Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern world history.

Amin was born in Koboko in what is now northwest Uganda to a Kakwa father and Lugbara mother. In 1946, he joined the King's African Rifles (KAR) of the British Colonial Army as a cook. He rose to the rank of lieutenant, taking part in British actions against Somali rebels and then the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya. Uganda gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1962, and Amin remained in the army, rising to the position of major and being appointed commander of the Uganda Army in 1965. He became aware that Ugandan President Milton Obote was planning to arrest him for misappropriating army funds, so he launched the 1971 Ugandan coup d'état and declared himself president.

During his years in power, Amin shifted from being a pro-Western ruler enjoying considerable support from Israel to being backed by Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko, the Soviet Union, and East Germany. In 1972, Amin expelled Asians, a majority of whom were Indian-Ugandans, leading India to sever diplomatic relations with his regime. In 1975, Amin became the chairman of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), a Pan-Africanist group designed to promote solidarity among African states. Uganda was a member of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights from 1977 to 1979. The United Kingdom broke diplomatic relations with Uganda in 1977, and Amin declared that he had defeated the British and added "CBE" to his title for "Conqueror of the British Empire".

As Amin's rule progressed into the late 1970s, there was increased unrest against his persecution of certain ethnic groups and political dissidents, along with Uganda's very poor international standing due to Amin's support for the terrorist hijackers in Operation Entebbe. He then attempted to annex Tanzania's Kagera Region in 1978. The Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere ordered his troops to invade Uganda in response. Tanzanian Army and rebel forces successfully captured Kampala in 1979 and ousted Amin from power. Amin went into exile, first in Libya, then Iraq, and finally in Saudi Arabia, where he lived until his death in 2003.

Amin's rule was characterised by rampant human rights abuses, including political repression, ethnic persecution, extrajudicial killings, as well as nepotism, corruption, and gross economic mismanagement. International observers and human rights groups estimate that between 100,000 and 500,000 people were killed under his regime.

Early life
Amin did not write an autobiography, and he did not authorize an official written account of his life. There are discrepancies regarding when and where he was born. Most biographical sources claim that he was born in either Koboko or Kampala around 1925. Other unconfirmed sources state Amin's year of birth from as early as 1923 to as late as 1928. Amin's son Hussein has stated that his father was born in Kampala in 1928.

According to Fred Guweddeko, a researcher at Makerere University, Amin was the son of Andreas Nyabire (1889–1976). Nyabire, a member of the Kakwa ethnic group, converted from Roman Catholicism to Islam in 1910 and changed his name to Amin Dada. He named his first-born son after himself. Abandoned by his father at a young age, Idi Amin grew up with his mother's family in a rural farming town in north-western Uganda. Guweddeko states that Amin's mother was Assa Aatte (1904–1970), an ethnic Lugbara and a traditional herbalist who treated members of Buganda royalty, among others. Some sources have also described Amin as being of mixed Kakwa-Nubian origin.

Amin joined an Islamic school in Bombo in 1941. After a few years, he left school with only a fourth-grade English-language education and did odd jobs before being recruited to the army by a British colonial army officer.

King's African Rifles
Amin joined the British King's African Rifles (KAR) in 1946 as an assistant cook, while at the same time receiving military training until 1947. In later life he falsely claimed to have served in the Burma Campaign of World War II. He was transferred to Kenya for infantry service as a private in 1947, and served in the 21st KAR infantry battalion in Gilgil, Kenya Colony until 1949. That year, his unit was deployed to northern Kenya to fight against Somali rebels. In 1952, his brigade was deployed against the Mau Mau rebels in Kenya. He was promoted to corporal the same year, then to sergeant in 1953.

In 1959, Amin was made Effendi class 2 (Warrant Officer), the highest rank possible for a black African in the colonial British military of that time. Amin returned to Uganda the same year and received a short-service commission as a lieutenant on 15 July 1961, becoming one of the first two Ugandans to become commissioned officers. He was assigned to quell the cattle rustling between Uganda's Karamojong and Kenya's Turkana nomads. According to researcher Holger Bernt Hansen, Amin's outlook, behaviour and strategies of communication were strongly influenced by his experiences in the colonial military. This included his direct and hands-on leadership style which would eventually contribute to his popularity among certain parts of Ugandan society.

Rise in the Uganda Army
In 1962, following Uganda's independence from the United Kingdom, Amin was promoted to captain and then, in 1963, to major. He was appointed Deputy Commander of the Army in 1964 and, the following year, to Commander of the Army. In 1970, he was promoted to commander of all the armed forces.

Amin was an athlete during his time in both the British and Uganda Army. At  tall and powerfully built, he was the Ugandan light heavyweight boxing champion from 1951 to 1960, as well as a swimmer. Amin was also a formidable rugby forward, although one officer said of him: "Idi Amin is a splendid type and a good (rugby) player, but virtually bone from the neck up, and needs things explained in words of one letter". In the 1950s, he played for Nile RFC.

There is a frequently repeated urban myth that he was selected as a replacement by the East Africa rugby union team for their 1955 tour match against the British Lions. Amin, however, does not appear in the team photograph or on the official team list. Following conversations with a colleague in the military, Amin became a fan of Hayes F.C.; an affection that remained for the rest of his life.

In 1965, Prime Minister Milton Obote and Amin were implicated in a deal to smuggle ivory and gold into Uganda from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The deal, as later alleged by General Nicholas Olenga, an associate of the former Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba, was part of an arrangement to help troops opposed to the Congolese government trade ivory and gold for arms supplies secretly smuggled to them by Amin. In 1966, the Ugandan Parliament demanded an investigation. Obote imposed a new constitution abolishing the ceremonial presidency held by Kabaka (King) Mutesa II of Buganda and declared himself executive president. He promoted Amin to colonel and army commander. Amin led an attack on the Kabaka's palace and forced Mutesa into exile to the United Kingdom, where he remained until his death in 1969.

Amin began recruiting members of Kakwa, Lugbara, South Sudanese, and other ethnic groups from the West Nile area bordering South Sudan. The South Sudanese had been residents in Uganda since the early 20th century, having come from South Sudan to serve the colonial army. Many African ethnic groups in northern Uganda inhabit both Uganda and South Sudan; allegations persist that Amin's army consisted mainly of South Sudanese soldiers.

Seizure of power

Eventually a rift developed between Amin and Obote, exacerbated by the support Amin had built within the Uganda Army by recruiting from the West Nile region, his involvement in operations to support the rebellion in southern Sudan and an attempt on Obote's life in 1969. In October 1970, Obote took control of the armed forces, reducing Amin from his months-old post of commander of all the armed forces to that of the commander of the Uganda Army.

Having learned that Obote was planning to arrest him for misappropriating army funds, Amin seized power in a military coup on 25 January 1971, while Obote was attending a Commonwealth summit meeting in Singapore. Troops loyal to Amin sealed off Entebbe International Airport and took Kampala. Soldiers surrounded Obote's residence and blocked major roads. A broadcast on Radio Uganda accused Obote's government of corruption and preferential treatment of the Lango region. Cheering crowds were reported in the streets of Kampala after the radio broadcast. Amin, who presented himself a soldier, not a politician, declared that the military government would remain only as a caretaker regime until new elections, which would be held when the situation was normalised. He promised to release all political prisoners.

Amin held a state funeral in April 1971 for Edward Mutesa, former king (kabaka) of Buganda and president who had died in exile.

Presidency

Establishment of military rule
On 2 February 1971, one week after the coup, Amin declared himself President of Uganda, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Uganda Army Chief of Staff, and Chief of Air Staff. He suspended certain provisions of the Ugandan constitution, and soon instituted an Advisory Defence Council composed of military officers with himself as the chairman. Amin placed military tribunals above the system of civil law, appointed soldiers to top government posts and government-owned corporations, and informed the newly inducted civilian cabinet ministers that they would be subject to military courtesy. Amin ruled by decree; over the course of his rule he issued approximately 30 decrees.

Amin renamed the presidential lodge in Kampala from Government House to "The Command Post". He disbanded the General Service Unit (GSU), an intelligence agency created by the previous government, and replaced it with the State Research Bureau (SRB). SRB headquarters at the Kampala suburb of Nakasero became the scene of torture and capital punishment over the next few years. Other agencies used to persecute dissenters included the military police and the Public Safety Unit (PSU).

Obote took refuge in Tanzania, having been offered sanctuary there by the Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere. Obote was soon joined by 20,000 Ugandan refugees fleeing Amin. The exiles attempted but failed to regain Uganda in 1972, through a poorly organised coup attempt.

Persecution of ethnic and political groups

Amin retaliated against the attempted invasion by Ugandan exiles in 1972, by purging the Uganda Army of Obote supporters, predominantly those from the Acholi and Lango ethnic groups. In July 1971, Lango and Acholi soldiers had been massacred in the Jinja and Mbarara barracks. By early 1972, some 5,000 Acholi and Lango soldiers, and at least twice as many civilians, had disappeared. The victims soon came to include members of other ethnic groups, religious leaders, journalists, artists, senior bureaucrats, judges, lawyers, students and intellectuals, criminal suspects, and foreign nationals. In this atmosphere of violence, many other people were killed for criminal motives or simply at will. Bodies were often dumped into the River Nile.

The killings, motivated by ethnic, political, and financial factors, continued throughout Amin's eight years in control. The exact number of people killed is unknown. The International Commission of Jurists estimated the death toll at no fewer than 80,000 and more likely around 300,000. An estimate compiled by exile organisations with the help of Amnesty International puts the number killed at 500,000.

In his book State of Blood: The Inside Story of Idi Amin, Henry Kyemba (who was a Ugandan minister for 3 years in Idi Amin's cabinet) states that "Amin's bizarre behaviour derives partly from his tribal background. Like many other warrior societies, the Kakwa, Amin's tribe, are known to have practised blood rituals on slain enemies. These involve cutting a piece of flesh from the body to subdue the dead man's spirit or tasting the victim's blood to render the spirit harmless. Such rituals still exist among the Kakwa. Amin's practices do not stop at tasting blood: on several occasions he has boasted to me and others that he has eaten human flesh". (Kyemba 109–10)

Among the most prominent people killed were Benedicto Kiwanuka, a former prime minister and chief justice; Janani Luwum, the Anglican archbishop; Joseph Mubiru, the former governor of the central bank of Uganda; Frank Kalimuzo, the vice-chancellor of Makerere University; Byron Kawadwa, a prominent playwright; and two of Amin's own cabinet ministers, Erinayo Wilson Oryema and Charles Oboth Ofumbi.

