Touch Typist Typing Tutor is developed by Sector Software.

Touch Typist typing tutor is the earliest example of typing tutor software currently still on sale. The software was written and released for sale in 1985 on the Sinclair QL computer. Its first public sale was at The ZX Microfair in 1985.  This was a very popular computer show held in The Horticultural Halls, Elverton Street, London, England. The ZX Microfair was a showcase for all manner of software and hardware related to the Sinclair range of computers. The software was also first advertised as a small classified advert in QL World magazine, but soon became a flagship product for the company formed to sell it, Sector Software.

Touch Typist soon went on sale in WH Smiths as well as in many smaller computer shops which were supplied by the now defunct company Terry Blood Distribution Ltd.

The software was originally written in QL Basic on the Sinclair QL, this was compiled with the Digital Precision Superbasic Compiler and released on Sinclair Microdrive cartridges for the Sinclair QL computer. Microdrive cartridges were small cartridges similar to an 8 track tape, with a continuous loop of tape which could hold 100KB of code.

The software was soon converted to run on other computers including the Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, Acorn Archimedes, Cambridge Computers Z88 Portable computer and Microsoft Windows based computers.

Touch Typist has been on continuous sale and been continually developed by the original author David Batty and is still published by the original company, Sector Software of Leyland Lancashire.

The current version of the software is written in Microsoft Visual Basic, versions for other platforms have all been written in other versions of compiled BASIC.

The software features very short lessons, each less than 55 characters long.  With feedback after every lesson.  The very short lessons with plenty of feedback  give the software a 'game' feel.

The first version of the software had a Space Invaders game built into it that the users were allowed to play once for every 20 lessons they completed.  The Sinclair QL had 128KB of memory, but after the operating system had taken its share of it, only 97KB were left for programs to run.  Touch Typist was 95K in size so there was only 2KB of memory left in which to add a game. In order to include a game without losing anything from the software, a space invaders game was written in MC68000 machine code, the whole game and graphics took just 2K of memory.  The game was removed in second and subsequent versions after requests from various schools who were using the software, for a version without an arcade game in it.

The software is currently sold to schools, colleges, businesses and private individuals around the world from its website. The software is distributed either on a CD for Microsoft Windows-based machines, or via a download and on-line unlocking method.

References

External links

 History Of Touch Typist Software

Windows text-related software
Typing software

Touch Typist Typing Tutor


The signal-to-interference ratio (SIR or S/I), also known as the carrier-to-interference ratio (CIR or C/I), is the quotient between the average received modulated carrier power S or C and the average received co-channel interference power I, i.e. crosstalk, from other transmitters than the useful signal.

The CIR resembles the carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR or C/N), which is the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR or S/N) of a modulated signal before demodulation. A distinction is that interfering radio transmitters contributing to I may be controlled by radio resource management, while N involves noise power from other sources, typically additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN).

Carrier-to-noise-and-interference ratio (CNIR)
The CIR ratio is studied in interference limited systems, i.e. where I dominates over N, typically in cellular radio systems and broadcasting systems where frequency channels are reused in view to achieve high level of area coverage. The C/N is studied in noise limited systems. If both situations can occur, the carrier-to-noise-and-interference ratio (CNIR or C/(N+I)) may be studied.

See also
 Carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR or C/N)
 Carrier-to-receiver noise density C/N0
 Co-channel interference (CCI)
 Crosstalk
 Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR or S/N'')
 SINAD (ratio of signal-plus-noise-plus-distortion to noise-plus-distortion)

References

Engineering ratios
Radio frequency propagation
Radio resource management
Interference
Television terminology

Signal-to-interference ratio


NASA Ocean Biogeochemical Model (NOBM) is a three-dimensional representation of coupled circulation/biogeochemical/radiative processes in the global oceans. It was built at the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office and is in the process of being coupled to the Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5) climate systems.

It spans the domain from -84° to 72° latitude in increments of 1.25° longitude by 2/3° latitude, including only open ocean areas, where bottom depth are greater than 200 m. The biogeochemical model contains 4 phytoplankton groups, four nutrient groups, a single herbivore group, and three detrital pools.

References

Oceanography

NOBM


Meriwether Smith (1730 – January 25, 1790) was an American planter from Essex County, Virginia.

Smith was first elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1770. He was a vocal opponent of the 1765 Stamp Act, and a representative in the revolutionary conventions that replaced the burgesses in 1775 and 1776. He was elected as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1778, 1779, and 1780, although he did not serve the 1779 term. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1776 to 1778 and again in 1781. In 1788 he was a member of the Virginia convention that ratified the U.S. Constitution; an Anti-Federalist, he voted against ratification.

Smith was married twice, first to Alice Lee in 1760 and after her death to Elizabeth Daingerfield in 1769. His son by Alice was George William Smith who was Governor of Virginia from part of 1811. Meriwether died in Essex County in January 1790
, and was buried in a family plot on his plantation, "Bathurst."

External links

1730 births
1790 deaths
Continental Congressmen from Virginia
18th-century American politicians
House of Burgesses members
Members of the Virginia House of Delegates
Delegates to the Virginia Ratifying Convention
People from Essex County, Virginia

Meriwether Smith


James Melton (January 2, 1904 – April 21, 1961), a popular singer in the 1920s and early 1930s, later began a career as an operatic singer when tenor voices went out of style in popular music around 1932–35. His singing talent was similar to that of his contemporary Richard Crooks and baritones John Charles Thomas and Nelson Eddy, who sang popular music but also had operatic careers.

Melton usually catered to popular music fans, singing romantic songs and popular ballads in a sweet style. He was born in Moultrie, Georgia, but was raised in Citra, Florida, where his parents grew melons and handled hogs.  Melton's father ran a sawmill in the time of history when sawmills were temporary tent buildings built near available lumber trees.

In 1920, he graduated from high school in Ocala, Florida, and then attended college at the University of Florida,  Vanderbilt University, and the University of Georgia. He received vocal instruction from Gaetano de Luca in Nashville from 1923 to 1927 before moving to New York, where he studied with Beniamino Gigli's teacher, Enrico Rosati. Melton also worked in dance bands, playing saxophone in a college jazz ensemble and performing with Francis Craig's Orchestra in Atlanta in 1926.

Radio
The following year, he began singing on New York radio for no pay. He joined "Roxy's Gang", a cabaret group led by Samuel Roxy Rothafel, who worked with the Sieberling Singers. He made records for Victor Records, singing as one of the tenors with The Revelers and for Columbia Records with the same group under the pseudonym of The Singing Sophomores.  He frequently sang with popular singer Jane Froman and appeared with her in film as well.

Melton recorded his first songs under his own name for Columbia in the autumn of 1927. He quickly became popular and made many vocal recordings also singing vocal choruses for dance records. By 1931, the Great Depression along with the rise of conservatism and a religious revival initiated a movement to more masculine sounding voices in popular music. Singers such as Franklyn Baur, Nick Lucas and Scrappy Lambert saw their careers diminish, while baritones such as Bing Crosby and Russ Columbo became popular. Tenor voices became viewed as outdated in popular music. Melton was forced to change paths and decided to try to continue his career with classical music. He began to train his voice with help from the pianist Michael Raucheisen in Berlin and gave his first concert performance at Town Hall on April 22, 1932, in New York and embarked on an American and Canadian concert tour along with songwriter George Gershwin in 1934.

Melton continued to perform on the radio. He was heard on The Firestone Hour in 1933, on Ward's Family Theater in 1935, The Sealtest Sunday Night Party (1936), The Palmolive Beauty Box Theater (1937), The Song Shop (1938), the Bell Telephone Hour (1940), Texaco Star Theater (1944) and Harvest of Stars (1945). In 1941, a newspaper columnist described Melton as "currently one of radio's busiest singers."

In the thirties, Melton also sang and acted on the Jack Benny radio shows.

Films
Although he was not known as a dramatic actor, he appeared in movie musicals, including Stars Over Broadway (1935), Sing Me a Love Song (1936), Melody for Two (1937) and the MGM revue, Ziegfeld Follies (1946).
An avid racing and automobile fan, Melton was in attendance for the Watkins Glen Grand Prix of 1951 in upstate New York. He is seen shaking hands with the racers in the 1999 documentary film about a classic race called Victory Circle

Opera
After voice training with Angelo Canarutto, Melton's operatic singing career took off in 1938 when he appeared with the Cincinnati Zoo Opera Company as Pinkerton in Puccini's Madama Butterfly and also with the St. Louis Opera Company as Alfredo in Verdi's La Traviata. In 1939, he sang Pinkerton for his debut with the Philadelphia La Scala Opera Company with Annunciata Garrotto as Cio-cio-san. He worked with the Chicago Civic Opera from 1940 to 1942, appearing with Helen Jepson in Madama Butterfly, with Lily Pons in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, with Risë Stevens in Mignon and in Flotow's Martha. On 7 December 1942, Melton debuted at the Metropolitan Opera as Tamino in Mozart's The Magic Flute. He continued to perform at the Met through 1950.

Melton spent the 1950s making records, singing in nightclubs, appearing on television, including Ford Festival (1951–1952) also known as The James Melton Show, and collecting rare automobiles. His last stage production was Sigmund Romberg's The Student Prince.

Later life
In 1948, he established the Melton Museum in Norwalk, Connecticut, to showcase his growing collection of over 125 antique cars. In April 1953, the collection was moved to Hypoluxo, Florida, and renamed the James Melton Autorama, with greatly expanded and developed displays. Ken Purdy interviewed him on his collection and wrote a book about it. The museum's collection was dispersed after his death. Melton has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one is for radio and the other for recordings of his. Melton died at the age of 57 in New York City in 1961.

References

External links

James Melton Autorama

 James Melton recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.

1904 births
1961 deaths
American male pop singers
American operatic tenors
University of Florida alumni
People from Moultrie, Georgia
People from Citra, Florida
Singers from Georgia (U.S. state)
Singers from Florida
Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state)
20th-century American male opera singers

James Melton


BBC Music is the arm of the BBC responsible for the music played across its services. The current director of music is Lorna Clarke.

Officially it is a part of the BBC's Radio operational division; however, its remit also includes music used in television and online services. It was established in its current form in 2014; however, the BBC had already been using the BBC Music brand to refer to its online music content and some live events beforehand, including a now defunct record label.

