In historical naval usage, a long gun was the standard type of cannon mounted by a sailing vessel, so called to distinguish it from the much shorter carronades. The long gun was known for its increased range and improved mobility in comparison to its larger precursors. This allowed the long gun to establish itself as the best form of artillery to pursue an enemy.

In informal usage, the length was combined with the weight of shot, yielding terms like "long nines", referring to full-length, 9-pounder guns.

Firing a long gun

Cannons are fired through a laborious process that involves the help of many people. It begins by cleaning out the barrel of the cannon with a wet swab. This helps to ensure that any left over embers from the last firing are extinguished before the gunpowder is put in. Once the barrel is clean, the gunpowder is put into the base of the cannon, either loosely or in cloth bags. A piece of cloth or rope is put in after the gunpowder to assure that it stays tightly packed. This is quite a coarse grained powder for a longer duration of burn. The cannonball follows and is topped off with a piece of wool or cotton. This secondary piece of cotton helps to keep the cannonball in place and secure with the explosives.

Long guns, being extremely heavy when fully loaded and ready to fire, had to be moved into position after being loaded. This typically took the full effort from the group of men attempting to transport it. The cannon is then pushed forward until it is in full contact with the side of the ship, and the barrel is pointed through the gun port.

Once in position, a small hole in the back of the cannon is lined with a small amount of (very fine in comparison to the main charge, so it burns fast) gunpowder. This process is called priming. From there, the cannon operator stood back from the cannon and held a string until the cannon was lined up with the enemy's ship. Once aimed in the right direction, the operator will pull the lanyard in order to fire the gun. The gun could typically only be fired two to three times in five minutes, so it was important that it hit its target.

British gun specifications

Size regulation

Naval long guns, or long nines were originally made in only two sizes,  or . This was set by the Board of Ordnance in 1703. In the early 1700s, long guns started to dwindle in usage, but came back to prominence in 1761 when the Board of Ordnance changed its primary restriction of the size of long nines. The new protocol for manufacturing long guns included five lengths that ranged from  to  in length. The size of the gun often depended on the size of the ship that carried it, and how many of the guns the ship was to carry. In 1782, another change was made to the design of the long nine; it could be manufactured at a length of .

Ammunition

The ammunition used in the naval long guns did not offer as much variety as the size of the gun did. The only ammunition used was a simple nine pound cannonball, called a nine pounder. Nine pounders were the lightest of all cannon ammunition, and therefore allowed long nines to have increased range. This played a large part behind the purpose of the gun, which was to chase and pursue a fleeing enemy ship or fleet.

See also
Naval artillery in the Age of Sail
8-pounder long gun
12-pounder long gun
18-pounder long gun
24-pounder long gun
30-pounder long gun
36-pounder long gun

References

Naval artillery

Naval long gun


Union commonly refers to:

 Trade union, an organization of workers
 Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets

Union may also refer to:

Arts and entertainment

Music
 Union (band), an American rock group
 Union (Union album), 1998
 Union (Chara album), 2007
 Union (Toni Childs album), 1988
 Union (Cuff the Duke album), 2012
 Union (Paradoxical Frog album), 2011
 Union, a 2001 album by Puya
 Union, a 2001 album by Rasa
 Union (Son Volt album), 2019
 Union (The Boxer Rebellion album), 2009
 Union (Yes album), 1991
 "Union" (Black Eyed Peas song), 2005

Other uses in arts and entertainment
 Union (Star Wars), a Dark Horse comics limited series
 Union, in the fictional Alliance–Union universe of C. J. Cherryh
 Union (Horse with Two Discs), a bronze sculpture by Christopher Le Brun, 1999–2000
 The Union (Marvel Team), a Marvel Comics superhero team and comic series

Education
 Union Academy (disambiguation), the name of several institutions
 Union College (disambiguation), the name of several institutions
 Union Institute & University, in Ohio, U.S.
 Union Presbyterian Seminary, in Virginia, U.S.
 Union Public Schools, a school district in Oklahoma, U.S.
 Union School of Theology, in Wales
 Union Theological College, in Northern Ireland
 Union Theological Seminary (disambiguation), the name of several institutions
 Union University (disambiguation), the name of several institutions

History and politics

 Economic union, a type of trade bloc
 Political union, a type of state which is composed of or created out of smaller states
 Personal union, the combination of two or more states that have the same monarch
 Poor law union, a former unit of local government in the United Kingdom
 Real union, a union of two or more states, which share some state institutions
 CDU/CSU, or the Union, a German political alliance
 Union (American Civil War), U.S. states that were loyal to the U.S. federal government
 Union (Hungarian-German trade union council)
 Union (Madagascar), a political party

Places

Canada
 Union, Elgin County, Ontario
 Union, Leeds and Grenville United Counties, Ontario
 Union, Nova Scotia
 Union, Prince Edward Island

United States

 Union, Alabama
 Union, Connecticut
 Union, Illinois
 Union, Logan County, Illinois
 Union, Indiana
 Union, Iowa
 Union, Kentucky
 Union, Louisiana
 Union Parish, Louisiana
 Union, Maine
 Union, Mississippi
 Union, Missouri, in Franklin County
 Union, Clark County, Missouri
 Union, Nebraska
 Union, New Hampshire
 Union (CDP), New Jersey
 Union (hamlet), New York, in Madison County
 Union, New York, in Broome County
 Union, Ohio, a city in Montgomery and Miami Counties
 Union, Oregon
 Union, Pennsylvania (disambiguation)
 Union, South Carolina
 Union, Texas
 Union, Virginia
 Union, Washington
 Union, West Virginia
 Union, Barbour County, West Virginia
 Union, Wisconsin (disambiguation)
 Union Township, New Jersey (disambiguation)
 Arcata, California, first settled as Union
 Mount Union (Arizona)

Elsewhere
 Union, Grenada
 Unión, Paraguay
 Union, Bohol, Philippines
 Union, Dapa, Philippines
 Union Island, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Science and mathematics
 Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
 Union (SQL), an set operation
 Union type, in computer science, a type of data structure

Sports
 1. FC Union Berlin, a German association football club
 Chicago Unions, a professional, Black baseball team that played in the US in the late 19th century, prior to the formation of the Negro leagues.
 Chicago Union Giants, a former American baseball team in the Negro leagues
 Philadelphia Union, a soccer team
 Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, a Belgian association football club
 Union Race Course, formerly in San Francisco, U.S.

Other uses
 List of ships named Union
 Union (automobile), made by the Union Automobile Company 1902–1905
 Union (plumbing), a pipe fitting
 Union (United States coin), a proposed $100 coin
 Gabrielle Union (born 1972), an American actress

See also

 The Union (disambiguation)
 Union Bank (disambiguation)
 Union State, of Russia and Belarus
 Civil union
 European Union
 Government of India, the union government created by the constitution of India
 Dominion of India, or Union of India, an independent dominion in the Commonwealth 1947–1950
 Students' union
 Marriage, a culturally recognized union between people
 Reunion (disambiguation)
 Soyuz ('Union'), an internal abbreviation for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
 United Kingdom
 United States

Union


Charles Edward Davis (1827–1902) was an English architect and antiquary.

Life
Born near Bath, Somerset on 29 August 1827, he was son of Edward Davis, an architect there and pupil of Sir John Soane, and his wife Dorothy Walker, widow of Captain Johnston of the Madras cavalry. He began as his father's pupil, and in 1863, having recently won a competition for the cemetery buildings on the lower Bristol Road, was appointed city architect and surveyor to the corporation of Bath. He held these posts for forty years.

To collect information on the nature and management of spas, Davis in 1885 made a tour of major European watering places. He applied his knowledge to improvements at Bath, and was consulted by English corporations with natural baths, including Harrogate and Droitwich. Difficulties with the corporation regarding his official duties led in 1900 to the transfer to another person of the supervision of the corporate property; the baths and the provision markets were left in Davis's charge.

Davis was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1850. He died at his residence, Bathwick Hill, on 10 May 1902. The rank of major by which Davis was generally addressed arose from his commission in the Worcestershire militia; he was also a member of the Bath volunteer rifles.

Works
Davis worked on redevelopment of the Roman Baths. Exploring in 1869 the site of the hot springs of the old King's Bath, he found remains of Roman thermal work and published a descriptive account. In 1877–8 he exposed the Roman well beneath the King's bath, a  discovery that had been foreshadowed; Alexander Sutherland, M.D. (An attempt to ascertain and extend the virtues of Bath and Bristol waters 2nd edit. 1764) had followed the researches made by Charles Lucas in 1755. In 1880-1 Davis found the Great Bath and in 1884–6 the Circular Bath, both Roman.

The old Queen's Bath, constructed in 1597 and named after Anne of Denmark, was removed in the course of the Roman discoveries of 1885. Davis's main original design was the new Queen's Bath, begun in 1886, and completed in 1889. The work and incidental restoration met with criticism on structural as well as archaeological grounds. Reports were made on behalf of the Society of Antiquaries by John Henry Middleton and William Henry St John Hope, but local debate grew heated; an independent opinion sought from Alfred Waterhouse, who in a report dated 14 January 1887 came to anodyne conclusions.

Besides his work for the corporation Davis had a private practice. He designed and restored churches, including St Peter's in Freshford and St Mary Magdalene's Church in Langridge, Charlcombe. He was the architect of the Empire Hotel, Bath, opened in 1901, and the Colonnades, balustrading, steps and kiosk at Parade Gardens opposite the hotel.

Davis published Mineral Baths of Bath; the Bath of Bathes Ayde in the Reign of Charles II (Bath, 1883), and other several pamphlets on the same subject. In 1863 he designed an escritoire, Bath's wedding gift to Alexandra of Denmark, presented in 1869; it incorporated Royal Worcester designed by Arthur Murch.

Family
Davis married in 1858 Selina Anne, eldest daughter of Captain Howarth, who survived him without issue.

Notes

Attribution

1827 births
1902 deaths
19th-century English architects
English antiquarians
Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London
Architects from Bath, Somerset

Charles Edward Davis


Don Hogan Charles (September 9, 1938 – December 15, 2017) was an American photographer. He was the first African-American staff photographer hired by The New York Times. In his four decades there, Charles photographed notable subjects including Coretta Scott King, John Lennon, Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali.

