Orgone () is a pseudoscientific concept variously described as an esoteric energy or hypothetical universal life force. Originally proposed in the 1930s by Wilhelm Reich, and developed by Reich's student Charles Kelley after Reich's death in 1957, orgone was conceived as the anti-entropic principle of the universe, a creative substratum in all of nature comparable to Mesmer's animal magnetism (1779), to the Odic force (1845) of Carl Reichenbach and to Henri Bergson's élan vital (1907).  Orgone was seen as a massless, omnipresent substance, similar to luminiferous aether, but more closely associated with living energy than with inert matter. It could allegedly coalesce to create organization on all scales, from the smallest microscopic units—called "bions" in orgone theory—to macroscopic structures like organisms, clouds, or even galaxies.

Reich argued that deficits or constrictions in bodily orgone were at the root of many diseases, most prominently cancer, much as deficits or constrictions in the libido could produce neuroses in Freudian theory. Reich founded the Orgone Institute ca. 1942
to pursue research into orgone energy after he immigrated to the US in 1939; he used it to publish literature and distribute material relating to the topic for over a decade. Reich designed special "orgone energy accumulators"—devices ostensibly collecting orgone energy from the environment—to enable the study of orgone energy and to be applied medically to improve general health and vitality. Ultimately, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) obtained a federal injunction barring the interstate distribution of orgone-related materials because Reich and his associates were making false and misleading claims. A judge later ruled to jail Reich and ordered the banning and destruction of all orgone-related materials at the institute after an associate of Reich violated the injunction. Reich denied the assertion that orgone accumulators could improve sexual health by providing orgastic potency.

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health lists orgone as a type of "putative energy". After Reich's death, research into the concept of orgone passed to some of his students, such as Kelley, and later to a new generation of scientists in Germany keen to discover an empirical basis for the orgone hypothesis (the first positive results of which were provided in 1989 by Stefan Muschenich).
There is no empirical support for the concept of orgone in medicine or the physical sciences, and research into the concept concluded with the end of the institute. Founded in 1982, the Institute for Orgonomic Science in New York is dedicated to the continuation of Reich's work; it both publishes a digital journal on it and collects corresponding works.

History

The concept of orgone belongs to Reich's later work after he immigrated to the US. Reich's early work was based on the Freudian concept of the libido, though influenced by sociological understandings with which Freud disagreed but which were to some degree followed by other prominent theorists such as Herbert Marcuse and Carl Jung. While Freud had focused on a solipsistic conception of mind in which unconscious and inherently selfish primal drives (primarily the sexual drive, or libido) were suppressed or sublimated by internal representations (cathexes) of parental figures (the superego), for Reich libido was a life-affirming force repressed by society directly. For example, in one of his better-known analyses, Reich observes a workers' political rally, noting that participants were careful not to violate signs that prohibited walking on the grass; Reich saw this as the state co-opting unconscious responses to parental authority as a means of controlling behavior. He was expelled from the Institute of Psycho-analysis because of these disagreements over the nature of the libido and his increasingly political stance. He was forced to leave Germany soon after Hitler came to power.

Reich took an increasingly bioenergetic view of libido, perhaps influenced by his tutor Paul Kammerer and another biologist, Otto Heinrich Warburg. In the early 20th century, when molecular biology was in its infancy, developmental biology in particular still presented mysteries that made the idea of a specific life energy respectable, as was articulated by theorists such as Hans Driesch. As a psycho-analyst, Reich aligned such theories with the Freudian libido, while as a materialist, he believed such a life force must be susceptible to physical experiments.

He wrote in his best-known book, The Function of the Orgasm: "Between 1919 and 1921, I became familiar with Driesch's 'Philosophie des Organischen' and his 'Ordnungslehre'…  Driesch's contention seemed incontestable to me. He argued that, in the sphere of the life function, the whole could be developed from a part, whereas a machine could not be made from a screw…  However, I couldn't quite accept the transcendentalism of the life principle. Seventeen years later I was able to resolve the contradiction on the basis of a formula pertaining to the function of energy. Driesch's theory was always present in my mind when I thought about vitalism. The vague feeling I had about the irrational nature of his assumption turned out to be justified in the end. He landed among the spiritualists."

The concept of orgone resulted from this work in the psycho-physiology of libido. After Reich migrated to the US, he began to speculate about biological development and evolution and then branched into much broader speculations about the nature of the universe. This led him to the conception of "bions," self-luminescent sub-cellular vesicles that he believed were observable in decaying materials and presumably present universally. Initially, he thought of bions as electrodynamic or radioactive entities, as had the Russian biologist Alexander Gurwitsch, but later concluded that he had discovered an entirely unknown but measurable force, which he then named "orgone", a pseudo-Greek formation probably from org- "impulse, excitement" as in org-asm, plus -one as in ozone (the Greek neutral participle, virtually , gen.: ).

For Reich, neurosis became a physical manifestation he called "body armor"—deeply seated tensions and inhibitions in the physical body that were not separated from any mental effects that might be observed. He developed a therapeutic approach he called vegetotherapy that was aimed at opening and releasing this body armor so that free instinctive reflexes—which he considered a token of psychic well-being—could take over.

Evaluation
Orgone was closely associated with sexuality: Reich, following Freud, saw nascent sexuality as the primary energetic force of life. The term itself was chosen to share a root with the word orgasm, which both Reich and Freud took as a fundamental expression of psychological health. This focus on sexuality, while acceptable in the clinical perspective of Viennese psychoanalytic circles, scandalized the conservative American public even as it appealed to countercultural figures like William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac.

In some cases, Reich's experimental techniques do not appear to have been very careful or taken precautions to remove experimental bias. Reich was concerned with experimental verification from other scientists. Albert Einstein agreed to participate, but thought Reich's research lacked scientific detachment and experimental rigor; and concluded that the effect was simply due to the temperature gradient inside the room. "Through these experiments I regard the matter as completely solved," he wrote to Reich on 7 February 1941. Upon further correspondence from Reich, Einstein replied that he could not devote any additional time to the matter and asked that his name not be misused for advertising purposes.

Orgone and its related concepts were quickly denounced in the post-World War II American press. Reich and his students were seen as a "cult of sex and anarchy," at least in part because orgone was linked with the title of his book The Function of the Orgasm, and this led to numerous investigations as a communist and denunciation under a wide variety of other pretexts. The psychoanalytical community of the time saw his approach to healing diseases as quackery of the worst sort. In 1954, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration obtained an injunction to prevent Reich from making medical claims relating to orgone, which prevented him from shipping "orgone devices" across state lines, among other stipulations. Reich resisted the order to cease interstate distribution of orgone and was jailed, and the FDA destroyed Reich's books, research materials, and devices at his institute relating to orgone.

Some psychotherapists and psychologists practicing various kinds of Body Psychotherapy and Somatic Psychology have continued to use Reich's proposed emotional-release methods and character-analysis ideas.

Film influence
Dušan Makavejev opened his 1971 satirical film W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism with documentary coverage of Reich and his development of orgone accumulators, combining this with other imagery and a fictional sub-plot in a collage mocking sexual and political authorities. Scenes include one of only "ten or fifteen orgone boxes left in the country" at that time.

See also
 Alexander Gurwitsch
 Animal magnetism of Franz Anton Mesmer
 Energy (spiritual)
 Energy medicine
 Fringe science
 Integratron
 List of ineffective cancer treatments
 Odic force of Carl Reichenbach
 Rupert Sheldrake
 Scientific skepticism
 Thetan
 Vitalism
 Vril

References

External links

Quackwatch article

Body psychotherapy
Energy (esotericism)
Orgonomy
Pseudoscience
Vitalism
Sexology

Orgone


The SUPARCO Satellite Ground Station () is an earth observation and remote sensing satellite control center. The SUPARCO's SGS center is a major space research centre of the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), focusing on the earth observational and remote sensing technology.

The space center is currently controlled by the SUPARCO. It is  located at Rawat near Islamabad, has an acquisition zone of approximately 2500 km radius and covers Pakistan and 25 other countries, wholly or partially, in the South Asian, Central Asian and Western Asia and Middle East regions. The SUPARCO's SGS center acquires and archives satellite data from different earth resources satellites. The data products and related services are offered to different user agencies within and outside Pakistan.

External links
 SUPARCO Satellite Ground Station

Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission
Islamabad
Space technology research institutes
Ground stations
SUPARCO facilities

SUPARCO Satellite Ground Station


Scott Lanaway is a music artist from Toronto, Canada. His most recent release was 'Mergers & Acquisitions' (2010), a follow-up to 'Answering Machine Diaries' (2006).  His musical style has been described as "electrofolk" - a combination of acoustic instruments and electronic soundscapes. It ranges from pop to cinematic/atmospheric.

'Mergers & Acquisitions' charted nationally on college radio across Canada. A video for the song '1333' was on MuchMusic, and the song 'Gabapentin' was featured nationally on CBC Radio3 and Sirius satellite radio in the summer of 2010. The album was critically well received.

