Christa Luft ( Hecht; 22 February 1938) is a German economist and politician of the SED/PDS.
Luft joined the SED in 1958. From 18 November 1989 to 18 March 1990, she was the Minister of Economics in the Modrow government. From 1994 to 2002 she was member of the Bundestag for the PDS.

From 1963 to 1971 Luft was registered as a Stasi informant under the code name IM Gisela.

Life

Provenance and early years
Christa Hecht was born into a working-class family at Krakow am See, a small market town in the flat countryside to the south of Rostock in northern central Germany. Her father worked as a master machinist. at the VEB Mathias-Thesen-Werft Wismar ship building business in Wismar. Her mother was in charge of a schools kitchen. Her father was away for years at a time during the war, but after 1944 he came safely home, and while she was still small the family moved to Wismar in connection with her father's work. She attended junior school in Bobitz between 1945 and 1952, and then upper school at Grevesmühlen, still in the Rostock area. Like most of her contemporaries, she joined the Free German Youth ("Freie Deutsche Jugend)" / FDJ) in 1952, remaining a member till 1964.

Shortly before the end of her penultimate year at secondary school she was one of four students – two boys and two girls – picked out by the school director to complete her schooling at the prestigious Workers' and Peasants' Faculty attached to Halle University in the central part of what had become, in October 1949, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany -) formerly the Soviet Occupation Zone). Her selection held out the possibility of the chance to travel abroad in the future – which in the context of the time and place meant the Soviet Union or the other fraternal socialist member states of the recently launched Warsaw Pact. It was to facilitate the possibility of international exchange that at Halle much of the teaching took place not in German but in Russian. She was also required to attend an interview before arrangements could be finalised, which from a western perspective seems to have been intended to verify her "political reliability". She was able to confirm that she had no close relatives beyond the increasingly impenetrable "inner frontier" in "the other Germany", and knew to keep her indignation to herself when asked almost casually how she felt about the church. Inwardly she thought the matter was none of the business of her interviewers, but the reply she gave, as she would recall it many years later, was restricted to the observation that she enjoyed listening to organ concerts. Before agreeing to the move she had obtained her parents' advice on it, and during her time at Halle she used to return home on the train to the north of the country regularly. She would later tell an interviewer that early on she nurtured ambitions of working in Veterinary medicine, but during her time at Halle it became clear that this was not an option:  her ambition and enthusiasm switched to Economics, albeit always with a special focus on foreign trade. Passing her Abitur (school final exams) as a student at the Workers' and Peasants' Faculty in 1956 opened the way to university level education, and she enrolled as a student at the College of Foreign Trade ("Hochschule für Außenhandel") in Berlin-Slaken, then moving on to the Berlin Economics College ("Hochschule für Ökonomie Berlin"/ HfÖ) at Berlin-Karlshorst where her teachers included Helmut Koziolek, and from where she emerged in 1960 with a degree in Economics.

Staying on at the Berlin Economics College ("Hochschule für Ökonomie Berlin" / HfÖ)
Following her graduation she stayed on at the HfÖ as a research assistant, working for her doctorate which she received in 1964. Her doctoral dissertation concerned "The key influences of socialist international division of labour and foreign trade on the beneficial impact for societal labour (investigated using an East German example)" (" Die wesentlichen Einflüsse der sozialistischen internationalen Arbeitsteilung und des Außenhandels auf den Nutzeffekt gesellschaftlicher Arbeit (untersucht am Beispiel der Empfängerröhrenindustrie der DDR)"). Her supervisors were Gertrud Gräbig and Manfred Funke. Between 1964 and 1968 she stayed at the HfÖ as an academic employee, with co-responsibility for creating a new academic discipline, that of "socialist foreign trade" ("Leitung des sozialistischen Außenhandels"), under the direction of Erich Freund, the founding director back in 1954 of the "Foreign Trade Academy" ("Hochschule für Außenhandel") and co-chairman (from the East German side) of the Committee for inter-German trade. She travelled to the west with this working group in 1966 for a study visit to the Krupp heavy-industry conglomerate in Essen:  they also visited Bremen for a meeting with Carl Katz, the co-chairman (from the West German side) of the Committee for inter-German trade. In 1968 Luft received her habilitation, a higher academic qualification which would have opened the way to a full-time academic career, though her own career trajectory would include a parallel political channel. Her dissertation again addressed the interface between political socialism and foreign trade ("Zur bewussten Ausnutzung der dialektischen Einheit ökonomischer und psychologischer Marktfaktoren beim Export der DDR nach dem sozialistischen Wirtschaftsgebiet sowie nach kapitalistischen Industrie- und Entwicklungsländern – Das Wesen der Verkaufspsychologie im sozialistischen Außenhandel"). Her habilitation was supervised by Gertrud Gräbig and Horst Tiedtke. Remaining at the HfÖ, in 1968 Luft received a full-time teaching contract in the newly developed academic discipline, "socialist foreign trade" ("Leitung des sozialistischen Außenhandels").

Between 1967 and 1970 she worked as assistant dean ("Prodekanin") for distance learning at the Foreign Trade faculty. In 1971 she accepted a full professorship in Socialist Foreign Economics ("für sozialistische Außenwirtschaft ") the HfÖ. Between 1973 and 1977 she served as director of the Socialist Foreign Economics section. She was also a regular visitor to "the Academy for Foreign Trade and Tourism "("Hochschule für Außenhandel und Touristik") at Maribor, a city in the northern part of what was at that time known as Yugoslavia. She held a guest professorship at the academy in Maribor which was a partner institution of the HfÖ. Between 1978 and 1981 she was a deputy director of the "International Institute for the Economic Problems of the Socialist World System" ("Internationalen Instituts für ökonomische Probleme des sozialistischen Weltsystems") attached to the Moscow-controlled Council for Mutual Economic Assistance ("Совет экономической взаимопомощи" / Comecon). She was able to build on her contacts with comrade-academics from other socialist countries, representing The Institute at international gatherings and at conferences organised by the United Nations in Geneva and New York City. After returning the German Democratic Republic, between 1982 and 1987, she again served as dean in the Foreign Economics section at the HfÖ. With the Soviet Union investing heavily in modernising its own engineering and heavy industry sectors, the traditionally complementary economic relationship between the Soviet Union and East Germany was becoming more overtly competitive, and economic pressures were forcing the East German government to try and diversify its trading relationships. As a representative of the largest Economics teaching and research institution in the German Democratic Republic, Luft participated during this time in a succession of international congresses at which she made presentations:  venues included Athens, Madrid and New Delhi. From 1985 Christa Luft was involved in setting up regular one and two term study visits for HfÖ students of Foreign Economics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business ("Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien "). She also initiated a collaboration programme with East European specialists at the Sorbonne (university) in Paris. Out of this there emerged a series of bilateral colloquia in Paris, Lyon and Berlin. In 1987 Christa Luft was appointed a corresponding member of the (East) German Academy of Sciences.

By 1988 the HfÖ in Berlin-Karlshorst had been renamed as the Hochschule für Ökonomie Bruno Leuschner. On 28 October of that year Christa Luft was appointed rector of the institution which had by this time been the focus of her professional and academic life for three decades. The accelerating pace of social and political changes over the next year would mean that she stayed in post for slightly more than one year.

National politics
In 1989 Christa Luft entered politics at a time of national transition. Between 18 November 1989 and 18 March 1990 she served as first of the three vice-chair of the East German Ministerial Council and as Minister of Economics in the Modrow government. During this time she participated alongside Hans Modrow, in January 1990, in the final Comecon meeting. The meeting was held in Sofia and made the important decision to migrate member states towards a system of trade based on freely convertible currencies, and thereby implicitly put an end to the system of fixed exchange rates within the Eastern bloc. Less than a month later she was in Bonn taking part on the first and last joint cabinet meeting between the East and West German governments, again discussing currency exchange rates, this time between East and West Germany. (There was still little appreciation of the speed with which reunification could and would take place later that same year.) The first (and as matters turned out last) free and fair general election ever held in East Germany took place on 18 March 1990. One result of the new approach was that the Socialist Unity Party ("Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands" / SED), struggling to reinvent itself for a democratic future as the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), received only 66 of the 400 seats in the national parliament ("Volkskammer"). It was the first time since the foundation of the German Democratic Republic back in October 1949 that the SED) and its proxies had not commanded a comfortable majority in the chamber. Christa Luft was one of the 66 SED/PDS members, elected for the Karl-Marx-Stadt (previously and subsequently Chemnitz) electoral district. She served as chair of the parliamentary budget committee. Nevertheless, with her party excluded from the governing coalition under Prime Minister Lothar de Maizière, she no longer held ministerial office. The Economics Ministry now went to Gerhard Pohl of the centre-right CDU party.

During her time as a national politician Christa Luft retained her links with the HfÖ, in charge of the "East European Economics" ("Osteuropawirtschaft") teaching chair till 1 October 1991, which was when the Berlin senate, a couple of days ahead of reunification, closed down the entire institution.

After reunification
Between 1 October 1991 and 31 October 1994 Luft was a member of the governing executive and a lecturer at the "Berlin Institute for International Education" ("Institut für Internationale Bildung Berlin e.V.") of which she was a co-founder. The focus was to educate a generation Russian speaking economics experts from Russia and the surrounding post-Soviet successor states, especially from Bulgaria and also from China. During this time she accepted a number of invitations to appear as a guest lecturer on the East German experience of political and economic transformation. Within Europe she delivered such presentations at St. Gallen, Mülheim an der Ruhr and the Free University of Berlin. Farther afield she also shared her insights in China and in Vietnam.

As part of the unification process 144 members of the East German Volkskammer, including 24 of the PDS members, transferred to the enlarged Bundestag of a reunited Germany. Christa Luft was not one of them. However, she stood for election in the 1994, when the PDS experienced a modest recovery, increasing the number of its seats from 17 to 30. Luft's candidacy, which was as a "directly elected" member for the Berlin-Friedrichshain-Lichtenberg electoral district, was successful, with 44.4% of the first preference votes: between 1994 and 2002 she served as a PDS member of the Bundestag. Between 1998 and 2002 she served as chair of the PDS group in the chamber and as the party's parliamentary spokesperson on Economics and budgetary matters.

