This Thing of Darkness (published in the United States as To the Edge of the World) was the debut novel of Harry Thompson, published in 2005 only months before his death in November of that year at the age of 45. Set in the period from 1828 to 1865, it is a historical novel telling the fictionalised biography of Robert FitzRoy, who was given command of HMS Beagle halfway through her first voyage. He subsequently captained her during the vessel's famous second voyage, on which Charles Darwin travelled as his companion.

The novel was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Its title comes from Prospero's line "This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine" in Act V, Scene 1 of William Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Historical background
Born to an aristocratic family, Robert FitzRoy joined the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth aged 12 and entered the Royal Navy the following year, rising rapidly through the ranks. The novel begins in 1828 with the suicide of the commander of HMS Beagle, Pringle Stokes, and FitzRoy's subsequent appointment as the vessel's (temporary) captain at the age of twenty-three.

Whilst conducting Beagle's mission of surveying Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, during which he proved to be a meticulous surveyor, he captured four native Fuegians (Fuegia Basket, Jemmy Button, York Minster, and Boat Memory) and brought them back to England when Beagle returned in October 1830. FitzRoy's intention was that they should be educated and Christianised before being returned to their homelands, where they would be able to act as interpreters – with the aim of establishing friendly relations between their fellow countrymen and the British – and also use their new knowledge to improve the lives of their compatriots. The captives became celebrities and were presented to King William IV; Boat Memory later died from smallpox.

FitzRoy undertook the second voyage of Beagle to return the surviving three Fuegians, at considerable personal expense. He was accompanied by Charles Darwin, who by the end of the voyage had become famous in scientific circles as a result of the discoveries he made during it, and who also collected much of the material that was to underpin his evolutionary theories during these travels. Decades later, following the publication of The Origin of Species, FitzRoy – a committed Christian – regretted that he had facilitated Darwin's research.

On Beagle's return to England, FitzRoy was elected as the Tory Member of Parliament for Durham. He was appointed to several official posts, amongst them becoming the second Governor of New Zealand. His attempts to treat the indigenous Māori population equitably made him unpopular with the settlers and the New Zealand Company and was subsequently recalled to England.

FitzRoy was a pioneer of developing charts to allow weather predictions to be made; weather forecasting is named after his attempts at what he called "forecasting the weather". He published the world's first daily weather forecasts in The Times in 1860 and also provided personal forecasts to Queen Victoria.

He committed suicide in April 1865 as a result of depression and a combination of problems at the Meteorological Office, which he headed, and personal financial and health difficulties.

Characters
This Thing of Darkness includes a large cast of fictionalised historical persons. In addition to FitzRoy and Darwin, the characters include:

 Bartholomew Sulivan, British naval officer and hydrographer
 Boat Memory (original name unknown), a native Fuegian brought to England
 Syms Covington, cabin boy on HMS Beagle and later a servant of Charles Darwin
 Reverend George Packenham Despard, a missionary in the Falklands Islands
 Fuegia Basket (original name yok'cushly), a native Fuegian girl brought to England
 Jemmy Button (original name o'run-del'lico), a native Fuegian brought to England
 Maria Isabella Smyth, second wife of Robert Fitzroy
 Mary Henrietta O'Brien, first wife of Robert FitzRoy
 Philip Parker King, British naval officer and explorer
 Reverend Richard Matthews, a missionary in New Zealand
 Robert McCormick British Royal Navy Ship's Surgeon, explorer and naturalist
 Thomas Moore, governor of the Falkland Islands
 William Sheppard, prospective parliamentary candidate
 York Minster (original name el'leparu), a native Fuegian brought to England

Critical reaction
In The Independent on Sunday, Stephen Knight wrote: "A hybrid of novel-of-ideas and ripping yarn, This Thing of Darkness is more convincingly the latter. The crew's skirmishes with South American natives and a storm off the coast of Uruguay, presaged by wind-blown clouds of butterflies and moths, are beautifully managed set-pieces, pacy, gripping, and vividly chaotic". He found the characterisation less effective, saying: "If Thompson's tendency to spell out his characters' thoughts saves us from imagining a subtext, it does not make his creations more rounded. For all their musings, many only register as stereotypes, and, as a consequence, few deaths properly haunt the reader."

In The Independent, Roz Kaveney found Thompson to be "writing as much about relationships as ideas. His account of the prickly friendship of the Tory prig Fitzroy and the cold-hearted Radical Darwin owes much to other novels of naval life and their forced intimacies; the spirit of Patrick O'Brian is often not far away". Kaveney was unconvinced by aspects of the novel, saying: "Part of the trouble here is that Thompson is adapting the historical record for the purposes of fiction and is free to load the evidence. He can make Fitzroy's belief in biblical inerrancy a refusal to ditch religion in the face of inconclusive evidence from geology and zoology, while omitting the concurrent debates about the nature of the biblical text. The historical Fitzroy chose to ignore several sorts of evidence. Thompson also portrays Darwin as more racist in the modern sense than Fitzroy, again by shuffling his deck of facts." She concluded that "This Thing of Darkness is two sorts of book: a superior adventure story and a polemic. One can enjoy the former considerably while noting that the manners of the latter are wanting."

Robert Colvile, writing in The Observer was more impressed, finding: "The bare facts of Charles Darwin's voyage to the Galapagos, and his formulation of the theory of natural selection, are well known. It takes an expert author to make a new pattern from such familiar cloth, yet this is precisely what Harry Thompson has done. […] While rarely lyrical, Thompson's prose drives the reader through the 750 pages with the unstoppable force of an ocean current, fusing brisk action, challenging ideas and gut-wrenching emotion into an astonishingly assured debut - and memorial".

References

British historical novels
2005 British novels
Cultural depictions of Charles Darwin
Novels set on ships
Headline Publishing Group books

This Thing of Darkness


Rai Purdy (born Horatio John Purdy; November 1910 – May 1990) was a Canadian television director and producer. He is a member of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

Early life
Rai Purdy was born Horatio John Purdy in England during November 1910 and moved to Toronto in 1911. After dropping out of high school in the 1920s, Purdy became a bicycle messenger, while performing at banquets and church shows to earn extra money. In 1929, Purdy was accepted into the Hart House Theatre Company at the University of Toronto, studying with personalities such as Maud Hope and Dora Mavor Moore. During his time at Hart House, Purdy performed in various Ontario drama festivals and worked with director Edgar Stone. Both Purdy and Stone were interested in radio, which was in its early stages at the time, and Stone got Purdy an audition with radio broadcaster Harry Sedgewick at CFRB Radio in Toronto. At Sedgewick's request, the name Horatio was dropped from his name.

Radio career
At CFRB Purdy was eventually promoted to the position of head of the drama department and established the Canadian Theatre of the Air, the first national radio playhouse. Purdy also directed weekly serials, notably Penny's Diary and the thriller Out of the Night. At CFRB Purdy also established contacts with a network that would serve him well in later life. This network included comedian Alan Savage, along with future television personalities Lorne Greene, Monty Hall and Andrew Allan. In 1939 Purdy left CFRB to produce broadcasts for radio stations independently.

In 1941, Purdy joined the Canadian Army as a member of the army broadcast unit, and was promoted to lieutenant in 1942. He produced weekly CBC radio shows and directed the Canadian army stage shows, which in 1943 entertained troops in England. After the war, Purdy produced shows in Toronto for a time, then moved to New York City in 1950 to pursue a career in television with CBS Television. During his time at CBS Purdy produced and directed shows such as The Morning Show with Dick Van Dyke and Merv Griffin and Celebrity Time.

Television career
In 1957 Roy Thomson invited Purdy to help establish Scottish Television in Glasgow as head of the programming department. At the time, Scottish Television was an ITV contractor and followed the trend of making cutbacks to funding, and by 1959 Purdy decided to return to Canada to work on the CFTO television license application, where he remained as director of programs until 1961, when he resigned to set up his own programming company, Rai Purdy Productions, where he directed People in Conflict and Magistrate's Court for CTV.

Purdy also hosted Telethon shows for twenty years, raising over $250,000,000 (CAD) for various Lions Clubs, Variety Clubs and hospitals until his death in Vancouver in May 1990. In November 2007 Purdy was inducted into the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' Hall of Fame.

References

1910 births
1990 deaths
Bicycle messengers
Canadian radio personalities
Canadian television directors
Canadian television hosts
Canadian television producers
British emigrants to Canada

Rai Purdy


The Caproni Ca.122 was a prototype bomber and military transport aircraft built in Italy in the mid-1930s. It was a conventional low-wing monoplane with fixed undercarriage. Power was provided by twin Gnome-Rhône 14K radial engines. No production ensued for either this or the 28-seat airliner version designated Ca.123.

Specifications (Ca.123)

References

Ca.122
1930s Italian bomber aircraft
1930s Italian military transport aircraft
1930s Italian airliners
Low-wing aircraft
Twin-engined tractor aircraft

Caproni Ca.122


Landulf VII (died 1007), also numbered Landulf IV or V (if Landulf I and II, who were not princes, are not counted), called Landolfo di Sant'Agata, was the prince of Capua from 1000 to his death. He was the second son of Landulf III of Benevento, who was only a co-ruler. Thus, he was easily removed from the succession on his father's death. His brother Pandulf eventually succeeded in becoming Prince of Benevento.

In 1000, the reigning prince of Capua, Adhemar, was overthrown. The brother of the reigning prince of Benevento was called in. Before he was elevated to princely status, he had been compensated with the county of Sant'Agata de' Goti, the site of a great fortress. Landulf ruled for seven years. He was succeeded by his young son Pandulf II and by his brother, who ruled Capua as regent and prince as Pandulf III.

Sources
Caravale, Mario (ed). Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani: LXIII, Labroca–Laterza. Rome: 2004.

11th-century Lombard people
1007 deaths
Landulf 7
Year of birth unknown

Landulf VII of Capua


Gábor Vajna (4 November 1891 – 12 March 1946) was a Hungarian politician, who served as Minister of the Interior from 1944 to 1945.

Early life
Vajna was born into a Transylvanian Calvinist family in Kézdivásárhely (today Târgu Secuiesc, Romania), then part of the Kingdom of Hungary on 4 November 1891. He participated in World War I as an officer in the 29th Feldjäger Battalion of the Austro-Hungarian Army and received many honors during his forty-three months of military service. Following the war, Vajna took service in the Hungarian Embassy at Vienna, and later worked for the Ministry of Defence. He retired from the Royal Hungarian Army as a Major in 1924. After that he was appointed director of the gunpowder factory in Balatonfűzfő. When his far-right sympathy was revealed, Vajna was dismissed from that position.