Launch
BBC Music had its official launch at 20:00 on 7 October 2014, with a simulcast of a specially-commissioned cover of the Beach Boys' 1966 song "God Only Knows". Produced by Ethan Johns, it featured a supergroup of singers such as Chris Martin (of Coldplay), Stevie Wonder, Kylie Minogue, Dave Grohl (of Foo Fighters), Elton John, Pharrell Williams, One Direction, and Brian Wilson (The Beach Boys) accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra.

Responsibilities
BBC Music is responsible for the music played across the BBC. It has direct editorial control of the music content of the BBC's six national music radio stations Radio 1, 1Xtra, Radio 2, Radio 3, 6 Music, and the BBC Asian Network, as well as organising live music events for each of the stations. These include Radio 1's Big Weekend, Live in Hyde Park and In Concert for Radio 2, the BBC Proms (including the various "Proms in the Park" events), and the BBC 6 Music festival.

Many of the BBC televisual music programmes and documentaries are now co-produced with BBC Music, with a BBC Music ident often being played between the regular channel ident and the start of the programme. It will also coordinate the BBC's coverage of other live music events such as the Glastonbury Festival, T in the Park, the Reading and Leeds Festivals, and Celtic Connections amongst others.

It is responsible for the BBC's online music database, collating every music track played across the BBC's national radio stations and a larger amount of the music played on the BBC's UK television channels. This includes looking after My Tracks, formerly BBC Playlister, an interactive, personalisable music service that allows users to create playlists of music that have been played across the BBC using existing online platforms Deezer, YouTube and Spotify. It also features playlists created by BBC radio DJs and presenters such as Jo Whiley, Greg James, Steve Lamacq, Zane Lowe, and Fearne Cotton.

Additionally, it coordinates the production of the BBC Music Awards and also oversees BBC Introducing, an initiative to get less well-known and unsigned artists played on local and national radio.

See also
 BBC Music Magazine
 BBC Sounds

References

External links

Music

BBC Music


The Net is a 1995 American action thriller film directed by Irwin Winkler and starring Sandra Bullock, Jeremy Northam, and Dennis Miller. The film was released on July 28, 1995.

In the film, a systems analyst with few personal contacts learns that all records about her life have been deleted, and that her house has been emptied. She has to find a way to reclaim her identity.

Plot
United States Under Secretary of Defense Michael Bergstrom commits suicide after being informed that he has tested positive for HIV.

Angela Bennett is a freelance systems analyst worker in Venice, California. All of her relationships are almost completely online and on the phone, with the exception of forgettable interactions with her neighbors and visits to her mother, who is institutionalized with Alzheimer's disease and often forgets who she is.

Bennett's co-worker, Dale, in San Francisco, sends her a floppy disk of the game "Mozart's Ghost" with a backdoor labeled "π" that permits access to a commonly used computer security system called "Gatekeeper" sold by Gregg Microsystems, a software company led by CEO Jeff Gregg.

Dale and Bennett agree to meet the next morning, as he is planning on taking his own plane, but the navigation system in Dale's private aircraft malfunctions and the plane crashes into a tower, killing him.

Bennett travels to Cozumel, Mexico, on vacation, where she meets Jack Devlin. After seducing Bennett, Devlin pays a mugger to steal her purse as they walk along the beach. He chases the mugger into the bushes, catches the mugger, and roots through the purse to find the disk before shooting the mugger dead.

He takes Bennett out on his speedboat to kill her as well, but she finds his gun and confronts him. While fleeing with the disk and Devlin's wallet, Bennett's dinghy collides with rocks. She is unconscious in the hospital for three days.

When Bennett wakes up, she finds that the disk was ruined by the sun and all records of her life have been deleted: She was checked out of her hotel room in Cancun, her car is no longer at the airport parking lot, and her credit cards are invalid. Bennett's home is now empty and listed for sale.

Moreover, because none of the neighbors remember her, they cannot confirm her identity. Bennett's Social Security number is now assigned to a "Ruth Marx", for whom Devlin has entered an arrest record by using the Gatekeeper backdoor to hack the police computer system.

When Bennett calls her own desk at Cathedral Software, an imposter answers and offers Bennett her old life back in exchange for the disk. She contacts the only other person who knows her by sight, psychiatrist and former lover Alan Champion. He checks her into a hotel, offers to contact a friend at the FBI, and arranges to have her mother moved for her safety.

Using her knowledge of the backdoor and a password found in Devlin's wallet, Bennett logs into the Bethesda Naval Hospital's computers and learns that Under Secretary of Defense Bergstrom, who had opposed Gatekeeper's use by the federal government, was murdered by altering the results of his HIV test leading to a misdiagnosis. Fellow hacker "Cyberbob" connects π with the "Praetorians", a notorious group of cyberterrorists linked to recent computer failures around the country. Bennett and Cyberbob plan to meet, but the Praetorians intercept their online chat. Bennett escapes from Devlin—a contract killer for the cyberterrorists, but the Praetorians kill Champion by tampering with pharmacy and hospital computer records. After Bennett is arrested by the California Highway Patrol, a man identifying himself as Champion's FBI friend frees her from jail. She realizes he is an imposter and escapes again, resulting in the impostor's death in a car crash.

Now wanted for murder and thought to be Ruth Marx, Bennett hitchhikes to Cathedral's office where, using her imposter's computer, she connects the cyberterrorists to Gregg Microsystems and uncovers their scheme: once the Praetorians sabotage an organization's computer system, Gregg sells Gatekeeper to it and gains unlimited access through the backdoor. Bennett emails evidence of the backdoor and Gregg's involvement with the Praetorians to the FBI from the Moscone Center and tricks Devlin into releasing a virus into Gregg's mainframe, destroying Gatekeeper and undoing the erasure of her identity. During a battle on the catwalks of the convention center, in which Devlin accidentally kills the Bennett imposter from Cathedral Software (the real Ruth Marx), Bennett ambushes Devlin with a fire extinguisher, causing him to fall to his death. Bennett regains her identity, home, and life. She then reunites with her mother, and the conspiracy is exposed, with Jeff Gregg being arrested by the FBI, live on television.

Cast

Production
In October 1994, Bullock committed to filming The Net from mid-January through April 10, 1995. The Net was filmed in San Francisco's Moscone Center on Thursday, 5 January 1995, during Macworld as well as at Washington, D.C., locations in April 1995.

Reception

Box office
With an estimated budget of $22 million and a release date of , The Net grossed $50.7 million in the United States and Canada. Including foreign markets, the film grossed $110.6 million worldwide.

Critical response
Based on 55 reviews, it has an average score of 5.4 out of 10 on Rotten Tomatoes with 44% of critics giving positive reviews. The site's consensus states: "The premise isn't without potential and Sandra Bullock is as likable as ever, but The Net lacks sufficient thrills – or plausible plot points – to recommend catching." Metacritic, using a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 51 out of 100 based on 22 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, describing The Net as basically an update of an Alfred Hitchcock trope ("Innocent Person Wrongly Accused"), which was in parts contrived but carried by Bullock's naturalistic performance.
Owen Gleiberman, writing for Entertainment Weekly, complimented Sandra Bullock's performance, saying, "Bullock pulls you into the movie. Her overripe smile and clear, imploring eyes are sometimes evocative of Julia Roberts". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Sequel and spin-off TV series
A sequel named The Net 2.0, starring Nikki DeLoach as Hope Cassidy and directed by Charles Winkler, son of Irwin Winkler, was announced in February 2005. It was released direct-to-video in 2006, and was about a young systems analyst who arrives in Istanbul for her new job, to find that her identity has been stolen.

The film spawned an American spinoff television series of the same name, starring Brooke Langton as Angela Bennett.

See also
 List of films featuring surveillance

References

External links

1995 films
1995 action thriller films
1990s American films
1990s chase films
1990s English-language films
1990s mystery thriller films
American action thriller films
American chase films
American mystery thriller films
Columbia Pictures films
Films about computer hacking
Films about identity theft
Films about miscarriage of justice
Films about murderers
Films about technological impact
Films about the Internet
Films adapted into television shows
Films directed by Irwin Winkler
Films produced by Irwin Winkler
Films scored by Mark Isham
Films set in Los Angeles
Films set in Mexico
Films set in San Francisco
Films set in the San Francisco Bay Area
Films set in Washington, D.C.
Films shot in San Francisco
Films shot in Washington, D.C.
HIV/AIDS in American films
Malware in fiction
Techno-thriller films
Films with screenplays by John Brancato and Michael Ferris

The Net (1995 film)


The bombing of Nijmegen on 22 February 1944 was an opportunistic aerial bombing raid by the United States Army Air Forces on the city of Nijmegen in the Netherlands, then occupied by Nazi Germany. In terms of the number of victims, it was one of the largest bombardments of a Dutch city during World War II. Officially, nearly 800 people (almost all civilians) were killed by accident due to inaccurate bombing but, because people in hiding could not be counted, the actual death toll was probably higher. A large part of the historic city centre was destroyed, including Saint Steven's Church. Saint Augustine's Church and Nijmegen railway station (the intended target) were heavily damaged as well.

Because the Dutch government-in-exile in London, which was able to reestablish itself on the continent in early 1945 thanks to the British Army and other Allies' military efforts, tried to avoid criticism against the countries it was relying on for its liberation and future security, it and local authorities largely remained silent on the event for decades, leaving survivors with unaddressed grief and questions, and allowing conspiracy theories to thrive. Although officials long maintained it had been an "erroneous bombardment", implying that Nijmegen was the wrong target, historical research has shown that the attack was intentional, but had been executed poorly.

Background
A planned raid on the city of Gotha was part of the so-called 'Big Week' (official name: Operation Argument), a series of Allied bombardments on German aircraft factories to weaken the Luftwaffe in preparation for D-Day (June 1944). On 20 and 21 February, the first bombings had been carried out.

At the time, it was common within the Allied air forces to attack secondary targets if the primary target could not be reached. These secondary targets were called targets of opportunity. Because a bombing raid was risky and expensive (because of enemy fire and fuel), and the main target could often not be hit, an opportunistic bombing attack could still deal an important blow to the enemy, thus turning the operation into a partial success, and providing some return for the costs and risks. The railway station area of Nijmegen was marked as such a target of opportunity, because the Allies knew that the Germans were using it for weapons transport. There was pressure on the flyers to bomb anything if possible, because it was unsafe to land with unexpended bombs and, once the flyers had carried out 25 raids, they were given leave of absence.

