicans as leaning toward secession; in the amended Report the line is moderated, with an emphasis that it is the states as political societies of the people (and therefore, one reads in, not the state legislatures alone) which possess this power. Either formulation would help the Republican cause by refuting the finality of any constitutional interpretation advanced by the Congress and federal judiciary, both of which were dominated by Federalists.

In defense of Virginia Republicans and the Resolutions, Madison emphasized that even if one disagreed with the compact theory, the Virginia Resolutions and the Report of 1800 themselves were simply protests, which states were surely entitled to produce. They were "expressions of opinion, unaccompanied with any other effect than what they may produce on opinion by exciting reflection." By eschewing direct action in favor of influencing popular opinion, Madison tried to make clear that the Republicans were not moving toward disunion.

Analysis
The Report was regarded in the early 19th century as among the more important expressions of Republican principles. Spencer Roane described it as "the Magna Charta on which the republicans settled down, after the great struggle in the year 1799." Henry Clay said on the floor of the House of Representatives that it was from the Report of 1800, above other documents, that he had developed his own theories on constitutional interpretation. H. Jefferson Powell, a modern jurist, identifies three persistent themes of Republican constitutionalism which emerged from the Resolutions and the Report: (1) a textual approach to the Constitution, (2) the compact theory, and (3) that caution, not trust, should characterize our approach to those who hold political power.

In more recent years, the main practical interest in the Report has been its absolutist understanding of the First Amendment. Multiple Supreme Court decisions have cited the case as evidence of the Framers' ideas on free speech. In the 1957 Roth v. United States opinion by William Brennan, Madison's Report is cited as evidence that "the fundamental freedoms of speech and press have contributed greatly to the development and well-being of our free society and are indispensable to its continued growth." Other cases to cite the Report for a similar purpose include Thornhill v. Alabama (1940) and Nixon v. Shrink Missouri Government PAC (2000).

In modern scholarship outside the legal arena the Report is mostly studied for its discussion of states' rights with regard to federalism and republicanism. According to Kevin Gutzman, the Report, together with the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, forms a foundation for the "radical southern states' rights tradition." However, Madison rebuffed charges that his writings supported the constitutional interpretation advanced by pro-nullification Southerners. The Report of 1800, Madison argued, did not say the government was a compact of the individual states, as the pro-nullification elements suggested. Rather the Report of 1800 described a compact of "the people in each of the States, acting in their highest sovereign capacity." The state governments themselves, no less than the federal judiciary, possess only delegated power and therefore cannot decide questions of fundamental importance. Madison thought the Resolutions and Report were consistent with this principle while the Ordinance of Nullification was not.

Gutzman rejects Madison's gloss of the Report as a "specious distinction," saying it is reasonable to read into the Resolutions and the Report an "ominous challenge to federal supremacy." Drew McCoy, however, has argued that Madison indeed developed a moderate stance which stood between the nationalists and the pro-nullification camp. Koch and Ammon agree, stating that "Nowhere in American political literature does there exist a more careful, precise and mature reiteration of the principles of republican self-government; and nowhere is it clearer that the intermediate existence of state governments between the people and the 'General Government' should function to prevent a totalitarian imbalance in any one center of authority."

References
 Brant, Irving. James Madison: Father of the Constitution, 1787–1800. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1950. See especially pp. 466–471, which covers the period examined here; the book is the third volume of six in Brant's biography of Madison, which is the most detailed scholarly biography thus far published.
 Gibson, Alan. "The Madisonian Madison and the Question of Consistency: The Significance and Challenge of Recent Research." Review of Politics 64 (2002): 311–338.
 Gutzman, Kevin R. "A Troublesome Legacy: James Madison and 'The Principles of '98'." Journal of the Early Republic 15 (1995): 569–589.
 Gutzman, Kevin R. Constantine. "The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions Reconsidered: 'An Appeal to the Real Laws of Our Country'." Journal of Southern History 66 (2000): 473-496.
 Koch, Adrienne and Harry Ammon. "The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions: An Episode in Jefferson's and Madison's Defense of Civil Liberties." William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series, 5 (1948): 145–176.
 Lash, Kurt T. "James Madison's Celebrated Report of 1800: The Transformation of the Tenth Amendment." George Washington Law Review 74 (2006): 165–200.
 Madison, James. The Papers of James Madison. Vol. 17: March 1797 through March 1801. Edited by David B. Mattern. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991. The Report appears in pp. 303–351. The editorial note on pp. 303–306 is used heavily in this article.
 McCoy, Drew. The Last of the Fathers: James Madison & the Republican Legacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
 Nixon v. Shrink Missouri Government PAC, 528 U.S. 377 (2000).
 Powell, H. Jefferson. "The Principles of '98: An Essay in Historical Retrieval." Virginia Law Review 80 (1994): 689–743.
 Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476 (1957).
 Thornhill v. State of Alabama, 310 U.S. 88 (1940).
 Yarbrough, Jean. "Rethinking 'The Federalist's View of Federalism'." Publius 15 (1985): 31–53.

Notes

Other websites
 Complete Text
 Excerpts of the Report

1800
18th century in the United States
United States law

Report of 1800


British Parliamentary style is a major form of academic debate that originated in Liverpool in the mid 1800s. It has gained wide support globally and is the official format of the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC).

Rules
British Parliamentary debates consist of four teams, containing two speakers each, which are divided into two sides that speak for and against the motion. Due to the style's origins in British parliamentary procedure, the two sides are called the Government and the Opposition. Similarly, sides are known as benches, consisting of two teams - an opening team and a closing team. Teams compete against all three other teams in the round, including against its own opening or closing team, which it is not expected to help. The order of speeches alternates between the two benches, starting with the first government speaker, until all eight participants have spoken. Speeches are usually either five (high-school level) or seven (university level) minutes in duration.

Prime Minister/Leader of Opposition
The first speaker from each bench is known as the PM/LO. They are responsible for establishing the characterization of the motion under which the debate will take place, along with forwarding arguments for their own teams (Opening Government or Opening Opposition), and establishing their importance within the round

Deputy Speeches
The second speaker from each bench is known as the Deputy. Deputies may add new arguments to their team's substantive, but their primary responsibilities are to rebuild the existing case, to launch challenges to the opposing bench, and to add additional weighing to their arguments to preemptively frame them against any extensions/new arguments from closing.

Extension Speeches
The third speaker from each bench, and the first speaker for the closing sides, is known as the extension. They are responsible for differentiating their side from their opening, running either a clear vertical extension, flagging what parts of it are new, and critical for the actualisation of the argument's benefits, or a horizontal extension, and weighing it directly against other arguments in the round. They also provide some brief response work to the opening half of the debate as a whole, but this is not their primary goal.

Whip speeches
The final speaker from each bench is known as the Whip. Whip speakers cannot add new arguments, and must instead summarize, frame, and weigh the arguments presented in the debate in a way that shows that their team (Closing Government or Closing Opposition) wins the debate.

Points of Information
Speakers in the BP format can offer Points of Information (POIs) to opposing teams. To offer a POI during another speaker's speech, a debater may stand, say something such as "Point" or "Point of Information", and wait to be called on. The speaker may accept, reject, or ignore the POI. If they accept, the individual who offered the POI may state an argument, a rebuttal, or ask a question to the speaker for up to 15 seconds or until interrupted by the speaker. Speakers may reject POIs with a physical cue (e.g. waving one's hand) or a verbal indication of rejection.

Speakers are granted "protected time", during which no points of information may be offered. Most commonly, this is the first and last minute of a speech.

Only speakers from the opposing bench may offer POIs to the current speaker. Speakers on the same side of the motion cannot do so even if they are from different teams (e.g. Opening and Closing Government may offer POIs to Opening Opposition, but Closing Opposition cannot).

