Franz Sigel (November 18, 1824 – August 21, 1902) was a German military officer, revolutionist and immigrant to the United States. In the US he was a teacher, newspaperman, politician, and served as a Union Major general in the American Civil War. His ability to recruit German-speaking immigrants to the Union armies got him the approval of President Abraham Lincoln. But he was strongly disliked by General-in-Chief Henry Halleck and rated overall as a poor leader.

Early life
Sigel was born in Sinsheim, Baden (Germany). He attended the gymnasium in Bruchsal. He graduated from Karlsruhe Military Academy in 1843, and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Baden Army. In 1848 he was a part of the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states. When the revolution failed he fled, eventually immigrating to New York City. There he worked at a number of different jobs. These include a teacher, musician, surveyor and the owner of a cigar store. In 1854 Sigel married Elsie Dulon. Together they had five children. In 1857 he moved to St Louis, Missouri where he was one of the founders of a monthly magazine. He was the superintendent at the German Institute and joined the Republican Party. He attracted German immigrants to the Republican party because of their strong anti-slavery sentiment.

Civil War
At the start of the Civil War, Sigel volunteered to support Abraham Lincoln and the Union cause. Because of his military experience, he was given command of the Third Missouri Infantry. He recruited many German-Americans to the Union cause with the slogan, "I goes to fight mit Sigel." His commission as Colonel held a date of rank of May 4, 1861. Because he was a key figure in recruiting immigrants to the Union army, President Lincoln had him promoted to Brigadier general two weeks later.

In the meanwhile, he was attached to Brigadier general Nathaniel Lyon's Union Army of the West. Sigel and his soldiers helped put down a riot the St. Louis area. The incident was known as the Camp Jackson Affair. He led a Flanking maneuver at Battle of Wilson's Creek, surprising and attacking the Confederate forces from their rear while Lyon attacked them from the front. On March 8, 1862, at the Battle of Pea Ridge, Sigel commanded two division (military)s in the victory against Major General Earl Van Dorn (CSA).

Sigel was promoted to major general after the battle of Pea Ridge. He served as a division commander in the Shenandoah Valley and fought unsuccessfully against Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. He commanded a Union corps at the Second Battle of Bull Run.Here he was wounded in the hand.

In early 1863, Sigel lobbied the War Department for more troops. But his requests were refused. In early 1864 he was given command of the Army of West Virginia. In 1864 his army was defeated in the Battle of New Market. This loss and his failure to prevent Confederate attacks in Northern Virginia led to his removal from command. Although he remained in the army until May 1865, he was not given another command.

Career after the Civil War

Sigel resigned his commission on May 4, 1865. He worked as editor of the Baltimore Wecker for a short time. He was then a newspaper editor in New York City. He filled a variety of political positions there, both as a Democrat and a Republican. In 1869, he ran on the Republican ticket for Secretary of State of New York. He lost to the incumbent Democrat Homer Augustus Nelson. In May 1871 he became collector of internal revenue, and then in October 1871 register of the city. In 1887, President Grover Cleveland appointed him pension agent for the city of New York. He also lectured, worked in advertising and published the New York Monthly, a German-American magazine, for some years.

Franz Sigel died in New York in 1902 and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.

References

1824 births
1902 deaths
American Civil War generals
German military people
Naturalized citizens of the United States
People from Baden-Württemberg
Military people from Missouri

Franz Sigel


A train wheel or rail wheel is a type of wheel specially designed for use on railway tracks. The wheel acts as a rolling component, typically press fitted onto an axle and mounted directly on a railway carriage or locomotive, or indirectly on a bogie (in the UK), also called a truck (in North America). The powered wheels under the locomotive are called driving wheels. Wheels are initially cast or forged and then heat-treated to have a specific hardness. New wheels are machined using a lathe to a standardized shape, called a profile, before being installed onto an axle. All wheel profiles are regularly checked to ensure proper interaction between the wheel and the rail. Incorrectly profiled wheels and worn wheels can increase rolling resistance, reduce energy efficiency and may even cause a derailment. The International Union of Railways has defined a standard wheel diameter of , although smaller sizes are used in some rapid transit railway systems and on ro-ro carriages.

Wheel geometry and flange

The running surface of most train wheels is conical, which serves as the primary means of keeping the train aligned with the track while in motion. The wheels are fixed on an axle, and when rounding a curve, the mass of the train pushes the wheelset towards the outside of the track. The outside wheel rides up to contact the rail at a larger diameter, while the inside wheel drops down to contact its rail at a smaller diameter. The difference between the distances travelled by each wheel for each rotation of the axle causes the wheelset to follow the curve of the track.

Almost all train wheels have a projection, called a flange, on one side to keep the wheels, and hence the train, running on the rails when the limits or tests of alignment are reached: when a bend is taken at appropriate speed, when there are strong sidebreezes, and to withstand most common defects in trackbed, rail and mild debris. Some wheels do not have a conical profile and instead are cylindrical, such that the flanges are essential to keep the train on the track.

Wheel arrangement

The number of wheels per locomotive or car varies in both size and number to accommodate the needs of the railcar or locomotive. Regardless of these factors, pairs of identically sized wheels are always affixed to a straight axle as a singular unit, called a wheelset.

Wheels for road-rail vehicles

Wheels used for road–rail vehicles are normally smaller than those found on other types of rolling stock (such as locomotives or carriages). This is because the wheel has to be stored clear of the ground when the vehicle is in road-going mode - Such wheels can be as small as  in diameter. In Australia, wheels for road-rail vehicles should comply with the requirements of AS7514.4, which is the Australian standard for infrastructure maintenance vehicle wheels.

Railway wheel and tire

Modern railway wheels are usually machined from a single casting, also known as monoblock wheels. Some wheels, however, are made of two parts: the wheel core, and a tire ("tyre" in British English, Australian English and other variants) around the perimeter. Separate tires are a component of some modern passenger rolling stock. The purpose of the separate tire is to provide a replaceable wearing element – an important factor for steam locomotives with their costly spoked construction. In modern times the tire is invariably made from steel, which is stronger than the cast iron of earlier eras. It is typically heated and pressed on to the wheel before it cools and shrinks. Resilient rail wheels have a resilient material, such as rubber, between the wheel and tire. Failure of such kind of wheel was one of the causes leading up to the Eschede high-speed train crash.

Causes of damage

The most common cause of wheel damage is severe braking. This activity includes sudden braking, braking on steep gradients and braking with high weight loads. The brake shoes (or blocks) are applied directly to the wheel surface which generates immense amounts of thermal energy. Under normal operation, a wheel may obtain a tread temperature of . Under severe braking conditions, the generated thermal energy can contribute to thermal shock or alteration of the wheel's mechanical properties. Ultimately, acute thermal loading leads to a phenomenon called spalling. Alternatively, severe braking or low adhesion may stop the rotation of the wheels while the vehicle is still moving, which may cause a flat spot on the wheel-rail interface and localized heat damage.

Modern railway wheels are manufactured reasonably thick to provide an allowance of wear material. Worn wheels or wheels with a flat spot are machined on a wheel lathe if there is sufficient thickness of material remaining.

Guide wheel
Rubber-tyred metros with a central guide rail, such as the Busan Metro, Lille Metro and the Sapporo Municipal Subway as well as rubber-tyred trams have guide wheels.

See also
 Adhesive weight
 Cycloid and trochoid
 Wheelset (rail transport)#Conical wheel-tread

References

ISO 1005 Parts 1-9
BS 5892 Parts 1-6
AS7414.4

External links

 Train wheels

Train wheel


Marshall Industries , (1984–1999) was founded in 1954 by Gordon S. Marshall and was among the largest distributors of industrial electronic components, semiconductors and production supplies. The Company also provided its customers with a variety of value added services such as inventory management, kitting, programming of logic devices and testing services. The Company distributed over 250,000 different products manufactured by over 5000 suppliers to more than 250,000 global customers which included a wide range of original equipment manufacturers, contract manufacturers and value-added resellers. Marshall Industries was sold to Avnet Inc. (NYSE:AVT)

The Company's dramatic transformation and growth from $400 million to $1.8 billion was chronicled in W. Edwards Deming's last book The New Economics, a Harvard Case Study, and Free Perfect and Now, by Marshall President and CEO from 1992 to 1999 Robert Rodin, a protégé of Deming's.

References

Companies based in California

Marshall Industries


Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934 – November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, poet, novelist, and painter. His work was mostly about religion, politics, sexuality, and personal relationships. All of these ideas can be seen in his best known work, "Hallelujah".

Cohen was added into both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame as well as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honor. In 2011, Cohen received one of the Prince of Asturias Awards for literature and the ninth Glenn Gould Prize.

Early life
Cohen was born on September 21, 1934 in Westmount, Quebec into a middle-class Canadian Jewish family. His mother was Marsha (Masha) Klonitsky and his father was Nathan Cohen. Cohen's father died when he was nine years old.

During his high school years in Westmount, Cohen learned and played the guitar many times and wrote poems. He studied at McGill University.

Career
Cohen started a career as a poet and novelist during the 1950s and early 1960s. Cohen did not start his music career until 1967, at the age of 33. His first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967), was followed by three more albums of folk music: Songs from a Room (1969), Songs of Love and Hate (1971) and New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974).

His 1977 record Death of a Ladies' Man was co-written and produced by Phil Spector. In 1979, Cohen returned with the more traditional Recent Songs, which blended his acoustic style with jazz and Oriental and Mediterranean influences.

"Hallelujah" was first released on Cohen's studio album Various Positions in 1984. Cohen wrote around 80 draft verses for "Hallelujah", with one writing session at the Royalton Hotel in New York where he was reduced to sitting on the floor in his underwear, banging his head on the floor. This became Cohen's best known work. I'm Your Man in 1988 marked Cohen's most popular album with the song "Everybody Knows". In 1992, Cohen released its follow-up, The Future, which had dark lyrics and references to political and social unrest.