Life and work
Charles was born "Daniel James Charles" in New York City on September 9, 1938, to James Charles and Elizabeth Ann Hogan who were immigrants from the Caribbean. He attended George Washington High School in Manhattan and went on to study engineering at City College of New York before dropping out to pursue photography.

In 1964, after leaving City College, Charles joined The New York Times and remained there for 43 years, until he retired in 2007.

Before joining The Times he worked as a freelance photographer.  Charles's freelance work appeared in major international publications such as Der Spiegel and Paris Match. His commercial clients included Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta, Pan American World Airways, and Eastern Air Lines.

Charles' often devoted his attention in capturing the neighborhood of Harlem. In Harlem he would photograph the day-to-day life of the busy community.

Charles' work is in the collections of MOMA and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Among the iconic photos taken by Charles was one of human rights activist Malcolm X holding an M1 carbine while peering out a window. The photo, which Charles took for Ebony, became emblematic of the determination of Malcolm X to protect his family "by any means necessary".

Notable photographs
 USA, New York City, 1964 – Photograph of Malcolm X looking out of the window of his Queens home.

References

External links

1938 births
2017 deaths
20th-century African-American artists
20th-century American photographers
African-American photographers
American photojournalists
George Washington Educational Campus alumni
Malcolm X
Photographers from New York City
The New York Times visual journalists

Don Hogan Charles


Ivan Franko (August 27, 1856 — May 28, 1916) was a Ukrainian writer, poet, translator, and public figure. He is known for his contributions to Ukrainian literature and culture, and is widely considered one of the most important Ukrainian writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Franko was born in the Austrian Empire (now Ukraine), and grew up in a family of modest means.  Despite this, he was able to attend university in Lviv, where he studied history and philosophy. He later went on to study law in Vienna, and became a prominent public figure, advocating for the rights of the Ukrainian people.

Throughout his life, Franko was an active participant in Ukrainian cultural and political life. He was a member of several organizations devoted to promoting Ukrainian culture and language, and played an important role in the development of modern Ukrainian literature. He was also a member of the Austrian parliament, and advocated for the rights of the Ukrainian people both in Austria and in Ukraine.

Humanists
Ukrainian writers

Ivan Franko


Jacques Lucien Monod (February 9, 1910 – May 31, 1976) was a French biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1965, sharing it with François Jacob and André Lwoff "for their discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis".

Monod and Jacob became famous for their work on the E. coli lac operon, which encodes proteins necessary for the transport and breakdown of the sugar lactose (lac). From their own work and the work of others, they came up with a model for how the levels of some proteins in a cell are controlled. In their model, the manufacture of proteins, such as the ones encoded within the lac (lactose) operon, is prevented when a repressor, encoded by a regulatory gene, binds to its operator, a specific site in the DNA sequence that is close to the genes encoding the proteins. (It is now known that a repressor bound to an operator physically blocks RNA polymerase from binding to the promoter, the site where transcription of the adjacent genes begins.)

Study of the control of expression of genes in the lac operon provided the first example of a system for the regulation of transcription. Monod also suggested the existence of messenger RNA molecules that link the information encoded in DNA and proteins. For these contributions he is widely regarded as one of the founders of molecular biology.

Career and research
In Monod's studies he discovered that the course work was decades behind the current biological science. He learned from other students a little older than himself, rather than from the faculty. "To George Teissier he owes a preference for quantitative descriptions; André Lwoff initiated him into the potentials of microbiology; to Boris Ephrussi he owes the discovery of physiological genetics, and to Louis Rapkine the concept that only chemical and molecular descriptions could provide a complete interpretation of the function of living organisms."

Before his doctoral work, Monod spent a year in the laboratory of Thomas Hunt Morgan at the California Institute of Technology working on Drosophila genetics. This was a true revelation for him and probably influenced him on developing a genetic conception of biochemistry and metabolism.

Monod's interest in the lac operon originated from his doctoral dissertation, which explored the growth of bacteria on mixtures of sugars and documented the sequential utilization of two or more sugars. He coined the term diauxie to denote the frequent observations of two distinct growth phases of bacteria grown on two sugars. He theorized on the growth of bacterial cultures and promoted the chemostat theory as a powerful continuous culture system to investigate bacterial physiology.

The experimental system ultimately used by Jacob and Monod was a common bacterium, E. coli, but the basic regulatory concept (described in the Lac operon article) that was discovered by Jacob and Monod is fundamental to cellular regulation for all organisms. The key idea is that E. coli does not bother to waste energy making such enzymes if there is no need to metabolize lactose, such as when other sugars like glucose are available. The type of regulation is called negative gene regulation, as the operon is inactivated by a protein complex that is removed in the presence of lactose (regulatory induction).

With Jean-Pierre Changeux and François Jacob,
Monod proposed a theory of allosteric transitions to explain how conformational effects could allow enzyme effectors that are structurally quite different from the substrates and products to activate or inhibit the reaction: binding at an allosteric site remote from the active site could bring about a change at the active site. He made important an contribution to enzymology when he collaborated with Jeffries Wyman and Changeux to extend this concept to explain cooperative behaviour of some multi-subunit proteins. This has become the most widely accepted explanation of cooperativity.

Philosophical contributions
Monod was not only a biologist but also a fine musician and esteemed writer on the philosophy of science. He was a political activist and chief of staff of operations for the Forces Françaises de l'Interieur during World War II. In preparation for the Allied landings, he arranged parachute drops of weapons, railroad bombings, and mail interceptions.

In 1970, Monod published Le hasard et la nécessité – English translation Chance and Necessity (1971) –, a book based on a series of lectures that he had given at Pomona College in 1969. The book is a short but influential examination of the philosophical implications of modern biology, written for a general readership. Monod acknowledges his connection to the French existentialists in the epigraph of the book, which quotes the final paragraphs of Camus's The Myth of Sisyphus. In summarizing recent progress in several areas of biology, including his own research, Monod highlights the ways in which information is found to take physical form and hence become capable of influencing events in the world. For example, the information allowing a protein enzyme to "select" only one of several similar compounds as the substrate of a chemical reaction is encoded in the precise three-dimensional shape of the enzyme; that precise shape is itself encoded by the linear sequence of amino acids constituting the protein; and that particular sequence of amino acids is encoded by the sequence of nucleotides in the gene for that enzyme.

In the title of the book, "necessity" refers to the fact that the enzyme must act as it does, catalyzing a reaction with one substrate but not another, according to the constraints imposed by its structure. While the enzyme itself cannot be said in any meaningful way to have a choice about its activity, the thrust of Jacob and Monod's Nobel prize-winning research was to show how a bacterial cell can "choose" whether or not to carry out the reaction catalyzed by the enzyme.  As Monod explains, one way the cell can make such a choice is by either synthesizing the enzyme or not, in response to its chemical environment.  However, the synthesis/no synthesis choice is in turn governed by necessary biochemical interactions between a repressor protein, the gene for the enzyme, and the substrate of the enzyme, which interact so that the outcome (enzyme synthesis or not) differs according to the variable composition of the cell's chemical environment.  The hierarchical, modular organization of this system clearly implies that additional regulatory elements can exist that govern, are governed by, or otherwise interact with any given set of regulatory components.  Because, in general, the bacterial activity that results from these regulatory circuits is in accord with what is beneficial for the bacterial cell's survival at that time, the bacterium as a whole can be described as making rational choices, even though the bacterial components involved in deciding whether to make an enzyme (repressor, gene, and substrate) have no more choice about their activities than does the enzyme itself.

Monod shows a paradigm of how choice at one level of biological organization (metabolic activity) is generated by necessary (choiceless) interactions at another level (gene regulation); the ability to choose arises from a complex system of feedback loops that connect these interactions.  He goes on to explain how the capacity of biological systems to retain information, combined with chance variations during the replication of information (i.e. genetic mutations) that are individually rare but commonplace in aggregate, leads to the differential preservation of that information which is most successful at maintaining and replicating itself.  Monod writes that this process, acting over long periods of time, is a sufficient explanation (indeed the only plausible explanation) for the complexity and teleonomic activity of the biosphere.  Hence, the combined effects of chance and necessity, which are amenable to scientific investigation, account for our existence and the universe we inhabit, without the need to invoke mystical, supernatural, or religious explanations.

While acknowledging the likely evolutionary origin of a human need for explanatory myths, in the final chapter of Chance and Necessity Monod advocates an objective (hence value-free) scientific worldview as a guide to assessing truth.  He describes this as an "ethics of knowledge" that disrupts the older philosophical, mythological and religious ontologies, which claim to provide both ethical values and a standard for judging truth. For Monod, assessing truth separate from any value judgement is what frees human beings to act authentically, by requiring that they choose the ethical values that motivate their actions. He concludes that "man at last knows he is alone in the unfeeling immensity of the universe, out of which he has emerged only by chance. His destiny is nowhere spelled out, nor is his duty. The kingdom above or the darkness below: it is for him to choose".  While apparently bleak, in comparison to the concepts that humanity belongs to some inevitable, universal process, or that a benevolent God created and protects us, an acceptance of the scientific assessment described in the first part of the quotation is, for Monod, the only possible basis of an authentic, ethical human life.  It is reasonable to conclude that Monod himself did not find this position bleak; the quotation he chose from Camus to introduce Chance and Necessity ends with the sentence: "One must imagine Sisyphus happy."

In 1973, Jacques Monod was one of the signatories of the Humanist Manifesto II.

Sociologist Howard L. Kaye has suggested that Monod failed in his attempt to banish "mind and purpose from the phenomenon of life" in the name of science. It may be more accurate to suggest that Monod sought to include mind and purpose within the purview of scientific investigation, rather than attributing them to supernatural or divine causes. While Monod does not explicitly address mind or consciousness, his scientific research demonstrated that biology includes feedback loops that govern interacting systems of biochemical reactions, so that the system as a whole can be described as having a purpose and making choices. Monod's philosophical writing indicates that he recognized the implication that such systems could arise and be elaborated upon by evolution through natural selection. The importance of Monod's work as a bridge between the chance and necessity of evolution and biochemistry on the one hand, and the human realm of choice and ethics on the other, can be judged by his influence on philosophers, biologists and computer scientists such as Daniel Dennett, Douglas Hofstadter, Marvin Minsky and Richard Dawkins.