Later years
Christa Luft regularly wrote a column on politics and economics in Neues Deutschland between 2002 and 2012, in a feature that also included regular contributions from Harry Nick, Robert Kurz and Rudolf Hickel. She remains engaged as a commentator and author.

Memberships
Christa Luft has been a member of the Learned Leibnitz Society since 1993. She is a member of the German Association for East European Studies ("Deutsche Gesellschaft für Osteuropakunde") and of the OWUS ("(Offener Wirtschaftsverband von kleinen und mittelständischen Unternehmen, Freiberuflern und Selbständigen e. V.)"). She was the first chairperson of the OWUS.

Between 2002 and 2008 Christa Luft chaired the Kuratorium (loosely, "board of trustees") of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. For the subsequent five years, till 2013, she was an elected member of the foundation's executive committee.

Stasi shadows
During her time as a member of the East German parliament ("Volkskammer") at the end of 1989 Luft volunteered to undergo a check to see whether and how she might feature in the surviving Ministry for State Security (Stasi) files. Nothing incriminatory was identified. Luft herself had denied having had any contact with the security services. At this stage there was little appreciation of the size of the Stasi operation nor of the extent to which – despite desperate attempts during the final days of the communist régime to burn the evidence – detailed records of Stasi activities over the previous forty years had survived. Subsequently, after further delving in the Stasi archives revealed that back in 1963, when she was 25, she had signed an undertaking to provide unspecified items of information to the authorities, she stated that she had no recollection of the matter ("Daran erinnere ich mich nicht"). During the early 1990s Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski disclosed to (West) German intelligence that Christa Luft had had links with the HVA The HVA was the department of the Ministry for State Security that dealt with "foreign" intelligence. In reality it had concentrated on West Germany. Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski was a senior politician and trade official with Stasi connections in East Germany. He provided a large amount of information to western intelligence after the collapse of East German's power structure/ He said that Luft had been handled by a Stasi officer known as Manfred Süß, but this turned out to be incorrect.

Luft was a member of the Bundestag between 1994 and 2002: the nature and extent of any past associations she might have had with the Stasi were naturally of interest to the parliamentary authorities. An investigation by the Parliamentary Committee for Election verification, Immunity and Procedure resulted in a careful and detailed report which was published in June 1998. It was established that between 1963 and 1971 Christa Luft had been registered under the cover name "IM Gisela" in connection with an operation undertaken by the Stasi's Main Directorate for Reconnaissance ("Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung" / HVA) section. She had been recruited shortly before receiving her doctorate. On 31 October 1963 she had signed a handwritten "declaration of obligation" statement, of the kind frequently used for informants (" inoffizieller Mitarbeiter") recruited by the Stasi. Later in 1963 she had delivered several (three) "background reports in support of the unmasking of an alleged western spy. However, this was only a 'dummy case' case, used to test her reliability". Luft never denied the existence of the assignment, although her recollections of it, at a detailed level, were differently nuanced:

"It was 1963. Two men came to my student lodging and showed me their identity badges. I had no idea what the badges were. They asked me: 'Is it right that you're about to receive your doctorate, and you love the college where you study and are maybe interested in staying on there?' I answered, 'Yes'. 'That is what we thought. Well, we suspect there is someone from somewhere or other in the west who is an intelligence agent who is taking a very close interest in the college. Could you maybe meet up with him sometime and see what he wants?' I was without suspicion and I was very attached to my college. [I had no sense of being pressured or blackmailed.] ... so there I was, where I had been told, in the Coffee/Milk Bar in central Berlin for the tea dance. And there he was sitting at a table .... to cut a long story short, yes. ... What was he doing there? what were his interests? he likes drinking cognac and Pipapo, that sort of stuff .... I met him two or three times, and then I said I had other things to do. Then I was confronted in 1995 with ....".

The investigating Parliamentary Committee reported in addition that Luft had declared herself, "from 1965, prepared to act as a 'cover address' for receiving postal items on behalf of the Mfs. From the available papers [the enquiry could find no sign that] she ever actually had forwarded anything to them", however. They thought she had probably contributed by identifying people who might be recruited for MfS "operational work". The enquiry reported that "from the middle of 1966 till 1971, the point of formal termination on Stasi operations in connection with "IM Gisela", no documents had been provided evidencing "IM activity" by Luft.

By 1995 the Stasi records had been archived and citizens had a statutory right to access them, whether for purposes of academic research or simply to understand what personal information the East German security services had held on their movements and contacts. In June 1995 Christa Luft made a personal application to the Gauck Commission (as the relevant agency was then known) to try and find out what information the Stasis had held on her. In respect of her "IM Gisela" cover name there were no significant surprises. However, she was unnerved to find out that in 1977 the security services had launched a surveillance operation ("Operative Personenkontrolle" / OPK) against her. Luft's work had given her far more access to foreigners than most East German citizens, and there had been concerns that she might betray state secrets to the West German intelligence services. She was particularly troubled to learn that in 1977 the security services had arranged to obtain a duplicate key to her apartment. The key had remained in the hands of the Stasi until the organisation dissolved in 1990. After that it had been handed over to the Stasi Records Agency with all the other papers. Luft was indignant that no one from the records agency had bothered to tell her that they were holding a copy of her front door key.

Awards and honours
 1981 Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze

Notes

References

External links
 Biography from German Bundestag

1938 births
Living people
Female members of the Bundestag
Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany) politicians
Members of the Bundestag for Berlin
Members of the Bundestag 1998–2002
Members of the Bundestag 1994–1998
20th-century German women politicians
21st-century German women politicians
Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin
East German women
People of the Stasi
Members of the Bundestag for the Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany)

Christa Luft


Tyrannion (, Tyranníōn; ;  1st century BC) was a Greek grammarian brought to Rome as a war captive and slave.
He is also known as Tyrannion the Elder, in order to distinguish him from his pupil who is known as Tyrannion the Younger.

Tyrannion was a native of Amisus in Pontus, the son of Epicratides, or according to some accounts, of Corymbus. His mother was Lindia.
He was a pupil of Hestiaeus of Amisus, and was originally called Theophrastus, but received from his instructor the name of Tyrannion ("the tyrant") on account of his domineering behaviour to his fellow disciples. He afterwards studied under Dionysius the Thracian at Rhodes.

In 72 BC he was taken captive by Lucullus, who carried him to Rome. At the request of Lucius Licinius Murena, Tyrannion was handed over to him, upon which he emancipated him, an act with which Plutarch finds fault, as the emancipation involved a recognition of his having been a slave, which does not seem to have been the light in which Lucullus regarded him.

At Rome, Tyrannion occupied himself in teaching. He was also employed in arranging the library of Apellicon, which Sulla brought to Rome. Cicero employed him in a similar manner, and speaks in the highest terms of the learning and ability which Tyrannion exhibited in these labours. Cicero also availed himself of his services in the instruction of his nephew Quintus. Strabo speaks of having received instruction from Tyrannion.

The geographical knowledge of Tyrannion seems to have been considerable; at any rate Cicero thought highly of it. Tyrannion amassed considerable wealth, and, according to the scarcely credible statement of the Suda, collected himself a library of 30,000 volumes. Cicero alludes to a small work of his, but we do not learn the subject of it. Tyrannion died at a very advanced age of a paralytic stroke.

References

1st-century BC Greek people
1st-century BC Romans
Ancient Greek grammarians
Ancient Greek slaves and freedmen

Tyrannion of Amisus


Gary 'Gazzo' Osbourne (born 1960) is a British street magician. Osbourne moved to the US in the 1980s, where he befriended Walter Irving Scott, also known as The Phantom. He is Scott's only pupil and the only person with whom Scott entrusted his biography and life's work at card cheating and sleights.

Legacy

Gazzo is now living in Key West, United States, and continues to give lectures and performances around the world and perform street magic. He has published several magic related books, manuscripts and DVDs.

Gazzo suffered a life-changing stroke on March 21, 2023, (two days before his sixty-third birthday) in Key West, FL (while performing at Malory Square). He was admitted to Lower Keys Medical Center. The new stroke affected the right side of his body. He previously suffered a stroke in 1994 that affected his left side. He spent his 63rd birthday in the hospital, unable to walk, broken, in tears, and (slurring his words) barely able to speak.

Osbourne's condition has slowly grown better with much support from the rest of the magician community.

Appearances
Gazzo appeared on the seventh episode of Penn & Teller: Fool Us, where he performed his rendition of cups and balls for Penn & Teller to win an opportunity to open their show in Las Vegas. Though the duo knew how the trick was done, they praised Gazzo for his rendition of the trick, stating that he did it "perfectly" and "better than us".

References

1960 births
Living people
British magicians

Gazzo (magician)


The Foreign Claims Act, (-2736), or FCA, is a United States federal law enacted on January 2, 1942, that provides compensation to inhabitants of foreign countries for personal injury, death, or property damage caused by, or incident to noncombat activities of United States military personnel overseas. Although the U.S. Government's scope of liability under the FCA is broad, certain classes of claimants and certain types of claims are excluded from the statute's coverage. Procedures for adjudicating an FCA claim are substantially different from the general procedural pattern for other types of claims against the government. Chapter VIII, part B, of the Judge Advocate General's Corps Manual prescribes the requirements for the investigation and adjudication of FCA claims.

See also
Solatium

External links
US code collection

1942 in American law
United States federal defense and national security legislation
1942 in international relations

Foreign Claims Act


North Northamptonshire is one of two local government districts in Northamptonshire, England. It is a unitary authority area forming about one half of the ceremonial county of Northamptonshire. It was created in 2021. Its notable towns are Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough, Rushden, Raunds, Desborough, Rothwell, Irthlingborough, Thrapston and Oundle. The council is based at the Corby Cube in Corby.

It has a string of lakes along the Nene Valley Conservation Park, associated heritage railway, the village of Fotheringhay which has tombs of the House of York as well as a towering church supported by flying buttresses. This division has a well-preserved medieval castle in private hands next to Corby – Rockingham Castle – and about 20 other notable country houses, many of which have visitor gardens or days.

History
North Northamptonshire was created on 1 April 2021 by the merger of the four non-metropolitan districts of Corby, East Northamptonshire, Kettering, and Wellingborough. It absorbed the functions of these districts, plus those of the abolished Northamptonshire County Council.

