A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational knowledge transfer and the certification of new knowledge" through the awarding of doctoral degrees. They can be public or private, and often have well-known brand names.

Undergraduate courses at many research universities are often academic rather than vocational and may not prepare students for particular careers, but many employers value degrees from research universities because they teach fundamental life skills such as critical thinking. Globally, research universities are overwhelmingly public institutions, while some countries like the United States and Japan also have well-known private research institutions.

Institutions of higher education that are not research universities or do not aspire to that designation, such as liberal arts colleges, instead place more emphasis on student instruction or other aspects of tertiary education, and their faculty members are under less pressure to publish or perish.

History

19th century
The concept of the research university first arose in early 19th-century Prussia in Germany, where Wilhelm von Humboldt championed his vision of  (the unity of teaching and research), as a means of producing an education that focused on the main areas of knowledge (the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities) rather than on the previous goals of the university education, which was to develop an understanding of truth, beauty, and goodness.

Roger L. Geiger, "the leading historian of the American research university," has argued that "the model for the American research university was established by five of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution (Harvard, Yale, Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Columbia); five state universities (Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and California); and five private institutions conceived from their inception as research universities (MIT, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, and Chicago)." The American research university first emerged in the late 19th century, when these fifteen institutions began to graft graduate programs derived from the German model onto undergraduate programs derived from the British model.

20th century
Research universities were essential to the establishment of American hegemony by the end of the 20th century. Most importantly, Berkeley, Chicago, Columbia, and Princeton directly participated in the creation of the first nuclear weapons (the Manhattan Project).  Besides that, Columbia and Harvard were instrumental in the early development of the American film industry (Hollywood), MIT and Stanford were leaders in building the American military–industrial complex and developing artificial intelligence, and Berkeley and Stanford played a central role in the development of Silicon Valley.

Since the 1960s, American research universities, especially the leading American public research university system, the University of California, have served as models for research universities around the world. Having one or more universities based on the American model (including the use of English as a lingua franca) is a badge of "social progress and modernity" for the contemporary nation-state. The Americans' continued dominance into the early 21st century has forced their European counterparts to confront the urgent need for reform to avoid "declining into an advanced form of feeder colleges for the best American universities."

Characteristics

John Taylor, Professor of Higher Education Management at the University of Liverpool, defines the key characteristics of successful research universities as:
 "Presence of pure and applied research"
 "Delivery of research-led teaching"
 "Breadth of academic disciplines"
 "High proportion of postgraduate research programmes"
 "High levels of external income"
 "An international perspective"

Philip Altbach defines a different, although similar, set of key characteristics for what research universities need to become successful:
 At the top of the academic hierarchy in a differentiated higher education system and receiving appropriate support
 Overwhelmingly public institutions
 Little competition from non-university research institutions, unless these have strong connections to the universities
 More funding than other universities to attract the best staff and students and support research infrastructure
 Adequate and sustained budgets
 Potential for income generation from student fees and intellectual property
 Suitable facilities
 Autonomy
 Academic freedom

A 2012 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report defined research universities, in the American context, as having values of intellectual freedom, initiative and creativity, excellence, and openness, with such additional characteristics as:
 Being large and comprehensive – Clark Kerr's "multiversity"
 Emphasizing the undergraduate residential experience (flagged specifically as distinguishing American research universities from those in continental Europe)
 Integrating graduate education with research
 Having faculty engaged in research and scholarship
 Conducting research at high levels
 Having enlightened and bold leadership

Global university rankings use metrics that primarily measure research to rank universities. Some also have criteria for inclusion based on the concept of a research university such as teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and conducting work in multiple faculties, QS World University Rankings, or teaching undergraduates, having a research output of more than 1000 research papers over 5 years, and no more than 80% of activity in a single subject area, Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

Worldwide distribution
The QS World University Ranking for 2021 included 1002 research universities. The region with the highest number was Europe, with 39.8%, followed by Asia/Pacific with 26.7%, the US and Canada with 15.6%, Latin America with 10.8% and the Middle East and Africa with 7%. All regions except the Middle East and Africa were represented in the top 100. The largest number of new entrants to the rankings were from East Asia and Eastern Europe, followed by Southern Europe. By individual country, the US has the most institutions with 151, followed by the UK with 84, China with 51, and Germany with 45. The top 200 shows a similar pattern with the US having 45 universities, the UK 26 and Germany 12. By comparison, the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education (2015) identifies 115 US universities as "Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity" and a further 107 as "Doctoral Universities: Higher Research Activity", while Altbach estimated that there were around 220 research universities in the US in 2013.

The Academic Ranking of World Universities shows a similar distribution, with 185 of their 500 ranked institutions in 2020 coming from Europe, 161 from the Americas, 149 from Asia/Oceania and five from Africa. All regions except Africa are represented in the top 100, although the Americas are represented solely by universities from the United States and Canada. In 2023, the US has the most universities in the top 500 from a single country, 120, followed by China with 98, the UK with 38 and Germany with 31. The top 200 shows the similar pattern: the US with 61 followed by China with 36 and the UK with 20.

The 2024 Times Higher Education only gives a breakdown by country and only for its top 200; this again has the U.S. at the top with 56, followed by the UK with 25, Germany with 21, and China with 13. The top 200 features one university from Africa, the University of Cape Town in South Africa, but none from Latin America. The U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities Ranking 2021 gives numbers by country for the 1500 universities ranked from 86 countries: the U.S. is again top, with 255, followed by China with 176 and the UK with 87. The 2020 CWTS Leiden Ranking includes 1,176 universities in the rankings from 65 countries: China tops the list for the first time, with 204, followed by the U.S. with 198, the UK with 58 and Germany with 54.

See also
 History of European research universities
 List of research universities in South Korea
 List of research universities in the United States

References

Types of university or college

Research university


The Merrimack Manufacturing Company (also known as Merrimack Mills) was the first of the major textile manufacturing concerns to open in Lowell, Massachusetts, beginning operations in 1823.

History

 After the death of Francis Cabot Lowell of the Boston Manufacturing Company, his associates (commonly referred to as the Boston Associates) began planning a larger operation in East Chelmsford, Massachusetts, along the Merrimack River.  The Merrimack Manufacturing Company, modeled after the second Boston Manufacturing Company mill, was built concurrently with the necessary canals, machine shop, dyehouse, and boardinghouses for the operatives.  The system of operation the company employed became known as the Lowell System.  Initially capitalized with $600,000, its typical product was calico cloth.  Situated at the foot of the Merrimack Canal, the original mills received the full 32' drop of the river.  Closely associated with the Proprietors of Locks and Canals and at one point, merged with the company under the same agents (such as Kirk Boott), the Merrimack Company was the "parent" company of the later Lowell firms - although they were technically competitors.  The Merrimack Company also was very powerful in the politics of the settlement, later town, and later city, of Lowell.

However, as textile production in the United States shifted away from New England, the Merrimack Manufacturing Company's fortunes reversed.  The company was able to survive the Great Depression due to military contracts and awards which revamped the surrounding economy; it was among the last of Lowell's textile giants to close.  Shortly after it ceased operations in the late 1950s, nearly the entire complex was demolished for urban renewal in 1960.  A few years later, many of the boardinghouses were destroyed as well.  Today, the site is occupied by new arterial roads, parking lots, a few low-rise office buildings, and a high-rise housing tower, as well as the newer buildings of Lowell High School.

From 1900 until 1946, the Merrimack Manufacturing Company ran a plant in Huntsville, Alabama as well.

External links
 Fire map of the property in 1924
 Boardinghouses and their demolition

Archives and records
Merrimack Manufacturing Company records at Baker Library Special Collections, Harvard Business School.

Textile companies of the United States

Merrimack Manufacturing Company


Kody Seti Kimbulu (born 23 January 1978), known professionally as Kody or Kody Kim, is a Belgian television host, comedian, and radio personality.

Kody was born in Schaerbeek, Belgium to a Congolese family. He attended the Catholic University of Louvain, studying both politics and business management. After graduation, he joined the theatre group Kings of Comedy and began working in the radio industry, hosting radio shows on VivaCité and RTBF. In 2014, he was featured in the fourth season of Laurent Ruquier's show On n'demande qu'à en rire on France 2.

He was a guest host for La Deux and C8 from 2015 to 2017. On 18 October 2019, it was announced that Kody would host the 10th Magritte Awards.

References

External links

1978 births
21st-century comedians
Belgian people of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent
Belgian male comedians
Belgian television presenters
Belgian radio presenters
Université catholique de Louvain alumni
Living people

Kody


George Walter Ball (September 12, 1878 – December 15, 1946) was an American baseball pitcher in the Negro leagues. Born in Detroit, Michigan, from 1893 he played ten years as the only black player on minor white teams in Minnesota and North Dakota. For more than a decade beginning 1903, he played for major teams, mainly in the Chicago region. Sources say he was given the nickname "The Georgia Rabbit" and "Diamond."

Career

He began his baseball career in 1893 in St. Paul, Minnesota playing for the Young Cyclones team. He also played briefly with the Osceola team until 1899, when he went to Grand Forks, North Dakota where he played until the end of the 1900 season. In the first season, Ball won 25 out of 28 games, and helped the team win the state baseball championship of North Dakota.

Ball played with the Lakota, North Dakota team for the first part of the 1901 season. He captained the York, North Dakota baseball team the last half of the season and finished the season there.

