Shintoho Company, Limited (新東宝株式会社 Shin Tōhō Kabushikikaisha, lit New Toho Co., Ltd.) was a short-lived Japanese film studio. It was founded by defectors from Toho in 1947 and was financed by Daiei. In 1961, Shintoho declared bankruptcy and a successor was founded the same year, named Shintoho Eiga, which went on to specialize in pink films.

Shintoho is considered to be one of the 6 major film studios active during the 1950s' "Golden Age of Japanese Cinema", which also included Toho, Daiei, Nikkatsu, Shochiku, and Toei.

History
Founded in 1947 as an offshoot of Toho after the major company had become struck with labor turmoil, Shintoho began its relatively short existence producing such films as Stray Dog, which was later distributed by Toho, and The Life of Oharu. However, the company found itself to be outflanked by other much larger studios and appointed Mitsugu Okura as its new top executive in 1955 to guide the company toward better things. Under the guidance of Okura, Shintoho began producing such works as the critically acclaimed Super Giant series, war films, a slew of pink films, and a number of films centered around the supernatural among a handful of others.

In May of 1961, Shintoho declared bankruptcy and two new companies were formed to take its place. Mitsugu Okura, Shintoho's former president, created the Okura Eiga studio after purchasing Shintoho's production facilities in Tokyo. At this time Koichi Goto, a former Shintoho employee, purchased the rights to the Shintoho name and 3 years later established Shintoho Entertainment. In 1972, this new company relocated from Osaka to Tokyo and absorbed another piece of the original Shintoho, as well as receiving a new name: "Shintoho Eiga". Shintoho Eiga also later went on to distribute a number of Shintoho's films and former director for Shintoho, Kiyoshi Komori, began directing pink films for Shintoho Eiga in 1964 until his retirement in the 1970s.

Shintoho


Sandy Bay Road (Route B68) is a road in Tasmania that connects the southeastern edge of the Hobart CBD with the southeastern suburb of Taroona. It is two-way over its entirety and is 12 kilometres in length. It begins as a continuation of Harrington Street near where it intersects with Davey Street. From there, Sandy Bay Road travels southwards alongside the western edge of St. Davids Park, bypassing Battery Point. It then turns slightly to the west again, before descending a small hill towards the south-east once more, into Sandy Bay proper. Sand Bay Road then continues south-easterly, hugging the western shore of the River Derwent. Passing Wrest Point Hotel Casino it continues to the south-east along Sandy Bay Beach through Lower Sandy Bay. At the point where the Alexandra Battery overlooks Long Beach, Sandy Bay road follows the coast bending in a more southwards direction. The road then begins to climb uphill towards the suburb of Taroona where it becomes the Channel Highway. The road is allocated route code B68.

Sandy Bay Road was first established as a track in the colonial period, early in the nineteenth century. Early nineteenth century diagrams and art clearly show the track following along the western shore of the river heading south. It soon became a widened dirt road, before finally being bitumenised in the early twentieth century. During the period in which trams and trolley buses were operated in Hobart, tramlines and trolley-bus lines ran the length of Sandy Bay Road from the city as far as Lower Sandy Bay.

See also

References

Streets in Hobart

Sandy Bay Road


Carthage was captured by the Vandals from the Western Roman Empire on 19 October 439. Under their leader Genseric, the Vandals crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into Africa and captured Hippo Regius in August 431, which they made the capital of their kingdom. Despite an uneasy peace with the Romans, Genseric made a surprise attack against Carthage in October 439. After capturing Carthage, the Vandals put the city to the sack and made it the new capital of their kingdom.

Background

In Gaul

In 406, the Vandals advanced from Pannonia travelling west along the Danube without much difficulty, but when they reached the Rhine, they met resistance from the Franks, who populated and controlled Romanized regions in northern Gaul. Twenty thousand Vandals, including Godigisel himself, died in the resulting battle, but then with the help of the Alans they managed to defeat the Franks, and on December 31, 406 the Vandals crossed the Rhine to invade Gaul, which they devastated terribly. Under Godigisel's son Gunderic, the Vandals plundered their way westward and southward through Aquitaine.

To Spain

In 409, Godigisel's son Gunderic led the Vandals across the Pyrenees. They appear to have settled in Spain in two detachments. One, the Asdingi, occupied Galicia; the other, the Silingi, occupied Andalusia. Twenty years of bloody and purposeless warfare with the armies of the empire and with their fellow-barbarians, the Goths and the Suevi, followed. The Silingian Vandals were almost exterminated, but the remains of the Alani, a Turanian people from Iran, marched across Spain and took possession of Andalusia.

Over to Africa

Following his death early in the year 428, Gunderic was succeeded by his half brother Genseric. In May of 428, he assembled the Vandals on the southern shore of Andalusia, numbering approximately 80,000 people in total. They set sail later that year upon receiving an invitation from Bonifacius, count of Africa (although this is disputed by some scholars), who had fallen out of favor with the imperial court at Ravenna, and may have provided the ships needed to make the voyage. Following their crossing near Tingis, Bonifacius apparently asked the Vandals to return and leave Africa, a request that was refused. Leading a mixed army of Roman African and Gothic origin, he was defeated by Genseric near the town of Calama and retreated with the survivors of the battle to the city of Hippo Regius. Unimpeded, Genseric led the Vandals on a rapid conquest, and by May of the year 430 only three cities of Roman Africa- Carthage, Hippo and Cirta- remained in Roman hands.

Siege of Hippo and capture of Carthage

The siege of Hippo Regius (May 430 to July 431) ended unsuccessfully for the Vandals. Peace was made on 30 January 435 between the emperor Valentinian III and Gaiseric. The emperor was to retain Carthage and the small but rich proconsular province in which it was situated, while Hippo and the other six provinces of Africa were abandoned to the Vandals.

Gaiseric observed this treaty until it no longer suited his purpose. On 19 October 439, without any declaration of war, he suddenly attacked Carthage and took it. The Vandal occupation of this great city, the third among the cities of the Roman Empire, lasted for 94 years. Gaiseric seems to have counted the years of his sovereignty from the date of its capture. Though most of the remaining years of Gaiseric's life were passed in war, plunder rather than territorial conquest seems to have been the object of his expeditions. He made, in fact, of Carthage a pirate's stronghold and attacked, in his words, "the dwellings of the men with whom God is angry."

He created probably the only barbarian fleet and was for 30 years the leading maritime power in the Mediterranean. Gaiseric's sack of Rome in 455, undertaken in response to the call of Licinia Eudoxia, widow of Valentinian, was only the greatest of his marauding exploits. He took the city without difficulty, and for 14 days, in a calm and business-like manner, emptied it of all its movable wealth. The sacred vessels of the Second Jewish Temple, brought to Rome by Titus, are said to have been among the spoils carried to Carthage by the conqueror. Eudoxia and her two daughters were also carried into captivity. One of the princesses, Eudocia, was married to Hunneric, eldest son of Gaiseric; her mother and sister, after long and tedious negotiations, were sent to Constantinople.

Gallery

Attribution

References

439
Carthage
Carthage
Carthage
Military history of Tunisia
Theodosius II

Capture of Carthage (439)


Nicco Park is an amusement park located in Jheel Meel, Sector - IV of Bidhannagar, West Bengal, India.
The park was created to attract tourists to the state by providing family-friendly recreation as well as educative entertainment.
Nicco Park opened on 13 October 1991 and has since been referred to as the Disneyland of West Bengal.
Presently, the 40 acre park is home to over 35 different attractions and has served over 24 million customers. Nicco Park also provides a "green" environment.

History

Concept and construction
The concept of an amusement park in the Kolkata region began with the 300th anniversary of the recorded founding of Kolkata (then Calcutta).
While planning was under way for the tricentennial celebrations by the ruling State Government, Rajive Kaul, the current  Chairman of Nicco Group, was in the US on a family holiday to Disneyland. As per the story, when Kaul returned, there was an inquiry as to why he left for America when he was very much required back home for the planning process. Supposedly, Rajive replied, "I'd gone to see if I could create a Disneyland here." What at first seemed to be just an excuse to justify his absence actually materialized to a joint venture with the West Bengal government.

Joint venture
After the inception of the idea, the Government of West Bengal along with  Rajive Kaul followed through with their commitment to build an amusement park in Kolkata. They set up the company Nicco Parks & Resorts Ltd. (NPRL) which was a Joint Sector Company between National Insulated Cable Corporation Ltd. (now, Nicco Corporation Ltd.) representing the private sector and the Government of West Bengal represented by West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation Limited (WBIDC) and West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation Limited (WBTDC) on 17 March 1989. The Certificate of Commencement of Business was obtained on 31 March 1989. The primary function of the company was to construct an amusement part in the outskirts of Kolkata, which would be owned and maintained by Nicco Parks and Resorts Limited (NPRL). The project had additional input in the form of technical advice from Blackpool Leisure & Amusement Consultancy Ltd., U.K.

Rajive Kaul sought financial help from Geoffrey Thompson, the then-owner and managing director of the Pleasure Beach, Blackpool. Thompson, however, only offered the assistance of Blackpool Leisure & Amusement Consultancy Ltd provide technical expertise, including surveying the land and suggesting design and safety matters. The idea of the River Caves at Nicco Park was taken by Kaul from Thompson's Blackpool, and a few years later Kaul offered to renovate the ones there recognizing the superiority of the ones at Nicco Park, Kolkata. Thompson accepted the offer.

Two years after the conception of NPRL, and at a total cost of about rupees 8 crores, Nicco Park opened with 13 rides. It also took over the toy train from the previous Jheelmeel park and improved greatly upon it, providing for a tour of the whole park for passengers.

About the park

Educational recreation
Nicco Park's educative recreational initiative is the concept that families should not only have a fun-filled experience but also have learned something during their time at the park.
The grounds were designed to provide for educational recreation, and are dotted with displays. The entrance of every ride offers explanations of the scientific principles behind the working of the rides.
The park's Solar Energy village has been set up to demonstrate the functions of various non-conventional energy sources in community life. In keeping with its green theme, a greenhouse is also run by the Indo American Hybrid Seeds Ltd. selling various types of plants.

Park Timings

The ticket counters generally start right on time, but all the rides may not begin at 10:45 AM. People generally come here by 11 AM and it gets crowded gradually.