In March 2018, following financial and cultural mismanagement by the cabinet and officers at Northamptonshire County Council, the then Secretary of State for Local Government, Sajid Javid, sent commissioner Max Caller into the council, who recommended the county council and all-district and borough councils in the county be abolished, and replaced by two unitary authorities, one covering the West, and one the North of the county. These proposals were approved in April 2019. It meant that the districts of Daventry, Northampton, and South Northamptonshire were merged to form a new unitary authority called West Northamptonshire, whilst the second unitary authority North Northamptonshire consists of the former Corby, East Northamptonshire, Kettering, and Wellingborough districts.

Council

Elections for a shadow authority were due to be held on Thursday 7 May 2020, but were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These elections were instead held on 6 May 2021 and the Conservatives won a majority of seats. The Council comprises 78 councillors elected across 26 wards.

The Council logo depicts Rockingham Castle, the River Welland and a Red kite - a bird of prey that has become strongly associated with the county of Northamptonshire and is particularly commonplace in the north-eastern parts of the county around Corby and Rockingham Forest.

Settlements and parishes
Achurch, Aldwincle, Apethorpe, Ashley, Ashton
Barnwell, Barton Seagrave, Benefield, Blatherwycke, Bozeat, Brampton Ash, Braybrooke,  Brigstock, Broughton, Bulwick, Burton Latimer
Chelveston cum Caldecott, Clopton, Corby, Collyweston, Cotterstock, Cottingham, Cranford, Cransley
Deene, Deenethorpe, Denford, Desborough, Dingley, Duddington-with-Fineshade
Earls Barton, East Carlton, Easton Maudit, Easton on the Hill, Ecton
Finedon, Fotheringhay
Geddington, Glapthorn, Grafton Underwood, Great Addington, Great Doddington, Great Harrowden, Grendon, Gretton,
Hardwick, Hargrave, Harrington, Harringworth, Hemington, Higham Ferrers
Irchester, Irthlingborough, Islip, Isham
Kettering, King's Cliffe
Laxton, Lilford-cum-Wigsthorpe, Little Addington, Little Harrowden, Little Irchester, Loddington, Lowick, Luddington, Lutton
Mawsley, Mears Ashby, Middleton
Nassington, Newton and Little Oakley, Newton Bromswold
Orlingbury, Orton, Oundle
Pilton, Polebrook, Pytchley
Raunds, Ringstead, Rockingham, Rothwell, Rushden, Rushton
Shotley, Southwick, Stanion, Stanwick, Stoke Doyle, Stoke Albany, Strixton, Sudborough, Sutton Bassett, Sywell
Tansor, Thorpe Malsor, Thorpe Waterville, Thrapston, Thurning, Titchmarsh, Twywell
Wadenhoe, Wakerley, Warkton, Warmington, Weekley, Weldon, Wellingborough, Weston by Welland, Wilbarston, Wilby, Wollaston, Northamptonshire,Woodford, Woodnewton, Wollaston
Yarwell

See also
2019–2023 structural changes to local government in England
2021 North Northamptonshire Council election
West Northamptonshire for the other unitary authority created in Northamptonshire in April 2021.

References

External links

North Northamptonshire Council

Unitary authority districts of England
Non-metropolitan districts of Northamptonshire

North Northamptonshire


Vapor Drawings (1983) is the debut solo album by the American trumpeter/synthesist Mark Isham.

It was the first album released on the Windham Hill label to belong to the electronic music genre. This album focuses more on Isham's talents as an electronic composer than future releases. "Something Nice for My Dog" is purely electronic and "Men Before the Mirror" only features a brief segment of trumpet at the beginning.

The tone of the album ranges from sweeping and melancholy ("On the Threshold of Liberty", "In the Blue Distance") to light and humorous ("Something Nice for My Dog", "Mr. Moto's Penguin").

The most experimental piece on the album is "Sympathy and Acknowledgement", the full title of the song being "Thank you for your Sympathy and Acknowledgement of my Disease". This piece is centered on a complex arrangement of electronic sequences and processed trumpet and piano recordings.

The most famous piece on the album is a military-style march titled "On the Threshold of Liberty". Over the years this piece has appeared on several Windham Hill samplers. A reworking of this piece was used as the theme of the 2000 film Rules of Engagement starring Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones. "On the Threshold of Liberty" takes its title from a 1929 painting by the Belgian surrealist René Magritte.

All instrumentation was performed by Isham except additional electronic percussion and snare drum by former Group 87 drummer Peter Van Hooke.

Track listing
"Many Chinas" – 4:05
"Sympathy and Acknowledgement" – 8:17
"On the Threshold of Liberty" – 7:27
"When Things Dream" – 2:43
"Raffles in Rio" – 4:38
"Something Nice for My Dog" – 2:49
"Men Before the Mirror" – 6:07
"Mr. Moto's Penguin (Who'd Be an Eskimo's Wife?)" – 3:18
"In the Blue Distance" – 4:06

References

1983 debut albums
Mark Isham albums
Windham Hill Records albums

Vapor Drawings


The psalterion (Greek ψαλτήριον) is a stringed, plucked instrument, an ancient Greek harp. Psalterion was a general word for harps in the latter part of the 4th century B.C. It meant "plucking instrument".

In addition to their most important stringed instrument, the seven-stringed lyre, the Greeks also used multi-stringed, finger-plucked instruments: harps. The general name for these was the psalterion. Ancient vase paintings often depict – almost always in the hands of women – various types of harps. Names found in written sources include pektis, trigonos, magadis, sambuca, epigonion. These names could denote instruments of this type.

Unlike the lyres, the harp was rarely used in Greece. It was seen as an "outside instrument" from the Orient. It also touched on Greek social mores, being used mainly by women, both upper-class women as well as hetaerae entertainers. There was a group of women known as psaltriai, female pluckers of the instrument who could be hired for parties. Anacreon, poet of drinking and love (and infatuation, disappointment, revelry, parties, festivals, and observations of everyday people), sang of playing the Lydian harp and pektis in his works.

The "most important" harps were the psaltêrion, the mágadis and the pēktis. The Latin equivalent of the word, psalterium, has been the name of many-stringed box zithers or board zithers since the Middle Ages.

History

Harps probably evolved from the most ancient type of stringed instrument, the musical bow. In its simplest version, the sound body of the bowed harp and its neck, which grows out as an extension, form a continuous bow similar to an up-bowed bow, with the strings connecting the ends of the bow. Such an instrument was already used by the Sumerians around 3400 BC and the Egyptians in 2500 BC. In Mesopotamia around 2000 BC, a new type of harp, the angular harp, took its place; it appeared in Egypt after a few centuries later. In the angular harp, the neck of the instrument is connected to the body at a right angle, and in later periods at an acute angle. This type is from the 2nd millennium BC, and it also appears in Cypriot depictions.

In the Aegean Sea area, in the 3rd millennium BC, the Cycladic culture left behind marble figurines depicting men with harps. These are the oldest representations known in the history of musical instruments in which a frame harp can be recognized. They show a harp whose body and neck are connected by a third element, a column, thereby completing the complete triangular shape of the instrument. Researchers believe that they discovered a similar instrument on some of the seal presses of the Minoan civilization from the period between 1900 and 1700 BC.

In the following thousand years, in the Greek Bronze Age and then in the early Iron Age, there are hardly any traces of the harp in the Aegean region. The first data appears around 600 BC, and in the Greek visual arts the harp appears from the middle of the 5th century BC. Written sources link the harp to Asia Minor, in Lydia.

The Romans never accepted the harp, and its occurrence in iconography is exceptional. There was no word for harp in Latin. Juvenal describes it as chordæ obliquæ ("oblique strings").

The European harp of the Middle Ages, and today, can be considered to be related to the Greek psaltery based only on its musical classification; it is apparently based on a tradition radically different from the Greek tradition, and is probably of Celtic origin.

Differences between Greek vs. modern harps
Compared to modern European harps, Greek angular and frame harps stand "upside down" when used. Their position is just the opposite of that which is common with today's western harps; the thin bar-shaped neck rests horizontally on the left thigh of the seated musician, while the body of the instrument connected to it is curved along the musician's upper body, stretching and widening and bending back towards the end. The strings sit vertically, the shorter, higher-tuned strings closer to the musician, the lower ones further away. At the bottom of the neck, each string is connected to a leather ring (like the tuning ring known from the Greek lyres) that enables tuning. Sometimes there is a second bar under this bar, parallel to it, perhaps taking some of the load and protecting the tuning rings from moving while playing.

Harps in paintings and vases

In the ancient Greek representations and vase paintings from the second half of the 5th century BC, harps appear in a variety of forms: there have been mentioned three distinct types: angular harps, frame harps, and spindle harps. A fourth type also existed: arched harps or bow harps.

Bow harps
Bow harps, a type of arched harp, form a half-oval or half-circle shape without sharp angles. The Egyptians had tall vertical bow harps and smaller harps held horizontally. The images of small bow harps in Greek paintings are similar to the smaller Egyptian bow harps or the modern African enanga.

The Greeks used the tall vertical bow-harp, but rarely. It has been found in a single work of art, according to Curt Sachs. An image of that harp was published in the Colour Encyclopedia of Musical Instruments by Alexander Buchner, Prague, 1980

Angular harps

One type is an open angular harp, i.e., a type of harp whose neck and body form an angle with each other with no column to form the third side of the triangle. This was a typical pattern for Asian harps.

Frame harps
Another type is very similar to the previous one, but a significant difference is that it is a frame harp, so a column connects the ends of the neck and body. Such a solution enables a higher string load and, consequently, a higher volume.

"Spindle" Harp

A spindle harp is a frame harp shaped like an isosceles triangle. The soundboard's body is spindle-shaped, bulging in the middle and tapers at the ends. The shape may have been an awareness of acoustic properties, which are now labeled "exponential string-length distribution", used in the shape of modern concert harps.

The third type, the spindle harp, appears on vase paintings only until the end of the 5th century. Similar to the previous types, the thin, bar-like neck of the instrument is horizontal with the tuning apparatus below. Still, surprisingly here, the column is closer to the musician's body; the spindle-shaped (tapering at each end) body forms the far side of the instrument's triangle. The longer, deeper tuned strings are thus closer to the musician, the high ones further away.