Competitions in BP Style

The debating season closely follows the academic year in Northern Hemisphere English speaking countries. The first competitions are in Britain and Ireland in October & November, traditionally commenced by the Edinburgh Cup in the first week of October building up to World Championships held over the Christmas holidays. After "Worlds" the Cambridge and Oxford IVs are held. In the New Year the Trinity IV in Dublin, the premier tournament in Ireland, recommences the season. The season continues with a large number of IONA and European competitions in March and April. During May and June, the period annual examinations in many universities a small number of open competitions are held in preparation for the European Championship, or Euros. The Euros were initially held over the Easter break, but is now held over the summer, normally in August and concludes the European debating season.

The world championships, as well as many other tournaments, require team members to be registered students of a university or another tertiary-level institution. However, "open" tournaments also exist that allow non-students and composite teams to compete.

References

External links

An introductory Guide to BP Debating by Alex Deane.
Competitive Debating  by Dan Neidle
British Debate
World Debate Website
The Judges British Parliamentary Debating est.1999 - An extensive array of unconventional tutorials that focus on the alternative and fun aspects of debate.

Debate types
Parliament of the United Kingdom

British Parliamentary Style


Lovzar (fun in Chechen language) is a Chechen children's dance ensemble that has conducted worldwide tours and has been an important face of Chechen culture to the world.

Founded in 1983 in the Republican Pioneers Palace in Grozny, Lovzar disbanded in 1994 due to the First Chechen War, but in 1995 the heads of Lovzar recruited thirty boys and thirty girls to restart the group.  Based in exile in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, the newly assembled group trained in traditional Chechen dance.  Subsequently, the group has been awarded numerous awards in many countries; it is worth mentioning that the Chechen pop singer and noted beauty Makka Sagaipova is a member of this group.

External links

Chechnya Free.ru Article on Lovzar

Chechen dances
Dance in Russia
Folk dance companies
Performing groups established in 1983

Lovzar


In the fields of physical security and information security, the high-water mark for access control was introduced by Clark Weissmann in 1969. It pre-dates the Bell–LaPadula security model, whose first volume appeared in 1972.

Under high-water mark, any object less than the user's security level can be opened, but the object is relabeled to reflect the highest security level currently open, hence the name.

The practical effect of the high-water mark was a gradual movement of all objects towards the highest security level in the system.  If user A is writing a CONFIDENTIAL document, and checks the unclassified dictionary, the dictionary becomes CONFIDENTIAL.  Then, when user B is writing a SECRET report and checks the spelling of a word, the dictionary becomes SECRET. Finally, if user C is assigned to assemble the daily intelligence briefing at the TOP SECRET level, reference to the dictionary makes the dictionary TOP SECRET, too.

Low-water mark
Low-water mark is an extension to Biba Model. In the Biba model, no-write-up and no-read-down rules are enforced. In this model, the rules are exactly opposite of the rules in Bell-La Padula model. In the low-water mark model, read down is permitted, but the subject label, after reading, will be degraded to object label. It can be classified in floating label security models.

See also
 Watermark (data synchronization)

References

Computer security models

High-water mark (computer security)


The round rays (Heliotrygon) is a genus of freshwater stingrays in the family Potamotrygonidae.  The genus is endemic to the Amazon basin in South America. Despite being discovered decades earlier, the genus was only scientifically described in 2011. They mainly live in deep river channels, but approach the shore at night to feed on fish.

Their discs are very circular in shape (including the snout), and they have tiny eyes and a relatively short tail with an essentially harmless, vestigial stinger (sometimes even lacking). The largest confirmed disc width is , but there are reports of individuals where it was . Both species are greyish or brownish above, but while H. gomesi is overall plain without distinct markings, H. rosai has a white to creamy-white vermiculated pattern.

Species
 Heliotrygon gomesi M. R. de Carvalho & Lovejoy, 2011 (Gomes's round ray)
 Heliotrygon rosai M. R. de Carvalho & Lovejoy, 2011 (Rosa's round ray)

References

Potamotrygonidae
Freshwater fish of Brazil
Freshwater fish of Peru
Ray genera
Freshwater fish genera

Heliotrygon


Cavallucci is a rich Italian Christmas pastry prepared with anise, walnuts, candied fruits, coriander, and flour. They are Sienese in origin, and the name translates approximately to "little horses".  The chewy biscuits traditionally use Tuscan millefiori honey as an essential ingredient in the dough.

History
The cookies were originally imprinted with the image of a horse (cavalli is the Italian term for horses). The cookies sold today are a gentrified version of a pastry which is traceable to the reign of Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449–1492), when they were called biriquocoli.

Many hypotheses are associated with the origin of its name. According to the most popular version of the story, cavallucci were served to travelers on horseback as a source of nourishment for long trips. Along a similar vein, another speculation is that postal workers who delivered mail over long distances ate the cookies on a regular basis. Additionally surmised is that these sweets were the usual snack of servants who worked in horse stables of rich Italian aristocrats in Siena, a city which gained its fame for horse racing.

Serving
The pastry is often paired with sweet dessert wines, such as Vin Santo, and dipped into the wine before being eaten.

References

External links
Cavallucci (o morsetti) di Siena Retrieved 26 April 2013
 Cavallucci: Local Recipe in Tuscany, Italy Retrieved 26 April 2013

Italian desserts
Biscuits
Christmas food
Anise
Cuisine of Tuscany
Christmas in Italy

Cavallucci


The fish crow (Corvus ossifragus) is a species of crow associated with wetland habitats in the eastern and southeastern United States.

Taxonomy and etymology
The fish crow was given its binomial name by the Scottish ornithologist Alexander Wilson in 1812, in the fifth volume of his American Ornithology. The binomial is from Latin; Corvus means "raven", while ossifragus means "bone-breaker". It is derived from os or ossis, meaning "bone", and frangere, meaning "to break". The English-language common name fish crow also derives from Wilson, who ascribed the name to the crow's aquatic diet, as described to him by local fishermen. He distinguished the fish crow from John Bartram's great seaside crow by the former's diminutive size when compared to the American crow.

The fish crow's taxonomic relation to other species of the Corvus genus is still poorly understood, but DNA sequencing indicates that it is most closely related to the palm crow (C. palmarum) and the Jamaican crow (C. jamaicensis), with the three species forming a Nearctic clade. The Sinaloa crow (C. sinaloae) and Tamaulipas crow (C. imparatus) bear morphological similarities to and were once considered conspecific subspecies of the fish crow, but have since been recognized as distinct species.

Description

The fish crow is a small bird, with an average adult weight of  in males and  in females. The average male wingspan is similarly larger at , compared to  in females. The total body length is between .

The fish crow is superficially similar to the American crow, but is smaller and has a silkier, smoother plumage by comparison. The upperparts have a blue or blue-green sheen, while the underparts have a more greenish tint to the black. The eyes are dark brown. The differences are often only really apparent between the two species when seen side by side or when heard calling. The bill is usually somewhat slimmer than the American crow, but is only readily distinguishable if both species are seen together.

Visual differentiation from the American crow is extremely difficult and often inaccurate. Nonetheless, differences apart from size do exist. Fish crows tend to have more slender bills and feet. There may also be a small sharp hook at the end of the upper bill. Fish crows also appear as if they have shorter legs when walking. More dramatically, when calling, fish crows tend to hunch and fluff their throat feathers.

The voice is the most outwardly differing characteristic for this species and other American crow species. The call of the fish crow has been described as a nasal "ark-ark-ark" or a begging "waw-waw". Birders often distinguish the two species (in areas where their range overlaps) with the mnemonic aid "Just ask him if he is an American crow. If he says "no", he is a fish crow." referring to the fact that the most common call of the American crow is a distinct "caw caw", while that of the fish crow is a nasal "nyuh unh". The fish crow also has a single call sounding like "cahrrr".