Awards and honours
In addition to sharing a Nobel Prize, Monod was also a recipient of the Légion d'honneur and elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1960. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1968. The Institut Jacques Monod, funded jointly by the CNRS and the University of Paris, is one of the main centers for basic research in biology in the Paris area. It is headed by Michel Werner, Research Director.

Personal life
Monod was born in Paris to an American mother from Milwaukee, Charlotte (Sharlie) MacGregor Todd, and a French Huguenot father, Lucien Monod, who was a painter and inspired him artistically and intellectually. He attended the lycée at Cannes until he was 18. In October 1928 he started his studies in biology at the Sorbonne. During World War II, Monod was active in the French Resistance, eventually becoming the chief of staff of the French Forces of the Interior. He was a Chevalier in the Légion d'Honneur (1945) and was awarded the Croix de Guerre (1945) and the American Bronze Star Medal. Monod became a member of the French Communist Party after the end of the Second World War, but distanced himself from the party after the Lysenko Affair.

In 1938 he married Odette Bruhl (d.1972).

Jacques Monod died of leukemia in 1976 and was buried in the Cimetière du Grand Jas in Cannes on the French Riviera.

Quotations
 "The first scientific postulate is the objectivity of nature: nature does not have any intention or goal."
 "Anything found to be true of E. coli must also be true of elephants."

 "If [the emergence of the human species] was unique, as may perhaps have been the appearance of life itself, then before it did appear its chances of doing so were infinitely slender. The universe was not pregnant with life nor the biosphere with man. Our number came up in the Monte Carlo game."

References

Further reading

External links

1910 births
1976 deaths
Academic staff of the Collège de France
French microbiologists
French geneticists
French biochemists
Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine
French Nobel laureates
French atheists
French humanists
French Resistance members
Foreign Members of the Royal Society
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
History of genetics
Scientists from Paris
Burials at the Cimetière du Grand Jas
Pasteur Institute
Recipients of the Legion of Honour
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Members of the American Philosophical Society

Jacques Monod


Angela Joyce "Angie" Hulley (née Pain, born 8 February 1962) is an English retired female long-distance runner. Representing Great Britain, she ran a personal best of 2:30:51, to finish 10th in the marathon at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Representing England, she won a bronze medal in the marathon at the 1990 Commonwealth Games.

Career
Born Angela Pain in Bromley, Greater London, she finished sixth for England in the marathon at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 2:37:57. A year later, she ran 2:34:47 for eighth at the 1987 London Marathon and was selected for the 1987 World Championships in Rome, where she finished 11th (and first Briton) in 2:38:12. The British trial race for the Seoul Olympics was the 1988 London Marathon on 17 April. With the top two British finishers assured of selection, she was the fourth British athlete, after Ann Ford, Susan Tooby and Sue Crehan, finishing eighth overall in 2:36:11. The third athlete selected to join Ford and Tooby in Seoul was Priscilla Welch, who decided to miss the London trial race and run the Boston Marathon the following day instead. In Boston, Welch ran faster than all the British women in London. In August 1988, both Ford and Welch withdrew from the Olympic team due to injury and an Olympic place was offered to Veronique Marot, who declined it due to injury. The place was then offered to Paula Fudge, who also turned it down. Finally, only a few weeks before the Olympic marathon on 23 September, Sue Crehan and Hulley (then Pain), were both selected to join Tooby in the British Olympic team. In Seoul, she ran her best ever marathon, running 2:30:51 for 10th place. As in Edinburgh (Commonwealths) and Rome (Worlds), she was once again the top British finisher.

At the 1989 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, she finished 13th. In January 1990, she again was the top British athlete in the marathon when winning a bronze medal for England at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland in 2:36:35, behind the Australian pair of Lisa Martin and Tani Ruckle. At the 1990 European Championships in Split, now competing as Angie Hulley, she finished 15th in the 10,000 metres in 33:06.09. She then finished second at the 1991 Pittsburgh Marathon in 2:45:46 and 38th at the 1993 World Marathon Cup in San Sebastián in 2:43:38.

She also represented England in the 10,000 metres event, at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. At the 1996 British Olympic trials in June, she was second in the 10,000 metres but failed to run the qualifying time for Atlanta. In September 1996, she finished 10th in the World Mountain Running Trophy.

Achievements

References

External links

1962 births
Living people
British female long-distance runners
Olympic athletes for Great Britain
Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics
Sportspeople from Bromley
Athletes (track and field) at the 1986 Commonwealth Games
Athletes (track and field) at the 1990 Commonwealth Games
Athletes (track and field) at the 1994 Commonwealth Games
Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England
Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics
British female mountain runners
Medallists at the 1990 Commonwealth Games

Angie Hulley


Vicente Alberto Pernía (born 25 April 1949 in Tandil, Buenos Aires Province), known as El Tano (the Italian, in lunfardo), is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a defender. He then went on to a second career as a car racing driver.

Club career

El Tano started his football career with Estudiantes de La Plata in 1969, where he played until his transfer to Boca Juniors in 1973. During his time at Boca Pernía won a number of titles, including 3 league titles and 2 Copa Libertadores. Pernía played a total of 269 games for Boca in all competitions and still holds the record for the Boca player to have been sent off the most times with 13 red cards. After the chain of successes under coach Juan Carlos Lorenzo, he was sold to Vélez Sársfield at the end of 1981 after being left out of new coach Silvio Marzolini's plans.

Pernía retired from playing football in 1982. His son Mariano is also a football player and was a member of the Spain national football team for 2006 FIFA World Cup.

International career
Pernía was widely hailed as the best Argentine right defender of his time, but Argentina national team coach César Menotti chose not to call him to the 1978 FIFA World Cup squad, after some rude altercations in friendly matches, notably a friendly against Scotland played 18 June 1977, when he was sent off for repeated violent fouls against Willie Johnston .

For the main event, Menotti improvised fullback Jorge Olguín in the position. Olguín played both the 1978 and the 1982 FIFA World Cups. It was rumored that the personal preferences of some members of the military junta that ruled Argentina played a part in the decision.

In a popular sketch on TV, comedian Mario Sapag as Menotti would say that Pernía does not fit in his philosophy of play "because he is sad", and he'd rather have Olguín, whose name itself is funny.

Stock-car racing
In the 1980s, Pernía reinvented himself as a stock-car driver in Argentina's TC and TC2000 categories. He won a few races, obtaining in 1996 the Subchampionship of Turismo Carretera.

In 2005, Argentine football giants Boca Juniors and River Plate prepared their own racing teams for the Top Race V6 competition that starts in March 2005. Pernía will, after 14 years, dress again the blue-and-yellow colors of Boca Juniors, along with driving Guillermo Ortelli and Ernesto Bessone.

Another of Pernía's sons, Leonel races in TC2000 and the World Touring Car Championship.

Honours
Boca Juniors
Argentine Primera División: Metropolitano 1976, Nacional 1976, Metropolitano 1981
Copa Libertadores: 1977, 1978
Intercontinental Cup: 1977

External links
Boca Idols, Pernía
Boca Juniors Official Page

1949 births
Footballers from Tandil
Argentine people of Italian descent
Living people
Argentine men's footballers
Argentina men's international footballers
Argentine Primera División players
Boca Juniors footballers
Copa Libertadores-winning players
Estudiantes de La Plata footballers
Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield footballers
Turismo Carretera drivers
TC 2000 Championship drivers
Argentine racing drivers
Top Race V6 drivers
Men's association football defenders

Vicente Pernía


Stefan Dunjov (, Stefan Dunyov, ) (28 July 1815 – 29 August 1889) was a Banat Bulgarian military figure and revolutionary known for participating in both the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and the Italian unification (Risorgimento), as well as for being the first ethnic Bulgarian Colonel.

Biography
Born in Vinga in the Austrian Empire, Kingdom of Hungary (today in Romania) to a Roman Catholic Bulgarian farming family, Dunjov graduated in law and started working as a lawyer in Arad. Having adopted the ideas of Hungarian revolutionaries Lajos Kossuth and Sándor Petőfi, he joined their 1848 insurrectionist forces and was elected a member of the regional and city committee in Arad, later serving as a private in the Hungarian Army and a military judge. He participated in a number of battles defending the revolution and was promoted initially to the rank of Captain and then to that of Colonel. Following the revolution's defeat, he was captured and sentenced to death by the Austrian authorities, but his sentence was later reduced to ten years in dungeon. Dunjov was released in 1857 and interned by the authorities in Pest.

After the outbreak of the Second Italian War of Independence in 1859, Dunjov set for the Kingdom of Sardinia, where he enlisted in the Italian Army. In 1860, after the war had promptly ceased, he joined Giuseppe Garibaldi's Redshirts, taking part in the Expedition of the Thousand, which resulted in the conquest of Sicily for Sardinia. He was the commander of a regiment which included Hungarians and some Banat Bulgarians, and particularly excelled in the decisive Battle of the Volturno. Dunjov was heavily wounded on the battlefield, losing a leg. He was personally congratulated on his merits by Garibaldi and awarded the highest Italian military and civil decorations.

Until his death, Dunjov lived in united Italy, engaging in scientific, journalistic and translator's activity. He died in 1889 in the Italian city of Pistoia. There are streets named after Stefan Dunjov in three countries: Hungary (Budapest), Bulgaria (Sofia) and Romania (his native Vinga).

References

Further reading

1815 births
1889 deaths
People from Arad County
Banat Bulgarian people
Bulgarian Austro-Hungarians
Bulgarian revolutionaries
People of the Revolutions of 1848
Hungarian soldiers
Bulgarian Roman Catholics
People of the Italian unification
19th-century Bulgarian people
19th-century military personnel
Bulgarian expatriates in Italy

Stefan Dunjov


A language border or language boundary is the line separating two languages. The two languages must be different enough for speakers to not understand each other. If the speakers do understand each other, there will be a dialect continuum with no exact border, and the languages will mix with each other.

