In social choice and operations research, the utilitarian rule (also called the max-sum rule) is a rule saying that, among all possible alternatives, society should pick the alternative which maximizes the sum of the utilities of all individuals in society. It is a formal mathematical representation of the utilitarian philosophy.

Definition
Let  be a set of possible `states of the world' or `alternatives'. Society wishes to choose a single state from .  For example, in a single-winner election,  may represent the set of candidates; in a resource allocation setting,  may represent all possible allocations of the resource.

Let  be a finite set, representing a collection of individuals.  For each , let  be a utility function, describing the amount of happiness an individual i derives from each possible state.

A social choice rule is a mechanism which uses the data  to select some element(s) from  which are `best' for society (the question of what 'best' means is the basic problem of social choice theory).

The utilitarian rule selects an element  which maximizes the utilitarian sum

Tangible utility functions
The utilitarian rule is easy to interpret and implement when the functions ui represent some tangible, measurable form of utility. For example:

 Consider a problem of allocating wood among builders. The utility functions may represent their productive power –  is the number of buildings that agent  can build using  units of wood. The utilitarian rule then allocates the wood in a way that maximizes the number of buildings.
 Consider a problem of allocating a rare medication among patient. The utility functions may represent their chance of recovery –  is the probability of agent  to recover by getting  doses of the medication. The utilitarian rule then allocates the medication in a way that maximizes the expected number of survivors.

Abstract utility functions
When the functions ui represent some abstract form of "happiness", the utilitarian rule becomes harder to interpret. For the above formula to make sense, it must be assumed that the utility functions  are both cardinal and interpersonally comparable at a cardinal level.

The notion that individuals have cardinal utility functions is not that problematic.  Cardinal utility has been implicitly assumed in decision theory ever since Daniel Bernoulli's analysis of the Saint Petersburg Paradox.  Rigorous mathematical theories of cardinal utility (with application to risky decision making) were developed by Frank P. Ramsey, Bruno de Finetti, von Neumann and Morgenstern, and Leonard Savage.  However, in these theories, a person's utility function is only well-defined up to an `affine rescaling'.  Thus, if the utility function  is valid description of her preferences, and if  are two constants with , then the `rescaled' utility function  is an equally valid description of her preferences.  If we define a new package of utility functions  using possibly different  and  for all , and we then consider the utilitarian sum

then in general, the maximizer of  will not be the same as the maximizer of .  Thus, in a sense, classic utilitarian social choice is not well-defined within the standard model of cardinal utility used in decision theory, unless a mechanism is specified to `calibrate' the utility functions of the different individuals.

Relative utilitarianism
Relative utilitarianism proposes a natural calibration mechanism.  For every , suppose that the values

are well-defined.  (For example, this will always be true if  is finite, or if  is a compact space and  is a continuous function.)   Then define

for all .  Thus,  is a `rescaled' utility function which has a minimum value of 0 and a maximum value of 1.  The Relative Utilitarian social choice rule selects the element in  which maximizes the utilitarian sum

As an abstract social choice function, relative utilitarianism has been analyzed by Cao (1982), Dhillon (1998), Karni (1998), Dhillon and Mertens (1999), Segal (2000), Sobel (2001) and Pivato (2008). (Cao (1982) refers to it as the `modified Thomson solution'.)

The utilitarian rule and Pareto-efficiency
Every Pareto efficient choice is necessarily utilitarian. This is because every Pareto improvement necessarily increases the sum of utilities. But the utilitarian choice is not the only Pareto-efficient one. In fact, every weighted utilitarian choice (maximizing a weighted sum of utilities) is Pareto-optimal, whenever the weights of all individuals are positive.

The utilitarian rule in specific contexts
In the context of voting, the utilitarian rule leads to several voting methods:

 Range voting (also called score voting or utilitarian voting) implements the relative-utilitarian rule by letting voters explicitly express their utilities to each alternative on a common normalized scale.
 Implicit utilitarian voting tries to approximate the utilitarian rule while letting the voters express only ordinal rankings over candidates.
A related voting rule is Nanson's method.
In the context of resource allocation, the utilitarian rule leads to:

 A particular rule for division of a single homogeneous resource;
 Several rules and algorithms for utilitarian cake-cutting – dividing a heterogeneous resource;
A particular rule for fair item allocation.
Welfare maximization problem.

See also

 Egalitarian rule – a different rule, that emphasizes the welfare of the worst-off individual rather than the sum of utilities.
Proportional-fair rule – a rule that tries to balance the efficiency of the utilitarian rule and the fairness of the egalitarian rule.
Utility maximization problem – a problem solved by an individual consumer (rather than by society).

References

Voting theory
Utilitarianism
Mathematical optimization

de:Sozialwahltheorie
it:Teoria della scelta sociale
ja:社会選択理論
pt:Teoria da escolha social

Utilitarian rule


Lawrie Hugh McGavin CBE FRCS (1868 – 31 October 1932) was a British surgeon.

McGavin was the son of John McGavin of Calcutta. He was educated at Fettes College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Commissioned into the 6th Dragoon Guards, he was promoted lieutenant in July 1890, but resigned his commission in October 1892 and the following year began medical training at Guy's Hospital. His first post was as assistant surgeon at the London North-Western Hospital, and he later obtained posts as a surgeon at the King George Hospital and the Endsleigh Hospital for Officers, before being appointed consulting surgeon to the Dreadnought Hospital in Greenwich and the Hospital for Women. During the First World War he worked at the Michie Hospital and the Farnborough Court Hospital, for which he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in January 1920. He was also a member of the Emergency Surgical Aid Corps.
In the 1920s he perfected the process of silver filagree gauze for the treatment of hernia and performed the operation on both Gandhi and the King of Siam.

In 1892 he married the Australian Edith Mary Beauchamp.

Footnotes

References
Biography, Who Was Who

1868 births
1932 deaths
People educated at Fettes College
Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst
Carabiniers (6th Dragoon Guards) officers
Alumni of King's College London
British surgeons
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire

Lawrie Hugh McGavin


Michael Riley Galitzen, also known as Mickey Riley (September 6, 1909, Los Angeles, California – June 6, 1959, Hollywood, California) was an American diver who won four total medals, one gold, at the 1928 Summer Olympics and 1932 Summer Olympics.

Galitzen won acclaim both for his individual diving and as a tandem diver with his brother John.  He won two medals in diving at Amsterdam in 1928 as Michael Galitzen.  In 1931 his coach suggested that the brothers use Americanized stage names — "Mickey Riley" and "Johnny Riley". He won gold and silver medals in Los Angeles in 1932 under that name.  After the Olympics, he worked as a film editor, and he and John appeared frequently in diving shows.  He was found dead in his Hollywood apartment in 1959; the death was attributed to natural causes.

Galitzen was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1977.

