The Ravenscraig and Jameston Railway was a narrow gauge freight or mineral railway or 'Bogey line' that ran the 1.25 miles (2 km) between two freestone quarries near Dalry, North Ayrshire, Scotland.

History
The Ravenscraig Quarry (55.695026 -4.668213) to Jameston Quarry (55.683808 -4.678430) line was a 'Bogey Line' using 'bogeys' or small waggons that transported freestone (sandstone) to another freestone quarry at Jameston near Auchenskeith for transfer into standard gauge waggons and onward transport via the standard gauge Glasgow and South-Western Railway's Dalry to Kilmarnock line. Probably mainly worked by gravity, manually and by horses, the width of the fairly substantial surviving embankments and some vague cuttings suggests that it was a narrow gauge rather than a standard gauge line. The Ordnance Survey maps of the time show that it existed after 1856 and was abandoned by 1895. Jameston Quarry was also disused by 1895 and has since been infilled. Old maps show that prior to the railways construction stone could be taken away via North Lissens farm or across the Gorbie Glen and away via Asseyfaulds Cottage.

Infrastructure

The 1.25 mile or 2 kilometers long line ran roughly north from Jameston Quarry with low embankments until it crossed the Lissens to Blair Mill road from where it cut across the field on a low embankment at first, progressing as quite a substantial embanked trackbed and at the end of the line branching into two sidings, again on embankments that ran to the western side of the quarry workings.

The Railway and quarries today
The final section of embankments leading to Ravenscraig Quarry are largely untouched whilst they have been ploughed out in the field facing South Lissens Farm, but a section of cutting remains below South Lissens Farm and the trackbed survives as a farm track as far as the site of the infilled Jameston Quarry. Ravenscraig Quarry is now flooded but otherwise unchanged and is known locally as the 'Blue Waters' or 'Blue Hole' because the light shining off the dark vertical faces of the quarry workings once embued the floodwater with a striking blue colour. The site was at one time a popular swimming hole however a drowning incident ended that and although rich in water plants such as the marestail (Hippuris) and pondweeds (Potamogeton the water has lost its blue colour and serves as an unofficial wildlife preserve. No rails or sleepers remain at the site.

See also

 Auchincruive Waggonway

References
Notes

External links

 Video footage of the Ravenscraig Quarry Railway

Geography of North Ayrshire
Quarries in Scotland
Horse-drawn railways
Dalry, North Ayrshire

Ravenscraig and Jameston Railway


The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain (NYT) is a youth theatre and registered charity in London. Its aim is to develop and nurture young people through creative arts and theatrical productions. Founded in 1956 as the world's first youth theatre, the NYT has built a reputation for producing actors such as Daniel Craig, Daniel Day-Lewis, Timothy Dalton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Colin Firth, Derek Jacobi, Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane, Helen Mirren, Lysette Anthony, Rosamund Pike, Regé-Jean Page and Kate Winslet, among numerous others.

The NYT holds annual acting auditions and technical theatre interviews around the United Kingdom, receiving an average of over 5,000 applicants. Currently, around 500 places are offered on summer acting and technical courses (costume, lighting and sound, scenery and prop making, and stage management), which offer participants NYT membership upon completion. Members are then eligible to audition for the company's productions, which are staged in London's West End, around the country, and internationally.

NYT members staged the Olympic and Paralympic Team Welcome Ceremonies at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. In 2013, the NYT raised their age limit to 25 and introduced a new summer course called Epic Stages to cater for performance and production talent between ages 18–25. In summer 2014, members staged the Village Ceremonies at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

In 2018 Akshay Sharan won Best Actor in a Play at The Stage Debut Awards for his lead performance in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid's Manbooker Prize shortlisted novel, which National Youth Theatre commissioned Stephanie Street to adapt and which they produced to critical acclaim at the Finborough Theatre, Yard Theatre and Edinburgh Festival,

History

The world's first youth theatre, the National Youth Theatre was founded in 1956 by Michael Croft and Kenneth Spring. As Head of the English Department, Croft had been responsible for producing a number of school plays at Alleyn's Boys' School. Following his departure, he was approached by a number of pupils from the school to continue working together on productions during school holidays. Their first production of Henry V created something of a stir; at the time, it was unusual for young actors to be performing Shakespeare, and this innovative venture attracted the attention of a curious public. The first audiences included actors Richard Burton and Sir Ralph Richardson, with Richardson agreeing to become the first President of what Croft called The Youth Theatre. The organisation evolved rapidly throughout the United Kingdom, involving young people on a national basis.

Croft died in 1986 and was succeeded by Edward Wilson as Director. Building on Croft's vision, Wilson took the company forward into new territory, increasing its range of activities and reinforcing its approach to technical production values. Wilson also recognised the opportunity to extend the organisation to more disadvantaged young people, and started the first Outreach department in 1989, working initially with young offenders and gradually widening the opportunities to other socially excluded groups. Wilson also secured the organisation's current headquarters in north London, which now houses all of its production facilities, including rehearsal rooms, scenery and costume workshops, sound studios, photographic dark rooms, and administration offices.

Wilson left the company in 2004. Sid Higgins (executive director), John Hoggarth (artistic director), and Paul Roseby (artistic director) took over. Since then, they have built on the legacy inherited from Croft and Wilson, and the organisation has continued to expand its opportunities to young people from a more diverse background through a wider range of theatrical projects and collaborations. Hoggarth stepped down in 2007 and Roseby continues as the organisation's Artistic Director. In 2010, the National Youth Theatre moved administrative offices from Holloway Road to the Woolyard on Bermondsey Street; since 2016, it has been based on Bayham Street in Camden Town. In January 2012, Roseby became CEO while retaining his position as artistic director.

In 2012 the company suffered major issues with its finances and was bailed out with £680,000 from Arts Council England.

Traditionally, the National Youth Theatre has done most of its work with members in the summer months, but this is changing more and more. Creative events and performances take place throughout the year, courses take place in school holidays and throughout term time, and the company continues to expand its work with young people from all areas of the community. In summer 2012, the National Youth Theatre created and performed the Welcome Ceremonies for the London Olympics and Paralympics teams, with 200 members welcoming 20,000 athletes to Athletes' Village with 200 performances.

Following a pilot in 2012, the National Youth Theatre's first official REP Company was formed in April 2013. Inspired by the traditional repertory theatre model, the REP Company course offers free, practical, industry-based talent development in drama and performance over nine months to 16 NYT members. The National Youth Theatre also currently runs Playing Up, an OCN Level 3 accredited 10 month drama training programme, offering young people aged 19 to 24 who are not in education, employment, or training the opportunity to gain an access to higher education diploma in Theatre Arts, which is equivalent to two A Levels.

In 2016, the National Youth Theatre celebrated its 60th anniversary. The celebrations culminated in a 60th Anniversary Gala performance, The Story of Our Youth, featuring alumni including Matt Smith, Gina McKee, Daisy Lewis, Jessica Hynes, and Hugh Bonneville.

Barbara Broccoli succeeded Lord Waheed Alli and became the NYT's first female President in 2017. The National Youth Theatre's Royal Patron is the Duke of Edinburgh. 2017 marked 50 years since the staging of the National Youth Theatre's first ever commission, Zigger Zagger by Peter Terson, and to mark the occasion an anniversary production was staged at Wilton's Music Hall.

NYT's first ever East End season was launched in Hackney Wick in 2017, which saw the NYT on "exuberantly good form". Autumn 2017 saw the fifth anniversary of the NYT REP West End season at the Ambassadors Theatre, featuring performances Jekyll and Hyde, Othello, and Mrs Dalloway. 2018 saw the NYT REP Season move away from the Ambassadors Theatre, to the Soho Theatre, the Garrick Theatre and the Lyric Hammersmith, with performances of Consensual, Victoria's Knickers, and a female-led Macbeth abridged by Moira Buffini, as well as a production of To Kill a Mockingbird.

In 2018 the NYT REP Company's production of Macbeth was the first in London's West End to cast the lead role with a female actor, in a gender-fluid production adapted by Moira Buffini, directed by Natasha Nixon at the Garrick Theatre.

In 2020, during the crisis in live performance and theatre resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, outdoor performance was reintroduced to Soulton Hall. NYT gave their first live in person performance since the restrictions following the lockdown that was brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. The play was a new, specially devised work called The Last Harvest In 2021, the NYT returned to Soulton with a performance of Animal Farm.

In 2021, National Youth Theatre launched an Inclusive Practice Collective creating 60 paid roles and bringing drama to young disabled people in 15 schools in Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and London as part of the KickStart scheme. In November, National Youth Theatre performed at the UN's Global Climate Conference COP26 staging a Climate Caberet and Adeola Yemitan's I Don't Care. 2021 also saw National Youth Theatre complete a major redevelopment of its north London Creative Production House on Holloway Road. As part of the redevelopment, a brand new 'Workshop Theatre' was created. In 2022, the first production was staged in the new Venue, with the double bill of 'Boy/Girl/Boy/Girl' by Tife Kusoro and 'Mess' by Urielle Klein-Mekongo.

Alumni

Past productions
For a full list of past productions, see .

References

External links

 The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS)

Theatre companies in London
Youth theatre companies
1956 establishments in the United Kingdom

National Youth Theatre


Meteoro (P-41) is the lead ship of the Meteoro class, a new kind of offshore patrol vessel created for the Spanish Navy and called BAMs.

Operational history
 Construction began on October 4, 2007 with the cutting of the first sheet and the keel was placed on the stand on March 13, 2009 in the shipyard of San Fernando.

She was launched on Friday, October 16, 2009, sponsored by Minister of Economy Elena Salgado, with the anecdote that the ship slid down the stage 11 minutes before the scheduled time, when the ceremony had just begun.
On Friday, January 28, 2011, she successfully completed her sea trials in the Bay of Cadiz waters, prior to its delivery to the Navy, completing her last tests in July 2011.
While carrying out minor repairs at the San Fernando shipyard , a soldier was found dead inside of the ship with a shot in the head.
She was handed to the navy at the base of Rota in the presence of Defense Minister Carme Chacón on July 28, 2011.

