Johan Tirén (12 October 1853, Själevad - 24 August 1911, Länna Parish, Uppland) was a Swedish painter who specialized in scenes of the rural life in Northern Sweden.

Biography
He was the older brother of the artist, . At the age of seven, his family moved to Oviken in Jämtland, where his father served as the Vicar. He originally attended the Tekniska skolan in Stockholm then spent the years 1877 to 1880 at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, where he won a Royal Medal in 1880 for his painting of Loki imprisoned by Æsir. He first came to public attention when his painting, "A Jämtland Legend" was displayed at the Academy. His fellow student, Anders Zorn, sat as the model for the näck (water spirit).

After studying in Norrland in 1881, he was able to obtain a scholarship and used it to make a study trip; visiting the Netherlands, Belgium, Paris and Upper Bavaria. While in Rome, he received orders from the Academy Director to begin studies in Munich. Instead, after spending the summer in Denmark, he returned to Paris and studied with  Jean-Léon Gérôme, but found himself uninspired to paint by what he saw there. When his travel allowance was not extended, he settled in Jämtland, where he painted landscapes and scenes from the lives of the Sami people.

In 1884, he married the painter Gerda Rydberg. Their children, Nils and Stina also became artists.

He became deeply involved in the issue of rights for the Sami and, in 1892, painted a controversial scene showing them with some of their reindeer that had been shot by a farmer. It was inspired by a real incident involving a landowner named  of Ljusnedal who had instigated the slaughtering of reindeer belonging to the Sami so the area could be developed.

The logo for , a non-profit promoter of outdoor recreation, is based on his painting, "The Skiing Lapp" from 1900.

Selected paintings

References

Other sources
 Tirén, Johan i Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon, 1906
 Biography from the Nordisk familjebok @ Project Runeberg
 Johan Tirén i Nationalencyklopedin

External links

More works by Tirén @ ArtNet
Works from the Jämtlands läns museums.

1853 births
1911 deaths
Swedish painters
Genre painters
People from Ångermanland

Johan Tirén


HMNZS Monowai (F59) was a former Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) merchant vessel. At the outbreak of World War II she became an armed merchant cruiser of the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN). She subsequently became HMS Monowai, a Landing Ship, Infantry and mostly operated as a troopship. In 1946 she returned to her old trade as a passenger ship.

Civilian career
SS Razmak was built at Greenock yard for P&O by Harland and Wolff, launched in 1924 and completed on 26 February 1925. She was designed for service between Bombay and Aden and spent several years in the Mediterranean Sea. When demand on her original route dried up, she was offered for sale and transferred to the antipodes. The Union Steam Ship Company, part of the P & O group, took her on in 1930 as their second  and she ran a subsidized service from Wellington to Vancouver via several Pacific stops. From 24 November 1932 she ran mostly from Wellington to Sydney.

Conversion to armed merchant cruiser
Guns suitable for Monowai had been ordered and stored at the Devonport Naval Base in Auckland. Monowai was requisitioned by the Royal New Zealand Navy on 21 October 1939 and was prepared for mounting the guns. Then followed a period of indecision, and in February 1940 work on her was suspended for over four months. After construction was completed in August 1940, she was commissioned.

The  conducted an unsuccessful attack on her on 16 January 1942.

Monowai was the first of two ships with this name to serve in the Royal New Zealand Navy. She was named after the New Zealand glacial lake Monowai. Monowai is a Māori word meaning "channel full of water".

Conversion to LSI
As surplus, in 1943 she was transferred to Liverpool in the United Kingdom and handed over to the British Ministry of War Transport. Monowai went to Glasgow for conversion to an "Landing Ship, Infantry (Large)" or LSI(L). From June 1943 to February 1944 she was refitted with completely different armament, capacity for up to 1,800 fully equipped troops, and 20 Assault Landing Craft. She was used during the Normandy landings.

In the later period of the war she was used as a troopship transporting soldiers and after the end of the war in repatriation.

Post war
On 31 August 1946 she was returned to her owner. She resumed merchant service in January 1949 after extensive repair. In 1960 she was sold for breaking up in Hong Kong.

Notes

Citations

References

External links
TSS Monowai 1925–1960
Monowai - A Steamships Of Many Faces

1924 ships
Amphibious warfare vessels of the Royal Navy
Auxiliary cruisers of the Royal New Zealand Navy
Ships built on the River Clyde
Merchant ships of the United Kingdom
Ministry of War Transport ships
Ocean liners
Ships of the Union Steam Ship Company
Troop ships
World War II amphibious warfare vessels of the United Kingdom
Ships built by Harland and Wolff

HMNZS Monowai (F59)


Sialography (also termed radiosialography) is the radiographic examination of the salivary glands. It usually involves the injection of a small amount of contrast medium into the salivary duct of a single gland, followed by routine X-ray projections.

The resulting image is called a sialogram.

Sialography has largely been replaced by sialoendoscopy and cross-sectional imaging, such as CT, MRI and ultrasonography.

Uses
This procedure is indicated when there is recurrent swelling and pain on the face but ultrasound has not revealed any problems. If Sjögren syndrome (also known as Sicca syndrome, an autoimmune disease that affects the lacrimal and salivary glands, causing reduced tears and saliva production) is suspected, this procedure is useful. Besides, when interventional proecudre is planned such as stone removal from salivary ducts or dilatation of the strictures in the salivary gland, this procedure is also indicated. However, for those who are pregnant, with allergy to iodinated contrast, and ongoing infection or inflammation of the face, the procedure is contraindicated.

Procedure

Contrast agents are classified into two groups: fat-soluble contrast agents and water-soluble contrast agents.  Water-soluble contrast agents can fill the finer elements of the ductal system.  Fat-soluble contrast agents are viscous and can cause allergic reactions.  These can also cause discomfort to the patients. Fat-soluble contrast agents do not fill finer elements of the duct.

A baseline radiograph (scout film) of the required salivary gland would be taken, the duct is dilated using graded lacrimal probes, a cannula then is inserted in this salivary gland duct's opening in the mouth, then a radio-opaque fluid (contrast medium) is injected in the duct through a small tube.

A series of radiographs would then be taken to determine the flow of the fluid, identify any obstructions and its location, the rate of fluid excretion from the gland.

Usually the radiographs taken are lateral oblique views of the face as orthopantomograms are not useful for the purpose of locating the area due to superimpositions and the way they are taken to put the teeth in the main field.

Interpretation
This study is interpreted by evaluating the morphology of the salivary ducts for obstructions and chronic inflammation. Sialodochitis is a term describing dilation of the ducts caused by repeated inflammatory or infective processes. There is also irregular salivary duct stricture (narrowing) of the duct, which creates an appearance known as "sausage link" pattern on a sialogram. Suggestions of abscesses and autoimmune diseases such as Sjögren syndrome can also be elicited. Sialadenitis is inflammation of the salivary glands, which may cause acinar atrophy and create an appearance known as "pruning of the tree" on a sialogram, where there are less branches visible from the duct system. A space occupying lesion that occurs within or adjacent to a salivary gland can displace the normal anatomy of the gland. This may create an appearance known as "ball in hand" on an sialogram, where the ducts are curved around the mass of the lesion.

Adverse effects
Like any medical imaging utilizing ionizing radiation, there will be a degree of direct ionizing damage and indirect damage from free radicals created during the ionization of water molecules within cells. The risk of causing the development of a malignant tumor is incredibly small, and is weighed against the benefits of the investigation on a case-by-case basis.

Possible complications include:
 Pain on injection,
 Post procedural infection,
 Ductal rupture,
 Extravasation of contrast media,
 Allergic reaction to iodinated contrast media (which may present with urticaria, dyspnoea, and hypotension).

References

Projectional radiography
Digestive system imaging

Sialography


Periyar E. V. Ramasamy (17 September 1879 – 24 December 1973), also known as Ramaswami, EVR, Thanthai Periyar was a Dravidian social reformer and politician from India, who founded the Self-Respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam. On the caste system in India, Periyar dealt harshly with the practice of discrimination and its subordination of the different levels it created in society. He attacked those who used the system to take advantage of the masses through exploitation and subjugation.

Philosophy
Periyar felt that a small number of cunning people created caste distinctions in order to dominate over society. That was why he emphasized the view that we must first develop self-respect and learn to analyze propositions rationally. A self-respecting rationalist will readily realize that caste system has been stifling self-respect and therefore he will strive to get rid of this menace. One of Periyar's quotes on caste was, "a sizable population today remains as Untouchables, and another sizable population exists in the name of Sudras and as serfs, coolies and menials. Who wants an independence that cannot help change these things? Who wants religion, scriptures and gods, which cannot bring about a change in this sphere"?

Periyar explained that the caste system in south India is, due to Indo-Aryan influence, linked with the arrival of Brahmins from the north. Ancient Tamil Nadu (part of Tamilakkam) had a different stratification of society in four or five regions (Tinai), determined by natural surroundings and adequate means of living. Periyar also mentions that birds, animals, and worms, which are considered to be devoid of rationalism do not create castes, or differences of high and low in their own species. But man considered to be a rational being, is suffering from these because of religion. He further explains that amongst dogs you do not have a Brahmin dog, or a Pariah (untouchable) dog. Among donkeys and monkeys we also do not find such things. But, amongst men there is such discrimination.

Periyar argued on how a person with an iota of sense or rationalism in could do such things such as giving special treatment only to Brahmins. Some examples practiced were for lower castes to fall at their feet and to even, sometimes, wash their feet and drink that water. Periyar explains that if this is Hindu doctrine and philosophy, such a religion must go. He gives examples of rituals such as christening, house warming, marriage, and for puberty, that they are for the Brahmin's gain as the only ones to conduct these occasions. We do not respect our knowledge nor are we ashamed of our actions. Are we merely a mass of flesh and bones? Why should anybody get angry when I say all these to make you think over. Who is responsible of our degradation? Is it religion or government"?

Gandhi advocated for the caste system in its preservation. On the question of Untouchables being prevented from drawing water from wells and entering temples, Gandhi suggested having separate wells and temples made for them instead. Periyar argued against this by demanding the Vedas of Indo-Aryans to be burnt and their deities to be destroyed since it was their creation of the castes and Untouchables. He also went on to state that "it was absurd to quote religion, god, or religious doctrines to render people as lowest castes".

Periyar argued that the caste system has "perverted peoples ideas about human conduct. The principle of different codes of conduct for each caste based on birth and life, led in accordance with it for centuries, have spoiled the Hindu mentality almost beyond repair, and destroyed the idea of uniformity in conduct. Graded inequality has got so much into the Hindu blood that general intelligence is warped and refused to mend even after English education and higher standards of living".