References

External links
 International Swimming Hall of Fame profile
 Hickoksports.com profile
 New York Times obituary, June 11, 1959 (subscription required)

1909 births
1959 deaths
Sportspeople from Los Angeles
Divers at the 1928 Summer Olympics
Divers at the 1932 Summer Olympics
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in diving
Olympic silver medalists for the United States in diving
Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in diving
American male divers
Medalists at the 1932 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1928 Summer Olympics

Michael Galitzen


HMS Universal (P57) was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrong at Newcastle upon Tyne.  So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Universal.

Construction
Universal was laid down at Vickers Armstrong, Newcastle upon Tyne in September 1941, launched in November 1942 and commissioned in March 1943.

Career
She spent most of the war in the Mediterranean, where she sank the Italian auxiliary patrol vessels V 130/Ugo and V 134/Tre Sorelle, the Italian merchant La Foce, the German auxiliary gunboat SG 15 (the former French Rageot de la Touche), the German merchants President Dal Piaz and Canosa (the former French Corsa), the German Guardboat FMa 06 (the former French Guarani) and the German auxiliary minesweeper Petrel.  Universal also damaged the Spanish sailing vessel Sevellina and the Italian tanker (in German control) Cesteriano, which was later towed to Toulon.  Universal also fired a torpedo against what is identified as an enemy auxiliary minesweeper. They claimed to have damaged the so far unidentified ship.

Fate
Universal survived the war and was sold to be broken up for scrap in February 1946. On 3 February, on passage from Foyle, Northern Ireland, to Newport, Monmouthshire, under the command of Lieut-Commander W.F.N. Main R.N.R. her engines failed and the following morning she was taken in tow by the destroyer . With the weather deteriorating the tow broke eight or nine times and was eventually abandoned. Lifeboats from Aberystwyth, New Quay and Fishguard attended over 24 hours, standing by in heavy seas until Universals crew had to abandon ship.

She was scrapped at Milford Haven in June 1946.

References

Bibliography

External links

British U-class submarines
Ships built on the River Tyne
1942 ships
World War II submarines of the United Kingdom
Ships built by Vickers Armstrong

HMS Universal


Gardens Commercial High School is a coeducational inner city Secondary School in Cape Town, South Africa with learners aged 12–18 years. In 2006 the school was designated a Business, Commerce and Management (BCM) Focus School. As such, Gardens Commercial is part of an education intervention that aims to redress the Apartheid education system. The school is a lead institution that supports learners with exceptional interest, talent, interest or aptitude in the field of business, commerce and management. Gardens Commercial offers the following focus field subjects: Accounting, Business Studies, Economics and Computer Applications Technology.

History
Gardens Commercial High School is a fine mixture of the old and the new. The five original houses which still form parts of the school buildings were built in 1882 and were used as University of Cape Town residences during the 1920s. Since then they have housed a private hotel, the offices of the Provincial Administration (1939–1944) and the offices of the Department of Inland Revenue and the Rent Control Board (1944–1967).

In 1967 the demolition of Avenue Terrace - as the buildings were then known – was planned. In its stead a new school would be built to house the pupils from the Day School of Commerce (est. 1961) which, until then, had been a department of the Cape Technical College. These plans, however, were shelved and the original buildings were adapted for use as a school.

In 1968 the school came under the jurisdiction of the Cape Education Department and a year later it was renamed Gardens Commercial High School. The Avenue Terrace buildings survived intact, a second time, when demolition plans were again mooted.

When Louis Karol Architects were commissioned in 1976 to build the new school, their decision to incorporate Avenue Terrace finally guaranteed the survival of these buildings. The intriguing blend of old and new in this design earned the architects an Award of Merit from the Institute of South African Architects.

In 1984 - two years before the school's silver anniversary - the Twistniet Sports Complex was opened in Upper Orange Street. It offered facilities for hockey, tennis, basketball, netball and athletics.

The school is proud of its historic links with the city of Cape Town. In 1993 the old School buildings, the wall and the ground were declared a National Monument. The original deeds of transfer of the ground, are part of the Uitvlugt, date to 1732.

Sport & Culture

Learners participate in at least one extramural activity throughout the year. The following activities are offered:
 Argus Quizz
 Athletics
 Beauty Therapy
 Book Club
 Bowls
 Chess
 Dancing
 Drama
 E-gaming
 Fitness Club
 Interact
 Inter-Faith
 Journaling
 Netball
 Soccer
 Touch Rugby
 Website committee

External links
School Website

References
Gardens Commercial High History

Schools in Cape Town
1968 establishments in South Africa

Gardens Commercial High School


The Diepholz Airfield Circuit was an auto racing circuit in the south-west of the town of Diepholz, Germany. It was a temporary circuit on a military airfield, which is still in use by the German military today.

The full length of the runway was used as part of the circuit with a fast double chicane and the start/finish straight which included a temporary pit lane going down one side of the runway. There were no pit garages or permanent racing related buildings on site. Racing first took place at Diepholz in 1968, due to a lack of permanent circuits in Germany. Used mainly for Touring car racing, Diepholz was a regular venue on the calendar for the DTM series. When the DTM, then known as the FIA International Touring Car Championship, collapsed at the end of 1996, there was little use for the circuit.

The circuit was very similar to those at Burke Lakefront Airport and Edmonton City Centre Airport.

Lap records

The official race lap records at the Diepholz Airfield Circuit are listed as:

External links
Diepholz at e-tracks

References

Defunct motorsport venues in Germany
Diepholz (district)
Sports venues in Lower Saxony

Diepholz Airfield Circuit


David Isaac Laibson (born June 26, 1966) is a professor of economics at Harvard University, where he has taught since 1994. His research focuses on macroeconomics, intertemporal choice, behavioral economics, and neuroeconomics. In 2016, he became chairman of the Harvard economics department.

Laibson was raised by Ruth and Peter Laibson in Haverford, Pennsylvania. He received an AB (summa) from Harvard in 1988, studying under Benjamin M. Friedman, and went on to win a Marshall Scholarship to study at the London School of Economics (MSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics). He received his PhD from MIT in 1994 and joined the faculty at Harvard once he graduated. He has since gained tenure. He is married to the mathematician Nina Zipser, and they have a son, Max.

At Harvard, he teaches Economics 2030: Psychology and Economics. He also co-teaches Economics 10, the year-long introductory economics class at Harvard, together with Jason Furman. His research has been published in prestigious journals such as the QJE, AER, JEP, Econometrica, and Science.