In 1902 he played on the St. Cloud baseball team, helping them win the championship of eastern Minnesota. He wintered in Grand Forks, North Dakota and was signed by Frank Leland to play for his Chicago Union Giants in 1903. It was the first colored baseball team Ball had ever played for, and until then he had always been the only black player on white teams.

After the 1903 season with the Chicago Union Giants, Ball was signed and played for the Cuban X-Giants for the 1904 season, playing with Mike Moore, Grant Johnson, Harry Buckner, Dan McClellan, and Big Bill Smith.

In 1905 Ball played the first half of the season for the Brooklyn Royal Giants. During the last half of the season, he was back playing for the Chicago Union Giants, reportedly winning 48 straight games.

In 1906 Ball went to New York to play a season with the Quaker Giants, but the team folded by July 1 of that year. He came back to Chicago and finished the year with the Leland Giants.

Working with Reid and Hirshfield, Ball organized and managed the St. Paul Gophers in 1907. He even played on the team part of the season, but didn't finish the season there and moved back to Chicago to finish the year with the Leland Giants.

In 1908 Ball went back to Minneapolis, Minnesota and played for the Keystones. However, Frank Leland got Ball released from his contract, and he returned to Chicago to finish the season. He played winter ball in 1908-1909 for the Fe club of Havana, Cuba, winning 12 out of 15 games. He prevented the Almendares from winning the pennant which they had won five years in a row. When the winter season closed on March 31, 1909, he joined the Lelands at spring training in Memphis, Tennessee in April and toured the south, never losing a game in Spring Training.

Ball opened the 1909 season with the Leland Giants, losing only one out of 25 league games that year.

Sportswriter and fellow player Jimmy Smith put Ball on his 1909 "All American Team."

He was still pitching for the Chicago Giants into his 40s when the Negro National League formed in 1920 and 1921.

Death and legacy

Ball died in Chicago. He is buried at the Lincoln Cemetery at Blue Island, Illinois.

Six years after his death, Ball received votes listing him on the 1952 Pittsburgh Courier player-voted poll of the Negro leagues' best players ever.

References

External links
 and Baseball-Reference Black Baseball Stats and Seamheads
(Riley.) Walter Ball, Personal profiles at Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. – identical to Riley (confirmed 2010-04-14)
 George Walter Ball on Find a Grave

1877 births
1946 deaths
Leland Giants players
Baseball pitchers
Baseball players from Detroit
Lincoln Giants players
Brooklyn Royal Giants players
Chicago Giants players
Club Fé players
Cuban X-Giants players
Schenectady Mohawk Giants players
St. Paul Colored Gophers players
American expatriate baseball players in Cuba
20th-century African-American sportspeople

Walter Ball (baseball)


Rudolf Hilf (1 March 1923, Aš, Czechoslovakia – 20 April 2011, Hamburg, Germany) was a German historian, political scientist and expelled politician.

Life
Hilf, born in 1923, served as a soldier in the Luftwaffe between 1942 and 1945. After the end of the war, his family was expelled from their homeland and settled down in Bavaria. He studied history at the University of Munich, and, in 1951, advanced onto political science. After that and until 1959, he worked as a foreign policy speaker of the first speaker of the Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft in Germany, along with . From 1960 to 1966, he was the private secretary of Prince Max Egon von Hohenlohe-Langenburg, a representative of the Bohemian Hochadels. From 1967 to 1973, he was managing director of the national association of the Federation of Expellees. After that, he was a speaker at the Bavarian State Center for Political Education until his retirement in 1988. From 1995 until his death, he has been a member of the Sudeten German Council and the executive committee of the Bavarian State Group of the Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft.

In 1977, together with Josef Stingl, the former President of the Federal Labor Office, Felix Ermacora, ,  and others, he founded the International Institute of Nationality Law and Regionalism (Intereg). He was also the initiator of the German-Czech cross-border region "Euregio Egrensis", founded shortly after 1990. He was also an author of many books, studies, and articles.

Awards

 Honorary citizenship of the city of Aš (1993)
 Sudetendeutscher Kulturpreis (2006)

References

External links

 Lebenslauf auf sudeten.de (PDF; 25 KB)

1923 births
2011 deaths
People from Aš
Sudeten German people
German politicians
German political scientists
Luftwaffe personnel of World War II

Rudolf Hilf


Raffaele Casnédi (September 26, 1822 – December 29, 1892) was an Italian painter and scenic designer, active mainly in Milan.

He was born to Pietro Casnedi and Angela Spaini. Despite his parent's objections, he attended the Accademia di Brera from 1840 to 1850. There he studied under Sogni and Luigi Sabatelli. In 1852, he won the Mylius prize for the fresco of The school of Leonardo painted in a lunette for the Accademia. He interned in Rome, where he befriended the landscape artist Costa. He returned to Milan, and joined the Brera in 1856, and as professor of design in 1860.

He is best known for his frescoes and religious canvases conserved at the churches (in Valmadrera, Besana, Rho, San Pietro in Novara, and Palombara). For example, in the parochial church of Santi Pietro e Paolo in Luino, he painted, among other works, the four evangelists in the spandrels of the dome. In collaboration with Giuseppe Bertini, he painted the curtain or sipario (1861–1863) at the Teatro alla Scala with The Fables Atellanae. Among the pupils at the Brera of Casnédi (as well as Bertini and Hayez) were the Scapigliatura artists: Pietro Bouvier and Francesco Didioni, and the Divisionists, Angelo Morbelli and Giovanni Sottocornola. Bartolomeo Giuliano was one of his assistants.

Sources
Treccani encyclopedia entry

Note

1822 births
1892 deaths
Painters from Milan
19th-century Italian painters

Raffaele Casnedi


Alberto Álvaro Ríos (born September 18, 1952) is a US academic and writer who is the author of ten books and chapbooks of poetry, three collections of short stories, and a memoir.

Rios was named Arizona's first state poet laureate in August 2013, a position he continues to hold.

Life
Alberto Ríos graduated from University of Arizona with an MFA. He is a Regents' Professor at Arizona State University, where he has taught since 1982 and where he holds the further distinction of the Katharine C. Turner Endowed Chair in English.

His book A Small Story About the Sky was published in 2015 by Copper Canyon Press. Other books of poems include The Dangerous Shirt, along with The Theater of Night, winner of the 2007 PEN/Beyond Margins Award, The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body, finalist for the National Book Award, Teodoro Luna's Two Kisses, The Lime Orchard Woman, The Warrington Poems, Five Indiscretions, and Whispering to Fool the Wind, which won the Walt Whitman Award.

His three collections of short stories are The Curtain of Trees, Pig Cookies and The Iguana Killer, which won the first Western States Book Award for Fiction, judged by Robert Penn Warren.

His memoir about growing up on the Mexico-Arizona border, called Capirotada, won the Latino Literary Hall of Fame Award and was designated the OneBookArizona choice for 2009.

Ríos is the recipient of the Western Literature Association Distinguished Achievement Award, the Arizona Governor's Arts Award, fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Walt Whitman Award, the Western States Book Award for Fiction, six Pushcart Prizes in both poetry and fiction, and inclusion in The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry.

In 2014, he was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

Ríos is also a host for ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication's KAET. He hosted the litereray interview show Books & Co. from 2009 to 2018. He currently hosts the arts interview show Art in the 48.

Bibliography

Poetry
His books of poems include:
 A Small Story About the Sky, Copper Canyon Press, 2015,

 The Theater of Night, Copper Canyon Press, 2006,
  nominated for the National Book Award,
 Teodoro Luna's Two Kisses W. W. Norton, Incorporated, 1992,
 The Lime Orchard Woman Sheep Meadow Press, 1988,
 The Warrington Poems, Pyracantha Press, Arizona State University, School of Art, 1989
 Five Indiscretions The Sheep Meadow Press, 1985,
 Whispering to Fool the Wind, Sheep Meadow Press, 1982,
 Sleeping on Fists (Dooryard Press, 1981)
 Elk Heads on the Wall(Mango Publications, 1979)
 Spring in the Only Place Spring Was

Short story collections
 The Curtain of Trees
 Pig Cookies

 The Secret Lion

Non-fiction
 Capirotada, University of New México Press, 1999, , a memoir about growing up on the Mexican border

Honors

 Guggenheim Foundation fellowship
 National Endowment for the Arts fellowship
 Walt Whitman Award
 Outstanding Latino/a Cultural Award in Literary Arts or Publications, American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE), 2004
 Western States Book Award for fiction
 Pushcart Prize - awarded 6 times for both poetry and fiction
 2005 Historymaker selection by the Arizona History Society's Museum, a Smithsonian affiliate, at Papago Park, Tempe, Arizona
 2007 recipient of the PEN/Beyond Margins Award for The Theater of Night

Notes

References
 Wild, Peter (1998). Alberto Ríos. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University "Western Writers Series" #131. pp. 51.

External links
 Alberto Álvaro Ríos faculty/personal website – Arizona State University

1952 births
Living people
Arizona State University faculty
American male poets
American short story writers
American memoirists
University of Arizona alumni
People from Nogales, Arizona
People from Chandler, Arizona
Poets Laureate of Arizona
Poets from Arizona
American male short story writers
American male non-fiction writers

Alberto Ríos


The title of King of the Goths (; ; ) was for many centuries borne by both the kings of Sweden and the kings of Denmark.

In the Swedish case, the reference is to Götaland (land of the Geats); in the Danish case, to the island of Gotland (land of the Gutes).