Under the command of Captain David Fernández-Portal Díaz del Rio, on August 22, she arrived in the military arsenal of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where she remained until September 5, when she returned to the peninsula to begin the certification of her Equipment and systems. In October 2011, she traveled to Cartagena for evaluation and training of the crew, then going to Alicante, arriving on November 4, where the Prince of Asturias attended the next day At the exit of the Volvo Ocean Race, indicated by means of a cannon salvo of the Meteoro, after which she went to the city, to participate in the events of 50th edition of the Nautical Week of Barcelona. After finalizing the Nautical Week of Barcelona, went to the Naval Military School of Marín, where she arrived on 23 November to carry out various tests there, and to sail from there the next day.

She finished her cruise of resistance by the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea on 19 December 2011, when she arrived at her base in the Arsenal of Las Palmas, after having touched, in addition to the ports already mentioned, Lisbon, Vigo, Palma de Mallorca, Mahón And Algiers, where she was visited by 40 officers of the Algerian Navy.

On June 7, she returned to her base in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria after completing a period of operational qualifications and training, now being considered as fully operational.

On July 17, 2013, she sailed from her base in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to join Operation Atalanta to fight piracy in the Indian Ocean, replacing Numancia, in an expected deployment of four months. Between December 1 and 3, she was relieved in Djibouti by Tornado, to begin her return journey to Spain, and arrive at her base in Las Palmas on December 22, 2013

On March 20, 2014, while participating in a routine exercise of cargo hoisting some 23 miles southwest of Fuerteventura, a Super-Puma helicopter of the Air Rescue Service of the Air Force 802 squadron crashed in the middle of an exercise. Meteoro was able to rescue one of the 5 crew members of the aircraft. On April 21, 2014, she participated in search and rescue tasks, participating in the company Phoenix International and the bodies of two of her crew, as well as the Transfer of the aforementioned mortal remains to the Arsenal of Las Palmas.

In April 2015 she participated in the cleaning of oil spills in the Canary Islands, caused by the sinking of the Russian fishing vessel Oleg Naydenov. During the night of 16 to 17 of May, 2015 she participated in the arrest of a former fishing vessel, which carried 1800 kg of cocaine on board.

In August 2015 she joined the twenty-first rotation of the Atalanta anti-piracy operation in Indian waters. At the end of November, she set out on a return trip to Spain, calling at the ports of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Cape Town (South Africa) and Luanda (Angola).

In January 2022, amid the Russo-Ukrainian crisis, the Meteoro was deployed in the Black Sea to reinforce NATO forces along with the frigate Blas de Lezo (F103).

References

Patrol vessels of the Spanish Navy
Buque de Acción Marítima
Ships built in Spain
2009 ships

Spanish patrol vessel Meteoro (P-41)


Yalova is a Turkish city in the northwest, which was affected in the earthquake of 17 August 1999. The city is along the coast of the Marmara Sea. Yalova has a better quality of life from other Turkish cities. It has a population of 77,000.

The first people settled in this region in the Prehistoric Period.

Twin cities of Yalova are Bonn in Germany and Mahachkala in Russia.

Cities in Turkey
Marmara Region

Yalova


was a Japanese military writer and philosopher under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period in Japan. As a scholar he applied the Confucian idea of the "superior man" to the samurai class of Japan. This became an important part of the samurai way of life and code of conduct.

Biography
Yamaga was born in Aizuwakamatsu the son of a rōnin formerly of Aizu Domain and moved to Edo at the age of six in 1628. He had been studying the Chinese classics from that time, and at the age of nine became a student of Hayashi Razan, a follower of Neo-Confucianism who had developed a practical blending of Shinto and Confucian beliefs and practices which became the foundation for the dominant ideology of the Tokugawa shogunate.  At the age of 15, he travelled to Kai Province to study military strategy under Obata Kagenori.

However, at the age of forty he broke away from the official doctrine, rejecting the Cheng–Zhu school promoted by the Hayashi clan and burning all of the books he had written while under its influence. This, along with the publishing of a philosophical work entitled Seikyo Yoroku, caused him to be arrested the following year at the instigation of Hoshina Masayuki, daimyō of Aizu Domain. Yamaga proclaimed his belief that the unadulterated truth could be found only in the ethical teachings of Confucius, and that subsequent developments within the Confucian tradition represented perversions of the original doctrine. Hoshina, however, saw this attack on the prevailing orthodoxy as a potential challenge to Tokugawa authority itself and ordered his exile from Edo. Soon after his expulsion from Edo, Yamaga moved to the Akō Domain in Harima Province in 1653, befriending Asano Nagatomo and becoming an important teacher of Confucianism and military science in the region. Yamaga's influence would later be expressed in the Genroku Akō incident, as its leader, Ōishi Yoshio, had been one of his devoted pupils.

Yamaga wrote a series of works dealing with "the warrior's creed" (bukyō) and "the way of the gentleman" (shidō). In this way he described the lofty mission of the warrior class and its attendant obligations. According to William Scott Wilson in his Ideals of the Samurai, Yamaga "in his theory of Shidō (a less radical theory than bushidō), defined the warrior as an example of Confucian purity to the other classes of society, and as punisher of those who would stray from its path". Wilson wrote that Yamaga thought of the samurai as a "sort of Warrior-Sage" and focused his writings on the perfection of this "transcendent ideal", but "this direction of thinking ... was typical of the scholars of the Edo Period in its tendency toward speculation". He re-emphasized that the peaceful arts, letters, and history were essential to the intellectual discipline of the samurai. Yamaga thus symbolizes the historical transformation of the samurai class from a purely military aristocracy to one of increasing political and intellectual leadership. One of his pupils was Daidōji Yūzan, a samurai from the Daidōji family, who would become the author of an important bushidō text, Budō shoshin shu. He also drew attention to the need to study and adopt Western weapons and tactics, as introduced by the Dutch.

The life of his near contemporary Matsudaira Sadanobu presents a plausible context for more fully understanding and appreciating Yamaga's life. Both believed entirely in the civic and personal values of Confucianism, but both construed those precepts a little differently because of their places in Edo period society. In his own time, this conception of Confucian values was among the factors that led him to draw attention to the need to study and adopt Western weapons and tactics, as introduced by the Dutch.

Yamaga's conception restated and codified the writings of past centuries and pointed to the emperor as the focus of all loyalties.  His teachings, therefore, had direct application for everyone in the existing feudal structure, and he was not calling for a change in the status of the emperor.

Yamaga was pardoned in 1675 and allowed to return to Edo, where he taught military studies for the next 10 years. He died in 1685, and his grave is at the Sōtō Zen temple of Sōsan-ji in Shinjuku, Tokyo. His grave was designated a National Historic Site in 1943.

Chucho Jijitsu
An important theme running through Yamaga's life and works was a focus on the greatness of Japan, and this became one of the reasons his popularity and influence were to expand in the rising nationalistic culture of the mid-twentieth century.

Living at a time when very few texts were written in Japanese and Japanese scholars devoted themselves to the study of Chinese history, Chinese literature, and Chinese philosophy, he wrote the Chucho Jijitsu (which translates as "Actual Facts about the Central Realm") to awaken Japanese scholars to the greatness of their own national history and culture. His argument is that Japan is a gift of the gods to the Japanese people, and that while many nations (here his readers would have understood him to refer to China) consider their country to be the center of the world, on the objective basis of temperate climate, only China and Japan can justify such claims, and of the two Japan is clearly superior because it is favored by the gods, as proven by the fact that only in Japan is there an unbroken Imperial line descended from the gods themselves.

The tone of the work can be appreciated in this excerpt:

"The water and soil of Japan excel those of all other countries, and the qualities of its people are supreme throughout the eight corners of the earth. For this reason, the boundless eternity of its gods and the endlessness of the reign of its sacred line, its splendid works of literature and glorious feats of arms, shall be as enduring as heaven and earth."

Notes

References
 De Bary, William Theodore, Carol Gluck and Arthur E. Tiedemann . (2001).  Sources Of Japanese Tradition: 1600 to 2000. New York: Columbia University Press.
 Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ; OCLC 48943301
 Shuzo Uenaka. (1977). "Last Testament in Exile. Yamaga Sokō's Haisho Zampitsu", Monumenta Nipponica, 32:2, No. 2, pp. 125–152.
 Trumbull, Stephen. (1977).  The Samurai: A Military History. New York: Macmillan.  (cloth) [reprinted by RoutledgeCurzon, London, 1996.  (paper)]
 Tucker, John. (2002). "Tokugawa Intellectual History and Prewar Ideology: The Case of Inoue Tetsujirō, Yamaga Sokō, and the Forty-Seven Rōnin," in Sino-Japanese Studies. Vo. 14, pp. 35–70.
 Varley, H. Paul.  (2000). Japanese Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

External links
 Columbia University:Notes on the writings of Yamaga Sokō
 East Asian Institute, University of Cambridge: Further reading/bibliography

1622 births
1685 deaths
17th-century Japanese philosophers
Bushido
Japanese military writers
Japanese writers of the Edo period
Military strategists
People from Aizuwakamatsu

Yamaga Sokō


John Joseph Shea (born 9 May 1960 in Hamilton, Massachusetts) is an American archaeologist and paleoanthropologist. He has been a professor of anthropology at Stony Brook University in New York since 1992.

Background

Shea was born in 1960 to Joseph P. and Gloria C. (Cyr) Shea.

In 1982 he earned a BA in Archaeology and Anthropology from Boston University and a PhD from Harvard in Anthropology in 1991. His first doctoral advisor was Glynn Isaac, after whose death, Ofer Bar-Yosef, David Pilbeam, and K.C. Chang oversaw his training.