Cohen returned to music in 2001 with the release of Ten New Songs, which was a major hit in Canada and Europe. His eleventh album, Dear Heather, followed in 2004. After a successful string of tours between 2008 and 2010, Cohen released three albums in the final four years of his life: Old Ideas (2012), Popular Problems (2014) and You Want It Darker (2016), the last of which was released three weeks before his death.

Personal life
Though never married, Cohen had two children: Adam and Lorca with his girlfriend Suzanne Elrod. He was also romantically linked with Marianne Ihlen, Janis Joplin and Rebecca De Mornay.

Death
Cohen died in 7 November 2016 of leukemia and from complications of a fall in his sleep at his home in Los Angeles, aged 82.

His funeral was held on November 10, 2016 in Montreal, at a cemetery on Mount Royal, his congregation Shaar Hashomayim confirmed.
As was his wish, Cohen was laid to rest with a Jewish rite, in a simple pine casket, in a family plot.

Titles and honors
 In 1968, Cohen refused a Governor General's Award (in category for English language poetry or drama) for Selected Poems 1956–1968.
 In 1991, Cohen was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.
 In 1993, Cohen won the Juno Award for Male Vocalist of the Year.
 In 1994, Cohen won another Juno Award this time for Songwriter of the Year.
 In 1996, he was ordained a Rinzai Buddhist monk.
 In 2001, Cohen was awarded a SNEP Award for more than 100,000 copies sold of Ten New Songs in France.
 In 2003, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honour.
 In 2004, Beautiful Losers was chosen for inclusion in Canada Reads 2005. It was selected and originally to be championed by singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright; however, tour commitments meant that Wainwright had to be replaced by singer Molly Johnson.
 In 2006, Cohen was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.
 In 2007, Cohen received a Grammy for Album of the Year as a featured artist on Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters.
 In 2008, Cohen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
 In June 2008 he was made a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec

References

Other websites

1934 births
2016 deaths
Canadian Jews
Canadian novelists
Canadian poets
Canadian singer-songwriters
Cancer deaths in Los Angeles
Deaths from leukemia
Folk musicians
Folk singers
Jewish musicians
Jewish writers

Musicians from Montreal
People from Westmount, Quebec
Rock musicians
Rock singers
Writers from Montreal

Leonard Cohen


Fredelo, Fridolo, or  Frigidolo (died 852) was the first Count of Toulouse (844–852) of the dynasty of Rouergue.

Son of Fulcoald of Rouergue and Senegund, daughter of Alda, sister of William of Gellone, Fredelo was related to the families of the counts of Rouergue and Toulouse.

In 840, Fulcoald died, but Fredelo was not confirmed as his successor in Rouergue. But when Bernard of Septimania was captured by Charles the Bald for rebellion against his lord and executed in 844, the king bestowed his county of Toulouse on Fredelo. Pepin II of Aquitaine, who was leading the revolt against Charles, appointed Bernard's heir William to the county of Toulouse. Of the two claimants to Toulouse, William had the upper hand. In 849, however, William was in Barcelona and Charles invaded Aquitaine. Fredelo, then in control of Toulouse, taking advantage of William's absence, opened the gates of the city to his sovereign and was reconfirmed in his possession of it.

Fredelo received the County of Carcassonne in 850 and died in 852, leaving his titles to his brother Raymond. By his wife Oda, he left one daughter named Udalgarda who married Bernard Plantapilosa.

References

852 deaths
Counts of Toulouse
Counts of Carcassonne
Year of birth unknown
House of Rouergue
9th-century people from West Francia

Fredelo, Count of Toulouse


Robert Burnaby (November 30, 1828 – January 10, 1878) was an English merchant, politician and civil servant in British Columbia, where he served as private secretary to Richard Clement Moody, the founder and first Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia. Moody named Burnaby Lake, in British Columbia, after Burnaby, and the city of Burnaby was subsequently named after Burnaby, as were at least ten other urban and geographical features, including a mountain, Robert Burnaby Park, a Haida Gwaii Island, and a street in Vancouver.

Early life

Burnaby was born in Woodthorpe, Leicestershire. Before his appointment to the staff of Richard Clement Moody, he worked for the civil service in London, during which service he attracted the favour of Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

Private secretary to Richard Clement Moody
On the strength of a recommendation by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Richard Clement Moody decided to hire Burnaby as his personal secretary. In this position, Burnaby contributed to the planning of the settlement of the towns of Queensborough, Hope and Yale. Burnaby also explored the area around Burnaby Lake, which Moody decided to name after him.

Within a year or so, he founded a commission trading business with his friend Edward Henderson, in Victoria. Due to high risk, speculation in a coal mine in Burrard Inlet that never materialized, and a recession, it folded in 1865. He then went into real estate and insurance. In 1862 he contended that he had a claim prior to that of the "Three Greenhorn Englishmen" to what is now known as the West End of Vancouver, but Judge Chartres Brew dismissed the documents he produced as forgeries, "obviously written by a liar or a knave."

Legislative Assembly of Vancouver Island
Soon after his arrival in Victoria, Burnaby ran for the Legislative Assembly. He was elected as the member from Esquimalt and Metchosin, and served for five years.

Burnaby helped found the Victoria Chamber of Commerce, and was president of the Amateur Dramatic Association of Victoria. The well-connected Burnaby was a close friend of many prominent figures in the region, including the Judges Matthew Baillie Begbie and Henry Pering Pellew Crease, gold commissioner Thomas Elwyn, and Richard Clement Moody.

Freemasonry
Burnaby was active in Freemasonry, and a key figure in its development in British Columbia. In 1860 Burnaby helped to found Victoria Lodge No. 1085, the first Masonic lodge in what is now British Columbia, and was elected its first Past Master. When a District Grand Lodge for British Columbia was formed in 1868, under the Grand Lodge of England, Burnaby headed it as District Grand Master. At first he opposed a plan put forward by lodges affiliated with the Scottish Grand Lodge to form an independent Grand Lodge, but seeing growing tension between English and Scottish lodges, he later agreed to put the matter to a general vote. Finding wide support, he tabled the motion to create the new Grand Lodge of BC on October 21, 1871. Burnaby refused the post of Grand Master due poor health, but was elected first Past Grand Master.

Settlements named after Burnaby
The most lasting contribution Burnaby made to British Columbia may have been to simply lend his name to its maps. When the area around Burnaby Lake, which Richard Clement Moody had named after Burnaby, was later incorporated, in 1892, the new municipality also chose the name Burnaby. An island and a narrows in Haida Gwaii are named for him, as well as a street, a hill, and a park in Burnaby itself. In total, at least eleven urban and geographical features in BC bear his name.

Later life
Burnaby's failing health lead to his retirement in 1869 and his return to England in 1874. He died in 1878.

References
History of Burnaby online pdf view from the Heritage Burnaby website
Robie L. Reid, Historical Notes and Biographical Sketches 1848 - 1935 "Bio of Robert Burnaby" at Grand Lodge BC & Yukon website
Madge Wolfenden, "Robert Burnaby" at Dictionary of Canadian Biography online, 2000
Tom Snyders with Jennifer O'Rourke, Namely Vancouver: A Hidden History of Vancouver Place Names (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2001)

Footnotes

Members of the Legislative Assembly of Vancouver Island
English explorers of North America
Explorers of British Columbia
Burnaby
English emigrants to pre-Confederation British Columbia
1828 births
1878 deaths

Robert Burnaby


United Parcel Service (UPS, stylized as ups) is an American multinational shipping & receiving and supply chain management company founded in 1907. Originally known as the American Messenger Company specializing in telegraphs, UPS has grown to become a Fortune 500 company and one of the world's largest shipping couriers. UPS today is primarily known for its ground shipping services as well as the UPS Store, a retail chain which assists UPS shipments and provides tools for small businesses. UPS offers air shipping on an overnight or two-day basis and delivers to post office boxes through UPS Mail Innovations and UPS SurePost, two services that pass on packages to the United States Postal Service for last-mile delivery.

UPS is the largest courier company in the world by revenue, with annual revenues around US$85 billion in 2020, ahead of competitors DHL and FedEx. UPS's main international hub, UPS Worldport in Louisville, Kentucky, is the fifth busiest airport in the world by cargo traffic based on preliminary statistics from ACI, and the third busiest in the U.S. behind FedEx's Memphis Superhub and Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. The company is one of the largest private employers in the United States.

History

Foundation

On August 28, 1907, James E. Casey founded the American Messenger Company with Claude Ryan in Seattle, Washington, capitalized with $100 in debt. Most deliveries at this time were made on foot and bicycles were used for longer trips.

The American Messenger Company focused primarily on package delivery to retail stores with special delivery mail delivered for its largest client the U.S. Post Office. In 1913, the company acquired a Model T Ford as its first delivery vehicle. Casey and Ryan merged with a competitor, Evert McCabe, and formed Merchants Parcel Delivery. Consolidated delivery was also introduced, combining packages addressed to a certain neighborhood onto one delivery vehicle.

In 1916, Charlie Soderstrom joined Merchants Parcel Delivery bringing in more vehicles for the growing delivery business. In 1919, the company expanded for the first time outside of Seattle to Oakland, California, and changed its name to United Parcel Service. The name change to United Parcel Service was to remind the company that expansion operations were still United under the same organization and Parcel identified the type of business offered as part of its Service.

The carrier service was acquired in 1922 from a company in Los Angeles, California. UPS became one of the only companies in the United States to offer common carrier service. At first, common carrier was only limited to a small area around Los Angeles but by 1927 expanded to areas up to 125 miles outside the city. In 1924, a conveyor belt system was debuted for the handling of packages for UPS operations.

In 1930, a consolidated service began in New York City, and soon after in other major cities in the East and the Midwest. The use of common carrier for delivery between all customers placed UPS in direct competition with USPS and the Interstate Commerce Commission. The common carrier service was applied in cities where UPS could use the service without the authority of the ICC and state commerce commissions. The first city for UPS to use common carrier status outside California was Chicago, Illinois, in 1953.