Migration period

Jordanes' Getica has a number of legendary kings of the Goths predating the 4th century:  Berig (the leader of the original Goths during their migration from Scandza to Oium), and
Filimer son of Gadaric ("about the fifth since Berig").
A Gothic leader named Cniva is recorded for the Battle of Abritus of 250.

Attila the Hun styled himself "Attila, Descendant of the Great Nimrod. Nurtured in Engaddi. By the grace of God, King of the Huns, the Goths, the Danes, and the Medes. The Dread of the World".

Swedish title
A papal letter from about 1100 is directed to two Swedish kings—Inge the Elder and Halsten or Håkan Röde (only the initials are given)—as Kings of the Visigoths, which has been interpreted as meaning that they only ruled over Westrogothia, and had lost control over the rest of the country.

In a papal letter dated 5 September 1164, King Charles VII of Sweden (Karl Sverkersson) (c 1130–67; reigned 1161–1167) was addressed as rex Sweorum et Gothorum.

The first Swedish king to regularly use the title was King Magnus III of Sweden, particularly after he had in 1278 had his final win over his deposed brother Valdemar who had hitherto held lands of Västergötland. First Sveriges och Götes Konung up to later decades of Gustaf I of Sweden, then Sveriges, Götes och Vendes Konung, was used in official documentation. Between 1814 and 1905 Sveriges, Norges, Götes och Vendes Konung was used, adding Norway. Sveriges, Götes och Vendes Konung was used again from 1905 up to the accession of Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in 1973, who was the first monarch officially proclaimed Sveriges Konung ("King of Sweden") and nothing else.

Danish title

The first Danish king to use the title was Valdemar IV (reigned 1340 to 1375), who adopted it in 1362 after conquering Gotland the previous year. The Danish kings continued to use the title over the next six hundred years until 1972, when Queen Margrethe II succeeded. She abandoned the use of all her predecessors' titles except her title as 'Denmark's Queen', which is the royal style today.

First documented 1449, the arms of the Danish monarchs contained until 1972 a subcoat representing the title King of the Goths: on gold, a blue heraldic leopard above nine red heraldic hearts. Originally derived from the arms of the dukes of Halland which again was derived from the Danish arms. This symbol is consequently unrelated to Gotland's arms featuring the Agnus Dei, although the latter symbol was also formerly represented in the arms of Denmark.

References

Sources

Further reading

13th-century establishments in Sweden
Goths
Danish heraldry
Swedish heraldry
Danish monarchy
Swedish monarchy
Style of the Swedish sovereign

King of the Goths


The Society for Underwater Technology (SUT) is an international learned society for marine science and technology with headquarters in London, England that was founded in 1966. There are branches in Aberdeen (Scotland), Houston (USA), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Newcastle (England), Perth (Australia), London (England), Melbourne (Australia), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Singapore, Norway (Bergen), China (Beijing) West Africa (Nigeria), the Middle East (UAE) and new branches in early stages of development in St John's Newfoundland & the Eastern Mediterranean to be based in Cyprus. Membership is open to individuals, companies, and institutions with a genuine interest in the broad field of underwater technology. SUT is registered as a charity in the UK, other branches are constituted as charities or 'not-for-profits' as per local legislation.

Goals
SUT promotes the further understanding of the underwater environment and encourages, for example:
 Cross-fertilisation and dissemination of ideas, experience and information between workers in academic research, applied research, technology, industry and government.
 Development of techniques and tools to explore, study and sustainably utilise global ocean resources.
 Further education of scientists and technologists to maintain high standards in marine science and technology, and inform policy makers and marine planners about the possibilities that are becoming available.

SUT covers all aspects of technology applied to diving technology and physiology, submersible design and operation, naval architecture, underwater acoustics, subsea systems, geology, geophysics, marine resource exploitation, oceanography, environmental studies, pollution and marine biology. See list below for current special interest groups. Evening lectures & online webinars are organised by most of the branches. Training courses are offered to industry, in particular "Subsea Awareness" courses, and the society also hosts a "Registered Subsea Engineer" scheme. Since 2021, SUT along with the Marine Technology Society have begun to offer Chartered Marine Technologist (CMarTech) professional status under license from the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology.

Education about the marine world, in particular marine industry, is a strong focus for the society and it supports a number of studentships through awards and an "Educational Support Fund". In 2013 SUT Council voted to incorporate the Engineering Committee on Oceanic Resources (ECOR) into SUT.

Journal
SUT publishes a peer-reviewed scientific journal, Underwater Technology, and a monthly magazine UT2.

History
The Society for Underwater Technology was founded in 1966 following the demise of the Underwater Equipment Research Society the previous year. This precursor society had been set up to facilitate the "interchange of information between users and suppliers of [undersea] equipment". Many of its members went on to become early members of the SUT. In 1966 a steering committee was put in place to form the society, leading directly to the first general meeting on 2 March 1967, hosted by Lord Wakefield of Kendall in the House of Lords. Lord Wakefield was elected as president, with Rear Admiral Sir Edmund Irving as the first chairman of council, Nic Flemming as honorary secretary, and V. Grimoldby as honorary treasurer. The original technical committees were "Biological Technology", "Earth Science", and "General Technology".

The first annual meeting was held 7 December 1967 at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, where the Society had also found a home through the institute's "daughter society" scheme, paying £500 a year for office space and administrative assistance. At this time the Society's association with what was to become Oceanology International was initiated with plans to run a major international conference in 1969 alongside an existing exhibition series in Brighton.

In the early 1970s, branches were developed, mainly in the United Kingdom, while tie-ups with overseas organisations such as the Marine Technology Society in the US and the Engineering Committee for Ocean Engineering were also being sought. Branches were established in East Scotland, West Scotland, East Anglia, Southern England, and Southwest England, while overseas branch possibilities were looked at in Europe.

At the beginning of the 1980s, the branch structure was reduced to a group of regional organisers who organised activities across the United Kingdom in the Southwest, Southern England, the Midlands and Northwest, Scotland East, Scotland Northeast, and Scotland West. In the 1990s the Aberdeen Branch, Southern, and Northeastern Branches were formed.

In 1983 the Educational Support Fund was launched.

In 1990 SUT moved home to the Institute of Marine Engineers and in 2019 moved to an office located at 2 John Street, London WC1N 2ES.

Cmdr Ian Gallett RN (retired) succeeded Cmdr David Wardle RN (retired) as Secretary (later Chief Executive Officer) of SUT in 1994, with Dr Bob Allwood taking on the role in 2009.

SUT was modernised throughout the period of Ian Gallett & Bob Allwood's leadership, emerging as a modern, international marine Learned Society with updated statutes and structure by 2015. By this point over 40% of members were located outside the UK, with the strongest branches being Aberdeen, Houston, London and Perth (Australia) and smaller branches operating in Brazil, China, Malaysia, Norway & Singapore plus emerging branches in Canada and Middle East. The Engineering Committee on Oceanic Resources, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, became a partner of SUT in 2013.

In April 2017 Stephen Hall, former vice-chair of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO became the Chief Executive on Bob Allwood's retirement, and served until December 2020. The current CEO is Cheryl Burgess, who took up duties in early 2021. The Society is governed by an elected Council, who hold annual elections in December. For 2022 the Chair is Susan John, and the Honorary President is Moya Crawford - this marks the first time in SUT's history that CEO, Chair & President of SUT have all been female. The first female president of SUT was Judith Patten MBE, who served in that role for 2021.

During 2020 as a consequence of the global coronavirus outbreak and difficulty in conducting face to face meetings, SUT began offering a weekly Underwater Technology podcast, and fortnightly webinars.

In 2021 the Society moved registered office onboard HQS Wellington on the Thames Embankment, London.

As of February 2022 the main special interest groups of SUT in the UK were as follows, note that other branches will have their own special interest groups, or work through the UK one, depending upon numbers of interested members.
 Diving and manned submersibles
 Defence
 Education
 Environmental Forces
 Marine Environmental Science
 Marine Renewable Energies
 Ocean Resources
 Offshore Site Investigation and Geotechnics& early career OSIG
 Panel on Underwater Robotics (with ECOR, the Engineering Committee on Oceanic Resources)
 Policy Advisory
 Salvage and Decommissioning
 Subsea Engineering
 Underwater Science
 UXO (Unexploded Ordnance)
 Young Professionals

References

External links

 Weekly Podcast

Diving organizations
International organisations based in London
Learned societies of the United Kingdom
Marine engineering organizations
Organisations based in the City of London
1966 establishments in the United Kingdom
Scientific organizations established in 1966
Submarine organizations
Transport organisations based in London
Underwater diving companies
Underwater diving in the United Kingdom

Society for Underwater Technology


The president of the Czech Republic, officially the President of the Republic (), is the head of state of the Czech Republic and the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic.

The presidency has largely been shaped by its inaugural holder, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who assumed the office after the Czechoslovak declaration of independence was proclaimed in 1918. The 1920 Constitution granted the president substantial powers and Masaryk's political strength and popularity enabled the presidency to exert considerable influence over the Czech public life. In modern times, the president is largely a ceremonial figure with limited powers as the day-to-day business of the executive government is entrusted to the prime minister, and  many of the president's actions require prime ministerial approval. Nevertheless, as the bearer of the nation's "Truth prevails" motto, the presidency is widely viewed to be a significant source of prestige, power and moral authority in both domestic and foreign affairs. The president, seated at the Prague Castle, has oftentimes been perceived through the prism of the nation's monarchical past. The office has retained the power to grant full pardons, commute criminal penalties and issue amnesties. The president possesses with a suspensory veto power which can be overridden by an absolute majority of the Chamber of Deputies.