Lanaway's music has been played nationally on CBC Radio 3 and college radio in Canada and the U.S..

He has also had his music placed regularly on network television in the U.S. (MTV, VH1, A&E).

References

MySpace

Canadian electronic musicians
Musicians from Toronto
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)

Scott Lanaway


Puntland TV and Radio is the public broadcasting network of the autonomous Puntland region of Somalia. Its headquarters are at the regional capital of Garowe. The service also maintains an office in London. Founded in April 2013, Puntland TV and Radio broadcasts locally in Somali via terrestrial service. It also airs programs globally through satellite. Radio Puntland broadcasts internationally via shortwave, with its transmission reaching as far as Finland. Its standard programming includes general news, focusing on regional developments, sports and entertainment.

See also
Horn Cable Television
Somali National Television
Universal Television Somalia
Eastern Television Network ETN TV

References

External links
Official Website

Organisations based in Puntland
Television channels in Somalia
Television channels and stations established in 2013

Puntland TV and Radio


The Lwów pogrom (, ) was a pogrom perpetrated by Polish soldiers and civilians against the Jewish population of the city of Lwów (since 1945, Lviv, Ukraine). It happened on 21–23 November 1918, during the Polish–Ukrainian War that followed World War I.

During three days of unrest in the city, an estimated 52–150 Jewish residents were killed, and hundreds were injured. Non-Jewish casualties were also reported. They were mainly Ukrainian, and they might have outnumbered the Jewish fatalities.  The total number of victims was reported to be 340. Roughly 1,600 people, including some soldiers, were arrested by Polish authorities during and after the pogrom. Seventy-nine of them were tried by Polish military courts, with 44 of them being convicted.

The 1918 Lwów events were widely publicized in the international press. US President Woodrow Wilson appointed a commission, led by Henry Morgenthau, Sr., to investigate violence against the Jewish population in Poland. The Morgenthau Report was published in October 1919.

Background
The Jewish population of Lwów had already been a victim to the Russian military pogrom on 27 September 1914, which took 30–50 Jewish lives. After the First World War, on 1 November 1918, the Ukrainian National Council proclaimed the West Ukrainian People's Republic, with Lviv as its capital. A week later, the Regency Council of the Kingdom of Poland declared Poland's independence, and they formed a Polish government on 14 November 1918. The consequent Battle of Lwów lasted until 21 November 1918.

Galicia's Jews were caught in the post-World War I Polish-Ukrainian conflict, and they fell victim to a rising wave of pogroms across the region, fuelled by post-World War I lawlessness. In early 1918, a wave of pogroms swept Polish-inhabited towns of western Galicia. The pogroms were largely made up of demobilized army soldiers and deserters. Throughout the 1918–1919 Polish-Ukrainian conflict, the warring forces used Jews as a scapegoat against their frustrations.

Before withdrawing from Lwów, the retreating Austrian forces let the criminals out of the prisons, some of whom volunteered to join the Polish militia and fight against the Ukrainians. The town was also full of Austrian army deserters. Polish authorities also armed a number of volunteers (including some former criminals) who promised to fight the Ukrainians. A sizable group of Polish volunteers in the city consisted of petty criminals. On 9–10 November, the Jews of Lwów formed a militia and declared their neutrality in the Polish-Ukrainian conflict over the city. With the exception of some instances of Jewish support for the Ukrainian side, including reports of Jewish militia aiding Ukrainian forces, Lwów's Jews remained officially neutral; the accounts of sporadic Jewish support for the Ukrainians would serve as a rationale for accusations that many Jews adopted the anti-Polish stance.

The criminal elements within the Polish forces sometimes engaged in theft or armed robbery while wearing Polish insignia. When these criminals were fired on by the Jewish self-defense militia, some Poles believed that the Jews were fighting against Poland. The West Ukrainian People's Republic respected Jewish neutrality and there were no incidents of anti-Jewish violence during the two weeks that the city was controlled by Ukrainian forces. Poles resented the proclaimed Jewish neutrality, and there were reports, leading to exaggerated rumors, that some Jews, including those in the militia, collaborated with the Ukrainians in various ways, including actively engaging the Polish forces. On the morning of 22 November, after taking the city the night before, amidst rumors that Lwów's Jews would be made to pay for their "neutrality" in the Polish-Ukrainian conflict, Polish forces interned and disarmed the Jewish militia.

When riots and pogroms in the Jewish quarters broke out after Polish forces managed to get control over all parts of the city and the Jewish quarters, they encountered resistance from Jewish-Ukrainian sympathizers. Perpetrators included Polish soldiers and militia, civilians of various nationalities, and local criminals.

Pogrom
According to American historian William W. Hagen,  Polish troops, officers, civilians, criminals, and militia volunteers began the sacking, pillaging and burning of the town's Jewish quarter following the retreat of main Ukrainian forces and their disarming of the Jewish militia. Hagen quotes Jewish eyewitnesses who claim that as the Ukrainian soldiers retreated, a festive mood came over the Polish fighters as they anticipated the reward for their fighting and looting of Jewish stores and homes.

In addition to looting and killing, women were raped by the Polish mobs, according to historian Alexander Prusin. First-hand accounts differ. For example, according to a report by one Jewish eyewitness, many victims gave testimonies that rioting Polish soldiers claimed that their officers allowed them 48 hours to pillage Jewish quarters as a reward for capturing the city from the Ukrainians. A report prepared for the Polish Foreign Ministry noted that the Polish Army "burned with desire for revenge" against the Jews, and soldiers wrongly believed that an order had been issued commanding a "punitive expedition" against the Jews. This report found no evidence that such an order had been issued, but it noted that two full days passed before the troops participating in the pillaging were ordered to desist. Hagen wrote that an investigation by Israel Cohen on behalf of the British Zionist Organization reported that Army Chief of Staff Antoni Jakubski told Jewish leaders in Lwów protesting the pogrom that the violence was a "punitive expedition into the Jewish quarter, and that it could not be stopped."

According to historian Carole Fink, Mączyński delayed the implementation of a 22 November order for martial law from Brigadier General Bolesław Roja for a day and a half. In the interim, Mączyński issued inflammatory proclamations of supposed acts of Jewish treachery against Polish troops using what has been described as "medieval terminology". One thing he claimed was that Jews had attacked Poles with axes. Fire officials cordoned off the Jewish quarters for 48 hours. They allowed many buildings, including 3 synagogues, to burn. The killing and burning in the quarter had already been done by the time Mączyński allowed patrols to enter the area.

Joseph Tenenbaum, a leader of the Jewish militia and eyewitness to the pogrom, wrote that troops cut off the Jewish quarter and that patrols of 10–30 men, each led by an officer and armed with grenades and rifles went through the quarter banging on doors. Doors not opened were blown open with grenades. Each house was systematically plundered, and its occupants were beaten and shot. Shops were likewise looted, with the stolen goods loaded onto army trucks. William Hagen wrote that according to a Jewish report, a Polish officer bashed in the head of a Jewish infant. A Jewish eyewitness claimed to have seen a young Polish officer twirl a four-week-old Jewish infant by the legs, threatening to bash it against the floor while asking the mother "why are there so many Jewish bastards?" The Polish Foreign Ministry report concluded that during the days of the pogrom "the authorities did not fulfill their responsibilities". The report noted that delegations of both Christians and Polish Jews hoping to end the violence had been turned away by officials, and that Polish officials and military commanders had spread false inflammatory charges against Jews, including claims that Jews were waging an armed struggle against Poland. Several Polish officers, according to the report, took part in the killings and pillaging, which they said continued for a week afterward under the guise of searching for weapons.

In his 1919 report, Henry Morgenthau concludes that Lemberg and the cities of Lida, Wilna, and Minsk, were captured by Polish troops, and "the excesses were committed by the soldiers who were capturing the cities and not by the civilian population." Although Jewish eyewitnesses claimed that Poles committed the pogrom, Mączyński, the Polish commander, who before the pogrom had issued anti-Jewish pamphlets, blamed Ukrainian criminals for initiating it. He claimed that they were the most violent group among the rioters. He also claimed that most Jews were killed during the time of Ukrainian control over the city. Polish media blamed Jews for staging the pogrom. In 1971, Adam Ciołkosz, a former leader of the Polish Socialist Party who arrived in Lwów on 21 November as a 16-year-old scout, recalled that rumors circulated that Jews had fired on Polish troops and that the Polish army tried to stop the pogroms.

According to William Hagen, the Polish forces also humiliated the Jews. Some examples are forcing a group of Jewish gymnasium students to participate in compulsory labor and "pranking" people. They were forced to jump over tables, forced to work in the most demeaning jobs (like cleaning latrines), had their beards pulled, and forced to dance to the delight of Polish onlookers. One drunken soldier tried to cut off an elderly Jewish man's earlocks, but when the man resisted, he shot him and plundered the corpse. Hagen also states that according to Jewish witnesses, Polish civilians, including members of the intelligentsia, took part in murdering and robbing Jews. He noted that in the chaos of war, the Polish army allowed for the recruitment of common criminals released from local prisons along with deserters from the Habsburg, German, and Russian armies. This eventually caused multiple issues.