Political career

Vajna was a confidant of Prime Minister Ferenc Szálasi, the Hungarian fascist party leader and founder of the extreme right "Party of National Will", which later became the Arrow Cross Party. Vajna was elected Member of Parliament from the regional list of Veszprém County during the 1939 parliamentary election. After the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944, he maintained a good relationship between the Hungarian authorities and the arriving Gestapo and Schutzstaffel officials. He helped to overcoming the resistance fighters and prevent sabotage activities. Following the Arrow Cross Party's coup, Vajna took office as Interior Minister in October 1944 and served until March 1945.

While responsible for internal affairs, Vajna took a number of actions against Hungarian Jews. In cooperation with requests from German officials such as SS officer Edmund Veesenmayer, Vajna moved quickly to deport Jews in areas under Hungarian control to the Third Reich, where they were used as slaves and many were ultimately killed. As many as 76,000 Jews were delivered into Nazi hands through the end of 1944. During his ministership, the Budapest Ghetto was established on 29 November 1944 which lasted for less than three months.

Following the fall of Budapest, Vajna attempted to escape to Western Europe but was captured by units of the United States Army along with other members of the government. He was later tried in Budapest by a so-called people's tribunal and sentenced to death for war crimes, crimes against humanity and treason. He was hanged in 1946 in Budapest on the same day as Ferenc Szálasi, Károly Beregfy and József Gera.

References

Sources
 Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon

1891 births
1946 deaths
People from Târgu Secuiesc
People from the Kingdom of Hungary
Hungarian Calvinist and Reformed Christians
Christian fascists
Arrow Cross Party politicians
Hungarian Interior Ministers
Hungarian people convicted of war crimes
Executed Hungarian collaborators with Nazi Germany
People executed by Hungary by hanging
Holocaust perpetrators in Hungary
People executed for war crimes
People executed for crimes against humanity

Gábor Vajna


Radar Lake is located in Woodinville, Washington and is one of the first man-made lakes built specifically for water sports. The land it is built on was initially bought and developed by water sports innovator Herb O'Brien in 1972. O'Brien, drawing from his water sports experiences as a young man, envisioned Radar Lake to be an isolated and private area where enthusiasts could come and enjoy not only the thrill of the sport but also the pristine natural environment. In 1976, the property was bought by Seattle based owner of Radar Electric, now Radar Inc. Wilbur McPherson who gave it its current name in honor of his company. McPherson and O'Brien maintained a close relationship, and O'Brien bought Radar Lake back from McPherson in 2000. McPherson continued to live on the property, along with O'Brien and their respective families, until he lost his life to cancer in 2007.

Herb O'Brien died in 2012.

References

Lakes of King County, Washington

Radar Lake


Maximilian, Freiherr (Baron) von Wimpffen (1770–1854) was a military commander who served in the Austrian army during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. Although a competent field commander, he was above all noted for his excellent knowledge of military strategy and tactics, which made him a key member in the General Staff of the Imperial and Royal Army during the Napoleonic Wars.

Early career
Born in Westphalia in 1770, Wimpffen was admitted at the Wiener Neustadt Military Academy and graduated in 1786 to join Infanterie Regiment 9 Clerfayt. He was remarked early on for his bravery at the siege of Belgrade, where he led a noted assault of the city, at the head of a column of volunteers. He received a wound during this action but was rewarded by being promoted Oberleutnant in the Morzin Grenadier Battalion. He was then commissioned in Belgium, where he served as Adjutant to Feldmarschallleutnant József Alvinczi and then led his Grenadiers at the battle of Neerwinden, an action during which he was wounded and taken prisoner. Released, he took part in the battle of Landrecy in 1794  and the next year he was transferred to Italy, where he played a role at the battle of Loano in November. In 1796, he joined the General Staff, with the rank of Hauptmann (Captain) but he was never very far from danger and was again wounded while fighting in the streets of Valeggio that June. He was then given commands at the battle of Brenta and battle of Caldiero, before being sent to serve in Heinrich von Bellegarde's staff in the Tyrol. He was instrumental in coordinating the building of defences at Feldkirch, which had a significant role in the Austrian victory against André Masséna in March 1799. Wimpffen was severely wounded during a counterattack against Masséna's forces, but refused to take sick leave and was soon back in action in Italy, receiving a fifth wound at the battle of the Mincio River, while he was serving as Adjutant to commander-in-chief Heinrich von Bellegarde.

After the end of the War of the Second Coalition, Wimpffen was given a position as Adjutant in the newly created Inner Austrian military command (1803) and was promoted to Oberst (Colonel) in 1805.

Napoleonic Wars and beyond
With the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars, Wimpffen only took part to the late stages of the War of the Third Coalition, when he was appointed as staff officer in Moritz Lichtenstein's command and was among those who advised the Army Chief of Staff, Franz von Weyrother, against an immediate battle. His advice was ignored and the Coalition was decisively defeated by Napoleon I at the battle of Austerlitz on 2 December 1805. During this battle, he was badly wounded, while directing troops during the main Coalition attack, but his merits were appreciated and was awarded the Military Order of Maria Theresa and the position of General-Adjutant to Archduke Charles of Austria-Teschen (1806).

Wimpffen was still holding this position at the outbreak of the War of the Fifth Coalition in 1809 and thus commanded the Adjutant department during the first stages of this war. Then, on 26 April 1809, he was named Chief of Staff of the Army and was promoted to the rank of General Major. As Chief of Staff, Wimpffen was instrumental in planning and coordinating the actions of the army at the battle of Aspern-Essling, but, despite his best efforts, could not prevent the decisive Austrian defeat at the battle of Wagram. For his services during this campaign, he was awarded the Commander Cross of the Order of Maria Theresa and then given a field command in Transylvania. The next major stage of his career came in 1813, after Austria joined the War of the Sixth Coalition and Wimpffen was promoted to Feldmarschallleutnant and given the command of a division, which he led at the battle of Leipzig. He was then detailed to take part in the invasion of France and helped take the city of Lyon, after the defeat of the French under Marshal Pierre Augereau. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Wimpffen was given several positions of General-Commandant and then, in 1824, the position of Chief of the Army Staff. He was also promoted to the top military rank of Field Marshal.

Described as a fearless and pugnacious soldier, wounded in battle eight times, Wimpffen was above all noted for his knowledge of military strategy and tactics, able battle dispositions and sanguine attitude in front of danger, which made him a key element of the Austrian General Staff during much of the Napoleonic Wars.

References

Sources
 Hollins, David - "Austrian commanders of the Napoleonic Wars 1792-1815", Osprey Publishing, Elite 101. 2004.

1770 births
1854 deaths
Maximilian
18th-century Austrian military personnel
19th-century Austrian military personnel
Field marshals of Austria
Austrian Empire military leaders of the French Revolutionary Wars
Austrian Empire commanders of the Napoleonic Wars
Military leaders of the French Revolutionary Wars
Knights of the Golden Fleece of Austria
Commanders Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa
Theresian Military Academy alumni

Maximilian von Wimpffen


Yerahmiel Barylka (; born 1943) is an Argentine-born Orthodox rabbi, lawyer, author, educator, journalist and lecturer. He has been living in Israel since 1993.

Education
He studied in the yeshivot (rabbinical seminaries) Ateret tzvi  and Chafetz Chaim, and in the Law and Social Sciences faculty of the University of Belgrano, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he served as an assistant professor of public international law.
Barylka was born in Buenos Aires.  He completed his rabbinical studies at the seminary Tiferet Yisrael in New York City.

Career
When Barylka was seventeen years old he began his early career as an educator, heading the Heichal Hatorah Jewish Religious School. He taught at the Institute of Jewish Studies (Machon Lelimudey Haiadut) and directed the Talpiot and Joseph Caro Jewish Schools in Buenos Aires, and Yavneh and Hebrew Teachers Seminar in Mexico City. He also directed the CEJ, the Centro de Estudios Judaicos, the representative office of the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Community Magen David.
In 1993 he moved to Israel where he served as rabbi and director of religious activities of KKL-JNF, the Jewish National Fund.

Books and Published Articles

 "Rationalized Catalogue" of the Jewish Museum of Buenos Aires (1975)
 Tengo derecho a la vida  (1984)
 Judaísmo Temas Escogidos (1987)
 Matrimonio Mixto (1986, 1988)
 La plegaria judía (1990)
 Exogamia, diagnóstico y prevención (2002)

Some of the works published by Barylka are:

 "Multi-religious, inter-religious concordance and fundamentalism dissipation - to a political speech, religious, educational and cultural integration and difference (XVII Conference at the Hispano-Israeli Symposium (Judeo-Christian) in Segovia and Madrid) in El Olivo XXV, 54 (2001) - Madrid;

 regular contributions in the "Journal of Jewish Studies" on Judaism, Jews, Israel, and Zionism, Mexico;
 Chaim Weizmann, Life and Work , Weizmann Institute, Mexico;
 Barylka was the editor of the series on Parashat Hashavua Darjei Noam (weekly reading of the Bible) and wrote 100 reviews on the Yavneh School Bible - D. F., Mexico.

Barylka served as coordinator of support services to small Jewish communities in Latin America. Lecturer at the First International Congress of Thanatology in Mexico, D. F. Participated in the First World Congress in Jerusalem about Jewish Demography, 1982; He was a participant in the Conference XVII Symposium Hispano-Israeli (Jewish-Christian) Segovia and Madrid, 1998; Participant in the Hispano-Israeli Symposium XIX. In the Cardenal Herrera-CEU University, Moncada (Valencia), Spain, with the paper "Educate your children in time of un-schooling and family crisis", 2000. He has served also as a correspondent for the Middle East in Focus - Red Nucleo Radio Mil - Mexico (1998 to September 2009), the Middle East Correspondent - TV Mas - Radio and Television - Xalapa - Veracruz - Mexico (from 1998 to 2004), Director of the Journal of Jewish Studies on Judaism, Jews, Israel and Zionism in Mexico and Director of Link Magazine - Weizmann Institute of Science (Mexico) (1988–1992). Barylka is regularly consulted  about the Jewish religion, the situation in Israel, and education of the young Jewish generation particularly in Latin American countries.

References

Military personnel from Buenos Aires
Argentine Orthodox rabbis
Living people
1943 births
Israeli Orthodox rabbis
Argentine emigrants to Israel

Yerahmiel Barylka


Monica Geller is a fictional character on American sitcom Friends, portrayed by Courteney Cox for 10 seasons. (1994-2004) She worked in a very fancy restaurant. She likes everything in her apartment to be clean. She is known to be a "clean freak". She is married to Chandler Bing. Her brother is Ross Geller. She has two adopted children. They are named Erica and Jack Bing. She has a complicated relationship with her parents. Monica often acts like the mother hen of the group which can be annoying.