Air service through UPS was first used in 1929 through private airlines. However, the Great Depression and a lack of volume ended the air service. In 1953, UPS resumed air service called UPS Blue Label Air with two-day service to major cities along the East Coast and West Coast.

Expansion and diversification
In 1975, UPS moved its headquarters to Greenwich, Connecticut, and began serving all of the 48 contiguous states of the United States. This expansion of operations made UPS the first package delivery company to serve every address in the contiguous United States. Additionally in 1975, UPS went international by establishing operations in Canada. In 1976, UPS established a domestic operation in West Germany.

UPS Next Day Air Service was launched in 1985 for all 48 contiguous states plus Puerto Rico. In 1988, UPS Airlines was launched with authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration and became the fastest-growing airline in FAA history – currently the 10th largest airline in the United States. Domestic air service was added to Germany in 1989. In 1991, UPS relocated its headquarters to Sandy Springs, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. Following this in 1992, UPS acquired both Haulfast and Carryfast and rebranded them UPS Supply Chain Solutions. Haulfast provided the pallet haulage and trucking network for the CarryFast group of companies. By 1993, UPS was delivering up to 11.5 million packages and documents per day.

In order for the company to service the large volume of customers in 1991, UPS developed technologies to improve efficiency. A handheld device called "Delivery Information Acquisition Device" (DIAD) was created to record and upload delivery information to the UPS network immediately upon pickup by every UPS driver. In 1992, UPS began tracking all ground shipments electronically. In 1994, UPS.com debuted, and provided an interface to make what was primarily internal operational information available for customer access. After 27 years of providing this information, UPS chose to hide it again for most packages in 2021 and this information is no longer available on their consumer facing website.

In 1995, UPS acquired SonicAir to offer service parts logistics and compete with Choice Logistics. In the same year, UPS launched UPS Logistics Group to facilitate global supply chain management services and consulting for customer needs. In 1997, a walkout by the 185,000 members of the Teamsters shut down UPS for 16 days. In 1998, UPS Capital was established to enable companies to grow their business through a comprehensive menu of integrated financial services through UPS. UPS acquired Challenge Air in 1999 to expand its operations in Latin America.

On November 10, 1999, UPS became a public company in the largest initial public offering of the 20th century.

21st century
In 2001, UPS acquired Mail Boxes Etc., Inc., a franchised network of packing and shipping retail centers across the United States and Canada.  In 2003, the company rebranded the Mail Boxes, Etc. network as The UPS Store.

In 2004, UPS entered the heavy freight business with the purchase of Menlo Worldwide Forwarding, a former subsidiary of Menlo Worldwide; UPS rebranded it as UPS Supply Chain Solutions.  The purchase price was US$150 million and the assumption of US$110 million in long-term debt.

On August 5, 2005, UPS announced that it has completed its acquisition of less-than-truckload (LTL) trucking company Overnite Transportation for US$1.25 billion. This was approved by the FTC and Overnite shareholders on August 4, 2005.  On April 28, 2006, Overnite officially became UPS Freight.

In 2005, UPS offered non-stop delivery service between Guangzhou and the United States. On October 3, 2005, UPS completed the purchase of Lynx Express, one of the largest independent parcel carriers in the United Kingdom, for £55.5 million (US$97.1 million) after receiving approval for the transaction from the European Commission. The first joint package car center operation in Dartford, Kent, was opened in 2006.

On August 28, 2007, United Parcel Service celebrated its 100th anniversary. All Nippon Airways, a Star Alliance member, and UPS formed a cargo alliance and code-share to transport member cargo in 2008, similarly to an airline alliance.

On March 19, 2012, UPS announced that it intended to acquire TNT Express for $6.8 billion, in a move to help expand its presence in European and Asian markets. However, the deal fell through in January 2013, after it was announced that UPS had failed to obtain permission from the European Commission and as such had been blocked on competition grounds.

In February 2012, UPS acquired Brussels-based company Kiala that provides e-commerce retailers the option to have goods delivered to a conventional retail location.

In 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported that UPS's operations were hampered by its outdated 20th-century technology, lagging behind its competitors.

In May 2019, UPS launched a partnership with autonomous trucking startup, TuSimple to carry cargo across Phoenix, Arizona, and Tucson, Arizona.

In October 2019, UPS won the approval of the Federal Aviation Administration to fly drones. The certification will allow UPS to deliver health care supplies using a fleet of drones.

On January 29, 2020, UPS announced it was investing in UK start-up Arrival and ordering 10,000 Generation 2 electric vehicles as a step towards a cleaner, more high-tech fleet. The deal runs from 2020 until 2024 and was reported to be worth more than $400 million.

In March 2020, the company has appointed Carol Tomé to succeed David Abney as its chief executive officer. It was viewed as a move to steer the parcel delivery company through the turbulence of trade wars, technological disruption and the risk of a pandemic-induced recession.

In March 2020, UPS expands its autonomous trips with TuSimple by adding an extra route between Phoenix and El Paso, Texas.

In January 2021, UPS announced it had agreed to sell UPS Freight, its less-than-truckload freight business, to TFI International, a Canadian transport and logistics company, for $800 million. UPS said the move would allow it to focus on small-package delivery. At the time of the sale, UPS Freight had about 14,500 employees, approximately 11,000 of them represented by the Teamsters union, and generated an estimated $3.15 billion in revenue in 2020 offering services across the US, Canada, and Mexico. TFI had reported $4.1 billion in revenue in 2019 and already operated truckload and LTL services in Canada. The acquisition was completed in April and UPS Freight was renamed TForce Freight.

In 2021, following the company's shift to target smaller customers to boost profits during the COVID-19 pandemic, UPS reported a 21% jump in their fourth quarter sales to $24.9 billion. CEO Carol Tomé reported that Amazon paid UPS $11.3 billion in shipping in 2020, accounting for 13.3% of the company's revenue.

In September 2021, UPS entered into an agreement to acquire Roadie for an undisclosed amount with the transaction expected to be closed in the fourth quarter.

In November 2022, it was announced UPS had acquired the healthcare focused, Europe-based warehousing and temperature-controlled transport company, Bomi Group.

In September 2023, it was announced UPS had acquired the Long Beach, California-headquartered time-critical, health care logistics company, MNX for an undisclosed amount.

In October 2023, it was announced UPS had been acquired the Los Angeles-headquartered reverse logistics company, Happy Returns from PayPal for an undisclosed amount.

Operational facilities

United States

Louisville UPS Worldport

Worldport is the UPS worldwide hub for air shipments, located at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport.  The facility contributes to the airport's status of the second-busiest cargo airport in the United States and the fourth-busiest worldwide.

In term of capacity and how busy the worldwide hub is, it consist of:

 290 aircraft;
 more than 20,000 employees who support the airline;
 115 packages per second or 416,000 packages flowing through facilities every hour;
 and 5.2 million square feet of building space (about 90 football fields) that house equipment and operations.

Regional hubs
UPS has five large regional hubs in the United States, located in Ontario, California; Dallas, Texas; Rockford, Illinois; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Atlanta, Georgia. These hubs serve as major sorting and distribution centers for packages moving within and between regions.

Europe

Poland
UPS has established a 11,000 square meter package center in Mysłowice. The facility is equipped with a conveyor belt system capable of sorting up to 6,000 packages per hour. It also offers parking for 170 package cars and houses a customer call center. The size of the Mysłowice facility is more than three times larger than the one in Katowice. Mysłowice was chosen as the location for the new facility in 2017 due to its proximity to various business distribution centers and Katowice airport, where UPS has invested in additional air cargo capacity.

Turkey
UPS has 15 small package and 4 SCS operating facilities in Turkey, located in various cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa, and Antalya.

Asia-Pacific Region

Asia-Pacific Air Hub
UPS's Asia-Pacific Air Hub is located at Singapore Changi Airport. It is the company's largest hub outside of the United States, and handles over 1.1 million packages per day. The hub has been expanded by 25% in 2023 to meet the growing e-commerce demand following the pandemic. After the upgrade, it can process 40% more import packages and 45% more export packages, enabling extended pick-up cut-off times for all export services.

The hub also features refrigerators and freezers that can maintain temperatures between -20 to 25 degrees Celsius to facilitate the temporary storage of shipments, especially for critical healthcare deliveries such as COVID-19 vaccines. It is part of Changi's cold chain infrastructure, which ensures an unbroken cold chain for pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Regional hubs
UPS has five regional hubs in the Asia-Pacific region, located in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand. These hubs serve as major sorting and distribution centers for packages moving within and between regions.

Finances

For the fiscal year 2022, UPS reported earnings of US$11.55 billion, with an annual revenue of US$100.34 billion, an increase of 3% over the previous fiscal cycle. UPS ranked  on the 2022 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.

Operations
UPS's primary business is the time-definite delivery of packages and documents worldwide. In recent years, UPS extended its service portfolio to include LTL transportation (primarily in the U.S.) and supply chain services.
UPS reports its operations in three segments:

 U.S. Domestic Package operations,
 International Package operations, and
 Supply Chain & Freight operations.

United States domestic shipping
UPS services for consumers include:

 UPS Ground for day-definite delivery. Can take up to 5 days.
 UPS 3-Day Select for less-sensitive express shipments. This service may use either air or ground transportation depending on distance, demand, and weather conditions, and as noted by its name, can take up to three days.
 UPS 2nd Day Air for packages that must arrive within two days. UPS also offers a 2nd Day Air AM service which offers morning delivery.
 UPS Next Day Air for shipments that require overnight service. UPS splits Next Day Air into three tiers:
 Next Day Air Saver: guaranteed overnight shipping with afternoon delivery
 Next Day Air: guaranteed overnight delivery between 10:30 AM and noon
 Next Day Air Early: guaranteed overnight shipping by 8:30 AM for major US cities and 9:30 AM to most other destinations.
 UPS Express Critical: UPS' fastest service. Delivers to all 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico by end of day.