Shea has conducted archaeological fieldwork in Israel, Jordan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Belize, New Mexico, and Massachusetts. He is married to Patricia L. Crawford and resides in Stony Brook, New York and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Work

Shea's research focuses on stone tools and how they relate to major issues in human evolution. He has experience in flintknapping and other ancient technologies. He is specialized in Paleoanthropology, the evolution of hominin behavior, pleistocene archaeology of the Near East and of Eastern Africa, lithic analysis, as well as experimental archaeology

Highlights of Shea's research include the following, in rough chronological order.
 Identification of stone-tipped spears used by Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens in the East Mediterranean Levant.
 Excavations at 'Ubeidiya, a 1.4 Million year-old site in the Jordan Valley, Israel. This research was conducted jointly with Ofer Bar-Yosef, Eitan Tchernov, Gerhard Bosinski, Sabine Gaudzinski, and Miriam Belmaker.
 Excavations at Ar Rasfa, a Middle Paleolithic site in Jordan. This research was conducted jointly with Patricia Crawford and Ghufran Sabri Ahmad (Univ. Mosul).
 Experimental and morphometric identifications of early complex projectile technology in Africa, the Near East and Europe. This work was done jointly with Zach Davis, Kyle Brown, and Mat Sisk. This project's core finding was that complex projectile technology (bow and arrow, spear thrower, and dart) were major factors in how humans dispersing from Africa displaced Neanderthals and other extinct hominins in temperate Eurasia.
 Paleoanthropology of the Lower Omo Valley Kibish Formation. This project recovered 200,000 year-old archaeological remains and fossils of the oldest-known Homo sapiens. This research was carried out with John Fleagle, Frank Brown, Solomon Yerga, Zelalem Assefa, Ian Wallace, and others.
 Proposed replacing Paleolithic archaeological research on "behavioral modernity" with a new focus on "behavioral variability."
 Stone Tools in the Paleolithic and Neolithic of the Near East: A Guide. This is a reference work for the stone tool evidence from the East Mediterranean Levant. Published in 2013, it has recently been issued in paperback.
 Stone Tools in Human Evolution. This most recent book project uses comparisons of human and non-human primate tool use to predictively model how the stone tool evidence should change as distinctive patterns of hominin behavior evolved. It tests those predictions using evidence from more than 200 archaeological sites dating from >3 million to 6000 years ago. This work was published with Cambridge University Press in 2016 (Stone Tools in Human Evolution: Behavioral Differences among Technological Primates).

In 2014 he earned the State University of New York Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities.

Publications
Justin H. Pargeter, John J. Shea (2019) Going big vs. going small: Lithic miniaturization in hominin lithic technology. Evolutionary Anthropology 28 (2): 72–85.
Hildebrand, E. A., K. M. Grillo, E. A. Sawchuk, S. K. Pfeiffer, L. B. Conyers, S. T. Goldstein, A. C. Hill, A. Janzen, C. E. Klehm, M. Helper, P. Kiura, E. Ndiema, C. Ngugi, J. J. Shea, and H. Wang. 2018. A monumental cemetery built by eastern Africa's first herders near Lake Turkana, Kenya. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115 (36): 8942.
John J. Shea (2018) Why Teach Primitive Skills at a Research University?  The Stony Brook Experience, 1992–2016. In Iron Magnolia: Essays in Honor of Shirley Strum Kenny, President of Stony Brook University, 1994 -2009.  Edited by William Arens, Mario Mignone, and Margaret Gwynne, pp. 59–73.  New York: Forum Italicum Publishing.
John J. Shea (2017) Occasional, Obligatory, and Habitual Stone Tool Use in Hominin Lithic Technology.  Evolutionary Anthropology 26: 200–217.* John J. Shea (2015) Making and Using Stone Tools: Advice for Learners and Teachers and Insights for Archaeologists. Lithic Technology 40 (3): 231–248.
 Stutz, A. J., J. J. Shea, J. A. Rech, J. S. Pigati, J. Wilson, M. Belmaker, R. M. Albert, T. Arpin, D. Cabanes, J. L. Clark, G. Hartman, F. Hourani, C. E. White, and L. Nilsson Stutz. 2015. Early Upper Paleolithic chronology in the Levant: new ABOx-SC accelerator mass spectrometry results from the Mughr el-Hamamah Site, Jordan. Journal of Human Evolution 85 (8): 153–173,
 John J. Shea (2015) Timescales and Variability in Hominin Technological Strategies in the Jordan Rift Valley: What Difference Does 1.3 Million Years Make? In Michael Shott (ed.) Works in Stone: Contemporary Perspectives on Lithic Analysis. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, pp. 33–45.
 John J. Shea (2014) Sink the Mousterian: Named stone tool industries (NASTIES) as obstacles to investigating hominin evolutionary relationships in the Later Middle Paleolithic Levant.  In Huw Groucutt and Eleanor Scerri (Eds.) Lithics of the Late Middle Palaeolithic: post MIS-5 technological variability and its implications.  Special Issue of Quaternary International 350: 169–179.
 John J. Shea (2013) Lithic Modes A-I: A New Framework for Describing Global-Scale Variation in Stone Tool Technology Illustrated with Evidence from the East Mediterranean Levant. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 20 (1): 151–186.
 Shea, J. J. 2011. Homo sapiens is as Homo sapiens was: Behavioral Variability vs. "Behavioral Modernity" in Paleolithic Archaeology. Current Anthropology 52:1-35.
 Shea, J. J. 2011. Refuting a Myth of Human Origins. American Scientist 99:128-135.

Books
 Stone Tools in Human Evolution: Behavioral Differences among Technological Primates, Cambridge University Press, 2017.
 Stone Tools in the Paleolithic and Neolithic of the Near East: A Guide. Cambridge University Press, New York 2013,
 with John G. Fleagle et al. (ed.): Out of Africa I: The First Hominin Colonization of Eurasia. Springer, 2010,
 with Ghufran Sabri Ahmad: Reconstructing Late Pleistocene Human Behavior in the Jordan Valley: The Middle Paleolithic Stone Tool Assemblage from Ar Rasfa. Archaeopress, Oxford (UK) 2009,

References

External links

 Personal website
 Curriculum vitae
 Faculty page at Stony Brook University
 Profile at Academia.edu

1960 births
Living people
American paleoanthropologists
American archaeologists
People from Hamilton, Massachusetts
Stony Brook University faculty
Harvard University alumni
Boston University College of Arts and Sciences alumni

John Shea (archaeologist)


The Royal Gunpowder Mills are a former industrial site in Waltham Abbey, England.
It was one of three Royal Gunpowder Mills in the United Kingdom (the others being at Ballincollig and Faversham). Waltham Abbey is the only site to have survived virtually intact.

The Royal Gunpowder Mills, Waltham Abbey, were in operation for over 300 years. Starting in the mid-1850s the site became involved in the development of revolutionary nitro-based explosives and propellants known as "smokeless powder". The site grew in size, and black powder became less important.

Shortly after the Second World War it became solely a Defence Research Establishment – firstly the Explosives Research and Development Establishment, then the Propellants, Explosives and Rocket Motor Establishment Waltham Abbey; and finally the Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment Waltham Abbey.

The Mills are an Anchor Point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage, set in  of parkland and containing 21 buildings of major historical importance.

Pre-gunpowder use of the site

The story of gunpowder production at Waltham Abbey begins with a fulling mill for cloth production; originally set up by the monks of the Abbey on the Millhead Stream, an engineered water course tapping the waters of the River Lea. Mills were adaptable and in the early 17th century it was converted to an 'Oyle Mill', i.e. for producing vegetable oils. In the Second Dutch War gunpowder supply shortages were encountered and the oil mill was converted to gunpowder production, possibly in response to this. In 1665 it was acquired by Ralph Hudson using saltpetre made in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.

The Hudson family sold out to William Walton at the end of the 17th century, starting a family connection lasting almost a hundred years. The enterprise was successful under the Walton's tenure, especially thanks to the efforts of William's widow, Philippa Walton, and the Mills expanded up the Millhead Stream as additional production facilities were added; the material progressing from one building to another as it passed through the various processes. The Waltham Abbey Mills were one of the first examples in the 18th century of an industrialised factory system, not often recognised. In 1735 they were described by Thomas Fuller, a local historian, as "the largest and compleatest works in Great Britain."

Purchase of the site by the Crown
In the 1780s there was fresh concern over security, quality and economy of supply. The deputy comptroller of the Royal Laboratory at Woolwich, Major, later Lieutenant General, Sir William Congreve advocated that the Waltham Abbey Mills should be purchased by the Crown to ensure secure supplies and to establish what would now be called a centre of excellence for development of manufacturing processes and to establish quality and cost standards by which private contractors could be judged. In October 1787 the Crown purchased the mills from John Walton for £10,000, starting a 204-year ownership. Congreve was a man of immense drive and vision, a pioneer of careful management, quality control and the application of the scientific method. Under his regime manufacture moved from what had been a black art to, in the context of its day, an advanced technology.
The distinguished engineer John Rennie coined the phrase 'The Old Establishment' in his 1806 report on the Royal Gun Powder Factory. The term refers to the gunpowder mills when they were still privately owned, before they were acquired by The Crown in 1787.

Reflecting this, the mills were able to respond successfully in volume and quality to the massive increases in demand which arose over the period of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars from 1789, culminating in the victory at Waterloo in 1815. In the years following Waterloo the Mills entered a period of quiet with a steep decline in staff numbers and production levels. However, there was a steady advance in machinery and process development.

The quiet was not to last. Conflict broke out in 1854 with the Crimean War with Russia, followed by the Indian Mutiny and a succession of colonial conflicts followed, culminating in the Boer War of 1899 - 1902.

All of this provided the impulse for further development. Whilst the mills' function was to provide gunpowder for military use, either as a propellant for use in guns, or as a military explosive for demolition, etc., improvements effected there were a strong influence on private industry producing for civil activity - construction, mining, quarrying, tunnelling, railway building etc. which created a massive demand for gunpowder in the 19th century.

First World War
The First World War from 1914 to 1918 brought a huge upsurge in demand. The East Flank, including a long range of Cordite incorporating mills, designed by Harry Bell Measures, was built at this time. Staff numbers increased by around 3,000 to a total of 6,230. The 3,000 additional workers were largely female, recruited from the surrounding area, and this was a significant social phenomenon.

