The Belovezha Accords (, , ) is the agreement declaring that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had effectively ceased to exist and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in its place as a successor entity. The documentation was signed at the state dacha near Viskuli in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, Belarus on 8 December 1991, by leaders of three of the four republics (except for the defunct Transcaucasian SFSR) which had signed the 1922 Treaty on the Creation of the USSR:
 Belarusian Parliament Chairman Stanislav Shushkevich and Prime Minister of Belarus Vyacheslav Kebich
 Russian President Boris Yeltsin and First Deputy Prime Minister of the RSFSR/Russian Federation Gennady Burbulis
 Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk and Ukrainian Prime Minister Vitold Fokin

As Shushkevich said in 2006, by December "the union had already been broken up by the putschists" who in August 1991 tried to remove Mikhail Gorbachev from power to prevent the transformation of the Soviet Union into what Shushkevich described as "a confederation." The three wanted to avoid what happened in the Breakup of Yugoslavia and "there was no other way out of the situation than a divorce."

Name
The name is variously translated as Belavezh Accords, Belovezh Accords, Belovezha Accords, Belavezha Agreement, the Belovezhskaya Accord, the Belaya Vezha Accord, etc. A reason of the discrepancy is the difference between Russian and Belarusian names of the eponymous forest's name on the Belarus-Polish border that used to have General Secretary Brezhnev's hunting lodge.

Key points
The text of the Belovezh Accords contains an introduction and 14 Articles. The original text is available in official translation on the Council of Europe website.

The main obligations of the parties to the Agreement, ratified by all former Soviet republics except Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, includes the following:

 The end of the existence of the USSR, with the "setting up of lawfully constituted democratic… independent states… on the basis of mutual recognition of and respect for State sovereignty".
 Establishing on the territory the "right to self-determination" along with "norms relating to human and people's rights".
 "Parties guarantee to their citizens, regardless of their nationality or other differences, equal rights and freedoms. Each of the Parties guarantees to the citizens of the other Parties, and also to stateless persons resident in their territory, regardless of national affiliation or other differences, civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights and freedoms in accordance with the universal recognized international norms relating to human rights" (Article 2).
 "The Parties, desirous of facilitating the expression, preservation and development of the distinctive ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious characteristics of the national minorities resident in their territories and of the unique ethno-cultural regions that have come into being, will extend protection to them" (Article 3).
 "Equitable cooperation" (Article 4).
 "Territorial integrity" along with "freedom of movement of citizens" (Article 5).

Legal basis and ratification
The preamble of the document stated that "the USSR, as a subject of international law and a geopolitical reality, is ceasing its existence". It also invited other republics to join the three founding members. While there was some dispute over the authority of the leaders of three of the 12 republics to dissolve the entire Union, individual union republics had the right to secede freely from the Union according to Article 72 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution; since 1990, the procedure for the withdrawal of republics from the Union was regulated by a special law.

On 10 December, the agreement was ratified by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Supreme Council of Belarus. On 12 December, the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR formally ratified the Belovezh Accords, denounced (that is, withdrew from) the 1922 Treaty on the Creation of the Soviet Union, and recalled the Russian deputies from the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Some members of the Russian parliament disputed the legality of this ratification, since according to the Constitution of the RSFSR of 1978, consideration of this document was in the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR.

What remained of the Soviet federal government also argued that the purported dissolution was illegal and ineffective. Gorbachev described the moves thusly:

The fate of the multinational state cannot be determined by the will of the leaders of three republics. The question should be decided only by constitutional means with the participation of all sovereign states and taking into account the will of all their citizens. The statement that Unionwide legal norms would cease to be in effect is also illegal and dangerous; it can only worsen the chaos and anarchy in society. The hastiness with which the document appeared is also of serious concern. It was not discussed by the populations nor by the Supreme Soviets of the republics in whose name it was signed. Even worse, it appeared at the moment when the draft treaty for a Union of Sovereign States, drafted by the USSR State Council, was being discussed by the parliaments of the republics.

The question as to whether the Belovezh Accords were enough in and of themselves to dissolve the Soviet Union with the agreement of only three republics (albeit three of the largest and most powerful republics) was resolved on 21 December 1991, when the representatives of 11 of the 12 remaining Soviet republics—all except Georgia—signed the Alma-Ata Protocol, which reiterated both the end of the Soviet Union and the establishment of the CIS. Given that 11 of the republics now agreed that the Soviet Union no longer existed, the plurality of member-republics required for its effective continuance as a federal state was no longer in place. The Alma-Ata signatories also provisionally accepted Gorbachev's resignation as president of the Soviet Union and agreed on several other practical measures consequential to the extinction of the Union. Gorbachev stated that he would resign as soon as he knew the CIS was a reality. Three days later, in a secret meeting with Yeltsin, he accepted the fait accompli of the Soviet Union's dissolution.

Although Gorbachev had long since lost the ability to influence events outside Moscow, a rump Soviet federal government continued to exist for four more days, and Gorbachev continued to hold control over the Kremlin. This ended in the early hours of 25 December 1991 when Gorbachev resigned and turned control of the Kremlin and the remaining powers of his office over to the office of the president of Russia, Yeltsin. Soon afterward, the flag of the Soviet Union was lowered from the Kremlin Senate for the final time, and the flag of Russia was hoisted in its place.

Later that day, President of the United States George H. W. Bush gave a short speech on national television in the United States to mark the end of the Cold War and to recognize the independence of the former states of the Soviet Union.

Also on 25 December 1991, the Russian SFSR, now no longer a sub-national entity of the Soviet Union but a sovereign nation in its own right, adopted a law renaming itself the "Russian Federation" or "Russia" (both being equally official with the ratification of the Russian constitution in 1993).

Gorbachev's speech, as well as the replacement of the Soviet flag with the Russian flag, were all seen around the world, and marked the de facto end of the Soviet Union.  However, the final legal step in the dissolution came a day later, when the Soviet of Republics, the upper house of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, recognized the collapse of the Union and voted both itself and the Union out of existence. The lower house, the Soviet of the Union, had not met since 12 December when Russia recalled its deputies from both chambers, leaving it without a quorum.

The Summit of Alma-Ata also issued a statement on 21 December 1991, supporting Russia's claim to be recognized as the successor state of the Soviet Union for the purposes of membership of the United Nations. On 25 December 1991, Russian President Yeltsin informed UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar that the Soviet Union had been dissolved and that Russia would, as its successor state, continue the Soviet Union's membership in the United Nations. The document confirmed the credentials of the representatives of the Soviet Union as representatives of Russia and requested that the name "Soviet Union" be changed to "Russian Federation" in all records and entries. This was a move designed to allow Russia to retain the Soviet Union's permanent Security Council seat, which would not have been possible if the former republics were all reckoned as equal successors of the Soviet Union, or if the Soviet Union was regarded as having no successor state for the purpose of continuing the same UN membership (see Russia and the United Nations). The Secretary-General circulated the request, and there being no objection from any Member State, the Russian Federation took the Soviet Union's UN seat. On 31 January 1992, Russian Federation President Yeltsin personally took part in a Security Council meeting as representative of Russia, the first Security Council meeting in which Russia occupied the permanent Security Council seat originally granted to the Soviet Union by the UN Charter.

Aftermath

1993 Russian constitutional crisis

According to some Russian politicians, one of the reasons for the political crisis of 1993 was the repeated refusal of the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia to ratify the Belovezhskaya Agreement and to exclude the mention of the Constitution and laws of the USSR from the text of the Constitution of the RSFSR.

Original document missing
Stanislav Shushkevich, the former leader of Belarus, was told by the country's foreign ministry that the original accords have gone missing as of 7 February 2013. He tried to obtain the original copy to assist in writing his memoirs.

Notes

References

Bibliography
 Ostrovsky, Alexander (2011). Глупость или измена? Расследование гибели СССР. (Stupidity or treason? Investigation of the death of the USSR)  М.: Форум, Крымский мост-9Д, 2011. — 864 с. ISBN 978-5-89747-068-6.

External links

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Belovezha Accords


(, "Obsession") is a 1943 Italian crime drama film directed and co-written by Luchino Visconti, in his directorial debut. It is an unauthorized and uncredited adaptation of the 1934 novel The Postman Always Rings Twice by American author James M. Cain, and stars Clara Calamai, Massimo Girotti, and Juan de Landa in the leading roles. It is often considered to be the first Italian neorealist film, though there is some debate about whether such a categorization is accurate.

Banned and ostracized by the Fascist regime during its initial release, the Italian Ministry of Culture has since placed  on its list of 100 Italian films to be saved, distinguishing films which "changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."

Plot
Gino Costa, a wandering tramp, stops at a small roadside tavern and petrol station in the Po Valley, run by Giovanna Bragana and her older husband, Giuseppe. Giovanna is disgusted by her husband, having married him only for his money, and is instantly drawn to the younger and more attractive Gino. Giovanna serves Gino a meal, but they are interrupted by Giuseppe, who throws Gino out. Giovanna claims Gino did not pay, pocketing his money, as an excuse for him to return. Giuseppe chases after Gino, only to find that Gino has no money left, so Gino offers to fix Giuseppe's vehicle as payment for the meal, and the two bond over a shared military service as Bersaglieri.

When Giuseppe leaves to pick up a part for the vehicle, Gino and Giovanna confess their feelings to each other and begin an affair. Giuseppe, completely oblivious to the situation, takes a liking to Gino and tells him that he can stay and help out around the tavern. After a few days, Gino tries to convince Giovanna to run away with him. Giovanna initially agrees, but on the way to the train station she changes her mind and refuses to go through with it, so Gino leaves without her.