Fictional American people
Fictional characters introduced in 1994
Friends characters

Monica Geller


John Francis Coffey (January 28, 1887 – February 14, 1966) was an infielder for the Boston Doves (1909), Detroit Tigers (1918) and Boston Red Sox (1918).

Coffey graduated from Fordham University in 1910.  While still in college, he was signed by the Doves and played 73 games; it was very common in those days for college players to play in the major leagues as well.  He then spent most of the next 16 years in the minors, seeing his only other major-league action in 1918.  He started that season playing 22 games with the Tigers before being sold to the Red Sox in mid-August. He was listed as a possible replacement for the injured Dave Shean, but never got a chance to play in the World Series.  Coffey is the only player to play with both Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth in the same season (1918 Tigers and Red Sox).

In two seasons, he played in 110 games and had 368 at bats with 33 runs, 69 hits, 5 doubles, 6 triples, 1 home run, 26 RBI, 6 stolen bases, 22 walks, a .188 batting average, .241 on-base percentage and a .242 slugging percentage.

While still actively playing, he became the part-time coach at his alma mater, holding that post until 1918.  He returned in 1922 as the school's first full-time coach and remained there until 1958 (Fordham didn't field a team in 1944), amassing 1160 wins. The University's baseball field is named in his honor.  From 1926 to 1958, he also served as athletic director.

He died in the Bronx, New York at the age of 79.

See also
List of college baseball coaches with 1,100 wins

External links

Baseball Almanac

1887 births
1966 deaths
Boston Doves players
Detroit Tigers players
Boston Red Sox players
Fordham Rams athletic directors
Fordham Rams baseball coaches
Fordham Rams baseball players
Minor league baseball managers
Indianapolis Indians players
Denver Grizzlies (baseball) players
Denver Bears players
San Francisco Seals (baseball) players
Des Moines Boosters players
Hartford Senators players
Charleston Pals players
Macon Peaches players
Peoria Tractors players
Decatur Commodores players
Baseball players from New York City
Burials at Calvary Cemetery (Queens)

Jack Coffey (baseball)


The Muslim News is a monthly and digital newspaper. Established by Ahmed J. Versi in February 1989, it has grown to become the largest monthly ethnic paper in the UK. It describes itself as, "The only independent monthly Muslim newspaper in the UK, that is not backed by any country, organisation or party."

The newspaper offers a platform for Muslims "to lobby and campaign" on a range of issues. 140,000 copies are distributed, many for free in mosques. Its website (www.muslimnews.co.uk) received 1.5 million hits a month.

The current editor of The Muslim News is Ahmed Versi, who volunteers full-time to run the paper. Ahmed Versi is an established lobby journalist of three years.

The Muslim News Awards for Excellence
The Muslim News established these awards in 2000, under the leadership of founder Ahmed J Versi, with the aim of recognising the achievements of Muslims in the UK, which often go under the radar.

In 2014, the Awards celebrated its 12th anniversary, and in a letter to The Muslim News, Prime Minister David Cameron, who was also an attendee said: "Now in its 12th year these prestigious awards showcase the incredible talent in our vibrant Muslim community."

The awards have also previously been attended by British politicians, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair and Prime Minister, Rt Hon. Theresa May.

Awards and nominations
In January 2015, The Muslim News was nominated for the Responsible Media of the Year award at the British Muslim Awards.

References

1989 establishments in the United Kingdom
European news websites
Islamic newspapers published in the United Kingdom
Monthly newspapers
Newspapers established in 1989

The Muslim News


The Sacking of Lawrence happened on May 21, 1856, when pro-slavery people came to Lawrence, Kansas and attacked it. Lawrence was an anti-slavery town. They were led by Douglas County Sheriff Samuel J. Jones. The attack made the irregular conflict in Kansas Territory worse. The conflicts later became known as "Bleeding Kansas".

Only one person died, and his death was by accident. However, the pro-slavery people destroyed two free-state newspapers, the Kansas Free State and the Herald of Freedom.

Before
Lawrence, Kansas was created in 1854 by anti-slavery people. They often were attacked by pro-slavery people because Lawrence was anti-slavery. Lawrence had almost been attacked during the Wakarusa War in 1855.

Pro-slavery sheriff Samuel Jones was shot when he was trying to arrest anti-slavery people. Many anti-slavery people believed that Jones being shot was the cause of the attack. Lawrence people made Jones leave after he was shot. Federal Marshal Israel B. Donaldson said that Jones being shot stopped him from following warrants. He decided to send 800 pro-slavery men to Lawrence to destroy anti-slavery newspapers and destroy the Free State Hotel.

Sack

On May 21, 1856, Jones and Donaldson came to Lawrence. A group of many men were on Mount Oread, and they had a cannon. Charles L. Robinson's house was taken over and used as Jones's headquarters. Jones's men guarded the roads that went in and out of Lawrence to stop people from leaving. Jones's men flew many flags, such as the state flags of Alabama and South Carolina. Many flags had anti-Free State or pro-slavery messages on them such as "Kansas the Outpost", "Southern Rights", and "Supremacy of the White Race").

Shalor Eldridge, the owner of the Free State Hotel, learned of the coming pro-slavery men, and he came to meet them. Donaldson told him that he and his men would attack Lawrence only if the people of Lawrence resisted his men. Donaldson and Eldridge went to the Free State Hotel. There, Eldridge cooked a good meal that had fresh food and expensive wine. He made this meal so that Donaldson and his men would stay calm. Eldridge was interviewed by Donaldson while he and his men continued to eat the meal, then they left without paying. Shortly after, Donaldson let Jones command his men. Jones then asked to talk to a representative of the town. Samuel C. Pomeroy agreed to meet with Jones and talk to him about the situation. Jones was clear in what he wanted: for the people of Lawrence to give up all of their weapons. Pomeroy argued that there was not much he could do about that, since it was for the people to decide if they would give up their weapons. However, hoping to convince Jones to leave the city peacefully, Pomeroy agreed to give the city's only artillery piece. While Jones did take this cannon, it did not convince him as Pomeroy had hoped.

It was the "Old Sacramento" cannon that the pro-slavers used to try to destroy the Free State Hotel. This weapon had been kept in the Liberty Arsenal until it was taken by pro-slavery forces in 1855. (The cannon would eventually be taken by free-staters later in 1856 during the Second Battle of Franklin.)

While Jones and his men were trying to destory the hotel, the printing offices of the Kansas Free State and the Herald of Freedom were destroyed; their libraries were thrown out the window, the presses were smashed, and the type was thrown in the river. Any papers left were either thrown into the wind to be carried off or were used by Jones and his men to burn down the Free State Hotel. When the newspapers and the hotel were destoryed, Jones's men then looted the town. As they retreated, they burned Robinson's home on Mount Oread for good measure.

One person—a member of Jones's gang—died during the attack when he was hit in the head by a falling bit of the Free State Hotel.

After
While the Free State Hotel was destroyed, a man named Shalor Eldridge bought the destroyed ruins of the building. He decided to rebuild it as the "Eldridge House". This building remained until 1863, when it was burned down by William Quantrill during the Lawrence Massacre (after which it would be rebuilt two more times in 1866 and 1926, respectively).

For a many months after the Sack of Lawrence, the city was without a free state newspaper. This was made worse by the fact that Josiah Miller, who ran the Kansas Free State, decided not to start his newspaper again. George Brown restarted the Herald of Freedom in November 1857, so Lawrence had a newspaper again.

Lawrence's only cannon was lost due to the sacking. This would be at least one reason that Free-Staters would attack Franklin's Fort in June and August of 1856; they hoped to get the "Old Sacramento" cannon so they could use it.

References

Other websites
 Eyewitness account of the Sack of Lawrence, 1856
 Griffin, C. S. "The University of Kansas and the Sack of Lawrence: A Problem of Intellectual Honesty." Kansas Historical Quarterly 34, no. 4 (Winter 1968): 409–426.
 Smiley, Jane. The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton: A Novel (1998; ). Historical book about the sack of Lawrence and other events in Kansas Territory's history.
 Territorial Kansas Online: A Virtual Repository for Kansas Territorial History.

Bleeding Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas

Sacking of Lawrence


John Brunton Daykins VC MM (Ormiston Farm, Hawick, 26 March 1883 – 24 January 1933, Edinburgh) was a Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Life
Daykins was born in Hawick in 1883 to John and Bessie Daykins, but he moved with his family to Jedburgh when he was a child.

In 1914 he enlisted with the Lothians and Border Horse and he was at Loos, the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the battle of Ypres. After this he was discharged after suffering from Trench fever.

He refused to be labelled as "unfit" and on the third attempt he successfully re-enlisted again in the York and Lancaster Regiment and served in Battle of Passchendaele and again on Vimy Ridge. He was in the 2/4th Battalion at Solesmes, Nord in France on 30 October 1918 with a dozen of his platoon.

They rushed a machine-gun and during subsequent severe hand-to-hand fighting Daykins disposed of many of the enemy and secured his objective. He then located another machine-gun which was holding up an operation of his company. Under heavy fire he worked his way alone to the post and shortly afterwards returned with 25 prisoners and an enemy machine-gun, which he mounted at his post. His magnificent fighting spirit and example inspired his men, saved many casualties and contributed largely to the success of the attack.

When he returned to Jedburgh he was made a burgess. In 1924 he inherited his family's Howden farm when his father died.

Death and legacy

Daykins died in 1933 after an accident with a shotgun. He was unmarried and his medals went to his sister. Elizabeth Daykins gave his medals to the York and Lancaster Regimental Museum which is within Clifton Park Museum, in Rotherham,.There is a street in Hawick named for him and Jedburgh decided to lay a commemorative paving stone in 2018. A commemorative event was scheduled to take place in his adopted town of Jedburgh and at Solesmes, Nord where he earned is VC on the centenary of his bravery.

References

Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
The Register of the Victoria Cross (This England, 1997)
Scotland's Forgotten Valour (Graham Ross, 1995)
VCs of the First World War – The Final Days 1918 (Gerald Gliddon, 2000)

External links
Location of grave and VC medal (Border, Scotland)

British World War I recipients of the Victoria Cross
1883 births
1933 deaths
British Army personnel of World War I
York and Lancaster Regiment soldiers
Recipients of the Military Medal
People from Hawick
Military personnel from the Scottish Borders
British Army recipients of the Victoria Cross
British Yeomanry soldiers
People from Jedburgh

John Daykins


Kazi Syed Karimuddin MA, LLB (19 July 1899, in Yavatmal District, Maharashtra – 14 November 1977) was a member of the Constituent Assembly of India that framed the Indian Constitution.