Polish forces brought order to the city after one or two days (reports vary), on 23 November or 24 November. Ad hoc courts handed verdicts during the riots. About one thousand people were jailed for participating in the riots. During the pogrom, according to a report by the Polish foreign ministry, over 50 two and three-story apartment buildings were destroyed as were 500 Jewish businesses. Two thousand Jews were left homeless, and material losses amounted to 20 million contemporary dollars.

Aftermath
Over a thousand people were arrested. Hundreds of individuals accused of participation in the pogrom were punished by Polish authorities after they established themselves in the city. Promises of material compensation were also made.

For several months after the pogrom, Jews in Lviv were subjected to ongoing robberies, searches, and arrests at the hands of Polish forces.  As a result of Jewish protests in January 1919, several Polish units, including the local military commander's security service, were disbanded.

As a result of the pogrom, an all Jewish unit of around 1000 men was formed in the army of the West Ukrainian National Republic. The Council of Ministers of the West Ukrainian People's Republic also provided financial assistance to Jewish victims of the pogrom.

The events were widely reported by the European and American press. including The New York Times. News reports of the massacre were later used as a means of pressuring the Polish delegation during the Paris peace conference into signing the Minority Protection Treaty (the Little Treaty of Versailles). In 1921, the events resulted in the Polish government awarding liberal minority rights for the Polish Jewish population in the March Constitution.

International outrage at a series of similar acts of violence committed by the Polish military (Pinsk massacre) and the civilian population against the Jews (Kielce pogrom) led to the appointment of an investigation commission by the United States President Woodrow Wilson in June 1919. On 3 October 1919, the commission, led by Henry Morgenthau, Sr., published its findings. According to the Morgenthau Report, excesses in Lwów were "political as well as anti-Semitic in character". At the same time, the Morgenthau Report cleared the Polish government of responsibility for the events and attributed the casualties to "the chaotic and unnatural state of affairs". Independent investigations by the British and American missions in Poland stated that there were no clear conclusions and that foreign press reports were exaggerated.

The Polish government also investigated the Lwów events. A report prepared on 17 December 1918 for the Foreign Ministry of Poland emphasized the role played by criminals released during the struggle over the city and recruited by the Polish Armed Forces. According to the report, this resulted in a "tragic and vicious circle" when a soldier fighting for the Polish cause "robbed at every opportunity and wherever he could." The report noted that as of December, sentences had not been passed for 40 soldiers, along with one thousand civilians identified as "criminals" who had been jailed for robbery and murder. There was no evidence that there had been any desire to immediately stop the pogrom. According to Alexander Victor Prusin, the Polish point of view was that the events were distorted willfully by the Jews. Prusin notes that Jewish news agencies covering the pogrom in USA and Europe had "widely publicized and highly exaggerated its scope". The international response to the pogrom was viewed in Poland as proof of an "international Jewish conspiracy", and Polish media attempted to dispel "Jewish slander". However, Prusin states that the Polish version of events was  "much further than the truth than the Jewish one", blaming "Ukrainians and Jewish hoodlums" for staging the pogrom. This version was endorsed by the Polish government agencies.

About 1,600 were people for arrested on suspicion of participating in the pogrom, of which 79 were prosecuted by Polish military courts. Overall, 44 people were convicted. Most of those convicted received lenient sentences, ranging from 10 days to 18 months in prison. Three pogromists, however, would be sentenced to death and executed by firing squad. According to internal investigation by the Jewish Rescue Committee (Żydowski Komitet Ratunkowy) held alongside the official state investigation, most rapes, robberies and murders were committed by unidentified soldiers.

Casualties
The initial reports on the number of casualties of the pogroms were exaggerated, sensationalist in nature, and often embellished. The estimated number of victims was as high as 3,000. The large casualty figures and graphic details were transmitted through Berlin, where the new German government disseminated them for political propaganda reasons in hopes that they would affect the peace negotiations and prevent German territorial losses to Poland. In December 1919, The Times called the contemporary reports of the events "greatly exaggerated", and the Pall Mall Gazette blamed the German Reich for "machinations" and the exaggerations. More accurate estimates from reliable sources, such as the Morgenthau report or American diplomats in the Polish capital, emerged only later.

Figures for the death toll vary. According to William W. Hagen, citing a report prepared for the Polish Foreign Ministry, approximately 150 Jews were murdered and 500 Jewish shops and their businesses were ransacked. Police reports and subsequent investigations did not support that inflated estimate. According to an official police report based on hospital records, there were 44 deaths. The 1919 Morgenthau report counted 64 Jewish deaths. A simultaneous British government investigation led by Sir Stuart Samuel reported that 52 Jews were killed, 463 injured and a large amount of Jewish property was stolen. Jewish contemporary sources reported 73 deaths. It has been noted that the last Ukrainian soldier had left the city and the Jews offered no armed resistance.

Tadeusz Piotrowski claims that more Christians than Jews died, According to Norman Davies, 70 Jews and 270 more Ukrainians were killed in the fighting during this time as well. Historian Christoph Mick stated that not a single Ukrainian was murdered, whereas a Polish police report, discussed by Polish historian , included 11 Christians among the 44 victims (among the 11, one was listed as Greek Catholic, and therefore likely to be Ukrainian).

It was immediately after regarded as a pogrom per reports, including such as in The Nation and author Franciszek Salezy Krysiak who published his book in 1919. Though the Morgenthau Report raised a question as to whether the label pogrom is technically applicable to such riots in the times of war, the report submitted to Polish Foreign Ministry cited by Hagen characterized the incident as a pogrom, and it criticized the inaction of Polish officials in failing to halt the violence, while accusing the officials of publicizing inflammatory charges against Lwów's Jews. Historian David Engel noted that the Polish Foreign Ministry had conducted a campaign to discourage the use of the term "pogrom" by foreign investigators, although it used the term freely in its own investigation. Norman Davies questioned whether these circumstances can be accurately described as a "pogrom".

See also

 Lwów pogrom (1914)
 Lviv pogroms (1941)
 Antisemitism in Ukraine
 History of the Jews in Ukraine
 History of the Jews in Poland

Notes

1918 in Poland
1918 in Ukraine
Anti-Jewish pogroms of the Polish-Soviet War
Antisemitism in Poland
Conflicts in 1918
History of Lviv
Jewish Polish history
Jewish Ukrainian history
Jews and Judaism in Lviv
Massacres in 1918
November 1918 events
Massacres in Poland
Polish war crimes
1918 in Judaism
Wartime sexual violence

Lwów pogrom (1918)


Lanka (, ) is the name given in Hindu epics to the island fortress capital of the legendary asura king Ravana in the epics of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The fortress was situated on a plateau between three mountain peaks known as the Trikuta Mountains. The ancient city of Lankapura is said to have been burnt down by Hanuman. After its king, Ravana was killed by Rama with the help of Ravana's brother Vibhishana, the latter was crowned king of Lankapura. His descendants were said to still rule the kingdom during the period of the Pandavas. According to the Mahabharata, the Pandava Sahadeva visited this kingdom during his southern military campaign for the rajasuya of Yudhishthira. The palaces of Ravana were said to be guarded by four-tusked elephants.

Ramayana

Rulers of Lanka
According to both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, Lanka was originally ruled by a rakshasa named Sumali. Kubera seized control of Lanka and established the Yaksha Kingdom and his capital was guarded by rakshasas. His half-brother Ravana, son of the sage Vishravaya and Sumali's daughter Kaikesi, fought with Kubera and took Lanka from him. Ravana ruled Lanka as king of the Rakshasa Kingdom. The battle in Lanka is depicted in a famous relief in the 12th-century Khmer temple of Angkor Wat.

After Ravana's death, he was succeeded by his brother, Vibhishana.

Location of Ravana's "Lanka" according to Ramayana
The Lanka referred to in the still-extant Hindu Texts and the Ramayana (referred to as Ravana's Lanka), is considered to be a large island-country, situated in the Indian Ocean. Studies refer that the Palace of Ravana was located in Sigiriya the palace built by the Kashyapa I of Anuradhapura as the legend describes the capital of the kingdom was located between plateaus and forests.  Some scholars asserted that it must have been Sri Lanka because it is so stated in the 5th century Sri Lankan text Mahavamsa. However, the Ramayana clearly states that Ravana's Lanka was situated 100 Yojanas (roughly 1213 km or 753.72 miles) away from mainland India. Some scholars have interpreted the content of these texts to determine that Lanka was located at the point where the Prime-Meridian of India passes the Equator. This island would therefore lie more than  southwest of present-day country of Sri Lanka. The most original of all the existing versions of Valmiki's Ramayana also suggest the location of Ravana's Lanka to be in the western Indian Ocean. It indicates that Lanka was in the midst of a series of large island-nations, submerged mountains, and sunken plateaus in the western part of the Indian Ocean.