Rides and attractions
Nicco Park has approximately thirty-five rides that include the Toy Train, Tilt-a-Whirl, Striking Cars, Paddle Boat, Water Chute, Water Coaster, Flying Saucer, Pirate Ship, River Caves, Cyclone and Moonraker. The Giant Cyclone, added in 2003, is among Asia's largest. The ride 750 meters in length, has seven drops and goes as high as 55 feet.

Attractions such as the park's cable cars and Eiffel Tower provide panoramic views of the park from above.
Natural attractions include a rose garden and a forty feet high waterfall.

A decommissioned MIG-21 fighter aircraft from the Bagdogra Airbase is on display at Nicco Park, serving as an attraction with educational value. It was a gift from the Eastern Air Command in 2008.

There is a large food park selling North Indian, Bengali, South Indian and Chinese fast food, and kiosks run by various restaurants of Kolkata. Sheroo Bazar and Souvenir Shop Wet-O-Wild are places where one can buy accessories such as T-shirts, coffee mugs and keychains.

Nicco Park has undergone expansions throughout its existence.

The park has also constructed a water park, Wet-O-Wild, inside the amusement park.
There are also a rain dance performances. The park also has a 4-D movie theater.
It has also introduced a new ride called Sky Diver which has been attracting visitors for the past two years now.

A bowling alley with restaurant and bar also exist within the park. Venues such as Octagon host corporate and non-corporate events.

Nearby attractions
Adjacent to the park is the Nalban Boating Complex, offering boat tours in paddle boats, hovercraft or shikaras. Well maintained groves surround the four hundred acre lake.

Salt Lake Stadium is also nearby. Opposite to the Salt Lake Stadium is the Subhash Sarovar, one of the two man made lakes of Kolkata. Though anthropogenic activities around the lake such as washing of clothes and dumping of wastes has led to its deterioration, the tourism development corporation has taken up the responsibility for the beautification of the lake (2010).

Nicco Parks and Resorts Limited (NPRL) have also diversified the park and as such Nicco parks (Jheel Meel) have been opened at neighbouring states Odisha in Bhubaneswar on December, 1998 and at Jharkhand in Jamshedpur in June 2001. A composite park has also been set up in the neighbouring country of Bangladesh in Dhaka in 2003. Recently there has also been a Memorandum of Understanding signed between NPRL and Intraco Group in order to set up a water park at a sea resort of Cox's Bazar at Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Reception
The amusement park has received favourable response from both the public and the government as well as various corporate bodies. ITC Limited, TISCO, Britannia Industries, Bata, Nestle, Smith Kline Beecham, Union Carbide, Dunlop, ANZ Grindlays, Duncans, Goodricke as well as Cadburys are among those which have invested in the park by sponsoring rides and other attractions.

Awards, certifications and recognition

Nicco Park has received various awards in the 20 years since its inception. Among its attractions, The Giant Cyclone has been awarded the 'Best Indigenously Manufactured Ride' of 2006-07 by the Indian Association of Amusement Parks and Industries, which also awarded Nicco Park's River Caves as the 'Most Innovative and Popular Ride' of 2009–10.

Nicco Park is the first amusement park in India to be able to obtain the ISO 9001 (Quality Management System), ISO 14001 (Environment Management System) and the OSHAS 18000 (Safety Management System) certifications. The park also states that it is the first amusement park in the world to obtain ISO 9002 certification from a European Certifying Authority. It has also received the "ICC Corporate Excellence Award". The Indian Association of Amusement Parks & Industries have declared the River Caves at Nicco Park as the most popular ride and innovative ride of 2010.

The SA 8000 (Social Accountability) certificate which they received from DNV on 14 December 2008, makes Nicco Park the first amusement park in India to receive the certification. It is also reported that they are the first amusement park in the world to receive the honour.

Incidents
An accident occurred at Nicco Park in January 2010 when a woman and child fell off of the park's Moon Raker ride. Authorities claim the accident was caused by the woman's own carelessness, but she blames the accident on company negligence, citing the derailment of two of the six trolleys.

See also
Aquatica (Kolkata)
New Town Eco Park

References

External links

Official site

Tourist attractions in North 24 Parganas district
Amusement parks in India
Buildings and structures in West Bengal
1991 establishments in West Bengal

Nicco Park


Antonio Ruiz Soler (Seville, 4 November 1921 – Madrid, 6 February 1996), was a Spanish flamenco dancer, choreographer and dance director. He was professionally known as Antonio or Antonio el bailarin (Antonio the dancer). With his cousin Rosario (Florence Pérez Padilla) he had a partnership which was world-famous for 25 years (1928–1953). They were billed as Antonio and Rosario.

In 1952 he formed his own Spanish ballet company, Antonio and the Ballets de Madrid, and Rosario also formed a company, partnered for a while by Julio Iglesias. Antonio and Rosario performed together again in his 1964 season in London and New York City. Antonio choreographed many works in Spanish and classical style; several were taken up by other companies.

In the United States he danced in Ravel's Boléro in New York City and appeared in several Hollywood movies, such as "Ziegfeld Girl" (1941), "Hollywood Canteen" (1944) and "Honeymoon" (1947).

References

Spanish dancers
Choreographers
1921 births
1996 deaths

Antonio (dancer)


Tung Wah Charity Show (Chinese: 歡樂滿東華) is a long-running charity television show raising funds for Tung Wah Group of Hospitals in Hong Kong which started in 1979. It is organised by Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) annually on a Saturday or Sunday in December. It started from a charity show in the entertainment show Enjoy Yourself Tonight (EYT).

Unlike other charity shows on Hong Kong television, it runs during prime time until 12am (because evening news broadcast at this time). The show resumes immediately after the late news and ends at 2 am. The total amount of time on air is 6.5 hours. Cantonese opera is the core of the show. The master San Ma Shi Tsang was the famous one performed a section of Cantonese opera every years until his death in 1997 and was crowned as the king of charity singer (慈善伶王). Other performance like acrobats and singing has been seen on the show.

Many stunts performed in the charity show are record holder of Guinness World Records.

Various English translation of the show name:
Tung Wah Charity Gala
Tung Wah Charity Show
Tung Wah Hospital Annual Charity Show
Tung Wah Hospitals Charity Evening
Tung Wah Night
Tung Wah Show

The Chinese name means Joy fills Tung Wah. In 1986, due to the death of former Hong Kong Governor Edward Youde from a heart attack in his office in Beijing, the Chinese name changed to 愛心滿東華 (lit. Love fills Tung Wah) since it was hardly any joy at that moment.

Although there are many TV charity shows following Tung Wah, they are hardly comparable to its influence on Hong Kong culture. Its name and its theme song is often deemed as the symbol of charity.

Program information

TVB original programming
1979 Hong Kong television series debuts
1970s Hong Kong television series
1980s Hong Kong television series
1990s Hong Kong television series
2000s Hong Kong television series
2010s Hong Kong television series
2020s Hong Kong television series
Tung Wah Group of Hospitals

Tung Wah Charity Show


Carbon steel is a steel with carbon content from about 0.05 up to 2.1 percent by weight. The definition of carbon steel from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) states:

 no minimum content is specified or required for chromium, cobalt, molybdenum, nickel, niobium, titanium, tungsten, vanadium, zirconium, or any other element to be added to obtain a desired alloying effect;
 the specified minimum for copper does not exceed 0.40%;
 or the specified maximum for any of the following elements does not exceed the percentages noted: manganese 1.65%; silicon 0.60%; copper 0.60%.

The term carbon steel may also be used in reference to steel which is not stainless steel; in this use carbon steel may include alloy steels. High carbon steel has many different uses such as milling machines, cutting tools (such as chisels) and high strength wires. These applications require a much finer microstructure, which improves the toughness.

Carbon steel is a popular metal choice for knife-making due to its high amount of carbon, giving the blade more edge retention. To make the most out of this type of steel it is very important to heat treat it properly. If not, the knife may end up being brittle, or too soft to hold an edge.

As the carbon content percentage rises, steel has the ability to become harder and stronger through heat treating; however, it becomes less ductile. Regardless of the heat treatment, a higher carbon content reduces weldability. In carbon steels, the higher carbon content lowers the melting point.

Properties, characteristics & environmental impact

 Carbon steel is often divided into two main categories: low-carbon steel and high-carbon steel.
 Carbon steel may also contain other elements, such as manganese, phosphorus, sulfur, and silicon, which can affect its properties.
 Carbon steel can be easily machined and welded, making it versatile for various applications. It can also be heat treated to improve its strength, Hardness, and durability.
 Carbon steel is susceptible to rust and corrosion, especially in environments with high moisture levels and/or salt.
 Carbon steel can be shielded from corrosion by coating it with paint, varnish, or other protective material.
 Alternatively, it can be made from a stainless steel alloy that contains chromium, which provides excellent corrosion resistance.
 Carbon steel is sometimes alloyed with other elements to improve its properties, such as adding chromium and/or nickel to improve its resistance to corrosion and oxidation or adding molybdenum to improve its strength and toughness at high temperatures.
 Carbon steel is an environmentally friendly material, as it is easily recyclable and can be reused in various applications. It is also energy-efficient to produce, as it requires less energy than other metals such as aluminium and copper.

Type

Mild or low-carbon steel
Mild steel (iron containing a small percentage of carbon, strong and tough but not readily tempered), also known as plain-carbon steel and low-carbon steel, is now the most common form of steel because its price is relatively low while it provides material properties that are acceptable for many applications. Mild steel contains approximately 0.05–0.30% carbon making it malleable and ductile. Mild steel has a relatively low tensile strength, but it is cheap and easy to form. Surface hardness can be increased with carburization.

In applications where large cross-sections are used to minimize deflection, failure by yield is not a risk so low-carbon steels are the best choice, for example as structural steel. The density of mild steel is approximately  and the Young's modulus is .

Low-carbon steels display yield-point runout where the material has two yield points. The first yield point (or upper yield point) is higher than the second and the yield drops dramatically after the upper yield point. If a low-carbon steel is only stressed to some point between the upper and lower yield point then the surface develops Lüder bands. Low-carbon steels contain less carbon than other steels and are easier to cold-form, making them easier to handle. Typical applications of low carbon steel are car parts, pipes, construction, and food cans.

High-tensile steel
High-tensile steels are low-carbon, or steels at the lower end of the medium-carbon range, which have additional alloying ingredients in order to increase their strength, wear properties or specifically tensile strength. These alloying ingredients include chromium, molybdenum, silicon, manganese, nickel, and vanadium. Impurities such as phosphorus and sulfur have their maximum allowable content restricted.

