Insurance bad faith is a tort unique to the law of the United States (but with parallels elsewhere, particularly Canada) that an insurance company commits by violating the "implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing" which automatically exists by operation of law in every insurance contract.

If an insurance company violates the implied covenant, the insured person (or "policyholder") may sue the company on a tort claim in addition to a standard breach of contract claim.  The contract-tort distinction is significant because as a matter of public policy, punitive or exemplary damages are unavailable for contract claims, but are available for tort claims.  In addition, consequential damages for breach of contract are traditionally subject to certain constraints not applicable to compensatory damages in tort actions (see Hadley v. Baxendale).  The result is that a plaintiff in an insurance bad faith case may be able to recover an amount larger than the original face value of the policy, if the insurance company's conduct was particularly egregious.

Historical background
Most laws regulating the insurance industry in the United States are state-specific.  In 1869, the  Supreme Court of the United States held, in Paul v. Virginia (1869), that the United States Congress did not have the authority to regulate insurance under its power to regulate commerce.

In the 1930s and 1940s, a number of U.S. Supreme Court decisions broadened the interpretation of the Commerce Clause in various ways, which led the U.S. Supreme Court to hold that federal jurisdiction over interstate commerce did extend to insurance in United States v. South-Eastern Underwriters Ass'n (1944).  In March 1945, the United States Congress expressly reaffirmed its support for state-based insurance regulation by passing the McCarran–Ferguson Act which held that no law that Congress passed should be construed to invalidate, impair or supersede any law enacted by a state regarding insurance.  As a result, nearly all regulation of insurance continues to take place at the state level.

Such regulation generally comes in two forms.  First, each state has an "insurance code" or some similarly named statute which attempts to provide comprehensive regulation of the insurance industry and of insurance policies, a specialized type of contract.  State insurance codes generally mandate specific procedural requirements for starting, financing, operating, and winding down insurance companies, and often require insurers to be overcapitalized (relative to other companies in the larger financial services sector) to ensure that they have enough funds to pay claims if the state is hit by multiple natural and man-made disasters at the same time.  There is usually a department of insurance or division of insurance responsible for implementing the state insurance code and enforcing its provisions in administrative proceedings against insurers.

Second, judicial interpretation of insurance contracts in disputes between policyholders and insurers takes place in the context of the aforementioned insurance-specific statutes as well as general contract law; the latter still exists only in the form of judge-made case law in most states.  A few states like California and Georgia have gone farther and attempted to codify all of their contract law (not just insurance law) into statutory law.

Early insurance contracts were considered to be contracts like any other, but first English (see Uberrima fides), and then American, courts recognized that insurers occupy a special role in society by virtue of their express or implied promise of peace of mind, as well as the severe vulnerability of insureds at the time they actually make claims (usually after a terrible loss or disaster).  The key point of divergence between the United States and England on this issue is that unlike American courts, English courts have consistently refused to go further and broadly extend the duty of utmost good faith from the pre-contract period into the post-contract period.

In turn, the development of the modern American cause of action for insurance bad faith can be traced to a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of California in 1958: Comunale v. Traders & General Ins. Co. Comunale was in the context of third-party liability insurance, but California later expanded the same rule in 1973 to first-party fire insurance in another landmark decision, Gruenberg v. Aetna Ins. Co.

During the 1970s, insurers argued that these early cases should be read as holding that it was bad faith to deny a claim only when the insurer already knew that it had no reasonable basis for denying the claim (i.e., when the insurer had already acquired information showing a potentially covered claim and denied it anyway).  In other words, they contended that intentional mistreatment of an insured should be actionable in bad faith, but not claims handling which at most was grossly negligent.  In 1979, California's highest court refuted that argument and further expanded the scope of the tort by holding that inadequate investigation of a claim was actionable in tort as a breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.

Other state courts began to follow California's lead and held that a tort claim exists for policyholders that can establish bad faith on the part of insurance carriers.  By 2012, at least 46 states had recognized third-party bad faith as an independent tort, and at least 31 states had recognized first-party bad faith as an independent tort.  A few states like New Jersey and Pennsylvania declined to allow tort claims for first-party insurance bad faith and instead allowed policyholders to recover broader damages for breach of contract against first-party insurers, including punitive damages.

Bad faith defined
An insurance company has many duties to its policyholders.  The kinds of applicable duties vary depending upon whether the claim is considered to be "first party" or "third party." Bad faith can occur in either situation—by improperly refusing to defend a lawsuit or by improperly refusing to pay a judgment or settlement of a covered lawsuit.

Bad faith is a fluid concept and is defined primarily by court decisions in case law.  Examples of bad faith include undue delay in handling claims, inadequate investigation, refusal to defend a lawsuit, threats against an insured, refusing to make a reasonable settlement offer, or making unreasonable interpretations of an insurance policy.

First party
A common first party context is when an insurance company writes insurance on property that becomes damaged, such as a house or an automobile.  In that case, the company is required to investigate the damage, determine whether the damage is covered, and pay the proper value for the damaged property.  Bad faith in first party contexts often involves the insurance carrier's improper investigation and valuation of the damaged property (or its refusal to even acknowledge the claim at all). Bad faith can also arise in the context of first party coverage for personal injury such as health or life insurance, but those cases tend to be rare.  Most of them are preempted by ERISA.

Third party
Third party situations (essentially, liability insurance) break down into at least two distinct duties, both of which must be fulfilled in good faith. First, the insurance carrier usually has a duty to defend a claim (or lawsuit) even if some or most of the lawsuit is not covered by the insurance policy. Unless the policy is expressly structured so that defense costs "eat away" at the policy limits (a so-called "self-consuming," "wasting" or "burning limits" policy), the default rule is that the insurer must cover all defense costs regardless of the actual limit of coverage.  In one of the most famous decisions of his career (involving Jerry Buss's bad faith lawsuit against Transamerica), Justice Stanley Mosk wrote:

Texas (and a few other conservative states) follow an "eight-corners rule" under which the duty to defend is strictly governed by the "eight corners" of two documents: the complaint against the insured and the insurance policy. In many other states, including California and New York, the duty to defend is ascertained by also looking to all facts known to the insurer from any source; if those facts when read together with the complaint show that at least one claim is potentially covered (that is, the complaint actually alleges a claim of the kind which the insurer promised to defend or could be so amended in light of the known facts), the duty to defend is thereby triggered and the insurer must undertake the defense of its insured.  This powerful bias in favor of finding coverage is one of the major innovations of U.S. law.  Other common law jurisdictions outside of the U.S. continue to construe coverage much more narrowly.

Next, the insurer has a duty of indemnification, which is the duty to pay a judgment entered against the policyholder, up to the limit of coverage.  However, unlike the duty to defend, the duty to indemnify exists only to the extent that the final judgment is for a covered act or omission, since by that point, there should be a clear factual record from trial or summary judgment in the plaintiff's favor revealing what portions of the plaintiff's claims are actually covered by the policy (as distinguished from potentially covered).  Therefore, most insurance companies exercise a great deal of control over litigation.

In some jurisdictions, like California, third party coverage also contains a third duty, the duty to settle a reasonably clear claim against the policyholder within policy limits, in order to avoid the risk that the policyholder may be hit with a judgment in excess of the value of the policy (which a plaintiff might then attempt to satisfy by writ of execution on the policyholder's assets).  If the insurer breaches in bad faith its duties to defend, indemnify, and settle, it may be liable for the entire amount of any judgment obtained by a plaintiff against the policyholder, even if that amount is in excess of policy limits.  This was the holding of the landmark Comunale case.

Litigation
U.S. courts usually follow the American rule in which parties bear their own attorney's fees in the absence of statute or contract, which means that in most states, bad faith litigation must be financed solely by the plaintiff, either out-of-pocket or through a contingent fee arrangement.  (Insurance policies in the U.S. generally lack fee-shifting clauses, so that insurers can consistently invoke the default "bear your own fees" American rule.)  However, in California, the plaintiff who prevails on a tort claim in a bad faith action may be able to recover part of its attorneys' fees separately and in addition to the judgment for damages against a defendant insurer, but only up to the extent that those fees were incurred in recovering contractual damages (that is, for breach of the terms of the insurance policy), as opposed to tort damages (for breach of the implied covenant).  The allocation of attorneys' fees between those two categories is itself a question of fact (meaning it usually goes to the jury).

Assignment or direct action
In some states, bad faith is even more complicated because under certain circumstances, a liability insurer may ultimately find itself in a trial where it is being sued directly by the plaintiff who originally sued its insured.  This is allowed through two situations: assignment or direct action.

The first situation is where an insured abandoned in bad faith by its liability insurer makes a special settlement agreement with the plaintiff.  Sometimes this occurs after trial, where the insured has attempted to defend himself or herself by paying for a lawyer out of pocket, but went to verdict and lost (the actual situation in the landmark Comunale case); other times it occurs before trial and the parties agree to put on an uncontested show trial that results in a final verdict and judgment against the insured.  Either way, the plaintiff agrees to not actually execute on the final judgment against the insured in exchange for an assignment of the assignable components of the insured's causes of action against its insurer.  In some states, these agreements are named after the state's landmark case that adopted the Comunale doctrine (either directly or from one of its progeny). For example, in Arizona, they are known as Damron agreements.

The second situation is where the plaintiff does not need to obtain a judgment first, but instead proceeds directly against the insured's insurer under a state statute authorizing such a "direct action."  These statutes have been upheld as constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. The broadest forms of direct action statutes are found in only four American jurisdictions: the states of Louisiana and Wisconsin, and the federal territories of Guam and Puerto Rico.

Damages
In many states, either the common law tort or an equivalent statute authorizes punitive damages for bad faith to further incentivize insurers to act in good faith towards their insureds.

Bad faith lawsuits may result in large awards of punitive damages.  A famous example is State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co. v. Campbell, in which the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a jury verdict of $145 million in punitive damages against State Farm.  Bad faith cases may also be slow, at least in the third party context, because they are necessarily dependent upon the outcome of any underlying litigation.  For example, the 2003 Campbell decision involved State Farm's handling of litigation resulting from a fatal car accident in 1981, 22 years earlier.

Another important feature of Campbell is that it powerfully illustrates how an insurer cannot avoid tort liability for bad faith by belatedly attempting to cure its breach of contract.  In other words, tort liability (including the entitlement to compensatory and punitive damages) irrevocably accrues when the tort is committed, and remains contingent only in the sense that the insured still has the burden of proving that fact before a finder of fact. Thus, State Farm's belated payment of the full judgment against its insured (including amounts in excess of its policy limits) did not prevent the Utah Supreme Court from still holding it liable (after the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the original judgment) for $9 million in punitive damages.