There has been a lot of speculation by several scholars since the 19th century that Ravana's Lanka might have been in the Indian Ocean around where the Maldives once stood as a high mountain, before getting submerged in the Indian Ocean.  Sumatra and Madagascar has also been suggested as a possibility.

Description

Ravana's Lanka, and its capital Lankapuri, are described in a manner that seems superhuman even by modern-day standards. Ravana's central palace complex (main citadel) was a massive collection of several edifices that reached over one yojana () in height, one yojana in length, and half a yojana in breadth. The island had a large mountain range known as the Trikuta Mountain(Trikonamalai-In Tamil/Trinkomale-English,where Ravan built Temple for shiva), atop which was situated Ravana's capital of Lanka, at the center of which in turn stood his citadel.

References to Lanka in the Mahabharata
Many of the references to Lanka in the Mahabharata are found in sage Markandeya's narration of the story of Rama and  Sita to the king Yudhishthira, which narration amounts to a truncated version of the Ramayana.  The references in the following summary are to the Mahabharata and adhere to the following form: (book:section). Markandeya's narration of the story begins at Book III (Varna Parva), Section 271 of the Mahabharata.

Sahadeva's expedition to South

Sahadeva, the son of Pandu, conquered the town of Sanjayanti and the country of the Pashandas and the Karanatakas utilizing his messengers alone and made all of them pay tributes to him. The hero brought under his subjection and exacted tributes from the Paundrayas (Pandyas?) and the Dravidas along with the Udrakeralas and the Andhras and the Talavanas, the Kalingas and the Ushtrakarnikas, and also the delightful city of Atavi and that of the Yavanas. And, He has arrived at the seashore, then dispatched with great assurance messengers unto the illustrious Vibhishana, the grandson of Pulastya and the ruler of Lanka (2:30).

Presence of the King of Lanka in Yudhishthira's Rajasuya
Lanka king is listed as present in the conclave of kings present in Pandava king Yudhishthira's Rajasuya sacrifice.

.. The Vangas and Angas and Paundras and Odras and Cholas and Dravidas and Cheras and Pandyas and Mushika and Andhakas, and the chiefs of many islands and countries on the seaboard as also of frontier states, including the rulers of the Sinhalas, the barbarous mlecchas, the natives of Lanka, and all the kings of the West by hundreds, and all the chiefs of the seacoast, and the kings of the Pahlavas and the Daradas and the various tribes of the Kiratas and Yavanas and Sakras and the Harahunas and Chinas and Tukharas and the Sindhavas and the Jagudas and the Ramathas and the Mundas and the inhabitants of the kingdom of women and the Tanganas and the Kekayas and the Malavas and the inhabitants of Kasmira ... (3:51).

Other fragmentary references

Lanka, with its warriors, and horses, elephants and chariots (3:149).
Lanka with its towers and ramparts and gates (3:147)
The walls of Lanka (3:282).

See also
Sri Lanka
Mahajanapadas
Ancient clans of Lanka
Naga people
Sinhala Kingdom
Vishvakarma

References

External links
Mahabharata of Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa, translated from Sanskrit into English by Kisari Mohan Ganguli

Kingdoms in the Ramayana
Kingdoms in the Mahabharata
Hindu mythology
Mythological islands

Lanka


The Australian Parkour Association (APA) is an incorporated association concerned with the promotion and teaching of parkour throughout Australia.  At present, the APA has over 100 active members, while many times that number have attended or regularly attend APA-run parkour classes.

The Australian Parkour Association became a founding member of Parkour Earth, an international federation of National parkour bodies founded by Poland, France, United Kingdom, New Zealand and France in July 2017.

Purpose
The core purpose of the APA is to nurture the development of parkour in Australia. It seeks to achieve this in a number of ways, including: teaching parkour through the provision of classes and workshops, acting as a representative body for those who practice parkour, and advancing positive portrayals of parkour in the media.

Formation and origins
On 21 June 2006, the Australian Parkour Association (APA) became a registered incorporation under Australian law, as a nonprofit organization. This action was instigated by a group of Melbourne traceurs, who found themselves 'teaching' newcomers as parkour started to grow in popularity, and were thus seen as responsible for their 'students'. An incident in 2005 which involved a threat of legal action against several members of the Melbourne parkour community left an indelible impression upon those involved, even after events were clarified and the threat of legal action faded.

The APA now provides members and instructors with "protection of the members and office holders against personal liability for debts and other legal obligations of the organisation."

Another reason for the formation of the APA was to establish a nationally recognised body to promote a positive and accurate portrayal of parkour in Australia.

Globally, there has been significant controversy regarding the philosophical underpinnings of parkour, with many feeling that important principles were being left out of mainstream media representation. The founders of the APA felt and continue to feel a strong adherence to the non-competitive and altruistic principles laid down by parkour founder David Belle.

Following discussions initially localised in Melbourne, similar groups in Sydney and Canberra were contacted and quickly included, their contributions refining and completing the concept of what is now known as the APA.

Teaching
In line with the core purpose of the APA, there are now weekly classes available to the general public in several major cities across Australia. At present the APA runs classes in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Perth, Brisbane, and Adelaide.
Most of these classes are run by instructors and assistant instructors volunteering their time. In addition to weekly classes, the APA has also been involved in organising workshops for disadvantaged and at-risk youths.

The APA and the media
Many APA members have featured in media appearances in recent years, with the aim of positively and accurately representing parkour to the wider community. In September 2007, members were involved in a high-profile piece for 60 Minutes, which was broadcast nationally during Sunday prime time on Channel 9. Following the 60 Minutes piece, class numbers increased dramatically. In addition to this involvement, the APA has contributed to numerous newspaper, radio and local television features.

References

External links
 Australian Parkour Association
 Parkourpedia

Parkour organizations
Non-profit organisations based in Australia
Sports governing bodies in Australia
2006 establishments in Australia
Sports organizations established in 2006

Australian Parkour Association


Seremban district is one from 7 districts in Negeri Sembilan. This is where the capital of Negeri Sembilan, Seremban town is located.

Administration
There are two local councils in Seremban district:
Seremban Municipal Council (MPSNS) (Inner Seremban town)
Nilai Municipal Council (MPN) (Outer Seremban town)

Town areas

Seremban core
The Seremban core areas come under jurisdiction of Seremban Municipal Council (MPS).

Seremban
Rasah
Rasah Jaya
Rahang
Mambau
Senawang
Temiang
Lobak
Paroi
Bukit Chedang
Bukit Blossom
Seremban 2
Ampangan
Oakland
Bukit Kepayang
Kemayan
Sikamat

Outer Seremban
The outer Seremban areas come under jurisdiction of Nilai Municipal Council (MPN).

Nilai
Bandar Baru Nilai
Rantau
Mantin
Sungai Gadut
Labu
Lenggeng
Taman Seremban Jaya
Bandar Seremban Selatan
Taman Tuanku Jaafar
Rasah Kemayan
Pantai
Ulu Beranang
Pajam

Seremban 2

Seremban 2 is a new satellite township about 4 kilometres south-east of the existing old Seremban town centre. It is located in western side of the North-South Expressway, Seremban 2 is a planned township built on former oil palm estate land with the aim of relocating to the administrative and business district from the crowded old town centre to a more organised area.

Spanning over  of land, Seremban 2 will be the site of the new
Seremban District administrative offices
Seremban Court Complex.
District Police headquarters
State Fire Brigade headquarters

The RM2 billion township will also sustain a large portion of the population of Seremban through various housing estate projects in and around Seremban 2 such as
Green Street Homes
Sri Carcosa
Central Park
Emerald Park
Garden Homes
Garden Avenue
Garden City Homes
Vision Homes
S2 Heights
Park Avenue

The residents here have enjoy many facilities with ÆON Seremban 2 Shopping Centre, City Park, Seremban 2's very own Lake Gardens and comparably less traffic than the town centre.

Culture

Food

Seremban is famous for its special delicacies comprising Malay, Chinese, Indian cuisine.

Lemak cili padi. Seremban also famous with its masak lemak cili padi or call as gulai lemak cili api, a traditional Negeri Sembilan hot dish.
Siew pau. It is a type of baked bun with flaky pastry bun and meat (usually pork) filling.
Beef noodles. This beef noodles, are the best in Seremban, and the best beef noodles which can be found in Seremban is located at the main Seremban market in town (Pasar Besar Seremban). This stall has been operating for nearly 3 generations now.
 The beef or meat can be found at Pasar Ampangan near Ampangan. Beef that sell there are very cheap and high in quality (stall no.18 and 17). Its also has been operating for 3 generation. The beef noodle get their beef at this stall for 3 generations.

ABC or air batu campur means shaved ice with brown sugar syrup and rose flavouring, corn, beans, and cendol.
Tasty Traditional Mutton Soup.
Seremban Laksa

References

Negeri Sembilan

Seremban (district)


Sir Charles Glynne Earle Welby, 5th Baronet,  (11 August 1865 – 19 March 1938) was a British civil servant who became a Conservative Party politician. He sat in the House of Commons from 1900 to 1906, and then had a long career in local government in Lincolnshire.