A language island is a language area that is fully surrounded by a language border.

Language
Borders

Language border


Vere Henry Hobart, Lord Hobart (8 December 1818 – 27 April 1875) was a British colonial administrator.

Hobart was born in Welbourn, Lincolnshire to  Augustus Hobart-Hampden, 6th Earl of Buckinghamshire and Mary Williams, daughter of Welsh barrister John Williams. In 1840, he graduated from Trinity College, Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A). Following the death of his grandfather in 1849, his father succeeded to the earldom and Vere was styled as Lord Hobart (his father's courtesy title).

On 4 August 1853, he married Mary Katherine Carr, daughter of the former Bishop of Bombay Rt. Revd. Thomas Carr and Catherine Emily MacMahon. He worked as a clerk in the Board of Trade in 1842. He was the private secretary to Sir George Grey at the Home Office in 1855. On 30 May 1856, he matriculated from Trinity College. He was the Governor of Madras from 15 May 1872 till his death on 27 April 1875, decessit vita patris. He died unexpectedly at Government House, Madras of typhoid fever.

References

1818 births
1875 deaths
Deaths from typhoid fever
Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford

Heirs apparent who never acceded
Vere
British courtesy barons and lords of Parliament

Vere Hobart, Lord Hobart


Creative GigaWorks ProGamer G500 is a 5.1 speaker system by Creative Technology aimed at computer gamers. It features five 3 inch, 36 watt RMS satellites, and an 8 inch 130 watt RMS subwoofer with dual ports. It puts out 310 watts RMS power, and 620 watts peak power. The subwoofer has an integrated amplifier. It includes a wired remote control that allows the user to change amplitude levels for center, rear, and subwoofer speakers, and adjust the treble.

The system can also be muted, put it into standby, or plug in headphones from/with the remote. The G500 also features an upmixing feature, to create a 5.1 sound field from a 2.0 stereo input, switchable from the remote.  The frequency response range of the G500 is 35–20,000 Hz, with a SNR of 85 dB. It is tuned for low end punch, so it does not produce extremely crisp high notes, but it is understandable, considering the target audience.

References

Creative Technology products

ProGamer G500


The Battle of Wolfenbüttel (29 June 1641) took place near the town of Wolfenbüttel, in what is now Lower Saxony, during the Thirty Years' War. Swedish forces led by Carl Gustaf Wrangel and Hans Christoff von Königsmarck and Bernardines led by Jean-Baptiste Budes, Comte de Guébriant withstood an assault by Imperial forces led by Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, forcing the Imperials to retreat.

Background
Wolfenbüttel, occupied by Imperial forces, was a strategically insignificant town, but it held great value to the Swedes' Guelph allies. A Guelph army under Hans Caspar von Klitzing had blockaded the Imperial garrison under Johann Ernst, Baron von Ruischenberg since the previous autumn, but its 7,000 troops had been too small a force to reduce the town. Facing growing uncertainty in the wake of the death of General Johan Banér and mutinous troops following a year of inaction and failure, the Swedes needed to do something to ensure Guelph loyalty and prove to other German Protestant allies that they were still a reliable partner. Thus, they decided to assist in the Guelph siege of Wolfenbüttel. Hearing word of the Swedish advance, an Imperial army under Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria and Ottavio Piccolomini raced to meet them. The race was essentially a draw. The Swedes under Carl Gustaf Wrangel and their Bernardine allies led by French general Jean-Baptiste Budes, Comte de Guébriant joined Klitzing's troops on 28 June, and the Imperial army arrived just two hours later.

Battle
The besiegers had created a fortified camp that was too hard to take by frontal assault, so Leopold Wilhelm ordered flanking attacks on both sides. Piccolomini's cavalry attacked the Swedish left, but was driven back with light casualties. Meanwhile, the Bavarians under Joachim Christian von Wahl attacked the Swedish right through a woods containing a small redoubt manned by Banér's legendary "Old Blue" Swedish regiment. The Bavarians took heavy casualties storming the woods but finally succeeded in taking the redoubt from the "Old Blue," only to be driven back by a cavalry counterattack dispatched by Guébriant from the main camp. At this point, Leopold Wilhelm decided to withdraw, having taken around 3,000 casualties in total, although the Swedes had also paid a heavy price for their victory, having lost 2,000 men, with the heaviest toll coming out of the most experienced and veteran troops of the "Old Blue" regiment.

References

Sources

Wolfenbüttel
Wolfenbüttel
Wolfenbuttel (1641)
Wolfenbuttel (1641)
Wolfenbuttel
Wolfenbüttel
Wolfenbüttel
1641 in Europe

Battle of Wolfenbüttel


Starodub-on-the-Klyazma () was a prominent urban centre of Russian Opolye from the 12th until the 14th century. Like so many towns in the vicinity, it was named by migrating population for a southern city they came from, in this case, for Starodub in Severia. The town was on the bank of the Klyazma River about twelve kilometres from the modern-day Kovrov. Nowadays, the village of Klyazminsky Gorodok stands on the spot.

During the Mongol invasion of Russia, the youngest of Vsevolod III's sons, Ivan, made Starodub his seat (1238). His descendants ruled the tiniest of Russian principalities for more than a century, desperately trying to fend off attacks by two powerful neighbours—Muscovy and Nizhny Novgorod. Their ephemeral power came to an end in the 1370s, when the town was eventually annexed by Dmitry Donskoy. Thereupon numerous scions of Starodub dynasty moved to Moscow, where they formed the families of Princes Gagarin, Khilkoff, Romodanovsky, Pozharsky, and many others.

During the Time of Troubles, the town was completely burnt to the ground by the Polish warlord Alexander Jozef Lisowski, who ravaged the area in March 1609. Some historians believe that Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, who helped Russia to survive those turbulent times, lies buried in Starodub, the demesne of his forefathers.

Geography of Vladimir Oblast
Defunct towns in Russia
Former populated places in Russia
Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Vladimir Oblast

Starodub-on-the-Klyazma


Thiota (;  847 AD) was a heretical Christian prophetess of the ninth century. She was originally from Alemannia (then part of East Francia), and in 847 she began prophesying that the world would end that year.

Her story is known from the Annales Fuldenses which record that she disturbed the diocese of Bishop Salomon, that is, the Diocese of Constance, before arriving in Mainz. A large number of men and women were persuaded by her "presumption" as well as even some clerics. In fear, many gave her gifts and sought prayers. Finally, the bishops of Gallia Belgica ordered her to attend a synod in St Alban's church in Mainz. She was eventually forced to confess that she had only made up her predictions at the urging of a priest and for lucrative gain. She was publicly flogged and stripped of her ministry, which the Fuldensian annalist says she had taken up "unreasonably ... against the customs of the church." Shamed, she ceased to prophesy thereafter.

References
 The Annals of Fulda. (Manchester Medieval series, Ninth-Century Histories, Volume II.) Reuter, Timothy (trans.) Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1992.
Landes, Richard. Heaven on Earth: The Variety of the Millennial Experience. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 81-83.
 Palmer, James. The Apocalypse in the Early Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.

9th-century apocalypticists
9th-century Christians
9th-century women from East Francia
Women Christian religious leaders

Thiota


Remote dispensing is used in health care environments to describe the use of automated systems to dispense (package and label) prescription medications without an on-site pharmacist.  This practice is most common in long-term care facilities and correctional institutions that do not find it practical to operate a full-service in-house pharmacy.

Remote dispensing can also be used to describe the pharmacist controlled remote prescription dispensing units which connect patients to a remotely located pharmacist over video interface to receive counseling and medication dispensing. Because these units are pharmacist controlled, the units can be located outside of typical healthcare settings such as employer sites, universities and remote locations, thus offering pharmacy services where they have previously never existed before.

A typical remote-dispensing system
A typical remote-dispensing system is monitored remotely by a central pharmacy and includes secure, automated medication dispensing hardware that is capable of producing patient-specific packages of medications on demand. The secure medication dispensing unit is placed on-site at the care facility or non-healthcare locations (such as Universities, workplaces and retail locations) and filled with pharmacist-checked medication canisters.

When patient medications are needed, the orders are submitted to a pharmacist at the central pharmacy, the pharmacist reviews the orders and, when approved, the medications are subsequently dispensed from the on-site dispensing unit at the remote care facility. Medications come out of the dispensing machine printed with the patient's name, medication name, and other relevant information.

If the medication stock in a canister is low, the central pharmacy is alerted to fill a canister from their bulk stock. New canisters are filled, checked by the pharmacist, security sealed, and delivered to the remote care facility.

Perceived advantages
In theory, access to dispensing services 24 hours a day in locations previously unable to support full pharmacy operations. Advocates for remote dispensing additionally claim that the service provides focused, uninterrupted and personalized time with a pharmacist as the system manages the physical dispensing process while the pharmacist simply oversees it. Certain prescription dispensing units can carry over 2000 different medications  tailored to the prescribing habits of local healthcare providers. Furthermore, remote dispensing terminal manufacturers state that this technology can facilitate patient continuity of care between prescriber and pharmacist.

Disadvantages
While some may purport that travel time to pharmacies is reduced, this point has been negated by an Ontarian study published in the journal Healthcare Policy as over 90% of Ontarians live within a 5 km radius of a pharmacy.

Remote dispensing also places a physical barrier between the patient and pharmacist, limiting the pharmacist's ability to detect a patient's nonverbal cues. A patient with alcohol on his or her breath would go undetected via remote dispensing, increasing the risk for dangerous interactions with drugs such as tranquilizers, sleeping pills, narcotics, and warfarin to name a few. This problem may be amplified through telecommunication service disruptions, which were reported in previous studies examining the utility of remote dispensing technology.

Remote dispensing has the potential to undermine the services offered by physically present pharmacists. Hands-on patient training on inhalers and glucose meters is not feasible with remote dispensing, and administration of injections is impossible without a physically present pharmacist. Other cognitive services such as in-depth medication consultations are also impractical to conduct over such audiovisual technology, which do not provide acoustic privacy for the patient, nor do they meet mandatory criteria for conducting such services that require an "in-person discussion" to occur.
Furthermore, the variety of drugs offered by remote dispensing is limited in comparison to traditional pharmacies, which in the province of Ontario are required to maintain a dispensary of at least 9.3  m2 in area, far greater than that of any remote dispensing machine.