While Gino is on the train, he is confronted by the ticket inspector and admits that he has neither a ticket nor money. "Lo Spagnolo" ("The Spaniard"), a traveling street entertainer, steps in to pay for his train ticket and the two become friends. When they reach the city of Ancona, Gino spends a night at an inn with Spagnolo, where he reveals that he cannot stop thinking about Giovanna. When Spagnolo learns that Giovanna refuses to leave her husband because she fears having no money and security, he advises Gino to "run far away" and forget about Giovanna. Later that night, Spagnolo lights a cigarette and holds the match up in the dark bedroom to watch Gino while he sleeps.

Gino stays in Ancona and gets a job holding up an advertisement sign for Spagnolo. One day, Giuseppe and Giovanna run into Gino by chance, and the three go to a bar where Giuseppe sings in a voice competition. While he is on stage, Gino confesses to Giovanna that he tried to forget her but could not and tries again to convince her to leave with him. Even though Giovanna still has feelings for Gino, she refuses and tells him that she will stay with her husband, to which he angrily replies, "Then I'll come back to the store. Is that what you want?"

After the voice competition, Gino, Giuseppe, and Giovanna leave together to return to the Braganas' tavern. Giuseppe has been celebrating his successful singing performance and is quite drunk. Gino and Giovanna take advantage of his inebriated state and conspire to murder him. They convince Giuseppe to let Gino drive and stage the murder as a traffic accident.

In the aftermath of their crime, tensions begin to arise. Gino wants to sell the tavern and leave, while Giovanna wants to stay and run the tavern. Gino feels guilty about the murder, and his guilt is amplified by the fact that he is now living in the home of the man he killed. This causes him to feel trapped and he acts coldly toward Giovanna.

Giovanna hosts a party at the tavern to increase business, and Spagnolo shows up at the party. Gino is initially happy to see his friend, but he becomes agitated when Spagnolo tries to get him to leave and go traveling. Spagnolo implies that he knows of Gino's crime, and Gino loses his temper and punches Spagnolo. A bystander, who is actually a detective that has been investigating Gino and Giovanna, helps Spagnolo up. As Spagnolo walks away, Gino calls out to him, but he does not turn around.

In a brief scene, Spagnolo is seen as having arrived to speak to someone who works in an office at the police office.

One day while Gino and Giovanna are in town, Gino flirts with Anita, a young prostitute. Anita leaves, and Giovanna returns to Gino to tell him that Giuseppe had life insurance. This makes Gino feel that Giovanna has used him, and he feels even more guilt-ridden over the murder. He angrily yells at Giovanna that he does not want to be with her anymore and goes off to find Anita. Gino and Anita spend some time together in Anita's apartment before deciding to leave together to get some food. While they are outside, Giovanna, who has been sitting at a café outside Anita's apartment building, angrily confronts Gino. Anita runs off, and Giovanna threatens to tell the police that Gino killed Giuseppe if Gino does not stay with her. Gino loses his temper and hits Giovanna, causing a scene. He then goes back to Anita's apartment and confesses the crime to her.

Meanwhile, two men who arrived on the scene shortly after Giuseppe's death have contacted the police, and their description of events does not quite match that given by Gino and Giovanna. The detective who has been investigating the case is sent to bring Gino and Giovanna in for further questioning, but when Gino sees the detective outside Anita's apartment he is afraid Giovanna has gone to the police, so he convinces Anita to distract the detective and escapes by climbing across the roof to a neighboring building.

Gino returns to Giovanna at the tavern, where she tells him that she did not go to the police before saying she is pregnant with Gino's child and still loves him. Shocked, Gino leaves and spends the night wandering alone. Giovanna searches for him and finds him the next day on the beach, by which point he seems to have come to terms with their crime and has new resolve to love Giovanna and try to build a life with her. After they make up and spend some romantic time together on the beach, Gino tells Giovanna about the detective and she finally agrees that they need to leave the tavern. They get in their car and depart, but, realizing the police are on their trail, they drive as fast as they can and end up tailgating a large truck. In a twist of fate, the truck knocks their car over the edge of the road and into a river, killing Giovanna. Devastated, Gino carries her body out of the wreckage and surrenders to the police.

Cast

Production

Background
Working under the censorship of the Fascist Italian government, Visconti encountered problems with the production even before filming commenced.  He had initially wanted to adapt a story by Giovanni Verga, the Italian realist writer and one of his greatest influences, but that project was turned down almost immediately by the Fascist authorities due to its subject matter, which revolved around bandits.  Around this time, Visconti uncovered a French translation of The Postman Always Rings Twice that had been given to him by French director Jean Renoir while he was working in France in the 1930s.

Development and writing
Visconti adapted the novel with a group of men he selected from the Milanese magazine Cinema, which was edited by Vittorio Mussolini, Benito Mussolini's son. The members of this group were talented filmmakers and writers and played a large role in the emerging neorealist movement: Mario Alicata, Gianni Puccini, Antonio Pietrangeli, and Giuseppe De Santis. Many of the Cinema crew were open or covert antifascists, a fact both the older and younger Mussolini tolerated under the belief their presence was necessary for the Italian film industry to innovate and compete with its rivals elsewhere, so long as their politics did not overtly affect the content of their films. Several of the Cinema alumni, including Visconti, would later go underground and join the resistance.

Filming
 was filmed between the summer and autumn of 1942. The exteriors were shot on-location in and around the Po Valley and the commune of Ferrara. Filming locations included the settlements of Codigoro, Ancona, Comacchio and Boretto. The interiors were shot at S.A.F.A. Studios in Rome.

Analysis

For the most part, Visconti retained the plot of the novel.  He made changes such as tailoring the script to its Italian setting and adding a character (Lo Spagnolo), but the main departure from the novel and the defining characteristic of the film is the manner in which it confronts the realities of life.

Despite arguments about how to define neorealist cinema, certainly one of 's most poignant aspects is its stark realism and, despite being popular actors of Italian cinema, the stars of the film, Massimo Girotti and Clara Calamai, deliver breathtaking performances that are anything but glamorous. In one particularly memorable scene that anticipates a major theme of neorealism, Giovanna, 's central female character, enters her wildly messy kitchen, serves herself a bowl of soup and sits down with a newspaper, only to fall asleep, slumped over wearily in the midst of the confusion. At several moments like this one, Visconti slows the pace to give the viewer an even more penetrating glimpse into the routine of his characters and, in doing so, roots the narrative squarely in the life of his characters.

In another scene, Gino, Giovanna, and Giuseppe are eating when Giuseppe comments that a local landowner has been shot from behind by a worker, believed to be the result of the worker's love for the landowner's wife. In this way, Visconti foreshadows the man's own death and illuminates the study of class tension that is woven fluidly into the film. Soon afterwards, Giuseppe submits to his wife's physical and verbal responses to cats crying outside and fetches his shotgun and leaves. Shortly after his exit, the adulterous lovers huddle close and hear gunshots, thereby hinting at the doom also reserved for the lovers "in heat".

The landscape itself is realistic, and Visconti takes great care to situate his characters in a rural Italy that remains for the most part unromanticized. Nearly the entire story is told using medium and long shots, with Visconti choosing to employ close-ups only at moments of intense emotion. Characters are depicted interacting with and moving around within their environment; to help create this effect, Visconti favors long and ponderous shots, while making use of depth of focus to highlight the variety of action occurring throughout the space of the frame. He resists identifying solely with one character and prefers instead to maintain a distance, taking them all in with his viewfinder as independent, but irrevocably tangled, components of a larger cast, which includes the sets, scenery, and landscape, as well as what goes on outside of the frame. Shots of the landscape largely consist of the dusty road winding into the distance and the interior shots are just as bleak; the dowdy kitchen exudes a nearly tangible film of dust and grime and the dingy hotel room that speaks, with each detail, of the rebellious freedom cherished by those who share it.

The shift of focus from the novel is clear even in Visconti's decision to change the title: whereas the novel's title alludes to the final retribution exacted upon the adulterous couple, Visconti's header bespeaks the focus of his film, obsessive passion. The lovers, Gino and Giovanna, played by Girotti and Calamai, first meet in the kitchen of the inn that Giovanna runs with her husband, the fat and dim-witted Giuseppe. It is in the symbolic and literal center of the family sphere, before they ever touch, that the two make a silent oath. Their love, tainted as it is by a lie, is difficult for either of them to bear, and the tension is only exacerbated by Giuseppe's overwhelming presence. Unable to continue the affair under such pretense, but genuinely in love, Gino tries to persuade Giovanna to leave with him. She is clearly tempted, but knows of the power the road has over Gino, a relationship that Visconti executes nearly as palpably as that between him and Giovanna. She ultimately refuses Gino, opting for the security and stability that Giuseppe has to offer, and Gino sets out once again unencumbered. When they cross paths some time later, it is in the city, and Giuseppe is extremely drunk, engaged in a singing competition. Against the backdrop of the drunken and foolish Giuseppe, the couple plans his death, an act they carry out in a car crash. Rather than granting them the freedom they so desperately seek, however, the murder only heightens the need for deception and makes more acute the guilt they had previously been dealing with. Despite Giovanna's attempt to construct a normal life with Gino, Giuseppe's presence seems to remain long after they return to the inn. Their already crumbling relationship reaches its bounds when they go to collect the money from Giuseppe's life insurance policy. They have a very hostile argument and Gino retaliates by engaging Anita, an attractive young prostitute. Though Giovanna is pregnant and there seems to be some hope for the couple, Gino is left alone to deal with the law when Giovanna is killed in the film's second car crash.

The character of Lo Spagnolo (The Spaniard), Visconti's main textual departure from the novel, plays a pivotal role in the story of . After failing to convince Giovanna to flee with him, Gino meets Spagnolo after boarding a train to the city, and the two of them strike up an instant friendship, subsequently working and living together. Spagnolo is an actor who works as a street vendor and serves as a foil to Giovanna's traditionalism and inability to let go of the material lifestyle. In contrast to the other main characters, who come across as very real and thoroughly developed, Spagnolo operates chiefly on a symbolic level. He represents for Gino the possibility of a liberated masculinity living a successful life separate from society's impositions—an alternative to the life he is drawn toward in his relationship with Giovanna.