 41xx steel
 4140 steel
 4145 steel
 4340 steel
 300M steel
 EN25 steel – 2.521% nickel-chromium-molybdenum steel
 EN26 steel

Higher-carbon steels
Carbon steels which can successfully undergo heat-treatment have a carbon content in the range of 0.30–1.70% by weight. Trace impurities of various other elements can significantly affect the quality of the resulting steel. Trace amounts of sulfur in particular make the steel red-short, that is, brittle and crumbly at working temperatures. Low-alloy carbon steel, such as A36 grade, contains about 0.05% sulfur and melt around . Manganese is often added to improve the hardenability of low-carbon steels. These additions turn the material into a low-alloy steel by some definitions, but AISI's definition of carbon steel allows up to 1.65% manganese by weight.
There are two types of higher carbon steels which are high carbon steel and the ultra high carbon steel. The reason for the limited use of high carbon steel is that it has extremely poor ductility and weldability and has a higher cost of production. the applications best suited for the high carbon steels is its use in the spring industry, farm industry, and in the production of wide range of high-strength wires.

AISI classification

The following classification method is based on the American AISI/SAE standard. Other international standards including DIN (Germany), GB (China), BS/EN (UK), AFNOR (France), UNI (Italy), SS (Sweden) , UNE (Spain), JIS (Japan), ASTM standards, and others.

Carbon steel is broken down into four classes based on carbon content:

Low-carbon steel
Low-carbon steel has 0.05 to 0.15% carbon (plain carbon steel) content.

Medium-carbon steel
Medium-carbon steel has approximately 0.3–0.5% carbon content. It balances ductility and strength and has good wear resistance. It is used for large parts, forging and automotive components.

High-carbon steel
High-carbon steel has approximately 0.6 to 1.0% carbon content. It is very strong, used for springs, edged tools, and high-strength wires.

Ultra-high-carbon steel
Ultra-high-carbon steel has approximately 1.25–2.0% carbon content. Steels that can be tempered to great hardness. Used for special purposes such as (non-industrial-purpose) knives, axles, and punches. Most steels with more than 2.5% carbon content are made using powder metallurgy.

Heat treatment

The purpose of heat treating carbon steel is to change the mechanical properties of steel, usually ductility, hardness, yield strength, or impact resistance. Note that the electrical and thermal conductivity are only slightly altered. As with most strengthening techniques for steel, Young's modulus (elasticity) is unaffected. All treatments of steel trade ductility for increased strength and vice versa. Iron has a higher solubility for carbon in the austenite phase; therefore all heat treatments, except spheroidizing and process annealing, start by heating the steel to a temperature at which the austenitic phase can exist. The steel is then quenched (heat drawn out) at a moderate to low rate allowing carbon to diffuse out of the austenite forming iron-carbide (cementite) and leaving ferrite, or at a high rate, trapping the carbon within the iron thus forming martensite. The rate at which the steel is cooled through the eutectoid temperature (about ) affects the rate at which carbon diffuses out of austenite and forms cementite. Generally speaking, cooling swiftly will leave iron carbide finely dispersed and produce a fine grained pearlite and cooling slowly will give a coarser pearlite. Cooling a hypoeutectoid steel (less than 0.77 wt% C) results in a lamellar-pearlitic structure of iron carbide layers with α-ferrite (nearly pure iron) between. If it is hypereutectoid steel (more than 0.77 wt% C) then the structure is full pearlite with small grains (larger than the pearlite lamella) of cementite formed on the grain boundaries. A eutectoid steel (0.77% carbon) will have a pearlite structure throughout the grains with no cementite at the boundaries. The relative amounts of constituents are found using the lever rule. The following is a list of the types of heat treatments possible:

 Spheroidizing Spheroidite forms when carbon steel is heated to approximately  for over 30 hours. Spheroidite can form at lower temperatures but the time needed drastically increases, as this is a diffusion-controlled process. The result is a structure of rods or spheres of cementite within primary structure (ferrite or pearlite, depending on which side of the eutectoid you are on). The purpose is to soften higher carbon steels and allow more formability. This is the softest and most ductile form of steel.
 Full annealing Carbon steel is heated to approximately  for 1 hour; this ensures all the ferrite transforms into austenite (although cementite might still exist if the carbon content is greater than the eutectoid). The steel must then be cooled slowly, in the realm of 20 °C (36 °F) per hour. Usually it is just furnace cooled, where the furnace is turned off with the steel still inside. This results in a coarse pearlitic structure, which means the "bands" of pearlite are thick. Fully annealed steel is soft and ductile, with no internal stresses, which is often necessary for cost-effective forming. Only spheroidized steel is softer and more ductile.
 Process annealing A process used to relieve stress in a cold-worked carbon steel with less than 0.3% C. The steel is usually heated to  for 1 hour, but sometimes temperatures as high as . The image above shows the process annealing area.
 Isothermal annealing It is a process in which hypoeutectoid steel is heated above the upper critical temperature. This temperature is maintained for a time and then reduced to below the lower critical temperature and is again maintained. It is then cooled to room temperature. This method eliminates any temperature gradient.
 Normalizing Carbon steel is heated to approximately  for 1 hour; this ensures the steel completely transforms to austenite. The steel is then air-cooled, which is a cooling rate of approximately  per minute. This results in a fine pearlitic structure, and a more-uniform structure. Normalized steel has a higher strength than annealed steel; it has a relatively high strength and hardness.
 Quenching Carbon steel with at least 0.4 wt% C is heated to normalizing temperatures and then rapidly cooled (quenched) in water, brine, or oil to the critical temperature. The critical temperature is dependent on the carbon content, but as a general rule is lower as the carbon content increases. This results in a martensitic structure; a form of steel that possesses a super-saturated carbon content in a deformed body-centered cubic (BCC) crystalline structure, properly termed body-centered tetragonal (BCT), with much internal stress. Thus quenched steel is extremely hard but brittle, usually too brittle for practical purposes. These internal stresses may cause stress cracks on the surface. Quenched steel is approximately three times harder (four with more carbon) than normalized steel.
 Martempering (marquenching) Martempering is not actually a tempering procedure, hence the term marquenching. It is a form of isothermal heat treatment applied after an initial quench, typically in a molten salt bath, at a temperature just above the "martensite start temperature". At this temperature, residual stresses within the material are relieved and some bainite may be formed from the retained austenite which did not have time to transform into anything else. In industry, this is a process used to control the ductility and hardness of a material. With longer marquenching, the ductility increases with a minimal loss in strength; the steel is held in this solution until the inner and outer temperatures of the part equalize. Then the steel is cooled at a moderate speed to keep the temperature gradient minimal. Not only does this process reduce internal stresses and stress cracks, but it also increases impact resistance.
 Tempering This is the most common heat treatment encountered because the final properties can be precisely determined by the temperature and time of the tempering. Tempering involves reheating quenched steel to a temperature below the eutectoid temperature and then cooling. The elevated temperature allows very small amounts spheroidite to form, which restores ductility but reduces hardness. Actual temperatures and times are carefully chosen for each composition.
 Austempering The austempering process is the same as martempering, except the quench is interrupted and the steel is held in the molten salt bath at temperatures between , and then cooled at a moderate rate. The resulting steel, called bainite, produces an acicular microstructure in the steel that has great strength (but less than martensite), greater ductility, higher impact resistance, and less distortion than martensite steel. The disadvantage of austempering is it can be used only on a few sheets of steel, and it requires a special salt bath.

Case hardening

Case hardening processes harden only the exterior of the steel part, creating a hard, wear-resistant skin (the "case") but preserving a tough and ductile interior. Carbon steels are not very hardenable meaning they can not be hardened throughout thick sections. Alloy steels have a better hardenability, so they can be through-hardened and do not require case hardening. This property of carbon steel can be beneficial, because it gives the surface good wear characteristics but leaves the core flexible and shock-absorbing.

Forging temperature of steel

See also

Aermet
Cold working
Eglin steel (a low-cost precipitation-hardened high-strength steel)
Forging
Hot working
Maraging steel (precipitation-hardened high-strength steels)
Welding (high-strength steels)

References

Bibliography

Steels
Metallurgical processes

Carbon steel


The 1995 Sugar Bowl (January) was the 9th Sugar Bowl played on January 2 (since January 1 fell on a Sunday) and only the 13th to not be played on January 1. This was the 61st held Sugar Bowl, and it was the postseason game for the 1994 NCAA Division I-A football season. The game was a bowl rematch between the Florida Gators and the Florida State Seminoles who had played each other in the regular season on November 26.

Background
The two teams had drawn earlier in the season at Tallahassee just 37 days earlier on November 26. Florida State was champion of the Atlantic Coast Conference for the third straight year with a perfect 8-0 ACC record. This was the Seminoles' first Sugar Bowl since 1989. The Gators were 7-1 in the SEC with a loss to Auburn derailing their #1 ranking, but the Gators won the SEC East and beat Alabama in the 1994 SEC Championship Game to be SEC champions for the 2nd straight year and go to the Sugar Bowl for the third straight year.  Due to the thrilling 31-31 tie earlier in the season, the rematch was billed as "The Fifth Quarter in the French Quarter".

Game summary
Judd Davis and Dan Mowrey traded field goals in the first quarter before Fred Taylor fumbled the ball, recovered by the Seminoles, which set up a crucial score. Warrick Dunn (who had 182 all purpose yards) threw a 73-yard touchdown pass to O'mar Ellison that gave the Seminoles a 10-3 lead early in the second quarter as FSU added a McCorvey touchdown catch from Danny Kanell later in the quarter to make it 17-3. But Danny Wuerffel retaliated with an 82-yard touchdown pass to Ike Hilliard to make it 17-10. Mowrey kicked a field goal before halftime to give the Seminoles a 20-10 lead at halftime. He later kicked his fourth field goal of the day in the third quarter to make it 23-10. But in the fourth quarter, Wuerffel would not be deterred, driving the Gators on an 80-yard drive that took 17 plays, culminating in a Wuerffel touchdown run with 3:47 left to play. Florida was given a chance at their own 19 with 2:27 remaining after a Seminole punt, but Derrick Brooks intercepted Wuerffel's pass as the Seminoles held on to win their first Sugar Bowl since 1989.

Aftermath
The Bowl Alliance would replace the Bowl Coalition and the Sugar Bowl was part of the agreement (along with the Orange and Fiesta Bowls) to try and provide a proper national championship while also working with the premier conferences to satisfy them. The first season that the Alliance would be in place would be the 1995 season, which consequently moved that season's Sugar Bowl to December 31. Both teams would return to the Sugar Bowl two years later, this time for the national championship.