Course of events

Gotha mission cancelled
At 9:20 in the morning of 22 February, 177 American B-24 Liberator bombers, escorted by dozens of P-38 Lightning, P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang fighters, took off from RAF Bungay airbase near the Suffolk village of Flixton. They flew in the direction of the German city of Gotha, where the Gothaer Waggonfabrik aircraft factory was producing Messerschmitt fighters and other Luftwaffe planes. This required a four-hour flight over German territory, making it a highly dangerous mission. If Gotha could not be reached, Eschwege was the next target, and if even that failed, the pilots had to seek out a target of opportunity by themselves on the way back to their bases in Britain.

Because the clouds were unusually high, the aircraft had trouble gathering into formation, and quickly lost sight of each other. In consequence, a considerable number of bombers broke off their mission 15 minutes after take-off and returned. While still above the North Sea, the Americans were unexpectedly fired on by German fighters. When the group passed over Nijmegen at 12:14 (CET), the air raid siren was activated by watchman Van Os, and residents ran for their shelters until it was safe. Shortly after, around 13:00 when the bombers had reached about 10 miles into Germany, they received a message from command that the raid was cancelled due to too heavy cloud formations above Gotha for an effective bombardment; the units were recalled. Because Eschwege was still far out of reach, looking for targets of opportunity on the way back was now recommended.

Airstrike

It was an extremely difficult task to turn around hundreds of planes and stay in formation, leading to a great deal of chaos and fragmenting the group into several squadrons who each sought their way back to Britain independently. Underway, they looked for targets of opportunity, and eventually the Dutch cities of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Deventer and Enschede were selected and attacked. The squadron flying to Nijmegen consisted of twelve Liberators of the 446th Bombardment Group, which were joined by two detached Liberators of the 453rd Bombardment Group. Beforehand, the flyers had been poorly informed about whether Nijmegen was a Dutch or a German city, whether German-occupied cities could or could not be bombed, and if so in what way, and they were negligent in finding out exactly which cities they were about to strike, partly due to miscommunication that can be ascribed to technical problems such as a stuck radio operator's morse key.

Watchman Van Os had given the clear sign at 13:16. For reasons that are still unclear, he failed to activate the air raid siren a second time immediately 14 of the aircraft returned in Nijmegen's airspace, mere minutes after the clear sign had been given, causing citizens not to run for cover as quickly as possible in time on this occasion. Van Os stated afterwards that he did not ring the siren a second time until he heard explosions coming from the city centre. At 13:28, 144 brisant bombs (each weighing 500 pounds) and 426 shrapnel shells (20 pounds a piece) were dropped. The actual target of opportunity, the train station area, was successfully hit. However, a considerable number of bombs fell on the city centre in residential areas, destroying homes, churches and other civil targets and killing hundreds of civilians. After the fact, official Allied sources claimed that the pilots thought they were still flying above Germany, and had misidentified Nijmegen as the either the German city of Kleve (Cleves) or Goch. Yet some flyers themselves stated just an hour after landing in England that they had bombed Nijmegen, and a navigator even reported this in the air moments after the raid.

Allied and German reactions

The Nazis reported that the Dutch government-in-exile in London had given permission for the airstrike on Nijmegen, and that it therefore was an intentional bombardment. They made passionate attempts to exploit the bombing for propaganda: in public places, posters were hung with texts such as 'With friends like these, who needs enemies?' and 'Anglo-American Terror'. The German-controlled newspapers also furiously rebuked the Allies and the Dutch government-in-exile, one remarking "The Anglo-American pirates of the sky have once again executed the orders of their Jewish-Capitalist leaders with extraordinarily positive results". It appears that the propaganda was ineffective: seven months later, the American ground troops were welcomed as heroes by the inhabitants. Internal sources of the occupying government's Department for Popular Education and Arts even suggest the propaganda may have been counterproductive.

On the day after the raid, the Allied air force launched an investigation: all air raids planned for that day were cancelled (also due to poor weather conditions), and all flyers and briefing officers involved were held on the base and questioned. The full scale of the disaster was not yet clear on 23 February, but American aerial photographs taken during the attack that Dutch naval commander Cornelis Moolenburgh managed to obtain via the Royal Air Force left no doubt that Nijmegen (and especially civilian targets in its centre), Arnhem and Enschede had been hit. Moolenburgh informed Dutch ambassador Edgar Michiels van Verduynen, who confronted American ambassador Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, Jr. (until then ignorant of the events) on the matter in the presence of Dutch queen Wilhelmina. Biddle quickly informed U.S. President Roosevelt. American air force commander Henry H. Arnold was irritated when he discovered that the Dutch embassy had been informed earlier than he himself, and he henceforth denied Moolenburgh access to USAAF documents via the RAF (which Moolenburgh could however still obtain via secret service officer Kingman Douglass). The USAAF also refused to send out reconnaissance aircraft for taking photos assessing the exact damage in the three cities, whereupon the RAF offered and executed this task. Wilhelmina demanded and received a written statement on what had happened, although it is unclear what it said.

The American army command was relatively late in drawing lessons from the disorderly air raid, which had struck an ally's civilian population hard. Not until mid-May 1944, orders were given to seek out targets of opportunity at least 30 kilometres away from the Netherlands' border.

Post-war investigation
Allied and Dutch governmental officials have maintained for decades that the bombing was a complete mistake, and the flyers supposedly did not know that they had bombed Nijmegen. This led to great frustration amongst Nijmegen's populace, which struggled with questions that were left unanswered. Concerning the real causes and motives of the attack, wild rumours and unlikely conspiracy theories sprang up and circulated widely. Although they were implausible, and contradicted each other, they satisfied a strong desire for an explanation, any explanation, for the tragic events.

Brinkhuis (1984)
Amateur historian Alfons Brinkhuis, who as a 10-year-old boy had experienced the bombing of Enschede on the same day, became the first person to conduct an elaborate investigation into the archives, and interviewed dozens of eyewitnesses. In the summer of 1984, he published his conclusions in De Fatale Aanval 22 februari 1944. Opzet of vergissing? De waarheid over de mysterieuze Amerikaanse bombardementen op Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede en Deventer ("The Fatal Attack 22 February 1944. Intent or Error? The Truth About the Mysterious American Airstrikes on Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer"). In doing so, he broke a taboo, and many facts were brought out in the open for the first time, although some of his research has been rendered obsolete by later findings. Brinkhuis' seven conclusions were:
Hundreds of bombers were unable to gather due to the high cloud formations, and had to cancel their mission prematurely.
Formation of the attack group was not completed before German fighters carried out an unexpected counterstrike above the North Sea.
Miscommunication occurred due to poor weather conditions, the American Mandrel radar jammer and especially the stuck morse key, preventing most aircraft from sending verifiable messages to the bases (vice versa was still possible, however).
Because of this miscommunication, some units received the recall sooner than others, and therefore had to choose targets of opportunity far outside the normal routes.
Because of the wind, planes were driven to the west without realising it (the clouds prevented them from seeing which country they were flying over).
The Norden bombsights were set on Gotha as the target; there was no time to reprogram them, making precision bombing impossible.
Navigators always flew based on schedules; they were not trained to orientate themselves based on the landscape. This enabled flyers to get lost when missions were not going according to plan.

Rosendaal (2006–09)
In 2006, history docent Joost Rosendaal of Radboud University Nijmegen started a new study into the bombardment, which was eventually published in 2009 as Nijmegen '44. Verwoesting, verdriet en verwerking ("Nijmegen '44: Destruction, Grief, and Consolation"). In it, he classified the attack as an opportunistic bombing rather than an error. Rosendaal rejects the notion of an 'error', because the Americans were negligent in properly identifying which city to bomb. The Americans "intentionally bombed a target of opportunity, which, however, had not been unambiguously identified."

Rosendaal added that the death toll was further increased by several disastrous circumstances. The switchboard operator, who normally directed emergency services, was killed during the raid, and without her communications were slower. Many water pipes had been destroyed, making firefighting efforts much harder and more time-consuming. Dozens of people were still alive, but stuck under the rubble; many burnt to death when flames reached them before they could be extinguished.

Legacy

The Allied bombing of Nijmegen claimed almost as many civilian casualties as the German bombing of Rotterdam at the start of the war, but nationally it is not given nearly as much attention. The population of Nijmegen was told not to express their emotions, because the bombardment had been carried out by an allied nation. Furthermore, it was officially maintained that it was an 'erroneous bombardment' (vergissingsbombardement), and the fact that the railway station area was the intended target of opportunity was covered up. Roosendaal opined that the term 'error' does not do justice to what has happened.

The memory of the February bombardment overshadows that of the city's destructive liberation during Operation Market Garden in September 1944 and the five months succeeding it, in which Nijmegen was an oft-shelled frontline city. This caused hundreds more casualties, which may have been prevented had the city been evacuated. The deaths in Nijmegen – over two thousand – make up 7% of all civilian war casualties in the Netherlands, well above the national average relative to its population size. Furthermore, it was long unclear how to commemorate these 'pointless' victims; there were enough monuments for soldiers and members of the resistance, but not of civilian deaths, and they were never part of any official memorial services.

In 1984, a memorial service was held for the first time, and at the 1994 Nijmegen Storytelling Festival amidst great public interest, eyewitnesses and survivors were given the chance to speak after 50 years of silence. Not until 2000, a monument was erected for the civilian casualties: 'De Schommel' (The Swing) at the Raadhuishof. Annual memorial gatherings held on 22 February were attended by an increasing number of people in the 2010s.

See also
 Bombing of Normandy
 Bombing of Schaffhausen

References

Literature

  Nijmegen '44. Verwoesting, verdriet en verwerking, uitg. Vantilt, Nijmegen (2009)
  "Het bombardement was geen vergissing - Nijmegen leed zwaar onder de oorlog", Trouw, cahier Letter&Geest, 28 March 2009, p. 81.

External links
 Rapport Vooronderzoek bombardement Nijmegen 22 februari 1944, November 2004
 Online publication of the book De fatale aanval by Alfons E. Brinkhuis, 1984
 Video about the victims' funeral, 1944
 Video of the 1944 bombing
 Oorlogsdoden Nijmegen 1940–1945

Germany–United States military relations
Germany–Netherlands military relations
History of Nijmegen
Nijmegen
Netherlands–United States military relations
Nijmegen
Nijmegen
Events in Nijmegen

Bombing of Nijmegen


Awsha bint Khalifa Al Suwaidi (1920 - 27 July 2018), was a pioneer Emirati poet. She was nicknamed Girl of the Gulf. She was born in the Muwaiji area in the city of Al Ain. She lived in Dubai. She retired from poetry in the late nineties and continued to narrate her poems in praise of Mohamad. She was the sister of politician Ahmed Bin Khalifa Al Suwaidi

Her poems were published in many newspapers, magazines, and audiobooks. Her work was collected in Arab Girl Diwan in 1990.