Amin recruited his followers from his own ethnic group, the Kakwas, along with South Sudanese. By 1977, these three groups formed 60 per cent of the 22 top generals and 75 per cent of the cabinet. Similarly, Muslims formed 80 per cent and 87.5 per cent of these groups even though they were only 5 per cent of the population. This helps explain why Amin survived eight attempted coups. The Uganda Army grew from 10,000 to 25,000 by 1978. Amin's military was largely a mercenary force. Half the soldiers were South Sudanese and 26 per cent Congolese, with only 24 per cent being Ugandan, mostly Muslim and Kakwa.

In August 1972, Amin declared what he called an "economic war", a set of policies that included the expropriation of properties owned by Asians and Europeans. Uganda's 80,000 Asians were mostly from the Indian subcontinent and born in the country, their ancestors having come to Uganda in search of prosperity when India was still a British colony. Many owned businesses, including large-scale enterprises, which formed the backbone of the Ugandan economy.

On 4 August 1972, Amin issued a decree ordering the expulsion of the 50,000 Asians who were British passport holders. This was later amended to include all 60,000 Asians who were not Ugandan citizens. Around 30,000 Ugandan Asians emigrated to the UK. Others went to Commonwealth countries such as Australia, South Africa, Canada, and Fiji, or to India, Kenya, Pakistan, Sweden, Tanzania, and the United States. Amin expropriated businesses and properties belonging to the Asians and the Europeans and handed them over to his supporters. Without the experienced owners and proprietors, businesses were mismanaged and many industries collapsed from lack of operational expertise and maintenance. This proved disastrous for the already declining Ugandan economy. At the time, Asians accounted for 90% of the country's tax revenue; with their removal, Amin's administration lost a large chunk of government revenue. The economy all but collapsed.

Idi Amin murdered an estimated 500 Yemeni Hadrami Arab merchants.

In 1975, Emmanuel Blayo Wakhweya, Idi Amin's finance minister and longest-serving cabinet member at the time, defected to London. This prominent defection helped Henry Kyemba, Amin's health minister and a former official of the first Obote regime, to defect in 1977 and resettle in the UK. Kyemba wrote and published A State of Blood, the first insider exposé of Amin's rule.

On 25 June 1976, the Defence Council declared Amin president for life.

International relations

Initially, Amin was supported by Western powers such as Israel, West Germany, and, in particular, the United Kingdom. During the late 1960s, Obote's move to the left, which included his Common Man's Charter and the nationalisation of 80 British companies, had made the West worried that he would pose a threat to Western capitalist interests in Africa and make Uganda an ally of the Soviet Union. Amin, who had served with the King's African Rifles and taken part in Britain's suppression of the Mau Mau uprising prior to Ugandan independence, was known by the British as "intensely loyal to Britain". This made him an obvious choice as Obote's successor. Although some have claimed that Amin was being groomed for power as early as 1966, the plotting by the British and other Western powers began in earnest in 1969, after Obote had begun his nationalisation programme.

Throughout the first year of his presidency, Amin received key military and financial support from the United Kingdom and Israel. In July 1971 he visited both countries and asked for advanced military equipment, but the states refused to provide hardware unless the Ugandan government paid for it. Amin decided to seek foreign support elsewhere and in February 1972 he visited Libya. Amin denounced Zionism, and in return Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi pledged Uganda an immediate $25 million loan to be followed by more lending from the Libyan–Ugandan Development Bank. Over the following months Amin successively removed Israeli military advisers from his government, expelled all other Israeli technicians, and finally broke diplomatic relations. Gaddafi also mediated a resolution to long-standing Ugandan–Sudanese tensions, with Amin agreeing to stop backing Anyanya rebels in southern Sudan and instead recruit the former guerilla fighters into his army.

Following the expulsion of Ugandan Asians in 1972, most of whom were of Indian descent, India severed diplomatic relations with Uganda. The same year, as part of his "economic war", Amin broke diplomatic ties with the United Kingdom and nationalised all British-owned businesses. The United Kingdom and Israel ceased all trade with Uganda, but this commercial gap was quickly filled by Libya, the United States, and the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union under The Rule of Leonid Brezhnev grew increasingly interested in Uganda as a strategic counterbalance to perceived Chinese influence in Tanzania and Western Influence in Kenya. It dispatched a military mission to Uganda in November 1973. While it could not supply the financial level available from the Western powers, the Soviet Union opted to provide Amin with military hardware in exchange for his support. The Soviet Union quickly became Amin's largest arms supplier, sending Uganda tanks, jets, artillery, missiles, and small arms. By 1975, it was estimated that the Soviets had provided Amin's government with $12 million in economic assistance and $48 million in arms. Amin also sent several thousand Ugandans to Eastern Bloc countries for military, intelligence, and technical training, especially Czechoslovakia. East Germany was involved in the General Service Unit and the State Research Bureau, the two agencies that were most notorious for terror. Later during the Ugandan invasion of Tanzania in 1979, East Germany attempted to remove evidence of its involvement with these agencies.

In December 1973 Amin launched a sarcastic 'Save Britain Fund' during the 1973–1975 recession to "save and assist our former colonial masters from economic catastrophe", while offering emergency food supplies and urging Ugandans to donate.

In June 1976, Amin allowed an Air France airliner from Tel Aviv to Paris hijacked by two members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations (PFLP-EO) and two members of the German Revolutionäre Zellen to land at Entebbe Airport. The hijackers were joined there by three more. Soon after, 156 non-Jewish hostages who did not hold Israeli passports were released and flown to safety, while 83 Jews and Israeli citizens, as well as 20 others who refused to abandon them (among whom were the captain and crew of the hijacked Air France jet), continued to be held hostage. In the subsequent Israeli rescue operation, codenamed Operation Thunderbolt (popularly known as Operation Entebbe), on the night of 3–4 July 1976, a group of Israeli commandos flew in from Israel and seized control of Entebbe Airport, freeing nearly all the hostages. Three hostages died during the operation and 10 were wounded; 7 hijackers, about 45 Ugandan soldiers, and 1 Israeli soldier, Yoni Netanyahu (the commander of the unit), were killed. A fourth hostage, 75-year-old Dora Bloch, an elderly Jewish Englishwoman who had been taken to Mulago Hospital in Kampala before the rescue operation, was subsequently murdered in reprisal. The incident further soured Uganda's international relations, leading the United Kingdom to close its High Commission in Uganda. In retaliation for Kenya's assistance in the raid, Amin also ordered the killing of hundreds of Kenyans living in Uganda.

Uganda under Amin embarked on a large military build-up, which raised concerns in Kenya. Early in June 1975, Kenyan officials impounded a large convoy of Soviet-made arms en route to Uganda at the port of Mombasa. Tension between Uganda and Kenya reached its climax in February 1976, when Amin announced that he would investigate the possibility that parts of southern Sudan and western and central Kenya, up to within  of Nairobi, were historically a part of colonial Uganda. The Kenyan Government responded with a stern statement that Kenya would not part with "a single inch of territory". Amin backed down after the Kenyan army deployed troops and armoured personnel carriers along the Kenya–Uganda border. Amin's relations with Rwanda were tense, and during his tenure he repeatedly jeopardized its economy by denying its commercial vehicles transit to Mombasa and made multiple threats to bomb Kigali.

Deposition and exile

In January 1977 Amin appointed General Mustafa Adrisi Vice President of Uganda. That year, a split in the Uganda Army developed between supporters of Amin and soldiers loyal to Adrisi, who held significant power in the government and wanted to purge foreigners, particularly Sudanese, from the military. The growing dissatisfaction in the Uganda Army was reflected by frequent coup attempts; Amin was even wounded during one of them, namely Operation Mafuta Mingi in June 1977. By 1978, the number of Amin's supporters and close associates had shrunk significantly, and he faced increasing dissent from the populace within Uganda as the economy and infrastructure collapsed as a result of the years of neglect and abuse. After the killings of Bishop Luwum and ministers Oryema and Oboth Ofumbi in 1977, several of Amin's ministers defected or fled into exile. In early 1978, Adrisi was severely injured in a car accident and flown to Cairo for treatment. While he was there, Amin stripped him of his positions as Minister of Defence and Minister of Home Affairs and denounced him for retiring senior prison officials without his knowledge. Amin then proceeded to purge several high-ranking officials from his government and took personal control of several ministerial portfolios. The shakeup caused political unrest and especially angered Adrisi's followers, who believed that the car accident was a failed assassination attempt.

In November 1978, troops loyal to Adrisi mutinied. Amin sent troops against the mutineers, some of whom had fled across the Tanzanian border. Fighting consequently broke out along that border, and the Uganda Army invaded Tanzanian territory under unclear circumstances. According to several experts and politicians, Amin directly ordered the invasion in an attempt to distract the Ugandan military and public from the crisis at home. Other accounts suggest, however, that Amin had lost control of parts of the Uganda Army, so Amin's sanction for the invasion was a post-facto action to save face regarding troops who had acted without his orders. In any case, Amin accused Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere of initiating the war against Uganda after the hostilities had erupted, and proclaimed the annexation of a section of Kagera when the Ugandan invasion initially proved to be successful. However, as Tanzania began to prepare a counter-offensive, Amin reportedly realised his precarious situation, and attempted to defuse the conflict without losing face. The Ugandan President publicly suggested that he and Nyerere participate in a boxing match which, in lieu of military action, would determine the outcome of the conflict. Nyerere ignored the message.