In one representation of the spindle-harp, the strings are not vertical but diagonal, so that the longest string runs from the apex of the triangle, where the neck and column meet, to the center of the spindle-like body, with increasingly shorter strings running parallel to it on both sides. This could also be the painter's mistake, but it is not without a certain logic: the deepest string runs to the widest, most deeply resonating part of the body, and the others run to ever-thinning parts of the body, according to their tuning.

Harps in Greek literature

Pektis, trigonus

In poetry, there are earlier references to the vase images: From the beginning of the 6th century B.C. onwards, a musical instrument identified as a harp, called paktis or pektis (πηκτίς), appears in the works of Sappho, Alkaios, Anacreon and Pindar. Classical Greek writers described it as a hand-plucked, multi-stringed instrument of Lydian origin, characterized by playing in some kind of octave parallelism. Attic writers mention a trigon or trigonos (τρίγωνος = 'triangular'), which is considered to be different from the pektis, but similar in that it is "many-stringed;" in some places it is also called trigonon psalterion. Although there is no evidence for this, the spindle-harp with an emphatically triangular shape depicted on the vase images can perhaps be paralleled with the trigonos, and the péktis of Sappho and Alkaios can be related to the anglular harp and the frame harp, those with a curved body shape.

Mágadis
The word Mágadis (μάγαδις) appears first in a quote by Alkman, then in a fragment of Anacreon, to cause a serious puzzle for posterity. In Anacreon's text, magadis is connected to the plucking of a twenty-stringed instrument, which is obviously a harp, but it is not at all certain that its name would be magadis. Several scholars of later antiquity identified it as the name of a musical instrument, but could not decide whether it was actually the name of a harp, kithara or aulos, and if it belonged to a harp, then whether it was the same as pektis.

Curt Sachs said that the magadis was "called ancient and of Lydian origin." He said it was mentioned in the 7th century B.C. by the poet Alkman, a Lydian living in Sparta. Sachs thought it played with the fingers, a twenty-stringed instrument with its strings tuned in pairs, in octaves.

The verb magadizo (μαγαδίζω) primarily refers to a musical performance in choral singing, but perhaps also in aulos play, in which the melody is played in octave parallelism. According to this, magadis can refer to a pektis with strings made for this type of playing, possibly doubled in octaves, but it is also possible that in the fragment of Anacreón and elsewhere, the word does not refer to a separate instrument, but to this specific sound and playing technique itself. Ancient Greek music is basically vocal: the melodies, including the instruments, were mostly limited to the scope of the human voice. The melodies performed on the "many-stringed" psaltery must also have remained within these limits; the range of several octaves could be used to double the melody in octave parallels, or perhaps to echo the basic melody an octave higher or deeper.

Sambuke
The sambuke (σαμβύκη (sambýke); Latin sambuca) is often related to the trigonon and magadis in written sources, but its distinguishing features are not clearly revealed. According to some writers, it was a high-pitched harp with short strings. In the literature of the 4th century BC and later, the term sambukistria, meaning a woman who plays the sambuke, was used for courtesans (as in general, the word psaltria, meaning a female harpist). Sambuca in Roman times was the name of a siege engine, the shape of which resembled the instrument of that name: it was a ladder or crane-like device built on the hulls of ships, with which it was possible to attack fortifications protected by moats or built on the water's edge. Even in ancient times, they could not decide whether the military equipment got its name from the musical instrument, or vice versa.

Sachs decided that the only type of instrument that corresponded to the description of the siege engine as being a boat with an upright ladder was the sambuke. "It has the narrow, boat-shaped body in a horizontal position, and an upright stringholder upon it, the lateral knobs of which give it a ladderlike appearance. Sachs also thought the instrument Mesopotamian or Iranian, corresponding to the sabka angular harp in the orchestra of Nebuchadnezzar II.

In the Middle Ages, sambuca was another name for symphonia, i.e. bagpipes and hurdy-gurdy (sambuca rotata).

Epigonion and simikion
The epigonion (ἐπιγόνειον) had an exceptionally large number of strings, as many as 40. It is said to have been named Epigonos of Siküóni, who lived in the second half of the 6th century B.C., and later it was transformed into a "vertical psalter". The simikion (σιμίκιον) is a musical instrument related to this, but only with 35 strings. According to one hypothesis, the epigonion (and perhaps the simikion also) may have originally belonged to the board-zither family, that is, it consisted of a flat instrument body and strings stretched parallel to its plane from one side to the other. The statement that it was later used in a vertical position suggests that it was initially played horizontally, perhaps while held on the player's knees. It is conceivable that these instruments were originally not made for the purpose of musical performances, but for the study of vocal ranges and pitches.

In the Bible
Among the Old Testament writings, the book of the prophet Daniel contains four passages where musical instruments were shown in the court of Nebuchadnezzar, who reigned at the beginning of the 6th century BC. (Dn 3:5, 7, 10, 15). The part is written in Aramaic, but among the names of the instruments there are some Greek foreign words, including two that mean harps in Greek writers: sabbecha and psanterín.

The sabbecha (שַׂבְּכָא or סַבְּכָא) can be related to the sambuke, but the name of the Greek instrument itself is foreign, of Middle Eastern, perhaps Phoenician origin. In the Bible commentaries of the Middle Ages, they tried to define the musical instrument in many different ways. The early Christian writer Saint Isidore of Seville, for example, classified it among wind instruments, Papias also imagined it as a "people's zither". More recently, it has been identified as a smaller vertically held harp.

The psanterin (פְּסַנְטֵרִין or פְּסַנְתֵּירִין) is a derivative of the psalterion. It is possible that it resembled a harp held horizontally and played with a beater, known from the New Assyrian Empire of the 7th century BC. The Persian santur and its variants, santir and santari, came from the same Greek word, perhaps through the mediation of the Aramaic psanterin, the name of a trapezoidal zither played with beaters, which is a relative of the cimbalom.

The Hebrew Bible in its Greek translation, the Septuagint, made around 300 BC, renders the word kinnór in some cases, and the word instrument psalterion several times, while the Latin Vulgate, made at the beginning of the 5th century AD, uses the term "psaltery".

Usage
In the depictions, the strings of the harp are plucked with the fingers of both hands; the use of a plectrum is exceptional. The harpist is almost always seen in a sitting position. The harpist is most often depicted as a woman, in many cases a muse. The instrument is often included in marriage ceremonies, the harpist here being the bride herself or her companion. In relatively few cases, professional female musicians can be seen on the vase images, which to some extent contradicts the written sources, the comedy writers of the classical era, who often associate the harp with adulterous and erotic female behavior.

The number of strings on the vase paintings is between nine and twenty, which is in good agreement with the data in the written sources. Triangular harps usually have many more strings than curved types. It can certainly be assumed that the sound range of such instruments was well over one octave.

Greek authors from the 4th century BC criticized the "multi-stringed" nature of certain instruments, the ability to play them in several harmonies, i.e. in different tones, and to switch from one to another. In his work The State, Plato lists two types of psaltery, the trigonos and the péktis, among the undesirable "many-stringed" instruments. In Plato's State III (399c) he writes: "According to this, we will not need instruments with many strings and playing in all keys in singing and melody (...) We therefore do not support the makers of the trigonos, the péktis and in general instruments that play in many keys and in many keys." Aristotle, in his Politics, does not recommend certain kind of harps, like péktis, heptagonos, trigonos and sambaukes for the purpose of learning music; according to him, they are only pleasing, but not useful for virtue.

Citations

Sources
West, Martin Litchfield. Ancient Greek Music. Oxford University Press (1992). ISBN 019-814-975-1
Mathiesen, Thomas J. Apollo's Lyre: Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. University of Nebraska Press (1999). ISBN 080-323-079-6
Barker, Andrew. The musician and his art: I. Cambridge University Press (1989). ISBN 0 521 389 119
Bundrick, Sheramy D.. Music and Image in Classical Athens. Cambridge University Press (2005). ISBN 052-184-806-7

Geoffrey W. Bromiley: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, KP, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1995. - ISBN 0-8028-3783-2
Joachim Braun, Douglas W Stott: Music in ancient Israel/Palestine, B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2002 (English) - ISBN 0-8028-4477-4
Marinus Jan Hendrikus van Schaik: The harp in the Middle Ages: the symbolism of a musical instrument, Rodopi, 1992. (English) – ISBN 9051833679

Ancient Greek musical instruments
Harps

Ancient Greek harps


Joan Mary "Jan" Anderson FAA  FRS (13 May 1932 – 28 August 2015) was a New Zealand scientist who worked in Canberra, Australia, distinguished by her investigation of photosynthesis.

Life
Joan Mary Anderson was born in 1932 in Queenstown, New Zealand. Her father Dr Bill Anderson was a country doctor. Her mother died, after a long illness, when Anderson was eight. Much to the disappointment of her father, who had wanted her to become a doctor, she studied organic chemistry at the University of Otago. At the time, degrees were issued by the University of New Zealand, and she obtained a BSc and MSc with first class honours.

She obtained a scholarship, the King George V Memorial Fellowship for New Zealand, that allowed her to undertake postgraduate studies in the United States for one year. When she arrived at the University of California, Berkeley, she found that her New Zealand postgraduate degree was not recognised, which denied her access to the library, research facilities, and health insurance. To overcome this problem, she enrolled for a PhD, which she studied towards at the UC Berkeley College of Chemistry (1956–59) under the supervision of Melvin Calvin; Calvin received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1961.

She then taught at Wellington Girls' High School under a bond, but broke this arrangement to take up a job offer with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) made to her four years earlier by John Falk of CSIRO Plant Industry.

She was the first to show that the photosynthetic mechanism comprises two fundamental components: photosystem I and photosystem II. Anderson was an adjunct professor at the Australian National University.

Anderson died on 28 August 2015. Her funeral was held at St John the Baptist Church, Reid, Canberra.

Awards and honors
She received many honors and awards for her work, including election as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 1987, and as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1996. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from Umeå University in 1998. She was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2001. In 2017, she was selected as one of the Royal Society of New Zealand's "150 women in 150 words".