After World War I there was another period of quiet before anxieties about the future surfaced again. It was decided that production at Waltham Abbey would be gradually transferred to the west of the country, more distant and thus safer from air attack from Europe. However, in the meantime, production continued and crucial development work was carried out on TNT production and on the new explosive RDX.

Second World War
During Second World War, Waltham Abbey remained an important cordite production unit and for the first two years of the war was the sole producer of RDX. RDX is one component of torpex, the explosive that was used in the Bouncing Bomb.

Total transfer of RDX production to the west of England, to ROF Bridgwater; and dispersal of cordite production to new propellant factories located: in the west of Scotland, three co-located factories at ROF Bishopton, to Wales, ROF Wrexham, and to the North East, ROF Ranskill.

The Royal Gunpowder Mills finally closed on 28 July 1945.

Post World War use of the site
In 1945 the establishment re-opened as a research centre known as The Explosives Research and Development Establishment, or ERDE.

In 1977 it became the Propellants, Explosives and Rocket Motor Establishment, Waltham Abbey, or PERME Waltham Abbey. As a research centre Waltham Abbey was responsible for military propellant and high explosives and expanded into the increasingly significant field of rocket propellants, solid and liquid and a range of specialised applications, e.g. 'snifters' for altering space vehicles direction when in flight, cartridges for firing aircraft ejector seats, engine and generator starter cartridges - these applications have been called 'a measured strong shove'. The rocket activity later extended to the production of rocket motors, including work on the Skylark project.

In 1984 the South site and the Lower Island works were handed over to Royal Ordnance Plc immediately before it was privatised.

The North side however remained in Ministry of Defence control as a research centre; becoming part of the Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment. After various reorganisations, the research centre finally closed in 1991.

Sale of the North site by the Ministry of Defence

Heritage site
A large area of the north site is listed as the Waltham Abbey SSSI and another separate area is a scheduled ancient monument.  Visitors can see exhibits related to gunpowder making, tour the site on a land train An attempt to demolish the cordite mills and replace them with dormitories for young people staying at a children's activity centre was rejected by Epping Forest District Council in 2016 after exposure in the national press.

Narrow-gauge railway
The  gauge narrow-gauge railway is  long and has two stations. It is sometimes known as the Hidden Railway.

Sale of the South site by Royal Ordnance
After the South site, also known as Quinton Hill, was vacated and also decontaminated and redeveloped, much of the remaining land was converted into the  Gunpowder Park, which is part of the Lee Valley Park and was opened in 2004. The regenerated parkland is dedicated to the arts, science and wildlife.

Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills in popular culture
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells Book 1 Chapter 17 'The Thunder Child' Here there were rumours of Martians at Epping, and news of the destruction of Waltham Abbey Powdermills in a vain attempt to blow up one of the invaders.
 The mill also appears in Michael Ondaatje's 2018 novel Warlight: Shortly after the end of World War II the protagonist Nathaniel Williams helps his mentor, 'The Darter', transporting illegal greyhounds and, later, boxed cargo inland through the canal network from the River Thames, including the Gunpowder Mills canal system.
 On 3 May 2020 the mills were featured in an episode of the BBCs Countryfile programme.
Author and naturalist Helen Macdonald visited the site in the BBC4 programme The Hidden Wilds of the Motorway broadcast on 30 June 2020.

Digital archive
After the closure of ERDE, the inherited archive material passed through a number of hands and storage locations, particularly in the latter period before opening to the public, when outside staff from the firm designing the exhibition had to have free access. Consequently by 2001 the archive had become rather disorganised. The opportunity has therefore been taken to start a ground-up exercise involving a complete check of the holding and the design of computer databases of the material in order to produce the digital catalogue.
 Our archive has been digitised and is available to view online at www.wargm.org.
 Funding for the online archive was donated by the Royal Gunpowder Mills Friends Association.
 The archive is also listed on The National Archives website.

See also
 Ballincollig Royal Gunpowder Mills
 Cordite
 Faversham explosives industry
 Gunpowder
 Gunpowder magazines in England
 TNT
 RDX
 J. E. Gordon

References
Notes

Sources
 Cocroft, Wayne D. (2000). Dangerous Energy: The archaeology of Gunpowder and military explosives manufacture. Swindon: English Heritage. .
 Elliott, Bryn (1996). "The Royal Gunpowder Factory Explosions 1940". In: After the Battle, 93, pp 34 – 49. .
 Elliott, Bryn (1998). "Royal Gunpowder Factory Sequel". In: After the Battle, 101, pp 49 – 51. .

 (N/A), (1993). The Royal Gunpowder Factory, Waltham Abbey, Essex: An RCHME Survey, 1993. London: Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England.
 Sinclair, Iain (2002). London Orbital, pp105–107

External links

 Royal Gunpowder Mills
 Royal Gunpowder Mills Archive
 Royal Gunpowder Mills Books
 Royal Gunpowder Mills The Armoury
 A history of the Gunpowder Mills watercourses
 Geograph images

Waltham Abbey
Cordite
Military research establishments of the United Kingdom
Gunpowder mills
European Route of Industrial Heritage Anchor Points
Buildings and structures in Essex
Heritage railways in Essex
Military establishments in Essex
Museums in Essex
Science museums in England
Military and war museums in England
History museums in Essex
Transport museums in England
River Lea
Lee Valley Park
Grade I listed buildings in Essex
Grade II* listed buildings in Essex
Royal Ordnance Factories in England
Grade I listed industrial buildings
Grade II* listed industrial buildings
1945 disestablishments in England
Waltham Abbey

Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills


The Palazzo della Farnesina is an Italian government building located between Monte Mario and the Tiber River in the Foro Italico area in Rome, Italy. Designed in 1935, it has housed the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since its completion in 1959. A reference to "La Farnesina" is often to be intended as a metonymy for the hosted institution, namely the Ministry itself.

Structure
The nine story building was designed in 1935 by architects Enrico Del Debbio, Arnaldo Foschini and Vittorio Ballio Morpurgo. It was originally designated to be the headquarters of Italy's National Fascist Party. Construction was halted in 1943 and throughout World War II.

The facade consists of travertine. Though this type of facade is commonly linked to the rationalist style of Giuseppe Terragni, it is, in this case, derived from contemporary fascist ideals.

The building consists of more than 1,300 rooms, is 169 meters in width, 51 meters tall, with a total area of 120,000 square meters and has a total internal volume of approximately 720,000 cubic meters. It is comparable in size to the Caserta Palace and is one of the largest buildings in Italy.

The Palazzo della Farnesina was completed in 1959, varying only slightly from its original design. Upon completion, it consolidated the 13 separate offices of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since completion of the building, the word "Farnesina" has been used synonymously to refer to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Its name comes from the land on which it rises, the area between Monte Mario and the Tiber, which were called the Farnese Gardens (Orti della Farnesina) due to the ownership of Pope Paul III who was originally named Alessandro Farnese.

The building should not be confused with the 16th-century Villa Farnesina, also often called simply "the Farnesina," in Via della Lungara.

Art collection
In 1999 the Directorate General for Promotion and Cultural Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched an initiative to allow public access to the collections of the Palazzo della Farnesina. This was done by opening galleries and collections to the public via a series of exhibitions with a focus on 20th century Italian art. The Farnesina Collection  trace the history of twentieth-century Italian art through Art Nouveau, Futurism, abstract art, Arte Povera, Transavantgarde, and the New Roman School.

In 2008, the collection of Italian art of the Farnesina was augmented by a new collection consisting of the works of the most recent generations of Italian artists. The new Farnesina Experimenta Collection was inaugurated on 5 July 2008 at the time of Open Doors at the Farnesina.

On March 13, 2009 at Villa Madama in Rome, the Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, Minister for Culture, Sandro Bondi, and the Minister of Economic Development, Claudio Scajola announced a third collection entitled the Farnesina Design Collection.

See also

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Italy)
Enrico Del Debbio
Farnesina Experimenta Art Collection

Notes and references

Sources

External links
Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Collezione Farnesina The Ministry of Foreign Affairs Collection of Contemporary Italian Art.
G8 photos

Government buildings completed in 1959
Farnesina
Art museums and galleries in Rome
Italian fascist architecture
Rome Q. XV Della Vittoria

Palazzo della Farnesina


The Belgian Armed Forces (; ) is the national military of Belgium. The King of the Belgians is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. The Belgian Armed Forces was established after Belgium became independent in October 1830. Since then, the Belgian armed forces have fought in World War I, World War II, the Cold War (Korean War and the Belgian occupation of the Federal Republic of Germany), Kosovo, Rwanda, Somalia and Afghanistan. The Armed Forces comprise five branches: the Land Component, the Air Component, the Naval Component, the Medical Component and the Cyber Component.

History

Establishment

When Belgium broke away from the Netherlands in 1830 it was initially expected that a neutral buffer state, with its borders guaranteed by France, Britain and Prussia, could avoid the need for an expensive permanent military force, relying instead on the part-time militia of the existing Garde Civique (Civil Guard). The need for a regular army was however soon acknowledged. The basis for recruitment was one of selective conscription under which exemptions could be purchased by obtaining substitutes. In practice this meant that only about a quarter of each year's eligible intake actually served, with the burden falling on the poorer classes.

Early history

As part of the national policy of even-handed neutrality, the 19th century Belgian Army was deployed as an essentially defensive force in fortifications facing the Dutch, German and French borders. Mobilisation plans simply required reservists to report to their depots, without arrangements being made in advance for deployment in a particular direction or against a particular enemy. Recruitment difficulties caused the army to remain below its intended strength of 20,000 men, although new legislation in 1868 tightened the basis for conscription. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 required full mobilisation for nearly a year, a process which showed up serious training and structural weaknesses. The presence of Belgian forces in strength along the country's borders, supported by intelligence provided by the Belgian civil security service, did however ensure that the combat at no time spilled over into Belgian territory.