Toxic mold is a common cause of bad faith lawsuits, with about half of the 10,000 toxic mold cases in 2001 being filed against insurance companies on bad faith grounds. Before 2000 the claims were uncommon, with relatively low payouts. One notable lawsuit occurred when a Texas jury awarded $32 million (later reduced to $4 million). In 2002 a suit was settled for $7.2 million.

Impact

In theory, the availability of a tort claim for insurance bad faith should increase insureds' leverage vis-à-vis insurers.  In turn, this should result in higher recoveries on claims by influencing claims adjusters to err in favor of insureds in close cases, rather than risk having their reasoning dissected on cross-examination by insurance recovery attorneys in jury trials.  A 2014 statistical study based on data from 1977, 1987, and 1997 nationwide surveys of U.S. automobile injury claims by the Insurance Research Council was able to identify such an effect.  The study focused on first-party claims by drivers against the uninsured/underinsured motorist insurance coverage (UI/UIM) in their own insurance policies, and compared outcomes between states which did and did not allow first-party bad faith claims in those timeframes.  The researchers found that "tort liability for insurer bad faith is associated with 10-11 percent higher UM settlements ... an increase that is both statistically and economically significant".

Conversely, defense attorneys argue that attaching massive tort liability to grossly incompetent claims handling incentivizes plaintiffs' attorneys to try too hard to show that insurers are the unreasonable ones: the so-called "bad faith setup".  Plaintiffs' counsel may make immediate demands for policy limits with unreasonable time limits and without any opportunity for investigation or discovery, or back out of settlement agreements before they can be finalized on pretexts which they blame upon insurers.  In 1985, Justice Otto Kaus of the California Supreme Court warned: "It seems to me that attorneys who handle policy claims against insurance companies are no longer interested in collecting on those claims, but spend their wits and energies trying to maneuver the insurers into committing acts which the insureds can later trot out as evidence of bad faith."

International comparison
No other common law jurisdiction has gone as far as the United States in recognizing a separate tort based on an insurer's bad faith treatment of an insured, although Canada has come quite close.  Outside of those two jurisdictions, insurers have much more power to delay and deny claims, safe in the knowledge that their liability is limited to breach of contract damages (i.e., policy limits) and they cannot be compelled to compensate insureds for damages arising from bad faith claims handling.

In 2002, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld an award of punitive damages for an insurer's bad faith claims handling, but expressly refused to recognize insurance bad faith as an independent tort under Ontario law, and instead held that when extremely egregious, an insurer's breach of contract becomes an "actionable wrong" (something different than a tort) which justifies punitive damages. Since then, one Canadian appellate court, the Court of Appeal of New Brunswick, has gone farther and expressly embraced the American concept of a tort of insurance bad faith.

New Zealand's highest court in 1998 refused to decide the issue of whether to impose extracontractual tort liability for bad faith claims handling.

The United Kingdom has refused to adopt the tort of insurance bad faith, and has also refused to impose broader consequential damages for bad faith claims handling.

The Australian Law Reform Commission considered but declined to adopt a tort of insurance bad faith when it drafted the Insurance Contracts Act 1984. Since then, Australian courts have consistently refused to judicially impose what Parliament did not legislatively impose, of which the most recent example was when the New South Wales Court of Appeal refused to adopt insurance bad faith in 2007.

See also
Implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing

References

Insurance in the United States
American legal terminology

Insurance bad faith


The history of of Saudi Arabia  as a nation state began with the Al Saud dynasty in  1727.

The territory that is modern Saudi Arabia was the site of several ancient cultures and civilizations. The prehistory of Saudi Arabia shows some of the earliest traces of human activity in the world.

It was founded in the area of Nejd, the central part of the Arabian Peninsula. The Sa'udi emirate's leadership is a traditional form of rule on Arabia since the 18th century. Over the next century and a half the family went through a lot of opposition and hurdles. The family faced opposition from powerful families of Arabia but also rulers of Egypt and the Ottoman Empire.

In 1902 Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, also known as Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, took over the city of Riyadh from another family named Al-Rashid. He continued to win more areas, and on 8 January 1926, he became the King of Hejaz and the Sultan of Nejd. On 20 May in 1927, the government of the United Kingdom accepted him as the King of those areas ruled by him (the Nejd and Hejaz). His kingdom now became a sovereignty. The modern nation state of Saudi Arabia was established in 1932 as 'the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia' declared by King Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud. Petroleum oil was found in Saudi Arabia on 3 March in 1938, which made the country rich since the export of oil started to bring in a lot of money.

But the history of the Arabian Peninsula contains more history, which led to the development of the Saudi state. Inhabitants and cultures can be traced back 63,000 years ago. The most significant event that happened in the Peninsula is the rise of the Islamic religion presented by Prophet Muhammad. The Rashidun Caliphate, Umayyad Caliphate, Abbasid Caliphate and Fatimid Caliphate all occupied the Arabian Peninsula and thus helped it develop to how we know it today. More dynasties were there in history, but the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina were under the protection of the Hashemite Sharifs of Mecca from the 10th century onwards.

Early history

Pre-Islamic Arabia
Pre-Islamic Arabia is the time before 610 BC. This is the year when the Prophet Muhammad started propagating the religion of Islam and so is when the religion of Islam started. The term 'pre-Islamic Arabia' is useful because it signals the importance of Islam and its influence in forming the Peninsula as we know it today with all its religions and cultures. But it also shows a relation between the rise of Islam and the native Arabs living through conquest, trade and innovations.

This era covers thousands of years with many different cultures and communities. The oldest evidence that point to inhabitants of the Peninsula is perhaps 63,000 years old. There are inhabitants that had trading relations with many parts of the ancient world, but the hot and harsh climate had made large settlements difficult. So bedouin groups were naturally also present. Some settlements had always existed around oases; these are places in the deserts where growth and water are available. For instance there was a culture called the Dilmun culture among them, which was very old and existed along the Persian Gulf. It was as old as the ancient civilizations of the Sumerians and Egyptians. But also the Kindite kingdom and other ancient communities were present.

It is better to refer to the History of Arabia page when discussing the pre-Islamic era. This page (History of Saudi Arabia) will cover more of the post-Islamic era because of its strong relationship with Saudi Arabia.

Post-Islamic Arabia

The birth of Islam
The Hejaz area became an important center as Islam rose in the 620s. After Prophet Muhammad of the Quraysh tribe started calling to Islam in 610, the already existing cities of Medina (formerly called Yathrib) and Mecca eventually became the holiest places of Islam and thus most of Muslims. The number of followers rapidly began to grow after the migration (or Hijra) of Muhammad and his companions in 622 from Mecca to Medina. During the completion of the religion, both these cities became the holiest places in the Muslim World. Masjid al-Haram and Al-Masjid al-Nabaw I am the main locations of pilgrimage where Muslim hopes to visit the Kaaba primarily in Masjid al-Haram and the Prophet's tomb in Al-Masjid al-Nabawi at least once in their lifetime.

Muhammad and his companions went through the Arabian Peninsula in the following years and united the divided tribes of Arabia under one flag. This led to Medina becoming the capital of the newly established Islamic state ruled by the Prophet Muhammad.

After Muhammad died in 632, a new head of the state, called caliph, was named: Abu Bakr. He was the first of the four caliphs whose caliphate was called that of the Rashidun, which means 'rightly guided'. After dealing with the Ridda wars, wars against rebellious tribes who rebelled after Muhammad's death, he started to campaign against the Byzantines. Abu Bakr himself did not live to see the results of his initiative after suffering a natural death in 634. But his successors did.

Umar was the second caliph and managed to lead the Muslims to conquer Roman Egypt and even expand to present day Libya in the west. Umar's caliphate  eventually went all the way to the Indus River in the east after conquering the Sassanid Empire. Eventually in 644 it was neither the past famines or plagues that killed Umar, but a Persian slave.

Uthman ibn Affan followed Umar as a caliph and ruled the longest of the four caliphs. In his twelve years of rule he standardized the Qur'an, spread the empire westwards to the Maghreb and even a part of Spain and eastward further into Central Asia. He was also assasinated which lead to Ali ibn Abi Talib being the fourth Sunni caliph and the first Shia imam.

The Umayyad and Abbasid Empire
The death and assassination of Ali ibn Abi Talib in 661 gave birth to a new era where the Umayyad Caliphate thrived and continued to expand the land left by the Rashidun.

Modern history

Wahhabism and the First Saudi State
After Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab got exiled from Uyaynah, he sought refuge in Diriyah, where some of his followers were residing. At that time, Muhammad bin Saud was the local chieftain of Diriyah. Two brothers and the wife of Muhammad bin Saud were followers of Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab's ideology. They encouraged cooperation between Muhammad bin Saud and Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab. Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab needed military support to secure his ideology and preaching, while Muhammad bin Saud needed pastoral support. Fulfilling these needs eventually led to an alliance between the scholar Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab and the local ruler Muhammad bin Saud creating the First Saudi State, the Emirate of Diriyah.

When Muhammad bin Saud died in 1765, his son Abdulaziz bin Muhammad Al Saud who was a dedicated student of Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab, became the leader of the Emirate of Diriyah. In his reign, the Emirate of Diriyah expanded in territory throughout the Arabian Peninsula. In the eastern part of the peninsula, Abdulaziz bin Muhammad Al Saud got Al-Hasa, Qatar, Al-Buraimi and Bahrain under his influence. In the western part of the Peninsula, Abdulaziz bin Muhammad Al Saud conquered parts of the Hejaz region. During the conquests of Abdulaziz bin Muhammad Al Saud, the Saudi State got involved in a war with the Ottomans. At this stage, the campaigns of the Ottomans against the Saudi State failed, and Abdulaziz bin Muhammad Al Saud was expanding his territory inside Ottoman territories. With the death of Abdulaziz bin Muhammad Al Saud in 1803, his son Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud became ruler. Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud conquered the holy cities of Mecca and Medina for a few years, which gave him the title of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. Eventually the Egyptians, who were supported and led by the Ottomans, destroyed the powers of Al Saud in 1818. It marked the end of the First Saudi State.