Statistics

See also
 Florida–Florida State football rivalry

References

Sugar Bowl
Sugar Bowl
Florida Gators football bowl games
Florida State Seminoles football bowl games
Bowl Coalition
Sugar Bowl
Sugar Bowl

1995 Sugar Bowl (January)


Aboriginal communities in Western Australia are communities for Aboriginal Australians within their ancestral country; the communities comprise families with continuous links to country that extend before the European settlement of Australia.

The governments of Australia and Western Australia have supported and funded these communities in a number of ways for over 40 years; prior to that Indigenous people were non citizens with no rights, forced to work for sustenance on stations as European settlers divided up the areas, or relocated under various Government acts.

Aboriginal Communities Act 1979
The Aboriginal Communities Act 1979 allowed Aboriginal councils to make and enforce by-laws on their land. Originally it only applied to the Bidyadanga and Bardi communities, but was subsequently extended to others.

Earlier stages of assistance
In the  1980s and 1990s, effort was made to support indigenous communities.

Politicisation of funding issues
In 2014 and 2015 the support of some of the communities was questioned in Western Australian and Australian political discussions.

In 2015 rallies were held across Australia and the world to protest the withdrawal of government support of the communities. A group of Aboriginal protesters set up a camp on Heirisson Island, as "... a place of retreat for all Aboriginal persons who have been and will be forcibly removed by the West Australian Government".

See also
 List of Aboriginal communities in Western Australia

Notes

External links
Maps of indigenous communities in Western Australia, Department of Indigenous Affairs
 Layout plans for Aboriginal settlements in WA, at the Department of Planning Lands and Heritage


Muppets Most Wanted is a 2014 American-German-Spanish-Irish-British musical comedy caper film produced by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the eighth movie featuring the Muppets. It was directed by James Bobin and written by Bobin and Nicholas Stoller. Muppets Most Wanted is a sequel to 2011's The Muppets and stars Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell, and Tina Fey. In Muppets Most Wanted, the Muppets find themselves unwittingly involved in an international crime caper while on tour in Europe.

The majority of the production team behind The Muppets returned for Muppets Most Wanted. This was including Bobin, Stoller, producers David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman of Mandeville Films. Music supervisor Bret McKenzie also returned. The movie started filming in January 2013 at Pinewood Studios in London. Muppets Most Wanted premiered March 11, 2014 in Los Angeles, California and was released in North America on March 21, 2014.

References

Muppets Most Wanted


Israel Fabian Byrd (born February 1, 1971) is a former professional American football cornerback who played in the National Football League (NFL), NFL Europe, and the Arena Football League (AFL).

Early years
At Parkway Central High School, Byrd excelled in football, basketball, and track and field. During his college career, he continued to excel in football and track and field at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, California and Utah State University in Logan, Utah.  Byrd received All-Conference and All-State honors in both football and track and field during high school and All-Conference honors in both sports during his college years.

Professional football career
In the NFL, Byrd played for the New Orleans Saints (1994–1996) and the Tennessee Titans (1999) and was allocated to the Scottish Claymores (1995 and 1997) and Berlin Thunder (1999) in the NFL Europe league.  He returned to the United States from NFL Europe as a member of the Tennessee Titans roster, where he joined his younger brother - wide receiver Isaac Byrd.

Upon recovering from injuries, Byrd continued to play American football as a defensive specialist in the Arena Football League with the Tampa Bay Storm (2000) and the Detroit Fury (2001).  After retiring from professional football, Byrd decided to complete his bachelor's degree in business and interdisciplinary studies at Utah State University and later developed and implemented business ventures.

Coaching career
In 2000, Byrd began his transition into coaching defensive backs on the collegiate level.  In 2008, Byrd was selected to coach Defensive Backs with the St. Louis Rams as a part of the Bill Walsh NFL Minority Coaching Fellowship Program, which provides NFL Training Camp positions to minority coaches every year.  Many current NFL coaches have participated in the program and some past graduates of the program have gone on to be appointed to NFL coordinator or head coaching positions.  In 2009, he was re-selected to participate in the Bill Walsh NFL Minority Coaching Fellowship Program to coach Defensive Backs with the Washington Redskins.

Byrd has been coaching Defensive Backs on the collegiate level for over five years and completed his fourth year as a Defensive Backs Coach for Washington University in St. Louis NCAA DIII football program in 2011. Byrd's defensive secondary strategies and tactics have gained him notoriety allowing him to speak at the Nike Coach of the Year Clinic in St. Louis in 2008 and 2009, where he was a Clinic Speaker on man-to-man and bump and run teaching progressions. As a result, several defensive back players at Washington University in St. Louis earned All-Conference, All-Regional, and All-American honors.

In 2011, Byrd was selected to participate in the Bill Walsh NFL Minority Coaching Fellowship Program to coach Defensive Backs and Special Teams with the Dallas Cowboys.

References
Just Sports Stats
Israel Byrd NFL Player Profile
Brown, Rick, "Storm Defeat Kats, 40-30",  The Ledger, June 18, 2000
Eisenbath, Mike, "No Fantasy; Hard Work Making Dreams Come True for Isaac Byrd",  St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 26, 1992.
Israel Byrd Player Profile. ArmchairGM
Israel Byrd Player News.  ArenaFan Online
Kuharsky, Paul, "Five Titans to NFL Europe", The Tennessean, February 23, 1999
"Transactions", The New York Times, May 9, 1993
"Transactions", The New York Times, August 20, 1996.
Nike Coach of the Year Football Clinic, St. Louis, Missouri
Thomas, Jim, "A Cut Above; 3 Area Players Who Weren't Drafted Score Breakthrough, Make NFL Rosters", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 29, 1994.
Thomas, Jim, "Payton Hearing Footsteps, But They're a Long Way Off", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 1, 1993

1971 births
Living people
Allan Hancock Bulldogs football players
American football cornerbacks
Berlin Thunder players
Detroit Fury players
New Orleans Saints players
Players of American football from St. Louis
Scottish Claymores players
Tampa Bay Storm players
Tennessee Titans players
Utah State Aggies football players
Washington University Bears football coaches

Israel Byrd


The Battle of Soltau () took place on 28 June 1519 and was the military climax of the Hildesheim Diocesan Feud which lasted from 1519–1523. Some sources describe it as "the last knights' battle" (Die letzte Ritterschlacht).
 It is also often described as the "last medieval feud".

The feud had all the hallmarks of a typical dispute between noble families of that time. At its heart was the division of revenue and territorial claims, mainly on the land of the Bishopric of Hildesheim. Two aspects, however, made it rather different. Firstly, the main protagonists on both sides were members of the princely House of Welf family and secondly, the warring parties simultaneously supported different pretenders to the imperial elections of the Holy Roman Empire. The Brunswick-Calenberg party, with dukes Henry II of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Eric I of Calenberg at its head, favoured the Habsburg Charles (later Emperor Charles V), the Lüneburg-Hildesheim coalition under Duke Henry the Middle and Bishop John IV supported the election of Francis I of France as the new emperor.

Despite their convincing victory at the Battle of Soltau, the Lüneburg-Hildesheim alliance eventually lost the war against Brunswick and Calenberg, when Emperor Charles V banned both Henry, Duke of Lüneburg, and Prince-Bishop John.

Background
The forces of Brunswick numbered about 7,000 foot soldiers (of which 4,000 were feudal levies and 3,000 were professional Landsknechte) and 700 armoured cavalry (Reisige). The Lüneburgers also had purportedly over 7,000 infantrymen, but their cavalry force, of about 1,500 horse, was considerably stronger. The Brunswickians took 24 cannon and a large baggage train with them; the strength of the Lüneburg artillery is unknown. As it happened, only the lighter guns could be deployed for the battle itself. The professional infantry fought in compact squares (Gevierthaufen). Following Swiss practice, the first three to five ranks carried pikes up to six metres long, whilst the rear ranks were mainly equipped with the shorter halberds or similar. Occasionally two-handed swords and matchlock-arquebuses were carried, but they played a secondary role. Nothing is known of the weapons carried by the levies.

Both armies marched in the usual order for that period. At the head was a vanguard (Vortrab) also known as the Verlorener Haufen or 'forlorn hope', which in the case of the Brunswick force numbered some 1,500 Landsknechte, accompanied by 300 cavalry and a section of artillery (probably the field guns). This was followed by the main body of 4,500 men (500 Landsknechte, accompanied by the rest of the cavalry) and a rearguard (Nachhut) of 1,000 Landsknechte. The baggage train would have been at least as large as the army itself, especially on the Brunswick side, which took with it a large quantity of treasure and its war chest. Nothing is known about the order of march of the Lüneburg army, but it was probably similar to that of Brunswick. However, for reasons that are not explained anywhere, the Lüneburgers had allowed their foot soldiers to fall behind, so that on 28 June only their cavalry initially stood in the way of the Brunswickians.

Prelude
After a long, at times parallel, pursuit both armies met around midday on the 28 June 1519 northwest of Soltau between the villages of Vahlzen and Langeloh. The weather was warm, but cloudy. Both parties occupied a rise, between which there was a piece of marshy terrain about 700 metres wide. The Brunswickians facing south had secured their flanks on two bogs, the Vahlzen Moor (Vahlzener Moor) to the west and the Dickmoor to the east (the latter appears to have been much wetter and marshier).

Precise information on the positioning of the two forces does not exist. However, it is known that the Lüneburgers had divided their cavalry into five Fähnlein, four of 225 each and one of 600 horsemen. It is reckoned that the Brunswickians had largely remained in their march formation and only assembled their 700 horsemen alongside their vanguard. If it were possible they would also have brought their field pieces into position at the edge of the hill they had now occupied. However it is likely that the two dukes in command were not agreed about the action to be taken in the face of the enemy.

Battle

Opening clash
Oddly the battle was started by the Lüneburgers, although to begin with they only had their (albeit superior) cavalry at hand. According to the report by Henry the Middle three of his small Fähnlein of cavalry launched a frontal attack on the Brunswick horse. The fourth Lüneburg Fähnlein out-flanked the opposing body of cavalry and put it to flight headlong into the nearby Vahlzen Moor, where many of the routed horsemen lost their lives. The large Fähnlein (600 horse) had not been engaged in the battle to that point. What the Brunswick vanguard (of 1,500 Landsknechte) did during the cavalry battle is unclear. It must have been so far from its own cavalry that they could be out-flanked.

