A Spot of Bother is the second adult novel by Mark Haddon, who is best known for his prize-winning first novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Like Curious Incident, A Spot of Bother examines mental health issues from the perspective of the patient.

An excerpt from A Spot of Bother (at that point titled Blood and Scissors) was published in the book New Beginnings, the proceeds from which were donated to the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.

The book was adapted by Michel Blanc into a French film in 2009 (Une petite zone de turbulences).

Plot
The novel follows George Hall, a 57-year-old hypochondriac, and his family following George's retirement from a career manufacturing playground equipment. George has hypochondria, an excessive phobia for one's physical health. Certain that a skin lesion on his hip is a fatal cancer, George rejects Dr Barghoutian's diagnosis of eczema due to his previous misdiagnosis of his daughter Katie's appendicitis as stomach ache, and unsuccessfully attempts to remove the lesion with a pair of scissors. The resulting blood loss soon renders him unconscious, but not before he calls an ambulance and tries to get a chisel from the cellar to demarcate the incident as accidental. The resulting bloodied handprints he smears around the house in doing so horrify his wife Jean.

George and Jean's children confront problems of their own. Katie, a single mother, announces her plans to marry Ray, a competent but lower-class man of whom George, Jean, and their son Jamie disapprove. As the story progresses Ray worries that Katie wants to be with him only for his house and so he can act as a father to her five-year-old son Jacob. It is only when Katie visits George in the hospital that she realises she and Ray are meant to be together: she proposes to Ray herself, and the couple rearrange the wedding. Meanwhile, Jamie has an uneasy relationship with his boyfriend Tony. When Jamie fails to pass on to Tony an invitation to Katie's wedding,  arguing about how he would not enjoy it, Tony leaves him.

George begins to suffer from extreme panic attacks. He is said to have wires ripped out of his head whilst observing a deer being killed on a TV discovery channel. And his mental state is exacerbated not only by the anxiety of his daughter's wedding but also due to his walking in on Jean having sexual intercourse with David, a former colleague, in his bed. Thereafter, George is delineated as frequently thinking about how he has wasted his life, and the notion of death starts to terrify him. Despite being told by Jamie to not give a speech at Katie's wedding, George decides to give one after deliberating that he may never get the chance to speak to a large crowd ever again. He exclaims how little time people have to value their lives, and divulges into his incredulity of how only he alone seems to see this fact. His words are met with a few uneasy laughs but mostly silence. At the end of his speech, despite having taken a few pills of Valium to calm him down, he notices that David is present. George launches himself at the man, drawing blood and forcing him to leave the wedding.

Jean thus finds out that George knows about her and David. George tells Jean that he was out of order, and even though he is deeply upset at her disloyalty, he explains that things would simply be too painful for them to break up after years of living together. Jean agrees, and sadly acknowledges that her love affair is over, and effectively her sex life too. The following morning, George walks downstairs and meets Tony, who reunited with Jamie after Jamie sent him a letter of his feelings. George realises that there is nothing wrong with homosexuals as long as they kept it clean, and furthermore, after reading an article about an upcoming surgery for conjoined twins which could possibly result in both their deaths, that he should "stop all this nonsense". The others depart, leaving George and Jean to return to a comfortable atmosphere and an ordinary, settled household.

Reception
The book received mixed reviews. Michael Dirda of The Washington Post called the book "superbly entertaining", adding "...half the time while reading A Spot of Bother you won't be sure whether to laugh or cry. Which is, I suppose, precisely the point." David Kamp of The New York Times wrote that the book "serves as a fine example of why novels exist."

Mindy Laube of Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald was critical of the book, writing "while the characterisation can't be faulted, A Spot of Bother fails to fulfil its early promise. What initially shapes up as a disquietingly soft stab in the human heart turns obvious and formulaic. Haddon's examination of the contours of love is forensic in its insight but a sentimental undertow proves too alluring to resist." Patrick Ness of The Guardian criticised the book for being "unsurprising." It is, he writes, "never less than pleasurable to read and there are good jokes and funny situations; it's just that it never tries to be much more than good jokes or funny situations." Ness concludes his review by saying "It's not that this is a bad book – it isn't. It's amusing and brisk and charming. But readers could be forgiven for wanting – and expecting – more."

References

2006 British novels
Adultery in novels
Novels by Mark Haddon
Jonathan Cape books
British novels adapted into films
Hypochondriasis in fiction
Novels set in Cambridgeshire

A Spot of Bother


Newtoun Wamfrey (English: Newton Wamphray) is a veelage in the historical coonty o Dumfriesshire in Dumfries an Gallowa, Scotland. Wamphrey is the name o the surroondin pairish an o the Wamfrey Watter that flowes soothwast throu the Wamfrey Glen tae jyne the River Annan near the clachan o Newtoun.

History

The veelage is near the A74(M) motorwey, near Annandale Watter, aboot haufwey atween Moffat and Lockerbie, an his for centurys been clase til the direct Glesga-tae-Cairl route that aroond 1776 wis made intil a towl road suitable for mail coaches traivelin atween England an Glesga. Newtoun is on the main railwey line sooth fae Glesga, an fae aboot 1847 hit is ain station cried Wamphray, bit this closed in the 1960s.

Newtoun Wamfrey primary schuil his been closed for several years, local childer general gang til the primary schuil in Lockerbie. The auld schuil biggin noo lies lairgely abandont while the naitur o its awnerskip is speirt oot. The auld manse near the 1834 kirk his become a hottle; the historic kirk his been uised for raiglar services ower the past wheen o years.

The're various historic an prehistoric sites near Newtoun Wamfrey, includin staundin stanes an the remeens o a motte-an-bailey. A feid atween local reeivin faimilies in the 16t century is myndit in the ballant The Lads o Wamfrey.

Ane o the mair kenspeckle residenters wis John Broun o Wamfrey, a Kirk o Scotland theologian that served as the meenister o the local pairish durn the mid-17t century. He flittit tae Wamfrey tae begin servin the pairish at an unkent date (estimates vary fae 1637 until 1655) an remeent in residence until 1662, whan he wis preesont lat late fleme't fil the Netherlands for his public opposeetion til the ryal imposeetion o bishops on the Kirk.<ref>Dictionary of Scottish Church History and Theology.  Nigel M. de S. Cameron, organizing ed.  Downers Grove: InterVarsity P, 1993, 98.</ref>

Afore the 20t century the veelage wis wiles cried Newton, or Newtoun, o Wamphray and descrived as bein in Annandale. Newtoun suggests "new veelage o fermtoun", a placename derive't fae Auld English niwe' (new) + tun (ferm). Scots toun meant a ferm sattlement afore it cam tae mean a 'toun'. The etymology o Wamfrey isna certaint; some suggestions link 'Wam' tae Gaelic Uamh (cove). Aulder spellins include Wamfry o Wamfray.

Governance

Newtoun Wamfrey is in the UK pairlamentary constituency o Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweedale. David Mundell is the praisent Scots Conservative Pairty Member o Pairlament.

It is pairt o the Sooth Scotland (Scots Pairlament electoral region in the Scots Pairlament, bein in the constituency o Dumfriesshire. Oliver Mundell o the Scots Conservative Pairty is the MSP.

Afore Brexit, for the European Pairlament its residenters votit tae elect MEPs for the Scotland constituency.

Namely fowk

 Professor Archibald Charteris (1835-1908) - Scots theologian, Moderator o the General Assemmly, professor o biblical creeticism at the Varsity o Edinburgh, an a leadin vyce in Kirk reforms. He is creditit as bein the faither o the Wumman's Guild.

 Professor Matthew Charteris (1840-18997) - Professor o Materia Medica at the Glesga Varsity. He wis kent as the author o the standart medical textbeuk The Practice of Medicine. He wis an uphauder o the influence a guid climate on the halth.

 Very Rev. John Gillespie (1836-1912) - Scots meenister, served as Moderator o the General Assemmly o the Kirk o Scotland in 1903.

 Rev Dr James Williamson DD FRSE (1725-1796) - Scots meenister an mathematician, jynt foonder o the Ryal Society o Edinburgh.

Soorces
 Statistical Accounts of Scotland
 Great Britain Historical GIS Project: Wamphray
 Dictionary of Scots Language: toun

References

External links

 Photaes o Wamfrey Pairish Kirk
 Ordnance Survey c.1900: Sheet 10, Dumfries

Veelages in Dumfries an Gallowa
Pairishes in Dumfries an Gallowa
Dumfries an Gallowa
Places o Scotland

Newtoun Wamfrey


German submarine U-977 was a World War II Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine which escaped to Argentina after Germany's surrender.  The submarine's voyage to Argentina led to legends, apocryphal stories and conspiracy theories that it and  had transported escaping Nazi leaders (such as Adolf Hitler) and/or Nazi gold to South America, that it had made a secret voyage to Antarctica, and even that it sank the Brazilian cruiser Bahia as the last act of the Battle of the Atlantic.

Design
German Type VIIC submarines were preceded by the shorter Type VIIB submarines.

U-977 was powered by two Germaniawerft F46 four-stroke, six-cylinder supercharged diesel engines while surfaced and two Brown, Boveri & Cie GG UB 720/8 double-acting electric motors while submerged. She had two shafts and two  propellers.

U-977 had a complement of between 44 and 60 men.

FLAK gun
U-977 mounted a single 3.7 cm Flakzwilling M42U gun on the rare LM 43U mount. The LM 43U mount was the final design of mount used on U-boats and is only known to be installed on (, , , ,  and ).
The 3.7 cm Flak M42U was the marine version of the 3.7 cm Flak, used by the Kriegsmarine on Type VII and Type IX U-boats.

Service history

U-977 was launched on 31 March 1943. She was used in training and made no war patrols during her first two years of service. On 2 May 1945 she was sent on her first war patrol, sailing from Kristiansand, Norway, commanded by Oberleutnant zur See Heinz Schäffer (1921–1979). Schäffer's orders were to enter the British port of Southampton and sink any shipping there. This would have been a very dangerous assignment for a Type VII boat. When Admiral Dönitz ordered all attack submarines to stand down on 5 May 1945, U-977 was outbound north of Scotland.