Ottoman domination
By 1824, the Al Saud family regained control over parts of the Nejd region. This is seen as the beginning of the Second Saudi State, the Emirate of Nejd. The Saudi ruler, Turki bin Ali, made Riyadh the capital of its state. It remains the capital of the Saudi State today. Turki bin Ali succeeded in retaking most of the lands lost to the Ottomans. In 1865 the Ottomans launched an attack on the Saudi State again. This time with help from the Al Rasheed family of Ha'il, who are another powerful family of the Nejd region. The Al Rasheed family defeated the Saudi State in 1891, which marked the end of the Second Saudi State. Abdul Rahman bin Faisal Al Saud, who was the Saudi leader at that time, retreated into the desert and eventually to Kuwait with his family.

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
In 1902, Abdul Rahman's son Abdulaziz regained Saudi territory from the Al Rasheed family. He even regained control over Mecca and Medina from 1924 to 1925. In 1932 he declared the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as it is known till today.

Boundaries
The discussion for Saudi Arabia to fixate definite boundaries with its neighboring countries started from 1920 onwards. It finalized its boundaries with Iraq, Jordan, and Kuwait. On borders with Iraq and Kuwait, two neutral zones were created – one with Iraq and the other one with Kuwait. In 1934, borders with Yemen were almost finalized.In 1965, Saudi Arabia gave some of its areas to Jordan, and Jordan gave some of its areas to Saudi Arabia. In 1971, the neutral zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait was split between these two countries. Likewise, Saudi Arabia and Iraq decided in 1981 to split the neutral zone between them. This zone was split between the two countries in 1984.

Still, Saudi Arabia's borders with the United Arab Emirates and Oman were not final. The border with Qatar was finalized in 2001.

Politics
King Abdul Aziz Al-Saud died in 1953. His son, who was named Saud, became the king. He reigned for 11 years. In 1964, he was forced to step down, and his half-brother, Faisal, became the king. Faisal had the support of the senior members of the royal family and the religious leaders. Faisal also held the post of the Prime Minister. This tradition of being both the King and the Prime Minister still continues in Saudi Arabia. All Kings after Faisal have followed this practice.

Faisal took several new steps for economic development of Saudi Arabia. During his reign, many important political events also happened like the ones noted below:

 Differences between Saudi Arabia and Egypt over Yemen: Egypt supported the new government of Yemen, while Saudi Arabia supported the royal family of Yemen to continue in power.
 The Six-Day (Arab-Israeli) War of June 1967: Saudi Arabia did not directly fight in this war. But, after the war, it provided financial support to Egypt, Syria, and Jordan.
 Stopping of supply of oil to the USA and Europe: In 1973, Saudi Arabia and other Arab oil-producing countries stopped supplying petroleum oil to the USA and Europe as they began to see Western interests as a threat.

In 1975, King Faisal was assassinated by one of his nephews. The nephew was found guilty, and he was sentenced to death. King Faisal's half-brother Khalid became the King and the Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. During the reign of King Khalid, Saudi Arabia's importance in regional politics increased. The economic growth of the country also continued at a steady rate until his death.

King Fahd's period

King Khalid died in 1982. After his death, Fahd became the King. At the same time, he also became the Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. His half-brother Prince Abdullah became the Crown Prince.

The income of Saudi Arabia became less during King Fahd's reign. This was a result of lower price of petroleum oil. King Fahd's government used an economic policy that helped the country to survive with a lower income.

King Fahd helped Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. Iraq's economy had become terrible on account of this war. The King also discussed with these two countries to stop fighting. Both countries (Iran and Iraq) stopped the fight in August 1988. The King also helped in making the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) a more vital organization. The GCC is an organization of six countries Persian Gulf. The purpose of the organization is to increase the development of and cooperation among the member countries.

Gulf War
In 1990, Saddam Hussein was ruling Iraq. The Gulf War of 1991 was when he invaded Kuwait. Many people thought that his army would also invade Saudi Arabia. King Fahd allowed some Western countries and the USA to send their forces to the country. Many Muslims were against that their most holy land was used by non-Muslim soldiers.

During and after the Gulf War, King Fahd's role was vital. During the war, he allowed the entry of the royal family of Kuwait inside Saudi Arabia and was followed by 400,000 other persons from Kuwait to stay temporarily. The King let the troops of countries like the USA mount attacks on Kuwait to liberate it. He also helped arrange support from former Muslim countries for the liberation of Kuwait. Iraqi forces were eventually ousted from Kuwait.

Terrorism
The presence of troops from Western countries has angered many Muslims. One of them was the rich man Osama bin Laden. He was forced to leave Saudi Arabia when he disagreed and opposed the King of Saudi Arabia. Other than Osma bin Laden and his followers, several other persons and groups did not like the presence of Western troops inside Saudi Arabia.

Those who opposed the presence of Western troops were persons and groups who attacked people. They tried mainly to attack the foreign forces in Saudi Arabia. Some examples of such attacks are given below:

Five Americans and two East Indian personnel were killed when four terrorists triggered a bomb near Riyadh's Saudi Arabian National Guard headquarters in November 1995.
Khobar Towers Bombing: A truck bomb killed 19 troops of the USA in June 1996.

The September 11, 2001 attacks in New York had resulted into many deaths and big destruction. After enquiry, it came to light that out of 19 suspected persons for these attacks, 15 were from Saudi Arabia.

Such things attracted the attention of the government of Saudi Arabia. The government started a policy to check such activities. Even then, terrorist activities of such persons and groups continued.

Present position
Death of King Fahd: He died in August 2005. After his death, his brother Prince Abdullah became the king.
Death of King Abdullah: In 2015, King Abdullah died of sickness. His half-brother Prince Salman became king.
Oil hub: Saudi Arabia has the world's largest oil reserves. The government is giving a lot of importance to the developments of infrastructure, science, and technology. Many economists, and other scholars think that the country is on its way to becoming a leading country in the Middle East.

Related pages
Saudi Arabia

References

Saudi Arabia

History of Saudi Arabia


Geer-Melkus Construction Co., Inc. was a commercial construction company located in Grand Island, Nebraska.  The company was founded in 1893 and was in existence until 1986.

Originally known as the Geer Company, it later became known as Geer-Maurer Construction Company before becoming known as Geer-Melkus. Geer-Melkus was the general contractor on many prominent buildings and civil engineering projects throughout the Midwest, including the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer in Grand Island, designed by Edward Durell Stone.

The company was involved in several prominent lawsuits, including Geer-Melkus Constr. Co. v. United States, 302 F.2d 181 (8th Cir. 1962); United States v. Geer-Melkus Constr. Co., 195 F. Supp. 362 (D.N.D. 1961); Wood River v. Geer-Melkus Constr. Co., 233 Neb. 179 (Neb. 1989); and Geer-Melkus Constr. Co. v. Hall County Museum Board, 186 Neb. 615 (Neb. 1971).

Geer-Melkus Constr. Co. v. United States, 302 F.2d 181 (8th Cir. 1962)

This case was brought to the court by Bison Construction Co. against Geer-Melkus Construction in order to receive payment for a contract. Bison Construction claimed that Geer-Melkus had withheld a payment totalling $16,196.19. Geer-Melkus admitted to withholding said payments but said it was on account of damages incurred by water escaping through a break in the water line which Bison was contracted to construct. The end result was a judgement against Geer-Melkus and they were impelled to pay Bison Construction the outstanding total.

References

Construction and civil engineering companies of the United States
Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1893
Defunct companies based in Nebraska
Companies based in Nebraska
1893 establishments in Nebraska
Construction and civil engineering companies disestablished in 1986
1986 disestablishments in Nebraska

Geer-Melkus Construction


Holotricha is an order of ciliates. The classification has fallen from use as a formal taxon, but the terms "holotrich" and "holotrichous" are still applied descriptively to organisms with cilia of uniform length distributed evenly over the surface of the body.

Etymology
The term holotrich derives from the ancient greek  (), meaning "whole, entire", and , (), meaning 'hair', because of the even distribution of cilia over the surface of the cell.

Classification
The order Holotricha was erected in 1859 by Friedrich Stein, who developed a system of classification in which ciliates were categorized according to the type and distribution of their cilia. The four major subdivisions of Stein's Ciliata were: Heterotricha, Peritricha, Hypotricha and Holotricha. The latter was reserved for organisms with cilia covering the entire surface of the body. The order included five families, within which a very diverse collection of genera were grouped. Among the better-known ciliates in Stein's Holotricha were Coleps, Nassula, Lacrymaria, Loxodes, Colpoda, Glaucoma and Paramecium.

Stein's scheme was amended in 1889 by Otto Bütschli, who divided the Ciliata into two orders: Holotricha and Spirotricha. Bütschli's Holotricha were described much as Stein's had been, as ciliates with relatively uniform somatic cilia. The other three orders of Stein's Ciliata were placed in a lower rank under the new order Spirotricha: ciliates possessing a well-developed structure of spiralling membranelles around the oral cavity.

Versions of Bütschli's two-order scheme were used by taxonomists throughout the first half of the twentieth century, although many adjustments were made to the arrangement of families and genera within those groups. Meanwhile, improved laboratory methods and the advent of the electron microscope began to reveal inadequacies in the old scheme; and, as inconsistencies accumulated, dissatisfaction with the system grew. Nonetheless, Holotricha remained in use as a high-level taxon until 1974, when John Corliss proposed a complete revision of the phylum Ciliophora. In his system, Spirotricha is retained as an order, under the class Polyhymenophora, but Holotricha does not appear at any rank. Recent systems of classification, including an influential scheme proposed by Pierre de Puytorac in 1994, and Denis Lynn's revision of 2002, make no mention of Holotricha.

References

Obsolete eukaryote taxa
Ciliate orders

Holotricha


The Autons are an artificial life form from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and adversaries of the Doctor. They were originally created by scriptwriter Robert Holmes for Jon Pertwee's first serial as the Doctor, Spearhead from Space (1970), and were the first monsters to be presented in colour on the series.

They returned for the following season's Terror of the Autons (1971), which also introduced the character of the Master, but they did not appear again in the original series. Holmes intended to feature the Autons for season 23 of Doctor Who in 1986 in a story entitled Yellow Fever and How to Cure It, which featured the Master and the Rani, but it was abandoned due to the programme being put on an 18th-month hiatus.

Autons are essentially life-sized plastic dummies, automatons animated by the Nestene Consciousness, an extraterrestrial, disembodied gestalt intelligence which first arrived on Earth in hollow plastic meteorites. Their name comes from Auto Plastics, the company that was infiltrated by the Nestenes and subsequently manufactured their Auton shells in Spearhead From Space.

