Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System and the second-smallest planet. Mars is a terrestrial planet with polar ice caps of frozen water and carbon dioxide. It has the largest volcano in the Solar System, and some very large impact craters. Mars is named after the mythological Roman god of war because it appears of red color.

Space probes such as the Viking program landers are the main tools for the exploration of Mars.

Appearance

Mars is a terrestrial planet and made of rock. The ground there is red because of iron oxide (rust) in the rocks and dust. The planet's atmosphere is very thin. It is mostly carbon dioxide with some argon and nitrogen and tiny amounts of other gases including oxygen. The temperatures on Mars are colder than on Earth, because it is farther away from the Sun and has less air to keep heat in. There is water ice and frozen carbon dioxide at the north and south poles. Mars does not have any liquid water on the surface now, but signs of run-off on the surface were probably caused by water.

The average thickness of the planet's crust is about 50 km (31 mi), with a maximum thickness of 125 km (78 mi).

Moons
Mars has two small moons, called Phobos and Deimos.

The origin of Mars' moons is unknown and controversial. One theory is that the moons are captured asteroids. However, the moons' near circular orbits and low inclination relative to the Martian equator are not in agreement with the capture hypothesis.

Estimates of the mass ejected by a large Borealis-size impact vary. Simulations suggest that a body about 0.02 of Mars mass (~0.002 Earth mass) in size can produce a sizable debris disk in Martian orbit. Much of the material would stay close to Mars. There are several other large impact basins on Mars that could also have ejected enough debris to form the moons.

Physical geography

Lack of magnetic field
Mars does not have a global magnetic field. Despite this, observations show that parts of the planet's crust have been magnetized. This suggests that polarity reversals have occurred in the past. This paleomagnetism  is similar to the magnetic striping found on Earth's ocean floors. One theory is that these bands suggest plate tectonic activity on Mars four billion years ago, before the planetary dynamo stopped working and the planet's magnetic field faded.

Rotation
A Martian day is called a sol, and is a little longer than an Earth day. Mars rotates in 24 hours and 37 minutes. It rotates on a tilted axis, just like the Earth does, so it has four different seasons. Of all the planets in the Solar System, the seasons of Mars are the most Earth-like, due to their similar axial tilt. The lengths of the Martian seasons are almost twice those of Earth's, as Mars's greater distance from the Sun leads to the Martian year being almost two Earth years long.

Martian surface temperatures vary from lows of about  (at the winter polar caps) to highs of up to  (in equatorial summer). The wide range in temperatures is due mostly to the thin atmosphere which cannot store much solar heat. The planet is also 1.52 times as far from the Sun as Earth, resulting in just 43% of the amount of sunlight.

Water

A 2015 report says Martian dark streaks on the surface were affected by water.

Liquid water cannot exist on the surface of Mars due to its low atmospheric pressure (there's not enough air to hold it in), except at the lowest elevations for short periods. The two polar ice caps appear to be made largely of frozen water. The amount of ice in the south polar ice cap, if melted, would be enough to cover the entire planet's surface 11 meters deep. A permafrost mantle stretches from the pole to latitudes of about 60°.

Geological evidence gathered by unmanned missions suggest that Mars once had much liquid water on its surface. In 2005, radar data revealed the presence of large quantities of water ice at the poles, and at mid-latitudes. The Mars rover Spirit sampled chemical compounds containing water molecules in March 2007. The Phoenix lander found water ice in shallow Martian soil in July  2008.
Landforms seen on Mars strongly suggest that liquid water at some time existed on the planet's surface. Huge areas of ground have been scraped and eroded.

Polar caps

Mars has two permanent polar ice caps. During a pole's winter, it lies in continuous darkness, chilling the surface and causing the deposition of 25–30% of the atmosphere into slabs of CO2 ice (dry ice). When the poles are again exposed to sunlight, the frozen CO2 sublimes (turns to vapor), creating enormous winds that sweep off the poles as fast as 400 km/h. Each season this moves large amounts of dust and water vapor, giving rise to Earth-like frost and large cirrus clouds and dust storms. Clouds of water-ice were photographed by the Opportunity rover in 2004.

The polar caps at both poles consist primarily of water ice.

Atmosphere
Mars has a very thin atmosphere with barely any oxygen (it is mostly carbon dioxide). Because there is an atmosphere, however thin it is, the sky does change colour when the sun rises and sets. The dust in the Martian atmosphere makes Martian sunsets somewhat blue. Mars's atmosphere is too thin to protect Mars from meteors, which is part of the reason why Mars has so many craters.

Meteorite craters
After the formation of the planets, all experienced the "Late Heavy Bombardment". About 60% of the surface of Mars shows a record of impacts from that era. Much of the remaining surface is probably lying over the immense impact basins caused by those events. There is evidence of an enormous impact basin in the northern hemisphere of Mars, spanning , or roughly four times larger than the largest impact basin previously known. This suggests that Mars was struck by a Pluto-sized body about four billion years ago. The event is thought to be the cause of the difference between the Martian hemispheres. It made the smooth Borealis Basin that covers 40% of the planet.

Some meteorites hit Mars with so much force a few pieces of Mars went flying into space  even to Earth! Rocks on Earth are sometimes found which have chemicals that are exactly like the ones in Martian rocks. These rocks also look like they fell really quickly through the atmosphere, so it is reasonable to think they came from Mars.

Recent hits
Spacecraft Insight detected seismic waves made by the biggest meteorite impacts ever seen on Mars.

Geography
Mars is home to the highest known mountain in the Solar System, Olympus Mons. Olympus Mons is about 17 miles (or 27 kilometers) high. This is more than three times the height of Earth's tallest mountain, Mount Everest. It is also home to Valles Marineris, the third largest rift system (canyon) in the Solar System, 4,000 km long.

Observation of Mars

Our records of watching and recording Mars start with ancient Egyptian astronomers in the 2nd millennium BC.

Detailed observations of the location of Mars were made by Babylonian astronomers who developed methods using math to predict the future position of the planet. The ancient Greek philosophers and astronomers developed a model of the solar system with the Earth at the center ('geocentric'), instead of the sun. They used this model to explain the planet's motions. Vedic and Islamic astronomers estimated the size of Mars and its distance from Earth. Similar work was done by Chinese astronomers.

In the 16th century, Nicholas Copernicus proposed a model for the Solar System in which the planets follow circular orbits about the Sun. This 'heliocentric' model was the beginning of modern astronomy. It was revised by Johannes Kepler, who gave an elliptical orbit for Mars which better fit the data from our observations.

The first observations of Mars by telescope was by Galileo Galilei in 1610. Within a century, astronomers discovered distinct albedo features (changes in brightness) on the planet, including the dark patch and polar ice caps. They were able to find the planet's day (rotation period) and axial tilt.

Better telescopes developed early in the 19th century allowed permanent Martian albedo features to be mapped in detail. The first crude map of Mars was published in 1840, followed by better maps from 1877 onward. Astronomers mistakenly thought they had detected the spectroscopic mark of water in the Martian atmosphere, and the idea of life on Mars became popular among the public.

Yellow clouds on Mars have been observed since the 1870s, which were windblown sand or dust. During the 1920s, the range of Martian surface temperature was measured; it ranged from 85 to 7 oC. The planetary atmosphere was found to be arid with only traces of oxygen and water. In 1947, Gerard Kuiper showed that the thin Martian atmosphere contained extensive carbon dioxide; roughly double the quantity found in Earth's atmosphere. The first standard naming of Mars surface features was set in 1960 by the International Astronomical Union.

Since the 1960s, multiple robotic spacecraft and rovers have been sent to explore Mars from orbit and the surface. The planet has remained under observation by ground and space-based instruments across a broad range of the electromagnetic spectrum (visible light, infrared and others). The discovery of meteorites on Earth that came from Mars has allowed laboratory examination of the chemical conditions on the planet.

Martian 'canals'

During the 1877 opposition, Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli in Milan used a  telescope to help produce the first detailed map of Mars. What caught people's attention was that the maps had features he called canali. These were later shown to be an optical illusion (not real). These canali were supposedly long straight lines on the surface of Mars to which he gave names of famous rivers on Earth. His term canali was popularly mistranslated in English as canals, and thought to be made by intelligent beings.

Other astronomers thought they could see the canals too, especially the American astronomer Percival Lowell who drew maps of an artificial network of canals on Mars.

Although these results were widely accepted, they were contested. Greek astronomer Eugène M. Antoniadi and English naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace were against the idea; Wallace was extremely outspoken. As bigger and better telescopes were used, fewer long, straight canali were observed. During an observation in 1909 by Flammarion with a  telescope, irregular patterns were observed, but no canali were seen.

Life on Mars

Because Mars is the one of the closest planets to Earth in the Solar System, many have wondered if there is any kind of life on Mars. Today we know that the kind of life, if any, would be some simple bacteria-type organism.

Meteorites
NASA maintains a catalog of 34 Mars meteorites, that is, meteorites which originally came from Mars. These assets are highly valuable since they are the only physical samples available of Mars.

Studies at NASA's Johnson Space Center show that at least three of the meteorites contain possible evidence of past life on Mars, in the form of microscopic structures resembling fossilized bacteria (so-called biomorphs). Although the scientific evidence collected is reliable, and the rocks are correctly described, what made the rocks look like they do is not clear. To date, scientists are still trying to agree if it really is evidence of simple life on Mars.

Over the past few decades, scientists have agreed that when using meteorites from other planets found on Earth (or rocks brought back to Earth), various things are needed to be sure of life. Those things include:

 Did the rock comes from the right time and place on the planet for life to exist?
 Does the sample contain evidence of bacterial cells (does it show fossils of some kind, even if very tiny)?
 Is there any evidence of biominerals? (minerals usually caused by living things)
 Is there any evidence of isotopes typical of life?
 Are the features part of the meteorite, and not contamination from Earth?

For people to agree on past life in a geologic sample, most or all of these things must be met. This has not happened yet, but investigations are still in progress. Reexaminations of the biomorphs found in the three Martian meteorites are underway.

The significance of water
Liquid water is necessary for life and metabolism, so if water was present on Mars, the chances of life evolving is improved. The Viking orbiters found evidence of possible river valleys in many areas, erosion and, in the southern hemisphere, branched streams. Since then, rovers and orbiters have also looked closely and eventually proved water was on the surface at one time, and is still found as ice in the polar ice caps and underground.

Today
So far, scientists have not found life on Mars, either living or extinct. Several space probes have gone to Mars to study it. Some have orbited (gone around) the planet, and some have landed on it. There are pictures of the surface of Mars that were sent back to Earth by the probes. Some people are interested in sending astronauts to visit Mars. They could do a better search, but getting astronauts there would be difficult and expensive. The astronauts would be in space for many years, and it could be very dangerous because of radiation from the sun. So far we have only sent unmanned probes.