Both Giovanna and Gino are tragic characters in their inability to find a space in which to situate themselves comfortably. The limited roles made available by society prove to be insufficient in providing narratives for their lives that bring them closer to happiness.  Giovanna is pulled away from the security of her marriage to the repulsive Giuseppe by a desire for true love and fulfillment, whose potential is actualized with the appearance of Gino. Her attempts to hold onto the fortune that came with marriage, however, ultimately lead to the failure of her relationship with Gino and perhaps, by extension, to her death. Gino's situation seems to be just as distinct, if not more so, as the force pulling him away from Giovanna is his fear of a traditional commitment. From the first time that they sleep together, after which Giovanna shares with Gino all of her deepest problems while he listens to the sound of waves in a seashell, it is clear that he answers only to the open road, identifying it as his alternative to becoming an active part of mainstream society. Spagnolo is the road manifest, masculine freedom in opposition to Giovanna's femininity, love, and family values.  Caught in between the two conflicting ideals, Gino ends up violating both of them and dooming himself in the process.

Visconti's approach to filmmaking is very structured, and there are several parallel scenes in the film, such as the car crashes. Additionally, Gino angrily leaves Giovanna by the side of the road and is later abandoned by Spagnolo in a similar way, and Gino and Spagnolo sit side by side on a wall shortly after they meet, a scene that is repeated at the end of their friendship. Cinematic techniques, such as the instances in which Visconti foreshadows major plot twists or the introduction of Spagnolo as a counterweight, demonstrate Visconti's formalist streak and technical virtuosity, but his realist vision and taste for drama are truly what breathe life into .

Release and reception

Fascist reaction and ban
When  was completed and released in 1943, it was far from the innocent murder mystery the authorities had expected; after a few screenings in Rome and northern Italy, which prompted outraged reactions from Fascist and Church authorities, the film was banned by the Fascist government that had been reestablished in the German-occupied part of Italy after the September 1943 armistice. Eventually, the Fascists destroyed the film, but Visconti managed to keep a duplicate negative from which all existing prints have been made.

Post-war
After the war,  encountered more problems with mass distribution, both because Visconti had never obtained the rights to adapt Cain's novel as a result of the wartime production schedule and because Metro-Goldwyn Mayer produced an adaptation directed by Tay Garnett while the Fascist ban on Visconti's work was still in effect. Due to the copyright issues, the film was not released in the United States until 1976, but, despite the limited number of screenings, it was still able to gain acclaim among moviegoers who recognized in it some of the same sensibilities they had grown familiar with in neorealist films by Michaelangelo Antonioni, Puccini, and De Santis, among others.

Sources

Further reading
  Bacon, Henry, Visconti: Explorations of Beauty and Decay, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
  Bondanella, Peter E., Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present, New York: Continuum, 2001.
  Korte, Walter F. Jr. "Marxism and Formalism in the Films of Luchino Visconti", Cinema Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1, Autumn, 1971, pp. 2–12.
  Lopate, Phillip. "The Operatic Realism of Luchino Visconti", Totally, Tenderly, Tragically: Essays and Criticism From a Lifelong Love Affair with the Movies, New York: Anchor Books, 1998. pp. 101–114
  Nochimson, Martha P., "The Melodramatic Neorealism of Luchino Visconti", Cineaste, Vol. 28, No. 2, Spring, 2003, pp. 45–48.
  Pacifici, Sergio J., "Notes Toward a Definition of Neorealism", Yale French Studies, No. 17, Art of the Cinema, 1956, pp. 44–53. Pacifici discusses the term Neorealism and examines several popular movies which came out of the movement.
  Poggi, Gianfranco, "Luchino Visconti and the Italian Cinema", Film Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 3, Spring, 1960, pp. 11–22. Poggi discusses Visconti and his work in the context of neorealism and the Italian cinema of the time.
 Servadio, Gaia, Visconti: A Biography, New York: F. Watts, 1983.
 Shiel, Mark, Italian Neorealism: Rebuilding the Cinematic City, Wallflower Press, 2005

External links

  at Entrada Franca

1943 films
1943 crime drama films
Giallo films
Italian crime drama films
Italian neorealist films
1940s Italian-language films
Italian black-and-white films
Film noir
Films based on crime novels
Films based on works by James M. Cain
Adultery in films
Films directed by Luchino Visconti
Films based on American novels
1943 directorial debut films

Ossessione


Oscar Edward Keller (July 30, 1878 – November 21, 1927) was a representative from Minnesota.

He was born in Helenville, Wisconsin, and attended the public schools and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He moved to Minnesota in 1901 and settled in St. Paul.

He was employed as a billing clerk and later engaged in mercantile pursuits. He was a member of the city council of St. Paul from 1910 to 1914, city commissioner from 1914 to 1919, and commissioner of public utilities from 1914 to 1919.

He was elected as an Independent Republican to the 66th congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Carl Van Dyke. He was reelected as a Republican to the 67th, 68th, and 69th congresses and served from July 1, 1919, to March 3, 1927. He was chairman of the Committee on Railways and Canals (68th and 69th Congresses). He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1926.

He was also engaged in the real estate business.

He died in St. Paul, Minnesota, and was interred in Elmhurst Cemetery.

References

1878 births
1927 deaths
University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Minnesota

Oscar Keller


A Hatful of Rain is a 1957 American drama film about a young married man with a secret morphine addiction, based on a 1955 Broadway play of the same name. It is a medically and sociologically accurate account of the effects of morphine on an addict and his family. The frank depiction of drug addiction in a feature film was a rarity for its time.

The film stars Eva Marie Saint, Don Murray, Anthony Franciosa, Lloyd Nolan, and Henry Silva. It was adapted by Michael V. Gazzo, Alfred Hayes, and Carl Foreman from the play by Gazzo. Foreman was blacklisted at the time of the film's release. The Writers Guild of America added his name to the film's credits in 1998, 14 years after his death.  It was directed by Fred Zinnemann and features a strong musical score by Bernard Herrmann. Herrmann was asked by 20th Century Fox to rescore his prelude for the film as the original was considered "too terrifying".

Franciosa was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

Plot
In a housing project apartment in New York City near the Brooklyn Bridge, Johnny Pope (Don Murray) lives with his pregnant wife Celia (Eva Marie Saint) and his brother Polo (Anthony Franciosa). Johnny is a veteran recently returned from the Korean War, in which he sustained an injury while surviving for days trapped in a cave. His survival made him a hero in the newspapers, but his ensuing recuperation in a military hospital left him secretly addicted to the painkiller morphine, with Polo his only family member aware of his condition.

Johnny and Polo's father, John Sr. (Lloyd Nolan) arrives in New York from his home in Florida to briefly visit his sons, and to pick up $2500 that Polo had saved and promised to him whenever he wanted it. John Sr. has just fulfilled his dream of quitting his job and buying his own bar, and needs the money to pay for repairs and remodeling to the new business. However, Polo tells his father that he spent the money and refuses to say what he spent it on. John Sr. becomes angry and refuses to speak to Polo, continuing his lifetime pattern of praising Johnny and putting down Polo.

Later on, John Sr. expresses his pride in Johnny's war service and that he has married a fine wife, is starting a family, and lives in a nice apartment (for which he has even built much of the furniture by hand), while Polo by contrast is renting a room from his brother, is not married and works in a bar that his father considers low-class. Unbeknownst to their father and Celia, Polo gave the money to Johnny, who spent it all on his $40-a-day drug habit. John Sr. is also unaware that Johnny has lost four jobs in a row due to his habit and that Johnny and Celia are on the verge of divorce because Johnny ignores her and is gone for hours, including overnight. Celia thinks he is seeing another woman but in reality he is looking for drugs, which are becoming harder to find as the police are arresting many dealers.

While John Sr. is visiting, Johnny's dealer "Mother" (Henry Silva) comes to the Popes' apartment with his henchmen Apples and Church, ready to beat Johnny badly because he owes Mother $500 and has no money to pay. Johnny begs for enough dope to last him until his father goes back to Florida the next day, and Mother gives him one dose, but warns him that he needs to pay at least $300 by the next day or they will put him in the hospital. Mother gives Johnny a gun and suggests he commit robbery to get the money. After arguing with Celia, Johnny leaves and spends the night walking the streets.  He tries to rob several people at gunpoint, but is unable to go through with it. Meanwhile, Polo and Celia are home alone in the apartment (John Sr. having returned to his hotel) and Polo, who has been drinking, confesses his love for Celia, who in her loneliness and desperation is almost ready to return his love. Despite their mutual feelings for each other, they fall asleep in separate rooms.

When Johnny returns in the morning, he is starting to suffer withdrawal again and needs to meet a dealer for a fix, but his father expects to spend the day with him. Johnny tries to get his father to spend the day with Polo instead. but his father doesn't even want to talk to Polo, causing an emotional confrontation. John Sr. finally agrees to attend the football game with Polo. Johnny next coerces Polo into driving him to meet the dealer by threatening to throw himself out of the car in traffic, but when he arrives at the meeting place, the dealer is being arrested. Johnny goes into severe withdrawal and begins to hallucinate, just as Mother and his gang arrive to collect Johnny's debt payment. Upon learning that Johnny doesn't have the money, they give him one dose in exchange for the twelve dollars Polo has in his wallet, and tell Polo to sell his car to cover Johnny's $500 debt. Polo tells Johnny to tell Celia the truth, that he is a junkie.