Attack on the Brunswick forlorn hope
Whilst a portion of the victorious squadrons pursued their fleeing enemy, Lüneburg's large Fähnlein of knights now attacked the isolated vanguard of their opponents, evidently supported again by an effective flanking move by the four small Fähnleins who conducted themselves very skillfully throughout. The Landknechte buckled under the shock attack of the Lüneberger cavalry, the artillerymen were cut down. As a result, the forlorn hope was shattered and routed into the Dickmoor. Because this moor was more boggy than the Vahlzen Moor, a much larger number of the routed troops lost their lives there. Now only the Brunswick main body and its rearguard remained in the field, when Lüneburg's foot soldiers finally arrived on the scene.

Attack on the Brunswick main body
The 4,500 man strong main body of the Brunswick force had apparently not left its hill. Yet despite their attackers having to advance uphill to engage it, the main body put up little resistance. This would hardly have been surprising in view of the fate of their comrades and the fact that the greater part of the main body consisted of unprofessional soldiers. It appears not to have been supported by the rearguard which may have already fled. The main body of the Brunswick army was engaged frontally by the superior Lüneburg infantry whilst enemy horsemen swarmed around its flanks. It was beaten back and fled like the vanguard before it. Had the rearguard at this stage still been in the field it would surely have been carried away with the rout of those in front of it. With that the battle itself was over. Occasional skirmishes went on into the night, the seizure of the richly laden Brunswick baggage train and its war chest being the main objective.

Aftermath
The defeated Brunswick army probably lost around 3,000 to 3,500 killed, most of them drowned in the marshes, as well as numerous prisoners (including Duke Eric I of Calenberg and William, Count of Wunstorf and Regenstein). Some 136 noblemen and 400 knight's chargers were also captured, along with the silver, tableware, and garments of the Brunswick dukes and the war chest with 10,000 Gulden. The victors, by contrast, only suffered light casualties. Reports vary between 10 and 200 dead. The first figure (10) is hardly believable, even if the favourable circumstances for the Lüneburg forces are taken into account. No figures are given for the wounded, although these usually greatly exceeded the number killed. The report of 3,000 to 3,500 dead on the Brunswick side is clearly estimated and is probably based on the number of remaining troops that gathered again after the battle. The nobility of both sides complained about the high number of horses lost in the battle. This could be due to the fact that the cavalry at Soltau did most of the work (which in the case of the Lüneburgers at least affected the first half of the battle). It is also quite feasible that the miry terrain led to the demise of many of the horses.

Uncertainties
The course of the battle is difficult to fully reconcile from the few reports. For example, it is unclear why the Lüneburg infantry dropped behind on the march, what the role of the Brunswick artillery was, how the cavalry could play the deciding role on marshy terrain and, in particular, how the Lüneburg forces were able to so easily out-flank first the enemy cavalry and then its vanguard as well.

It remains striking that the tactical advantage was on the side of the Lüneburg army from the start. It must have been the decisions of the respective leaders that created this situation. Who made these decisions and when, remains unknown. The opening engagement of the cavalry can only have taken place in the manner described if the Brunswick horsemen had charged their opponents. Otherwise it remains puzzling how the forlorn hope lost contact with its own cavalry, a factor which in the end led to the downfall of both forces.

Consequences
Eric of Calenburg was captured, but later freed on payment of a considerable ransom to Bishop John and the surrender of various castles. Henry the Younger escaped to Rothenburg Castle. Although Henry the Middle and Bishop John IV were able to take control of the regional situation for a time through their victory at Soltau, the wider political direction of the empire took a different turn. After Charles from the House of Habsburg had been elected as the new emperor, the defeated party made various attempts to show that the victors of Soltau had been in the wrong. Because the latter had supported Francis I of France, the reaction of Charles V was unsurprising. In the end the Lüneburg-Hildesheim party had to acquiesce to significant material forfeitures at the Quedlinburg Recess of 1523. The victor of Soltau, Henry the Middle, was placed under an imperial ban and by 1520 had to seek exile in France. In 1530 Charles V lifted the ban and Duke Henry was able to spend his last years at Wienhausen near Celle where he died in 1532. Bishop John was also banned and later resigned from office.

Notes

References

 Blau, F (1882). Die deutschen Landsknechte, Görlitz.
 Boeheim, W (1890). Handbuch der Waffenkunde, Leipzig.
 Daniels, E (1910-1913). Geschichte des Kriegswesens, Bde. I-VII, Leipzig.
 Delbrück, H (1920). Geschichte der Kriegskunst, Bde. 3, 4, Berlin.
 Felleckner, S (2009). Anmerkungen über den Ablauf der Schlacht von Soltau (28.6.1519), in: Gifhorner Kreiskalender 2010, Gifhorn 2009, p. 102–112 (Substantial basis for the above account, interpretation of the Stanelle text).
 Gless, K (1989). Das Pferd in the Militärwesen, Berlin (Ost).
 Havemann, Wilhelm (1837). Geschichte der Lande Braunschweig und Lüneburg., Vol. 1, Verlag von Herold und Wahlstab, Lüneburg.
 Janicke, Karl (1877), Erich I. (Herzog von Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Calenberg), Article in: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, published by the Historischen Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vol 6, p. 203–204. Online version at Wikisource.
 Roßmann, W and Doebner, RV (1908). Die Hildesheimer Stiftsfehde (1519–1523), Hildesheim.
 Schnath, Georg (1976). Vom Sachsenstamm zum Lande Niedersachsen, in Land Niedersachsen Hannover.
 Stanelle, U (1982). Die Schlacht bei Soltau, in: Niedersächsisches Jahrbuch for Landesgeschichte, Vol. 54, p. 153–188 (the above-mentioned figures are derived from here).
 Varnové, E (1919). The Anfänge der Hildesheimer Stiftsfehde and die Chronisten H. Brandis and L Oldecop, in: ZHistVNdSachs 84, p. 181ff.
 Wiebeiltz, W (1959), Unser Kreisgebiet während der Hildesheimer Stiftsfehde 1519–1523, in: Kreiskalender for Gifhorn-Isenhagen 1960, Gifhorn, p. 32–37.

External links
 Fakten aus der Vergangenheit, die am 12., 13. and 14. Juni 2009 bei uns in Soltau eine Rolle spielen. In: "Soltower Kurier"

Conflicts in 1519
Battles of the Early Modern period
Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Wars involving Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
Soltau
1519 in Europe
1519 in the Holy Roman Empire

Battle of Soltau


Henry Fok (10 May 1923 – 28 October 2006) was a Hong Kong businessman. His Chinese name is Fok Ying Tung (霍英东). Henry Fok had a good relationship with the Communist Party of China. Fok was the Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference from 1993 to 2006. In 2006, Forbes Magazine ranked Henry Fok the 9th richest tycoon in Hong Kong and 181st richest tycoon in the world. He had a net worth of $3.7 billion. Fok died in Beijing in 2006.

Henry Fok's oldest son is Timothy Fok. Timothy Fok was a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1998 to 2012. His ex-wife is Hong Kong beauty pageant winner Loletta Chu. Olympic champion Guo Jingjing is the wife of Kenneth Fok. Kenneth is Henry's grandson.

References

1923 births
2006 deaths
Chinese businesspeople

Henry Fok


The Government of the United Kingdom, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government, is the central government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is also commonly referred to as simply the British Government or the UK Government.

Leader
The Government is led by the Prime Minister, who chooses the other Ministers. The Prime Minister and the other most powerful Ministers belong to a group known as the Cabinet, who are the most important decision makers in the Government. These ministers are all members of Parliament (MPs). Laws are made by MPs voting in Parliament, which is called 'legislative authority'. These laws make what is called primary legislation.

The Prime Minister now is Rishi Sunak, the present leader of the Conservative Party. Liz Truss, the former leader, was only Prime Minister for a short time and had succeeded Boris Johnson, who had been Prime Minister from 2019 until his resignation in 2022.

Election
The government is chosen by the people indirectly.  The people of the United Kingdom vote in a general election, appointing representatives to the Parliament, at least once every five years. The monarch must select as Prime Minister the person who is likely to have the support of Parliament.  By convention, that is normally the leader of the party that has the most MPs in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister leads the government and exercises executive power on behalf of the monarch, in accordance with the laws set by Parliament, including appointing Ministers to the executive branches of government.

Under the British constitution, laws are made or unmade by Parliament. The policy and administration of the laws is done by the direction of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. This is called executive authority. The monarch is obliged to follow the advice of the government and has not refused to do so since the 17th century. The Cabinet members advise the monarch as part of a group called Privy Council. They also use their power directly as leaders of the Government departments.

The British kind of government is sometimes called parliamentary government.

Local governments
There are separate governments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, each responsible to their own local parliament. These parliaments have certain limits decided by the main parliament in Westminster. There is no separate English Parliament.

References

Government of the United Kingdom


The retirement of NASA's Space Shuttle fleet took place from March to July 2011. Discovery was the first of the three active Space Shuttles to be retired, completing its final mission on March 9, 2011; Endeavour did so on June 1. The final shuttle mission was completed with the landing of Atlantis on July 21, 2011, closing the 30-year Space Shuttle program.

The Shuttle was presented to the public in 1972 as a "space truck" which would, among other things, be used to build a United States space station in low Earth orbit in the early 1990s and then be replaced by a new vehicle. When the concept of the U.S. space station evolved into that of the International Space Station, which suffered from long delays and design changes before it could be completed, the service life of the Space Shuttle fleet was extended several times until 2011 when it was finally retired.

After the Columbia loss in 2003, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board report showed that the Space Transportation System (STS) was risky/unsafe, and due to the  expense to make Shuttle safe, in 2004, President G. W. Bush announced (along with the VSE policy) that Shuttle would be retired in 2010 (after completing the ISS assembly).

In/by 2010 the Shuttle was formally scheduled for retirement with Atlantis being taken out of service first after STS-132 in May of that year, but the program was once again extended when the two final planned missions were delayed until 2011. Later, one additional mission was added for Atlantis for July 2011, extending the program further. Counter-proposals to the shuttle's retirement were considered by Congress and the prime contractor United Space Alliance as late as Spring 2010.

Hardware developed for the Space Shuttle met various ends with conclusion of the program, including donation, disuse and/or disposal, or reuse. An example of reuse is that one of the three Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) was converted to a permanent module for the International Space Station.