The most recent probe to the planet is the Mars Science Laboratory. It landed on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater on Mars on 6 August 2012. It brought with it a mobile explorer called 'Curiosity'. It is the most advanced space probe ever. Curiosity has dug up Martian soil and studied it in its laboratory. It has found sulfur, chlorine, and water molecules.

Popular culture

Some famous stories were written about this idea. The writers used the name "Martians" for intelligent beings from Mars. In 1898, H. G. Wells wrote The War of the Worlds, a famous novel about Martians attacking the Earth.  In 1938, Orson Welles broadcast a radio version of this story in the United States, and many people thought it was really happening and were very afraid. Beginning in 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote several novels about adventures on Mars.

References

Notes

Other websites

 Mars at Space Wiki
 Mars at ESA/Hubble
 Mars Profile by NASA's Solar System Exploration
 Mars  - http://space.about.com
 NASA's Mars fact sheet
 Mars Research News on https://www.sciencedaily.com
 Planets - Mars A children's guide to Mars.
 Mars  - http://stevechallis.net
 Canals of Mars
 New Papers about Martian Geomorphology
 Mars (planet) -Citizendium

Mars


Paul Kibii Tergat (born 17 June 1969) is a Kenyan former professional long distance runner. He became the first Kenyan man to set the world record in the marathon in 2003, with a time of 2:04:55, and is regarded as one of the most accomplished long-distance runners of all time. Runnerworld called him the "Most comprehensive runner of all time".

Towards the end of his career he concentrated exclusively on the marathon. Tergat set several world records and won many titles on the track, in cross country, and on the road. He lives and trains in Eldoret.

Early life
Paul Tergat was born on 17 June 1969 in Riwo, Baringo District, in Kenya's Rift Valley Province. He attended Riwo Primary school and later joined Kapkawa Boys High School. Unlike many athletes, Tergat realised his talent after graduating high school.

Career
Tergat won five straight IAAF World Cross Country Championships titles, 1995 to 1999, which was a record. Says Tergat, "Cross country is what I always liked most. It was my world, my passion. Before the IAAF introduced the short course in 1998, all the world class athletes from 1500 m to the marathon were in the same race."

He won the Lisbon Half Marathon in 2000, setting a new course record and personal best of 59:06. He won the race again in 2005 with a time of 59:10. Tergat's achievements also include 5 victories in the traditional Saint Silvester Road Race, the most important event in Latin American street racing. He holds the record for the present 15 km distance, which he established in 1995. His performances in the Saint Silvester race have earned him celebrity status in Brazil.

He has had an intense rivalry with his friend Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia. In the Olympic Games 10,000m finals of both 1996 Atlanta Olympics and 2000 Sydney Olympics, he was defeated by Gebrselassie by slim margins. In 2000, the margin of victory was only nine hundredths of a second.

Tergat finished second to Gebrselassie in the 1997 and 1999 World Championships in Athletics at 10,000 m, and finished third in the 1995 version of that race, behind Gebrselassie and Moroccan Khalid Skah.

On the track, Tergat broke Gebrselassie's 10,000-metre world record on 22 August 1997 in Brussels with a time 26:27.85 minutes. The record was broken again by Gebrselassie in 1998 (time 26:22:75), but Tergat's time remains a Kenyan record (as of 2014). On the road, Tergat broke the half marathon world record on 4 April 1998 in Milan by running in 59:17 minutes. (Tergat had run 58:51 minutes at the Stramilano half marathon in 1996, but a misplaced cone made the course slightly too short and no record was allowed.) The previous record, 59:47 minutes was set by Moses Tanui in 1993. Tergat's world record was broken in 2005 by Samuel Wanjiru, another Kenyan.

When Tergat raced Gebrselassie in the London Marathon in 2002, it was Tergat who beat Gebrselassie; Tergat was in second place behind then world record holder Khalid Khannouchi. The three runners raced again in the 2007 version with Tergat being the only one of them to finish.

He became an IOC member at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires in September 2013.

Marathon career
Tergat finished second in his first three marathons: London Marathon in 2001 and 2002 and Chicago Marathon in 2001. He continued marathoning by two fourth places: Chicago 2002 and London 2003.

He set the marathon world record of 2:04:55, on 28 September 2003 at the Berlin Marathon. That is an average pace of 0:02:57 per kilometre (20.3 km/h) or 0:04:46 per mile (12.6 MPH). In his world record race, Tergat badly abraded his foot. He later said it felt like the sole of his shoe fell off. He also took a momentary wrong turn near the finish. Tergat's countryman Sammy Korir, who was a pacesetter for the race, nearly caught up to him. Korir took second place in 2:04:56, then the second-fastest marathon performance in history. Tergat's world record was broken in 2007 by Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia. Tergat's time remained the Kenyan record until 2009, when winner Duncan Kibet and 2nd placed James Kwambai both timed 2:04:27 at the Rotterdam Marathon

Tergat won the New York City Marathon 6 November 2005, in a thrilling sprint finish through New York's Central Park, prevailing over defending champion Hendrick Ramaala 2:09:29.90 to 2:09:30.22.

That year, Tergat inaugurated the Baringo Half Marathon, setting up the professional race on a course near his home town.

A week prior to the London Marathon on 23 April 2006, Tergat pulled a calf muscle. Calling the injury "cruel," he was forced to withdraw from the star-studded race, which would have featured a long-awaited showdown with Haile Gebrselassie. The race was won by Felix Limo of Kenya.

Marílson Gomes dos Santos won the 2006 New York City Marathon; Tergat finished third. Gomes made a move at mile 19 and Tergat did not respond, saying "I'll be honest, I didn't know exactly who he was." Tergat steadily closed the gap over the final five miles.

Tergat finished sixth (2:08:06) at the 2007 London Marathon in April 2007. The entry list was competitive, including Ethiopian legend Haile Gebrselassie, who dropped out just past the 30-K mark. Kenya's Martin Lel won the race in a time of 2:07.42, after a dramatic, gutsy finish.

On 30 September 2007 Ethiopian long distance runner Haile Gebrselassie broke Tergat's record marathon time of 2:04.55, finishing the Berlin Marathon in 2:04:26. Moments after finishing the race, Gebrselassie apologised to his friend Tergat for breaking the record, during a congratulatory phone call. Gebrselassie later explained "I am sorry – this record belonged to Paul Tergat," Gebrselassie told a news conference when asked about the phone call. "Paul is my friend."

He expressed a desire to compete in 2008 Olympics, but was not selected to represent Kenya. He finished 4th in the New York Marathon later that year.

In 2009, he won the Lake Biwa Marathon in Japan, timing 2:10:22.
In October 2009, he was the guest of honour at the relaunch of the Belgrade Race Through History. Although he never won the competition in the late 1990s, he was the only competitor to run in all of the first four editions and never finished outside of the top three. He stated his desire to close his career at the race and praised the way it promoted Serbia's cultural heritage.

He was named by New York Road Runners as the recipient of the 2010 Abebe Bikila Award in recognition of his long-distance achievements, becoming the first Kenyan male winner. In his acceptance he said "The history of marathon running is incomplete without the solid and indelible mark of the late Abebe Bikila's contribution, and I am so proud to be associated [with this]".

International competitions

1995
 Gold medal, 1995 IAAF World Cross Country Championships
 Bronze medal, 1995 World Championships in Athletics 10,000 m
1996
 Silver medal, 1996 Summer Olympics 10,000 m
 Gold medal, 1996 IAAF World Cross Country Championships
1997
 Gold medal, 1997 IAAF World Cross Country Championships
 Silver medal, 1997 World Championships in Athletics 10,000 m
1998
Gold medal, 1998 IAAF World Cross Country Championships
Gold medal, IAAF World Half Marathon Championships
1999
 Gold medal, 1999 IAAF World Cross Country Championships
 Silver medal, 1999 World Championships in Athletics 10,000 m
 Gold medal, IAAF World Half Marathon Championships
2000
 Bronze medal, 2000 IAAF World Cross Country Championships
 Silver medal, 2000 Summer Olympics 10,000 m
 Gold medal, IAAF World Half Marathon Championships
2004
 10th, 2004 Summer Olympics Marathon

Personal bests
"+" indicates mark set en route during a longer race
"a" indicates course slightly downhill

Other activities

In January 2004 Tergat was named a UN World Food Programme (WFP) "Ambassador Against Hunger". When he was a child, Paul Tergat's family was too poor to send him to school with food. According to Tergat, he would not have gotten a full education were it not for the World Food Program, which provided lunch at his school.

Tergat set up the Paul Tergat Foundation in 2005. It is meant to help disadvantaged Kenyan sportspeople.
He runs a Sports Marketing and PR company known as Fine Touch Communications (organises the annual Sportsman of the Year Awards in Kenya in conjunction with Safaricom, a leading mobile telephony provider in Kenya. He's also considering launching a clothing line under the name "Tergat" in the coming months.

Like many other Kenyan athletes, Tergat is enlisted to Armed Forces. He is based at the Moi Air Base in Nairobi.

As of April 2015, Tergat was linked with the role of leading a new interim committee to oversee Athletics Kenya (AK) after rumours surfaced that the Sports Cabinet Secretary, Hassan Wario, would soon dissolve AK.

References

External links

Marathoninfo profile
Rosa & Associati profile

Paul Tergat Versus Haile Gebrselassie – www.paul-tergat.net

1969 births
Living people
People from Baringo County
Sportspeople from Rift Valley Province
Kalenjin people
Kenyan male long-distance runners
Kenyan male marathon runners
Olympic athletes for Kenya
Olympic silver medalists for Kenya
Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics
World record setters in athletics (track and field)
World Athletics Championships athletes for Kenya
World Athletics Championships medalists
World Athletics Cross Country Championships winners
New York City Marathon male winners
Kenyan International Olympic Committee members
Morans of the Order of the Burning Spear
World Athletics Half Marathon Championships winners
Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Berlin Marathon male winners
Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field)
Ambassadors of supra-national bodies
World Food Programme people
Kenyan male cross country runners
Recipients of the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races Best Marathon Runner Award

Paul Tergat


A crown is often an emblem of a sovereign state, usually a monarchy (see The Crown), but also used by some republics.

A specific type of crown is employed in heraldry under strict rules. Indeed, some monarchies never had a physical crown, just a heraldic representation, as in the constitutional kingdom of Belgium.