UPS also offers UPS SurePost, in which packages are handled by UPS in intermodal transit, and delivered last-mile by USPS.

International Package

International Package operations include delivery to more than 220 countries and territories worldwide, including shipments wholly outside the United States, as well as shipments with either origin or distribution outside the United States.

UPS splits its international shipping into a few services:

 UPS Standard for shipments to Mexico and Canada
 UPS Worldwide Expedited for all international shipments usually delivered within 2-5 business days
 UPS Worldwide Saver, also for all international shipments usually delivered overnight to Canada, 2 Days to Mexico, Latin America, and Europe, and 3 or more days to the rest of the world, all by the end of the day.
 UPS Worldwide Express for more critical international shipments with similar time frames to Worldwide Saver. Delivers around 10:30 AM to Noon.
 UPS Worldwide Express Plus for Worldwide Express shipments that need to arrive to their destination earlier in the morning.

Supply Chain & Freight
Supply Chain & Freight (UPS-SCS for UPS Supply Chain Solutions) includes UPS' forwarding and contract logistics operations and other related business units. UPS' forwarding and logistics business provides services in more than 175 countries and territories worldwide and includes worldwide supply chain design, execution and management, freight forwarding and distribution, customs brokerage, mail and consulting services.

Other business units within this segment include The UPS Store and UPS Capital.

Trailer / railroad reporting marks: UPGX, UPGZ, UPOZ, UPSZ, UPWZ, UPSC, UPSU, NONZ
NMFTA SCAC code: UPSS, UPSN, UPSC

Until 2021, this segment also included UPS Freight which offered a variety of less than truckload ("LTL") and truckload ("TL") services to customers in North America. UPS Freight was sold to TFI International in April 2021 and was renamed TForce Freight.

Personnel structure
In 2016 UPS employed approximately 444,000 staff: 362,000 in the U.S. and 82,000 internationally. In 2023 approximately 330,000 UPS drivers, package handlers, and clerks are represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters with more than 50% of those being part-time workers. In 2023, the average UPS full-time package delivery worker with more than four years experience was paid $95,000 per year.

During the United Parcel Service strike of 1997, the company's only nationwide strike in its history, which lasted 16 days, Teamster President Ron Carey negotiated a new contract for workers.  In July 2023, before their contract was set to expire, a strike was threatened over union demands of increases in wages, benefits, and air conditioning in delivery vans.  A 10-day strike would have been the largest single-employer strike in US history and would have cost the US economy more than $7 billion.  The strike was called off after UPS agreed to increase starting pay for part-time workers to $21 per hour, in addition to other concessions.
Ups Had previously announced the non-economic portions of the agreement had been settled, including to equip new delivery vans with air conditioning starting January 2024 combined with retrofitting existing vehicles with 2 fans, additional ventilation of the cargo area and shielding to reduce heat from the exhaust being transmitted to the cargo area of delivery vehicles. All tractor trailers are already equipped with AC.

Chief executives
1907–1962, James E. "Jim" Casey
1962–1972, George D. Smith
1972–1973, Paul Oberkotter
1973–1980, Harold Oberkotter
1980–1984, George Lamb
1984–1989, John W. Rogers
1989–1996, Kent C. "Oz" Nelson
1997–2001, James P. Kelly
2002–2007, Michael L. "Mike" Eskew
2008–2014, Scott Davis
2014–2020, David Abney
2020–current, Carol B. Tomé

Competitors
Major competitors in the United States include the United States Postal Service (USPS) and FedEx, along with regional carriers such as OnTrac, and LSO (formerly Lonestar Overnight). In addition to these domestic carriers, UPS competes with a variety of international operators, including SF Express, Canada Post (and its subsidiary Purolator), TransForce, Deutsche Post (and its subsidiary DHL), Royal Mail, Japan Post Service, and many other regional carriers, national postal services and air cargo handlers (see Package delivery and Mail pages).

Historically, the bulk of competition for UPS came from inexpensive ground-based delivery services, such as Parcel Post (USPS) or Choice Logistics. In 1998, FedEx expanded into ground parcel delivery through its acquisition of RPS (formerly Roadway Package System), rebranding it as FedEx Ground in 2000. In 2003, DHL acquired Airborne Express, expanding its operations in the United States.

In response to the expansion of FedEx and DHL, UPS partnered with the US Postal Service to offer UPS Mail Innovations, a program that allows UPS to pick up mail and packages weighing under one pound separately from the main ground network and transfer them to a USPS center, or destination delivery unit (DDU), for final distribution. This process is also known as zone skipping, long used by Parcel Consolidators. UPS also has a separate product called "SurePost" which uses the UPS Ground network to deliver packages weighing under 10 pounds to the nearest UPS Package Center, which transfers them to the USPS DDU for "final mile" delivery.

More recently, the continued growth of online shopping, combined with increasing awareness of the role of transportation (including package delivery) on the environment, has contributed to the rise of emerging competition from niche carriers or rebranded incumbents. For instance, the US Postal Service claims "greener delivery" of parcels on the assumption that USPS letter carriers deliver to each US address, six days a week anyway, and therefore offer the industry's lowest fuel consumption per delivery. Other carriers, like ParcelPool.com, which specializes in residential package delivery to APO/FPO addresses, Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and other US Territories, arose in response to increased demand from catalog retailers and online e-tailers for low-cost residential delivery services closely matching service standards normally associated with more expensive expedited parcel delivery.

In 2019, UPS sued in an attempt to force USPS to raise their prices, but was rejected by the Supreme Court.

Transportation
UPS operates over 119,000 delivery vehicles worldwide, ranging from bicycles to tractor-trailer trucks. In a long-running company policy to avoid advertisement or endorsement of a vehicle manufacturer, all external manufacturer emblems and badging are removed when a vehicle enters service (whenever possible).

The typical lifespan of a UPS ground vehicle is 20–25 years (or more), lasting until the structural integrity is compromised.  The company does not re-sell any of its ground vehicles, so retired vehicles are almost always stripped of reusable parts before being sent to be crushed/broken up. Prior to scrapping, UPS trucks and trailers have all company branding painted over and are assigned an ADA (Automotive Destruction Authorization) number and must be crushed under the supervision of UPS Automotive personnel, which records the vehicle's destruction.  The only exception to this policy are vehicles taken off the road for internal company use; package cars (repainted white) are used for various purposes (typically at large hubs); older semi tractors sometimes see use as terminal tractors.

Delivery vans
UPS refers to its delivery van as a "package car". Several designs and sizes are used by the company, dependent on routes and package volume; the distinct design of the rounded "bubble-nose" front hood and upper roofline was introduced in 1965.  The bodies of the package cars are manufactured by Morgan Olson (Grumman Olson), Union City Body, and Utilimaster; while older vehicles were based on Ford or General Motors P-chassis, vehicles manufactured in the 21st century use Freightliner or Workhorse chassis.

Until the end of the 20th century, UPS delivery vehicles were equipped with manual transmissions and steering, with automatic transmissions and power steering adopted by newer vehicles.

For lower-volume delivery routes, UPS utilizes production-based vehicles, including minivans (including the Ford Transit Connect or the Ford Transit, and Dodge Grand Caravan C/V) and Mercedes-Benz (Dodge/Freightliner) Sprinter box vans. UPS has ordered Modec electric vans for its UK and German fleets. Energy costs play a huge part in the potential profitability of package delivery companies.

Most UPS Ground vehicles have no air conditioning, with the exception of tractor-trailers. This has been considered to be a contributing factor to heatstroke and other heat-related health problems in drivers who work in these vehicles for the entire shift. Modern vehicles have improved ventilation systems.

On January 29, 2020, UPS invested in Arrival and ordered 10,000 Generation 2 Electric Vehicles.

Bicycles
In 2008, UPS started hiring bicycle delivery personnel in Vancouver, Washington, and in several cities in Oregon (Portland, Salem, Corvallis, Eugene, and Medford). In fall of 2018, UPS announced a new program in Seattle, Washington using pedal-assist electric cargo bikes (made by Portland-based Truck Trike) around Pike Place and other congested downtown areas. In Amsterdam UPS also uses Urban Arrow delivery bicycles for delivery via a granted concession.

Cargo airline

The fourth-largest cargo airline worldwide, UPS Airlines flies to over 800 destinations worldwide (the most of any airline, cargo or passenger).  Formed in 1988, the airline is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky (home to Worldport, its worldwide air hub) with additional hubs in the United States located in Ontario, California, Dallas, Texas, Rockford, Illinois and Philadelphia.  Outside of North America, a hub in Cologne, Germany services Europe; in Asia, UPS Airlines operates a facility in Hong Kong and two hubs in mainland China.

Consisting of a fleet of over 260 aircraft, the airline competes directly against FedEx Express, facilitating air shipments by the company in over 200 countries and territories worldwide.

Cargo drone airline

UPS Flight Forward is a subsidiary which was formed in July 2019 and approved by FAA for Part 135 Standard certification, first ever to receive this specific type of certification. The FAA's Part 135 Standard certification allows company to operate an unlimited number of drones of any size (even allowing the cargo to exceed 55 pounds) even with an unlimited number of remote operators in command.

Company brand

Brown
The brown color that UPS uses on its vehicles and uniforms is called Pullman brown. Company founder James E. Casey originally wanted company vehicles to use a yellow paint scheme, but one of his partners, Charlie Soderstrom, stated that a yellow vehicle would be hard to keep clean and that Pullman railroad cars were brown for just that reason.

During the 2000s, the company used the familiarity of its color scheme in an advertising slogan: "What can Brown do for you?"