Fate of surviving STS program hardware

Orbiters
On April 12, 2011, NASA announced a selection of locations for the remaining Shuttle orbiters:

* Prior to its move to New York, Enterprise was displayed at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, Chantilly, Virginia, where Discovery has taken its place.

Museums and other facilities not selected to receive an orbiter were disappointed. Elected officials representing Houston, Texas, location of the Johnson Space Center; and Dayton, Ohio, location of the National Museum of the United States Air Force, called for Congressional investigations into the selection process, though no such action was taken. While local and Congressional politicians in Texas questioned if partisan politics played a role in the selection, former JSC Director Wayne Hale wrote, "Houston didn't get an orbiter because Houston didn't deserve it", pointing to weak support from area politicians, media and residents, describing a "sense of entitlement". Chicago media questioned the decision not to include the Adler Planetarium in the list of facilities receiving orbiters, pointing to Chicago's 3rd-largest population in the United States. The chair of the NASA committee that made the selections pointed to the guidance from Congress that the orbiters go to facilities where the most people could see them, and the ties to the space program of Southern California (home to Edwards Air Force Base, where nearly half of shuttle flights have ended and home to the plants which manufactured the orbiters and the RS-25 engines), the Smithsonian (curator of the nation's air and space artifacts), the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex (where all Shuttle launches originated, and a large tourist draw) and the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum (Intrepid also served as the recovery ship for Project Mercury and Project Gemini).

In August 2011 the NASA Inspector General released an audit of the display selection process; it highlighted issues which led to the final decision. The Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington, March Field Air Museum, Riverside, California, Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, McMinnville, Oregon, National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, Dayton, Ohio, San Diego Air and Space Museum, San Diego, Space Center Houston, Houston, Texas, Tulsa Air and Space Museum & Planetarium, Tulsa, Oklahoma and U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama scored poorly on international access. Additionally, Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History and the Bush Library at Texas A&M, in College Station, Texas scored poorly on museum attendance, regional population and was the only facility found to pose a significant risk in transporting an orbiter there. Overall, the California Science Center scored first and Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History scored last. The two most controversial locations which were not awarded an orbiter, Space Center Houston and National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, finished 2nd to last and near the middle of the list respectively. The report noted a scoring error, which if corrected would have placed the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in a tie with the Intrepid Museum and Kennedy Visitor Complex (just below the California Science Center), although due to funding concerns the same decisions would have been made.

The Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington was not selected to receive an orbiter but instead received the three–story Full Fuselage Trainer from the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Museum officials, though disappointed, were able to allow the public to go inside the trainer, something not possible with an actual orbiter.

In addition to the challenge of transporting the large vehicles to the display site, placing the units on permanent display required considerable effort and cost. An article in the February 2012 issue of Smithsonian magazine discussed the work performed on Discovery. It involved removing the three main engines (they were slated to be reused on NASA's Space Launch System); the windows were given to project engineers for analysis of how materials and systems fared after repeated space exposure; the communications modules were removed due to national–security concerns; and hazardous materials such as traces of propellants were thoroughly flushed from the plumbing. The total cost of preparation and delivery via a modified Boeing 747 was estimated at $26.5 million in 2011 dollars.

Payload hardware
 Spacelab Pallet Elvis – handed over to the Swiss Museum of Transport, Switzerland, in March 2010.
 One of the two Spacelabs—on display at Bremen Airport, Germany.
 Another Spacelab is on display at the Udvar-Hazy center behind Discovery
 MPLM Leonardo: converted to the ISS Permanent Multipurpose Module
 MPLM Raffaello: removed from the bay of Atlantis, fate unknown
 MPLM Donatello: the unused MPLM, some parts were cannibalized for Leonardo. The remainder is mothballed in the ISS processing facility at Kennedy Space Center.
 Various space pallets used since STS-1: the fates of these objects range from space center storage to scrap to museum pieces

Tiles
NASA ran a program to donate thermal protection system tiles to schools and universities for US$23.40 each (the fee for shipping and handling). About 7000 tiles were available on a first-come, first-served basis, but limited to one per institution. Each orbiter incorporated over 21,000 tiles.

RS-25

About 42 reusable RS-25 engines have been part of the STS program, with three used per orbiter per mission. NASA decided to retain sixteen engines with plans to make use of them on the Space Launch System. The rest were donated to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Johnson Space Center Space Center Houston, the National Air and Space Museum, and other exhibits around the country.

RS-25 nozzles
Worn out engine nozzles are typically considered scrap, although nine nozzles were refurbished for display on the donated orbiters, so the actual engines can be retained by NASA.

Canadarm (SRMS) and OBSS

Three Shuttle arms were used by NASA; the arms of both Discovery and Atlantis will be left in place for their museum display. Endeavour'''s arm is to be removed from the orbiter for separate display in Canada. The OBSS extension of Endeavours arm was left on the International Space Station, for use with the station's robotic arm.

Information technology
In December 2010, as NASA prepared for the STS program ending, an audit by the NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that information technology had been sold or prepared for sale that still contained sensitive information. NASA OIG recommended NASA be more careful in the future.

Other shuttle hardware

Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39
The twin pads originally built for the Apollo program were deactivated. LC-39B was deactivated first on January 1, 2007. Three lightning towers were added to the pad and it was temporarily "re-activated" in April 2009 when Endeavour was placed on standby to rescue the STS-125 crew (the STS-125 mission was the last to visit the Hubble Space Telescope, which meant that the ISS was out of range) if needed; Endeavour was then moved over to LC-39A for STS-126. In October 2009 the prototype Ares I-X rocket was launched from 39B. The pad was then permanently deactivated and has since been dismantled and has been modified for the Space Launch System program, and possibly other launch vehicles. Like the Apollo structures before them, the shuttle structures were scrapped. The first launch from 39B since Ares I-X was Artemis 1 on November 16th 2022, being the first lunar bound launch from the pad since [Apollo 10]]. 39A was deactivated in July 2011 after STS-135 was launched.

By 2012, NASA came to the conclusion that it would incur material cost to maintain LC-39A even in an inactive state and decided to seek interest of others to lease the pad for their use. NASA solicited and SpaceX won the competition for use of LC-39A. Blue Origin protested the decision to the General Accounting Office (GAO) generating uncertainty of the intent of NASA in the event that a commercial user or users could not be acquired. On January 16, 2013, one or more news outlets erroneously reported that NASA planned to abandon the pad; NASA was quick to clarify and identify that the actual plan was to, like pad B, convert it for other rockets without dismantling it. If NASA did plan to permanently decommission the pads, they would have to restore them to their original Apollo-era appearance, as both pads are on the National Historic Register.

SpaceX has since converted the pad to launch Falcon Heavy and crewed Crew Dragon Falcon 9 flights. Following the destruction of Space Launch Complex 40 in an on-pad explosion in September 2016, SpaceX had to move all east coast launches to 39A while SLC-40 was being rebuilt. The first launch, Dragon resupply vehicle carried by a Falcon 9, occurred February 12, 2017. This flight was the first uncrewed launch from Complex 39 since Skylab was launched in 1973. Once SLC-40 was reactivated, SpaceX finished modifying the pad for Falcon Heavy. Due to SLC-40s destruction, 39A had to be rushed into service, and activities such as dismantling the RSS were put on hold. for the first few missions from 39A, even after SLC-40 was reactivated, SpaceX dismantled the RSS between launches and added black cladding to the fixed service structure.

Vehicle Assembly Building
After STS-135, the VAB was used as a storage shed for the decommissioned shuttles before they were sent to museums. NASA awarded a contract in March 2014 for design and build/delivery of VAB High Bay 3 modifications to support the SLS program. In February 2017, the contractor team completed platform installation to enable SLS stacking. SLS/Artemis 1 mission processed through VAB Bay 3 prior to its launch in November 2022. Other VAB bays, such as High Bay 2, are being made available by NASA for other programs.

NASA's Mobile Launcher Platform
Three mobile launcher platforms used to support the Space Shuttle will be used for commercial launch vehicles.

The Mobile Launcher Platform-1 (MLP-1) was used for 62 Shuttle launches, starting in 1981. It was the most used of the three MLPs.

The Ares I-X suborbital mission utilized the MLP-1 to support the stacking and launch operations. The canceled Ares I-Y would have used the same MLP. Following the STS-135, usable parts from MLP-1 were removed and stored in the Vehicle Assembly Building, with no plans to use the MLP again. eventually the MLP was weighed down with concrete blocks and used for conditioning the crawlerway for SLS as of September 2021.

Mobile Launcher Platform-2 (MLP-2) was used for 44 Shuttle launches, starting in 1983. All of the orbiters except  made their maiden flights from MLP-2. It was also the launch site for the ill-fated STS-51L mission, when  disintegrated shortly after launch, killing all seven crew members. in January 2021 MLP-2 was scrapped, as with 2 more MLPs for SLS under construction, NASA was running out of places to store the launch platforms.

Mobile Launcher Platform-3 (MLP-3) was used for 29 Shuttle launches, starting in 1990. It was the least used of the three MLPs.

The MLP-3 was acquired by Orbital ATK (who was later bought out by Northrop Grumman) to launch their future OmegA rocket with. They will use the Vehicle Assembly Building High Bay 2 to assemble the rocket, and crawler-transporter 1 to move the rocket to LC-39B for launch. unfortunately due to a lack of Federal Funds, Omega was cancelled in September 2020, leaving MLP-3 without a tenant.

Crawler-Transporter
The Crawler-Transporters were used as the mobile part of the pad with the Shuttles; the two vehicles were deactivated and are being upgraded for the Space Launch System. The crawlerways used for transporting launch vehicles from the VAB to the twin pads of KSC are also being extensively renovated for the Artemis program.

Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
Two modified Boeing 747s were used to fly the shuttles back to KSC when they landed at Edwards AFB. N911NA was retired on February 8, 2012 and is now a parts hulk for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. Beginning in September 2014, N911NA was loaned out to the Joe Davies Heritage Airpark, in Palmdale, CA, where it is on outdoor display next to a B-52. The other aircraft, N905NA was used to send Discovery, Endeavour and Enterprise to their museums and in September 2012 was found to have few parts for SOFIA. It is currently a museum piece at the Johnson Space Center, displayed carrying a full-scale replica of an orbiter.

NASA recovery ships
Used to retrieve the SRBs, MV Liberty Star and Freedom Star are now separated. Liberty Star was renamed as TV Kings Pointer and was transferred to the Merchant Marine Academy in New York for use as a training vessel. It will remain on call in case NASA needs it for further missions. Freedom Star was transferred to the James River Reserve Fleet on September 28, 2012 and placed under ownership of the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD). In November 2016, MV Freedom Star was re-purposed as a training vessel to the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and
Education, on loan from MARAD.