Crowns are also often used as symbols of religious status or veneration, by divinities (or their representation such as a statue) or by their representatives, e.g. the Black Crown of the Karmapa Lama, sometimes used a model for wider use by devotees.

A crown can be a charge in a coat of arms, or set atop the shield to signify the status of its owner, as with the coat of arms of Norway.

Physical and heraldic crowns
Sometimes, the crown commonly depicted and used in heraldry differs significantly from any specific physical crown that may be used by a monarchy.

As a display of rank
If the bearer of a coat of arms has the title of baron or higher (or hereditary knight in some countries), he or she may display a coronet of rank above the shield, usually below the helm in British heraldry, and often above the crest (if any) in Continental heraldry.

In this case, the appearance of the crown or coronet follows a strict set of rules. A royal coat of arms may display a royal crown, such as that of Norway. A princely coat of arms may display a princely crown, and so on.

Naval, civic, mural and similar crowns
A mural crown is commonly displayed on coats of arms of towns and some republics. Other republics may use a so-called people's crown or omit the use of a crown altogether. The heraldic forms of crowns are often inspired by the physical appearance of the respective country's actual royal or princely crowns.

Ships and other units of some navies have a naval crown, composed of the sails and sterns of ships, above the shield of their coats of arms. Squadrons of some air forces have an astral crown, composed of wings and stars. There is also the Eastern crown, made up of spikes, and when each spike is topped with a star, it becomes a celestial crown.

Whereas most county councils in England use mural crowns, there is a special type of crown that was used by Scottish county councils. It was composed of spikes, was normally shown vert (green) and had golden wheat sheaves between the spikes. Today, most of the Scottish unitary authorities still use this "wheat sheaf crown", but it is now the usual gold.

Commonwealth usage

In formal English, the word crown is reserved for the crown of a monarch and the Queen consort, whereas the word coronet is used for all other crowns used by members of the British royal family and peers of the realm.

In the British peerage, the design of a coronet shows the rank of its owner, as in German, French and various other heraldic traditions. The coronet of a duke has eight strawberry leaves, that of a marquess has four strawberry leaves and four silver balls (known as "pearls", but not actually pearls), that of an earl has eight strawberry leaves and eight "pearls" raised on stalks, that of a viscount has sixteen "pearls", and that of a peerage baron or (in Scotland) lord of parliament has six "pearls". Between the 1930s and 2004, feudal barons in the baronage of Scotland were granted a chapeau or cap of maintenance as a rank insignia. This is placed between the shield and helmet in the same manner as a peer's coronet. Since a person entitled to heraldic headgear customarily displays it above the shield and below the helm and crest, this can provide a useful clue as to the owner of a given coat of arms.

Members of the British royal family have coronets on their coats of arms, and they may wear physical versions at coronations. They are according to regulations made by King Charles II in 1661, shortly after his return from exile in France (getting a taste for its lavish court style; Louis XIV started monumental work at Versailles that year) and Restoration, and they vary depending upon the holder's relationship to the monarch. Occasionally, additional royal warrants vary the designs for individuals.

In Canadian heraldry, special coronets are used to designate descent from United Empire Loyalists. A military coronet signifies ancestors who served in Loyalist regiments during the American Revolution, while a civil coronet is used by all others. The loyalist coronets are used only in heraldry, never worn. A new royal crown, derived from the shape of the Tudor crown but with distinctly Canadian elements, was unveiled at a ceremony in Ottawa to mark the Coronation of Charles III.

Continental usages

Precisely because there are many traditions and more variation within some of these, there is a plethora of continental coronet types. Indeed, there are also some coronets for positions that do not exist, or do not entitle use of a coronet, in the Commonwealth tradition.

Such a case in French heraldry of the Ancien Régime, where coronets of rank did not come into use before the 16th century, is the vidame, whose coronet (illustrated) is a metal circle mounted with three visible crosses. (No physical headgear of this type is known.)

Helmets are often substitutes for coronets, and some coronets are worn only on a helmet.

Albania

Andorra

Bulgaria

Croatia

France

Ancien Régime

Napoleonic Empire

July Monarchy

Georgia

German-speaking countries

Holy Roman Empire

Liechtenstein

Austria

Austrian Empire

Germany

German Empire

Hanover

Greece

Hungary

Italy

Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946)

Kingdoms of Naples, Sicily, Two Sicilies

Grand Duchy of Tuscany

Other Italian states before 1861

Low Countries

Netherlands

Belgium
The older crowns are often still seen in the heraldry of older families.

Luxembourg

Monaco

Montenegro

Poland and Lithuania

Portugal

Kingdom of Portugal (until 1910)

Romania

Kingdom of Romania

Russia

Nordic countries

Denmark

Iceland

Finland
During the Swedish reign, Swedish coronets were used. Crowns were used in the coats of arms of the historical provinces of Finland. For Finland Proper, Satakunta, Tavastia and Karelia, it was a ducal coronet, for others, a comital coronet. In 1917 with independence, the coat of arms of Finland was introduced with a grand ducal crown, but it was soon removed, in 1920. Today, some cities use coronets, e.g. Pori has a mural crown and Vaasa a Crown of Nobility.

Norway

Sweden

Serbia

Spain

Ukraine

Non-European usages

Bahrain

Bhutan

Brazil

Empire of Brazil

Brunei

Cambodia

Central African Empire

Chile

China

Egypt

Ethiopia

Fiji

Haiti

Hawaii

Iran

Iraq

Jordan

Libya

Kyrgyzstan

Malaysia

Mexico

Morocco

Nepal

Oman

Saudi Arabia

Siam and Thailand

Tahiti

Tonga

Other examples

Ecclesiastical Hats

Anglican Communion

Catholic Church

Multinational

As a charge
In heraldry, a charge is an image occupying the field of a coat of arms. Many coats of arms incorporate crowns as charges. One notable example of this lies in the Three Crowns of the arms of Sweden.

Additionally, many animal charges (frequently lions and eagles) and sometimes human heads also appear crowned.  Animal charges gorged (collared) of an open coronet also occur, though more often as supporters than as charges.

See also

Crown jewels
Imperial crown
List of monarchies
Coronet

Notes

References

Heraldic charges

Crown (heraldry)


The Devil's Dykes (Hungarian: Ördög árok), also known as the Csörsz árka ("Csörsz Ditch") or the Limes Sarmatiae (Latin for "Sarmatian border"), are several lines of Roman fortifications built mostly during the reign of Constantine the Great (306–337), stretching between today's Hungary, Romania and Serbia.

History

The fortifications consisted of a series of defensive earthen ramparts-and-ditches surrounding the plain of the Tisia (Tisza) river. They stretched from Aquincum (within modern Budapest) eastwards along the line of the northern Carpathian mountains to the vicinity of Debrecen, and then southwards to Viminacium (near modern Stari Kostolac).

They were probably designed to protect the Iazyges, a Sarmatian tribe that inhabited the Tisza plain and had been reduced to tributary status by Constantine, from incursions by the surrounding Goths and Gepids.

Some elements of the fortifications, however, date from the 2nd century AD, and probably constituted an earlier defensive line constructed under emperor Marcus Aurelius (ruled 161–180) at the time of the Marcomannic Wars, the previous occasion that the Tisza plain was occupied by the Romans.

The "Limes Sarmatiae" was intended to expand the Roman Limes, and was built at the same time as the Constantine Wall in Wallachia (connected to the Limes Moesiae). It was, however, destroyed after a few years, at the end of the 4th century.

Indeed, in 374 AD, the Quadi, a Germanic tribe in what is now Moravia and Slovakia, resenting the erection of Roman forts of the "Limes Sarmatiae" to the north and east of the Danube in what they considered to be their territory, and further exasperated by the treacherous murder of their king, Gabinius, crossed the river and laid waste to the province of Pannonia.

In 375, emperor Valentinian I retook Pannonia with several legions. After a short campaign that quickly defeated the Quadi, the fortifications of the "Limes Sarmatiae" were repaired. However, during an audience with an embassy from the Quadi at Brigetio on the River Danube (now Szőny in Hungary), the attitude of the envoys so enraged Valentinian that he suffered a stroke while angrily yelling at them, which led to his death 17 November.

Following his death, political infighting and a lack of good leadership in the Roman Empire led to the "Limes Sarmatiae" being overrun and destroyed.

See also
 Roman Limes
 Limes Moesiae
 Brazda lui Novac
 Wall of Constantine in Constantinople
 Deil's Dyke – A linear earthwork in south-west Scotland.

Notes

References

Garam Éva-Patay Pál-Soproni Sándor: Sarmatischen Wallsystem im Karpatenbecken, Régészeti Füzetek Ser. II. No. 23., Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum, Budapest, 1983, 2003.
Istvanovits Eszter: The history and perspectives of the research of the Csörsz Ditch.XVIIIth International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies. Amman, 2000.
Patay Pál: Neuere Ergebnisse in der topographischen Untersuchung der Erdwalle in der Tiefebene, Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve, Szeged, 1969/2
Penguin Atlas of the Roman World (1995)
Soproni Sándor: Limes sarmatiae. Archeológia Értesítő 96., Budapest, 1996 p. 43–52.

Roman fortifications in Romania
Roman fortifications in Serbia
Roman fortifications in Hungary
Roman frontiers
Roman fortifications in Pannonia Inferior
Ancient dikes
Linear earthworks

Devil's Dykes


India-Thai Business Forum (ITBF) is a business forum.

Introduction
The forum started in October, 2002 with 15 members. Now there are more than 150 members. The forum is an appropriate interactive platform, specially for entrepreneurs/professionals of Indian origin. One of the activities of the forum is to hold the monthly dinner meeting on every third Wednesday of the month, in which they invite a Thai or Indian dignitary as their guest speaker. Since its inception, they have never missed the monthly dinner meeting with a guest speaker. In fact, in some months they have had more than one meetings. Monthly meetings start with a short networking session where members meet each other and exchange notes on business as well as personal activities. The networking session is followed by the guest speaker presentation and a sumptuous buffet Indian dinner.

Speakers
ITBF has had leading dignitaries including influential Thai and Indian  economists/politicians and other important figures as guest speakers at monthly dinner meetings. On 16 August 2006 the guest speaker is Abhisit Vejjajiva - Leader of Democratic Party of Thailand spoke on "Look West: Rethinking Thailand's Policy Towards India".

Members

The members of India Thai Business Forum are Leading businessmen who indulge in trade activities between India and Thailand. Members of the press and The Indian Embassy also attend regularly.