The son of Kazi Syed Naseeruddin and Diyanat Begum R/O Darwha Dist.Yavatmal Maharashtra, he studied at the Aligarh Muslim University founded by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. A criminal lawyer par excellence, he was a prominent member of the Congress party. His younger brother, Kazi Syed Gyasuddin, was  a famous criminal lawyer (also LLB from Aligarh) and a Congress MLA from Akola and held several ministerial positions in Maharashtra Assembly (1951–62).

As well as participating in the Constituent Assembly that framed the constitution for independent India from 1947 to 1950, he was a member of the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly until 1952 (at that time Madhya Pradesh was known as the Central Province). Following that he was a member of the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of the Indian Parliament) from 1954 to 1958.
He moved an amendment on the lines of American Constitution to make right to privacy a fundamental right but Dr. B.R. Ambedkar gave it only reserved support.

He had three sons and five daughters. His sons-in-law include Syed Mukassir Shah, former chairman of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council and Justice M.M. Qazi, former chairman of the Maharashtra Administrative Council and retired High Court judge.

References

External links
asp?alphabet=K Members of Parliament
Who's Who

Aligarh Muslim University alumni
Members of the Constituent Assembly of India
People from Yavatmal district
1899 births
1977 deaths
Madhya Pradesh MLAs 1947–1952
Rajya Sabha members from Madhya Pradesh
Faculty of Law, Aligarh Muslim University alumni

Kazi Syed Karimuddin


Guy I de Balliol was a Picard baron who was granted land in northern England in the late eleventh century. In the 1090s, he was established in the north of England by King William Rufus, as part of King William's carve-up of the forfeited earldom of Northumberland.

According to historian Frank Barlow, Balliol's dynasty was one of those that "originated in the reign" and were "planted ... in the frontier areas in order to protect and advance the kingdom". Geoffrey Stell said that Guy's northern territories were given "almost certainly in return for support rendered in William's campaigns on the eastern frontier of Normandy in 1091 and 1094".

Guy himself originated in a frontier area, coming from Bailleul-en-Vimeu close to Abbeville on the frontier of the county of Ponthieu with the duchy of Normandy. Guy's nephew Bernard I de Balliol succeeded to Guy's estates before 1130 × 1133, meaning that Guy had died by then.

Notes

References
 Barlow, Frank, William Rufus, (New Haven, 2000),
 Stell, G. P., "Balliol, Bernard de (d. 1154x62)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 , accessed 24 Jan 2008

11th-century births
1120s deaths
Anglo-Normans
People from Yorkshire
Guy
People from Somme (department)
11th-century English landowners
12th-century English landowners
William II of England

Guy I de Balliol


Idrissa Seck (born 9 August 1959) is a Senegalese politician who was Prime Minister of Senegal from November 2002 to July 2004. He was a leading member of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) and was considered a protégé of President Abdoulaye Wade, but he subsequently went into opposition and was a candidate in the February 2007 presidential election, coming second place with about 15% of the vote.

Biography

He was born in Thiès and studied in Paris as well as at Princeton University. He joined the PDS when he was 15 years old and was Wade's campaign director in the 1988 Senegalese presidential election.

Seck served as Minister of Trade, Crafts, and Industrialization as an opposition member of Abdou Diouf's government. He became deputy leader of the PDS in 1998, replacing Ousmane Ngom. After Wade took office in April 2000, he appointed Seck as Minister of State and Director of the Cabinet. The PDS was restructured after this election; Seck's position of Executive Secretary was eliminated and he instead became Deputy National Secretary. He also became Mayor of Thiès.

Seck was appointed as prime minister by Wade on November 4, 2002, replacing Mame Madior Boye; this was the first time that Wade had appointed a prime minister from the PDS since he took office as president. Seck served as Prime Minister until July 21, 2004, when he was dismissed by Wade.

Seck was detained in July 2005 for alleged corruption in connection with a road project in Thiès, and he was additionally charged with threatening state security. In a decision made on August 4 and announced on August 6, he was expelled from the PDS by its steering committee, along with three of his supporters: Papa Diouf, Awa Gueye Kebe, and Oumar Sarr. He never faced trial; on January 27, 2006, the charge of threatening state security was dismissed, and in early February the corruption charges were also partially dismissed and he was released from prison. On April 4, 2006, he announced his intention to run for president in 2007.

On September 24, 2006, Seck announced the formation of a new party, Rewmi (Wolof for "the country"). On January 22, 2007, Wade said that Seck had agreed to return to the PDS. Seck confirmed this on February 1, but said that he would still run for president.

According to final results released after the presidential election, which was held on February 25, 2007, Seck took second place with 14.92% of the vote, falling far behind Wade, who won a majority in the first round. He won one of the country's 34 departments, that of Thiès. Following the election, Wade announced that several opposition leaders would face prosecution for corruption, including Seck. Wade said that Seck had stolen 40 billion CFA francs and deposited the money abroad; he also said that Seck would not be his successor. Subsequently, after the final results were released on March 11, Seck congratulated Wade on his victory; he was the only major opposition leader to do so.

Seck's Rewmi party participated in a boycott of the June 2007 parliamentary election, announced in early April. Seck said that Wade had broken off dialogue with the opposition and that it would reconsider the boycott if he engaged in dialogue.

After the election, a rapprochement between Wade and Seck and their respective parties began, and Seck sought to return to the PDS. On August 13, 2007, Wade said that the PDS steering committee would have to decide whether or not to readmit Seck and his supporters into the party. Seck and Wade met for several hours on January 12, 2009, and afterwards Seck announced that the two had resolved their "misunderstandings" and had reconciled.

Following the March 2009 local election in Thiès, Seck was again elected as Mayor of Thiès on April 21, 2009. He received 64 out of 69 votes from the municipal councillors.

Education
Idrissa Seck was born in Thiès on August 9, 1959 to Assane Seck and Fatou Seck, born Diop.

After studying at the Koranic school, Idrissa Seck joined the Randoulène Sud 2 school in Thiès where he completed his primary cycle and then the Collège Saint-Gabriel de Thiès for his secondary cycle, which was completed by the baccalaureate in 1981.

A scholarship holder, he joined the preparatory class at the École des hautes études commerciales de Paris (HEC) of the Marcelin-Berthelot high school in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés in France and then in 1983, Sciences Po, in the "Economy and Finance" section.

In 1989, he benefited from Princeton University's Parvin Fellowship program. In Princeton, he was a student at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Professional career
Idrissa Seck is the founder of the consulting firm GDP INITIATIVES (Global Development for Peace) and ÉPI SA (Epistemon International), an education and health institution.

Presidential election campaigns

2024
In April 2023, Idrissa Seck announced his candidacy for the presidential election of 2024 (en). He asserted that the incumbent president, Macky Sall, should uphold the will of people and the constitution by not running a third term. In support of rule of law and a strong democracy, Seck has also stated he supports opposition politician Ousmane Sonko's right to stand as a candidate.

2019

Idrissa Seck ran for a third time in the 2019 presidential election. He led the "Idy 2019" coalition[25]. His rivals included incumbent president Macky Sall, Ousmane Sonko, Madické Niang and Issa Sall. With the exile of Karim Wade and the imprisonment of Khalifa Sall, Seck emerged as the main opposition candidate against the incumbent Macky Sall who won the election in the first round with 58.26% of the vote. Idrissa Seck came in second with 899,556 votes, or 20.51%.  Also winning the departments of Thiès and Mbacké.

2012

The 2012 presidential election took place in a highly tense political context. Idrissa Seck, denounced then President Wade's third term candidacy and ran under the banner of his political party Rewmi. At the end of the first round, Idrissa Seck obtained only 7% of the vote. The second round pitted incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade against Macky Sall.
Intent on defending Senegal against then President Wade from running a third term, Idrissa Seck, presented a united front with all M23 candidates, to support Macky Sall's candidacy. Sall was elected with 65.8% of the vote, marking the second democratic changeover in the fledgling democratic nation of Senegal.

2007
On April 4, 2006, Seck announced his candidacy in the 2007 presidential election, against President Wade. He is the leader of the Rewmi party.

Seck finished second with 14.86% of the vote, in the first round, behind Abdoulaye Wade (55.90%).

Political career

2020: President of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council

On November 1, 2020, Idrissa Seck was appointed President of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council by President Macky Sall. His appointment marked a warming of relations with President Sall. He explained that he was "responding positively to the President's call" for a "union" to face up to the "challenges of the moment", and mentioned the economic and social crises arising from Covid 19, as well as insecurity in the West African sub-region. Two members of Idrissa Seck's Rewmi party, joined the government as Minister of the Digital Economy and Telecommunications and Minister of Livestock and Animal Production respectively.
Idrissa Seck resigned as President of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council on April 24, 2023, after declaring himself a candidate in the 2024 presidential election.

2020: COVID-19 response
On March 24, 2020, Macky Sall launched a wide-ranging consultation of all the country's political forces with a view to achieving national unity in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Idrissa Seck interested in maintaining the health and well-being of the people of Senegal fully endorsed Sall's initiative to create an emergency plan called Force Covid-19.

2013-2019: Leader of Rewmi

Following the 2012 elections, Idrissa Seck's Rewmi party, supported Macky Sall in the second round of elections and joined the presidential ranks as part of the Benno Bokk Yakaar (BBY) coalition. In 2013, following numerous disagreements with Macky Sall, Rewmi splintered and left the presidential movement.

2002: Prime Minister of the Republic of Senegal

His tenure as Prime Minister is best summed up by the strong economic growth experienced, with record GDP growth rates of 6.68% and 5.87% in 2003 and 2004.

2000: Minister of State, Chief of Staff of the President of the Republic

In 2000, Idrissa Seck was, as in 1988, Director of Abdoulaye Wade's presidential campaign. Wade won the election and Seck was appointed Minister of State, Chief of Staff of the President of the Republic. He held this position until November 3, 2002 when he was appointed Prime Minister.

1995: Minister of Trade, Crafts and Industrialization

He entered the Thiam 3 Government of National Unity on behalf of the PDS as Minister of Trade, Crafts and Industrialization.

1988: Abdoulaye Wade presidential campaign

In 1988, then 29 years old, Idrissa Seck was appointed Campaign Director to Abdoulaye Wade, the Presidential Candidate of the Senegalese Democratic Party[8].