Orbiter Processing Facility
The buildings used to process the shuttles after each mission were decommissioned. OPF-1 was leased to Boeing in January 2014 for processing the X-37B spaceplane.  Once the agreement for use was signed between NASA and the U.S. Air Force and made public, use of both OPF-1 and OPF-2 for X-37B was confirmed. OPF-3 was leased as well to Boeing for 15 years to use in the manufacture and test of the CST-100 spacecraft.

Shuttle Landing Facility
The runway at KSC is evolving as a Launch and Landing Facility (LLF) to support multiple users including a group of F-104 aircraft, use by launch providers for delivery of rocket stages by aircraft, availability for spaceflight horizontal launch and landing, and for other uses supporting both Kennedy Space Center and adjacent Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It is used to land the X-37B and will be for Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser spaceplanes. The LLF received its first landing from space since Atlantis when the USAF X-37B landed on it at the end of almost two years in orbit in June 2017.

Former planned Space Shuttle successors
There were a number of proposals for space access systems in the 1970s also, such as the Rockwell Star-raker. Star-raker was a large single-stage to orbit (SSTO) design that used both rockets and ramjet for propulsion. It was a contemporary to the Boeing Reusable Aerodynamic Space Vehicle, which was an all-rocket propulsion SSTO design.

Some programs from the early 1980s were the Future Space Transportation System program and the later NASA Advanced Manned Launch System program.Future Space Transportation System 1981-84

In the late 1980s, a planned successor to STS was called "Shuttle II", which encompassed a number of different ideas including smaller tanks over the wings and a detachable crew cabin for emergencies, and was influenced by the Challenger disaster. At one point before retirement, extension of the Space Shuttle program for an additional five years, while a replacement could be developed, was considered by the U.S. government. Some programs proposed to provide access to space after the shuttle were the Lockheed Martin X-33, VentureStar, the Orbital Space Plane Program, and Ares I launcher.

For comparison to an earlier retirement, when the Saturn IB was last flown in 1975 for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the Shuttle development program was already well underway. However, the Shuttle did not fly until 1981, which left a six-year gap in U.S. human spaceflight. Because of this and other reasons, in particular, higher than expected Solar activity that caused Skylab's orbit to decay faster than hoped, the U.S. space station Skylab burned up in the atmosphere.

The Ares I was going to be NASA's crewed spacecraft after STS, with Congress attempting to accelerate its development so it would be ready as early as 2016 for the ISS, in addition they attempted to delay retirement of the shuttle to reduce the time gap. However, Ares I was cancelled along with the rest of Constellation in 2010. The successor to the Space Shuttle after the cancellation would be commercial crew spacecraft, such as the Dragon 2 from SpaceX which first launched crew on May 30, 2020 as the Demo-2 mission, and the Boeing Starliner which is in development from Boeing, while NASA's flagship in-house crewed missions will be aboard Orion on the SLS.

Constellation Program

Following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, in early 2003 President George W. Bush, announced his Vision for Space Exploration which called for the completion of the American portion of the International Space Station by 2010 (due to delays this would not happen until 2011), the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet following its completion, to return to the Moon by 2020 and one day to Mars. A new vehicle would need to be developed, it eventually was named the Orion spacecraft, a six-person variant would have serviced the ISS and a four-person variant would have traveled to the Moon. The Ares I would have launched Orion, and the Ares V heavy-lift vehicle (HLV) would have launched all other hardware. The Altair lunar lander would have landed crew and cargo onto the Moon. The Constellation program experienced many cost overruns and schedule delays, and was openly criticized by the subsequent U.S. President, Barack Obama.

In February 2010, the Obama administration proposed eliminating public funds for the Constellation program and shifting greater responsibility of servicing the ISS to private companies. During a speech at the Kennedy Space Center on April 15, 2010, President Obama proposed the design selection of the new HLV that would replace the Ares-V but would not occur until 2015. The U.S. Congress drafted the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 and President Obama signed it into law on October 11 of that year. The authorization act officially cancelled the Constellation program.

The development of the combination of Ares I and Orion was predicted to cost about US$50 billion. One of the issues with Ares I was the criticism of the second stage, which the post-cancellation Liberty proposal attempted to address by using a second stage from an Ariane 5. The Liberty proposal applied for but was not chosen for commercial crew. The other ongoing complaint was that it made more sense to make a man-rated version of the Atlas or Delta. The first crewed flight for Ares I was scheduled for March 2015, and one of its priorities was crew safety. One reason for the emphasis on safety was that it was envisioned in the aftermath of the Columbia disaster.

Current and future Space Shuttle successors

Soyuz

U.S. astronauts have continued to access the ISS aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The Soyuz was chosen as the ISS lifeboat during the development of the International Space Station. The first NASA astronaut to launch on a Soyuz rocket was Norman Thagard, as part of the Shuttle-Mir program. Launching on March 14, 1995 on Soyuz TM-21, he visited the Mir however he returned to Earth on the Space Shuttle mission STS-71. The start of regular use of the Soyuz began as part of the International Space Station program, with William Shepherd launching on Soyuz TM-31 in October 2000. NASA has continued to take regular flights in the following two decades. NASA was contracted to use Soyuz seats until at least 2018.

The consideration of Soyuz as a lifeboat began in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Russia proposed using the Soyuz as a lifeboat for what was still Space Station Freedom in late 1991, leading to further analysis of this concept in the early 1990s. One of the milestones was in 1992, when after three months of negotiations the heads of the two Space Agencies agreed to study applications of the Soyuz spacecraft.

Since the first NASA use of Soyuz in 1995, NASA astronauts have flown on the following Soyuz versions: Soyuz-TM, Soyuz-TMA (and Soyuz TMA-M), Soyuz MS (which had its first flight in 2016).

NASA also purchased several space modules from Russia including Spektr, Docking Module (Mir), Priroda, and Zarya.

Orion and the SLS

The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 required a new heavy–lift vehicle design to be chosen within 90 days of its passing. The authorization act called this new HLV the Space Launch System (SLS). The Orion spacecraft was left virtually unchanged from its previous design. The Space Launch System will launch both Orion and other necessary hardware. The SLS is to be upgraded over time with more powerful versions. The initial version of SLS will be capable of lifting 70 tonnes into low Earth orbit. It is then planned to be upgraded in various ways to lift 105 tonnes, and then, eventually, 130 tonnes.

Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1), an uncrewed test flight of Orion's crew module, launched on December 5, 2014 on a Delta IV Heavy rocket.

Artemis 1 is the first flight of the SLS and was launched in November 2022 as a test of the completed Orion and SLS system. Artemis 2, the first crewed mission of the program, will launch four astronauts in 2024 if all Artemis 1 flight objectives are met. The second mission will launch on a free-return flyby of the Moon at a distance of . After Artemis 2, the Power and Propulsion Element of the Lunar Gateway and three components of an expendable lunar lander are planned to be delivered on multiple launches from commercial launch service providers.

Artemis 3 is planned to launch in 2025 aboard a SLS Block 1 rocket and will use the minimalist Gateway and expendable lander to achieve the first crewed lunar landing of the program. The flight is planned to touch down on the lunar south pole region, with two astronauts staying there for about one week.

ISS crew and cargo resupply

The ISS is planned to be funded until at least 2020. There has been discussion to extend it to 2028 or beyond. Until another U.S. crew vehicle was ready, crews accessed the ISS exclusively aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The Soyuz was chosen as the ISS lifeboat during the development of the International Space Station, and has been one of the space taxis used by the international participants to this program. A Soyuz took Expedition 1, which included one U.S. astronaut in the year 2000. Previously the United States and Russia had collaborated on extended the Mir space station with the Shuttle-Mir program in the 1990s.

Although the Orion spacecraft is oriented towards deep-space missions such as NEO visitation, it can also be used retrieve crew or supplies from the ISS if that task is needed once the spacecraft is operational. However, the Commercial Crew Program (CCP) produced a functioning crewed space vehicle starting operations in 2020, providing an alternative to Orion or Soyuz. The delay was longer than expected because the Ares I was cancelled in 2010, leaving little time before the STS retired for something new to be ready for flight. U.S. Congress was aware a spaceflight gap could occur and accelerated funding in 2008 and 2009 in preparation for the retirement of the Shuttle. At that time the first crewed flight of the planned Ares I launcher would not have occurred until 2015, and its first use at ISS until 2016. Another option that has been analyzed is to adapt Orion to a human-rated heavy launch vehicle like the Delta IV Heavy. (see also Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle) Another spacecraft evaluated by NASA, and also for commercial crew, is the OmegA rocket, which will look similar to Ares I and will be based on the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster.

Commercial Resupply Services

The Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) development program began in 2006 with the purpose of creating commercially operated automated cargo spacecraft to service the ISS. The program is a fixed–price milestone-based development program, meaning that each company that received a funded award had to have a list of milestones with a dollar value attached to them that they would not receive until after achieving the milestone. Private companies are also required to have some "skin in the game" which refers to raising additional private investment for their proposal.

On December 23, 2008, NASA awarded Commercial Resupply Services contracts to SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation (with corporate mergers and acquisitions now Northrop Grumman). SpaceX is using its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft and Orbital Sciences (now Northrop Grumman) is using its Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft. The first Dragon resupply mission occurred in May 2012. The first Cygnus resupply mission completed on 23 Oct 2013 after a flight that included remaining attached to the ISS for 23 days. The CRS program provides for all the projected U.S. cargo-transportation needs to the ISS, with the exception of a few vehicle–specific payloads to be delivered on the European ATV and the Japanese HTV.

Commercial Crew Program

The Commercial Crew Program (CCP) was initiated in 2010 with the purpose of creating commercially operated crew vehicles capable of delivering at least four astronauts to the ISS, staying docked for 180 days and then returning them to Earth. Like COTS, CCP is a fixed–price milestone-based developmental program that requires some private investment.

In the first phase of the program, NASA provided a total of $50 million divided among five U.S. companies, intended to foster research and development into human spaceflight concepts and technologies in the private sector. In 2011, during the second phase of the program, NASA provided $270 million divided among four companies. During the third phase of the program, NASA provided $1.1 billion divided among three companies. This phase of the CCP was expected to last from June 3, 2012 to May 31, 2014. The winners of that round were SpaceX Dragon 2 (derived from the Dragon cargo vehicle), Boeing's CST-100 and Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser. The United Launch Alliance worked on human-rating their Atlas V rocket as part of the latter two proposals. Ultimately NASA selected the Crew Dragon and CST-100 Starliner with the Dream Chaser only receiving a cargo contract. The Crew Dragon began delivering crew in 2020, with the CST-100 completing its orbital flight test program in May 2022 with a crewed flight test expected in April 2023.