In January 1979, Nyerere mobilised the Tanzania People's Defence Force and counterattacked, joined by several groups of Ugandan exiles who had united as the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA). Amin's army retreated steadily, despite military help from Libya's Muammar Gaddafi and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). The President reportedly made several trips abroad to other countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq during the war, attempting to enlist more foreign support. He made few public appearances in the final months of his rule, but spoke frequently on radio and television. Following a major defeat in the Battle of Lukaya, parts of the Uganda Army command reportedly urged Amin to step down. He angrily refused and declared: "If you don't want to fight, I'll do it myself." He consequently fired chief of staff Yusuf Gowon. However, Amin was forced to flee the Ugandan capital by helicopter on 11 April 1979, when Kampala was captured. After a short-lived attempt to rally some remnants of the Uganda Army in eastern Uganda which reportedly included Amin proclaiming the city of Jinja his country's new capital, he fled into exile. Amin first escaped to Libya, where he stayed until 1980, and ultimately settled in Saudi Arabia, where the Saudi royal family allowed him sanctuary and paid him a generous subsidy in return for staying out of politics. Amin lived for a number of years on the top two floors of the Novotel Hotel on Palestine Road in Jeddah. Brian Barron, who covered the Uganda–Tanzania War for the BBC as chief Africa correspondent, together with cameraman Mohamed Amin (no relation) of Visnews in Nairobi, located Amin on June 4th, 1980, and secured the first interview with him since his deposition. While in exile, Amin funded remnants of his army that fought in the Ugandan Bush War. Though he continued to be a controversial figure, some of Amin's former followers as well as several rebel groups continued to fight in his name for decades, and occasionally advocated for his amnesty and even his restoration to Ugandan Presidency. During interviews he gave during his exile in Saudi Arabia, Amin held that Uganda needed him, and never expressed remorse for the brutal nature of his regime.

In January 1989, Amin left his exile without authorization by the Saudi Arabian government and flew alongside one of his sons to Zaire. There, he intended to mobilize a rebel force to reconquer Uganda which was engulfed in another civil war at the time. The rest of his family stayed in Jeddah. Despite using a false Zairean passport, Amin was easily recognized upon arriving with Air Zaïre at N'djili Airport, and promptly arrested by Zairean security forces. The Zairean government reacted unfavourably to Amin's arrival, and attempted to expel him from the country. At first, Saudi Arabia refused to allow him to return, as its government was deeply offended that he had "abused their hospitality" by leaving without permission. The Zairean government wanted neither to extradite Amin to Uganda where the ex-president faced murder charges nor keep him in Zaire, thereby straining international relations. As a result, Amin was initially expelled to Senegal from where he was supposed to be sent to Saudi Arabia, but the Senegalese government sent him back to Zaire when Saudi Arabia continued to refuse Amin a visa. Following appeals by Moroccan King Hassan II, the Saudi Arabian government finally relented and allowed Amin to return. In return, Amin had to promise to never again participate in any political or military activities, nor give interviews. He consequently spent the remainder of his life in Saudi Arabia.

In the final years of his life, Amin reportedly ate a fruitarian diet. His daily consumption of oranges earned him the nickname "Dr Jaffa" among Saudi Arabians.

Illness and death
On 19 July 2003, Amin's fourth wife, Nalongo Madina, reported that he was in a coma and near death at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from kidney failure. She pleaded with the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, to allow him to return to Uganda for the remainder of his life. Museveni replied that Amin would have to "answer for his sins the moment he was brought back". Amin's family eventually decided to disconnect life support, and Amin consequently died at the hospital in Jeddah on 16 August 2003. He was buried in Ruwais Cemetery in Jeddah in a simple grave, without any fanfare.

After Amin's death, David Owen revealed that during his term as the British Foreign Secretary (1977 to 1979), he had proposed having Amin assassinated. He has defended this, arguing: "I'm not ashamed of considering it, because his regime goes down in the scale of Pol Pot as one of the worst of all African regimes".

Family and associates

A polygamist, Idi Amin married at least six women, three of whom he divorced. He married his first and second wives, Malyamu and Kay, in 1966. In 1967, he married Nora, and then married Nalongo Madina in 1972. On 26 March 1974, he announced on Radio Uganda that he had divorced Malyamu, Nora, and Kay. Malyamu was arrested in Tororo on the Kenyan border in April 1974 and accused of attempting to smuggle a bolt of fabric into Kenya. In 1974, Kay Amin died under mysterious circumstances, with her body found dismembered. Nora fled to Zaire in 1979; her current whereabouts are unknown.

In July 1975, Amin staged a £2 million wedding to 19-year-old Sarah Kyolaba, a go-go dancer with the Revolutionary Suicide Mechanised Regiment Band, nicknamed "Suicide Sarah". The wedding was held during the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit meeting in Kampala, and the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Yasser Arafat, served as Amin's best man. Before she met Amin, Sarah was living with a boyfriend, Jesse Gitta; he vanished and it is not clear if he was beheaded, or detained after fleeing to Kenya. The couple had four children and enjoyed rally race driving Amin's Citroën SM, with Sarah as navigator. Sarah was a hairdresser in Tottenham when she died in 2015.

By 1993, Amin was living with the last nine of his children and one wife, Mama a Chumaru, the mother of the youngest four of his children. His last known child, daughter Iman, was born in 1992. According to The Monitor, Amin married again a few months before his death in 2003, and converted to Islam during his exile.

Amin fathered as many as 60 children. Until 2003, Taban Amin (born 1955), Idi Amin's eldest son, was the leader of West Nile Bank Front (WNBF), a rebel group opposed to the government of Yoweri Museveni. In 2005, he was offered amnesty by Museveni, and in 2006, he was appointed Deputy Director General of the Internal Security Organisation. Another of Amin's sons, Haji Ali Amin, ran for election as Chairman (i.e. mayor) of Njeru Town Council in 2002 but was not elected. In early 2007, the award-winning film The Last King of Scotland prompted one of his sons, Jaffar Amin (born in 1967), to speak out in his father's defence. Jaffar Amin said he was writing a book to rehabilitate his father's reputation. Jaffar is the tenth of Amin's 40 official children by seven official wives.

Among Amin's closest associates was the Briton Bob Astles. Isaac Maliyamungu was an instrumental affiliate and one of the more feared officers in Amin's army.

Character

Nicknames
Over the course of his career, Amin gained numerous nicknames, many of them derogatory:
 "Big Daddy": affectionate nickname
 kijambiya ("the machete"): attributed to Ugandan security forces often murdering their victims with machetes
 "Butcher of Uganda"
 "Butcher of Africa"
 "Butcher of Kampala"
 "Black Hitler"
 "Dada": It is disputed whether this was part of Amin's family name or a nickname. Some observers have claimed that it originated as a nickname for Amin's "cowardly" behavior, as it can be translated as "sister", though this has been strongly disputed by others. Amin's family has stated that "Dada" was simply an alternative name for the Lugbara people which is occasionally used as a personal name. Researcher Mark Leopold judged this to be more likely than the nickname theory.
"Dr. Jaffa": he earned this nickname in exile in Saudi Arabia due to his daily consumption of oranges, especially after allegedly transitioning to fruitarianism.

Erratic behaviour, self-bestowed titles and media portrayal

As the years progressed, Amin's behaviour became more erratic, unpredictable, and strident. After the United Kingdom broke off all diplomatic relations with his regime in 1977, Amin declared that he had defeated the British, and he conferred on himself the decoration of CBE (Conqueror of the British Empire). His full self-bestowed title ultimately became: "His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, CBE, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular", in addition to his officially stated claim of being the uncrowned king of Scotland. He never received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) or the Military Cross (MC). He conferred a doctorate of law on himself from Makerere University as well as the Victorious Cross (VC), a medal made to emulate the British Victoria Cross.

Amin became the subject of rumours, including a widespread belief that he was a cannibal. Amin reportedly also boasted that he kept the decapitated heads of political enemies in his freezer, although he said that human flesh was generally "too salty" for his taste.

During Amin's time in power, popular media outside of Uganda often portrayed him as an essentially comic and eccentric figure. Julius Harris emphasized Amin's allegedly clownish side in Victory at Entebbe, while Yaphet Kotto drew more praise for projecting Amin's sinister nature in Raid on Entebbe. In a 1977 assessment typical of the time, a Time magazine article described him as a "killer and clown, big-hearted buffoon and strutting martinet". The comedy-variety series Saturday Night Live aired four Amin sketches between 1976 and 1979, including one in which he was an ill-behaved houseguest in exile, and another in which he was a spokesman against venereal disease. In 1979, radio host Don Imus made multiple on-air telephone calls in an attempt to talk to Amin, and later hosted a phony interview with him that was deemed "very dirty." In a Benny Hill Show episode transmitted in January 1977, Hill portrayed Amin sitting behind a desk that featured a placard reading "ME TARZAN, U GANDA".

The foreign media were often criticised by Ugandan exiles and defectors for emphasising Amin's self-aggrandizing eccentricities and taste for excess while downplaying or excusing his murderous behaviour. Other commentators even suggested that Amin had deliberately cultivated his eccentric reputation in the foreign media as an easily parodied buffoon in order to defuse international concern over his administration of Uganda. Ugandan soldier and rebel Patrick Kimumwe argued that Amin's "clowning conceal[ed] a ruthless extinction of human rights" in Uganda. Journalists Tony Avirgan and Martha Honey wrote, "facile explanations of Amin's regime, as either a one-man show or a lawless and ruthless band of killers, do not get at the heart of the power structure."

Legacy
Gender historian Alicia Decker wrote that the "deeply embedded culture of militarism in Uganda is undoubtedly Amin's most enduring legacy." His reputation in Uganda has been viewed over the decades following his rule in more complex ways than in the international community. Some Ugandans have praised him as a "patriot" and supported his decision to expel Asians from the country. At the time of his death, he was particularly well-regarded in north-western Uganda. One of Amin's sons, Jaffar Remo, criticised the negative public perception of his father and called for a commission to investigate the veracity of the abuses committed under his rule.

In popular culture
During the 1970s, while Amin was at the height of his infamy, British comic actor John Bird starred on the album The Collected Broadcasts of Idi Amin, with lyrics based on Alan Coren's anti-Amin Punch columns. In 1975 the satirical single "Amazin' Man", from the album, was released on the Transatlantic label. The record stayed for 12 weeks in the Australian Singles Chart, peaking at number 26.

A 1974 documentary film General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait by director Barbet Schroeder was made with the support and participation of Idi Amin. Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1981) is a Kenyan film that details the history of Idi Amin's reign. This film popularized many rumors about Amin's brutality, such as his alleged mutilation of one of his wives. Amin is played by Joseph Olita, who reprised this role in Mississippi Masala (1991), a film about romance between African and Asian-Americans following Amin's 1972 expulsion of Asians from Uganda.

Amin is the subject of English journalist Giles Foden's book The Last King of Scotland (1998), which focuses on Idi Amin's Uganda through the eyes of a young Scottish physician. In 2006, it was adapted into a movie, where Amin is portrayed by Forest Whitaker. Whittaker won the best leading actor award for this role at the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, the Screen Actor's Guild Award, and the BAFTAs.

