Shinty () is a team sport played with sticks and a ball. Shinty is now played mainly in the Scottish Highlands and amongst Highland migrants to the big cities of Scotland, but it was formerly more widespread in Scotland, and was even played in northern England into the second half of the 20th century and other areas in the world where Scottish Highlanders migrated.

While comparisons are often made with field hockey, the two games have several important differences. In shinty a player is allowed to play the ball in the air and is allowed to use both sides of the stick, called a , which is wooden and slanted on both sides. The stick may also be used to block and to tackle, although a player may not come down on an opponent's stick, a practice called hacking. Players may also tackle using the body as long as it is shoulder-to-shoulder.

The game was derived from the same root as the Irish game of hurling/camogie and the Welsh game of bando, but has developed unique rules and features. These rules are governed by the Camanachd Association. A composite rules shinty–hurling game has been developed, which allows Scotland and Ireland to play annual international matches.

Another sport with common ancestry is bandy, which is played on ice. In Scottish Gaelic the name for bandy is "ice shinty" (camanachd-deighe) and in the past bandy and shinty (and shinney) could be used interchangeably in the English language.

Origins

Hurling, an Irish pastime for at least 2,000 years similar to shinty, is derived from the historic game common to both peoples. Shinty/Hurling appears prominently in the legend of Cúchulainn, the Celtic mythology hero. A similar game is played on the Isle of Man known as cammag, a name cognate with camanachd. The old form of hurling played in the northern half of Ireland, called "commons", resembled shinty more closely than the standardised form of hurling of today. Like shinty, it was commonly known as camánacht and was traditionally played in winter. It is still played regularly on St Stephen's Day in St John's.

The origins of the name shinty are uncertain. There is a theory that the name was derived from the cries used in the game; shin ye, shin you and shin t'ye, other dialect names were shinnins, shinnack and shinnup, or as Hugh Dan MacLennan proposes from the Scottish Gaelic sìnteag. However, there was never one all-encompassing name for the game, as it held different names from glen to glen, including cluich-bhall (play-ball in English) and in the Scottish Lowlands, where it was formerly referred to as Hailes, common/cammon (caman), cammock (from Scottish Gaelic camag), knotty, carrick and various other names, as well as the terms still used to refer to it in modern Gaelic, camanachd or iomain. Shinty was once a popular game in lowland Scotland, as shown by its name Shintie, a term which took that form around 1700, displacing the earlier Shinnie – of which there is a written record about 100 years earlier.  Shinnie may also derive from "shin" in English, with the affix "ie", a common termination to the name of many games in Scotland.

Game

Playing area
The objective of the game is to play a small ball into a goal, or "hail", erected at the ends of a  by  pitch. The game is traditionally played on grass, although as of 2009 the sport may be played on artificial turf. The pitch also has marks indicating a  area around the goals, the penalty and centre spots (along with their associated arcs/circles of  radius), and corner arcs at the corners of the rectangular pitch of  radius. The goals, at opposite ends of the field, measure  wide and  high and a net is affixed to catch the ball when a goal is scored.

Ball
The ball is a hard solid sphere of around half the diameter of a tennis ball, consisting of a cork core covered by two pieces of leather stitched together. The seam is raised. It is very similar to a hurling sliotar in that it resembles an American baseball with more pronounced stitching. The permitted circumference is between  and weight between . The ball is usually white, but there is no statutory colour, black being a common colour for Kyles Athletic, and fluorescent balls now being available.

Plastic balls or soft balls are often used in youth competitions such as the variant "First Shinty".

Stick
The ball is played using a caman, which is a stick about  long with two slanted faces. The stick has a wedge shaped head, roughly triangular in cross section, which must be able to pass through a ring  in diameter. Unlike the Irish camán, it has no blade. The caman is traditionally made of wood, traditionally ash but now more commonly hickory, and must not have any plate or metal attached to it. The caman would be made from any piece of wood with a hook in it, hence caman, from the Scottish and Irish Gaelic word cam, meaning bent or crooked. It can also be called a stick or club. The slant of the face will vary according to the position that the stick is used for. It can be made according to the player's height.

Plastic camans are common in the youth variant "First Shinty".

Rules of play

A player can play the ball in the air and is allowed to use both sides of the stick. The stick may also be used to block and to tackle, although a player may not bring their stick down on an opponent's stick, which is defined as hacking. A player may tackle an opponent using the body as long as it is shoulder-to-shoulder as in association football (soccer).

A player may only stop the ball with the stick, the chest, two feet together or one foot on the ground. Only the goalkeeper may use his hands, but only with an open palm since he is not allowed to catch it. Playing the ball with the head constitutes a foul whether intentional or not, as it is considered dangerous play. Other examples of dangerous play, which will be penalised, are a player, while grounded, playing the ball, or a player recklessly swinging the caman in the air in a way which might endanger another player.

Fouls are penalised by a free-hit, which is indirect unless the foul is committed in the penalty area, commonly referred to as "The D". This results in a penalty hit from .

A ball played by a team over the opposing bye line results in a goal hit from the edge of the D, while a ball played by a team over their own line results in a corner. A ball hit over the sideline results in a shy: a shinty shy involves the taker tossing the ball above his head and hitting the ball with the shaft of the caman, and the ball must be directly overhead when struck.

Scoring
The winner of a game is the team that scores the most goals. A team scores a goal "when the whole of the ball has passed over the goal-line and under the cross-bar". A goal can only be scored with the caman; there is no goal when the ball "has been kicked, carried or propelled by hand or arm by a player of the attacking side." A goal can not be scored directly from a free-hit.

Team size
Teams consist of 12 players (men) or 10 players (women), including a goalkeeper. A match is played over two halves of 45 minutes. With the exception of the goalkeeper, no player is allowed to play the ball with his hands. There are also variants with smaller sides, with some adjustments in the field size and duration of play.

Substitutions

As with sports such as football, shinty originally did not have substitutes. These were introduced in the 1960s, progressively expanding to allow a maximum of three substitutions per game. As of 2011, a rule change allowed for rolling substitutions to be made at the senior level.

Organisation

In common with many sports, it became formalised in the Victorian Era and the first organised clubs were established in cities such as Glasgow and London where there were thousands of Gaels resident.

In 1887, a historic game was played between Glenurquhart Shinty Club and Strathglass Shinty Club in Inverness. This game was attended by thousands of people and was a major milestone in developing a set of common rules. This fixture was to be repeated on 12 January 2007 in Inverness as the opening centrepiece of the Highland 2007 celebrations in Scotland, but was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.

The modern sport is governed by the Camanachd Association (). The association came into being in the late Victorian era as a means of formulating common rules to unite the various different codes and rules which differed between neighbouring glens. Its first meeting was held in Kingussie in 1893.

The Camanachd Association maintained its initial structure for much of its first century. The 'Future of Shinty' Report published in 1981 led to a complete restructuring of the way in which shinty was organised and managed. That led to the move away from a dependence on volunteers to govern the sport, to the Association's first salaried employees.

Competitions

There are shinty clubs in Aberdeen, Aberdour (Fife), Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth, Cornwall, Oxford and even London. University Shinty is a popular section of the sport, with almost all Scotland's main universities possessing a team. Historically, Glasgow University, Aberdeen University and Edinburgh University have vied for supremacy, but in recent years, Strathclyde University, Robert Gordon University, Dundee University, and the University of St. Andrews have risen to prominence. Clubs compete in various competitions, both cup and league, on a national and also North/South basis. While the top Premier Division has been played on a Scotland-wide basis since 1996, the lower leagues are based on geography. Many clubs run second teams that also compete in these leagues against clubs with only one senior side.

Season

Shinty was traditionally played through the winter, based around the tradition of the "Iomain Challainn", where New Year was marked by a game between neighbouring parishes. The summer was left free for seasonal work and friendly tournaments. The Winter season always ran over, however, and many teams would find themselves finishing the previous season only weeks before the next one would start.

In 2003, shinty clubs voted for a trial period of two years of a summer season from March to October, with a view to moving permanently to summer shinty if the experiment was judged to be a success. Despite opposition from the "Big Two", Kingussie and Newtonmore, and other small groups in the game, an EGM in November 2005 voted by an overwhelming majority (well over the required two thirds) to make summer shinty the basis upon which the game would proceed.

There have been teething problems since the move to summer shinty, with a couple of teams being culpable for the season running over into November and December. Season 2010 saw the league season finished by the first weekend in October, almost on schedule.

Shinty does still get played during the winter, in University Shinty which has teams compete for the second most valuable trophy in Scottish sport – the Littlejohn Vase – and in New Year fixtures, the most prestigious of which is the Lovat Cup, played between Beauly and Lovat.

Leagues

For more information, see Shinty league system

League shinty was originally organised on a regional basis, with distinct competitions for the North District and at one time, two separate leagues for Argyll (the Dunn League) and the Southern League, for clubs in Glasgow and Edinburgh and the surrounding areas. Over time, there have been moves to amalgamate leagues and, since the 1980s, a push for national competition at the highest levels. In the modern era of league shinty, Kingussie have been unsurpassed in their domination of the sport; according to the Guinness Book of Records 2005, Kingussie is world sport's most successful sporting team of all time, winning 20 consecutive league championships and going four years without losing a single fixture in the early 1990s.

Kingussie's unmatched run of dominance was ended on 2 September 2006 by rivals Newtonmore, who defeated Oban Camanachd 2–0 to ensure that Kingussie could not catch the team at the top of the Premier Division. However, Newtonmore were unable to replace their neighbours as champions, as the first post-Kingussie champions were confirmed as Fort William, who sealed the title on 30 September 2006, having won their games in hand over Newtonmore. Kingussie regained the title in 2007. Since 2010, Newtonmore have been the dominant league force.

Cup
Cup shinty has always been seen as being more important than league shinty, and the premier national competition remains the Scottish Cup or the Camanachd Association Challenge Cup, the Camanachd Cup for short. Until 1983 the competition was designed to ensure the final was between the North and South.

The Macaulay Cup still preserves a guaranteed North/South Final. There are national equivalents for the Camanachd Cup for intermediate and junior teams. There are regional cups for both senior and junior teams; the MacTavish Cup is the senior cup for the North and the Glasgow Celtic Society Cup is the one for the South.

Shinty and hurling internationals
In recognition of shinty's shared roots with hurling, an annual international between the two codes from Scotland and Ireland is played on a home and away basis using composite rules. In recent years, the Irish have had the upper hand, but the Scots won the fixture narrowly in 2005 and again in 2006, this time at Croke Park, Dublin, albeit with the Irish fielding weaker players from the second tier Christy Ring Cup. Scotland made it four in a row when they won in 2008.