The Constitution provides that the president cannot be held responsible for his own conduct, except in cases of treason or high violation against the Constitution. The president is solely responsible for appointing the prime minister, the Cabinet ministers, as well as the members of the Board of the Czech National Bank, and nominating justices to the Constitutional Court, who are subject to Senate approval, among others.

The current president, Petr Pavel, was elected following the 2023 Czech presidential election, and assumed office on 9 March 2023.

Powers
The framers of the Constitution of the Czech Republic intended to set up a parliamentary system, with the prime minister as the country's leading political figure and the de facto chief executive and the president as a ceremonial head of state. However, the stature of the first president, Václav Havel, was such that the office acquired greater influence than the framers intended, although not nearly as powerful as the Czechoslovak presidency.

Absolute authority
The president of the Czech Republic has the authority to act independently in a number of substantive areas. One of the office's strongest powers is that of veto, which returns a bill to parliament. Although the veto may be overridden by parliament with an absolute majority vote (over 50%) of all deputies, the ability to refuse to sign legislation acts as a check on the power of the legislature. The only kind of bills a President can neither veto nor approve are acts that would change the constitution.

The president also has the leading role in the appointment of persons to key high offices, including appointment of judges to the Supreme and Constitutional Courts (with the permission of the Senate), and members of the Bank Board of the Czech National Bank.

Limited sole authority
There are some powers reserved to the president, but can be exercised only under limited circumstances. Chief among these is the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies. While the president can dissolve the Chamber on his own authority, forcing a new election of that body within 60 days, this can be done only under conditions prescribed by the constitution.

Duties shared
Many of the president's powers can only be exercised with the assent of the government, as expressed by the signature of the prime minister. These include all matters having to do with foreign relations and the use of the military, the appointment of judges to lower courts, and the granting of amnesty. Except when the Chamber of Deputies has been dissolved because of its failure to form or maintain a government, the president may call for elections to the Chamber and the Senate only with the prime minister's approval.

The president also shares responsibility with the Chamber of Deputies for appointing the president and vice president of the Supreme Control Officethe body in charge of implementing the national budgetalthough this appointment does not technically require the signature of the Prime Minister.

Immunity from prosecution
Art 65 (1) prevents trial or detention for any criminal or administrative offense while in office. The only sort of prosecution allowed for a sitting president is that of high treason, which can only be carried out by the Senate, and can only result in removal from office and a ban on regaining the office at a later date.

Ceremonial powers
Many of the duties of the Czech president can be said to be ceremonial to one degree or another, especially since the president has relatively few powers independent of the will of the prime minister. A good example of this is the status as commander in chief of the military. No part of these duties can take place but through the assent of the prime minister. In matters of war, he is in every sense merely a figurehead, since the constitution gives all substantive constitutional authority over the use of the armed forces to the parliament. In fact, the only specific thing the constitution allows the president to do with respect to the military is to appoint its generalsbut even this must be done with the signature of the prime minister.

Many of the president's ceremonial duties fall under provisions of the constitution that allow the exercise of powers "not explicitly defined" in the constitution, but allowed by a lesser law. In other words, Parliament has the power to allow the president whatever responsibilities they deem proper, without necessarily having to amend the constitution. Such a law was passed in 1994 with respect to the awarding of state decorations. While the constitution explicitly allows the conferring of honors and awarding of medals by the president only with the signature of the prime minister, parliament acted in 1994 to grant the president power to do so on his own authority. Hence, this particular duty is effectively shared between the parliament and the president. The act even allows the president to choose someone to perform the actual presentation ceremony.

Election
Until 2012, the office of president was filled following an indirect election by the Parliament of the Czech Republic. In February 2012, a change to a direct election was passed by the Senate, and after the related implementation law also was passed by both chambers of the parliament, it was enacted by presidential assent on 1 August 2012; meaning that it legally entered into force on 1 October 2012.

Electoral procedure
The term of office of the president is 5 years. A newly elected president will begin the five-year term on the day of taking the official oath. Candidates standing for office must be at least 40 years of age, and must not have already been elected twice consecutively. Since the only term limit is that no person can be elected more than twice consecutively, a person may theoretically achieve the presidency more than twice. Prospective candidates must either submit petitions with the signatures of 50,000 citizens, or be nominated by 20 deputies or 10 senators.

The constitution does not prescribe a specific date for presidential elections, but stipulates that elections shall occur in the window between 30 and 60 days before the end of the sitting president's term, provided that it was called at least 90 days prior to the selected election day. In the event of a president's death, resignation or removal, the election can be held at the earliest 10 days after being called and at the latest 80 days after vacancy of the presidential seat. If no candidate receives a majority, a runoff is held between the top two candidates.

The constitution makes specific allowances for the failure of a new president to be elected. If a new president has not been elected by the end of a president's term, or if 30 days elapse following a vacancy, some powers are conferred upon the prime minister, some are moved to the chairman of the Chamber of Deputies or to the chairman of the Senate, if parliament is in a state of dissolution at the time of the vacancy.

The first direct presidential election in the Czech Republic was held 11–12 January 2013, with a runoff on 25–26 January.

Previous electoral procedure (until 1 October 2012)
Under Article 58 of the current Czech Constitution, nominees to the office must be put forward by no fewer than 10 Deputies or 10 Senators. Once nominees are in place, a ballot can begin. Each ballot can have at most three rounds. In the first round, a victorious candidate requires an absolute majority in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Given a 200-seat Chamber and an 81-seat Senate, a successful first-round candidate requires 101 deputies and 41 senators.

If no single candidate gets a majority of both the Chamber and the Senate, a second round is then called for. At this stage, a candidate requires an absolute majority of merely those present at the time of voting in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The number of votes required in the second round might be the same as in the first round but, as in 2008, can be a little less due to the absence of a few parliamentarians. In this second round, a single candidate would still need to win a majority in both the Chamber and the Senate.

Should no single candidate achieve a majority of both houses then present, a third round is necessitated. In this final round, which can happen within 14 days of the first round, an absolute majority of deputies and senators present suffices. At this stage, the individual houses of parliament are not considered separately. Assuming that all members of parliament are present, all that is required to win is 141 votes, regardless of the house of origin. If no candidate wins in the third round, another ballot has to be considered in a subsequent joint session of parliament. The process continues under the same rules until a candidate prevails.

In 1993, the Republic's first president, Václav Havel, had little difficulty achieving victory on the first round of the first ballot, but his re-election bid proved bumpier. In 1998, he was elected with a cumulative seven-vote margin on the second round of the first ballot. By contrast, his successor, Václav Klaus, has required the full measure of the process. He narrowly won election on the third ballot at the 2003 election and on the sixth (second attempt, third ballot) in 2008. Both his elections were won in the third round. His biggest margin of victory was two votes.

Dissatisfaction with previous procedure
Following the 2003 and 2008 elections, which both required multiple ballots, some in the Czech political community expressed dissatisfaction with this method of election. In 2008, Martin Bursík, leader of the Czech Green Party, said of the 2008 vote, "We are sitting here in front of the public somewhat muddied by backstage horse-trading, poorly concealed meetings with lobbyists and intrigue." There were calls to adopt a system with a direct election, in which the public would be involved in the voting. However, opponents of this plan pointed out that the presidency had always been determined by indirect vote, going back through several predecessor states to the presidency of Tomáš Masaryk. Charles University political scientist Zdeněk Zbořil suggested that direct voting could result in a president and prime minister who were hostile to each other's goals, leading to deadlock. A system of direct elections was supported by figures including Jiří Čunek (Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party) and Jiří Paroubek (Czech Social Democratic Party), whereas the ruling Civic Democratic Party, under both President Václav Klaus and Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek, was more skeptical. Topolánek commented that it was an advantage that "our presidential elections are not preceded by some campaign, that is unavoidable in a direct election and causes rifts among citizens". Using Poland as an unfavourable example, he said that "when someone talks about how our method of selecting the head of state is undignified, he should first weigh the consequences of a direct vote".

Removal from office
Aside from death, there are only three things that can effect a president's removal from office:
A president can resign by notifying the President of the Senate.
The president may be deemed unable to execute his duties for "serious reasons" by a joint resolution of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputiesalthough the president may appeal to the Constitutional Court to have this resolution overturned.
The president may be impeached by the Senate for high treason and convicted by the Constitutional Court.

Succession
In the case when the President is unable to perform his/her duties or if the presidency becomes vacant for any reason, the duties are divided between the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and the Prime Minister. Should the Chamber of Deputies be dissolved at the time, the duties which normally fall to the Chamber's speaker fall to the President of the Senate, who also assumes the President's responsibility for calling elections for the Chamber even when the Chamber is not dissolved.

Trappings of office

Presidential fanfare

Since the first Czechoslovak president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the presidential fanfare has been the introduction to Bedřich Smetana's opera Libuše, which is symbol of the patriotism of the Czech people during the Czech National Revival under the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.

Heraldry
The office of president carries with it an iconography, established through laws passed by the parliament. Perhaps the most visible of these is the flag of the president, as seen at top right. His official motto is the same as that of the Republic: "Pravda vítězí" ("Truth prevails").

Inasmuch as the president is the titular sole administrator of Prague Castle, the presidency may also be said to control the heraldry of that institution as well, including but not limited to the special designs worn by the Castle Guard, which is a special unit of the armed forces of the Czech Republic, organized under the Military Office of the President of the Czech Republic, directly subordinate to the president.