Voyage to Argentina
Oblt.z.S. Schäffer decided to sail to Argentina rather than surrender. During later interrogation, Schäffer said his main reason was a German propaganda broadcast by Goebbels, which claimed that the Allies' Morgenthau Plan would turn Germany into a "goat pasture" and that all German men would be "enslaved and sterilized". Other factors were remembrances of the poor conditions and long delays that German POWs suffered through, in being repatriated at the end of World War I (see Forced labor of Germans after World War II), and the hope of better living conditions in Argentina, which had a large German community.

Schäffer offered the married crewmen the option of going ashore in Europe.  Sixteen chose to do so and were landed from dinghies on Holsnøy island near Bergen on 10 May .

U-977 then sailed to Argentina. Schäffer's version of the voyage states that from 10 May to 14 July 1945 she made a continuous submerged Schnorchel passage, "at 66 days the second longest in the war [sic - Germany had surrendered] (after 's 68 days)".

The U.S. Navy (USN) interrogated the crew and issued a report on 19 September 1945. The report does not mention a 66-day submerged voyage, but states that U-977 "made for the Iceland Passage on course 300° [that is, northwest by west] diving once on sighting a plane and once on sighting a ship; she was also DF'd many times late in May". (This could also mean traveling at snorkel depth and then diving on contact; possible translation errors during interrogations.)

According to the Navy report, the submarine stopped in the Cape Verde Islands for a short break, then completed the trip traveling on the surface using one engine. Crossing the equator on 23 July, she arrived in Mar del Plata, Argentina on 17 August after 99 days at sea from Bergen and a voyage of 14,157 km (7,644 nmi, 8,797 mi). These points agree with Schäffer's report that he stopped at Cape Verde Islands for a short break and crossed the equator on 23 or 24 July 1945.

Schäffer said that, after the short Cape Verde break, they completed the rest of the trip to Mar del Plata alternately on the surface and submerged.

After surrendering to the Argentine authorities, as had happened to the crew of U-530, they were extradited to the US where they responded to the charge of having torpedoed the cruiser Bahia, and then to the UK, where they faced accusations that they had landed Nazi leaders in Argentina before surrendering. Schäffer was released in 1947. U-977 like U-530 was seized by the US Navy, and sunk during naval firing exercises, in its case in 1946, when it was used as a target.

In the arts
Schäffer later wrote a book: U-977 – 66 Tage unter Wasser ("U-977 – 66 Days Under Water"), the first postwar memoir by a former U-boat officer. It was published in 1952, and was translated into English under the title U-Boat 977.

A documentary film U-977 - 66 Days Under Water directed by Nadine Poulain, Schäffer's granddaughter, was in the final stages of production in 2014.

See also
 History of Mar del Plata
 Argentina during World War II

References

Bibliography

 Juan Salinas & Carlos De Nápoli (2002) Ultramar Sur: la última operación secreta del Tercer Reich ("South Overseas: the last secret operation of Third Reich")  Grupo Editorial Norma
 Kittel & Graf (2015) The History of U-Boot Edizione R.E.I.
 Paterson, Lawrence (2009) Black Flag: The Surrender of Germany's U-Boat Forces on Land and at Sea Seaforth Publishing

 Schäffer, Heinz, Leonce Peillard Der U-Boot-Krieg 1999  (In German)
 Schäffer, Heinz, U-Boat 977: The U-Boat That Escaped to Argentina 2005  (First published in Germany in 1952 as U-977 – 66 Tage unter Wasser)

External links
 "Books: Go In & Sink". Time. 23 February 1953. Review of the book U-BOAT 977.

  (Mark Felton Productions)

Argentina in World War II
German Type VIIC submarines
U-boats commissioned in 1943
World War II submarines of Germany
1943 ships
Ships sunk as targets
Ships built in Hamburg
Captured U-boats
Maritime incidents in Argentina
U-boats sunk in 1946
Maritime incidents in 1946

German submarine U-977


Charlotte Sieling (born 13 July 1960) is a Danish actress and film director. She began her career as an actress in the mid-1980s. In the 2000s, she turned to film directing, working on a number of successful DR TV series such as the Emmy-winning Unit One, The Killing, The Bridge and the BAFTA-winning Borgen. She had her feature film debut with Above the Street, Below the Water in 2009. Her success as a director of TV series has more recently brought her to the US where her work includes directing two episodes of Homeland.

Early life and education
Sieling was born in Copenhagen. She completed her education as actress at National Theatre School of Denmark in 1985. In 1985, she graduated from the National Film School of Denmark where she attended the screenplay line.

Career
Between  1988 and 1991, Sieling was affiliated with the Royal Danish Theatre where her roles included the lead in the musical Esther. From 1992 to 1994, she was affiliated with the  Betty Nansen Theatre.

Sieling had her debut as a director when she directed eight episodes of Unit One. She has continued her collaboration with DR, working on a number of their most successful television series. She worked on the first season of The Killing directed the first four episodes of Danish/Swedish crime series The Bridge and was conceptual director on the third season of BAFTA Award-winning  Borgen

She had her feature film debut with Above the Street, Below the Water in 2009. In 2013–14, she has worked on a number of television series in the US.

Personal life
Sieling married theatre manager and stage director Peter Langdal  in 1996. The couple divorced in 2000. They have two children.

Filmography

Film
As an actress

As a director

Television

As an actress

As a director

References

External links

Danish actresses
Danish women film directors
Actresses from Copenhagen
Film directors from Copenhagen
1960 births
Living people
Women television directors

Charlotte Sieling


Marisa Zuriel (born August 19, 1982, in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine chess player who holds the FIDE title of Woman International Master.

She won the Argentine women's chess championships of 2005 and 2012.

Zuriel won the 2007 American Continental Women's Chess Championship in Potrero de los Funes, San Luis Province after a playoff match, which ended with an armageddon game, with Sarai Sanchez Castillo.

She played in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2008, 2010 and 2015.

References

External links

Marisa Zuriel chess games at 365Chess.com

1982 births
Living people
Chess Woman International Masters
Argentine female chess players
Argentine chess players
Sportspeople from Buenos Aires

Marisa Zuriel


Donald Smith Cohan (February 24, 1930 in New York City  – 20 October 2018) is one of the leading yachtsmen in the U.S.  He was the first Jew to compete at the highest levels of world yachting competitions and at the time of his active career, the only Jew to win an Olympic medal in yachting.

He won a bronze medal at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Years later, he twice defeated Hodgkin's disease.  He came back to win a U.S. sailing championship at the age of 72.

Biography
Cohan graduated from Amherst College (cum laude; 1951).  There, he was a member of Beta Theta Pi.

He then attended Harvard Law School. He practiced as an attorney, before going into business in real estate.  He became President of Donesco Company, a real estate development firm.

Sailing

Cohan began sailing in 1967 at age 37.  He was on the U.S. team at the World Championships in 1969, 1970, and 1971. Cohan then won the 1972 Olympic trials, becoming the first Jew to be a member of the U.S. Olympic Team in sailing.

In the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, he was set to compete when the Munich Massacre resulted in the killing by terrorists of 11 Israeli athletes.  All Jewish athletes were warned to leave, and two Israelis slated to compete in sailing were instructed to return home immediately. They handed Cohan their satin, blue and white triangular flag, emblazoned with "Sports Federation of Israel. XXth Olympiad Munich 1972," and said:  "You're representing us now. Go win a medal for us."

Competing at the age of 42, he came from far back on the final day and earned a bronze medal as helmsman in the mixed three-person  Dragon class, named Caprice.  He earned the medal within just five years from when he began sailing, and was the first Jew to win an Olympic medal in sailing.

Cohan wrote:  "The last act of [expletives deleted] [U.S. Olympic Committee head and International Olympic Committee president] Avery Brundage was to hang an Olympic medal around my neck."  Brundage had been a Nazi sympathizer.  He was notorious, among other things, for having pressured to have the only two Jews on the U.S. track team at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, sprinters Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, removed at the very last moment on the morning of their 400-meter relay race, so as not to embarrass Hitler and the Nazis with a Jewish victory. Brundage later publicly praised the Nazi regime at a Madison Square rally.

Cohan has also been U.S. champion, European champion, German champion, and Australian champion.

In 1984, he put his legal skills to good use.  He charged Robbie Haines, one of the competitors in the Olympic yachting Soling trials, with having left too early (or "barged") at the start of the race, in Long Beach, California.  Ed Baird, a fellow competitor, said that Cohan "destroyed Haines in the protest room", but that "We're all still pretty close".  Haines was disqualified for the race.  In the end, however, Haines qualified for the 1984 Olympics, where he won a gold medal.

Hodgkin's disease
Nineteen years after winning his Olympic medal, in 1991, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease of the lymph glands and nodes, and was found to have the most severe type (4B).  He was not expected to survive.

He said to himself, "Don, you may be very good in your line of business, but you know nothing about this one", and assembled a team around himself that he could rely on in his fight against the cancer.  Cohan looked for excellent doctors who would allow him to undergo therapy usually considered too grueling for someone his age.  He interviewed doctors, engaged a psychiatrist to help him deal with grief and fear, and told his wife she would be his deputy in the struggle.  He went through aggressive chemotherapy and radiation therapy, suffered through fatigue, nausea, night sweats, swelling, and pain, and made it through the cancer successfully.

Then, though only one percent of patients get Hodgkin's disease a second time—he found himself in that category.  Again, he was not expected to survive.  Again, he underwent aggressive chemotherapy and radiation therapy.  And again, he defeated the cancer.

Sailing, post-Hodgkins

In 2002, at the age of 72, he won the U.S. Soling Championship.  He also finished 5th in the world championship.

Taking a step back to ruminate on sailing competitively at his age, Cohan remarked: "I'm aware that I'm on the downwind side of the hill, and the reawakened goal of being a competitive sailor has caused me to stir up banked fires and rejuvenate neglected physical abilities."

He was inducted into the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.

In 2010, he was still sailing competitively.

Philanthropy
Cohan has served as President of Jewish Employment and Vocational Service (JEVS) Human Services, as a member of the Directors Leadership Council of the University of Pennsylvania Abramson Cancer Center, and as a member of the Board of Directors of The Philadelphia Orchestra.  In 1986 he made a gift of a dormitory to Amherst College; it was named the Cohan Dormitory in his honor in 1989.