Early life
Welby was the second son of the Conservative Party politician Sir William Welby-Gregory, 4th Baronet and his wife Victoria, a philosopher of language who was the daughter of Charles Stuart-Wortley. He was educated at Eton College and then at Christ Church, Oxford.

Welby succeeded to the baronetcy in 1898 on the death of his father.

Career
From 1887 to 1892, Welby was private secretary to Edward Stanhope, the Conservative Secretary of State for War. When the Conservatives resumed office in 1895 he became private secretary to the new War Secretary Lord Lansdowne, holding the post until 1899 or 1900 He was made a Companion of the Bath (CB) in the 1897 Diamond Jubilee Honours.

After resigning as private secretary in 1899, he was elected at a by-election in February 1900 as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Newark division of Nottinghamshire, after the sitting Conservative MP Viscount Newark had succeeded to the peerage.

He was re-elected unopposed at the 1900 general election. In November 1900, he was appointed an extra (unpaid) Assistant Under-Secretary of State for War to assist during the pressure of the Second Boer War. He resigned the appointment in August 1902, two months after the end of the war and following the reshuffle of the cabinet.

He stood down from Parliament at the 1906 general election, and concentrated on local government. In 1898, he had succeeded his father an alderman of Kesteven County Council, and remained an alderman until his death 40 years later. He was chairman of the council for many years.

Welby was mayor of Grantham from 1912 to 1913, and also served for long periods as chairman of the governors of Grantham Hospital, and chairman of the governors of The King's School, Grantham.  He was also a Justice of the Peace in Kesteven, and a Deputy Lieutenant of Lincolnshire.

Family
In 1887 Welby married Maria Louise Helen, daughter of Lord Augustus Hervey; they lived at Denton Manor, near Grantham, and had two sons and four daughters. The eldest son, Richard William Gregory Welby (1888–1914), became a Lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards and was killed in action during World War I, on 16 September 1914.

Maria died in 1920. Her father Lord Augustus Hervey had been the second son of the 2nd Marquess of Bristol. When his older brother, the 3rd Marquess died in August 1907, he would have succeeded to the title had he not died in 1875. On 15 November the King decreed that the children of Lord Augustus would "enjoy the title, rank, place and precedence as the sons and daughters of a Marquess", which they would have held if their father had survived.

Welby died at a nursing home in London on 19 March 1938, aged 72. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his second son, Oliver Charles Earle Welby (1902–1977).

References

External links

1865 births
1938 deaths
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
UK MPs 1895–1900
UK MPs 1900–1906
Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Companions of the Order of the Bath
People educated at Eton College
Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
Deputy Lieutenants of Lincolnshire
Mayors of Grantham
Members of Kesteven County Council

Charles Welby


Sir David Charles Clary, FRS (born 14 January 1953) is a British theoretical chemist. He was president of Magdalen College, Oxford, from 2005 to 2020. He was the first chief scientific adviser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 2009 to 2013. He is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford.

Education

He was born in Halesworth, Suffolk, and attended Colchester Royal Grammar School from 1964 to 1971. He has a BSc (1974) from the University of Sussex and a PhD (1977) and ScD (1997) from the University of Cambridge, where he was at Corpus Christi College. He undertook post-doctoral research at IBM in San Jose, California, and at the University of Manchester.

Appointments

In 1980, he was appointed lecturer at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). In 1983, he was appointed lecturer and then reader in theoretical chemistry at the University of Cambridge, where he was fellow and senior tutor of Magdalene College. In 1996, he was made director of the Centre for Theoretical and Computational Chemistry and professor at University College London. In 2002, he moved to the University of Oxford, where he was head of the Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences and professorial fellow of St John's College. He was elected President of Magdalen College, Oxford in 2005.

He was editor of Chemical Physics Letters from 2000-2020 and was a reviewing editor of Science from 2003-16. He has held numerous visiting fellowships and given several named lectures.

Some of his work as the first chief scientific advisor to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is described in an article in Science and Diplomacy.

Awards

In 1997 Clary was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for his development of the quantum theory for chemical reactions. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and the Institute of Physics; International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and  a member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science. He received an honorary DSc from the University of Sussex and was elected an honorary fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge and Magdalen College, Oxford.

Clary was knighted in the Queen's 2016 Birthday Honours for services to international science. The citation for his knighthood stated:

"Professor Clary has made an outstanding contribution to enhancing the international reputation of UK science and higher education. Through his leadership, he has enhanced Magdalen College's position as one of the leading academic institutions in the world. In his own scientific research he developed new theories for calculating the rates of chemical reactions. As Head of the Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at Oxford University he facilitated links between physical, life and medical sciences, helping to raise Oxford's profile as a leader for scientific research and innovation. As the first FCO Chief Scientific Adviser he enhanced significantly the visibility of UK science and innovation overseas, being a major proponent of using scientific collaborations to enhance international relations."

Research

The citation for his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society states:

"Professor Clary is distinguished for his use of quantum collision theory as a practical tool for explaining a wide variety of experimental results in chemical reaction dynamics. His general theories and computational methods enable reliable predictions to be made on the reactions, energy transfer and dissociation of polyatomic molecules in selected quantum states. His work also has important applications in understanding interstellar, combustion and atmospheric chemistry, as the extreme temperatures of these environments can be hard to reproduce in the laboratory, but are readily treated with these theoretical methods."

His current research focus is in developing semiclassical rate theories for chemical reactions.

He is an authority on Erwin Schrödinger, the discoverer of the form of quantum theory known as wave mechanics and Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.

Books
 Schrödinger in Oxford, World Scientific Publishing, 2022.

References

External links
 Biography at Magdalen College
 Oxford University biography
 Biography at the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science
 Royal Society biography

1953 births
Living people
People from Halesworth
People educated at Colchester Royal Grammar School
Alumni of the University of Sussex
Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge
Academics of University College London
Fellows of St John's College, Oxford
Presidents of Magdalen College, Oxford
Fellows of the Royal Society
Members of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
British chemists
Theoretical chemists
British editors
Academic journal editors
Computational chemists
Knights Bachelor

David Clary


Ipomoea violacea is a perennial species of Ipomoea that occurs throughout the world with the exception of the European continent. It is most commonly called beach moonflower or sea moonflower as the flowers open at night.

Description
The corolla of the flower of Ipomoea violacea is white, distinguishing this species from Ipomoea tricolor, commonly called Heavenly Blue. It is sometimes mistaken for the cultivar Pearly Gates, the corolla of which is also white, probably because of its
misleading Latin binomial name, Ipomoea violacea, "violacea" meaning purple.

Comparative taxonomies
A comparison of the taxonomy of the two plants shows that they belong to different Subgenera, consequently, Ipomoea violacea should not be used as a synonym for Ipomoea tricolor. In exceptional cases where Ipomoea violacea has to be used as a synonym of Ipomoea tricolor, one must specify the incorrect usage by using the abbreviation 'Auct.' for Auctorum.

Ipomoea violacea:

 Genus: 	Ipomoea
Subgenus: 	Eriospermum
Section:    Erpipomoea

Ipomoea tricolor:

Genus: 	Ipomoea
Subgenus: 	Quamoclit
Section:    Tricolor

LSA presence
The Native Americans of Mexico are known to have long used the seeds of species of Ipomoea for preparing psychedelic infusions; several scientific studies indicate they contain several ergoline alkaloids with effects somewhat similar to, but weaker than, those of LSD It is possible that some of these studies may have mistaken Ipomoea violacea for Ipomoea tricolor, e.g., works published in the scientific journal Phytochemistry and quoted by the Sociedade Brasileira de Farmacognosia, which purportedly showed the presence of Ergine, also known as d-lysergic acid amide (LSA) in Ipomoea violacea.

The discoverer of LSD, Albert Hofmann, himself misleads the reader in his book Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers by describing Ipomoea tricolor (the flower shown in the book is clearly one of Ipomoea tricolor, heavenly blue), but is labeled as Ipomoea violacea. As specified in the upper section  of its description, Ipomoea violacea's corolla is white only. Because studies on the presence of LSA in Ipomoea violacea do not specify the complete taxonomy of the plant, it cannot be certain that Ipomoea violacea contains d-lysergic acid amide. As of 2016, only Ipomoea tricolor is proved to contain LSA in its seeds.

References

External links

violacea
Night-blooming plants
Pantropical flora
Plants described in 1753
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus

Ipomoea violacea


Bruce Howard Sussman (born July 12, 1949) is an American lyricist and librettist. Though he has collaborated with numerous composers, he is probably best known for his work with his long-time collaborator, Barry Manilow. Together, they have written over two hundred songs for numerous recording artists, films, stage musicals and television programs.