Furthermore, the president, while in office, is entitled to wear the effects of the highest class of the Republic's two ceremonial orders, the Order of the White Lion and the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. By the power of being inaugurated, the President becomes the holder of the highest class of both orders for the duration of his term in office as well as their supreme administrator. By convention, the Parliament allows a retiring President to remain a life-long member of both institutions, with the order decorations returning to the State upon the former President's death.

Residences

The official residence of the president of the Czech Republic is Prague Castle. However, the living quarters are small and not particularly comfortable, so recent presidents (Václav Havel, Václav Klaus and Miloš Zeman) have chosen to live elsewhere. The last president to reside more or less full-time in the residence in the Prague Castle was Gustáv Husák. The president also maintains a summer residence at the castle in the village of Lány, 35 km west of Prague.

List of presidents of the Czech Republic

See also
Prime Minister of the Czech Republic
List of prime ministers of the Czech Republic
List of presidents of Czechoslovakia
List of Czech presidential candidates

References

External links
The Czech constitution. Articles 54–66 are particularly relevant to the presidency.
The official site of Prague Castle

1993 establishments in the Czech Republic

President of the Czech Republic


Joseph Anthony Lala (November 3, 1947 – March 18, 2014) was an American musician and actor. In 1966, he co-founded the rock band Blues Image.

Life and career
Lala was born in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida, to parents from Contessa Entellina (an ethnic Albanian community in Sicily). His father was Sicilian, and he left the family when Joe was a child, so he was raised by his mother on her own. Lala's mother, Janie Cacciatore, an avid dancer, took her son to as many shows as she could. Lala spoke fluent Spanish and Italian. He started out playing the drums in several Florida bands, before forming the band Blues Image. He also occasionally sang lead vocals, most notably on the song "Leaving My Troubles Behind". As a drummer and percussionist, he worked with The Byrds, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Manassas, The Stills-Young Band, The Bee Gees, Whitney Houston, Joe Walsh, Andy Gibb and many others. He played the trademark congas that drove the Bee Gees' 1976 US chart-topper You Should Be Dancing, subsequently included on the multi-million selling Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Lala provided the wide selection of percussive effects on Barbra Streisand's 1980 worldwide No. 1 album Guilty, and contributed to Whitney Houston's eponymous 1985 debut album. Throughout his career, Lala accumulated 32 gold records and 28 platinum records. He played on the movie soundtracks of Saturday Night Fever, Staying Alive, D.C. Cab, Streets of Fire, All the Right Moves, Breathless, Defiance, The Lonely Guy and Airplane!. A severe case of carpal tunnel syndrome ended Lala's career as a percussionist. It kept him from performing full-time, but he continued to record with Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, the acoustic band Firefall, Dan Fogelberg, Dolly Parton, Rod Stewart and many others. Joe Lala was the last in the drummer stool for the handful of concerts given in February 1973 by the disintegrating Byrds.

He made the most of his Italian-American background and his mastery of Spanish, Cuban and Puerto Rican accents with TV roles in Miami Vice, General Hospital, Melrose Place, Seinfeld, Hunter, and Who's the Boss?, and starred in a summer replacement show named Knight & Daye. He portrayed another native of Ybor City, Dr. Ferdie Pacheco, in Ali: An American Hero, and co-starred with Andy Garcia in For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story. His films included Active Stealth, Sugar Hill, On Deadly Ground, Deep Sleep, Havana (with Robert Redford), Out for Justice, Marked for Death, Eyewitness to Murder, and Born in East L.A., plus many more.

Lala also guest-starred on several animated shows; Batman: The Animated Series, Pinky and the Brain, Quack Pack, The Angry Beavers, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Danger Rangers, ChalkZone, Johnny Bravo, Ozzy & Drix, Superman: The Animated Series, The Woody Woodpecker Show (the 1999 version), and many more. Additionally, he voiced Kun Lan in the 2005 video game Killer7.

Lala was married to voice director Ginny McSwain from 1996 till their divorce in 2004.

He had ultimately walked away from the entertainment business in the mid-2000s in order to care for his mother, who had dementia. Lala coached young actors at the Italian Club in his native Ybor City.
Joe Lala died from complications of lung cancer on March 18, 2014, at the age of 66.

Filmography

Collaborations

With Gypsy
 In the Garden (Metromedia Records – KMD 1044, 1971)

With Barbra Streisand
 Guilty (Columbia Records, 1980)

With Stephen Stills
 Manassas (Atlantic Records, 1972)
 Down the Road (Atlantic Records, 1973)
 Stills (Columbia Records, 1975)
 Illegal Stills (Columbia Records, 1976)
 Thoroughfare Gap (Columbia Records, 1978)
 Right by You (Atlantic Records, 1984)
 Man Alive! (Pryamid Records, 2005)

With Dionne Warwick
 Heartbreaker (Arista Records, 1982)

With David Crosby
 Oh Yes I Can (A&M Records, 1989)

With Joe Walsh
 The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get (ABC Records, 1973)

With Dan Fogelberg
 Souvenirs (Epic Records, 1974)
 Nether Lands (Epic Records, 1977)
 Twin Sons of Different Mothers (Epic Records, 1978)
 The Innocent Age (Epic Records, 1981)
 Windows and Walls (Epic Records, 1984)
 Exiles (Epic Records, 1987)

With Don Felder
 Airborne (Asylum Records, 1983)

With Bill Wyman
 Monkey Grip (Atlantic Records, 1974)

With Ringo Starr
 Stop and Smell the Roses (RCA Records, 1981)

With Neil Diamond
 Beautiful Noise (Columbia Records, 1976)

With Jackson Browne
 Hold Out (Asylum Records, 1980)

With Kenny Rogers
 Eyes That See in the Dark (RCA Records, 1983)

With Graham Nash
 Earth & Sky (Capitol Records, 1980)
 Innocent Eyes (Atlantic Records, 1986)

With Neil Young
 Trans (Geffen, 1982)

With Rod Stewart
 A Night on the Town (Warner Bros. Records, 1976)

With Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
 CSNY 1974 (Rhino Records, 2014)

References

External links

1947 births
2014 deaths
American rock drummers
American male voice actors
American male television actors
Blues Image members
Musicians from Tampa, Florida
Male actors from Tampa, Florida
Souther–Hillman–Furay Band members
Thomas Jefferson High School (Tampa, Florida) alumni
Male actors from Florida
Deaths from lung cancer in Florida
American rock percussionists
American session musicians
Timbaleros
Conga players
Bongo players
Tambourine players
Maracas players
Güiro players
American people of Italian descent
American people of Arbëreshë descent
Timpanists

Joe Lala


Ross Markham Noble (born 6 June 1976) is an English stand-up comedian and actor. Noble rose to mainstream popularity through making appearances on British television, particularly interviews and on panel shows such as Have I Got News for You. He has also released DVDs of several of his tours.

In 2007 he was voted the 10th-greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups and again in the updated 2010 list as the 11th-greatest stand-up comic.

In 2012, Noble made his film debut in the fantasy comedy horror movie Stitches. In 2015 he made his musical theatre debut in The Producers and in 2018 was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance in Young Frankenstein in the West End.

Early life
Noble was born around 1977 in Newcastle upon Tyne and brought up in Cramlington, Northumberland. Both of his parents were teachers.

He was taught at Cramlington Learning Village between 1987 and 1991.

Stand-up performance

Noble's stand-up routine is a largely improvised and surreal performance with a stream of consciousness delivery. He is often referred to as a randomist. Often, a large percentage of his set becomes based around heckles and conversations with members of the audience. Although he does often have a few set topics which he performs throughout a tour, he describes the planning for the entire show as "about four words on a piece of scrap paper".

Noble often mimes actions on-stage to help the audience visualise his surreal ideas, for example, telling the audience to never put a blanket over an owl, and exactly what an owl neck detection device is ("just a stick with a pointy bit on it") or showing the audience how to serve double header ice creams properly after considering his own made-up plot of 24 in which Jack Bauer escapes a cell using a greasy goose.

Noble's style is recognised as spontaneous, due to his unpredictable performance style, interruptions from hecklers or because he has drifted off into another surreal tangent. During his shows he is known to dabble onto one topic, ask a member of the audience something about him or herself and use that as material, and carry on with that, and later on seems to forget about the routine, digressing into another topic. Thus the audience pesters Noble to tell the ending of his unfinished stories, which are usually eventually concluded at the end of his shows. His most famous example is in his Randomist tour, where he started to tell a story about him being interviewed after Live 8 near the beginning of a show in Newcastle, which he did not finish until the end of the performance, around two hours later. This relates to an earlier comment he made in his Regent's Park show, saying that his mind "Tends to wander off [the point] slightly", and later added that "[he] can open up too many tangents at once... it's a never-ending expanding spiral of possibilities."

Career

Early years
Noble is originally from Cramlington, Northumberland, England. "The ultimate place to live" helped him with his career—he found little to do in his hometown so he became particularly imaginative. At the age of 11, it was discovered that he was dyslexic. Because of this, Noble decided to work within a career which did not rely on academic skills. He had a brief stint as a street juggler with a friend, and aspired to join a circus. He joined a clown troupe and sold balloons as a stilt-walker, before deciding to become a comedian after winning tickets to a comedy show. As a teenager, Ross was a member of the youth theatre at the People's Theatre in Heaton, Newcastle. In 1997, he was doing warm-ups at the BBC for Friday Night Armistice.