Laibson is well known for his work on time inconsistency, especially his model of quasi-hyperbolic discounting. One of his most prominent early contributions has been the "Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting" 1997 paper in QJE where he studied the intertemporal behavior of a time-inconsistent consumer.  This work provides a tractable model for self-control problems, in which agents have difficulty sticking to their long-term goals. Agents in Professor Laibson's models generally value "commitment devices," such as 401(k) plans or housing equity, that let them accumulate assets without as much temptation to splurge. These models also explain the "debt puzzle," the idea that American consumers demonstrate both short-run impatience and long-run patience in their lifecycle savings decisions. Laibson has since developed hyperbolic discounting research in many directions, from more advanced theoretical models to computational macroeconomics to conceptual applications.

His own applications of his models have focused primarily on retirement savings, with considerable empirical work on 401(k) plans.  He has acquired access to a proprietary dataset of the 401(k) information for several dozen companies, which has allowed him to empirically investigate the effects of various 401(k) plan designs on the investment strategies of the plan participants. One important result to come from this research is that plan participants tend to follow the "path of least resistance," showing remarkable responsiveness to defaults and other context effects. For example, a company can dramatically increase participation in its 401(k) plan if it enrolls its employees in the plan by default unless they take a minor step to opt out. However, employees tend to stick to the default contribution rates and investment allocations.

Much of this theoretical and empirical work has been co-authored with Brigitte Madrian, James Choi, John Beshears, Andrea Repetto, and Jeremy Tobacman, among many others.  Laibson's quasi-hyperbolic discounting models have also been extended and applied to addiction by Matthew Rabin, Ted O'Donoghue, and Jonathan Gruber, among others.  Laibson has written a Principles of Economics textbook with MIT economist Daron Acemoglu and University of Chicago economist John A. List.

Another area of research focus for Laibson involves models of bounded rationality in markets; he has co-authored papers in this field with Xavier Gabaix and other scholars. For his career achievements, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2019.

References

External links
 The Psychology of Savings and Investment, a series of three talks by David Laibson at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Nov 19–21, 2007.

1966 births
People from Haverford Township, Pennsylvania
Harvard University alumni
Alumni of the London School of Economics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
Harvard University faculty
Living people
Marshall Scholars
Fellows of the Econometric Society
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
20th-century American economists
21st-century American economists
Behavioral economists

David Laibson


Chronopost International, a member of the La Poste group, provides express shipping and delivery service both domestically (in France) and internationally.

Domestic services comprise mostly next-day services, with some variation depending on the exact delivery locations, for packages and documents weighing up to 30 kilograms (66 lb).

International services vary much more by location, due to the increased distance between origin and destination and lack of a substantial distribution system at the destination. As is the case with domestic shipments, most services provide delivery for items weighing no more than 30 kg.

The Chrono Mission product line, available for both domestic and international shipments, provides for the delivery of items weighing up to 1.4 tonnes (3080 lb) and up to 14 m3 (490 ft³) in size.

Chronopost has international offices in Morocco and Ivory Coast.

For some of the delivery of packages in the United States, Chronopost express packages are delivered by FedEx as International Priority.

References

External links
 International landing page for Chronopost
 Chronopost's product range in English

Logistics companies of France

Chronopost


British Airways Flight 149 was a flight from London Heathrow Airport to Subang International Airport (now Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport), then the international airport for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, via Kuwait and Madras International Airports, operated by British Airways using a Boeing 747-136, with registration G-AWND, on 2 August 1990.

Following the airliner's arrival at Kuwait International Airport, outside of Kuwait City, the flight was never resumed as a consequence of ongoing events on the ground. Prior to landing at Kuwait International, the neighbouring nation of Iraq had launched a full-scale invasion of Kuwait during the early hours of that morning. Within hours, elements of the Iraqi Army had rapidly advanced as far as Kuwait City and had taken control of the airport. Accordingly, the aircraft used to operate the flight, its passengers and its crew were all captured by the occupying Iraqi forces on the ground. Following their capture, the majority of the passengers and crew were initially detained at several nearby hotels along with other foreigners under armed guard. The airliner was later destroyed on the ground; the identity of those responsible for its destruction remains unknown.

During their detention, multiple passengers have alleged that they witnessed a number of atrocities performed by Iraqi forces and were subjected to abuse themselves. While women and children were offered the opportunity to return home during late August, the remaining detainees were dispersed to various sites in Iraq and Kuwait and were used by the Iraqis as human shields to deter offensive operations by opposing Coalition forces during the Gulf War. During one infamous incident, an Iraqi television broadcast showed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein alongside a number of the detainees as a part of wartime propaganda efforts. To secure their release, former British prime minister Edward Heath personally travelled to Baghdad to lead negotiations, which included direct talks between Heath and Saddam Hussein. One passenger from the manifest (a Kuwaiti citizen who had concluded his flight and disembarked the aircraft prior to BA 149's capture) was listed as having been killed by Iraqi troops while all remaining passengers were later released from their captivity following the conclusion of the conflict. Many of the surviving detainees developed post-traumatic stress disorder after being released from captivity.

BA 149 continues to be the subject of controversy and debate over whether the situation could have been averted, as well as accusations and conspiracy theories that the flight was used as a Trojan horse to transport undercover British military and intelligence personnel into Kuwait. Several investigations have since been conducted into the incident, leading to official denials from Margaret Thatcher, Britain's Prime Minister at the time, of any government efforts to influence British Airways' actions in regard to Flight 149. On 23 November 2021, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss confirmed that the government of that time had misled British Airways and the public about a prior warning that was not passed on to the airline.

Aircraft and crew
Flight 149 was operated by a Boeing 747-136 with the manufacturer serial number 19764 and registration G-AWND. The aircraft bore the name City of Leeds and had initially been delivered to British Airways' predecessor BOAC before entering service with British Airways in 1974. At the time of the incident, G-AWND was one of the oldest aircraft in BA's fleet and was due to be replaced by a newer generation 747.

The pilot-in-command of the Heathrow-Kuwait leg was Captain Richard Brunyate while the cabin crew were overseen by Cabin Service Director Clive Earthy. Peter Clark had been due to take over as captain for the Kuwait-Madras leg.

Background
At 18:05 GMT on 1 August 1990, British Airways Flight 149 (BA 149) departed from London Heathrow Airport with 367 passengers on board, its final destination was Kuala Lumpur with scheduled layovers in Kuwait City and Madras. The flight had been delayed at Heathrow for several hours; according to the captain of the first leg of the flight, Richard Brunyate, the cause was a fault in the aircraft's auxiliary power unit; some passengers claim to have heard crewmembers arguing if they should proceed or not. The flight had a scheduled stopover at Kuwait City; however, this was not cancelled or changed despite media reports of the worsening political situation in the region. Kuwait's larger neighbour, Iraq, had issued demands for territory to be surrendered to its control and had been staging a military buildup on the border between the two nations for weeks. During the delay at Heathrow, the flight crew requested up-to-date reports on the situation in Kuwait and were told nothing untoward was happening despite news of growing tension. Shortly after the flight departed, the crew radioed ahead for another report, speaking to both Kuwaiti air traffic control (ATC) and British Airways Flight 148, a Lockheed Tristar which had departed from Kuwait earlier. Both claimed that the situation at Kuwait International Airport appeared normal. Captain Brunyate later testified that he elected to resume the stopover in Kuwait after again talking to Kuwaiti ATC during the final approach and being told that it was fine to land at the airport. He also stated that he asked permission to perform an additional circuit pattern to observe the airport from above and did not notice anything suspicious. However, on 1 August 1990, the same day as BA 149's flight, Iraq launched a military invasion of Kuwait.