Outside Scotland
Canadian Gaelic-speaking pioneers in Nova Scotia adapted shinty, which was traditionally a winter sport, to the much colder Canadian climate by wearing ice skates while playing on frozen lakes. This led to the creation of the modern winter sport known as ice hockey.

The game of shinny in Canada is a synonym for street hockey, pond hockey or any informal game of hockey. It derives its name from shinty, although a myth there perpetuates that it came from children tying Eaton's catalogues around their legs to protect their shins from flying pucks or slashing.

The English Shinty Association (ESA) is the main body for promoting and encouraging the sport of shinty in England.

London Camanachd is a shinty club first established in the Victorian era, competing in English and Scottish competitions such as the English League, the Bullough Cup and most recently in the Camanachd Cup in 1994. They went into abeyance in 1995, but were reconstituted in 2005. They played the first officially recognised shinty match outside Scotland in 80 years on 22 July 2006 against the Highlanders.  They compete annually in the English Shinty Championships against Cornwall, Oxford, Devon and Bristol as well as playing shinty–hurling matches and organising sporadic friendlies against visiting teams.

On 28 December 2010 Ireland held its first dedicated shinty match in Westmeath, with players who have played the Compromise rules Shinty/Hurling.

A Cornwall Shinty Club was established in 2012, playing their first game on 21 April 2012 against London; the match finished a draw. They also entered the St Andrew's Sixes tournament in 2012. Following this, in December 2012, two more Cornish clubs were created; the first being the Combined Universities of Cornwall and the second being Mabe. These two teams put forward their best players to play for the Cornwall Shinty Club.

There was a team in Northallerton in the 1970s, which competed in six-a-sides; and on 1 August 2012 a re-vamped Northallerton Shinty Club was formed. The club is hoping to draw in a few former players, but wants to focus on raising awareness of the game in Yorkshire and bringing new local players into the game.

Shinty was played widely in England in the 19th century and early 20th century, with teams such as London Scots, Bolton Caledonian and Cottonopolis; Nottingham Forest F.C. was established by shinty players.

Since 2012 London has hosted the annual "London Shinty Festival",  which has been attended by Cornwall, London, Oxford Shinty Club, St Andrews university ladies team, and the Scots.  It is an open tournament held in late September after the Shinty season is finished to allow any travelling teams the opportunity to attend.

Since 2013, a combined English Shinty Association side has entered the Bullough cup, being beaten in 2013 by Tayforth and then in 2014 by Ballachulish.
Shinty is played in the British Army, with The Scots Shinty Club keeping alive the tradition of the game being played in the Forces.

Shinty is also being revived among the Scottish diaspora in North America, where it was originally played in the 18th and 19th century by Scottish immigrants, but died out. More recent teams such as Northern California Camanachd Club (NCCC), Central California Cammanchd (CCC), and Oregon Shinty-Camanachd (OSC) play at Highland games and other venues across the USA.

Media coverage
Local papers, such as the West Highland Free Press, The Buteman, the Oban Times and the Dunoon Observer and Argyllshire Standard, have in-depth shinty reports. The Inverness-based media reduce shinty coverage to one summary of the whole weekend's action, as do national newspapers, such as the Sunday Herald and the Sunday Post. The only significant national press coverage is of the Camanachd Cup final. Regional newspaper The Press and Journal runs shinty coverage twice a week (Mondays and Fridays).

The first-ever shinty match broadcast live on television was the 1964 Celtic Society Cup Final. Although Camanachd Cup finals and internationals have been shown over the years, 2006 marked the first-ever regular TV deal for shinty with matches being shown on the BBC Sports show Spòrs. This was then followed by the STV show An Caman.

2009 saw the Camanachd Association sign a deal with BBC Alba to broadcast all national finals as well as the Marine Harvest Festival. The MacAulay Cup and Camanachd Cup final were also shown on BBC Two. There is also an increasing amount of shinty on the internet, with various clips garnering attention on video sites such as YouTube. 2011 was a sparse year for TV coverage outside of the usual games, but 2012 saw several games filmed live on BBC Alba.

The sport is featured on BBC Radio nan Gaidheal by the programme, Spòrs na Seachdain, although English-language radio interest is usually restricted to the big events in the year. Commentary on the Camanachd Cup Final is provided in both English and Gaelic.

In popular culture

Literature
 In his 1783 poem Moladh Gheàrrloch ('In Praise of Gairloch'), Gaelic bard William Ross (1761–1791) describes a game of shinty, which was still a winter sport played in the Gàidhealtachd upon St. Andrew's Day, Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Handsel Monday, and Candlemas. The bard's account of the annual New Year's Day match at ebb tide upon the Big Sand () of Gairloch, is, according to Ronald Black, "as succinct a description as we have of the great festive shinty matches of the past."
 The author Margaret Hope MacPherson wrote a children's book called The Shinty Boys, which was published in 1963.

Music
 The shinty song "Clash of the Ash", by the Celtic rock band Runrig, immediately became widely popular and is now considered an anthem for the sport.

Television
 In September 2009 comedian Billy Connolly suggested that shinty should become Scotland's new national sport, because the Scotland men's national football team had become so bad.
 The accordionist Gary Innes wrote "The Caman Man" on his latest album ERA and has played shinty for Scotland fourteen times, captaining the side in 2010/11.
 The TV series Hamish MacBeth featured a shinty match as an integral part of the plot of the episode "More Than a Game", with real shinty players Dallas Young of Kingussie and Neil "Ach" MacRae of Kinlochshiel Shinty Club, playing pivotal roles.
 A shinty game is shown in episode 4, "The Gathering", of the Starz TV show Outlander.

See also
Women's shinty
Lacrosse, of ancient Native American origin, where the stick is used to catch, throw, and carry the ball
Field hockey
Bando (sport)
Hurling
Camogie

References

External links
The Camanachd Association

Sport in Highland (council area)
Sports originating in Scotland
Team sports
Sport in Argyll and Bute

Shinty


The account of the beheading of Holofernes by Judith is given in the deuterocanonical Book of Judith, and is the subject of many paintings and sculptures from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. In the story, Judith, a beautiful widow, is able to enter the tent of Holofernes because of his desire for her. Holofernes was an Assyrian general who was about to destroy Judith's home, the city of Bethulia. Overcome with drink, he passes out and is decapitated by Judith; his head is taken away in a basket (often depicted as being carried by an elderly female servant).

Artists have mainly chosen one of two possible scenes (with or without the servant): the decapitation, with Holofernes supine on the bed, or the heroine holding or carrying the head, often assisted by her maid.

In European art, Judith is very often accompanied by her maid at her shoulder, which helps to distinguish her from Salome, who also carries her victim's head on a silver charger (plate). However, a Northern tradition developed whereby Judith had both a maid and a charger, taken by Erwin Panofsky as an example of the knowledge needed in the study of iconography. For many artists and scholars, Judith's sexualized femininity sometimes contradictorily combined with her masculine aggression. Judith was one of the virtuous women whom Van Beverwijck mentioned in his published apology (1639) for the superiority of women to men, and a common example of the Power of Women iconographic theme in the Northern Renaissance.

Background in early Christianity
The Book of Judith was accepted by Jerome as canonical and accepted in the Vulgate and was referred to by Clement of Rome in the late first century (1 Clement 55), and thus images of Judith were as acceptable as those of other scriptural women. In early Christianity, however, images of Judith were far from sexual or violent: she was usually depicted as "a type of the praying Virgin or the church or as a figure who tramples Satan and harrows Hell," that is, in a way that betrayed no sexual ambivalence: "the figure of Judith herself remained unmoved and unreal, separated from real sexual images and thus protected."

Renaissance depictions

Judith and Holofernes, the famous bronze sculpture by Donatello, bears the implied allegorical subtext that was inescapable in Early Renaissance Florence, that of the courage of the commune against tyranny.

In the late Renaissance, Judith changed considerably, a change described as a "fall from grace"—from an image of Mary she turns into a figure of Eve. Early Renaissance images of Judith tend to depict her as fully dressed and desexualized; besides Donatello's sculpture, this is the Judith seen in Sandro Botticelli's The Return of Judith to Bethulia (1470–1472), Andrea Mantegna's Judith and Holofernes (1495, with a detached head), and in the corner of Michelangelo's Sistine chapel (1508–1512). Later Renaissance artists, notably Lucas Cranach the Elder, who with his workshop painted at least eight Judiths, showed a more sexualized Judith, a "seducer-assassin": "the very clothes that had been introduced into the iconography to stress her chastity become sexually charged as she exposes the gory head to the shocked but fascinated viewer", in the words of art critic Jonathan Jones. This transition, from a desexualized image of Virtue to a more sexual and aggressive woman, is signaled in Giorgione's Judith (c. 1505): "Giorgione shows the heroic instance, the triumph of victory by Judith stepping on Holofernes's severed, decaying head. But the emblem of Virtue is flawed, for the one bare leg appearing through a special slit in the dress evokes eroticism, indicates ambiguity and is thus a first allusion to Judith's future reversals from Mary to Eve, from warrior to femme fatale." Other Italian painters of the Renaissance who painted the theme include Botticelli, Titian, and Paolo Veronese.

Especially in Germany an interest developed in female "worthies" and heroines, to match the traditional male sets. Subjects combining sex and violence were also popular with collectors. Like Lucretia, Judith was the subject of a disproportionate number of old master prints, sometimes shown nude. Barthel Beham engraved three compositions of the subject, and other of the "Little Masters" did several more. Jacopo de' Barberi, Girolamo Mocetto (after a design by Andrea Mantegna), and Parmigianino also made prints of the subject.

Baroque depictions

Judith remained popular in the Baroque period, but around 1600, images of Judith began to take on a more violent character, "and Judith became a threatening character to artist and viewer." Italian painters including Caravaggio, Leonello Spada, and Bartolomeo Manfredi depicted Judith and Holofernes; and in the north, Rembrandt, Peter Paul Rubens, and Eglon van der Neer used the story. The influential composition by Cristofano Allori (c. 1613 onwards), which exists in several versions, copied a conceit of Caravaggio's recent David with the Head of Goliath: Holofernes' head is a portrait of the artist, Judith is his ex-mistress, and the maid her mother. In Artemisia Gentileschi's painting Judith Slaying Holofernes (Naples), she demonstrates her knowledge of the Caravaggio Judith Slaying Holofernes of 1612; like Caravaggio, she chooses to show the actual moment of the killing. A different composition in the Pitti Palace in Florence shows a more traditional scene with the head in a basket.