Font
UPS commissioned brand consultancy FutureBrand to develop its own font, UPS Sans, for use in marketing and communication material. UPS Sans was created by slightly altering certain parts of FSI FontShop International's font FF Dax without permission. This has resulted in an agreement between FSI FontShop International and FutureBrand to avoid litigation.

Reputation

UPS has been criticized for its treatment of its workforce, including providing inadequate protections and sick leave during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company has also been subject to perennial criticism for damaged, late, or otherwise mishandled packages.

Safe streets activists have attacked UPS, along with other parcel delivery services, for frequently illegally parking their vehicles in bike lanes while making deliveries, a practice that endangers cyclists. They were sued over it in New York in 2015, and criticized alongside peers in a letter from Washington, D.C.'s transportation agency in 2018.

Environmental record
As of 2013, UPS has over 104,900 vehicles in operation worldwide including nearly 7,000 alternative fuel vehicles. In May 2008, UPS placed an order for 200 hybrid electric vehicles (adding to the 50 it had at that point) and 300 compressed natural gas (which are 20% more fuel efficient, and add to the 800 it already has) vehicles from Daimler Trucks North America. The company added 200 hybrid electric vehicles to its fleet in 2016.

UPS received a "striding" rating of 80 points out of 100 totals on the environmental scorecard by the Climate Counts Group for its efforts to lessen the company's impact on the environment. UPS has also been awarded the Clean Air Excellence Award by the United States Environmental Protection Agency because of the alternative fuel program it has developed. A few years later, the Environmental Protection Agency fined the UPS for not following environmental laws.

In October 2009, UPS became the first small-package carrier to offer customers the chance to buy carbon offsets to neutralize the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the transport of their packages. Although initially only available on ups.com and to high-volume shippers, they are now widely available through UPS shipping systems and UPS Ready third-party shipping systems.

Carbon footprint
UPS reported Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for the twelve months ending 31 December 2020 at 16,500 Kt (+1,546/+10% y-o-y). UPS aims to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

See also

Big Brown – 2008 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner; named after the company
MaxiCode – A UPS developed and utilized square barcode-like symbol that appears on their package label

References

Further reading

Brewster, Mike and Frederick Dalzell. Driving Change: The UPS Approach to Business (2007) excerpt and text search
Thomas L. Friedman, "Insourcing," in The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, updated and expanded, 2006, pp. 167–176.
Minchin, Timothy J. "Shutting Down 'Big Brown': Reassessing the 1997 UPS Strike and the Fate of American Labor," Labor History, 53 (Nov. 2012), 541–60.
Niemann, Greg. Big Brown: The Untold Story of UPS. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2007.

External links

Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Companies in the Dow Jones Transportation Average
Companies based in Sandy Springs, Georgia
Transport companies established in 1907
Express mail
Logistics companies of the United States
Trucking companies of the United States
1999 initial public offerings
1907 establishments in Washington (state)
Multinational companies headquartered in the United States
American companies established in 1907
Transportation companies based in Washington (state)
Transportation companies based in Georgia (U.S. state)

United Parcel Service


The chamber is that part of a firearm into which the cartridge is loaded. The chamber is also the place the cartridge is fired from.  In a breech-loading weapon the chamber is directly behind and in line with the barrel. Most rifles and pistols have a single chamber. To chamber a round means to load a cartridge into the chamber.

A revolver has multiple chambers contained in a revolving cylinder. The typical number is six, which is the reason for the nickname Six Shooter and indicates the cylinder has six chambers each holding one cartridge.

Semi-automatic weapons

In a semi-automatic firearm the weapon can fire a bullet each time the trigger is pulled (until the magazine is empty). A semi-automatic firearm can be a pistol, rifle, or shotgun. Each time the trigger is pulled, the gun fires, the spent shell is ejected and a new round is loaded into the chamber. The semi-automatic is a very popular choice for sporting use.

Semi-automatic pistols and rifles use the pressure of the fired cartridge to move the slide backwards. A fraction of a second later, the slide moves forward loading a fresh cartridge into the chamber. The magazine uses a spring to feed one cartridge at a time into the chamber.

Fully automatic weapons
Fully-automatic firearms are those that automatically reload and fire again repeatedly as long as their triggers are depressed and they still have ammunition in their magazines. Fully automatic weapons are not for sporting use but are used by police and militaries. An assault rifle is "a gun that can shoot many bullets quickly and that is designed for use by the military". Like semiautomatic firearms, automatics have a single chamber.

Manual loading weapons
A manually loaded firearm is one in which the chamber is loaded by hand each time the weapon is fired. For example, a Bolt action rifle ejects the spent cartridge when the bolt is pulled back, then loads another cartridge into the chamber when the bolt pushed forward (and locked).

A lever action rifle does the same thing when the lever is moved down (ejects the spent cartridge), then up (loads a new round in the chamber). There are also single shot pistols, rifles and shotguns in which the breech is opened to eject a spent shell, then the shooter loads a round into the chamber manually.

A popular type of manually loaded firearms for sporting and hunting use is the pump action shotgun. Here, a sliding handle (usually located under the barrel) is moved backwards to eject the spent shotgun shell, then when moved forward it loads a fresh shotgun shell from a tubular magazine.

Notes

References

Firearm components

Chamber (firearms)


Cosmo On-Line is a generic and news Internet portal operated by media holding company Rede Anhanguera de Comunicação (RAC), located in Campinas, state of São Paulo, Brazil. It is the largest portal of the region and one of the first to be founded (1996) juat after commercial access to the Internet became available in the country. The portal hosts the websites for the flagship publications of RAC, such as newspapers Correio Popular, Diário do Povo, Notícia Já and Metrópole Magazine.

Cosmo was also an Internet Service Provider of significance in Campinas, for a while. The operation was sold by RAC to an international company, which later went into bankruptcy.

External links
 Cosmo Portal

Mass media in Campinas
Internet in Brazil

Cosmo On-Line


Wendy Kinnard (born 23 March 1959) is a former Senator of Jersey, and was the island's Home Affairs Minister from 2005 until 2008.

Biography
Jersey-born Kinnard gained a BA (Hons) in applied Applied Social Sciences, and a Dip.H.E. in Social and Environmental Problems from the Open University.

She has been past chairwoman of Jersey Women's Refuge, involved in  Jersey Women's Aid, a member of Network against Abuse and Violence in the Home, a trustee of the Spring Trust, a past member of the Youth Panel 1993-1996

She is a member of Liberty and the Open University Alumni Association.

She was first elected to the States of Jersey in 1996, gaining a Senatorial seat in fourth place at her first attempt at election.

She was President of the Legislation Committee (from 1999), and vice-president of Home Affairs, taking over the Presidency of that Committee in 2002 after Alastair Layzell failed to be re-elected to the States.

She was nominated to the position of Home Affairs Minister on December 5, 2005 following the 2005 Jersey elections by the newly elected Chief Minister of Jersey.

On 1 June 2007, she announced that she would not be seeking re-election when her current mandate ended in 2008. On 21 October 2008 she resigned her ministerial post.

References

Sources
Jersey Evening Post
Election Manifesto
Information from States of Jersey

1959 births
Living people
Government ministers of Jersey
Alumni of the Open University
Senators of Jersey
Women government ministers of Jersey
20th-century British women politicians
21st-century British women politicians

Wendy Kinnard


Andrew Finlay Walls  (21 April 192812 August 2021) was a British historian of missions, best known for his pioneering studies of the history of the African church and a pioneer in the academic field of World Christianity.

Biography
Walls was born in 1928 in New Milton, England. He studied theology at Exeter College, Oxford, receiving a first-class degree in 1948, and completed his graduate studies in the early Church in 1956 under the patristics scholar Frank Leslie Cross.

He taught at Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone (1957–62) and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (1962–65). He was later appointed to a post in ecclesiastical history in the University of Aberdeen in 1966, before being the first head of the Department of Religious studies in the University of Aberdeen (1970). He would subsequently move to the University of Edinburgh in 1986. Before his death, he was Professor of the History of Mission at Liverpool Hope University, Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh, Research Professor at Africa International University's Center for World Christianity, and Professor Emeritus at the Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture.

Walls established the Journal of Religion in Africa in 1967 and Studies in World Christianity in 1995. He also founded the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World (now known as the Centre for the Study of World Christianity), first at the University of Aberdeen in 1982, before moving it to the University of Edinburgh in 1987, a year after he moved to Edinburgh.

Walls was also active in public service. He was a city councilor for Aberdeen and ran for Parliament in 1970 as the Labour candidate for the Banffshire constituency. Due to his engagement in the arts and service as chair of the Council for Museums and Galleries in Scotland, Walls received an Order of the British Empire in 1987.

With his late wife Doreen Harden (1919–2009), whom he married in 1953, they have two children, Christine and Andrew (an immunopharmacologist at the University of Southampton). After Doreen's death in 2009, he married Ingrid Reneau in 2012, a Research Fellow with the Presbyterian Mission Agency.

Walls received an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from the University of Aberdeen in 1993, followed by a second one from the University of Edinburgh in 2018, in recognition of his scholarly contributions to the study of Christianity in Africa and the non-Western world.

Walls died on 12 August 2021 in Aberdeen after a period of hospitalisation. He was part of Aberdeen Methodist Church for over 50 years, and was active as a preacher through the North of Scotland Mission Circuit. After his death, scholars and former students from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas paid tribute to Walls's ground-breaking scholarship and generous personal support.

World Christianity
Walls' most significant observations have concerned the geographical trends in Christianity in the 20th and 21st centuries, especially in terms of expansion in Africa, in what is generally termed World Christianity. Historian Lamin Sanneh commented that he was 'one of the few scholars who saw that African Christianity was not just an exotic, curious phenomenon in an obscure part of the world, but that African Christianity might be the shape of things to come'. His pioneering research led the magazine Christianity Today to describe him in 2007 as 'a historian ahead of his time' and 'the most important person you don't know'.

Liverpool Hope University has a research centre named in honour of him, which encourages and supports research in the field of African and Asian Christianity.