References
 Original Article about India Thai Business Forum

External links
 List of associations for Indians Living in Thailand
 Discussion board for Indians living in Thailand
 Startup with details of businesses

Business organizations based in Thailand
Foreign trade of India
India–Thailand relations
Business organisations based in India

India Thai Business Forum


Kosmos 1514 or Bion 6 (in Russian: Космос 1514, Бион 6) was a biomedical research mission that was launched on 14 December 1983, at 07:00:00 UTC. It was part of the Bion programme.

Mission
The first Soviet Union orbital flight of a non-human primate was accomplished on the Kosmos 1514 mission. Two monkeys flew on the mission, together with several pregnant rats. More than 60 experiments were performed by investigators from Bulgaria, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, France, the Soviet Union and the United States. This was the first time the Soviet space agency flew monkeys in space, coming 34 years after the U.S. first put a monkey into space, and 22 years after the Soviet Union started putting humans into space.

United States scientists conducted three experiments on the primates and another experiment on the rat subjects. The mission differed markedly from earlier Cosmos flights, both in terms of Soviet scientific goals and in the degree of cooperation required between the United States and the Soviet Union. The two countries had to interact at a high level because much of the U.S. experiment hardware had to be integrated with the Soviet spacecraft and instrumentation systems.

Two Rhesus monkeys were flown into orbit implanted with sensors to permit monitoring of carotid artery blood flow. Additionally eighteen pregnant white rats were sent to be used for studies of the effects of microgravity and radiation. The rats subsequently produced normal litters.

Experiments focused on the effect of weightlessness on various physiological parameters. A study of circadian rhythms was concerned with the synchronization of primate motor activity, body temperature and skin temperature rhythms to a fixed light/dark cycle and to each other. Blood pressure and flow were monitored, to evaluate short and long-term changes in these parameters. Changes in calcium metabolism were studied in order to determine the effect of weightlessness on the skeleton. The two rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), Abrek and Bion, flown on board were about three years of age and each weighed approximately 4 kilograms. Height was a constraint in selecting animals for flight. This was because a Soviet vestibular experiment required that the flight restraint couches oscillate vertically within the animal capsules. The monkeys were conditioned to sit in the restraint couches and perform tasks for food rewards. Tasks included pressing a lever with their feet and tracking a moving light with their eyes. Monkeys were also trained to eat and drink from food and juice dispensers. Monkeys in the flight and control groups were implanted with blood pressure and flow cuffs and sensors to measure several physiological parameters.

A neuroontogeny experiment was conducted to investigate space flight effects on the sensory development of rats that spent part of their prenatal gestation period in space. Ten pregnant female Wistar rats (Rattus norvegicus) were flown. Ground control groups contained the same number of rats. At the start of the flight or control experiments, the rats were at gestation day 13 of their 21-day cycle.

The mission ended after five days, on 19 December 1983.

See also

 1983 in spaceflight
 Animals in space

References

Bibliography
 Kozlov, D. I. (1996), Mashnostroenie, ed.; Konstruirovanie avtomaticheskikh kosmicheskikh apparatov, Moscow, ISBN
 Melnik, T. G. (1997), Nauka, ed.; Voenno-Kosmicheskiy Sili, Moscow, ISBN
 "Bion' nuzhen lyudyam", Novosti Kosmonavtiki, (6): 35, 1996

External links

 Cosmos 1514 NASA

Bion satellites
Kosmos satellites
Spacecraft launched in 1983
1983 in spaceflight
1983 in the Soviet Union
Czechoslovakia–Soviet Union relations
Romania–Soviet Union relations
Hungary–Soviet Union relations
Poland–Soviet Union relations
France–Soviet Union relations
Soviet Union–United States relations
East Germany–Soviet Union relations

Kosmos 1514


Candler is an unincorporated community in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States.  It lies on North Carolina Highway 151 and U.S. Routes 19, 23, and 74 Business, at an elevation of 2,122.7 feet (647 m).  The ZIP code of Candler is 28715. The community is part of the Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population of Candler is about 26,969.

This mountain community nestles in Hominy Valley, approximately halfway between Asheville (to the east) and Canton (to the west) via Interstate 40 (about 20 minutes either way). Mount Pisgah, with access to the Blue Ridge Parkway, stands to the south,  and Asheville to the east.

Most of Candler lies within the district of Enka High School, a public secondary school.

References

Unincorporated communities in North Carolina
Unincorporated communities in Buncombe County, North Carolina
Asheville metropolitan area

Candler, North Carolina


Theron O. Kuntz (born December 25, 1953, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin) is a game designer who was an early associate of Gary Gygax and employee of TSR.

Biography
Kuntz was born in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin on December 25, 1953. His family moved to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin in 1955. Kuntz became involved in miniatures wargaming when he was 15 years old, learning about them from his brother Rob, who played miniatures and board games with his new friend Gary Gygax. The three of them would play miniatures battles at Gygax's house on his sand table. Kuntz was also a member of the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association with Gygax and his brother.

In the early 1970s, Terry, Rob, and Gygax's friend Don Kaye joined Gygax's children Ernie and Elise for the second session of Gygax's new game, the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Don Kaye played Murlynd, Rob Kuntz played Robilar, and Terry Kuntz played Terik. Terry later conceived of the monster known as the beholder, and Gygax later detailed it for publication. Kuntz also created the magic weapon, the Energy-draining Sword.

Kuntz graduated from college in 1974, with a vocational diploma in mechanical drafting and design, but found it hard to find employment in that field. During 1974, TSR offered Kuntz employment with the company to help design rules, games, and to manage The Dungeon Hobby Shop. He joined TSR in 1975.

Early designs
 Castle Greyhawk Campaign proto-RPG development
 "Wargaming: A Moral Issue?" for Dragon magazine
 The Maze of Zayene D&D module
 The Empire of Zothar D&D-variant constructed nation
 Twilight of the Gods boardgame
 Treasure Search boardgame (lost)

References

1953 births
American game designers
Living people
People from Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin

Terry Kuntz


The 2012 ITF Men's Circuit is the 2012 edition of the entry level tour for men's professional tennis, and is the third tier tennis tour below the Association of Tennis Professionals, World Tour and Challenger Tour. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) who additionally organizes the ITF Women's Circuit which is an entry level tour for women's professional tennis. Future tournaments are organized to offer either $10,000 or $15,000 in prize money and tournaments which offering hospitality to players competing in the main draw give additional ranking points which are valid under the ATP ranking system, and are to be organized by a national association or approved by the ITF Men's Circuit Committee.

The tournaments are played on a rectangular flat surface, commonly referred to as a tennis court. The dimenstion of a tennis court are defined and regulated by the ITF and the court is  long,  wide. Its width is  for singles matches and  for doubles matches. Tennis is played on a variety of surfaces and each surface has its own characteristics which affect the playing style of the game. There are four main types of courts depending on the materials used for the court surface, clay, hard, grass and carpet courts with the ITF classifying five different pace settings ranging from slow to fast.

Point distribution

Key

Month

April

May

June

References
General

Specific

ITF Men's Circuit 2

2012 ITF Men's Circuit (April–June)


The Waterseller of Seville is the title of three paintings by Spanish artist Diego Velázquez, dating from 1618–1622. The original version is considered to be among the finest works of the painter's Seville period and is displayed in the Wellington Collection of Apsley House. The original version was painted by Velázquez when he was in his late teens or early twenties. Looking at this painting, there is an older man, a young boy, and a bystander in the background. The old man is handing the young boy a glass of water but, they never look at each other, nor do they make eye contact with the viewer.

History
According to José Gudiol, the Waterseller of Seville by Velázquez was painted shortly before moving to Madrid. Gudiol also classified this painting as a bodegón, due to the depiction of beverages. Art historians typically compare this painting to the still lifes that were painted during the seventeenth century in Spain because this painting is very simple with a limited color range and Velázquez was working with still objects.  This painting is done in a realistic style with a limited color palette, another characteristic of the bodegón genre. According to Jon Moffitt, this piece was not a commissioned work.

Description
The subject of the painting is the waterseller, a common trade for the lower classes in Velázquez's Seville. The jars and victuals recall bodegón paintings. The seller has two customers: a young boy, possibly painted from the same model as used for the boys in The Lunch and Old Woman Cooking Eggs, and a young man in the background shadows, (time has caused him to fade somewhat; he is clearer in the Uffizi version).

In the foreground sit the seller's gigantic pots of water, glistening with splashes of water. So large and rounded, they almost protrude out of the painting into the observer's space. The seller hands a freshly poured glass of water to the boy. In it sits a fig, a perfumer intended to make the water taste fresher (something still done in Seville today).

It is not known for sure, but it is assumed that the painting is being taken place either within a tavern or near one. The lighting enters the scene from the left and is brings attention to the young boy and to the water droplets on the pot of water. This demonstrates the detailed work of Velázquez's paintings.

The still, calm scene, a typical quality of his genre scenes and, indeed, much of Velázquez's work,  is remarkable for the depiction of the seller. His pensive face, battered by its direct exposure to sunlight and deeply scarred with the wrinkles of age, speaks of long years of experience. His short shaved hair and old plain clothes give him the appearance of a monk, saint, or eccentric philosopher. The old man doesn't look at the young boy or even the other man in the shadows and he doesn't make eye contact with the audience either. The young boy is the same. He doesn't make eye contact with the old man, and his back is turned to the other man. And the young boy doesn't make eye contact with the audience.

According to Antonio Palomino, the old man in the painting was old and very ill. He had torn clothing that revealed some skin and on that skin, there were warts. Beside the old man is young boy. The old man gives the young boy a glass of water and the young boy takes it without any form of acknowledgement.

Theme
Velázquez's respect for the poor is evidence in the idea that the simple, elemental nature of poverty is profound and effective in depicting higher subjects and morals such as biblical stories (such as the Christ in the House of Martha and Mary).This simply means that even the slightest gestures are ones that are painted as if they were sacred acts. In the context of Velázquez's development as an artist, The Waterseller exhibits the beginnings of the technique found in the artist's mature creations. His insight into the person of the seller is symptomatic of his insight into the subjects of his great portraits, and his precise rendition of the small details of reality demonstrate his understanding of human perception. Also within the painting, the old man and the young boy both touch the same glass though they don't ever make eye contact. This could be because of their social status or even something as simple as their age difference.

Influences
Another proponent of this simple color range was Caravaggio, who significantly influenced this painting. Caravaggio went against the idealistic trends of Mannerism and the Renaissance, painting saints and divine beings as fallible cripples and prostitutes. Whilst not as aggressively provocative as Caravaggio, Velázquez does not by any means idealize his subject. Rather, he aims to represent it in a way that is precisely faithful to life. He captures the imperfections of the seller's pots, the dampness on their sides, the glistening of the light on the small drops of water and the glass, and the realistic expressions of the characters.