Distribution and habitat
This species occurs on the eastern seaboard of the United States from Rhode Island south to Key West, and west along the northern coastline of the Gulf of Mexico. Coastal marshes and beaches, rivers, inland lakes and marshes, river banks, and the land immediately surrounding all are frequented. Fish crows are also found along many river systems inland for quite some distance, having expanded their range along rivers since the early 1900s. Since 2012, fish crows have rapidly expanded into Canada, with breeding populations along Lake Ontario.

Behavior

Diet

Food is taken mainly from the ground or shallow water where the bird hovers and plucks food items out of the water with its feet. The fish crow is omnivorous. It feeds on small crustaceans, such as crabs and shrimps, other invertebrates, stranded fish, and live fish if the situation favors their capture, eggs and nestlings of birds, small reptiles, the fruits of many trees, peanuts, and grains, as well as human scraps where available.

Breeding
The nest is usually built high in a tree and is often accompanied in nearby trees with other nests of the same species forming small, loose colonies. Usually, four or five eggs are laid. Pale blue-green in colour, they bear blotches of olive-brown. Fish crows build a new nest for each breeding attempt. A pair of fish crows were reported to have raised a young blue jay for multiple weeks.

Conservation
This species appears to be somewhat more resistant to West Nile virus than the American crow. Survival rates of up to 45% have been reported for fish crows, compared with near zero for American crows.

References

Further reading

External links

Differences between American and Fish Crows
Fish Crow videos from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Macaulay Library
Page from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Sound link
Fish crow call

Image link
 Fish crow series

fish crow
Native birds of the Southeastern United States
Endemic birds of the Eastern United States
fish crow
Taxa named by Alexander Wilson (ornithologist)

Fish crow


Duncan Pflaster (born 1973) is an American off-off-Broadway playwright, composer and actor.  His first play Wilder and Wilder (a transvestite adaptation of Alice in Wonderland), was produced in 1995 at Florida Playwrights' Theatre in Hollywood, FL.  He now lives in New York City, where many of his plays have been produced in theatre festivals, such as the Spotlight On festival and the Midtown International Theatre Festival. His first film Strapped for Danger was produced by Scorpio Film Releasing in 2017, and the sequel Undercover Vice: Strapped for Danger II followed in 2021. Scorpio Film Releasing also brought him in for additional material on their film Code Name: Dynastud.

His plays have often been labeled as magic realism; they frequently deal with metaphysical or science fiction plots, such as parallel universes, cloning, life extension, fairy tales and mythology.  His writing often touches on themes of family, community, religion, and homosexuality. Pflaster is gay.  Many of his plays include nudity and frank sexual situations.   Pflaster is also a verse dramatist, writing in both rhyming couplets and blank verse.

Awards
 The Underpants Godot
 2015 UNFringed Festival Award, Best Play
 Keeping Everything Straight (formerly titled Messin' With the Kid)
 Full-length Play Winner of the 4th Annual Vittum Prize for 2014.
 Pocket Universe
 One of the 8 winners of the Independent Play(w)rights Ten Minute Play Contest!
 Fourteen Hundred and Sixty Sketches of Your Left Hand At The Secret Theatre, 2013
 2013 UNFringed Festival Award, Best Play
 2013 UNFringed Festival Award, Best Actor, Emilio P. Tirado
 The Taint of Equality
 2012 Planet Connections Award, Outstanding Supporting Actor, Roberto Alexander
 2012 Planet Connections Award, Outstanding Sound Design, Duncan Pflaster
 The Wastes of Time
 2012 Fruits of Distinction Award, Best Actress, Susan Barnes Walker
 Bill's Threesome
 2012 Fruits of Distinction Award, Best Comedy Skit
 The Tragedy of Dandelion
 "Audience Favorite", MT Works NewBorn Festival 2012
 Semi-Finalist, Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference 2011
 Sweeter Dreams
 2011 Planet Connections Award, Outstanding Supporting Actor, Douglas Rossi
 2011 Planet Connections Award, Outstanding Supporting Actress, Clara Barton Green
 Mine or Yours
 2nd Place, Fresh Fruit Festival One-Act Competition
 Say Something Shocking, or the spit-take Play
 Winner Spare Change Theater's 2011 One-Minute Play Festival
 The Empress of Sex
 "Audience Favorite", MT Works NewBorn Festival 2011
 Semi-Finalist, About Face Theatre's 2010 XYZ Festival of New Work
 The Starship Astrov
 2010 MITF Award, Outstanding Supporting Actress, Jennifer Gawlik
 The Thyme of the Season
 2010 Planet Connections Award, "Outstanding Playwriting for an Adaptation, Revival or Sequel"
 2010 Planet Connections Award, "Outstanding Costumes" Mark Richard Caswell
 2010 Planet Connections Congeniality Award – Duncan Pflaster
 2009 MITF Award, "Outstanding Supporting Actor" for his performance in Kyle Baxter and John Crefeld's I Hate Love.
 Prince Trevor Amongst the Elephants
 2008 MITF Award, "Outstanding Playwriting for a New Script Play OR Book of a Musical" (Tie with Monica Bauer for The Higher Education of Khalid Amir)
 2008 MITF Award, "Outstanding Overall Production of a New Comedy Play"
 2008 MITF Award, "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play" Carlos Rafael Fernández (Tie with Eric Percival for Bubby's Shadow)
2006 Spotlight On Award, "Best New Play (Writer's Award)"
 Eternity: Time Without End
2005 Spotlight On Award, "Best New Play (Writer's Award)"
2005 Spotlight On Award, Best Actress Clara Barton Green
2005 Spotlight On Award, Best Supporting Actor Jason Specland
2005 Spotlight On Award, Featured Actor Joe Fanelli