Noble has been performing stand-up since the dyslexia diagnosis, and appeared in his local comedy club at the age of 15, despite licensing laws that prohibited him working there and forced him to leave through the kitchen. Noble studied performing arts at Newcastle College, after he told his careers adviser at school he wanted to be a comedian. He later stated that this had no effect on his stand-up ability, as he believes that the information taught is not important in being a good performer.

Stand-up career
Since starting as a stand-up comedian, Noble has won many awards, including a Time Out award winner in 2000 for his Edinburgh Fringe Festival show Chickenmaster, and a Perrier Award nomination in 1999 for another Edinburgh show Laser Boy. He has since achieved great popularity in both the UK and Australia, where he has toured extensively every year since 2001. Noble's 2003 show Unrealtime was the best-selling show at the Edinburgh Fringe, before transferring to London's West End for a monthlong season at the Garrick Theatre where it played to packed houses. A recording of this tour was shown on BBC Two in 2004, and a double-DVD set was released later that year.

During 2004, Noble performed at the Edinburgh Fringe and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and other venues with his show Noodlemeister. His 2005 UK tour, Randomist, ran from September to December, of which he continued in Australia during 2006. In April 2006, Noble was involved in a motorbike accident, and both fractured and dislocated his collarbone. Conveniently, he crashed right outside a hospital. Noble performed his shows over the following weeks with his arm in a sling. During his 'Things' tour, in Bristol on 1 March 2009, he claimed that before the ambulance officers would help him, he was forced to do his Stephen Hawking impression.

While performing in Edinburgh in September 2006 for his Fizzy Logic tour, a fight broke out during the gig, caused by a drunken member of the audience arguing with another. Also, in his Edinburgh gig, some one gave him a basket of mini-muffins with faces printed on them; this is related to a sketch from Noble's DVD Sonic Waffle, in which he mentions his hobby of finding faces in muffins. At another gig, he found someone filming the show on their mobile phone and confiscated the phone. He then recorded a video on it himself. After finding that several people recorded his finale skit, "The falling owl stunt", Noble encouraged the entire audience to record the stunt simultaneously and post them on YouTube, in an attempt to achieve, "The largest number of videos showing exactly the same thing." He then took his tour to Australia in February 2007, during which he filmed a documentary about his travels around the country.

In 2007 Noble finished his Nobleism tour in the UK with a show in Liverpool on 21 October 2007 which was screened live to 43 Vue cinemas. If the event had sold out, he would have played to over 10,000 people. Upon walking offstage, Noble enquired if the broadcast had succeeded and was informed by a technician that "it worked perfectly... but we lost Aberdeen". To this day, Noble maintains that this is the "coolest thing anyone has ever said" to him.

Noble likes to have spontaneous material related to each specific show, and therefore encourages heckling and has increasingly indulged in the audience giving him gifts during shows. At a gig at the Edinburgh Playhouse during Noble's 2005 Randomist tour, a member of the audience put his feet up on the stage, and later removed his shoes and put them on the stage instead. It is now traditional for the entire front row of an Edinburgh audience to place their shoes upon the stage during the interval, which causes Noble much amusement when he returns.

Noble performed at the 2008 Latitude Festival and rounded off his set by leading everyone in the tent in a huge conga line (which quickly turned into a stampede) to a vegan food stand so they could all ask for pies and sausage rolls.

The DVD of his show Nobleism was released in November 2009.

TV and radio

Guest appearances
Noble had not done any acting work on TV until the summer of 2013 when he appeared opposite Ian Smith as a gay lover in the Australian TV series "It's a date", or radio, as he prefers stand-up for giving him the freedom to say what he wants without being influenced by a script or crew. Nevertheless, he has made many TV appearances, which mainly take the form of interviews and panel game participation. In the UK, he has appeared on BBC's Johnny Vaughan Tonight and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. Noble has also made 16 appearances, the highest number of appearances of any guest, on BBC One's Have I Got News for You including the first show guest presented by Paul Merton. His most memorable appearance on the show saw him and Paul Merton answer all their questions wrong, and getting no points in the entire show. He was Paul Merton's guest on Room 101, where he wanted to consign to history the likes of Craig David, cartoon animals who wear clothes, people who look like cats, clipboards and Christian rock music. He makes regular contributions to BBC Radio 4's Just a Minute and has also appeared on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and presented 4 At The Store. In July 2007, Ross featured, as part of his "In The Company Of...", on the Colin Murray show on BBC Radio 1, and in August 2007 Noble appeared on Steve Wright in the Afternoon on BBC Radio 2.

In Australia, he has guested on such TV and radio shows as Network 10's Rove (Live), The Panel, Good News Week, Thank God You're Here, Studio 10, The Project, Would I Lie to You? Australia and Hughesy, We Have a Problem, the ABC's The Glasshouse, Spicks and Specks, and A Quiet Word With ..., as well as Triple M radio show Get This, regular appearances on Triple J.

In Ireland, he appeared on the first series of Tubridy Tonight, where he went over to a prop bookcase to inspect if the books were real. Upon reading one book, he found a photo of Mike Yarwood on one page, which he cut out and wore as a mask for a portion of the interview.

Since 2010 he has made eighteen guest appearances on British comedy panel show QI.

In July 2011 Ross appeared in the second episode of the 17th series of Top Gear. On the show he revealed that he currently owns earth moving machines as well as an Abbott 433 self-propelled gun, which he calls his "Tank". He did a lap around the Top Gear track in 1.43.5, beating Tom Cruise and placing him in second place behind John Bishop.

In 2012 he was a regular panelist on That Sunday Night Show on ITV.

In April 2012 he featured on Triple J for a day where he co-hosted some shows, and played an imaginative game of Cluedo, where they found people from around Melbourne that matched the Cluedo characters names to come into the studio and play.

Appears briefly in TT3D: Closer to the Edge in conversation with Richard 'Milky' Quayle.

Hosted series
Besides making various guest appearances, Noble has been the host of an Australian radio show, and the subject of two BBC radio series. Noble's worldwide travels as a stand-up were the subject of his own BBC Radio 4 series Ross Noble Goes Global, produced by Danny Wallace. This series, recorded between April and May 2001, saw him recording his observations as he travelled around various countries. In January 2005, Noble joined Australian comedian Terri Psiakis in co-hosting Ross and Terri, the weekday lunch shift on national radio station Triple J. Following on from Ross Noble Goes Global, Radio 4 broadcast a new series called Ross Noble On... during January to February 2007. The 4-episode series followed his 2006 UK tour, featuring performances in Brighton, York, Manchester and Newcastle. All of the Radio 4 programmes have since been released as BBC audio CDs.

Noble once again teamed up with Terri Psiakis on Triple J for two weeks of Ross and Terri in January 2006. This second period on Triple J also saw Ross and Terri founding "Pants Across Australia", during which, 4 pairs of trousers were sent to the north, south, east and west extremities of Australia and then back to Melbourne. Ross and Terri did not return to this slot in 2007, however Terri Psiakis and Amy Blackmur (the pair's producer from their 2006 show) did present a limited run of shows during a similar time frame earlier in the year, under the working title "T 'n' A" ("Terri and Amy"). As well as this, Terri and Amy decided to continue in the evening slot of 6pm – 10pm.

In 2007, Stunt Baby Productions filmed a documentary about Ross Noble's 95-day Fizzy Logic tour of Australia. Ross Noble travels by motorbike when touring, which for this tour travelled on a BMW R1150GS Adventure (as mentioned during the encore of one of his Canberra gigs), covering a distance of approximately 26,000 km around Australia clockwise from Brisbane. The show was broadcast as "Ross Noble's Australian Trip" on UK TV channel 5 from Monday 28 September 2009 at 10pm for 6 weeks, repeating at the same time on Fiver on the following Thursdays. The show aired in Australia on Channel 10 on Mondays at 10:00 pm.

In 2013-15 Noble hosted his own show on Dave titled Freewheeling. Described as an anti-travelogue around Britain, in the show Noble took the freestyle philosophy he embraces in his live shows and utilised his trademark audience participation gimmick and transferred it to television as he rode around the UK on his motorbike taking live requests on Twitter instructing him on where he should go next, making the road trip entirely unpredictable.

Celebrity Contestant

In October 2020, Noble was announced as a competing celebrity contestant on the fifth season of The Celebrity Apprentice Australia in 2021. He finished as the runner-up of the series, raising over $100,000 for his charity, the Australian Red Cross - Disaster Response and Recovery Fund.

Theatre
Noble made his musical theatre debut as Franz Liebkind in the 2015 UK tour of Mel Brooks' The Producers from May to July 2015.

In September 2017 he played Igor in another Mel Brooks musical Young Frankenstein at the Garrick Theatre in London's West End (following a tryout at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle) before leaving in February 2018 due to his Australian stand-up tour. Noble received a WhatsOnStage Award for his performance and was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical. During his time in the show, he and co-star Hadley Fraser did a recording called "Poddin' On The Ritz" to discuss behind-the-scenes at the show and musical theatre.

Personal life
Noble has two daughters, with his Australian wife. He lived on a farm in St Andrews, a semi-rural town on the northern outskirts of Melbourne, Australia, until it was destroyed by 2009 Victorian bushfires along with all his material possessions. Noble and his family were not harmed in the fire. The family returned to the UK in 2010. In February 2017 Noble and his family moved back to Australia, purchasing a house in Mount Eliza, Victoria. In September 2019 they sold this property for $2.725 million AUD and moved to the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne.