Political imprisonment

On July 23, 2005, Idrissa Seck, was placed in police custody and charged with « undermining state security » for unmentioned acts and incarcerated in the central prison of Dakar. Prime Minister Macky Sall made public the report of the State General Inspectorate which alleged Idrissa Seck, exceeded the budget of a construction site in Thiès and awarded a contract without having the right to do so.

On July 31, 2005, the parliamentary majority voted to indict Seck, as well as that of the Minister of Housing, Salif Bâ, before the High Court of Justice for « serious irregularities in the process of concluding public contracts ». The indictment obtained 69 votes out of 120 with 35 deputies voting against. The result of the vote was contested by some who maintained that the resolution did not obtain the number of votes necessary for its adoption (it would have taken at least 72 votes, i.e. the three-fifths required by Article 101 of the Constitution instead of the 69 obtained).

In 2006, the indictment against Idrissa Seck was reversed and after 199 days in prison, he was discreetly released on February 7.

References

1959 births
Living people
Prime Ministers of Senegal
Princeton University alumni
Senegalese Democratic Party politicians
People from Thiès
Mayors of places in Senegal
Heads of government who were later imprisoned
21st-century Senegalese politicians

Idrissa Seck


Sir David Calvert-Smith (born 6 April 1945), styled The Hon. Mr Justice Calvert-Smith, is a retired British judge. He was Director of Public Prosecutions of England and Wales from 1998 to 2003 and then a High Court judge.

Biography
Educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge, he was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1969 and became a queen's counsel in 1997. He was knighted in 2002 and sat as a High Court judge from 2005 to 2012. Mr Justice Calvert-Smith is an honorary member of QEB Hollis Whiteman.

Early career
After beginning his career both prosecuting and defending, he specialised in prosecution work from 1986, including several cases of murder, terrorism and organised crime.

Directorship of Public Prosecutions
In October 1998, he became Director of Public Prosecutions and head of the Crown Prosecution Service, a post he held for five years. During his tenure, the failure of the prosecutions of Paul Burrell and the killers of Damilola Taylor damaged the Service's reputation, and the CPS was described as "institutionally racist" by him and two reports. Notable successes were the prosecutions of serial killer Harold Shipman and former spy David Shayler.

When the Human Rights Act 1998 was passed (most of which came into force in 2000), Calvert-Smith was the first DPP to have to deal with the impact it was expected to have on criminal trials.

In 2002, he opposed proposals to change the law to deem a person found in possession of drugs to be guilty of possession with intent to supply if the quantity exceeded a certain amount. In a letter to Parliament, he wrote: "the best approach is for the jury to focus on weighing the evidence tending to demonstrate intent to supply ... as opposed to this issue being determined with reference to an arbitrary amount". However, the law was changed after he left office, by section 2 of the Drugs Act 2005, which was never commenced and was repealed by the Policing and Crime Act 2009, s 112(2), Sch 8, Pt 13.

Towards the end of his term, he piloted a new system in which CPS lawyers, instead of police officers, would make decisions about charging suspects, resulting in a 15 percent increase in convictions. This policy was fully implemented by his successor.

Later career
In 2004, he was acting director of the Customs and Excise Prosecutions Office. In 2005, he led an inquiry for the Commission for Racial Equality into how the police forces of England and Wales deal with racism within their ranks. The inquiry reported in March 2005. At a press conference, Calvert-Smith said that "willingness to change at the top is not translating into action lower down, particularly in middle-management where you find the ice in the heart of the Police Service."

On 11 January 2005, Calvert-Smith was appointed as a judge of the High Court.

Retirement
Calvert-Smith retired from the High Court (Queen's Bench Division) on 30 September 2012.

References

1945 births
Living people
Alumni of King's College, Cambridge
People educated at Eton College
English King's Counsel
Directors of Public Prosecutions (England and Wales)
21st-century English judges
Knights Bachelor
Members of the Middle Temple
Queen's Bench Division judges
20th-century King's Counsel

David Calvert-Smith


Carmelo Flores Laura (likely born July 16, 1906 – June 9, 2014) was a centenarian from Bolivia, who some believed to be born in 1890. That would have made him the person living to be the oldest ever known. However, other documents was found, that indicated he was actually born in 1906. Flores himself only said that he was about 100 years or more, which in that case  was correct.

Laura was born on July 16, 1906 in Bolivia.

Carmelo Flores Laura worked for the rancher who owned Frasquia, a rural area of Bolivia near Lake Titicaca, until 1952. At that time, the government seized the land and redistributed it to peasants such as Flores. He has lived there since, never traveling father than La Paz,  from his home.

Flores had three children, one of which is alive as of 2013 (Cecilio, aged 67). He has 40 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren. His wife died in the 2000s.

The Bolivian government was said to be planning to officially honor Flores as "a living heritage" of the Bolivian people.

A police ID card and entry in the civil registry stating Flores was born on July 16, 1890 were shown to reporters. The longest fully documented lifespan in history is 122 years and 164 days, achieved by France's Jeanne Calment.

Flores himself only said "I should be about 100 years old or more," when asked about his age. The Gerontology Research Group found a baptismal certificate that indicated Flores was actually 107 years rather than 123.

Laura died in an Andean village in Bolivia, aged 107.

References

1906 births
2014 deaths
Bolivian people
Centenarians
Longevity claims

Carmelo Flores Laura


ISO 1745:1975 Information processing – Basic mode control procedures for data communication systems is an early ISO standard defining a Telex-oriented communications protocol that used the non-printable ASCII transmission control characters SOH (Start of Heading), STX (Start of Text), ETX (End of Text), EOT (End of Transmission), ENQ (Enquiry), ACK (Acknowledge), DLE (Data Link Escape), NAK (Negative Acknowledge), SYN (Synchronous Idle), and ETB (End of Transmission Block).

It also defines a serial data format, consisting of a start bit, 7 bit ASCII (least significant bit first), a parity bit (even for asynchronous networks, odd for synchronous networks), and a stop bit.

The text of ISO 1745:1975 is not currently freely available, but the corresponding ECMA version is. The protocol it defines seems to now be little used.

References

16
01745

ISO 1745


The Apprenticeship Ambassadors Network is an employer-led body sponsored by the Skills Funding Agency in England. Its remit is to encourage more employers to become involved in apprenticeships in England.

The Network is the successor body to the Apprenticeship Task Force established by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. David Meller, of the Meller Group, was Chair from 2014 - 2018 followed by Jason Holt CBE of the Holts Group of Companies from 2018 to 2022. The previous Chairman was Sir Roy Gardner, Chairman of Compass Group Plc. Members include ex-apprentice Mike Turner CBE Chairman of Babcock International and companies as diverse as Asda, British Gas, BT and Toyota.

The Network has presented Honorary Apprenticeship Awards to prominent people who have served an Apprenticeship and/or have had significant involvement in work based learning or achieved success via social enterprise or their profession. These Honoraries in turn then act as role models for young people and other employers.

In June 2007, at 11 Downing Street, Honorary Apprenticeships were awarded to
Gary Rhodes OBE, Charles Worthington , and Kamal Basran.

Recipients in 2009, at an event at 10 Downing Street, were Sir Alex Ferguson, CBE, Sir John Cassels CB, Mike Turner CBE, Alan Titchmarsh , Brian Turner CBE, and Margaret Gildea OBE.

In 2011, recipient Sir Alan Jones, former Chairman, Semta, received his award during the National Apprenticeship Service Awards in June. Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, Frances O'Grady, TUC Deputy General Secretary, Allan Cook CBE, Chairman Atkins Plc, and John Armitt, Chairman, Olympic Development Authority also received Honorary Apprenticeship Awards for 2011 at a ceremony at Lancaster House on 14 December 2011.

On 10 July 2013, Ross Brawn OBE, Theo Fennell, Christine Gaskell MBE, Michel Roux Jr, Pete Waterman OBE and Baroness Wall of New Barnet received Honorary Apprenticeships, presented by Deputy Prime Minister Rt Hon Nick Clegg, at Admiralty House.

See also
National Apprenticeship Service
Apprenticeships

References

External links
https://web.archive.org/web/20070510050121/http://www.employersforapprentices.gov.uk/

Apprenticeship
Education in England
Economy of England
Internship programs
Vocational education in the United Kingdom

Apprenticeship Ambassadors Network


Viktor Mykhailovych Makarov (; born 26 May 1965 in Oskemen, Kazakh SSR) is a Ukrainian sport shooter. He won a silver medal in free pistol shooting at the 1994 ISSF World Championships in Milan, Italy, and was selected to compete for Ukraine in two editions of the Olympic Games (1996 and 2004). Having pursued the sport since the age of fourteen, Makarov trained as a member of the shooting team for Dynamo Odesa, under his personal coach Dmytro Lukyanov. Born in his native Kazakhstan, Makarov also holds a dual citizenship to compete internationally for Ukraine in shooting.

Makarov's Olympic debut came at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, where he wound up a twelfth spot in the 10 m air pistol with 579 points, and then shared a twentieth-place tie with four other shooters, all hailed from Eastern Europe, in the free pistol, shooting a dismal prelim score of 557.

After missing out his 2000 Olympic bid, Makarov returned from an eight-year absence to qualify for his second Ukrainian team, as a 39-year-old, in pistol shooting at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. A year before the Games, he set a minimum qualifying score of 557 and then picked up a silver medal in free pistol with a total of 650.9 to grab one of the available Olympic slots for his nation at the initial meet of the ISSF World Cup series in Fort Benning, Georgia, United States. In the men's 10 m air pistol, held on the first day of the Games, Makarov shot a score of 578 to finish in a three-way tie for seventeenth place with Portugal's João Costa and Italy's Francesco Bruno. Three days later, Makarov improved from his disappointing feat in the air pistol to fire 557 points for a remarkable tenth-place finish in the men's 50 m pistol, but his shots were not highly enough to put him through the final round, missing out by a two-point shortfall.

References

External links

1965 births
Living people
Ukrainian male sport shooters
Olympic shooters for Ukraine
Shooters at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Shooters at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Sportspeople from Oskemen

Viktor Makarov


Andrew Powell (born 23 August 1981) is a Welsh former rugby union player, who last played for Merthyr RFC. He is a former international rugby union player having played for both the Wales sevens team, and the Wales national rugby union team as well as touring with the British and Irish Lions (uncapped). His regular rugby union position was either No. 8 or blindside flanker in the back row.