Works
Full-length
 The Underpants Godot – A comedy about a director who wants to put on Waiting For Godot with hot guys in underwear instead of old men. A representative from the Beckett Estate crashes a dress rehearsal to investigate. Produced 2015 in UNFringed Festival at The Secret Theatre, with a full production in September 2016 produced by The Secret Theatre. Two monologues from the play are published in Smith & Kraus' The Best Men's Stage Monologues 2016. 2018 production with Nearly Naked Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona. 2019 Production with Theatre Rhinoceros in San Francisco, California.
 A Touch of Cinema – A drama about a female screenwriter in an unnamed country who has been put under house arrest, her art censored by a new fascist regime. Premiered April 2017 in the Spotlight On Festival at The Wild Project in the East Village, NYC.
 The Tragedy of Dandelion – A five-act Shakespearean tragedy entirely in iambic pentameter, about a transgender/lesbian princess named Dandelion. – Produced by Ego Actus, 2014
 Fourteen Hundred and Sixty Sketches of Your Left Hand At The Secret Theatre, 2013 – Winner Best Script and Best Actor, Emilio P. Tirado
 The Taint of Equality – A social farce about a gay couple who don't believe that gays should get married as straight people do. – Planet Connections Theatre Festivity 2012, a monologue from it is published in Smith & Kraus' The Best Men's Stage Monologues 2013 – Winner, best sound design
The Empress of Sex – An erotic romantic comedy set in Ancient Greece – Planet Connections Theatre Festivity 2012
Sweeter Dreams – A multimedia play about an independent filmmaker in a love triangle with her husband and her leading actor. – 2011 Winner best Supporting Actress Clara Barton Green and Best Supporting Actor Douglas Rossi
The Starship Astrov – A play using Chekhovian tropes to explore life on a space ship that doesn't have weekly adventures.
Suckers – A comic vampire play – 2009
Ore, or Or – A love story about greed and lust and Yamashita's Gold – 2009
The Thyme of the Season ~or~ A Mid-Autumn Night's Dream – a sequel to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. – 2007
Admit Impediments – A musical about marriage – gay, straight, and convenient – 2007
The Wastes of Time – A gay love story dealing with the generation gap surrounding the AIDS crisis – 2006
Prince Trevor Amongst the Elephants – A big epic naked Shakespearean fairy tale play – 2005
Eternity: Time Without End – Eleven people come to a secluded beach looking for the fountain of youth; but when they find it, it's not what they expected – 2004
Sleeping in Tomorrow – A play about parallel universes, in which the main character visits the same cocktail party in different dimensions – 2002
Dik and Jayne are Not the Same – A play about cloning and lesbians – but not about cloning lesbians – 2001
Amazing Dædalus – A play about what happens in the time between myths – 1998
Eskimo: The Musical
Wilder and Wilder – A transvestite adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, crossed with Walk on the Wild Side
 Messin' With the Kid – A dark play about a young man who is a male stripper to support his younger brother through high school.
 Light and Noise and Bees and Boys – A drama about a Lesbian who suffers memory loss from a stroke and who doesn't remember that she came out of the closet.
 Malvolio's Revenge – A sequel to Twelfth Night, queering the text.
 Nothing but Thunder – A verse comedy about a young Dionysus going to the underworld to rescue his mother Semele.
 Cockeye(D) – An adaptation of The Bacchae, which is about a young film star accusing an older director of molestation, set against an all-male adaptation of The Bacchae.
One-Acts
Pocket Universe – A gay play about a scientist who makes a virtual universe for his office crush. Published in Smith & Kraus' Best 10-Minute Plays 2013, and in Independent Play(w)rights' Ten Minute Play Anthology.
Suggested Donation – A grumpy theatre patron takes exception to the suggested donation for wine at intermission of a play. Produced by Old Library Theatre in Fair Lawn, New Jersey in 2018 and The Secret Theatre's One-act Festival in 2017.
Hate Myself in the Morning – A play about the army and political prisoners, played out between a young woman and the policeman she brings home for a one-night stand.
Mine Or Yours – A gay guy and his fag hag attempt to discern from clues whether an attractive man at a bar is gay or straight.
Patrick and Lisa's Wedding – A bridesmaid ducks out of the wedding reception of her ex-boyfriend, and ends up bumping into the young bride, who is having second thoughts about her new husband.
The Fugly Train – Two young pretty women have a philosophical crisis on the subway.
Six Silences in Three Movements – An experimental work which contrasts the things people don't say in a relationship.
Hold Thy Peace, Thou Knave – Backstage at a production of Twelfth Night, a last-minute understudy for Sir Toby Belch goes a little haywire onstage, causing consternation amongst the rest of the cast.
First to Fall Asleep – A dark comedy about frat hijinx that get out of hand when a freshman passes out at a frat party.
Prince Charming, presented without comment – An advertising executive begins to question the saleability of Cinderella and questions the women in his life about their feelings on the topic.
 New Lang Syne – Two ex-college friends who had a brief fling meet by coincidence on New Year's Day. One has continued the party lifestyle, while the other is responsible and sober.
(they kiss) – A playwright writes and stars in a play so he can get to kiss an actress he has a crush on.

Non-playwright work
First film Strapped for Danger produced by Scorpio Film Releasing in 2017. A comic LGBTQ heist film about 3 male strippers who hide out in a frat house. An homage to the films of Russ Meyer.

He wrote comic sketches for Laughing Swingset Productions, available on YouTube and Funny Or Die.

He has also written freelance theatre reviews for BroadwayWorld.com and HX magazine.

He has written music on SongFight! under the name Level Nivelo – the band name is a reference to the Esperanto used in Red Dwarf

He is also the creator of and head photographer for The Naughty Jewish Boys Calendar, a photographic pinup calendar highlighting the erotic side of Jewish men.

References
 Pflaster's personal site
 Pflaster's listing on New Play Exchange
 Duncan's playwright listing on Doolee.com
 Pflaster in the "P" listings of On the Purple Circuit, a  listing for GLQBT playwrights

External links
 The Plays of Duncan Pflaster
 Duncan's Page on The New Play Exchange
 Story about Duncan and his 2012 plays.
 Duncan's playwright listing on Doolee.com
 Duncan in the "P" listings of On the Purple Circuit, a  listing for GLQBT playwrights
 January 2010 Interview for StageBuzz.com
 Podcast Interview from mikeypod.com, promoting Admit Impediments
  March 1998 Interview with Duncan (from an Anthony LaPaglia fansite)
 Poem inspired by Amazing Dædalus by an actress in one of the college productions

21st-century American dramatists and playwrights
American gay writers
Living people
1973 births
American male dramatists and playwrights
21st-century American male writers
American LGBT dramatists and playwrights
21st-century American LGBT people

Duncan Pflaster


Ballyvoy ( or Baile Bhuí) is a small village and townland in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is on the main A2 coast road 5 km east of Ballycastle and 17 km north west of Cushendall. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 72 people. It lies within the Antrim Coast and Glens Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is part of Causeway Coast and Glens District Council.

The village is sited between a high ridge to the north, and the valley of the Carey River to the south with its distinctive terraces and wooded banks. The village, for its size, has a good range of commercial, social, educational and community facilities. After a long period of inactivity in  housing development, a medium-sized development has been undertaken at Blackpark Road.

Ballyvoy is also a Townland in the Parish of Kilbride near Ballyclare Co. Antrim.

People
The order of the Knights of Columbanus was founded in 1915 by James K Cannon O'Neill. He was born and raised at Carey House, Ballypatrick, Carey. He studied at the Classical School in Downpatrick, enrolled in St. Malachy's Diocesan College in February 1872 and entered Maynooth in September 1875. In 1906 he was appointed parish priest of the Sacred Heart Parish, Oldpark Rd., Belfast.

He died on 18 March 1922 and is buried in Ballyvoy.

Education
Barnish Primary School (Closed)

References

NI Neighbourhood Information System
Draft Northern Area Plan 2016
Knights of Columbanus

[Jeremy Brett] actor

External links
North Antrim.com - Ballyvoy

See also
List of villages in Northern Ireland

Villages in County Antrim

Ballyvoy


Signal, signals or signalling may refer to:

Scientific concepts
 Signal (electrical engineering), a varying quantity that can carry information over air or wires.
 Signal processing, the field of techniques used to extract information from signals
 Signal (computing), an event, message, or data structure transmitted between computational processes
 Cell signalling (biology), the system of communication that governs basic cellular activities and coordinates cell actions
 Signal (biology), electrochemical activity in an organism

Communications
 Signals used in various kinds of transport:
 Road traffic signal
 Railway signal
 Semaphore
 Beacon
 International maritime signal flags, using the International Code of Signals
 Signals (military), a historical name for the military communications
 Signal corps, the branch of military which operates with command, control and communications systems
 Signalling theory in biology, how organisms signal their state to others
 Distress signal
 Smoke signal (See also :Category:Early telecommunications)
 Signalling (telecommunications), a part of some communication protocols
 Signal (recognition), a way of showing that a person recognizes something; such as the Color of the day used by police.

Names
 Signal band A rock band from Northwest Indiana
 Signal (band), a Bulgarian rock band
 Signals (album), an album by progressive rock band Rush
 Signal (magazine)
 Signal (toothpaste)
 Signal 1 and Signal 2 radio stations
 Signal (subscription service), service that provided real-time stock quotes
 Signaal (now Thales Nederland), a Netherlands-based defence company
 Signal Systems, a company of the McLean Group of Companies

Other
 Any implicit, subtle, or disguised message, in situations such as:
 Partnership card games (see signal (bridge))
 Signaling (economics)
 Signals and slots, a software design pattern
 Kent (game) a card game also known as Signal or Kemp

Signal


French grammar is the rules about how to speak and write the French language. It is similar to the grammar of other Romance languages.