At 01:13 GMT on 2 August 1990, BA 149 landed at Kuwait International Airport and the passengers were disembarked for what should have been an hour wait. The airport was deserted and there was little-to-no staff on the ground; at the point of its landing, all other scheduled flights by other airlines had been cancelled or diverted for several hours already at this point. Thirty passengers were booked on the flight to finish their journey in Kuwait and disembarked the plane with the inbound crew who proceeded to set off for their hotel. According to some passenger accounts, those who were disembarking in Kuwait proceeded to immigration but found that their luggage was not being unloaded. There were reports that, prior to BA 149's landing, British military personnel had taken control of Kuwait Airport's control tower. Between 01.45 and 02:05 GMT, the crew for the onward flight and remaining passengers boarded the Boeing 747 in anticipation of the next leg to Madras which was to be captained by Peter Clark. During the preparations to takeoff, the flight crew were informed that the airport would be closed for two hours. At 02:20 GMT, Iraqi fighter-bombers reportedly bombed the airport's runway, preventing its use, and knocked out the airport's control tower. The cabin crew ordered an evacuation of the aircraft and the passengers were initially moved into the terminal building. At 03:00 GMT, Kuwaiti radio made a national announcement that Iraqi troops had crossed the border.

At 04:30 GMT, both the crew and passengers who had been on board Flight 149 were escorted from the terminal by the Iraqi army and transported by bus to the airport's onsite hotel. On 3 August 1990, it was reported that all of the 367 passengers and 18 crewmembers from BA 149 were safe and well.

The empty 747, which had remained at Kuwait International Airport throughout the war, was destroyed on the ground by an aircraft attack during the latter stages of the conflict; the destruction may have been an intentional act of the US military to prevent its capture. Alternatively, the aircraft may have been destroyed by Iraqi ground forces during their withdrawal from Kuwait. As a consequence of its destruction, British Airways was able to collect on the airliner's insurance. Two of the aircraft's landing gears were salvaged and are displayed at Waterside, British Airways' headquarters.

Immediate reaction
In the days that followed, British Airways expressed its outrage at Flight 149's situation. BA's chairman, Lord King, publicly blamed the Foreign Office and the British security services for their failure to promptly designate Kuwait as a war zone, which would have caused the flight to be diverted. BA's area manager for Kuwait and Iraq Laurie O'Toole later claimed to have contacted the British Embassy in Kuwait prior to BA 149's departure to ask if it was safe to continue flights within the region and was told that a full-scale invasion of Kuwait was unlikely. Very quickly, there was considerable public controversy over whether the British government would have been able to intervene to avoid Flight 149's detention, as well as when had it become aware of the invasion of Kuwait. During September 1990, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher stated that Flight 149 had landed in Kuwait hours prior to the invasion. However, passengers on board BA 149 reportedly heard gunfire and tank activity during their layover in Kuwait City and a member of the inbound crew also claimed to have heard "loud bangs" whilst being ferried from the airport to their hotel; Thatcher also attributed an earlier point in time for the invasion in her memoirs. British Airways and the Foreign Office have both claimed that Flight 149 had landed in Kuwait two hours following the start of the invasion.

Detention of passengers
After leaving the aircraft, all the passengers and crew were captured on the ground by Iraqi forces who had overrun Kuwait City. The majority of the detained passengers were initially transferred to the airport hotel within the boundaries of the airport until the crew of BA 149 negotiated for everyone to be moved to the Regency Hotel where British Airways crew and staff flying into Kuwait were routinely based. The crew of BA 149 and some of the passengers unsuccessfully tried asking the British Embassy to be evacuated from the country. Later on as international opposition to the Iraqi occupation grew, the passengers were ordered from the Regency Hotel, separated into groups and confined to various hotels in Kuwait, also designated by the Iraqis for other foreigners to report to. The Iraqis claimed the passengers to be "honoured guests", and in the following week moved them under armed escort from a mix of policemen and soldiers from Iraq, to locations in Kuwait and Iraq. The British transferees were accommodated primarily on the upper floors of the Melia Mansour Hotel in Baghdad; hostages from other nationalities were housed in different hotels. During the early stages of the crisis, Brunyate stayed with the passengers and crew to reassure them but later escaped with help from members of the Kuwaiti resistance. Brunyate later explained that his father, who had worked in Iraq, had personally run afoul of Saddam Hussein and he feared reprisals if his surname was recognised by the Iraqi authorities.

Hostages later said they had witnessed various atrocities during their detention, such as attacks made upon Kuwaiti citizens by Iraqi forces; some of the hostages themselves were subjected to forms of mental and physical abuse, which included instances of mock executions or rape, and were kept in unsanitary conditions with little food. During a location transfer of the hostages by bus, a British Airways flight attendant was raped by an Iraqi soldier. The soldier was reportedly executed near the hostages after cabin services director Clive Earthy complained about the incident to the lead officer of the Iraqi troops detaining them. One passenger Jennifer Chappell stated that she witnessed Iraqi tanks driving over cars with Kuwaiti civilians trapped inside while her brother John saw the execution of a Kuwaiti soldier at the hands of Iraqi troops. Another hostage, David Fort was injured after an Iraqi guard pushed him down a flight of stairs. A small number of passengers and crew managed to escape and were sheltered with help from Kuwaiti resistance fighters.

After ten days, the detainees were dispersed to various military-industrial sites. Women and children were given the opportunity to return home in late August, whereas those who remained were used as human shields, and transferred between sites. Sites would contain between eight and 20 detainees of mixed nationalities, typically British and American citizens, as well as French, German, Japanese and others.

Different groups of detainees were released at various stages, often dependent upon their nationality, but also including criteria such as ill health and the body of one individual who had died during captivity. While some passengers were detained only for a few weeks, others were detained for months, often in poor conditions. Former British prime minister Edward Heath travelled in person to Baghdad for direct talks with Iraq's President Saddam Hussein, and is credited with leading negotiations to successfully release the hostages taken. During mid-December 1990, the last of the remaining American and British hostages were released by Iraq.

One passenger from BA 149, a Kuwaiti national (later described in various reports as a member of the Kuwaiti Royal Family or a security director) was listed as being murdered by Iraqi soldiers, although it is debated as to whether he is counted as a passenger fatality as he had already left the aircraft and finished his flight before his death. None of the other hostages were intentionally killed by Iraqi troops.