Select works

Books
 Importing practices & procedures: A reference manual (1964; Pennsylvania Bar Association, Committee on Continuing Legal Education)
 Pennsylvania Trusts (1964)

Articles
 "Pennsylvania Wait-and-See Perpetuity Doctrine – New Kernels from Old Nutshells", 28 Temple Law Quarterly 321 (Winter 1955)
 "Manufacturing Federal Diversity Jurisdiction by the Appointment of Representatives: Its Legality and Propriety", with Mercer Tate,  1 Villanova Law Review 201 (1956)
 "Legal, Tax, and Accounting Aspects of Fiduciary Appointment of Stock Proceeds:  The Non-Statutory Pennsylvania Rules", with Stephen Dean, 106 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 2 (December 1957)
 "Considering Apportionment Consequences of Corporate Action", 21–22 The Shingle 57 (1958)
 "Law and Practicalities for Yachtsmen", 32 Temple Law Quarterly 241 (1958–59)
 "Pennsylvania Tentative Trusts", 110 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 972 (1962)
 "Accounting Considerations of Apportionment by Trustees of Receipts from Stock", 36 Temple Law Quarterly 121 (Winter 1963)
 "Legal and Practical Implications of Purchasing a Pleasure Boat – The Role of the Attorney", 37 Temple Law Quarterly 401 (1963)

See also
 List of select Jews in sailing
 List of Olympic medalists in Dragon class sailing
 List of select cases of Hodgkin's Disease

References

External links

1930 births
2018 deaths
American male sailors (sport)
Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in sailing
Sailors at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Dragon
Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics
Jewish American sportspeople
Amherst College alumni
Harvard Law School alumni
Sportspeople from Philadelphia
21st-century American Jews

Don Cohan


A laborer (or labourer) is a skilled trade, a person who works in manual labor types, especially in the construction and factory industries. Laborers are in a working class of wage-earners in which their only possession of significant material value is their labor. Industries employing laborers include building things such as roads, road paving, buildings, bridges, tunnels, pipelines civil and industrial, and railway tracks. Laborers work with blasting tools, hand tools, power tools, air tools, and small heavy equipment, and act as assistants to other trades as well  such as operators or cement masons.  The 1st century BC engineer Vitruvius writes that a good crew of laborers is just as valuable as any other aspect of construction. Other than the addition of pneumatics, laborer practices have changed little. With the introduction of field technologies, the laborers have been quick to adapt to the use of this technology as being laborers' workforce.

Tools and equipment
The following tools are considered a minimum for a laborer to keep with them: hammer, pliers w/ side-cutters, utility knife, tape measure, locking pliers, crescent wrench, screwdriver, margin trowel, carpenter's pencil or soapstone, tool belt and one pouch (bag). In addition: a five gallon bucket with additional tools, toolbelt suspenders, water jug and lunchbox are recommended.

Most safety equipment that is consumed or work specific, for example hard hat, safety glasses, hearing protection, gloves, fall protection, high-visibility clothing, concrete boots, respirator/dust mask and toe guards are provided by the employer as part of construction site safety.

Personal safety equipment, for example, full leather boots (some long-time laborers believe steel toes are dangerous on the construction site; it is better to have crushed toes than toes cut off by the crushed steel - a belief proven wrong by several studies ), high-strength pants - canvas or denim (some modify thighs with a sacrificial second layer of jean fabric cut from an old pair) - socks, lip balm, and climate-specific outerwear, are provided by the individual (unless laborers are instructed to work in a climate different from what they typically reside in, for example, high elevation).

Types of work
Some of the work done by laborers includes:

concrete – shotcrete, gunite, grouting and formwork
demolition – concrete cutting, pavement breaking, cutting and removal of interior building parts (framing members, doors, windows, wiring, piping, etc.)
environmental remediation and hazardous waste
fences and landscaping
Mowing and keeping construction site free of weeds
street sweeping
Cleaning of the construction site and trash removal
Setting up temporary lights, heaters and other things needed on site
hod carrier – masonry, plasterers and fireproofing
paving – white paving formwork, traffic control, striping, signs
piping – water pipe, sewer and storm drain
field technology
general digging and grading
tunnels – drilling and blasting
Dry utilities – Electrical and communications conduit
loading and offloading – handling of physical goods, such as construction materials

Pay
As a manual labor occupation, to attract free workers the wages paid to laborers are higher than those paid in general to unskilled workers (see dirty, dangerous and demeaning). In the United States, a union laborer earns equal or greater than most work available to anyone with a bachelor's degree. This is one of a few fields where someone without a high school diploma can still earn a living wage. Union, heavy construction and highway construction laborers earn on average (2008 US) $25.47/h compared to 13.72/h for non-union laborers.  In addition to paid earnings, union laborers enjoy the benefits of medical insurance, vacation pay, pension plans, representation and vocational schools; totaling $45/hr (2012 US) and some with special skills earn 'over-rate' wages. It is not uncommon for young civil engineers, construction managers and construction engineers typical salary of (2007 US$) 40,000 to 60,000 to fall short of their union laborers average wages of 50,000 to 80,000.

However, unlike engineers, laborers are not usually employed full-time year-round and face significant hazards. The additional pay laborers receive is often balanced out by the lesser unemployment checks they receive while out of work and the disability checks they receive while injured—often debilitated for life. That is if unemployment and injury insurance is provided, which is often not the case unless they are labor union members. Engineers are also not immune to being out of work.  In heavy civil work, some are employed on a project basis and mental injuries due to stress are a different but debilitating hazard. Because of the wide range of skills and ability to simply provide muscle, laborers often earn side-work as independent contractors and under-the-table work.

In construction, the pay for laborers is low enough that planning problems can be solved by "throwing laborers at it." This can become a toxic and dangerous brew of unplanned work that slides forward on the blood and sweat of hard-working laborers—injury rates often soar. The value of work put in place by laborers and the value of avoided rework and increased efficiencies produced by the engineers' planning is a balance of resource utilization on any large project.

Union laborer often earn more than nonunion and can be an avenue for those who are uneducated and with no resources to become educated and with resources.

Hazards and conditions
There are dangers associated with laboring.  Many laborers are severely injured or killed in accidents each year while performing work duties. Many who work as laborers for even a short period of time will suffer from permanent work injuries such as: hearing loss, arthritis, osteoarthritis, back injuries, eye injury, head injury, chemical burn (lime sensitivity), lung disease, missing fingernails and skin scars.  Alcoholism, drug use, and drug abuse are common although most companies require drug screening for all new hires. If a laborer is injured on the job they are immediately given a drug test. If the test results are positive then they are ineligible for any Workers' compensation benefits. There is a gray area for the use of marijuana due to medical marijuana prescriptions.  Some who have been dismissed for failing a drug test while possessing a prescription have been later reinstated with pay as having been wrongfully terminated.

Collective bargaining

The Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) represents laborers on public and private projects in North America.  Some of the business representatives are laborers who have been so severely injured they can no longer labor. With a phone call and a good reason they will be on-site the next morning asking questions and demanding apologies for mistreatment of laborers.

Images

See also
 Hard hat, nickname for construction workers
 Navvy, particularly applied to describe the manual laborers working on British major civil engineering projects
 Working class
 Tradesman

References

Builders' labourers' trade unions
Construction and extraction occupations
Production occupations

Laborer


An advisory referendum on the construction of a new nuclear power station was held in Lithuania on 14 October 2012, alongside parliamentary elections. The proposal was rejected by 65% of voters.

Background
The Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, being of a similar design to the Chernobyl plant, was considered too dangerous by the European Commission and it was closed in 2009, as part of a deal agreed when Lithuania joined the EU in 2004. A referendum in 2008 had seen a large majority (89%) vote in favour of keeping the plant open, but the low turnout of 48% (with the threshold set at 50%) invalidated the result. After closing the Ignalina plant, the country became dependent on energy supplies from neighbouring Russia. Plans to build a new 1,350MW nuclear power plant at Visaginas by 2020–2022 were subsequently developed by the Lithuanian government together with Latvia, Estonia and the Japanese company Hitachi. Lithuania would own 38% of the plant, Estonia 22%, Latvia 20% and Hitachi 20%.

On 16 July the Seimas made a decision to hold an advisory referendum on the construction of the new plant by a vote of 62–39. The proposal to hold a referendum was opposed by the ruling Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats, which accused opposition parties of seeking to make political capital out of the issue prior to the elections. Former President Valdas Adamkus described the decision to hold the referendum as "nonsense," asking "What if the nation decides against, and the government decides to build it?

Results

References

2012 referendums
2012 in Lithuania
Referendums in Lithuania
Nuclear power in Lithuania
Nuclear power referendums

2012 Lithuanian nuclear power referendum


A bullocky is an Australian English term for the driver of a bullock team.  The American term is bullwhacker. Bullock drivers were also known as teamsters or carriers.

History
Bullock teams were in use in Sydney, New South Wales in 1795 when they were used for hauling building materials. The early explorers, Hume and Hovell in 1824 and Charles Sturt, later in 1828-9, also used bullock teams during their explorations.

Prior to the gold rushes in Australia, in the mid 19th century, bullock drays carried essential food and station supplies to isolated country areas. On return trips they transported wheat, wool, sugar cane and timber by drays drawn by teams of draught animals (either bullocks or horses) to shipping ports before the advent of rail. They travelled constantly across the landscape, servicing the pastoral stations and settlements far from regional transport hubs and urban centres. Some of the larger stations maintained their own teams for local use when harvesting and transporting wool. Both bullock and horse wagons carried heavy loads of wool and wheat which was the main produce transported over long distances, plus chaff and hay. A bullock wagon could only travel approximately three miles an hour (depending on the load and terrain) therefore it was slower than a horse team.

Bullock drivers were typically skilled tough men who often faced extreme difficulties during their job. Bullockies were also colourful characters, often noted for their strong language.  Some did not swear though, relying solely on gesture, talking and whip movements as persuasion for the team's job at hand. A typical bullocky wore a cabbage tree hat, a twill shirt of that period, moleskin trousers, blucher boots and carried a long bullock whip which in many instances he had made.

During the early years the bullock tracks were very rough with narrow, steep "pinches", plus dangerous river and creek crossings. Many roads still follow the tracks made by bullock teams as they negotiated their way up or down hills via a winding course to make haulage easier.