Religious studies
Although he is more well known for his work in Christianity, Walls has also been a significant pioneer in shaping the field of religious studies as it is taught in universities of Scotland. When he first returned to Scotland, Walls taught Ecclesiastical History in the University of Aberdeen in 1966. However, he recognised that the Faculty of Divinity in Aberdeen did not allow for a sufficient global perspective of religion, and founded the Department of Religious studies outside the Faculty of Divinity in 1970.

Significantly, Walls' work in Aberdeen would establish the first department of Religious Studies in Scotland. In the mid-1970s, the department would be known for emphasising work in the study of what was then called 'primal religions'. Moreover, his vision for a global perspective of religion allowed for Walls to attract a number of significant members of staff and students who were interested in religions of the non-Western world. It would also be in this new department that the original Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World was established, before eventually being relocated to the University of Edinburgh in 1987.

Works

Books

Edited

Select chapters and articles

Full bibliography of works through 2011 can be found in William Burrows, Mark Gornik and Janice McLean (eds) Understanding World Christianity: The Vision and Work of Andrew F. Walls (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2011).

References

External links

 Centre for the Study of World Christianity, New College, Edinburgh

1928 births
2021 deaths
Missiologists
Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford
Academics of Liverpool Hope University
Academics of the University of Edinburgh
Religion academics
British historians
Christian missions in Africa
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
World Christianity scholars
History of Christianity in Africa

Andrew Walls


Italferr is a consulting and project company belonging to FS (Ferrovie dello Stato), the Italian railway state company.

Italferr, the Italian State Railways Group engineering firm, operates on the Italian and international markets in the field of railway transport engineering.

In 2014 the company celebrated its first thirty years.

History
The company was founded in 1984, with the aim of promoting the Italian engineering excellence in the railway sector, on the national and international market.

In 1999, 15 years after his foundation, the company was the first market player in the sector, in Italy. Today, it is in charge of the construction of all the High-speed rail in Italy.

In the international market, the company prepared the General Plan for Transport for Iraq, gives technical assistance to Czech, Slovak, Slovenian Ministry of Transport and Bosnia and Herzegovina, for the development of the Macedonian and Serbian railways.

In 2004–2009, Italferr develops the methodology for measuring Climate Footprint, already in the design phase, for the  emissions in the construction of a railway infrastructure. The company wins two Merit Award, one for the integrated management system "Quality Environment, Health and Safety" (ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001) and the other one for the new method of climate footprint calculation (ISO 14064-1).

The foreign portfolio is strengthened with some operations in Algeria, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, and the beginning of the project for the modernization of the Balkan rail corridor.

The company strengthens its international commitment by consolidating trade relations with the Balkans, through the revision of the Strategic Plan for the modernization of the railway network of the country. To maintain the market position in this area, it constitutes the Infrastructure Engineering Services, a company owned 100% by Italferr. It also take in charge the feasibility study of the Tirana multimodal station, and the design of a railway line in Croatia. He won the competition for the design of the first African High-speed line in Casablanca. It also designed in Egypt the new signaling system for the line the Cairo-Port Said. It provides technical assistance to ANESRIF, the Algerian Government Agency for the implementation of program of rail investment, and with the '' Arab railway network Study "defines all actions aimed at creating a railway network that can facilitate the integration for the Arab world.

Main activities
 Master plan and transport surveys
 Feasibility studies
 Environmental impact studies and monitoring
 Cost estimate, planning and control
 Integrated Management Systems (IMS)
 Value Engineering
 BIM (Building Information Modeling) Management
 System Engineering
 System Assurance
 Safety Management
 Preliminary, detailed and execution design
 Safety Management
 Project Validation
 Project Management
 Work management/Supervision
 Safety
 Testing, start-up and operation assistance
 Activation and commissioning
 Tendering documents and procedures
 Design & Build
 Innovation, research and development
 Innovation Solutions
 HR training and organizational consulting
 Human Resources Training (HRT)

References

Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane
Railway companies of Italy
Consulting firms of Italy

Italferr


Fernando Soto (born in Madrid, 18 October 1968) is a Spanish actor and director. He graduated from the RESAD School of Drama in 1992.

As an actor Soto has been in many theatre productions, starting in Teatro de la Abadía, where he participated in plays such as Maridos y Mujeres, Sobre Horacios y Curiaceos, Me acordaré de todos vosotros, La melancolía de King Kong, and Medida por Medida. His performances were also seen in Perfectos desconocidos, directed by Daniel Guzmán; La Avería, directed by Blanca Portillo; Alejandro y Ana, with Animalario Productions; and the Centro Dramático Nacional (CDN) productions of Madre Coraje (directed by Ernesto Caballero) and La ciudad oscura (written by Antonio Rojano). In the Teatro Español he performed in Don Juan, El loco de los balcones, and Jose Ramón Fernández's Yo soy Don Quijote de la Mancha as Sancho Panza, sharing the stage with José Sacristán.

Soto's work as an actor in film includes appearances in Daniel Monzón's Celda 211; Paco León's Kiki, el amor se hace; Ángeles González Sinde's Una palabra tuya and La suerte dormida; Imanol Uribe's Miel de naranjas; Alberto Rodríguez's After; Eduardo Chapero-Jackson's Verbo; Julien Leclerq's The Informant; and Álex de la Iglesia's Balada triste de trompeta.

On television Soto has been engaged in series like La casa de papel, Amar es para siempre, La Catedral del mar, Isabel, Alatriste, Homicidios, Vive camtando, la pecera de Eva, Frágiles, Sin tetas no hay paraíso, Doctor Mateo, Hospital Central, Aída, Vientos de agua, La que se avecina, El ret, Mi gitana, Amar es para siempre, Cuestión de sexo, La señora, Guante blanco, La princesa de Eboli, Mario Conde (los días de gloria), and Los Serrano.

As a director, Soto has been behind plays like La estupidez by Rafael Spregelburd; Drac Pack by Najwa Nimry, Carlos Dorrego and Emilio Tomé; Constelaciones by Nick Payne; El minuto del payaso, Babilonia, and Las Cervantas by Jose Ramón Fernández and Inma Chacón; Taxidermia de un gorrión by Oskar Galán; Onán by Nacho Faerma; Tarinspotting Harry Gibson; Bailar en la oscuridad, an adaptation of a Lars Von Tier film; Autopsia by Jose Manuel Mora; Rulos and Prohibido besar by Ángeles González Sinde; Hamster by Santiago Cortegoso; and La virtuz de la torpeza and Delirare by Cristina Redondo.

Soto has also taken part in shows for the National Heritage such as productions by EscenaTe, directing in places like El Museo del Prado, Jardín del Capricho and La Muralla de Ávila.

Selected filmography

References

External links

Official Website

1968 births
Living people
Spanish male film actors
Spanish male television actors
21st-century Spanish male actors

Fernando Soto (Spanish actor)


Big Big Train are an English progressive rock band formed in Bournemouth in 1990. The current line-up includes band founder Gregory Spawton (bass, guitars and keyboards), along with Nick D'Virgilio (drums, guitars and keyboards) and Rikard Sjöblom (guitars and keyboards). Until 2009, the band were active as a predominantly studio project led by Spawton and co-founder Andy Poole (bass, keyboards and guitars), who departed the band in 2018, with changing line-ups and guest musicians. They have released fourteen studio albums and six EPs.

After starting out as an independent band, Big Big Train were signed to Giant Electric Pea from 1993 to 1998 and distributed their releases through their own website. Since their sixth album, The Underfall Yard, which received critical acclaim from the progressive rock community, a more stable line-up has been established, and the band performed their first live concerts in 17 years at Kings Place, London, in August 2015. The gigs were voted Event of the Year by the readers of Prog magazine. Stone & Steel, a Blu-ray featuring the 2014 rehearsals at Real World Studios and four of the songs performed at Kings Place, was released on 21 March 2016. Big Big Train were the winners of the Breakthrough Award at the Progressive Music Awards held at Kew Gardens, London on 3 September 2013, and have been nominated in several other categories in recent years. The band's latest studio album, Welcome to the Planet, was released in January 2022. Their previous studio album, Common Ground, was released in July 2021.

Big Big Train embarked on their first UK tour in October 2019. Scheduled dates for the band's first ever North American and European tours in 2020 were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

History

Early history
The roots of Big Big Train go back to 1981 in Birmingham, England, when Gregory's brother Nigel Spawton joined with Ed Serafinas, Pete McDonald, Steve Lugg and Tim McCarty in the punk outfit known as Big Big Train. Later in the 80s Andy Poole formed a songwriting partnership in Bournemouth, England, with his childhood friend, Ian Cooper. At around the same time, Gregory Spawton had also formed his first band, Equus. Equus played a few local gigs around the Birmingham area before splitting up when Spawton went to university in 1984. Meanwhile, Poole and Cooper's band, Archshine, recorded a few demos and occasionally emerged from their home studio to play some gigs.

In 1987, Spawton moved down to Bournemouth. Shortly afterwards, he met Poole and they discovered that they shared a mutual appreciation of Genesis, Van der Graaf Generator and other progressive bands. In particular, they were both fans of a then relatively obscure band called IQ. Indeed, Poole had spent some time as a roadie for The Lens and IQ.

In the late 1980s, they decided to record some demos together. After a few months, the very first Big Big Train songs emerged and in 1990, Archshine ceased to exist, and Big Big Train was founded, initially consisting of the duo of Spawton (guitar) and Poole (bass). The following year saw the recruitment of Cooper (keyboards), Steve Hughes (drums), and Martin Read (vocals).

The band's earliest songs were released on a demo tape in October 1991, and the band's first demo album, From the River to the Sea, was released in May 1992. During this time, the band continued to perform live dates, gradually playing to larger crowds in higher profile venues.