See also
Notable adherents of fruitarianism

Notes

References

Sources

 Cotton, Fran (Ed., 1984). The Book of Rugby Disasters & Bizarre Records. Compiled by Chris Rhys. London. Century Publishing. .

External links

The Idi Amin I knew, Brian Barron, BBC, 16 August 2003. Includes a video of Brian Barron interviewing Idi Amin in exile in 1980. The Atlantic – 1 April 2001 Memo and Quincy LS the series
General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait on Google Videos (Flash Video)
idiamindada.com, a website devoted to Idi Amin's legacy created by his son Jaffar Amin

1920s births
2003 deaths
Age controversies
Anti-Indian racism in Africa
Antisemitism in Africa
British colonial army soldiers
British military personnel of the Mau Mau Uprising
Date of birth unknown
Deaths from kidney failure
Disease-related deaths in Saudi Arabia
Exiled politicians
Field marshals
Fugitives wanted on crimes against humanity charges
Fugitives wanted on war crimes charges
King's African Rifles officers
Leaders who took power by coup
Light-heavyweight boxers
Military personnel of the Uganda–Tanzania War
People from Kampala
People from West Nile sub-region
People of the Cold War
People of the Congo Crisis
Presidents for life
Presidents of Uganda
Pretenders to the Scottish throne
Ugandan exiles
Ugandan expatriates in Saudi Arabia
Ugandan generals
Ugandan male boxers
Ugandan Muslims
Ugandan pan-Africanists
Ugandan rugby union players
Ugandan sportsperson-politicians
Genocide perpetrators
Politicide perpetrators
20th-century criminals

Idi Amin


Fossiomanus is an extinct genus of tritylodontid mammaliamorphs from the Early Cretaceous of China. It includes one species, F. sinensis, which is known from a single nearly complete skeleton from the Aptian Jiufotang Formation. Features of its limbs and vertebrae indicate that Fossiomanus was adapted towards a fossorial lifestyle.

Fossiomanus lived roughly 120 million years ago, making it potentially the geologically youngest known tritylodontid, which would also make it the last known non-mammalian synapsid.

Discovery and naming
Fossiomanus sinensis was named in 2021 by Fangyuan Mao, Chi Zhang, Cunyu Liu, and Jin Meng, on the basis of the holotype specimen, JZMP-2107500093, a nearly complete skeleton with a damaged skull from the Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning. The genus name is derived from Latin fossio "digging" and manus "hand" and the species name means "from China".

Description
Fossiomanus was  long, excluding the -long tail, with a generally stocky build. Its pointed snout and short tail gave it an overall fusiform body plan. It had an elongate torso, with 26 thoracic vertebrae and 5 lumbar vertebrae. The front foot was broad and robust, with large claws.

Paleobiology

Tritylodontids such as Fossiomanus were herbivores. Fossiomanus was a fossorial taxon, with its powerful forelimbs being used for digging. The long, stocky, fusiform body plan is characteristic of many burrowing mammals.

Evolution
Fossiomanus belongs to Tritylodontidae, a clade of cynodonts that were the last surviving lineage of non-mammalian synapsids. Tritylodontids were widely distributed during the Early Jurassic, but had become restricted to Asia by the Late Jurassic. Fossiomanus is probably the geologically youngest known tritylodontid; its holotype specimen was found just below a tuff layer that has been determined to be 118.9±0.8 million years old. It appears to be slightly more recent than Montirictus, another late-surviving tritylodontid, which was found in strata constrained to be between 121.2±1.1 and 130.7±0.8 million years old. Another late-surviving tritylodontid is Xenocretosuchus, found in the Ilek Formation of Siberia, the age of which is poorly constrained but estimated to be Barremian–Aptian.

Earlier tritylodontids, such as Kayentatherium, did not have the elongate body plan that characterized Fossiomanus. The evolution of an elongate body in Fossiomanus may have been the result of a change in the GDF11 or OCT4 genes, which regulate the development of the transition from the trunk to the tail. With a total of 38 presacral vertebrae, Fossiomanus may have been at the upper limit of the number of presacral vertebrae possible in mammaliamorphs; no known terrestrial mammal exceeds this number, although hyraxes equal it.

References

Tritylodontids
Prehistoric cynodont genera
Aptian life
Early Cretaceous synapsids
Cretaceous China
Fossils of China
Jiufotang fauna
Fossil taxa described in 2021
Taxa named by Jin Meng

Fossiomanus


Li Jijun (, October 9, 1933 – July 21, 2020), was a Chinese geographer and geomorphologist. He was born in Pengzhou, Sichuan. In 1991, he was elected as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was a professor of Geography Department of Lanzhou University and a Dean of the Geography Department of Lanzhou University.

Li died on July 21, 2020 in Lanzhou, Gansu at the age of 87.

References

1933 births
2020 deaths
Chinese scientists
Asian geographers
Chinese academics

Li Jijun


Water sachets or sachet water   is a common form of selling pre-filtered or sanitized water in plastic, heat sealed bags in parts of the global south, and are especially popular in Africa. Water sachets are cheaper to produce than plastic bottles, and easier to transport. In some countries, water vendors refer to sachet water as "pure water".

High demand, and poor collection of waste from consumers, has resulted in significant plastic pollution and waste from sachets throughout the West Africa. Accumulation of sachets frequently causes blocked stormwater drainage, and other issues. Some countries, such as Senegal, have banned disposable sachets.

Because sachets are frequently filled in small and often unregulated facilities, inadequate sanitary conditions can occasionally result in disease or contamination. However, in countries like Ghana consumers still prefer that access over other forms of venders, with a perception of lower risk. This form of water distribution provides vital access to water in communities that otherwise wouldn't have it. However, some scholars have identified this method of distribution as having potential human rights and social justice issues, limiting the right to water and sanitation.

Health concerns

Studies of sachets frequently find improper sanitary conditions among sachet producers. One study of sachets in Port Harcourt, Nigeria found that sachet water has significant contamination from various disease causing microbes. Prolonged storage of the sachets found human-health threatening levels of the microbes after 4 months in several of the samples. Similarly following the onset of the COVID pandemic, in Damongo found 96% of producers didn't have adequate sanitary measures.

By country

Ghana

Sachet water is common through Ghana. A 2012 review of sachet use in Ghana found sachet water ubiquitous especially in poorer communities. Sachets were typically 500 ml polyethylene bags, and heat sealed at each end. Sachet water delivery is part of a larger trend in delivery by private water vendors from municipal taps.

Packaging water in small plastic bags started in the 1990s, and that practice grew after the introduction of Chinese machines for filling and heat sealing bags. A price increase in 2022, saw significant changes in the sales in the Ashanti region.

Nigeria

Sachet water has become increasingly important part of the water access in Nigeria, especially fast growing cities like Lagos. The cost of Sachet water is dependent on economic changes.  In 2021, the Association for Table Water Producers of Nigeria increased the price of bag of sachet water to 200 naira due to increase in production cost. A significant devaluation of local currency led to significant price increases in 2022.

See also
Drinking water
Purified water
Self-supply of water and sanitation
WASH – Water supply, sanitation and hygiene
Water kiosk

References

Water
Plastics

Water sachet


Radio Orfey (Russian: Радио Орфей) ("Radio Orpheus") is a Russian radio station broadcasting classical music from studios in Moscow. Its programmes – which are broadcast on FM from transmitters in Moscow (99.2 MHz), Saint Petersburg (71.66 MHz), Yekaterinburg (69.92 MHz), Volgograd (71.33 MHz), Perm (66.8 MHz), Lipetsk (70.07 MHz), Tula (71.93 MHz), Kurgan (106 MHz), and Smolensk (104.3 MHz) –
are also streamed on the Internet.

The station, which was created in August 1960, has had various owners throughout its history:
1960-1991: All-Union Radio
1991-1995: State TV and Radio Company "Ostankino"
1995-2007: the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company
2007–present: the Russian State TV and Radio Music Centre (a self-governing state-owned enterprise)

External links
Radio Orpheus website

1960 establishments in Russia
Classical music radio stations
Mass media in Moscow
Radio stations established in 1960
Radio stations in Russia
Radio stations in the Soviet Union

Radio Orpheus


Eucalyptus capitellata, commonly known as brown stringybark, is a species of tree that is endemic to New South Wales. It is a small to medium-sized tree with rough, stringy bark from the trunk to the thinnest branches, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, spindle-shaped or oblong flower buds in groups of seven or more, white flowers and clusters of flattened hemispherical fruit.

Description
Eucalyptus capitellata is a tree that typically grows to a height of  and forms a lignotuber. The bark is rough, stringy, grey to brownish and extends from the trunk to the smaller branches. The leaves on young plants and on coppice regrowth are arranged in opposite pairs near the ends of the stems, egg-shaped to broadly lance-shaped,  long and  wide. Adult leaves are arranged alternately, the same glossy green on both sides, lance-shaped to curved,  long and  wide on a petiole  long. The flower buds are arranged in groups of seven, nine, eleven or more on an unbranched peduncle  long and the individual buds are usually sessile. Mature buds are spindle-shaped to oval,  long and  wide with a conical operculum. Flowering mainly occurs between December and February and the flowers are white. The fruit are woody, flattened hemispherical capsules,  long,  wide and clustered together with the valves at the about the same level as the rim.

Taxonomy
Eucalyptus capitellata was first formally described in 1795 by James Edward Smith in his book, A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland. Smith noted that a drawing of the fruit of this species had previously been published on page 226 of the book by First Fleet surgeon and naturalist John White, Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales but incorrectly ascribed to Eucalyptus piperita.

The specific epithet (capitellata) is a Latin word meaning "with a little head", possibly referring to the clusters of fruit.

Distribution and habitat
Brown stringybark grows in open forest or woodland, usually in poor, sandy soil in coastal areas between Karuah and Nerriga in New South Wales.

References

capitellata
Flora of New South Wales
Myrtales of Australia
Trees of Australia
Plants described in 1795
Taxa named by James Edward Smith

Eucalyptus capitellata


Helle Ploug is marine scientist known for her work on particles in seawater. She is a professor at the University of Gothenburg, and was named a fellow of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography in 2017.

Education and career
Ploug grew up in Denmark. She has an M.Sc. (1992) and a Ph.D. (1996) from Aarhus University. Following her Ph.D. she did postdoctoral work at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology and the University of Copenhagen. Starting in 2006 she was a scientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, and in 2008 she moved to Stockholm University where she had a Marie Curie fellowship. In 2006 she became an associate professor at the University of Gothenburg where she was promoted to professor in 2013.