Autons conceal deadly weapons within their hands, which can kill or vaporise their targets. The typical Auton does not look particularly realistic, resembling a mannequin, being robotic in its movements and mute. However, more sophisticated Autons can be created, which look and act human except for a slight plastic sheen to the skin and a flat-sounding voice. In Series 5 of the relaunched Doctor Who series, they are shown as being able to create fully lifelike human replicas, able to fool other humans.

History

The Nestenes are among the oldest beings in the Doctor Who universe, described as creatures which existed in the "Dark Times", along with the Racnoss, Great Vampires and Carrionites. Eventually, they sought to invade the Earth (in Spearhead from Space), using more human-looking Autons to replace key government figures, although these plans were thwarted by UNIT with the help of the Doctor, who also destroyed their invasion form, a multi-tentacled cephalopod.

The Nestenes subsequently returned in the first serial of Pertwee's second year as the Doctor, Terror of the Autons, which also featured the introduction of the Master. In this attempt, the Nestenes also made use of more mundane, everyday plastic objects, animating plastic toys, inflatable chairs and artificial flowers in addition to their Auton servants. The Doctor convinced the Master that the Nestenes were too dangerous to be reliable allies, and they reversed the radio beam the invasion force was coming in on, sending it back into space. This would be The Nestenes and the Autons final appearance in Doctor Who's original run. They would not return again until the episode Rose in 2005.

Early drafts of The Five Doctors (1983) featured a scene where Sarah Jane Smith encountered some Autons and is rescued by the Third Doctor, but it was dropped before filming for reasons of time and expense. A third appearance was planned for the aborted 1986 season during Colin Baker's tenure as the Doctor, but never materialized. Titled Yellow Fever and How to Cure It, it was supposed to be set in Singapore, with appearances by the Rani and the Master. The story, which was to be scripted by the veteran writer Robert Holmes, only exists in outline form.

When the series was revived in 2005, producer and writer Russell T Davies chose the Autons as the first monster to be featured, though the name Auton is never used onscreen. The Nestenes infiltrated Earth once more, using warp shunt technology, in the opening episode of the 2005 series. In "Rose", it was revealed that the Nestenes lost their food supply during the Time War when their protein planets rotted. Their intent was to overthrow and destroy the human race, as Earth was ideal for their consumption needs, being filled with smoke, oil and various pollutants. They were eventually destroyed when Rose spilled a vial of the Doctor's "anti-plastic" solution into the vat of molten plastic which housed the main bulk of the Consciousness, causing it to explode. The episode established that the Nestenes animate the Autons by means of telepathic projection, and also featured an Auton facsimile that could change the shape of its features and limbs. The Autons later appeared in a flashback sequence taking place during the finale of "Rose" in the Series 2 episode Love & Monsters, and again cameoed as a sketch in John Smith's "A Journal of Impossible Things" in the episode "Human Nature."

The Autons returned in the 2010 episode "The Pandorica Opens", alongside many other monsters from throughout the show's history, to trap the Eleventh Doctor. The Autons in this episode were programmed to believe they were the soldiers of a Roman legion, among them Rory Williams, using the memories of Amy Pond. They were very realistic and far more sophisticated than the average Auton, and their hands contained futuristic laser guns rather than projectile weapons. As in the 2005 appearance, the name "Auton" was not used in dialogue; the phrase "Nestene duplicate" was introduced here to describe the copy of Rory. Due to the influences of the cracks in time, the Rory copy possessed the personality of the real Rory and was able to resist the Nestene's control, later working together with The Doctor to save the universe.

The Autons were later mentioned in the series 12 episode Praxeus. According to an interview with writer Pete McTighe, the Autons were initially planned to appear before being scrapped at an early stage in development.

Other appearances
The Nestenes have also appeared in the Doctor Who spin-off novels (which linked the Consciousness with the Great Old Ones of the Cthulhu Mythos, in particular as an offspring of Shub-Niggurath). In the Sixth Doctor novel Business Unusual by Gary Russell, the Nestenes utilized computer games and plastic toys in another bid for world conquest. They later reappeared in the novel Synthespians™ by Craig Hinton. In 2008, the Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller again encountered Autons in the audio Brave New Town. These Autons were part of an old Soviet program to infiltrate Britain during the Cold War before the collapse of the Soviet Union left the Autons stuck in a loop in the fake British town created for the spies, eventually developing independence. A Tenth Doctor novel, Autonomy, was released in September 2009 featuring the Autons.

In the Doctor Who Annual 2006, an article written by Russell T Davies mentions the loss of the Nestene Consciousness's planets during the Time War, and states that it "found itself mutating under temporal stress". This may be a reference to the difference between the portrayal of the Consciousness in Spearhead from Space and "Rose".

In the late 1990s, BBV released a trilogy of made-for-video films, titled Auton, Auton 2: Sentinel and Auton 3. These stories featured UNIT battling the Consciousness. In the first film, a Nestene energy unit and several Autons captured by UNIT in Spearhead from Space are accidentally reactivated. In the sequels, the escaped Autons attempt to awaken several dormant Nestenes put in place since before the development of human civilization. Though BBV was licensed to use the Nestenes, Autons and UNIT by the writers who created them, the canonicity of these films is unclear.

In the first series of the televised Dead Ringers, in a sketch with Jon Culshaw visiting the London Eye (calling it an Interstitial Time Delay Helix) in the persona of the Fourth Doctor, he humorously accused two tourists: "You are Autons from the planet Tosos!"

In 2006, a sketch on The Charlotte Church Show showed the Doctor examining the inner thigh of a scantily clad female mannequin; when confronted by Church (playing his companion), he claimed that he thought it was an Auton.

They appeared in issue 15 of Doctor Who – Battles in Time as the main theme of the issue.

The Autons also appear in Lego Dimensions. They appear in the Doctor Who Level "The Dalek Extermination of Earth" when the player time travels to Central London in 2015 using the TARDIS. Whenever the player destroys a purple rock, the Autons come to life from the shop windows and attack the player. They also appear in the Doctor Who adventure world as encounterable enemies.

The Autons appear in one of the Doctor Who and Mr. Men mash-up books, published under the Doctor Men series of books.

During 2020, as part of a fan "Watch-along" of the episode "Rose," writer Russell T Davies wrote a sequel to the episode "Rose" entitled "Revenge of the Nestene." It depicts a surviving Auton after the events of the episode.

Reception

Writing for Looper.com, Richard Chachowski included the Autons on a list of the show's greatest antagonists. While he states they are hard to take seriously, "their blank, unemotional faces and stiff movements make them some of the creepiest looking antagonists the Doctor encounters in his adventures across time and space." Writing in a review of "Spearhead from Space" for The AV Club, Christopher Bahn states that "The Autons are of secondary importance to the story," but also highlights that they "...provide some effectively chilling moments," highlighting Hugh Burden as the Auton duplicate of the character Channing, as well as the scene in which the Autons break out of the shop windows. Writing for Doctor Who TV, Raphael Kiyani praised the Autons role in "Rose" as something "children could be scared about every time they walk down the streets," and further highlights that "Every time I see a shop-window I can't help but think of the Autons, so it's a powerful image." Den of Geek writer Andrew Blair listed the scene in which stuntman Terry Walsh, playing an Auton, falls down a sixty foot cliff and gets back up again, as the greatest stunt in the series, highlighting the accidental nature of the stunt and how it made "the Autons seem uncanny... creatures who felt no pain."

The image of store mannequins coming to life in Spearhead from Space, in full colour and shooting people down in the street, is one of the series' iconic moments and is often cited as an example of the series' ability to make everyday things terrifying. The use of even more ordinary objects in Terror of the Autons  — including the unmasking of a police officer as an Auton  — caused public controversy about whether the programme was too frightening for children. The story also featured in a discussion in the House of Lords, where Baroness Bacon expressed worries about it being too frightening even for older children.

See also
 List of Doctor Who robots
 List of Doctor Who universe creatures and aliens

References

External links

Doctor Who races
Fictional robots
Fictional avatars
Fictional dolls and dummies

Auton


K-19: The Widowmaker is a 2002 independent historical movie about one of the first Soviet nuclear submarines. The film is directed and produced by Kathryn Bigelow. The lead actors are Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. The film had mixed reviews and did not make much money. The film had a budget of $90 million.

Plot
Captain Alexei Vostrikov commands a ballistic submarine with executive officer Mikhail Polenin. Vostrikov replaces a drunk reactor officer with Radtchenko. The ship tests missiles near the United States. Vostikov has the ship do risky things like crash into the icecaps. One of the rods of the nuclear reactant gets damaged. Men are exposed to radiation and get sick. Vostrikov says no to American help. The fixed pipe leaks and torpedo fuel catches fire. Tension arises between officers and commanders. Radtchenko fixes the problem. Polenin tricks the officers and arrests them. Vostrikov has the submarine dive to avoid overheating. Later in the Soviet Union, Vostrikov is tried for breaking orders. Polenin defends Vostrikov. Twenty-seven men had died from the radiation. Many years later, Vostrikov and Polenin meet again at the cemetery. Vostrikov toasts and honors the dead men.

Cast

 Harrison Ford as Captain 2nd Rank Alexei Vostrikov, Commanding Officer
 Liam Neeson as Captain 3rd Rank Mikhail "Misha" Polenin, Executive Officer
 Peter Sarsgaard as Lieutenant Vadim Radtchenko, Reactor Officer
 Joss Ackland as Marshal Zolentsov, Defence Minister
 John Shrapnel as Admiral Bratyeev
 Donald Sumpter as Captain 3rd Rank Gennadi Savran, Medical Officer
 Tim Woodward as Vice-Admiral Konstantin Partonov
 Steve Nicolson as Captain 3rd Rank Yuri Demichev, Torpedo Officer
 Ravil Isyanov as Captain 3rd Rank Igor Suslov, Political Officer
 Christian Camargo as Petty Officer Pavel Loktev, Senior Reactor Technician
 George Anton as Captain-Lieutenant Konstantin Poliansky, Missile Officer
 James Francis Ginty as Seaman Anatoly Subachev, Reactor Technician
 Lex Shrapnel as Captain-Lieutenant Mikhail Kornilov, Communications Officer
 Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson as Captain 3rd Rank Viktor Gorelov, Chief Engineer
 Sam Spruell as Senior Seaman Dmitri Nevsky
 Sam Redford as Petty Officer 2nd Class Vasily Mishin
 Peter Stebbings as Kuryshev
 Shaun Benson as Chief Petty Officer Leonid Pashinski
 Kristen Holden-Ried as Captain-Lieutenant Anton Malahov
 Dmitry Chepovetsky as Sergei Maximov
 Tygh Runyan as Petty Officer 1st Class Maxim Portenko, Sonar Operator
 Jacob Pitts as Grigori
 Michael Gladis as Senior Seaman Yevgeny Borzenkov
 JJ Feild as Andrei Pritoola
 Peter Oldring as Vanya Belov
 Joshua Close as Viktor
 Jeremy Akerman as Fyodor Tsetkov, Captain of the S-270

References

K-19: The Widowmaker


An Australian rules football tournament in the United States, similar to the National Basketball Association All-Star Game.