The fix temporarily cures Johnny's withdrawal symptoms and he tries to make up with Celia by preparing a romantic dinner, only to have her tell him when she gets home from work that she no longer loves him and wants a divorce. But when he confesses that he is a junkie, and that his habit has caused his absence and inattention to her, she reacts supportively. His father and Polo then arrive for dinner and Johnny informs his father that he is a junkie and that Polo's $2500 was spent on drugs for him. His father gets angry, causing Johnny, who is going into withdrawal again, to run out of the apartment. Celia then becomes ill and has to be rushed to the hospital to make sure she will not lose the baby. When Johnny returns, he is menaced by Mother, but is saved by Polo who pays Mother the $500 he obtained by selling his car. Johnny announces his intention to get clean, even throwing a package of dope back to Mother. John Sr. and Celia (who has not lost the baby) return, and Celia takes charge, reassures Johnny, and calls the police to come get the sick Johnny and put him in the hospital.

Cast
 Don Murray as Johnny Pope
 Eva Marie Saint as Celia Pope
 Anthony Franciosa as Polo Pope
 Lloyd Nolan as John Pope, Sr.
 Henry Silva as Mother
 Gerald O'Loughlin as Church
 William Hickey as Apples

Critical reception
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times hailed this production's 'emotional nakedness' in its depiction of addiction and its terrible costs. A Hatful of Rain is 'a tremendously taut and true description of human agony and shame, of solicitude and frustration and the piteousness of tangled love.'

See also
 List of American films of 1957

References

External links

1950s American films
1950s English-language films
1957 films
1957 drama films
20th Century Fox films
American black-and-white films
American drama films
American films based on plays
CinemaScope films
Films about addiction
Films about drugs
Films about dysfunctional families
Films about heroin addiction
Films about veterans
Films directed by Fred Zinnemann
Films scored by Bernard Herrmann
Films set in New York City
Films shot in New York City
Films with screenplays by Carl Foreman

A Hatful of Rain


Ardrossan Montgomerie Pier railway station was a railway station serving the town of Ardrossan, North Ayrshire, Scotland as part of the Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway (L&AR). The station was opened to compete with the Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) owned station at Winton Pier on the opposite side of the harbour.

History
The station opened on 30 May 1890 as Ardrossan Pier, replacing the L&AR Ardrossan station as the new terminus for the line in Ardrossan (although that station would continue to operate as an intermediate station). It was closed from 1 January 1917 to 1 February 1919 due to wartime economy, and upon the grouping of the L&AR into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) in 1923, the station was renamed Ardrossan Montgomerie Pier on 2 June 1924. The name change was to avoid confusion with the nearby G&SWR station of the same name, which was also incorporated into the LMS. Montgomerie Pier survived the former L&AR station closures of 1932,.

The station then passed on to the Scottish Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948, and continued to operate until it officially closed to passengers by the British Railways Board on 6 May 1968, although the last train ran on 25 September 1967. Despite track removal in 1970, the station was still intact in 1974. Today Montgomerie Pier is the site of private flats overlooking the Ardrossan Marina, and no trace of the station remains.

Station description
The station consisted of two side platforms in an iron-framed wooden-clad building, and originally had a glazed roof supported on lattice girders. A booking office for boats to Belfast was situated at the pier end of the platforms.

References

Notes

Sources

 Stations on navigable O.S. map. Disused station at end of branch north of harbour entrance'

Disused railway stations in North Ayrshire
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1890
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1917
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1919
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1968
1890 establishments in Scotland
1968 disestablishments in Scotland
Former Caledonian Railway stations
Beeching closures in Scotland
Ardrossan−Saltcoats−Stevenston


Petroleum, (from Greek πέτρα - rock and έλαιο - oil) also called crude oil, is a thick and black liquid. It is a natural material mainly made of hydrocarbons. The hydrocarbons came from many billions of ancient phytoplankton. When they died, their bodies sank to the bottom. This formed basins of oil in many parts of the world.

Most petroleum is found by drilling down through rocks on land or off-shore on the continental shelf. Major producers are in the Middle East, the Americas, and Russia. It is the most important world fuel source. It supplies 38% of the world's energy and is also used to make petrochemicals.

Crude oil is a mixture of many different chemicals (mostly hydrocarbons), most of which burn well. It is separated into simpler, more useful mixtures by fractional distillation in oil refineries to give separate chemicals such as gasoline (or petrol) for cars, kerosene for airplanes and bitumen for roads. The bitumen gives crude oil its dark black color; most of the other chemicals in crude are slightly yellow or colorless.

Petroleum can be easily transported by pipeline and oil tanker. Refined petroleum is used as fuels; mainly gasoline (petrol) for cars, diesel fuel for diesel engines used in trucks, trains and ships, kerosene fuel for jets and as lubricants.

Petrochemicals:
 alcohols
 antiseptics
 artificial rubber
 detergents
 drugs
 explosives
 food additives
 insecticides
 perfumes
 plastics
 textile fiber

Problems
Petroleum resource is limited and non-renewable. Some believe it will run out within 70 years after a peak oil early in the 21st century.
Burning petroleum or other fossil fuel adds the carbon in the oil to the oxygen in the air to create carbon dioxide, which is an air pollutant.  The carbon can be removed from the carbon dioxide by plants.

There is a lot of crude oil left underground. Oil companies quote "reserves" which some people confuse with the actual amount of oil underground, but are more to do with the cost of extracting it by oil wells.

Most of the crude left underground is in the Middle East which is not a politically stable part of the world. Some governments with lots of oil reserves work together through OPEC to keep production low and prices high. People in countries that use oil complain about high oil prices. However, some environmentalists worry about damage being done by using oil as a fuel source (especially global warming) and are therefore happy when prices are kept high so that people use less oil.

Viable alternatives
There are none as far as we know. The small amounts of uncertain output from all wind and solar energy will not get near what is needed. The person who has proved this is Simon Michaux, an Australian expert. He has shown that the sum total of alternative energy sources comes nowhere near replacing oil. That is where we are at now.

Related pages
 Asphalt
 Coal
 Natural gas
 Oil sands

Other websites

 US Energy Information Administration - Part of the informative website of the US Government's Energy Information Administration.
 Environmental effects of oil extraction
 BP Statistical Review of World Energy
 PetroTalk Portal for petro related Articles, Discussion, Links and more
 Oil, petroleum: Development, production, consumption and reserves
 World oil consumption World oil consumption
 Crude: 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation documentary [3 x 30 minutes] about the formation of oil, and humanity's use of it
 Petroleum crude oil Citizendium

Data
 Department of Energy EIA - World supply and consumption
 Department of Energy EIA - Crude Oil and Total Petroleum Imports to USA
 US petroleum prices  - from US Department of Energy EIA
 European Brent prices  since 1987

References

Petroleum


A cathetometer is an instrument for measuring vertical distances in cases where a scale cannot be placed very close to the points whose distance apart is desired.

The instrument consists essentially of an accurately graduated scale and a horizontal telescope capable of being moved up and down a rigid vertical column. The position of the telescope can be read by means of an attached Vernier scale. In measuring the vertical distance between two points, the instrument must first be leveled. Next, the cross hair in the eyepiece of the horizontal telescope is brought into coincidence with the image of one point and the position of the telescope noted; the cross hair is then brought into coincidence with the image of the other point and the new position of the telescope noted. The difference between these readings is the vertical distance required.

Among the uses of a cathetometer is reading the levels of a liquid in a capillary tube, such as in measurements of surface tension.  A cathetometer also can be used for following the changes in liquid level in a dilatometer due to, for example, a chemical reaction therein.

See also
 Travelling microscope

References

Length, distance, or range measuring devices
Optical instruments

Cathetometer


Melchior-Marie-Joseph de Marion-Brésillac, S.M.A. (2 December 1813 – 25 June 1859) was a French Catholic prelate and the founder of the Society of African Missions.

Early life and priesthood
Brésillac was born at Castelnaudary, France, on December 2, 1813. He was eldest of five children. He joined the seminary and was ordained as a priest on December 22, 1838. Brésillac served briefly as a parish priest in the parish of Saint-Michel in the town of his birth. However, the young priest felt dissatisfied and began to discern his calling to mission. Both his bishop and his father opposed his desire to become a missionary, but Brésillac was determined and consecrated himself totally to that calling. Eventually, his bishop supported his choice, but the opposition of his father was so strong that the young priest left to enter the seminary of the Paris Foreign Missions without even saying goodbye to his family. He remained at the seminary for nine months then was appointed to Pondicherry in India where he arrived July 24, 1842.

In India

Missionary to India
During his 12 years in India, Brésillac served in many capacities,as Curate at Salern and as Superior of the minor seminary at Pondicherry. This seminary later became as Petit Seminaire Higher Secondary School. Fr.Marion was made the Titular Bishop of Prusa and later he became the provicar of Coimbatore. His rise was swift, achieving the rank of bishop at age 29. Through it all, he cherished the desire to train Indian priests. He wanted to establish an indigenous clergy, with their own hierarchy, capable of taking on responsibility for the missions, with Europeans acting only as assistants.

Obstacles and challenges
Brésillac found his progressive ideas were strongly resisted by many of his fellow missionaries. He was also distressed by many of the cultural realities he discovered in India, particularly the caste system, a practice that assigned people to strictly defined social classes of "desirables" and "undesirables". Brésillac felt it was the obligation of any Christian to reject a system that made outcasts of human beings. He was appalled that so many of his fellow priests did not agree. They accepted this system as part of the culture of the people and opposed his democratic desire to train local clergy. Dismayed by this attitude and by the conflicts that the opposing views created within the community of missionaries, the young bishop eventually resigned his post and returned to Rome.

Society of African Missions founding
Though deeply disappointed by the incident in India, Brésillac was undaunted in his missionary goals. While in Rome, he conceived his desire to bring the Gospel to "the most abandoned peoples of Africa." With the approval of the Holy See, he founded the Society of African Missions (Société des Missions Africaines, in French) (SMA Fathers) on December 8, 1856 in Lyon, France. He spent the next two years recruiting and training his new missionaries. In 1858, the first SMA missionaries (priests and brothers) set out for what was the newly created Vicariate Apostolic of Sierra Leone in western Africa.