Research
Ploug's early research used fiber optic sensors to measure light in marine sediments. She went on to examine how particles assemble in marine systems. Her work on particles includes developing methods to quantify bacterial use of particles, and the implications for consumption of particles produced by copepods. Ploug has developed methods to measure how fast particles sink through the ocean and the rate sinking particles are converted into carbon dioxide. Her recent research has focused on measurements of biogeochemical cycling at the single cell level using Nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry.

Selected publications

Awards and honors
In 2017 Ploug was named a fellow of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography.

References

External links

Living people
Women climatologists
Aarhus University alumni
Academic staff of the University of Gothenburg
Women oceanographers
Biogeochemists
Year of birth missing (living people)

Helle Ploug


West Ashley Park is the largest municipal park in Charleston, South Carolina. It is located in the West Ashley area of the city.

The city originally bought a 99.8-acre parcel, including a lake created from an old phosphate mine, in 1985. In 1997, a neighboring property owner, Ross Development Corp., offered to deed the city six adjoining parcels in exchange for the city's constructing a road from the Glenn McConnell Parkway to the park. The estimated cost of the road was $421,100, and the appraised value of the new 161 acres being offered (a 95-acre park addition and a 66-acre wetland preserve) was $429,590.

Work on the park began in 1998 after the city was permitted to remove several large trees at the site. In 1998, Anson Construction Co. was awarded a $2.3 million contract for the park's initial development.

The park opened on April 8, 2000 to the public, but progress on new features at the park continued. By 2001, the park included four baseball fields and four soccer fields. Bicycle and pedestrian trails crisscrossed the property down to Church Creek. Although the public had been given access to the park as features were added, the formal opening of the park did not occur until 2001.

On Sundays adult recreation soccer games are held at West Ashley Park during both the Spring and the Fall seasons of the CSL.

In 2007, a disc golf course was planned, the only free course within an hour of Charleston.

Notes

Parks in Charleston, South Carolina

West Ashley Park


Unibra is a Belgium based company operating in the African drinks market.

It was created by Michel Relecom in 1960 through the merger of four breweries in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and was established under Belgian law in 1961.  In 1987, it gained control of the Sobragui brewery (Société des brasseries de Guinée) in Conakry, Guinea, now its main operation especially after it sold its Congo breweries in 1996.

It was one of the founders of the Skol beer brand in 1964, and it still holds the marketing rights for Africa. It operates in six countries: Skol is the most popular beer brand in Guinea.

The Unibra group also undertakes private equity and real estate investment.

In 2012 Unibra and the Mauritius-based Phoenix Beverages entered in cooperation with Nouvelle Brasserie de Madagascar SA  Madagascar's beer market.

References

Drink companies of Belgium
Beer in Africa
Food and drink companies established in 1960

Unibra


Susan Lisa Jackson (known as Lisa Jackson; born 1952) is a best-selling American author of over 75 romance novels and romantic suspense novels.

Biography
Before she became a nationally-bestselling author, Jackson was a struggling mother who wrote novels with the hope that someone would pay her for them. Currently, her books appear on The New York Times, the USA Today, and the Publishers Weekly national bestseller lists. Jackson is the author of more than 85 novels, including Afraid to Die, Tell Me, You Don't Want to Know, Running Scared, Without Mercy, Malice, and Shiver.  She is also the co-author of the Colony Series, co-written with her sister, Nancy Bush. There are over 20 million copies of Jackson's books in print in twenty languages. She also writes under the pen name, "Susan Lynn Crose".

Selected works

New Orleans series with Detectives Rick Bentz and Reuben Montoya
Hot Blooded (May 2001)
Cold Blooded (June 2002)
Shiver (March 2007)
Absolute Fear (March 2008)
Lost Souls (February 2009)
Malice (June 2010)
Devious (February 2012)
 Never Die Alone (July 2015)

To Die series
Left to Die (July 2008)
Chosen to Die (July 2009)
Born to Die (August 2011)
Afraid to Die (June 2012)
Ready to Die (August 2013)
Deserves to Die (July 2014)
Expecting to Die (February 2017)
Willing to Die (April 2019)

Wicked series
Written with Nancy Bush
Wicked Game (February 2009)
Wicked Lies (June 2011)
Something Wicked (June 2013)
Wicked Ways (November 2014)

Savannah series
The Night Before (March 2003)
The Morning After (March 2004)
Tell Me (July 2013)
The Third Grave (July 2021)

San Francisco Series with the Cahill Family and Detective Anthony Paterno
If She Only Knew (October 2000)
Almost Dead (August 2007)
You Betrayed Me (July 2020)

Northwest Series
Deep Freeze (February 2005)
Fatal Burn (March 2006)
After She's Gone (August 2016)

Maverick series
He's a Bad Boy (1993)
He's Just a Cowboy (1993)
He's the Rich Boy (1993)
He's My Soldier Boy (1994)

Dark Jewels series
 Dark Ruby (1998)
 Dark Emerald (1999)
 Dark Sapphire (2000)
 Dark Ruby / Dark Sapphire (omnibus) (2005)

Forever Family series
A Family Kind of Girl (1999)
A Family Kind of Guy (1999)
A Family Kind of Wedding (1999)

McCaffertys series
Thorne (2000)
Matt (2001)
Slade (2002)
Best-Kept Lies (2004)
Randi (2007)

Medieval Trilogy
Impostress (2003)
Temptress (2004)
Sorceress (2007)

Novels
A Twist of Fate (1983)
Dark Side of the Moon (1984)
Gypsy Wind (1984)
Pirate's Gold (1984)
Shadow of Time (1984)
Devil's Gambit (1985)
Dangerous Precedent (1985)
Tears of Pride (1985)
Innocent by Association (1985)
Midnight Sun (1985)
Yesterday's Lies (1986)
Zachary's Law (1986)
Mystic (1986)
One Man's Love (1986)
Renegade Son (1987)
Snowbound (1987)
Summer Rain (1987)
Hurricane Force (1988)
In Honor's Shadow (1988)
Aftermath (1989)
Tender Trap (1989)
His Bride to Be (1990)
With No Regrets (1990)
Double Exposure (1990)
Mystery Man (1991)
Obsession (1991)
Million Dollar Baby (1992)
Sail Away (1992)
A Husband to Remember (1993)
Treasures (1994) (also known as See How She Dies)
Intimacies (1995)
Wishes (1995)
Whispers (1996)
The Millionaire and the Cowgirl (1996)
New Year's Daddy (1996)
Twice Kissed (1998)
Unspoken (1999)
Lone Stallion's Lady (2000)
Wild and Wicked (2002)
See How She Dies (2004)
Final Scream (2005)
Twice Kissed (2006)
Missing (2008)
Chosen to Die (2009)
Running Scared (2010)
Sweet Revenge (2010)
Without Mercy (2010)
You Don't Want To Know (2012)
Confessions (2012)
Close to Home (2014)
You Will Pay (2017)

Omnibus
1993 Silhouette Christmas Stories (1993)
Treasures / Gifts of the Heart (1994)
Silhouette Christmas Stories (1994)
The Parent Trap (1996) (with Kasey Michaels and Dallas Schulze)
Tis the Season (1997) (with Elaine Coffman, Kat Martin and Katherine Sutcliffe)
A Fortune's Children Christmas (1999) (with Barbara Boswell and Linda Turner)
Santa Baby (2002) (with Kylie Adams, Elaine Coffman and Lisa Plumley)
Randi / Beyond Control (2004) (with Bronwyn Jameson)
Deck the Halls (2004) (with Marcia Evanick, Virginia Henley, Fern Michaels and Linda Lael Miller)
Kiss Me Again: Stranger in Her Bed / Marrying Kind / Satisfy Me / Brass Ring (2005) (with Suzanne Forster, Lori Foster and Debbie Macomber)
Strangers: Mystery Man (2005)
Best-Kept Lies / Wild in the Moment (2005) (with Jennifer Greene)
Billionaire's Proposition / Taking Care of Business (2006) (with Leanne Banks)
Most Likely to Die (2007) (with Beverly Barton and Wendy Corsi Staub)
Secrets: Pirate's Gold / Dark Side Of The Moon (2007)

See also
List of romantic novelists
List of thriller writers

External links
Lisa Jackson's Official Website
Lisa Jackson's Facebook Fanpage
Lisa Jackson's Myspace page
Lisa Jackson's Twitter Page
Lisa Jackson's Webpage in Fantastic Fiction's Website

20th-century American novelists
21st-century American novelists
American romantic fiction writers
RITA Award winners
1952 births
Living people
Oregon State University alumni
American women novelists
Women romantic fiction writers
Women mystery writers
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American women writers

Lisa Jackson (author)


Kazimierz Pelczar (1894–1943) was a Polish academic and physician. Professor of the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius and pioneer of oncology research and treatment, he was murdered in the Ponary massacre.

Biography
Kazimierz Pelczar was born on 2 August 1894 in Truskawiec. His father, Z. Pelczar, was a physician himself, owner of a sanatorium and author of about 20 articles. In the years 1912–1914 he studied medicine at Jagiellonian University in Kraków. During the First World War he was conscripted by the Austro-Hungarian Army, he was taken prisoner of war by the Imperial Russian Army in 1915 and soon joined the Red Cross. After the First World War he joined Polish Army and served as a physician for the Siberian Division (1918–1920). In 1920 he returned to the newly independent Poland, finishing studies at the Jagiellonian University where in 1925 he got his PhD.

During the following years he worked in Collegium Medicum in Kraków, as well as in Germany and France. In 1929 he got his habilitation, and in 1930 he was invited to the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius, Wilno Voivodship in Poland, to head the Department of General and Experimental Pathology of Faculty of Medicine (from 1930 to 1939). He also was the head of the Department of Bacteriology (1935–1937), the dean (school year 1937-1938), and vice-dean in the following year. Under his leadership the Vilnius Department of Medicine flourished, with many important publications, and with students who would go to become notable academics and physicians themselves (like professor J. Olszewski of Toronto, member of the Moscow Academy of Sciences M. Beklemishev, and J. Sztachelski, Poland's Minister of Health). In 1936 he organized the international 4th Congress Against Cancer in Vilnius.

In May 1931 noting the lack of oncology-related health care in the Vilnius region he established the Institute of Oncology and Clinic, which constantly grew under his supervision. He was personally engaged in treatment of many patients, in addition to his duties as a lecturer and researcher. He was a member of several Polish and international oncological organizations.