References

External links
 Resources from the Australian National Library

1932 births
2015 deaths
20th-century British women scientists
Academic staff of the Australian National University
Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science
Female Fellows of the Royal Society
New Zealand biologists
People from Queenstown, New Zealand
People from Canberra
University of Otago alumni
UC Berkeley College of Chemistry alumni
Umeå University alumni

Jan Anderson (scientist)


The murder of the family of Robert Einstein, a cousin of Nobel Prize Laureate Albert Einstein, took place on 3 August 1944 in Rignano sull'Arno, Italy, during World War II. Shortly before their withdrawal from the area, German soldiers arrived at the Einstein residence, executed Robert's wife and two daughters, and set the house on fire. Robert, who was in hiding at the time, survived the events but committed suicide less than a year later, on July 13, 1945.

The perpetrators of the crime were never brought to justice, despite attempts in the early 2010s in both Germany and Italy to identify them. The events were also the subject of a German documentary featuring Einstein's nieces who witnessed the events in 1944.

Background
Robert Einstein was born in 1884 in Munich, the son of Jakob Abraham Einstein. Robert was a cousin of Nobel Prize Laureate Albert Einstein, as Hermann Einstein, Albert's father, was an older brother and business partner of Jakob Einstein, who persuaded his older brother to move their families and factory to Pavia, Italy.

In 1944, Robert Einstein, who had lived in Italy for many decades, resided with his family in Rignano sull'Arno,  southeast of Florence, in the Villa Tenuta del Focardo. His family consisted of Cesarina, his wife, the daughter of a Protestant minister, his two daughters Luce and Cici, 27 and 18 years old respectively, and his adopted nieces Lorenza and Paola Mazzetti, who were the 17-year-old twin daughters of his late sister-in-law.

In August 1944, the British 8th Army was advancing towards Florence, eventually liberating the city on August 4. Einstein himself had gone into hiding with local partisans as he was concerned for his life because of his name and his Jewish background. However, he considered his family not to be in danger.

Murders
On August 3, a group of German soldiers arrived at the villa in search of Einstein. When he was not to be found the soldiers began vandalising the place and interrogated the women individually. The soldiers conducted an ad-hoc tribunal and then shot Einstein's wife and daughters in the garden. His nieces remained locked in the upper part of the house, guarded by a young German soldier who had refused to participate in the murders and was visibly shaken by the events. After the murders the two surviving girls were locked in a shed and the villa itself set on fire.

Aftermath
Einstein returned to the house when he saw the flames (other sources state that he returned the following day). Upon finding his wife and daughters dead, he attempted suicide but was unsuccessful. British troops soon arrived in the area and Einstein used his famous surname to request an investigation into the murders. A few days later a scrap of paper was found, alleging that Einstein's family was executed because they were Jewish (they were not), and because they were spies.

Einstein pushed for an investigation of the crime and even requested help from his cousin Albert. There was an Army JAG report of the incident and the investigation. Einstein committed suicide on July 13, 1945, his 32nd wedding anniversary, by overdosing on sleeping tablets. He is buried alongside his family in the cemetery at Badiuzza.

His nieces Lorenza and Paola Mazzetti survived the war and were the subject of a German documentary in 2016.

Investigation
In 2007, German authorities started an investigation into the events and interviewed Lorenza Mazzetti. Originally it was thought that the main instigator was still alive and living in Rhineland-Palatinate. In 2011 the case was the subject of an episode of Aktenzeichen XY… ungelöst, a German TV crime program, which aimed to find surviving eyewitnesses, especially the young German soldier who had refused to participate in the events. However, this effort was unsuccessful. Mazzetti visited Germany during the investigation and was convinced that she identified the main perpetrator of the crime after seeing a photo of him. The suspected perpetrator, known to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, is also suspected to have participated in a massacre of 184 civilians in Padule di Fucecchio on August 23, 1944 and lived in Kaufbeuren, Bavaria. A court in Rome passed a life sentence in absentia on the former soldier for this massacre, but Germany did not extradite him. The German authorities in Kempten, Bavaria, later also declared him unfit to stand trial.

Documentary
The Mazzetti sisters, now dead, were the subject of a 2016 German documentary by the Bayerischer Rundfunk, titled Einsteins Nichten (Einstein's Nieces). As part of this documentary the sisters returned to the crime scene for the first time since the events.

References

External links
What happened at Villa il Focardo?
 Das Drama ihres Lebens Interview with Lorenza and Paola Mazzetti

Mass murder in 1944
1944 crimes in Italy
Nazi war crimes in Italy
Einstein family
August 1944 events
Italian people who died in the Holocaust
Family murders
20th-century mass murder in Italy

Murder of the family of Robert Einstein


Oxford University Press (OUP) is the largest university press in the world, and the second-oldest, after Cambridge University Press. It is a department of the University of Oxford. It is governed by the Delegates of the Press. This is a group of 15 members of the university. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as OUP' s chief executive and as its major representative on other university bodies. Oxford University has been using this system of contol since the 17th century.

The university started printing books around 1480. It soon grew into a major printer of Bibles, prayer books, and scholarly works. It began what later became the Oxford English Dictionary in the late 19th century. Over the last hundred years, Oxford has grown and now publishes children's books, school text books, music, journals, the World's Classics series, a best-selling range of English Language Teaching texts, as well as its academic and religious titles. It opened its first international office in New York in 1896.  Changes caused by computer technology and the need to lower costs, led to the Press contracting out its printing and binding work. The Press's printing house at Oxford was closed in 1989. Its former paper mill at Wolvercote was demolished in 2004.

The Press publishes about 6,000 new titles around the world every year. It is a charitable organization, its profits go to the University of Oxford. The university's aims of excellence in scholarship, research, and education are supported through its publishing activities.

References

University of Oxford
Publishing companies of the United Kingdom
University presses

Oxford University Press


Ocko I tom Brok (de Broke) (about 1345–1389) followed his father Keno I tom Brok as chieftain of the Brokmerland and the Auricherland in East Frisia, a former territory on Germany's North Sea coast.

According to tradition, he lived in the 1370s in Italy and was knighted by Queen Joanna I of Naples for his military and court services. After the death of his father in 1376 Ocko returned to his homeland in 1378. After heavy fighting against Folkmar Allena, he initially united almost all of East Frisia under his rule. In 1389 he was murdered near the district of Aurich Castle.

Ocko I tom Brok married Foelke Kampana of Hinte (known locally as Quade Foelke). They had the following issue:
 Keno II tom Brok (married Adda Idzinga of Norden),
 Tetta tom Brok (married Sibrand of Loquard),
 Ocka tom Brok (married Lütet Attena of Dornum and Nesse).
His eldest, but illegitimate son was Widzeld tom Brok, (d. 25 April 1399), who succeeded his father as chieftain after he had been murdered.

East Frisian chieftains
14th-century births
1389 deaths

Ocko I tom Brok


is a 1998 vertically scrolling shooter arcade video game developed and published by Taito. A PlayStation home release was published in 2000 as RayCrisis: Series Termination. It is the third in the Ray series of games, serving as a prequel to RayForce.

Gameplay

The gameplay of RayCrisis is based on RayForce, which features a viewpoint given to the player with an overhead perspective. The game is a vertically scrolling shooter with a "virus infiltration" theme: the player plays the role of the Waverider computer virus, and the enemies are Con-Human's antibodies, programmed to terminate any virus—including the player—inside the supercomputer's system.

An Encroachment system is added, which causes player to lose points when it reaches 100%, especially facing Dis-Human and Infinity prematurely when reaching a huge Antibody, in addition to a bad ending. Encroachment percentage can be lowered by deleting Antibodies, terminating huge Antibodies or obtaining items, keeping a low profile not to be recognized by Con-Human.

The game starts with Self-Area, followed by three other stages out of the following: Emotion, Consciousness, Intelligence, Memory, or Consideration, each reflecting Con-Human's details of sentience. After completing stage 4, having the emergency control activated by Con-Human because of the havoc the player have caused, the Waverider computer virus must fight against the Dis-Human Antibody, and Infinity, Con-Human's heart.

Plot
RayCrisis, being a prequel to RayForce, details the events during the timeframe of the supercomputer called the Neuro-Computer Con-Human gaining sentience and rebelling against its human creators, a direct result of a misguided scientist trying to bond a human clone to Con-Human mentally. Now, against Con-Human's massive attack forces laying siege to the Earth, exterminating and cloning humans, a mecha-neurologist jacks in to the Con-Human system in an attempt to regain control of the rogue machine by means of the computer viruses, known as the Waveriders, into the Cybernetics Link, engaging Operation Raycrisis to cease the supercomputer's destructive actions permanently and prevent it from causing more havoc in the future.

However, even when Operation Raycrisis leaves Con-Human wrecked from the inside, it was too late to reverse the damage it has done. Furthermore, what is left of the human race has left for the space colonies as refuge from the destruction. In the end, years later, with the unveiling of the X-LAY starfighter and the ships of the fleet, Terran Command and the remaining humans initiate one final assault on Con-Human, who has turned the Earth into a bleak, metal graveyard. One final assault, in which will end the cybernetic nightmare once and for all, destroying the planet they've called home in the process.

Release
In the PlayStation version, Stages 2, 3, and 4 can be freely chosen, and stages can be played more than once in a single game. An original mode is added, which allows player to fight all stages and obtain extra items in the game, but there is no continue option if the player loses all of their lives. This port is the only game in the series to include a customization feature that allows the player to choose between multiple colors for their selected ship; the arcade and smartphones versions did not include this feature, electing to give player 1 a red color scheme and player 2 blue. The Japanese version of the game supported a downloadable game called "Pocket Ray" for the PocketStation system. Since the PocketStation was not released in the U.S., the "Pocket Ray" minigame was removed from the American localization of RayCrisis by Working Designs.

The Windows 95 port of the game is also different from the PlayStation port.

This game was bundled with RayStorm as part of the compilation Simple 1500 Series Vol. 75: The Double Shooting.

Reception

The PlayStation version received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Chris Charla of NextGen said that the game "looks fantastic and plays ok[ay], but if you're looking for the next R-Type, look elsewhere." In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 26 out of 40.

Also in Japan, Game Machine listed the arcade version in their 1 February 1999 issue as the tenth most-successful arcade game of the year.