As of 2021, he is coaching Southwell Rugby Club, who play in Midlands 2 East (North).

Rugby union career
Born in Brecon, Powell attended Llandovery College, and played as an amateur for both Llandovery and in Halifax. In 1999, he joined Newport RFC, and over the following four seasons he played in fifty matches, scoring eleven tries. Mentored by South African Ian McIntosh, he made the Wales Under-21 squad. He then joined Leicester Tigers, before returning to Wales via French club AS Béziers Hérault with the Llanelli Scarlets.

Cardiff Blues: 2005–2010
Powell joined the Cardiff Blues in the summer of 2005, making an impact in his first season, winning a number of man of the match awards. The 2006/07 season was an exceptionally unlucky one for Powell, who injured his left shoulder in a pre-season friendly against Bristol. The injury required total shoulder reconstruction and he returned to action at the beginning of April 2007. Three games in to his comeback, he suffered an identical injury to his right shoulder, which would also require reconstruction. In December 2009, Powell was one of only three British players to be selected for the Barbarians, in their encounter with New Zealand.

Wasps: 2010–2011
In July 2010, Blues agreed to release Powell from his contract, even though it had 12 months remaining, stating that Powell had "lost his way" since the buggy incident. Early speculation linked Powell with newly promoted French rugby union team SU Agen, and with Welsh Rugby league club Crusaders. But Powell joined London Wasps on a 12-month contract in July 2010, coached by Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards, which he hoped would improve his chances of a return to the national squad. On 5 May 2011, Powell left London Wasps by mutual consent after a drunken brawl outside a pub.

Sale Sharks: 2011–2013
In May 2011, Powell signed for Sale Sharks after his release by London Wasps. In October 2012, Sale fined him £5,000 for abusive language and making offensive hand gestures to spectators.

Wigan Warriors: 2013–2014
In 2013, he joined Wigan Warriors.

Newport Gwent Dragons: 2014–2015
In June 2014, it was announced that Powell had signed a deal with Newport Gwent Dragons.

Merthyr: 2015– 2016
In July 2015 Powell joined Merthyr RFC.

In October 2016, Merthyr announced Powell had retired from the game with immediate affect, after a re-occurring Knee injury.

Powell later revealed he had been suffering depression, and cites the condition as a reason for his retirement.

International
Powell played his first cap for Wales against South Africa on 8 November 2008 where he won Man of the Match in the 15 – 20 loss.

On 21 April 2009, Powell was named as a member of the British and Irish Lions for the 2009 tour to South Africa.

Golf buggy incident
Powell was arrested "for taking and driving away a golf buggy" a few hours after the Welsh team's last-minute victory over Scotland in their 2010 Six Nations match. He was arrested near Junction 33 on the M4 motorway at 0600 GMT 14 February 2010.
The following day, for behaviour "contrary to the squad's code of conduct", he was removed from Wales' 35-man training squad for the Six Nations 2010, and played no further part in the tournament. He was later given a 15-month driving ban and fined after admitting the offence at Cardiff Magistrates' Court.

International tries

Rugby league
Welsh Super League club Crusaders made an approach to sign Powell in 2010, but the offer was rejected. Powell's then agent Mike Burton stated that Powell had a year left on his contract with Cardiff and that he would be honouring it, but Powell then parted company with Burton.

Powell has stated that he is interested in switching to rugby league and played during his teenage years with amateur club Cardiff Demons. The Crusaders were interested in signing him for the 2010 season although he stated he would be interested playing in the next year or two and still had ambitions to represent Wales in rugby union. Powell's new agent Emanuele Palladino confirmed that Powell would not be joining the Crusaders but he remained a target for Super League clubs. After being sacked by Wasps he again received interest from Crusaders to join them after the 2011 Rugby Union World Cup.

In April 2013 Powell confirmed he would join Wigan Warriors at the end of the 2012–13 rugby union season. He scored his first try for Wigan Warriors in the home match v Hull FC on 30 August 2013.

Personal information
Powell married Natasha Gascoine on 25 May 2013 in Llantrisant.

Notes

External links
ESPN Profile
(archived by web.archive.org) Wales profile

1981 births
Living people
Barbarian F.C. players
Brecon RFC players
British & Irish Lions rugby union players from Wales
Cardiff Demons players
Cardiff Rugby players
Dragons RFC players
Leicester Tigers players
Merthyr RFC players
Newport RFC players
People educated at Llandovery College
Rugby league players from Powys
Rugby union flankers
Rugby union number eights
Rugby union players from Brecon
Sale Sharks players
Scarlets players
Wales international rugby union players
Wasps RFC players
Welsh rugby league players
Welsh rugby union players
Wigan Warriors players
2011 Rugby World Cup players

Andy Powell (rugby)


Motorcycle boots are associated with motorcycle riders and range from above ankle to below knee boots.  They have an outside of a typical boot but a low heel to control the motorcycle.
To improve motorcycle safety, motorcycle boots are generally made from a thick, heavy leather and may include energy absorbing and load spreading padding, metal, plastic and/or composite materials to protect the motorcycle rider's feet, ankles and legs in an accident. For use in wet weather, some boots have a waterproof membrane lining such as Gore-Tex or SympaTex.

Depending upon how form-fitting the boot is, to allow a rider to easily get the boot on or off, the shaft may be designed to open lengthwise.  If so, Velcro or other hook-and-loop fasteners are typically used on the inner sides of the opening to allow the rider to close the boot over the foot, ankle and leg.  This allows for some flexibility for the rider to control the boot's tightness.  Some manufacturers also include an internal quick-lacing system between a soft inner leg and the harder outer shell of the boot shaft to further ensure a tight, but comfortable fit.  The heel of a racing boot is typically very low: not more than 1/2-inch (13 mm), and sole of the heel and foot is typically rather smooth.  A curved plastic or composite plate may be included to cover the shin of the boot to protect the rider's shin.

Protection from injury
Lateef (2002) found: "Lower limb injuries represent the commonest form of injury among motorcyclists involved in [road traffic accidents]." Subsequently, Kortor et al. (2010) also established that: "Lower limb injuries represent the commonest form of injuries among the motorcycle accident victims. Fractures were the commonest type of injury seen and the most common location was shaft of tibia." And an earlier study at UCLA found: "Lower extremity injuries are among the most common injuries sustained by motorcycle riders in crashes and often lead to extended and costly medical treatment and permanent disability."

Regarding injury risk reduction, University of Lyon research found: "knee-high or ankle boots [...] reduced foot and ankle fracture risk."

Racing boots

Similar to touring boots, racing boots are designed for riding a motorcycle on hard pavement (either the street or a race track) and are usually between 10 and 14 inches in height and made from a combination of leather, metal, plastic and/or man-made composite materials to create a form-fitting, but comfortable boot. The amount of armored protection provided by racing boots is usually greater than touring boots due to the increased potential for injury at the high speeds needed for racing. Typical protection areas are reinforced to protect the shin, instep, ankle (medial and lateral) heel and toes. Often a high-wear pad of metal or composite is attached to the lateral side (outside) of the toe, as this area can contact the ground during extreme cornering. The optimum racing boot has the necessary protection for impact and abrasion while maintaining excellent single-axis flexibility at the ankle between the boot lower and the shaft; for shifting and braking.

Styles vary between "inside" and "outside" boots. Some types are meant to be worn over the trouser leg. Others, such as Dainese boots for MotoGP, are designed to be worn inside the trouser leg.

Touring / street boots

Similar to racing boots, touring boots are  designed specifically for riding a motorcycle on hard pavement, but with less armored protection than racing boots since they are intended for riders that typically ride on city streets and highways, not race tracks.  They are usually between 10 and 14 inches in height and made from a combination of leather, metal, hard rubber, plastic and/or man-made fabrics to create a form-fitting, but comfortable boot.

Motocross boots

Motocross boots are designed specifically for off-road, motocross (MX) or all-terrain vehicle riding. To help prevent a rider's feet and legs from being injured, motocross boots are typically much stiffer than regular motorcycle boots or racing boots, but are more flexible than ski boots by comparison.

Modern motocross boots are usually nearly knee-high (about 16 inches in height) and made from a combination of leather, metal, plastic and/or man-made composite materials to create a very form-fitting, comfortable and tight boot.  To allow a rider to easily get the boot on or off, the shaft of a motocross boot is designed to open lengthwise.  Multiple adjustable straps (usually 3 to 4) are deployed along the foot, ankle and shaft of the boot to allow the rider to tighten the boot to his/her preferences and comfort.  A curved plastic or composite plate covers the shin of the boot to protect the rider from debris that may be thrown from the front wheel of the motorcycle.

Police boots
Motorcycle police boots are designed specifically to be worn by motorcycle police officers.  Very similar to riding boots, motorcycle police boots are typically knee-high (between 18 and 21 inches in height), the foot and shaft are made from black, smooth-grained, high-gloss leather and the low-heeled sole is made from hard rubber.  The boots are typically form-fitting and intended to be worn over breeches or jodhpurs as part of the officer's uniform. The most notable manufacturers for boots to the UK police force are Goldtop (pre 1980s), and Alt-berg (post 1980s).

Engineer boots

Engineer boots are a long-established style of boots used by people in a number of occupations in addition to motorcyclists.

Harness boots

Harness boots are very similar to engineer boots. The boots are most often made of heavy weight leather and range in height from short (10 inches) to extra high (38 inches). The most typical height is between 10 and 18 inches.  The most common color is black, but brown harness boots are also made.

Harness boots are designed to protect the motorcycle rider from the heat of the exhaust pipes and the engine block and from injury to the foot and leg in the case of an accident while riding and may include a built-in steel toe cap and metal shank in the heel.  Whereas engineer boots have a rounded toe, harness boots typically have a square toe.  Unlike engineer boots that have an adjustable leather strap across the ankle, harness boots have a non-adjustable system of four leather straps and two metal rings: one strap goes across the top of the foot at the ankle, one strap wraps around the rear of the foot at the ankle and two more straps rise from sole on either side ankle.  The four straps are held in place by the two metal rings that are located on either side of the ankle.  Typically, these boots possess a pair of pull-straps on either side of the tops of the shafts. Some manufacturers replace these straps with an adjustable leather strap located on the outside top of the shafts, similar to engineer boots. Soles and heels are usually made of hard rubber and may either be relatively flat or may have lugs for increased traction.

Harness boots were originally modeled on the square toed boots prevalent in the 19th century, including those worn by American Civil War soldiers.  Leather straps and rings were added to this style in the 1960s, creating the modern version of the harness boot, which quickly became a classic.