A keen biker and off-road rider, Noble is also a fan of MotoGP, WSBK and The Isle of Man TT. He has created an off-road track in the paddock at his home and has a number of vehicles to use on it, including an FV433 Abbot SPG self-propelled gun. He has competed in many races—notably, The Romaniacs and the 24-hour Dusk to Dawn. He attended several track days in 2011, including Brands Hatch on the GP circuit as a guest of MSV aboard his Triumph Daytona 675R.

Charity work
Following the 2009 Victoria bushfires, Noble has used the event in his act and donates profits from the sale of the show's programme/poster (or "postergram" as it is called) to a charitable fund to help those similarly affected.

Noble supports British charity Riders for Health and donated money earned from limited edition signed posters together with bucket collections after each gig from his Nonsensory Overload tour to Riders for Health. This raised £42,000 for Riders. He has attended their fundraising event Day of Champions on a number of occasions, most recently at Silverstone in 2010. He also voiced the Riders for Health BBC Radio 4 appeal aired just before Christmas 2010.

In May 2011, to celebrate his 20th anniversary of stand-up, Noble teamed up with Triumph Motorcycles which were also celebrating a milestone, having just produced their 500,000th bike (since the company was relaunched 20 years earlier) and did the "Sit Down" tour. Using only Twitter as a guide, Noble travelled around the UK on the unique Triumph Speed Triple guided by his Twitter followers and accompanied by a film crew. The Triumph Speed Triple was auctioned by Bonhams at the Goodwood festival of speed on 1 July 2011, with all the proceeds (£8,000) going to Noble's charity of choice, Riders for Health.

In July 2011, Noble competed in the Red Bull Romaniacs, which is "one of the toughest extreme motorcycle events on the planet". as part of the Desert Rose Racing Team with fellow rider Clive "Zippy" Town (Dakar 2006) with both riders on 350 Exc-F KTMs.

Tours
These dates apply to Noble's tours.
 Laser Boy (1999)
 Chickenmaster (2000)
 Slackers' Playtime (2001–2002)
 Sonic Waffle (2002–2003)
 Unrealtime (2003–2004)
 Noodlemeister (2004–2005)
 Randomist (2005–2006)
 Fizzy Logic (2006–2007)
 Nobleism (2007)
 Headspace Cowboy (2008–2009) (Australian tour only)
 Things (2009–2010)
 Nonsensory Overload (2010–2012)
 Mindblender (2012–2013)
 Tangentleman (2014–2015)
 Brain Dump (2016–2017)
 El Hablador (2018)
 Humournoid (2020-2021)
 Jibber Jabber Jamboree (2023-2024)

DVD releases
Several recorded performances of Noble are available on DVD, notable for the large number of extras that appear on them. Noble's recorded shows are mostly dominated by Noble with just a few moments of audience participation. Throughout the rest of his tour Noble is more relaxed, with the audience joining in. However, the audience can sometimes dominate a show, as seen on the extra "Live in Birmingham" gig on the Randomist DVD. Although on the official website it states that all of Noble's DVDs are region-free, with the exception of Unrealtime, his latest two DVDs have only been released in Region 2 format so far.

Unrealtime
 Released: 11 October 2004
A double-DVD set which includes a performance of Noble's Unrealtime show at the Garrick Theatre, as well as a performance at the 100 Club. Also Noble on tour backstage footage and a quiz to unlock extra footage. Also contains a 'trivia track' which contains spoof "facts" relating to the show's content.

Sonic Waffle
 Released: 3 October 2005
The single DVD contains the uncut last night performance from London's Vaudeville Theatre, complete with commentary and "commentary on the commentary" audio tracks. It also includes his 'meat on the face' performance from the BBC television series Jack Dee Live at the Apollo, which has an audio commentary opinion where Noble is joined by a Cantonese interpreter. The DVD also offers the viewer to play a game of celebrity muffins.

Randomist
 Released: 6 November 2006
A 4-disc set which contains unedited performances from the City Hall in Newcastle, the Victoria Hall in Stoke, the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham and the Town Hall in Melbourne, Australia. The extras include the documentaries Ross' Highland Fling and Ross' Australia Tour, and an interactive quiz. The fourth disc contains the Randomiser, and an hour's worth of randomised live performance clips from York, Manchester and Liverpool. Commentary is included for three of the shows, which was recorded consecutively and described by Noble as "four hours of me going slowly insane in a small box".

Fizzy Logic
 Released: 12 November 2007
Fizzy Logic is Noble's fourth DVD set, consisting of two discs. The first contains a full performance recorded in Canberra during 2007, and a documentary charting his New Zealand circuit. The second contains six shows from his UK tour and special seventh from Southend, which is unlocked by being able to find out where the previous six shows were performed.

Nobleism
 Released: 9 November 2009
Nobleism is Noble's fifth DVD set. It was released in the UK on 9 November and in Australia on 13 November 2009. It consists of two discs. Disc one features his live stand-up show from the Empire Theatre, Liverpool. Disc two has bonus show footage, a Ross Noble interview with Dr Oliver Double and episode one of Ross Noble's Australian Trip. At the same time of being filmed at the Empire Theatre in Liverpool the show was simultaneously broadcast, via satellite, to 45 Vue cinemas nationwide.

Things
 Released: 29 November 2010
Ross Noble's new DVD set is a two-disc set. Disc one features the main live show from Manchester on his 'Things' tour. Disc two features highlights from a show performed in a large stadium in Brisbane, highlights from shows in Canberra and Melbourne, a full-length unedited version of his interview on Carpool and his appearance on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross where he had a mock fight with host Jonathan Ross. A limited-edition set contained an additional third disc containing highlights from a recording in Aberdeen. The DVD is dedicated to Noble's father Malcolm, who died that year.

Headspace Cowboy
 Released: 14 November 2011

Noble uploaded his weekly free clip, entitled "Toucan Bastards", to his official YouTube channel, at the end of which he announced his new DVD. Upon its release it was confirmed to be the never before seen 2008 tour. The DVD is slightly different from Ross's previous releases due to the fact that rather than one continuous main show it is split into six pieces spreading over two discs approximately 45 to 50 minutes each. The DVD also includes a third disc containing bonus material, including a commentary on only one of the six shows, unseen bits taken from the show and Ross's Sit Down Tour.

Nonsensory Overload
 Released: 5 November 2012
Nonsensory Overload is Noble's 8th DVD release. A 3-disc set, the main live content runs for over five hours, making this the longest-running DVD Noble has released thus far. The first disc contains a two-and-a-half-hour show recorded in Canberra, Australia which also has optional commentary by Ross. The second contains a 50-minute show recorded live at Hay festival as well as a feature that includes all of Ross's favourite tour moments. The third and final disc contains a further show lasting two hours from the Nonsensory Overload tour as well as a bonus feature containing more live footage.

Mindblender
 Released: 18 November 2013
 Noble released a DVD of his Mindblender tour on 18 November 2013. This 2-disc set is Noble's 9th DVD release.

Brain Dump
 Released: 31 August 2017
 Noble announced via his Twitter account that he would no longer release DVDs of his recorded material, but, rather, release for on-demand service Vimeo. Brain Dump was the first such release.

Stand Up Series
 Released: 2020
 Eight Part Series airing on the Australian ABC featuring highlights from Noble's Tangentleman Tour

El Hablador
 Released: 2021
 Two Part Series Airing on the Australian ABC featuring highlights from Noble's El Hablador Tour

References

External links

 Ross Noble Goes Global on bbc.co.uk

1976 births
Living people
Comedians from Tyne and Wear
English expatriates in Australia
English male comedians
English stand-up comedians
People from Cramlington
21st-century English comedians
The Apprentice Australia candidates
Actors with dyslexia
Male actors from Newcastle upon Tyne

Ross Noble


Divine law (Latin: ius divinum) is the name for a number of laws that were given by one or more gods.  As such, they are not supposed to change. An example of divine law are the Ten Commandments in Christianity. It is similar, but different form natural law. It is completely different from positive law.

Today, many states are secular. They think that most laws are man-made, and therefore can be adapted, if necessary.
Types of law
Religious ethics

Divine law


In Sikh discipline (Gurmukhi: ਸਿੱਖ ਅਨੁਸ਼ਾਸਨ; sikha anuśāsana), a Sikh is required by the Sikh Gurus to live a disciplined life by doing pure and righteous deeds and actions. The following are the list of activities that a Sikh should engages in:

5 Banis - The initiated Sikh is asked by the Panj Piare during the Amrit Sanchar ceremony to recite the following 5 banis every morning as a commitment to the Sikh Gurus and Waheguru.  The 5 Banis are: Japji Sahib, Jaap Sahib, Anand Sahib, Benti Chaupai and Tav parsad Savaiye - these banis are usually recited daily by all devoted Sikhs in the early morning.

Five Ks or panj kakaar/kakke, are five items of faith that baptised Khalsa Sikhs wear at all times at the command of the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh who so ordered at the Baisakhi Amrit Sanchar in 1699. The Five Ks are not merely symbols but articles of faith which collectively form the external visible symbols to identify and clearly and outwardly advertise and display one's commitment and dedication to the order (Hukam) of the tenth master. Guru Gobind Singh ordered his followers to wear the Five Ks so that they could actively use them to make a difference to their own and to others' spirituality.  However, Sikhi recognises the concept of a multi-level approach to achieving one's target as a disciple of the faith as well. For example, "Sahajdhari" (slow adopters) are those Sikhs who have not yet donned the full Five Ks.