Pitches 44 of the best players in the USA  against each other. The first of these games was held in 2003, and it became a much anticipated annual event. Each year, both All-American and All-Star sides take the field.

Past matches

2003 - All-American: East defeated West by about 80 points (held at California State University, Long Beach, CA)
2004 - All-American: East 9.11.65 defeated West 7.17.59 (held at Atlanta, GA)
2005 - All-American: West 8.11.59 defeated East 3.7.25 (held at Dallas, TX)
2006 - canceled (would have been held at Sarasota, FL)
2007 - All-American: West 15.10.100 defeated East 10.5.65 (held at Fort Lauderdale, FL)

See also

References

External links

Australian rules football competitions in the United States
All-star games

USAFL East vs West


Fionnphort (, ) is the principal port of the Ross of Mull, and the second largest settlement in the area (its population is approximately 80).  The village's name is the anglicised pronunciation of the Gaelic for "White Port" and previous names have included Caol Idhe, Gaelic for "Sound of Iona".

History
Historically, Fionnphort has been a fishing village offering religious pilgrims and tourists access to Iona; more recently, it has facilitated the movement of stone from a quarry in the vicinity. The granite which was extracted from Tòrr Mòr Quarry until around 1907 was highly prized for its density and hardness.

Geography

The beach at Fionnphort has a distinctive split granite boulder in the centre that is classed as an erratic and deposited here by an ice age glacier. The beach has a car park and a nearby cemetery.

From Fionnphort, the entire east side of Iona can be seen, including Iona Abbey. To the south of the village lies the district of Fidden and the island of Erraid, mentioned in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Kidnapped and accessible to walkers at low tide.

Economy

Fionnphort has an active fishing industry, noted principally for shellfish, particularly crabs and lobsters, the majority of which are exported by container truck to Spain and France.

In April 2008, residents finally had the opportunity to use a cash machine, putting an end to the  round-trip to Salen villagers previously had to endure. Sandy Brunton, the local postmaster said that residents are claiming they now have the best view from a cash dispenser anywhere in Britain: "As you stand at the ATM, you have a view of Iona to the west, Coll to the north and looking east you can see the island's only Munro, Ben More."

Transport

Fionnphort is the base of the ferry service between Mull and Iona, and also boat trips to the isle of Staffa.

References

External links

Canmore - Fionnphort, St Columba Centre site record
Canmore - Isle of Mull, Fionnphort site record

Villages on the Isle of Mull

Fionnphort


Drug discovery and development requires the integration of multiple scientific and technological disciplines. These include chemistry, biology, pharmacology, pharmaceutical technology and extensive use of information technology. The latter is increasingly recognised as Pharmacoinformatics. Pharmacoinformatics relates to the broader field of bioinformatics.

Introduction
The main idea behind the field is to integrate different informatics branches (e.g. bioinformatics, chemoinformatics, immunoinformatics, etc.) into a single platform, resulting in a seamless process of drug discovery. The first reference of the term "Pharmacoinformatics" can be found in the year of 1993.

The first dedicated department for Pharmacoinformatics was established at the National Institute Of Pharmaceutical Education And Research, S.A.S. Nagar, India in 2003.  This has been followed by different universities worldwide including a program by European universities named the European Pharmacoinformatics Initiative (Europin).

Definition
Pharmacoinformatics is also referred to as pharmacy informatics. According to the article "Pharmacy Informatics: What You Need to Know Now" by the University of Illinois at Chicago Pharmacoinformatics may be defined as: "the scientific field that focuses on medication-related data and knowledge within the continuum of healthcare systems." It is the application of computers to the storage, retrieval and analysis of drug and prescription information. Pharmacy informaticists work with pharmacy information management systems that help the pharmacist safe decisions about patient drug therapies with respect to, medical insurance records, drug interactions, as well as prescription and patient information.

Pharmacy informatics can be thought of as a sub-domain of the larger professional discipline of health informatics. Health informatics is the study of interactions between people, their work processes and engineered systems within health care with a focus on pharmaceutical care and improved patient safety. For example, the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) defines pharmacy informatics as, "the scientific field that focuses on medication-related data and knowledge within the continuum of healthcare systems - including its acquisition, storage, analysis, use and dissemination - in the delivery of optimal medication-related patient care and health outcomes"

See also
 Software programs for pharmacy workflow management

References

Pharmacology
Pharmaceutical industry
Drug discovery
Cheminformatics
Bioinformatics

Pharmacoinformatics


Sunday Live with Adam Boulton was a weekend news and political show on Sky News and on Sky News HD, presented by Sky News' Political Editor Adam Boulton. From January 2011, the programme was replaced with Murnaghan, a similar show presented by Dermot Murnaghan. Boulton moved to a new weekday show at 13:00 on Sky News.

Format
This programme features interviews with figures from politics, business, sports, and entertainment. Sunday Live aired from 10:00 to 12:00, between the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show and The Politics Show.

Paula Middlehurst presented News summaries for the programme every half-hour.

History
The programme was at first called "Sunday" and was originally broadcast from Sky News' Westminster studio. In October 2005, Boulton and the programme moved to the new Sky News Centre. Sunday was renamed Sunday Live, and interview highlights became available in the form of a video podcast. The programme ended in December 2010. The following month, Boulton began co-presenting a new weekday programme, entitled Boulton and Co, which aired from 13:00-14:00 on Monday to Friday.

References

External links
Boulton & Co Blog Sky News

British television news shows
Sky News
Sky UK original programming
Sky television news shows

Sunday Live with Adam Boulton


HMS Unicorn is a surviving sailing frigate of the successful Leda class, although the original design had been modified by the time that the Unicorn was built, to incorporate a circular stern and "small-timber" system of construction. Listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, Unicorn is now a museum ship in Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom. She is the oldest ship in Scotland, one of the oldest ships in the world, and one of the last intact warships from the age of sail.

History

HMS Unicorn was built in peacetime at Chatham Dockyard, Kent and launched in 1824. This was a transitional period for shipbuilding, as suitable timber was becoming more difficult to obtain, and iron was increasingly available. Under the direction of Sir Robert Seppings, then Surveyor of the Royal Navy, Unicorn was built with diagonal riders made with iron straps and iron "knees" that strengthened the hull.

As Unicorn was built shortly after the naval wars against Napoleon ended, she was never rigged; she only went to sea for the voyage from Chatham to Dundee, during which she was under tow. A superstructure was built over her main deck and she was laid up "in ordinary", serving as a hulk and a depot ship for most of the next 140 years. Her lack of active duty left her timbers well preserved, and in the 1960s steps were initiated to convert her to a museum ship. The roof that covers her upper deck is thought to be original, although portions of it were removed in the 1970s, leading conservators to replace the foc'sle roof.

Unicorn'''s sister ship HMS Trincomalee has been restored and is the centrepiece of the National Museum of the Royal Navy based in Hartlepool.

Some steps were taken to restore Unicorn.

In April 2019 the Unicorn Preservation Society, whose patron is Anne, Princess Royal, received a National Lottery Resilient Heritage Fund Grant in the amount of £28,900.

In March 2021 the frigate was surveyed; most of the planking was found to be in a very poor state, with even newer planking (from the 1850s) also deteriorated. However, according to one of the restorers, of all the old ships of this type, "this one is probably the most original, certainly inside ... Virtually all of what you see dates back to the day it was built and it hasn't been largely rebuilt over that time."

It was planned to move the ship to the nearby East Graving Dock for conservation work (Operation Safe Haven), and ultimately set up a maritime heritage centre for the ship. The Unicorn Preservation Society was seeking gifts of large oaks to replace the planking and strengthen the hull before moving the ship to dry dock.  These donations have included £1.11m in July 2023 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.

 Notes

References

Footnotes
 David Lyon and Rif Winfield (2004), The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815-1889. Chatham Publishing. .

External links

 HMS Unicorn - official site
 HMS Unicorn - webpage, National Historic Ships''
 The "Leda"-class frigate

Frigates of the Royal Navy
Museum ships in the United Kingdom
Tall ships of the United Kingdom
Ships built in Chatham
1824 ships
Leda-class frigates
Museums in Dundee
Ships and vessels of the National Historic Fleet

HMS Unicorn (1824)


The Bull Hotel, formerly The Black Bull Hotel, is a 17th-century coaching inn in Sedbergh, Cumbria. It is located in a narrow passage parallel with the Main Street of Sedbergh and contains 14 rooms. The inn has been used for conferences, particularly by science associations and groups such as geologists and naturalists since at least the 1880s.

References

External links
Official site

Coaching inns
Hotels in Cumbria
Pubs in Cumbria
Sedbergh

The Bull Hotel, Sedbergh


The Last Witness () is a 2001 South Korean thriller film directed by Bae Chang-ho and starring Lee Jung-jae, Ahn Sung-ki and Lee Mi-yeon. It is based on the novel of the same name by Kim Seong-jong, and is the second adaptation of the book, the first being in 1980.

Plot
A political prisoner, Hwang-seok is released after 50 years of solitary confinement. A day later, a body with stab wounds is recovered from a harbor. Detective Oh investigates the death and determines the body is that of Yang, a former soldier. Discovering a diary amongst Yang's possessions, Oh follows a trail of clues to a blind antique dealer, Ji-hye. It transpires that it was Yang who was responsible for the imprisonment of Hwang-seok, a suspected communist sympathizer in the Korean War. This makes Hwang-seok the prime suspect for the murder of Yang. But not all is as it seems, and a series of flashbacks back to the dark days of the Korean War and the infamous Geoje POW Camp on Geoje Island leads Oh to Han, a former North Korean soldier living in Japan, and a final, tragic resolution for two ill-fated lovers.

Cast
 Lee Jung-jae as Detective Oh
 Ahn Sung-ki as Hwang-seok
 Lee Mi-yeon as Ji-hye
 Jung Joon-ho as Han Dong-ju
 Lee Ki-young as Yang

See also
Cinema of Korea

Notes

References

External links

2001 films
2000s Korean-language films
Korean War films
South Korean thriller films
Films based on Korean novels
2000s South Korean films
2001 thriller films

The Last Witness (2001 film)


Fire of Conscience () is a 2010 Hong Kong-Chinese action film directed by Dante Lam and starring Leon Lai and Richie Jen.