Hereditary Education Policy

In 1952, Rajaji introduced a new education policy based on family vocation which its opponents dubbed Kula Kalvi Thittam (Hereditary Education Policy). As per this policy, schools will work in the morning and students can help their fathers in their work in the afternoon. Thus, a carpenter's son would learn carpentry, a priest's son chanting hymns, and a barber's son would learn hair cutting and shaving after school. Periyar felt that this scheme was a clever device against Dalits and Other Backward Classes as their first generation was getting educated only then.

Periyar demanded its withdrawal and launched protests against the Kula Kalvi Thittam which he felt was caste-based and was aimed at maintaining caste hegemony. Rajaji quit in 1954, and his successor Kamaraj scrapped it after becoming chief minister.

Removal of caste names

Periyar realized that the domination of Brahmins was not restricted to the spheres of administration and worship. It was found that most of the hotels in Tamil Nadu indicated on the name boards that they were maintained by Brahmins and only served Brahmins. Periyar organized agitations throughout Tamil Nadu for the removal of the words "for the brahmins" and "by the Brahmins" from the name boards of hotels. He drew the attention of the common people and particularly the philanthropists to this practice in the chowltries of feeding the Brahmins and non-Brahmins separately. Today this practice is no longer in existence.

Inter-caste marriages

Periyar encouraged inter-caste marriages in order to combat the superstitions of the caste system practiced in India. He pointed out that a marriage is a contract between a young woman and a young man and it is not a function for the parents to get involved in for a reason or another. Generally, orthodox elders arranged the marriages of their children and tried to perpetuate the dowry system. One of the projects of the Self-Respect Movement started by Periyar was to make young people realize that a marriage is the concern of a young man and a young woman and that other considerations brought in by the parents were utterly irrelevant. The Self-Respect Movement also pointed out that there were facilities for registering marriages and that the practice of employing Brahmin priests to conduct the marriages betrayed the superstition of the concerned people and encouraged exploitation by Brahmins. In the course of over the past fifty years, thousands of weddings between people of different communities and without the intervention of Brahmin priests have taken place as a result of the influence that the Self-Respect Movement has exerted on society. Arignar Anna in his capacity as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu passed a law in 1967 by which marriages conducted without the intervention of priests became lawful marriages.

Service to the backward classes
After entering the Congress in 1919, E.V.Ramasamy(Periyar) realized that the Brahmins had many more government jobs than the non-Brahmins and that higher education was more or less their prerogative. He wanted the Congress to pass a resolution demanding communal representation in education and in employment. Though he tried hard for five years continuously, he could not persuade the Congress party to realize the need for such a resolution. Therefore, he left the Congress, supported the Justice party, started the Self-Respect Movement and finally got the government of Madras to pass a law on communal representation in education and employment.

Kumarasami Kamaraj was thoroughly convinced that Periyar was only demanding justice for the non-Brahmins who had been neglected and exploited by certain sections of the people for hundreds of years. Therefore, he readily accepted Periyar's suggestion that poor people should have free education. When Kamaraj became Chief Minister of Madras he allowed all children to have free education up to standard ten. Through Periyar's spirit of social service, Kamaraj introduced the free mid-day meal scheme for school children and later granted free books and free clothes to school children. When Kalaignar Karunanidhi was Chief Minister in 1969, he extended free education up to the pre-university class. As a result of Periyar's devoted service for the cause of the under privileged, scheduled caste men and women occupy high positions in government offices and also serve as doctors and engineers.

Notes

Anti-caste movements
Dravidian movement
Caste system in India
Periyar E. V. Ramasamy

Periyar and the eradication of caste


Scott Campbell (born June 6, 1986) is a Canadian professional ice hockey winger. He is currently playing with SønderjyskE Ishockey of the Danish Metal Ligaen.

Early life

Campbell was born in Navan, Ontario. He played three seasons of junior hockey for the Pembroke Lumber Kings of the Central Canada Hockey League playing 130 games scoring 74 goals and 96 assists for 170 points and a 1.31 points per game average.

Starting in the 2007–08 season Campbell began attending the University of Massachusetts Lowell and playing for the River Hawks. In four seasons of college hockey at UMass Lowell, he played 126 games, scored 39 goals and 46 assists for 85 points and was named to the 2009–10 and 2010–11 Hockey East All-Academic Teams.

Career
Following his final season with UMass Lowell Campbell signed a professional tryout contract with the Houston Aeros and played six games without scoring a point.

The 2011–12 season saw Campbell sign with the Las Vegas Wranglers of the ECHL where he played 51 regular season games, scoring 31 points. In the playoffs, he played 18 games scoring 10 points helping the Wranglers to the Western Conference championship, coming up three games short of a Kelly Cup Championship. On December 21, 2011, the Rochester Americans signed Campbell to a professional tryout contract, he played one game for the Americans before being released to return to the Wranglers. Campbell also signed a tryout contract with the Texas Stars of the AHL on February 18, 2012, where he played 12 games scoring no points, before being returned again to the Wranglers.

Campbell signed an extension with the Wranglers on August 14, 2012, to play in Las Vegas for the 2012–13 ECHL season, however he was signed to a tryout contract by the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on December 18, 2012. Campbell was successful in his tryout and signed a standard player contract with the team on February 13, 2013.

The Boston Bruins invited Campbell to their 2013–14 training camp but he was among the first round of cuts on September 18, 2013 and was reassigned to the Providence Bruins of the AHL. Campbell attended the Providence training camp however he was assigned to their ECHL affiliate the South Carolina Stingrays. After 21 games with the Stingrays he was recalled to the Providence Bruins on December 10, 2013.

On September 13, 2014, Campbell as a free agent signed his first contract abroad, agreeing to a one-year contract with Italian club, HC Valpellice of the Serie A. After one season in Italy, Campbell signed a one-year contract with SønderjyskE Ishockey of the Metal Ligaen.

Career statistics

Awards and honors

References

External links

1986 births
Living people
Bridgeport Sound Tigers players
Canadian ice hockey left wingers
Houston Aeros (1994–2013) players
Las Vegas Wranglers players
Providence Bruins players
Rochester Americans players
South Carolina Stingrays players
Texas Stars players
UMass Lowell River Hawks men's ice hockey players
Ice hockey people from Ottawa

Scott Campbell (ice hockey, born 1986)


Simon von Stampfer (26 October 1790 or 1792 – 10 November 1864) was an Austrian mathematician, surveyor and inventor. He was also a professor at what is now named the Technical University of Vienna today. He was one inventor of the stroboscopic disc. The disc was the first tool to use many pictures to show a moving image. In 1822, he married Johanna Wagner. They had two children. In 1850, both died of tuberculosis. His wife died of tuberculosis in 1856. In 1864, he died of a stroke.

1790s births
1864 deaths
Austrian mathematicians
Inventors

Simon von Stampfer


Tiglath-Pileser III (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform:  , meaning "my trust belongs to the son of Ešarra"), was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 745 BC to his death in 727. One of the most prominent and historically significant Assyrian kings, Tiglath-Pileser ended a period of Assyrian stagnation, introduced numerous political and military reforms and more than doubled the lands under Assyrian control. Because of the massive expansion and centralization of Assyrian territory and establishment of a standing army, some researchers consider Tiglath-Pileser's reign to mark the true transition of Assyria into an empire. The reforms and methods of control introduced under Tiglath-Pileser laid the groundwork for policies enacted not only by later Assyrian kings but also by later empires for millennia after his death.

The circumstances of Tiglath-Pileser's rise to the throne are not clear. Because ancient Assyrian sources give conflicting accounts concerning Tiglath-Pileser's lineage and there are records of a revolt at around the time of his accession, many historians have concluded that Tiglath-Pileser was a usurper, who seized the throne from his predecessor Ashur-nirari V, who was either his brother or his father. Other historians postulate that the evidence could just as easily be interpreted as Tiglath-Pileser inheriting the throne through legitimate means and the debate remains unresolved.

Tiglath-Pileser early on increased royal power and authority through curbing the influence of prominent officials and generals. After securing some minor victories in 744 and 743, he defeated the Urartian king Sarduri II in battle near Arpad in 743. This victory was significant since Urartu had for a brief time equalled Assyrian power; Sarduri had eleven years earlier defeated Tiglath-Pileser's predecessor Ashur-nirari. After defeating Sarduri, Tiglath-Pileser turned his attention to the Levant. Over the course of several years, Tiglath-Pileser conquered most of the Levant, defeating and then either annexing or subjugating previously influential kingdoms, notably ending the kingdom of Aram-Damascus. Tiglath-Pileser's activities in the Levant were recorded in the Hebrew Bible. After a few years of conflict, Tiglath-Pileser conquered Babylonia in 729, becoming the first king to rule as both king of Assyria and king of Babylon.

Background

Ancestry and rise to the throne

There is not enough surviving evidence to conclude how Tiglath-Pileser III came to the throne and the nature of his accession is thus unclear and disputed. Several pieces of evidence indicate that he might have been a usurper. Pointing to this are the facts that there was a revolt in Nimrud, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, in 746/745 and that numerous officials and governors were replaced after 745. Additionally, ancient Assyrian sources give conflicting information in regards to Tiglath-Pileser's lineage and Tiglath-Pileser in inscriptions attributed his rise to the throne solely to divine selection rather than the more typical practice of Assyrian kings ascribing their rise to both divine selection and his royal ancestry. The Assyrian King List, an ancient Assyrian document listing the kings of Assyria, states that Tiglath-Pileser's father was his immediate predecessor Ashur-nirari V whereas Tiglath-Pileser in his own inscriptions claimed that he was the son of Adad-nirari III, making him Ashur-nirari's brother.

Assyriologists and other historians have overwhelmingly concluded that Tiglath-Pileser was a usurper. The Assyriologist Bradley J. Parker went as far as suggesting that he was not part of the previous royal dynasty at all, but per the Assyriologist Karen Radner, his claims of royal descent were probably true, meaning that while he did usurp the throne, he was a legitimate contender for it, having been victorious in an inter-dynastic civil war. Tiglath-Pileser faced no known resistance or rebellions against his rule after taking the throne.