See also
 RayForce
 RayStorm

Notes

References

External links
Official website

1998 video games
Arcade video games
CyberFront games
PlayStation (console) games
PlayStation Network games
Science fiction video games
Single-player video games
Taito arcade games
Vertically scrolling shooters
Video game prequels
Video games developed in Japan
Video games scored by Tamayo Kawamoto
Windows games
Working Designs

RayCrisis


Scalars are simple numbers. They are used for measuring things. Many things can be measured, and the measure can be explained by only giving the number.

Suppose we are measuring a rod. We could give the measured length as 2 metres or 3 cm—depending on the length of the rod under observation. Here, only the figure 2 or 3 along with the unit of measure is enough to transmit information about the rod.

Other examples of scalars are:
Unit of mass (Kilograms)
Unit of measuring luminosity (Candela)
Unit of length (Metres)

In other words, mass is measured by scalars, just like distances are measured by scalars.

In mathematics, scalars are distinguished from more complex mathematical objects such as vectors and matrices in that they consist of only one number. A scalar  can also be multiplied to a vector  or a matrix , resulting in the vector  and the matrix , respectively. For vectors, scalar multiplication produces a new vector of different length in the same or opposite direction of the original vector.

Related pages

 Dot product, a scalar quantity
 Scalar (physics)

References

Measurement
Basic physics ideas

Scalar


The Station-to-Station (STS) protocol is a cryptographic (information-hiding) key agreement scheme based on the classic Diffie-Hellman key exchange that provides mutual key and entity (party) authentication.

In addition to protecting the established key from an attacker, the STS protocol uses no timestamps and provides perfect forward secrecy.  It also requires two-way explicit key confirmation, making it an Authenticated key agreement with Key Confirmation (Acronym: AKC) protocol.

STS was originally presented in 1987 in the context of ISDN security , finalized in 1989 and generally presented by Whitfield Diffie, Paul C. van Oorschot and Michael J. Wiener in 1992.

Cryptography

Station-to-Station protocol


Chris Taft (born March 10, 1985) is an American basketball player.

NCAA career
Chris Taft was born in Brooklyn, New York, and began his college career at the University of Pittsburgh after graduating from Xaverian High School in Brooklyn. Taft won the Big East Conference Rookie of the Year Award in his Freshman season and set the all-time Pittsburgh season record for field goals made as a freshman (162). Taft also earned Third Team All Big East Honors as a Freshman.

In 2004–05, Taft averaged 26.5 minutes per game, 13.3 points per game, 7.5 rebounds per game, and 1.7 blocks per game, and shot 58.5% from the field. After Pittsburgh suffered a loss to the University of the Pacific in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Taft announced his entry into the 2005 NBA draft. Shortly after announcing his departure from Pittsburgh, Taft hired an agent and indefinitely lost his NCAA eligibility. Taft went to the Chicago Annual Predraft Camp which began his post-college career.

Professional career
Chris Taft entered the NBA draft as a projected first rounder, but he fell into the second round. Ultimately, he was picked by the Golden State Warriors 42nd overall, with the pick they got from the New Jersey Nets in exchange for Clifford Robinson.

Taft played in only 17 games in his rookie season as a result of back spasms that ended his season in early January. He had surgery in 2006 to repair a herniated disc and has yet to return to the court in a professional game. In his limited playing time, Chris averaged 2.8 points and 2.1 rebounds in 8.5 minutes per game.

His two major career games consist of Golden State's game against the Chicago Bulls on November 9, 2005, where Taft scored 7 points in 19 minutes, and Golden State's game against the Atlanta Hawks on November 2, where he had another professional career high of three blocks.

Taft was unable to play during the 2006–07 NBA preseason due to recurring back spasms and inflammation. On October 27, 2006, he was waived by the Warriors and became a free agent.

In November 2011, Taft was selected by the Springfield Armor in the fourth round of the NBA D-League Draft.

In August 2012, Chris Taft signed a contract to play in Finland with Korihait.
In December Korihait release Taft, because of health reasons.

References

External links

Finnish League profile

1985 births
Living people
African-American basketball players
American expatriate basketball people in Finland
Golden State Warriors draft picks
Golden State Warriors players
Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball)
Pittsburgh Panthers men's basketball players
Power forwards (basketball)
Rio Grande Valley Vipers players
Basketball players from Brooklyn
Xaverian High School alumni
American men's basketball players
21st-century African-American sportspeople
20th-century African-American people

Chris Taft


Milad Tower is a radio and television tower. It is in the northwest of Tehran, the capital of Iran. This tower is the tallest tower in Iran with a height of . Milad Tower is the sixth tallest radio and television tower in the world. Milad Tower is the nineteenth tallest single structure in the world. This tower is the first among all radio and television towers in the world. Milad Tower is visible almost everywhere in Tehran due to its great height. So, it is considered a symbol of the capital of Iran. Some believe that engineers built the tower on the fault system of West Town.

References

Buildings and structures in Tehran
Towers in Asia

Milad Tower


Charlemagne was a  74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, part of the shorter Borée subtype.

Career
Charlemagne was the first ship of the line to be built in Antwerp according to the wishes of Napoléon, who wanted to expand the French Navy by exploiting shipyards in Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy. In 1807, she was stationed in Vlissingen under Commander Dupotet, in the squadron of Vice-Admiral Missiessy. She aided in the defence of Antwerp against the amphibious raid led by Chatham, and again during the Siege of Antwerp of 1814.

After the Bourbon Restoration, on 30 August 1814, Charlemagne was transferred to the Dutch Navy, as per the Treaty of Paris. The Dutch brought her into service as Nassau.

Citations

References

1807 ships
Ships built in France
Ships of the line of the French Navy
Téméraire-class ships of the line

French ship Charlemagne (1807)


There have been two baronetcies created for persons with the surname Hyde. Both are extinct.

Hyde baronets, of Albury (1621)
 Sir Nicholas Hyde, 1st Baronet (1561–1625)
 Sir Thomas Hyde, 2nd Baronet (died 1665)

The Hyde Baronetcy, of Albury in the County of Hertford, was created in the Baronetage of England on 8 November 1621 for Nicholas Hyde, Sheriff of Hertfordshire for 1619. The baronetcy became extinct on the death in 1665 of the second Baronet, also sheriff of Hertfordshire (1628).

Hyde baronets, of Birmingham (1922)
 Sir Charles Hyde, OBE, 1st Baronet (1876–1942)

The Hyde Baronetcy, of Birmingham, was created in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom on 19 January 1921 for the newspaper proprietor Charles Hyde, of Berkswell, Warwickshire. He was the grandson of John Frederick Feeney founder of the Birmingham Post. He was born at Worcester, the son of a surgeon, and was educated at Clifton and Exeter College, Oxford. He became the proprietor in 1905 on the death of his uncle John Feeney. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1920. He was High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1933. The title became extinct on his death in 1942.

Sir Charles Hyde was a great benefactor to the University of Birmingham. In 1925 he gave £100,000, part of which was to be devoted to the building of the Birmingham University Students' Union building. He contributed £10,000 to the Birmingham University appeal fund in 1920. He bought and equipped a hostel for men undergraduates, known as Chancellor's Hall. He also gave £10,000 in 1936 for a Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Museum in Birmingham University's Medical School.

From 1924 until 1927 he was Commodore of Midland Sailing Club, succeeding Neville Chamberlain.

References

People associated with the University of Birmingham
Extinct baronetcies in the Baronetage of England
Extinct baronetcies in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom

Hyde baronets


Steven L. Contursi (born May 21, 1952) is an American businessman and numismatist. He is the founder and president of Rare Coin Wholesalers. In the past 38 years, Steve Contursi has bought and sold over $1 billion worth of rare United States coins.

Education
Steven graduated with a Cum Laude degree in physics from Lehman College of the City University of New York, as well as being honored with the 1974 Joseph A. Gillet Prize for being the top Physics student as a senior.

Notable coins

In 2004, Contursi sought evidence for his coin to be the first silver dollar made for the United States, a 1794 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar. The coin was sold in May 2010, for $7.85 million, making it the most expensive coin ever sold.

In addition to owning the first silver dollar, Steven owned the first gold coin made for the U.S., the 'Unique' Brasher Doubloon. The coin was struck in 1787 by silversmith Ephraim Brasher, a neighbor of George Washington. With the "EB" stamped on the chest, it was sold in December 2011 to a Wall Street investment firm for $7.4 million.

In 2005, Steven purchased the King of Siam proof set for $8.5 million in a private sale.

In June 2012, Steven purchased the highest grade "Ultra High Relief" 1907 Saint Gaudens Double Eagle (PR69) nicknamed "America's Most Beautiful Coin Design" by experts.

In late December 2011, Steven donated a 1792 half disme to the ANA Money Museum. The coin, purchased for $220,000, was donated with "no strings attached." He said, "This donation is my way of giving back to the ANA for the wonderful things that they do for collectors."

See also

 List of most expensive coins

References

External links
Official
 Rare Coin Wholesalers company website

Other
 Money Show Biography

American numismatists
1952 births
People from the Bronx
Lehman College alumni
Living people

Steven Contursi


Hall of Mirrors is a 2001 independent film written and directed by Brad Osborne.

Plot
Hall of Mirrors concerns  a young, desperate gambling addict who is plummeted into financial ruin. A strange, anonymous caller (who happens to know every intimate detail of the protagonist's life) offers a unique solution to his situation. Lured by the promise of easy money and the beauty of an enigmatic woman, he enters an underworld of counterfeiters and con artists, where he becomes a pawn in a scheme far more elaborate and ruthless than he could have ever imagined.

Historical importance of this film
With the making of Hall of Mirrors, Osborne successfully fooled experts into believing it had been shot on 16 mm film, when in fact it was shot on Sony Digital8 video cameras. This "film look" or filmizing was achieved using cinematic lighting techniques, a diffusion filter and a setting on the Sony Digital8 called "Flash", which is essentially a progressive frame mode. The "Flash" setting set on the fastest setting (about 30 frame/s) took away the "video" feel and added a subtle shutter effect.

External links

2001 films
American independent films
2001 independent films
2000s American films

Hall of Mirrors (film)


Mendsaikhany Enkhsaikhan (; born 4 June 1955) was the prime minister of Mongolia from July 7, 1996 to April 23, 1998, the first in 80 years not belonging to the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party.