Investigation
Several court actions were raised by passengers against British Airways in respect of Flight 149, often accusing the airline of negligence by continuing to land in Kuwait hours after the invasion, as well as for loss of property. On 15 July 1999, a group of French passengers were awarded damages from British Airways valued at £2.5 million; separately, the airline also chose to settle over compensation claims filed on behalf of US passengers. During October 2006, several of the former hostages called for an independent public inquiry into allegations that Flight 149 had not been diverted by the British government due to the flight playing a role in a state intelligence operation. Some passengers accused British Airways of using Flight 149 as an attempt to evacuate their staff from Kuwait. However, BA personnel in Kuwait were not instructed to board Flight 149 and the inbound crew left for their hotel once the flight had landed. The crew of BA 149 later criticised the British Embassy in Kuwait for what they saw as inaction in helping them to evade capture or to leave Kuwait while there was still a window of opportunity.

A 2007 documentary, commissioned and shown by the BBC and shown elsewhere by Discovery Channel, claimed that the US and UK governments were aware almost as soon as Iraqi Armed Forces crossed the border and by 03:00 Kuwaiti time were fully informed that an invasion had taken place and fighting had ensued. This awareness would have been at least an hour before BA149 touched down, during which several other flights had diverted to Bahrain or other alternative destinations to avoid a potential situation. In October 1992, Prime Minister John Major, who had taken over from predecessor Margaret Thatcher, denied any attempt to influence British Airways in regard to the decision to operate BA 149; however, this has been contradicted by sworn statements that British Airways had in fact been briefed by the British government and informed by them that it had been 'safe to fly'.

It has been alleged that the British government had allowed Flight 149 to proceed for intelligence-gathering purposes by transporting British operatives to Kuwait. On 2 October 1992, in response to a question on the issue, Major said "I can confirm, however, that there were no British military personnel on board the flight". However, the 2007 documentary included an interview with an anonymous former SAS soldier, who claimed that he and his team had been on Flight 149 for the purposes of intelligence gathering in Kuwait. In 2007, British Member of Parliament Norman Baker claimed to be in possession of affidavits signed by "members of special forces," which, according to Baker, said "that they were on that plane and were put there to carry out a mission at the request of the British Government". Baker claimed that external accounts had given corroboration to such statements, including from the then-United States Ambassador to Kuwait W. Nathaniel Howell, former member of MI6 Richard Tomlinson, and individuals claiming to be Central Intelligence Agency operatives at the time.

Some media sources commented on the fact that British Airways allegedly withdrew the computer database list containing the passenger manifest for Flight 149 the day after the aircraft was captured; however, British Airways have maintained that this is a standard procedure in the event of an emergency in order to protect the identities of people on board and so that next of kin can be notified.

On 23 November 2021, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss confirmed that the government of that time had misled British Airways and the public about a prior warning that was not passed on to the airline.

See also
 Aviation accidents and incidents
 Black Box 149

References

External links
 BBC News- "BA loses Iraq hostage appeal "
 Pre-destruction photos of destroyed aircraft on Airliners.net
 "Can we trust our rulers ever to tell the truth?" Stephen Davis, New Statesman, 28 July 2003

Aviation accidents and incidents in Kuwait
Aviation accidents and incidents in 1990
Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 747
149
Gulf War
Aircraft hijackings
Hostage taking
1990 in Kuwait
Iraq–United Kingdom relations
Combat incidents
20th century in Kuwait City
August 1990 events in Asia
1990 disasters in Kuwait

British Airways Flight 149


SA Athletics Stadium is a comprehensive, modern athletics facility. Located only a few minutes drive from the Adelaide CBD, the athletics facility offers a national standard nine lane running track and field complex including training and warm-up areas, lighting, photo finish and modern timing equipment. The infield converts to a FIFA regulation sized quality turf pitch for soccer and other turf related sports. The stadium was formerly known as Santos Stadium under a sponsorship arrangement with Santos Limited.

SA Athletics Stadium is owned and operated by the Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing, an agency of the Government of South Australia.

Opened on Australia Day, 1998, it replaced the Olympic Sports Field in Kensington as Adelaide's premier athletics venue, and has seating for 1,200 and a maximum capacity of 6,000. The track surface is Rekortan M99.

The stadium is located on the edge of the CBD, in the Adelaide Parklands adjacent to Priceline Stadium, Adelaide's largest netball complex. The Stadium is home to Athletics South Australia, the South Australia Athletics League, City Bay Fun Run, the South Australian Little Athletics Association, and is regularly used by schools for sporting carnivals.

References

Athletics (track and field) venues in Australia
1998 establishments in Australia
Sports venues in Adelaide
Sports venues completed in 1998

SA Athletics Stadium


J R is a novel by William Gaddis published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1975. In the story, a schoolboy secretly amasses a fortune in penny stocks. J R won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1976. It was Gaddis' first novel since the 1955 publication of The Recognitions.

To complete the novel, Gaddis received a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Excerpts of the work were published in The Dutton Review, Antaeus, and Harper's magazine. (June 1975) (This is listed on the copyright page of the novel, I don't know how to cite that)

Synopsis
J R tells the story of the eponymous J R Vansant, an 11-year-old schoolboy who obscures his identity through payphone calls and postal money orders in order to parlay penny stock holdings into a fortune on paper. The novel broadly satirizes what Gaddis called "the American dream turned inside out". One critic called it "the greatest satirical novel in American literature." Novelist Louis Auchincloss thought it "worthy of Swift."

Literary analysis
The writing style of J R is intended to mimic Gaddis' view of contemporary society: "a chaos of disconnections, a blizzard of noise." The novel is told almost entirely in dialogue, and there is often little indication (other than conversational context) of which character is speaking. (Gaddis later said he did this in order to make the reader a collaborator in the process of creating the characters.) There are also no chapters, with transitions between scenes occurring by way of shifts in focalization: for example, a character who is in a meeting may leave the meeting, get in his car, and drive off, passing another character, who becomes the subject of the next scene without any break in the continuity of the narration (though the novel is written in a discontinuous or fragmentary tone).  The novel is thus broken only into French scenes (or perhaps "French chapters"). Gaddis later advised the reader not to put too much effort into figuring out each word but to read the novel at a normal talking speed; "it was the flow that I wanted," he said, "for the readers to read and be swept along -- to participate.  And enjoy it.  And occasionally chuckle, laugh along the way."