If accepted as a royal dynast, uncertainties still exist in whether Tiglath-Pileser was the son of Adad-nirari or Ashur-nirari. The Assyriologists Fei Chen, Albert Kirk Grayson and Shiego Yamada consider it more likely that he was Adad-nirari's son, with the Assyrian King List's identification of him as the son of Ashur-nirari possibly being a scribal error. The Assyriologist Paul Garelli considers this unlikely given that 38 years separate the reign of Adad-nirari from that of Tiglath-Pileser, writing that the possibility of him being Ashur-nirari's son cannot be fully ruled out. The historian Tracy Davenport holds that "we may never know" whether Tiglath-Pileser was Ashur-nirari's son or brother. There are ways to explain Tiglath-Pileser's inscriptions proclaiming him as the son of Adad-nirari despite the 38 years between their two reigns; it is possible that "son" in this context meant "grandson" (meaning that Tiglath-Pileser would have been the son of Ashur-nirari or another of Adad-nirari's sons) or that Tiglath-Pileser actually was Adad-nirari's son but came to the throne when he was already relatively old, possibly aged about 50.

The Eponym Chronicle (a list of eponyms; names for the years, typically taken from influential officials) of Assyria confirms there being a revolt in Nimrud the year before Tiglath-Pileser became king. According to the historian Stefan Zawadzki, writing in 1994, the eponyms also provide insight into how the transition from Ashur-nirari to Tiglath-Pileser might have happened. That Tiglath-Pileser took the throne the year after the uprising was interpreted by Zawadzki, and others, as firmly indicating that he took the throne as the result of a coup d'etat. Zawadzki believes the Eponym Chronicle further suggests that the rebellion, while not necessarily led by Tiglath-Pileser himself, was started with his knowledge and consent. The chief piece of evidence Zawadzki presents for this is that the revolt of 746 began in Nimrud and the first official appointed as eponym holder by Tiglath-Pileser (in 744) was Bel-dan, the governor of Nimrud. Garelli believes the revolt in 746 was instigated by Shamshi-ilu, a prominent official throughout the reigns of Tiglath-Pileser's predecessors, and that the uprising was crushed by Tiglath-Pileser after he legitimately inherited the throne. Zawadzki believes Shamshi-ilu may indeed have revolted, as he is no longer recorded in Tiglath-Pileser's reign, but that the uprising in Nimrud was a separate revolt from Shamshu-ilu's supposed uprising and that Tiglath-Pileser or his supporters would have fought both Shamshu-ilu and Ashur-nirari.

In her 2016 PhD thesis, the historian Tracy Davenport advanced the theory that Tiglath-Pileser might have been entirely legitimate and that he could even have co-ruled with Ashur-nirari for some time. Supporting Garelli's idea that Tiglath-Pileser was not responsible for any rebellion and the idea that he was a member of the royal dynasty, Davenport also examined the Eponym Chronicle. Notably, the eponyms for Tiglath-Pileser's early reign do not follow the traditional sequence used for Assyrian eponym holders; typically, the king was eponym holder in his second regnal year, followed by important magnates and then provincial governors. If Tiglath-Pileser became king in 745, the eponym holder of his second regnal year was Bel-dan, not the king himself, who was the eponym holder in 743, his third regnal year. This could be explained by Tiglath-Pileser not having become the sole ruler of Assyria until 744. There are some strange features of the Eponym Chronicle that suggest that Ashur-nirari ruled until 744, together with Tiglath-Pileser 745–744. There are two horizonal lines in this part of the list, one beneath 746 (possibly marking Tiglath-Pileser's rise to the throne) and one beneath 744 (possibly marking Ashur-nirari's death); it is unlikely that the second line is an error since it occurs right after a note that records the end of Ashur-nirari's reign and its length. Both the Eponym Chronicle and the Assyrian King List gives Ashur-nirari a reign length of 10 years, only possible if he ruled until 744, and not 745. If Ashur-nirari did rule until 744, it is unlikely that there was a civil war since Tiglath-Pileser is recorded to have gone on campaigns against Assyria's foreign enemies in this time, not possible if he was simultaneously involved in internal conflict.

Name

Due to Assyria for centuries mainly being known through its appearances in the Hebrew Bible, the Assyrian kings who are mentioned in the Bible are generally known today by the Biblical forms of their names. The modern name Tiglath-Pileser thus derives from the Hebrew Tīglaṯ Pīl'eser (תִּגְלַת פִּלְאֶסֶר), a corrupted form of the original Akkadian name Tukultī-apil-Ešarra (). Presumably a regnal name (adopted upon his accession to the throne), Tukultī-apil-Ešarra means "my trust belongs to the son of Ešarra". Ešarra was a temple dedicated to the god Ninurta (who was thus the "son of Ešarra"). By the time of Tiglath-Pileser's reign, Ninurta was viewed as the son of the Assyrian national deity Ashur.

In some non-contemporary sources, such as the Ptolemaic Canon, the Babylonian King List, the Bible and the works of later Babylonian and Greco-Roman historians, Tiglath-Pileser is recorded under the name Pulu (Pūlu, ), the etymology of which is uncertain. Though sometimes interpreted as a second regnal name, there are no contemporary Assyrian or Babylonian sources that refer to Tiglath-Pileser by this name and there is no evidence that it was ever used officially. No evidence exists of any Assyrian king ever using more than one regnal name in their lifetime.

Nevertheless, in 2007, the Incirli Trilingual inscription was published that finally gave contemporary confirmation that Pul (Pulu) and Tiglath-Pileser III were indeed one and the same king. Only the Phoenician part of the inscription has been published so far, because of the monument's poor state of preservation. Still, the identification of Tiglath-Pileser III as Pul is fairly certain, because this phrase is repeated more than once in the text. The Phoenician spelling of this name is Puwal.

 "Tiglath-pileser III is also referred to as Puˀ/wal [Puwal] with an intervocalic glide, spelled פאל quite clearly in at least one place (and probably the others) in contrast to biblical פול, vocalized Pûl. If it were pronounced according to the latter then one would expect פל in the Phoenician orthography."

The Phoenician inscription is narrated in the first person by king :de:Awariku (Awarikku, Warika, Urikki) of Que (Quwê, Adanawa, Adana), also known from other ancient inscriptions. His stele was erected to mark the land that was gifted to Awariku by Tiglath-Pileser III. He is also known as the King of the Danunites (Danaans), or the "Danunean king". He also describes himself as 'the King of the dynasty of Mopsos'.

Some Assyriologists, such as Eckart Frahm and Paul-Alain Beaulieu, have speculated that Pulu was Tiglath-Pileser's original name before he became king and assumed his regnal name or perhaps a nickname.

According to Gertoux, Tiglath-Pileser III was the son of Adad-nīrārī III, and used the name Pulu as a young co-regent under previous kings. When he won the kingship of Babylon (for the last two years of his life), this again became his official name in Babylon. Gertoux explains the derivation of this name as a hypocoristic use of the word aplu "the heir".

Assyria before Tiglath-Pileser

Assyria first rose as a prominent state under the Middle Assyrian Empire in the 14th century BC, previously only having been a city-state centered on the city of Assur. From the 12th century BC onwards, the Middle Assyrian Empire entered into a period of decline, becoming increasingly restricted to just the Assyrian heartland itself. Though the decline was at times halted by energetic warrior-kings, reconquests were not lasting until the time of Ashur-dan II (934–912 BC), who campaigned in the northeast and northwest. The accession of Ashur-dan's son Adad-nirari II (911–891 BC) traditionally marks the beginning of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Under the early Neo-Assyrian kings, there was a gradual reconquest of former Assyrian lands. The success of this project was an extraordinary achievement given that the kings essentially had to rebuild the Assyrian Empire from scratch. Under Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC) the Neo-Assyrian Empire rose to become the dominant political power in the ancient Near East. Ashurnasirpal's son Shalmaneser III (859–824 BC) further expanded Assyrian territory but his enlarged domain proved difficult to stabilize and his last few years initiated a renewed period of stagnation and decline, marked by both external and internal conflict.

The most important problems facing Shalmaneser late in his reign were the rise of the kingdom of Urartu in the north and the increasing political authority and influence of the "magnates", a set of influential Assyrian courtiers and officials. The rise of Urartu threatened Assyrian hegemony since submission to Urartu was viewed by many vassal states as a realistic alternative to Assyria. The Urartian administration, culture, writing system and religion closely followed those of Assyria. The Urartian kings were also autocrats highly similar to the Assyrian kings. The imperialist expansionism undertaken by the kings of both Urartu and Assyria led to frequent military clashes between the two, despite being separated by the Taurus Mountains. For a brief time, the Urartian army equalled that of Assyria; though the Assyrians scored many victories against Urartu, notably plundering Urartu's heartland late in Shalmaneser's reign, the Urartians scored victories of their own. In 754, the Urartian king Sarduri II defeated the Assyrian army under Ashur-nirari V at Arpad, an event that may have led to the Assyrian army not campaigning for several years. The Assyrian kings were unable to deal with external threats since the magnates had gradually become the dominant political actors and central authority had become very weak. The reigns of Tiglath-Pileser's three predecessors Shalmaneser IV (783–773 BC), Ashur-dan III (773–755 BC) and Ashur-nirari V was the low point of Assyrian royal power; in Shalmaneser IV's reign, the turtanu (commander-in-chief) Shamshi-ilu was bold enough to credit military victories to himself rather than the king. Ashur-nirari V appears to have been relatively idle as a ruler. He campaigned only three times, staying in Assyria throughout the majority of his reign, and he is not known to have conducted any building projects.

Reign

Reforms and policies

One of Tiglath-Pileser's important early reforms was reducing the influence of the magnates, thus increasing the authority of the king. The division of the large provinces previously governed by the magnates into smaller units, placed under royally appointed provincial governors, reduced the wealth and power of the magnates. The right to commission inscriptions concerning military and building activities was also withdrawn from officials and henceforth restricted to the king. Some historically prominent officials, such as the turtanu Shamshi-ilu, were subjected to damnatio memoriae, with their names being deliberately erased from inscriptions and documents. With these reforms, the power of the magnates to challenge the king was virtually eliminated.

Tiglath-Pileser also revitalized the Assyrian army, transforming it from a seasonally active army (only assembled in the summer months) consisting only of conscripts into a professional army. Under Tiglath-Pileser these conscripts were largely replaced with trained specialized soldiers. He also introduced new and superior weapons, technologies and logistics. Among his major innovations were new forms of siege engines. The central standing army introduced under Tiglath-Pileser was dubbed the kiṣir šarri ("king's unit"). The size of the army was also further increased throughout Tiglath-Pileser's reign through the recruitment of soldiers from the various lands the Assyrians conquered and through the recruitment of mercenaries from Babylonia, the Zagros Mountains and Anatolia. Though Tiglath-Pileser's conquests generated a massive amount of revenue, he appears to have invested little of it into the Assyrian heartland itself; the only known building work conducted by him was a new palace in Nimrud. Instead, most of the money probably went into establishing the new army and into projects in the provinces.