See also
 Telepharmacy
 Telemedicine

References

Automated teller machines
Pharmacies

Remote dispensing


Flag-waving is a fallacious argument or propaganda technique used to justify an action based on the undue connection to nationalism or patriotism or benefit for an idea, group or country. It is a variant of argumentum ad populum. This fallacy appeals to emotion instead to logic of the audience aiming to manipulate them to win an argument. All ad populum fallacies are based on the presumption that the recipients already have certain beliefs, biases, and prejudices about the issue.

If flag-waving is based on connecting to some symbol of patriotism or nationalism it is a form of appeal to stirring symbols which can be based on undue connection not only to nationalism but also to some religious or cultural symbols—for example, a politician appearing on TV with children, farmer, teacher, together with the "common" man, etc.

The act of flag-waving is a superficial display of support or loyalty to, for example, a nation or a political party.

References

Appeals to emotion
Nationalism
Symbols

Flag-waving


Taron Egerton ( ; born 10 November 1989) is a Welsh actor. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Egerton performed in stage plays. He gained recognition for his starring role as spy recruit Eggsy Unwin in the action comedy film Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) and its sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017).

Egerton has also starred in several biographical films, portraying military officer Edward Brittain in the drama Testament of Youth (2014), the titular ski-jumper in the sports film Eddie the Eagle (2016), and singer Elton John in the musical Rocketman (2019). The last of these earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. Egerton has since starred as Jimmy Keene in the miniseries Black Bird (2022), for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award, and as Henk Rogers in the biopic Tetris (2023), both for Apple TV+.

Early life
Egerton was born on 10 November 1989 in Birkenhead, Merseyside. His mother worked in social services, while his father ran a bed-and-breakfast near Liverpool; both of them are Liverpool natives. Although born in England, Egerton considers himself to be Welsh "through and through" and is fluent in both Welsh and English. He has two younger half-sisters.

Egerton's parents divorced when he was two, and he subsequently moved with his mother to the Welsh island of Anglesey, where he went to primary school. The family then relocated to Aberystwyth when he was 12 years old. He became lonely due to losing childhood friends. He began acting at age 15, which he explained was "as much about trying to be social and make friends as it was an interest in acting". He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, from which he graduated in 2012.

Career

Early work and Kingsman films (2012–2018)
Egerton performed in a stage production of the play The Last of the Haussmans at the National Theatre in London in 2012. After appearing in the crime drama series Lewis, he was cast as the lead role of Gary "Eggsy" Unwin in Matthew Vaughn's Kingsman: The Secret Service, an action comedy film adaptation of the comic book The Secret Service by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons, in 2013. He portrayed British Army officer Edward Brittain in the 2014 biographical drama film Testament of Youth, earning a nomination for Best British Newcomer at the BFI London Film Festival. Kingsman: The Secret Service was released in 2015, garnering highly favorable reviews that described it as "fun, stylish and subversive" as well as grossing over $400 million. Writing for TheWrap, James Rocchi deemed Egerton to be "a naturally charismatic presence with smarts behind his smile" as Gary "Eggsy" Unwin, a recruit for an espionage organisation. Egerton rose to fame with the role. He starred in the crime film Legend that same year.

At the 69th British Academy Film Awards in 2016, Egerton received a nomination for the BAFTA Rising Star Award. In the same year, he played ski-jumper Eddie the Eagle in the eponymous biographical sports film and voiced Johnny, a passionate gorilla, in the animated musical film Sing. Egerton reprised the role of Eggsy in the film Kingsman: The Golden Circle, a sequel to Kingsman: The Secret Service, released the following year. It drew a mixed response from critics. In 2018, he starred in the crime drama film Billionaire Boys Club and played the title character in the action-adventure film Robin Hood. Both films were failures commercially and with critics. Egerton later specified that Robin Hood was not the film he had signed up to create and that it had "lost its vision." He attributed his involvement in Billionaire Boys Club and Robin Hood to monetary reasons.

Recognition (2019–present)
Egerton starred as singer Elton John in the biographical musical film Rocketman. He learned to play the piano for the part and sang live in each take during filming. The film was released in 2019, receiving positive reviews, and the actor's portrayal of John earned praise. The Washington Posts Ann Hornaday opined that Egerton "exerts a steadying, singularly charismatic force" in the role, while Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair described his portrayal as "nuanced and emotionally intelligent while still loose, carried with verve and agility". Egerton won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance. He also garnered a British Academy Film Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role and a Grammy Award nomination for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media for his work on the film's soundtrack. That same year, Egerton narrated the audiobook version of John's autobiography, Me, and the two performed on stage together several times.

Also in 2019, Egerton voiced Moomintroll in the animated series Moominvalley and Rian in the fantasy series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. He reprised the role of Johnny in Sing 2, which released in 2021. Egerton starred in the play Cock by Mike Bartlett. Directed by Marianne Elliott and held at the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End, the production marked his West End debut. After missing performances due to fainting on stage during the first night of performances in March 2022 and testing positive for COVID-19 later that month, Egerton exited for "personal reasons" the following month. The production of Cock garnered mixed critical reception, with Egerton's performance gaining praise. The Guardians Arifa Akbar wrote he "is especially affecting in his romantic desperation".

Egerton executive produced and portrayed American drug dealer Jimmy Keene in the miniseries Black Bird, an adaptation of Keene's memoir In with the Devil. It premiered on Apple TV+ in 2022. Reviewing the series, Saloni Gajjar of The A.V. Club wrote that Egerton "aces Jimmy's duality while switching from being overtly confident to silently breaking down". He received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. The following year, Egerton portrayed entrepreneur Henk Rogers in the biographical film Tetris, about the video game of the same name, which also released on Apple TV+. Lovia Gyarke of The Hollywood Reporter commended him for playing Rogers with an "earnest goofiness".

Egerton will next star in the Netflix thriller film Carry-On.

Public image and personal life
Egerton was named one of British GQ 50 best-dressed British men in 2015 and 2016.

Egerton lives in West London. He describes himself as having come from a working-class background. Having lost a grandmother to motor neurone disease, he is an ambassador for the Motor Neurone Disease Association. He supports gay rights.

Acting credits

Film

Television

Theatre

Music videos

Audio

Discography

Soundtrack albums

Guest appearances

Accolades

Egerton has won a Golden Globe Award for his role in Rocketman. He has also garnered a Grammy Award nomination for his work on its soundtrack. He has been nominated by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for the BAFTA Rising Star Award and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

References

External links

1989 births
Living people
21st-century Welsh male actors
Alumni of RADA
Audiobook narrators
Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (film) winners
National Youth Theatre members
People educated at Ysgol Penglais School
People from Aberystwyth
Actors from Birkenhead
Welsh male film actors
Welsh male television actors
Welsh male voice actors
Welsh people of English descent
Welsh-speaking actors
Welsh male comedy actors

Taron Egerton


"Officer Rimmer" is the fourth episode of Red Dwarf XI and the 65th in the series run. Originally broadcast on the British television channel Dave on 13 October 2016, it was made available early on 7 October 2016 on UKTV Play.

After accidentally saving a valuable Space Corps starship, Rimmer is promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant and the power quickly goes to his head.

Synopsis
While cruising space onboard Starbug, the crew come across a Space Corps vessel, carrying highly-vulnerable nuclear materials, drifting helplessly toward an asteroid storm. The vessel's captain, bio-printed Edwin Herring, sends an SOS to the Red Dwarf crew requesting urgent aid or the ship's nuclear stock will cause a massive explosion capable of reaching even Starbug. In an impulsive decision, Rimmer launches a limpet torpedo to obliterate the ship before it can harm Starbug. However, it miraculously ricochets off a lone asteroid and blasts the ship to safety. Herring, in immense gratitude, declares he shall promote Rimmer to the rank of officer, something which Rimmer has always aspired to.

Back on Red Dwarf, Kryten attempts to suppress Rimmer's ego over the promotion by reminding him that he was intending to destroy the ship, only for Rimmer to announce that this does not matter, as he is being promoted regardless. Herring arrives, promotes Rimmer to the even more prestigious rank of First Lieutenant, and dematerializes as his mission to captain the ship is complete. Using the bio-printer that produced Herring on the Space Corps ship, Rimmer plans to use it to create a crew of his own to command. Whilst the other three are looking into the bio-printer's files, they are bewildered to discover Lister's DNA on file being used in call centers; Lister then recalls once accepting an offer to spit on a stick for 'half a packet of fags' and 'a hundred dollarpounds'. They then delete all available crewmembers from the bio-printer's files. Rimmer, however, manages to scavenge DNA of himself from when he was alive to mass-produce dozens of himself. He also oversees the construction of a new officers' lounge by the Skutters, exclusive to only him and his clones.

Lister and Cat become fed up with Rimmer's imposed class system, especially since Rimmer uses it to make their lives miserable, and barges into the officers' lounge against his orders. An angry Rimmer gets Kryten to help him create modified versions of himself to act as bodyguards, but due to his impatient and repeated slamming of the print button, jams the bio-printer. After pulling it out, it's revealed the bio-printer has a created a large, grotesque hybrid of several Rimmers bent on a psychotic rampage of absorbing all Rimmers. Rimmer manages to escape, but is forced to resign from his position of First Lieutenant back to Second Technician to receive help from the other three. With Rimmer acting as bait, the other three sneak up on it and distract it long enough for Rimmer to take cover, finally blasting it with bazookoid fire.

Production
The conversation during the opening sequence concerning dreams was originally written and filmed for Cured in Series XII. It was decided during production to reuse it for this episode, and it was reshot so as to have Cat in his correct costume.

The officer uniform adorned by Rimmer was designed after the original "Clive of India" uniform worn by Rimmer in Me², Kryten, and Better Than Life. The Rimmer monster was created as one whole prop, consisting of Chris Barrie and several other performers wearing Rimmer masks. Similarly, Herring had several design concepts made for his deformed head, with the final design deemed the most funny and ultimately chosen for broadcast.