Francisco Pacheco was not only Velázquez's teacher, but he was his father-in-law-too. Pacheco praised his son-in-law's bodegones paintings because they were not being given the credit that they should have been.
Antonio Palomino, Velázquez's contemporary, was the first author ever to mention the painting and he claimed that the old man looked worse than he really did. However, this was not the first time Palomino was inaccurate in his descriptions of a painting by Velázquez. Palomino had already given a very inaccurate of the painting An Old Woman Cooking Eggs.

Versions

London Version
The painting by Velazquez is shown in three different paintings. The version in the Apsley House, London, United Kingdom, is the version that is most popular.
It entered the Royal Spanish Collection. From the Buen Retiro Palace, it went to the Palacio Nuevo. There it was seen by Ponz and had won praise by Anton Raphael Mengs. It was stolen by Joseph Bonaparte at the time of the Napoleonic wars. The Duke of Wellington later won it back – along with 82 other paintings – at the Battle of Vitoria. The King of Spain allowed him to keep them in return for beating the French. Wellington brought the painting back to England where it remains to this day, in Apsley House, his former home. This version is hung in the Waterloo Gallery in the museum side of the House (the current Duke of Wellington holds several private rooms still) so can be viewed by the public.

Florence Version
The version in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence has a rather more burlesque feel, with the seller wearing an ornate red hat. The man in the back is more visible to the audience's eye. It has been suggested that this is earlier than the version in London.

This version of the painting is the dullest of them all. There is no shimmer to the pot like the other two have and the color scheme is very pale. This may have been more in line with Velázquez's contemporaries' expectations due to the comical and devious image of the waterseller given in picaresque novels of the time.

Baltimore Version
The third version, takes yet another angle on the waterseller. In this he appears almost despairing in his expression, perhaps to the extent of appearing farcical. The brilliant colours used are the most extreme of the three (with the pots taking on an altogether more shiny appearance). However, as in the Uffizi version, the characters lack the depth of personality present in the Wellington version. The man that was in the back of the other paintings is no longer visible and the background is shaded so the colors in the foreground really stand out, such as the pot and the man's red over piece that he is wearing.

References in popular culture
The painting appears as an Easter Egg in the video game Resident Evil 4.

See also
 List of works by Diego Velázquez

Notes

Sources
Gudiol José, et al. The Complete Paintings of Velázquez: 1599-1660. Greenwich House, 1983.
Ortiz, Antonio Dominguez., et al. Velázquez. Metropolitan Mus Of Art, 2013.
"Velázquez, The Waterseller of Seville." Khan Academy, Khan Academy, https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/monarchy-enlightenment/baroque-art1/spain/a/velzquez-the-waterseller-of-seville
"Spanish Paintings Archives." Wellington Collection, https://www.wellingtoncollection.co.uk/collection-category/spanish-paintings/
Moffitt, John F. "Image and Meaning in Velázquez's Water-Carrier of Seville." New Mexico State University. http://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/trazaybaza/article/viewFile/27849/28710

External links
Velázquez , exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on The Waterseller of Seville (see index)

Seville-period paintings by Diego Velázquez
1618 paintings
1620s paintings
Paintings in the Uffizi
Paintings by Diego Velázquez
Paintings formerly in the Spanish royal collection
Paintings in the Wellington Collection
Food and drink paintings
Water in art
Cities in art
Genre paintings

The Waterseller of Seville


The Vizcachas Mountains is a mountain range northwest of Santiago, in the Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile. It is part of the Chilean Coast Ranges System.

La Campana National Park
Part of the Vizcachas Range was incorporated into a protected area contiguous with La Campana National Park, under a recommendation made in 1993; this protection was applied to assist in maintaining biodiversity in a region which has had pressure to the ecosystem from an expanding human population.

In particular, the endangered and endemic Chilean Wine Palm (Jubaea chilensis) is native here. This species has experienced a shrinking range during historic times.

See also
 Acacia caven

References
 C. Michael Hogan (2008) Chilean Wine Palm: Jubaea chilensis, GlobalTwitcher.com, ed. Nicklas Stromberg
 La Campana National Park (2007)

Line notes

Chilean Coast Range
Mountain ranges of Chile
Landforms of Santiago Metropolitan Region

Vizcachas Mountains


The International Program in Conflict Resolution and Mediation is an interdisciplinary English-language master's degree program offered at Tel Aviv University in Israel.

History
The International Program in Conflict Resolution and Mediation, founded in October 2009, teaches students from around the world the fundamentals of conflict resolution. Consisting of three consecutive semesters, the International Program aims to provide students with the insight and skills needed to address the assessment, management, and resolution of conflicts in the international arena.

The first semester exposes students to a comprehensive survey of conflicts and their resolution from diverse perspectives, including international law, psychology, political science, anthropology and economics. The second and third semesters gives students the chance to choose from a variety of courses according to their interests. Throughout the semesters, special focus is placed on combining practical experience to the theoretical knowledge through interactive teaching, culminating in the intensive mediation workshop taught in smaller groups and through simulations.

Academic trips are planned throughout the year, visiting various sites around Israel in conjunction with the curriculum. In addition, speakers from the United Nations, the Israeli Foreign Ministry, embassies, NGOs and visiting professors are invited each week to share their experiences and research, and provide students with professional networking opportunities.

Courses reflect the relevant in the field of conflict resolution, in addition to the resources in Israel and the Middle East: core courses on Middle East History and Israeli politics; framing coursework to focus on international approaches; and offering a greater variety of interdisciplinary elective courses.

Courses are taught in the afternoon, four days per week, allowing students to pursue volunteering and internship opportunities, as well as language courses in Hebrew and colloquial Arabic.

Interviews with students and alumni are regularly featured in Israeli and international media.

See also
Education in Israel

References

External links
 International Program's website
 Evens Program's website, taught in Hebrew
Tel Aviv University International

Dispute resolution
Master's degrees
Peace and conflict studies
Peace education
Tel Aviv University


Wayne R. Bryant (born November 7, 1947) is an American Democratic Party politician, who served in the New Jersey State Senate from 1995 to 2008, where he represented the 5th Legislative District. He is also a convicted felon for corruption. Before entering the Senate, Bryant served in New Jersey's lower house, the General Assembly, from 1982 to 1995 and on the Camden County Board of Chosen Freeholders from 1980 to 1982.

Early life and family
Bryant was born and raised in the predominantly African American community of Lawnside, New Jersey. His father, Isaac Rutledge Bryant, was president of the Lawnside school board for fourteen years. His uncle, Horace J. Bryant, was the first  African American to serve in a State Cabinet position in New Jersey. His grandfather served as the New Jersey General Assembly's first African American calendar clerk, responsible for billing and scheduling. He has two brothers, Isaac and Mark; Mark Bryant served as mayor of Lawnside.

Political career
While in the General Assembly, Bryant served as Majority Leader from 1990 to 1991. Upon the death of longtime Democratic Senator Walter Rand on January 6, 1995, Bryant was selected to serve the remaining term, and served in the State Senate until 2008; Nilsa Cruz-Perez was selected to fill Bryant's seat in the Assembly. Bryant served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention on four occasions, in 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004.

Bryant has been an Attorney at the law firm of Zeller & Bryant, L.L.P. The firm announced in an advertisement in the February 12, 2007, edition of the New Jersey Law Journal that Bryant would be retiring from the firm after 33 years, effective March 1, 2007. Bryant is the former Chairman of the Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee, and the Joint Budget Oversight Committee. He also serves as a member of the Education Committee, the Joint Committee on Public Schools, and the Intergovernmental Relations Committee.

Controversy and indictment
Bryant has been referred to as the "king of double dipping" by a newspaper in southern New Jersey because he has collected salaries from as many as four public jobs he held simultaneously in New Jersey. Between Bryant, his two brothers, his wife, his son and his sister-in-law, the family holds ten public jobs in New Jersey and earns almost $700,000.

On April 20, 2006, it was reported on the website Politics NJ that Bryant found his son, Wayne Bryant, Jr., dead in his home. Bryant's son worked for the New Jersey Network Television Station, and had won two Emmy awards.

On September 18, 2006, a federal monitor's report charged Bryant with pressuring officials at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey to hire him for a no-show job for which he received a $35,000 annual salary. In his position as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Bryant delivered a total of $12.8 million in state aid to the school during the three years covered by the no-show job.  As of September 25, 2006, Bryant stepped down from his position as chairman of the Senate budget committee — and resigned from the committee entirely — amid increasing pressure from legislative leaders. The probe against Bryant expanded, and state and federal investigators at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey demanded records from several public institutions and agencies where Bryant or his law firm, Zeller & Bryant, have worked. One of the notable places was Rutgers University Camden where Bryant received over $130,000 for teaching law school classes. This salary was considered suspicious, as the Rutgers Camden Law School was lobbying and received $11 million from the Camden City Redevelopment fund which Bryant was involved with.

On March 29, 2007, Bryant was indicted on corruption charges for his alleged involvement in funneling millions to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in exchange for a no-show job allegedly provided by R. Michael Gallagher, the former dean at UMDNJ's School of Osteopathic Medicine who has also been indicted with Bryant.  He also faces charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, and bribery because of his acceptance of salary from the University of Medicine and Dentistry, Rutgers University-Camden, and Gloucester County Board of Social Service while doing very little work.

On November 18, 2008, Bryant was convicted on all counts. On July 24, 2009, District Judge Freda L. Wolfson sentenced Bryant to four years in federal prison.

References

External links
Senator Bryant's Official Senate Website
New Jersey Senate Democrats bio for Senator Bryant
New Jersey Legislature financial disclosure form for 2006 (PDF)
New Jersey Legislature financial disclosure form for 2005 (PDF)
New Jersey Legislature financial disclosure form for 2004 (PDF)

Living people
1947 births
African-American state legislators in New Jersey
County commissioners in New Jersey
Democratic Party members of the New Jersey General Assembly
New Jersey politicians convicted of crimes
Democratic Party New Jersey state senators
People from Lawnside, New Jersey
Politicians convicted of mail and wire fraud
Politicians convicted of program bribery
Politicians from Camden, New Jersey
21st-century African-American politicians
20th-century African-American people

Wayne R. Bryant


An eggshell is the outer covering of a hard-shelled egg and of some forms of eggs with soft outer coats. It is a main character of the cleidoic egg, which allows amniotes to breed on land.

Worm
Worms eggs present a three layered structure with an External Vitellin Layer, a Chitin Layer that confers mechanical resistance and an internal Lipid-rich layer that makes the egg chamber impermeable.