Tiglath-Pileser's conquests were marked by resettlements of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people. Though previous kings had also resettled people, Tiglath-Pileser's reign saw the beginning of frequent mass deportations, a policy which also continued under his successors. There were two intended goals of this policy: firstly to reduce the local identities in conquered regions and thus counteract the risk of revolt and secondly to recruit and move laborers to where the Assyrian kings needed them, such as underdeveloped and underutilized provinces. Though the Assyrian resettlements were probably devastating both for the resettled people and the regions they came from, resettled people were not harmed or killed; deportees were highly valued for their labor and abilities. Their journeys and new settlements were designed to be as safe and comfortable as possible.

Wars and conquests

Early campaigns

In addition to his reforms, Tiglath-Pileser's reign is marked by a series of large-scale military campaigns in all directions. Though Tiglath-Pileser recorded his military exploits in great detail in his "annals", written on sculpted stone slabs decorating his palace in Nimrud, these are poorly preserved, meaning that for several of his campaigns it is only possible to produce a broad outline. Tiglath-Pileser's first campaign was conducted already in 744, when he assaulted Babylonian lands on the east side of the Tigris river. This conflict was resolved swiftly, with the Assyro-Babylonian border shifted in Tiglath-Pileser's favor. In 743, Tiglath-Pileser campaigned in the region around the Zagros Mountains, where he created the two new provinces Bit‐Ḫamban and Parsua. The new Zagros provinces were founded along a highly important trade route, the predecessor of the later Silk Road.

The Assyrian successes in 744 and 743 demonstrated to the empire's neighbors that the time of Assyrian stagnation was over. Tiglath-Pileser's success inspired Iranzu, king of the Mannaeans (a people who lived in northwestern Iran) to personally meet with Tiglath-Pileser in 744 and forge an alliance. Iranzu's predecessors had usually maintained their kingdom's independence through changing allegiance between Urartu and Assyria, but Iranzu made a firm choice to side with Assyria and Tiglath-Pileser eagerly accepted the alliance since Iranzu's realm was ideally placed to protect Assyria from Urartian raids.

These developments worried Sarduri II of Urartu, who intensified his efforts to oppose and overtake Assyrian hegemony. Later in 743, Sarduri arrived at the Euphrates river border of Assyria with his army, his forces bolstered by troops sent by various kingdoms and states in Syria. In the same year, Tiglath-Pileser engaged Sarduri in battle near Arpad. Unlike the Assyrian defeat by Arpad eleven years earlier, Tiglath-Pileser won the battle, one of the greatest triumphs of his reign. Sarduri was forced to flee the battle and was pursued all the way back to the Urartian capital of Tushpa.

Conquest of the Levant
In the period from 743 to 732, Tiglath-Pileser led several campaigns in the Levant, which led to a great annexation of territory and the loss of independence of numerous ancient states in the region. After defeating Sarduri, Tiglath-Pileser resolved to conquer Arpad itself, both because of the city's strategic value and in order to punish the city for providing Sarduri access to the Assyrian frontier. After three campaigns over the course of three years and a lengthy siege, Arpad was captured in 740. During the fighting, Arpad was assisted by both Urartian troops and by troops sent by other cities and minor states in Syria. After the city was finally captured, the Assyrian army did not simply plunder it and then leave, as they had dealt with cities in Syria in previous times. Instead, the lands controlled by Arpad were converted into two provinces and annexed into the Neo-Assyrian Empire. After his victory at Arpad, Tiglath-Pileser received tribute from the Syro-Hittite kingdoms of Gurgum and Kummuh, Carchemish and Quwê, some of which had previously sent forces to aid Sarduri, as well as from the Phoenician city of Tyre and the Aramean kingdom of Aram-Damascus.

The annexation of Arpad put rulers throughout the Levant on the alert. In the period of Assyrian stagnation, many of the Levantine states had aspired to expand and become large kingdoms in their own right, something the Assyrians might have perceived as an anti-Assyrian activity. In 738, Tiglath-Pileser continued his efforts in Syria, conquering some lands to the south of Arpad and establishing the three new provinces of Kullania, Ḫatarikka, and Ṣimirra. These lands had been under the rule of the Syro-Hittite kingdom of Hama, which he accused of plotting against him. The strategy employed by Tiglath-Pileser in his successful conquest of the Levant was carefully thought out and prepared. Instead of attacking the strongholds of the larger states, he first subdued smaller kingdoms through fast and wide-ranging attacks. The early conquests brought coastal and flat lands under his rule, which meant that Assyrian troops in the later campaigns could march through the region fast and efficiently. During the campaign against Hama, Tiglath-Pileser conquered and annexed the Syro-Hittite kingdom of Pattin. Hama was spared full annexation, with the kingdom being allowed to remain somewhat independent as a vassal state. The victory inspired more states in the region to pay tribute to the Assyrians, including the Phoenician city of Byblos, the Kingdom of Israel and various states in eastern Anatolia and some Arab tribes. Israel and Damascus had sent aid to Hama during the conflict.

The Anatolian realms who began paying tribute to Assyria, five kingdoms in total, probably did so not out of fear of Assyrian conquest but rather in the hope of Assyrian aid against the expansionist kingdom of Phrygia, which threatened their existence. The Anatolians at times tried to play Assyria and Phrygia against each other, with disastrous consequences. In 730, Tiglath-Pileser attacked and removed king Wasusarma of Tabal from power after he stopped paying tribute, writing in his annals that Wasusarma "acted as if he were the equal of Assyria".

Tiglath-Pileser marched on the Levant for the fifth time in 734, reaching as far south as the border of Egypt. This campaign resulted in the conquest of Gaza and the submission of numerous states, effectively bringing the entire Levant under direct or indirect Assyrian rule; Assyria and Egypt also shared a border for the first time in history. Asqaluna, Judah, Edom, Moab and Ammon, and the Mu'na Arab tribe, all began paying tribute to Tiglath-Pileser. By extending his control throughout the Levant, Tiglath-Pileser formed a semi-circle of control around Israel and Aram-Damascus and cut them off from Egypt, which had at times offered support to the Levantine states. The Assyrian efforts resulted in Aram-Damascus becoming both geopolitically isolated and without a large enough food supply to feed its people.

In 733, Tiglath-Pileser resolved to cement his conquest. In this year, he again campaigned against Aram-Damascus, still the strongest remaining native state in the region, which was supported by the Assyrian tributaries Tyre and Asqaluna, as well as Israel. In 732, Damascus fell and Tiglath-Pileser annexed the lands of Aram-Damascus. In the same conflict, Tiglath-Pileser also captured Tyre and defeated Israel, which he divided in half, annexing the northern portion of the kingdom as the province Megiddo and subjugating the southern portion as a vassal kingdom. The weakening and enormous reduction in size of Israel was seen by the Israelites as vindicating predictions of impending doom made by the prophet Amos a few decades prior.

The massive western expansion of Assyria brought Tiglath-Pileser and his armies into direct contact with Arab tribes, several of whom began paying tribute. In 733, Tiglath-Pileser campaigned against the Qedarites to the south of Damascus, hoping to consolidate his control of southern Syria. The surprise attack caught the Qedarite queen Samsi off-guard and the Qedarites were easily defeated. Though Tiglath-Pileser was victorious, he realized that he would not be able to effectively govern the territories ruled by the Qedarites and thus allowed Samsi to remain in control of her domain, though under the supervision of an Assyrian official to guide her political actions.

Conquest of Babylonia

In his late reign, Tiglath-Pileser increasingly focused on Babylonia in the south. Babylonia had once been a large and hugely influential kingdom, competing with Assyria for centuries, but during the Neo-Assyrian period it was typically weaker than its northern neighbor. Babylonia suffered from both the lack of a well-organized army and from internal ethno-cultural divisions. Babylonians governed most of the prominent southern cities, such as Babylon, Kish, Ur, Uruk, Borsippa and Nippur, but were not the only prominent group in the region. Chaldean tribes, led by chieftains who often squabbled with each other, dominated most of the southernmost land. Arameans also lived on the fringes of settled land and were notorious for plundering surrounding territories. Through his agents, Tiglath-Pileser throughout his reign kept tabs on events in the south.

In 731, the Chaldean chieftain Nabu-mukin-zeri, of the Bit-Amukkani tribe, seized power in Babylon as king. Tiglath-Pileser saw the accession of Nabu-mukin-zeri, who aspired to heal the divides in Babylonia, as a provocation and threat to Assyrian interests and hegemony. Tiglath-Pileser thus dedicated the next several years to defeating Nabu-mukin-zeri and his supporters. First, Assyrian armies blockaded Babylonia's eastern border to ensure that Nabu-mukin-zeri would not receive any support from Elam, which was often opposed to Assyrian interests. Then, Tiglath-Pileser defeated and subdued a number of Aramean clans and Chaldean tribes, including the Bit-Shilani and the Bit-Sha'alli.

The struggle for control of Babylonia began in earnest in 730. In this year, Assyrian envoys are recorded travelling to Babylon and urging the inhabitants to open their gates and surrender to Tiglath-Pileser, stating that the king would grant them amnesty and tax privileges. The Babylonians refused the offer. Nabu-mukin-zeri was not in Babylon at this time and was instead probably directing the Babylonian war effort from his ancestral home city of Sapia. In 729, Tiglath-Pileser captured Babylon and proclaimed himself as both king of Assyria and king of Babylon, the first Assyrian king to be recognized as such by the Babylonians. Nabu-mukin-zeri lost Sapia in the same year but appears to have continued to resist Tiglath-Pileser until 728 since there are some documents ascribed to his fourth regnal year. As the new king, Tiglath-Pileser received tribute from the most powerful Chaldean tribes, the Bit-Dakkuri and Bit-Yakin. The Bit-Yakin at this time was under the leadership of Marduk-apla-iddina II, who in the years following Tiglath-Pileser's reign would emerge as a staunch adversary of Assyria.

Unlike many other Assyrian conquests, Babylonia was not divided into provinces but kept as a full kingdom, in personal union with Assyria. This was chiefly because the Assyrians greatly respected Babylonian culture and religion. Because of this respect and because Babylonia was showing signs of the beginning of an economic recovery, Tiglath-Pileser worked to conciliate the populace to the idea of Assyrian overlordship. He twice participated in the religiously important New Years' Akitu festival, which required the presence of the king, and also led campaigns against remaining Chaldean strongholds in the far south who resisted his rule.