Five Thieves or pancadokh or panj vikar as they are referred to in Sikh Scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, are, according to Sikhi, the five thieves that steal the senses of the human personality and are at variance with its spiritual essence. These five "thieves" comprise Kam (Lust), Krodh (Rage), Lobh (Greed), Moh (Attachment) and Ahankar (ego) in Punjabi.

Five Virtues - For Sikhs, the final goal of life is to reunite or merge with God (Mukti). The Sikh Gurus taught that to achieve this goal it was important to work hard at developing positive human qualities which lead the soul closer to God. The Gurus taught that all human beings have the qualities they need to reunite with God but they must train their minds to make the most of these qualities. In order to reach the final goal of life, Sikhs believe that they must constantly develop their love for God by developing compassion for all God's creation.

Simran - In Sikhi, Simran () refers to the repetition or recital of the God Names:  Nām or of the Holy Text from the Granths of the Sikhs: the Sri Guru Granth Sahib. The word is derived from Sanskrit or Prakrit word smarana meaning Remembrance. Also translates to 'Meditation' – The verb Simar, which is derived from Simran means meditating.

Sewa - To perform selfless service, without any thought of reward or personal benefit. All Sikhs are encouraged by their Guru (Shiri Guru Granth Sahib) to perform Seva or Selfless Service. This is not only good for community relations but also is good for the moral upliftment. You will find Sikhs engaged in free service in Gurdwaras washing dishes or cleaning the floors, etc. Sikhs are also encouraged to help the community by performing unpaid work in Hospitals, Old Peoples' Homes, Community Centres, etc.

Three pillars of Sikhi
 The Guru led the Sikhs directly to practise Simran and Naam Japna – meditation on God and reciting and chanting of God's name - Waheguru. The Sikh is to recite the Nitnem banis daily in remembrance of the grace and kirpa of the Almighty.
 He asked the Sikhs to live as householders and practise Kirat Karni – To honestly earn by ones physical and mental effort while accepting God's gifts and blessing. One is to speak the truth at all times and only fear God. Live a life of decency, high moral values and spirituality.
 The Sikhs were asked to share their wealth within the community by practising Vand Chakna – "Share and Consume together". The community or Sadh Sangat is an important part of Sikhi. One must be part of a community that is pursuing the values set out by the Sikh Gurus and every Sikh has to give in whatever way possible to the community. This spirit of Giving is an important message from Guru Nanak.

See also

 Rehat

Sikh practices
Sikh beliefs

Sikh discipline


Captain Luigi Giorgi (7 September 1913 – 7 May 1945) was an Italian soldier of World War II, the only one to receive two Gold Medals in the Italian Campaign and one of very few non-Americans to receive the Silver Star.

Biography
After qualifying as an accountant, Giorgi volunteered for military service and was admitted as a cadet to the Palermo military school in 1935. The following year he was promoted to the rank of Aspirante Ufficiale (Acting 2nd Lieutenant). Assigned to the 21º Reggimento Fanteria, after being commissioned as a Sottotenente (2nd Lieutenant) he was transferred to the Regio Esercito medical school in Florence until he was demobilized in 1937.<be> He was recalled to active duty two years later. When Italy entered World War II (1940), he was serving in the 21º Reggimento Fanteria attached to the "Cremona" Division where he stayed for the duration of hostilities. In the meantime he rose in rank, being promoted to Tenente in January 1940, to Capitano in January 1942 and to leader of the 3rd Compagnia Fucilieri (Rifle Company) in 1943.

On 8 September 1943 he was in Corsica and he participated in the heavy fighting against the Germans. Italian troops, led by General Clemente Primieri, eventually managed to oust their former allies from the island. The "Cremona" Division was later moved to Sardinia for garrison duties. Giorgi remained a member of it when it was turned into the Gruppo di Combattimento Cremona (part of the Italian Co-Belligerent Army). He was noted for being an officer with "a strong personality and ascendancy over his men".

In March 1945, Captain Giorgi took part in operations in the Comacchio area as commander of the 3rd Company of the reformed 21° Reggimento Fanteria, operating on the far right of the British Eighth Army.

It was here that he earned his first Gold Medal for two courageous actions: leading two volunteers, he captured a well-defended German stronghold near Chiavica Pedone (on the left bank of the Reno river) and the following night, he rescued a badly wounded partisan (Menotti Conti, 1925–1959) who was lying in a minefield. He was decorated "in the field" on 6 March at Ravenna, in the presence of the highest Allied military authorities in Italy: Field Marshal Harold Alexander, General Sir Richard McCreery and General Charles Keightley.

During the offensive that would lead to the final breakdown of German and Fascist forces in Italy, Giorgi took command of a small group of soldiers and attacked a withdrawing convoy. The action resulted in the capture of 80 Germans and of the materiel which the trucks were transporting.

He was seriously wounded by shellfire between 26 and 27 April while he was trying to free two fellow servicemen from the rubble of a destroyed emplacement near Croce di Cavarzere. Admitted to the 66th British Field Hospital in Ferrara, he died ten days later.

He received a posthumous second Gold Medal and also a US Silver Star, awarded for "exceptional acts of valor".

Honours and awards

Gold Medal of Military Valour

A company commander, he attacked a well-defended enemy stronghold surrounded by barbed wire entanglements and minefields with the sole escort of two volunteer infantrymen, approaching the enemy installation in full daylight. Leaving the two infantrymen behind, after wading a small creek he single-handedly stormed the fortification still under fire from our artillery and, throwing numerous hand grenades, he wrought panic among the defenders, 19 of whom surrendered. Joined by his platoon, he completed the occupation of the emplacement and, under raging enemy suppression fire, he disregarded his own safety to free two of his men trapped under the rubble of a bombed-out shelter, saving them from certain death. The following night he learned that a soldier from another unit was seriously wounded and lying in a minefield where no one had dared rescue him before defusing the land mines. Crawling alone and touching the terrain palm by palm, after one hour or more of exhausting effort, he managed to save him. [He was a] splendid example of gallantry and of generous selflessness of the Italian people.
Chiavica Pedone (Ravenna), 2–3 March 1945.

Gold Medal of Military Valour

During the days of the grand Spring offensive conducted by the Allied Armies in Italy, he repeated with the same daring and in the same fashion more deeds no smaller than those which had earned him a Gold Medal. In the latest, leading a group of bold soldiers, he fiercely attacked a convoy attempting redeployment and dispersed it with several PIAT shots and hand grenades, capturing 80 prisoners, many vehicles and a large number of arms and ammunition. Again in the lead of his men, he received a wound which would later cause his death. He died peacefully with his last thoughts aimed at his family and country, in the bright satisfaction of having accomplished in full consciousness and absolute modesty his duty as a soldier and Italian, for whom the first Gold Medal was not a point of arrival, but a point of honour to do more and better, as he in fact did.
Senio, Santerno, Po – Croce di Cavarzere, 10–26 April 1945.

 Silver Star

See also
Military history of Italy during World War II
Italian Co-Belligerent Army
Gothic Line

References

Bibliography
 Entry "Luigi Giorgi", in Encyclopedia of anti-fascism and Resistance, pub. by La Pietra, Milan, 1968.
 Arrigo Boldrini, "Diario di Bülow". Pagine di lotta partigiana 1943–1945'', Vangelista, Milan, 1985.
 Roberto Roggero, Oneri e onori. Le verità militari e politiche della guerra di liberazione in Italia, Greco e Greco, Milan, 2006.
 Alfonso Magro, 10 aprile 1945. La Liberazione di Alfonsine, in "The second Risorgimento of Italy", n. 2/2007, Year 17, Rome
 Alfonso Magro, 29 aprile 1945. The occupation of Venice, in "The second Risorgimento of Italy", nr. 4/2008, Year 18,  Rome [Italian language].

External links
 ANPI Short bio of Luigi Giorgi on Associazione Partigiani
 Conti Menotti – The night of 3 March 1945 at Chiavica Pedone (firsthand testimony of Tenente Ugo Maizoni). Includes bio of partisan Menotti Conti
 Plaque in memory of Luigi Giorgi

Recipients of the Silver Star
Foreign recipients of United States military awards and decorations
Foreign recipients of the Silver Star
Italian soldiers
Italian military personnel killed in World War II
Recipients of the Gold Medal of Military Valor
1945 deaths
1913 births

Luigi Giorgi (soldier)


Ursa Minor Cave is part of Sequoia National Park, a naturally formed system of caves in California's Sierra Nevada. The cave was discovered in August 2006 by four cave explorers from  the Cave Research Foundation who found a softball-sized hole on a cliff face in the mountains. After widening the hole to allow for human entry, the explorers discovered one of the most spectacular caves in the western United States. The cave has since been named "Ursa Minor," because of the large bear skeleton found in the cave.

The cave was featured in the September 2007 issue of National Geographic magazine and has attracted many scientists and researchers interested in finding new species of troglobites, organisms that live in the complete darkness afforded by caves. Similar caves such as the Kaweah Cave and Lost Soldiers Cave have yielded over twenty new species of these exotic and rare species, which are sometimes limited to only a single pool of water or room of a cave.

Access to this sensitive cave is currently limited to scientific and survey trips.

External links
 Photo – National Geographic News, September 26, 2006

Caves of California
Sequoia National Park
Landforms of Tulare County, California

Ursa Minor (cave)