Life and career
Sussman was born in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York and was raised on Long Island, where he graduated from Sanford H. Calhoun High School in Merrick, New York. He then graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Upon his return to New York, he was accepted into the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. During this period, he met Barry Manilow, and they began writing jingles and songs together. Among their first successes was  Copacabana (At the Copa) which became Sussman's first gold record as well as a Grammy Award-winning, international hit. It would later become the source material for a made-for-television film musical of the same title, a one-act casino show, and then a two-act stage musical for which he co-authored the book and lyrics with Manilow and Jack Feldman. The show ran for two years at the Prince of Wales Theatre on London's West End before extensive tours of Britain and the United States.

Also for the stage, he co-authored with Feldman the song scores for Ted Tally's ''Coming Attractions''—which starred Christine Baranski, Jonathan Hadary and Griffin Dunne-- and Wendy Wasserstein's first musical, ''Miami''—which starred Phyllis Newman, Marcia Lewis, Fisher Stevens, and Jane Krakowski. Both shows were produced by André Bishop at Playwrights Horizons off-Broadway. He also contributed a song to Howard Crabtree's off-Broadway and London productions of Whoop-Dee-Doo! Most recently, he is the author of the book and lyrics for Harmony: A New Musical about the Comedian Harmonists. The show had developmental productions at the La Jolla Playhouse, the Alliance Theatre, and the Ahmanson Theatre. It is scheduled to make its New York debut, in a production directed by Warren Carlyle, at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene in March 2022.

With Manilow, he also wrote song scores for the animated films Thumbelina and The Pebble and the Penguin, as well as a song for Disney's Oliver and Company.

Personal life
In 1994, Sussman met entertainment columnist, Rob Shuter, in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were married on October 29, 2011.

References

American lyricists
Living people
American LGBT songwriters
1949 births
American musical theatre librettists
American musical theatre lyricists
21st-century American LGBT people
Broadway composers and lyricists
Songwriters from New York (state)

Bruce Sussman


The Cinder Butte Fire was a wildfire that burned over  of Oregon rangeland during the summer of 2017.  The fire began on 2 August 2017.  It was determined to be human-caused since lightning was not present in the area prior to the initial fire report.  The fire consumed rangeland vegetation and juniper woodlands in the area east of Glass Buttes in northern Lake County and then spread into northwestern Harney County.  Most of the burned area was on public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management.  Firefighters battled the blaze for over a week.  At the peak of the firefighting effort, there were 496 firefighters working on the Cinder Butte Fire.

Origin

In the early afternoon of 2 August 2017, a wildfire was reported in northeastern corner of Lake County, Oregon on land administered by the Bureau of Land Management.  The fire's ignition point was along U.S. Route 20, approximately  southeast of Bend.  The bureau named it the Cinder Butte Fire.

At the time the fire started a combination of hot-dry weather and gusty winds created dangerous fire conditions across Central Oregon.  As a result, shortly after it was reported the fire began to burn actively.  Firefighters battled the blaze for over a week as the fire consumed rangeland and juniper woodlands east and then southeast of Glass Buttes.

Chronology

On 2 August 2017, a fire was reported on public land about  west of the small unincorporated gas-stop junction of Riley.  Because of the extreme weather conditions the fire burned approximately  during the afternoon and evening of the first day.  It then exploded to over  overnight, burning across the Lake County line into Harney County.  The fire crews that initially responded to the fire worked all afternoon and throughout the night.

Those crews continued to work through the morning of 3 August and into the afternoon until relief crews arrived from Washington state later that day.  In addition to firefighters, several helicopters were used to drop water on the fire along with four large air tankers and four smaller air tankers that dropped retardant throughout the day.  Working together, the fire crews, helicopters, and aerial tankers stopped the fire from crossing U.S. Route 395.  Fire crews built a fire line along the east side of the fire and began work on the west side fire line.  By the end of the day, there were several hundred firefighters deployed on the fire.  They were divided into day crews and night crews so the firefighting could go on 24 hours a day while allowing firefighters to get adequate rest between shifts.

Cooler temperatures overnight slowed the spread of the fire giving firefighters a chance to complete most of the planned fire lines. However, the hot-dry weather on 4 August kept the fire alive.  During the day, crews focused on finishing rough-cut fire lines and building new lines on the steeper, rocky slopes along the west side of the fire.  However, the fire was only 9 percent contained.  Because of the continuing hot-dry weather, the fire risk was upgraded, prompting a request for additional firefighters and operating equipment.  In addition, the new risk assessment triggered an order for a larger fire management team which was scheduled to arrive the following day.  New mapping fixed the size of the fire at .

Over the weekend of 5 and 6 August, gusty winds made firefighting a challenge as the crews worked to expand fire lines.  The firefighting efforts consisted of hand-cut fire lines and pumper truck crews spraying water on the flames along with retardant drops from the air.  As additional firefighting resources arrived from stations throughout the Pacific Northwest and more heavy equipment became available, the fire lines were widened and extended all along the perimeter.  While the fire threatened some important archaeological sites, the size of the fire did not grow much over the weekend.  This was due to a shift in the wind that pushed the fire back into burned out areas, allowing firefighters to get in front of the fire and finish their lines.  During this period, the number of firefighter on scene grew to over 400. The Bureau of Land Management estimated the fire was 60 percent contained.

On 7 August, the fire was initially reported to have grown to .  However, that was later revised .  While the fire burned close to the tiny unincorporated gas-stop of Wagontire, it was stopped before damaging any structures there.  Some private grazing land was burned, but all the livestock in the area was moved out ahead of the fire.  At the peak of the operation, there were 496 firefighters on-site along with 26 pumper trucks, 4 bulldozers, 11 water tenders, 2 helicopters, and a small spotter plane working on the fire.  That night, containment reached 80 percent.

On 8 August, the Bureau of Land Management estimated the fire was 90 percent contained.  Mop-up operations moved well inside the fire line perimeter.  By the evening of 8 August, the number of firefighters on scene had been reduced to 376.

Mop-up operations continued on 9 August while additional crews were released for duty on other fires.  Crews also began fire suppression damage repair including restoration of sage grouse habitat areas.  While mop-up continued on 10 August, Bureau of Land Management officials declared the fire to be 100 percent contained.  Over the next few days, the remaining outside crews were released while local fire crews made spot checks along the fire line.

Effects

In the Bureau of Land Management's final update, the size of the Cinder Butte Fire was reported as .  Most of the burned area was United States Government land administered Bureau of Land Management; however, some private ranch land was also burned.

The Cinder Butte Fire burned rangeland and scrub woodlands east and southeast of Glass Buttes and north of Wagontire.  The main vegetation burned by the fire was grass and sagebrush along with scattered areas of western juniper trees.  No residences or commercial structures were lost; however, four ranch outbuildings were destroyed along with two long-abandoned homestead cabins.

While it was actively burning, the Cinder Butte Fire was the largest active fire in the state of Oregon.  At its peak, there were 496 firefighters from the Bureau of Land Management, United States Forest Service, and several other agencies working on the fire.  Equipment dispatched to the fire included pumper trucks, bulldozers, water tankers, helicopters, and air tankers.

References

External links
 InciWeb Incident Information System – Cinder Butte Fire

2017 Oregon wildfires
August 2017 events in the United States
Bureau of Land Management
Harney County, Oregon
Lake County, Oregon

Cinder Butte Fire


Kristina Elizabeth Anapau Roper (born October 30, 1979), better known as Kristina Anapau, is an American actress and writer.  She is known for her roles as Maurella on the HBO series True Blood and as Galina in the 2010 film Black Swan. She also portrayed Cassidy Merteuil in Cruel Intentions 3.

Early life
Kristina Elizabeth Anapau Roper was born in Hawaii. She graduated from high school at age 15 and began her studies at University of Hawaii at Manoa that same year. Before gaining success as an actress, Anapau had intended to become a classical ballerina, having trained seriously since the age of 4.
She is a classically trained pianist and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Skidmore College in New York.

Career

Early career (1997–2009)
As a student of 16, while majoring in Art History and Dance, and with no plans of being an actress, Anapau was discovered by a talent agent and encouraged to audition for the 1997 film Escape from Atlantis (1997), which filmed in Anapau's native Hawaii.  She landed the role of Katriana in the production and at the request of the film's director, Strathford Hamilton, she relocated to Los Angeles where she pursued more work, ultimately continuing to work steadily across theater, film, and television.

Over the next few years, Anapau appeared in numerous productions, including the films Madison, the comedy 100 Girls, and The Opposite Sex, as well as TV series General Hospital and Once and Again.

At age 20, Anapau joined the girl group "3G's" and they landed a recording contract with Hollywood Records and they spent the better part of a year recording an album and opening for Destiny's Child on MTV's TRL Tour.

Anapau starred in the 2005 thriller Cursed, then appeared in the independent feature Self Medicated. She also starred as Cassidy Merteuil in Cruel Intentions 3.  During this time, Anapau guest starred and recurred on many television series, including House, M.D., CSI:NY, Monk, Without A Trace, and Knight Rider.

Anapau also starred opposite comedian Dane Cook in the Sony Television produced pilot, Cooked.