Reception
"Officer Rimmer" received positive reviews by critics and fans. Though some expressed disappointment over the suddenness of the ending.

References

External links

Series XI episode guide at www.reddwarf.co.uk

Red Dwarf XI episodes
2016 British television episodes
Television episodes about cloning

Officer Rimmer


Josef Albert Meisinger (14 September 1899 – 7 March 1947), also known as the "Butcher of Warsaw", was an SS functionary in Nazi Germany. He held a position in the Gestapo and was a member of the Nazi Party. During the early phases of World War II Meisinger served as commander of Einsatzgruppe IV in Poland. From 1941 to 1945 he worked as liaison for the Gestapo at the German embassy in Tokyo. He was arrested in Japan in 1945, convicted of war crimes and was executed in Warsaw, Poland.

Early life

Meisinger was born in Munich, the son of Josef and Berta Meisinger; he enlisted on 23 December 1916 and served during World War I in the 230th Minenwerfer Company (a type of short-range mortar), 22nd Bavarian Pioneer Battalion in the 30th Bavarian Reserve Division. After being wounded in battle he was awarded the Iron Cross and the Bavarian Military Merit Cross. On 18 January 1919 he attained the rank of Vizefeldwebel (senior sergeant), and on 19 April 1919 he entered the Freikorps under Franz Ritter von Epp, with whom he fought against the Soviet Republic of Bavaria. On 1 October 1922 he began working at the Munich Police Headquarters. As leader of the III Platoon of the II Company of the Freikorps Oberland, he took part in the Hitlerputsch on 8–9 November 1923.

He was inducted on 5 March 1933 into the SS and then into the Bavarian Political Police on 9 March 1933, thus coming into official contact with Heinrich Müller, Franz Josef Huber and Reinhard Heydrich (with whom he had served in the Freikorps). At that point in time, Heinrich Himmler was chief of the Munich Police and Heydrich was commander of Department IV, the political police. Meisinger became a member of the Nazi Party on 1 May 1933. He received the Blood Order Medal of the Nazi Party on 9 November 1933.

Nazi career

On 20 April 1934, Meisinger was promoted to SS-Obertruppführer. Heydrich was appointed chief of the Gestapo on 22 April 1934. Immediately thereafter, Heydrich transferred to its Berlin office and took with him trusted colleagues: Heinrich Müller (Gestapo), Franz Josef Huber and Meisinger, referred to as the Bajuwaren-Brigade (Bavarian Brigade). On 9 May, Meisinger was promoted to SS-Untersturmführer (2nd lieutenant) in the Dezernat II 1 H and II H 1, which had the following tasks:
 Uncovering of opponents of Adolf Hitler within the Nazi Party
 Prosecution of homosexuals
 Prosecution of cases of abortion
 Prosecution of cases of intimate relations between Jews and non-Jews.

On 24 June 1934, he went to hear Erich Klausener at the Catholic Congress in Berlin and informed Heydrich that Klausener had made anarchist statements. On 30 June 1934, Klausener was shot by SS officer Kurt Gildisch in his office at the Prussian transportation ministry. After the war, Walter Schellenberg the former head of the foreign intelligence section of the SD in the RHSA, described Meisinger as:

One of the most evil creatures among Heydrich's bunch of thugs and he carried out the vilest of his orders...He was a frightening individual, a large, coarse-faced man with a bald head and an incredibly ugly face. However, like many men of his type, he had drive and energy and an unscrupulous sort of cleverness...As a result of his long police experience he knew a good deal about the workings and methods of the Comintern.

Role in the Blomberg–Fritsch Affair

From 1936 to 1938 Meisinger was a leader in the Gestapo in charge of the Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion (Reichszentrale zur Bekämpfung der Homosexualität und Abtreibung) in the Gestapo Central Headquarters in the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo). During this period he was promoted to SS-Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel). In early 1938 Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring and Himmler wanted to dispose of Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg, a conservative member of the army's high command and Hitler's Minister of Defense. Meisinger's investigation revealed that Blomberg's wife, Erna Gruhn, had been a prostitute with a police record and once posed for pornographic photos. Blomberg was forced to resign.

In 1936 Meisinger had uncovered allegations of homosexuality made against the Commander-in-Chief of the Army Colonel General Werner von Fritsch. A file was prepared and Heydrich passed the information on to Hitler. Hitler chose to dismiss the allegations and ordered Heydrich to destroy the file. However, he did not do so.

In late January 1938, Göring wanted to dispose of von Fritsch as he did not want Fritsch to become the successor to Blomberg and thus his superior. Heydrich resurrected the old file on Fritsch. Meisinger saw it as an opportunity for advancement, since he knew that Himmler and the SS regarded homosexuals as a danger to the regime. However, Meisinger's police work was judged to be sloppy and Heydrich and Müller were dissatisfied. At one point, Meisinger and Huber interrogated Otto Schmidt, a notorious criminal whose Berlin gang specialized in the blackmail of homosexuals. Schmidt identified von Fritsch as a man whom he had witnessed engaging in homosexual acts in 1933. When Meisinger provided a photograph of Fritsch on which was clearly printed Fritsch's name, title and military rank, Schmidt jumped at the chance to advance himself by slandering the general. Heydrich resubmitted the updated von Fritsch file to Hitler. Werner Best, in describing this incident, called Meisinger "a primitive man with clumsy methods". It was eventually determined that von Fritsch had been confused with Rittmeister Achim von Frisch. The accusations against Fritsch broke down in court and members of the German officer corps were appalled at Fritsch's treatment. Meisinger's career in the Gestapo was almost terminated.

Activities in Poland

As a consequence of Meisinger's and his agency's failure, he and others were replaced, transferred for disciplinary reasons or dismissed. In 1938 he was transferred to work in the archives of the principal SD office, but by September 1939 he was appointed Deputy Commander of the Einsatzgruppe IV in Poland. On 1 January 1940, after promotion to SS-Standartenführer (colonel), Meisinger was appointed Commander of the State Police in the Warsaw District, replacing Lothar Beutel who had been denounced for corruption.

Meisinger proceeded to apply brutal force against Poles, mostly those of Jewish descent. As part of the German AB-Aktion in Poland, he authorized the Palmiry massacre, the mass shooting of 1,700 people in the forest near Palmiry. As a reprisal for the murder of a Polish policeman, he ordered the execution of 55 Jewish residents on 22 November 1939, and on 20 December, the execution of 107 Poles as a reprisal for the murder of two Germans. Meisinger became so notorious that he was called the "Butcher of Warsaw" (although this sobriquet was also given to SS-Gruppenführer Heinz Reinefarth). According to Schellenberg, his atrocities in Warsaw even appalled his superiors: "I had collected a huge file which proved him to be so utterly bestial and corrupt as to be practically inhuman...At this stage...Heydrich intervened: Meisinger knew too much, and Heydrich managed to prevent the trial from taking place." Heydrich's appeal to Himmler saved Meisinger from court-martial and possible execution. He was sent to Tokyo as a means of keeping him at arm's length until the dust had settled.

During his trial in 1947 Meisinger stated that he was not in Warsaw after October 1940, but it is likely that he participated in the creation of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Activities in Shanghai and Japan

From 1 April 1941 to May 1945 Meisinger acted as Gestapo liaison connecting leaders and particular agents of the SD at the German Embassy in Tokyo. His duties included seeking out enemies of the Third Reich within the German community, using various informants. He was also the SD liaison officer to the Japanese Secret Intelligence Service. One of his tasks in Japan was the observation of the secret Soviet agent Richard Sorge (who was under suspicion in Berlin) but Meisinger soon became Sorge's constant drinking companion and, unwittingly, one of Sorge's best sources of information.

In 1941 Meisinger tried to influence the Japanese to exterminate approximately 18,000–20,000 Jews who had escaped from Austria and Germany and who were living in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. His proposals included the creation of a concentration camp on Chongming Island in the delta of the Yangtze, or starvation on freighters off the coast of China. The Japanese admiral responsible for overseeing Shanghai would not yield to pressure from Meisinger; however, the Japanese built a ghetto in the neighborhood of Hongkew which had already been planned by Tokyo in 1939: a slum with about twice the population density of Manhattan. The ghetto was strictly isolated by Japanese soldiers under the command of the Japanese official Kano Ghoya, and Jews could only leave it with special permission. Some 2,000 of them died in the Shanghai Ghetto during the wartime period.

Arrest, trial and conviction

On 6 September 1945 Meisinger surrendered to two war correspondents, Clark Lee of the INS and Robert Brumby of MBS, at the Fujiya Hotel in Hakone, Kanagawa. The reporters drove him to the Yokohama headquarters of the Counter-Intelligence Corps where Meisinger turned himself in. He was held in the Yokohama Jail where he underwent intensive questioning for two weeks before being transferred to U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters in Frankfurt. In November 1945, under the escort of Lt. Col. Jennis R. Galloway, and Major James W. McColl, both of the 441st CIC detachment, he was flown to Washington, D.C. for questioning on his involvement in the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto.

In 1946 he was extradited to Poland. In Warsaw on 17 December 1946 he was charged, together with Ludwig Fischer (Nazi Governor of the Warsaw District), Max Daume (Acting Commander of the Ordnungspolizei in Warsaw), and Ludwig Leist (Nazi Plenipotentiary Governor of the City of Warsaw) of Nazi crimes. The trials took place between 17 December 1946 and 24 February 1947. On 3 March 1947 the Supreme National Tribunal in Warsaw sentenced Meisinger to death, and on 7 March he was executed in Warsaw's Mokotów Prison.

References

External links
 Meisinger and the Gay Holocaust
 Heinz Eberhard Maul, Japan und die Juden. Studie über die Judenpolitik des Kaiserreiches Japan während der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus 1933 – 1945. Doctoral Dissertation, Bonn 2000: Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität.