Family and succession

Tiglath-Pileser's queen was named Iaba (Iabâ), a name clearly not of Akkadian origin. Possible roots and etymologies of the name include yph ("beautiful"), nby ("to name") and yhb ("to give"); Iaba might have been of Arab or West Semitic (Levantine or Aramean) descent. In 1998, Stephanie Dalley proposed that Iaba was of Hebrew origin and speculated that she might have been a princess from the Kingdom of Judah. She based this argument on the name Atalia, a later queen speculated to have been related to Iaba, being similar to the name Athaliah (borne by a Judean queen who ruled about a century earlier) and that the ending of the name Atalia (i-a or ia-a) could represent a theophoric element deriving from Yahweh. Dalley's arguments have met with both support and opposition. The idea that the names Iaba and Atalia were Hebrew has also been independently forwarded by Simo Parpola. In 2002, K. Lawson Younger pointed out that it was far from certain that i-a or ia-a actually corresponded to Yahweh since there are few analogues in other Neo-Assyrian names and inscriptions. The identification of Atalia as a Hebrew name was also doubted by Nicholas Postgate in 2008, and in that year Ran Zadok alternatively suggested that Atalia was an Arabic name. Iaba's tomb was discovered at Nimrud in 1989.

Tiglath-Pileser is believed to have died peacefully of old age. He was succeeded by his son Shalmaneser V. In Tiglath-Pileser's reign, Shalmaneser was known by his birth name Ululayu, "Shalmaneser" being a regnal name he assumed upon his accession to the throne in 727. Shalmaneser likely participated in some of his father's campaigns and several letters are known from him to his father, many of them reports on the status of the lands he governed. Shalmaneser was replaced as king after only a few years by Sargon II, probably through being deposed and assassinated. Though Assyrian king lists connected Sargon to previous kings through claiming that he was the son of Tiglath-Pileser, this claim does not appear in most of his inscriptions, which instead stress that he was called upon and appointed as king by Ashur. Many historians accept Sargon's claim to have been a son of Tiglath-Pileser, but do not believe him to have been the legitimate heir to the throne as the next-in-line after the end of Shalmaneser's reign (i.e. assuming Shalmaneser had children). Even then, his claim to have been Tiglath-Pileser's son is generally treated with more caution than Tiglath-Pileser's own claims of royal ancestry. Some Assyriologists, such as J. A. Brinkman, believe that Sargon, at the very least, did not belong to the direct dynastic lineage. If Tiglath-Pileser was Sargon's father, he also had a third son, Sin-ahu-usur. Sin-ahu-usur is attested as the younger brother of Sargon, in 714 granted the command of Sargon's royal cavalry guard.

Legacy

The Assyriologist Hayim Tadmor referred to Tiglath-Pileser's reign as a "watershed" in the history of the Middle East. Tiglath-Pileser left a legacy of enormous historical significance. His reign is generally seen as marking the beginning of an entirely new age of Assyrian imperialism. As the earliest Assyrian king to be mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and in the Babylonian Chronicles, Tiglath-Pileser is the first Assyrian king for whom there exist outside perspectives and accounts of his reign. All Mesopotamian history prior to Tiglath-Pileser is ignored in the Hebrew Bible. The Bible records both Tiglath-Pileser's impact on the Kingdom of Israel (2 Kings 15,29–31) and the events of his reign from the perspective of the southern Kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 15,32–16,20, 2 Chronicles 27,1–28,27, Isaiah, 7,1–25).

Tiglath-Pileser greatly expanded Assyrian territory. By the time of his death, Tiglath-Pileser had more than doubled the amount of land ruled by the Neo-Assyrian Empire. His method of introducing direct Assyrian rule to foreign lands, dividing them into Assyrian provinces rather than creating vassal kingdoms, significantly altered the economy of the Assyrian state. Whereas the Assyrians had previously relied on tribute from vassals, from Tiglath-Pileser's time they became increasingly dependent on taxes collected by provincial governors. This approach increased administrative costs but also reduced the risk of uprisings against Assyrian rule and reduced the need for military intervention.

Several Assyriologists consider Assyria to only truly have transitioned into an "empire" in a strict sense during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser, owing to its unprecedented size, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual character and the new mechanisms of economic and political control. The supremacy attained by Assyria under Tiglath-Pileser is frequently seen as turning the Neo-Assyrian Empire into the first world empire in history; i.e. an imperial state without any competitors, ruling most of the world as known to the Assyrians themselves. The Assyrian Empire served as the model for later empires in the Middle East and elsewhere, chiefly because of the imperial innovations of Tiglath-Pileser. Through the concept of translatio imperii (transfer of empire) the claim to world domination forwarded by the Neo-Assyrian kings gave rise to similar claims in later Middle Eastern empires, notably the Achaemenid Empire, which in turn facilitated the rise of aspirations for universal rule in numerous later kingdoms and empires.

The Assyrian resettlement policy which intensified under Tiglath-Pileser and continued under his successors had large-scale consequences. First and foremost, it led to significant improvements in irrigation in the provinces, owing to deportees being tasked to introduce Assyrian-developed agricultural techniques to their new communities, and to an increase in prosperity across the empire. In the long term, the movement of peoples from across the empire changed the cultural and ethnic makeup of the Middle East forever and in time led to the rise of Aramaic as the region's lingua franca, a position the language retained until the 14th century AD. Aramaic was the most widely spoken and mutually understandable of the empire's Semitic languages (the group to which many of the languages in the empire belonged). Already in Tiglath-Pileser's reign, Aramaic became an official language in the empire, indicated by reliefs from his time depicting the king using both Aramaic and Akkadian scribes to record messages.

Titles
In an inscription from Nimrud recounting some of the activities of his reign, Tiglath-Pileser claimed the following titles:

See also
 List of Assyrian kings
 Military history of the Neo-Assyrian Empire

Notes

References

Bibliography

790s BC births
727 BC deaths
Year of birth uncertain
8th-century BC Assyrian kings
8th-century BC Babylonian kings
Monarchs in the Hebrew Bible
Kings of the Universe
Usurpers

Tiglath-Pileser III


Kingmaker is a board game published in the UK by PhilMar Ltd. in 1974 that simulates the political struggles to place a king on the throne of England during the Wars of the Roses. The game was popular, and other editions, including a computerized version, were produced by Avalon Hill, TM Games, and Gibsons Games. The game won a Charles S. Roberts Award in 1976.

Description
Kingmaker is a board game for 2–7 players in which each player controls one or more royal families in 15th-century England. Through war, diplomacy, and politics, the players attempt to gain control of one or more members of the two rival royal families, the House of Lancaster and the House of York, to place one of them on the throne of England while eliminating all other "pretenders."

Components
 a map board of 15th century England and nearby lands, marked with walled cities, towns, castles, forests, and roads. Rather than using a hex grid, the map is divided into square areas.
 a deck of Event cards that contain two things, a random event on the upper half of the card and a battle result on the bottom of the card.
 a deck of Crown cards, which includes:
 Nobles, some already titled such as Neville, Beaufort, or Percy; but most are untitled.
 Titles that can be bestowed on an untitled noble, such as "Earl of Essex" or "Duke of Exeter."  Many titles, ex officio, provide the owning player with troops or town affiliations.
 Offices of government that can be assigned to a titled noble, such as Marshal of England, Warden of the Cinque Ports, or Chancellor of England.  Offices provide troops, castles, towns, and even transport ships in some cases.
 Ecclesiastical offices that can be bestowed on a noble, such as Archbishop of York or Bishop of Lincoln.  Some, in the Avalon Hill edition, have troops, and all have towns under their control.
 Mercenaries, such as Burgundian crossbowmen, Scottish archers, or Saxon foot soldiers.
 Major (walled) towns such as Coventry, or Nottingham.
 Ships, allowing transport quickly by sea and to/from ports and off-shore destinations like Ireland (shown in the Avalon Hill edition only), Calais, and the Isle of Man.
 Round cardboard pieces with heraldic emblems that show the nobles' current positions on the map.
 Each player gets a set of markers with different colors and a feudal badge to denote cities & castles under their control.
 Square counters represent ships.

Set up
Each player is dealt some Crown cards (the number of cards depending on the number of players. For example, in a 3-player game, each player receives 12 cards; in a 6-player game, 6 cards.) For each noble family card received, the players are given the appropriate counters. Each player can then bestow any titles or offices that they also received upon their noble families.

Gameplay
To begin each player's turn, the player takes an Event card and follows the instructions in the upper half of the card.

Movement
Nobles can be moved up to five areas across the country (although not through the forest), or an unlimited distance on roads. If the noble wishes to pass through a town that the player does not own, or if a noble enters an area occupied by a noble of another faction, then a battle takes place.

Combat
Each noble has a combat strength that is augmented by titles, offices, mercenaries, and certain other cards held in the player's hand. A ratio of the strength of the two forces of nobles is tallied, an event card is drawn, and the ratio printed on the card determines if victory is achieved.  If a force is defeated, all nobles in that force are captured and may be executed or ransomed by the victorious player. Most of the named places on the map have fortifications with significant additional defensive combat strength, but if a player places nobles inside these places and the town's defenses are breached, this can lead to the potential loss of all defenders.

Politics
Parliament can be summoned under specific circumstances. Unfilled offices and titles are assigned by Parliament, which can result in quite of lot of power changing hands.
 In the original Philmar version, the person calling the Parliament has a more or less free hand in distributing the titles and offices as they choose, since there is no democracy and no voting.
 In the Avalon Hill version, each noble uses their acquired voting strength in the House of Lords and the House of Commons to decide how to assign the spoils, where a majority vote is required in both Houses to assign any title or office.  Nobles who are weak in combat strength can still be strong in either Lords or Commons votes, and vice versa.  Those who control the senior members of the York and Lancaster families or the crowned King (or Queen Regent) gain significant additional voting power as well.  Those who are enemies on the battlefield may ally in Parliament to distribute valuable offices and titles to bolster their position.

Diplomacy
One strong player can be brought down by several weaker players working together, and threats, promises, and agreements can be easier ways to get the desired results than by using brute force. Players can trade many types of cards, and agree on future spoils of war or honours awarded. However, no agreement made in the game is binding; supposed allies can change sides at will.

Noble and royal deaths
When nobles die, they eventually re-enter the game when a new head of a noble family assumes their place.

This is not true of the royal heirs, who are limited to a few specific historical characters, such as Henry VI, Richard, Duke of York, and Margaret of Anjou. These can be taken under control by a player's nobles, and moved about, traded, captured, or executed by them. They are also subject to death by combat or plague.
 In the original Philmar game, the last royal heir to survive must be crowned for the owning player to win.
 In the Avalon Hill edition, it is enough to own the sole surviving royal heir to win.