Recent work (2009–present)

In 2009, Anapau was cast in Black Swan, directed by Darren Aronofsky. "Darren is a genius whose focus and discipline on set is contagious", Anapau said in an interview, reflecting on her work in the 2010 film. "To say that working on Black Swan was inspiring would be an understatement."

Anapau then completed several independent films including The Speak and the paranormal thriller 5 Souls, which she also co-produced.  She appeared on an episode of the AMC series The Glades and then went on to land the role of faerie, Maurella, in HBO's hit series, True Blood, appearing in five episodes over the fourth and fifth seasons.

In 2012, Anapau appeared on the NBC show Grimm, where she played  "Megan Marston, a quiet, sheepish secretary working at a Wesen church who is actually a sheep-like creature dubbed a Seelengut".

Anapau starred as Theresa in the 2014 paranormal feature Altergeist (aka Sighting).

Anapau says she enjoys working in film and television equally, saying they have their "respective pleasures and challenges" and simply looks "for content that inspires me and hopefully elevates the world in some way—films have a track record of best fulfilling both the previous and the later, but there are some really incredible television shows out there that are doing the same. There is a lot of freedom to cross back and forth within the industry now."

True Blood
Anapau made her debut as the faerie Maurella on episode of 11 of True Blood'''s fourth season, and reprised the role in four episodes of the fifth season.

The actress told The Huffington Post in an interview that "It was such a privilege to join the cast of True Blood. I was a huge Alan Ball fan prior to joining the show-- I'm so fortunate to work with an amazing group of people, immensely talented actors and fantastic crew."

When asked about seeing a greater prevalence of strong, powerful female characters like those on True Blood, Anapau says,  "Women audience members want to see strong women doing interesting things in film and on television – it's good for the industry and great for the world."

Public image
Anapau has appeared on the cover of the Holiday 2012 issues of both Modern Luxury and Status LA magazine.

She has also been a cover model for magazines such as MUSE, Faerie, Prodijee, and Stuff. In January 2003, Anapau was ranked #98 on Stuff magazine's "103 Sexiest Women in the World".

Other ventures
2012 marked Anapau's entry into the realm of editorial writing, with published articles in The Stndrd magazine, Status LA magazine, and The Hollywood Film Journal.

 Filmography
Film

Television

Awards and nominations
She won the Copper Wing Award at the 2006 Phoenix Film Festival for Best Ensemble for Self Medicated'' (2005).

Kristina won the Actress No Ka Oi award at the 2011 Big Island Film Festival.

References

External links

American women writers
American television actresses
Actresses from Hawaii
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni
1979 births
Living people
American film actresses
Writers from Hawaii
Musicians from Hawaii
American ballerinas
Skidmore College alumni
American stage actresses
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American women pianists
21st-century American pianists

Kristina Anapau


A string bag, net bag, or mesh bag is an open netted bag. Mesh bags are constructed from strands, yarns, or non-woven synthetic material into a net-like structure. String bags are used as reusable shopping bags and as packaging for produce.

History

Bags of net-like material have been used by many cultures in history.  For example, Japanese divers have used string bags to collect items to bring to the surface.

Czechoslovakia
In Czechoslovakia, the production of string bags dates back to 1920s to the town of Žďár nad Sázavou in former Czechoslovakia, present day Czech Republic, when a salesman Vavřín Krčil, representing Jaro J. Rousek company, began to produce string bags under the trademark Saarense (EKV) at the local chateau Žďár. They formerly made hair nets, which had become obsolete due to shorter hairstyles coming into fashion. This led to years of prosperity for the company. The hand made shopping bags were made of artificial silk yarn, woven by women working at home (this was often their second job) or by using child labour, the finished bags were then given to Vavřín Krčil. The bags quickly became very popular due to their low price, light weight, and compactness. Krčil soon extended the range of designs, including bags to be carried at the elbow or on the shoulder, and bags for sporting equipment. In the late 1920s string bags were being produced in Switzerland and Italy, and were distributed around the world. Krčil himself exported the bags to Canada, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and North African countries.

East Germany (German Democratic Republic)

The classic East German Einkaufsnetz (shopping net) has leather handles and multicoloured netting made from Eisengarn, a strong, starched and waxed cotton thread.

Due to shortages of many types of raw materials in the GDR, recycling and reusing were the norm;  plastic one-use shopping bags were rarely available in shops.

The bags took up very little space when not in use and therefore could be carried around in case one serendipitously came across something useful for sale.

In West Germany use of net shopping bags declined from the early 1980s due to single-use plastic bags becoming common in shops and supermarkets, but they continued to be used in the GDR.

In the 1960s and 1970s net bags were also made out of Dederon, the East German trade name for Nylon 6.
The oil crisis of the mid-1970s meant that GDR could no longer produce Dederon in such large quantities and Eisengarn was then more often used for the manufacture of net bags.

Environmental concerns, Ostalgie (nostalgia for East Germany), and a general fashion for retro products from the mid-20th Century have led to the resurgence, in all parts of Germany, of what was once considered the frumpy Omas Einkaufsnetz (Grandma's shopping net).  The DDR Museum in Berlin has a collection of Einkaufsnetze, and the bags are now often sold as DDR kult Klassiker.

Russia

String bags were popular in Russia and throughout the USSR, where they were called avoska (), which may be translated as "perhaps-bag". The avoska was a major cultural phenomenon of Soviet daily life. Avoskas were manufactured using various kinds of strings. With the advent of synthetic materials, some of them were made of stretchable string, so that a very small net could be stretched to a very large sack. With the popularization of plastic bags (which had the same important trait of convenient foldability) avoskas gradually went into disuse, but recent political trends in support of banning plastic bags may bring it back.

Etymology
The name "avoska" derives from the Russian adverb avos' (), an expression of vague expectation of luck, translated in various contexts as "just in case", "hopefully", etc. The term originated in the 1930s in the context of shortages of consumer goods in the Soviet Union, when citizens could obtain many basic purchases only by a stroke of luck; people used to carry an avoska in their pocket all the time in case opportunistic circumstances arose. The exact origin of the term remains uncertain, with several different attributions. In 1970 a popular Soviet comedian, Arkady Raikin, explained that around 1935 he introduced a character, a simple man with a netted sack in his hands. He used to demonstrate the sack to the spectators and to say "А это авоська. Авось-ка я что-нибудь в ней принесу" ("And this is a what-iffie. What if I bring something in it..."). The script is attributed to Vladimir Polyakov.

See also
Kubi bukuro

References

Shopping bags
Soviet culture
Culture of the Czech Republic
East German culture
Ostalgie
Packaging

String bag


Alameda Terminal (a.k.a. Alameda Wharf) was a railroad station and ferry wharf at the foot and west of present-day Pacific Avenue and Main Street in Alameda, California, on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay with ferry service to San Francisco.  It was built in 1864 and operated by the San Francisco and Alameda Railroad.  In 1869, it served as the original west coast terminus of the U.S. First transcontinental railroad, until the opening of Oakland Pier two months later. The western terminus was inaugurated September 6, 1869, when the first Western Pacific through train from Sacramento reached the shores of San Francisco Bay at Alameda Terminal, — thus completing the first transcontinental railroad "from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean" in accordance with the Pacific Railroad Acts.

History

In 1863, Alfred A. Cohen, a San Francisco lawyer, along with his associates, formulated plans to build a railroad and wharf to carry passengers not only to Alameda, but also by ferry to San Francisco. In 1864, he built a  wharf, starting from a spot near today's Pacific Avenue and Main Street westward, into the Bay at that time, and ending at part of today's Alameda Point where the USS Hornet sits anchored. On August 25, 1864, Cohen inaugurated passenger service, for 25 cents, from the wharf at Vallejo and Davis Street in San Francisco, via the leased river packet Sophie MacLane, to the Alameda Wharf and then  to his San Francisco and Alameda Railroad High St station.  In September 1864, he leased the slightly larger Contra Costa.  As business grew, he replaced the leased boat, in February 1866, with his very own ferry boat, the Alameda.

First transcontinental train

After the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 authorized construction of the First transcontinental railroad and telegraph line, the first construction activity took place in 1863 eastward from Sacramento on the Central Pacific Railroad line.  In October 1864, the Central Pacific Railroad assigned all the rights of the Pacific Railway Acts to the Western Pacific Railroad for the route between Sacramento and San Jose, including land grants. The plan was that the transcontinental railroad would follow the Western Pacific from Sacramento to San Jose and then connect with the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad (SF&SJ), completed in 1864, to San Francisco.

By 1866, Western Pacific had built  of track north and east from San Jose, reaching halfway into Niles Canyon, to about Farwell near Milepost 33. The Western Pacific used 500 Chinese laborers to grade and construct the rail line into the rugged canyon with its tight curves and narrow banks. Construction was then halted because of disagreements between the railroad's contractors and its financiers.