Cast
Leon Lai as Detective Manfred
Richie Jen as Inspector Kee
Wang Baoqiang as Xiao Yong
Vivian Hsu as Ellen
Liu Kai-chi as Cheung On
Michelle Ye as May
Charles Ying as Sam
Wilfred Lau as Hoi

Production
Director Dante Lam explained that the title of the film originates from the traditional fire dragon dance that Hong Kong residents used to practice to drive off pestilence and that he believes that there is pestilence in every human's soul that must be beaten out. To prepare for the action scenes, Leon Lai prepared for these scenes by exercising, jogging and swimming. Richie Jen stated that Lam wanted him to "lose weight to add more shadiness to my character. But before making any extra effort, I found myself thinner thanks to the hot weather and so many fighting scenes to shoot." Lai suggested that both Jen and he should sing as a duet for the theme song for the film. Jen stated that he "felt strange. But I liked the song instantly when Mark Lui finished it. We hope the song can lead the audience into a deeper understanding about the movie."

Release
Fire of Conscience premiered at the Hong Kong Film Festival on March 23, 2010. It received wide release in China and Hong Kong on April 1, 2010.
Fire of Conscience'''s debuted at fourth place at the Hong Kong box office and charted in Singapore, Malaysia, and New Zealand. The film stayed in the charts for four weeks in Hong Kong. The film grossed a total of US$526,017 in Hong Kong and US$806,708 world-wide.

Reception
Perry Lam of Muse magazine writes, 'in designing and executing the action scenes, [Lam] focuses too much on firepower and body count, and too little on their potential transgressive and transformational power.' Time Out Hong Kong gave the film a rating of three out of six stars noting that it was slightly less memorable than Dante Lam's previous film Beast Stalker.The Montreal Gazette gave a mixed review, saying that the film is "exciting, visually stunning movie, full of action and the bright punchy colours of a Sharp Quattron commercial. Unfortunately, it's not much more than that." IFC gave a mixed review stating that "Lam's action is innovative and clever, but his approach to the characters is the exact opposite: predictable and obvious. We know these cops from so many previous movies. Not a single thing they do surprises us." The Hollywood Reporter described the film as "the loudest of the year" and "Any real thought about the nature of duty and the law is swept aside for action, action, and more action – which is average for Lam but still superior to most."The Montreal Mirror called the film a disappointment of the Toronto Film Festival, noting "incoherent plotting" and that "Lam obviously has some action chops, but he doesn't exploit them nearly enough here."

References

External linksFire of Conscience at the Hong Kong Movie DatabaseFire of Conscience'' at the Hong Kong Cinemagic

2010 films
2010s Cantonese-language films
2010 action thriller films
Hong Kong action thriller films
Police detective films
Films directed by Dante Lam
Media Asia films
Films set in Hong Kong
Films shot in Hong Kong
2010s Hong Kong films

Fire of Conscience


The Studebaker National Museum is a museum in South Bend, Indiana, United States, that displays a variety of automobiles, wagons, carriages, and military vehicles related to the Studebaker Corporation and other aspects of American history.

Layout

The Studebaker National Museum is connected to and shares an entrance with The History Museum as part of The Museums at Washington and Chapin. Visitors can purchase a ticket to visit one or both museums.

The Studebaker museum consists of three floors. The main level displays Studebaker history and vehicles from the 1800s to 1934. The upper level displays vehicles from 1934 onward. The lower level displays military vehicles and equipment and additional vehicles in "viewable storage" (stacked on lifts but still viewable). A secondary area on the main level displays family history of the Studebakers and the Olivers, South Bend makers of the Oliver Chilled Plow and other farm equipment.

The collection

Most of the museum's collection was part of the historic company's collection, although vehicles continue to be added from time to time. It includes more than 70 vehicles and numerous photos and displays as well as huge archive of photos and documents not on display. Although the collection focuses on the century-long history of the Studebaker corporation and the wagons, cars, trucks, and military vehicles it produced, the collection also includes a variety of other vehicles and products made locally.

Highlights of the collection include:
 A broad variety of Studebaker production vehicles and concept cars
 Some Packard production and concept cars, reflecting Studebaker's merger with Packard
 The carriage used by President Abraham Lincoln, along with the carriages of several other U.S. presidents and dignitaries
 A Conestoga wagon of the sort used by pioneers to cross the Great Plains
 A 1902 Studebaker Electric
 Studebaker military vehicles built during World War I and World War II
 Several Hummer vehicles including the Humvee, which are manufactured by South Bend-based AM General at its plant in the adjacent city of Mishawaka, Indiana
 A specially-painted Studebaker Champion 2-door sedan used in the filming of The Muppet Movie

Location
In November 2005, the museum opened a new building on Chapin Street, attached to The History Museum. The new building for the museum was designed on the architectural styling of many of the older Studebaker factory buildings in the area.

See also
 List of automobile manufacturers

External links

 The Studebaker National Museum
 The History Museum

Automobile museums in Indiana
Studebaker
History museums in Indiana
Museums in South Bend, Indiana

Studebaker National Museum


The Rage: Carrie 2 is a 1999 American supernatural horror film directed by Katt Shea, and starring Emily Bergl, Jason London, Dylan Bruno, J. Smith-Cameron and Amy Irving. The film is a sequel to the 1976 horror film Carrie based on the 1974 novel of the same name by Stephen King, and serves as the second film in the Carrie franchise. The film was originally titled The Curse and did not have connections to the Carrie novel or film, but was eventually rewritten to be a direct sequel to the 1976 film. Its plot follows the younger half-sister of Carrie White (Bergl), also suffering with telekinesis, who finds that her best friend's suicide was spurred by a group of popular male classmates who exploited her for sexual gain.

The Rage: Carrie 2 was released on March 12, 1999, and was a box office bomb, grossing $17 million against a $21 million production budget. It received generally negative reviews, which criticized the routine recycling of the original film's story and themes. However, they widely praised the performance of Bergl, who was nominated for a Saturn Award for her work on the film.

Plot
In 1986, Rachel Lang is placed in foster care when her mother, Barbara, is diagnosed with schizophrenia after mistaking signs of Rachel's telekinesis for demonic possession. In September 1999, Rachel, an outcast, is living with unsympathetic foster parents and attending high school. Her best friend, Lisa Parker, commits suicide by leaping from the roof of the school. Eric Stark, a popular football star, rejected her after exploiting her for sex.

Rachel finds a photograph of Lisa and Eric kissing while developing rolls of Lisa's film. Rachel turns the photo in to police, and explains that Lisa confessed to her that she had recently lost her virginity. Sheriff Kelton and the school's guidance counselor, Sue Snell, pursue statutory rape charges against Eric, who is over eighteen. Eric and his football player peers, including Mark Bing and Chuck Potter, are competing to see who could seduce the most girls.

Late one night while driving home, Jesse Ryan, another player on the football team, is flagged down by Rachel after her Basset Hound, Walter, is hit by a car. Jesse takes an interest in Rachel, to the chagrin of cheerleader Tracy Campbell, who is pursuing him. Meanwhile, having discovered that Rachel implicated them in Lisa's death, Eric and Mark attempt to scare her into silence by harassing her at her home, but her telekinetic powers frighten them away.

Sue begins to suspect Rachel may possess telekinetic powers through their counseling sessions. She tracks down Rachel's institutionalized mother, whose schizophrenia has stabilized. Barbara confesses that Rachel's father was Ralph White, the father of Carrie White. Sue brings Rachel to the ruins of the high school which Carrie destroyed in a telekinetic rage in 1976 after being humiliated at her senior prom. Sue, a peer of Carrie's, was one of the few survivors of the incident. When Sue discloses that Carrie is Rachel's half-sister, Rachel dismisses her as a liar.

The district attorney covers up the statutory rape charges against Eric because the players' families have political influence. Mark sets up a romantic getaway for Rachel and Jesse, which he covertly films. Monica Jones, the girlfriend of Mark's friend Brad Winters, befriends Rachel under false pretenses, inviting her to a party. Rachel leaves with Monica to the party, while Jesse is forced to ride with Tracy after his car's tires are slashed. Tracy stops at her house first and unsuccessfully attempts to seduce him. Meanwhile, Sue sneaks Barbara out of the institution so that she can confess Rachel's father's identity to her.

Mark and Chuck confront Rachel at the party, revealing their sex game and claiming that Rachel was added to Jesse's list of girls he has bedded. They project the footage of her and Jesse having sex for all of the partygoers to see. This triggers Rachel's telekinesis, and she seals the house closed. She causes a large window to explode, killing most of the partygoers, and triggers a fire. Sue and Barbara track Rachel to the party, but a fire-poker impales the front door, killing Sue. As Rachel pursues Monica, Eric, and Mark through the house, they arm themselves. Rachel kills Monica by causing her glasses to implode into her eyes, causing Monica to inadvertently castrate Eric with a harpoon. Mark shoots her with a flare gun and Rachel falls into the swimming pool. When Mark goes to see whether she is dead, Rachel pulls Mark into the pool. Rachel triggers the sensor to the automatic pool cover, and frees herself while Mark drowns.

Barbara accuses Rachel of being possessed, and flees. Jesse and Tracy arrive. Rachel kills Tracy by causing a piece of ceiling to collapse on her. On a balcony, Rachel confronts Jesse about his list, but he denies it. Rachel then notices that the videotape of her and Jesse, still playing in the living room, captured Jesse saying "I love you" while she slept, and realizes Jesse's feelings for her are genuine. An awning collapses on Rachel. With Jesse unable to free her, she uses her telekinesis to throw him over the balcony onto the pool cover as she burns to death.

In 2000, Jesse, now studying at King's University, shares a dormitory with Walter. He has a nightmare of kissing Rachel before she shatters into pieces.