Amniotes
Amniotes developed the cleidoic egg early in the Carboniferous period, and this meant they could live and reproduce on dry land. These early land animals evolved into the reptiles, birds and mammals of today. In contrast, the amphibia are land animals who must lay their eggs in water, because the eggs are not protected by a shell.

The structure and composition of the eggshell protects the egg against damage, microbial contamination, and desiccation (drying out). Small molecules can pass through it, so the shell allows gas exchange for the growing embryo. It also provides calcium for the embryo's skeleton.

Reptile eggs
While many reptiles lay eggs with flexible, calcified, eggshells, there are some that lay hard eggs. Eggs laid by snakes generally have leathery shells which often adhere to one another. Depending on the species, turtles and tortoises lay hard or soft eggs. Several species lay eggs which are nearly the same as bird eggs.

Bird eggs
The normal bird egg is a fertilized egg sitting on the yolk surface and surrounded by albumen, or egg white. The albumen in turn is surrounded by two shell membranes (inner and outer membranes) and then the eggshell. The chicken eggshell is 95-97% calcium carbonate crystals, which are held together by a protein matrix.

While the bulk of eggshell is made of calcium carbonate, it is now thought that the protein matrix has an important role to play in eggshell strength. These proteins affect crystallization, which in turn affects the eggshell structure.

The average laying hen, takes about 20 hours to make the shell. Pigmentation is added to the shell by papillae lining the oviduct, coloring it any of a variety of colors and patterns depending on the species.

Related pages
Cleidoic egg
Amniote
Egg (biology)
Ovum

References

Tetrapods

Eggshell


Section Beams are made of steel and they have a specific lengths and shapes like -beam, , -channel and I flanged beam.  These types of section are usually used in steel structures and it is common to connect them with plates of steel.

Joints
There are three connection types:

 Rivets
 Bolts
 Welding

Rivets are the strongest and most common type.

Safety
There are some calculation methods to determine whether the design and construction of the truss is safe.

References

Structural system

Section beam


The Empire of Japan's Kwantung Army invaded Manchuria on 18 September 1931, immediately following the Mukden Incident. At the war's end in February 1932, the Japanese established the puppet state of Manchukuo. Their occupation lasted until the success of the Soviet Union and Mongolia with the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation in mid-August 1945, towards the end of the Second World War.

The South Manchuria Railway Zone and the Korean Peninsula had been under the control of the Japanese Empire since the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. Japan's ongoing industrialization and militarization ensured their growing dependence on oil and metal imports from the US. The US sanctions which prevented trade with the United States (which had occupied the Philippines around the same time) resulted in Japan furthering its expansion in the territory of China and Southeast Asia. The invasion of Manchuria, or the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 7 July 1937, are sometimes cited as alternative starting dates for World War II, in contrast with the more commonly accepted date of September 1, 1939.

With the invasion having attracted great international attention, the League of Nations produced the Lytton Commission (headed by British politician Victor Bulwer-Lytton) to evaluate the situation, with the organization delivering its findings in October 1932. Its findings and recommendations that the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo not be recognized and the return of Manchuria to Chinese sovereignty prompted the Japanese government to withdraw from the League entirely.

Background

A minor dispute known as the Wanpaoshan incident between Chinese and Korean farmers occurred on July 1, 1931. The issue was highly sensationalized in the Imperial Japanese and Korean press, and used for considerable propaganda effect to increase anti-Chinese sentiment in the Empire of Japan.

Believing that a conflict in Manchuria would be in the best interests of Japan, and acting in the spirit of the Japanese concept of gekokujō, Kwantung Army Colonel Seishirō Itagaki and Lieutenant Colonel Kanji Ishiwara independently devised a plan to provoke Japan into invading Manchuria by setting up a false flag incident for the pretext of invasion.

The operation was originally planned to be executed on 28 September, but the date was changed to September 18. When 1st Lieutenant Suemori Komoto of the Independent Garrison Unit (独立守備隊) of the 29th Infantry Regiment (which guarded the South Manchuria Railway) placed explosives near the tracks, but far enough away to do no real damage. At around 10:20 pm (22:20) on September 18, the explosives were detonated. However, the explosion was minor and only a 1.5-meter section on one side of the rail was damaged. In fact, a train from Changchun passed by the site on this damaged track without difficulty and arrived at Shenyang at 10:30 pm (22:30).

On the morning of September 19, two artillery pieces installed at the Mukden officers' club opened fire on the Chinese garrison nearby, in response to the alleged Chinese attack on the railway. Zhang Xueliang's small air force was destroyed, and his soldiers fled their destroyed Beidaying barracks, as five hundred Japanese troops attacked the Chinese garrison of around seven thousand. The Chinese troops were no match for the experienced Japanese troops. By the evening, the fighting was over, and the Japanese had occupied Mukden at the cost of five hundred Chinese lives and only two Japanese lives, thus starting the greater invasion of Manchuria.

Initial annexation

On September 18, 1931, the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, which had decided upon a policy of localizing the incident, communicated its decision to the Kwantung Army command. However, Kwantung Army commander-in-chief General Shigeru Honjō instead ordered his forces to proceed to expand operations all along the South Manchuria Railway. Under orders from Lieutenant General Jirō Tamon, troops of the 2nd Division moved up the rail line and captured virtually every city along its  length in a matter of days.

Likewise on September 19, in response to General Honjō's request, the Joseon army in Korea under General Senjūrō Hayashi ordered the 20th Infantry Division to split its force, forming the 39th Mixed Brigade, which departed on that day for Manchuria without authorization from the Emperor. On September 19, the Japanese occupied Yingkou, Liaoyang, Shenyang, Fushun, Dandong, Siping (Jilin Province), and Changchun. On September 21, the Japanese captured Jilin City. On 23 September, the Japanese took Jiaohe (Jilin Province) and Dunhua. On 1 October, Zhang Haipeng surrendered the Taonan area. Sometime in October, Ji Xing (吉興) surrendered the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture area and on 17 October, Yu Zhishan surrendered Eastern Liaoning to the Japanese.

Tokyo was shocked by the news of the Army acting without orders from the central government. The Japanese civilian government was thrown into disarray by this act of "gekokujō" insubordination, but as reports of one quick victory after another began to arrive, it felt powerless to oppose the Army, and its decision was to immediately send three more infantry divisions from Japan, beginning with the 14th Mixed Brigade of the IJA 7th Division. During this era, the elected government could be held hostage by the Army and Navy, since Army and Navy members were constitutionally necessary for the formation of cabinets. Without their support, the government would collapse.

Secession movements

After the Liaoning Provincial government fled Mukden, it was replaced by a "Peoples Preservation Committee" which declared the secession of Liaoning province from the Republic of China. Other secessionist movements were organized in Japanese-occupied Kirin by General Xi Qia head of the "New Kirin" Army, and at Harbin, by General Chang Ching-hui. In early October, at Taonan in northwest Liaoning province, General Zhang Haipeng declared his district independent of China, in return for a shipment of a large number of military supplies by the Japanese Army.

On October 13, General Chang Hai-peng ordered three regiments of the Hsingan Reclamation Army under General Xu Jinglong north to take the capital of Heilongjiang province at Qiqihar. Some elements in the city offered to peacefully surrender the old walled town, and Chang advanced cautiously to accept. However his advance guard was attacked by General Dou Lianfang's troops, and in a savage fight with an engineering company defending the north bank, were sent fleeing with heavy losses. During this fight, the Nenjiang railroad bridge was dynamited by troops loyal to General Ma Zhanshan to prevent its use.

Resistance to the Japanese invasion

Using the repair of the Nen River Bridge as the pretext, the Japanese sent a repair party in early November under the protection of Japanese troops. Fighting erupted between the Japanese forces and troops loyal to the acting governor of Heilongjiang province Muslim General Ma Zhanshan, who chose to disobey the Kuomintang government's ban on further resistance to the Japanese invasion.

Despite his failure to hold the bridge, General Ma Zhanshan became a national hero in China for his resistance at Nenjiang Bridge, which was widely reported in the Chinese and international press. The publicity inspired more volunteers to enlist in the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies.

The repaired bridge made possible the further advance of Japanese forces and their armored trains. Additional troops from Japan, notably the 4th Mixed Brigade from the 8th Division, were sent in November.

On November 15, 1931, despite having lost more than 400 men and 300 left wounded since 5 November, General Ma declined a Japanese ultimatum to surrender Qiqihar. On 17 November, in subzero weather, 3,500 Japanese troops, under the command of General Jirō Tamon, mounted an attack, forcing General Ma from Qiqihar by 19 November.

Operations in Southern Northeast China

In late November 1931, General Honjō dispatched 10,000 soldiers in 13 armored trains, escorted by a squadron of bombers, in an advance on Chinchow from Mukden. This force had advanced to within  of Chinchow when it received an order to withdraw. The operation was cancelled by Japanese War Minister General Jirō Minami, due to the acceptance of modified form of a League of Nations proposal for a "neutral zone" to be established as a buffer zone between China proper and Manchuria pending a future Chinese-Japanese peace conference by the civilian government of Prime Minister Baron Wakatsuki in Tokyo.

However, the two sides failed to reach a lasting agreement. The Wakatsuki government soon fell and was replaced by a new cabinet led by Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi. Further negotiations with the Kuomintang government failed, the Japanese government authorized the reinforcement of troops in Manchuria. In December, the rest of 20th Infantry Division, along with the 38th Mixed Brigade from the 19th Infantry Division were sent into Manchuria from Korea while the 8th Mixed Brigade from the 10th Infantry Division was sent from Japan. The total strength of the Kwantung Army was thus increased to around 60,450 men.

With this stronger force, the Japanese Army announced on December 21, the beginning of large-scale anti-bandit operations in Manchuria to quell a growing resistance movement by the local Chinese population in Liaoning and Kirin provinces.

On December 28, a new government was formed in China after all members of the old Nanjing government resigned. This threw the military command into turmoil, and the Chinese army retreated to the south of the Great Wall into Hebei province, a humiliating move which lowered China's international image. Japanese forces occupied Chinchow on January 3, 1932, after the Chinese defenders retreated without giving combat.

Occupation of northeast China

With southern Manchuria secure, the Japanese turned north to complete the occupation of Manchuria. As negotiations with Generals Ma Zhanshan and Ting Chao to defect to the pro-Japanese side had failed, in early January Colonel Kenji Doihara requested collaborationist General Qia Xi to advance his forces and take Harbin.

The last major Chinese regular force in northern Manchuria was led by General Ting Chao who organized the defense of Harbin successfully against General Xi until the arrival of the IJA 2nd Division under General Jirō Tamon. Japanese forces took Harbin on February 4, 1932.

By the end of February Ma had sought terms and joined the newly formed Manchukuo government as governor of Heilongjiang province and Minister of War.