As late as the 1890s the Belgian Army still retained a system of selective service, at a time when most European states were moving to a principle of universal obligation, according to the Prussian model. In Belgium conscripts were selected through the drawing of ballots, but individuals could escape service by paying for substitutes. This system favored the well-off and had been discarded elsewhere as inefficient and unpatriotic. For those conscripted the terms of service required eight years in the regular army (of which part might be spent on "unlimited leave"), followed by five years as a reservist. Various categories of volunteer enjoyed such privileges as being able to specify their branch of service, bounties and higher pay.

The Papal Army based in Rome included from 1860 a battalion-sized unit known as the Tirailleurs Franco-Belges (Franco-Belgian Sharpshooters). Recruited amongst volunteers from both countries, this became the Pontifical Zouaves in 1861 and fought as an allied force on the French side in 1871 during the Franco-Prussian War.

In 1864 a Corps Expeditionnaire Belge (Belgian Expeditionary Corps) was raised for service in Mexico. Originally intended to serve as the Guard of the Belgian-born Empress Charlotte this 1,500 strong force was largely drawn from volunteers seconded from the Belgian Army. Known popularly as the Belgian Legion, it saw active service in Mexico as part of the Imperial forces, before returning to Belgium for disbandment in March 1867.

From 1885 the Force Publique was established as the military garrison and police force in the Belgian Congo, then under the direct rule of King Leopold II. Initially led by a variety of European mercenaries, this colonial force was subsequently officered by Belgian regulars after 1908.

From December 1904 a small detachment of Belgian troops was permanently based in China as the "Guard of the Belgian Legation in Beijing".

Reforms undertaken in the early years of the 20th century included the abolition in 1909 of the system of drawing lots for the selection of the annual intake of conscripts. In 1913, compulsory and universal military service for men was established in Belgium. While this enabled actual peacetime strength to be increased to 33,000 men (increased to 120,500 on mobilisation), this was only sufficient to provide a basis for the creation of seven under-strength divisions (one of cavalry) plus artillery and fortress troops. The Belgian military was also affected by political and popular reliance on the supposedly certain protection of the country's internationally guaranteed neutrality. In the words of the historian Barbara W. Tuchman "the army was considered superfluous and slightly absurd". Training and discipline were slack, equipment inadequate and even field uniforms were old fashioned and impractical.

Although improvements in the Belgian Army had been uneven during the 19th and early 20th centuries, one area of successful reform had been that of increasing the professionalism of the officer corps. The Royal Military Academy had been established in 1834, to be followed by the Ecole d'Application for technical training, and the Ecole de Guerre for staff training in 1868. The Belgian Army pioneered the practice of training a corps of finance, personnel and general administration specialist officers instead of leaving such functions to civil servants without military experience or inadequately prepared line officers. There was however a serious shortage of trained officers in the rapidly expanding army of 1913.

Army in 1914

On the eve of World War I, the Belgian Army comprised 19 infantry regiments (line, Chasseurs à pied, Grenadier and Carabinier), 10 cavalry (Guides, Lancers and Chasseurs à cheval) and 8 artillery (mounted, field and fortress). Support forces included engineers, gendarmerie, fortress troops, train and civil guards. The seven divisions of the Field Army were intended to provide a mobile force while the 65,000 fortress troops provided garrisons for the substantial forts constructed around Antwerp, Liège and Namur. These fortifications had been built in several stages beginning in 1859, though a number were still incompleted in 1914. While well-designed and built by 19th century standards, these fixed defences with their sunken artillery turrets had been rendered obsolete by recent advances in heavy siege artillery howitzers.

World War I

At the start of World War I in August 1914, the Belgian armed forces were being restructured, due to this measure and the rapid occupation of Belgium only 20% of men were mobilised and incorporated into the armed forces. Ultimately, 350,000 men were incorporated into the Belgian armed forces, although one third of these did not participate directly in combat.

Invaded by surprise by the Imperial German Army, which was approximately 600,000 men strong, the small, ill-equipped, 117,000-strong Belgian army succeeded, for ten days, in holding the German army in front of Liège in 1914. They fought between the emplaced forts in the area and with their support. This strategy was based on the Napoleonic concept of fighting the advance force and preventing a portion of the enemy forces joining the main body. At the time, the authorities and the public celebrated a determined Belgian resistance that the Germans did not expect.

For four years, under the command of King Albert I, the Belgian army guarded the important sector of the Allied left wing between Nieuwpoort, on the coast, and Ypres with the help of the forces of the Entente but did not participate in any of the major Allied offensives, which were deemed unnecessarily expensive in terms of cost and manpower by the King of the Belgians.

In 1916, a body of Belgian armoured cars were moved from the IJzer front to help the Russian Empire. The force found itself alongside an identical body sent by the British on the Eastern Front.

In Africa a company-sized unit of Belgian colonial troops participated in the occupation of the German colony of Togoland, The Force Publique subsequently played a major role in the East African Campaign against German forces in German East Africa, providing over 12,000 askaris under Belgian officers for the Allied offensive of February 1916. The most significant Belgian action was the capture of Tabora in September 1916, by a force under the command of General Charles Tombeur.

In Belgium, after four years of war, as of 26 May 1918, the army had 166,000 men of which 141,974 were combatants, forming twelve infantry divisions and one cavalry division. It had 129 aircraft and 952 guns of all calibres. From September, the Belgian army was involved in the Allied offensive until the final victory of 11 November 1918.

Between the Wars

After the Armistice with Germany of 1918, the Belgian government sought to retain the strategy of 1914. Little effort was made to acquire tanks and aircraft for the Belgian armed forces, while instead the Government strengthened the fortifications of Liège and Antwerp. This was despite the fact that during World War I the forts had proved ineffective despite strong support from artillery and infantry. Until 1936, Belgium remained allied to France and the United Kingdom.

The Belgian Army underwent a series of reductions from 12 divisions in 1923 to only four after 1926. The rank and file consisted almost entirely of conscripts serving full-time for only 13 months, before entering the reserves.

World War II

On 1 September 1939, when the Wehrmacht invaded Poland, King Leopold III of Belgium ordered a general mobilisation, in which 600,000 Belgians were mobilised. Despite warnings from the French and British governments, the King refused an alliance. Belgium was invaded, defeated, and occupied in an 18 Days' Campaign after 10 May 1940. Later, 163 Belgian troops were rescued during the Dunkirk evacuation, and Belgium's new navy, the Corps de Marine, only reformed in 1939, also participated.

After the defeat in 1940, significant numbers of Belgian soldiers and civilians escaped to Britain to join the Belgian forces in exile. The Belgian government, under Hubert Pierlot, evacuated to London where it remained until the liberation in 1944.

Belgian soldiers formed the 1st Belgian Infantry Brigade (which also included an artillery battery of soldiers from Luxembourg) more often known as the Brigade Piron after its commanding officer, Jean-Baptiste Piron. The Brigade Piron was involved in the Normandy Invasion and the battles in France and the Netherlands until liberation.

Belgians also served in British special forces units during the war, forming a troop of No.10 Commando which was involved in the Italian Campaign and Landings on Walcheren. The British 5th Special Air Service (SAS) was entirely made up of Belgians.

Two Belgian fighter units, the 349th and 350th Squadrons, were formed in the Royal Air Force, with over 400 pilots. The 350th Squadron alone claimed over 50 "kills" between its formation in November 1941 and the end of the war.

Two corvettes and a group of minesweepers were also operated by the Belgians during the Battle of the Atlantic, numbering some 350 men by 1943. Most military Belgian vessels of the Belgian navy were interned in Spain, except for the patrol craft P16, which managed to escape to the United Kingdom, where it became HMS Kernot.

The Force Publique also participated in the East African Campaign and were instrumental to forcing the Italian surrender in Abyssinia.

Post 1945
The harsh lessons of World War II made collective security a priority for Belgian foreign policy. In March 1948 Belgium signed the Treaty of Brussels, and then joined NATO in 1948. However the integration of the armed forces into NATO did not begin until after the Korean War, to which Belgium (in co-operation with Luxembourg) sent a detachment known as the Belgian Volunteer Corps for Korea. Later Belgium contributed a corps to NATO's Northern Army Group. Defence expenditure grew along with the force size. In 1948 the army was 75,000 strong which grew to 150,000 by 1952. A major defence review in 1952 set a target of three active and two reserve divisions, a 400-aircraft air force and a fifteen-ship navy. Forty anti-aircraft defence battalions were created, linked with radar and a centralised command-and-control system.

As a safeguard against Belgium being invaded again, two major bases, Kitona and Kamina, were established in the Belgian Congo. They were almost viewed as a 'national redoubt,' permitting the survival and rebuilding of forces if Belgium were again invaded.

Following a change in government in 1954 conscript service was reduced to 18 months. The Belgian Army gained nuclear capability in the 1950s with Honest John missiles initially and then with nuclear-capable tube artillery. It also adopted the U.S. Pentomic organization, but then switched to a triangular division structure by the early 1960s. Just after independence in the Congo, a Metropolitan Command (Cometro) was active to control the Belgian forces there.

From October 1993 to March 1996, Belgium participated in UNAMIR, a UN Peacekeeping mission meant to end the Rwandan genocide. While protecting the Rwandan prime minister, 10 soldiers from the 2nd Commando Battalion were tortured and executed by the Rwandan Presidential Guard. Rwandan Major Bernard Ntuyahaga was later convicted for the murders in 2007.