Life

Early years
Enkhsaikhan was born 1955 in Ulaanbaatar. He participated International Mathematical Olympiad in 1973 and took bronze medal. He earned PhD in economic sciences from the Kiev State University, former USSR in the 1970s.

From 1978 to 1988 he worked as an economist, researcher and deputy head of a department at the Foreign Ministry of Mongolia. From 1988 to 1990 he worked as a specialist at the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade and in the meantime, he was a director of a market research institute.

From 1990 to 1992 he held a seat in the State Small Khural (parliament) for the first time, representing the Mongolian Democratic Party (1990) and chaired a standing committee in the parliament. From 1992 to 1993 he held a seat in the State Great Khural (parliament) representing the Mongolian Democratic Party. He was appointed as a president of the Academy for Political Education in 1992.

After that he served as the chairman of the common elections commission of Mongolian National Democratic Party and Mongolian Social Democratic Party for the presidential elections of June 6, 1993. From 1993 to 1996 he worked as the chairman of the Presidential office for Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat, first official president of Mongolia.

Prime Minister
Enkhsaikhan became Prime Minister of Mongolia on July 7, 1996 after the Mongolian Democratic Union Coalition won at the parliamentary elections. Enkhsaikhan was the elections campaign manager of Mongolian Democratic Union while Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj was the coalition chairman.

This made Enkhsaikhan the first prime minister since the 1920s who wasn't a member of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP). He presided over a period of aggressive economic reforms, including housing privatization, acceleration of other privatization programs, liberalization of most remaining controlled prices, closure of insolvent banks and elimination of duties on imports. Mongolian relations with international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which had been strained due to slow reforms under the previous regime, strengthened. However, his tenure was cut short when the parliamentary majority of Democratic Party (DP) and Mongolian Social Democratic Party forced him to resign in April 1998, because of tensions between him and other leaders in the Coalition as well as by the rule of the Coalition, the chairman of the winning party should have become the Prime Minister. He was then replaced by Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj (DP).

Further career
From 1998 to 2003, Enkhsaikhan was the director of the company Premier International Co..
In January 2003, the Mongolian National Democratic Party elected him party chairman, but he was removed from this position in 2005.

When Enkhsaikhan worked as a chairman of Mongolian Democratic Party he moved to form a coalition with Motherland Party. The coalition with the Motherland Party was a failure in the parliamentary elections in 2004. Three of the Democratic Party members were elected to the parliament as individuals because they were not offered slots in the coalition candidates.  He became a member of the parliament in 2004 for the Democratic Party. The coalition and its opponent, the MPRP split votes.

The coalition government was established with agreements of all the parties involved. The Motherland Party was given two seats at the Government Cabinet of the grand coalition government for its 7 elected MPs vs. Democratic Party's 25 elected MPs and Civil Will Party's MPs. However, Badarchiin Erdenebat, Enkhsaikhan's elevated ally wanted Prime Ministership and one more seat at the Government Cabinet. When it was not agreed by all participating parties of the Motherland Democracy Coalition, Badarchiin Erdenebat announced the dissolution of the coalition at the parliament without consent of the coalition parties. According to Mongolian law, if someone announces anything at the parliament, it becomes valid without need of vote for this case. Mendsaikhan Enkhsaikhan joined Badarchiin Erdenebat to dissolve Motherland Democracy Coalition to join MPRP to establish new coalition with MPRP for bigger position at the government.

In 2005 Enkhsaikhan ran in the presidential elections for the Democratic Party but received less than 20% of the votes and lost against Nambaryn Enkhbayar (MPRP).

In January 2006 he voted with MPRP members for the dismissal of Elbegdorj's government. He did so in spite of a decision of the Democratic Party's Directing Board not to vote against its own coalition government. The Party's Main Legal Committee therefore canceled Enkhsaikhan's membership in February.

In the new government under Miyeegombyn Enkhbold he was appointed for the role of a Deputy Prime Minister. Together with few former DP members such as Sonompil Mishigjav, former Member of Parliament and Minister of Defense from Democratic Party, he later registered National New Party which competed in 2008 Parliamentary elections and 2009 by-elections and did not win any seat at the Parliament of Mongolia.

Enkhsaikhan himself was a candidate for a member of Parliament from National New Party and was defeated in the 2008 Parliamentary elections.

References

1955 births
Living people
Politicians from Ulaanbaatar
Democratic Party (Mongolia) politicians
Prime Ministers of Mongolia
Members of the State Great Khural
Foreign ministers of Mongolia
International Mathematical Olympiad participants
Mongolian economists
Deputy Prime Ministers of Mongolia

Mendsaikhany Enkhsaikhan


Henry Page Croft, 1st Baron Croft  (22 June 1881 – 7 December 1947) was a decorated British soldier and Conservative Party politician.

Early life and family
He was born at Fanhams Hall in Ware, Hertfordshire, England. He was the son of Richard Benyon Croft (1843 – 1912) a naval officer and a major benefactor of the Richard Hale School, and Anne Elizabeth (1843 – 1921). His father held the office of High Sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1892. He held the office of Deputy Lieutenant (D.L.) of Hertfordshire and held the office of Justice of the Peace (J.P.) for Hertfordshire.

He was the grandson of Reverend Richard Croft, rector at Hillingdon, Middlesex, England, and Charlotte Leonora Russell. He was the great-grandson of Dr. Sir Richard Croft, 6th Baronet and Margaret Denman, daughter of Dr. Thomas Denman and Elizabeth Brodie and the sister of Thomas Denman, 1st Baron Denman who became Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales.

His mother was the daughter of Henry Page of Ware, Hertfordshire, England. He was an astute businessman and had built up a very prosperous grain trade and a maltster business. Henry Page left his considerable fortune including Fanhams Hall, a large country house and estate located in Ware, to his daughter Anne and her husband, Richard.

Education
He was educated first at Eton, until the death of his housemaster, then at Shrewsbury and finally at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he was a Volunteer and an oarsman. Upon leaving Cambridge, Croft joined the family business.

Member of Parliament
He became an active participant of the 'Confederacy' of young gentry Chamberlainites who organised a Protectionist movement in Hertfordshire. In the general election of 1906 Croft stood at Lincoln against a Conservative Free Trader but failed to win the seat. In January 1910 however he was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Christchurch as an anti-German Protectionist. His contribution to the tariff reform campaign before the Great War has been described as "immense". In protest against what he perceived as the reactionary policy of Conservative leader Arthur Balfour, Croft founded the Reveille, a group that campaigned for imperialism and social reform.

In the House of Commons he was a prominent advocate of food taxation, Imperial Preference and as a supporter of Ulster against Home Rule. Croft was with Viscount Castlereagh at Mount Stewart when Ulster prepared for war in 1914. When the First World War broke out he went to France with his territorial battalion of the Hertfordshire Regiment. In 1915 he was the first territorial to command a brigade in the field but his reports to politicians back home about the conduct of his commanders aroused controversy and so in 1916 he was recalled, where he returned to the Commons.

In co-operation with Sir Richard Cooper, because of what they perceived as the "discrediting of the old party system", they founded the National Party in September 1917. They were also angered at the bestowal of honours on those they believed did not deserve them and that hundreds of enemy aliens should be at liberty in Britain when they were possibly endangering British soldiers' lives by passing information to the enemy. The National Party aimed for: "Complete victory in the war and after the war"; robust diplomacy along with increased armaments; the "eradication of German influence"; ending the sale of honours; maximum production along with fair wages and fair profit; safeguarding of industry and agriculture; Empire unity through mutual and reciprocal aid in development of the natural resources of the Empire; a social policy that will ensure a "patriotic race"; and demobilization and reconstruction.

At the 1918 election Croft was elected as the National candidate for Bournemouth, a seat he would hold until 1940. In his autobiography Croft claimed that

We emerged from the world war in 1918 stronger than at any time in our history. On the sea our fleet was supreme and unchallengeable; we had a mighty army such as we had never possessed before; in the air our power had reached its zenith and was probably the largest, best manned and most finely equipped fighting force in that sphere. ... Great Britain ... proceeded to go "international" and our great country, which had been saved by the valour and patriotism of our people, was deliberately encouraged to rely for its safety upon a hotch-potch collection of small states embodied in what was never a world League of Nations but a League of some nations based not on defensive force but on pious resolutions which were endorsed by ceaseless chatter at many conferences.

In February 1919 Croft denounced H. H. Asquith, Reginald McKenna, Walter Runciman, Arthur Henderson and Ramsay MacDonald as "the worse type of pacifist cranks": "It is very delightful to have been able to mention their names in this House. These men...were not defeated at the polls but squelched. Why did they rally to the proposal? [i.e. the placing of conquered German colonies under League of Nations mandate]. Because they saw it was unnational". When Coalition Liberal MP Alexander Lyle-Samuel made a speech criticising reparations from Germany and supported the League of Nations, Croft claimed that although Lyle-Samuel sat for a Suffolk constituency, he might well sit for Wurtemburg or Bavaria in Germany. The Gladstonian liberal, R. B. McCallum, said Croft "was the authentic voice of triumphant, nationalist Toryism ... [he] represented the crude, philistine spirit of John Bullish nationalism. He was speaking for millions".

Along with Cooper, Croft was prominent in the campaign against the Prime Minister David Lloyd George in July 1922 for selling honours. In 1924, he was appointed a baronet in Stanley Baldwin's resignation honours.

Croft wrote articles for the National Review and doubted the effectiveness of the League of Nations. Croft was strongly opposed to the National Government's Government of India Act 1935, which granted further self-government to the British Raj, and joined Winston Churchill and the India Defence League in opposing the Act. Croft was also associated with Churchill in urging greater rearmament in face of the German threat. In June 1938 Croft wrote a series of articles for the Weekly Review, arguing for British re-armament. He also recognized that Nazi Germany would try to start a war after reading Mein Kampf. However, unlike Churchill, Croft supported the Munich Agreement, believing that the incorporation of the Sudetenland into Germany was inevitable and that Britain could not prevent it militarily due to insufficient British rearmament.

In 1936, Croft's independently minded daughter Diana married the German lawyer and painter Fred Uhlman, a clear misalliance in the eyes of Croft.