On February 27, 1932, Ting offered to cease hostilities, ending official Chinese resistance in Manchuria, although combat by guerrilla and irregular forces continued as Japan spent many years in their campaign to pacify Manchukuo.

Effect on Japanese homefront
The conquest of Manchuria, a land rich in natural resources, was widely seen as an economic "lifeline" to save Japan from the effects of the Great Depression, generating much public support. The American historian Louise Young described Japan from September 1931 to the spring of 1933 as gripped by "war fever" as the conquest of Manchuria proved to be an extremely popular war. The metaphor of a "lifeline" suggested that Manchuria was crucial to the functioning of the Japanese economy, which explains why the conquest of Manchuria was so popular and why afterwards Japanese public opinion was so hostile towards any suggestion of letting Manchuria go.

At the time, censorship in Japan was nowhere near as stringent as it later became, and Young noted: "Had they wished, it would have been possible in 1931 and 1932 for journalists and editors to express anti-war sentiments". The liberal journal Kaizō criticized the war with the journalist Gotō Shinobu in the November 1931 edition accusing the Kwangtung Army of a "two-fold coup d'état" against both the government in Tokyo and against the government of China. Voices like Kaizō were a minority as mainstream newspapers like the Asahi soon discovered that an anti-war editorial position hurt sales, and so switched over to an aggressively militaristic editorial position as the best way to increase sales. Japan's most famous pacifist, the poet Akiko Yosano had caused a sensation in 1904 with her anti-war poem "Brother Do Not Give Your Life", addressed to her younger brother serving in the Imperial Army that called the war with Russia stupid and senseless. Such was the extent of "war fever" in Japan in 1931 that even Akiko succumbed, writing a poem in 1932 praising bushidō, urging the Kwantung Army to "smash the sissified dreams of compromise" and declared that to die for the Emperor in battle was the "purest" act a Japanese man could perform.

External effect
The Western media reported on the events with accounts of atrocities such as bombing civilians or firing upon shell-shocked survivors. It aroused considerable antipathy to Japan, which lasted until the end of World War II.

When the Lytton Commission issued a report on the invasion, despite its statements that China had to a certain extent provoked Japan, and China's sovereignty over Manchuria was not absolute, Japan took it as an unacceptable rebuke and withdrew from the already declining League of Nations, which also helped create international isolation.

The Manchurian Crisis had a significant negative effect on the moral strength and influence of the League of Nations. As critics had predicted, the League was powerless if a strong nation decided to pursue an aggressive policy against other countries, allowing a country such as Japan to commit blatant aggression without serious consequences. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini were also aware of this, and ultimately both followed Japan's example in aggression against their neighbors: in the case of Italy, against Abyssinia (1935-7); and Germany, against Czechoslovakia (1938-9) and Poland (1939).

See also
 Huanggutun incident (Japanese assassination of the Chinese head of state Generalissimo Zhang Zuolin on 4 June 1928) and the Northeast Flag Replacement (by Zhang Xueliang on 29 December 1928)
 Chiang Kai-shek
 Kanji Ishiwara
 Military of the Republic of China
 National Revolutionary Army
 Second Sino-Japanese War

References

Citations

Sources

 Thorne, Christopher. "Viscount Cecil, the Government and the Far Eastern Crisis of 1931." Historical Journal 14, no. 4 (1971): 805–26. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2638108 online].

 Sun, Fengyun. 《東北抗日聯軍鬥爭史》

External links

 "On The Eastern Front", April 1932, Popular Science photo collection of Invasion of Manchuria and Shanghai International Settlement During the Shanghai Incident
 "MANCHURIA - What This Is All About", February 1932, Popular Mechanics
 Solving the "Manchurian Problem": Uchida Yasuya and Japanese Foreign Affairs before the Second World War
 Japan's "Sole Road for Survival": The Range of Views Within the Guandong Army over the Seizure of Manchuria and Mongolia"
 International Military Tribunal for the Far East Japanese Aggression Against China
 Monograph 144, Manchurian Incident
 Mukden Incident & Manchukuo, WW2 database
 Manchuria 1931-1932 Photos from the Manchurian campaign
 AMS Topographic maps of Manchuria
 Japanese Invasion of Manchuria Photograph Collection

Second Sino-Japanese War
Conflicts in 1931
Conflicts in 1932
Battles of the Second Sino-Japanese War
1931 in China
1932 in China
Military history of Manchuria
1931 in Japan
1932 in Japan
Anti-Japanese sentiment in China
Invasions of China
Manchuria

Japanese invasion of Manchuria


Robben Lee Ford (born December 16, 1951) is an American blues, jazz, and rock guitarist. He was a member of the L.A. Express and Yellowjackets and has collaborated with Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, George Harrison, Larry Carlton, Rick Springfield, Little Feat, and Kiss. He was named one of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of the 20th Century" by Musician magazine.

Early life
Robben Ford was born in Woodlake, California, United States, and raised in Ukiah, California. He began playing the saxophone at age 10 and the guitar at age 14. Robben and two of his brothers (Patrick and Mark) created the Charles Ford Blues Band in honor of and named after their father. A fourth brother died in the Vietnam conflict.

Career
At age 18, Ford's band was hired to play with Charlie Musselwhite, and recorded two albums  The Charles Ford Band and Discovering the Blues.  He recorded two albums with Jimmy Witherspoon called Live and Spoonful.  In the 1970s, Ford joined the jazz fusion band, L.A. Express, led by saxophonist Tom Scott.  In 1974, the band supported George Harrison on his American tour and played on the Joni Mitchell albums The Hissing of Summer Lawns and Miles of Aisles.

After leaving the L.A. Express in 1976, Robben Ford recorded his first solo album, The Inside Story with a band that later became the Yellowjackets.

In 1977 Ford was one of over half a dozen session players asked to play a guitar solo for the Steely Dan song "Peg." The band eventually used a version by Jay Graydon. In 2006, a tribute album to Steely Dan – The Royal Dan – was released, with Ford covering "Peg" in his own style.

In 1982, Ford was one of several guitarists who appeared on the KISS album Creatures of the Night, playing lead guitar on the songs "Rock And Roll Hell" and "I Still Love You".

Ford worked briefly with Miles Davis in 1986; and can be heard on Davis' Montreux box set. Ford released his second solo album Talk to Your Daughter in 1988.  He joined Philippe Saisse, Marcus Miller and J.T. Lewis in the cast of The Sunday Night Band for the second and final season of the late-night NBC television program Sunday Night in 1989. In the 1990s, he released the albums Robben Ford and the Blue Line, Mystic Mile, Handful of Blues, Tiger Walk and Supernatural.

Robben Ford has received five Grammy Award nominations and was named one of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of the 20th Century" by Musician magazine. He credited pianist and arranger Roger Kellaway and saxophonist and arranger Tom Scott, whom he met while playing for Joni Mitchell, as a major influence on his musical development.

Robben Ford was married to Anne Kerry Ford. As of 2022 he lives in Paris, France.

In October 2022, Ford toured in Italy opening for Eric Clapton.

Equipment

Guitars
Ford considers his first good electric a Guild Starfire III with a single Florentine (sharp) cutaway. He used a Gibson L-5 when he played with Charlie Musselwhite and the Ford Band, although he never thought it was a great guitar. While playing with Jimmy Witherspoon, Ford traded the L-5 plus $200 for a 1964 Gibson Super 400CES (which he sold in 1986). When Ford began playing with the L.A. Express and Joni Mitchell, he used a 1958 Gibson dot-neck ES-335.

After Ford's Talk to Your Daughter album was released in 1988, Robben used a Robben Ford Signature model guitar created in a collaboration with Dan Smith of Fender and produced in Japan between 1987 and 1993. That guitar was based on the Fender Master Series Esprit Ultra that was produced from 1983 to 1986 in Japan. In 1987, new management at Fender authorized the first production of the Robben Ford Signature guitar. In 1994, production of the guitar moved from Japan to the Fender Custom Shop. Three models were produced: Ultra FM (with a carved maple top), Ultra SP (with a carved spruce top), and the Elite FM (with a carved flame maple top). The guitar line continued to be produced until 2002 when it was discontinued by Fender.

Sometimes he plays a vintage 1960 Fender Telecaster, Gibson Les Pauls, or a 1963 Gibson SG. Ford also owns other guitars including a 1966 Epiphone Riviera (with the original Bigsby tremolo removed and replaced with a stop tailpiece).

In a May 1–16, 2017 tour which ended in Niagara Falls NY, Ford debuted a newly acquired 1953 Gibson Les Paul.

Amplifiers
Robben Ford uses Dumble Amplifiers and Celestion G12-65 speakers. In 1983, Alexander "Howard" Dumble made Robben's first Dumble Overdrive Special (serial #002) for Robben. Dumble himself is the owner of serial #001.

When traveling abroad he prefers taking his Dumble, but will sometimes use Fender Super Reverb or Fender Twin amplifiers. More recently Robben has been using Little Walter amplifiers at home and in the studio.

Discography

As leader/co-leader
 Schizophonic (LA International, 1976)
 Live Jimmy Witherspoon & Robben Ford (LAX, 1977)
 The Inside Story (Elektra, 1979)
 Standing on the Outside (Lakeside, 1983)
 Talk to Your Daughter (Warner Bros., 1988)
 Minor Elegance with Joe Diorio (MGI, 1989)
 Robben Ford & the Blue Line (Stretch, 1992)
 Live at the Notodden Blues Festival with Jimmy Witherspoon (Blue Rock'it, 1992)
 Mystic Mile (Stretch, 1993)
 Handful of Blues (Stretch, 1995)
 Ain't Nothin' New About the Blues with Jimmy Witherspoon (AIM, 1995)
 Blues Connotation (ITM, 1997)
 The Authorized Bootleg (Blue Thumb, 1997)
 Discovering the Blues (Avenue, 1997)
 Tiger Walk (Blue Thumb, 1997)
 Sunrise (Avenue, 1999)
 Supernatural (GRP, 1999)
 A Tribute to Paul Butterfield (Blue Rock'it, 2001)
 Blue Moon (Concord, 2002)
 Keep On Running (Concord, 2003)
 Truth (Concord, 2007)
 Soul on Ten (Concord, 2009)
 Bullet with Renegade Creation (Blues Bureau, 2012)
 Bringing It Back Home (Provogue, 2013)
 A Day in Nashville (Provogue, 2014)
 Into the Sun (Provogue, 2015)
 Purple House (Ear Music, 2018)
 The Sun Room with Bill Evans (Ear Music, 2019)
 Common Ground with Bill Evans (13J Productions, 2020)
 Pure (Ear Music, 2021)