21st Century
 2001 - now: QRA (Benelux airspace)
2003, March - 2004, 2 December: SFOR (part of NATO Peacekeepers) (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
2004, 30 March - now: Baltic Air Policing (part of NATO QRA) (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)
 2004, 7 August - 2014: ISAF (part of NATO) (Afghanistan: Hamid Karzai International Airport, Mazar-I-Sharif, Kunduz, Kandahar Ahmad Shah Baba International Airport)
2006, 30 August - 2014, December: UNIFIL (as UN Peacekeepers and deminers) (South Lebanon: Israel-Lebanon border)
 2008, February - 2009, 15 March: EUFOR Chad/CAR (Chad, Central African Republic)
2010, 30 June - now: MONUSCO (continuation of MONUC) (as UN Peacekeepers) (Democratic Republic of the Congo: Kinshasa, France: Brest)
2011, 21 March - 2011, 31 March: Operation Odyssey Dawn (part of NATO) (Libya, Greece: Araxos Air Base)
 2013 - now: MINUSMA (as UN Peacekeepers) (Mali: Bamako, Gao, Germany: Potsdam)
 2013 - now: EUTM (Mali)
 2014 - now: Operation Desert Falcon (part of Operation Inherent Resolve) (Iraq: Bagdhad, Erbil, Syria, Kuwait, United States: Tampa, Germany: Ramstein EPEI, United Arab Emirates: Al Dhafra)
2014, 10 August - now: Operation Atalanta (part of EU NAVFOR) (Gulf of Aden, Somalian Coast, Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean)
 2015, 7 January - now: Operation Vigilant Guardian (Belgium)
As a result of the increased threat of terrorism after the shooting at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper's offices in Paris, France. The Belgian Armed Forces initiated Operation Vigilant Guardian, meant to assist the police with securing high-profile targets in major Belgian cities. After the attacks on 22 March 2016, this military protection was expanded to include soft targets in the public space, allocating 2000 army personnel for deployment. Currently, 550 service members remain deployed for public safety.
 2015 - 2021: Resolute Support Mission (continuation of ISAF) (part of NATO) (Afghanistan)
2016 - now: Cooperation with Tunisia for training, force protection and demining. (Tunisia)
 2017 - now: Operation New Nero (Niger, Sahel region, Northern Benin: port of Cotonou, CPADD)
2020, February - now: European-Led Maritime Awareness in the Strait of Hormuz (EMASOH) (Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, Abu Dhabi)
2021: Operation Sea Guardian (part of NATO) (United Kingdom: Northwood OHQ)
2021: Operation Irini (part of EU NAVFOR MED)
2021: Nato Training Mission Iraq (part of NATO)

Future
The future of the Belgian armed forces under the leadership of Defence Minister Ludivine Dedonder involves a significant rebuilding and expansion effort. After years of budgetary cuts, Belgium aims to boost its defense budget and capabilities to meet the challenges of a changing security landscape, particularly in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The key aspects of the plan include:

Increased Investment: The Belgian government has announced the STAR Plan, a substantial increase in defense spending to reach 1.54 percent of GDP by 2030 and two percent by 2035, in line with NATO's target.
Personnel Expansion: For the first time since conscription ended in 1993, Belgium's armed forces will be expanded from the current 25,000 to 29,000 personnel by 2030.
Infrastructure Development: New military bases will be built, and planned closures of other bases will be canceled, while keeping facilities decentralized to offer workplaces closer to personnel's homes.
Emphasis on Cyber and Intelligence: The recent establishment of a new cyber command center reflects the focus on countering hybrid threats and investing in modern capabilities.
Addressing Extremism: The armed forces are addressing concerns about far-right extremism within their ranks by reinforcing the military intelligence service and improving communication and cooperation with other security services.

Overall, Dedonder's vision is to ensure that Belgium's defense is well-prepared, adequately funded, and capable of operating within European, NATO, or United Nations frameworks to contribute to collective defense and respond to emerging security challenges effectively.

Structure

Since 2002, the three independent armed forces have been merged into one unified structure and organized with four components. They are structured as follows:
 Land Component, previously known as the Land Force (Force Terrestre / Landmacht / Heer);
 Air Component, previously known as the Air Force (Force Aérienne / Luchtmacht / Luftmacht);
 Marine Component, previously known as the Naval Force (Force Navale / Zeemacht / Seemacht),
 Medical Component, previously known as the Medical Service (Service Médicale / Medische dienst / Sanitätsdienst).
 Cyber Command

The operational commands of the components (COMOPSLAND, COMOPSAIR, COMOPSMAR and COMOPSMED) are directly subordinate to the Chief of Defence (CHOD).

Special Operations Command or SOCOM, does not have direct command over special operations, but is an intermediary center for coordination and communication of special operations between the components. The command provides advice and expertise and is also tasked with acquisition and distributions of equipment for SOF units. SOCOM is managed by ACOS Operations and Training.

Currently, SOCOM is responsible for setting up the new Composite Special Operations Command Center or C-SOCC. This new command center is an international project between Special Operations units of Belgium, The Netherlands and Denmark.

The Belgian Land, Air, and Medical Components all use the same military ranks. The Marine Component's ranks are unique in the Belgian Armed Forces.

Land Component

The Belgian Land Component is the ground arm of the Belgian Armed Forces. The Land Component Commander is Major-General Pierre Gérard.(since 18 October 2019). The Land Component consists of one staff (COMOPSLAND), one motorized brigade, one special operations regiment supported by an artillery battalion, two engineer battalions and a reconnaissance (ISTAR) battalion. It is also supported by three logistical units, three telecommunication units, four training camps and a center for the training of ground troops.

The land component has around 10,000 troops (as of 2023) and trained for foreign operations in a multinational environment.
Around 7500 of them are part of the Motorized Brigade (Belgium) and ~1500 part of Special Operations Regiment (Belgium) and around ~1000 are part of other branches such as military police, Explosive Removal and Destruction Service (DOVO) and more.

Air Component

The Belgian Air Component is the air arm of the Belgian Armed Forces.
The history of the Belgian Air Force began in 1910 when the Minister of War, General Hellebout, decided after his first flight to acquire aeroplanes. On 5 May 1911 a Farman type 1910 was delivered, followed by a second on 24 May and two other in August of the same year. The air component commander is Major-General aviator Thierry Dupont. (04/07/2023)
The air component consists of two fighter aircraft wing, the second tactical wing in Florennes, operating the F-16 Fighting Falcon and a unit (80 UAV squadron) flying the B-Hunter reconnaissance UAV, the 10 tactical wing in Kleine Brogel, operating the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the 15 air transport wing in Melsbroek operating 10 Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft and 2 out of 8 Airbus A400M Atlas modern transport aircraft which will replace the C-130s. Two of the new A400Ms are currently operable (CT-01, shared with the Luxembourg Air Force and CT-02), four more are scheduled to arrive in 2021. The 15th Wing also operates a small fleet of troop transport and VIP aircraft. The first wing in Beauvechain operates training aircraft and helicopters (A-109 and NH-90 helicopters). Aside from these flying units, the air component is supported by several support units, such as an air traffic control center, an air defense center (Control and Reporting Center), a meteorological wing and an aviation safety directorate.

Naval Component

The Belgian Naval Component is the naval arm of the Belgian Armed Forces. It currently has 1,200 personnel and 10 vessels. The Naval Component Commander is Rear Admiral Jan De Beurme, since 28 September 2020. Current vessels are:

Frigates:

 BNS F930 Leopold I
 BNS F931 Louise-Marie

Minesweepers:

 BNS M916 Bellis
 BNS M917 Crocus
 BNS M921 Lobelia
 BNS M923 Narcis
 BNS M924 Primula

Patrol Boats:

 BNS P901 Castor
 BNS P902 Pollux

Auxiliary Vessels:

 BNS A958 Zenobe Gramme (training ship)

Medical Component

The Medical Component is commanded by a Major General and is composed of 1,700 active personnel. Providing medical support to all personnel of the Belgium Armed forces, it consists of a Military Hospital and 2 Medical Battalions as well as a Medical Supply Unit.

Intelligence
A Belgian military intelligence service was founded on 1 April 1915. The Belgian General Information and Security Service, known as ADIV (Dutch) or SGRS (French) and part of the organisational chart of Belgian Defence as ACOS-IS (Assistant Chief of Staff Intelligence and Security) provides security intelligence for the Armed Forces as well as strategic intelligence for the Belgian government. Its focus is on counterespionage.

The Jagers te Paard Battalion ( ISTAR ) also conducts military intelligence with a tactical goal of preparing and supporting operations abroad.

Belgian Royal family in the Belgian Armed Forces

See also
List of Belgian military decorations
Belgian United Nations Command – the Belgian detachment sent to the Korean War of 1950–53

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

Belgian army rank insignia
Simoens, Tom: Belgian Soldiers, in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.

Belgian Armed Forces


Gringo is the seventh studio album released by the American psychedelic rock band Circus Devils in 2009.  All songs on Gringo were written and performed by Robert Pollard, Todd Tobias, and Tim Tobias.  The  first all-acoustic album released by Circus Devils, Gringo is a song cycle in which each track recounts a moment in the life of a nameless drifter known only as "the Gringo."  The moods on the album range widely between jubilant to melancholy to mean.

Reaction
Dave Heaton, writing for Erasing Clouds, noted, Musically the album is filled with creepy film-score interludes and art-rock grinders, but also pretty and strange acoustic balladry. Like every Circus Devils album, it feels haunted, but those ghosts do less screaming and more gentle creeping and following.  And of course, nothing is as it seems. There's a lot to savor and decipher throughout. With Gringo, you can get lulled into comfort, but then you'll be stabbed in the face.The Fire Note's Christopher Anthony wrote,The latest from Circus Devils once again proves that this vehicle has no rules, boundaries or expectations. This seventh release tells the story of Gringo in a simple, mostly acoustic form that still embraces the Circus Devils love for eclectic background noises but is their most straightforward set of accessible songs to date. You can call Gringo a statement, a step forward, a step backwards, or just the right step but the Circus Devils finalize the notion that trying to put a label on them remains impossible and that is what makes them worth seeking out!

Track listing

  Witness Hill
  Every Moment Flame On
  Ships From Prison to Prison
  Bad Baby Blue
  Easy Baby
  Before it Walks
  Monkey Head
  The Beast Falls Down
  Letters From a Witch
  Arizona Blacktop Company
  Hot Water Wine
  In Your Hour of Rescue
  Ants
  Stars On All Night
  The Gasoline Drinkers
  Yellow Cloud (inst.)

References

External links
 the Official Circus Devils site

Circus Devils albums
2009 albums
Concept albums
Acoustic albums

Gringo (album)


Jaws of Darkness (2003) by Harry Turtledove is the fifth book in the Darkness series.