1993–2003

In January 1993 the band released their second demo album, The Infant Hercules, and then followed up six months later with their debut full-length album, Goodbye to the Age of Steam. The album was recorded over the course of two weeks in July 1993. Not long after the recording sessions were completed, the band were signed to the progressive rock label Giant Electric Pea.

The response to the album was very positive, culminating in a licensing deal in Japan where the CD was re-released in 1995, with a bonus track. In the meantime, Ian Cooper had left the band (for family reasons) and due to this the band ceased touring and started looking for his replacement. In the meantime, they started work on their next album, with Spawton filling the role of keyboard player. Eventually, Tony Müller was recruited as keyboard player in early 1995 during the recording of the new album.

Some of the new songs were debuted live at The Astoria, London, the only live show the band performed during this period. English Boy Wonders was finally released in autumn 1997, although to a much less positive reaction than Age of Steam. At this stage, after a less than pleasurable recording experience, a poorly received second album, and with a record label which had stopped returning calls, it appeared that the band had run its course.

Steve Hughes left the band in September 1998 and went on to join The Enid. He was replaced, briefly, by Pete Hibbit. After a few more live performances, the band's momentum was all but spent and Spawton and Poole retreated back to their studio to work on the next album. Events had turned full circle; Poole and Spawton, with no particular goal in mind and without a band line-up, slowly began work on some demos, more out of habit than anything else.

As the demos took shape, Gregory and Andy called in the other band members as and when they were required. In February 2002, after three years of irregular writing and recording, Bard was released. Bard received some excellent reviews. The line-up of the band during the recording of Bard consisted of Spawton, Poole, Read, Müller, the returning Cooper, and drummer Phil Hogg. Around the time of the album's release, The Enid became inactive, and Steve Hughes returned to Big Big Train to replace the departing Hogg.

2004–2008
In 2003, Müller and Read departed the band, and Sean Filkins was recruited to replace Read. This line-up recorded the band's next album, Gathering Speed, which was released in March 2004. This was the last album to feature Ian Cooper on keyboards; Poole and Spawton took the keyboards to play in future albums.

A new album titled The Difference Machine was released in September 2007. The album featured guest appearances from future full-time member Nick D'Virgilio, and Dave Meros (both of Spock's Beard), as well as Pete Trewavas of Marillion. In 2008, BBT appeared on the Classic Rock Magazine CD for issue 112, with the song Summer's Lease, which is also found on The Difference Machine.

On BBT's blog, it was announced that they would be re-releasing English Boy Wonders. They partially re-recorded the album, as well as re-mixing it.
English Boy Wonders was re-released on 1 December 2008.

2009–2010

Both Hughes and Filkins left the band in February 2009, and were replaced by then-Spock's Beard drummer and regular collaborator Nick D'Virgilio and vocalist and flute player David Longdon respectively.

BBT released their sixth studio album, The Underfall Yard, on 15 December 2009. Guitarist Dave Gregory (XTC), keyboardist Jem Godfrey (Frost*) and guitarist Francis Dunnery (It Bites) make guest appearances on The Underfall Yard. "Last Train" from The Underfall Yard was released on the iTunes essential compilation album Modern Prog on 10 February 2010.

The Underfall Yard received significant critical acclaim and the 23-minute title track was featured as Classic Rock's Track of the Day.

Gathering Speed was re-issued in December 2009, in a re-mastered digipack version. The Difference Machine was re-issued in January 2010 with a bonus track from the original sessions.

In October 2010, the band released the 41-minute EP entitled Far Skies Deep Time containing five tracks including a cover version of Anthony Phillips' "Master of Time". The EP also includes the 17-minute track "The Wide Open Sea" – a story about the Belgian singer songwriter Jacques Brel which inspired the cover artwork by Jim Trainer. The EP again features guitarist Dave Gregory (formerly of XTC and now an established part of the band's line-up) as well as featuring performances from guest musicians keyboardist Martin Orford and bassist Danny Manners (frequent collaborator with Louis Philippe).

2011–2021
The band's first album, Goodbye to the Age of Steam, was remixed from the original 2-inch, 24-track master tapes from January to July 2010 by Rob Aubrey and Andy Poole. No new parts were added, although some keyboard sounds were replaced. The original artwork was also replaced with new images by Jim Trainer inspired by the lyrical themes of the album, which was released in April 2011 in a digipack format. The album includes three additional tracks. "Far Distant Thing" was recorded in 1992 with Rob Aubrey for a local radio station. "Expecting Dragons" is a new arrangement and recording of themes from both Dragon Bone Hill and Expecting Snow. "Losing Your Way" incorporates an instrumental section excluded from the original album version of the track.

The band created a new arrangement for "Kingmaker", which they performed and recorded in June 2011. "Kingmaker" originally appeared on their 1992 demo album, The Infant Hercules. The new recording features the current line-up and replaced "Master of Time" on the Russian release of Far Skies Deep Time in a mini vinyl album format.

On 3 September 2012, the band released their seventh studio album, the first part of a double album, entitled English Electric Part One. The second part, English Electric Part Two, was released in March 2013, and featured Danny Manners (keyboards, double bass), who was now an official member of the band.

Big Big Train were the winners of the Breakthrough act award at the 2013 Progressive Music Awards.

On 23 September 2013, Big Big Train released English Electric: Full Power (EEFLP). This is a two-CD version of English Electric including all of the tracks from English Electric Part One and Part Two and four new tracks. Alongside EEFLP, the band released the Make Some Noise EP including the new tracks as a separate release.

At the start of 2014 Beardfish frontman Rikard Sjöblom was confirmed as a touring keyboardist and guitarist. In August, the band convened at Real World Studios for a week to try out a live line-up that also included violinist Rachel Hall and a five-piece brass band under the directorship of trombonist Dave Desmond, who had featured on recent Big Big Train albums. The positive outcome led to the band announcing that its first live performances in seventeen years would take place in August 2015 at Kings Place in London, and that Sjöblom and Hall were now full band members for both live and studio work. Three dates were announced, selling out within days, and the gigs were voted Event of the Year by the readers of Prog magazine.

An EP containing new and live tracks, Wassail, was released on 1 June 2015, and Stone & Steel, a Blu-ray featuring rehearsals at Real World Studios as well as four of the songs performed at the Kings Place concerts, was released on 21 March 2016. The digital-only album From Stone and Steel, containing the Real World studio performances from August 2014, was released on 1 April 2016.  Folklore was released on 27 May 2016 whilst its 'companion' album Grimspound was released on 28 April 2017. The video for 'As The Crow Flies' from Grimspound made its debut on YouTube on 31 March 2017. The video for "Experimental Gentlemen" from Grimspound made its debut on YouTube on 21 April 2017. The Second Brightest Star was released on 23 June 2017 as a companion album to Folklore and Grimspound, including 40 minutes of new tracks that "explore landscapes, rivers and meeting places and take the listener on voyages of discovery across the world and to the stars" in addition to 30 minutes of extended material from Folklore and Grimspound.

Big Big Train headlined The Night of the Prog festival in Lorelei, Germany, on 13 July 2018. A UK warm-up gig was played on 11 July 2018 at The Basingstoke Anvil. Previously, they played at Cadogan Hall, London, in September/October 2017.

Band co-founder Andy Poole departed the band early in January 2018, with guitarist and keyboardist Robin Armstrong joining the live line-up of the band the following month. Armstrong left the line-up at the end of 2019. Dave Gregory would announce his departure in March 2020 due to his desire to not tour internationally with Big Big Train. Randy McStine was subsequently named as his live replacement for scheduled shows in 2020, which were all subsequently cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Later in 2020, it was announced that Carly Bryant and Dave Foster would join the BBT live band.

On 27 November 2020, BBT released a live album entitled Empire, recorded at a concert at the Hackney Empire, London, 2 November 2019.

Their thirteenth album, Common Ground, was released on 30 July 2021.

On 21 October 2021, the band announced that their fourteenth studio album, Welcome to the Planet, would be released on 28 January 2022. Preceding the announcement of the album, the band released the singles "The Connection Plan", "Lanterna", and "Made From Sunshine" as part of their Stay Tuned streaming series on 24 August 2021, 21 September 2021, and 19 October 2021 respectively.

Lead vocalist David Longdon died on 20 November 2021, aged 56.

2022–present

On 27 April 2022, Big Big Train announced former Premiata Forneria Marconi singer and keyboard player, Alberto Bravin, as their new lead vocalist. On 15 January 2023, it was announced that Carly Bryant was departing Big Big Train, to be replaced by Dim Gray's Oskar Holldorff.

Members

Current members

 Gregory Spawton – bass guitar, backing vocals, guitars, keyboards (1990–present)
 Nick D'Virgilio – drums, vocals, percussion, guitars. keyboards (2009–present)
 Rikard Sjöblom – guitars, keyboards, backing vocals (2014–present)
 Dave Foster – guitars (2021–present; touring 2020–2021)
 Clare Lindley – violin, vocals (2021–present)
 Alberto Bravin – lead vocals, guitar, keyboards (2022–present)
 Oskar Holldorff – keyboards, vocals (2023–present)

Discography

Goodbye to the Age of Steam (1994)
English Boy Wonders (1997)
Bard (2002)
Gathering Speed (2004)
The Difference Machine (2007)
The Underfall Yard (2009)
English Electric Part One (2012)
English Electric Part Two (2013)
Folklore (2016)
Grimspound (2017)
The Second Brightest Star (2017)
Grand Tour (2019)
Common Ground (2021)
Welcome to the Planet (2022)
Ingenious Devices (2023)

References

External links
Big Big Train's official website

English progressive rock groups
English post-rock groups
Musical groups from Bournemouth
1990 establishments in England
Musical groups established in 1990

Big Big Train


Helmholtzia glaberrima, commonly referred to as stream lily, is a rhizomatous perennial plant which is native to New South Wales and Queensland in Australia.

Stream lilies have long, dark-green strap-like leaves and form clumps that are up to 2 metres high. The tall flower spikes, which appear in the summer, are white or pale pink.