With the coming signs of war, he was offered positions by many other universities - from Warsaw, Rome, Paris, London and New York City - but refused. After the German and Soviet invasions of Poland in 1939, Vilnius was occupied by the Soviet Union. Professor Pelczar helped the Polish Red Cross provided care for thousands of refugees. In 1941 after German invasion of the Soviet Union, he continued to help various refugees, among them, Jews hiding from the Nazis, and working with medical services of Polish resistance organization Armia Krajowa. At night, from 16 to 17 September 1943, he was arrested by the Lithuanian Security Police ('Sauguma') in a standard retaliatory actions against the Armia Krajowa, whose members on 15 September assassinated a Lithuanian Gestapo collaborator, member of Lithuanian security police, Marianas Padabas. Out of 100 arrested members of Polish intelligentsia, 10 were randomly selected and executed on the morning of September 17, becoming ones of the 100 000 victims who died in Ponary. Professor Pelczar was among them, along with fellow professor of the Stefan Batory university, Mieczysław Gutkowski, 2 Polish army officers, 3 officials, a lawyer and 2 engineers. A day later an order from Germany ordered his release - but it was too late.

Works
The main fields of medicine in which he worked and published many publications were oncology, arthrology, cardiology, hematology and health-resort science. In total, he published about 85 large scientific works in Polish, French and German and many popular articles in everyday press.

Selected works:
"Transplantation of malignant tumours" (Paris, 1928)
"Aleksin and cancer" (Paris, 1931)
"Importance of inheritance in human pathology" (1932)
"Respiratory System and Blood" (Wilno, 1936)
"Pathology of Respiratory System and Blood" (Wilno, 1936)
"Pathology of pancreas" (1937)
"General Pathology" (Wilno, 1938)

External links
 Wilnianin - Kazimierz Pelczar - Magazyn Wileński, 2001
 W 60. rocznicę zamordowania w Ponarach profesora USB Kazimierza Pelczara - Magazyn Wileński, 2003
 Pelczar Kazimierz (1894 - 1943) Nasz Czas 16 (555), 2002 r.
 prof. Kazimierz Pelczar (another photo)
 Professor Kazimierz Pelczar (1894 - 1943)

Further reading
 Polski slownik biograficzny. 180; Tom. XXV/1, Zeszyt 104: 550–552

References
 Kazimierz Pelczar (1894–1943), the prominent professor of Vilnius Stefan Batory University (to the 110th anniversary of his birth) (PDF), ACTA MEDICA LITUANICA. 2004. VOLUME 11 No. 2. P. 65–67

Polish oncologists
Jagiellonian University alumni
Academic staff of Vilnius University
1894 births
1943 deaths
Victims of the Ponary massacre
People from Łódź

Kazimierz Pelczar


Motcombe  is a village and civil parish in north Dorset, England. It lies about  north of Shaftesbury. It is sited on Kimmeridge clay soil beneath hills at the edge of the Blackmore Vale. The parish is one of the largest in Dorset. In the 2011 census the parish had 611 dwellings, 564 households and a population of 1,474.

In 1905 Sir Frederick Treves described Motcombe as "a hamlet of gardens at the foot of the hill" and wrote of the village houses that they "are facing all ways, as if they were shy of the road or were undecided which way to turn." The parish church of St Mary was rebuilt in 1846, although its font dates from Norman times.

On the south-west edge of the village is Motcombe Park. Within the park is Motcombe House, built in 1893 in Tudor style, and now home to Port Regis, a large private preparatory school.

Motcombe is within the Motcombe and Ham electoral ward, which also covers Ham, a neighbourhood of Gillingham to the west. The ward's population in the 2011 census was 3,216. The nearest railway station is at Gillingham, although the line itself cuts through the outskirts of the village.

References

External links

 Motcombe CE Primary School
 Motcombe Village Website
 Motcombe Community Shop
 Online Parish Clerk

Villages in Dorset
Civil parishes in Dorset

Motcombe


Anna Jean Cummings Park is a  park located in unincorporated Santa Cruz County, at 461 Old San Jose Road, Soquel, California, that opened in the summer of 2001 on the former O'Neill Ranch.
 Its nickname is "Blue Ball Park" for the art installation of "Skyballs" by Steve Gillman and Katherine Keefer, a series of four sky-blue 8-foot diameter spheres that appear to roll down the coastal prairie terrace.

The lower bench has a lawn, picnic pavilion, playground, and restrooms. The upper bench has natural turf baseball/softball diamonds and soccer fields, more restrooms, and a walking/jogging path that circumnavigates the playfields.

The rest of the park is rare coastal prairie, grassland, and riparian habitat with a meandering trail network. Rare and endangered species have been observed in the park, according to the February 1995 O'Neill Ranch Master Plan Draft Environmental Impact Report.

The park is named after Anna Jean Cummings, a former executive director of the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County.

References

Parks in Santa Cruz County, California
Soquel, California
2001 establishments in California
Protected areas established in 2001

Anna Jean Cummings Park


The Lynchburg Covered Bridge is a historic wooden covered bridge that spans the east fork of the Little Miami River in Lynchburg, Ohio.  It, also, has the distinction, following a recent repair and restoration project, of being the only such covered bridge in North America to have been converted to a pseudo-suspension infrastructure. The bridge was built in 1870 as a Long truss.

Gallery

History
On October 11, 1869, a Notice to Contractors was posted by the Highland County Auditor's Office calling for sealed bids for the construction of the Lynchburg Covered Bridge.  In 1870 the bridge was constructed for a cost of $3138.66 by local bridge builder John C. Gregg of Hillsboro, who had built a number of bridges in the area.  The bridge was completed in December 1870.  It occupies a site at which a gristmill and sawmill once operated by the power of the Little Miami.

Following the 1963 announcement of plans to demolish the bridge, a community-wide debate arose and a letter writing campaign for its preservation was begun.  Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes agreed to assist in saving the landmark, but it was ultimately decided that the state had no jurisdiction in the matter, since the bridge did not exist on a state highway.  The Highland County Board of Commissioners eventually agreed, after strong community input, to allow the bridge to remain in place.

In 1969 a new bridge was constructed over the Little Miami River, allowing access to Lynchburg from Clinton County.  The Lynchburg Covered Bridge was retired from active service and closed to traffic and Clinton County relinquished rights to the bridge.  Five years later, the bridge sustained severe storm damage when high winds blew most of the roof into the Little Miami River.  Materials were donated for repairs, and the Lynchburg Historical Foundation launched a fund raising campaign, which raised a further $6000 for repairs.  The restoration and renovation was eventually carried out by volunteers.

The Ohio Historic Bridge Society applied to have the bridge designated as an historic landmark, and the bridge was so designated on March 16, 1976, with its addition to the National Register of Historic Places.  Ohio's only covered bridge spanning a county line, it was one of eight surviving Long truss covered bridges at the time of its designation.

Social impact on the local community
The Lynchburg Covered Bridge, and the surrounding Ruth Cramton Memorial Park, has become a center for social gatherings and activities for the greater Lynchburg community.  Since the 1980s several major seasonal events have called the historic bridge home, including several annual covered bridge festivals, civil war reenactments, car shows, motor cycle gatherings, and many local social bazaars.  In the 1980s the Highland County/Clinton County rivalry culminated in both counties gathering at the bridge, which covers the boundary between the two at its center, for a tug of war contest that became quite the local community event.  Since the time of the park's establishment, it has also become a highly utilized place for organizations and families to hold private events, as well, more so than any other community venue.

References

Covered bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio
Bridges completed in 1870
Bridges in Appalachian Ohio
Wooden bridges in Ohio
Buildings and structures in Clinton County, Ohio
National Register of Historic Places in Clinton County, Ohio
Transportation in Clinton County, Ohio
Tourist attractions in Clinton County, Ohio
Buildings and structures in Highland County, Ohio
National Register of Historic Places in Highland County, Ohio
Tourist attractions in Highland County, Ohio
Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio
Long truss bridges in the United States

Lynchburg Covered Bridge


J. Harold Ellens (16 July 1932 — 13 April 2018) was a psychologist and theologian. He was the founding editor of the Journal of Psychology and Christianity and also the Executive Director of the Christian Association for Psychological Studies International from 1974 to 1989. He was one of the key figures in psychological biblical criticism and served as Chair of the Psychology and Biblical Studies Section of the Society of Biblical Literature.

Education
Ellens received multiple educational degrees:
PhD in Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins, Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Michigan, 2009
PhD, Psychology of Human Communications, Wayne State University, 1970
Master's degree in Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins, NES, University of Michigan, 2002
Master's degree in New Testament and Christian Origins, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1965
Master's degree in Divinity in Theology and Biblical Studies, Calvin Theological Seminary, 1986
Bachelor of Divinity Degree in Theology and Biblical Studies, Calvin Theological Seminary, 1956
Bachelor of Arts Degree in Philosophy and Classics, Calvin College, 1953
Military graduate of the Army Chaplain Staff College, of the Command and General Staff College, of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, of the Army Special Warfare School (Civil Affairs), of the US Army War College, and of the National Defense University

Ellens was an ordained Christian minister (ordained 24 June 1956) and maintained a private practice in psychotherapy which began in 1965. As a psychotherapist, he was licensed in the State of Michigan and was certified by the National Board for Certified Counselors.

Publications
Ellens published more than 160 professional journal articles and served as author, co-author, or editor of 181 books.

Selected works

Books

Edited by

References

1932 births
2018 deaths
20th-century American psychologists
Calvin University alumni
Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies alumni
University of Kansas alumni
Psychologists of religion
Princeton Theological Seminary alumni
Army Men
National Defense University alumni
Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy alumni
United States Army War College alumni
New Testament scholars

J. Harold Ellens


A majority, also called a simple majority or absolute majority to distinguish it from related terms, is more than half of the total. It is a subset of a set consisting of more than half of the set's elements. For example, if a group consists of 30 individuals, a majority would be 16 or more individuals, while having 15 or fewer individuals would not constitute a majority. "Majority" can be used to specify the voting requirement, as in a "majority vote", which means more than half of the votes cast.