While many of the above paintings resulted from private patronage, important paintings and cycles were made also by church commission and were made to promote a new allegorical reading of the story—that Judith defeats Protestant heresy. This is the period of the Counter-Reformation, and many images (including a fresco cycle in the Lateran Palace commissioned by Pope Sixtus V and designed by Giovanni Guerra and Cesare Nebbia) "proclaim her rhetorical appropriation by the Catholic or Counter-Reformation Church against the 'heresies' of Protestantism. Judith saved her people by vanquishing an adversary she described as not just one heathen but 'all unbelievers' (Jdt 13:27); she thus stood as an ideal agent of anti-heretical propaganda."

When Rubens began commissioning reproductive prints of his work, the first was an engraving by Cornelius Galle the Elder, done "somewhat clumsily", of his violent Judith Slaying Holofernes (1606–1610). Other prints were made by such artists as Jacques Callot.

Modern depictions

The allegorical and exciting nature of the Judith and Holofernes scene continues to inspire artists. In the late nineteenth century, Jean-Charles Cazin made a series of five paintings tracing the narrative and giving it a conventional, nineteenth-century ending; the final painting shows her "in her honoured old age", and "we shall see her sitting in her house spinning".

Two notable paintings of Judith were made by Gustav Klimt. The story was quite popular with Klimt and his contemporaries, and he painted Judith I in 1901, as a dreamy and sensual woman with open shirt. His Judith II (1909) is "less erotic and more frightening". The two "suggest 'a crisis of the male ego', fears and violent fantasies all entangled with an eroticized death, which women and sexuality aroused in at least some men around the turn of the century."

Modern paintings of the scene often cast Judith nude, as was signalled already by Klimt. Franz Stuck's 1928 Judith has "the deliverer of her people" standing naked and holding a sword besides the couch on which Holofernes, half-covered by blue sheets—where the text portrays her as god-fearing and chaste, "Franz von Stuck's Judith becomes, in dazzling nudity, the epitome of depraved seduction."

In 1997, Russian artists Vitaliy Komar and Alexander Melamed painted a Judith on the Red Square that "casts Stalin in the Holofernes role, conquered by a young Russian girl who contemplates his severed head with a mixture of curiosity and satisfaction". In 1999, American artist Tina Blondell rendered Judith in watercolour; her I'll Make You Shorter by a Head  is explicitly inspired by Klimt's Judith I, and part of a series of paintings called Fallen Angels.

Gallery

See also
 Yael

References

External links

Art depicting Old Testament people
Book of Judith
Christian iconography

Judith beheading Holofernes


The Polish Army () is the name applied to the military forces of Poland. The name has been in use since the early 19th century, although it can be used to refer to earlier formations as well. Polish Armed Forces consist of the Army (), Navy () and Air Force () branches and are under the command of the Ministry of National Defense ().

History

Kingdom of Poland (10th century–1569)

The first Polish Army was created in the 10th-century kingdom of Poland, under the Piast dynasty. The prince's forces were composed of a group of armed men, usually mounted, named drużyna. Their key role was the protection of the monarch and supporting the taxation effort. Their organisation was similar to other such armed units of other Slavic rulers, and were often of foreign origin.

With time, the early tribal warriors gave rise to knights and eventually, by the 15th century, the whole social class of the szlachta or Polish gentry. The Polish gentry formed a distinct element within the ancient tribal groupings. This is uncertain, however, as there is little documentation on the early history of Poland, or of the movements of the Slavonic people into what became the territory so designated.

Around the 14th century, there was little difference between those called knights and those referred to as szlachta in Poland. Members of the szlachta had the personal obligation to defend the country (pospolite ruszenie), and thereby became the kingdom's privileged social class. It was they who were obliged to build and support castles as well as to keep peace and order on territory they were assigned.

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795)

The armies of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, or the First Polish Republic, were commanded by four hetmans. The armies comprised:
Wojsko kwarciane: Regular units with wages paid from taxes (these units were later merged with the wojsko komputowe)
Wojsko komputowe: Semi-regular units created for times of war (in 1652 these units were merged with the wojsko kwarciane into a new permanent army)
Pospolite ruszenie: Szlachta levée en masse
Piechota łanowa, piechota wybraniecka and piechota dymowa: Units based on peasant (later, townsfolk) recruits
Registered Cossacks: Troops made up of Cossacks, who were recruited until 1699; included many infantry
Royal guard: A small unit whose primary purpose was to escort the monarch and members of his family
Mercenaries: As with most other armies, hired to supplement regular units
Private armies: Usually paid for and equipped by magnats or cities

Some units of the Commonwealth used fairly unusual tactics. These units included:
Husaria: heavy cavalry armed with lances; their charges were extremely effective until advances in firearms in the late 17th century substantially increased infantry firepower.
Cossacks: general name for all Commonwealth units of light cavalry, even if they did not contain a single ethnic Cossack; fast and maneuverable like oriental cavalry units of Ottoman Empire vassals, but lacking the firepower of European cavalry such as the Swedish rajtars.
Tabor: military horse-drawn wagons, usually carrying army supplies. Their use for defensive formations was perfected by the Cossacks, and to a smaller extent by other Commonwealth units.

Army without a country (1795–1918)

After partitions of Poland, during the period from 1795 until 1918, Polish military was recreated several times in Poland during uprisings like the November Uprising of 1830 and the January Uprising in 1863, and outside Poland like during Napoleonic wars (Polish Legions in Italy). The Congress Kingdom of Poland, ruled by Russian Tsars with a certain degree of autonomy, had an Army in the years 1815-1830 which was disbanded after the unsuccessful insurrection.

Large numbers of Poles also served in the occupiers' armies: Austro-Hungarian (before 1867 Imperial Austrian), Imperial Russian and German armies (before 1871 Prussian). However, these powers took care to spread Polish soldiers all over their armies and as a rule did not form predominantly Polish units.

During World War I, the Polish Legions were set up in Galicia, the southern part of Poland under Austrian occupation. They were both disbanded after the Central Powers failed to provide guarantees of Polish independence after the war. General Józef Haller, the commander of the Second Brigade of the Polish Legion, switched sides in late 1917, and via Murmansk took part of his troops to France, where he created the Blue Army. It was joined by several thousand Polish volunteers from the United States. It fought valiantly on the French front in 1917 and 1918.

Second Polish Republic and World War II (1918–1945)

When Poland regained independence in 1918, it recreated its military which participated in the Polish–Soviet War of 1919-1922 and in World War II, 1939–1945. During the German occupation of Poland, a number of resistance movements were created, of which the Home Army was the most significant.

People's Republic of Poland (1947–1989)
The Polish armed forces, then known as Polish People's Army, were part of the Soviet-controlled Warsaw Pact. Polish units took part in occupying Czechoslovakia in response to the Prague Spring in 1968. The command post for the invasion was actually located on Polish soil, at Marshal Ivan Yakubovsky's Legnica headquarters.

Third Polish Republic (1989–present)
After January 1990 the name of the armed forces was changed to 'Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland,' to accord with the Polish State's new official name.

In March 2003 the Polish Armed Forces took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, deploying 1500 personnel, special forces and a support ship (see Polish involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq).

Following the destruction of Saddam's regime the Polish Land Forces supplied a brigade and a division headquarters for the 17-nation Multinational Division Central-South, part of the U.S.-led Multi-National Force – Iraq. At its peak, Poland had 2,500 soldiers in the south of the country. Poland deployed about ten attack and transport helicopters as part of its force in Iraq between 2004 and 2008.

The troop number was reduced to 900 in 2006. Of the 900 soldiers, only 80 ever left their Forward operating base to conduct operations.

See also
 History of Polish Intelligence Services
 List of wars involving Poland

References

Further reading

External links

 Official Website of the Polish Army
 Polish Army of the Napoleonic Wars
 Polish Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery during the Napoleonic Wars - uniforms, organization, weapons

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Polish Army
Army

History of the Polish Army


Palisades State Park is a state park of South Dakota, USA, featuring cliffs and rock formations eroded out of pink Sioux Quartzite.  The park is located just south of Garretson,  off Interstate 90.  At only , it is South Dakota's second-smallest state park.

Natural history
The Sioux Quartzite rocks are 1.2 billion years old and up to  high.  They are exposed on either side of Split Rock Creek, which also flows through Split Rock Creek State Park in Minnesota.  Within the quartzite are deposits of catlinite, a softer mineral essential to many Native American groups to make ceremonial pipes. The park lies on the Coteau des Prairies, a plateau on the northern Great Plains.

Cultural history
Pioneers settled in the area beginning in 1865.  In the 1870s Split Rock Creek was harnessed to power a large flour and feed mill, and a town called Palisades formed around it.  Silver was discovered shortly downstream in 1886, prompting a short-lived silver rush but the ore was found to be low quality.  Three years later Garretson became a railroad junction and most of Palisades relocated to the north. A steel truss bridge built over Split Rock Creek in 1908 is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Recreation
Palisades State Park has a campground with 37 sites, 6 camper cabins, and a group tenting area.  There is also a 4-bedroom lodge which can be reserved for private events.  Four hiking trails wind through the park.  Rock climbing is permitted on the quartzite formations, though the use of bolts is prohibited.

References

External links

 Palisades State Park

Climbing areas of the United States
Protected areas of Minnehaha County, South Dakota
State parks of South Dakota

Palisades State Park


The Cult Movie Network is a Canadian-based English language online video-on-demand service consisting of programming devoted to cult films from a variety of genres, primarily horror, but also including fantasy, comedy, and action, among others. The channel is owned by the Cult Movie Channel Inc., a company owned by Dieter Kohler.

The service previously operated additionally as a linear television service in Canada and international markets until the channel was dropped by the only provider who carried it in Canada in late 2018. It is unknown whether the channel still operates in international markets.

History
In May 2003, Dieter Kohler was granted approval by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to launch a television channel called The Cult Movie Channel, described as being "an English-language Category 2 specialty television service... devoted to exploring the world of cult film and television."

The service initially launched as an online subscription service in 2008-2009 as The Cult Movie Network focusing on low-budget B movies primarily from the horror film genres.

The service launched its linear television service in December 2010 on MTS TV in Manitoba. Since that time, the channel had reached carriage agreements with other TV providers around the world for carriage on their systems, including Slovakia, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.