Equipment and method
Bullocks were less excitable and more dependable when faced with difficulties than horses. Furthermore, bullocks were cheaper to purchase, equip and feed. Horses also required complex, expensive leather harness that frequently needed repair. Bullock gear was simple and the yokes were sometimes made by the bullocky from different kinds of timber.

Bullockies often chose Devon cattle because they were plentiful, hardy, tractable and readily matched up the team, which was often a source of pride to the owners. Teams had to be educated to perform their respective tasks, too. The first part of a bullock's education began when the bullocky tied two young bullocks together with two heavy leather collars and a connecting chain. Thus connected they were turned out to graze and rest until they accepted the close presence of their partner.  Untrained bullocks were then put in the centre of the team, where they were more easily controlled with the assistance and guidance of the "leaders" who were well trained to verbal commands. Pairs of bullocks were matched for size and yoked together using a wooden yoke secured to each bullock by a metal bow which was fixed in place by key on top of the yoke. Each pair was connected by a special chain, which ran from a central ring on each yoke to the next pair, thus coupling the team in tandem fashion. The "wheelers" or "polers" were the older, heavier, trained bullocks which were closest to the dray or jinker and helped to slow the load when necessary. Thus then was the team attached to the dray or jinker.

A bullocky walked on the nearside (left) of the bullocks for added control of the team and also because seating was not usually provided on the wagons and jinkers. The bullocky called each bullock by name to adjust its pace and effort. If the whip was needed it was flicked out in front of the bullock driver; then by the use of all his strength he swung it over his head, often twirling it several times before he cracked it or let fall upon the back of a bullock he might wish to reach. Sometimes the bullocky had an "offsider" (a type of an apprentice) who walked on the offside (right) of the team and also assisted the bullocky yoke up and care for the team. Many Australians who have never had contact with bullocky or a team still use the word "offsider' as a synonym for an assistant, helper or learner.

A bullock whip had a stick handle that was cut from a spotted gum or another native tree and was approximately six or seven feet long.  The long handled whip permitted the bullocky to control his bullocks while keeping a safe working distance from the danger of being run down by a large dray or jinker. The thong, often made of plaited greenhide, was 8 to 10 feet long and attached to the handle by a leather loop. These thongs, graduated in thickness from the handle down to the size of a lead pencil at the fall, which was about 2 ½ feet long.  The bullockies often didn't use a cracker, but if they did it was knotted into the end of the fall.

Bullock teams also dragged the heavy logs from some very steep, rough country to be loaded onto a jinker for hauling to a saw mill. Teams of up to thirty bullocks hauled large flat-top wagons or jinkers fitted with a single pole instead of shafts. Timber jinkers were of a four-wheel type were capable of carrying large logs up to seven feet in diameter.  The less common two wheeled jinkers bore and carried the front of log, leaving the end to trail along behind. Two jinkers could also be connected, with the back jinker linked by a log which would be chained to the front jinker. Jinkers were used in the transport of "Red Gold," Australian red cedar (Toona ciliata), and other logs to sawmills or to a river for further transport.

On steep hills  bullock teams often required additional assistance to negotiate these inclines. This assistance was provided by hitching two or more teams together for the ascent. On steep descents logs or trees were dragged behind the dray, wagon or jinker to slow the load's descent and protect the team from injury. Shanties and villages grew to serve the needs of the road's users at the site of difficult range and river crossings where teams met.

Bullock teams were still used to drag logs from the forests to log dumps after the introduction of logging trucks. Nowadays they are mainly used for exhibition purposes.

Early references
The following reference is from the newspaper The Australasian of 17 July 1869 (page 17): "Cornstalk and gumsucker are both of colonial growth, and so, I think, is… bullocky (a teamster)".

Percy Clarke's 'New Chum' in Australia (1886) has the following reference (page 137): "I knew a 'bullockie' (as these men are dubbed) who had a team of twelve beasts under his command which obeyed his every word and never received a word, which a 'high-born ladie' might not have listened to".

Depictions in literature and popular culture
 "Bill the Bullock Driver" by Henry Kendall (poem, 1876)
 "An Old Master" by C. J. Dennis (poem, 1910)
 "The Teams" by Henry Lawson (poem, 1889)
 "Bill the Bullocky", a doggerel poem written anonymously under a pseudonym 'Bowyang York' in the late 1850s; the original inspiration for Dog on the Tuckerbox.
 Bullocky, a 1969 Australian short documentary film by the Commonwealth Film Unit

See also
 Bullock cart
 Oxbow
 Ox-wagon

References

External links

Animal husbandry occupations
Australian slang
Livestock in Australia
Obsolete occupations
Transport occupations

Bullocky


Tanycytes are special ependymal cells found in the third ventricle of the brain, and on the floor of the fourth ventricle and have processes extending deep into the hypothalamus. It is possible that their function is to transfer chemical signals from the cerebrospinal fluid to the central nervous system.

The term tanycyte comes from the Greek word tanus which means elongated.

Location
Tanycytes in adult mammals are found in the ventricular system and the circumventricular organs. They are most numerous in the third ventricle of the brain, are also found in the fourth ventricle, and can also be seen in the spinal cord radiating from the ependyma of the central canal to the spinal cord surface. Tanycytes represent approximately 0.6% of the population of the lateral ventricular wall.

Tanycytes have also been shown in vivo to serve as a diet-responsive neurogenic niche.

Function
Recent work suggests that tanycyte cells bridge the gap between the central nervous system (CNS) via cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to the hypophyseal portal blood.

Role in the release of gonadotropin-releasing hormone
Researches in 2005 and 2010 found that tanycytes participate in the release of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). GnRH is released by neurons located in the rostral hypothalamus. These nerve fibers are concentrated in the region that exactly matches the distribution of β1 tanycytes. β1 and β2 tanycytes are found nearer the arcuate nucleus and the median eminence.

See also
List of distinct cell types in the adult human body

References

Bibliography

External links

http://www.lab.anhb.uwa.edu.au/mb140/CorePages/Nervous/Nervous.htm
NIF Search - Tanycyte via the Neuroscience Information Framework

Nervous tissue cells

Tanycyte


Arthur L. "Gat" Howard DSO (1846 – February 17, 1901), was an American and Canadian expert in the use of the early machine gun. He is best known for his use of a Gatling gun in support of the Canadian militia in the North-West Rebellion of 1885.

Life

Howard served for five years in the regular United States Cavalry. After leaving the regular army, he lived in New Haven, Connecticut, where he was employed by Winchester Arms. Howard then formed a cartridge-making firm of his own called A.L. Howard & Co., but his business premises were destroyed by fire in 1883. On July 18, 1884, Howard was placed in command of the Machine Gun Platoon, Connecticut National Guard, with the rank of Second Lieutenant.

When the North-West Rebellion of Métis and Indians broke out in western Canada, in March 1885, the Canadian militia commander, Major General Frederick Middleton, suggested that two Gatling guns be procured from the United States.  Dr. Richard J. Gatling, the gun's inventor, began searching for a man who was an expert in the use of the Gatling, and selected Lieutenant Howard. Howard agreed to go to Canada with the two Gatlings. He was granted a month's leave of absence from the Guard (later extended). The Connecticut Guard later made it plain that they had "no hand" in Howard's planned expedition.

Howard left his wife and four children and a comfortable middle class life to travel to the North-West Territories with the Gatlings. His fascination with the Gatling gun, and scientific determination to test it under arduous battle conditions seem to have motivated his undertaking a dangerous mission which completely lacked U.S. government sanction – although this did not deter him from wearing his blue American officer's uniform in Canada, even on the battlefield. Howard's unofficial status was made even plainer when Dr. Gatling said that the lieutenant was not working for the Gatling manufacturer. He was travelling to Canada, Dr. Gatling said, merely as "a friend of the gun."

Howard journeyed, partly by rail, partly overland, to Swift Current, North-West Territories. There he gave a demonstration of the weapon to some fascinated Canadian militiamen and Mounted Police, one of whom wrote:

"These curious instruments of destruction we inspect with interest, and their trial is watched eagerly. A few rounds are fired at some duck on a distant pond – no execution is done apparently, but the rapidity of fire shows us how very deadly a weapon of this kind might be on proper occasions. We want now to see one tried on the Indians..."

One of the Gatlings was used at the Battle of Cut Knife on May 2, 1885. However eyewitness accounts make it clear that Howard was not present; rather, the gun was operated by Canadian gunners.

Howard himself and one Gatling embarked on the South Saskatchewan River aboard the steamboat Northcote, by which he travelled to Fish Creek, arriving on May 5, 1885.  There he formed part of a Canadian militia column, which then moved on Louis Riel's capital at Batoche. On May 9, 1885, the first day of the Battle of Batoche, Howard fired some of the first shots from the militia side, aiming some rounds at the Roman Catholic rectory (the bullet holes may still be seen). He distinguished himself in action later that day, when his prompt and courageous actions prevented a group of the Métis from capturing one or more Canadian field guns. He was shifted that day from place to place so that the Gatling's firepower could be used to beat off significant enemy attacks. On May 12, 1885, the final day of the battle, Howard and his Gatling were again in the thick of the fighting, being brought up to defeat the last resistance near the village of Batoche. After the militia victory, Howard stayed in Canada, and became a wealthy cartridge manufacturer.

On the outbreak of the Second Boer War, he became a machine-gun officer in the Canadian Mounted Rifles. He then organized a unit called the Canadian Scouts, with the rank of major. Arthur Howard was killed in action at Rustplaats on February 17, 1901. Major Howard's grave is in Wakkerstroom, Mpumalanga, South Africa. He was posthumously mentioned in despatches for "acts of gallantry" and awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

Howard was given the nickname "Gat" by the Canadian popular press during the campaign of 1885.

References

Further reading
 Beal, Bob and Macleod, Rod, Prairie Fire, McClelland and Stewart, Toronto, 1994
 Howard, Joseph Kinsey, Strange Empire: A Narrative of the Northwest, William Morrow and Company, New York, 1952
 Morton, Desmond, The Last War Drum, Hakkert, Toronto, 1972
 Mulvany, Charles Pelham, The History of the North-West Rebellion of 1885, Hovey & Co., Toronto, 1886

1846 births
1901 deaths
Canadian Companions of the Distinguished Service Order
Firearm manufacturers of the United States
People of the North-West Rebellion
United States Army officers
Canadian military personnel killed in the Second Boer War
Connecticut National Guard personnel
Canadian Militia officers

Arthur L. Howard


Matanya Abramson (; 1920–2004) was an Israeli sculptor whose sculptures have been exhibited worldwide as well as in Israel. Matanya was a versatile artist who worked in marble, stone, and wood, as well as with bronze, aluminum and copper castings.