1920 births
2018 deaths
Emirati people

Awsha bint Khalifa Al Suwaidi


Veronica Scott (born November 19, 1986) is an American television personality, fashion designer, and entrepreneur. Scott is best known for being featured in the Current TV reality show The Fuchsia Girls, which follows her personal and professional life as she pursues a career in the fashion industry. Scott also co-owns the fashion company and design house Fuchsia with business partner Lawren Pope.

Early life
Scott was born in 1986 in Dallas, Texas, to Johnnie Lee Scott, Jr., and Rebecca Scott. Scott, who is multiracial, is of Hispanic and African American descent. She has one brother, Johnnie Lee Scott III, who is eight years younger than her. Scott attended River Oaks Elementary in Houston from kindergarten to the fifth grade.

Scott began college at private Houston Baptist University as an international business major for three quarters. She then moved from Houston to San Diego and enrolled at the private University of San Diego School of Business Administration. Today, Scott resides in San Diego with longtime friend and Fuchsia co-owner Lawren Pope.

Scott's lack of art and design schooling has been somewhat of a controversy with a few fashion industry seniors. In a 2008 interview with fashion editor Elizabeth Stein, Scott notes that she has been somewhat "snubbed by certain members of the fashion industry, for not doing any time at a FIDM or Parsons."

Career

Fuchsia
According to Troy Anderson, staff writer of Los Angeles Daily News, and NBIZ magazine, Scott has always known that she wanted to own a fashion retail business and even "expressed an interest in fashion design as early as age 6." This interest led to the future collaboration with Pope, whom Scott met seven years later at Westside High School.

At age 14, Scott teamed with Pope to open the fashion company Fuchsia. Six months later, they released their first collection of ready-to-wear cocktail attire at a self-produced runway show in Spring, Texas. Scott premiered the video footage of the fashion show on the Fuchsia official site, scoring the interest of several local media journalists. Most of Fuchsia's early income and public interest can be attributed to this.

As webmaster of the Fuchsia online boutique, Scott has designed and created every released version to date, of the Fuchsia Official Site and E-shop located at www.FuchsiaOnline.com. Anderson, who profiled Scott for an article on E-Commerce noted that Scott actually prefers an internet store front to a physical boutique. Scott says that the online boutique works out great, "because we're still in college and we don't have to maintain a storefront 24/7."

Save The Girls
In 2007, Scott co-founded the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization Save The Girls. Save The Girls provides cash scholarships, scholarship education, and college application assistance to schools, groups, and individual students in need. In 2008, Scott took on the position of chair at the organization.

Save The Girls also sponsors the Grace House in Chisinau, Moldova. In July 2008, Scott traveled on a mission trip for the first time to Moldova with the non-profit Justice and Mercy. During her visit to the Grace House – a transitional home for female graduates of the Internat Orphanage- Scott requested emergency aid funds from Save the Girls to improve the poor living conditions of the girls living in the home. On her return to the U.S., Scott successfully moved to keep funding the Grace House as a Save the Girls project. Scott is currently producing a new web shop for the girls of the Grace House to sell handmade jewelry and clothing.  All profits fund the Grace House project.

References

External links

Official Fuchsia site
The Fuchsia Girls official website
Save The Girls official website

1986 births
American fashion businesspeople
American Protestant missionaries
Female Christian missionaries
American fashion designers
American women fashion designers
American female models
American television actresses
Living people
Actresses from Dallas
Actresses from Houston
Houston Christian University alumni
University of San Diego alumni
21st-century American businesswomen

Veronica Scott


In the beginning of the 17th century the current Tongan ranking system became well established. This was probably due to the invasion of ʻUluakimata I with his 500 ʻUvean warriors to claim the title of the Tuʻi Tonga a century or so before. It was a long time of social changes, but Tongan culture changed from something completely different then, to the structure it still has nowadays.

In the new system the rank of the sisters of the Tuʻi Tonga was higher than of the king himself, especially the rank of his his oldest sister. She became known as the Tuʻi Tonga Fefine (female Tonga king; but she was not his wife). (These 'real' Tuʻi Tonga Fefine are different from the occasional named Tuʻi Tonga Fefine during earlier generations.) Sinaitakalaʻilangileka was the first Tuʻi Tonga Fefine.

Evidentlty the Tuʻi Tonga Fefine was not really a dynasty with a daughter succeeding on her mother's death. Their existence followed the Tuʻi Tonga, so there could be one, or none, or perhaps two Tuʻi Tonga Fefine at any particular time.

A Tuʻi Tonga Fefine had to marry a foreigner, because her children would be higher ranking than the Tuʻi Tonga himself. But as non-Tongans these children would not eligible to compete for Tongan kingship, whatever high the rank, leaving teh Tuʻi Tonga alone. Or so was the official belief and explanation. With them started the Fale Fisi, of which the Tuʻilakepa and the Tuʻihaʻateiho were the leading lineages, and also started the institution of the Tamahā, the oldest daughter of the Tuʻi Tonga Fefine.
D.V. Burley; Sacred child and sacred place; Polynesian paradox, USP 2005; ISBN 982-02-0371-6
https://web.archive.org/web/20071121233019/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2375/is_n2_v32/ai_20554487/pg_7

Tuʻi Tonga Fefine/en


A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing is an album by Josephine Foster, released in 2005. The album is irregular in that it is written in a German form known as "Lieder", or art songs.  Foster utilizes the compositions of Johannes Brahms and Franz Schubert, icons of the Romantic Era, while her lyrics are based upon the texts of writers like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe or Eduard Mörike.

Track listing

References

Josephine Foster albums
2006 albums

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing (Josephine Foster album)


Joseph Finegan, sometimes Finnegan (November 17, 1814 – October 29, 1885), was an American businessman and brigadier general for the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. From 1862 to 1864 he commanded Confederate forces operating in Middle and East Florida, ultimately leading the Confederate victory at the Battle of Olustee, the state's only major battle. He subsequently led the Florida Brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia until near the end of the war.

Before the war, Finegan was a politician, attorney, lumber mill operator, slave owner, and railroad builder. He returned to business after the war, and worked as a cotton broker.

Early life and career
Finegan was born on 17 November 1814 at Clones, a small town in the west of County Monaghan in Ireland.  He came to Florida in the 1830s, first establishing a sawmill at Jacksonville and later a law practice at Fernandina.  At the latter place, he became the business partner of David Levy Yulee and began construction of the Florida Railroad to speed transportation of goods and people from the new state's east coast to the Gulf of Mexico.

Finegan's successes are perhaps attributable to his first marriage on July 28, 1842, to the widow Rebecca Smith Travers.  Her sister Mary Martha Smith was the wife of Florida's territorial governor Robert Raymond Reid, an appointee of President Martin Van Buren.

At a courthouse auction in 1849, Finegan paid just twenty-five dollars ($25) for five miles of shoreline along Lake Monroe.

In 1852, he was a member of the Committee of Vigilance and Safety of Jacksonville, Florida.

By the outbreak of the American Civil War, Finegan had built his family a forty-room mansion in Fernandina, bounded by 11th and 12th Streets and Broome and Calhoun Avenues, the site of the modern Atlantic Elementary School.  His family included his three stepdaughters Maria, Margaret, and Martha Travers; and children Rutledge, Agnes, Josephine, and Yulee Finegan.

At Florida's secession convention, Finegan represented Nassau County alongside James G. Cooper.

Civil War
In April 1862, Finegan assumed command of Middle and East Florida from Brigadier General James H. Trapier. Soon thereafter, he suffered some embarrassment surrounding the wreck of the blockade runner Kate at Mosquito Inlet (the modern Ponce de Leon Inlet).  Her cargo of rifles, ammunition, medical supplies, blankets, and shoes was plundered by civilians.  Attempts to recover these items took months before he issued a public appeal.  Eventually, most of the rifles were found, but the other supplies were never recovered. Also in 1862, recognizing the importance of Florida beef to the Confederate cause, Finegan gave cattle baron Jacob Summerlin permission to select thirty men from the state troops under his command to assist in rounding up herds to drive north.

At this time, the principal Confederate military post in east Florida was dubbed "Camp Finegan" to honor the state's highest-ranking officer.  It was about seven miles (11 km) west of Jacksonville, south of the rail line near modern Marietta.

In 1863, Finegan complained of the large quantity of rum making its way from the West Indies into Florida.  Smugglers were buying it in Cuba for a mere seventeen cents per gallon, only to sell it in the blockaded state for twenty-five dollars per gallon.  He urged Governor John Milton to confiscate the "vile article" and destroy it before it could impact army and civilian morals.

In February 1864, General P.G.T. Beauregard began rushing reinforcements to Finegan after Confederate officials became aware of a build-up of Federal troops in the occupied city of Jacksonville.  As Florida was a vital supply route and source of beef to the other southern states, they could not allow it to fall completely into Union hands.

On February 20, 1864, Finegan stopped a Federal advance from Jacksonville under General Truman Seymour that was intent upon capturing the state capitol at Tallahassee.  Their two armies clashed at the Battle of Olustee, where Finegan's men defeated the Union Army and forced them to flee back beyond the Saint Johns River.  Critics have faulted Finegan for failing to exploit his victory by pursuing his retreating enemy, contenting himself by salvaging their arms and ammunition from the battlefield.  But, his victory was one rare bright spot in an otherwise gloomy year for the dying Confederacy.

Some Finegan detractors believe he did little more to contribute to the Confederate victory at Olustee than to shuttle troops forward to General Alfred H. Colquitt of Georgia, whom they credit for thwarting the Federal advance. They point out that Finegan was quickly relieved of his command over the state troops, replaced by Major General James Patton Anderson. But this change in command was necessary as Finegan was ordered to lead the "Florida Brigade" in the Army of Northern Virginia, where he served effectively until near the end of the war.
Col David Lang was the brigade's last commander before the surrender after the Battle of Appomattox Court House.

Postbellum career
Brigadier General Finegan returned to Fernandina after the war to discover his mansion had been seized by the Freedmen's Bureau for use as an orphanage and school for black children. It took some legal wrangling, but he was eventually able to recover this property. He had to sell most of his lands along Lake Monroe to Henry Sanford for $18,200 to pay his attorneys and other creditors. He did retain a home site at Silver Lake. Adding to his sorrows was the untimely death of his son Rutledge who died April 4, 1871, precipitating a move to Savannah, Georgia. There, Finegan felt at home with the large Irish population and worked as a cotton broker.