Plot summary
Habakkuk, a dragon carrier carved out of an iceberg, is introduced, with Leino serving on board her.  Vanai has been thrown into Eoforwic's Kaunian Quarter, and later escapes during an Unkerlanter bombing raid, and is found by Ealstan who had disguised himself as an Algarvian.  Krasta has sex with Valnu and Lurcanio in the same day and gets pregnant from one of them but is not sure which.  Algarve invents "guided eggs".  Istvan and his friends are captured on Becsehely by Kuusamans and taken to Obuda.  Valmierans finally allowed to fight for Algarve as invasion looms and troop shortages worsen.  Kuusamans and Lagoans fool the Algarvians by massing ships and troops on the strait across from Valmiera, and pretending to send a fleet eastward toward Gyongyos, but instead using the latter fleet to invade Jelgava.  At this time, Unkerlant launches a massive offensive which sweeps the Algarvians out of northern Unkerlant and back into Forthweg to the Twegen River, while consolidating their hold on Grelz.  The Eoforwic Uprising starts when Unkerlanter armies are well into Forthweg.  Unkerlant launches major offensive against Zuwayza, forcing it to surrender with severe conditions, although it keeps its independence.  Yanina switches over to Unkerlant's side as soon as the fighting crosses its borders.  Sidroc's mixed regiment has to do a fighting retreat through Yanina.  The Algarvians abandon and withdraw from Valmiera, enabling Skarnu to return home.  Algarvians pushed out of most of Jelgava.  Istvan's regiment sacrifices itself to vainly attack the Kuusaman occupation on Obuda, although Istvan and Kun escape by inducing diarrhea.  Eoforwic Uprising suppressed by Algarvians, although Unkerlanters have not made more than a halfhearted attempt to cross the Twegen.

References

External links

American fantasy novels
Novels by Harry Turtledove
The Darkness Series
2003 American novels

Jaws of Darkness


The Pakistani Rose Syrup or the Iconic Rooh Afza (Pakistani dessert drink) - is the Official "National non-alcoholic Sherbet of Pakistan" respectively. Rooh Afza is often prepared as part of Iftar (the evening meal for breaking the fast or Roza), during Ramadan (the holy month of fasting for Muslims). The concentrate can also be mixed with water, which is a common preparation in the hot Pakistani summer. When mixed with water, the final drink is a type of Sharbat.

National symbols of Pakistan
Drinks
Pakistani food

Rose syrup


The Qatar Masters Open is an open chess tournament organized by the Qatar Chess Association in Doha, Qatar. Its first edition took place from 25 November to 5 December 2014.

Qatar Masters 2014
The tournament was open to every player with Elo 2300 or above.
The prize fund equaled over $100,000, with $25,000 for the winner.
There were also prizes for the best female and Arabic players, US$5,000 and US$3,500 for the first place in each category, respectively.

Yu Yangyi, a 20-year-old Chinese chess prodigy, became the Qatar Masters Champion, scoring 7.5/9; Anish Giri finished second and Vladimir Kramnik third, both scoring 7/9.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
! Place !! Prize
|-
| 1st || $25,000
|-
| 2nd || $15,000
|-
| 3rd || $10,000
|-
| 4th || $7,000
|-
| 5th || $6,000
|-
| 6th || $5,000
|}

Qatar Masters 2015

This was the second edition of the Qatar Masters Open, played from December 20 to December 29, 2015. The time control for each of the tournament games was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one. Tiebreak playoffs consisted of a 2-game blitz match with time control of 5 minutes with 3 seconds increment per move starting from the move 1.

Magnus Carlsen was the winner of the tournament, scoring +5 (7 points out of 9) and defeating Yu Yangyi in the tiebreak. There was a 5-way tie for third place, amongst Vladimir Kramnik, Sergey Karjakin, Sanan Sjugirov, Ni Hua, and Vassily Ivanchuk. Finally, Vladimir Kramnik finished third.
The Prizes for the 10 best players of the tournament were as follows:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
! Place !! Prize
|-
| 1st || $27,000
|-
| 2nd || $16,000
|-
| 3rd || $12,000
|-
| 4th || $8,500
|-
| 5th || $7,500
|-
| 6th || $5,500
|-
| 7th || $4,500
|-
| 8th || $3,500
|-
| 9th || $2,500
|-
| 10th || $2,000
|}

There were additional prizes for the best female players (ranging from $500.00 to $8000.00), best Arabic players (ranging from $1000.00 to $2500.00), top two Junior players, and special prizes in different rating groups.

Qatar Masters 2023
In January 2023 it was announced that the tournament will come back for a 3rd edition in 2023. The organizers said they are "working to secure sponsorship for the event to run annually until 2030". The tournament was held between October 10-20, and consisted of 9 rounds with one rest day. The tournament has a prize fund of $110,000, with $25,000 for the winner, $5,000 for the highest-scoring woman, and other prizes such as the best-scoring Arabic player and best-scoring junior. Participants included former World Champion Magnus Carlsen, five-time US Champion Hikaru Nakamura, current Dutch Champion Anish Giri, and several young talents such as Gukesh D, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Arjun Erigaisi. The top-seeded woman participating was Bibisara Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan.

The winner of this tournament was Nodirbek Yakubboev, who beat compatriot Nodirbek Abdusattorov in a blitz playoff for the title. As the 19th seed in the tournament, Yakubboev scored 7/9 (+5-0=4). Abdusattorov took second place, while Indian GM S. L. Narayanan finished third. The first woman's prize was won by Vaishali R, with 5/9, and the top Arabic prize went to Salem Saleh of the United Arab Emirates, who finished on 6/9. As Abdusattorov, the top junior in the tournament, had already achieved a prize, he could not receive the top junior prize, and neither could Javokhir Sindarov, Arjun Erigaisi, or Gukesh D, who finished fourth, sixth, and eighth respectively, so it is likely that the prize went instead to Nihal Sarin, the highest-performing junior who had yet to receive a greater prize than the $2,000 awarded to the top junior.

External links
 Tournament's official website

Notes

2014 in chess
2014 in Qatari sport
Chess in Qatar
Chess competitions
2014 establishments in Qatar

Qatar Masters Open


The 38th Infantry Division () was a German Army infantry division in World War II. Formed in July 1942, it existed for a little over 15 months before being effectively destroyed in fighting on the Eastern Front in November 1943.

History

The 38th Infantry Division was formed in July 1942 under the command of Generalleutnant Friedrich-Georg Eberhardt. After serving garrison duty in The Hague shortly after its formation, the division was transferred to Occupied France. It was based at Saint-Nazaire on the west coast, as part of the 7th Army.

Transferred to the Eastern Front in early 1943, the division was engaged in various actions against the Russian Army. By September, the division had been reduced to little more than regiment size and it came under the operational control of the 62nd Infantry Division. Losses incurred during the Battle of the Dnieper meant that the 38th Infantry Division officially ceased to exist on 14 November 1943. The surviving members of the division were transferred to the 276th Infantry Division.

Commanders
Generalleutnant Friedrich-Georg Eberhardt (July 1942–August 1943);
Oberst Knut Eberding (August–November 1943).

Notes
Footnotes

Citations

References

Military units and formations established in 1942
Military units and formations disestablished in 1943
0*038

38th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)


Marcos Sastre (2 October 1808, Montevideo – 15 February 1887, Buenos Aires) was an Argentine writer, born in neighboring Uruguay. He founded, along with Juan B. Alberdi, Juan María Gutiérrez and Esteban Echeverría, the Salón Literario, the beginning of the Generation of '37.

Biography
He started his schooling in Montevideo, but his family moved to the city of Santa Fe in Argentina during the Portuguese occupation. He finished his secondary schooling at the Monserrat School in Córdoba, where he started his studies on art and painting.

After the war with Brazil, he returned to Montevideo, where he founded a school and published a book for the teaching of reading. He moved to Buenos Aires in 1830, and began studying law at the University of Buenos Aires, but did not finish. He studied painting with various renowned artists.

The following year, he opened a bookstore, Librería Argentina. In the back room, a new literary club, the Salón Literario ("Literary meeting room") started meeting in 1835. The regular members to the Salón were youths interested in culture, politics and the scientific progress: Miguel Cané, Juan Bautista Alberdi, Juan María Gutiérrez, Esteban Echeverría, and  Vicente Fidel López. Their meetings at the beginning discussed literature, arts and fashion, influenced by the ascendancy of romanticism in Europe at the time. They also discussed politics and culture, subjects that later became the core of their meetings.

In 1837, Echeverría founded the Asociación de Mayo, at the back room of his store. The meeting was first viewed favorably by top functionaries of the Rosas government, even though they were considered suspicious by the Sociedad Popular Restauradora (Rosas' government's political arm). In the same year, the French blockade of the Río de la Plata started, which first for cultural reasons, then political, defined them as anti-Rosas. The threats of the para-military group, the Mazorca, Sastre did not flee to Montevideo, as several of his friends had done. The government's displeasure and the stopping of imports from France caused the bankruptcy of his bookstore. In 1840, Sastre published a novel, Cartas a Germania.

With his shop gone, he retired to the nearby town of San Fernando, where he opened a school in 1842. There he conceived and wrote El Tempe Argentino, his main work as a self-taught naturalist. It was a study more literary than scientific on the flora, fauna and geography of the Paraná Delta, illustrated with engravings made by the author himself. Besides observations on flora and fauna, it contained studies on the insects, mushrooms and ferns of the region, a novelty at the time.

After a visit to his school by members of the paramilitary Mazorca, he left for Santa Fe and later to Entre Ríos, where in 1849, he founded the newspaper El Sudamericano. The following year, Governor Urquiza named him Inspector General of schools and director of the official newspaper El Federal.

After the Battle of Caseros, which deposed Rosas, he returned to Buenos Aires, where he was named director of the public library. For his sympathies with the Urquiza government, in 1853 he was released from the post. He returned to Entre Ríos, where he became Inspector General of schools of the Argentine Confederation. He also wrote for several newspapers and published a treatise on spelling, Ortografía Completa, and another one on grammar, Lecciones de Gramática.