That first group was joined on May 14, 1859 by Brésillac who arrived with two more missionaries in Freetown, Sierra Leone. However, all of the SMA missionaries there succumbed to a yellow fever epidemic that raged through Freetown. Reportedly, all but one of the missionaries were dead within weeks of arriving.

Death
Brésillac died of yellow fever on June 25, 1859, only six weeks after he arrived in Africa, at an early age of 46. Despite the tragedy, the newly trained SMA missionary priests who had remained behind in France were still eager to go to Africa to carry out the mission started by their Founder. The work and vision of Brésillac continued under the care of his close friend and advisor, Fr. Augustin Planque.

Candidacy for sainthood
Since January 1928, the remains of Brésillac have been interred in the chapel of the Society of African Missions in Lyon, France. He is a candidate for sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church, and the inquiry for his beatification was concluded in May 2000. All documents were handed over to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and await further action.

Pope Francis named him as Venerable on 27 May 2020.

Writings and posthumous publications
Bresillac wrote mainly in Latin and French. All his writings were translated into English and published towards the end of the twentieth century.
 Melchior de Marion Brésillac, Faith Hope Charity: Spiritual exercises given to Indian Seminarians in 1853
 Letters (Compilation of 922 letters written by Mgr de Brésillac)
 Mission and foundation documents
 Retreat to Missionaries
 Souvenirs: Memories from twelve years on the missions (Vol Book 1)
 Souvenirs: Memories from twelve years on the missions (Vol Book 2)
 Souvenirs: Memories from twelve years on the missions (Vol Book 3)
 Bruno Semplicio, De Marion Brésillac (1813-1859) Bishop and Founder of the Society of African Missions. (2007)

Writings and posthumous publications in French
 Melchior de Marion Brésillac, La foi l'espérance la charité
 Melchior de Marion Brésillac, Mes pensées sur les missions
 Melchior de Marion Brésillac, Journal d'un pionnier 1846 - 1859
 Melchior de Marion Brésillac, Rapport à la-sacre congregation de la propagande
 Melchior de Marion Brésillac, Les lettres de Mgr Melchior de Marion Brésillac
 Melchior de Marion Brésillac, Documents de fondation des missions africaines
 Bruno Semplicio, De Marion Brésillac (1813-1859) Evêque et Fondateur de la Société des Missions Africaines (2005)

References

French Roman Catholic missionaries
1813 births
1859 deaths
Founders of Catholic religious communities
Paris Foreign Missions Society missionaries
People from Castelnaudary
Roman Catholic missionaries in India
Roman Catholic missionaries in Sierra Leone
French expatriates in India
French expatriates in Sierra Leone
Venerated Catholics by Pope Francis
Society of African Missions

Melchior de Marion Brésillac


United States v. Gonzalez-Lopez, 548 U.S. 140 (2006), is a United States Supreme Court ruling that the erroneous deprivation of a defendant's attorney of choice entitles him to a reversal of his conviction under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Background
The defendant in the underlying case, Cuauhtemoc Gonzalez-Lopez, was charged with conspiracy to distribute marijuana, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.  His family initially hired local attorney John Fahle to represent him, but Gonzalez-Lopez then contacted and hired a California attorney, Joseph Low, to represent him, and the understanding appeared to be that Fahle and Low would work together on his case.  The district court initially permitted Low and Fahle to work together, admitting Low pro hac vice (i.e., just this once), but soon revoked such permission, ruling that Low, when he passed notes to Fahle in a pretrial hearing, violated a local court rule restricting the cross-examination of a witness to one attorney.

Gonzalez-Lopez then informed Fahle that he wanted Low to be his only attorney, and Low then filed another request to be admitted pro hac vice, which the district court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit both rejected.  Meanwhile, Fahle filed a complaint against Low, claiming that Low had violated the Missouri Rules of Professional Conduct by contacting Gonzalez-Lopez while Fahle represented him.  Fahle also sought to withdraw from the case.  The district court let Fahle withdraw, ruled that Low violated the rules of professional conduct, and did not let Low represent Gonzalez-Lopez.  Gonzalez-Lopez went to trial represented by another attorney, Karl Dickhaus, who requested permission for Low to sit with him at the counsel table.  The trial judge denied that request and ordered Low to sit in the audience and not to speak with Dickhaus, enforcing the order by having a federal marshal sit between Dickhaus and Low throughout the trial.  Gonzalez-Lopez was found guilty.

On appeal, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Gonzalez-Lopez's conviction, ruling that the district court erred both in ruling that Low violated the rules of professional conduct and in refusing to allow Low to represent Gonzalez-Lopez.  It further ruled that the error in denying Gonzalez-Lopez his right to choice of counsel (Low) was "structural" in nature—i.e., reversible without harmless error analysis.  The prosecution then petitioned for certiorari from the United States Supreme Court.  It did not dispute that the district court erred and improperly denied Gonzalez-Lopez his choice of counsel, but argued that such error should be subject to harmless error analysis, and that Gonzalez-Lopez was not prejudiced by the error.

Opinion of the Court

Majority
Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for an unusual majority (5-4), held that the denial of Gonzalez-Lopez's right of choice of counsel was a structural error, requiring reversal without harmless error analysis.  The Scalia opinion reasoned that the refusal to let Low represent Gonzalez-Lopez caused effects that could never be adequately measured for harmless error, because it is impossible to speculate on what the effect that a different attorney and one that the defendant wished to have would have had on the proceedings—including whether a trial would have occurred in the first place.  The entire proceeding was therefore unfair and unreliable, and must be reversed.  Justice Scalia was joined by Justice John Paul Stevens, Justice David Souter, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Justice Stephen Breyer. This case was one of only three in his tenure where Scalia alone sided with the liberal wing of the Court.

Dissent
Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Anthony Kennedy, and Justice Clarence Thomas, dissented.  Alito wrote that the Court had misinterpreted the Sixth Amendment's protection of the right to counsel to protect a defendant's choice of counsel, when he believed the text and history of the Amendment indicated that it merely protected a defendant's right to assistance that was as effective as his choice of counsel would be. Even if it protected choice of counsel, it did not mean that violation of this right should be grounds for automatic reversal. Instead, because the Constitution lacked directives as to how such rights should be enforced, the Court should follow the Congressional directive to apply harmless error analysis.

References

Further reading

External links

 Brief for the United States as Petitioner
 Northwestern University article on the case with background information

United States Supreme Court cases
United States Supreme Court cases of the Roberts Court
United States Sixth Amendment choice of counsel case law
2006 in United States case law

United States v. Gonzalez-Lopez


The Party of New Communists (PNC; ; Partiya novykh kommunistov, PNK) was a clandestine radical left organization, founded by Alexander Tarasov and Vasily Minorsky in Moscow at the end of 1972 and the beginning of 1973.

In terms of its theoretical foundations, PNC combined elements or orthodox Marxism, Leninism, Trotskyism and Neo-anarchism (as inspired by Daniel Cohn-Bendit of May 1968). The economic system that existed in the USSR was viewed by PNC members as socialist, but at the same time the political system was seen as non-socialist (neo-Stalinist, bureaucratic), which, in their opinion, represented the classic conflict of Marxism: the conflict between productive forces and the relations of production, and would inevitably lead to a political revolution. PNC members believed that the victory of a group of Joseph Stalin's supporters over their political opponents in the inner-party struggle within VKP (b) in the late 1920s and early 1930s was the reason of the fundamental differences between political and economic systems.

PNC set it as their objective to perform a political revolution and return the country back to pre-Stalinist ideological and political foundations. Students were thought to be the vanguard of the new revolution.

PNC had neither a developed structure, nor official theoretical documents (it was expected that such documents would be adopted by the future party conference). The organisation consisted of just two groups in Moscow and one in the city of Kaliningrad (presently known as Korolyov, a city in Moscow Region). "The Principles of Neo-communism" (Russian: Принципы неокоммунизма) written by A. Tarasov in the form of a catechism in November 1973, served as a temporary theoretical and programme document of the party. In some theoretical issues, important from the point of view of PNC members, they were guided by Tarasov's works, written in 1973-1974 and revised after they had been discussed within PNC. Such theoretical issues included:  preference of revolutionary approach to the reformist one (based on the work "Chile, Cyprus crisis and Eurocommunism"); identification of the new Soviet philistines as representatives of petite bourgeoisie and a major reactionary force in the Soviet society (based on the work "Swamp Rot. Black Hundreds as Revolutionary Counter-revolutionism of Petit Bourgeoisie"); incompatibility of representative democracy and communism, the need for direct democracy (based on the work "Every Man is a King"). None of these works have survived; they were burnt in January 1975.

PNC members were engaged in sourcing, selecting and distributing illegal literature ("samizdat" and literature of the pre-Stalinist period), established contacts among students and young people, promoted their ideas through verbal propaganda (in the 1970s, such propaganda was prosecuted as felony, which carried a penalty of up to seven years in prison under Art. 70 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR).

In the summer of 1974, PNC members ran a trial graffiti propaganda campaign, when they inscribed in chalk on buildings and fences about fifteen messages that read "Revolution – here and now!", "Remove the seniles from power!", "Ten years is enough!" (referring to long years of Brezhnev's term in office). The campaign proved to be a failure: the inscriptions  were fairly dull in colour and were easily washed away by rain. It was decided to abandon the use of graffiti and start printing and distributing flyers.

In September 1973, PNC established contacts with another underground leftist group, called the Left School, having first concurred with them in their views on the reasons for the defeat of the Chilean revolution of 1970–1973 years, and then on the nature of the political regime in the USSR. In May 1974 PNC and Left School agreed to unite their forces, and in September 1974 they merged into one organization under the name of the Neo-Communist Party of the Soviet Union (NCPSU).