1899 births
1947 deaths
20th-century Freikorps personnel
Einsatzgruppen personnel
Executed German mass murderers
Executed people from Bavaria
Executions by the Supreme National Tribunal
German Army personnel of World War I
German expatriates in Japan
German police officers convicted of crimes against humanity
German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United States
Gestapo personnel
Holocaust perpetrators in Poland
Military personnel of Bavaria
Nazis who participated in the Beer Hall Putsch
People extradited to Poland
People from the Kingdom of Bavaria
Police officers executed for crimes against humanity
Recipients of the Iron Cross (1914), 2nd class
Recipients of the Military Merit Cross (Bavaria)
SS and Police Leaders
SS-Standartenführer

Josef Albert Meisinger


Virgin Trains (legal name West Coast Trains Limited) was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Virgin Rail Group, a joint venture between Virgin Group and Stagecoach, which operated the InterCity West Coast franchise from 9 March 1997 to 7 December 2019. The franchise covered long-distance passenger services on the West Coast Main Line between London, the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland, consequently connecting six of the UK's largest cities: London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh, which have a combined metropolitan population of over 18 million.  Virgin Trains had around 3,400 employees in 2015.

The Virgin Trains brand was also used on the legally and operationally separate Virgin Trains East Coast from 2015 until 2018, and previously on Virgin CrossCountry, which operated between 1997 and 2007, as well as from 2018 to 2020 by Virgin Trains USA in Florida.

The contract expired on 7 December 2019 (having been originally scheduled for expiry in March 2020) and Virgin did not contest losing the franchise after its joint venture partner, Stagecoach, was disqualified due to an invalid bid in April 2019.

History

Amid the privatisation of British Rail during the mid 1990s, the newly-formed Virgin Rail Group submitted multiple bids to operate several different train franchises, including Gatwick Express, InterCity CrossCountry and InterCity West Coast. It was successful in winning the latter two, leading to Virgin CrossCountry and Virgin West Coast (commonly referred to as Virgin Trains) commencing operations in January and March 1997 respectively.

One of Virgin's franchise commitments was to replace the British Rail-era locomotives and rolling stock inherited by Virgin West Coast with brand new tilting trains.. It was expected that the Pendolinos would run at service speeds of up to  and that the whole fleet would be delivered by May 2002. In order for tilting trains to be operated, Railtrack had committed itself to upgrading the West Coast Main Line as to permit 140 mph operation by 2005. However, the modernisation of the line suffered from spiralling costs, rising from an estimated £2 billion to roughly £10 billion, while the programme had failures that were technical as well as managerial, such as the moving block signalling apparatus being immature for such a busy mixed-traffic mainline. Railtrack would ultimately collapse while its successor, Network Rail, would also be unable to fully deliver the promised upgrade, heavily impacting Virgin West Coast's operations. The upgrade programme would be cut back, as a result, the top speed was reduced to 125 mph.

Virgin Trains' franchise was originally due to expire in March 2012. During mid 2009, Virgin founder Richard Branson launched a campaign to have the next franchise period extended for 20 to 30 years, so that Virgin could spend more on infrastructure and see a return on its investment. Branson said the journey time between London and Birmingham could be reduced by 22 minutes to under one hour. However, the approach was turned down by the Department for Transport. Virgin proceeded to apply for a two-year extension, but this was also ruled out by the Department of Transport on legal grounds.

In January 2011, the Department for Transport called for expressions of interest in bidding for the next InterCity West Coast franchise. In March 2011, the Department announced that Abellio, FirstGroup, Keolis/SNCF and Virgin Rail Group had been shortlisted to bid for the franchise. In May 2011, the Secretary of State for Transport announced that the end date had been postponed to allow the recommendations in the McNulty Report to be absorbed. In October 2011, the Department announced that Virgin had been granted a franchise extension until December 2012.

An Invitation to tender was issued to the shortlisted bidders in January 2012, and the Department for Transport awarded FirstGroup the new franchise in August 2012. Virgin spoke out against this decision, claiming that the methodology used to award the franchise was flawed, while Richard Branson stated that it was unlikely Virgin would bid for any future franchises. When the DfT did not directly respond to Virgin's concerns, the operator launched proceedings for a judicial review.

During October 2012, the Secretary of State announced that the government was cancelling the franchise competition for the InterCity West Coast franchise after discovering significant technical flaws in the way the franchise process was conducted, reversing the decision to award it to FirstGroup. Following an independent review of the franchising process, a fresh competition would be held. The government announced that it would negotiate with Virgin Trains to run the InterCity West Coast franchise for a further 9 to 13 months. In December 2012, Virgin was awarded a 23-month management contract to run the franchise until 9 November 2014.

In March 2013, the Secretary of State announced that the franchise would again be extended until 31 March 2017. During May 2013, there was a controversy regarding new uniforms, with claims that the blouses were too revealing and potentially exposed dark bras to the public. Virgin Rail Group responded to this by offering a voucher worth £20 to allow employees to purchase a top to wear underneath the new blouses.

In July 2013, the Office of Rail Regulation rejected an application by Virgin Trains to operate new services to Shrewsbury and Blackpool North, citing capacity constraints on the West Coast Main Line. In November 2013, a revised application for services to Shrewsbury and Blackpool North was approved, and the services started in December 2014.

During November 2016, the franchise was further extended until March 2019. In February 2018, the contract was yet again extended until March 2019, with an option to extend it further to March 2020. However, in March 2018, it was announced that the contract would end in September 2019 when the new West Coast Partnership franchise would commence.

In December 2018, it was announced that Virgin Trains had been granted a one-year extension until March 2020. In April 2019, Stagecoach revealed that it had been disqualified from the franchises it was bidding for, including the West Coast Partnership. One month later, the company announced that it would mount a legal challenge to its disqualification. However, on 17 June 2020, the High Court ruled against the company and that the decision had been lawful.

In August 2019, it was announced that the Inter-City West Coast franchise had been awarded to Avanti West Coast, thus confirming that Virgin Trains would cease to operate trains after 7 December 2019. The final Virgin Trains service was the 21:42 service from London Euston to Wolverhampton arriving at 23:45.

Services

In May 1998, Virgin introduced two new services from London Euston, to Shrewsbury and to Blackpool North. The former ceased in 1999, the latter in May 2003. In December 2014, a daily weekday service between London Euston and Blackpool North and a twice daily service between London Euston and Shrewsbury were reintroduced. This was increased to four trains per day in the May 2018 timetable.

On 23 July 2002, the first elements of the new fleet of Pendolino tilting trains were introduced into passenger services from  to , intentionally coinciding with the opening of the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

In September 2004, a London Euston to Llandudno service was introduced, but it ceased in December 2008.

In September 2005, Virgin introduced its first  timetable following the completion of Stage 1 of the upgrade.

In December 2007, as part of a reshuffle of rail franchises by the Department for Transport, services from Birmingham New Street to Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Central via Crewe were transferred from the CrossCountry franchise to the InterCity West Coast franchise.

In December 2008, a Wrexham General to London Euston service was introduced, operating south in the morning with an evening return.

In February 2009, an hourly London Euston to Chester service was introduced.

From January 2009, Virgin Trains gradually rolled out a new "very high frequency" timetable to take advantage of the completed West Coast Main Line upgrade.

There were timetable changes from 8 December 2013. Trains between Edinburgh/Glasgow and London would call at Sandwell & Dudley, replacing the hourly Wolverhampton to Euston service. In addition most Liverpool services additionally called at Crewe.

Performance

Passenger numbers

Punctuality
Virgin Trains suffered poor punctuality compared with some other transport operators between 2001 and 2006, according to Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Punctuality did gradually improve until the introduction of a new timetable (in December 2008), following the upgrade of the West Coast Main Line, which resulted in a dip in performance. Performance subsequently recovered and peaked during 2010–11, but then fell again and reached a new low for the year ending 31 March 2013 of 83.6% (MAA).

The PPM MAA (Public Performance Measure Moving Annual Average - % of trains arriving within 10 minutes of the scheduled times) figures for Virgin Trains are as follows:

Latest figures published by Network Rail for the seventh period of 2013-2014 recorded PPM of 92.2% for the period and a MAA of 83.5% for the 12 months up to 12 October 2013. The PPM performance for the period is down 2.7 percentage points on the corresponding figure from the same period last year. Network Rail noted that Virgin Trains were only responsible for 16% of delays in period 5. Network Rail was itself directly responsible for 50% of Virgin Trains' delays, 20% were a result of external factors (e.g. fatalities) and the final 14% were due to other operators.

Chris Green as chief executive led a drive to improve reliability and punctuality after much press criticism in 2001, and by 2006, due to improved reliability of trains and completion of major infrastructure projects, performance was better. Virgin has undertaken a number of projects to increase punctuality, including radio-controlled watches.

Grayrigg derailment

On 23 February 2007, a Class 390 Pendolino "City of Glasgow" forming the 17:15 London Euston to Glasgow Central service derailed in the village of Grayrigg in Cumbria. The train was carrying 109 people. Several carriages were left lying on the railway embankments. An elderly woman was killed in the derailment. Five people were seriously injured. The accident was caused by a faulty set of points and Network Rail accepted full responsibility. The train itself however was widely praised for the way it retained its structural integrity. Richard Branson also praised the train driver because he attempted to stop the train and did not get out of the cab before it derailed.

Rolling stock

Fleet at end of franchise

Virgin inherited a fleet of ,  and s hauling Mark 2 and Mark 3 carriages with Driving Van Trailers on its electrified services and High Speed Trains for London Euston to Holyhead services.

A franchise commitment was the replacement of these trains with new tilting stock. In 1999 Virgin signed a deal to lease forty-four eight-carriage and nine nine-carriage Class 390 Pendolinos built by Alstom. An option to extend all to nine carriages was enacted in 2002. The first entered service in January 2003. With the exception of services to Holyhead, the final locomotive hauled trains were withdrawn in June 2005.

To operate the Holyhead services four four-carriage Class 221 Super Voyagers were included in the order placed by Virgin CrossCountry. By the time they were delivered it was decided these would be too short so they entered service with Virgin CrossCountry. In September 2004 the High Speed Trains were withdrawn with services being operated by a combination of five-carriage Class 221 Super Voyagers hired from Virgin CrossCountry and  and  hauled Mark 3 sets. From September 2005 Class 57/3s hauling Class 390 Pendolinos took over the locomotive hauled diagrams. This continued until December 2008 when five-carriage Class 221 Super Voyagers took over all services, with the exception of a Saturdays only Pendolino hauled by a Class 57/3 Locomotive (1D83 08:50 EUS-HHD/1A55 14:38 HHD-EUS). This ceased operation on Saturday 8 December 2012.