In 1868, Central Pacific Railroad, a subsidiary of which had acquired the Western Pacific and Oakland Point, restarted work on the Western Pacific Railroad line starting at Sacramento working southward, as well as near Lathrop and Livermore, using upwards to 2,000 Chinese laborers.  The new plan was to connect with Oakland and Oakland Point with its ferry service to San Francisco.  After the golden spike ceremony at Promontory Summit, work resumed in June 1869 in Niles Canyon with track laying towards Livermore.  Also in June 1869, J. H. Strobridge came to Niles (then Vallejo Mills [now part of Fremont]) to oversee the construction of the new line, with his crew of up to 600 Chinese laborers, heading towards Oakland. By midsummer, Governor Stanford made known his hopes that the line be finished in time for the opening of the State Fair on September 6. Thus in September 1869, a temporary connection was made at the bay side (west of Alvarado and Davis Sts) of San Leandro with the old tracks of the San Francisco and Alameda Railroad, which led to the SF&A Alameda Wharf with ferry service to San Francisco.

On September 6, 1869, the first Western Pacific train reached the shores of San Francisco Bay at Alameda Terminal, thus achieving the transcontinental Pacific Railroad envisioned in the 1862 Pacific Railroad Act. According to the Daily Alta California, this first through train left Sacramento at 10 am, got delayed by some construction trains, exited Niles Canyon late at 9:30 pm, and an hour later arrived at Alameda Terminal to a cheering crowd.  Continuing passengers boarded the ferry Alameda and crossed the Bay to the Davis St Wharf in San Francisco.

The steamer Oakland, strengthened and converted into a car ferry capable of carrying up to four freight cars at one time, also began service in September 1869, from Alameda wharf to the San Francisco freight slip.

Two months later, Central Pacific Railroad switched the western transcontinental terminus to its expanded Oakland Pier, which was inaugurated on November 8, 1869, in another round of celebration. Alameda then went back to local passenger train service. Freight service from Alameda continued until 1870 when the freight slip at Oakland wharf and the new line through First Street, Oakland, were completed.  In 1870 the SF&A was absorbed into Central Pacific and in 1873 the SF&A pier was abandoned, at least for rail-ferry purposes.  It was subsequently used by the Pacific Coast Oil Company which established its refinery adjacent to the wharf in 1880.  It was listed in the local city directory as the business address of the E.M. Derby lumber yard from at least 1874 to about 1885.

Present day

The railroads and their wharfs are gone from Alameda.  The last rails were removed in 1960 from Lincoln Ave (formerly Railroad Ave and along which the SF&A rails ran).

The achievement of the first transcontinental railroad reaching Alameda Terminal on September 6, 1869, is marked by a plaque in the Naval Air Station Alameda and a California Historical Landmark (CHL #440) nearby.  The GPS coordinates of the two markers are given respectively by 37.786779,-122.30292 (plaque); and 37.77535,-122.276891 (CHL #440).

On 6 September 2019, a "golden spike" ceremony was held in Niles Canyon, where the Western Pacific track laid in 1866 was linked with the Central Pacific track laid in 1869, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the 6 September 1869 completion of the first transcontinental railroad to the Pacific coast terminus at Alameda Terminal.  Also, the mayor of the City of Alameda issued a proclamation recognizing "the outstanding contributions of the many Chinese immigrants who helped make the Transcontinental Railroad a reality". At the terminal there is a plaque that marks terminus of the First Transcontinental Passenger train that started in New York City and terminated at Alameda Point pier on September 6, 1869.

See also
 Alameda Mole
 First transcontinental railroad
 Niles Canyon Railway
 Oakland Long Wharf
 San Francisco and Oakland Railroad
 San Francisco and San Jose Railroad

References

Railway stations in Alameda County, California
California Historical Landmarks
History of the San Francisco Bay Area
1864 establishments in California
Former Southern Pacific Railroad stations in California
Railway stations in the United States opened in 1864
Ferry terminals in the San Francisco Bay Area
Railway stations closed in 1873
1873 disestablishments in California
Railway stations in the United States closed in the 1870s

Alameda Terminal


The cliff chipmunk (Neotamias dorsalis) is a small, bushy-tailed squirrel that typically lives along cliff walls or boulder fields bordering Pinyon-juniper woodlands in the Western United States and Mexico (commonly spotted in northern Arizona to Colorado). Cliff chipmunks are very agile, and can often be seen scaling steep cliff walls. Cliff chipmunks do not amass body fat as the more common ground squirrel does. They create a "stash" of food which they frequent during the cold winter months. The chipmunks' size varies from 8 to 10 inches, and they weigh an average of 2.5 oz. These small creatures live to a staggering  years. The chipmunks are brown on their underside and gray on the back, with white stripes on their face.

Habitat
The cliff chipmunk nests near cliffs in pinyon-juniper woodlands hence its name "cliff chipmunk". They are found at higher altitudes such as 5,000–12,000 ft above sea level. A common destination for spotting the cliff chipmunk is the cliffs of the Grand Canyon. The cliff chipmunk is active mostly during the day, therefore easy to spot. The chipmunk's diet consists of juniper berries, pine seeds, and acorns.

References

External links
Venne, Louise "Tamias dorsalis (cliff chipmunk)". Animal Diversity Web. Retrieved 2018-01-10.

Neotamias
Mammals of the United States
Mammals of Mexico
Fauna of the Western United States
Mammals described in 1855

Cliff chipmunk


Hendren et al. v. Campbell et al. was a 1977 ruling by an Indiana state superior court that the young-earth creationist textbook could not be used in Indiana public schools.  Jon Hendren, a ninth-grade student in the West Clark Community Schools, sued when the district picked Biology: A Search For Order In Complexity, published by the Creation Research Society and promoted through the Institute for Creation Research, as the sole biology textbook. The textbook was edited by creationists John N. Moore and Harold Schultz Slusher.

Decision
The ruling declared: "The question is whether a text obviously designed to present only the view of Biblical Creationism in a favorable light is constitutionally acceptable in the public schools of Indiana. Two hundred years of constitutional government demand that the answer be no." Campbell was a forerunner to the federal decisions in McLean v. Arkansas and Edwards v. Aguillard. In Aguillard, the United States Supreme Court – using logic similar to that in Campbell – ruled that creation science was religiously motivated and could not be taught in public schools.

References

Establishment Clause case law
United States creationism and evolution case law
1977 in United States case law
Law articles needing an infobox
Indiana state case law
1977 in Indiana
1977 in religion
Public education in Indiana
Textbook controversies
Education in Clark County, Indiana
Education controversies in the United States

Hendren v. Campbell


Bridge End is a village in Northumberland, England. It is situated to the west of Hexham, on the north bank of the River South Tyne.

The North and South Tyne meet less than one kilometre downstream from the village. There is a pleasant walk from the Boat Inn along the bank of the South Tyne to the meeting of the waters. The Boat Inn was formerly the place of a ferry until the toll bridge was built across the river. The toll house still stands, but the old bridge was replaced in 1904 by a County structure. One of the two plaques on the bridge records that the contractor was W. T. Weir of Howdon-on-Tyne. The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway crosses the river by a strongly built iron bridge.

Governance
Bridge End is in the parliamentary constituency of Hexham.

Economy
Bridge End has a paper mill on the South Tyne, which started in 1763 and still exists. A century ago a visitor described how the rags were converted into beautiful white paper. The mill employed 63 hands.

Landmarks
The tollhouse stands at the southern end of the bridge and the building still has the original roof from which it is possible to see the original layout of the windows. However, by 2008, the southern window had been removed and replaced by a modern porch, and the northern window partially obscured by an extension.

Religious sites
There is a Methodist church built in 1851. In appearance it resembles a barn rather than an ecclesiastical edifice.

References

External links

Villages in Northumberland

Bridge End, Northumberland


Judith A. Kersey is an American engineer. She was the first woman guidance systems engineer at NASA Kennedy Space Center.

Education
As a student at the University of Florida, Kersey initiated and chaired the first Florida State Symposium for Women in Engineering and Science in 1974. In 1975, she became a senior member of the Society of Women Engineers and was elected the national career guidance committee chair.

Career
After earning a master's degree in electrical engineering, she joined the engineering team at Kennedy Space Center. As one of the first female engineers at the spaceport, Kersey was not listened to by her superiors. After warning a senior engineer of a potential mistake, which was proven to be the correct judgment, she was promoted to the Systems Assurance Office to ensure similar mistakes were avoided.

She later became the first female guidance systems engineer at NASA during the Apollo program. Amongst her years at NASA, she had held various positions such as NASA deputy director for Electronic Engineering, division chief of the Space Shuttle test group at Vandenberg Air Force Base, and NASA associate director for Safety, Reliability and Quality Assurance. She also played a roles in the Saturn V and the space shuttle programs and received the Kennedy Space Center Federal Woman of the Year Award, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, and was selected as a Fellow Member of the Society of Women Engineers. Upon her retirement, Kersey sat as a member of the Society of Women Engineers's  electronic communications committee and a member of the scholarship committee.

In 2005, Kersey was inducted into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame.

References

Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
American women engineers
University of Florida alumni
NASA people
21st-century American women

Judith Kersey