Despite the agreement to merge, de facto PNC and the Left School were operating separately for some time; therefore, when part of the Moscow group of PNC (including its leaders) was arrested by the KGB in January 1975, the unaffected leaders of the Left School took on the task of saving the organisation through increased secrecy. They successfully kept the organization alive deep underground up until 1977, when arrested NCPSU leaders (from among former PNC members) were released to freedom and began to revive the party. Thus, until January 1977, PNC existed as a separate clandestine group effectively controlled by the Left School.

References

Literature
Тарасов А. Н., Черкасов Г. Ю., Шавшукова Т. В.   "Левые в России: от умеренных до экстремистов". — М.: Институт экспериментальной социологии, 1997.  (Tarasov, A., Cherkasov, G., Shavshukova, T. "The Left Wing in Russia: From Moderate to Extremists". — Moscow: Institute of Experimental Sociology, 1997).
Тарасов А. Н. "Революция не всерьёз. Штудии по теории и истории квазиреволюционных движений". — Екатеринбург: "Ультра.Культура", 2005. (Tarasov, A. "Not A Serious Revolution. Study of the Theory and History of Quasi-Revolutionary Movements". — Yekaterinburg: "Ultra.Culture" Publishing House, 2005).
"Красные диссиденты" // Газета "Левый поворот" (Краснодар), N 5. ("Red Dissidents" // "Left Turn" (Krasnodar), N 5.
Fäldin H. Neokommunistiska partiet. Okänd sida av Sovjetunionens vänster oppositions historiens. // Medborgaren, 1994, N 12.
Roßbach K. Kontrkulttuuri Neuvostoliittossa: hippien ja neokommunistien välillä. // Sosiaalinen arkkisto, 1995, N 1.

External links
Лачин. Король двух гетто. (Lachin. The King of Two Ghettos).

1972 establishments in the Soviet Union
1973 establishments in the Soviet Union
Banned communist parties
Banned political parties in Russia
Clandestine groups
Communist parties in the Soviet Union
Far-left politics
Left-wing politics
New Left
Political parties established in 1972
Political parties established in 1973
Political repression in the Soviet Union
Soviet opposition groups

Party of New Communists


Patrick Palles Lorne Elphinstone Welch, (12 August 1916 – 15 May 1998), known as Lorne Welch, was a British engineer, pilot and Colditz prisoner of war.

He was educated at Stowe School and became an engineer and then an engine test flight observer at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough. He also learned to fly gliders at the London Gliding Club. He took up powered flying, becoming an instructor in 1939. He moved on to multi-engined aircraft and trained pilots on Wellington bombers. In order to improve morale 'Thousand Bomber' raids were organised using every available pilot, including instructors, but Welch was shot down on his fourth raid. He gave himself up at Amsterdam station when the Germans began firing at civilians.

He was sent to Stalag Luft III where he assisted in "The Great Escape" by building the ventilation pump & fixed links for the tunnel through which 76 prisoners escaped. Later Welch also escaped with Walter Morison during the Delousing Break attempt, planning to steal a German aircraft while wearing fake German uniforms. After two attempts they were re-captured and sent to Colditz. The Colditz Cock glider was already under construction, and Welch performed vital stress calculations. Although the original glider never flew, a replica was successfully flown in February 2000.

While at Colditz he entered a competition, sponsored by the Royal Ocean Racing Club, for prisoners of war to design an offshore yacht of 32–35 ft waterline length. Via the Red Cross, he submitted detailed drawings and calculations and won the first prize of £50.

He was liberated in 1945. He returned to Farnborough to work on rocket motors before becoming chief instructor of the Surrey Gliding Club at Redhill, a test pilot for new aircraft for the British Gliding Association and a British team pilot in four world gliding championships.

After the war, he became the first pilot to soar a glider twice across the English Channel: first from Redhill to Brussels in a DFS 108 Weihe, and then in a two-seater glider with Frank Irving.

He married Ann Douglas, also a pilot and sailor, in 1953. His retirement was spent sailing and working on his boat. Lorne Welch died on 15 May 1998. He was survived by his wife and their daughter.

References
 The Times obituary 1998

1916 births
1998 deaths
People educated at Stowe School
Royal Air Force officers
British World War II pilots
Royal Air Force personnel of World War II
World War II prisoners of war held by Germany
Participants in the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III
Prisoners of war held at Colditz Castle
Glider pilots

Lorne Welch


Steven E. Foster is a former major general in the United States Air National Guard and mobilization assistant to the commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command. Previously assignments include commander of the 115th Fighter Wing of the Wisconsin Air National Guard. He has acquired more than 3,800 hours flying in a Cessna T-37 Tweet, Northrop T-38 Talon, Cessna O-2 Skymaster, Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, and General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon. As a civilian he pilots a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 for FedEx Express.

Awards he has received include the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Medal, the Aerial Achievement Medal, the Air Force Commendation Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with valor device, the Air Force Organizational Excellence Award, the Combat Readiness Medal with silver oak leaf cluster and four bronze oak leaf clusters, the National Defense Service Medal, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Air Force Overseas Ribbon, the Air Force Longevity Service Award with silver oak leaf cluster, the Armed Forces Reserve Medal with hourglass device, the Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon with service star, the Air Force Training Ribbon.

In 2010, Foster was Air National Guard Assistant to the Commander, Air Forces Central, Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina.

Education
1977 Bachelor of Science degree, United States Air Force Academy
1978 Undergraduate Pilot Training
1983 Squadron Officer School
1986 Master of Business Administration degree, Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri
1999 Air War College, by correspondence

References

Military personnel from Wisconsin
United States Air Force generals
Recipients of the Legion of Merit
Recipients of the Air Medal
United States Air Force Academy alumni
Webster University alumni
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)

Steven E. Foster


Liberty (also known as Ingrams) is an unincorporated community in Harrisburg Township, Saline County, Illinois, United States. Liberty is located on County Route 37 along the southwestern border of Harrisburg.

Was a smaller rural community to the far southwest of Harrisburg along Liberty Road. It includes the Liberty Church and cemetery. In 1873, designer of the Cairo and Vincennes Railroad, Green Berry Raum of Harrisburg, Opened a slope mine on the south side of the rails near liberty. It became the first in the county to ship coal by rail-car. The Mine was called the Ledford Slope, and the spot was called Liberty Crossing. Liberty is bordered by the old mining community of Ledford  south of Harrisburg and Dorrisville to the west and Buena Vista to the north. Liberty holds the new Junior High building.

James Alexander Harris along with John Pankey, James P. Yandell, and John X. Cain, donated land for the first additions of the town to a special committee at Liberty Baptist Church in 1852, after complaints that the county seat should be centralized in the county. The city of Harrisburg, Illinois was soon founded.

References

Unincorporated communities in Saline County, Illinois
Unincorporated communities in Illinois
Populated places established in 1873

Liberty, Saline County, Illinois


Comet Swift–Tuttle (109P/Swift–Tuttle) is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 133 years. It fits the classical definition of a Halley-type comet with a period between 20 and 200 years. It was independently discovered by Lewis Swift  and Horace Parnell Tuttle in July 1862. It has a well-known orbit and has a comet nucleus 26 km in diameter.

Chinese records show that in 188 AD the comet reached apparent magnitude 0.1. In 1862, the comet was as bright as Polaris. The comet made a return appearance in 1992, and became visible with binoculars. In 2126 it will be a bright naked-eye comet reaching about apparent magnitude 0.7.

It is the parent body of the Perseid meteor shower, perhaps the best known shower and among the most reliable in performance.

Near-Earth orbit
A close encounter with Earth is predicted for the comet's return to the inner Solar System in the year 4479, around Sept. 15; the closest approach is estimated to be 0.03–0.05 AU, with a probability of impact of 1, or 0.0001%.

Comet Swift–Tuttle has been described as "the single most dangerous object known to humanity". However, the probability of Earth impact per orbit is about a million to one against. It is estimated as 2 (0.000002%). It is the largest Solar System object that makes repeated close approaches to Earth with a relative velocity of 60 km/s.

An unusual aspect of its orbit is that it is captured into a 1:11 orbital resonance with Jupiter; it completes one orbit for every 11 of Jupiter.

References

Comets

Comet Swift–Tuttle


Telecomunicações de Moçambique (TDM) () is a telecommunications and Internet service provider in Mozambique. Telecomunicações de Moçambique was created in 1981 following the termination of the Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones (PTT) government agency. In late 2002 TDM was transformed into a Limited Liability Company and was renamed Telecomunicações de Moçambique SARL.

TDM Group of companies
The TDM Group of companies includes Mcel (Mozambique's first mobile operator) of which TDM own 74%. In conjunction with the Visabeira group TDM own 50% of TVCabo Mozambique (a cable television provider) and 50% of TELEVISA. TDM own 100% of its subsidiary Teledata.

Products and services

Voice
TDM provides pre-paid and post-paid telephony services using POTS as well as CDMA and provides ISDN lines for businesses. TDM also owns and operates coin and card-based payphones throughout the country.

Internet
"TDM BandaLarga" service provides broadband Internet access through ADSL and CDMA (fixed-wireless) and TDM is the largest provider of broadband in the country. ADSL speeds range from 128 kbit/s to 4 Mbit/s with various data caps available as an add-on to a POTS voice service.

TDM also provides Internet services over dedicated circuits as well as IP transit services to other ISPs. The majority of Mozambique's ISPs obtain their international Internet connectivity through TDM.

TDM itself makes use of the EASSy and SEACOM submarine cable systems for international connectivity.

Leased line and VPN
TDM provides traditional leased line services ranging from 64kbit/s to STM-1 as well as MPLS VPN services.

EASSY submarine cable
TDM is a shareholder in WIOCC which is the largest investor in and operator of the EASSy submarine cable system. Through this TDM provides international connectivity to neighbouring landlocked countries in southeastern Africa.