Cast

 Emily Bergl as Rachel Lang
 Kayla Campbell as Young Rachel
 Jason London as Jesse Ryan: a popular jock with whom Rachel falls in love.
 Dylan Bruno as Mark Bing: a football player who owns the mansion where the football game after-party takes place.
 J. Smith-Cameron as Barbara Lang: Rachel's biological mother.
 Amy Irving as Sue Snell: the sole survivor of Carrie's rage in the original film, now a guidance counselor.
 Zachery Ty Bryan as Eric Stark: a jock who seduces and then humiliates Lisa, resulting in her suicide.
 John Doe as Boyd: Rachel's foster father
 Charlotte Ayanna as Tracy Campbell: a popular cheerleader who is interested in Jesse.
 Rachel Blanchard as Monica Jones: Tracy's best friend.
 Justin Urich as Brad Winters: football player and Monica's boyfriend.
 Mena Suvari as Lisa Parker: Rachel's best friend, who commits suicide.
 Elijah Craig as Chuck Potter: football player.
 Eddie Kaye Thomas as Arnold: Rachel's friend.
 Clint Jordan as Sheriff Kelton
 Kate Skinner as Emilyn: Rachel's foster mother
 Gordon Clapp as Mr. Stark: Eric's father
 Steven Ford as Coach Walsh
 Deborah Meschan as Deborah: One of Monica's friends who takes part in setting Rachel up
 Katt Shea as Deputy D.A.
 Robert D.Raiford as The Senior D.A.
 Rhoda Griffis as Mrs. Porter: A Saleswoman
 Sissy Spacek as Carrie White via archival flashbacks: Rachel's deceased half-sister, and the protagonist of the original film. Sissy Spacek turned down an offer to cameo in the film but gave permission to have her scenes used in the form of flashbacks.

Production

Development
Originally titled The Curse, the film was not developed as a sequel to the 1976 film adaptation and began as an original story. Production was initially scheduled to start in 1996 with Emily Bergl in the lead role; however, production stalled for two years, and the plot was retooled as a Carrie sequel. The plot involving the high school jocks who use a point system to rate their sexual conquests is inspired from a real-life 1993 sex scandal involving a group known as the Spur Posse. The film went into production in 1998 under the title Carrie 2: Say You're Sorry.

A few weeks into production, director Robert Mandel quit over creative differences and Katt Shea took over the reins with less than a week to prepare to start filming, and two weeks' worth of footage to reshoot. Portions of the film were filmed in a North Carolina house designed by the iconic architect Gene Leedy.

Casting
Amy Irving reprised the role of Sue Snell, which she originated in the first Carrie, though she was initially wary of taking the role and asked Brian De Palma, director of the original film, for his blessing. Director Shea was told that she would not be able to use footage of Sissy Spacek from the original Carrie, but she edited several scenes into the film and presented the film to Spacek, who granted permission for her likeness to be used.

Release

Box office
The Rage: Carrie 2, was released on March 12, 1999. It opened in second place that weekend but was not successful. It grossed a total of $17,762,705 domestically against a $21 million budget, making the film a box office disappointment.

Home media
The film was released on VHS and DVD on October 12, 1999, and Laserdisc on November 9. A Blu-ray version of the film was released on April 14, 2015, in a double feature with the 2002 TV version of Carrie from Scream Factory. This edition went out of print in October 2019.

Reception

Critical response
The film received mostly negative reviews upon its release. Rotten Tomatoes reported the film had a 23% approval rating based on 39 reviews with the consensus: "As disposable as its predecessor is indispensable, The Rage: Carrie 2 mimics the arc of Stephen King's classic story without adding anything of value." On Metacritic, it had a rating of 42 on a scale from 0–100 based on 21 reviews, indicating mixed or average reviews.

Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars, deriding its recycling of the plot of the original Carrie and the contrivances employed to make the same plot happen over again, though he briefly credited Bergl for delivering a good performance considering the weakness of the material. Anita Gates of The New York Times characterized it as "an uninspired updated" and "typical B-movie making. The actors are attractive and do credible jobs, and in the tradition of the original film, there's one really good scare at the end." Both Ebert and Gates commented on the absurdity of the scene at the high school's ruins, which had not been cleared away despite two decades having passed. Dennis Harvey of Variety panned the film, noting that it "uses the original as a blueprint, but leaves out all the wit, sympathy and bravado." He criticized the recycling of ideas and even footage from the original film, and found the characters all lifeless, particularly compared to their counterparts from the original film.

Ty Burr of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a more favorable B-minus rating. He wrote, "The most satisfying change writer Rafael Moreu (Hackers) and director Katt Shea (Poison Ivy) have made is to their heroine. Where the original Carrie White was a sheltered, cringing wallflower, Rachel Lang (whose relationship to Carrie is a mid-film secret I won't spoil) is a foster-home Goth grrrl: pale, defiant, seething with surface-level cynicism. She's the antithesis of the glamorous faux nerd played by Rachael Leigh Cook in She's All That, and newcomer Emily Bergl portrays her with a nicely sulky empathy, equal parts hurt and hope." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times championed the film as a "well-directed sequel" that treats the supernatural elements as simply obligatory devices while focusing instead on the deep and realistic social drama. He also praised Bergl as demonstrating "exceptional presence and range".

John Kenneth Muir wrote that the abrupt death of Sue Snell was "certainly powerful in terms of shock effect, but it also makes the rest of the film seem incomplete. All the time we invested in Sue goes exactly nowhere and amounts to nothing."

In retrospective reviews, critics praised the film's depiction of toxic masculinity, with some commenting that the focus on the sexual misconduct committed by the male characters makes the film surprisingly timely, particularly in the wake of the MeToo movement.

Soundtrack

The accompanying soundtrack album was released on March 23, 1999, by Edel Records.

Track listing

References

External links

1999 films
1999 horror films
1990s high school films
1990s supernatural films
1990s teen horror films
American high school films
American sequel films
American supernatural horror films
American teen horror films
Carrie (franchise)
Films about bullying
American films about revenge
Films about virginity
Films set in 1986
Films set in 1999
Films set in 2000
Films set in Maine
Films shot in North Carolina
Films shot in South Carolina
Films about rape
Films about telekinesis
United Artists films
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
Films directed by Katt Shea
1990s supernatural horror films
Films about mass murder
1990s English-language films
1990s American films

The Rage: Carrie 2


The 1954 Carrera Panamericana was the fifth and final running of the Carrera Panamericana Mexican sports car racing event, run from November 19–23, 1954. It was the sixth and final race of the 1954 World Sportscar Championship. The race was run from Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, over 8 stages and .  150 cars started the race, and 85 finished all 8 stages.  The race was won by Umberto Maglioli in an Erwin Goldschmidt-entered Ferrari 375 Plus.  He finished the race in 17 hours, 40 minutes, and 26 seconds, averaging .

Pre-race

For 1954, the Touring classes were divided into three classes, over , between , and under .  The Sports classes were divided as before, over and under . This was in order to accommodate the huge number of participants and the diverse breeds of cars within the race.

Going into the race, Ferrari had already won the championship, but victory would ensure the marque would score maximum points for the season. Although no works entries were sent from Italy, there was a number of top quality entrants from both Mexico and the United States, hoping the get that victory on behalf of the Maranello concern.

Heading into the event, pressure was mounting on Mexican government, as the annual death toll from the event caused the country to be shown in a negative light. This wasn't the kind of attention the locals wanted. It had been abundantly clear the days were numbered for the Carrera Panamericana. 1954 would be the last time the event was run in this format, although it did return as a revival event in 1988.

Race

The race was held in eight stages over a total distance of . The race was won overall by Umberto Maglioli in a Ferrari 375 Plus. Maglioli finished the race in , his average speed of  reflected the level of professionalism and technology that led the field: the inaugural 1950 event had been won in an average speed of - and the winner had taken 10 hours longer to complete the race distance.  Phil Hill and Richie Ginther took second place in another Ferrari, over 24 minutes behind.  The under-1500 sports car class winner Hans Herrmann finished third in his Porsche 550, closely followed by Jaroslav Juhan in his Porsche 550 Spyder, a further 87 minutes behind the Americans.  Ray Crawford and Enrique Iglesias won the over-3500 stock car class in a Lincoln, the European stock car class was won by Consalvo Sanesi and Giuseppe Cagna in an Alfa Romeo, and the small U.S. stock car class was won by Tommy Drisdale and Walter Krause, Jr. in a Dodge.

A number of the sedans from the US failed to make it through the first stage of the race. The Austin-Healey 100S of Englishman, Lance Macklin struggled from ignition troubles and retired before completing the first stage. The Ferrari 375 Plus of Jack McAfee and Ford Robinson had an accident that provided the first fatality, with the death of Robinson. Sadly, there would be fatality, when Leopoldo Olvera Zabado died following an accident on the fifth stage.

The Californian pairing of Hill and Ginther continued to look impressive, making it through the second stage in their Allen Guiberson-entered Ferrari 375 MM without incident and remaining close to the front of the overall standing. However, another American was not going so well: Carroll Shelby suffered an accident while driving his Austin-Healey 100S. Frustrated with his team-mate, Ray Jackson-Moore's slow pace, Shelby supposedly removed Jackson-Moore's seat and took off on his own.

As the event progressed, the list of cars remaining grew shorter and shorter. Many of the strong competitors were either out of the race, or behind the leading Ferraris of Maglioli and Hill/Ginther. The two Americans continued to chase hard to rein in solo-driving Maglioli. It was a 375 MM spyder chasing after a 375 Plus, with still a long way to go before anyone could celebrate. After  there was very little time separating the two cars.

Despite feeling the pressure, Maglioli  strengthened his grip and did not make any mistakes in the closing stages of the race, finishing nearly 25 minutes ahead of Hill and Ginther.

Californian hot rodder Ak Miller became famous by finishing seventh overall, in his Oldsmobile-powered 1927 Ford.

Only months after its introduction in Mexico, the local distributor entered seven Volkswagen Beetles in order to prove their reliability and to make the car known. To maintain the given time bracket, they were required to keep an average speed of , but had achieved  during the reconnaissance runs, so expectations to finish inside the time limits were high. As they were using standard Volkswagen engines, the cars were driving bumper-to-bumper in order reduce air resistance as available power was limited. By the time the event got to Ciudad Juárez, all seven Beetles were still within the given time limit, none was disqualified, with Alfonso de Hohenlohe and Alberto Álvarez coming home in 78th place overall (7th in class), albeit, the Beetles filled seven of the last eight finishing positions.

Official Classification

Results

Class winners are marked in bold.

Class Winners

Standings after the race

References

Further reading

John Pickworth. Carrera Panamericana. John Morton Pickworth. .
Daryl E. Murphy. Carrera Panamericana: History of the Mexican Prad Race, 1950-54. iUniverse, Inc.
Johnny Tipler. La Carrera Panamericana: The World's Greatest Road Race. Authors Online Ltd.