According to the service's website in early 2011, the service was scheduled to undergo a rebrand in the summer of 2011 by introducing a new logo, graphics, and programming initiative. The service was expected to focus on higher profile cult films from various genres including comedy, sci-fi, and fantasy. However, the rebrand did not take effect as planned. The rebranding took effect in January 2012; and although the channel began to broadcast programming from a wider variety of films, the majority remained focused on films from the horror genre and are low budget B movies.

On July 21, 2015, the CRTC approved The Cult Movie Channel Inc.'s request to convert The Cult Movie Network from a licensed category B specialty service to an exempted category B service.

On December 1, 2018, the only Canadian television service provider to carry the channel, Bell MTS, dropped the channel from their service.

See also
TCM Underground
The Incredibly Strange Film Show
Mystery Science Theater 3000

References

External links

English-language television stations in Canada
Movie channels in Canada
Television channels and stations established in 2010
Television channels and stations disestablished in 2018
Internet television streaming services
Digital cable television networks in Canada
Defunct television networks in Canada
Commercial-free television networks
Film and video fandom
Cult following

The Cult Movie Network


Southwestern Michigan Council  is a defunct local council of the Boy Scouts of America that served youth in Kalamazoo, Michigan serving Northern Van Buren County, Kalamazoo County, St. Joseph County, Branch County, and Western Calhoun County

History
The Southwest Michigan Council was a creation of several mergers culminating 1973, composing of the Fruitbelt Area Council, Nottawa Trails Council, and a previous iteration of the Southwest Michigan Council.

Based in Kalamazoo, this city has hosted a council since 1915 when it was known just as the Kalamazoo Council. The Council Number has always been #270. In 1927 "AREA" was added to the council name. That name stuck for only two years before the council again changed its name to the Kalamazoo Fruitbelt Area Council. This time the name lasted eight years before additional territory and a desire for a shorter name prompted the council to change the name to just the Fruitbelt Area Council in 1937. In 1973 there was a three way merger that formed the current Southwest Michigan Council. Battle Creek MI had their own council dating back to 1915 with a council of the same name. In 1927 "AREA" was added to the Council (always designated Council # 256). In 1956 the council in Battle Creek changed their name to Nottawa Trails Council which lasted until the 1973 merger. The other component of the 1973 merger came from the small lakefront town of Saint Joseph which had hosted the Southwestern Michigan Council (#258) since 1941. Before that Saint Joseph had hosted the Berrien County Council as far back as 1919. In 1923 the name was changed to the Benton Harbor & Saint Joseph Council and then in 1929 the name was edited to become the Berrien-Cass Area Council. Records show the Council ending in 1941 when its final name of Southwestern Michigan Council (#258) was adopted. The name aptly describes the council which has most of that corner of the state (with La Salle Council in Indiana picking up two of the border counties at the extreme lower tip of the state). Finally, there were several other early councils of note in the town of South Haven, there was briefly an unnumbered council from 1917 to 1918. Similarly in 1923 the town of Sturgis had the Sturgis Council (#279) until 1929 when the name changed to Fort Hill Council, where it lasted another two years before being merged with the Kalamazoo-Fruit Belt Area Council. The town of Dowagiac had a council (#263) from 1917 to 1927 before merging with the Benton Harbor & Saint Joseph Council.

In 2012 the Southwest Michigan Council was merged with the Great Sauk Trail Council to form the Southern Shores Field Service Council as a part of the Area 2 Project, which created four Field Service Councils in the lower peninsula of Michigan, under the Michigan Crossroads Council

Organization
The council is administratively divided into districts:
 Nottawa Trails District
 Pathfinder District
 Wabano District

Properties
Rota-Kiwan Scout Reservation was a 199-acre  property located in Texas Township just outside of the Kalamazoo city limits. Rota-Kiwan was developed in 1921, and was the third-oldest camp in Michigan. Rota-Kiwan was composed of two camps, Camp Madron, which is the Boy Scout and Webelos camp, and Camp T. Ben Johnson, which is the Cub Scout camp. The camp served Scouts and Scouters from throughout the state -- many from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Canada.  The Michigan Crossroads Council (MCC) closed the camp in December 2019 against the wishes of local scouts, volunteers and residents of Texas Township.  Kalamazoo County had planned to develop the property into a county park.

Order of the Arrow
Nacha-Mawat served as the council Order of the Arrow lodge. The name means "three into one." The name was adopted after the merging of the Carcajou, Mandoka, and Wakazoo Lodges. At this time, to foster brotherhood and reduce strife, the fleur de lis was chosen as the lodge totem. The Lodge adopted a policy that each member will get two lifetime lodge flaps for each honor in the OA: red for ordeal, blue for brotherhood, and silver Mylar for vigil. This policy was adopted in 2006 and was suspended in (approximately) 2009 when the lodge supply of these flaps ended. There are also trader flaps which are unrestricted; these 'trader flaps' are now the only flaps issued by the lodge. The Nacha-Mawat totem is now the Blue Heron. The Lodge has achieved quality lodge in 2010, and 2011. It brings outstanding service projects to Rota-Kiwan Scout Reservation.

See also
 Scouting in Michigan

References

External links
 http://Scoutcamp.org/oldestcamps.asp By David L. Eby

Central Region (Boy Scouts of America)
Youth organizations based in Michigan
Defunct local councils of the Boy Scouts of America

Southwest Michigan Council


Marshevet Hooker (born September 25, 1984) is a professional sprinter, competing internationally for the United States and sponsored by adidas. Hooker participated in the 2008 Summer Olympics at Beijing, China, finishing 5th in the 200 metres.
In the 100 meters, Hooker became the fifth-fastest woman up to that point (under any conditions) when she ran a wind-aided 10.76 (+3.4) to win the first heat of the 100m quarterfinals at the 2008 Olympic Trials.

In June 2006, Hooker elected to forgo her final season of collegiate eligibility to pursue a professional track and field career. Hooker, an eight-time All-American, left the University of Texas as one of the most decorated student-athletes in the program's history.

Hooker, a corporate communications major, made her mark as one of the top athletes in collegiate track and field during the 2005 outdoor season, when she helped Texas to its fourth NCAA outdoor title. Hooker became UT's third NCAA 100-meter champion and its first since 1991, when she claimed the event in 11.14 seconds. She also anchored the 4x100-meter relay team to victory in 42.87, the third-fastest time in school history. Hooker took second in the long jump, finishing only behind eventual World champion and Olympic gold medalist Tianna Madison.

Hooker is coached by Olympic gold medalist Jon Drummond.

Career highlights
5th at 2008 Beijing Olympics in 200m
3rd at 2008 Olympic Trials in 200m
4th at 2008 Olympic Trials in 100m
2006 NCAA Indoor 60m and LJ champion
Two-time Big 12 Women's Indoor Track Athlete of the Year (2005 and 2006)
2005 NCAA 100m and 4 × 100 m champion

Personal bests
 100 meters – 10.86 2011(10.76w)
 200 meters – 22.34 2008(22.20w)

Personal life
Her sister, Destinee Hooker, is an indoor volleyball player who competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics.

References

External links

1984 births
Living people
American female sprinters
Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Olympic track and field athletes for the United States
Texas Longhorns women's track and field athletes
World Athletics Championships medalists
World Athletics Championships winners
Olympic female sprinters

Marshevet Hooker


Barmouth Bay (Welsh: Bae Bermo) is a bay in Gwynedd on the west coast of Wales, forming a part of the much larger Cardigan Bay. The coast fronting onto the bay is within the Snowdonia National Park at its northern and southern extremities but the coastal town of Barmouth and village of Fairbourne at the back of the bay are excluded from the designated area. Inland of the bay is the sandy Mawddach estuary, through which the tidal channel of the river winds before emptying into the bay beyond Fairbourne Spit, a shingle promontory stretching north from Fairbourne. A sandbank known as 'The Bar' guards the entrance to this channel from Cardigan Bay. The Cambrian Coast Line runs along the narrow coastal strip at the back of the bay, crossing the Mawddach via Barmouth Bridge which also carries the Wales Coast Path.

References

Cardigan Bay
Bays of the Irish Sea
Bays of Gwynedd
Bays of Wales

Barmouth Bay


Allan Peter Walsh (13 August 1940 – 17 September 2013) was an Australian politician. He was the Labor member for Maitland in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1981 to 1991.

Born in Maitland, Walsh attended Manly Boys' High School and Sydney Technical College before receiving a Bachelor of Arts form the University of Newcastle and a Diploma of Education from the Newcastle College of Advanced Education. He served as a fighter pilot in the RAAF 1962–70, and was then a teacher at Newcastle and Maitland Technical College. On 3 September 1966 he married Marcia, with whom he had two children.

In 1981, when the local state Liberal MP for Maitland resigned, Walsh was selected as the Labor candidate to contest the by-election. He was narrowly defeated by the Liberal candidate Peter Toms. However, the 1981 redistribution made Maitland a solid Labor seat and Walsh easily defeated Toms in the state election later the same year. He was nearly defeated in 1988, surviving by 444 votes, and when the 1991 redistribution gave the seat a 7.4% Liberal margin, Walsh retired from politics.

References

1940 births
2013 deaths
Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales
People from Maitland, New South Wales
University of Newcastle (Australia) alumni

Allan Walsh (Australian politician)


"Color of the Blues" is a 1958 country song written by George Jones and Lawton Williams and released by Jones on January 15, 1958.

Background
By the time of the release of "Color of the Blues" in 1957, Jones had been releasing singles for three years and had scored four Top 10 hits: "Why Baby Why" (1955), "You Gotta Be My Baby" (1956), "Just One More" (1956), and "Don't Stop the Music" (1957).  However, his three previous singles had failed to chart and, in the wake of Elvis Presley's explosion in popularity, he had even recorded a few half-hearted rockabilly sides with producer Pappy Daily.  Jones was not discouraged, however, telling Ray Waddell of Billboard in a 2006 interview that he was just happy to have moved on from Starday Records: "When I went to Mercury I got my first halfway decent sounds. "Window [Up Above]" and "Color of the Blues" didn't sell that big, but they got me a lot of radio play."