It was while living in Savannah that Finegan married his second wife, the widow Lucy C. Alexander, a Tennessee belle.  They eventually settled on a large orange grove in Orange County, Florida. Finegan died October 29, 1885, at Rutledge, his orange grove named after his late son in Orange (now Seminole) County, Florida. According to the Florida Times Union, his death was the result of "severe cold, inducing chills, to which he succumbed after brief illness." The paper described him as "hearty, unaffected, jovial, clear-headed, and keen-witted."  He was buried at the Old City Cemetery in Jacksonville.

See also

List of American Civil War generals (Confederate)

References

Sources
 Akerman, Jr. Joe A. and J. Mark Akerman. Jacob Summerlin: King of the Crackers. Cocoa, FL: Florida Historical Society Press, 2004.
 Blakey, Arch Frederic, Ann Smith Lainhart, and Winston Bryant Stephens, Jr., ed. Rose Cottage Chronicles: Civil War Letters of the Bryant-Stephens Families of North Florida, Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1998.
 Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. .
 Klug, Mimi. "Guide to the Mary Martha Reid Papers (1821-1890)". Cocoa, FL: Florida Historical Society Library, 2004.
 Litrico, Charles. "Joseph Finegan: Fernandina's Confederate General".
 Robison, Jim and Mark Andrews. Flashbacks: The Story of Central Florida's Past. Orlando, FL: Orange County Historical Society, 1995.
 Sifakis, Stewart. Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988. .
 Taylor, Robert A. Rebel Storehouse: Florida in the Confederate Economy. Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 1995.
 Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. .

External links

General Finegan at the Battle of Olustee

1814 births
1885 deaths
Confederate States Army brigadier generals
Irish soldiers in the Confederate States Army
Military personnel from Florida
People of Florida in the American Civil War
People from Clones, County Monaghan
Politicians from County Monaghan
American slave owners

Joseph Finegan


Zolton Anton Ferency (June 30, 1922 – March 23, 1993) was an American lawyer, political activist and Professor of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University (MSU).

Ferency was born in Detroit, Michigan, in a Hungarian-American family. He served in World War II, and graduated from Michigan State University and the Detroit College of Law.

Ferency was a three-time chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party. He was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Governor of Michigan in 1966, when he was defeated, as expected, by George W. Romney. He also served as first President of the Human Rights Party, which he helped found in 1970 after breaking with the Democratic Party over its support for the Vietnam War. He rejoined the Democrats in 1976.

Ferency was elected to the Ingham County Board of Commissioners in 1980, and to the East Lansing City Council in 1991. He was serving on the city council at his death. He was a frequent if unsuccessful candidate for other public offices, running for governor in 1966, 1970, 1974, 1978, and 1982; for Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court in 1972, 1976, and 1986; and for the Michigan Senate, 24th District, in 1990.

Ferency taught criminal justice at MSU from 1971 until his retirement in 1990.

Ferency lived in East Lansing, Michigan. He died on March 23, 1993, in Lansing, Michigan.

The Ferency House in the Michigan State University Student Housing Cooperative and the Zolton Ferency Endowed Scholarship at MSU commemorate Ferency.

References
Specific

General
 http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/fentress-fergus.html
 Time (magazine)
 https://web.archive.org/web/20060901075833/http://www.cj.msu.edu/%7Ehistory/sleuths.html
 https://web.archive.org/web/20070927200346/http://www.urbanoptions.org/resources/sundial/sun04fall.pdf
 https://web.archive.org/web/20110320013707/http://www.msu.coop:80/zolton-ferency

Michigan State University faculty
1922 births
1993 deaths
Human Rights Party (United States) politicians
Michigan Democrats
People from East Lansing, Michigan
Michigan State University alumni
Detroit College of Law alumni
County commissioners in Michigan
Michigan city council members
Lawyers from Detroit
American people of Hungarian descent
Military personnel from Michigan
American military personnel of World War II
20th-century American politicians
20th-century American lawyers

Zolton Ferency


Whau Lunatic Asylum (or:  Lunatic Asylum at the Whau; later: Auckland Lunatic Asylum, Avondale Lunatic Asylum, Avondale Hospital, Auckland Mental Health Hospital, Oakley Hospital;  Carrington Psychiatric Hospital; commonly Carrington/Oakley Hospital) was a psychiatric hospital on the Oakley Farm Estate in Point Chevalier, Auckland, New Zealand. Built in 1865 on the Great North Road, it was one of the largest asylums in the Colony.

Most of the site of the former asylum is currently occupied by the Unitec Institute of Technology, with smaller sections occupied by the Mason Clinic (a forensic psychiatric clinic also serving as a facility for mentally disturbed prisoners) and various private businesses.

Etymology
"Whau" is the common name for Entelea, a species of tree endemic to New Zealand; the Whau River is located within the Auckland metropolitan area.

History

In  1851 the original "special asylum" for Auckland received  public support, and by 1853 Auckland's first asylum was built on the grounds of Auckland Hospital However, by 1862 this building was overcrowded and consequently support was sought from the provincial government In September 1863, architectural plans by a Mr Barrett from England were submitted to the Auckland architect James Wrigley who adapted them. Henry White was the builder. John Thomas of Oakley Creek was awarded a brick contract for the building materials, but being unable to complete the contract, it fell on Dr. Pollen to supply the rest of the bricks. Some of the bricks were produced on-site while others were produced at Dr Pollen's Avondale brickyard. While building was complete in 1867 it stopped at the left wing of the main hospital because 20,000 pounds had been spent and this was thought adequate for the community at the time.  Patients were moved from the Auckland Hospital site to the "new asylum" on 8 March 1867

After the building was gutted by an 1877 fire, Philip Herapath supervised the reconstruction. From 1869 to 1879, Thomas Aickin served as medical superintendent. In 1879, a new wing to the asylum was under construction and stone for it was mined from nearby Oakley Creek. An estimated two-thousand tons of stone was made available in this exercise through detonation of 16 barrels of gunpowder under a 20-foot deep bed of lava, which created a miniature "earthquake" felt in the surrounding area. In 1891, T. R. King, Medical Superintendent, resigned because of ill-health, and was succeeded by Gray Hassell, who had been an administrator at the Wellington Hospital and Wellington Asylum.

In December 1900, there were 494 patients—306 males and 188 females. The staff included 31 males and 21 females. The average net cost per patient was, in 1898, £19 13s, and, in 1899, £20 8s. The average number of patients sent out cured in 1898 was 51%, and in 1899, 38%; average deaths, 1898, 7.5; in 1899, 8.8. The officials of the institution at the time were Robert Martin Beattie, medical superintendent; William Webster, assistant medical officer; Edward Newport, head attendant; Sophia Campbell, matron; and J. D. Muir, farm manager. Religious service was held on Sunday by ministers of the denominations of which patients were members.

The asylum underwent several name changes. It was known as Auckland Mental Health Hospital in 1959. In the 1960s, the work week averaged 60 hours and staff had only one day off each week. Avondale Mental Asylum became Oakley Hospital, it contained a male forensic unit and general psychiatric wards.  The institute's centenary was celebrated in Oakley Hospital in 1967. The Auckland Psychiatric Hospital was officially renamed Oakley Hospital in 1960. In 1972 the nursing staff went out on strike for better conditions, following this the hospital was divided into two, the main hospital became  Carrington Hospital and the forensic wards remained named Oakley Hospital In 1964, G.M. Tothill retired as medical superintendent and Dr P.P.E. Savage was appointed to take his place.

In 1971, the building was considered to be one of the best Victorian buildings in Auckland. In keeping with a national change, the Auckland Hospital Board took control of the hospital from the Health Department the following year. Controversial plans were considered for the hospital's M3 Ward to be turned into a medical security prison in 1986. In 1992, Carrington Hospital was closed by the Auckland Area Health Board and was purchased by a tertiary education provider, Carrington Polytec, who refurbished the building, opening the Unitec Institute of Technology School of Architecture and Design in 1994. The original building was being used by Unitec's departments of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Design and Contemporary Arts.

Architecture and fittings

The facade is neoclassical and has polychromatic detailing. Built of brick, it faced the junction of Great North Road and Carrington Road, leading to Mount Albert. In the central portion of the building were the dining halls, kitchen, and store-rooms, and the two adjoining wings were the male and female wards. The male dining hall was also used for theatrical and musical performances. Auxiliary wood buildings were destroyed by fire in December 1894. A new brick building was completed in 1896–1897.  The chapel of St Luke the Physician, built in 1865, was used as a dormitory since 1875, but was renovated and reopened as a chapel in 1961. The Conolly Room at the hospital was named after English doctor, John Conolly.

Grounds
A spring on the estate, and a waterfall on Oakley Creek, was ample for domestic and fire prevention purposes. A farm, consisting of nearly , was attached to the asylum, providing for healthful recreation and fresh vegetables. There were approximately 50 milk cows on the estate, and numerous pigs. Fresh eggs was obtained from the farm's poultry. Part of the land was turned into an experimental sewage farm. The oldest building has several notable trees and shrubs of interest including holm oak, sweetgum, chaste tree, and pigeonberry. now part of the Unitec Arboretum . In 1969, the Auckland University Council decided that the farm was not suitable for university development, but wanted to convert  for playing fields while Auckland Technical Institute wanted .

The majority of the land has been purchased by the New Zealand government for affordable housing developments, with 3,000 to 4,000 homes to be built starting in 2019.

References

Hospital buildings completed in 1865
Buildings and structures in Auckland
Psychiatric hospitals in New Zealand
Defunct hospitals in New Zealand
Hospitals established in 1853
Hospitals disestablished in 1992
Albert-Eden Local Board Area

Whau Lunatic Asylum


The London conference of 1864 was a peace conference on the Second Schleswig War that took place in London from 25 April to 25 June 1864.

Lord John Russell had intervened with a proposal that the war should be submitted to a European conference on behalf of the United Kingdom; the proposal was supported by the Russian Empire, the Second French Empire, and Sweden. The negotiations were influenced by the Prussian and Austrian victory  in the Battle of Dybbøl, giving Otto von Bismarck and his delegation an advantage over their opponents. The conference broke up 25 June 1864 without having arrived at any conclusion.