This chaotic writing style may, some critics argue, reflect Gaddis' preoccupation with entropy and with the 20th century's rejection of Newtonian physics, the narrative style thus reflecting a quantum and Heisenbergian world of "waste, flux and chaos." In this world, the characters who devise complex systems to acquire as much material wealth as possible are founding their lives on illusion because matter is impermanent and because, as Gaddis himself wrote in an essay, "the more complex the message, the greater the chance for error. Entropy rears as a central preoccupation of our time." In J R, entropy manifests itself as "a malign and centrifugal force of cosmic disruption at work scattering everything in [people's] heads, homes and work"

One of the epicenters of entropy is a seedy, run-down tenement apartment on East 96th Street (Manhattan). The apartment is stacked floor to ceiling with useless goods J R has acquired at bargain prices; a blaring radio, blocked by those boxes, cannot be turned off; the faucets, always running, threaten to flood the apartment (and indeed later drown a cat); characters flit in and out on useless errands; and the clock runs backwards. One critic compares the craziness of this locale to a Marx Brothers film and finds it superior. Gaddis lived in a tenement on E. 96 St. and probably based the fictional apartment in part on his unpleasant experiences there.

Gaddis' real-life experiences figure in other locales as well. Much of the novel takes place in a desolate, nightmarish version of Massapequa, New York and features a ludicrously dysfunctional school board. Gaddis, who in real life spent many years in Massapequa and had much of his property seized (using eminent domain) by the school board there, said, half in jest, that he "wrote J R in revenge against Massapequa." One of the most memorable characters in the novel is fired by that school board for independent thinking. He is Mr Bast, J R's music teacher.  Bast is a young composer employed casually by the school.  Bast is drawn into assisting J R and becomes a critical link for the development of the business empire J R assembles.  When Bast starts at the school his ambition is to write an opera.  As the novel develops he is increasingly burdened by the business accumulations J R makes and his musical ambitions are sidelined.  Bast's ambitions slide from opera to symphony, then to sonata and by the end of the novel he aspires to compose a suite.  The responsibilities that come from being involved with the childish shenanigans of corporate takeovers and asset stripping has had a corrosive effect on Bast's capacity to create art. Indeed, the corrosive effect of today's messy, noisy society on everyone's capacity to create and appreciate art is a major theme of this novel—and, arguably, of all of Gaddis' novels. (Gaddis later qualified this by stating that when Bast and his fellow-artists Eigen and Gibbs abandon their dreams, this is due in part to their own self-destructive nature; and when, in the last scenes, Bast begins work on a humble cello piece, it represents a "real note of hope".)

"JR Goes to Washington" (1987)
Years later, Gaddis wrote the title character "J R" into a piece of political satire, which the New York Times published in 1987. "Trickle-Up Economics: JR Goes to Washington" is written as the transcript of a U.S. congressional hearing on the federal budget, and J R is an official at the Office of Management and Budget.

See also
 Jonathan Lebed

References

External links
Annotations to J R at williamgaddis.org
New York Times review
Much God damned entropy – A Dialogue Review of JR
"JR: William Gaddis's 11-Year-Old Tycoon" (Ted Gioia)

1975 American novels
Alfred A. Knopf books
Novels set in Long Island
Novels set in Manhattan
National Book Award for Fiction winning works
Novels by William Gaddis
Novels about consumerism
Novels about marketing
Novels about music
Novels about stock traders
Novels about writers
Postmodern novels
NYRB Classics

J R


Kristofer S. J. Pister ("Kris Pister") is a professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at University of California, Berkeley and the founder and CTO of Dust Networks. He is known for his academic work on Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), their simulation (the SUGAR MEMS simulator), his work on Smartdust, and his membership in the JASON Defense Advisory Group. He is the son of former Berkeley Dean of Engineering and former UC Chancellor Karl Pister.

Professional work
Kristofer Pister is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1997. Prior to that he was a professor at the University of California Los Angeles.  He is generally attributed as the inventor and key implementer of smartdust, and is the founder and current CTO of Dust Networks, a company commercializing the smart dust concept. Dust Networks was then bought by Linear but still kept its original name (Dust Networks).

Pister initially focused on microelectromechanical systems and has since shifted his lab focus toward integrated circuits. Many of his innovations have been at the intersection of the two. Kris successfully commercialized or licensed micromachine technologies with Tanner Research, OMM Inc., Xactix, and Sony.  He is also the originator of the fold up silicon quick reference macro-crystal.

Education
He holds a PhD and MS in electrical engineering and computer sciences from UC Berkeley and a BS from UC San Diego.

References

External links
 Pister at the UC Berkeley electrical engineering/computer science department website
 Pister at UC Berkeley faculty website
 UC Berkeley publications search website

UC Berkeley College of Engineering faculty
American chief technology officers
Businesspeople in computing
University of California, Los Angeles faculty
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Missing middle or first names

Kristofer Pister


Merthyr Tydfil was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Merthyr Tydfil in Glamorgan.  From 1832 to 1868 it returned one Member of Parliament (MP)  to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and in 1868 this was increased to two members.  The two-member constituency was abolished for the 1918 general election.

A single-member constituency (known as Merthyr) existed from 1918 until 1945 and, by the 1950 general election, it had been renamed Merthyr Tydfil. The constituency was abolished for the 1983 general election, when it was largely replaced by the new Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney constituency.

History
Merthyr was regarded as a Liberal seat throughout the nineteenth century and particularly after the landmark election of 1868. There were tensions within the constituency, however and these were manifested by the rivalry between Merthyr and Aberdare, which became more pronounced as the latter grew in importance after 1850. Increasingly, also, the constituency was affected by the debate about working-class representation. Thomas Halliday contested Merthyr as a 'labour' candidate as early as 1874 and the return of Keir Hardie in 1900 was a notable landmark in the growth of the Labour Party. From 1922 onwards, Merthyr was a safe Labour seat.

1832–1867
The Reform Act 1832 was the first significant review of the arrangements for the election of MPs to the House of Commons, Patterns of representation had remained essentially unchanged for centuries and no recognition was given to the growth of urban settlements in the wake of the industrial revolution. The discontent of the late 1820s, culminating in serious disturbances in 1831, including the Merthyr Rising persuaded the government to take action in favour of reform. Within the Act of 1832 the one significant change in Wales was the carving out of a new parliamentary constituency, centred at Merthyr Tydfil, from the county of Glamorgan.

The Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832 defined the new Parliamentary Borough of Merthyr Tydvil in great detail:
From the Point on the North of Merthyr Tydvil at which the Northern Boundary of the Hamlet of Gellydeg meets the River called the Great Taff, Northward, along the Great Taff, to the Point at which the same is cut by the Southern Fence of Cilsanos Common; thence, Eastward, along the Fence of Cilsanos Common to the Point at which the same cuts the Brecon Road; thence, Southward, along the Brecon Road to the Point at which the same meets the Vainor Road; thence, Eastward, along the Vainor Road to the Point at which the same meets a Bye Road leading to Cefn-coed-y-Cwymner; thence in a straight Line to the Point at which the Little Taff would be cut by a straight Line to be drawn from the Point last described to the Southern Mouth of a Culvert on the Eastern Side of the Little Taff; thence, up the Little Taff, along the Boundary of the Parish of Merthyr Tydvil to the Point at which the Cwm Bargoed Stream is joined by a little Brook from the Coli Ravine; thence in a straight Line to the North eastern Corner of the Stone Fence of Pen-dwy-cae Vawr Farm; thence along the Road which passes Pen-dwy-cae Vawr Farmhouse to the Point at which the same meets the Mountain Track from Dowlais to Quakers Yard; thence, Southward, along the said Track, between the Farms of Pen-dwy-cae Vach and Pen-dwy-cae Vawr, to the Point at which such Track meets a Road running nearly due West, by a Stone Quarry, to Pen-y-rhw Gymra Cottage; thence along the last-mentioned Road to the Point at which the same reaches the Southern Side of Pen-y-rhw Gymra Cottage; thence in a straight Line to the Point at which the Southern Boundary of Troed-y-rhw Farm meets the Cardiff Road; thence along the Southern Boundary of Troed-y-rhw Farm to the Point at which the same meets the Great Taff; thence in a straight Line to the Bridge over the Cardiff Canal called Pont-y-nant Maen; thence, Northward, along the Cardiff Canal to the Point at which the same is intersected by the Cwmdu Brook; thence along the Cwmdu Brook to its Source; thence in a straight Line drawn due West to the Boundary of the Parish of Aberdare; thence, Southward, along the Boundary of the Parish of Aberdare to the Point at which the same meets the Boundary of the Hamlet of Gellydeg; thence, Eastward, along the Boundary of the Hamlet of Gellydeg to the Point first described.

Electoral Politics 1832–67
When the constituency was established the vast majority of the electorate were resident in Merthyr Tydfil and its environs, such as the industrial township of Dowlais. In contrast the electorate of the neighbouring Aberdare Valley was relatively small, numbering 3,691 compared with 22,083 in Merthyr. The first member for Merthyr Tydfil was Sir Josiah John Guest who served, albeit with some opposition until his death in 1852.

Guest was succeeded by Henry Austin Bruce who, again, served with little opposition until the Second Reform Act of 1867. Bruce was a prominent Liberal although associated with the less radical wing of the Liberal Party and was criticised for his role in events such as the 1857 Aberdare Strike.

1867–1918
The Representation of the People Act 1867, which increased the number of members returned to two, also widened the constituency boundaries. To the existing parliamentary borough were added some additional parts of the parish of Aberdare, part of the parishes of Merthyr and "Faenor" (Vaynor), and part of the district of Mountain Ash.

The same boundaries were retained in 1885, and can be seen on the boundary commissioners' map.

1868 general election
Merthyr Tydfil saw one of the most remarkable contests of the 1868 general election. Resulting directly from a tenfold increase in the electorate. Henry Richard was returned at the expense of the sitting member, Henry Austin Bruce.

Bruce had served as member since 1832 and his position was secure until the reforms of 1867. Even thereafter, the immediate interest appeared to be in who would occupy the second seat rather than whether or nor Bruce would be re-elected. The Merthyr element of the constituency had dominated the representation since its formation in 1832 but in recent years the population of the neighbouring Aberdare valley had grown considerably, mainly as a result of the development of the steam coal trade, that they should determine the identity of the second member. The Merthyr electorate had traditionally been far larger than that of Aberdare but by 1868, Aberdare's electorate formed almost half the total (11,446 in Aberdare; 13,329 in Merthyr). As a result, there was a widespread view amongst the industrialists and tradesmen of the Aberdare Valley that they should have a say in the selection of a second Liberal candidate to contest the seat alongside Bruce.

These commercial interests of the Aberdare Valley soon became allied with the powerful nonconformist interest, which was led by the key figure of Thomas Price, minister of Calfaria, Aberdare. Price, and other nonconformist ministers, were considered to have considerable influence over the largely chapel-going industrial workers who had been newly enfranchised. During 1867 these groupings rallied around Richard Fothergill, owner of the Aberdare Ironworks and also a figure of some influence in Merthyr due to his ownership of the Plymouth Ironworks. It was confidently expected that Fothergill would be returned alongside Bruce.

This remained the position until Henry Richard entered the fray in the summer of 1868. Richard's candidature was also opposed by members of the Irish community, on account of alleged comments by Richard about the Pope during a speech at Brecon.

1868–1888
Richard and Fothergill were re-elected in 1874. By 1879, however, Fothergill was in financial difficulties and there were calls for him to step aside. A deputation of tradesmen and working men who attended a meeting at Swansea to request to offer himself once again as a candidate but he eventually declined. He was replaced by Charles Herbert James. member of a long-standing politically active family in Merthyr. Both served until 1888 when Richard died and James stood down, leading to two by-elections within a twelve-month period. These led to the return of David Alfred Thomas and William Pritchard Morgan. Thomas and Morgan had much in common. Both were nonconformists, both were wealthy industrialists and both placed Welsh issues high on their list of political priorities. However, they also shared 'a hearty loathing' for each other.

Morgan's return, in particular, was significant, as he defeated Foulkes Griffiths, the official candidate of the Liberal Association. The result was also regarded as a defeat for the Cymru Fydd element in the Welsh Liberal Party. The Merthyr Liberal Association broke up after this election and did not function again until 1909.

1888–1918

Relations between Thomas and Morgan were not good, leading ultimately to a Liberal split which contributed to the success of Keir Hardie at the 1900 general election. For the first decade of the twentieth century Merthyr was represented by the unusual combination of David Alfred Thomas and Hardie. In 1910, Thomas chose to contest Cardiff instead and was succeeded by Sir Edgar Jones.

1918–1950
The two-member Merthyr Boroughs constituency was replaced at the 1918 general election by two separate constituencies, Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil.

1950–1983
Merthyr Tydfil Borough Constituency, created by the Representation of the People Act 1948, had an identical area to the County Borough of Merthyr Tydfil. The seat was first contested at the 1950 general election. The boundaries were unchanged until 1983.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1832–1868

MPs 1868–1918

MPs 1950–1983

Elections 1832–1867

Elections in the 1830s

Elections in the 1840s

Elections in the 1850s

Guest's death caused a by-election.

Elections in the 1860s
Bruce was appointed Vice-President of the Committee of the Privy Council for Education, requiring a by-election.

Elections 1868–1918

Elections in the 1860s
Seat increased to two members

Elections in the 1870s

Elections in the 1880s

James resigned, causing a by-election.

Richard died, causing a by-election.

Elections in the 1890s

Elections in the 1900s

Elections in the 1910s

Elections 1950–1979

1950s

1960s

1970s

NB: Davies claimed to be 83 in 1970 and his Constituency Labour Party felt that he was too old and ought to stand down. They thus de-selected him in favour of a younger man. However, although his true birth date is unconfirmed, Davies was undoubtedly several years older than he claimed, and was probably close to 90 years old when he fought and won the election as an Independent.