Composition
"Color of the Blues" is considered one of Jones' greatest earlier works, and he often performed it live during the late 1950s. According to Rich Kienzle's liner notes of the 1994 Song retrospective The Essential George Jones: The Spirit of Country, Lawton Williams (who had composed Bobby Helms' 1957 honky-tonk smash "Fraulein") wrote the lyrics while Jones came up with the melody and title.  Like many other honky-tonk tunes of the 1950s, Jones sings of self-pity over a failed relationship; his lover has sent him a letter in the mail written with blue ink on blue paper, leading him to declare that "blue must be the color of the blues."  Like his earlier composition "Seasons of My Heart," the song contains vivid poetic imagery, with the color blue symbolizing his despair:

There's a rainbow overhead
With more blue than gold and red
Blue must be the color angels choose
A blue dress you proudly wore
When you left to return no more
Blue must be the color of the blues

The song reached #7 on the country singles chart.  It is often featured on compilations of Jones early Starday and Mercury albums, including; 1961's Greatest Hits, 2004's Definitive Collection: 1955-1962, 50 Years of Hits, and 2005's 24 Greatest Hits.  Jones thought so much of the song that he would recut it for both United Artists and Musicor in the 1960s.  It would also be recorded by Red Sovine, Skeeter Davis, Loretta Lynn, Elvis Costello, Patty Loveless, and John Prine featuring Susan Tedeschi.

Chart performance

Discography

References

1958 songs
Songs written by Lawton Williams
Songs written by George Jones
George Jones songs
Mercury Records singles
Song recordings produced by Pappy Daily

Color of the Blues


In coding theory, a variable-length code is a code which  maps source symbols to a variable number of bits. The equivalent concept in computer science is bit string.

Variable-length codes can allow sources to be compressed and decompressed with zero error (lossless data compression) and still be read back symbol by symbol.  With the right coding strategy an independent and identically-distributed source may be compressed almost arbitrarily close to its entropy. This is in contrast to fixed-length coding methods, for which data compression is only possible for large blocks of data, and any compression beyond the logarithm of the total number of possibilities comes with a finite (though perhaps arbitrarily small) probability of failure.

Some examples of well-known variable-length coding strategies are Huffman coding, Lempel–Ziv coding, arithmetic coding, and context-adaptive variable-length coding.

Codes and their extensions
The extension of a code is the mapping of finite length source sequences to finite length bit strings, that is obtained by concatenating for each symbol of the source sequence the corresponding codeword produced by the original code.

Using terms from formal language theory, the precise mathematical definition is as follows: Let  and  be two finite sets, called the source and target alphabets, respectively. A code  is a total function mapping each symbol from  to a sequence of symbols over , and the extension of  to a homomorphism of  into , which naturally maps each sequence of source symbols to a sequence of target symbols, is referred to as its extension.

Classes of variable-length codes
Variable-length codes can be strictly nested in order of decreasing generality as non-singular codes, uniquely decodable codes and prefix codes. Prefix codes are always uniquely decodable, and these in turn are always non-singular:

Non-singular codes
A code is non-singular if each source symbol is mapped to a different non-empty bit string, i.e. the mapping from source symbols to bit strings is injective.
 For example, the mapping  is not non-singular because both "a" and "b" map to the same bit string "0" ; any extension of this mapping will generate a lossy (non-lossless) coding. Such singular coding may still be useful when some loss of information is acceptable (for example when such code is used in audio or video compression, where a lossy coding becomes equivalent to source quantization).
 However, the mapping  is non-singular ; its extension will generate a lossless coding, which will be useful for general data transmission (but this feature is not always required). Note that it is not necessary for the non-singular code to be more compact than the source (and in many applications, a larger code is useful, for example as a way to detect and/or recover from encoding or transmission errors, or in security applications to protect a source from undetectable tampering).

Uniquely decodable codes
A code is uniquely decodable if its extension is § non-singular. Whether a given code is uniquely decodable can be decided with the Sardinas–Patterson algorithm.
 The mapping  is uniquely decodable (this can be demonstrated by looking at the follow-set after each target bit string in the map, because each bitstring is terminated as soon as we see a 0 bit which cannot follow any existing code to create a longer valid code in the map, but unambiguously starts a new code).
 Consider again the code   from the previous section. This code is not uniquely decodable, since the string 011101110011 can be interpreted as the sequence of codewords 01110 – 1110 – 011, but also as the sequence of codewords 011 – 1 – 011 – 10011. Two possible decodings of this encoded string are thus given by cdb and babe. However, such a code is useful when the set of all possible source symbols is completely known and finite, or when there are restrictions (for example a formal syntax) that determine if source elements of this extension are acceptable. Such restrictions permit the decoding of the original message by checking which of the possible source symbols mapped to the same symbol are valid under those restrictions.

Prefix codes

A code is a prefix code if no target bit string in the mapping is a prefix of the target bit string of a different source symbol in the same mapping. This means that symbols can be decoded instantaneously after their entire codeword is received. Other commonly used names for this concept are prefix-free code, instantaneous code, or context-free code.
 The example mapping  in the previous paragraph is not a prefix code because we don't know after reading the bit string "0" if it encodes an "a" source symbol, or if it is the prefix of the encodings of the "b" or "c" symbols.
 An example of a prefix code is shown below.

 Example of encoding and decoding:
  → 00100110111010 → |0|0|10|0|110|111|0|10| →

A special case of prefix codes are block codes. Here all codewords must have the same length. The latter are not very useful in the context of source coding, but often serve as forward error correction in the context of channel coding.

Another special case of prefix codes are LEB128 and variable-length quantity (VLQ) codes, which encode arbitrarily large integers as a sequence of octets—i.e., every codeword is a multiple of 8 bits.

Advantages
The advantage of a variable-length code is that unlikely source symbols can be assigned longer codewords and likely source symbols can be assigned shorter codewords, thus giving a low expected codeword length. For the above example, if the probabilities of (a, b, c, d) were , the expected number of bits used to represent a source symbol using the code above would be:
 .
As the entropy of this source is 1.7500 bits per symbol, this code compresses the source as much as possible so that the source can be recovered with zero error.

See also
 Golomb code
 Kruskal count
 Variable-length instruction sets in computing

References

Further reading
  (xii+191 pages) Errata 1Errata 2
  Draft available online

Coding theory
Entropy coding

Variable-length code


Sir Alfred Bray Kempe FRS (6 July 1849 – 21 April 1922) was a mathematician best known for his work on linkages and the four colour theorem.

Biography
Kempe was the son of the Rector of St James's Church, Piccadilly, the Rev. John Edward Kempe. He was educated at St Paul's School, London and then studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, where Arthur Cayley was one of his teachers. He graduated BA (22nd wrangler) in 1872. Despite his interest in mathematics he became a barrister, specialising in the ecclesiastical law. He was knighted in 1913, the same year he became the Chancellor for the Diocese of London. He was also Chancellor of the dioceses of Newcastle, Southwell, St Albans, Peterborough, Chichester, and Chelmsford. He received the honorary degree DCL from the University of Durham and he was elected a Bencher of the Inner Temple in 1909.

In 1876 he published his article On a General Method of describing Plane Curves of the nth degree by Linkwork, which presented a procedure for constructing a linkage that traces an arbitrary algebraic plane curve.  This was a remarkable generalization of his work on the design of linkages to trace straight lines.  This direct connection between linkages and algebraic curves is now called Kempe's universality theorem. While Kempe's proof was flawed, the first complete proof was provided in 2002, based on his ideas.

In 1877 Kempe discovered a new straight line linkage called the Quadruplanar inversor or Sylvester–Kempe Inversor and published his influential lectures on the subject. In 1879 Kempe wrote his famous "proof" of the four colour theorem, shown incorrect by Percy Heawood in 1890. Much later, his work led to fundamental concepts such as the Kempe chain and unavoidable sets.

Kempe (1886) revealed a rather marked philosophical bent, and much influenced Charles Sanders Peirce. Kempe also discovered what are now called multisets, although this fact was not noted until long after his death.

Kempe was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1881. He was Treasurer and vice-president of the Royal Society 1899–1919. He was a president of the London Mathematical Society from 1892 to 1894. He was also a mountain climber, mostly in Switzerland.

His first wife was Mary, daughter of Sir William Bowman, 1st Baronet; she died in 1893. He then married, in 1897, Ida, daughter of Judge Meadows White, QC. He had two sons and one daughter.

References

External links

From the Cornell University archives:  A. B. Kempe (1877) How to draw a straight line; a lecture on linkages , London: Macmillan and Co.
Found at Project Gutenberg:  A. B. Kempe (1877) How to draw a straight line; a lecture on linkages, London: Macmillan and Co.
Examples of Kempe's Universality Theorem, Mechanical computation and algebraic curves
Automatic generation of Kempe Linkages for Algebraic Curves.

19th-century English mathematicians
20th-century English mathematicians
1849 births
1922 deaths
Graph theorists
Fellows of the Royal Society
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
English mountain climbers

Alfred Kempe


A fehirde (Old Norse: féhirði) was a term used in the Norwegian middle ages, equaliant of a "tax minister" or "royal treasurer". Under the rule of Haakon V of Norway in the early 14th century, the country was divided into five fehirdsler. These were Oslo, Tønsberg, Bergen, Trondheim and Båhus, each under the administration of a separate fehirde.

Sources
Caplex, fehirde
Ordnett.no, fehirde

Medieval Norway

Fehirde


In cryptography, the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), is a symmetric-key, block cipher algorithm that was selected by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2001. It was selected for encrypting data. It is commonly used around the world. The Advanced Encryption Standard has replaced the Data Encryption Standard (DES).

As of 2008, AES is one of the most popular algorithms used in symmetric key cryptography. It is available to programmers and the general public with various software packages.

History
AES is a type of Rijndael () block cipher developed by Belgian programmers, Vincent Rijmen and Joan Daemen.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology held a competition for a publicly available symmetric-key encryption algorithm and started accepting entries in 1997.

In 1998, fifteen algorithms were selected for the first round in the First AES Conference. After asking for comments, the NIST held the Second AES Conference where the top five algorithms were MARS, RC6, Rijndael, Serpent, and Twofish.

By 2000 and the end of the Third AES Conference, the NIST selected Rijndael for the AES proposal. For AES, NIST selected three members of the Rijndael family, each with a block size of 128 bits, but three different key lengths: 128, 192 and 256 bits.

The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) was published as a Federal Information Processing Standard on November 26, 2001.

Details
AES has a fixed block sizes of 128 bits and three values of key size 128, 192, or 256 bits."The design and strength of all key lengths of the AES algorithm (i.e., 128, 192 and 256) are sufficient to protect classified information up to the SECRET level. TOP SECRET information will require use of either the 192 or 256 key lengths. The implementation of AES in products intended to protect national security systems and/or information must be reviewed and certified by NSA prior to their acquisition and use."

AES is fast in both software and hardware, is relatively easy to implement, and requires little memory.