French is moderately inflected. This means that some words change their form in different situations.

Verb
In French, verbs are conjugated to show information. That means they change endings.

Person
Verbs are conjugated to match with grammatical person.

Irregular Verbs
Most French verbs are regular, which means that the someone can guess how to conjugate a verb based on what letters a verb ends with. However, some verbs are irregular. Irregular verbs do not follow the normal pattern of conjugation. Instead, the forms must be learned differently. An example of an irregular verb in French is être (to be).

Noun

Gender
Every French noun has a gender. A noun can be either masculine or feminine.

Number
The plural of a noun usually ends with -s. For example, dog (chien) becomes dogs (chiens). However, if a noun ends in -au, -eu, or -ou, it can have -x at the end as a plural. For example, game (jeu) becomes games (jeux). If a noun already ends with -s, -x, or -z, it does not change in the plural.

Adjectives
In French, adjectives change in order to agree with the gender and number of the noun it describes.

Word order
The word order in French is subject-verb-object. In the sentence Je mange le gâteau (I eat the cake), je (I) is the subject and le gâteau (the cake) is the object. However, if the object is a pronoun, it goes before the verb. If le gâteau is replaced by le (it), the sentence becomes Je le mange (I eat it).

More reading

Grammars of specific languages
Grammar

French grammar


Electron is a genus of the motmots, a family of Neotropical near passerine birds. The genus has two species:

Both inhabit humid evergreen tropical forest. Both occur in Central America, and the broad-billed motmot occurs in a large region of South America as well.

They are distinguished from other motmots by their much wider bills. The rackets on their tails are less dramatic than those of many other motmot species and may be absent. The species are very similar except in adult plumage (but the adult keel-billed resembles the juvenile broad-billed). A mixed pair apparently courting has been observed (Howell and Webb 1995).

The name Electron is a Latinization of the Ancient Greek word for amber, and can mean "bright" in scientific names (Jaeger 1978). The name was given 46 years before an elementary particle was named electron.

References

 Peterson, Alan P. (Editor). 1999. Zoological Nomenclature Resource (Zoonomen). Accessed 2007-08-17.

Taxa named by Johannes von Nepomuk Franz Xaver Gistel
Bird genera

Electron (bird)


Gürbüz Doğan Ekşioğlu (signs his work as Gürbüz or Gurbuz) is a Turkish cartoonist and graphics designer. He was born in Mesudiye in Ordu Province, Turkey in 1954. He studied graphics at the State College of Fine Arts in İstanbul (named Marmara University Faculty of Fine Arts today) where he is still teaching as an assistant professor. He has been drawing cartoons since 1977 and holds a total of 64 awards (23 of which are international). He participated in many national and international collective displays and also had nine solo exhibitions including one in New York City. His cartoons and illustrations were published in various newspapers and magazines, such as Forbes, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and on five covers of The New Yorker, including the famous one dated 15 September 2003, a special edition for the second anniversary of 11 September 2001 attacks, and the "On the Edge" of the 5 October 2009 issue, which features a signature Ekşioğlu cat motif.

External links
  Interview with the Turkish daily Milliyet including excerpt from a letter from Susan Sontag regarding the Sept. 15, 2003, cover of The New Yorker by Gürbüz commemorating the September 11 attacks (... Gürbüz? I wish I recognized the name.).

1954 births
Living people
People from Mesudiye
Turkish editorial cartoonists
Turkish illustrators

Gürbüz Doğan Ekşioğlu


Operation Sand Flea was a series of training exercises for the December 1989 invasion of Panama by the United States. These troop movements and practice assaults were conducted in part as training to defend the Panama Canal (a contingency then called Purple Storm), but were also intended simply to affirm the right of the US military to engage in them. Conducted in the summer of 1989, these seemingly endless movements, also known as "Freedom of Movement Drills," overwhelmed the ability of the Panamanians to observe, analyze and understand the activities. In this way, this program desensitized the Panama Defense Force (PDF) to the coming invasion.

The exercises were part of Operation Nimrod Dancer.

See also
Operation Purple Storm

References

Conflicts in 1989
History of Panama
20th-century military history of the United States

Operation Sand Flea


Suroopa Mukherjee is an Indian writer.

Career
She is the author of several books for children and young people, including Bhopal Gas Tragedy: The Worst Industrial Disaster in Human History, a book about the Bhopal disaster. She teaches English Literature at Hindu College, University of Delhi and is the coordinator of a student group dedicated to creating youth awareness on issues relating to environmental damage and corporate crime.

Across The Mystic Shore was her debut novel for adults, released by Macmillan New Writing in March 2007.
Her most recent book  "Surviving Bhopal" draws on oral testimonials of the affected community of the Bhopal disaster and analyzes the cause and aftermath of the disaster from the perspective of those who suffered the severe consequences of systemic failure and travesty of justice. The event resulted in a resistance movement, led by women, against corporate and state power. Mukherjee explores the underlying gender politics, showing how activism challenged and redefined the contemporary model of development.

External links
The Times of India

Living people
Indian women children's writers
Indian children's writers
Indian women novelists
Bhopal disaster
Year of birth missing (living people)

Suroopa Mukherjee


In philosophy and logic, contingency is the status of propositions that are neither true under every possible valuation (i.e. tautologies) nor false under every possible valuation (i.e. contradictions). A contingent proposition is neither necessarily true nor necessarily false.

Overview
Propositions that are contingent may be so because they contain logical connectives which, along with the truth value of any of its atomic parts, determine the truth value of the proposition. This is to say that the truth value of the proposition is contingent upon the truth values of the sentences which comprise it. Contingent propositions depend on the facts, whereas analytic propositions are true without regard to any facts about which they speak.

Along with contingent propositions, there are at least three other classes of propositions, some of which overlap:
 Tautological propositions, which must be true, no matter what the circumstances are or could be (example: "It is the case that the sky is blue or it is not the case that the sky is blue.").
 Contradictions which must necessarily be untrue, no matter what the circumstances are or could be (example: "It's raining and it's not raining.").
 Possible propositions, which are true or could have been true given certain circumstances (examples: x + y = 4 which is true with some values of x and y, but false with others; Or there are only three planets which may be true since we may be talking about a different world which itself could be real or hypothetical. The same is true for There are more than three planets ). Every necessarily true proposition, and every contingent proposition, is also a possible proposition.

In medieval Scholasticism contingency regarded not solely the freedom of the Most Holy Trinity not to create the universe, but also the order and concatenation of natural events.

In the 16th century Scotism and the European Reformed Scholasticism discovered the John Duns Scotus' idea of synchronic contingency, which was able to remove contradictions between necessity, human freedom and the free will of God to create the world.
According to the Ethics of Baruch Spinoza, a thing is called contingent when "we do not know whether the essence does or does not involve a contradiction, or of which, knowing that it does not involve a contradiction, we are still in doubt concerning the existence, because the order of causes escape us." It is in the nature of reason to perceive things under a certain form of eternity as necessary and it is only through our imagination that we consider things, whether in respect to the future or the past, as contingent.

Relativism in rhetoric
Attempts in the past by philosophers and rhetoricians to allocate to rhetoric its own realm have ended with attempting to contain rhetoric within the domain of contingent and relative matters. Aristotle explained in Rhetoric, "The duty of rhetoric is to deal with such matters as we deliberate upon without arts or systems to guide us..." Aristotle stresses the contingent because no one deliberates on the necessary or impossible. He believed that the "unavoidable and potentially unmanageable presence of multiple possibilities" or the complex nature of decisions creates and invites rhetoric. Aristotle's view challenges the view of Plato, who said that rhetoric had no subject matter except for deceit, and gives rhetoric its position at the pinnacle of political debate.