Carrera Panamericana
Carrera Panamericana
Carrera Panamericana
November 1954 sports events in Mexico

1954 Carrera Panamericana


Pikine is a city in the Pikine Department of the Dakar Region of Senegal.  Lying to the east of Dakar city centre, at the 2013 Census it had a population of 1,170,791.  The department includes the villages of Yeumbeul, Thiaroye, Mbao, and Keur Massar Malika.  Until the mid-2000s, it also included Guédiawaye, which now forms a separate Department.

The city was founded in 1952 by the colonial government for former residents of Dakar who were relocated for new developments.  This original city is now known as "Old Pikine", while an informal community has grown up around it.

The Grande Niaye de Pikine, a green area known for market gardening, lies to the north west of Pikine.

The Mbeubeusse Landfill, the only waste facility in the Dakar region is located in Pikine.

Notable people
Pape Cissé, footballer
Mbaye Diagne, military officer and United Nations Military observer who was credited with saving many lives during the Rwandan genocide grew up in Pikine
Aïssatou Diamanka-Besland, writer
Bamba Dieng, footballer
Cheikhou Dieng, footballer
Oumar Diouck, footballer
Amadou Hott, Minister of Economy, Planning and International Cooperation of Senegal
Andreas Manga, footballer
Momar Ndoye, footballer
Mamadou Seck, politician
Thione Seck, singer and songwriter.

Gallery

References
GeoHive: Senegal
Quartiers du Monde: Histoires Urbaines
Projet urbaDTK
RUAF Foundation: Pikine (Dakar - Senegal)

Populated places in Dakar Region
Communes of Senegal

Pikine


Kington Castle stood in the medieval market town of Kington in Herefordshire, England (). It was built in the 11th century and destroyed in 1215.

History

The castle was located on the north-west side of the present town of Kington above the Back Brook, in Castle Hill.  Around the end of the 11th century William Rufus granted the estates in and around Kington to Adam Port and it is likely that he built the first castle here.  One of his descendants, also called Adam Port, was in dispute with Henry II and as a consequence of this the castle was forfeited to the crown.

In the late 12th century, William Braose held the castle for many years in his capacity as High Sheriff of Herefordshire. In 1201, King John granted the castle and barony to him as his favourite Marcher Baron. However, another dispute arose, and the castle returned to the crown again, later to be granted to King John's supporter Roger Clifford in 1213. In 1215, members of the de Braose family attacked the castle, and in an act of vengeance, King John destroyed it. No further fortifications have been made on the same site.

References
 Fry, Plantagenet Somerset, The David & Charles Book of Castles, David & Charles, 1980, p. 249.

Castles in Herefordshire
Kington, Herefordshire

Kington Castle


Yemenite architecture  is the name of the Architecture style of Yemen from the Pre-Islamic period until the Islamic period.  today. Particularly notable in this style is the design of the buildings in which Islam began to spread in this country. This style of architecture is mainly characterized by the construction of mud bricks and residential buildings in the form of tall towers and sometimes even large boulders intertwined between dwellings. in southern Saudi Arabia some of villages close to the border of Yemen are having an architectural style similar to Yemen.

Other websites

Yemen
Architecture

Yemenite architecture


Otto Gottlieb Mohnike (27 July 1814 – 26 January 1887) was a German physician and naturalist who was a native of Stralsund. He was the son of philologist Gottlieb Mohnike (1781–1841).

He received his education in medicine at the Universities of Greifswald and Bonn, and following his studies, returned to Stralsund to practice medicine. From 1844 to 1869 he was a doctor in the services of the Dutch military, afterwards working as a physician in Bonn, where he died on 26 January 1887.

Mohnike is remembered for implementing the first successful nationwide smallpox vaccination in Japan. Previous attempts at vaccination in Japan had failed due to vaccines losing their effectiveness while being transported on long sea journeys. In 1849 he instituted the practice of delivering fresh cowpox vaccine from Batavia in the Dutch East Indies to the Japanese port of Nagasaki, thus creating a sharp reduction of smallpox in Japan. Afterwards, he conducted research as a naturalist on Java, Sumatra, Celebes and the Moluccas.

Publications
 Die Cetoniden der Philippinischen Inseln, 1873.
 Banka und Palembang nebst Mittheilungen über Sumatra im Allgemeinen, 1874.

References
 This article is based on a translation of an equivalent article at the German Wikipedia.

19th-century German physicians
German naturalists
People from Stralsund
1814 births
1887 deaths
University of Bonn alumni
University of Greifswald alumni

Otto Gottlieb Mohnike


Challwa Q'asa (Quechua challwa fish, q'asa mountain pass, "fish pass", also spelled Chayhuajasa) is a mountain in the Wansu mountain range in the Andes of Peru, about  high. It is located in the Arequipa Region, La Unión Province, Puyca District. It lies northwest of Chhijmuni and Wayta Urqu.

References

Mountains of Peru
Mountains of Arequipa Region

Challwa Q'asa


Adam FitzRoy (c. 1307 - 18 September 1322) was an illegitimate son of King Edward II of England. The identity of Adam's mother is not known. He accompanied his father in the Scottish campaigns of 1322, and died shortly afterwards on 18 September 1322.

Adam is named as Ade filio domini Regis bastardo ("Adam, bastard son of the lord king") in Edward II's Wardrobe account of 1322. Between 6 June and 18 September that year, Adam was given a total of thirteen pounds and twenty-two pence to buy himself "equipment and other necessaries" (armatura et alia necessaria) to take part in Edward's Scottish campaign that autumn. This suggests he was somewhere in his teens, born between about 1303 and 1309.

The money was paid in five instalments, either to Adam directly or to his 'magister' (tutor) Hugh Chastilloun. Adam died during the campaign, of unknown causes, and was buried at Tynemouth Priory on 30 September 1322; his father paid for a silk cloth with gold thread to be placed over his body.

No other references to him have yet been discovered.

Sources
 Seymour Phillips, Edward II (2010), pp. 102, 428–9
 F.D. Blackley, "Adam, the bastard son of Edward II", Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, xxxvii (1964), pp. 76–7.
 British Library Stowe MS 553.

1300s births
1322 deaths
Illegitimate children of English monarchs
14th-century English people
Year of birth unknown
Edward II of England
Sons of kings

Adam FitzRoy


Simon was a 13th-century prelate based in Moray, Scotland. Professor Donald Watt has shown (Fasti, 219), through the extrapolation of indirect evidence, that his surname was almost certainly "de Gunby".

He occurs as Dean of Moray in 1230. Simon held this position until, after the death of Andreas de Moravia, he was elected as the new Bishop of Moray. A Papal mandate of 3 March 1244, from Pope Innocent IV authorized the Bishop of Caithness (Gilbert de Moravia) and one Martin, clerk of the papal Camera Apostolica, to inquire about the legality of the election and if appropriate confirm and consecrate Simon. This process was apparently successful for Simon, as he held the episcopate until his death in 1251.

References
 Dowden, John, The Bishops of Scotland, ed. J. Maitland Thomson, (Glasgow, 1912)
 Keith, Robert, An Historical Catalogue of the Scottish Bishops: Down to the Year 1688, (London, 1924)
 Watt, D.E.R., Fasti Ecclesiae Scotinanae Medii Aevi ad annum 1638, 2nd Draft, (St Andrews, 1969)

1251 deaths
Bishops of Moray
13th-century Scottish Roman Catholic bishops
Clergy from Lincolnshire
Apostolic Camera
Year of birth unknown
Deans of Moray, Ross and Caithness

Simon de Gunby


Old Bill is a fictional character created in 1914–15 by cartoonist Bruce Bairnsfather.  Old Bill was depicted as an elderly, pipe-smoking British "tommy" with a walrus moustache.  The character achieved a great deal of popularity during World War I where it was considered a major morale booster for the British troops. Old Bill and his younger troopmate little Alphie were private infantrymen in the British Expeditionary Force.

Many claims have been put forth as being the model for "Old Bill" but the most likely appears to be Thomas Henry Rafferty, a lance corporal from Birmingham in Bairnsfather's regiment, the Royal Warwickshires, who was killed in the same action that invalided Bairnsfather in April 1915. Rafferty was featured in the Weekly Dispatch in 1917, referred to as "Old Bill," along with a photograph taken by Bairnsfather.

Adaptations

In 1917, a successful musical based on the character, The Better 'Ole, opened in London at the Oxford Music Hall, where it ran for over 800 performances, starring Arthur Bourchier as Old Bill.  It later also ran successfully on Broadway, where Charles Coburn starred as Old Bill. The success of the piece led to a West End  sequel, Old Bill, M.P., which opened at the Lyceum Theatre, London on 12 July 1922. Old Bill was played by Edmund Gwenn, and Bairnsfather appeared as himself.  Unlike The Better 'Ole, the later piece was not a musical. It ran until 11 November 1922. The character was played by Johnny Danvers in the 1925 musical comedy Carry On Sergeant! at the New Oxford Theatre but the piece failed, running for only 35 performances.

Two film adaptations of The Better 'Ole  were made during the silent era.  The first, a 1919 British version, starred Charles Rock as Bill.  The second version was a 1926 Warner Bros. production. This film—the second feature to use the Vitaphone sound process—starred Syd Chaplin as Old Bill.

In 1941 a British film Old Bill and Son updated the story to the Second World War with Old Bill serving with British troops in France along with his son during the phony war period.

Cultural impact

Bill & Alphie's, the Royal Military College of Canada on-campus cadet pub in Kingston, Ontario is named after Bruce Bairnsfather's Great War cartoon characters. Yeo Hall at the Royal Military College of Canada features sculptures of Bill and Alphie.

One of the explanations of the origin of the London slang term Old Bill, meaning the police, is that constables often used to sport "Old Bill" moustaches.

A 1911 B-type London bus, one of 900 which served as troop transports in World War I, was restored and named "Old Bill" in 1926. It is now preserved in the Imperial War Museum.

Captain Bruce Bainsfather in an interview in the London Weekly Despatch 1917 identified the image of Thomas Henry Rafferty as the original Old Bill.

A North British Railways locomotive, of NBR Class C, number 661, was named Ole Bill in 1919 in recognition of service overseas in The Great War. This locomotive was later renumbered 9661 after the London North Eastern Railway was formed at railway grouping in 1923.

Notes

External links

Mark Warby's Bruce Bairnsfather site [archived site ]

British comics
Comics characters introduced in 1914
Comics set during World War I
Fictional soldiers
1914 comics debuts
British comics characters
Gag cartoon comics
Gag-a-day comics
Military comics
Comics set in the United Kingdom
British comics adapted into films
Comics adapted into plays
Male characters in comics
Animated human characters
Fictional World War I veterans

Old Bill (comics)