Standard
The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is defined in:

 FIPS PUB 197: Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
 ISO/IEC 18033-3: Block ciphers

Related pages
 DES-X
 Data Encryption Standard (DES)
 Triple DES (TDES)

References

Cryptography

Advanced Encryption Standard


Oude Pijp (Dutch for "Old Pipe"), also known as Noord-Pijp (Dutch for "North-Pipe") is a neighbourhood of Amsterdam, Netherlands located in an urbanised part of the Zuid borough. It had a population of 14,102 in 2011 and an area of 68 hectares.  Together with Nieuwe Pijp, Oude Pijp forms De Pijp.

Oude Pijp is bordered by the Boerenwetering (west), the Singelgracht (north), the Amstel (east), and the Ceintuurbaan (south). The Sarphatipark is part of Oude Pijp. Notable locations include the Albert Cuyp Market and the Heineken Experience, a former Heineken brewery, currently an industrial museum.

Several books by notable Dutch authors are set in Oude Pijp in the early 20th century:
Kamertjeszonde, by Herman Heijermans
Pijpelijntjes, by Jacob Israël de Haan
Jeugd in De Pijp, Vrijmoedige herinneringen, by Piet Bakker

References

Neighbourhoods of Amsterdam
Amsterdam-Zuid

Oude Pijp


Otto Willi Gail (18 July 1896 – 29 March 1956) was a German science journalist and author.

Gail was born in Gunzenhausen, in the Middle Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. He studied electrical engineering and physics at the Technical University of Munich. He worked for newspapers and radio broadcasting and wrote non-fiction books about physics, astronomy and space travel. He also wrote science fiction novels to delight the youth for these themes. He had good relations to the German space pioneers Max Valier and Hermann Oberth. As a result of these relationships he acquired special knowledge that influenced his books and gave them detailed realism. His novels were translated into American English and influenced early American utopian literature. He died in Munich.

R. D. Mullen noted that Der Schuß ins All is "justly famous for the realistic detail with which it depicts the construction of a rocket ship, its launching into space, and the experiences of its crew."<ref>"Reviews: November 1975", Science Fiction Studies, November 1975</ref>

Of (the English version of) Hans Hardts Mondfahrt,  Robert Godwin writes "this novel for young adults is an accurate mirror of many of the space travel concepts that have been discussed by pre-war European experts," and continues, "Otto Willi Gail was one of the most popular science fiction authors in Germany during the early 20th century." Wonder Stories compared By Rocket to the Moon to the work of Jules Verne, saying "The style is easy and rapid, and the story moves along with facility".

 Novels
 Der Schuß ins All (1925) (translated as The Shot into Infinity)
 Der Stein vom Mond (1926) (translated as The Stone From the Moon)
 Hans Hardts Mondfahrt (1928) (translated as By Rocket to the Moon)
 Die blaue Kugel (1929)
 Der Herr der Wellen (1949)

 Non-fiction books
 Mit Raketenkraft ins Weltenall (1928)
 Wir plaudern uns durch die Physik (1931)
 Der Griff nach dem Atom (1947)
 Ebbe und Flut (1947)
 Physik der Weltraumfahrt (1948)
 Was weißt du von der Welt?'' (20 booklets, Bayerischer Schulbuch-Verlag, München since 1947)

References

External links

1896 births
1956 deaths
People from Gunzenhausen
20th-century German physicists
German non-fiction writers
German science fiction writers
German male journalists
Technical University of Munich alumni
German male writers
20th-century German journalists

Otto Willi Gail


London Live is a local television channel in London, England, which airs local news, current affairs, sports, arts, events, and entertainment. The channel launched in 2014 to serve the London area under the legislation for local television, and broadcasts on Freeview and Sky. The owner of London Live is Russian oligarch Evgeny Lebedev, who is also the chairman and owner of both Evening Standard Ltd (publisher of the Evening Standard newspaper, which he bought in January 2009) and Independent Print Ltd (publisher of The Independent, which he bought in March 2010).

History

The London licence was awarded to ESTV Limited by Ofcom, the UK's media regulator, in 2013 after bids were invited for a number of areas in 2012. ESTV is owned by Lebedev Holdings, whose majority shareholder is Evgeny Lebedev and whose other subsidiaries include Evening Standard Limited. London Live launched at 18:30 on 31 March 2014.

The channel broadcasts on Freeview using the CoMux-operated London local DTT multiplex (mux), transmitted on UHF channel 29 from the Crystal Palace transmitting station, and is also available via Sky satellite and cable TV to viewers with London postcodes. On 21 March 2018, the London DTT mux was moved to UHF channel 35 as part of 700 MHz clearance plans. Crystal Palace also operates on a single frequency network with Croydon, which improves reception in South and East London. London Live also now occupies the unadvertised local mux available on UHF channel 34 from the Hemel Hempstead relay as of 27 March 2019, which has extended coverage outside the M25 to the Hemel Hempstead and St. Albans areas.

London Live broadcasts from studios at Northcliffe House in Kensington, which is also the headquarters of The Independent and Evening Standard newspapers, both owned by Lebedev Holdings.

Before its launch, the channel was expected to spend between £15m and £18m before breaking even in about three years; revenue was predicted to reach £25m by then. For the year to September 2021, ESTV Limited reported an operating profit of £4.1million on turnover of £7.4million.

Programmes

Original programmes

London Live has commissioned a varied portfolio of programmes, including Drag Queens of London, Good Morning Breakfast, CTRL Freaks, Can You Cook It, Food Junkies, Fresh Fantasy, Jeff Leach +1, Place Invaders,  F2 Kicks Off and Nihal's City Swagger. It has also commissioned documentaries including Girl on Girl, Jail Birds, Half Man Standing, Teenage Kicks, Sizzle London, The Young Upstarts, Digital Nation, Roger & Robin's Night Club Tips, Ron & Ron, Fight Club London, No Place Like Home, Antisocial Network, and Beggar Off.

In September 2013 the channel announced its first acquired series: a family sitcom, All About the McKenzies. The show, previously only available via YouTube, is written and produced by Samuell Benta.

In November 2013, London Live announced its first prime-time commission: F2 Kicks Off from UK indie Renowned Films, hosted by the F2Freestylers duo Billy Wingrove and Jeremy Lynch.

In January 2014 the channel announced acquired the web show Brothers With No Game. In March 2014, Drag Queens of London was announced.

Other programmes
London Live also broadcasts a range of comedy, drama, documentaries and entertainment programmes such as London Real, Absolute Power, Green Wing, Peep Show, Smack the Pony, Spaced, Trigger Happy TV, Twenty Twelve, Filthy Rich and Homeless, Soho Blues, The Tube, Snog Marry Avoid?, Vice Squad, Hale and Pace, Born Equal, Freefall, Harley Street, London's Burning, Misfits, Moses Jones, The Shadow Line, White Teeth, 10 Years Younger, and Cash in the Attic. By 2021, the channel was showing a range of classic shows (similar to programmes already repeated on Talking Pictures TV, ITV4 or Forces TV) alongside films and local programmes with titles including Sapphire and Steel, Danger Man, and Goodnight Sweetheart in the schedules.

In July 2017, it was announced the channel would have an early morning line-up of children's programming from the libraries of Saban Brands and Studio 100 (such as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993–96, 2010 "Disney era" version) and Digimon. After the contract expired, the channel began airing programming from 41 Entertainment, mainly content from the BKN International library. As of 2023, the channel does not broadcast any children's programmes.

Former on-air team

 Anthony Baxter (presenter/head of news)
 Alex Beard (presenter)
 Alison Earle (presenter/reporter)
 Marc Edwards (presenter/reporter)
 Louise Scodie (presenter/reporter)
 Claudia Liza Vanderpuije (née Armah) (presenter/reporter)
 Gavin Ramjaun (presenter/reporter)
 Luke Blackall (presenter/reporter)
 Reya El-Salahi (presenter/reporter)
 Stefan Levy (presenter/reporter)
 Simon Thompson (entertainment producer/editor)
 Toby Earle (TV editor)

David Icke interview
In April 2020, the UK's culture secretary Oliver Dowden called on the media regulator Ofcom to take action against London Live after it broadcast a 105-minute interview with the conspiracy theorist David Icke which contained allegations about the source of the COVID-19 pandemic. The interview was an edited version of an interview Icke recorded with the YouTube channel London Real in March. YouTube deleted a later London Live interview with Icke and said it would wipe any other videos that falsely linked COVID-19 to 5G mobile networks.

Ofcom later confirmed that the 80-minute interview broke broadcasting rules, stating that Icke "expressed views which had the potential to cause significant harm to viewers in London during the pandemic" and his "claims went largely unchallenged" being "made without the support of any scientific or other evidence".

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Local television channels in the United Kingdom
Television in London
Television channels and stations established in 2014
2014 establishments in England
London Evening Standard

London Live (TV channel)


Sanmenxia (三门峡) is prefecture-level city in western Henan Province, China. Its name has also been spelled Sanmenhsia. It is on the south side of the Yellow River. In 2010, 2,234,018 people lived there.

Administration
Sanmenxia administers two districts, two county-level cities and two counties.

 Hubin District(湖滨区)
 Shanzhou District(陕州区)
 Lingbao City(灵宝市)
 Yima City(义马市)
 Lushi County(卢氏县)
 Mianchi County(渑池县)

Cities in China
Henan

Sanmenxia


"Love is Just a Four-Letter Word" is a song written by Bob Dylan, first recorded by Joan Baez, who has recorded and performed the song numerous times throughout her career.

Background
Baez immediately took to the song, which was written by Dylan sometime around 1965, and began performing it, even before it was finished. In the film Dont Look Back, a documentary of Dylan's 1965 tour of the UK, Baez is shown in one scene singing a fragment of the then apparently still unfinished song in a hotel room late at night.  She then tells Dylan, "If you finish it, I'll sing it on a record".

Baez first included the song on Any Day Now, her 1968 album of Dylan covers; she has since recorded it three additional times. Her 1968 recording was also released as a single, reaching #86 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Baez has also included the song on numerous compilations such as The First Ten Years and Baez Sings Dylan, as well as on her live album From Every Stage.

Dylan never released a version of his song, and, according to his website, he has never performed the song live.

References

1965 songs
Songs written by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan songs
Joan Baez songs
Vanguard Records singles
1968 singles

Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word


Kodethur Narasimha Udupa (1920–1992) was an Indian surgeon, medical administrator, a pioneer of integrative medicine and the founder director of the Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University (BHU). Born in Udupi in the South Indian state of Karnataka, His father was Tamayya Udupa scholar in Sanskrit and Jyotish belonging to Shivalli brahmin community. He passed his bachelor's degree in Ayurvedic Medicine (AMS) from Banares Hindu University, secured his master's degree (MS) from the University of Michigan in 1948 and passed FRCS examination from Canada.