References

Bibliography

History of Glamorgan
Historic parliamentary constituencies in South Wales
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1832
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1918
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1950
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1983
Politics of Merthyr Tydfil

Merthyr Tydfil (UK Parliament constituency)


McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. The US state of Maryland decided to tax all banknotes by banks not chartered by the state of Maryland. The only bank in Maryland at the time that did not have a state charter was the Second Bank of the United States. The bank was a branch of the federal bank established in 1816.

Background
The United States Constitution did not provide for judicial review of laws and court decisions. It was a power the US Supreme court assumed (took) for itself with its first landmark decision. In the decision Marbury v. Madison (1803) the court established its "power to say what the law is". The court gave itself the right to interpret the constitution.

In 1819 it was evident Maryland was targeting the US Bank. Most state banks resented the special privileges given to the US bank by Congress. The depression of 1818 was hurting state banks. The state charged a tax on the US Bank located in Baltimore. The branch manager was James McCulloch. He had refused to pay the state of Maryland $15,000 USD in taxes on the US Bank's currency. At that time states were battling with the Federal government over which had power over the other. Maryland sued James McCulloch. The state court upheld the decision he had to pay the tax. The court of appeals upheld the decision. McCulloch appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1819.

The decision
There were two questions the court needed to decide. Did Congress have the power to charter a federal bank? The next question was did Maryland have the right to tax a branch of the federal government. Was this constitutional? The court ruled that the federal government did have the power to set up a federal bank. Also, that a state did not have the right to tax the federal government.

Results of the decision
For the Second Bank of the United States, the decision was short-lived. In 1828 Andrew Jackson was elected President of the United States. It was a victory for states' rights. Jackson vetoed the bill to recharter the bank. But the Civil war effectively ended states rights. The constitutional changes that followed favored a strong federal government. In the 20th century, McCulloch v. Maryland was the basis for the federal government being strongly involved in the economy. It set the legal precedent that the federal law was more important than state law in all matters.

References

United States Supreme Court cases
United States law
1819
1810s in the United States

McCulloch v. Maryland


Lake Hillier is a saline lake on the edge of Middle Island, the largest of the islands and islets that make up the Recherche Archipelago in the Goldfields-Esperance region, off the south coast of Western Australia. It is particularly notable for its pink colour. A long and thin shore divides the Southern Ocean (by some definitions, the Indian Ocean) from the lake.

Description
Lake Hillier is about  in length by about  in width. The lake is surrounded by a rim of sand and a dense woodland of paperbark and eucalyptus trees with a narrow strip of sand dunes covered by vegetation separating its northern edge from the northern coast of Middle Island. The most notable feature of the lake is its pink, vibrant colour. The vibrant colour is permanent, and does not alter when the water is taken in a container. The pink colour is believed to be due to the presence of the organism Dunaliella salina. The Extreme Microbiome Project, part of the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities (ABRF), Metagenomics Research Group (MGRG), has performed a metagenomic analysis on the lake to find Dunaliella as well as Salinibacter ruber, Dechloromonas aromatica, and a few species of the Archaea.

History

European discovery and use
Lake Hillier was visited by the Matthew Flinders expedition on 15 January 1802. Flinders's journal entries are considered to be the first written records of the lake. Flinders observed the pink lake after ascending the island's highest peak (now called Flinders Peak), describing the lake as follows:
 In the north-eastern part was a small lake of a rose colour, the water of which, as I was informed by Mr. Thistle who visited it, was so saturated with salt that sufficient quantities were crystallised near the shores to load a ship. The specimen he brought on board was of a good quality, and required no other process than drying to be fit for use.

Flinders visited Middle Island again in May 1803; he intended "to stop a day or two in Goose-Island Bay, for the purposes of procuring geese for our sick people, seal oil for our lamps, and a few casks of salt from the lake on Middle Island". It is reported that Flinders subsequently named the lake after William Hillier, a crew member of Investigator who died of dysentery on 20 May 1803 prior to the expedition's departure from Middle Island.

In 1889, Edward Andrews investigated the commercial possibilities of producing salt from Lake Hillier, and briefly moved onto the island with both of his sons. They left after working the salt deposits for about one year.

The lake was subject to salt mining during the late 19th century. The salt mining enterprise is reported as failing for a number of reasons including "the toxicity of the salt collected for consumption".

Forms of life

The only living organisms in Lake Hillier are microorganisms including Dunaliella salina, red algae which cause the salt content in the lake to create a red dye which helps produce the colour, as well as red halophilic bacteria, bacterioruberin, present in the salt crusts. Despite the unusual hue, the lake exhibits no known adverse effects upon humans. From above, the lake appears a solid bubble gum pink, but from the shoreline it appears more of a clear pink hue. The shoreline is also covered in salt crust deposits. In 2016 scientists from the Extreme Microbiome Project conducted extensive microbiome and metagenomic DNA sequencing and detected Haloquadratum, Haloferax, Salinibacter, Halobacterium, Halogeometricum, and several other halophilic organisms. Culturing from the water revealed a low concentration of Psychroflexus as well.

Safety and accessibility

Despite the high salt content levels (comparable to those of the Dead Sea), Lake Hillier is safe to swim in.  However, it is not advisable nor allowed without previous approval by the Western Australia Dept of Environment Conservation.

There are very few ways to reach Lake Hillier. Aeroplane scenic flights are the most common method, with six flights a day departing Esperance Airport, flying over Lake Hillier via the nearby Cape Le Grand National Park. Cruises are also an option for passengers wanting to visit the isolated lake, and surrounding forest area.

Protected area status
As recently as 2012, Lake Hillier has been located within the boundaries of the Recherche Archipelago Nature Reserve. Since 2002, the lake itself has been considered to be a wetland of "subregional significance".

See also

 List of lakes of Western Australia
 Lake Retba

References

External links
 Lake Hillier website

Hillier
Recherche Archipelago
Hillier

Lake Hillier


Dither fish are aquarium fish used by cichlid owners to make some species of cichlids less afraid.

Dither fish usually swim around the top of a fish tank. This behavior makes afraid fish less afraid. Fish that are not afraid hide less. The scared fish think (correctly) that no predators are in the tank.

The technique is based on the ability of cichlids in an aquarium to use the behaviour of other fish species as a sign that the place they are in is safe. Good dither fish are usually schooling species, such as some Danio species, barbs and some tetra species.

References

Ethology
Aquarium fish

Dither fish


Bigender is a gender identity which can be literally translated as 'two genders' or 'double gender'. Bigender people experience exactly two gender identities, either simultaneously or varying between the two. These two gender identities could be male and female, but could also include non-binary identities.

Flags

References

Gender

Bigender