Biography

Abramson was born in Kinneret, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. He was the son of a pioneering farmer family that immigrated from Russia in the early 1900s.

Abramson started painting during his childhood. After completing studies at the Mikve Israel agricultural school, he studied painting with various Israeli artists. He spent 12 years in military service in the Haganah, JSP, Royal Navy, Palyam, Palmach and the IDF.

After the 1947–1949 Palestine war, Abramson studied sculpture from Schwarzmann and Koso Elul and spent 6 months in Paris in 1954. After returning from Paris, he went back to the farm in the Kinneret and worked in agriculture, pursuing art in his free time.

In 1959, Abramson left the farming village and moved to the artists' quarter in Safed.

In 1962 he went to Italy for two years, pursuing his art. Six months were spent in the marble mines in Carrara, and a year and a half was spent in Florence. All his works from Italy were sent to an exhibition in New York in October 1963.

In 1964 he came back to Israel, living in the Ein-Kerem neighborhood of Jerusalem. In 1965 Abramson moved to Old Jaffa..

Abramson died in February 2004 and was buried in his home village, Kinneret, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

Exhibitions & monuments

1960 - One Man Show - ZOA House, Tel Aviv

1963 - One Man Show - Gallery Numero, Florence

1963 - One Man Show - Gallery Vercel, New-York

1965 - One Man Show - Gallery Vercel, New-York

1965 - Monument - Kibbutz Ein-Gedi (Israel)

1966 - One Man Show - Hamam, Old Jaffa (Israel)

1966 - Exhibition with the painter Alexander - Museum, Ramat Gan (Israel)

1967 - Exhibition with the painter Rosenboim - Museum, Bat-Yam (Israel)

1967 - Memorial Monument to the Fallen - Kinneret (Israel)

1968 - Third prize in the contest for building a monument in the square where a synagogue was burned down - Munich

1969 - Participant in an international symposium - Saint-Margareten (Austria)

1970 - One Man Show - Artists House, Jerusalem

1971 - One Man Show - Yarkon Gallery, Boston

1971 - Started work on monument in memory of "Oley Hagardom" - Acre (Israel)

1971 - Memorial Monument for the Fallen - Har-Habanim, Ramat-Gan (Israel)

1978 - One Man Show - Gallery Alte-Schmide, Vienna

1980 – large marble sculpture - Berlin Garden, Neot-Afeka, Tel Aviv

1980 - One Man Show - Jewish-American Congress House, New-York

1983 - One Man Show - Herzliya Museum, Herzliya (Israel)

1986 - One Man Show - Institute Francais, Vienna

1986 - One Man Show - Gallery Susan Fischer, Baden-Baden

1992 - Exhibition with the painter Kipnis - Zurich Kosmus, Vienna

References
Artist profile Israel Museum

1920 births
2004 deaths
Jewish Israeli artists
20th-century Israeli Jews
21st-century Israeli Jews
Palmach members
Modern sculptors
Jewish sculptors
Jews from Mandatory Palestine
20th-century Israeli sculptors
20th-century Israeli male artists

Matanya Abramson


Byron Raymond "Whizzer" White (June 8, 1917 – April 15, 2002) was an American lawyer, jurist, and professional football player who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1962 until 1993. By his retirement, he was its only sitting Democrat and the last surviving member of the progressive Warren Court.

Born and raised in a small homestead in Wellington, Colorado, White distinguished himself as a diligent scholar and athlete who came from a background of poor farmhands to become a consensus All-American halfback for the Colorado Buffaloes. After being the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy in 1937, he was selected in the 1938 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National Football League (NFL). He led the league in rushing yards during his rookie season. White graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder as class valedictorian, attaining a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University. After World War II forced him to return to the United States, he matriculated at Yale Law School, played for the Detroit Lions in the 1940 and 1941 seasons while still enrolled, and served as an intelligence officer for the United States Navy in the Pacific Theatre.

White graduated from law school with honors in 1946 and clerked for Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson. He eschewed work for a white-shoe firm and returned to Colorado in order to enter private practice in Denver as a transactional attorney. Minor work as the Colorado state chair of John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign led to him being unexpectedly tapped in 1961 for a position as U.S. Deputy Attorney General. He was successfully nominated by Kennedy to the Supreme Court the next year, becoming its first justice from Colorado.

White espoused a pragmatic and non-doctrinaire judicial approach which strengthened the powers of the federal government, advocated for the desegregation of public schools, and upheld the use of affirmative action. Though expected to be a reliably liberal justice, he was by contrast a vociferous opponent of substantive due process, penning dissents in both Miranda v. Arizona and Roe v. Wade. White wrote the majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick (upholding the ability for states to restrict homosexual conduct) and similarly dissented in Runyon v. McCrary (against the ability for the government to restrict racial discrimination in private schools) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Due to his unwillingness to align with either the liberal or conservative blocs, White was largely orientated with the Court's center.

Early life and education

Background
Byron Raymond White was born in Fort Collins, Colorado, on June 8, 1917; he was the younger son of Maude Elizabeth (née Burger) and Alpha Albert White. Despite being poor German settlers that never attended high school, White's parents instilled a heavy emphasis on his education and took active roles in the local community. Both White and his brother, Clayton "Sam" Samuel White, were raised in the nearby town of Wellington where they attended the local high school. As a young student, White worked odd jobs to support his family during the town's decline in the 1920s; these included roles in harvesting beets, shoveling coal, and hard construction work among other forms of manual labor. In his junior year, he and his brother rented out land and spent long hours in the fields, during which time White adopted a nearly lifelong habit of smoking. Sam, four years White's senior, became an accomplished student and athlete that graduated as valedictorian, earning a scholarship to study at the University of Colorado, where he was later elected by the university to become a Rhodes Scholar. Whereas Sam was a gregarious and socially active child, White was described as a taciturn boy who "was very quiet, measuring every single word, showing no emotion, and revealing nothing."

White excelled academically in high school, graduating in 1934 as the class valedictorian of his small class of six with the highest grades in the school's history. He studied diligently in order to attain a scholarship to attend college, later describing his philosophy in Wellington as "do your work and don't be late for dinner." White followed his brother's footsteps in attending the University of Colorado Boulder on the scholarship offered to all Colorado high school valedictorians, intending to go to medical school and major in chemistry. Though he joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity on campus, he stuck to a strict routine of working and studying with little to no social life. However, he would become a star athlete after playing as an All-American halfback for the Colorado Buffaloes football team, winning a series of victories to become among the most acclaimed players in the country.

In 1935, Sam White was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University. After news of his brother's success became a local sensation, White saw his brother as an inspiration and felt pressured to achieve the scholarship himself. He served as student body president his senior year, switched his major to the humanities, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and valedictorian from the University of Colorado in 1938 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. In his last year, the Colorado Buffaloes went undefeated, and White's status as a football star earned him the moniker "Whizzer White" by the student newspaper. After months of study, White also attained the Rhodes Scholarship, deferring it for a year to play professional football before attending Hertford College.

Oxford
On January 3, 1939, White departed to England aboard the SS Europa, arriving in Southampton on January 9 harassed by reporters wishing to see a "Yank at Oxford." Upon moving into Hertford College with the intent of studying law, he befriended the future mathematician George Piranian and was assigned with C. H. S. Fifoot as a tutor. White spent his days at Oxford tirelessly studying from day until night, becoming "the only Rhodes scholar who ever worked fourteen hours a day on his studies." During one Easter vacation, he became acquainted with Joseph P. Kennedy and future U.S president John F. Kennedy as their father, Joseph Kennedy, was the U.S. ambassador to London. In the period of political upheaval just before the Second World War, Oxford students—Rhodes scholars especially—took an active role in international politics, with many American Rhodes scholars beckoning President Roosevelt to take action against Spanish nationalists. White, however, remained closed in the affairs of politics, rarely speaking out and becoming estranged from other students; he prioritized his studies and physique above all else.

Following the end of a term, White spent a summer vacation touring France and Germany, settling down in Munich in order to study the German language and Roman law. He unexpectedly reunited with John F. Kennedy, who was on his own tour of Europe with Torbert Macdonald, and on one occasion the three were heckled by a mob who recognized their English license plates. As the oncoming war made it impossible for students to continue studying abroad, White left the country to return to Oxford in late August 1939, choosing to leave the university in order to continue his legal education at Yale Law School.

Law school and the NFL
Upon enrolling at Yale, White continued his previous routine of studying fourteen hours a day, taking breaks only to exercise in the gymnasium where he would frequent the basketball courts—often clashing against Clint Frank in pick-up games. Despite attempts by the New York Giants and other NFL teams to get him to sign back into football, White publicly repudiated his football career, telling a local newspaper that "my football playing days are over. I'm started on a law career."

At the time, Yale was home to a number of legal realists who rebuked Lochner and substantive due process, and were generally scholars with an expertise in legal fields outside of constitutional law. Two of such realists—Myres S. McDougal and Arthur Corbin—had a significant influence on White early in law school. Future justice Potter Stewart, one year ahead of him at the university, remembered White as "a serious-minded, scholarly, and rather taciturn (except when he found himself engaged in lively colloquy with J. W. Moore in his class on Procedure), and extremely likable young man with steel-rimmed eyeglasses."

White earned the highest grades in his first-year class and was subsequently awarded the Edgar M. Cullen Prize, an award given to the highest-achieving first-year student. During the summer, he returned to Colorado and attended summer school at the University of Colorado Law School, got an appendectomy, and became a waiter at his old fraternity. White would turn down an offer to join the editorship of the Yale Law Journal, instead taking a leave of absence to promptly return to professional football as a member of the Detroit Lions, again leading the league in rushing in 1940. In three NFL seasons, he played in 33 games and led the NFL in rushing yards in 1938 and 1940. With an offer of $15,800, he was the National Football League's highest-paid player, and ultimately ended the season with the highest number of yards in the NFL at 514. Despite White's performance, the Lions had a largely mediocre season, finishing in third-place with a 5-5-1 record. At the end of the season in December 1941, he returned to Yale to await a call to serve in the U.S. Navy after the Attack on Pearl Harbor; in May 1942, he was assigned to naval intelligence and spent weeks training at Dartmouth College and in New York City. His original intention was to join the Marines Corps, but was kept out due to being colorblind.