Contemporary scholars argue that if rhetoric is merely about the contingent, it automatically excludes that which is either necessary or impossible. The "necessary" is that which either must be done or will inevitably be done. The "impossible" is that which will never be done; therefore, it will not be deliberated over. For example, the United States Congress will not convene tomorrow to discuss something necessary, such as whether or not to hold elections, or something impossible, such as outlawing death. Congress convenes to discuss problems, different solutions to those problems, and the consequences of each solution.

This again raises the question of contingency because that which is deemed necessary or impossible depends almost entirely on time and perspective. In United States history, there was a time when even a congressman who opposed slavery would conclude that its retraction would be impossible. The same held true for those who favored women's suffrage. Today in the United States, slavery has been abolished and women have the right to vote. In this way, although rhetoric viewed across time is entirely contingent and includes a broader definition, rhetoric taken moment-by-moment is much more narrow and excludes both the necessary and the impossible. When faced with decisions, people will choose one option at the exclusion of the others. This inevitably produces unforeseen consequences. Because of these consequences, decision makers must deliberate and choose. Another problem arises when one asks where this knowledge of what issues are "necessary" and "impossible" originates and how the knowledge can be applied to others.

Rhetorician Robert L. Scott answers this problem by asserting that while rhetoric is indeed contingent and relative, it is also epistemic. Thus, for Scott, what should be debated is a matter of rhetoric, as individuals make meaning through language and determine what constitutes truth, and therefore, what is beyond question and debate. Theorist Lloyd Bitzer makes five assumptions about rhetoric in his book Rhetoric, Philosophy, and Literature: An Exploration.

 Rhetoric is a method for inquiring into and communicating about the contingent.
 This inquiry does not yield certain knowledge, but only opinion.
 The proper mode of working in this realm is deliberation that relies on reasonable judgment.
 This deliberation and decision making is audience centered.
 This engagement with the audience is constrained by time.

The study of contingency and relativism as it pertains to rhetoric draws from poststructuralist and postfoundationalist theory. Richard Rorty and Stanley Fish are leading theorists in this area of study at the intersection of rhetoric and contingency.

References

Possibility
Propositions
Sentences by type
Concepts in logic

Contingency (philosophy)


Ludvik Buland (6 May 1893 – 5 February 1945) was a Norwegian trade unionist. He chaired the Norwegian Union of Railway Workers, but was imprisoned and died during the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany.

Early life and career
Ludvik Buland was born in Buland, Hegra as the son of Gunnar Lorentsen Buland and his wife Kristine Ingebrigtsdatter Kleivgjerdet. He took secondary education, and was hired in the Norwegian State Railways in 1914. After some time he was promoted to railway station manager. He was the chairman of his local trade union from 1920 to 1928, and vice chairman of the national Norwegian Union of Railway Workers, affiliated with the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), from 1928 to 1930. The union had witnessed turbulent times in the 1920s, with inner strife between communists and social democrats. Buland had been an elected politician for the Labour Party, serving in Trondheim city council from 1925 to 1930. In 1930 he became chairman of the Union of Railway Workers, and succeeded in his task to reinforce the union.

He had four children.

World War II
At the time of the German invasion of Norway in 1940, Buland was still chairman of the Union of Railway Workers. The leadership of the LO fled Oslo shortly after the invasion, and secretary Elias Volan, a former member Communist Party member, became chairman. Volan cooperated and negotiated with the Nazi occupants to a certain degree, but was pressured by the loosely organized Fagopposisjonen av 1940 (trade opposition of 1940), spearheaded by Håkon Meyer and Jens Tangen, who went further in stressing the importance of cooperation. Buland, too, was a member of this opposition. Following a higher degree of German control, represented by Reichskommissar Josef Terboven who formed a cabinet on 25 September, Volan was removed as LO chairman on 28 September, paving the way for Jens Tangen as the new chairman and Ludvik Buland as deputy chairman.

However, the new LO leadership grew uneasy with the attempts on nazification of the union. On 3 April and 15 May 1941 Buland signed two letters to Terboven, protesting this development. The 15 May letter was signed by forty-two other organizations, hence it was dubbed "the protest of the 43". On 18 June 1941, Terboven summoned the protesters to a meeting in the Parliament Building of Norway. Six of the protesters who showed up were arrested on the spot, among them Buland. He was incarcerated for a short period, at Møllergata 19 from June to July 1941.

In September 1941, Buland was arrested for the second time. This time the pretext was a martial law that followed the so-called milk strike. The milk strike occurred on 9 September, and martial law was declared the next day. A local union leader, Rolf Wickstrøm, and chief jurist in the Confederation of Trade Unions, Viggo Hansteen, were executed immediately. Ludvik Buland, together with the other labour leaders Josef Larsson and Harry Vestli received death sentences. The Confederation of Trade Unions were usurped by the Nazis, who installed Odd Fossum as chairman. Håkon Meyer from the trade opposition, who had joined the Nazi Party, was promoted as well.

Buland, Larsson and Vestli were later reprieved, and instead given a lifelong jail sentence. After some time in Grini concentration camp from September to October 1941, he was sent via Akershus Fortress to the Nacht und Nebel camp Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel where he arrived on 16 October. He was transferred to Rendsburg in August 1943, then to Dreibergen, Köln and Coswig. He died on 5 February 1945, shortly before the war's end.

References

1893 births
1945 deaths
People from Stjørdal
Politicians from Trondheim
Labour Party (Norway) politicians
Norwegian trade unionists
Norwegian prisoners sentenced to death
Norwegian civilians killed in World War II
Politicians who died in Nazi concentration camps
Night and Fog program
Grini concentration camp prisoners
Norwegian people who died in Nazi concentration camps
People condemned by Nazi courts

Ludvik Buland


Assistant secretary is a title borne by politicians or government officials in certain countries and territories, usually a junior ministers assigned to a specific cabinet minister.

Australia
The rank of assistant secretary denotes a high level government official who is positioned in the Government of Australia. The position falls under the Australian Public Service Act 1999, and holds the level of Senior Executive Service (SES) Level Band 1. The position also holds several other titles such as: branch head, national manager, group manager, and executive director. For those officials who hold diplomatic status and are positioned in Australian high commissions, embassies or state offices at the assistant secretary level hold the following titles: regional director, minister-counsellor, and ambassador. However, although most offshore Australian diplomatic staff at these levels are SES Band 1, some are SES Band 2. The median annual reward wage for a baseline assistant secretary level is $219,464 (AUD), excluding bonuses, superannuation or fringe benefits.

Hong Kong, S.A.R.
An assistant secretary is a middle to senior official facilitating the work of the top officials, and is the subject officer for a specific policy domain among bureaux and departments. The position of assistant secretary belongs to the administrative officer grade in the Hong Kong Civil Service originated from the Colonial Administrative Service since 1862, being a cadet of multi-disciplined professional city administrators. As the top-calibre generalists in the government, they are the central policy-making and coordinating body in the Hong Kong Civil Service. The annual rate of pay for a baseline assistant secretary is pitched at Point 27 of the Master Pay Scale ($78,310 (USD) or $610,800 (HKD)) and will go up to Point 49 of the Master Pay Scale ($191,200 (USD) or $1,491,360 (HKD)).  The grade has an established tradition of academic aristocracy. Over the 80 years between 1862, when the recruitment scheme was started, and the Japanese invasion of 1941, the majority of the cadets were educated at Oxford and Cambridge, although a substantial contingent (about 30 per cent) came from universities in Ireland and Scotland.