Publication history
Kingmaker was created by Andrew McNeil in the early 1960s, who unsuccessfully tried to find a publisher for it through the late sixties. He finally managed to interest Philmar in the game, and Kingmaker was published in the UK in 1974. The following year, American game company Avalon Hill published a revised edition in North America. TM Games also released an edition in 1983 that was essentially a re-issue of the Avalon Hill version, as did Gibsons Games the same year.

In 1994, Avalon Hill produced a computer game of Kingmaker that reproduced the look and play of the board game almost exactly, allowing the player to compete with up to five computer-controlled factions.

2022 Edition
Games designer Alan Paull of Surprised Stare Games was engaged by Gibsons Games to develop a new edition for release in 2020 with prototype playtesting happening at events around England. Due to Covid the game has been delayed until Autumn 2022 when it will be released on Kickstarter with general sale from 2023. The prototype stage is now complete and the game has been delivered to Gibsons Games who are working on game artwork and production.

Reception
The UK magazine Games & Puzzles published a number of reviews, starting with one in Issue 40 (September 1975) by John Humphries. After a lengthy examination of the Philmar edition, Humphries found the rules ambiguous, with "a number of omissions and errors." For example, he pointed out that although the Welsh border had an effect on the game, it was not printed on the map. He commented, "Practically every move requires an interpretation of the rules." He concluded by giving the game a poor rating of only 2 out of 6. A year later, the magazine had changed their mind, calling Kingmaker "Probably the best new game to reach the market in the last few years [...] one of those rare games which are as playable with two as it is with up to six (or more.)"

In the June 1976 edition of Airfix Magazine, Bruce Quarrie had several issues with the game, starting with the rules, which he observed "could have been presented in clearer form." He also found that "The course of play seems to be predictable, one side, or alliance, being clearly in the ascendancy after an hour or two with little chance for a recovery by the opposition, unless they are fortunate enough to have luck beyond the law of averages." Quarrie's own experience was that every game ended in a stalemate, and he concluded, "To sum up, Kingmaker might be an excellent game but I cannot be certain of it!"

In his 1977 book The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming, Nicholas Palmer called Kingmaker "a lively multi-player game loosely based on the Wars of the Roses [...] Hexless and very different from the usual wargames in most respects." He warned that the game was "Emphatically not for those seeking a test of skill, " commenting that it "becomes riotous with half a dozen players as nobles get whizzed home to look after local rebellions, plagues lay waste to armies, pretenders to the throne cower in Calais, and sittings of Parliament dish out high offices to powerful factions." Palmer called the Avalon Hill edition a stronger game than the original PhilMar edition, noting that it has "better Parliament rules and other improvements, including some clarification of obscure points."

In Issue 22 of Moves (August–September 1975), Richard Berg called the game components "a stunning physical production." Berg pointed out "two facets that are rarely, if ever, found in wargames. The first is a sense of humor [...] Secondly, Kingmaker forces you [...] to think as if you were a medieval baron, grasping, mercenary, and merciless." Berg concluded, "It is hard to convey my enthusiasm for Kingmaker in print. It has to be played to be appreciated, to be savored like a rare wine [...] All this is in Kingmaker, all this and more: the rich legacy of an era, the color, panache, and, yes, the cruelty of the Middle Ages, all magnified and illuminated by the finest game of the decade ... a class of style and wit."

In the 1980 book The Complete Book of Wargames, game designer Jon Freeman commented that the Avalon Hill version "may be the finest diplomacy-oriented simulation available." He noted, "The action is furious, and while the game is not a truly accurate portrayal of the Wars of the Roses, Kingmaker — far more than most games — imparts a vivid picture of the times." However, although Freeman allowed that the Avalon Hill edition had corrected some "opaque" rules found in the original edition, the Avalon Hill map was smaller and "definitely inferior to the original." Freeman concluded by giving the game an Overall Evaluation of "Excellent", saying, "Kingmaker is one of the finest games on the market."

Games named the Avalon Hill edition one of the Top 100 Games of 1980, calling it "a colorful recreation of the English War of the Roses" but warning players "Beware of plagues, revolts, bloody battles, and alliances between other contenders."

In Issue 4 of Games International, Mike Ohren noted that many games ended in stalemate as two or three powerful factions holed up in impregnable positions, not strong enough to win, but not weak enough to defeat. Ohren suggested a number of rule changes to prevent stalemates.

Kingmaker was chosen for inclusion in the 2007 book Hobby Games: The 100 Best. Game designer Greg Stafford explained, "A game's quality is measured by two things: fun and replayability. Kingmaker ranks way high in both. It is not perfect, but its strengths more than makeup for its weaknesses. The game is fun because it's a multi-player political wargame that is largely abstract, thus lacking a lot of the fussy detail required of a true historical simulation."

Awards
At the 1976 Origins Awards, Kingmaker won the Charles S. Roberts Award for "Best Professional Game of 1975."

Other recognition
A copy of Kingmaker is held in the collection of the Strong National Museum of Play (object 112.6892).

Other reviews and commentary
 Boardgamer Vol.9 No. 1
 Fire & Movement No. 137
 1981 Games 100 in Games
The Playboy Winner's Guide to Board Games

References

External links
The Making of Avalon Hill's Kingmaker  by Andrew McNeil

Avalon Hill games
Board games introduced in 1974
Board games about history
Origins Award winners
Wars of the Roses in fiction

Kingmaker (board game)


Blue Beach is a  stretch of cliff-bordered coastline at Avonport, Nova Scotia near the mouth of the along the Avon River in the southern bight of Minas Basin, Kings County, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is best known as a globally significant fossil location for Lagerstätte of the Tournaisian Stage (Lower Carboniferous) period.

Geographic setting
Blue Beach is informally named. The name relates to the bluish-black colour of the cliffs. It stretches from a small creek to Avonport Station. The tidal range in this part of Minas Basin may be as high as .  The nearest town is Hantsport, approximately  to the south. The beach is accessible on foot from the end of the Blue Beach Road or from Avonport Station. There is a small private museum near the parking lot before the trail to the beach. It contains numerous excellent and important examples of fossils from the beach.

The tides make for dangerous conditions because visitors can find themselves trapped. Visitors should familiarize themselves with the Hantsport tide table (see external references). In addition to the tides, the cliffs are quite fragile with rocks regularly giving way. Care should be taken when approaching the cliffs due to the potential of rockfall and earth flows.

Geologic setting
The section is exposed in rocks of the Carboniferous Maritimes Basin. The Maritimes Basin opened and filled between ca. 360 Ma and 325 Ma.

The Blue Beach cliffs consist of soft shales and sandstones of the Horton Group. They erode rapidly because of the high tides in combination with winter freeze-thaw and ice shaving conditions, thus continuously creating opportunities for new discoveries. Closer to the trail and lower in the sequence is the Blue Beach Member and further along is the Hurd Creek Member.

Blue Beach is the type locality for the apparent gap in the tetrapod fossil record known as Romer's gap. Sir William Logan, the first Director of the Geological Survey of Canada, found footprints from a tetrapod in 1841. It remains one of very few such outcrops in the world; the others are in Scotland. In recent decades, numerous tetrapod fossils dating from the earliest Carboniferous have been found.

Flora
Flora include Lepidodendron, Calamites, Aneimites, Diplotnema, Carpolithus, Genselina. In addition, countless spores can be found.

Fauna
Fauna includes tetrapods, fish, arthropods (horseshoe crabs, trilobites and ostracods) and shells.  Fish material is quite common, but articulated bones are very rare.  Most common are scales, small ribs and teeth. Uncommon are larger bones including fin spines, jaws, cranial material, clavicles, limb bones and pelvic bones.

Arthropods include Paleolimulus woodae, an extinct horseshoe crab. Contrary to some erroneous reports in the popular press, it is not the world's oldest horseshoe crab (Order Xiphosurida), but is scientifically instead the oldest paleolimulid (Family Paleolimulidae). It is known from two examples found by visitors - including a Grade 4 student. The species name honors Sonja Wood who runs the Blue Beach Museum and has studied the fossils for many years along with her husband Chris Mansky. Trilobites are also rarely found. This is interesting because trilobites are marine, whereas the majority of the Blue Beach location is seen as a lacustrine deposit.  The trilobites found thus far are restricted to a  thick layer.

Fish fossils include Elonichthys, Rhadinichthys, Canobius, Letognathus, ?Ctenodus, Gyracanthides, Gyracanthus, Acanthodidae, and Bothriolepis.  Letognathus was originally assigned to Rhizodus in the mid 1800s and later to Strepsodus. This includes the species Rhizodus (now Letognathus) hardingi of Dawson, named after a Dr. Harding of Windsor, Nova Scotia. Similarly, Dawson's Acrolepis is now attributed to Elonichthys and his Palaeoniscus is attributed to Canobis.

Tetrapod fossils include acanthostegids, ichthyostegids, tulerpetontids, whatcheeriids, and embolomeres.

Trace fossils
Trace fossils are common. Examples include tetrapod footprints, fish fin trails, arthropod trackways, wave ripples, mud cracks, rain drops, and bromolites - including coprolites, fossilized dung.

The tetrapod footprints and trackways are particularly important due to their age. They are reasonably common at Blue Beach, with over 2000 specimens known. Prints of tetrapods from this era can exhibit polydactyly, or more than five digits per limb., however the specimens from Blue Beach are all pentadactyl (five digits) or are at least functionally pentadactyl. Six morphotypes have been identified so far.

Several types of arthropod trace fossils are found including trackways of Diplichnites and Diplopodichnus (possibly millipedes), Rusophycus (possibly trilobites), Paleohelcura (scorpions), and Arborichnus.

Museum
From 2000 onward, a small museum formed in a barn near Blue Beach has displayed fossils from it, as founded by Chris Mansky and Sonja Wood. The museum plans to expand to a larger facility.

References

External links
Hantsport Tide table
Blue Beach Fossil Museum

Fossil trackways
Geology of Nova Scotia
Fossil parks in Canada
Paleontology in Nova Scotia

Blue Beach


Standon Preceptory was a Knights Hospitaller foundation in the parish of Standon, in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It was founded before 1154, probably shortly after the Knights became possessors of the Standon Church in 1151, and dissolved before 1443–4.

Gilbert de Clare gave the church of Standon, 140 acres of land  and his vineyard to the Hospitallers, who used it as a residence for sisters of the order until 1180. The site was also used as a hospital and a school. The building had a dormitory above and a refectory and kitchen below. It may have housed a dozen or more Knights. At one time two Sisters of the Order named Melisene and Johanna resided within the commandery.