A majority can be compared to a plurality (sometimes called relative majority), which is a subset larger than any other subset but not necessarily larger than all other subsets combined, and not necessarily greater than half of the set. For example, if there is a group with 20 members which is divided into subgroups with 9, 6, and 5 members, then the 9-member group would be the plurality. A plurality is not necessarily a majority as the largest subset considered may consist of less than half the set's elements. This can occur when there are three or more possible choices. The (absolute) majority is sometimes referred to as a "simple" majority, compared to a supermajority (a majority requirement above 50%, like a 2/3 requirement), however use of this term is inconsistent as it sometimes refers to a mere plurality (as opposed to an absolute majority).

In British English the term "majority" is also alternatively used to refer to the winning margin, i.e., the number of votes separating the first-place finisher from the second-place finisher. Other related terms containing the word "majority" have their own meanings, which may sometimes be inconsistent in usage.

Majority vote
In parliamentary procedure, the term "majority" simply means "more than half."  As it relates to a vote, a majority vote is more than half of the votes cast. Abstentions or blanks are excluded in calculating a majority vote. Also, the totals do not include votes cast by someone not entitled to vote or improper multiple votes by a single member.

Depending on the parliamentary authority used, there may be a difference in the total that is used to calculate a majority vote due to "illegal votes". Illegal votes are votes which are cast for unidentifiable or ineligible candidates or choices. In this definition, "illegal" refers to the choices made on the ballot and does not refer to the persons who cast the votes (i.e. the persons are eligible to vote).

In Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised (abbreviated RONR), illegal votes are counted as votes cast, but are not credited to any candidate. In The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure (abbreviated TSC), illegal votes are not included in the total and a majority vote is defined as being more than half of all eligible votes cast. The issue of "illegal votes" does not exist when only two options are possible (e.g. "yes" or "no"), such as when a majority vote is required to adopt a proposal (motion). In this context, a majority vote is more "yes" votes than "no" votes.

A majority vote is not the same as a vote of a "majority of the members present" or a vote of a "majority of the entire membership".

Examples
For example, assume that votes are cast for three people for an office: Alice, Bob, and Carol.

Scenario 1

In Scenario 1, Alice received a majority vote. There were 20 votes cast and Alice received more than half of them.

Scenario 2

In Scenario 2, assume all three candidates are eligible. In this case, no one received a majority vote. This example also illustrates that half the votes cast is not a majority vote.

Scenario 3

In Scenario 3, assume that Alice and Bob are eligible candidates, but Carol is not. Using Robert's Rules of Order, no one received a majority vote, which is the same as Scenario 2. In this case, the 4 votes for Carol are counted in the total, but are not credited to Carol (which precludes the possibility of an ineligible candidate being credited with receiving a majority vote). However, using The Standard Code, Alice received a majority vote since only votes for eligible candidates are counted using this book. In this case, there are 16 votes for eligible candidates and Alice received more than half of those 16 votes.

Comparison to plurality
In all three scenarios, Alice received a plurality, or the most votes among the candidates. However, only in Scenario 1 did Alice receive a majority vote using Robert's Rules of Order.

Related terms
Other related terms containing the word "majority" have their own meanings, which may sometimes be inconsistent in usage.

A majority may sometimes be called a "simple majority" to contrast with other terms using "majority". A "simple majority" may also mean a "relative majority", or a plurality. These two definitions would conflict when a "simple majority" (i.e. plurality) is not a "majority" (also see the disambiguation page for simple majority).

An "absolute majority" may mean a majority of all electors, not just those who voted. This usage would be equivalent to a "majority of the entire membership". However, the definition for "absolute majority" is not consistent, as it could also mean the same as "majority" or "simple majority". The meanings for "absolute majority" and "simple majority" would have to be determined from the context in which these terms are used.

A "supermajority", or a "qualified majority", is a specified higher threshold than one half. A common use of a supermajority is a "two-thirds vote", which is sometimes referred to as a "two-thirds majority".

In parliamentary systems, an "overall majority" is the difference of legislators between the government and its opposition. In this context, the term "majority" could be also alternatively used to refer to the winning margin, i.e. the number of votes separating the first-place finisher from the second-place finisher.

A "double majority" is a voting system which requires a majority of votes according to two separate criteria.

Temporary majority
A temporary majority exists when the positions of the members present and voting in a meeting of a deliberative assembly on a subject are not representative of the membership as a whole. Parliamentary procedure contains some provisions designed to protect against a temporary majority violating the rights of absentees. For instance, previous notice is required to rescind, repeal or annul or amend something previously adopted by a majority vote; if previous notice has not been given, a two-thirds vote is required. However, in this and many other cases, previous notice is not required if a majority of the entire membership votes in favor, because that indicates that it is clearly not a temporary majority. Another protection against a decision being made by a temporary majority is the motion to reconsider and enter on the minutes, by which two members can suspend action on a measure until it is called up at a meeting on another day.

Application in other voting requirements
"Majority" could be specified with respect to the voting body.

"Majority of the entire membership" and "majority of the fixed membership"
A "majority of the entire membership" means more than half of all the members of a body. A "majority of the fixed membership" means more than half of all the seats of a body. A majority of the entire membership is different from a majority of the fixed membership when there are vacancies.

For example, say a board has 12 seats. If the board has the maximum number of members, or 12 members, a majority of the entire membership and a majority of the fixed membership would both be 7 members. However, if there are two vacancies (so that there are only 10 members on the board), then a majority of the entire membership would be 6 members (more than half of 10), but a majority of the fixed membership would still be 7 members.

"Majority of the members present"
A "majority of the members present" means more than half of the members at the meeting. If 30 members were at a meeting, a majority of the members present would be 16. In any situation which specifies such a requirement for a vote, an abstention would have the same effect as a "no" vote.

A vote of a "majority of the members present" is not the same as a "majority vote". When unqualified, a "majority vote" is taken to mean more than half of the votes cast. If 30 members were at a meeting, but only 20 votes were cast, a majority vote would be 11 votes.

Common errors
The expression "at least 50% +1" is sometimes used when "majority" is actually intended but this is incorrect when the total number referred to is odd. For example, say a board has 7 members. "Majority" means "at least 4" in this case (more than half of 7). But 50% + 1 is 4.5, and since a number of people can only be integer, "at least 50% + 1" would mean "at least 5". An example of the expression's use to refer to a majority is the 50+1 rule.

See also
 Majoritarianism
 Majority function
 Majority rule
 Silent majority
 Voting system

References

Elections
Voting theory

yi:מערהייט

Majority


Bravo was a British and Irish television channel owned by Living TV Group, a subsidiary of BSkyB. Its target audience was males in their 20s to early 40s. It broadcast a variety of both archive programming (such as Knight Rider and MacGyver) and original productions.

The Bravo channel closed down on 1 January 2011, with the most popular programmes moved to other Sky channels.

History

Early history
Bravo was launched on 20 December 1985 as a cable only channel, created by United Artists Programming broadcasting black & white B-movies from the 1950s and 1960s and vintage TV series. Initially, the channel was a cassette-delivered service provided to cable headends for automatic play-out.

In 1991, United Artists merged with their largest shareholder TCI ( Liberty Media), to form the largest cable operator in the United States. TCI and US West announced a joint venture and, in 1992, the joint venture company became Telewest Communications. In 1993, talks were held with Tele-Communications Inc. which resulted in Flextech acquiring TCI's European programming business in exchange for shares. By January, the deal was complete with TCI, allowing it to acquire 60.4% of Flextech while Flextech acquired 100% of Bravo, 25% of UK Gold, 31% of UK Living, and 25% of the Children's Channel which increased its share in that channel.

On 22 July 1993, Bravo launched on the Astra 1C satellite in anticipation of the launch of Sky Multichannels in September 1993. With the launch on Astra, the channel started broadcasting between noon and midnight (as opposed to 3pm to 3am).

Its programming output was altered around the same time, when the channel obtained many of the ITC Entertainment productions and other cult TV series including The Avengers. In 1990, it upgraded its on-screen image with an elaborate station identifier of a modernist skyscraper under rolling thunderclouds and promoted itself as 'Timewarp Television'. It used both Roger Moore and Tony Curtis to feature in speciality shot trails. Armstrong and Miller made their first broadcast television appearance on Bravo in a series of presentation promotions during its Cult Weekend on 5 August 1995.

Reinvention as young-adult channel (1996-2000's)
In 1996, a policy change to withdraw the black & white shows contributed to the channel moving on to specialise in science fiction and horror with movies from the Troma Entertainment catalogue. It then became known for showing crime documentaries by day and adult programming at night.

On February 3, 1997, Flextech launched Trouble, which took over the channel's afternoon and early evening broadcast hours, meaning Bravo would broadcast between 8pm to 6am. During mornings, European Business News time shared with the channel on weekdays and Living on weekends until 2001. With the change in hours, Bravo was given a refreshed look, being branded as "an altered species of television", applying to the increased amount of adult-focused programs. The channel began to air Extreme Championship Wrestling's show ECW Hardcore TV around this time; as well as ECW's biggest events, including what were pay-per-views in the US, up to January 2001.

Addition of sports and acquired programming
Over the later years, Bravo decreased the adult content shown and increased sports and imported shows such as Alias. Bravo aired World Championship Wrestling's flagship show Nitro during WCW's final year in business (2000–2001).

On 28 August 2005, the channel started showing Serie A Italian football, bringing back the Channel 4 format Football Italia.

On March 2, 2006, a sister channel called Player was launched, which originally aired as a late-night block on fellow-Flextech channel Challenge. Player aired programming aimed at a similar audience to Bravo, alongside the addition of gambling-related shows.

On September 28, 2006, Bravo introduced a brand new graphics package to memorate its 21st birthday, which coincided with the full rebranding of Player as Bravo 2.

Poor viewing figures resulted first in the cancellation of the weekly Gazetta Football Italia show, then the announcement that Bravo would stop showing Italian Football altogether after 23 December 2006. The channel's other highest-profile sports coverage was Ultimate Fighting Championship archives, for which it held exclusive UK rights, as well as recent events (live rights are now held by BT Sport), as well as the related reality TV show The Ultimate Fighter.

From January 2007, Bravo's sister channel Bravo 2, which had launched three months earlier, had the exclusive UK rights to broadcast Total Nonstop Action Wrestling programming, a two-day delay from the American broadcast of TNA's weekly show TNA iMPACT! and a three-day delay for TNA's monthly Pay Per Views. (On 3 February 2011, this programming moved to Challenge, and is now known as Impact Wrestling.) On 5 January 2008, TNA iMPACT was moved to Bravo with replays of the show on Bravo 2. Bravo's original contract for TNA Wrestling programming was for eighteen months and was distributed by RDA TV; the deal, which was once again negotiated by RDA TV, was extended on 1 July 2008 for an additional eighteen months.