World War II
In July 1943, White was stationed at Nouméa, New Caledonia, tasked with protecting Guadalcanal and Tulagi; he narrowly missed being assigned with John F. Kennedy, his former acquaintance who had also been stationed at Tulagi before being reassigned to the Russell Islands. During World War II, White served as an intelligence officer in the Navy, and was stationed in the Pacific Theatre.  He wrote the intelligence report on the sinking of future President John F. Kennedy's PT-109. For his service, White was awarded two Bronze Star medals, and was honorably discharged as a lieutenant commander in 1945.

Legal career

After his military service, White returned to Yale Law School, graduating in 1946 ranked first in his class with a Bachelor of Laws degree, magna cum laude, and membership in the Order of the Coif. White served as a law clerk to Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1946 to 1947, then returned to Colorado and entered private practice in Denver with the law firm now known as Davis Graham & Stubbs. This was a time in which the Denver economy flourished, and White rendered legal service to the business community. White was for the most part a transactional attorney; he drafted contracts and advised insolvent companies, and he argued the occasional case in court.

During the 1960 presidential election, White used his status as a football star to aid him as chair of John F. Kennedy's campaign in Colorado. White had first met the candidate when White was a Rhodes scholar and Kennedy's father, Joseph Kennedy, was Ambassador to the Court of St. James's. During the Kennedy administration, White served as United States Deputy Attorney General, the number two man in the Justice Department, under Robert F. Kennedy. He took the lead in protecting the Freedom Riders in 1961, negotiating with Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson.

Supreme Court

On April 3, 1962, President Kennedy nominated White to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court, succeeding Charles Evans Whittaker. The president said of White—a longtime friend of his—that "he has excelled at everything. And I know that he will excel on the highest court in the land." White was confirmed on April 11, 1962, by a voice vote. He took the judicial oath of office on April 16, 1962, and served until June 28, 1993. His Supreme Court tenure was the fourth-longest of the 20th century.

Upon the request of Vice President-Elect Al Gore, White administered the oath of office on January 20, 1993, to Gore. It was the only time White administered an oath of office to a vice president. During his service on the high court, White wrote 994 opinions. He was fierce in questioning attorneys in court, and his votes and opinions on the bench reflect an ideology that has been notoriously difficult for popular journalists and legal scholars alike to pin down. He was seen as a disappointment by some Kennedy supporters who wished he had joined the more liberal wing of the court in its opinions on Miranda v. Arizona and Roe v. Wade.

White often took a narrow, fact-specific view of cases before the Court and generally refused to make broad pronouncements on constitutional doctrine or adhere to a specific judicial philosophy, preferring what he viewed as a practical approach to the law. In the tradition of the New Deal, White frequently supported a broad view and expansion of governmental powers. He consistently voted against creating constitutional restrictions on the police, dissenting in the landmark 1966 case Miranda v. Arizona. In that dissent, he said that aggressive police practices enhance the individual rights of law-abiding citizens. His jurisprudence has sometimes been praised for adhering to the doctrine of judicial restraint.

Substantive due process doctrine
Frequently a critic of the doctrine of "substantive due process", which involves the judiciary reading substantive content into the term "liberty" in the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment, White's first published opinion as a Supreme Court Justice was a joint dissent with Justice Clark in Robinson v. California (1962), foreshadowing his career-long distaste for the doctrine. In Robinson, he criticized the remainder of the Court's unprecedented expansion of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishment" to strike down a California law providing for civil commitment of drug addicts. He argued that the Court was "imposing its own philosophical predilections" on the state in this exercise of judicial power, although its historic "allergy to substantive due process" would never permit it to strike down a state's economic regulatory law in such a manner.

In the same vein, he dissented in the controversial 1973 case Roe v. Wade. White voted to strike down a state ban on contraceptives in the 1965 case of Griswold v. Connecticut, although he did not join the majority opinion, which famously asserted a "right of privacy" on the basis of the "penumbras" of the Bill of Rights. White and Justice William Rehnquist were the only dissenters from the Court's decision in Roe, though White's dissent used stronger language, suggesting that Roe was "an exercise in raw judicial power" and criticizing the decision for "interposing a constitutional barrier to state efforts to protect human life." White, who usually adhered firmly to the doctrine of stare decisis, remained a critic of Roe throughout his term on the bench and frequently voted to uphold laws restricting abortion, including in Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992.

White explained his general views on the validity of substantive due process at length in his dissent in Moore v. City of East Cleveland (1977):

The Judiciary, including this Court, is the most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or even the design of the Constitution. Realizing that the present construction of the Due Process Clause represents a major judicial gloss on its terms, as well as on the anticipation of the Framers, and that much of the underpinning for the broad, substantive application of the Clause disappeared in the conflict between the Executive and the Judiciary in the 1930s and 1940s, the Court should be extremely reluctant to breathe still further substantive content into the Due Process clause so as to strike down legislation adopted by a State or city to promote its welfare. Whenever the Judiciary does so, it unavoidably pre-empts for itself another part of the governance of the country without express constitutional authority.

White parted company with Rehnquist in strongly supporting the Supreme Court decisions striking down laws that discriminated on the basis of sex, agreeing with Justice William J. Brennan in 1973's Frontiero v. Richardson that such laws should be subject to strict scrutiny. Only three justices joined Brennan's plurality opinion in Frontiero; later gender discrimination cases would be subjected to intermediate scrutiny (see Craig v. Boren). In Rostker v. Goldberg, White joined Brennan and Marshall in dissent arguing that male-only Selective Service registration was unconstitutional.

White wrote the majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), which upheld Georgia's anti-sodomy law against a substantive due process attack:

The Court is most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or design of the Constitution.... There should be, therefore, great resistance to ... redefining the category of rights deemed to be fundamental. Otherwise, the Judiciary necessarily takes to itself further authority to govern the country without express constitutional authority.

White's opinion in Bowers typified his fact-specific, deferential style, treating the issue in that case as presenting only the question of whether homosexuals had a fundamental right to privacy, even though the statute in Bowers potentially applied to heterosexual sodomy. Georgia, however, conceded during oral argument that the law would be inapplicable to married couples under the precedent set forth in Griswold v. Connecticut. A year after White's death, Bowers was overruled in Lawrence v. Texas (2003).

Death penalty

White took a middle course on the issue of the death penalty: he was one of five justices who voted in Furman v. Georgia (1972) to strike down several state capital punishment statutes, voicing concern over the arbitrary way in which the death penalty was administered. The Furman decision ended capital punishment in the U.S. until the court's ruling in Gregg v. Georgia (1976).  In that case, White voted to uphold Georgia's new capital punishment law.

White accepted the position that the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution required that all punishments be "proportional" to the crime; thus, in Coker v. Georgia (1977), he wrote the opinion that invalidated the death penalty for rape of a 16-year-old married girl. His first reported Supreme Court decision was a dissent in Robinson v. California (1962), in which he criticized the Court for extending the reach of the Eighth Amendment. In Robinson the Court for the first time expanded the constitutional prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishments" from examining the nature of the punishment imposed and whether it was an uncommon punishment − as, for example, in the cases of flogging, branding, banishment, or electrocution − to deciding whether any punishment at all was appropriate for the defendant's conduct. White said: "If this case involved economic regulation, the present Court's allergy to substantive due process would surely save the statute and prevent the Court from imposing its own philosophical predilections upon state legislatures or Congress."  Consistent with his view in Robinson, White thought that imposing the death penalty on minors was constitutional, and he was one of the three dissenters in Thompson v. Oklahoma (1988), a decision that declared that the death penalty as applied to offenders below 16 years of age was unconstitutional as a cruel and unusual punishment.

Abortion
Along with Justice William Rehnquist, White dissented in Roe v. Wade (the dissenting decision was in the companion case, Doe v. Bolton), castigating the majority for holding that the U.S. Constitution "values the convenience, whim or caprice of the putative mother more than the life or potential life of the fetus."

Civil rights

White consistently supported the Court's post-Brown v. Board of Education attempts to fully desegregate public schools, even through the controversial line of forced busing cases. He voted to uphold affirmative action remedies to racial inequality in an education setting in the famous Regents of the University of California v. Bakke case of 1978. Though White voted to uphold federal affirmative action programs in cases such as Metro Broadcasting, Inc. v. FCC, 497 U.S. 547 (1990) (later overruled by Adarand Constructors v. Peña, 515 U.S. 200 (1995)), he voted to strike down an affirmative action plan regarding state contracts in Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co. (1989).

White dissented in Runyon v. McCrary (1976), which held that federal law prohibited private schools from discriminating on the basis of race. He argued that the legislative history of 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (popularly known as the "Ku Klux Klan Act") indicated that the Act was not designed to prohibit private racial discrimination but only state-sponsored racial discrimination (as had been held in the Civil Rights Cases of 1883). White was concerned about the potential far-reaching impact of holding private racial discrimination illegal, which if taken to its logical conclusion might ban many varied forms of voluntary self-segregation, including social and advocacy groups that limited their membership to blacks: "Whether such conduct should be condoned or not, whites and blacks will undoubtedly choose to form a variety of associational relationships pursuant to contracts which exclude members of the other race. Social clubs, black and white, and associations designed to further the interests of blacks or whites are but two examples". Runyon was essentially overruled by 1989's Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, which itself was superseded by the Civil Rights Act of 1991.

Relationships with other justices
White said he was most comfortable on Rehnquist's court. He once said of Earl Warren, "I wasn't exactly in his circle." On the Burger Court, the chief justice often assigned important criminal procedure and individual rights opinions to White because of his frequently conservative views on these questions.