India

From 1919 to 1945, the permanent posts of assistant secretary were filled by officers drawn from the Imperial Secretariat Service during the British Raj. Currently, the temporary position of assistant secretary is occupied by the officers of the Indian Administrative Service during their training period in Ministries of Central Government, as Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions has temporarily excluded section officers from Central Secretariat Service, which is later reverted.

Ireland
The grade of assistant secretary is a position in the Irish Civil Service, which uses a nearly identical grading scheme to its British counterpart. It may now be alternatively styled, depending on the department or office.

The Netherlands
An assistant secretary (in Dutch: "staatssecretaris") assists a specific minister. She or he is responsible for a specific domain (i.e., one or more important issues that require special attention—the assistant secretary can thus alleviate the minister's burden) and may be held accountable for his political actions, which means that he must resign once he has lost the support of the parliament. Not every department has an assistant secretary; whether one is installed depends on the importance of the department.

United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the position of assistant secretary is a grade in the British Civil Service, now more commonly styled divisional manager or deputy director. In the grading scheme they are denoted Grade 5 (with basic salary starting at £65,422 as of August 2014).

United States
In the United States, the rank of assistant secretary denotes a high level civilian official within the United States federal government. An official of sub-Cabinet rank, assistant secretaries are appointed by the president of the United States with the consent of the United States Senate and are assigned to assist a specific Cabinet secretary. Assistant secretaries often manage major programs administered by a Cabinet department. Assistant secretaries are generally the lowest level "secretarial" positions appointed directly by the president.

Assistant secretaries are generally Level IV positions within the Executive Schedule, ranking below the position of under secretary. Since January 2022, the annual rate of pay for Level IV is $176,300.

References

See also
Cabinet secretary
Deputy assistant secretary
Parliamentary assistant
Parliamentary secretary
Permanent secretary
Private secretary
Secretary (title)
Undersecretary

Federal government of the United States
Civil service positions in the United Kingdom

Assistant secretary


Operation Hastings was an American military operation in the Vietnam War. The operation was a qualified success in that it pushed the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) forces back across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). As the PAVN clearly did not feel constrained by the "demilitarized" nature of the DMZ, US military leadership ordered a steady build-up of U.S. Marines near the DMZ from 1966 to 1968.

Background
During late June and early July 1966, Marine reconnaissance units operating south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) had observed and engaged increased numbers of uniformed regular PAVN troops. On 6 July, troops of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) 1st Division captured a PAVN soldier near The Rockpile who identified himself as being from the 812th Regiment of the 324B Division and advised that the other regiments of the division had also moved into South Vietnam. On 9 July a lieutenant from the 812th Regiment surrendered in the same area and advised that the 324B Division's mission was to "liberate" Quang Tri Province.

Prelude
Convinced that the PAVN had moved across the DMZ in force, Major General Wood B. Kyle, commanding general of the 3rd Marine Division, recommended to General Lew Walt that the U.S. launch an operation to drive back the PAVN. Walt passed on this recommendation to COMUSMACV, General Westmoreland, who gave his approval. On 11 July Brigadier General Lowell English, assistant division commander of the 3rd Marine Division, met with General Ngô Quang Trưởng, commanding general of the ARVN 1st Division, and Colonel Sherman, commander of the 4th Marines, at the 1st Division HQ in Huế to plan the operation. It was decided that a Marine task force would move into the area south of the DMZ to participate in Operation Hastings (the name given to Marine DMZ reconnaissance operations on 7 July), while ARVN forces would launch Operation Lam Son 289 south of the Marines.

On 13 July Task Force Delta became operational under the command of English with Sherman as Chief of Staff. The Task Force consisted of four infantry Battalions, 2nd Battalion 1st Marines, 1st Battalion 3rd Marines, 2nd Battalion 4th Marines and 3rd Battalion 4th Marines, one artillery Battalion 3rd Battalion 12th Marines and various supporting forces. English established his command post at Cam Lộ.

Intelligence determined that the PAVN 90th Regiment with an estimated strength of 1500 men was using the Song Ngan River Valley some 10 km northwest of Cam Lo as an infiltration route and that the command post of the 324B Division was located on Hill 208 overlooking the southwest of the valley. The plans for the operation were for 3/4 Marines to be helilifted into the southwestern part of the valley to establish blocking positions, while 2/4 Marines would land at the mouth of the valley and move southwest along the high ground towards Hill 208 and 3/4's positions. 2/1 Marines would secure Đông Hà Combat Base while 1/3 Marines would protect Cam Lộ Combat Base and 3/12 Marines' artillery. SLF 3rd Battalion 5th Marines would launch Operation Deckhouse II, 13 km northeast of Đông Hà on 16 July and after establishing positions ashore Deckhouse would be terminated and 3/5 Marines would join Task Force Delta. The ARVN 1st Division and an airborne task force would launch Operation Lam Son 289 to the west of Route 1, with the 1st Division operating north of Đông Hà and the airborne operating south of Route 9.

Battle

D-Day in Helicopter Valley

On the morning of 15 July, A-4 Skyhawks from MAG-12 and F-4B Phantoms from MAG-11 began bombing and napalming the two landing zones, LZ Crow (), 8 km northeast of the Rockpile and LZ Dove () at the mouth of the valley, 5 km northeast of Crow.  At 07:25 3/12 artillery took over the bombardment of LZ Crow and at 07:45 20 CH-46s of HMM-164 and HMM-265 began landing 3/4 Marines on LZ Crow. While the Marines met no initial resistance, LZ Crow proved to be too small for the operation. Two CH-46s from HMM-164 collided and crashed while a third CH-46 from HMM-265 hit a tree and crashed. As a result of these collisions, two Marines were killed and seven injured. All three CH-46s were too badly damaged to be recovered and would have to be destroyed. Later that day another CH-46 from HMM-265 carrying men from 2/1 Marines was hit by PAVN fire and crashed, killing 13 Marines. Marines promptly renamed the Song Ngan as "Helicopter Valley".

Companies K and L began establishing blocking positions around LZ Crow while Company I stayed in reserve. Company K took fire and soon located a 200-bed hospital and 1200 rounds of ammunition. Company K continued on to their objective  south of LZ Crow, but they were repulsed by PAVN fire as they tried to cross the Ngan River, with the loss of three Marines killed and five wounded. Company K decided to set up night positions on a hill  from the river. The PAVN were now aware of the arrival of 3/4 Marines and the Battalion started to come under sustained small arms, machine gun and mortar fire. By 19:30, the Battalion CO Lt Col Vale reported that his Battalion was surrounded, but, 30 minutes later, under artillery and tactical air fire, the PAVN withdrew. At 20:15 a reinforced PAVN Company attacked Company K's position and only withdrew after 3 hours of fighting. The following morning, 25 PAVN bodies were found in front of the position.

At 09:35, HMM-164 and HMM-265 CH-46s began lifting three Companies of 2/4 Marines into LZ Dove. Once landed, 2/4 Marines began moving west towards 3/4 Marines, but their progress was hindered by high elephant grass and oppressive heat and humidity. 2/4 Marines were unable to move to assist 3/4 Marines and set up night positions with orders to abandon the move towards Hill 208 and proceed directly to join 3/4 Marines in the morning.

16 July
The PAVN launched mortars into 3/4 Marines CP in the morning, and the Marines responded with airstrikes and artillery. Company K was still unable to cross the Song Ngan, but the other two Companies were able to patrol unmolested to the north and northwest. 2/4 Marines set off at dawn towards 3/4's position and engaged the PAVN several times, calling in close air strikes, before linking up with 3/4 at 14:45. At 19:30 the PAVN again attacked Company K's position, making three attacks over three and a half hours. The Marines suffered one dead, five seriously wounded and over 40 wounded from grenades thrown at short range. The PAVN dragged away some of their dead, but the Marines counted 79 bodies the following morning.