Background
The government of Denmark  attempted to integrate Schleswig, by creating a new common constitution (the so-called November Constitution) for Denmark and Schleswig.  On 18 November 1863 Christian IX of Denmark signed the constitution, merging Schleswig into Denmark and separating Schleswig from Holstein.  On 28 December a motion was introduced in the Federal Assembly by Austria and Prussia, calling on the German Confederation to occupy Schleswig as a pledge for the observance by Denmark of compacts of London Protocol 1852. This implied the recognition of the rights of Christian IX, and was indignantly rejected by Denmark; whereupon the Federal Assembly was informed that the Austrian and Prussian governments would act in the matter as independent European powers.

Initially Lord John Russell proposed a European conference based on status quo. The German powers signed an agreement on 11 March, under which the compacts of 1852 were declared to be no longer valid.

The negotiations
The British plans for a ceasefire should have been presented on 12 April, but Bismarck was successful in postponing the opening of the conference to 25 April. Meanwhile, the German and Austrian troops had a decisive victory in the Battle of Dybbøl.

The proceedings of the conference only revealed the inextricable tangle of issues involved. The 11 March agreement made the Germans participate if the 1852 London Protocol was not taken as a basis, and the duchies were bound to Denmark by a personal tie only. Furthermore, the Germans demanded a Danish withdrawal of the blockade of the German ports. The Danish delegation refused, arguing that cutting off all maritime transport from and to the enemy was essential to the Danish strategy of war.

On 12 May 1864, the conference in London led to a ceasefire, which soon broke down, as the delegations could not agree on a clear fixing of the boundaries; partitioning the duchy of Schleswig was seen as possible. On 28 March, Lord Russell declared support for a Partition Plan that separated the German parts of Schleswig from the Danish monarchy. Napoleon III, a supporter of the self-determination principle, demanded a referendum.

Beust, on behalf of the Confederation, demanded the recognition of the Augustenburg claimant; Austria leaned to a settlement on the lines of that of 1852. Prussia, it was increasingly clear, aimed at the acquisition of the duchies. The first step towards the realisation of that ambition was to secure the recognition of the absolute independence of the duchies, which Austria could not oppose because of the risk of forfeiting any influence among the German states. The two powers then, agreed to demand the complete political independence of the duchies bound together by common institutions.

The next move was uncertain. As to the question of annexation, Prussia would leave that open but made it clear that any settlement must involve the complete military subordination of Schleswig-Holstein to herself. That alarmed Austria, which had no wish to see a further extension of Prussia's already overgrown power and began to champion the claims of the duke of Augustenburg. That contingency, however, Bismarck had foreseen and himself offered to support the claims of the duke at the conference if he would undertake to subordinate himself in all naval and military matters to Prussia, surrender Kiel for the purposes of a Prussian war-harbour, give Prussia the control of the projected Kiel Canal, and enter the Prussian Customs Union.

The Danish Foreign Minister, George Quaade, declared his country ready to follow "the road of peace" but had no answer from Copenhagen on the issues of the Partition Plan. On behalf of Prussia, Bismarck agreed in a partition of Schleswig, only leaving a minor part for Denmark. On 25 June the London conference broke up without having arrived at any conclusion. On the 24th, in view of the end of the truce, Austria and Prussia had arrived at a new agreement, the object of the war being now declared to be the complete separation of the duchies from Denmark. As the result of the short campaign that followed, the preliminaries of a treaty of peace were signed on August 1, the King of Denmark renouncing all his rights in the duchies in favour of the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia.

References

Further reading
 Carr, Carr. Schleswig-Holstein, 1815–1848: A Study in National Conflict (Manchester University Press, 1963).
 Price, Arnold. "Schleswig-Holstein" in Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions (2005) online
 Steefel, Lawrence D. The Schleswig-Holstein Question. 1863-1864 (Harvard U.P. 1923).

External links
Historical Atlas of Schleswig-Holstein
Searchable dictionary of German and Danish and Frisian forms of Schleswig placenames

Schleswig Wars
1864 in London
Conflicts in 1864
1864 in Denmark
19th-century diplomatic conferences
1864 conferences
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell
Otto von Bismarck

London Conference of 1864


A whipstaff is a steering device that was used on European sailing ships from the 14th to the 17th century. Its development preceded the invention of the more complex ship's wheel and followed the simple use of a tiller to control the steering of a ship underway.

In a typical arrangement, an iron gooseneck was fitted at the fore end of the tiller. Then, a metal ring was fitted over this and secured with a pin. The ring was attached to a long, thin pole (the whipstaff proper) and this pole connected the tiller to the helmsman one or more decks above it through a pivot point, roll, or rowle, described as "that round piece of wood or iron wherein the whip doth go and is made turn about that it may carry over the whip from side to side with more ease." The helmsman himself still usually did not stand on the topmost deck, but rather viewed what lay ahead of the ship through a small port or hatchway in the deck above him called a companion.  To move the ship to port, the forward-facing helmsman pulled the top of the staff to his left and pushed the pole down and to the right; to move it to starboard, he pulled the top to his right and pushed the pole down and to the left.  In this fashion, the tiller might get as much as 20° of turn though angles of between 5° and 10° seem more likely.  The tiller rested on a very strong horizontal wooden bar called the tiller sweep, which was sheathed in metal and coated with soap and grease to minimize the drag of the tiller as it rode across it.

This arrangement, however, meant that the helmsman still had very limited range of control of the tiller's movement (no more than 15° to either side) and he had to steer either with extremely limited views of the sails or sometimes dependent entirely upon the conn for direction.  Emphasis had to be placed on the use of sails to control the ship's course, and this was imprecise and depended on the vicissitudes of the wind.  Where extreme movement of the rudder was necessary, the use of relieving tackle had to be implemented.

References

Control devices
Sailboat components
Sailing ship components

Whipstaff


Manfred Melzer (28 February 1944 – 9 August 2018) was a German bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. Appointed by Pope Benedict XVI, Melzer was serving as an Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cologne from 1995 to 2015.

Early life
Born in Solingen-Ohligs,  Melzer studied in Bonn, Freiburg im Breisgau and Cologne theology. He was ordained to the Priesthood on 1 February 1972 by Cardinal Joseph Höffner, the then Archbishop of Cologne at the Cologne Cathedral. Upon his ordination, Cardinal Höffner made Melzer his personal secretary and the cathedral administrator. He remained Cardinal Höffner's secretary until Höffner's death in 1987. On 17 March 1984, Pope John Paul II appointed him Chaplain of His Holiness. In 1988, he began serving as a priest in Waldbröl and the municipality Nümbrecht.

Episcopal career
On 9 June 1995, Pope John Paul II appointed Melzer the titular bishop of Carinola (Italy) and auxiliary bishop in Cologne. He was consecrated by the Cologne archbishop Joachim Meisner on 10 September 1995 in the Cologne Cathedral. Melzer was responsible for the pastoral district middle of the archbishopric of Cologne; the town and surroundings (20 deanships). At the same time, the archbishop appointed him the bishop's curate for the women's orders in the archbishopric of Cologne. In 1998 Melzer was chosen in the metropolitan chapter.

As a member of the German Bishops' Conference, he was a member of the pastoral commission and the commission for questions of the world church. Since 2004, Melzer was also chairperson of German Lourdes, an association Cologne inc. He also was the representative of the Archdiocese of Cologne in Misereor eV and representative of the Archbishop in the Cardinal Höffner Society. In 2006 the German bishops chose him to be the representative for Catholic police officers in Germany and to take care of their spiritual welfare.

External links

 web page about Manfred Melzer (archbishopric Cologne)

References

1944 births
2018 deaths
German Roman Catholic titular bishops
People from Solingen

Manfred Melzer


Urtica dioica, often known as common nettle, burn nettle, stinging nettle (although not all plants of this species sting) or nettle leaf, or just a nettle or stinger, is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Urticaceae. Originally native to Europe, much of temperate Asia and western North Africa, it is now found worldwide. The species is divided into six subspecies, five of which have many hollow stinging hairs called trichomes on the leaves and stems, which act like hypodermic needles, injecting histamine and other chemicals that produce a stinging sensation upon contact ("contact urticaria", a form of contact dermatitis).

The plant has a long history of use as a source for traditional medicine, food, tea, and textile raw material in ancient (such as Saxon) and modern societies.

Description
Urtica dioica is a dioecious, herbaceous, perennial plant,  tall in the summer and dying down to the ground in winter. It has widely spreading rhizomes and stolons, which are bright yellow, as are the roots. The soft, green leaves are  long and are borne oppositely on an erect, wiry, green stem. The leaves have a strongly serrated margin, a cordate base, and an acuminate tip with a terminal leaf tooth longer than adjacent laterals. It bears small, greenish or brownish, numerous flowers in dense axillary inflorescences.

The leaves and stems are very hairy with non-stinging hairs, and in most subspecies, also bear many stinging hairs (trichomes or spicules), whose tips come off when touched, transforming the hair into a needle that can inject several chemicals causing a painful sting or paresthesia, giving the species its common names: stinging nettle, burn-nettle, burn-weed, or burn-hazel.

Taxonomy

Credit for the scientific naming of Urtica dioica is given to Carl Linnaeus who published it in Species Plantarum in 1753. The taxonomy of Urtica species is confused, and sources are likely to use a variety of systematic names for these plants. Until 2014 there was broad consensus that the nettles native to the Americas, now classified as Urtica gracilis, were subspecies of Urtica dioica. However, in that year the paper "Weeding the Nettles II" was published in the journal Phytotaxa demonstrating the genetic distinctness of new world nettles. As of 2023 Plants of the World Online (POWO) recognizes U. gracilis as a distinct species while the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS database (PLANTS) continues to list it as U. dioica subsp. gracilis, as does the Flora of North America (FNA).

As of 2023 POWO recognizes 11 subspecies or varieties of U. dioica:

Urtica dioica subsp. afghanica Chrtek, from southwestern and central Asia, sometimes has stinging hairs or is sometimes hairless.
Urtica dioica subsp. dioica (European stinging nettle), from Europe, Asia, and northern Africa, has stinging hairs.
Urtica dioica subsp. gansuensis C.J.Chen, from eastern Asia (China), has stinging hairs.
Urtica dioica var. glabrata (Clem.) Asch. & Graebn.
Urtica dioica var. hispida (Lam. ex DC.) Tausch ex Ott
Urtica dioica var. holosericea Fr.
Urtica dioica subsp. kurdistanica Chrtek
Urtica dioica subsp. pubescens(Ledeb.) Domin, in many sources as U. dioica subsp. galeopsifolia (fen nettle or stingless nettle), from Europe, does not have stinging hairs.
Urtica dioica var. sarmatica Zapał.
Urtica dioica subsp. sondenii(Simmons) Hyl.
Urtica dioica subsp. subinermis (R.Uechtr.) Weigend

Etymology
Urtica is derived from a Latin word meaning 'sting'.