Starting his career at Mandi district, Himachal Pradesh, Udupa worked at Shimla and Boston. Returning to India in 1956, he resumed his work in Shimla and in 1958, he was appointed as the head of the committee constituted by the Government of India, Committee on the Reform of Education, Practice and Research in Indigenous Systems of Medicine which later came to be known as Udupa Committee. It is reported that the recommendations of the Udupa Committee helped Ayurveda system to claim national status and a name under new nomenclature, Indian Systems of Medicine. After the submission of the committee report, Udupa joined the Ayurveda College of BHU as the principal and professor of surgery in 1959. Under his leadership, the college became a College of Medical Sciences for both conventional and Indian medicine systems and started post graduate course in Ayurveda (MD Ayur). Later, the college was upgraded to Institute of Medical Sciences (IMS) retaining Udupa as its founder director. He had several medical articles to his credit and his efforts were reported to be behind the establishment of a Central Surgical Research Laboratory at IMS and Sir Sunderlal Hospital at BHU.

After retirement from BHU in 1980, he became the university's Professor Emeritus and continued his associations with the Indian Council of Medical Research and WHO. Udupa was married to Lila, a medical nurse, and the couple had one daughter, Anjali. He was remarried with Sushma and adopted her two sons Saurabh and Sachin. He died on 22 July 1992, succumbing to colon cancer.

He was honoured by the Government of India in 1972 with Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award.

References

Further reading

Recipients of the Padma Shri in medicine
1920 births
1992 deaths
People from Udupi
Medical doctors from Karnataka
Indian surgeons
Indian medical academics
Indian medical writers
Banaras Hindu University alumni
Academic staff of Banaras Hindu University
University of Michigan Medical School alumni
20th-century Indian medical doctors
Tulu academics
Tulu male writers

K. N. Udupa


¡El pueblo quiere saber de qué se trata! ("The people want to know what is going on!") is an anonymous Spanish-language phrase from Argentina. It was first used during the May Revolution, the event that began the Argentine War of Independence. An open cabildo deposed the viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros and ordered the establishment of a government junta, but the cabildo appointed the viceroy as the president of said junta. A huge demonstration forced the cabildo to undo the appointment, and establish instead a junta with members selected by the people.

Similarly to the event, it would be used in Argentine politics when the people requested transparency to the acts of government.

References

May Revolution
Political quotes
Spanish words and phrases
1810 in Argentina
1810s neologisms


Matthew Clarke (born 18 September 1973) is a former professional Australian rules football player and current coach who is the head coach of Adelaide in the AFL Women's. Prior to coaching, he played in the Australian Football League (AFL), his career spanning four clubs and a total of 258 games between 1993 and 2007.  He was known as one of the most effective tap ruckmen of his era.

Early life
Clarke was born in Camden, New South Wales to Rex and Eve Clarke and was the oldest of three children (Gavin and Susan). At six months his family moved to the United States where Clarke would live until the age of 2 and a half. Clarke then moved to Mount Gambier, South Australia where his father would work as a vet.

He was a talented junior footballer and basketballer, playing for the SA Country under 16s. In 1989-90 at 15 he would go on to play for the local semi-pro basketball team the Mount Gambier Pioneers in the South East Australian Basketball League. Clarke managed 15 games in two seasons for the Pioneers.

Clarke played football for West Gambier in the Western Border Football League and quickly rose through the ranks to play 6 senior games in 1990 as a 16-year-old. Clarke would be drafted by the Richmond Football Club at pick 56 overall in the 1990 AFL draft. He joined Mount Gambier local Nick Daffy at Richmond as the only South Australians in the 1990 draft due to the Adelaide Crows joining the AFL and having exclusivity to South Australians. Richmond avoided this rule as the two played in the WBFL which was as affiliated with the VCFL due to the Victorian teams in the league.

Playing career

Richmond career
In 1991 as a 17-year-old Clarke spent the year playing for the Richmond Under 19s whilst studying science at Melbourne University. Richmond U19s won the first 11 games of the season but after a late season slump they were eliminated in the Semi Final. Clarke played 20 out of 23 possible games  and finished runner up in the best and fairest to Duncan Kellaway.

However Clarke was delisted by Richmond at the end of 1991 when the AFL u19s competition was abolished. Clarke was given another chance at AFL football and was picked up by the Brisbane Bears at pick 43 in the 1992 AFL Pre-Season Draft

Brisbane Bears/Lions career
In 1992 Clarke wanted a season in Adelaide despite being drafted by Brisbane. He played for South Adelaide Football Club in the SANFL whilst studying science at The University of Adelaide. After playing the first six games in the reserves Clarke would become a senior regular and finished 6th in the best and fairest.

Debuting in 1993 with the Bears, "Doc" Clarke was a promising young Ruckman under coach Robert Walls and was particularly decisive with his tap work.

After being runner up in the Brisbane Bears Club Champion award in 1994 and 1996, he took out the Merrett-Murray best and fairest award in 1997 for the Brisbane Lions and consolidated his position as one of the league's best ruckmen.

Adelaide career
Clarke moved to the Crows in 2000.

In 2005 in the absence of suddenly emerged number one ruckman Ben Hudson, Clarke was surprisingly recalled from the South Adelaide side in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) to play a part in the Crows' run to the finals. He showed he was still an effective player, being labelled as one of the most effective "tap ruckmen" by commentator Robert Walls.

He played on during 2006, with 18 games, and after ruckman Rhett Biglands had an anterior cruciate ligament injury in the Crows' last game of 2006 (sidelining him for most if not all of the 2007 season), there was talk that Clarke may continue for another season. However, he retired from football at the end of the 2006 season after an AFL career of 248 games over 13 seasons.

Return to football – St Kilda
There had been some speculation in December 2006 that Clarke may be drafted by St Kilda Football Club for the 2007 season, and although this was initially denied, on 12 December 2006, he was taken by the Saints with their selection in the 2007 Pre Season Draft.

Clarke signed on with the club for one season only, but trained strongly over the pre season and was selected for the first game.

He performed strongly as the side's primary ruckman, displaying his usual ruckwork dexterity.

In September 2007, Clarke announced his retirement.

Coaching career

After retiring from playing, Clarke rejoined Adelaide Football Club as a ruck coach, and later as a midfield development coach.

On 23 May 2018, Clarke was announced as Adelaide's AFL Women's head coach from the 2019 season onwards.  In his first season as coach, the Adelaide Crows won the 2019 AFLW premiership. Clarke coached a second premiership in 2022 season 6.

Other
Clarke is a qualified veterinary scientist (like his father) and is currently studying for an MBA.

Clarke is married to Adelaide radio personality Ali Clarke. They have three children, Eloise Harper, Samuel Fletcher and Madeline.

References

External links

1973 births
Living people
AFL Women's coaches
Adelaide Football Club players
Brisbane Lions players
Brisbane Bears players
St Kilda Football Club players
South Adelaide Football Club players
South Australian State of Origin players
Glenelg Football Club players
Merrett–Murray Medal winners
Australian veterinarians
Male veterinarians
Australian rules footballers from South Australia

Matthew Clarke (Australian footballer)


The Messel Pit () is a disused quarry near the village of Messel, Hesse. The site about 35 km southeast of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is a site where fine fossils are preserved: a lagerstätte. The site is very important: it includes fossils of early mammals, including early primates. Because of its fossils, the site has significant geological and scientific importance.

Bituminous shale was mined there. After almost becoming a landfill, strong local resistance eventually stopped those plans. The Messel pit was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. It was placed on the list solely due to fossils.

Amateur collectors developed a "transfer technique" to preserve the fine details of small fossils, the method still used to  preserve the fossils today. Many of the known specimens from the site have come from amateur collectors, and in 1996, an amnesty on previously collected fossils was put in effect, in the hope of getting privately owned collections back into public ownership and available to science.

Ecology
The current surface of the Messel pit is roughly 60 m below the local land and is about 0.7 km² in area. The oil-shale bed originally extended to a depth of 190 m.
47 million years ago in the Eocene when the Messel deposits formed, the area was 10° further south than it is now. The period was just after the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum, and the climate and ecology of the site were very different from today. A large series of lakes, surrounded by lush sub-tropical forests supported an incredible diversity of life. The Messel lake bed was probably a center point for drainage from nearby rivers and creeks.
The pit deposits were formed during the Eocene epoch of the Palaeogene period about 47 million years ago. This is based on dating of basalt fragments under the fossilbearing strata.

Oil shale, formed by the slow anoxic deposition of mud and dead vegetation on the lake bed, is the primary rock at the site.

Its sediments extend 130 m downward and lie atop an older sandstone foundation. The fossils within the shale show a remarkable clarity and preservation due to the unique depositional characteristics of the lake.

The upper layers of the lake had a great deal of life, but the bottom was anoxic. Because the water was not much disturbed, little oxygen got to the lower levels. This prevented many epifaunal (bottom-living) and infaunal (burrowing) species from living there. That is why dead bodies were so little damaged. Overturn of the lake layers (caused by seasonal variations) lowered oxygen content near the surface and led to a periodic "die-off" of aquatic species. Combined with a relatively low rate of deposition (0.1 mm/yr), this was a prime environment for the preservation of fauna and flora.

Volcanic gas releases
The area around the Messel Pit was geologically and tectonically active during the Eocene. Volcanic gas releases could account for the large deposition of non-aquatic species.

Subsurface shifts released large concentrations of reactive gases (such as carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide) into the lake and adjoining ecosystems, killing susceptible organisms. During these releases, birds and bats might have fallen in if near the lake surface, and terrestrials could be overwhelmed near the lake shore.

Fossils
The Messel Pit provides the best preserved evidence of early Eocene flora and fauna so far discovered. Most other sites are lucky to contain partial skeletons, but Messel boasts extensive preservation of structural integrity, even going so far as to preserve the fur, feathers, and "skin shadows" of some species. Unusual preservation has sparked some closely-reasoned interpretations. The symptomatic "dumb-bell"-shaped bite marks on either side of the leaf vein on a fossilised leaf have been identified as the death-grip of a carpenter ant terminally parasitized by a fungus that, apparently then as today, took over its behaviour to release its spores at a good location; it is the earliest clear example of fungal behavioural manipulation.