References

External links
  Telecomunicações de Moçambique official website

Companies based in Maputo
Telecommunications companies of Mozambique

Telecomunicações de Moçambique


Adrian Michael Smith (born December 19, 1970) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for  since 2007. A member of the Republican Party, he represented the 48th district in the Nebraska Legislature from 1999 to 2007. Smith is the dean of Nebraska's congressional delegation.

Early life and education
Smith was born in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, and at a young age moved with his family to a rural neighborhood south of Gering, Nebraska. After graduating from Gering High School in 1989, he attended Liberty University. He transferred to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln midway through his second year of college, graduating in 1993. While a student at Nebraska, he interned in the Nebraska Governor's Office and, later, served as a legislative page in the Nebraska Legislature.

Early career
Smith returned to Gering after college, and in 1994 began serving as a member of the Gering City Council. He has also worked in the private sector as a realtor and marketing specialist for the housing industry.

Nebraska Legislature

Elections
In 1998, Smith defeated incumbent State Legislator Joyce Hillman 55%–45%. In 2002, he was reelected to a second term unopposed. Since Nebraska voters passed Initiative Measure 415 in 2001, he was term-limited.

Committee assignments
Smith sat on the Natural Resources and Building Maintenance committees and was vice chair of the Transportation and Telecommunications committee. He served as vice chair of the Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee and chaired the Four State Legislative Conference in 2001.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2006
Smith ran for the open seat in the 3rd district in the 2006 election. Three-term incumbent Tom Osborne gave up the seat to run for governor of Nebraska.

Smith won the Republican primary with 39% of the vote in a field of five candidates. He faced Democrat Scott Kleeb, a ranch hand and Yale graduate, in the general election.

About a third of the funding for Smith's campaign came from members of the Club for Growth, a fiscally conservative group that supports tax cuts, limited government, school choice, and eliminating agricultural subsidies and the US Department of Agriculture.

For a time, Smith was presumed to be a prohibitive favorite in this overwhelmingly Republican district. The 3rd is one of the most Republican districts in the nation; presidential and statewide candidates routinely win it with 70% or more of the vote. The 3rd is extremely difficult to campaign in and has few unifying influences. It covers nearly , two time zones, and 68.5 of Nebraska's 93 counties (one of which, Cherry County, is larger in area than the entire state of Connecticut). Despite that, Kleeb raised more money than any other Democrat had raised in the district in decades. Overall, the race was the most expensive in the district since it assumed its current configuration in 1963.

As the race become more competitive than initially expected, it received late national attention from the House campaign committees.

President George W. Bush made an appearance in the district two days before the election to campaign for Smith—a sign that the Republican party was concerned about its chances in what had long been presumed to be a very safe seat.

In the end, Smith won by 10 percentage points, taking 55% of the vote to Kleeb's 45%. This was the closest a Democrat had come to winning the district in 16 years; in 1990, Republican Bill Barrett defeated fellow Unicameral member Sandra Scofield by only 4,400 votes. It was also only the third time a Democrat had come reasonably close to winning this district in its current configuration; besides Barrett's narrow win in 1990, Virginia D. Smith won her first term by 737 votes in 1974.

Besides Bush's visit two days before the election, Smith likely rode the coattails of Governor Dave Heineman, who won many of the counties in the district with 80% or more of the vote in his bid for a full term.

2008
Smith won the primary with 87% of the vote. He was reelected to a second term, defeating Democratic nominee Jay Stoddard 77%–23%.

2010
Smith won the primary with 88% of the vote. He was reelected to a third term, defeating Democratic nominee Rebekah Davis 70%–18%.

2012
Smith won the Republican primary with 82% of the vote. He was reelected to a fourth term, defeating Democratic nominee Mark Sullivan 74%–26%.

2014
Smith won the Republican primary with 68% of the vote. He was reelected to a fifth term, defeating Democratic nominee Mark Sullivan a second time, 75%–25%.

2016
Smith was unopposed in the Republican primary and the general election.

2018
Smith was renominated with 66% of the vote. He was reelected to a seventh term, defeating Democratic nominee Paul Theobald 77%–23%.

2020
Smith won the Republican primary over four other candidates with 83% of the vote, and won the general election with 78% of the vote over Democratic nominee Mark Elworth, a marijuana legalization activist.

Tenure
In December 2020, Smith was one of 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives to sign an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated incumbent Donald Trump. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on the basis that Texas lacked standing under Article III of the Constitution to challenge the results of an election held by another state.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement that called signing the amicus brief an act of "election subversion." She also reprimanded Smith and the other House members who supported the lawsuit: "The 126 Republican Members that signed onto this lawsuit brought dishonor to the House. Instead of upholding their oath to support and defend the Constitution, they chose to subvert the Constitution and undermine public trust in our sacred democratic institutions." New Jersey Representative Bill Pascrell, citing section three of the 14th Amendment, called for Pelosi to not seat Smith and the other Republicans who signed the brief supporting the suit, arguing that "the text of the 14th Amendment expressly forbids Members of Congress from engaging in rebellion against the United States. Trying to overturn a democratic election and install a dictator seems like a pretty clear example of that."

Committee assignments
 Committee on Ways and Means
 Subcommittee on Trade
 Subcommittee on Social Security
 Subcommittee on Health

Caucus memberships
Congressional Rural Caucus (co-chair)
 Tea Party Caucus
 Congressional Constitution Caucus

References

External links

 Congressman Adrian Smith official U.S. House website
 Adrian Smith for Congress

|-

1970 births
21st-century American politicians
Activists from Nebraska
American evangelicals
Living people
Nebraska city council members
Republican Party Nebraska state senators
People from Gering, Nebraska
People from Scottsbluff, Nebraska
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Nebraska
Tea Party movement activists
University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni

Adrian Smith (politician)


Sir Philip Carteret, FRS (1641 – 1672), was the eldest son of Sir George Carteret and his wife and cousin Elizabeth de Cartetet.

Philip was elected Fellow of the Royal Society on 15 February 1665.

He married Jemima Montagu, daughter of Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich and Jemima Crewe, in an arranged marriage on 31 July 1665. Samuel Pepys had a hand in the marriage and wrote of it at some length in his diary. Jemima and Samuel were grandchildren of John Pepys of Cottenham and Elizabeth Bendish. Jemima had only known of Philip some fourteen days before their marriage: Pepys did ask her if she could like Philip as a husband, and was relieved when she answered that she thought she could like him very well. Samuel noted that Jemima failed to arrive in time for the ceremony at the church. The marriage is thought to have been reasonably happy. Jemima died in childbirth in 1671.

Philip was father of four children, including George Carteret, 1st Baron Carteret.

Knighted in 1667, he became Gentleman of the King's Chamber in 1670.

Philip died along with his father-in-law the Earl of Sandwich when their ship, the Prince Royal, was grappled by a Dutch fire ship in the Battle of Solebay.

External links
decarteret.org.uk Person Sheet

Philip Carteret FRS
Fellows of the Royal Society
1672 deaths
1641 births
Lords Proprietors of Carolina
Heirs apparent who never acceded

Philip Carteret (courtier)


Brian Reynold Bishop (born Kingston upon Thames, 1934) was the seventh Cifal (Chief) of the Volapük-speakers' community and President of the Volapük Academy.

Brian Bishop has been interested in languages since childhood. After having studied French, Spanish and Latin (he later supported the Latinitas Viva or Living Latin movement), he came into contact with constructed auxiliary languages such as Esperanto and Volapük. He started a long correspondence with Arie de Jong, the reformer of the Volapük language, and with the previous cifals Johann Schmidt and F. J. Krüger. He learned Volapük, and became a subscriber and contributor to the Volapükagased: Zänagased pro Volapükanef (Volapük Journal: Central Journal for Volapükists), where he published several of his translations. In 1979, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the creation of Volapük, Brian Bishop wrote to a number of newspapers and radio stations to mention the fact, which led to some attention being given to it. Encouraged by the ensuing interest, he created the Zänabür Volapüka (Volapük Central Office), where he collected many Volapük memorabilia (mostly from F. J. Krüger's collection). In 1981, he became vice-Cifal (via an edict by Cifal Krüger dated 13 October 1981), and two years later he became Cifal (via an edict by Cifal Krüger dated 1 January 1984).

Currently, Brian Bishop is involved in the reorganization of the Kadäm Volapüka (Academy of Volapük) and of the Volapük Movement, for which he has published new statutes. Its first official activities started in 2007. He is also a participant in the Volapük discussion group, which unites most living Volapükists.

References

External links
 List of Cifal edicts, including those by Brian Bishop .
 Brian Bishop's new statutes for the Volapük Movement and the Academy .
 Some of Brian Bishop's translations into Volapük (from the Volapük Wikisource).

1934 births
Living people
Volapük
Volapükologists

Brian Reynold Bishop


Vartmaan is an animated television series aired on DD National during 1994–1995. It was directed and produced by Bhimsain along with animation director Kireet Khurana. This is one of the first Indian animated series produced using 3D animation

Vaartman aims to teach children moral lessons on how to control one's weaknesses. The leading character, Purush (translation: 'Man'), fights against the evil Sankat (translation: 'Trouble') and his own negative emotions, and ultimately wins over his present (Vartmaan). Several characters are animated in 3D. There are 26 episodes, each with a running time of 13 minutes.  The production work for this animated series was done by Climb Media.

Plot
The story follows Purush, as he tries to get back his lost kingdom, Vaartman (translation: 'Present'), from the antagonist, Sankat. Purush is an ordinary person attempting to conquer his weaknesses. Through his struggles, he experiences various emotional states that Sankat can take advantage of. Sankat uses Purush's negative emotions to create negative humanoid manifestations that conflict with Purush's willpower. Sometimes Purush's willpower is weakened as he listens to the negative emotions. To rescue him from these, his positive emotions emerge from within to aid him in his battle. These positive emotions give Purush the strength to face his obstacles. One day he hopes to defeat Sankat once and for all. As the series progresses, Purush encounters various manifestations from Sankat's negative humanoid army. It is still unknown how the story ends.