Dioica (δίοικος) is derived from Greek, meaning 'of two houses' (having separate staminate and pistillate plants; dioecious).

Distribution and habitat

U. dioica is considered to be native to Europe, much of temperate Asia and western North Africa. It is abundant in northern Europe and much of Asia, usually found in the countryside. It is less widespread in southern Europe and north Africa, where it is restricted by its need for moist soil, but is still common. It has been introduced to many other parts of the world. In North America, it is widely distributed in Canada and the United States, where it is found in every province and state except for Hawaii, and also can be found in northernmost Mexico. It grows in abundance in the Pacific Northwest, especially in places where annual rainfall is high. The European subspecies has been introduced into Australia, North America and South America.

In Europe, nettles have a strong association with human habitation and buildings. The presence of nettles may indicate the site of a long-abandoned building, and can also indicate soil fertility. Human and animal waste may be responsible for elevated levels of phosphate and nitrogen in the soil, providing an ideal environment for nettles.

Ecology

Nettles are the larval food plant for several species of butterflies, such as the peacock butterfly, comma (Polygonia c-album), and the small tortoiseshell. It is also eaten by the larvae of some moths including angle shades, buff ermine, dot moth, the flame, the gothic, grey chi, grey pug, lesser broad-bordered yellow underwing, mouse moth, setaceous Hebrew character, and small angle shades. The roots are sometimes eaten by the larva of the ghost moth (Hepialus humuli).

It is a known host to the pathogenic fungus Phoma herbarum.

Stinging nettle is particularly found as an understory plant in wetter environments, but it is also found in meadows. Although nutritious, it is not widely eaten by either wildlife or livestock, presumably because of the sting. It spreads by abundant seeds and also by rhizomes, and is often able to survive and re-establish quickly after fire.

Cultivation

Field

Sowing and planting
Three cultivation techniques can be used for the stinging nettle: 1) direct sowing, 2) growing seedlings in nurseries with subsequent transplantation and 3) vegetative propagation via stolons or head cuttings.

 Direct sowing: The seedbed should have a loose and fine structure, but should be reconsolidated using a packer roller imminently prior to sowing. Sowing time can be either in autumn or in spring. Seed density should be 6 kilograms/hectare with row spacing of  and 42–50 cm in autumn and spring, respectively. The disadvantage of direct sowing is that it usually leads to incomplete plant coverage. This drawback can be mitigated by covering the seedbed with a transparent perforated foil in order to improve seed germination. Further, weed control can be problematic as the stinging nettle has a slow seedling development time.
 Growing seedlings: For this technique pre-germinated seeds are sown between mid-/end-February and beginning of April and grown in nurseries. Seedlings are grown in tuffs with 3–5 plants/tuff and a seed density of 1.2–1.6 kg/1000 tuffs. Faster germination is achieved by alternating high temperature during daytime (30 °C for 8 h) and lower temperature during nighttime (20 °C for 16 h). Before transplanting, the seedlings should be fertilized and acclimated to cold temperatures. Transplantation should start around Mid-April with row spacing of  and plant spacing within rows of 25–30 cm.
 Vegetative propagation: Stolons (with several buds) of 10 cm should be planted from mid-April in a depth of . Head cuttings are grown in nurseries starting between mid-May and mid-June. Growing tips with two leaf pairs are cut from the mother plant and treated with root-growth inducing hormones. Transplantation can be delayed in comparison to the growing seedling technique.

Greenhouse
The stinging nettle can also be grown in controlled-environment agriculture systems, such as soil-less medium cultivations or aeroponics, which may achieve higher yields, standardize quality, and reduce harvesting costs and contamination.

Sting and treatment

Urtica dioica produces its inflammatory effect on skin (stinging, burning sensation often called "contact urticaria") both by impaling the skin via spicules – causing mechanical irritation – and by biochemical irritants, such as histamine, serotonin, and acetylcholine, among other chemicals. Anti-itch drugs, usually in the form of creams containing antihistamines or hydrocortisone, may provide relief from nettle dermatitis. The term, contact urticaria, has a wider use in dermatology, involving dermatitis caused by various skin irritants and pathogens.

Docks, especially the broad-leaf dock (Rumex obtusifolius) often grow in similar environments to stinging nettles and are regarded as a folk remedy to counteract the sting of a nettle, although there is no evidence of any chemical effect. It may be that the act of rubbing a dock leaf against a nettle sting acts as a distracting counterstimulation, or that belief in the dock's effect provides a placebo effect.

Uses

Culinary

U. dioica has a flavour similar to spinach when cooked. Young plants are harvested by many Native American communities and are cooked and eaten in spring when other food plants are scarce. Soaking stinging nettles in water or cooking removes the stinging chemicals from the plant, which allows them to be handled and eaten without injury. After the stinging nettle enters its flowering and seed-setting stages, the leaves develop gritty particles called cystoliths. Many sources claim consumption of these can irritate the kidneys and urinary tract; however, there is no medical evidence to support this claim. Cystoliths are made of calcium carbonate, and will not dissolve when boiled. Leaves harvested post-flowering must have their cystoliths broken down by acid, as in the fermentation process. In its peak season, nettle contains up to 25% protein, dry weight, which is high for a leafy green vegetable. The leaves are also dried and may then be used to make a herbal tea, as can also be done with the nettle's flowers.

Nettles can be used in a variety of recipes, such as polenta, pesto, and purée. Nettle soup is a common use of the plant, particularly in Northern and Eastern Europe.

Nettles are sometimes used in cheesemaking, such as for Cornish Yarg and as a flavouring in varieties of Gouda.

Nettles are used in Montenegro, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the dough filling for the börek pastry. The top baby leaves are selected and simmered, and then mixed with other ingredients such as herbs and rice, before being used as a filling between dough layers. Similarly, in Greece the tender leaves are often used, after simmering, as a filling for hortopita, which is similar to spanakopita, but with wild greens rather than spinach for filling.

Young nettles can also be used to make an alcoholic drink.

Competitive eating
In the UK, an annual World Nettle Eating Championship draws thousands of people to Dorset, where competitors attempt to eat as much of the raw plant as possible. Competitors are given  stalks of the plant, from which they strip the leaves and eat them. Whoever strips and eats the most stinging nettle leaves in a fixed time is the winner. The competition dates back to 1986, when two neighbouring farmers attempted to settle a dispute about which had the worst infestation of nettles, and one of them said, "I'll eat any nettle of yours that's longer than mine."

Traditional medicine
As Old English , nettle is one of the nine plants invoked in the pagan Anglo-Saxon Nine Herbs Charm, recorded in 10th-century traditional medicine. Nettle was believed to be a galactagogue – a substance that promotes lactation. Urtication, or flogging with nettles, is the process of deliberately applying stinging nettles to the skin to provoke inflammation. An agent thus used was considered to be a rubefacient (something that causes redness), used as a folk remedy for treating rheumatism. A study undertaken in 2000 showed that nettles were an effective therapy in relieving the pain of arthritis.

Chastisement
In indigenous justice systems in Ecuador, urtication was used as punishment for severe crimes in 2010. The sentenced perpetrator of a crime was flogged with stinging nettle, in public, naked, whilst being showered with freezing cold water.

Textiles and fibre

Nettle stems contain a bast fibre that has been traditionally used for the same purposes as linen and is produced by a similar retting process. Unlike cotton, nettles grow easily without pesticides. The fibres are coarser, however.

Historically, nettles have been used to make clothing for almost 3,000 years, as ancient nettle textiles from the Bronze Age have been found in Denmark. It is widely believed that German Army uniforms were almost all made from nettle during World War I due to a shortage of cotton, although there is little evidence to support this. More recently, companies in Austria, Germany, and Italy have started to produce commercial nettle textiles.

The fibre content in nettle shows a high variability and reaches from below 1% to 17%. Under middle-European conditions, stems yield typically between 45 and 55 dt / ha (decitons per hectare), which is comparable to flax stem yield. Due to the variable fibre content, the fibre yields vary between 0.2 and 7 dt / ha, but the yields are normally in the range between 2 and 4 dt / ha. Fibre varieties are normally cloning varieties and therefore planted from vegetative propagated plantlets. Direct seeding is possible, but leads to great heterogeneity in maturity.

Nettles may be used as a dye-stuff, producing yellow from the roots, or yellowish green from the leaves.

Feed

Nutrient contents
Fresh leaves contain approximately 82.4% water, 17.6% dry matter, 5.5% protein, 0.7 to 3.3% fat, and 7.1% carbohydrates. Mature leaves contain about 40% α- linolenic acid, a valuable omega-3 acid. For exact fatty acid contents see Table 1. Seeds contain much more fatty acid than leaves.

Minerals (Ca, K, Mg, P, Si, S, Cl) and trace elements (Ti, 80 ppm, Mn, Cu, Fe) contents depend mostly on the soil and the season.

Carotenoids can be found primarily in the leaves, where different forms of lutein, xanthophyll and carotene are present (Table 2). Some carotenes are precursors of vitamin A (retinol), their retinol equivalents RE or retinol activity equivalents per g dry weight are 1.33 for mature leaves and 0.9 for young leaves. Nettle contains much less carotenes and retinol than carrots, which contain 8.35 RE per g fresh weight. Depending on the batch and the leaf and stem content, nettle contains only traces of zeaxanthin or between 20–60 mg/kg of dry matter. Nettle contains ascorbic acid (vitamin C), riboflavin (vitamin B2), pantothenic acid, vitamin K1 and tocopherols (vitamin E). The highest vitamin contents can be found in the leaves.

Poultry: Egg yolk colouring in laying hens
In laying hens, nettle can be used as an egg yolk colourant instead of artificial pigments or other natural pigments (derived from marigold for yellow). Nettle has high carotenoid contents, especially lutein, β-carotene and zeaxanthin, of which lutein and zeaxanthin act as yellow pigments. Feeding as little as 6.25 g dry nettle per kg feed is as effective as the synthetic pigments to colour the egg yolk. Feeding nettle has no detrimental effect on the performance of the laying hens or on the general quality of eggs.

Ruminants
Ruminants avoid fresh stinging nettles; however, if the nettles are wilted or dry, voluntary intake can be high.

Use in agriculture / horticulture
In the European Union and United Kingdom, nettle extract can be used as an insecticide, fungicide, and acaricide under Basic Substance regulations. As an insecticide nettle extract can be used for the control of codling moth, diamondback moth, and spider mites. As a fungicide, it can be used for the control of Pythium root rot, powdery mildew, early blight, late blight, Septoria blight, Alternaria leaf spot, and grey mould.