On May 30, 2020, SpaceX launched Crew Dragon on the Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station. It carried a crew of two NASA astronauts, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, for a 62-day mission, which was incorporated as part of Expedition 63. This was the first crewed launch of a US-built capsule since the Apollo-Soyuz Test project on July 15, 1975. Hurley, who was the pilot for Atlantis'' on the final Shuttle mission, STS-135, commanded the Demo-2 mission. Operational use of the Crew Dragon began with the launch of SpaceX Crew-1, carrying four astronauts, on November 16, 2020. The crew would join Expedition 64. Of the crew, only Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi had previously flown on the Space Shuttle.

Gallery

See also
 Commercial Crew Development
 Criticism of the Space Shuttle program
 List of Russian human spaceflight missions

References

External links
 NASA Space Shuttle Portal

2011 in spaceflight
2011 disestablishments in the United States
Space Shuttle program
Spacecraft endings

Space Shuttle retirement


Giles L. (Bud) Pellerin (December 23, 1906 – November 21, 1998), nicknamed the Superfan or Super Fan, was an American telephone company executive, USC alumnus, and a fan of the University of Southern California Trojans (USC) college football team, notable for having attended 797 consecutive USC football games over a period of 74 years until his death at age 91.  This record was made all the more remarkable by the fact that Pellerin hated flying and, whenever possible, drove or rode the train or bus to every game he attended. He was inducted into the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995.

Pellerin's streak began in 1925, while he was still a student at USC (he graduated in 1930). During his streak he attended USC games in 75 stadiums in over 50 cities. Until his death, he had watched every game played in USC's major football rivalries, including 68 games with UCLA and 69 games with Notre Dame. He had seen the introduction of USC icons such as Traveler in 1961 and Tommy Trojan in 1930. He had witnessed all but one of USC's bowl games, including the regular-season Mirage Bowl in Tokyo, Japan in 1985. During his streak USC went 532-225-40, winning nine national championships, and played under ten different head coaches.

Pellerin never played football himself. A resident of the Pasadena area for his entire life, he attended his first USC football game while still a student at Huntington Park High School, going to the 1923 Rose Bowl Game in which USC defeated Penn State. It was USC's first appearance in the Rose Bowl and Pellerin would go on to see the Trojans' next 27 appearances as well. In his private life, Pellerin married and became a successful executive with Pacific Telephone Company, completing his career in the 1960s as director of a computerized billing office in Orange, California with a staff of 450 female and 7 male employees. He delayed his own 1935 honeymoon by eight months in order to combine it with a USC football road game (against the University of Hawaii in Honolulu) and donated over US$1.3 million to the university to endow four athletic scholarships: three for football and one for swimming. Pellerin claimed to have traveled over 650,000 miles and spent $85,000 to attend the games in his streak. In 1949, he walked out of a hospital just five days after an appendectomy to attend a home game, telling nurses that he was going for a walk.

USC embraced Pellerin and began including his story in their annual football media guide. By the 1990s he had become a subject for many sports journalists, including stories in USA Today and Sports Illustrated and on the ABC Network. In 1995, Pellerin was enshrined in the USC Athletic Hall of Fame as part of the second class of inductees. He won the first annual Sears Diehard Fan Award as "America's NCAA Division I Diehard College Sports Fan" in 1996.

Death
Pellerin died during the 1998 UCLA–USC rivalry game. During the game, he felt ill and asked his next-younger brother, Oliver Pellerin, who was attending the game with him, to take him home. As he was being brought outside, he died of cardiac arrest in the parking lot of the Rose Bowl, which was coincidentally the same location where he attended his first USC game.

His younger brothers also had long streaks. Oliver viewed 637 consecutive games (1945–2001), passing away in 2002 at age 93; the youngest, Max Pellerin, at one point had a streak of 300+, passing away in 2001 at age 91.

References

External links
Superfan Giles Pellerin – various articles from 1987 to 2002
Super Fan! – USC Athletic Department page
Superfan Pellerin Passes Away: Trojan fan's streak ends Saturday at 797 straight games – AP report, November 21, 1998, Accessed Sept. 19, 2006.
USC Super Fan's Brother Oliver Pellerin, Who Saw 637 Consecutive Trojan Football Games, Dies – USC Athletic Department page, May 14, 2002, Accessed Sept. 19, 2006.

1906 births
1998 deaths
Spectators of American football
USC Trojans football
University of Southern California alumni
Businesspeople from Pasadena, California
American telecommunications industry businesspeople

Giles Pellerin


George Kordahi (; born 1 May 1950) is a Lebanese TV presenter and former host of the Arabic version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.

Education
Kordahi was educated at the Notre Dame de Louayzeh College (Keserwan). He studied Political Science and Law in Lebanon.

Career
Kordahi started his career with the newspaper Lisan al Hal in 1970. He worked for Télé Liban in 1973 until the start of the Lebanese Civil War, when he immigrated to France. In 1979, he joined Radio Monte Carlo in Paris, where he was appointed editor-in-chief.

In 1992, Kordahi moved on to run Sharq Radio Station in Paris and remained there for around two years.

In 1994, he was recruited to head MBC FM in London.

In 2004, Kordahi moved to the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation for one year, before being asked by MBC to return as the presenter of his old program and several other programs. In his move to LBC to present Iftah Albak, Kurdahi became one of the prominent TV presenters in the Arab world. Advertising spots on his shows reached record numbers, both in popularity as well as ratings.

Throughout his career, Kordahi used his stardom to support charities in advancing their efforts for the public good. He notably partnered with "Tamkeen" which operates under the umbrella of the Knowledge and Human Development Authority in Dubai. He provided Tamkeen's visually impaired students with new educational tools.

Kurdahi was chosen as a UN Goodwill Ambassador.

In 2011, he departed MBC after making a statement in which he supported the Syrian government during the Syrian civil war, and stated that "there was a conspiracy against the Syrian government from Arab TV station." Subsequently, his shows were canceled from MBC and he eventually joined Al Mayadeen TV station.

In 2012, Kurdahi joined Al Hayat TV to present the TV shows Who Wants to be A Millionaire, Al-Mosameh Karim and Hafez wala Fahem.

Kurdahi has also launched his own brand of perfume, called G.K.

On 10 September 2021, he was selected by the Marada Movement as their pick for the Minister of Information of Lebanon.

On 2 December 2021, Kordahi announced to local TV stations that he planned to step down as Information Minister following a diplomatic crisis with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. The crisis was triggered by comments Kordahi made in a TV interview with Al Jazeera Online about the war in Yemen. He resigned the following day.

Personal life
Kurdahi is married to Ida Kassar, with whom he has three children. After living in Europe and other Arab countries for many years, he currently resides in his home town of Feitroun.

He speaks Arabic, French, English, and Italian.

References

Living people
Lebanese game show hosts
Lebanese television presenters
Lebanese television talk show hosts
Lebanese television personalities
1950 births
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
People from Keserwan District
Notre Dame University–Louaize alumni
Government ministers of Lebanon
Marada Movement politicians
Lebanese Maronites
Information ministers of Lebanon

George Kordahi


The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios and Other Stories is a book of short stories by Canadian author Yann Martel. First published as a paperback by Knopf Canada in the spring of 1993, it received little attention outside Canada until 2004, after Martel's award-winning Life of Pi gained worldwide popularity and people became interested in the author's work.

The book is composed of four short stories. The 2004 Canongate Books edition is updated with an author's note in which Martel writes that he is "happy to offer these four stories again to the reading public, slightly revised, the youthful urge to overstate reined in, the occasional clumsiness in prose, I hope, ironed out." All the stories except Manners of Dying have a distinct auto-biographical feel to them, the protagonist being a young white male university student having an existential crisis. In these stories, especially the first two, references to other cultural noteworthies such as The Little Prince and Almayer's Folly are noticeable.  Most of the themes explored in these more youthful works are employed in the inner workings of the Life of Pi.

The Facts behind the Helsinki Roccamatios
The title story revolves around a man who, along with a younger friend who is dying of AIDS, invents stories about a family of Italian immigrants living in Helsinki, Finland to help pass the time with his friend. To organize the plot of their strange attempt at fiction they use Encyclopædia Britannica extracts from each year starting from 1901 until present (1986) metaphorically to write each chapter. That story won the Canadian Journey Prize in 1991. In his author's note, Martel states that "Helsinki" was adapted to the stage and to the screen.

The Time I Heard the Private Donald J. Rankin String Concerto with One Discordant Violin, by the American Composer John Morton
This story is about a young man who visits a friend in Washington D.C. The friend works at PricewaterhouseCoopers and is too busy with his demanding job to spend time with his guest. The young man, by accident, stumbles upon a performance of classical music by Vietnam War-veterans and is thrilled by the composer's sheer ingenuity.  It ends with an extended conversation with the composer about artistic impulses, work and life.

Manners of Dying
In this epistolary novel Mr. Harry Parlington, warden at the Cantos Correctional Institution, writes to a Mrs. Barlow describing how her son, Kevin, executed in prison, experienced and faced his death. But multiple letters describe in totally different details his various "manners" of "dying."  Examples of the chapter titles are: "Manner of Dying 985", "Manner of Dying 760".  It is not clear which of those "manners of dying" Kevin Barlow actually experienced (if any) or which was sent to the mother (if any); they are presented with ambiguity, as potential and often conflicting possibilities. This story was adapted to a film by Jeremy Peter Allen, Manners of Dying.

An Australian named Kevin Barlow was sentenced to death by hanging in Malaysia in 1986, for possession of a small quantity of heroin. This caused a ten-year rift between Australia and Malaysia.

The Vita Æterna Mirror Company: Mirrors to Last till Kingdom Come
An anecdotal story about a young man who visits his talkative grandmother and while rummaging in her attic finds a machine that makes mirrors out of 4 ingredients: oil, sand, silver and memories. When she demonstrates the machine to him, he learns about her hurtful past from the memories she tells.

External links
 Yann Martel

 Manners of Dying Feature-Film Adaptation

1993 short story collections
Books by Yann Martel
Canadian short story collections
Knopf Canada books