When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, the manor, rectory and right to recommend an Anglican vicar at Standon were given to Ralph Sadler. A fifteenth century timber-framed barn of aisle construction survives.

References

External links

Monasteries in Hertfordshire
Preceptories of the Knights Hospitaller in England
East Hertfordshire District

Standon Preceptory


Walter Stanley Mooneyham (14 January 1926 in Houston, Mississippi – 3 June 1991 California) was an American evangelical visionary.

Biography
Walter was born on January 14, 1926, in Houston, Mississippi.

he has been recorded to have a remarkable heart for seeing and meeting global needs of the world's most hurting populations. He cared for suffering people and tangibly secured relief for them in the most direct ways possible.

He authored the books, "Is There Life Before Death?", "Come Walk the World, "China: A New Day", "Sea of Heartbreak" and "Dancing on the Strait and Narrow" while traveling 70% of the time.  He also had success in gaining audiences with world leaders to initiate needed humanitarian change, saving lives. While with National Association of Evangelicals, he started as Editor of 'United Evangelical Action (1959–1964), later he was Vice President of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association', during which time he moved his family to Berlin, Germany to join the first World Congress on Evangelism. After this, they moved to Singapore for the Southeast Asia Congress on Evangelism. '(1967–1969) And then became President of the Christian humanitarian NGO World Vision (1969–1982).

In 1982, after the invasion of Lebanon by Israeli forces, Mooneyham lead a convoy to the Palestinian refugee camps near Sidon and Tyre. Being appalled by the conditions and treatment of the people, he protested the Israeli actions and issued statements to the U.S. press, which were published. These actions caused severe attacks from conservative evangelicals as well as from the Israeli Prime-minister Menachem Begin. Although under pressure, he did not retract his statements but arranged for the publication of a report about the situation in the September issue of World Vision Magazine.  He described Israeli actions as "reminiscent of Warsaw." In the same month, he resigned as president of World Vision International after severe criticism within the World Vision Board; according to Ken Waters (a World Vision employee at that time), accusations ranged from a dictatorial leadership style to an ethnocentric American communication style. New president of World Vision International became the conservative evangelical Ted Engstrom. After his resignation, Mooneyham became a pastor in Palm Desert, California.

Mooneyham died on June 3, 1991, in Los Angeles, California.

Views
Mooneyham thought of himself not as liberal or conservative but as pragmatist and his positions were similar to the positions of the U.S. Senator Mark Hatfield, an evangelical who was conservative on issues like abortion but who sided also often with liberals, such as his opposition to the Vietnam War and who was on the board of World Vision at this time. During Mooneyham's leadership, World Vision developed from a small organization near bankruptcy to an organization with a budget of several hundred million dollars. In addition to disaster relief, World Vision introduced a form of development work during Mooneyham's presidency, where evangelism is regarded as an integral part of the organization's operations; Mooneyham viewed evangelism and assistance as going hand in hand.

References

American evangelicals
1926 births
1991 deaths
American magazine editors
Editors of religious publications
20th-century American non-fiction writers

Walter Stanley Mooneyham


Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine () is the  debut album by Belgian avant-rock band Aksak Maboul. It was largely the work of one of the band's co-founders, Marc Hollander and was credited to Marc Hollander/Aksak Maboul. It was released on LP in 1977 on a Belgian independent record label, Kamikaze Records, and later re-released twice on Hollander's own Crammed Discs label: on LP in 1981, and on CD in 2003.

Content and reception
Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine comprises 17 tracks that draw on a mix of musical forms, cultures and genres. With drum machines and looping organ lines, they shuffle between improvised jazz, ethnic music, electronics and classical music. It is largely an instrumental album with snatches of singing and voices.

After the success of Aksak Maboul's second album, Un Peu de l'Âme des Bandits (1980), Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine "became a cult album in its own right." The Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock described the album as "a masterpiece. The pieces range from Satie-esque to structured Zappa-inspired rock, to very loose improv-jazz, and the execution in these diverse musical areas is extremely successful. Overall, the music has a certain lightness and humorous approach that I find all too rare in most prog and jazz."

The vinyl reissue of Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine in 2015 elicited enthusiastic media reactions such as: "Onze Danses… remains one of the most beguiling albums released during the post-punk era… It's that rare type of album that takes its influences and fuses them into new hybrid forms that move beyond pastiche and toward wholly new styles and structures. It's easy now to see just how relevant Aksak Maboul remain in the landscape of the era; it's an album that is somehow both very much of its time, and bafflingly timeless." (FACT, UK). "It's a truly extraordinary thing, prescient yet off-piste… the whole album looks into the future, to the eclecto-mania of electronic musicians… Best of all, it's fascinatingly listenable, and reproduced beautifully on vinyl." (The Arts Desk, UK). "Although it was initially released three years before the label was founded, Marc Hollander's Onze Danses  captures everything that the label has come to stand for. Fearlessly inventive, miles ahead of its time and basically impossible to categorise, the tone is set on the (literally) kraut-ish proto techno opener  "Saure Gurke", which he had no right to conceive as early as 1977. Amid the naive afro-futurist electronics is a deeply European consciousness, drawing from snatches of Balkan folk and the Parisian free jazz renaissance to create a restrained minimal tapestry. " (The Vinyl Factory, UK). "A visionary album" (Libération, FR). "Visionary...  heights of fantasy and inventivity" (Les Inrockuptibles, FR)

Track listing
All tracks are composed by Marc Hollander, except where noted.
Side A
"Mercredi Matin" – 0:22
"(Mit 1) Saure Gurke (Aus 1 Urwald Gelockt)" – 2:25
"Animaux Velpeau" – 0:34
"Milano per Caso" (Paolo Radoni) – 3:18
"Fausto Coppi Arrive!" – 1:08
"Chanter est Sain" – 3:09
"Son of l'Idiot" – 3:20
"DBB (Double Bind Baby)" – 3:25
"Cuic Steppe" – 4:20
"Tout les Trucs qu'il y a là dehors" – 1:55
Side B
"Ciobane" (trad. - arr. Marc Hollander) – 0:21
"The Mooche" (Duke Ellington) – 1:35
"Vapona, Not Glue" (Vincent Kenis/Hollander) – 6:40
"Glympz"  (Kenis/Hollander) – 4:49
"Three Epileptic Folk Dances" – 2:16
"Autre Chose D'Autre" – 0:45
"Mastoul Alakefak" – 6:14
"Comme on a dit" (Chris Joris/Hollander) – 1:15

Personnel
Marc Hollander – keyboards, percussion, drum machine, xylophone, mandolin, alto saxophone, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet
Vincent Kenis – accordion, guitar, slide guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, percussion
Chris Joris – keyboards, soprano saxophone

Guests
Paolo Radoni – guitars on "Milano per Caso"
Jeannot Gillis – violin on "Milano per Caso"
Catherine Jauniaux – voice on "Milano per Caso" and "Mastoul Alakefak"
Lucy Grauman – voice on "Chanter est Sain"
Ilona Chale – voice on "Chanter est Sain"
"Juliette" – voice on "Tout les Trucs Qu'il y a là Dehors"
Lee Schloss – soprano saxophone on "Comme on a Dit"

Production
Recorded April to May 1977 by Dan Lacksman and Vincent Kenis
Mixed by Dan Lacksman
Produced by Marc Hollander, Marc Moulin and Vincent Kenis

Re-issues
In 1981 Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine was re-issued on LP on Marc Hollander's Crammed Discs label. It contained an extra track, "Mastoul, One Year Later (live)" that was appended seamlessly to the end of "Mastoul Alakefak". The following guest musicians played on this live recording:
Frank Wuyts – keyboards
Denis Van Hecke – electric cello
Michel Berckmans – bassoon
Geoff Leigh – saxophone
In 2003 Crammed Discs released Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine on CD. The linked tracks "Mastoul Alakefak" and "Mastoul, One Year Later (live)" were listed as a single track: "Mastoul Alakefak" – 9:16.

In 2015, Crammed Discs released a new edition of the album on a vinyl LP, with its original 1977 artwork, revised liner notes, a couple of minor changes in the track list, and three bonus tracks (only available as digital downloads): Likembes in Space, Quasi Bou Jeloud and Mastoul Alakefak Improv (the latter featuring Marc Moulin).

References

External links
.
.
Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine at Rate Your Music.
Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine page at Crammed Discs.

Aksak Maboul albums
Crammed Discs albums
1977 debut albums

Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine


Stratford Circus was a contemporary performing arts venue in Stratford in the London Borough of Newham, east London. It was designed by Levitt Bernstein architects and built with funding from the National Lottery, and had been operated by the Stratford Arts Trust charity since 2011.

Stratford Circus had conference and meeting facilities, hosting six "flexible spaces", three of which are theatre spaces that have been used by organisations for training, conferences and away days. Stratford Circus leads the National Partnership of Arts Centres (NPAC) through their Director and NPAC co-chair Clare Connor.

Organisations who have been based at the venue include East London Dance, Urban Development, Theatre Venture, and the Newham Youth and Community Education Service.  The University of East London's Institute of Performing Arts Development (iPAD) and the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT) are also working in partnership with the centre.

History
Stratford Circus was situated on a site which was occupied by a chemical works until the 1970s. In 1995, London Borough of Newham and Theatre Royal Stratford East successfully bid to the National Lottery for funds to construct Stratford Circus and to refurbish the Theatre Royal. In 1998, Jon Harris was appointed to lead the building project and establish the operating company. The name "Stratford Circus" was chosen as the result of a research and branding exercise undertaken by the new company.

The building was opened in 2001 by Tony Banks. Jon Harris left the organisation in 1992 to become Producer of Shared Experience. The new Director was Peter Conway. The organisation's board went into voluntary liquidation in August 2003, following a loss of funding. The London Borough of Newham stepped in and assumed interim management responsibility. In 2005, Newham Sixth Form College (NewVIc), who had been a partner from the outset, took over the management and a ten-year lease for the venue, under the leadership of Clare Connor. In 2011, Stratford Arts Trust was formed and took over management of the venue. From 2011 to 2021 Stratford Circus hosted over 1 million audience members in person and online, 2,000 artists & practitioners, worked with 350,000 participants and supported the development of new work by over 350 emerging and established artists. The decision to wind up was taken in 2021 by the charity's trustees following the termination of its tenancy of Stratford Circus Arts Centre by the London Borough of Newham and the subsequent withdrawal of funding by Arts Council England.

The centre hosted the first ever BBC Question Time pre-election debate in 2005 featuring all three leaders of the mainstream political parties: then Prime Minister Tony Blair, then Tory Leader Michael Howard and then Liberal Democrat Leader Charles Kennedy.