After the Battle of Pavón during the Argentine Civil Wars, he continued working as the director of schools for the nation. In 1865, he was named director of the Teacher's School in Entre Ríos. His last public post was as member of the national Council on Education, where he worked until his death.

Sastre died in Buenos Aires in February 1887.

The town of Sastre, in Santa Fe Province, street names in several Argentine cities and a school on the Reconquista River, in the town of Tigre, are named after him.

Bibliography

External links

1809 births
1887 deaths
Argentine educators
Argentine male writers
Argentine journalists
Burials at La Recoleta Cemetery
19th-century journalists
Argentine male journalists
19th-century male writers

Marcos Sastre


Ignition City is a five-issue science fiction comic book limited series, written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Gianluca Pagliarani. It was published in 2009 by American company Avatar Press.

Publication history
Ellis initially conceived the plot in 2005. After some brief initial work in 2006, the series was not mentioned again until after the release of his Aetheric Mechanics in 2008. Inspirations included the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials, the show Deadwood, the artist Magdalene Veen, the film Metropolis, the Berlin Tegel Airport, Ray Bradbury's short story "Rocket Summer", Alan Moore's comic The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and his own Ministry of Space comic (which was in turn inspired by Dan Dare).

Plot
Ignition City is set in an atompunk/dieselpunk alternate history in the year 1956; in this timeline, World War II was interrupted by a Martian invasion. As a result, space travel became commonplace. Ignition City itself is Earth's last spaceport; a circular artificial island located in equatorial waters. Rockets launch from a ring of gantries ringing the island, and the interior is a shantytown populated by former spacemen who have found themselves out of work due to a planet-wide ban on space travel. The story follows Mary Raven, a young woman who travels to Ignition City after her father, a formerly famous spaceman named Rock Raven, is killed there.

Characters
Mary Raven – former astronaut and daughter of the space hero Rock Raven, comes to Ignition City to investigate the death of her father.
Rock Raven – British space hero, veteran of campaigns against the Martians and thus possibly inspired by Dan Dare.
Lionel "Buster" Crabb – British government official, a friend to Mary and her father. Based on the real life Navy officer thought captured and brainwashed by the Russians.
Lightning Bowman – one of the first three humans in space (alongside Gayle Ransom and Doc Vukovic), now marooned in Ignition City. Inspired by Flash Gordon.
Gayle Ransom – former lover of Lighting Bowman, and another of the first three humans in space, now a bar-owner and gun-runner in Ignition City. Inspired by Dale Arden.
Dr. Dragomir Vukovic, AKA 'Doc Vukovic' – another of the first three humans in space, he built the original spaceship out of junk parts. Inspired by Dr. Hans Zarkov.
Kharg the Killer – dictator of the planet Khargu and ally of Adolf Hitler, who was defeated by Lightning Bowman, Gayle Ransom, and Doc Vukovic. Inspired by Ming the Merciless.
Bronco – drunken customer in Gayle Bowman's bar who talks of his time spent five centuries in the future, and thus analogous to Buck Rogers.
Piet Vanderkirk – Gayle Bowman's right-hand man. Former member of the  Royal Netherlands Navy's Solar Patrol in the Pluto Detachment, part of "The Chain" which appears to refer to a psychically linked group of soldiers using gifted alien technology, similar to E. E. Smith's Lensmen.
Yuri – washed-up "Russia's greatest cosmonaut", since disavowed and abandoned in Ignition City.
Marshal Pomeroy – Corrupt lawman of the Ignition City settlement. Flies with the aid of a jet pack, reminiscent of Commando Cody.

Collected editions
The series has been collected into a trade paperback:

Ignition City Volume 1 (144 pages, Avatar, February 2010, )

Notes

References

External links

Ignition City production blog
Avatar Press Ignition City section

Reviews

Sunday Slugfest: Ignition City #1 and #2 , Comics Bulletin
Best Shots Extra: Ignition City #1, Newsarama
Review of Ignition City #1, Comic Book Resources

Fictional populated places
Fiction set on Mars
Space Western comics
Steampunk comics
Comics about World War II alternate histories
Fiction set in 1956
Alien invasions in comics
Comics set during World War II
Comics set in the 1950s

Ignition City


"The Boys in Green" is a song by Michael Carwood a journalist with The Irish Press. The song was written for Ireland's 1988 European Championship.

Credited to the "Republic of Ireland Soccer Squad", it spent four weeks at #1 in the Irish charts in June / July 1988, prior to the tournament the Irish Soccer team and management performed the song with Gay Byrne, on The Late Late Show.

The song was reworked by the Dublin City Ramblers on their album Home and away, for the Italy 90, World Cup, with the word "Italy" use instead of Germany, and the lines .. we can celebrate, Ireland, Ireland in Euro '88 , was replaced with We'll say Ireland Ireland we're on our way to Rome, Ireland Ireland to bring the world cup home.

References

1988 songs
Association football songs and chants
Republic of Ireland at UEFA Euro 1988
Republic of Ireland national football team songs
The Late Late Show (Irish talk show)

The Boys in Green


William Popple (1701–1764) was an English official, dramatist and Governor of Bermuda.

Life
He was the youngest of three sons of William Popple of the parish of St. Margaret's, Westminster, who died in 1722, and his wife Anne; William Popple was his grandfather. He entered the cofferer's office about 1730, and in June 1737 was promoted solicitor and clerk of the reports to the commissioners of trade and plantations.

Popple was appointed governor of the Bermudas in March 1745, replacing his brother Alured Popple (1699–1744), and held that post until shortly before his death at Hampstead on 8 February 1764. He was buried on 13 February in Hampstead churchyard, where there is an inscribed stone in his memory.

Works
Some of Popple's juvenile poems were included in the Collection of Miscellaneous Poems issued by Richard Savage in 1726.

Aaron Hill encouraged the writing of two comedies, to which Hill wrote prologues:
The Lady's Revenge, or the Rover reclaim'd (London and Dublin, 1734), was dedicated to Frederick, Prince of Wales, and was produced on four occasions at Covent Garden in January 1734.
The Double Deceit, or a Cure for Jealousy (London, 1736), dedicated to Edward Walpole, was produced on 25 April 1735, also at Covent Garden.

About this same time (1735) Popple collaborated with Hill in his Prompter, and incurred a share of Alexander Pope's resentment, with a line in the Dunciad. He also published, in 1753, a translation (1753) of the Ars Poetica of Horace, which he dedicated to the Earl of Halifax.

Notes

References

1701 births
1764 deaths
English dramatists and playwrights
Governors of Bermuda
English male dramatists and playwrights

William Popple (colonial administrator)


The government of El Salvador is a presidential representative democratic republic.

El Salvador elects its head of state – the President of El Salvador –  directly through a fixed-date general election whose winner is decided by absolute majority.  If an absolute majority (50% + 1) is not achieved by any candidate in the first round of a presidential election, then a run-off election is conducted 30 days later between the two candidates who obtained the most votes in the first round. The presidential period is five years. Consecutive re-election is not permitted, though previously elected presidents may run for a second, non-consecutive term.

Salvadorans also elect a single-chamber, unicameral national legislature – the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador – composed of 84 members (deputies). They are elected by open-list proportional representation for three-year terms, with the possibility of immediate re-election. All 84 seats in the Legislative Assembly are elected on the basis of 14 multi-member constituencies (corresponding to El Salvador's 14 departments). They range from 3-16 seats each according to department population size.

Political culture

El Salvador has a multi-party system. Two political parties, the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) have tended to dominate elections. ARENA candidates won four consecutive presidential elections until the election of Mauricio Funes of the FMLN in March 2009.

Geographically, the departments of the Central region, especially the capital and the coastal regions, known as departamentos rojos, or red departments, are relatively leftist, and have traditionally supported the FMLN. The departamentos azules, or blue departments in the east, western and highland regions are relatively conservative, have traditionally supported ARENA, but since the 2019 presidential election, has transitioned to supporting Nuevas Ideas.

In February 2021, El Salvador's legislative election was an important breakthrough. The new party, founded by President Nayib Bukele, Nuevas Ideas, won around two-thirds of votes with its allies (GANA-New Ideas). His party won supermajority 56 seats in the 84-seat parliament. Bukele became the country's most powerful leader in three decades.

Schedule

Election

List of elections

See also

 Politics of El Salvador

References

Elections in El Salvador


The Yuanyang colliery outburst occurred at the privately run Yuanyang colliery in Puding County, Anshun, Guizhou, People's Republic of China, at 9:40 p.m. on 13 May 2010. At least 21 people were killed and at least five were wounded.

Thirty-one miners were inside the shaft at the time of the outburst, and ten of them walked out alive. Rescuers searched in vain for others. There were genuine fears that an unknown quantity of unregistered miners may have been underground at the time. Half of the fleeing ten were still hospitalised and receiving treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning the following day. 24 miners were initially reported as being trapped, with seven escaping the mine.

An early investigation revealed explosives were responsible for the burst. The explosives were used for illegal mining which had been underway in the colliery. According to deputy director of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety Wang Shuhe, "local authorities did not fully perform their duties, and occasionally even abetted or sheltered illegal activities". He visited the scene as part of the investigation. Work at all of Puding's collieries was suspended. Guizhou surveyed its coal mines for safety reasons on 15 May 2010. Guizhou's vice-governor Sun Guoqiang said authorities should have checked the mine and asked officials after the burst: "Did anyone of you visit the mine after approving the shaft maintenance project"?

The incident had severe consequences for county-level and township officials: five were suspended or fired altogether when the full extent of what had occurred was realised. Vice head of Puding, Wu Guohong: county director of work safety supervision administration, Xu Dongfeng: county director of coal mining administration, Hu Yingze, were among these. The mine's owner, Li Renjie, vanished without a trace as authorities attempted to find him.

See also

 Coal power in China

References

2010 mining disasters
2010 in China
Coal mining disasters in China
History of Guizhou
2010 disasters in China
May 2010 events in China

Yuanyang colliery outburst