The diversity of species is astonishing. Here is a brief summary of some of the fossils found at the site:

 Early primate fossil with anthropoid (i.e. non-lemuroid) characteristics: discovery made public May 2009 of Darwinius masillae
 Nine mating pairs of fossil turtles have been found. The turtles, Allaeochelys crassesculpta, were in coitus (in the act of having sex). They are male-female pairs, with the male's tail tucked under the female, which is how they have sex. Their death must have been rapid. It is supposed that the turtles had started mating in the aerated surface waters of the ancient lake. As they sank into deeper water, they were overcome by the release of toxic volcanic gas. They were then buried in the lakebed sediment. Turtles belonging to this clade are still living. They have lost their reptilian scales, and their skin absorbs oxygen from the water. Normally, this is an advantage: it helps them stay submerged for long periods. However, under anoxic conditions it is a disadvantage, because carbon dioxide and dissolved poisons are absorbed as well.
 Over 10,000 fossilized fish of numerous species
 Thousands of aquatic and terrestrial insects, some with distinct colour still preserved
 Many small mammals including pygmy horses, large mice, primates, ground dwellers (hedgehogs, marsupials, pangolins), aardvark relatives, and bats.
 Many birds, particularly predatory species.
 Crocodiles, frogs, turtles, salamanders, and other reptiles or amphibians
 Remains of over 30 plant species, including palm leaves, fruits, pollen, wood, walnuts, and grapevines

The assemblage of fossils includes a South American anteater, two types of South American flightless birds, and an ancestor of the scaly ant-eater (Manis) of the old-world tropics.

Related pages

 Lagerstätte

References

Other websites
 Messel Fossils
 Missing Link Found at Messel Pit?
 Daily Mail article on fossils found at Messel pit; many colour photos

World Heritage Sites in Germany
Landmarks in Germany
Eocene
Lagerstätten

Messel pit


Kasturi Rajadhyaksha (1923/1924 – 7 February 2010), often referred to as Dr. Raja, was an Indian physician and community worker. She helped several support groups specifically for Indian or South Asian people, and focused particularly on ending domestic violence and helping South Asian business people.

Personal life
Kasturi Rajadhyaksha was born in 1923 or 1924 in India. In 1945, Rajadhyaksha earned her MBBS degree after studying gynaecology in Mumbai. She also held a Master's degree in Public Health, which she earned from Johns Hopkins University. Rajadhyaksha was married to Vithal Kashinath Rajadhyaksha, with whom she had two sons.

Career
Kasturi Rajadhyaksha worked as a physician, and after seeing the difficulties faced by the pregnant women she treated, began her career in community service setting up organizations for women. In 1965, Rajadhyaksha moved to the United States, where she continued her community work to help women. After finishing her master's degree in Public Health, she became the Asian coordinator for the Jhpiego, a non-profit organization run by Johns Hopkins University to improve international education in gynecology and obstetrics. She spent six years in this position, during which time she traveled to over twenty countries to organize trainings in laprascopy. She went on to work as a director and as the Minority Business Coordinator for the DLZ Corporation, an architectural and engineering firm based in Columbus, Ohio.

In 1990, Rajadhyaksha founded the Women of Indian Subcontinent Support Group (WISSUG), a group to help women workers. She co-founded the Asian American Commerce Group (AACG), a group for Asian-American business owners in central Ohio. In 2003, Rajadhyaksha and nine others founded ASHA-Ray of Hope, a non-profit working to help domestic abuse victims in the South Asian community. She also was among the founders of the Women to Women Business Mentoring Group. She served on the Columbus Equal Opportunity Commission, and as a board member of the South Central Minority Business Development Council.

In September 2008, Rajadhyaksha was inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame. Throughout her career, she received several awards for her work. In 1996 she won the YWCA Woman of Achievement Award, and in 1998 she was awarded the Ohio's Federation of Indian Association's Outstanding Community Service Award. She was given the Ohio Civil Rights Commission's Outstanding Leader Award, and in 2001 she also won the Women of Courage Award. In 2003, she won the Most Distinguished Physician Community Service Award from the National Association of American Physicians of Indian Origin.

References

1920s births
2010 deaths
Indian women medical doctors
20th-century Indian women scientists
20th-century Indian medical doctors
Indian women's rights activists
Johns Hopkins University alumni
Medical doctors from Mumbai
Women scientists from Maharashtra
20th-century Indian women medical doctors

Kasturi Rajadhyaksha


Le Groupe des XV was a collective founded in 1946 by fifteen (hence its name) French humanist photographers who exhibited annually in Paris until 1957. Its objective was to have photography recognised as an art form in its own right, and to use it to preserve French photographic heritage.

Founding members

Members from 1948

Professional organisation
Annual exhibitions of their work were organised by André Garban, assisted in the background by Emmanuel Sougez, founder in 1937 of the group Le Rectangle, a predecessor Parisian photographer association active until all professional organisations were dissolved during the Occupation under Vichy rule. Several Le Groupe des XV members had formerly been in Rectangle and in 1946 they regarded themselves and their invited recruits as friends who had a common interest in artistic photography, naming the group "by analogy with the spirit of team and the sports camaraderie that animates rugby clubs".

Ethos
The group's manifesto echoes that of Le Rectangle, providing a continuum between the 1930s and the immediate post-war: "loving above all their profession, animated by the same faith and eager to endow photographic art of quality works, each [...] member formally commits himself to respect the spirit of loyalty, frankness and mutual assistance which is the very basis of the grouping". They espoused: "Respect for process! - Real photography - The perfect negative - And if possible, no retouching; that 'maid-of-all-work' to the bad photographer! No blur either; such a "myopic style"! And as much as possible new ideas, new angles, originality [...]. Our tradition: Hill, Nadar, Atget, Weston, Cartier-Bresson."

Defining the status of the profession
All members were professionals in both their motivation and in deriving their income from commissions with, among other outlets, magazines Plaisir de France and Réalités favouring their work during the boom in pictorial magazines. The chief chronicler of Les Groupe des XV, Marcel Bovis, in particular, was concerned with the status of their medium: "At a time when the profession of photographer-illustrator is classed with manufacturers of funerary wreaths, it is above all a question of asserting the notion of profession by a demanding conception of photography in all fields". 1946, the year of the group's founding, was in a period in which professional organisations and the place of the arts and crafts within them was being reassessed, Le Groupe des XV also created, as an annex to the group, the Society of Illustrators and Author Photographers: the SIAP. This entity administered by the XV replaced the Artisanal Professional Groups of the 1940s, enforcing copyright and reproduction, the code of ethics and pricing, without forgetting "to create between its members links of confraternity".

Exhibitions
For the annual exhibitions of Le Groupe des XV, Garban secured venues at the Galerie Jean Pascaud, 165 Boulevard Haussmann, at the Cercle de la Librairie, boulevard Saint-Germain or the Galerie Mirador, Place Vendôme, as well as offering his own portrait studio in rue Bourdaloue (9th arrondissement) for meetings. From 1946 he established the National Exhibition of Photography in the Galerie Mansart, Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Humanist photography
The group had in common an interest in documenting the life of the street as a representation of French culture and valued the contribution of Surrealism and of the New Objectivity to their imagery, but they rejected pictorialism. Consequently, the majority contributed significantly to French humanist photography.

References

20th-century French photographers
Street photographers
Arts organizations
French photography organizations
Humanist photographers
Photo agencies
Cooperatives in France
Professional associations based in France
1946 establishments in France

Le Groupe des XV


Emil and the Detectives is a 1964 American crime comedy film directed by Peter Tewksbury based on the novel Emil and the Detectives by German author Erich Kästner. The film stars Walter Slezak and Bryan Russell.

It was shot at the Tempelhof Studios in Berlin and on location around the city. The sets were designed by the art directors Isabella and Werner Schlichting.

Plot
Ten-year old Emil Tischbein travels by bus from Neustadt to Berlin, carrying an envelope containing 400 marks that his mother has entrusted him to deliver to his grandmother. Emil falls asleep during the bus ride and wakes up to find the money gone. He is sure that the thief is Grundeis, the shifty man who was sitting next to him. Emil follows Grundeis to a Berlin cafe and summons a policeman, but Grundeis escapes to a rendezvous with The Baron, his underworld associate. Emil enlists the help of a group of child "detectives" led by the street urchin Gustav, and together they track down Grundeis and overhear him plotting with The Baron and his accomplice Müller to rob a large Berlin bank by tunneling to its vault. Emil is captured and forced to assist in the criminal plot. After the bank vault is blown open, Grundeis is doublecrossed by The Baron and Müller and left behind with Emil in the tunnel to be blown up by a dynamite fuse, but Gustav arrives in time to save them. The child detectives pursue the thieves and alert more children in the neighborhood who also give chase. The Baron and Muller are surrounded by the children and arrested by the police. Emil receives a reward which he intends to share with the other children.

Cast
Walter Slezak as The Baron
Bryan Russell as Emil Tischbein
Roger Mobley as Gustav
Cindy Cassell as Pony
Heinz Schubert as Grundeis the thief
Peter Ehrlich as Müller
Elsa Wagner as Grandma
Eva Ingeborg Scholz as Frau Tischbein, Emil's mother
Wolfgang Völz as Wachtmeister Stucke
Brian Richardson as The Professor
Robert Swann as Hermann
David Petrychka as Dienstag

Reception
Eugene Archer of The New York Times wrote that "Walt Disney has come up with one of his best children's pictures," stating that Tewksbury's direction "makes all the difference. He has kept the kiddies from gushing too coyly, suppressed the mugging of a comic trio of thieves, photographed the fresh Berlin setting in effective color, and juxtaposed suspense and wit with a nice, bouncing pace." Variety called the film "an interesting project" with "the customary distinguishable Disney mark to give it class," but without the same appeal to adults as "say, Disney's previous moppet classic, 'Mary Poppins.'" Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film "falls somewhere between the moppet trade and not-too-discriminating adults."<ref>Scheuer, Philip K. (December 21, 1964). "Emil and the Detectives". Los Angeles Times'. Part III, p. 11.</ref> The Monthly Film Bulletin found it "pleasantly presented, if without any distinction."

Comic book adaption
 Gold Key: Emil and the Detectives'' (February 1965)

References

External links

1964 films
Films based on children's books
Films based on German novels
Films based on works by Erich Kästner
Films directed by Peter Tewksbury
Films produced by Walt Disney
1964 crime films
Walt Disney Pictures films
American remakes of German films
Films adapted into comics
Films set in West Germany
Films set in Berlin
Films shot in Berlin
Films shot at Tempelhof Studios
1960s English-language films

Emil and the Detectives (1964 film)