Gardening
Nettles have a number of uses in the vegetable garden, including the potential for encouraging beneficial insects. Since nettles prefer to grow in phosphorus-rich and nitrogen rich soils that have recently been disturbed (and thus aerated), the growth of nettles is an indicator that an area has high fertility (especially phosphate and nitrate), and thus is an indicator to gardeners as to the quality of the soil.

Nettles contain nitrogenous compounds, so are used as a compost activator or can be used to make a liquid fertilizer, which although low in phosphate, is useful in supplying magnesium, sulphur, and iron. They are also one of the few plants that can tolerate, and flourish in, soils rich in poultry droppings.

The stinging nettle is the red admiral caterpillar's primary host plant and can attract migrating red admiral butterflies to a garden. U. dioica can be a troubling weed, and mowing can increase plant density. Regular and persistent tilling will greatly reduce its numbers, and the use of herbicides such as 2,4-D and glyphosate are effective control measures.

Culture
In Great Britain and Ireland, U. dioica and the annual nettle Urtica urens are the only common stinging plants and have found a place in several figures of speech in the English language. Shakespeare's Hotspur urges that "out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety" (Henry IV, Part 1, Act II Scene 3). The figure of speech "to grasp the nettle" probably originated from Aesop's fable "The Boy and the Nettle". In Seán O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock, one of the characters quotes Aesop "Gently touch a nettle and it'll sting you for your pains/Grasp it as a lad of mettle and soft as silk remains". The metaphor may refer to the fact that if a nettle plant is grasped firmly rather than brushed against, it does not sting so readily, because the hairs are crushed down flat and do not penetrate the skin so easily.

In the German language, the idiom , or to sit in nettles, means to get into trouble.
In Hungarian, the idiom , the lightning bolt does not strike into nettles, alludes to the belief that bad people escape trouble or the devil looks after his own. The same idiom exists in the Serbian language – . In Dutch, a  means a predicament. In French, the idiom  (do not push granny into the nettles) means that we should be careful not to abuse a situation. The name urticaria for hives comes from the Latin name of nettle (, from urere, to burn).

The English word 'nettled', meaning irritated or angry, is derived from 'nettle'.

There is a common idea in Great Britain that the nettle was introduced by the Romans, but Plant Atlas 2020 treats it as native. The idea of its introduction was mentioned by William Camden in his book Britannia of 1586. However, in 2011, an early Bronze Age burial cist on Whitehorse Hill, Dartmoor, Devon was excavated. The cist dated from between 1730 and 1600 BC. It contained various high value beads as well as fragments of a sash made from nettle fibre. It is possible that the sash was traded from mainland Europe, but perhaps more probable that it was locally made.

See also
Nettles in folklore

References

Further reading

Schofield, Janice J. (1998). Nettles
Thiselton-Dyer, T. F., (1889). The Folk-Lore of Plants.
Glawe, G. A. (2006). Sex ratio variation and sex determination in Urtica diocia.

External links

Flora of China: Urtica dioica

dioica
Fiber plants
Leaf vegetables
Flora of Europe
Flora of temperate Asia
Flora of North Africa
Medicinal plants
Dioecious plants
Plants described in 1753
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus

Urtica dioica


Jordan Ryan (born in 1950) joined The Carter Center as Vice President for Peace Programs in 2015.

Ryan served as Assistant Administrator for the United Nations Development Programme at the level of Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery.

Prior to his appointment as Assistant Administrator, Ryan was Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator of the United Nations Mission in Liberia from 2006 until 2009.

His 20 years of experience with the UN includes serving at different capacities in developing countries and in post-crisis setting. He joined the UNDP in China as Assistant Resident Representative in 1991. Between 1993 and 1996, he worked as Senior Assistant Resident Representative and later as Deputy Resident Representative in Viet Nam.

Between 1996 and 1997, he was Deputy Director of the Office of the Administrator in the Headquarters of UNDP in New York City. From 1997 to 2001, he became Director of that office.

Ryan graduated high school from the Webb School of California.  He obtained his B.A. in anthropology from Yale University. He also holds a J.D. from George Washington University and a M.A. from Columbia School of International and Public Affairs. He was a visiting fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University in 2001.

External links
Jordan Ryan, UN Biography

1950 births
Yale University alumni
George Washington University Law School alumni
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University alumni
Harvard Kennedy School staff
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
American officials of the United Nations

Jordan Ryan


Arne Rolighed (Flade på Mors, 2 June 1947) is a Danish former politician and the current president of the Danish Cancer Society until July 2010. Although he was never a member of the Danish parliament, Prime minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen appointed him as Health Minister in December 2000, a position he held until the Social Democratic government lost the 2001 parliamentary election to Venstre's Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Early life
Born in Flade på Mors. She graduated in Political Science from Aarhus University.

Notes

1947 births
Living people
Danish Health Ministers
21st-century Danish politicians
People from Morsø Municipality

Arne Rolighed


The 22nd Punjabis was an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. It was raised in 1857, as the 11th Regiment of Punjab Infantry. It was designated as the 22nd Punjabis in 1903 and became 3rd Battalion 14th Punjab Regiment in 1922. In 1947, it was allocated to the Pakistan Army, where it continues to exist as 7th Battalion The Punjab Regiment.

Early history
The regiment was raised at Multan on 1 August 1857, during the upheaval of the Indian Mutiny, as the 11th Regiment of Punjab Infantry from the men of the 1st Sikh Infantry and the 3rd Punjab Police Battalion. The regiment took part in the Second Opium War in 1860, the Lushai Expedition of 1871 and the Second Afghan War of 1878-80.

22nd Punjabis
Subsequent to the reforms brought about in the Indian Army by Lord Kitchener in 1903, the regiment's designation was changed to 22nd Punjabis. During the First World War, the regiment served in Mesopotamia Campaign. It fought in a number of actions including the Battle of Ctesiphon in 1915, where it suffered 396 casualties out of a strength of 814. In 1917, the 22nd Punjabis raised a 2nd battalion, which was disbanded after the war. In 1919, the regiment fought in the Third Afghan War.

Subsequent history
In 1921-22, a major reorganization was undertaken in the British Indian Army leading to the formation of large infantry groups of four to six battalions. Among these was the 14th Punjab Regiment, formed by grouping the 22nd Punjabis  with the 19th, 20th, 21st and 24th Punjabis, and the 40th Pathans. The battalion's new designation was 3rd Battalion 14th Punjab Regiment. During the Second World War, the battalion fought in Eritrea, North Africa and Burma. In 1947, the 14th Punjab Regiment was allocated to Pakistan Army. In 1956, it was merged with the 1st, 15th and 16th Punjab Regiments to form one large Punjab Regiment, and 3/14th Punjab was redesignated as 7 Punjab. During the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War, the battalion fought in Kasur Sector, while in 1971, it fought at Suleimanki.

Genealogy

1857 11th Regiment of Punjab Infantry
1861 26th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry
1861 22nd Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry
1864 22nd (Punjab) Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry
1885 22nd (Punjab) Regiment of Bengal Infantry
1901 22nd Punjab Infantry
1903 22nd Punjabis
1917 1st Battalion 22nd Punjabis
1922 3rd Battalion 14th Punjab Regiment
1956 7th Battalion The Punjab Regiment

References

Further reading
Haig, Brodie. Fourteenth Punjab Regiment 1939-1945. London: Lund Humphries, n.d.
Rizvi, Brig SHA. (1984). Veteran Campaigners – A History of the Punjab Regiment 1759-1981. Lahore: Wajidalis.
Cardew, Lt FG. (1903). A Sketch of the Services of the Bengal Native Army to the Year 1895. Calcutta: Military Department.

See also
14th Punjab Regiment
Punjab Regiment

British Indian Army infantry regiments
Punjab Regiment (Pakistan)
Military units and formations established in 1857
1857 establishments in India

22nd Punjabis


Stephen William Howlett  was formerly Chief Executive of Peabody, one of London's oldest and largest housing associations. He was Chief Executive between 2004 and July 2017 and was appointed to the Peabody Board on 18 May 2011. He also chairs the Board – known as the Court – of the University of Greenwich and presides over its graduation ceremonies as Pro Chancellor. Howlett has been made a 2017 Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

Early life
Howlett was born on 18 November 1951 and brought up in Lavenham, Suffolk. He attended King Edward VI grammar school in Bury St. Edmunds and later Thames Polytechnic in Woolwich where he graduated in Humanities, specialising in Modern History.

Career
Before joining Peabody, Howlett was Chief Executive of Amicus Group, which became AmicusHorizon Group in 2006, and Swale Housing Association. Both organisations are now part of AmicusHorizon.

He was a board member of Asset Skills and a member of the Guardian Housing Network Advisory Panel. He was also a member of the Residential Committee of the British Property Federation and one of the Mayor's Leaders for London on sustainability and an adviser to the Mayor's Infrastructure Delivery Board.

Howlett was chair of the G15, the group of London's 15 largest housing associations, from June 2009 to June 2011. Among the initiatives launched during his two-year tenure were the pilot London Moves scheme to enable social housing residents to move to sustain or take-up work, and a report produced by the London School of Economics which made the case for investment in affordable housing in London. In support of the report, Boris Johnson, mayor of London, said it "make[s] the most compelling case for the government to concentrate its housing programme where it will deliver the greatest returns for all."

As well as affordable housing, education, and skills, Stephen has a particular interest in design and architecture. He is a Trustee of Open-City, London's leading architecture education organisation and organiser of Open House London.

Peabody career
Howlett presided over notable developments at Peabody including:
 The completion of a London-wide refurbishment programme to ensure Peabody's housing stock meets the Decent Homes Standard.
 The issue of a £200 million public bond in 2011  and the issue of a public bond for £350 million in 2013.
 The purchase of The Crown Estate's London housing properties.
 The growth of Peabody's development pipeline - there are plans to build an average of 1,000 homes a year over the next four years.
 The acquisition of Gallions Housing Association, Trust Thamesmead and Tilfen Land in 2014 to further the regeneration of Thamesmead in SE London.

References

External links
 The Guardian newspaper - London housing crisis: into the 'affordable' unknown
 The Guardian newspaper - Stephen Howlett: Social housing faces 'a daunting challenge'

British chief executives
Housing in London
Living people
1951 births
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Deputy Lieutenants of Greater London

Stephen Howlett