Under-Secretary of State for War
In 1940 Croft was ennobled, and appointed by Winston Churchill as Under-Secretary of State for War, a post he would hold until July 1945. Croft in his memoirs said of The Blitz: "Every class of Londoner responded defiantly to the long, long period of attack and from the Royal Family to the Coster or Dustman all vied in showing their contempt of danger and sustained each other through bomb raids, "doodles" and rockets to the end ... London is a grand city with a big heart".

Croft recognised the need to improve morale in the Army and wrote on 12 August 1940 of the need for education and entertainment to be provided to servicemen on a big scale: travelling cinemas, technical classes, correspondence courses, and morale-boosting stories of the Empire and regimental traditions. A Director of Education was appointed and by the winter of 1943–44 there were more than 110,000 courses, lectures and classes being provided.

On 4 February 1942 Croft said in the Lords:

There seems to be a feeling abroad that the rifle is essential as a weapon for all the Home Guard, and I should like to remind your Lordships that in the event of invasion in a great part of this country we shall be engaged in fighting of a close character. For instance, in the actual cities, towns and villages the opportunities for using hand grenades against enemy motor cyclists and infantry, and incendiary and high explosive grenades against vehicles of all descriptions will be immense. If every platoon had its trained sections of grenade throwers or bombers there is no doubt that operating from trenches or from windows or doorways, or suddenly emerging round houses and cottages, they would he able to inflict great casualties upon an advancing enemy. If I were organizing an attack—I am afraid this sounds rather absurd from one so aged as myself, but my noble friend Lord Mottistone, who I always feel is so much younger than many of us, would probably bear me out in this—I would rather have trained bombers for fighting in urban areas, and if a bombing attack could be swiftly followed up by cold steel, it would be most effective. If I were a bomber in such a formation—and I think I have thrown most types of bombs that have been used in the Army—I should like to have a pike in order to follow up my bombing attack, especially at night. It is a most effective and silent weapon.

The reporting of this in the press attracted ridicule and accusations that Croft was issuing pikes to the Home Guard and that he was "pike-minded". The Liberal Nationalist MP Sir Henry Fildes said in the Commons on 11 March:

Here lies a man who fought the Hun;He had a pike, the Hun a gun;When his time came to go aloft,Whom must he blame? The Hun or Croft?

To which Leo Amery wrote in reply:

Why blame poor Croft who through long yearsPreached lack of guns to unwilling ears?Blame rather in this hour of needThe foolish ears that would not heed.

In a speech at Watford during the 1945 general election campaign Croft called the Labour Party Chairman Harold Laski, who was Jewish, "that fine old English labour man". Churchill wrote to Croft on 20 June: "I see you used an expression in your speech the other day about Laski that he was "a fine representative of the old British working class", or words to that effect. Pray be careful, whatever the temptation, not to be drawn into any campaign that might be represented as anti-semitism".

Last years
Croft died in 1947 at the Middlesex Hospital, London.

Legacy
The Times said of Croft after he died:

By his unflagging zeal and faith in the British imperial heritage, he won for himself a distinctive place in political life. Staunch Conservative as he was, he placed service to the imperial ideal at least as high as party loyalty. This enthusiasm and a personality that was attractive as well as forcible made their influence felt in the House of Commons and on the platform. At every opportunity he advocated greater settlement by the British race in the Dominions and the strengthening of the bonds of Empire by every possible means, and he was a recognized if unofficial leader in Parliament of a group sharing his convictions and aspirations. One article in Croft's political creed which he proclaimed long before voluntary National Service was instituted in 1938–39 was that citizens should require the State for guaranteeing the rights of private ownership by engaging in some form of public activity. ... He was popular at the War Office and still much in request on the public platform, from which he could always put over a point effectively, though party politics suited his style and temperament better than the advocacy of the policy of a coalition. But he continued to sound the patriotic note convincingly, all the more so because he was a completely sincere patriot.

Writings
 H. P. Croft, 'A citizen army', in Lord Malmesbury (ed.), The New Order: Studies in Unionist Policy (Francis Griffiths, 1908), pp. 255–268.
 H. P. Croft, The Path of Empire (John Murray, 1912).
 H. P. Croft, Twenty-Two Months Under Fire (John Murray, 1916).
 H. P. Croft, The Crisis: How to Restore Prosperity (1931).
 H. P. Croft, The Salvation of India (1933).
 Sir Henry Page Croft, 1st Baron Croft, My Life of Strife (Hutchinson, 1948).

Notes

References
 Paul Addison, The Road to 1945 (London: Pimlico, 1994).
 Maurice Cowling, The Impact of Labour. 1920 – 1924 (Cambridge University Press, 1971).
 Sir Henry Page Croft, 1st Baron Croft, My Life of Strife (Hutchinson, 1948).
 R. B. McCallum, Public Opinion and the Last Peace (London: Oxford University Press, 1944).
 Andrew S. Thompson, 'Croft,  Henry Page, first Baron Croft  (1881–1947)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 12 May 2010.

Further reading
 W. D. Rubinstein, 'Henry Page Croft and the National Party, 1917–22', Journal of Contemporary History, 9/1 (1974), pp. 129–48.
 Larry Witherell, Rebel on the Right: Henry Page Croft and the Crisis of British Conservatism, 1903–1914 (University of Delaware Press, 1998).

External links

 The Papers of Sir Henry Page Croft held at Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge

1881 births
1947 deaths
Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George
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Henry Page Croft, 1st Baron Croft


Dovery Manor Museum, also known as Porlock Museum, is a local museum in Porlock, Somerset, England.

The building was built as a Manor house in the late 15th century and extended in the 17th century. In 1895 the building was restored by Edmund Buckle for Sir Charles Chadwyck-Healey. It is a Grade II* listed building.

The museum has a collection of artefacts, photographs, press cuttings, paintings, and displays of local interest, particularly relating to Porlock Hill on the A39. In particular the events of 12 January 1899 are recorded when, during a storm, the 10-ton Lynmouth lifeboat was launched but because of the ferocity of the storm could not put out to sea, and was hauled by men and 20 horses over Countisbury and Porlock hills to Porlock Weir where the water in the bay was less rough. The endeavour enabled 13 seamen to be rescued.

At the rear of the building a Herb Garden is being restored with plants grown for medicinal and culinary use when the manor was built.

References

External links
 Dovery Manor Museum - official site

Museums in Somerset
Grade II* listed buildings in West Somerset
History of Somerset
Local museums in Somerset
Grade II* listed museum buildings

Dovery Manor Museum


A Death's-head hawkmoth may be one of three types of moth. The (A. atropos, A. styx and A. lachesis), and are in the genus Acherontia. The most common usage of the name is for the Europen species.

A. atropos are usually in Europe, but A. styx and A. lachesis live in Asia. The name comes from skull-shaped pattern of markings on the thorax. All three species are about the same in size, coloration, and life cycle.

These moths have many unusual features. All three species can make a loud squeak if irritated. The sound is made by moving air from the pharynx, often along with the flashing of the brightly-colored abdomen in a further attempt to deter predators. All three species raid beehives of different species of honey bee for honey, but A. atropos only attacks colonies of the well-known western honey bee, Apis mellifera. They are able to move about in hives unhurt because they mimic the scent of the bees.

Development
Eggs are laid one by one under old leaves of the hostplant, and are green or grey-blue. None of the three species are forced to use a single family of host plant. Many of the types of plants used are in the families Solanaceae, Verbenaceae, Oleaceae, Bignoniaceae, and others. The larvae are strong, reaching 120-130 mm, with a tail horn that stands out or can be seen easily. All three species have three larval color forms: usually green, brown, or yellow. Larvae do not move much, and will click their mandibles or even bite if threatened. When mature, they burrow underground and excavate a small chamber where they pupate.

Folklore
This moth was used in the movie The Silence of the Lambs. It was also referenced in I'm the King of the Castle.

References

Other websites

"12 Facts About Death's Head Hawkmoth"

Sphinginae

Death's-head hawkmoth


Carolus Magnus Hutschenreuther (9 April 1794 – 10 November 1845) was a German industrialist and the founder of the C.M. Hutschenreuther Porcelain Factory in Hohenberg an der Eger, Bavaria.

Early years
Carolus Magnus Hutschenreuther was born in Lichte (Wallendorf), Thuringia, the 15th child of Johann Heinrich Hutschenreuther, a porcelain painter and owner of the Wallendorf Porcelain Manufactory. He earned his living selling porcelain items such as pipe-bowls and so-called Turkish cups in eastern Bavaria and especially in the spa towns of Bohemia.

In 1814, Hutschenreuther discovered deposits of kaolin, used to make fine white porcelain, near the River Eger, and decided to manufacture porcelain himself in Hohenberg, where a relative of his, Ernst Ludwig Reuß, was chief forester. Reuß made space available to him in Hohenburg Castle, and he began painting porcelain there and learning to manufacture it. In 1816 he married Reuß' daughter Johanna.

Foundation of the C.M. Hutschenreuther Porcelain Manufactory
On 10 September 1816, he applied for permission to establish a porcelain manufactory in Hohenburg; after many difficulties, the concession was finally granted on 7 November 1822. By this time he had acquired a disused alum works, Auf der Freundschaft (Friendship), on the site of the present-day Hutschenreuther factory.

Initially, Hutschenreuther appears to have personally mixed the raw materials and overseen the firing, to guard the knowledge of the process. He was also probably responsible for most of the painting and shipping. Only after a second kiln and a larger watermill were constructed and additional porcelain decorators were added, including the sale of white wares to free-lance decorators, did the company become successful.

Legacy of C.M. Hutschenreuther
C.M. Hutschenreuther died at Hohenberg on 10 November 1845. His widow Johanna and his sons Lorenz and Christian succeeded him as operators of the company, which withstood a serious fire in 1848, and Lorenz' departure in 1856 to form his own Hutschenreuther Porcelain Company in the neighbouring town of Selb. In 1969 this merged with the company founded by his father.

References

Sources
 Horst Sommerer, Geschichte von CM Hutschenreuther

1794 births
1845 deaths
Businesspeople from Thuringia
German potters
People from Saalfeld-Rudolstadt
Hohenberg an der Eger
German company founders
19th-century German businesspeople

Carolus Magnus Hutschenreuther