As a member
Yellowjackets
 Yellowjackets (Warner Bros., 1981)
 Mirage a Trois  (Warner Bros., 1983)
 Run for Your Life (GRP, 1994)
 Timeline (Mack Avenue, 2011)

As sideman

With Larry Carlton
 Live in Tokyo (335 Records, 2007)
 Unplugged (335 Records, 2013)

With Jing Chi (Jimmy Haslip, Vinnie Colaiuta)
 Jing Chi (Tone Center 2002)
 Jing Chi Live at Yoshi's (Shrapnel 2003)
 3D (Tone Center 2004)
 Supremo (Tone Center 2017)

With A. J. Croce
 A. J. Croce (Private Music, 1993)
 That's Me in the Bar (Private Music, 1995)
 By Request (Compass Records, 2021)

With Tommy Emmanuel
 Can't Get Enough (Columbia, 1996)
 Midnight Drive (Higher Octave, 1997)

With Jerry Granelli
 A Song I Thought I Heard Buddy (Sing ITM, 1992)
 Dance Hall (Justin Time 2017)
 Koputai (ITM, 1990)
 One Day at a Time (ITM, 1990)

With Little Feat
 Down on the Farm (Warner Bros., 1979)
 Hoy-Hoy! (Warner Bros., 1981)

With Keiko Matsui
 A Drop of Water (Japan, 1986)
 Under Northern Lights (Japan, 1988)
 No Borders (MCA, 1990)

With Barry Manilow
 Here Comes the Night (Arista, 1982)
 Oh Julie! (Arista, 1982)

With Eric Marienthal
 Oasis (GRP, 1991)
 Turn Up the Heat (Peak, 2001)

With Amanda McBroom
 Dreaming (Gecko, 1986)
 Midnight Matinee (Analogue, 1991)

With Michael McDonald
 If That's What It Takes (Warner Bros., 1982)
 No Lookin' Back (Warner Bros., 1985)
 Blink of an Eye (Reprise, 1993)

With Charlie Musselwhite
 Louisiana Fog (Cherry Red, 1968)
 Takin' My Time (Arhoolie, 1971)
 Goin' Back Down South (Arhoolie, 1974)
 Tell Me Where Have All the Good Times Gone? (Blue Rock'it, 1984)
 One Night in America (Telarc, 2001)

With John Kaizan Neptune
 West of Somewhere (Milestone, 1981)
 Mixed Bag (Eastworld, 1983)

With Tom Scott
 Tom Cat (Ode, 1975)
 Reed My Lips (GRP, 1994)
 Night Creatures (GRP, 1995)
 Bluestreak (GRP, 1996)

With Supersonic Blues Machine
 West of Flushing South of Frisco (Provogue, 2016)
 Californisoul (Provogue, 2017)

With Jennifer Warnes
 Famous Blue Raincoat (Attic, 1986)
 The Hunter (Attic, 1992)

With Jimmy Witherspoon
 Spoonful (Blue Note, 1975)
 Live at the Mint (On the Spot, 1996)

With others
 Gregg Bissonette, Submarine (Favored Nations, 2000)
 David Blue, Com'n Back for More (Asylum, 1975)
 Perry Botkin Jr., Ports (A&M, 1977)
 Chris Cain, So Many Miles (Blue Rock'it, 2010)
 Julie Christensen, Love Is Driving (Stone Cupid, 1996)
 Randy Crawford, Secret Combination (Warner Bros., 1981)
 Tiffany Darwish, New Inside (MCA, 1990)
 Miles Davis, Tutu (Warner Bros., 2011)
 DeBarge, All This Love (Gordy, 1982)
 Bob Dylan, Under the Red Sky (Columbia, 1990)
 Richard Elliot, Initial Approach (ITI, 1984)
 Bill Evans, Big Fun (ESC, 2002)
 Georgie Fame, Cool Cat Blues (Go Jazz, 1991)
 Brandon Fields, The Other Side of the Story (Nova, 1988)
 Anne Kerry Ford, In the Nest of the Moon (Illyria, 1996)
 Ruthie Foster, The Truth According to Ruthie Foster (Shock, 2009)
 Kenny Garrett, Old Folks (West Wind, 1999)
 Dizzy Gillespie, Rhythmstick (1990)
 Kazu Matsui Project, Kazu Matsui Project featuring Robben Ford - Standing on the Outside (1983)
 Joni Mitchell, The Hissing of Summer Lawns (Asylum, 1975)
 Arlo Guthrie, Power of Love (Warner Bros., 1981)
 Charlie Haden, Helium Tears (NewEdition, 2005)
 George Harrison, Dark Horse (Apple, 1974)
 Amy Holland, On Your Every Word (Capitol, 1983)
 Christian Howes, Out of the Blue (Resonance, 2010)
 Rickie Lee Jones, Pop Pop (Geffen, 1991)
 Marc Jordan, A Hole in the Wall (Airplay, 1989)
 Kiss, Creatures of the Night (Casablanca, 1982)
 Greg Koch, Plays Well with Others (2013)
 Dave Koz, Lucky Man (Capitol, 1993)
 L.A. Express, L.A. Express (Caribou, 1976)
 Michael Landau, Renegade Creation (Blues Bureau, 2010)
 Sonny Landreth, From the Reach (Landfall, 2008)
 Neil Larsen, Orbit (Straight Ahead, 2007)
 Ricky Lawson, First Things First (Videoarts, 1998)
 Ute Lemper, Crimes of the Heart (CBS, 1989)
 Kenny Loggins, Celebrate Me Home (Columbia, 1977)
 Jeff Lorber, Step It Up (Heads Up, 2015)
 Bob Malach, The Searcher (Go Jazz, 1995)
 Herbie Mann, Opalescence (Gaia, 1989)
 John Mayall, In the Palace of the King (Eagle, 2007)
 Brownie McGhee, Facts of Life (Blue Rock'it, 1985)
 Keb' Mo', Keep It Simple (Epic, 2004)
 Claus Ogerman, Claus Ogerman Featuring Michael Brecker (GRP, 1991)
 Brad Paisley, American Saturday Night (Arista, 2009)
 Paul Personne, Lost in Paris Blues Band (Verycords, 2016)
 Shawn Phillips, Do You Wonder (A&M, 1975)
 Bonnie Raitt, Luck of the Draw (Capitol, 1991)
 Kenny Rankin, Hiding in Myself (Cypress, 1988)
 Rudy Rotta, Some of My Favorite Songs for... Pepper (Cake, 2006)
 Leon Russell, Life Journey (Universal, 2014)
 David Sanborn, Hearsay (Elektra, 1994)
 Marilyn Scott, Without Warning! (Mercury, 1983)
 Barbra Streisand, Streisand Superman (Columbia, 1977)
 Sanne Salomonsen, In a New York Minute (Virgin, 1998)
 Rick Springfield, Working Class Dog (RCA, 1980)
 Eric Tagg, Dreamwalkin (Pony Canyon, 2015)
 Toots Thielemans, East Coast West Coast (Private Music, 1994)
 William Topley, Mixed Blessing (Mercury, 1998)
 Walter Trout, We're All in This Together (Provogue, 2017)
 Carl Verheyen, Trading 8s (Cranktone, 2009)
 Sadao Watanabe, Encore! (JVC, 2017)
 Steve Weingart, Life Times Vol. 01 (Skeewa Music, 2003)
 Bruce Willis, If It Don't Kill You It Just Makes You Stronger (Motown, 1989)
 Tsuyoshi Yamamoto, Another Holiday (Warner Bros., 1985)
 Jesse Colin Young, The Perfect Stranger (Elektra, 1982)

Videos
 Robben Ford and the Blue Line:  In Concert (Recorded April 7, 1993)
 Robben Ford:  New Morning - The Paris Concert (Recorded May 2001)
 Playing the Blues (2002)
 The Blues and Beyond (2002)
 Back to the Blues (2004)
 Autour Du Blues:  Larry Carlton and Robben Ford (2006)
 The Robben Ford Clinic: The Art of Blues Rhythm (2007)
 Robben Ford: In Concert: Revisited (2008)
 The Robben Ford Clinic: The Art of Blues Solos (2009)
 Robben Ford Trio: New Morning the Paris Concert:  Revisited (2009)

References

External links
Official website

1951 births
Living people
People from Ukiah, California
People from Woodlake, California
Guitarists from California
Jazz musicians from California
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American male musicians
21st-century American guitarists
21st-century American male musicians
American blues guitarists
American jazz guitarists
American male guitarists
American rock guitarists
Lead guitarists
American male jazz musicians
Elektra Records artists
MCA Records artists
Warner Records artists
Yellowjackets members
Provogue Records artists

Robben Ford


The Couque de Dinant () is an extremely hard and sweet biscuit. It is a traditional biscuit of the southern Belgian city of Dinant in Wallonia.

Preparation
Couques are made with three ingredients: wheat, flour and honey. Preparation is fairly easy: The same amount of each ingredient is added, and nothing else. For example, neither water nor yeast are added. The dough is put in a wooden mould. The wood is obtained from  pear tree, walnut tree or beech tree. The moulds have many different shapes. These includes animals, floral patterns, people or landscapes.

The biscuit is cooked in an oven preheated to around  for 15 minutes. This allows the honey to caramelize. On cooling, the biscuit becomes very hard. It can be preserved indefinitely. Couques can be displayed as decoration as they will not rot. They are used as Christmas tree ornaments, or used to commemorate special occasions.

A different type, the couque de Rins also adds sugar to the dough. It is sweeter and softer as a result.

Consumption

Couques de Dinant cannot be bitten as they are very large and hard. They are instead broken into small pieces. The pieces can then be bitten, sucked, left to melt in the mouth or be soaked in coffee. Couques de Dinant have been traditionally given to babies during teething.

Dinant bakeries see large sales over the summer season due to tourists. The consumption of couques is highest near Saint Nicholas Day in December. At that time of year, they are sold and eaten all over Belgium.

Origins
A popular but unlikely legend said that couques came from from the sacking of Dinant in 1466. Dinant was sacked by Charles the Bold during the Liège Wars. The citizens were supposedly desperate and had little to eat but flour and honey. They then decided to make a dough by mixing honey and flour. As the dough was so hard, they find that ornaments can be made out of it. One example is dinanderie (local ornamental brasswork). The people thereby began the tradition of giving the biscults patterns.

It is more clear that couque began to appear some time in the 18th century. The exact circumstances of its invention are unclear though.

References

Related pages
 Belgian cuisine
 List of crackers

Sweet breads
Belgian culture
History of Belgium
Christmas

Couque de Dinant