With the Class 390 Pendolinos needing modification in 2006, a First GBRf  was hired to haul a Mark 3 set on Birmingham New Street services.

To operate the Birmingham to Edinburgh and Glasgow services transferred from CrossCountry in December 2007, three four-carriage and thirteen five-carriage Class 221 Super Voyagers were transferred. A further five five-carriage Class 221 Super Voyagers followed in December 2008.

In August 2008 Bombardier started a programme to rearrange the Class 221 Super Voyagers with the carriage containing the shop moved to adjoin the first class carriage and refurbished with 2+2 seats arranged more spaciously around tables. This allowed it to be used as a first class carriage on Holyhead services and as a standard class carriage at other times.

In December 2010 one four-carriage Class 221 Super Voyager was disbanded with the two centre carriages being inserted into the other four-carriage sets to give Virgin a fleet of twenty five-carriage Class 221 Super Voyagers. The two end carriages are stored at Central Rivers depot.

To provide it with a fleet of locomotives for use on diversionary services during the West Coast Mainline upgrade and rescue duties, Virgin signed a deal with Porterbrook in March 2002 to rebuild twelve Class 47s as Class 57/3s with the first delivered in June 2002. After it was decided they would operate daily services along the North Wales Coast to Holyhead, another four were ordered from Porterbrook. Following the completion of the West Coast Main Line upgrade in 2008 their use fell and after being sublet to Arriva Trains Wales, Colas Rail and First GBRf, six were returned to Porterbrook in August 2011, three in April 2012 and the remaining seven in December 2012.

Virgin had long been angling for a franchise extension in return for ordering extra carriages for the Class 390 Pendolinos. The Department for Transport rejected this and instead placed an order itself with Alstom for 106 carriages allowing for four complete eleven-carriage sets and 31 sets to be extended by two carriages. There was an option to extend the remaining 21 sets but this was allowed to lapse. The four new sets were delivered in 2010/12 with 31 sets later receiving extra carriages. This required a number of stations to have platforms lengthened.

Following the loss of a Class 390 Pendolino in the Grayrigg derailment, a Mark 3 set with a Driving Van Trailer was leased with a  hired from English Welsh & Scottish as required. In 2008 Virgin looked at leasing two  but decided to retain the Mark 3 set. Nicknamed the Pretendolino, this received re-upholstered seating, power points, Wi-Fi and a full external re-paint at Wabtec, Doncaster in 2009. Virgin used this set with a Class 90 locomotive hired from Freightliner on a Euston to Crewe (via Birmingham) service on Fridays only until December 2012. From 9 December 2013 it was utilised to operate a London Euston-Birmingham New Street train on Thursdays and Fridays only, until its withdrawal in October 2014.

All seats on Class 221 Super Voyagers and Class 390 Pendolinos originally had an on-board audio entertainment system featuring a number of radio or pre-recorded music channels. This was disabled in March 2010 and replaced with on-board Wi-Fi provided by EE. The service was available free in first class, and for a charge (which varied depending on how long the passenger wished to use it for) in standard class.

On 15 September 2015 it was announced that Virgin Trains were to rename Pendolino 390002 in memory of teenage fundraiser Stephen Sutton.

Past fleet
Former units operated by Virgin Trains include:

Depots
The Class 390 fleet was allocated to the Alstom Traincare Centre at Longsight with lighter maintenance and overnight servicing carried out at Wembley, Oxley, Edge Hill and Polmadie depots. The Class 221 fleet was allocated to Bombardier's Central Rivers depot with lighter maintenance and overnight servicing carried out at Arriva TrainCare, Crewe, Holyhead and Polmadie.

West Coast Partnership
In November 2016, the government announced that the franchise would be replaced by a new franchise named the West Coast Partnership, which will include operating High Speed 2 (HS2). Services are planned to begin on the first phase of HS2 in 2026. The Department for Transport requires that the new operator have experience in operating high-speed trains () and infrastructure. The bid for the new franchise was led by Stagecoach holding a 50% holding, Virgin with 30% and the French national railway operator SNCF holding 20%. In April 2019 Stagecoach revealed that it had been disqualified from the franchises it was bidding for following a dispute with the DfT over pension liabilities. The disqualification occurred after the bidding deadline and as a result Virgin Trains would cease operations in March 2020.

In August 2019, the First Trenitalia consortium was awarded the West Coast Partnership contract, with Avanti West Coast commencing in December 2019, thus ending Virgin Trains services after 22 years.

Operation

Sponsorship
Virgin Trains were Carlisle United F.C.'s travel sponsor for the 2013–14 season, and for the 2014–15 season they are the club's main shirt sponsor agreeing a further two-year deal. On 5 August 2014 Virgin Trains also agreed to be the shirt sponsor of Preston North End F.C. on a two-year deal. Darlington Football Club were also sponsored by Virgin Trains, and the company has also sponsored events such as Manchester International Festival in 2013.

Onboard entertainment
In July 2016 the integrated infotainment system BEAM was provided on all trains by GoMedia, delivered directly to the passenger's own devices including mobile phones and tablets. The system has been described as 'the first in-train entertainment portal in the UK'. It offered premium movies from Hollywood studios, BBC Worldwide etc.

Moderation of competition
As a way of protecting the revenues of Virgin Trains to enable it to pay franchise premiums to the government to partly recoup the cost of the West Coast Main Line upgrade, the Office of Rail Regulation inserted a Moderation of Competition in Virgin's Track Access Agreement. Until its expiry in March 2012, this prevented any other train operating or open access companies operating services in competition that would abstract revenue.

Attempts to continue franchise
In November 2019, Virgin Trains submitted an application to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) to apply for a license to run trains from Liverpool Lime Street to London Euston. The application stated the intention to use Class 221 Super Voyager trains (once they were retired by Avanti West Coast) with the franchise beginning in December 2022 initially until December 2027. However, in March 2020, Virgin withdrew its application for the service, citing uncertainty from the Williams Review of rail not having been published yet.

See also
List of companies operating trains in the United Kingdom
National Rail
Rail franchising in Great Britain
Rail transport in Great Britain

References

Further reading

External links
Official website, archived in December 2019

Defunct train operating companies
Railway companies established in 1997
Railway companies disestablished in 2019
Stagecoach Group rail services
British companies established in 1997
British companies disestablished in 2019

Virgin Trains


Megaclite or , is a moon of Jupiter. It was found by a team of astronomers from the University of Hawaii led by Scott S. Sheppard in 2000, and given the designation .

Megaclite is about 5.4 kilometres in diameter, and orbits Jupiter at an average distance of 24,687,000 km in 792.437 days, at an inclination of 150° to the ecliptic (148° to Jupiter's equator), with an orbital eccentricity of 0.308.

It was named in October 2002 after Megaclite, mother by Zeus (Jupiter) of Thebe and Locrus (although both of these are assigned a different father by other authors).

It belongs to the Pasiphaë group, non-spherical retrograde moons orbiting Jupiter at distances ranging between 22,800,000 and 24,100,000 km, and with inclinations ranging between 144.5° and 158.3°.

References

Jupiter's moons

Megaclite (moon)


George Henry Law  (12 September 1761 – 22 September 1845) was the Bishop of Chester (1812) and then, from 1824, Bishop of Bath and Wells.

Born at the lodge of Peterhouse, Cambridge, of which his father Edmund Law (who later became Bishop of Carlisle) was Master, Law was educated at Charterhouse School and at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he was second wrangler.  His main claim to fame was the way in which he introduced a systematic and rigorous training system for parish priests.

He founded a theological college at St Bees in Cumbria.  There had been once been a monastery at St Bees, but since the dissolution in 1539 many of the monastic buildings had disappeared and chancel stood roofless when Bishop Law visited Whitehaven in 1816.  He was short of good clergy for the diocese, which included Lancashire, and was at that time the powerhouse of the industrial revolution.  The consequent growth in population increased the demand for clergymen.  Up until Bishop Law's college, training for clergy was haphazard.  Most were ordained on the strength of a degree from Oxford or Cambridge, whilst some were ordained after individual instruction from a member of the clergy.   Resulting clergy were variable and did not meet a reliable standard.  Law was determined to improve the supply situation so when Law visited Whitehaven and met the influential Lowther family and they agreed to pay for restoration of the chancel for a new theogical college he accepted the offer.  The agreement allowed Law to appoint the new vicar  for St Bees and Principal of the College, contrary to the practice of patronage at the time, and so the St Bees Theological College was born.  It was the first theological training institution of the Anglican Church outside Oxford or Cambridge.

The Lowthers did not act out of pure generosity.  They were keen to improve their public image having been accused of acquiring the mineral rights to Whitehaven for a pittance from St Bees School, and were also suspected of having tried to keep the matter quiet by arranging the sacking of the headmaster.

Family
Law was the younger brother of Bishop John Law (1745–1810), Ewan Law  (1747–1829), Lord Chief Justice Lord Ellenborough (1750–1818), and Thomas Law (1756–1834), a property investor in Washington, D.C.

On 13 July 1784, Law married Jane Adeane, daughter of General James Whorwood Adeane . They had the following children:

 Anna Law (1786–1832)
 Joanna Law (1787–1848), married Alexander Powell
 Augusta Law (1789–1822), married Rev. James Slade
 James Thomas Law (1790–1876), chancellor of the Diocese of Lichfield
 George Law (1794–1811)
 Henry Law (1797–1884), Dean of Gloucester
 Robert Vanbrugh Law (1799–1884), clergyman
 Jane Waugh Law (1801–1843), married Rev. Robert Harkness
 Margaret Law (1803–1838)

References

External links

1761 births
1845 deaths
Bishops of Chester
Bishops of Bath and Wells
19th-century Church of England bishops
Second Wranglers
Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge
Fellows of the Royal Society
People educated at Charterhouse School
Fellows of Queens' College, Cambridge
George Henry

George Henry Law