English decided to deploy 2/1 Marines, and they were lifted into LZ Robin () 3 km northeast of LZ Crow by 30 helicopters of HMM-161, HMM-163, HMM-164 and HMM-265. At 16:00 a platoon of Marines from the 1st Force Reconnaissance Company rappelled from a MAG-16 helicopter onto the summit of the Rockpile. Three hours later, they spotted a PAVN force to their east and called in artillery fire from 3/12 Marines, killing 21 PAVN, and later that night called in further fire on suspected PAVN positions south of the Rockpile.

17–18 July
Based on the sightings from the Rockpile, 2/1 Marines were redeployed from LZ Robin to the river valley near the Rockpile by helicopters of MAG-16 on the morning of 17 July. In Helicopter Valley, there was little contact with the PAVN, but 3/4 Marines gave up trying to push south, and, anticipating further night attacks, they established a common perimeter with 2/4 Marines. General English ordered the two Battalions to withdraw to the northeast the following day; 2/4 was to establish blocking positions below the DMZ while 3/4 would move to the south of 2/4 and then attack south and take Hill 208. With the conclusion of Operation Deckhouse II on the morning of 18 July, 3/5 Marines would be inserted into a small valley  south of the Song Ngan in a suspected PAVN marshalling area. This area also provided a possible escape route for PAVN retreating from 3/4's advance on Hill 208.

At LZ Crow, on the morning of 18 July, 2/4 Marines swept north towards their new positions, which they reached without incident by mid-afternoon. At 14:00, 3/4 Marines began to move out, leaving Company K as a rearguard to provide security for the Battalion CP and the engineers who were tasked with destroying captured ammunition and the three crashed CH-46s. At 14:30, the PAVN began mortaring the position and then attacked with infantry. As the Marines had filled in their fighting holes, they quickly had to dig them out again as an estimated 1000 PAVN attacked. Company K's 1st Platoon bore the brunt of the assault and its squads were separated from each other as small groups of PAVN moved between them. Airstrikes were called in as close as 45m from the Marines, and Lt Col Vale called for Company L to return to the LZ and for 2/4 Marines to provide support. By 17:00, Company L had arrived at the LZ, and a Company from 2/4 Marines occupied high ground overlooking the LZ. First Platoon of Company K was able to withdraw but had to leave their dead behind. By 17:00, 2/4 and 3/4 had established a common perimeter  northeast of LZ Crow. 3/4 Marines had suffered 14 dead and 49 wounded while the PAVN had suffered 138 known dead, with estimates as high as 500. Captain Robert Modrzejewski, CO of Company K and Sergeant John McGinty commander of the 1st Platoon would each be awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions.

3/5 Marines were lifted into their position on the afternoon of 18 July. Only Company M encountered any serious resistance and, after calling in airstrikes, they overran the PAVN positions, killing 21.

19–25 July
On 19 July Company K was pulled out for rest and the remainder of 3/4 Marines were assigned blocking positions while 2/4 Marines reorganised for the assault on Hill 208. On the morning of 20 July following intense airstrikes, 2/4 assaulted up Hill 208, but found the heavily fortified position abandoned. 3/4 Marines was pulled out and replaced by 1/3 Marines on 21 July.

On 20 July 1/1 Marines joined 3/5 Marines in the valley below the Song Ngan and they met light but persistent resistance from small groups of PAVN as they patrolled to the west. English also ordered 2/1 Marines to deploy and establish blocking positions at the western end of the valley  north of the Rockpile. On the night of 21 July 2/1 Marines came under fire across their entire front and responded with small arms, mortar and artillery fire to break up the attack. The Marines suffered two dead, while the number of PAVN casualties was unknown.

On 21 July Company H, 2/4 Marines returned to LZ Crow to recover the Marine dead left behind on 18 July. The bodies of all eight Marines were found unmolested and still with all their weapons and equipment. On 22 July the other companies of 2/4 joined Company H and began patrolling through Helicopter Valley. During these two days of the operation, which also included search and destroy missions, on 21 July elements of one platoon of Company H were fired upon and the point man hit and killed by machine gun fire. At that point LCPL Richard David Kaler immediately moved forward through the heavy fire and carried the fallen Marine back. On 22 July Kaler's platoon re-engaged the position and took heavy casualties and was pinned down by machine gun fire. Kaler then advanced and exposed himself to intense fire and charged the enemy positions. In this attack, and after being wounded in the thigh, Kaler silenced one enemy position before being mortally wounded. He was credited by his actions with saving many of his fellow Marines and was awarded the Navy Cross.

On 24 July Company I, 3/5 Marines was setting up a radio relay station on Hill 362 approximately  north of the Rockpile. As the 2nd Platoon moved to establish forward defences on the hillside the PAVN opened fire from concealed positions. LCPL Richard A. Pittman of the 1st Platoon ran forward with a machine gun to cover the retreat of the 2nd Platoon and he and the survivors retreated to the crest of the hill, but the dead and wounded were left behind. One of the survivors hid among the dead as the PAVN moved forward finishing off any surviving Marines. The PAVN then dropped accurate mortar fire on the crest of Hill 362 for the next two hours until a Marine UH-1E Gunship from VMO-2 silenced them. Company K moved to support Company I, but was stopped by heavy fire despite air and artillery support. Company I was also battered by heavy rains from Typhoon Ora and this and the thick jungle canopy complicated the evacuation of wounded. Eventually engineers were lowered in to cut out an LZ, but only 11 wounded were able to be evacuated. The PAVN made repeated assaults on Company I closing to within 5m at times, the Marines could hear the PAVN talking and breathing nearby. By dawn the PAVN had pulled out, Company I had suffered 18 dead and 82 wounded, 21 PAVN bodies were found and two prisoners taken. Prisoner interrogation revealed that the Marines had been attacked by the PAVN 6th Battalion, 812th Regiment. Pittman was later awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on Hill 362.

On 25 July Generals Kyle and English met at Dong Ha and decided to withdraw Task Force Delta to the south due to the difficult terrain for manoeuvre and the lack of LZs for helicopter assaults.

26 July – 3 August
On 26 July 1/1 Marines moved south to Cam Lộ. 3/5 Marines continued to sweep to the west and operate north of the Rockpile. On 27 July 2/1 Marines moved east towards the Rockpile. In Helicopter Valley, 2/4 Marines was replaced by 2/9 Marines on 26 July and on 27 July 1/3 and 2/9 and marched south out of the valley. Despite the withdrawal of the Battalions, Marine recon patrols continued to operate in the Hastings operations area and on 28 July a recon patrol spotted 150–250 PAVN 5 km southwest of the Rockpile and called in artillery strikes killing at least 50 PAVN. Following a report of this mission Walt christened such recon patrols as "Stingray Patrols." While Hastings officially ended on 3 August, the action on 28 July was the last major action of the operation and it appeared that the 324B Division had either crossed back over the DMZ or dispersed into jungle to the west. Walt described the PAVN troops encountered during Operation Hastings as follows: "We found them well-equipped, well-trained and aggressive to the point of fanaticism. They attacked in massed formations and died by the hundreds".

Contemporary news reporting

Notes

References

 Pearson, Lieutenant General Willard, The War in the Northern Provinces: 1966–1968, Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1975

External links

 Map of Helicopter Valley
 Map of the Rockpile area
 Operation Hastings Info

1966 in Vietnam
Battles and operations of the Vietnam War in 1966
Battles and operations of the Vietnam War
Battles involving the United States
Battles involving Vietnam
Conflicts in 1966
Military operations involving Vietnam
United States Marine Corps in the Vietnam War
July 1966 events
August 1966 events

Operation Hastings