Artists who have performed their work at Stratford Circus include Andy Hamilton, Billy Bragg, John Hegley, Seun Kuti and 60x60. 60x60 Dance held its European debut at Stratford Circus in 2010. The event featured more than 150 dancers with 60 choreographers creating dances to each of the 60 one-minute works in the 60x60 project.

Stratford Circus was the training facility for the Japanese athletes during the 2012 Olympics in London.

References
Blake, A. (2005) 'Collaboration or collapse? NewVIc and the Stratford Cultural Quarter', in Jeffery, G. (ed) (2005) The Creative College: building a successful learning culture in the arts, Stoke-on-Trent, Trentham Books.

External links

 Stratford Circus website

 https://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/culture-professionals-blog/2014/apr/03/art-centres-uk-culture-future

Education in the London Borough of Newham
Theatres in the London Borough of Newham
Arts centres in London
Cultural and educational buildings in London
Stratford, London

Stratford Circus


The Lao People's Navy (LPN) is the navy of Laos. In 1975 the Lao People's Navy (LPN) was established with the remnants of the Royal Lao Navy. The Lao People's Navy operates vessels on the Mekong River, a major feature of the country's geography.  Because the Mekong makes up a considerable portion of the Lao border, the Navy is significantly involved in border control work. The navy as of the mid-1990s had a personnel strength of around 500 and around fifty river patrol boats.

Almost all officers of the Lao People's Navy were trained in the Vietnam Naval Academy.

Fleet

See also
Lao People's Army
Lao People's Liberation Army Air Force

References

External links

Military of Laos
Riverine warfare

Lao People's Navy


Fredericksburg Gunners was an American soccer team based in Fredericksburg, Virginia, United States. Founded in 2006, the team played in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, until 2009, after which the franchise folded and the team left the league.

The team played its home games at the Fredericksburg Academy. The team's colors were royal blue, red and white.

The team had a sister organization, the Fredericksburg Lady Gunners, who played in the women's USL W-League, and also fielded a team in the USL's Super-20 League, a league for players 17 to 20 years of age run under the United Soccer Leagues umbrella.

History
Fredericksburg Gunners announced their entrance into the PDL in December 2006, and their pre-season squad was led by former Coventry City and Southampton defender Paul Williams. Romanian native Cristian Neagu took over from Williams prior to the regular season, and as player-manager led the Gunners to a promising debut. They won their first two games in impressive style, demolishing the Northern Virginia Royals 7–0 in only their second competitive game (with Neagu scoring a hat trick), and only a 3–1 defeat to Richmond Kickers Future stopped them from qualifying for the US Open Cup at the first attempt. As the season progressed, Fredericksburg's results kept them in the playoff hunt: a five-game unbeaten streak in mid-June which included consecutive 4-goal hauls in their wins over Virginia Legacy and Northern Virginia Royals looked to have secured them their slot in the post season. However, a dip in form during August culminated in back-to-back away defeats to Ocean City Barons and West Virginia Chaos, and the season ended with the Gunners in fifth place behind divisional champions Hampton Roads Piranhas. Anthony Andrews was the top scorer with 8 goals, while the Romanian contingent of Neagu and Adrian Bumbut were the top providers, with 10 goals and 6 assists between them.

2008 began positively for the Gunners with four straight wins: their 4–0 opening day victory over Northern Virginia Royals was followed subsequent victories over Richmond Kickers Future, the previously unbeatable Hampton Roads Piranhas, and the Rhode Island Stingrays. Their magnificent start brought them their first ever berth in the US Open Cup, where they faced USL2 outfit Richmond Kickers, the senior team of their divisional rivals; unfortunately for the Gunners, their campaign was a short one, as they lost 3–0 first time out. Back in league play, Fredericksburg's form continued strongly through the month of June, in which the team enjoyed another three victories, including another comprehensive takedown of Northern Virginia Royals. A playoff berth looked almost set in stone but, inexplicably, everything fell apart in July: the Gunners lost five of their final six regular season games – they conceded a last minute goal against Richmond Kickers Future to lose 1–0, allowed the Brooklyn Knights to come from behind twice to win 3–2, and lost 4–3 away at the Westchester Flames on the final day of the season with yet another 90th minute catastrophe. They eventually finished second in the Mid Atlantic Division behind Reading Rage, and missed out on the Eastern Conference playoffs by virtue of Newark Ironbound Express having a better record. Player-coach Cristian Neagu was again the Gunners' top scorer, with 6 goals, while Matt Lacey contributed five assists.

Cristian Neagu is affectionately known as 'The Romanian Flounder' by both Gunner's supporters and rival fans due to his habit of falling over too easily.

Players

Final roster
as at June 18, 2009

Year-by-year

Head coaches
  Paul Williams (2006)
  Cristian Neagu (2007–2009)

Stadiums
 Fredericksburg Field House; Fredericksburg, Virginia (2007–2008)
 Fredericksburg Academy; Fredericksburg, Virginia (2009)

Average attendance
Attendance stats are calculated by averaging each team's self-reported home attendances from the historical match archive at https://web.archive.org/web/20100105175057/http://www.uslsoccer.com/history/index_E.html.

 2007: 306
 2008: not yet available
 2009: 168

External links
 Fredericksburg Gunners

Association football clubs established in 2006
USL League Two teams
Soccer clubs in Virginia
2006 establishments in Virginia
2009 disestablishments in Virginia
Association football clubs disestablished in 2009
Fredericksburg, Virginia

Fredericksburg Gunners


A chain-link fence (also referred to as wire netting, wire-mesh fence, chain-wire fence, cyclone fence, hurricane fence, or diamond-mesh fence) is a type of woven fence usually made from galvanized or linear low-density polyethylene-coated steel wire.  The wires run vertically and are bent into a zigzag pattern so that each "zig" hooks with the wire immediately on one side and each "zag" with the wire immediately on the other.  This forms the characteristic diamond pattern seen in this type of fence.

Development of chain-link fencing

In the United Kingdom, the firm of Barnard, Bishop & Barnards was established in Norwich to produce chain-link fencing by machine. The process was developed by Charles Barnard in 1844 based on cloth weaving machines (up until that time, Norwich had a long history of cloth manufacture).

In the mid-1890s, the American Chain Link Fence Company in Medford, Massachusetts, was the first company in the United States to patent an "exclusive manufacturing process of continuous wire fabric" thanks to a patent by founder Guy Mafera which he first used to make spring beds. While sources vary on when Mafera first patented the method of forming chain link fence, his brother, Frank J. Mafera, patented a method of "forming wire fence fabric" in 1930 which made chain link fence safe and practical for residential use, as it "eliminate[d] each ragged selvage, particularly at the top of the fence, without sacrificing anything of the essential strength and rigidity, of the fence itself, thus to avoid danger of injury to hands or clothing." Frank J. Mafera first sold this type of fencing from his company the Barnyard Fence Company in Raymond, New Hampshire, and his brother sold and produced the fencing at the American Chain Link Fence Company in Medford. Mafera's patent was updated in 1952, but expired in 1969 and is now used in the production of most chain link fencing.

Sizes and uses

In the United States, fencing usually comes in  or  rolls, which can be joined by "unscrewing" one of the end wires and then "screwing" it back in so that it hooks both pieces. Common heights include one-foot increments from  to , and other heights including , , and  although almost any height is possible. Mesh is commonly 9, 11, or  wire gauge. Mesh length can also vary based on need, with the standard diamond size being .

For tennis courts and ballparks, the most popular height is . Tennis courts often use a diamond size of , as measured flat side to flat side, so that power hitters cannot lodge the ball in the fence.

The popularity of chain-link fence is from its relatively low cost and that the open weave does not obscure sunlight from either side of the fence. A chain-link fence can be made semi-opaque by using fence inserts in the mesh.  Allowing ivy to grow up the fence and interweave itself is also popular.

Installation
The installation of chain-link fence involves setting posts into the ground and attaching the fence to them.  The posts may be steel tubing, timber or concrete and may be driven into the ground or set in concrete.  End, corner or gate posts, commonly referred to as "terminal posts", must be set in concrete footing or otherwise anchored to prevent leaning under the tension of a stretched fence.  Posts set between the terminal posts are called "line posts" and are set at intervals not to exceed 10 feet. The installer attaches the fence at one end, stretches it, and attaches at the other, easily removing the excess by "unscrewing" a wire. In many cases, the installer stretches a bottom tension wire, sometimes referred to as "coil wire", between terminal posts to help minimize the in and out movement that occurs at the bottom of the chain-link mesh between posts.  Top horizontal rails are used on most chain-link fences, although not necessary if the terminal posts are braced correctly. A top tension wire may be used in this situation. Bottom rails may be added in lieu of bottom tension wires, and for taller fences, 10 feet or more, intermediate horizontal rails are often added. Finally, the installer ties the fence to the line posts and rails with steel or aluminum wire with a hook on one end called "fence ties". The bottom tension wire should be secured to the line posts and the chain-link mesh "hog ringed" to the tension wire 2' on center.

Manufacturing
The manufacturing of chain-link fencing is called weaving. A metal wire, often galvanized to reduce corrosion, is pulled along a rotating long and flat blade, thus creating a somewhat flattened spiral. The spiral continues to rotate past the blade and winds its way through the previous spiral that is already part of the fence. When the spiral reaches the far end of the fence, the spiral is cut near the blade. Next, the spiral is pressed flat, and the entire fence is moved up, ready for the next cycle. The end of every second spiral overlaps the end of every first spiral. The machine clamps both ends and gives them a few twists. This makes the links permanent.

An improved version of the weaving machine winds two wires around the blade at once to create a double helix. One of the spirals is woven through the last spiral that is already part of the fence. This improvement allows the process to advance twice as fast.

Notable uses

 Used to notable effect in the Gehry Residence by Frank Gehry
 In professional wrestling, several wrestling match variations require that chain-link fencing surround the ring in an open "cage" style. Most popularly, in the steel cage match variation and the larger, closed cage match type specific to WWE, Hell in a Cell.
 Backstops used in baseball and softball fields
 Before the advent of gravel trap in the later half of the 1980s, racetracks used chain-link fencing as catch fences to slow out-of-control cars before they hit barriers. In the 2000s, American dirt tracks still used them.
 London fitted many parks with chain-link fencing during the Second World War after removing the original iron and steel railings as scrap for the war effort. (Many are now being replaced.)

See also
Temporary fencing
Chicken wire
Iron
Wire gauze

Notes

External links

Chain-link Fence Manufacturers Institute

Fences
Nets (devices)

Chain-link fencing