They occur in and the McPherson Range and nearby areas of rainforest along creeks and gullies.

The species was first formally described by English botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker in The Botanical Magazine in 1873. He gave it the name Philydrum glaberrimum. The species was transferred to the genus Helmholtzia in 1881.

References

PlantNET: Flora of New South Wales: Helmholtzia glaberrima

Commelinales of Australia
Flora of New South Wales
Flora of Queensland
Rare flora of Australia
Philydraceae

Helmholtzia glaberrima


Morgan Green (born March 7, 1987) is an American former college and high school football player. He played as a running back for the Maryland Terrapins at the University of Maryland. He played interscholastic football for Henry E. Lackey High School in Indian Head, Maryland, where he became one of the state's all-time rushing leaders.

Early years
Morgan Green was born in White Plains, Maryland to parents James and Denise Green. He attended Henry E. Lackey High School in Indian Head, Maryland where he was a three-year starter in football. As a sophomore in 2002, he amassed 1,131 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns, the most of any Washington, D.C. area player in his grade. He expressed disappointment with his performance, however, and worked out intensively in the weight room during the offseason.

The following year, he recorded 2,630 yards and 26 touchdowns on 360 carries. Green rushed for 200 yards in eight games and set a school rushing record against Leonardtown High School. He was named a consensus first-team all-state and The Washington Post All-Met player. He was also named to the George Michael's Golden 11 team and named the conference most valuable player.

As a senior in 2004, he recorded 209 carries for 1,363 yards and 23 touchdowns, despite missing six games due to an injury. That year, he received Big School second-team all-state and first-team All-SMAC honors. Green expressed his desire to gain yards and challenge the state single-season rushing record. The Lackey High's ball-hawking defense, however, often put the offense in scoring position on a shortened field. About that Green said, "It is less running for me. And even though I might not like that, it's a big relief. If the defense could make plays, it's less stressful on me." At the end of his high school playing career, Green ranked as the fifth leading rusher in Maryland state history.

ESPN rated Green the eighth-ranked college fullback prospect in the nation. PrepStar and SuperPrep each named Green an All-American. SuperPrep rated him as the 14th-ranked college running back prospect in the nation. Rivals.com named him the six-ranked overall player in the state and 12-ranked tailback in the nation. He was recruited by Boston College, Florida, Maryland, N.C. State, Penn State, and Virginia. He received scholarship offers from Penn State, Maryland, and Virginia. He committed to Maryland, and head coach Ralph Friedgen rescinded a scholarship offer to future Heisman Trophy finalist Steve Slaton, partly in favor of Green. In 2005, Green failed to academically qualify for Maryland, and attended preparatory school at the Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Virginia. While there, he rushed 21 times for 151 yards and one touchdown.

College career
At Maryland, he sat out the 2006 season as a redshirt. Before the 2007 season, he excelled in practice and was expected to make an impact as the two starting running backs had suffered injuries. He played in the season opener against Villanova, but suffered a hamstring injury and sat out the remainder of the season. In 2008, Green suffered a lingering quadriceps injury in camp. It continued to bother him throughout the season, and he fell to the third-ranked rusher, behind starter Da'Rel Scott and reserve Davin Meggett. Green did see action in ten games and recorded 24 carries for 114 yards and three touchdowns. Against Eastern Michigan, Green rushed for two touchdowns. In the 2008 Humanitarian Bowl against Nevada, he rushed 10 times for 72 yards with a 53-yard long and one touchdown.

During spring camp in 2009, Green commented on his previous preseason injuries by saying, "If I make it through camp, I'll be the happiest guy ever because then I'll know I'll have a good season. It seems like it's the camp jinx for me." Starting quarterback Chris Turner said of Green, "I think Morgan can be a huge key in this offense ... I think Da'Rel [Scott] gets a lot of the exposure because he's obviously explosive, but Morgan is actually a big, explosive, and fast back."

In the spring of 2010, he approached head coach Ralph Friedgen and discussed his future with the team. Green decided that he would finish his degree at Maryland and then transfer to Towson University for the remainder of his athletic eligibility. Green, however, did not join the Towson football team for the 2010 season.

References

1987 births
Living people
People from Charles County, Maryland
African-American players of American football
American football running backs
Maryland Terrapins football players
Players of American football from Maryland
21st-century African-American sportspeople
20th-century African-American people

Morgan Green


The Pinocchio frog or northern Pinocchio treefrog (Litoria pinocchio) is a frog from the island of New Guinea. It lives in the Foja Mountains in Indonesia.

This frog is green, brown and yellow in color.  The male frog has a point on the end of its nose.  The point can get bigger or smaller at different times, but scientists do not know exactly why.

Scientists saw that the point on the male frog's nose becomes bigger while the male frog is singing, so they think it might be part of impressing female frogs.  Other scientists think it makes it easier for Pinocchio frogs to recognize other Pinocchio frogs and tell them apart from other frogs that look similar and live in the same place.

The Pinocchio frog is named after the fictional character Pinocchio, a puppet whose nose becomes bigger whenever he tells a lie.  Scientists have known the Pinocchio frog existed since at least 2008.  It was first formally described, meaning scientists wrote the first scientific paper about it, in 2019.

References

Frogs of Oceania

Pinocchio frog


Large-scale coastal behaviour is an attempt to model the morphodynamics of coastal change at time and space scales appropriate to management and prediction. Temporally this is at the decade to century scale, spatially at the scale of tens of kilometers.  It was developed by de Vriend.

Modelling large-scale coastal behaviour involves some level of parameterisation rather than simply upscaling from process or downscaling from the geological scale.  It attempts to recognise patterns occurring at these scales.  Cowell and Thom (2005) recognise the need to admit uncertainty in large-scale coastal behaviour given incomplete process knowledge.

References

Geomorphology
Coastal geography

Large-scale coastal behaviour


La Marina de Port is a neighborhood in the Sants-Montjuïc district of Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain), and is one of the two parts of la Marina de Sants. It lies between the districts of la Bordeta, la Marina del Prat Vermell (also in la Marina de Sants).

Marina de Port, la
Marina de Port, la

La Marina de Port


A yaw damper (sometimes referred to as a stability augmentation system) is a system used to reduce (or damp) the undesirable tendencies of an aircraft to oscillate in a repetitive rolling and yawing motion, a phenomenon known as the Dutch roll. A large number of modern aircraft, both jet-powered and propeller-driven, have been furnished with such systems.

The use of a yaw damper provides superior ride quality by automatically preventing uncomfortable yawing and rolling oscillations and reduces pilot workload. On some aircraft, it is mandatory for the yaw damper to be operational at all times during flight above a specified altitude; several airliners were deemed to be unsafe to fly without an active yaw damper.

Design
The yaw damper system consists of a series of accelerometers and sensors that monitor the aircraft rate of yaw; these are electronically interconnected to a flight computer that processes these inputs and automatically controls actuators connected to the rudder. In effect, these actions are akin to movements of the rudder pedals by the pilot, except that these are automated. The rudder motions produced by the yaw damper act to calm the aircraft, assisting the flight crew in maintaining stable flight. The overarching purpose of the yaw damper is to make an aircraft easier to fly by eliminating the necessity for the pilot to actively act against such tendencies. An effective yaw damper may remove the necessity for a pilot to make any contact with the rudder pedals during turns on a range of aircraft, including jet-powered ones. Some aircraft, such as the Boeing 727 and Vickers VC10 airliners, are fitted with multiple yaw damper systems due to their operation having been deemed critical to flight safety.

Despite what may be implied by its name, the yaw damper does not inhibit or reduce intentional (e.g. commanded by the pilot) yaw, as this would interfere with conventional turns and other common maneuvers that an aircraft would be expected to perform. Rather, the system is intended to counteract incidental and undirected yawing motions, which can be characterised as skids or slips. On a single-engine aircraft, the system is particularly useful at addressing the tendency to 'fishtail', smoothing out the left-right movements of the vertical stabilizer, increasing ride comfort. It is also particularly useful on swept wing aircraft, particularly those using a T-tail arrangement; without an active yaw damper system, these types of aircraft are susceptible to the Dutch roll phenomenon, where yawing motions can result in repetitive corkscrew-like oscillations that could potentially escalate to excessive levels if not effectively counteracted.

The yaw damper is typically disengaged at ground level and turned on shortly after takeoff; an active yaw damper during the takeoff run could potentially mask serious issues such as engine failure. Equally, the system is commonly disengaged prior to landing, as it could inhibit the available control authority to the pilot at the critical moment of touchdown. On several modern aircraft that are outfitted with a yaw damper, these systems become engaged automatically once the aircraft has surpassed a pre-set altitude (e.g. 200 feet); older aircraft typically have this function manually selected by the flight crew. Pilots who are used to flying aircraft with yaw dampers need to be particularly aware when transitioning to aircraft that lack such systems. It has become common for such systems to be interfaced with other elements of an aircraft's avionics, enabling it to work with other functions such as the autopilot. Yaw damper functionality can be readily simulated by various software packages, such as Matlab.

See also
 Flight dynamics

References

Aircraft controls

Yaw damper


Cashel () is a village in County Galway, in the province of Connacht, Ireland.  It is located west of Galway city and southeast of Clifden, on the coast.

History
The name Cashel derives from the Irish Caiseal, referring to the stone ringfort surrounding the old part of the cemetery in Caiseal Ard/High Cashel, whose remains lie on the slope of a mountain about 1 km north-east of the town.

To the west is Toombeola Bridge, near which are the remains of a Dominican Abbey, founded in 1427, by one of the O'Flaherty clan which held sway over Connemara until the rule of James II of England.

In 1969, the Général de Gaulle spent two weeks in Cashel, between 23 May and 3 June after he resigned the presidency of France, in Cashel House Hotel.

References

Towns and villages in County Galway

Cashel, County Galway