CE certification of motorcycle footwear

Minimum tests
There is a European standard available for motorcycle boots, and it is a legal requirement in Europe and the UK for these boots to be CE certified. This EN13634 standard is titled "Protective footwear for motorcycle riders – Requirements and test methods". It is a European harmonized standard published throughout Europe and in the UK by BSI. It tests them for resistance to abrasion, penetration by sharp objects and lateral crushing. The label consists of a motorcycle icon, the designation of the test they've passed and then a series of four numbers. The more '2's on the CE label, the more protective the boot.

These numbers will be either a '1' for a Level 1 pass (lower protection) or a '2' for a Level 2 pass (higher protection). From the left, the numbers correspond to: the boots' Height, its Abrasion Resistance, its Impact Cut resistance, and its Traverse Rigidity. For Height, 1 is short, and 2 is tall. For other categories, 1 denotes rudimentary protection, while 2 indicates better protection.

Abrasion resistance:
The abrasion resistance test is designed to check how well boots will prevent injury from abrasion. For testing, the boot is divided into two areas – Area A covers the sole, front and back of the boot, where you're most likely to find stretch panels, and everything else is Area B. Three samples of material are cut from the boot, and each is held against a moving abrasive belt until a hole appears. The shortest time it took for a hole to develop in one of the samples dictates the boot's abrasion rating. For basic Level 1 approval, samples cut from area A must last 1.5 seconds, and samples from area B need to last five seconds. To reach the higher Level 2, area A samples need to last 2.5 seconds or longer, while area B must survive at least 12 seconds without wearing through.

Impact cut:
Next, the boots are tested to see how they'd hold up if they came up against a sharp object. For this, a blade attached to a mounting block is dropped onto a sample of the boot; apparatus measures how far the blade goes through the boot. The tests use the same areas as the abrasion test (see above) and the blade is dropped at different speeds to test each area. When testing area A, the knife will be dropped at two metres per second (m/s). For a Level 1 and a Level 2 rating, the knife can't protrude through the material by more than 25m. Area B is tested by dropping the blade at 2.8m/s. For Level 1 approval, the blade can't go through the sample by more than 25mm. To pass Level 2, the maximum it can go through is 15mm.

Transverse rigidity:
The transverse rigidity test determines how strongly the boot can resist your foot being crushed if a bike's weight fell on it. The boot is laid down with the widest part of the foot positioned between two plates. These plates squash together at a rate of 30mm per min. Apparatus records the force required to compress the sole at that rate. The machine is turned off when the plates stop squeezing the sole, when the force is clearly remaining constant or when the sole has been crushed by 20mm. This test is repeated three times. If it took less than 1kN of force to compress the sole to 20mm, the boot fails. If it took 1kN-1.4kN the boot takes a Level 1 pass and if it needed 1.5kN or more to compress the sole it achieves a Level 2 pass.

Optional additional tests
Manufacturers can submit their boots for six optional extra tests. Motorcycle News noted that "Manufacturers can also request that their boots are subjected to additional tests in order to receive further accreditation." These tests include 'IPA' for ankle or shin protection, 'WR' for water resistance or 'WAD' for the displacement of water from inside. Passes in these tests will be represented on the label with letters underneath the mandatory test ratings.

IPA/IPS – Impact protection to the ankle and/or shin:
These show boots with approved impact protection. For this test, the boot is cut along the sole and opened up; a striker is used to drop 10 joules of force onto the protector. To pass this test, the protector can't allow more than 5kN to be transmitted through it. If the ankle protection passes, the letters IPA will be on the label, and shin armour will be displayed as IPS.

WR – Resistance to water penetration:
Boots that claim to be water resistant should be tested in one of two ways. They can be clamped to a machine with the toes flexing to replicate 4600 steps while the foot is submerged in water, or a person can wear the boot and walk 1km (100 x 10-metre lengths) in shallow water. To pass in either method, areas of dampness inside the boot can be no bigger than 3cm².

FO – Resistance to fuel and oil on sole:
Two samples of a boot are weighed twice – once normally and once in distilled water. The sample is then left soaking in fuel at 23 degrees for 22 hours, taken out and weighed in the same ways again. To pass, the weight of the samples shouldn't increase by more than 12%.

SRA/SRB/SRC – Slip-resistance of sole:
Three tests make up the one rating for slip resistance. Each test is done with a mechanical heel set at a seven-degree angle, which moves to imitate different kinds of slips and falls on different surfaces. If the label shows 'SRA', the sole will have passed on a ceramic tile surface treated with diluted soap. 'SRB' means it passed on a steel floor treated with glycerol. 'SRC' means the boot passed both tests.

B – Breathability of uppers:
If a CE label has the letter B on it, it means the boot has gone through an optional test to check that moisture vapour can escape.

WR – Water absorption/desorption of inner:
The boots are tested to see how much water the insides hold and how much they release. If the boots pass this test, 'WAD' will be displayed on the label.

See also
 Outline of motorcycles and motorcycling

References

Motorcycle boot


Kushiel's Dart is a fantasy novel by American writer Jacqueline Carey, the first book in her Kushiel's Legacy series. The idea for the book first came to Carey when she was reading the Biblical Book of Genesis, specifically a passage about "Sons of God" coming into the "Daughters of Men". Later, when she was writing a coffee table book, she encountered Jewish folklore, which paralleled the story in greater detail. The fictional nation of Terre D'Ange in the story was founded by a rebel angel.

The World of Terre D'Ange

Setting
The Kushiel's Legacy series is set in a medieval world modeled after Earth (the map at the beginning of the novels is a map of Earth, with creatively historically named countries). The main characters are from Terre d'Ange, which occupies the area of France.

Terre d'Ange was founded by Elua and His Companions and is thereby a nation of progeny of fallen angels.

Each of Elua's companions founded a  province of Terre d'Ange, except Cassiel, who chose to remain loyal to the commandments of the One God and not 'commingle with mortals'.

Society

Elua's precept was "Love as thou wilt". This results in the fact that love and physical pleasure is a central aspect of society in Terre d'Ange. Although marriage exists in Terre d'Ange, it is viewed equally with other forms of love, including dalliance, taking a lover or consort, etc. It likewise engendered an acceptance of any form of love, be it reverent or harsh, heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual. Usually, as part of a marriage, a D'Angeline lights a candle to Eisheth, asking her to "open the womb" of the woman so that she may be able to become pregnant.

One of the central institutions of Terre d'Ange is service to the angel Naamah. As such, her adepts are courtesans who prostitute themselves in a sacred service that honours Naamah's similar sacrifice to Elua. Naamah was said to have 'la[in] down with strangers in the marketplace for coin' in order that Elua could eat when the Companions had no money. She also, according to legend, offered herself to the King of Persis in exchange for Elua's freedom. In Naamah's honour, Servants of Naamah provide sexual services to paying clients (which goes to the owner of their marque, or into the pockets of the courtesans who have earned their marques) and an optional 'patron gift' freely offered in honour of Naamah (which pays for the marque to be tattooed onto the courtesans' backs).

The Court of Night-Blooming Flowers, or the "Night Court," is in the City of Elua and comprises Thirteen Houses. Each house has a head, called the Dowayne. Each Servant of Naamah owes a debt to their House for the training they have received, and in many cases upbringing. Their debt is considered complete when their marque, a tattoo covering the entire back, is complete.

Ruling classes
Terre D'Ange exists in a monarchical system, which is currently ruled by the Courcel line. They are directly descended from Elua, and their signature physical attribute is a graceful neck, which parallels the fact that their emblem is the Swan.

Each region has its own ruling elite in a feudal structure.

The courts are separate from the feudal ruling class and function in a similar fashion to present-day European courts including various levels of appellate courts. Final appeals can be brought to the King/Queen, who will either hear a case or rule that the previous judgements were appropriate and thereby refuse to hear the appeal. D'Angelines are known to treat their criminals and prisoners in a fashion similar to that of present-day European standards, though capital punishment and public floggings are practised. Rape is a capital offense.

Plot summary
The book follows Phèdre nó Delaunay's life from birth. She's born with a mote in her eye, which makes her appear inappropriate for service as a religious courtesan, but it is revealed that this is actually a sign that she is an 'anguissette' or sexual masochist, deriving sexual pleasure from pain. Her bond is purchased by a nobleman who does train her as a courtesan, and discovers a plot against her homeland which she has a chance to interrupt.

Characters

Delaunay's household
 Phèdre nó Delaunay – Main protagonist
 Anafiel Delaunay – Noble, Phèdre and Alcuin's mentor
 Alcuin nó Delaunay – foster brother to Phèdre
 Joscelin Verreuil – a Cassiline Brother
Guy – an expelled Cassiline Brother

Royal Family of Terre D'Ange
Ganelon de la Courcel – King of Terre d'Ange
Rolande de la Courcel – son of Ganelon de la Courcel, Dauphin
Isabel L'Envers – wife of Rolande; Princess-Consort
Ysandre de la Courcel – daughter of Rolande and Isabel, Dauphine

Companions of Elua
Elua – "The Misbegotten" was conceived from the comingling of the Yeshua's blood from the Tiberium spear that killed Yeshua on the cross, with the tears of the Magdalene who loved him, and born from the womb of Mother Earth.
Naamah – an angel. She is 'Venus' and patron of courtesans, and sanctified all sex as holy as long as it is consensual and motivated by some form of love.
Anael – an angel
Cassiel – an angel. His form of love centers around abstainment, protection, and self-sacrifice. Cassiel alone has no descendants but his followers are celibate priests/bodyguards.
Shemhazai – an angel
Azza – an angel
Kushiel – an angel.  His form of love centers around punishment, expiation of guilt, and overcoming pain. Descendants of Kushiel are Sadists.
Eisheth – an angel
Camael – an angel.

Others
Master of the Straits - Controls the seas between Alba and Terre D'Ange
Hyacinthe (character)|Hyacinthe, son of Anasztaizia – a Tsingano, "The Prince of Travellers."
Drustan mab Necthana – son of Necthana; Prince of the Picti
Waldemar Selig – Skaldi warlord
 Melisande - a seductive but sinister noblewoman whom Phedre finds difficult to resist

Awards and nominations
Kushiel's Dart won the 2002 Locus Award for Best First Novel. It was also nominated for the 2002 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards.