Court operations and retirement
White frequently urged the Supreme Court to consider cases when federal appeals courts were in conflict on issues of federal law, believing that resolving such was a primary role of the Supreme Court. Thus, White voted to grant certiorari more often than many of his colleagues; he also wrote numerous opinions dissenting from denials of certiorari. After White (along with fellow Justice Harry Blackmun, who also often voted for liberal grants of certiorari) retired, the number of cases heard each session of the Court declined steeply.

White disliked the politics of Supreme Court appointments, but had great faith in representative democracy, responding to complaints about politicians and mediocrity in government with exhortations to "get more involved and help fix it." He retired in 1993, during Bill Clinton's presidency, saying that "someone else should be permitted to have a like experience." When he retired, White had been the only Democrat on the Court. Clinton nominated (and the Senate approved) Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a judge from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and a former Columbia University law professor, to succeed him.

Later years and death
After retiring from the Supreme Court, White occasionally sat with lower federal courts.  He maintained chambers in the federal courthouse in Denver until shortly before his death. He also served for the Commission on Structural Alternatives for the Federal Courts of Appeals.

White died of pneumonia on April 15, 2002, at the age of 84. He was the last living Justice to have served on the Warren Court, and the last justice appointed by Kennedy; he died the day before the fortieth anniversary of his swearing in as a Justice. From his death until the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor in 2006, there were no living former justices.

His remains are interred at All Souls Walk at St. John's Cathedral in Denver.

Then-Chief Justice Rehnquist said White "came as close as anyone I have known to meriting Matthew Arnold's description of Sophocles: 'He saw life steadily and he saw it whole.' All of us who served with him will miss him."

Personal life
White first met his wife Marion Stearns (1921–2009), the daughter of the president of the University of Colorado, when she was in high school and he was a college football player. During World War II, Marion served in the WAVES while her future husband was a Navy intelligence officer. They married in 1946 and had two children: a son named Charles Byron (Barney) and a daughter named Nancy.

His older brother Clayton Samuel "Sam" White (1912–2004) was also a high school valedictorian and Rhodes Scholar. He later became a physician and medical researcher, particularly on the effects of atomic bomb blasts.

Awards and honors
The NFL Players Association gives the Byron "Whizzer" White NFL Man of the Year Award to one player each year for his charity work. Michael McCrary, who was involved in Runyon v. McCrary, grew up to be a professional football player and won the award in 2000.

The federal courthouse in Denver that houses the Tenth Circuit is named after White.

White was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1952.

White was made an honorary fellow of Hertford College, Oxford.

White was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003 by President George W. Bush.

White was inducted into the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Hall of Fame on July 14, 2007, in addition to being a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and the University of Colorado's Athletic Hall of Fame, where he is enshrined as "The Greatest Buff Ever".

See also

 Demographics of the Supreme Court of the United States
 John F. Kennedy Supreme Court candidates
 List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
 List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States by court composition
 List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Chief Justice)
 List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 6)
 List of NCAA major college football yearly rushing leaders
 List of NCAA major college football yearly scoring leaders
 List of NCAA major college football yearly total offense leaders
 List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Burger Court
 List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Rehnquist Court
 List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Warren Court
 List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office
 List of United States federal judges by longevity of service

Footnotes

References

Sources

Books

Journals

Newspapers

Further reading

 Woodward, Robert and Armstrong, Scott. The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court (1979). ; . ; ; ; .

External links

 Byron White at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
 Oyez Project, U.S. Supreme Court media, Byron R. White

 Byron White's season with the 1938 Pittsburgh Pirates
 University of Colorado Athletics Hall of Fame – Byron White
 C-SPAN – Life of Byron White, discussed by Dennis Hutchinson (2011)

1917 births
2002 deaths
20th-century American judges
Alumni of Hertford College, Oxford
All-American college football players
American athlete-politicians
American Rhodes Scholars
American Episcopalians
American football halfbacks
American men's basketball players
Basketball players from Denver
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Colorado Buffaloes football players
Colorado Buffaloes men's basketball players
Colorado Democrats
Deaths from pneumonia in Colorado
Detroit Lions players
Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States
Lawyers from Denver
Military personnel from Colorado
Pittsburgh Pirates (football) players
Pittsburgh Steelers players
Players of American football from Denver
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Sportspeople from Fort Collins, Colorado
United States Deputy Attorneys General
United States federal judges appointed by John F. Kennedy
United States Navy officers
United States Navy personnel of World War II
Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
University of Colorado alumni
Yale Law School alumni

Byron White


Pearl millet (Cenchrus americanus, commonly known as the synonym Pennisetum  glaucum) is the most widely grown type of millet. It has been grown in Africa and the Indian subcontinent since prehistoric times. The center of diversity, and suggested area of domestication, for the crop is in the Sahel zone of West Africa. Recent archaeobotanical research has confirmed the presence of domesticated pearl millet on the Sahel zone of northern Mali between 2500 and 2000 BC. 2023 is the , declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 2021.

Description

Pearl millet has ovoid grains of  length, the largest kernels of all varieties of millet (not including sorghum). These can be nearly white, pale yellow, brown, grey, slate blue or purple. The 1000-seed weight can be anything from 2.5 to 14 g with a mean of 8 g.

The height of the plant ranges from .

Other languages
Also known as 'Bajra' in Hindi, 'Sajje' in Kannada, 'Kambu' in Tamil, 'Sajjalu' in Telugu, 'Bajeer' in Kumaoni and 'Maiwa' in Hausa, 'Mexoeira' in Mozambique., 'Baajri' in Marathi, 'Za' in the Dagbani language of Ghana, 'Zuk' in Tyap of Nigeria, Mawele in Swahili and mwere in Meru languages of Kenya. Mahangu in Kwanyama of Namibia.

Cultivation
Pearl millet is well adapted to growing areas characterized by drought, low soil fertility, low moisture, and high temperature. It performs well in soils with high salinity or low pH. Because of its tolerance to difficult growing conditions, it can be grown in areas where other cereal crops, such as maize or wheat, would not survive. Pearl millet is a summer annual crop well-suited for double cropping and rotations.The grain and forage are valuable as food and feed resources in Africa, Russia, India and China.

Today pearl millet is grown on over  of land worldwide. It accounts for about 50% of the total world production of millets. Pearl millet is the most widely grown millet and is a very important crop in India and parts of Africa.

World production of millets has been stable during the 1980s. According to FAO,  of millet were planted in 1987 with an average production of only .

Structure and physical properties

Pearl millet varieties from the world collection probably have more variation in physical characteristics than any other millet. Kernel shape has different classifications: obovate, hexagonal, lanceolate, globular and elliptical. In Africa, pearl millet is classified as either globular or lanceolate and hexagonal. Most of the millets are very similar to each other in basic structures, although there are some very specific differences.

Composition
The composition of variety Changara of pearl millet can be affected by both environment and genetics. Pearl millet usually has higher protein and fat contents than sorghum or other millets because the kernel is a naked caryopsis.

Values are expressed on a dry matter basis.

Culinary use

Pearl millet is commonly used to make bhakri flatbread. It is also boiled to make a Tamil porridge called kamban choru or kamban koozh.

In Rajasthani cuisine  is a traditional dish made with pearl millet flour and yogurt. It is usually made in summers to be served along with meals.

Flatbreads made of pearl millet flour, known as  or  (बाजरे की रोटी) in Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana, bajrichi bhakri (बाजरीची भाकरी) in Maharashtra and bajra no rotlo (બાજરા નો રોટલો) in Gujarat, India, are served with various types of kadhi and bhaaji in meals. Bajhar ji maani prepared in Tharparkar, Sindh is served with various types of kadhi and bhaaji.

In Namibia, pearl millet flour is used to make Oshifima, a staple food in northern part of Namibia.

Around the world

India
India is the largest producer of pearl millet. India began growing pearl millet between 1500 and 1100 BCE. It is currently unknown how it made its way to India. Rajasthan is the highest-producing state in India. The first hybrid of pearl millet developed in India in 1965 is called the HB1.

Sajje is the local name of the pearl millet in Karnataka and is mostly grown in the semiarid districts of North Karnataka. Sajje is milled and used for making flatbread called 'sajje rotti' and is eaten with yennegai (stuffed brinjal) and yogurt.

Kambu is the Tamil name of pearl millet and is a common food across the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the second important food for Tamil people consumed predominantly in the hot humid summer months from February through May every year. It is made into a gruel and consumed along with buttermilk or consumed as dosa or idly.

Pearl millet is called bajra in Northern Indian states. There was a time when pearl millets along with finger millets and sorghum were the staple food crops in these states but it reduced to a mere cattle fodder crop after the Green Revolution in the 1960s.

Africa
The second largest producer of pearl millet and the first to start cultivation, Africa has been successful in bringing back this lost crop.

Sahel
Pearl millet is an important food across the Sahel region of Africa. It is a main staple (along with sorghum) in a large region of northern Nigeria, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. In Nigeria it is usually grown as an intercrop with sorghum and cowpea, the different growth habits, growth period and drought vulnerability of the three crops maximising total productivity and minimising the risk of total crop failure. It is often ground into a flour, rolled into large balls, parboiled, liquefied into a watery paste using fermented milk, and then consumed as a beverage. This beverage, called "fura" in Hausa, is a popular drink in northern Nigeria and southern Niger. Pearl millet is a food widely used in Borno state and its surrounding states, it is the most widely grown and harvested crop. There are many products that are obtained from the processing of the crop.

Namibia
In Namibia, pearl millet is locally known as "mahangu" and is grown mainly in the north of that country, where it is the staple food. In the dry, unpredictable climate of this area it grows better than alternatives such as maize. The regions in which this crop is produced are: Zambezi, Kavango East, Kavango West, Ohangwena, Omusati, Oshana, Oshikoto, and; in parts of the Otjozondjupa region, in the Tsumkwe area.

Mahangu is usually made into a porridge called "oshifima" (or "oshithima"), or fermented to make a drink called "ontaku" or "oshikundu".

Traditionally the mahangu is pounded with heavy pieces of wood in a 'pounding area'. The floor of the pounding area is covered with a concrete-like coating made from the material of termite mounds. As a result, some sand and grit gets into the pounded mahangu, so products like oshifima are usually swallowed without chewing. After pounding, winnowing may be used to remove the chaff.