From 3 June 2008 onward, Bravo, along with the other VMT owned channels began broadcasting in widescreen (16:9). This was coupled with a redesign of the on-screen graphic; the word BRAVO was shown rather than the logo.

"Home of the Brave" and closure (2010/2011)

On 25 May 2010, Virgin Media Television unveiled new channel branding for Bravo to coincide with a major new series Spartacus: Blood and Sand. It involved a new logo to "match the premium content and ambition of the channel" along with a new strapline, "Bravo: Home of the Brave".

On 15 September 2010, BSkyB announced that it would close Bravo as well as its sister channel Bravo 2.

For November 2010, Bravo rebranded as Brav-Mo to celebrate Movember.

From 24 to 31 December 2010, Bravo celebrated its final week with a marathon of its most popular shows called "Bravo, We Salute You".

On the morning of 1 January 2011, Bravo ceased broadcasting on all platforms. The last program aired was series 3 of World's Most Amazing Videos. Since the closure, the Bravo programmes (as well as the Channel One programmes) were moved to Pick TV in May 2012.

Possible relaunch
In August 2013, it was revealed that BSkyB had registered the trademark for 'Sky Bravo'.

Programming

References

External links
 Bravo on TV Ark

Living TV Group channels
Defunct television channels in the United Kingdom
Television channels and stations established in 1985
Television channels and stations disestablished in 2011
Men's interest channels
1985 establishments in the United Kingdom
2011 disestablishments in the United Kingdom

Bravo (British TV channel)


Lev Solomonovich Skvirsky (; 15 September 1903 – 5 April 1990) was a Soviet military leader and lieutenant-general. In World War II, Skvirsky was appointed chief of staff for the 14th Army in Karelia in 1940 and for the entire Karelian Front in 1941-1943. He also commanded the 26th Army in 1943-1945.

Biography
Lev Skvirsky was born to a Jewish family in the village of Stepantsi near Cherkasy region in 1903. As a Red Army soldier in the Russian Civil War, he took part in the fighting against Anton Denikin's White Volunteer Army.

Trained in infantry command at courses in Chernigov and Kiev during the 1920s, Skvirsky served as a platoon and company leader in Red Army infantry units. He joined the Soviet Union's All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in 1924.

Skvirsky received staff officer and military academy positions in the 1930s, and graduated from Frunze Military Academy, where he also taught. Assigned to the Leningrad Military District-based 14th Army as a staff officer in September 1939, he took part in the Soviet Finnish War of 1939-1940 and was made chief of staff for the 14th Army in October 1940.

The 14th Army fought against both the German and Finnish armies following Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Skvirsky was promoted to chief of staff for the recently formed Karelian Front in September 1941. Named commander of the 26th Army in May 1943, he directed the Soviet advance against the Finns in the fighting around Vyborg (Viipuri) and Petrozavodsk (Petroskoi).

Skvirsky worked as a chief of staff for the Belomorsky and Ural military districts and taught at military academies in the post-war period before retiring from the Soviet Armed Forces in 1960.

Skvirsky died in 1990 at eighty-six, and was buried at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery on Moscow's outskirts.

Honours and awards
 Order of Lenin
 Order of the Red Banner, four times
 Order of Kutuzov, 2nd class
 Order of the Red Star, twice

External links
 СКВИРСКИЙ, Лев Соломонович (1903-1990), Генерал-лейтенант.

1903 births
1990 deaths
People from Cherkasy Oblast
Bolsheviks
Burials in Troyekurovskoye Cemetery
Communist Party of the Soviet Union members
People of the Russian Civil War
Recipients of the Order of Kutuzov, 2nd class
Recipients of the Order of Lenin
Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner
Soviet lieutenant generals
Soviet Jews
Soviet Jews in the military
Soviet military personnel of World War II
Ukrainian Jews
Ukrainian people of World War II
Frunze Military Academy alumni

Lev Skvirsky


John Blenkinsop (1783 – 22 January 1831) was an English mining engineer and an inventor of steam locomotives, who designed the first practical railway locomotive.

He was born in Felling, County Durham, the son of a stonemason and was apprenticed to his cousin, Thomas Barnes, a Northumberland coal viewer. From 1808 he became agent to Charles John Brandling, who owned collieries on his Middleton estate near Leeds and whose family came from Felling. From then until his death, Blenkinsop lived at Middleton Hall on Town Street, Middleton, built in the 17th century as the Brandling family's Middleton home (they used the far more modern Middleton Lodge when visiting from their Tyneside homes).

Blenkinsop and the Middleton Railway
In 1758 the Brandlings had built a wooden wagonway to carry coal into Leeds, using horse-drawn vehicles, now known as the Middleton Railway. Not all the land traversed by the wagonway belonged to Brandling, and it was the first railway to be authorised by Act of Parliament, since this would give him power to obtain wayleave.

In the early nineteenth century, attempts were being made to employ steam power for haulage. Richard Trevithick had experimented with various models of steam locomotive, and in 1805 his work had culminated in an engine for the Wylam Colliery. The cast-iron plated wood rails were unable to take the engine's heavy weight, however, and the initial attempt to convert to steam locomotion at Wylam was abandoned. Work on the development of locomotive power continued nonetheless. A shortage of horses and fodder brought about by the Napoleonic Wars had made steam traction a more attractive proposition and encouraged further development. Moreover, edge rails, made entirely of iron, laid at Middleton Railway from around 1799, were stronger.

While many people, such as William Hedley, felt that adhesion should be adequate with a locomotive weighing around five tons, Blenkinsop was less sanguine. In 1811 he patented (No 3431), a rack and pinion system for a locomotive which would be designed and built by Matthew Murray of Fenton, Murray and Wood in Holbeck.

The general opinion of the time was that a locomotive would draw up to four times its weight by adhesion alone (assuming good conditions), but Blenkinsop wanted more, and his engine, weighing five tons, regularly hauled a payload of ninety tons. The first locomotive probably was Salamanca, built in early 1812. Three other locomotives followed, one later in 1812, one around 1813, and the last one in 1815. One of these three was named Lord Wellington, and the other two allegedly were named Prince Regent and Marquis Wellington, though there is no contemporary mention of those names. Similar locomotives were built for collieries at Orrell near Wigan by Robert Daglish under licence from Blenkinsop, and at least one other was built by Matthew Murray for the Kenton and Coxlodge Collieries at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. What should have been Blenkinsop's third locomotive had already been sent to the Kenton and Coxlodge Waggonway at his request. There, it seems to have acquired the name Willington.

Two locomotives of this pattern were also made by the Royal Iron Foundry in Berlin. Though they worked well when tested at the Foundry, neither could be made to work properly at their intended workplaces, and both ended their days as stationary engines. The Murray/Blenkinsop locomotives had the first double-acting cylinders and, unlike the Trevithick pattern, no flywheel. The cylinders drove a geared wheel which engaged with the rack beside one rail. One of the geared locomotives was described as having two 8"x20" cylinders, driving the wheels through cranks. The piston crossheads worked in guides, rather than being controlled by parallel motion like the majority of early locomotives. Between them, the engines saw more than twenty years of service.

The design was superseded when rolled iron rail, which could bear the heavier adhesion locomotives, was introduced in 1820. This was quickly adopted by George Stephenson and others.

In addition to managing the Middleton Collieries, in the 1820s John Blenkinsop was the consulting engineer for Sir John Lister Kaye of Denby Grange, owner of Caphouse Colliery. Also, as a qualified "Viewer", he was hired by various other colliery owners to examine their collieries and report on such vital matters as the expected future production of a pit, as well as to make suggestions as to how its operation and production could be improved. Blenkinsop died in Leeds in 1831, and is buried at Rothwell Parish Church.

See also

 Rack railway

Notes and references

Further reading
 Chrimes, Mike (2002) Blenkinsop, John in A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers, p 62.

 Lowe, J.W., (1989) British Steam Locomotive Builders, Guild Publishing
John Blenkinsop and the cogwheel railway Cotton Times Understanding the Industrial Revolution

1783 births
1831 deaths
Locomotive builders and designers
People from Rothwell, West Yorkshire
English railway mechanical engineers
Rack railways in the United Kingdom
British steam engine engineers
Engineers from Yorkshire

John Blenkinsop


Miss Nightingale at Scutari, 1854, also known as The Lady with the Lamp, is an 1891 painting by Henrietta Rae.  It depicts Florence Nightingale at Scutari Hospital during the Crimean War.

The painting is a romanticised three-quarter-length portrait of Nightingale, depicted as a young woman swathed in a white shawl, carrying an oil lamp as she looks down on a wounded soldier, wearing his redcoat draped over his shoulders with its arms around his neck.  Other wounded soldiers lie in the background, below military flags.

The painting was commissioned by the publishers Cassell & Co for reproduction as a chromolithograph with their "Yule Tide" Christmas annual in 1891, entitled "The Lady with the Lamp".

The location of the original oil painting is not known.

References
 Heart and Soul: The Story of Florence Nightingale, Gena K. Gorrell, p. 86
 Romantic artwork is popular with visitors, The Scarborough News, 19 July 2015
 Florence Nightingale, National Portrait Gallery
 Crimean War: Florence Nightingale with her lamp at a patient's bedside. Colour lithograph, 1891, after H. Rae , Wellcome Collection Library
 The lady with the lamp (Miss Nightingale at Scutari, 1854), Library of Congress

1891 paintings
Portraits of women
Women in art
Cultural depictions of Florence Nightingale
Medicine in art
English paintings

Miss Nightingale at Scutari, 1854


Estado de Minas (abbreviated EM) is a Brazilian newspaper published in the capital of Minas Gerais state, Belo Horizonte. Its foundation dates as late as 1928, and one year later it was bought by Assis Chateaubriand's Diários Associados. EM is the most traditional and respected publication of Minas, and  the highest-selling broadsheet of the state, with a daily average of 83,787 copies through 2012. It is only surpassed in Minas by tabloid Super Notícia, and ranks 14th among all publications of Brazil. It is also considered one of the most important and respected Brazilian newspapers.

References

External links

Daily newspapers published in Brazil
Mass media in Belo Horizonte
Diários Associados
Newspapers established in 1928
1928 establishments in Brazil

Estado de Minas