References

External links

2001 fantasy novels
Debut fantasy novels
Tor Books books
Novels with bisexual themes
2001 debut novels
Novels about prostitution

Kushiel's Dart


Naperville is a city in Illinois in the United States. It is ranked the 4th biggest in Illinois. It was founded by Joseph Naper who founded it along with the DuPage River in 1831. Before any settlement, Naperville was home to Native American tribes. In 1641, the first Caucasian contact with Native Americans in Illinois. They were kicked out by the Potawami tribe that kicked out the Ilinewek tribe whom they had made contact with Native Americans. Naper arrived with his friends and family to what would be known as Napers Settlement. He was known for many things in Naperville as it was incorporated as a community in 1857. The county is named after the river, DuPage County. These churches were built by the early families of Naperville such as the Hobsons, Napers, and Scotts as they built seven  churches. Naperville became an important stop from Chicago and Ottawa. By 1832, there were 180 residents living in Naperville whom they had built sawmills, stores, the Pre-Emption Hotel, and gristmills. Du-Page County was established in 1839 and Naperville became the county seat. Eight businesses in Naperville contributed to the building of the Southwest Plank Road. This was completed in 1851 and connected Chicago, Naperville, and Oswego.

Naperville grew and grew for the next century as stone quarries flushed providing building materials for Chicago after the horrible fire of 1871. The Stenger Brewery shipped beer across the region. The Kroehler Manufacturing Company became Naperville's largest employer which shipped furniture by rail into Chicago and many dominant markets.

Naperville became a city in 1890 with a population of 2,629 from the 1900 census. It grew to 12,933 residents by 1960. Between 1890 and 1920, residents began to receive basic city services like water, sewers, electricity, and landlines.

The suburban boom began in the western suburbs after the second world war, Naperville remained out of the range of growth until 1954, when plans for a transportation system began as it was announced as the East-West toll road. The route slirted the northern edge of Naperville and included an interchange which linked the city to downtown Chicago via the completed Eisenhower Expressway.  As a result, residential, industrial, and retail services boomed in Naperville. The city expanded to 50 square miles in 1993, with a population of 128,358 in 2000. Among the area, only Aurora and Chicago were larger in size.

Many new buisnesses attracted to the Naperville area were based in development and research. During the late 50s and 60s, Argonne National Laboratory, Northern Illinois Gas, AT&T Bell Laboratories, etc were established in Naperville

Harold Moser led the residential boom with his first subdivision in 1956. By 1965, Moser had subdivided 8,000 building lots and built 3500 homes in the Naperville area.

According to the 2010 census, Naperville has an area of 39.323 square miles of which 38.77 square miles is land and 0.553 square miles is water.

Portions of Naperville drain to the West of the Dupage River.

As of the 2020 census, the population of Naperville would be 149,540 making it the fourth populous city in the state of Illinois with the largest employer being Edward Hospital with 4500 employees.

Naperville is home to Moser Tower and Millennium Carillion, is one of the fourth largest in the world.

It is home to extensive parks and forest preservation networks like Centennial Beach. Naperville has two school districts, 203 and 204.

Naperville has had two major floods, one in 1996 and the other in 2013.

References

Cities in Illinois
Suburbs of Chicago
Settlements in DuPage County, Illinois

Naperville, Illinois


Rodney McKinnie Alexander (born December 5, 1946) is an American politician and member of the Republican Party who served as the Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs from September 30, 2013, until June 3, 2014. Previously he was the U.S. representative for  from 2003 to 2013. First elected as a Democrat, he changed parties in 2004 to run as a Republican and was re-elected five times.

Background
Alexander was born in the village of Bienville in Bienville Parish to the former Mary Crawford and James Earl Alexander. In 1964, he graduated from Jonesboro-Hodge High School in Jonesboro in Jackson Parish, which is often cited as his hometown. He then attended Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, but he left college to work for his family construction company.

Alexander left the police jury to represent District 13 in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1988 until his election to Congress in 2002. While in the state House, he served as the chairman of the House Health and Welfare Committee. In this position, her shepherded to passage the Louisiana Children's Health Insurance Program (LaCHIP), which assists mothers and children with basic health care and insurance needs.

Alexander enrolled in college courses intermittently for forty-five years. When the University of Louisiana at Monroe began to offer online courses, he enrolled for two years and graduated from ULM with a degree in general studies in 2009.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections
2002
Alexander won his seat in 2002 as a Democrat, but ran in 2004 as a Republican, changing parties on 6 August 2004, only three months before the election and only 30 minutes before the filing deadline. The move was derided by Democrats Robert Matsui and Mary Landrieu as being "cowardly".

2004
On August 4, 2004, he registered to run as a Democrat, but changed his registration to Republican two days later. He then defeated a fellow Republican, the late Jock Scott of Alexandria in the open primary that November. In 2006, he defeated the Democrat Gloria Williams Hearn, wife of the psychologist George E. Hearn of Pineville, Louisiana. His party switch became official on August 9, 2004.

2010

Alexander defeated Richard Todd Slavant of Monroe in the Republican closed primary by a margin of nearly 9–1. He faced Independent Tom Gibbs, Jr., of Ouachita Parish in the November 2 general election and won easily. No Democratic candidate had filed for the position, once held by such long-serving party members as Jerry Huckaby and Otto Passman. During this election, he joined the Tea Party Caucus.

2012
Alexander drew two last-minute challengers in his successful 2012 bid for a sixth term in the U.S. House. Alexander handily prevailed with 202,531 votes (77.8 percent). The Libertarian Clay Steven Grant received 20,194 votes (7.8 percent), and the No-Party candidate, Ron Caesar, polled 37,486 votes (14.4 percent).

During the 2012 election Alexander's campaign raised a total of $1,235,114. $942,083 were spent leaving the campaign with a surplus of $295,079 and no debt. Major contributors to Alexander's campaign came from a variety of business interests including the crop production industry, the oil and gas industry, commercial banks, and general contractors. Top individual contributors include Adams and Reese, the Livingston Group, O'Neal Gas, and Kadav Inc.

Tenure
At the commencement of the 111th Congress, Alexander received new subcommittee assignments including the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS), and he retained his seat on the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administrations, and Related Agencies (Agriculture).

His speeches include "Party of Paychecks" in which he speaks on the nations food-stamp necessity increase and speaks against "out-of-control government spending" and unemployment. Many of Alexander's other speeches include warning against tax increases and supporting religious freedom and public prayer.

Alexander's voting record shows a history of voting against tax law amendments on a variety of matters. He has also voted "Nay" on many extensions for relief or aid, regulations, and has voted "Yay" to prohibition of tax increase. In 2012, he voted for several pro-business, anti-environmental bills such as the Stop the War on Coal Act and the National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act. He has also voted to support small business through the Red Tape Reduction and Small Business Job Creation Act. Cumulatively, Alexander missed 266 of 7521 (3.5%) roll call votes during his time in office, higher than the national median of 2.5%.

Legislation
As a Representative, Alexander sponsored 36 bills, including:

108th Congress (2003–2004)
 H.R. 1724, a bill to require higher education institutions that participate in student assistance programs to offer military leave to members of the Armed Forces for deployment and provide credits or refunds of tuition and other fees during such leaves, introduced April 10, 2003

109th Congress (2005–2006)
 H.R. 3894, a bill to allow for emergency, temporary housing for victims of Hurricane Katrina, introduced September 26, 2005
 H.R. 5765, a bill to allow for a tax credit for employers equal to 15% of the first $10,000 in wages for members of the National Guard or Ready Reserve, introduced July 12, 2006. Alexander introduced a similar bill, H.R. 3620, in the 111th Congress.

110th Congress (2007–2008)
 H.R. 924, a bill to prohibit the Food and Drug Administration from restricting the sale of certain turtles to be kept as pets, introduced February 8, 2007
 H.R. 7008, a bill to set limits on disaster relief financial aid given to private or investor-owned electric utility companies that provide service to low-income households, introduced September 23, 2008, reintroduced in the 111th Congress as H.R. 941

111th Congress (2009–2010)
 H.R. 1891, a bill to allow for a gross income deduction for 50% of long-term care premiums without regard to other limitations on deductions, introduced April 2, 2009

113th Congress (2013–2014)
 H.R. 1989, a bill to require the United States Forest Service to endeavor to accommodate individuals with mobility disabilities who would need to use a power-driven mobility device for access to Forest Service lands, introduced May 15, 2013
 H.R. 2752, a bill to exclude seasonal employees from being counted under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's employer mandate, introduced July 19, 2013
 H.R. 2926, a bill to prohibit the federal government from revoking or withholding federal financial assistance that would otherwise be provided to any recipient on the basis of religious activities that are conducted voluntarily and initiated by participants in a program or activity carried out by such recipient, introduced August 1, 2013

Committee assignments
 Committee on Appropriations
 Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
 Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government
 Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Vice Chair)

Caucus membership
 Congressional Caucus on Turkey and Turkish Americans
 Congressional Diabetes Caucus
 International Conservation Caucus
 Republican Study Committee
 Sportsmen's Caucus
 Tea Party Caucus
Congressional Constitution Caucus

Interest group ratings
Alexander received favorable ratings from pro-life groups such as the Right to Life Committee and received low ratings from Planned Parenthood. Alexander also received favorable reviews from business groups such as the Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business. In addition, he had strong support from agricultural groups such as the American Farm Bureau Federation which gave him a 100 percent rating in 2011 and the Sportsman and Animal Owners Voting Alliance. Alexander has been given low ratings by civil rights groups such as the NAACP and the ACLU as well as environmental groups like the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund.

Endorsements
Alexander was endorsed by Americans for Legal Immigration, Louisiana National Federation of Independent Business, National Federation of Independent Business, Chamber of Commerce, and the National Rifle Association. The National Federation for Independent Business named Alexander a "Guardian of Small Business" to acknowledge his strong voting record in favor of small businesses.

Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs
On September 30, 2013, Alexander became Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs under Governor Bobby Jindal.

Personal life
Alexander's wife, the former Nancy Sutton, is a long-time educator. They have three children and several grandchildren. Alexander is a Southern Baptist.

See also

 List of American politicians who switched parties in office
 List of United States representatives who switched parties

References

External links

Congressman Rodney Alexander official U.S. House website

Profile at SourceWatch

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1946 births
Living people
Louisiana Republicans
Jonesboro-Hodge High School alumni
Louisiana Tech University alumni
Members of the Louisiana House of Representatives
Parish jurors and commissioners in Louisiana
People from Bienville, Louisiana
People from Jonesboro, Louisiana
Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana
Southern Baptists
State cabinet secretaries of Louisiana
Tea Party movement activists
United States Air Force airmen
University of Louisiana at Monroe alumni
20th-century American politicians
21st-century American politicians
United States Air Force reservists
Baptists from Louisiana
Members of Congress who became lobbyists

Rodney Alexander