Characters

Purush
Purush is the protagonist of the story. His struggles to achieve his goal show the challenges posed by negative emotions such as hate, greed, anger, jealousy, pride and sadness. Purush's willpower is tested continually throughout the series. Sometimes he succeeds in defeating Sankat's manifested negative humanoid army, whilst other times he fails and loses his self-confidence. Aided by the humanoid manifestations of his positive emotions, he fights his negative emotions and Sankat. Purush is meant to be a role-model for the audience.

Sankat
Sankat is Purush's main antagonist. He has the ability to create negative humanoid forms of emotions and manipulate humans. He represents the negativity of all human emotions. His goal is to rule over Purush's kingdom for eternity. He is assisted by Kaloota (a crow) who always spies on Purush's activities. Sankat has the appearance of a supernatural being with horns on his head, his hands looking like scorpions. He is a 3D character with scorpion-like hand movements.

Friends of Purush
Some of the known names of Purush's friends are Vishwas (Self-Belief, also Purush's guru), Saahas (Courage), Gyan (Knowledge as a horse), Yukti( Strategy as a female head), Anand (Happiness), Doordershita (foresight दूरदर्शिता one with magnifying glass), Aasha (आशा hope), Atit (अतीत past) and many more positive humanoid manifestation of Purush's inner self.

Negative humanoids
Some of the forms manifested out of Sankat are Irsha(jealousy), Lobh(greed), Dukh (sadness), Ahankaar (arrogance), Bhay (fear), Aalas(laziness),Krodh (क्रोध anger), Adchanay(अड़चनें obstacles) and many more. The army of negative humanoid emotions constantly attack Purush. The challenge for him is to seek help from his inner self in order to defeat the negative emotions.

Home media
DD Archives (currently known as Doordarshan Archives) had digitized Vartmaan series and released it on YouTube on the channel Prasar Bharati Archives.

See also
List of Indian animated television series

References

1994 Indian television series debuts
1995 Indian television series endings
Indian children's animated fantasy television series
DD National original programming

Vartmaan


Simon Andrew Burnett (born 14 April 1983) is an English former competition swimmer who represented Great Britain in the Olympics and European championships, and England in the Commonwealth Games.

He formerly held the British Records in the 100 and 200-metre freestyles. Burnett attended and competed for the University of Arizona in the United States from 2001-2006, utilizing a redshirt leading up to the 2004 Summer Olympics for his 2003 collegiate season. In 2007 signed a sponsorship deal with Nike.

Swimming career
Simon was born at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, the second of the three sons of Ray Burnett and Melanie Verhoeven. He lived in the Oxfordshire village of Chinnor as a child, and then moved a few miles to Tetsworth, attending Lord Williams's School in Thame, Oxfordshire. After completing his GCSEs, he went to John Hampden Grammar School, in High Wycombe, to study chemistry, biology, and physics at A-level. He first swam at Wycombe District Swimming Pool from a very young age, and soon joined the Wycombe District Swimming Club, where he remained until 2003. He was coached by Bob Pay and his move to John Hampden, which was local to the Wycombe Sports Centre at which he trained, helped him focus further on swimming. In 2003, with the help of Pay, Burnett won a sports scholarship at the University of Arizona to study business.

Burnett began competing at an international level in 2000 at the 3 Nations Junior International. At the ASA National Championships, he won gold in the 50-meter backstroke in 2001 and 2002. On the advice of Pay, Burnett switched to swim freestyle in 2003 and began to excel. His television debut was in 2002 at the Manchester Commonwealth Games, where he competed in the 4×200-metre freestyle relay and won a bronze medal. The following Olympic Games saw Burnett finish 7th in the 200-metre freestyle, and he competed in the 4×200-metre freestyle relay team, which finished 4th, nearly grabbing bronze medals. The British trials for the Games had been a great success for Simon, in which he won a silver medal in 100-metre freestyle and a gold medal in the 200-metre freestyle, despite having broken his wrist in a cycling accident in Arizona two months previously. He was now emerging as an elite British swimmer. Swimming for the University of Arizona, Burnett competed in the American NCAAs and won gold in his first year in the 200-yard freestyle and in 2005. 2005 was probably his best year yet, returning to England as well for the ASA National Championships. He won three gold medals in the 50-metre, 100-metre, and 200-metre freestyle, all of which were new British records. In the United States, he also broke the 17-year-old record for the 200-yard freestyle set by Matt Biondi at 1:33.03; Burnett swam a 1:32.22.

At the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Burnett competed in the 200-metre freestyle and won silver with a time of 1:47.38, beaten by team mate Ross Davenport, who swam a personal best of 1:47.29.  He was also part of the relay team in the 4×100-metre freestyle, finishing fourth, with the South African favourites taking gold. However, the most sensational race was the 4×200-metre freestyle, when the English team won the gold medal, nudging Scotland into second place and Australia into third. The next day, he won individual gold in the 100-metre freestyle, leaving the South African entrants Ryk Neethling and Roland Schoeman into second and third respectively. With a time of 48.57 seconds, he set a Commonwealth Games record and broke his own British record by eleven one-hundredths of a second.

Before the Commonwealth Games had ended, Burnett was off to Atlanta for the 2006 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships. Burnett finished third in the 50-yard freestyle, second in the 4×50-yard freestyle relay, and first in the 4×50-yard medley for the Wildcats. He won the NCAA title in the 200-yard freestyle and broke the U.S. Open Record with a time of 1:31.20. Burnett's NCAA and U.S. Open record stood for 10 years until Townley Haas of the University of Texas broke it with a time of 1:30.46 at the 2016 NCAA Championships in the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center, the same venue in which Burnett broke the record a decade prior.

Burnett represented Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the 4×100-metre freestyle relay swimming event.

In March 2009 he became the patron of the newly formed Thame Swimming Club, located at Lord Williams's Upper School, in Thame. He comes and meets the swimmers and helps with training whenever he is in the UK. In 2010, Burnett became patron of the Oxfordshire charity, UCARE [Urology Cancer Research and Education. Simon has been a committed advocate for UCARE, thinking strategically about supporting the charity's twin aims – to raise funds for research and to raise awareness of urological cancers – dedicating his medal to UCARE at the Commonwealth Games and attending events whenever he can.

Coaching career
In June of 2015, Burnett joined the Pacific Tigers men's swimming and diving team as an assistant coach.

Personal Bests
 Long course (50 m)

 Short course (25 m)

See also
 List of British records in swimming
 List of Commonwealth Games medallists in swimming (men)

References

External links
 British Swimming athlete profile

 Melbourne 2006 profile
 Beijing 2008 profile

 "Burnett perfectly prepared to stand in the path of Thorpedo", The Times, 20 February 2006
 "COMMONWEALTH GAMES: Burnett claims relay silver medal", Oxford Times, 4 October 2010

1983 births
Living people
Arizona Wildcats men's swimmers
Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England
Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England
Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England
English male swimmers
European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming
Olympic swimmers for Great Britain
People educated at John Hampden Grammar School
People educated at Lord Williams's School
Sportspeople from Oxford
Swimmers at the 2002 Commonwealth Games
Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Swimmers at the 2006 Commonwealth Games
Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Swimmers at the 2010 Commonwealth Games
Swimmers at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Commonwealth Games medallists in swimming
Medallists at the 2002 Commonwealth Games
Medallists at the 2006 Commonwealth Games
Medallists at the 2010 Commonwealth Games

Simon Burnett


Military history is the history of what happened in the history of humanity that are considered to be conflicts. This could mean anything as small as a fight between two tribes or a conflict as large as a world war. Military historians record military history.

Related pages
Military science

Other websites
Why Study War?, by Victor Davis Hanson, City Journal, Summer 2007
Military History Encyclopedia
Military History Wiki

History

Military history


{{DISPLAYTITLE:Technetium (99mTc) sulesomab}}

Technetium (99mTc) sulesomab (trade name LeukoScan) is a radio-pharmaceutical composed of anti-human mouse monoclonal antibody that targets the granulocyte associated NCA-90 cell antigen and a conjugated technetium-99m radionuclide. After intravenous administration, Leukoscan enables sensitive and specific whole body  measurement of granulocyte infiltration and activation by gamma camera imaging of  99mTc-antibody bound cells. Total clearance of LeukoScan from blood samples after administration and imaging has been reported at 48 hour time points indicating limited retention of the agent in circulation

It is approved in European markets for the imaging of infections and inflammations in patients with suspected osteomyelitis but has not secured FDA approval for use in American markets. In addition to approved uses, Leukoscan is  currently being investigated for other diagnostic purposes like the detection of soft tissue infections, malignant external otitis and prosthetic joint infection. However, the future clinical and investigational use of this agent may be limited as sale of the agent by the parent company Immunomedics was discontinued in 2018.

References

See also
 Immunoscintigraphy
 Nuclear medicine

Radiopharmaceuticals
Technetium-99m
Antibody-drug conjugates
Technetium compounds

Technetium (99mTc) sulesomab


In military munitions, a fuze is the part of an explosive device that makes it explode. In some devices (notably torpedoes) a fuze may be identified by function as the "exploder". The term fuze is used to indicate an advanced ignition device with mechanical and/or electronic parts.

Time fuzes detonate after a set period of time. Impact, percussion or contact fuzes detonate when they hit something, usually the target. A proximity fuze uses sensors which can be one or more combinations of the following: radar, active sonar, passive acoustic, infrared, magnetic, photoelectric, seismic or even television cameras. Whatever the sensor used, percussion fuzes cause the explosion to occur close to the target. The target will either be destroyed or severely damaged.

Most English-language countries use the "z" spelling to distinguish between simple burning fuses and pyrotechnical or explosive devices.

References

Military
Explosives

Fuze