Some industrial grain processing facilities now exist, such as those operated by Namib Mills. Efforts are also being made to develop smaller scale processing using food extrusion and other methods. In a food extruder, the mahangu is milled into a paste before being forced through metal die. Products made this way include breakfast cereals, including puffed grains and porridge, pasta shapes, and "rice". Pearl millet is also a vital feedstock for cattle, goats and chickens which can also be explored as an enterprise.

Research and development
Recently more productive varieties of pearl millet have been introduced, enabling farmers to increase production considerably.

To combat the problem of micronutrient malnutrition in Africa and Asia, a study of serving iron-biofortified pearl millets which is bred conventionally without genetic modification to a control group is proved to have higher level of iron absorbance by the group.

Around 1000 pearl millet genotypes (including 31 wild genotypes) have been sequenced, identifying the genetic diversity of this staple crop and aiding breeding to select for particular characteristics. A reference genotype of pearl millet () has been fully sequenced, which holds around 38,579 genes. Some of these genes are for wax biosynthesis, which is known to be involved in tolerance to abiotic stresses in pearl millet. The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics is evaluating crop wild relatives and will introgress abiotic tolerant traits into cultivated genotypes and make them available for pearl millet improvement.

A 2015 study provided a genetic map.

Pests

Insect pests include Anoecia corni, An. cornicola, Anoecia fulviabdominalis, An. vagans, Aphis gossypii, Forda hirsuta, F. orientalis, Geoica utricularia, Hysteroneura setariae, Melanaphis sacchari, Protaphis middletonii, Rhopalosiphum maidis, R. rufiabdominale, Schizaphis graminum, Sipha elegans, Sipha maydis, Sitobion avenae, Sit. leelamaniae, Sit. pauliani, Tetraneura africana, Tetraneura basui, Tetraneura fusiformis, and T. yezoensis.

Africa
The larvae of several insect species, primarily belonging to the orders Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera, and Hemiptera, as well as Orthoptera adults, are persistent pearl millet pests in the Sahel. The following pest species are reported for northern Mali.

Coniesta ignefusalis (pearl millet stem-borer; Lepidoptera, Crambidae) attacks pearl millet, and also sorghum and maize, especially in the Sahel. It is the main pearl millet pest in Senegal.
Heliocheilus albipunctella (pearl millet head-miner; Lepidoptera, Noctuidae) attacks pearl millet. The larvae bore in a spiral path, destroying florets or grain.
Geromyia penniseti (millet grain midge): The larvae eat the developing grain and form white pupal cases attached to the tips of spikelets. Reported losses in Senegal are as high as 90 percent.
Pachnoda interrupta (millet beetle)
Psalydolytta fusca and Ps. vestita (pearl millet blister beetle; Coleoptera, Meloidae) attack pearl millet. They are major millet pests in Mali.
Rhinyptia infuscata (Scarabaeidae, Rutelinae, Anomalini) is a nocturnal beetle, recorded as a locally important pest on millet flowers in Niger. Farmers in Niger often fight the species using fires set at night. It is also reported as sorghum pest in Senegal, and as a pest on maize, where the larvae attack the roots.
Sesamia calamistis (pink stem borer), especially in lowland forests. This species and the sugarcane borer (Eldana saccharina) are the primary pests of the pearl millet in Ivory Coast.
gall midges (Diptera, Cecidomyiidae): millet grain midge (Geromyia penniseti), sorghum midge (Contarinia sorghicola), and African rice gall midge (Orseolia oryzivora).
Dysdercus volkeri (cotton-stainer; Hemiptera, Pyrrhocoridae) attacks flowers.

Grasshoppers that frequently attack millets in the Dogon country of Mali are Oedaleus senegalensis, Kraussaria angulifera, Cataloipus cymbiferus, and Diabolocatantops axillaris.

In northern Ghana, Poophilus costalis (spittle bug) is reported as a millet pest, as well as Dysdercus volkeri, Heliocheilus albipunctella, Coniesta ignefusalis, and caterpillars of Amsacta moloneyi and Helicoverpa armigera.

In northern Nigeria, heavy infestations of Hycleus species, including Hycleus terminatus (syn. Mylabris afzelli), Hycleus fimbriatus (syn. Mylabris fimbriatus), Hycleus hermanniae (syn. Coryna hermanniae), and Hycleus chevrolati (syn. Coryna chevrolati), have affected early plantings of pearl millet crops.

Other regions
In South India, pests include the shoot fly Atherigona approximata.

In North America, regular pests include the chinch bug Blissus leucopterus.

Gallery

References

Further reading
Lost Crops of Africa: Volume I: Grains, Chapters 4-6 - released by the National Research Council in 1996

Cenchrus
Grasses of Africa
Millets
Crops originating from Africa
Fodder
Sahel
Cereals

Pearl millet


The Golan Archaeological Museum is a museum of the archaeological finds of the Golan Heights, located in Katzrin.

The museum features artifacts from all historical periods. Among these are artifacts and decorated architectural fragments from a number of Byzantine-period Christian churches and villages, including finds from Kursi, on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, which is identified with Gergasa, the New Testament site of the "Miracle of the Gadarene swine" (Luke 8:22-39).

A room in the museum is dedicated to the story of Gamla, the Jewish town besieged and razed by the Romans during the First Jewish–Roman War. A scale model and film are used to describe the conquest and destruction of the town and all of its inhabitants by Vespasian in 67 CE. On display are finds from the site, including arrowheads, ballista stones, clay oil lamps, and coins minted in the town during the siege.

Other artifacts of note in the museum are many columns, lintels and other architectural parts recovered from the ruins of ancient synagogues throughout the Golan Heights. These are elaborately carved with dedicatory inscriptions and with Jewish symbols.

References

Golan Heights

Golan Archaeological Museum


Achille De Bassini (5 May 1819 – 3 July 1881) was an Italian baritone, particularly noted for his performances in Verdi's operas. He created the roles of Francesco Foscari in I due Foscari (1844), Pasha Seid in Il corsaro (1848), Miller in Luisa Miller (1849) and Fra Melitone in La forza del destino (1862).

Bassini was born and studied in Milan, and is thought to have made his début at Voghera in 1837 in the title role of Donizetti's Belisario.  Although he had a talent for portraying noble, suffering characters, Verdi also recognized his capacity for humorous roles and wrote the character of Fra Melitone specifically for him. He sang throughout Italy and from 1852 to 1863 in St. Petersburg as well. He made his London debut in Covent Garden in 1859.

De Bassini was married to the soprano Rita Gabussi. Their son, Alberto De Bassini, was also an opera singer, first as a tenor, and later as a baritone.  Achille died, aged 62, at Cava de' Tirreni.

Sources

J. Warrack and E. West, 'De Bassini, Achille', The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, 1992.
Francesco Regli, Dizionario biografico dei più celebri poeti ed artisti melodrammatici, E. Dalmazzo, 1860, pp. 151–152

Italian operatic baritones
1819 births
1881 deaths
Singers from Milan
19th-century Italian male opera singers

Achille De Bassini


The Coastal Carolina Council is the Boy Scouts of America council that services much of the South Carolina Lowcountry.  It operates 6 districts and two scout camps—Camp Ho Non Wah and Camp Moultrie.

Organization
Black River District
Etiwan District
Lowcountry District
Palmetto District
Pineland District
Swamp Fox District

History
The Coastal Carolina Council began in the 1920s as the Charleston County Council.  In 1931, the Bailey family of Wadmalaw Island allowed the scouts to camp in front of their plantation house.  The Bailey family would eventually leave the entire plantation to the CCC, becoming Camp Ho Non Wah.  In 1943, the council began its Order of the Arrow lodge—Unali'Yi.  In the 1960s, the council re-numbered their troops by district (i.e. Troop 29 became Troop 329 because they were in the third district).  In the 1980s, the council office was moved from downtown Charleston to off of Sam Rittenburg Boulevard. In 2017 the Council office was again moved to its new location at 9297 Medical Plaza Drive in North Charleston after the sale of the Highway 7 property.

1920 – Charleston Council is chartered. The Scout office was located at 207 East Bay Street in downtown Charleston.

1932 – The Coastal Carolina Council acquires a Camp on the Bohicket River and it is christened Camp Ho Non Wah, which means "The Land of Rising and Falling Waters".

1940 – The Coastal Carolina Council was formed with the merger of the larger Charleston Council, (formed in 1921) which covered Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties, with the smaller councils of Beaufort, Walterboro and Georgetown.

1940 – Coastal Carolina Council acquires Camp Gregg in Dorchester County off Dorchester Road. Today the subdivision known as White Hall has been built.

1943 - 33 candidates go through the first Order of the Arrow Ordeal in May and Unali'Yi Lodge #236 is born at Camp Ho Non Wah.

1950s  – Camp Moultrie was donated to Coastal Carolina Council by Santee Cooper for a Scout Camp and consist of 12 acres on Lake Moultrie.

1968 – The Unaliyi Lodge – Order of the Arrow and Scouts of the Coastal Carolina Council establish the Swamp Fox Trail in the National Forest.  Originally its two trail heads were the Fire Tower at Awendaw and Huger State Park. The trail is named after General Francis Marion. In 1980 the trails was turned over to the National Trail System, this trail is now part of the Palmetto Trail that spans the entire state.

1979 – Coastal Carolina Council sells Camp Gregg to investors.

1980s - The Coastal Carolina Council office was moved from downtown Charleston to off of Sam Rittenburg Boulevard.

2017 – The Council office was again moved to its new location at 9297 Medical Plaza Drive in North Charleston after the sale of the Highway 7 property.

Camps

Camp Ho Non Wah
Camp Ho Non Wah is located on Wadmalaw Island at the intersection of the Bohicket River and the Fickling Creek, both tidal bodies of water.  Ho Non Wah means the Land of the Rising and Falling Waters.  In the 1980s the camp underwent a facelift, as many of its buildings were dated from the 1940s.   The Bailey plantation house has never been destroyed, though, and has been converted to a permanent home for the OA lodge.

Camp Moultrie
Camp Moultrie is located on Lake Moultrie just outside Moncks Corner. The Camp is available for year-round use, and offers a great opportunity for Boy Scout water front activities (Sailing, Kayaking, Canoeing, Swimming).

Local councils of the Boy Scouts of America
Southern Region (Boy Scouts of America)
Youth organizations based in South Carolina

Coastal Carolina Council